FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER THREE

Fear and confusion followed the sound of intruders breaking into the residence. Racing footsteps preceded purge troopers as they pointed guns at the startled dwellers. No questions were answered; no pleas were acknowledged. Any resistance ended with a strike from the back of a rifle. On the planet of Commenor, soldiers shoved the inhabitants of a farming community from their homes to the center of town and forced them to their knees in front of the Thirteenth Brother. A black, angular transport, the Night Dagger, loomed in the background with her downward-pointing wings folded above its pyramidal body, as if a dark temple had emerged from the depths of the earth in the night to spew forth nightmarish creatures from the boarding ramp between a bifurcated nose.

The young blonde human Inquisitor had a handsome face, despite the terrible burns on the left side and a long scar held by mechnostaples crossing his eye. He widened his mouth into an unsettling grin while his cybernetic eye in a metallic eye socket mimicked the movement of the brown natural one. Silence washed over the villagers as a second helmed Inquisitor descended from her ramp, the Fourth Sister. She stood in front of the villagers and studied them.

"What is going on? Who are you?" the headwoman of the village said.

"We're looking for a Twi'lek Jedi," said the Thirteenth Brother, stalking the perimeter. "We tracked him to this village. We know you're hiding him."

"Jedi? What are you talking about? We're farmers."

"Is that so?" The Thirteenth Brother dragged a sobbing girl out of the crowd and ignited his lightsaber close to her neck. "Where is the Jedi?"

"There is no Jedi—please."

"Liar! Tell us where he is." The Thirteenth Brother pulled the head of the girl back by the hair.

"Please, don't. We don't know anything about a Jedi," the girl's father said.

"Please, let my baby go," the mother cried.

"You're going to be next." The Thirteenth Brother moved in for the kill.

"There's no need for that." The Fourth Sister halted him with a gesture.

"This scum think they can lie to us. We should kill them one at a time until they talk, starting with the children." His words made the crowd gasp.

"That would be a waste of time. Let the girl go."

Unconvinced, the Thirteenth Brother shoved the girl, who then rushed back to her parents' embrace. The Fourth Sister waved her hand across the villagers, reaching out with the Force. A few sources of anger dotted the otherwise overwhelming sense of fear emanating from them. But she felt something else. Her hand halted and she pointed at an old man with a mechanical arm. The farmer levitated against his will with the tip of his boots dragging on the ground and dropped at the feet of the Fourth Sister.

The old man let out a sardonic snigger. "You think I'm afraid of you?" his tired voice rasped. "I survived all four Battles of Mygeeto. Your scare tactics don't work on me."

"I know." The Fourth Sister's mask unveiled in three sections, revealing the gray face of a Kage with a black line painted over her gold eyes.

The old man squirmed as the Fourth Sister invaded his thoughts. The more he resisted, the more excruciating it became. The Inquisitor saw memories of a young Tukian Twil'lek, handing a compass to a tall human in his mid-thirties, with platinum blond hair and blue eyes. His manner of dress appeared to be of someone who worked in the wilderness, such as a scout, a guide, or an explorer. In return, the man handed the young Twi'lek something that surprised the Fourth Sister. The old farmer had provided communication between the two parties. Digging deeper, the Fourth Sister got a name, Lor San Tekka. She could sense the name of a planet. The farmer's grunts turned to screams, as he tried to resist; finally succumbing to the strain of the mental probe.