Last time: Kyr encountered a primitive species who now worships the Shadow. Sasha and Viran dealt with a deadly rain storm.

Now: The next temples come with a paranormal feeling.

Chapter 4- Ghosts and Ghost Towns

A month had gone by since the first temple after Chikara. Kyr had visited three more worlds since that first stop with the bow wielding primitives, each one had a temple, each with a two vector alignment, and a Stela that somehow indicated the time of an event that was just about to happen. On the second world, Kyr had encountered nothing, a barren, dry, dustball of a planet and it was such a boring place that apparently the only thing worth noting on the stela was Kyr standing in front of the stela itself. The third world was a little more fun, it had actually been a cataloged system, and it had a small outpost on it. Kyr had been able to get a few drinks in, and when he visited the temple, after spending a few days in orbit surveying the planet for it - it had been buried by a mud slide so it was a pain to try to find, he had to use ground penetrating sensors to find its odd arrangement - the stela showed the mudslide itself, and then an intrepid, helmeted and caped adventurer being chased off by a swarm of giant sand worms. Which spooked him so much that he had accidentally stepped backwards into a sinkhole which introduced him to the worms, thus fulfilling the prophecy. He was starting to be annoyed by the humor of whoever these temple builders were. He was also getting pretty tired of the journey. The third world, he and Tac both agreed to never speak of what happened there. The ship still smelled of it.

Each site had two vectors from it, aligning to the last temple site and the next, like a gigantic string stretching across the galaxy. Sasha and Viran were working their way down one side, Kyr the other, with Chikara merely being one link in the chain. There was no apparent end to it, until one of the two parties found the quaternary system. So they kept making stops, calculating the alignments, and following on to the next.

This one was another uncataloged system, apparently the one outpost was a fluke that the planet had been discovered by other explorers. He dropped out of orbit, and saw just a giant swirl of mists covering the planet. He double checked the readings that it wasn't a gas giant, but it was a terrestrial world that was just shrouded in thick, pervasive cloud cover.

That was great. Another couple of days with the ground penetrating sensors, hoping they might pick the temple up. He rolled his eyes under his buy'ce and settled into low orbit to begin the scan sequence. Setting up the program, he got up out of the seat and stretched, moving back to the lounge somewhat aimlessly. Maybe the firing range. He stepped into the armory, Tac was nowhere to be found, and he selected a rifle off the rack. He hit the activation button, and one of the bulkheads lit up and slid back, activating a holographic targeting range.

He had just taken aim down the barrel and was about to fire off the first round when he got a comlink alert. Sighing, he held still for a second, and then brought the rifle down, replaced on the rack and stepped out of the armory. Probably Sasha and Viran calling with another step in the chain for Tac to calculate.

"Tac, we- " Kyr was brought up short as Tac came around the corner towards the bridge to answer the message, humming and whistling to himself, since it was most likely for him. In his manipulator arms were a pair of knitting needles moving carefully and precisely as he moved, and suspended from them was a half finished sweater just about the right size for a lothcat kitten. Kyr had no idea where he had gotten the yarn from, nor the knitting needles. At least the knitting needles might have been made in the simple machine shop they had on board, but the yarn…?

"Wait a second, was that my scarf?" He yelled after the droid, who had already gone around the corner to the cockpit. He chased the droid into the cramped space, and found him already connected to the data terminal, still busily and carefully knitting the tiny sweater. His head dome rotated to look at Kyr, and he gave a few beeps and whistles in answer.

"Don't steal my stuff!" Kyr growled. "Of course we didn't have any yarn aboard, no one on this ship knits!"

The droid responded with a chortle and then a slight rotation of his head.

"Well I can see that!" He rolled his eyes. "What did Sasha and Viran find?" He said, changing the subject, hoping that they might have found a four star system.

There were a couple of beeps and whistles, then a questioning sound that, if Kyr had to describe it, sounded like a shrug.

"What?" Kyr said, very puzzled. He slid around the droid and into the pilots seat and brought up the message. It was from the planet, it was a set of coordinates, repeating over and over again every couple of seconds. That hadn't been there when he'd arrived. Maybe another settlement?

"Okay, well… I guess we investigate." Kyr said, diving towards the coordinates. The clouds immediately enveloped them, to make matters worse the coordinates were on the night side. It was pitch black outside the canopy, so he came in on sensors. There was hardly any air movement, which was strange, and visibility was cut down to only a few hundred meters, he saw as he swooped past a mountain range covered in strange, black vegetation. As he continued towards the coordinates there was a clear spot directly adjacent to it, the right size for his ship to land so he brought it down, the floodlights at the front of the Shadow Runner facing into the temple so he could have some illumination.

"Tac, you want to come along on this one?" The droid responded with an excited warble, he rarely got to leave the ship since he was ill equipped to handle rough terrain, or he usually needed to stay with the ship to provide fire support.

As they passed the lounge, Kyr stepped into the armory to select a carbine, and outside Tac carefully folded the half finished sweater and put it down on the holo table, with the needles resting on top of it. They went down the exit ramp together, Kyr taking point as a reflex while the droid trundled behind him, chirping happily to himself.

The air outside was dead still, and he could just make out the temple in the distance, the flood lights from the ship filling the vaporous, foggy air with light. The vegetation was made up of black shadows that played with the imagination. Kyr shifted through his vision modes; infrared, visible, light enhanced, UV, and could hardly see through the soup with any of them. He stayed with the light enhanced mode since it at least brightened the contrast a bit in the gloom.

A loud, low, mournful howl sounded in the distance to his right. Kyr brought his rifle around, already feeling on edge in this place. The torch on his barrel was like a lance in the mists as he brought it up, but there was no movement except the swirl of fog. Underfoot the ground cover was ankle deep black grass. An avian called to his left, and he glanced that way. Kyr was no stranger to fear, to him it was something to be embraced in the heat of battle. This wasn't fearful, but it was the darndest, spookiest place he had ever been, and his imagination was running wild. He had never been to Umbara but he imagined it was a lot like this, except more inviting. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristle in the familiar sensation of being watched, and swept around, his rifle up and at the ready. Tac bumped into him and looked up at Kyr in askance.

"Nothing, bud." He said, recovering himself with a sigh and continuing towards the temple.

The temple's stones emerged out of the fog, from this perspective like the teeth of some long forgotten jaw bone sticking out of the ground. He walked forward and was glad that the stones were all at least barely visible in the gloom, enough to get the alignment reading in one scan. The floodlights from the ship provided an incredibly diffuse miasma of light in the dense soup, and his flashlight played over the perfectly set standing stones.

"Tac, get the scan - I'm going to go find the stela." He said, falling into the now familiar routine of these temples. "Let's get this done quick." He added.

He stepped off towards the dias where the stelas were, and sure enough it stood there. His flashlight played across the surface, as he surveyed the now familiar scenes, but mostly looking for the local ones. Another howl echoed from the distance and his head snapped up by reflex. He looked back at the scene, and just saw himself standing in… ruins? The temple itself was depicted crudely but accurately, but it was broken, some of the stones fallen instead of standing. The standing stones he had walked past on the way in were broken and fallen. That made no sense, was there about to be a destructive battle here, maybe? The ship's sensors hadn't reported anything, Tac would have told him since he stayed in contact with the ship and its constant feed. Either way he would need to move quickly, if those stones were broken that meant they couldn't get the alignments.

Suddenly a howl sounded very, very close by. It was a long, drawn out howl that made Kyr's skin crawl. He brought his rifle up and ready in that direction, looking through the fog for any indication of the predator. He quickly shifted to thermal to see if he could spot anything. Nothing. He switched back to light enhancement since that offered him the best range. He suddenly felt the sensation of being watched again -

"You are here." A voice said behind him. He whirled around, just barely keeping from pulling the trigger on the figure that was standing there. A pale form, in pale robes, standing in the gloom, and didn't react at all to the bright beam of the flashlight hitting their eyes. Kyr quickly lowered the rifle so as not to blind the person.

"Yeah." Kyr said flatly. Not sure what else to say. He was here after all.

"We have waited a long time for you." The person said flatly.

"Sorry to have kept you." Kyr said back.

"No need to apologize." The figure said, turning to walk back towards the dias where Tac was performing the scan. The person moved slowly though and... didn't have the gait of someone who was walking, they almost… floated down into the temple dias where Tac was. If Kyr had been spooked before, he was more creeped out now than he had ever been in his life.

"Are you… do you know of this place?" Kyr asked, this was the first time he had encountered anyone at the temples, it might be their only chance for information.

"Yes." The figure replied flatly.

"Who built this place?" Kyr asked. "Who built these temples?"

The figure stared at him with dead eyes, "Those that came before." They said.

"And who were they?" Kyr pressed.

"The ones who built the temple." The figure replied, with a hint of a smile playing at their pale lips.

Kyr considered the person for a moment. Tac looked over at him and emitted a worried tone.

He looked at Tac for a second, what does he mean who am I talking to -

"Your work is complete?" The figure said in a distant sort of way.

"Yes." Kyr said. Kyr switched to his infrared vision mode and saw... nothing standing in front of him, just a column of air that was a bit cooler than the ambient temperature. He switched to the UV light, and saw the figure standing there as before, this time with a faint glow around their body. He switched to the unfiltered mode and did a double take, seeing that he was surrounded by a great many number of other figures that were just standing there, in the gloom, their hoods up, staring at him. Surrounding him in the temple's sanctum. He looked around from one side to the other, frozen, barely raising his rifle and not sure how to deal with this.

"Good." The figure said with a look of bliss crossing their face. "Then ours is done as well."

Kyr's head shot around back to the figure, but they had faded into the mist in the time it took him to turn his head to face them.

Tac did a double take to, rolling backwards and his dome spun wildly looking side to side. Kyr looked around him. All the figures were gone, and the temple lay in ruins. The stones broken or fallen, only a few still stood as crumbling remnants of what they had been only a few seconds before.

"Tac, were you able to get the scans?" Kyr asked, shaken. A low affirmative answered him. "Good, let's get the kriff out of here." He turned to leave the ruins, walking back towards the ship with a little more speed than usual. The distant howl made him break into a full run, with Tac hurrying to keep up.

One month. Time flies when one is traveling across the galaxy constantly. During their month of travel, Sasha and Viran had visited a couple other temples. The first one they visited since the boiling rain was a snowy planet. The snow was so deep to trudge through that Viran had to wrangle some local fauna so they could ride to the temple as the ship was not exactly close. After they got information they needed, they had to stay there an extra day or two due to a blizzard that hit them as they tried to leave the planet. Plus Viran wanted to play in the snow and who could blame him. After that planet, they ended up going to a inhabited planet that was super close to encroaching on Empire territory. Thankfully, flying a ISB shuttle through Imperial space has its advantages. However, to lower the risk of getting caught only one of them went to investigate the temple while the other stayed with the ship. Just in case they needed a quick get away. So Sasha got the images while Viran waited patiently and anxiously for her to return. After that, the next system was one in the outer rim. It was a forested moon that had the perfect weather. Comfortable and warm during the day. Chilled, but not freezing at night. The massive trees also provided the perfect cover for their ship. They actually finished their mission on this planet early, but stayed a few days more to finally get their chance to train with a lightsaber without wandering eyes. It also allowed them time to relax and stretch out before traveling again as every planet beforehand was always an on-off situation.

This next planet was abandoned and empty. It appeared to have been the stronghold for someone during a war a very long time ago. But now it was nothing but desolate. What was weird was that the records of the place were scarce and hardly any information was given. It seemed like the history or records were erased from public records in order to keep people away. But they couldn't leave. Not yet. As always, Sasha guided the ship toward the source of the temple that the Force told her about. However, when they landed on the planet the Force screamed out to the both of them. It was as if to turn back and not land there. That there was something wrong with the town they were about to land in.

"What the hell is that feeling?" Viran asked with an uneasy shudder.

"I don't know," Sasha admitted. "But whatever it is that will not stop us from getting the info we need."

"Right. Let's go spring the trap then," Viran joked as they made their way out.

Heading down the ramp, Sasha and Viran walked toward the abandoned town where Sasha said the temple's signature was coming from. When they reached the town, they noticed it truly was empty. No one was there. However, that bad feeling was. They noticed as they walked by the buildings that everything was left behind as if the citizens died off. What didn't make sense was that it truly looked like people just dropped everything and left without a word and never came back. Everything from the gardens to the homes to the cantina were just left as they were long ago. But why would a town just disappear and not take their personal belongings with them? Something happened here very long ago that left an uneasy feeling in the back of their minds as they walked. As they journeyed through the remnants, they reached the edge of it to find the temple.

"It looks like whoever lived here before worshipped this place," Viran pointed out as he noticed the graveyard that was spread out around the temple. "'Cause they buried their dead in the front of this place. But why would they abandon it if this was their sacred ground?"

"Makes sense," Sasha said with a shrug. "Many civilizations have viewed the Force and the Jedi as God-like beings. So if a planet that sees Jedi in that regard would worship a ground they would believe was sacred to the Jedi. As for why they left, I wish I knew the full truth but even you said the records of this place were incomplete."

"So are we dealing with the remains of a Guardian of the Whills or something like that?" Viran asked.

"Who knows," Sasha sighed sadly. "Either way we need the information from the temple."

Viran nodded. Just like before they set up the imager and viewed the stelas. While Viran viewed these ones while Sasha gathered some nearby wildflowers and placed them on the graves. It had been so long since anyone had lived here. So the remains of these people were left behind with no one to visit them. It was a sign of respect for the dead.

Rounding the stelas, Viran took notice of one that seemed rather strange. All the others predicted what would happen next to them as they would leave the temple. From the boiling rain to the blizzard to the fuzzy locals on the forest moon wanting to play with them. That one wasn't that bad, but the stela still predicted it. This one showed a boy and girl yet again on the run, but this time the rest of the stela was missing. There was a chunk missing from the side of it, not revealing the whole picture. Viran found that very worrying as the thought of not knowing what was going to happen next made his stomach turn.

Moving away from the stela, Viran started tearing down the imager like they always did when it was done. He then called out to Sasha.

"It's done! Let's go!" His voice called.

Gathering the gear, Viran moved a quickened step toward the edge of the Temple. Sasha placed the last of the flowers before rushing to catch up with him.

"What's wrong?" Sasha asked when she saw his face. "Was it the stela?"

"It was damaged," Viran's voice shook with a twinge of fear as he kept moving. "I don't know what our fate is while heading back to the ship, but whatever it is, I don't want to stick around to find out."

The nervous look she gave him was enough for the both of them to move faster. As they passed through the entrance to the city, a strange beeping was heard. That slowed their pace to turn back to the town.

"Viran, you said that the piece was broken off right?" Sasha asked. He nodded. "You also said when we arrived that this place used to be home to a stronghold from a war long ago, right?" He nodded again. "Then I know why the town was abandoned."

Before Viran could respond, the beeping grew louder.

"Run!" Sasha ordered.

The two of them took off in a sprint toward the ship. About ten feet from the ship, the beeping stopped and the town exploded. The shock wave of the explosion sent Viran and Sasha flying. Viran tumbled to the dirt while it sent Sasha into the landing gear of the shuttle. They both landed with hard thuds as a wave of dust blew over them. As the dust settled, Viran pulled himself to his knees, coughing.

"What the hell… " Viran asked, then coughed. "Was that?"

He heard Sasha groan as she propped herself against the landing gear with a pained gasp.

"The reason… the reason the town was abandoned was because…" Sasha took a pained breath. "Because whoever this town's enemy was… just left a parting gift to anyone who came back to the temple or their home."

"That's a lovely gift," Viran said sarcastically as he pushed himself to his feet. Brushing himself off, he came over to Sasha's side. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she gasped. "Just a couple of bruised ribs to make everything just peachy."

Viran chuckled. "If your sense of humor is intact, then you must be okay."

"Shut up and help me up," Sasha hissed as she tried to move.

Viran nodded and gave her a hand to her feet, her sore ribs yelling at her. But nothing felt broken which was good.

"Thanks," Sasha said as she straightened with an arm around her midsection.

"I guess the stela was right," Viran started. Sasha raised an eyebrow at him. "The part that was damaged was supposed to simulate the town being blown to bits. By us, sadly."

"Well did we get what we need?" Sasha asked. He nodded as he gestured to the imager in the pack he wore. "Then let's get out of here. No innocents were killed and we got what we needed. And I'm ready to leave if you are."

"Yeah, I'm done with towns exploding on me," Viran commented with a smirk.

Sasha slapped his arm before placing a kiss on his cheek as she made her way aboard. Viran followed after her. Once on board, Sasha took a stim for her aching ribs while Viran transmitted the images to Tac for the next set of coordinates. Soon, they had what they needed and took off, finally understanding the words of warning that came with the planet.

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