Play Testers Wanted Pt. 07

Play Testers Wanted: Part 7

All characters are 18 years old or older. 46,000 words long. It is a bit of an adventure to be sure. If the length is too much perhaps read it in segments. The time portal has sent our hero back in time but where and when. An ancient evil on a world coursing with darkness. What's an adventurer to do? Grab all the X.P. He can and level up like a champ, that's what!

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Time is On My Side:

I woke in the middle of the smoldering crater. I was naked and pissed off. Try as I might I couldn't remember much of my passage through the portal. I was tumbling ass over elbows and then nothing. I stood and looked around. My surroundings were quite otherworldly, and my gut told me that this was neither ancient Latveria nor mysterious Wakanda. So, where the hell was I? I waited patiently as the first of seven moons began rising.

"Definitely... not Earth." I muttered as the realization of my situation became abundantly clear. "Need to fix this naked situation." I mumbled as I walked out of the crater. I pulled down my HUD and nearly screamed in shock. "What the holy fucking hell is going on?!" I shrieked.

Most of my possessions were greyed out. I had access to only a scant few of my belongings. This had to be Doom's doings. He rigged the gate somehow. He and his crew had something that sent them to the right location and year. I didn't have it and I ended up here, wherever here was. I also guessed that the lack of that device left me in the dire situation I was in. At least I still had all my skills and abilities. The only clothing I had was the S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, and a new garment marked dark robes. I activated the robes, pulled up the hood and decided my appearance might draw unwanted attention. I cloaked myself in shadows and felt the ease a bit alarming. It took no effort or energy to hide my passage. I didn't trust anything at this point especially something as basic as using my powers.

"That's damn strange." I growled still pissed at my unavailable equipment. "First my lightsaber and now this shit!" I cursed. "Let's see if I am sitting on top or near a power source. Maybe that is why I am not burning points to maintain my shadows." I ranted trying not to lose my temper.

I closed my eyes and reached out and felt the pulse of raw power. It was far away, so it didn't make sense that I'd be drawing on it from this distance. I stopped and decided to make sure I could access any and all my abilities. I went through them in alphabetical order. I was relieved to see that I could do them. The unnerving part was that I barely scratched either my stamina or magic pool to perform that many abilities. If I could do that, then others could it as well. I was going to have to choose my battles wisely. I checked my quests and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the only one currently active.

'Time on my hands.'

"No shit." I grumbled as I headed in the direction of the power source for lack of anything else to do for the moment.

I began singing old songs to pass the time and comfort myself. As I walked, I looked at my environment. There was plant life in abundance and like Ossus they were utterly alien. Where I passed small animals would scurry and seek shelter. I had become the predator. My anger washed over the landscape heralding my approach and signaling my departure. The sky darkened and I felt a second rush of power as my vampiric blood pulsed and called out to be fed. I had no weapons I could use save my bare hands and of course my fangs. If I was to survive long enough to discover a way off this world and back to Earth. I needed to feed.

I sensed it at the edge of my being. It was out hunting now that night had fallen. I paused and reached out to touch its mind. Unlike the Exomorph, this beast was starved and in a near rage to feed. Its empty belly made it dangerous and impatient. The wind suddenly shifted, and it caught my scent. I prepared to defend myself as it came quietly to find me waiting. In form it was heavily armored with a spiky exoskeleton, short stubby legs, and a wicked looking tail. It charged my position and I unleashed a single blast of Force lightning into it. The ebony lightning lifted it off the ground and upended it. I watched it's helpless form with its six legs that it wiggled in the air. I heard its twin hearts pounding in terror and racing in rage. I plunged my hand through the thin skin of its underbelly. I ripped out one of its hearts and drank straight from it.

"So much rage." I gasped surprised at my own actions. "Rage comes easily here. Power and rage in great abundance."

I left the remains of the beast for others to scavenge. With lips stained with fresh blood I raced through the forest towards the source of power I had detected. I stopped when I reached the edge of the cliff. The land beyond was dominated by scrub grass, queer looking fungi, and a graveyard of wrecked starships. That is where the power was coming from. I glanced for a way down and found a path half a mile from my current location. Intoxicated by the fresh kill still working its way through my system I laughed as I launched my body off the side of the cliff. The shield formed around me with barely a thought. The ground rushed up as I plummeted towards the ground. A dozen yards above the floor of the land beyond I shoved downward with the Force and slowed my body so that it floated like a leaf from a tree. My feet touched the dry earth and I resumed my journey for my destination.

I crossed the enormous distance in just a few hours. I felt like a grain of sand compared to the dead hulks before me. The engines of these once great ships were ten stories tall and just as wide. I couldn't tell what brought these ships down, but they had all gathered here to die. My HUD chimed and when I checked a new quest was available, it was entitled Rakata Requiem. I took up shelter within the nearest derelict and removed the holocron from my inventory. The cube rose up on its own and activated. The image of strange hammer headed alien hovered over the cube. It spoke in its native language and when I didn't respond it switched to English.

"Pitiful slave, you don't even know the language of your betters." It scowled at me displaying his razor-sharp shark teeth.

"Forgive me," I replied deciding subservience was the only way of getting anything out of this gate keeper. "Your race has been dead for centuries and passed into legend."

"Fear not slave, I am a patient Master and I will instruct you in my language so that you can raise yourself up from nothing." He replied grinning, I think.

"Master is kind." I stated and smiled back.

It would reveal nothing until I had a basic working knowledge of its alphabet and spoken language. I spent weeks under my Rakata Master's tutelage. When I wasn't practicing the Rakatan language I was searching the ship for supplies, tools, and a means of repairing the ship's power plant. Without power I was vulnerable. Enter Traci. She was about to double my learning burden. With her help I got a crash course in engineering. She dumbed it down and to my surprise I understood it. Each day was a lesson on language and how to read and interpret schematics. Eight weeks into my exile I powered up the first small power plant that wasn't beyond all hope.

My next self-appointed task was to create a helper. During my wanderings I found numerous disabled droids in various stages of destruction. While my Master taught me language, I erected a pile of metallic corpses. When I had enough parts I began taking them apart. I sorted them by function and tossed the obvious damaged bits away. All I needed was a single droid at the end of this mission. By the time I had stacks of individual parts I had also collected and put together a tool kit. I had a nice selection of tools that I needed to take apart and now assemble a companion. I laid out the skeleton first and worked from there. There were flashes of the Numenor robots in my head and I used that as a plan for my creation. I charged the droids power cell from the power plant I had repaired. As it charged, I began assembling the torso. It was a hybrid of a dozen different manufacturers and droid types. Traci walked me through the work and never failed to explain what to do but also why I was doing it. The arms and legs followed suit over the next few days. The head took nearly as long as the torso. I was particular about the sensors it would possess as well as its processing power. I managed to create a rather impressive neural relay that was scattered within the head and chest of the droid. So that even if the head were damaged it had a backup protected by the torso's armor. I was equally proud of the sensor array which reminded me of a cluster of spider's eyes that gleamed a bright red in the dim lighting.

"Well?" I asked Traci as she scanned the inactive droid and declared it fully functional. I placed the power pack into the torso and closed it.

"Here goes nothing," Traci declared as she cloned herself into the main memory core of my creation.

The limbs of the droid twitched a few times as the eyes lit up. It sat up, looked around, and announced that it was fully functional in Traci's modulated voice. She held up a hand and wiggled her fingers. I helped her to her feet and she eagerly awaited orders. Now that she was up and running, I was ready for the next phase. We went about repairing some of the ships systems and computer network. I learned how to 'slice' the ship's security protocols. Thanks to the holocron I was able to read the ship's coding language and bypass it, eventually. While I tried different passwords, it hit me that the current races were using the Rakatan alphabet as their own. They weren't completely forgotten after all.

Traci did the heavy lifting and I left her on autonomous mode. I figured she knew how to attack the repairs far better than I did. My third month was the most rewarding to date. I was able to finally slice the inventory of the ship and found where the cargo was being held and what it carried. I levitated the holocron with me and as I worked passed frozen bulkheads, and ruptured blast doors. It took three days to make my way from the power plant to the cargo hold. It was worse off than I feared, but not without hope. I scavenged to my heart's content and found the makings of a ground vehicle. There were three repulsor engines, two were small and one was rather large.

I made my second base camp within the stadium sized cargo hold. I piled things in groups of weapons, repair and tools, and raw supplies. The most amazing find were the bolts of what the manufacturer called solar cloth. Imagine something as thin and smooth as silk and as tough as adamantium. It could collect and store solar energy and release that energy in a variety of ways. With it I had the means of making a solar sail. I imagined a floating catamaran soaring over the surface of this world to the nearest town or city. First, I had to discover whatever training the holocron held.

"You are ready to begin." The Rakatan declared later that week. "Let us see what meager talents you possess."

I began with levitation, Force push, and then moved onto Force lightning and my mastery of shadows and invisibility. I ended with manifesting other elements and waited for his reaction.

"Can you influence others?" He asked and I nodded. "Can you drain the life out of your victims?"

"Not with the Force, no." I said and revealed my fangs.

"Good! Let me instruct you in the ancient art of life stealing." It informed me in a low chilling voice. "Summon a beast and we will begin."

I was hungry so it wasn't difficult for me to want to feed from some of the local wildlife. I reached out and felt the presence of what turned out to be a wild herd mammal. On Earth it would have been the equivalent of a cow or bull. Summoning it was simple. It lumbered into view and my Master guided me through my first attempt to extract the life stuff of the animal. My vampiric nature made it more natural than it would have been for others. I closed my eyes and felt the very life force of the animal. It was strong, healthy, and had it in abundance. I was told that there were several ways of initiating the contact so that the extraction could occur. I had to choose an emotion to inspire in my prey and the stronger the better. I could pick panic, rage, or even lust. Any strong emotion was a viable candidate. I didn't want the beast to suffer so I chose fear.

"Reach out and touch the life aura. Good! Now strike and make it swift!" The hologram called out.

I lashed out and inspired utter terror in the animal. It cried out once as its heart burst from the attack and I was only able to snatch a fraction of its life.

"Excellent! What did you learn?" My Master asked.

"Quick kills give off little sustenance." I replied. I was already reaching out and summoning a second animal. "Slow and steady is best for feeding."

"Show no remorse," He demanded. "A time will come, and you face death, or you will feed to preserve yourself. Trust your instincts always."

"Yes... my Master." I whispered as the bull approached me. "Sorry old fella."

I tapped into my hunger and performed the slow kill. I chose fear again. It paralyzed him from the onset. He stood despite his desire to bolt and run. I worked the fear deeper and let it build naturally. The beast's aura became visible and the vapor like lines stretched to me as I fed. I could feel its heart pound faster and faster forcing the aura to glow brighter. It snorted as its eyes widened as panic transformed into unparalleled terror. All the while I drank in its life until I was sated. If I killed it early the Rakata would be angry. I let nature takes it course and it took three more minutes for the beast to give up and perish. The aura faded to nothing as the body crashed to the ground without a single mark on it. That was also a lesson. If I used it on a sentient it would appear as a death by natural causes.

"You will not feed on blood for a month straight as you experiment with other emotions." He ordered as the holocron went dark.

Traci and I worked on designing the catamaran. The two smaller repulsor engines would help support and steer the craft. The larger engine would be for raw power and speed. There was a joy to ripping out metal struts and plates from already damaged parts of the ship. I levitated the pieces from where I had harvested them and transported them to the power plant room. By this time much of the machinery had been repaired and we had three power plants functioning. The key machinery available were automated laser welders. Robotic arms straightened out any dents while the lasers cut and joined the pieces together. I watched the skeleton take form as the six-cabin luxury yacht was born. I delved deeper to find nicer materials to decorate the captain's cabin. I moved from one wreck to another when I found recent footprints leading inside.

"Traci." I whispered over my commlink. "We have company."

"Yes and no." She giggled. "Yes, there is someone in the adjacent star ship. No, it isn't an enemy."

"Care to explain." I said as I walked into what had to have been a private star ship of a wealthy merchant or perhaps even nobility. "Somebody has been busy in here."

"I have." Traci said as a rough skeletal figure lumbered into view. "Hello. I have put together several workhorse drones to speed up scavenging and data collection. We aren't pretty but we are functional."

"Brilliant as always. Perhaps I should leave the ship building to you and focus on my training." I said and she agreed.

I meditated and cleared the excess energy making me anxious. I sought out the peace of the light side to maintain my balance within the Force. I allowed myself the time to cry for the beast that I had killed so cruelly. It was clear to me that I was somewhere within the confines of the Star Wars galaxy, but where. My question was why. If the gate that Doom built was meant to send me back in time but not on Earth why was I here? Why wasn't I sent to the dark elf home world? That seemed like the logical destination unless another plot was being advanced. Was there a connection between the two? It didn't make any sense or did it. I reached out through the Force seeking just that answer.

"Ghost..." the voice whispered.

I tumbled backwards as the echo of the voice laughed at my fear. My thoughts had touched the heart of darkness. My knee jerk reaction was anger at being thrown off my game. It was time to create a strategy. Something was on this world and it was connected to the Earth somehow. I needed to find out how and stop it. I went to the holocron and addressed the gate keeper.

"Master." I called out but he didn't answer. "Master!" Nothing. I balled my hand into a fist and struck the exterior of the cube. "Hey... asshole! Wake the fuck up!"

Berzap!

I regained consciousness sometime later. A full-sized hologram of the Rakata glared down at me.

"Such disrespect!" He snapped. "What have I done to earn this?"

"I am sorry. I needed to get your attention." I explained as I sat up.

"Well you have it. What was so dire you treated my receptacle in that brutish manner?" He asked and I shared what I had experienced.

"You aren't ready." He declared.

"You know what this thing is." I stated as I stabbed an accusatory finger in his face. "It went after your people didn't it. I thought so. I won't apologize for getting your attention, but I will for disrespecting you. For that, I am sorry."

"Good. You are learning our ways. Apology accepted." It said in a cool calm voice. "We will speak again in one month's time."

Each night I lured an animal to my location, picked a different emotion to inspire within it and drained every drop of its life force. I was a real vampire now. I took life directly from my prey. I wasn't idle during that month. I searched the graveyard and barely scratched the surface. I could spend years looking and find new treasures for my growing hoard. I attacked more and more sophisticated machines to take apart and cannibalize. I redesigned Traci's robotic limbs making them modular. She created a belt to carry those extra arms and attached them as necessary. I felt a great sense of accomplishment. To pass the time I had Traci display various sentient races in the Star Wars universe. I tried out a new form each day. The first races were the most humanoid. After a week or two I left that behind. I ventured into the near and non-human races. I was warned that some of them required atmospheric considerations. I had lost sense of time. After a month the holocron awoke and informed me it was time to push my skills to the next level. I carried it along the interior of the wrecks, and it pointed to an exposed portion of interior wall.

"Do you see that fibrous material clinging to the inside of that wall?"

"Yes Master!" I replied.

"Harvest it. Find something to collect the liquid in. Once you fill three suitably large containers, I will show you a wondrous thing." The Rakata declared and fell silent.

I searched the ships for three large bowl-shaped receptacles. They looked big enough, so I began. I tried melting a large area to no avail. The spot wasn't even warm to the touch. What the hell was this stuff? I reduced the area I tried to warm until I found my limitation. I attacked the one-inch square with everything I had. It was going to take a long time to fill three of these damn bowls. I drew on my rage and it helped. The material was durable and extremely heat resistant. Traci came in that night to inform me it was time to feed.

"Ghost man?" Traci queried. "What are you doing?"

"Harvesting that fibrous material as part of my training. Why?" I replied.

"Do you know what that is?" She asked as she scanned the exposed material.