Chapter Fourteen

Approaching Storm

The Guiding Light came out of hyperspace several million kilometres from the surface of Vjun, but even from that distance the four Jedi aboard, two Knights and their Padawans, could feel the power of the Dark Side resonating from the planet.

"This is an evil place," said Cayleb Daras, his hand going instinctively to the hilt of his lightsaber.

A Miraluka, Daras saw the Galaxy through the Force rather than through his eyes, and he perceived Vjun as a gaping hole into which all light fell to be swallowed by darkness. A shiver ran through him as they drew ever closer to the planet and its dark aura became more and more apparent.

"Way to lift our spirits, Cayleb," said the other Knight, a female Devaronian named Nete Olae. "We can all feel it, you don't need to make us feel any worse about this mission."

"We needed a Master," Daras continued, as though he had not heard. "Vjun's history is as dark as its presence in the Force. Who knows what awaits us down there?"

"I trust the Council," Olae said sternly. "And I trust the Force. If they believe that we can succeed, then we can. The Light will always drive out the Dark, Daras, remember?"

Daras smiled in spite of himself. He and Olae had both been Padawans of Master Sequiss, and that had been one of the Quarren's favourite phrases. Daras could almost hear him saying it.

"Besides, Master Nu was certain there was only one thief," one of the Padawans, a young Human named Halu, said dismissively. "Four Jedi against one thief should be-"

"Overconfidence is never a strength, Halu," interrupted Olae. "Master Nu also said that the thief was strong in the Dark Side, and Master Qui-Gon is certain that the Sith have returned. That may well be what we are dealing with here. We are capable of succeeding here, but we should not underestimate what awaits us down there."

Halu looked at the floor of the ship as their droid pilot's voice sounded over the ship's intercom.

"Beginning final descent to Vjun."

The four Jedi readied themselves, each of them trying to commune with the Force and seek guidance and assurance from it. Then, with a great shudder and jolt, the ship landed on the rocky surface of the planet, and the Dark Side washed over them all like a great wave.

"Be ready," said Daras, taking his lightsaber from his belt and igniting its shimmering blue blade. "And stay together."

Following his lead, two more blue blades and one of green appeared inside the ship's hold, and the four Jedi made their way to the boarding ramp as it lowered and gave them their first glimpse of barren Vjun.

A more desolate and forbidding world none of them had ever seen. Thick brown clouds clogged the sky and threatened acidic rain, and the only sign of life was a single vulpine creature that darted out of sight the moment it caught the scent of the four Jedi on the wind. They moved forward warily, slowly, lightsabers raised and senses alert for any sign of movement – or of attack.

The ship had landed outside a large and imposing ruin of what seemed to have once been a fortress, and Daras could sense the presence of the holocron, and of at least one Dark Side user, inside its walls.

"This way," he said to the others, and led them beneath an archway and into a high-walled courtyard.

He had expected defences. Battle droids, perhaps, or a deranged Dark Sider flying at them with snarling teeth. But nothing happened. Nothing stirred, not even the wind. It was eerily silent and Daras did not like it in the slightest.

"Inside," he said, his voice sounding cacophonously loud in the silence.

The castle was scarcely more comforting inside than out. Every footstep echoed, every breath seemed to hang in the air, and the Dark Side was so palpable as to feel as a weight on the chest and shoulders. Daras gripped his lightsaber more tightly in his hands and realised that his palms were slick with sweat. From behind him, he could hear the rapid breathing of the others, and he tried to calm himself and banish his fear.

"There is no emotion, there is peace," he whispered.

The words sounded hollow in this place.

Something shifted in the Force, and Daras turned towards the source of the disturbance. At the same time, Halu said "What was that?", and Daras heard the Padawan's lightsaber hum as she moved.

"Master?" came the voice of Feyrin, Daras's own Padawan. "Something moved, up near the ceiling."

"A bird," Daras said, his voice sounding utterly unconvinced. There were no birds here, not that they had seen.

"Someone else is here," Olae said, her voice higher than usual, and it chilled Daras's blood to hear it.

"A hunter of Jedi."

The voice was new, cold, cruel, and it came from the darkness.

A wind rushed over the Jedi with a terrible howl. A lightsaber hummed. A wet something hit the stone floor. A Force presence winked from existence.

"Feyrin!"

Daras could scarcely come to terms with what had happened. Something sinister had erupted from the shadows of the castle and killed his Padawan, as fast as a blink. He tried to take comfort from the idea that he was one with the Force, but the effort was useless.

"One dead," came the voice again, mocking. "Three left."

It was moving. Daras could sense it, and he tracked its progress through the room. Its strength in the Force was undeniable, magnified ten-fold in this place of evil, so warped in the Dark Side. They should never have come here, had he not warned the Council?

Something hissed towards the group and Daras raised his lightsaber in defence. Whatever it was passed by his right ear so close that he felt the air move as it passed, and then he heard a dull thud, a gasp of pain, and Hula fell to the floor, her life force ebbing away.

"Two," came the voice once again.

"And they are mine."

Yet another voice sounded out in the room, loud and terrible and full of venomous hate. Daras turned his head toward the source of the voice, and his senses were almost overwhelmed by the sheer power of the Dark Side. A new presence had entered, and it was darkness itself. Darker than the hunter who had ambushed them. Darker than the castle. Darker even than the planet itself.

The voice was male, rasping, deep. And yet Daras thought it sounded somehow familiar.

"Sith," he said, knowing the truth of the word. "You must surrender, and come with us to face justice."

The Sith laughed, and the sound made Daras forget confidence, forget courage. It seemed to be imbued with the Dark Side, and the Miraluka Jedi wondered what horror they had disturbed on Vjun.

"You are right to fear me, Jedi," came the Sith's voice once again. "Let me show you what will come to pass because of your failure here."

Daras felt his mind surrender itself to the dark willpower of the Sith Lord, and it filled with visions, with sights and sounds of things that had not yet come to pass, but which he knew with perfect clarity were unstoppable. Things had been set in motion so, so long ago bring this about, and nothing he could do would stop them.

Death. Devastation. Killing on an unprecedented scale. Battles in deep space. The clash of lightsabers. A black-helmeted cyborg rising from a table. Whole worlds annihilated in an instant. The Jedi Order itself annihilated, exterminated, wiped from the face of the Galaxy. The Chosen One corrupted. The Sith ascendant. The Republic torn down.

And at the centre of it all, a single word repeated, over and over and over again, like a mantra, a ritualistic chant. Sidious. Sidious. Sidious.

"I am Darth Sidious, Jedi. And your Order is a thousand years too late."

A crackle of electricity reached Daras's ears, the cackling laughter sounded out again, he felt exquisite agony, and was lost to the Netherworld of the Force.

Vibrant Coruscant was as far removed from Vjun as any world could be, the suite of the Supreme Chancellors as unlike Bast Castle as was imaginable, the white and silver garments of the Chancellor's aide a galaxy away from the black robes of the Sith.

And yet Moore was kneeling before Darth Sidious as she did on that ravaged world, or in the depths of the LiMerge Building.

"You did well on Vjun, Sly," Sidious said as he regarded her. "I have the holocron, four Jedi are dead, and you proved your strength in the Dark Side. You have proven yourself worthy of leading my Dark Acolytes."

Moore struggled against the smile that she longed to let spread across her lips.

"You honour me, Lord Sidious," she said. "Everything I have done, I have done for you."

"Such loyalty deserves a fitting reward," Sidious said, "as I promised you before you infiltrated the Temple."

He reached into a fold of his tunic and withdrew from within it the hilt of what Moore recognised as a lightsaber, the same one that one of the Padawans had wielded on Vjun. Sidious held it out to her, and she took it with trembling fingers.

"It is yours," Sidious said. "Rightfully won. You need only bleed the crystal, and it will truly be a tool of the Dark Side."

"Bleed?"

"Break it, Moore. Make the crystal your slave. Drown it in the Dark Side."

"How do I-"

"That is something for you to work out for yourself," Sidious said. "Now, leave me. I have other business to attend to. Enjoy your reward, Sly. You have earned it."

Moore stood and left the room, and Sidious watched her go with a mixture of respect and pity. The Umbaran was dedicated to him, that much had been clear from the offset. She would be an invaluable tool against the Jedi, a new Maul to do his bidding where he could not go. But she would soon desire to become a true Sith, and Sidious had never intended to give her that honour. He could prevaricate and delay, certainly, for years if necessary. But one day she would be trouble.

His thoughts turned to Anakin Skywalker, and to the future he had planned for the boy. The Force had shown him that he would succeed in bringing the boy to the Dark Side, that he would be a mighty weapon in Sidious's fist. To that end, Sidious had made himself integral in the boy's life, had always been quick to praise and to offer advice, especially when the Jedi had criticised or offered nothing but their hollow platitudes. The work would be slow, but Sidious was nothing if not patient. Skywalker would be his, he knew it.

And Skywalker would eliminate every threat to Sidious's rule. The Jedi. Dissenters in the Senate. Moore. Tyranus. And Plagueis. Sidious would see to it that Skywalker dealt with them all, baptising himself in their blood as he accepted the Dark Side.

Sidious smiled to himself at the thought, before assuming once more the persona of Chancellor Palpatine and attending to the paperwork on his desk.

Deep in his sanctuary on Arborah, Darth Plagueis considered the gravity of what he was about to do. Standing ready at the holocommunicator, he relished the moments before this act, the build-up to the moment that galactic history would pivot on its axis, and turn irrevocably against the Republic, the Jedi, and the Light Side itself.

It almost amused him that he was about to do something so mundane in service of something so profoundly of the Force and the Dark Side. But this was how great things came about, from small beginnings, and Plagueis felt keenly his role in bringing about the long-awaited revenge of the Sith. He was the culmination of the plan that Darth Bane had set in motion so long ago, the agent by which the Dark Side would snuff out the Light, by which order would at last be brought to the Galaxy, and by which the Jedi would pay a dear price for their millennia of arrogance, disregard and clumsy misrule.

The death knell is struck now, Plagueis thought to himself as he stepped onto the communicator pad and turned to face 11-4D.

"FourDee, contact Nute Gunray and the Trade Federation directorate."

"At once, Chancellor Damask."

The images of the Neimoidians appeared before him in shimmering blue, and Plagueis looked at each of them in turn before speaking. Not one of them dared make a sound, except for Gunray who stammered out a small "L-lord Plagueis," before falling silent again.

"You will all have seen Count Dooku's transmission on the HoloNet," Plagueis said, wasting no time. "You will all know that Serenno is seceding from the Republic." The Neimoidians nodded silently. "You are to follow suit," Plagueis said. "Your departure will begin a chain reaction, and soon thousands of worlds will leave the Republic. No structure can stand without its foundations and load-bearing supports, and that is what the Republic will discover to its cost."

"When are we to announce our secession, Lord Plagueis?" Gunray asked. He had long since learned better than to argue.

"Immediately," Plagueis answered. "You will prepare a statement at once, and cease to abide by Republic legislation and regulations. Seize all ships coming in and out of your space with Republic registrations, and restart battle droid production. The Techno Union has developed the technology necessary to allow them to function without a central command computer, and they will soon join you in secession. Additionally, make contact with Count Dooku, and tell him that I have spoken with you. You will ally with Serenno and proclaim a new galactic government, the Confederacy of Independent Systems."

"A new-"

"And you will marshal all the forces you can in preparation for all-out war with the Republic and the Jedi Order," Plagueis went on. "You have a standard decade, and then the conflict will begin. A storm is approaching, Viceroy. Be ready when it breaks over your heads."