Experiments and Lures
At the second hour of the morning, three hundred sublevels down, within The Citadel in Darth Nox's opulent office, the tired and frightened youth was on his hands and knees. His master had summoned him a few hours before. His forehead touched the center of the deep black and brilliant yellow ten thousand meter square rug, a prize of war from a noble family's palace on Alderaan.
The dark lord had risen from his very comfortable office chair behind his massive highly polished natural wood desk, another prize of war. Darth Nox had claimed this extraordinarily beautiful and expensive desk from the office of the chairman of the huge multi-world business conglomerate, Czerka Corporation, headquartered on Corellia.
The dark lord, dressed in his blood red and deep black medium grade flexible armor, walked from around the back of the wide desk and made his way unhurriedly to the trembling youth. Nox wanted to see how much of his Dark Side aura the boy could tolerate before devolving into an unreasoning, weeping, terror filled mess. His foul, crushing aura was indeed having a terrible effect on the poor young acolyte.
By the time Nox stopped just in front of the tormented preadolescent, he was laboring to breathe, was whimpering, trembling, and curled up into the fetal position.
"Use The Force to keep my presence out of your mind," Nox said, helpfully, "Think of The Force as a shell that shields your mind from harm."
Nox raised an eyebrow, impressed, as he watched the youth begin to recover almost immediately, returning to his hands and knees, forehead touching the rug.
"Even through all of that," the dark lord thought, "he understood me and had the wherewithal to actually put what I said into practice."
It was obvious to the dark lord that his aura was still affecting the young acolyte, but now he was managing his terror, and maintaining a hold of his senses. Nox nodded slowly his great approval.
"He is strong!" the dark lord thought, "He learns fast! He needs only a good teacher in Dark Force rituals, and eventually he would become a great and fearsome Sith lord," It then hit him, "He's Overseer Ragate's worst student?!"
Nox gave a tiny shrug at that realization.
"It's a shame he got picked for this experiment," he thought, somewhat regretfully, "However, his strength will give a more realistic result for the experiment. I must consider that if I try the technique, that I might face a powerful foe."
"Remember this lesson," Nox instructed his poached talent.
"As you command, Master," the young acolyte replied, his voice quavering.
"Prepare for departure," Nox commanded, "Gather supplies and acquire appropriate clothing for yourself. Speak to any of the Imperial soldiers for advice on what types of clothing and supplies are appropriate for a three day expedition in the deep jungle. Return here in four hours.
"The jungle is not for the weak. You will be eaten alive if you are ill prepared. Do not expect me to save you. This is your training. You must survive on your own."
"As you command, master," the young man replied. To himself he lamented, "What will happen to me in the jungle?!"
As if in answer to his question, the dark lord continued his lecture.
"The jungles of Dromund Kaas are replete with viciously wild beasts, pernicious insects, and poisonous plants. Seek the advice of military medical personnel as to what ointments, salves and medicines you must take with you for this expedition and bring those, too," Nox instructed.
"Yes, Master."
Nox pulled a credit card with a hundred and fifty thousand credits programmed into it from his utility belt. Stooping down, he slipped the card into the youth's fingers.
"Return to me, here, in four hours," Darth Nox repeated, straightening up again.
"As you say, Dark Lord," the youth said. His voice much more under control, he asked, "May I go, Master?"
"Go," Nox commanded.
The strength in the youth's voice did not escape the dark lord's notice. Nox turned about to make his way back to his luxurious office chair behind his desk and quite suddenly turned off his dark and foul aura. The youth found that he could breathe normally again, and that the terrorizing, crushing sensation was instantly gone.
He quickly rose to his feet and gladly escaped from Nox's foul presence to carry out his preparations for the coming expedition into the dark forests of Dromund Kaas. Exiting his master's office, the young acolyte became conscious of the credit card in his hand and pocketed it.
As Nox sat in his luxurious office chair, he considered how quickly the boy had grown with just this brief training session.
"It will not be easy for Lord Khartem'kahl. I hope he is prepared," the dark lord thought.
The more he thought of the potential the youth had to become a great Sith lord, the more reluctant he became of using him for the experiment.
"He could actually benefit me as my servant," Nox thought.
Nox almost convinced himself to spare the youth, but shook his head resolutely.
"No. Lord Khartem'kahl must be given a real challenge if the experiment is to be conducted under realistic conditions."
The ship pilot shut down the engines, and the banshee scream of the Imperial shuttle wound down.
The ship commander who piloted the shuttle, and the copilot who doubled as the navigator, opened the hatch at the back of the cockpit and entered the troop compartment. The load master, who was also the safety chief, a staff sergeant by rank, had already unloaded some of their picnic gear. The officers lent a hand offloading the rest of the items. Their VIP passengers were long gone.
The three Imperial soldiers set up a metal folding field table and metal folding chairs, a portable plasma cook stove with grill attachment, and their portable refrigeration unit. Soon, they would have a rather nice barbecue picnic at the very outskirts of the temple grounds.
Two medium grade war droids provided security while the three Imperial soldiers enjoyed a peaceful midmorning respite. They planned for this barbecue since they knew they would be far from their army base and the strict requirements of military life. However, this respite would only last until Darth Nox and his acolyte returned from their training mission.
Meanwhile, Nox and his acolyte marched ahead of a column of twenty one droids. Ten medium duty work droids carried Nox's supplies and scientific instruments. Also, this time, instead of six medium duty security droids – like the last time – Nox took no chances, bringing major firepower with him. The security detail consisted of eight medium grade war droids and two heavy war droids. Of course, he also brought a maintenance droid to care for any maintenance the other droids might require.
Nox found that he had to slow the pace of their trek down so that the boy could keep up. Although this frustrated him, he did not berate the youth. He didn't want the boy so exhausted that he could not offer a credible challenge to Khartem'kahl during the experiment.
After their long slog through the knee high grasses and plants covering the temple grounds, the dark lord reached the Dark Temple at the center of the temple complex. Nox allowed the young acolyte to rest and eat a meal at the bottom of the grand stairs at the foot of the temple. Then, as always, he directed his work droids to unpack and assemble his scientific instruments. With the devices assembled, Nox ensured they were properly positioned and calibrated, adjusting their settings.
All was in readiness.
Nox descended the broad temple stairs, covered knee high in broad leafed plants. At the bottom of the stairs, he found his acolyte crouching, deeply engrossed with his examination of an insect he'd captured. Using The Force, as unobtrusively as possible, very gently so as not to be noticed by the acolyte, Nox sensed the youth's state and found that the novice's mind was wide open.
"Remember what I taught you about shielding your mind with The Force," Nox cautioned the youth.
"Yes, Dark Lord," the young acolyte replied.
Freeing the captured creature, the youth stood and turned about to face his master. Despite Nox's reminder, the acolyte failed to understand that Nox was advising him to bring up his mind's defenses, not just to remember how it was done. However, Nox had ended his examination of the acolyte's mind, and hadn't realized the acolyte's continued failure to defend his mind.
"If I'm to see the success or failure of this technique, then I must make it as difficult for Khartem'kahl as possible," Nox thought, as he watched the freed insect leap, from plant to plant, making its escape.
"Everything is in readiness," Nox told the acolyte, and then commanded the youth, "come to me."
"As you say, Master."
The youth obeyed, ascending a few steps to reach his master.
When he was within arms' length of the dark lord, Nox grabbed the youth's shoulder and spun him about, so that the acolyte's back was to him. Nox then quickly attached a shock collar to the back of the youth's neck. The dark lord then activated the pain compliance device and then spun the youth about again, to face him.
"If anything goes wrong with your training," Nox lied to the young acolyte, "I'll zap you to your senses, or knock you out. After you've recovered, we'll go over what went wrong, and then you'll try again."
The youth, feeling uneasy, reflexively reached for the shock collar.
"Ah! Don't touch that!"
Too late.
The youth came to a quarter hour later.
"Don't you know better than to touch a shock collar?" Nox asked, laughing at the youth.
"Sorry, Master. I won't do that again."
"How's your head? Can you think clearly?" Nox asked, genuinely concerned.
The dark lord wanted to be certain that nothing would go wrong with the coming experiment and the data that he would collect. If the youth's mind was not functioning normally, that data collection might get skewed results. Nox also worried of getting a false positive result if the youth was still woozy from the shock. Neither did he want the Force ghost to gain an unfair advantage because of the shock the boy had suffered. That, too, would skew his data, and therein lay the cause of Nox's concern, not the youth's wellbeing.
"I'm fine, Master," the youth replied, sheepishly.
"Then follow me," Nox commanded as he turned to climb up the ancient wide, plant-covered temple stairs.
It had been only a month since Nox confronted Khartem'kahl at the Dark Temple. His droids had cleared the vegetation and soil which had covered the veranda before the confrontation, so there was no need to clean off the massive stone slab again. Nox pointed at a metal stool set in the center of the array of instruments he'd set up for the coming experiment.
"Sit there."
"Yes, Master."
The youth sat on the stool, while Nox went about activating each device, ensuring that they were operating properly.
"What are these machines, Master?" the youth asked.
"They will take many measurements, grading your performance," Nox partially lied.
The dark lord walked to the edge of the veranda, outside the ring of instruments and closed his eyes. He reached out with The Force, until he sensed Khartem'kahl's presence.
"I'm am returned, Lord Khartem'kahl. All is in readiness."
The youth wondered what strange language it was that his master spoke. He'd never heard anything like it. It was gibberish to the youth. The young acolyte became amazed, however, as a Force ghost materialized beside his master. He watched his master speak again in that gibberish tongue to the Force ghost.
"This boy is inexperienced, but he is very strong in The Force. You might even say he's a natural at control of The Force. Do not underestimate him; it will be your undoing if you do." Turning to face the long dead Sith lord, Nox asked, "You've been practicing what I've taught you?"
Khartem'kahl did not answer Nox. He merely turned to the youth and reached his ghostly hands for the acolyte where he sat. The Force ghost vanished from view, and the youth lost his balance and fell from his stool. Nox merely waited for what would happen next.
It wasn't long, but the ghost of Khartem'kahl reappeared beside Nox. A look of furry betrayed his frustration at having failed. The acolyte, groggy eyed began to pick himself up, shaking his head as though trying to clear it.
"What difficulty did you have? Tell me," Nox worriedly demanded of the ancient Sith lord.
"It is as you have said. He is strong, and he is a natural," the ghost confessed, before adding, "He has quickly learned how to stop me. I almost had him."
"He seems not to be himself," Nox observed before urging the ghost, "Try again, before he completely recovers."
The Force ghost, again vanished, the young man, again collapsed, and Nox, again waited.
After a time, the young man stirred, but the ghost did not reappear. Nox smiled in triumph.
"Ha!" he shouted in exultation.
Nox prepared his audio only recorder ready for the interview that would follow.
The individual that had once been the boy looked at Nox and spoke.
"Master, I won! I beat that Force ghost!"
Greatly surprised, Nox realized that Khartem'kahl had failed. Needless to say, Nox was both bitterly disappointed, and deeply shocked. He did not expect the ritual to fail. Nox mastered his emotions however, and succeeded in hiding his true feelings about the matter.
Determined not to let this failure be a complete waste, he decided to interview the boy to learn how the young acolyte had succeeded, perhaps there was some danger that he'd overlooked. Perhaps, something that he could learn that would allow him to avoid the same pitfall in the future.
"You have done well, Acolyte. I am deeply pleased in your success," Nox successfully lied, adding, "It is as Darth Virulous had said. You have great potential."
"Thank you, Master!" the youth said, smiling proudly.
"Tell me of your experience. How did you defeat your enemy?"
"Master," the youth explained, "When he tried to get into my body, and tried to push me out, I did like you said and used The Force to guard my mind. Then I noticed that his soul was tied to that old stone block, over there."
"The blasted kid's mind was wide open, yet Khartem'kahl failed?!" Nox thought, amazed.
Had the youth more experience, he would not have explained anything, but kept his secrets. As it was, he pointed at the slab, which both he and Nox walked to. It was a large stone tablet, with engravings worn from thousands of years of rainfall, embedded into one of the massive columns at the corner of the veranda.
As they took their last few steps to the stone slab, Nox surmised that Khartem'kahl must have been killed right at this spot.
"Right at the moment of his death he attached his being to a random stone slab!" Nox thought in amazement, "He must have been ambushed and still had the presence of mind to complete the ritual."
"I pulled him apart from the stone block, and he just disappeared, Master," the youth said.
"And yet, this inexperienced boy defeated him," Nox thought to himself, respecting the youth's raw potential.
"And now he is One with The Force," Nox observed, aloud, before asking, "If the stone slab were out of your view, say for instance, on the opposite side of this column, would you have made that connection? Would you have been able to sever his connection to the stone slab?"
"No, Master. I was lucky that I saw his soul stretching to the stone."
"Not only have you learned how to shield your mind from his attack, and bought yourself time to think of a way to fight back, but you also learned how to defeat a Force ghost. Well done," Nox said, this time, truthfully. Yet he thought to himself, "Now I know how to defeat a Force Ghost, and what I need to do to protect myself, when that day comes."
"Thank you, Master," the youth replied, adding with heartfelt gratitude, "I am glad that Darth Virulous took me out from school."
"School?" Nox thought, incredulous, "He actually thinks the ancient Sith Academy is some ordinary school?"
"It seems that it will be worth my while to continue your training," Nox lied again, "Learning your name will not be a waste. Tell me your name."
"Master, my name is Lennell Juuntos," the young acolyte replied, his chest swelling with pride, "I am deeply honored that you will teach me more. Thank you, Master."
Lennell bowed before Nox.
Nox turned away from the youth and returned to his instruments. Before shutting down the devices, he proceeded to ensure that the data which had been collected by his instruments had properly saved. Nox then carefully removed the datacards, placing them in datacard cases and replacing them with blank datacards. He then ordered the work droids to pack everything up.
The dark lord then approached the young acolyte.
"Turn around."
Lennell obeyed, and Nox proceeded to deactivate and remove the shock collar. Lennell rubbed the back of his neck as he turned about to face his master.
"How many credits have you got left in the credit card?" Nox asked his still unwanted apprentice.
"I didn't need as much as you gave me, Master. I still have a hundred and fifteen thousand credits left."
"Such naive honesty," Nox thought, disapprovingly, while carefully studying the youth's face and reading his emotions like an open book, "Despite learning what I taught him about shielding his mind, and what he'd just gone through, he keeps his mind unprotected!"
"Darth Virulous said that you've been at the academy for six months."
"Yes, Master."
"And he is still this naive and so childish!" Nox thought, greatly amazed, "No wonder Ragate considers him her worst student!"
"The training has ended faster than I had anticipated," Nox lied, before truthfully adding, "I must go on to another experiment. After the shuttle has dropped me and my equipment, you shall return to the city. Find accommodations there. Wait for my summons, I shall give you your assignment."
"Yes, Master."
In fifteen minutes, the work droids had packed everything up. Meanwhile, Nox quickly devoured an unheated military field ration. Shortly thereafter, the two Sith once again marched at the head of the column of droids as they returned to the shuttle waiting at the edge of the temple grounds.
The crew had long ago put their picnic away and were merely lounging, waiting for their very important passengers. It was a lazy day for them.
Two hours later, Nox was marching at the head of his droids, disappearing into the dense jungle just before the shuttle lifted off.
The Imperial shuttle, with the acolyte the dark lord had no use for, made a lazy turn overhead as it settled on its heading, making its way back to Kaas City. It would be a four and a half hour flight for the acolyte, who was glad that he would be Nox's apprentice and not Zash's.
"Darth Virulous was right! This is way more fun!" Lennell thought, never realizing that he was supposed to die in this training.
Deep in the dense rain forests of Dromund Kaas was another, virtually unknown and nearly forgotten, ancient Sith temple. It was a place where ancient Sith belonging to a small sect, considered heretics by most, attempted to find what they believed was the Complete Force.
They sought to access the full might of The Force, neither Dark Side, nor Light Side, but just The Force. A spy had managed to infiltrate their small cult and betrayed them to Lord Pharshol. Lord Pharshol, together with his apprentice Anyarah, had attacked the cultists as they meditated and prepared for their Force ritual.
Lord Pharshol and Anyarah slaughtered all twenty eight cultists, demonstrating that the Dark Side of The Force was where true power resided. In the aftermath of the slaughter, Lord Pharshol proceeded to destroy the heretical teachings and research of these cultists. He ran his lightsaber through every holocron the cultists had which contained everything they'd discovered. He even set fire to the place and shattered the granite foundation which caused the stone and resicrete structure to collapse and crumble over time.
A few thousand years later, Darth Zash had just elevated her apprentice, Kallig, to Lord of The Sith. Kallig, as Nox used to be known, and his unwilling apprentice Ashara Zavros, a Jedi padawan that he had turned to his dark service a few months before his promotion, had been on a training mission in the deep jungles of Dromund Kaas.
They were far from any civilized center on the planet, far removed from any roads or any isolated facility. The two quite literally nearly ran into the ruined structure, stopping less than arm's reach from the ancient ruined stone and resicrete which was heavily covered in vines and obscured by other jungle plant growth.
Kallig noted the ruins' location on his datapad and forwarded the coordinates and an image of the vine covered object to the Imperial Reclamation Service.
"Be sure you keep me apprised of any writings or any Sith relics found," Lord Kallig ordered the military archaeologists, adding, "Send me copies of any reports made about this excavation."
"Yes, Lord. I'll see to it," the droid taking the message said.
Kallig was a Sith within the sphere of influence known as the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge. He was apprentice to Zash who was the subordinate of Thanaton. In those days, Darth Thanaton was the dark lord seated over the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge.
Nearly ten years later, Darth Nox had returned to the excavated ruins. He was struck by such a pang of nostalgia as he recalled his and Ashara's accidental discovery. He remembered being disappointed in the report given him by the archaeologists.
No writings nor intact relics had been found in the ruins, except for one intact stone tablet which chronicled the destruction of the temple. The evidence which showed just how violently the destruction was carried out endured in the condition of the ruined temple: a destroyed foundation, extensive vitrification which was evidence of a massive fire, and no pieces of ancient stone tablets larger than a thumbnail, with most of those pieces missing, impossible to piece together.
The chronicle was the only intact artifact left in the ruins, which in the ancient Sith script read:
"Behold the ruin which has befallen the pathetically weak defilers! They sought to corrupt the holy majesty that is the Dark Side of The Force with the weak corruptible Light Side! Let all be warned that I, Lord Pharshol shall bring death and ruin to all heretics!"
A replica of the stone tablet had been left at the site, with the original housed in a museum. Along with the displayed tablet was a holographic image of the ruined temple and another holographic approximation of what that temple might have looked like before its destruction. The garb of the imagined heretical Sith, used to show the scale of the temple, looked suspiciously like Jedi vestments.
Nox returned to this isolated spot numerous times over the past few years to conduct various secret research experiments. The soil and vegetation which had buried the ancient ruins almost to the tops of the roof support columns had been removed during the archaeological excavation, leaving a deep pit, walled with huge durasteel plate wall sections to keep the pit from filling in.
Since his last visit, small shrubs and numerous vines had sprouted all around and all over the ruined stone structure deep in the five hundred meter by five hundred meter dig site. The jungle had, once again, begun to reclaim its prize at the center of the huge archaeological pit, just as was occurring at the Dark Temple several hundred kilometers northeast of his present location.
Nox ordered his work droids to remove the vegetation that had grown on the metal grate stairs. With the steps cleared, he led his droids down into the archaeological pit and across the huge open space to the small temple in the center of the decommissioned dig site.
At the temple, his medium duty work droids went about clearing the vegetation and soil which had accumulated since the excavation ten years before. The temple was only fifty meters to a side, but the open grounds had shards of stone tablets and other evidences of activity at the temple which held the interests of the Imperial Reclamation Service when the dig site was active.
Nox didn't need the entire temple cleared; his droids only cleared the steps and the veranda leading to where the main entrance would have been. Then, under his supervision, his droids went about unpacking and assembling his instruments.
Meanwhile, the war droids stood guard or conducted security perimeter patrols within the pit. Nox didn't expect bandits or enemies, but the wild creatures of Dromund Kaas' jungles were always a threat which he could not ignore.
Nox directed his work droid detail, instructing them on how to set up the lab table. His droids bolted it to the ancient stone floor, a single huge slab of granite with one of the corners broken off. The broken granite slab was a testament to the fury of Lord Pharshol, as he wrecked this ancient place of heresy. Next a large durasteel tub was clamped to the lab table, so that it wouldn't slide off the table during the experiment.
Next, Nox directed his droids to fill the tub with a slurry mixture of soil, clay dirt, and various organic materials which he'd brought with him. Nox had one of the droids continually stir the slurry so that its contents would not settle to the bottom of the tub.
As the droids busied themselves with clean up and securing the canisters which had held the ingredients, Nox left the pit, climbing the metal grate steps and delving into the jungle on the hunt for fresh prey. It wasn't very long before Nox found himself stalked by a very fierce predator. He'd spotted a vine tiger, a species found natively in the jungles of Dromund Kaas.
He knew that this particular predator hunted in packs of two or three and sometimes four.
"I should have brought Khem Val with me!" Nox thought, regretfully.
The dark lord Force leapt up to a large tree bough high up from the forest floor. The three bests stalking him froze still, but Nox had already spotted one of the two cubs before leaping to the tree limb. From his vantage point Nox spotted the other cub, and after a bit of careful searching, their mother.
"She is no beast! She is a monster!" Nox thought, truly impressed, his heart beginning to race.
The cubs were chest high to him, so they were probably at least four months old. Their mother was large enough to look down on him if she wasn't crouching down in the brush. Nox knew of these creatures' intelligence. He knew they would soon change their plans, and they did.
Their mother made two quick distinct growling sounds. Her second growl was an octave lower than the first. Instantly, the two vine tiger cubs dashed forward, running past Nox's tree. As soon as they'd gotten behind him, they stopped, turned, and looked up at him.
Nox's heart pounded in his chest. He was thrilled, and he was scared. He kept his eyes on the cubs' mother. She remained still, crouching fifty meters from the tree. After a bit, Nox realized that she was the diversion as it occurred to him that one of the cubs might be climbing the tree.
Looking behind himself, Nox saw that one of the cubs had indeed climbed halfway up the tree trunk, but was climbing no higher. Nox's instincts told him he was in immediate danger of dying. Adrenaline shot through his system, causing his heart to jump into hyperspace.
As soon as her prey on the tree branch turned to look at her cubs, she uncoiled her wound up crouched body, surging thirty meters in one bound, and then leaping the remaining twenty meters to the branch, ten meters above the jungle floor, where her prey had perched itself.
The beast hadn't counted on its quarry to leap up higher into the tree. She expected her prey to obliviously stay put or to jump down from the branch to flee. The vine tiger could tell right away that her prey wouldn't make it to the next limb which could support his weight. She twisted in the air, with her four viciously clawed paws facing upwards so that she could catch him as he fell back towards the ground.
"Damnation!" Nox cursed.
He used too much power in The Force when he tried leaping higher into the tree. The big tree branch gave way from under his feet, snapping with a very loud crack, like a shot. As a result, he didn't generate enough momentum to go high enough to reach the branch. He grabbed his sabrestaff and twisted his body in midair to face behind himself.
As he began to descend, he activated one end of his sabrestaff and held it at the far end of the staff hilt to extend his reach. His empty off hand crackled with electrical Force energy as he prepared to fight for his life.
Nox was struck with a sudden pang of fear as he saw that the beast had calculated his failed leap and had oriented itself so that he would descend into the vine tiger's bosom, its paws were spread wide, ready to catch Nox in a razor clawed embrace.
The vine tiger watched the deep red stinger emerge from its prey's appendage and instinctively knew that stinger meant death. Rather than capturing her prey in its huge razor sharp clawed paws, the vine tiger swatted Nox off to the side. It did not get away unscathed, however, as the behemoth cat felt a very strange and exceedingly painful sensation.
The muscles of the forepaw and foreleg it used to swat its prey away spasmed violently from a very strange, burning sensation as though fire raged within its entire limb. The vine tiger tumbled in the air, so that it could land on all fours, but when its right forepaw impacted the jungle floor, twenty meters beyond Nox's tree, the pain in its foreleg was so great that it couldn't maintain any weight on it. The huge cat tumbled uncontrollably across the jungle floor until it slammed into another tree, hurting its back.
The huge beast got up and limped into the dense jungle foliage, favoring its right foreleg. Mother vine tiger gave another distinct growl and her cubs darted after her into the vegetation, their prey abandoned.
Darth Nox regained consciousness and found himself wedged within the branches of a very large and thick bush. The many branches of the bush had broken his fall. Nox's medium grade flexible armor saved him from the vine tiger's claws, but his left forearm was in a lot of pain, and the pain on the left side of his rib cage made it very difficult for him to move freely.
With his right hand, Nox wrestled the branches out of his way as he struggled to reach his medi-aid kit on his utility belt. Nox's hand began to shake from his growing fear, knowing the huge predator was still nearby. He knew that if he opened the aid kit on his belt in his current state that he'd likely lose the contents to the jungle floor beneath his perch. He stopped, closed his eyes and tried to will his hand to cease trembling.
He knew that the vine cat would resume the hunt and that the fierce beast would soon find him. Nox closed his eyes again, this time filling himself with hatred and fury. This finally drove out the fear.
Now that he was in a very foul mood, he opened his eyes and again reached for the medi-aid kit, opening it. He extracted a kolto injector, closed the aid kit and then proceeded to administer two doses of kolto on two places of his left bicep.
Pressing the injector against his armor activated the device, causing the needle to lance through the heavy fabric armored sleeve of his tunic, and into his bicep, instantly shooting a full dose of kolto, then instantly withdrawing into the injector.
The pain from each shot lasted only a few seconds and was insignificant, compared to what that blasted beast had done to him. He waited for the pain on his left side to numb down before attempting, again, to extricate himself from the bush.
The vine tiger had used its reach to swat at Nox before he could pierce the beast with his sabrestaff, but that put its paw within reach of Nox's left, lightning charged, hand. The Force Lightning coursing through the muscles of the beast's foreleg caused it to spasm violently, breaking the momentum of its swipe. This was most fortunate for Nox, because it meant he wasn't struck with the beast's full strength. It was still enough to knock the wind out of him, though.
Nox struggled to free himself from the clingy branches of the bush before he finally wrenched himself free and dropped a meter onto the jungle floor. The fog cleared enough from his mind to allow him to realize that he was making too much noise. There was no doubt in his mind that the racket he was making would definitely attract the pack of vine tigers.
"In fact," he realized, "They're probably about to pounce on me, now!"
Again, adrenaline shot into his system, and his heart raced into hyperspace with a new flood of fear that washed over him. Nox scrambled to his feet, as fast as his sore left side would allow him, and as quickly as his poor coordination from the massive doses of kolto permitted. He blinked his eyes, trying to clear his vision as he desperately scanned the dense foliage around him. Nox concentrated, straining his ears to hear the vicious beasts' stealthy approach.
He saw nothing but the vegetation around him, and heard nothing but his fear induced heavy breathing and the panicked beating of his heart pounding in his ears. The sounds of chittering birds, and buzzing insects did not register in his consciousness.
He reached for his belt and didn't find his sabrestaff, remembering then that he'd already drawn and ignited his weapon. Nox realized it had to be somewhere on the jungle floor hidden by the thick vegetation. A safety feature, he'd added to his weapon, caused it to shut off when it left his hand and struck the ground. Therefore, looking around for smoke or fires started on the jungle foliage would not help him to find his sabrestaff.
Using The Force, he searched for the weapon and found it on the other side of the bush he was lodged in. It was hidden from view by the bush he'd extracted himself from and by the ground level, knee-high, broad-leafed plants. The dark lord stretched his hand forward, and the weapon instantly lifted off the ground and shot around the bush and into his outstretched hand.
Standing, alert, and armed with his weapon, his fear began to recede and self control returned to him. When he was finally sure the beasts were not imminently nearby, he began to start thinking about his experiment again.
Nox still needed the carcass of a wild beast for his experiment. He was sure that his battle with the vine tiger had likely spooked away any of the other creatures that may have been in the area, and Nox fervently hoped that he wouldn't need to tangle with that vine tiger again. Besides, he didn't need a carcass that big.
Using The Force, he tried to sense the presence of any wild life, and discovered, to his chagrin, that the vine tigers were much closer than he'd imagined. Nox moved further to the south, away from the ruined temple and his field lab, and away from the vine tigers, but the beasts crept after him.
"Blasted monster won't give up!" he thought, worriedly.
He realized that no matter how far he moved from them, they would continue to stalk him. Nox concluded that he had no other choice. The dark lord turned to face in the direction of the three cats stalking him and spoke loudly as he drew and activated both ends of his sabrestaff, separating them into their twin lightsaber configuration.
"If you won't give up the hunt, then die by my hands!" he shouted, filling himself with hate and fury, "If you think you can eat me, then come!"
The vine tigers emerged from hiding in the thick brush, realizing that their prey was not fooled.
Darth Nox decided the jungle was too thick and favored the vine tiger family. He reached both arms towards the cats and leaning forward, executed an explosively powerful Force Push attack that ripped the jungle vegetation clear. The large trees creaked as they shook violently causing hundreds of birds to fly out of their nests, squawking in terror, and creating a rain of falling leaves, twigs and debris that fell into the clearing, which he'd just created.
The vine tigers were smacked by the shock wave of Nox's Force push attack. They all roared their surprised reactions to the painful stinging that brutally assaulted their bodies. The beasts were violently blown back, tumbling uncontrollably in the air, and crashing in heaps, along with the debris of the jungle vegetation that piled on top of them.
The mother vine tiger quickly dug herself out from under the pile of vegetation and debris, her two cubs emerging not long after. Bewildered, she looked back and forth at the suddenly opened space, nearly denuded of foliage. The only things left in the clearing were the two huge trees, still standing, and her unexpectedly tough prey, with two deep red stingers exposed this time.
Then she felt it, a vile aura filled with terrible hatred and putrid darkness. The vine tiger realized this terrible, crushing feeling was coming from her prey. She watched as her prey began to slowly advance towards she and her cubs, the vile loathsome feeling growing the closer her prey got.
Her cubs were mewling and growling nervously. She could see they were visibly fearful of their prey as they looked alternately at their mother and at it. The two cubs made false starts, as though they would flee, but they feared their mother's discipline as much as they obviously feared their prey, so they returned to their mother's side each time. The tigress, herself, was growing fearful of the blood red and deep black creature inexorably approaching them.
The vine tigress finally came to understand that she could not protect her cubs from this prey. She gave a wildly strange crying growl. Her two cubs reacted by running into the jungle, away from Nox. They left their mother behind, fleeing with everything they had.
Nox stopped in his tracks when the two cubs bolted from the clearing, leaving their mother behind. He watched as she crouched, preparing to pounce. Nox braced himself.
"The monster strikes!" he thought, his excited heart pounding in his ears.
The monstrous vine tiger made its move, taking Nox by complete surprise. It was not what the dark lord expected. The monstrous cat beast quickly spun about and bounded out of the clearing and into the jungle behind her two fleeing cubs, having bought her cubs enough time to escape.
He stood dumbfounded for a brief moment before finally breaking into a run after the huge cat, but he quickly gave up the chase, stopping at the edge of the clearing he'd created.
"I don't think she'll come back this time," Nox thought, not thoroughly convinced.
He was right, however. The vine tigers did not return.
Eventually, Nox had caught a young mailoc, a reptilian flying creature with leathery wings. He directed his droids to drain its blood into a basin and had the droid pour the blood into the slurry mixture. Providing a very large vibroknife for the task, he directed another of his droids to carve the carcass into quarters, and had one of the quarters placed into the tub.
This was actually Nox's second attempt at performing this experiment. On his first try, he was interrupted by a call from Darth Marr. Nox didn't have the time to return to his secret deep space station to conduct his experiment. It was why he had chosen to conduct it at the ruined temple in the deep jungle so far from any centers of population.
Nox produced a light weight, very porous clay tablet from one of the packing crates. This tablet was made with a unique blend of minerals, ground to a very, very fine powder, with each mineral carefully weighed into their proper proportions before being mixed into the clay. The tablet was inscribed with the ancient Sith script, a dead language which very few were able to read or to speak.
He placed the tablet into the tub on top of the carcass quarter. Nox didn't believe that the text had any real effect on the ritual, but he believed that every part of the ritual should be replicated. Sometimes, pointless details like that revealed insights or clues about the actual ritual.
He recited the script aloud, substituting his name for the name of the ancient Sith lord who'd developed this technique a hundred years before even Vitiate was born! He didn't think the recitation did anything except to set the mood. He would have laughed at the absurdity of the two lines of script, except that he was filling himself with hatred and fury.
"Eth! Hrogath ena! Khorad ena! Gruende ena! Eth! Dar Nos Eth a-eth!
Ethi aggad'na! Ethi mogakh'na! Ethi khaddaa'thoom'na! Ethi maraath o'uthra'g'naoo hreggan!"
Loosely translated, it meant, "Obey me! From chaos, order! From oblivion, form! From death, life! Obey me, Darth Nox! Obey and come forth!
I know the elements! I know the ratio! I know The Force! I can create another self from the scraps of beasts!"
Nox poured his malice and hatred into the piece of flesh in the tub. His vile aura poured out of him and saturated the area with palpable dread. Creatures of every kind, from small reptiles, insects and winged creatures crawled, skittered, or flew away from the ruined temple, as they fled his terrifying aura.
He stretched his hands towards the dead hunk of flesh, bone, and guts in the tub, focusing his vile hatred on it. Nox furiously blasted his command at the lump of flesh.
"Obey me! Come forth!"
A few tentacles peeked out from the slurry and found the edge of the tub. An eye stalk poked out of the muddy slop to look around and spotted Nox. It instantly shot a tentacle at the dark lord. Nox immediately swatted it aside and followed up with a blast of Force Lightning. The tentacle and the eye stalk vanished beneath the slurry. Nox shouted furiously at the ever forming creature.
"Know your place, you vile tub of filth!"
For good measure he blasted the creature with another bolt of Force Lightning, shouting vile epithets at his creation. The poor unnatural abomination quivered and writhed in agony as the lightning buzzed and crackled and danced across the creature's ever evolving body.
He ended the Force Lightning attack, but then Nox blasted the Sith Spawn with his putrid aura.
"A vile piece of filth, such as you are, would dare touch me?! I'll turn you to ash if you defile me with your filth again!"
Nox was thoroughly thrilled at his success, a huge triumphant grin on his face.
Pointing to a spot on the temple stone floor a couple of meters from where he stood, Nox commanded, "Out of that tub, you worthless spawn!"
The creature immediately obeyed, crawling out of the slurry filled tub. However, it exited from the opposite side of the tub from where Nox stood and began to crawl away from him. Nox quickly made his way around his lab table.
"Don't even think that you can run from me!" the dark lord snarled.
The creature halted where Nox confronted it. Darth Nox carefully inspected the creature, stepping around it, so that he could look at it from all angles. Nox spoke aloud, describing what he saw for his records.
"The creature's main body consists of the quartered carcass of the mailoc I had captured for this experiment. Its form was changing, but then stopped. Perhaps it ceased metamorphosing when I zapped it with Force Lightning. Or perhaps it stopped metamorphosing when it left contact with the slurry mixture.
"It has six tentacles of various lengths and each one has varying thicknesses. It has only one eye, mounted at the end of an eye stalk. It swivels its eye stalk like a periscope."
Nox felt the frightened and sorrowfully woeful plea from the creature, impressing him with its hunger.
"It is Force sensitive. It has exhibited at least some small amount of intelligence. It understands my spoken commands and communicates telepathically by projecting its emotions."
An idea occurred to the dark lord. Looking straight at the unnatural creature, he formed an image of the creature eating the remaining quarters of the original carcass.
Nothing happened. The creature continued to impress Nox with his hunger.
Again Nox formed the image of the creature eating the remaining mailoc carcass. This time he used The Force to project the image to the creature.
The creature responded, struggling to move itself with its tentacles, across the stone slab floor to what was once its body. It stretched two tentacles forward and pulled a quarter of its former self to itself.
"The creature can receive my projected thoughts," Nox said into his audio recorder, "This could prove useful. The creature understands both spoken commands and can receive commands telepathically through The Force. Importantly, the creature does not seem to be able to simply look into my thoughts, but I must use The Force to project my commands telepathically. However, I must test this out more thoroughly."
Nox also observed that it had developed a new maw. It was circular with hundreds of razor sharp teeth arranged in several rings, like some sort of parasite. It tore through the flesh of its former self, devouring the small shredded bits.
As it did so, Nox observed its body begin to evolve again. Some of its tentacles seemed to shrink and thicken, developing into limbs. Clawed paws began to form at the ends of its limbs. Nox noted these incredibly fast changes in his audio recordings.
He checked the equipment to ensure he was getting good video and audio, as well as other good quality scientific recordings. As he did so, Nox had to turn his back on the creature, and as soon as he did, he felt the creature's yearning for Nox's own flesh.
Nox immediately turned about and blasted the poor beast with his hate filled putrid aura and with Force Lightning.
"Do you think yourself worthy of tasting my flesh, you filth?!" Nox snarled at the unnatural beast.
The twisted creature writhed in agony on the stone slab floor of the ancient temple ruins. It reached out to Nox, piteously begging for mercy – through its emotions, rather than through words. Nox halted the torment, lowering his hands after the lightning had stopped.
"I am your master, your god! I created you, and I can destroy you! Do not anger me again!"
Nox's personal holo-transceiver signaled an incoming call, which told him it was one of the dark councilors calling.
"Now what?!" he thought caustically, answering the call.
Unexpectedly, Darth Arkous' holographic image sprang up over his portable hand held device.
"Blast! What in the Nine Hells is Keeper doing?!" Nox asked himself.
Darth Nox needed his rival dead. Darth Arkous stood in his way, and time was running out. If Valion Pyron returned to Sith Empire space with Darth Arkous still overseeing the Sphere of Military Offense, then the moff, although Nox's vassal, would be forced to obey the military offensive directives of Darth Arkous.
The Imperial Navy had completed modifications on the reactors of a very large number of the Imperial fleet. It was on track to complete the modifications of the reactors of the remaining few thousands of starships. These were mostly support and supply ships.
Many of the warships refitted with the modified reactors had already been refueled with refined Imperium. Imperium was formally known as Isotope Five, which the empire was now mining for itself on the reborn world of Makeb, now referred to as 24P36Q617-TSB. Its shortened name was 24P-TSB.
Moff Valion Pyron was nearing the galaxy and would soon arrive to report to Nox with his three or perhaps four naval battle groups with their refitted warships. As such, Nox was both peeved and alarmed by Arkous' call.
"Why is he still alive?!"
He wondered why it was taking so long for Keeper to complete his mission. Then a terrible thought occurred to him.
"Has Keeper failed? Is Arkous calling to tell me that my plot had been discovered?"
"Darth Arkous, what do you want?" Nox asked, guardedly.
Darth Arkous spoke with fury in his voice, causing Nox to curse under his breath, "Blast! I've been found out!"
"What do I want?! What do I….," Arkous paused and composed himself before getting to the point. "Our sacred temple has been desecrated by the filthy Jedi!"
Nox was both surprised and greatly relieved. The worst case scenario had not played out.
"Then do something about it," Nox replied, adopting an air of exasperation.
"I am doing something about it!" Arkous blasted at Nox, but stopped to compose himself before continuing, "I am doing something about it, but the forces I have here are insufficient," Arkous said disgustedly, "I am outnumbered eight to one."
"How many troops do you have?" Nox asked, deciding to let Arkous' tone of voice slide this time.
"I have a regiment of the Imperial Guard, and a regiment of Imperial Army troops to augment the Imperial Guard forces."
"Then you are facing two divisions of Republic forces?" Nox asked.
"Two divisions of heavy infantry and a regiment of shock troops," Arkous said, grimly, before adding, "There is also a contingent of Jedi. There are probably between twenty, thirty, or perhaps more of those vile heretics."
Nox's interest increased on hearing about the Jedi.
"What do the Jedi want?" he asked.
"Obviously, they want to destroy the temple, and to steal whatever they can from it!" Arkous said furiously, adding, "I think they're after the holocrons."
"Have you called for reinforcements?" Nox asked.
"I'm calling you, aren't I?" Arkous replied irritably.
Nox shook his head, becoming irritated with the freshman dark councilor's impertinence.
"Whatever!" Nox said, reaching the end of his patience, before asking, "Which temple are you talking about? There are dozens scattered throughout the Empire."
"Korriban," was all Arkous had to say.
Nox was taken aback. His great shock was plain for Arkous to see. The ramifications of that news struck Nox to his core. Not only was the Sith Academy located on Korriban, with some of the structures serving as tombs for some of the greatest Sith rulers of the ancient past, but the traditional Dark Council chamber was located there.
The Empire was administered from Dromund Kaas, but the Dark Council ruled from Korriban.
The Dark Council had a council chamber on Dromund Kaas, but nearly twenty years ago, when the Sith Empire retook Korriban from the Galactic Republic and the Jedi, the Dark Council began to hold its sessions in the ancient council chamber again.
That wasn't all. The Sith Academy was part of Nox's Sphere of Influence, and the libraries located at the Academy were part of his domain, along with all of the other libraries of holocrons in other Sith temples throughout the galaxy.
"What are the Jedi really doing at the Academy?" Nox couldn't believe it was just about holocrons. "Are they there to wipe out the Academy?" Nox expected to find all of his overseers and acolytes dead. "If they really are after our library, it's to destroy it, but it doesn't matter. Those are all copies." Nox knew.
Darth Arctis, Darth Thanaton's predecessor on the Dark Council, had the foresight to safeguard the long lost knowledge regained to them when Korriban returned to Imperial control. He also copied the holocrons in other libraries in Sith temples throughout the empire, leaving three copies at each of the libraries, and storing the originals at The Citadel. Four other sets of copies were also stored separately in different storage facilities in different cities scattered around Dromund Kaas and around Ziost.
It would be nothing to create a new copy of any of the libraries from one of those four sets of copies and restock the shelves of the libraries on Korriban, or any other library at any of the temples throughout the empire. However, the knowledge and experience of the overseers was irreplaceable. New overseers would need to be appointed and trained, and it wasn't easy to find Force Sensitives to bring to the Academy for their trials…
However, there was another possibility explaining the Jedi's presence on Korriban. It screamed at him from the back of his mind, and it worried him greatly.
"Keeper, what have you done?"
Nox stood to lose a lot of influence in the Dark Council because of this incursion. He might be blamed for a lack of security or any number of things. Now Nox understood why Arkous called him specifically. His rival knew that with so much at stake, Nox would be forced to respond and take action to defend Korriban from the Jedi.
Nox spoke darkly, telling Arkous, "I will see to this, personally."
"Thank you, Darth Nox," Arkous replied before adding, "I'll hold out as long as I can. I'll hurt them as much as I can," Then, before cutting the connection, he added, "Avenge my death, Darth Nox."
Darth Arkous' holographic image was gone from above Nox's communication device. Fury overcame him, and he was struck with outrage, as he imagined the Jedi treading the ancient halls of the Sith Academy and of the Dark Council chamber itself.
Nox turned his fury at the hapless creature he had just created, pouring forth his rage and withering hatred for the Jedi onto the poor Sith spawn in the form of Force Lightning.
The creature sent Nox its emotions, begging and crying for its creator to stop. It didn't understand. It didn't do anything to anger its maker. Just before it died, it formed a coherent thought and projected it to Nox.
"Why, Mother?"
The creature died, and Nox was left in shock at what he'd observed. He recorded the data, speaking into his audio recorder.
"The Sith spawn has developed quickly, both physically and mentally. It has learned to form coherent thoughts that can translate into language. Great care must be exercised when creating these creatures. Their intelligence grows, making them potentially very difficult to control over the long run. That could be very dangerous," after some though, he added, "A way must be found to establish and maintain absolute control over the aberrations. Even then, allowing the Sith spawn to mature for too long might lead to an intelligent being capable of betraying its creator."
Nox made sure he saved all of the recordings from the instruments recording the telemetry data, as well as the holographic and audio recorders. As he had done hours earlier at the Dark Temple with his experiment on the youth, whose name escaped the dark lord, Nox removed the datacards with the precious data of his experiment.
He stored the datacards in protective datacard cases and put them in a compartment of his utility belt. Then he went about ordering his droids to dismantle his field laboratory.
Pointing at a nearby droid, he ordered, "Place the remnants of the animal carcass into the tub."
As the droid carried out its task, he ordered another droid, "Dig a pit in dimensions that this tub will fit into snugly." Pointing at a small clearing about seventy meters from the temple stairs, he ordered the droid, "Dig the pit over there."
Pointing at four other droids, he ordered, "Remove this tub from the laboratory table and take it over there, where the pit will be dug."
He pointed to where the first droid had already begun to expeditiously dig the pit. Then he stepped away from the lab table and watched as the four droids began to execute their instructions, unclamping the tub from the table. Each of the four droids then lifted the tub from one of the carrying handles at the rounded corners of the rectangular tub.
As the four droids carefully transported the tub filled with the slurry, the carcass remnants of the mailoc, and of the Sith spawn towards the almost completed pit, Nox gave instructions to his remaining medium duty work droids.
"Unbolt the table from the floor, carefully disassemble and repack all of my scientific instruments, and prepare it all to be carried back to the shuttle landing zone."
The coordinates Nox and his droids had been dropped off was ten kilometers from the site of the ruined temple. He wanted to keep the location of the temple ruins as secret as possible. If anyone were to follow to the landing site later on, without foreknowledge of the existence of the ruins, they would not know where in the jungle to search for him. As a result, however, that meant he would need to trudge ten kilometers through the jungle to get to the temple, and then from the temple on his return trip to the shuttle landing site.
It had occurred to him, years ago, that pursuers could simply follow the droids' tracks to the ruins. The wide path carved out by the passage of his droids on their march to and from the ruins made nice pointers to his secret hidden ancient temple and research lab, but he didn't worry about this too much. In only a couple of days, the wildly growing jungle vegetation would already have been well on its way to erasing the evidence of such pointers anyway.
Using The Force, Nox lifted two heavy plasma torches and brought them over to where the pit was almost completed, and the tub had been brought. Nox came to a stop to watch the droids work. Guiding the plasma torches, he allowed them to float past him to gently settle to the ground near the droids with the tub.
Just as the pit digger completed its task, Nox ordered the four droids, "Lower the tub into the pit, and don't spill a drop of that slurry. When you've done that, two of you will use these torches to incinerate the contents of the tub until nothing remains in the tub except for white ash. Advise me when this is done."
Nox intended to visually verify that the droids had carried out his instructions perfectly before ordering them to bury the tub in the pit, but then he had an epiphany.
After the droids lowered the tub into the pit, he commanded, "Hold off on the torches. Instead, one of you remove a piece of the quartered animal and set it on the ground here."
He pointed to where here was before running back to his crates to retrieve a spare clay tablet. On his way back, he reread the ancient text on the tablet.
"Obey me! From chaos, order! From oblivion, form! From death, life! Obey me, Darth Nox! Obey and come forth!
I know the elements! I know the ratio! I know The Force! I can create another self from the scraps of beasts!"
Nox realized that the first line was nonsense, the secret was in the second line.
"Another self from the scraps of beasts," Nox realized that was the key.
To confirm this, the dark lord first attempted the ritual on the piece of carcass removed from the tub and placed on the ground. Without reciting the lines, and using The Force, he poured in his hatred, fury, and malice into the hunk of animal flesh. Nothing happened.
Then he tried it on the animal remnants in the tub, again without reciting the lines. Those began to change, but progress was very slow.
Then the Sith lord placed the tablet onto the piece of carcass removed from the tub. Again, without reciting any of the script, Nox performed the ritual. As the quarter section of mailoc began to transform, the tablet began to break down and dissolve into the forming creature.
"That's it!" Nox shouted in triumph.
Using The Force, Nox moved the still forming Sith Spawn into the tub and ordered his droids, "Incinerate the contents of the tub until only white ash remains."
As the droids began to carry out their task, he turned and walked back to the temple ruins and recorded his findings in his audio recorder.
"The ratio of elements in the tablet, plus the elements in the animal carcass approximate what is found in human remains. It may be possible to create Sith Spawn from the corpses of humans without any additional preparation. I must test this on a sacrificed human slave. I'll also try this on alien slaves, to see if I'll have any success, there."
Upon walking to where his other droids were packing his scientific instruments, he sat on one of the packing crates and secured his audio recorder. Then, retrieving his intra-galactic, encrypted holo-transceiver, he dialed a frequency.
There was a very noticeable delay while Nox waited for his vassal to answer the call. While he waited, he could not help but think about the Jedi raiding his domain and how it might impact his claim for the throne.
Finally, after a surprisingly long delay of several long seconds, the very unstable and glitch-ridden holographic image of Moff Valion Pyron appeared. Pyron spoke, but the audio was broken and covered with static and white noise.
"…ord, how may …. erve you?"
"How much longer, Moff?" Nox asked, barely containing his rage.
There was another long delay before he received Pyron's reply.
"Repeat…., Lord. Re…., Dar…. …peat, Dark Lord."
Nox's frustration at how inconvenient this exchange was, was compounded by how difficult it was to understand what was said.
"When will you be here? When will you be here? When will you be here?"
Another long wait.
"Four wee …. Dark Lo…. …. weeks….. Four wee…Lord," Pyron repeated himself.
"Defend Korriban. Defend Korriban. Defend Korriban," Nox said.
"Un… Understood…. U…. ark Lord."
Nox cut the connection, and immediately called for a shuttle to come get him.
Nox's rage intensified as he imagined finding the ancient Sith temple and the academy in smoking ruins, but he managed to find a single positive development in the midst of the calamity.
"At least Arkous will be dead and will not be around to stop me from launching my military offensive."
Despite his effort to remain positive, Nox had very grave misgivings.
"I'm going to have to have a word with Keeper. He didn't need to lure the Republic to Korriban to get at Arkous!"
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