Aboard the Voidcutter
The doors sealed behind Arcubis Kornelius with a hiss, swallowing the Naboo sun in shadow once more.
Inside, the air was cold, recycled with deliberate sterility. The ship was alive—not in the way most vessels were—but as a construct fused with ancient Sith alchemy. Its walls pulsed faintly with veins of red kyber energy, like blood through arteries. Whispering voices echoed faintly in the halls, fragments of incantations and torment. A tomb with a will.
Arcubis walked slowly, hands clasped behind his back, down the obsidian corridor into the sanctum.
"
She hasn't changed."
His voice was low, nearly inaudible, but the ship responded. A harmonic chime resonated through the ceiling, reacting to his emotional frequency. He paused before the central holoprojector and activated it with a flick of his hand. A glowing map of Naboo bloomed to life, red energy tracing planetary defense lines, shield generators, and the capital's royal quarter. Kara's last known position pulsed as a silver light.
From the corner, a distorted voice spoke:
"She refused you… as predicted."
Arcubis turned.
From the gloom stepped
Magister Vo-Tenn, a shadow-wrapped Umbaran advisor, his skin translucent, his eyes like silver disks. His thin, gaunt skeleton-like face illuminated. Once a Sith lorekeeper exiled from the Eternal Nihil Cult, Vo-Tenn had become Arcubis's chief tactician and seer.
Arcubis replied without emotion. "
She's torn. But her denial only delays the inevitable. The Jedi will label this provocation. The feeble council will tighten their leash."
He closed his eyes. "
She'll see that soon."
Vo-Tenn nodded and gestured to the holomap, causing it to shift—now showing
Theed's underground infrastructure and hidden entry points.
"We have several subterranean access routes. Unprotected. Deep maintenance tunnels… you could enter the palace without resistance."
Arcubis waved the map away.
"
No. Not yet. This isn't an assassination."
He walked toward a large sealed chamber near the rear of the sanctum—
his private reliquary.
"
Let the Jedi see us. Let the Jedi feel us moving again. And let her wonder what her refusal has awakened."
The doors of the reliquary slid open, revealing an unholy chamber bathed in red starlight—where ancient Sith relics floated in magnetic suspension. Masks. Tomes. Shards of long-dead sabers. At the center stood a tall obsidian stasis pod… its contents obscured, but pulsing.
Arcubis approached it reverently.
"
If she will not join me… then she must watch me become what they never let her be."
He placed a hand on the glass.
"
Unbound."
The red light pulsed once—faster—then steadied.
From behind him, Vo-Tenn watched with interest. "Shall I initiate
Operation Crownfall?"
Arcubis responded without looking back.
"
Yes. Begin phase one. I want the planet's outer colonies paralyzed within the day."
"And the Jedi?"
Arcubis finally turned.
"
Let them come. Let them all come."
