8 8. First Contact With Ancient Enemies

Jedi Dooku Pov

I landed the shuttle in the center of thre Tree Village. I turned to my padawan, Qui Gon Jinn and spoke.

"This village seems abandoned. its proximity to the Castle makes it suspicious that no natives are here. lets look around for clues, then head for the castle. keep your lightsaber close, something isnt right."

"Yes, master."

When we left the shuttle, i felt the danger spike, then recede. it as as if..

"Master.. i think its watching us. i feel cold."

Rustling. a large black bug, about two feet long and a half foot tall slowly left the bushes, staring at us. it waved its antennae, and made some odd whistle-click sounds, then paused as if listening for something. i coukd feel the anger and the darkside coming off of this creature in waves.

my hand instinctively went to my lightsaber, which caused a sudden spike in fear, emanating from around us. "Control your emotions, they have us surrounded." i said in a calm, flat monotone.

"it doesnt seem outright hostile though. maybe they can be reasoned with." Qui Gon responded.

"im going to try talking to it. hold my lightsaber." what? no he cant do that!

"Padawan. These things are giving off nothing short of insane levels of darkside energy. If you were to connect with them, it may corrupt you. i will do it. you go look around the village. E-woks usually have their history painted somewhere in their villages. The information might help."

Qui Gon Jinn pov

I turned, heading towards one of the lifts to the Village. i went in and out of various homes, simply observing. it then noticed 3 more of those black creatures, situated on the trunks of the trees, high above the highest E-wok home, simply watching.

they then snapped their heads around to the forest floor, where my master sat, one hand resting on the black creatures head, his eyes closed. i saw his lightsaber had been left in the center of the clearing. it made sense, in a way. put the creature at ease by leaving your weapon behind.

He started shivering, as if struggling with something, then shouted in pain as his connection was broken. he placed his hand back on the creatures head and started again.

i turned, and found i had somehow arrived at the Story Wall. A great black bug, humanoid in shape, with four arms, two of which were pointed upwards at the elbow, the others pointed down and in. Six long, thin wings were extending from its back, and it looked as if poised mid-flight.

the upper arms were covered in what looked to be red lightning, starting at just past the elbows on the forearm, shooting out of its clawed hands. the lower arms held two long thin lightsabers, a black core with blood red light emanating from them.

Below this were the E-woks, clearly happy about this creature being here. the next pictures were the creature battling some humans in what appeared to be bounty hunter kit, dead E-woks surrounding them.

They didnt kill for fun. They kill to protect. i turned around to check on my Master, only to see him unconscious and flanked by two humanoid bugs, with four wings, just like the two that were landing next to me. they raised blasters in my direction, and fired. i was able to deflect the shots at first, but one slipped by, stunning me. everything faded, and i lost consciousness.

The Hive

Ashla Pov

My Honor Guard had brought me the two strangers, and my warriors had brought the ship they had arrived on to the Hangar Tunnels. The standard warrior had only two wings, while my Honor Gaurd were larger and had four wings.

I had a new specialist caste, Engineers, which i set to work on the strangers ship learning how to connect everything to make it function, and especially the hyperdrive. that will allow us to travel virtually anywhere we like, unhindered.

"Mother! The prisoners are waking up! do you want to speak with them?" i received a notification from the soldiers standing guard.

I respond to them, "Yes. make certain they do not escape. i will be there shortly." i cut the connection and speak to my personal Engineer, "Have you finished the translator yet? We will need it."

"Yes, Mother. The unit is functional, but untested. Shall i escort you in case it stops working, so that i can fix it?"

"Yes. Attend to me. I will be bringing my Honor Guard as well."

I travel with my Entourage down to the Hangar Tunnel where my troops are keeping the invad- STRANGERS restrained under gaurd. the door opens, and my Honor Gaurd enters, axes and shields lit and at the ready, before taking up positions on either side of the door.

i enter the Hangar door, and pause for dramatic effect, contemplating how best to extract the information i need. i could always use drain knowledge, but that would leave them a lifless brain dead husk.

I turn, ""Engineer. is the device functioning as expected? can you understand me, Soft-Skin?" i ask in my masters old tongue, not our own language, vespid. i then turn to these... strangers. The older one stares at me, as if it had tasted something unpleasant. the younger one simply stared at me, eyes filled with curiosity. that was something i could work with, curiosity.

The older of the two seems to explode in anger. He then spits out single word. "Sith."

Every member of the swarm immediately turned and stared at him, radiating animosity.

The smaller one seemed to pick up on everything that had changed, and became stressed.

"Engineer, why is the device not translating?"

"Because you are speaking a forbidden language droids programming does not allow it to translate anyhthing from that language." the younger one stare at its superior in confusion.

I turned to him, staring at him. "Soft-Skin. You can understand me? also, Engineer, fix that droids programming. We need a translator that actually translates our language."

The blank look on his face and his smaller friends confusion told me he recognized only the syllables and the sound of our language, not the words.