Mission Completed

“Your apprentices have safely docked in the ship, my lady,” Captain Rashel informed her Sith master. Lady Mutaria smiled at the news as she went down to meet the ones under her tutelage. She could barely contain her excitement on the return of her apprentices and the precious information they have gathered for her. Or rather, Lady Mutaria hoped her apprentices had the data she sent them for because the consequences of failure would be rather harsh. She, however, had faith in her apprentices and that they could get the job done.

“Welcome back my dear apprentices!” Lady Mutaria greeted her with her arms open to hug them both as they exited their ship. The two embraced their master, who gave each one a kiss on their cheek as she hugged them. “Now, do you have what I sent for? It’d be most unfortunate if you do not,” Lady Mutaria said with a calm voice but both apprentices could feel the cold aura that emanated from her as she asked that question.

“O-of course we have, mistress!” Alema told Lady Mutaria as she reached to her waist to grab the data disc that was attached to her belt and handed it to her master.

“That is not all we have for you, master,” Wes said as he went back into the ship for a few moments and then returned with the Jedi that was still unconscious. “It seems I have a habit of bringing you back unconscious Jedi whenever I go out on a mission,” joked Wes as he laid the Jedi on the ground in front of her.

“Oh my! It seems you certainly do!” Lady Mutaria said as she looked over the Jedi. “Hmmm. I’m afraid this one doesn’t seem as...pliable as our sweet Alema here,” she said as she rubbed her hand along the twi’lek’s face. “But that does not mean she can’t be useful,” she informed her two apprentices. She then turned around to the guards that had followed her down to the hanger bay, “You two, take her to the detention cell. I’ll have to question her later,” she ordered the men. The two men quickly grabbed the Jedi and transported her away.

“Master, while we were completing this mission, I believe there are two important things to report to you,” Wes told his master, who raised her eyebrow at this comment.

“I see. Come, let us go to the conference room so we can discuss this in further detail,” she said as she turned and headed towards the turbolift. Her two apprentices quickly followed her as made her way to the turbolift. “So, are these two things related to why my ship has multiple blaster burns on it?”

“Yes, master. I’m sure everything will make sense once we explain to you what happened during this mission,” Wes told his master, a hint of apprehension in his voice after the clear threat she made to him and Alema.

“Do calm down, apprentice. You have the data disc from the station, correct? There is nothing more to fear,” Lady Mutaria told her apprentices.

“Of course, master,” Wes replied to Lady Mutaria. “We downloaded the datacore as you asked. Whatever was stored in its data banks is on that disc,” reassured Wes, who was rather content with living.

After a quick walk, the three were in the conference room where Lady Mutaria plugged in the data bank into the room’s computer. The Sith master and her two apprentices looked on as what appeared to be thousands of files appeared on the holo-projector, but not all of them looked the same. Some seemed to have red lines go through the icon that represented them.

“Dammit!” exclaimed Lady Mutaria as she watched the data pour out. “Far more of the files are corrupted than I thought they would be,” admitted the Sith. “This could be a problem. It does, however, seem like the Jedi were attempting to restore the data. At least now I know what to ask our Jedi friend,” decided Lady Mutaria.

“Well at least not all is lost, mistress,” Alema pointed out.

“But what is the data you are looking for, master?” asked Wes, curious to know what his master had planned.

“We will get to that in due time. First tell me what it is you wanted me to know,” Lady Mutaria told her apprentice.

“Of course, master. First, as we made our way through the Star Forge remains, we came across some sort of creature that seemed to be attracted to Force users,” Wes told Lady Mutaria. “The creature was of standard humanoid height, but looked almost skeletal. It was wrapped in what looked like rags and had white hair that seemed to defy gravity. And on its hands were sharp, black talons that could easily eviscerate anything it touched. And it also floated and seemed to resist most attacks and were only affected by the Force. Do you know what this creature is or have ever heard of it?” asked Wes, who hoped his master knew something about it.

“I have,” she said coolly. “It is called a starweird and they are fearsome creatures that feed on Force users. There are...rumors that they were created by a deranged Sith lord on some backwater planet after being banished by the Emperor there. There is, of course, no proof of that, but these things seem to not exist before our Emperor lead us to salvation during the end of the Great Hyperspace War. All we know is that they are extremely viscous, can live in the vacuum of space, and hate Force users. For you both to survive an encounter with one let’s me know I made the right choice in apprentices. You two shall both be very powerful Sith lords some day,” she said with a smile, proud to know that two future powerhouses of the Sith Empire will be forever indebted to her as they were her apprentices. “So, what is the second thing?” she asked.

“We encountered another Sith lord assaulting the Star Forge as we were making our escape,” Alema told her mistress. “He was Lord Veradun, apprentice of Lord Vindican, who retook the homeworld according to him,” she informed Lady Mutaria, who nodded as Alema spoke.

“He is correct. Lords Veradun and Vindican retook Korriban at the beginning of this war. You, Wes, were from the first class that we sent there after we sent our best and brightest to rebuild the ancient temples to be able to teach a new class of Sith on my ancient homeworld,” Lady Mutaria informed her apprentices. “Lord Vindican died during the battle, with his apprentice taking over his fleets and armies, per Sith tradition. But he attacked the Star Forge? I’m surprised he even knew where it was. Wes had to steal that from you, my dear, in order to find its location. Perhaps that old Sith had some information that Veradun found and hoped to reclaim the ancient structure like Darths Revan and Malak were supposed to.” Lady Mutaria was lost in thought for a minute as various theories ran through her mind as to how another Sith could have so easily found and perhaps even destroyed vital information for her to gain her prize. This, however, did give her a new source of potential information. “I shall send a spy into his ranks to see what they can find. Now, let us go and rest,” Lady Mutaria suggested, so as to not answer Wes’ previous question about her plans.

“But master,” interjected Alema, “you have not answered Wes’ question about what is your plan?”

“Hmm, perhaps it’s time I told you two my plan.” Lady Mutaria mulled the decision over in her mind. She had been working on this plan since she was an apprentice to her own master when she stumbled upon ancient Sith writings that spoke of a ritual. The one thing that has driven her entire career as a Sith lord. Every alliance she made, every betrayal she has done, every person she bedded has been to achieve this goal and had, so far, been able to keep it to herself. Perhaps, now was the time to share just a fragment of her plan with her apprentices. Just enough to keep them satisfied while she kept the true intentions to herself.

“Very well, my apprentices, I shall tell you what I know,” Lady Mutaria told her two apprentices. While she was not going to tell them everything, she would let them know just the basics of her plan. “When I was still an apprentice, I stumbled upon an ancient Sith artifact that had a ritual written on it. The writing itself is in a dialect no longer spoken or written, so I must find a way to translate it. The Star Forge, with its old age, most likely had some of this writing either through Darth Revan or the rakata. Unfortunately, it seems much of the data is corrupted so we’ll have to parse through all of it to see if we can find this language or a hint of somewhere else to go. Now, let us begin!” Lady Mutaria told her apprentices as each one made their way to a console to begin the search.

“We will not fail you,” Alema said to Lady Mutaria as she began to sift through a portion of the database that she helped recover.