A Venomous Galaxy (Crossover) Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 3: The Jedi Make Landfall

Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-wan were on a mission from the Jedi Council. That in itself was a rarity. Ever since the start of the Clone Wars, the peacekeeping warriors of the force had agreed to participate in the war to better set an end to the hostilities from the Separatists. So more often these days, they had de facto been under the auspices of the Republic, doing grunt work suited for the clone troopers. But to have an opportunity like this not dictated by the senate was a breath of fresh air.

But there was one thing which kept the leash around the necks of the Jedi from strangling them too tight. That was a shared enemy they held in common with the Republic that helped these Separatists. Namely, the Sith. The warriors of the dark side had cost Obi-Wan his master so many years ago, but he had found his vengeance and avenged him. Yet Anakin had lost his arm at the hands of Dooku, and the fallen Jedi Master still lived to see another day. So too did his failure to cut him at the quick also help in the rise of General Grievous. The mechanical monstrosity had taken the life of many a Jedi and everytime it slayed a comrade of Ahsoka and Anakin, it took a lightsaber as a trophy of the kill. And it was the same Darth Tyranus who taught the brutish co-leader of the Confederacy on how to use the lightsaber.

Right now they were aboard the Resolute, also on their way to the strange planet. As they got closer, Anakin felt a strange disturbance in the force. It was something of the dark side, he knew that, from the brief times he had touched it in his moments of weakness to openly being exposed to Sith holocrons and clashing with the dark siders who supported the Separatists. Yet what scared him unlike all those other times was that it seemed like this wicked presence called out to him, and in his ears it's voice did not seem like something to fear.

At the time, Obi-Wan was conversing with Rex, apparently showing no concern. Despite him never feeling quite like he fit in with the other Jedi, even his most ardent critics acknowledged the boy's raw power in the force. Though he lacked the discipline and training of Yoda and Windu, even those two normally so critical of his brash persona who had to fine tune their psychic senses to a razor sharp edge as opposed to the blunt instrument of his power, they acknowledged his ability. So too did he figure that was why he was so bothered, feeling this thing beyond the simple pall of the dark side looking right at him.

“Master, are you unwell?” Ahsoka said. She sensed Anakin's mood becoming dark as he continued reflecting on Dooku on the war. He had said nothing for awhile as they soared through the galaxy to their location, but she felt his unease like a foul stench that just wouldn't go away.

He suddenly perked up at hearing her concern for him. “Yes Ahsoka, I am fine.” The way he said it, so formally and matter of fact, she knew that wasn't the case. And then he immediately turned his head back as if to give the impression of strength. She just smiled and gently toussled his shoulder. He showed no reaction but she sensed his mood improving already.

Anakin was lucky to have her by his side. Her, Padme, and Obi-Wan. He still never quite felt like any of the other Jedi despite no longer being a mere Padawan but now a full-fledged Jedi Knight, and there were so many skeletons he kept in the darkness. Things he would dare not utter to the other Jedi for their fear of the dark side, and in these trying times, each other.

Falling to the dark side was a fear the Jedi always had. But in these times of war, Count Dooku had learned to exploit that terror, taking so many fallen warriors and making them into his personal guard, the Dark Acolytes. And truth be told, many times he felt the only thing keeping him from slipping was his refusal to ever kowtow to the man who took his right hand. Still, his friends being there for him at all for now was all he needed.

Him answering her gave her some calm and comfort. But even as he said that, his face was pale. “What do you think this thing is?” she said.

“I don't know,” he said. “But I guess we'll find out soon enough.”

She just nodded. “And I'll be ready.”

He gave her a playful smile. “I hope so.”

He wasn't saying that just to get her to pass along the conversation, it was true. The closer they got, the stronger he felt it. And it felt keenly like something from the dark side. For all he knew, it's presence was what had ruined his mood and gotten him to thinking on so many regrets from the past. After that battle he wasn't in the best of moods, but he was ready to do what was needed. Yet as soon as they had glimpsed the green planet, he felt this terrible darkness, and so many memories surged to the forefront.

He looked down at his mechanical hand again. There wasn't a day he didn't remember how once he had an arm of flesh and blood there, yet he had made peace with it. But now his emotions were in rapture, he couldn't help but feel the anger and regret from his impulsive clash with Dooku so long ago. He remembered all his miserable thoughts about Dooku and Grievous earlier. This thing was definitely the source of it. He hoped that this time he would be strong enough to stand up to the dark side.

And soon they found the location in question. When they set out this mission, they were relying more on their instincts than the map installed on their starships. So it was now. A small green planet only catalogued on the star map they had just acquired. “You ready for this Snips?” she said.

She smiled. “As long as I'm by your side, master.”

As they set down through the atmospheric cover, the planet's surface became clearer. It was a lush jungle planet surrounded by great oceans, with verdant foliage and crystal clear seascapes as far as the eye could see. They could only begin to imagine what beautiful horrors lie in wait for them upon this world's surface.

Getting closer to the cloud clover, they saw this planet's sun was beginning to set, and the sky was colored in shades of blue and orange as it was close to dusk. Amidst the almost endless canopies they searched for a landing spot, eager for the first one they found. Unlike Dooku and Ventress who were well versed in the dark side enough to pinpoint the anomaly of their target, these Jedi were overwhelemed with the energies roiling from this world. In their haste to match their enemies, were eager to find the first place they could set down.

So when they did find one, Rex gave the order to land. But Anakin dissuaded that notion. “It's too far from where we need to be.”

“Anakin, with all due respect time is of the essence and...” Obi-Wan started.

“And I'm saying if we land there, we'll never catch up with them.”

Rex looked between the two of them. He had fought with these Jedi for years now and he still never understood them. But while he did not understand the force, he knew it's power. He also trusted them as leaders.

“Fine,” Obi-Wan said conceding, folding his arms. Anakin directed the helmsman to move about in certain directions until they had finally found the clearing which satisfied him. When they did set foot, he took the lead, saying he sensed something. Nobody else knew what to make of it.

The heat of the planet was something the Separatist crew could endure. Dooku and Ventress were no stranger to the dark side and so the stifling climate of this world was nothing compared to the burning anger in their hearts, and whatever little sensations the battle droids felt wasn't enough to deter them. Still, their journey was nothing compared to this Republic crew. As soon as they all stepped out of the ship, they were all hit with the sheer force of the muggy heat. The clone troopers were hardened in the heat of battle and trained to surive the worst of conditions, but hardships like this one were still rough for them and in their armor, it was testing even their patience.

The cries of the wildlife were also unknown to them. Unlike the dark siders who came before them, they could sense how off the noise was. It did not just sound static, it sounded as if their voices were discordant altogether, but despite the peculiar tones in these creatures' voices, they could still tell the meaning inherent in them. It sounded as if they were a strange audience of fairytale creatures, all too happy to welcome these new visitors.

The clone troopers looked about them in their helmets, and their signatures didn't register anything that was known to them. But beyond that, it was their features on their faces. No matter what the beast they were looking at, whether it was a small bird or some great quadripedal hunter, they all had wide bright eyes and long loping mouths lined with teeth.

The other Jedi finally felt something beyond the dark side too. “Do you feel that master?” Ahsoka said to Anakin.

“Yes I do. I've felt it as soon as we set out on this journey.”

“I can't begin to fathom what it is,” Obi-Wan said. “It feels like something of the dark side...”

“It's not the dark side,” Anakin said. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan looked at him. “It's strange, a sensation I haven't felt before. It feels like it's calling to me.” That got them concerned. “But I don't like it.”

Obi-Wan studied his face and felt his signature in the force changing. As if even on this hot jungle planet far away from everything he knew and loved, he was having a new experience akin to someone taking spice in one of the dirtiest night clubs on Coruscant. When his apprentice was still a Padawan a couple weeks just after Dooku took his hand, he had been baited by Ventress. He had played into her trap, ignoring his superior's orders, given into the dark side and gotten the clone troopers accompanying him killed. Anakin had engaged her in a duel and won but though he assumed her dead, she had survived. He hoped this situation would not be a similar one.

Yet in this mire of the dark side, he could not sense it's presence pulling at Anakin. Instead there was a strange tranquility. Nothing of the peace of the Jedi, but yet lacking in the hateful passions of the Sith too. It was a child's sense of wonder at realizing for the first time just how strange his surroundings could be.

“Well I hope you're right,” Obi-Wan said. “I don't want this to be like Yavin IV.” Anakin nodded, seemingly unbothered by his master scolding him. They made their trek. On an uncharted jungle planet with nothing but their instincts, they were searching for something.

Fortunately even on their seemingly hopeless mission, they were warriors of the force. So they followed the direction from where they felt it. Even in the damp heat of the forest with trees and vines every which way, their senses were honed to track whatever this thing was as if they were using a compass. More than the dense atmosphere of navigating the thickets of trees, they felt the thing and they focused on that instead.

They felt the evening sun's heat overhead filtering in through the roof of trees. Coupled with the heat and the ever present energy of the dark side, it made for a miserable and oppressive atmosphere. Even at each other's side, their moods began to turn dour. Their audience of wildlife as strangely reassuring as it sounded in that wild cacophony only served as a reminder of what uncharted territories they were venturing to.

As they kept walking on, dark clouds began to form overhead. They heard the distant rumble of thunder and then it started drizzling. Anakin was already grumbling, and as if by some cruel trick of the force, the light sprinkle turned into a full on deluge. For once they were thankful for the canopy of trees overhead. They were still being more soaked than they would have liked to, but things could have been so much worse.

But soon the storm clouds passed, and the already dim light overhead passed over to night. The only thing lighting their way was the red moon in the celestial vault above. The clone troopers activated the night vision in their helmets, while the Jedi continued leading the way, using the force to sense their target. This forest still dripping with leftover water from that downpour under the bright crimson moonlight made it look as though the leaves of the jungle were dripping with blood.

The pale green moon soon followed it's red sibling and reared up to join it in the dark skies above. With that ghastly corpse like illumination joining the red shine lighting their path, the light of the surface changed to a pale yellow glow. It was nothing like the golden glow of the many suns of the galaxy and it did not even look like the sands of Tattooine, a nostalgic color for Anakin, but instead it resembled the bile and phlegm of dried gore. In that deep darkness under the canopies with only that sickly jaundiced shade to guide them, it felt as if they were in a haunted realm. Only the glowing swords of these Jedi retained their original luster.

They soon found the same mountain Dooku and Ventress had ascended earlier and mounted the crags. This high up and in the dead of night, the muggy heat gave way to the chills of altitude. In that sweltering hot climate earlier now suddenly changing to cold, now more than a few of them started to feel sick from such a fast adjustment in the weather, the shift had been so sudden as if they were re-learning what cold air actually felt like and it was unbearable. Ahsoka especially was feeling it bad.

“How are we fixed for going further, Captain Rex?” said Obi-Wan.

“We've dealt with worse, general,” he said. “We're trained to be tough. But Tano...” Hearing attention directed her way made her that much more nauseous. She instantly vomited on the ground and had to sit. Her skin was sweaty and she was panting.

Seeing them all look at her, she tried putting on a strong front. “It's fine...I can keep going,” she said.

“No, I don't want you to be hurt,” Anakin said. Ahsoka started coughing again.

“Rex, perhaps we should leave some troopers here with her for protection while we go higher,” Obi-Wan said.

That set something off in her. She remembered when she was on Gilad Pellaeon's vessel how the strict commander had required her to wear black overalls over her standard liberal sleeveless attire for the reason that it was to protect her skin from some of the chemicals present on starships. That remark she just heard from Obi-Wan felt so much more patronizing. “I can keep going!” Ahsoka said, standing up. “You know how tough Dooku is. And with Ventress at his side, you'll need all the help you can get.”

Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other. They both heard from Master Luminara Unduli of her stubbornness when the subject of Ventress came up. They didn't know whether to admire her or scold her.

“I can keep an eye on her,” Rex said.

“What?” Ahsoka said, incensed.

“That might be a good idea,” Anakin said. “Ventress is a tough opponent. And with her using two lightsabers, fighting off Snips and deflecting your blaster fire will be a challenge even for her.”

Ahsoka smiled. “Thanks Skyguy.”

“Don't disappoint me, okay?”

“Very well,” Obi-Wan said. “Let's keep on going!”

It was not long before they reached the cave Dooku's party had found at daytime. It was already an imposing enough sight on it's own. But in the dead of night, it looked vast and terrible, a vault to keep an ancient sickness sealed away for all eternity, and woe to those who would dare let it loose once more. The fear they felt was something beyond the dark side. Slowly they advanced forward.

At night inside the cave atop the mountain, the setting was not so inviting and beautiful to captivate archaelogists and researchers everywhere with wonder. Both moons were each positioned above one of the holes in the roof and the structure and trees were so uneven in reflecting their light that it some parts the individual corpse like green and bloodred shadow lights of the two moons came in at different places side by side with that putrid yellow shine. The nearby huts cast in the amalgam glare of the moons above and surrounded by that vast gloom looked like the homes of witches who even in death made ritualistic sacrifice daily. It was enough to make them forget about the Separatists they had come to fight.

It was a great expanse too. For whatever misgivings they had about the situation, it was not some mere cavern cast in so many lights. The breadth of the cavern atop the summit was wide enough that the Republic forces felt small and insignifcant compared to their surroundings. Great enough to house an entire battlefield.

The whole time they were studying the area, the temple in the distance loomed in their vision as if it was the throne of some ancient king. It was a great and tall ziggurat, but even as high as it was, it's size was dwarfed by the gnarled trees and stone roof above. The old stones it was made of were covered with moss and decay, and it's great steps were covered with a number of oversized vines, but that didn't dim the strength of the resonance coming forth from it. If they had just found this piece of architecture in any other setting, anyone with a right head on their shoulders would think it looked ready to collapse at any moment, that's how old it was. Yet for how ancient it surely was, it was still foreboding as any fortress, the Sith truly never changed. The vibrations of their target were from here, they were sure. It wasn't so much located in the building before them, they felt it must have been interred in whatever subterranean areas were constructed from this temple.

At that point traversing through the jungle, they had learned to co-exist as it were with whatever oppressive atmosphere was present, taking solace that at least it was not of the dark side. But once they looked upon the ancient building, they felt a dark forbidding in their hearts. As if the very rock the temple was constructed of whispered to them to come no closer. In the overwhelming darkness colored only in those nightmare hues of yellow, red and green, the statues looked like fiends the Jedi were incapable of thinking of even in their worst nightmares.

The clones were not so mystical. During the trek to the mountain, their helmets with their enhanced visual fields had allowed them to clearly see in the bushes the alien wildlife whose force signatures entranced the Jedi. These statues were of those creatures.

Anakin beheld them with a strange sense of dread at what sort of place this temple was, yet he felt no fear. Even as it felt like the eyes of the statues were staring right at him. They reminded of what little they could see of the wildlife in the distance. If those creatures had been an audience, then under the light of these moons above still shining in it's fullness even through the massive stone roof above, these effigies were a welcoming ceremony. “Think you can handle it?” Anakin said to Ahsoka.

“Of course I can!” she said.