Bindo's Journey: Vacant Tombs Part 1

Jolee descends in a shuttle across the face of Korriban.  With him are Jedi, survivors of the Star Forge.  They are aware of the chaos and fiery fury of their enemy.  But here the old master suspects that they shall be confronted with the cold silence of stone.  Hearts unyielding so as cannot be contained by the grave and destined to haunt their memories.  The darkest of Sith masters resided here, though, Revan slaughtered them upon his last departure.

The Sith academy remained occupied until a week ago.  Republic forces could not draw near enough to strike, but now their listening posts report silence and the Sith fleet nowhere to be found.  Few would have volunteered for this mission.  Jolee personally went among them and selected his candidates.  He had only one volunteer.  And this man was no Jedi.

Carth Onasi has not heard from Dustil since his son departed to raise a rebellion against his former instructors.  There is no word on how this movement has faired except for the utter silence that has overshadowed the world of Korriban.

Jolee directs the shuttle to land in the Valley of Dark Lords.

JOLEE:  Our mere presence here should be

defilement enough.  Let's see if they respond.

The shuttle touches down without incident
and the occupants disembark.

The winds howl wildly as if feral without the commanding presence of Sith.  Difficult to see, one Jedi trips up on some bones.  Jolee approaches the corpse and examines the tattered clothing.  Carth picks up a heavy repeating blaster that pours sand from every crevice.

JOLEE:  Revan killed this man not too long ago.

CARTH:  These storms are getting worse.

The shuttle shouldn't stay here.

JOLEE:  The question is can it take off again?

A Hssiss emerges from the sand storm and
devours the Jedi who tripped the corpse.

Carth's blasters are ineffectual against its hide
and Jolee slashes across it's throat for a kill
leaving the half eaten body still in its maw.

JOLEE:  Be careful what you touch.

He forges ahead leaving the other
Jedi to gulp at the sight of their friend.

JOLEE:  Come on!  Where did you think 

you were going?  A camping trip

with gramps?  We walk at the

heart of evil and will be

made to see ourselves
one way or another
before the day is
through with us!

The landing party leaves the shuttle
and a squad of soldiers behind to guard it.

They walk up the gorge and draw near to the academy entrance.  As Jolee walks with unbroken stride each of the Jedi tiptoe around the many humanoid skeletons strewn before them in tighter concentration than that of the valley.  Jolee kicks over a femur and the other Jedi jump back engaging their lightsabers.

JOLEE:  Jedi don't meet death with fear.

Only then you're already dead.

We are not here to desecrate.

But we are here to confront

that which has silenced it.

These confused bones are

too many to call a right

of vengeance for themselves.

That we shall find inside.

Jolee draws nearer to the entrance while the others
continue to stand behind and the doors open before him.

He speaks to himself.

JOLEE:  Is it still an invitation if the 

no trespassing sign stays up?

He glances back at them.

JOLEE:  Come along if you're coming.

I'm too old to wait
for the young to

catch up.

Jolee ignites his lightsaber.  The oppressive darkness remains before him and resists withdrawing beneath the light of the green blade.  There is a persistent presence bolstering the dark side here.  Jolee probes for unhappily familiar coble stones beneath his feet that he might find his path through the snaking hallways in this vile pit which he visits.

More light flanks him of various sort that
cast foreign hues on the coarse red rock.

JEDI:  We are with you, Master Jolee.

JOLEE:  I have led you astray,
I'm afraid.

He disengages his lightsaber.

JOLEE:  We shall find tricks of the

eye and mind here.

Look with the Force.
See your way through.

The others disengage their lightsabers and are plunged into the echoes of each step the group takes together.  The newly initiated with silent darkness are made to discover the force which emanates from the very walls and floor.  Even now the academy is attempting to expel them.

Yet they draw further in.  And one of these initiates
considers the possibility that the repulsion is an illusion.

JOLEE:  Yes.  The door is already closed.

The academy only offers the illusion

of exterior light, creating a facsimile 

of the gentle warmth of the local sun.

There is much danger here.  And it
wants our overconfidence to remain.

My friends, many things can kill a Jedi.

If you would be one and hold fast

to the Force then it is not a matter

of overcoming it.  Let the Force

rule you and answer those who

would rule it.  And then you might

prove more powerful than Revan

before he was the prodigal.

VOICE:  Well said.

Jolee ignites his lightsaber.

JOLEE:  Stay hidden and vigilant.

VOICE:  Nothing is invisible to me here, Master Jedi.

If there is a will to the Force it is that

I defend my rights earned in

winning this world.

JOLEE:  You destroyed the Sith here?

VOICE:  I am Sith.

Before them the figure ignites his lightsaber to cast a bloody glow across his numerous scars which marks the whole of his body so that he is nothing other than naked pain in the Force refusing to succumb to the pull to slip away from this life.  He then disappears into the darkness while his lightsaber is cast forth spinning through the unseen air.

One of Jolee's companions is divorced from his arm and sliced across the chest.  He lives, but cries out in surprised agony spreading the shock among the ranks of Jedi.  It is then that Jolee realized this invisible Sith intentially stayed the killing blow.  Far more dangerous was this Sith who calculated his strikes for the affect beyond the mere blow.

Jolee reflexed what he had accomplished on the Apocalypse.  He destroyed the hilt of the lightsaber on its return trip to the Sith Lord.  In this blink of a moment, even as the energy beam faltered into oblivion, it retained enough cohesion in order to cut his right upper arm, which he had to suppress the shock of and force it to become a dull throbbing immediately.

Each cast in their own light, when their fallen friend's screams finally subside they hear the subtle grind of footsteps all around them.  In the darkness the enemy moves and Jolee is forced to regret destroying the Sith's lightsaber.

One Jedi is tackled from behind and lightsaber taken so that in the green glow of it the others witness him being run through and then lightsaber turned off again.  A metal cylinder skates across the stone floor and comes to rest at Jolee's feet.

VOICE:  What did you think you 

would find here, Jedi?

JOLEE:  I was hoping today might

be the end of the Sith.

VOICE:  No... you know the darkness

better than these other Jedi.

JOLEE:  I didn't say anything about

the dark side.  I said the end of the Sith.

These last few centuries with you have

been quite enough for my tastes.

VOICE:  The feeling is mutual.

Jolee sends the lightsaber at his feet flying and engages it in mid air.  And after maybe a couple of rotations it stabs through the mysterious Sith revealing his presence in the green glow.  Run through, the Sith collapses to his knees, but Jolee can plainly see that he's still breathing.

JOLEE:  I've never seen a Sith such as you.

He looks up at Jolee with a slight
smile that turns to a deep frown.

SION:  I am Sion.
And you never will again.

He reaches up and grabs Jolee by the throat.  The other Jedi rush in to strike down the threat and are all collectively thrown back be a Force repulse.  He continues holding Jolee over his head.

SION:  Many times did your Jedi believe

I was slain.

JOLEE:  So why sit out of the war?

I never heard of you.

SION:  And I you.  There are many Sith.

And I knew that Revan would lead us

to ruin.  He called the weak unto himself

and feigned to make them strong.  He took

the traitors of the Republic and was surprised

to be betrayed.  My servants shall be allowed to

rule this galaxy for an eternity for that is how long

my vengeance against the Republic shall last.

JOLEE:  An immortal Sith, huh?

Well I guess finally things are

going to get interesting.

A ring of fire erupts along the walls and the remaining Jedi are surrounded by Sion's silent assassins.  They raise their lightsabers to meet blade and staff while Jolee remains in Sion's single-handed clutch.  Jolee attempts to wriggle free while Sion remains unmoved.

JOLEE:  Tell me something.

SION:  What?

JOLEE:  Were all of these fallen Sith

friends of yours?

Jolee summons enough strength to squeeze Sion's wrist
to release his grip and kicks off the Sith's chest.
Sion staggers back a couple steps into a forlorn skeleton.

Two hissing monsters appear poised to pounce on Sion and rend him with their razer teeth.
He catches one's jaw with his bear hands and wrestles against its attempts to bite down, but the second grabs him around the middle in its mouth and proceeds to carry him away.

JOLEE:  We're leaving.  

He commands the other Jedi and in retreating removes the lightsabers from the fallen and takes them with him.  The assassins are in pursuit but Republic soldiers stand at the breached entrance and cause a collapse that buries the tunnel in rubble.

SOLDIER:  They're not getting out of there.

JOLEE:  They already are.

On the statues and cliffs overhead
the assassins stand silent vigil.

JEDI:  Why aren't they attacking?

JOLEE:  The bones.  They may hate us,
but right now they hate themselves more.
Their empire is in ruins and it didn't have
to be.  These won't risk their vengeance.

SOLDIER:  Orders, sir?

JOLEE:  Where is Carth?

SOLDIER:  Sweeping the caves.

JOLEE:  We should collect him
and inform the Republic of the
persistent danger here.

Amidst the drip, drip of water, combat boots scuff the cave floor echoing each step.
Carth's blaster-mounted flashlight rests on the abandoned coals of the encampment
where the dissident Sith students had fled.

CARTH:  We're going the right direction.

SOLDIER:  Where are we headed, sir?

CARTH:  The cave let's out on the other side.

We parted ways with some students there

who turned on the academy.  There's a 

chance my son might be with them.

Keep an eye out.  Some animals

might have moved back in here

since we cleared it out the

first time.

SOLDIER:  And what was that like?

CARTH:  We had Jedi with us.

They come to the bridge where the Terentatek was slain.  The hard outer shell remains like a crustacean's, but foul green ooze is what has become of the flesh warding off scavengers and further shielding it from taking part in the traditional food chain.

The opposite mouth of the cave is still beyond the bridge.

SOLDIER:  We can't get by that, sir.

CARTH:  Nevermind the smell.  The structural integrity 

of the bridge may be compromised.

There's gotta be a way.

Someone watches them from
the shadows lying on a cave shelf.

Behind them some pebble-sized rocks are disturbed
into a slide.  The soldiers spin around to be met
with a Jedi woman approaching them.

CARTH:  Identify yourself.

JEDI:  The Council sent me ahead of you.

SOLDIER:  Did you know about this, sir?

CARTH:  Not a word.

JEDI:  My name is Bithya.

I sensed Jolee is with you.

He will know me.

CARTH:  And how will we know that?

JEDI:  I want you to take me to him.

There are too many Sith around

to just start walking out in the 

open.  We must be cautious.

CARTH:  I intend to be.  Why did

the Council send you and us?

JEDI:  I was sent ahead to gauge the strength 

of the Sith and by now must be presumed dead.

I witnessed the infighting here and it became 

difficult to operate without becoming exposed.  

Unfortunately, it's settled now.  The Sith 

of Korriban have a new leader.

CARTH:  We saw the world go dark.

The exact opposite indication that

they've begun to build anything.

JEDI:  Because they're not.  These Sith have adopted

a new strategy.  One that is deadly in its simplicity.

Did you not wonder at the fate of their fleet?

They are all hiding from us.

CARTH:  To what end?

JEDI:  What can you do with an enemy

who will not make peace and 

refuses to face you?

SOLDIER:  We'll hunt down every

last one of them, then.

JEDI:  And they will be able to strike

from the hunter's blind.

CARTH:  If you're who you say you are
then this is for the Council to discuss.
Have you seen any resistance fighters?

JEDI:  I have seen nothing
of the kind, Carth Onasi.

She watches him and grows sad
at him looking across the chasm.

JEDI:  Why?

CARTH:  Can you give me a way across?

JEDI:  Is it important?

CARTH:  Very.

JEDI:  I can only think of one.
Do you trust me?

CARTH:  We don't have a lot of time.
I trust that if you're a Sith
in disguise that my men
will avenge me.
Do it.

To his lieutenant's dismay, Carth permits himself to be
levitated and gently transported across the chasm.

JEDI:  Are you there yet?

CARTH:  No.  Don't drop me yet.

JEDI:  Drop you?

CARTH:  No!

JEDI:  Now?

Carth comes face to rock wall and clambers for a  hand hold.
The lieutenant leans over to the Jedi.

SOLDIER:  I think that's far enough, ma'am.

JEDI:  Oh, I see.

SOLDIER:  You okay, sir?

Carth slides down to the cave floor and waves
them off taking a moment to rest.

SOLDIER:  Time to set a perimeter, boys.

The Jedi takes a couple steps back
and leaps across the chasm and
lands solidly next to Carth.

JEDI:  Ready?

CARTH:  Not really.

He takes her hand and they
step over to the cave mouth.

JEDI:  What is this place to you?

CARTH:  This is the last we saw of the

renegades.  My son might be with them.

JEDI:  Hard to tell any true renegades

from all the backstabbing taking

place here.

CARTH:  One could hope that they

were behind some of that.

JEDI:  But the Sith are quiet.

There hasn't been anyone

openly harassing them.

CARTH:  You laid low, didn't you?

JEDI:  How long will you search for him?

CARTH:  Until I find him, this time.

JEDI:  Onasi, he may be dead.

CARTH:  I thought that before.

JEDI:  I see.

They step out from the cave and are met with the
unfettered winds that blanket the surface of Korriban.

JEDI:  Now what?

Carth shouts over the wind.

CARTH:  You can still feel the team?

JEDI:  Yes.

CARTH:  Then you use them as a compass

and keep us oriented.

He steps out into the wind.








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