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Jedi Training Holocron 239.2SH - Since the rejection of the "Rule of Two" and formation of a New Sith Empire, Sith rank and titles have changed somewhat from days of old. Beginning with Acolytes (or Initiates), to Apprentices, Sabers(Sith Knights) and Assassins, Masters, Grand Masters, Lords, Members of the Dark Council (consisting mostly of the most Wise and Powerful Sith Lords) and finally to a single Darth or Grand Lord of the Sith (also Emperor to the Sith Empire). There include also many specializations of Sith, which branch out at the rank of Apprentice and higher. These include Sith Sorcerer, Aviator, Crusader, and Warrior. The Dark Council itself consists of a High Judge, Grand Vizier, High Arcanist, and Warmaster….each of which are Lords and undisputed experts in their respective fields. Although exact number of Sith in the Galaxy is unknown, Jedi estimates are approx. 1.5-2,000,000 member range, with the vast majority being, of course, Initiates and Apprentices. Lone encounters with Sith Sabers or Higher are to be avoided at all costs!
She gazes at the group a few huts down with intense, insatiable hunger in her eyes, anxious for the meal to come. Catching herself getting lost in the fanciful daydreams of a great feast before her, and thus increasing her own power and knowledge, she must not linger or else risk her disguise as a seemingly average villager and farmer conspicuous and draw unwanted attention. She makes her way in between a pair of run down nearby thatch huts, red sunlight light peeping in between the tangle of sticks and branches used to create the stilted structure. What a hateful little hovel she thought, barely a shelter. The sticky red jungle clay and worn and matted light blue, almost teal, grasses on the ground masking her footsteps and she quietly sets down her empty pot prop, made from the same red clay it now rests, out of sight, slightly under the hovel in a cool shade of overgrowth and weeds.
"Getting tired of carrying it around anyway," mumbling to herself.
This had once, quite recently actually, been a quaint little jungle village. She forgets the name, but it was teeming with locals and immigrants from about the galaxy alike. Some came to hide; some were born and died here, and still others just to escape the busy, hustle and bustle, sometimes chaotic life outside this cozy and sequestered gathering of huts and markets. Almost like a nest in the middle of all the lush and thick jungle full of greens, purples, blues, and oranges, huge leafy ferns and spiky shrubs about the jungle floor, all masked from the red stare of the star high above from an orange canopy of treetop 'greenery'. It was a temperate planet, harsh but livable, not counting of course the Wulkarsks, deadly 6 limbed carnivorous pack hunters with 2 eyes each fore and aft of its head. Two torsos, a lower that holds 4 legs and an upper that support two arms ending in claws and the head of the beast. And the Tikiarri, a sentient avian carnivorous creature living in tribes that often raided villages such as this and sent the Wulkarsks, which they bred, to terrorize and kill the usually peaceful villagers. Tikiarri, with their long sharp beaks fed on the dead and rotting. Their large powerful wings providing lift to scout the ground below as the Wulkarsks served as shock troops of sorts and excelled greatly at causing mass panic and confusion as a pack descended upon an unsuspecting village, such as this one. The Tikiarri, a hand located at each wing tip, which they used to grasp spears and decrepit, ancient, blasters, finished what the Wulkarsks did not….and, unless you were a force yourself to be reckoned with, it was best to avoid them completely, if possible.
With a row of huts now between her and her quarry, the unknown villager makes her way to a particularly shabby hut positioned right across from where the group was gathered, with a collapsed roof and missing doors, the scent of spoiled and rotting giant redspars, a delectable fruit, their once brilliant red, now a mush of orange and brown. She whiffs a scent of rancid meat as well….likely an old catch the previous dwellers never got around to until….well, until she arrived. She pauses a moment while recollecting a recent, and satisfying memory. She once again catches herself drifting, then makes her way deeper inside the run down hut and continues to watch the new group through an oversized hole she seems to recall making by tossing a hapless villager through, facing the next row of huts across a small, but well worn, clay foot path. She watches intently while they ramble about, and begins to drift once again, remembering to herself what a journey it has been. She had followed them quite far. This being the 3rd planet she had stalked them to, each venture deeper into the Mid Rim systems, far from more populace regions of the galaxy. The jungle world they now occupy, Joralla, she recalls the ships nav computer saying..."tropical, lush, sparse population, few sentient inhabitants and plenty of hostile local fauna," makes for an excellent ambush spot, as this was no ordinary prey, and despite her abilities, must still remain vigilant.
"They're making this too easy," softly to herself, breaking her silence as well as her disguise as her lips almost involuntarily spread into a wide, toothy grin, revealing a jaw full of sharp, needlelike teeth, while noting their impetuous and hurried scampering about from hut to hut.
The squad of Sith Sabers (a traditional rank and title, as Light Sabers are not oft used anymore, and as with the Sith's titles, a relic of the past) hastily went hut to hut, fighting the waning crimson daylight beaming down from the planets Red Giant star, under the watchful eye and at the command of their Sith Master Squad Leader. She an accomplished Crusader Class in her own right, with many victories and a veteran of many battles, but just another face in the crowd among the 10s of thousands of her Sith Master peers, and whose name might have forever gone unnoticed if not for the encounter to come. She and her entire squad were all but oblivious. They hurried because they did not desire to remain here when the darkness overtook the light of this savage planet, and for the uneasy feeling they all had, but kept silent about, as soon as they landed. For neither she, nor the Sabers that accompanied her, despite their combined powers and training, were the slightest bit aware of who, or what, was watching them. And it was the whatever, or whomever, they were searching for which garnered their full attention, and left them quite susceptible.
"Nothin' here, Master Sibyl." Spoke up one of the Sabers, in the Common Tongue.
"Nor here," piped another from inside the humble, and seemingly abandoned grass and thatch hut, made from local brightly colored purple and green flora and a familiar teal grass roofed hut…..and making a racket from tossing all the furniture and fixtures inside about.
"This is hopeless!" the Sith Master bellowed. The pastel yellow-brown skinned Dresselian, donning typical Sith black light combat armor. A light armor designed to resist to the best of their ability the Kratosian based weapons…as well as the potential KCP blaster shot from an eager Jedi, thought admittedly poor at stopping anything but a ricochet. Snug fitting and awash with pockets and latches and zips for storing and carrying all manner of gear, Sibyl in particular usually went all 'bare', meaning that other than her basic armor, she carried nothing else, not even extra ammunition, as the Light Saber Kyber Crystal based blasters required none, not even a cool down period. They were indeed the pinnacle of Galactic science and technological weaponry. Sibyl turned to examine once again the huts laid about this small clearing. Her trained, large yellow eyes and almost nearly as large black pupils, scanned the immediate surrounding area and stopped for a moment at what seemed to be movement in a dilapidated hut across the footpath….inside a large opening in the wall, not from natural decay or negligence, something else…something….
"Arrrgghhh!" followed by a loud thrash and something heavy and solid crashing through something sounding quite fragile…and wooden.
"EEeeeeeepp!" Sybil squeaks with fear and leaps like a Klatooine paddy frog out of her skin, and spins around, her eyes leaving the hut on which she was so fixated, and quickly tries to hide the fact a Sith Master, who has seen many battles and the face of war up close, was just scared out of her combat boots, and nearly had an embarrassing accident that she would have never lived down, especially not with this crew. A loud and reckless Abyssin apparently doing massive construction and renovation within the tiny, also brightly colored, hut he is still searching briefly pops his massive head out of the hut to investigate a strange squeak. Her eyes dart angrily back toward his general direction, and he swiftly disappears back into the hut. Her eyes then follow back in the direction of their ship, an Eviscerator Class, resting in the open fields of blue grasses opposite the village of huts a few hundred years away, the waning red light from the bloodied sun light seeping through the darkening orange tree tops and kissing its surface, betraying its silhouette against the darkening tree line, the look of a Colo claw fish, a long and sleek predatory fish. The ships dark, reflective hull bouncing some of the red sunlight, showing off its smooth transitions and gentle curves, highlighting some of its features, but otherwise it sits, in relative shadow of the setting sun and the veiled jungle forest not far behind. A well-armed and big enough ship, suitable enough for inter system travel as well as being currently their only means of escape. Escape? Not sure why that thought popped into her mind. A chill runs down her back as she continues on and her eyes scan about, and for the first time, she seemed to realize they were completely surrounded by a thick, near impenetrable jungle that seemed to be growing darker and more sinister every minute, and very much secluded, if not completely alone…..aside from the one or two villagers she spotted coming in. Weird, she thought…..even for such a modestly sized village, to only spot a couple of the native dwellers, then there's the damage, not naturally occurring, she finishes her thought. Andsuddenly Sith Master Sibyl decides she wants to leave, and soon.
"Well don't just stand there! Keep looking! And where's that oaf Aarm!," attempting to hide the nervousness in her voice, and turning back to that gathering of 4 huts on the large raised thatch patio that held them, were the Sith search. Still shaken from the racket that surprised her so, but still…..something about this place just wasn't right and she remains alert, eyes darting around and locking on to the slightest movements. At that moment Sibyl finished her scan of the area just to rest her gaze on Aarm rambling slowly and unsteadily toward her, uncharacteristic of the normally disciplined Sith, even for a human one. His dark, empty eyes glaring at her full of hate, hate and something else, something she knows but can't place offhand, she knows that look, a look she's witnessed upon the faces of her squad many times as they've traveled this Force forsaken system. A look they get when spending days upon days without respite, or drink…or, or food!….By the gods he's looking at me like rations!, her mind screamed. Sibyl instinctively reacts to the looming threat as he proceeds towards her with menacing intent and quickening his pace, as his motive is discovered. She Force dashes back, lifting her Saber Rifle to eye line and squeezing off 3 blasts of Kyber crystal generated plasma shots at Aarm without hesitation. A noted marksman, all three hot, bright red bolts find their target, and burn through the Sith combat armor, and Aarm's lifeless body drops with a dull crackle onto the thatch patio and rolls off onto the red clay, traffic beaten footpath amidst this conclave of weathered and all but abandoned huts.
"What the Void was that!" Talohn, a rather large male green skinned Abyssin at nearly 7ft tall, green slicked hair, thick strong arms, and massive legs to support his unnatural stature, especially for his species, called out. Talohn…..also the Sith Saber shuffling about and the one responsible for enough noise to wake Force spirits, emerged from inside the hut from which he was so fervently searching and made his way up to his Squad Leader.
"That was Aarm, at least it looks like Aarm. And he was gonna attack me! I did what I had to," she growled, checking her weapon, engaging the safety and moving it to her back. He knew better than to question her.
The 3rd Saber appears from behind the hut, surprised and wide eyed, jogs up to the corpse, and kneels by it.
"They were close," Talohn said softly.
Sibyl turns away, headed towards the doorway of the next and final hut, oddly in better shape than the rest and a strange purple-ish glow shining out from within. One that wasn't there before. She looks back over her shoulder towards the scene she was responsible for making, but before she can nag the remaining two Sabers about resuming their search, Aarm rises at the waist, and while still seated, summarily dispatches the unnamed Saber near his body, beheading it with what appeared to be the crack of a whip….or, a tentacle it seemed to be.
The speed, Sibyl thought, far quicker than any Jedi or Kratosian she had faced. The color, and life, drains from the unnamed Sith's body, absorbed by Aarm. Wide eyed, and frozen, Talohn, still standing where Sibyl just was when she fired her Saber Rifle, is momentarily unable to fire or merely lift his Heavy Saber Machine Blaster. He can't believe what he was just witness to, the power!
Was this what, or who, they were searching for! Talohn wondered. Snapped awake by the burst of red Force lighting shooting past him from the Sith Master's finger tips and into the once thought dead body of Aarm, Talohn reacts and muscle memory and training take over and he raises a rather large weapon, befitting one his size, and opens fire. The Heavy Blaster sending hundreds of yellow KCP bolts with all intents to destroy and if possible, effectively disintegrate its target. The lightning hits the body with a flash, briefly blinding the two Sith and causing Talohn to lose focus, and aim, as he shields his eyes and about a hundred KCP plasma bolts are shot well above their intended target and well over the distant tree line, to disappear into the glowing red horizon. They recover only to behold a creature arise from Aarm's now mutilated and burned body that neither has ever seen. The horrifying pale, almost grey skin of the apparently female humanoid creature with stringy blonde hair, long, slender arms, and long, stretched, seemingly boneless tentacle like fingers. The creature grins at the pair, unnaturally thin and wide lips on a large mouth peel back to reveal dozens of long, fine, piked teeth. Her black sunken eyes…..the twinkle of a small, silvery pupil glaring through them from within those black holes, leers at them angrily…..and hungrily.
Without a word or command and seeminly more out of fear of this horrifying sight, Talohn blasts away at the creature with full auto bursts of his Machine Blaster while Force dashing to his left and on its right in an attempt to flank the creature. Noting Talohns movements and possessing Force Battle Precognition she reacts appropriately and hurls more Force Lightning with both hands in an effort to distract and just maybe, hopefully vaporize it before it can move, then immediately switching tactics attempts to entrap the being with a Force Web amidst this seemingly one-sided battle.
This must be the one we are after, she thought, nearly out loud.
The being, rather enjoying the drama, gingerly deflects the Kyber bolts into a nearby hut across the foot path and apparently into something flammable as a light flicker begins to grow into flames in seconds. A few bolts of Kyber plasma energy hit the ground resulting in small, dark glassed craters, and the rest are sent up out of this worlds atmosphere….likely to travel a thousand lonely years before meeting a target…..all with the wave of her right 'hand'. While slowly seeming to glide towards the Sibyl, and with the other hand, simultaneously, she effortlessly absorbs the Sith Master's lightning….only to expel it in Talohn's direction, now nearly behind the creature, and a Force Push, right at him….sending his electrified, 7 ft bulk crashing into another hut, 30 feet away, with a crash and concert of cracking and snapping thatch walls and quite possibly the breaking of Talohn himself, and a brilliant flash of light. Sibyl knew, not sure how but she was certain, this was but just a fraction of this creature's immense power and knowledge of the Force. Nothing, not even the Force Web had the slightest effect. The creature turns her head, the ankle long thin, straw like blonde hair moving over her bare, pale grey shoulder, and those pitch black pools and shimmering pupils turns and meets the Sith Master's own eyes. It reaches out with the Force with her right hand once again, and as Sibyl ceases her attempts at trapping the creature and generates a Force Shield thinking the creature was making a move for her. While still looking at Sibyl, It instead grasps Talohn's struggling form from the now collapsed hut…..lifts him, and Force Crushes him, his body folded and making abnormal bends and sounds with the closing of her long serpent-like fingers, absorbing too his life force. Talohn, in his state, had no chance to defend or resist. Sibyl even begins to think even if he had been at his best; this she creature would still have not needed to exert itself. The Creature drops his lifeless crumpled body back into the wreck into which she tossed him.
She just wanted to see, to watch my reaction…!
Full of fear and terror, but unwilling to relent and leave her now nonexistent team, the Sith Lord amasses and concentrates all the Force around her, fueled by her emotion, her fear and anger, and the Dark Side of the Force, she unleashes it into a powerful wave of Force Blast directed right at the monster, the distortion of air behind the sub sonic travelling Blast temporarily blocks Sybil's sightline of the Beast, until It, moving its hands apart, splits the Blast as it approaches, sending the now twin waves into the jungle behind, cracking and splitting the vegetation and fading as they move deeper into the dense and now dark jungle, likely vaporizing any living thing they come across. Astonished and now truly afraid, like she has never been before, the defeated Sith turns to flee, sliding around her weapon and firing wildly as she attempts to wall in the creature with the clay using a Force technique originally intended for using solid physical matter as a barrier. She will use this as a means for distraction and attempt escape. I will make my way through the huts across the foot path and lose it temporarily in the mess of huts and head for the ship, Sibyl thought. The drained, panicking, and frightened Sybil, scrambling thru the now seemingly endless and impermeable maze of huts turns occasionally to see if she is followed, and fire off a few bolts of KCP energy for, well, just in case
…could have sworn there were not this many..her mind races…Is the creature playing games with me, have I lost my mind..?
The visions of what had just occurred continually haunting her thoughts as she stumbles and crashes into the same few huts. Seeing the deaths of Talohn and the unnamed Sith Saber over and over in her mind, Sibyl begins to panic and scream. Her head begins throbbing. Dropping her weapon, she is running in circles, delirious and exhausted. Feeling drained. Sibyl, having lost her entire squad of capable, well trained, Sith…..feels the grasp of the Force envelope her. Despite her best efforts, she is unable to even slightly loosen the grip of what she realizes is now certain death that surrounds her, remembering Talohn's fate once again just mere moments before in this demon's grasp, her fear and panic causes wild Force blasts and Lightning to utterly destroy remaining nearby huts, of which she now notices there were but a few standing, hardly the maze she believed herself lost in. The creatures had been messing with her the entire time! Entered her mind and was driving her insane! As the monster turns her quarry and brings the Sith closer to itself and restrains the powers of the Sith Lady with but its will and knowledge, Sibyl peers up at the now night sky, the crimson light faded beyond the horizon, blackness overtakes the sky with silverly specks, is she looking at the sky, or into this horrible monstrosity's gaze? A shooting star skips across the silver dotted black blanket. A mild feeling of relief, she knows these are her last moments, and strangely, all she can think about is failing her mission and be awestruck at the night sky of Joralla.
"Who…..what are you!?" A weak and now bereft Sith Lady squeaked.
"I? Why I am no one," teased the hideous creature, obviously corrupt by pure evil, still a Master of the Force." I was once known by many names though, sadly, no one seems to remember those names," hissed the deformed she demon. "But for the sake of courtesy, and as your last request, I will introduce myself to you, my dear Sith. I am the Bringer of Chaos. I am the Beloved Queen of the Stars. I am the physical embodiment of the Light and Dark Side…..and now thanks to your friends, and soon yourself, I am all powerful! More powerful than I ever have been! I have brought down civilizations, governments, even Jedi Masters and Sith Lords! I am Abeloth! And I will destroy this galaxy!"
The creature once known as Abeloth, dormant for millennia, and long lost to legends of old was well indeed alive….and feeding. Traveling the systems and consuming all she came across, even entire worlds and inciting a small rebellion or two, Abeloth began to dream of bigger things when she consumed her first Force Wielder. With that she sought to grow her power to become unstoppable and began preying on small teams of Sith in the Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories. The very village she had used to feed and to conceal herself while tracking this Sith Team once teemed with life. Her strength grew inordinately with the consumption of those beings life-forces and her powers were returning to her tenfold. Whereas once, even centuries before, she would have been extremely cautious for these types of encounters, relying on the deception and stealth which she had mastered so long ago. Now is different. Now she is stronger than before. Now is her time! Now she will make her presence known to all by slaughtering this group of Sith! She no longer needs to hide and creep about in the shadows!
As Sith Master Sibyl awaited the inevitable, she inhaled sharply her last breath as she could hear the fading chuckle of that terrible, horrifying, and powerful being; Sibyl awaited the end…..
…. the end…
…the end never came.
Sibyl feels the Force Grip loosen and she drops to the ground, in the grass and clay, on her hands and knees, only to notice the creature Abeloth, slumped over and limp in the teal blue grass. Now in the tall blue grassy field between the Sith Ship and the destroyed and burning village, Sybil stares bewildered at the once pale grey creature, now ashen white, silver specks gone from their black pools, lifeless.
What happened!? And how?
The smell of smoke whisks past her. Her strength returning somewhat, her eyes wander and are drawn to a sound and of someone approaching. Holding her sides she attempts to get up to see the approaching being and it would be evident, her saviour, to gaze upon the one that dispatched such an evil and powerful creature, thus saving her life. But she's finding it difficult to move. That Abeloth abomination must have taken much out of me, she pondered to no one in particular. A sharp pain manifests itself inside her head, a severe headache or hangover, though she doesn't recall a hangover ever being this bad, except maybe on Huttese Ale. She grins at the thought, and the memories drinking with her Sith brothers. Slap happy and lackadaisical, her mind begins to wonder, remembering happier times. Remembering her squad. Remembering Talohn. She comes to somewhat and questions race through her mind, about the creature, about this place, about this phantom pain, about her mission…..about her saviour. She slowly returns to the now, noticing the pain fading and only to realize two feet are directly in front of her, and that she is still having great trouble moving….even looking up. All she can see are bare light purple feet, bright, translucent….slightly luminescent, but otherwise humanoid, feet, and….She has a feeling…
"You're the one we've been searching for?"
"Indeed," Responds the ghostly, almost disconnected, disembodied sounding voice.
Again trying to force herself up, even simply raising her head to look up, fails. "And now just who are you exactly? And what was that thing, that….Abeloth thing?"
"She was a tragedy. Created from her inadequacies and emotion many millennia ago, she sought great power. But even for a reason as noble as hers, evil was created with it. An extremely powerful tragedy you Sith and your Jedi nemeses struggled with a time or two, and sadly, often at great loss," the somber and monotone voice speaks, as if recollecting. "She was the epitome of Light and Dark sides of the Force in coexistence in a being that could not cope. Thusly she was driven mad and existed only for others to feel her pain, as an ultimate evil, and to bring about destruction and chaos throughout the galaxy. She was a mistake."
"What are you on about? Nothing like her was ever mentioned in the old Holocubes, or our training. And the Jedi are not our nemeses, so much…..at least they have not been, officially, for centuries. They stick to their side more or less, we stick to ours."
"I see…..and yet you maintain readiness for war and spy on one another?"
*Grasping for breath*"….I did say 'so much', and she must have not been that powerful if you eliminated her so easily."
"Well even one created from such power as hers has limits. I did say 'she was a mistake'. Even the Ones she cared so much for, they too have their limits, they are all dead."
"So who are you again? And are you implying that….."
"I have taken from your mind all I require of you, Sith." The mysterious being continues in its monotone, yet somehow filled with a great calm and peace, voice. The voice soothes Sybil somewhat.
"Wait! What?! I have mor…"
The Sith Lord, unable to finish, barely manages a few breaths and gasps for air….much less any real struggle, before slumping over the now lukewarm body, or the physical emboyment that is, or was, the creature known as Abeloth.
The mysterious being heads back to the now demolished group of huts; smoke rising from a spreading fire wafts in the jungle breeze and appears as a dark wisp in the light of the large yellow moon. The being pauses a moment and watches a small, frightened red eyed droid leave its cover and make its way, quickly, for the Sith ship, squeaking and yelping all the way.
The Being turns to the night sky and stars above…..the dancing shadows of Sith bodies from the crackling fire of a few of the huts around him…..and disappears.
