My highschool adventure as a Sith is wrong, as expected (Stage 1.9) (Patreon)

Trust is something that must be earned, or else it cannot be called trust. If a soldier being lead into war by a commander that he did not trust, they would hesitate. If they obeyed, it was because of duty, or fear of the consequences. They wouldn’t know if the commander had lead them into their deaths or not. They would fear, and that fear would dull the senses, that fear of death would ironically cause their own deaths. 

A soldier following the orders of a commander that they trusted would be different. If they obeyed, then they knew that they would be coming back from the mission. It might not be true, but they would believe that. Even if they didn’t understand the order, they would follow it through because they trusted that it would achieve victory. 

It was the difference between having a +1 to moral or a -1. 

After years of living in this life, after being enslaved, then freeing myself, then living as a scavenger/hermit...There was only one thing I could say that I trusted. It was something that had earned my trust-- first by helping me escape slavery, then by keeping me safe during the first year of being an escaped slave. It found me a home, it helped me find good salvage, and it was probably the only reason that I was alive. 

It was also the only reason why I was in this mess. 

Even still, I trusted my ability. I trusted the Force. Whatever it was, it helped me survive and I was left counting on it to keep me alive as I blindly stepped forward, letting it guide me down a walkway. Much like the past years, it was the only thing keeping me alive at the moment. One wrong move, one false step, if I trip and fall then I was going to land face first into a bunch of giant roaches. 

And no matter how I looked at it, that sounded like an awful death. 

I closed my eyes because there was no point keeping them open as I reached out with the force. It didn’t exactly help me with my nerves as I realized just how many insects I was surrounded by. Hundreds. Thousands, even. Far, far, far too many. A single misstep and I was dead. Ripped apart to be devoured by their young. A Bad End, if there ever was one. 

Even still, I took another step, my sandals finding traction on the black stuff as I slowly but steadily made my way to the command center. I raised my foot to take another step, only for the force to warn me that was a really bad idea. I went ramrod straight, frozen with fear and still as a statue. It only took a moment to figure out why because something crawled over my foot, the cloth that wrapped my feet wasn’t enough to keep out the sensation of thin insect legs stepping on my foot. 

I swallowed my fear and waited. And kept waiting. And waited some more. It felt like I stood there on one leg for about two entire eternities, but, ever so slowly, I lowered my foot and completed the step. I didn’t dare let out a breath of relief as I went to take another step, reaching out with one hand to make sure I didn’t bump into something. 

It was impossible to tell how long I spent blindly walking into the center of the nest. Each second felt like a lifetime, each step a herculean task. I could barely be away from the maintenance shaft, or I could be walking in the entirely wrong direction, or I could be an inch away from my goal. I couldn’t tell the difference. 

All I had was a heart hammering at my ribs and a desperate hope that my trust wasn’t misplaced. The only thing I could do was put one foot in front of the other, and keep going forward. 

My fingers brushed up against something. For a split second, I assumed that it was a dune bug and the last few seconds I had left of life were spent trying to keep my heart from jumping out of my mouth. Instead, nothing happened. Tentatively, I reached out again and felt cool steel. A disbelieving laugh tried to bubble out of my throat, but I swallowed it down. 

It was the door. I reached the door. I could barely believe it. I reached out to crack open the door, feeling the edge of it slide open and as soon as I could squeeze myself through, I wasted no time to do so. I all but slammed the door shut, sealing myself inside the command center and let out a shaky breath. I did it. I couldn’t believe it, but I actually did it. 

With numb fingers, I grabbed the beam saber, holding it out sideways, I fumbled trying to find the button that would. 

*Pssshhew*

The room was bathed with a harsh red light, revealing what I hoped to see. To my left I saw a command console, buttons and levers and all sorts of things to control in inflow and outflow of the waste treatment. What I didn't expect to see was a skeleton sitting in the chair. It was certainly alien, the skull was too long, there were too many eye sockets and the jaw section took the form of a snout. 

I might have thought it was some manner of predator with its jaws lined with needle-like teeth, but it was curled up in the fetal position in the chair. Its skeleton arms wrapped around it's skeletal legs, drawing in on itself as it had pushed the chair as far away from the door as it could manage. Despite the eerie sight, all I could think about was how it should be impossible for a skeleton to hold itself together without ligaments or cartilage. 

Swallowing thickly, I turned the beam saber so it was facing in front of me towards the skeleton. Just in case. 

I turned my attention onto the surrounding room, trying to find what I was looking for. It wasn't on the walls, a fact that twisted my insides into knots, so I was forced to give the console my full attention. My free hand fell upon it, grabbing hold of a drawer and pulling it open. What filled them were ancient junk. I shifted through it, desperately hoping for a map, only I wasn’t looking for a paper one. If they lived in a futuristic city on a desert planet, then they wouldn’t have paper. They would have…!

A datadisk. A small metal disk that was similar in appearance to a hockey puck. I slid a thumb over the activation button, unsurprisingly, it didn’t turn on. I guess they didn’t build the batteries to hold a charge for thousands of years. My jaw clenched as I started to search for a battery or charger, or anything -- I ripped the drawers out, tearing through their contents with a savagery that would make a historian cry, only to find nothing. 

I needed a power source. I needed something to charge up the battery so I could used the datadisk. I needed…

My gaze landed on the beam saber in my hand. It would be a flat out lie to say that I understood how it worked, but it had to have a power source. The heat it gave off was minimal, but if it could cut through people and armor designed to disperse heat like butter, then it must have a powerful powersource. 

It was a stray thought, but it just occurred to me that I was holding a weapon that if I broke it down to parts, I could probably afford a ticket to the upper floors and off this planet. I wonder if I realized that earlier, would I be in this situation at all? I suppose it was too late for regrets now. 

Taking a deep breath, I reached out with the force, feeling every seam of the beam saber to find its core that...hummed with the force. No, not hummed. Screeched. I never felt anything like it before, but whatever the crystal was inside the beam saber was...injured, in a way. I didn’t know how to describe it. Even still, I couldn’t let myself be distracted from my task. 

Turning the beam saber off, I was plunged into darkness once again as I held the datadisk and the beam saber, one in each hand. Closing my eyes, I gently pulled them both apart, taking each part and keeping it in midair. After only a split second of thought, I stripped the beam saber for parts to lessen the charge the power source could give out, else it would overload the battery. Connecting the two, I felt power flowing into the datadisk. 

This time when I brushed a thumb over the on button, it blinked a few times, as if it were coming out of a long sleep, then a hologram appeared over the datadisk. A shaky breath of relief escaped me, the tension leaving my body so quickly I nearly collapsed onto the floor bonelessly. It was a map. A map of the sewer lines, some of which stretched far beyond the city. 

My eyes found one in particular -- large, close to the surface...and if memory serves...that...was...very close to my base, wasn’t it? Wait...no, that was pretty much directly beneath my base, wasn’t it?! It was a long tunnel that was meant to connect to another city to share water, but, I’m guessing, at some point the ship that served as my base crashed onto the pipeline, which in turn made an exit for the dune bugs. 

The ship that served as my base was absolutely ancient. Thousands of years old, possibly. Sand would have covered the pipeline, then the ship, and, by extension, the exit for the dune bugs. 

That was...scary. There really weren’t words to describe the dawning horror that I could have woken up to a bajillion bugs in my base. 

Swallowing my fear with what was becoming well practiced ease, I brushed a thumb over power button and slid the disk into my pocket. The beam saber still hovered in air in pieces, but it wouldn’t work anymore, forcing me to scrap it. The power source went into my pocket as well, while the rest…

My attention lingered on the small crystal that quitely screamed. Letting all the other pieces fall to the floor, the crystal drifted down into my hand. It was cool to the touch, and that alone was reason enough to tuck it into my pocket. 

I did it. I couldn’t believe it, but I actually did it. I made it here, I found a map, and now...I...had...to walk...back. 

“Shit,” I swore, a rarity for me. I turned around to face the door in the pitch black darkness, sparing a glance over my shoulder just in case the skeleton decided to reanimate all of a sudden. It didn’t. I took in a deep breath, trying and failing to calm my racing heart. In the end, it was impossible to prepare myself, so I opened the door and saw…

Light? 

My eyes widened when the sounds of screeching insects and blaster fire assaulted my ears, the red rays seemingly impossibly bright as they streaked across the air. Fire illuminated the area for a moment as someone brought out a flame thrower. For a moment, I didn’t understand what I was looking at but it cleared up all too quickly. 

The imperials were searching the tunnels for us and they kicked the nest.