Attack on the Sith

Within moments of my arrival at the Sith encampment south of Mos Nox, it was clear that my preparations had been unnecessary. Warranted, of course, for the sake of caution, but Spiderwell's best buffs had clearly been overkill.

The encampment consisted solely of a large tent near a smoldering fire pit, surrounded by several dark lumps on the ground. I had parked my speederbike about one hundred meters away and approached on foot, but before I even reached the camp, I knew that these lumps were the Sith bandits.

Was it Jawa Beer that had inebriated them to such a degree that they were the lifeless, unconscious lumps I saw before me? Perhaps it was a case of Bantha Blasters, stolen from the cantina in Bestine. Whatever the cause, it was readily apparent that the entertainment they had provided themselves with the night previous had taken charge of these worthless beings.

I stopped at the edge of their campsite, literally tapping my foot in the dust and surveying the spectacle before me with disgust. Certainly I did not relish the thought of slaughtering sleeping, drunken slobs such as the ones before me, however vile I was certain they to be. Yet searching their bodies and escaping without a fight did not seem right, either. Considering, I stepped forward and quietly prodded one of the sleeping forms with my boot. There was no response. The Sith did not even budge. I bent over to have a closer look at him. During the attack by the first three Sith I encountered, I hadn't had a great deal of time to examine them closely. I wanted to see exactly what it was I was dealing with.

As I stooped near the lifeless form, a dark wash of dread ran down the length of my spine. Too late, I had sensed a trap.

With incredulity, I watched the dark lump at my feet roll swiftly away, then rise to its full height. The Sith was awake. In my peripheral vision, I saw movement from the other side of the camp. All of the Sith were awake!

Cursing my own arrogance and stupidity, I took several quick steps back and raised my vibroknuckler to the ready. Just a moment earlier, I had been telling myself I was overprepared. Now, as dark shapes rose ominously all around me, I realized just how wrong I had been. I had been far too confident in my meager abilities with the Force, and it might cost me my life.

I struggled to calm my emotions as the dark figures advanced toward me. There were six of them, each carrying a gaderiffi baton with a confidence that suggested much more extensive training and skill than I had previously surmised. This wasn't going to be easy. My suspicions of their competence were further confirmed when they didn't rush me. I had expected them to come at me with everything they had, like the last of their kind I had encountered, but instead they approached cautiously, sizing me up with intelligent, ruthless eyes. I couldn't allow them any more time to think than I had already given them.

With a growl, I launched a Spitting Rawl attack at the Sith closest to me. This was a devastating attack that a smuggler had taught me in Kadaara, which crippled the target's sensory abilities and landed a brunt force attack on their torso. The Spitting Rawl can kill an ordinary man within a matter of seconds. The Sith, however, merely stumbled a half-step back, grimaced, and continued to advance toward me. It had taken the brutal hit with hardly a reaction. Refusing to be intimidated, I dove to the side and shoulder-rolled to my feet, a few meters away from another Sith. Fortunately, this one had not expected this sudden move, and another Spitting Rawl crippled him before he knew what was happening.

At once, there were two more on me. I feinted as if to muster my strength to throw them off me, but then dropped to the ground and thrust upward with my vibroknuckler, making a vicious, slashing arc from one to the other. They fell backward, both screaming in pain.

I rolled to my feet and wiped the blood out of my eyes to see the remaining three Sith crouching in front of me, gaderiffi batons at the ready. Wary after seeing their numbers reduced by half, they waited to see what I would do next, hoping to force me to make the next move.

I was secretly thankful for their hesitation, as the explosion of action I had just unleashed had dramatically exhausted me. If they had pounced, I might have been finished. As it was, I had time to catch my breath and wait for the fatigue to fade somewhat. The largest Sith, directly in front of me, signaled to his companions. They fanned out, circling around behind me.

To anyone untrained for such tactics, a simultaneous assault from three directions spelled almost certain death. However, to a well-trained Teräs Käsi warrior, such a predicament was ideal, contrary as it might seem. A Teräs Käsi Master uses the art like a gunslinger uses firearms. Consequently, just as a Master Pistoleer can turn a situation where he is surrounded on its head, into a deadly crossfire against his enemies, a Teräs Käsi Master can do the same with melee assailants.

The Sith were tough and determined, but they were still thugs at best. They reacted as I had anticipated, rushing forward together and attacking me at different target zones. The two that I could see in front of me were going for my head and torso; I could only assume that the third was targeting my legs. The obvious reaction would be to block the forward attacks to my upper body, but that would leave me exposed to the attack from the rear, which would cripple my legs and end my ability to defend myself.

Sacrifice is sometimes required to gain that which is important. I knew that the Sith would not expect me to take a blow that I saw coming. I would use this to my advantage.

They made their move, the two Sith before me snarling as one came in high and the other in a sweeping arc toward the center of my chest. I threw up my fists to create a blocking wall against the attack targeting my head and tensed my abdominal muscles to receive the second blow. The Sith's eyes widened as he connected - he had not expected to be able to make contact.

I was already reaching out with the Force, however, trying to sense the third Sith behind me. Suddenly I knew where the attack was going. I shifted my hips and lashed out backward with my foot, blindly yet seeing through the Force, connecting squarely with the Sith's nose. It exploded under my heel, and he fell to his back with a cry of agony.

With several quick movements, the two in front of me were dispatched before they knew what was happening. Wasting no time, I picked up one of their gaderiffi batons and spun to face the third, who was cowering on the ground with his hands over his face. I pounced upon him, thrust my vibroknuckler into the soft spot under his chin and lifted it up before me. The metal blade held the thug's head securely in place as I swung the gaderiffi baton into his temple. His mangled head fell to the ground, and he was no more.

Adrenaline and instincts forced me to my feet immediately, urged me to prepare for the next assault, but there was none. At my feet was only the carnage of the attack and the darkened, blood-stained sands of Tatooine.

On the corpse of one of the Sith I located an encrypted datapad, similar to the one given to me in an alley in Wayfar. That one had directed me to the location of Obi-Wan Kenobi's former home. I wondered where this one pointed. Along with the waypoint datapad, I found a data disk, the contents of which I could not discern until I returned to my base camp.

I thumbed my comlink and signaled to Spiderwell that I was returning, and that he should meet me at the camp. Then I mounted my speederbike and roared North.

Spider was waiting for me when I arrived. He looked me over and then roared a comment in Shyriiwook.

"I'm fine," I responded, "It's not my blood."

I showed him the items I had recovered, then pulled my portable terminal from my pack and inserted the data disk. The disk was encoded and access was restricted, but it was a simple password block that was easily routed - another trick the smuggler from Kadaara had taught me. With the protection thus disabled, the information contained on the disk appeared.

"It looks like military plans," Spiderwell commented in Shyriiwook, looking over my shoulder.

I nodded. "They are rendezvous orders and assault plans. It looks like the Sith are gathering for a large-scale assault on a fortification of some kind."

"But where?" Spiderwell asked.

I picked up the waypoint datapad and looked at Spiderwell. "I assume this will give us a clue. It's referenced here, in this file, as the target location. See? The serial number matches the datapad."

"Why wouldn't they just name the location in the files?"

I shrugged. "Maybe for security, in case someone got hold of the plans. They wouldn't be able to identify the target. These two items were probably not supposed to be kept in the same place."

I pressed a button on the underside of the datapad to activate it, but it only responded with a negative-sounding beep.

"Encrypted," Spiderwell said.

I nodded, then pulled a cable from a port in my terminal and connected it to the datapad. I ran a few cracking programs, and soon the encryption was broken. I tried the button again. This time, the datapad responded properly and displayed the coordinates of the Siths' target.

We both looked at it for a moment, then at each other.

"So," I said, "Do you know anything about Dathomir?"

Morning Preparations

I arose an hour before break of day, quickly gathered my things and shook Spiderwell's sleeping form. The wookiee rose with a groan, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and the sand out of his white fur.

As Spider readied his medical droid and prepared his buffs, I knelt before the quiet embers of last night's fire and concentrated, trying to quiet my mind and feel the Force flowing through me. I tried to cast all images out of my mind and focus on sensing my immediate surroundings. As those became clear in my mind, I searched further out, expanding my internal vision in every increasing distances. The Force allowed me to see quite far, nearly into the center of Mos Nox, but it was not yet powerful enough to reach the Sith encampment further to the South.

When I returned to the immediate and opened my eyes, Spiderwell was already applying his buffs to me, grunting softly to himself in Shyriiwook as he did so. He noticed me open my eyes and asked, "Are you ready?"

I nodded silently, feeling for the first time that morning the weight of the task ahead of me. I turned my concentration to my inner body, feeling the power of the buffs' enhancement course through me like silver water. The initial elation of a buff can be psychologically addictive. There were many who, once they tasted one, could not get enough buffs, and eventually succumbed to an overdose of the powerful medicines. For this reason, I acknowledged the euphoric feeling, but reminded myself that it would pass, and set my mind firmly on the task ahead.

During the previous night, I had considered whether a stealth-based infiltration of the Sith encampment might be more prudent, considering the circumstances. Though I did not relish the thought of taking more life, however, I realized that these Sith would press an immediate attack on me, were I discovered. I sensed that the encampment was filled with more of the same tribe as the three who had previously attacked me. There was a great deal of hate to the South. If they truly were of the same ilk, they were not worthy of the consideration of preserving them. They were a scourge to be erased.

Since destruction of the camp was the only answer, I then considered whether calling in reinforcements, such as the Temple City Militia (who were under my sole command), would not be wise. I decided, though, that a large-scale involvement in this matter would likely raise more attention than would be helpful in the long run. If I could decimate the camp quickly and quietly by myself, the chance that a larger force might discern what had happened and come after me was relatively low. If I stormed in with a large assault group, however, the chances of leaving more detailed evidence behind grew exponentially. No, this was a solo effort. I needed to get in and out quietly, then cover my tracks.

Without being able to see into the camp from a distance, I could only sense their presence and create a general plan of strategy for the assault. I discussed a few tactical maneuvers with Spiderwell, mostly to reassure myself of the plan's validity, then rose and swung my leg over my waiting Speederbike. I flipped the ignition switch and the engines erupted with a roar, spewing bright blue flames into the early morning air. With a nod to Spiderwell, I was off.