The wailing sirens shook Onwai from an uneasy sleep. Hyperspace flight never leant itself to a restful time of sleep, but something was different about this jump, for this jump was leading him to something new, the next stop in his long journey. As he reached up to flick off the annoying sirens Onwai scanned the rest of his heads up display to ensure everything was as expected. Only after making sure everything was normal did he once again pull up the encrypted message that he had received from an anonymous sender weeks before…
“We know of your service to the Hammer, Onwai Starborne. And we know you have been in exile at their bidding. We are now calling you out of the shadows and into the service of the Dark Side. Rendezvous at coordinates…”
That message had triggered a series of events that now lead Onwai to where he currently found himself, in the middle of a no-name solar system which, by all available measurements, was completely void of life. He had been instructed to wait for someone to meet him and lead him to the home world of the Dark Brotherhood. Onwai’s previous service to the Emperor’s Hammer had lead him to interact with the mysterious Dark Jedi from time to time in service to the Hammer but this unexpected message from a group that he had no formal connections with had caught him a bit by surprise.
Never one to blindly believe in a message such as the one he received, Onwai checked the codes that were used to send the message and found that, while they were old Emperor’s Hammer validation codes, they were indeed authentic. With his due diligence partially complete Onwai attempted to reach out to some of his old TIECorps contacts to see if any of them were even still alive and able to respond. The only response came from an old adversary known as Lenzar. In yet another cryptic message, the only thing Lenzar said was for him to obey the call and follow the Dark Side.
In the blink of an eye a Corvette appeared in space above him and a flight of TIE Advanced Starfighters flew from its belly like tiny insects seeking out their target. Years of training took over as Onwai grabbed the control stick and throttled his ship into full speed to evade the oncoming assault. As the ion thrusters engaged to make his escape the ship groaned as though an invisible hand was holding it in place and it was fighting to break free.
Faint voices suddenly danced within Onwai’s mind in a mad chorus of, “You belong to us now!” The terror threatened to eat at Onwai’s sanity as the cacophony of voices grew louder and louder until suddenly a thunderclap of sound engulfed his brain and the blackness of unconsciousness took control of his being.
The first thing Onwai noticed as consciousness began to creep its way back into existence was the coldness and hardness of the floor on which he was now laying. A quick mental check confirmed that all his extremities were indeed still there if not fully operational. The sound of a rod striking the floor three times snapped him back into fully alertness as the haze in his mind began to dissipate.
All around him a low murmuring began in a language that was foreign to his ears. Some form of chanting perhaps but his mind was still unable to fully grasp what was going on all around him. From out of nowhere an invisible force seemed to sweep in and pick him up like a small baby, suspending the man’s body in midair and stretching his arms and legs out in the form of an X. A question began to form on Onwai’s lips but before he was able to get out any sound a streak of lightning came out of the darkness and shook his body with the force of a blaster bolt.
With consciousness once again threatening to leave him Onwai forced his head up once again as a mysterious robed figure seemed to glide out of the shadows and stand before him. “You have heard the call of the Dark Side, Onwai Starborne. Whether your know it or not, your destiny has already been marked out for you.”
The robed figure suddenly waved his hand in a small, quick motion and Onwai’s uniform was ripped from his body causing the proud human to now be exposed to all in a helpless and vulnerable state. “Your service to the Hammer is over. Welcome to the Dark Brotherhood, Apprentice Starborne. You now belong to us…”