Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ❯ Part I-Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 1: Attack on the Endar Spire

The space near the newly conquered Sith world of Taris lit up with flashes of red and green light as squadrons of Sith starfighters dive-bombed the Republic cruiser Endar Spire. Sith capital ships stayed at a distance and fired occasional shots into the damaged ship, but the fighters were doing the grunt work now. With a noiseless fireball the port engines on the Spire flamed out leaving the ship dead in space. As it began to drift, a series of landing craft darted in under the anti-ship laser batteries, escorted by a squadron of fighters and approached the ailing cruiser.

On board the Spire, in one of the crew quarters, Jeriden Kai was thrown from his bed as the ship lurched hard to starboard. The young man, dressed in nothing but his underwear stood up, rubbing a bruise on the back of his head and looked out the window. Jeriden was a very handsome young man in his late twenties, with brown hair. He had high cheekbones, and green eyes.

“Sithspawn, this is what I get for being able to sleep through anything,” he groaned. He was just about to get his clothes out of his footlocker, when the door to his quarters opened and in rushed a bright-faced young Republic soldier. He was a bit taller than her and had blond hair as opposed to her own midnight locks.

“We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire's under attack! Hurry, we have to find Bastila!” Jeriden regarded the unknown soldier a little warily.

“Hang on, who are you again?”

“I'm Trask Ulgo remember?” he replied, “Now hurry up! We have to get to the bridge and defend Bastila! I've heard all about you; elite combat training, tops in your class. It's no wonder you were hand-picked for this assignment.”

Jeriden half-smiled to himself as he thought about that. Bastila herself HAD picked him for this mission. He often wondered why, out of the hundreds of thousands of grunts in the Army of the Republic had Bastila chosen him. Jeriden's initial impression of the Jedi when they'd first met had been of a cold, haughty demeanor that didn't quite go with what she had seen of other Jedi.

“Bastila's gonna need men like you at her side during the attack. So let's go!”

Nodding, Jeriden ran over to his footlocker and quickly grabbed his combat suit, blaster rifle, vibroblade, and medpacs. Slipping the suit on with the ease of a veteran soldier, he checked that the rifle's gas cartridge was full and then turned to face Trask.

“Let's do it.”

They had just run into the main corridor when their comlinks activated.

“This is Carth Onasi. The Sith are threatening to overrun our position, we can't hold out against their firepower. All hands to the bridge!”

“That was Commander Onasi on our portable communicators. He's one of the best pilots and soldiers in the fleet. If he says things are bad, you better believe it!” said Trask as he jacked open a jammed door. Jeriden recalled the gruff pilot from when he'd boarded the Endar Spire. They had just stepped through the door that Trask had managed to lever open just in time to see a lone Republic soldier in his red and yellow combat armor get shot by two Sith in their silver armor with faceless helmets designed to inspire fear in their enemies.

“These Sith must be the advance boarding party! For the Republic!” cried Trask as the two soldiers charged down the Sith troopers. Jeriden had a funny feeling that it was going to be a very long walk to the bridge.

Aboard her personal Corellian Engineering Star Cruiser, pilot Anaiya Starseeker watched her sensors with trepidation as the battle unfolded on the screen. She'd just come out of hyperspace in the Taris system to jump onto a new course when she saw the battle, both with her eyes and sensors. Unfortunately, she'd stayed a bit too long, as an alarm sounded the approach of Sith fighters. Anaiya cursed as she was too close to make a getaway and while her ship was probably faster than the Sith starfighters, she doubted her shields would stand up to the punishment.

Anaiya made her career as a scout. She traveled across the galaxy, sometimes performing the dangerous, life-threatening job of creating new hyperspace routes. Her passions in life were few, merely to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one had gone before. Now however she had the nasty feeling that her career might be cut short.

“Starship Lone Star, you have entered a war zone,” announced a voice from the comm. panel, “come about to a heading of 153 mk.6 and follow our landing beacon down to Taris. Until we have secured the area, all ships must be detained. Failure to comply will result in the destruction of your ship.” From the way the pilot of the lead fighter had said that, Anaiya was willing to bet everything she owned that the guy was just itching for her to try something stupid. Anaiya was far from stupid though and immediately complied, arcing the Lone Star towards Taris.

“This little `detainment' will probably keep me on this planet for the next couple of standard weeks. So much for Sith efficiency,” grumbled Anaiya. As her ship began to descend through the atmosphere, she spared one last look towards the battle above, and saw the Republic cruiser drifting. It probably wouldn't be long before the Sith blasted it out of the sky. Anaiya cursed again, she was no friend of the Sith, and if she had her way she would blast the lot of them into the vacuum of space. Still grumbling she prepared to land the Lone Star on the landing platform in the impound yard of Taris city.

Jeriden and Trask had almost reached the bridge when they ran trough another door and almost into a Jedi and a Sith dueling in the corridor. The red and blue lightsabers flashed as the two combatants smashed them together.

“It's a dark Jedi! We'd better stay out of this, we'd only get in the way,” said Trask. Even though most of the Endar Spire's crewmen had been outfitted with special vibroblades with a Cortosis ore weave, no ordinary soldier was fool enough to duel with a dark Jedi. With a deft slash, the blue saber-wielding Jedi cut the Sith down, but almost as soon as he'd collapsed to the floor, a plasma conduit behind the Jedi woman exploded, killing her instantly.

“That was one of the Jedi accompanying Bastila. Damn, we could've used her help," groaned Trask as some more Sith troopers rounded the corner.

After a couple more minutes of fast and furious fighting, Trask and Jeriden finally arrived at the doors to the bridge. They both drew their vibroblades, as both soldiers knew that it would be suicide to use blasters in such a close-quarters environment. There was already a furious battle on the bridge. Two Sith troopers noticed Jeriden and Trask right away and charged them. Jeriden lunged forward and with two graceful, almost careless moves, cut down both Sith. He then turned around, jumped into the air, spun, and came down on another trooper, cleaving him almost in two. Trask whistled and cast an eye around the now silent bridge.

“Bastila's not here. They must've already run to the escape pods,” said Trask. Jeriden looked one of the large bridge view ports and saw a pair of Sith destroyers moving closer to the Endar Spire.

“The Sith want Bastila alive so once she's off the ship there's nothing to stop them from blasting the Spire into galactic dust. Let's get to those escape pods,” said Jeriden as they opened the door leading to the starboard side of the ship. They were about to board the turbolift down to the escape pod level when the door across from them opened. Another dark Jedi stood in the doorway, but he was different from the others they'd seen, He wore all black armor, expensive-looking too. He was bald and had a goatee on his face along with an evil-looking, amused smile. A red, double-ended lightsaber flared to life in his hand, and he spun several times as he began to march towards them.

“Damn, another dark Jedi! I'll hold him off, get to those escape pods! GO!” shouted Trask as he charged the dark Jedi.

“No Trask you fool! You don't stand a chance!” cried Jeriden but he was too late. A series of explosions forced the door shut, and that was the last Jeriden Kai saw of Ensign Trask Ulgo. For a moment he stood in the hallway, frozen with shock, but then a red blade stabbed through the door and snapped him out of it. He jumped into the turbolift and punched the button. As he car descended, he punched the wall angrily.

As Jeriden stepped out of the turbolift, his comlink activated again.

“This is Carth Onasi. I'm tracking you through the Endar Spire's life support systems. Bastila's escape pod is away. We're the last remaining crewmembers aboard the Endar Spire, so we'd better get off the ship. Now!”

“Thanks for telling me how to get to the nearest escape pod Commander,” mumbled Jeriden as he shot another trooper. However he had studied the plans of these types of ships and was reasonably sure of where he was going. At last he reached the final compartment that separated him from the escape pods, when Carth's voice blared from her communicator again.

“Watch it! There's a whole squad of Sith troopers beyond that door!”

“Really?” asked Jeriden as he picked up a thermal detonator from the corpse of a Sith, “Shouldn't be a problem.” Stepping to the side of the door, he opened it and tossed in the bomb. One thunderous explosion later, he stepped into the anteroom which was now just a blackened, smoking ruin filled with blackened, smoking Sith corpses. Daintily picking his way among the dead troopers, he spied the red uniform of a commander, Knowing that the C.O.'s almost always had some nifty gadgets on them, Jeriden stopped to examine the ex-Commander and found what looked like a prototype vibroblade.

“Won't be needing this anymore my friend. Might as well put it to good use,” he said. Opening the door, she found Commander Carth Onasi waiting for her next to the row of escape pods.

“You made it! This is the last functional escape pod left, so lets get in and go.” Not needing to argue the point, Jeriden climbed in with Carth.

The last of the Endar Spire's escape pods shot away from the dying ship fast enough to avoid being shot by the Sith ships. From the tiny cockpit, Carth and Jeriden watched the ship in its death throes.

“That's funny, The damage doesn't look as bad from…” Carth started to say but was cut off as the Endar Spire exploded in a nova-bright blast. The escape pod continued to hurtle down towards Taris.

On the surface of Taris, actually one of the walkways of the Upper City; the surface was kilometers below, Anaiya shuffled down the streets, enduring the snobbish comments of the native Tarisians. What is this people's problem? I'm just minding my own business so why do they keep staring at me like I've got some disease? Her ruminations were cut short when a loud sonic boom shook the buildings around her. Looking up she saw a fiery meteor, streaking trough the sky. Belatedly she realized it was angling down in her direction. Anaiya dived as the meteor screamed down and fired a quad of retro-rockets, before it slammed into the walkway. Retro-rockets?! That's no meteor; it's an escape pod! Anaiya picked herself up and ran over to the pod. People were screaming in panic and running in every direction imaginable and Anaiya figured it would only be a matter of time before the Sith showed up. As she approached the pod, its hatch clanged open and a brown-haired man in an orange leather jacket tumbled out. Helping the man to his feet Anaiya asked, “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine,” coughed the man, and then suddenly pulled himself out of Anaiya's grip, “who are you?”

“No friend of the Sith, that's for damn sure. Now was there anyone else with you?”

Still coughing, Carth pointed to the open hatch.

“There's a man in there. From my ship. He hit his head badly and is unconscious. Get him out,” Carth wheezed.

Anaiya clambered through the hatch and spied the man slumped in a seat. Gently picking him up, he pulled him out of the pod. Carth was on his feet now and was looking around for any sign of enemy troops.

“We need to find shelter away from the Sith. Do you know anywhere we can go?” asked Carth.

“I'm an off-worlder, my ship got caught in your little light-fight up there but I think…” looking around Anaiya spied an apartment building right across the street. Her instincts told her that it would be safe and she'd never ignored her gut. It had saved her life to many times to be ignored.

“Over there in that apartment building! Quickly!”

Gathering Jeriden in both of their arms they ran off towards the apartment as the first of the Sith troopers rounded the far corner of the walkway. As they entered the building, they were surprised to find that aliens mostly inhabited it. Scrambling down the hall, they arrived at an apartment that seemed to be abandoned. Going inside and quickly shutting the door behind them, the two of them laid Jeriden on a bed and Carth began examining his wounds.

“I bet he's got a concussion, but we'll just have to give him some medpacs and hope he snaps out of it,” said the pilot.

“By the way,” asked Anaiya as Carth gave Jeriden a shot of kolto, “I never got your names yet.”

“I'm Carth Onasi with the Republic fleet. And this here is…” Carth examined Jeriden's ID tags, “Jeriden Kai.”

Anaiya peered at Jeriden. Something about the young man was very familiar to her, almost as if they had… some sort of connection. Little did Anaiya realize that by helping Carth and Jeriden, she had set in motion a chain of events that would change the fate of the galaxy forever…