Character
Twigs snapped and leaves rustled underfoot as Dagos ran through the great forest of Kashyyk. Many of the happenings on the Wookie homeworld took place in the canopy among the clouds and close to the sun. Down on the forest floor where the young padawan was now was like being on a wholly new planet. Trees pressed close on every side, shutting out the sun. Hornbeam and blood leaves, greenbark, redwood and ofcourse Wroshyr trees. Underneath their tangled branches ferns and flowers grew in profusion. Feather fern both purple and the rarer yellow variety, blueblossom and candlewick. Mushrooms sprouted down among the tree roots and on the trunks as well, moss of all types covered the rocks and tree trunks. It was as if the very air was green.
The young Karuni boy with his dark skin, black hair and vivid green eyes kept on running. He was further away from the Silver rest as he had ever been and while the sun had been out for hours, here in the deep of the wood it was as if night were about to fall. It was not nearly as dark as The ShadowLands but one still had to watch their step if they didn’t want to turn an ankle.
Dagos chanced a glance behind him while running, no fear of stepping wrong even on this unfamiliar terrain as he was quite nearly a Jedi and so had the force on his side or whatever. Looking over his shoulder he saw his pursuer and cursed mentally. The man behind him was tan of skin and shaved bald with a wide nose and deep creases that went down his cheeks giving his cheekbones prominence. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties but he was truly only eight or nine. A ruggedly handsome eight year old killing machine. A clone. Designation CT-4821 a trooper in the Concord’s newly formed Grand Army born from the very same DNA profile that a millennium ago was used by a sith lord to create an army and a war that toppled The Republic.
Flash trained from “birth” clone troopers like CT-4821 were crafted to be living weapons, to be the best soldiers alive, to be in top physical condition and yet Dagos was still frustrated that the clone was keeping pace with him. The clone was designated CT-4821 but to his squad and to his friends like Dagos, he was called Party and Dagos knew if they were inside one of the training rooms in the temple there was no way he could keep up with the young padawan but out here was another matter entirely. Out in the wood surrounded by all the life, The Force was almost oppressive. It pressed down on him mind and body, making it hard to focus, to think, to move, to even breathe.
Dagos slowed his pace eventually coming to a stop and Party did as well just a few steps behind.
“Gone far enough eh?” Party asked in the accented voice common to all clone troopers
“At this rate we won’t make it back until after dark.” Dagos said smiling to his friend. “Just give me a minute to catch my breath and we will head back.”
Dagos dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and folded his hands in his lap and began to meditate. He centered himself in the living force the way master Ismet had taught him. He let all thought of his aching legs and burning lungs fall away like a distant memory and let the world around him be all there was. He felt Party and his own aches and pains and sent calming feelings through the force to his friend, Dagos smirked a little knowing it had worked when he felt Party’s mind shift away from his soreness and more toward the wonder the clone felt being out here in the wild. Dagos could feel the trees as they talked to one another in a language he couldn’t understand but found himself wishing he did, he could feel the birds high up in the branches such a variety of color it was like looking at a nebula, could feel small mammals hidden in the underbrush chasing one another playing games not dissimilar to the run he had just taken with Party.
His consciousness or whatever drifted further pulled along by the current of the force when the joy and serenity was pierced by the sudden feeling of absolute terror followed by excruciating pain. He must of made his own face of pain because he could hear Party talking to him from what seemed like a long way away
“Day, are you okay?”
Dagos did not answer. Could not answer, the force was not yet done pointing him where it needed. The fear and the pain came from a life form, less evolved than he or party but it was not alone. He could sense around it more sentient lifeforms but they had no fear to them, no they felt...happy...joyful at the pain they were inflicting. It had to stop.
Dagos came out of his trance and immediately stood and looked to Party “We have to go. Someone is in trouble.”
“Where?” the trooper asked. “Should we go back to the temple and get help?”
“There is no time. We gotta go now.” Dagos said as he took off at a run into the trees. Party was not being a coward or even just overcautious, both he and Dagos were unarmed and unarmored wearing nothing more than sweats but that didn’t matter to Dagos, he knew if he did not go and help now there would be no other chance.
It took only a few minutes for Dagos to reach where he knew he needed to go. In the middle of the wood was a small clearing but it was not empty, Dagos could see two speeders, one with a large cage in the back and on the ground there were three humanoids, two weequay and a nikto with stun batons standing over a small creature with long legs and big floppy ears.
“What’s the plan?” Party asked and before Dagos could say anything on of the weequay turned their stun baton on Dagos flew out of the tree line reared his hand back and threw his his forward sending the hardest force push he had ever produced toward the weequay knocking him back so hard the alien literally went flying backward hitting the back of one of the speeders with a disgusting thud, leaving a dent in the back of the vehicle and leaving the weequay face down on the ground motionless.
The other two marauders yelled to each other in huttese and rushed at Dagos. He ducked as the nikto swung his baton at his head making him miss wildly and parried a strike for the conscious weequay. Ducking and dodging all the blows from the two bad guys was cake, these guys were not trained in anything but cruelty it seemed. A smile splashed across his face as he dodged another wild swing from the nikto that actually ended up cracking his partner in the face instead. Finally after no more than a minute Party got there and tackled the stumbling weequay to the ground and put him in a choke hold. Dagos squared up ready to go one on one with the nikto when an alarm went off in his head less than a second before the ground near him exploded from blaster fire.
Chit. I didn’t sense him before. Dagos thought as a blaster rifle wielding zabrak came out of the tree line to his right and chit, another from his left, this was not good. Not good at all. The zabrak to his right leveled his blaster rifle right at Party and Dagos barely had time to react. With a flick of his wrist he sent the muzzle of the rifle pointing up to the tops of the trees just as it fired a blood red bolt. A wave of relief passed through him right before he experienced the most pain he had ever felt in his life. The nikto had jammed the stun baton into Dagos ribs sending 70,000 volts screaming through his body and dropped Dagos flat on his back. When his eyes finally came back into focus he found himself staring up at the nikto standing over him pointing a blaster pistol in his face.
Aayla Shan
The young Karuni boy with his dark skin, black hair and vivid green eyes kept on running. He was further away from the Silver rest as he had ever been and while the sun had been out for hours, here in the deep of the wood it was as if night were about to fall. It was not nearly as dark as The ShadowLands but one still had to watch their step if they didn’t want to turn an ankle.
Dagos chanced a glance behind him while running, no fear of stepping wrong even on this unfamiliar terrain as he was quite nearly a Jedi and so had the force on his side or whatever. Looking over his shoulder he saw his pursuer and cursed mentally. The man behind him was tan of skin and shaved bald with a wide nose and deep creases that went down his cheeks giving his cheekbones prominence. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties but he was truly only eight or nine. A ruggedly handsome eight year old killing machine. A clone. Designation CT-4821 a trooper in the Concord’s newly formed Grand Army born from the very same DNA profile that a millennium ago was used by a sith lord to create an army and a war that toppled The Republic.
Flash trained from “birth” clone troopers like CT-4821 were crafted to be living weapons, to be the best soldiers alive, to be in top physical condition and yet Dagos was still frustrated that the clone was keeping pace with him. The clone was designated CT-4821 but to his squad and to his friends like Dagos, he was called Party and Dagos knew if they were inside one of the training rooms in the temple there was no way he could keep up with the young padawan but out here was another matter entirely. Out in the wood surrounded by all the life, The Force was almost oppressive. It pressed down on him mind and body, making it hard to focus, to think, to move, to even breathe.
Dagos slowed his pace eventually coming to a stop and Party did as well just a few steps behind.
“Gone far enough eh?” Party asked in the accented voice common to all clone troopers
“At this rate we won’t make it back until after dark.” Dagos said smiling to his friend. “Just give me a minute to catch my breath and we will head back.”
Dagos dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and folded his hands in his lap and began to meditate. He centered himself in the living force the way master Ismet had taught him. He let all thought of his aching legs and burning lungs fall away like a distant memory and let the world around him be all there was. He felt Party and his own aches and pains and sent calming feelings through the force to his friend, Dagos smirked a little knowing it had worked when he felt Party’s mind shift away from his soreness and more toward the wonder the clone felt being out here in the wild. Dagos could feel the trees as they talked to one another in a language he couldn’t understand but found himself wishing he did, he could feel the birds high up in the branches such a variety of color it was like looking at a nebula, could feel small mammals hidden in the underbrush chasing one another playing games not dissimilar to the run he had just taken with Party.
His consciousness or whatever drifted further pulled along by the current of the force when the joy and serenity was pierced by the sudden feeling of absolute terror followed by excruciating pain. He must of made his own face of pain because he could hear Party talking to him from what seemed like a long way away
“Day, are you okay?”
Dagos did not answer. Could not answer, the force was not yet done pointing him where it needed. The fear and the pain came from a life form, less evolved than he or party but it was not alone. He could sense around it more sentient lifeforms but they had no fear to them, no they felt...happy...joyful at the pain they were inflicting. It had to stop.
Dagos came out of his trance and immediately stood and looked to Party “We have to go. Someone is in trouble.”
“Where?” the trooper asked. “Should we go back to the temple and get help?”
“There is no time. We gotta go now.” Dagos said as he took off at a run into the trees. Party was not being a coward or even just overcautious, both he and Dagos were unarmed and unarmored wearing nothing more than sweats but that didn’t matter to Dagos, he knew if he did not go and help now there would be no other chance.
It took only a few minutes for Dagos to reach where he knew he needed to go. In the middle of the wood was a small clearing but it was not empty, Dagos could see two speeders, one with a large cage in the back and on the ground there were three humanoids, two weequay and a nikto with stun batons standing over a small creature with long legs and big floppy ears.
“What’s the plan?” Party asked and before Dagos could say anything on of the weequay turned their stun baton on Dagos flew out of the tree line reared his hand back and threw his his forward sending the hardest force push he had ever produced toward the weequay knocking him back so hard the alien literally went flying backward hitting the back of one of the speeders with a disgusting thud, leaving a dent in the back of the vehicle and leaving the weequay face down on the ground motionless.
The other two marauders yelled to each other in huttese and rushed at Dagos. He ducked as the nikto swung his baton at his head making him miss wildly and parried a strike for the conscious weequay. Ducking and dodging all the blows from the two bad guys was cake, these guys were not trained in anything but cruelty it seemed. A smile splashed across his face as he dodged another wild swing from the nikto that actually ended up cracking his partner in the face instead. Finally after no more than a minute Party got there and tackled the stumbling weequay to the ground and put him in a choke hold. Dagos squared up ready to go one on one with the nikto when an alarm went off in his head less than a second before the ground near him exploded from blaster fire.
Chit. I didn’t sense him before. Dagos thought as a blaster rifle wielding zabrak came out of the tree line to his right and chit, another from his left, this was not good. Not good at all. The zabrak to his right leveled his blaster rifle right at Party and Dagos barely had time to react. With a flick of his wrist he sent the muzzle of the rifle pointing up to the tops of the trees just as it fired a blood red bolt. A wave of relief passed through him right before he experienced the most pain he had ever felt in his life. The nikto had jammed the stun baton into Dagos ribs sending 70,000 volts screaming through his body and dropped Dagos flat on his back. When his eyes finally came back into focus he found himself staring up at the nikto standing over him pointing a blaster pistol in his face.
Aayla Shan
