First Reply Terror From Beyond | Sundering Dawn

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul

The excavation had been organised and funded by some rich individual on Ord Radama who apparently relished the idea of ancient Sith and Force artifacts. The overseer has been a renowned adventurer and archeologist who took the position with much excitement, even if he, allegedly, knew that Elom mostly held not much more than dust and ruins. The team was large with a variety of adventurers, scientists and suppliers protected by a large security detail of a private military contractor from Ord Radama.

The excavation was going as planned with little disturbances and even less thrilling discoveries. Wildlife was professionally dealt with and the occasional spook was down to nerves and inexperience. Inscribed stones and some remnants of ancient technology were found, cross-referenced and while still packed for their patron, they were discarded as not exactly of high value. But the work continued.

At first the excavation team put the occasional appearance or happening down to nerves and the dark history of the place as a Sith ground. But it went on and got worse. Long range communications became difficult, limiting it at first to once a day, before it became difficult to reach them at all. Then the supply run was missed, the transport never arriving and no trace of it was found. The people grew more nervous and apparitions, hallucinations and the sort became more frequent.

The last known contact with the excavation team has been reported as a fortnight ago and the recording was on an open frequency. It contained screams, indistinguishable words spoken from an ominous voice, blaster fire and ended with a screeching noise that a comms analysis could only identify as non-technical interference.

Darth Imperius was on his way back from Ossus when he heard the broadcast and was attacked on his own ship by things that escaped physical descriptions and logical explanations. If that would have been a reason for him to help these strangers, he would have acted, but it was not. It was neither charity nor compassion that made the Sith go to Elim, but it was his excavation, he had financed it through several companies and individuals tied to him.

The Imperator Rex had to undergo repairs and its decimated crew was not ready to re-enter hyperspace before having rested. Even with a draconian attitude, the Sith knew the value of morale and battle readiness - it was a long way to Zakuul and they could not afford to get destroyed by some waves of chaos and otherworldly creatures. The Vehemence would carry him to Elom, a relatively short jump from where they were and according to his calibrations and following some scouting done by droids, a stable route he could use.

Hours later he arrived in the Elom system, the shuttle silently gliding towards the planet where his expedition went. Cloaked and careful he steered the craft, sensors and attention at a maximum. His squad of Extremis Paladins was sitting silently in the crew bay, a necessity if the small craft would have been attacked as well, though he did not intend to let them accompany him. If this was the same threat, he required a potential reserve and exfil plan and they were his insurance. Imperius also did not trust them completely, half his squad was eradicated in the attack on the Rex and these were replacements.

The red lenses of his helmet stared at the world as he moved the control stick to enter its atmosphere.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Upset by dreams and seeking advice, Quill came to the wisest, most grounded elders he'd met on any of his travels, a quartet of Elom sisters in a cave. They'd shared bad dreams and omens of their own and their advice was sound. The disquiet remained.

One grunted, as Quill left the cave mouth, that there was a Sith in his future. (The Eloms knew Sith as a matter of bad memory and basic pragmatism, due to this world's location.) Quill grunted thanks back - he spoke excellent Elom - and decided to get it over with. Besides, the Sith, for all their flaws, tended to know things. And if these dreams and omens weren't their doing, there was a good chance they'd share his disquiet and his urgency to understand.

Now, hours later, he came by landspeeder to the Temple of Nul, the obvious place to find a Sith on this world. A resident of Pagodon and Hoth before it, he loved frigid worlds, and Elom was a favorite. Its snow had a familiar crunch underfoot and a familiar scent on the wind. He put up the hood of his winter coat and squinted around for a Sith Lord. Nothing so far. Maybe he'd come to the wrong door.

Imperius Indomitus

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

The Vehemence landed, still cloaked, about two klicks away from the excavation site. From the lowering ramp a single figure emerged, clad in black armor with golden trim and adorned with a deep red hooded tabard, the helmet's gaze taking in the surroundings and path ahead. Two lightsabers were clipped to his belt, both on his right side, both completely different in design and size. He started walking, both the senses of himself and his armor directed ahead to discern any anomaly or presences.

The snowy path was quite peaceful, beautiful even. He had not been on Elom ever and its remote areas, the lack of huge civilisation, made it quite calming in itself. The air was fresh and sharp, not that he felt it in his closed system and behind his helmet, but he could tell as much by now from what came through the filters. Considering what had happened in transit to him and his ship, he was more than alert, the weapons ready to jump into action at a mere notion of threat.

Ahead on the plateau was the excavation site and Temple of Darth Nul. With some Force augmented jumps and some power-armor assisted climbing, he ascended the cliff in less than two minutes and reached the edge of the Temple's outskirts. Immediately he noticed the signs of wrong. There was supposed to be a camp here with about 40-60 people working - but there were only the destroyed remnants of one. His four-fingered hand smoothly unclipped one of the lightsabers, his Shroudsaber, as he advanced, not igniting it yet.

Darth Imperius was everything, but not stealthy or subtle. His large figure paired with his choice of colors made him very obvious. He walked among the ruins of small prefab huts and tents, equipment lay abandoned or destroyed around, excavated objects were spread here and there, some still conserved in special crates, others broken to thousands of pieces. And then there was the blood.

It was very rare that the Dark Lord wondered or felt the sensation of concern. But the blood spilled here could impossibly be from common humanoids. Not judging by color or any other characteristic, no - but by the sheer volume that was here. There were places as if a human had been evaporated where they stood and exploded outwards. Everything was frozen and blood had turned to ruby, in the snow, on the walls of the ruins, on equipment and almost everywhere.

His red lenses went to the temple and he calmly started moving towards it.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

The scent of blood pulled Quill around the snow-drifted corner of the temple. He stayed in the drift and took in the camp and its carnage. A large, armored Sith was coming for the temple and would notice Quill's presence soon in the Force — he hadn't bothered to conceal it. He'd asked friends what he felt like in the Force and their impressions tended toward frustratingly subjective things like 'breeze over a glacier.' Light but not Jedi, anyway.

He took stock of his options. His winter gear was lined with armourweave and reinforced along the forearms, old expeditionary gear that had saved him hassle on many, many worlds like this. He had his lightsaber, of course, and Sylus Ren's, and a set of cuffs and an old Jedi confessional talisman. Not much to work with against such a big bastard, if it came to that.

Since it seemed obvious that the Sith was investigating or following up on the carnage rather than its immediate perpetrator — this much blood would have been all over him, and anyways they'd died some time ago — Quill waved.

"Hello!" he called in ancient Sith, a Kissai dialect.

He came down the drift at the temple's corner, onto shallower and more level snow, but kept it close behind him.

Imperius Indomitus

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

He saw the individual moving around the corner roughly at the same time that he felt his presence. It was not unlike his first expression of Elom itself. Calm but cold, bright but harsh, Light but not glowing. It was a far cry from what he recently sensed on Tython amidst the onslaught of Jedi, this was more real. It did not bear the stench of dogmatic religion or that of self-righteousness. The elder-looking man felt more at peace, actual peace.

Hello he shouted in ancient Sith, with an accent which was either carried over from the teacher or deliberately chosen. Difficult to tell and in itself not really important - the fact that he spoke it was far more interesting. That he chose to use it marked that he knew that Imperius was a Sith. How? A question that beckoned to be answered. He was not bearing Sith insignia, certainly not of the petty Sith Order but neither of the Ascendant Order.

"Hail Stranger." He responded, his vox-caster transmitting his voice through the helmet, slightly distorting the voice that could easily carry across a battlefield. He chose to respond in the same tongue, his words carried by what was probably the closest to the pure Sith language before the Exiles had come.

Darth Imperius approached, calmly, walking up the stairs with heavy steps, his sabatons cracking snow and clanking on the rock surface below. His physical presence was somehow amplified, not with dread or fear, but with resolve, pure determination. It was his aura, almost overshadowing and distracting from his cold, void-cold Force presence that threatened to swallow anything it touched.

"What business brings you here?" He arrived before the other man if he would not step back and in front of the Temple.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Half of doing diplomacy better than a Jedi was just knowing where to stand. Quill kept to the side, relaxed, not squared up toward Imperius Indomitus and certainly not signalling that he was in the way of Imperius' ascent up the stairs.

He kept to the Kissai dialect that he knew best, though he understood Imperius reasonably well. On the plus side, religious language was highly static, not even counting the benefit of holocrons; the priests of Naga Sadow's day and the priests of Adas would have understood each other too.

Staying simple made sense — and honest. Lying in negotiation, or coming off as having anything to hide, was for amateurs.

"Prophets told me I would meet a Sith who might know about the dreams we've all had recently. This seemed the best place to meet one."

He looked past Imperius and gestured to the ruined camp.

"I did not expect to find a graveyard. Do you know why they died?"

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

From nearby, the height difference and overall difference in physicality became much more apparent and for some, certainly more intimidating. Imperius was tall, extremely so, his armor not amplifying his size but rather, containing it. It seemed that without it, the Sith would appear even bigger and more menacing. Yet his armor was elegant, finely made even though it seemed to have some cracks, scratches and battle damage on it - very recent to the knowing eye.

He listened to the man's elaboration of why he was here and did not discard it as nonsense. The events of the past day have been troubling, to say the least, and the desire to learn about the why was basically overpowering. Other matters took priority as well, he had a realm to look after and without hyperspace travel it could not survive indefinitely.

Then a question. A very good question. He was surprised that this Lightsider actually managed to stay his hand for this long. An uncommon trait in current times.

"I am almost certain the 'why' will be answered by the 'how' which subsequently might carry an answer to the prophecy you experienced."

His helmet moved to the Temple and its entrance, a movement akin to that of a targeting laser, one that knew its crosshair would find the victim no matter what, slow and calm, inevitable.

"Whatever killed my team - " Killing being the least fitting word for what has happened but the only one speech could offer right now to not go beyond semantics. " - might have found a home in Nul's Temple and there it will answer for it."

He was about to march off towards the entrance but halted after a single step, his gaze shifting to the side, almost like he looked over his shoulder to the grey haired man. "If you wish to accompany me, elder, better arm yourself. If this thing is what I suspect it is, it will be beyond reality and physics. And a beyond lethal challenge to destroy."

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Quill hesitated to follow, not sure he'd understood correctly. Imperius Indomitus did not seem the kind of person who'd appreciate being asked whether dwomutk'ak had been a derivative of adawot'ak or a conjugation of dwekmutk.

But the general sense of the situation came through fine: the Sith believed there was some connection between dreams and massacre, and a culpable entity was likely in the temple. Quill fished out Sylus Ren's crossguard lightsaber from under his coat. He kept it deactivated as he followed Imperius up the icy steps into the temple.

"I'm sorry about your people," he said. Kissai was not a language that made it easy to convey sympathy, at least not without overtones that called sincerity into question. He meant it. "I hope you get your vengeance."

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

Was that a genuine statement or patronising? Vengeance was usually not supported by Lightsiders, their zealous believing making it a disturbance to serenity and peace. The old man surprised him. And consequently, Imperius decided not to view him as a Lightsider anymore. His allegiance did not matter and while he was not trusting him, he was here and he had a weapon. That made him valuable for the time being.

"I do not seek vengeance. These events occur across the Galaxy if I am not mistaken and to figure out what is causing them, is imperative. To understand, to undo or overcome - we need to have the knowledge first. The loss of the expedition pales in comparison to what else could be lost in this kind of chaos."

He emphasised the word chaos. It was an idea, a theory, that this was connected to the other Force Planes.

The duo ascended the stairs to the Temple, the Sith titan taking point as they approached the darkness of the structure and what lays beyond. The gates had been cleared, rubble had been moved away and some signs of equipment were around. And blood. Across the walls and floor there was more blood that was spilled explosively. The dim light of the planet glittered in its crystals before it disappeared as they went into the darkness.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Different ideals than Quill's, to be sure, but not incompatible right now. Not with stakes like this, with the whole galaxy shaking. Quill decided to bury the dead when circumstances allowed. For now, he followed Imperius Indomitus up into the dark of the temple, and then down a hall.

The glimmering wasn't enough to work with in here. He lit up Sylus Ren's lightsaber, a stark blue-white since Quill had healed its kyber crystal, and used the light to move on ahead.

"I dreamed about primitive machinery," he said. "The whole galaxy reshaped itself, and all I could hear was clockwork and a name. Cala Deen or something like it. Does that mean anything to you? I'm Quill," he introduced himself belatedly. A Sith Lord might possibly recognize the name of a Jedi Master who'd apostatized decades ago after a Jedi massacre of Sith children on Ziost.

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

Imperius was not impeded by the darkness, his armor provided vision on various spectrums for him. It was extension of himself by any definition, a second skin crafted onto his body. He had always been the type for armor, he had always been the soldier and warrior.

"Imperius." He returned the introduction after listening to the man's vision and dreams. It dawned on him, that while he probably saw or heard the same, it was nowhere to be found in his memory until the mention of the name. The visions returned with vivid emotions and strength. Though instead of sharing that experience, he continued with the same voice as before.

"My ship was attacked in hyperspace by things, unbeings of terrible dread and destructive power. They were not from our reality, and yet they found their way here. Then I got the emergency call from here."

They advanced further into the temple, now dipped in the blue hue of the lightsaber's light. More equipment, more undone living forms though not frozen, giving off soaking sounds when the heavy plated boots stepped across the remnants of one.

"Caladene." He whispered, saying so lowly that it could almost not be heard.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"My ship was attacked in hyperspace by things, unbeings of terrible dread and destructive power. They were not from our reality, and yet they found their way here. Then I got the emergency call from here."

Quill missed half a step at the name. Empires were a decicred a dozen and he couldn't keep them straight. Credible claimants to the title of Dark Lord of the Sith were something else entirely. He almost, almost, mentioned that he'd always heard Darth Imperius was larger.

Imperius' description of events fit accounts that Quill had heard from associates in the far-flung Order of the Selab. Since he had no detail to add, he lost focus on that and examined the dead by his saber's light. The injuries did seem inconsistent with lightsabers or blades or claws. If he'd been asked to describe a body torn apart by an extradimensional being, it might have looked like this. He touched one as if to take on its injuries - a rare skill he'd learned long ago - and got an instant sense of wrongness.

For the moment, he remained Imperius' follower. He reached ahead in his mind's eye.

"I feel nothing I can make sense of. But we're rapidly running out of temple. Or we should be."

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

Nor did Imperius. The place was deserted if it were down to his senses and scanners, there was nothing here that warranted their caution and preparedness, nothing apparent that would explain why they were threatened, why death had been so absolute to those who dwelled around. Ahead came the main chamber of the temple, where once a device held a holocron but was now in ruins. Several columns lined the entrance and darkness was ahead.

But as they entered, it suddenly grew warm, not the warm that was protected from the cold outside, but the type of warm that one had in a cozy room with a fireplace and blanket. The air grew thicker and with it came a smell that was so sweet that it was nauseating. Even through his sealed armor Imperius could feel it.

In his hand a lightsaber awoke, a white blade emerging and joining the blue hue of Quill's weapon. But the light they emitted seemed to be swallowed by the darkness, like if the lightsaber were struggling to keep emitting light. The oppressive shadows danced, mocking the light sources for their meagre strength.

"Who enters my realm?" The words that came from everywhere and nowhere questioned with a voice that was pure, primordial dread, unnatural, unorganic and yet bound to incarnate in this physical realm.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

The inner layer of the winter gear had a snug neck that could be pulled up over the bridge of the nose for protection; Quill did so. It cut the smell but not by much. He started running through Jedi calming rituals in the back of his mind to mitigate the physical anxiety of such an oppressive sensory experience. And, after a moment, he deactivated his lightsaber long enough to fish a pill capsule from his pocket and put one down. He used this particular medication to manage his Odion syndrome while visiting cities. It might take the edge off. He just hoped it didn't take his edge.

Instead of Sylus Ren's saber, he brought out his own, which cast a gentler shade of blue but held up better against the encroaching darkness.

"I'm Quill," he said to the extradimensional being. Sharing Imperius Indomitus ' name was his own business. Names could have power.

They weren't the only thing.

One of the foundations of Quill's long career was an ability he'd acquired from studying with the reptilian Suerton species: the manipulation of probability. The odds that this particular confrontation would stay peaceful felt very slim. He drew deeply on the Force and, without visible effect, threw everything he could into maximizing that chance.

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

If not for the otherworldly, destructive entity that shared a room with them, Imperius would have looked at his companion, glared and potentially offered a backhand strike for the foolishness of responding like it was a casual introduction to a conversation. Peace was a lie and it was no more true than here and now, yet this man proved ignorant to the blood bath they had walked through and the stench they were in. There was no room for contemplative judgement and diplomacy.

Instead of communicating, Imperius looked around. His HUD went through several filters and visions to locate something in the large hall, but the heat and unphysicalness of their opponent made it difficult to ascertain where it was. The voice was not much better of a clue, it was audible but it was not spoken as much as it was projected.

But the decision to make the first move was taken from him as their enemy acted first.

Neither flesh nor machine moved with supernatural speed, no sound coming from it, it did not even move the air as it passed through it. With the sudden physical presence came an assault on the senses, not on hearing or seeing, but on the Force both of them valued their connection to. It was an oppressive thought invading their minds, one reeking of death and inevitability. One attempting to take the will to live, to continue or even to fight. It was playing with their minds.

In front of them the shape had stopped, its too long arms ending in shockingly human hands, the rest being a mixture of eyes, scales, fur and fangs that seemed to have been given form by insanity itself. As only its upper half - or maybe it was its entire body, was visible, they could not see how it moved, but its arms were extended, like in a welcome gesture or with the intent to hug them both. Yet what it did was apply physical pressure on their heads, through the Force or whatever it used to do its maniacal, unnatural things.

It laughed. A sound that was born from nightmares.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Imperius Indomitus

Quill cultivated an affable, unthreatening, unassuming, let's-talk-it-out presence because that was, he figured, who he was, and how he preferred to be in life, and how he reacted to threats and horrors. He needed that bit of emotional distance, both to make the horrors hurt less and, fundamentally, regretfully, to be ready. To keep his powder dry. So when the psychic assault hit and the horrific presence moved in close and agonizing, what he felt was fear, yes, but also a resigned sadness.

Even as the half-corporeal claws closed on his head, he centered himself with the reminder that he had been here before.

Massive, unnatural presence. Absolute physical dominance. Delight in terror and massacre. A fundamental uprooting of sensemaking and of hope across an infinite scale. For just a heartbeat he was back in the bloodpits of the Bryn'adul xenocides, fighting Tathra Khaeus and titanic Draelvasier and impossible weapons of horror among millions of corpses and numberless worlds, with no help coming and nobody to care. The experience that this being forced on him today had once been his day-to-day reality.

After a few years he'd come to terms with the memories and the pain. Instead of fleeing the past he'd given it its place, because deep down he'd always known a similar hell could and would come back, and he'd need to be someone who could be ready.

With his off hand he slapped a cuff of the Jedi restraints around the wrist of the impossible hand, right in front of his face, and poured his full focus into awakening and augmenting its Wall of Light. Not to trap or neutralize the creature or cut it off from metaphysical energies — he suspected that was impossible — but to hurt it. To shear that half-corporeal hand clear off and see what good it might do.

Also, because testing a lightsaber's effectiveness was never a bad thing to do, he took a faltering swing at the elbow.

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

Outer Rim | Elom | Temple of Nul
Jend-Ro Quill

The demon expected many things, but not handcuffs. Despite its own perception and believe of omnipotence in this physical realm, to be cuffed by a mortal was almost hilarious, ludicrous to even imagine or consider. It laughed, maniacally and nevertheless was caught by the man. The surprise and anger which flowed into, ripped at the cuffs with otherworldly strength and ferocity, making the follow-up attacks only injure it, but not destroy the arm.

Imperius rivaled the subtlety of his companion.

While his mind was fortified, even against the attempts of this spawn, his weapon hand extended in a swift move, mirroring the old mans' own, attempting to cut off the beasts arm at the elbow. The light, white blade rushing through the air, invisible to those who would not have their attention and senses aided by the Force due to its speed.

And yet he was a flicker on the retina himself, his being moving seemingly faster than the light, his shape almost remaining behind as he moved between shadows, the lightsaber already having performed a strike, before it came lunging forward in a stab from behind the Chaosspawn while it was struggling with Quill. Aiming for what would be vital organs in a normal organism.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

The injuries hit home, but there was no blood or burn that Quill could see in the gloom, more of a chopping and unravelling, as if the lightsaber blades were reasserting reality against the creature's presence one slice at a time. When Imperius Indomitus stabbed the creature from behind, it hissed something that caused an instant headache and whirled, or reversed itself, with impossible speed to attack Imperius. As it turned its hand smashed Quill across face and shoulder and threw him down to the stone floor; he had the impression of scale and fur and spike, and tasted his own blood.

His instinct was to try Force Light, but he'd risk weakening or harming Imperius and that was the least useful element he could interject right now. Instead he focused on Suerton probability warping again, not in the vain hope of a peaceful outcome but to improve the chance that Imperius' next strike would do real damage. He threw his own lightsaber too as he got up painfully, just a straight overhand chuck that could have split a human in half lengthwise.