Arriving at Korriban wasn't anything like what I had expected. The moment the Reborn had dropped out of hyperspace with a noticeable shudder, we could see the red, barren planet below us, dominating the scenery outside of the bridge's viewport. I knew it was the homeworld of the Sith, but... I hadn't felt the Dark Side be so concentrated anywhere else before. Maybe the Rakatan world was the only one that eclipsed it, but then again, that was hidden and insidious. This one was like being on the moon, but amplified to its maximum, feeling proud and challenging anyone who held a different view of the Force. As I scanned the planet, wherever I looked, I could only see rust-red deserts, broken by multiple black stone mountains and deep valleys that cut between them, hiding who knows what.
"Brrr..." Vila shuddered, and I agreed while we stood on the bridge beside Ben, watching the planet rotate slowly beneath the viewport.
"Korriban, huh?" Vila asked, elbowing me, "We could already make a bingo card out of this past few years... How many Dark Side planets are we going to visit before it's over, hm?"
"I hope this is the last one," I chuckled, shaking my head, looking at Vestara, who was standing unbothered, looking at the planet as if it were an insignificant tourist destination.
Well, I guess that was a given because the Reborn's presence alone was… conspicuous. A Star Destroyer hanging in high orbit over a planet designated off-limits by the Jedi Order was not subtle by any stretch of the imagination... Especially with Master Katarn and Solo being down there. I could almost feel the warning signals it sent through every long-range sensor they may have left behind, turning every watchful eye, every defensive protocol that had been planted here by the Order to go live at once.
"Incoming transmission," the communication officer announced at once, "Surface-origin, with clear Jedi encryption."
"Your turn," Vestara spoke up, glancing at my Master with a half-smile.
"Mhm," Ben inclined his head, taking a deep breath. "Put it through."
It wasn't just audio, as a hologram flared to life, resolving into the exact two figures I expected it to, standing amid the stone and spires sticking out of the sand, down on the surface. Master Katarn stood with his arms folded, while Master Solo's shoulders were squared and her expression was especially tight, probably expecting someone other than my Master to answer their call.
"We can turn off the warnings, it's me," Ben stepped forward, trying to sound casual. "Kyle... Aunt Jaina." Oh? Master was good... he was already invoking the family ties to lessen her irritation, but I couldn't tell if it worked or not.
"If not for the planet's dense influence, I would have picked up on your presence," Kyle's mouth twitched, holding back a smile, knowing it was not the time to start cracking jokes.
"So you found her... and then brought her home?" Jaina cut in next, "Care to explain why you were in such a hurry to come in a Star Destroyer and then to park it over a planet we explicitly agreed not to put such warships over?"
"Exactly because I was in a hurry," Ben didn't flinch while answering, "We're here because the issue is worse than we all thought, and it will just get worse..."
"To say that," she answered, her tone remaining the same, "it must be really bad."
"It Is." Before Ben could respond, Vestara had stepped into view, saying it instead of my Master. "And this affects everyone... We both have to step in and do something before it spreads."
She simply stood there after that, her hands folded behind her back, her expression remaining neutral in a way that made it clear she was not joking around and wasn't here to plan or go behind anyone else's back.
"Damn..." Kyle exhaled slowly through his nose. "Why can't we have a century where nothing goes wrong? At least wait until most of us old folks are gone, believing peace will last for a good amount of time before our deaths!"
"Believe me, I wish that were the case," Ben spoke up once again. "But Vestara is right, and she's here because the threat we're tracking had visited her, and when she refused... they took half her people."
"Great," Jaina groaned, reaching up to massage her face. "So the Sith had returned, is that what you are saying?"
"Um..." Ben finally felt a bit trapped in how to answer, even looking at me, but I just acted as if I wasn't there, "Could be the case."
The silence that followed stretched for about ten minutes, or at least, it felt like that, before Master Katarn broke it.
"Come down," he said, and Jaina didn't object to it. "Bring Vestara down too, but no troops, no survey teams or droids either! There will be no artifact recovery because this is just a conversation."
"I am not here to take away anything, as we don't need it." Vestara nodded, with no arguments on her part.
"Glad to hear that." Master Jaina crossed her arms, nodding, "My opinion won't change: This planet is off-limits to your kind. It will corrupt you even if you say you have changed."
"That is very much a possibility," Vestara inclined her head once again, just slightly, not arguing, not even with her tone, "I am aware of the facts."
Listening to her, Master Jaina's gaze shifted, going past Ben, past Vestara, and settled on me. Wait... I wasn't even in frame, was I? Um... Why did I feel like she had locked onto me through the Force?
"Bring Kael down, too."
"Only him," Kyle's gaze flicked to Ben. "Just you three."
"Master?" Vila spoke up, her voice traveling down to the surface, making him shake his head.
"Not now, Vila. Kael will tell you anyway, but for now, stay put."
"Unfair..." She muttered, pouting, making Master Katarn smile to himself.
"Kael," Master Solo called out to me and waited until I stepped into view, bowing towards the two. "You will not touch anything after you land. Understood?"
"I have heard it, Master Solo," I replied firmly, doing my best to remain calm.
"Good. Now come," She finished, waving a hand to signal that the transmission was about to go out, "I can also feel that we have no time to waste."
Just then, the hologram flickered and vanished, and Vestara had turned towards Ben with a smile.
"She still doesn't trust me."
"No," Ben said. "She doesn't. Would you in her shoes?"
"No," Vestara answered immediately, "Of course not!"
"Ugh... you..." Ben moaned before he turned to me. "And you... Ready?"
"Master, that's ominous to ask..." I swallowed, trying to joke, making him finally laugh a little, before being led away, not even waiting for a minute more.
The travel down to the surface was quick, and when the shuttle's ramp lowered into the red dust, I could feel the heat rush up through it, hitting me in the face. Geez... This was such a dry planet! There were few clouds or anything to block the sun, and the air smelled strongly metallic, probably coming from the sand itself. As if it were crystallized blood or something.
Or it was because our landing spot was right before the Valley of the Sith Lords, having rows of ancient tombs carved into the canyon walls, their entrances collapsed, probably blocked by previous fights or archeological visits, be it from other Sith or the Jedi. This was, in all senses of the word, a Tomb World. Nothing had remained here that could be collected anymore, only the red dust.
As for Master Kyle and Jaina, they have waited for us near a cluster of black stone outcroppings, with their lightsabers hanging from their belts, maybe as a kind of warning to Vestara. She was doing better than I was, because she did not look around or try to drink in the atmosphere, unlike me. Ugh... I should rein myself in, but the place, even if as desolate as it was, still had ample history attached to it.
"This planet hadn't seen your kind here for a long, long time..." Master Solo said flatly, without any kind of preamble, the moment we had arrived before them.
"It's seeing my kind for the first time," Vestara met her eyes with the same smile she showed to the holograms. "Korriban has no idea what or who I am, and apparently, neither does your aunt." She added, throwing a quick look towards Ben, who tried to not flinch.
"So you say," Jaina's expression didn't soften when answering, nor did it flinch when she heard her speak like that, "You expect us to believe you this easily?"
"No," Vestara replied. "But I expect you to consider it."
"Mhm." Master Solo nodded, which was surprising, but then her gaze landed on me. "I can feel something bad happened..." She muttered, making me slowly nod my head.
"This started," I said, "before you reached the system." I decided to just tell everything as it was, glancing at Master Katarn, "We found the planet, and although we wanted to only scout around, they dragged us down... Then we landed at their facility by accident."
"Haaah..." Master Katarn shrugged, shaking his head, "Is it that hard to follow a simple request to wait for us?"
"We... Found Iowi and Jalo, along with refugees hiding in an abandoned mining shaft." I continued, not knowing what to say besides what happened, "There were dozens of droids already active, and worse, they were repairing themselves, shipping units out. The same type of models I had shown you... mostly."
"Hm?" Kyle's brow furrowed slightly. "Mostly?"
"Yes," I answered. "There were many more lesser variants, not as anti-Jedi focused," I explained as I took a breath. "So we decided to strike before they could ship away all their completed variants. We succeeded," I stopped, blinking my eyes a few times. "The facility was destroyed... But... we lost... Iowi."
Falling silent, I was waiting for the tightening in Jaina's expression or for Kyle to yell at me... For the inevitable question of why we didn't wait, then the measured and complete dissection of my, our decision, then the angry scolding for being so... eager. So, before it could start, I straightened my shoulders, saying it as such.
"It was my call," I exclaimed firmly. "I won't pretend otherwise because if anybody, I should have felt it better, known it better. So, if blame is due, it's mine. Iowi's death is on me."
The first to move was Master Solo, and she stepped closer instead of speaking... Here we go... Eh? Eh?!
"I'm sorry," she said, putting a hand on my shoulders, squeezing it, making me look into her eyes. Her words caught me off guard hard enough that my breath stuttered. "We will never forget Iowi's sacrifice, Kael, so neither should you. But... It is also not something to beat yourself over with. Someone's death doesn't mean you should blame anyone for it, especially not yourself. We are Jedi... We stand up to dangers others cannot, even if it means facing the fact we may become one with the Force ahead of our time."
"But... Master Katarn said..." I gulped, fighting back my tears, because suddenly I felt like a big boulder was taken off my shoulders.
"Tell me," Jaina continued, "did you have time to wait? Did you feel you could wait for us?"
I hesitated, thinking about it, really doing so.
"No," I admitted, speaking my mind. "If we had, more units would have been finished, and more of them would have been taken off-world. The threat would've spread even more than it already had."
"Mhm," Her gaze flicked briefly to Kyle, who gave a small, almost imperceptible nod. "Then you made the right decision. All of you did."
"You don't get to save everyone," Kyle also joined in, "What matters is whether the cost bought us time, brought us closer to containment, and gave us understanding of our enemy... And if any of that is true, then it wasn't in vain."
"I don't know," I answered honestly, but then, looking at Ben and Vestara, "But I think it did."
"In this case," Master Solo added, stepping away from us, "it indeed did."
"Yeah, come. Take a look at this," Master Katarn stepped forward then, gesturing toward a tarp-covered shape partially sheltered by a slab of fallen stone that I hadn't noticed until then.
As Jaina moved aside, and Kyle pulled the covering back, a new type of droid was revealed to us. It was humanoid in shape, but thinner than the DR-0N units. Its frame was decorated with some kind of weird emitters, and I could see no obvious weapon mounts or sabers hidden in its arms... Its surface plating was dark, matte, and unmarked by glyphs or sigils... no. Wait... There were Sith markings on it, but... inside. I only noticed because part of its frame had been stripped by Master Katarn or Solo, revealing what lay beneath.
"We caught it watching us," Kyle said. "And we only caught it because I have the experience fighting against stealth units and assassins. These emitters?" he pointed at its chest, "they made the unit refract light, almost making it invisible if it stayed stationary."
"This isn't a DR-0N," Ben said quietly, noting the many differences in its shape.
"Nope," Kyle agreed with him, "And it's also not in any archive we have, that is for sure."
"Had you seen any of these in that factory?" Master Solo asked, and now everyone was looking at me, while I recalled every moment I had seen while being down there.
"No..." I shook my head, gulping, "I did not... And..."
"It means," Vestara grimaced, finishing it for me, "That there are more than that base alone that we have to find..."