Star Wars: The Old Republic - "Shroud of Darkness"

Chapter I

The planet Belsavis shone in the distance. Its white, icy landscape was dotted by green circles, which were odd, jungle-like areas full of vegetation and wildlife. On the surface, the Republic prison was in sheer chaos. Thousands of inmates had escaped when the Sith Empire invaded a few years ago, and recruited as many of them as possible. However, the planet held dark, millennia-old secrets.

The Shadow's Fist emerged from hyperspace on the edge of the system. Its silver hull was shining brightly amidst the stars. The Fist was armed to the teeth. Heavy turbolasers, advanced deflector shields, particle beam cannons, a prototype cloaking device, and worst of all, its dreaded superweapon: a custom-built hypervelocity cannon. This weapon of mass destruction was said to be capable of destroying an entire battle cruiser in one shot.

The Fist was covered in shiny, silver durasteel. The bright blue light emitting from its engines trailed behind it. The front of the ship split into two, then continued to jut outwards, like two silver daggers. In between these two sections right at the point where they split, there were two starfighter hangars, one above the other. The ship's overall triangular shape made it distinguishable from far away.

As the Fist drew closer and closer to Belsavis, a shuttle launched from its main hangar. As it lifted off, the shuttle's V-shaped wings attached to the rear of its hull arced downwards, like an A. The shuttle zoomed out of the hangar and sped down towards Belsavis' surface.

On the ground, four Hand scouts were guarding a small clearing in the jungle. Upon hearing the soft rumble of the shuttle's engines approaching, the scouts spread out to make room for it to land. The shuttle's landing gear extended from underneath, and the craft touched down softly onto the mossy landscape. As it landed, the shuttle's wings retracted back upwards, meeting as they pointed straight up. Just behind the shuttle's cockpit, there was an entry hatch. A ramp automatically slid out from the side of the shuttle under the hatch, and tilted downwards, landing in the moss. The hatch slid to the right, and the four scouts suddenly lined up like honor guards at the bottom of the ramp. They stood in pairs, one on each side of the ramp.

Though they did not show it, the scouts suddenly felt physically colder. A figure from within the shuttle appeared in the open doorway. It was a man, clad in black and pale gray armored robes. Two large shoulder plates stuck out from his sides, and a long cape trailed just above his heels. His jet-black hair was neatly done. A long scar stretched from above his eyebrow to his cheek on the left side of his face (the left being the point of view of whomever was looking at him directly). The man's eyes were a deep crimson, immediately identifying himself as a Sith.

Darth Savek looked around, observing the jungle. He strode down the ramp, his boots lightly sinking into the moss. He walked past the four scouts. With his back to them, he briefly stopped and said, "Follow me." Simultaneously, the scouts turned and marched behind him as he kept walking.

After a few minutes of walking, Savek and his scouts came across a startling scene. Next to a tree, a Republic walker was on fire. All around it were the bodies of Republic prison guards and riot troopers. A handful of tripod-legged warden droids lay cut to shreds with the corpses. At the center of this horrific sight was a woman. She was about Savek's height, with black hair to match his. Her hair was done up in a ponytail, and she wore bright purple and gray robes with light shoulderplates. The mysterious woman was also holding a double-bladed lightsaber. The saberstaff's blades were odd compared to the color of normal lightsabers. Whereas regular lightsabers are white in the middle with the color on the outside, this weapon's blades were black in the middle, and purple on the outside.

The woman deactivated her saberstaff, hooking it on her belt. She turned around to face Savek. She too, had the red Sith eyes, and she also had purple face-paint in streaks from her eyes to the tops of her ears, as well as another going from her lips to the middle of her chin. "What took you so long, brother?" asked the woman.