Ahsoka Tano; Mightiest Force Wielder (Book 1: The Rise)

Eyes of the Empire 4

Next mission for Ahsoka's team was to enhance the healing crystals. That had to be done in the Jedi temple, but it did not exist anymore, there was the imperial palace in that spot now. As Ahsoka once saw, cruising over the palace, there were a high number of storm troopers and the inquisitors of which all or almost all had been sent back to see the dark side by Ahsoka, stationed there. But who knew, maybe Darth Vader filled the open ranks with new ones already.

The source, revealed a secret way in, which was long forgotten, to Ahsoka. 2km through the sewers, then 200m up on an old staircase eventually ending in the crypt below the palace. A part of the crypt is an old Sith shrine, where the force is strongest in that area. The crypt is a quiet place and for the last 5 years nobody had been there anymore. The crypt was the lowest level of the palace. They should only take the 4 non enhanced crystals with them and leave the others behind.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sith_shrine

Ahsoka used the airspeeder to bring one after the other to the entrance of the sewer system in the underworld. Meanwhile Mike used the jetpack flying over to his flat, where he removed the recorder, reconnected the camera, then leaving the flat through the sleeping room window, using the force to shut the inside handle again. He wanted to leave as little trace as possible.

Next he brought the Lone Scout over to the public space port, landing it right next to the Sith's ship and turning off the cloaking device. He took the jetpack off, but kept the storm troopers uniform on and put the big blaster over his shoulders. Lucky picked him up there with the speeder and dropped him off at the sewer entrance where the others were already waiting. The storm trooper uniforms and the Tie fighter helmet had lamps and night vision built in which was really useful finding their way in the pitch black dark sewers. Lucky had to go back to the public space port being ready to pick them up when requested.

Guided by the source, Ahsoka identified the manhole cover and removed it using the force. Now they all had to get into the terribly smelling sewer pipe. The force urged Mike, who was last, to close the manhole again. Being inside the sewer, he had to use the force to do it, but he was not used to move heavy things with the force and it took him considerable time. Luckily, there was only one way they could go and he also saw the head lamps in the distance, but he was considerably behind. The diameter of the pipe only allowed them to crawl through the sewer pipe on their knees one after another. The two kilometers were hard, one could not stand up and the stream of feces would constantly run about 10cm high, being cold and smelling terrible making one not want to sit down or even lie down to take a rest. The only option really to get a bit of rest for ones arms, was to lie down, but nobody considered it. Mike wished to have the jetpack and fly through the sewer pipe, probably getting grinded away, but better than this exhausting crawl. At some point he could not see the lights of his comrades ahead of him anymore and he pondered if he had lost them. Did he miss a turnoff or maybe even the exit or did the sewer just have a bend? Ahsoka who was in the lead, felt a change of the ground. Before the sewer ground was a hard round pipe littered with debris making the ground softer. She was happy to wear the gauntlets of the uniform. Now the ground was soft and it was moving, not much, just a little – strange. Mike advanced to a spot, where he saw 4 white pointy things. 2 came down from above and 2 protruded up from the ground. He moved closer to them to inspect them closely and for a second he wondered, why the pointy things were clean white and not full of debris? Suddenly he realized, they were teeth. Turning his head around, he came to the understanding that his head was inside a jaw. Quickly he backed up and just as he had his head out, the jaw closed. He now looked into the eyes of a gargantuan snake or serpent, its head illuminated by his helmet lamp. Thehead alone was bigger than Mike and the snake's body filled the complete diameter of the sewer pipe. Mike lied down on his back, so to slide back down the pipe, but the muzzle of the snake opened again and its tongue tried to get hold of him. The long tongue wrapped around his neck and pulled him into the muzzle again. In his desperation, he drew the light saber and cut the tongue off and he heard a sharp hiss. Now he started to slide down the pipe, but stopped the skittering after a few meters again. His friends most likely had gotten devoured by the snake and he had to somehow save them. He had to kill it, before it was too late for them. Again he crawled upward, until he was right before the head again. The jaw opened and he again looked into the abyss of the snake. Thesnake tried to push forward to get him, but seemingly it had gotten too fat inthe sewer pipe, it only moved at a snails speed.With the light saber he started to chop away pieces of the head. First the snake tried to move forward and attack, but due to its size, it could only move slowly within the sewer. Once it understood, that all its efforts against a light saber were forlorn, it tried to back up. Again it was way too slow and Mike strike by strike turned the snakes head into goulash. Ahsoka felt wave pattern movements going through her surroundings and an additional burning sensation on her skin. The liquid level was rising. It did not smell like sewer anymore, it smelt like vomit. Finally, her brain processed it: she must be inside the stomach of some animal. The burning sensation on her skin was from the acidy digestive juices and that was why it smelt like vomit here. Turning on both of her white sabers, she frantically started to cut into what she believed to be the walls of the stomach. Mike meanwhile had worked himself forward through the head and beyond the neck and to the muscle closing of the stomach. Once he had that one cut to pieces, a lot of liquid poured out into the sewer and he saw the lamps of his friends again. His heart was pumping wild, he hoped he could still retrieve his comrades alive. How relieved he was to see the lamps moving and all of them responding to his callings. It took them a lot of time, until they had worked themselves through most of the snake's intestines. Eventually, the rest of the snake's tail came loose and got washed downward from a lot of sewer liquids which had dammed up behind the serpent. Obviously, all 4 of them were pushed down the sewer in front of the tail. It was unfortunate, but their downward skid came to a halt at about the manhole they had started from. They were all soaked wet and covered by a black slimy substance,thestench almost unbearable, definitely undefinable. After they had cut the tail into pieces, they could eventually continue their upward crawl again. This time around, Ahsoka paid more attention, what was ahead of her. 3 more hours of working their way up, the source made Ahsoka aware, that they had reached the point, where they needed to get out of the sewer. Problem, Ahsoka did not see any exit. She looked forward and backward and up and around until she recognized some debris hanging down from above. It could be the exit, if over the years at high tide feces collected between there until the exit was completely covered and disguised. She dug upward into the disgusting mud with her hands and removed the slimy debris of feces that had collected there over time, getting lots of it over her head tails, montrals and head. Eventually, she had the manhole cover excavated and pushed it out using the force. Now she looked into a small room, which ended in a staircase completely carved out of rock. The ceiling, the walls and the staircase itself were all carved out of rock. It looked like that work was done using hammer and chisel a millennium ago. She went up and the others silently followed her. Again, the force urged Mike to close the manhole. This time it was easier, because he could use his hands. Eventually they arrived in a low ceiling hall supported by pillars all carved out from rock. It smelled like death there and Ahsoka was not sure, what she would prefer, the smell of feces or the smell of death. What she also felt, was the dark side. It greeted her: "Hello Ahsoka, my love, my cute master. I'm glad you followed my invitation."

"We are hungry and thirsty, did you prepare dinner", was her pungent answer?

"Your hunger and thirst will be sated", was the solemn reply.

"A bath would be appreciated as well."

The dark side: "You will bath in my energy, don't you worry!"

She walked around the dark hall in an inward spiral, so to discover all of it. On her way, she saw grave stones on the side of the walls, sarcophaguses and an area just with bones. Darth Toth could not help himself and opened one sarcophagus using the force. In it were bones, rotten cloths and a light saber. A bit surprised, Darth Toth removed the light saber and closed the sarcophagus again. Off course, the light saber did not work. Following her inward spiral, Ahsoka discovered the Sith shrine eventually. It was on one side of the hall with a little altar in the middle. The dark side was very strong here. Even some used old candles, they found there. Launching lighting strike Ahsoka moved the lighting further down, until it reached the wick of the candle and inflamed it. Continuing, she enflamed more candles using the already lit one. It was spooky, the darkness, the helmet lights, the candles and the energy of the dark side. In the shrine, the energy of the dark side was intense. Ahsoka took the crystals out and placed them on the altar, then placing the candles around them. Out of some intuition, Darth Toth also put the dead light saber next to the crystals.

Coming to the core of their mission, the 5 sat down around the altar, taking off the helmets and started to meditate. They were all focusing energy into the crystals. After a couple of minutes, the crystals started to glow red and the glowing got more intense over time. Half an hour later, the source asked Ahsoka to stop now, informing her, that the crystals were completely transformed into power healing crystals. When Ahsoka stood up, her eyes were glowing bright yellow, the eyes of the Siths were burning red, only Mike's eyes were about normal.

The dark side addressed Ahsoka: "Hello, my love, my cute master."

She retorted: "What is thy bidding?"

"Kill Sidious!"

With the urging of the dark side, Ahsoka felt the blood lust: the empire had to pay, pay badly. It was pay back day today. Today was the end of the empire and the end of Darth Sidiuos!

Looking at the others, she said: "Let's go and kill Darth Sidious."