Revan’s Journal: Taris: First Encounter
The smell of air freshener was the first thing that assaulted me as I stepped out of our make shift camp.
No sooner had I planted my right foot on the floor outside of our room, I quickly spotted a Sith patrol, composing of a captain and two security droids, harassing an Duros. The very sight of this alien in the Upper city came somewhat as a shock to me as I knew that Taris’ major population was human and that they did not take kindly towards aliens, especially in the Upper city.
Unfortunately the Sith official heard our door open and turned to look our way. It was obvious that we were Republic fugitives. Driven by my senses, I drew my blaster pistol with my left hand from my hip and my vibro blade with my right hand from my right chest, I sensed Carth draw both of his blasters from his hips on my left. Without hesitation, I squeezed the trigger thrice, aiming twice for the heart and one for the head of the Sith Captain. There was no time to duck for cover so I didn’t bother looking for any.
I didn’t bother to look if my shots hit their target; I was already aiming for the head of one of the security droids. As the body of the Sith Captain started to fall, I took a step forward to adjust my stance and pulled the trigger twice.
The first shot missed due to me adjusting my stance but my second shot hit its aim. The droid didn’t go down though, so I took another step forward and I found myself face to face with the security droid. Before it could react, I quickly slashed my vibro blade across its neck, severing the wires that connected the head to its body.
Without warning, a burst of blaster rounds fired from behind me, and the second security droid went down. As I turned around to see who it was, Carth suddenly took aim at my foot and squeezed the trigger of his pistol. As I was about to react to the sudden thought that Carth was trying to kill me as well, the hand of the Sith Captain suddenly went limp.
Turns out, Carth wasn’t trying to kill me, he was killing the man who was about to kill me.
“Thanks, I thought I had him. You’re pretty quick with your hands.†I said after we had calmed ourselves from the adrenaline rush of battle.
“Don’t mention it. You’re pretty fast yourself. Where did you learn to fight like that? I have never seen someone hold a blade and a blaster at the same time before.†Carth asked.
“It’s a trick I learned. It’s easier to shift from close quarter combat to close proximity combat if you have a pistol and a knife ready.†I said.
All of the sudden, the Duros was thanking us for saving him from the Sith patrol and gladly wanted to dispose of the body as thanks. Since we had no idea how to dispose of the body without being seen, we left him to the task he wanted to fulfil.
“I shouldn’t have shot that officer; we could have used his uniform.†I told Carth.
“That wouldn’t have worked, It would have aroused suspicion as to why a Sith Captain would need to go to the Lower city, plus our face would be exposed. If we stole a regular soldier’s uniform, our face would be covered and the guards wouldn’t really care where we went.†Carth answered.
“Carth, why is Bastila so important to the Republic war effort? I know she’s a jedi but beyond that I know nothing about her. It seems that this is a huge risk to take just to save one Jedi who could probably free herself without our help.†I finally asked Carth.
“Bastila has a technique called Battle Meditation. I don’t know exactly how it works but when she uses it, she is able to boost the morale of her allies and lower the morale of our enemies. With it, she could change the tide of a battle even if we were close to losing, that’s why she’s so important.†Carth answered.
“Well, at least now I know why we’re risking our necks.†I said.
As we travelled towards the Cantina, I wanted to know more about Carth. I figured that since I’ll be working with him for the duration of this trip, and possibly even longer, I might as well get to know him better, if only just to find out if there was a chance he might slip a blade between my ribs as I slept.
I couldn’t get anything out of Carth. Apparently, he was just a wary of me as I was of him. Turns out that he still found it strange that I was specifically requested by the Jedi, not only that but he stopped trusting people ever since Saul Karath bombarded Telos IV. He didn’t explain why that bothered him. It may have been his home world, but that still doesn’t explain why he hates Karath so much just because he bombarded Telos IV. Until the time he wishes to explain, I can only guess that something personal happened, something big…
