Faction Silence Unbroken (Jedi)

[Jace Rhane]

Katarr
Local time: 0913 Standard Hours
Theme


Words, whispered in his mind.

A planet, stolen of life.

Songs unsung, silence unbroken. No sound, no light, no dark. Nothing.

But now, something stirred. Something awoke.

And it was calling out through the force. ​

Darth Nihilus had rendered this place empty, devoid of life. Not dead, buried, or transferred like so many other places or people he'd seen.... He'd stolen the very life from the planet.

And it had yet to return.

And Jace had stumbled onto something that he left, just in passing, just by hearsay and rumors from smugglers moons away. Something that he didn't believe at first, something that he did not want to believe.

Something wicked. Something tainted. Something, that unfortunately- called to him, in a sort of eerie manner.

Not one to take this sort of task lightly, Jace put the message out to the other Jedi. They'd be going alone, away from any sort of help, on a desolate, dead world, a world devoid of the Force. But Jace, somewhat rightfully wary of the reality of the situation, did not divulge the entirety of the truth to them.

They'd be on their own, and the Force was only able to sparsely help them. It was an uneasy feeling to say the least. He paced around the transport's hub, having found a safe spot to land. Vegetation had overtaken some parts of the platform, but he found it easy enough to coordinate landing zones. The settlements were in disrepair. The vegetation was even... strange. Normally, those gifted with the force could feel the life in them, the bits and pieces that made the vegetation alive. While Jace might have said once that if you listened well enough, you could hear the plants sort of "humming" a tune in the force...

They were more whispering here, hushed, distant echoes. Like far away songs.

But the whole planet was whispering to them in the force. Dark, things, dark evil tidings awaited the Jedi.

Something wicked remained on Katarr.

And it wanted to be found.

 

[Alana Sunrider]

Alana did not like this. Every nerve sung with worry as her boots crunched on the planet’s surface as she stepped off the freighter’s ramp.

She had been born on Ambria. A cursed world if there ever was one, but this one was worse.

Darth Nihilus.

The Sith that gave Jedi nightmares, even more than Sidious. He had practically sterilized the world through the sorcery he practiced and to Alana’s knowledge, nobody had even tried to revive.

She knelt and ran her hands through the dust. An anomaly that should not exist, but she filed away a thought to ask the Outer Rim Development Corps if they thought it me be fixed.

Terraforming had come a long way since Nihilus. But something crawled and crooked at the edge of her mind and she shook her head to try and dislodge it. Someone else had arrived already.

“Hello!” Alana called. “I’m Alana Sunrider. Have you heard the call too?”

Assuming call was the right word. Summons, perhaps. She wasn’t sure.

Jace Rhane

 

[Jace Rhane]

Theme
​

So far, only one other Jedi that he'd been able to see came forward. The message was vague, but so was the feeling and the... emptiness coming from the lifeless planet.

He turned his head, studying his fellow Jedi.

"Yes. I'm Jace Rhane. I was the one who... put out the call."

Call? Summons? Request for help?

Jace blinked a few times, trying to remember what he knew of the world. Darth Nihilus had targeted it for the populace- the Miraluka in particular. He fed off of all of them, trying to sate his immeasurable hunger. It was the Dark Side's ultimate end, really. Unfathomable power with unfathomable cost. Even if Nihilus had gone on and devoured the entire galaxy, he would have eventually succumbed to his own hubris, his own hunger. Such a high cost for power would have eventually begotten his downfall.

Jace sank to the ground slowly, his armored legs resting in a meditative position.

"This planet was stripped of all life, dead even to the force. Sucked away like opening a door in space. So why- after all this time, does something awaken here?"

The feeling was dreadful, as if something had been lying in wait. A thousand hands, grasping at prison bars. Voices murmuring hatefully. Jealously. Anger. Betrayal. Vindication.

Thousands of angry eyes, constantly staring at the two Jedi. But not a life to be seen.

No animals, no sentient life anywhere to be seen or felt.

And it had been that way since the Sith came and placed their icy fingers and gazed their deathly gaze at the planet.

"It's been thousands of years.... why now? Truth be told, my friend- I worry of what lies ahead for us here."

Alana Sunrider

 

[Alana Sunrider]

Jace Rhane

Alana nodded as Jace spoke. "That would be reasonable that you were the first to arrive then." As the other Jedi knelt to meditate, Alana bent down and ran her hand through the soil again, pacing in widening circles around the ancient landing pad. No tracks that she could see, and even her life-form scanner on her gauntlet came back with nothing. But there was clearly something... disturbed.

There was no other way to put it. Spirits, ghosts, vengeful dark manifestations. There were many possibilities and none of them were ideal. It was unsettlingly like Ambria again and she felt that same cold shiver creep up her spine. The Dark was strong here. There was no way around that fact.

"The Force will light the way," Alana answered automatically, "But that never negates feelings of worry." She knelt again with pursed lips and frowned. "You're right though. Nothing about this makes sense."

She considered. "It could have been the destruction of Csilla, or Omni's re-emergence and disappearance, with the rifts between this plane and the Netherworld. The balance between Light and Dark could have shifted. Or perhaps even more chillingly, perhaps the incursion of the Netherworld deposited the spirits killed by Nihilus back onto this planet. And millennia trapped in the Dark Side would not be good for any spirit. It could drive anyone mad, and then to be pushed back to the world?"

Alana shuddered at the thought. "I thought the malice of the Sith spirits trapped on Ambria were bad. This could infinitely worse, even assuming my guesses are remotely correct."

 

[Jace Rhane]

​

The consideration of the past events hadn't even crossed Jace's mind. It was helpful to have multiple eyes on the same goal, the same minds on different paths to the same place. He inhaled deeply, rising from his meditation to look at the other Jedi.

The force seemed to light a path for him, as if torches were placed on the path before him.

"This way."

He said rather lowly, his hands guiding along the ground as he trekked downward. The sun was still out- lighting a path through the ruins. Thousands of years of untouched stone, concrete and metal of a desolate planet lay before them. But the force was leading them downwards, or at least- something was.

The further they went, the more the feeling of dread and of being watched became. Jace took a moment to rest, after having traveled a great distance downward into the city's further reaches. The feeling grew ever more so with each step.

"Forgive me for asking- but which Jedi school do you claim to be a part of? Or are you... a Maverick like so many these days?"

Jace knelt back to the ground, looking up at the sun, trying to get a feeling of the layout of the planet. They were heading downwards, down the hills and steps of the ruined cities. Headed downward- but to what? Jace reached out with the force, while he awaited the other Jedi's answer. He took a deep breath- trying to get a sense of where they were going, or being lead to.

Winding passages. Steel. No light for centuries. Ancient words. Dark deeds. Deceit. Unintended. Cold. Oily shadows. No light.

No light.

No light.

And then it manifested physically- a deep wail, a scream, ethereal. Like a chorus of thousands crying out at once. Jace recoiled, as the wind picked up, gravel and dust swirling around them. The scream grew higher in pitch, before subsiding, leaving an empty, desolate silence.

"No light..."

He said out loud, blinking, trying to comprehend what he saw, heard, and felt.

Alana Sunrider

 

[Alana Sunrider]

Jace Rhane

Alana shifted and ran her fingers through the soil again, trying to work out what was happening, before rising and following Jace. Instinctively, she wanted to reach for a blaster that she no longer carried, but she steeled her mind against the habit and focused on stretching her awareness. Her steps were light, delicate, and precise. Not fully necessary, given the relatively good condition of the ruins. What destroyed this planet had hit only living things, not inorganic.

Jace's question caught her by surprise and she considered for a moment before shrugging, although she was behind him. "People call us the Circle of Light or the League of Light, I think. We tend to work mostly out of the Outer Rim. Jedi, Matukai, Fallanassi even. Other fringe sects as well. Don't know if I'd call myself a maverick though. I was a scrap scavenger for most of my life and then a bounty hunter before a new Je'daii and then Jedi. Not sure if any school really fits."

She could feel it all now, that sickening presence of eyes lurking behind her. She could almost see the lake on Ambria again, where the voices and the sense of oily sickness was strongest, and the voices in her head that mocked her and belittled her when she was near there. Not quite the same, but still similar. Evil, oppressiveness, everything that gave the Dark power.

The world screamed.

Alana ducked to her knees and forced her brain to focus as her eyes darted across the landscape, looking for the source. Her ears rang and her eyes focused on where the wind had been whipped up against them. She moved her hand away from the lightsaber and focused on her breathing. Last time she had faced something this powerful was the Dark Side cult in the Deep Core with the fledgling Republic forces.

"I'm thinking lightsabers won't be much use on this trip."