Star Wars 1. For the greater good

Knights of the Old Republic Pt. I

The Endar Spire pt. I

High above the skies of the outer-rim world of Taris a battle was raging. The Republic Hammerhead-class cruiser the Endar Spire hung wounded and billowing acrid black smoke as a wave of Sith fighters bombarded it's hull with cannon fire as it tried desperately to fight off the onslaught. Deep within the Endar Spire's crew quarters lay a smuggler hired by the Republic Army, Cade Marek, still asleep in his bunk despite the deafening blasts of Sith cannon fire, until one particularly strong blast launched him from his bunk and onto the durasteel deck.

"Ah blast it!"Marek shouted as he awoke, rubbing the newly formed bump on his shaved head as he looked around the dark room wondering what caused the quake that woke him. Just as his vision was starting to adjust to the darkness the automatic lights came on and the blast door opened with a loud hiss. Instinctively Cade jumped behind his bunk on the way grabbing his blaster pistol on the night-stand and took cover. He heard the heavy thud of boots on the deck coming closer, when he felt them stop about 5 paces away he jumped up from his cover and prepared to fire but as soon as he brought the weapon in line he recognized the intruder.

"Trask! Damn is that you?" Cade said with a small smile of relief spreading across his face.

"Cade?" Trask said showing a smile of his own lowered his weapon. Trask Ulgo was a Captain with the Republic Navy and Cade's bunkmate on the Endar Spire. "I thought you were dead! "What have you been doing in here?" Trask asked, looking genuinely surprised at Cade being here.

"Um…sleeping?" Cade said with shrug. He yawned loudly and stretched, loudly popping the joints in his shoulders "What's going on anyway? Another training drill? I'm getting sick of these blasted things, I can never get any sleep on this bucket." Trask just shook his head in exasperation but he still managed to keep his voice calm and professional.

"Listen smartass, we've been ambushed by a Sith fleet, they must have been waiting for us at the edge of the system." as if to prove this a huge explosion reverberated through the ship, knocking out any traces of drowsiness from Cade's mind. "Hurry and grab your gear we don't have much time!" Trask ordered. Cade nodded and hurried to the foot-locker near his bed and quickly put on trousers, boots, combat vest, and equipment belt just as he had in the several dozen much hated training drills he'd had to endure since he ended up on the Endar Spire a standard month ago.

"So I assume you have a plan Trask?" Cade asked while checking and holstering his side-arm. Trask thought for a moment,

"Well while you were taking a nap,-" "Hey! Not my fault, that Terisian and loman ale mix you made last night could've knocked out a rancor!" Cade said pointing an accusing finger at Trask, although the Captain still continued with his briefing despite Cade's interuption. "the Sith have sent a boarding party and are currently overrunning the ship."

Cade winced at that. "Meaning we'll have to fight our way to the escape pods I assume?" Trask waved his hand at Cade,

"If only it were that simple, no we won't be going there right away. We have to go to the bridge first, there's something there we need." Trask said and continued on as if that detail was only a minor one. "The Sith have already swept this part of the ship so-" Cade immediately froze and started toward Trask.

"WHAT!" he said, looking up from his preparations "Are you crazy! the bridge will be crawling with troops by now. What in the bridge is so damn important!" Trask didn't even flinch from Cade's outburst and gave Cade a cold stare that could crumble the resolve of even the most hardened troops

"The Sith are targeting Bastila, the Jedi commander of the ship. It's our duty as her troops to get her out safely" Cade just shook his head

"If she's a Jedi she can probably look after herself, I say we just head for the escape pods and get the hell out of here."

"Sorry Cade," Trask said, "Bastila is too important to the Republic war effort. If we lose her we could lose the war." With a grumble Cade sheathed his short sword.

"All right you win." Cade said reluctantly. "Let's get going then before I change my mind."

"Good." Trask said smiling "We better hurry." With that they were off. Hurrying down the corridor until Trask suddenly came to a halt at one of the corners and motioned for Cade to do the same. "Sith patrol." Trask whispered slowly raising his pistol, Cade peeked around the corner and saw three Sith soldiers armed with a mix of swords and rifles, each wearing the customary gleaming white armor of the Sith. Cade retreated back to the wall, took a few breaths to calm himself, then dove into a roll firing as he went. The first Sith died before he could react, the second before he could fire a shot, the third one armed with a sword charged at Cade and tackled him to the ground. but before he could raise his blade he was dropped by Trask's blaster shot.

"Thanks for that." Cade said looking down at the corpse.

"You would do the same for me." Trask said with a shrug, helping Cade up. they continued on, avoiding any fights when they could. eventually they reached a sealed door. "Ok." Trask said beginning to punch in a passcode into the doors computer. Cade was barely paying attention to Trask. Beyond the door he heard a strange but oddly familiar noise. Not the clang of swords or the ping of blasterfire, it was an odd thrumming sound he couldn't place. He found his answer when the doors opened. Circling each other in the corridor were a pair of robed figures, each armed with lightsabers. "Jedi." Trask said "We better stay out of this. All we'll do is get in the way." Cade just nodded numbly, his eyes transfixed on the battle in front of him. Suddenly the two figures sprang forward furiously slashing at each other. They moved so fast Cade couldn't track their movements with his eyes. Just as quickly as the fight began it ended. The large lightsaber armed Sith slumped to the deck with a smoking hole where his heart would've been. The young Jedi extinguished her blade and looked over to Cade and Trask.

"Are you guys all right?" she asked. "You better get out of here, Bastila has already escaped." Cade turned to glare at Trask,

"You said she was still here!" Cade said accusingly. Trask gave Cade a glare of his own.

"At least I wasn't asleep during an attack you moron!" Trask shouted back. The Jedi laughed lightly at the two of them.

"Come on the escape pods are this way, we better hurry before the Si-." Her sentence was cut off by a nearby explosion that sent shrapnel flying in all directions. "Get back!" The Jedi shouted and with a gesture of her hands Cade and Trask both were thrown back into the corridor they came from, narrowly escaping the deadly shrapnel. When they finally regained their footing and went back to the corridor they found the Jedi impaled on the wall by a large piece of shrapnel. Trask sadly shook his head.

"Come on, like she said the only way to the pods is though the bridge." Somberly they made their way to the next sealed door as Trask put in the key-code he said, "better get a melee weapon of some kind. It's too dangerous to use blasters on the bridge." Trask finished putting in the code and drew a short combat knife from a shoulder sheath, at the same time Cade drew the sword from his belt. "OK." Trask said. "On my mark, 3...2...1...NOW!" He hit the door release and charged in bowling over two very surprised Sith troops. Cade entered the room and barely managed to block the attack of a soldier wielding an axe. Cade counterattacked and his sword found a gap in the Sith's armor. two more troopers rushed Cade but were dropped by two lightning fast hammer blows. He then quickly finished off three more when Trask finally got off the two Sith he had been fighting. Trask looked about the room ready to engage more fighters but finding Cade standing over dead and dying soldiers looked at him in astonishment. "You took down all these guys on your own!"

"Yeah." Cade said shaking the blood off his sword and sheathing it. "Why don't you pick your jaw off the floor so we can get going." Cade said with a smirk and led the way out and into the next room. When they got there Trask stopped. "What's wrong?" Cade asked stopping too.

"There's something here..." Trask said, moving to one of airlocks.

"Forget about it let's just get out of here." Cade said pointing down the hall that led to the escape pods. Just then the airlock door opened revealing a large man in glossy black armor and robes wielding a blood red lightsaber. Cade began to draw his sword but Trask stopped him.

"Cade neither of us can handle him. You go on, I'll hold him off as long as I can."

"What!" Cade said, shocked Trask was even thinking of doing this. "What are you thinking? You'll be slaughtered! I'm a better swordsman, I can hold him while you go."

"That's exactly my point. You _are_ better than me." Trask said. "The Republic needs someone like you right now. You won't do anyone any good if you die here needlessly, now go!" Trask pushed Cade out the door and immediately shut and locked it. Cade could hear the clang of metal against metal and the thrum of the intruder's light saber inside the room he just left. He started toward the pods at a run, but wasn't fast enough to escape hearing Trask's dying screams.


	2. Escape!

The Endar Spire Pt. II

Cade finally came to a halt from his running, panting heavily he leaned against the wall for support. "So what now Cade?" he said to himself. Just moments ago Trask Ulgo, Captain with the Republic fleet and the only real friend Cade had in what seemed like years, had sacrificed himself in order to buy Cade time to escape the ship. The answer for what to do was obvious, escape the ship and not let Trask's sacrifice have been in vain, but that small fact did nothing to quell the feeling of uselessness that continually welled up in him. The sudden crackling of his personal comlink snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Come in, come in! Anyone on this frequency please respond." after taking a moment to compose himself Cade brought the comm up to his lips and spoke.

"This is Cade Marek, who is this?" There was what sounded like a sigh of relief on the other end.

"Thank goodness you're alive, it seems you're the last surviving crewman of the Endar Spire I'm going to guide you out of here." Cade let out a relieved sigh of his own, grateful he wasn't the only one to get out of this alive.

"Ok so what's the situation from here to the escape pods?" "Not good I'm afraid," the survivor said after a moments pause, "The Sith have concentrated themselves between you and here in an attempt to stop any survivors. Apparently they haven't noticed me yet but I don't know how long they'll stay ignorant." Cade slumped on the wall a bit.

"So what you're saying is I'm going to have to fight through a blasted battalion to get out of this?"

"Not necessarily," the voice said. "You're near a storage room right? There should be a stealth field generator in one of them. These Sith seem to be mostly raw recruits, they don't have the experience to detect you." Cade acknowledged the message and looked into the nearest door to him, and was surprised to find it was indeed a storage room. He looked around and quickly found and put on the belt-like stealth field generator and started back down the corridor. It wasn't long until he saw the first group of Sith troopers, luckily, just as the survivor promised they seemed oblivious to his presence. He snuck past the first couple of patrols with relative ease. Then he came to a door in a nearly deserted hall, and as quietly as he could typed in the key code. The door opened revealing two sword wielding Sith. One of them jumped with surprise and raised his blade.

"What was that! he said obviously scared.

"Calm down Aaron probably just a door malfunction." the other trooper said calmly, walking to close the door again. "This whole scrape heap is falling apart." Cade took a deep breath and inched into the room. The two Sith didn't notice his entrance and were in fact having a conversation over their headset commlinks instead of guarding the room or investigating the door glitch. Cade continued on, walking between the two soldiers, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Until that is Cade bumped into one of the Sith, knocking him off balance. Cade froze immediately, stunned by shock, fear, and cursing his own carelessness.

"Jones! What in blazes was that!" the younger Sith said helping up his partner.

"It seems as though we're not alone here Aaron, keep sharp some Republic scum thinks he can sneak by us." Aaron stiffened slightly and looked around nervously.

"How many of them are there? 3? A dozen!" he said, his voice getting shaky.

"Probably just the one." Jones said methodically scanning the room looking for the tell-tale shimmer of the stealth field. Suddenly Jones's head came to a stop right where Cade was standing still frozen in place by his own fear. "There you are you cowardly bastard." the Sith said raising his sword and then bringing it down in a massive hammer blow. Cade barley managed to dodge the attack but still felt the blade bite into his shoulder, then go down further to destroy the stealth field generator. Cade rolled backwards to avoid a follow-up attack, got to his feet and drew his own sword. Cade parried the next volley of savage blows before returning the favor with some of his own. The older Sith was experienced but still to slow and tired to withstand a full attack. Soon enough Cade's sword found a gap in the man's armor and severed his carotid artery, he fell to the floor gurgling on blood and soon fell silent. Cade then turned his attention toward the younger soldier. He must've been just a new recruit, instead of backing up his superior he tried desperately to exit the room but apparently didn't know the key-code to open the door. Finally seeing there was no way out he got his sword and furiously charged at Cade. Cade easily side-stepped a sloppy thrust and caught the man's wrist in his hand and with a swift pull and twist broke the soldier's wrist. The man screamed and dropped his weapon, then was knocked unconscious from Cade's round-house kick, leaving the Sith wounded but alive. "Hopefully you won't make me regret sparing your life." Cade said before walking out of the room and toward the next one.

"So far so good Cade." the voice over his comm said. "Just one more room to sneak by and we're out of here." Cade activated the comm.

"Ummm...actually there's been a change in plan." Cade said as he opened the room only to find it was empty.

"What do you mean?" the voice said, sounding concerned.

"I got in a bit of a scuffle in that last room and the stealth field was destroyed." Cade said finally noticing the pain in his shoulder from the sword wound, he put his hand over it and pulled it back only to find it was covered in blood.

"Oh that's just great," the voice said. "well you're going to have to fight your way through them then. There's a full squad of four troops and a squad commander here." Cade winced as the pain in his shoulder increased.

"Yeah that's not going to work either. I'm in no shape to fight them. I'll try to find something in here I can use against them." Cade said walking over to a computer terminal attached to the wall.

"Well whatever you do you better hurry. The Sith have found me, they're trying to force the door open!"

"Right, I'll try." Cade said and quickly got to work on the computer. Going through function after function he finally found a camera feed. It was a live video feed that allowed him to see all five Sith one of which was trying to weld his way thought the blast door. Cade looked around the room and found something that gave him an idea. "That could work." he said looking at a power conduit in the corner of the room. using some hacking skills he sent a power surge to the conduit, overloading it's capacity and ejecting a huge charge of electricity that arced to each of the soldiers. Cade canceled the video feed and cautiously walked into the room. Only to be greeted by smoldering and twitching bodies. By the time he made it across the room the door was opened and a man wearing a bright orange flight suit and wielding two blaster pistols stepped out.

"You made it just in time!" he said. "Come on this ship is done for!"

"Good idea," Cade said. "I've had enough of this place to last me a lifetime." With that they both boarded the last escape pod and launched toward the planet.


End file.
