Dacis received a comms request on his comlink. The Sith Lord activated the device and heard the voice of an arrogant sorceress.
"The task is done, and the Sith aboard the vessel won't cause us problems. I bribed their commander; he will meet you at the airlock and lead you to the target. Sith operating under another Lord will take part in the operation, reducing the trace we leave behind. In the event of a serious investigation, they will be the ones to bear Alsakan's punishment."
Three participants were currently in the group call. Dacis waited patiently for the assassination target to stop licking the boots of a non-Force-sensitive human. He viewed the prince strictly as a tool for her elimination.
"You handled the task even better than I calculated. I always keep my promises, so you will be able to return to hunting for spoils. In such matters, your abilities will always be useful."
Mirs 6 was lying; Erra was supposed to die. When a Sith Lord approached him offering aid in exchange for the life of an ordinary sorceress, how could he refuse?
Losing a seer was unfortunate, but the Sith Lord had already promised to compensate for it, and both men wanted valuable diplomatic ties.
"I hope the worms won't be late."
Dacis felt no contempt for the sith girl's genius; she simply lacked the time to become his equal in power.
This was the easiest way to avenge himself on Aloysius Kallig, and he was merely an enforcer forced to serve the nobility. He had no other way to gain the desired knowledge, and Dacis felt his life was burning away too fast.
Without knowledge of the Force technique for draining another's life, weakness awaited him in just a few years.
Aloysius had become his salvation: the arrogant noble killed the previous general who served the Overlord, infuriating the noble family standing behind the scenes.
Was he interested in credits? A little. They could be exchanged for Sith gold to buy intriguing Force techniques.
Unlike the nobles, he possessed only basic techniques from the Sith Academy, but sooner or later he would overcome this inequality and become free!
He convinced the Alsakan nobleman that divination magic could determine the real killer, and if another Sith Lord performed a divining ritual on what happened here, the truth about the guilty could easily be exposed.
Now the foolish human forced the sorceress to become an accomplice, and then she would be killed.
Dacis spoke half-truths, for he feared Aloysius's revenge, and this plot would allow him to sleep peacefully.
"I hope the Lord will exercise patience and not begin the bloodshed prematurely. My sister must die at the hands of the Jedi, and it will be difficult for me to conceal your actions from hundreds of thousands of soldiers."
Dacis nodded obediently; he had no intention of arguing with a tool, which was beneath the dignity of a Sith Lord.
"I am doing you a favor. Be grateful."
Mirs 6 was not angered by the rudeness; he was used to communicating with Sith Lords. This humanoid weapon could perform true miracles on the battlefield. Some inspired terror, so he would use the Sith for his own ends.
All three call participants shared ideas on how to conceal Nomi's murder, then disconnected.
Dacis finally stopped pretending and grinned wildly. Soon he would become even stronger!
"Lord! We have a problem with the guard detail..."
One of the subordinates saw that he had stopped speaking and began his report, but a streak of Force Lightning flew straight into him.
The Sith crumpled and fell to his knees, while Dacis's eyes gleamed faintly with yellow light.
"Did I give you permission to speak? Your task is to assault the enemy ship. What are you doing in the docking bay?"
The subordinate rose from his knees, enduring the pain.
"We ask the Lord to assist with the assault. Almost forty Sith have already fallen to the enemy's massive numerical advantage."
Dacis kicked him toward the passage. The strike was augmented by the Force, and the sith's internal organs ruptured from the impact.
The man slammed into the wall and began screaming in pain.
Unlike the rank-and-file Sith, the Lord did not participate in the operation to capture the enemy admiral. The Lord was waiting for reinforcements at the docking airlock; right now he needed to board the Alsakan princess's ship.
"Weak and pathetic! They died fulfilling my will, and what are you doing here? Why aren't you fighting for your Lord?"
The Sith Lord's hand filled with Dark Force, and he directed a strange vortex of the void at the subordinate. The sith almost immediately began to flee, but the stream of energy tethered their lives together.
The sith's skin turned pale and began to wrinkle, and his life force drained into his master, but Dacis only designantly sighed in disappointment.
He didn't receive even a thousandth of the victim's life force. His self-taught technique could not efficiently restore his body. That was precisely why he sought knowledge in this branch of techniques.
Three other subordinates approached him hesitantly.
"Throw the corpse into space and do not interrupt my meditation! When I return to this ship, I want the enemy admiral kneeling before me."
About two hours passed. Resistance on the Coruscant ship still held, and hundreds of Sith could not deal with hundreds of thousands of soldiers so quickly. At that moment, he finally saw the target ship through the viewports.
Damage across the entire surface of the hull revealed the consequences of a severe battle, and Dacis began filling his body with the Dark Side of the Force.
He used rage and hatred, but possessed weak control over the Force. His red skin had already faded to a pale pink-white color, and black veins spread across his entire body. Periodically his skin itched and bled, but this only made him stronger.
"Nwûl tash. Dzwôl shâsot'kûn. Shâsot'jontû châtshatûl nu tiuk. Tiukjontû châtshatûl nu midwan. Midwan'jontû châtshatûl nu asha. Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nûyak. Wo nôksh Ksyâsik nûn."
Each line of the Sith Code helped him remember who he was now. He was Lord Dacis! A Sith who had obtained freedom from his chains.
Those who looked down on him had already become victims of his rage. This war was a necessity of obeying the Sith Overlord, but he did not intend to remain obedient for long.
Sooner or later he would become stronger than Tulak Hord, and then become the Overlord himself!
With every passing moment, the Dark Force in his body manipulated his mind more and more. The man was not stupid—he had graduated from the Sith Academy thanks to his cunning—but the stronger he became, the less he relied on his former way of thinking.
He dwelt in illusions of his own greatness; it was a pathetic dream.
Thus he spent two hours, until the airlock opened, the sound shattering his world of dreams. The Sith Lord opened his glowing yellow eyes, raised his head high, and walked toward the opening passage.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the airlock stood a team of Sith. There were no Alsakan soldiers in the compartment, and the leader walking in front bowed low.
"Greetings to the Sith Lord! We are here to escort you to the secondary bridge. I am glad for the opportunity to serve the Lord."
Dacis felt strong energy of the Dark Side of the Force from these Sith, and their emotions allowed him to sense fear and worship. He could feel and understand what they were thinking.
The man shook his head at what pathetic Sith these were. Supposedly their Lord was named SorSin, and that pathetic woman spent all her time engaged in alchemy.
The Sith he had chosen could at least control their emotions, while these useless weaklings were simply a disgrace to the Sith.
He used telekinesis to lift the man by the neck, then showed him what hierarchy meant.
"Did I ask you to speak my name?"
Dacis squeezed the sith's throat with his telekinesis. The man wheezed, his legs lifted off the metal floor, and his fingers clawed frantically to stop the suffocation. The remaining Sith froze, paralyzed with fear.
"L-Lord... mercy..."
Dacis held him for a few more seconds, enjoying how another's fear fed his own rage. Black veins on his pale hand bulged, pulsing with an excess of raw, uncalibrated energy. Then he carelessly flicked his wrist, and the sith rolled head over heels across the corrugated deck floor.
"You are merely a guide. Your task is to lead me to the target, not to pollute the air with your worthless flattery. Stand beside me and lead me to Admiral Nomi."
He breathed heavily and coughed, then hurriedly rose to his feet and did not dare look the Lord in the eye.
Bowing his head low, he activated his wrist panel, opening the heavy blast door leading into the ship's corridor.
"This way, my Lord."
At that moment, the Sith Lord did not pay attention to the corner of the airlock. A backup ventilation system was located there, but now the device was slightly upgraded.
In addition, there were three more lamps in the airlock than intended by the ship's standard design. Just as the Sith entered the corridor, the sensor lens twitched slightly, but the camouflage as a Lumi-lamp was ideal.
At the same time, I was maintaining the doppelganger ritual. This magic was not overly complex—Erra had eventually shared her family's illusion lore—but an advanced version was currently in use.
Our duplicates were visually indistinguishable from the real objects—in this case myself, two Twi'leks, and a hundred Sith—but there were some complex aspects.
Conversation and simulating a living body for the Force technique of a Sith Lord all required an immense amount of concentration. Right now I held three Dark Force sources and two artifacts in my hand that allowed me to perform the ritual at a level close to Erra's.
I aided myself with toxins sprayed through the life support system; here the Twi'leks' Mechu-deru showed its worth. Everyone's initial reaction to this magic was total shock; these projections were almost indistinguishable from the original.
This works worst against droids and cameras, but against those who rely on the Force, this magic is ideal.
Vija and Vaja were no longer surprised by their duplicates; they were inspecting their disintegrators. This weapon was closer to laser weaponry, but possessed a very fast energy beam dissipation time even compared to lasers.
This resulted in a limited range, but the weapon emitted a powerful beam of energy, literally vaporizing matter. Around twenty meters guaranteed death, while at fifty meters the rifle would only destroy a personal energy shield.
"Everyone, get ready."
I switched the camera view to the trap compartment, and the crowd of Sith entered, suspecting nothing. I had to focus all my concentration on actively manipulating all the doppelgangers.
The sith illusions approached the Sith Lord's subordinates, while my double made a gesture as if wanting to approach the Sith Lord.
At the last moment, Dacis looked at my doppelganger, his pupils dilating from the realization of imminent death.
The explosion forced the Sith near me to barely stay on their feet. The ship shuddered as if hit by a torpedo.
We were three compartments away from the detonation point, but even from here my ears were deafened by the power of the blast. The airlock and two adjacent compartments beside that section were literally vaporized. I had taken past mistakes into account and filled all the empty space behind the decorative panels with baradium.
Every doppelganger carried a thermal detonator inside its body, and the simultaneous explosion served as the catalyst for the baradium blast.
The surviving Jedi had forced me to learn from my mistakes; this time a full-scale nuclear explosion occurred there.
The heavy ringing in my ears slowly gave way to the crackle of emergency alarms. The bulkheads around us were still vibrating, emitting a mournful metallic groan—the deformation of the steel deck plating from micro-shifting was palpable even through our armored boots.
"Ready long-range weapons. Put on your helmets!"
Vija and Vaja pulled out their disintegrators simultaneously, while I grabbed my shotgun. Many Sith obediently prepared to use flamethrowers, but that was merely a way to burn up remaining oxygen and weaken any potential enemies.
The heavy door in front of us slowly rose upward, the mechanism scraping against the rails; it was impressive that this door opened at all. The corridor frame had not jammed from thermal deformation, which was already a miracle.
We stepped out into the passage.
The air here had turned into a scorching, murky suspension of vaporized insulation, burnt plastic, and fine dust. The fire shutters had triggered automatically, but the adjacent compartments had literally ceased to exist in their former state.
The steel deck buckled in waves, and decorative panels had melted. At the center of the explosion it was even worse: the lower and upper compartments were caught in the blast, so the floor and ceiling were simply absent.
Now we had to walk along the structural support beams and try not to fall into the lower compartment, which was filled with molten debris.
Force techniques showed no living signatures, and emotions were absent. While the Sith in the squad hesitated to ask, Vija was currently more direct.
"Did we go overboard with the explosives?"
She looked down, but there was only cooling metal that had melted at the epicenter.
"Not even bodies left. Task accomplished?"
Vaja kicked a piece of the floor that was hanging on and hadn't fallen, then whistled as the metal plate splashed into the molten metal, creating sparks and splashes.
The flash of the baradium explosion turned a hundred Sith into invisible dust in a fraction of a second. Absolutely nothing remained of the escorting group—no weapons, no armor, only a grey patina on the melted girders.
Our magnetic boots clicked as they gripped the blast-worn metal. We passed the charred frame and partially descended to the adjacent lower compartment.
I activated my comms and was about to tell Nomi to call technicians to fix minor technical issues, but I felt a wave of discomfort.
Looking around quickly, I still felt no signs of life, but the unpleasant sensation grew stronger.
"I didn't give permission to blow up my ship..."
I had to disconnect the comlink and look toward the molten metal, from which a thick stream of Dark Force energy was rising.
"Retreat to an area with solid flooring! Ditch the flamethrowers and shotguns!"
Vija and Vaja were the first to run, then everyone else except me executed the order. I unclipped thermal detonators from my belt and prepared to use them.
Slowly following my team, I had to keep a close eye on the anomaly. There were no signs of life, but I felt familiar energy fluctuations being manipulated through an artifact.
A vibrating pulse swept through the air directly over the blast epicenter. It was not a physical detonation, just a dull and repulsive mental hum.
I immediately recognized the guardian spirit's operating algorithm for the artifact, but I could not interfere with its function.
In the molten steel deck plating where Dacis's body had vaporized a moment ago, something flashed with a crimson light.
I saw a small, rune-covered Sith crystal that had survived the baradium thermonuclear surge! The artifact emitted a series of dark psychic waves. It was as if it were probing the surrounding space, searching for the familiar aura of its master.
Finding no response from the Lord, the crystal cracked down the center.
My comlink activated again, and Erra forcibly connected.
"Nomi said you cut off the call. Did something happen?"
Writhing black mist poured from the rift, while I threw the thermal detonators and was already running away as far as possible.
"You said he was an ordinary Sith Lord?! Where did he get a top-quality Sith artifact? My father only makes those for the most influential Lords!"
Explosions echoed behind my back, but I understood that wouldn't work against an artifact of this tier.
"He's just an idiot who graduated from the Academy! Are you really doubting..."
At that moment she saw a new vision, and I finally understood the function of the artifact.
It was spatial displacement magic! The Lord was storing something in this artifact, and now I wanted to be as far away from it as possible.
"What did you see?"
I made it out of the ruined compartments and met up with my group. I had to dodge a few shots, and the Sith quickly stopped firing.
Somewhere in the ruined compartments, energy was felt that could trigger a localized Force storm. I didn't want to check what exactly the Sith Lord had stored.
Without hesitation, I grabbed a few more detonators and prepared for what I might see.
"I finally understood why I saw my own death in the future..."
I didn't get to listen to the end: a mechanical clawed hand literally ripped open one of the walls of our compartment. A stream of blaster fire erupted from the resulting hole, and the Sith were saved only by their heavy armor.
I pulled out my sword and deflected several plasma bolts, but a second mechanical hand expanded the breach.
I finally managed to see this monster. It was an alchemical war bot, but the amount of Dark Force exceeded normal parameters hundreds of times over.
Sith Elite Warbot
Several Sith managed to turn and fire their disintegrators at it, but the energy simply dissipated on the outer metal of this robot. Two blasters on its shoulders answered with a barrage of plasma, and we had to fight back or take cover.
"Tutaminis! Ditch the disintegrators—they're useless!"
I threw my thermal detonators while dozens of Sith utilized Force Lightning. Blue electric arcs ran all over its frame, but it continued firing and advancing toward us.
The alchemical droid's automated Tutaminis absorbed the blue arcs of Force Lightning, and the blast didn't even strip the paint off it. Energy simply spread across the armor, and its shots frequently broke through our attempts to deflect plasma.
I raised my shotgun and fired several custom cartridges.
Dozens of crystalline darts ignited and began distorting their shape. Soon they transformed into writhing black serpents of materialized Dark Force.
These constructs clamped onto the droid's armor, then coated its legs. In theory, it should have begun melting from acid, but the magic didn't last even three seconds.
The droid released a reserve of Dark Force, which simply dispelled all my magic. Runes under the paint flared with crimson light, then it activated Force Speed, forming a dense cocoon of Force around its chassis.
The massive three-meter figure of the robot surged forward with such incredible speed that its silhouette turned into a blurred shadow.
The nearest Sith managed to react to the charging shadow and delivered a perfect counter-thrust with a lightsaber, but upon contact with the droid's hull, his plasma blade flared with purple short-circuit sparks.
Cortosis.
The sith didn't have time to be surprised by the enemy's cortosis plating; he didn't have time to spring back.
I applied telekinesis, but the droid didn't move, and its Dark Force released a shockwave that dissipated my attempt to save the sith.
The droid's massive right arm with three jagged claws thrust forward and clamped directly onto his torso.
Heavy armor bent like paper, and the sith's attempts to free himself inspired only pity. The droid's arm squeezed, and bodily fluids poured out from every possible seam. Bones and steel plates of the armor turned into a single bloody mass.
Several more Sith used Force Lightning, while others threw their lightsabers. This only proved that the cortosis coating covered the entire armor, and blue lightning bolts yielded no results.
The robot again applied a Force technique and threw itself telekinetically toward the nearest Sith. It was already raising its left arm for a grab, but I managed to apply telekinesis in time, sending both Sith flying sideways off the line of impact.
The droid tried to apply telekinesis to them, but its attempts failed.
Claws slashed through the air, and the fluctuations of its energy sources finally gave me insight into the method used to create this monster.
I activated my comlink and gave the most logical command to defeat this creation of alchemy.
"Combined telekinetic lock! We need to lift it off the floor and fix it in mid-air! Await my mark!"
Vija and Vaja instantly began building a mental chain with the other Sith. A hundred Dark Force users arrived at a joint plan in literally a second.
At that moment, the three-meter alchemical monster turned its crimson optical sensors in my direction. Pushing off the floor with an impulse of Dark Force, it surged straight at me, and running away was impossible.
I whipped out my sword and shifted off the direct line of attack.
One of the claws caught me, bending the sword into a circle. At the last moment I pushed myself away with telekinesis, and the claw slid off the flat part of the sword.
The kinetic impulse sent me flying, but at that moment I managed to grab its sharp claw with my hand. This resulted in my entire left palm being torn open, and splashes of my Force-rich blood slammed onto the armor plates on the droid's chest.
I was hurled into a steel bulkhead with a deafening crash. The impact was so strong I nearly lost consciousness, and my internal organs responded with sharp pain.
Looking down at the throbbing agony, I saw two rib fragments protruding from my chest, and my back indicated that the landing spot had not been smooth. A metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
The droid's red visors continued looking in my direction, but my blood was already on its armor.
I raised my torn palm and pulled a crystal from my pouch with telekinesis. My other hand activated a Sith alchemy formula.
The blood on the droid's chest plate flashed with red light, then penetrated into the micro-cracks of the metal and resonated with its internal energy matrix.
The monster staggered, and Dark Force no longer reached the alchemical runes. Now the droid could no longer defend itself against direct Force effects!
Its attempt at telekinesis failed, and the matrix could not process the reason for this error. At that moment I grabbed my sword with telekinesis and aimed it at its blaster.
The blade severed the main power supply cable and, making a couple of pirouettes, drove into the muzzle of its second blaster. Aiming my hand at it, I used primitive Force Lightning, using the sword as a lightning rod.
This time the electricity traveled not to isolated armor, but directly to the blaster. The weapon was connected by a superconductor to the reactor, and this vulnerable point caused a short circuit.
If a good alchemist made it, the whole system should return to normal in a few seconds, so I turned to my blood again.
The fluid formed new glowing runes, and the recovery system could not connect the source of Dark Force. Next, I delivered a powerful telekinetic pulse, launching the droid into the air.
"HOLD IT!"
Vija, Vaja, and ninety Sith simultaneously applied a joint Force technique. A powerful combined stream of telekinesis covered the three-meter body of the droid, and a wave of Force securely suspended it in mid-air at a height of two meters.
At that moment, its internal alchemical system partially restored the reactor and microcircuits.
The droid tried to resist, but merely flailed its clawed arms and kicked its legs helplessly. In mid-air it had no leverage, and both shoulder blasters were out of commission.
Without losing a second, I reached blood-soaked fingers into my pouch and pulled out three Force crystals. Blood from the cut washed over the Dark Force accumulators, and I used the fluid as a natural conductor, forcing the Dark Side of the Force to obey my will.
I spoke in the ancient language of the Sith, weaving the soul-ripping formula:
"Chwit dwomut-ûsh"
The blood on my palms and crystals boiled. Red light gathered all the blood drops and formed a dense sphere of glowing bloody runes.
The other Sith held the flailing droid in the air with all their strength. Its reactor was already back to normal, and the Dark Side Force source was almost connected to the alchemical runes.
I hurled the formed bloody sphere of runes straight into the central section of the droid; it absorbed into the alchemical metal and traveled toward the power source.
The droid went into convulsions. Its casing vibrated at a high frequency, and a horrific scream echoed from inside the chassis.
Dozens of tormented souls radiating Force energy began separating from the robot, and then these ghosts dissolved almost immediately. A wave of purple energy tore part of the armor off the droid's chassis, and then the last of the prisoners dissolved into the space of the compartment.
The droid's fiery visors flared with a bright flash, then went out forever.
The Sith released their mental grip, and the dead steel chassis of the droid crashed to the floor with a deafening thud, turning into a pile of useful alchemical scrap.
I held my ribs with telekinesis and blocked part of the nerves with Dark Force.
At that moment my comlink activated again, and Erra finally got me to answer.
"An ordinary Lord?! Ordinary? Your prophecy failed!"
Why did I have to suffer from this?
"This is no time for that! Can you hold out? I'm coming..."
I had to turn on the holotransmission and show the droid's chassis.
"Do you see? This is a handmade alchemical war bot! I can hardly imagine how much it cost to create—its power source consisted of the souls of hundreds of Force-sensitives! Even House Nal has barely a dozen droids of this level, and in theory they were intended for killing Lords. Tell me, what are the odds a poor Sith Lord from the Sith Academy would possess such a treasure?"
All my words went right past her ears, while Erra looked back and forth between me and the droid.
"So you handled it? Incredible..."
I cut the connection and grit my teeth; a few nerves were unblocked, so part of the pain reached my brain. Should I ask Nomi for a kolto tank?