Well-Known Member
- V I X O S E P H 1 -
The freighter pierced through the clouded atmosphere of Vixoseph I, its slow descent toward the planet's surface casting a shadow over the grasslands below. The terrain stretched outward in soft waves of greenery punctuated by clusters of scrub forest and wildflowers. Overhead, an ominous overcast hung low, casting the world in muted shades of gray. A faint drizzle slicked the ground, giving the air a metallic tang.
Mother Askani, stood at the freighter's viewport, her gloved hands gripping the edge of the console as she surveyed the world below. Her long cloak shrouded her, its muted fabric rippling faintly with her movements. Beneath the shadow of her hood, her green eyes flickered with intensity, scanning the scarred horizon.
Vixoseph I had once been a thriving Inner Rim colony during the High Republic era. But its glory had been undone not by time, but by catastrophe. The Drengir, monstrous and carnivorous, had laid waste to the colony, leaving nothing but desolation in their wake. Decades later, the Blight—a phenomenon as mysterious as it was devastating—had seeped into the ruins. The Blight had left no survivors and nothing to feed upon, affecting both living and nonliving matter, reducing them to calcified husks before fading from history.
Now, the Blight itself was gone. The air carried no trace of its malevolence, but the land bore scars too deep to heal.
The freighter's landing struts sank into soft soil as the ship touched down in a clearing near the colony ruins. The wildflowers here were vibrant, their colors defiant against the pall of the sky. The grass swayed with the wind, brushing against the edges of the stone pathways that led deeper into the settlement. She descended the ramp, her boots making a faint crunch on the damp ground.
She paused, letting her senses expand. The world felt hollow. The echoes of life were thin, stretched almost like a whisper. She pulled her cloak tighter around her, her hand brushing against her calcified scar. The Nameless creature that had dealt her the wound had left more than just physical damage—it had left her connection to the Force fractured and weak.
She had read up on the stories—she was indeed one of the lucky ones.
Still, one aspect of her power remained sharp: her telepathy. Her psionic abilities, unbroken by the Nameless, were a constant companion, an anchor in the chaos of her diminished strength.
The ruins of the colony emerged as she walked further along the stone pathway. The skeletal remains of buildings loomed in silence, overrun with vines and moss. The structures told stories of a life cut short—a toppled comms tower, homes cracked open like discarded shells, and what looked to have once been a bustling central square now reduced to rubble.
Her path took her to an ancient fountain at the settlement's heart, its edges chipped and worn. Wildflowers bloomed stubbornly around its base, their roots tangled in the cracks. She crouched near the fountain, her gloved fingers brushing against the stone as she closed her eyes and let her mind extend outward.
Her telepathic reach spiraled into the remnants of the past. Like ripples in a still pond, faint impressions of memory rose to meet her.
Laughter. Families gathering in the square. Miners returning from the depths with eager faces, their voices thick with hope.
The images twisted.
Drengir. Roots splitting stone, carnivorous vines snaking through streets. Screams echoing in the Force, cutting through the minds of those who tried to resist. A desperate evacuation.
Askani pulled back sharply, her breath hitching. Even decades removed, the psychic residue was sharp, raw with anguish. She stood and exhaled, her gaze drifting to the tree line beyond the square. A scrub forest loomed there, its twisted branches forming a jagged silhouette against the gray sky.
Something waited there, just beyond her reach.
She moved forward, her steps careful as she entered the shadowed forest. The air grew cooler beneath the canopy, and the grass gave way to a layer of damp soil. The faint hum of insects mixed with the distant rumble of thunder.
At the forest's heart, she found a clearing. The ground here was unnervingly bare, a ring of lifeless soil surrounded by vibrant vegetation. At the center stood a weathered obelisk, jagged and organic in design. Its surface was etched with grooves that were deathly grey—a relic of the mining operation that had unearthed the Blight centuries ago.
Askani approached cautiously. Though the Blight was long gone, its fingerprints lingered in the Force. She knelt at the edge of the clearing, her senses stretching toward the obelisk. The voices came slowly at first, faint echoes that gained strength as she focused.
"The veins go deeper than we thought—"
"This material, it's alive. It moves!"
"It's not natural. Shut down the drill—"
Her mind flared as the impressions gave way to an image: miners in dark caverns, their lights glinting off pulsating grey veins embedded in the rock. The veins twisted like living things, their glow intensifying as the drills approached. A sense of wrongness bled into the vision, a cold and empty hunger that made her scar burn.
She gasped as the vision shifted, dragging her forward in time.
Jedi stood among the ruins of the colony, their lightsabers ignited. She could feel their strength in the Force, their resolve as they battled the Drengir. But even the Jedi hesitated as they approached the obelisk. She could sense their unease, their fear of the unknown.
One Jedi—a woman clad in the robes of the High Republic—reached out, her hand hovering over the obelisk as if to touch it. The grey glow flared, and the vision snapped like a broken cord, flinging Mother Askani back into the present.
She stumbled, her breath ragged as she steadied herself against a tree. Her gloved hand rose to her scar, the calcified tissue pulsing faintly beneath her touch. The whispers of the past faded, but her thoughts lingered in her mind.
She turned back toward the clearing, her gaze fixed on the obelisk. Somewhere in this desolate place lay the answers she sought—not just about the Blight, but about the nature of the Force itself. She straightened, her resolve firm as she began tracing the echoes once more.
Whatever truths this planet held, she would uncover them.
-----