Darth Bane: Chaos (Book 1)

Chapter 5

I don't trust Mister Bardan Jusik as far as I could spit, but we need somepony of his expertise, and we're learning a lot simply by watching where he goes and hearing what he says to Twilight. Sometimes we lose them for a short period but Twilight has clear instructions and she'll obey them. I hate to use her unquestioning obedience like this, but... it's for the best. If anypony can keep her safe, it's a thug who's done this since he was a foal. But I'm still not taking any chances. If I don't get a report or hear from her every twenty four hours. I'll send the entire Royal Guard after them.

By the way, your... 'Special Operations' team in the Griffon Empire have already begun the destabilization. So much has changed over the last thousand years. Is this any time to be getting squeamish? Or have the nobles decided that it's more moral to fragment a hostile enemy government into anarchy and sacrifice more pony lives than it is to just declare war and get it over with quickly? When do we decide enough Griffons have died, sister? What is our critical mass of threat?

(Princess Celestia to her sister, Princess Luna, during dinner.)

Darth Bane watched the scene in front of the town unfold from the edge of the forest. He had expected the princesses to send somebeing after him, but he hadn't expected a Mandalorian mercenary. Reaching out with the force, he subtly probed the Mandalorian's mind and was surprised by what he found. He was Force sensitive! Bane's eyes widened and for the first time in decades, he felt fear. Being a Mandalorian, the man would prove to be a nuisance. But he was Force sensitive, and had the training to use his powers. This made him most being's worst nightmare.

Bane took a risk and delved deeper into the Mandalorian's mid. Subtly, and slowly, he influenced his emotions. Not enough to completely change them. But enough to slowly raise the man's anger without him noticing that he was being manipulated. This was a challenge because Bane had never excelled at Force manipulation. This kind of job was better suited for his now deceased apprentice, Darth Zannah. The Mandalorian was by no means weak minded, but his gambit worked. Bane watched as the Mandalorian slowly walked closer to the lavender colored unicorn that had accompanied him to the town of Ponyville. The unicorn backed up until its back hit the wall of the library that Bane had found himself in nearly a week earlier. He couldn't hear what the Mandalorian was saying, but he could feel the fear radiating from the lavender unicorn. Suddenly, there was a surge of light side energy from the lavender unicorn. Bane watched as the unicorn tore through the barrier that the Mandalorian threw up. The Mandalorian was picked up by an invisible hand and then thrown through several buildings. This continued for several minutes before the unicorn stopped and held him about ten metres away from her and about a metre above the ground. Bane could now feel, instead of fear coming from the unicorn, it was now hate. Pure and simple. The Mandalorian, slowly raised his right arm and pointed it at the lavender colored unicorn. After a second, something shot out of his armor's forearm plate, and hit the unicorn. The unicorn dropped almost immediately and the Mandalorian along with her. Whatever he shot her with, it wasn't lethal. Bane watched as the crowd of ponies that had gathered around them, crowded around the two of them and carried them away, presumably to a hospital. It took nearly four of the ponies without horns or wings to carry the Mandalorian away.

Turning around, Bane walked back into the forest. There was an abandoned mansion several miles away from a city called Baltimare. He needed a place to set up a base of operations to set up the groundwork for his plans and, hopefully, find a way off this world.

Aboard the Relentless

"Fierfek Des! You alienate the Captain, assault him, and then take over the ship. After Corellia, you seem to be... off." Niner said as Des stepped into the barracks. Sitting on his bunk, Des placed his helmet down, and then emptied his pack and then went through it again. The Relentless was safely in Hyperspace, after making an emergency jump towards the Deep Core to get away from the CIS fleet.

"I prefer being alive Sarge. He was going to get us all killed. Besides, I didn't take over. The general did."

"But there's a chain of command private."

"There wasn't time Niner. It was either act, or watch this mission, and the entire battle group disappear. I couldn't do anything else." Des said. Niner remained silent. Closing his eyes, Des saw the face of his former friend, Lesley. That was all he could see when he closed his eyes. Slowly falling asleep, he dreamed about that night on Corellia.

Corellia/ Wilderness Two weeks earlier

Des crawled through the undergrowth, slowly crawling on his stomach, towards the guard tower at the entrance to the estate.

"Three in the tower, two in front of the gate, how copy?." Bor'ven told Des quietly. Bor'ven was sitting in the branches of a tree a hundred meters behind Des.

"Copy. Moving up, cover me." Des said.

"Covering."

Des continued to crawl, watching his HUD for any new developments. But none came. CorSec, the rest of Beta and Theta squads, and Lesley, had done their jobs well and now awaited their signal that the coast was clear. Des liked Lesley. She was a 'RIO,' a Republic Intelligence Officer, and she cared about the clones that she worked with. But she liked Des in particular. Whenever she came by the barracks, would always sneak in chocolate covered warra nuts or an Uj cake for the squad. The Uj cake always reminded Des of his training sergeant, Kal Skirata. Whenever she did bring an Uj cake, he would aways ask who she got it from and how she got it from Mandalore. But she would just shrug and change the subject.

"Hold." Des herd Bor'ven whisper and Des froze, heart pounding. Had he been seen, was the mission compromised?

"APC, open top, approaching from the south, towards the guard tower." Bor'ven whispered.

"Numbers?"

"Two Trandoshans, seven Weequays. How copy?"

"Copy."

"Any indication that they know we're here?" Niner's voice said over the comm.

"No. This looks like a routine patrol." Bor'ven replied. "Des, clear to move up."

"Moving." Des said as he resumed his crawling. But slowly, making sure not to disturb the tall grass around him. He was now only fourteen metres away from the gate.

"Des, hold position." Bor'ven said urgently. Des froze. "One Weequay, one Trandoshan making their way towards you. How copy?"

"One Weequay, one Trandoshan."

Des could hear the footsteps of the clumsy footsteps of the Weequay, and the swish, swish of the Trandoshan's tail as they drew closer.

"They're too close. I'm taking the shot." Bor'ven said.

"No. I can do it." Des replied. By now the Weequay was standing right above him. Luckily, Des had taken the time to rub dirt, mud, and leaves into his armor, and thanks to the Weequay's bad eyesight, he couldn't see him.

"Fire, fire, fire." on the third 'fire,' Bor'ven fired. The Weequay gained an unnatural, and very new, third eye. Des rolled over and grabbed the Weequay by the throat and slowly lowered it to the ground.

"Weequay? Weequay? Where are you?" Des heard the Trandoshan shout out.

"Osik! Osik! Osik!" Des said as he rolled back over and got ready to run.

"Fire, fire, fire." again, on the third 'fire,' Bor'ven pulled the trigger. There was a pink mist that appeared behind the Trandoshan's head.

"Niner, compromised, going loud."

Aboard the Relentless

Des woke up, breathing heavily.

"Wake up princess. General wants us in the hangar bay ten minutes ago." Niner said. Sitting up, Des ran his gloved hands over his head. Reaching over, Des placed his helmet on and then grabbed his DC. He put the dream out of his mind. There was a new job and he was going to do it.

Everfree forest/ Equestria

Jusik walked through the dark forest, Twilight walking beside him. They had been walking in silence for about an hour now, neither of them making eye contact with the other. Twilight was scared of the forest, but she was more afraid of him. It hurt Jusik, but he just didn't know why he was angry. It just seemed, like one moment he was testing her, and then the next, he wanted her to get angry, he wanted her to lash out. It just didn't make sense.

"Jusik?" he heard Twilight ask.

"Yeah?" Jusik replied. He glanced over at Twilight. She was standing to his left, there was something in front of her, but he couldn't see it. Walking up to her, he saw a freshly dug grave. Twilight just sat in front of it and stared. Jusik squated next to her and reached out in the force... and felt nothing. There wasn't the hate that was assosiated with something like a killing. There wasn't even the force presence of the one that had buried the body.

"Come on. Let's rest." Jusik told Twilight as he steered her away from the grave. When the grave was out of sight, Jusik slipped off his pack and pulled out some food. Hayfries, an apple, and a slice of pie for Twilight, and Uj cake and Nerf meat for him.

"Can I ask you something Mister Jusik?" Twilight asked meekly.

"Yeah." Jusik replied as he took off his helmet.

"What do Mandalorians do with their dead? I mean... um... you're mercenaries and bounty hunters, so the likelyhood that you'll be killed is pretty high."

"Mass graves." Jusik said.

"Huh?" Twilight asked.

"Unmarked mass graves." Jusik replied after taking a bight of te Uj cake, relishing the sweetness. Twilight stared at him in horror. Most species found the words unmarked mass grave the stuff of horror, the worst possible way to end life. And yet... Mandalorians chose it. Jusik tried to see his people as the aruetiise, traitors or foreigners, saw them. To fully understand the fear a few million of them could cause simply by existing. Detached, he saw an invading army wiping out whole species, fighting galactic wars, destroying everything in its path; and he saw mercenaries and bounty hunters, unemotional dealers of death. The image burned into the collective psyche of the galaxy was one of violent savages, thieves, and looters, whose temporary loyalty to anyone but their own could be bought but never garanteed.

It happened to be almost true- except the part about loyalty. Most people didn't understand the nature of a contract.

And they were never close enough to see Mandalorians at peace. Come to think of it, not many Mandalorians did either.

"That's..."

"We Mandos are nomadic, we can't afford, nor do we have the time, to create proper graves that most species prefer."

"Oh... uhm... so how are you going to catch Darth Bane?" Twilight asked akwardly. Jusik took note that she used the word 'catch.' Princess Celestia hadn't told her that Jusik was to execute Bane on sight. This would prove useful.

"Don't know yet. I need to find him first." Jusik replied and they fell into silence again.

"So," Jusik began. "What's that mark you have on your flank?"

"That's my Cutie Mark!" Twilight replied. Jusik didn't need the force to tell that she was glad they were back on a topic she actually knew something about.

"And what is... a 'Cutie Mark'?"

"It let's everypony know what your special talent is. Like mine let's you know that my special talent is magic."

"So you're born with it?"

"No, you have to earn it."

"Interesting. Please, tell me more."

Aboard Republic LAAT/i gunship/ above Equestrian airspace

"Two minutes." the voice of the pilot said over the comm. Des leaned out of the troop bay so he could catch a better look at the terrain below them. Des saw a forest beneath the gunship and a town and castle about three hundred klometers ahead of them. The planet was inhabited then.

The Relentless had dropped out of hyperspace on the outer edges of a system on the outskirts of the Deep Core. It was odd because the system wasn't on the holocharts. It was even stranger because the star orbited the planet. But there were many oddities in the galaxy. Like The Maw near Kessel, or the white dwarf star that was slowly turning into quantam crystal of the Crseih system, and countless others. Anyways, they had dropped into the system, followed by what remained of the Battle-cruiser. So far the Battle-cruiser hadn't engaged them, content to just stand off at a six hundred kilometers. General Tur-Mukan, had sent Beta squad to scout the surface of the planet and establish a beachhead to land the troopers of Sarlaac Company, so the repair crews could work unimpeded.

"Sev, what are you doing?" the voice of Niner cut in.

"Listening to Mon Cal Opera. I'm making my brain smarter."

"Osik, I can see you nodding to the beat." Bor'ven replied.

"Well you-" Sev was interrupted by a loud bang and the gunship rocked violently. Des lost his grip on the handrail and he fell. Bor'ven, being the closest, reached out to grab Des's arm. There was a *clack* as their forearms made contact and then a flare of pain as Des's shoulder was wrenched from its socket. Des cleched his teeth and tears of pain formed in his eyes, but he ignored the pain.

"I've got you ner vod." Bor'ven said. But the gunship rocked again and Des was knocked loose. He watched the larty shrink in size as he fell. But then instincts took over and he flipped over onto his stomach, head pointed towards the gound, and body as straight as possible. He saw the dark forest fast approaching in his visor. With a few blinks he activated his emergency beacon and then shut it off. He had to be careful. The Battle-cruiser might be listening. By now he was only half a kilometer above the twisted treetops and not a clearing in sight. Reaching across his chest with his good arm, he ripped the cord to let the parasail unfurl. He was supposed to use it to glide into the landing zone. The treetops were just below his feet now. Des brought up his kneew into his chest and braced himself for a hard landing.

Everfree forest/ Equestria

"and then the-" Twilight was interupted by a loud but muffled bang. Looking up, Jusik placed his helmet over his head. Switching to the terrahertz scanner, he saw what looked like, and had a engine pattern similar to, a Republic LAAT/i gunship flying overhead, trailing smoke.

"W-what is it?" he heard Twilight ask.

"Uninvited guests. Oya manda!" Jusik cried but Twilight just stared at him in confusion. Twilight couldn't see him behind his helmet, but Jusik was smiling. It was a new oppurtunity to test his skills, though he would never, under any circumstance, kill a clone soldier. But Jusik smiled anyways.

"Let's hunt! oya!"