I was hoping to get this out sooner, but between the deplorable endings of Mass Effect 3 taking the wind out of my sails, and preparing for graduation, I've been a bit busy. Sorry about that.
Two days. Two days, and only marginal improvement. A group of three acolytes stood with Sugi on the platform, watching as he made his way through the remainders. The former slaves were doing push-ups in the mud, as their Emperor shouted every insult he could think of at them.
"What the hell is wrong with you pathetic sacks of meat?" Kre yelled. "I give you the chance to become greater than you ever could have imagined, and you slugs can't even be bothered to do a few exercises to get there?" He grabbed one of the acolytes by the hair, hauling her to her feet. The girl, couldn't be older then 16, screamed in pain and started to cry.
"Please, stop!" She cried. Her tears formed valleys of clean skin down her muddied face.
"Why are you crying? Because of a little pain? Let me give you something to cry about." Kre threw her into the mud, hard, and started to kick her. The acolyte instinctively curled into a ball. "You are weak, and weak acolytes die. You have the power to stop me, but you don't. Maybe you want to die. Die a slow, painful death."
"I don't want to die." She moaned. The acolyte coughed, specs of blood spattering the brown mud. Kre knew there wasn't much more she would be able to take, but he was willing to kill her if it would motivate the remaining acolytes.
"You can control the Force, use it in any way you can imagine. And yet, you choose to lay there, and let me kill you. If you don't want to die, it's time to show me. It's time to show us all that you have what it takes to become a Sith." He reared his leg back for the final blow. He swung it towards her with a force he knew would cause irreparable internal injuries, but the acolyte caught him by surprise. With lightening fast reflexes, she reached out, and caught his foot.
With a powerful tug, she pulled the unbalanced, top-heavy Sith, down. Kre face-planted in the mud. He quickly managed to regain his footing, and hauled the acolyte to her feet. The fear was still written all over her face, but so was determination, and anger. She started to struggle against his hold, kicking at his armored shins, and clawing at his cybernetic hand.
"Well done." He said. "Now do you see what I've been looking for?" He put her down, and turned to the rest of the acolytes. "Treat every battle as if it is a battle for your life. Expect no mercy from your enemy, and show them none in return. To bear the title of Sith is to embody strength. A true Sith will never let another take their life without fighting like hell. If I have to beat you all within an inch of your life, if I must kill some of you, to get you to understand this concept, I will."
"If the Sith always kill their enemies, then why is Commander Sugi still alive?" The young acolyte he'd just pummeled asked him.
"There are certain cases where sparring your opponent is preferable to killing them, but those are special cases, and a lesson to be learned later. For now, you need to remember these simple rules; to murder an Imperial is punishable by death. To murder and acolyte is a crime punishable by death. To try and assassinate me is a stupid quest, and will get you killed. Reflect on what you've learned today. Dismissed." The acolytes turned, and began to slowly make their way out of the pit.
"Not you." Kre told the only acolyte he felt was worthy of advancing. "What's your name?"
"Ashly, my lord." The girl said.
"You're going with Sugi, Ashly. You and the other three are going to accompany me on a special trial." Kre motioned for Sugi to come down, and get the acolyte ready for the next trial. "Clean yourself up, eat until you can barely move, and sleep well, Ashly. I have little hope that most of you will return."
"And the award for best actress goes to me!" Setress said, as she walked on to the bridge of the Korriban's Blood. "You missed a real battle, Kr- oh, right. I forgot, he's still gone." The only other person on the Blood sat slumped in front of the large holocommunicator. Sanguine'ar's face was taut with concern. "Hey, are you alright?"
"No." Sanguine'ar said, flatly.
"What's wrong?" Setress walked in front of the Sanguine'ar, trying to catch her eyes. The tall mirialan's eyes were blank, staring into the blank console. "Come on, what is it?"
"Six hours ago, our master and a small group of acolytes went into a tomb on Dromund Kaas. There was there was some kind of disturbance, it was reported as a ground quake-"
"Oh, come on Sanguine'ar. It's going to take a lot more than a gournd quake to take down Kre."
"You didn't let me finish. Only one of the acolytes made it out. Since then, no one has even been able to get close to it."
"What?" Setress asked, her face turning pale. Everything depend on Kre, if he died, they were all finished before they ever really got started.
"The truly strange events happened after that." Sanguine'ar added.
"What do you mean?"
"The Imperials have reported strange screams, and subsequent quakes. Setress, I think that tomb was a trap." The holocommunicator started beeping, Sanguine'ar quickly turning it on.
"My lord," a familiar looking zabrak said. "We still haven't found anything."
"Nothing? How can you have found nothing?" Setress asked.
"Every time one of our men gets close to that thing, they either panic, and run into the woods, or they collapse. I can't even get them away from it, because I end up losing the people I send in to help them. I don't understand it at all. The acolyte that came out hasn't been much help, either. She still isn't saying a thing, she's traumatized beyond anything I've ever seen. She hasn't even blinked."
"Keep looking, Commander. There has to be something. I don't care if you have to build your own droid army to get in there. Without him, we're dead in the water." Sanguine'ar ordered her. "Contact me again when you find something. Anything."
"Yes, my lord." Sugi said. The hologram faded, leaving the bridge eerily silent. The two apprentices stood there, looking at each other.
Six hours earlier:
"Check your seals, this tomb has been closed off for millennia. I don't even want to imagine what kind of contaminants are growing down there." Sanguine'ar said. The three acolytes looked bogged down in their Imperial armor. The newest promotion, the one called Ashly, kept pulling on the plating, trying to free up her joints. He couldn't blame them. His helmet was designed with extra space to accommodate the bony protrusions from his skull. The others, though, weren't so lucky. The armored suits would trap in their body heat, and their sweat would soak into the lining.
Plus the helmet to helmet coms had a very limited range, and were fairly low quality.
"What exactly are we after, my lord?" The twi'lek asked.
"Anything that might have some value. Holocrons, inscripted tablets, functional data pads and spikes. Things like that. If you happen to find any weapons, those will work too. Commander, is everything ready yet?"
"Yeah, we're ready. You really are impatient." Sugi said over the shuttle's com.
"Your opinion is noted, Commander." The bulky shuttle shuddered as it lifted into the air, and sped towards the tomb. "Now's your last chance to check all of your supplies, make sure you're weapons are charged, locked, and loaded. Stow anything that isn't completely necessary. Keep it in arm's reach, in case we have to make a hot drop. There's nothing worse than having to ditch all of the important stuff so you don't get incinerated, trust me."
The acolytes started sorting through their things, separating out what they didn't think they needed, and switching out the energy cells on their weapons with fresh ones.
"I've never seen this tomb before, my lord, how do you know it's there?" One of the acolytes, a zeltron, asked.
"My ancestors built this tomb. Some of them survived the purge of my species. They designed it to withstand just about anything. We only managed to survive last time because of the more ancient tombs across our ancient Empire, they wouldn't have had that same luxury during their sojourn. In the event the Republic did managed to find this world before they were ready, we would have needed a refuge from their assaults.
"As the front line guardians of the Sith, my ancestors felt it was their duty to provide such a sanctuary. For convenience purposes, they also built it to serve as our familial tomb." Kre said.
"I see, so Sith have a sense of family?" The zeltron asked.
"Bloodlines were everything in the Empire. Nearly every Imperial had some amount of true Sith genetics in their blood, but the more you had, the greater your status was. If you were Sith, and you bred with a non-Sith, it was viewed as deliberately weakening your bloodline, and thus the Empire. If you were Pureblood, it was even worse."
"Why?" The twi'lek asked.
"Thanks to the Dark Jedi manipulation of our genetics, the human parts of our ancestry tended to be pre-dominant. The more time went on, the more human looking we became. Some Purebloods saw this as a threat to our very existence. To lose the blood, was to lose our power. That fear magnified our inherent xenophobia. That's my opinion at least."
"Do you believe that, master?" Ashly asked.
"There is a great deal of truth to the idea that procreating with a non-Force Sensitive reduces the chance of that child being Force Sensitive. Our Empire was still suffering a shortage of powerful Sith by the time we returned to known space, so I can understand the desire to create as many Sith as possible. Still, they would take it way too far. A child may not be able to join the ranks of the Sith, but we will always need laborers, scientists, and soldiers."
"I see. Would you ever go with a non-Sith?"
"I already did. Didn't work." He said. The acolytes didn't press him, though he could tell that they wanted to.
"We're here, my lord. Get ready to drop." Sugi said over the coms. The shuttle shuddered again as it touched down outside of the tomb. The seals of the air lock hissed as the door slid open. The troop bay was blasted by a sudden rush of hot, humid air. The world outside the shuttle was alive with the chirping and clicking of insect, the rustle of the tress, and the roars of larger beasts.
Kre was the first one out. He scanned the area for any trouble, watching the rustling of the foliage, and the moving of the shadows. Satisfied that it was safe enough, he motioned for the others to come down.
"Alright, Commander. Seal up the hatch, but wait here for a bit. If we're not back in a few hours, head back to the base, and wait for us to contact you."
"Alright. For the record, I'm not a taxi service." She said.
"You are what I say you are. If that means I need you to play chauffer, be ready to throw on a suit and hat."
"Good luck trying to pull that off." The acolytes started snickering at Kre.
"Commander, push me hard enough, and you'll live the rest of your days believing you're a Gamorrean named Sheila, who likes to eat mud. Mud from a sewage dump."
"Can you really do that?" Sugi asked, suddenly very concerned.
"Yes." The other end of the line was completely silent. Kre smiled under his helmet at Sugi's sudden one-eighty. After all, he didn't really know if he could back up that threat or not. "Let's move." He ordered. The acolytes feel in behind him, vibroswords ready. Kre stopped in front of the tomb door, the massive portal looking like it had been built directly into the side of a mountian.
"So, how do we open it?" The zeltron asked.
"Painfully." Kre pulled off his gauntlet, and dug one of his cybernetic fingers into his palm. The sharp extremity cut a clean swath through his red flesh, dark red blood filling the wound. The acolytes watched in confusion as he smeared the blood over the tomb door. A pinpoint of light appeared in the crack between the two slabs of stone. It quickly expanded, filling the entire line.
The group entered into the dark tomb. The light from outside couldn't penetrate more than a few meters into the structure. They slowly made their way deeper into the antechamber, when the entrance slammed shut, sealing them inside the tomb.
"Greetings," a disembodied voice said. A large hologram appeared along the wall, an ancient Sith, modeled after one of Kre's ancestors after their arrival on Dromund Kaas. "I am the Gate-Keeper, called Nori'zahl of the Sanguine'ar. My internal chronometer says that it has been 3,640 years since this tomb was last opened. Connections to Kaas City have been severed."
"Sounds right, Nori'zahl. I am called Kre." He said.
"Scans indicate that you are of Pureblood, lineage of the Bloodsworn."
"I am."
"What is your purpose here, Kre of the Sanguine'ar?"
"Kaas city is gone, the Empire has fallen. I'm here to take any useful relics back to our base camp to begin reconstruction."
"Please wait," the hologram went silent for a moment. "Error. Genealogical data unavailable. Activating defense systems."
"What?" Kre said, stepping back. He heard the faint sound of ancient servos powering up, and stone grinding against stone.
"What's happening?" The zeltron asked, her voice full of fear. Kre felt something, weapons aimed at him.
"Get down!" He yelled. Most of the acolytes followed his lead, dropping to the ground. The twi'lek, however, was too slow. The flame throwers hidden in the walls exploded to life, the chemical agents they spewed sticking to his skin. The immolated acolyte screamed in agony, running further into the tomb.
"No!" They heard him yell. The coms in their helmet broadcast every sound he made, including the sound of his popping, sizzling, flesh as the fire consumed him.
"We have to help him!" Ashly pleaded. Kre watched the dimming orange glow, globs of the liquid fire creating a macabre trail. Using the Force, he reached out, and grabbed a hold of the acolyte's neck. Snapping it.
"There are a lot more traps in this tomb. Unless that gate keeper realizes that I really am a Sanguine'ar, they'll all be active, so be careful." Kre said.
"Poor guy," Ashly said. "Did anyone know his name?"
"Char broiled." the Zeltron joked.
"Not funny." Ashly scolded her. "I can't even imagine what that must have felt like."
"Now isn't a time you should be mourning. Besides, he just taught you all a valuable lesson; hesitation will get you killed. Let's go." The three of them continued through the tomb in silence. The antechamber came to a two way split, two massive hallways going in opposite directions to each other.
"Now what?" The zeltron asked.
"You two proceed into the tomb, I stay here and see if either of you come back."
"That hardly seems fair, I mean, we've barely had any training." Ashly said.
"That's why I chose this tomb first. Only someone from my line can open this tomb. At least without blowing the doors off. So, you shouldn't have to deal with any of the monsters you would on a world like Korriban. Now, get to it." Kre knelt down, retreating into his mind.
"So, which side do you want?" The zeltron asked.
"I think we should stick together." Ashly said.
"Can we do that?"
"He didn't say we couldn't." The two acolytes made their way into the sheer darkness of the tombs depths, watching their every step along the way. It was slow going, but the alternative could mean a horrible death. Even the IR visors in the helmet were starting to have a hard time penetrating the blackness surrounding them.
Every few meters, they'd mark their progress, dropping one of their few glow sticks on the ground.
Hours passed in the silence of the tombs. Kre sat, motionless, waiting for the acolytes to return. Something seemed off about the tomb. It was almost too stereotypical for his liking. Just the right amounts of hate, fear, sorrow, and regret. Try as he might, however, he couldn't find anything else lurking in the miasma of the Force. Still, experience had long ago taught him that, when dealing with dead Sith, it was best to assume everything was a trap. So, he kept pushing at the fabric around the tomb.
If it was a trap, it was very well thought out. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't find a single weakness in it.
Doubt started to set in. Maybe it really wasn't a trap, and he was just being paranoid? Giving up on the notion that there was any sort of danger waiting to pounce on him, he turned back into himself. He'd never admit it to anyone, but he had no idea what he was doing. The thought of how to build an Empire, or even where to start, had never occurred to him before. He'd had plenty of theoretical arguments with Darth Malgus before, but practical application was proving to be a whole other challenge.
Still, no matter how much of a stop-gap his tactics were, he could never show the cracks forming in what his followers thought was an impenetrable dam. The Imperial zeitgeist would not allow for it. The only group of people he could have ever let his guard down around, he could have asked for help from, were gone. Whether through betrayal, or time, he was alone. A sinking feeling in his gut started to form and grow.
Alone...He thought to himself. He shook the feelings of despair and hopelessness off. He was a Sith, damn it. No, he was the Sith. Alone, or legion, it was his duty and privilege to hold such power, just as it was his reward and right to rule the Empire. First, he would push the servants of the heretics off of Dromund Kaas, then he would recover the Citadel. The Sanctuary of the Sith would once more tower over the jungles, and inspire a new generation of Imperials.
And it would be glorious.
So confident. He heard a voice say. Immediately, he jumped up, his right hand instinctively moving to grab a lightsaber that wasn't there. In a cautious crouch, he slowly circled around the room, weary of any slight disturbance. The air around him remained still, and there were no tremors in the Force. He let out a low growl, waiting for whatever was about to happen.
"Master?" Ashly asked. Kre jumped, spinning around on the acolytes.
"Ah, acolytes," he said, trying to sound calm. "I take it you found something?"
"Uh, yeah." The zeltron said. "Some kind of box." She pulled out the small artifact, the holocron filling both of her palms.
"And there wasn't any indication of who it belonged to?" Kre asked.
"Just an old skeleton that looks like it's about to turn to dust, and a few characters left of an inscription. I can't even begin to imagine how old it must have been." It was Ashly who spoke this time.
"Well, what about other indicators? What did the sarcophagus look like? Could to describe the skeleton's shape and features? What kind of decorations were on the walls or around the room?" The two acolytes looked at each other, both faces blank.
"There wasn't much left of anything. There were a bunch of shattered vases all over the place, the murals were dull and faded, the weapons and armor all looked like they were made out of metal-" The zeltron said.
"Yeah, and the skeleton had ridges on the skull, like yours'." Ashly added.
"I see." Kre whispered. There was something wrong about the holocron. Everything about the burial chamber they described told him that the holocron was simply too young to have been placed there during the ceremony. Still, there was something almost magnetic about the device. Slowly, he reached out to it. His fingers barely touched it, when there was a sudden flash, and the three of them were blown across the room.
The holocron fell to the floor, the light turning into a vertex before coalescing into a form.
"At last, I am free." The figure said. Kre struggled onto all four, his vision blurry. He heard the acolytes screaming in primal terror, followed by the sound of one of them running down a corridor. The acolyte must have tripped a trap, her voice was suddenly silenced, and there was a dull thud as she hit the floor. "Pathetic." The form said.
"Wh-who are you?" Kre stammered. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision. The form was a dark red in color, it's features obscured by the haze, save for the pits where its eyes would have been. In their place were two, black, voids. The more he stared at him, the more he looked upon the form, the more he felt like his very soul was being drawn into them. It was very quickly driving him mad.
"I am he that you live to serve. Lord of Nathema, guide of the lost, master of all the galaxy!" The form said, spreading his arms wide.
"L-lord of N-Nathema. Your-" Kre's blood ran cold.
"Emperor Vitiate."