Sith Empire
Chapter 2
Author notes:
Star Wars © Lukasarts & Original Characters © Me
Not betaed. If I offend hardcore Star Wars fans leave me a review on what you didn't like or what you liked. I shall try and do better next time.
"You know what to do then, Ilene?" I ask Ilene after pressing a hologram device into her hands. "Yes my lady, I shall follow your instructions left behind to the letter. Come Ophelia," Ilene stretches out her left hand. Ophelia is still holding tight to my hands, pressing down on them with all her strength her small soft hand are able to muster.
I turn my attention to Ophelia, looking down at her before I bend my knees and looking at her eye to eye. "Don't worry, we won't be apart for long. Ilene will take good care of you." I motion my left hand towards Ilene and Ophelia slowly moves over. She grabs hold with her left hand Ilene's hand while still holding tight with her right hand my left hand.
"Now go," I say, "I shall be back soon." After some hesitation Ophelia lets go of my hand and grabs hold of Ilene's left hand with both her right and left hand. Her face however shows how sad she is of me leaving. Since I am still at her eye level, I stretch out my hands grab hold of her cheek and press my lips on her large forehead. Then I press my lips on both her cheeks before on her lips at well. "I'll give you another one after I return and you followed Ilene's instructions," I say to Ophelia.
Ilene turns to Ophelia and says, "wait here with my XO," handing over Ophelia to her XO. She then follows me up the ramp into my Sith transporter. "My lady," she salutes me formally one last time. With my fox tail I warp her towards me and I press my lips on hers forcing my tongue in her mouth. She's been waiting impatiently for me and her tongue warps around mine. Her stiff pose loosens as I hold her in my arms. "Theresa …." she moans out as I look deeply into her eyes. "Until we meet again, Admiral," I say formally, kissing her on her cheek on last time.
"8k-o7, start up the engines," I order my 'protocol' droid. Ilene steps back out down the ramp back in her usual authoritative pose. "Dismissed!" she orders her underlings as I lift off.
Smoothly the Ilithid, my Sith transporter, exit the hangar and like a shark glides through space. I enter the Hyperspace manually. Using the force it is faster and easier than relying on the board navigation computer. After receiving the coordinates, 8k runs the Hyperspace engine warm and in a silent zoom we enter the hyperspace for my next assignment. I am to find an old Sith lords grave.
As we are in hyperspace, me and 8k start turning off all communication devices and prepare for entering stealth mode as soon as we exit hyperspace. Finishing these tedious work, I meditate and practice wielding the five light sabers I now own simultaneously with force telekinesis.
It is difficult all the sudden. It feels strange to wield the force without Ophelia being next to me. It is only now that I notice it. It is less that she suppresses my rage, anger, pain, hatred. She is more a catalyst to my will, allowing me to grasps, hold, direct my emotions more precise in a quantity I alone am having a lot of difficulty wielding, like right now. It burns these emotions, they conflict with my will for power, but there is only one way through. Endure!
The entire flight I endure and by then all five blades dance to my will. Ilithid exits hyperspace and we see in front of us a green planet before us. Thick green cover the entire planet and hidden within this green is a Sith lord's tomb. Just observing this world from above I notice a few places with potential to being his tomb.
"8k, I'll be sky dropping, orbit this planet, if your stealth is compromised, jump and return when I call you," I order 8k.
"As you wish, Master," 8k-o7 answers in his male robotic voice. I put on my full heat set armor, a masks with a fox marking as well as provision for multiple days. I enter the cargo hold readying myself and then order 8k-o7, "Drop it!" The hangar opens dropping from space into the planets atmosphere. Using my telekinesis force power is guide myself like a bullet through the atmosphere. The only thing protecting me from the heat is my armor and to a lesser degree my force absorption ability, which is replenishing my energy to maintain my telekinesis powers.
The green is getting closer with each millisecond and I gather all my force powers towards the impact point. I am still so fast that I am but a burning human bullet as I dive pass the tree crowns and let out all the force powers I gathered in a single burst. Normally so much power would rip apart anything, including myself, however I've done this so many times I know a few tricks to drop out of orbit without injuring myself.
I grasp the burned ashes as I stand back up from my landing. The ashes are soft and warm, my gaze looks at my landing zone. A burst radius of about one click is blown out and burned, just how it should be. I take off my fox mask and let my hair weave in the wind as I wait patiently for a response. And indeed the dark-side replies to such a display of power, for power is all that matters. It is the only way to catch a dead Sith Lords' attention.
He's just like all the others, he's wanting to tempt me to his teaching. I follow his call for now and set out and travel on foot for an entire day. Now at night I let my force presence wander across this planet, observing it precisely so I know where I am moving towards. The voice calling to me is at least another month walks worth away.
The next morning I continue my walk, slowly following the voice calling to me. Sometime during the afternoon a ugly piece of creature comes out of the bushes wanting to attack me. Its like a mix between a praying mantis head and torso and a kangaroo legs and tail. I am astonished that it is able to sneak up so close to me without my force senses picking it up, however it isn't enough to slay me. My light sabers quickly block the twin strike from its forward claws as I jump into its head and use my force power to enhance my own punch and strike right through its armor. My punch is able to break open its chest armor, but it is not enough to actually hurt it. It comes again with a strike against me, my dancing blades are once more able to defend against it, however the blades are unable to cut through its thick armor. I gather the force power and wait for it to strike again and there it comes with a piercing strike, while I wait exactly at the broken armor. Just a split moment before the strike connects to my body, I lift up my entire body, using pieces of the broken armor to give me hold. Its own claws pierce through its own body slaying itself.
Sith alchemy is what made this creature. Refined Sith alchemy. Someone has a lot of time to refine his technique. This must be one of his earlier experiment let lose into the wild. Probably there are more of these creatures. Its claw are quiet powerful and sharp, but also have quiet a solid armor. With a lot of effort and patient I am finally able to cut off a claw with my five light sabers. Using telekinesis I carry it with me. After the next morning I continue on traveling towards the Sith Lord's tomb. Suddenly while traveling towards the tomb the sky blackens. I look up and notice just in time a giant creature is attempting to squash me. Using my telekinesis power I stop its fall and its movement stops just with its slimy skin touches mine. Having it now in my hands I lift it further up readying to throw it away, when tentacles suddenly attempt to strike me. My blades ignite immediately and slice the tentacles. It screams as the tentacle is cut but all the suddenly out of the wound two tentacles shoot out. My dancing blades cut both of them off. It sends more tentacles arm at me and my blades continue cutting them, but soon there are too many arms than there are blades and I barely had time to lift this creature any higher while defending against its arm.
No choice, I gather what power I have to the bottom and then punch a hole into the soft ground, lowering my entire body below its landing spot. It squishes its own tentacles as I am no longer holding it afloat. I gather my strength within my fox hole as this giant octopus fetches out its tentacles from under its heavy blubbering body. This Sith Lord must have really been an expert at Sith Alchemy. Able to make such a giant octopus monster and it is able to run around on land, dangerous, truly dangerous. If it could travel through space, imagine how much havoc it could do to space ships or a Jedi temple. But it doesn't matter any more. Now all that counts is to grasps this Sith Lord's knowledge.
I am ready, finished gathering enough power, exactly like when I landed on this planet. In a single burst I focus the burst this time into a single line and slice the octopus in two before jumping out of it cadaver. I jump so high that I tower over the tree crowns, thus I take the opportunity to land on one of the larger tree branch and observe the sunset. It is beautiful, however something within me tells me something is missing. But right now I can't seem to think of anything which would fill this hole in me.
The next few weeks, no months actually, since these Sith creatures become too frequent as I get closer to the tomb stop me from advancing as fast as I want to. Finally after killing this octopus headed, mantis claw body and tiger leg creature I am in front of this towering tomb. I drop all the extra baggage I've been carrying since I started this journey. The mantis claw, a bull horn, octopus tentacles and other things I used my telekinesis to carry with me I drop in front of the tomb.
I gather the force inside me, strengthening my body and straighten up my pose and enter the Lord's tomb. Immediately behind me a wave of dark force engulfs me, voices of chaos and screams of pain surround me. They are however little to nothing to what I had to endure during the journey. To upkeep all these extra baggage, I endured long tedious and painful days and night. They all were worth it as I found it much easier to slay these Sith monsters with their own weapons than with a light saber. I guessed right in that these creatures were designed to fight Jedi and Sith equally.
Enduring the temptation and chaos surrounding me through the dark side I step forward. I seek not temptation nor chaos, I seek power. "Come Sith Lord, reveal yourself. Face me, I've come to you I called you. I seek power, for power's sake alone. Your words did not tempt me back on my journey, and shall not tempt me now," I say out loud. The dark cloud fades and reveals an entire village of red skins humanoid with strange horns sticking out of their skin.
Warriors stand at the entrance with shield and spears, like a parade they welcome me. I walk pass them and enter into the center where a hooded person greets me. She, as I am able to tell from her body pose, holds in her right hand a scepter while in her left she holds a child of their own village.
"What do you chose?" She asks me. I smirk, while I journeyed here, I thought I may have grown weak, attached to my Ophelia. Seeing this woman and child it reminds me of myself and Ophelia. I laugh out loud a hideous and evil laughter. "Is this the best you can do, my Lord? I shall conquer you, your underlings and make your knowledge mine!" Both woman and child are struck down in a single strike with my light saber. Seeing their elder struck down the warriors jump in to slay me, while the families scream in fear and run away. My other four blades ignite and in a blink of an eye I massacre all warriors attempting to avenge their elder.
"You've grown weak!" I shout at the remaining villages in ancient Sith. "Bow! Kneel! Beg!"
In fear they follow my orders. Yes, this is what it means to be a Lord. "Now where is his tomb." I order them. One of them leads me towards a fork as the others follow a distance behind me. I am able to sense great darkness from the left fork just like how my guide is guiding me. I stop him from continuing on with my left hand, before piercing him with my light saber through his back.
"Don't lie to me, don't trick me! I know this path is a trap and fake!" I whisper to him as he dies. Using my telekinesis I float him deep into the path when suddenly a huge arm crushes the body.
"Indeed a great darkness," I comment on this Sith monster. "Let's see how strong you are, Sith Lord," I say as I enter the left fork ready face to monster. Once again it come with a crushing blow. I sidestep out of it and attempt to slice through its arm. But just like I thought, it too is resistant to a light saber cut. As it stands force power probably won't have an affect on it either. I try to use a very light force push and indeed the hair within absorb all of the force power.
"Interesting creature. It must be the premium of your research, my Lord. Very well, since this is your power, I shall tower it and then all that knowledge is mine!" I shave the monkey with bear body and legs from its entire hair, while dodging and evading its punches, claw strikes and rush attempts. Finally its a naked monkey and I strike it with force push. A reaction it moved, however I didn't gather enough power to crush it with a single blow. It claps with its hand wishing to crush me. I stop it with my force power from finishing its move, but it isn't finish, yet. It still has two claws which come down to slice me apart. I stop them with my telekinesis as well. It then jumps up and tries to crush me with its entire body. A mistake, finally I am able to grasps the entire naked monkey and hold it in my force grasps completely. I use my power to compress it, crush it. I have time now since it can no longer connect any attacks against me anymore, I slowly, very slowly crush it. It screams out in pain as I slowly, with a smirking grin crush it. Bones break, blood veins burst, blood drips out of its eye and mouth and finally in a burst it splashes like a ripe watermelon and drenches me and my gold red hair in its blood.
Then finally I enter the tomb chamber. A majestic tomb, fit for a Sith lord with knowledge and power over Sith alchemy. "I am here," I say out loud in the ancient Sith tongue. I feel his dark powers, whispering to me, but no solid avatar appears before me.
"Have you grown this weak?" I mock him, indeed silence in respond. "Come I shall gather you!" I sit next down to his tomb and mediate. I gather his force present, which is spread around through the entire tomb, slowly focusing it together into a single point. Slowly, while I endure the chaos of the netherworld his avatars forms.
"You!" he finally says, "Powerful you are! Capable of gathering me like this!" "Now come with me!" I order him.
"Are you to disturb my resting place? You are no match against my true power!" He mocks me. True I am barely able to keep my focus on his avatar as all his power gathers. "Your knowledge shall still be mine!" I answer. "Teach me to build a holocron!" I say to him in ancient Sith. "Are you able to withstand the mental stress of building one?" He mocks me. "I bested all your tests, now only your knowledge is a single step away. That power shall be mine!" "You've come far, very well let us see if you are capable of building one. Gather the materials from within my tomb!"
I stand up and pass through his avatar. The native red skins tell me where to find the materials and though some were traps I find all the materials and build a pyramid like holocron. I return to the Sith Lord and present him with my holocron. "Impressive, you learn fast. Yet, holocron can only be programmed while you are alive. The dead can no longer program it. How will you gather my knowledge with in it?" He mocks me.
Only the living are able to fill it with knowledge, he says. But who said it has to be the knowledge of the living? I glee at him sly. I place the holocron on his tomb. "Watch me, my Lord. I shall demonstrate to you the first ever dead Sith Lord who programmed a holocron …. with his own present being the program!" As I finish my last sentence I use my force and grasp hold of his avatar. "What? ..." he screams and laughs as he still does not recognize what I am attempting to do. Solidifying my hold on his avatar I pull it and into the open holocron. Now as he realizes he's to be imprisoned inside the holocron he resists me.
A tug of war starts, dark force power clash as I slowly pull him in. However it is just as he said, am I able to endure all the force I am channeling to capture him? Already I am at my limit and I barely captured his feet.
"Hahahaha, you shall never leave this place, I shall imprison you in my stead!" He realizes that he too is able to pull me into the holocron. "I shall posses you body in your stead!"
Ilene …. Ophelia my thought suddenly wander as he mention he'd posses my body. "Never! You are mine! Bow, Kneel, Beg and Fear me!" I scream reinvigorated knowing what I am sacrificing to capture him. Surprised by my determination and capability to channel even more power through me, he's unable to withstand my will. And in a blink of an eye his entire avatar disappears inside my first holocron. I close the holocron sealing him permanently within it.
The Sith humanoids look at me perplexed as I pass through their village. The dark force is no longer present here and its influence over them, the cloud over their mind is lifted. Normally I'd slaughter them all, but maybe they are useful. They recognize me as their new master. I order them to grow in numbers and strength.
"Conquer this planet in my name! I shall return when you've done so!" I leave behind my fox mask behind as proof of my return and claim over this tribe. My mask I have turned into a small holocron of my own by now, however since it isn't made of the ideal materials it only hold my last commands of conquest.
Finally outside again I phone 8k to pick me up and we enter Hyperspace to return to Ilene's Star Destroyer Bismark.