Indiana Jones and the Sith Stone
Posted by: Darth Danno 05.07.08 12:01am

Master Honj had so many questions; he wasn't sure what to ask first. When he last saw the intrepid archaeologist, the corpse of a Trandoshan slaver had knocked him off the edge of the basket and down into the Shadowlands. There was no way anyone could survive a fall from that height. Yet here he was, sitting around the slaver's campfire in one piece, and seemingly in good spirits. Plus he was currently wearing some impressive battle armor. Where did he get that? Was this all some sort of trap? What exactly happened down here? How did he survive the fall? What happened to the rest of the Trandoshans? Yet the first question that came out of his mouth was...

"Did you find the next piece of Malek's lightsaber?"

Indy reached into his satchel that hung at his side, and pulled out another slender, black, metal tube and held it up to the Jedi. "Right here!"

This all definitely required further edification, but now was not the time. What was priority was getting the young Wookies out of this place and back up to their homes and families. Master Tenuto, along with the Wookies, did a quick, precursory examination of the cubs, and aside from some minor scrapes and bruises, and all of them being extremely hungry, they were none the worse for wear. Chewbacca and Salporin did a quick perimeter sweep to determine if there were any further hostiles in the area. Finding none, the group moved the young Wookies back to the basket, which was still sitting on the forest floor. There was no way it could support the Jedi, Indy, the six Wookies, and all the younglings at one time. So it was determined Indy, Chewbacca, and Honj would escort the young ones back up to the great walkway, then Chewbacca would take the basket back down and bring up the rest of the Wookie party.

Once the younglings were loaded into the basket, Indy, Chewie, and Master Tenuto climbed aboard, and Chewie started to raise the basket up out of the Shadowlands. Slowly and steadily, the group rose away from the forest floor, leaving the rest of their raiding party behind.

"Okay" Honj began as they started their ascent. "I must know what happened to you down there. Start from the beginning, and leave no detail unturned."

Indy gave his usual smirk and nodded, figuring he had kept his friend in suspense long enough. He told him about how he had survived the fall, escaped from the Trandoshan camp, got through the large force field, and entered the lower Shadowlands. He talked about being attacked by the giant kinrath, but just before the beast was upon him, out of nowhere, a human male appeared, firing his laser rifle for all its worth, and dropping the spider. Indy thanked the man for saving his life, but was kind of leery as to this mysterious stranger's intentions. Most people he had met on this adventure did not turn out to be the most hospitable, present company excluded, of course.

Honj nodded and smiled. "No offense taken, please continue."

This man was fit, thin, and looked relatively young, somewhere in his late thirties to early forties. He had sideburns, a small patch of hair under his bottom lip, and dark hair he wore in a crew cut. He was wearing what appeared to be a set of light armor, and introduced himself as Draylo Dana. He said he was a researcher down here to study the ancient star maps, and had become trapped for quite some time by the force field.

Now this didn't sit right with Indy, as this stranger's appearance completely contradicted his story. His appearance and clothing didn't have any of the normal dirt and wear that would accompany someone who had been living in the wild for some time. His face didn't even have any of the prerequisite five o'clock shadow. There was definitely more to this... Draylo than he let on, but if he was down here studying the Star Map, that was as good of a place to start looking for Malek's stone as any. Draylo asked why Jones was here, and Indy replied he was researching the Star Map like he was, and wanted to know if he could take him to it, Dana agreed, and the two of them headed off.

They walked for quite some time, until Indy literally ran into the Star Map. It was completely camouflaged but the overgrowth that had taken over the area. Now that he was here, he had no idea where to begin looking for whatever clue Malek might have left. It was then that Draylo took his leave of the Professor, but not before he gave him this fine set of armor, a satchel of supplies, and a nice firearm.

Indy reached back into his satchel and pulled out a heavy blaster. Master Tenuto asked to see it, and Indy handed it over to him. The Jedi turned the blaster over in his hands, examining it. It was truly an impressive weapon, and also an antique. He hadn't seen a gun like this since... he couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen anyone carry something like this.

"You sure you can handle it?" Honj queried as he returned the weapon to Indy.

"It'll take some getting used to, but anything's got to be better than my .45. Back on Earth, that could do some damage. Here, I can't even shoot the breeze with it."

"And this Dana gust GAVE all this to you? That didn't strike you as being a little strange?"

"Everything about your galaxy strikes me as strange!"

" Touché. So go on, what happened after he left?"

"Well, right before he left, he said something odd. He said, I'm not sure what you hope to find here. But I'm sure things are looking up! I asked him where he was going, and he said if I had gotten in here, then that meant the force field was down, and he could finally get out of here. I tried to tell him the energy field had reactivated after I had entered the lower Shadowlands, but he didn't seem to hear me."

Then Indy talked about how he explored the area surrounding the Star Map, and found nothing. He expanded his search away from the map, and still found nothing. Now he began to doubt if the Malek's clue was even around here. Then, Dana's last remark came to mind for some reason. "Things are looking up!" So Indy began looking up amongst the trees. At first, he saw nothing, and the surrounding darkness didn't help things. So he decided to see what was in the satchel Draylo left him. Inside the bag were a plasma grenade, an adhesive grenade, a thermal detonator, and some sort of visor. He put the visor on, and it lit up the whole surrounding area as if it was an afternoon on the Tatooine desert.

Tenuto interjected "It's as if he knew what you might require to complete your quest, without ever fully knowing what your quest was."

Indy simply stated, "I don't get it either, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"A gift what?"

"Never mind, earthen expression." Indy then proceeded to continue his tale. As he was looking around with the aid of the visor, he finally spied some sort of object stuck in the knot of a wroshyr tree located behind the Star Map. The object was too high for him to reach, it even looked too high for an adult Wookie to be able to grab. Made sense if Malek was trying to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, if this was in fact, Malek's hidden item. There was no way Indy could stretch far enough to grab it, but he bet that it wasn't out of the reach of his bullwhip.

He uncoiled the whip from his side and snapped it up towards the tree, hoping to latch the end around the object, no such luck. Refusing to give up, he tried again, and again, and again, and so on, and so on... this try hit to the left, the next, hit too high. He was considering of going with plan B, except there was no such thing. So he carried on, and on, and on, and...

Then the tip of the whip wrapped around the item and pulled it free, dropping it to the ground.

Quickly scooping his hard-earned prize in his hands, he took off back toward the force field, hoping that if it wasn't deactivated, Draylo had found a way to do so. Arriving at the site of the energy shield, he found it was in deed inactive, and Draylo Dana was nowhere to be seen. Then it occurred to him that the surviving Trandoshan who had followed him to the entrance of the lower Shadowlands might still be in the area.

Clutching the blaster in his hands, he cautiously advanced into the upper Shadowlands, expecting the vicious slaver to charge at him at any moment, that moment never came. As Indy continued up the path, he discovered the reason the Trandoshan had not attacked him. Brussk lay dead on the cold, dark forest floor. Upon examination of the body, he determined the large reptile had met its end thanks to some sort of sharp object that had severed the Trandoshan's throat. Indy surmised it had been the work of Draylo Dana, but as he was nowhere to be seen, the Professor could not back up his theory with facts. So he just decided to get out of the area as soon as possible. Upon arriving at the Trandoshan camp, he found the area deserted, except for the young Wookies, still locked in their cages. He had only freed them shortly before Honj and the others arrived.

Something about all this unnerved Master Tenuto. Everything that had occurred down there was all very strange, and just got stranger as Indy relayed the tale. Speaking of strangers, who was this... Draylo Dana? He thought he had heard that name before, but for the life of him couldn't remember where. From what Indy had said, he was right to think things were amiss. No way could some human be trapped down in that place for any length of time, and have no excess facial hair, nor could his clothes be no worse for wear. Plus, why would he simply give Indy the blaster, grenades, and the armor? That armor looked oddly familiar. There was something similar, yet unique about it, but again, he couldn't place it. It had been a long and arduous day, and he could use some sleep. Perhaps after that, and a good meal, pieces would fall into place. They still had a little time before the basket would reach the great walkway, so the Jedi Master spent the remainder of the time in meditation.

Upon arriving at the walkway, Indy and Honj escorted the young Wookies back to their village; while Chewbacca took the basket back down to retrieve the rest of their party. The village became a hive of excitement and joy as mothers were reunited with their children, and once Chewbacca and the others returned, there was a great victory fest held in their honor.

The next day, the children were questioned as to what had transpired right before Indy had come upon their camp. Not one of them could give a definitive answer. One moment, the slavers were right there, watching over them. The next moment they were gone, and Indy was walking into the camp. Naturally the cubs assumed Dr. Jones had something to do with it. But Indy vehemently denied having any part in the Trandoshan's disappearance.

Not wanting any more surprises, Attichitcuk sent another group of Wookies back down into the Shadowlands to see if they could locate this Draylo Dana. They returned hours later to report that no evidence of him could be found, but they did find the bodies of the Trandoshans who they believed had held their young captive. They were killed in the same way Brussk had been, their throats cut by what appeared to be a vibroblade.

"Whomever did this had to have been quite skilled," Honj told Indy. "It's almost impossible to sneak up on a Trandoshan like that without him getting wind of you. Then, to be able to take them down with a single stroke of a vibroblade, that takes an incredible amount of strength. If I didn't know better, I'd say a Jedi... or a Sith was responsible."

Indy piped up, "but why would a Sith help us, or me? Once I retrieved the object, why didn't he try to take it from me?"

"I don't know," Tenuto replied. "Perhaps we'll have some answers once we open the new cylinder, may I see it?"

Indy handed the tube over to the Jedi Master; he examined it closely, and saw this one was completely smooth on all sides. No letters or anything to match up like the previous one. As he held it, he could feel the dark side surrounding it, as if that was sealed by Sith energy. For lack of a better idea, Honj set the cylinder on a nearby table. Then, closing his eyes and focusing on the Force, he raised his hand toward the tube, and tried to break the hold the dark side had on it, hopefully opening it in the process. Perhaps if this was opened by anyone using anything but dark side energy, it could possibly destroy the contents, or set off some kind of ancient trap Malek might have had put in place to preserve the secrets within, but there was no other choice. At first, the whole cylinder shook and vibrated, but as the Jedi focused on the cap of the tube, then only the top showed any signs of movement. It turned slightly one way, then the other, back, and forth. Slowly, the lid began to give way, and then suddenly, it shot off the cylinder like the cork on a bottle of Corellian ale, landing on the ground a few feet away.

Not wanting to be too hasty, Honj allowed the Force to be his guide, warning him to any dangers that might lurk inside. Not sensing any, he grasped the tube and dumped its contents onto the table. A small piece of metal is all that emerged.

"What is it?" Indy queried.

The Jedi examined the item a moment, then replied, "it appears to be an activation switch for a lightsaber."

"So we've got our second piece for the energy sword, but what about our next clue?" Indy picked up the tube and peered inside. "Nothing. There's nothing there."

Master Tenuto's eyes lit up. "That's our clue! It's not a specific item that will tell us where to go next, but the absence of one."

Indy simply squinted at the Jedi. "Huh?"

"Trust me, my friend. I know where we must journey next. Out mission is completed here. Let's go and prepare the ship for take... oh no! I was so wrapped up in working on a plan to save the young Wookies, I completely forgot to have anyone go over the ship for tracking devices!"

This time it was Indy's eyes that lit up. "I think we need to leave any and all tracking devices right where they are. How else are we going to lose whomever is pursuing us!"

Darth Danno