Unknown Regions
1 ABY
He scratched his beard. Green eyes stared down at the planet below them. It had been just over a year since they had arrived, in what he had officially named the Hades system. The main colonization effort had been focused on the main planet, while the moon had been turned into the central military hub.
The civil planet, Elysium, had seen a constant influx of both material, wealth, and colonists through the gateway system. When each caravan arrived, they brought news of the wider, civilized galaxy. With every new message, the rebellion seemed to grow stronger.
The battle of Yavin, as it was known throughout the galaxy, had proved that the durasteel titan of the Empire could be bleed. Entire systems rallied to the cause of the rebel alliance, pledging what fledgling planetary defence forces and civil militias they had.
What the outer rim, and few mid rim planets really provided to the alliance, was resources and industry. The industrious planets, funded by the great Empire, shunned their masters, and bit the hand that fed them. The stories of retaliation showed the true might of the empire, entire planets turned to ash under the might of the Imperial Navy. Rebel fleets reduced to debris fields in orbit of the planets they sought to protect.
Support for the empire had never been stronger in the core regions. The rebel forces from the outer rim threatened the order the Empire gave them, murdered their children on backwater planets using cowardly tactics. Too many a time had a coruscanti family had the knock on the door from a casualty officer from whatever branch of the imperial armed forces they had served in.
But one thing was clear to him. No matter the bias of the imperial reports, one thing was clear. The rebellion was gaining ground. Soon, he knew, the stream of resources would dry up, as demand for military supply grew evermore as the frontlines expanded.
The pathfinder corp had been performing admirably. A small, dedicated network of hyperlanes had been established and travel between newly discovered planets were under the unwavering scrutiny of the imperial science bureau. The mysteries of the unknown regions surrounded them, waiting to be unravelled.
He was grounded by someone approaching him from behind, walking through the bridge command centre aboard the Voidwalker.
"Moff Jackson."
He turned. Before him stood the chief of his attached science division, Malcolm Pace.
"Yes?"
"We've discovered an, anomaly, sir. It looks ancient and we are unsure as how to proceed." Malcolm explained.
Perseus checked his schedule, thankfully free for the next few rotations. "Navigation bring us around." He ordered. Pace handed the chief navigation officer the coordinates.
Perseus looked through the provided brief on the holopad. The images were taken from distance, but appeared to be a structure carved into the face of a cliff.
"What else can you tell me about this?"
"The planet, logged as Epsilon 136a, sits without an axial tilt, and rotates so slowly as to only one side of the planet faces the sun at any time, casting half the planet into eternal darkness. The structure is perfectly placed in the centre of the darkzone, on the equator. Congealed around it is a fog that disrupts all of our sensors." Malcolm explained, the blue of hyperspace illuminating his face.
The ship juddered as it dropped into real space, a side effect of the recently established hyperlane.
"The planet is interfering with the scanners sir, we can see nothing below cloud cover." A deckhand reported.
"Ready a shuttle." Jackson ordered. He strode down to the hangar, Malcolm followed behind as a squad of death troopers met them along the way.
The shuttle lifted off promptly, and descended down the planet below. The grey, barren planet could support life, however had no natural vegetation, leaving a craggy, hard rocked surface of which contained little to no natural resource.
He strapped himself in as they met turbulence while ducking down to the surface. The death troopers around him checked their weapons and armour as the ship touched down with a lurch.
Jackson checked the wolfskin cape was clasped as he stood and descended down the ramp. The squad of death troopers following behind him and Malcolm. The lights from the Lambda shuttle illuminated the ground infront of them. The group walked forward, taking in the structure before them.
Etched in the barren cliff face before them, tall columns had been cut, making a temple-like entrance to the mountain. They stood at seventy-five meters high, and held a shadowy darkness within.
He waved the squad up, and they begun walking into the structure. The squad turning on their weapon mounted lights to illuminate their surroundings. They walked slowly, the torches scanning their surroundings methodically as the death troopers watched for any threats that might make themselves known. The further the group travelled into the structure, the more detailed the columns became.
Whereas at the entrance the tall, thick, square columns were undetailed, as they delved further, small carvings made themselves visible, primitive markings of humanoid figures. Jackson reached out to trace the marking, his gloves coming away unmarred, proving the age of these marks.
The group continued inwards, until they arrived at an atrium chamber. In the centre, a twenty metre statue stood, made from pure gold. It glinted as it was met by the torch light. The pedestal upon which it sat, appeared to be a sort of basin. A strange, cloudy red fog contained within. The statue was of a cloaked figure, a hood up over their head. Most notable, was what appeared to be a depiction of a lightsaber, pointed downwards. It was remarkably akin to those structures on Jedha, that populated the ancient Jedi temples.
The priming of a blaster interrupted the silence, alongside a jarbled noise from the death trooper. Jackson looked over to see what had been caught in the spotlight of the trooper.
Whatever it was, it looked vaguely humanoid.
It was hunched, and look starved. bones were visible beneath its dirty ivory skin. It's hair was stringy, and had no volume to it. Its eyes were large, and held no white within them. Orbs of pure darkness that twinkled, a galaxy held within. Its mouth was host to a web of jaggedly teeth, and stretched across it's face, touching each of its ears. Its legs were long and gaunt, more bone than flesh. Its arms reach down to its ankles, horrifically long with bones, bladed nailed fingers.
"What on-" Jackson muttered, his musing interrupted as the creature let out a blood curdling scream, which morphed into a howl. The deafening cry echoing throughout the underground temple.
A strong hand landed on his shoulder and we was pulled back into the centre of the circle of death troopers. All around, rabid scurrying could be heard as the underground temple came alive.
The glowing galaxy eyes of the beasts were visible deep into the remaining darkness. They grouped up and surrounded them, but kept six feet away. His troopers anxious about firing to avoid a rush of the aliens.
A pebble fell onto his boot from the ceiling, and he looked up, meeting eyes with one of beasts, it's claws dug into the roof.
The crowing of the beasts suddenly ceased, and they held their silence. Occasionally scurrying around in the background, however maintaining the clear gap between the two groups.
There was a tense silence, until a howling wind arrived, it picked up the red mist in the basin of the statue pedestal.
As it moved, it became clear this wind wasn't natural. The mist swirled around before piling up before them, taking the form of one the monsters, before it solidified and actually came alive.
This one differed however, it was less gaunt, and had what could almost be called lips. It was dressed in a blood red robe, and had a gold pendant suspended from its neck.
Why are you here, outsider.
The demon didn't necessarily speak itself, but an ancient voice spoke from within the temple, reverberating around them.
Jackson stepped forward, out of the protective ring of death troopers. He ignited the saber he kept from Maynar, a new, red blade baking the surroundings in the sinister light.
"What are you." He demanded.
A lightsaber
The voice purred, while the other ghouls attention focused solely on the blade.
"I asked you a question." He reminded in a steely tone.
We, the voice announced, are ancient beings, servants of the sith.
"And what if I told you I serve the sith." Jackson replied, cautiously.
The beast growled, a horrible, gurgling noise echoed through the cavernous temple.
We do not recognise your sith. The heresy of Darth Bane has forever tainted them.
"You are very old then." Jackson surmised.
Yes, the demon crowed, exiled by the Jedi after the fall of the sith empire. Trapped on this cursed planet for millennia.
"The Jedi are dead." Jackson declared.
No, not all of them.
The demon raised his hands and more of the red smog slithered out from the basin, forming an illusion.
An inquisitor was the first recognisable being, spinning lightsaber print out to full use. The other, what must've been a jedi, blade at the ready.
"Regardless, the Jedi order is no more." Jackson continued.
No matter. The demon argued. You are not welcome here, servant of the neo-sith.
"The empire, goes where it pleases." Jackson responded calmly.
The Demon roared. It seems you must be forced out. It raised its arms and began chanting and an ancient language, the temple hummed with power.
Jackson signalled for a hasty retreat. They made it maybe halfway before the minor beats charged after them.
The troopers responded with a hail of fire, cutting them down en masse as the group returned to the shuttle.
The pilot, sensing the urgency, had the engines ready and the ship was airborne in moments, returning to the Voidwalker.
He looked back at the planet to see the centre of the dark zone on the moon glowing red, ancient magic conducting across the surface, before striking out in a beam and hitting the closest second moon, cracks forming across it.
The shuttle comm beeped urgently. "Sir, we are detecting a massive life form in the moon!" Came the panicked message.
"In the moon?" He repeated, just as the shuttle made it back to the hangar.
He ran towards the bridge, weaving through the maze of corridors.
As he arrived at the command deck, he could see the moon split into fragments. Horrifyingly, coming from the centre of the moon, as if emerging from an egg, was a titanic space creature.
It unfurled itself, stretching to its full size. It simply dwarfed his star destroyer.
"Call for the rest of the fleet, immediately!" He shouted. "Engage reverse thrusters, open fire!" He ordered quickly.
Instantly, the space was filled with green turbo lasers that flew towards the Leviathan.
The space dragon reared back and roared, the force behind it rocking the ship. Slowly, it began to approach the ship.
Just as it began seriously closing space, reinforcements arrived. Seven star destroyers dropped into the system, and immediately opened fire at the leviathan.
It roared in anger, and swung its tail at one of ships that had emerged into realspace too close.
The razor sharp scales cut straight through the ship, splitting it in two, and detonating the reactor in a giant explosion.
The leviathan roared in pain as the ship detonated, damaging the tail of the beast. The fleet intensified forward firepower as an idea brewed in Jackson's head.
"Have the Wrigley abandon ship, and to transfer helm remotely to us." He ordered, to the confusion of his crew.
"Sir?" One of them questioned.
"I have an idea."
The comms officer relayed the order, and He watched out the viewport as the escape pods were fired. When all were accounted for, the helm was transferred.
"We have helm of the Wrigley sir." Navigation relayed to him.
"Very good. Deactivate all the safety measures on the reactors, fuel and magazines." He ordered firmly.
The bridge crew quickly went about following his orders, while the echoing of turbolasers filled the bridge.
"Done sir." Came the call.
"Navigate the ship to the mouth of the beast." Jackson ordered, leaning on the console in front of him as the star destroyer sped towards the leviathan, which was howling from the barrage it was being subjected to.
"Prime the reactor to overload, and charge the ship towards it." He further ordered.
Technicians scrambled about to follow his request, as the Wrigley powered directly towards the Leviathan.
Seeing the easy target, it opened its maw and swallowed the ship whole.
Percy grinned devilishly. "Detonate the reactor." He ordered. The technician flipped off the safety toggle, and thumbed the button.
With the combined explosive capacity of an insecure fuel load, an opened magazine and a reactor detonation, the ship went more than thermonuclear.
The head of the beast glowed so intensely, you could see the beats skull, before it was obliterated by the explosion.
Jackson let out a sigh of relief as the beast slumped over dead.
The only problem now was the sith descendants on the moon. Following the death of the beast, the mystical glowing had ceased, and was retreating to the focal point of the temple.
"Ready a platoon of flame troopers, and my death troopers." He ordered, turning to head to the hangar bay.
Touching down was a bit smoother, as it was the pilots second time they knew what to expect.
Jackson descended the ramp to the platoon at attention, torches mounted on their helmets to allow them vision among the eternal darkness.
They slowly approached the temple, scaling the steep hill, watching out for the hunched beasts.
As they reached the entrance, the building hummed with a sinister energy.
He signalled his flame troopers forward, and they prepped their weapons as they proceeded.
As they entered, the temple erupted into the howls of the beasts as they charged towards the imperials.
There was a small eeping sound as the flamethrowers were ignited, before a tidal wave of ignited liquid fuel was spewed into the structure.
The howls of the hunched beasts soon turned to pained screams, as the ignited fuel landed on their skin.
The highly classified, and highly illegal, fuel mix was specifically designed to stick to surfaces, whether it be grass, water, stone or skin.
Furthermore, when the burning fuel reacted with skin, it only increased the intensity of the flames.
The smell of charred flesh permeated the air as the bodies began to pile up, the desperate scrabble of the hunchlings soon turned, and they were clawing at eachother to escape the devouring flames.
The flames held as the trooper cycled their weapons, and the death troopers took point, stepping through the pile of corpses.
The flames had been so effective, where to the first contacts had been reduced to bones.
The group slowly advanced into the temple, occasionally a trooper would fire, executing a hunchling that was trying to crawl away.
They moved slowly, clearing all possible angles. Eventually, the tall pillars slowly began gaining detail, from small scratchings increasing to golden runes and plating.
It was soon before they reached the statue, the red smog in the basin surrounding it swirled angrily, the heart of the temple beating like a jackhammer.
You dare return
The disembodied voice echoed with hatred.
"You are finished. Like the order you once served." Jackson replied, igniting his saber.
The sith are eternal child
"You, are not." He replied.
The smog congealed, the arch demon formed again before him.
Your short sightedness blinds you boy, arrogance blinds you.
Jackson stood motionless.
We are eternal, never finished, the order lives on. Darth Bane's reforms were poin-
The insane ranting of the demon was halted as Jackson cut it down, the corpse dissipating upon contact with the lightsaber blade, now all that remained was to truly survey the extent of the temple.
AN: again, shorter ish chapter, but I wanted something out for may 4th.
Big thanks to "Sol just another pjo fan" for encouraging me to write.
Still debating whether or not to do another chapter in this period, or skip to battle of endor.
Regardless, stay safe all.
-Dudududheheh.