Chapter Seven: The Search Begins

Bane sat cross legged in the lounge of the Loranda meditating. All his power and strength had now returned to him, he was now once again, Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith. Now that he was fully recovered he needed to work on creating his own holocron to store all his knowledge and wisdom in.

He meditated with Belia Darzu's holocron sitting on the floor in front of him, not activated. Bane had decided that he needed to meditate on the information he had previously acquired from the holocron before going back in to learn more.

The reason his attempts to make a holocron had failed in the past was because he was missing the capstone, which was required to maintain the cognitive network and prevent it from degrading. Without that critical piece, he would never succeed in building a holocron. Bane had to learn more about the capstone and where to locate one before he could try another attempt to make a holocron.

Bane slowly opened his eyes. He used the power of the dark side to turn the holocron on, and continue his learning. The image of Belia Darzu appeared before him. She spoke where she had left off when Bane had deactivate the holocron back on Tython.

"In order to capture ones essence into the capstone and trap the cognitive network with in it as well, you must invoke the Rite of Commencement, a very, very difficult ritual of the Sith. A ritual that can 

only be done by the most powerful and most strongest in the dark side" she explained. "Once the Rite of Commencement has been done successfully you can put all the knowledge that you require into it and create the information that will be transmitted through your holocron"

Bane sat still soaking in every word she spoke. The Rite of Commencement seemed to be a very difficult Sith Ritual, a ritual he had never heard of before viewing this holocron.

As Belia's image began to explain how to perform the Rite of Commencement the Loranda jerked suddenly, and caused Bane to loose his focus. Angry he shut the hologram down and walked out of the lounge and into the cockpit. "What was that?" Bane snarled as he walked behind Zannah who was in the pilots seat.

"We've run into an asteroid field, master" she replied as rocks of all sizes began to close in on them. "Your planet that you had me program into the autopilot is on the very edge of the Outer Rim and has a massive asteroid field protecting it" she explained as she tried to avoid as much of the space rocks as she could.

Bane stared at the asteroid field, using the force he looked past the obstacle to his goal. The planet Byss, a myth of a planet, with no official records of its existence. The perfect home for anyone trying to hide, and the perfect spot to practice rituals and other things that would otherwise draw attention on other planets.

The Loranda was being hammered by asteroids on all sides, jerking the ship in all directions. Bane used the force to encase the ship in a cocoon of dark side energy which repelled the rocks away from the ships hull.

The glue glow of the planet got bigger as they neared its atmosphere. It was easy for Zannah to navigate through the asteroid field after Bane put up the cocoon of dark side energy to repel the rocks. Zannah decreased the speed of the ship. "Entering the planets atmosphere" she said flipping a few switches on the control panel.

Bane watched as they entered the planets atmosphere. The planet which has always been regarded as a myth, a non-existent planet, was all his for the taking now. The planet was a paradise. It had clear blue oceans and lush green forests on islands and other large land masses. Creatures of the sky flew past them as they neared the surface. "Nice place" Zannah commented as she looked at the clear blue ocean they were above.

"Remember this location" Bane said folding his arms across his chest with a grin on his face. "This is our new home"

Zannah scanned the planet for any life forms that could pose a threat to them. "The planet seems to be uninhabited" she commented. "At least uninhabited by any intelligent species" she added.

"Exactly" Bane replied. "We are perfectly isolated out here on this myth of a planet. We are free to practice anything we want here and not have to worry about drawing attention and potentially giving out our secret to anyone" he explained.

"How did you find this place, master?" she asked clearly interested.

"I found this location in an ancient book written by Darth Revan at the academy back on Korriban" he answered. "I never had reason to go here until now" he added.

Zannah brought the ship down in a field surrounded by a dense forest. She flicked the switch to bring out the landing gear and brought it down slowly. The ship shuttered a little as it touched ground. She powered down the engines and stood up to see her master was already gone from the cockpit.

She walked out of the cockpit and to the loading ramp which had already been lowered. Her master stood at the foot of the ramp looking around in all directions. She slowly made her way down the ramp.

The planet was more peaceful than she had thought. She had expected her master to pick another planet that was as dark as Ambria-but this place was anything but dark. Lush green forests surrounded them from all sides, the sound of birds and other creatures of the planet could be heard in the air. The air here was a lot cleaner and more pure than any other plane they had been to.

The purity of the air at first almost made her want to vomit. In her time with her master, they had mostly spent their time on planets with poor air, air tainted with the dark side, she had grown use to that. But this air had no hint of darkness in it. She wondered why her master had picked this planet, there had to be other planets as isolated from the rest of the galaxy as this.

Bane closed his eyes, seemingly to concentrate. Zannah felt a chill run down her spine for a moment before realizing what was happening: her master was pouring the dark side into the air. Polluting the air with the tainted feel of the dark side of the force.

Bane took a deep breath, breathing in the newly tainted air. He spun around to face his apprentice. "I have a mission for you" he said reaching into his black robe.

"Yes master?" she asked.

Bane pulled out a piece of parchment with a drawing on it. A very detailed drawing. "This is the component I need to successfully make a holocron, it's a capstone. A dark crystal that can only be found on a certain planet, a planet completely consumed by the dark side of the force" he explained. "The coordinates to the planet are written here" he pointed below the drawing. "Go and get me a capstone, do not return until you have successfully acquired one" he demanded.

"Yes, master" Zannah replied taking the piece of parchment from her master and heading back to the ship.

She did not need to ask what he was going to do while she was gone. He was most likely going to continue studying that holocron and learn how to complete a holocron successfully.

She boarded the ship, closing the loading ramp as she did so. She sat in the pilots chair inside the cockpit and typed in the coordinates her master had given her. She fired up the ships engines and lifted off the ground. She took one last look out the cockpit window, and saw her master sitting in a meditating position, with the familiar shape of Belia Darzu's holocron sitting on the ground in front of him.

Turning her head away she brought the ship out of the planets atmosphere and headed towards the destination given to her by her master.