One year after the Battle of the Floating World, Sauk was negotiating with Jariah Syn in a Cantina over on Nar Shaddaa. "I'm sure you can do better." Sauk told Syn after the latter placed down a stabilizing coil on the table. "That's more than a brand-new stabilizing coil would cost, and this one looks like it's been retrofitted twice!"
Syn chuckled as he raised an eyebrow. "If you think you can find a new coil anywhere in this system, you're welcome to it. If not, I suggest you buy this one." He told Sauk with a smirk.
Sauk sighed in defeat. Placing a box of credits on the table, he said "All right, all right. Here are your credits."
Jariah chuckled and said "A pleasure doing business with you, Sauk." He then took the credits and headed towards his companions Cade Skywalker and Deliah Blue. They began counting the credits, grinning from a successful deal.
"Something's always gotta fail at the worst possible time…" Sauk mumbled as he walked away with the stabilizing coil.
"Sauk! Get out here!" A female voice called out to Sauk as sounds of blaster fire echoed. "Stop them!" A male voice called out.
Ania Solo was seen running from blaster fire alongside AG-37 and Jao Assam. "You get the part? We're leaving, now!" Ania yelled at Sauk as she turned around and fired at the direction she came from while Jao ignited his silver Lightsaber and AG-37 readied his rifle. "Seems like we picked up a little trouble…" She said to the others.
Several Stormtroopers led by Darth Talon, who ran into view holding two red Lightsabers. The Stormtroopers fired at Ania and her crew as Talon deflected Solo's blaster bolts back at the sender. Before the blaster bolts could strike Ania, the silver blade of Jao's Lightsaber deflected the bolts away, said bolts striking the walls and a few Stormtroopers.
Jao stood before Talon, holding his silver Lightsaber and blocking Talon's path. As Ania and AG-37 aimed at the Sith Lady and her dozens of rogue Stormtroopers, Cade Skywalker, Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue rushed in to see what the commotion was about.
Cade frowned at seeing Talon. "Schutta, you came a long way to say hi." He arrogantly told her as he took hold of his father's Lightsaber and ignited its green blade. Syn and Blue aimed their blasters at the Stormtroopers as Cade stepped forth next to Jao.
Talon twirled her sabers as more Stormtroopers stormed into the Cantina from the main entrance. Blaster fire emerged as patrons and mercs battled the Sith's Stromtroopers. Talon told Cade "There is no escape, Skywalker. Come quietly, and we may spare your friends."
Jao looked at Cade who scoffed at Talon. "Still wanna have a piece of me, Schutta? Well sorry, I'm already taken." He said as Blue grinned at the comment.
Talon frowned and Force choked Deliah, who dropped her blaster and began gasping for air as she clutched to her throat. Cade's eyes widened as he pointed his Lightsaber at her. "Let her go, sleemo!" He shouted.
Talon smirked as she knew she had gotten under Cade's skin. "Surrender peacefully, and I'll let her live." She commanded.
Syn looked at Cade and as he opened his mouth to protest, Jao used the Force to Mind Trick a Stormtrooper to shoot towards Talon, forcing her to let go of Blue and deflect the blaster bolts back at the tricked Trooper, the bolts piercing through his chest and killing him immediately.
As Deliah gasped and fell on her knees regaining her breath, Cade sighed in relief as he and Jao rushed towards Darth Talon and swung at her, Cade swinging horizontally from the left while Assam flanked her similarly on the right. Talon swiftly spun around and blocked both attacks as she twirled her Lightsabers and began battling the Jedi and former Imperial Knight.
As Syn checked to see if Blue was okay, Ania and AG-37 fired at the Stormtroopers as they too returned fire. Solo and her Droid took cover as Syn grabbed onto Blue and helped her reach behind cover. "Blue! You gonna be alright?!" Syn asked her in a concerned tone.
Blue, after regaining her breath, nodded to Syn. "I'll be fine but we need to help Cade! Let's take out those Stormtroopers!" She told him as she drew her blaster. Peaking out of cover, Delilah fired at a few of the Troopers.
As the blaster fire between the Stormtroopers and the crew raged on, Talon continued to deflect attacks from Cade and Jao, who swung at her from different angles. Talon used both of her sabers to deflect the attacks, staying on the defensive to buy her troops time to storm through the Cantina.
As the battle raged on, the many mercs and patrons in the Cantina were starting to get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Stormtroopers. Seeing this, Ania called out to Cade. "Hey Cade! We're surrounded and outnumbered! We should leave while we still can!" She shouted as she kept firing at the Stormtroopers alongside AG-37 and the others.
Cade dodged a stab from Talon as Jao swung towards her back only for him to get pushed into a wall with the Force. "Well with Darth Schutta and her goons here, kinda hard to do!" Skywalker told his cousin.
As Jao got back up, he noticed one of the Stormtroopers was throwing a Thermal Detonator towards Ania and AG-37. Using the Force, he halted the Detonator in its path and hurled it back at the sender, obliterating the Stormtroopers blocking their exit and sending Talon flying into a wall. "Will this do?!" Jao shouted.
Everyone jumped out of cover as Cade led the way to the spaceport, everyone running alongside him. As they finally reached the spaceport, Ania said "Damn, with the Sith on our tail, we don't have time to fix our ship! We need to leave now!"
Cade sighed, then looked at her. "Then come on, you guys can hop on the Mynock for now." He then led the way into the Mynock and sat in the pilot seat as everyone entered with him.
As the Mynock began lifting off, several of the rogue Stormtroopers began firing their blasters before Talon halted their attacks as the Mynock flew away from Nar Shaddaa.
Aboard the Mynock, Cade left the pilot seat for Syn to take as he walked to Ania. "Thanks for helping out, Cade. I didn't expect the Sith to attack us on Nar Shaddaa." Ania told Cade.
Cade chuckled and said "Well we did get a good pay from that stabilizing coil you bought from Syn, so consider this lift on the house." His grin then faded as he thought back to the encounter with Talon. "But I don't think they were after you as much as they were there for me." He added.
Blue stepped to Cade, a worried look on her face. "But why did Talon want you alive? After you killed Krayt, you'd think the Sith would want you dead, right?" She asked him with a concerned tone.
Cade shook his head and shrugged. None of this made sense to him as to why Talon wanted him alive. "I dunno, pateesa. But I have to let the Jedi know. We'll head back home to Tatooine and lay low for a bit, then inform the Jedi of what happened." He told her as he told Syn to set a course for Tatooine.
Ania pondered too on this encounter. Upon seeing Talon, she was certain that the One Sith wanted to settle the score with her for her actions a year prior. But with them being specifically after Cade, this changed her perspective on the matter.
As Syn had the Mynock jump into Hyperspace, Sauk walked to Ania and asked "Well what are we gonna do with this stabilizing coil now? We don't have the ship anymore."
Ania shrugged and looked at Sauk. "We'll figure it out." She answered,
Meanwhile, on the ancient planet of Odessen in the Unknown Regions, a Sith Imperial fleet hovered above the world. Moff Fehlaaur, due to his ties with the Chiss Ascendancy, was a key figure in supplying the Sith Empire with new troops, ships and weapons. But something had caught the Chiss' attention. Darth Maladi, through her Sith Intelligence and Assassination branch, had gotten wind of an ancient Sith artifact on the planet Odessen. Through their control of the Chiss Ascendancy, the Sith were able to locate the planet through the hyperspace lanes only known to the Chiss.
Maladi walked into her shuttle and headed down on Odessen with a few Sith bodyguards and an escort of Stormtroopers. Most of the new Stormtroopers within the Sith Empire were Chiss, as recruiting outside the Unknown Regions proved difficult. These Chiss Stormtroopers put on their helmets as the shuttle descended onto Odessen and eventually landed onto the planet's surface. The Stormtroopers stepped out first, forming a perimeter as Maladi and her fellow Sith walked out and looked at their surroundings.
Odessen was beautiful with views of mountains, forests and rivers as it was seemingly untouched but if anyone looked close enough, hints of there once having been people here could be seen though it was difficult to notice as the years, and nature, had not left the signs untouched. Despite that, the view was near breathtaking and would have been near ruined by the nearby ruins of what looked to have once been a base of sorts.
Maladi looked at the base as she reached into the Force. The planet was strangely balanced, neither Light nor Dark. It was this base that, if her intel was correct, served as a base of operations to a very powerful Sith Lady. The Stormtroopers were then commanded forth to the gates, taking defensive positions. Maladi doubted anyone would still be living there, but plenty of old automated defenses could still spring to surprise them. One of the Troopers pressed the commands and opened the front doors.
For a moment, the doors groaned as if struggling to open due to the weathering they had been through, but soon enough they opened but only wide enough to allow a few people through at a time.
The two squads of Stormtroopers headed in and inspected their surroundings. "Clear!" The Sergeant called into the comms. Maladi and her Sith cohort proceeded inside the facility and walked in the ancient halls. The Sith Lady was fascinated how the structure stood the test of time. But there was no time to stop for the sights, as she had been tasked to recover the ancient Sith artifact within. And as such she and her troops moved onward.
Unknown to Maladi and those with her, their arrival had not gone unnoticed, as stalking them now was something or someone that watched the group carefully but as it was the only creatures that moved outside of the group were the Sleens and a few steel-tailed stalkers.
Maladi stopped in her tracks, having the sensation that she was being watched. Noticing that the Sith Lady had stopped in her tracks, the Stormtroopers checked their sensors for any unusual activity. Nothing, complete silence. Maladi frowned and continued onward. Upon reaching further into the base upon the second floor, she walked into the halls of the meeting room where the Eternal Alliance once stood.
Within the meeting room stood the remains of what had once been the control center for what looked to be an entire fleet, but it was clear that like the rest of the base, time had not been a friend to this control center as the once golden hue it had was now but mere spots and one of the projector pillars had fallen and destroyed the middle of the machine leaving the once majestic machine useless.
Proceeding further into the base, Maladi felt a powerful presence in the Force as she and her troops passed through a cantina. She knew that this was no artifact that they were sent after, but she needed to confirm her suspicions. Stepping into the next room, Maladi's eyes widened.
Within this room was a stasis pod, but it was hard to see into the pod. Suddenly a shot rang out and before anyone could react a stormtrooper dropped dead as the shot was done so with lethal accuracy.
The Stormtroopers turned around to the source of the shot as the 2 Sith Lords accompanying Maladi ignited their Lightsabers. Maladi frowned, briefly looking back as she stepped into the ruined quarters and locked the doors behind her. As the sounds of blaster fire echoed in the cantina echoed through the walls, Maladi walked towards the pod, inspecting the resident within but could not see within. She did however sense the strong presence from within. She knew it, it was no Sith artifact, it was a Sith Lady.
While Maladi was inspecting the pod, the stormtroopers outside the room were killed with an accuracy befitting that of a rumored HK droid, one that was specifically designed for assassinations. Inside the room, however, the pod was seemingly undisturbed and in a power saving mode, as if the Sith within was vital.
The 2 remaining Sith kept their Lightsabers in a defensive stance. Whoever this Droid belonged to, they would not let it pass through. Maladi slowly looked at the data on the pod and then pressed the commands on it to open.
Once the Stormtroopers were dead, everything went silent for a moment as if the Droid had left. Yet the droid had not and was waiting patiently for the moment to strike. Inside the room, the pod began to power up fully as it prepared to awaken the person within. It would be several moments but soon the pod began to open revealing a dark haired woman who slowly began to awaken.
Maladi looked at the woman. The records of this Sith Lady were clear, but she never expected to meet her. The wife of Theron Shan, and a Sith Lady infamous for being Light Side leaning. "Zhalia Shan…" Maladi muttered as she took a few steps back and kept a hand close to her Lightsaber.
The woman who was now fully awake, slowly stood so as to allow herself time to adjust properly. "If you already know my name then you already know that I am quite the person to be around, and fairly dangerous." The woman, Zhalia Shan, said as she shook her head. "By the stars in the sky, my head hurts." She looked towards the woman and studied her for a moment, "Well now, this is rare indeed. A female Devaronian." She said upon identifying Maladi's species. Zhalia frowned for a moment before hearing something fire off and frowned. "HK, leave them and come to my side, old friend." She called out as soon as an HK assassin Droid appeared.
"Exclamation: It is wonderful to see you awake once again, Master!" The Droid spoke with a tone of excitement but soon enough it turned to a tone of worry. "Concern: Is it wise for you to be standing so soon after waking?"
"I will be fine, HK. But enough about me, it seems to me that we had some… uninvited guests come into our home." Zhalia said as she looked towards Maladi.
Maladi briefly glanced at HK, then back towards Zhalia. "You defeated the power hungry Vitiate, Zhalia Shan. But much has changed in your slumber." She stated as she walked forward and bowed respectfully. "I am Darth Maladi, a member of the One Sith."
Zhalia frowned for a moment, "The One Sith…" She took a moment to think that over, "HK, how long have I been asleep for?"
HK was silent for a moment, "Answer: It has been 3766 years since you went into stasis, master. Each moment I did as you asked and guarded you well until this Sith and those with her appeared."
Zhalia thought that over for a bit longer. "I'll be… Then if this One Sith has risen then the Sith Empire of old is truly gone. Pity."
Maladi kept a neutral face as she stood from her bow. "The old Sith ways caused their undoing, through the many eras of backstabbing." She said, elaborating on the history of the Sith. "For over thousands of years, the Sith Empires rose and fell to strife amongst all Sith Lords playing king. Thus over 1100 years ago, Darth Bane, a student of Darth Revan's spirit, slew the New Sith to make the Rule of Two, where only a Master and Apprentice could exist. But after his Order of the Sith Lords overthrew the Galactic Republic from within over 160 years ago, their Rule of Two became obsolete."
Maladi walked around looking at an old banner of the Eternal Alliance. "Our master, Darth Krayt, was once a Jedi who survived the fall of the Old Republic. After the first Galactic Empire fell, he abolished the Rule of Two and formed the One Sith, following the Rule of One that has thousands of Sith following a unified order, free of infighting. We formed in the shadows of Korriban as the events unfolded. Ten years ago, we took over the Galaxy and formed our own Sith Empire. But then…" She paused, looking down before adding. "Two years ago, we were forced back to the shadows as our Empire crumbled with our Dark Lord's death."
"Krayt… Named himself after the dragons on my homeplanet did he? Wise move for him. Krayt dragons are to be feared by wise men." Zhalia chuckled as a flash of a memory came over her as she remembered the great beast she spoke of. "Truly much has passed since I entered stasis, but what did you hope to accomplish by coming to seek me out? Sith, no matter their form, always seek power. It is in your nature, and by old ties, in mine as well." Zhalia looked to HK but didn't say anything before turning back to Maladi to await her explanation.
Maladi nodded, and smiled as she turned back to face Zhalia. "True, we Sith crave power. But the One Sith differs in that power has been given purpose, for without purpose, power is meaningless." She then gestured at HK for a comparison. "Like your Droid for instance, he has been programmed to serve you as a lethal assassin. The One Sith likewise has roles for its many members." She then turned her gaze back to Zhalia. "To be frank, we had no idea you actually were still alive. I came here searching for more artifacts after learning of Odessen's lost location. And now, here you are."
Zhalia could almost feel HK frown but held out a hand to him as if telling him silently to be patient. "HK was not truly programmed for me, he was programmed as an assassin Droid yes. But he chose to set his programming to be loyal to me, to make it near impossible for anyone to turn him against me or my bloodline." She told Maladi calmly. "I am no more Sith then you are Jedi, whatever you were originally here for, which apparently was not me, wouldn't have been here in the first place. When my Eternal Alliance dissolved, all artifacts were split equally between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire." She then closed her eyes as she chuckled. "I will give you time to leave, willingly. Just because I am Light Side does not mean I am above killing when it's called for." Zhalia told her as HK seemed to grow excited.
Maladi's smile quickly faded. It turned into an annoyed frown. "Yes, the history behind you did state as much that you sold out the Sith to the Republic…" Maladi turned her back to Shan and said "I will not fight you, not out of mercy, but for the simple fact I am no fool. Fighting you means my death. But be warned, my brethren will not be so merciful." She then left the room and headed back to her shuttle, not even paying mind to HK's carnage.
Zhalia watched Maladi leave and looked at the corpses and chuckled. "I am glad to see you are still up to a good shoot out, HK. But did you have to leave the corpses right where I would have to move them?" She asked as the droid responded.
"Answer: I apologize Master. But it was a good time. Creatures are not as fun as these organics were." HK responded as Zhalia chuckled.
"I am glad to have you around HK." Zhalia said as she reached into the Force to lift the bodies and set them out of her way.
Shortly after Zhalia finished moving the corpses, the base began to shake from explosions. Orbital bombardments rained upon the base as Maladi had ordered Fehlaaur to have the fleet level the base with Zhalia in it.
Zhalia frowned before motioning for HK to follow her and they made their way to a shuttle and they left the building to head to a landing pad where they entered what many would call an ancient Sith ship. "Time to head out." She said as she activated the ship and had it take off, escaping the bombardment.
Several TIE Fighters, however, had been deployed in advance. The 5 Fighters gave chase to Zhalia's vessel, firing upon the ancient Sith ship from different angles.
Zhalia chuckled, "Seems that despite the years passing, it's time to give these young ones a lesson in ship flying." For a moment, Zhalia felt herself missing her old friends, but returned her focus to what she needed to do. Those chasing her could chase her all they wanted, but it was clear that she still knew how to pilot her ship very well. A few blasts managed to land but soon she activated the Galaxy map and selected a random area to go in before suddenly activating the Hyper Drive and soon was gone from that area.