Chapter One: Return and Fall

Peragus

Peragus

Awaken…

For a single, blissful moment, I felt nothing. My mind was gloriously blank and I was aware of nothing, floating in a void of emptiness. I was calm; at peace for the first time in many long years. Then, as quickly as it arrived, the moment was over. The memories returned with all the shock of a force pike: images of death, destruction, despair. Rivers of blood and barricades of rotting bones on worlds where even the shadows are brighter than the black hearts of those who fight there. Fire, and bolts from blasters, the stench of burning bodies and gaping wounds. The weight of thousands of deaths crushing me, unrelenting and uncaring. My body was heavy with fatigue, as if the blood that once pulsed through my veins had been replaced with durasteel. I felt bruised and tired, drained of energy. Were I not suspended in a kolto tank, I would have probably collapsed. Which I inevitably did, when I was somehow freed from my healing prison. I lay on the cold floor for a moment, assessing the situation. Physically, my body was in impeccable condition. The strain I felt runs much deeper than the flesh and sinew that held my body together. It was not a wound of the heart; it was something much, much deeper. Something I had lost and I feared I would never regain. It still pains me, to this very day. A loss that I struggle to endure through the endless days and the sleepless nights. But endure I must.

I slowly forced myself up, stretched my limbs and took a step forward gingerly, as if to test my capabilities. I realised that my modesty was all but discarded as I looked down and see nothing but simple underwear, still damp from the kolto tank. There was no time for me to be self-conscious, however. If I was to survive I needed to discover where I was and how I had come to be there. The last thing I remembered was being aboard the Harbinger; a Republic ship bound for Telos, where my presence had been requested. What happened between then and leaving the kolto tank was a mystery to me, and that was why it was of the utmost importance that I quickly discerned where I was now.

As I ventured through the doors, I determined that I must have been in the medical bay of this facility, though there was a significant lack of any medics. Entering what I can only assumed was a morgue, I noticed two bodies. Nearest to me was an old woman, the hood of her cloak still over her face. I felt uneasy and backed away, feeling a tremor of uncertainty inside me. In the past decade I had passed such feelings off as instinct, but in this instance it felt somewhat stronger, an echo of an understanding I once had, so very long ago. I walked to the back of the room and look at the second body. A Republic soldier, if I was not mistaken. I did not think I was. Again, a feeling tugged inside me, assuring me that my instincts were well placed. He was clutching a plasma torch, and I felt guilty as I take it from him. I am no grave robber, but nevertheless I needed to equip myself if I am to survive the foreseeable future.

"Did you find what you were looking for among the dead?"

I turned around, startled, raising the plasma torch as I fell into a defensive position. It was the old woman, the one I had thought to be dead. Instead she raised herself from the bed and walked towards me.