Star Wars - Dark Trooper Campaign

Trance Killian already felt the tremor in the force before she saw the force field collapse.

“Now!” she yelled. “This is our chance!”

Tightly gripping her blue-bladed lightsaber she charged forward through the narrow passage that led to the inner sanctum of the imperial flagship “Heart of the Eclipse” with her strike team close behind her.

Two of four Sith-Lords who were supposed to be channeling their powers towards their master Cyrus, had already been annihilated by the joined forces of New Republic and Galactic-Alderaanian Empire. If what Guardian Anpu had told her was true, Master Cyrus should now be sufficiently weakened to be vulnerable. And maybe the third strike team was about to take down another Sith-Lord, which would leave Cyrus but one choice: abort the ritual and defend himself or die trying to finish his dark ritual. Whatever choice he made, it would help them save the galaxy.

For this task Trance had brought along only the best friends and comrades she had found over the years. Mia De’Ore, her Twi’lek co-pilot and apprentice whom she had met during her time as a slave in the service of Chiz’tor the Hutt. Randrack Dalarn, a fellow smuggler who had saved her life on several occasions. Raffael Starchaser, a young and honorable pilot and swordsman with noble heritage who had insurrected against the imperial oppression of his homeworld. Su, an ambitious Wroonian pilot who strongly believed in the force, although she could not feel it herself. Captain Nick Rivers, an ex-imperial ace fighter pilot who had become one of her most trusted companions over the years. Frank Miller, 3^rd grade tech-engineer who was a technical genius despite his low rank and who had fixed up her ship on numerous occasions. Chip, a droid-engineer and good friend of Randrack. Last, but not least Ambassador Vengalor, a mysterious alien who had accompanied Trance during her quest to fully develop her force powers and who had also served the New Republic on several diplomatic missions.

Jedi-master Luke Skywalker had been with them and had brought along a few of the best commandos that the New Republic could offer, but he himself had been cut off from the group by Inquisitor Vengeanar who had lured him into a duel. The Sith-Lord had also stalled their progress and forced them to take a time-consuming detour. Nothing was lost, though, as the force field had only dissolved after Darth Faminis and later Darth Maladis had taken their final breath.

Now the group entered a huge spherical room roughly 200 meters in diameter. The floor had been filled up with a solid, yet transparent substance for about 20 meters high, thus creating a fairly large even space where the team spread out. In the center of the floor Master Cyrus stood, hands raised and channeling a purple force lightning arc up towards the center of the sphere. There, the dreaded artifact known as the “Heart of the Eclipse”, just like the flagship that was named after it, hung suspended in midair: an almost spherical shaped, purple crystal bigger than the size of a humanoid head. This crystal not only dominated the whole room visually, but Trance immediately felt that it also controlled the flow of the force within the sphere and it also multiplied it’s strength significantly – not only for Cyrus, but for anyone nearby.

“This is it, Cyrus!” Trance called out when everyone had taken their positions. “Game over!”

His dark, guttural laugh echoed through the giant sphere and was reflected back by the walls. Glowing red eyes pierced the darkness below his cowl, and even from the distance Trance could smell his foul breath.

“Do you really believe that you can win against me that easily?” taunted the Sith-master while finishing the channeling of his force lightning.

“We outnumber you by at least ten!” someone called.

“Oh, do you?” Cyrus smiled and activated some hovering holocams that were circling around the large sphere. “Then let us make sure the whole galaxy is watching their greatest heroes fail, so that everyone can prepare to die afterwards.”

Then he drew his lightsaber and activated it. Trance was alarmed as she realized that it had an ebon blade that was glowing with some strange illumination nonetheless. Master Chi had told her about powerful Sith artifacts known as “darksabers” which were said to be a physical manifestation of the pure Dark Side.

Master Cyrus did not attack with his darksaber, though. Instead, he concentrated and his outlines seemed to waver and multiply. Seconds later almost 20 duplicates of himself appeared – one for each attacker. The team members cursed and yelled in astonishment while Trance frantically tried to use the force to find the real Cyrus amidst all these copies. She stretched out with her feelings, could sense her surroundings better and clearer than ever before, her friends, their auras, their emotions, their fears. But from Cyrus she felt nothing like it, only unending hunger, and not limited to a single body. This meant that these were not merely illusions, but physical copies of him. Was he powerful enough to mass-manipulate matter or was his mind capable of controlling so many actual bodies at once?

Following an unseen command the copies charged forward and engaged the attackers in single combat. Trance also received an opponent that attacked her with his lightsaber, but with such speed and ferocity that under normal circumstances she would have had trouble keeping up with it for more than just a few seconds. It seemed that something inside this room enhanced her powers to an extent that she could effortlessly dodge and parry and even go offensive. From the corner of her eye she witnessed her friends and comrades dealing with their doppelgangers of the dark master. Mia bravely fought with her lightsaber, although her movement was still rough and insecure. Nick and Raffael had engaged their clones in melee combat while the engineers tried to stay in the back and rummaged through their toolboxes for helpful gadgets. Su and Randrack successfully kept their clones at blaster distance. Vengalor alone seemed to enjoy himself cutting with his archaic sabre through the lines of the doppelgangers like they were only thin air. But for every defeated clone two new arose, and in the end he, too, was surrounded and outnumbered.

A scream echoed through the chamber. It came from one of the commando troopers after his copy of Master Cyrus had severed his forearm with the lightsaber. The screaming abruptly ceased as the darksaber also cut his head from his body. Instead the Sith’s evil laughter was heard.

“You don’t stand a chance against me”, he mocked triumphantly. “One by one you will perish!”

“Where does he get such power?” Randrack asked.

“From there!” Trance pointed at the purple crystal which pulsated every time a new construct was created.

“All right, let’s do this!” Randrack said and ignited his jetpack to rocket-jump up to the Heart of the Eclipse.

“No, wait!” Su and Trance screamed simultaneously, but it was already too late.

Randrack reached the pulsating crystal and touched it. A purple glow washed over his entire body and he screamed as loud as he could. Seconds later he let go and dropped backwards to get clear of the crystal, but when he ignited his jetpack to decrease speed, an explosion rippled through the mixery of combat sounds and he was hurled towards the ground with his jetpack on fire.

Trance looked over to Vengalor. She knew that he was able to use the force because she had seen him wield it on several occasions, even though she could not feel him in the force. But the tall alien seemed to be locked in his battle frenzy slicing copy after copy of the dark master, that he seemed oblivious to the fares of his comrades.

It was up to Trance to do something. She stretched out her hand in a gesture towards Randrack and also reached out with the force, holding him, decelerating his fall. And it worked! She felt that he slowed down and was ready to safely set him down on the ground when her danger sense triggered. She had forgotten her attacker! Instinctively she raised her blue lightsaber to parry his black blade and barely managed to do so. But because of that her concentration was broken and Randrack fell the last meters to the ground.