There are things forbidden even in the Sith Empire. The Kallig family were ancient sorcerers; thousands of years ago, they created a special Force technique.
The experiment required experimenting on their own descendants, and the mutation made them a magnet for the dead. The sorcerers' hair lost its color, and their eyes acquired the ability to see any souls.
Every Kallig can communicate with the dead on any world in the Empire; they do not need to visit special places of power.
The sorcerers continued to develop their special ability. The result of new research was a connection with ancestral spirits. By conducting a specific ritual, they could establish a voluntary link with the Force ghost of their ancestor.
This connection heightened their abilities and provided an additional source of energy. Every Sith craves power, and this method could elevate any diligent sorcerer.
They studied this energy for a long time, but each time they made new discoveries.
The dark side is hot energy. It is born from stormy, living emotions, from rage, fear, jealousy, and passion. A Sith must constantly feed the flame.
The energy of the dead is ice-cold energy. It is a preserved, frozen cast of the dark side; particles that remain after the death of sentient beings.
There is no new rage in it — it is pure mental pollution, eternal resentment, and an unwillingness to fade into nothingness. The energy of the dead does not require a Sith's emotions to recharge; it exists on its own like a poisonous fog.
Death Magic was developed based on this energy. It is impossible to bring back a ghost that has dissolved into the Force — nothing remains of it — but a body can be bent to one's will.
Gradually, their features changed, and their bodies adapted to the opposing energy. The yellow color of their eyes turned violet, and the dead gather around them and experience positive emotions.
The dark side burns out the user's body, but the energy of the dead is even more destructive. They could not live very long; many ancestors did not even reach two hundred years of age.
Every new generation searched for a cure, but they ran into their own incompetence in the field of alchemy. This fact hindered them from elevating themselves further, and Erra had no intention of dying at such a young age.
Aloysius Kallig rejected their heritage; he left the Kissai house and graduated from the Sith Academy. Erra sincerely envied his carelessness, but she understood him.
There were far too many bastards in high Sith society. It was difficult to admit, but she was a hypocritical creature as well.
The elders of House Kallig proposed solving the lack of knowledge, and she agreed to fulfill her duties. She was sent to the Sorzus Syn academy; then Erra became the apprentice of a Sith Lord who specialized in offensive magic.
The primary goal was to make the acquaintance of Tritos Nal's descendant; she completed her task. Kreso Nal was cowardly, always looking for an easy way out of problems, and he constantly joked.
All these factors made him an outcast in Sith society. Given the academy environment, she became his only conversation partner.
Erra was supposed to earn his trust, then assign him alchemical tasks that would help their house overcome the difficulties of a short lifespan.
As a responsible Kissai, she did her job, but with each passing year, she felt growing irritation.
She wanted to rid herself of the unpleasant feeling, but she knew exactly whom she was irritated with. Erra felt herself enjoying her new friend's company.
They could casually beat each other up, insult, mock, and then share their problems and jointly beat up the source of their troubles.
Did she reveal so many of her thoughts to the elders of House Kallig? As a Sith, she understood she must not show weakness. Ghosts only know what they must, and they achieve a common goal.
This did not align with her task; starting in the second year, she began doing optional things. Erra hated her hypocritical nature, and these ten years at the academy became a torture for her.
Talking with her mission target annoyed her; she was periodically forced to snap and fight him. This only resulted in Kreso trying to avoid her.
Is it difficult to fly to another planet? She could afford a private ship; the trip would take a week at most. Erra simply did not understand what she actually wanted.
Two more years passed like this; she increasingly wanted to make a decision. Should she ask for help, or continue to slowly pull alchemical knowledge from him?
Aloysius helped her — an assignment to the Alsakan army headquarters! She knew Kreso was also going to the war, but she had not expected him to fly to Corriz so quickly.
Her thoughts were becoming increasingly chaotic, which was a true failure of her duties to her family.
"Your emotions are even more chaotic than those of the dead."
A ghost silhouette appeared opposite her; his eyes glowed red, and the dark Force spread around his body.
This old man was a pureblood Kissai. There was no lightsaber on his belt, but it was not a metal Sith sword either. The ancestor carried a Forcesaber. The Sith's face bore a Shen tattoo, and his body was covered in torture scars.
Far back in antiquity, the Sith were primitive tribes. Invaders arrived, attempting to turn them into slaves. Sith King Adas united everyone to fight back.
They had no chance of defeating the mighty Rakata Empire, but during the invasion, a portion of the Sith were very talented. The invaders conducted an experiment: they wanted to turn these captives against the rebels.
The Rakata did not expect to be betrayed; her ancestor foresaw that the Rakata would study his mind. To survive and obtain knowledge, he utilized ancient Sith mind alchemy.
The Sith tribe acquired the necessary information, but the traitor paid for it with his life.
"Your advice proved useful, but it did not help prevent my weakness."
The old man barely restrained himself from cursing. Since when had it become normal to cast away one's own emotions? All emotions are part of a Sith! Who in this world dares to force a Sith to change?
"Weakness? Any emotion is a part of our personality. Animals do not have emotions; are they stronger? The art of deception is dangerous, and the psyche of living beings is volatile."
Erra understood her ancestor's hint; she realized herself that she was engaging in self-deception.
"From the very beginning, I was merely pretending."
Building a friendship based on lies... she already despised her own actions; it would only make things worse.
"What is pretense? You are trying to use someone else's emotions, but you cannot do that without your own feelings. Sentient beings possess intuition; the absence of sincerity makes your attempts a failure."
His descendant did not understand such basic things. Why had she been asked to befriend a Sith alchemist in the first place?
"Is it self-deception?"
Erra understood the hints. Could the interaction be considered fake? Her motives were selfish, but had she done anything that could ruin the relationship?
"Of course. You had other sources of information on alchemy. From the very beginning, you placed your mission and your personal emotions in conflict."
She wanted to agree; that logic was so convenient, but she had obligations to her own house.
"That does not change the facts: I am a deceiver, my entire personality is a fake hypocrite."
She could only convince herself that the well-being of all Kissai born into the Kallig family rested upon her.
"Dear descendant, you have an excellent talent for the Force, but you are extremely straightforward. The elders of your family were wrong; you are not suited for such manipulations."
Normally, Erra would be angered by such criticism, but right now her emotions were seeking an excuse. The ancestor was providing a clue on how to resolve a situation that had troubled her for ten years.
"What should I do then?"
She had not noticed that she had been letting the dead Sith's energy flow through her body for too long. Dark red blood dripped slowly from her nose, and her house clothes were badly stained.
"Obligation to the house? The search for immortality? Young Erra, you are not even fifty years old. Tell me, how many immortal Sith do you know? Maybe one or two achieved that goal, but billions die a natural death. You have only one life; there are no second attempts. Life can only be spent on oneself; in that, your friend is wiser than many of my descendants. Doubts? Cast aside that foolishness; no one has the right to decide how a Sith should live! Who dares to evaluate a Sith's emotions? A Sith does not call their emotions weak; every particle of a Sith is what they achieve power for!"
The girl's eyes widened, and her thoughts filled with her own suppressed desires. Her brother Aloysius Kallig had discarded everything for his own desires, while she had spent her entire life doing everything for a bunch of old, nearly dead bastards!
And yet, her ancestors kissed Aloysius's ass; they contradicted their own principles. She hated hypocrites, so why did she allow them to exist inside House Kallig?!
"Thank you for the guidance!"
The ghost saw the girl pale. Blood was coming from her mouth, and her body was trembling with pain.
"I think I need to leave; your body will not endure further communication."
He severed the connection himself; he had no desire to kill this young girl. The old man sincerely despised his descendants' desire to use their own children.
Erra watched in silence as her ancestor departed, then leaned over and grabbed a towel. Her chest stung, her right side ached, and blood continued to flow from her mouth and nose.
It was foolish to borrow the dark side from the dead; the energy was incompatible with a living body. The living Force inside her was deteriorating; it required buying expensive potions that could partially compensate for it.
She clenched a trembling hand and reached for an injector. A potion filled with alien life spread through her veins into her blood. The pain subsided, and the organ rejection slowed down.
The Force rejected the Sith of House Kallig; they went against the very essence of life. Erra clenched and unclenched her hand: the symptoms were gone, and her body's efficiency was normal.
Taking off her clothes, she went to the bathroom and washed the dried blood off herself. After that, she opened the wardrobe and put on a military uniform.
Today she had to report to the hypergates; an exchange of experience with Alsakan officers awaited her. The Sith Empire offered Force training, and in exchange received a more effective form of army management.
When the apartment door opened, the descendant of the Sorcerers stepped onto the streets; any slave was terrified to even look in her direction. She had rented an apartment near the hypergates, so she could reach them on foot.
Erra spent only ten minutes on the walk, then saw thousands of Sith. They had divided into groups, following the Sith Lords.
Erra wanted to start searching for Kreso, but her gaze caught on a Sith Lord's aura. The girl showed no reaction to the anomaly, then found her friend and the two slaves from yesterday.
An unknown woman — a Red Sith — possessed an anomaly; the aura of the dead around her was far too strong. Erra did not like poking her nose into other people's secrets, especially when the object of interest was ten times stronger.
She approached Kreso and was about to speak...
"You should control the Force; brain necrosis is—"
His words prompted her to aim her palm at him and release Force lightning. As if foreseeing her actions, a Force barrier materialized around him.
Had she applied more power, breaking the barrier would have been simple, but something stopped her. Therefore, she deliberately reduced the power of the lightning.
"Objectively assessing the situation, you are the one suffering from this the most."
The smile on her acquaintance's face vanished. He slowly turned toward her and asked in disappointment:
"Aren't you supposed to be in the central group, the one not affiliated with the Sith Lords?"
Erra smiled brightly. She pulled out her pass and showed it to the loser who possessed a weak talent for the Force.
"I have the same authority as your Sith Lords. You are the one who is an indentured slave to a Sith Lord here."
They continued talking, while the twin sisters cast strange, appraising glances at them. The other Sith tried to ignore them, but the noise of their conversation was irritating.
The serious atmosphere was broken, and this greatly annoyed the soldiers who had gone through Sith Academy training.
A few hours later, the hypergates finally opened. The Sith Lords ordered them to enter single-file; crowding at the portal was forbidden.
Erra had spoken with many dead Sith; some claimed that at a certain point in time, hyperspace routes to the outside world had been accessible to them. Now that data is lost.
Hypergates have existed for thousands of years and are the only means of communication between the Sith Empire and the outside world.
They experienced traveling through the hypergates for the first time. The Force followed the physical body with a slight delay, and the space around them shifted at incredible speed.
Stepping through the gates, they found themselves on Tandanqine. Korriban was a world of the dead, Ziost was a world of overlords, and this planet was a world of space.
This enclave was the gateway to the Sith worlds. The entire planet was covered in new structures, wide streets allowed the use of modern transport, and the sky was filled with speeders.
Smoke from factories dissipated in the Earth-type atmosphere, and dozens of different species performed labor at state-owned factories. The planet possessed a high level of military-industrial development.
Orbital and ground-based shipyards were capable of producing small ships, transports, strike corvettes, frigates, destroyers, and battlecruisers.
Given the limited resources, currently only destroyers, battlecruisers, multi-role interceptors, strike fighters, small transport ships, and assault supply ships are being produced.
These are Alsakan ship models; the Empire pays licensing fees and hires foreign engineers. The treaty with Alsakan allowed them to modernize the fleet and move away from producing ancient, obsolete dreadnoughts.
The Sith are developing their own ship models, but the slave-owning system severely hinders progress. Older ship types are still operated within the Empire sector, but the war in the Outer Rim demanded efficiency.
Logistics benefited from this standardization. Alsakan shipped spare parts, munitions, and fuel to its allies. The allied axis did not face the problems that Coruscant's mercenary armies did.
For this same reason, they are integrating foreign blaster rifles into the army. It is more profitable for Alsakan to share technology; without it, many battles could be lost.
Ninety percent of all Sith industrial might is concentrated on this world, and survival depends on supplying the Empire's worlds. Without it, feeding the local population would be impossible.
It is from here, on supply ships, that they will fly to the planets where Alsakan is warring against Coruscant.
"Everyone, calm down!"
The voice of an Alsakan officer forced the crowd to stop getting distracted; they all turned their heads toward the human standing in the company of the Sith Lords.
"The next supply ship arrives in a week. Each of you has been provided with living quarters. So you don't get bored, we have allocated resources for training; you just need to speak with the respective instructors. If you need to relieve stress, the nearest brothel is one block from the barracks."
A Sith Lord picked up where the human left off.
"Do not cause problems this week. Tactical exercises will be conducted every day; your attendance is mandatory. I highly advise against killing your comrades on this planet; an acquaintance of mine is experiencing a shortage of experimental material for hybridizing war beasts and sentient creatures."
They gave all their conditions, and then dismissed us to find the barracks on our own.