Enter Black Flag, Part 2

“Exxeter! Get your men up there! Lieutenant, give them cover, keep their heads down!”

Aurrelius mobilized his commanders and then turned to the human and sith girls. “Play times over, time to get to work. Cutting a hole 300 meters that way should give you an access point. Stay safe, stay in the shadows. Once you secure the command centre, lock it down until I send a detachment to relieve you. Understood?”

Both girls nodded.

“Good luck to you Ryiena. May the force be with you Snow. Now get going, you have a job to do.”

He watched the girls run off towards the wall undetected, for now. He sighed. What if... No, he had more important things to worry about right now. They were both more than qualified for this. He turned his head to the walls where Exxeter and his team of mercenaries were just now clambering over the top of the wall. He signaled the soldiers to cease fire. A few tense moments passed, accented by blaster fire, before Exxeter looked over the wall and gave the all clear sign. Aurrelius responded and gave the signal for the soldiers to use their own ascension cables to scale the wall. He watched the soldiers climb up the wall like so many ants in the moon light. He soon followed suit and raced to the top.

“We lost Zek, and Patch is hurt. He'll make it, but I wouldn't trust him to make a run down there. But still, the ramparts are ours, boss. Every last turret,” came Exxeter's report.

Aurrelius nodded and turned away. Zek was a good man, their best pilot; and not having Patch, the secondary medic did complicate things... It couldn't be helped. Still, the operation was preceding smoothly, almost too smoothly...

He pulled out a small com chip. “Shimas, we have secured the ramparts. You may begin your 'landing.' ”

“Right, thank you Aurrelius. Nice work down there!”

Aurrelius flipped off the com and turned towards the small door leading down into Castle Dark. “It's not over yet my friend, it's not over yet.”

***

“My Lord Malefestus, we have company,” reported the chiss man.

Malefestus spun his chair ominously to face the obviously unnerved chief of security. “Shimas. I knew he would return, but I did not anticipate such a bold move, and so soon...”

“My Lord, it's not Shimas. It's a white haired, one eyed man covered in blue paint who leads them. He's already taken the entirety of the ramparts and is preparing to enter from there. He only lost one man in the assault.”

Malefestus frowned. This was indeed an unusual turn of events. “Aurrelius? But how could that poor fool muster any force large enough to raid Castle Dark, and then do it with only one casualty?”

The chiss swallowed hard. “My Lord, the, ah, guards. They left their posts and ran in terror, many of them committing suicide once they entered the fortress. Those who didn't claim that the gods have aligned with this man, that he's unkillable, and that he has come to bring judgment on us all.”

Malefestus seethed. His commandos were surely tougher than to believe in such superstitious nonsense! “Tell the men to fall back. Turn off all the lights up there and tell the droids to prepare an ambush in the first atrium.”
Droids don't believe in god.

***

“Men, warriors of the empire, remember! Whatever we find down there, it shall not deter us from our cause, nor our destiny. For we are heroes! And we SHALL overcome the darkness!”

Aurrelius turned toward the gate, cracked open by his mercenary team, code named 'Death Mark'. He boldly strode through and into the hallway, flanked on either side by members of Death Mark, and then by one hundred of the soldiers. He attempted to activate the lights, but found that all power had been cut from them. He inwardly cursed himself for not thinking to have the men carry their torches with them. He instead had them turn on the night-vision mode on their helmets. His own eyes would have adjust. He unslung his double vibro-staff and crept further into the hall.

As he went, he felt an oppressive darkness weigh upon his soul. First his reaction was terror, but then he quickly found that he could actually draw energy from it. He smiled. Such a nice present for Malefestus to leave for me, he thought to himself. Remembering his men, he turned around and saw that they too, had felt the soul stopping darkness. Some of them had stopped marching entirely, shaking their heads. But the song of the ancients, still fresh in their minds, prevailed and they marched further inward, and further downward.

Soon they came to a large cavern like room filled with darkness, both physical and forceful. Aurrelius had a bad feeling about the room, like he should avoid it completely, but then, it would make the perfect forward base of operations for which to map out the castle until Snow and Ryiena could secure the command center...

He ordered his men to file into the large room and secure it completely. It appeared to be some kind of storage room for HK droids, all of which looked deactivated. He walked over and poked one of them with his staff absentmindedly, and turned away. The droids eyes flickered and it rose up to stand behind Aurrelius, who spun and sliced the droid in two with his staff. All around the room droids were activating and beginning their attack protocols.

“Shoot the droids!” came the desperate call, but it was already to late. The soldiers were being mowed down without cover while trying to return fire. Left and right the soldiers were being gunned down like fish in a barrel, the survivors hurriedly forming a circle to cover each others backs. One by one, warrior after warrior fell to the deadly HK droids in the oppressive darkness.

BOOM!!

The cavernous room shook and all the participants in the struggle were thrown to the ground.

“Arise men of valor! The gods are with us!” Shouted Aurrelius with all his might. Secretly he blessed Shimas and his amazing timing. The soldiers rallied and quickly staggered to their feet, blasters blazing. The droids, advanced as they were, could not recover in time and were quickly dismantled by the remaining soldiers.

“Lieutenant, form up the survivors and get me a damage report,” said the druid wearily.

One of the members of Death Mark, a tall, broad chiss warrior approached and nodded tiredly. “Blackout, good to see you in one piece. How many of your team made it?”

“Myself, Jarx, and Dexter,” came the deep throated reply.

“So many dead... What about Exxeter? Is he...”

“No, not yet. He's over here.” Blackout took Aurrelius to the remaining members of Death Mark huddled around their injured leader. Exxeter looked up to Aurrelius and wheezed, “Heya boss. We got hammered pretty dang hard. Took a hit to the gut. Hurts pretty bad.” Exxeter winced and fell back only to be caught by Jarx.

Aurrelius looked to Blackout. “Will he pull through?”

Exxeter, not wanting to be ignored, hastily replied, “Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.”

“Oh really?” was the skeptical reply.

“Trust me, I've had a lot worse.”

Aurrelius glared at his vice commander and friend, rolled his eye and turned back to the rest of the soldiers. “Liar,” he mumbled under his breath. Exxeter was talking, and trying to joke. That was a good thing. But he could see that almost half of his forces had been decimated. That was a bad thing.

The lieutenant hurried over and informed Aurrelius that the company had been reduced to only 40 men, many of whom were beginning to feel the full effect of the crushing darkness around them. He couldn't continue with the main plan, not anymore. Dividing his forces now would be suicide. He also couldn't go back and leave Snow and Ryiena to meet their fate in the command center either... Or maybe...

“Lieutenant, mobilize the men. We must press onward, and quickly. They won't be expecting survivors. Now is our time to move.”

Further ever further the dwindling band marched...