Malak's Tomb

“Well, let’s see what we have here...” Rusel said to himself as he jumped down from the side of a cliff to an outcropping about 10 meters down. The distance was no problem for a Sith like him. With a simple move, Rusel used the Force to cushion his jump down to the outcropping. There, Rusel saw a narrow cavern in the side of the rock face. Rusel had to suck in his stomach a bit, but he could fit. And thus, Rusel spent the next 20 minutes shimming through the narrow cavern to see what was on the other side. He didn’t know what was there, but he could sense something important through the Force.

“Are you positive we can’t talk about this?” asked Wes as he slowly backed away from the attack droids.

“Negative. Organic, is your diagnostic programs running correctly? You ask the same question yet expect a different answer,” replied the sentinel droid as it and the two assault droids closed in on its target.

“Well that’s the thing, we organics like us some illogical outcomes,” said Wes before he let loose a powerful Force Push towards the droids. The droids went flying back and slammed into the wall on the other side of the room. “Bet you didn’t see that coming,” said Wes as he ran past the droids and into the hallway they came from. He made sure to Force Grab the blaster rifle the sentinel droid had. “Eh. It’s not lightsaber, but these things work, even if they are a bit...uncivilized,” Wes said to himself as he continued down the hall. Sadly, he heard the familiar clanking of droids in the room at the end of the hall.

“All units, split up into 5 droid teams and search in a grid based pattern. We must find the intruders of Darth Malak’s tomb and bring him to the Dark Lord for judgment!” ordered a sentinel droid to the rest of the droids lined up in the droid storage room.

“Roger. Orders accepted,” replied the multitudes of sentinel droids as each one made their way over to the assault droids. Four assault droids stepped up to the sentinel droid, who then turned and began its march down a hallway, the four assault droids following in a line. Wes watched as that same routine happened over and over again as the droids made their way down the opposite hall.

It’s only gonna be a matter of time until they come down this hallway. I gotta figure out what to do. Wes thought to himself as he continued to spy on the droids. He slowly backed away, making sure to keep his eyes on the droids in case they turned down his hall. Unluckily for Wes, he stepped on some loose rubble that caused him to lose his footing. He fell flat on his ass, rather loudly.

“What was that?” questioned one of the sentinel droids.

“Go check, and take some assault droids!” ordered another.

“Roger. I’ll go check,” confirmed the droid as it and 4 assault droids made their way into Wes’ hallway.

“Shit, shit shit!” Wes said under his breath as he tried to crawl backwards before getting to his feet.

“Hey! Whose there?” asked the droid as it raised its gun. “Blast the intruder!” it said as it opened fire in Wes’ general direction. The assault droids followed suit and began firing their weapons as well.

“SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!” yelled Wes as he full sprinted down the hallway away from the incoming blaster fire. Every so often, he’d fire a few shots over his shoulder and hit the droids. Sometimes he’d get them in a key area, but other times it’d just be glancing shots. But now he had all the droids in the room chasing him down the hallway.

“So, this is an undiscovered tomb?” Rusel told himself as he looked around. “Look at all this junk,” he said as he looked around what was clearly some sort of vault or treasure room. Rusel examined many of the unique trinkets and artifacts in the room. Sadly, he wasn’t nearly smart enough to know what some of these things were or where they were from.

“Oh, what is this?!” he said as he made his way to a weapon rack. There he saw something he never dreamed he would see in person: a true sith warblade. It had a bronze tinted hilt and elaborate guard. The blade was blood red, with intricate groves in the blade to let the blood flow as the blade’s owner stabbed and slashed his or her enemies with the blade. Rusel slowly reached out and touched the blade. As soon as Rusel’s fingers brushed the blade and hilt, a surge of dark side energy flowed through him and gave Rusel a vision.

“Look here, Malak, a Sith warblade from before the Great Hyperspace War. Just think, a thousand years ago, ancient Sith used these blades to strike down Jedi. These blades could deflect both blaster bolts and lightsabers. They are anchors of dark side energy, becoming more powerful in the dark side along with its owner,” Darth Revan explained to his apprentice, Darth Malak.

“How curious. I think I’ll take it. It may be fun to cut down Jedi with it,” Darth Malak said with a smile as he reached out to grab the blade.

“So it is true! Darth Malak did have a warblade!” exclaimed Rusel as he swung the warblade around. “Who needs a lightsaber when you have one of these!” he said as he watched the blade glow eerily. He could feel the dark side energy flow between himself and the weapon. “Yes! Yes! You are mine now!” yelled Rusel in excitement. His ecstatic moment, however, was interrupted by the sound of blaster fire and exploding droids.

“God damn droids!” cried Wes as he ducked for cover behind an old console. The device provided some cover from the continuous blaster fire he was receiving. With a quick peak over his shoulder, Wes quickly took aim and fired a few shots off at the sentinel droid.

“Hah! Got it!” he exclaimed as the droid’s head exploded. “Just gotta keep taking those guys out first. The assault droids need a dedicated leader to function properly, so as long as the sentinel droids go down, their functionality will suffer,” Wes told himself in an effort to pump himself up as he turned to fire some more shots at the droids. Sadly, as Wes looked on, he saw a veritable army of droids heading towards him. He knew he had no real way out.

“Do not resist. Your termination will be done with maximum hostility,” the droids repeated at him as they marched down the hallway, firing away. Wes returned fire as he tried to figure out how to get out of this mess he got himself into.

“No thanks! I’d much rather continue living!” he yelled to the droids as Wes aimed above the droids and opened fire.

“Observation. The human’s targeting protocols must be malfunctioning. He has missed us completely,” The droids mocked Wes as their inferior robotic processes couldn’t figure out what he was doing.

“Nah. I hit exactly what I wanted to!” he said as he called upon the Force to collapse the hall at the weakened points where he fired his blaster at. The roof collapsed in on the army of droids, the sound of crushing metals and droid screams filling the room Wes was in. Exhausted, Wes collapsed next to the console, happy to have survived that ordeal. Sadly, he would not be able to enjoy it as he heard the familiar mechanical steps of droids coming down an adjacent hallway.

“Oh come on! Why can’t I ever catch a break?!” he asked as he moved himself to get better cover from that hallway.

“This way, it sounded like blaster fire!” the mechanical voice of a droid was heard. Before Wes could think of a plan, the mechanical menaces entered the room and made a beeline straight for him.

“Well guess my father was right, I would never be a great Sith like him,” Wes said as the anger of his failure swelled up inside him. He was never going to be a Sith Lord like his father, no greater than his father. He would die knowing he proved his father right.