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Zhin Dwamor

1 1:37am 03/02/02

"What the hell is that?"  the human officer yelled, going by the name Commander Kretchink. He'd just seen the several asteroids that seemed to be inbound for the planet's defense station on his radar and was indeed quite curious, obviously, as to why there seemed to be  formations of asteroids.

"They appear to be asteroids sir, wavering near space station DLTX109,"  Regnor Felmore, the radar boy, suggested as he punched in several buttons on the console. Kretchink removed his cover and began scratching his balding head slightly.

"They're awful organized for asteroids,"  he said curiously and accusingly at the young radar boy. "Do you get a power reading?"

 Regnor shook his head. "No sir, they have all typical attributes of that of an asteroid," he explained innocently. What sounded like a whining moan escaped the commander's gut.

"Maybe we should launch fighters to see what the hell it is,"  Kretchink snarled dangerously, and Regnor simply nodded.

"Squadrons blue, red, and Charlie, prepare for immediate launch,"  he said in acknowledgement to his commander, and quickly the larger, more stubborn man huffed and left. The man...or the villip of the man at least, grinned and turned back to his puddy state.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 Warmaster Zhin let out a mockingly wail of a laugh as he ended the villip transmission. His ooglith masquer had given him the perfect disguise, and the villip had been the perfect bait. The proximity mine set on the villip had just activated, and the next time the foolish infidel re-entered the room...the entire control tower would go up in smoke. Letting the masquer's trance wear off of him, he grinded his lipless teeth due to the exquisite pain the masquer projected when removing itself from the Yuuzhan Vong's clutches.

When it was finally done, Zhin spun to face the warriors set along the grand chamber in rows of hundreds waiting to see him. His hands went up triumphantly, and cries of potential triumph and battle lust portrayed from the bald, tatooed figures.

 The enemy fighters are coming...  the Yammosk thought to its thousands of soldiers.  Ready the coral skippers, show no mercy to the infidels...for the glory of Yun Yuuzhan! They knew what this meant.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 The fighters had pulled themselves into a defensive position for the patrol, the six Y-Wings and twelve X-Wings were set for nearly anything that would come their way...nearly.

"Alright guys stay in a tight formation and-"  said Blue leader in his X-Wing...suddenly stopping his statement as he saw the hundreds of tiny asteroids pouring out of the one gigantic one. "What in mother loving hell is that?!"

"All fighters break and attack, go go go!"  X-Wings' S-Foils had removed themselves from the typical locked position and were now set for combat, the Y-Wings already arming torpeodos for the imminent battle. The tiny craft, also known as coral skippers, had broken off into groups of three, and were already ricocheting themselves off of the gravity around them through the use of their dovin basals.

The two lines met ferociously, and Blue Leader was the first to take his shots. They were discouraging shots as each of them not only didn't cause any damage...they were being sucked into tiny black holes animated by the fighters!

"Oh my god!"  one of the Y-Wings screamed and he was already being torn open by the massive plasma shots raining from the fighters.

"Shields up, keep 'em at full!"  Blue Leader demanded, pulling himself in toward a group of the coral skippers from behind, or at least he hoped it was from behind. Several blasts suddenly were shot, only to be absorbed by those mini black holes once again. "Come on...come ON, this is unreal!"

"AAAAHHHHHHRGH!"  one of the Y-Wings yelled, his engines spiraling out of control from the main hull due to excessive plasma blasts.

"Boss we're losnig shields like crazy!"  Blue five cried as her own X-Wing suddenly exploded ferociously. Blue Leader looked left and right trying to figure everything out. But as he did he noticed two plasma blasts hitting him as well....and then everything went black.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 Kretchink growled at the coffee maker and threw it across the room, smashing it aganist the wall and crumbling it into nothing. He needed his coffee...it was what kept his blood flowing, hell, it  was his blood!

"Stupid piece of crap!"  he yelled as he began walking back to the comms room. As the door opened he expected to see the radar boy sitting there intently as he usually was but for some reason the chair seemed empty. He angrily stormed over to the seat and spun it around, only in time to see a brown puddy like figure, and the impending explosion.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** ** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 Everything had been set and the entire fighter group sent to eradicate the asteroids was gone now. A grin grew on the tatooed warmaster's face...this was almost too easy...almost. Not a single coral skipper had been killed in the fray.

"Ok good, we need to take down those giant infidel craft in front of their sun!"  he barked to the warriors, and the Yammosk who was already complying with the order. Outside it was in perfection by all Yuuzhan Vong means, they were not too close to the sun for meltdown, and they were not too far to shoot it. It was too perfect. The Yammosk initiated the shot, and the electrified plasma shot straight at the shieldship...and it was gone. The attack had begun.

Zhin Dwamor

2 7:55am 03/02/02

No transmissions had been sent...it was impossible to do so. The incredible blast of heat from the sun so close to Nkllon was enough to decimate the defenseless system, already the daylight side of the planet was feeling the awful affects of Warmaster Zhin's terrible tactic. Buildings and the like were being burned down, people were dying to the plague of heat everywhere and in the day it had been since the initial attack...everything on planet Nkllon..was destroyed.

 We have managed to collect enough dust to recover the sun until we can get another infidel ship in  the Yammosk told Zhin as he watched over the planet the World Ship hovered over.

"Yes..." he said, almost defiantly. "I know."

 Transports were already being rained down onto the planet with thousands of Yuuzhan Vong to set up installation, and to be prepared to ward off any infidels attack...if they could even reach the planet itself. Zhin peered back at the main chamber where only a day ago he'd seen the thousands of Yuuzhan Vong warriors standing tall and proud, now they were off endeavoring on a major conquest...Nkllon had been taken and was now under complete Yuuzhan Vong control...or would be soon. 

 This is too easy  thought Warmaster Zhin. It was extremely annoying, how he so badly wanted to see true combat, not these pitiful attacks on undefended infidel targets like Nkllon. Jaminere had been the closest thing to combat, and even then they'd lost a whole three Coral Skippers...taking down two infidel ships in reprisal. It was too easy.

"Warmaster Zhin,"  he was suddenly interrupted by one of the warriors...the voice seemed urgent."Are you aware of the resistance?"

 Zhin spun suddenly, his sullied eyes shining bright with excitement.

"Resistance?" he demanded, tapping his clawed fingers together excitedly.

"Yes Warmaster Zhin...a small band of infidels have hidden under the surface of Nkllon, they are putting up a fight against our forces!" the warrior said brightly, his voice too was excited. By infidel means, it was a grotesque excitement when they knew they were going to be plummeted into battle...and when they were excited for this. To a Yuuzhan Vong, it was the greatest thrill in universal existence.

"I will be down there soon,"  Zhin said gleefully, lifting his amphistaff from off the ground near him."Prepare my transport."

**************************************************

 The now desolate world was hot and dry, the terrain covered in ash and soot rather than grass and rock. It carried the smell of death, and it was indeed wonderful. Zhin crossed his arms over his chest, and inhaled a deep breath through his nearly missing nose, and then continued on. He had dressed in his full battle armor, it was an elegant sight to see, enough to instill doubt in any rival enemies.

They were standing in the remains of what was once a city, now torn down and slain corpses and buildings lay wrecked and strung all along the former streets and civilizations."Where is the infidel resistance?" Zhin demanded to the warriors surrounding him. They peered around as if great cats on a hunt, and pointed to some piled rubble that seemed to have a large crater beneath it. Zhin wasted no time in leaping from the rubble he was on and down to the next pile, gripping his amphistaff tightly, the ominous figure glaring down at the resistance's hide out.

"How many have been slain so far?"

"Five," one of the warriors explained...almost a bit too excited in the amount of deaths. Zhin nodded his respects to the slain warriors.

"In combat or..?"

"In combat, for Yun-Yuuzhan and the Praetorite Vong," the same warrior explained, and Zhin forced his teeth into a grin.

"We will attack the resistance...we will let them feel the true wrath of the Praetorite Vong," Warmaster Zhin chortled as he kicked asside the what seemed to be heavy rubble that was really melded into a nice, smoothe and light doorway. The infidels had worked dilligently on their defenses ever so quickly. "Are you ready for the glory of the Praetorite Vong?"

"We are ready Warmaster Zhin."

Zhin Dwamor

3 10:25pm 04/02/02

The several hundred or so surviving members inside were now ordered in a military fashion...or at least...a sad attempt of one. They had makeshift rifles and wannabe sporting pistols that could be used against maybe womprats, but against the Yuuzhan Vong...they had no idea but they knew they probably did not want to have an idea. The leader of the little resistance, Kaldek Morover, stood before the several forming a resistance. He wore a decently rounded out, modified Light Repeating rifle, that he normally used for hunting big game. It came with a sight, and a small thermal detonator launcher hooked onto it for "heavy duty" jobs. This time seemed to be heavy duty enough to use it.

He wore a cheap looking ragtag Bounty Hunter's outfit with a long, leather ammo belt laced across his torso and several other small tags and signs of his former jobs. Now however, being the most skilled fighter there, he was expected to lead these men against the Yuuzhan Vong, against aliens that he'd never seen before, against aliens who had just destroyed his home in mere seconds.

The pain pinged into his gut, still daunting him of the reminder of his families' screams as the seernig flames burnt into them. He'd watched it happened, he wanted the Yuuzhan Vong...he wanted them bad. His desire to run his sword into their flesh was undeniable, and apparently by all the orphans, or fathers who lost their children, or mothers who'd done likewise...they wanted the same retribution.

He turned to the hole which guarded their little hide out after hearing some foreign chattering, it must have been the Vong tongue. 

"Those aliens are coming..."  Kaldek said hesitantly, gripping his rifle in his hand. He aimed it upward toward the hole, simply waiting for the alien to charge in. There was a minute explosion, and then massive laser fire from the humans, and few Bothans there.

Kaldek had to step out of the way to dodge the rapid fire, but it seemed...there were no aliens. The Vong did not come.  Where the hell are they? he thought to himself. They had just ravaged their entrance...how they did not even have the gaul to come down and face them?

"Oh my god!" one of the women screamed suddenly, and suddenly the lines began tearing through, women, men, and children alike began falling in a bloodied heap as one of the persons from the resistance dropped their lumps of flesh to the ground...an ooglish masquer had deceived them. Razor sharp claws began tearing at skin and bone alike around them, people were now disarrayed and frantic to escape the pretorious former refugee.

Kalek spun and opened fire on the Yuuzhan Vong, but it seemed to be no use as it managed to dodge and swirve frantically. He was then cut off by a loud thump...and he spun again. Four Yuuzhan Vong now...four. One of them seemed to be a bit bigger and well brought up than the others, twirling around a strange staff of some sort. 

"Retreat!"  he yelled and began running on his own, deeper down the tunnel. He let loose several blasts at the oncoming Yuuzhan Vong leader, but it did no good, simply bouncing off his strong yorick coral armor. It screamed something in an unknown tongue and only indiced more fear into the already horrified man.

The lines ran further back, the formerly masqueraded Yuuzhan Vong lying dead in a pool of its own blood. Someone must have hit it during his decent. The tunnel however, seemed only to grow longer and longer the further they went.

*************************************************

 The Warmaster let out a feral cry as the several infidels began a desperate flee to escape the wrath of the Praetorite Vong. They were running deeper into a long, dark tunnel that only animated their impending doom to further heights. Several of the beetles were thrown out past the crowds, cutting them down bit by bit.

 They will make fine sacrafices...surviving a sun's ultra violet heat is no easy task Zhin thought to himself as he brought his amphistaff up for a kill. The snake like now bluntly yet sharp staff was brought down into the skull of a strange, cat like figure...a Bothan. Two more came at him, but with a twirl of the staff they too were on the ground in heaps of flesh, blood, and bone.

It seemed the leader was fleeing from the rest of the group. How...dispicable.

"Move forward, take only those seemingly worthy for a sacrafice," Zhin pronounced, which seemed to entice the fear in the infidels. It was simply wonderful how well this was working for the Praetorite Vong.

Zhin Dwamor

4 4:29am 05/02/02

The persons had been rounded up, or at least, most of them. There were apparently a good fifteen still missing, and at that two Yuuzhan Vong warriors had been slain. Their bodise were mummified and buried for their sacrafice, but that was not why Zhin was on Nkllon. He had work to do. Though the resistance had been swept away, and several of them captured, there were still several things that needed to be torn down, and soldiers that needed to land. There was so much undone that needed to be done. For example the ruins needed to be paved out for the Yuuzhan Vong landing forces, and the breeding wombs needed to be set up. With the planet a now desolate and dry desert, they also needed to get their food and water supplies in, and quickly.

Zhin pushed asside the gravel that was in his way to leave the battle zone that was the underground passageways of the resistance faction. It was quite funny infact, how easily they had struck and wreacked havoc on the infidels with so little effort. Almost insulting indeed. Almost.

"Clear the way!" Zhin demanded as he pointed toward several collapsed buildings, and one of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors hissed his confirmation. A large explosion rattled the city, and gravel flew in every direction.  How quaint.

Yuuzhan Vong fled left and right in orderly fashion to array the way for the landing transports which would hold their food and water, since there was nothing to feast on in Nkllon...not any more. He also knew that he needed a shield ship to arrive soon if he intended to keep his warriors alive, if he intended to make this destruction worth it.


**************************************************

 Kadlek grimaced as he counted the numbers of men. Fourteen, adding himself there would be fifteen. Five Yuuzhan Vong had defeated almost a whole army of personnel...how could fifteen take an entire army of the invaders down?  Easy...you can't!

He bit his bottom lip as he tried to formulate a plan. There was so much riding on these fifteen people that he had no idea what he was going to do, how was he supposed to tell these people they were going to die? Unless he could find one of Lando's old mining installations on the other side of the planet, they had no hope of calling the Rogue Empire or the Republic. Even then, what good would that do? No doubt the Yuuzhan Vong were chasing them that very moment. Still...it was worth a try. He turned to the fourteen that were resting, awing over every second of freedom they had. "Ok everyone listen up. We're going to make a mad dash for the other side of the planet. Lando Calrissian had some mining colonies down there, if we can get there...they should have a comms unit and then we can call for some fire power from one of the local governments."  The crowd did not look too optimistic. The galaxy was being torn by war, the Republic being fought back at Dantooine, the Rogue Empire draught in civil war, and the Empire doing the pushing at Dantooine. Of course...did they really want the Empire getting their hands on Nkllon?

"With all do respect," one of the young men said as he stood."I don't think we have much hope trying to reach the other side...we only have enough food for two days and the aliens seem to be ready for war."

 Kaldek bit his bottom lip and nodded his head grimly. "Yes I'll give you that much, but it's better than waiting here to die." That was not what Kaldek wanted to do, not if he could avoid it. "I would send only one person, but as was stated, we only have enough food for two days...we'd have to be splitting rations. I say we all just go."

 A Twi'Lek, Speridal as Kaldek noticed, stood and shook his head angrily, but it didn't look like the kind where he was giving an acknowledged denial. "We seem to be at an odd of ends here. Perhaps we can send some courageous volunteers out to delay the aliens?" There was a brief silence among the fifteen, and then some whispers of contemplation.

"Who would do such a thing?" Kaldek accused, thinking no one that suicidal. There was once again silence.

"I will," proclaimed the Twi'Lek with a nod. There were several gasps at the alien's bravery, but quickly two more persons stood, one a human, recognized as Ceran Bon of Coruscant, and the other a Trandoshan knwon as Corsk.

"We will go as well," the man proclaimed, stroking a long katana looking blade at his side. Kaldek wanted to tell them to stop...but knew there was no point.

"You are brave men..." the bounty hunter finally said. He nodded his approval.

"I know," the Trandoshan hissed, and then they were off. Kraldek felt a lump form in his throat, but quickly swallowed it down, and turned to the passageway of the tunnel.

"Well then...let's get moving."

**************************************************

 Zhin let out a deep throated roar as he saw the transports slowly begin unloading around the Vong made landing pad. The rubble and gravel was adjusted around so there was a small circle in which the craft and transports could land. A small fortress had been set up from the gravel as well to withstand any more resistance attacks, but Warmaster Zhin and the Yammosk had agreed there would be no more...they were too afraid...they were fleeing from the warriors.

Two of his better warriors had been dispatched to find them, and bring back as many alive as possible. In a fashion, Zhin hoped none were brought back...in another fashion however...he hoped to see them scream as they were tortured by the Yammosk.

His chain of thought was then cut off by a horrendous whistling sound. An abomination. Zhin twirled his amphistaff and slammed his foot into the ground angrily. How had they missed that one?! He moved closer to the location where the whistling and beeping sounded off under some gravel, and Zhin threw the rock and ash high into the air, growling as he saw an astromech droid, or what was left of it, trying desperately to get up. If a droid could experience fear, it surely would have as it saw the Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster, draped completely in his ominous armor, a sadistic grin spreading to his lipless face.

"Abomination!"  Zhin screamed as he smashed the poor droid in with his amphistaff, and immediately two warriors ran to the droid, grabbing it and throwing it into a pile of other droid parts. It was a glorious sight for the Yuuzhan Vong.

****************************************************

 Set Dwamor and Klec Elemar, the two warriors assigned to locating and eradicating the infidels, were slowly but surely coming up on their trail. They had almost gotten a day or two ahead of the Yuuzhan Vong, but unlike the infidels...they did not need sleep so abundantly. They could go weeks without it and still have enough energy to bring down their enemies.

They both wielded amphistaffs, which were in their whiplike manner, hanging down ferociously, the snakes slithering every once and a while. Set was the leader of the group, aging past Klec by two years and being a distinct relative of Warmaster Zhin. However, Set tried hard not to let that flourish into his ego...too much.

"They cannot be too far now," remarked Klec after seeing the fresh tracks of all sorts. They were either infidels lacking in intelligance, or infidels who were frantically trying to find a way out of the tunnels. Kleck did not care which, either way the infidels were going to die a slow and painful death.

A sound ahead however taunted and teased the Yuuzhan Vong, telling them something had to be ahead. Set's amphistaff coiled out to the blunted blade that was his and the Warmaster's personal favorite form of the staff. Klec was reaching into his pouch and preparing to toss his dart like beetles if the time called for it.

Suddenly a lizard like figure popped itself out of the tunnel ahead and shot several red shots at the Yuuzhan Vong. They immediately side stepped out of the way and Klec did not hesitate to chuck his bugs at the Trandoshan, who slipped behind what looked like a crevice designed to hide someone from an impending attack. This was going to be too easy.

Several of the beetles stuck into the wall, others flung past and rammed themselves into the sandy ground ahead.  Pah! thought Klec and he lifted his amphistaff and got ready for a charge. The two Vong charged into a sprint toward the crevice where the lizard man was hiding.

"BASTARDS!!!"  came a sudden and frantic scream, although the Yuuzhan Vong could not understand it. A man came from nowhere, grabbing Klec by the throat, a blade in his other hand. Set turned immediately to try and bash him off but was caught in the arm by a red blaster shot and found himself trying to regain his balance. The ambush had succeeded, and a second later, Klec's body was pooled in black, oozing blood. Set did not pay heed to the death of his companion and instead removed his own beetles, lurching them toward the trandoshan, most missing, but enough had hit him whereas he had lost his life instantly. That left the heroic swordsman. The swordsman, a human infidel, stood and gripped his katana blade steadily, testing his different stances. Apparently blasters did not work too well on the Vong's armor...maybe a good vibroblade was what he needed. The blade was turned on, and a low hum was heard as they got ready.

A hiss escaped the lipless mouth of the Yuuzhan Vong warrior, and he pivoted on his right foot, taking the initiative with all the might he could. His staff collided with katana with a might that would knock any untrained man right off his feet. The infidel twirled the blade in his hand and thrusted with it, but the warrior knocked it out of the way quickly. But Ceran was not done. He leapt in the air and spun in a flying kick, smashing the Vong in the hideous, unshielded face. It sent a bruise soaring up his skull, but it was not done. Blackish blood oozed from its nostrils and it struck back with great intensity, knocking the man back out of sheer surprise. Then the warrior spun on Ceran, and he tried to parry, but the amphistaff coiled up like a snake and tried to bite, grabbing some flesh, but not long enough to get any of the deadly venom into his system.

The two warriors broke off for a moment to regain breath, but immediately lunged back into battle. Strike, parry, duck, evade, swing, high, low, left, right. It was an intense battle that sent sparks flying from the vibroblade, both combatants' hands soaring from blisters and bruises. But the Yuuzhan Vong advanced, not waiting a second.

After the Vong had gotten a swing in, Ceran managed to duck out of the way, and thrusted his humming blade into the Vong's stout torso, scoring a hit that sent blood fuming out of the now open hole. Set hissed angrily and ferally, bashing downward at the human, scoring a blow to the head. He was on his knees now, his blade stuck in the Vong's belly. Forcing himself to his feet, he stumbled backward, and tried to find something to get out of the way of the thrasing alien warrior. There was a blow toward his head, and he ducked, the amphistaff getting cought in the wall, and thus that gave Ceran enough time to leap forward, grabbing the katana and somersaulting past the Vong. One, two, both slashes to the side of the torso, scoring more raining black blood from the warrior. When Set finally got the weapon free, he spun again, this time in an attempt to thrust into the merciless warrior.

Ceran side stepped, finding his back against the wall. He could have swarn he felt and heard a rib snap, but he ignored the pain, bringing his weapon down on the Yuuzhan Vong's wrist, removing the hand. It fell to the floor in a bloodied heap, and the Yuuzhan Vong let out a painful scream that echoed throughout the halls. It smashed its other, free hand at the human, scoring a blow to the face, scaring him permanently. Blood streaked his face and nearly blinded Ceran's eyes, but he would not give up. Two more thrusts were aimed at the Yuuzhan Vong. This time...they both hit. One scored a blow to the throat, the other directly in the eye socket, going right through the skull. When he removed the blade, it fell to one knee, still thrashing for its last few seconds of life, then slumped down as its partner had in a pool of its own disgusting black blood. As the adrenaline died down, he too fell to one knee, and threw the katana asside. Ceran screamed in both pain and triumph, he had taken down two of the aliens by himself  two! He would mark this day forever...even if it was his last to come. Picking up the katana...he slowly began limping away. Apparently...the Vong had done more damage than initially thought. His leg held a large gash in it, and he was now streaking with blood, his ribs in dire pain from the snapping. Now...now he was catching up with what happened. But he had to hold the Vong off a while longer, he had to let the refugees escape.

 I won't fail them.

Zhin Dwamor

5 6:58am 05/02/02

Kaldek winced as he heard the human scream...they must have gotten him.  He sacraficed his life so we could get away.... How many Yuuzhan Vong were trailing them? Four? Five? Five Hundred? Five Thousand? There was no way of knowing, and that only made him tense even further. He looked to make a quick head count of the group, and noticed several were staring back down the tunnels where they heard the scream. The air was stale, the light was little...and they were being forced to eat dried rations and drink mucky water. Just to add to the decrease in morale...one of their own had just been slain...no...not slain. They were murdered. Murdered by the aliens. 

"Come on we have to get going," Kaldek cried. The Twi'lek stood and quickly began shoving his way past the group. They had not let him go on the expedition to stop the aliens due to the simple fact that they needed his smarts and knowledge of the tunnels to get through and to Lando's old mining camps. "Come on, we don't have time to linger...if they got past him they no doubt will get us too if we stop."

 This was not a great morale booster, but it did manage to get the man off their feet and preparing again for the tiring run. Their legs and muscles were in a whole sore from the fleeing, from the desperate attempt to escape these aliens' wrath.  Why are they here? What have we done to deserve this? Why Nkllon? These questions circulated over and over in his head. He wanted answer to them...answers that most likely did not exist.

Gripping the pack of food and ammunition slung over his shoulder, he ran down the halls, the breath dying out from his lungs, but he would not give up.  Ceran didn't give up...but look where that got him. Kaldek pushed those thoughts out of his head.  He died a hero, he died to save us. Where is the shame in that? There was none.

***************************************************

 The Yorick Coral transports dropped themselves down onto Nkllon's surface in the rounded out pad, throwing up dust and ash as they did so. Warmaster Zhin let out an excited wail as they did so, signifying his joy in their landing on his new planet. The pile of wrecked abominations was ever growing to new heights, standing approximately seven feet up, rattled with droid parts and brains made the mountain of abominations hum off an eerie tone. Every once and a while a dying astromech droid would toot off, and stones would be chucked at the pile to silence it.

Zhin simply grinned as much as a Yuuzhan Vong could grin. "Are the slave transports almost in?"  he barked to one of the intendent castes around him. 

"Yes Warmaster Zhin,"  the younger one responded, who seemed more interested in admiring the Warmaster's majesty than actually fulfilling his job.

"Excellent...are those whom had been captured prepared for the treatment?" Zhin inquired, and the intendent nodded firmly. The Warmaster shuffled his weight slightly and watched as the six legged creeper left the transports and began pouring into the fortress where the infidels had been slung upside down on the pain amplifiers. In mere hours they would be full blown slaves. It was beautiful.

***************************************************

 Ceran peaked his bloodied head out of the formerly disguised hole of the resistance hide out. There were hundreds of them! And to think he killed two only by mere chance! How could he possibly hope to take down an entire army of them? His breathing came in short, mellow breaths, trying desperately to calm himself if he hoped to hold them off for a while.  Where's a Death Star when you need one? His thoughts then trailed off to the New Republic, Rogue Empire, and New Alliance....they had Eclipse Star Destroyers! They could wipe out the planet and the whole alien threat as it was!  By the Force I hope they make it...and bring that Star Destroyer back.

There were several six legged creatures leaving the new asteroid looking transports and entering what looked like a mini hut set up by the aliens. Screams audited from the hut...familiar screams, and he knew his companions were being tortured in there...those that had been dragged off kicking and screaming by the aliens.

Unfortunately for Ceran, the air on the surface was even worse than that in the tunnels...to top it all off....ash was in the air and he was forced to inhale it. His eyes spanned over across the room, and he saw a tragic sight almost topping that of what they'd seen thus far. Standing nearly three feet in the air was a pile of pieces and parts of poor droids that had been mutilized by these alien predators.

Deciding to take a combative action, he looked down on the platform he was standing on until he found a few small pebbles, and grinned excitedly, grabbing them quickly and shuffling them around in his hand. The aliens seemed to be conversing and guarding the transports, all carrying snake staves like the one he'd slain. They seemed to be centered around the biggest one...the one they'd fought in the tunnels. Apparently he was someone named "Sin" or something like that, and most of the aliens groveled to that one, or showed an abnormal sign of respect.

It was  Sin that had the most delicate looking armor. It was beautiful, at least, as beautiful as an alien's living armor could look.

He twittled with the pebbles for a little bit before looking at them in his palm. They would be the difference between life and death here...if he threw them even the slightest bit off, it could cost him his life. Getting his bearings right, he lifted his arm, and chucked them away from the transports. As they collided against the dirt and ash lofted ground, a dust flew in the air, and several aliens looked up, running toward the small screen of dust to see if there were incoming enemies...or droids perhaps. Ceran wasted no time here and leapt out of the hole, grabbing his blade and lurking in the shadows as best he could.

There were no signs of the aliens around, and therefore the katana wielding human snuck himself into the small domicile. The sight he saw there nearly forced his lunch up out of his belly. There were a good twenty of them, nude and strung upside down with cuts and bruises all amongst them. There were four others in the corner, shivering and trying not to scream. Those six-legged creatures were attempting to pick and seer at the flesh in the strung humans' cheeks, planting some form of seed into them. Their arms were being pulled on by some strange white creature, their legs being strung to the ceiling. It was a grotesque sight, and Ceran found himself more trying to keep himself from vomitting than trying to rescue anyone. By all means, he had no chance of saving the tortured humans...but maybe there was some hope for the four in the corner.

Holding his katana high over his head, Ceran ran at the six legged, walking atrocities and lowered the blade, slicing the first one in two. Two more saw him, and ebgan running at him as if they could do anything. His foot found the first one and smashed it in, then his blade fell back onto the other, piercing it...but it sprang a horrendous cry for help, and the remaining two then lunged at him. No doubt the aliens outside had heard it. The most he could do was hack down the remaining creatures and try to flee with the humans' lives intact. He thrusted again, this time scoring a blow through one of their brains, then kicked back, smashing in the next one's "face".

The Humans looked upon him with a ray of hope unseen before, and it sent a rush of urgency through his system. He felt that he was needed, that he was the savior of these people. And in a way...he was.

"C'mon we gotta' get out of here!"  he shouted, and the nude figures quickly rose and fell into step behind him. He tried not to notice the one Twi'lek in the group...but she did not seem to care.  Why would she? That's her job.

He ran outside of the hut with them following closely behind him, his sword held in a perfect combat stance. Immediately an alien was there to jab its amphistaff at him, but he hacked it out of the way and then twirled the blade fancily back up against its throat. But the armor moved itself to block the blow, and his eyes widened.  Oh my god their armor's alive!.

That was no good. Being the Coruscanti that he was, he decided to do what they learned quickly in the bars. He brought his knee up to the alien's groin with as much force as he could. It dropped its hands to its belly only for a moment...but that moment was all he needed to smack its side many many times with his blade and throw it to the ground.

Seeing no more need for secrecy, he turned on the vibroblade and pointed the rescued persons toward the hole. Several of the aliens were pouring toward him, fire in their helmed eyes.

"Crap, GO GO!"  he yelled, and they immediately poured into the hole as fast as they could, just as one of the warriors twirled its amphistaff and brought it down to an easy parry. However, Ceran's muscles were weakening, and he was forced back by the blow.  Maybe I can outrun them he thought.

Ceran turned immediately and began running as fast as he could toward the hole, at full speed, trying hard not to trip on the rocks and ash around him. Several beetles flew past him and stuck into the ground around him, and he leapt there himself. With a sudden roll, he fell himself into the tunnels, and saw that the figuers that he'd rescued were now fleeing quickly down the confusing twists and turns of the former resistance hide out. Several aliens pursued.  This is where I will make my last stand, this is where I will end it all...whether I die or not does not matter. It is how many of those stupid bastards I can take down before dying myself. There was an anxious roar from the warriors...and he got himself ready.

***************************************************

 They were exhausted, they were unsure if they could go any longer...they were unsure if they could even stand the smell of the stale air any further. Kaldek had promised it wouldn't be too much farther, but he began to doubt that himself. According to the map he'd brought with him, they only needed to reach four or five more miles until they found one of the camps, and they hoped to any god up there that they'd find the comms equipment they so badly desired.

The tunnels took a sudden fork, and Kaldek felt all hope spilling from him.  Why is there a fork?? There's not supposed to be a fork! he did not let his feelings spill over onto the others...he could not do that to them.

"Ok..."  he said, out of breath. "We need to decide...left...or right?"  Speridal made his way toward the front and examined both halls.

"Left," he said, and wasted no time in running that way. Kaldek twisted the light repeating rifle in his hands and nodded, following him.

They ran for what seemed like an hour or two until finally there was a small mound of dirt, leading out of the caverns. A ray of hope suddenly shot through the entire group as they saw this, and picked up the pace toward it. They were almost free.

**************************************************

 Ceran tried hard to keep his own, but the pain was getting the best of him. The aliens fought mercilessly against him, fighting usually one on one simply to toy with him, or to test their might against him. He had taken down only one so far, and they seemed to be switching off, every time one would tire the next one would move in.  I am sick of being made a fool of.

Ceran looked left and right until he saw one of the more wounded ones, and leapt at him ferociously. It was laughing and chortling with one of the other aliens, and did not see the katana in its face...until of course it was directly  in its face. He then spun around and hacked the next one in the throat, three down now. There were still five left however, and they began poking and jabbing at him until he simply...lost consciousness.  Am I going to die like this? In a show? He thrashed menacingly at the monsters, and managed to take down another one.

 At least...I took some down. 

*****************************************************

"We're here!" Kaldek suddenly yelled in excitement as he saw the ruins of one of Lando's old mining camps. There was scattered equipment  everywhere, and they were forced to scurry through most of it...fortunately finding several spare rations. It was a good thing too...the crew was running out faster than they'd gained it.

However, Kaldek was not into rations or broken equipment. His eyes raced and scanned across the camp until he saw exactly what he was looking for...communications equipment! They were torn up and scratched, but by all means seemed to be in working condition.

He quickly grabbed the device and flicked it on, turning it to a frequently used Republican channel. "Attention anyone, please come in, this is Nkllon Two Four, over? There was no response. "Attention anyone  please,"  his voice filled with dread and fear...lost hope and desire gone. "Please somebody come in, this is Nkllon Two Four, somebody, ANYONE!"  A lump formed in his throat, the desire to escape overriding anything he'd ever felt before. "Somebody, please."

"Roger Two Four this is Republic control, over." Kaldek's eyes suddenly lit up excitedly as he heard the control speaker. He almost couldn't find the words to speak.

"W-W-We have been overrun by an alien race, we don't know what they are...they came out of nowhere they-"  he kept going on with several adjectives.

"Ok ok calm down, calm down Two Four, who came?"

"We don't know! That's what I'm trying to tell you! Send us back up, something to get us out of here, PLEASE!"

"Ok Two Four, we'll send you a rescue squad, your coordinates are?" Kaldrek let loose the coordinates into the commlink, and they were quickly uploaded.

"Roger Two Four, en route!"

Leia Organa Solo

6 12:26am 06/02/02

Jedi Master

A Carrack cruiser, accompanied only by a handful of X-Wings, emerged into the Nkllon gravity well, unnoticed.

It continued, quietly, unhindered, unnoticed, but hurriedly on it's way.

The small group entered the atmosphere of the planet, picking up speed.

Aboard the cruiser, a Jedi Master and her Padawan accompaniment held on tightly to the support bars near the landing ramp that they were planning to jump off of once they were low enough, which actually, wouldn't be that low at all.

They would need all of the air support they could get from their small space ship collection. The Yuzzhan Vong were formidable and powerful foes, and they were vastly outnumbered.

The ship's guns opened up fire, and the snubfighters began their strafing runs on the ground at the enemy below when they were close enough.

Leia Organa Solo spared the last few moments before the jump to once again lock stares with her Padawan.

"Are you sure you're ready?"

She was answered just as the last few times with a tense affirmative nod.

The ship vibrated as apparently it began to receieve a pummeling from below, but it easily held it's course.

The landing ramp opened, and Leia saw their target area just ahead, she had practically burned the image of the area and it's surroundings into her memory. It was night out, making it dark and hard to see. But Leia still knew her way. She shifted back and forth, settling the heavy pack on her back, the camoflauge uniform she was wearing, and her utility belt more fittingly around her. A typical Jedi would very grudgingly carry the load if at all, preferring very little extra burdens.

But on this mission Leia knew that what she carried could not be done without, and as she had started out fighting as nothing more than a regular soldier, she was accustomed to the extra burden and carried it with little mind for it.

"Now" she said simply, calmy, and hopped without pause out of the ship.

Using the Force to slow their descent, the two Jedi landed quietly, still unnoticed for the moment, and flopped belly first onto the barren ground to keep their chances of being spotted as low as possible.

Leia wriggled out of the heavy pack she had brought down with her, and left it behind, taking with her only a sniper rifle and a belt full of rounds for the gun. Her saber hung ever so customarily at her side, but she did not touch it, nor the gun.

Silently and at a good pace, the two Jedi closed the destance stealthily toward their objective... a small camp of Yuzzhan Vong.

Zhin Dwamor

7 12:59am 06/02/02

Jedi Master

Kaldek saw the Carrack Cruiser land a short distance off and felt his heart literally skip a beat or two.  The Force is with us. He lifted his repeating rifle and immediately began running at a full sprint toward the two figures coming in toward him. 

"We're going to make it...we're going to get out of here!" the Twi'lek yelled excitedly, gripping his large long sword at his side. 

"We're here, we're-" something else was there too...the ground was rumbling from what sounded like an army's footsteps. Not sounded like...was. Kaldek turned and chewed on his bottom lip as he saw the hundreds, literally hundreds, of aliens charging his way. He lifted his repeating rifle to his arm and slugged off several shots, taking down one or two but to no avail, there were still countless soldiers inbound. More red bolts blasted against and pounded onto the alien lines...so few had fallen...so few. 

"Bastards!"  the bounty hunter screamed as he slugged off more shots at the oncoming army. "Bastards! Bastards!"  As he gritted his teeth roughly, he prayed that the figures would reach him in time, that the Republic would get them off that desolate and barren rock.

**************************************************

 Zhin let out another feral roar as he watched the slaves work dilligently on his new ship...the light battle cruiser  Legacy of Fire. The breeding womb was going to produce craft at a remarkable rate...just like they had on the worldship.

"Warmaster Zhin, Warmaster Zhin!" one of the guards cried, and his attention was drawn from the shaping womb to the three warriors running from the sandy hills. They were holding a bloodied and battered infidel that was knocked unconscious in their arms, throwing him to the ground in front of the Warmaster.

"What is this?" Zhin demanded as he narrowed his eyes on the human.

"A prisoner Warmaster Zhin," the first warrior said excitedly. "He is worthy, having slain many of our warriors, including your cousin."

"I see..." Warmaster Zhin growled and kicked the unconscious body."Get him aboard the Worldship...I shall see to him soon. Be sure the Yammosk sees him."

Raven Skywalker

8 5:36am 07/02/02

Jedi Master

Raven hadn't said a single word the entire trip, and offered a reasuring smile to the Twi'lek who managed to reach them.

Hearing him swear, along with the rumble of an army behind him, Raven felt like swearing herself.

Instead, she took a calming breath as her smile faded to a frown.

"Master, I have a bad feeling about this." Raven managed to say, her hand instinctively reaching for her lightsaber, but not pulling it from her belt yet.

Of course the declaration was old, but, whenever someone uttered it, it tended not only to foreshaddow the approaching trouble as it barrelled towards them, but it was a major understatement as well.

Raven wondered what her statement had brought, but, at the same time, didn't want to know, all at the same time.

Leia Organa Solo

9 5:55am 07/02/02

Jedi Master

Leia grinned a feral grin.

Or should one say... Darth Leia.

"Bad feelings... don't I know about those" she replied offhandedly.

The oblivious Padawan would be of no trouble to Leia's tasks here.

The evil clone of Leia Organa Solo had been waiting, lurking, created by Darth Mayhem long ago, now it was time to make her presence known... on a more personal note.

Raven had not taken note of Leia's expressions in the dark, and remained oblivious. The cherade wouldn't last much longer once Leia was forced to open up to fight the Vong, but she didn't care, the Padawan would be for the first time on her own, and wouldn't have time to worry about what this Leia was doing...

Her hand gripped the hilt of the saber at her belt.

They had reached the outer perimeters of the Yuzzhan Vong guard, which tightly encircled the Vong base.

The object was to get as far in without being noticed as possible, and then pop up in the middle.

A difficult task indeed.

Zhin Dwamor

10 6:24am 07/02/02

Jedi Master

The several persons began running toward the two obvious Jedi now, most of them, that were not the gruff looking bounty hunter, were screaming and crying out of sheer terror as the hundreds of Yuuzhan Vong came screaming in their organized militaristic lines.

The bugs ripped out from the alien lines and took down two of the females, and with screaming shrieks of terror, they were forced to the ground painfully, a pool of blood flailing around their akward positioned bodies.

" Help us please!"  one of the desperate persons screamed as the daunting army got closer and closer. It was indeed a terrifying sight for even the strongest of Jedi. As Leia tried to tell them everything was going to be alright, Kaldek spoke up.

"We need to go now or it WON'T be alright!" and with that he began running with the Jedi away from hordes of enemies. There were so many of them...

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 Zhin watched as the "worthy" slave was drug down toward the Yammosk's clutching maw, diverting his mind with horrific death scenarios sending him beyond normal sanity. But he would not snap, he stood defiantly against the enemy.

"Bring it you stupid whore!" he screamed as he was pulled in toward the clashing teeth of the Yammosk. They had not checked the man's hand, and did not find that it was mechanized, and with all the treatment he'd suffered...it had lost all feeling. When the maw of the strange brain figure clutched down on him, he rammed his palm directly into the teeth, ripping one right out of its socket. The Yammosk hissed angrily as he did so, blood spraying onto the human, and he let out a gleeful smile. "You like that boy?"

 Zhin...was not amused.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 Kaldek's hopes suddenly increased as the X-Wings rained down from the skies and started blasting down line after line of Yuuzhan Vong infantry, but there still seemed to be hundreds of them.  Will there be no end to this horror?. He continued blasting away at them...but one Yuuzhan Vong, after knocking the human on his back and spinning with his amphistaff toward the younger of the two Jedi shattered any hopes.

"So...it's a  jeedai,"  the Yuuzan Vong hissed excitedly, and several more came along to watch the duel. It was to be a death match.

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