Chapter 1
Darth Rowahn strode out in front of his troops. Technically he was not a Sith Lord, but rather an Inquisitor. He was one of the first, and most powerful Inquisitors, and was known to most as Inquisitor Rowahn. However, he had always called himself Darth. After all, he was trained by Darth Vader in the ways of the Dark Side, so wouldn’t that make him a Sith? It was also true that some of his training had been taught by the Inquisitor named Malorum, who was later killed by an exiled Jedi name Ferus Olin. If Olin wasn’t dead by now, Rowahn would have to hunt him down. Anyways, that was not important. Right now what was important was the Jedi they were tracking. A young woman by the name of T’Risha Jord. Rowahn did not actually know Jord, but he had seen her file, so he knew she was a young human about 23 years old, and supposedly had been a strong telekinetic while she was training as a Jedi. Now, 14 years after the Great Purge, she was still training. Training and running. But after two years of searching, Rowahn was finally catching up to her. After about 5 years of training, Rowahn was sent on his first solo mission. It was a simple mission something he’d helped with multiple times. Kill the Jedi, and take his saber. That was his first, but in the 8 years following, he had had many other missions. All had been fairly easy, and he had returned within a month or two. This one however, was taking a bit longer. It had been 2 years since he started, and only in the last about 3 months had he gotten any solid information about where the girl was. Why she was so hard to catch, he was not sure, but he knew he could not return empty handed. He had seen too many fellow Inquisitors and other “Jedi Hunters” return to face Vader’s wrath. Why Vader wanted to sabers so bad Rowahn wasn’t sure, but neither did he care. Never once had he failed, and he wouldn’t this time.
“Fan out, see if you can pick up here trail.” He yelled to his men. He had been here most of the day, and was getting tired. Even the Force could only do so much to keep you going. Taking the saber pike off his back, he sat down. He would rise in another minute or two, but for now he needed to meditate. Not as the Jedi did, using it to calm his mind, but rather to beat the Force back into submission. It was a powerful tool, but one that seemed at times to have its own mind. At times sounding like a beautiful song, trying to bring him back to his earlier self. This could not happen. He would not allow it. Hammering it with rage and fury, the song died down again, into the rhythmic thump. Consistent, and dark.
Rising and placing the saber back on his back, he was about to follow his men, when one of them came running back.
“We’ve found her, she’s about five-hundred meters north of here!” came his metallic voice.
“She has not seen us yet, and we are waiting on your order to fire.”“Hold your positions, don’t let her see you, I will face her myself.” Rowahn replied. Then remembering that the Jedi often would sense the Troopers before they got to them, or else sense the Dark Side, they would often try to escape. “If she moves, kill her. We don’t want her to escape.”
With that, he strode off into the gathering darkness. He soon came upon the site where the troops had said the woman was, but she was already gone. Fleeing into the night, hoping to avoid the fire coming from the Stormtroopers. As Rowahn began to give chase, he was soon amongst the troopers, and gaining quickly on T’Risha. He could see her now, running through the woods, deflecting bolts with her bright green saber.
What a great way to be seen and followed. Ignite your saber so that everyone has an exact location of where you stand. Rowahn thought to himself. He would never do such a stupid thing, but he wasn’t complaining. No, this was fine with him. He could easily see her, and follow her through the nighttime woods.
As he quickly gained on her, he could see where she was running to. There was a ship in a clearing not fifty meters away. If he did not do something now, she would escape, and he would have to track her through space again. Not something he enjoyed doing, especially after doing it three times already. Pulling his saber off his back, he used the Force to fuel his jump. As he fell, he ignited his crimson red blade. He landed about ten feet in front of her, making her pull up short. The Troopers had stopped firing, knowing that Rowahn preferred to kill the Jedi himself. He just stood there, waiting for her to do something. She was good, he could tell that just by watching her. Soon she put her saber into a defense position, readying herself for the inevitable attack. Something wasn’t quite right about her, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it. As they stood there staring at each other the tension was growing. It was so thick now it almost felt as if you could actually cut it. Then Rowahn moved.
Almost faster than the eye could see, he struck. Thrusting and then slashing with his pike over and over again. The only reason why the girl was still alive was because the Force had sharpened her senses and lent speed to her limbs. As she tried to Force blast Rowahn, he quickly sidestepped before the blast hit him. Spinning as he did so to give his saber extra momentum, he struck at about her shoulders. She blocked the attack, but because of its power and height of the attack, she was left undefended in her lower midsection. Rowahn quickly spun again in the opposite direction, and hit her in the stomach with the pommel of his longer hilt before she had a chance to recover from the first swing.
As she stumbled backwards, Rowahn lowered the saber. He was sweating under his mask now, and longed to open the visor. Even after years of practicing with both the customary Inquisitor saberstaves as well as his saberpike, the weight of the hilt, as well as the crimson blade still tired him quickly. Supposedly the blade got lighter as you used it, but he had never found that to be the case. Still, he had learned and adapted. Using spins to get the momentum and strength he required, rather than brute strength. True, he had plenty of that as well, but he liked to save that for the end of the battle. All of these factors combined caused him to overheat much too fast. This too he was used to, but it was still annoying.
One nice thing was his hilt, It was comfortable, and had a much longer reach than a normal saber would. Besides this, he could use the hilt as a weapon, just as much as he could the blade. He didn’t like having the dual blades, because it was too much of a hazard. One wrong move and you could cut off you head. He much preferred his pike to the staves that he was originally trained on. They did have their advantages, like their auto-spin mechanism, but the disadvantages far outweighed the advantages in his mind. Still, something was not right about her.
As he paced around the girl, she quickly recovered.
“I remember you.” The girl was saying,
“You were once known by a different name.” But before she had a chance to say more, Rowahn said “You are mistaken. Though I have tracked you for years now, you have never seen me, nor I you.” She once again raising her saber into a ready position, though this time, it was not one of defense, but rather attack. And attack she did. She had speed, Rowahn gave her that, but she was also sloppy. He easily parried or blocked her attacks, even with his saberpike which was not always the greatest defense weapon. Than he realized it too late. She wasn’t sloppy, she was sizing him up, testing his skills. Than the fight was really on. It was all he could do to keep up with her flurry of stabs and strikes. Coming from all different angles and positions. Quickly she maneuvered his blade out of the way, then grazed his leg and blasted him with a strong force blast. Rowahn slid across the ground. He was still able to move, but the pain was intense. The troopers did take the initiative and start blasting as soon as Rowahn went down, but she was already gone. Running through the trees once again, heading towards the ship.
As Rowahn let the pain flow through him, allowing it to fuel his anger, it slowly subsided till all he could feel was numbness. That is when it hit him. He realized what had seemed so wrong about their battle.
She is a supposed telekinetic, but not once during our battle did she show prowess in that area. He thought.
Not until that last Force blast. Normally I would have avoided it or blocked it, but I couldn’t see it coming. She is good. Then one other thought occurred to him.
She said she had seen me before, but I didn’t remember it at first. Now I do. It was so long ago that I had completely forgotten about it. But then she had only been a strong telekinetic. How did she become such a competent swordswoman? This thought was troubling, but he had no time to dwell on it further. The chase had begun again, and it was back to space for him.
Well, hope you guys enjoyed chapter one. It is slowly
(very slowly) coming together. Maybe some of you will catch some of the other references that I threw in there.
This is still pretty much the first draft, so I will be adding and changing stuff as I continue to write. Mostly just little details, like setting and stuff, but this is a pretty go look at what you will be getting.
Anyways, until next time...