We Will Roam

[Jairus Starvald]

The Unknown Regions
Sector Z-23-C
[member="Jorus Merrill"]

The Unknown Regions. There was a single entity that could have claimed dominion over these worlds, one nation that held order amongst these stars… but it was long gone now - its members spread out and faded away into the night of the Galaxy. But Carach remembered… remembered the days of glory when the Lords of the Fringe had still been of consequence.

His sight had long since been set to the outside. Observing, studying the ley lines of the Force and watching for subtle disturbances in the Force - and settled on Tython, surrounded by the energies of the source itself?

It was almost as easy as breathing.

And so it was that when a ship crashed, when the nullification failed and the inner mysteries were once again allowed to shine bright in the darkness, that the Sith Lord was aware of it. He had been there with Rave when she had first acquired this particular mystery (or was it a memory?).

Its scent was familiar to him. So it came as no surprise that he contacted [member="Adekos"] and set off, searching for the beacon. Their journey would take them to a world hidden by the specific long-distance radiation of a strange star, no longer a planet that could sustain life, but perfect to hide secrets.

“Excited, Ardik?” Carach asked his friend as he secured his Forcesaber and went over his equipment one last time.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Normally when on "vacation" Adekos didn't like to be disturbed, but some things were just that important. There wouldn't be another chance to take what was required- what was deserved -from the Jedi. They could always try to keep every useful scrap of information hoarded to themselves, but ultimately it would find a way back into the hands of individuals with the good sense to actually use it. The Umbaran's helmet clicked into place and then made an extended hissing noise as it sealed. His regular lightsaber hung at his side. The Soulsaber was absent because Adekos didn't trust its effects on his state of mind. He would need to be perfectly sane when the holocron was collected.

"Excited?" Adekos had fought in several ill-inspired battles, regularly gambled in galactic economics, constantly plotted the downfall of the galaxy's worst sort of people, hoarded relics, looted museums, and was constantly trying to master a discipline of the Force relatively few had heard of. Nothing excited him any more.

Until now.

"Probably. We'll wait to see if this is actually what we're looking for."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

“I didn’t want to risk the entire operation by sending in scouts that might screw up, so we are basically going in blind.”

Which was not entirely accurate. Carach knew this sector, system and even the world they were on, but not through personal interaction.It were the memories of other men and beings that had been so much older and more experienced than Ovmar or him could ever lay claim to.

Well back in the day at least. Things changed.

Point was. Carach had a pretty good idea where they were exactly going and what they would encounter, but there was no reason to spoil a good surprise. Instead the Sith put his own helmet on. Sealed suit with its own air supply would give them a few hours of exploration - but if he was right?

They would not need all that time anyway.

“You ready?” after making sure Ardik got all his gear, he ticked a few buttons on the wall console and the ramp of the ship came down to the surface.

[member="Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"Eyesight is overrated anyway." Adekos replied, then nodding when Carach inquired if he was ready.

Spontaneous field trips to worlds drenched in radiation meant he had to pack accordingly. A modified environmental shield would protect him from any diseases or mutations from exploring the planet. The Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger was slid over his right hand in the event that something more directly hazardous presented itself. Perhaps the planet couldn't sustain life, but that wouldn't stop something ridiculous from inhabiting the planet. Like zombie cyborgs or Abominor or the Force knew what else. There were gargantuan slugs that lived inside of atmosphere-less asteroids, there were probably some mindless beasts that slunk around on irradiated planets eating dirt and goring hapless travelers.

Although the remote system lacked for any kind of habitation, Adekos did note that there was a large gas giant in the system. He liked the look of it, and so made note of it for later.

Adekos marched down the ramp with little delay, stepping out and onto the surface. The earth was red, cracked, and compacted. About as inhospitable as they could get. Even with the environmental shield, Adekos could faintly feel the oppressive heat. It appeared they had landed towards the end of some vast desert. A mountainous formation rose up before them, and behind them the blinding sun cast their long shadows some several feet in front of them. Today's quarry had likely crashed somewhere within those mountains. Carach would, of course, know the way to get there better than Adekos, so the Umbaran waited silently for instructions from his colleague.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Adekos"]

Carach snorted and walked down the ramp.

The ingenious slave rigging system allowed him to tap a few buttons on his wrist - and the ramp climbed up again, closing off the shuttle from any undesirable elements. Be that the radiation, some surprise visitors or huge radroaches. You never really knew what to expect in the Unknown Regions and that was probably why they had picked this world in the first place.

Even a single moment of relaxation could cause immediate… expiration. Iron Crown was well equipped and proficient in making sure expeditions stayed relatively safe during their travels though - his armor and equipment was custom-made by them. Didn’t hurt that he owned the corporation, made custom orders infinitely more simple.

“So what have you been up to lately?” the Sith asked, while looking up to those mountains. He started walking while the HUD that was being projected on his visor mapped out a rough outline of their eventual destination.

He tapped a button on his gauntlet and Adekos would receive a feed from his own HUD. That way he would have a rough idea where they were going at least.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

And so the hiking began. There was no telling whether this journey would be a long and arduous one through treacherous terrain. Every step, every extra breath would unwittingly bring them closer to a death by misadventure. So, naturally, Carach wanted to chat while they climbed over a mountain. "Research, largely. I left my other affairs in capable hands."

The details were of no great importance to our readership, so there won't be need to type them exactly as they appeared in Adekos' conversation. Suffice to say, Adekos explained the several weeks he had spent on Raxus Prime, constructing animating scrap golems through the sheer power of his mind. Then there was that excavation of some underground Rakatan stronghold on Lehon so he could understand the finer details of imbuing droids with the Dark Side of the Force. Since he was feeling particularly chatty (and flippant with his oxygen tank), Adekos also bemoaned how difficult it was for him to obtain advanced droid specimens for study. Abominor, Silentium, the fabled Mecha of Mechanus, and so forth.

His escapades didn't end there. There had been the hunt for the legendary Builder Forge, the quest for the mythical Verbobrain of ZIMM, and finally the epic looting of the ancient Arcanum. All of these were wonderful adventures, making for very great stories that had not yet been fleshed out fully or publicly. They would probably be published for the pleasure (or dismay) of the general readership before the end of the year.

"...And once I've analyzed that, I'll likely see what the planet of Antecedent has to offer. They are apparently quite adept with droids, you know."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Adekos"]

“Antecedent? Was that not where those Raven hooligans made thei-” he stopped talking immediately as the wreckage of their goal came into sight. Something was… off about the scene though. Just to be careful Carach held up his hand to signify they should stop, and then signaled to Adekos that he should take point from the left.

Carach would then follow suit by circling around the right without actually stepping foot on the scene. After a lifetime of warring against the Republic and other unsavory elements… well you have some sort of extra sense when it comes to danger.

Case in point, as the Sith Lord hugged to a nearby boulder and peeked over it he noticed that the wreckage of the ship was clean. Clean in that distinct way when people had swarmed over it and stripped it clean from whatever valuables it held.

Didn’t explain why he was feeling an aura of danger coming from the ship.

He established contact with Adekos through their comm and whispered: “You seeing anything?” Could be nothing, or it could be a whole lotta something that was waiting for ‘em. Carach wouldn’t be surprised if there were radroaches here.

Those buggers got into everything.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Adekos didn't respond immediately, instead peering around the boulder to analyze the crash site. There wasn't very much to see with the naked eye, so Adekos instead relied on the hardware in his helmet. The face plate was not just for show. It gave Adekos a comprehensive HUD as well as a number of visual options, such as zoom or polarization when exposed to sudden bursts of light. From his position behind the boulder, the Umbaran ran a speedy analysis of the crash site they had happened upon. It was a mess, obviously. The Stealth-X had taken a beating during entry and the impact at high-speeds into this mountain hadn't done it any favors.

Thanks to Incom ingenuity, it remained mostly intact. The cockpit was flung open, revealing the mangled corpse of the droid pilot. Adekos had assumed that the Jedi used droids to pilot their bastardized holding system for important holocrons and he figured they weren't Hegemonic Automaton models. If they had used higher-quality droids, such as those available from the Hegemonic Automaton storefront, this Stealth-X would not have crashed and would not soon be looted by Carach and his opportunistic, straight-edge companion.

"Sensors aren't detecting anything." He announced after a minute, sauntering away from the boulder. He slid elegantly down the small incline, approaching the wreckage. The wings had broken off on entry and were scattered about in chunks. The main hull, however, was still in one large piece. "Where did they keep the storage containers on this thing, anyway?"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

“Knowing the man who hid them all in the first place? Check underneath the droid’s seat.” the Sith suggested after Adekos signed the all-clear. There was still an itch on Carach’s mind, one that did not seem to be all too confident that there wasn’t a threat at hand. But perhaps that was the entire thing with spending most of your life fighting against one thing or another - at some point your psyche starts to just automatically assume that everything is a threat.

His eyes looked over his own HUD which was busy making a scene scan of the wreckage. It seemed that there had been other people here before them, footprints and the sort. Which did not bode well when it came to the holocron itself.

“I found footprints here, Adekos. You better check that holocron and see if it’s still in place. Reasonably sure we got here too late.”

Not that it was a big problem. Adekos had been waiting for this holocron for so many years, a few more hours? He would probably survive that indignancy, and besides… it would only be sweeter to slaughter whoever had decided to sneak in and steal the holocron.

[member="Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

The droid pilot suddenly reactivated, though the glow behind his photoreceptors didn't come from electricity. Wordlessly it crawled from the seat, falling on its face into the dirt as soon as it had exited the vehicle. Another trick Adekos had learned while traveling. In one word, Adekos explained the feat to Carach: "Magic." He said, giving a customary waggle of the fingers on his right hand. With the obstruction removed, Adekos bent over the side of the Stealth-X to investigate the seat. There was an imprint in the faux-leather of a droid's ass, but otherwise it appeared an ordinary pilot's chair.

Oh, wait a minute.

On the right side of the seat bottom was a lever. The sort of one that could typically be found in air speeders when the fuel hatch needed to be opened. Stealth-Xs and other starfighters had no use for that, however. There were more efficient ways to fuel those. Adekos narrowed his eyes at the lever and then pulled it, hearing something above him closed abruptly. That wasn't a good sign. Adekos yanked on the lever again, this time looking up to see what was opening and shutting. There, just behind the pilot's head rest, a small compartment opened up. About twice the size of a Holocron- which was to say enough to fit a Holocron that had been locked inside of a nullification resin box.

"Footprints, you said." Adekos scowled, removing himself from the Stealth-X. There was no use further investigating. Someone had clearly beaten them to the punch, but who? "Leading which way?"

Knowing his luck, a Jedi recovery time had already been through here. But maybe there was still time to catch them...

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Adekos"]

“Further into the mountains, I am afraid.” the Sith commented while letting the software of his suit do its work. He wasn’t exactly an expert when it came to the tracking of individuals - most of that skillset was pretty much wasted on the usual things he busied himself with. When you were fighting the Republic you didn’t really need to find anyone: just follow the blue sabers that just got ignited in the distance and you would be pretty much fine.

The software started to scan the environment, the size and shape of the footprints, a few scratches on some rocks further away and other details like that. Soon enough Carach had a fairly good idea where they would have to go.

“Let’s go, the footprints suggest that they just recently left. They might have a thirty minutes head start on us.”

Glory of the machine. It calculated the depth of the footprints, analyzed the dust formation in the air and revealed the probability of their departure. If it had been longer the dust would have had more time to collect itself in the footprints - shallower prints as a result.

Technology is bliss.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

There came a discontented snort-grunt from Adekos. Thirty minutes? That was more than enough time for anyone who wasn't a blind paraplegic to get back to their shuttle, key the ignition, and shoot off into hyperspace, to the farthest corners of the galaxy. In a more logical universe the Darzu Holocron would have eluded their grasp and they would have missed the opportunity. Yet experience would tell both of these men that this was an illogical universe where convenience and coincidence lorded over probability like malevolent Gods towering over an illiterate serf. Most times this worked against Adekos. This time something told him it would work in his favor. And if it didn't, well, there was no sense in not tracking these footprints to their source.

Being that Carach was the one with tracking software installed into his helmet, Adekos had no choice but to differ to his judgement. "Lead on, your Voice-ship."

Adekos clenched and un-clenched his gauntlet-clad hand. Did he even need to take out his lightsaber? The Gauntlet of Kressh could apparently shoot blasts of energy at people. Adekos had never field-tested it himself, so maybe if whoever had stolen his holocron was still around...

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Unless they weren’t pitching on leaving the planet at all.

“You know.” Carach would say, as they were following the trail. He kept his own focus on their environment while his tracking software figured out the path they needed to run - last thing the Sith was interested in was to be ambushed by some Jedi and cut down by lightsabers right before a major break in their investigation.

“I kinda miss the old days. We knew who the bad guys were, the good guys, knew where to knock for some favors and where to aim to kill. These days… so many new players - most of them sickeningly idiotic and yet strangely… successful.”

He shrugged.

“Makes my head spin.”

The Sith Lord suddenly noticed something. There was an etching discreetly muffled away in the rock formation they almost passed by - he brushed the lines with his gauntlet, and suddenly realized what it was.

A Selab tree, or at least the representation of one.

“You ever heard of the Order of the Selab?”

[member="Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"You're not going to get nostalgic on me, are you?" Adekos rolled his eyes. If Carach was having trouble identifying the causes worthy of being championed, it sounded like a personal problem. "Besides, if the asinine elements of the galaxy don't enjoy some measure of success in their infancy, there's no satisfaction in tearing them down later."

For a past example, there was the Rebel Alliance. In the future, Adekos hoped to add such names as the Vitae Alliance and the Covenant of the Black Rose to the list. In the grand scheme of things, Adekos was still young. There was always time to make examples of everyone he wanted. Adekos continued to follow after Carach through the winding mountain, mask occasionally polarizing whenever they happened to face the sun. It was only a short walk before Carach noticed something etched into the rock.

“You ever heard of the Order of the Selab?”

"Is it as stupid as it sounds?" Adekos offered, raising an eyebrow.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

A smirk was earned for that remark.

“Illusive organization, if ever.” Carach finally said as he took a last look at the symbol. It only underlined that the ship’s crash here wasn’t as lucky and unlikely as they had first expected, it seemed the arrival of the ship here had been predetermined to a certain degree.

“I have been looking into it for a while now. Seems to be a sect stemming from the Blackguards; they are all over the place and they are powerful.”

The Sith started walking again, more careful than ever. He had suspected that this planet wasn’t just randomly picked by the ship - especially after that feeling of familiarity he had experienced when they had first arrived in orbit. But now with the branding on the rocks? Made theory more and more into reality.

“The Order of the Selab focuses on the procurement and safeguarding of dangerous knowledge. That marking you just saw on the rock? Means that they are here, probably the ones who took that holocron of yours too.”

Carach furrowed his brow in thought while reading the signs on his HUD. It seemed that the trail was almost at end here.

“If they are here… well, let’s just say that these ain’t no standard Jedi Masters we will be fighting.”

[member="Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"So slightly more covetous, slightly more competent Jedi Masters. How ever will we make it out alive?"

It had been a while since Adekos had fought any sort of Jedi in combat. Which was to say it had been a while since he had been beaten up by a Jedi Master. But he didn't have the Gauntlet of Invincibility on his person back in those days. Now he did. The actual threat of a branch of Jedi who were capable of making a difference in the galaxy (as opposed to the Silver and Vanilla ones) was lost upon him. There was really only one thing on his mind- retrieving the Belia Darzu Holocron.

If he had to smack around some Selabites, then so be it.

"Do you think they've left the planet?" Adekos asked, strolling around Carach to inspect the mark himself. He then moved away to survey the general area, apparently looking for something. "If they're wasting time chiseling their insignia on walls, they probably have some sort of set-up here."

Or it could be a trap. Or a diversion. Or a trick of the light. Anything was possible, he supposed.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Just as Adekos Carach had not been part of many operations which failed. There was actually a surprising high success rate with all the missions he undertook across the years - most of them were with Adekos now that the Sith Lord thought about it, but this knowledge did not make him as confident as his friend.

It was in times of confidence and hubris that stuff would go wrong.

“They are separated in cells. Each cell has three members.” the Sith responded, while gesturing for Adekos to follow. “One leader, two hands. Each leader has one contact with one other cell - minimize the risk of exposure without maximizing the risk of losing all their work.”

“But to answer your question. I have the distinct feeling that we have stumbled onto something bigger than just your holocron.”

The HUD told him that the air supply was getting a little bit tight. Two hours and his would be done for.

“I think the Stealth-X picked this planet on purpose, but the damage was too extensive for proper landing procedures. I think we have accidentally stumbled upon- well, too early to tell.” It was then that his screen popped up, encircling something in the distance - a crack in the rock wall that would have been impossible to spot without the aid of the hardware in his helmet.

Force-bless technology.

Took them a few minutes, but eventually they reached the crack and from up close they could make out a dark passage.

Carach looked back at Adekos.

“You wanna go first?”

[member="Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Adekos coughed. Three members? Something bigger than Darzu's Holocron? As usual, there had to be a bigger stink than necessary. What could possibly be greater than the greatest Sith master of Mechu Deru's holocron was completely beyond him, but if the dastardly Selabites wanted to pitch a fuss about having it taken, then a fuss would be pitched indeed. "Great, we're outnumbered." He commented dryly, tugging at the edge of his prized gauntlet to make sure it was secure.

As the Umbaran had guessed and Carach soon revealed, the Selab did indeed maintain a facility on the planet. A rock wall came away, revealing a dark and winding passage. This wasn't some sort of natural cave, but rather a distinct metal-lined facility. Constructed. Reinforced. Radiation shielded. The lights on Adekos' helmet flicked on automatically, illuminating some several feet down the corridor. Adekos could sense no presence when he reached out, but there was an elevator at the end of the hallway. Power had been shut down, likely a bid to keep the two Sithlings from advancing any farther.

If only they knew.

"No, I don't 'wanna go first,'" Adekos replied, stretching his back in preparation for the coming duel. "But since I'm the one with the invincibility gauntlet, I think I'm obligated to take point."

Boldly (and well), Adekos strode forward. Lights flicked on as he walked and the generator powering the elevator began to rumble to life. All by his command. Someone at a master control terminal would be rather flabbergasted by now. With his gauntleted hand, Adekos depressed a button on the control panel. The rumbling of the generator was soon joined by the soft hum of an ascending turbolift.

"How well do these people usually fight? On a scale of Drakon to the Wrath of the Dark Lord?"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

“Remember the Silk Holdings CEO we assassinated, because he was secretly a Force Master impersonating a woman for that entire time? Well. I am reasonably sure he was a Selabite, which will roughly tell you what we will be facing in a few moments.”

Honestly. It wasn’t that bad, probably. The fact of the matter was that that assassination had been a long time ago, back then they had sorely needed roughly seven Force Masters and two snipers on point just to be able to get a crack at that guy. But that was a long time ago and both of them had grown since that time.

Didn’t hurt that each of them owned an artifact that basically made them even more powerful than they had the right to be. Some people were born to be a Skywalker or a Palpatine, others… they needed to take a few shortcuts to get to that point.

Sometimes you had to scrap to get to powerful.

“Get ready. I have no idea what kind of skill set these people have, but you can be sure that they will hit us the moment the elevator is down.”

And they will be at the apex of power.

[member="Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

If Tyrin's face wasn't already white as snow, he would have lost a few shades of color just then. Je'gan? That was just the master of the White Current. The one that had beaten the life out of Emperor Tyrin Ardik, humiliating him on Metalorn. The one that had required a team of powerful Sith Masters (including Darths Orcus and Kryptus) to even consider going toe to toe with. Not to mention supplementation from a droid army provided by the ever-illusive Darth Janus and snipers positioned throughout the surrounding hillside. It had been a lopsided battle with the odds ridiculously in their favor. That was the only reason Janus had agreed to it at the time... That and he was many miles away from the site of the battle.

Adekos liked to think he had improved his skillset since then. The fact that he had an evil artifact on his right hand that made him effectively impervious to physical damage should have also been reassuring.

But they were still outnumbered. By badasses.

"That was truly an inspiring assessment. Good for you- good for us. Really."

The elevator dinged as it arrived on their floor, the doors sliding open and revealing a small elevator. There hadn't been a lot of time spent on making it look nice, but then again the vast majority of the galaxy wasn't supposed to even know there was an elevator on this planet. Adekos took a deep breath, then stepped into the elevator, thumbing the down button. Once both men were inside, the doors slid closed again and the elevator began its slow descent to the bottom.

Maybe if they played their cards right, they would be just badass enough to overcome the forces arrayed against them. If not, Adekos had transmitted to his Lucrehulk (just before stepping onto the elevator) to come pick up their corpses.