Dorn: A Star Wars Story

37. Reclaimers

-35 ABY, Approximately One Year After the Battle of Crait-

"Have you found the mask?" I entered into the Special Forces headquarters on Corellia. Having gone back seemingly so long after leaving as anything other than a street urchin had been... interesting. Not being in the slums and up in the upper levels was a new experience, being fair. The building was lowkey, and with this being a stronghold for First Order forces, it wasn't hard to maintain a decently low profile while keeping the squad in one place.

"Put a big ol' smile on your face, General," Robin smirked at me a I walked in as I gave a friendly clap to his shoulder as I passed, "because the rest of the First Order may be drowning in incompetence, but we have your mask."

"Good job," I nodded as Novaran pulled up a holoportrait. "Where is it?"

"Widen that smile, sir," Freis grinned at me. "Right here in the Coronet Museum. It's been under our noses for months, uncatalogued. Admiral Ahuff called in a few favors with old friends of his father. The mask is safely inside of the museum, but why it wasn't officially on record, we're not sure."

"What else did we find?"

That was where Cai popped in, his eyes wide and beaming, "That it is one of the chief masks in a long-lost set! See, at the fall of the Old Republic, a number of Sith Lords were assassinated in a planned coup within the Sith Empire. A few more notorious names include Occlus, Imperius, and Nox - the prodigal Three Pillars of the Sphere of Hidden Knowledge - and one Sith whose title was the Empire's Wrath, one of the strongest warriors on record. However, the greatest question for us Sith Study Specialist was: what became of the Dread Inquisitorius - the group to which our friend belonged."

"Is this going somewhere?" Horran asked with a sigh, prompting a frustrated sigh from Cai.

"Yes, you troglodyte! The Dread Inquisitorius bore golden masks that were said to radiate with energy from the Dark Side, and it was rumored that they could also serve as catalysts to hold fragments of their power that could be used to unlock... something."

"How descriptive."

Cai looked like he was ready to attack Horran, "That's the thing! We have no idea! We genuinely believed that finding the masks would present a unique opportunity to perhaps uncover what exactly the unified masks would unlock and where. Most of the masks were recovered and are now in the grand museum on Coruscant, but one always eluded us." He paused like he was expecting Horran to make another remark, and when he was met with a silent 'do continue' look from my XO, he cleared his throat, "The mask of the Dread Lord Inquisitor Ismaren. Legends have it that once upon a time, he travelled to distant world establishing Sith Temples on what are referred in texts as 'dark side nexuses'. Rather remarkable, really."

"I'll... take your word for it?" Horran turned to look at me, cocking an eyebrow as I gave him an amused shake of my head.

"And this mask," Randd began as she looked over at Cai, her brow furrowed in a look of intense concentration, "it belongs to him? To Ismaren?"

"According to all descriptions, yes!" Cai actually clapped his hands together like an excited child. His enthusiasm was charming if you ignored that he was celebrating finding an item that was essentially a catalyst for all sorts of malevolent dark energy. "We know little about Ismaren outside of texts from his acolytes, and his early life is absolutely shrouded in mystery, but he was said to have been an inquisitor of unrivalled power, a master with a lightsaber pike, and easily one of the most influential members of who would become the Dread Inquisitorius. He's quite the figure."

"So," Nyra turned to look at me, "we making a trip to the museum."

"Just me and Drellik this time," I shook my head, prompting some concerned looks from the rest of my squad. It did feel good to be appreciated, but the last thing we needed was attracting a lot of extra attention when going to pick up a potentially dangerous artifact. "Low-profile is key for this pick up. Venn likely has eyes everywhere, so we need to keep this as casual as possible."