Star Wars: Skywalker's Rebellion

Chapter Six: Attack Of The Dragon

Darkness. Coldness. That's all that Cade could feel. He couldn't see anything or hear anything, and he wondered if he was even still alive. The strange thing was: there wasn't any pain. It wasn't even mildly uncomfortable. It felt... not good, but satisfying.

And then it passed. The darkness was still there, but Cade could see faintly.

"Master?" Cade called into the night, despite it being daytime. "Shado?"

"Right here," said the familiar monotone voice of Shado. Cade focused and squinted his eyes, and he could make out Shado sitting on the ground, shaking a little.

"What was that?" Cade asked. "What happened. And where is Wolf?"

"Right here!" Sazen's voice hissed. "But keep it down."

Cade found his master, too. He was kneeling, with his land placed on the ground. The ground. Cade looked closely and saw that where green grass used to be, brown and purple dead grass covered the floor. Cade concentrated and focused more on his surroundings. What he saw made him feel nauseous. Everything was in the same place as before, except... dead. The life and prettiness of the planet had been decimated and all that was left was death.

"It's been sabotaged," Sazen looked right at Cade. "The Ossus Project. Somehow it's been sabotaged."

"Sabotaged?" Cade repeated, trying not to focus on any one of his ugly surroundings. This wasn't hard, because the light was so dim anyway. "How?"

Sazen didn't respond for a long while. He simply closed his eyes, a worried expression across his face. "We though this would work," he mumbled. "We really did."

Cade looked over at Shado, who just shrugged. Cade realized that both Shado and Wolf were still trembling. Cade looked down at his own hands and discovered that he was the only one not shaking. His mind was working frantically, trying to figure out what was going on, but his body was completely still and calm.

Sazen had opened his eyes, but he was just staring ahead, not making the slightest sign that he planned on moving. Shado was just sitting around too, waiting for Sazen's instructions. Cade looked between the two of them and got to his feet. "We need to figure out what's going on here."

Shado glanced at Cade and looked like he was going to follow, but then he looked back at Sazen, who hadn't even looked at Cade.

"Fine," Cade said, not trying to hide his annoyance. "I'll figure things out by myself."

Cade started off marching in a random direction, trying and failing to get his bearings. He had only made it several yards, though, when he tripped over a large root and he sat down hard on the ground.

"Frag it," he cursed miserably, standing back up and brushing himself off. He dug his lightsaber out of his robes and ignited it, the green glow illuminating his surroundings. But that didn't make him feel any better, because what he saw in the light of the saber was worse than an ugly looking root. It was the tail of a large dragon-looking creature.

Cade stepped back cautiously, both hands gripping his lightsaber tightly. "Okay, that's a dragon. No biggie, I just tripped over a dragon," Cade told himself softly.

The dragon hissed, its head moving forward toward Cade. The thing was three times Cade's size and he looked dangerously hungry. Cade got the feeling that he was on the menu.

"Alright," Cade continued to talk to himself. "Just think back to the training module on how to kill a plant-looking dragon. Oh, wait, that doesn't exist!"

The dragon's organic head moved even closer to Cade and he could swear he saw the thing lick its lips. Cade realized that he would have to act quickly. That wasn't too much of a problem—he specialized in acting quickly.

Cade leaped onto the dragon's back and dug his lightsaber in. He expected for the thing to yell and fall over, but Cade's saber cut through the dragon's back like paper and Cade realized that that was its thickness. He had basically just stabbed a leaf. The dragon groaned a little, but other than that, the hole in its back didn't seem to affect it. Cade stabbed the dragon a few more times, but it had the same effect—nothing. Cade was desperately trying to think of another plan of attack when the dragon threw him off its back.

Cade landed on the ground with a thump and groaned. He stood back up to attack again, but the dragon was too fast. One of the dragons "limbs" snatched up Cade and brought him close to its face. The dragon's breath smelled like compost and old banana peels. Cade was about to offer it a mint when it leaned in toward Cade and opened its mouth, ready to consume.