The togruta’s consular lands in the horuset system. She taps on a few panels, doing a quick scan. It was a bastion of the empire. A large fleet of ships, a massive garrison, and fighters spread throughout the system. Thankfully, her ship pinged as unaligned, and she was a good enough pilot to avoid too much notice. She settled into the pilots seat, and started to make her way towards the ruddy-orange nightmare that was Korriban
As she entered the orbit of the planet, she pulled out a map, marked with a specific location. She skiffed through the atmosphere, staying low, to avoid detection. Outside of the sites of Empire interest, the planet was a hollow, wasted shell, with more dead men walking around that living ones. She was not noticed, besides by the few wildlife that looked up at just the right time.
She found the right spot, and circled it for a moment. She landed on a flat bit of sand, surrounded by cliffs. She totally locked down her ship, as she headed for the ramp down. That horrible, crushing corruption of Korriban was felt even in space, but now, on the surface, to somebody as sensitive as Zalea, it was like the planet was on fire. Waves of dark, from the massive, corrupted force nexus, attempting to push the worst possible version of Zalea to the surface with every breath. The Togruta gritted her teeth, and started to work the forge on herself, hammering out all of that corruption seeping into her. She dropped down onto the sand, her bare feet digging into the grit. She closes her ship, locking the door with a beep from her wristcomp.
There it was, in the distance. A small doorway, cut into the sheer cliff. Zalea had been searching for something like this for a while, and she had eventually found a good source, that she could cross reference with information she had gathered from her time with the Jedi, and her own exploration of the planet. An untouched little tomb, of some small time, long forgotten sith. She threw up her tutaminis to protect against the crushing heat, and made her way across the desert.
The entrance to the crypt was open, with nothing at all blocking it. A bad sign. The togruta produces her saberstaff, and idly turns up the power settings to max. She enters the tomb, and starts to climb down a long, long, long stairwell, leading down, into the cliffside.
There was a landing, in front of her. And bones. The floor was thick with corpses. Some mummified, some fresh, dead within the last few months. Dead animals as well. And not one had any markings from scavengers. They died, and fell, and were left alone. The Togruta pauses, staring, flicking her lightsaber on. The green staff, blades massively overcharged, hissed the life, illuminating the dark stairwell in glowing green light.
The Togruta paused for a moment. Her senses reached out. Nothing was alive in the crypts. Just dead men. The dark presence was seeping into her body. Zalea was fending it off, but this much advanced use of such a technique would wear on any force user. She narrowed her eyes. Considering what she thought she would find down here, she was pretty sure what had killed these creatures. She threw up a layer mixture of defenses. A mind barrier, a check on her thought process, in case anything slipped by, and the activation of skilled battlemind. Her morale sored, emotions filled her, as her body was pushed to its utter limits, and, suddenly, the strain from using all of these techniques faded from mind, replaced with steely, driven determination.
She stepped down onto the landing, and her suspicions were proven true. Something very suddenly became aware of her, and a psychic assault followed almost instantly. It was massive, and all-consuming.Attempting to seize control of her body, and force Zalea to put her lightsaber through her own chest. The Togruta was a powerful telepath in her own right, and managed to resist, although the psychic hammering was immensely taxing. The togruta continued down, deeper in the tunnels.
More corpses littered the ground. Knee-deep at some points. People with strong enough wills to shrug off the attacks for a time, but not enough skill to keep themselves from falling. As she left the stairwell, and set out onto the landing.
A large room, with a single door. The last few corpses could be seen clawing at the door. They died standing, no wounds on them. The Togruta moved across the room. She ignored various untouched pots, and chests. None of them held what she was looking for.
The psychic presence was getting angry. And, as it got angry, it got more powerful, hammering her mental walls. They held, for now.
The stone door was sealed shut. A few slashes of her lightsaber fixed that issue. She pushed the door-parts aside with the force, and entered through the hole.
Another room, almost exactly like the first. This time, the only corpses that where there sat, lining the walls, prostrated towards the center of the room. In the center of the room sat her prize, and the creature guarding it.
A simple stone coffin. And, above it, a wispy specter of darkness, with glowing red eyes. It stared at the togruta, projecting more hate that should have been possible for a single being, at the graverobber. Zalea flashed the entity a smile
The Togruta moved across the room, towards the coffin. The ghost continued to fail to break her mental walls down. As she arrived at the coffin, it reached out towards her. Zalea’s lightsaber flashed out… and passed right through the creature. Its talons went right through the Togruta. There was a hiss of pure rage. Then, the attack stopped.
Voices started to echo inside Zalea’s head. Promises of power. Of teaching her all the ghost knew. It realized that she was a strong telepath, and saw a chance to carry on its legacy. Zalea pauses, staring at the ghost, her own eyes narrowing. The creature still radiating endless wrath, but also something else now. Desire, want. A chance to influence the world again. Something long denied the ghost.
Zalea suddenly lashes out. A Telepathic blow strikes the ghost. It lets out a noiseless shriek, as is moved back. The togruta follows, throwing out attack, after attack. Slowly, the entity is beaten down, until it’s nothing but a small pile of darkness in the corner of the room. Too weak to move, to think. To experience anything besides the fear, and pure hopelessness Zalea has forced through its very essence. The Togruta pushes the lid of the coffin. A long dead corpse, mostly dust. And, a single sith holocron. She takes her prize, and leaves the ghost to its fate.
As her ship takes to the sky, she fires off a salvo of rockets at the entrance to the tomb, burning it under tonnes of shattered stone. Zalea scowls at the holocron, as she reaches the hyperspace route out of the system. She plots a course back for Viscara, and opens up the holocron, exploring what information she had just recovered.