Recruitment
The sleek new brushed stainless metal sliding doors were incongruous, contrasting sharply against the ancient hardened red sandstone of the Temple of The Sith, an ancient complex located on Korriban. Darth Virulous and Khem Val had been waiting in the antichamber along with other powerful Sith lords. These Sith lords, like Virulous and Khem Val, were the apprentices and servants of dark councilors, who were holding their meeting within the Dark Council chamber on the other side of the metal sliding doors.
The antichamber was uncharacteristically crowded because there were many additional Sith lords waiting for their respective dark lords. They had all been stealing glances at Virulous and at Khem Val standing beside where she sat.
"How has she not been eaten by that monster all of this time!" was what many of them were thinking, "She has to be incredibly powerful if that monster hasn't been able to eat her!" was what many of those concluded.
It unnerved many of the Sith present, listening to the beast's stomach growl as he drooled at the mouth, staring longingly at them. The Dashade unashamedly stared at them all. He imagined himself surrounded by dead Sith laying about the anti-chamber as he sat leisurely on the bloodied stone floor, enjoying a feast.
"There is so much good food in this place with me!" the beast thought, hungrily, "No! I must not! I must not bring shame to my master!" Khem Val admonished himself, fighting his primal urge to feast.
Virulous assumed the additional Sith were there as extra security. Tensions had already been running very high between the dark councilors these days. The fear and distrust the dark councilors held against one another had magnified these tensions, and Darth Marr was having a very hard time holding the Dark Council together in the absence of Emperor Vitiate's powerful rule.
She did not know that her master's rivals on the Dark Council had bolstered their numbers in case a battle against Nox and his followers broke out as a result of the coming confrontation in the council chamber. However, the others in the anti-chamber didn't know this either. They had not been informed by their masters.
Virulous was very well aware that although Nox did not openly add to the friction between the dark lords that neither did he do very much to assuage the fears of his rivals. He also failed to back Marr in helping to keep the Council unified. He'd told her it was his strategy to make it as difficult as possible for Marr to keep the Dark Council together.
"While he is Leader, a strongly unified council favors him," Nox had once told her of Marr.
Additionally, unbeknownst to her and the others waiting in the anti-chamber, Nox had just taken actions which threw the Dark Council into a fit of chaos, completely destroying what fragile unity remained in the Dark Council. The Dark Council was now fragmented. There was no doubt that the struggle for the Imperial throne was about to begin in earnest, but none in the antichamber were aware of any of this.
Two Imperial guardsmen, dressed in their full glossy red Imperial Guards armored regalia, stood watch at rigid attention in front of the two sliding metal doors. Their arms were down at their sides with their deactivated vibroswords, in their right hands, pointed down at an angle in front of them. Their thumbs rested on the pommels of their sleeping weapons near the activation switch which would bring their weapons instantly wide awake, singing their high pitched warbling songs of death. Their special issue overpowered blaster pistols rested in holsters built into their right thigh armor.
These soldiers were not Force Sensitive, but they were mentally and physically very tough. They were selected from among the very best in the ranks of the Imperial Army and Black Ops forces. They were physically very fit and extremely skilled in melee combat and in blaster rifle and pistol combat.
Part of the criteria for qualification for selection for service in the Imperial Guard required that the soldiers be veterans of at least five tours of combat duty on the front lines where they had participated in at least five major battles. During these battles, the soldiers had to have personally killed at least five enemy soldiers with blaster rifles or pistols (sniper kills were not considered) and at least three enemies in melee combat with a vibrosword, a vibroknife, or some other type of close quarter melee combat weapon, and it had to have all been observed, confirmed and recorded in their service records by officers in their units.
After having been screened for other possible disqualifying issues, they were finally accepted and sent to a moon reputed for its unforgiving environment. It was the location of the infamous Imperial Guard Academy where candidates endured six grueling months of specialized training. The moon was covered, globally, in a hot steaming jungle filled with some of the most aggressively wild beasts anywhere in the galaxy.
Few worlds were less hospitable to civilized life. However, what made this moon especially unbearable to all but the strongest willed candidates, was that the moon was also smothered in an overwhelmingly oppressive Dark Side aura which drove many of the recruits to quit.
The moon was very little known to almost all in the galaxy. The tiny handful of Jedi and the smattering few Sith lords, who have been to this moon, knew it as the infamous Yavin 4. This moon is the home of a native primitive race known as the Massassi.
It is also the home of temple ruins built by Exar Kun over five hundred years in the ancient past. Yavin 4 was Exar Kun's seat of power, where he launched his war of conquest, and where the Mandalorians, led by Jedi, finally destroyed him, leaving Yavin 4 a ruin and the Massassi nearly extinct.
In this most unforgiving environment, the soldiers would go through very grueling training regimens that enabled them to combat Jedi and Sith alike. For every thousand candidates that went for training, nine hundred quit on the first day, and of the remaining hundred who stuck it out, only thirty would survive their training and graduate. Those were the toughest warriors in all of the galaxy, the most hardened, the most ruthless, the most disciplined, and the most unfeeling.
Taking advantage of their very tough minds, they learned special skills which helped them to withstand the worst that a Sith lord or Jedi could throw at them. While the Imperial guardsmen could battle and defeat Sith and Jedi in a straight melee battle, they were still no match for highly trained and skilled Jedi or Sith lords who could use The Force effectively to get past the mental and physical toughness of this special breed of warrior.
Yet, the Sith respected these special guardsmen, and would never dare raise a hand against one of these soldiers. These soldiers served the Emperor directly. Raising one's hand against an Imperial guardsman, in uniform and on duty, was the same as raising one's hand against the Emperor, an act of treason. The Imperial Guard was the Emperor's personal pocket army.
The Emperor's Imperial Guard, numbering ten divisions, were tasked with the defense of Korriban and other sites sacred to the Sith religion throughout the galaxy. They guarded all of the Emperor's secret space stations hidden throughout Imperial space. Most of the Emperor's secret space stations were guarded by Imperial Guards augmented with Imperial Army troops.
One of the few exceptions where the Imperial Guards exclusively provided security was the orbital Imperial Palace, a smallish sized space station in a random orbit somewhere in the Kaas star system and hidden with very advanced stealth technologies. This is where the Imperial throne room was actually housed, and this is where Vitiate was defeated by the Jedi who had somehow found his hidden space station. Four of the fifteen Jedi who were killed, during the raid against Vitiate's orbital palace, actually fell to teams of Imperial Guardsmen, before they were themselves wiped out.
Virulous had been watching the two guardsmen in their glossy red armor. They hadn't moved even a little bit. She knew that vibroswords were heavy weapons, yet the weapons didn't wiggle, even a little bit.
"Don't they tire of standing so very still, like that? How do they manage to do it?" she asked herself, knowing that they were not Force sensitive.
Virulous knew she wouldn't be able to remain motionless for even a full minute. Even as she carefully studied the two guardsmen, she was slightly startled when they suddenly, in unison, smartly snapped their vibroswords, swinging them upwards, so that the swords came to a stop resting against their armored shoulders vertically parallel to their right arms.
The Imperial guardsmen then turned away from each other and stomped three steps to either side of the sliding chamber doors. Then they turned to face each other, and raised their swords with the pommels of their weapons in front of their faces, in salute, with a final stomp.
This event signaled to everyone in the antichamber that the Dark Council had adjourned. The doors slid open and the dark councilors trickled out, one by one, with several moments passing before the next dark lord came out. There was no particular order for when a dark lord exited. Their servants in the antichamber just had to wait for their respective masters to come out.
When their master did exit, the followers would rise to their feet and join their dark lord and the party would make their way towards the stone corridor, at the far end of the antichamber, which led to the two turbolifts in a small turbolift lobby.
It took quite a bit of time, waiting for the two turbolifts to deliver their passengers to the levels far below in the Temple of The Sith and then return to the council chambers at the apex of the pyramid, for another round of passengers. So, there was never any rush for the dark councilors to exit the council chamber.
Darth Vowrawn exited first and immediately four of his followers, including his two apprentices, walked briskly to him, falling in behind him and to either side of the dark lord as he strode in a stately pace towards the lifts.
Darth Marr's heavy armored foot falls could be heard even before he exited next. His two similarly armored apprentices, and their four followers, fell in behind their lord.
Several moments passed before Darth Rictus came out, hiding his elderly white-haired features underneath his hood, which he pulled over his head before exiting the council chamber. Three Sith lords, their own heads concealed under hoods fell in behind their lord, and with them three heavily armored Sith followers.
Nox came out next. Compared to the others, who wore somber colored attire or armor, he was vibrant in his customary medium grade flexible body armor with its deep black and brilliant yellow patterns. He wore a neutral expression as he walked out. Virulous and the beastly Khem Val fell in behind Nox, with Virulous taking up her place on the dark lord's right side. Virulous wondered why Nox had elected not to bring extra security. She found that disconcerting.
"Is he inviting an attack?!" she complained to herself.
Otherwise, she was curious about the discussions held by the dark councilors, but she decided to wait until later to ask her master what was discussed. This was a special unscheduled meeting that had been called into session. She could only imagine that it was about some sort of emergency.
She knew that if she asked, her master would tell her what, if anything of import, had taken place while the chamber doors were shut, but there were also times when he'd snap at her for asking. She discovered that on the occasions when he snapped, it was because he did not get his way in some matter or other.
Five minutes later, Nox, Virulous and Khem Val exited the cramped turbolift, cramped because of the Dashade's bulk, and proceeded down the corridor leading to the Sith Academy within the base of the pyramid.
As they descended the ancient, worn red stone stairs into the Grand Chamber, Virulous watched the acolytes quickly bend to their hands and knees upon seeing Darth Nox. Their foreheads touched the red stone floor which was worn with ruts from thousands of years of foot traffic inside of the temple.
Earlier, when the dark lords had entered the Temple of The Sith, the acolytes had been groveling in this same manner. The party of Sith lords were making their way through the Sith Academy, which was located within the base of the pyramid and which had to be traversed on their way to the Dark Council chamber located at the apex of the pyramid. Now the acolytes were groveling as the dark lords exited the ancient temple.
It was apparent to Virulous that the acolytes were terrified about something. She didn't remember the bowing and groveling being so intense when she was an acolyte here a decade before.
Nox and his followers were making their way through the maze-like passages in the academy. As soon as she and her master were spotted on the stairs at the end of a corridor, the acolytes just stopped dead in their tracks and practically threw themselves onto the unevenly worn stone floor on their hands and knees.
In one instance, an acolyte had stopped right at the threshold of a corridor leading to some area within the pyramid. Nox was forced to come to a stop. Virulous had had enough. She berated the poor acolyte, practically spitting out her acidic vitriol at the hapless youth.
"Out of the way, vermin trash! You're blocking the dark lord's way, you blithering idiot!"
The poor, terrified acolyte scurried on his hands and knees, out of the threshold and to one side of the passageway, pleading for his life as he hurriedly crawled.
"Spare my life! Spare my life! I will learn from my mistakes, Dark Lord!"
Nox said nothing to the miserable young man as he resumed his steps into the stone corridor. Virulous and Khem Val followed behind their lord, stepping into the corridor and leaving the terrorized man, already forgotten, in the intersection of corridors.
Nox looked over his shoulder towards Virulous, and quipped, "They are especially obsequious of late, aren't they?"
Virulous was taken by surprise with his humor. It struck her as a very funny remark. She smirked, trying to suppress a chortle.
"My lord," she replied, "I've heard that from the beginning you bowed and groveled before no one. It was said that your overseer hated you for it."
"Oh, those were the days! Harkun tried to have me killed every chance he got. He even sent me into a tomb where I ran into Khem, here," Nox said, laughing and pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the Dashade.
"My master is fortunate that I was too weak to make a meal of him," Khem Val reminisced, "I was very hungry that day when he woke me from my long slumber."
Virulous became deeply intrigued on hearing this and asked, "My lord, how did you two meet?"
Before Nox could answer, Khem Val said, "Do not ask me such questions. I do not like reliving the old days too much."
Virulous was startled into stopping in her tracks. The look she gave the Dashade made the monster burst into laughter.
"My master, look at her face! She is a sight to see!"
Nox stopped to look back at his apprentice and gave a good chuckle at Virulous' scandalized expression.
Nox turned again, resuming his steps, before speaking, "Harkun sent me deep into the desert to an excavation site that had to be halted. The Dark Side was driving the archaeologists into raving madmen, frothing at the mouth, unable to comprehend language, to drink water, or to eat food.
"They died of thirst out in the deep desert. Only the Sith overseeing the operation were able to protect themselves from the powerful influence of the Dark Side. The Sith gathered what relics they could, for study, and left their servants to perish.
"That's what Harkun sent me into, thinking I had not learned how to protect myself from the madness. I delved deep into the maze that was a tomb built by Naga Sadow, but never used by him. It was rumored that a star chart created by Tulac Hord was hidden in the tomb. This star chart showed where his hidden bases were located, scattered throughout the galaxy, where he kept his secret research.
"To obtain the star chart, I had to ask Tulac Hord's servant how to get it. So, I woke him up where I found him in stasis. I expected a Sith Pureblood or a Human Sith lord to come out, but when the stasis chamber finally opened, a monstrous Dashade emerged instead, and he was hungry! He tried to eat me, but I wouldn't let him, and we became best friends ever since," Nox ended his tale with a laugh.
"Best friends who tried to kill each other when one or the other had his back turned," the Dashade clarified for Virulous.
Virulous felt as though Nox was finally acknowledging her existence as more than a servant. She was glad about this, especially as she became sure that her master was not after her life. However, she had something she had to straighten out with the Dashade.
"Khem Val, you may have been having fun at my expense, but when I address the dark lord, do not answer in his place."
"It was a story of my master and of me. You said, 'my lord,' not 'dark lord.' I thought you spoke to me," Khem Val said, deadpan.
"You are not my lord!" Virulous blasted at the monster.
Khem Val burst into laughter again, pointing a finger half as long as Virulous' forearm.
"She made that face again!" the monster told his master.
"I am not amused," Virulous grumbled, when she realized the Dashade was still teasing her.
She fumed as she recovered her composure, and after a moment to reflect, Virulous became astonished. Something had changed, and she had missed when the change had occurred, but Khem Val was treating her the way he treated the pirate, Andronikos Revel, and the way the Dashade treated the Imperial Reclamation Service officer, Lieutenant Colonel Talos Drellik. She wondered what had changed, but it seemed to have started when Darth Nox began to treat her in a civil manner not very long ago.
"Have I finally been accepted into the dark lord's inner circle?" she asked herself, then wondering, "Why have I been so sure that he was about to sacrifice me? Why would he sacrifice me?"
Virulous didn't know the answer, but she liked the feeling of finally being accepted.
"Perhaps I have finally proven my worth to the dark lord, and the others have recognized my power, too," she speculated, thinking of her training two weeks ago in Nox's office.
Nox continued his story, as he came to a stop in front of one of the overseers' offices.
"When I returned to Harkun with the star chart and with Khem Val in tow, the fear that entered his eyes, and that tainted his voice, fear of the Dashade and fear of me, was the sweetest reward that I could ever ask for. From that point onward, I was the acolyte to fear, feared even by the overseers," Nox said, smiling as he reminisced of days gone past.
Without another word, he touched the contact switch, opening the sliding metal door, and walked into the office of an overseer who was famed for turning out several Sith lords who later became darths, one of those darths served as Nox's vassal, Darth Eviscerous.
She was in the middle of lecturing her six acolytes, when one of them saw the dark lord and his entourage entering the chamber.
"It's Darth Nox!" he said, throwing himself out of his chair and onto the floor along with his fellow acolytes. They prostrated themselves, on hands and knees, their foreheads touching the cold stone floor.
"Dark Lord, you honor me greatly with your presence," Overseer Ragate intoned reverently as she knelt before the dark lord. "How may I serve you?" the overseer asked soberly.
"Send your acolytes away," Nox commanded, "I don't want them to hear any of this."
Without hesitation, Ragate rose to her feet, turned to face her students, and commanded, "Acolytes! Go to the combat training chamber and practice dueling amongst yourselves. Set your training batons to their lowest stun settings. Go, now. Hurry!"
One of the acolytes shouted, "Dark Lord, you honor us greatly with your presence! Please allow us to take our leave!"
"Go," Nox said, dryly.
The acolytes bolted to their feet and fled from before his presence, leaving the dark lord, his servants and the overseer alone in her chamber. Meanwhile, Ragate had turned back to face Nox and again knelt before her lord.
"Rise, Overseer Ragate," Nox told his servant.
As the ruler of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, the Sith Academy, its library of ancient holocrons, all of the ancient ruins on Korriban and throughout the galaxy, in essence anywhere the Imperial Reclamation Service had an excavation, fell under his purview.
However, Nox's sphere of influence also included the Sith Academy, where Sith histories, traditions, and sacred ancient knowledge were taught to acolyte hopefuls.
This meant that all of the overseers and the administrators at the academy were his subordinates, and although interrogations were not a part of archaeological research nor Sith education, inquisitors were also his subordinates.
The Inquisition came into being millennia ago, as a means to torture captured Jedi and rival Sith lords, to learn their secret Force techniques. Later, under the rule of Emperor Vitiate, The Inquisition stopped interrogating Sith lords, but also evolved to include the questioning of certain spies, politicians, and diplomats who'd been captured or abducted, and then smuggled to Korriban for interrogation.
After interrogations of Sith lords had been abolished, the interrogations began to narrowly focus on discovering the whereabouts of certain ancient Dark Jedi or Sith relics which were held in the protective custody of the Jedi Order or other governmental entities.
Nox got his start as an Inquisitor after graduating from the Sith Academy. He performed interrogations when he wasn't busy hunting down relics for his former master, Darth Zash.
Despite the fact that he ruled over them in his Sphere of Influence, this did not mean that they were all loyal to him, and Nox knew this. He had his spies sniffing around, identifying those who harbored hostility towards him. They were holdouts who still believed in the traditional conservatism of Thanaton, whom Nox destroyed in a duel before the Dark Council, many years ago.
Nox was universally feared and respected, but his ideas were not universally accepted. One thing that Nox pushed for and got made into Imperial law was the granting of Imperial citizenship to aliens living within Imperial space. This meant that, for the first time in Imperial history, aliens born, raised and living their lives within Sith Empire space were given full rights and protections under Imperial law, including the privilege of joining the Imperial Army and Navy.
Many years ago, Nox led Imperial forces against Darth Malgus who launched a civil war in an attempt to usurp the throne. After finally cornering Malgus and forcing him out of his subterranean base on Ilum, Malgus attempted to sway Nox to his cause. Nox heard the usurper out before entering into single combat with the traitor.
It was then that Nox heard, from Malgus, his idea of granting citizenship to the aliens, that their added numbers would bolster Imperial military strength, and in general strengthen the Empire. After defeating and slaying the usurper, Nox stole his idea, bringing it before the Dark Council. Since then, the aliens held a special place in their hearts for Nox. He was regarded as their hero. As such, Nox knew he could count on their loyalty to him when he made his play for the throne.
In the beginning, it was a very unpopular change, but it was grudgingly accepted by Imperial human civilian citizens and military personnel. What else could they do? This was by edict of the Dark Council, and the Emperor's silence on the matter meant that he gave his approval.
Over time, human Imperials warmed to the idea of aliens as Imperial citizens, because the aliens showed their gratitude to the Empire, working very hard to earn their place in Imperial society. Yet, there were still many Sith lords who continued to object, grumbling under their breath at each tradition that Nox overturned.
Darth Nox looked over his shoulder at Khem Val and made a signal with his hand. Overseer Ragate misunderstood, thinking that Nox had ordered his Dashade beast-servant to eat her. Her eyes bugged open, and although she opened her mouth to speak, she was stunned into silence, as Khem Val produced some kind of device, which he then began pointing around her chamber.
After a moment of silently watching the beast and his device, she finally came to realize that the monster was not going to eat her. The Dashade was scanning her office for spytech. She let out a silent sigh and allowed herself to breathe again.
Word of the Sith Emperor's destruction, at the hands of the Jedi, had spread despite the censors' staunchest efforts to stop that news from getting reported within Sith Empire space. However, news reports throughout Hutt and Galactic Republic space was hard to keep out of Imperial space. So, when the rumors started circulating that Nox had already made his claim to the Imperial throne, there arose a schism among Sith everywhere, but also within Nox's own domain.
Small factions within the academy began to take hostile measures, which is why the murders and assassinations had started to get out of hand and threatened to affect the rest of his Sphere of Influence outside of the academy. These factions were split among those who wanted to push the throne out of Nox's reach, to restore and preserve ancient Sith traditions, and between those who sought to rid Nox of traitors, to ensure that he gained the throne to make the needed changes that would strengthen the Empire.
There was a third, and much larger faction, and it was made up of those who very carefully maintained neutrality over the entire matter. These were the acolytes going through their trials and the majority of the academy staff, who didn't know whom they could trust.
Nox didn't understand the strange behavior of the academy students and of the overseers around the dark councilors, especially around him. He wanted to ask Overseer Ragate about it.
Khem Val said, "There are no spying devices, Master."
Nox nodded acknowledgment of the report and then turned to face Overseer Ragate.
"The acolytes seem a bit more fearful than usual," Nox observed, "What's changed?"
He knew right off that it was a touchy subject. The way the mere question seemed to immediately trouble her was quite apparent from the way she tensed her shoulders. Despite not having formally interrogated anyone for many years, he still had the knack for drawing information out of his interrogation subjects, in this case by merely asking the right question with the right lead-up to the question.
It helped that most Sith lords preferred not to lie to him, as in the case of Overseer Ragate.
"Dark Lord, the Emperor is said to be dead. Everyone awaits the day when the new emperor shall be elevated. Naturally, in our minds, we see that it might be you," the overseer told him, thinking that she had hidden her apprehension from the dark lord.
Virulous had actually gotten quite good at hiding her thoughts and feelings from Nox. Her master had told her this. It came from a necessity of being in his presence nearly constantly. She found herself less than impressed with Ragate's performance.
Although Ragate could mask her emotions and wore a decent pazaak face, her choice of words gave away her fear of showing Nox her enthusiastic support. In other words, Virulous thought Ragate a poor liar.
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Nox asked facetiously, "If it were me, that is."
In fact, he took note that while Ragate expressed her certainty that he would ascend the throne, the overseer did not express her desire for it to be so.
"You don't seem thrilled about the prospect, though," Nox challenged in a conversational tone.
"You are an extraordinary Sith lord in our times, Dark Lord. I don't see how it could not be you," Ragate said, hoping that saying so would please him.
However, she worried that if the Dashade's scanner had missed even a single spying device, that saying so could also potentially make her some new enemies in the academy.
She was among the neutrals who didn't know whom to trust, and she knew that the politics was getting deadlier by the day. Up until a moment before, she had been careful not to show whether she was for or against Nox's ascension to the throne. Ragate could only hope the Dashade was right, and that there were no listening devices planted in her office.
Although, Overseer Ragate said nothing about it to the dark lord, Nox already knew that there was an unusual uptick in murders at the academy, but he didn't know why the killings had gotten worse, not that he particularly cared. If an acolyte was too weak to fend off other acolytes to protect him or herself, 'then let him or her be culled,' is how he felt about it.
However, Ragate had decided to tell him what had happened to cause the skittishness in the academy.
"The acolytes don't understand why so many have been getting killed at the hands of unknown overseers," she said.
Nox was surprised by this news.
"Acolytes killing each other off, to cull the weak among them is one thing," Nox interjected, "but why are overseers killing acolytes?"
"A group of acolytes were speculating who the new emperor would be. Their overseer had overheard their unwise discussion. He killed them all himself over fears that he might be accused of putting those ideas into their heads.
"Some days later, the overseer was himself found dead. It was rumored the reason for his death was that in killing his acolytes he had exposed his opposition for the particular dark councilor favored by his students."
Ragate was risking much saying as much as she did to Nox. She still worried about spying devices. However, now Nox understood Ragate's neutral stance towards the possibility that he might ascend the throne.
"I'm sure things will shake themselves out smoothly," Nox said, laughing at the absurdity of his obvious lies, "No power struggles or assassinations, nor any of those fun things will impinge on a smooth transition of power."
Actually, he had already increased security at all of his properties and businesses, and he'd increased security in his domain within The Citadel in Kaas City. In fact, Nox was not the only dark councilor to take such precautions. His peers on the Dark Council all knew that betrayal, intrigue, and assassinations would increase now that a power vacuum existed at the Imperial throne.
That Nox would have taken these extra precautions, was a given, but from the point of view of his enemies and rivals, it seemed that he was taunting them with the fact that he did not seem to have increased his own personal security. It was as though he was telling them, I don't fear any of you. I have the power to crush all of you without any extra help.
Nox seemed reckless in that he tended to travel around Kaas City with only the protection of the Dashade, and sometimes also with his petite apprentice. Meanwhile, his peers on the Dark Council would never travel openly without the company of entire security details.
In fact, the truth was that the gargantuan Dashade was a natural predator of all those who were sensitive to The Force. The Dashade species were resilient and resistant to Force attacks. All of the dark lord's rivals would become Khem Val's food – if Nox permitted it.
From the day Nox conquered Khem Val, he had the best personal security anywhere in the galaxy. It was just that the Sith had gotten so used to seeing the Dashade by his side, that they'd started to let down their guard. All except Darth Zash, who knew personally of Khem Val's amazing resistance to Force techniques and the terribly violent nature of his combat style.
Zash never let herself forget what she'd witnessed while she briefly served Darth Nox after being freed from the Rakata mind trap. Nox had sent Zash and Khem Val to destroy the servants of Acina, located at various facilities around the world on Dromund Kaas.
During the slaughter at one of Acina's facilities, the Dashade had several Sith lords simultaneously attack him with Force Lightning, Force Push, and other Dark Force techniques. The Dashade carried on as though nothing were amiss. He laughed at them, snacking on a victim's arm while slaughtering others who tried to flee.
Suddenly changing the subject, Nox told Overseer Ragate, "I want one of your acolytes as a new apprentice."
Virulous became instantly alarmed that she would have a new rival and became quite angered on hearing her dark lord's request, but she hid her displeasure from the dark lord. Ragate, meanwhile, was thrown for a loop with the request.
"Dark Lord," Ragate said, greatly discomfited, "I beg your forgiveness, but these acolytes are on trials for Darth Zash. I am not permitted to give them to anyone else."
Ragate waited for Nox to descend into a rage and possibly even threaten to strike her down for her defiance. Her eyes flitted to the monstrous beast and back to her lord again.
"He could order his monster to eat me," she thought, dreading the very real possibility that this could be her fate.
Ragate was prepared to stand her ground on the matter, determined not to be corrupted in her sacred duty of turning out qualified, quality candidates which would go on to serve their Sith masters on the Dark Council, or to serve a powerful darth, or lord of Sith, who'd earned the right to claim a qualified apprentice from the academy.
When her rational self stood back to examine her ideal self, a realization struck her.
"Am I really prepared to throw my own life away to uphold an old tradition?!"
Ragate, however, found herself greatly surprised by what her lord said next, and then – after some thought – found that she was greatly relieved by what he'd said.
"You don't need to send me your best apprentice. Whoever it is just needs to have some power. Even if you think he won't survive his trials, or won't amount to very much after his trials, I'll take him."
Virulous remembered Nox's conversation with Marr only three months before.
When Marr had offered to gift Nox with Lord Cytharat, Nox said, "I have enough strong Sith following me. What I need is someone I can sacrifice."
Ragate asked, with some incredulity, "You want one of my failing acolytes, Dark Lord?"
"I intend to discard him when I'm done with my experiments anyway," Nox replied, as though speaking of a disposable one time use appliance.
Virulous realized this apprentice was going to be that sacrifice. It also finally confirmed to her, that she was not going to be that sacrifice. Her anger left her, but ironically she also became filled with sympathy for the poor acolyte who would be used and then thrown away by her master.
She remembered how Nox made her into his apprentice, but his intent was to sacrifice her life to retrieve Darth Zash from her technological prison, where her consciousness was entrapped. After some thought, Virulous realized this was why she had been so weak. The Sith lord resolved to harden herself.
"It's better the poor wretch than me!" she thought, defiantly.
However, a pang of guilt struck at her heart for taking that route. Virulous turned her face to impassively regard her master.
"How does he do it? How does he turn off his humanity towards those he has not included in his inner circle?"
Virulous lapsed into another moment of introspection during which time she failed to realize her own ruthlessness. She was greatly feared and loathed in The Citadel, but had no idea.
She asked herself, "Will I ever be able to match my master's ruthlessness?"
Ragate, who had resolved not to throw her own life away, still found it somewhat off-putting. It was bad enough that many acolytes were killed because they were too weak to survive their trials or were too weak to defend themselves against rival acolytes, but to be taken out of his or her trials specifically to be sacrificed…. She found it unconscionable, as wicked as overseers slaying their own students. However, she opted to keep her thoughts on the matter to herself.
Instead, she told her lord, "I could tell Darth Zash that another acolyte got himself stupidly killed, Dark Lord."
"Whomever you select, do not tell them they are going to meet with me," Nox instructed. "Let none of his peers know that he was sent to meet with me. As far as they should know, as you've suggested, he was simply sent out to some other trial, and then never made it back. I'll wait in the library below."
Nox didn't even wait for an answer. He simply turned about and made his way out of Ragate's office. The door hissed shut, and Ragate was left alone with her thoughts.
The overseer hated this part of her job. Whenever the expectations and the strong wills of two dark lords were at cross purposes, she would often find herself stuck in between. However, it was something she'd grown skillful at handling.
Indeed, Nox had generously left her with plenty of latitude. He didn't ask for her best student, for example. He even approved her idea for concealing this activity from Darth Zash.
"Since he is willing to protect me from Darth Zash, does this mean that the dark lord values my service to him in the Sith Academy?" Ragate asked herself. Then smiling sardonically, answered her own question, "How long would I remain a valued servant to the dark lord if he wanted my best student, and I told him no?"
In Sith politics, being what it was, one could be favored and an up and comer, only to one day suddenly find him or herself accused of betraying his or her dark lord and be destroyed.
In the corridor, Nox and his followers made their way towards the Grand Chamber. He instructed his apprentice as they briskly strode down the red stone passageway.
"Darth Virulous, you shall make your way to the library and wait there for the acolyte. When he arrives, bring him, immediately, to the ship and assign him quarters. He is to remain in his quarters and not come out until I have spoken to him."
Virulous ventured a bit of dark humor.
"Yes, Dark Lord. I will see to babysitting your sacrificial pawn."
Nox stopped and turned to face Virulous. There was no humor showing on his features. Virulous' stomach twisted into a knot as she realized that she had, perhaps, miscalculated on how familiar she could become with him.
"As long as you understand that he is no threat to your position," he said to her, "ensure that nothing untoward happens to him."
"Of course, Dark Lord, no harm shall befall him," Virulous promised.
"Good," her master replied dryly, "then head to the library."
"Yes, Master," Virulous replied, relieved that her lord had not become angry with her.
"And Virulous," Nox cautioned, "watch your back. Everyone here seems to be on edge."
"Yes, Dark Lord, always," Virulous promised.
She was guardedly happy that her master showed concern for her safety as she made her way back down the corridor, where she would make a turn to a set of narrow stairs which led to the library below.
Nox turned and stepped a few more paces into the Grand Chamber, where the acolytes proceeded to throw themselves to the red stone floor, prostrating themselves before the dark lord of the Sith, as he exited the pyramid accompanied by the Dashade.
Outside, on the huge veranda at the top of a seven hundred meter long ramp, Khem Val signaled to one of the Imperial Guardsmen. The guard, in turn, called for a transport which would deliver Darth Nox and his Dashade attendant to the tiny spaceport over rough, rocky plains, stretches of sand dunes, and over a few barren ranges of low hills seventy kilometers from the academy.
Shortly after, an armored troop transport arrived. Both Nox and the behemoth Dashade entered the troop compartment. Khem Val was too big for ordinary luxury speeders. In the troop transport, Nox gave his instructions.
"Leave Lord Virulous to me. I shall test her, and I shall decide whether to destroy her. In the meantime, get your luggage, and find other transport off world. I'll make some sort of excuse for why you aren't joining us."
"If my master is killed by his viper apprentice," Khem Val said, deadpan, "then do not lay the blame with me."
"Do not worry, my old friend," Nox said, just as deadpanned, "If I am so weak that she could kill me, I promise to never speak a single word of blame against you."
The acolyte strode into the library and came to a stop a few steps in. He looked down at the flimsiplast in his hand which his overseer had given him. On it was written the archival reference number of a holocron he was to read in preparation for another foray into the desert.
"I just got back from a dangerous tomb, and now I have to go to another one?!" the acolyte groused under his breath. "This is totally unfair!"
He sensed the presence of someone in the library with him and looked up to see a petite female Sith lord, shrouded in dark robes, walking in his direction. His heart skipped a beat, but after a close look he didn't think it wasn't anyone on the Dark Council, he relaxed again and stepped to the side to get out of her way.
She was obviously headed to the door and he did not want to give her any excuse to yell at him – or worse. The acolyte then returned his attention to the flimsy with the archival reference number, trying to recall which shelf in the library that was on.
"Are you one of Overseer Ragate's acolytes?" the petite Sith lord asked.
The acolyte fairly jumped out of his skin. He immediately prostrated himself before the Sith lord.
"Stand up, man," Virulous said.
She was becoming annoyed with all of the skittish acolytes running around scared half to death.
He stood as ordered, but he took to standing at attention.
"What do you think you are, a soldier?" she asked the young human derisively.
"No my lord, I don't think that. It's just that I felt it appropriate to demonstrate my respect for you," he replied, thinking quickly for an excuse to explain himself.
"You respect me? Why? What do you know about me?" Virulous challenged.
"I do, my lord. I do respect you," he insisted, "You've survived this place, and…," he paused to look closely at the Sith lord, before diverting his eyes again.
In that brief span, the acolyte regarded her black robes and her medium grade, flexible armor, also black but with red markings. Her hood was pulled back and her rigid armored cap and mask was hanging from her utility belt on one hip, with her smooth chromium plated sabrestaff on her other hip. She was obviously very wealthy, and thus politically connected.
"You look very powerful," he told her, "That should be enough reason to earn you respect."
"I look powerful?" she asked, smiling and looking the youth in the eye, although his eyes were averted.
He was her height, but he was sure to have a lot more growing to do.
"Tiny little me?" she asked.
"Most Sith lords who come to visit the academy keep their heads bowed, trying to keep a low profile. But you're walking around like you own the place," he said, his voice starting to crack.
The acolyte was starting to fear that this was a dark lord after all, and that he could not identify which one she was. He went through the names of the dark councilors, trying to figure out which one she was.
"Please, don't be Darth Zash," he prayed to The Stars.
Virulous was expecting him to make up some sycophantic lie, but when she thought about it, it made practical sense to her.
"You are correct, young man. Any who can survive this place deserves respect," she had to agree.
She saw the flimsiplast that he'd been studying in his hand.
"Give that to me," she demanded.
Without hesitation, he surrendered the flimsy to her.
Virulous read the contents and then ordered, "Follow me."
She made her way to a shelf at the side of the library, with the youth following as ordered. She located the holocron in question.
"Naga Sadow's tomb," she read from its label, shaking her head, smiling at the irony. "What a coincidence," she said to the young man, who nervously stole a glance at the woman.
"I was just told a story about this very tomb," she said, light humor coloring her tone, "It was just a few moments ago, in fact."
"If I may, my lord, what did you hear about the tomb?"
Virulous noticed the sudden change in the acolyte's demeanor as he made his inquiry. His fear was obviously overcome by his curiosity. He even began looking at her directly.
"It is a place filled with the power of the Dark Side of The Force. If you enter it without preparing yourself, you will be driven to madness, and die in the tomb."
The young man shook his head dejectedly, thinking, "Why does Overseer Ragate always give me the hardest tests? It's not fair!"
He didn't realize that Ragate was trying to make him stronger, or get him killed in the process.
The youth said, "Overseer Ragate wants me to read this holocron and learn about the tomb before I go there, my lord. If you don't need it anymore, can I have it?"
Virulous did not answer him. Instead she replaced the holocron on the shelf and turned to face him. The warm softness left her eyes, replaced by coldest scorn.
"You are not going to any tomb. You were sent here by your overseer, to me. You will follow me. I will take you to meet someone. He will tell you what this is all about."
Clearly, the youth didn't like what he'd heard. Virulous became amazed as the youth shook his head in the negative, all fear seaming to be gone from him.
"I'm sorry, my lord, but I must obey my overseer. She…"
Virulous quickly raised her hand towards the young man's face and said, "You will come with me."
The youth jumped back and pleaded, "Please, lord! Don't hurt me! I didn't mean to disrespect you, but my overseer gave me orders!"
"You have a strong mind, young man. You've resisted my attempt to muddle your will with Force Persuasion."
The youth said nothing, his fear of her having returned.
"Give me your weapon," Virulous ordered, holding out her hand.
He didn't want to, but he complied, surrendering his training baton to the clearly malevolent woman. She set the weapon onto a reading table nearby and then turned to face him.
"Use The Force to retrieve your weapon," she ordered.
The young acolyte did as ordered, lifting his hand towards his weapon. The training baton easily levitated and glided smoothly into his open hand.
Virulous became impressed, asking, "How long have you been training under Overseer Ragate?"
"Six months, my lord."
"Only six months, and he can already resist Force Persuasion and easily use telekinetic techniques?" Virulous thought, impressed, "and this is Ragate's worst student?"
"While you were sent away, my master spoke to your overseer," she told him.
His eyes bugged open and his jaw dropped when he realized that the strange mean woman could only be the apprentice of the dark lord, Darth Nox. He hadn't seen her, because when Nox first entered, the youth had thrown himself to the floor, along with his classmates, to prostrate themselves before Nox, and he'd only caught a very brief glimpse of the brightly attired dark lord and of the behemoth monster.
He hadn't seen the woman, if she was in Overseer Ragate's chamber during that time. When he ran out of the office, he concentrated on getting a good look at the monstrous Dashade, wondering how many Sith and Jedi the beast had eaten. Up until that moment, he'd only scene holographs of the species, but seeing the gargantuan monster up close and personal was a terrifyingly thrilling experience.
When he said nothing, Virulous told him, "My master will be very pleased when he tests your strength."
The acolyte finally understood what was happening.
"She's taking me out of school!" he thought, distraught.
He was fearful of what his overseer would do to him if she found out that he'd left with the Sith lord, and the stories of Darth Zash's ruthlessness made him even less inclined to leave school with the stranger.
"I'm sorry, my lord, the youth said, regretfully, "My classmates and I are on trials for Darth Zash, and I…,"
Virulous held her hand up again. This time, it was a hand gesture signaling that she wanted silence from the acolyte.
"Darth Zash is the dark lord ruling over the Sphere of Technology," she told the youth, "You'll be doing boring tasks, such as approving budgets for research and development of new technological innovations. It is necessary and important work, but – boring, very boring.
"On the other hand, my master is the ruler of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge."
Virulous left it at that, thinking that he would get the significance of what that meant. Her thin smug smile vanished on hearing what the youth thought of that.
"You dig up old ruins and stuff for history, my lord," the acolyte said, obviously unimpressed.
Virulous was scandalized. She couldn't believe that's all he thought of Nox's domain.
"The Imperial Reclamation Service does archaeological work, that's true. They do piece history together from the bits and pieces that they find. Thus, it falls under the purview of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge," she acknowledged. "However, when we find ancient Sith or Jedi texts, we Sith study those. Sometimes we discover ancient rituals that give us power, power over the Dark Side of The Force!"
The acolyte didn't seem enthusiastic about it, and it astonished her.
"Don't you want to learn secret and forgotten Sith rituals with the dark lord?" she asked, unwilling to believe that any Sith would not.
"My lord, I learned telekinetic techniques and I'm starting to learn about Force Lightning…" he was saying, but was interrupted again.
"Those are basic, beginner's techniques! I'm talking about real powerful stuff, here!"
Clearly she was becoming irritated with the thick-headed bumpkin who didn't seem to understand what was being offered to him.
The young man shrugged his shoulders and shook his head showing his sincere lack of understanding of what she was saying.
"My lord, do you mean more powerful Force Lightning? Or did you mean…," he started to say, but was interrupted by a clearly frustrated Sith lord.
"Blast!" she cursed, "Don't you know anything about what I'm saying?!"
"Could you give me an example, my lord?" he asked, genuinely interested in what she would say, but not because it would motivate him to learn about it for himself, Virulous realized.
She shook her head in disbelief, finally understanding why Ragate would want to part with someone who was clearly strong in The Force.
"What do you know of Darth Zash?" she asked, hoping there would be something there that would capture his imagination.
"I heard that she was supposed to be dead, but…" he started to say, until the agitated petite woman cut him off.
"Yes! She died twelve years ago! Darth Nox researched a technique that brought her consciousness back from beyond The Force, and then he stuffed her reconstituted Force ghost into the body of a Jedi knight. That is how Darth Zash came back from the dead around a year and a half ago," she said.
Then recalling what had actually happened, Virulous became angry with herself. She realized that she was relying on a fiction created by Darth Nox to con the other Dark Councilors into ceding power to him. She wanted a real example of Dark Force power with which to impress the youth and sway him into following her.
Despite being dissatisfied with the fictitious example, she was gratified to see the change in his eyes, signifying that the lie at least sparked his imagination.
"By researching ancient lost artifacts," Virulous told the youth, "the dark lord has been able to bring back lost dark rituals that give us greater power."
"Did you know," Virulous said, this time with a real example, "that there is a dark ritual technique where you kill an enemy while using the enemy's life force to quickly heal your own wounds?"
"Can that really be done, my lord?" he asked, skeptically.
Virulous had had enough of his bumpkin-like ignorance.
"Let me demonstrate another ancient lost technique for you," she said, severing his conscious control of his body.
The young man dropped limp to the red sandstone floor of the library. Virulous used The Force again, this time to cause a chair to glide through the air towards her, setting the chair next to where she stood. She sat in the chair as it came to rest on the floor. Meanwhile, a look of terror was plastered on the young man's face, but he could neither move, nor speak.
Looking down at him seated on the chair, Virulous explained, "This is a technique I learned, well before I became the apprentice of Darth Nox, while I was excavating an ancient palace belonging to an ancient Jedi master who had converted and became Sith and moved to Dromund Kaas.
"It wasn't just at excavation sites where I've picked up unknown ancient techniques lost to us through the mists of time, I have also found ancient techniques while studying ancient texts in the archives of The Sphere of Ancient Knowledge in The Citadel in Kaas City."
Virulous restored his conscious control over his body. The acolyte scrambled to his hands and knees.
"Thank you for letting me go, my lord," he said, his voice quavering with fear.
Virulous nodded acknowledgment of his gratitude.
"Now, don't you wish to learn more about these powerful and mysterious techniques under the tutelage of Darth Nox? You won't have access to any of this knowledge under Darth Zash. You'll waste your life away pushing documents around…"
For the first time the acolyte realized that he could not say, No. He had already been given to Nox, and if he returned, his overseer would very likely simply kill him in order to silence him.
"I hope it'll at least be fun, my lord," the youth answered to Virulous' great shock.
"Of course it will be fun! There's nothing more exciting than learning a new Force ritual or technique!" the Sith lord replied.
Suddenly, Virulous became conflicted as she came to realize that she'd done to the youth what Nox had tried to do to her in the past, when he'd lied to her to lure her into his trap. The youth would be sacrificed to one of Nox's research projects. A pang of guilt struck her as she realized that she was leading a youngster, still wet behind the ears but filled with potential, very likely to his death.
"If I keep thinking this way, I'll never be as strong as Darth Nox," she thought, in mild self-rebuke. Then, as though it were some consolation, "At least I won't have to drag the boy away, kicking and screaming."
She had no idea what kind of ritual her master was going to research at the expense of the young acolyte's life. Virulous felt at once, revulsion for what she was leading the boy into, while also experiencing a perverse desire for a chance at the possibility to observe Nox's experiment.
"I'll ask if I can watch," she promised herself.
Just then, both Virulous and the young man heard a small sound coming from a few rows of shelves over. Virulous reached out with The Force to search for the presence. Until then, she believed she was alone in the library with the young man. It was why she spoke so freely to him.
"Allow me to demonstrate another ancient technique which I had just learned," she said, giddy with anticipation, "Darth Nox taught it to me only two weeks ago. If your studies with the dark lord progress well, I shall ask his permission to teach it to you," she said, lying to the youth again, and then telling him, "Follow me."
Virulous rose from her seat, as the young man rose to his feet from the floor to follow her around to the isle where she thought she'd heard the sound. As she suspected, another acolyte was in the library with her and the youth.
"Oh! Hello, young woman! I had no idea I was not alone in the library," Virulous said, truthfully, "You've certainly startled me!" Virulous said, lying.
The obviousness of the lie was terribly obvious to the young acolyte, who bent to both of her knees and held her hands together, as though in prayer.
"I beg you forgive me, my lord," the girl in her mid teens said, already weeping in fear, her voice trembling, "I did not mean to be so rude. I had no…"
The tearfully terrified young woman became silent as Virulous held up her hand for silence. The Sith lord then turned to the youth.
"Watch this," she said to him.
This time Virulous shot her arms forward, her hands held out like wicked talons. A hate filled snarl disfigured her otherwise comely features. The young woman instantly dropped, crumpling to the floor limp. The boy thought it was as had happened to him, earlier.
The wicked grin of a fanged predator greeted the young man as Virulous told him, "Go on. Take a close look at her. Say something to her."
The youth obeyed. When he tried talking to her and she didn't move, he realized it was the same technique that the Sith lord had used on him earlier. The young woman's arms were bent, contorted, and splayed in unnatural angles, and her face was mashed against the floor. Feeling sorry for her, he decided to straighten out her arms and legs and roll her onto her back, so that her face wouldn't have to be pressed against the cold red stone floor.
He realized then that her eyes, still open, were lifeless. He licked the back of his hand and then held it against her nostrils, but felt no breath on his wet skin. The youth realized the young woman was dead.
He stood and turned to face Virulous. The vile mocking grin was gone, replaced by a coldhearted hate filled sneer. The look in her eyes told him she would just as soon as kill him as she had the teenaged girl.
"An investigation into her death will be conducted," Virulous explained, "and they will discover that she simply died of natural causes. No lightsaber burns, no Force Lightning burns. No signs of foul play, except that you moved her body and left traces of your DNA on her corps. You will be the first suspect," Virulous said, as though it were a funny thing. "and I'll be free of any suspicion. I never touched her. Even though the original purpose of this technique is for obtaining power, it has potential as a perfect technique for assassinations," Virulous told the stunned and terrified youth.
When the boy finally understood that he might get arrested for murder, he made a face expressing the horror of his predicament. Virulous laughed at the boy's agonizing realization.
Virulous laughed, at the youth again, telling him, "They'll more likely believed that you and she were lovers, and that you were both killed by a jealous acolyte, since they'll never find you again."
The boy shook with terror, causing Virulous to laugh even harder at the sight of it. Suddenly, as though recalling something, she stopped laughing and brought out her datapad. Looking at the time, she suddenly took on an air of great worry.
"Come now," she said urgently, "We can't keep Darth Nox waiting forever. He has a terrible temper, and his fury is something to truly fear."
The young man's heart sank, his lower lip began to quiver. He began to follow her out of the library, his legs felt as though weighed down with lead, as if headed for the gallows. He was near to tears as greater woe took hold of his soul.
"Darth Nox is scarier than her?" he thought, in terrible dismay.
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