Webs Betwixt Stars 7 (Patreon)

“So you’re the ones I sensed,” the orange skinned form of Ahsoka Tano mused aloud, her eyes locked on the two of us and her face cold. “You aren’t Sith, or Inquisitors. I’ve encountered their like, and you don’t feel like them.”

“No,” I agreed, forcing myself to stand tall. “We aren’t with the Empire, nor are we Sith.”

All true, I may have taken a Template of a Sith Lord, but the impressions I’d gotten from it rebelled at the thought of calling myself Sith. At a guess, I’d say that the remnants of Darth Nox felt that I hadn’t yet met the standard to be Sith. Definitely wasn't going to be joining the Inquisitorius either. Though a few would be worth capturing and selling off to help pay my debt to The Company.

“Who are you?” Gwen asked, muscles tense, ready to send a webline at Ahsoka.

Ahsoka’s gaze turned to Gwen, her eyes remaining narrowed, before turning back to me, “What brings you here?”

“Spelunking and a fondness for history,” I answered, making her blink. “I’d heard that Dantooine was home to a network of caves filled with beautiful crystals, and that there were some ruins nearby that were thousands of years old. I just received a generous payout for a job on another planet, so decided to treat us with a visit to some natural beauty and history.”

Ahsoka stared at me, an eyebrow raised while her forehead was furrowed at the same time. I could feel the strands of the Force around me twinging, the vibrations having a subtly different feel to them than what I was used to. I didn’t outwardly respond, both the impressions I was getting from the Web of the Force and Spider-Sense telling me not to be aggressive. I was a bit confused by that, since a big reason I chose to Possess Spider-Man was his physicality letting me outclass pretty much everyone I came across.

After a moment, she returned her lightsabers to their place on her belt and said, “If you go to the ruins, I’ll be watching you. Be respectful.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but she hopped off the speeder and took off on a speeder bike that had been hidden behind our speeder. I was disappointed I didn’t get the chance to start on capturing her, but with both of my warning powers telling me not to start a fight…

“Who was that?” Gwen asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Ahsoka Tano, former apprentice to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Whose wife was in the block of ice we stole on Florrum,” I answered.

“Huh,” Gwen mused, before a salacious grin spread across her face. “You should get her in bed, then you’ll have cucked her master in two different ways.”

I chuckled in amusement as I got into the speeder and pulled out my Company Phone. Pulling up the Catalog, I flipped through it briefly before purchasing the Mapper app, then spending the rest of my current budget on paying off the debt. Switching to the Mapper app, I pressed on the icon that resembled the Star Maps from Knights of the Old Republic. After a moment, it shifted to what was essentially a GPS from back home.

As we set off, I said, “All in good time, I don’t want to rush it. The missions we get on each planet will let me pay off my debt faster and more efficiently than simply capturing anyone and everyone. But with luck we’ll be in a position to do so before Padme gives birth to my children. In any case, let’s head to the Star Map so we can get off this rock.”

“Sure thing Boss,” Gwen easily agreed. After a minute, she spoke up again, “So… any chance you can give me some lessons regarding this Force mumbo jumbo?”

The emotions I felt at her question were a touch confusing. On the one hand, I appreciated the humor; on the other hand, there was a part of me, in the same part of my being that my connection to the Force was, that was letting out a ‘REEEEEEEEEE’ like a Rangers fanatic and there was a Celtics fan throwing a kegger in the apartment across the hall.

“No problem, just don’t call it that again,” I answered. “Now, close your eyes. Ignore all distractions, block out everything except for my voice. Follow my voice, reach down into yourself, past your skin, past your muscles, bones, even past Venom. Reach down, into your soul.”

Keeping one eye focused on driving, I reached out with the Force to the strand that connected me to Gwen and gave it a quick pluck. Just enough to make it vibrate, so she could feel it. From the way she gasped, she certainly felt it. I continued to provide instructions, guiding and coaching her as we headed towards the cave with the Star Map.

I vaguely remember the ruins in the game having some pillars outside them, but four thousand years meant that those pillars were long gone. If I didn’t have a bullshit map program telling me exactly where the ruins were, I would have completely missed them. They looked like just another grassy hill.

“We’re here,” I told Gwen as I shut off the speeder. “Be ready, I don’t know if any of the ruin’s defenses are still active. To the best of my knowledge, it’s been four thousand years since anyone stepped foot in here, but the Rakatans built their shit to last.”

Gwen nodded, and our little trio of two Spider-People and one kath hound made our way to the hill that housed the ruins. I took another look at the map app, before closing my eyes and reaching out with my senses. Strumming the strings around me, I slowly walked around the hill, before coming to a stop.

Opening my eyes, I pointed and said, “We need to start digging here.”

“Got it, Boss,” Gwen said as she tossed me a shovel. “Between the two of us we should have this cleared out in a jiffy.”

While Gwen technically wasn’t wrong, the only difference was that there were three of us digging, as the kath hound (really needed to pick a name for him) eagerly joined in. In the span of a few minutes, we had the doorway cleared enough for us to squeeze in, and we slid down into the stale, stagnant air of the Rakata ruins. Pulling out the phone again, I opened the flashlight app and shined it across the room.

It was massive, a sprawling room that made me think of the dwarven cities in Lord of the Rings. But that was where the similarities ended, I could feel the lingering, dark strands hanging over this place, like old cobwebs. This first room was empty, save for the lingering energies of the Dark Side, so we walked through to the next.

There, in the middle of the second room, was the spider-like droid that Revan had encountered, the one that had told the Prodigal Knight about the Star Forge. Its 'head' rotated, turning its cameras to face the three of us.

“Y̡҉͞o̢͘͜u̴̢͡ ͟҉͢ą͟͠r̷҉̸é̡͡ ̡̀͢n̵̨͠ó̷͝t҉͘҉ ̷̢͡o̸͜͞n̡̧̢e̸͘͝ ̸͘͟o̵̴͠f̢̨́ ̢͘͜t͏̛͞h̴͘͠ȩ̵̛ ̷̛͟s҉̵̧l̴͞͞a̸͘͠v̛͝͡e҉̢͢ ̶̸͠s̷̡͠p͘̕͟e҉̶́c͏̛͢i̸̢͢s̀͡.̀͠ ̶̕N̡̛ó̶r̴̕ ̷͘á͠r̸͡é̡ ͢͞y͏̡o͜͢u͏̡ ̷̛B̢͘ù̧i̷̛l̶̕d̷̡e̷͝r̴҉s̷̀.̸̡ ̡̛Ỳ̵ǫ͜ư͝ ̷̨a̵̢r̡͟è ̵l̨i̵k͜e҉ ͘t̕h̵e̷ ̧o҉n̷e̡s͜ ͟t́h̀a̡t̛̕c̷a҉m͢e͜ ͢b̡ȩf̡o̧r̡e̴,̨,” the droid spoke, the language it used becoming more intelligible as it spoke.

“I only understood part of that,” I said, “can you repeat it, slightly slower?”

“You are not one of the slave species. Nor are you Builders. You are like the ones that came before,” it repeated, this time I understood it. Thank you, Communication Talent.

“What are you?” Gwen asked, staring at the droid. It dawned on me that Gwen hadn’t yet seen any droids, something I’ll need to give her a lesson on.

“I am the Overseer. The Builders programmed me to enforce discipline among the slaves while this monument to the power of the Star Forge was constructed. At project completion, all slaves were executed. I was reprogrammed to serve should a Builder return in search of knowledge of the Star Forge.”

“I already know about the Star Forge,” I said, eager to get on with things. “How can I prove worthy to proceed?”

“Enter the proving grounds to the east and west. Within them those who understand the will of the Builders can unlock their secrets and open the doors. But those that fail will be destroyed by the power of the temple itself. More than this I am not programmed to say.”

“Mhmm,” I hummed as I started walking towards one of the two aforementioned doors. I remember this being a lot more engaging in the game, but no big deal.

As we passed through the doorway, there was another of the spider-like droids waiting for us. There was a hum in the air, as a faint energy field began to form up around it. Fast as I could, my arm snapped out, a strand of web fluid shooting out and latching onto the droid’s chassis. I like to think I saw a baffled expression on it as I pulled it off its feet.

I stepped to the side as it approached, my leg snapping up and kicking it further into the air. Before I jumped up after it and slammed another kick into its side, sending it flying into the wall, literally. Half of the droid was embedded into the ancient stone wall, and I landed easily on my feet as its two free legs writhed and twitched about uselessly.

“Well that was easy,” I quipped with a grin as Gwen rolled her eyes.

Giving my blonde partner in debauchery a grin, I gave a jaunty whistle as I walked over to the computer terminal. A number of characters appeared on the screen as we approached, Ancient Rakatan I’d assume. Snorting in amusement, I said, “Can you switch to Aurebesh?”

The terminal went blank, before new characters appeared, these legible:

[quote]INTERROGATIVE:

IDENTIFY THE THREE PRIMARY LIFE-GIVING SEED WORLD TYPES

1. OCEANIC

2. GRASSLAND

3. DESERT

4. VOLCANIC

5. ARBOREAL

6. BARREN[/QUOTE]

Really? I’d forgotten how simple this puzzle was. I readily pressed on Oceanic, Grassland, and Arboreal, and the first gate was unlocked.

“For some reason I thought this’d be a lot harder,” I muttered under my breath before turning to Gwen. “You get to fight the next droid.”

“Thanks for letting me have some fun while we’re on this Kansas of a planet,” she drawled.

We passed by the Overseer to the opposite room. Immediately, Gwen raced past me, rushing the droid guardian inside. Our oversized pup followed suit, while I ignored the scrap and made my way to the other terminal. Second verse, same as the first, and in a moment a similar question appeared on the terminal.

[quote]INTERROGATIVE:

IDENTIFY THE THREE PRIMARY DEATH-GIVING SEED WORLD TYPES

1. OCEANIC

2. GRASSLAND

3. DESERT

4. VOLCANIC

5. ARBOREAL

6. BARREN[/QUOTE]

“How the hell could anyone fail this?” I mumbled under my breath as I punched in Desert, Volcanic, and Barren. Sure enough, the answers were accepted.

Just in time too, as Gwen, in her amped up Venom form, hit the droid with enough force that the head tore off and was sent flying in my direction. Without looking, my hand snapped up and caught the droid head. Turning around, I gave Gwenom a look. I don’t know how a giant, fanged alien monster manages to look sheepish, but Gwenom somehow managed it.

“C’mon, let’s go get the map so we can leave,” I said, as Venom receded.

In the original Knights of the Old Republic game, there was a cutscene followed by a lot of dialog, providing exposition on the plot of the game going forward. I didn’t need that, so I used the Company Phone to download the information in the Star Map, and we turned around to depart.

As we drove back to the village to return the speeder, I continued to give Gwen additional lessons in feeling the Force. By the time we arrived and I’d sent a message to MJ and Padme to tell them to get ready for us, Gwen was able to feel the Force without my helping her along. I was looking forward to our future sparring matches.

[hr][/hr]

Ahsoka Tano watched through a pair of macrobinoculars as the speeder containing the two Dark Side presences she’d sensed entered town. She was extremely wary about them, something about their presence in the Force was… she didn’t have the words to describe it. At first she’d thought that they were here for her, but 54M-13 at the cantina had told her when she asked that they’d only asked about the old ruins and crystal caves.

As the two left with the strangely docile kath hound, she pulled out her datapad and connected it to the recording device she’d left on their speeder. Downloading the file it had recorded, Ahsoka listened to the playback. What she heard sent shockwaves through her. The man had recognized her, he’d even known that she was Skyguy’s padawan.

While surprising, that was not what shocked her the most. He believed that Anakin had been married, despite being a Jedi. Then something about stealing said wife from Florrum, where Hondo had once used as his main base. The woman’s suggestion sent a shudder of disgust down Ahsoka’s spine, the thought of laying with someone with such a dark aura turning her stomach.

What followed provided her with a bit of information about his motivations. Based on what he said, Ahsoka concluded that he was a thug or enforcer in the employ of a crime lord, one who’d probably been a padawan whose master died during Order 66 and turned to crime to survive. It would explain how he knew about her, she was more well known amongst the Jedi than she was to the common people.

But the thing that truly rocked her to her core, was the name they mentioned after. Senator Amidala was alive? Ahsoka had watched the funeral, she’d seen the body! It didn’t make any… it did make sense, why he’d thought Anakin was married, he and the Senator were always close, it made sense that some would mistake them for being married.

Ahsoka shook her head, forcing the thoughts from her mind. Heading down to the village, she watched with annoyance as the Imperial-looking ship took off. She’d ask around, see if anyone had heard them mention their next destination, then follow them. She needed to rescue Padme from them, and see if she’d be able to help with the talk she’d heard about a rebellion forming against the Empire.