Chapter 1: Empire's End

[Guardian_A]

Star Wars
Knights of the Old Republic
Empire’s End


For a thousand years, the New Sith Wars had raged across the galaxy. Sometimes in epic battles, but more often in smaller skirmishes the Sith waged their war. The Sith’s spectacular rise to power heralded a comparable decline for the once great Galactic Republic and a growing militancy in the Jedi Order. During the conflict, the Galactic Republic abandoned thousands of worlds to the Sith Empire during their retreat.

In 1,010 BBY, Lord Kaan reorganized the Sith Lords into the Brotherhood of Darkness and embarked on the last of the New Sith Wars: the Light and Darkness War. During this new offensive, the Sith drove their forces deep into the core worlds and recaptured their ancient capital on Korriban.

However, the Republic forces, led by commanders like the Jedi General, Lord Hoth won several notable victories of their own. Forming the Jedi into the Army of Light, the Galactic Republic regained much of their lost territories through the course of many hard-fought campaigns.

Eventually, the Sith retreated to Ruusan, where, after six months of battle with the Jedi in six separate battles, the Sith were near defeat. Throughout the course of the battles, additional reinforcements attempted to land on Ruusan, though many Jedi forces were destroyed by an orbiting Sith blockade and many Sith reinforcements were destroyed by the Republic Navy en route to Ruusan. During the seventh battle of Ruusan, the Army of Light broke through the Sith blockage, crushing their fleet, bringing much needed reinforcements to the Ruusan battlefront.

In a final act of desperation, the Kaan, and his Brotherhood of Darkness begin an ancient Sith ritual in hopes of unleashing the devastating weapon known as the Thought Bomb, . .

[Guardian_A]

“Battle stations! Shields to full!” Captain Jerro Klen screamed as the Jedi fleet exited hyperspace almost on top of the Sith cruiser Oblivion. But it was too late, the enemy fleet was already opening up on the cruiser with everything they had. Oblivion shook violently, shuddering with every impact. Alarms sounded around the ship as turbolazers tear jagged holes in the battle hardened cruiser. As crewmen scrambled to their battle stations, the Oblivion returned fire. However the sperratic return fire proved to be no match for the Jedi fleet.


One Hour Later:

The Sith cruiser Oblivion was dead in space. Short lived fires could be seen flickering across its ravaged hull. Streams of crystallized vapor drift away from the ship where atmosphere leaked slowly from small holes in the ship.

Closer to the planet, the battered Jedi fleet takes up orbit around Ruusan as smaller ships streak towards the planet, bringing much needed reinforcements to the Jedi fighting on the surface. In their wake, lays the broken remnants of the Sith fleet. The seventh battle of Russan had begun.


Two Days Later:

Aboard the Sith cruiser Oblivion. It had been a grueling two days to reach the ship’s escape pod bays, navigating their way through the now broken and foreign landscape of the cruiser. The tattered band of survivors look at the green display light on a single escape pod door. Feeling a brief moment of hope, they look through the small window in the pod’s door, they can see that the far side of the escape pod is badly damaged, exposing its interior to the vacuum of space. Sharing a look between them, they realize that their only remaining hope of escape is the hangar deck. And they will need to cross the vacuum of space to get there, . . . .

His back to an interior bulkhead, Vin Darkmauler sets his rucksack on the floor at his feet before half closing his eyes and reaching out with the force. Something was happening on the planet below, something that involved the Force on a scale he couldn’t begin to comprehend. Feeling the Dark Side energy slowly building below, he takes a moment to marvel at the power that the Sith Lords possess. Opening his eyes again, he takes a mental inventory of his situation.

Darwin Starlander looks through the small window at the broken escape pod beyond. Grimacing, he turns towards the other, his hand patting his droid, AR-tee affectionately on its disk shaped head. Rotating to look at its master, the droid lets out a cheerful series of chirps and whistles.

John Damek takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, watching his breath in the cold air. Air’s getting thin in this part of the ship. Looking down at the makeshift bandoleer of grenades hanging across his chest, he finds the assortment of explosives oddly reassuring.

Oblivion lets out a long, groaning shudder. The deck trembling beneath the character’s feet, as the sound dies down, the ship’s lights flicker again

[Yinan]

It already took us two whole days to get here and now that! If it was just a blast door that wouldn't open, no biggy, but the hangar deck... that will be difficult...

John looks as his two companions and mutters "We'll need Space Suits".

[Jedi Skyler]

"We're going to need a lot more than just space suits," Vin says grimly. "I don't know what they're doing down there...but it is wrong. On-a-galactic-scale kind of wrong. They are doing something on a level I can barely even comprehend. The sheer power they're building, all of it strictly from the Force...this can NOT be good. We'd better find those suits very, very quickly."

Sliding his rucksack over his shoulders, Vin checks to make sure his lightsabers are in place, then begins to check out their immediate vicinity for not only space suits, but anything else of value they might be able to use.

[Kaloth Varsk]

This trip wasn't going well at all. This was supposed to be a simple supply run. Not only did I come out of hyperspace right in the middle of a republic fleet on the attack, they also decided I was a target. I was lucky to get to the escape pod just in time to watch my ship get battered to scrap. Things were looking better when I actually managed to get on board this ship instead of floating in an escape pod in the middle of a battle, but now this ship looks ready to be scrap too, and the old escape pod looked like a much better prospect than this one.

"There has to be some other way." Darwin struggles over some debris, his limp becoming more pronounced with all the climbing and crawling required to navigate the wreckage since he met up with the others on board. He tried to get a closer look at what was left of the escape pod, shaking his head when he better assessed the damage. "Looking at the damage this ship has taken to the outer areas, even if we could find space suits, the odds that anything operational is in that hanger... well lets say the house stacked the deck against us."

[Yinan]

John starts looking for Space Suits as well. We're in the Escape Pod Bay, there have to be some Space Suites somewhere.

"If you want to stay."

As if we didn't knew that. But the Hangar Bay is the only viable option we have, and I sure don't wanna die here without at least trying. Especially after what Sir Darkmauler said. If there's anything happening down on the surface involving the Force, I sure don't wanna be here longer then I have to. Nothing good ever comes from that...

[Kaloth Varsk]

"Any chance they also keep a stiff drink around the escape pods? I could use one more than a space suit at the moment."

Of course, I hadn't thought to put anything of the sort near my own ship's escape pod either, so I suppose I can't expect the Sith to think of such things. Anyway, survival first. Dulling the pain could wait for later.

Dar ducked under a twisted half melted plastisteel panel which had had collapsed from the structure from the next level, trying to make his way towards where he thought a locker or closet might have been located before all of the destruction. "Keep an eye out for any computer ports as well. It's unlikely it will be anymore operational than the last one we uncovered, but just in case, we can have Artee plug in and see if we can get any information that way. Maybe the central computer can even tell us a deck with an operational pod."

[Guardian_A]

The characters begin their search of the area in hopes of finding enough space suits for the group. They find most of the nearby lockers empty.

Vin pries open a twisted locker down a damaged side passageway. Within, he sees two space suits. Opening his mouth, he prepares to say something when he sees a ragged tear down the sleve of one suit.

On the opposite end of the hallway, AR-tee lets out an excited raspberry, turning towards the others with a space suit in its small grasping arm. Looking closely at the space suit, everyone sees that the suit is made for a scentient who is no more than 3 foot tall. Dissapointed, the others complete their search in silence.

[Kaloth Varsk]

Looking over the disappointing grouping of suits the others have collected, Darwin sat down on the least jagged piece of rubble he could find. "Well, one usable suit is better than none I guess. Perhaps one of us could explore through the docking bay. There may be more suits that way... the wreckage of a ship, other lockers... our chances are probably better than finding more here. Question is, who is going to check it out."

[Jedi Skyler]

Vin takes the suits and joins the rest of the group. Putting them down, he says, "I found one intact, and another with a rip. If we can find a repair kit, we'll have two good suits."

He proceeds to look through the pockets on the suits to see if there are any repair kits there.

[Yinan]

John looks at the damaged suite. This doesn't look like it can be repaired in a usable way... someone has to take the one intact Suit and has to look for some other suites for us....

"Don't bother Vin. I doubt this one can be repaired. Someone has to take the good one and find some others."

[Jedi Skyler]

Vin looks the suit over and shrugs. "I'll take your word for it. I've never fixed one before; I just figured it could be done...although maybe not so well in the field."

He looks at the vacuum awaiting one of them, then at the group. "Anyone want to take a walk on the wild side? If not, I volunteer."

[Yinan]

"Neither have I, and thats exactly why".

Tape or something like that won't be sufficient to repair it to a state where we could use it in the vacuum of space... At least, right now, I'm not desperate enough to try...

"Be my guest".

Im not going to walk out there where I can't breathe... not that there is much air left here either... hm he might need one of those...

John is taking one of his Remote Grenades and the detonator Switch of his makeshift bandoleer and connects and activates them. Then he hands them to Vin.

"Here, this might come in handy. All you have to do is press the buttons on the detonator switch like this... There is no timer, so when you press the buttons, the Remote Grenade will detonate immediately. Maybe you will be fine without, but who knows if there is any broken blastdoors that just won't open or any other barricades. But don't waste it! I only have 2 more of them."

[Jedi Skyler]

Vin smiles a wicked little smile. "I appreciate the offer. I will even take you up on it. But that'd be where these come in," he says, patting his lightsabers. "They should get me through nicely." He examines the explosive and detonator very carefully, having listened intently to the lesson in their use. "If that is the general consensus then..." he adds, then takes off his utility belt and begins to don the space suit for his walk in the void. If no one stops him, he will then don the belt outside the suit, checking his weapons carefully and adding the grenade and detonator to his inventory. "Anyone know how long a walk I can take with this oxygen supply?" he asks.

[Kaloth Varsk]

"I'm afraid that's outside my area of expertise. Of course, I'm not really sure how much air we have in here at this point either."