DROMUND KAAS: The upper streets in Kaas city
After having their shockcollars exchanged for locator beacons operated into the upper parts of their spines, the three recently employed bounty hunters were moving through the busy streets, on their way to the graciously provided accommodations made available by their new employer.
"Are you still following us!" Zugi snarled, noticing the continued footsteps of a former colleague, persisting despite the promising of unpleasantries, had been made several times already. "Why don't you go space yourself."
"That's cold ma'am. You don't mean that, we're a Team Teeth, remember?" Zac pointed out his believe.
Okan sighed, "Just because we are were all employed by Darth Imperious, does not mean that we have to stay together."
"You too man? But I thought we were buddies?" Zac asked perplexed.
At this point, Zugi and Okan decided to simply ignore, the annoying buzzing sound of the buzzfly, that was the complaining and apparently heart broken Twi'lek. "I swear, If he doesn't shut very soon, I am going murder him." Zugi muttered to her chiss comrade.
"I don't believe this would be the optimal time for such. Not that I would shed any tears if you did." Okan replied in the same low voice.
Zugi stopped and turned slowly toward the pest, giving him a menacing glare. "Listen up, you sack of Bantha poodoo, if you don't…" She cut herself short, as she noticed two imperial troopers casually walked up behind the clueless pink laserbrain, grabbed him and dragged him away.
The screams of the mighty Teeth could be heard some clicks away, until he was audibly shocked into silence. They clearly didn't care to listen to his incessant whining either.
Zugi made a sigh of relief. "This could turnout to become a bearable afterall."
UNKNOWN SPACE: Near the Tingel Arm.
A few parsec from their destination, Impious left his dreadnought, The Empire's Vengeance, to have in reserve out of sensor range. He and his best men, boarded the stealth frigate the Shard of the Sith and departed directly to the coordinates he had received from captain Okan shortly prior.
The ship exited hyperspace and entered the unknown regions. Darth Imperious stood on the bridge, staring out of ships large view port, studying the small planets red glow. "It looks lifeless at this distance, but that could be the intention." Not turning, he addressed nobody in particular. "Begin scanning for lifeforms and heat signatures." Imperious ordered his men in a strict tone.
Before the ship's computer had finished its scanning circle of the planets environmental situation, Imperious sensed strange darkside energies coming from below, beginning to vibrate through the ships. "Move the ship two parsecs away from the planet." Imperious ordered firmly and left the bridge, to gather his strike team of hand picked, will strong sith acolytes.
The ship's captain looked puzzled at his high lord, but didn't dare to ask for a clarification. A few moments later, the ship began to reverse course.
Imperious could feel the strange energies fading once they were far enough away.
"My lord, the ship has reached the distances of two parsecs from the planet's orbit, and your task force have been assembled." The captain announced, as he walked up alongside his superior.
"Good, I will head to the docking bay now, and captain, do not under any circumstance get closer to the planet, unless I specifically order you to do otherwise." Imperious ordered with emphasis, with a hint of a threat in his tone.
"Of course my lord, this vessel only moves by your instructions." The captain assured.
Once he entered the docking area, he was greeted by eight acolytes, all of high status and skills, as well as a large well armed and well armored stealth transporter, ready and waiting to take off once the Lord had boarded.
As the transporter neared the red planet, Imperious sensed the strange dark energy waves returning, became stronger and stronger the closer they got. He could see that the members of his strike force were beginning to sense what he already did.
One of the eight acolytes, a yellow female twi'lek in a dark purple cloak carefully asked. "My Lord, These alien energy wave emanating from the planet, have you ever encountered anything similar before?"
"No lord Lanyzz, I have not..." Imperious coldly replied, as he continued observing the red planet rapidity getting closer.
DROMUND KAAS: Briza's skyscraper
An air speeder landed on one of the building's several landing platforms. Out of the speeder stepped a tall, thin but very distinctly curvy figurer. The female zabrak was bald and had deep wine-red skin and was clad in a purple velvet dress, with a light gray coat against the damp weather. She took a moment to take in the dark transparisteel skyscraper, before walking to the front entrance, where the gate glided to side for her to enter.
As she entered, Briza walked down from the balcony to greet her. "Welcome Mother, I'm pleased you had time to visit us."
"What a lovely place you have got for yourself my dear." Donira replied with motherly passion and gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek, unmistakably pleased with the rank and status her daughters most have had obtained to have earned such a place to call hers.
"Shall I take you coat mistress Wirano?" One of the service droids politely asked.
"You may." Donira responded and elegantly removed her coat, handing the coat over in one quick motion.
Up on the balcony Terrow and Mathorn was respectfully standing to attention, both in shiny new imperial uniforms.
Mathorn was flabbergasted, this lady might be much older than he was, but she was a wonder to behold. All the right curves at the right places and with artificial body enhancements to look young and appealing. He leaned in, whispering to Terrow. "Seriously! Your mother is smoking hot! Now I know why dad left home and never came back... who wouldn't!"
Terrow didn't want know that his half brother fund his mother highly attractive… but some things couldn't easily be unheard.
"Now I know where Briza gets her good looks from." Mathorn continued whispering in admiration.
Terrow sighed deeply, before he whispered in return. "Please just shut up... and do not tell any of this to Briza!"
While not audible enough to make out what the fuss was about, the tone and reaction told the females in the room more than they ever wanted to know.
Briza escorted her mother up to the balcony where the two gentlemen stood waiting.
"Terrow my dear, it's so good you have found a place in your sister's service." Donira said with motherly passion, a hint of disappointment lingering in her voice.
"Mother, I'm glad you found time visit us." Terrow politely echoed his sisters replied. Despite being generally glad to see his mother again after years of silence between them, he did also feel uneasy in her presence.
"Apprentice. This is my mother, Donira Wirano." Briza introduced, and gave him a look, that told him to be polite or get tossed out of the window.
Mathorn felt like a little school boy saying hello to a lady from the higher society. "Hello miss... Wirano, Mathorn... at your service ma'am." He said, trying to remembered the fake last name he had been given, and if he should use it at all.
Donira eyed him with a bit of curiosity, "Mathorn you say… that's a name I have only heard in republic space."
"Well... I kinder originated there... before I changed into red and gray." Mathorn continued his less than elegant introduction. But this time he did notice that the woman before him had no force connection, which meant he was not an completely open book to her.
"Mother, won't you dine with us? Lunch is about to be served." Briza invited in a very soft voice.
Donira smiled widely at her daughter. "That would be lovely my dear."
UNKNOWN SPACE: Near the Tingel Arm.
The ship landed on a plateau higher up, overlooking much of the mostly barren wasteland, engulfed in red light from the nearby red dwarf.
As soon as Darth Imperious and his guardians sat foot on the tiny planet, all of them felt slightly sick. "The rot that engulfs this planet... is unnatural, non-native, a curse brought here by someone... or something." Imperious stated as he reached out, attempting to sense the core of the plaguelike, all devouring corruption, but it remained hidden in a veil of thick darkness.
When they looked around at their surroundings, looking down below, they spotted hordes of red creature. "What are those creatures?!" Lanyzz asked as she tried to make sense of what she felt. "I feel them... it is as if they are both alive and dead, at the same time... as if they have been twisted into some sort of static stalemate between life and death." She told her master.
"They are most likely the result of an ancient sith ritual, but whether they are former sith themselves, or creatures with sith mutations is difficult to say, at this time." Imperious replied as a matter of fact. He began a steadfast stroll toward the red mountain, which his sense told him the darkside waves were emanating from, his acolytes following right behind him.
They reached the base of the red mountain a couple of hours later. It didn't take long before they found an entrance, where a small stairway lead down to a passageway, which looked to be leading deeper down, into the center of the mountain. "Be on your guard... Our presence here is most likely known by now..." Imperious uttered in a cold determined voice, barely audible in the creeping silence, before descending down the passageway.
The passageway was to narrow for them move as a unit, forcing them into a single file formation, walked down the stairs one after another with Lanyzz as the last in the column.
As the passageway came to an end, they entered a large underground hall with only the red light from the sun behind providing any sort of light source. Forming a protective half circle at the bottom of the stairs, the rearguard turned on their glow rods, where after they changed positions, so the rest could do likewise. As the glow rods illuminated the hall, they were greeted by a large chamber similar in design to the tombs of Korriban, with pillars and walls decorated with ancient hieroglyphics.
"This looks like an ancient sith temple." One of the Acolytes uttered in amazement, as she, a red female zabrak, studied some of the many old hieroglyphs.
"Here is evidence to suggest that this outpost goes as far back as the hyperspace war." Lanyss concluded, after deciphering some of the hieroglyphs.
"An outpost from the era of Naga Sadow." Imperious continued, as he took note of the inscriptions over every entrance. "Follow, there is little we can learn by staying here." He ordered and started down the corridor he sensed the dark waves were emanating from.
The acolytes quickly stopped their translation efforts and followed suit, with their minds alert to any hint of a threat. As they slowly ventured deeper within the mountain temple, their senses were gradually becoming numb and deafened by the dark energies that lingered deep inside the temple, the sense of fear beginning to creep up upon them all. Only the Dark Lord seemed unmoved by it, but he did notice his subordinates were being infected. "The chrono is ticking." Imperious thought to himself as he picked up the pace.
They entered a large templelike chamber filled with status, some as small as a cups, others eight meters high and a meter wide. The acolytes gazed around in amazement, as they recognized some of the status as representing millennia old sith lords of legend.
As his people began to look around the massive chamber, Imperious sort after a way to continue, since no apparent passageway led to the heart of the dark energy. He quickly concluded that the sort-after entrance was hidden and therefore began to search for some kind of switch to reveal it to its pursuers. Searching the surface of the temples internal architecture, he noticed some levers protruding from a pillar in the very back of the chamber. As he carefully neared one of them, he got a sudden sense of danger and looking closer spotted some tiny holes in the wall opposite the pillar.
"Argh..." One of the acolytes complained in a low voice, as a burning pain began spreading all over the human male's body.
As everyone glanced at the human to register what was amise, to avoid the same fate. Then a hologram lit up in the middle of the dark room, bathing it in an eerie blue light. A tall hooded figure stood before them. "Welcome honored guests. I wasn't expecting you all so soon..." A dry voice uttered sympathetically. "By the way, be very careful, this chamber is full of poisonous traps... Oh I see one of you have already been a little careless, only a few moments now... and you'll die." The dry voice laughed the last part.
"Who are you!" Imperious demanded to know in an angry tone.
"You can call me Psiron, and as you might already know, this is an outpost from Naga Sadow's ancient empire, house to dark secrets of the past. But may I ask the names of those who I address?" Psiron politely but menacingly asked.
"My name is Darth Imperious, and I demand that you cease your operation here and surren-." He ordered, before abruptly being cut off.
"A Darth you say... but sadly no." Psiron apologized in a mocking tone. "I want to see how long you can resist, before you too will be nothing more than those who dwell in the valley outside of this temple."
Imperious could see that Psirons mental presence was somehow eroding his followers will to resist the dark energies. "You'll get no such satisfaction." Imperious retorted and used the force to crush the holoprojector, and looked to his followers, who immediately began to regain their senses.
"What was that?" Lanyzz had courage to ask what they were all thinking, as she shook off the hypnotic feeling that temporarily had possessed her.
"By all accounts, our new enemy... one who is of the darkside, but not of our kin." Imperious replied and continued by ordering. "Begin searching for a way to open the pathway."
The next moment an audible bump could be heard, as the human fell down. He was dead before he had even hit the floor. A thin stream of blood slowly snaked its way across the sand, leaking out from the corner of his mouth.
At the same time, one of the acolytes, a female zabrak, was looking over some texts and trying to decipher the meaning of two switches before her. But as she moved closer to get a better read on the text, she noticed the same small dart holes. Instinctively she threw herself backwards to avoid being hit by a dozen small poison darts, accidentally hitting one of the many small statues standing around on the floor.
A click could be heard, a second before the entire floor opened up to miles of free fall into a magma stream beneath the temple, only the large statues remained standing. Imperious and Lanyzz was quick enough to grab hold onto one of the many statues, but the zabrak was not as lucky, nor were two of the other acolytes, who fell to their death in the inferno below. A moment later another of the acolytes fell to her death, as she unwittingly had unleashed yet another trap in her desperate struggle to avoid the fiery death below, and had in exchange been hit by several poisonous darts.
Now only four remained alive.
With only the statues to use for support, Lanyzz climbed as high as the statue would let her, then she spotted a small platform surrounded by six small statues. She summoned the force and made a precision jump to land safely on the little platform where only one person could be stood at a time. The heads of the small statues were of creatures, ancient sith war beasts such as the mighty Terentatek, some of the others, she had only seen on ancient tablets as they were now extinguish.
As she studied them closely she touched the silooth statue and felt an immediate danger as spikes was shot up from the platform floor right beneath her, but an invisible hand grabbed her and livitated her upwards, a millisecond before she would otherwise have been impaled on the needle-like spikes. When she looked up, she saw her master seated on top of the statue with his hand stretched out before him..
As she was sat down on the safe part of the platform, she spotted a patton on the platform. After taking a moment to observe the layout, it became clear that it was pointing toward the sith war worm. She carefully touched the war worm.
Where there used to be a thick wall... a door opened up, not in the direction Imperious had hoped for, but right now any exit was good. He and his three remaining acolytes leapt over to the new opening and carefully proceded through the new passage.
