"Maybe they're not all dead. Perhabs they were all abducted instead of killed." Jack suggested "Perhabs they're bodies were taken away to feed to an animal. Force knows what happened to them. I'm not sure we're even dealing with the sith. I mean since when have they ever used droids for assaults like this one?"

Tysy nodded. "You're right. Droids have never been the style of the Sith.
They mostly prefer to jab red lightsabers through flesh." She gave a rueful
scoff. "And I wouldn't put it past them to have carried out this attack
personally. The reborn Jedi Order would have been too good a target
for Darth Traya's former servants to ignore. One more thing--before
we leave for Ziost, I want to see if the theory I just formulated
might be correct." She bowed to Aerl and Jack, and then turned
to the Mandalore. "Canderous? You can't feel the Force, so I'd
like you to come with me. Please?" Her eyes were anxious.

The Mandalore nodded and followed the Jedi Exile to the very places
where four new Jedi Masters had been vaporized(?) She crept close
to each ash-filled depression using the Breath Control technique she
had learned from her former dark Master. When she was done,
Canderous noticed she was holding her temples and grimacing,
writhing with barely endurable pain. Her last words before passing
out again seemed to be these, which the Mandalore found confusing:

"Hypersuffusion. It--has to be. No--!"

John stood waited with Aerl. There was an orcward silent while the ships owners were away. John spent most of the time admiring the ship's insides. It was about 10 minutes before John asked "What do you think they're doing in there?"

"Haven't got a clue," Aerl replied to Jack. "Though it's pretty obvious that they wanted to be 'alone'." He winked. "If you know what I mean. What I can't figure out is how an ex-Jedi and a Mandalorian got together in the first place." He went over to one of the consoles in the main hold and tapped a few buttons. "Maybe there is something in here about their history, or where they've been, or...OW!" Aerl jumped away from the console as a painful and unexpected electric shock flitted through his fingertips. Rubbing the feeling back into his hands, he glared at the utility droid parked next to him. "Hey! Did you do that on purpose?" he asked it.

T3 whistled, then whirred in quick succession.

"You know, that sounded very much like a snicker," Aerl said, raising an dubious eyebrow at the droid. He looked over at Jack. "Maybe you'll have some luck in finding out where they've been and what they've been doing. I'm going to check out the cockpit. Begin plotting the course to Ziost." He gave a hesitant look at T3. "That is, if the little mechanical prankster here doesn't have any objections."

T3 let out a couple of beeps.

"Good," Aerl said to T3 as he started toward the cockpit. "But I'll be keeping an eye on you. Just so you know I've had plenty of experience with droids. Especially ones with attitudes," he added over his shoulder.

Once Tysy came to (again), the Mandalore had her pulled safely away
from the four ghastly depressions where the Force seethed. It seemed
to be angry, concentrated, quivering with destructive, raging power.

"Hypersuffusion," she continued with a choke. "Someone is trying
to fill in the holes in the Force, or the 'echoes', that Darth Traya
caused five years ago. Unfortunately, the method that this person
is using is just as dangerous, if not more so. You see, when you
hypersuffuse something with the Force, or are consumed by it,
you die just as quickly as if someone cut you in half with a lightsaber."

Her face looked worried. "If this keeps up, and more 'Force wounds'
keep being filled in by this deadly way, then the hypersuffusion will
spread out from the echoes and kill everything in its path. Either
that, or the hypersuffusion will cause the wills of the strong to
bend to whoever's causing it. Either way, we're in for trouble."

((OOC: Sorry I haven't been too active -- I've been off in New York City for a week :D Anyway, I'm back now, quite obviously, and I'll stop babbling and get to posting something useful now...))

Canderous processed what the Exile had just said. After a few moments of running her words through his head, he found it would be easier to just pretend he had understood.
"Wonderful." he said sarcastically. Then, more seriously and anxiously, he asked, "Does it put you in any danger?"

The Exile nodded gravely. "Of course. It also puts Jack in danger, since
he is a Jedi, and it threatens to turn or destroy every living creature that
is sensitive to the Force. I honestly believe Kreia was blind as to the true
consequences of causing 'wounds' or 'echoes' in the Force, but whoever
is doing the hypersuffusion definitely knows what he or she is doing. He
or she is willing to let billions upon billions of creatures die to--what?

"Conquer the galaxy? What kind of a future would there be in an empty
void that has been filled with nothing but twisted waves of the Force?
Gain power? If anyone tried to 'feed' off of these Force hypersuffusion
pockets as Darth Nihilus once fed on Jedi, they would die in an instant.
At this moment, I consider you lucky," said Tysy humbly, "that you don't
feel the Force within you. If you did, I fear we both would be lost."

"Well then I guess its a good thing I'm not." Canderous said, his arm sliding around her shoulders. "Can you stand? We need to get back and talk to Jack, warn him if we have to. We need to figure this out."

Tysy put her hand on top of the Mandalore's. "I agree. We need to
warn both Jack and Aerl, as even those who can't feel the Force
might still be affected by it. That means you, too, and I don't want
you--!" She choked up, startled. Then the Exile figured she might as
well say what was in her heart, with or without the Force to guide her.

"I don't want you to die before your time. To die before the Mandalorians
join you under one banner. To die before--I am your wife. We'd better board
the ship," she said quickly, fearing she'd confessed far too much already.
Mandalorians did not usually like "delicate" people. That meant "weak",
and nine times out of ten, "weak" meant "dead". Warriors. They all were.

When Canderous and Tysy had rejoined Jack and Aerl aboard the Ebon
Hawk, the Exile asked both of them a question. She didn't figure that
Aerl would know the answer, since he was neither a Jedi nor a Sith, but
Tysy thought Jack might have heard of it. Of the danger they all faced.

"Jack? Aerl? Have you ever heard of a deadly technique that the Sith
might use called 'Force hypersuffusion'?" She heard T3 beep ominously.

The Mandalore stood behind Tysy, his arms crossed over his armored chest. Beneath the mirrored visor of his helm, his eyes refused to leave the Exile for even a moment. What she had said to him earlier still rang clear in his head.
His arms shifted, eager to wrap themselves around her, but otherwise he stood stock-still.
Later. he told himself, I'll talk to her later.

Sitting in the pilot’s seat and preparing the ship to take off for Ziost, Aerl’s eyebrow twitched at hearing Tysy’s question. “Force hypersuffusion?” he said to her over his shoulder. “You mean like… dosing a Force Sensitive with so much Force power that it dissolves their physical being and they become part of the greater whole? Erm…nope, never heard of it.”

Tysy's blood immediately ran cold. "You have. I don't understand how you
would have, though, since you are neither a Jedi nor a Sith. Are you a
Force Sensitive? That would make more sense, but even the wisest of
Force Sensitives may not have heard of hypersuffusion. It's a very
stealthy technique, not often used and beyond the reach of even
Darth Traya. What else do you know of this method?" she asked.

Tysy reached out gently through the Force and felt a cloud of fear
in Aerl's mind. Protecting a secret, perhaps? What dark truth could
have been more shattering than the fact that Traya had tried to
destroy the Force with her, the Exile's, help? She sent waves of calm
to try and touch the nervous, hesitant pilot of the Ebon Hawk.

"I sense you know more than you're telling me," she said. "What
is Force Hypersuffusion used for on so grand a scale? It not only
wipes out your enemies, but it can wipe out all life in the galaxy
if it's used enough." Tysy was confused. "Who would want that?"

"Me? Force Sensitive? Erm...I dunno," Aerl said hesitantly. "Like I said, I've never heard of Force hypersuffusion. Well," he quickly conceded, "I've heard of the theory of it. You know, being as I'm a jack-of-all-trades, I have a wide social circle. You wouldn't believe the kinds of things that people like to discuss in the cantina when they think no one is...." He paused, realising that he had very nearly said too much. "Erm, nevermind. Like I said, I've heard of it, but I haven't witnessed the actual process of it. " He sensed that Tysy wasn't buying his explanation. "Maybe...maybe someone wants to punch a hole in the universe or something? That's what the theory says would happen over the long term. A dimensional rift." He turned his head towards Tysy. "So...are we all go for Ziost?"

"Mmm-hmm." Tysy smiled with a mixture of reassurance for Aerl
and suspicion. There was a distinct tone to her voice that said,
I would gladly give my life if you would tell me everything. If
everything the galaxy has heard about Force hypersuffusion
is true, then we're more than just doomed. For now, however,
she was content to poise her fingers over the hyperspace keypad.

Hissssss. A very quiet sound, like the releasing of air from a
valve, perked up the Exile's ears. Soon, a voice that spoke with
a soft timbre between a rasp and a growl addressed her, and the
entire five-person (including T3-M4) crew of the Ebon Hawk.

Why kill? it asked. Why kill, when you can conquer? Why
murder, when you can save the victims from your knife? Why destroy
a planet, or a galaxy, when it would be far better to reshape it?

You misjudge us, Tysy Dvukh, and our intent. That surprises us,
for we believed you'd left the Jedi Order and its lies behind. Its
half-truths that it's concealed from you for the better part of
your life. That is what we want to kill, what we wish to destroy.

Save yourself, and those with you, before the deaths begin. Join
us, or at least learn the true root motives of our cause. Ziost
is the place for you, and for the Mandalorian, whose life is war.
Both the Jedi and the criminal are enigmas, but so are you.
You are turning to our side, though you do not know it yet.

Of your own free will, you will become one of ours...Dvukh.

Tysy, the wind knocked out of her, slapped the controls to
send the ship to Ziost. The Ebon Hawksurged forward
violently, as if fleeing away from an invincible threat. Or to it.

"What in the name of Malachor was that?" Mandalore barked out, despite himself. He had felt a presence in his mind -- he recognized the feeling from the few times Tysy had done the same -- but this touch was...different. Cooler, more secretive. Dangerous.
"Tysy, what's going on?"

"I felt something," Stated Jack "I can't really explain it. It was weird and dark. What is going?"

(sorry for the one liner)

"I think the Sith are near." Such an obvious statement would have caused
lesser men to laugh at Tysy, to scoff at her not-so-subtle revelation.
However, Jack, Aerl, and Canderous were not those lesser men. The
Exile continued, "Ziost is where we're headed, and if that's the case,
that world still radiates the Dark Side energy that draws me like a
Toydarian to credits lying on the ground. Why? I've known darkness.

"I've known war. My body count is very high, in the hundreds of
thousands if not millions. I believe the voice we've heard is of
the Sith, and their presence is trying to lure us to the very place
where we've decided to go in the first place. It's most likely a trap.

"However, that doesn't mean we should ignore it." She sent out
a nervous yet intense pulse through the Force. "Master? Master
Revan? Can you hear me, hear us? It's your former apprentice,
Tysy Dvukh, and I'm headed for Ziost. Are you there?" Silence.

Jack, not ittentially, recived the message however he didn't block, change or interfier with it in anyway. "So Ziost it is then. I've never been there before, to be hononist I don't think heard of it before? What is it like?"

Ziost

Meanwhile, Revan still searched the complex for any clues to who had tampered with the computer terminal. He had found nothing new - any information of any importance was either locked by an unknown means, or deleted. The only item he was able to glean from one of the computers was a map. It was partially corrupted, of course, but Revan had guessed that part of the damaged file, an area at the far side of an apartment-like section, was skillfully tampered with.

And if it wasn't, well... he would merely continue his explorations elsewhere. The structure was huge, and there was plenty of places where someone might hide.

The door in front of him opened, it's security lock ancient and ruined. He walked quickly past the first row of doors, then turned and found himself facing another series of doors, perpendicular to the others. Checking his map again, he tried the first door.

It appeared to be jammed, and perhaps blocked from the inside. Revan used his lightsaber to burn a small hole, but was met by rocks and crumbled debris. Turning off the cyan blade, he went to the next door; it did not open as well, but it was not blocked. Using the force, he pushed the door aside, and came face-to-face with a creature.

Evidently some starved mutated Sith beast, it roared weakly, then rushed at him, running on it's back legs. The creature's jaws opened, and spit a stream of acid at him. Revan lept to the side, then spun and ignited it's lightsaber. As the creature turned and came at him again, he jumped over it, slicing a line down it's back. The beast roared in pain, then fell to the ground as Revan's lightsaber severed it's neck.

Turning to examine the room, Revan noticed an opening in the wall that led into an open space behind the creature's lair. He crawled through it, then stopped - he could feel something in front of him. It was like a hole in the force, but different, he could feel the force inside of the hole... strong, and concentrated. But a voice in his head distracted him.

"Master? Master Revan? Can you hear-"Suddenly another voice drowned the first out, a soft and evil voice. Hssss.... Revan....He glanced upward, trying to find the voice. Greatest of the Jedi, isn't it? We are suprised. We knew you would come back here, but we did not think that you would come in this way. It was always a possibility, of course....

But did you learn nothing from Traya, at least? It would have been better if you would have left the lies and half-truths of the Jedi, instead of returning to them after your little brush with the dark side. For our aim is to destroy those lies, to reveal those half-truths which have been kept from you.

Always remember that, Revan. You will be on our side, and you will not even know it. Just like those who are coming to you now. The quiet, raspy voice subsided with and echo, and then silence. So, Revan was not prepared for the wave of the force that flowed over him, then retreated, leaving him unconcious on the floor.

(((A bit long, I know - and a bit lame - but I needed to post something in case I missed a couple of days... Oh well.)))

The Ebon Hawk landed on Ziost in the dead of night, perching like an
owl upon its hardened rock surface. The atmosphere of this dark Sith world
was both steaming hot, as Malachor had been, and cold with sinister energy.
Tysy, Canderous, Jack and Aerl emerged as cautiously as they dared, keeping
their footsteps to soft and muted taps instead of bold and stalwart stomps.

"Well, T3," muttered Tysy ruefully to the utility droid, "here we are."

T3-M4 chirped an ominous "Dwoooo," and then rolled out further onto
the surface of Ziost. He made tracks in the quartz-gray rock dust lightly
covering the unyielding bedrock below. He kept all of his sensors alert.

"Now that we're on Ziost," continued the Exile, turning to her three companions,
"what do you think we should do, and where do you think we should start
looking for Revan? If he's even here," she added with a regretful shrug.

((P.S. Rob, if THAT was lame, I crave to see your finest work! *LOL*))
You are most likely your own worst critic. I loved what you wrote!

((Perhaps I am... Although, it's nice to see there's people out there that like it. :) ))

Revan got to his feet slowly, rubbing his eyes as they slowly focused on the room. He started to remember why he was here, then the strange voice, and the words it had spoken to him. Wincing, he stretched out with the force, trying to feel that-

Wait. He couldn't feel anything with the force. In fact, he couldn't even control it. Ironically enough, he could feel the force inside him, but it was as if it was numbed. He could feel it to some extent, but he felt weak. Reassured by the fact that he had not been completely stripped of the force, he picked up his dropped saber.

Now he focused his attention on the voice. He knew he had heard that voice somewhere. In a darker dream, perhaps? Or was he remembering some forgotten journey he had made into these regions? He also remembered the other voice, reaching out to him just before it was blanked out by the other. "Master? Master Revan? Can you hear..." And then it was gone.

He knew that voice also, and he knew who it was. But if she was coming to Ziost, he had to find her. Perhaps she knew something more, something that could reveal what was happening here. However, it would be a bit hard, knowing that he could not use the force to sense her. Shaking his head, he hurried through the building, going back to his ship.

"We could try looking for shelter, if the guy's smart he would of done the same thing. And if we're sure this guy is here there's a decent chance he came here by ship. If we find a ship we have a good lead in finding him," Suggested Jack.

Aerl pulled out a small metallic device, no bigger than a hypo, from his pocket, and as he held it in his hand it began to hum. He began to turn to the right and the humming began to decrease in volume. He turned to the left and the sound increased, and increased more until the humming was a solid tone.

He pointed to a nearby ridge. "Think your guy's located on the other side of that small ridge," he said definitively, then he paused as he realised the others were staring at him and his device. "Oh...erm...this is something I picked up on... erm... Regus 12," he said hurriedly about the device. "It detects... erm... residual hyperdrive coil emissions. From ships. So, if there's a ship over there, most likely this Revan fellow's there, too, yeah?" He moved forward with the confidence of a soldier. "Ok, this way people!" he called over his shoulder.

He paused then, and looked sheepishly over at Tysy. "Erm...wait a sec...I suppose since it's your friend that we're looking for, and it's your ship that we came in, that's your line to say, right?" He gave a hurried glance at Mandalore. "Or, maybe his," he added. "But either way, Tysy, there is a ship over that ridge. And I think we should investigate it since we've come all this way and...." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Erm...I'll just shut up now." He started forward, grumbling something unintelligible to himself under his breath.

Hate to double post, Tysy, but are we continuing with this thread or ...??

(((Well, I think it's continuing... Haven't seen Tysy for a while, though)))

Revan ran across a broken causeway, exiting one of the larger structures in the fortress. According to one of the old computers, the ship had come down on the opposite side of the ridge. Now, all he needed to do was get there.

He ran through several more doors, finally emerging on an ancient walkway that led to an open courtyard. This was where I left my ship...

Except it wasn't there. "What the....!" He looked across the courtyard in vain for some clue where it had gone, but there was just an empty space. "Great." He said to the empty space. "It gets more and more interesting all the time."

((Will replace this with a good post tomorrow. I got back from a week-long
business trip about 30 minutes ago, and if I try to write now, I will pass out
on the keyboard. Sweet dreams, everybody! ;))

(((Tysy, just to let you know, I'm going on vacation this sunday for about 8 or 9 days. Since you still haven't found Revan, you could probably just have him "nowhere to be found", so to speak, until I get back. That is, unless you want to take him over or it interferes with the story.)))

Tysy nodded. She, the Mandalore, Aerl and Jack moved forward, at first
with the same soldierlike confidence Aerl had exhibited, and then more
tentatively. It seemed that the further they traveled on the barren
surface of Ziost, the more twisted and confused the landscape got.
Eventually, they all concluded that for now, Revan, "Master" or not,
was nowhere to be found. They hoped to find the Ebon Hawk
again!

"Dammit, we've been wandering around this dust-pot for hours!" the Mandalore growled, the teadious task of find the Hawk again winding him down to his last nerve. "I sure hope we find some kind of monster here so I can blast its head right off!"

(Oh my, i completely forgot about this RP! I was HK, Tysy, can you tell me how to fit in?)

Aerl smacked the small 'coil-emission' tracking device he held in his hands. "Work, dammit," he grumbled. The device made a single spluttering sound, then was silent.

Wtih a determined frown, Aerl blew on the device and a small cloud of dust erupted into his face.

"Phfth! Pah! Great! Just great!" Aerl choked out between coughs. "All this dust has clogged up its sensors. But, I was sure the last reading said there was a ship that way," he said, pointing with his finger to their left. He frowned, then turned the device in his hand the right way 'round. "Erm...I mean," his finger pointed to the right instead, "that way."

He looked up and noticed that the others were just staring at him. "What? It's not my fault that my tracker isn't working right. I mean, it worked fine on Tatooine. Erm...for the most part," he added quickly. "And there's no dustier place in the Galaxy than that." He looked around. "Well, except for here, maybe." He shrugged. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going this way," he said, starting to walk as he looked over his shoulder at the others. "I mean, the Ebon Hawk can't be that far a...."

The dusty, sandy ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way and a large gaping hole appeared where Aerl once stood.

"...wa-aaaaaay!"

There was a soft thud a moment later.

"I'm okay," Aerl's muffled voice travelled up through the hole. "Think I lost my blaster though. Can't see much. It's dark down here. But I landed on something soft."

A low growl rumbled up through the hole.

"Erm...soft, but apparently not very friendly."

The growl grew louder.

"Hey, Mandalore?" Aerl called up. "Think I found a head you can blast. A big head."

The growl morphed into a snarl.

"Lots of teeth."

A roar echoed in the chamber below the ground.

There was a choking cough from Aerl. "Ugh! And really, really, bad breath!"

Another roar, then a moment of silence.

"Erm...Mandalore? You guys can hear me up there, right?"

Then a heavy sounding scraping sound could be heard, like something large starting to move, followed by a hollow metallic 'crunch'.

A faint "Crap" echoed from the hole. "Erm...think I found my blaster," Aerl called up. "Mandalore?"

The roar came again, followed by a reverberating thud.

"Tysy?"

Another thud.

"Jack?"

Another thud and another more ominous roar.

"Anyone?!"

Another thud, followed this time by quick scuffling sounds.

"Aw, c'mon, guys!" Aerl's panicked voice echoed up through the hole. "I didn't come all this way because I had aspirations to be a snack! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

The Mandalore smiled beneath his helmet.
"I think we've let him sweat long enough. Besides, I'm not exactly feeling patient."
Aiming his arm at the side of the hole, Canderous pulled back a section of armor on his arm, a cable headed by a thick spike firing from a hidden launcher. Then, leaping into the pit, he swung across the pit and slid down the side to the ground below. Flipping nightvision on his helmet visor, he glanced around.
"Now where is this big bugger..."

"RA-AAAAA-RRRRRRR!!" The hairy beast roared like thunder behind Canderous, and pawed at the dusty ground.

Aerl was pinned up agains the wall of the pit bathed in the dim light beaming down from the hole in the ceiling above. "Think you offended him," Aerl said to Mandalore. "He. Didn't. Mean. It." Aerl said the words slowly to the beast. "You're. Not. A Bugger. You're a. Nice Kitty." He paused. "At least, I think you're a kitty."

In fact, the beast, by all reasonable guesses, looked like a grossly mutated Corellian Tusk Cat. But it was incredibly large. As big as an adolescent rancor.

It roared again, and this time Aerl could feel his hair move in the stench wind of its breath.

"Canderous?" Aerl said in a very quiet voice. "Help."

"And you call yourself a man." Canderous murmured as Aerl's voice cracked with fear. "All right you big cat, over here!"
The Mandalorian fired a few rounds into the side of the monster's big head, which seemed to simply irritate it. It flicked its ear in an annoyed fashion and turned towards him. Opening its gaping mouth, it growled at him.
"Nice to meet you too!" the Mandalore shouted, and fired a grenade straight beneath the thing's tongue.

The beast shuddered, then it inhaled.

Aerl cringed as he anticipated another ear shattering roar, or at worst, a chomp.

But then, the beast choked, and spluttered and its eyes began to bulge. It turned away from Canderous, and was just about to let out a mighty, convulsive cough...

The grenade exploded.

Aerl didn't have time to dodge before being buried in a mixture of blood, fur, and black stringy fibres. As he extricated himself from the tangled mess, he grimaced.

"Ugh! Hair ball!"

Pausing only to pick up the bits of his crushed blaster, Aerl made his way around the dead beast over to where the Mandalore was standing looking smugly victorious. "Thanks," he said to the Mandalorian. "I owe you one." He looked again at the giantic beast. "Okay, maybe two," he conceded. "But that has got to be the largest cat I've ever seen in my life. I've heard that animals in captivity sometimes grow larger because of a better diet, but...this thing's ridiculously huge! What do you think it's been eating? And, more importantly, who's been feeding it?"

"Who knows." Mandalore said gruffly, trying to pull a bit of carnage from the folds of his metal plating, "All I know is that it's dead now. And that you've got to grow a backbone if you're going to be traveling with us."

Aerl looked over his shoulder, as if trying to see his spine. "Backbone, huh? Well, excuse me if I don't have room in my pockets for nightvision goggles and a grenade." He held up his mangled blaster. "What was I supposed to do? Throw this down it's throat and hope it eventually died of indigestion?"

Suddenly, something caught his eye. Something that had caught a glint of light reflected from the metal of his flattened blaster barrel. "Hey, what's that?"

He rummaged in one of his pockets and finally latched on to a penlight.

"It's a gate," he said, picking his way through the old bones and rubble on the floor of the pit they were in. "Probably built to keep this kitty cat in," he said, peering through the large grates of the metal gate. He shone the light through the gate and down the corridor. "Well, Mandalore," he said. "You gimme a spare blaster and I'll muster up enough 'backbone' to investigate what's down there. Deal?"

The soldier looked at him silently for a few moments, his eyebrows cocked beneath his visor. After a moment he sighed, and turned his head back to the mouth of the pit.
"Hey Tysy! We found some kind of tunnel down here; we're checking it out. Be right back."
Lifting a hold-out blaster from a holster on his belt, the Mandalore tossed it into the air, catching it by the barrel and holding it out to Aerl.
"Start growing."

Aerl snatched the blaster from the Mandalorian. “Gee, thanks,” he said deadpan. Holding the penlight between his teeth, Aerl squeezed through one of the grates in the gate. “Well, if I had anymore ‘backbone’, I couldn’t have done that!” he smirked. “Hold on. I’ll see if there’s a lever or something that…ah! Here it is.”

The gate lifted, groaning with years of disuse, until it was high enough for the Mandalorian to duck under.

With Aerl in the lead, the two walked down the darkened corridor. It was disused enough to have cobwebs on the stone walls and ceilings, but used enough to have a wear pattern on the stone floor. Finally they reached the end. There were two doors, one to the right and one to the left, and a strange computer panel directly in front of them.

Aerl examined the panel. There were no signs that it was working. No lights, no hums. But there were five buttons, each with an unfamiliar symbol on them, and a blank, dusty display screen. Aerl shrugged. “Pick a number,” he said to the Mandalorian.

The Mandalore looked over the man's shoulder for a moment before brushing him aside.
"I've seen these controls before...or something like it."
Pausing for a moment, he hesitantly pressed the fourth button, and the tunnel was filled with an even louder grating noise, the doors to either side being drawn up into the ceiling.
"Well isn't that interesting. It still works."

"Yeah. Interesting," said Aerl, with a disparaging scowl. "Ok, Mr. Smartiepants. Left or right?"

"I got us this far, Meat-head." Mandalore answered, "Your turn."

Aerl sighed dramatically. "O-ka-ay," he said. "I'll take left. It smells better."

He trudged forward, the corridor becoming more and more narrow as they went, until they came to another door. This one didn't have a lock, merely a simple handle.

"Here goes nothin'," Aerl said, and, with blaster ready, he opened the door.

It was a large chamber. Another computer, of the same ancient style but much larger in comparasion, stood in a sunken area in the middle of the floor. Around them were cages. Large cages. But, thankfully, empty cages.

Lights flashed on the ancient machine, indicating that it was not only on, but running.

"Well, would you look at that," Aerl said in awe. Then his expression became serious. "Uh-oh. Droids."

He pointed with his blaster to what looked to be like sentry droids. Only the droids didn't look active. "Don't think they're working," Aerl said, and he crept forward cautiously to investigate the nearest one.

He waved a hand in front of it. "Ha. Dead as a dwarf star," he said. And just to prove his point, he kicked it.

A red light in the middle of the droid abruptly came on.

"Erm...or maybe not."

"Idiot!" the Mandalore growled, leveling his blaster rile at the droid, "Now you're working on my last nerve. We should've left you back on Dantooine."

"Quit moanin', will ya?" Aerl said, rolling under the droid and blasting it several times from underneath. The droid's top plate popped off it's 'head', and the red light went out. "It's just one droid." He blasted it again, just to make sure it was 'dead'.

"But if you hadn't kicked it, there would never have been 'only one droid. And, if you hadn't been a clutz, I wouldn't have had to deal with our cat friend back there."

"Hey, that cat was no friend of mine!" Aerl said defensively. "And how was I supposed to know that I was going to fall through to his cage, huh? It could have been Tysy who fell through instead of me. Or...or Jack. Or you." Aerl frowned a bit. "'Course, you probably would have killed the poor creature straight away, landing on it's back wearing all that heavy armour," he added quietly. "And," he said pointing an emphatic finger, "if I hadn't fallen through that hole, we would have missed this important..." He waved his hand in the air. "...whatever the heck this place is. Bet you didn't think of that, huh?!"

Aerl waited for a reply, but none came.

"You think I'm an idiot, don't you. Well, I'm not." Aerl crossed over to the ancient computer, and stood in front of it, arms crossed indignantly. Then he frowned. "And if this thing had its labels written in Basic, I could show you."

"And you say you're not an idiot." Mandalore sneered. Keying open a comm. channel, he cut off the speakers in his helmet, instead speaking into the comm. mike.
"We've got something down here you might want to see, Tysy."

((Hey, I know! You can have HK FIND us on Ziost, since he's so DS!)) :)

Tysy had heard a lot of roaring, thumping, commotion, explosions...She
would have jumped into the messy melee, but something held her back.
Not the dust, or the size of the gaping sinkhole into which Aerl and the
Mandalore had been engulfed. Not even the possibility of certain death
within said sinkhole had made the Exile feel afraid at that moment.

It was a pull. A pull, and a pulse. The Dark Side was strong here. Granted,
this was Ziost, a Sith world, but even for the Sith...This power poisoned one.
Infected one, like some mutant virus. Tysy knew that lesser sentients would
have been killed in a matter of minutes had they been here. Then again, none
of her crew were lesser sentients, so, gathering her courage, she pressed on.

Down into the sinkhole she went, into the dark, empty corridor where
Aerl and Canderous had suddenly found themselves. Tysy brushed her
hair back from her face and entered what seemed to be a computer
console room. An ancient one, like the ones Revan had supposedly
found in the ruins upon Dantooine. She nodded to her two comrades.

"Thank you, Canderous," she said, bowing humbly to him at the waist.
"And you too, Aerl," Tysy continued with a smile. "Sorry I wasn't down
there to help you two with that--large creature--but whatever it was,
something else had me more afraid. The Dark Side power's lethal up there."

She strode up to the console, which was humming quietly. Instead of
saying her own name, first or last, she pronounced one simple syllable.
"Revan?" she asked. The computer went dark for a moment, and then
flashed a detailed message in Basic, which Revan undoubtedly spoke,
on the screen:

Welcome, Dark Lord. Which function would you prefer to execute?
1) Display a list of all terminations that have happened since last access.
2) Analyze a series of missions and counter-missions by Jedi since last access.
3) Project a list of possible targets for future termination if missions continue.

Tysy took a deep breath and pressed 1). She felt a tug of pain as she read
the list of names. Human and sentient names, not just clinical "terminations."

Master Vrook. Master Kavar. Master Zez-Kai Ell. Master Vandar. Master Dorak.
Plus hundreds upon hundreds of lesser Jedi that had served them all.

After composing herself, Tysy took another deep breath and pressed 3).

Her name was not on the list of future "targets" for termination. Neither was
Jack's, and neither was Aerl's. Neither was Canderous, especially with his
affinity for the darker side of human nature. However, something surprised her...