Part 1 / 4

Rey: The Failed Trail
Artwork by BadgerSFM
Story by SinBad


The planet of Korriban looked horrible below. An ancient Sith planet, it had been abandoned for generations by that point. Scanning for life forms, Rey saw that not only was it uninhibited, it was flooded with life forms unknown to the scanners or even BB-8. Hoping that Poe would forgive her borrowing of his droid, she began her descent, eager to claim whatever artifact that Luke’s ghost had told her was needed to restart the Jedi Order. The thought did cross her mind of why the future of the Jedi would be on the home world of their ancient enemies but her worries ceased when Luke explained that in order to protect the recovered Holocron of force-sensitives, he had hidden it on the last place anyone would look or even want to go.

Touching down, she felt a pull in the force and thumbed the lightsaber of Anakin and then Luke Skywalker. After her own weapon had malfunctioned-due to the lack of instructions on how to build the weapon- she had been forced to reclaim the weapon from the sands. Beginning her trek, she felt another sense, one of unease wash over her. Ignoring her bad feeling, Rey entered the wastes, hoping for a short mission. In ways she could not imagine, she was correct.

The massive wasteland took two whole days to cross, something that she had failed to take into consideration when making the choice to temporarily disable her star-fighter. Entirely a result of her bullheadedness, she had refused the nagging thought to simply circle back and fly closer. By the time she was fed-up with her hike however, she truly had no idea where her ship even was. Shaking her head, she simply believed she could find it when her mission was over. Huffing as she slid down a tall dune, she was rewarded by the sight of cliffs and rocky outcroppings.

Her fingers were bleeding, rubbed raw by the sharp stone by the time she reached the top of the stone monolith. Retrieving the small tube of Bacta from her emergency supplies, Rey rubbed the soothing fluid over her torn hands, crying out as the burning feeling washed over her until her skin was fully repaired. Grinning with self-confidence, she finally stopped to look around, frowning as the top of the cliff appeared to be an arena of some sort.

Something felt strange, her own abilities in the force seeming to be dulled to the point of nothingness. Shaking her head again, she did get a warning of danger as a large boulder fell from the top of one of the surrounding spires. Rushing away, Rey looked up and gasped. Atop the pillar was what must have been what her scanners had picked up. The thing was like a demon from her nightmares. Its head was clean of skin, showing a mixture of bone and muscled accentuated by a set of glowing yellow eyes. Summoning her Lightsaber to her hand in a practiced motion, the Jedi stepped to side and swung the weapon up in a clumsy arc, bisecting the creature in a single motion as it pounced.

The air suddenly felt heavier, each breath seeming to require the same effort as swinging her weapon. Looking over the body, she heard more rumbling around her and stood, steadying herself for more of these… Sith spawn. True to form for her life, a half-dozen of the beasts appeared atop the spires, all bellowing savage war cries. Wincing at the high-pitched screeches, Rey covered her left ear to block them out as the group began its attack! Scooting her feet into the crude fighting position she had taught herself; the new Jedi grasped the hilt with both hands and struck out once again.

A clawed hand was severed shortly before its mutilated head was cut down the middle, not having a chance as Rey sprang her right foot forwards, planting it into the gut of another Sith spawn with enough force to knock it down. Finishing it off with a slash across the chest, Rey gasped as a clawed hand grasped her side and nearly punctured her smooth skin before she counted by stabbing backwards, impaling the beast through its chest. Spinning forwards, Rey switched to a reverse-grip, swinging upwards and slicing her next opponent from crotch to skull.

As it fell into halves, she was already moving forwards, ramming her shoulder into the chest of another beast. She underestimated the mass of her attackers however, her move costing her as it wrapped its arms around her athletic frame. In that moment, Rey felt the force flow through her and snapped her head back, ramming her cranium into the Hellspawn’s chin. Throwing her hand backwards, she hit the beast with a very powerful pulse, sending it flying away as she stood in place, causing the stone pillar behind her to explode as her blade swung again, cutting another of the things in half! Pleased with her success, her smirk faded as a hulking figure stopped towards her and fell completely as more of the beasts appeared…