Jurdan Krennel had just arrived on the planet Qirool VI. He had recently transferred from Scholae Palatinae to Clan Naga Sadow out of respect for someone who had saved his life. Evelynn Wyrm had found Jurdan stranded in space, his ship adrift but salvageable. He had been in a firefight on behalf of Scholae and had been left behind. Wyrm picked up his beacon and picked him up. Out of respect for his rescuer he offered his skills as Shar Dahkan Aedile. Jurdan walked into the massive temple that sat before him. He was leading a group of his newest soldiers in an attempt to uncover the secrets of the temple.

Jurdan led the men and women under him into the temple entrance. It was a large atrium that he was walking into. He saw old statues of figures that he didn’t know. Some were fully formed and some were rubble and sand. Jurdan could feel something out of place in this temple. It felt like the Force but strangely odd. Jurdan could hear something coming from inside the temple. It was a moaning. Suddenly he saw it. There were translucent forms coming toward him. They weren’t floating in the air but they seemed to drift over the ground quickly. They came towards him and changed as they got closer. They seemed to transform into a more aggressive form and they started to attack.

Jade stretched as the Sadowians reached the temple. Her legs slightly stiff from the ride there. A couple of the troopers watched her graceful cat like stretches, their eyes scanning the power and feminine control behind them. The predator in her made her claws itch to play with them like toys, but they were on her side, and she did not attack those who fought on the side of Clan Naga Sadow.

She followed the others into the temple, the force tingling around her. It was a clear warning, that if they kept going they would run into something. But no one seemed to care. Everyone was after the prize. The force users just seemed to take the waves of the force and use it to enhance their abilities.

As they came up upon the main atrium the ghostly blue spectral's seemed to look through their very bodies. One of the troopers sweeped the spectre with his rifle. When there was no response they walked through them. One trooper elbowed another and pointed towards her. The blue holo image lights reflecting in her predatory eyes. Jade smiled showing the tips of her fangs. Though it would have given them some fear, she believed it also gave them some sense of comfort that she was fighting with them, not against them. Her glance moved towards the platform as Evelynn moved onto it. The force screamed a single warning before the cries of the trooper filled the atrium.

Fear was the feeling the crept through the assembled servants of Sadow as they stared at the spectral visages dancing just outside of their collective vision.

Fear was particularly terrifying to the assembled group of stoic Dark Jedi because it’s not a feeling that came naturally to the heirs of Darth Sadow. When you can jump through the air, read people’s minds, move things through the air and block the shot of a laser beam at it races toward you at the speed of light; there are not many things that can surprise you. When few things can kill you, there is only one thing left to fear: the unknown.

The ghost like beings, with blank faces, that floated nearby; looked physically present but in some kind of haze. The rational mind wanted to dismiss them as mere apparitions created by their collective imaginations. Had not this same collection of people laughed in the past when speaking of the Tarentis weird spirit superstitions? How could they be real? How could they be standing in front of them?

‘What, if any, were their capabilities to harm a Dark Jedi’ the Clone Archon thought to himself as the astral choir began to shout. A panic rose as the attack began.

Etah, a Harbinger of terror and a servant of death, smelled their fear from far away. He didn’t know any form of ghosts were involved, he was a reaper; not a sorcerer.

“Prepare the ship,” Etah said into his hologram relay device.

The night was dark and the air was thick. All the smells of the forest, animals, and excrement clung to the humid air. The large group had been traveling for hours since their landing. They marched on towards their objective. On the horizon they saw a large pyramid shaped structure.
“This is it!” Vosiri thought as they reached the location.
His amazement was interrupted by a muffled scream. Quckly turning around, he saw one of the soldiers with the group crumple to the ground in a bloody heap. The remaining soldiers opened fire on the assailant. The dark obscured his vision, but he could make out a silhouette of a large bipedal creature. The creature looked as if it was wielding a large weapon….

"We are here live at the Ruins on Qirool VI. Your fearless reporter, Anna Tanaka, will bring you the events and exploits of Clan Naga Sadow as they happen. Unfortunately, due to the structure and our equipment, we cannot broadcast a full holovid, just audio only. So bare with me folks, I will try to describe everything in detail!"

"Now Peter, as far as we can tell there hasn't been anyone here in quite a long time. Dust coats everything. If you... wait. We are hearing that the Quaestor of Shar Dakhan has found some type of ghosts in a room nearby!" The reporter moves several rooms over towards the Quaestor, Evelyenn Wrym.

"As we converge on the Shar Dakhan Quaestor, we see spectral...Oh, my! There's a screech of some... wait. THEY'RE attacking!" Heavy breathing is heard as the reporter is running for her life. "The ghosts are attacking everyone.. I'm trying to find safety! I'm not sure if you can hear me, Peter, but this is a disaster! I'm trying find a.. wait. NO! STAY AWAY! NO! AAHHHHHH!!!" Ghastly screams can be heard for several more seconds before the comm unit cuts out.

"Anna? Anna? Apparently Clan Naga Sadow's first run in with the Temple isn't going well. Uhh, we'll be right back folks."

The sound of armor plates moving against each other echoed slightly as he walked, but it did little to mask the sound of the blood pounding in his ear. Kerro shuffled his E-11 Blastech blaster from hand to hand as his visor adjusted to the darker lighting in the passage. While the weathered exterior had appeared to be made of crumbling stone, the passage appeared to be constructed of marble, strangely untouched by time.

“Llook at those carvings,” a woman behind the soldier breathed, “it reminds me of the Ragnos Cathedral.”

“Warhost Command-” snaps and crackle of static cut off words in his comm earpiece, “ -have lost visual contact. Report.”

“Didn’t catch that, Command.”

“Cap….eras…..an’t...ar...epeat…?” An increased level of static buzzed over the commlink.

“Captain Keras here, Team Bantha is inside a large structure. We are going to move in to investigate.” Clicking the As his eyes scanned the walls, Keras noticed an indentation in the wall. The object was a bit larger than his fist. As he shuffled toward the item, the other soldiers seemed to relax slightly. The female soldier, the Captain couldn’t recall her first name, stepped forward as she stretched a hand out slowly to allow her fingers to brush the orb.

“Be careful Omakor. Touching strange objects can be bad around-” the words died in the man’s mouth as the orb began to glow. A scream filled the passage, drowning out all thought.

The sun scorched the sandy surface of the planet, creating a haze that blurred the ruins below them. As the transport approached the landing site, the newly appointed Quaestor of House Shar Dakhan stood up to debrief her fellow Sadowans. She had demanded leadership of the expedition, and Sanguinius had given her the opportunity to prove herself. Who better to lead an artifact hunt than the power hungry Human Sorceress?

The plan was simple: get in, extract the artifacts, get out. It was so simple that most of the Clan was puzzled as to why we needed half of the warhost present, but Evelynn knew better. Years of solitude had twisted the evil that lies beneath those ruins, creating a power unimaginable by any Sadowan. One wrong step and the whole endeavor could be compromised.

As the transport landed, the Battlemaster stepped onto the hot sand and made her way toward the entrance, closely followed by her clanmates. The stairs led down to a vast open chamber. Pillars with ancient Sith markings prevented the ceiling from collapsing upon them. Evelynn had no idea what they meant, nor did anyone present, but she was sure they would soon find out.

"Flashlights out, we're splitting up," she told the group as she made her way to the left-most doorway. "Keep your comms at the ready, you see anything weird - you report immediately."

With that, she took a step into the darkness ahead, not knowing whether she herself could withstand what lies ahead.

Chaos had erupted on-site, with the scientists running away screaming and the warriors and more resilient members attempting to combat the unholy menace that had erupted from the digs. Several troopers that got separated were now surrounded by ghostly apparitions and quickly disappeared from sight only to emerge moments later to attack their former brethren.

"Fall back! Fall back!" came the call from somewhere within the fray. "They're possessed!"

The chaos was the detriment to the speed in which the Sadowans complied with the order, moving much slower than they had trained for and with far more casualties to the possessive spirits.

Suddenly, a roar erupted overhead and Tarentum assault ships emptied their bellies onto the dig site. Warrior and scholarly Tarenti alike rushed the onslaught of possessed soldiers and ghostly apparitions, while the Tarenti medical corp quickly reinforced the Sadowans treating the wounded.

As the ghostly apparitions and their possessed minions were driven back, using the techniques that had been developed by the Clan of Life and Death, there fell a calm across the field of ruins that the Sadowans had decided to start their expeditions. It would be up to these two clans to work together if they were to uncover the world's secrets, and utilize them for the struggles that the future held for the both of them.

Only time would tell if these two unlikely allies would succeed or if they would end up stabbing one another in the back like enemies of times gone by.