Battle Above Korriban
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Battle Above Korriban: Korriban
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Raigen dawned his scout trooper helmet as he and his XO, Hunter, entered the shadowy alley way to the right side of Hadrian's Cantina. The alley was walled in on the left by a firewall that seperated the various shops and stores from the alley. It was blocked on far right by a thirty foot high wall made of solid durasteel blocks perma-welded together that supported the clear shield that served as a cieling for the port. This alley was one of the long, seemingly endless tunnels that Asteroid Prime, or AP as the locals called it, was famous for. Raigen looked around to see if anyone was following them. It was a habit, a bad one but a habit nonetheless. And, as his late smuggling partner Gremman used to say, "Forget what lies ahead, you can't change what's waiting for you. It's what's behind ya'otta worry about." Raigen's right hand hovered over his O-6 blaster pistol. Raigen had acquired an acute taste for Naboo weaponry. That taste had grown into a passion since he joined the Navy. Raigen looked around once more and decided to make some conversation to pass time.
"We uh...We shouldv'e gone first. That way, if we got ambushed, Jmac and and Temp coulda helped. We could be walkin right into a trap." Raigen's voice was echoed softly in the helmet and his breathing was magnified by the breathing holes. It annoyed him somewhat but complaining would just create more echo's. "Too late for shoulda's and coulda's now Raigen. Don't worry, let's just get back to Chip so we can find Gemini." Hunter said with a detectable sense of irritability. Raigen wondered if he was irritated with him or the fact that Gemini was captured. Seeing that it was his fault Gemini was captured, it had to be him. A horrible vision of himself being tortured here on AP flashed through his mind. He knew all too well what AP authority did to prisoners.
Neither of the pilots were keen on where the conversation was going or focused on the task at hand for that matter. Hunter was only half-listening while Raigen was worried about an ambush. Nevertheless, Raigen kept the small talk going to calm his nerves which had been decomposing since he was about ten. "Have you been with Aegis long?" Raigen asked.
"Long enough. But it's not the time you spend with a group, it's the time you spend with the people in the group. You gotta be friends with your allies or the squadron becomes a thing instead of people and pilots start thinking of themselves as just...whats the word?" Hunter seemed to be focused on the conversation a little more as he searched for the end to his insightful answer.
"Another brick in the wall! My mother used to say that, before she died. It's all I remember of her." Raigen tried to fight back a long lost memory but it was useless. His mind wandered to Tatooine. He remembered how the hot sand felt beneath his feet, How the dual suns would beat down upon him. It felt like rays of warmth. Sometimes, it was even refreshing to have the two suns looking over your shoulders. Some cursed the two suns, but Raigen praised them. "We are bricks Hunter, we all are! That's why we're so expendable."
"Who told you we were expendable?" Hunter yelled.
"That's what everyone from tatooine to etti says. That the empire could care less about their pilots. Why do you think the tie fighters don't have shields?"
"Our Gunboats have shields! It's the Tie Fighters and Bombers
that don't have shields."
"And the Interceptors!"
"They don't need shields! They'll outrun any fire."
"Tell me about it. Fly circles round an x-wing. I've seen it happen!"
They had both put aside their previous thoughts and were now totally focused.
"When? That's a rumor. Ain't no fighter that can fly circles around another and not get shot."
"We got a ways of walking, I'll tell you the whole story! I flew a yt 1300 Corellian freighter from about age thirteen to age fifteen! I never told you about my old partner did I? Anyway, Gremman was a Corellian pawnbroker before getting in with some pirates. I ran a data pad run with some encrypted information from lok to a backwater planet called Freyern and he was assigned to my ship to make sure everything went well. Well everything didn't go well and he decided that he wanted out and I let him become my navigator. Well after less than a year of smuggling we ran a gun run to Duroon and got shot up. I had to rob a museum to find a part to patch up my ship. Anyways, We were in the Corporate sector and had the CSA right on our tail before we jumped to some planet called Korriban. Well I didn't know the planet really existed. I thought it was an old legend. Mind you this was only six months after I left Tatooine for the first time. Anyway when I started the decent to the atmosphere...
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The freighter glided down to the surface slowly as Raigen tried to analyze the damage they had taken. "How bout a location report Gremman. I just popped a coordinate into the nav comp!" Raigen was trying to stabilize the situation and didn't have time to find out where he was. So he left that up to Gremman, his right hand man. Gremman was 5' 7" and had short, spiky black hair. He was quiet most of the time, until Raigen needed something that is!
"Korriban... the sith world. But how is that possible. I thought you jumped to kamar?" Gremman glared at Raigen, Which was a scary sight because Gremman's left eye was green and his right eye was blue. His blue eye had cataract and it took a while for Raigen to get used to it.
"Sorry man, but I gave the com comp different data than the nav comp. I threw a dart the wall and set the coordinates for there...so to speak...in the mean time I told all the other systems that we were going to Kamar, which is where the CSA probably went." Raigen turned the ships decent in a high speed search for an LZ(landing zone.)
"But Korriban. This is the sith planet!" Gremman said as he slumped into his flight chair. but was drawn to the edge of his seat as something apeared on the horizon. "What's that?"
"That's where we're landing." Raigen put the ship down in the middle of an alley of obelisks. The Gray Hawk's hydraulics sighed as the landing gear rested in the sand. The freight loading doors opened (boarding ramp was welded shut) and Raigen and Gremman entered the valley with a look of astonishment. The valley was filled with monuments to what appeared to be gods or ancient rulers. Raigen could see what looked like a large structure in the distance and pulled out his brand new blaster pistol. It was a DT-57 "Annihilator" Heavy Blaster Pistol, and Raigen had to scrape the bottom of the bowl to afford it. Gremman was using a Kylon-3 but didn't bother to pull it out. Instead, he casually followed Raigen. "We're not going in there Raigen!" Gremman demanded.
"Fine, stay behind so the krath hounds can get you. But I'm not hauling your body back for a burial!" Raigen said as he took the safety off his weapon.
"You know You're very persuasive!" Gremman said as he closed the freight loading doors.
The inside of the structure was dark so Raigen broke open a glow rod. The rod gave a green glow throughout the corridor and Raigen could faintly make out a statue at the end of the hall. "What do you think Gremman. You think the owners are home?"
"Do you think the owners are alive?" Gremman barked. He was Obviously uneasy about the whole situation since he finally pulled out his weapon. Raigen laughed. He would never have thought of his co-pilot as a wimp until now. "C'mon man! Let's go. These caves were looted years ago for all the good stuff!"
"Don't be such a wuss! Besides, I'm looking for something particular! Look at this!" Raigen pointer to a crest embossed on the wall. "That is the crest of Husati Jaar II. He was, allegedly, the best lightsaber crafter in the galaxy. If I can get a hand on his lightsaber, I can reproduce them and make a fortune. Think of it man. Those Jedi and Sith will **** themselves when every Joe shmoe on the street has a lightsaber! We can make millions!"
"Why do I put up with you Raigen?" Gremman asked as he broke open his own glow rod.
"Because you know I'm Right!" Raigen said as they came to a dead end. The corridor was blocked off by a solid door with sith markings. Raigen looked for a crease and finally found one going down the middle. "You wanna blow it or pry it open?" He asked Gremman. Gremman put his blaster back in its holster and shoved the glow-rod into Raigen's hand.
"You're too rough. That's why women run away from you!" Greeman ran his finger down the crease and found another slight crevice in the door running perpendicular to the first. he followed it both ways with his hands and found the money lane. He pressed in on two points and the door fell down through the floor.
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Raigen broke from his story to ask Hunter something.
"You like Gemini don't you?" Raigen asked while not trying to cross any barriers with his XO.
"Yeah, why!" Hunter said although he appeared to be in another world.
"I'm sorry. I think about myself too much. I ran off and got all of you in trouble. I'm sorry. If it weren't for me, Germini wouldn't have been captured." Raigen said.
"It's fine Raigen really. Everyone's allowed one mistake right? Everything will be fine. We'll get her back. It's not your fault!" Hunter lied. In the back of his mind, he knew it was Raigen's fault.
Raigen felt a twitch on the back of his neck.
There it is again! Raigen thought. He got that feeling whenever something didn't belong or didn't feel right. Raigen continued his story.
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Battle Above Korriban: The Tomb of Husati Jaar II
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The hair on the back of Raigen's neck raised and a shiver went down his spine. It was like his body was telling him something was wrong. But Raigen didn't even listen to his own advice, much less his body's. He handed the glow-stick back to Gremman and headed into an atrium lit by green fire on brass torches.
How did they stay lit? Raigen thought as he continued to the middle of the Atrium. In the very center was the crest of Clan Husati (Husati was a Freyernian and their surnames came first.) The crest was made up of dual parallel bars and a triangle in the center with the parallel bars cutting right triangles in the side of the larger one. Raigen could hint out a fist size circle in the direct center of the room. He kneeled down and pulled upward on the circle. He dropped his glow-stick and pulled with both hands.
It slowly started to give way as Raigen pulled harder. "C'mon man, lets get out of here!" Gremman said as he held the glow-rod around him and spun around like he was protecting himself from a horde of attackers. "Don,t worry Gremman. I think this....is....IT!" Raigen yelled as the cylindrical stone pulled free from the ground knocking Raigen backward onto Gremman. The cylinder started to glow and the exits of the atrium began to shut. Raigen pulled Gremman by the collar and dashed for an exit. Sand began to fill the room from the top like an hour glass. Raigen tried to hold up a door as Gremman slid underneath. Raigen kneeled down and squeezed himself through. Then he realized that the cylinder was on the other side. He shoved his hand underneath and yanked the cylinder under the door.
"Nice!" Gremman said sarcasticlly. "C'mon! Now we gotta find a way out." Gremman walked to the end of the corridor where it sloped downward into darkness. "What do you think is down there?" Gremman asked as he looked down the corridor.
"We will be in a couple of minutes." Raigen said as he cracked another glow rod and threw it down the slope. The glow rod slid downward until it couldn't be seen.
"You had to pick this corridor didn't you!" Gremman said as he watched Raigen descend the slope.
"Stay if you want, but I'm not coming back this way!" Raigen said as he continued his descent.
"Very persuasive. Very, very persuasive!" Gremman said as he cracked his last glowrod. and followed Raigen down the slopes. "I don't like this. Let us turn back and find a way to open the door."
"Why are you so worried about what's ahead?" Raigen turned and asked Gremman.
"Forget what lies ahead, you can't change what's waiting for you. It's what's behind ya'otta worry about." He said.
"Why? What's behind us that's so important?" Raigen asked as he walked closer to Gremman.
"Our way out!" He said. Raigen began to laugh before he turned and continued down the slope. They stopped every now and then to inspect the writings and symbols on the wall. Raigen took a holo record of the walls. "What are you doing?" Gremman inquired.
"I'm making a record!" Raigen said as he turned to record the next wall.
"I know that, but of what?" Gremman said as he last glow-rod ran out. He searched his person for another glow-rod but the search was in vain.
"The wall!" Raigen said jokingly. The light in the hall had decreased as his own glow rod began to run out. Raigen had to point the rod toward Gremman's face to see his reaction. It was worth it. Gremman glared at Raigen with his two toned eyes. "I'm hoping they have something to do with the way he construcdted lightsabers!" Raigen explained as he continued his documentation. "You have a holorecorder. Help so we can be donewith this."
"I would but I left it back at the ship...along with my pride. Excuse me while I go back to the ship to get it!" Gremman spun around and tried to run to the locked door but slipped and began to slide down the sloped coridor. The corridor went strait about twenty feet before going into a steep spiral downward. Gremman grabbed onto what looked like a vine and held on for a second before it gave way and snt Gremman head first down the spiral staircase.
Gremman slid for fifteen seconds before finally leveling out. He thought his ears popped from the change in air pressure but he couldn't concentrate for he had slid head first into a sith statue. Raigen followed but with more control. He had thought enough to use his feet to slow his slide. "Fwoo! What a ride..." Raigen's eyes went big as he stared into the room he had only recently entered.
"What's with you?" Gremman asked his friend as he pulled himself up off the ground. He was still rubbing his head when he turned around. He would have said
That's gonna leave a mark! if he wasn't rendered speechless by by the room's contents.
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Battle Above Korriban: The Prize
Battle Above Korriban: SSD Nejair II
Battle Above Korriban: Husati Paalnr
Battle Above Korriban: Ambush
Battle Above Korriban: Coruscant
(I added some but not enough. more to come)
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LONG LIVE THE REPLY
FM/SCRW Raigen/Aegis 1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE (VC:B)
Supreme White Knight of the Reply Wars 
Cadet Second Lieutenant Clary
C/2lt Clary, Model Rocketry Officer, LA932 AFJROTC
