Star Wars: Slave Of Darkness

The chill that ran through me as I walked wasn't wholly from the dark corridors around me. There was no doubt to whom I had just spoken. After all, I was trekking through his tomb.

I wasn't entirely sure what Marka Ragnos had wanted from me. There's a lot in the Empire that could be considered a "rot." Corruption on every level, typical Sith stupidity, conspiracies and power plays…Hell, even the Emperor himself was a corruption.

Whatever it was, Castor Vol was the first step.

However, it wasn't the conversation or the speaker that unnerved me so, but rather the complete loss of control that had ensued during it. While I had spoken to Ragnos, he had puppeted my body like a marionette on strings. I still felt the burn in my muscles from whatever he had put my body through.

It was worse than being back under the collar. At least then I had been the one driving my limbs and my mind had been my own.

To add insult to injury, I had been claimed and branded like cattle. Again.

On the skin above my heart, the horns of Ragnos had been seared into my flesh. The charred patch of skin was now covered with a bacta patch, but I held no hope that it would be going away anytime soon. Still, it helped reduce the searing pain to a mildly annoying itch.

I felt my knuckles crack as my grip tightened on my weapons. I was angry. Oh hell yes I was angry.

Thank God, the Force, or whatever that I was here to kill someone. I desperately needed a punching bag.

However, I had two problems with that. First, I had no idea where Castor was. Second, I had no idea where I was.

Ragnos' tomb was an enormous labyrinthian complex that dwarfed the Great Pyramids of Giza. While most of the above-ground chambers had been explored and mapped, there were tunnels underneath the surface that stretched for miles.

Over the years, many had been lost in the winding corridors, either to the monsters that roamed its halls or to Ragnos himself.

Before setting out, I had downloaded all available maps and charts of the tomb onto my datapad from the Academy Archives for study. According to current maps created via sonar pings, the entire complex stretched nearly a kilometer below Korriban's surface.

However, it seemed…incomplete and appeared to cut off suddenly, like the scans hadn't been able to reach all the way down.

As I pulled out the device, I pretty much found exactly what I had been expecting.

Static buzzed as the datapad tried to figure out where I was, only to be stymied by something. Either I was too deep underground to receive satellite and comms data or Ragnos was being a massive dick.

Again, Sith. It was probably both.

With a sigh, I shut off the GPS function. Setting my pack down, I fished around for a moment before pulling out a pair of small gray orbs the size of my fist.

Picking up my datapad again, I typed in a command. With a hum, the pair of droids activated, deploying antennas from the top of their frames as they floated up to eye level. Their red cycloptic eyes focused on me, waiting for an order.

The two droids were modified MerenData S6-Series Security/Maintenance Droids, altered to work as survey droids. Extremely common and extremely cheap, they were among the most common droids in the galaxy. Effectively floating cameras, their small size enabled them to get into hard to reach places, making them perfect for tomb explorers.

I'd acquired them from Renning's men, who had been making very little use of them in their current job.

With a few more taps on my datapad, I set them to begin mapping the tunnels around me. If nothing else, I might be able to get a reward for finding a previously undiscovered part of the tomb. As a precaution, I ordered them to cling close to the ceiling to avoid casual detection. After all, very few people think to look up. If they spotted something of interest, they'd send a ping back to my datapad.

While I waited for their initial scans, I seated myself against a nearby wall and began to meditate. With the overwhelming presence of Ragnos' tomb bearing down on me, I didn't even try to sense out Castor Vol.

Instead, I drew on the Force to soothe the lingering ache in my limbs. I also needed to purge the excess anger. Not enough to snuff the fire as I would need that power, but just enough to think clearly.

In truth, I knew little of what to expect, and what had been gained from what I could glean from his picture. From his appearance alone, there was a possibility that he was former military, though whose, I could not say. I couldn't predict the methods he would use.

Had he conformed to typical Sith methodology and used only swords and the Force? Or was he more like me and willing to use blasters and grenades? Was he a warrior, assassin, sorcerer, or generalist?

On top of everything, Castor Vol was a third year acolyte. That meant he had longer to learn more advanced lightsaber forms and accumulate a larger breadth of knowledge of the Force. For all I knew, he had claimed some artifacts to use as his own, such as Sith Amulets.

I only had two true advantages. The first was that I was not a typical Sith. My Force powers were more advanced than they should be at my current point of training. My physical build suggested that I would favor melee, meaning I might be able to surprise him with telekinesis or Force Lightning.

Alternatively, I could try setting up traps with what explosives I was carrying and ambush him with my blasters.

The second advantage was that there was little chance that he knew what to expect either. He might be expecting a full kill-team instead of a single, less experienced acolyte.

I was going to list my Beast Control as an advantage, but there are only two kinds of beasts in this tomb as far as I knew: k'lor'slugs and Terentateks. Terentateks had the obvious issue of being resistant to the Force and I wasn't brave enough to try.

K'lor'slugs, on the other hand, were literally too stupid to directly control, with what little brains they had being stuck on "feed constantly." I might be able to nudge them in a specific direction, but not much beyond that.

There was the possibility of using any traps left over from when the tomb was built. After all, I was in an apparently undiscovered section of the structure. However, like Vol himself, I would need to both find and identify the ancient traps, if they even still worked. There was also the option of simply waiting him out.

He was likely expecting an immediate response to his rampage and escape. The longer he went without being attacked, the more paranoid he would become. I had enough field rations to last for a week, but only if I was careful with portions.

However, both options gave my target time to either fortify or flee, neither of which benefitted me. No, I had to find him and soon.

A ping drew my attention to my datapad, so I picked up the device. One of the droids, which I dubbed "B," had stumbled across a k'lor'slug nest. Thankfully, it managed to stay out of reach and continued exploring.

Hm. Castor has only been here for a short while, so he definitely had not had enough time to explore the entirety of the tomb. He'd know there were k'lor'slugs wandering around, but perhaps not where the nest was. I could lead him into the chamber, then hide and let the monsters do the work for me.

It was a possibility, but I doubt that he'd be stupid enough to fall for it…

Wait. Fall.

A grin slowly worked its way onto my face. I could try to drop him in from a tunnel above, but sadly that would require explosives I didn't have. After the k'lor'slug nest turned out to be a dead end, I recalled the droid and sent it down a different tunnel, one that sloped upwards. With any luck, B would find the way back out.

In the meantime, I checked on the other droid. Unlike its twin, "A" had been quietly chugging along, rapidly updating the new map displayed on my datapad.

With nothing else to do, I opened up the feed and watched it speed through the tunnel. As with most of the walls this far down, the corridor was bare of ornamentation. It was pretty boring, all told. At least until the droid reached a very familiar room.

The tunnel opened up into the massive cavern from my talk with Marka Ragnos. Though the stone dais in the center of the chamber remained, the crystal roses were gone. In their place were hundreds of bodies, stacked on top of each other like cordwood.

The majority wore the garb of the ancient dead, likely pillaged from their tombs. Others were clothed in academy robes, while more wore Imperial army armor.

I saw movement atop the dais, so I ordered the droid to zoom in on it. The durasteel bench had been replaced with a simple, crude altar shaped from stone. Fresh blood dripped off its sides from the dying woman laid on its surface, leaking around the knife embedded in her chest.

Five more bodies littered the dais, all with identical wounds. Their blood dyed the sides of the dais red as it ran down its surface.

The woman was trying weakly to remove the knife, but the strong hand of her black-cloaked killer kept it firmly in place. Strange words that I vaguely recognized as being from the Sith language echoed in the chamber as the ritualist chanted.

I urged A closer to get a confirmation. Sure enough, it was Castor Vol, though his eyes were now sunken and glowing a fiery yellow-orange. He was a relatively unassuming sight, still dressed in the academy robes, though dark blood stains marred his clothing. The knife in his hand was a simply, unadorned blade being used for its only purpose.

When I had augmented my sword with Sith Alchemy, there had been only a faint feeling of wrongness as I twisted the metal to my whims. Whatever Castor was doing…with each syllable he spoke, it…it felt like the universe wretched.

As the last word left his lips, the woman let out her last breath in a slow moan. As life left her body, a blue mist billowed out from her open mouth onto the dais, seeping into the mouths of the dead surrounding her.

One by one, a red glow entered their blank eyes. From their mouths, more of the fog flowed out into the chamber.

As it covered the floor of the cavern, the cadavers began to rise, their bodies contorting at unnatural angles until they were standing straight.

Ancient warriors with skeletal limbs joined rotting Imperial soldiers in silent vigil.

Castor Vol himself looked straight at A…at me…and smiled. Though there was rage just beneath the surface, his expression was one of satisfaction without a trace of madness.

"Come if you dare, Hunter. I will wait for a time, but not too long. If you delay, MY hunt will begin."

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The first book has been completed on Patreon, alongside the second book. You can visit Patreon if you want to read in Advance.

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