EPISODE I
Chapter 7: Artifact
Two weeks have passed since Zolph Vaelor and Grein escaped from Sleheyron following the Forceless Collective's invasion of the planet. Upon return to Ossus, Vaelor informed Headmaster Luke Skywalker of the events that transpired and the Valkoran's greater plans to summon the Collective's Archfiends. Grein has decided to take refuge at the Jedi Academy to further her research on the Collective and gather more intel on Archfiend locations. Now, Zolph is given another investigation mission into more strange Valkoran activity.
"Alright, Skywalker. What are the Valkoran up to now besides Forceless stuff?" Zolph asked Luke in the academy briefing room.
"Some of our scouts report that they are active on Vjun, and most of the activity is around Bast Castle." Luke answered.
"What's so important about this castle on a desolate rock?"
"It was my father's personal stronghold during his time as Darth Vader."
Zolph then asked based on his experience on Tatooine, "Tell me, do you know of any uncharted regions on the planet with some alien ruins?"
"No. Bast Castle is the only point of interest on the planet."
"Then what would the Valks want with the castle of a dead Sith Lord?"
"He probably kept something there locked away. Something so important that he couldn't let even the Emperor know about it, and so well-secured that it was untouched by the vandals and robbers that came in the years following his death."
"Okay, so I'm trying to beat them to some booty."
"Also…Maesterus is there."
Zolph's eyes widened in response. "Uh…on second thought, I'll pass."
"Sorry, Zolph, but you're not talking yourself out of this one."
"But I haven't gotten over my issues with him!"
"If you keep avoiding them, you won't get over them at all. Besides, you and Grein said those Forceless creatures gave off an aura similar to him?"
"Yeah, except I can still sense the Force coming from him while the Forceless are completely… forceless."
"This may be your opportunity to see if there's a connection between the two."
"You have a good point, especially since Grein refuses to tell me anything yet. Very well, mission accepted. However, at the same time, I'm still worried about being captured by him."
"If it's any consolation, you only need to find Vader's vault. I would actually recommend avoiding combat with Maesterus."
"Yeah, very comforting," Zolph responded sarcastically, "It's just being around him makes me uneasy. But hey, Vjun couldn't get any worse than him."
Several hours later, Zolph had entered Vjun's atmosphere in another Z-95 Headhunter. He flew towards Bast Castle, but as he got closer to it, some freshly-placed anti-air turrets fired at his vessel. Zolph tried to avoid as much fire as he could, but after taking one shot to one of his wings, he flew away from the castle and landed in a cave on the outskirts.
"Well, at least I'm away from him for a little longer." Zolph told himself before getting out of his ship and activating his comlink. "Master Skywalker, I've run into some problems. Some AA guns are keeping me from docking right near the castle, and they most likely have an entire battalion at the front gates. Do you know of any secret entrances?
"The castle has a waterworks connected to a ravine. You can probably get in from there. By the way, did you bring an environmental shield?"
"Yes, I didn't forget that Vjun is known for its acid rainfall, hence why there's no plantlife."
"Good for you, but don't forget that the quick-charging shield you're using won't last as long as the shield-suits on the Valkoran Hazard Troopers outside." A route then displayed on Zolph's datapad as Luke continued speaking. "However, the route I'm showing you now has plenty of areas for taking shelter, so use them when your shield's about of juice."
"Thanks." Zolph deactivated his comlink, but before he could walk out into the open, two Valkoran Troopers wearing gas masks and shield-suits entered with their blaster rifles raised. "Well, looks like I got some of their attention."
The troopers fired at Zolph, but he Force pushed them out of the cave and in the process, disabled their shield-suits. They then started flailing around screaming in terror on the ground as the acid rain, pouring heavier than normal, started eating away at their now-exposed armor and eventually their flesh. Zolph, disturbed by what he was seeing, drew out his blaster pistol and shot the troopers dead. He then waited for the rain to calm down before activating his shield and moving along his given path.
As Zolph progressed through Vjun's desolate landscape and made his way towards Bast Castle's waterworks, he would frequently take shelter from the deadly rain, despite not pouring as heavily as earlier, to recharge his shield. He would also take out several Valkoran patrols in the area, including several Gundark walkers.
Eventually, Zolph came across a large pipe connected to a river below Bast Castle. "This must be the place" Zolph told himself. He entered the pipe, being careful not to fall into the river, as it may have been contaminated by the acid rain as well.
Zolph was relieved to be indoors and not rushing to shelter for a long time. Thankfully for him, this sewer system wasn't quite as putrid as Sleheyron's. However, he had a long way to go before getting into the castle itself.
As he traversed the pipes, he noticed a lot of scrap metal littered throughout, as well as a few skeletons in worn out Imperial officer uniforms. Zolph told himself, "Wow, I'm guessing Vader really didn't like these guys." He then looked away from them and moved forward.
After half-an-hour moving upward through the pipe maze, Zolph found himself in a room with a platform centered in a pool of contaminated water with junk. He then caught scent of what was a combination of nasty chemicals, urine and fecal matter. "Great," Zolph told himself sarcastically, "it starts off unusually sanitary for a sewer and now it smells like a Womp Rat climbed up a Ronto's exhaust port and died." He then heard a roar and activated his comlink. "Luke, are you absolutely sure that Vjun doesn't have any natural fauna?"
"Positive. Why do you ask?" Luke asked him just as a large worm-like creature with a head on each end jumped out of the water, and both heads roared at him.
"I think this two-headed worm says otherwise."
"It's probably just a creature used for the castle's waste disposal. It might also be a mutant."
One of the heads on the creature expanded in size and spat out a large chunk of fecal matter at Zolph, who barely dodged it. "Well, that explains the two heads and the chemical smell. And why did it spit shavit at me?"
"I'm guessing that whatever head eats, the opposite acts as body waste disposal."
"On second thought, I regret asking that." And just as Zolph finished speaking, one of the worm's heads lunged at him with its mouth expanded and swallowed him whole.
Roughly five seconds later, Zolph's lightsaber blade erupted from the creature's midsection and cut it in half, killing it immediately. Zolph crawled out of the cut covered in slime. "It's dead already? I'm guessing it just had one brain shared by both heads." He then spoke back into the comlink, "Also, let's never speak of this again."
"Alright, but from what I read on your position, you're just about into the castle. Just a few more meters up, and you can start looking for Vader's vault."
"Yeah," Zolph wiped off plenty of the worm's body fluids and spoke with a little fear, "and avoid Maesterus like the plague." He Force jumped up a few more platforms and then climbed up a ladder.
Zolph Vaelor found himself in a large room with ebony walls illuminated by red and white lights, much more elaborately designed than the waterworks he just came out of. He was definitely inside Bast Castle.
Coming in, he had alerted several Valkoran troopers that been searching the castle. "Vaelor?! How the hell did he get in here?!" one of the troopers panicked.
"Who cares? Just shoot him!" a trooper commander told him. The platoon fired their blaster rifles at Zolph, but he immediately leaped toward the commander and decapitated him. A sniper one floor above tried to headshot Zolph, but he immediately deflected the blaster bolt right back at the sniper, whose corpse then fell to the bottom floor. Another trooper tried to fire a rocket at Zolph, but he used the Force to redirect the rocket right back at the trooper, blowing him to pieces. The rest of the troopers were cut down.
Zolph then exited the room and moved forward.
As Zolph walked through the abandoned castle, he spoke with Luke over comlink. "So Luke, where would your dad have placed this vault?"
"It's in the upper levels near his throne room. You'll know you're close if you see a crumbled statue in a room with a large window."
"If the Valks are still here, that probably means they haven't busted it yet, even if they have already found it."
"And be careful. Maesterus probably brought the Black Guard with him."
"Black Guard? Who are they?"
"These guys are Maesterus's elite bodyguards, and they know how to fight Jedi, so don't bat an eyelash if you come across them."
"I'll keep my eyes peeled for them. They shouldn't be hard to identify." Zolph turned off his comlink and stumbled upon two Hazard Troopers. "Why are you wearing gas masks and shield suits inside the castle?" Zolph asked the troopers.
One of the troopers pulled out a grenade and threw it towards Zolph. The grenade then released a sickly green gas. "Oh. That's why." Zolph jumped away from the tear gas grenade and then threw his lightsaber at the grenadier, sticking through his chest. He then Force pulled the saber from the trooper's chest as he fell to the ground. The other trooper fired his flamethrower, but Zolph jumped behind him and slashed his gas tank, causing it to explode seconds later. He then moved on.
A few minutes later, Zolph found himself in a TIE Fighter hangar. Guarding one of the doors were two armored men with black cloaks, black bandages wrapped around their gray helmets with only the visors exposed, and armed with plasma staves. They walked towards Zolph as they activated their staves, with the tips glowing a pinkish red and emitting a little bit of steam.
"I take it you guys are part of the Black Guard?" Zolph asked them.
"Yup." One of the guards replied.
"You seem like alright guys. Can you let me pass?"
"Nope." The other guard leaped behind Zolph, thus surrounding him.
"One more question. Why are you guys going full force on me? Doesn't Maesterus want me alive?"
"He does. You Jedi can take punishment like crazy, so he's not too worried, and we just intend to incapacitate you, so expect a few burns. That was two questions, by the way."
"Well, thanks for answering them." Zolph then activated his lightsaber and slashed at one of the guards.
The guard parried the blow with his staff, while the other guard prodded Zolph with his, burning him in the back along with part of his black jacket and making him react with pain.
The first guard spoke while he and Zolph clashed weapons. "Told you it would burn. So unless you surrender, expect it a few more times."
"Nope." Zolph mockingly told the guard, and then Force pushed the one behind him into the wall. He was not thrown off balance, however. He made contact with the wall with his feet, kicked off it, and then landed on the floor.
"Damn, you guys are as good as Skywalker said," Zolph said in shock. "However, I can tell you guys aren't Force sensitive." He then used the Force to dislodge one of the docked TIE Fighters and smashed it into that guard. He did not survive that.
The other guard attacked, but Zolph Force pulled the recently deceased guard's staff away from his corpse and into his hand. He blocked a few of the guard's blows with his saber, and when he locked weapons with him, he jabbed the plasma staff into his side. While the guard reacted to the staff burning him, Zolph then impaled him.
Zolph took a deep breath and told himself, "These guys were pretty challenging for non-Force users, but I pulled through." He then continued on.
In another room of the castle, Zolph noticed a walkway above without guardrails, as typical as Imperial installations go. On that walkway, two regular Valkoran troopers were speaking: one male, one female.
"This place gives me the creeps." The male trooper told his partner.
"It doesn't creep me out."
"Are you kidding me? We're in the home of a dead Sith Lord who from what I heard frequently choked incompetent officers to death!"
"What are you so worried about? It's not like his ghost is haunting this place. Besides, I heard he returned to the Light Side just before he died."
"Yeah, I know about that. This place just screams 'Evil Sith Lord's Lair of Doom' to me. The sooner Maesty busts that damn vault and gets his precious holocron, the sooner we can get out of this hazard zone. But hey, at least it's better than the time I was on Tatooine."
"What happened there?"
"My squad fed me to a trap…literally."
"Huh?"
"I was eaten by a Sarlacc."
The other trooper laughed. "Get out of here! You're not Boba Fett!" She then affectionately punched him in the shoulder.
The male trooper backed away with shock. "Careful with physical contact! There aren't any guardraiiiiilllllls!" he screamed as he lost his balance and fell to his death.
"Oops." She then looked down at her comrade and yelled. "Helms? Will Helms? Are you still alive?" He did not reply. "I guess not."
Zolph snuck through thinking to himself, "By the Force! I'm really beginning to feel bad for the poor souls who worked here."
Eventually, Zolph made it to the room Luke had described, with a large window and a large collapsed statue of Darth Vader. "Well, looks like I'm close." He then fought off two more Black Guards, which were disposed of much faster than the first two.
Moving upward and then going past Vader's throne room, he found the vault, but it was already open, and there was no holocron in sight. Zolph was too late. However, he still sensed the abnormality given off by Maesterus, meaning he still had a chance to retaliate.
"I'm probably going to regret this, but it's worth a shot." Zolph then retraced his steps.
Zolph made it back to the statue room, where he saw Maesterus with a small pyramid-shaped device in his hand.
"Hello, Zolph." Maesterus greeted him. "Did you miss me?"
"Not really. I went through here hoping to avoid you, but that's changed. Now give me the holocron," Zolph demanded.
"This is a Sith holocron. Aren't you Jedi supposed to avoid unlocking these things considering their seductive nature?"
"Yeah, we're just keeping it so bad guys like you can't use it. Besides, didn't you say you weren't a Sith?"
"I take whatever information I can get."
"What exactly is in this holocron?"
"I'll tell you if you join me."
"Done!"
"…After we get back to base, because I don't want you turning on me as soon as you get what you want."
"Damn! You figured me out! Looks like I'm going to fight you for it after all." Zolph ignited his lightsaber.
"I saw that coming too." Maesterus activated his saber in response.
Zolph chopped at Maesterus, but he locked blades with him. A spike bone extended out of Maesterus's left palm and he attempted to stab Zolph. Zolph quickly dodged and circled around Maesterus.
They dueled until they got close to the room's window, and Zolph threw a large piece of the crumbled Vader statue at Maesterus, crashing him through the glass and to his doom.
"A pity. The holocron's gone, but at least Maesterus is dead."
Just before he could leave, Zolph's eyes widened with surprise when he heard Maesterus swooping back into the window and turned around to see him bearing a pair of large, black, demon-like wings. "No, I'm not." Maesterus responded in a mocking tone.
Zolph's voice then cracked. "WHAT?! When the hell did you get wings?!"
"About fifteen seconds ago. Besides, may I remind you that we Force users can control our own gravitational acceleration?"
"Oh yeah, that reminds me. I encountered some creatures on Sleheyron that gave off an abnormal aura similar to yours, except they're completely disconnected from the Force. And from what someone told me, you Valks are busy summoning their Archfiends. They want me dead, yet you want me alive?"
Maesterus remained silent as if something triggered in him, and then spoke. "Whatever this group is, I have no association with them."
"And I'm assuming the Archfiends are just tools to you?"
"Of course." Maesterus then flew up into the air. "Now, weren't we busy with something else?"
"Oh yeah!"
Maesterus fired a line of spike bones at Zolph, who narrowly dodged. "Cooperate, so I don't risk giving you possibly fatal injuries."
"Then why are you and your men going full force on me? I want an honest answer. I only got an answer from your elites, saying I'm too resilient to incapacitate by conventional means."
"That's exactly it. And you're one to complain, since you keep killing my men or leaving them to die."
"Well, you got me there. Now why don't you come down and fight fair? Not all of us are suddenly gifted with the power of flight."
"Very well." Maesterus swooped down at Zolph and slashed at him. Zolph dodged backward and Maesterus flew back up.
"Oh, ha freaking ha!" Zolph said sarcastically. "Lucky for me, I just remembered I can just bring you down." Zolph then Force jumped onto Maesterus and kicked him into the floor.
Maesterus got up and clashed sabers with Zolph, until he enveloped himself with his wings, batted Zolph with them, and Force pushed him into the wall under one of the room's walkways, knocking him out.
A few minutes later, as Zolph regained consciousness, he saw some of Maesterus's spike bones pinning his shoulders into the wall. "Not again!"
Maesterus clapped slowly. "You've improved since the last time we met, and did not go berserk. But right now, you're hardly worth the time forcing to come with me. I've got what I came for, so I'll just let you think about it." He then activated his comlink as he headed toward the broken window. "All troops pull out. I've retrieved the holocron." He then jumped out the window and flew off in the acid rainstorm.
Zolph slowly pulled out the spikes in his shoulders, quickly cauterizing each wound as each spike was pulled out. He then activated his comlink. "Vaelor to Skywalker. Mission is a failure. The Valks have got the holocron."
"Wait, it was a holocron they were looking for?" Luke asked.
"Yeah. Private Dies-a-lot said something about it and Maesty flew off with it. I guess I'll just come home now."
Back at the Jedi Academy on Ossus, Zolph Vaelor had informed Luke and Grein about his failure on Vjun.
"Well, that was a letdown." Luke said. "And now, Maesterus has proved himself to be even weirder. Tell me, did you get anything else out of him?"
"If he's telling the truth, he's not associated with the Forceless Collective." Zolph answered and directed his attention to Grein. "Yet that still doesn't explain the Forceless aura."
"Remember, Forceless can and will possess almost any living thing and make use of it." Grein answered. "However, there's more you should know: unless the host agrees and cooperates with it, the Forceless will take over all bodily functions while the host 'spectates' from inside themself."
"Yikes!" Zolph shrugged and then regained his composure. "But if Maesterus's goals and the Collective's conflict with each other, shouldn't the Forceless be taking over and trying to kill me?"
"At this point, all I will say to end this matter is that Maesterus is an anomaly, and that he's definitely gone rogue."
"I take it you still don't want to spill everything yet."
"Some things you must figure out for yourself. If you discover something else, we'll talk more."
