Star Wars The Old Republic: The Jedi Crusader

CHAPTER 4 - BELSAVIS - NOTHING

Mara contacted the Rat King as her ship approached the prison planet of Belsavis. "Okay, Rat. What am I up against here?"

"Same as before. Almost. There are still escapees destabilising the region but nothing you can't do with your eyes closed. The warden is on the bottom level and has surrounded itself with some of the most dangerous prisoners in the whole place. Be on your guard. There is an airlock in the lower levels that you can use. You'll need to make sure that you lock on to the mountainside and dock from there. It's the only one that hasn't fallen apart."

"Great. Anything else I should know?"

"Not to my knowledge. I'll contact you if that changes. Rat out." The Rat King cut his transmissions as Mara's ship dived through the blizzard and made its way to the snowy mountainside, docking on the last intact airlock. She cut her way through the half-functioning door and made her way back into the darkness that swallowed up her bother.

She waded her way through the tunnel until she came to the greater prison complex. It was just as huge as before. Thousands of feet high and deep, all filled with prison blocks and chambers. As she continued her way in, a prison transport came flying past her, almost knocking her off her feet as she was blown back by its gust of wind left in its trail. She shook herself down as she pressed on, making sure to avoid being flattened by a prison transport as she continued her journey in to the deep.

Corpses of countless criminals and guards littered the landscape as she walked through the deteriorating prison, climbing through broken chutes and ducts to get to where she needed to go. She eventually came to an open area through a faulty door that locked behind her as a voice rang out through the prison. "Intruder detected. Releasing guard." It was the warden. As the voice rang out, a cylindrical object arose from the floor in the middle of the chamber and it opened to reveal a group of Gamorrean gladiators, all of whom surrounding a huge rancor. They charged at the prodigal knight as she drew her new dualsaber.

Mara mercilessly cut through them all, showing no sign of remorse or hesitation as their primitive attacks all fell within seconds to her masterful technique. Before long, the Gamorreans were al but sizzling corpses as the smell of charred flesh hung in the air. The rancor hadn't even gotten close to her by the time they Gamorreans had been slain. Mara wasted no time in turning her attention to the beast as she threw their corpses at the monster, each on slightly disorienting the beast as she relentlessly hurled them at it before leaping over its head and landing on its spine, before thrusting her blade directly into its back before spiralling her way up to its neck and swiftly decapitating it.

A door on the other side of the room opened in response to its death, and Mara promptly entered. Inside was a smaller airlock, but one with multiple doors and an exit that led beneath. The chute on the floor opened and revealed a series of poorly assembled platforms that Mara quickly made her way down. She eventually came to the bottom. She was suddenly surrounded by treasures and wealth of almost immeasurable quantity. She approached the gleaming chest in the middle of the room. She placed her hand on it and opened it, revealing what treasures lay inside. Suddenly, a blast shield opened from it and trapped her in a small dome before the floor beneath her opened and she quickly found herself falling downwards through a chute that could see the infinite scale of the prison.

Somehow, she was falling slowly, as if there was something amiss with the gravity. She took in all the cells and the magnitude of punishment that had been delivered within these ancient walls throughout the millennia. But she soon moved her thoughts to the task at hand as she landed outside of a coliseum-like area that had a few corpses sprinkled around for good measure as a few prisoners still fought it out on the prison's deepest structure. Her holocom bleeped.