Digging though the past

[Jack Anderson]

Jack landed his shuttle on Mustafar, he had seen [member="Darth Vyrassu"] 's challenge to the members of his empire and Jack was almost certain where he would be going the second he read the detail's, Darth Vader's Castle his contract with the Dominion had almost brought him here to aid the First Order in a battle, but that felt like a life time ago. Checking the environmental seal on his armour he stepped out, the last thing he wanted was a lungful of volcanic ash, hacking up a lung was not helpful in a search.

Jack wandered towards the front door, by now the twisted feeling of the darkside was almost comforting to him, considering just about everywhere Jack went practically oozed it and the Sith cave underneath the building only added to the effects, rather than ignore it like he usually did Jack instead reached out to it, and let it it guide him, the place was too large to just tear apart brick by brick, panel by panel to find the prize, he would need to rely on his, merger, albeit growing connection to the force, otherwise he would be gone for far too long and if he couldn't find it here it might be too late to try elsewhere if he did it the old fashioned way.

 

[Jack Anderson]

Jack continued to look through the castle, letting the force guide him, his hunter's instincts tell him where to go, it was like searching for prey, getting into the right mindset, he pushed open the front door and started thinking of where he might have hid such a valuable box. Jack looked around the entryway and pulled up a map on his HUD, he had 72 floors, to go through, and the cave below, this was going to take for-karking-ever. Jack started by eliminating the mundane rooms, storage, maintenance, 'freshers, he figured that Vyrassu wouldn't have gone out of his way to pick such a symbolic place, only to hide it somewhere somewhere with no meaning at all. So heading for the massive spiral staircase Jack figured he would check the throne room, a bit to obvious perhaps, but, that might be the point, a fellow hunter might not try something obvious like that, and miss it altogether. Activating his jump pack he quickly ascended the stairs and entered the throne room.

[member="Darth Vyrassu"]

 

[Jack Anderson]

Jack dug though the throne room, looking though every nook and cranny, knocking on every wall, looking for hidden compartments, he even found a few, but all that they contained were dust, there was no box, no credits, no mask, no scroll, but most importantly, no holocron. He would have to continue the search in another room, Jack had a kind of funny thought about old ladies stuffing credits under their mattresses, Vyrassu was pretty damn old, maybe he would do the same thing, there were servant's quarters, but there was only one bedroom that truly mattered in this place, Lord Vader's personal quarters. Jack chuckled to himself thinking of Vyrassu hiding his box of valuable poodoo like some old lady was a little too funny to him.

The room reeked of the darkside, only a few others in the castle were strong enough like this to stick out above the strong background, they would be his first targets, but for now Jack had a room to tear apart, despite it's owner having literately been dead for hundreds of years something in the back of his mind told him to be respectful of this place.

[member="Darth Vyrassu"]

 

[Jack Anderson]

Although the idea amused him Jack was entirely unsurprised that there was no box in here, he was slightly disappointed though it would have made a good joke with the other acolytes. Jack put everything back as he found it, not wanting anyone else who might come looking in the same place know that this room was already searched, this time Jack shunned the map entirely letting his mind's eye guide him, other than the cave down below one other room stuck out to him. Jack made his way though the eerie hallways of the castle, echoes of past pains occasionally sticking at his mind, the price of keeping it open, eventually stopped in front of a door, opening it Jack cross referenced the map on his HUD, it was the alchemy room, with the rituals preform here it was no wonder the place stuck out like a black hole.

Jack carefully made his way through the room, opening container for materials, picking up and looking through half completed experiments, several of which made his head hurt just by being near them, and on top of all these hazards there was also a ton of volcanic ash somehow getting in here, wrecking havoc on some of his armour's more delicate systems, so to make it though he took it off and breathed the unfiltered air for the first time, sending him into a coughing fit as he kept looking.

[member="Darth Vyrassu"]

 

[Jack Anderson]

Jack was beginning to feel disapointed, and possibly even second guessing himself, maybe Mustafar was the wrong planet, or Vader's castle was wrong building, as he carefully picked though the laboratory Jack could feel the cave below the castle calling to him, he had one more room to check he thought as he left the lab he couldn't refuse the call any longer. Jack headed down to the bottom of the castle, and then deeper, where the dark side was the strongest, it almost wasn't about the chest anymore, almost. Jack pressed on, feeling almost like he was swimming in the darkside energy, it was both off putting and comforting at the same time, he felt strong and weak at the same time. As Jack pressed on he had to keep the reward in his head, or risk losing himself to the power of the cave.

Entering what only could be described as the main chamber of the cave, where the dark presence was the strongest he started looking around, peaking in cracks in the rock and around the alter like structure in centre of it, Jack could feel beads of sweat dripping down his face as he forced himself to block out the overwhelming presence around him, although it took so much that it physically hurt him to do so, but something told him that letting up would only end poorly as he continued his slow careful search.

[member="Darth Vyrassu"]

 

[Jack Anderson]

Jack eventually felt sick to his stomach, his head was pulsing, there was blood in his mouth, and he was pretty sure that he could hear something speaking in the back of head, Jack reluctantly stepped out of the cave and took a deep breath of the recycled air in his armour, there were a few other places he could search, the library, that wired room with the bacta tank, or the sanctum. The last one really seemed to stick out in his mind, despite how clouded his mid felt it was also so intensely clear for a moment, he could almost see the box sitting there amongst the dust and clutter, Jack had to move, he was being almost pulled there now that he had a location in his mind. He took his helmet off and for the first time breathed the air on this world, something about it focused him even though it hurt, whether it was the volcanic ash, the heat, or something else causing it it seemed to help in focusing him, the less technology there was cluttering his view the more he could see.

Jack continued to run through the castle running up the stairs and using the jump pack to go up entire flights in one shot, he needed to get there, disregarding how careful he had been up until this point he kicked open the door and nothing, not that there was nothing too see, the very brief look he got into the room told him that much, but he just straight up couldn't see anymore, at first he Jack though it might be permanent, but he also thought that it probably had something to do with the cave. Lucky for Jack he could still hear, touch, and most importantly, use the force, so he opened his mind up to the dark side again and let it guide him fully, dulling his other senses temporarily as he gave more and more over to the force. Without warning every fibre of his being told Jack that there was something here, he stopped and reached out to where he remembered some sort of self, there was something here, calling to him, he needed it, he needed what ever was here badly.

[member="Darth Vyrassu"]