[Short Stories] - [Gamer](2)
The leprous green moon hung directly within his navigational circle. Though squeezed and cracked by tidal stresses, Dxun was overgrown with a cancerous covering of wild life-forms, twisted jungles infested with predatory creatures more horrific than any Jedi Knight could ever imagine. Bane had heard of the moon’s long dark side history and hoped to find a place of refuge here on Dxun.
When he looked beside him, he saw that the specter of Lord Qordis had vanished. He breathed a sigh of relief as he began descending into the beast moon’s gravity well, wondering where he would ever find a safe landing place in the nightmare of foliage below. His relief came too soon. “You will not get away unpunished!” Qordis’s words boomed into Bane’s mind. Sparks flew like fire geysers from the Valcyn’s control panel. The engines gasped as if they’d been strangled, then gave out with a disheartening thunk. The damaged craft rattled and shuddered as it dropped through the air like a wedge-shaped stone. All the ship’s systems had gone completely dead.
Bane struggled to reignite his thrusters, attempting to squeeze just a little more energy from the repulsorlifts. The hull heated to a cherry red as the Valcyn tore through Dxun’s atmosphere. Lightning crackled around him. Storm explosions hurled his ship from side to side.
“Curse you, Lord Qordis,” he said in a dry throat.
As the treetops rushed up at him, he fought back his panic, cast away his helplessness, and used a desperate snatch of Sith powers. The dark side energies buoyed his failing craft just enough so that it crashed into the treetops with slightly less than lethal force.
Branches splintered. Leaves burst into flames from the friction of his passage. The Valcyn’s hull tore open, shredded by the sharp boughs. Darth Bane shielded himself with all the Sith power he possessed, forming a cushion against the impact.
The Valcyn broke through the forest canopy and slammed into the soft, mucky ground. The careening spacecraft ripped a long furrow and uprooted trees and plants, setting them afire behind him.
When the ship finally came to rest, Darth Bane found himself intact, though the ship itself would require months to repair - - if he even had the capability at all. Weak, and yet revitalized by the very fact of his survival, Bane pried his way out of the damaged spacecraft. The smoking hull burned his fingers as he climbed free. He dropped to the uneven torn ground.
The lone survivor of the Sith carried a supply pack and his hook-handled lightsaber, nothing more. He stood with his hands on his hips, surveying the furious jungles of Dxun, and contemplated his next step. He would be here a while.
Lightning continued to roar overhead like shattering electric crystal. He stepped away from the crash site into slashing rain in the black of night. He didn’t know where to go… other than away from the ruined Valcyn. The beast moon seemed to be crouching and ready to spring.
Igniting his lightsaber, he trudged into the jungles, using the throbbing blade as a machete against the fang-clawed vines that writhed at him. He sliced through a thicket, but the foliage only grew denser, more resistant. His nostrils flared with anger as he strode forward, hacking with each step.
“You cannot hide out there, Bane.”
He turned to see the avatar of Lord Qordis towering over him, ethereal yet vengeful. Bane lashed out at his dead teacher. “A Sith does not hide.” He struck furiously with the lightsaber again, clearing a large tree in a shower of sparks. “I feel no fear.”
Behind him in the morass of undergrowth, a loud boom ripped through the jungle. A pillar of fire erupted, vaporizing more of the oily foliage. A shockwave from the exploding fuel cells and cracked engine core flattened the forest for a hundred meters around. Smoking shrapnel, hunks of metal hull plates hammered around Bane like a meteor shower. Now, nothing remained of his damaged ship but a smoldering crater sizzling in the cold rain.
Angry, Darth Bane turned to the smug dark side avatar. “I see you don’t intend to make this easy for me.”
“I intend to make it deadly for you.” The evil spirit barked a harsh laugh, then dissolved into the jungle shadows.
Bane shored up his determination and pointedly refused to look back as he pushed into the wilderness of Dxun. He thrashed through the jungle, which never seemed to give him three steps without fighting back. The ground beneath his feet trembled from the moon’s tidal instabilities. Ominous hunting noises filled the jungle, and Bane remained on his guard. He knew the dark and bloody history of this place and was aware of his own peril.
Eons ago, the beast moon of Dxun had shifted in its erratic orbit until it came dangerously close to the parent planet. During the first grazing encounters, the atmospheres of Dxun and Onderon touched and joined, allowing the hideous flying creatures of Dxun to travel across the bridge and fall upon the unsuspecting primitive people of Onderon. The beasts preyed upon the helpless humans, slaughtering them, until the survivors learned to protect themselves. The humans invented weapons, fortified their villages, and trained their fighters to kill the venomous beasts.