//------------------------------//
// The Curse of Ranox 
// Story: The Dragon and the Force 
// by FenrisianBrony 
//------------------------------//

	Blood dripped from the tip of the blade-like claw as it hovered in front of Kelbarak’s eye. He’d watched its lethally sharp edge cut his comrades to shreds just moments before, helpless to stop their mutilation and murder. The beast had killed them all. Jola, their steely eyed squad leader and the veteran of a hundred battles, had fallen first, her belly opened up in a grotesque mockery of the births she had once overseen in her pre-warrior days back on Mandalore. Aqil had been next, the blade opening him from groin to sternum. The young Jarno, known for his jokes and easy going attitude, had cried for his mother as his leg had been torn from him with the speed of a laser amputation. He’d bled out in a few minutes, begging and pleading for someone, anyone, to take away his pain. Karlya had given the beast no screams, no pleading cries for mercy, she’d heard the stories, just like the rest of them, but she believed them. She knew the beast had no mercy in him. She never was one to waste anything, and wasn’t about to waste her final breaths on futile words.

The beast had come out of nowhere, a monstrous figure, of green and purple. Only a small flash of colour had been seen between two buildings and Jola was dying, down on her knees and vainly trying to stop her guts from falling out onto the rocky, dust covered ground. Kelbarak himself had managed to get a shot off, the only member of the squad to even raise his weapon, but it hadn’t done him any good.

A closed fist slashed through the air and left him slumping with his back to the wall of an old abandoned house, his breath coming in painful, rasping gurgles. Like everyone in the Mandalore’s glorious new crusade, he had received basic medical training. Not much, but enough to know that several of his ribs were shattered, and at least one of his lungs was punctured.

The beast had killed them all, and Kelbarak had watched the whole thing, unable to move and unable to block out the agonising screams of his squad and friends. The beast had made him watch the mutilation of their corpses, promising that looking away would only cause him to experience greater pain, forcing him to watch the scene of butchery in front of him. 

The beast was at one of the wall, blood already covering it from where it had sprayed up from the bodies, and was dragging its claws across the surface, carving out large letters, the blood on its claws filling the grooves. Kelbarak knew he should know the words, it was written in near perfect Mando’a, but he had yet to grasp it. Jola had, and it hadn’t done her any good. 

Slowly, the beast knelt down before Kelbarak, placing a massive hand on his shoulder. He wanted to shrug it off, to stop the loathsome killer from touching him, but the simple act of breathing was sending spasms of pain surging through his body. Instead, he opted to squeeze his eyes tightly shut.

“I told you what would happen if you didn’t look.” The beast growled, prising them open again. It didn’t stop with simply forcing him to look this time however, and Kelbarak screamed as his eyelids tore free, blood streaming down into his eyes.

Jola had once told him that his eyes were his best feature, and he clung to that thought now as the unbearable pain made him forget the pain in his chest. He couldn’t blink away the sticky crimson substance that now covered his eyes, and saw the horridly disfigured face of the beast through a scarlet haze.

Ruined by war, the beast was everything the rumours had painted him to be. Scared, hideous beyond belief and angry, the rage manifesting everywhere one looked, especially in its eyes, but there was something else there to, something Kelbarak couldn’t pin down, but it was there. It had been over six months since they had moved on to Ranox, the planet standing in the way of the Mandalore’s conquest, and watching as a single Republic ship crashed into the planet’s surface, followed by half of the Mandalore’s fleet commanded by a senior Rally master. Since that day, stories had been circulating about a hideous creature, left alive after the ineffective hunts conducted by the Republic soldiers who had camped here for weeks. None of the soldiers had given the stories any thought at first, the surviving Ranoxians being blamed for the death toll, and even when they surrendered completely, there was still enough chaos to dismiss the claims of a beast.   

Kelbarak knew the truth, as did the rest of his squad, and reality was much worse than any monstrous creature.

Caretaker duty. That was what Jola had called their little patrol. A search operation to see if any soldiers still remained to oppose them, culminating in a series of long patrols through the small villages that remained and towering forests and jungles. Their constant searching had lead them down the bed of a once mighty river, over hills and mountains, and through a cave that was even darker than the surface of the night world, that had been their final check, they were supposed to return to the base after clearing this cavern. It was supposed to be easy, nothing was even meant to live naturally on this part of the world.

But something else had found these dark spaces, and had made its home far away from the light of the sun.

“You…you’re the beast, aren’t you?” Kelbarak managed through the pain.

“Is that what they are calling me?” The beast chuckled. “A surprisingly accurate title, but after all the people I’ve cut up, I had hoped for something with a little more…flair, to it.”

“You’re a monster.” Spat Kelbarak, his spit laced with blood.

“You say that like I don’t know it.” The beast grunted, looking over its shoulder at the pile of dismembered bodies. “I’ve been doing this for weeks, it would be hard to deny the horror of what I’ve done. He might scream and shout about it, and She will comfort him, to tell Him that it wasn’t His fault, but right now there is only me, and I can accept what I have done here.”

Kelbarak didn’t know who the beast was referring to, the two of them were alone, and yet he was talking about others as if they were there.

“Do you like what I did to your friends?” The beast asked suddenly.

“Don’t make me look…please.” Kelbarak begged softly.

“Stupid not to look.” The beast said. “Wasn’t it the Mandalore who said that the best way to defeat someone is to know them?”

“They’ll hunt you down.” Kelbarak gasped, his breath coming in red tinted mist as the temperature began to drop. “When they find you, they’ll send everything to kill you.”

“I’m counting on that.” The beast nodded.

“You’ll die for what you’ve done.”

“Quite possibly. Your Mandalore will try, but more importantly, He will try and kill me for this, but He can never really defeat me, and He’ll survive, he always does. He’s always got one more trick up his sleeveless arms. But when I go, I want to make sure that I’m as dangerous in death as I was in life.”

Kelbarak tensed as the beast brought its claws closer, their blood flecked surface scratching the surface of his eye. The claw eased forward, not encountering any worthwhile resistance and clear fluid mixed with blood spilled out to mix with the blood that already coated the beast. Kelbarak screamed in agony, and tried to tear himself away, but the beast held him steady, making sure that no matter how much his body thrashed around and flailed, his head stay perfectly still.

“I’m not going to kill you.” The beast smiled. “But I am going to send a message. One that your masters will understand.”

***

Seugtai looked out from the tip of spire that had once been the town hall of the largest town on the planet. Far below him, his warriors moved to and fro, ripping parts of the buildings that may be useful down, and loading them into transports to be taken back to orbit. Now that the planet could be pacified, they could begin to take their spoils back to their foundries, churning out more ships and more weapons for the ever growing army of Mandalore the Ultimate. 

It had taken them a long time to get to the level they were at now, and it had not been easy, but under the new Mandalore’s leadership, they had grown stronger than ever before, even stronger than when Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma led their armies. After their defeat on Duxn, they had found the mask of the old Mandalore, and in tradition, the strongest of them and picked it up, becoming the new Mandalore, and the leader of his people. In that way, the Mandalorians never truly died.

The Republic had been so confident in their victory, so certain that without their leader the Mandalorians would never rise again, they had not even bothered to clear them out, allowing them to recover. It was a mistake they would learn to regret. While the Republic struggled to help the isolated worlds in the Outer Rim, the Mandalore had been conquering them, slowly at first, making sure to only take ones that would not be reported missing, taking their resources to build his fleet, and recruiting their populations into the ever-growing ranks of his new Neo-Crusader movement.

The Neo-Crusaders were an oddity to Seugtai, originally starting as a small movement on Mandalore, their structure had quickly been adopted by the Mandalore, incorporating them into his war machine. Armour was standardised, a true rank system was established, and the Mandalore went from the head of a crusading force to the leader of an army almost instantly. Only those who had proved themselves in war with the Mandalore, or were exceptionally blessed by him were allowed to wear the older armour, customising it as was their tradition, which is why he was not in the new armour. He could not deny its effectiveness though, and if Cassus Fett was to be believed, it might just be the catalyst that allowed them to conquer the Republic.

Still, it had not been all perfect, the events of the past few months showed that. First, their raid on Thresh had gone badly, the planet burning and destroying any salvage that could have been used to help the Mandalore, then the Republic investigation, and finally the disastrous attempt to take them prisoner on board the Mandalore’s own flagship. All that culminated in this, the planet wide search for survivors.

The Mandalore was not ready for his force to be revealed, not truly. The Republic knew something was amiss of course, but they did not know the size or scale of the threat. By the time they found out, the Mandalore wanted them to already be on the back foot, and these survivors complicated that.

There hadn’t been many, of the twenty one that had been brought onto the Mandalore’s ship, only nine were unaccounted for, the rest dying during their escape attempt or being recaptured, providing some interesting information on the Republic forces. Even more had been found at the crash site of their ship, leaving only two left unaccounted for, drag marks leading away from the ship leading to what looked like a hastily dug grave, the word ‘Parn’ scratched into the rock that marked it. Seugtai had learnt to hate that name since he had first seen it, not for the person who had once borne in, but for what it now represented.

Seugtai had ordered it to be left alone, he was not about to start desecrating the dead.

The crew had not been his main concern however, and he had been prioritising the search for one thing in particular, and yet he had found no trace of it, of him. The Jedi that had lead the force was dangerous, Seugtai knew that, he had seen him cross blades with the Mandalore himself and hold his ground, as well as witnessing his handiwork dealing with other Mandalorians, but there was something else about this creature, the thing that one of their prisoners had identified as a Dragon. When he had fought the Mandalore, he looked as if he had more than a physical battle going on, his face had been screwed up in a mixture of rage and concentration, and one of his eyes had turned yellow. He had initially dismissed the prisoners claim that the Jedi had a different side to him, until the bodies had begun to pile up.

He had not wanted to believe it at first, but it was hard to deny what his eyes were telling him, and what the reports were finding on an almost daily basis. Since they had arrived, soldiers had been going missing, usually in ones or rarely twos, until Seugtai had been forced to order a planet wide sweep, all squads keeping regular radio check ins. If any of them missed these checks, then he would be able to take his own honour guard to check it out, and to hopefully find out more about his savage foe.

Moving over to the ladder, Seugtai slid down it, landing at the bottom heavily, and walking over to the armoured figure of Canderous. The young Mandalorian was good, he couldn’t deny that, far better than any of the warriors he had fought beside when he was young. Seugtai wouldn’t have been surprised if Canderous rose above them all, maybe even above the Mandalore himself. He was already the youngest soldier in Seugtai’s honour guard, and no matter how much he didn’t want to admit it, was easily the best member of the squad, except for perhaps himself.

“Rally master. We’ve been getting a signal from one of the squads out on patrol. They want to see you straight away. They couldn’t say more over the radio thanks to the planets interference.” One of the Mandalorians said, looking over at Seugtai.

“Mount up then.” Seugtai sighed, walking over to the transport that served his squad.

The vehicle was a new design by the Mandalore’s scientists, one that would allow the vehicle to transport men across the battlefield in any condition, thanks to its new movement design. The Jai-38 as it had been designated, was the first working model of the Jai-walker line, the vehicle propelling itself forward on a set of four long legs. Other than its capacity for transporting infantry, which was unfortunately limited due to the amount of space available, the Jar-38 had massive offensive capabilities, all controlled by a single pilot at the front of the vehicle. While the vehicle was a menacing tank, and a decent transport, it had yet to see proper production, and so most squads were still stuck using the old tracked T-20 Ares or the T-21 Ulic, but as a commander, Seugtai got access to all the best toys.

As the vehicle began to move, the hold shaking as it went, Canderous leaned towards Seugtai, removing his helmet so he could look his Rally Master in the eye.

“So, do you think that they actually found him this time, or do you think it will just be another corpse?” He asked.

“To be honest, most of the soldiers here don’t even know what he actually is. It’s hard for them to wrap their head around this that a Jedi is doing this. It’s more like the attacks of a wild beast than the work of one of that order.”

“Doesn’t answer the question, do you think we’ll pick up a trail this time?” Canderous pressed.

“No, I don’t.” Seugtai admitted. “We’ve been hunting him for six months, in that time we haven’t found any trace of him, the only reason we know who we’re dealing with is because we know who was on the ship and haven’t found his body yet. This will just be another dead Mandalorian, no trail.”

“If we don’t want him to escape, why don’t we just burn the planet from orbit?” Canderous asked.

“Because the Tibanna deposits here are valuable to the Mandalore, and the fact that they are extremely volatile. Burning the planet would set them off, and we need what we are mining here for our crusade.” Seugtai pointed out.

Suddenly, the vehicle ground to a halt, and Seugtai could feel the legs lowering as the back door to the troop compartment swung downwards, allowing the squad to follow their Rally Master back out onto the night world. 

His soldiers fanned out behind him, their weapons readied as they scanned the area. Once they had been the elite of a Rally Master far from the front, but they had been injured in the face of battle, given up for dead by the Rally Master. Now though, they served Seugtai as bodyguards, their bodies augmented and weaponised to be even deadlier, and their minds conditioned to follow his orders without fear. Most commanders looked down on his honour guard, seeing them as little more than robots, rather than Mandalorians, but Seugtai knew better, no matter what implants they had, they were still his men, and they still believed they were men. Only Canderous was un-augmented, and Seugtai couldn’t honestly say that augmentation would make him any deadlier than he was now.

The cavern they found themselves in was huge, the ceiling stretching upwards until it was difficult to see the roof of it. Seugtai knew they were deep underground at this point, having entered one of the planets caves systems. They had been widened out in the past six months, ready for the Mandalorians to use the Ranoxian labours to mine the precious Tibanna. Before they had arrived, Ranox had had a few mines for the gas, but since they had arrived, the Mandalorians had overseen the digging of many more, increasing the amount they could mine by exponential amounts.

“How large is it?” Seugtai asked, turning to one of his augmented warriors. 

“One hundred and sixty three meters at the highest point.” He replied quickly, reading off a data-readout from one of his mechanical eyes. “We are currently three point two kilometres from the entrance of the cave, and one point eight kilometres under the surface.” It was relatively small by the standards of the other Ranoxian caves.

Regardless of the size of the cavern, it was swarming with activity, two T-20s parked just a little further down from the Jai-38, surrounded by a squad of conscripts. None of them were in proper armour, each wearing easy to produce body armour that didn’t even so much as resemble true Mandalorian armour. The bad thing about having an army was it was hard to outfit everyone, and so until they had proved themselves Mandalorian, itself not a hard task, they were given simple body armour, not that dissimilar to the republic soldiers.

Sitting apart from the two T-20s was a solitary T-21, painted a vivid dark blue colour with the symbol of the neo-crusaders emblazoned on its rear assault door. Even though Seugtai knew there was not much difference between the T-20 and the T-21 physically, apart from maybe a slight size difference and the massive fuel canisters on the T-20, the vehicle seemed somehow tougher, more as if it was bred for war, although that may have been the true Mandalorians standing around it.

Quickly, a conscript ran over to Seugtai, snapping off a quick salute.

“Milotas.” He introduced himself. “I’m glad you’re here sir. This is a bad one, not like the other attacks.”

“What makes you say that?” He asked, studying the man’s face for any sign of unease, which was not overly difficult to spot.

“I think it would be easier to show you sir.” 

“You found Sergeant Jola’s squad?” Seugtai confirmed. 

“What was left.” Milotas nodded. 

“Tell me what happened.” Seugtai ordered.

“After she didn’t report in, I lead my squad down here to where she had last reported in. We found her transport by the entrance, by one of the small listening posts that was abandoned by the Ranoxians. It wasn’t difficult take long to find the poor bastards.”

“Her squad is all dead I assume?” Seugtai sighed.

“No sir. That’s what makes it worse.”

***

Sergeant Darnt was watching the proceedings in the central area of the cavern, looking over the rocky walls and the ruined buildings that surrounded him with a careful eye, his vast bulk unmoving behind his armour, the T-visored helmet giving him an air of anonymity that helped to place him above the conscripts that fought alongside him. Unlike many of the neo-crusaders, he did not begrudge having to fight with those who were not ‘true’ Mandalorians, realising the benefit and bravery these men possessed to face the enemy without Beskar'gam. Only a few actual Mandalorians remained on the planet any more, the majority of them being recalled by the Mandalore for other duties more befitting their skill in combat, the search being taken over most by conscripts, but there were still a few squads dotted around the world.

Seugtai could smell the blood long before he saw it, the unmistakable aroma of death filling his nostrils and reminded him of the thrill of battle. A great deal of the life-giving liquid has been spilled here, and the walls around him were covered in arterial blood spray and streaks from where a blood soaked weapon had splattered the crimson liquid. Amid the blood splatters were a series of crude symbols carved into the walls and filled with the sticky liquid. They did not look like they had been done by someone who knew what they were doing completely, but the Mando’a letters were not lost on Seugtai.

PARN

It was always the same, every murder, everywhere the Beast had been, the same message, the same single word. It was the same as the name of the grave they had found away from the ship, the same name the real Captain of the ship had boasted before she was snatched from this life. 

“By the Mandalore.” Seugtai breathed softly, taking in the rest of the scene before him.

He had seen slaughter before, the dead piling up as they charged a gun line, or cut down when a foe had attacked them from an unexpected place, but the scene in front of him was different altogether, the hideous assembly of dead flesh, flayed skin and the wanton mutilation that had gone on here was shocking in all its theatrical grotesqueness. Even the other attacks had been just that, attacks resulting in death, with a word written in blood, but never before had something like this happened.

Seugtai breathed out as he cleared his mind, taking a moment to study the scene. To work out what happened here, he would need to swallow back his revulsion, to look at the scene objectively and unclouded by the horror and sickness of it all. The task was not easy.

Slowly, he began to circle the arrangements of body parts, checking the ground for any signs that could help him further. It was immediately clear that they were lying in a pattern by choice, not by chance. Legs had been broken, and arms had been ripped off to form some sort of pattern, but Seugtai could not work out what the pattern was.

Atop the gruesome spectacle, eyeless heads had been perched, stacked into a pile with more of the meaningless symbols scrawled across their face in blood. None of them were the same, and Seugtai got the feeling that they were meaningless even to the one who had drawn them, simply existing because they could.

“How many were in the squad?” Seugtai asked, turning to face Milotas.

“There was Sergeant Jola and four others.” Replied the conscript.

“Five, you said there was one survivor, and yet we only have four heads.” Seugtai voiced softly.

“So we have three bodies, and one survivor?” Canderous asked. “What happened to the last body?”

“Maybe the killer took it with him?” Sergeant Darnt suggested.

“Why would he bother doing that?” Canderous asked. “It would slow him down and make him easier to track.”

“He didn’t do this for no reason.” Seugtai pointed out. “Whatever he needs the body for is essential, else he wouldn’t have taken it. He’s evaded us for six months and we don’t even know what his plan is.”

“Or…” Canderous began thoughtfully.

“Or what?” Darnt asked.

“Ever wondered what he’s been eating?” Canderous asked darkly.

“A Cannibal?” Darnt hissed.

“He’s got to eat something, and I don’t think we should be thinking of this guy as just ‘another Jedi’. After all it’s done, I doubt cannibalism will phase it.” Canderous pointed out.

“Sir’s.” Milotas said quickly, running over. “Kelbarak is awake.”

“Clear this shit up.” Seugtai ordered the conscript and his squad, before walking over towards the T-21. Hammering his fist on the door to the troop compartment, the door whined as it opened, allowing Seugtai to look inside. If he had thought the smell of blood was bad outside, he hadn’t smelt anything yet.

“I’d seal your armour if I were you.” The medic said, tapping his helmet knowingly. “Now get in and close the door.”

Complying, Seugtai moved in closer, signalling for his squad to remain outside as he looked down at the body lying on the stretcher, mostly covered by a white sheet, but doing nothing to obscure his face.

The sterile sheet couldn’t completely cover the man’s injuries, and Seugtai knew it would be a kindness to put a blaster bolt through his head right now. His arms had been stripped of skin from wrist to shoulder, and his chest was a mass of deep incisions forming the word PARN. A steady dripping from the metal frame of the stretcher told Seugtai that the man had been hamstrung, his legs now useless appendages of meat and bone.

But it was upon Kelbarak’s face that his attacker had wrought the most heinous tortures.

One of the man’s eyes had been slowly gouged from its lidless socket, the other left relatively untouched so as to bear witness to the unimaginable malice and tortures inflicted upon him. His cheeks had been sliced open to the farthest extent of his jawbone, as though a blade had been forced laterally into his mouth. Teeth gleamed bloodily through fresh stitches, and a leering skull had been cut deep into his forehead. Even if he survived his injuries, the beast had forever left their mark upon him.

“Can you talk?” Seugtai asked softly, kneeling down next to the man.

The soldiers’ one remaining eye fixed on him, and he could see the urgency that was in it, blood flecked tears seeping from the tears ducts just beneath it as he struggled to speak. He would be full of pain killers and sedatives by now, and he could see that these were making it even harder for him to form words, his mouth tearing slightly as the stitches broke.

“Got…to…catch him.” He said.

“I’m going to, but I need your help.” Seugtai said reassuringly.

“Said…he had a…plan. Even if he died…said you’d die to.”

“Plan? What Plan!”

“Sir, he’s going into shock, I would like you to leave now.” The medic requested.

“One more minute.” Seugtai snapped. 

“He’ll die if I don’t get him some proper medical treatment.” The medic snapped back.

“A lot more will die if he’s right, and the Jedi has a plan.”

“Fine.” The medic growled. “You have one minute.”

“What did the beats say?” Seugtai asked, turning back to Kelbarak.

“Said…he was going deep. Going to crack open…the world.” He coughed, a ward of blood forming around his mouth as the stitches ripped free.

“That’s enough!” the medic roared, moving forward and pushing Seugtai back, kneeling down and starting to work on the convulsing man, who was now screaming in pain.

Nodding, Seugtai opened the door to the transport, slipping back outside and closing the door behind him, before looking at the others who had been listening into the conversation over his helmet microphone.

“You can’t believe Kelbarak’s words are serious can you?” Darnt asked disbelievingly.

“I don’t know.” Seugtai admitted. “It could be spite, a final jab at us.

“You don’t believe that though, do you.” Canderous pressed.

“Jedi aren’t known for making empty threats, and this one is different from the others. If he thinks he can do something big, then we need to act on the assumption that he can.” Seugtai replied.

“What is down this way?” Darnt asked, turning to one of Seugtai’s Honour Guard. 

“A Tibanna mine has just finished excavation and is in full production. Reports show it as connecting to the biggest vein of the gas on the planet.” The Mandalorian replied quickly.

“Could he be planning to attack this place?” Canderous asked.

“Impossible. The facility is guarded heavily by both conscripts and neo-crusaders, as well as tanks and heavy armour. The place is a fortress.” The Mandalorian replied.

“Enough to stop someone like the beast?” Seugtai pressed.

“Unknown.” The Mandalorian said slowly.

“He’s just one person.” Darnt declared. “One person couldn’t break through those defences.”

“One person that has stayed hidden for six months and avoided us actively hunting him, while hunting us. He believes he could do damage to this place, so we must assume he has a plan.” Seugtai rebuked.

“What could he do to this mine?” Canderous asked.

“If an explosive was introduced into the mine, the entire vein could be destroyed. In a best case scenario we would lose this mine.” The Mandalorian replied.

“And worst case?” Darnt asked slowly.

“The explosions here could set off a chain reaction, igniting the other pockets of gas around the planet and destabilising the crust of the world.”

“Can we raise the mine on the radio?” Seugtai asked. 

“Trying…” Canderous said, holding his hand up to his ear. “No.” He shook his head.”

“The rock density is too thick for signals to travel properly.” One of the Honour Guard said helpfully. “We have been building listening posts that boost the signal.”

“Well then can we get in contact with that?” Seugtai asked. 

Before anyone could reply, the door to the T-21 swung open, and the medic strode out, his fists clenched as he walked up towards the group.

“Kelbarak died of his injuries. What he told you better have been worth it.”

“He may be trying to destroy the planet.” Seugtai said bluntly.

“You can’t be serious.” The medic said.

Darnt looked as if he was going to reply, but suddenly put a hand up to the side of his helmet, pressing his fingers against it as he listened to the message.

“Well?” Seugtai asked.

“There’s been another attack. Ten kilometres away.”

“And…” Seugtai pressed, knowing that there was more.

“It’s along the only route to the mine.”

***

Milotas watched as the T-21 sped off down the cave system, quickly followed by the large Jar-38. It amazed him at the speed that the vehicle could move at considering its legs, but he guessed that was why the commander chose it. 

He was personally in awe at the Mandalorians themselves. He had heard stories of their commander and his men, but nothing had prepared him for actually seeing them. They seemed so detached, so far above him and his men, and yet he knew that it was possible for any man to achieve their status, earning themselves the armour of the neo-crusader.

Turning back to face his squad, Milotas’s eyes fell on the body bags that were lined up neatly in front of the two T-20s.

“Come on, let’s load them up.” He said grimly, looking around at his squad.

“So…do they know who did this?” A conscript asked, grabbing hold of the other end of a body bag from Milotas and lifting it up.

“The beast, but they know where he is.” Milotas said darkly. “It won’t be long now till he’s dead and buried.”

“What is this thing?” Another conscript asked, walking past with a body bag held in his arms, lazily lifting the corpse as if it weighed nothing.

“I heard it’s some beast that the Republic let loose here after they couldn’t kill it.” 

“Whatever it is, it will be dead soon.” Milotas growled, hoisting the body bag into the rear of the T-20 and looking around. “Ok, you two, take Jola’s T-20 and follow us back to base.”

“Understood sir.” One of them saluted, before pressing a button on the T-20s access ramp, closing it, and sealing the bodies inside.

***

Seugtai let out a soft, low growl as he looked around the devastated remains of a listening post, as well as the bodies scattered around the blast zone. There were four in total, two Ranoxians who had sworn loyalty to the Mandalore, and a pair of Rodian conscripts. The four had been manning the station for weeks, Seugtai not wanting to waste good men on guard duty. He had remembered sending them here, thinking it was out of the way of anything. The corpses were now burnt husks more than anything else, the blast that had killed them was still visible in the carbon scoring and the flames that licked the sides of the listening post.   

The post had survived remarkably well, all things considered. The large, ring like complex consisted of four walls, surrounding a single building in the middle meant for sleeping and communications. Three of those walls were now scorched as black as the corpses, and the post itself had been hit, the electronics inside having been cut, and now looked like guts hanging from an open wound.

“Looks like you were right about trusting Kelbarak.” Canderous whispered.

“Why would he go out of his way to attack a place like this though?” Seugtai asked. “He could have sneaked past easily.”

“This place will have links back to the mine.” Darnt summarised. “If anything happens there, they’ll know here. He probably wanted to cut the mine off from the outside first.”

“That sounds like perfect sense.” Seugtai nodded. “It’s almost to perfect. But still, why here, as in the mine? There are plenty of other places that would probably have the same effect on the gas veins. Why come so close to the places we’ve been patrolling? He must know where we are in general, and yet he attacks here. There are mines half a world away that he could have hit and we’d struggle to reach him in time.”

“He’s a Jedi.” Canderous spat. “He thinks he’s better than us. He wants us to know what he doing, and that even if we know, we won’t be able to stop him.”

“I don’t think this was an attack.” Seugtai said suddenly. “I mean, it was clearly an attack, but I don’t think the attacker was here when it happened. Look, imagine you’re a lone infiltrator in the depths of an enemy planet, what’s your priority all through your mission?”

“To cause as much damage and chaos to the enemy as possible.” Darnt replied simply.

“No, that’s a secondary concern.” Seugtai replied. “The first priority is evasion of capture, and the best way to achieve that is to keep your enemies looking in the opposite direction of where you’re going.”

“I’m not following you,’ said Darnt. “I am a direct man, speak plainly to me.”

“Very well. The damage caused to this conduit is the result of a bomb, not a gunfight or collateral battle damage. When those bodies are examined, there won’t be a single bullet hole or combat injury on any of them, I’ll stake my reputation on it.”

“And that means?” Canderous pressed.

“Very well, I won’t bore you with the exact chemical composition, but my Honour guard have been running scans on this residue, and suffice to say that this is strong stuff, you’d have to be clever to make this, mixed in with numerous chemical additives more commonly found in agricultural products that haven’t been used in the past three months, and haven’t been found anywhere on the planet for the last two. This wasn’t an attack of opportunity, he knew how to craft a powerful explosive compound and took his time in doing it.”

“It tells us that he had time to set this up.” Darnt nodded, understanding what Seugtai was trying to explain.

“And it tells me that we’re up against a very cunning individual who has had time to plan out exactly what he’s doing.” Added Seugtai.

“Then it is even more important that we find him and kill him.” Canderous declared.

“Agreed.” Seugtai nodded. “I just hope we’re looking in the right place.”

***

“I don’t like this.” Canderous muttered, hefting his heavy blaster cannon to his shoulder.

A trail of blood, presumably from the missing body, had lead them to a small side passage off the main cave system, a place where neither the Jar-38 nor the T-21 could fit, forcing the two squads of Mandalorians to advance on foot through the caves.

“I know.” Darnt replied over the helmet comm. “There are hundreds of places he could be hiding, and we wouldn’t know until he was firing at us.”

“Has anyone tried to get in contact with the mine yet?” Seugtai asked.

“We’re being blocked by something. It must be our foe.” Canderous replied.

“Then he’s here.” Darnt growled. “Permission to advance Rally Master?”

“Granted. Lead the way.” Seugtai replied.

Instantly, Darnt surged forward, his squad behind him, weapons raised and ready to fire. If they did find the beast, they would not be caught off guard by him like the squads of conscripts. Then, all hell broke loose.

An explosion rocked the cave, sending small fragments of rock crashing against Seugtai’s armour. As the Mandalorian watched, he saw one of Darnt’s squad fall, his chest a bloody mess. Then the fireing began, lasers lashing out as an unseen opponent pumped fire into the scattered squad.

“Take cover!” Darnt ordered, even as Seugtai sprinted forward, his squad close behind him. From his angle, he could not see the firer, but that also meant that he could not see him.

Dashing forward, Seugtai hurtled around the corner, instantly taking stock of the situation. There was a large, hulking figure in front of him, crouching low over a massive cannon that was spewing out fire. Although the creature was shrouded in darkness, Seugtai knew it was his quarry, and let fly with his pistol, the bolts flying at the target and knocking it to the floor.

Instantly, the fireing stopped, and an eerie silence fell over the cave. Slowly holding his hand up, Seugtai motion to the others to move forward, drawing his axes in case the beast was still alive. As he rounded the corner, Seugtai watched as Canderous opened a flare, the red light casting long shadows over them, and threw it towards their fallen foe.

“No…” Seugtai breathed softly, falling to his knees beside the corpse.

“That’s not him.” Canderous pointed out, looking down at the corpse of the massive, hairy creature, and the blaster cannon beside it. The cannon was attached to a simple droid arm, much like the ones they used for dangerous tasks, the fingers of which were still reflexively tensing and un-tensing, as if they were grabbing something, say something like a trigger on a gun.

“What is it?” Darnt asked, rounding the corner, and laying eyes on the dead body.

“It’s a bait and switch.” Seugtai cursed.

“A what?” Darnt asked again.

Seugtai stood and began pacing the cavern. 

“Classic misdirection.” He said. “He showed us something and we filled in the blanks. Of course, I should have known it the moment I heard there was a survivor, there are never survivors. He fed Kelbarak to us, and we took the bait.”

“What bait!?” demanded Darnt. “What are you talking about!? We have to protect the mine!”

“Don’t you understand!?” Seugtai roared back. “The mine was never in danger. We said it ourselves, there was no way one warrior could hope to get in and destroy such a heavily guarded place. Damn it! I knew this was too easy. He gave us just enough, and we followed his breadcrumbs as though we were on rails! The attack on Jola’s squad to draw me in, the barely-veiled threat he told Kelbarak, the timed explosion at the listening post. All designed to draw the best warriors down here.”

“But why?” Darnt asked. “Why go to all this trouble not to attack the mine?”

“Because he just wanted us to waste our efforts by looking down here,’ said Seugtai. ‘He doesn’t care about the mine.”

“Then what does a Jedi trapped on a world care about?” Canderous asked.

The answer came to them at the same instant.

“He wants to get off world.” Seugtai breathed softly.

***

Milotas coughed up a wad of blood as he pulled himself along the cold stone floor of the town. His shoulder was a splintered mass of grinding bones, his right arm dragging uselessly behind him, and his neck was wet with blood. His squad was dead, the first member killed by a fist that seemed to come out of nowhere, before the creature had been amongst them, claws flashing in the moonlight as it dispatched his squad.

They had returned from the cave, making good time across the rough ground as they approached the capital township that now served as one of the ports that ferried supplies and men to and from the surface. There weren’t enough facility’s to land anything bigger than a cruiser on the planet, but that didn’t matter, the shuttles that the fleet carried doing just fine.

Skidding to a halt, Milotas and his squad had begun to take the body bags into the outgoing cargo room to be return to their homes for burial as was tradition when possible. The T-20 that had belonged to Jola was parked further down in the town, awaiting a time when a new squad would come and take charge of it. One of his squad had gone to check something on it, darting around the far side when a large clang was heard. Initially, Milotas had assumed it was just the man dropping his hydro-spanner, but when he had not come back out, Milotas had rounded the vehicles side to ask what was going on.

The massive external fuel tank had been opened, the thick black liquid inside dripping to the floor from the gently swinging door. A huge hand print was smeared onto the side of the tank.

Something had been inside the fuel drum.

Milotas had hardly had time to think about what manner of creature could survive inside the barrel of toxic chemicals, when the answer hit him, both mentally and physically, sending him skidding away as he felt his arm snap.

He had been powerless to do anything as the creature, dripping black oil onto the floor as it moved, had slaughtered the conscripts at the town. There had been thirty of them, as well as the honour guard of the Rally Master, but they had gone with their commander, leaving only the conscripts behind to guard the supposedly safe port.

With claw and fire, the creature had danced through the defences, systematically killing any who he came across. A flick of his claw there, and a head went flying, while a gout of flame there sent men writhing to the floor in pain. At one point, a conscript had managed to ready his weapon, spewing flame of his own onto the creature, igniting the fuel in a powerful blaze, and still it had kept coming, the flames burning the fuel off and revealing a green and purple creature underneath. He had finished quickly, the conscripts offering him no serious resistance, before turning back to look down at Milotas. 

The beast, the curse of Ranox, looked down at the fallen warrior, a smirk gracing his lips.

“Thank you for the ride.” He said, his voice rumbling like thunder. “It was not the most comfortable way to travel, but it served its purpose.”

Milotas tried to crawl away from the massive creature, only for a massive foot to come crashing down on his back, sending pain up and down his body as his spine snapped. Unable to move, Milotas found himself being flipped over to face the beast once again.

“Don’t worry about your friends. They’ll find out what happened here soon enough.” The beast chuckled darkly. 

“They’ll hunt you down for this.” Milotas spat. “They’ll find you, and you’ll die.”

“If I had a credit for every time I’ve heard that.” The beast said. “He may punish me for this, but you will not.”

The beast knelt down beside Milotas, the human trying in vain to move and get away from the hell-spawned creature, the noxious smell of fuel still clinging to his body.

“You know, it was depressingly easy getting to this place.” The beast mused. “All I had to do was watch and learn where your predictable little routines made you vulnerable. I just let you see what you wanted to see, and watched as you danced like good little puppets towards somewhere far, far away from here.”

“Who are you?” Milotas hissed, his vision beginning to darken as his blood seeped onto the floor, taking his life with it.

“I am the beast.” The creature laughed, getting to his feet. “But you may call Him Spike.”