Razing The Lies
Feros has always been taught of the lies of the Jedi. He had been taught to hate them, and he had revelled in that hate. The Jedi had taught against the nature of things. Against the nature of the Force itself. No more.
The plan had been wonderful. The attack was lightning fast and multipronged, with all the goals meant to be met at roughly the same time. The main prongs, though, were the Senate and the Temple. Hesper had been given the Senate, and he, the Jedi. Feros had wanted the Jedi.
The Temple had been easy enough to get into with the troops they had brought. Thousands of troopers pouring onto the grounds, like a heavy storm from the skies of Dromund Kaas. They had laid waste to the Guards and many of the Padawans charged to stem the tide. It had done little to help.
Feros had all but gorged himself on the suffering, devouring the pain and anguish that flowed forth like an unbroken current. His sabers, like an artist's brushes, painted the scene he had played in his head for decades. With each Padawan or Knight whose flesh rended to his blades, he came closer and closer. His objective, though, was not done until they were all dead.
Rasi Tuum had felt the danger coming, like a great looming storm, creeping closer and closer before breaking. He knew there could only be one reason. He'd felt it before. He immediately set the Contingency in motion. "Kaleeya," He said to a young Kifar female knight, "Get all the younglings on ships. One knight or Master among each ship. Start the evacuation and wait for my order to launch."
He hadn't expected the day to begin like this. But that didn't matter. The children. That's what mattered. The future. He called through his comm link. "This is Master Tuum. Activate Contingency Zeta. Defend the Temple." Suddenly, the krumph of an explosion shook the walls, nearly knocking him from his feet. He knew he had to get to the one spot where he could hold them. The one room that would funnel them between the Atrium and the Hangers. The Room of a Thousand Fountains.
His path to the Atrium hadn't taken long. It had, however, exploded into a massive battle. Sabers crackling together and the air heavy with the smell of burned ozone. But this was not the time of Malgus. No ship had been flown into the Temple. Nor was it the days of Feros' distant Grandfather, with only one man butchering away. The Jedi had known it was coming. The Lord had ridden into the system aboard the Hand, which had orders to allow any Alliance or Jedi ships to breach the atmosphere, and then turn them to space debris with the turbolaser batteries. He knew some would escape. But they would be hunted like dogs.
Feros let out an animal bellow and slammed one of his lightsabers into the chest of the Falleen Jedi fighting him, the other deflecting blaster bolts the Alliance guards had fired, sending them back to origin. A Togruta male and Quarren female were circling him, awaiting an angle. They rushed him, both attacking from different sides. His sabers batted theirs away, and he bounded into the air, inverting and twirling as he went, and as he landed, their bodies bisected and hit the floor almost in unison.
Rasi ran as fast as he could. The very foundation of the building was shaking, but he rooted himself to the stones with the Force and pushed on, his powerful Cathar legs propelling him on. The room itself was splendid. It had always been a place of peace and tranquility for Tuum. He had even meditated here to seek guidance from the Force.
Today, though, it would be a place of anger, and terrible violence, and bold determination. He entered the room and moved to the center, or as near center as he could make out. There, he knelt to meditate once more among the Fountains, and center his mind.
Everything would be falling into place soon. Scourge Squad, who had been landed in secret lower on the Temple, would have their mission done soon, and would be moving on to find Gar Stazi, the pompous Duros Admiral. Feros had heard of his stalwart dedication to the resisting of the One Sith. Scourge would make quick work of him. They were, after all, the best the Empire had for that sort of thing.
Right now, Feros was on a personal mission of his own. He had been searching for a familiar presence in the Force, and had not felt it. Not here anyway. But he had felt a strong one from deeper in the Temple. This would be the Master coordinating the defense and evacuation. That was where he would go. The ploy was working. Feros could feel he was alone.
Two more Jedi stood in his way. A Human and Sullestan, both of them male. Feros strode towards them, extinguishing the lightsaber in his left hand and extending it in front of him. His hand crackled, and then a furious torrent of Red-Violet lightning erupted from his fingertips. The two Jedi Knights tried to defend themselves, but it was no use. Feros inhaled the scent of charred flesh as he walked past the blackened, skeletal corpses.
Tuum felt him coming. He stood and opened his eyes, and looked across the room at Darth Feros. Rasi had never seen the man, but he looked familiar somehow. His features could have been called handsome, if they weren't distorted into a mask of hatred and utter disdain. He was a hulking man, for a human, almost 2 meters tall, and well muscled. The Cathar palmed his lightsaber hilt, and started to speak. He just needed time.
"You won't get past me. I cannot let that happen, Sith." Rasi called to Feros.
"I don't think you're in any position to tell me where I can or cannot go, Master Tuum." Feros said with a wicked smirk. He knew of Master Rasi Tuum, one of the Jedi pivotal in the defeat of the One Sith. His master, Darth Maladi, had mentioned Tuum in stories before, and Feros had studied all the Masters of the High Council before the assault.
"Fitting they should leave you here, while they all attempt to flee with the younglings, Master Tuum. Since you left your padawan to fall to the wayside all those years ago." Feros taunted, his lightsaber hilts idle in his hands.
"The Force guided her to her destiny, as it did me to mine." The Cathar said. "Now, I do not want to kill you. I take no pleasure in the act of killing, Sith. But I cannot let you leave after what you have done today." His lightsaber snap-hissed to life, the blade casting a pale azure glow through the waters of the Fountains.
Feros ignited his in turn, the blades bathing him in a deep crimson. He smiled and inclined his head, and then flew across the room, his blades crashing into Tuum's. The two Force users, Masters of their respective aspects, turned into what the interceptor squadrons would call a "Furball," with blue and red blades clashing and whirring at a speed any normal being wouldn't even be able to discern. Tuum fainted left and spun, nearly missing Feros' wrist. It was close enough to welt the flesh, even. Feros relished it.
He had not had a duel this intense and meaningful in some time, and this was always where he felt at his best. Nevermind the fact that he was toying with the poor Jedi Master. He locked blades with Rasi, and jerked his head forward, as if to headbutt the Cathar, sending him reeling backwards with a Force Push. But Tuum, ever light on his feet, landed feet-down, and pounced back into the fight, throwing his saber at Feros, and catching the deflected weapon in midair before dropping a powerful two-handed overhead strike. Feros parried with his left Saber, and spun to bisect the Jedi with his right.
Rasi Tuum jumped at the last second, but the end of his tail didn't quite make it. He hissed in pain, but shut it down and landed, throwing a massive force push at Feros. Feros tried to deflect it, but was sent careening through the waters and spurts of the Fountains, crashing into the wall. As he flew, however, his comm unit buzzed in his ear with the words he had been waiting on. "Conditions set, Lord Feros. At your command." It was Scourge, who had snuck into the electronics and sabotaged the door mechanisms for the Hangers. When they hit the remote activator, the mechanisms would be sliced and locked closed, sealing the Jedi Hanger Bays. It would cut off their only escape.
Tuum waited. He knew he hadn't killed the Sith. Probably he had not even injured him. But he wasn't going to run to battle. That was death. And this Sith was powerful. But he was not afraid. The will of the Force would be done. Just then his comm link chirped. It was Kaleeya. "Master Tuum," she breathed, "we are ready." He pressed the button on his comm link and said one word. "Go."
Kaleeya Fasan heard Master Tuum's command. She opened the command channel in the Hangar bays. "All ships launch. Waves offset by one minute each. Scatter as soon as you're up." She said, and then killed the channel and started running to her ship, packed with younglings and young Padawans.
Feros smiled as he stood and wiped some blood from his lip, checking his wrist. The Cathar welp actually had clipped him! He chuckled softly. Good. "One minute. And then close them." He said into his comm. He jumped back to the center of the room and stalked towards Rasi Tuum, who stood waiting for him. "Shall we finish this game, Master Tuum? Or do you want to play some more? I've been rather enjoying myself."
Kaleeya watched the first ships depart. A wave of 15 passenger shuttles carrying random numbers of Jedi. "We'll find one another and rebuild." She told herself. "We have to." She couldn't think about it now. She had to go. She had 150 young Jedi to protect herself. She fired the engines on her shuttle and started preflight checks. She looked up as Wave Two lifted to take off. And then all the Hanger doors slammed closed just as the ships were headed out. Some were cleaved in two, and some crashed into the doors. She felt them all die. She screamed out, "Nooo!" But it did nothing.
Rasi Tuum stayed silent. Feros had expected no less. He didn't seem like one who would rise to taunting. Feros smiled again and lunged at him, closing the gap and crossing blades once more. He stabbed, and Tuum slapped his blade away. He started slashing with both blades, battering Master Tuum's withering defenses with colossal blows. Left, left, right, left. Tuum was heaving. Feros was awash in the Dark Side. And then his comm chirped again. "Doors closed, Lord Feros. Just as the second wave was leaving. They won't get them up without some serious equipment. Scourge, continuing mission." And Feros had done it.
The Sith Lord turned into a tempest of crimson blades, punishing Master Rasi Tuum for every existing. His blades moving totally independently from one another. A slash from the left, a block, the right blade piercing a leg. Tuum howled in pain, but stayed standing. A thrust high and right, a parry, and his left blade clipped Rasi's ribcage, a 2cm deep, 5cm long gash. Feros spun with the slash and posted, planting his legs. He smiled as the Cathar's face changed, feeling the sudden loss of life. He lunged forward, both sabers coming around and up to deliver from in high, and Master Rasi Tuum moved his blade high and across to catch and lock the Sith's.
Time seemed to slow. Feros saw the blue blade go up, and his come down in red streaks. He smiled across wickedly at Tuum, his eyes going wide with the smile, just as he hit the activator switches twice, rapidly, on his hilts. The blades extinguished just above the Blue Saber, and reappearing a half-breath later just below it. Feros flicked his wrists, and rode the flick into crossing his arms, the blades not slowing as they bit and seared through hair, flesh, tooth, and bone.
Rasi Tuum, at the moment of his death, had been holding his head oddly. He had tucked his chin, for some kriffing reason, and it made for a rather gruesome kill. Darth Feros' sabers had cleaved through the outer neck, and across the jaw, bisected the head itself just under the nose. Tuum's dreaded hair ends fell away, and the top portion did as well. His lower jaw stayed attached to his neck, but only on one side, and his tongue, which had survived, though badly charred, rolled out from his neck as his body hit the floor. Feros was even impressed at the macabre scene. The nearly-headless Jedi Master's body sprawled, still-attached tongue hanging from the blood-oozing neck, jaw hanging to one side.
Feros extinguished his lightsabers and clipped them to his belt. "Finish killing whoever is left and get out of the Temple. We're done here." He said into his comm link.
An hour later, Feros stood in the door of a drop ship, looking over the Temple. They had slaughtered all the Jedi but those left in the Hangars. He pressed the button on his comm link. "Direct all weapons at the Jedi Temple, and fire at will." The weapons officers on the Hand would send the full might of the world-ship. It took less than a minute. His officers must have been anticipating the order. The first impacts shattered the dome and the walkway in a splendid burst of red light. Then the concussion missiles hit.
It had been an hour since the doors had fallen and locked them in. Every door in the Hangar, including the blast doors, had fallen closed. And they couldn't get any of them open. Kaleeya Fasan refused, however, to give up hope. She cursed softly that the only Masters among them had been in the first and second waves, most of them killed during the calamity of the Hanger locking down. They had tried cutting them open, but the Order had reinforced them against lightsabers and blast weapons with Beskar. This also made them heavy, and nearly impossible to lift with the Force. Their last effort would be a group attempt. All the Knights gathered, reaching out, trying to lift. And then the building shook, and the ceiling started to collapse.
It was ordered to be a six standard hour barrage, alternating batteries to keep from overloading the cannon aboard the Hand of Iron. Feros watched the whole thing in an awestruck silence as the weapons vaporized all that was left of the Jedi Order. It isn't everyday that one realizes a lifelong dream. Feros' chest felt like it might burst. He felt them die. The Knights. The Padawans. The younglings, some no more than toddlers. All dead, vaporized and buried beneath the rubble. He'd gotten word that Lady Hesper had accomplished her mission as well. And alone, no less. She had butchered the entire Senate with her own hands. This was a proud day for the Sith. They had razed Coruscant. And with it, the Jedi, and their millenia of Lies.