Approved Tech Zalath-pattern Stasis Crucible Mk. I

[Darth Prazutis]

• Intent: To create a fixed, dark side driven stasis cell system for Kainate prisons and black sites, capable of immobilizing and suppressing powerful Force Sensitives and dangerous captives while inflicting temporal and psychological torment.
• Image Source:
  • Click - ChatGPT by Me
  • Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

• Manufacturer:
  
  • Malsheem Hypernautics and Manufacturing
• Affiliation:
  
  • The Kainate
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: Zalath-pattern Stasis Crucible Mk. I
• Modularity: Yes - The field geometry can be tuned for different species and sizes, but the core stasis monoliths and dark-side matrices cannot be swapped or repurposed without major reconstruction and fresh rites.
• Production: Limited
• Material:
  • Sith Blackstone Obelisks
  • Bloodsteel Conduits and Structural Reinforcement
  • Crucivane and Umbraplast Plating
  • Superconductive Stasis Coils and Field Projectors
  • Internal Sith Rune Matrices

• Dual Blackstone Stasis Obelisks: Floor and ceiling monoliths that generate the Zalath field between them, suspending the captive in mid-air in a translucent "sheath" of slowed time and locked muscles.
• Temporal Drag Matrix: Partial, controlled time-desynchronization within the field; the prisoner's subjective experience of time can be slowed, stretched, or looped in small segments.
• Force Resonance Suppression: Attempts to gather or project the Force inside the Crucible cause the field to "tighten," amplifying disorientation and psychic pain while further dampening motor control.
• Rotational Vertigo Function: The suspended body can be rotated or gently tumbled within the field, destroying spatial orientation and making concentration extremely difficult.
• Neural Agitation Routines: Low-level pulses can induce cycles of phantom pain, crawling sensations, bone-deep chill, or crushing fatigue without leaving physical injury.
• Stasis Safety Interlocks: In the event of catastrophic power loss, the field collapses in a controlled fashion, returning the captive to normal time rather than shredding or scattering them.
• Adjudicator Brand Lattice: The Crucible projects a thin, invisible "brand" of Sith glyphwork, anchoring their presence to the cell's coordinates. Teleportation tricks, phasing, astral projection, or similar escape arts are dragged back to the body's location, often with painful whiplash as the lattice snaps them home.
• Hierarchic Containment Cascade: In the event the primary Zalath field destabilizes, layered failsafes trigger in sequence, conventional ray shields, stun grids, and physical restraints slam into place, followed by a short, brutal pulse of neural agony designed to render the prisoner unconscious before they can exploit the gap.
• Mnemonic Erosion Protocols: Extended use of temporal drag and sensory looping can be tuned to subtly attack the prisoner's ability to focus and recall complex techniques. Over time, repeated escape attempts become harder not because the cell grows stronger, but because the captive's ability to coordinate sophisticated Force maneuvers is quietly worn down.
• Ritual Imprint & Telemetry: Each Crucible is inscribed with a unique ritual signature; wardens and inquisitors can monitor stability, time dilation levels, and Force-feedback strain through linked consoles or scrying relays.

• Total Immobilization: Combines physical stasis, temporal drag, and Force Interference to hold even powerful force users in place, greatly limiting their ability to escape or lash out.
• Psychological & Temporal Torture Tool: The Crucible can inflict intense mental and sensory torment, time stretching, looping moments, induced vertigo, without necessarily damaging the subject's body.
• High Value Containment: Ideal for long-term storage or interrogation staging of dangerous prisoners who would be too risky in conventional cells or binders.
• Multi-Layered Escape Denial: The Crucible does not rely on a single effect. It stacks temporal drag, Force suppression, body anchoring, and cascading fallback restraints, making escape effectively impossible for anything short of truly extraordinary intervention or overwhelming outside assistance.

• Force Nullification: Requires a stable, high-output power feed and dark-side saturation. When exposed to Force Nullification the effectiveness of the crucible is drastically reduced.
• Morality: Cruelty is forged into the very fabric of what a Crucible is. Designed to both contain and torture inhabitants locked within, there is no doubt to most galactic governments this is an abomination of creation.
• Sith Technology: Forged through a distinctive blend of advanced dark technology and alchemy, this creation is uniquely Sith and Kainate in origin. It can only be forged and maintained in environments conducive to handling its needs.

The Zalath Stasis Crucible was born out of Sith frustration and ambition in equal measure. Conventional binders, ray shields, and even Geonosian-style containment fields had proven insufficient when dealing with certain enemies of the Kainate, Jedi Masters, rogue Sith, and Force Sensitives whose wills did not buckle under mere pain. Darth Prazutis demanded a prison that did more than restrain the body; He wanted a device that could pin a soul in place and stretch their experience of time until resistance wore thin and sanity frayed.

The solution was the Zalath pattern. A pair of obsidian-black obelisks of Sith Blackstone, carved with hourglass motifs and spiral sigils echoing ancient Fermata Cage glyphs. When activated, the obelisks generate a Zalath field, a hybrid of stasis technology, gravitational shear, and dark-side latticework. The captive is lifted from the floor and held upright in a translucent shell of slowed time. Muscles are frozen mid-impulse, lungs breathe only as the field allows, and every attempt to move becomes a sluggish, futile strain against molasses-thick air.

More insidious than the physical paralysis is the temporal drag. Within the Crucible, minutes can feel like hours, and interrogators can loop small fragments of sensory experience over and over, a single blow, a scream, a whispered sentence, until the subject's sense of continuity blurs. When a prisoner attempts to draw deeply on the Force to break free, the Zalath matrix drinks that effort and converts it into backlash: vertigo, nausea, a sense of falling sideways, all while their body remains locked in perfect stillness.

For the Kainate's wardens and inquisitors, the Crucible is as much an instrument of theater as it is a security measure. A captive Jedi can be left suspended and slightly rotated in the air, robes hanging limp, while interrogators and Sith Lords walk around them at their leisure, conversing as if beside a statue. They may choose to speak to the prisoner directly, knowing that for the one in the field, those minutes of conversation might stretch into days of unbroken awareness.

The Zalath pattern is not without limits. It is extraordinarily power-hungry and depends on dark-side saturation to maintain its full suite of effects. Certain effects can weaken the field, forcing secondary security measures to take over. Additionally, there is a fine line between breaking resistance and destroying a mind entirely; careless or vindictive operators risk reducing valuable captives to shattered ruin.

Even with these caveats, the Zalath Stasis Crucible Mk. I has quickly become a feared fixture in Kainate black sites and the deeper levels of the Sith Citadel on Dromund Kaas. A device where time itself is bent into a tool of obedience.

Among those who have survived a Zalath Crucible, a common story emerges. They speak of trying to will themselves elsewhere, into the Force, into the walls, into dreams, only to feel an invisible hook in their bones drag them back into that frozen body over and over again. Time becomes a cruel riddle: they are never sure if a given scream or whisper is happening now, or if the Crucible is simply replaying an older moment on a loop.

For some, rescue is worse than captivity, stepping out of the field and back into normal time leaves them staggering, nauseated, and uncertain if the cell truly opened or if this is just another variation of the same nightmare. The message spreads in hushed rumors across the galaxy. There are prisons where you might break your chains…and there is the Zalath, where time itself becomes the warden.

 

[Krass Wyms]

Approved