KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC: DARK FORCES, CHAPTER TWO

KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC

DARK FORCES

CHAPTER TWO

Alone in the mechanic's bay of the Ebon Hawk, Bao-dur was busily reassembling HK-47. Bao-dur had seen many droids in his life, and had observed their actions more than most people would consider normal. He had developed a close attachment to droids when he had served in the Jedi Civil War, and was more comfortable with droids than he was with most other people. Yet the rust-red assassin droid laid out in front of him had always made him a little uneasy. Perhaps it was the droids blood-lust that made him feel apprehensive, or its history with Darth Revan. Maybe it was the fact that it had killed so many Jedi, and saw killing others as a casual thing. Despite the fact that he disliked the droid, he had to give it credit. It was possibly the most versatile, resilient droid he had ever seen in his life.

Bao-dur's new opinion of the droid was from having seen it pull itself, battered and broken into the Ebon Hawk. The damage that HK-47 had endured while battling G0T0 on Malachor was extensive, it's power core, central processor and mechanical skeleton having been damaged beyond repair. Suffering so much damage it should have shut down according to one of its many primary functions yet it had managed to override it, so it could escape Malachor before the planets destruction.

The droid also presented another interest to Bao-dur. How in space had it managed to override its self-preservation programmes? The droid should not have been able to destroy its durasteel counterparts, the HK-50's, yet some how it had managed to do so. Bao-dur had seen the droid do it on Citadel Station, during Darth Nillihus's assault on Telos IV and then again to excess in the HK-50 factory. Bao-dur seen similar things in other droids, but it almost always permanently damaged their behaviour, often making them erratic and unpredictable (G0T0 being a prime example). HK-47 exhibited none of the classic symptoms of a droid whose programming had been corrupted.

Bao-dur unhooked the droids central programming unit, and connected it to a nearby data pad, switched it on and scanned the binary readings of HK-47. After a few short minutes, Bao-dur had done a routine scan of HK-47's primary functions and found nothing unusual. No programming decay, no corrupted files, nothing. A scan of the secondary functions revealed nothing either. It would appear that there was nothing wrong with the droid. Bao-dur leaned back in his chair, a puzzled frown etching his face.

'Curious' he murmured to himself.

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'Watch where you're sticking that thing, Miraluka!' Canderous Ordo, Mandalore and leader of the Mandalorians growled at Visas, as she injected a pain stim into the Mandalorian's hairy arm. It had been strange for the blinded Miraluka to remove the armour that had long encased Canderous Ordo. She could not see the world around her as others did- but she could 'see' in a strange sense of the word. She could see a galaxy stripped of the force, leaving only pain, hate and fear. She could see the cruel, stupid and evil, people that walked through the galaxy, spreading pain like a disease. Visas had always been able to see the outline of the armor of Mandalore, which shone with the blood of thousands, but as she had helped him remove each article of his armour, he had faded from her sight. She had been able to see Mandalore, the bloodthirsty warrior, but she could only just make out Canderous Ordo the man. Despite this, his attitude irked her.

'Quiet Canderous' she said sharply 'You need this drug to heal, or else you will die.'

'Mandalorians don't need stims' Canderous said weakly, sinking down onto his bunk. He fell silent for several minutes, his eyes fluttering open and shut.

'I used to make stims, you know' he said, his voice slurred 'When I was with Revan. Got pretty good at it, too.'

'Be quiet Mandalorian.'

'Be quiet?' Canderous demanded, trying to make his voice harsh. 'Don't... tell me... t-to be... quiet. Oh damn.' He said after a few moments. 'Now I can't see... anything.'

'Go to sleep Canderous.'

'Miraluka...' he said after a few moments, his voice soft and on the edge of sleep.

'Yes Canderous?'

'Thank you'

'For what?'

'You know for what...'

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The dark, haunted interior of the Ravenger sent shivers of fear through Mandalore as he lay wounded and dying on one of the many corridors of the ship. Caught by a sudden explosion, the hulking Mandalorian had been thrown through a nearby wall and had landed hard on a protruding metal spike. Mandalorian armour was the best in the world, but even it couldn't stop the metal as it pierced his gut, to emerge dripping out his back. With the greatest of effort he had pulled himself off the metal, and collapsed on the cold floor of the Ravenger. He was Mandalore, leader of the Mandalorians and greatest warrior of clan Ordo but he had not the strength to move. He lay helplessly on the ground, feeling his life leave him as the blood flowed from his open wound.

'Canderous!' A voice said from behind him. With an amazing show of strength, Visas pulled the collapsed Mandalore into a sitting position. He angrily shoved her away.

'G-Get away from me!' Canderous yelled weakly. 'I don't need your help! Just... just leave me.'

'Canderous, the force lies in all living things' Visas said gently 'I have watched my people die. You will survive. You have no choice.'

'Not this day. I have killed many people, and I know a mortal wound. This one shall be my doom.'

'You have been wounded before and lived, Mandalorian' Visas said firmly, a sharp contrast to her previous gentle voice. 'Rise. Many battles do you still have left in you.'

'You... sound like Revan... at the end.' Canderous said slowly, weakly. 'Do you know what he told me, on those last days on the Outer Rim?' Without waiting for an answer he ploughed on, his speech interrupted by racking coughs. 'That the Mandalorian Wars were are doom. And that we had been deceived. That it had never been our decision to wage war on the Republic.'

'What?'

'Revan said the Mandalorians didn't invade the Republic space ten years ago because it was our choice.' Canderous said his breathing laboured but his speech tumbling out. 'We were tricked. Our entire people sacrificed as pawns! And never knew it.'

He was silent for a moment, as Visas pressed her hand against the massive gash in his abdomen, allowing the force to slowly heal his wounds.

'He said there was a war coming.' Canderous said finally, his voice a little stronger. 'That it was waiting in the Unknown Regions, in the dark. Waiting for us to destroy each other.'

'A war? This war?'

'No, not this one.' Canderous said grimly, chuckling to himself. 'Another one, more terrible. Against an evil we couldn't begin to comprehend. A war of belief that had been fought for thousands of years.'

He took a deep breath, and then went on quietly. 'Revan went off to fight it.'

'And left you here.' Visas said, not a question but a statement. "And that is what burns in you heart, and why Clan Ordo lives. To prove Revan wrong."

'No, not Revan" Canderous said bitterly. "He was one of the greatest military leaders in the galaxy, in history. He knew what he was doing. He had a plan for me and for the Mandalorians, a plan for helping the Republic. I would have thought he'd have no use for a people already beaten."

"So who did you wish to prove wrong?"

"Revan knew what he was doing" Canderous repeated quietly, desperately even. "And I always follow orders..."

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Bao-dur was at a loss for words. He had scanned the droid completely, from top to bottom, tried everything he could think of, yet he had found no evidence of program decay whatsoever. It would appear that the droid was not faulty, but that it had merely done what it was supposed to do. Almost as if...

"It's as if there's nothing wrong with it' Bao-dur said suddenly, a flash of inspiration coming to him. 'As if it was only following its programming.'

Bao-dur quickly scanned the droids central programming unit for its main programming, and specifically any override commands. Within seconds he had found it; an override program that would shutdown the droids self-preservation programming, alongside... a holorecording.

'T3!' Bao-dur called loudly from his position. A few moments later, the little astromech droid arrived, beeping curiously.

'I need you to play this holorecording.' Bao-dur said, attaching his datapad with the transferred message into the droids External Connection Drive. T3's single photoreceptor flickered slightly as it read the data, and then began the projection.

The image was that of a man, tall and muscular, dressed in a simple Jedi robe. His curtain of dark hair swept over his face, which was prominent and powerful looking. His eyes were steel grey and seemed to stare straight at Bao-dur, cutting into his soul. The image flickered and died slightly, static interfering with it. Quickly, Bao-dur adjusted the image dimensions, but to no avail. The image continued to flicker and much of what the man said was lost.

"Greetings, General Albinus. Years ago you served me in the Mandalorian Wars, and now I beg you to help me in my struggle against the True Sith. I cannot go into detail but..."

The image broke off, flickering and then suddenly reappeared.

"... the Sith as we have come to know them are nothing compared to the power that they wield... ultimate destruction of both the Jedi and the Republic... I cannot tell you everything, for I fear that you would not be able to comprehend the truth, but be assured that this is the greatest threat the Republic has ever faced since the Hundred-Year Darkness. The enemy we face is like nothing..."

The image stopped suddenly, disappearing altogether. Bao-dur glanced anxiously down at T3, before the holovid began again.

"...they are the true embodiment of evil, the physical representation of... somehow it has manifested into being, and it walks through the galaxy. It manipulates and deceives and spreads pain through every planet in every system. It cannot be stopped. It exists in all... this cannot be denied. We are dealing with something that is beyond this mortal realm. We are fighting the force itself."

"I make no pretence that I can stop it for I... only need to delay... can protect the galaxy... by the time you receive this I will most likely be dead... It will be up to you... to defeat it. For you have the strength to do what I cannot."

Suddenly the image became clear; the audio became sharp and complete as well.

"With the passing of time, I cannot say I know you. I do not know where you walk, or what drives you, or if you still hold to the lightside of the force. I doubt very much that you have any allegiance to the Jedi, or the senate, or even to me, but I hope that you still hold to the Republic. What it represents. What it fights to preserve. I pray that you have not lost sight of that."

The image faded, leaving Bao-dur and T3 in darkness, as they both stared at the now empty space where the image once was. Bao-dur was cold now, cold with dread. Perhaps everything this man had said was true, but for one thing; did the Exile still care for the Republic? Did he even care about anything?'