Black Sands (Open/Ask)

[Annan Rainwalker]

Enshrined in Heart - Sonic Librarian
— ✵ —
The arid surface of Jaguada
Jaguada system, Esstran sector
Sith Worlds, Outer Rim Territories
— ✵ —
Once you start... the Dark Path...

Years of searching ended in failure, only for him to woe the day he had decided to give up. He had tried to move on, assuming erroneously it to be the directive of the Force, the Jedi way. He had overturned underworlds as far out as the Outer Rim for any sign of her, to find none and then give up. That - the fact that he could not find a trace - should have been his first hint. How could he have surrendered so easily? He could he have been so naive? She had suffered for years because of his own ineptitude.

In time, you will call me 'master'...

He could feel every hair on his feral body stand on end. He could feel the rage, thundering inside his chest with every beat of his silvery heart. His cloak billowed in the squall, the grey fabric flapping against his form with all the intensity of a predatory Andoan hummingnock. He had risked everything to make it here, into the very depths of the Esstran sector - Jaguanda, the desert world; an ancient one amongst the most primeval homeworlds of Darkness. He knew his crew would not desist; they were not far behind, but he feared at the same how their presence this far deep into the Sith Worlds could affect Mertaal's grand plan.

Your feeble skills are no match for the Power of the Dark Side...

It was so potent here it was suffocating. It stirred the beast within himself, and it took all of his will to keep his attention focused on the Light Within. The Light Within was unbounded, connected by a single thread to the Grand Light, the Ashla, the Unifying Force. A single, willowy fiber of spiritual luminosity that, although feeble, was nonetheless inseverable. The Light centered him, the Light kept him oriented - sane - through this twin onslaught of dark and debris. I am with the Force, the Force is with me...

... Your powers are weak...

The Firrerreo growled at the Bogan, as the ancient void continued to claw at his spiritual defenses like a rabid vornskr, barely holding on as the sandstorm attempted to erode him into nothingnes. He tried to shield himself beneath a gigantic, ominous, cranioid, monument of stone, nonetheless failing to achieve adequate seclusion from the rage of the planet. Jaguada's only moon was eclipsed by the clouds of dust and silica that arose for several thousand meters into the stratos. The debris was rough, pelting against his sturdy body, the planet itself reacting to the foreignness of the Jedi on this Abode of Blackness.

I... will find you. I swear... he growled, before revealing his fangs and letting out loud, ferocious, guttural roar - unveiling the might of his Light against the Darkness of the world.

[Yarkar Edetar]

Yarkar's pilot droid finally landed The Merciful Rogue on the planet of Jaguada. What a place to be. He knew there was something to be found here, he felt it in his soul. No one whispers about places where nothing is hidden. He had to do what Tormentous had done to him time and time again, sent him looking somewhere. That would be the way to find his path. If he didn't go looking for power, it would never find him. He had heard of the world in whispers, his curiosity piqued. He had never read books about it when he was learning about the galaxy in his youth, and yet the planet was spoken of in hushed whispers where he only just caught the name in the temples. He got himself prepared for the desert, wrapping cloth around his face like a bandana to keep out as much sand as possible, putting on his heavy cloak in hopes that it may protect him from the heat. Even if he knew it wouldn't burn him, the scars of burns long past still lay on his face as a reminder of why he wore the cloak wherever he went. He didn't want to be left vulnerable, no matter how impractical the little protection it offered was. In his own mind, it felt like a suit of armor for his battle with empty dunes.

Little did he know, the dunes were not empty. The whipping winds struck him the second he left his ship. He fell over into the sand, coughing as he struggled to stand back up, brushing the sand off of him as he was buffeted by a furious backwind as he searched for whatever the galaxy may bring. He didn't know what he could find, nor if it would help him, but he trusted his instincts. It was time for him to make his former master proud as the Dark Side collapsed around him. He felt that familiar rage stoke his internal flames, it felt different than on Yavin IV. It was not heavy and thick, but like coal thrown into a blazing fire. He bit down as another gale came after him, he sucked air through his makeshift mask as his cloak billowed into him, wrapping itself against him like a tomb before he managed to throw it back.

Then he heard it.

A roar echoing through the winds despite the howl of the planet pushed back. It was as if the wind was pushing him towards it, and he grinned. Surely this would be what the Force wanted him to see! A sense of triumph came over him, like he was following in his master's footsteps. Maybe one day he would be a pride to the lost Lord, a relic left behind that took on a life of its own. He started his way towards the source of the roar, even with the echoes across the dunes he was able to find his way as the sands whipped around him. There was something to be said of the ferocity of anything that could withstand this, especially one who moved against it rather than with it.

Yarkar walked for a good half hour, his legs sank into the hot sand before he had to kick them out, dust filled the air and clouded his vision as his cloak fought against him. He was simply going off memory of where the sound was coming from. Maybe the voice was walking in the same direction at the same speed, maybe even faster. Maybe the roar was a mirage? What if this was all some sick joke played on him by the Force as punishment for thinking it would be this easy to find something in the wastes?

Then he saw what he envisioned, he saw the man atop a hill, as he sat at the bottom himself. He didn't reveal himself beyond looking in the being's direction, the cloth mask across his face and hood pulled over his head. He sat in silence, unsure of what he was witnessing, only sure that in his perception, it was what he was intended to find here. Whatever it was had roared into the sands in the direction they traveled, and their voice had gone far. Yarkar feared as to what he found as much as he rejoiced that he had found it. Who knows what tidings the meeting will bring?

[Sam Tallav]

JAGUADA
JAGUADA SYSTEM, ESSTRAN SECTOR
SITH WORLDS, OUTER RIM TERRITORIES


Rabé held a hand upon her mid-riff as she forced herself to resist the urge to vomit. The oppressive air that seemed to hold the jungle world of Jaguada in its claws was thick and nauseating. The abominable feeling reminded her of the lab on Durace. It was like returning to a home one never wanted to come back to.

"Do you sense it?"

Placing her free hand at the edge of the wall into which the boarding ramp of the YT-2400 opened, the sickened Strand-Cast turned her head to stare at her Master.

Leṭīph Nuur Solana stood tall in his tan and brown Jedi robes, his cloak billowing in the planetary sandstorm. The elder Jedi's stature projected a luminous power that the forces sickening Rabé seemed to recoil from and surrender to. In the Force, her father was not akin to an unyielding star in the obsidian void of interstellar space.

"I do," Rabé answered, standing a bit taller, finding solace in her Master's solar presence. "Is that…?"

"The Dark Side."

Rabé gasped, taking her free hand off the edge of the YT-2400's wall and palming her lips, just as a fierce bolt of malignant red lightning cut through the unhealthy, viridescent, storm clouds above. This was not the first time she had felt it. In fact, the overwhelming reality that dawned upon her, the more she thought of it, was that she had been bred in it.

"This deep in the heart of the Sith Worlds, it is all the more palpable," Leṭīph placed a hand on Rabé's shoulder. She found comfort in the gesture, but the question that burned within her quickly found its way onto her lips.

"This is... just like the Lab, Master," she choked out. "Then--"

"I have always known that the Dark Side had a hand in your origins, my daughter. Since the day I retrieved you from Durace," the words shocked her to the core, they were precisely what she had been terrified of hearing. Until he smiled at her, squeezing her shoulder, and continued. "I do not know to what end you were created, but I do know that the person I see before me, shines brighter in the Light than almost anyone I have ever known. And I grew up in a Jedi Temple."

Rabé visibly relaxed, shoulders sagging. "Honestly?"

"It's true. Remember, apprentice, it is not your origins, but your choices, that determine your actuality," he taught, before taking his hand off of her shoulder and concealing it beneath his brown cloak as he began descending the boarding ramp. "Now come. The Akcinor will be safe here," he called over his shoulder, referring to the YT-2400.

The Master and the Apprentice scoured the endless, torrent-plagued desert for what seemed like hours. Leṭīph let the Force direct him towards their destination, and Rabé let Leṭīph be her guide. Ultimately, their search was interrupted by a ferocious, guttural roar. Snapping their faces in its direction, the two Jedi subsequently glanced at each other. Coming to a silent agreement, the duo followed the source of the wild call, the man's brown cloak and the girl's black one frolicking in the relentless torrent of silica. Their trek brought them to a tall man, not quite human, but one that the elder Nuur Solana recognized all too well. He had not had much interaction with the young Firrerreo in the past, but Nuur Solana had known his Master, Han Xin. Last he had heard, the young Jedi had forsaken his allegiance to the Galactic Alliance was now a member of the Blue Star Pirates.

"Knight Rainwalker!" Master Nuur Solana called, drawing the Blue Star's attention towards him. "Fancy finding you, of all people, this far out in the Sith Worlds..."

"You know him?" Rabé asked, surprised, quickly letting her guard down. A rookie mistake, considering their location and the fact she, herself, barely knew the Firrerreo before them, one that Nuur Solana made a mental note to correct his apprentice on, later.

"Master Solana," the Firrerreo called back, his voice also carrying recognition. Annan probed the two of them through the Force, momentarily wondering if the planet wasn't playing any tricks on him. "I could say the same for you."

"Master..." Rabé interrupted their conversation, for she had been seen him before the rest of them had sensed him. A shadow among the black sands, silently slithering towards them. The three of the Jedi Coalition had been interrupted by a fourth, drawing closer. His presence in the Force, Rabé realized, was distinctly unlike their own, for it reeked of the Touch of the Dark Side, of being tainted with the same sickening, abysmal blackness that Rabé could sense held this entire world in its talons.

Stepping forwards to stand in front of her Master and the Firrerreo, between them and the approaching dark one, Rabé stood with one hand on her blaster holster and the other on her lightsaber hilt, her black robes parting to reveal an equally black body suit underneath, the skeleton of Antarian Ranger armor.

"Who are you, and what do you want?!" she called out through the gale.

[Varn Badaash]

A Pursuer-Class Enforcer Ship rumbled through the strange storm over Jaguada. The pilot, a large alien built like a rock watched through the viewport as the black sands closed in. He stared in contemplation, it wasn’t his first time on this dark world and deep down he felt it wouldn’t be the last. For him it had only felt like it’d been no more then a decade but for the planet it’d been centuries. There was no chill down his spine, no shaking feeling, no uneasiness, all he felt was memories.

“Ranger Captain, Master Solana’s freighters last signal is just up ahead,” the robotic voice of the alien’s companion broke the silence. “He only touched down fifteen minutes ago, shouldn’t be hard to track down.”

“Understood MC,” the aliens gravelly voice replied.

That’s why he was back, Ranger Command had requested the captain check in on a master and apprentice who were traveling in Sith space without escort. He was unaware exactly why they were here but he had a duty and he’d make sure the Jedi were properly protected.

The ship slowly settled down in the sands by the Jedi’s YT and the over two meter tall Ranger marched down the boarding ramp. He clipped his helm on as he reached the bottom and began scanning the surroundings for where the two had gone. His years of tracking people made it easier, the indents left by the two in the earth were still visible giving him the direction to travel.

While everyone else here felt the Force, felt it’s influence, felt it’s control on this world, he did not. Was it a blessing or a curse, some would say a curse, to never feel the living force, to never knows it’s warm embrace. Others would say it’s a blessing, to never be tugged on by the whims of this strange energy that flowed through the galaxy, to never feel the fear induced by the dark side. Himself, he didn’t know yet which was true, his race had never been connected but now wasn’t the time to find this revelation, he was on the job.

[Yarkar Edetar]

Yarkar saw the new figures coming into the picture, seeing himself very swiftly outnumbered. He kept his lightsaber away, he was arrogant but not by that large a margin. He could sense three of them in the Force, two of them like bottomless pits. The other simply felt like a blank slate, very interesting to him to say the least. He knew that the Force wasn't the only way to power, however, and was not about to underestimate the figure. He could sense strength in the Force that he thought impossible, so far out of reach and yet he was so close as to taste their power. Yet, it was so full of something. It was different than the bitterness he tasted on the Dark Side. He knew instantly what they were, just by instinct alone. He didn't know why, he had not had his ability to sense such beings in the Force when he last met one, but the understanding was in his soul. Jedi. The scum of the galaxy, warriors that dare call themselves martyrs. Those that would spill blood for a cause they enjoyed, but condemned those that would kill for survival. A snake, striking at prey, letting them feel their blood curdle in their veins as their corruption made them see themselves as the enemy of peace.

He hissed, holding his head. The Dark Side gripped it further as ancient hatreds came to bear alongside his own condemnation of the knights. His thoughts blurred. It took a great deal of restraint to resist it here. If he had not spent so much time on Yavin IV, he wouldn't even know how to fight it. As suddenly as it had came, it left. He broke the grip of the Dark Side, wrestling it back into being his weapon, rather than it fighting for the opposite to be true.

"I am here on my own terms, not on any agenda. I bring myself here with no purpose but that of the Force guiding me here. I heard whispers, but now they are roars. All guide me to my goal, whatever that may be. I act in the unspoken will of my lost master. While I may not be in his grasp until he returns, I still act in his name. The chimes of the bones of the enemies of Tormentous ring in my voice, but the real question still stands. What brings Jedi so far from their home? Here to save a child in need? Like you so clearly do so in your home systems? More likely, you're here to steal what is not yours. To take from the Sith what you couldn't have yourself because you're scared of acting like you put yourself first! If you dared to set foot on a world directly hostile to you, you must have some purpose. I've stated mine, and my right to stand where I do. Now state yours and put away your weapons. We need not spill blood on sacred sands, unless you peacekeepers demand it be spilled like you so often do."

He opens his cloak to reveal he came with armor made of the orbalisk parasite, without the helmet, and the lightsaber on his belt. True armor beneath the hope-armor that was the cloak he had partially shed. As he felt the direct heat of the desert come closer to his skin he had to steady his breath. Old habits die hard, it seems. He hoped in mirroring the action of the Jedi they would at least not see aggression in his action. He was a paper tiger to these Jedi, trying to show off what he had in hopes of it working to bring this to a resolution where he keeps his limbs. In the wind his cloak's hood fluttered around, the tailwind leading to flashes of his face being shown but nothing recognizable. If one were watching incredibly intently they could notice pale skin and burns across his skin. His eyes were still mostly hidden by the angle and the dust storm, however, looking up at the increasingly large group of people here to oppose him.

[Sam Tallav]

Rabé's eyes widened as she sensed it—the void, like a miasma of horror. It projected unbridled from the man in front of him for a moment before it disappeared, as he seemed to have reined it in. Still, it remained concentrated around his weapon, and Rabé's senses could register it pouring out of the weapon as well as dancing around it. Something inside Rabé herself seemed to respond to the darkness emanating from the being in front of her. Like a disgusting temptation, vile yet evoking sick pleasure, it erupted inside her very being, reaching out towards Yarkar's own spiritual core as if his darkness were a long-lost friend.

Rabé took a step back in fright.

Meanwhile, the elder Jedi shared a furtive glance, with Rainwalker communicating to the elder Solana the desperation in his eyes. Leṭīph knew the Dark Side was potent in Jaguada, emanating from within the planet and about it, making it a powerful nexus of the Bogan. The Void saw them — lightsiders—as foreign entities, invaders upon its sands to be eliminated. The dark side storm grew ever more powerful with each passing moment.

"I have to go," Annan growled, bringing his robed arms up over his head even as he used the Force to deflect the raining debris to keep it from sandpapering his fur off, and nodded his head towards Rabé. "Can your apprentice handle him? Because I may need your help. It is an artefact that I seek, one essential to finding someone I care about..."

Leṭīph glanced towards Rabé. Despite her immense potential in the Force, her formal instructions in harnessing it were still at the beginning level. Still, she could at least provide this Darksider with a distraction. Turning his head toward the Jedi cum Blue Star, the bearded Master nodded. His apprentice needed to face the Dark Side at some point; he felt that this was the perfect opportunity for her to gain some ground experience. In case the Darksider proved to be too powerful for the Girl to handle, Leṭīph would remain within reach for urgent intervention.

"Let's go, quickly," he nodded, and the Firrerreo grunted before he pushed into the storm. Rainwalker led and the elder Solana followed until they became mere silhouettes in the raging dust before vanishing into the storm. Rabé, having heard their conversation, understood her task as she sensed them leave.

Robes danced in the relentless breeze, eyes half-lidded against the dark torrent. Her heart thundered in her chest in trepidation, but she held her weapons steady. The relentless storm billowed against her robes, tossing her hair into a mess, as she narrowed her aquamarine eyes at her opponent. "W-Why would you serve the Dark Side?" she quivered a bit as she spoke, her weapon pointed towards Yarkar, feeling the power emanating from him, a power that was both tempting and disgusting to her. It made her feel soiled. "How could any sentient wield a power so vile with such gall?" she said, voicing her thoughts. She truly could not understand.

[Varn Badaash]

Sand, as far as the eye could see and the wind whipped it around like an ocean throwing waves at the land. It wasn’t long before the foot prints were blown away to join the next dune over. Varn grumbled in his helm as he knew it would be far to easy to get turned around in a desert like this and so he paused for a moment to consider his options. As he checked his gear his mind drifted back in time.

-several centuries ago~

“Sith spit, we’ve been trying to track them for days now…” an old familiar voice spoke angrily.

“This desert might as well be endless,” came another almost forgotten voice, “there’s no way we are going to find where they’re hiding out at this point and then it’ll be our hides!”

“Someone call for an eye in the sky?” A voice echoed.

Varn’s eyes drifted upward as two high altitude speeders flew overhead.

~present day~

Varn’s charcoal like eyes stared up into the sky as his mind remember the last time he was here tracking down lost souls. If he was going to find the Jedi he’d need another set of eyes.

“MC, did you install that miniaturized viper probe droid into my pack?” The voice of the Dashade asked, breaking the long silence.

“Why yes Ranger Captain, the seeker droid SD11 was installed before the mission, you should be able to active it from you wristpad.” The espionage droid replied.

Varn acknowledged with a low grunt as he lifted his arm to check the built in datapad. It took a few moments to check through some of the commands but sure enough there it was. He actived the command prompt and sure enough he heard a hiss and felt a weight lift from his back. As soon as the seeker droid disconnected a small screen opened on the Rangers HUD showing a live feed from the droid. A few more command prompts later and the droid lifted to about thirty meters above the Ranger.

“Alright MC let’s keep moving in the direction we believed them to be heading.”

With that the two started marching again as the small droid sat above scanning the distant horizon for any signs of life.

[Yarkar Edetar]

Yarkar stomped his foot, his tantrum drowned out by the rushing of the wind and the soft sand that his foot struck. Watching the silhouettes walking away in the distance like he was a child to be ignored was infuriating. The idea that they left their apprentice to die here was poisonous to his mind, only reinforcing his ideals of the Jedi as traitors. He could barely even sense the wisps of the Force in the girl, she was fresh blood left to die in these sands from evil tyrants who underestimated the power within this young acolyte.

"Where do you think you're going? Your artifact hunt means nothing! You can't just steal from the Sith and act like it's nothing!"

He screams out like a rabid animal before remembering there was one who was still staying behind, raising his hands away from his weapon as he turns to her. He wanted to not be a threat. His mind twinged, he felt sorry for her. She didn't deserve a fight on such terms, used as a distraction so the Jedi can rob tombs like the filthy scavenger-birds they are.

"I'm sorry they're leaving you, but that's all Jedi do. They've left you to fight for your life upon dunes that hate your very soul and for that I am deeply sorry. They did the same to me. That's why I, in your words, 'serve' the Dark. The Jedi will always leave you. I won't. We can stand as foes or as abandoned friends. The choice is yours, apprentice."

He looks her in the eyes, his own emerald green disks hidden by the swirling sands. With the obstruction, they looked like black pits to the Jedi, the storm bellowing its call for protection from the Sith, each whip of sand across Yarkar's face a barked order to kill and maim ignored.