Darth Bane's Training 2

In a vibrant sky filled with crimson red and metallic grey; a large ship, coated in large royal blue sails, creeps across the mist in the sky, making a sound to rival the quietest whisper.

As the ship moved forwards into the advancing night, it used what little light was left to shadow the cowardly towns underneath it, so that travellers would see a mere silhouette on the plains; its size dominated by the mass above.

The ship, now meandering with the dauntingly huge mist river, waving up and down as it crossed the sky, was slowing down; the destination which it had set sail was nearing and the journey its crew had embarked on was coming to its close.

The ship was a remarkable sight, even for the inhabitants of the planet Tianda. Its entirety built from the finest materials that the planet had to offer, finished with the rarest but most beautiful of trimmings; Mella gem trimmings.

Mella gems; the most beautiful and breathe taking of riches, only ever held usually by those of the grand culture and this; was in small amounts. So the locals new that for something of this size to be trimmed in them would mean one thing, and one thing only, royalty………
Darth Bane had never seen such a pitiful city approach him, crawling on its knees to the Ares Royal Guard. It has been a week ago when he had been addressed by his Queen to guard her; as she travelled to search for a man known as ‘The Speaker’ and now Darth Bane was starting to regret doing this behind the Kings back. Though he didn’t approve of the treachery being caused to his King, it was his job to protect and serve the royal heirs and therefore he couldn’t refuse; for he was the greatest and most loyalist soldier to grace the fine Tianda.

As he walked forwards and bent over the edge of the ship, Captain Tindas could see the waves below him of mist, the Mistmen diving upwards out of the mist, staring in awe before then falling and disappearing into the translucent near opaque mist vapours they now sailed upon.

His attention however was now drawn upon the noise echoing from the crews quarters down stairs , so turning on the spot, Darth Bane marched down the steps, allowing the crisp Red and grey sky disappear into a damp, dark and depressing corridor filled with small cabins and strong smells of vomit.

The commotion was coming from the last cabin on the corridor it would seem as Darth Bane marched, halting at every cabin door to allow his focus to concentrate on the source of the noise. Opening the last cabin door, the captain found the room filled with soldiers all staring at one individual; lying in a pool of vomit, shaking and moaning.

“What seems to be the problem?” The voice sneered with much dislike at the infamous band of soldiers known to be the worst in Tianda. The captain had been given these soldiers due to their incompetence to understand and/or work out what the Queen was up to.

“Everyone, stand straight and focused, ready to answer any orders when your captain approaches!” The voice echoed with an extreme boom, most similar to a mad mans roar of hatred at the people calling him insane.

The group looked feeble and then stood straight, though many only while the captains eyes were over theirs, many collapsing into a hunch when he stopped.

“Soldier Aaron is sick sir, it’s the motion sickness from the waves in the mist…Sir!” The answer had come from a young man, standing so close to the captain that, some could argue, they were connected by the hip.

“Thank you boy, but if you could restrain from arse licking in the future it would be very much appreciated and that includes physically as well as verbally.” The captains retort was one with most utter hatred; why was he stuck with these fools. The boy had not been lying however, the soldier in front of him, sprawled out like an eagle in flight, showed obvious motion sickness symptoms. What good were they if they couldn’t even battle motion sickness?

“You will throw him overboard, the one who does will be rewarded by not also being thrown overboard which is they way the rest of you may be going if I am interrupted once more.” At this Darth Bane turned and left, his point most obviously made and understood, Darth Bane realised this when he heard the great scream echo into the distance some ten minutes later.

Darth Bane was now busying himself ready for the Queens awakening. She hadn’t left her quarters since the ship embarked and the captain was sure to make a positive impression to make up for his negative one at what they were intending to do.

They were now only 10 minutes at most from landing at the shanty towns outer boarders and he knew when they did, trouble wouldn’t be far behind.

Since the recent war it seemed “plain” cities and towns were becoming extremely rough, with a 20% survival rate to those living with in 10 miles of a “plain” city. So he knew he would need to be well prepared and focused if he was to complete this mission with the queen successfully.

Rounding up his soldiers, the captain selected 4 whom he felt were the most strongest and left the others to guard the magnificent ship. Leading his small regiment to the front of the ship, he found his queen, the stunning Lady Sherina.

Once the speech had been given by the queen, informing everyone of their given duties to protect her at all costs while she met ‘her old friend’ and convinced her to fly back with them, they turned and readied themselves for the decent through the mist and into landing on the plains.

As they dropped in height and were emerge by the great mist, the horrible sensation of being soaked in water and drenched with depression came; fortunately this was short lived and they were out in the fresh air a split second later; Slumming town’s gate directly in front of them.

Retreating down the platform now dropped by the soldiers left on board, the queen, captain and his 4 men marched towards the huge gate; left in shadow by the massive ship.

The town was daunting; on entry it was filled with the homeless, lying beside small market stalls they had set up. Many stared at the unusual attire that the queen and her men wore and at the strange way they sort of marched through the long stretch of dusty path as if not phased by such a strange sight; like this was a normal place for the ‘Grand culture’ to walk.

Turning left down the first alley way the soon came to a miniscule hut that had been built, out of place with the huge flats that towered above it. The queen, without knocking entered and the captain followed; his men waiting outside to keep guard.

On entrance Darth Bane’s jaw dropped, in front of him, where he expected a small bed and a horribly ‘plains’ cultured man to be lying was a set of stairs leading down. The queen obviously expecting this strolled down as if nothing was out of the ordinary and the captain, pulling himself together; followed.

After what seemed a decade of walking, they came to a nicely sized room filled with hooded characters all sitting a round a table, in the middle a young teenage girl sat with her legs crossed, staring at the magnificent queen and the dumb struck but faithful captain. Pulling herself up from the table she walked forwards and jumped of the top the table to the floor and addressed the queen.

“You are here because you believe I am the one, are you not?” The young girl asked with out hesitation to a formal greeting. The queen nodded and bent down low, before hastily standing back up and hugging the young girl.

The captain had no idea what was going on, why were they acting like they were in a rush? Why was the queen hugging the young girl? Who was this young innocent looking girl, and who were all these hooded figures, lifeless…maybe one of them was the speaker?

Before anything more could be addressed however a large crash echoed and the sounds of a soldier running down the corridor could be heard; the shouts of Darth Bane echoing around the room.

The soldier burst through the open door panting, a large cut deep in his face.

“Sir, our own men have attacked us, the kings orders, they plan to kill the queen and” The disturbing comments were cut short by a large blade that appeared inside the soldiers head, before disappearing into smoke; leaving the dead body, lifeless on the floor. At once after this disturbing event, 5 things happened at once, the queen swore loudly, figures could be seen charging down the corridor and the hooded men, originally presumed lifeless, stood up and ran of down the corridor, swords drawn.

The captain stood transfixed on the fight now ensuing in the corridor, completely bewildered to what had just taken place. The queen however swiftly moved and closed the door and stared into the captains eyes.

“You will take and guard her with your life, I have hear a letter of instructions explaining everything to you. She knows of her duty to save the kingdoms of our great world and restore faith in democracy. She has spoken to me with in my dreams regarding this. Now go, it is my husband and I will deal with him.” The sentence finished with a extremely unsuitable silence, the captain was so stunned his jaw had physically dropped again. Was this a joke, those soldiers would kill her, what was he to do. She wanted him to go against his king…

“That was an order Captain Atrois, now finish your duty to me and carry out my final orders, then when you succeed you are your kings once more. However I fear the guards will attack you on his orders also, I am very sorry.” The words were so gentle that even the girl seemed to have shown some sort of humanity as she held back a tear.

But before the captain could say his goodbye to the queen he truly admired, a large cry was heard and he and the girl next to him were being compressed into nothingness; the captains screams lost in compressed time and space.

They had come to about 1 mile away from where the ship had been landed, smoke was now pouring from the city, it would seem the soldiers had taken liberty to burn the town to the ground, along with its people, along with the queen…

The queen had used her royal magic to teleport them as far out as she could, the last thing she did before a blade ripped through the door and splintered through her perfectly chiselled body.

Turning in absolute silence, still clutching the letter she had given him, Darth Bane looked at the young girl standing beside him.

“So, what’s your name?”

The girl flinched. She stood slowly. "Don't hurt me..... PLEASE!" She yelled. Darth Bane was in no mood to spare her. The pig that told him to kill her would not be satisfied, though Darth Bane would be. He drew his light saber and sliced her head off. He stepped away laughing.

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