The Rebel Faction

Rissonik sighed as he looked over the report he was just given. On it was the status of the clean up and repair of the Clan grounds, which had been badly looted during the Separatist Movement. A part of him grieved the loss of so many Clan treasures that they had built up over the generations, the most important: the K'Satizitus Skull, among the missing, stolen during the Clan's absence from the grounds. That same part of him wished he hadn't had the Clan move so hastily out of the grounds once the movement got started, but with a shake of his head he knew he had no other choice at the time. To stay in the grounds back then would have certainly ensured the Separatist Movement never got off the ground, no matter how fearsome the K'Satikur Clan was.

Included on the report were lists of completed repairs and things still needing repairs. Lately, as the clean up continued, for every item that was fixed, two or three more seemed to replace it, and as the Sha'tor he had to decide what took priority. One of the high priority items was the long range communication equipment, which Rissonik needed to keep in touch with the Sarendevis Fleet, which had been a great help with the movement, though their own losses were also high. Both Rissonik and his mate, Naosha, had decided not to request too much from their allies, knowing they had their own problems to sort out first. The same with Tzhali, the Wookiee Captain, no Fleet Commander, of his small Fleet of Wookiee allied ships, whom was busy assisting the Trandoshan Fleet keep peace in Trandoshan Space and trying to convince the rest of the Wookiee government to give peace between the two races a try.

A brief chuckle rumbled in his chest as he remembered the other recently promoted Fleet Captain. His old friend Tiosk, once Captain of the Bloodfang and now Vice Admiral of the Trandoshan fleet, wasn't settling well into his new post. That Trandoshan was a man of action and his habit of pulling dangerous stunts with his ship was near legendary: needless to say, a position that requires a lot more paperwork to be done didn't bode well on him at all. In fact, whenever he got a chance to gripe about his fate without his superior, Admiral Balik, overhearing he did and even Rissonik had to wince at some of the expletives his friend used. He often spent his free time with Tzhali actually, since the Wookiee wasn't pleased with his promotion either.

A sharp growl broke Rissonik from his musings, prompting him to look up from the datapad. Apparently his niece Varcanna and the resident albino Trandoshan, Asri, had bumped into each other again accidently. He watched as Asri backed away submissively, despite the likely hood that she could kick the crimson scaled female from one end of the grounds to the other, and Varcanna snarled at her, looking like she was about to pounce. Rissonik cleared his throat, thereby announcing his presence to the two females and warning Varcanna not to lay a claw on Asri. Varcanna relented and sharply turned away, giving Asri one last hateful glare before disappearing back around the corner. Asri nodded in thanks to him and similarly disappeared.

Why don't you just stand up to her? Rissonik thought. Of course he knew the answer to that question already. To do anything to Varcanna would only give her more reason to hate her, which Asri didn't want. The albino just wanted to be accepted in society, a society where Akisi like Asri were usually killed on sight. Rissonik hoped to change that along with other 'traditions' in Trandoshan culture, but both he and Asri knew that complete change will likely take generations to finish. He and a good number of the other Clan members had grown to accept Asri for what she is, even his grandkids, whom see her as a 'second mom'. Perhaps it would help if she would explain her past. He mused, not for the first time either. Asri had been hesitant to relieved her whole past however and Rissonik suspected that certain things in her past could make her more despised then she already was in certain circles, the reaction to her claim that she once worked for a Sith was proof of that. Thus Rissonik was content to let her reveal the whole story on her own time.

"Sha'tor."

"Hmm? Yes?" Rissonik looked up to acknowledge the warrior standing before him. "What is it? I'm not expecting another report til tomorrow..."

"We know sir." The warrior said. "But while we were making repairs to the communications equipment we found an unread message stored in it's databanks. A message from Naboo, specifically from the Jedi Academy."

Rissonik's eyes widened. "From the Academy?" He said. "Why would they be sending a message to us? Did something...." He stopped mid-sentence, not wanting to complete the thought that something may have happened to Silonik, one of his grandsons. Plus he didn't want reveal that he had a family member in the Jedi Academy to just anyone.

"I do not know sir, but it is addressed specifically to you."

He stared at the disk the warrior held out, a concerned expression on his face, before accepting it.

"Due to the damage to the equipment sir, only the audio was saved and how complete that is is questionable."

"Understood. You are dismissed."

Rissonik stared at the disk for a long time, worrying about what kind of message it held, before finally sliding it into the reader. There was no holo image, as the warrior had warned, and the audio was a bit staticy, even completely inaudible in places, but Rissonik managed to get the gist of what the message was about. The K'Satizitus had attempted to kidnap Silonik, no doubt to groom him into a willing host for the future. Fortunately a Jedi Master, presumably the one that was speaking, was able to thwart the spirit's plans and drive it away. There was a long pause in the audio at the end, was it by design or due to the decay the message had obviously suffered? Then a new voice started speaking, one he recognized as Silonik's. He didn't get to hear much of Silonik's voice before an excited warrior burst into the room.

"What is it?" Rissonik hissed. "I am trying to listen to a message."

"Sha'tor." The warrior panted. "I have great news! Your son Trazu has returned! He's just outside the gates!."

The warrior was obviously puzzled when Rissonik's expression turned to one of absolute terror. The older Trandoshan hadn't told the rest of the Clan beyond family that Trazu had lost the battle of wills with the spirit, and that now it was the K'Satizitus that controlled his body...not him. He honestly didn't think to, but now he wished he had.

Why is he here? He thought, his mind racing. To try to kidnap my other grandson Trissan? There was no time however to figure out the reasoning for the spirit's 'visit'.

"Don't let him in." Rissonik said sternly, raising to his feet. "That's not Trazu anymore...."

The warrior's face drained of color. "You mean...."

"Yes, I regret not informing everyone sooner. But we have little time before he loses patience and breaks in! Tell Varcanna to get the kids and barricade herself and them in the Arena."

"But...sir...."

"That's the most secure building on the grounds." Rissonik interrupted. "And a maze on the inside. At the very least it will buy us time to figure out how to stop him! Also use whatever means you can to get a message to Lavality, she may be the only one in the system that can stop him."

"A...a...aye Sha'tor." The warrior said before running out.

Then there was silence, an eerie silence that weighed heavily on Rissonik's spirit. Slowly he walked out of the manor to the courtyard outside, where it was evident that the word had spread. Warriors and trainees alike were setting up barriers and fortified positions, not knowing such things would be useless against a being knowledgeable in the Force. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Varcanna take the kids into the Arena, locking the door behind her once they were all in. Asri appeared beside him suddenly, a fearful expression on her face: in her eyes he knew she needed no explanation to what was going on.

"You do not need to stay for this if you do not want to." Rissonik said quietly to her. "You are free to do as you choose...as you always have been during your stay here."

"No, I will stay." Asri said, the sound of determination in her voice. "The Clan is my family and is the first place where I have truly felt I belonged. I will not abandon it now."

Rissonik only nodded and put on a brave face as he strode forward. He didn't hear Asri behind him now: more then likely she went to find a spot she would be most useful for the fight that he was sure to come. His footsteps felt heavier and heavier as he went, for deep in his heart he feared this could be the last day for the K'Satikur....

A lone figure stood before the gates of the K’Satikur Clan grounds, waiting as patiently as he could for them to open the gates. His borrowed body was draped in a black cloak, the hood only down so that the door guard would recognize the host body. Underneath was a purple tunic with black trim and black pantaloons. On his belt was two weapons: a lightsaber, it’s red blade currently inactive, and a normal sword. The left wrist had a golden bracelet on it, the symbol of the once union between his host and one he had loved, the death of whom allowed the start of the spirit’s eventual take over of this body.

For the first time in since it’s death so many eons ago, the K’Satizitus had a body. But now that victory paled to the threat that now loomed over the spirits continued influence on this plane, perhaps to it’s very existence. Thus is why he had abandoned his attempt to kidnap Silonik: his immediate ‘survival’ was far more important. The question however was how much did the Clan know about it’s weakness? Was the destruction of the skeleton pure chance…or were they preparing even now to destroy the last anchor that allowed him to inhabit this plane?

Mentally he cursed, for the trip here had taken far too long. An apparent recent civil war had occurred during his host’s absence and the mess both on planet and off made travel difficult even for a Trandoshan of noble blood like his host. His only comfort was that the item he so desperately sought now was still intact, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to stand here right now.

What’s taking so long? He thought, starting to lose his patience. The door guard himself seemed to be thinking the same thing, looking like he was considering just opening the gates anyway without the Sha’tor’s word. Perhaps a little mental push….

But then a second Trandoshan entered the guard shack and whispered something in the guard’s earhole. The sudden expression of surprise and horror was all the spirit needed to know: they knew it was not Trazu that controlled this body. He had used Trazu’s voice and mannerisms to announce himself, fooling the guard into thinking all was well with Trazu, but now the gig was up and the spirit knew they wouldn’t open the gates now. Oh well, he would just have to open them himself.

Stretching out his hands, he gripped the first gate with the Force, then tore it off it’s hinges with ease. He then casually threw the gates aside and strode toward the second gate. It amused him that the two occupants of the guard shack had now vacated the shack, no doubt leaving a significant amount of body waste behind.

The second gate would be a more taxing obstacle to get through, as it was made of almost solid durasteel. However everything had a weakness and when he called to he Force again, instead of willing it to rip the gate from it’s foundation, he pushed the two halves of the structure back into the walls. Naturally there was resistance, but a satisfying metallic snap told him the main cylinder that held the gate in position had snapped on one side: a second snap sounded the breaking of the cylinder on the other side. The gates slid back into the recesses of the walls easily then and the K’Satizitus strode onto the grounds proper.

The spirit gave the fearful warriors behind their barricades only a passing glance as he strode past them, fear staying their hands. He made his way to the Great Hall, where Rissonik, Trazu’s sire, stood in his way.

“You are not welcome here spirit.” The middle aged Trandoshan said defiantly. “Begone.”

“I go where I please….” The spirit snarled in his real voice, before grabbing the defiant Trandoshan by the shirt and throwing him to the ground beside him. “Stay out of my way….”

With no one else apparently wanting to try him, he walked unhindered into the Great Hall….

Rissonik had the wind knocked out of him when he was so harshly thrown to the ground. He was surprised, but grateful that was all the spirit did to him. However even more surprising was that the spirit wasn't targeting his grandkids like he thought it would, instead something in the Great Hall had it's interest. As he picked himself off the ground he raised his hand to stay the warriors that were now edging for the Great Hall.

"The rule of the Hall still stands." He reminded them, referring to the 'no fighting' rule that took effect the moment one passed through the threshold of the Great Hall's mightly double doors. The warriors stopped their advance, but their weapons were still raised. One of them, the cyborg Tiskus, snarled impatiently, wanting to test his meddle against the spirit: he was the only one in the crowd however that was so eager to do so.

"Kat is ke doing in kere?" The cyborg asked, stamping one of his ditigigrade metal feet, his cybornitic tail lashing in impatience, nearly knocking a few warriors off their feet.

"I don't know." Rissonik said honestly. "We had many ancient artifacts in there it could be looking for: many of them having gone missing due to our temporary absence."

Just then was a scream of rage, followed by a short, but violent earthquake triggered by the Force. Many people found themselves on the ground or struggling to keep their balance: even Tiskus nearly toppled over.

"Sounds like he didn't find it..." One of the warriors muttered as those that had fallen got back up to their feet.

There was another loud growl and the sound of someone running from within the Great Hall. Tiskus immediately took up position between the doorway and Rissonik, ready to do battle. The moment the possess body of the Sha'tor's son came out of the building, however, Tiskus found himself flying. A couple of unfortunate warriors went with him as he slammed against the wall. He staggered forward a couple of paces, then fell forward, unconscious: the two warriors were slumped against the wall, their continued existence among the living in question. Rissonik had no time to even give an order to see to them, as he suddenly found himself on the ground again, the snarling face of his son in his face, his lilac eyes boring into him with hate and malice: but did he also see a hint of fear?

"Whoro is it?" The spirit growled in Clan Dialect, holding Rissonik slightly up by the shirt.

"Where is what?" Rissonik replied, as calmly as he could. "We had many things of value stolen from the Great Hall in recent months and the grounds are still in disarray as well. What you seek could be anywhere."

"Yea lio!"

"Do I?" Rissonik said with a slight tilt of his head. "Maybe if you told me what you sought..."

"You think I am a fool?" The spirit said in normal Dosh this time. "You know of what I seek and if you will not tell me where it is, I will force the knowledge out of your very mind!"

"Go ahead." Rissonik said boldly. "You'll find I spoke the truth."

Rissonik felt the sensation of a mind other then his own intruding into his head, seeking...clawing at his memories and thoughts. The spirit was not gentle at all with it's search and by the time he was satisfied Rissonik had a Torton sized headache, but he did gain some hints at the spirit's situation. He dare not let that be known while the spirit was still hovering over him.

Fortunately the spirit now seemed to feel it was done here, as he had released his hold on his shirt and straightened up. Without a word he started running, Force pushing warriors out of his way as he went. Then he was gone out the ruined gate entrance.

"Sha'tor, should we follow?" One of the warriors asked as he helped the aching Rissonik back up to his feet.

"No." Rissonik said. "First we must see to our injured. Then have all available K'Satikur and family members meet me in the conference room ASAP. I think I have a clue as to what the spirit was blabbing about."

"Aye Sha'tor."

"Sha'tor!" Silliss said, pointing at the sky. "A ship in trouble. Looks like it's going to crash."

"Crash where?" Rissonik inquired.

"Um..." Silliss' face turned a bit pale. "Looks like it's going to 'land' right on our doorstep...."

"Great....just what we need...."

Everyone took cover where ever they could before the ship crashed. When the dust that was stirred from the impact cleared they came out of their hiding places to see what was left of a Lambda shuttle wedged into the space where the two gates used to be.

"Well, I guess that solves our lack of a door problem." Rissonik grumbled, rubbing his head. "Anyone hurt?"

"Few scrapes and bruises, nothing more due to that Sha'tor." One warrior replied. "However, those two poor souls that got sandwiched between the wall and Tiskus will be in the bacta tanks for a long time. Tiskus seems unharmed though."

"Not that surprised to be honest." Rissonik said. During the debrief soon after Tiskus' initial arrival, the cyborg went into detail on what the Empire did to him. One of those things was replacing the majority of his skeletal structure with hollow durasteel, enabling him to take more damage and become much stronger then a normal Trandoshan. "Well, lets see if any of the crew survived this..."

Rissonik, Silliss and one other warrior approached the shuttle, the cockpit of which was almost completely into the grounds proper. Silliss peered through the tinted cockpit window in an attempt to see inside, but there was no luck: it was effectively a one way window.

"Well, the cockpit itself looks fairly intact." Silliss muttered. "But I'm afriad this ship is totalled."

"If anyone survived the crash they would be in the cockpit." Rissonik concluded. "Which means we need to get inside it."

"Well the normal way someone would go in and out would be from under the cockpit. I can tell right now that's not functional."

"Then we'll make a new way in. Is Tiskus awake?"

"Looks like he just woke up sir." The other warrior replied.

"Go fetch him."

"Aye Sha'tor."

Tiskus was by their side a moment later. The cyborg studied the situation a moment before suddenly thrusting his cyborg arm at the cockpit, striking the place where the window met the hull. It took a couple of strikes, but he punched through. He then repeated the the process along the seam, until two whole sides of the window had been perferated. Then he gripped the window through the holes he had made with both hands and pulled.

The material of the window groaned and twisted, what little of those two sides that were still attached to the hull separating with a snap. Then he yanked the window toward the opposite side, bending and separating the material even more from the hull. When he was done, there was an openning big enough for even Tiskus to climb through.

"One door as requested, Ka'tor." Tiskus said with a broad grin.

"Thank you Tiskus." Rissonik said. "Silliss, if you would..."

"Of course Sha'tor." Silliss said as he started for the openning. However he didn't need to go inside, as the lone surviver was already starting climb her way out: Silliss recognized her immediately. "Lavality!?" The younger warrior exclemed in surprise. "Must you always make a flashy entrance?"

The girl just shrugged the best she could with a small smile. "It's not like I 'plan' these entrances." She said with a chuckle. "Now...where is he?"

"You just missed him." Rissonik said. "He was looking for something in the Great Hall, got really peeved that it wasn't there. Fortunately he didn't take out his frustrations on us too much..." Rissonik rubbed his head, the headache he got from the spirit's mental intrusion still smarting. "..before running off. He is likely heading for the city."

"What was he looking for?"

"Not exactly sure." Rissonik admitted. "However whatever it is, the spirit definately wants back. To safeguard. It's like he feared it's destruction."

"Unfortunately a lot of our artifacts were stolen during our absence." Silliss added. "So this 'thing' could be anywhere, perhaps even off planet."

"Which means we need to find it first. If it means what I think it means, we may at least know how to rid us of the spirit for good. However....we need to know what it is first before we can even start looking."

"Sha'tor." A femimen voice said behind him. Rissonik turned around to see Asri, who was holding the holo player he was listening to the Naboo message with earlier. "I believe I have found the last clue you need." She said, pressing the button to play.

Once agian they heard young Silonik's voice, which Rissonik had only started to listen to when the spirit came to the grounds and had no choice to really listen to it. At first there was only details on how things were going with him at the Academy, then a few details about the spirit's kidnapping attempt the Jedi Master didn't alude on, or was lost due to decay. Finally came this statement: ~He said something in Clan Dialect just before running away. It was...'Tho bedy is geno, enly tho skall romuins'. Something like that...don't know what it means. Do you grandpa?~

The message ended then, the static hinting at massive message decay. At first Rissonik was puzzled by this new clue, then remembered what Varcanna told him after been recovered from being stranded out in the middle of nowhere. "Farfek!" He exclaimed. "The answer, the key had been right under our snorts all this skagging time!"

"Sha'tor?" Silliss asked questioning.

"The skull...it's that damn skull." Rissonik explained. "Varcanna said she destoryed the skeleton of the K'Satizitus in a cave not too long ago, so only the skull we had here on the grounds would have been left. It's the skull that keeps the spirit on this plane....so obvious that we missed it!"

"So what do we do now?"

"Isn't it obvious? Get every available warrior and have them search the city. If they find that skull they have strict orders to destroy it at all costs!"

"With all due respect Sha'tor....the city of Hsskhor alone will take weeks to completely search."

"I am aware of that." Rissonik said with a sigh. "But with luck the spirit will be as clueless as to where to begin as we are. We will have the advantage of numbers over him, thus the chances of finding it first will be in our favor. This may be our only chance to be rid of that thing for good..."

"What will you have me do?" Lavality asked.

Rissonik looked her over carefully. "I was going to ask you to track down and stall the spirit, but with your arm..."

"It's fine, just a bit strained." The girl fibbed.

"You sure? Our medic factualities are operational..."

"I'm fine. I will need transport to Hsskhor though."

Rissonik nodded. "I can have one of the warriors drop you off at a central point in the city. Good luck."

Asri watched as the Clan grounds became a beehive of activity, every able warrior scrambling to their vehicles to start the search for the skull. No one could go anywhere, however, until the ruined Lambda that was wedged in their gateway was removed. Thankfully, Tiskus was able to push it out of the gateway and a stream of swoops and landspeeders streamed out after. In short order the Clan grounds was nearly empty once more, save for the Sha’tor’s family and a few others, including Asri herself.

She stood there a moment, watching as the dust that was kicked up by the speeders slowly settled back to the earth, the holo player still in her hands. The albino Trandoshan was doubtful that they will find the skull before the spirit did: they may have the numbers….but the spirit had the Force to help it. If that skull was really an anchor for it’s essence, it could easily use the Force to find it. The fact that it didn’t already know the skull had been moved from it’s traditional place on the grounds was odd, but the reason came quickly.

It never had to find it’s own anchor before… She thought. For eon’s the skull stood in the same area, where it could be easily found if needed, but now it could be anywhere and the spirit evidently had no idea how to focus the Force on finding it. It will be only matter of time before it does… That meant, they may have far less time then they think to find it, greater numbers or not. If they were to have a chance at beating the spirit to the skull, they needed to know who would have most likely wanted the thing and where he or she would have put it.

“Sha’tor, who would have been most likely to take the skull?” She asked.

Rissonik sighed and shook his head. “During the time of our absence we had many enemies, so it could be any number of people. Plus you got the individuals that loot just because it’s there and not bolted down in during times of crisis.”

Asri too this into consideration as she thought a moment. “With the grounds themselves being about two miles from the nearest building in Hsskhor itself, it’s not very likely random individuals would want to travel that distance just to take a dusty old skull. The other things that were taken had value on the market, but the skull only had value to the Clan itself.”

“Interesting point Asri.” Rissonik said with a nod. “But that still leaves a good number of people.”

“In times past Sha’tor, rivals of Clans were more likely to destroy the heirlooms of their enemies, preferring the heads of the Sha’tors themselves to keep as trophies. Considering what happened not so long ago, we know it wasn’t taken by someone who would have simply destroyed it. Someone wanted to keep it as a prize, at least until they had the heads of the two Separatist leaders on a silver platter.”

“She kas a point Sha’tor.” Tiskus said, who was the only warrior to remain on the grounds. “Ke question now kough….is ko would kave taken it?”

There was a long pause as the question hung between the trio, unanswered, until Rissonik finally spoke. “Hyossk….he was the one that wanted us dead the most.” He said. “And in his increasing insanity it would make sense for him to do such a thing.”

The name of the recently deceased Speaker-Above-All nagged at Asri’s mind, making her brows furrow as she dug through her memories. Beside herself, she started muttering, just loud enough for Rissonik and the cyborg to understand what she was saying. “’Why would he want such an ancient dusty thing? Gives me the creeps just looking at it.’”

“Where did that come from?” Rissonik inquired.

“A soldier…who was in a patrol close to the Council of Elder building.” Asri recalled. “He was griping about how he and a couple of others had to fetch something large and fragile from somewhere for him. I only heard it in passing though…and didn’t think much of it.”

“That would seem to confirm our suspicions Asri. But where would he have put it?”

“Hmm…didn’t Russis state that no one has entered Hyossk’s private quarters since his death? Not even Russis himself?”

“That’s right, he did. He would have wanted it in a place he could display it as a source of pride. Naosha did say he pretty much lived in those quarters….”

“It would be a good place to start looking then.”

“I’ll have some warriors go…”

“No!” Asri said suddenly. “I’ll go. Alone.”

Rissonik raised a brow, though Asri suspected it was more at the tone of her cry of denial rather then her offer.

“To send a group of warriors would only cue the spirit in on the skulls location.” Asri explained. “It likely knows by now the Clan is searching for the skull as well and to give any indication that we have a good idea where it is….”

“I see your point.” Rissonik said. “But why you? You’ve done so much for the Clan already and any one of my warriors is more then capable…”

“The spirit doesn’t know about me.” Asri said with certainty. “I wasn’t out in the open when it was here, didn’t even see him actually.”

“There for the spirit doesn’t know you are part of the Clan.” Rissonik said with a nod, catching on.

“With it focused on trying to find the skull itself…it shouldn’t even give me a second glance, especially if I ‘pretended’ to be really after something…or someone else.”

There was another questioning look from Rissonik, and Asri was forced to explain again. “I…used to work as an assassin.” She said hesitantly. “For the same Sith I told you about before.”

“And your pretend target would be someone on the Council, which is in session right now.” Rissonik concluded.

Asri nodded. “I’ve had a bit of practice making it seem my goals was one thing when it was really another. That was how I was able to….nevermind about that. We are wasting time. If you could, send word to Russis that I am heading his way. I’ll need him to open the chambers.”

Rissonik got a slight sly smile. “Do you want me to let him in on your plan?”

Asri returned the smile. “Up to you.”