“Did you find anything?” Alha yelled over to her brother. She certainly could not find anything. There was no noise, no movement, and no life in the area.

“No! Did you?” Alhoy called back from the smoking husk of their old town hall. His voice was strained with worry. She could hear him tearing through the debris in the same frantic way she was.

Alha didn’t bother answering him. Instead, she ran over to the next smoking pile of a hut and began pulling apart the ruins. There had to be a sign. Some reason for the destruction around them.

Their old village, their old home was destroyed. She dug through the burnt steel and charred pieces. It was all that was left of the hut she grew up in.

It all started when they arrived in the system. As soon as their ships made it to Korriban, she started to get a bad feeling. At the time, she chalked it up to the way the wasteland planet radiated dark energy.

Zaros explained to her that Korriban was a nexus of the dark side. That was the whole reason normal people like the townsfolk shouldn't be there. She didn’t really understand what that meant though. That was until the moment she was standing on the bridge of their ship and staring out at the yellow planet. A miasma coated the entire planet and tendrils of the dark side extended out from it. It was like all those times Zaros got angry, except it was constant and the size of a planet.

As they descended towards the village, those tendrils reached out to her. They filled her with power but also muddled her head. It was like she was constantly channeling the force, except she wasn't trying to.

But, her worries only increased as she couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible had happened.

It was only when they saw the smoke on the approach that she realized what the force was telling her.

A series of beeps from X2-C3 brought her thoughts back to the present. The droid was banging on a large sheet of metal that was trapped by other materials in the adjacent hut. When she looked over, it began spinning and producing an incredibly annoying metallic noise.

Alha didn’t speak droid, but it was clear he wanted her attention.

When she got over to the droid, a claw popped out from it and gripped onto the metal. It tried to drag it free but didn’t have the strength.

It seemed X2 wanted help, so she obliged and began uncovering the metal from debris. Once it was cleared, she easily lifted the metal away to expose a half-burnt bedroll.

Confused at what made this so important, Alha looked back over to X2.

In another series of beeps that resembled a huff, the droid grabbed onto the bedroll and pulled it out of the way. It revealed a small trap door!

“Why didn’t you say that from the beginning!?” she hissed before pulling the door up and shining a light into the depths.

“Alhoy get over here!” she called out.

Then she hopped down into the hidden basement and began searching through the boxes and crates. There, huddled in the far corner, were two kids. They looked dehydrated and barely alive as they clung together.

Barriss kneeled by our new captives and channeled the force into healing their wounds. A faint but warm light extended out of her hands and gently removed the facial bruises from their leader. Schurk-Heren was a male Yakora. That meant he was basically a humanoid camel with a large black mustache. When the bruises were cleared, she moved to his broken arm.

Schurk-Heren was lucky enough, or rather unlucky enough, to have found the Jebble Box. He was currently trying to sell the thing, though he found the prospect difficult. The box was woth a fortune, but it also had a penchant for causing betrayals, backstabs, and even an all-out war at one point. The owners of the box may have just been unlucky, but it was probably the contents of the box that caused these issues.

Shurk had no clue what was inside the box. Almost nobody did, save for me and a particularly sleazy historian working for Palpatine. Believe it or not, a broken arm and some bruises were a far better fate than what would happen should the smuggler get in contact with that historian.

Inside that box was the Muur Talisman. For thousands of years that talisman has been a threat to all life in the galaxy. It was the source of the Rakghoul Plague. The saliva-born plague and the talisman itself were able to turn any near-human, saved for force users, into disgusting and mindless drones. It was a particularly gruesome fate, as the infected were conscious as their skin ripped apart from the transformation.

The Talisman was made all the worse because it was inhabited by the spirit of one of the original exiles from the Jedi order. Karness Muur went all the way back to the Hundred Years Darkness. Muur didn’t particularly enjoy being a spirit, so he was constantly on the lookout for a powerful host. His talisman acted much like a parasite in this regard. Sure, it would grant you power over the rakghouls and the dark side. But, you would constantly have a creepy ghost probing your mind to see if he could kick out your consciousness.

It would be all too simple if the box just had the talisman though. No, the talisman already had a host. Her name was Celeste Morne, a Jedi shadow sworn to destroy the Sith. They did kill her family and leave her a child orphan, so I couldn’t grudge her that. That said, her little vendetta was kind of annoying, since it wasn't even a Sith that killed her family. No, it was a dark Jedi. My people were huddled together in some far flung corner of the galaxy at the time.

“I’m sorry my...companion got so rough with you,” she said. The man winced. It was probably an uncomfortable feeling to have your bone pulled back together with the force.

“Don’t apologize, the trash pulled a blaster on me,” I retorted before pulling out my canteen and taking a sip of water. We were currently in the brig onboard the Abundant.

Barriss ignored me and kept talking with the camel-man. “But we really need that box. It is for the greater good of the galaxy that you tell us the coordinates,” she asked the man. She then pulled the rag gag from his mouth so he could answer.

Instead, he spat into her face and the water in my own mouth sprayed out in a cloud.

“Torture me all ya like, I’m not telling you two drukheads nothin,” he hissed.

“I didn’t plan on it,” Barriss muttered. She glared at me as I tried to stifle a laugh. Luckily I was saved by the beeping of my communicator.

“Oh, I gotta take this. Don’t torture anyone before I get back,” I said and excused myself into the hallway.

I activated the communicator and a hologram of Alha appeared.

“Hey, what’s up?” I said with a smile. Barriss was fine, but everything was business with her. The sibs could handle a few broken bones without getting on my back about it.

They were still on their way to Korriban by the time we left the Parnassos system for Mimban. I hadn’t heard much from the two, other than a report we received as they switched hyperplanes on the way.

“It’s bad Zaros!” Alha exclaimed.

My smile dropped.

“What’s bad?” I asked.

“The village was gone! Everything was burnt to a crisp!” She explained.

“Your village?”

“Yes!”

“Ok ok, tell me everything,” I said.

“We could see the smoke on the way down. The place was deserted, destroyed,” she explained.

“Was everyone killed or was it deserted?” I tried to clarify her word choice.

“We think they were taken. There were some kids. It- It took a while to get them to talk,” she explained.

“What did they say?”

“That cat peo- that doesn’t matter! I think it was a Zygerrian raid!” her tiny hologram yelled at me.

“A slaving trip?” I asked. Zygerrians were notorious slavers. They were famed across the galaxy for their ruthless raids. They had success in the business even under the Republic. The new Empire was even more willing to work with their slaver clans.

“I don’t think those scum lickers would be here on a charity mission!” Alha cried.

She was incredibly worked up by this point. I mean, she started the conversation understandably high-strung, but she was punching the walls once she started talking about the Zygerrians.

“I called to let you know that we are heading after them,” she finally said.

“Right now? It’ll take a few days for us to get there,” I explained.

“We have to, the whole village might be separated if we wait too long,” she said.

“You are a big girl now,” I acknowledged.

“I’ll finish up here and we will head right for Zygerrian space. Leave a beacon or something. I want updates before you two do anything crazy,” I replied.

“We will. I promise,” she said.

“Good. May the force serve you,” I replied.

“And you, master” she replied and then cut the feed.

I turned my attention back to the brig.

“There’s a very dangerous item inside that box and we are the only ones who can handle it,” Barriss pleaded with the man.

“Heal my friends and then maybe-“ Shurk was saying before I slammed the door open. It was either the loud noise or the dark energy that wafted around me which shut him up.

This little charade was fun while it lasted, but now I had shit to do.

“Listen here you piece of trash, I don’t mind you wasting her time,” I said while motioning to Barriss.

“But now you’re wasting mine. So, here’s the deal. Tell me which barren moon you left the box on right now or I’ll take a limb for each time I have to ask again,” I threatened while activating my lightsaber.

It didn’t take long for him to spill the beans after that.

The smugglers had been planning on selling the box to some crime lord on Mimban. That meant they needed the box close but couldn’t keep it on hand in case they were double-crossed. I’m pretty sure they were going to be double-crossed and that’s why they would try to eventually sell the thing to a historian. The whole operation would end with them meeting Vader a few months from now, and I’d say I was a little more accommodating than he would be.

Finding the box was a walk in the park, as they left it on some barren moon.

It was what came after that posed problems. Unlike Vader, I wasn’t going to just cut it open as soon as we found the thing. No, I wanted to do this with at least some forethought.

Luckily there was a particularly powerful force nexus conveniently located on Mimban. This nexus contained the legendary Kaiburr Crystal. The crystal increased one’s power with the force drastically while they held it.

So, the plan was to wake up Celeste once we were inside the temple that housed the crystal. From there, Barriss would utilize the crystal to enhance her skills in cleansing the dark side corruption. This boost would hopefully be enough to banish Muur and cleanse the talisman. With the talisman off the board, and one of hopefully many giant kyber crystal in hand, we’d be good to go.

Celeste could do whatever. I’m sure she would cause some type of problem, but I wasn’t worried about fighting a single Jedi if need be.

It all added up quite nicely in my head.