A Grim Story

A life of darkness.
As an infant I was abandoned by my parents on the doorstep to an orphanage located on Ryloth. As the years went by I was raised in the orphanage, but it was not a typical orphanage. We lived deep underground in the darkness and the only light we saw were the metallic lights coming from the lamps located in the hallways. In truth the orphanage was just a cover-up for what it really was. A facility that took in unwanted children and used them for their own greedy purpose. To harvest the underground of valuable minerals by forcing the kids to work in their underground mine.
Most of the days blended into each other, every day we would be ordered into the mines by the guards. We would get into two lines and then marched down to the trains that transported us deeper into the ground, were the massive underground mines were. We would work most of the day and only get few brakes, lunch and dinner, if we were not quick enough to eat while we had a brake, then the guards would lash us with their whips and cast our trey to the ground. After we had been working for approximately sixteen hours, then we would get into the filthy trains that were both used for transporting the things we mined and transporting us when we were going to work and going back to our cells. Most of our days were filled with darkness, so we had gotten used to it, I had never even seen the sunlight with my own eyes. It made it easier to get around, both in the mines but also when we were locked in our cells. We lived in large dorm cells were up to twenty kids would be living. However there were always a few spare bunks in the dorms. It often happened that kids would die down here, weather it was because they were to weak, died in mining accidents or if the guards had anything to do with it, we never knew but I were used to not becoming to attached to anybody down here, it would only hurt when they disappeared.

The purple stones.
This day started like any other. We were awaken by the cell door being slammed open and a guard screaming at us to get out of bed and into a line out in the hall. We were walked to the dinning hall, were we were served the usual oatmeal that most of all tasted like the insides of a bantha. But at least it kept us feet and energized for the days hard work. After the breakfast we were walked to the trains and driven to the mines. Just like every other day we were given our electrically charged mining picks when we arrived and afterwards the guards showed us to our mining spots.
For hours we mined in the dense darkness of the cave and the only light came from the electric picks. From time to time I looked around at the other kids down here and looked in the direction of the other side of the cave, but it was to far away to even see the cave wall. It was approximately two kilometres wide and several hundred meters to the cave sealing.
Suddenly an explosion ripped through the cave and made a roaring echo through the cave that caused it to shake; it was as if a great beast had been awoken from its slumber. Several rocks were shook lose from the cave sealing due to the explosion and they plummeted to the cave floor killing anyone that were unlucky enough to be standing in its path. I watched in horror as the massive fireball lit up the cave, it burned in my eyes, I had never seen such bright light. I took of storming towards the fireball that was vastly decreasing as I ran; I still held a tight grip around my mining pick, not that I thought I could use it but because I were in some sort of trance and just acted on instinct. As I reached the explosion sight I saw several kids lying dead on the ground, either from severe fire burns, from the blast wave or they had been killed from the enormous amount of debris. Amongst the dead a great portion of the kids were still alive but most were trapped beneath large rocks, others were lying unconscious on the ground. Everywhere around me I could hear kids, moaning, screaming and calling out for aid, but if that wasn’t enough I suddenly saw a nest of vile beasts crawling out from the hole in the cave wall. It seemed the explosion had open up a passage into another underground cave were a pack of Lylek had made their nest. The Lylek were a ferocious and highly aggressive beast, they had six legs that were extremely sharp and pointy that they could use as spears, two tentacle like arms that housed a poisonous barb at the end and a bunch of razor sharp teeth. The Lylek immediately caught the sent of fresh meet and blood, they made their way towards the nearest kids. I watched as the first Lylek reached a girl lying on the ground with her legs trapped beneath a large boulder. She screamed and wiggled as the large Lylek opened its mouth getting ready to feed on her. It pierced its spear like leg through her soft chest as she screamed in pain, then it wrapped its tentacle arms around her neck and tightened its grip, as it got tighter and tighter, her scream faded away until her eyes rolled back into her head and she finally had peace. Then the beast started to tear her open and pealed off her flesh as it slowly ate her.
I was standing there watching, I couldn’t move or look away, it were as if my feet had sunk into the ground.
But I was quickly pulled out of my trance, as a Lylek were coming towards an unconscious girl only lying a few feet in front of me. It started to make a clicking sounds as it got ready to feed on the girl, but before it could get that far I had started running towards it and leaped into the air with my mining pick held high above my head with both hands. As I plummeted through the air towards the hungering Lylek, that had now almost reached the girl I swung my pick as hard I could, aiming straight for its head. The pick hit the hard outer shell of the Lylek as my feet landed on the cave floor, it made a cracking sound as the pick broke through the shell and dug itself deep into the soft inside of the Lyleks head, it made an ear deafening screech as the pick exited out through its mouth and its legs started to wobble beneath it. I yanked my mining pick upwards and out of its head with one hard jerk, the Lyleks neon green blood squirted up from the large crater in its scull and flowed out of its open mouth as it fell sideways and rolled over on its back with the legs curled up under it like a dead spider.
I ran over to the young girl that I had just saved from a fate worse then I could ever imagine. She was still unconscious, but I quickly realised, that it was the least of my worries. I looked up and saw a mob of angry Lylek making their way towards us, apparently the high pitch death scream of the Lylek had gotten the attention of its brothers and sisters and now they were looking for revenge. I then looked over my shoulder and saw the guards still gathering. They were such cowards; they would not attack before they were certain that they would come out on top. I got up on my feet again and swung my pick, cutting off one of the dead Lyleks spear like legs and held it in my hand, it were quite light and well balanced for not to mention extremely sharp. Then I looked around and saw five Lylek coming at me, I didn’t stand a chance against them all, but at least I could take a few of them with me. With that said I raised the Lylek leg in the air and threw it as hard as I could through the air, heading towards the Lylek closest to me. The leg propelled through the air and pierced straight through the Lyleks right eye and continued into its chest, right above its legs. The Lylek stumbled as it ran before it fell to the ground and slided a few feet as it twitched. As it came to a halt the Lylek were completely still and lifeless. I then turned my attention to the remaining Lyleks and raised my mining pick in a defensive position, awaiting my doom.
I felt a few sweat drops run down my forehead, as the remaining Lylek came charging towards me with their mouths wide open and teeth dripping with saliva ready to sink them into my body and rip me apart, limb by limb.
But all of the sudden a blaster shot flew past me and crippled the Lylek closest to me and the rest came to a halt.
The guards had finally come to exterminate the threat. Fifteen guards came rushing towards the scene with rifles drawn, they made a halt and aimed. Quickly taking down two of the remaining four Lylek, their dieing screams frightened the last of the Lylek who now were outnumbered and outmatched. They then quickly turned around and escaped through the gaping hole in the cave wall vanishing into the darkness.
The guards now came running over and stopped at the crack in the cave wall. They looked at each other with a nervous look in their eyes and then cautiously proceeded into the hole in the wall following the Lylek. I were still a bit unsure as to what had just occurred. I was sure that my time had come just then, that I would suffer the same fate as the pore girl I saw being eaten alive. But somehow I had made it out of this experience alive, I looked down on the girl at my feet once more. She was still breathing, just knocked out that’s all. I then decided to investigate the explosion sight a bit before the guards would return and haul us all out of the mines.


to be continued.