LOTF: Ganner Slarwalker/Chapters 14-15

Saris
The Mandalore System

One moment I was meditating as my shuttle cruised through hyperspace, and the next I was nearly thrown across the room as I was abruptly stopped. In my window was a Republic cruiser with some unsightly bulges- gravity wells? A message came through.

"Unidentified vessel, this is the Republic Cruiser Reverence. prepare for tractor beam lock. Failure to comply will result in your termination."

Blast.

Ganner
As we followed Saris through hyperspace, I acquainted myself with the crew. I also learned that each member of the squad was actually a criminal of some sort that the Republic had captured and decided to use for their own purposes.

Hans Novastar, the man who had helped me rescue the rest, was the closest thing the team had to a "leader" aside from their overseer, some Admiral. Hans was a commando of sorts and was arrested launching a successful attack on the fortress of a Hutt the Republic had secretly been negotiating with.

Next was Ranulph Darkhitch, a tan young man with blonde hair and a goatee to match. Ranulph was the techie of the group, arrested for hacking into Coruscant's military databases and uncovering secret plans for superweapons. He was also the youngest, at only 18, though he looked much older.

Siri Tokolighter was the blonde girl from before. She was also somewhat young, being 21. Siri was the crackshot of the group and was arrested for attempting to assassinate some big-shot known as Xalandra Nova. In fact, the shot was dead on, but a Jedi Master known as Kahar Zamet deflected it just in time.

Fourth in line was Blaze Terrant. He was stocky with auburn hair, and was arrested for going into casinos claiming to be the fastest shot in the galaxy and shooting down anyone who dared to challenge him. Needless to say, he was quite the gunslinger.

Last but not least was Arron Radion. Hans told me that he was a big-time bounty hunter who had worked for the Hutt he killed, and was sort of the jack of all trades of the group. The torture he endured while captured must have been too much, however, because he was very reclusive and never spoke.

The team had been sent to Felucia to kill the general of the base and destroy as much as they could. Saris, in what I gathered was an attempt to hide from me, infiltrated the base, disposed of and replaced the general by reprogramming all the droids to see him as the general's replacement. Now, since Saris technically was the general of the base, they could get away with going with me to take him down. And so, the six of us sat on the ship as we were violently thrown out of hyperspace. "Unidentified vessel, this is the Republic Cruiser Reverence. prepare for tractor beam lock. Failure to comply will result in your termination."

"Impossible..." Ranulph muttered.

The ship began to slowly pull us in.

Saris
I walked out of my shuttle, with a small patrol of clone troopers staring blankly at me, guns raised. In the middle stood a captain, with a cyan shoulder pad and a kama. "Mind giving us a name?"

It was time. In my mind, I knew the name at once. It was new, and yet, it had always been mine. I could sense their fingers tightening on their triggers as I took my time. Despite myself, a small sneer was beginning to form.

"Lock him-"

"Darth."

They froze at the word. In their single second of hesitation, my lightsaber flew to my hand.

"Darth Maricus."

With my blade as red as the blood I was about to spill, I attacked.

Ganner
I felt a large ripple in the Force. Saris was here, and had revealed himself, presumably to the clones. Right on cue, over the intercom, I heard screaming and gunshots. Little by little, voice by voice, the screams quieted, until finally either Saris or a single clone had lived.

I didn't have much faith in the clone.

"Why, that's you, Ganner, isn't it? Incredible."

"Surrender, Saris. You've got no backup and no way out."

"Arek Saris is dead. I just killed him."

Static.

"How awfully nice of that Saris-sounding scum to take care of him for us," Ranulph sarcastically remarked. The rest of us sat momentarily in silence as the tractor beam pulled us in closer and closer. Finally, Ranulph was the one who broke it.

"So what exactly is the plan, anyway?"

Hans began thinking.

"Ranulph, you need to get to the bridge. Get help, find something to stop Saris.

Blaze, you and Arron need to lock down the hangars. Saris isn't getting off this ship.

Siri and I will, uh, patrol the ship. Ganner, you can sense Saris, so you'll be the most essential component of the plan. I think this goes without saying, but you'll need to track him and coordinate with Ranulph and the rest of us to keep him in while you two do whatever you do." He handed us all holocoms.

The ship began to pull into the hangar, and through our hull, the carnage was remarkable. Squads of clones laid in pieces across the room. The ship landed. Saris' voice rang out over the ship's intercom.

"Now boarding six walking corpses."

"I know the layout of Republic cruisers well enough to know that came from the bridge," Ranulph says.

"I'll come with you," I reply.

"All right, everyone split up!" Hans says.

"Oh, yay, ship duty. Such fun." Blaze mutters as we all go our separate ways.

Darth Maricus (AKA Saris)
Using the ship's cameras, I scanned around looking for any stragglers besides Ganner. All across the Reverence were my little pieces of art. I flicked through the ship, but no one was left. It was time to call Varad and make my escape.

Ranulph Darkhitch
"He's splitting off," Ganner said. "I'll go after him. You get to the bridge." With that, he quickly took a left down another blank corridor and quickly vanished. When I approached the bridge, there was no door to open, and I could see the carnage from across the hallway. There was not a single clone in sight, and the walls of the bridge looked like someone had made modern art with only gray and black. By some miracle, the computers were barely scratched. However, just as I began to examine them, I heard a sneeze. Quickly and silently I spun and drew my pistol, but no one was there. Just as I was about to dismiss it as nothing, a section of the ceiling opened up, and a man dressed in colorful robes fell past, screaming.

"Hans, Siri, someone, get up here. There's a freaking stowaway."

As he stood up and brushed off his dusty, fancy clothes I got a closer glance at him. He was tan, with golden eyes and black hair. He had about the same physique as me, tall and slightly skinny. He was also, somehow, wielding a sniper rifle.

"Hello there," he said. "I'm Dylan and I'm sure we can talk things out."

Blaze Terrant
Truth be told, ship duty was pretty dang boring.

"You know, we could make this more interesting. Play a game of pazaak or something." Arron was still mute, staring out the window. A long silence ensued.

"Fine, have it your way."

Another long silence. Maybe I could annoy him into talking.

"You know, that Siri is quite the looker. And did you see the way she was glancing at Hans during our briefing? I'm telling you, man-" The airlock opened.

"Man?"

He had left the ship. I quickly followed. He was running towards Saris' ship. "Arron!" I yelled.

He stopped and turned slowly.

"I hate to do this," he said.

Before I had time to react, he drew his pistol and shot me. The last thing I saw was a blue flash - he had stunned me.

Darth Maricus
As I ran through the halls, a door opened in front of me that Ganner promptly jumped through. Yet again, we watched each other, preparing to strike.

"Saris."

"That's Maricus to you, Slarwalker."

"Right then. Shall we?"

He activated his sabers. I did the same. I knew I couldn't take him in a fight, but I quickly found a solution to that as a blonde man and woman walked behind me.

Ranulph
"Okay, okay, let me explain. So I'm sitting here in this ceiling nibbling this rifle because I'm really hungry, right? (I'm still really hungry.) Then I hear a lot of people screaming and stuff, right? Then it gets reeeeal quiet, and there's some other voice who doesn't sound like everyone else saying some random stuff I can't understand. Then I guess he walks closer to me, 'cuz I hear him talking about finding his 'secondary objective' on Man-dollar or something. Then he got real quiet and I figured I was alone so I started thinking about my friend named Price, he's pretty cool, you should meet him. Then you showed up. Also I bit a little bit off the scope."

"...What."

"So I'm sitting here in this ceiling nibbling this rifle because I'm really hungry, right? (I'm still really hungry.) Then I hear a lot of people screaming and stuff, right? Then it gets reeeeal quiet, and there's some other voice who doesn't sound like everyone else saying some random stuff I can't understand. Then I guess he walks closer to me, 'cuz I hear him talking about finding his 'secondary objective' on Man-dollar or something. Then he got real quiet and I figured I was alone so I started thinking about my friend named Price, he's pretty cool, you should meet him. Then you showed up. Also I bit a little bit off the scope."

"What."

"Nope, you're out of chances."

I activated my comlink. "Guys, Saris has some sort of ulterior objective on Mandalore."

Silence. What were they doing? I moved to the cameras to find out. There was Saris, apparently holding Siri hostage, with Ganner and Hans on either side. Just great.

Ganner
"You, behind me, don't even think of pulling anything." Saris slowly backed away from me. Hans kept his gun trained on Saris' head. As soon as he was next to Hans, Saris quickly threw him with the Force against the wall. He threw Siri at me, whom I jumped over, and started to run. As he ran down the halls he sliced a vent open, causing a gust of gas to blow me off my feet across the room, leaving the 3 of us left behind in a heap. Over the comlink, Ranulph began to panic. "Guys, Saris is headed for the hangars, Arron is gone, and Blaze is unconscious. He's gonna escape!" I slowly got to my feet and parted the gas so that I could run after him but I knew he was already too far gone. I got into the hangar in time to see him leave with our shuttle.

"Blast it all."

Minutes later, we all assembled at the bridge. As I entered I immediately took notice of the stowaway, who I could since was... off, in some way. "Price! You made it to the part where I come in again! And you're still not banned!" He said.

"What?"

"Stop with the nonsense," Ranulph said. "What is Maricus- apparently what Saris calls himself now- planning?"

"I don't know, all I caught was something about Mandalore and a second objective and Vizla."

We all looked at each other in confusion and surprise.

"Vizla?" Hans asked, hesitantly.

"Yeah, why?"

"Vizla works for the Death Watch."

We all took a collective moment to realize the trouble we were about to get into, which was ruined when Dylan burped quite loudly and then said "Gesundheit."

"May I do the honors?" Ranulph inquired.

"Be my guest."

With a nice whap on the head from Ranulph's pistol, Dylan was down for the count. From there we returned to our shuttle. "I have a plan," Hans announced as we all sat down. "And I don't think you're gonna particularly like it."

Maricus
"I've arrived."

"Good. Find the target and leave swiftly. No one can know." Even over the holo, Varad's voice was commanding.

"Of course, Master."

"And one more thing-- Slarwalker must not leave alive."

I hadn't told him anything about Slarwalker.

"Yes, Master."

Minutes later, I opened a second comm channel.

"It's time to take him down. Finish off the others and wait for my signal."

"It will be done," the mole replied.

"It had better. Maricus out."

Ganner
Dressed in possibly the stupidest bounty hunter outfit to ever "grace" the galaxy with its presence, complete with a little green cape and a black mask, I walked out the shuttle into the docking bay. A Mandalorian in black and red armor came over to greet me. He hesitated for just a second before he walked up to me, datapad in hand. "Need some ID, he said." I handed him a fake Hans obtained for me, and he scanned it.

"Starlord? Really?" He remarked.

As soon as his head and attention were away, I activated a jammer hidden in my left glove that would disable any nearby recording devices. Then, I punched him with my fist enhanced by the shock glove on my right hand. It didn't take him out, but he stumbled, and a crack on visor told me his vision was probably down. I walked up to him and slammed him on the ground. The datapad came out as positive, which ought to have delayed suspicion of me for a short time. I took the ID, his datapad (you never know when something like that could come in handy), quietly tucked his body in the corner, and proceeded into Mandalore.

"It went smoothly," I muttered. "Got some potential intel also." As I walked in, I stuck a small chip onto the datapad that allowed Ranulph to remotely access it.

"Scanning now... Ever wonder what Mandalorians do in their downtime?"

"No...?"

"Good. You don't want to know. No mentions of an Arek Saris, but exactly two of a Maricus. Displaying them on your visor now."

"You can do that?" The words flashed to life in front of me.

"That's all he got out before you knocked the guy unconscious."

"Interesting. Infusions could have something to do with the ritual, but why would Varad want that? All it would take is one body, and certainly he could find a more sustainable one than a Death Watch member."

"Your guess is as good as mine. At any rate, stop Maricus and it won't matter. I've got Hans, Siri, and Blaze running recon for Vizla and Maricus right now, so it's only a matter of time."

"Copy that. Heading out now."

Hans
Standing on an empty rooftop, I scanned the city. Ranulph had programmed my mask to look for beings matching Pre Vizla's or Maricus' biological signatures. Judging from her swearing, Siri, on the other side of the roof, was having no luck either. Blaze was down below, making sure no one came too close to finding us. Suddenly, two red bodies were outlined- one fitting Maricus and one Vizla. "It will be done," Siri whispered.

"Huh?"

I quietly sent Ranulph the signatures and their coordinates. Just as I did it, I felt a blaster poke me in the back.

"Siri, what are you doing?"

"Carrying out the will of the Force."

I needed to keep her talking while I looked for a way out.

"Sorry, I thought Ganner was the Jedi here?"

"I serve no Jedi." She vocalized the word with such disgust I thought she was actually about to vomit on me. "I am a Shadow Assassin, like my master, Darth Maricus, and you will perish before me."

The only exit I could see was to jump and pray my jetpack could save me. I could also attack Siri, but I had no idea if I would be able to take her.

"How could you do this? After all we've been through?"

My words seemed to make her hesitate just a bit, giving me the opening I needed. I quickly elbowed her in the face, causing her arm to move off target as she fired. I leapt off the building and spun to shoot back as I fell. Instead, I saw her leap towards me. She grabbed me as my rocket activated and we flew wildly through the sky in a frantic melee. We careened onto a large taxi speeder and stood up facing each other. Between the two of us was Siri's pistol. We both leapt for it and I grabbed it first. We both quickly drew away from each other, and I stood pointing it at her.

"Any last words?"

Her response was to fall back off the taxi. I was moving too fast to track her. Suddenly, Blaze's voice rang over the comms.

"Where are you guys!?!?! There's DW's everywhere and I can't take much longer!"

"Hang tight," I responded. I was too far though. Blaze was going to die.

"I don't have time!" A explosion went off in the distance, and the comm went to static.

"Blast...."

Ganner
As soon as Ranulph gave me the location I began running and jumping towards him. At last I had a physical visual on where the site was. With a lightsaber my left hand, I carried onwards.

I could vaguely since Maricus' presence in the vicinity. However, I couldn't reach out and get a closer position on him, because now I needed to keep my Force presence small. He was definitely in this building, though. I touched my earpiece and asked, "Ranulph, can you get a bead on him?"

"I can do you one better," He replied. A red outline signifying his body appeared somewhere a couple stories down the building. In addition, an audio feed began to play.

"-ven if I agreed to this, and I'm not answering yet, what's in this for me?"

"Glory. Eternal glory as being the man who lead the Death Watch, and the entire galaxy, into a new age."

"And then, I suppose, once our business is finished you'll turn your backs on us."

As the conversation played out, I crept down dark floors, my orange blade giving me warmth in an otherwise chilly building. Using the Force to dampen the sound, I deactivated my lightsaber as I entered the floor they occupied. The walls of the room were all glass, and Maricus was walking with a tall man in decorated Death Watch armor towards an elevator: Vizla.

"The men are loyal to you and only you, Pre."

"...I can get you fifty men right now. But I will need them back in a month unharmed."

The two men walked in the elevator. Both turned to face me, though I wasn't visible to them.

"I agree on one condition- I need the one you call Xux."

"I can get him, but you'd better pay well for this."

"Do your part and I'll do mine. Now, I have business to attend to. I'll see you on Umbara."

Maricus pressed a button and the door began to close, but before it did, he stepped out with the speed of the Force.

I drew my other saber, and ignited them both. Staring me down with his yellow eyes, he ignited his own.

"You're here earlier than I anticipated, Ganner, but you've only hastened your demise."

"Funny, I could say the same for you."

He ran towards me, saber raised, but I simply extended my hand and Force pushed him into the closed elevator door. I leapt towards him, sabers poised to impale, but at the last second he dodged out of the way, grabbed my throat, and slammed me against the door. I tried to raise my sabers, but he was Force pushing them down, so I tried a different tactic. I pried open the doors with the Force, and we both fell back into the shaft. I grabbed his arm, quickly spinning so that he was on the bottom, and landed hard on the elevator, deactivating all our weapons. Out of breath, with my head spinning, I rolled off of Maricus, who was knocked out cold. "Ranulph," I gasp, "Get me out of here."

I stood up, still holding my lightsaber. I knew I could kill him now, and all this would be over. All I would've needed to do was kill one unarmed person. I knew it was against the Jedi code, but I wasn't a Jedi. What was I? I pushed the button to activate the saber, and looked at Maricus in the orange light. I turned the saber upside down, raised it with both hands, and as I prepared to take his life, the window broke behind me.

I turned in an instant to see who it was, and time seemed to slow. Through an explosion of glass, Siri flew towards me with a fiery red saber raised. She had cuts and bruises across her face, chest and arms, more than could've come from the glass. There was a fire in her amber eyes as her blade ran through my chest.

There's no better word to describe the feeling of having a beam of pure plasma burning through your chest as you lie on the ground than hot. It was like my insides were melting, and I took a second to reflect on the fact that they probably were. Shocked, I tried to form words but didn't have the energy, and I plummeted to the ground, rapidly losing consciousness. Maricus stood, and Siri talked with him for what feels like an eternity as they watched me, though I couldn't make out any words. At long last, Siri pulled her saber out of me, and I let the relief of death finally take me.

Ranulph
When I got to Ganner, Hans was already there, trying to apply first aid. "What in the world happened?" I asked. Ganner had a bad lightsaber wound in his chest.

"Siri was a traitor. She must have attacked Ganner and ran off with Maricus."

"Damn it. We'll kill her for that."

"Agreed, but we have to get Ganner out of here first."

We both looked at him for a second, thinking, and then a thought occurred to me.

"Don't worry- I have a plan."