Darth Nox: The Master of the Force

Chapter 40: The Ghost of Ziost

Darth Nox sat in the cockpit of his personal starship, staring out at the blur of hyperspace as it streaked past. The usual pull of excitement that came before exploration or battle was absent from his mind this time. Instead, there was only a calm, steady sense of anticipation—like the stillness before a storm.

Ziost.

A world once central to the Sith Empire's might, a place of great power and terrible ruin. For centuries, it had stood as a testament to the Sith's legacy, only to be rendered a lifeless husk by the Emperor Vitiate's apocalyptic hunger. Vitiate's consuming ritual had stripped the planet of all life—every being, every blade of grass, every insect had been devoured, leaving a barren wasteland in its wake.

And yet, now, ten years after the resurrection of Dromund Kaas and the reformation of Nox's new Sith Order, something had drawn him back to Ziost. The Force tugged at him, whispering of changes, of possibilities.

The coordinates were locked in, and the planet appeared on his sensors—a cold, distant orb lingering on the edge of Sith space, not far from Dromund Kaas itself. But when Nox exited hyperspace and the swirling void gave way to real space, he found himself gazing upon something unexpected.

Ziost was no longer the uniform grey wasteland he had last seen. Patches of green now dotted its surface, scattered among the still-ashen stretches of land that once characterized the entire planet. Life had returned, though it was slow and fragile, barely noticeable on the desolate world. The Force was alive here, faint but present, like a whisper carried on the wind.

Nox narrowed his eyes, his hands resting lightly on the controls. He performed a thorough scan of the planet, searching for any signs of civilization or sentient life. The results were surprising: no intelligent beings inhabited Ziost. The only life detected was animal—creatures who had somehow adapted to the conditions over time, reclaiming the planet inch by inch.

But amidst the wilderness, his sensors picked up something else. A structure. A small area in the middle of one of the greener zones showed signs of architecture—buildings still standing after all this time. They looked like a reconnaissance or military outpost, judging by the layout.

Intrigued, Nox steered the ship toward the site. As he descended through the atmosphere, his mind reached out with the Force, probing the energies of the planet below. There was something there. Something old. The dark side still clung to this world, but it was... different. Not the pure, seething malevolence that had permeated Ziost before Vitiate's ritual.

It was... balanced.

As the ship touched down on a flat landing platform near the structures, Nox powered down the engines and stood. The landing ramp lowered with a hiss of hydraulics, and he strode down it, his black robes trailing behind him like the shadow of death itself.

Stepping onto the planet's surface, he felt the subtle shift in the air. It was cool, crisp even, a far cry from the suffocating aura of despair and death that had once filled the atmosphere here. He looked around—the structures were worn but intact, their durasteel walls covered in moss and other signs of life. Vines crawled over the old metal surfaces like nature's quiet reclamation of what had been lost.

A faint breeze rustled through the nearby trees, and Nox closed his eyes, feeling the currents of the Force move through him. The dark side was present, but it no longer dominated. And strangely, the light side was also here, faint and quiet. It was not the battle between light and dark that he was used to feeling on corrupted planets, but rather a strange neutrality, as if the two sides had somehow harmonized into something new.

He stepped deeper into the small outpost, his boots making soft echoes on the cracked, overgrown floor. His gaze landed on a nearby console, the ancient technology still intact though long dormant. With a flick of his hand, the Force surged through him, powering the station back online. The console flickered to life, its screens displaying faded data.