STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic

PROLOGUE

Venar Moonrunner awoke with a start as a powerful explosion rocked the hull of the Endar Spire, sending him falling to the floor of his sleep quarters. He was alone in the room as the ship's alarms began wailing and the sound of soldiers' footsteps sounded on the other side of the room's mechanized door.

He picked himself up off the floor and started pulling his clothes on which he had left lying on top of his small locker which contained his weapons and personal effects. Not that he had any.

Just then, the door to the quarters opened with a hydraulic hiss and a man, dressed in the red and yellow garb of a Galactic Republic soldier, walked in. He looked to be about in his late thirties, and his blonde hair was neatly combed atop his head, while a scar across his right cheek showed he had seen plenty of battle.

"Get your self in gear soldier!" the man barked. "Sith troops have boarded the ship!"

"I'm on it! I'm on it!" Venar shouted back. He never was a fan of the soldier drone-like mentality.

"You're not a soldier are you?" asked the man," you one of the new recruits?"

"Kind of," Venar replied as he strapped on his holster and retrieved his blaster from his small personal locker under the bunk. "I used to be a smuggler actually. I was recruited by the Republic as a scout."

"I see. The name's Trask Ulgo," the man said, "Everyone is regrouping at the bridge. We have to make sure Bastila makes it off this ship!"

Venar strapped a small vibro-sword to his back as he followed Trask out of the crew quarters. Another explosion shook the ship as they almost lost their footing. "Right, right. I'm with you, but who the heck is Bastila?"

Trask gave him a quizzical look as they ran through the hallways of the Republic cruiser. "You must be really new if you don't know who she is."

"Why don't you enlighten me Trusk-"

"It's Trask"

"That's what I said."

"...anyways Bastila is the Jedi Commander of this-"

"Watch out!" Venar shouted as he pushed Trask to the side as a blaster bolt came whizzing down the corridor. "Sith troopers up ahead!"

Four soldiers armored head to toe in shiny metallic plating, brandishing blaster rifles flanked each side of the hallway up ahead where two hallways intersected.

"I see them!" Trask shouted as he began firing his blaster pistol as he took cover behind one of the supporting archways of the corridor. Venar did a quick roll taking cover behind an astromech droid that was doing maintenance at a panel on the wall. The droid beeped in alarm as several blaster bolts struck its metallic frame and the droid screamed as sparks flew in every direction, it's circuits frying and small flames rising from the holes where the blaster bolts had hit.

Venar popped up from behind the now useless astromech droid and returned fire, using the scope on his blaster pistol to quickly take down two of the Sith troopers with clean shots to the head. The other two Sith troopers returned fire, forcing Venar to duck back behind the astromech droid.

"We don't have time for this!" Trask called as he readied a frag grenade from his belt.

Venar peeked up from behind the droid. The troopers had stopped firing. "Wait!" he called to Trask.

Just as the Sith troopers were about to deliver another onslaught of blaster fire, a brilliant blue light blurred through the hallway's intersection. A faint hum sounded as the Sith troopers screamed in pain as one was stabbed through the chest with a bright beam of blue energy. A woman dressed in plain brown robes deactivated her blade of blue light and with a seemingly effortless gesture of her hand sent the other trooper flying backwards down the hallway. The blaster he had been holding clattered to the floor.