Maul: Legacy of Shadows

Chapter 11: Discovered

***Year 4 BBY***

"Maul, wake up!" Eldra yelled, stirring the Zabrak out of his meditative trance and back to reality.

As his senses realigned, his ears picked up the sound of a nearby spacecraft hovering low beneath the false surface.  Maul immediately stood up, searching the cavernous space for the origin of the noise.  The planet's natural echoing effect made such an endeavor difficult.  Finally, his eyes locked onto the craft, which was well in the distance.  Even so, he recognized the distinctive Imperial design.

It was an Lambda-class T-4 interstellar shuttle, which worried Maul.  He knew only high ranking members of the Galactic Empire used such craft, including his former master, the current Emperor.  Maul concentrated and reached out stealthily with the Force, but didn't feel either his master or his newest replacement, Lord Vader.  Maul had heard stories of the Sith lord during his time ruling the underground crime syndicates.

He did feel a faint whisper of the Force, but nothing that Maul would find cause to worry. Watching from their position, Maul and Eldra looked upon the craft, which began to circle the pyramid.  Eventually it settled down on the side opposite of where they stood, hidden from their view.  Curiosity stirred in Maul, as he wondered what the Empire was doing on such a forsaken world, and at a time where none challenged their rule.

"I'm going to see what our visitors want," Maul explained to Eldra, her face showing obvious signs of worry for the Zabrak.

"Well, I already know there's nothing I can say to stop you," Eldra replied, sighing and shaking her head.

Maul quickly gathered a few provisions along with his lightsaber cane and hurried off, his mechanical legs carrying him with impressive speed.  Eldra could do nothing but watch as he slowly faded in the distance, lost in the maze of rocks and pillars that covered the planet.  Eventually even the sound of his metallic feet faded between the ever-expanding abyss that now lay between them.  Eldra could do nothing but clutch her chest over her heart, begging the Force to guide Maul and protect him.

***

As the shuttle finally came to a rest upon the barren planet, whose surface was almost a living embodiment of death, Shilak anxiously paced in his personal chambers.  As a member of the Emperor's Shadow Hand, he was tasked with finding and exploiting new weapons with which the Empire could exploit.  Normally, this would be a fruitless endeavor, and required the tracking of rumors, but this mission was different.

The Emperor himself knew of this location, and the potential that lay within the walls of the ancient Sith temple.  Failing in this mission meant certain death for Shilak, and he was fully aware of this, given that the Emperor "gifted" the use of four royal guard.  Their crimson robes and force pikes were a firm reminder to all of their status as the best in the Empire. Should he fail, he knew the guards would ensure Malachor would be his resting place, and their strict code of silence made them even more unnerving to the Shadow Hand.

As the exit ramp finally crashed into the dirt, Shilak and his four guards immediately took to exploring the outer reaches of the temple.  All around the corpses of the dead seemed to stare in horror at their intrusion.  Even with his limited Force abilities, Shilak could feel the awesome forces that lay within the planet.  The guards never left his side, but paid no attention to anything in their surroundings; focus and discipline were obvious traits of such elite warriors.

Shilak wasn't unprepared.  His master instructed him personally in the Dark Side's more unorthodox methods of Sith sorcery.  But even with such training at his disposal he felt that this mission was doomed to fail from the start, and that his master was merely using an efficient method of ridding himself of the Shadow Hand.  He knew he wasn't very productive, but his personal training made him arrogant, thinking himself untouchable.  That confidence had faded as Vader's Inquisitors became ever prevalent in the Emperor's true goal of eradicating the Jedi from the galaxy.