The Battle of Coruscant -- Level 1313: A Burning Hive of Scum and Villany

[Phil]

"You talk too much."

Andre stated towards the Hotshot, his attitude and ability to talk more then anyone else was grinding on Andre's nerves. He placed his pistols back into his holsters, knowing he did not need just them if combat arrived. He was starting to follow the woman and child before he stopped, turning towards where he had sensed it. He felt death from a distance, and it was not just 1313's death, it was rising in the tripple digits. They had arrived sooner then he thought as he turned towards the mysterious female, his blue eye lenses meeting with her own blue eyes.

"Stranger, take them and go. I will bring up the rear, try to make sure they have a hard time following."

He said, his tone making it clear he was not in the mood to argue or debate his decision. He opened his coat some, his hands extending out from his body as two metallic objects shot out and into his gloved hands. He did not activate his lightsabers just yet, but he was ready for the Imperials as he made slow, careful steps backward towards the group when they were moving.

 

[Silver Cutlass]

Gorba scoffed. [You expect us to follow this... this filthy vagrant to the warehouses?] He asked, astounded. The woman had just pulled the sewer dweller out of a garbage bin, and now she was asking her for directions? Either she was under some heavy drugs, or she truly was stupid. [This is nonsense! Nonsense that will only lead each of us to die by the hands of the Sith.] The gastropod remarked, eyeing both Whisper and the girl with contempt.

That was when he heard the wracket, coming from not-so-far away. [The Empire is here!] Borchest shrieked, his high-pitched, porcine voice hurting Gorba's ear-holes. Knowing that the Sith were on to them, he knew what he had to do. [Alas, desperate times call for desperate measures. Get us out of here, now! And if the kid ends up getting us killed, I will make sure she pays. Keep that in mind.] He said, growling at Whisper and her little friend.

 

[Kaeb]

Themes

Level 5999
The End of the World​

Deeper and deeper the strange souls went, into the dark depths of a decaying world, desperate to escape it's crippled and burning surface. They wandered halls forgotten by many and walked by few, following the guidance of a young street urchin through quickly emptying streets, scarcely avoiding the chaos above them. And yet, despite their stealth and constant movement, the enemy clung to them like a shadow, trailing behind them with every step but ever-present nonetheless. Each time the sound of thunder and fire above them seemed to grow distant and fade, it erupted close to them again, mocking their attempts at freedom. War was unrelenting, remorseless and all encompassing in it's pursuit of death. They sought to resist that conquest, by any means necessary, it just so happened that their only hope of escaping the chaos that spilled into the Underworld, was in the mind of little Thea, the grimy young girl in which they had - perhaps foolishly - placed their trust. The child dragged them through all the typical locales of the deep, most of them known to those that followed her, until she took a turn into a place they had never seen before. It looked to have been a toy store of some sort, perhaps in a time long forgotten by the buildings that had since risen above it. Each level of Coruscant had at one time been it's surface, just as ancient cities of the outer worlds were rebuilt atop the foundations of the crumbled cities that came before them, so was Coruscant, in order to cater to a galaxy with such a soaring population. The demand for expansion was constant, and thus so was the neglect of those that came before. The structure was seemingly abandoned, as was the case with much of the deep, motes of dust, crawling insects and unspeakable horrors were their only occupants.

They had crossed paths with a number of Sith scouting patrols during their journey, dealing with them with haste and efficiency, but some battles where more chaotic than others. Whisper swore she saw the Hutt crime boss swallow the shooting arm whole of a Sith sniper that had fired at them from the hollowed out structure of a former hospital as his men covered him with blaster fire, but the display ended so quickly that she could not be sure of what she saw. She did remember quite clearly however, how the lightsaber wielding mercenary dealt with the limbs of a dozen infantrymen after they cornered Thea in an alley not far from where they now stood. Their screams were silenced in seconds by a barrage of grenades kindly supplied by the hotheaded mercenary they had all grown so fond of over the course of the many hours they had spent walking through the deep. Andre, Gorba and Kirik as she had come to know them, through short exchanges between conflicts. She felt nothing towards them, but at the very least had acknowledged their skill, as did they, when the platoon armed with a mech had cornered them in the courtyard of an old nightclub now being used as a shelter for vagrants strung out on deathsticks and desperation. She had motioned for the mercenaries to stay back with a single gesture of her gloved hand, gently pushing Thea into a pile of garbage so as to hide her from the nightmare that was about to take place. The drums of her heartbeat were steady as she turned a corner behind the patrol, instantly spying two soldiers with their backs turned, she ran silently towards them, sliding across the floor on her knees as she unsheathed two blades from her belt, slicing at the exposed areas in the armour of their legs. As both men collapsed, she plunged her knives deep into their throats, carving out their cries for help so as not to alert their fellow soldiers. Then, in one fluid movement she threw the spinning daggers into the necks of two troopers that walked a considerable distance away from either side of her. Four down, twelve to go and she was running out of knives.

Out of the corner of her sapphire eye, she spied the key to their destruction, a bucket filled with foul liquids, donated in kind by the many denizens of the drug den she now found herself in. The twelve men flanked their instrument of destruction uniformly, six men either side, weapons constantly raised, steps moving in perfect unison. Her cold half smirk returned, slicing through porcelain cheeks, and then she made her move. With one hand she picked up the metal bucket, and strolled casually towards the military squadron with arms outstretched in a gesture of good faith. They spied her the moment she revealed herself, not yet noticing the bodies of their fallen comrades that rested peacefully a short distance away from them. They raised their weapons abruptly, seemingly caught off guard by the beautiful woman walking nonchalantly towards them as if she was hiking through a calm forest on a dry summer afternoon. They bombarded her with questions, insults and orders like all military men did when ignorant of their situation. Their attempts at composure made them appear weak, like flies caught in a web beyond their comprehension or their ability to see. They were blind to their circumstances, not privy to their inevitable fate. Whisper's half smirk became full and lively, as she forced an open laugh at their demands. Curfew this. Sith dominance that. War this. Death that. She spoke with a mock bow in their general direction, waving her hand slightly as if she were speaking to supreme royalty, this was the first time the others would witness her speak anything above a whisper, she spoke as if she was flirting with snared prey. And she was.

''Hello boys, I'd like to make a donation to the cause, if you would oblige me.''​

Time seemed to wait for her, staying it's grip on reality so she might enact her will unscathed, as she suddenly threw the foul bucket several feet in the air, it spun with such force that the liquids contained within did not yet spill a single drop as it rained down towards the military squadron. Whisper became pure determination and focus, as she swiftly spun a blaster through the fingers of her left hand, and a blade through the outstretched fingers of the other. She had to get the timing exactly right, or she would die beneath the onslaught of a war not of her choosing. As the bucket now neared the end of it's journey, and the Sith patrols cried out in confusion and anguish, Whisper spun around as she threw her spinning dagger high above them, smirking as she noted it's precision, eyes wide open as the blade sliced through a nest of exposed wiring still left over from the illegal nightclub that had been siphoning electricity from the surface as most of the Underworld was known to do. As the lengthy electrified cables descended down towards the patrol, they cowered in disbelief. Whisper raised her blaster, her mischievous smile ever present, as she fired a single shot at the bucket above them, drowning them in piss, rain, vomit and whatever other fluids the metal tin contained. They were drowned in the filth of the deep as electricity enveloped them, their screams of terror echoed throughout the underworld as their flesh quickly burned beneath their armour, but before they could die by their wounds, their war mech's operating systems were overloaded, sending it into an uncontrollable frenzy as it thrashed through it's own fellow soldiers, until it finally collapsed among them in a smoking pile of death. Whisper blew her victims a remorseful kiss, as she returned to her unlikely comrades, electrical sparks still exploding behind her in a display of dangerous beauty. Her smile faded, as one of them - probably her bounty that still clung to the group - spoke with a heavy sigh upon seeing men cooked alive in their own armour. She'd heard the words before, and knew them to be a falsehood.

''My god...war is hell.''

''Innocents don't die in hell. Let's keep moving, they'll come for the bodies shortly.''​

Whisper considered burning the barren nightclub to the ground to cover the corpses she had created, but soon realized the Sith would likely destroy it themselves regardless of her intentions. Their recklessness disturbed her, an enemy with such considerable power acting so wantonly destructive away from the main battles of the surface seemed counter intuitive to their conquest but no less sinister. It was after their escape from the patrols that they found themselves guided by Thea to the abandoned district of Dead Row, and from there to their current location. A place that was hollow, damp and disturbing by it's very nature. It looked as if it did not belong in it's current location, as if it had been moved into that street by mechanical means, it's architecture standing out from the other buildings like a bleeding thumb. Her confusion was cut short however, as Thea tripped over the step before the entrance to the abandoned establishment and landed square on her face. Whisper smiled pitifully, the others laughed. Thea cursed to herself silently.

''Every time! Stupid jerks still haven't moved the damn step...''​

Others? She let it slide, of course the child had allies, how else would she have survived this long without assistance? She had her suspicions, and kept them within her, the truth would be revealed in time, lifting her up and gently nudging her forward with a smirk, she observed as Thea scanned the room, seemingly checking for any signs of intruders. Dust had claimed the building as it always did, marking a places history, a visual representation of the passage of time. It had settled upon dozens of shelves and old pieces of broken furniture, some still intact and sporting an array of old wooden and metal figurines, crude depictions of all the typical heroes shown in Core World holo-vids throughout the centuries. Jedi, soldiers and honourable souls. There was no room on the shelves of time to represent the other shades of history, no figurines of the corpses the heroes had stepped over to claim their victories. No spies. No politicians. The toys were tiny little lies told to shelter tiny little children, from the truth of life's seemingly necessary misfortunes. Whisper's thoughts were silenced with a loud cracking sound, as Thea cranked open a large metal trap door, hidden beneath broken, rotting tables and fraying carpet. It was a Sinder, a maintenance shaft formerly owned and operated by an old government thousands of years before the existence of the one that now crumbled above them. She had heard rumours of their creation on various other ecumenopoleis throughout the galaxy, built for greater efficiency when it came to monitoring and fixing the sanitation and power grids riddled throughout the surface of a city world. Now they were abandoned and mostly forgotten through the expansion of time and infrastructure and had thus fallen into disarray. Whisper had searched for them herself many times, for use in her own missions in order to escape various galactic authorities, but her searches were never successful. Until now. They used artificially generated gravity to pass occupants and other states of matter through the lower levels of the grid with impressive speed and efficiency, or at the very least that was the original intention. Thea smiled menacingly in the large Hutt's direction as she eyed the Sinder before her. It would be a tight squeeze. Whisper bit her lip, and then everyone laughed. Even in such tense times, the seasoned mercenaries had somehow retained their senses of humour. Without hesitation and without discussion, she jumped feet first into the ancient device, and into near total darkness.

High winds shot past her as she flew down through the Sinder, it's structure the width of a man's body and as grey as the empty streets that lay above it, she could feel her body being steadily pulled by an unseen force as she descended through dozens of levels every few minutes. Each time she opened her eyes for a few seconds before they began to water, she noted which level she had reached thanks to crude markings drawn in old Galactic Basic, working it out based on her own knowledge of the levels built after the Sinders ended construction, she was noticeably surprised by the fact she had just fallen through Level 3763. Her concentration was cut short yet again by Thea's cries of joy as she descended above her, followed by Kirik, Gorba, his men, Whispers bounty and his companions, and finally Andre bringing up the rear guard, having shut the trap door behind them. When Thea finally ceased her third scream of joy, Whisper's mind was shot to pieces by immediate alarm. She didn't know what level would best serve their need for a means to get off-world and she didn't know how the hell she was getting off this train. She tried to call up to the others, but her words were drowned out by the noise of their quickening descent. She cursed herself for her own insolence and ignorance, she assumed the Sinders would afford her more control to choose which level she would reach. Hoping to descend just a thousand levels down to reach the Slums and power monitoring platforms to hopefully steal an abandoned vessel for their departure, the likely Sith blockade would be another matter entirely. She would cross that burning bridge when she reached it, if she reached it at all. She opened her eyes again. Level 5009. Her heart sank, but suddenly she felt a change in the wind. She was no longer being pulled in a controlled descent, instead she was falling by her own momentum and yet her speed was falling exponentially. She was being slowed down and suddenly she knew why, as she noted the last level she had passed, Level 5999. They had reached the end of the world.

The chamber was vast, enormous even by Core World standards. It was the most beautiful sewer Whisper had ever seen, with seemingly millions of interconnected paths and cables slicing from one end of the chamber to the other, they were witnessing with their very eyes, the heart of the world, or at the very least, the guts of it's sewers. Whisper was astounded for the first time in years, she did not expect to find herself in her current location when she woke up that morning, on a broken bench behind a butcher shop on Level 840. She turned her head to see the others floating near her, as dumbfounded as she was by their circumstances. Except for Thea, she couldn't hide her glee, and yet she had a calmness to her, as if she had done this a hundred times before, and probably had. Her expression faded as their descent became more direct, gliding them towards a bright light at the center of the Main Sinder Chamber. Metal structures suddenly opened up, retracting and peeling back, seemingly beckoning them towards what lay beneath them, like the mouth of a great beautiful beast. Whisper reached for the little girl as a gesture of protection, but she motioned her hand away as she grew closer to the mouth of the beast, welcoming her fate. Instantly she fell to the ground, as did Whisper, followed by the others behind her. After a moment of blinding light and her stomach feeling like it just escaped her body by it's own accord, Whisper came out of her delirium and was met with another bout of shear astonishment. Dozens upon dozens of children slowly edged towards them, their faces wide with disbelief as they witnessed a dozen men and a woman, armed to the teeth, fall to the ground before them with another child in tow, but before Whisper could react, the children laughed and began yelling for Thea, completely ignoring the strangers that accompanied her.

''Hey shitface!! It's been three days, Seethree's been scanning the whole system for you, we told him you were killed by sewer monsters. Even got some of the others to believe it!!''

''First of all assbrain, C3-C doesn't talk to anyone but me. Secondly, if I wanted to, I could make him open up some of the chambers so the sewer monsters chow down your tiny chicken legs for an appetizer before they eat your face. Now move out of the way or I'll get him myse-''

''Child? Child is that you? It's been over 73 hours, thirty four minutes and 43 seconds....44....45....46..-''

''It's me C3, and I've brought company.''

''More vermin?''

''Worse. We need to talk.''​

Their group was led through the crowd of children who only just now seemed to notice their presence, after little Thea had thrown their slights back in their faces, Whisper couldn't help but smile at the display and she was sure she heard a snorting laugh from one of the other mercenaries. As they walked, their circumstances were better explained to them, after a barrage of questions aimed at both Thea and the strange droid apparently named C3-C. Thea was twelve years old and had been on the streets for five of those years, her family was being evicted from their apartment, when suddenly she got lost and couldn't get back to them, she'd been trying to find them ever since, but to no avail. As she tried to survive on the streets, she would follow the droves of other children that wandered the deep, wondering just how they were managing to survive in such harsh conditions. That was when she stumbled upon one of Coruscant's old sewer maintenance tunnels, the Sinders. The children were using it as a petty pickpocketing network, stealing food and other items, then darting for the nearest Sinder in order to make their escape unnoticed. When Thea fell through, she fell all the way to the bottom and found where the children were really going. The Main chamber of the network housed a vast array of ancient government issued technologies built for the sole purpose of maintaining their way of life. The children were using it's halls to stay warm and to gather the resources they had stolen for their survival, but they also hid in fear of something else, something that was hunting them, a droid. The little twelve year old girl of the streets immediately crossed paths with the droid that hunted them and in a moment of shear defiance of her own death, she heaved a nearby broken pipe directly at it, knocking it's three-eyed head backwards, sending sparks flying and electronics hanging from it's mechanical chassis. The children witnessed the attack, and thus welcome her with open arms. As the children had walked away, she turned to find the droid speaking to her in a strange language, only for it to suddenly change once it had heard her speak in turn. It was asking for orders. And Thea supplied them. CeeThree as the children called him, was built to monitor the Sinder Network, making sure that all sewer and power systems remained operational and at optimum levels at all times. Part of his job, involved getting rid of vermin that managed to creep into his network, which is what he believed the children to be whenever he crossed paths with them. By shear luck, Thea explained what she was, and explained that the others were vermin, but they where a part of Coruscant's natural wildlife and needed to be protected. Although ancient, broken and having been without maintenance for possibly thousands of years, C3 agreed to the terms, repaired himself and set about protecting the neglected children of the Underworld. Whisper admired Thea's tenacity for survival, and yet she was wary of her state of mind. Damaged people were dangerous. They know they can survive. Beyond a tragedy they do not forget, but something vacant settles in them.

C3 - C
Advanced Cyber Model Custodian Sewage Maintenance and Monitoring Platform​

They entered what looked to be a workshop, or a laboratory of some kind, it resembled an old speeder repair shop, or an old coal burning furnace, warm yet stifling in it's design. Machine parts, cables, blueprints and other mechanical items were strewn about the entire room, the hallways that led to it were riddled with effluvial grime and resembled more of the typical sewer architecture she had come to know throughout the Core Worlds. The familiarity provided her with an unexpected comfort. There was a deep rumbling sound all around them, distant yet still close enough to provide an aura of discomfort, she felt as if she was inside the gullet of an enormous beast, and in a way, she was. Once the party entered, she leaned against the far wall as Thea chose to sit cross legged on a table next to her, the others gathered on the other side of the room as C3 slowly entered and shut the large metal door behind them. His design was crude, resembling a metallic, skeletal protocol droid which for some reason was draped in a tattered long jacket that looked like it had been sewn together by the children it was inadvertently protecting. It exuded male qualities, with a hollow mechanical voice that sounded distant yet melancholy in it's tonality. It was only when he spoke at length, that Whisper realized something else about him, C3 was certifiably insane. He mismatched words and replaced them with others barely relating to them whatsoever. He called the children vermin and rats, he called the Hutt a slug, given that for some reason he had never encountered it's species before and misplaced countless other terminologies, making it especially difficult to understand him, it was amusing but quickly became frustrating. She wondered if age was to thank for his mental demise, or the blow given to him by Thea upon her entrance to the end of the world. He began speaking at length about how their arrival had interrupted his work, complaining about the lack of efficiency in his regime, the lack of resources, he appeared to be prone to tangents unless interrupted immediately with a question or an order, seeing as how Thea sat with her smiling face in her hands, amused by his ramblings, Whisper chose to speak first.

''Custodian, we've traveled far and wide through chaos to get here,
many levels above where we now stand war is enveloping this planet.
We are seeking a means to escape it.
Do you have those capabilities here?
Or have we trusted this child and arrived here for nothing?''

''You speak strangely, not like the other rats.
War? Is the Republic fighting again? Always with the fighting.
The grids are always untouched by it. No value in sewers in war.
You seek passage, but I need every instrument of the Orchestra.''

''....Orchestra?''

''Follow me.''​

The droid had certainly piqued their interest, but their desperation would have them cling to any possibility of escape in their current state of affairs, but some of the men were growing visibly aggravated, which made Whisper increasingly cautious with every step she took. The droid spoke incessantly as they walked, occasionally she heard the others flicking their weapons with their fingers, just waiting for an opportunity to end the ancient droids rants about broken machinery. Whisper found them vaguely amusing, she'd met droids that had foregone maintenance before, but C3 was certainly a unique anomaly in the world. Thea spoke under her breath to Whisper about everything that had happened to her since she found C3 and the other children, how she had forgotten the sound of her mother's voice but knew the face of every child who called the ancient Coruscanti sewers home. She was growing attached to Whisper, and Whisper knew it. She was probably the first adult to have spoken to her in a long time, let alone even acknowledge her presence, much like C3, everyone in the Underworld treated children like vermin, wretched little things to be ignored. It was one of the saddest truths of the deep there was. If a child should fall in, they would be forgotten. Whisper reached out and ruffled the little girls fair hair and urged her forward to walk with the Custodian, in hopes of somehow silencing him. The mercenaries voiced their concerns, questioning why they had come to this place and what hoped they had left, but then the droid spoke once more with a wave of his metallic, skeletal hand towards a vast chamber. Whispers jaw dropped.

''Here lies the Orchestra!!!''​

A massive fleet of ships was arranged uniformly before them, in a chamber even more vast than the one in which they had been just an hour before in the Main Sinder Chamber. There were thousands of them, laid out in massive rows like an army of loyal soldiers lying in wait for the directions of their leader. Each one was of considerable size, about as large as a mid-bulk cargo freighter, possibly capable of holding a few hundred people if needed. They looked like enormous creatures, birthed from deep beneath the surface of a distant ocean, with flight navigational equipment resembling fins and exposed piping resembling some form of tentacles and yet they were dark, rusted things. These were of a design ancient in comparison to the transports manufactured en mass on the contemporary platform. Whisper looked around the room, eyeing the others as they reacted to the display, she was met with the very expressions she had come to expect from them. The hotshot had folded his arms, his right leg shifted to the side, he was stifling joy at the possibility of freedom. The overgrown slug licked his lips and laughed with adamant glee, he did not seek to hide his satisfaction, it was in that moment, that he revealed how truly scared he must have been by all of the chaos that had erupted around them. Andre was silent, unnmoving, ever-aware of others observing his mannerisms. Thea just smiled, a big toothy grin, as she did when Whisper looked to her upon hearing how she managed to reprogram an ancient droid. She was a clever little thing, not meant for such times and such places. She belonged to the joyful light of the world, she was not meant for it's shadows. Whisper broke from her observational reverie and approached the Custodian, eager for answers and thirsty for hope. He appeared to almost afraid of her as she approached, crumbling backward slightly as she berated him with questions.

''How many vessels are operational?''

''Out of 7, 779.
37 remain active members of the Orchestra.
Without regular maintenance, bi-weekly repairs and significant diagnostics, many vessels were lost.
Despite my attempts at renewal.''

''....could the Orchestra operate in unison? Controlled by a single ship's operating systems?''

''Theoretically, yes.
These are not civilian transports however, these are state of the art, government issue Sewage Treatment and Monitoring vessels.
These are the instruments by which I maintain this network.
They bare no weapons, nor offensive capabilities whatsoever. They merely distribute and collect, with minimal shielding.
And average to high-speed propulsion. Not to mention hyperspace capabilities should we need to ferry collected material off-worl-''

''Relax three-eyes, can it be done?''

''If the child wills it, it could be accomplished, if I can find the necessary tools.
It should take no longer than 1 hour and 23 minutes.
But, may I ask why?''

''It's simple. So we can get the band back together again. They have some venues to play.
But hurry Custodian, this is one show we can't be late for.''

Kriever Class Advanced Sewage Treatment Vessel Mark IV # Model 37 - Z​

Some of the children were likely never to see the stars again, if any of them had ever seen them in the first place, beyond their own dreams, unless Whisper fulfilled them. They were wandering lost in the shadows beneath a conflict in which their own parents may be fighting, if may very well be their own blood was now spilling into streets, staining the glass of the world's many skyscrapers, massive structures that were built on more than a few historical conflicts themselves. Life had, for the first time since becoming who she was, suddenly afford her a unique opportunity. Having been robbed of her own childhood, of her own innocence, she was handed the capabilities for greatness. To protect what she herself lost. To ensure that others would have a future beyond her own, unlikely to see the things that she had seen. Unlikely to experience the lost that she now felt. As soon she heard the thunder, lightning had struck her heart. Her ship had been on the surface. And in that ship, had been her own surrogate daughter, little Emerald, with auburn hair and freckled skin, had been robbed of not only her innocence, but of her life. There was no hope that they would be reunited with one another now, there was no hope for those who were lost in a field aflame. Unless you find water. And found it she had. She had an opportunity to alter the lives of every child that stood before her, and despite everything she had been through, despite her thirst for survival, she knew she had a responsibility to act upon that opportunity. She would protect their lives with her own. For, in truth, beyond credits, beyond material wealth and the thrill of the hunt, the hope that lay in their minds was the only hope she had left. Thea suddenly appeared next to her and spoke, as they both looked over the other children playing, as the mercenaries spoke in hushed tones nearby.

''Whisper...why do people have babies?
Sometimes...in a crowd I can't even breathe.
It feels like we're suffocaitng ourselves.
Trying to fill a room fit for five, with fifty.''

''We create, to fill the void.
For life is not the living of it, it is the curation,
transformation and destruction of it's elements.
We say it's survival. Our continuation.
But it's more than that.
It's almost as if we're hoping that...
...by continuing, the continued won't
make the same mistakes as those that came before.''

''I don't understand...you talk weird. I like you, but you talk weird.''

''I know. I've had a weird life, and was raised by even weirder people, it comes with the territory.
But to answer your question, children provide us with hope, in a world that seems so desperately hopeless.''

''Jeez. No pressure there.''

''Oh Thea, you'll learn to live with the all too heavy responsibility of living.
We all do.''
​

She scrunched her nose and furrowed her brow in response, she was a child only just beginning to question life, she was purity in it's purest form. She was likely capable of more insightful thought than anyone else now standing in the hall they found themselves in, as C3-C toiled away on one of the large vessels in the corner, the other mercenaries began to inspect it. They exchanged mock insults at the droid's expense while it worked to ensure their escape and survival, the Hutt roared at the children as he passed them to board the ship they would be using to control the others, they would finally get their spoils of war after all, it was a buyer's market in inter-galactic transport industries after all. As they boarded the vessel, the Custodian chastised them for their lack of patience, given that the vessel was still malfunctioning and needed to have it's repairs finalized, but they insisted on waiting inside. Whisper approached the vessel with calm, graceful steps. For some reason, her mind clambered back to her experiences with death, loss and war. She thought of the frozen bodies she had found while hunting on a distant moon, of the rain that fell on the face of the corpse she left in an alley not three days ago, her mind opened a window into the desert of a far world, in which she had dug up the grave of a client not yet old enough to marry, she thought of fires that had danced on the skin of innocents in a bloodless battle and finally she thought of the cries she had heard in the mountains back home. Her mind was imprisoned by her history with death, she was drowning in her own memories. As she gasped for air, she stopped dead in her tracks. She looked to the children, playing, dancing and singing, embracing joy and laughter despite their circumstances, despite the lot in life they had been forced to occupy. Thea clapped and smiled at the display, not caring about the war, not caring about the unfortunate necessities for living. The need to destroy so that we may rebuild. She was concerned only with laughter. With joy. Whisper closed her eyes slowly as she stepped forward once again. A gust of stale wind threw hair hair to the side, she left a single tear behind her as she stepped forward, a signature at the end of the world. She suddenly knew. Everything had become clear. She knew how this day would end. But more importantly, she knew what needed to be done. She boarded the ship.

The men with which she had journeyed through the underworld had already begun strapping themselves down to their chairs, they hungered for their freedom, feeling imprisoned by their circumstances, stopped dead in their tracks by a war they had little stake in. They cared for nothing else but themselves. She knew that now. As she stepped on board, some of them exchanged words. Kirik admitted, that despite his need to leave, he didn't hate the fact that they were rescuing children as a by product. He even confessed that it was something he could get used too. Andre spoke next, thanking Whisper for trusting them enough to help guide them this far, he still called her Stranger, despite knowing each other's names. The Hutt didn't speak directly to Whisper, he spoke to his men, already making plans to profit from the war that now engulfed the very world they were under. Her bounty didn't speak at all, he cowered at the back of the ship, near it's rumbling engines, huddled next to his silent companions. Whisper made a choice. She slowly walked towards the middle of the passenger bay, and reluctantly bent over to place a gentle kiss upon the helmed cheek of the hotheaded mercenary, as if she were thanking him for his change of heart and his help in leading them this far. The others all joined in boisterous laughter as the mercenary mocked passing out in his seat. Whisper smiled at everyone of them as she slowly stepped back to the ships rear entrance, as she turned towards them once more, she blew them a remorseful kiss. As she stepped slowly away, the last she heard of them was pure rambunctious laughter, untainted by the dark lives they had led. It was joy. In it's purest form. She stopped. Her sapphire eyes watered as she looked down to her hand, slowly uncurling her fingers to reveal what lay beneath. She had traded a kiss for it. One of Kirik's last grenades and a detonator rested quietly in the palm of her hand, a sleeping beast waiting to be awoken. She bit her lip and closed her eyes to stem the flow of her remorseful tears. With other hand, she removed all traces of them. Before suddenly turning to throw the grenade directly into one of the ship's engines. She ran. She ran directly towards the Custodian and spoke the loudest she had ever spoken.

''Fire the engines. Now.''

''May I ask why?''

''It's time we got rid of some vermin.''


She closed her eyes once more.
The engines awoke with a thunderous eruption.
She whispered something to herself, beyond anyone's ability to hear.
She remembered laughter.
She remembered joy.
She activated the detonator.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!​

The ship erupted in a massive fiery inferno. The children ran rampant, cowering and screaming as debris rained down all around them. Whisper went down on her knees, framed as a remorseful silhouette against the towering flames. Thea walked slowly towards her, placing a hand on her shoulder, ignorant of exactly what had just taken place, but understanding the one thing she should never have to understand at such a young age, death. Both souls knew it intimately for it had now become their lives. Whisper would take her as far away from it as she could, even if it meant leaving the galaxy itself. She needed to protect to her. She needed to protect them. She stood up, eyeing the fleet of transport ships that lay before them, soon to be filled to the brim with men, women, soldiers and Jedi alike. She would salvage life from this burning flame. This candle would not go out. She looked to the flames, and thought of the men once more, strangers though they were.


Deeper and deeper the strange souls went.....

 

[Phil]

So many had died today, and many more would continue to die even after the Sith had won. It was a long journey, but it seemed to be at an end when Andre, Whisper, The Hutt and others have made it here, where there was hope. He saw something strange in Whisper though when she blew them the kiss and left, his face hidden behind his mask as he merely shrugged. The last thing he saw through his ocular lenses on his mask were the Hutt and his group, talking amongst each other before he heard metal hitting metal. He never had time to question what it was or to assume it was just more repairs, for it was too late for all of them. Hell had engulfed them in a matter of seconds. The last thing Andre had heard after he was consumed by the fiery tsunami, his vision nothing but darkness that burned him, was the voice of the one he saw before he left the Jedi the first time. She had more then likely became a victim of the war above them. The Miraluka Woman walked towards Andre, and smiled with open arms towards him.

After that, there was only the silence.

 

[Rom]

Hello darkness my old friend... I've come to talk with you again.​

Level 1313 burned, the roar of the flame only dwarfed by the cacophony of indecipherable screams of agony in dozens of language and the forceful stomps of the Imperial Legion marching and driving the Undercity dwellers ahead of them like livestock, leaving nothing but ash and blackened bones in their wake. At the center of the long column a powerful AT-ST stalked just ahead of the main line, the side mounted flamethrowers spraying liquid burning death in a sweeping arc ahead of them, the sticky fluid sticking to duracrete, steel, and flesh and igniting with the heat of a blast furnace. A woman screamed as her husband tripped and was caught by the flames, rushing forward to try and beat the flames out with her cloak as he writhed and shrieked in agony. The walker surged forward, lifting one heavy durasteel foot high and brought it down with crushing force on the pair, silencing the screams and leaving a puddle filled crater in the poorly maintained duracrete.

Sitting at the controls with red fire reflecting off of his black visor Major Serreno continued moving forward, his fingers methodically sliding across the levers and knobs that guided the two legged tank, the Imperial Stormtrooper did his best to keep his stomach steady as the rocking motion combined with the stench from the smoking corpses of the ATST crew layed out behind him burned through his air scrubbers. They had been unwilling to use the full firepower available to the tank in removing the civilian combatants, and so he had removed them for their disobedience. They were doing righteous work and any who impeded that work would not be allowed to live.

Because a vision softly creeping... planted seeds while I was sleeping....​

Fifty paces ahead of his line, Vilkas pulled back on the throttle and engaged the autofire, the front mounted cannons tracking the fleeing civilians and cutting them down in a vicious hail of laserfire as the flamethrowers engaged and began to burn the surrounding buildings, sending hiding squatters fleeing in terror only to be cut down by the laser cannons. Climbing to his feet and moving upwards towards the hatch, the Major stood ontop of the tank and looked at the burning world spread out before him.

"It's being cleansed. They were failed by their Alliance and left to die in squalor. Better to die from the iron fist than the slow starvation that will follow. Better to die quick than to fade slowly. A proper death... a cleansing death. Their silence is their thanks."

His voice was monotone and droning, no sadness or joy or justification tainting his words; just conviction. As he gazed out ahead of him, the whine of an airspeeder filled his ears and he turned to the right, seeing a rooftop being evacuated by sobbing humans and non-humans alike, pressing their young into a speeder bus, filling it well beyond capacity, as small frightened faces stared out of the transparisteel through the smoggy air to gaze at their parents. His helmet automatically zoomed in, the occular cams picking up the understanding in the eyes of the older children as they said their goodbyes, the confusion and fear in the eyes of the young ones, and the burning hope and agony in the eyes of the parents as they sent their children away in the hopes of surviving the coming storm.

The speeder pitched sideways as it pulled away, the driver fighting the steering shaft as he struggled to bring the over-filled bus around and bringing the vehicle in a high arc away from the building heading south towards the main shaft. His course had put him too high, his concentration focused on keeping the vehicle aloft, and he never saw the ATST, and the white armored figure standing atop it as he flew his path directly across the main road.

The parents did.

And the vision that was planted in my brain... still remains.​

Vilkas Serenno slowly reached to his waist with both hands and removed two adhesive grenades, his trained eye judging the speed of the listing speeder as it passed diagonally over head and primed the grenades, the soft beeping slowly growing in volume before fading as he tossed them high. The first grenade flew in a lazy arc while the second flew directly up, the beeping growing louder and louder as it came closer to detonation, and connected to the speeder with a wet thunk, sticking in their spots. The first metal sphere landed on the transparisteel viewport on the port side, the explosive blocking the view of a shocked childs face, the second directly on the undercarriage fuselage.

Beep.... beep... BEep BEEp BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP....

Vilkas stood silently as he kept his gaze on the parents standing with mouths gaping and faces pale from horror beneath the blood and soot. Their anguished helpless screams carried on the wind, filling his ears along with the frantic banging and crying on the speeder bus, the children desperately trying to knock the grenade off of the window, the quiet prayers being muttered by his men for their souls. And still, the grenades priming themselves drowned all of it out in his ears.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEE...

The flash of white light burned through his tinted visor, leaving spots in his eye before the roar of the explosion and the concussive shockwave hit him, throwing him forward with teeth jarring force into the hatch of the ATST. His senses were useless; his ears could not process the sounds and screams that he knew to be surrounding him, the blood from his broken nose preventing him from smelling the burning fuel or the charred flesh and ash in the air. Only his sight remained, his gaze locked onto the parents who sobbed and fell to their knees in grief. Unable to hear himself, he could not comprehend the manic laughter that echoed through the still air, his blackened helmet coming off and being tossed to the side where it landed face down in a pile of ash. "You'll thank me! YOU'LL ALL THANK ME!!"

...within the sounds of silence.​

 

[Nor'baal]

Section's 1-3 had fallen to the Civilian 'army' would read the official report, a ''Glorious Victory by the Men of the Imperial army.'' Muular new the report would read this, as he would be the man who wrote it. Of course, it should read ''Senseless massacre'' thought Muular's second in command, not that he would dare voice his thoughts.

Ensign, and Field Commander Muular Diopis walked up and down the front rank of the assembled troops. Having burned most of the district behind them, many of the civilians had fled into a large complex the other side of this open 'park' like area before his troops. As such, he had ordered a halt here, so they could regroup, and then form a ''crowd dispersal line'' and press further forwards. Basic Military tactics that Muular had learned in his recent time in the Imperial Armies....Civilian oversight department.

Turning to place his back facing his men, Muular shouted the order for the Sith Flag to be raised, and the light weapon shield screen to also be raised in-front of his men, so they could commence to march unhindered. Taking a breath, he raised his right hand ''Men of the Imperium, Forward Ma....''

And then it happened.

Explosion.

Bright Lights.

Flak.

Screaming.

"You'll thank me! YOU'LL ALL THANK ME!!"​

It was the last thing almost three-hundred men in the back ranks of Muular's force heard as they where torn apart by explosive fury. Muular and the remaining seven-hundred men where blown to the ground by the shock wave. His head hit the floor, and his saw spots in his vision. Concussed Muular Diopis stood, desperatly flailing at his command cloak as he did so, and drew his hand held flamer.

''Assassin! Our Commander has fallen!'' screamed Ensign Diopis in concussed confusion and anger. He flailed his right arm, and bellowed ''Run up the colours, sound the drums! ATTACK!''

With his men at his back, and the unit's inbuilt load hailers blaring out the Imperial Regimental March the men of the Imperial 65th Suppression Regiment Advanced. Feet stamped the ground as the enraged army walked through to flames, the regimental music blasted across the wasteland leading up to the civilian blocks.

In his fear, his desperate fear to be free of the doom marching for him, a lone civilian fired from his block on the 7th floor. The shot flew high and wide, and burned with unthinkable malace through the flag of the regiment. It was the final, and worst mistake of the man's life. Muular looked up as the bolt appeared to move in slow motion towards the flag, his bloodshot eyes widened in shock as he saw it burn a messy hole through the Imperial Eagle.

He could not control his rage any more, and with his head and ears still throbbing from the explosion, he screamed in unthinkable fury ''Burn them! BURN THEM ALL!''

As one, the ranks took firing positions, and quickened the march, grenades flew high, sheet's of flame burst out and hails of gun fire blasted towards the habitation blocks.

In the ensuing minutes, thousands perished as the Regiment steamrolled the habitation blocks, angry and confused at the suspected loss of their leader and the defacing of their flag.

And the report would still read a ''Glorious Victory by the Men of the Imperial army.''

 

[Kaeb]

Themes

Level 1313
The End​

The chaos was mesmerizing. Scintillating flames titillated the senses as they howled darkly and danced rhythmically throughout the endless city, spreading violently across the underworld without mercy, without remorse. Hell would have been a welcome respite for the innocents swallowed by the fires, a deliverance from the nightmare in which they were now slowly dying. The roar of the fires silenced their screams, reducing them to nothing but crumbling silhouettes, helpless and without shape. It took not only their lives, but their humanity. It stole them from themselves. The minimal light that had once reached them through large shafts leading to the surface, was now hidden behind a thick darkness, the black smoke birthed from the raging inferno, mercilessly choking the denizens of the deep who sought to escape. They were rats hanging themselves by their own tails. All the while the Sith were looming, feeding the fires with their conquest, yearning for damnation to commemorate their assured victory. Those that weren't hunting the souls that fled desperately from their grasp merely observed, basking in the glow of their creation, of their destruction. They had truly conquered that which had been unconquerable. And yet, despite the harrowing scope of the carnage, Level 1313 was not truly lost, some districts still remained, some souls had yet to be extinguished. The dark army was closing in, marching towards the outskirts that remained, seeking to burn down every last remnant of the Hive, and the insects that still clung to it. The thought of defeat had never even occurred to them, the power they controlled burned gloriously within them, their malice reflected in the fires they forged, but like the blaze that burned before them, their thoughts were clouded, unable to demonstrate conviction. Their corruption would be their downfall.

Whisper turned away from the window of the ancient ship, she had seen a dozen conflicts like this one before, but she was never shaken by the destruction, the towering flames that recklessly engulfed the world below simply made her numb to her senses, cold to her reality. She stepped calmly toward the far end of the ship's bridge, observing the droid custodian as he operated the ancient vessels navigational systems with near-alarming efficiency. Moments after the dark haired mercenary had obliterated those with which she had shared a short-lived fellowship, she had shaken their ghosts from her mind. It was rare that the young woman ever killed someone without the prospect of a bounty, without a reason, it was in no way less corrupt then the act of simply killing without direction or consequence, she had no delusions about that but for her it was a solitary law. No women. No children. Killing must be necessary. It had been nothing personal, she had acknowledged their clear skill in battle, but they lacked that which the Sith had demonstrated before their victory was assured, they lacked conviction. Her betrayal wasn't without it's meaning however, in killing guilty men that posed a danger to innocent children, she had ensured their future and her own, unknowingly, they died for a cause. It helped however, that one of them was in fact a bounty, one she would likely be unable to collect, thanks to the war. There was no trusting those who worked in the industry of death, and those that did operate within it's network, knew that more than anyone. Hours had passed since the explosion, since the Custodian collapsed backwards, unleashing a fit of curses in whatever language his creators had used, another quirk of his constantly malfunctioning programming, in reaction to the fiery display. She sheltered the children and shot metal tin targets with her blasters to amuse them while they waited for the Custodian to finish his work, and finish he did. It seemed that the Sith had only deployed basic ground troops into the deeper levels of the world, the brunt of their resistance would be met on the surface, not on broken streets with homeless vagrants and ill equipped criminals. They did not anticipate her. They did not anticipate that a mercenary, a band of children and an ancient droid would be the harbingers of their destruction, that lack of foresight was to be their undoing.

''For an army that just annihilated the most powerful government in the galaxy,
they're acting with incredible recklessness.''

''I lack the programming to comment with any accuracy on the nature of war,
but I do know vermin. From what I can see on the viewscreens, there is little difference.''

''I didn't know ancient sewage droids were programmed with a penchant for philosophy.''

''Nonsense...call it curiosity, something my creators were intelligent enough to provide me with.
When vermin are met with a prime food source, they eat beyond their own capacity.
They engorge in their hunger, embellish in their pleasure.
I cannot help but notice the similarities with this...display.''

''You're not wrong Custodian.
These are men drunk on conquest and consumed by their own power.
We can't afford to let them catch up to us if we want to make it to the surface.
Let alone off-world.''

''That would require a strategy of some sort.
Do you have a good one?''

''No...but I've got a terrible one.''​

They discussed Whisper's plan, and after much protest Thea managed to convince the droid that it was probably their only course of action if they hoped to accomplish their goal, despite the fact that the potential risk was enormously high. They gathered their wits, tested their strength and pressed forward, flying the ship directly towards the invading armies ahead of them. Thea scrambled towards one of the various seats hooked into the flight deck and strapped herself in, fear etched in her trembling face, cheeks shaking, lips quivering, it had only been a day but Whisper hadn't seen the child so scared before. She felt as if she'd known her her whole life, an open book to someone like her. Whereas the ancient droid was more like an unopened letter from a dead relative, significant yet neglected. The Ship's interior was cramped, rusting and humid, feeling more like a deep sea vessel then an old sewage treatment ship, warm tones and cold metal, it's design was crude and yet it served it's purpose, but not without the occasional electrical spark or burst piping. It had a certain charm to it's eccentricities. The pale woman checked her equipment, before nodding to Thea and gracefully stepping towards the rear hatch of the ship, before she could even turn around the young girl was already walking behind her. Pestering her about this possibility and that outcome, Whisper didn't speak once, and yet the child had enough fuel for her imagination to keep on talking. They wandered throughout the large vessels halls, dodging the ship's malfunctioning equipment as they did so, keen on reaching the cargo deck in order to begin their crusade. When Thea finally stopped to catch her breath, Whisper had already stepped into the wide open cargo bay, navigating between tankards filled with sewage as she reached the operational control panel for the reinforced doors. As soon as she initiated the opening sequence, Thea began ranting once more. Before the child could speak any further, Whisper placed her fingers gently against the middle of her lips, kissed the child on the forehead and then turned away from her. The doors opened and the cargo bay was filled with black smoke, Smugglers Wake had been reduced to nothing but broken husks and dead ash. The ship slowed to begin a landing sequence as it panned around the horrifying display, Whisper didn't turn to see Thea's expression, she had done all she could for her, she would rather remember the joy of seeing her smiling with the other children, then remember her face now. If her expression was a word it would be 'Goodbye' and that Whisper could not abide. Before the ship was even a mile above the ground, she dove off into the raging inferno below.


Ash and smoke enveloped her as she began her descent into enemy territory, her vision was blurred, her other senses overwhelmed, yet she kept her legs extended, her arms pinned to her side, descending quicker and quicker with every second that passed. She was finally alone and it was in this primordial state of being, that she excelled at her craft. Having hunted through the streets of Smuggler's Wake countless times, she knew every inch of it's structure, even despite it's current crumbling and hollow state. She knew that the flames had not yet reached the southern slums, where various occupied buildings where connected via crude power cable systems. Her arms shot out and grabbed one of them as she plummeted towards the ground. Her wrists twisted around as she re-positioned her body, her feet now pointing to the ground instead of her crown, the cable didn't snap under her weight, instead she used the momentum of her fall to cling to the middle of it. Having landed perfectly in it's center, her descent slowed down as she held on to the elasticated wiring, until suddenly letting go, only for the cable to snap back up out of view beyond the smoke, as she landed gracefully on the ground beneath her. Standing upright, she immediately unholstered one of her blasters and began bolting through the burning streets with a determination that could only be demonstrated intimately by an expert hunter. She exuded wisdom as her eyes darted around frantically, examining her environment for potential escape routes and potential dangers, she was well beyond her own years in skill and experience, and she knew it. Within minutes the hunter with sapphire eyes had covered miles of terrain, taking stock of her environment and taking heed of potential enemies and possible survivors. Given the rate at which the city was crumbling before her, she doubted anyone had survived at all, now that the Sith had finally reached their streets. And yet some Sith were still patrolling the destroyed areas, perhaps believing that those who had escaped other areas, may have fled to those already destroyed out of shear desperation, like rats scurrying from a doomed ship onto an already sinking vessel. It was a common horror of war in civilian territories, one she'd seen demonstrated in even worse circumstances before. She stalked the patrols with relative ease, as they completed their rounds, before beginning the return to their main forces. Despite all reason and all evident logic, Whisper followed them closely. It was after she turned a final corner on the rooftops above them however, that she was met with those responsible for her current circumstances. There were thousands of them. And they were a fraction of their forces.

''MEN OF THE IMPERIUM, STAND READY!!!
BY MY COMMAND YOU WILL SPEAK MY NAME!!!
BY MY HONOUR AS COMMANDER OF THIS FORCE, YOU WILL MARCH!!
YOU WILL SPREAD THE GLORY OF THE SITH, AND FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HEED OUR PROMISE...
...WE WILL BURN THEIR SOULS FROM THEIR PATHETIC CORPSES!!!
WHAT SAY YOU??!!!''

''MUULAR DIPOIS!!!! MUULAR DIPOIS!!!! MUULAR DIPOIS!!!!''

''FORWARD MAAAARCH!!!''​

Whisper had heard the name spoken by some of the patrols before, they spoke of him with great respect and harrowing fear, from what she could ascertain, he was not a high ranking member of their forces, but had demonstrated enough of of a penchant for carnage, to be able to command a force of considerable size. She watched as his forces strode uniformly through broken streets, trampling the ashen corpses they had left behind beneath their military boots, marching to the drums of war. Muular roared vehemently as they marched, striding at the forefront of their squadrons, leading the charge to reach the greater armies that had gathered nearer to the central districts, she could hear them despite the distance between their encampment and the rooftops she now scurried across, one with shadows as she clung to their righteous march, looking at every possible detail of their path to find some method of usurping their control. She could find nothing worth attempting that wouldn't put her in danger. She cared little for her own life, but her dying would ensure that the children she had saved would reach their demise sooner rather than later, a fate she would not allow them to reach by her own strength of will, while she still breathed, so would they. Not even an army would stop her. She was shaken from her reverie as she realized how close the marching forces were to unifying with the rest of their army. As they slowly rejoined the other forces, Whisper took a quick breather. She sat down behind the wall of a rooftop, one of the few still standing near the Warehouse district. Placing her black market blaster - named The Messenger - on the floor next to her, she slipped one of her last deathsticks out from beneath her belt, igniting the cigarra against a fire that raged high from within an alley next to the rooftop. She breathed the smoke deeply and was quickly dizzied by the sensation. She looked above her as some of the black smoke cleared, spying a ray of light from the main entrance shaft, slicing through the smog to reach the last remnant of the criminal underworld. She had wandered countless worlds as a young girl, having escaped those who trained her, who manipulated her. Like many who fell into the deep, she found that it was a place unlike any other. It was nowhere near as beautiful as some of the deserts in the Outer Rim, nor was there as much serenity as could be found in the twilight forests of other ancient worlds, but the Coruscanti Underworld had something else the other worlds didn't, character. Grime. Rust. Stink. Whisper never cared for the galaxy, she was interested in what lay beneath it, and this place had more beneath than any other. She laughed quietly to herself as she realized the city now burning around her, had become a home away from a home she never truly had. Instead of anger with it's destruction, she felt solidarity. At least she was here to watch it burn. She took one last inhale before flicking it into the flames in the streets below. Standing up abruptly, she took one last breath before becoming completely focused on the task at hand. She turned towards the armies of the Sith.


As she scrambled and jumped across the last few rooftops before reaching the central districts, she witnessed a harrowing display of pandemonium. The last remaining civilians were fleeing from the advancing flood of soldiers, ripping through the streets like a plague, infecting everything they touched with painful death. She observed as the main commander of their forces roared insane orders to his troops via a bombastic audio intercom system, his voice seeming as if it was echoing throughout the underworld as he spoke, and perhaps it was. His foul cries for destruction were painful to Whisper's ears, more as an annoyance than out of any kind of fear. He was the one the others had spoken of, the one who truly commanded the vast number of Sith forces ordered to unleash damnation upon the Underworld, but his reputation preceded him, for Whisper had heard his name spoken in mercenary circles before, by men who had fought on worlds he had conquered under the Sith name. Vilkas Serenno was Sith incarnate, beyond their love of power, he seemed to crave destructon, as if it were his divine right to enact chaos upon man in the name of conquest, he was the perfect instrument of unrelenting war and he was commanding an army of thousands right before Whisper's eyes. But before she could even react to this fact, before she could even formulate a method of carrying out her plan, something she wished had been unexpected took place. She watched as the military General exited an enormous military walker, only to hurl two primed grenades at a fleeing civilian transport, it was only upon careful viewing that Whisper realized the horrible truth behind it's occupants, the bus was filled with children seeking to flee the blitz that engulfed all they knew. She wished in that moment that she could leap forth from the building to save them, but she knew nothing could possibly help them now. They were doomed souls the second he decided it. Without hesitation and despite the destructive power of his weapons, he detonated the explosives, sending a shockwave rippling across the entirety of the central districts, sending soldiers, buildings and rubble flying upon impact. Whisper ducked behind a burnt out speeder as dust engulfed her, coughing as she stood up to immediately observe the remnants of Serenno's arrogance and bloodlust. Once she saw how separated the forces had become in their confusion, she hurled herself down from the rooftop and ran with incredible speed towards Muular's forces.


Soldiers screamed painfully as she ripped like a force of nature through their anguish and cries of terror, in the aftermath of the explosion that caused all vision to be obscured by a miasma of ash and dust. It was if they were fighting in the raging sandstorms of Tatooine. The elements of destruction seemed to roll off of her, ash shattered against her skin, dust and blood rolled off her as if she were made of smoke, she moved so quickly that reality had little time to tame her actions with gravity or friction, she moved through them like a hot spinning blade through dying grass, efficiently and without hesitation. Occasionally a soldier would put up a fight for longer than a few seconds, some were lucky enough to even land the occasional below in their frantic grasp of survival, before Whisper cut out their throats with blades already stained in the blood of their comrades. She had all but abandoned her plan, until she saw the forces which were responsible for the flames. Dozens of troopers with enormously bulky contraptions strapped to their hunching backs, shambled towards her, closing in with expert unity as they unholstered long weapons from the devices on their backs. The flametroopers of the Sith army were famed for their lack of remorse, but so was Whisper. She pressed a button a device connected to the collar of her jacket and screamed from the top of her lungs.

''NOOOWWWW!!!!''​

The ancient sewage treatment vessel suddenly hovered into view above the smoke and dust that clung to the streets below, illuminating them with large spotlights, attempting to blind the flamethrower wielding soldiers that had cornered her against a wall near the army before her. Instantly, and without warning, the ship unleashed a dozen enormous containers from it's cargo doors, all of them open and filled with all manner of sewage material cultivated over thousands of years below where the soldiers now stood. Covered in ancient grime and all manner of horrifying elements, Whisper grasped The Messenger and fired a single shot at one of the flame units clinging to a troopers back, with the sewage gas ignited, the entire squadron erupted in unholy green flames as all manner of toxic and non-toxic chemicals engulfed them in horrifying fire. Before Whisper could even react, the ship had fled as soldiers in the distance marshaled to destroy the vessel with anti-air weaponry. The vessel escaped just in time, it's engines kicking up and clearing enough of the dust cloud that remained after the previous explosion, that her view was made clearer. Half a dozen soldiers still remained, Muular stood behind them with a blaster pistol in hand. He pointed towards her with a malicious grin and barks orders in her general direction, she didn't take the time to take heed of his words, instead she readied for the varied troopers that marched towards her. Some of them were primed to fire before she took them down with a volley of shining blue shards that emitted from The Messenger. Finally there was only the last remaining flametrooper, Whisper and Muular that remained standing. Three seemed to observe one another as they stood in a crude triangle of imminent death, taking stock of one another as they prepared to attack. Suddenly Whisper rolled forward as plume of fiery hellflames shot towards her, scarcely dodging the heat of the troopers weapons, she rolled directly towards him, standing upright a metre in front of him before twisting around his body, grabbing his arm as he fired his second volley and aimed it directly towards Muular as he ran toward the conflict. He was engulfed in a wave of flames, screaming in horror as he scrambled to pat out the fires that danced across his burning flesh. Instantly she snapped the troopers neck, ripping off the flamepack from his shoulders, she kicked off the valve that primed the weapon to fire and snapped of it's ignition device. She stared down the burning commander with cold eyes as he pleaded for her to stop.

''AGGHHH...MADDNNESSS...STTOOPPPP THISS...
...NAME YOUR PRICEE!!!!
...ANYTHING!!!!...
...I'LL DOO ANYTHING!!!!
...YOUR PRICEE!!!!...''


''You couldn't afford it.''



She threw the leaking gas container directly towards him, raised her blaster with a steady hand, and fired a single shot.
The pleading soldier was instantly engulfed in an all encompassing inferno.

There was no remorseful kiss blown. No rose dropped upon the burning military husk. There was no pity. No mercy. Her face was expressionless as she looked up ahead of her as the Sith army began marshaling around their main commander, seeking to protect him after his hapless slaughter of innocent children. Despite being separated by rubble and clouds of smoke and dust, troopers began to notice the strange woman, covered in grime and sweat, surrounded by an army of corpses, some of them still burning in a display of violent colour. A volley of blaster shards rained down towards her as she tripped and ran for safety, darting down fiery streets and hurdling across rubble and debris to escape her pursuers. Curses were hurled, weapons were fired and yet she persisted. That was when she heard Serenno's voice once more. It echoed in her mind as he commanded his forces to find her, the woman who had just singlehandedly annihilated a fraction of his invading force, despite having contributed to her attack with his own reckless actions. She cursed to herself before unholstering her second blaster on her left side, the Father. With the Father and the Messenger in her grasp, she stepped quickly into a sprint out of the alley in which she had just been hiding, darting past a squadron of soldiers who fired as soon as they saw her shadow dart across their vision, but before they could react she was already on the roof above them. They were dead before they hit the floor, burning holes oozing smoke from their helmets as the collapsed on top of one another. She dodged countless other patrols as they tightened their grip on the underworld to find her, their desperation and recklessness reached pique levels as soldiers began branching on their own, becoming separated and even weaker than they were before. She'd already killed dozens more by the time the others finally got in contact with her via the communications device onboard the ship, which she had cleverly tapped into via her own comms device. The rendezvous point was set, and she ran for it with all of the energy and determination she had left within her. Scarcely avoiding much larger platoons equipped with all manner of war machines, everything from tanks to large military walkers pursued her through the burning deep.

Finally she reached it, the alley in which she had first met her bounty, next to the street in which she had begun this strange odyssey into the unknown. It was almost unrecognizable, buildings had been reduced to dust, homes and speeders had become nothing but husks, hollow reminders of what they were before war became the catalyst for their demise. Coruscant was dying, but Smuggler's Wake was truly dead. She felt a sliver of remorse for it's loss, this place had sheltered her during many a hunt and many a venture. When she had hunted all remnants of those who had taken her as an orphan child to the ends of the galaxy and back, Smuggler's Wake was where she had returned each time, seeking information, seeking food and seeking shelter. It was only now that she realized that all of those elements and all of those needs, where what made a home a home afterall. She had had a family in the young girl she had saved, little Emerald with her green eyes and auburn hair. Although she was taken from her, she clung to the thought that by saving these other children, that by doing something worthwhile in this chaos, she would honour her memory. She would do something that would have made Emerald proud of her. She would give herself a future, beyond the one that waited inevitably for all mercenaries. She would crawl from this darkness with every sense left in her to achieve that goal. She would inherit the future she had promised herself. Suddenly, without hesitation, she removed the cobalt blue jacket that Emerald had made for her. She remembered how mad she had been when the little auburn haired girl had found her old silk sheet, one of the only things she still had from the orphanage, and sowed it with leather and other materials to keep warm during a particularly cold winter while hunting for food. It had kept Whisper warm for a time, but now all she felt was an icy shiver every time she put her arms through it's sleeves. She calmly placed it upon the only bench that still remained standing. With her head held high, she looked above her and waited for a short time, before the ancient ship finally arrived to pick up it's wayward crew member. A cable extended for Whisper with a hook at it's end, she placed one foot in the stirrup and clung to it with a single hand before being raised into the ships cargo bay. She mouthed a silent goodbye to the underworld as the doors closed before her.

''So kind of you to join us Mercenary,
I was sure you were dead,
although the Child was a little more optimistic despite the odds of your survival.''

''I appreciate the vote of confidence Custodian,
I believe it's time to start that escape of ours,
don't y-''

''Did you think you were free of me woman?!!
HOW DARE YOU UNDERESTIMATE THE MIGHT OF THE IMPERIUM!!!''

''You alright Serenno?
Did someone break all your toys?''

''Ah yes, you know my name.
The merits of having a reputation.
But I know you too, Whissssperr.
Yesss, Whisssperr.
My soldiers scanned you the second you were spotted.
Judging by these heavy records,
The Alliance doesn't like you at all do they?
Not one bit.
But you see bounty hunter, you and I do not have to be enemies.
Between you and I, we've probably done more damage during this war than any others.
Why not join the Imperium?
A mercenary needs credits after all, and through our rule,
you'll have all that you desire.''​

Whisper looked intently at the comms device, it's radio waves crackling with static and interference during every pause the military commander took between his words. Despite all she had been through, these were words she had never heard before. No one had ever offered her anything but credits before, not taking into account the men of the underworld that offered themselves at every opportunity, but whenever anyone had ever offered her money, it was because they were getting rid of a thorn in their side, or simply demolishing their competition. No one had ever simply offered a life, because they deemed her valuable, all she was ever offered, was death. Before she could even dwell on the thought further, she raised her head to see a gathering in the sky. A fleet of military vessels was arranged before her and the ancient vessel, all of them answering to General Vilkas Serenno. She traced the root of the communication she had received and determined that his was the ship at the very front of the flight squadron, staring her ship down with hollow determinism. There was a dozen of them, all formidable in their superior weaponry and defensive technologies. She dwelt on the offer once more, examining every facet of it's implications, before finally making her decision. Her gloved hand reached out to flick two switches. One was for communications. The other for full engine power. She pressed the first switch with a half smirk, thinking on her future once more.

''I have everything I need, you insane f uck.
You want me?
Come and take me.''​

Suddenly the engines ignited and she was bolting straight through the military fighter squadron, the shockwave of her engines sending half of their navigational equipment into a frenzy, with two of the vessels even spiraling out of control into some crumbled buildings below. The ancient vessel darted across the landscape of the underworld, half of it still suffering the brunt of the Sith invasion as she was pursued over countless towers of raging fire. Then she saw it. Every single Sith trooper on the ground was being loaded into transport ships littered throughout Level 1313, she cursed to herself as she witnessed them removing various forms of camouflage from their mobile transports, they'd probably been there for weeks, placed by their operatives in order for them to gather and move troops quickly and efficiently throughout their operation they'd completed their invasion. Soon those that pursued her were joined by hundreds of ships filled with hundreds of men, all of them most likely aware that a freelance mercenary had not only just murdered one of their field commanders, but an entire platoon of their fellow soldiers. She was being hunted inside of a world in which she had always been the hunter, in which she had always been queen of this perpetual hive of scum and villainy and somehow, she was enjoying every second of it. Underneath her hollow eyes, beneath her icy facade, something hot rumbled within her, something she hadn't felt since she was a child. It was hope. And it had set her free. With a full and lively smile, she gently place her hand upon a large lever marked ''RELEASE'', she curled her fingers for a moment, before finally yanking it backward with a triumphant pull. The cargo doors swung open with an almighty thud as enormous containers filled to the brim with toxic sewage waste spilled outward from within. Serenno's vessel took the brunt of the waste, sending his flight path into complete disarray, nearly colliding with two other massive troop transports. Those ships lost complete control as they collide with a squadron of fighters, despite suffering heavy damage, none of them were destroyed. Whisper cursed once more, repeating one she had heard the Custodian voice on more than one occasion during repairs. Then. She made a choice. One that was quiet possibly the stupidest, or the bravest choice she would ever make.

She cursed one last time, but this time it was with a smile. Suddenly the ship jerked straight to the right, coming almost to a full stop as the entire fleet suddenly began to open fire on her position, no longer caring for a pretty prize above a pretty corpse, she reignited the engines and darted forward in a new direction, back the way they had come from, into the heart of Level 1313. She sliced through tight spaces between power relays, barely avoiding crumbling buildings and scarcely navigating past raging fires as she flew closer and closer towards the ground beneath them, seemingly in an attempt to lose the soldiers in the blazing chaos. Unable to get a clear shot without destroying one another any longer, instead the ships flew closer and closer towards her, firing grappling cables every time she was remotely exposed between the cover of underworld structures. She whizzed and darted throughout the endless city until finally she saw her heading come into view. The Warehouse District seemed to be the only area untouched by the flames, resting like a darkly deep shadow surrounded by bright shallow waters. Finally she was closing in, the engines rumbling behind her, the hull shaking as she increased the speed recklessly. The world shot past her, and so did the Sith forces. As shards of light, ranging from every colour imaginable raged past her, she suddenly unstrapped herself from the pilot chair, inputted a flight path into the navigational equipment and ran with every ounce of adrenaline left within her body towards the cargo bay, running throughout the ship as if she were on the hunt for a prized bounty. As she finally reached the cargo bay amongst electrically sparking wiring and exposed piping, she did not step towards the cargo bay door controls. Instead she approached one of the last remaining sewage containers, a container that remained because it did not contain any waste at all. Unhinging a control panel bolted to it's shell, she programmed the container and threw herself in, shutting the waste hauler behind her. Then, right on queue, it began to shake violently, as suddenly her stomach sank. The container was propelled out from the ship as it plummeted with alarming speed towards the middle of the Warehouse district, with the Sith following directly behind. She took a deep breath as she fired upward, releasing herself from the container as it descended below, her own momentum still carrying her high above Level 1313, nearly reaching the level above it before finally beginning her descent. She holstered her weapon. Blew a remorseful kiss, and then plummeted towards the dark underworld. Then suddenly, her senses were overwhelmed by glorious damnation. All was bright light and sudden darkness.

Whisper awoke suddenly with a howling scream, finding that her chest was being held down by cold metallic hands. As she shook herself from a state of pure fear and shock, she turned to see three green eyes staring back at her. C3-C pressed gently down, indicating that she needed to lie back in order for her to cling to consciousness just a little while longer. She remembered what had happened, how all the remaining Sith forces had been swallowed whole by the blast which she had ignited. In her mind, she credited the other mercenaries with the idea, having been the ones who originally wanted to go to the Warehouse District in the first place, if not for Whisper's warnings that in the event of an evacuation, the crime lords who owned the warehouses, had rigged them with enough explosives to send Level 1312 crashing down on top of them, they would have died their instead of by her own hand. She saved their lives before taking them. Before she could dwell on it any longer, the Custodian explained everything. They had received her signal after sending her an alternate ship from the Orchestra to aide her in her plan, to route out the Sith, gather them and lead them directly towards the Warehouse District to meet their end, with a few improvisations along the way. Once the forces were destroyed, the Orchestra was gathered to put out some of the worst of the fires, until they realized how pointless there efforts where given the onslaught of war that was still raging above them. With the fleet gathered and the enemies that stood in their way defeated, they had destroyed the underworld in order to save the world above it. Once the waste container had been released, they tracked her position and rescued her before she fell into the massive explosion herself. Unexpectedly, before they could begin setting their systems to make way for the surface, survivors began to spill out of the cracks in the scorched earth, desperately clawing at the vessels, even throwing stones at them in an attempt to get their attention. With much hesitation, the droid and the children had screened them for potential dangers, before allowing hundreds of them to occupy one of their many ships. Of the original 37, only 33 remained. Whisper gave her thanks, to the Custodians obvious surprise.

''I do not require your thanks Mercenary.
Thank the child, she is responsible for my actions above all else.
I am merely a droid that has lived beyond it's capacity.
I am not designed for daring rescues, that's the business of children
and clearly insane mercenaries.''

''Did you just make a joke at my expense?''

''I do not know what you are talking about.
I should be conducting repairs, is there anything else you would
like me to attend to before I begin?''

''Prep the engines.
And re-check our Life Support systems,
we'll need to check our capacity.''

''May I ask why?''

''It's simple.
We're going to save the day.''​

Upon the droids departure, Whisper slowly moved her legs out from the workbench she had been thrust onto in order for her to rest, given that they lacked an infirmary or any medicinal equipment of any kind, so she mouthed her very last deathstick instead, in an attempt to numb the pain she was experiencing as a result of her 'insane' exploits. She slowly edged forward through the warm, humid and surprisingly clean smelling vessel as she made her way towards the main bridge, clutching her side as she walked. Upon reaching the main deck, she was greeted with a sudden tackling hug from a screaming Thea. She gripped her tightly and berated her with questions, concerns and thanks. They both shambled towards the main viewscreen as C3 sat down in the main flight chair to oversee the ships power systems. She thought about dwelling on everything that had happened, about finding some kind of meaning or emotional absolution in the chaos she had just escaped, but the thought of doing that made her head ache and her mind weary. Instead, she took the little girl by the hand and watched with her as they entered the main entrance shaft that led directly towards the planet's bright and gleaming surface. Towards their new goal, one Whisper decided was the only journey she had left in her, for a reason that had never touched her mind before, a prospect so foreign to her that it dizzied her senses and made her feel sickly warm to her very core. She was doing it, because it seemed like it was the right thing to do. Given all that had happened, she understood why. She looked up towards the light from the surface and then down towards the little girl, as Thea looked up and made a funny face. Whisper closed her eyes and allowed a momentary feeling of joy to take hold of her.

They won.​