Son of a Clone Trooper - Son of a Witch

Pressure, indescribable pressure, that’s what I’m feeling.  It hangs in the air here like a cloud. It’s heavy and constricting making me almost claustrophobic.  The Force here is thick and menacing, not like it was on the Sanctuary Moon.  It’s everywhere, strong, untamed, uninhibited and scary; yet at the same time enticing and seductive.  I can feel her too, closing in on me, albeit tentatively.  There feels to be a tangible weight moving towards me.  She has others with her, but I can feel her through it all.  I thought to mount a defense using the weapons on the shuttle, but I knew that wouldn’t avail me.  My father told me about how they overcame a fortified Imperial prison with little effort.  My meager powers and lone transport shuttle would be no match for an army of man hating Force witches and their monstrous pets.  Besides, if I didn’t feel so compelled to find out why I am here then I would simply leave.  No, I want to be here.  Why?  I have no idea, but I do.  She is my reason for staying on this hellish ball of rotating death called a planet.  It wouldn’t make much sense to try and kill her.  If only I could stop the crushing pressure around me.

For days I sat in this shuttle.  I would stare out the windows and at the viewscreen watching the beasts of this world paw, scratch, bite and even relieve themselves on and at my shuttle.  It was recently claimed by the biggest rancor I have seen through a process I could only describe as disturbing.  Boredom eventually got the better of me.  I mean, I braved a Krayt Dragon on Tatooine and Mandalorians on the forest moon.  I was pretty sure I could handle surveying a few dozen meters from the relative safety of my shuttle.

I lowered the ramp and stepped out onto the hard ground.  The heat and humidity assaulted me immediately.  It was almost as bad as the assault on my Force senses.  As I walked around, I discovered that the landscape was just as inhospitable as the life forms.  Jagged mountains gashed by deep jungle filled valleys extended as far as the eye could see.  Scraggly, crooked trees littered the plateaus and mountain tops while towering behemoths of trees cloistered the valley floors.  Even in daylight it was very dark as if the light of its nearest star was afraid to get too close.  Yet life thrived here, even with the darkest of energies flowing through the planet.  Some of the creatures too, seemed fairly passive, though they certainly were the minority.  Were it not for sheer size or speed, they likely wouldn’t have been able to survive with all the predators around.

I wandered for a long time, feeling my way around more than seeing.  It wasn’t until I heard the sound of my own lightsaber igniting in my hand that I realized I had been wandering in a near trance for quite some time.  I had strayed much farther from my ship than I had wanted to and was now standing a mere 100 meters from a nest of horribly ugly, leathery skinned, flightless birds.  The smell of singed flesh permeated the air.  I looked down at my feet to see one of the birds lying, cut in two by my lightsaber.  The others eyed me intently.  I could feel the aggression coming from them.  I had a clear size and strength advantage over them, but they seemed to pay no heed and charged me.

I was like a puppet on strings and someone else was in control.  My saber flashed quickly, dancing through the air, severing leather bird parts.  Lightning arced from my fingertips in an electric light show.  I moved acrobatically, nimbly jumping, dodging and lunging at precise moments.  I was a spectator at a show where my body was the star.  If it were possible, I am sure my eyes would have emitted rays of death at them.

Before I knew what had happened, it was over.  Corpses knee deep littered the ground around me.  The vile little critters had not bargained for that.  Nor had I for that matter.  I am not sure really what happened other than the fact that my body did things as fast, or faster than my mind could process them.  I started to head back to the ship having had enough excitement for one day.  I looked back to see scavengers of all types descending upon the feast I had left them.  It was a gruesome spectacle.

Since then I have wandered out every day observing the environment and keeping a lookout for her.  Knowing that my body is capable of the things it did, I don’t worry too much about being caught outside other than running into King Scaly (that’s what I named him), the clawed, toothy owner of this territory.  Of course I haven’t seen him since he violated my shuttle last week, nor any other rancors for that matter.  He probably has a large territory he patrols.  I keep my eyes, ears and Force senses attuned though.  I don’t want to get caught by him.  I don’t think any manner of acrobatic, lightsaber flurrying, lightning producing attack will easily bring that beast down.  I would like to live to see my mother, even if she kills me when we meet.

Hey speaking of the king of the beasts, I think I hear him coming now.  The grumbling voice and tremors in the ground definitely preclude his arrival.  He must be an ambush predator because he certainly couldn’t sneak up on anything making all that noise.  I’d better raise the ramp before he gets here lest he decide to have a peek inside. 

Ok, the ramp is up and he is getting very close now.  I am panning the area in the viewscreen while typing this out and looking for him.  He’s got to be cresting a ridge soon.  I can feel him coming through The Force.  And I can feel something else too… something… OH!  She’s with him and there are more.  Yes many more!  I can hear them now!  I’ll be a rancor’s chew toy; she’s riding on King Scaly’s gigantic head!  Wow, some of her friends are riding rancors too!  I am suddenly questioning my motivation for staying here.

So that’s my mother out there at the head of an army of witches.  I would have expected the Queen of the Nightsisters to be wearing more clothing.  However, what she is wearing is quite ornate.  Dark flat colored material with black gloss scrollwork forms a pair of triangles, wide at the sides of her body narrowing until it they join each other in the middle of her chest.  The same dark material with gold edges band her torso exposing most of her skin.   More bands of that same gold edged material of varying widths encircle portions of her arms from the wrist to the bicep.  Her shoulders are armored though they are partially obscured by a display of black feathers.  Her hood’s outer edge is patterned with ancient symbols and a crown of boney claws protrudes out from under the front of it.  At her waist, a belt of bones holds up a long flowing and ornately decorated skirt.  But the thing most noticeable are her eyes.  No amount of darkness from under her hood can obscure their glowing yellow color.  She sees me with those eyes, looking at me through the viewscreen as if I were standing in front of her.  The time has arrived.  I must go outside and confront her.

Son of a Clone Trooper - This Doesn't Look Like Nar Shadaa

The Force is a strange thing.  The stories I have heard just don’t seem to compare when I see what’s happening in my life.  It’s as if it has a plan and nothing I can do will alter it.  Did it want me to come around full circle, or is this just a bit of closure to an open part of my life?  If it is coming around full circle, does that mean I am going to get dead?  I certainly hope not, I rather like being alive.  Of course, I rather liked it on the Sanctuary Moon too.  I also thought I was headed to Nar Shadaa, or at least that’s where I told the navicomputer on the shuttle to take me.  Instead, my landing pads are sitting in the soft soil of one of the most dark and foreboding planets in the galaxy.  I should be mixed in with smugglers and gangsters right now enjoying a drink at a cantina.  Instead, I am here, the place where my life began.  I am on Dathomir and I am not quite sure how it happened.

Needless to say, I had to leave the Sanctuary Moon.  It was a wonderful place despite the goraxes, Mandalorians and Imperials, but unfortunately when old iron lung himself, Darth Vader arrived, I knew it was time to beat a hasty retreat.  I am not sure why he was there, and I didn’t want to find out.  Of course it wasn’t all blue skies and sunshine either.  I spent a bit of time imprisoned in the Mandalorian (they called themselves the Death Watch) bunker.  That wasn’t all that pleasant, but when I explained my situation to them, they decided that they would have some fun with me (knowing I was far from properly trained).  I had to have a duel with one of their warriors.  Were I to win then my freedom would be granted.  On the other hand, were I to lose, well, we’ll just say that I wouldn’t be breathing long enough to even be a slave to them.  As fate would have it, I was pitted against the guy who properly whooped up on me down by the lake.

The duel pretty much picked up where we had left off, with me trying to escape his savage blows.  He used me like a training drone and just beat on me for what seemed like forever.  None of my attempts at a controlled attack using The Force or my lightsaber had done any good.  He pushed through my lightning; he rolled off my telekinetic pushes and dodged every swipe of my lightsaber.  I must have inherited my father’s resilience though because I a managed to stay conscious through it and moreover mount a counterattack.  Bleeding, swollen and in significant amounts of pain, I turned to my instincts alone.  Suddenly I was bouncing around like a rubber ball in zero gravity all the while dodging his every move and counterattacking with strikes from my saber and flesh searing blasts of lightning.  Credit must be given where it is due though.  My opponent’s armor was first rate and he was tough enough to withstand nearly everything I threw at him.  It wasn’t until I tapped into a power I didn’t realize I had that I won the fight.  I literally compressed the air around him, making it heavier and more oppressive by the second, sealing him in a telekinetic prison and eventually squeezing the very life out of him.  It earned me my freedom as well as a reprieve from the bludgeoning I had been taking.

I headed back to my camp and prepared to relax and enjoy the fact that I no longer had any major worries on the moon when a pang of panic hit me. I couldn’t put my finger on why it happened or what it was, but I did have a sense of where it was coming from.  I followed the feeling to its source and found myself hiding in the bushes and watching what must have been an entire legion of Imperial troops climbing out of transports.  One of them was Vader.  He was barking orders, choking the odd officer with his mind and coordinating the troops when he stopped and just started scanning the perimeter of the staging area.  Things went on around him but he was looking for something and I could only assume it was me.

I quickly and quietly returned to my camp and threw my emergency escape gear into the shuttle and took off.  I mean if I could sense him, then he surely could sense me.  I punched in the coordinates to Nar Shadaa and jumped into hyperspace.  Now, here I am, not on Nar Shadaa but on Dathomir and contemplating my next move.  I can feel The Force all around me and also similar feelings to those I felt with regards to The Emperor’s whipping boy in black.  That can only mean there are lots of Force users here.  It could work to my benefit though by masking me into the mix.  I am guessing that’s not my reason for being here.  No, my guess is that fate has the cruelest of jokes in mind; a reunion with my mother.

Even as I am typing this I can feel her through some tendril of The Force that connects us.  She is aware of me as well.  I don’t know how I know, I just know.  Every bit of my rational mind is screaming for me to leave, but I am compelled, beyond all reason, to stay.  So here I sit, writing this holoblog hoping that I am not making a mistake; wondering if perhaps this could be a good, rather than a bad thing.  She is an experienced Force user after all.  Perhaps she could teach me things and help me to understand and use this power better.  In the meantime I think I will stay aboard the ship and survey the landscape from relative safety.  From what my father told me, this place is crawling with things that would love nothing more than to literally have me for dinner.  In the time since I started writing this I have already seen a spider twice my size and two rancors wandering about and that doesn’t even touch on the countless skulking eyes I can feel upon the ship.  It’s better in here than out there.