CHAPTER XXXVIII: SITH ADVANCES Tirahn studied the dry, yellow-brown surrounding terrain of TaBora from atop a large hill above the Thumper activity below. Using her helmet search mode she could now see several Bura tunnel entrances in the distance at directions S, SW, NW, and E. The tunnel entrances were massive, roughly 300 feet in diameter and were located 5-10 miles away. No starships were visible anywhere as Tirahn scanned the horizon at maximum range. But then something was detected at the extreme south of her position. Zooming in, Tirahn saw the remains of her Engager littering another part of the next valley. Pieces of the wings, engines, and… wait… she couldn’t believe it… the protected light jumper ball! She had forgotten about that. Tirahn almost jumped for joy as she thought of how fortunate she was. The light jumper is my way back home. All I have to do now is find a suitable starship with a hyperdrive and adapt the light jumper to it and I will arrive back at Kytana before it is too late. Lord Kalore can do nothing to the Dark Master until I return and by now he must be worried about my disappearance. Nevertheless, the vision is accurate. Lord Kalore WILL de-throne Lord Rexor and I WILL be at his side. This finding is an omen for good. A starship has to exist on this world into which the light jumper can be installed. I will find that ship and force the Buras to install the light jumper at once! But even as she thought on this her newfound joy turned to anxiety when she saw white clouds of dust approach the precious light jumper ball. Her search mode could not determine what was in those clouds from her extreme distance so she used her Black Caster visor which instantly showed a group of Buras riding on hursas! They stopped in Engager’s debris field and approached the light jumper ball. The object was in danger. Tirahn quickly raised her Black Caster and jumped into the dirty, dilapidated speedmaster, turning it south and opening up the hand throttle for maximum velocity. She HAD to protect that unit at all cost. The Katarsh Warriors that had found the obsidian object marveled at its resemblance to the great Orban itself, only larger in diameter and composed of Sith obsidia. They were too afraid to touch the mysterious object, so they ordered a small Krava worker craneship to come and pick it up with a magnetic grappling net. As Tirahn sped over the hills and into the next valley, she could already see a strange hovering vibra-wing craft lowering a magnetic grappling net as the armed Buras began to roll her light jumper ball towards it. With all their strength they pushed the ball into the net. The charged net quickly jumped up and locked onto the obsidian ball, with maglocks secured. The armed Buras signaled the vibra-wing craft to take off and Tirahn watched in anger as her light jumper unit was taken away. However, all was not lost. She would find out where the light jumper was being taken… after killing as many of the Buras as it took for them to reveal its destination. The Katarsh Warriors had no idea what danger they were in until a lone speedmaster approached with great haste, kicking up clouds of dust along the dirt road ahead. Perhaps the Sith infidel had returned. Laral Utan was the Katarsh leader and he quickly summoned his warriors to dismount and form two lines of defense with their Kasamir turbo assault rifles at the ready. The Kasamir target indicators were blank. No enemy was detected operating the speedmaster and yet Laral was uncertain. He urged his men to let the speedmaster approach to within the range of ten hursas and then open fire where the operator should be. Patiently they waited and said silent prayers from the sacred Orban. Tirahn was furious and cloaked in lectrochromatic camouflage. She held her Black Fire weapon in her hand as she approached the awaiting Bura warriors who were now formed into two lines with weapons raised. It would do them no good as she was invulnerable in her Shadow suit. But slowly, she pulled back the engine throttle. The speedmaster started to slow and then eventually came to a full stop, just out of Laral’s spoken range. Tirahn had jumped from the speedmaster undetected as it slowed on its own. She wanted to see what the Bura warriors would do before she stalked them in broad daylight and cut them down until they answered her questions concerning her light jumper unit. Laral saw the speedmaster slow and then come to a stop just short of his targeting mark. Fearing the worst, Laral ordered all guns to fire and a barrage of hypervelocity rounds struck the speedmaster with tremendous firepower. The transport was cut to pieces and exploded once its main engine thruster was hit. Flaming debris was all that was left of it, but no sign of the Sith anywhere. Laral ordered his warriors to cease firing, lower their guns, and keep a sharp eye out for the infidel. But they didn’t have to wait long as the anomalous shape of a being passed through the fire to approach them. Tirahn passed through the fire on purpose to strike fear into the hearts of the superstitious Buras. It was working as several of Laral’s men cried out, “Look a demon passes through the fire!” Several of his men turned back towards their hursas to flee but Laral fired at them and told them with authority, “There is NO demon coming from the fire, only a Sith infidel. Return to your positions at once!” The warriors obeyed and although frightened, raised their assault rifles up against the approaching “thing” they could not identify. Laral ordered them to resume firing and this time the barrage hit Tirahn directly. Their rounds did nothing to her obsidian hyper plating except push her back a bit. Tirahn didn’t want to waste her DM shield generator energy so she just pushed ahead against the invisible wall of firepower. It was like pushing against the wind. The Katarsh warriors were in a state of panic right now as the “thing” kept advancing, its concealed form warping under the intense fire. This was the Shadow suit’s lectrochromatic camouflage that was bending with strikes from the Kasamir fire. Laral again ordered all guns to cease. He then turned and ordered one of his men to bring up an ALD-7. This was an Air Launched Detonator which was comprised of a small hollow-charge winged warhead connected to a long launch tube with a gas cylinder to the rear and firing grip up front below the manual sight and lectrobattery. The cylinder fed dense explosive gas through injectors into an expansion chamber behind the projectile. Once the sight unfolded the weapon became armed and once fired the gas was lectro-ignited, launching the warhead forward at great velocity as the back blast exited through the rear of the open barrel. The weapon had an effective range of twelve hursas. The Sith was now within direct visual range and Laral himself took the ALD-7 and flipped up its manual sight- arming the weapon. A green flasher on the sight mount indicated the gas tube was full. With precision, Laral raised the ALD-7 up on his right shoulder as he knelt on his right knee. The sight was aimed right at the looming invisible Sith abomination and Laral fired the ALD-7 at almost point blank range. The un-sensored warhead shot forward and impacted with great force causing Tirahn’s Shadow suit to malfunction as several of the embedded ball cluster mini-generators were slightly damaged in the blast. Tirahn had taken the direct hit which struck her chest armor and witnessed the erupting fireball engulf her and then quickly dissipate. But inside her helmet a warning message displayed on her inner view screen. Her lectrochromatic camouflage was damaged and starting to warp as power was diverted over to the remaining functional units that tried to cover gaps in the material. Tirahn decided to finally de-cloak and reveal her presence to the Bura warriors. What they saw was a fearsome sight- one of the notorious Sith warriors, a Kyrie. And to make matters worse it was a female Kyrie as well. The Katarsh Warriors would never allow a woman to serve with them, it was considered an abomination according to the sacred Orban. Women were life givers and life sustainers that existed solely to breed Bura males whenever possible. The male children became men and the men then became warriors, holy men, and tunnelers. But a woman’s place was with her children and she was always under obedience to her master. Not only was this Bura Law but it was an Ordinance of the sacred Orban. Surely the Sith were infidels of the highest degree by allowing a woman to become a warrior. This Kyrie was an abomination and a demon sent to defile their world. The Katarsh Warriors would defend their soil to the last man. Tirahn was about to put that to the test as she walked openly along the dusty road. Her helmet was put on targeting mode and her whip cord dropped with its attached obsidian ball striker swinging from side to side, ready to attack. Tirahn had her Black Fire weapon as well but decided to maglock it for now. She could take on these filthy animals by herself. As she approached, five warriors advanced to meet her with primitive hand thruster blades, magnetic claw detonators, and long cylindrical metal pipes. What a pathetic race this was, a pack of mongrels wrapped in cloth and masked to protect their light-sensitive eyes. They lived in caves and underground cities just like sewer rats that lived underneath the city of Laral watched anxiously as his men were systematically killed. Tirahn wasted no time at all. Violently, the released whip ball struck with speed smashing in the face of one Bura while knocking the weapons out of the hands of three others. One Bura tried to force a hand thruster into the Kyrie’s stomach which Tirahn grabbed and then with strength broke the Bura’s wrist and turned his own blade against him, forcing it into his stomach as blood soaked his white, loose-fitting clothing. As another Bura lunged, Tirahn activated the whip cord to coil around his body and tighten. The Bura’s body was crushed by the coils and it slumped to the ground as Tirahn released it. Three Buras were now dead. The last two Buras tried to hit Tirahn with the metal pipes but she pulled a pair of Revenger Spikes from her thigh holsters and rammed one through one Bura’s neck and the other one through the last Bura’s skull. In the space of three minutes all five Katarsh Warriors had been killed. Laral lamented as the other Katarsh Warriors started to flee back to their hursas. Desperately, they all threw a volley of magnetic claw detonators that attached to Tirahn’s body armor. Multiple detonations rocked her and caused her to lose her footing but then she regained her balance and stood back up. Laral watched as every Katarsh weapon had failed to touch the Sith female. Yet Laral was determined to fight a holy battle against this Sith creature. He then remembered his tremblar in one of his cargo carriers on his hursa Pakfaw (Bura, meaning Mighty Wind). He ran to the hursa and grabbed the tremblar even as his own men fled. Cowards. Laral was suddenly alone as the Kyrie faced him. Tirahn remained in targeting mode and was analyzing another Bura cylindrical weapon. This one was different from the crude detonator launcher. It was just as long but had a larger diameter. It was closed ended and had a variable emitter in the dead center of the firing end. Four cylindrical gas units were located in a circular cluster at the rear of the weapon. Tirahn wondered what it fired but soon she found out. Kneeling once more Laral aimed the tremblar at the Kyrie and hit her at point blank range. The sonic boom of the tremblar impacted Tirahn with great force and threw her thirty feet onto her back in the dirt road. The impact was devastating and cracked parts of her obsidian chest armor. Her helmet sensors were damaged and not all of her maglocks were functioning properly. Fortunately, the Black Fire weapon was still attached and as she rose to her feet she found that she was still on targeting mode. The impact had knocked out all her air but then she was breathing again as she gaspingly ordered her oxygenators to come on. Gas jets cleared her obturator as well. The Bura had some form of sonic weapon and Tirahn would have to use her DM shield generators to defend herself. Slowly, she advanced back towards the leader and prepared to take another hit from the weapon. Only the weapon wasn’t one. Tremblars were sonic digging devices used for precision cutting into hard rock and metals the Thumpers had missed as they bored into the ground. Back-up crews followed the huge machine and used the tremblars to cut down jagged rocks and metals along the tunnels as piping was fed down to them and interconnected from point-to-point. Laral always had one whenever he rode topside in case an emergency shelter had to be carved out of solid rock. But today the tremblar had pushed the menacing Sith back and perhaps with a few more well placed hits- might also kill her. But Tirahn would not let that happen. As she advanced she could see the Bura leader aiming the cylindrical device at her and this time she activated the DM shields. The sonic boom impact vibrated the shield but did not penetrate it. Laral was shocked that the Kyrie was still standing and quickly recharged for another strike. But Tirahn deactivated the DM shielding and ran with all her strength towards the Bura who frantically tried to visually target her. Laral prepared to fire when the Kyrie dropped to her knees and fired all four of her gauntlet ballistas. Tirahn had remembered them at the last moment and fired them manually. The ballistas were ballistic blades that were compression spring loaded into launch tubes- two on each Kyrie gauntlet. Before Laral could fire he was hit by the four blades: one in each shoulder and two in his stomach. He cried out in pain and dropped the tremblar as the Kyrie stood back up and walked over to him. She stood above him and asked him very clearly, “Where is the vibra-wing craft taking the obsidian ball?” Laral looked away, but the Kyrie grabbed him by his neck and choking him, raised his face up to her visor. Through the Bura warrior’s glare protectors she could see eyes filled with fear. Laral was choking but tried to speak as he removed his lower mask piece. Tirahn released her grip on him, but he only looked up and spit on her visor in arrogant defiance. Tirahn then grabbed her Black Fire weapon and ignited it. The frightened Bura stared at the dark fire and started to quiver as Tirahn brought it down towards his face. Laral pleaded for his life, but Tirahn demanded to know where the obsidian ball was being taken. “Takrat” the Bura finally answered as Tirahn released him, bring her Black Fire down on the tremblar device and cutting it in two. Laral was defenseless against the Kyrie and being dragged by his feet he resigned himself to death. But Tirahn had other plans as she knelt beside Laral. Removing the ballistas from him, Tirahn pulled him to his feet and ordered the Bura to take him to Takrat. Laral had no choice and wounded he staggered over to his hursa Pakfaw while Tirahn mounted another hursa called Tarnaw (Bura, meaning Chosen One). Unknown to Tirahn both hursas’ names were from the sacred Orban which speaks of “a deliverer brought by a Mighty Wind. A Tirahn’s vision was indeed unfolding, but not as she had planned. Deep underground in the soft light of the Black Sun the Holy One Dasam Umein could also foresee the future and knew that the cursed Sith Kyrie was on its way to his city. But he also knew the prophecy concerning the “Time of Our Trouble” and with it a “deliverer brought by a mighty wind.” The infidel Sith was riding Chosen One while captured Laral was riding Mighty Wind. Like it or not, one could not go against the sacred Orban. The Onboard the Sith heavy cruiser Defiance Lord Kalore was consulting with the DP-3 on an intercept course for EVO-ONE high above Tirahnna when the MD-13 reported that two large Sith destroyers, carrying fifty Black Ravens were leading fifty bulk carriers out to an uncharted planet in search of Dark Seer Tirahn and the Dark Lord himself. The MD-13 had picked up their faint transmissions and was now attempting to get a fix on the precise location the Sith strike force was heading. Onboard the Abadon-class destroyer Black Heart Supreme Commander Max-Ventor watched the sensor screens as his ship’s MD-13 was tracking the monitoring heavy cruiser At first, Lord Kalore was puzzled as to why they would be heading for the wrong world when he realized that Tirahn had been missing for hours. Lord Kalore inquired of the MD-13 which sector of space the uncharted world was in. The MD-13 instantly reported: SS-4. Kytana was in SS-3. That meant that Tirahn’s Engager must have ran into trouble on the journey home and forced her to divert over to an unknown world to protect the secret location of Kytana. Of course, Tirahn knew what she was doing… but her absence meant that perhaps her star fighter had been downed. Lord Kalore NEEDED Tirahn badly and ordered the MD-13 to plot a new course for that uncharted world. It would take the Sith strike force at least another day to get there as they could not use their hyperdrives due to the slow short range Ravens carried internally for defense of the strike force and the slow sublight bulk carriers following behind. Lord Kalore would arrive there in advance and take Tirahn back to Lord Kalore was happy knowing that his Dark Mistress was still alive and well. The MD-13 entered the co-ordinates 743.2541.0347.9. into the navi-processor as Max-Ventor caught the ship’s jump into hyperspace and reacted immediately. “Destination!” yelled Ventor even as the MD-13 explored all probabilities. Without hesitation the MD-13 replied: UNDETERMINED, BUT PROBABILITY IS HIGH THAT DEFIANCE IS RETURNING BACK TO THE UNCHARTED PLANET AT CO-ORDINATES 743.2541.0347.9. At once, Ventor instructed that Dark Fury take charge of the strike force while Black Heart hyper-jumped to meet A short distance away, a strange craft was shadowing Black Heart and intercepting its transmissions with much interest. The undetected craft Passion Hate was cloaked in U’Kian miraflage, its female bounty hunter Possh having tracked the Sith force since it crossed the Outer Rim Markers. Dark Master Lord Rexor had placed a reward of 5,000,000 Yaros for the capture of Dark Lord Kalore and/or Dark Seer Tirahn alive. Dead, they were worthless; if the Sith caught them, no reward. Possh wanted to be the first to capture one or both of them and now she stood a good chance. The infamous bounty hunter Ligris had turned galactic hero and had, until further notice, suspended his bounty hunting activities. The Varmins had located the traitors hiding place but it would be the Sith that would attempt to capture the pair with a strike force. Possh was now the best bounty hunter in the galaxy and she would make the capture herself as the Sith led the way. With the miraflage and crytium engines the Passion Hate was invisible to the sensors of the Sith destroyers. Using stealth, Possh slowly approached Black Heart and used her mag-grapplers to lock her ship onto the Abadon class destroyer’s massive aft bridge tower structure. After that, she quickly shut down all critical systems except life support as Max-Ventor ordered the jump into hyperspace. Possh was now on the hunt… the “free ride” greatly appreciated by the U’Kian parasite… Meanwhile, high above Tirahnna, Lord Rexor’s ship EVO-ONE was approaching the massive Slayer as it officially crossed the Outer Rim Markers and was coming into view. Lord Rexor beamed with joy over his monstrous creation headed for Elysia. He knew that the Whill long-range planetary scanners wouldn’t pick up the mighty ship until it had passed the halfway point between the Rims. Even though the traitors Lord Kalore and Dark Seer Tirahn had sent out a coded disc containing information on the Slayer via Bothan spies there was nothing they could do about it. The MD-13 had the ship thoroughly inspected after the Dark Lord fled and found no hidden entrances, landing bays, access tunnels or inferior construction materials installed. For all intents and purposes the Slayer was a perfectly designed starship- an invincible starship. Right now, that slow moving engineering masterpiece was coming into sight on EVO-ONE’s bridge view screen. It filled the entire screen. Lord Rexor almost trembled with fear himself at its imposing sight. Around him in the planetary sensor stations the Sith marveled at the supreme warship but did not speak a word as Sith officers patrolled all decks, pistols at the ready to execute anyone who talked about the ship or came anywhere near a hypercom. Far below, down on Tirahnna, a dark shadow passed slowly over the planet. Lord Rexor was impressed. Only slightly under two more days and the Whills would be gone forever. The Sith would then re-take the Outer Rim worlds before assembling an even bigger military force to take the Inner Rim worlds. With Elysia and the Whills gone, the Inner Rim worlds would cower in fear and would all fall easily. Lord Rexor would then rule the galaxy with absolute supremacy. But Lord Rexor knew not of the unexpected. The dark pathway was leading to destruction… but not for the Whills. It would be the Sith that would be destroyed, consumed by their own hatred.
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