Yavin IV. A place infamous throughout history. Steeped in the Lore of the Galaxy. With the remnants of the first Death Star scattered in the orbit of the planet, the skies above glinted with parts of the massive space station revolving above the atmosphere, the occasional piece descending through the atmosphere in a halo of fire, shooting stars marking their death knoll.
Quo stood near the ruins of an ancient temple, once the home of the Rebellion fighter base. Overgrown with tendrils and boughs of massive trees, the jungle reclaiming its own as the years progressed. Hard to believe that nearly forty years ago this had been the site of one of the most influential battles in Galactic history.
“Readings?” He said to his squad leader, Captain Relg. The tall, human soldier was staring intently at the information screen on his portable scanner.
“Nothing out there as far as I can tell from these readings. Are we confident that this is where they were?” He turned to Quo sharply, aware suddenly that he had questioned the Sith’s judgement. His body tensed, expecting to have his wind pipe crushed, or some other part of his anatomy. A look from Quo sent a shiver down his spine. He instinctively averted his gaze, suddenly very interested in the information coming from the machine he held in his hands.
Quo strode forward, his mind doing its own scanning through the Force. There was something out there. He could feel it. Dark, cold, and used to hiding. He admired this thing, it was a hunter, a stealthy one. “This is the area, and there is something here, I have felt its presence.”
Following him, Relg double checked his scope, still nothing. “It’s not showing on my scanner Sir, not yet anyway. OK everyone, ready status.” The rest of the squad checked their weapons, a plethora of clicks and snaps as their weapons were cocked and readied. ”Move out, squad formation Victor two seven.”
Falling into position around the Zabrak and their commander, the circle of the five other troopers formed a chevron. “Check your arcs, and zero comms chatter,” Relg ordered.
Making their way through the dense forest every one of them was on high alert, even Quo who was fingering the pommel on his lightsaber. Some three clicks from their muster position they finally came in sight of the entrance to the towering edifice of the temple like structure. From their vantage point some eighty meters from the entrance Quo could see the devastation in the clearing outside. Several battle speeders were reduced to twisted masses of metal and plexiglass, bodies and body parts strewn around the plaza before the huge entrance doors.
“Still nothing, Sir,” Relg reported, ”but what the hell could have done that?”
“I don’t know, but our job is to find out, and that’s what we’ll do.” The Zabrak was scanning the plaza for any sign of movement through a set of viewers. There are no blast patterns he though to himself. The scene was one of utter destruction, as if a divine wind had swept across the surface. Everything down there was crushed, twisted, mangled, and deposited in piles of debris, as if a giant hand had simply crushed them into pulp, even the personnel unlucky enough to be in its path.
“Spread out,” Relg ordered his small group, “watch and shoot, watch and shoot”
“Let’s move down, without attracting any unwanted attention,” Quo said to the Captain, “we need to get closer. But stay in cover”
The closer they got the eerier it got. No birds sang. The whole area was blanketed in a dome of silence, the animal sounds coming from far in the distance. Quo and Relg both knew that there had once been a squadron of fifty men, with two battle tanks, and a handful of speeder bikes here. Nothing recognisable remained of the hardware. It looked as if it had been dropped from a great height, much akin to a aircraft accident. Parts of disassembled machine lay in a debris field that stretched away to the edge of the clearing. The team sat at the perimeter, their faces a mask of disbelief at the scene that confronted them.
Bodies had been shredded. There was not a single recognisable body amongst them. Bits of arms, legs, torsos, and assorted viscera were splattered around the plaza, even up the face of the walls and the magnetic doors that sealed the monolithic structure. They stayed concealed in the shrubbery that skirted the open square, every eye scanning the vision, keeping alert for any indication of whatever had caused all this destruction. Even in the dark the carnage was evident.
“Near the doors, Sir.” Relg gesticulated the object of his interest. About twenty feet from the doors was a pile, resembling an ancient cairn. This was no cairn of stone work however. It was a cairn of human heads, perfectly arranged, the rictus stare of each of them a mask of terror. Every one of them had had any hair that they may have had in life had been removed, they were a statue of grotesquery, both in proportion and subject.
Relg’s squad were nervous. Quo could not only feel their tension through his connection to the Force, but by the tightening of their grips on the weapons they were aiming across the expanse of the open courtyard. Small creaks gave away the soldiers response of pulling their weapons tighter into their shoulders. The atmosphere was almost palpable.
“Drexxy, Millet, move to cover, I want triangulated fire at the middle of that monstrosity. Tergo and Pell, arcs left and right of centre, thirty degrees. Burl, you’re with me.” Relg arranged his troops to cover as much of the area in front of them as possible with his limited team. Travelling light had its advantages at times, but he wished he had some heavy weapons to back them up right now. He scanned his team, ready to go at Quo’s orders. Relg and Burl were crouched, waiting to go on Quo’s orders.
Sensing no immediate threat Quo motioned the team forwards. Relg and Burl moved low and fast over the ground, taking cover behind the debris as they pepper potted towards the obelisk of heads, constantly scanning for attack.
Burl broke cover, only ten meters until he was on top of the dark column of his former comrades, close enough to be able to make out individuals that he knew. The smell was sweet, almost sickly, with the massive stone slabs of the courtyard both slick and sticky from the blood and other fluids that had covered it. From his vantage point Relg covered him. From the middle of the perverted altar came a mist, a dark smoke, rising, curling into the air about a meter above the ground. Within seconds the mist had thickened becoming an opaque shadow that struck out enveloping Burl totally as he approached. The black sheath covered him completely, bulging around the big soldier until he was totally obscured. As suddenly as it had developed it disappeared with a ‘Schlup’ sound, parts of the soldier being dissipated in every direction. Nothing remained of Burl but a splattering of meat ejected from where he had stood. His weapon clattered to the ground a couple of yards away from Relg, twisted and mangled beyond recognition. He never fired a round, nobody had. The dismay was palpable.
“Fall back Relg!” Quo shouted the order towards his Captain. Relg hesitated, glancing left and right, his body pulsing with adrenaline. “Now Relg!!”. The Captain turned, covering the ground towards Quo’s position. Three meters from the cover of the forest a column of smoke snaked out like a black arm, covering the distance in the blink of an eye. Encircling the Captain in a grip of darkness, he was eliminated from view before he could make it to the jungle.
Quo struck out with an outstretched arm, lightning erupting from his fingertips, the whole of his pride and anger flowing into the effort. Sparks danced across the couple of meters to the enveloping fog, illuminating it from the inside. Faintly he could make out Relg, being torn apart, piece by piece. There was no noise, and the oppression of the darkness on Quo’s mental capacity was almost overwhelming. He knew the Dark Side, revelled in it in fact, but this was different, elemental, primeval. It was like a raw animal feeling, feral and lacking in conscience, like a base emotion, but concentrated into a physical force.
It touched Quo’s consciousness, and Quo pushed back, probing for a weakness. His ministrations of the Force seemed to distract the entity, releasing it’s grip on Captain Relg, ejecting it from its sphere of control. Relg landed twenty meters away, with a sickening thud, his head hitting the plascrete surface, smashing like an egg as it impacted the unforgiving surface, his brains escaping in a mush of grey and red.
The entity probed back and Quo could feel its tendrils entering his brain, tasting this interesting thing that was before it. Quo emptied his mind, allowing it freedom to meld with his mind, allowing it access to his very core. He must know the source of this power. He had to find a way to destroy it, or harness it. Yes. Opening his mind fully to it he enveloped it with his own consciousness, feeling the dark power surging through him, like a dark electricity it charged through every synapse in his brain. He fizzed with the glory of it, accepting it as his own, becoming symbiotic with the newly found malevolence. He could feel the raw consciousness joining with his own, fuelling his lust for greatness within him.
Quo was shattered, but ecstatic. It felt like hours since the being had first made contact with him. From the outside there was no difference to behold. The mist had killed their captain, and merely brushed against the Zabrak Sith before dispersing on the breeze. The troopers were still en guarde, however the cloying atmosphere was gone. Even the humans could feel the change.
Pell was still next to him, covering the area, still shocked at Burl and the Captains deaths. “Is it gone, Sir? Did you get destroy it?” The young soldier looked shell shocked, staring at their leader.
“It’s gone from here. Regroup, and we’ll go home.” Quo turned and set off back to the rendezvous point, a twisted smile on his face.