Private What Lies Below

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

The wind screamed across the dunes of Daminia.

Fine grit whipped through the air like tiny blades, carving lines into the rocks and the hull of the landed shuttle. It was late afternoon — the sun burned low behind the cliffs in the distance. The heat shimmered in waves, distorting the horizon, but the presence buried beneath that horizon was somehow still cold. Heavy and ancient.

Valery stood at the edge of the shuttle's ramp, her dark hair pulled back tight, her eyes shielded by a thin visor against the sun's glare. But her posture was relaxed. Alert, but at ease. This wasn't the first time she'd stepped into Sith ruins. And it wouldn't be the last. She turned her head just slightly, voice raised just enough to be heard over the howling gusts.

"First time in a Sith ruin, Tel?"

Behind her, the desert stretched for kilometers in every direction. But she could feel it — the disturbance. Like a thorn in the side of the Force. Buried deep beneath the sand, veiled by time and purpose, something still lingered. The signatures were faint, but unmistakable: scorched echoes of darkness, and something else…

The Crystal, perhaps?

"Don't let the quiet fool you," she added as she stepped down onto the sand. "Ruins like these rarely stay buried without reason." The descent into the shifting dunes awaited — and whatever the Sith had left behind with it.

Tel Ahren ​

 

[Tel Ahren]

Was it his first time in a Sith ruin?

Yes. Yes it was. Don't even let him try to tell you differently.

On the one hand, it was good fortune that he had the Grandmaster with him if he was going to be exploring a thousands-of-years-old Sith ruin on a blasted and battered desert planet outside of Alliance space. If there was anybody that could manage to keep him alive through it all, it was her. On the other hand, what terrible fortune for him to have Master Noble select him to come and explore it with her. It had to be some sort of punishment for the entire mess with the box that had Jo'han's head in it. Maybe for speaking out of turn in that meeting she had called in the temple on Coruscant.

Both assumptions were entirely illogical—bordering on hysterical—and he knew it, but he didn't entirely want to let go of them.

"I'll be careful," he replied, wrapping his outer cloak tighter around him. Daminia might have been a sun-baked desert, but the blowing wind was cold. Or maybe it was some lingering taint of the people that had created the ruin they were about to traipse through that left him with such a frigid feeling. It could go either way, but just like Valery, he could sense something deep within.

Yet he still only had a vibroblade and a training lightsaber. Maybe if anything they could sense was a droid with a blaster he could at least reflect some shots back.

He hoped it wasn't a tomb. When was the last time Sith controlled the world openly? Revan's empire? They weren't the type to go making tombs, he was fairly certain, more the type to go plundering them. He stepped forward onto the sands, something more than sand crunching under his sole. He lifted his foot, looking at the smeared thing underneath, before noticing a multitude of eyes that reflected the setting sun back up at him before they disappeared within the sand.

Pelko bugs. Evidently the Sith had brought something over from Korriban. He didn't want to think about how far the little insects had managed to colonize the planet in the millennia since; more than anything, he was thankful that he'd stepped on one that was staring upward, trying to determine whether he and the Grandmaster would make worthy prey, rather than one that actually had its spines facing the right direction to do anything. The miniscule barbs were almost impossible to see but could penetrate nearly anything short of hardened metal, and he wouldn't have liked to be trying to keep up with Master Noble with a paralyzed, numb right foot.

"Well."

He swallowed.

"Let's hope those things don't try to swarm us, yeah? They shouldn't, sensing you, but you never quite know with them. They might get opportunistic."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

Valery's boots crunched through the sand as she turned to glance over her shoulder, her eyes catching the sun's last glint before the shadows of the canyon walls began to swallow the dunes. Her smirk was slight, but unmistakable — that subtle brand of confidence only a veteran Jedi could wear without it tipping into arrogance.

"If those bugs get any ideas," she said, "I'll remind them why Sith tombs are the second scariest thing out here." She winked at Tel and started walking again, her steps deliberate, her posture relaxed — but not careless. Valery had seen enough tombs to know that confidence and caution weren't opposites. They were survival.

The entrance to the ruin emerged from the dunes like a wound in the desert's skin — a yawning crack of stone, its edges half-swallowed by time and shifting sand. Black metal veins ran through the rock like lightning, and glyphs had been carved so deep into the archway that even erosion hadn't claimed them. They pulsed faintly with the Dark.

The heat faded as they stepped inside.

The air shifted — not just in temperature, but in feeling. Cold rolled over them like mist, despite the dry air. It wasn't natural. Not even by Force standards. Valery paused just inside, one hand resting near her lightsaber hilt as she slowly looked around. The walls inside were etched with old Sith script — curling, sharp lines that seemed to move slightly when not directly looked at. Deeper inside, the corridor narrowed into darkness. But the Force was not quiet here.

Something called from within. A pressure — A presence. Ancient and hungry, like a whisper that wasn't a whisper — a thought that tried to become yours.

Valery's eyes narrowed, "I wonder what kind of place this is," she said, voice low. "It could be a tomb, but perhaps it's something more." She stepped forward again, lightsaber unlit but ready. This wasn't the kind of place where things waited passively to be found. No, places like this watched. Places like this tested.

Behind her, the silence grew deeper — like the tomb was inhaling.

"Keep your mind guarded. I think I feel something up ahead."

Tel Ahren ​

 

[Tel Ahren]

"That's one of the things we're good at," he breathed back, unwilling to be too loud in the face of such silence. It was truthful, though; as far behind the curve as he may have been in some aspects, in others he was well ahead just by virtue of natural traits. Anzati had very fine senses, only enhanced with the Force. They were skilled in mental manipulation even without conscious effort on it. In turn, they were skilled at shielding their own minds, likely as a survival mechanism from the days when the species only had themselves to prey upon.

There were other benefits, too, to being part of a naturally predatory species. Reflexes, speed, strength—

Huh. Maybe that's why I never figured out what Drystan was trying to make me learn when he had me carry those crates.

He shook his head slightly, forcing himself past all of his tangential thoughts. He was still hoping that this wasn't a tomb they'd found, and was instead something like a long-forgotten library or research facility or anything-that-didn't-potentially-have-millennia-dead-Sith, but from what they'd seen so far, he was feeling less and less hopeful that it was one that dated from Revan's Sith Empire and feeling more and more like it came from an earlier period.

He looked at the writing that flowed along the walls, but other than being able to distinguish between the various scripts, he couldn't tell anything other than it was written in Kittât. Which, likely, meant that everything on the walls was in the actual Sith language...and may well have been part of one large incantation or enchantment. No hunting for hints, then, unless...

"Can you read any of this?"

Maybe he'd get lucky and Master Noble knew a bit of the ancient Sith language. There were any number of things that could supply the hungering feeling that was pulsing from deep within the ruin, none of them good...some of them harder to deal with than others. Being prepared was a virtue, and nothing made for better preparation than knowing just what you were going to face, right? A Devourer would be bad, but that was something he had no doubt that Master Noble could deal with. Same for a Silooth or a Rhak-skuri.

A smoke demon or a Derriphan, though...She probably had some way to deal with one. He had no way. Better to find any information possible first to try and see if he'd be any use at all. "Even if it's just some sort of proclamation of the greatness of whoever made this place, that might still give us some idea what might be waiting down there."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

Valery slowed her pace. Her eyes tracked across the ancient glyphs as Tel spoke, and she didn't answer immediately — not because she didn't understand, but because the words were… unsettling. Her hand drifted closer to her lightsaber as she tilted her head, reading.

"I can," she said finally, her voice quiet but sharp. "Not all of it, but enough." She reached out and traced a gloved fingertip along the deepest groove of the wall. The stone was cold beneath her touch, the letters carved with such precision they felt more like blades than etchings.

"It's older than I expected. Not from the Revanite period — this predates that. Possibly something from the early Hyperspace Wars… or before." Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"It's not a dedication or a warning, either. Not exactly."

She stepped to the side, reading further along the wall, lips moving in silent translation. And then, slowly, she began to recite aloud,

"We cast off flesh, for flesh rots.
We shed names, for names bind.
Through the hunger of the void,
We become unending.
We are not entombed.
We are waiting."

She paused.

"And when you speak our names,
You awaken us again."

Valery went silent. Even the wind through the corridor seemed to hush after her voice faded. The shadows along the wall twitched, not from motion — but from perception. As if something just beyond the veil had… stirred.

She exhaled slowly, jaw tight, "Not a tomb," she murmured. "A prison." Her hand rested firmly against her hilt now. She turned her head slightly toward Tel, and though her voice was calm, there was an unmistakable edge beneath it.

"Let's keep moving and stay alert. This place wasn't made to keep people out."

It was made to keep something in.

Tel Ahren ​

 

[Tel Ahren]

Perhaps to his credit, Tel had always been given more to a completely blank face than any expressions of terror or shock or the like. That held true even now—after what Valery read, rather than displaying any obvious sign of worry, Tel's face was flat and stony. "Great," he replied after a moment, his tone just as flat. Not a Derriphan, then, or any number of other Sithspawn or related beasts he could imagine. Just angry imprisoned ghosts and Pelko bugs. Hopefully there wasn't a Hssiss hiding deep within, as well.

Hopefully the Pelko bugs weren't under the thrall of whatever had been locked in the ruin. Maybe they would eventually try and attack if that was the case.

"Well, at least you stopped before saying any of their names. Hopefully that means they aren't woken up yet."

A poor attempt at a joke, but an attempt nonetheless. The hilt of his training saber was in his hand now, and he dearly wished he'd already pieced together all the parts needed to just build an actual lightsaber...but he didn't even have a crystal yet, so there was no chance of that. "If it's fine by you, Master Noble, I'll let you lead the way." Given that she at least had experience dealing with things like this, there wasn't much sense in turning tail and running right back out, but he wasn't keen on being the one in front either. Not when anything they might face would have him very certainly forced on the defensive.

He didn't think that vibroblades and training sabers could do much to ancient Sith spirits, at any rate.

"Just promise me that if we find someone locked in stasis down here, we don't just let them out. There's too many stories of that in the histories, and it never turns out well. For anybody."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

Valery turned her head just enough to glance over her shoulder, her smirk sharp, "Don't tempt me," she murmured, a flicker of amusement in her voice that didn't quite reach her eyes. The air in this place was too heavy for real humor — but that didn't mean she wouldn't try.

As they moved deeper into the corridor, her boots silent on the ancient stone, she added with a dry, knowing tone, "And for the record… I came from stasis too, remember? You didn't let me out. But someone did." She raised an eyebrow at him, lips quirking. "Maybe I'm the bad decision in one of those stories." Her hand hovered near her saber hilt still, the teasing light but edged, like everything about her in places like this.

The narrow passage twisted again, leading them deeper into the ruin. The glyphs continued along the walls, now less precise — as if the carver had been rushed, or desperate. Valery's eyes scanned them briefly, but she didn't stop again. Whatever was down here, it wasn't just words on a wall. She could feel it now. The way the Force thickened. The way it pressed against the edges of her senses like something breathing just out of sight.

Then came the noise.

Sharp. Echoing.

Not a word, not a voice — but a scream. High, distorted, stretched unnaturally as it bounced down the stone corridor toward them. It didn't belong to any creature, not truly. It was pain and rage and something… older. A warning, maybe? Valery froze, head tilting slightly, her body tensing in an instant. "That wasn't wind," she said quietly. She turned to Tel, her expression set now, all teasing gone.

Her saber snapped to her hand but remained unlit. She took a careful step forward, eyes narrowing into the darkness ahead, "Either something's awake already, or someone else went in here."

Tel Ahren ​

 

[Tel Ahren]

Tel didn't really have much of a reply to getting teased about Valery's own circumstances when she'd been found. Certainly, he could think of a few things to say, but he didn't imagine they'd get him very far. At the very least, he expected she would find a way to poke a hole in any argument he made. He just kept it all inside instead.

You weren't found in the bottom of an ancient Sith ruin, were you, Master? I didn't think so.

Hopefully she hadn't figured out how to outright read minds, and not emotions.

He followed along quietly, only a couple steps behind, still with his training saber in his hand. Before long, he had to push himself to keep following deeper and deeper. His well-attuned senses were screaming at him that he should turn around and leave, had been since the beginning, but the deeper they descended it was growing oppressively heavy. Dead air, and a pervading sense of something wrong that had locked his chest in a vice.

If he actually had a heartbeat, he was certain it would've been audible, especially after hearing the primal screech that echoed up to them.

He'd read about things like that. Ancient Sith tombs and others, places steeped in the Darkness, and the manifestations that would arise within them. Somehow, hearing screams while in places like that, or perhaps an outright nexus in the Force, was a commonly-reported occurrence. This one didn't seem quite like that, to his ears. He shook his head, squinted at a pelko bug scuttling along the wall and keeping an eye on them.

"Maybe both. I don't think anything would've made it past the pelko bugs that wasn't strong enough to make them shy back, but this place feels too alive for us to be the first ones down here in centuries."

He sighed, but didn't stop from following behind. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

Valery exhaled slowly, eyes flicking toward the bug on the wall as it scuttled past, its antennae twitching in time with the thick tension that now seemed to crawl along every surface of the ruin. Valery's eyes narrowed into the darkness ahead, and she allowed a small, grim smile to tug at her lips.

"You're learning," she murmured.

The corridor opened suddenly, as if the ruin itself had been holding its breath. The stone widened into a chamber that felt far larger than it should have been — a hollowed cathedral of ancient power, with walls that pulsed faintly, veins of red light threading through the stone like blood through flesh.

And at the center, rising from the floor in jagged, seamless angles, stood the Guardian.

It wasn't metal. It wasn't stone. It was something in-between — shaped like a figure, but wrong. Too tall and too thin. Limbs elongated and carved with the same spirals and runes they had seen along the walls, now glowing softly with the same red light. Its head tilted, faceless, but watching.

Valery froze at the threshold. She could feel it in the Force now — ancient, bound, awake. "That's not just a relic," she said under her breath, one hand rising slowly to ignite her saber. The snap-hiss cut through the heavy silence, as her violet blade burst into existence.

"t knows we're not supposed to be here." As if hearing her, the figure stirred. No sound and no movement at first. And then, with a slow, fluid motion, it stepped forward. Valery stepped in front of Tel, eyes locked on the creature. "Stay back," she warned. The Guardian lifted one elongated arm, and the red runes flared.

The ground trembled beneath their feet, as it moved to attack the two Jedi.

Tel Ahren ​

 

[Tel Ahren]

"That's the plan," he replied, backing up slightly into the corridor behind them. He nearly lost his footing as the titanic footfalls of the ancient construct shook the floor beneath him as it rushed Valery; he managed to keep from falling, though, as the Grandmaster engaged the Guardian. Not for the first time, it made him wish he already had a lightsaber of his own. While the training blade was valuable enough for defense, even to keep others from trying anything in the first place assuming it was a real lightsaber, that was against regular people.

Not ancient Dark side magi-technological nonsense.

With each swing it made, he could see how the runes along the walls of its chamber flared along with those on its body. Not all at once—different runes at different points, depending on just what the Guardian did. Much like reading the programming in a droid brain, although other than that observation he had about as much knowledge of how the Guardian was working as he did the average droid brain. Whether it was due to the magic or the materials it was made of, though, it was managing to resist the parries and retaliatory strikes of Valery's lightsaber remarkably well.

While he could wait it out, and let her gradually wear the thing down until it broke apart completely, if it was meant to keep things in just as much as keep them out, they might need her as fresh as possible once they got deeper within. Which meant finding some way to exploit that. Maybe if he could damage the runes on the walls, see if that would cut down on its options...He definitely didn't want to start trying to break them at random, though, because the chance that that could backfire catastrophically on them was far, far too high.

He looked at the fight carefully, saw his chance when one spindly, red-glowing arm rebounded from Valery's blade forcibly knocking it aside. He rushed forward, on the side opposite Valery's blade, sliding underneath the arm that came down too slow to try and stop him. Sorry, sorry, I promise I'm thinking this one through—

"Try and bait it into doing the same thing a few times!" he called out at her, pulling out his vibroblade. "As exact as you can! We might be able to lock it up!"

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

The Guardian's strikes came fast — impossibly precise for something so large, each blow heavy enough to send tremors rattling through the stone. Valery parried cleanly, but even she could feel it: this thing wasn't just brute force. It was intelligent, reactive, and dangerously coordinated with the runes flaring in response to every action.

She darted to the side to avoid a sweeping arm that shattered part of the wall behind her, then dipped low and spun into a rising slash, her saber sparking off the Guardian's twisted form with a hiss of violet. But it barely staggered. Its body absorbed the heat like it was built for it.

"Too durable," she muttered, teeth clenched. "But not invincible." Then Tel's voice cut through the din, sharp and clear. Valery pivoted on her heel, eyes locking briefly with his. Without hesitation, she reached down to her belt and unclipped the second lightsaber holstered at her side — A real one.

"Catch!" she called, and with a flick of her wrist, the hilt flew through the air toward Tel. A gift born of necessity and trust.

No more vibroblades.

The moment her hand was free, she burst into motion again. Fast as lightning, light on her feet, she launched herself into the air, twisting over the Guardian's head with the grace of a dancer and the speed of a lightning bolt. Her violet blade flared wide, just narrowly missing the Guardian's shoulder as she somersaulted over it — drawing its attention. Drawing its attack. She landed low, knees bent, and sprang sideways again as the construct lunged. Another slash. Another flaring of the same rune.

Good.

Tel Ahren ​