In The Dark Of The Night

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

Hers were the Qo'saarai Tuk'ata. Two of them, one Scarra - her eternal guardian, who had refused to let her go alone. Sometimes she wondered if the Tuk'ata now considered her as his tomb to protect. Something instinctive in his nature wishing to be a guardian and protector of something he considered valuable, this was an interesting paradigm shift from his old attitude towards her.

Part of her wanted to explore it more and figure out how it ticked.

But that wasn't what... friends did? Apparently? Ceri was still learning about that particular dynamic and it would probably take a while for her to figure it out.

They arrived a few minutes after Vereen and his partner. The Tuk'ata kept their distance and Ceri approached further, one inquisitive look spend at Vereen's companion, before greeting Draco.

"Vereen." Simple words, before looking past him through the viewport at the surface of Oricon. Hues of orange and amber and red, it wasn't a world for the weak or the merry. "You ready?"

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Yup." Because why would he have come if he were not.

Later, on the planet.

Hot winds blew across the rocky red planet, deep dark crags pocked the surface of the world, and a series of deep ravines ran through hateful plateaus. Fear.

The planet stank of it, like a swirling vortex it existed beneath every stone, behind every dark corner. One could not stay on this world indefinitely without succumbing. Many probably wouldn't last mere hours on the planet. Even after all this time, that was what Oricron was. A dark cesspool of fear and loathing. A nexus of the Dark Side, and a vortex of horrors. The land itself was corrupted and scarred permanently, and the soil had long since withered and died.

"So, what is it you are actually after?" Draco asked as they walked from the ramp. It had to be something specific. No one came to a planet like this just to sit around and go spelunking. And she was a smart woman, she had to know she couldn't stay here forever. Or even for very long without giving in to the planet. At least for now, Draco was in control of himself, he could feel the power swirling, just as the wind blew up dust, it carried fear on it, and yet it did not call to him like before. It did not tempt him like it had.

While they spoke, Draz the Barabel carefully shifted a sample of sand into a null resin lined test tube and sealed it, ready to take it home with them for study. He also intended on capturing something small enough to put in a crate and take home alive, plus a sample of water. They wanted to know how the Force had changed this place.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Draco Vereen"] had a point, if only a marginal one.

There were ways to settle on Oricon on a more permanent basis. It involved thick resin linings, ysalamir in allocated positions and a whole lot of Velokite to shield facilities from the negative disturbances the world was generating at any moment. A lot of hassle, true, but it could be beneficial too- a world like Oricon wasn't explored often or visited, so privacy was almost assured.

This was something that Cerita valued, but.

There was always a but, wasn't there? This time around she was still worried about the Sanctum. They were moving the base because of the Sanctum in the first place, and they already had a willingness to conquer and expand their territory into traditional Sith territories. Kaas was getting better these days with Saiba interference and help from the Ithorian community, but there was still a gorram darkside presence hanging over it- only fed stronger by the many deaths caused by Larraq's war.

Then there was Korriban, also expanded to by the Silvers.

Hell, Ceri had heard they were establishing healing enclaves on the aforementioned worlds. What kind of lunatics settled healing enclaves on darkside worlds?

"As I said, I wish to explore the remnants of the Dread Fortress- less people explore Oricon than the other Sith worlds. You don't see millenia of scavengers picking over the same tombs over and over again, consistently finding new finds without asking themselves how they are finding it in the first place." Cerita clarified, while they walked away from their shuttle. There was a storm brewing in the air, in the distance she could hear the lightning hitting and thunder roaring, but there wasn't much they could do about that now.

"Specimens of Sithspawn strains: Akure is currently looking into the processes to reverse the effects, like my former master Rave had wanted. But we consistently find new strains of Sithspawn that make it difficult to come up with a consistent approach." A shrug followed. "If we can find a suitable location, maybe set up a shielded facility that can withstand the Darkside corruption, so we can keep working on that problem."

Further up she could already make out the broken spire of the Dread Fortress, coloring amber and red and orange, depending on the shift of the skyline.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Very well. Lead the way." Draco yawned inside the T-visor helmet, his companion following close behind him, padding on all fours, sniffing the ground and tasting the air.

As the moved, Draco and Draz stopped once to get their own sample of water from Oricron, intent on taking it and examining it closely, seeing how it reacted to the application of the Force, palpable fear and anger, the things it was stained by, but had been denied for many, many years.

Draco could feel the pressure on the back of his mind, but for now he ignored it just fine. It didn't call to him like it had in a different life, in what felt like ages ago. It was just present, there. He could feel the pain and suffering of it, smell the distinct aroma. Fear.

Draz padded around behind Draco, carrying a pack from ICE, tasting the air and feeling the pressure of the Force. He and Draco were hunters, and that was likely why they were here.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

In the greater sense of the word Ceri wasn't influenced by Oricon like others.

She was a plant, this meant that there was no real adrenaline coursing through her at the times. Her survival reflexes were different, flight or fight didn't come into the equation. Palpable fear... she felt it, that pressure at the back of her mind, just trying to find a shard of purchase to overwhelm her, but she could distance herself from it, to a degree.

Especially after her run-in with her Master's Force Fear explosion on their ship.

Ever since then the woman had been training herself to resist giving into the madness of fear and dread. Whilst Vereen and his took a small break to take samples, Cerita wandered in the immediate surroundings. She stayed close though, but with a sentient tuk'ata guarding her... there was little that could truly surprise her here.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as they walked. They had stopped near an oasis - bloody water, or so it looked like from the light reflection.

"Fine, why?"

Cerita shrugged as she studied a strange insect, she could feel the Darkside rolling off of it as it hunted. She resisted the urge to try and take it with her... too soon for now.

"Darkside does strange things, Scar. You are more attuned to it than most. Might influence you more too."

Scarra rolled his eyes and responded with his big teeth frowning. "Don't worry about me, panele. Worry more about your friend out there." She wanted to ask more, but seeing that expression she realized she wasn't going to get anything more out of him for now, so she again shrugged and raised herself. Before long they returned to the oasis, where Vereen was already waiting on her. They continued the track to the North-

To the ruins of the Dread Fortress.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The ruins were heavily scarred and broken, pieces of the fortress strewn beneath sand, dirt, and rock. After all this time it was not just an empty ghost town. It was a buried tomb, like the Sith Kings and Dark Lords of old, lost and long forgotten to all but a few. Millennia of ruin left everything in a sick state of disrepair. Draz took another sample of the dirt in the area, to compare to what they found in the landing zone during later studies.

Draco played around with his senses, reaching out and testing what all he could feel on the planet. There were life forms, twisted and dark on it, but nothing sentient he could sense. Nothing with real thoughts he could feel.

"So," Draco sighed, "What kind of artifacts or information are you hunting in the ruins? Seeds of Rage? Remnants of Phobis Devices?" Something a little more dastardly and dangerous, perhaps? "Or maybe you prefer historical items." Maybe she just liked architecture and artwork, something to take and display proudly in her office.

The local fauna was what he was most interested in, seeing how it looked, how it hunted and acted. A hunter, no, a predator himself he liked learning from other predators. It made him stronger, harder, more dangerous as he learned little by little.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

"The Phobis devices mostly, yes." She commented over her shoulder. It was a rocky road forward- literally, because the road to the fortress hadn't been maintained since before its enigmatic creators erected it on the hill. Broken, shattered, big boulders were scattered randomly around and forced them to move around, or climb them at times.

"But the Dreadguard were powerful Sith, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more secrets in their shattered fortress. Things nobody has discovered before."

A shrug followed.

"Or maybe it's an empty, broken piece of rubble. Who knows."

The doors were huge... and they were closed shut.

Huh, she hadn't been expecting that.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Phobis Devices of course. There might be some other interesting artifacts and things the Dreadguard used in ancient times, but few were as well known as the Phobis Devices to spread fear and suffering. Their power had been devised and seen before since the Gulag Plague, though Draco knew that only in passing, brief introduction from a long time ago.

The quintet came to the gates, massive and seemingly barred against entry. Perhaps the spirits of the long lost did not enjoy the company of grave robbers and poachers. Who truly knew why the gates were closed even with the Fortress of the Dread Master's power barely standing after all this time. "Well, unless you can open them with some magic, We either blast our way in through the wall, or see about flying up to one of the holes in the fortress." Draco offered her a shrug.

"Problem, I'm not sure you and your buddies packed jump packs, and Draz and I can only carry one person each and they are a little too big to carry." He said, motioning to the big tuk'ata she was travelling with.

"Other problem, we have limited explosives, we waste them all now, we might need some later." They had maybe eight actually explosives that he knew of.

"Last problem, Draz and I can't use Telekinesis, so, best of luck opening those gates." He was smiling sarcastically behind the T-visor as he motioned to the doors.

"Up to you which problem we ignore, and which two we live by."

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

Ceri looked over her shoulder at Vereen, while he was recounting the issues and problems they were facing because of these doors standing here where they weren't supposed to.

Why were there doors here?

Why were they so big, reinforced and... it smelled like alchemy. The Dreadguard had been casted down centuries ago, more probably, and in all that time it didn't look like much people had payed attention to Oricon. Mostly evidenced by the road still crumbled and broken to pieces.

But here they were.
With a big fething door standing between them and the fortress.

"Stand clear, please." She responded after he finished. Only after him and his - and Scarra too, after a raised eyebrow - retreated to a more safe distance, did Cerita approach the doors.

The metal was brushed, definitely alchemy. She could sense the Darkside coming off of it with no issue, it almost stuck to her this close.

Brows furrowed. This was masterpiece grade, there was no way they would be able to blast it with explosives and manipulating it would be too time-consuming. So instead she wandered next to the doors, the walls that were surrounding the doors and weren't alchemized to the brink and back.

A moment of focus and then her presence in the Force shrunk to a pinpoint. This pinpoint started testing out the wall, trying to find a structural weakness, minutes passed and sweat was started to glide from her temple. But she did not relent, even with the splitting headache forming, she kept on pursuing the angle.

Until finally, there.

And then it was easy. The most simple thing to just push and pull and warp until the molecular structure of a minuscule part of the wall just shifted from the solid phase to something entirely else.

The wall started crumbling soon after, but Ceri had already retreated back and back and back to safety. It was lucky that the fortress had numerous pieces of backup integrity, so the entire thing wouldn't come crashing down, just a little collapse that eventually revealed an opening - just large enough for them to pass through and into the interior of the fortress.

"That good enough?"

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Works for me." Draco responded with a shrug after waiting what could be considered a very long time for the dust to settle. But it was better safe than sorry. Just as it was better to be legitimately interested than struggle and fake it.

Draco and Draz, the Mando-bel (Mandalorian Barabel) took the lead and entered the fortress first. Though it wasn't like they had a lot of room, they made due, slipping through nooks and crannies until they came into the first of the massive corridors ancient sith structures were known for. Draco turned around to wait for the female body of Darth Carach, or whatever, after doing a quick sweep of the dark room with a light and a ripper rifle just in case. Many Sith liked to leave living things behind after them to keep their tombs safe.

"Alright, well... you are the one that knows what we are looking for, so lead the way." He said aloud to Ceri, letting the green woman and her duo of Tuk'ata take the lead and guide them around the temple. No doubt there was some minor artifact no one else had heard about or found in the temple, or perhaps shards of a phobis device somewhere around.

Draco had his own interests in this place, this place of dread and death. It was a place that spoke to him, whispered to him on the wind as it swirled around, fresh air finally piercing the fortress. Draco could feel the fear, laying around him, writhing after so many centuries.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Draco Vereen"]

"Mmhmm." The hmble (hum plus mumble) was the only reply at first, as Sarova's eyes explored what they could without moving too far into the room just yet.

"We should be cautious." After observing what she could, the words finally came. It was an obvious sentiment, stepping into the Dread Fortress itself was dangerous enough, but there seemed to be more- much more at play here. And it made Cerita concerned, to say the least.

"Those doors were new...ish. Someone put 'em there and closed the fortress down."

There didn't seem to be anyone coming, though. Even though she had just made a metric fethton of noise after bringing down a portion of their wall.

This was getting stranger by the minute.