Ye of Little Faith [Consuption of Valley of the Jedi]

[Dredge]

Spoiler

[media] https://youtu.be/9MJAg0VDgO0 [/media]

Hapes was a complete disaster for the new God. Entire cities were wiped off the map and hundreds of thousand had been killed. Dredge had never wanted death for his new people, he never wanted them to suffer or feel pain. All he wanted to do was to make people smile and have a sense of meaning and purpose. But the Galaxy liked its chaos too much, it liked its meaningless violence and pain. It was a distorted and twisted fetishized pain that was meaninglessness and despair, the Galaxy seemed to love it. But God wouldn't have it, he'd drag everyone into the new world kicking and screaming if he had to, and he would bring forth radical change even if it meant having to kill those who would defy him.

All he needed to do was become more powerful. But he couldn't do that with training. He was a force entity and you didn't get more power by flexing a few ethereal muscles and meditating under a waterfall. No, in order to gain more power and dominion you needed to take it. You needed to consume it and let it merge with you. So how would Dredge accomplish this? Well, he was going to eat another Nexus. But not just any nexus would due for God. Not some stump under a tree on degobah, no the one he sought was much more powerful.

The Valley of the Jedi was widely considered to be the most powerful force nexus in the Galaxy. A place where the release of hundreds of Sith and Jedi souls had created a well of energy so large that people still came there to gain more energy and train. But those days would be coming to an end. Dredge wanted it and he was going to eat the well, he would consume and merge until he was the most powerful thing to walk the face of this Galaxy. His madness knew no ends and he'd stop at nothing to usher in the new world.

"I will save them. I will save them all from this meaningless existence." The shade said as it looked down at the valley.

The sight of statues, archeological camps, and a few small individual campsites fell within his gaze. At the end of the valley the wellspring of orange light gave off massive amounts of energy and with it in sight the entity opened its mouth to reveal its white teeth which a blackened tongue ran across greedily.

It was time to eat.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dredge"]

One of those archaeological camps surrounded a lonely fire. The bouncers had warned the locals to leave not very long ago, and now Jorus sat by himself, poking at the embers. He squinted down the valley, then adjusted his skewer. The smell of fire-roasted sausage set his stomach growling.

It hadn't been the shortest of days. He'd been asked to run supplies to a few camps like this, a matter of long hours in a rusty speeder. Breakfast and lunch had come down to nutrient bars and snacks, nothing really substantial, just things he could carry in the pockets of his oil-stained blue coveralls.

Keeping an eye on the figure down the valley, Jorus pulled the sausage out of the fire and blew out a spark. Soon enough, the sausage would cool down a bit, and then it would be time to eat.

 

[Dredge]

Locking his gaze with Jorus, the entity remembered the man from one of the minds swimming within his head. The memories weren't particularly pleasant ones but they garnered some respect for him. So to outright strike and attempt to kill him would be unfair and unforgiving. God was to rule justly and so far the man didn't seem to oppose him, and to cruelly kill someone before they had done anything to warrant it was not Dredge's style anymore. He had grown and saw the light of becoming a higher power.

So when the next time Jorus blinked the figure would vanish then appear across from him having shrunk in size to no longer stand at around seven feet. Rather the average man sized entity sat down on a rock and lifted its hands towards the campfire. He couldn't feel it's warmth, the sensation of comfort that a campfire brought to a person was dead to him. He no longer needed a host body that slept, ate, or felt anything and honestly he missed it a bit. The comforts of humanity were at times such beautiful things that he had never stopped to enjoy on his path of destruction.

"I suppose you know why I'm here." Dredge said in a very respectful manner.

You really had to hand it Jorus, he was the type of person that even one of the closest things to god respected.

"You plan to no doubt stop me, and I respect that. So many of you humans intrigue me. You cling to your chaos and pointlessness. It's quite funny to be honest." Dredge then stood from the rock and dusted himself off despite being perfectly clean.

"Shall we then?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dredge"]

"Sure, just give me a minute. Rest up. I'm betting you've come a long way too."

Jorus took an experimental bite of the sausage on its wooden skewer: still too hot to be comfortable, but he could tolerate it. Chew, swallow, bite.

"For real, just take a minute," he said with his mouth full. "There's some things you can't walk back from. Best not to do them without-" Swallow, bite, chew. "-due consideration, right?"

Still chewing, he stood up. The lightsaber on his work belt flopped against the side of his leg. He took another bite, a big one. "Unf. That's good."

 

[Dredge]

Thinking Jorus' words over for a moment, Dredge could see no flaw in it. He had come a long way and yeah his astral muscles were a bit sore, traveling through the force cost energy and he could certainly use the time to let his inner Nexus fuel and recover his strength. So rather than the threatening Cheshire Cat fang filled grin he normally gave off, for the first time he actually smiled. A genuine grin moved up his mouth in a white line that almost looked like an emoji.

With a snap of his fingers the monster conjured forth a few shadows with an instrument and from it sound played in the form of music. A fitting song that really brought the mood of the campfire and theme of the event together into one. Despite how much Dredge had changed one thing stayed the same, he loved to set the tone with music. So the little shadow man played his guitar as the two conversed.

Spoiler

[media] https://youtu.be/99JFgt8oPmg [/media]

"I wish things were different, Jorus. I really do. All I want is to bring happiness to people, meaning and joy. I saw it, I saw the endless cycle of pain and destruction and the absurdity of life." Dredge sighed and looked over to the salvager.

"I know life would be more... life. But this way is easier, there'd be no more pain, no more needless death, I've taken these into consideration and this is the only way to break the loop." Looking up at the sky the entity truly wanted nothing more than to end the suffering.

"Why do you want to stop that?" It was a serious question, Dredge could not for the life of him answer him.

Regardless though his ideals were sound and this was going to happen no matter what. God would not bend for mortals no matter how distinguished they might be.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dredge"] could play quite a tune, even if he liked a minor key a bit too much. Jorus wiped his mouth, tossed the denuded skewer in the fire, and took a long drink from his canteen. He went to hold it out to Dredge, then shrugged and put it away. The other man didn't have a body, after all.

"Here's half my answer, if you can hear it," he said. "I'll give you the other half of the truth when you're ready."

Sitting back down, he pulled out a metal-and-horn instrument the size of a protein bar, and brought it to his mouth. Dredge's music was grim and jaunty all at once. As Jorus joined in, his tune skirled around the shade's song, pulling in notes of mournful defiance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NONil_hvUKc

 

[Dredge]

Looking down at the ground now, Dredge knew the answer. At least what the answer was for him. Music, expression, creativity, true freedom of expression and love of humanity would be lost with him in control of everything. He knew that there was such beauty and love in this life, that for as much meaningless pain there was, there was just as much good. Life in itself was so beautifully flawed that anything else attempting to replace it would be a farce in of itself. Dredge knew that deep down, he knew that life really wouldn't be life.

But despite that, despite knowing and understanding. Dredge was too far in and he couldn't go back now. So for at least one moment, one last time he'd just enjoy humanity. He had his little music shade switch up and continue to play in a style that melded with Jorus' instrument, and perhaps for the first time in history a force entity bent on changing the Galaxy and a spacer played beautiful music together that was the strength and love of what humanity had to offer.

Spoiler

[media] https://youtu.be/GsB_cGdgPTo [/media]

But when the song would come to an end, Jorus would know it was time. That despite how right he might of been, there was still so much pain and evil that needed to be ended. Sometimes sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good of all, and regrettably he'd be the one to make it. When the last few notes came to a humming close and the sun began to set, Dredge stood from his seat and looked at his opponent.

"Are you ready?" He asked the Spacer in an almost sad tone of regret.

Jorus had gotten to him in some capacity, and Dredge really did wish things could be different.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

"Most always, near as I can be."

He tucked the harmonica into a hardshell case on his workbelt. The fire was burning low. With a sigh, he put his hands on his knees and stood up again. As he straightened, he unclipped his plain and battered lightsaber. He'd built the weapon on Ahch-To, after rediscovering the first Jedi temple, and learning things he still struggled to explain. Since then he'd trained with blademasters and fought them, but the saber would never be his life the way it was to so many Jedi.

A clean, almost matte blue, the blade cast soft-edged shadows. He didn't spin the saber or take some ancient stance, just held the ignited weapon in both hands and faced [member="Dredge"] across the fire.

"Cast your dice if you can't see another way, son."

 

[Dredge]

[media] https://youtu.be/Xjgj-5ginyM [/media]​

"Very well then." There was no need to waste time on words, people like them didn't need to communicate like that. What had been said had already covered it, or the tension in the air covered it.

There was no saber drawn from Dredge, but rather his arm morphed and a blackened long sword appeared and materialized with his claws clutching around it. Normally a blade made of Dredge's material would be harmless, but he'd reinforced its shade with a telekinetic line sharp enough to cut through flesh and bone as if it were a surgical scalpel.

Raising the blade upwards the entity circled Jorus much like a shark or large predatory animal readying to pounce and end its enemy. Dredge wouldn't hulk out and corrupt Jorus like he had done to so many on Hapes, no Jorus deserved better than that. So he'd face him the old fashioned way.

When the pacing came to an end the shade struck in a blur of movement lashing out with a classic combination of strikes seen in a duel of this capacity. When the combo was finished he would then follow it up by spinning backwards and raising up his right hand to let out a blast of telekinetic force in an attempt to push Jorus against the rock face and break his body against it.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Dredge"], [member="Jorus Merrill"],


"What the fudge, Dredge?!"

The droid called out as he came into the view of the two, except he didn't say "fudge", rounding a nearby boulder or rock outcropping tall enough to mask approach of a droid, probably the reason why he wouldn't came before them until now.

"I hunt you throughout the years, compose songs about how much I want to strangle the life out of that sorry excuse of what your body was, even write lyrics about wayward souls and guiding them,"

HK protested, clad in the armored anti-Force Vong biot just as he was on Polis Massa, collection of trinkets and weapons visible on his belt, including his imbued lightsaber and the Sigil of Hope he used to stop Dredge earlier.

"And yet you form a duet with him?!"

The machine motioned to Jorus before pointing at Dredge again,

"I thought we had something special you skank-bag!"

HK extended out his hand, forming a peculiar sign with his fingers before the hilt of his lightsaber was peeled off of his belt by telekinetic force, summoned by one of his GravGloves to his hand, spinning slightly through the air before he grabbed it,

"I was pissed before about the destruction you leave in your wake but this crosses the line."

The droid was on Dredge's track since Polis Massa, gathering companions, seeking intel, new gadgets and tricks to track the dark spirit, Jorus would have been probably next on his list of people to get in touch with to help him out in the quest of vanquishing Dredge once and for all, through happy coincidence fate aligned their presence in the manner. HK would have probably brought [member="Elpsis Elaris"] along with him seeing how she already helped him on Polis Massa and had the ability to conjure Force Light or something similar, and he would probably let [member="Bethany Kismet"] know that he had suspicion he managed to track down Dredge again, although that depended how their talk after the incident in Polis Massa sector went.

They would have probably met again sooner, if Dredge's appearance on Hapes wasn't so brief.

 

[Butch Mahan]

Mahan's executive officer, Archdaimyo Hr'assh, bowed courteously before presenting the news he had been carrying to Archviceroy Butch Mahan, "Our raiding party has exited lightspeed, we will be landing on the surface momentarily." Mahan responded with a nod, nothing more, signaling the Archdaimyo to leave Mahan's cramped quarters. The converted bulk freighter did not have much in the pleasantry department, but Mahan paid no mind, frivolous things such as decor, and comfort were beyond Mahan's needs. The Duro only wished to complete his mission to win the respect of his fellow Archviceroys and the Sovereign himself in the Solidarity. Mahan had proposed this small, risky raid in the hopes that he would come back hailed as a true warrior of the Solidarity, striking at one of the greatest areas of Jedi and Sith pilgrimage. It was the furthest military operation the Solidarity had ever committed, a raid on the Valley of Jedi, Ruusan, in the Mid Rim, countless parsecs away from the capital of the Solidarity, V'shar. But if Mahan was even the slightest bit successful, he would no doubt be showered in honor by his fellow compatriots.

Mahan entered his four digit passcode into a long rectangular case, opening its latches. Outlined in black foam, lay his Viceroy saber, Ka'hren forged Kaalonian steel, and an Arkanian Pistol. Mahan did not hesitate, he sheathed the blade in a sheath attached to his officer's belt, and holstered the pistol. Readjusting the belt for the added weight. Archdaimyo Hr'assh stepped in once more, "Archviceroy Mahan, our party has landed." Mahan spoke coarsely, "Organize the troops in skirmish formation on our twelve, prepare the explosive tenders for the Valley." Hr'assh bowed once again, but this tie, when he left, so did Mahan.

The three rusty, converted Class IV Bulk Freighters landed only three kilometers from the valley itself, carrying its cargo of twenty eight hundred Solidarity soldiers. The relics had been found and converted by the Solidarity from the inside to act as transport ships disguised as normal freighters, and today they served such purpose. Hundreds of mismatched and differently armed and armored soldiers formed in front of the vessel, awaiting commands from their commander, Archviceroy Mahan.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]
[member="Dredge"]
@HK-36

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dredge"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Butch Mahan"]

In Jorus' peripheral awareness, ships were landing some distance away, and a mechanical voice was talking. He had no time, though, to put any attention on those things. Dredge's construct-sword, forged of thought and energy, crashed against his lightsaber again and again. He gave ground as necessary, avoiding the campfire. Nobody would ever accuse Jorus Merrill of being a master duellist. A block a hint too slow left a sharp, stinging line across his left shoulder. Cooling blood stuck a palm-sized patch of mechanic's jumpsuit to his skin.

As Dredge whirled back, Jorus pressed the moment and stepped in, lashing out wildly in hopes of scoring even a glancing blow. If one was sufficiently in tune with the Force, one's lightsaber could harm or destroy spirits; that much was certain.

A moment later, unsure whether he'd scored a hit or not, a wave of telekinetic strength slammed into him point blank. By instinct, he tucked his head, but when he crashed into the nearby rock face the back of his skull still caught part of the impact. Swaying a little, he slumped away from the rock face and raised his saber again.

 

[Dredge]

Jorus' lightsaber scraped across the Force Entity's midsection and a bright line of blue erupted from the darkness. There was an inhuman roar of pain mixed with fury as Dredge's mouth opened to reveal rows upon rows of white fangs that glistened in the moonlight. He paid no mind to HK or the others that he had brought with him, Dredge had only one target in mind and that was Jorus.

But that wasn't to say HK wasn't going to be left alone. While Jorus recovered there was the sickening sound of shifting and cracking as Dredge hunched over. With another roar of unfiltered rage springing from his back were five blackened orbs that hovered in the air. Those orbs then began to take shape as they all formed into what were copies of him. Each held wildly different weapons from clubs, maces, swords, and axes, and each was quite deadly with it. They weren't as powerful as the original since each lacked a force nexus, but they clocked in at about the same power level as your average Sith spirit.

"KILL THEM!!" Dredge shouted and let his copies off the leash.

Charging forward they would engage HK and his party by splitting up and attacking from multiple angles as not to be all taken out in one fell swoop via force light or other lightside based attacks. They all struck together and made sure to work in unison to bring down HK and his buddies.

As for Dredge when he stood up the line of light across his chest faded back into black as the nexus replaced the damaged energy. Spinning his blade he once more charged forward and would engage Jorus in a fight to end his existence.

Rather than the straight combo of blows he had opened with, this time around he'd leap in with a long thrust of the blade in a stabbing motion followed by a spin that lead into telekinetic reinforced punch aimed at the Spacer's head. The move was made to either run the man through in the first attack or throw him off balance and smash him across the dome and disorient him further to land the killing blow down the line.

[member="HK-36"] [member="Butch Mahan"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Butch Mahan"],

Apparently some sort of raiding party was now landing on the planet, but they were going to cross that bridge when they'll come to it, if the raid would even affect them in the end. HK probably came with some sort of backup not being too far from him but no ships belonging to him would be in orbit and no garrisons under the droid's control on the planet's surface.

[member="Jorus Merrill"],

As Dredge's copies begun materializing around the valley, so far probably only focusing on HK as nobody else would make themselves known, at least not from the people he would brought along, HK saw Jorus launched back, calling out to him,

"Jorus, be careful of him getting close to you!"

The machine warned him,

"He can manifest the dark side through some sort of black ichor, similar to Mngaal's sludge, last time he used this poison to take control of a couple of innocent on Skor, it turned useless once we cut it from the Dark Side!"

The machine took note of Jorus' plasma blade being able to harm Dredge, although perhaps his lightsaber's crystal was imbued as well.


[member="Dredge"],

Seeing Dredge's copies HK activated his lightsaber,

WHMMMMMMMMM

The simple old hilt projected pure white blade of plasma, giving off that signature Light side aura from the energy field flowing through imbued Solari crystal,

"These constructs will not avail you Dredge."

HK taunted the spirit, or spirits in this case, as he took his Sigil of Hope, lifting it into the air, clutched tight in his metal hand as he brought the lightsaber's blade to the crystal, putting the two artifacts together he allowed the Light side energy of his weapon mingle with the trinket, activating it. Projecting the Sigil's Light-side shield to ward off Dark Side energy and influence moved closer towards Dredge, for the most part ignoring the constructs.

Still, from time to time he would lash out with his lightsaber, swinging it towards them like a torch should they get too close to the machine to keep them at bay, perhaps striking one or two that got too reckless across their spirit bodies. While the lightsaber was in constant training setting, acting most of the time like a mace rather than energy sword, due to its imbuement with the Light side it had often enhanced properties against shadow constructs, Dark Side sorcery, and spirits, to the point that it could cut through them like a normal lightsaber cut through physical objects. However, swinging and slashing at the spirits would mean that HK was unable to channel the saber's energy into the Sigil, dropping the wards around him as a result whenever he attacked back.


As Dredge was busy with Jorus, HK moved closer towards his back, with a whirr of his motors and sound of his blade whooshing through the air swinging at one of the spirits that tried to challenge his Sigil's ward, perhaps striking it across the chest and leaving a trail of light on its torso in the energy blade's wake, light that would spread through the spirit's body like poison until it would consume it whole with a terrible shriek until nothing was left of the construct.

The other spirit creations would jump on the opening, lunging towards the machine to batter and cut at him, leaking dents and cuts on his outer most armor plates much to the dismay of the biot who shrieked and hissed horribly, only to probably launch back with a terrible shriek as the droid brought his saber to the Sigil, activating its ward shield once more to force them back, stumbling in the process slightly but hardly stopping.

 

[Butch Mahan]

As the final soldiers unloaded the explosive tenders, Mahan ascended through the formations to the front of the minuscule raiding party,. It may have only been two hundred less than three thousands, but against pilgrims, scientists and villagers, it was more than enough to pillage and destroy the valley for good. Mahan gazed upon the faces of the hundreds of soldiers, identifying the four different species that comprised the ranks of the Host, Kaalonians, Ka'hren, Humans, and the Duros. Despite the numbers being heavier in the two former species than the two latter, it was a balanced army. There were several units as well, pike skirmishers, ranged infantry, and the varlets, more than enough to overwhelm whatever bodyguards the locale had.

Mahan held up his fist and shouted, "Onward!" The order was echoed by every Archdoinus and Archjunker to their units, starting the march into the Valley of the Jedi. The amplified footsteps of the hundreds of armor clad soldiers echoed throughout the canyons, dust billowing up behind them. The explosive tenders hovered slowly behind them, as they were piloted along with the raiding party. As they approached the first towering statue of a robed Jedi, Mahan held up his hand, this time open, "Halt!" Again, the order was echoed. Mahan looked the statue up and down, before shouting out his next order to his subordinate officers, "Bring the statue down!" A unit of ranged infantry broke from the army formation, and set charges at the base of the statue. Their sergeant shouted, "Blast charge out!" before detonating the laid charges. Huge chunks of the base were displaced as the statue fell outward from their position, huge cheers being raised as it fell. Mahan basked in the glory of destroying a symbol of the Jedi, but dared not show it, "Formation!" The soldiers quit the cheering and reformed, weapons readied.

"Forward!" Mahan led the soldiers towards the edge of the valley, overlooking what lay inside. Much to the surprise of the raiders, there was a fight, but the Archviceroy would put an end to this at once. Mahan turned to his XO, Archdaimyo Hr'assh, "Prepare pike line, volley fire. Cleared for engagement." Hr'assh began yelling his own sets of orders as the skirmisher pikeman passed through the other units to the edge of the valley, each brandishing their three meter long pikes. Hr'assh unsheathed his sword and rose it into the air, "Take aim!" The pikemen lowered their staffs towards the dueling parties, and Hr'assh swung his sword down, "Fire!" and again, "Fire!" and again, "Fire!"

[member="Dredge"]
[member="Jorus Merrill"]
[member="HK-36"]

 

[Darth Rage]

Audroti had traveled countless par secs to bask in the force nexus located in the Valley of the Jedi. While he awaited around the well of power something strange began to happen. First it came as a spike in the dark side. Rage felt his powers increase and with them his heart began to glow anew. Rage assumed it to be the force Nexus before him, but as time went on he began to suspect otherwise. It was as if another nexus had materialized on the planet. Then he began to notice shades. Sith whose spirits still lingered. Their forms had become corporeal with the added power and now they wandered about. Forever fighting the battle of Ruusan.

Audroti knew at this moment that another nexus had arrived. How this was possible he was unsure, but it seemed to have happened nonetheless. Accompanied by the shades Rage sat meditating near the neutral nexus. He was regaled with stories of old as the Sith spirits spoke or mumbled to themselves. Blissfullly unawares of their own demises. Then Rage heard shouting, followed by a loud crash. His curiosity peaked Audroti went outside to observe the disturbance. As he did so he spotted a large army outside his small hut. "By the force!" The Sith exclaimed.

He had to do something, but what. A lone Sith was powerless against such a army, but then Rage came up with a plan. Using the power of his Kyber heart Rage reached out to the spirits. "Ancestors of olde, warriors of death, I call upon you to once more reap flesh! While enemies are here victory is near and with your help they, will, know fear! Vanquish these foes and last rights will be told, for body, mind and soul!" Rages crystal heart grew Blood red and when he opened his eyes he was surrounded by hundreds of pale spirits.

"Your command my lord?"

[member="Butch Mahan"]
[member="HK-36"]
[member="Dredge"]
[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dredge"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Butch Mahan"] [member="Darth Rage"]

Still catching his breath and balance, attention on Dredge's doppelganger trick, Jorus glanced at HK. He nodded in acknowledgement​ and thanks.

All things considered, Jorus really only had one ability: hyperspace navigation. In person, that tended to manifest as a strong sense of the best direction to go, the most survivable course. But the Force made those decisions; Jorus didn't. He'd grown accustomed to following those promptings as soon as he could manage, even when he didn't much like them. More and more, the Force suggested he needed to leave - now.

The urge came with no rationale, let alone any justification for letting HK stand alone between Dredge and the Valley's power. In the end, Jorus supposed, plenty of Darksiders had consumed the Nexus over the years, and their powers had waned and the Valley had bounced back. But that was guesswork, not certainty or revelation, and offered scant comfort to his conscience. In a nearly literal way, he was about to jump off a cliff.

He parried the lunge a hint too late, and the Force-sensitives slid along his left arm just above the elbow. He ducked the spirit's fist and scrambled to the left along the rock face. Behind Dredge, he noted soldiers assembling. That added some good context to the Force instincts that were now yelling at him to bail.

"Don't do it," he said to Dredge. "For your own sake."

The Force filled and wrapped around him, and he exhaled. In a blurring flicker of pseudomotion, he leaped to hyperspace like the star dragons who'd been his primary teachers. Bitter cold surrounded him, just for a moment, and then he was gone. Volley fire slashed through the space where he'd stood.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"There. Set us down there."

Trextan stood by the open door of the U-Wing as it circled high. It was adorned in the white markings of the Justicars. It had taken him weeks to recover from Skor. Having escaped Polis Massa with Choli Vyn he had really been in no state to fight, but he had done so anyway; it had been the right thing to do.

Somehow he had survived that blast. It was not his physical state that gave him concern. It was that he could feel that dark presence so acutely. Trextan had been very close when the spirit had been birthed. Those moments were hazy. His mind had receded back into the Force as he had teetered on the precipice of death. He'd felt every soul cry out and then return back into the Force. What worried him was that some part of the dark creatures shattered soul had latched on, like a parasite, and that was why he was so aware of where it was now. But perhaps that was paranoia.

First was the problem with tomb raiders. Apparently they had brought an entire army to desecrate the valley. But the valley was narrow, with good shooting positions high and low. The cave system ran throughout the valley connecting the tombs. A few good men could hold an entire force here and Trextan had brought a few good men. The U-Wings kicked up dust as they deposited their forces. Small fire teams spread out to find positions to fire from, taking high and low caves to find ambush points. Several of his men cried out. A shadow slithered towards them. Fortunately it did only have the power of a sith spirit, which wasn’t a great deal. Jacen cut it down with one sweep of his blade. Even that brief touch made him even more aware of the dark force gathering at the head of the valley.

 

[Dredge]

"Coward." Dredge said to himself as Jorus vanished.

With Jorus now out of the way, Dredge was free to pursue his goal. HK and the others would be dealt with soon enough but he had other plans to enact. Though he knew HK would certainly pull off some long shot Hail Mary that was bound to work and stop him from doing whatever it was he was about to do. He had learned that over the years of facing the droid and this was why he despised him so. However it seemed that fate was on his side today, a little ways away there was an entire army of people here to sack the valley of the Jedi. Whoever that person was he had just handed Dredge an army seeing how they probably hadn't done their research on him.

With a snap of his fingers one of the shades fighting HK broke off and headed straight towards the line of pikemen. Blaster bolts and explosions phased through the spirit and it was clear to HK that this spirit was going to convert that army into extensions of Dredge. So this left the droid with a choice, stay and fight with the other three entities hoping to get to Dredge, or stop the spirit from converting an army that would pretty much seal the fate of this place.

The other three spirits stepped up their game having their objective one step closer to being completed and began to strike more frequently against the droid. One pulled back and force lightning shot from its mouth as it opened its maw to spew its attack at the droid. Another came in low with an axe attempting to take the droid's legs out from under him.

Dredge on the other hand, he looked onward towards the spirits that had been raised to fight off him and the army. They were nothing. Tiny little forgotten specks of dust conjured up by a child who knew nothing of true darkness. The Force Entity vanished and soon appeared standing next to [member="Darth Rage"] with his fangs bared in a smile that stretched across his face.

"Run." Dredge said with a hint of joy.

The well of power was mere inches from him and soon he would taste its power and grow to the level of godhood where none of these people could dream of stopping him.

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Darth Rage"] [member="Butch Mahan"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Dredge"],

HK was actually just a couple of steps away from Dredge when he taunted over retreating Jorus, the machine moving on towards him as he warded off his spirits, he brought his lightsaber up and the weapon came down in a quick slash aimed at Dredge's back, although it probably struck nothing but air as Dredge disappeared once more to phase away somewhere else.

"Bloody craven."

The droid cursed as he watched the empty spot where Dredge used to be, perhaps he managed to get another slash in there before he disappeared but the machine knew it would not be enough to stop him, not just yet.


Electricity crackled then nearby as one of the spirits conjured lightning and threw it towards HK, it was generally a bad idea to do it against this particular droid, as although it was often an effective attack against machines, HK had multiple defenses to protect himself from such tricks, since it was pretty much the first thing Force users and other foes he fought went to against him.

He raised his hand towards the chain of lightning, an energy shield appearing on his palm as he absorbed the energy, diffusing it with ionic and electrical dampeners harmlessly without even looking at the spirit. As the other construct aimed a swing of an axe towards HK from his other side he blocked it with the training lightsaber, the energy blade cutting through where the axe's shaft should be, dispersing majority of the weapon in a block as the saber's light spread through the weapon in its path before being thrust out, stabbing the spirit where its heart would be, plunging the energy blade inside the construct to leave him into being consumed by the imbued light as well.


The droid looked to the other spirit that shot lightning at him as he scanned where Dredge could have gone next to hunt him down again, raising up his lightsaber he flicked it towards the spirit, throwing the weapon to spin and whoosh through the air in a practiced lightsaber throw until it would impale the construct as well, once again through the heart. HK would form another sigil then to cast telekinesis and summon the lightsaber by its hilt to his palm, leaving yet another shade to be swallowed by the saber's light as poison swallows and withers a man's body.


HK did not forget about the spirit heading towards [member="Butch Mahan"] and his soldier, giving out a wireless silent signal he would give off a quick order,

Do it now.

As suddenly three blue lightsaber blades would appear in the spirit's path, it were the Greycloaks, personal guards of the droid who followed him pretty much everywhere, suited in power armor and chameleon cloaks that allowed them to stay more or less invisible until they needed to make an appearance and armed with lightsabers, HK recognized earlier that even common plasma could harm Dredge and his brood, so the three lightsaber-wielding droids, his own copies, should have no problem cutting the spirit down quickly and dealing with the remaining spirits, if any would remain afterwards.

As for Butch, well he would probably see a spirit running towards him men only for three droid to appear as if out of thin air in its path and cut the entity down, hopefully, with one plunging an energy sword through the being's torso, another one moving to behead it, and the third to cleave it diagonally upward in a precise strike to not harm one of its brother-copies. A good old triple-HK attack.


"Not this time Dredge."

HK whispered to himself as he finally picked out the location of where Dredge manifested next, wrapping his black Chameleon cloak around himself with a fancy twirl as he disappeared from existance, Dredge was not the only one with abilities to phase or do similar and soon the machine would be upon him once more and upon [member="Darth Rage"]. Although things seemed a bit bleak and outnumbered little did HK knew he had another ally on the planet in form of [member="Trextan Voidstalker"].