Adventures on Korriban.

[Darth Ophidia]

Korriban, the original home of the Sith. Even in the hands of the Primeval, it had become a place of pilgrimage and practice for those learned in the Dark Side of the Force.

​

Saiah was meeting up with her master Darth Ferus here for an apparently very special lesson. She had cleared her identifications and intentions before landing smoothly in the hangar of the Primeval's Academy, and left the ship in their care. It was her first time flying the Phasma-class Infiltrator and it was an absolute dream to pilot. It flew much smoother and mind-blowingly quicker than anything she had ever flown before. Saiah was no exceptional pilot, but this ship made her feel like a right Ace.

She would employ her own two feet to find her way to the Valley of the Dark Lords, where the Ancient Sith buried their greatest, and many a darksider had come to seek inspiration and knowledge. Quite a few never came back.

Walking briskly through the more impressive sites, Saiah used her Force Speed to propel her over larger, less interesting areas. The feeling of the wind on her face, the sand under her boots, and the heat of the sun above her. She liked this planet already. Eventually she made it to her coordinates, but she could not immediately see [member="Darth Ferus"]. Her pale grey eyes scanned her surroundings. She skid to a stop and turned around in full circle. Her mind absorbed the lay of the land, she would wait here.

 

[Darth Ferus]

[member="Saiah"] would find the red man abnormally close. In fact, it was almost as if he had been with her the whole time. Here on Korriban it was almost like his own favorite planet, Tatooine. The barren and desert lands offered much for the red man to blend in with, and with his years on such places he had almost mastered such an ability.

Seeming to come out of no where he would step beside her, his gaze fixated on the tombs around them. A smile formed on his face as he looked about, constantly happy about there being such a place as this. His voice was soft for once, and he had no intention of attacking her right off the bat as he had in their past interactions.

"Such a beautiful place, no? I'm glad you were fortunate enough to be able to bask in the glory of the Dark Lords."

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Saiah jumped a little as the red man became apparent. Her hand quickly flew by the secret compartment in her sash, where her lightsabre was hidden, but she did not draw it. It was something of a reflex by now. She eased back into her chilly demeanour and clasped one hand casually in the other, relaxing a little as she found she was in no immediate danger. She smiled to [member="Darth Ferus"] and surveyed the area.

"It's stunning. I can feel its connection to the Dark Side. The history, the power. I'm glad I live to see it as well, not for lack of trying."

Shooting him a glance, she was indeed alive. Between her training and the attack on their old home base in Malif Cove, there were plenty of times for her to die. Yet Saiah had lived, persevered, thrived, and now she stood between the monuments left to giants of old. No matter who owned it, this would always be the home of the Sith.

"But you did not just call me here to look at stone and sand, Lord Ferus. Even if it is the sands of the dark lords."

 

[Darth Ferus]

"You are correct, I didn't just call you here for the beauty of this planet." Slowly he would settle both hands behind his back, blue eyes focusing on her. "You are no longer a mere acolyte. You have earned your place among the Knights of the Sith, and as an Assassin this gives you permission to learn darker and more powerful secrets of the Force. The most prominent being Art of the Small. The ability to shrink your presence, to hide who and what you are while remaining in plain view. And this is what I will be teaching you here, in the sands of our ancestors." With this, the Zabrak would move from [member="Saiah"], sitting down amidst the entrances of the tombs in a cross legged fashion. "This is not easy, but once you understand how it will become that much easier to control."

 

[Darth Ophidia]

She watched him carefully as he spoke, her face still and concentrated. However, when he explained what he intended to teach her, she smirked wide. Saiah followed three steps behind her Master. It was a precaution she had adopted from her use of Makashi, giving her appropriate distance to respond. She stopped as he sat down and replied in a playful manner, as she oft did when they were beginning a lesson.

"It's never really easy with you, is it?"

It was already a well an established fact that Saiah excelled under pressure, and Ferus had employed it many times in the course of her apprenticeship. She sat down in front of the red skinned man, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees. Her back was erect, and her smirk still apparent, though somewhat more relaxed. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly to bring herself to a better focus, the smirk melting away to something more neutral. She was ready.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

"No, it's not. But you wouldn't have it any other way, correct?" There would be a small smile for [member="Saiah"] before the Zabrak closed his eyes. "This skill takes concentration, and patience. Something not so normal for the Sith. So, we're going to first work on meditation. Close your eyes, breath in and out, feel the dark side around you. Feel the power of the Sith and understand it. Understand the difference between how they feel, and your own signature. Find your signature, focus on it, all of it. Our signatures are ever expanding, but there is a limit. Almost like a dome, a case that surrounds you and leaves you open to find. Some abilities mask this, make it translucent in an effort to be harder to see. But those skilled enough can and will find it. When you find your signature, don't think of it as solid matter. It's moldable, able to be condensed, shrunk. Pull it towards yourself, center it around you. Make your signature smaller." Ferus would go quiet then, slowly breathing as he waited for the girl to do as he asked.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

"I don't believe in other ways."

She closed her eyes as told, and inhaled deeply. She reached out with her mind like tendrils, and felt the sand, the air, the rocks. She felt the lingering darkness between each grain of sand, drifting in the air. She could feel the dark-aligned forces around her. The deeper she searched the more they seemed to congregate, to tower over them like the red mountains and grand monuments of this planet.

He had asked her to understand the power that lay here. She felt some vague differences between the different fields, and searched for 'edges' so to speak. Some felt heavy and powerful, as if she was being pressed down. Other felt electrical, stinging at the edges of her mind, but she gave no heed to it. Some felt like a surge of anger. She was beginning to tell the more subtle nuances apart and as she kept probing the dark presences around her, she felt like she could almost name them.

She then turned on her own signature, she pulled her mind-tendrils back to her self and set them to define each other. It was a confusing task, but she set to it with a steel determination. Sure, patience was not the strongest of her virtues, but she had some. Especially when the prize was so great. Saiah wrapped her mind-tendrils around herself and felt eventually something like a 'core' -though it was expanded far beyond her physical centre- which she could not take apart or define as anything, but Saiah.

Letting go of the mind-probing she dived into the mentally grasped the core and formed it between phantasmal hands. As Ferus had said, her signature was malleable, almost viscous. She grabbed and folded it around herself like a blanket. It was slow and difficult. Whenever she thought she had it, some part billowed back out, yet she tucked it around herself.

@Dart Ferus

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Don't think of this as something you have to grip from all around. It is a perfect circle, and will remain as such as you press on one side. Push in, and it will all shrink together." Ferus still had his eyes closed as [member="Saiah"] went to it, thinking on his own next move. She thrived under pressure, so what would he do to make this simple and nonthreatening task dangerous? Right, the tombs. A grin formed over his face as he figured it out. There were many options to the creative here on Korriban.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

She closed her eyes again and found her signature. She pressed it from the top down; it felt heavy. Yet, she could sense her signature growing smaller. Little by little she pressed it smaller and smaller, like a bubble with a leak it gathered around her. The strangest sensation perhaps, was when it passed the borders of her physical form. She almost lost concentration, the bubble grew a little again, but she pressed it back in. She slipped a few more times, but it never extended fully. it shrank slow, and the smaller it became the harder it was to further condense. How small could she make it? She had heard it could make ones signature practically invisible by shrinking it to a molecular level, but at her current stage it seemed hardly within reach. All the more reason to get there.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus nodded slowly as he circled [member="Saiah"] . "Good, very good. Keep working at this, and who knows. You may be able to hide from me one day." There was a smile on his face as he spoke, pleased she had learned so quick. But, as he got behind her, he reached out and with a quick punch of his fist move to knock her out.

If this worked, she would find herself waking in a dimly let room. It was clearly within one of the tombs, due to the markings on the wall. She would be stripped of her weaponry, and a single hand written note would be left for the Ratattak.

Now, I already know you're not going to be happy, but we are Sith after all. This is your true lesson. Within these caves are the Terentatek. They feast upon darksiders, and are attracted by the auras. This room you are in keeps you safe, but you will die if you remain. Your trial is as follows. Find your weapons, and bring the fangs of the Terentatek Matriarch. Keep your signature small, or they will come.

Have fun.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

With the amount of concentration Saiah was putting into working with her signature, she had no idea Ferus had moved. One could say she had lost touch with the outside world. That was the cost of her concentration. In time it would be second nature for her to manipulate her signature, but it would take time and practice. For now, she was knocked out by the red man.

When she woke up in the dark room, she rubbed her head and passed her hand over her sash where she usually kept her lightsabre. She could feel it missing. Feth. Sitting up, she surveyed the room. Inside the tombs, of course. It was kind of reminiscent of the rooms in Malif Cove, albeit much older and far more grand. She checked for the rest of her equipment, but it was all gone, even the little knife she had hidden just above her knee had been taken.

"One day, I will see you dead [member="Darth Ferus"]. One day, my boot; your face."

Her hand brushed the note by chance, and she picked it up. Her eyes narrowed as she read the handwriting in the dim light. Ferus was right, she was not happy at all. On the bright side the note indicated that her weapons were somewhere in the crypt. On the negative side, Terentateks, bloody Terentateks. She roared in anger, pushing a ring of dust away from her as she expelled a release of Force energy. After the release, she felt better. She could focus now.

Crossing her legs and resting her hands in her lap, she focused on gathering her force signature. She would have to move, and as Ferus had mentioned, it was all about not being detected. Obviously, the purpose of the training was to make her use what she learned to hide from the beasts that would feast on her affinity with the Dark Side.

 

[Darth Ferus]

The cavern would slowly begin to close on [member="Saiah"] after her anger in the form of a push. A trap, if you will. An insurance to get the female out of the cave, and always in the chance of death. When she would leave however, she would find one single Terentatek standing just outside, called by her outburst of the Force. Such actions had dangerous consequences now. Thankfully however, it was a smaller one and didn't seem to know where exactly she was. Yet.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

She opened her eyes as the heard the creaking and cracking of stone walls creeping closer. She sighed and pressed even harder on her signature, she had managed to press it inside her form, but she needed to make it a little smaller, just a little smaller. The walls crept closer and closer. When her signature was about the size of a small cat, she squeezed out of the room. Lo' and behold, there stood a little Tererantek. Saiah cursed internally, and kept her signature small, insignificant, fleeting.

She almost held her breath as she edged along the wall quietly. Her eyes pierced through the dark, it would be preferable to kill the beast, but she had no weapons. Her lightsabre, blaster, knives and the Force, it was all taken away. If these creatures hunted Force Sensitives, they would be able to feel her energy. Hence the one standing right in front of her. It must have been attracted by her outburst. Foolish Saiah, Foolish. She would have to make it through this maze the old way, without her fancy tricks and gadgets. Saiah smiled a little at the challenge.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

The sound of a huff came from the direction of the Terentatek, but it didn't turn. Rather, it seemed to ignore [member="Saiah"] and her now smaller signature and wander into the slowly sinking room to find the signature it found before. Thump thump it went, growling under it's breath as it searched for a new meal.

The Ratattaki would now find a small holopad just below her feet, though she could miss it at this point. If she did find it, she would find a general layout of this place, and the location of her gear. There would be no notion on the amount of Terentatek within the tomb, as that was part of the challenge.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Saiah let out a little relieved breath as the Tererantek walked into the room she had previously inhabited. Perhaps it would be crushed by the walls while sniffing the spot where she had meditated. She was simply lucky. Edging along, she almost stepped on the holopad on the ground. Had life as an assassin not taught her to thread carefully, she would most likely have broken it. Instead she swooped down and picked it up. Things like these did not usually lay around for no reason. Having passed one Tererantek, she knew there were others. Probably not far away, if she let her signature increase it would be the death of her. Instead, she kept pressing it down. It didn't shrink much more, not yet anyway.

Looking around carefully, she activated the holopad. Of course there were no signs of Tererantek on the map, that would have been too easy. She mapped several routes to her gear. One short and direct, one going completely the other way before looping around, and finally, one that split off from the first about half-way and connected to the end of the second. The danger was of course that one or more of the rooms along the way contained unknown quantities of beasts.

Deciding to go try the short route, she walked down the corridor quietly and took right. The holodisk was shut off and put inside her robes. She did not need more attention from the things that lurked within these halls.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

A rather intimidating thud would be the first sign that the shortest route would be the most dangerous. [member="Saiah"] would see only mere seconds before it would look back and find her the very thing Ferus had told her to hunt and kill. The Matriarch. The behemoth of a Behemoth stood as tall as the hallways would allow, near the height of a Rancor standing tall. But both species were one to crouch over. Blazing red eyes would shift towards her position as she rounded the corner, it's senses far more skilled than the smaller one she had encountered prior.

Below the beast however was a visible hilt of a lightsaber. It seemed the females blade had drawn the creature through it's own aura.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Upon seeing it, Saiah squeezed her signature even smaller. Though upon seeing her lightsabre, she knew it mattered little how small she could make her signature. She had been spotted, and the fight was on. While she kept her signature as small as possible to avoid attracting unnecessary attention. Her target and her weapon in one and the same spot, how convenient.

"You must be the Mama. Allow me to introduce myself."

Whether something is legendary or suicidal is a matter of perspective. Saiah saw it as two sides of one coin: Success or death. Either she dies, and disappears into obscurity, or she lives to become legendary. Today was one of those days, and what a lovely day it was. She faced the Behemoth, still unarmed. A mouse posing as a flea, facing the top of the food chain and expecting to win.

Even without Force Enhancement, Saiah was quicker than most. Her reflexes were sharpened by the Force and her determination was adamant. She ran at the Matriarch, aiming to get her Sabre and dodge the venomous claws and tusks. Then again, if she was hit by one of those claws she would be more concerned about missing limbs than about the venom. Everything was enormous, but enormous meant easy to track. Saiah was a flea, a tiny, irritating flea.

[member="Darth Ferus"].

 

[Darth Ferus]

The sound of two crashes went off as [member="Saiah"] became clear to the Matriarch. The mother turned, it's heavy foot falls smashing the ground underneath it's weight as it slowly turned. With a massive roar however it would accept the females challenge. Both massive hands slammed down as it thrust it's tusks outwards, much like a bore, for the females form, aiming to simply skewer her with the massive sharp bones.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

As the tusks came a-thrusting, Saiah avoided by twirling out of the way. She could feel the Matriarch's tusk tear through the fabric of her clothes and scratch her skin. The venom would be entering her system, but she had no time to worry about it just yet, lest she be skewered by the enormous tusks, spines and claws of the beast. No, Saiah would live this day. She would bring down the Matriarch and walk out of this cave. As she came past the tusks she dived for her sabre in a jump and roll. And upon grasping it. She activated the scarlet blade and swept it over her head in a large arc to open the Matriarch's underbelly completely.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

A single roar erupted as the beast felt itself getting torn open. It's force resistant hide did little against the burning blade, and [member="Saiah"] would soon find the internal organs of the beast spilling out onto her. The Matriarch however would stop it's roar, turning to a whimper as it stumbled forward, and fall down face first.

The beast was dead, but it's call was echoed as an untold number of it's children roared with anger. They were coming.