OOC:

This is an old journey, written over 6 years ago in fact! I just wanted to demonstrate the scale on which the DJO often writes. I almost feel embarassed posting something I did when I was so much younger and apologies if some of the formatting didnt some across

The dark and powerful man loomed over Raziel's crumpled form as he fingered his newly crafted lightsaber, appreciating its superb construction.

Another jolt of pain ripped through Raziel's body, and a hushed moan escaped his cracked lips. His muscles burned from his exertion, but it was nothing compared to the searing pain from both his mental and physical injuries. He attempted to refocus on the Force again, but it was much too difficult; his physical-self was just screaming at him too loudly. He began a routine that he had learned from Japheth to shut away the pain, and he started to detach himself from everything; the throbbing began to melt away.

Sensing Raziel's attempts to ease his pain, the Dark Jedi looked down at the beaten man next his feet and extended his hand, palm up, towards him.

"None of that thank you." Suddenly, Raziel felt his consciousness pulled back strongly. Everything: the searing pain and all of his harsh reality, flooded back into focus. He tried not to concentrate on the pain, but realised that there was nothing else he to do. He tried to scream, but his shattered ribs denied him the little comfort that that offered; instead, he whimpered pitifully.

The other man, his anger directed at Raziel finally spent, looked down at his broken foe and smiled. He casually tossed the lightsaber in the air and held it with an unseen grasp.

"Now, what to do with you?"




One year earlier...

A single bead of sweat rolled down his brow and fell to the floor of the training arena. More followed as Raziel came to a halt before his master. The warm liquid began to spread out and clean a section of the training room floor as it dissolved the recently settled dust. With every heave of his bare chest, more and more sweat began to roll down his body and dripped to the floor. Although Raziel had a diminutive stature, his build had increased greatly since his initiation into the Order, and begun his training.

Powerful muscles flexed across his body, and every twinge was very evident. He was tired from the mornings exercise; however, a few years ago he would have been crumpled in a heap, shuddering, and completely drained. He began to use a Dark Jedi technique to refresh himself. He felt the Force flowing both around and through him; he channelled it within. Slowly at first, it began to surge through him, empowering him. His tired body, and dulled senses, became refreshed and sharp. His chest stopped heaving and his muscles ceased their twitching. He deactivated his white training saber, lowered it to his side and bowed to Japheth.

Japheth replied with a slight nod, "You are growing more powerful, my apprentice. Overlooking your meagre telekinetic skills, I can sense you falling deeper into the Force every time we come here. Finally, you are beginning to understand not to rely on your quick reactions, but to anticipate the actions of others." Japheth stopped for a moment, looking deep into Raziel's eyes. The Krath Adept bowed in gratitude.

"I see you are ready for more?" Japheth asked, cocking one eyebrow. "You had better be faster this time." On the word 'time', another set of drones hovered into the room, humming and hissing as they went.

Raziel was already diving to the left when Japheth lifted some of the rocks from the ground and hurtled them towards his head. Raziel came up from the roll, saber humming to life. The white blade swung across his body to block the first shot before it even left the drone. The red dart bounced off the blade and zipped over Japheth's shoulder, who stood motionless. He gave Raziel a stern look and lifted another group of rocks with a thought.

Raziel edged backward, his saber humming in a poised position. He was safe as long as he kept control of his footwork and focused on the Force. The drones began to fan out around him, keeping a strategic distance away from him. Finally, they unleashed a barrage of stinging red lasers. The white saber hummed as it leapt back and forth, deflecting the bolts. He tried to expand his senses; he knew that if he concentrated too hard, it would all collapse, but if he let the Force flow through him... He felt the motion behind him, and his blade whipped around behind his head, picking the stone out of the air only half a metre behind his left ear. As he picked that off, an opportunistic drone got a shot in and singed his naked chest. Raziel heard Japheth's mocking laughter, which only fuelled his frustration.

"Faster! You must move faster!" Raziel was almost infuriated at his master. He had progressed so quickly and yet Japheth pushed him harder. Even as a master swordsman, Raziel had found the art of lightsaber combat very difficult to grasp. Its weightless blade moved too easily and without resistance, and trying to block blaster fire with it had felt to him like holding a feather up against a storm - and nine remotes! He had never battled five before, let alone nine!

The anger grew within Raziel, and the Force flowed violently through him. He tried to tap deeper into the Force, to listen to it as his guide and flow with it. Almost immediately, his senses widened, taking in the whole of the room around him, and he exercised every action effortlessly. He defended against three simultaneous attacks with ease and shifted his stance slightly, preparing to take the offensive. Almost immediately, Japheth launched a volley of missiles at him. Raziel realised he was beginning to be cornered in the back corner of the room, opposite Japheth. His sight fixed on the raised platform in the middle of the room and through the Force, he "felt" out his next course of action.

Raziel leapt into the air, twisting and slashing aggressively at two more laser bolts. He landed lightly on his feet and sprung back in the other direction, extending his saber out ahead of him to shatter a rock flying towards him. All of the drones simultaneously fired a volley at his exposed body, but he activated a second white blade, and deflected each of them. He pushed off the ground with one hand, and imparted some sideways spin so that he landed cleanly on his feet a metre away. The drones had forced him back into the corner, but he was still determined to reach the platform.

Japheth was pleased, yet slightly apprehensive to build Raziel a second training lightsaber when he had demonstrated how well he could handle two blades. He had watched over his apprentice, carefully at first, making sure that he didn't sever a limb in his haste. When Raziel had not, Japheth had been content enough to let him keep it.

"Ah, you are so full of energy today!" boomed another mocking call from his master. "Maybe if you weren't so weak with the Force you would jump higher!" Japheth continued in reference to Raziel's ongoing failure to grasp telekinesis.

Raziel screamed a challenge to the drones, and launched himself high, and to his right, as more rocks converged on his position. His sabers spun around him in unison, picking off more shots as he went. He twisted his body around and changed the direction he faced mid-air son that he was travelling backwards. His feet swung over his head and he landed lightly on the central platform, with Japheth behind him. From here, he could easily reach the drones.

He didn't pause to think about everything, and simply went along with his instincts; sensing the space around him as he went. He leapt forward off the platform, feet outstretched in front of him. His feet collided with a rock heading his way, and he sprung off back in the other direction, mid-air. He slashed backwards at the drone he knew to be there and his feet swung back over his head, completing the flip. He landed without a sound back on the platform in a crouch ready to spring again. A moment later, both halves of the drone fell to the floor with a clang. He felt so in tune with everything at that moment. The physical exertion coupled with his first victory and his stronger than ever connection with the Force filled him with a sense of elation. In one fluid motion, he bounded back towards the drone he had sensed, one blade thrusting into its mark, the other slashing furiously at laser darts. He pushed off the far wall before falling to the floor, this time landing after his target.

That left seven. With his back pressed against the wall, he was easily able to weave his sabers before him and keep the nipping lasers away. His feet slid lightly across the floor as he advanced on the throng of drones. He kept his footwork ordered and ducked, twisted, and bobbed to avoid Japheth's rocks. One saber flew up and to his right and aggressively swatting away one laser bolt, whilst the other arced across the centre of his body once before whipping back around to its natural guard position, picking of three more in the movement.

"Who brought us our holocron and the priceless knowledge it contains?" Japheth shouted from the other wide of the room, still not so much as appearing to pay attention as he launched more and more objects his apprentice's way. The question did not surprise Raziel; his master often shouted questions about the Krath and their ways at him whilst training.

"Say, Spart...." he paused to take in a deep breath."...acus and Sesswanna," he hissed through clenched teeth. Another bolt got through his defences and flew into his side.

"Concentrate! Who founded our Order?"

" Aleema and Setal Kato master!" Raziel managed to gasp. He launched himself at the nearest remote, but it managed to float out of reach as Raziel twisted to bring his saber to bear at the anticipated attack. He blocked three more shots on the way down to the ground.

"What do we want apprentice? What do we Krath crave?" Japheth asked as Raziel lunged viciously towards another drone, leaving himself open and suffering another two stinging blasts.

"Knowledge!" Raziel shouted this time, ignoring his lung's cry for more air. His face contorted into an expression of pure anger as he unleashed his frustrations on one of the drones, lobbing his saber with a great deal of force straight into it

"What would you do with this power?"

"I would face a Jedi!" Raziel screamed. "I would destroy him in combat!" Japheth did not look so pleased with that answer. Raziel spiralled through the air once more, landing just short of a drone, but following the Force and still keeping the others at bay. He reached out with the Force to his other lightsaber. Again, he failed to grasp it; however, it skittered across the floor, bringing it within range of a dive. Shutting off the screams of protest from his muscles, he slid towards the other saber. He jumped back up with a flourish of both weapons, and waded back in through a stream of laser blasts.




Raziel dropped to the floor in front of Japheth, panting heavily. The last drone still hissed and glowed behind him. His bare flesh was pockmarked with burns from the numerous laser blasts that had penetrated his defences Blood ran freely from several cuts where rocks hurtled by Japheth had clipped him. He looked up from the ground at his master, whilst at the same time tuning his senses inwards. It seemed like there was a battle between the various parts of his body to berate him first. His lungs felt like they were on fire; every breath he took was painful. Several of his tendons had snapped from the strain, and muscle fibres had been crushed. Nevertheless, he had felt more alive than ever.

"There will come a day when you will no longer be able to learn from me. You are a Krath Adept now, my apprentice, a true student of the Krath ways." Japheth looked down at Raziel impassively. "What do you feel of your lightsabers?" asked Japheth, looking at the training weapons he would take back at the end of the session.

"They feel...like a tool...something that comes between me and my goal. They move as I wish, but they do not do so willingly. It is almost like a barrier between me and my enemies; an obstacle that must be overcome first."

"Is that not always the case?" Japheth asked.

Raziel looked across the room to where his two combat knives sat. "No."

"Soon you will create your own weapons Raziel. They will be a part of you, and you will know them completely; creating them will help you know yourself.

"Now! I did not say I had finished training you yet!" Japheth barked. Stunned, Raziel extended his legs to stand and backed away from Japheth, starring at him from behind a mask of pure exasperation. He had to be joking, but as Raziel activated his lightsabers, another three drones glided in. It would be dark soon outside on Lopen!

Raziel shouted in defiance, as he blocked their first attacks. It would be a long and painful evening.




Raziel's heels clicked sharply and deliberately on the bare, uneven floor; echoing down the length of the corridor. He strode quickly down the seemingly endless passageway, the huge walls inspiring a sense of power and strength. Then again, this was the citadel of Lopen and if the awe-inspiring structure did not disturb you, then knowing who dwelled within would terrify you.

Raziel walked on briskly, but not hastily. He bowed his head respectfully, but did not let any sign of fear show through. Any mistake on his part now would bring an irate Templar's wrath bearing down on him. He had to appear humbled, but not afraid. Determined, but not foolhardy. He had been in these situations before, where he had to play a particular part, but the Krath had never been involved then.

Footsteps began to echo down the corridor louder now and instead of actively masking his presence he began to "feel" down the passageway ahead of him. He wanted there to be no way that Japheth could mistake his intentions for hostile. If Japheth believed there was any malice behind Raziel's visit, this would be a particularly short meeting. Raziel fondly remembered the days of his training when he had been closer to his mentor.

As he opened himself up to the Force more he sensed other presences, some familiar, others completely alien to him. He could feel more than some passing interest in his entrance. He could sense the end of the hallway now. Not far ahead were the plain wooden doors that marked the conclusion of his journey. As he closed the distance between himself and his old mentor, he noticed the walls moving in on him. The ceiling was also apparently dropping down towards him. Raziel felt his stomach knot as the passageway narrowed. He had always hated having this much rock over his head and now he was having vivid thoughts of it all dropping down on him, constricting him...
He shrugged away the thoughts as he came to a halt in front of the doors, holding in a sigh that he knew his master would have noticed.

As he reached for the door, it swung open, revealing his mentor's workshop. Japheth was sitting in the centre of the room; books piled neatly around him.
Raziel could barely feel his master's presence, even though Japheth was sitting in front of him. He could, however, feel a strong disturbance around Japheth and as he stepped into the room, it felt like walking into a viscous wall, except made of the Force. As he opened himself up to it, he could feel more in continuity in the flow of the Force around him. It almost seemed like there was "turbulence" around some objects and artefacts in the room.

The air smelled old and musky, like most of the citadel's lower levels, but it also smelled of human sweat along with a taste of something distinctly artificial. It made Raziel think of the Kolcta bacta chemical.  Raziel took in a cursory glance of the room around him. To Japheth's left was what seemed to be a workbench. There was a wide space in the centre surrounded by neatly stacked books and vials of unfamiliar substances. To his right sat a round, elongated table. It was nothing special in itself; it was plain and constructed of heavy wood. However, Raziel instantly recognised his two training lightsabers sitting alone on the table.

He tried to imagine it as a good sign, but if Japheth had wanted to hand his saber's back to him and welcome him to the Order again, he would not have placed them in plain sight. No, Raziel decided, their purpose was clear. Japheth would use them as part of his rebuking; he possibly would not even acknowledge them and would only use their presence to serve as a reminder to Raziel of what he had done. Japheth knew Raziel would want them and had put them in out in the open, but out of his reach.

Raziel's focus snapped back to Japheth. He watched his body, searching for any of those telltale signs of aggression he was trained to spot. He felt his fingers tense up and silently reminded himself that this was a Krath. Then he felt Japheth's presence begin to resurface from within his body, like a star ship re-emerging onto the fabric of real space. An almost tangible feeling of tension replaced the strange disturbances in the Force. Although his mentor had his back to him, Raziel felt Japheth's eyes snap open. Raziel's well-honed survival instincts told him that Japheth had grown in strength since last they met.

"Why do you disturb me?" Japheth asked, his tone calm and even. He rose from his position; he did not stand up in the normal sense of the word. There was no physical exertion involved. His body simply ascended until he was in a standing position. He twisted around and shot his apprentice a face-to-face look that froze him in place. Raziel was used to using the same technique on other people, but this time Japheth added subtle undercurrents through the Force that fully conveyed the contempt in which he held Raziel.

"I...er I..." Raziel focused his mind and fought through the hazy, confusing sensation that had suddenly taken a hold of his mind. Japheth retracted his intrusion as Raziel's deep green eyes stared back and narrowed dangerously on him.

"I've come to complete my training." Raziel said slowly and clearly, his eyes never moving from Japheth. Japheth hesitated for a second, before turning his eyes away from Raziel's and laughing. Raziel took a half step back at his mentor's unexpected actions. He had run through various scenarios in his head beforehand, but mild amusement was not something he had predicted. He felt his face flush, along with a slight tremor of anger stirring within him.

"You walked away from me, not the other way around. I shall not complete your training. I sense that you have faced your past and come out victorious. Not unharmed, but victorious nonetheless, but your reasons do not excuse your actions and they never will. I will not complete your training." Japheth reiterated the last few words loudly and leant slightly towards Raziel in a threatening manner.

"Why?" Raziel shouted back, his anger taking a hold of him. "There is no reason not too! I have not strayed from the path I have forgotten nothing! I will become a Krath with or without your help!"

"Who do you think you are? The Dark side does not come without a price, it does not yield to anyone, it is not something to dabble with and toy with when you please!"

"But Master Talo..." Raziel started.

"I do not care what anyone else says, I shall not help you! I should strike you down for your insolence, demanding such from the Headmaster!" Japheth sneered at Raziel. There was no movement, but in an instant there was a pair of knives in Raziel's hands.

"Damn you! I must learn more!" Raziel brought one arm back behind him and took a defensive step back.

"I see your hands still yearn for the feel of a blade," Japheth spoke calmly once again. "I noticed your fingers clench as you walked in and felt the desire. And yet you have no weapons that feel right anymore?" he motioned towards the lightsabers on the table. "I have been watching you on your way in. I see you are more adept at masking your presence than I would have expected. Perhaps you have not forgotten everything I taught you." Japheth ignored his apprentice's threatening posture, walked over to the long table and picked up the training sabers. He looked straight at the wall, ignoring Raziel.
"These you will not touch again." He raised one of the plain hilts for a moment and shook it mid-air. "Neither will I complete your Knight training." He paused a moment more before turning back to find Raziel composed and unarmed once more.

"You will. You have everything you need and you want to join us more than ever. Go now and create your own lightsaber. In doing so you will begin to understand yourself and the Force. It is all that is left now." Japheth placed the sabers back down on the table to his side and began to turn away from Raziel.

"Thank you master," Raziel said, bowing low.

"And if you return and I find that I have wasted yet more of my precious time on you, I will strike you down for the offence." There was no malevolence behind his words, just simple honesty.

Raziel bowed again and turned to leave the room. He stepped once more into the long dark corridor and began his journey back out of Lopen. Looking about he realised that the corridor did not narrow at all at this end as he had thought. He looked back over his shoulder and felt a hint of humour. Japheth had manipulated Raziel to find what he wanted to know about his apprentice, without Raziel having the slightest clue of what was happening.

Raziel quickened his pace along the dusty corridor on the way out.




The small seed-shaped craft shot through space behind its great solar sail. Jassyck watched as the golden translucent sail filled more and more space on the Pummel's viewscreen. The Trandoshan turned his green scaly head to one side.

"Range?" he hissed towards one of the staff.

"One kilometersss and closssing. Fisst and Claw ssquadronss are moving in to disable him now," the officer reported, referring to the squadrons of y-wings, whose bright exhausts could be seen, even now, closing in on the small craft out ahead of them.

"Launch the disgruntled," Jassyck ordered. The modified corvette shook as its home squadron launched and chased after the sail powered craft.

Jassyck was the leader of a Trandoshan gang who called themselves "The Spirit of T'doshok." The pretentious name stemmed from the fact that he had terrible delusions of grandeur. Jassyck truly believed that the trandoshans had receded somewhat since the end of the war and that by building his own personal fleet and army of pirates he could represent his people in some way. So far, his great scheme consisted of one heavily armed, but undermanned converted corvette, two squadrons of hired pilots along with a home squadron of Uglies. Jassyck's muscle consisted of failed bounty hunters, mercenaries and other such heavies. They made a living wherever they could, pirating, raiding doing whatever anyone would pay them too, but always in the name of Trandoshan welfare.

Recently they had been down on their luck and Jassyck's funds were running low. They were being paid a handsome amount to bring in this shady politician, who had slipped past them in a solar sail craft. This time however they had him, there was no way he could leave the systems gravity well and make the jump to lightspeed in time.

"Fisst and Claw are almosst within range. The Disgruntled are close behind."

"Good tell them to ussse ion cannonss firsst!" Jassyck replied.

Suddenly a bright beam cut across their vision. It emanated from the nearby moon and was flickering across the surface of the solar sails. It leapt forwards putting some more distance between itself and the pursuing fighters.

"What? No!" Jassyck screamed.

It accelerated faster and faster, beyond the speed of the Y-wings. The beam stopped firing and it pulled in its solar sails, gliding through space towards the edge of the system. Its engines flared once and it disappeared into hyperspace.

"That wasss ssome ssort of exotic particle beam on the moon ssir, it wass enough to send the ship out of the sssysstem. Sshall I call the fighters back and prepare to jump?"

"You know that we can't catch him now. He will reach the ssafety of the inner ssystems before we can catch him." Jassyck paused for a moment.
"No, tell the Claw and Fisst that their services are no longer needed."

"But ssir, that leaves us with just the uglies and Bravsk's headhunter!?"

"I know, but I don't have the money to pay them. Do not worry though we won't need them for this mission. Plot a jump route for the Nar Shaddaa system"

Jassyck retired to his quarters and activated his computer. He pulled up the image of a lightly built, black haired man and reiterated to himself the value that the anonymous sender had promised for his target's demise. Normally he ignored such messages, but right now, he was feeling desperate enough.




Raziel walked hastily to the landing part, spending the whole journey reflecting on what his master had said and done. He was only beginning to understand just how much those last words had meant and he had more than an inkling as to how Japheth would test him.

The hot wind blasted across his face as he walked out onto the sun-baked landing pad. The Quintessence sat gracefully, as always, on the exposed landing pad. The fast courier ship was about twice the length of an X-wing and equally armed. The oversized engines that propelled the craft to extreme speeds, took up a great proportion of its size. Raziel's only modifications had concerned stealth. He had had a small low power Vanish Sensor Mask installed over the weapons systems to misguide any sensors into thinking that the weapons were offline when they were armed and ready. With what little nutorium he had managed to scrounge together, he had coated sections of the hull to make it difficult to obtain a sensor lock on the ship.

The avian shaped craft lowered an entry ramp and Raziel hurried aboard, keeping his cowl tightly wrapped around his face. When the door had hissed shut behind him, he pulled back his hood and threw his white training cloak to one side, revealing a black sleeveless robe underneath. At each shoulder was a blood red metal, triangular shoulder pad. He wore a loose, long sleeved burgundy tunic and black trousers underneath with low cut boots. Looking to his robe he mentally proclaimed
I will not be needing that again Raziel took a seat and pulled the prized data disk from his pocket. He inserted it into the control panel, whilst setting the nav computer to bring the ship into orbit.

As the Quintessence lifted off from the protruding landing pad, he brought up the holo image of his lightsaber design. Not that he needed information on it now; the design was imprinted on his mind. When Raziel thought about it, he realised that the design was not just a memory of shapes and components, but it did in fact have a mental "feel", a qualia associated with it. The lightsaber was no longer a blueprint he remembered, but something that he intrinsically knew, something he could reach out and touch in his mind.

The inertial dampers ceased their loud whining as the ship broke from the atmosphere and took up orbit, taking away most of the strain of gravity. Raziel switched the holo image off and considered the amount of time that had gone into designing his weapon.

Raziel was used to manipulating people and using complex technologies from day to day, but the fundamentals of science had always escaped his grasp. Therefore, when he had tried to fiddle with the designs on paper, tried to decide how best to position the crystals to create the correct modes in the arc wave energy, he had failed. He rapidly became frustrated, compounding his confusion. It had felt at the time like trying to think through a maze rather than along a straight path. His frustrations had eventually led to anger and many old books being thrown across the room. His anger had strengthened his connection to the dark side and when he had given in to his emotions and listened to them everything had become much clearer. He just needed to follow his feelings and go with the will of the Force. Suddenly designing a smaller, more compact hilt had become easy; repeatedly he had picked up tombs with useful advice and instructions without even a cursory glance at the title.

Time after time, he had opened up books on pages concerning the construction of a dual-phase blade and time after time, he disregarded his findings. After all, why would he want a longer blade? Nevertheless, more and more frequently, he had returned to the same information, until eventually he realised why he had been guided there.




Raziel checked that the nav computer had set the correct jumps for the trip to the Y'Toub system and Nar Shaddaa. Returning to his home once more just felt like the right thing to do, almost all of his journeys led back there in the end. Moreover, although he still had a name there and it would be dangerous, his recent sojourn there had drastically reduced the personal risk associated with a trip there for Raziel. It also helped that Raziel had a great many contacts there and finding the right, high quality parts would take far less time. Then there were the crystals. That was not a problem either - not any more.

Raziel checked the holonet to make sure that the Leviathan IV was on time, it was. The Leviathan IV was a Super Transport XI, owned by the infamous entrepreneur Von Castellan. Castellan travelled the galaxy with his crew in their vast, kilometre long, transport, making money by trading in all sorts of goods wherever they could. The immense ship had been slowly transformed over the years until almost every kind of cargo imaginable could be carried. Much of the empty space had been changed into habitable space for smaller, personal cargo leaving the cruiser with only enough room to transport its lone CR90 escort corvette inside. It was a bulk freighter in the extreme sense of the word.

The transport was due to drop into orbit around the moon in the next few days, it would then stay there for over a week to unload some several million tonnes of fuel, materials and personal cargo. What interested Raziel were the rumours that the vessel was returning from the outer rim, with a huge quantity of rare and expensive gems destined for Corucsant and whatever purpose the New Republic deemed. The rumour had tugged at Raziel's attention until he had been forced to follow it up. Sure enough, by all accounts, there was a well-guarded section of the ship filled with thousands of crystals.

Raziel had been a thief all his life. It was a part of his nature and had started him down the dark path that even now he still trod. Somehow, it appealed to his more wayward, mischievous side that the very heart and soul of his lightsaber should be stolen. The assassin checked in with his contacts over the holonet to make sure that all his preparations were underway and retired to the cramped sleeping quarters on the ship for some meditation.




The gigantic ship dropped out of hyperspace and slowly descended upon the moon far below. Its enormous bulk rolled slowly, almost elegantly, its massive dorsal fin reflecting the light for a moment, before returning to shadow. The ship's thrusters flared for a moment and it stopped its roll. The Leviathan seemed to hold there in space, appearing motionless, but its size awed all who saw it. The front end of the ship began to open slowly like a gaping mouth and the hammerhead shape of its corvette escort emerged from within. Dwarfed by the transport's size, the corvette fell back to the side of its mother ship and trailed along behind it.

As it neared the planet, inumerous transports broke away from their refuelling spires and rose to meet the Leviathan, greedily awaiting their cargo. The transport started to orbit the moon, the swarm of waiting transports almost forming a queue behind it. A Hutt-sponsored Nebulon-B2 frigate took up a defensive position ahead of the Leviathan. No doubt, the Hutt would profit most from this visit and equally likely, the transport hid away great quantities of forbidden spice within its bewildering number of holds.

Raziel watched all this from a distance as he glided slowly towards the moon, signalling his assigned landing spire of his intention to land. He had his combat knives sat on the control panel in front of him; they had cost his Hutt masters a fortune. He picked one of them up, amazed at the perfect balance. What the grip on the handle was made of, he had no idea. It was solid like durasteel and even more resilient and yet felt soft like rubber to the touch, they never slipped and would mould perfectly to anyone's hand.
Raziel knew his first destination.




The Quintessence swung around the landing spire slowly. Raziel powered the thrusters up and slowed his descent. The nav computer highlighted his landing pad on the screen and he nudged the craft forward. As he dropped down towards the landing pad warning lights flashed all around him and internal sirens screamed at him. Raziel thumbed the thrusters and the ship careening towards a bundle of lifting cranes above him. The 156T courier stopped just short of the machinery, Raziel looked all around him for the source of the warning. Nothing on the sensors and he had not sensed any ill intent towards him, as he would have done if he was walking into an ambush.

"Oh," he grumbled and lowered the landing gears and dropped his craft back down to land. He was still no pilot.

The terminal by the entrance of the landing pad beeped into life before Raziel reached it.

"Is the pilot of a 156T courier Quintessence there?" Raziel reached forward and pressed an oversized button labelled "Speak"

"Yes?"

"We have a droid pilot down here asking for permission to come up to you. Is he yours?"

"Oh that thing, yeah. Let him up, but tell him to deactivate once aboard. I have no use for it right now." Raziel's feelings for droids remained the same - Non-existent. The voice on the other end of the comm unit went silent so Raziel presumed that the conversation was over. The doors opened up to a long dark corridor; at the end of it, he could see the elevator shaft that would take him down some five miles to the city below.

Raziel smiled as he stepped out onto an open rooftop. He looked all around at the murky cityscape. This was his home that he knew so well. This was his playground.




Sickly green neon light bathed the floor of the shop, as the door slid open. A diminutive figure stepped through and looked around. The walls were plain metal, except for posters and holograms advertising different brands of weapons. On one, the infamous Han Solo was depicted firing his trusty DL-44 into a squad of stormtroopers. The stranger snorted and walked up to the counter. A lone rodian male sat behind the counter on a stool. He was quite tall and round, but his heavy muscles still showed through the flab. He was re-pricing some rifles in a cabinet to his left.

The stranger slammed down a black combat knife on the counter.

"Business good Sa'jette?" Raziel asked.

"Oh frell. Do you have any idea what could happen to me if I'm seen with you?" The weapons dealer dropped the rifle he held in his hand and jumped up from his stool. He leant forwards over the counter and placed his hand over the knife.

"Things are a little better now, and relax I checked around. I can't believe you still live in this hole!" Sa'jette eased himself back into the stool, but checked over Raziel's shoulder cautiously.

"You think because Ania is gone they wouldn't skin you alive given half a chance?" Sa'jette said. Then, noticing Raziel's reaction to the name, he carried on: "Oh so you didn't think I'd have heard about that incident then? Don't you forget I still work for them!"

Sa'jette kept his small, tidy shop down in the lower levels of the district. The area was ill reputed and few people with many credits to their name came down here. Unless, of course, they knew what Sa'jette really did. He was a master weapon smith, able to craft the most beautiful, yet functional weapons. His fees were extortionate, but his work was simply the best. For years, he had also been responsible for equipping Raziel whilst he had been working for the Hutt.

"Ah I've missed you," Raziel said chuckling to himself.

"Yeah, well, don't make a habit of coming back here," the weapon smith smiled, checking the door again.

"Business I'm guessing?" he asked.

"You made these?" Raziel asked, pulling the black knife's twin from his belt.

"Ah, you know I did," Sa'jette winked and then took the two knives from Raziel. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to make these? Just adjusting the hilts to balance the monomolecular blades took me a month!"

"I'm sure they paid you well. Actually how much did they pay you?"

"Hah! Enough! Let's just say you must be good at what you do for a gift like that!"

"Anyways, I was wandering about the hilts, or more precisely, what they're made of."

"To be completely honest with you I have no idea what it is. It's some kind of alloy, alien origin - I think. I only got the one load of it, but I can tell you it was a worthwhile investment." Sa'jette ran his fingers up and down the hilt of the knife as he talked.

"So you have none left then?" Raziel asked, holding his hand out of the knife.

"A little," Sa'jette shrugged. "Enough to make a few more rifle handles or possibly a few pole-arms. Already got a few potential buyers."

"Well I could really do with some. I need two of these made." Raziel said as he handed over a data pad that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Look I'm sorry but that stuff is worth a lot of money, it's fashionable now and that sells!"

"I seem to remember paying you a vast amount of money for a jewelled vibro-foil that I never had a chance to collect." Raziel said, raising an eyebrow. Sa'jette lowered his head and avoided eye contact. He knew just enough about what Raziel did to be afraid.

"Well fair enough, I'm afraid I don't have the rapier anymore, but I can reimburse you!"

"I'm not worried about the blade, what I want is two hilts made of that alloy."

"Look I'm sorry, but I've got a queue of people, all much richer than you after that stuff. I know we go a long way back, but I just cannot do it for you. But I've got some pretty tough plastics and metals that I could...."

Raziel ignored Sa'jette's voice, but carried on staring straight into his eyes. Instead, he was concentrating on other things. He reached out to his mind and gently probed it. He tried to curb Sa'jette's greed temporarily. Then, concentrating hard on the task, Raziel managed to find the rodian's feelings for the potential buyers he had talked about and changed them to feelings of indifference.

"Look Sa'jette," Raziel interrupted. "You've always done a good job for me, you've never let me down and I wouldn't want to end on this sour note. I mean you don't even know the people after that stuff, whereas I'm right here, and anyway I could always throw in some more credits?" Raziel forced Sa'jette to remember some of the time they had spent together when Raziel had been on Nar Shaddaa. Sa'jette smiled thinly and looked down at the counter. He sighed once, and then looked back up at Raziel.

"Ok, ok I'm sure I could spare enough of the stuff for you. If you add in those extra credits!" he waved his finger at Raziel and chuckled. Raziel slid the datapad back over the Sa'jette.

"Excellent, I knew you'd help me out." Raziel said, whilst Sa'jette looked over the plan.

"So what are you using this for? And why does it need to be hollow?"

"You really don't need to know that," Raziel said. Before he could even consider using more mind tricks Sa'jette had promptly straightened up and pulled out a transaction card.

"Of course, of course. I don't need to know." Sa'jette really did know when it was best not to ask.

"This is the address I want these sent to when they're done. I'd like them done quickly if you can; I'm in a bit of a rush." Raziel handed over a scrap of paper.

"Nal Hutta eh?" Sa'jette said.




Deception. It was the primary weapon in Raziel's arsenal. Since he was a child being tutored by a shady dealer on Nal Hutta he had been a student of its ways. It was no surprise that Raziel had acquired a talent for reaching out and touching people's minds, particularly their perceptions. When he had first started to show skill in this area, it had come as some relief to Japheth who was disappointed that his student could barely lift a small stone with the Force.

He had soon learned not to try to force his way into people's minds. At his current level of Force manipulation, even someone with weak willpower could detect the vile intrusion and force Raziel out. As always, Raziel preferred the way of subtlety and after much meditation and practise, he could slip into the average person's mind unnoticed. Much as he had once slipped into his target's abodes, knife in hand...

Since he had left the order, he had spent much time learning how to alter men's perceptions and use them as weapon against their owner. Although he was limited to a few people at a time, depending on the mental strength of the people involved, he had learned to conjure all manors of false images to deceive their host.

Raziel still spent many hours of the day practising swordplay and combat. Although his yearning for martial perfection often worried his Krath master, it was in no way his primary goal. To Raziel his fighting skills were just another weapon to be used, he would not actively seek out a chance use them. However, when he was forced to fight he wanted to take pride in his skill with the blade.




Raziel was still deep in the bowels of Nar Shaddaa, but was now an entire city's width away. He walked down a long narrow walkway, only a three-foot glass fence standing between him and a three hundred metre drop. Although that was quite shallow in Nar Shaddaa terms, Raziel reminded himself by looking up through the miles of city above. A strange feeling overcame him then, as he stared upwards. He almost felt as if he was drowning and had fallen so deep under the surface that he would never escape. That had almost happened once, when he had been forced to hide down here for many months.

A small group of tatty looking humans walked down the thin causeway towards him. Raziel looked up at them once, held his gaze for a moment and then looked back down. Without question or thought the group, to a man, shifted to the side and waited for Raziel to walk past. Sometimes people's survival instincts could be surprisingly strong, despite their imprudence.

Raziel came to a halt before a small nondescript doorway. He reached out with the Force and "looked" at what was on the other side. It seemed like things were as they should be. Two men, both well-armed, but trying to look as innocent as possible sat either side of the elevator that Raziel knew to be on the opposite side of the room. Raziel sailed through the first set of doors, the back of his sleeveless robe billowing out behind him. Taken by surprise the first guard shot to his feet and extended a hand out to block Raziel's path.

"Sorry sir, this is private property." He said, firmly placing a hand on Raziel's chest. The look the assassin shot him made him quickly retract it.

"Tell me does Risswan Moridono still run this place?" Raziel asked. He looked up to the corner of the room, where a small camera was swinging about to get a look at him.

"Er, sorry? Who?" the guard asked, looking quickly to his companion.

"Because if he is he would tell you this himself: it would be a very very good idea to let me in."

"Look I'm sorry, but I really have no idea who you're..." the man reached out to place a hand on Raziel again, but the Krath adept's hand shot out, intercepted it midway, and gripped it firmly. The sentry, stunned at the speed Raziel had moved with, stammered for a moment and then looked to his assistant.

"Well I'd say you seem to be of reasonable character, I'm sure you won't cause any trouble?" he said, pulling his hand back from Raziel, who simply shook his head in reply. The guard stepped back out of Raziel's way and swept his arm out, indicating the elevator doors.

"Go ahead!" he said nervously smiling.

Raziel stepped into the elevator and started the hundred-metre descent.

"James?" came a voice from the comm units in the sentry's ears.

"Yes Mr Moridono?" one of them said into his collar.

"The man you just let in?"

"Er, he had ID. Don't worry we checked him out!"

"Fool. I could see he showed you nothing."

"Well, let me explain. He..."

"No let me explain. You are both damned lucky you let that man through, I dread to think what would have happened to you both, and myself for that matter, if you'd tried to stop him." The voice on the other end of the comm unit cut him off.

"Yes boss."

Raziel was greeted by a beaming man in a flamboyant suit at the bottom of the elevator shaft. He stepped out onto a wide glass balcony that overlooked a hangar large enough to hold a capital ship. Tables and displays of anything and everything covered the floor from end to end. It was teeming with all manner of people, rushing from table to table trying to find a good purchase.

This was the smuggler's market you went to on Nar Shaddaa. If you wanted a banned starship, you came here. If were after a large quantity of narcotics, you could probably find it here. The Hutt welcomed its presence, just as long as it was kept out of sight. Raziel had visited often in his youth; they sold an excellent variety of illegal poisons.

Raziel was here for several reasons. Firstly he knew the owner and knew that the owner knew of him. Hopefully just enough to know to stay out of Raziel's way and keep his mouth shut afterwards. Secondly you could find almost anything down here, from spare pieces of scrap metal right the way up to stolen frigates. Last of all, because the Imperials...in their great wisdom, Raziel silently added...had placed a great deal of restriction on what was and what wasn't legal. For example, the power supply he was after was so compact that a legal version would drain rather rapidly. The logic behind that law was because assassins, such as him, could put power packs that small and energetic to great mischief. With Raziel's compact design he would need a power core only two thirds of the usual size used.

"Mr. Moridono welcomes you and asks if there is anything I could fetch for you?"

"Do you know today's layout?" Raziel asked the lackey without turning to face him.

"Yes of course." He replied. He was obviously quicker than he looked, immediately discerning the 'quick and to the point' conversation Raziel was after.

"Excellent, because I have a very long shopping list," Raziel said, starting down the walkway.

He spent a great deal of time comparing power cores and getting the salesmen to prove to him their efficiency, but there were plenty of them about and it didn't take him long to chose one. A suitably shaped and malleable inert power insulator took him almost no time to find. The adjustment controls, circuitry and field energiser coils were all common enough items throughout the galaxy, so were readily available, though he did make sure that the wires were good long-lasting industrial types and not the mass-produced tat that deliberately shorted out after a year.

The emitter matrix took a few minutes of bartering to get the pieces that he "felt" were right. The blade arc tip had to be perfect in length for his reduced design and the magnetic ring the correct girth.

The parts for the crystal chamber took the most thought. He knew that the chamber would have to be constructed by parts himself, only when the time of creation came, would he know just how the three crystals would have to be positioned. However, all of the parts, threads and screws would have to be perfect. He found some nano circuitry and motors along with a short tube with a perfectly threaded inside. Then he managed to purchase some rings that could be altered to hold crystals that would sit inside the tube, and that the motors could rotate.

He carried on finding all the parts he would need, along with spares and extras, for several hours. He did not fret about taking his time, the Leviathan sure wasn't going anywhere fast and after all, this place was always open. He thanked Risswan's assistant for his time, gave him a hefty tip and sent his boss his best regards.
That ought to do it. Raziel thought on his way out.




Raziel eyed the droid pilot suspiciously. He had checked the droid's basic programming and there did not seem to be anything potentially dangerous in there, but still, it was best to be careful. Raziel had never been fond of droids, as an assassin he had been in constant competition with the latest model assassin droid. In the end he had always won out, for all their speed and weapon an assassin droid was still just a droid. They had their place and their uses, but they were always limited to certain situations. Raziel had been forced to use them before, but his contempt for them always meant he kept them a good distance away from himself.

The Quintessence was breaking out of the planets atmosphere now, the last of the gaseous resistance subsided and the ship leapt free of the moon's pull and assumed a low altitude, high velocity, orbit. The droid pilot reached over and pressed a flashing button.

"Thisss isss the Trandoshan vessel Pummel. You are in the way of our approach vector; please adjust your course to keep out of our waysss." Raziel looked to the droid pilot and nodded. No need to make a fuss now.

"Affirmative," replied the droid pilot in its shrill voice. It nudged the control stick to one side and the ship veered out of the path of the trandoshan vessel. Raziel watched as the heavily modified, bulbous shaped corvette drifted past his view. His throat dried up and he had a terrible, ominous feeling about the ship and its Ugly fighter escort.

The pilot droid set a new course to intercept the Leviathan. So far everything had gone smoothly, a great deal of people still owed Raziel favours around here. He had followed his predecessor's advice and had done several hits free of charge during the first years of his career. His mentor had reasoned that having a few 'I owe you's' around in the right places was never a bad thing.

A few hours of work on the holonet had secured a job collecting some expensive personal goods for an old 'acquaintance' from the orbiting Super Transport. As long as he returned the goods and didn't cause a fuss the other party was happy to let Raziel get up to whatever he wanted on the Leviathan. Raziel's courier class ship was perfect for the job; it was designed to be a safe way of transporting small amounts of cargo.

Raziel signalled the droid to send a message to the Leviathan. He had an allocated time to collect the goods, which was an hour from now.

"This is the Leviathan. You'll be docking in small bay C in roughly an hour, I'm afraid your goods have not been collated yet and you will have to wait." Raziel smiled and watched as the droid manoeuvred towards the appointed docking bay.

"Courier class vessel please refrain from docking, you will be wasting your own time. Do not dock or, as is our policy, you will have to wait another hour for your goods!" Raziel chuckled to himself; he had read Castellans policies well. The Quintessence only emitted static back to the colossal transport. As Raziel watched the closing transport he kept on thinking that they were getting close, only to realise that the ship was even bigger than he imagined.

He reached under the control console and pressed a couple of wires together. Sparks flared out from the wires, there was a popping noise from the communicator and then it went dead. Raziel then connected the wires back up to where they were supposed to be.

"You know what to do?" Raziel asked the droid, properly acknowledging it for once. The droid only bobbed its head once in reply. Raziel sat up from the co-pilots chair and strolled into the back of the ship, his cloak whipping around behind him. He passed down one small corridor, small beds cut out of the wall on either side, and into the cargo room. He sat down on the floor and opened himself up to the Force, his brow creasing in concentration.

As the ship glided into the docking bay, he reached out for the feelings of surprise and annoyance coming off the crew. Fortunately, for him there were only two men on the landing platform. The droid set the craft down lightly as Raziel reached out to the two crew members and tried to shield them from his own presence. At the same time, he felt small undercurrents in the Force, urging him on. The whole situation felt right and he knew where the crystals were as he let the Force guide him.

The droid stepped down from the ship and the two peeved crewmembers immediately confronted him.

"Sorry there was an error, my communicator shorted out," the droid started saying.

"Well I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave the ship, we can't have you -"

"I apologise again, but it was through no fault of my own that this happened. If I have to leave I'm afraid I will have to cancel payment for the goods and place a complaint about the service." The two slightly dim witted men looked to each other. One of them checked something on a datapad he was holding.

"Ok you can stay, but your goods will take two hours at the least. I tell you what we'll also have maintenance come down and have a look at your ship for you," the man had obviously gone into customer service mode now. He was smiling at the droid and gesturing wildly.

That was all Raziel needed to hear. He swept down the ramp between the two crew members, neither of them even gave him a cursory glance. Glad that they were both oblivious to him Raziel carried on to the open doors at the other end the bay and followed his feelings towards his goal.

It was easy enough for the Krath to get past the few bustling staff members he encountered along the way. In situations where his stealth skills were not enough he used his mind control skills to get through. He was lucky there were few intelligent staff and no droids around.

After a long walk into the bowels of the ship, Raziel was confronted by a huge set of blast doors. On either side of the doors sat a binary lifter and a very alert looking guard. Raziel kept out of sight and reached out with the Force towards the guards and the doors. The feeling of anticipation was getting stronger now; he knew he was close. Both of the guards were quick thinking and alert - between them, more than a match for his mental powers. He probed further ahead, past the thick blast doors, into the chamber beyond. The immense size of the room astonished him, especially as he could feel that it was filled with jewels. He could sense that the room was quite deep and open, roughly fifty metres long, thirty wide and ten deep. When he tried to probe the room in more detail, he was overwhelmed with anxiety. He knew that the crystals for his saber were in there and he had to get in!

His opportunity arrived shortly. A little man carrying a huge datapad, with a hoversled in tow, walked down the corridor towards the two guards. Raziel "listened in" on the unsuspecting man as he approached the guards; he was pathetically easy to read.

"I'm here for shipment A605-b" he squeaked to the guards, Raziel mouthed the words in time. He tried to feel for the little man's emotions, for his purpose and feelings. If Raziel could keep his train of thought in line with his targets, it made it infinitely easier to get into their mind. Raziel started thinking about the hurry he was in, about how rude the customers had been to him and how underpaid he was. He even began to feel hungry and looked forward to his lunch break.

"Name?" asked one of the guards.

"Dane," The staff member replied.

"Sorry just changed shifts," the guard replied tapping some buttons on a datapad. "Yeah there you are, off you go,"

"You're not going to help?" the little man asked the guards. Raziel was knelt down with his eyes closed, silently mouthing the words again. He was in a trance now and vulnerable. This would - however - require all of his concentration.

"Sorry we have to stay here, no matter what," sneered one of the guards.

He reached out, grabbed hold of the little human's perceptions, and began to experience them for himself. Raziel saw what he saw and heard what he heard. His own presence hung over the short staff member and he watched from their perspective.

Raziel felt the urge to lash out with the Force and break the weak minded fool's will to his own. Many times he had felt the urge to completely overwhelm someone and control them utterly. He knew what it was, it was the calling of the Dark Side, the thirst for absolute power and control. Again, he refrained, because he knew that he did not have the skill to do that yet and he would just hurt himself. One day he would submit to the urge.

The cavernous room on the other side of the doors was as deep as Raziel thought. It was in an elongated V-shape with three tiered levels on either side of a central channel. Each level was like a 2 metre high 'stair'. On the inside of each level was just a small handrail to stop you falling down to the level below, the only way down being a mechanical platform at each end of the room. Raziel saw through the worker's eyes as he walked along the top level. He looked down over the handrail to the centre of the room at thousands of crystals piled in the channel at the centre of the room. He looked up at three vertical levels on the other side of the room; there were two guards on that side walking from end to end. The field of view returned to the walkway ahead of the staff member. A guard was approaching him, blaster carbine lowered.

"What are you looking for then Dane?" Raziel heard the guard say through Dane's ears. The crew member handed the guard his datapad.

"Ah yes, next level down, booth three."

Dane then proceeded to lead his hoversled to the platform at the other end of the room. It gently eased him down to the next level and he headed off along the level. He looked to the wall on the outside of the room. Each three-metre section had a little alcove under which various containers were kept. Raziel assumed that was where they kept individual orders. The little man stopped at the third alcove and stepped inside to look around, he was now directly underneath the level above. Consulting his datapad once again he opened up the smallest of the boxes. Inside were three perfectly shaped gems. Raziel knew they were not for him; they had obviously been reshaped with a laser for aesthetics. No, his crystals were probably in the massive pile down the centre of the room.

As Raziel passively watched what Dane did inside the vault, he puzzled over how he could get inside. The room was well lit and because of its peculiar shape, there was no cover. On any of the levels, a guard across on the other side of the room would be able to see you. He decided his best chance was to get inside one of the alcoves on the lowest level and look over the raw gems from there.

Raziel felt a feeling of surprise through his connection and switched his attention back to inside the vault. The man had gathered all the items on his hoversled, but had been surprised to find an engineer opening a panel right behind him.

"Wow, you surprised me," Raziel realised that he had been concentrating so much on following the staff member that he hadn't heard the engineer go in through the doors.