Savage-Time Chapter 17 (Patreon)

[Nar Shaddaa, Mercenary encampments]

Savage Opress

It wasn’t long after I cut communications with Maul that the emissaries of my friend and collaborator Grakkus arrived, I felt their fear long before I saw them and assumed that they had displeased the Hutt in some manner, nobody would take the job of coming up to a Sith Lord and demand something just because of a job, this was a punishment or a death sentence and as the men came closer and I felt their feelings I started thinking it was the former.

A pair of humans walked to me along with a group of Trandoshans behind them. The lizards were surprisingly calm, there was not even a trace of fear in their minds and didn’t seem to really care about what was happening, but I wasn’t about to underestimate them just because of that.

“Savage,” the first one to talk was the taller of two men that were walking to me “His excellency Grakkus has taken notice of your new…prize” the poor fool stared at the dead body of Fay.

The man swallowed audibly and then continued “Grakkus hopes that in the interest of your new partnership you will present him a new gift”

I smiled widely at the words, that damn slug was just as I knew he would be, a double-crossing piece of shit that would turn on anyone as long as he got what he wanted “And if I refuse?”

The lizards took my words as a cue to act and advanced on me with raised weapons “Then we will add you to our hunt and be certain that you will not escape us, a Sith should be worth many points for the Scorekeeper” ah, they were religious fanatics no wonder they were fearless.

“Wait!” the human I had been speaking to looked alarmed “Just wait, can we not settle this with words?”

The Trandoshans looked at the human and then at me and as our eyes met we both realized that the other wouldn’t be backing down any time soon “No” the second after the words left my mouth the Force screamed out a warning, I jumped left as far as I could and not a moment too soon as the round of an Amban sniper rifle disintegrated the ground I previously stood on.

More shots were fired all from different directions in a continuous rain of fire, I had underestimated the lizards clearly, they were both better equipped and more tenacious than the ones that kidnapped padawans and I couldn’t exactly block this kind of ammunition with my lightsaber.

The fact that I had to carry around a dead body because of my pride was also hurting my chances against them.

“Keep shooting boys, this will be done in no time” their confidence was quite refreshing even if I would have been empowered by their fear. This was quite nice, I think I preferred my enemies with a little bit of courage, sadly they forgot one crucial thing.

I didn’t need to get close to hurt them.

The Trandoshan who had threatened me was the first to go his jaw opening far past what was considered normal even for their species and with a little twist his neck was broken, the humans then decided that discretion was the better part of valor and ran.

I was not one to waste an opportunity so I followed after them while I evaded the shots from the snipers once I was close enough my brain had an interesting idea that would tell far more than any search on the Holonet could, I pushed the two humans together into one of the disintegrating rounds to see what would happen and if a single round of ammunition could make the combined mass of two physically fit men disappear.

The result was very informative, the one who was shot disappeared normally but the one touching him lost half of his body, he was left a mess on the floor and was bleeding all over it. That made sense since it made matter cease to exist then it didn’t seal the wounds like a lightsaber would.

“Change weapons this karking Sith will use us as shields and I don’t want to end up on the floor with half a body, the rest of you move with me, the death of my brother will not go unpunished. I swear to the Scorekeeper that I will kill you!”

They wasted no time in falling and I would have followed but the sudden change from single sniper shots every few seconds to the absolute avalanche of blaster fire that followed forced me to block with my lightsaber, an orange shield had formed with the movement of my blade and just when I thought things couldn’t get any more annoying my new master decided to speak.

“You should have just used the power of fear over them, why did you even wait for them to talk? I’ve been dead for years and even I knew what they were here for and what you would say” Nox whining in my ear was not exactly ideal in the present circumstances.

“I know but I like to hear them talk it’s entertaining”

“Well, your ‘entertainment’ is running away and will probably come back with a ship and while I acknowledge your potential, but I doubt you can survive if they decide to ram a ship into you. Also did you know that I once had the Trandoshans working under me”

“I know” at least the frustration I felt while talking to Nox augmented my powers.

“Of course you do, how could anyone not know”

“Do you have any advice that could actually help right now?” I could probably do this all day but his concerns about ships falling from the sky into my head were very valid

“Yes, dig a hole”

“I’m not planning on dying”

“Not a hole to die, a hole to do a strategic retreat! You do remember that you’re standing on what is most likely the roof of another building, right?”

I didn’t dignify that with a response and just started pulling the metal plates from the ground with the Force, the process was slow as I had to concentrate on blocking all the shots from the roof.

Once I had a decently sized hole I jumped down and once more faded into darkness, I waited there trying to think of my next move when the beeping sound of my comm broke my focus.

The face of Grakkus appeared in all its disgusting glory appeared in the palm of my hand “I see the stories they tell about your kind are not false, I thought that with all the preparations you would be forced to give up the specimen”

“If you want it you’re going to have to try harder, I hope you like the present my brother will give you once he arrives” Grakkus laughed at my answer “Do you really want me rampaging around Nar Shaddaa the other Hutts won’t like it”

“If you plan to continue our alliance then you will have to keep the disturbances to a minimum” he had a point there “I hope this won’t sour any future meetings between us”

“This little spat between us is no surprise to me”

“Then let’s continue to enjoy the game, besides if you couldn’t survive this then partnering with you would be a fool’s errand” the connection cut and the glow that illuminated my surroundings disappeared with it leaving only the light of the Holocron I carried.

“You should have killed the slug, they only cause problems and they think too highly of themselves” Nox was probably right but I had a plan.

The sounds of footsteps coming from the ceiling were not a good sign, the bombs that dropped from the hole I made were also not good.

That conniving slug distracted me!

“You should run” Nox’s running commentary was not appreciated, I was about to tell him that I could just throw them back but clearly the Trandoshans knew that too because as soon as I tried moving them there was another warning in the Force.

I augmented my strength and just launched myself out of danger but just to be sure I dragged some walls as I retreated to cover my back, the explosion that followed proved that I made the right decision.

“Those things are nasty, bombs that explode when you move them” Nox didn’t sound particularly impressed “You should have just done as I said instead of trying to throw them back, but maybe I’m asking too much of you”

“You’re just a slave after all” Nox was mocking me, trying to make me lose control and prove his point and I was not going to give him that pleasure.

My pursuers didn’t know exactly where I was and I didn’t know where they were but unlike them, I could find out, I submerged myself in the currents of the Dark Side, the pull of my darkest emotions and the promise of acceptance of my uncontrolled nature tempted me like it always did but I refused to pay attention.

As I concentrated and felt the darkness that covered the whole moon, I moved my focus closer to me until I could feel the living beings close to me, there was a group of eight directly on top of me.

“Good you finally found them, now go teach these fools a lesson in humility” with that kind of encouragement from Nox I didn’t even need to plan my attack

I gathered as much power as I could in my hands compressing the air between them and then unleashing it in a torrent of telekinetic force and pressurized air that broke the place where my enemies stood, the violent fragmentation of metal gave me enough cover to safely get out of the hole I had made, the group of Trandoshans directly above my surprise attack were left in pieces and the others had been thrown in different directions making it easy to kill them one by one without worry.

“That was easy” as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized that I shouldn’t have said that.

“You fool! Whenever a force user says that something bad always happens” Nox’s trauma was showing but that didn’t make his words false as the hum of an engine was getting closer “if you’re going to try to kill yourself, I ask that you don’t do it when you’re holding me”

The ship was a beauty and if I was seeing things correctly then it was a Stinger Mantis, a model of ship used to transport things, but that thing was clearly modified as the laser cannons that were usually invisible proudly stood out from the sides.

“I hope Grakkus doesn’t punish me for breaking his new toy, but I will lay down my life before I let you escape after what you’ve done” the voice was coming from the ships’ speakers and I would take his words as a warning and a signal that I should probably start running, I could probably block a shot of that thing once…maybe twice but I wasn’t invincible yet.

It is a sad day when a Sith Lord has to run from a ship manned by a lizard, sadly that is exactly what I was doing, the sight I made was a funny one for sure, a giant Zabrak carrying a corpse with a floating red pyramid on his shoulder evading shots from a ship. It was something almost out of a movie.

My new friend was probably going to be rather angry; we were causing no small amount of destruction in our wake, buildings were being toppled, the floor was starting to be only a giant hole and I was pretty sure that a fire had started behind us which was incredible since most of the moon was made of metal.

“Yawn” did…did Nox just, this fucker! I don’t know how but I swear I will kill Nox and as soon as I find another Holocron I was going to get rid of him.

The fucking lizard was relentless, I would probably try to recruit him in different circumstances as I can respect a man with such determination, even as I throwed metal plates or pushed the ship into crashing against the surrounding buildings he didn’t stop, the Trandoshan would die before he broke off his pursuit.

I could have just gone to the lower levels, but the Lizard would probably blow a hole to get the ship in and Grakkus would get in trouble with the other Hutts derailing my plans. My comm beeped again so I decided to answer.

“It looks like you’re in trouble” Maul seemed very amused as he talked “I was just entering the atmosphere of the moon when I heard that there was an incredible persecution occurring on the moon”

“Then start doing something Warmaster because soon you will be left without a brother”

“If that ship could actually kill you then you were worth less than I thought you were.” Was that a backhanded compliment?

“How soon can you be here?”

“I already have the Stinger Mantis on my sensors but if you can make it go backwards that would be better as it minimizes the risk of it shooting back”

There was no need to say more so abruptly I stopped running and faced the ship and in an incredible show of fearlessness I ran towards it, the modified cannons tried their best to kill me but with the warnings of the Force any attempt to hit me failed, it wasn’t easy as the shorter distance allowed the Trandoshan to shoot at me with more accuracy.

With a jump assisted by the force I landed on top of the pilot’s cabin, my new enemy then decided that ramming the ship against a building was a great idea so I moved to the tail of the ship, the irregular speed at which the ship moved as it accelerated and stopped almost made me lose my footing several times but I managed to hold on, finally the distinct sound of the ships from the CIS shooting at something alerted me to Maul’s arrival.

One last jump saw me safely on the ground and a few moments later the chase ended with the explosion of the enemy ship. Maul’s ship was a modified version of his previous one, the new Scimitar or Sith Interceptor was more compact and had less space for troop transport, but it had increased shield power and speed.

Maul landed without much care and made his way over to me and I was surprised by his power, the strength of my brother had doubled in such a short time that I could hardly believe it.

“I’ve met cyborg Sith before, but this is the first time that I see one who chose to get rid of his lower body” Nox was being playful even as he examined my brother “you’re connected to each other, fascinating”

“So this is your new master brother, perhaps you were better off without one” Maul then turned to Nox, they stared at each other for a while, measuring the other “I will never again kneel before another”

“Your path is different than your brother’s,” Nox responded back to Maul “it would be useless to make you my student but it would do you well to listen to your brother when it comes to ancient powers” with those words Nox disappeared inside the Holocron.

“Did you find them?”

“I did” Maul responded before making a dramatic gesture with his cape, behind him appeared the younglings I had tasked him to acquire two of them walking without any bindings and a darker tint in their presence and the last one was being dragged by them, the Cerean was a shining beacon amongst the darkness of the smuggler’s moon.

Gathering my power over my body sure frightened the children, the disparity in power between us a gulf bigger than they could have possibly imagined, it was necessary however as it was now my time to be properly introduced to them.

The two new recruits for our army almost bowed before I stopped them. “If you are only here to beg for scraps then I will kill you right here and now.” Those words startled them, and the sweet smell of fear reached my nose. “I personally have no use for useless ceremony, the only thing I will ask of you will be results and obedience, do you understand?”

The human and the Twi'lek nodded without making a sound. They were afraid of my reaction but if they were to become useful then they would need to learn how to move past it, so I decided to test them.

“I said DO YOU UNDESRTAND?” my voice was laced with the power of fear, the power clawed at their minds inciting them to run, to kneel before me in submission, to give up and die.

They resisted valiantly and after a few seconds of being under my power finally answered me in unison “Yes my Lord”

“Good then follow me, we have to meet with my newest friend, your former companion will make an excellent gift”

“We should just kill the Hutts and the other leaders of the cartels and run things ourselves” Maul spoke calmly and without malice, but I sensed his dissatisfaction at my choice.

Perhaps if the state of the galaxy was more like in canon then we would have done so, in the present circumstances however, any attempt to mess with the criminal underworld as blatantly as Maul wanted would only bring us problems, we would still take control but it will be a gradual thing.

“We’ve discussed this before” that’s all I said in response, Maul grunted but didn’t say anything more.