The sky above Dromund Kaas was dark with the black clouds of the turbulent storm raging across the deserted valley. Sinya’ni pulled the hood of her red nightsister robes more tightly over her cyan lekku as she picked her way through the rubble of yet another failed Sith temple.

“They never learn,” she mused aloud. The Rutian may have been working under a Sith regime; however, her own beliefs stayed closer to grey. She avoided the cult-like adherence to what was called the Dark Side. To truly empower oneself, you had to let go of the foolish duality of the Force and accept it as one unified source. The darkness comes from the user. To accept that means you can no longer view yourself as a guiltless pawn of a dark agenda and take responsibility for who you are.

A flash of lightning lit up the valley, followed by a deafening thunder. The entrance to the ruins lay only a dozen meters ahead. Malevolent creatures were lurking in the shadows, and the diminutive Twi’lek could feel their eyes watching her. She paused–the archeologist should be nearby, if he was still alive. She reached out with her senses, pushing past the abhorrent creatures now tensed with anticipation, past the dark energies emanating from the mute walls...there, she felt it. The fear, the loathing. She could sense him deep in the ruined temple. She closed her eyes and thought at him *”Hang on, help coming.”*

The creatures were getting impatient. She hadn’t entered their trap yet. Drawing back from her probe and communication with the target, she shifted her focus to the creatures. Three of them were hunkered down in a small cave just to the left of the temple entrance. It was a simple thing really. A tug on a couple stones in strategic spots and the rock face over the cave collapsed. The three unknown hunters pinned beneath and behind several feet of rubble.

Moving on, Sinya’ni entered the temple. It looked much like most other Sith structures. Severe, foreboding, and completely Brobdingnagian. She carefully picked her way through the ruined halls to the waiting scholar. He was truly helpless hiding behind a downed pillar.

“Doctor Livingston, I presume? Come, let’s get out of here,” she said and offered a him a hand out from behind the rubble. “Stay close, we aren’t alone in here.”

“You think? What gave you that impression?” mocked Dr. Livingston, but he accepted the help and followed closely. They were only about halfway to the exit when an angry mutated creature attacked.

“Ahhhhhhhhh! Save me!” cried the cowardly archeologist as he started to run again. But Sinya’ni had the beast sliced in two before he had even rounded the corner.

“Get back here, you big baby!” The Twi’lek called out to him. Reluctantly he came back and they escaped the temple without another incident. Outside however–that’s a different story.

The three pinned gundarks were no longer buried and charged the two sentients exiting the temple. The scholar ran off once more. This time towards the ships.

“Fine! Run off and leave, why don’t you?” Sinya’ni called after him before fading from view. The gundarks circled a few times, trying to figure out where she went. She slowly walked all the way back to her ship. She didn’t even check to see if he made it to his ship safely. She made the liftoff as soon as possible.

“So long you ugly pile of Rocks…”