Mastery of the Force

He found her in the dark. In the remote reaches of space drifting through an uncharted system beyond the jurisdiction of the Republic where only vagabonds and outcasts dwell.

    When Anerias's shuttle emerged from hyperspace it was to soon to tell what he had found. The energy signature was small, and the sensor array on his shuttle wasn't the strongest by any extent of the imagination. The readings were some great distance off.

    "Not entirely bad barrings considering they were based on an echo in the force." He said to no one in particular, "but who's calling I wonder?"
That was the question that drove him, the question that had driven him to "borrow" a shuttle from the Jedi temple on Courscant. The reason for which he sometimes woke at night in a chill sweat feeling sundered as a person. He had felt the call now for months, at first he had dismissed it as idle fancy. Only those with strong connections through the force could hope to create a link at such a huge distance. So he ignored it in the beginning. Yet soon it was ever on his mind, as if some great answer to who he was as a person and a Jedi lay out there just waiting for him to discover. It became tangible something he could almost wrap his hands around as well as his mind.

     So here he was in the middle of nowhere forgoing his apprenticeship where it stood to pursue some half cocked whim. Well, he had always had a thirst for adventure. The navcomputer finished programming the microjump and he flicked the switch. The stars barely began to blur before they refocused into real space. He was left staring at the strangest thing. The cracked and mangled hulk of an Interdictor class cruiser just sitting derelict in space.

 "Whatever I'm after, it's in there." Anerias said

He swung the shuttle into its approach vector and went through the docking protocols while the umbilical attached to the port. He changed into his EV suit and stepped into the airlock. Going zero g was always an interesting experience, especially with suits designed to keep the wearer oriented like this one. He decided to ignore the call, close as it was and check the bridge first. The power in that section of the vessel was inoperative so he had to use the suit in several places to float vertically up lift tubes. The doors to the bridge were shattered and lay haphazard across the entry. He slid over them in order to gain entrance. The command deck was surprisingly intact. Aside from the great viewport being blasted apart, chunks of meter thick armor grade plasteel floating aimlessly in the black. The main console still held a modicum of reserve power. He tapped into the subsystems to determine the lifesupport status of the vessel. For lack of a better word, the ship was dead. Except for a single section of the engineering quarters, where a personal storage unit still emitted power signals and lifesupport readings. The logs showed the ship had emerged from an aborted hyperspace jump and began drifting some thirty years before he discovered it floating in the waste. It was an old ship, on a journey longer by far than he had been alive. After finishing his inspection of the command deck Anerias left, following the map he had uploaded to his suit's datapad. The hulk was a twisting mess of passages, half of which were blown wide open accessible to the black, others blocked off completely by barricaded rubble.

     As he progressed to the aft end of the ship, signs of struggle became apparent. There were piled crates pockmarked with blasterfire and scouring along the walls from explosives and energy discharges. Battle droids of a few different varieties littered the hall, some shut down, others obviously destroyed beyond repair. In the engineering deck it was more of the same, blast doors sealed off sections of what appeared to have been zero g battlegrounds. He came to the final hall, it slanted upwards toward an airlock which would allow him into the cargo bay he sought. In the middle of the hall was yet another blast door. This one however, was different from the others, the release on the panel had been smashed and the connections of the door itself seemed to have fused together at an intense heat. The snap hiss of his lightsaber was lost in the void. Yet the darkness made the near yellow gold of the blade a more potent and visible hue in the shadows. The cut took awhile, the metal was dense and designed to withstand military grade explosives. In time however Anerias cut a good sized rectangle and gave it a kick, he bounced backward and the chunk of metal slid forward out of the gap he had created. The lights on the security airlock were still lit, and he began its power sequence, stepping inside when the doors whooshed open leaving faint streamers of gas wisping out of compression tubes into the black of the hall. The room compressed and gravity returned, the inner doors hissed open and he stepped into the most complex situation of his life. The cargo compartment was rather large, and stuffed with things of interest. Weapon racks layered with blasters of several varieties, work benches with half torn apart droids awaiting repair, a pair of heavily armored assault droids of a variety he was not familiar with. They had narrow red eyes and thick armor the color of bronze. Crates littered the floor, most still sealed, containing unknown contents and treasures. Yet in the middle of the room was the greatest prize.

     He knew now who was calling him. She floated unconscious in a cryofreeze stasis cell. He couldn't see much about her aside from the fact that she was young, somewhere in her mid to late twenties, and had a shock of auburn hair that fell to mid shoulder length.

    "Well, I came all the way out here, may as well say hello." He said as he approached the control panel.
After accustoming himself to the controls he initiated her revive sequence and stepped back. The frost thawed from the cell, and the liquid receded lowering the woman to the bottom of the tank. Once the fluid was gone the life support tubes and apparatus's retracted from her body and the plasteel cylinder lowered into the floor. She was beautiful, her torso was slender, retreating into a generous set of hips. Her thighs appeared milky and smooth, her calves strong and slender from running. She coughed spluttering and shaking her head a bit. She had an angular face, with high cheek bones and oval eyes of a coal grey framed by accentuating brows. Her nose was sharp and small hovering over generous lips and a pert chin. Her neck was slender and supple, but Anerias's gaze was ripped away from all these things when she sat up, Her breasts were near ovals, her nipples not olive in color and hard from the cold of the tank, they shook slightly with tremors when she shifted her weight, yet they defied gravity. Here was a woman who was genetically blessed.

    Suddenly she looked at him, straight into the eyes and smiled. "I've been waiting a good deal longer than I planned Anerias, you could have been here a bit sooner."

    He stopped gaping and said "You know my name?"

    "You've been talking to me in your sleep for months, I know everything about you I need to know. For example, I know that you've been looking at me, and I know you like what you see." She said "Look all you like, but some other time, we have work to do."

    "I don't understand." he said

    "You were not brought here to understand immediately." She said, "It will suffice for the moment that you were followed," Her eyes closed and her brow furrowed for a moment  "and they are intending to capture the entirety of this salvage, including your shuttle."

    "Not while I'm alive" He said

    "That to they have planned for" She laughed

    "Who are you?" He asked

    "No one of consequence." She said locking her eyes with his again. "I have been many things and my name has meant many things, and will again before my work is done. For now you must trust me for we do not have time for proper introductions."

    His mind worked faster than he willed it and she caught him looking at her again. "Perhaps that variety of introduction, I didn't know my rescuer would be attractive as well as have potential. You would not be the first apprentice I've taken."

    "You've lost me." He said

    "I know, but no time, they are coming through the hole you made in the blast door, ready yourself." She said

    She stood to her full height then, breasts swaying slowly, she was muscular, her body chiseled by countless battles. "Hide, we need the airlock intact." She said

    He moved to the side of the room hiding behind a crate. She chose one on the other end, and began rummaging through it. Anerias couldn't see what she was doing from the angle he was sitting at. He had several conflicting urges toward her, and wasn't altogether sure whether his emotions on this subject were proper for a Jedi knight. The door opened and a troop of what were obviously pirates moved in through the door.

    "We know you're in here scum," Said the Leader "Give up and it's slavery in the spice factories, or, don't, and it's nothing."

    He spoke up using as much persuasion as he could "Or you could let me go without a fight, and take this entire vessel as salvage, the credits would make you rich beyond the dreams of most men."

    Their response was a burst of blaster fire in the direction of the crate he was hiding behind. He fingered the firing stud of his lightsaber. It was his death or theirs, he moved. The snap hiss was unmistakable and even in the zero g suit he was agile. he cornered the first two using them as a shield against the main group deflecting their blaster bolts back in their general direction while he advanced. He sparred a moment to check what the woman was doing and nearly caught a blaster bolt to the face due to the distraction of what he saw. To late the pirates turned  to view the new threat. She was death incarnate. Hooded from head to toe in battle robes the likes of which he had only seen in historic holovids. He knew her even before the force lightning from her outstretched gauntlet arced with enough force to smash the spasming corpse of the pirate leader into the bulkhead with bone crushing force. The rest of the pirates turned to run only to find Anerias between them and escape. More lightning and it was over quickly. Those who stirred on the floor only quivered in the aftermath of death. He did not deactivate his lightsaber. Here was an enemy he had never anticipated meeting in real life.

    "Yes, it dawns on you," She said from behind her armored face mask. “I am Revan."

"What is this?" He asked putting the blade between her and himself.

"Terror? Horror? The eventuality of all things great and small in the evolution of the human concept?" She asked

"What did you expect to find in the vast blackness? The answer to your questions? Then again what was it you were asking for?" She gestured the corpses on the ground "Is this what you are seeking, the struggle against the odds, the constant pitting of oneself against the gross and horrific forces of the universe until you either are crushed beneath the cacophony of destruction or stand victorious over the bodies of countless billions of foes?"
She stabbed his mind with an outstretched finger he saw images of vast burning cities, bodies of women and children littering the landscape, conquered armies kneeling in submission, a dark tide of war creeping ever toward dominating the galaxy.

"No!" He roared in a gasp as he broke away from the contact shattering the image but it lingered in his memory. "I won't let you cloud my thoughts with visions."

"Do you know what it is you saw?" She asked tilting her head to the side. "The future. A war is coming from an unlikely location, forces which have lain dormant for millennium are waking and finding themselves strong. The Republic, despite my efforts, is not ready. I have an answer that can save everything you've grown up learning to protect. We must be the shield of the republic, we must smite down the foes which it knows not to fear. Or, everything will fall to dust, worlds will burn and the power of the true Sith will run a blood red path across the stars crushing the galaxy under the boot of domination and servitude."

"I don't believe you!" He shook, the blade of his lightsaber wavering "These are lies of your construction, you visited destruction on an unparalleled scale against the Republic when you should have been a hero! Two times you brought the galaxy under your heel only to recede into darkness and let us lick our wounds. Why should anyone trust you now?"

"For starters, because I'm telling you the truth," She took a step closer, underneath her armored cloak you wouldn't be able to tell she was a woman aside from her waist. "Put your weapon away, if I ever want you to attack me, I'll tell you. You couldn't kill me at this point unless I let you."

"Yes I can," He said as he moved away from her, he was directly near the airlock, he was in a suit designed to keep him alive in space, she was not.

"Well then, we are at an impasse." She said
Tilting her head to the side slightly. She reached out her right arm slowly, her fingers forming a claw, suddenly there was an overwhelming wave of force energy. The lightsaber leapt from his hand into her outstretched fist and he slammed into the floor consciousness leaving him.
"We will talk more when you wake." She said
As the blackness took him, he watched her sway as she walked to a work bench.
While he was unconscious she was busy. She began by sitting at one of the benches not littered with droid parts and removing her face mask. Here was a conundrum, he could be a great instrument in her war, yet his resistance would have to be broken. Such was the fate of all things, even his lightsaber would wear and eventually break over the course of time. She set it down, it was like the man a work of art. The firing stud was a depression triggered button near the end of the shaft below the flash guard. It used a standard carbon fiber housing to keep it light with skeletal metalwork to make the frame. The handle was fitted for a two hand grip relatively slender and there were notches cut away from the metal exposing the carbon fiber below to allow for a firmer grip. A weapon says things about the user, from the saber alone Revan knew that Anerias was on his way to becoming a consummate swordsman. Jedi knights generally constructed their first lightsaber based on those of their peers, and they tended to be rather like replicas of one another in the end. She knew this for a fact as she had overseen the mass production of synthcrystal blades in generic housings while she was conquering the Republic. Usually the second lightsaber was the one that reflected the user. He was young however, on the edge of his twenties, and this golden blade must have been his first attempt. Such mastery of the skills necessary to create such a tool spoke volumes about the man.

She did not have the luxury of time for reflection however and stood and proceeded over to the dead men. She found a suitable space suit which wasn't to much the worse for wear after its inhabitant's death. After field stripping the man and putting the suit on she gave Anerias a light kick in the ribs to rouse him.

"Time to go, there is another party on the way." She said

"More pirates?" He asked

"Yes, they have a small corvette, we will commandeer it, as I believe it will suit our purposes better than your shuttle." She said offering him a hand to help him up.

"I need to know now before we leave, do you serve the darkside?" He asked

"That question is impertinent for several reasons first of which is you will follow me and learn from me regardless of my alignment. Secondly because we don't have time to discuss the mysteries of the force. You will have to be content with my promise of answers when the time allows. Here is your lightsaber, you will be needing it." She said handing him the weapon.

He started to protest, yet she was already in the airlock. He followed after her at a trot, his head still bothering him from the knockout blow she had dealt him. They took a different branch in the lower hall beyond the blast door. Anerias could sense the other beings on the ship, there were nearly thirty all told. He followed Revan against his better judgment, for some reason his earlier indignation had fallen away in favor of blind obedience. She led them on a twisting path, ever away from the engineering deck, lower into the recesses of the ship they went. Ever forward, changing directions in several cases for no apparent reason. Finally they emerged through the shattered wreckage of a fore deck cabin into an airlock where Anerias's eyes beheld the Epitaph for the first time.

"Can you fly that?" He asked

"Yes it wouldn't be the first time I've piloted captured Mandalorian technology." She said looking at him from the corner of her visor.

The ship was bigger than a corvette, yet dwarfed still by the Sith interdictor. It had five modules extending from a central core with an aggressive face as if the bottom of a spear point had broken away leaving only half its face. It had been upgraded, in addition to its 2 existing turbo laser batteries it had four more blisters totaling its firepower at twelve guns, the dorsal wing had its nuclear missile tubes removed, being outdated against shield technology and a makeshift external fighter docking port was in its place. It looked as if the fighters launched directly from the ship, as if they were part of the wing. On the other modules large engines could be seen pulsing with dormant power.

"What is it?" He asked

She said "A Mandalorian dreadnought, highly automated, and heavily modified from the look of it."

The airlock opened into a cargo deck. There were droids loading crates and stowing them, it looked as if the pirates had been busy looting the wreck from the second they set foot on it.

"We need access to the bridge, after that I'll pilot and you can sweep the ship of pirates." She said

"How do we get them off the ship?" He asked

"Kill them, we can't have witnesses to what we are doing out here." She said

He wanted to argue the point, but thought better of it when a side passage opened and four guards spilled into the room firing before they even checked who they were attacking. Anerias dove into the midst of them without a second thought, his lightsaber activating mid-swipe through the torso of the closest pirate. There was a crisp sizzle as the blade came free and the man fell in halves upon the decking. He deflected blaster bolts deftly running toward the next man disarming him and impaling him in a single movement only to see the other two soldiers fly across the room to leave dents in the bulkheads their bodies shattered by the impact.

"I wondered what caused all the damage in your ship, now I know!" He shouted while they stripped off their space suits for more freedom of motion.

"I caused little to none of that damage, I was attacked." She replied

"You seem to have a knack for being on the wrong side of a blaster." He answered

She smiled and then led him down a corridor at a jog, him close behind. She unclipped the mask from her belt and attached it to its clasps under her hood.

"Why the mask anyway?" He asked

"It's made of phrik, as are most of the metallic pieces on this cloak. I am essentially armored against blaster and lightsaber head to foot." She replied not slowing her pace.

He paid a passing glance over the cloak, the hood and cape were covered with hinged metallic plates of a dull grey color, the gauntlets and armor plating on her boots seemed the same. He was running with a force of war. They entered a turbolift at the end of the main corridor, it brought them up three decks to the main thoroughfare where the bridge and command deck were located. They encountered assault droids of different varieties as well as a few more guards as they progressed to the bridge. The droids fell silent at a simple hand gesture from her, the men fell to deflected blaster bolts or simply collapsed to the floor clutching their throats. The door to the bridge was held against them by several men in tactical armor who were crouching in the archway to avoid incoming fire. He advanced deflecting their blasters and finally summoning the force to rip the weapons from their hands before knocking them unconscious.

"Anerias, what are you doing?" She chided stepping past him to the doors, "We need the ship, that means no survivors."

"I won't be your executioner." He said

"Be your own," She replied stepping past him and hitting the open door button on the console.
It was locked predictably, so she began the hack on the door, the code was simple straight forward Mandalorian like she had seen before on multiple times. It was one of their weaknesses, they were to narrow minded to have success, some things required a little subtlety.

"I know what you're trying to do, I won't become your puppet, I'm only with you now because of unhappy chance." He said as he disengaged his lightsaber.

"Fine then, dispose of them how you see fit, imprison them, leave them on the wreck for all I care, each of these equates the death you are reluctant to give." She said as she fiddled with the console.

The lights went green and there was an expulsion of gas as the door swooshed open.

"Darth Revan," Said The Mandalorian behind the control console, "An unexpected bonus to this trip."

"You aren't worthy of the honor of my death." She said ignoring him and turning to the pilot and copilot "Rig the ship to unmoor and run to the hulk, you can escape on the shuttle that's docked with it on the starboard side."

They hesitated to do as she asked and the Mandalorian produced a heavy blaster which had been resting on the console next to him. He opened fire with no more ceremony. He was a good shot, but she was something all together different. The blaster bolts angled away from her slamming into the deck and door frame behind her. "You try my patience warrior, shall I crush you?" She asked walking straight at him and tearing the weapon from his hand. "Or would you rather be of use?"

Anerias was struck by the similarity of the situation when he had stood against her with his lightsaber. Her control of the force was beyond any display of power he had yet seen.
The warrior hit the deck knees first.

"Kill me quickly, it's an honor to die at the hand of a conqueror." He said

"Your people really need to examine their life philosophy..." She said shaking her head. "No desire for anything aside from glory in combat and death leads to a very bleak existence. Then again, I've determined that my previous offer would be lost on one such as you, you aren't another Mandalor like Canderous Ordo." She turned the blaster on him leveling it at his face and discharged the energy weapon. "Now where were we, oh yes, you two, get the ship moving and get off of it or join your friend."
Anerias watched this entire situation trying to grasp if something other than insanity was providing the motivation for her actions. She showed callousness at one juncture, mercy at another, manipulation at the next turn, and crushed her opponents without care on a whim.

"Anerias, stop being perplexed and do something useful clear the ship of other pirates, either get them on the derelict or kill them and push them into space, we must be underway." She said

He looked at the downed men at his feet, he searched his own feelings, he was strangely comfortable with it. The lightsaber came alive with a snap hiss. He moved from room to room using the force as a guide. Those that surrendered he sent aboard the interdictor with his compliments and told them about the shuttle, those that resisted died quickly enough. He had killed more men and women in the last two hours than he had seen die in his entire life. Strangely he felt nothing. He was not motivated by a greater good, he did as he did out of sheer necessity, not out of malice. When he finished he returned to the command deck to find Revan busy at the controls.

"Good, you're back, and none the worse for wear." She said turning her head slightly to acknowledge him. "You have a question burning in the back of your mind, so I'll give you at least part of the answer. I am not a Sith, I never was, nor however was I ever a servant of the light. I am something altogether different. Let it put it this way, I have seen the deepest recesses of human hate and rage, the burning idealism of the true Jedi believer and I have found them both lacking. Why forsake the power to sculpt events on a massive scale for the betterment of all, yet why sink into a consuming state of existence where no joy in the life you live is possible? Likewise why devote yourself wholeheartedly to a system which neither cares nor thanks you, while also cutting yourself off from the very reasons which people live for in the first place? No I have been there and seen the downfalls of these hopeful ideals. The answer is a middle ground, to try and do what I must for myself and my own well being without instilling tyranny over those around me. If I can live happily in peace I will, but it is sometimes impossible to live without the sword, and by that same token when I take up a task, others benefit by the outcome. The truth pupil, is this, there is no light or dark side of the force, it is only power, it is the person who determines the nature of that power within themselves."

"You seem to cut a fine line." He said clipping the lightsaber to his belt.

"Better to live on the edge, than cower in fear of our own potential, or equally to our detriment to embrace that power until it consumes us." She said

He was silent for awhile, she unclipped the gorget and removed the coif pushing the cowl back off of her hair, these things she set down where the heavy blaster of the fallen Mandalorian had been. She ran her hands back through her hair and starred at the display.

"It's sad to think that I've been drifting all this time and am still so close to the conflict I've left behind, what do you say we go have a look to see how things are going?" She said and smiled at him while she hit the hyperspace switch on the master console.

The stars blurred into lines and then rippling waves as the ship rocketed into hyperspace leaving the remnant of the pirate force behind.

He stood a moment on the bridge watching her go though some checklist or something to that order. He had difficulty leaving, she already had some measure of power over him. Yet he was tired, so he retreated from the cockpit, if such a room on such a ship could be called such and roamed the vessel looking for quarters. Eventually he found a officer's berth that had a bed which was full sized as opposed to the smaller bunks which the crew slept in during their expeditions. Sleep hit him like a brick, he hadn't even had time to get out of his clothes.

    'Wake up!' Said a voice

    Anerias snapped into a sitting position propping himself up with his left hand and rubbing his face with his right. He looked to the viewport to find that the ship was still deep in hyperspace and then dropped his feet to the deck from the bed. He punched up the terminal to find out where Revan had gone. The life readings from the security feed indicated she was in one of the main cargo decks.

   "Why she has such an affinity for cargo rooms I have no idea." He wondered as he progressed to the refresher unit.
He had his tunic washed and he took a brief shower to shake off the sleep further. After he finished he redressed himself in his previous day's clothes, the rest of his luggage had been left behind on the shuttle before he left. He went into the hall and proceeded down the length of the ship the living quarters, the mess deck and the holding cells. It was strange to walk through such a large ship without anyone aboard. It was different from the wreck, that had been an expected emptiness. This vessel on the other hand had an expected vibrance about it. A life which it was lacking, that was of course until he reached the cargo deck. Unlike most large vessels Mandalorian assault ships of all varieties favored stairs to turbolifts. The reasoning was simple, in a ship where you are cramming as much armor and firepower as possible onto a small frame it is necessary to cut back on excess power usage. When he finally punched the door console and it opened he was surrounded by life. She was sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by crates of various sizes and even a basilisk war droid off to the side. About half the crates in the room were suspended in the air through the force, she was meditating.
    Anerias took a step into the room and she looked up at him.

    "You called to me." He said

    "Yes, you were talking to me in your sleep again, I thought you might want to be awake for the conversation."  She said

    The crates floated higher and began to rotate, to his eyes her skill at force telekinesis was very impressive.

    "What exactly were we talking about?" He asked

    The crates dropped to the deck with a resounding crunch and she smiled.

    "Among other things, exactly what it is you would like to do to me." She let him stand there for a moment before continuing. "Ranging from throttling me in my sleep, to throttling me while I'm wide awake and you're fucking the hell out of me. I'm intrigued to see those hands of yours around my neck I must say."

    "I am a Jedi, I have no such notions." He said, trying not to sound indignant.

    "Well, I'm not going to give you a moral quandary by walking over there and starting to take your clothes off, but lets just say, I've known enough Jedi to know exactly what you're feeling. Malak felt much the same way, his inability to have me on the other hand, is partially his reason for becoming a Sith." She Said

    "Did you ask me here to try an seduce me or did you have something of substance to discuss?" He asked while turning to leave.

    "Well the main reason I brought you here was to discuss why you are here." She said, "You were concerned that I had some sort of power over you that was bending you to my will. I won't put the lie to your assumption, there are ripples in the force around me, where I go people follow, armies form warriors flock to my banner, wars begin. Yet I want you to be different. I want you to follow me because you see the logic behind what I am doing, to that end we are infiltrating the old Sith empire, which unless something has changed in the last thirty years should be very fragmented as I left it and bent on self destruction. However I was not able to completely eliminate the threat. One of the warlords a true Sith, named Valarious sent a sizable force to intercept my ship even though it could not be seen on scanners as it was running under a cloak of darkness which I summoned. The Sith in the surrounding vessels used the force like hammers to fracture the hull of my interdictor until I managed to disable the ship blocking my escape vector and escape into hyperspace. The ship was failing by then however and fell out of hyperspace to drift. All I had time to do was make it to the stasis cell."

    "If they have that kind of power, why not rally the Jedi council and the Republic to the threat?" He asked

    "It is a simple matter, for the moment they are content with political infighting and self destruction. However if they had something to rally as a whole against, the resulting war would be like nothing the Republic has ever faced." She replied.

    "So where are we going and what are we going to do?" Said Anerias

    "We are going into the unknown regions, out past Rakata Prime into space unexplored by the republic." She said

    "So that is where the Sith are..." He said

    "Why do you think the Unknown Regions are unknown?" She said "The worlds under Sith sway are not very friendly to outsiders be careful of what you say, and who you say it to we aren't here to start a war yet."

    "Then what are we doing? I though war was the point." He said.

    "Reconnaissance." She replied

The ship slid out of hyperspace, the stars slowly rotating and solidifying into points of light leaving them in a system far from 'civilized' space. Anerias and Revan were on the bridge through the port side viewports they could see a globe of a dusty brown color with a large blue sea.

    "Around the edges of the sea there are cities and manufacturing centers, yet if you look toward the center coastline you will notice a several klick long gap where there is nothing save craters." She said "This world is split into two major factions whose war hasn't ceased in generations. This is one of nine worlds in this region of space which make up the Sith empire." She Said

    "How do we get in?" He asked

    "We take the fighters to the surface behind a mountain range after landing the ship somewhere out of the way on the moon." She said

    Their course led them across the day side of the planet and into the night. Interstellar traffic buzzed past in all directions, small freighters for the most part until they came upon the opposing armadas arrayed between the planet and the moon. The ships were like nothing Anerias had ever seen, wings of fighter craft patrolled across drawn battle lines while cargo freighters docked and resupplied battleships of a class that looked very strange to him. The strangest thing was the lack of obvious physical arms. These ships possessed point defense batteries, but no turbo laser blisters. She answered his question before he even asked.

    "With the amount of force users in this sector of space, there is no need for capital ships to have weapons. They just smash each other with telekinetic blasts of the force. Or, barring that they use tractor beams to board one another and kill each other within the ships. That method is preferred as the ship can be then commandeered and returned to the opposite fleet." She Said

    "Yet they are just standing still with only a five klick space between them." He said motioning the viewport and the array of ships before him.

    "Yes, today seems very peaceful Valarious must have halted the surface bombardment for the moment." She saw his lack of understanding at the comment.

    "Those fighters carry conventional chemical cluster bombs which they drop regularly on the surface of the planet, they don't penetrate the shielding on the cities, but they wreak havoc on the surrounding countryside when they go astray and they disrupt shipping" She Said

    It was just then when three flights of fighters broke from the planet's line and approached the line of Valarious's ships, two battleships fell in behind them. The fighters began opening up on the enemy formation, blue blaster cannons firing and trying to clear the fighters away from one of the larger vessels which had strayed from the line.

    "So why do they rely on chemical weapons if they can produce blastercannons for their snubfighters?" He asked

    "The gas that powers them is rare in this region, they make due with what they have available the more powerful warlords in the neighboring systems have better equipped fleets." She Replied

    As they watched the battle was joined by the battleship analogs which apparently stopped moving and did nothing. However Anerias could feel the disruption in the force and almost see the impact like a huge fist from one of the defending vessels against the aggressor. The shields on the other ship flushed a eerie green and started to separate. Suddenly a small wing of fighters flew by the failing section of the ship and released their bomb payload, they floated silently slowly toward the ship. It's engines flared to life, but it was caught by the tractor beam of the ship it sought to destroy the bombs impacted with the armored hull, burning fiercely white for an instant before guttering out, one by one drilling huge explosive tunnels through the armor and superstructure of the ship which began to decompress and list to the side. As it passed their view was not obscured and they could see what was happening to the other vessel in the attack. The attacking fighters had been goaded closer to the space station's line of battle and were being shredded apart by the superior numbers there. The command ship they left behind was unprotected, Anerias felt through the force as the Sith on board exerted the force to impact the defender while their own ship attempted escape. Yet the wave of force energy went astray a giant well of blue caught it and absorbed it and then slammed into the shielding and hull of the enemy ship cracking it and crushing bulkheads visibly from where they were.

    "The Sith on that ship are so powerful, how can we hope to make a difference in this conflict?" He asked

    "Ah, there are three Sith Lords on that ship, they were hiding their presence making it seem like only acolytes were on board, it was a feint to lure them in you see, not every engagement involves those of true power in the force, but Valarious keeps his lords on the front line when he can, he has maybe, sixty at his disposal unless something has happened in recent years." She Said

    "The fleets are ignoring us?" Anerias asked

    "Their ship's sensors are cursory, they rely on the force to determine the location of their targets, I am shielding us from them. We will be able to land somewhere on the hot side of the moon and completely avoid detection." She Said

    The battle outside ground to a halt, what was left of the attack force retreated, leaving two battered hulks spewing smoke and occasionally flame to be torn apart by more explosives from the enemy's fighters. Anerias was afraid, a fleet like this in the Republic would be able to roll over almost any defensive force they could muster. That a single battleship could strike down another in less than a five minute engagement, much less two, was terrifying.

    "You begin to understand the gravity of the situation." She said

    "Yes," He Replied

    The space station loomed ahead of them, it unlike the battleships bristled with turbolaser emplacements as well as quad lasers and other more obvious defense mechanisms. They passed it slowly, it was a semi oblong disk about two klicks across with docking and refitting stations for the capital ships and immense hangars for the fighter wings. It had spires and towers at different points, it looked like a floating fortress as much as a city in its light grey facade. He could sense the hatred, the loathing, seething from the ships, and the space station alike, yet on the space station, he sensed a will, a driving force behind the hate, turning it to violence and the desire for conquest. He knew that the will must belong to the Dark Lord of the Sith, it must be Valarious.

    "You've been going about this all the wrong way, you cannot collapse the Sith empire, it is two large, it would require genocide on a scale unparalleled in this galaxy." He said "Instead we must nullify the threat, we must rule these systems, in order to stop what is doing here the cycle must be broken, we must be the ones who break it." He said

    "So, we subvert the followers of the weakest faction and build our own army to combat the forces arrayed against us, once that is done we crush all resistance and take control in order to plot a new course of events for the future of these systems?" She Asked

    "Yes." Was his reply

    "Good, we are on a similar page." She Said

    The battle station fell behind as the ship traveled toward the moon. They landed in a secluded spot in a cavernous ruined volcanic crater and took the fighters into the void. They were sleek E-winged craft of Mandalorian design, they flew sluggishly and didn't have much in the way of armor, yet they were maneuverable and had weapon systems on par with patrol ships.  The trip to the planet was much quicker than the trip in, the fighters achieved speeds greater than four times what the Dreadnought was capable of.

    The planet was a a glassy orb in a single star system. Its atmosphere was littered with a smattering of black and white clouds forming a great shifting canopy over the world below. The terrain was a ruinous set of mountains covered in  forest where it found purchase. Cities springing up on the borders of huge seas nestled in the craggy valleys formed between the ranges. As the distance diminished Anerias felt the ache of the planet, as if it were a wound sucking all the goodness out of the force and corrupting it.

    "There are two factions on the planet's surface, they in-fight politically and sometimes in open conflict, yet they both oppose Valarious." She said "We are landing near the capital city of the lesser of these powers, I'm not sure who is in charge at this point as it feels much different than the last time I was here." She Said
.
    "Are all the systems out here this factious?" He asked on their comm channel

    "No, seven of the systems are relatively similar, however the two most powerful systems are under the Yoke of a single Sith council and were preparing to invade another when last I was here, the majority of my work was to destabilize that government and council, to delay the conquest of the sector." She replied

    They brought their fighters down behind a small vale in the midst of a forest next a sheer cliff face in the same grey stone which produced the majority of the rock formations he had seen thus far. The mountains on either side rocketed upwards toward the clouds yet it appeared there would be passage across the precipice to the city beyond.

    "Where do they get their food?" He asked "I've seen no farm land at all."

    "The food production moved underground, there are great domes where all manner of things are grown, mainly to keep them from being destroyed by the wars, all three factions want something left to rule when they finish the conquest. Perhaps that is where they go wrong."She Said

    They assembled their gear, their food rations a small tent climbing harness and water and set out for the city. At first the way was easy Anerias could sense many living things in the forest, yet none seemed threatening or sentient. The boles of the trees grew far enough apart that they could walk in a semi straight line toward the cliff face. They reached it by mid day on their first hike, and stopped for a bite and a breather.

    "The cliff looks a bit more difficult than it did from the air," He said

    "That's why we have the gear, if it were easier we could scale it without." She replied with a smile.

Anerias was used to heights, but he didn't like them. She got into her harness quickly and attached the lead line while he waited she began to ascend the cliff face without much premeditation, he was concerned at first but quickly relaxed, it appeared that she was skilled at just about everything. He quickly began to appreciate the view he had of her while she climbed, her muscles tensing as she moved quickly up the wall. Her tight fitting flight pants caressing the shape of her ass as she flexed. She was close to thirty meters in the air before she paused, he saw the reason quickly enough, she had run out of handholds in the direction she had been traveling the next was four meters up and one to the right. She released the wall with her right hand and grabbed some grit from the out cropping and dusted her palm with it. She did the same with her left hand. Then she bolted the first clip to the rock face and attached the rope through it. After adjusting her footing she coiled her body into a tight spring drawing upon the force at the same time and vaulted toward the ledge, she made a nearly impossible jump look easy. The rest of the climb was over quickly, she attached two more clips before the ledge, he figured the distance at somewhere near ninety meters.

    She watched him from above after securing the line, he stopped at the first bolt to unlatch the line from it and she smiled watching him tense. She had felt his eyes on her all the way up, he was getting there, a little more provocation and he wouldn't be able to resist her. She wanted him as surely as she knew what she was doing out here was best for the galaxy. He force jumped, and almost missed his handhold, yet he was in good shape and recovered quickly. She kept pulling up on the rope and adding it to the coil. He reached the top eventually with a sheen of sweat about him.

    "You look quite sexy when you're flushed." She said

    He blushed and turned to look down over the edge. They left the climbing gear stowed in a nearby tree and continued up the path. Their hike continued into the beginning of night before the rain started.

    "Storms like this regularly hit in the evenings." She said

    They quickly set up the tent near some trees and crawled inside, by that time their clothes were drenched. Revan piled their packs on one side of the tent and began stripping, she let her wet hair fall back over her shoulder as she removed her flight suit undoing the clasps and zippers which held it in place. It fell away from her breasts which were damp from the rain, the flickering light from the light in the tent unit danced slowly off of the droplets as they came together and dripped off of her smooth skin. She began peeling the suit off of her legs slowly and glanced over to see if Anerias was watching her.
    He being a typical man was already naked as the day he was born, his clothing hanging from various parts of the tent, yet his eyes were on her. They burned with a slow dull fire, she could see his arousal building in the way he tensed his muscles and looked away from her. He wasn't fully erect, but he was getting there. She had to give him credit, he was playing hard to get very well. She smiled and finished undressing and draped her clothing over their packs.

The storm outside picked up force, the wind drove against the tent protected as it was in a low howl. The ground under the tarp had torrents and rivulets of rain coursing under it. Anerias was struck by the situation, here was a woman not only beautiful and intelligent but aggressive and willing. There she was, in the corner of his eye, taunting him, trying to wear down his resolve.

    She slid down on her bed roll slowly the last of the raindrops trickling off her body and hair as she swept it aside to lay her head on her pillow. She rolled away from him to face the wall of the tent. For a moment he relaxed thinking she meant to sleep. He was shocked for a moment when she spoke.
    "I'm chilled, come over here and wrap your arms around me."

    "It wouldn't be proper of a Jedi," he said

"This isn't about you being a Jedi, you are something more than that anyway." She chided "Besides, you know you want to, I know you want to, hell the thing between you legs is begging you to. It's throbbing so loudly I can here it from here."

    He looked over at her, the line of her back as it curved, the cup of her ass and hips, the hint of something more just at the parting of her legs. He found himself rolling over without willing it. He crawled over to her like some primal beast in heat and slid himself down beside her. His brain had lost the battle. She was so warm to the touch, her skin pulsing under his, he wanted to be as close to her as possible. The rain droplets contrasted the supple tautness of her skin brief, wet, inconsequential .She rolled over putting a hand behind his head and their mouths met for the first time. It was a sweet kiss, she held his upper lip with hers sucking it gently and biting it softly before letting it go and whispering in his ear.

    "This affair has been going on in your brain for months, it's time to make it real." She breathed

    She pinned his arms to the floor surveying him, he was on the cusp of full manhood. His body was chiseled by training but not over muscled, he had long lines and an equally long torso which she ran her hands down slowly letting her fingertips play at the dips and rises of him while she bit his clavicle. She could feel the heat throbbing off him, his skin was fire, his cock a flesh flame pulled from the coals for quenching. She brought him to her opening, positioning him slowly. A small noise escaped him as she slid his tip inside herself. She hovered there over him for a moment, just waiting for him to make eye contact. The piercing blue of his eyes looked into the coal grey of hers and she smiled down at him, with that she impaled herself on his shaft to the hilt.

    "I'll be damned?!..." He managed in a rush of exhalation.

    It was a feeling foreign to him, yet he could sum it up in a single word, Home. He felt all the good in the world in that single moment, and he craved more. His hands reached up and crushed her tits lifting her slightly while he pounded her from below, she was so tight so warm, his brain was not even close to functioning. He shifted his hips slamming her into the ground sideways pulling his length out of her glistening with her juice. He looked like some primordial conquerer covered in the rape of his last conquest. He took charge shifting her legs to his shoulders and pinning her arms with his. He hit bottom while he slammed into her from above with bruising force it was exquisite. She was moaning, her breath coming in gasps which shook her breasts almost as much as his thrusts. He let go of her arms only to be clawed and have his hair pulled back with a violent wrench. In that moment with a roar he came, the throes of his climax filled her with a quivering and she reached her peak as well. Her hips bucking up to reach his and catch every drop. He lay there for awhile on top of her, breathing heavily, contented.

    "Now you know at least some part of what the Jedi deny themselves." She whispered

    "I am a Jedi no longer." He replied

    "Good, then we can start your training." She said

    He looked up at her cool grey eyes, hawk like they bored into him.

    "Not tonight love, tomorrow, sleep, I will keep the first watch." She said

    He relaxed down against her, using her breast as a pillow and strewing one arm across her middle in an embrace. He fell asleep in her arms, a different man.

Morning broke over the tops of the trees straying among the leaves and hitting the material of the tent. She lay there, slightly sore, but feeling contented. The night had gone exactly as she wanted it to. He was hers now, whether he knew it or not. He still slept, he had rolled away during the night and she had spent a good deal of time stroking his hair. As she did she was thinking about the consequences of leading him down her path, could he weather it she wondered. He was so different, but in some ways like most men, he snored lightly his primary instinct being sleep after he had finished his first conquest of her. He had the potential to be a fantastic lover if he ever got around to waking up.
    When he woke Anerias instantly gave Revan an accusatory glance.

    "You took my watch as well." He said

    "You wouldn't have let me sleep anyway." She replied

    After thinking about it for a moment, he realized she was right. She sat up slowly while he watched her.

    "We should be going soon," She said

    Abruptly he tackled her to the floor of the tent, her soft skin tantalizing him.

    "What are you doing?" She asked, as if she didn't know.

    "Shut up and be taken." He said

       He started kissing her, slowly along her shoulder, moving towards her neck. Then once he made it that far he bit while at the same time sucking. She quaked a little beneath him her hands turning into claws and scratching paths up his back. He arched his back raising himself off of her for a moment, her mouth closed around his left nipple her tongue swirling around the aureole before her teeth played against his hard nub extracting small noises from him. He was hard and ridged but he wasn't ready to take her yet. He rolled away from her and with his left hand grabbed her head by the hair pulling her face to his raging cock. She did as she was commanded sucking down his shaft until the vast majority of it was buried in her mouth. Little droplets of drool slid out from around her lips as she sucked with a slight twisting motion as she went up, only to tongue his head before plunging back down to the hilt. His breath came out in gasps, he needed her badly. He released her hair and grabbed her arm forcing her to turn her body if she was to continue.

    "Allow me to return the favor," He said

    Her ass leveled over his face. She could feel the warm mist of his breath against  her, yet wasn't ready for what he did. His mouth found her clit and began to suck as he buried two fingers in her love tunnel as far as they would go. Her moan was stifled by the cock she had lodged in her throat and came out as a Mmph. He worked his two fingers slowly dragging them across parts of her that were rarely touched. Then suddenly she felt empty as he removed them. She lifted her head from his dick to turn and see what the problem was when without warning those two fingers plunged into her ass, he had just been lubing them up. She went back to adjusting his tool but when he added his thumb in her cunt to complete the maneuver she pulled up off of him hard enough that his cock slapped his own torso. He began working both fingers and his thumb stiffly in unison, while his mouth played over her clit, sucking and alternating to using his tongue. She quivered, shakes slowly breaking out making her tense on his fingers. She came, in a violent wave rocking against his body below her, he could feel her cunt spasming against his thumb, pulling it further in and clamping on it.  When she finished he pushed her forward so that her hips were leveled over his. His dick, obscene in its bloated saliva covered state was just waiting to impale something. He propped it up so she had a better angle to slide it inside. Once she had it she never wanted to let it go again. It felt so good to be full, every inch pulsing into her as she slowly slid down his length. Her tightness clenched and messaged him as she went embedding him as far as she could until he was thrust clean against her cervix and still not completely inside. She began to lift from him, his cock came out glistening with juice, lubed like some permanently prepared fuck toy of some deviant whore lucid, lubed, and lascivious. He got to his feet, pulling her after him, then grabbing her by the hair he bent her over with one hand and put his cock on the precipice of her ass. She reached forward and grabbed the tent pole just in time to absorb the shock of him putting his entire cock in her sphincter with a single violent slam. She screamed, part pain, part pleasure as he fucked her mercilessly against the wall of the tent. He shifted his grip from her hair to her neck choking her every time he brought her back onto him. His tool hot, throbbing and huge with his need for her was near bursting. The tent shook with the violence of his effort as he plunged into her again and again. He was haggard, looking like some savage barbarian fresh from the slaughter, she like some abused slave from some harem in some distant land designed only to bring pleasure through being destroyed. Her ass shook, convulsing as she came from the anal stimulation loosing her grip and falling to the ground. She lay there quivering, half coherent as he descended on her prostrate form. He put himself back in her, her cervix cupping the tip of his sloppy cock as he forced himself in her again and again in a final effort, roaring as he came, his cum flooding her and leaking out all over the floor.