Golden Sun Syndicate Forums

Yay!! Time for my novelization+sequel bit. ^^ This is just chapter one..and it'll probably end up ...well, over 40 chapters long, but meh...

Fragments

A/N: What an auspicious project...to try and novelize one of the best RPG's in history. But after reading a few others here and there, I decided that I, too, wanted to tell my slight angle on the story. I realize that this is a huge undertaking, and yet, I just can't get the ideas out of my head. So here we go. This is my version of KOTOR. I don't intend to do alot of quoting from ingame, but I will paraphrase, and with my having played through as many times as I have, I don't think it will be that far removed from the original. I started over just yesterday to refresh my memory of some of the earlier conversations, and as of now, I'm just about to go into the Vulkar Base. I like to take my time, help everyone I can. Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own anyone, that right belongs to Lucas/Bioware; they also own the blame for my unhealthy obsession. The songs at the start of each chapter belong to whoever wrote them and the group that sang them. To them goes the thanks for singing/writing such a great song. But anyway...yes. Onto the fic.

Chapter One
Hazy Borders

"I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name..."
~Evanescence, "Imaginary"

Claxons blared out an incessant warning to those still able to hear, their volume muting the explosions that rocked the ship with each successful hit. The ship made a sudden lurch, a sickening groan of metal resounding throughout the hull. With a start the young woman on the bunk awakened, her eyes wide as she glanced around her quarters in assessment of her situation.

"Good, you're awake!" a deep voice called.

Turning her head in a motion that mimiced that of a predatory bird she noticed the speaker was an older man with graying hair, but if his build spoke for anything, none of his strength was lost. She narrowed her eyes, scanning her memory for a name to put with the face and failing.

"And you are?"

"Trask. I'm your bunk mate, but since we work opposite shifts, we don't see alot of each other. But there's no time for introductions. We're under attack!" He gestured vaguely overhead, "Sith battle cruisers have closed in on us."

She winced as another sickening groan echoed through the ship, then smiled wryly, "So I noticed. Name's Aria. So what exactly is the plan here?"

"Well, first, you'd probably do best with getting suited up. There are Sith onboard as well, swarming everywhere like pirahna beetles."

With a rush of embarassment Aria realized she was still in her rather revealing sleeping attire. She turned from him quickly, the motion serving to hide the flush rising to her cheeks, and began rummaging through her footlocker. Within minutes she was fully dressed, vibroblade in one hand and a blaster on her hip.

"Okay, first we need to find Bastila. Her survival is priority one." Trask turned to the door of the chambers and began working with the controls, his motions assured.

"Bastila?" Aria asked, standing nearby and giving her vibroblade a final inspection.

Trask turned back to her as the door slid open, "Yeah, she's the Jedi in command of this mission. Her Battle Meditation is the key to our whole effort. We're under orders to assure her survival in event of an attack."
An almost feral grin crossed Aria's face as a Sith rounded the corner and began firing on them, "Then let's go assure her survival." With a cry she launched herself at the Sith, carving deadly patterns in the air as she ran. Seeing her mad onslaught the Sith switched to his own vibroblade, parrying her first blow with enough force to send a jolt up her arm. When the soldier suddenly dropped from a blaster bolt in the chest, she turned back to see Trask standing behind her, a smug grin on his face. Arching an eyebrow at him, Aria flashed him a grin in return and bent down to snatch up the Sith's blade before hurrying down the hall again. As they neared the next door, Aria began to make out the faint noises of what sounded like a lightsaber duel. When the door slid open it confirmed her suspicions. A Jedi and a Dark Jedi were locked in combat, neither seeming to gain the upper hand. The Dark Jedi made a fatal mistake, however, lowering his blade to block a low-aimed blow, when the Jedi suddenly reversed her strike and plunged the blade into the Dark Jedi's now-undefended chest. There was precious little time for celebration, though. A blast from the attacking Sith ship struck at that instant, setting off an explosion behind the young Jedi that instantly killed her. Trask swore under his breath as she fell, but wasted no time in getting back to their own escape. As they made their way deeper into the ship, the Sith attacked at seemingly patterned intervals, but they each fell in less than a minute under the combined onslaught of Aria's blade and Trask's deadly aim.

"What's that sound?" Aria murmrued, searching for the source of the quiet electronic beeping that was slowly beginning to grate on her nerves. Glancing at her wrist she was granted with a flash of insight and had to resist the urge to curse her own stupidity. She lifted the communicator to her face and pressed a button, "Yeah?" she asked, unsure of who would be trying to reach her in this chaos. As far as she knew, she and Trask could very well be the only Republic fighters left alive. The communicator pulled up the slightly blurred image of a man standing in what appeared to be the escape pod chamber.

"This is Carth Onasi. I've been tracking both of you through the life-support. You're the last of the crew. This ship won't hold out much longer, you have to get to the escape pods."

The communication cut off abruptly, and Aria heard Trask let out a low whistle, "Carth's one of the best soldiers the Republic has. He's seen more combat than almost everyone on this ship, and if he says it's bad...then it's bad. We need to hurry. I guess Bastila has already left the ship, which means there's no reason for us to hang around anymore. Let's go."

With a curt nod Aria followed after as Trask led the way toward the bridge. They had no more opened the door when they were greeted with a salvo of blaster fire. Taking refuge behind the frame of the door, they met each other's gaze, a silent three-count passing between them. When Aria nodded they lept from behind the frame, Aria twirling her blades as she rushed at the group of Sith soldiers while Trask stayed back, firing into the fray. With a deft swing of her blade Aria decapitated the first Sith she came into range of while turning her other blade to ward off an incoming swipe from another. The first was still falling when she turned full on, unleashing a flurry of quick attacks against the second, who just barely managed to deflect them all.

"Ready to die, *****?" the Sith growled.

Aria crossed her blades across her chest, flashing him a defiant grin, "After you," she shot back, thrusting both blades out in a motion so fast he had no time to react as they sank into his chest, "...I insist."
Kicking the dead body of the Sith from her blades, she turned back to Trask to see him looking her over appraisingly.

"You're good with those." he gestured at the vibroblades, "That last attack was something else."
The deck shuddered as another loud, metallic groan echoed throughout the ship, cutting the lighthearted moment short. Wordlessly they resumed their flight toward the escape pods, but as Trask reached out to key open the door leading out of the bridge, Aria felt a tingle of danger, the sense making the hairs on her arms stand.

"Trask-" She started to warn him, but he had already opened the door, revealing the Dark Jedi that stood behind it. With a flourish of his blood-red double-bladed saber, the Dark Jedi motioned for them to step forward. Aria felt her heartbeat quicken, felt the adrenaline begin to kick in, narrowing her mind to only one thought: survival. She tightened her grip on the vibroblades and took a step toward the Jedi before Trask put a hand on her shoulder.

"No. I can hold him, you get to the escape pods!"

Aria's head whipped around, her eyes wide. There was no way he could fight that Dark Jedi alone, and he knew it. She opened her mouth to protest, but he pushed her backward and ran into the room with the Jedi, the door closing fast behind him. A growl of frustration and despair tore itself from her throat as she kicked blindly at the door.

"Dammit, Trask..." she muttered to noone. That was stupid...why did you...? Heaving a sigh, Aria turned from the door and keyed open the door on her left, blinking away the tears that had pooled in her eyes. The hallway appeared mercilessly abandoned, with only a few scattered bodies lying about. She could only hope the myriad explosions had finished what was left of the Sith in her path. She only barely caught the beeping of her communicator as it went off again; the increasing volume of fire raining down on the Endar Spire was drowning out most other noise. Feeling hope surge in her heart she keyed it on, expecting to see Trask somehow miraculously spared from death. The hope was instantly quashed, however, as the face of the soldier from before appeared again.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to push the disappointment from her voice.

"I just lost one of your signals. Since it's you answering, I'm assuming something happened to Trask."
Aria nodded slightly, fighting to keep control of her voice as she answered him, "There was a Dark Jedi. He said he could hold him while I made a run for the escape pods."

The image of the man seemed thoughtful, "I see. Regardless, you have to get here soon. The Spire isn't going to hold out much longer."
"I'll be there." she replied, her voice once again under control.

"There's quite a few Sith ahead. If I were you, I'd try to use the computers to hack into the security grids and thin them out a bit." he warned.

"I'll do that. See you soon." she cut the communication and bolted down the corridor, following the small map of the ship that was on her personal information system. Ahead were two rooms, and beyond the escape pods. Quickening her pace, Aria burst headlong into the first room, expecting to see half a dozen Sith, but there were only two, and they were quickly dispatched. In the corner she found the computer terminal Carth had mentioned, and she set to work on it. Tucking a strand of her ebony hair behind an ear, she pulled a computer spike from her waist pack and plugged it into the port. Within seconds she had sliced her way into the security mainframe and was searching for the camera controls to the next room. Locating them, she patched herself into the camera, and gasped at what she saw. Six armed Sith soldiers stood between her and the escape pods, and in such close quarters, she couldn't have much hope of fighting them alone. She tapped her fingers idly on the console as she considered her options, the answer revealing itself to her as her gaze fell on the electrical terminal in the next room. Keying in a few quick commands, she set the terminal to overload, and watched in grim satisfaction as the ensuing electrical explosion sapped the life from the Sith.

Aria took a moment to wipe her vibroblades clean on a scrap of cloth she'd found lying nearby, attaching them to her belt as she keyed open the door to the once-occupied room. She was instantly assaulted by the pungent scent of charred flesh and hair, and had to fight to keep from gagging.

"May you rot in all nine Corellian hells..." she muttered to them as she picked her way across their still twitching bodies to the final door that stood between herself and salvation. Carth looked up as she walked in, his hand straying to his blaster by reflex, then recognition flickered across his face and he let his hand fall as he returned his attention to the computer terminal.

"Okay, we're ready to go now. Let's get the hell out of here." He motioned her over to the final escape pod, indicating that she enter first.

Aria wasted no time in entering the pod, taking the seat next to the only viewport in the craft, and immediately began pulling her crash webbing around herself, buckling it and double-checking it for security before she nodded to Carth. He nodded in return but said nothing, his gaze decidedly far away as he strapped himself into his seat. A dull clunk announced the release of the magnetic clamps that held the pod, and the small drive kicked in an instant later, the sudden acceleration pressing them both back into their seats. Aria gazed out the viewport as the pod made its spinning descent toward the planet below, unable to assess much of the battle overhead. The quick rotation of the pod allowed her only split-second glimpses of the Endar Spire and the massive Sith cruiser that hovered overhead. Lasers continued to lance out from the Sith ship, pounding on the now- derelict Endar Spire, tearing massive holes in the hull as the shields at last gave out. A well-placed shot to the sublight engines sent the entire cruiser nova in a silent explosion.

"The Spire's gone..." Aria announced, mostly to herself. And so is Trask...

"She held together long enough for us to escape. She served her duty well." Carth replied, his voice low.
Aria opened her mouth to speak, but stopped short as the pod was enveloped in the heated plasma of re-entry. The temperature inside the pod itself began to rise slightly as they tore through the atmosphere, and suddenly Aria remembered just what planet they were over.

"Taris. Isn't it a planet-wide city? If this thing hits in one of the populated sectors, it could do alot of damage."

Carth nodded, "It could. But there isn't much we can do about it, except hope that no one is in the way when it lands. I'm sure everyone will be looking out by now. There's no way the battle went unnoticed."
Aria didn't look entirely convinced, but she supposed he was right. As they finally emerged into the lower altitudes the pod's eccentric spin stabilized, and she was able to make out the towering forms of Taris's skyscrapers as they blazed past. They reached to the very heavens, a silent testament to the wealth of the inhabitants of the planet. For years Taris had been a hub of trade, and had only recently been pushed into more obscure status as new hyperspace routes were discovered.
"Do you think the Si-" Aria's voice cut off suddenly as she was swallowed by darkness.

A bone-jarring jolt tore through the escape pod as it slammed at full speed into the duracrete walkway of Upper Taris. Carth shook his head violently in an attempt to clear the darkening edges from his vision, the motion only serving to intensify the acute headache the crash-landing had graced him with. Thankfully that was the only damage he had sustained, and he quickly freed himself from the crash webbing, knowing that they had all of a minute before the Sith ground patrols began swarming over the pod. He turned to the woman to tell her to hurry, when he noticed why she hadn't said a word since their landing. She sat slumped in her seat, deep crimson blood oozing down her face from a wound that was hidden beneath her ebony hair. The entire left side of her face was a darkening bruise, and an already noticible lump was forming on her temple. The impact of the landing had jostled them both, but apparently she had recieved the worst of it. The force of the impact had thrown her against the side of her seat's niche in the wall, her head slamming against the unpadded metal that made up the hull of the pod.

Muttering a curse, Carth carefully pulled her from her crash webbing and lifted her in his arms. Kicking the door to the pod open, he was greeted by a deserted street; as of yet, the Sith still hadn't found them. By some miracle of Fate they had landed on the night-side of the planet, and the citizens either weren't aware that a pod had landed in their laps, or weren't brave enough to check it out. The same couldn't be said for the Sith, however, as he picked up the faint sounds of booted feet and shouted commands off in the distance. Keeping low and hugging the shadows, he made a run for a nearby walkway, and thanked whatever power was watching over them as he discovered that it led to a group of apartments.

"Hey, who are you? We don't want any trouble here, you hear?" a cracked, aged voice called out from nearby.

Carth whirled to face the speaker, a balding elderly man, "Listen, I need a place to stay. Are there any apartments that are unoccupied?" He was suddenly acutely aware of just how odd he must appear carrying a wounded woman in his arms and skulking about like a common thief. He could only hope the man wouldn't jump to any of the wrong conclusions.

The older man looked him over carefully, "You're from the Republic aren't you?"

Carth tensed, expecting the man to sound the alarm and bring the entire Sith garrison down on them, "Is there a place to stay or not?" he demanded.

The older man chuckled, motioning for him to follow, "Relax, son. I'm a friend of the Republic. I thought I heard something crash not too long ago. Guess that was you two."

"Our pod landed just outside here, but she..." Carth's voice trailed off.

"Mm." The old man nodded, "She does look bad." He stopped in front of a door and keyed the lock, "Here ya go. You can stay here, and I'll do what I can to throw the Sith off your trail. There's kolto patches and medpacs in the medicine cabinet."

"Thanks." Carth replied, slipping inside. The elderly man closed the door behind them, sealing him in the near darkness of the apartment. Detecting motion, the sensors switched on the lights, revealing a rather spacious apartment with four beds set in pairs on opposite walls. He lay the woman on one of the beds, then turned to find the medical supplies the old man had mentioned. He returned to her side with an armful of them, as well as a towel to clean away the congealing blood. He'd been in enough combat to know field medicine, and set to cleaning the deep gash in her scalp with the confidence brought on by those years of experience. A grimace of pain flickered across her face as he injected a medpac into the flesh near the wound, and just as quickly faded away as her mind slipped back into unconciousness. Within seconds the fluids began to work, slowing the flow of blood from the wound significantly.

"Don't you die on me." he whispered to her, carefully pressing a kolto patch to the wound and securing it with a strip of gauze that he wound around her temple.

His hands were covered in her drying blood, an inadvertant reminder of a past he had been trying his best to keep far from his mind. He couldn't afford distraction now, not with them being stranded on an occupied world with no obvious way off, and the shadow of death hanging over the woman. Shaking the thoughts away, he stepped into the refresher to wash the blood off. As he stepped out again he dialed down the control on the lighting to allow the woman to rest better. She lay silent, her breathing much more relaxed than it had been earlier. He prayed that was a sign that she was recovering. Even with the wound healed, there was still no guarantee that she would awaken. If that blow to her head had caused any brain swelling, there would be no way for him to know, and precious little he could do to reverse it. He couldn't trust the hospitals to heal her without giving away their identities to the Sith. Heaving an exhausted sigh he slumped against the wall near her bed, running a hand through his brown hair. He studied her face as she slept, thinking back to the crew roster he'd been shown at the beginning of the mission and attempting to put a name with her face, or at the least her history in the Republic military. Recognition dawned on him as he remembered the last minute addition Bastila and the Jedi had made to the roster. Supposedly she was quite the talented scout, versed in more alien languages than anyone he had ever heard of. The oddity about it was though, that she wasn't a Jedi, or even Force-sensitive according to the records. Why would the Jedi call for a scout who had up to that point been free-lance?
Something's not right about this...

~Fin Chapter 1~

Golden Sun Syndicate Forums: Golden Sun Syndicate Forums

Kotor: Fragments PG-13-ish for violence and some language

#1 Guest_Mercury Goddess_*

#2 Valistrix

#3 Isaac13

#4 Linear

#5 Isaac13

#6 Ravenblade

Delete Post