It was here that Vax remained hidden from the Empire and its hunters... but this day, as he opened his little door that was part of the fungal growth, he felt a tremor in the Force, a feeling he'd not felt for some time: the touch of the darkside.

"Think I'm as ready as I'll ever be..." Caden muttered, slotting his lightsabers securely into their custom holsters, which hung from his belt. He wasn't used to wearing armour, but El-Tee had reasoned that this environment facilitated it more than any, and as he caught his reflection on the polished bulkhead, he mused how he looked like a shadow of his former self. Back then, of course, he'd worn white Clone armour beneath a brown Jedi robe. Black Stormtrooper armour beneath a crimson zeyd-cloth robe had quite a disarming effect.
"I believe time is of the essence, Master" El-Tee said, enthusiastically ushering Caden to the lowering ramp, where he could literally see the murky air outside in thick, hanging waves of yellow-green.
"I dunno, El-Tee... I'm not sensing alarm. I think this Jedi, or whatever he..."
"Or she, Master..."
"... whatever he or she is, they may actually want this confrontation to happen. In which case, I'd better watch out for a motive".

The droid stared at him with what looked unnervingly like skepticism.
"Okay, so I could be wrong, and he could be fleeing the planet as we speak. Keep an eye on my locator beacon, and if any ships attempt to leave this place, come and pick me up so we can pursue".
"Now, there's a sound idea, Master Sturn" the droid agreed, before adding in an altogether too chirpy tone "Good hunting!"

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"Heavier in more than one way," he sighed softly as he looked down at the blaster-and-shrapnel-scarred armor. At his waist hung once again the hilt of the simple, yet effective yellow-bladed lightsaber that he'd cut down so many droids and Separatist agents with. He'd hoped never to use it again, but this day might spell different.

Even as he moved around his home, putting all manner of little traps into place, even going so far as to charge his natural defenses with whisps of Force energy to make them more efficient, the smell of a good stew cooking emanated from within his home. And so, he waited.

And if the plantlife was bad, the creatures were worse. Not only was the air filled with the roaring of who-knows-what, but small creatures and insects seemed to constantly latch themselves to his armoured boots, pass him up as inedible, then move on to attack each other instead. More than once, his lightsaber blades sparked and hissed furiously, as some small flying critter pelted straight into them in the hopes of a meal.
"This place is charming, El-Tee..." he muttered into his active comm, which was thankfully strong enough to pick out his voice without him having to relinquish either of his blades.
"Well, you chose it, Master" came the haughty reply into his earpiece.
"When we get back to the Citadel, I'm having your personality software checked over" Caden grumbled, mostly to himself, but he was sure he heard an involuntary whine from the other end.

Finding what looked like a natural trail through the dazzling wilderness, Caden picked up the pace. His armour and cloak had already picked up various smears and green stains from whatever he'd been walking through; luckily, nothing had penetrated and been able to infect him with anything.
He took a moment to orient himself; he'd detected the strong Force presence to the east, in the opposite direction of the giant Sarlacc, though that path was no more devoid of wildlife he discovered, regrettably.
Blades held in a reverse grip, he began sprinting, not wishing to draw this moment out any longer than necessary. After a kilometer or so, the path lurched sharply eastward, before taking a steady decline down to the lip of a ravine. Unfortunately, this downward path was blocked; not by tangled flora and fauna, but by a pair of Acklay, both presiding over the half-eaten remains of a bull Rancor.
He skidded to a halt, and studied the scene. Bodies lay everywhere, though they looked like nothing Caden had ever laid eyes on; natives, he assumed. The bull Rancor was still wearing the remains of a large four-seat saddle, and the luminous markings along its lower back had been torn into by the Acklay in their ravenous hunger.

An idea formed in Caden's mind, upon seeing the saddle. Looking around himself, he grabbed onto a seemingly harmless vine, pulled it out of the thick undergrowth as far as he could, and cut it off at either end with one of his blades.
The disturbance seemed to alert both of the feasting predators ahead; with shrill, terrible cries, one of them scuttled toward him while the other reared up on its hind legs, balancing while jabbing forward with its claws in a display of defence.
Caden half-crouched, then used the Force to augment his jump, lifting him high over the charging Acklay and putting him between the two beasts. He threw one of his lightsabers, the vine snaked around his neck for the time being, and no sooner had the blade pierced the soft underbelly than he was leaping again, catching the blade on its return, and landing deftly on the armoured back of the confused second Acklay.
It rounded, trying to get to the irritant that had just slammed onto its behind, but could no more see Caden than it could hear the cries of its mortally wounded partner; it was in a fury, hungry to taste the meat of this new delicacy that had wandered into its path.

Caden deactivated both blades and let them return to their holsters as if on their own accord. Keeping his balance on the spinning and thrashing Acklay, he extended a hand toward the back of the creatures head and fell into the Force, sending soothing thoughts to the angered beast. It resisted at first, but soon its resolve seemed to weaken, and begrudgingly it halted, breathing heavily and rumbling with ill-contained wrath.
Caden strengthened the bond between his mind and that of the Acklay, then looped the vine around its neck, and pulled back on it harshly. The Acklay reared, then set off down the declining path. It overstepped its fallen partner, bypassed the festering Rancor corpse, and with a long, piercing shriek, hacked its way through thickets of vegetation and half-stumbled into the ravine at the safest angle Caden could find.

Once again, his senses prickled with danger; something was waiting for him. A trap, perhaps?
He shook his head, and pushed onward, riding the Acklay toward his target. Whatever it was, it would reveal itself soon enough.

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

And so he waited still, feeling the footsteps of his executioner through the Force, drawing ever closer.

Once more, Caden extended his senses, probing for traps or hidden enemies, and more importantly, his prey. In hindsight, it would probably have been wiser to keep his presence hidden, but he still drew no feelings of alarm or panic. If the target was infact making a run for it, then he was doing it calmly enough not to alert Caden to the fact.
"Master, there's something nearby. Scans aren't picking it up too well, but near your location there's something inorganic" El-Tee informed him, alarmingly loud in his earpiece.
"Keep Bloodshine's engines warmed up, I might need immediate pick-up. And keep the Force cage active, just in case..." he muttered into his comm.
The Acklay had stopped during the brief exchange, its eyes fixed on an undescernible spot directly ahead. It was sniffing; perhaps it had detected movement.
"Onward" Caden urged the beast, and with its head bowed low, it carefully moved forward. Tense and on edge, Caden felt the Force rippling around him; bushes and large fungal growths quivered in his wake, and an audible rumble cascaded around him as his tension manifested itself physically around him. He breathed, calming himself; he would not allow himself to fall victim to such mind games.

The Acklay rounded a loose bend, into broad daylight. The smell of something cooking - stew, perhaps - invaded Caden's nostrils, and he wrapped the make-shift reins around one hand, grasping an unlit lightsaber in the other...

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

As Vax felt the commotion through the Force, the rattling of a cage beside him drew his attention. Some time ago, Vax had captured an infant Felucian ripper and raised it, taming it to an extent, and the creature could sense his momentary agitation. Calming himself, he opened the cage, allowing the moderate-sized animal freedom.

"We're about to have a guest, my friend. Be polite."

Caden saw it as his cue to dismount, sailing in a backward somersault and landing firmly on the ground, the Acklay providing a shield against the poison spitters.
He extended his thoughts into the mind of the Acklay, but he couldn't calm it; instead, he worked it into a bigger frenzy, and in moments the Acklay rampaged forward, clawing and ripping at the poison fungi, then bypassing them altogether and heading further into the living site, shrieking and slashing at anything in its way. The sound was terrible, but music to Caden's ears. The beast would surely succumb to the effects of the poison, but in its last living moments, he'd sent it forward to trigger any other traps that may be waiting; and if there were none, he could follow in the path cut forth by the rampant animal.

Strolling forward, he re-directed a globule back at one of the surviving spitters with a well-applicated Force push, then unclasped his secondary saber, and hurled both in an arc which would snip off the heads of all four spitters, before returning to his hands.

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

When and if Sturn made it into the ring of fungi that acted as a courtyard of sorts, he might well be surprised at the size of it. Ringed entirely by the fungal growths, it was practically impenetrable, unless of course one smashed through them or scaled them or some such. It provided a natural shelter that was roughly thirty feet in diameter. He'd also be able to see Vax, quietly eating a bowl of soup while the Felucian ripper coasted back and forth over his head, perhaps ten feet up. If Sturn looked about further, he'd also be able to assess another handful of six poison spitters artfully grown on different fungi, but all with a good aim (as it were) into the courtyard. Vax was a very defensive-minded man, after all.

He landed heavily on a remarkably sturdy, flat-topped mushroom which was easily large enough to land a small ship on. Bright purple and luminescent, it held firm under his weight, though he doubted he could say the same of all the other fungi in the field. From this vantage point, he could see it was less of a field, more of a perimeter ring, thirty feet in diameter, which put him at roughly fifteen feet from the center.
He raised his eyebrows, sighed with a mix of awe and exasperation; the Jedi was proving to be quite a natural at defending his position, but it also told Caden that his target was constantly wary of attack; and that kind of wariness might breed paranoia.
Summoning the Force to his command, he picked up a fallen branch from the littered ground, and sent the lightweight object hurtling through the air to the middle of the fungus ring. He couldn't see properly from here, not with the varying heights of the growths blocking his vision, but he was sure that was where his target waited. Hopefully the branch would alert him to Caden's impending arrival, and put him on edge.
On the flip-side, it could simply tell the Jedi that now was the time to prepare. Too late now, though.
"El-Tee" he said into his comm. "I'm about to engage. Bring Bloodshine nearer my co-ordinates, there's a ravine close by, it should provide cover enough until I'm done" he ordered. Then, as a side note, he added "If my lifesigns drop to critical, come pick me up. If they flatline, take the ship back to Prakith and report my failure and death".

He didn't wait for the droids reply, and dived down into the fungus, hacking and slashing at the growths where a single Force-push couldn't brush them aside, and leaping over the taller, thicker plants. It was slow progress, but each push, each swipe of his twin blades fuelled his pent-up anger, brought him closer to the mental center he needed to access to be able to confidently face the Jedi.
Inside, he wondered who it was, whether he'd recognise them. Could it be one of his former lecturers, someone he'd seen during the Clone Wars?

As he neared the center of the ring, he pushed all thoughts from his mind, and felt himself fall into what he knew as the Dark Side of the Force. He burst forth, his arm wraps tattered and stained with the effluence of a hundred or more fungi all laid to waste in his wake. Sweat mixed with the filth covering his face, and dripped to the ground. His zeyd-cloth cloak hung in shreds behind him, caught and snagged on the wildlife as he'd fought his way out of the suffocatingly enclosed fungus field.
And what did he find? A man, sitting, eating soup, a domesticated animal flying back and forth over his head.
"I've defeated your traps and defenses, Jedi. Now you're coming with..."
He paused, noticing the poison spitters just as their petals peeled aside, globules of venom drooling to the ground...

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"Killing a man is a hungry business, my friend. Come, sit. Eat. At least fill your belly before you murder me. I'll not bite, nor will Goolah." He motioned to the ripper flying above his head. "That is, of course, unless you take his snails. He rather enjoys them, you see."

Moving to one side to make room for Sturn, Vax used a hand-carved ladle to scoop some of the delicious-smelling stew into a wooden bowl (also carved by Vax) and set it upon the wide top of a squat mushroom.

Politely, he took up the bowl, but didn't eat. He wanted to, his stomach betraying him by growling loudly, but he wasn't about to risk his life on a small meal.
"I don't recognise you", he admitted. "Not from my visions, anyway. Who are you?". Curiosity was getting the better of him; he was playing a dangerous game, but it wouldn't hurt to be cordial. The Jedi represented everything he loathed, and yet, in some way, everything he'd once yearned to be. From his calm posture to his nonchalant air, even the outdated armour wore all harkened back to a decadent past where Jedi were numerous, Clones weren't met with increasing resistance, and the galaxy hadn't needed an Empire to carefully guide it to a safer future.
The Jedi had been his life; and it was a life he'd revered and, ultimately, hated because of his inability to grasp their ways, their concepts and ideals.

He looked once more at his bowl, as he waited for the Jedi to reply. It didn't seem likely that an attack was coming any time soon, but he remained on guard; he didn't even know why he'd chosen to sit, rather than incapacitate the man with his own stew pot and drag him back to Bloodshine for safe transit to Citadel Inquisitorius on Prakith. His actions were highly irregular for an Inquisitor, but then, he had always been the black nerf of any family he'd belonged to.

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

"It's not poisoned. I'm not in the manner of treating guests in an ill fashion. Bad form, you know.

"I am Castor Vax, and it is no surprise you do not recognize me, me friend. I did not often spend much time at the Temple; no, they cast me into the Outer Rim as a general and there I remained. The soldiers came and went, you see, but I remained. You, however... your face looks familiar, reminiscent... I recall word of a rather headstrong young man who came to the Temple with great promise, very great promise. Perhaps if the Wars had not occurred, he might have... well, don't let an old man's ranting kill your appetite. Nonetheless, I can still place a name to a face. Caden Sturn, was it?

"I'm not quite surprised to see you, oddly. Nobody lets a man live in peace when he's been declared a war criminal. They do that, you know." He paused to take another mouthful of stew. "Keep the lightsaber hidden away, grow a garden, exile yourself to a dangerous jungle planet and still they come. Ah, alas for peace, for the only true peace is the peace of the grave. An unfortunate happenstance, my friend. Here Goolah, don't be nervous around our guest."

He motioned to the ripper, which hooted softly and came to land near Vax.

"So tell me, what is your story? It isn't so often that I have company these days that I have the opportunity for conversation."

He set the bowl down, half of the stew gone, and swallowed before speaking, parting his hands as if to say there wasn't much to tell.
"I was taken to the Temple with my older brother. Abandoned on the bottom step, actually" he said. He didn't remember that day, but he'd been told of it, many times. "The Jedi tried to brainwash us into their way of thinking. My brother fell for it, but I didn't seem able to. Then the war happened, and now... I serve the greater good" he said, with absolute conviction.
Glancing at the ripper, he nodded toward it. "Strange looking creature. Is it native?" he asked. He hadn't seen any others during his time here on Felucia, but one couldn't expect to see the entirety of a planet's wildlife in one sitting. Then, he realised the likelihood that he'd have to kill the beast to get to Vax. It would be a shame, but a necessary one. Even now, during the peace of a good meal, it would seem both sides were strategising. The Jedi, keeping a vicious predator at his side, Caden, plotting how best to kill it.
It was just business, at the end of the day.

"You know, we can't do this forever..." he said quietly, taking up his bowl and finishing the contents. The haste with which he ate might seem offensive, as though he weren't savouring the effort that went into it, but he truly was hungry.

Caden Sturn
Former Inquisitor - Fugitive
Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot