NationStates Jolt Archive

It was their quest to find temples of the ancient Sith that seemed to be scattered around this galaxy they were now in that had brought them to this place. The ship had just jumped out of Hyperspace, and the ship was still intact. They had been right: The route they had chosen had been relatively safe. The ship's shields had taken only minimal damage during the voyage.

"... And finally, we were there. Above the planet that supposedly held the very first temple we would visit, and hopefully it would contain information on more planets with such temples, if not even what we are looking for. I am... Excited, due to this fact. It is a good feeling. My apprentices seem to share the sentiment, as they should. With this simple move, we have begun to unravel the mystery the Sith had planted upon this galaxy who knows how long ago."

"... There seemed to be some movement around the planet, which we ignored. The preliminary scans of the planet were inconclusive... But I can feel its presence, lingering in the back of my head. The temple is there. I might have to try to locate it myself. I just hope that the things that seem to live on this planet do not attack us."

"... Incompetent fool. I choked him until he was unconscious for his inability to find a source of Dark Side power like the temple is on the planet. As I thought, I had to do it all myself... And what happened? I found it in the first twenty minutes. Such incompetence... But then again, he is just an apprentice, so I cannot expect too much from him..."

"The only shuttle we had with the ship was sent down after enough... Expendable people were gathered. I put two of my apprentices with a group of armed troopers to it to explore the temple, and bring us whatever they could find."

Master Yldarek looked out of the ship as he lowered the pad he had been typing to all day. An odd planet it was. Something was wrong... Very wrong. It was quite possible that the locals had noticed them. But the temple came in first.

OOC Dammit OotDJ, I was planning to give you a lengthy description of your arrival at my planet, so I'll just ignore most of your post, and go with your arrival in system.

It was theirr quest to find Sith temples that seem to be scattered around the galaxy they were now in that had brought them to this place. The ship had just jumped out of Hyperspace. They had been right: The route they had chosen had been relatively safe. The ship's shields had taken only minimal damage during the voyage.
from there. Trust me, It'll be a lot more fun if we can do some talking to eachother, and I was planning to have your arrival drastically change my planet.
IC

The Nighthawk had sent a message ahead abut the impending arrival of the Star Destroyer. The flagship of the Al-Imvad fleet, the AISS Nonistan, (along with the rest of our fleet) was waiting for it, guns at the ready, planing to engage and destroy it after it left FTL. However, whenthe Star Destroyer arrived, everything changed. The hurricanes, which are a constant feature of life on Nonistan, suddenly stopped. While there are usually anywhere from 4-20 major tropical storms covering the oceans and coastal areas, the planet miraculously recieved a reprieve, and eccelent weather prevailed across the sphere.
A message was instantly sent to the waiting ships:
"DO NOT ENGAGE, we are experiancing good things on the planet, allow the unknown vessel to approach. They are probably Sith, and we could gain much from peaceful cooperation."
To the Star Destroyer, a message was also sent:
"Hello friends, We are the nation of Al-Imvadjah, we welcome you to our home planet of Nonistan. We are sending a small delegation to your vessels to greet you. Your visit is greatly appreciated."

OOC
I'm going to be using this rp as a way to get access to very powerful tech, and to explain how I go into space, so I'll know a bit about the Sith from the Earth temple.

OOC Dammit OotDJ, I was planning to give you a lengthy description of your arrival at my planet, so I'll just ignore most of your post, and go with your arrival in system.

(OOC: Heh, you don't have to ignore any parts of my post. They would most likely just jump in and try to get to the temple as fast as possible, even while your ships were preparing to engage. Our two posts actually work pretty nicely together. And I apparently need to fix a few typos, too.)

IC:

On the bridge of the Star Destroyer, as Yldarek was watching at the planet and at some odd lights he concluded to be ships of some kind, the apprentice acting as the communications' officer yelled to his general direction.

"Master! Incoming transmission!"

"Hmm? Does it have anything to do with our little expedition to the ground?"

"No, it's coming from another space ship! Putting it to your console, Master!"

There actually was a console on the platform the captain stood upon, it was just that it had been unoperational during the ship's many years of service.

"Hello friends, We are the nation of Al-Imvadjah, we welcome you to our home planet of Nonistan. We are sending a small delegation to your vessels to greet you. Your visit is greatly appreciated."

As Yldarek read the transmission, his eyes widened.

What is this?

He typed something into his datapad.

"Prepare to send a reply, apprentice."

"Of course, Master!"

As the apprentice replied to his words, the Master threw the datapad to him. He had grown fond of using datapads instead of consoles. The console had never worked during his lifetime, after all.

This is the Imperial Star Destroyer Majestic. We will let your delegation enter this ship, but be advised, any attempts to harm the ship will not be tolerated.

Hmph. There's always something unexpected. The Force is truly fickle, he thought as he turned away from the reinforced windows and faced the bridge. He looked at his apprentices for a moment, standing still.

He pointed at the apprentice he had spoken to before, walking very slowly towards the upper exit.

"You have the helm, apprentice. You can find me at the docking bay."

Then he stopped.

"Oh yes, and notify the... Stormtroopers. I want at least fifty of them to the docking bay with me. Just in case. And place the rest on alert. Same with all other military personnel."

"Very well, Master."

He grinned as he walked out of the bridge, but no one saw it.

Soon enough... Soon enough we will see what force knows of us and considers us their friend.

OOC: all my ships stats are in the link in my sig labeled "my Ships and Equipment"

IC
15 men, including 10 marines, beamed into the docking bay of the Star Destroyer. The leader of the group introduced himself to Yldarek:
"Hello, I am Minister Fredrickson, and these are my colleagues, Admiral Knowles, General Mancur, Secretary of Defense Yolby, and my aid Janet. Thank you for allowing us to enter your ship. I see you are dressed as a Sith, oh don't act so suprised - we know much about the sith. We can discuss this topic more later, right now I am here to ask for your aid in finding the Temple of the Dark Side. We will in turn supply you with a Space Fleet of your own, as well as repairing upgrading this...thing. Whoever worked on it last did a rather shoddy job."

The Master silently cursed in anger, although even the small movement of his mouth was concealed by the black cloth that covered much of his face. The entrance these people made was quite an odd one, not something they had ever heard of, even if they insulted the Dark Jedi Master before he could even open his mouth.

They did not even use a ship. He did not want them to realize that they were not even affiliated with the Sith. That would have brought up some... Unfortunate misunderstandings.

He then glanced at the people who had come there. Fifteen of them in total. Easy enough to bring down if they start any trouble.

Maybe playing along with them would work nicely. More repairs on the ship is never a bad thing, either, although the Rhinarans already repaired it quite a lot.

"Ah, you speak of the temple upon your home planet? We have already found it. We even sent some of our own to explore it."

He looked at the armed ones for a moment. They seemed to carry quite crude weapons, odd when considered that they can teleport people wherever they want. He could easily take them down alone if need be.

"Ah... Yes. I feel that you are after what we are after. Ancient... Sith knowledge. That gives us the answer to the question why."

He could also feel that those Al-Imvadjahians actually thought them to be what they thought they were. Although, he thought, they might just care about their ability to command the Dark Side of the Force, not of them actually being Sith or not. And additional ships would help them finding the rest of the temples. They didn't even have enough people to actually man large Sith starships.

"We will accept your offer. As long as you do not attempt to betray us."

"That is most helpful for our purposes. However, we are more interested in how you found out planet. We thought we had taken all the datapads from Earth with us when we left. However, our picket ships tell us you came from Earth. You must understand, we have closely guarded the secret location of our planet ever since we discovered its location in the datapads..."
He paused, then conferred quietly with Admiral Knowles and Janet.
"I have been told that battleship dock 5 is open, as one of ours is out on a mission. Admiral Knowles will guide your pilots to within tractor beam range. The majority of your crew will have to remain on board of course, however your command crew may accompany us to the surface when the time comes to explore the temple. We have never been able to discover its exact location due to the hurricanes, but your arrival seems to have caused a break in the weather. A team of scientists is standing by."

Something was out of place with these people... He could feel it. Although they did not seem all that sensitive to the Force... But something... Something wasn't right.

We thought we had taken all the datapads from Earth with us when we left.

"You missed a few. That is how we got here."

"I have been told that battleship dock 5 is open, as one of ours is out on a mission. Admiral Knowles will guide your pilots to within tractor beam range.

As the man spoke and had said this, the Master just nodded silently.

The majority of your crew will have to remain on board of course,--

"... Of course," he said rather silently.

"--however your command crew may accompany us to the surface when the time comes to explore the temple.

The Master just grinned, as the man obviously forgot again that they had already sent a team to explore the site.

We have never been able to discover its exact location due to the hurricanes, but your arrival seems to have caused a break in the weather."

He nodded again. "Yes, it would seem that the temple is much more filled with the Dark Side here than it was on that planet some people called 'Earth'. It might be because of the lack of immense numbers of locals, as on Earth it seemed as if the beings who live there had leeched parts of the temple's power unknowingly."

Why Earth's temple is different is not important. We have sent some marines to secure the Temple, I assume that is where your landing craft went. We will go explore it tommorrow afternoon. We must first dock and go to the planet's surface, where you can inform some higher ranking officials of your journey and the conditions on Earth. We are most afraid that you will reveal our location to the rest of the galaxy."

Knowles then went to the bridge and guided the Star Destroyer to dock. After they had docked, they exited the ship and went onto the orbital space station.

How stupid can they be? Do they actually think that we would tell anyone of the location of these temples? But this feeling that eminates from them... They cannot be trusted...

He just nodded silently to the man.

Trust. It was something the Dark Jedi did only when it was absolutely necessary for their own survival. This was not one of those situations. The survival of the Order was not at stake here. The ship was basically in a full combat readiness. The only reason they would go with this is the fact that those people live on the planet the temple is on. He found it rather odd that they had found the temple's location so quickly without their help.

As Yldarek was leaving the Majestic with a few of his apprentices and a few Stormtroopers, he received a text-only transmission into his datapad.

WE HAVE EXPLORED THIS TEMPLE FOR SOME TIME NOW, MASTER. WE
HAVE FOUND... SOME THINGS THAT RESEMBLE DATAPADS, BUT THEY ARE IN
A BAD CONDITION. WE WILL GO IN DEEPER.

Hmmh. Sounds good, although these natives are already going there... Damn it. I hope they can lie as well to them as they do to the non-Force users on board the Majestic.

OOC We didn't find it without youur help, we tracked your lander's descent. It is my planet.
On the planet's surface
A number of dropships, troop landers, and landing craft appeared suddenly, dropping from the sky to surround the mountainside entrance of the Temple. Over 1000 marines dployed within an instant of touching down. Armored vehicles rolled out and secured the exterior. The Imperial landing craft was secured and the pilots detained. Then the Marines moved into the Temple itself. They already knew the layout of the interior from a previous breifing. Stormtroopers who resisted were shot, most surrendered and were lined up outside, helmets removed. The Jedi apprentices were stunned and caged. Inside twenty minutes the shooting was over. Marine casualties numbered 37 dead and wounded. The Marine captain radioed the success call immediately:
"Mission success. We have secured the Temple and its artifacts. No unautherized transmissions were made and all enemy forces are detained. Send in the archeologists."

Battleship Dock 5
The crews began working on the Star Destroyer soon after it docked. Robotic crawlers and workers in space suits began to "patch" the "damaged" sections of the armor. Explosives were emplaced, as well as targeting beacons for missiles to follow. The gun turret traverses were jammed from the outside, inhibiting any targeting action. Every minute they worked the Majestic became less ready for battle. Especially not against the similarily sized Al-Imvad battleships.

Conference Room 115B, Secondary Command Station
They arrived in the conference room in which they were to discuss plans for exploring the temple together. It was 30X30 feet with a long wooden table in the center. The five Imvadjans sat facing the door, with two seats empty, one in the center and one on the end. There was a mirror on the wall behind them, and the Dark Jedi delegates sat facing it. In the room were four marines and two Stormtroopers.
Minister Fredrickson spoke to Yldarek directly:
"I'll be frank with you, we don't want your people meddling on our planet unsupervised. We will be more than happy to mount a joint expediton, so that anything we find might be found by both of us. That way nobody has an advantage over anybody else."

Conference Room 115A
On the other side of the mirror three technicians were up cameras to take video of the Jedi's faces under their hoods. There was also recording equipment to keep track of all conversation in the room. A set of computer screens displayed the images from over three dozen bugs and security camers in the room that recorded all movement in it, including under the table. These were monitered by another eight technicians.

Inside the Temple of the Sith
The group of archeologists arrived at the temple and began to work. They were only interested in the Temple Library, and they were escorted to it immediately by a group of Marines. The archeologists began removing the datapads from the Temple, placing them carefully into a Landing Craft. They copied what they could not remove onto their personal computers and took pictures of all the important glyphs. They tried to work fast, and did so marvelously, taking with them all pertinent data. After 6 hours of laborious work, the entire contents of the Sith Library were ready to be transported to a research center, where their knowledge would be translated and put toward practical applications.

He knew it. The last transmission had been cut short, after which he could feel the agony of his apprentices... But they were still alive, so it could not be the work of any wild beast. And these people... They were obviously agitated. And now he knew why. The locals thought they were being smart, thinking that the Dark Jedi would be their pawns in some stupid game. But no. It wasn't going to be that easy.

It wasn't like the people on the ship hadn't realized what was actually happening. They had stopped the "repairs" forthwith, saying most politely that they were not needed. Real repairs actually repair something instead of destroying it to put something inside the hull. Having most of the ship's systems operational whilst in dock tipped them off instantly. You never know when you must leave.

"Don't underestimate the power of the Dark Side, fool. I could see into your mind. 'Meddling on your planet unsupervised', you say? This is a Sith planet more than yours. Oh, and about your listening devices..."

He extended his left arm and a great chain of lightning came into existence, only hitting the electronics in the room like an EMP. A few of the bolts even went through the mirror to the room next door, shattering it and the cameras behind it.

"What next, hmm? First you eliminated our people in the temple and then you thought you could do whatever you want to us? Wrong. Did you really expect that I wouldn't have felt the disturbance in the Force when your people subjugated my apprentices?!"

He waved his hand in an effort to put the other side in a temporary stasis. He turned and began to walk out whilst talking to the people who were with him.

"Sith warships are not worth this insanity. We will leave now."

"Uh, what if they try to stop us?"

"Don't worry, we still have a few advantages..."

"... What about the other apprentices?"

"There will be new apprentices... They know what to do."

And so, the group left for the ship.

A speakerbox on the wall flared to life
"I think it will be in your interest to stay. In fact, it will be required. Your ship will not be able to leave the system without our permission, and your base on earth can easily be crushed. It would be in your best interest to follow our instructions. Your troops on the planet will be held until you return, they will not be harmed.
We know the locations of the other Sith Temples."

This stopped Yldarek dead in his tracks.

"We require you to accompany us on another expidition to explore them. Our first tries failed, but with someone attuned to the Dark Side, perhaps things will be different. A group of Marines will be arriving to escort you to a transport craft. After we have gained access to more Temples, perhaps we can grant you the Sith technology. If you do not comply, your entire nation may be DESTROYED."

Yldarek laughed, after which he spoke to the ones that were with him.

"We'll see who laughs last. They don't know of our ship's little... Travels, now do they? With the required systems repaired, we can actually use them now."

The others sneered at what he said, and continued to follow him as he continued on. As they walked on, he tried to send a few messages to the ship, hoping that at least some of them would get through. Although he was confident enough that his apprentices would come up with something on their own.

--

The communications' officer wasn't too happy with what was happening.

"Damn it. Yeah, we walked right into an ambush here. AND we're being jammed. Luckily the ship was actually repaired before we got here. Do we have anything we can turn this situation against them?"

"Actually... There is," said the one in charge of the weapons. The communications' officer was now at the helm, and looked down at the speaker.

"Hmm? And what would that be?"

"Well... This ship has been filled with all sorts of odd upgrades during its time, things like that."

"And there's actually something we can use?"

"Yes... Like this one... It harnesses the power of the Force, and then shoots it out in a massive, chaotic explosion of energy, which would work really well in getting us off this thing."

"That only gets us off this station. Anything else?"

"And this... This thing... As far as I can tell, it has been used only once or twice, but it should be in working a complete condition. It supposedly bores into the core of the planet and somehow makes it... Uninhabitable. The specifics are unknown. If we fired it while in this station, it'd bore its way through this station and still fall onto the planet."

"Uh, that sounds... Overly destructive. I bet there's a drawback there somewhere?"

"Yes... The records say that the ship would be practically defenseless for hours, maybe even days, months at worst after firing that cannon. Oh, the shields at least seem to remain functional. We could be fired upon, but we couldn't return fire."

"Ready that weapon."

"Uh... It is already operational and ready to fire."

"What? How's that possible? ... Not that I care. I have a transmission to send."

And so, he sent his very first transmission.

This is the Majestic. We have heard that you are treating our generosity and cooperation with treachery. This will not do. Either you stand down immediately and let us leave, or we will fire upon the planet. Any attempts to destroy or subjugate this ship will lead to planetary destruction.

We may very well be on the Dark Side, but unlike you, we do not believe in gaining what we want through meaningless shows of force.

OOC:
OotDJ, I could pwn you right here and now, so stop acting all tough. We both want the 'ancient powerful Sith technology' so I'm going to be polite enough not to blow the Majestic into little tiny pieces of Space Junk. Good thing I didn't do that huh? Instead, we'll be polite to eachother and rp like nice little children, since destroying planets isn't fun for anybody.
IC:
Reply to the Majestic
You claim that you have generosity and cooperation. So far we have seen nothing of this. Your empty threats mean nothing to Al-Imvadjah. If you wish your people to survive you will stand down and turn off power to all your systems except life-support. You will be treated fairly according to Galactic standards as soon as possible

The two heavy cruisers that had been targeting the Star Destroyer waited for her to comply, their weapons armed, and locked, needing only the push of a buton to completely destroy the Imperial craft.
__________
Another speaker box spoke to Yldarek again:
"I hope you understand what you are doing. If our two nations do not cooperate, then not only will you not gain the Sith technology you so desperately desire, but you will die. There can be comprimise on many points of our interaction, but there are two rules of ours that cannot be bargained with: You do not set foot on Nonistan without our expressed permission, and you will not leave this system alive unless you help us. We will be happy to provide you with a fleet of your own, we might even be willing to allow you access to any ships we discover, we will probably give you a planet all of your own after this is over. But before we grant you any privelages, you must first assist us in securing the other Sith Temples. You will never find them without us, and without you we cannot get within reach of them."

A squad of Marines was waiting at the end of the hall to escort Yldarek to an Al-Imvad capitalship.

bump

And a reply was sent from the Majestic.

How foolish can you be? We were cooperating with you already, if you did not happen to notice. We were generous to you as we even went on with your little childish games. But the time you attempted to sabotage this ship and incarcerated our people, we kind of lost our desire to cooperate any further. Obviously even a retarded child would understand the reason why. Apparently you also do not understand that we do not and will not help those who threaten us with acts of genocide. You seem to not understand that we will not help those who attempt to cheat us as severely as you tried. Had you chosen to go on with this the smart way, we would already be on our way to the next system. But as far as I can tell, due to your insanity, the only place we are going is back to where we came from.

Yldarek spoke to those who were with him as they continued to walk, making damn sure they don't meet any hostile troopers in the way. They knew, in a way, where they were heading, and they were heading for the Majestic.

"What are these idiots on? If they kill us, they don't get anything. On the other hand, we don't want any of what they speak of anymore, not on these insane terms anyway. They screwed this all up all on their own. And I don't see any of our kind or of Sith coming this way in the next few millennia, and I somehow see them massacring this bunch of rabid dogs if they ever find this place anyway."

He wrote something into his datapad and sent it to where ever.

Your logic is flawed. If you kill us, you lose. If we leave without the
information we need, you lose. You see, we couldn't care less about the Sith
technology anymore. We're not desperate enough to cut deals with you. The
moment you thought you could screw around with us was the moment you
lost your best chance to find ANYTHING. And now, my "friends", your own
PLANET is at stake. Either you 1) attack us and lose your chance to find the
technology AND your home planet, or 2) let us leave, and the only thing
you lose is your chance to find the technology, or THREE, give us the data
we need on the temples, you return our people and let us leave and don't try
to follow us, and WE will come back with the information WE consider suitable
for YOU. It is either that, or trust me, you'll never find anything. Unlike you
seem to think, it is YOU who can't afford to try to bargain here.

OOC: you might not know this, but I already have everything I need to build Sith tech, from the Temple Library.
IC:
"Fine. You may leave. We have no more use for you. However, you will recieve nothing from us. Your troops on the planet are being taken to the station now. We are sorry that you did not agree to our terms. It is your fault that you will now recieve nothing, while we have everything we wanted. Farewell, and may your future work be more successful than this was ... *sigh* ... *click*"

A minute passed.

"I have just been informed that our government has changed its mind. The coordinates of one of the Temples are now being transferred to your ship. It appears that the King wants close allies in the near future."

OOC You can post the conditions of the next planet, and et cetera. But I'll be waiting for you there.

-Not at all related to our relations with OotDJ- secret IC:
The construction of our new Dark Fleet has begun. It will utilize tech gained from the Temple Library. It will be unveiled to the galaxy soon. Contruction will be finished in 6NS months (a couple weeks). More to come.

(OOC: Um, the whole idea this RP was based on was that on each temple, you could only find tidbits of information, since they're so friggin old and have begun to deteriorate due to extreme age. They'd be in a condition to give you just enough info to get to the next temple, and with enough knowledge to give you some new info on the locations of Sith ships, abandoned research centers possibly, abandoned colonies and whatnot. But most of those coordinates would just be too incomplete, so I'd have to go to the next system to find out more. After all the temples would've been thoroughly searched I'd know where's most of the stuff.)

TG me the password to your region, we can do our OOC discussions there. I'll send a puppet. But I don't really have time for all that, I just want to build my dark fleet. We can discover better tech as we progress, and we can say that only the hulls have been laid and the tech hasn't been installed yet, but i'd really like to have it ready pretty quick.

This is a BUMP, but, for the look of the thing I'll also toss in some
IC:
The Second Temple
The Second (or Third, depending on how you're counting this) Sith Temple was found on a planet labled in Al-Imvad star charts as ST2-001,005,00015. When it had first been visited,as the fifth planet in the first exploration journey, planet number fifteen (total), the explorers noted that the planet was as it had been described in the datapads: inhospitable.

The Dark Fleet
The constructin of the Dark Fleet continued, the first major piece of Dark Technology was being installed in the first set of ships: the Dark Reactor. The knowledge gained from the Temple Library had provided the neccessary knowledge to design and build Dark Reactors, but the Al-Imvad scientists did not know what they could be used for, apart form simply providing power, as of yet. They knew that it was vital to the Sith weapon they sought, but did not know how to harness the Dark Energy it produced.

Master Yldarek was on the Majestic's bridge, standing there, looking at the "fourth planet", or whatever it was. It was all good.

Well, if it wasn't for those pesky Al-Imvadjahians. They had thought that they already had all the tech they could get when they began threatening the Dark Jedi. Obviously they had been wrong... But it didn't make him feel any better.

He then walked restlessly on his platform for a while, after which he crouched on the right side of the platform, looking at one of his apprentices. He began to speak.

"Why are we helping them?"

"Uh, Master, you have asked that at least fourty seven times during the last two hours!"

"Yes, but I still don't get it. Why the hell are we helping them?!"

"It was you who said 'Alright, we'll help you find those damned Temples of yours,' when they suddenly changed their minds and became nice when threatened."

"Yeah... But I still don't understand why I did that. Must've been a weak moment or something."

"You could call it that, yes."

"Well... I guess it'll be alright, as long as they keep their part of the bargain."

"You mean, the part where they let us take the Sith ships that are shown on the datapads while they take whatever technological research they can find from the temples?"

"... Yes. And don't forget, we'll get copies of the tech research, too. Of course, in truth, we're forced to live with whatever they choose to copy for us. It wasn't all that bad a bargain for us, now was it. The problem here is their trustworthiness."

"You said it, Master."

They had sent a shuttle to explore the planet's temple in conjunction with the Al-Imvadjahian people, hoarding the ship coordinates like there was no tomorrow and trying to keep those bits out of the eyes of the Al-Imvadjahians. They didn't want any new surprises.

The four Al-Imvad scientists and researchers sat in stony silence as the shuttle took them to the surface of ST2. They were not here to make friends with the Dark Jedi, only to gather more information from the Temple.As the shuttle set down on the hard rock of ST2, they unbucked their restraints and departed, heading directly toward the imposing black gate they had landed in front of. One joked:
"The Sith sure seem to like building into the sides of mountains."
"Yeah... must be some deep-seated psychological thing."
With the customary unfunny jokes finished, the team opened the door, exposing the black marble floor and walls inside, light by two small glowing strips along the top of the wall. They walked along, rounded a corner an dwere awestruck by the main sanctuary of the Temple. Once again, black was the stone of choice, but it was accompianied by silver and platinum plated frescos carved into the stone walls, depicting scenes whose meaning the Imvadjans could only guess at. The ceiling opened from a mere 12 feet to over 150, soaring gothic arches supporting the mountain above. Etched onto the ceiling were detailed pictures, portraying the great Sith Lords, and words of unknown meaning. At the far end was a pulpit, an array of torture devices, and two doors.

They had basically two shuttles left in the Star Destroyer, and they had given one for the Al-Imvadjahians to make this whole affair quicker. They had gone for the planet with the temple designated as the "Fourth Temple", and the Al-Imvadjahians had gone to the planet designated to have the "Third Temple". Of course, both had sent some people with the other, which is why there were two apprentices and a few non-Force users from the Majestic on the Imperial shuttle that had gone down to the third temple.

That was also the reason why there were some Al-Imvadjahian researchers on board the shuttle that went down to the fourth temple. The Dark Jedi didn't exactly like their presence, but they chose not to care.

"...The temple was found quite quickly, although the planet was quite... Not what we had anticipated. Those who understand these things think that some great natural - or unnatural - disaster has met the planet... And now it is volcanic. There seem to be some indication that it was somewhat fertile in the past, but that's not the case at the moment. It is good that we are attuned to the Dark Side, or we would have never found the temple in that hell hole. At least we had some envirosuits for a situation like this... A good thing, that."

"...It appears the temple has remained mostly unscathed. We presume it's because some power of the Dark Side has been shielding it. The people sent there have already reported that they have found many mummified bodies within the confines of the temple. It is almost as if they were caught offguard by something, but we're not looking for historical data on the Sith, what we are looking for is much more practical. I don't know why, but they felt inclined to report that the temple is black. Who cares? So where the two we found before this one! And this one is on a volcanic planet! OF COURSE it's black!"

"A new report. Apparently they have found datapads upon the corpses, as well as randomly where ever. Why do they think I care where they find them? I only care about results! It is quite apparent that this temple is much more of use than the two we went to first, though. The first datapads they found have already been sent back to this ship for further study. They also reported that the Al-Imvadjahians have found a library of sorts and they're going through it feverishily, not telling our people what they have found. Not that it is of great importance as of yet, as we both seek different things, apparently."

"... Our people have found an abundance of information in the temple, although most of them are just logs of different people that seem to contain nothing of interest. Although, some of them seem to contain coordinates of what we are looking for. Sith ships, stashed away for a better time. Of course, we do not know if they are still where the coordinates say, but if we find even one of them, this little 'trip' of ours has been a great success. I do not know nor do I care whether the Al-Imvadjahians have found what they want, but I guess they've found something. The reports say that sounds of laughter and joy have been heard from their direction."

Yldarek raised his eyes from the datapad as he stopped writing to it again. He watched the planet through the windows of the bridge. They were actually getting somewhere now... But he knew he couldn't trust the Al-Imvadjahians, not very much anyway. What they did to the Dark Jedi, or tried to do, was unforgivable. But if they do keep their end of the bargain, everything will be fine.

--

The third temple wasn't quite as straightforward. One of the apprentices walked forward. He looked at the odd text beneath the portraits and then at the doors, ignoring the torture devices and the pulpit.

"Two doors? Hmm... I think this is some kind of a 'test'. To get rid of at least some of the unwanted visitors. I don't know if it's operational anymore, but... Who knows."

He tried to sense what was on the other side of the doors. He pondered for a while.

"Hmm... I think there's something we don't want to see behind the left door. I say we choose the right one."

"Right, right? Well, it shouldn't be too hard to open the right door, it's just a piece of black steel with hinges and a handle on it, pass me my oil can."
The scientist stooped to put oil on the hinges, then grasped the handle and tried to open it. He failed. The apprentice stepped foreward, and the door swung open. Inside it was, unsuprisingly, black. Quipped the least funny of the humorless men:
"Well, it certainly won't be hard to describe the intricate colors of the Temple in our report."

They flicked on their flashlights, and shined them into the darkened room. On the wall were hundreds of skulls, human and strange (never before seen) alien. Each had been blackened, though it was hard to tell how. At the far end of the room was a sacrificial altar (complete with grooves for the blood), a black statue of a man with cupped hands, and an inoperable computer terminal.
"Kinda makes me wonder what was in the other room. Anyway, onto buissiness. Larry, get working on that computer, see if you can get it running again. Moe, you help him. Everybody else, let's look at those frescoes, unless your jediship would care to open the second door?"

"...It appears we hit the proverbial jackpot on this planet. We have found several coordinates that seem to indicate the locations of Sith warships, which is very promising. The Sith who were here didn't have the time to erase the data... Or do anything for that matter. Those corpses are there to prove it. The report also said that the Al-Imvadjahians have found what they sought, which I couldn't care less about. But it appears that this visit was a success. Our people are still going through the contents of the multitude of datapads the ones sent to explore the temple brought with them, but other than that... Everything went even better than anticipated. I can only hope that everything goes as smoothly as they did here in exploring the temple the Al-Imvadjahians are in charge of."

"... It is safe to say that we found at least a dozen different locations where there can be Sith warships. A dozen! Insanity! I can only hope that we find even one ship, though. Who knows if the Sith went and sought out their own ships in times long past? But anyway, we will soon depart for the fifth temple, and wait for the Al-Imvadjahian's to rendezvous with us there as agreed, where we will get our people back and they'll get their people back, and we'll search the last planet together with full power."

--

The apprentice looked at the Al-Imvadjahian with contempt.

"Don't insult me. I'm not a Jedi. We walk down the path of the Dark Side, not that of the Light."

He looked around him for a bit. Not too many datapads there. Maybe they're on the other side... Such a headache.

"The other door, you say? If you bring enough heavy artillery to kill whatever I felt behind the door, I will do it. If not, forget it. I'm not feeling particularily suicidal today. Are you?"

He grinned wryly, although it was well concealed by the black cloth in front of his mouth.

"We can come back later with more guns if you really want us to, it isn't really that important- I don't think we'll find much here. Seems more like an ancient religous Temple than a Temple to the Dark Side... strange that.'

Just then Moe called out from the darkened room.
"Sir we've got it working - just a faulty power line, all the data seems intact... do you wan tot come have a look at it?"

"Nope, I'm going to examine the frescoes. I'll come back in ten minutes and you can summarize what you've found."

He went to the walls and began doing just that - examining fresoes, though in no particular order. The first he looked at seemed to depict the Sith arriving on the planet, with their enourmous ships. The second showed a space battle, the third fighting between Jedi and Sith, the fourth their arrival on earth, and the fifth them teaching a group of primitive humans. The last one he looked at before checking on Larry and Moe showed Sith and the primatives eating around a table as friends.

He then went on to check with the other two. Larry spoke:
"This is all pretty boring- just a list of births, marriages, deaths and who-was-apprenticed-to-who, for all the colonies in this galaxy. Though it appears the Sith intermarried with the natives. For the first seven centuries or so that is. Then this person dies - here - marked 'last of the Elders'. Then apprenticeship starts declining, as does average lifespan. Then after about a thousand years of that a new list appears - sacrifices. It starts listing who was sacrificed on what date, and by whom. And it shows which planet they were harvested from. You'll also notice that they seem to be only marrying amongst themselves now, no intermarrige with the primitives on this planet. Then, another marked person dies - here - last of the Grand High Priests. then the sacrifices only come from this planet. And right near the end, you'll notice that only one person is apprenticed, and he takes no apprentices himself. Then everything stops. Dead."

"Interesting, a slow decline from a great civilization into morbid barbarism, then the last force user dies and evrybody goes with him."

"So it would appear."

"Anything on the planets the sacrifices were taken from?"

"It would appear not.... hmmmm ...wait, what's this...a new link? where'd that come from?... aha! Here we are, filed away in a hiden spot, we have -if my memory of star charts serves me correct- earth, and two new ones. I bet one of these is where these strange skulls are from. Originally."

One of the apprentices was listening to the conversation while the other was examining the skeletal corpses. As the discussion progressed, his eyes widened, and he just had to take part in it.

"...What? Sixth and a seventh temple? Interesting. Very interesting. But please do remember that we have agreed to go to the temple that was designated as the fifth together, so we'll have to go there to meet up with the others. Who knows what'll we find there, no matter how interesting these two new planets are. Then, and only then, will we go explore these new findings. I'm betting that our ship will go to the other and yours to the other as we did on these two."

(OOC: I chose to take care of the other as quickly as possible, and so I did. Not all of the temples can be interesting, not even remotely.)

"Not neccessarily Temples, perhaps just slave colonies or maybe they just dropped by to pick up random villagers. But I suppose we shall see. Anyway, back to the ship, this Temple sems to be a bust, except for that star chart. Downlad the entire record of that computer in fact. It could provide some insight later on. Do you apprentices want to see anything else? I want to take a lot of pictures of the frescoes and the decor, but if you want to look around, I won't mind. Curly, would you get the lunches from the shuttle, there's no reason we should be hungry while we work."

The team continued to work through the day, recording the fresco images as well as all the etchings across the ceiling and walls. A floating workstation was even brought in to facilitate them looking at the writing on the walls. Everything in the Temple was methodically recorded and studies, except the left door, which was left unopened, in fact, most of the people stayed away from it though the markings on it were photographed.

Dark Fleet update
The scientists at the other Temple have discovered diagrams on how to use Dark Energy for weapons, engines, and shields. This is very useful, an now the Dark Fleet has something to use their Dark Reactors for. For more information on the Dark Energy and how it is used, look in my sig.

OOC sorry about the speach there, its a little confusing, but not everybody speaks sensibly anyway.

Do you apprentices want to see anything else?

"So we're not going to explore the other side, after all? Not that it matters much. I don't think it'd be worth the effort. I only sense the reek of death in there, and the fact that something ancient and evil is still there. Not something you'd want to release onto yourself without heavy artillery and making damn sure you can kill it."

They continued to search for whatever they could use. Nothing really was found, except a single datapad, and it was all about just some random Sith's daily doings, until it just abruptly stops. Then there were the skeletal corpses, but they didn't really interest the two apprentices.

A dead end, if it wasn't for the two new locations found.

This could still mean that there were at least two different Sith factions in this galaxy... Interesting. Master will be most pleased when he hears of this.

--

The Majestic was closing in upon the fifth location.

OOC: My battleships are a little busy being painted white for an upcoming rp. So I'll be using a small group of ships instead.

IC:
"Well, I guess we'd best leave it in there then ... Everybody finished with lunch? Then let's get back to work."

The rest of the day passed in archeological pursuits as described above, in my previous post, Then the group(s) gathered their gear, left, and shut the doors on their way out. They boarded the shuttle and went up to the small flotilla orbiting above ST2.

It consisted of one Superior Class Battlecruiser, one heavy transport, and one command ship. (The last two aren't in my sig, becaue they're unarmed and pretty BORING). The three ships went toward the fifth planet, where they would rendevous with Yldarek.

They had sat in the system for a day or two now, waiting patiently for the Al-Imvadjahians to arrive. Although they did not really need their help, Yldarek thought that staying on their good side would rise their willingness to actually cooperate instead of attempting to backstab the Dark Jedi. And anyway, they still needed the Dark Jedi more than they needed the Al-Imvadjahians.

Yldarek was, as practically always, standing on the platform on the bridge of Majestic. They were in orbit of the planet where the fifth temple supposedly was... Well, where the fifth temple was. They had already confirmed the location to be correct. They just hadn't gone down to check it out. The planet itself was quite deadly, first planet in the system. If it was to be compared to any planet in Sol, Venus would be the closest equivalent to it. Either it had gone closer to the system's star than it first had been, or then any settlements down on it had been built under domes. Who knows.

Yldarek sighed as he looked at the planet. Yet another envirosuit gig for the apprentices.

"Master...", one of his apprentices said. The voice came from 4 o'clock from his position.

He turned to face the so called sensors' officer.

"Yes, apprentice?"

"I'm picking up something on the instruments. Looks like the Al-Imvadjahian vessels."

"Well, finally. I'll send a transmission to them."

This is the Majestic. We have been waiting for you, just as promised.
We hope your expedition was as productive as ours. We will send your people
to you as soon as you reach the planet's orbit. We expect you to do the
same for our people.

Reply from the Command SHip:
Thank You. Our mission has been successful as well. Your people will be sent over on a shuttle immediately. I am sure they will fill you in on the details, but I may proudly tell you we have discovered the locations of two more probable Sith sites.

The three ships went into orbit around the Fifth planet. A transport shuttle went to the Majestic, carrying the apprentices and their equipment. In return, a shuttle went from the Star Destroyer to the battlecruiser's docking bay, carrying the Al-Imvad team that had gone to the fourth planet. Information was exchanged, and everybody decided to take all the neccesary time for the landing to be successful.

OOC sorry about the short post, but I'm tired and going to go to bed.

(OOC: Very well. I'll let you decide when you come back what kind of a temple this one is, since I already decided on the planet. To give some randomness to this stuff.)

After spending a day and a half preparing for the landing, the Al-Imvad landing force was nearly ready. They had heavy shuttles, dropships, and landing craft loaded with powerful all weather-all terrain vehicles. Nearly 200 Army engineers would be going ont the planet to ease the way for the fifty man research team. Currently being loaded onto the ships were 12 wheeled crawlers, for moving across the harsh terrain from the only available landing zone toward the Temple. The admiral in charge of the fleet sent the following message to the Majestic:
Bad weather is delaying our landing. We must wait for it to clear up, or our landing craft will probably be destroyed in the desent. Can you do anything about it?

This is the Majestic. We will try sending a shuttle down to the planet
ourselves. That has usually been enough to calm down the effects the Dark Side
has had to the planets the temples are on. We guess this planet has been
untouched for quite some time, as it is completely under the temple's
destructive power.

And so they had done. A shuttle with the same crew as they had used before on the Al-Imvadjahian homeworld had been sent to the planet. Supposedly, this should "calm" the planet down enough to let the Dark Jedi land with whomever is with them.

OOC: Just for later, I want to make the first post about the details of planet #6. I'll be introducing some stuff.

IC:
The Dark Jedi's plan worked, the storms subceded just enough to allow the landers onto the planet. Whne they landed, the clouds closed again above their heads, leaving a mere few hundred feet of calm air in which the landers could maneuver. This safe zone was a 12 mile circle, with the Sith Temple at its center. The landers alighted upon the sandy, red dirt of the planet, with red duststorms and black rainclouds mixing above them artisticly. As the crawlers disembarked, the team leaders looked ahead to the terrain they would have to cross to reach the Temple. It was not appealing: 4 miles of thick gravely sand into which the crawlers could sink if they were to go too slowly, and large sandstone boulders that forced their way out of the ground, ready to destroy anything that went too fast. This deadly plain led toward a ring of protective mountains which rose almost vertically for thousands of feet, directly into the impassible cloud cover. Ground scans had indicated a pass through to the interior nearby, but the base was obscured by duststorms, as the calmness at the surface was merely relative, with the wind gusting at 50 mph.

The crews drove the crawlers off the landing craft and climbed into them, setting off at high speed across the desert. Despite the rain bearing clouds, it was obvious that no liquid water had touched the surface in this area for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. As they approached the base of the mountains, the team leader attempted a roll call, two crawlers reported that they had become stuck, and would have to be towed out. The occupants of these were already making the trudge across the treacherous terrain back toward the relative safety of the circle of landing craft.

As the remaining crawlers approached the feet of the mountains, the pas suddenly appeared, a road directly to the Temple city. The first crawler crested the final hill an dpaused as the driver took in the view of the abandoned city, with the tall spire of the Temple reaching into the clouds above.

One of the four Dark Jedi apprentices that were there with this effort to explore the fifth temple rose up in the crawler as they saw the temple in the horizon. It was a rather magnificant sight, like the epitome of their expedition. Nothing up to this point had been quite as awesome, at least on its exterior. Interior of the temple, on the other hand, was still to be seen.

"This is it. Finally, we are at the very last point of our journey. Or at least, at the very last point that should have any weight in it. Soon we can start looking for those Sith warships, and if we find even one of them... That will be a glorious day. The other places... I can't see how they could get any better than this."

The others nodded in agreement.

The crawler went closer and closer towards the temple, passing many ruined buildings. Wonder what had caused this cataclysm? The Dark Jedi did not care, all they wanted were more coordinates to whatever ships the Sith may have left for them to find. To think that those whom they had always hated could actually be of some use to them... The irony of it all. The Dark Jedi will utilize what the Sith left behind.

The Interior of the Temple was not as magnificant as might have been expected. Instead the teams were faced with a maze of halls, passageways and side rooms. The walls and ceiling were red sandstone, the floor black marble. Unlike the other Temples, the lighting strips were inactive, even with the Dark Jedi insde. The rest of the city had yet to be explored, but all knew that anything of importance would be found in the Temple itself. In a small anteroom a couple dozen feet from the entrance, the Al-Imvad team leader called together everybody.

"Okay, it appears that there isn't any power in this building right now, and we might not be able to get the power on again for quite some time, if ever. So we'll have to use flashlights, and there probably won't be enough time for a detailed survey of all the archeological findings. Right now, I want to get an idea of the layout of the Temple - I've got the master network computer in this case, so everything you people find will be relayed back to me ... and whichever of you Dark Jedi would care to stay here to oversee the operation. That means make sure your mapmaker transponder/recievers are on so we know where everybody is. If yours isn't working or you forgot to grab one, I've got spares. Teams of four, get out there."

The army troops, scientists, and Jedi split up and went off to explore the Temple, each person's transponder relaying his or her movements (and some sensor readings) back to the main computer, creating a virtual map of where the groups had been. This was then relayed back to everybody, giving them a basic idea of where they were and how to get back.

One of the teams eventually found themselves in a stairwell. They began going up, and up, and up. Apparently into the spire. When they finally began to approach the top, a set of doors appeared. They went through and found themselves in a docking station, far above the ground surrounded by the storms of the upper lower atmosphere. This had presumably been where the Sith had departed the planet from, as there were slips for shuttles, which were empty, and the gigantic gates that led to the outside were shut tightly. The went back into the stairwell and went to the uppermost level, where they found a tiny room with a low table in the center. The room was surrounded by windows, intact, which showed the outside of the spire and the surrounding air. Seated at the table was a dried out, shrivelled, mummified corpse wearing Sith robes, his hands resting upon a small, black object.

One of the apprentice Dark Jedi was with the group that had found itself in a room with a very much dead, mummified Sith, whose robes had, oddly enough, survived the test of time. The black thing the Sith was still holding piqued his interest.

"I wonder what that is..."

He reached towards it with his left hand, using the Force to remove it from the corpse and float it back to his own hand. He directed his own flashlight towards the black thing.

"Looks like an odd variation of a datapad. Not exactly your most basic ones. This one's custom made... Hmm... I can feel an odd tingle as I now hold it in my hands... Almost as if... It is a Dark Side item, or at the very least something fueled by the Dark Side. I wonder if it really even is a datapad... The feeling I get from it... I don't understand."

OOC: I'll let you work this Temple as i haven't really got any ideas for it, except sarcophogi. I've got to get this next part of the DF done though, I've got RPs waiting for its completion.
IC
Dark Fleet Update
The Dark Fleet nears completion, all is now pretty much done except for the twin commandships, which are only half done. We are having a hard time thinking of good names though. Perhaps something inspired by some alien toungue? The many dozens of cruisers, frigates, and destroyers now orbit beyond Nonistan's moon, waiting for the final toutches to be applied to the battleships and battlecruisers.

Bump.
OOC: make the back thing a weather control device, but I don't care about this Temple really.

The object in the apprentice's hands crackled as it sparked, as if it was coming back to life. It was reactivated by the Dark Side energy that coursed through him. He felt kind of weak, a feeling he did not exactly like much.

Then the device began to boot up. He looked at in amazement.

"What is this...?"

He looked at the odd symbols course through the device, until it suddenly began using symbols he could understand. It was some kind of a control device of the complete installation. Or more like a remote control. The ancient power system of the whole complex suddenly began to work once more. The device wasn't giving him almost any options right now, just telling him that the systems were in the process of being brought up.

And the lights came up, many of them crackling due to long years of no use, although they seemed to be in almost as good a state as they had ever been.

He coughed up blood but other than that, he had begun to feel much better. He raised his eyes from the device, turned to the others and spoke.

"... Shit. I guess whoever made this place as dead as it is right now made the whole place shut itself down by killing this poor bastard here. If that's what they wanted to do or not, well... We'll have to look for those answers ourselves."

(OOC: Trying to get rid of my writer's block here.)

OOC We can get back to exploring this temple later- I'm going to move onto the next planet.
IC
While one small group was exploring the Fifth Temple, another had been dispatched to the next world. What they disovered was truely amazing.

OOC: I'm going to actually take awhile typing this, so prob tommorrow afternoon. It's going to be a long one.