Vance sniffed the rancid stale air and made a yuck face as he checked his gear for any issues.
He bent down a moment and tied his shoes. While doing so, his Sephi ears pricked up at the sound of soft footsteps near him.
Looking up from his shoes, he found himself next to a female Zeltron with striking blue hair and vibrant green eyes glancing at him a moment as she was preparing.
He smiled politely and waved before looking over to his left.
Beside him also checking gear, was a grey skinned, dark haired individual with elfin ears. The man was busy packing a few things to say anything yet to him.
Having never met both, he was mildly curious about who they were and what sort of things they might like, but they all had an important mission.
And that mission was to search the laboratories for anything genetic and secure any records found within Mount Tantiss.
Now Tasha’Vel had made it clear to him what the Clan wanted out of this and that was any specific records of experiments done within the facility.
He began to run through his checks, making sure he had plenty of ammo, clearing his mind of any distractions and making observations about who he was around.
“So reckon we might find some creepy crawlies down in the labs to face? Or is this gonna just be some sort of textbook walk in the park?”He smiled widely as he placed his rifle on his back.
“Cause personally, I wouldn’t mind a bit of a challenge. How about you all?”
The air outside of Mount Tantiss was thick with wetness and rot sticking to Nora’s armor like a gross second skin. What’s worse? Every breath she took moved the scent of something rotting with a hint of metal, a disgusting reminder that this place had been left for dead a long long time ago. After glancing up at the mountain’s shadow, Nora adjusted her blaster rifle’s strap. She saw the thin light begin to creep through the Wayland’s canopy, framing the mountain’s jagged shape.
Beside her Augur J’Kast moved with deliberate care, his steps measured and unhurried. The pale human elder did not need to speak for Nora to sense the weight of his thoughts. It was the way his greyish blue eyes studied every inch of the land as though searching for ghosts only he could see.
“Can’t say I’m thrilled about exploring an Imperial corpse,” Nora muttered mostly to herself though she caught a flicker of a glance from J’Kast. “But if the rumors are true… what’s buried down there might make the risk worth it.”
Kneeling down pressing a gloved hand to the damp ground Nora could feel the faint vibration of something mechanical making noise beneath the soil. A power line? Maybe still alive after all these years? Interesting. She exhaled slowly. “Places like these don’t stay dead for long.”
Straightening, Nora turned towards her fellow adventurers. Sanguis Caldiren of Clan Scholae Palatinae and Eminent Vance Whitlock stood close by. Nora and J’Kast had been sent by Plagueis to investigate the mountains. Imagine her surprise when she saw two others who happen to be doing the exact same thing.
J’Kast followed behind his Quaestor away from his shuttle, which had quietly dropped them on the planet. The now-shadow of black durasteel had settled on a moss-slickened ferrocrete pad near the base of Mount Tantiss that must have been used by the Empire when the facility was operational.
The air on Wayland hit like a dense blanket—a mix of volcanic minerals and rotting jungle detritus. For the Sith sorcerer, it was a familiar but unwelcome humidity that clung to his dark robes and penetrated under his hood.
He strode slowly toward the looming, scarred face of the mountain, which his Clan leadership had said housed an abandoned research facility of the Empire. The outer facade of the facility was now only a silent, ominous monument to ambition and failure. J’Kast let Nora handle the formalities of greeting two other explorers more formally after he politely nodded to them. He was following a vibration in the Force that was drawing him toward the facility entrance.
The Force here was polluted—not just with the standard echoes of death and suffering, but also with what J’Kast guessed was a stench of failed bio-engineering and Sith alchemy. If this proved true, then the rumors that Clan Plagueis was chasing were accurate. This was the residue of Emperor Palpatine’s final, desperate attempt to cheat mortality through cloning and Dark Side magic.
“If the rumors are true about the work that was happening here,” J’Kast intoned, “then it was no doubt powered by a powerful Sith artifact or a ritual bound to something located here.” His voice was low and quiet, but the clear and precise articulation he used made him easy to hear for the three others now plodding toward the facility.
J’Kast ignored the hazard warning sign that hung lifelessly by one corner on the facility’s sealed outer blast doors. His focus was directed deep into the mountain’s foundations. He wasn’t interested in defunct machinery or discarded genetic material. Others would undoubtedly study those. He sought the deeper current, the whispers that spoke of ancient Sith artifacts—pieces of forgotten archaeology that were rumored to have been integrated into the cloning process itself, serving as anchors for the Emperor’s fractured spirit…or will…or whatever he ended up being able to transfer away from the doomed Second Death Star.
These artifacts, if they existed, would be reservoirs of Dark Side power unlike anything seen in millennia. As J’Kast and the others slowly climbed the broken steps leading to a main entrance, he sensed that the planet or this facility seemed his to push back against their trespassing. He reached out with his mind, searching through the stale echoes of Imperial scientists, until he found a faint, cold vibration beneath the noise. It was the signature of something old and profoundly powerful. And while he couldn’t yet be entirely sure of its identity, he knew this trip would be worth the nausea it had inflicted on him during the long journey. There was a Sith secret here. He smiled, uncharacteristically, and turned to the others.
“I believe we need to go deeper.”
Sanguis remained silent as he tailed the three, old habits and experience holding the Nagai back with caution. Since rejoining Scholae Palatinae with his wife, this was the Quaestor’s first time working with strangers from other clans. A cordial introduction was all he allowed, the ancient Sith willing to cooperate for the sake of securing the vital information and useful artifacts Empress Rayne had tasked him to find and retrieve.
Keeping an eye on his companions, the Marauder opened himself up to the Force, letting the dark, twisted aura of Mount Tantiss wash over him. Discordant echoes of suffering and corrupted abnormality pricked at the edge of his mind, stirring a wave of nausea with familial yet different defilement birthed by Sith sorcery and alchemy from ages past. A flash of anger field by the Dark Side forced the discomfort down, Sanguis refusing to let the past distract him from the mission at hand.
His tainted, golden gaze focused once more on the trio, the two Sith forcing the ruined doors open before disappearing inside with the Sephi mercenary following a pace behind. The two Plagueians made him the most wary as fellow Sith, while the Sephi mercenary of Naga Sadow captured his attention mostly out of cautious curiosity. His friendly disposition upon their meeting eased some of the tension, but the hum of the Force Sanguis sensed within him still demanded vigilance.
“You’re concerned.”
The familiar resonance in his mind drew his attention away briefly, his gaze softening as he accepted the connection. “Yes. I am with others, but I’ll be fine.”
“There is something deeper that’s bothering you. I felt it earlier.”
“This place stirred up old memories. Nothing more.”
A brief silence answered, followed by a reassuring warmth in the Force that only his wife could provide. “Alright. I’ll remain on standby. Just be careful.”
“Always.”
The connection faded until only the bond between him and Shadow became a soft hum. His attention returned to his surroundings as he followed them through a long corridor that eventually led into a large chamber with a turbolift at the center. Soon, they would be entering the heart of the mountain, and the temptation of dark secrets promised by Rayne’s intel began to sing a seductive aria.
A smirk of silent anticipation briefly graced his lips before he spoke. “Well, who’s going first?”
I got a bad feeling about this.” chirped Vance, as a cold shiver ran down his spine. This place’s thick heavy air reeked of death and decay. And that lifeless welcome sign earlier, spoke louder than any verbal warning to the Elder. Still he wasn’t about to just turn tail and run, that wasn’t what he was getting paid to do. “I can step into the lift first and you all can follow in when it’s safe.” Smirking, he gave them a wink as he drew out his Bo rifle from off his back.
Carefully he made his way to the turbolift, and inspected the inside. It was an older bit, but still looked like it was functional. Dusting off the control pad, he gave it a brief smack with his rifle.
SHHHHRNNKK!
The sound of metal on metal echoed throughout the turbolift and outside. Vance made a face as he realized everyone including whatever may be waiting for them just heard that.
“Oops. Well that’s just great!” Angry at himself, he kicked the side of the turbolift. Suddenly a pale light flickered on as the control pad lit up.
“Hey, it works! Now what floor do we want?”
J’Kast closed his eyes and reached out to the timeline buried in the echoes surrounding the group. He looked…felt…listened…for any clues of the future that could get them closer to the artifacts or ancient lore they were hunting for blindly.
“Sub-level 7,” he said firmly. “I’m not sure if it’s a destination or just a reservoir of stale information that might get us closer to it. But it’s something.”
He pushed outward with his presence through the Force to feel any abnormalities nearby. “Curious,” he started again. “Why is anyone running power to this facility if it has been so long abandoned?”
“My only guess,” Sanguis started, “is that something here still requires power. Something living, perhaps?”
Sanguis shrugged and headed inside the lift first. “We won’t know precisely until we see for ourselves. All the same, best to be on our guard. I’m sure there’s some defense system that’s still active to protect whatever lies within.”
Nora gripped her blaster rifle tighter against her body letting out a breath as the lift started to drop into the depths of the mountain, the doors slid shut with a quiet hum, trapping the four adventurers inside. The lights in the lift above started flickering as the group made their way deeper, almost as if a sign as to what was below. Anything could be waiting down below but they were ready.
“Well… we’re about to find out what’s been hiding down here this entire time.” Nora muttered to the group.
Just hope whatever we find is actually worth it Nora thought to herself. After making one rattling sound the lift sank deeper into the dark leading them to whatever was beneath Mount Tantiss.