The fairly distinguishable Republic Cruiser dropped out of lightspeed, making its way towards the planet ahead. On board the cruiser on the bridge were two Jedi. One was Yarael Poof, a Qermian Jedi Master and council member along with his padawan learner, Maki Odok were hot on the trail following the deaths of two of their own Jedi, Anoon Bondara and Darsha Assant that had recently taken place from an unknown assailant.
'We're picking up unusual amount of ships.' The pilot said.
'Such as?' Yarael said, softly not.
'It seems as though…there's some activity. There's two ships in orbit around the planet.'
'Are they within our path?'
'Not quite. But they might fire.'
'Keep going.' Yarael said confidently.
Almost on cue, one of the ships left the planet at almost the same time, entering lightspeed/
For some reason, they weren't sure, with little protection they were allowed to pass by. The thought momentarily did occur to Yarael that it might be some trap that the assailant was leading them into. Or maybe the assailant was going to hide down here and be rescued from another party. It was difficult to say.
The cruiser dropped down into the planet's atmosphere. The planet before wasn't the most colourful of worlds, nor the most populated of worlds.
But there was definitely something not quite right with it….
'There looks like to be an unusually high amount of industry type buildings…' The pilot said.
From the viewport it looked like it was an enormous factory of sorts.
'Factory?' The co-pilot said, frowning.
'I didn't even know there was such a thing here.'
'Let's investigate.' Yarael said.
The cruiser touched down.
'Wait here.' Yarael ordered. It was just a basic crew left behind of three, while the two Jedi departed.
'I sense…something very off about this place.' Maki said once they were outside.
'I sense it too.' Yarael said calmly.
They made their way, crossing the terrain to the factories entrance. They were almost there when they suddenly stopped short about five to ten paces short.
'I sense your fear,' Said a cold, calculating voice.
Then almost from nowhere, a black shape descended down on them, dropping behind them. Yarael saw beneath his hood, a red and black painted humanoid face—a Zabrak. Yarael even saw the eyes. It wasn't devoid of emotion—rather lack of any sort of positive emotion. Malice dripped and poured out like smoke from the figure's presence. Hate. Anger was gleaming from his eyes.
Yarael had never met someone like this before.
'Be cautious.' Yarael whispered to his young padawan, considering him. He could feel his unease in the force and rightly so.
The figure in almost a blur launched a lightsaber, that it ignited swinging it towards Maki. It took him by surprise, somehow. He tried to force push it away, but the other figure was too strong. It cleaved through his left leg causing him to drop down to his feet. Injured. Maul caught his saber, ready for the next one. Yarael drew up his own blade in his preferred stance. While Yarael might have been a council member, he was by no means a great lightsaber practioner as he relied heavily upon the Force, lowering his need to use a lightsaber—which meant he wasn't better than most of the council members and even some masters who weren't on the council. Yarael called upon the Force, drawing a second figure. A second figure of himself. Maul's eyes blinked but he threw a Force push at one of them before coming at the other. He quickly realised that while the Jedi master was proficient at the Force—he lacked for lightsaber finesse. Maul's strikes, and parries, and assaults took him by surprise. It only took a second, a split second of hesitation before the red blade sliced him across the arm causing him to flinch then Maul reached out with the Force using a force choke. Yarael tried to break free, calling upon the Force once more with his own push and it worked. It sent Maul backwards and off balance. But the attacker was on him quickly. Maul came at him again striking blow after blow. Yarael deflected even now until Maul ignited the second blade of the saber, taking him by surprise. He swung it catching him off guard and decapitated him. He went sprawling face down onto the ground. The figure strode over to the remaining Jedi, and quickly put him out of his misery, decapitating him after a number of strikes. The poorly trained Jedi was no match. He had tried to put up a defence but was no match to the well trained Sith.
'Foolish Jedi, thinking they could follow me here. They learnt nothing here.' The figure looked towards the ship the Jedi they had left. It was time to deal with them now too before they send word back to Coruscant.
After he was finished, he contacted his master, Sidious. After a short conversation, Sidious instructed him to return to Coruscant. He also instructed him to bring the holocron back with him. It was a successful mission—it didn't fall into the hands of the Jedi. And the Jedi were still oblivious to the Sith presence.