Of The Lies That I Have Lived | Chapter 1

Of The Lies That I Have Lived

Chapter 1

The bed was comfortingly warm, its velveteen sheets spread around her body like an angel's soft wings keeping her safe from the nightmares outside. Rebecca kept her eyes tightly closed, there was something big out there, the booming thump of its footfalls shook through the base of the bed, they kept on shaking until she rolled from the bed and its warm embrace. Her shoulder hit the cold metal decking smashing her awake, instinct rolled her to her feet and she stood for a moment with her hands in front of her before she started to feel slightly foolish, there was nothing to fight, it was just a bad dream. Rebecca turned to look out the room's single window and what she saw sent her diving for the equipment locker at the head of her bed. Outside the sky was painted red with turbolaser bolts, grasping fingers of light tearing at the Endar spire causing it to tear and tumble, leaving it hanging above the decaying beauty of Taris; a spot of light, bright against the planet's night side like a candle about to be snuffed out by the encroaching darkness. Fumbling into her clothes with the awkwardness of panicked movements Rebecca snapped the stealth belt on then checked that her sword rode easily in the scabbard.

Her eyes were drawn to the window by rivers of scarlet light and spinning silver, fighters and their targets dancing through the stars in macabre partnership. It was oddly beautiful watching whirling fighters shoot past the reinforced plastic, little petals of burning destruction blossomed out of the hull where their guns racked across it and Rebecca licked her lips,

'There's no sound' she whispered feeling the ship vibrate furiously beneath her feet.

The blast doors on the other side of the quarters clanked open and a spike of alarm shot through Rebecca's arms, her sword flashed out of its scabbard and to the neck of the person standing there in a fluid motion. Trask froze as Rebecca's sword dug its cold edge into his neck bringing a small trickle of blood to the blade, it had been an easy strike, anyone could have done it, he didn't even have his blade out. He felt his heart beat in his chest, once, twice. A fighter rushed past the window and an explosion shook the ship, the lights dimmed once before coming back on.

Trask took a deep breath and let it out feeling indignation and anger building inside himself; the slow fire waiting to be unleashed.

'So. You going to put that up?' He hissed putting just a touch of that anger into his words. Rebecca numbly moved the sword away from his neck, her eyes half-glazed fixed on the blood.

'I could have killed you' She said, her voice barely more than a whisper as she mechanically cleaned the blood off by grasping the flat of the blade on her opposite cuff and pulling it through until the tip was level with the scabbard.

Trask looked at her eyes, she was scared, it was obvious, he drew her fear in like a fine perfume then let it out in his voice, let it rumble through the room with a dark majesty: 'You couldn't have killed me. You don't know what you're doing with weapons, asides from a few kiddy tricks you picked up. You need to be angry to fight properly.'

Pausing for a moment he considered the reasons he was on the ship. 'We need to find Bastila before the others get to her' he thought 'We'll just have to get rid of those in our way if she's to be - saved.'

'Get up.' His voice became more urgent, somehow less powerful 'You're drifting. We need to find Bastila!'

Rebecca sheathed her sword. 'Who's Bastila anyway?' she thought puzzled, 'well whoever she is she'll have to fend for herself. I'm not running around the ship for this man's sweet-heart'

'To hell with Bastila' Rebecca swore venomously 'I'm getting off this ship.'

Trask reached out and grasped Rebecca's arm, his grip was painfully tight on her thin limb. He snapped out a command at her, for all its pretty phrasing: 'You took an oath to serve the republic. That might not mean anything to you but it does to me.' Trask drew a blaster from his belt and Rebecca focused on it, the world seemed to fall away from her, then he turned it over and slapped its grip into her hand.

'If you want to get off this ship come help me find Bastila, there's no other way anyway.' He turned, pulled away from her, walked into the corridor. Rebecca sighed once and flexed her fingers around the grip of the blaster, cold and metallic its simple function blazed like a pathway in her mind.

Blaster fire tore down the corridor as Rebecca stepped out into it, her hair whipped around her head as she dove for the floor twisting to bring her newly acquired blaster to bear. Trask was crouched in the lee side of a support strut trading fire with a squad of Sith troopers, little droplets of molten composite twisted around the strut as he pulled his head in narrowly avoiding a returned burst of red fire. Rebecca rolled slowly across the floor as the Sith concentrated their fire on Trask's support column. Reaching a small alcove on the other side of the corridor she crouched into it and steadied her blaster on her knee ready to fire. The Sith stopped firing waiting for Trask to stick his head out and return fire, Rebecca drew her breath in, paused for a moment to feel the almost mind numbing terror inside of herself then aimed roughly in the direction of a Sith trooper and squeezed down on the trigger. Her blaster gave a small beep, barely heard above her screaming and Rebecca opened her eyes, Trask was standing over the corpses of two Sith troopers, one of them had a vibro-blade through his chest, the other had.

'Oh god' Rebecca heard herself whisper the acrid taste of vomit welling up in the back of her throat. Half the trooper's face and arms had been burnt away, where he'd thrown up his hands to stop the torrent of energy from her blaster there remained only blackened stubs. Trask wrenched the vibro-blade out of the other trooper's chest, walked over to Rebecca and slapped her with an open palm.

'Get up.' He hissed at her flexing his fingers around the vibro-blade's hilt. Rebecca swallowed with a dry throat and climbed shakily to her feet again, the ship swaying beneath her as its retros fired in a last ditch attempt at stabilisation almost threw her back to the hard deck again. She looked away from the blasted trooper, as they walked past she knelt keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the door ahead and felt across the body for the trooper's vibro-blade. Unbuckling his belt Rebecca rose to her feet again and looped it around her waist tightening the buckle until it dug painfully into her flesh.

The doors to the bridge stood in front of them, Trask waved his hand at her blaster signalling her to holster it. Rebecca looked down at the blaster in one hand, the vibro-blade in the other. The blaster suddenly seemed heavy with the weight of its purpose, death and nothing more - an image of the dead trooper came to her, she threw the blaster aside, heard it scatter across the deck and drew the vibro-blade.

'Ready' Rebecca said her voice shaking slightly as she flexed her fingers around the hilt then gripped it so hard her knuckles went white. Trask looked sideways at her, 'obviously not ready at all,' he thought, the thought loaded with bitter malice, 'soft scum.' But he merely smiled and waved his hand over the scanner, opening the bridge up with his prints.

Two Sith were facing the doors as they slid open, Trask seemed to flow around the widening doors to meet them, Rebecca stepped forwards in his wake and as he started to duel with one of the troopers she swung as hard as she could down at the head of the other. Rebecca's trooper raised his sword to meet hers, half turning his body and slanting the blade slightly so her own glanced off it, the impact jarred her hand for a moment and she kicked out towards the trooper's knees catching him on the shin. The trooper took a step back to avoid Rebecca's kick, in the background Trask could be seen running his opponent through the heart. Rebecca's trooper lowered his sword as he stumbled back, reaching out with his hands to catch himself on the edge of a console, Rebecca grasped her vibro-blade in both hands and swung it down at him. Her blade stopped halfway through his chest, its trembler mechanism finally starting to have trouble with the tough armour. Putting her foot on the trooper's chest Rebecca continued to grip the vibro-blade and kicked away from him freeing it. Her breath came in heaving pants of exertion and she leant back against the wall, her gaze sweeping over the slaughtered bridge crew. Rebecca looked out the window at the spinning starscape and tried not to breathe in the smell of blood.

'Bastila's not here' Trask said flicking the blood off of his vibro-blade in a sharp motion, his voice was desperate now. 'We have to get to the escape pods.' His eyes flicked down to Rebecca's grip on her sword.

'No, hold it like this' he said absently

'Grip it tightly with the bottom two fingers, lightly with the middle finger, and not at all with the top one - just keep that there to check its movement. When you strike let the movement flow from your hips, down your arm, through your wrist and out into the blade, if you're all stiff and still then you're dead. Fighting is an expression of the feeling it's fuelled by, when you fight let all your anger and hatred flow into your movements, use them to help you rather than allowing them to hinder you.' Rebecca's grip on the hilt shifted as Trask placed his fingers over her own.

'Put your other hand lower down on the hilt it should twist between the two when you apply force between them.' Trask released her hand and stepped away over to the entrance to the rest of the ship he raised his hand so it was flat with the door and closed his eyes, a grim smile played upon his lips.

'We should go on now.' He said still smiling slightly and opened the door. Beyond it there was a short section of corridors leading into the bowels of the ship. Rebecca steadied herself, flexed her fingers around the hilt again and followed him out. As she prepared to turn the first corner her foot brushed against something, looking down she saw a Sith trooper and froze, but he was already dead, his neck bent over at an unnatural angle, like a twig someone had snapped off with their thumb. A bandoleer of grenades was wrapped around his chest and Rebecca knelt down, unhooked it and brought the deadly cargo up across her own chest, strapping it down to a snug fit. 'Little eggs of death, fitting somehow... Where did that thought come from?' She thought to herself.

Stepping around the corner with Trask she nearly lost her head as blast of disruptor fire slashed into the hull, it's pure white streaks leaving fading marks on her vision. Rebecca's hand pulled out a grenade, she set it for proximity and bowled it underarm at the troopers clustered on the other side of the hallway, they went down in a burst of fire and shrapnel. The sound of the explosion washed back over Rebecca and Trask in a wave of shaking decking.

Trask looked sidelong at her then gestured over to another door. 'The escape pods should be through here.' Rebecca passed her palm over the hatch's control panel and it whooshed open allowing a shower of sparks to dart out at the pair, a warm breath giving sizzling voice to the two combatants on the other side. A Jedi and her opponent were locked together, the thunderous sizzle of energy blade against energy blade filled the air, the sparks danced about their feet like a carpet of falling stars. Trask gripped Rebecca's arm firmly taking a certain pleasure in the shock he felt in her movements at such treatment.

'This fight is beyond us,' he said watching the fight flow first in the favour of one then of another. The Jedi parried her opponent's blade to the side then with a quick movement of her arm passed the tip of her own blade across his throat spearing through the back of his spine. The Sith she had been duelling with flopped to the ground like a puppet with all its strings cut in an instant; she turned to look at Rebecca,

'Re--' she started to step forwards just as a panel exploded behind her. Shrapnel sliced into the unfortunate young Jedi and she fell beside her opponent.

Trask stepped over the young Jedi's body and stooped to pocket her lightsaber, that of the sith had been damaged beyond repair in the explosion and now lay as little more than a crumpled metal tube.

'Shouldn't we' Rebecca gestured to the Jedi's body her hand falling to her side as she recognised the futility of it.

'Shouldn't we what?' Trask asked curtly.

'Shouldn't we burry her? Is that it? In what Becca? You might want to spend the next few minutes digging up the decking so we can stash a body in it but I've got more important things to do, like getting off this ship at the moment.' He turned anger still singing in his veins and slipped into the next room the door sliding shut behind him, by the time Rebbeca had cycled the lock again Trask was standing with the bodies of three sith troopers at his feet breathing heavily and sporting a small cut on his cheek.

'The escape pods should be just through here.' He gestured with the point of his sword, blood and gore dripped off it as it hung over the gleaming deck. Rebecca walked mutely over to his side her own sword still sheathed and reached out to open the doors. As the doors clanged sharply open a splash of red light spilled across the deck gleaming a strangely enticing mix of colours as it met the blood that had just dripped from Trask's sword, the thrum of an energy blade vibrated through the air stilling Rebecca's bones with fear.

Rebecca felt herself being pushed hard to one side as Trask stepped through the doors, a guttural scream was wrenched from her throat as Trask's sword met the Sith's lightsabre in a shower of sparks and the doors snapped shut severing her off from the pair behind an almost impenetrable barrier of metal. It was like a lead weight hanging from her throat had been dropped into Rebecca's stomach, she stood there stunned.

'I don't know what I'm doing.' Rebecca whispered her arms hanging at her sides, she balled a hand into a fist and half-heartedly punched the doors.

'I don't know what I'm doing.' she said slightly more loudly, the lead weight in her stomach seemed to have turned into a hot coal.

'Damn it.' She swore punching the doors with all the force she could muster, her knuckled came away bleeding. Beyond the doors a lightsabre sharply snicking as someone released its blade crept through to Rebecca's ears. Numbly Rebecca stumbled away from them, fear lurked at the back of her mind and now it built, this man had killed Trask, she didn't know what to do, she had to get away. Palming open the door she'd stumbled up to Rebecca turned on her heel and fled deeper into the ship.

'Left, left, oh - f' Rebecca pulled her head back from the corner, two troopers were standing in her path. Her immediate reaction was to turn around again and flee back to another part of the ship, in the distance she could hear the thrum of a lightsabre moving towards her, the beat of heavily booted feet crashing in a rhythm with her clamouring heart. Her fingers fumbling at her stealth belt in clumsy movements as she tried to turn it on.

'Stop, stop' Rebecca whispered.

'Slowly' Her fingers tapped out the activation sequence and she blurred from sight. The crashing of boots was nearer now, Rebecca took in a deep gulp of air then held her breath and stepped out into the corridor, the sith troopers looked straight through her and she froze then let out her breath all at once as she realised they couldn't see her.

'What was that?' One of the troopers had snapped his blaster up to cover the hallway,.

'I don't know,' the other replied 'Best go and check it out.'

Rebecca dug through the bandoleer of grenades and bowled a sinister looking red one underarm at the troopers who opened fire on her as the grenade left her hand and disrupted the stealth field. The dull tinkling thud and crackle of the plasma grenade detonating was focused by the narrow corridor to be almost deafening as the blast wave washed back over her like a warm summer breeze, but it was going cold now as the fire rushed past, where was -

Rebecca was on her back, the world was humming with a whistled tune which her mind turned into a mother's lullaby and her vision blurred badly as she rocked to her knees. Her hands came back stained with a slightly off black liquid when she put them to her ears and she discovered with a stab of panic that her stealth belt seemed to have been damaged somehow, it hurt to move, she didn't want to look at what the grenade had done to her body.

The door controls had been mercifully undamaged though it seemed and Rebecca stumbled into the next room which was devoid of Sith, after the fire drenched time that had just passed it seemed somehow abnormal. A computer console stood as a silent sentinel in the middle of the room and Rebecca managed to make her way over to it slumping against the metal column to support her weight.

'There must be more of them in the next room' Rebecca said quietly,

'I can't fight them' A well of despair rose in her throat and her hands started to shake.

'I can't fight them.' She said again and a small giggle escaped her throat.

'I've got to stop this, it isn't the right place - right time' Rebecca looked down at her hands and balled them into fists to stop them shaking. Her white knuckles were held in silohet against the blue glow of the security station, a grim little smile played at the corners of her mouth as her fingers began to tap out a rapid sequence of commands. Some sort of chaos software seemed to have been uploaded into the ship's systems which was hampering her efforts to access the relevant areas of the database but after a few minutes of increasingly desperate tinkering she was able to gain partial control of the local subsystems.

'But if I don't have to have' she whispered to herself as the security cameras in the next room came online to reveal a squad of sith troops, a quick flash of commands shot through the system and removed the safety limiters on the power conduits, a low whine started to build up and seconds later the camera went blank as the power in the room was overloaded. Rebecca's fingers had left scarlet prints on the blue console, taking her trembling hands away from it she smudged them across the metal. Silver and red, why were those colours so beautiful together? Almost like poetry - Rebecca shivered and turned away, but she was crawling by the time she'd finished crossing the next room, the door to the pod deck whooshed open and she felt hands grasping her under her armpits, then darkness rushed in on her with a slightly tingling feeling of pins and needles upon her skin.

Carth sighed as the woman collapsed in his arms, he'd almost shot her when she opened the door thinking she was another sith but from her bleeding and battered appearance Carth was willing to bet she wasn't. Slinging the woman into the one remaining escape pod Carth climbed in after her and dogged the hatch, the automatic systems intended to jettison the pod incase the occupants were unconscious gave a small beep at registering the hatch dogged with live occupants. There wasn't an external override order as there would be in a drill. Carth grappled the woman onto the crash couch and sat down on the other seat which automatically deployed a safety webbing over them and contracted it across their skin. The pod's computer gave a series of three increasing rapid beeps as it finished its ten second countdown and then ejected the pod from the ship.

Far over Taris hung the Endarspire, it's hull rippling with explosions as the ship's computer recognised it's near complete loss of control and loaded a set of kamikaze orders into the drive containment. A new sun bloomed in space over the decaying world momentarily given life by the destruction raging inside it, blinding anyone who happened to be staring up into the sky and eclipsing the hurtling metal meteor shooting down towards the planet at four Gs constant acceleration, like a bullet from the gun of a god.

{{I'm sorry but no Carth on the communicator, the idea that the Sith wouldn't be jamming and wouldn't have loaded some sort of chaos software into the ship's computer system as they boarded really beggars belief..}}