Private Why Do I Hear Boss Music?

[Niysha]

Unmarked Ruins, Nathema​

It was truly impossible to find a planet that wasn't in some way deeply important to someone. Near Sith space, virtually every world was a vital piece of galactic history at some level, from the horrible Dark Side nexi of Malachor to the holy worlds, to Voss' incredibly rich Nightmare Lands. Niysha, of course, fully intended to see absolutely every single one of them, to plumb the depths for whatever secrets they held... which left her with a bucket list that she absolutely had to start making headway in. Smuggling with In was fun and fulfilling in its own way, but that wasn't Niysha's passion. Her passion was here, in the center of an ancient tragedy, surrounded by ghosts too old to hold cognizant form.

Five thousand years had presented plenty of time for Nathema to transform from a tomb world into a conveniently concealing planetary forest. The remains of the ancient Sith Lord Valkorion's holdings were thoroughly buried, as was any evidence of the crimes he'd wrought on the whole planet's biosphere. Now, even the ruins of those ruins were buried beneath shifting caverns under a blanket of trees so thick it would be impossible to see anything from the sky. And while deep within one of those old caverns was the site where one of the oldest recorded Dark Lords had ascended... that wasn't what Niysha was looking for.

As she drove a single piton into the mouth of a cave so deep that she had little hope of seeing the bottom, Niysha knew that any find would be worth it... but anything dating pre-ritual was worth its weight in academic gold. On her slow, ponderous climb down she had plenty of time to consider the deeply compelling possibility of studying the metaphysical transition between a lush garden world, a Dark Side void, and a barren wasteland. Plenty of studies had been done on biospheres coming back from apocalyptic collapse; far fewer had been done on the exact process of an acute, instantaneous, world-shattering disaster.

And yes, if she found any fun little trinkets that six thousand years of tomb raiders brave or crazy enough to hit a Sith death world hadn't already scrounged up, those would be worth their weight in much more conventional and useful gold. Korriban and Kaas were right next door, even if they were a bit embattled.

Niysha's practical climbing boots made contact with solid, smooth stone. Around her was an impressive ziggaraut, surrounded by an enormous chasm, all overgrown to the point of archaeological travesty. Judging by the constant waterfalls from above, the infinite abyss just a few meters from where she stood would likely terminate in an underground lake, but making it back up from there would be more of a challenge than she was strictly willing to engage in if she had other options.

With a deep breath of concentration, the Miraluka let her sight expand along the monument, searching for-

Seventh tier up, just to the right of the stairs, there was an open antechamber connected to intact stairs that led deeper into the structure. That was her ticket in. When it came to old ruins where the Force was thicker than stone, "down" was synonymous with "forward." Niysha hefted her backpack over her shoulders and made her way up, fully prepared to handle the deepest, darkest mysteries of a world that had been dead longer than some planets had been inhabited the only way she ever did: totally, blissfully alone.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Few came to Nathema anymore, and those that did didn't stay for long. Even though the world had since recovered from the horrors inflicted upon it many thousands of years ago, an errant wrongness still permeated the planet's bones. Under the Sith Empire prior to the current one, then known as the Tenth Sith Empire, Nathema had served as a biological reserve and testing ground for various flora-related experiments. Earlier attempts to spark agriculture on the world ended in failure, the wrongness of the world wasn't conductive to crop yields.

Since then, it'd been relatively abandoned, only visited by dark mystics and ruin spelunkers. Besides the allure of ancient treasure, there wasn't much reason to visit the planet. Which made it all the more curious that Nathema had seen a buzz in activity as of late, hooded and shrouded men coming and going from the planet's surface, carrying strange crates marked with even stranger symbols. Explorers and treasure hunters alike ended up dead if they ventured to close to where the hooded men ventured, a clear warning.

But it'd been days since the last hooded man was seen, though none dared to go where they'd been. The wrongness was particularly strong there.

A sleek black shuttle dipped down through the oppressive clouds, skimming along the primordial treeline before coming to a rest in a clearing. Nearby was a gargantuan fissure, a rending in the earth that cut deep down far into the planet's mantle. From where it had originated, none could say. Such truths were forever lost, but the fact that it existed at all drew the curious minded. A figure emerged from the shuttle, cloaked in a long black cape of coarse black zeyd-cloth. He was not like the others, He felt darker; more dangerous.

Descending into the fissure with only what He carried, the Dark Figure disappeared into the depths.

Though He would come to find that He was not alone.

Niysha ​