Private Love and Corruption - The Library of Ashur

[Hawk Hinata]

The Library of Ashur materialised in a quiet region of the Outer Rim. Upon a dark pedestal, the Archivist plunged blue hands into a dark mass of liquid before him and manipulated it until a dozen dark orbs floated in a representation of the solar system the octahedral vessel now occupied. The black liquid ran like veins up the arms of the Archivist; creeping up his neck and across his face, until with a groan of pain it seeped into his eyes turning them as dark and cold as space itself.

"My Lord Archivist, three vessels approach."

"Are they a threat?" The Archivist's voice reverberated from the walls but he did not look from his dark solar system to the one knelt at the foot of his pedestal.

"No my Lord, the technology of this galaxy appears to be vastly inferior and stagnant." Replied the other of the same strange blue skinned species.

"Than catalogue them and do not disturb me."

"Yes my Lord."

Three Hutt cartel war yachts approached the giant octahedral vessel, their warnings had gone unheeded and the strange ship had not left Hutt space. The lead ship fired a warning shot but there was no response. The three Hutt vessels accelerated to attack speed, but then a pulse of energy rippled through the octahedral alien craft and red energy crackled like lightning, striking each of the three ships and disabling them instantly.

The eight faces of the Library of Ashur slid open and a single Hutt yacht was pulled inside. A second pulse of red energy destroyed the remaining two ships. Only one vessel was needed for cataloguing.
The eight faces closed with an ominous finality as scans were taken of the Hutt ship and the data entered into the archives. The Hutt creatures within were then extracted and processed in much the same way.

"We demand you release us immediately!" One of the Hutt raged at the silent door from the enclosure they were contained within.

"Specimens are studied, archived and then then the enclosure is sterilised." A robotic voice entoned. "Rejoice that your likeness will be recorded within the Library of Ashur as a record of your species."

"What do you mean sterilised? Do you know who we are?" The Hutt blustered a shrill of fear in his voice.

"Sterilisation involves the disintegration of all organic matter within the enclosure. You are Hutt. Archive complete. Sterilisation in 3...2...1"

There was no time for the Hutt to scream as a flash of bright white light swept through the enclosure, and then they were gone.

Back upon the dark pedestal the Lord Archivist continued to manipulate the black liquid. The sculpted planets of the solar system were now orbiting a central dark mass that represented the system's star. The Lord Archivist reached out a black lined blue finger and touched the first planet in the system. It floated out of its orbit, and indeed so did the first plant itself.

"First planet 100% catalogued. Planetary topography and species entered into archives. Planet unsynchronised from solar orbit for sterilisation in 3...2...1"

A brilliant flash of white lit up the solar system as the entire first planet was vaporised in the blink of an eye.
____________________

Hawk woke with a start. There had been a great disturbance in the force. He had felt no fear or other such emotion, yet billions of lives had simply ceased to exist.
The Jedi Master stumbled out of bed clutching at his head and reaching for the flask at his bedside that would contain hot tea, but even as he did so he was struck by another such disturbance in the force and collapsed to his knees. What was happening?

"Kat!" He called across the hallway of the Phoenix before quickly finding a sink in the galley to throw up into.

The two had set out from Coruscant some days ago after Torshin's trial. As Hawk had hoped, the courts had decided to turn him over to Jedi custody, and the leaders of the Jedi Orders were testing and deciding what to do with his students. The last few days had been quiet. They both had a lot of reflecting and meditating to do.
Hawk had promised himself that he would give Kat some space (As much as one could aboard an old freighter anyway). He had, for the most part, failed at this spectacularly. It was like he was drawn to her, and he would always find her when he least expected it and stare at her with adoration like a complete dope before remembering what he was there to do. Somehow he would reach for the same item she did and their hands would touch, his fingers lingering upon hers for a moment before withdrawing. Mealtimes were especially difficult. Hawk had always fought to embrace his emotions so that he could better control them, but love was a law unto itself and would not easily be ignored, even for the right reasons. In all, Hawk Hinata was just as awkward at the beginning of love as anybody else...with the slight added complications of having had to fight a dark god; his Mandalorian zealots; hordes of demons, and Kat's evil twin to make it interesting.

"Kat!" He yelled again as a third shock through the force threatened to tear his head apart with pain. "Are you feeling this?" He asked uselessly knowing no one even remotely force sensitive would not be feeling it.

Hawk regained his breath and tried to focus his mind. He had to shut these waves of death and destruction out. Peace fell over him in an instant. The discipline of his own mind total. Almost like a switch, Hawk shut out his attunement to the rest of the galaxy. He hoped there would be no more of threse waves, but if there were he at least would not now be able to feel them as he had.

"Close your mind to them Kat, we can do nothing to help merely by sharing their deaths." His voice was calmer now and he looked to the door to the room Kat had been using to see if she would emerge.

 

[KitKatt]

Everything was dark and smelled of ash. The floor was littered with smoldering remains. Everywhere she looked she could see cracks in the black surface where red magma was shining through. Then she felt the pain. Terrible pain. The agony was building. It would surely kill her.

Kat sat up in bed suddenly and looked around. She was alone aboard the Phoenix. She buried her head in her hands and fought back tears until a sudden great disturbance drove everything else from her mind.

Her door slid open and she crossed the small open area to the room where Hawk slept. She could see him watching.

“What is happening?”

She was rubbing her head, which was now throbbing with the effort of tuning out such pain.

“You don’t think… another Death Star?”

It had been the only other time she had felt such a thing. She had been young and didn’t understand what it meant but the history and stories had helped her figure it out. Surely the galaxy was past all that now?


Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

"I don't think there's a faction with the resources or desire to create such a weapon," Hawk mused in response as his usual calm settled back over him.

It was hard to push the thought of billions dying from one's mind as they conversed about it, but there was nothing to be gained by panicking or rushing headlong into a dangerous situation without any information.

Of course, there was always the chance that this was a natural disaster. If a star had gone supernova in or near to an inhabited system than it would have wiped out all life within it. A feeling of great foreboding in Hawk's gut told him that this was not the case however.

"R4, activate satellite network protocol Omega and scan for unusual energy spikes."

"Beep beep bop whir whistle woo."

"I'm aware that it is illegal to commandeer civilian and military satellites and that breaching other faction networks will cause a galactic incident. They can arrest me later," Hawk stated lofting an amused eyebrow.

Satellite network protocol Omega was a signal that reprogrammed nearby satellites which in turn relayed the signal to others in a chain reaction. It temporarily connected them into one huge galactic network. The signal had been developed by the galactic powers after the Yuuzhan Vong had last infiltrated the galaxy and classified to the highest degree. Only the leaders of the galactic powers had knowledge of and access to the protocol, and seeing as the Phoenix had been lost with him the command codes it carried had never been repealed. Hawk only hoped enough satellites in the network were old enough to respond to the protocol, as he doubted the new galactic powers would have extended an agreement meant to detect the incursion of a threat not seen for centuries.

R4 got to work and a few tense moments passed as nothing happened. Then, one by one, small lights lit up on a projected image of the galaxy as numerous old satellites began to respond to the signal. Before long a network grip had swept much of the galaxy, the core worlds more sparsely lit than those further out. No doubt the poorer worlds outside of the core were replacing sattelites less frequently.

"There!" Hawk exclaimed as a red spot appeared within the map. "R4, zoom to that sector and isolate the system of origin for that energy surge."

The map shimmered and zoomed until it had focused upon a small planetary system deep within the outer rim. Information scrolled alongside it. The system fell within Hutt space and was a link within the spice trade network.

"I can't imagine the Hutt developing a superweapon," Hawk pondered. "I can't scan any closer with the satellites. We're going to have to go there."

An alarm suddenly sounded and Hawk smiled as a communication came through and a holographic figure replaced the map.

"You are in breach of galactic law, how did you gain access to our sattelite system?" The figure asked hotly.

"Do you know who I am?" Hawk asked.

"Not yet, but we will find you soon enough."

"Excellent," Hawk grinned again. "R4, scramble the signal and get rid of this individual."

The hologram fizzed and the map returned. No doubt others would soon discover their networks had been hijacked and the last thing they needed was to be impeded by the authorities. Hawk killed the Omega signal and the map disappeared.

"I guess that makes us outlaws now," Hawk chuckled and shot Kat a wink as he set the coordinates for the system with the energy spike and the Phoenix lurched into hyperspace.

___________________

Meanwhile the faces of the octahedral vessel closed and the remainder of the system was sterilised. The Lord Archivist peered out at the star that sat central to a now dead system and smiled. The Library of Ashur would aquire the data from every system in this galaxy and preserve it. Planets that had been colonised like those within this system would be vaporised while planets where life had originated would merely be cleansed of higher lifeforms, allowing life a chance to start again.
The Library consisted of countless thousands of such octahedral vessels, each dispatched to different galaxies when the time came to reset them. Galaxies that had existed in conflict and unheaval for thousands of years were scheduled for cleansing by the Archive Council; destroyed before their evil could extend beyond and disturb the intergalactic peace. Some had the technological power to resist, but in the end resistence always proved futile. The might of the galactic Library; the Archivist fleet, was unsurpassed.

"My Lord," the junior archecist's voice cut through his thoughts. "Hyperspace travel within this galaxy appears to be restricted to a network of lanes. We shall have to reassess our schedule."

"Truly this is a backward galaxy," The Lord Archivist sighed as the enormous vessel entered hyperspace.

 

[KitKatt]

Hutt space? Kat doubted the Hutts had super weapons, and smiled when Hawk said the same thing she was thinking. Sometimes it was easy to forget they were friends and life wasn’t just a series of missions strung together. The thought was comforting but made her realize they needed a vacation.

“I can't scan any closer with the satellites. We're going to have to go there.”

“Fine but next time I choose where we go on the honeymoon.”

She watched the maps and the hologram appear and disappear and soon they were off.


—————————————————
((Got interrupted by student so this is short and sweet ))

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hyperspace swirled around them and Hawk reclined in his chair and sipped at a mug of steaming tea. Only a few months had passed since the day he had seen Kat get taken by the Mandalorians in the market Square, but what a few months they had been.
The Jedi Master had returned to a galaxy that remembered him only in semi-accurate documentaries and wildly exaggerated movies; as well as one or two eyebrow raising anime series that he had been both amused and appalled by. One thing he had not returned to however was the role of leadership. For the first time in an awfully long time, the fate of the galaxy had not rested upon his shoulders. It had been very liberating. Hawk had set out to wander the galaxy, making the small differences in the lives of people rather than galactic decisions that affected whole worlds. This was something he had done as a young a Padawan when his Master had allowed him to go on "Less important missions". There was nothing less important about them in Hawk's mind and he volunteered for every one he could get. This eventually earned him the nickname 'Protector of the small', perhaps spoken in a mocking tone by those who thought the missions beneath them.

It had been a simpler time, but it had not lasted. In a few short years he had been propelled to the position that the documentaries and movies focused upon, the small missions that made a difference to the few overshadowed by the crushing responsibility of leadership.
Perhaps Kat was right. Maybe the galaxy did need him. For it seemed now that it had brought them both together in this time to face great evil. Tenebris, Daxium, and now some unknown enemy capable of destroying worlds. Perhaps they were both cursed with a restless destiny. A small smile curved at the edge of Hawk's lips as he peered at Kat over the rim of his mug and took a moment to appreciate the beautiful woman with whom he seemed doomed to serve destiny's whim. It's not all bad, he reminded himself.

"Oh our honeymoon? Is that a proposal my love?" Hawk began to laugh, but the laugh died on his lips as the Phoenix exited hyperspace.

Sensors began to go haywire and alarms began to sound. The system was in complete disarray. The planets were gone. There was no large debris; only an endless black ocean of the finest grains of what looked like sand. The planets had been destroyed utterly and reduced to this dust.

"What could have done this?" Hawk gasped rhetorically as he struggled to comprehend the magnitude of the destruction.

Hawk sad seen the devastation of superweapons before, but an entire solar system of a dozen worlds and their moons reduced to dust in such a short space of time...was staggering.

Another alarm sounded as the Phoenix's sensors picked up a small fleet of vessels. Nine small ships emerged from behind the system's star and were making their way towards them. Scans indicated three fighters and six cargo vessels. This wasn't an attack fleet.

"This is Hutt flotilla Seska 9, identify yourself or we will open fire."

"Greetings Seska 9, I am Jedi Master Hawk Hinata and I am accompanied by Jedi Master Katarine Ryiah. Can you tell me what happened here?"

"We don't normally see Jedi out here on the Outer Rim, and no, the flotilla returned to find the system destroyed. We did pick up a large vessel exiting the system as we returned, so we hid the flotilla behind the star in case it returned."

"We sensed the destruction and followed satellite scans of the energy that did it. It was wise of you to hide. Can you send your sensor readouts of the large vessel you picked up leaving the system?"

"The Hutt do not work with Jedi..."

"The Hutt just encountered a foe that destroyed twelve planets and their moons without breaking a sweat, so the Hutt might want to rethink their policy on cooperation." Hawk yelled with exasperation. "I imagine you have other populated systems nearby?"

The Hutt on the viewscreen visibly paled at Hawk's implication that other worlds might be in danger.

"I see your point Jedi. I will send our scans to you now."

The data scrolled across the comm and the Phoenix translated it from Huttese to galactic basic before using the data to render a holographic image of the vessel the Hutt had detected. The ship was huge, perhaps half the size of a death star, but of a strange octahedral design. The rest of the readouts were very confused. The composition of the ship's hull was unknown. The energy readouts might have been engines, shields or weapons, the computer couldn't make sense of the design. It was something entirely unknown and completely different to anything encountered before.

"What do we do now Jedi, where do we go? I have families on board."

"The Outer Rim territories are not safe, you must head toward the core." Hawk told them before turning to Kat. "We must give them a transponder code that will allow them to arrive in the core as refugees and so the authorities will believe their story, do you think you could take R4 to interface with their computer?"

 

[KitKatt]

She smirked at his question about marriage. Her first marriage had been a disaster, but at least now she knew why. Not that it made it any easier to deal with. Sometimes answers brought more pain than the questions did.

Kat had her face buried in her datapad as they traveled, but she wasn't really reading anything. What she was really doing was watching Hawk sip his tea with complete content on his face. He seemed so accepting of whatever the galaxy threw at him. It was a stillness she did not know. Her mind was plagued with questions and fears. What was she? Why was she different than the other humans of the galaxy when all of her medical scans read as human? Was she dangerous? This last question was perhaps the one that kept her agitated. She had sent her twin to another place with a wave of her hand. Surely that type of power could not be trusted in the hands of anybody, let alone her? So many would kill for abilities like that, but all Kat wanted was for them to go away and let her serve the galaxy in peace.

Is that really what you want?

Her eyes narrowed slightly as the familiar voice of her twin spoke to her through their connection. Now that he was here in this timeline she could feel him so easily, and apparently that meant not a moments peace in her mind. She pushed her hair out of her face and rubbed her forehead. It had been throbbing ever since the events at Torshins Temple, but she did not know why.

Her deep green eyes flitted back to Hawk and she sighed. Maybe she wasn't meant to be a stoic champion of light. Maybe she would be a ball of nervous energy with an unclear future and and uncertainty about her life until the day she died. Life was anything but simple but Jedi were supposed to be calm, controlled, poised for action without anticipation.

Then maybe you shouldn't be a Jedi

Katarine groaned in frustration but luckily this was covered up by their departure from hyperspace. They had landed in a cloud of dust and particles that dripped with sadness and death. A small flotilla survived and Hawk eloquently pointed out they needed help. How were two Jedi supposed to stop something that could wipe an entire solar system out of existence? Well... one of those Jedi was Hawk Hinata.... she supposed anything was possible with him on board.

"Aye aye captain. Come on tin man."

She got to her feet and R4 buzzed after her, probably objecting to the new nickname. A few moments latter they were being greeted by a large Zygerrian male in golden armor.

"Master Jedi, an honor to have you aboard. My name is Saji, and I am to help you with whatever you need while you are aboard."

Oh good, a babysitter. The Hutts were very suspicious of Jedi. Some things never changed. "Thank you Saji. R4 can help set you up with a transponder code to get you to the core."

"Where in the core do you think is best?"

"I would suggest Lujo. Several refugees have made homes there. It's a large planet with a lot of open space. If it is unfit for you I am sure delegates from The New Jedi Order can help you find a better place."

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Once Kat had departed, Hawk stared morosely at the image of the octahedral vessel as the hologram slowly rotated before him. Something about the design nagged at the back of his mind, but for the life or him he could not think of what it was. Surely something of this magnitude would not leave his memory so easily? The Jedi sipped at his tea and considered the possibilities. A moment later and Hawk winced with pain and lifted a hand to his nose where blood dripped freely. What had he been doing? He couldn't remember.
A frown crossed Hawk's face and he shook his head to clear it. What was wrong with him? Perhaps he wasn't used to the fast pace after spending his time wandering since returning to the galaxy. Or maybe he was simply tired. Or maybe you got frozen for centuries; had a dark god claw through your brain; made an unstable dyad; died momentarily, and had a part of your essence potentially destroyed in the Crystal Hall, added a small but irritatingly rational voice at the back of his mind.

Hawk switched off the holographic projection and rubbed at his eyes before casting a look around for R4. He got up from his seat and peered around the corner to see if the little droid was rolling around by the hyperdrive coils -he liked to do that - but he wasn't there.

"Kat?" Hawk called into the empty ship as pain lanced through his brain again and confusion filled his mind.

The Jedi Master staggered and braced himself against the bulkhead as his vision swam.

"Kat," he mumbled again before sagging to the deck unconscious.

 

[KitKatt]

Katarine was in the middle of a sentence with the captain when she felt something from Hawk. She jerked her head towards the Phoenix, and those gathered with her frowned.

"Something wrong?"

"Yes. Take me back to my ship. Do you have a medic on board?"

"We have a field medic, but no full doctor."

"I'll take what I can get."

A few moments latter found Kat hovering in the back while the medic examined Hawk. As far as the medic could see there was nothing physically wrong with him, except a bloody nose. Kat knelt down beside Hawk and reached out to him in the Force. Perhaps this was a mission they would skip. Surely there was some other Jedi that could handle this. Hawk needed rest and possibly a skilled medical provider. She would just have to convince him of that when he woke.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

"Hawk!...Hawk!...Are you hiding in the condensers again?"

Hawk was hiding in the condensers again, and he groaned as his mother's voice floated over the farm. If she was looking for him than that meant one of two things. Either chores, or he was in trouble; but either way he was going to have to leave the cool of the condensers and face the glare of the twin Tatooine suns.
Grudgingly, Hawk's head peeked above the cooling pits where the warm moist air was pumped allowing the extraction of the moisture from it. Moisture wasn't the primary product of their farm, but it would have cost significantly more to buy the water for their livestock than to produce it themselves.

"I'm here mum, what is it?"

The young boy's eyes fixed on his mother's face and he smiled as she spotted him, however his smile faded as a shadow seemed to fall over her and a concerned frown creased her forehead as her gaze shifted beyond him.

"Stay where you are for a bit and stay quiet..."

Hawk followed her gaze and saw a line of dust streaking its way across the desert. Landspeeders.

"The Masters," a voice in his ear made him jump.

"Don't do that!" Hawk hissed at his brother. "They're not my masters either Kyte."

Kyte grinned but Hawk did not see in the gloom of the cooling pit. There had been a time when Hawk would have been able to sense him approach, but he had learned to mask himself. He had learned many things of late, practicing using his abilities. Mother still thought a pack of anooba had killed the two eopie she had found mutilated and dismembered, but it had been him. He had killed them with his powers, and what's more, he enjoyed it.

"You wouldn't say that if old Zigzag were standing here with his whip," Kyte nudged his younger brother.

"He's not my master, but I'm not so stupid like you to go looking for a beating."

Hawk could not see the look of hurt that crossed Kyte's face at his words, but he was too young to understand that the masters enjoyed their cruelty and if they were beating Kyte they weren't beating him.

"I'm not as stupid as you think little brother," he sighed and placed an arm across Hawk's shoulder.

Another presence filled his mind and the world froze around him. The presence did not fit with this world...this memory. It was from a time and place both so very far away.
____________________

Hawk's eyes cracked open and they rolled back in his head for a moment as they adjusted to the light in the room. There were more people present than he recalled having been present on his ship when he collapsed. Kat was by his side and another individual, who was clearly a medic of some form, immediately began shining a light in his eyes and holding instruments to his chest.

"I'm fine thank you Doc," Hawk insisted and rose to a sitting position, his head swimming but his resolve to not show it won through.

"I can find no injury Master Jedi, but if I had not scanned you and found nothing I would have diagnosed a stroke, you should rest."

"Rest from the nothing you found?" Hawk enquired a little more harshly than he intended, but the doctor chortled unabashed. "We can't stay in this system Kat," Hawk groaned and stood; not quite able to stand without swaying but neither did he fall. "The gravitational mechanics of this system are unstable. It is likely that this debris will collapse toward the star, and we don't want to be dragged along with it."

 

[KitKatt]

Kat watched Hawk struggle to stand and winced as the doctor said stroke. Was that what this was?

“Master Jedi.. We really need to get the families aboard somewhere safe.”

“Yes of course. Thank you for your help.”

“I mean it… he should rest.”

Kat saw the medic out while Hawk stated they could not stay in this system.

“You’re right. Strap in. We will make our way towards Kashyyyk.” The Silver Jedi Order had a team of healers that could take care of Hawk. They also had other Jedi who could investigate this problem wile Hawk took a rest … at least if she could convince him to go.

And if he makes it that far

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

"Kashyyyk!" Hawk proclaimed. "Kat, I'm fine, but if we delay our investigation other worlds will pay the price. The word is out and help will come, but we need to do what we can because we are here."

Hawk knew she was concerned about his health, and if he were honest with himself he was not unperturbed by the episode he had experienced, but he could not abandon his duties when their help was so clearly needed. Hawk took a breath and his face softened.

"I'll go straight to my quarters and have a rest if you and R4 try to track down that octahedral nightmare. It must have left quite the energy signature on the hyperspace lanes...oh, and if you find it, activate the cloak before pursuing it," he smiled from the doorway and blew her a kiss.

The corridor filled with gas as Hawk made his way to his room to rest, or was it smoke? Hawk sucked in a quick breath and held it just in case...only then thinking that this meant he could not call back to Kat. He turned and the front of his ship was gone; replaced by a wall of swirling flames. He frowned and turned back to the corridor.
The way ahead seemed unfamiliar, but then, Hawk could not recall where he was or indeed why he was there; only the fact he was surrounded by smoke and holding his breath.

The scene melted away as Hawk's vision blurred, but then he was back in the condesner pit shrugging off his brother's arm and shushing him as the plume of dust from the speeder bikes blew past them and the sound of their engines reverberated off the cooling tanks.

The brother's watched as the riders shoved their mother aside and entered the main building. It was the same every time they came. They took what they wanted and revelled in their cruelty. Hawk's little fists were clenched tightly at his side and tears of anger and frustration spilled silently from his eyes as his mother's screams filled the air.

"I'll kill them all one day," Kyte snarled. "And I'll do it slowly."

"You'll be no better than them then," Hawk told him. "Mum says..."

"To hell with what mum says you soft idiot, they'll go too far one day and kill her you know..."

"Stop it!" Hawk shouted and swiped a hand at Kyte's head in a slap.

"Quiet! Old Zigzag might hear you and..."

A grizzled hand appeared beneath the condensers and gripped hold of Kyte's shirt, and he was lifted clear as if he weighed no more than a feather.

"War yer hidin' under there fer lad?" came the unmistakable thick drawl of Zigzag.

Hawk shrank further into the shadows and peered up into the scarred face of the slaver brute. A thick scar zigzagged across his face for which he had so creatively been nicknamed. The scar ran across his left and now sightless eye, which seemed to roam of its own accord casting demented milky stares in all directions. His one good eye was almost black and had Kyte fixed with an animalistic glint of barely contained excitement. The scar divided his lips vertically and made his smile an uneven and frightening grimace.

"I was hoping not to have to look at your ugly mug today," Kyte responded calmly. "I only had breakfast an hour ago and in your case that's really not long enough."

Zigzag wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed so it took him a long moment to mull through Kyte's insult before he fully understood it.

"Yer mus' love a good thrashin' boy," Zigzagged hissed and raised his fist.

"Well, you do so much seem to enjoy touching little boys..."

Kyte didn't finish his next insult before Zigzag's knuckles broke his nose.

Hawk watched the beating without blinking. Not once did Kyte cry out, which clearly enraged Zigzag further. Waves of pain, anger and hatred poured off his brother until finally Zigzag stopped, breathing heavily and knuckles dripping with Kyte's blood.
The boy lay still and Zigzag moved closer to him; leaning down to see whether he had killed him. Kyte moved so fast that Hawk almost missed it. Zigzag reared up clutching at his face. He span on his heel and Hawk saw a condenser runoff spike embedded upto the base in his good eye.
Zigzag mumbled something incoherent and sagged to the ground dead. The strangest sound then followed. It was the sound of clapping.

"Well I'll be damned, you've got some stones on you kid," a voice laughed and a shadow fell across Kyte from where Hawk watched. "Zigzag always was slow and stupid. Did you know he got his scar from sticking his head into a Rancor pit to see if he had dropped his sand goggles?" The voice chuckled lightly. "Of course the goggles were on top of his head and the Rancor was none too pleased to see his ugly face. He was always ugly, even before the Rancor."

Hawk could not believe what he was hearing. Kyte had not only just murdered Zigzag, but he had been caught doing so...but far from being angry the person seemed rather pleased.

"Come on lad, let's get you cleaned up, I'm sure the boss can find some use for you,"
____________________

Hawk blinked and his eyes focused upon the door to his room back aboard the Phoenix. He appeared to have walked there but did not remember doing so. A drop of blood fell from his nose and he caught it before it hit the floor. The door slid open before him and he stepped in, quickly grabbing a tissue to stem the flow.

"I'm fine," Hawk repeated to himself before jumping onto his bunk and closed his eyes.

 

[KitKatt]

Kat scowled as Hawk disappeared without letting her argue. There was something wrong. She could feel it in him. He was so focused on saving the galaxy he was going to get himself killed.

isn't that what Jedi do?

Don’t you have a pit to crawl out of?


She felt a flare of anger, but if it was hers or her twins she could not tell. Either way it shut him up and let Kat take the controls for an energy scan.

“R4 hail any Jedi vessels you can find and alert them that we have a Jedi Master who is in need of medical care. They will have to come to us.”

The little droid beeped in an argumentative way and Kat gritted her teeth.

“I realize that wasn’t what Master Hinata told us to do. I am going to do the energy scan. You send my message.”

She watched the droid roll back to one of the terminals and sighed. Maybe she could take that thing apart and rewrite its programming. The thought made her smirk. Kat wasn’t the best with technology. Her home planet was still in the iron ages and anything she had learned from the Jedi was now a thousand years out dated.

At least Hawks ship was of her era so the energy scan went easier than she anticipated. Sure enough there was a clear path to follow. It was leading towards Zygwria, as if whatever was working the galaxy was circling it from the outer rim, moving more towards the core with each pass.

She set a course to follow and remembered to cloak the ship. Hopefully someone would meet them there to look at Hawk.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

"Greed is a disease endemic to the universe Threoren," The Lord Artificer spoke to his assistant as he stared at the alien world that occupied the view from his window. "So few worlds in so few galaxies are not infected. I don't remember the last time the Library identified a galaxy that did not require cleansing."

"It is true my Lord, the scarcity of resources drives so many to hoard what they have."

"Yes, we all understand need Threoren, but greed goes beyond that. It is the desire for more and more when you have more than you could ever need and those around you go without."

"It is a difficult concept to understand Lord," Threoren bowed.

"Be thankful that it is an alien concept to our galaxy and our species did not spend millenia killing one another."

The world of Zygerria span slowly, unaware that its impending doom floated just beyond its orbit. No doubt they would have detected the vessel entering the system, but they could not know of its intent.

"Twelve vessels from the surface my Lord. I suggest we scan and cleanse them all. We can catalogue what we need for the records from the surface before we cleanse the system...Another..."

"Another what Threoren?"

"I thought I picked up another ship approaching from behind my Lord, but I was mistaken."

The Lord Archivist narrowed his eyes and stalked across the dais he stoop upon to stare out of a rear facing window, as if his gaze could penetrate the millions of miles of darkness that stretched out around them to see a hidden ship.
____________________

The Phoenix arrived in the system and immediately cloaked. The change in engine harmonics as they transitioned from hyperdrive to sublight engines roused Hawk from his sleep. The Jedi had slept without dreams, for which he was thankful. It was unlikely that if he had dreamt that the dreams would have been pleasant.

A few minutes later and Hawk reentered the bridge area of the ship. His memory seemed to be working fine, and he had not woken up confused and bleeding again. The lights were dim as the Phoenix ran on as little power as it could so as not to be detected beneath the cloak. They drifted with the engines making only brief and minute course adjustments when needed, but Hawk took in very little or this as he walked slowly to the viewscreen and gaped at the octahedral vessel that slowly grew as the neared.

"I think this is probably close enough," he commented.

It seemed that they had not detected them yet, but they did not know what kind of sensor technology this shis possessed and for how long they would remain hidden if they got too close.

Beyond the octahedral vessel, Hawk could see a number of smaller ships emerging from the planet's surface. A small fleet of corvettes and fighter craft on an intercept course.

The side panels of the alien ship began to open elongating it into a sinister array of pointed appendages that made Hawk think of bat's. Red energy pulsed along the appendages like blood in pumping through veins, and then a terrifying display of red lightning forked across the distance and destroyed the small fleet in the blink of an eye.

"This galaxy has nothing that can stand against that kind of firepower," Hawk gasped in horror. "We need to get aboard and disable it from within."

Hawk's words were spoken in his usual matter of fact way; with a casualness that might have been better suited to deciding what to have for dinner.

 

[KitKatt]

"We need to get aboard and disable it from within."

Kat gritted her teeth.

“I don’t suppose the we in that statement stands for me going aboard and you staying here?”

She knew there was no way he was going to sit on the sidelines with a threat this dangerous, but Kat was worried. She rubbed her Temples in frustration and tried not to think about the last unknown visitors to the galaxy. The Vong had nearly ruined this galaxy and they had altered planets forever. They couldn’t let that happen, and honesty what chance did she stand without Hawk?

She sighed in a defeated sort of way.

“What do you suggest?”

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

"What do you suggest?"
____________________

"What do you suggest?" The question echoed but the voice was Kyte's as they both crouched behind a dune of sand overlooking a Hutt compound.

"I suggest we go home," Hawk grumbled.

"If we can do this we'll earn the gang enough money to buy our freedom," Kyte replied.

"Still telling yourself that lie? We've earnt our freedom a hundred times over. They're never letting us go. We're too valuable. You know it and so do I. I think you enjoy the violence."

Kyte grinned.

The two boys were older now; young teens built of wiry muscle and full of that indestructability of youth. After Kyte had killed Zigzag the gang had brought them on board to work for them directly. It hadn't taken them long to figure out that there was something special about the boys and to put them to greater and greater use.

"Well, how about if we don't they kill mum?" Kyte whispered to him. "So, strategy is what you do so get us inside."

"There's no way in except the front entrance, it's a fortress built into the side of a cliff. You'd need an Imperial Star Destroyer to blast your way in, or be small enough to fit through the air filters."

"How big are the filters?"

Hawk held up a thumb and forefinger about an inch apart.

"Why even mentioned the bloody filters then?" Kyte hissed with annoyance. "There has to be a way. You've been our here all morning staring at it and I know that brain of yours has analysed every possibility."

"Of course there's a way. I just told you, the front entrance."

"Oh right, so we're just going to walk up to the front door of Zeya the Hutt's Palace and what? Tell her we're selling cookies and hope she let's us in?"

"This is why you don't do the planning." Hawk grinned at his brother's annoyance. "There is only one way in and only one way out. It stands to reason therefore that that must be our access point. Zeya won't open the door for us, but the door will open and that is when we enter. We must just be patient."
____________________

"We must be patient," Hawk replied the bridge of the Phoenix coming back into focus around him.

It seemed that only a moment had passed since Kat had spoken, though hours had passed within the memory he had fallen into. With an inconspicuous movement, Hawk swept his sleeve up to his nose and wiped away a small trickle of blood in the hope that Kat would not see. Her concern warmed him, and he shared it, but even if they were lucky it would still be days until the first vessels from any major faction were sent out to investigate. The planets of this and nearby systems did not have days, and those first ships would be destroyed all too easily by the awesome firepower of the octahedral vessel.

"The readouts from the Hutt vessel showed that it opens; perhaps to fire its primary weapon. When it opens, that is when we enter."

 

[KitKatt]

Kat could tell something was still wrong with Hawk. This was seeming like a suicide mission.

“We better get as close as we can then. “

She only hoped the cloaking mechanism would continue to work.

————————————
Threoren was staring at the screen in confusion. It was not like him to see things or make mistakes. That was not efficient.

“Should we activate the chargers?”

The chargers were large mechanisms that sent out a wave of energy to disable any electrical operations nearby.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

A long moment of silence stretched between them while the Lord Archivist continued to stare into the blackness of space, until finally he turned back to Threoren and seemed to consider his question as if just hearing it.

"Yes, prime the chargers, but do not fire them until the samples have been catalogued. It would not do to sunder them in any way."

Threoren bowed and inputted the necessary commands into the main console. A tone of confirmation and a hum of energy building momentarily filled the command deck.

A number of small dark objects blasted out of the planet's atmosphere and headed back towards the octagonal behemoth. Each of these autonomous drones contained samples of plant and animal life to be added to the Great Library before the planet was cleaned. As the sample probes approached, the eight faces of the great ship began to slide open.
____________________

"It's opening!" Hawk jumped up from where he had sat waiting and was immediately at the controls of The Phoenix.

Hawk knew that any kind of energy output might have given their position away to the alien ship, and he had been puzzling over just how they would be able to approach undetected if he had to fire up the engines when a rectangular object passed within a few meters of their hull. It was short followed by another and another. Hawk stared from the viewscreen at what looked like a host of black coffins heading towards the alien ship.

With a silent thank you to the force, Hawk brought the Phoenix's engines online, but kept them at emergency power levels only. Then, very slowly he edged The Phoenix forward until they matched the speed and course of the parade of coffins. Within moments a section of the enormous panel that constituted one of the ship's faces filled the viewscreen and Hawk held his breath. Up this close he could not truly appreciate the size of this strange vessel. The Phoenix banked as the line of coffins did so, and suddenly there was an opening...and they were through. The coffins, as Hawk had continued to think of them, zipped off up a large corridor, but Hawk drew back on their speed.

"I don't think it wise to go wherever they are going," he said and took The Phoenix down a smaller connecting corridor; continuing down it for some meters before bringing his ship to land in a shadowy corner.

"Our first priority is to disable this ship by any means necessary," Hawk stated as he checked his lightsabers and dropped a bag of explosives onto the floor. "If it looks important we stick one of these on it. If it moves we use these," Hawk grinned and indicated his blades. "R4, if you can interface with this ship's systems in any way it'd be a huge help." Hawk handed the droid a communicator, which the droid tucked into his inner workings.

The boarding ramp of The Phoenix descended and cool, dry and musty air rushed in to greet them.

"Ladies first?" Hawk joked with a wink before he strode, cautiously, down the boarding ramp. "Let's try to remember where he parked. She is an antique after all," Hawk whispered. He didn't know why he was whispering but it felt appropriate.

 

[KitKatt]

It was funny how excited Hawk seemed considering his health. Kat was trying not to think about that being a lighthearted acceptance of death. The morbid thought made her cringe inwardly, but outwardly she decided to play along.

"Let's try to remember where he parked. She is an antique after all.”

“The ship or its captain?”

She grinned and they headed off. They passed a lot of smooth surfaces and some metal that gave off a reddish glow. Kat wasn’t sure what it was but she hoped it was flammable.

After ten moments she found it odd that they had not come across any crew members. Surely a vessel this big required several hands to keep running?

She heard a creaking noise up ahead.

“Whose turn is it to say they have a bad feeling about this?”

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

The vessel was unlike any Hawk had ever seen. The smooth bulkheads offered no clues as to their whereabouts upon the enormous craft and no apparent method of accessing its systems. The two had darted down corridors; crept around corners, and edged into rooms that branched off of the seemingly endless corridors for some time, and yet the only sign of life was the ominous red glow that emitted from the almost polished metal of the bulkheads.

A creak up ahead was all the warning they had. Hawk's arm shot out and took Kat by the arm, drawing her into a shadowy alcove only lit by the sporadic glow of the bulkheads. There was barely room for the both of them to fit and Hawk ended up face to face with Kat. He held a finger to his lips but grinned at her words; she was getting as bad as he was for sardonic comments.

Hawk's eyes flicked from Kat's face as something large pondered into sight. It was a droid; a breathing lifeform, and a shadow all at once. It seemed to flow slowly down the corridor with long rasping breaths, but Hawk's gaze seemed locked to the hooded swirling mass where its head would be...where cold red robotic eyes stared molevolently ahead. Hawk was not one prone to fear, but whatever it was, this thing sent a chill right down his spine.

"Beep bop bop," Hawk's communicator sounded so incredibly loud in the tense silence.

The shuffling beast stopped some feet down the corridor, it's head whipping around towards the alcove where he and Kat hid.

"Looks like it's time to make first contact," Hawk beamed with mirth before kissing her lightly upon the lips.

With that he stepped out of the gloom into the corridor.

"Unknown specimen," the thing intoned in a robotic voice.

"Speak for yourself," Hawk replied and drew his lightsaber hilt.

"Unknown specimens out of containment will be purged. Sterilisation in 3...2..."

Hawk did not like the sound of purging of sterilisation, so with startling speed he dashed forward and cleaved his blade through the midriff of the creature. It fell in half behind him and hit the ground with a dull thud. Before Hawk could call to Kat however, the shadowy substance that oozed from the two parts of the creature entwined and the parts pulled themselves back together.

"Problematic," Hawk whispered to himself before reaching out to grasp the thing with the force.

Hawk levitated the shadow creature into the air and slowly closed his fist. A terrible screeching came from it as Hawk crushed it and black shadowy stuff spouted from it in all directions and the thing repaired itself as quickly as Hawk broke it. With a yell Hawk smashed it from side to side and from ceiling to floor as he continued to crush it, and it screamed and it screamed, but it would not cease and the shadow stuff would not stop bringing it back together.

Eventually Hawk had to stop and dropped the monstrous creature to the ground, whereupon it finished fixing itself and rose once again. It raised an arm and Hawk sensed the build up of energy within it. With the flick of his wrist Hawk tore the nearest bulkhead apart. It flew at the creature's arm and Hawk curled the metal around the creature pinning it to the opposite bulkhead. He repeated the move again and again until he had completely restrained the thing with folded metal.

It struggled and struggled, never once taking its malevolent red gaze from Hawk, but it could not break free of the twisted metal.

Finally Hawk breathed a sigh of relief and took his communicator from his robes to see what R4 wanted. It seemed that he had found somewhere to plug in, but that interfacing with the alien craft was proving difficult.
____________________

"My Lord, a warrior of light and sorcery will defeat the Ascended-"

The Lord Archevist's hand moved faster than the eye could perceive and the junior archevist was sent sprawling across the bridge.

"Do not quote the first book at me Threoren you superstitious fool," The Lord Archevist raged. "Light and sorcery," he mumbled to himself and shook his head with exasperation. "We have evolved beyond the foolish religious drivel of our ancestors. Besides, he did not defeat the Ascended, merely incapacitated it."

The Lord Archevist's eyes narrowed as he looked back at the security feed. The Ascended remained pinned to the bulkhead and the unknown specimen moved back toward the alcove from which he had emerged. He had never seen nor heard of an Ascended being bested, even if only restrained. The Ascended were the pinnacle of his own species, having evolved to attain a form of dark energy that was then melded with a cybernetically enhanced body. In the case of advanced civilisations the Ascended would lead planetary invasions, a mere handful sterilising entire armies.

"Restrain him and bring him before me."
__________________

Hawk moved back towards the alcove where he had left Kat, but before he could say anything an energy field fell over him and he was unable to move.

Stay hidden, Hawk thought at Kat. Complete the mission.

A rasping sound behind Hawk heralded the arrival of another of the unsettling monsters. With irresistible strength it peeled the metal away from the first that Hawk had pinned to the bulkhead and then together they raised their hands and Hawk rose from the floor within the energy field and began to float down the corridor ahead of them.

 

[KitKatt]

Kat felt her heart racing as both Jedi ended up in the tightest of spaces. He was taller than her but even at this angle she could see his jawline and his handsome features. She felt her stomach lurch and closed her eyes, pushing away feelings that were most unhelpful at this moment. Or any moment for that matter. Was she even human? Maybe that was why she and James never convinced children. Maybe Katarine couldn’t have human children. Maybe she was some monster masquerading as a Jedi and the men she desired were doomed from the moment lust entered her mind. Perhaps Dax wasn’t the reason her lovers were slain. Maybe it was Kat herself that brought about their demise. That would be a disappointing ending to the great Hawk Hinata. Killed because some supernatural thing had impure thoughts about him.

Of course it was hard to imagine anything killing Hawk Hinata when she watched him in action. The weird droid was frightening but she felt no dizziness like she felt with the darkside of the Force. What was the dark energy then?

She cursed herself for all the thinking and no action. She ought to be out there helping Hawk. That’s what Jedi did wasn’t it? But before she had left the hiding place Hawk was taken away and she was alone.

“Sithspit!”

She waited until the area was silent again and pulled herself and the bag of explosives out. Finish the mission… sure… she could do that… right. She would mess it up entirely and likely get them both killed.

She attached an explosive to the wall and bit her lip, debating following Hawk to see what was happening.

Curiosity killed the Kat

Shut up

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She would plant enough of these explosives to blow a sizable chunk in this place, and then she would find Hawk and they would get out before being blown to bits.

Should be easy… like milking a rancor easy…. Yea….

Hawk Hinata