The landing pad Lando had directed us to was tucked beneath one of the refueling side towers, out of public view and shielded from the street by tall, massive panels and tubes, meant to connect to the heaviest cargo ships that may make landfall. Sandwiched between two such vessels, there was now a single sleek starfighter resting on its mag-lock clamps, engines still glowing from the heat it gave off when landing. It was clearly meant for speed rather than comfort, as it wasn't designed for long trips. But it was best to slip in and out without being noticed.
When we arrived, Master Katarn stood beside it, his arms folded, and his brows furrowed the moment he had laid eyes on our group. He didn't look at us at first, which wasn't a surprise... Instead, he glanced at the crate HK and I were hauling between us, then at Vila following behind, and finally at HK himself, as if comparing what he was feeling escaping from the holder with HK's natural aura.
"Let me guess," He said dryly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "That's not a fruit shipment."
"No," Vila said with a grin. "But it did ripen into a mess... I think Iowi wanted to harvest it, but... With their delay, it got out of hand."
[Neutral Statement: It is not organic. It is, however, rotten.]
Master Katarn simply sighed, already regretting opening his mouth, and motioned for us to bring the container over to a clear section of the platform. When HK set it down, he crouched beside it and ran a hand over the opening buttons, sliding it open. When the initial hiss rang out, his gaze sharpened the moment his palm touched the metal remains of the droid lying inside.
"Force-heavy residue… It's... old. Very old." He looked up at me. "You weren't joking."
"Yeah..." I nodded, watching the components within. "Its designation says it's DR-0N," I explained while I looked at its segmented limbs, fractured armor, and gutted skull, which now rested there, no longer functional, along with its dismantled saber.
"I never had seen anything like this, nor in design or build quality," He explained, inhaling a sharp breath, but besides that, he didn't flinch. He did, however, mutter, "And that's never good." He added, raising the synthetic Kyber crystal, wanting to say something, but in the end, he just gulped it back, putting it down with a grunt.
"It is for sure, old," Vila crouched next to him. "Yet it works really well because it had used different lightsaber forms when attacking us."
[Statement: It has still lost. Sadly, they dismantled it inefficiently. It had time to fry most of its systems before recovery.]
"HK," Master Katarn said calmly without looking up at him, "if you complain one more time, I'm going to turn you into a training remote."
[Immediate Defensive Reversal: I will maintain silence.]
"Thanks," He grunted as he inspected the severed head, prying open the access panel HK had worked through, whistling under his breath. "These are Sith machine-glyphs, I think..." he murmured, brushing his fingers over the engravings.
"What are those?" I asked because I had never even heard of it before.
"Back in the old days, at the height of their power, they had something they called Sith Alchemy." Master Katarn began explaining, smacking his lips between sentences, "Well, it had multiple sub-factions, as far as we can tell, and one of them focused on building machines and contraptions. These..." He pointed at the runes, "They are not just decorative. They're bonded into the shell, mixed with their alchemy and the original circuitry. Supposedly... this thing is a lost art of the original Sith people." He shook his head in both a bit of awe and disgust, "Not even later Sith powers or people who called themselves Sith had managed to recover or recreate it because it... When their people slowly died out... This art was gone with their original, Sith Empire."
"That explains a lot," Vila muttered, "Well, probably, I still don't get it." She stuck her tongue out, "Not that I want to! It is better if we know less about the Sith culture, no? We don't need to bring back something that caused chaos and wars to wash over the Galaxy in the past."
"Yeah, we don't need them to come back," Her Master looked at us, agreeing with his disciple, "This design is… ancient, and we don't need it making a glorious return. I've only seen references to Sith Alchemy in Luke's private library, and even there, it was only mentioned in some specific cases, told by old Jedi Masters who hunted them down. Haaah.. I don't like the idea that someone resurrected technology that should have stayed dead."
"Or found them without knowing what it is," I looked at Master Katarn. "HK recovered fragments from its memory core. We have a partial star map of an uncharted system, alongside the droid's mission protocols, suggesting deployment, chaos directives, and Jedi extraction orders."
"Which means," he said slowly after thinking it through, "that your intuition is likely right. Someone probably found a stash and activated it, probably by accident. I don't think we, including Iowi or Jalo, would be stupid enough to do so... And besides, a Jedi would have felt the trouble. So someone had to find them first, which led to the unearthing of these bastards... As for what they did, they may just have followed protocol and lured Iowi and Jalo into a trap..."
"By whatever I saw in the vision," I murmured, crossing my arms, "I think I know where they are."
"Kael?" Master Katarn looked at me sharply. "What vision?"
With a shrug, I recounted it all, the valley of tombs, the pureblood berserker, the fortress on the snowy, mountainous, different world, the Jedi strike team, the Sith dying far from Korriban. Master Katarn listened silently, his fingers tapping the droid's skull with a certain rhythm, and when I finished, he exhaled long and quietly.
"I have a bad feeling about this," he said, "That's some unwanted Force echo you have picked up on. And a deep one... Tsk! It is either tied to the saber you recovered… or to its creator."
"I think it's the weapon, because its creator died," I said, which led us to the following item.
"Speaking of the saber," he stretched his back, rising to his feet. "Where is it?"
When I glanced at him, HK opened his chest compartment obligingly to my wordless request and let Master Katarn reach inside, pulling out the double-bladed hilt. The moment he touched it, his entire posture changed, his shoulders tensed, his stance narrowed, and his eyes sharpened as he held the weapon in his hand, measuring it.
"…Master?" Vila asked carefully.
He didn't answer; instead, he held the saber out with both hands, as if handling a venomous serpent. I could feel the Dark Side coalescing around the weapon the moment it was in his grasp... At the same time, Master Katarn closed his eyes and forced the aura back, his own Light erupting in a bubble that immediately muted the saber's influence, sealing it away.
"That," he said quietly, still holding the saber, his eyes moving behind his eyelids, "is worse than anything you described."
"Um..." I swallowed, exchanging a look with Vila, "We thought so too."
"We need the Grandmaster to take a look at this," He murmured, reopening his eyes as he turned the hilt, examining it piece by piece. "The blade… the thickness of the resonance… the imprint of its past owner…" His jaw tightened, remembering something bad. I could tell, seeing it in his eyes and through the Force, "This belonged to someone, no, something monstrous. Single-minded, bred to a baaaaad purpose... Soaked in it... Brr..." he broke out of the sudden trance, shaking himself.
"I saw that," I agreed, "He was a berserker trained by a Sith Lord, most likely."
"For sure," Kyle gave a stiff nod. "This weapon will need to be disposed of, but carefully. We can't just throw it into a black hole... Although now that I think about it, it's not a bad idea."
With a chuckle, he raised his free hand and summoned a cube, an angular field-cage crafted exquisitely and having reinforced panels that shimmered with protective marks of the Jedi Order. It hummed softly as he placed the hilt inside and locked it with a seal that only the current Council members could break. The moment he was finished, the Dark Side pressure vanished instantly, and I could no longer feel it.
"Phew!" Vila let out a breath at once, wiping her forehead, "…That felt like getting out from underwater."
"Exactly why you're not carrying it anymore," Master Katarn muttered, looking at us, keeping it floating beside him via the Force. "If this thing were in public circulation…" He shook his head, rubbing his temple, "We may be dealing with a larger scattering of artifacts in the wild."
"And someone deliberately placing them," I added, looking at the droid, "And this one may not be the only one released into the Galaxy."
"Exactly. All right. Listen carefully. Here's what happens next!"
Vila and I straightened at once, going at full attention, and even HK seemed to look at Master Katarn without a complaint.
"We have two prongs," Master Katarn began, holding up two fingers. "First: I take this saber back with me and rendezvous with Jaina at Korriban. If someone has cracked that system open or is exploiting it, the Order must know immediately. There is a chance that they found something there that led them to the place the droids are from... You did mention it had a Master, we have to find out what or which old bastard it was."
"And the second?" Vila asked.
"You two," He continued, pointing at us with confidence, "go after the planet in the droid's memory."
"Really?" I blinked my eyes, because I was getting ready to start arguing for letting us go there, "You want us to follow that corrupted star map?"
"Yes," He smiled as he nodded. "You are no longer Padawans, no? You are proper Knights, and this is a mission for you. We still have two missing friends... That world, whatever or wherever it is, is where the trail leads. Most likely it is also where Iowi and Jalo are being held, if they're still alive."
"They better be," Vila snorted as he folded her arms. "You're trusting us with the extraction?"
"You will give me the coordinates," He smiled faintly at her, "I'm trusting you with finding the path. I am not telling you to go in without us… Just rediscover that unknown system, and I'll find you and bring along Jaina, too. Then we will go in... together. Understood?"
"To rendezvous later," I echoed. "Loud and clear."
"Right." He nodded, satisfied that we weren't arguing, "First, we deal with Korriban. You can set up the second part until we finish." He exhaled, thinking, "Then we regroup and prepare for something bigger, because this…" he nudged the Sith crate with his foot, "isn't an isolated incident. I don't even want to know how many of these bastards are out there now... Haaaah. Why can't the dead stay dead?"
"Agreed." Vila and I answered in unison, making him chuckle as he placed both of his hands on our shoulders.
"Be careful. Stay balanced. Stay together."
"We will." We nodded, making him smile again, squeezing our shoulders.
"May the Force be with you."