November 16, 2011

746. A Sith by any Other Name - Raezyr

The shuttle was no where near as fast as the Jet Razor, and the trip was taking much longer than the Sith warrior was normally used to. The problem was that when you're a 'respectable businessman' you're not really expected to be flying around the Galaxy in a heavily armored and armed, highly manuverable starship. Questions were raised, or so his brother constantly reminded him.

So Raezyr was stuck flying around in a luxury shuttle. Actually, he wasn't even flying the ship which would have at least made him somewhat happy. Instead, he was stuck in the passenger compartment while a two man crew flew the ship.

Apparently well-to-do businessmen didn't fly themselves places, either. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that having hirelings on board meant that he was unable to practice lightsaber combat or accessing his holocron. He was reduced to reading and studying tomes if he wanted to continue learning to master the dark side of the Force.

The big Sith sat alone in the passenger lounge, pretending to read his data pad, which currently displayed the text from an ancient Sith tome, a history of Darth Andacon and his exploits which, Raezyr guessed, ended with the Sith Lord dying some horrible death. He had lately noticed that many histories of Sith Lords tended to end the same way, with the servant of the Dark Side finding his or her way to Hell due to some situation the over-confident Sith had put him or herself into.

He was glad that Trychon and he were much more cautious than these fools. Their stories made for good "what not to do" parables.

Raezyr was brought to the present by a sudden change in engine noise. Rather than the usual thrum they normally emitted, a grinding wail now pierced the shuttle.

He reached over and hit the ship's intercom, "Report!"

It took a moment for his call to be answered, and when it did, the annoyance came through as clear as day, "Sir, we're having some minor technical difficulty. We're handling it."

Raezyr had to swallow his retort and remember that the fool had no clue who he was really talking to. As far as the pilot knew, Raezyr was just some upper-class businessman with no real knowledge of ships and such. "Believe it or not, I can be of real use. Please give the details of our situation." It nearly killed him to bite back his real response.

"Sir, something is wrong with the hyperdrive," the man said. "When we attempted to exit hyperspace and change course for the next leg of our trip, the drive jammed into overdrive instead. My co-pilot has gone back to see what he can do." The man's voice sounded calm, but with the Force, Raezyr could sense the panic. He could sense the panic from both of them.

And with good reason, too. The ship had continued on it's course, speeding up as well. They were no longer travelling according to any calculated coordinates. Without the proper calculations they could fly through a star or a black hole and that would end their trip pretty quickly.

Raezyr leapt to his feet and began running down the corridor toward the engine room to help the co-pilot. He only made it half-way when an explosion rocked the ship, knocking him to the floor. Heavy metal panels and conduit fell from the ceiling and struck the Sith in the head.

He layed there on the cold durasteel floor, his vision swam for a moment, then went black.

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