Star Wars - Dark Trooper Campaign

Trance hoped that she had taken enough momentum out of his fall so that he would not be injured, and the next moment she felt a brutal punch knocking the air out of her lungs and sending her tumbling several meters backwards. Her lightsaber slipped from her hand and deactivated itself while she rolled over a few times and dropped to the floor, stunned.

Suddenly she felt a strong tremor in the force: The third Sith-Lord, Darth Bellara, had fallen! Master Cyrus seemed to have felt it as well since all of his copies vanished at the same time and only he remained standing in the center of the room.

“He’s vulnerable! Get him!” someone yelled and all attackers started charging at him, but they were stopped in midair by a simple wink of the master’s hand.

“Did you really think I would be dependent on these puppets? Neither for fighting your pitiful little band, nor for completion of the ritual of transcendence did I ever need one of these weaklings. They were good enough as a diversion for you so you would split up your forces.”

“You no longer are in your galaxy, but in my world!” Cyrus continued and pointed to the walls of the spherical room which had become transparent and showed a glimpse of something utterly grotesque: a gargantuan, bloated body of a monstrous being that was dotted with dreadfully gazing eyes and terribly gnawing maws lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth. Everywhere in between tentacles of all sizes and lengths curled back and forth, some of them also bestowed with eyes or maws.

“Behold the glory of my true self and bow down in awe and gratitude as your miserable existence will be ended by me.”

“Never!” screamed Nick Rivers and Raffael Starchaser simultaneously, while Chip had curled up in a corner, covering his head in his hands and screaming as loud as he could.

Trance braced herself. If Chip was able to move maybe some others were free as well. She tried herself and it worked. Also one of the commando troopers seemed to be unaffected by the force grip because he was loading a new power pack into his assault cannon.

Trance however quietly sat up and began meditating. She knew what was about to come and she was determined that she would not fail! All her concentration went into the preparation of two force powers: Absorb Energy and Spirit Link. The latter had been taught to her by the masters of the holocron only weeks ago and she hoped that the elevated level of force power in this sphere would compensate for her lack of training in this technique, so she could at least save her friends. Everything else would be up to them.

She stretched out with the force, felt the room, the Heart of the Eclipse, her friends, her enemy. The force was flowing in such serenity and clarity she had never felt before. The boundaries of time and space dissolved and blurred. She experienced the birth of her daughter Shanta, the joyful moments together with Randell, her time in imperial service, her meeting with Reelo Baruk. She freed the slaves from his cargo and in turn was beaten, chained and raped, but she couldn’t hate him for it.

She relived the moment she took her first lightsaber from the hands of a dead Sith to fight for the light. The second time she was captured and sexually abused, and then how she had volunteered to have her body painfully modified, forever marked as a pleasure slave. How she had faced Darth Deceptius who had tried to seduce her to the Dark Side and whose lightsaber she had absorbed when her powers had fully emerged. Her training, the travels to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. The construction of the holocron for Master Tryan and Master Chi. Everything had led up to this moment.

“You must make a great sacrifice!” Master Chi had prophesied for her and everything had come as foreseen. Now she was ready. There was nothing to regret, nothing to repent. She was one with the force!

“You made such great efforts just to come here and become my last victims before I transcend into your world and feast upon it and every inhabitant”, Master Cyrus continued to mock the group. With a wink of his hand he pushed everyone he had held in his grip through the room and pressed them hard against the outer wall. Many gasped for breath, but the grip on them was still so strong they could not move.

“Now the whole galaxy shall witness your demise!” Cyrus called triumphantly as he walked towards his victims. Trance also started to move, as did the trooper.

“Your end is about to begin!” the dark master announced and without even looking casually pointed a finger towards the commando trooper who had aimed his gun at him. A broad, black beam of energy shot from his hand and tore through the soldier like he was just a piece of paper, burned his outline from existence and let only black ash rain down where the trooper had stood. Cyrus came to a halt and raised his hands.

“Your final moment has come!” he yelled and fired another volley of black energy from his hands.

“No!” Trance cried and leapt in between, hands outstretched defensively in front of her. Pain! Exaggerating pain pulsed through her entire body as she came in contact with the dark energy. She screamed in agony, but she knew that this was the only way. She had seen this moment over and over again, in dreams, visions, meditations. She knew several different outcomes of this encounter and now that the time had come she was determined to let none of those happen where the galaxy would be destroyed.

Suddenly the pain lessened. Cyrus had stopped his dark beam, irritated by her resistance. “What is that?” he asked.

This was her only chance, as she would certainly not stand another blast. Trance concentrated and activated the Spirit Link, let her blue symbol, which consisted of her initials, shine brightly so that everyone in the room could see it.

“Help me!” she whispered. She could not say more, but if Mia remembered her last training lessons with the force she should be able to tell the others what they had to do.

“Concentrate on the symbol!” she heard Mia call out. “Lend Trance all your strength!”

Then Cyrus had regained his composure and started his black beam once again. Trance held against it as best she could, ignoring the pain that suggested her hands, arms and whole body was scorched as if she’d been thrown into a blazing furnace.

But then she sensed one spirit linking to hers. It was Mia. “I’m giving you strength!” she whispered. Then came a second and third. Randrack and Raffael. Then Nick and Su, and finally Frank. Trance felt her resources grow and she put everything directly into the absorb. But Cyrus also powered up his beam and the pain became almost unbearable. The energy beam also pushed her back physically until she almost reached the wall where her friends were still kept suspended.

Then, suddenly there were other beings linking to her. First ten, then twenty, then more. Hundreds, thousands. She sensed soldiers of the New Republic who bravely fought out there aboard their starships. They lent their strength to her, so she could save the galaxy. The more beings concentrated on her link the more power she gained to oppose Master Cyrus, but also her headache grew worse. This must have been the price Master Tryan had mentioned. The pain was already unbearable and it became much worse.

More individuals connected to her link. Trance sensed imperial soldiers who were loyal to the Empress. There were more than one million beings connected to her now. The pain of absorbing the energy of the dark beam had become insignificant compared to the backlash she suffered from combining and focusing the powers of all those individuals.

And more were urging to link in. How was this possible?

“The broadcast!” it occurred to her. That was it! Master Cyrus had been so self-confident of his impending victory that he had broadcast their fight to the whole galaxy and now everyone out there could see her symbol, witnessed her battle, somehow understood that this was their only chance of survival.