A year after the destruction of the second Death Star in the celebrated Battle of Endor, another war was waged between the New Republic and Galactic Empire. Basking beneath the desert sun of Jakku rests the remnants of this hostility. Shifting sands have since buried and uncovered countless treasures and relics- to the delight of scavengers eager who hope to recover tokens from either side of the conflict!

The harsh desert offers little shelter from the elements, remaining barren and flat against the imposing backdrop of a fallen Star Destroyer that was left uncovered after the famed Battle of Jakku. Rather than allowing the vessel to fall into the hands of the Republic after the self-destruct had been sabotaged, Captain Ciena Ree ordered the Inflictor evacuated and sent it crashing to the planet’s surface. Sunken into the shifting desert sea, the upper portion of the Inflictor’s hull and exhaust ports remain otherwise intact, preserved amidst the rubble of untold casualties that had once occurred on both sides. Although it has been scoured by the passing of several sandstorms, it still displays the former power and might of the Galactic Empire.

Innumerous scraps of metal and machines of war share the same grave, echoing the lives of those who fought and died among the perilous wastes. Hundreds of these relics sit untouched, lingering amidst the ghosts that tend and reside in Jakku’s graveyard.

One would look across the vast emptiness of a desert and consider turning back to better prospects, but not Lexiconus Qor. Not him at all, for he knew the true value of what the hot sands hid. In the distance, his eyes caught a glance of the the giant Imperial Star Destroyer and a glimmer of excitement shined in his eyes.

“Jackpot!” He fist pumped into the air and chuckled. The Quarren finally found his trove of technology, devices and lost trinkets he could use for his HK droid. The prize he waited for over three days of hyperspace travel, just to find the priceless auto-diagnosis module inside the capital ship. With a short hop, Lexiconus rushed down the dune and towards the ship.

The sun began to climb from the horizon and shimmered rays of orange and white across the hills, its brilliant light reflecting from the hull of the ship. Lexiconus pulled his armorweave cloak around him, protecting his fragile skin from the heated winds and the silt it carried with gentle whispers. The Quarren came to a stop when his eyes glanced at the rounded hull of an escape pod, and he wiped the build up of sand from the window.

“Where is the-ah!” The clunk of the door handle and the pod opened. He bowed and kneeled on the frame and inspected the cadaver inside. In his mummified hand was a datapad, which seemed as new as the day it left the assembly line. Stealing from the dead wasn’t his thing, but this opportunity couldn’t be passed.

“Sorry pal. I’ll buy the next round.” Old cartilage cracked and popped as Lexiconus yanked the device free and scanned the contents using the interface.

“Hmm, light alloy frame, self-destruct mechanism. Oh! Sensor upgrades?” Lexiconus listed the blueprints from the datapad he found, which belonged to an old Imperial engineer. He seemed to be delivering it to the commanding officer when the ship was gunned down by the Republic ships. His pod malfunctioned and forced the crash, which was unfortunate for him but priceless for the Quarren thirty years in the future.

“Ahah! Advanced targeting systems, this is what I need!” Lexiconus stuck a datadrive into the pad and began the download process, his eyes tracking the bar. His concentration broke when the Force triggered his attention away from the pod, and his senses picked up the harsh crunch of sand against metal. The Quarren scurried from the cool pod and looked out to the nearby dune. There he saw a gigantic cyborg limping his way to the open pod, his baritone voice cursing at the scorching heat. He couldn’t make out most of it, but Lexiconus caught the end trails of ‘glassing the entire planet for good’ and ‘dragging scion here’ but none of it made sense to the Quarren.

“A Sith? Is he thirsty?” Lexiconus asked himself and pulled out his flask. He poured some of the cool water onto the datapad and cleared the dust from it, then gulped some water. The purified taste sent a wave of icy texture down his throat and caused him to shiver in delight, a smile grew across his cheeks. Another cold shiver grew down his spine as the Sith grew closer, his dark side presence resonating around him and caused Lexiconus to hesitate.

“Scavenger! Give me your lightsaber or I will cut it out your hands! How dare you desecrate the property of the mighty Darth Sidious! His legacy will not be touched by unworthy hands!” His lightsaber appeared into his hand and the blade ignited a bloody colour, representing the hunger this Sith craved for victory. His intentions were clear throughout his Force signature, to honour and immortalise the assets of Emperor Palpatine wherever they were found. It was unclear if Thanadd knew, but Lexiconus did that everyday in his position as Imperator for his Clan.

The Seer sensed intense anger, furious passion and the thirst for murder from the male. From the straight ridges on his head and his spiralling height, Lexiconus could guess this was a Pau’an.

“I said give me your lightsaber, before I crush you with my boot!” Thanadd grew impatient and stepped further, causing Lexiconus to pause. He felt the power of fear flowing from his body, it was a tool he enjoyed to display. Like a portable trophy for all to admire or envy. The Quarren scanned his frame and cybernetics, tracking his form for weaknesses, clues and errors in his construction. Durasteel casing and wires connected to what was left of his body, as his heart palpitated viciously. It was forced to keep him alive, tortured by the overflow of blood and heat. It seemed logical to target the limbs first. Thanadd had lost patience.

His boots clanked across the sand and he raced towards Lexiconus, his lightsaber came forward. The Quarren dropped the device and water, his hands fumbled for his saberstaff. Thanadd closed the gap quicker than Lexiconus could calculate and sliced the pod door in half, while the Quarren began to crawl away. The saberstaff snapped to life and the emerald blades shined brightly. Lexiconus pushed himself from the floor and ran as fast as he could. Standing against this mighty Sith was an impossible task, but he still could be defeated. He only needed the right time and momentum.

Thanadd stormed towards the Quarren as he let out a baritone roar, slashing and hacking Lexiconus’ blades away. His form was unstoppable and hurt the Seer’s arms with a powerful strength. With a single batting of his lightsaber, Thanadd sent Lexiconus tumbling across the sands, and let out a bellowing laugh.

“You cannot hope to stand against me! Prepare to embrace the Force again, scavenger!” The Knight flurried his lightsaber and stormed forward.

Grains of sand inevitably wriggled their way into sections of the mighty Tarenti’s armor, chafing his brittle flesh and burying themselves in the fetid furrows. Beads of sweat pooled upon his brow, exposed for lack of hair, and attempts to disperse the streaming rivulets only encouraged their delivery of dry particles to his eyes.

Thanadd ignored the discomfort with ease – as least, the registration of irritation in his nerve endings – but he could not cast his visage into the open sun without squinting involuntarily, the dunes unforgiving in the spread of their dessication and grime. His eyelids finally shut, dimming his vision as the winds picked up. He stumbled into a wild swing of his lightsaber, searching for his footing in mounds of shifting sand.

Frustration welled, a humid ichor which only added to the searing warmth of his innards. His heart continued to race, overburdened by the combination of the weather, the temperature inside his armor, and the prevailing ire which carried Thanadd towards…

…the Quarren? Where had he gone?!

“SHOW YOURSELF, SQUID!”

Mawgath bellowed, the breadth and power of his roar drowned out by the vastness of the desert. He twisted the hilt of the lightsaber with a turn of his wrist, the blade whirring as it whipped around in a semicircle. Bending his knees, he stepped carefully, reaching out into the dry expanse with superhuman hearing. He listened – but there was nothing.

“You desecrate these ruins, scavenger! The relics of the Sith will not be picked over like some carcass!”

The Tarenti’s words were mocking, intended to deride his foe – wherever he was – into revealing himself. Few possessed discipline which sprung from an endless font. The Quarren, Mawgath guessed, was not among them; his curiosity led him to dangerous locales.

Thanadd could not imagine what he must have been searching for; he didn’t know why he was here, himself. While a testament to the Empire’s power, the corpse of the starship was a mass of eroding, mummified metal - not a temple of the Sith. Scion had insisted - demanded - that Mawgath complete the expedition.

“I’ll tell you when you get there, Knight,” he had promised, dismissing him.

Thanadd’s senses returned to the present instant, rolling with the current of the Force around the barren dips and knolls of Jakku. Nothing. He cried out to emptiness.

“This place is already a tomb, trespasser! Burying you will be too convenient!”

Moments passed, eternal interludes.

There.

The telltale blossoming of adrenaline urged Mawgath to turn on his heel, a merciful portent of the Dark Side which spread through armored limbs. Emerging from the arid nowhere which surrounded them, Lexiconus assailed the titanic Pau’an, shedding the cloak of the Force which separated him from Thanadd’s reality.

Even with merely a moment’s warning, Thanadd skillfully deflected the blow, his feverish blade crashing against Lexiconus’ emerald edge. Projecting from somewhere deep and dark, Thanadd snorted, chiding Lexiconus for such inadequate technique.

“Childish,” he muttered, his voice an electronic growl. He might have spat upon the sand, had he been able. Instead, his incisors ground against the rigid prosthesis, which hid his frown from the clever Quarren. A return blow sent his foe reeling, who shuddered beneath the sheer force of it, yearning to find his footing in the drift. Stabilizing, Lexiconus met the Pau’an’s visage with abject defiance, offering nothing but labored breaths.

Thanadd chuckled, gloating as his massive chest rose and fell.

“Hmph, hmph! Your resistance would almost be admirable, were it not so unwise! Kneel before me, knave.”

It was a raw imperative, free of bargains or opportunities. Such commands were utterly demoralizing, usually heralding the inevitable coup de grâce with which Thanadd preferred to dispatch the unworthy:

Decapitation.

Lexiconus paused, deactivating his lightsaber. His expression was alien – in a literal sense – emotions masked by the array of tentacles which constituted his jawline. It didn’t matter – he was surrendering, and Thanadd knew it.

The Tarenti responded with a quiet menace, the amplified wheezing of his respirator struggling to match volume with the hum of his lightsaber. Soon, this would all be over – and he would simply leave this vile planet.

“What th-?”

The lumbering cyborg visibly recoiled when, instead of obeying this commands, Lexiconus curled his limbs into a clawed gesticulation. It was as if he were holding a massive sphere, invisible and suddenly raised over the Quarren’s head.

“NO!”

Too late.

BOOM!

The force of the blast was an agonizing ripple throughout Mawgath’s frame, his heart now a sledgehammer against his rib cage. He dug, with tremendous weight, into the fickle plateau of sand, his gigantic legs threatening to buckle beneath overwhelming kinetic volume. The dunes of Jakku rolled around them, as if underpinned by some ancient serpent. Teeth gritted under the strain, bone collapsing into fine dust, molars promising to burst.

Thanadd Mawgath groaned, as it some legendary beast finally felled, driving a fist into the sand as one knee collapsed…