Chapter 10
Part 2
Looking up, he saw the grinning face of Caedon Ti-Rell, as well as the angry faces of the kiffar, the iktotchi, and the remaining human. Caedon had his sword tip at Rowahn’s throat, but instead of killing him instantly, he spoke.
“I had every intention for you not to make it this far.” He said in his silky, dangerous voice,
“but now that you’re here, I thought, he’s done well so far, let’s see if he is really as powerful as they say he is.” Sheathing his sword, he turned and walked a few paces away, signaling for men to help Rowahn up. Leaving the human to guard Rowahn with his electrostaff, the other two went and began to set up crates around in a fairly large circle. It was an arena.
“What’s in the crates?” Rowahn asked, his new mask no longer had a voice changer, but his voice was still garbled as it came through the speaker. Man, he hated the new helmet. It was just annoying.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Caedon said, then continued,
“We know you have some skills with a Lightsaber, and with the “Force”, but how are you without the Force?” Just as he asked the question, the two mercenaries fired up the machines they had taken from the crates, creating a null-zone. Or “Force-Void” as he had heard some call it. Rowahn immediately tensed up. His wounds stopped healing, the pain was no longer being suppressed, and returned in full force. The intensity of pain’s return cleared his mind, and though it hurt, Rowahn channeled the pain into focus. He understood what Caedon was doing. He was challenging Rowahn to a duel, and thought that by taking away Rowahn’s connection to the Force, he would take away any advantage that Rowahn might have.
Hah! Rowahn thought. Caedon couldn’t know that Rowahn had trained for this type of situation. He had deliberately practiced in rooms designed to negate any Force powers. While Rowahn did trust the Force with his life, he didn’t rely on it.
Rowahn’s saber had already been confiscated, and it didn’t seem that Caedon had any intention of letting him use it. Instead Caedon brought him the vibro-blade of the fallen cerean.
“If you are really as powerful as they all say, you might stand a chance against me.” Caedon said confidant in his own abilities, and with that, Caedon attacked.
Caedon’s sword had the advantage of reach, and he used that advantage to keep Rowahn from getting too close. He swung diagonal, low to high, and Rowahn pretended to barely dodge the strike. He was smiling as he led Caedon on. The next swing came from the right, just below the shoulder. Again, Rowahn hopped backwards, barely avoiding the blade. Caedon moved quickly, never allowing an opening for Rowahn to exploit.
The battle continued with Rowahn occasionally blocking, but usually dodging the swings. He knew in order for him to actually beat Caedon, he would have to make him extremely overconfident. After a powerful downwards strike towards Rowahn’s head that Rowahn blocked as he sidestepped out of the way, Caedon spun around, and went for a series of blows. High left, low left, midriff right, right shoulder, neck, then just above the ankles. Rowahn dodged or parried them all until the swipe towards his legs. Caedon had overextended himself just slightly, and Rowahn threw himself into a dive roll, over the blade, and coming up behind Caedon. Rowahn was already up when Caedon spun around, dealing him a kick to the chest, and knocking him backwards. Caedon, though off balance, kept himself standing, and renewed his attack.
Another series of strikes came as Rowahn slowly began turning the battle against Caedon. Caedon was still winning, but he was having a much harder time of it. As with most things Caedon did, he was a master swordsman, never keeping the same rhythm, constantly changing and never developing a pattern. He did not want to become predictable, and thus changed styles and forms often. Sometimes going only for shoulder and higher strikes, sometimes varying heights. This time he went for the right shoulder, the neck, the right shoulder again, then switched and struck at Rowahn’s left hip twice. The final strike in the series Rowahn parried, turning the blade outwards. Using the opportunity, Rowahn spun inside Caedon’s guard, elbowing him in the face, and then kneed him in the stomach, and kicked him backwards. This time Caedon fell.
Rowahn backed up and let Caedon rise. Blood dripped from the blue man’s nose, and he quickly wiped it away. Caedon was angry now, but he didn’t allow it to take control of himself. Moving back towards Rowahn he swung. Rowahn sidestepped, letting the blade fly past him. He was baiting Caedon, trying to make him lose control. Caedon swung again, and Rowahn sidestepped once more. The third swing from Caedon, Rowahn blocked out of the way as he sidestepped, grabbing Caedon’s arm, and throwing him away from himself, and into one of the Force dampening generators. The blade of Caedon’s sword pierced into the generator, causing it to sputter and crackle before dying. As Caedon extracted the blade from the now destroyed generator, he turned around to face Rowahn once again, but instead of charging Rowahn, he stopped. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Rowahn and said.
“Let’s try this again.” Rowahn didn’t know what he was talking about until Caedon attacked. He channeled his fury into his blows, though he did not succumb to it. The speed of the attacks caught Rowahn off guard, and he was hard pressed for a few moments while trying to recover. In that time, Caedon managed to successfully strike Rowahn, though it was just a glancing blow to the shoulder.
Same shoulder as that women hit the other day! Rowahn thought with a grimace of pain. As Caedon swung, both hands on the sword, Rowahn did a backwards roll, coming up a little ways away, and completely avoiding the strike. However, Caedon was back on him almost faster than Rowahn could recover. Barely bringing his blade up to block fast enough, he was sent reeling backwards again trying to regain his balance. Rowahn stumbled into another of the generators, allowing him to balance against it.
Rowahn crouched waiting for Caedon’s next strike. When Caedon swung, Rowahn dove to the side, out of the reach of Caedon’s blade. The blade struck the generator, and it sputtered and sparked before finally dying.
That’s two. Rowahn thought as he stood. He waited till Caedon had extracted his sword from the generator before he attacked. Caedon was off balance, and he had a hard time recovering as Rowahn struck. However, Caedon’s swordsmanship prowess once again shone through, as he quickly turned the battle back against Rowahn. Their blades clashed, but instead of holding it there, Caedon instantly took a step back, causeing Rowahn to stumble forwards, and then kicked him in the face. The helmet protected his face, but still Rowahn stumbled backwards, reeling from the kick until he lost his balance and landed on his back. Rowahn tried to crawl away, but he couldn’t move fast enough to get far enough away from Caedon to stand back up. As Caedon began swinging his blade at Rowahn, he was forced to dodge as best as he could. He tried to block a strike, but Caedon twisted the blade out of his hands. It landed behind Caedon, out of reach of Rowahn. Rowahn rolled bacwards, coming up on his feet, then when Caedon swung, Rowahn dove over the top of the blade, rolling behind Caedon, and grabbing the vibro-blade as he came back up.
“Nicely done.” Caedon said,
“I can honestly say I did not expect that.” The he attacked again. Again, he showed his mastery as he constantly changed his technique. The battle had been going for long enough now that Rowahn could see some weaknesses in his skill. Ceadon favored powerful torso strikes from the left, but was much more delicate when attacking from the right. And even though he rarely used flourishes, whenever Rowahn was off balance, he would do either a full body spin to add some momentum to his swing, or else reposition his blade with an eclipse spin. Rowahn would have to be careful about exploiting these weaknesses, because he would probably only get one chance to do so with each, before Caedon caught on, and modified his attacks.
Rowahn let himself be pushed back till they were almost near the edge of the arena, then started attacking, and turning Caedon towards the third generator. He did want to beat Caedon without the Force, but he did want to be able to access it should something go wrong. Slowly he gained some ground against Caedon, but then the culmination of his wounds, and the extended battle caused him to miss a step. As he stumbled forward he reached his hand out to catch himself as he fell towards the ground. Caedon took the opportunity to sidestep, and grab Rowahn’s arm, throwing him to the ground. Rowahn rolled with the fall, but could not get up instantly. As he climbed to his feet, he noticed the generator on his right. Slowly he raised his vibro-blade into a defensive stance. Caedon charged forwards, and swung from the left.
Here we go. Rowahn thought as the wide, powerful blow came towards him. stepping backwards and dodging the blade, he also caught it with his own blade, then redirected it right into the generator.
The generator turned the blade aside with only minimal damage, but Rowahn left it as it was trying not to look like he was purposely destroying the generators. As the battle continued, he could see that even Caedon was beginning to tire. Slowly the fought back and forth around the arena until they were near the final generator. Then with a burst of reserve energy, Rowahn turned and slammed his blade into the forth generator. Then quickly wrenching it free, he didn’t wait to make sure that the generator died. He instantly used his adrenaline to disarm Caedon, striking him across the face with the hilt of his own vibro-blade as Caedon’s sword flew out of his hands. Caedon fell backwards, and tried to scramble for his sword. Rowahn let him recover it, and stand up again, but then he attacked again. Quickly Caedon lost ground. His strength and energy rapidly depleting against the Inquisitor’s onslaught. All he could really do was retreat and try and stay out of Rowahn’s reach.
Nothing he could do was enough, and Rowahn just kept pushing him back until he finally tripped and fell to the ground. Again he tried to crawl away, but he was too slow. Rowahn ran forward, and kicked Caedon in the chest. Picking up Caedon fallen sword, he was about to kill Caedon. However, he stopped. Staring at Caedon, he looked into his eyes and saw the fear, but also the anger and defiance at being treated so terribly all his life. Beyond that, he saw the hate. The unquenchable rage of a man who thought himself the best, but had just been beaten. It was a disgrace worse than death. A punishment worse than anything the Empire could inflict. He had ruined his life forever.
Stepping backwards, Rowahn began to laugh. Not a laugh of joyfulness, but rather one of mockery. “All you wanted to do was prove that you could best one of the Empire’s greatest warriors, yet you failed. I could kill you now, but that would be a mercy. And you don’t understand mercy do you. You don’t understand the idea that it is okay for someone to not get what they deserve. And because of that, this moment will haunt you the rest of your miserable life.” Turning, Rowahn began to walk away, but then turned once more and said “The funny thing is, I still feel like I should kill you, if only so you don't keep following me.” Then he stabbed Caedon’s sword into the ground and started walking away.
Caedon’s men saw what was happening, and per instruction, they quickly raised their weapons about to fire. Rowahn spun, and threw his vibro-blade at the final Force Dampening Generator. The blade flew true, and hit the generator. At the same time, Rowahn began to run, barreling straight towards the mercenaries. As the generator began to sputter and the field began to drop. Rowahn immediately felt the pain of his wounds begin to heal as the Force flowed back through him. He could once again hear the song of battle flowing through and around him.
Caedon’s men began to fire, and with Force augmented speed and instincts, Rowahn easily began to dodge the flying plasma. Picking one of the mercenaries up with the Force, Rowahn threw him at the other two. They all collapsed in a heap, and laid there moaning. Rowahn stopped running, and looked back at Caedon as he lay upon the ground, considering one last time whether he should finish him off or not. As the song of battle faded in his mind, a more peaceful tune rose. A song of mercy this time. Turning away, Rowahn walked towards his ships landing zone.
It was a short walk back to the ship, and Rowahn was soon exiting Myomar’s atmosphere. Turning to Forty-Three, Rowahn asked, “have you been able to keep following Jord’s tracker?” After the droid blipped his reply, Rowahn continued, “Good. Plot a course for her last known location then.”
Soon the droid had entered the coordinates, and was engaging the hyperdrive. As the ship entered lightspeed, the blue walls spiraled around outside the cockpit. It was a bit disorientating sometimes, but after enough trips, you get used to the dizziness, and it no longer affects you. Or so they said. Rowahn still occasionally felt a bit queasy, but he didn’t always know what caused it.
Then he felt it. First in the Force, then in the ship itself. The ship shuddered, he felt an explosion. The blue walls where quickly torn away, and the ship hurled into real space. The ship was smoking, and barely controllable as it hurtled through the emptiness. Then they started picking up speed. The ship was caught in the gravitational pull of a planet they they had emerged next too. The ship’s engines had been damaged in the blast and did not have enough power to control their decent, so the Lancer-class pursuit craft freighter plummeted planetward almost without resistance.
R4-T3 was already trying to repair the damage enough to stabilize the thrusters, and get some power back to the engines, but they still wouldn’t have nearly enough time to get control of the ship before it hit the ground. The ship was about 150 meters above the surface when the engines came back online, and they were still falling fast. Rowahn quickly yanked up on the controls but he knew he wouldn’t be able to pull out of the dive fast enough. With the ground quickly approaching, Rowahn knew he would somehow have to soften the crash, but there was no way he would be able to prevent it.
“Prepare for impact!” he yelled back to the droid, then the dirt and debris covered the cockpit window.
A few minutes later Rowahn awoke. His ears were ringing, and his head was pounding. He tried to rise, but the dizziness almost kept him off his feet. Finally, he was able to stand enough to head to the rear of the ship looking for Forty-Three. He found him tangled in a mess of wires and parts. After he hadicked the droid up and removed him from his entanglements, Rowahn and Forty-Three headed for the entry ramp. It was jammed shut.
“We won’t be getting out that way” Rowahn commented offhandedly to which the droid replied with some fairly weak expletives -- for an Astromech anyways.
“Of course we’re gonna see if the docking hatch will open, but you don’t have to talk to me like that.” Rowahn replied a bit annoyed. They quickly made their way to the docking bay, but it too had been damaged by the crash.
“Blip blip squee bloop” R4-T3 stated.
“No, that’s a terrible idea.” Rowahn replied. “If you want to be ejected with that much force, you are free to go into an escape pod by yourself. But I already hit the ground hard enough once today.” The droid whined dejectedly, but didn’t push the matter any further.
After a moment Rowahn spoke, “I’ll cut the cockpit window out, and we can get out that way. We are going to have to go find a city or something to get repairs done. Are there even any cities nearby?” Then turning to the droid, “What planet are we even on?”
The droid quickly answered, and then headed for an escape pod. “Vicondor. I guess we didn’t end up too far out of the way then. Wait, why are you still going to the escape pod?” Rowahn said. Another series of beeps and whistles, then a grunt of satisfaction. “Cut our way out of an escape pod rather than waste the cockpit window. Good thinking droid. Or should I say processing.” He added for insult.
Soon they were outside the ship. The first things they noticed where the higher-than-standard gravity, and the fairly intense heat. “This is not going to be a fun walk.” Rowahn stated. Just then they heard the engines of another ship overhead. Looking up, Rowahn saw a YT-2400 light freighter. Caedon Ti-Rell’s freighter.