NationStates Jolt Archive


In the Maws of Shadow (Open - FT)

Jenrak
15-01-2006, 20:43
Eptra, the capital of the Totalian Sith Empire
Darkness only crept over the sun-scarred, enflaming landscape, the rocks sticking out like knives amongst an armoury of stone. It was a creeping, moving, crackling land of doom, the volcanoes and the gas smirking in the humid air, sticky and toxic from the dust and blood and bones. This dreaded landscape, the asteroid floating delicately in space, as the gravity of the nearby planet loomed over like a prodigious cold. The gas giant, Eptra, shone with stripes and lances across its atmosphere. A bright light it was, reflecting rays off the nearby star, shining with double the heat that would be given off. On the drifting asteroid, around the ringed world, there was a palace, an academy of pain, torture, death and silence.

Screams only echoed throughout the gassing canyons, the carved faults of lava and magma strewn like rivers of heated blood. Inside this academy, this palace, its walls of marble and metal, the doors made of bone and carbon steel. Fibres of flesh for rope, the red strings on the carpet from the cut sinew of victims – their screams heard only in the distant hallways. For here, in this dark, shadowy, dreary land of the dead, laid the capital of an empire in shadows. The largest academy in the grip of the Totalius’ legions. From here, in the topmost tower of the highest peak on the tallest mountain, stretching its eyes of control over thousands of miles, he only sat, quiet and dormant, listening to the fervent hunger deep within the remains of his ravaged soul. Mask gruesomely tapered on his face, gauntlets holding only the ghosts of long-lost fingers, shelled in silver and platinum, and a cape as red as the morning blood of the sun. His breathing rasped at perfect intervals, as if he was a delicate machine, crackling and moving with a swift gust of wind around him, the cold air breaking the humid vapour that was the asteroid’s surface.

Only on this asteroid, breathing with his quiet voice tucked beneath a sea of thought and hunger, Totalius heard a silent, fading, stealthy but still existing noise, in the back of his mind. Somebody was there. Somebody was hungry. Whoever this being was, it did have hunger, and its hunger was greater than his – this hunger was a threat. In the back of his mind, Totalius only waited, breathing softly, breathing silently, his gauntleted fingers slowly creeping to his lightsaber on his belt, waiting for the perfect moment. Silent only replied, nothing there – the shadows unnerving with the fractions of the rays of light. There, he thought, as a slither of sound broke the silence, a faint tug in the Force directing him to the spot.

There, on the topmost tower of the highest peak on the tallest mountain, the figure slashed down, a red lightsaber flashing through the darkness. In a swift moment, the lights turned on, and Totalius twisted up, saber drawn and powers unleashed, twisting his arm to swipe, but it was skilfully blocked, so fast that it could not have been seen. In another swift movement, Totalius dodged and leapt up, jumping backwards as he hacked his way through the onslaught, the mysterious being slashing to the right, his left hand firing off a quick blast of electricity. Totalius only cackled in amusement, the blast of the Force rejuvenating him with every crackle of electricity flowing through his body, his hunger becoming slated every single second. Twinkling eyes through the black mask, he only swung at the dark being, the enemy swinging down, a blast of the Force from Totalius’ hands pushing the enemy back into the wall. The foe jumped forwards once more and swung again, his fury flowing through his every vein, the dark side permeating his flesh, the vengeance of long grudges becoming his muscle. There was an irony in this fight, both combatants fuelled by their opponents – as long as their opponents could keep fighting, they could too. An advantage had to be found somewhere, as the lights twinkled, the arid smells fumed, and the sky was thick with thunderbolts and clouds.

From the battle, Totalius launched a bevy of electricity against this attacker, only to have the same effect – his hunger merely drained it all way. There was only one solution to this. Twisting his body around, Totalius slashed up, and missed, but the enemy was cruelly grabbed in the face, and his body thrown far off to the end of the chamber, the glass cracking in his slamming thud. In the Maw of Shadow, in the kingdom of Darkness… The being echoed throughout Totalius’ mind, as the Sith Lord reached his fingers, drawing long, twisted purple like claws from the spire etched into the tower’s body, covering the land in a dark purple glaze. Hands crackling with this new oddity, Totalius only lifted up the large sphere of power, and lunged it towards his foe, whom raised his own, and fired a quick jet of electricity into Totalius’ blind left eye. The Sith Lord soon lost concentration for he could no longer see, and his own weapon fell darkly down upon him, his final hunger slated, his thirst for power quenched. Without the rift to sustain him, no longer the endless void of power he was, Totalius became empty, a shell only, crushed and gone forever – complete to be dead. His corpse did not fall harmlessly to the ground. Instead, it crackled with electricity, launching stones and the academy crippling into ruins, its students of hunger killed within, the attacker the only survivor.

As he stood far from the smoking ruin, his sabers tucked away on his belt safely, he only grimaced at the noise, for he could not see. The Force was his vision, and his vengeance would come to fruition. “In the Maw of Shadow, in the Kingdom of Darkness…” He said quietly, as the stone pieces began to dissipate, the red lightning still crackling of the Sith Lord’s ending reign.

“…the Leader of the blind, is King.”
Amazonian Beasts
15-01-2006, 21:05
OOC: I assume this is Star Wars because of the Sith and Force references

In Orbit Over Coruscant:

Master Liewing Rand felt a disturbance rippling through the currents of the Force. A darkness, spreading unnoticed, like a malignant tumor. One that could destroy the very fabrics of civilization. The crease in the Force had shaken him, touching him with the cold darkness.
Master Rand retreated to his meditaion chamber on board his private ship, the Lightrider. He sat down on a cushion and was again hit with a blow in the Force, a current of evil. The implications of such could be great...something was amiss. Meditating, Master Rand felt pain, he felt suffering. Cries of innocence, the laughter of oppressors. Anger, hate.
These thoughts shocked Rand, they felt almost seductive. Not such feelings for a servant of the light. A path that could lead to the dark side, to be one of those inflicting pain, bringing chaos...
Rand shuddered. He had to bring this menance to justice.
In the cockpit of the Lightrider, he found his apprentice, Briela Tenner, smiling at him.

"Hello master, meditating again?"
"Yes Briela, I have felt a disturbance in the Force. Something evil, reaching out to the galaxy."
"So what are we going to do about it?"

Rand frowned. The girl was too sure about herself.

"Too confident in your abilities you are, Briela. But you are right, we must find the source of this cancer. It will be a good meter of your abilities in any case. It stretched out at me from the Rim, far away from here..."
Jenrak
15-01-2006, 22:00
OOC: Jolt is being Fascist.
Jenrak
15-01-2006, 22:14
Eptra, Minuras Academy
The attacker only walked along its silent halls, as new, sleek, silver clad soldiers bowed in perfect tandem, their movements equal and their forms equal to the millimetre, all seeming automated by their discipline. From the crowd of the columns of soldiers, came a tall, dark and lanky figure, very much like the soldiers that acknowledged the mysterious assassin’s arrival, but this one seemed taller, more menacing, more controlling. In a thick, crackled, evil voice, it sneered at the sight of the blind attacker’s footsteps, and then bowed lowly in recognition.

“Lord Decimus.” The bowing silver clad being replied, his voice hushed in an awe. “Scouts have reported the news. It is ready.” He said once more, waiting for a reply.

The attacker, revealing to be the enigmatic Decimus, only cackled quietly. “The plan is ready. The Sith are unprepared, and their species are to be killed. I want to never hear the words ‘Sith Lord’ ever again. Do you understand, Lord Exmernax?” He said, as he walked past the bowing Lord. “Kill them all – raze the Totalian Empire to the ground. Bring its fleets to its knees.”

The Liakzakk Academy, Usillian system
Blood only poured from the apprentices’ students, as the darkened troops slashed into their throats, their jagged edged knives letting the visceral flesh bleed with a darkened soul slashed by a material blade. “What is going on?” The Sith Master yelled, his lightsaber flaring in a blinding flash as he tried to fight off the onslaught of the enemy, pulses of lasers slashing through the walls, cutting their victims into carved cubes of flesh, blasters slinging with a deadly slip through the arid atmosphere. “You bastards!” He yelled once more, as the Sith apprentices yelled in tandem, electricity pulsing from their fingers and red sabers flaring up into the air, against foiled War blades, a brilliant display of light as the academy on Liakzakk was besieged.

The Secret Academy of Aukros, Deleck System
Children laid hung on their nooses, blood dripping from their mouths, fingers thin and pale with the loss of blood permeating their every being. The soldiers, tall, long and lanky, with a silver adamant armour, marched past, knives glistening in the shining moonlight, the four moons of the gas giant Deleck only drifting nearby this oasis of matter. Rifles pulsing loudly, breaking the quiet atmosphere with a deadly strike, they fired and fired again, the Sith legions, once more sabers blazing in the night, flung towards their enemies, gunned down by artillery.

The Capital Ship Manekknoss
The large behemoth was in a hanging state, nearly ready to fall like a great moon above a large planet heavy in weight. It hun for only a few minutes, as the slaves huddled within its stone hearth, frightened as the identical silver clad soldiers crossed blades with the pulsing red lightsabers of the Sith. In a quick tide, the escape pods were launched, the Capital becoming unbearably hot, as their skins began to melt like wax in a bright summer light, their halls falling down into the gushing anger of the star they were floating above.
Amazonian Beasts
15-01-2006, 22:49
Hyperspace

Back in his meditation chamber aboard the Lightrider, in the midsts of hyperspace, Master Rand bent down in agony. Voices screaming in the Force, thousands of souls extinguished, lives cut short. Something terrible had happened. Something that could threaten all.

"Master, what happened?" Tenner ran up to him, her face full of concern.
"Something terrible, Briela...something terrible."
"Is it from the same source as the first?"
"I believe so...we must get to the source of this fast."
Huntarian Alliance
15-01-2006, 23:31
Onboard the Eclipse SSD Freedom's Cry, Magriel suddenly felt as though a part of his spirit was being ripped away. His former master walked up to him and lifted Magriel up from the floor as he fell.

"What? Did the last blast from the Empire's ITSD's make you jump that hard, my old apprentice?"

"No. It's something else. Something.... Awfull which a Sith Lord has committed. One of the Huntarian Empire's allies. The Lord of Hunger. Totalius if I remember correctly."

"How do you know him?"

"We met, and I fought one of his students while I was Darth Deshoonde. He can't withstand his hunger any more. He's readying for his dinner. I can feel it. We're going to be in some serious shit in the future Master. I'd be on your guard. Meanwhile, let's focus on the Empire's ships."


OOC: I would so "love" to have Totalius destroy a planet within my empire upon Trilkan's request durring my civil war. He'd kill the Empire's troops too, but the emperor views them as expendable. I'm thinking around when I get to the Core Worlds of Huntaer.
Jenrak
16-01-2006, 03:25
OOC: Huntaer, I don't understand...
IC:

Minuras Academy
Lord Decimus entered into his chamber, the silky sashes and the marble walls only lightly prancing in the refracting light, his armoury latched along his wall. Standing atop the balcony to watch the moving clouds of darkness simper through, he felt a strong surge of energy through his body, as a stab from behind had pierced his skin, and he felt its cold blade move up his spine and tear his sinew. Under unbearable pain, he screamed, but there was no sound coming from his throat – only pain. “W-What is this?” He asked, as he no longer head the distinct call of the Force reach him. “What darkness has befallen me?!?” He cried and whimpered, his mouth dry, his eyes red, and his body thinning out into a skeletal shape amongst the red silky curtains.

Then, after a few minutes of silent torture, Decimus spoke manically in a voice unlike his own, but a voice dark, rasping, and weary – a voice exactly like the one he recently felled. “Do you think you can get away from me so easily?” He spoke, his voice exactly like Totalius.

“Totalius, is that you? What sorcery is this?” Decimus cried out in pain, his hands becoming bonier with every passing second, his arms becoming unbearably lanky. His voice soft and dreary, his throat dry, Decimus only shook violently, as a bright light illuminated the room, its shining silver ray through the windows and onto the darkening landscape. His face melding into a thinning, skull-like demeanour, his arms thin as wire and his fingers delicate and stripped with veins, Decimus only rose up, his hands crackling, he tore down a red sash, and hung it over his shoulder, like a darkening robe and cape, his glancing attitude looking into a mirror. Totalius was back – death was not enough to stop the Hungry Sith Lord.

“I need a new mask.” He said, thinking carefully, until he came to an idea. His hands up to his jaw, he pulled hard, and ripped off the skin and bone from his face, and quickly smashed it back on, the blood searing down his thinning neck, his face as his mask. His chest in pain, he realised the elimination of Decimus through the Force was a dangerous and costly assault, one that drained him of his many powers. He had to find a source, and only his apprentices existed.

“My students could not even protect me. They will pay with their souls.” He said, sitting down, ready to feed, his presence, his hunger within the Force, reaching an even more powerful status than before.
Amazonian Beasts
16-01-2006, 03:43
The Republic Star Destroyer Valiant, Over Thyferra:

The Lightrider had regrouped with a Jedi cruiser in the Rim, by Thyferra. Master Rand needed the input of other Jedi. On board the Valiant, he and Briela Tenner consulted with Masters Jefar Kayne and Henirk Warnyr.

"Master Kayne, do you know where this source of evil could be springing from?"
"I do not, Master Rand...the Sith order has been deceased for long, the name almost unknown...unless this is not the Sith."
"What else could it be?"
"That is unknown...some other dark-side users. Who they could be is also a thing of mystery."
"But who could have this knowledge?"
"Or another thing it could be...not neccessarily dark-side users, does it have to be. It could be extermination and genocide, or many other things."
"It is somewhere in the Rim...that I am sure of."
"Then we shall look for it. Master Rand, I suggest you and your apprentice stay on board the Valiant for the time being. More of us to combat this threat when it does arise. Look for it we shall. This sceptre of the dark side will be unveiled."
Jenrak
16-01-2006, 21:53
Liakzakk Academy, Usillian System
The master only swung once more, as raging marauders were felled in their awesome rage through the fleeting blasters. Lighting up the darkening night in a brilliant light, they slashed forwards, the forces cutting through the swaths of Sith legions, as the electricity from the edge of the silver soldiers’ fingers flew them back. In surprise, a Sith master only yelled, “They can use the Force!” He cried, to the dismay of the students fighting already a losing battle against these extermination squads.

The Ragnozk Fleet, Outside the Rings of Eptra
Floating in a the drift of space, large and powerful and strong, the mighty Ragnozk fleet, always used in the forefront of great battles, lumbered slowly about, in their tandem as they watched the communications dwindle over the communications net. Distress signals of help and supplies were frequently called, and the Force rung high with death, slaughter, and hunger. Rage and fury were full in the void, and its sounds echoed like a great chasm through the endless darkness of space, ships blasting into hyperspace and others returning – in pieces. From the capital ships, a furious war waged on inside its soft innards, as the same silver clad soldiers pushed forwards, metal cortosis weaves slipping aside the lightsabers, electricity filled with abuzz in the air.
Jenrak
17-01-2006, 23:17
Hekktok Academy
Hekktok stood in all its magnificence against them like a glorious pike against the flesh of the sky, sticking out in defiance of the ground’s rigid movements. No force has ever breached, not even touched the surfaces of the Hekktok Academy without any retribution, for it is guarded by a massive disciplined army, the greatest of Shadowy Sith Lords and the most powerful of weapons war can create. No enemy has ever breached its haven halls, broke through its dense walls in the shining light. An obelisk of flame amongst a sea of gasses, Hekktok was the prize of the Totalius empire, a great prize of the Dark Side. Made through blood and bone and sea of flesh, no one has ever breached its wall, no enemy stood up against its might. No one, however, was as adaptable as Totalius, for he built the academy, out of his blood and his bone, and his sea of flesh from his sea of power. In it, he could unmake the academy, he could raze it to the ground, and build the empire in a larger craft of brilliance. Or perhaps he could fix its faults. No matter the reason, he was intent on retaking his prize from his failing excuse of students, and he would use the Force if necessary.

Labelled Decimus from now on, he reigned over his troops in a great glamour, his lightsabers flung up into the air, his protection against another attack as before. Walking up the sleek, silver walkways, Decimus (originally Totalius) turned around at the end of the dimly lighted hallway, sat down on the throne of Minuras, looking imperiously his legions, the silver clad Force cutters as he called them. In their robes and armour, they only nodded, they only bowed, they did utter a single word – such of discipline that he wished from his former legions. Instead, an assassin crept past their ranks, and allowed his near death. Had he not been quick enough to stage his ‘defeat’, Totalius would have lost his empire to the unworthy, and such as army would go to waste.

“I will kill my sons and brothers.” Totalius only said, in the voice of Decimus.
DMG
17-01-2006, 23:55
[tag for upcoming post]
Jenrak
21-01-2006, 00:31
OOC: Bump.