From space, Malachor seems no more than a lifeless ball of ash. In the center of an open crater, however, lies the ancient Sith Temple. This colossal pyramid of black stone is the relic of a disastrous battle between the forces of darkness and light thousands of years ago.

Though the surface of Malachor has a breathable atmosphere, the air is dead still, and there is no sign of life. The caldera housing the Temple is a tableau of the terrible struggle that took place here so many millennia ago. Scattered through the causeways and crumbling boulders are the petrified figures of the foregone combatants, their hands raised eternally against whatever cataclysm took the life from their bodies. Some still grasp their Jedi weapons, though most likely the life is gone from them too. The pallid white light of the sun spreads unhindered through the crater, but it does little to illumine the intrinsic darkness of the stones.

The Sith Temple is not a place of the light side. It is said the very stones react to the touch of the dark side. The pyramid itself is seemingly inaccessible, though its blocked entrance is associated with an old saying: “Two must lift these stones, no more, no less.” Despite its undeniable age, the crater is littered with signs of a more recent calamity; ash and debris, columns toppled outwards from the Temple, broken arches. It is as though the millennial dust stirred, briefly, then returned to its repose under the sun.

Tuuka, Malfrost and his HK droid walked up to the entrance of the black pyramid, the eerie pyramid punctuated by the devoid signs of life. While Tuuka had no connection to the Force, he didn’t need it to sense the terrible fate that had befallen this place. Instinctively he dropped both of his hands to the blaster pistols holstered on his hips, flipping off the leather straps that kept them neatly secured.

“Two must lift these stones, no more, no less.” The Mandalorian cocked his head to the side as he read it aloud, trying to decipher its meaning.

As if in response, the ancient stone doorway rumbled to life, chips of stone and dust falling from the top of it as it vanished into the floor beneath. Looking inside the doorway, Tuuka was met with sheer darkness, unable to see anything beyond it. Before he could change visual spectrums on his T-visor helmet, a snap-hiss broke the silence followed by the hum and glow of a red lightsaber. The radiant light of the plasma blade danced across the crystals protruding from the wielder’s skins, glimmering with a sinister beauty that rivaled the sneer upon the blue skinned Twilek’s face.

As if he knew this moment was coming, Malfrost already had his lightsaber in his hand and ignited it, creating a magenta mixture of light where the two sabers’ glow met. Tuuka removed the blasters from his holster casually as the HK droid stepped between and in front of the two. Malfrost’s HK droid removed his slugthrowers from their holsters as well and leveled them at the Crystal Ascendant.

“Howdy partner. You seem to be diggin’ for water underneath the outhouse. I reckon the only thing you’ll find is hot lead from these big irons,” The HK droid said.