Lightside Sith 001

AN: This story is HEAVY on Legends lore. Most feats are based upon the 2003 Clone Wars series where cyborgs like Grievous could trash several Jedi Masters at once or Yoda can easily solo a droid army. Additionally, fleets/armies are lore accurate in scale & travel time is real (as according to lore), and you can't just hyperspace jump from Coruscant to Mustafar in a day. Enjoy~

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A flash of memories hit his head like a sack of bricks. One moment, he was just a regular guy from Earth going to sleep, the next, he found himself on the bridge of a spaceship. 

Inheriting the identity of Kaine Renstar (what an edgy name!) a Dark Acolyte student of Count Dooku, a week had passed since the invasion of Geonosis, and he was part of a CIS fleet surrounding the practically defenseless planet of Ryloth. 

Kaine found he had all the basic skills of a resident of the Star Wars galaxy. He spoke Basic, could pilot a starfighter, and even had a lightsaber strapped to his hip! 

Wearing the standard black robes, and a mask that all but screamed I am cannon fodder, he slowly came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't make it out of the Clone Wars. Either death by some random clone trooper, a Jedi, team-killed by another Dark Acolyte, or, if he was ‘lucky’ folded into Palps’ Empire as an Inquisitor. None of that seemed particularly appealing. 

Fortunately, at that moment, he saw some bright System text float into view. 

[Lightside Sith System: Act like a Lightside Sith, and be rewarded. 

Rank: Tier I (Acolyte low) (0/1,000 until (Acolyte mid)

Skills: Tier I: [Speed] [Inflict Pain] [Sense] [Hide Presence] [Precognition] [Form II]

Inventory: Lightsaber, Sith attire, sonic grenade x2, macrobinoculars. 

Lightside Points: 0

Ranks: 

Tier I-III = Padawan/Acolyte

Tier IV-VI = Knight/Sith Lord

Tier VII-IX = Master/Darth

Tier X = Council Member

Tier XI = Order Master/Council Leader

Tier XII = Grandmaster/Dark Lord of the Sith

Tier XIII = ???]

There were no levels, or stats, but from what he understood, he had the strength of the weakest Acolyte, aka the equivalent of a freshly graduated fodder Padawn. With abilities like that, soloing a squad of clones would be extremely difficult, but not impossible.

It seemed that once he got enough points, he could advance to the next rank. Kaine assumed it would go something like low -> mid -> high -> and then upgrade from Acolyte to Sith Lord. He also had an inventory, so that was neat. 

But the ‘leveling’ process was really wierd…to go up in tier, he needed not exp, but something called Lightside Points…what the hell??? He was very clearly dressed as a murderhobo, and was poised to commit war crimes in the name of Count Dooku, yet if he wanted to get stronger, he'd have to act like a so-called Lightside Sith? If he defected to the Jedi, would he even still be able to gain points? 

It was looking like his only path to survival…was to transform the Corpo scum of the CIS…into the good guys?!?!

Whilst Kaine was having his internal crisis, the world around him did not stop, and a deep voiced, green skinned alien next to him-a man he belatedly realized was Wat Tambor-turned to address him. 

“Kaine Renstar, Count Dooku has placed you under my command for the duration of this invasion. He has spoken highly of your skills as an assassin and saboteur.” Tambor said, the eyes beneath his goggles narrowed as he looked at Kaine appraisingly. 

Kaine was momentarily stunned in place, and when he sensed that the Skakoan was beginning to lose patience with him, Kaine performed a short bow. 

“What would you have me do, Emir Tambor?” 

“The bombardment of Lessu-Ryloth's capital-is slow to achieve victory. These Twi'leks must've received prior warning of our arrival, and have erected a shield. Whilst I muster a ground assault, I want you to infiltrate the palace, and remove Lon Secura of the Twi'lek Ruling Council. He is the last obstacle preventing us from seizing power.” Tambor spoke calmly, as if he were ordering Kaine to go trim some grass.

As for Kaine, he felt the muscle on his cheek twitch. He wasn't down to kill some random dude. It was one thing if he was being shot at, but his first mission in this universe was an elimination mission? Silently brooding to himself, Kaine found that technically, there was a way out of this. Although Tambor very clearly wanted Secura dead, the word ‘remove’ provided a lot of wiggle room. There just might be an opportunity to farm some Lightside Points! 

“Yes, Emir.” Kaine bowed, keeping the words he said to a minimum. 

“Your shuttle departs in 10 minutes. Do not disappoint Count Dooku's trust.” Tambor replied, and turned around to look at a holographic display without another word. 

Kaine-following his memories-began to walk towards the hangar. During this short trek, he realized he really was trained as an assassin/saboteur. Literally, his skills were focused on stealth, speed, and interrogation. 

[Speed] was obvious, and [Inflict Pain]/[Sense] let him question a target. [Hide Presence] wasn't anything magical like invisibility, but it acted sort of like [Mind Trick], in that it made everyone ignore him, acting like he was air. Of course, with this setup, skilled Jedi, droids, cameras, and scanners would still detect him. Traps & alarms could also be set off if he was careless, and he could be revealed if he touched someone, or someone was pointing at him and yelling. So to remain hidden, it was best to avoid contact with large crowds as much as possible. 

As for his lightsaber skills, he had learnt Form II, a style of combat that excelled in quick, decisive thrusts. Parrying blaster bolts was not this style's forte, and he felt that if three or more guns were shooting at him at once, he'd be boned. Basically, he was a glass cannon who would be royally fucked if he didn't one-shot the enemy. 

Going through this list of his abilities, Kaine finally reached the hangar. Several basic B-1 droids saluted him, and he ignored them as he approached his ship. Whilst the vast room within this Bulwark-Class Mk.I Battlecruiser was filled with standard droid starfighters, there was one that clearly stood apart from the rest. His personal starfighter was a heavily modified Star Courier nearly identical in design to the ship Darth Maul piloted. Named the Odachi, it was equipped with a cloaking device capable of maintaining invisibility for up to 10 minutes, as well as powerful shields, anti-sensor tech, and a Class 1 hyperdrive. Capable of carrying 6 passengers, Kaine wanted to geek out over this beauty of a ship, or even marvel at the lightsaber strapped to his hip, but there would be time for that later. Right now, he had to farm those points. If he displeased Tambor, aka pissing off Dooku, the best he could hope for would be a pair of lightning hands to the face!

Hopping into the Odachi, Kaine moved based off of muscle memory, flicking all the switches & pressing all the buttons necessary to get the show on the road, the ship began to hover in place. Feeling the same kind of excitement an adrenaline junky might experience when racing a car, he sped off like a young man driving a sports car on an open highway. 

Leaving the hangar, he engaged the stealth drive, and suddenly, his ship flickered, before becoming invisible to the world at large. Downloading some data regarding his target, he had a tactical droid summarize some data, and did a quick study on the city, culture, and leaders. 

Flying around the turbolaser fire pouring down from the CIS fleet, he found a clearing in a forest a couple of miles out from Lessu. 

Igniting his lightsaber, Kaine held it in front of his masked face, and waved it around a few times, enjoying its hum. Count Dooku had gifted each of his acolytes a red, synth crystal powered saber, and right now, Kaine was happy as a kid playing with the weapon. Thrusting and slashing several times according to [Form II], he swiftly cut down several large branches, and then covered up the Odachi. 

Activating [Hide Presence], and [Speed], he began to move through the thick forest at a respectable 40mph. 

Dodging and weaving through vines, Kaine sensed a conflict up ahead. A large snake-like thing the size of a titanboa was constricting around a car-sized Blurrg. The Blurrg was reptilian, like a dinosaur, had short claws, and was a bipedal with elephant shaped feet. Possessing a tail, scaly green skin, and hunching slightly forward, this creature was one of the preferred mounts of the Twi'leks, and acted as both a beast of burden, and as cavalry.

‘Saving lives is a Lightside Sith thing to do, right?’ Kaine thought to himself, then ran at the giant snake. 

Unsheathing his lightsaber, the crimson beam of super hot plasma easily sliced through the thick flesh of the massive snake, instantly cutting it in two. As the creature roared, and wriggled, the Blarrg got up, and ran away into the forest. 

Lightside Points +1. 

A notification hovered in the air for a second, before fading away. 

Kaine gently nodded his head, it seemed that this method indeed had some merit. He imagined what he just did was no different than Obi-Wan in the Mos Eisley bar cutting off that one alien's arm to ‘save’ Luke. 

Ignoring the dying snake, Kaine continued on his journey. Along the way, he experimented several more times to see how the System operated. 

In one encounter, he killed the prey, and received no points. On the plus side, he didn't get a demerit or some negative score. Confirming he could be a little evil if he had to be. 

During another case, he used [Inflict Pain] on the predator, scaring it away. For that, he received +2 Lightside Points. It seemed that ending the conflict between two parties was the most optimal way to farm points at the moment. 

Following this realization, he had deliberately come across a frog-like creature eating flies like candy. Scaring away the frog, he was awaiting a big burst of exp…but nothing happened! It seemed tiny life forms didn't grant any Lightside Points. So if he saved a bunch of krill from a whale, he wouldn't suddenly be swimming in the money. Unfortunately, this was also true for grass, trees, plants, etc. Only saving certain lifeforms netted Lightside Points. That was kind of speciest of the System, but damn would it be nice to max out on exp by saving a bunch of worms from some fisherman? 

He also found some time to test his inventory. As far as he could tell, he had 99 slots, and could contain weapons, clothing, food, and small crafted items. For example, a stick about twice the length of his forearm could enter, but anything longer than that couldn't. The leg of a dead animal could, but the corpse of a SUV sized creature couldn't. As long as something was close in size to himself, and wasn't alive, he could probably fit it into his inventory. Once he returned to a CIS ship, he'd have to see if he could fit a droid inside. 

Doing all this research during his trip had eaten up roughly two hours, and he was now outside of Lessu. The sun had just set, and the bright red lights from the fleet above were like a fireworks show as the turbolasers came down one after another. Noise like no other assaulted his ears, and the mellow purple shield covering the city continued to hold on as if it wouldn't break anytime soon. 

A shield like this would likely last months. Given his meta knowledge of the series, Kaine knew that the CIS would eventually blockade this planet, and try to starve the people out. Ryloth's major cities were sparse, as most of the planet was surrounded by forests full of super death. If Kaine didn't have [Hide Presence], he wouldn't have the courage to take this mission. During that short work, he witnessed almost a hundred deaths, and had farmed 20 Lightside Points performing rescues. It was due to these killer forests, that the CIS wasn't willing to commit to a ground assault just yet. 

From what Kaine could tell, there were three main reasons why Ryloth was under siege (and not just because it was a Republic planet). For one, it was a jump away from Geonosis, leaving a backdoor for the Republic to use as a staging area was just stupid. Secondly, it was a major drug manufacturer, producing ryll, a highly addictive, lucrative material. Lastly, Twi'leks were the most sought after slaves in the galaxy. For these three reasons, the CIS wanted this planet. 

To Kaine, this was a potential gold mine of Lightside Points. If he could somehow finesse the CIS out of the slave trade, then he was sure to earn a big boost in exp. But that could wait until he held some bargaining power. For now, he had a mission to accomplish. 

Leaving the forest, he was greeted by a wide open dry area filled with canyons. This was a barren area of land that was inhabited by the Twi'leks, keeping them safe from the terrors lurking in the forest. At the moment, [Sense] was going into overdrive, as virtually the entire ground in front of him was layered with mines. Yeah, a ground assault here would be extremely costly, good thing he wasn't thrown at the front line like some Sith Warrior. Thankfully, he had both [Sense] & [Precognition]. However, he was a lowly Tier I Acolyte (low), and could only detect these underground dangers from within 10ft. 

After an hour of laborious skulking, he finally came to the ‘front door’ of Lessu. The city was quite large, and was shaped like a circular mountain going up. Kind of looking like a pawn from chess. Pulling his macrobinoculars out of his inventory, he took a look to see if there were any weak points, or easily accessible spots. 

…it turned out, Lessu sat atop a plateau, and had a circular, hundreds of feet drop open air ‘moat.’ Only a stone bridge connected it to the mainland, making this city virtually impossible to approach. No wonder it was under siege! Kaine could only thank his lucky stars that there was a bridge at all! In Canon, once the CIS took Ryloth, they demolished this stone bridge, and replaced it with an energy bridge that could be turned on, and off! 

Praying that there wasn't a droid overseeing the Twi'leks security, Kaine was blasting [Hide Presence] to its maximum effect. Speed blitzing out in the open, he ran across the bridge, and saw that an old fashioned style-durasteel reinforced gatehouse was waiting for him on the other side of the shields. 

Most large scale shields-like the one protecting Lessu-were just like the shield that the Gungans deployed during the battle of Naboo. Hover craft, and ships would lose power upon entry, and fall to the ground as sitting ducks. This is why slow moving walkers, or other terrestrial vehicles were so popular in Star Wars. This same concept is what allowed Kaine to bypass this shield, and successfully enter the city! 

Moving through the purple membrane, he saw that the gatehouse was manned by several idle Twi'leks who would occasionally glance out over the parapet, then return to a game of Sabaac. 

Looking up at the 30ft tall wall, Kaine saw that there was a pair of lamp posts about 13ft above him…only, they were positioned to the far left & right of the gatehouse, that is, the lamp posts were hanging over that bottomless drop of a ‘moat.’ As a Force Sensitive, he could easily make a 13ft vertical jump, even as the lowest ranked Acolyte. But if he fucked it up, he'd be falling into a pit that was deeper than the Grand Canyon! 

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Kaine adjusted his gloves, stepped back, and after performing a running jump, slammed into a light post, jerking it dangerously to the left, and creating a sharp, metal shriek. 

“What was that?!” A guard asked, and ran to the parapet. 

Looking down right at him, the guard was practically staring at Kaine. 

‘You can't see me, can't see me, can't see me.’ Kaine thought to himself, squeezing his eyes shut. 

“Must've been a bird trying to nest again. Damn light post is so old, it must've finally given out.” The guard reasoned to his compatriots, then returned to the card game. 

Kaine was about to exhale in relief, when the pole shifted due to his weight, and his [Precognition] was telling him he had 12 seconds to either move, or fall! 

Sweat dripped down his spine like water from an overflowing creak. Performing a spin move, he hauled himself up the remaining distance, just barely clutching onto a spike sticking out of the wall. Dangling by one hand, he pulled upon the Force, and pulled up, flopping down on the other side, Kaine was gasping for air like a fish out of water. Seeing the same guard coming over again, Kaine cursed the purple skinned Twi'lek, and rolled to the side, away from the oncoming boots. 

After the guard left, and Kaine had caught his breath, he-the ever mindful Lightside Sith-was looking for ways to improve the lives of his Twi'lek brethren and do some good deeds! 

Observing the game of Sabaac, he saw that four of the long lobed men were dooking it out for a pile of credits. Stroking his chin, Kaine saw that the guard who had checked on him several times was actually quite sneaky, and had used the excuse of checking the walls twice more to change several cards within his sleeve. The man was a cheat! Good thing Kaine was here to spread the Lightside! 

The next time the purple Twi'lek was going to deal, Kaine used a targeted [Inflict Pain] onto the alien's wrist. A flurry of cards spilled out, and his companions all rose in fury as they figured out that they had been played! 

“Ah, ah, not the face!” Purple guy complained as he took a punch to the jaw. 

“This is for all the credits you stole!” Another Twi'lek jeered. 

+1 Lightside Points. 

“Ah, justice. Truly, I am a paragon of goodness~” Kaine whispered to himself as he climbed down some stairs, and entered the city proper.