A/N: Hello again everyone! I've had this story in my head for a while now, it has gone through some changes over the years, but I think it is time to get it out of my head, and into some of yours. This one is set in the Star Wars: The Old Republic universe, and takes place about five years before the first game begins. I, of course, do not own Star Wars of course; I simply chose to play in their sand box. This little sith has been in my head for a while now, just waiting to get out, I hope you enjoy her rise to power.
STAR WARS: The Old Republic: A NEW SITH
Turmoil! Five years have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant. The Galaxy exists in a tense state of peace. Awaiting the coming of the next great war. Inside the Sith Empire, the dark lords battle of supremacy, gathering strength for the next war.
Darth Daverus, Lord of the Sith, and master of Itae system, has fallen. Now his rival, the cunning Darth Feer seeks to seize his fallen rival's holdings, expanding his powerbase, and his place within the empire.
Seeking to crush all resistance. The Dark Lord dispatches enforcers to reign in any possible threat to their master's power. On the planet Oridanna, a farm world within Daverus' former holdings, one such enforcer has come, eager to bring his master's will to its humble people. Never realizing that darkness can spring from anywhere…and revenge is never far from one who follows the will of the darkside…
The Sith warship emerged from hyperspace, its slate gray hull casting a shadow upon the world below, like some great predator, it floated above the surface. For many long years, the people of Oridanna had bowed to the strength of Lord Daverus, offering not only what they grew in the fields, but the lives of their children to fill the needs of the empire.
As the battleship achieved high orbit a single shuttle dropped from its launch bay, beginning its long descent to the surface. Two Sith Starfighters offering escort as the landing craft made its way towards the largest of the planet's small settlements.
It had been a long time since a Sith had walked Oridanna's surface. Daverus had always preferred a hands off approach to his holdings, as long as his servants met their quotas and paid tribute to the empire, their lord and master had always preferred to leave them alone, but now…that was about to change.
A new lord ruled here now.
And the time had come to let these farmers know it. They would accept their master's rule, or be crushed beneath his heel.
Such was the way of the Sith.
IOI
Keera Lylos wiped the sweat from her brow, the sun had only been up for a half hour and already she felt soiled, the hot morning wind whipped at her black hair, blowing her ponytail like some ancient battle flag from the days before the empire. She waited, pausing while the latest codes she had entered took effect. She checked the final reading on the collection tower, her sixth this morning. She watched as the readings on the collector rose, making sure everything was in the green before she made the long climb down.
So much fuss, the fifteen year old thought to herself, so much trouble for something so easily gathered from anywhere on the planet. It was the height of the spore season now, and every collector had to be running smoothly, lest their numbers be off this months.
It was tedious work, true, tedious and time consuming, every three days before dawn she would groan, crawl out of bed, ready her swoop bike, and make her circuit. She visited tower after tower, making sure everything was functioning within the accepted limits. It was tedious work, tedious and dull, especially for a girl like Keera, a girl who felt that a droid could likely do this just as well as she could. Of course, that did not mean that she would shirk her duty, oh no.
She smiled slightly.
It would not do for the overseer's own family to miss quota this month, and as long as she was around they wouldn't.
The spores they farmed were a necessary export. By themselves, they did not matter much, but mixed with kolto or spice, the spores farmed here on Oridanna went a long way to enhancing the effect of both materials, and that was just two uses of the stuff.
It made what they did here, valuable to the empire. Valuable enough that Keera's father had been named overseer, trusted with keeping everything running smoothly.
It was for that reason that Keera did her job so diligently.
Father has enough to worry about, she thought, he does not need to worry about that too.
She waited until the collector finished its cycle. Everything showed that it was functioning within acceptable levels. Of course, it always did when she worked on the towers. She always seemed to know exactly the right setting to get the maximum yield from these machines. Once everything was set, she began the long climb down, and what a climb it was.
Rising almost forty feet in the air, the towers stood sentinel over the great plains, the yellow grass moving like a great sea, being driven by the wind. Combined with Oridanna's violet sky, there were few sights to match its splendor anywhere in the galaxy, or so the old timers back in the village use to say.
A beautiful sight, sure, the girl knew, but not something that she wanted to spend her time gawking at right now. She had skipped breakfast this morning, so eager was she to get this dull chore done.
Food would be nice, a nap would be better, not that the latter was likely to happen though. Harvest time was never nap time.
She began the long climb down, an easier feat now that the sun was finally up. The first few towers this morning had been a bit of adventure, it was not an easy task, climbing in the dark, but Keera had always managed it. She had been helping with this since she had turned thirteen, and by now, she was an expert at it.
Of course, it was not all skill either. Keera had…a gift…
It was this…this gift that gave her an edge over other people.
It served her well during this particular chore.
When it came to climbing up and down the towers, she had almost a sixth sense. When she was up high, alone and at peace, she would close her eyes and for that moment thought that she could almost feel the tower. Its weak spots revealed themselves to her, loose bolts, broken rungs, imperfection in the metal, she could see everything in her mind's eye. That sight allowed her to forget some of the tedium for a moment and have a bit of fun. When she was in a hurry she would often forget the safety ladder and free climb down the tower's inner structure. A risky action, true, and one that her mother would have had a fit if she knew her daughter was doing it…still Keera never felt afraid or nervous during those climbs.
Her gift was always there…
…and it had never failed her.
She was free climbing now, she moved away from the ladder, flipping and swinging from metal beams like some acrobat at one of their harvest festivals, she slipped deeper into her gift now, letting it guide her letting it carry her away, and as she moved she grew more and more confident.
Finally, when she was about fifteen feet from the ground she used her momentum to swing out…beyond the tower and into the open air. For the briefest of moments, it felt like she was flying, her body held aloft by her will alone, that, and the gift that she carried inside her.
A giddy giggle escaped her throat as she turned her flight into a back flip, twisting in the air she willed herself to slow down, an impossible feat sure, but somehow…the girl did it, time seemed to stop.
And then…she gently touched down feeling breathless, excitement coursing through her, and the simple joy of being alive.
"Impressive."
She jumped, the lightness, the power, she had felt vanishing, pushed back by her surprise. She gasped and spun around.
There, stood one of the local boys from the village, the son of their peacekeeper.
Roan Wilkes smiled.
"Most impressive," he said warmly.
Keera felt a blush coloring her cheeks.
She had not heard Ro approach.
A wave of self-consciousness washed over her.
"What are you doing here," she demanded.
"Spying on me?"
The older boy gave her a sly grin.
"Would I do something like that?" he asked.
The girl rolled her eyes.
Typical Ro, she thought to herself.
Wilkes was a few years older than Keera. He had just turned seventeen last month. He had been a torment to her in her younger days, always teasing the gawky overseer's daughter, but lately, in the last year or so, that teasing had changed, just as Keera had changed.
She felt Wilkes' eyes upon her, drinking in her form. Gone was the skinny boyish girl from five years past, in her place stood a young woman, athletic of form, but curvy just the same. Her blue eyes were clear and intelligent, daring, brash and fiery.
A proper young lady, now, her mother had proclaimed. Though there were times that Keera had felt like anything, but a lady.
Ro seemed to enjoy staring at her. Probably, she hated to admit, as much as she, had come to enjoy staring at him.
Dark of hair and green of eye, he was handsome in the way that typical farm boys were. His shoulders were broad, his arms muscular.
He was attractive, she did not deny that, but that did not mean that she would just fall into his arms, oh no.
She had too much pride to fall so easily, especially to Golan Wilkes' son.
He wants me; she thought to herself, she could sense it, several times in the past year she had heard her father mention, when he thought she was out of earshot, that Golan Wilkes thought that their children should marry. On Oridanna, such a union was a father's right to make, but that did not mean that Keera had no say.
So far, she had not consented to the match, and neither had father. He still held out hope to see her married to one of the rich landowners in the southern provinces. As overseer, he had enough prestige to guarantee his eldest daughter a grander choice of suitors.
He wanted her to marry up, Ro would have been a good choice she supposed, but such a union would bring little prestige to the family.
The Wilkes may not have liked it, but that was the way life was. Besides, Keera was not sure she wanted to become Wilkes' wife.
They had a long history after all.
They had known each other for years, their father's having grown up together, even having served together in the Sith army. Both had served during the sacking of Coruscant. Both men having won spoils during the raid that had finally forced the distant, and hated, Republic to its knees.
Their fathers had both enjoyed the generosity of Lord Daverus. Both men had returned as conquering heroes, Ro's father having been appointed peacekeeper, while Keera's became overseer for their village and the surrounding towns.
Never had Keera been so proud.
Shaking off her surprise at having been discovered, Keera made for her swoop, surprised that she had not heard Roan approach, his own swoop having been parked beside hers.
"That was impressive," he repeated, "What you did, coming down from that tower."
His expression turned serious.
"You need to be careful," he advised, "Had someone from the imperial mission saw that little display."
Ro did not need to finish that sentence, everyone here knew what the Imperial mission was.
Keera frowned.
She had not thought of that.
Oridanna was small, almost beyond the notice of the empire. Yet that did not mean that the Empire had no presence here. The imperial mission was part of that, a group of priests out of Dromund Kass, the imperial throne world. Teachers of the darkside, they called themselves, representatives of the Sith Lords, teachers who preached the superiority of the Sith Masters, proclaiming the emperor all but a god.
Strange folk, at least they seemed that way to people of a simple farming world.
The mission had people everywhere, looking for anyone with special talents. When a girl or boy caught their interest, they would often vanish, never to be seen again. Rumor was that the mission killed those children, or sent them off world, sent them off to various academies throughout the empire, sent them off to be trained as Sith.
All that was certain was this, when the mission noticed you, you were never seen again. It was a fate that anyone from Oridanna, with its tight bonds of family and community, feared.
We have enough here, enough work and pleasures to live whole full lives, Keera thought, why would we risk being taken away from our home? Though a simple world, Oridanna was enough for her.
She had no desire to see the darker places of the galaxy. She was content
Keera knew about the force, how could she not, her father having served in the imperial military. He rarely spoke of what he had seen of the Sith masters, the power that they wielded in the field. What he did say however revealed something very telling.
Despite his pride in serving the empire, her father, likely the bravest man she had ever known feared the Sith Masters.
That was enough to even give Keera Lylos pause.
The two made it back to their vehicles. The wide open plains stretched before them; in the distance they could see the smoke from Orid, the largest settlement on the planet. Normally, Keera would be on her way there now, on her way to school. The Harvest took precedence however. Most schools remained canceled, at least until Harvest was done.
"Would you like to grab some food," Ro asked her.
"I can't sorry," she replied, "Mother is heading into Worro today, and she needs me to watch the girls."
"How are they doing?"
Keera sighed.
It was not easy being a big sister.
"Pamir is a stubborn as ever, willful" Keera replied, "I don't think I was ever that stubborn at twelve."
"I don't know," Ro laughed, "You Lyloses are always have been pretty stubborn."
"Jerk," she said glaring at him, but there was no heat in her words. "Talitha is at least old enough now to help mother and me. Anj is still a handful, but I think that has to do more with be four years old than being a Lylos."
"How old is Talitha now?" he asked, "Seven?"
"Eight, and far shaper than me when it comes to doing things around the house, droids, household machines, I swear the girl is going to be an engineer before she turns twelve."
Ro laughed at that.
"What of Beric," he asked, "Has your father heard anything from him?"
Keera's brow furrowed. Beric was her older brother, the one who had spent his life looking up to stars. The one who always pestered father for tales of this exploits in the Sith army.
It should have been no surprise when he left.
"The Imperial navy doesn't give him a lot of time to send holos home," she replied, "He was serving on a cruiser the last time I heard."
She tried to push all thoughts of her brother out of her mind. Father had been angry when he heard of his son's plans to enlist. He had seen enough of war, and hoped that his children would never need face it themselves. Her brother had not listened, and now he was off doing who knew what.
Such was life within the Sith Empire.
She had just boarded her swoop when something large appeared on the horizon, a dark shape against the violet sky. Keera blinked. Starships were not uncommon here but never one's so large. It…
"What is that?" she asked Ro.
The boy shook his head.
"It is a battleship, I think," He answered, "Imperial, no doubt."
Keera frowned.
"What is an imperial battleship doing out here?"
Ro grinned slyly.
"I guess we should go find out," he said, "Race you into town."
Ro gunned his engine and his swoop took off like a blaster bolt. Normally, his challenge would have had Keera do the same, but…
She continued to stare at the sky, at the distant warship.
A shudder ran down her spine.
They were a small settlement she knew, one that never failed to pay tribute or meet their quotas. The Imperial navy had no cause to be here, no cause at all.
Something twisted in her, her gift perhaps, warning her of danger?
She swallowed hard, trying to moisten her throat and powered up her vehicle. She should have headed home, but instead found her vehicle pointed towards Orid, towards town.
It would not hurt to take a look, she thought. Father would be there by now; he might even know what was going on.
She gunned the engine and sped off across the plains.
It is nothing she assured herself, that ship had likely needed to stop for repairs.
Besides whatever had happened, it did not really concern them. The empire had no reason to be troubled with their humble home. They were nothing in the grand scheme of things.
We have nothing to fear, she thought to herself.
We are nothing.