Aleho knew this was not the type of archaeological site she typically visited, but there was something about delving into the recent past to uncover truths. Ashura had taught her a great deal about the Galactic Empire and its various activities. Mount Tantiss was one such activity, as it housed Palpatine's secret storehouse, and due to that, the locals believed it to be cursed.

She mused all this over as she piloted the Joben T-85 speeder bike to the location, her mountain destination growing larger as she approached. The Sith knew she had to be wary because this was a hotbed of scavengers and wildlife lying in wait. Aleho wasn't too concerned as she believed she'd have it handled if anything did pop up in her way.

Finally, after several hours of travelling, she arrived at the base, and it was clear that she wasn't alone, as a team of three guards stood outside on watch. Aleho realised that they were lookouts to alert the people inside if someone was coming. This was troublesome and not what she wanted. Her master had chastised her for lacking passion apart from just archaeology, and that she'd reach a bottleneck on how much she could grow as a Sith, but the Knight was confident in her skills.

Deciding to have a little fun with these goons, Aleho used her necromanctic Force powers to create a wraith from where she was undercover. The ghastly, gruesome entity looked at her, and she then pointed over to the three guards while whispering.

"Go say hello to them."

The wraith nodded her head and moved off while Aleho used her teleportation ability to "blink step" (as she liked to call it) another spot to watch the fun. The three guards were chatting and taking it easy rather than actually working, so when the wraith appeared and said, "Hello," they all screamed like five-year-old girls while firing their blasters at it. The wraith fraigle, having been hit with blaster bolts, quickly fell apart. However, the distraction was enough for her to "blink step" up to them. The last thing they heard was the sound of a lightsaber ignited and being swung.

Aleho didn't want to pat herself on the back too much, as the likelihood of those inside coming out to investigate was high. So, she decided to go on the offensive and entered the complex. It wasn't hard to track down the others as they were making quite a noise, and the concept of stealth seemed like a foreign concept to them. The question was how best to mess with them.

Then she decided not to bother and rushed out to attack. Her stamina, her mastery of her lightsaber form, her strength and of course the ability to amplify herself through the Force. All of this combined proved to be enough to handle the remaining peons standing in her way. The sounds of blaster bolts, swearing, lightsaber cutting through people and whatever else was in its path dominated. Aleho made sure to end each one of them in the most efficient way possible without getting too cocky.

Until it was just her standing in the room, along with corpses littered about the floor. Honestly, it hadn't been hard, and likely these people were not the best out there; otherwise, she would have had a bit more challenge. Still, she had time now to investigate and see what she could find.

Who said history was boring? Aleho certainly didn't, but she was one of the few who could go into dangerous places and uncover the secrets there.

Aleho awoke with a start as the hazy fog that surrounded her memories slowly began to lift. Her body ached as she tried to remember what happened and why she was lying in an escape pod? The last thing she remembered was the war. Her last memory was an explosion as the starship she'd been on got crippled.

'I remember something about a planet? Someone must have put me in an escape pod and jettisoned me. The planet's gravity must have caught my pod and put me down here.'

The young woman thought as she took stock of her inventory.

Wrist comlink; check.
Lightsaber; check.
Rifle; check.
Blaster; check.
Utility belt; check.
Datapad; check.

"Great. At least I'll be able to defend myself."

Aleho said as she moved to the hatch and performed an atmospheric check. The planet met all the parameters for live sustainability, meaning she could breathe the air unassisted. With a flick of a button, the hatch hissed as it opened up to reveal sand, sun and sea.

The Togruta blinked due to the bright light of the two suns overhead as she got out of the escape pod and began to take stock of her surroundings. The long-term goal would be survival. Luckily for Aleho, she had been taught basic survival methods, primarily due to her sadistic master, who dumped put in the wilderness as part of her training.

"Well, it is not a lava planet or jungle world."

Sometime later.

It was late evening as Aleho prompted herself against a palm tree and threw another branch onto the small fire she made. The campfire consumed the remains of the fish she had cooked and eaten as she cracked open another coconut to drink the sweet nectar. The datapad beside her was blinking the record function as she began to talk.

"Log update. It has been thirty-seven hours since I landed on this lovely island, and I have to say it's rather pleasant compared to some of the locations my master left me during my youth, for the short term at least. It only took me a few hours to map. The shallow shoreline has plenty of schools of fish, and I have noticed large aquatic life further out, not that I'm going to attempt swimming out that far. The island itself is rather small. Plenty of trees for shade produce two types of fruit; one being a yellow fruit you need to peel, and the other hard-shelled, which contains liquid inside. Sadly, there seem to be no fresh water springs or sources. Wildlife consists of birds which must fly from somewhere, not that I can tell as the horizon shows nothing but the ocean."

She paused for a moment to sip at the liquid.

"My lightsaber has come in useful, although using it to cut a tree down was likely not what most people would use it for, but hey, use the tools you have at least. My rifle ammo is limited, and my blaster power cell is down three-quarters. So best not to use those unless I need to defend myself. So far, I've limited myself to basic tools I've created to fish or use the Force. As for getting rescued from the impromptu vacation, I've set up a standard Brotherhood encrypted distress signal via my wrist comlink, using the escape pods communication array to boost the signal. Honestly. Not much I can do but wait."

Aleho ended the log entry and settled against the tree. It was time to get some sleep. A few hours passed peacefully until thunder and lighting overhead woke her up. Her lightsaber hummed as she shot to her feet in a defensive stance. The crimson blade was the only light source. Lighting arced across the sky as the temperature dropped. Then, it began to rain, a torrential downpour as the heavens opened up.

"COME ON!!! YOU GOT TO BE KRIFFING KIDDING ME!!! ALL I'M ASKING FOR IS JUST ONE LOUSY NIGHT WITHOUT IT HAVING TO RAIN!!! WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN EVERY SINGLE TIME?!? GODS DAMN IT!!!"

The two suns were peaking over the horizon as the shuttle landed not far from where the soaked Aleho was standing. As the platform descended, she looked like a drowned rat, and the young Sith walked up. It had rained throughout the entire night, and with little to no cover, all Aleho could do was hunker down and tolerate the conditions. She shivered and accepted the blanket which she wrapped around herself. Her little campfire got snuffed out when it started to rain. So it had been a cold, wet and miserable night, but at least she had survived, which was something.

"Are you alright, ma'am? Do you need any medical attention?"

The medic asked her as Aleho sat down while he looked her over.

"No, I was rather lucky, all things considering—just a couple of scrapes and bruises. I was able to treat the scrapes the best I could. My first aid is mediocre at best, but I know enough about bushcraft to know how best to treat my wounds. Well, enough to keep them from getting infected, at least."

The medic began to treat her regardless as the shuttle lifted off the island. All in all, the Sith woman had survived the experience. What more could she ask.

'Well, perhaps a spa treatment and someone to warm me during the night, along with a little... nighttime activities.'

A sly smile formed across her lips at that thought. Honestly, the experience had been mundane. Compared to past survival situations she had to endure in the past, this had been pretty pleasant, apart from the very wet night. She could have avoided or tried to prepare in advance if she had known about it. Sadly, weather forecasting was not one of her Force powers. She wondered if that was something that she could predict?

'Well, I've achieved the main goal of a survival situation. I survived. Now to focus on the future.'

The End

The day Ashura learned to maximise his Mind Trick force ability to delay its effect, essential turning people he'd broken into spies or assassins, had been one of his proudest achievements. It meant he could use this to benefit himself and others (if needed.) He had discovered a spy working against the Brotherhood as part of his duties to the Inquisitorius. It fell to him to interrogate the spy and learn who had sent him. The man in question was restricted to an interrogation chair, the same kind the Inquisitors of the Galactic Empire used on their prisoners.

"You will tell me who sent you. It is only a matter of time, and we are both going nowhere."

The Sith Warlord said to the dark side practitioner as he slowly walked around the chair. He had spent the last hour torturing the man, only to give the prisoner brief respites to question him before returning to it, the screams of pain soothing the Inquisitor's cold black heart. However, it was time to take a different approach. As if breaking the man's body was not enough, Ashura decided to break his mind, to render the spy into a drooling state, ready to be manipulated to whatever the Sith needed him to be. He stopped before the prisoner and reached out a hand as the Force flowed through him and to the restrained spy.

"You will break. It is inevitable."

Ashura connected to the prisoner's mind to use the malicious and perverted use of the Jedi mind trick to take control of the man's mind. He truly enjoyed this Force ability twisted by the Dark Side. If he had to explain what he was doing to someone who wasn't Force-sensitive, he'd explain it like Slicing into a data network, as Firewalls protected computer systems. Willpower and one's Force nature (if a Force user) could prevent this ability from taking effect. It was one of the main reasons those with strong wills were not affected by the mind trick ability, although that said, given enough time, anyone would break. Torture was an effective way to lower these resistances.

"You have failed in your mission. Those who you serve have abandoned you to this fate. Do not let their betrayal lead to your death. Listen to reason."

The Inquisitor's words were laced with the Force as he continued to erode the spy's mental resistance. He could feel them causing doubt to rise within the man, which led to his willpower faulting, allowing him to seep deeper into the prisoner's mind. It was like a mist seeping through the cracks in a wall, allowing Ashura to worm his way inside, deeper and deeper.

"I can release you, give your purpose, a reason to get revenge against those who left you to this damnable fate."

His words were sweet like honey as he offered the spy a lifeline, all the while corrupting his mind, breaking through into the man's mind. Ashura suddenly realised something truly tremendous as the man's willpower gave out. The mind in this state was programmable. Like a computer, he could input his commands and have this broken man do whatever was required. He could repurpose the spy into anything he needed. More than that, he could set triggers and delay responses allowing him to turn his puppet into an unknowing assassin. The options available to him were unfathomable. Ashura watched as the man slumped against the interrogation chair, staring blankly ahead. A bit of drooling pooled down from the corner of his mouth. The Sith lowered his hand and took a step closer. Ashura smiled and placed his hands behind his back.

"Are you ready to comply with my instructions and tell me who sent you?"

Ashura asked as the man nodded and replied.

"Yes."

The Sith nodded in return and began his questioning.

"Good. Your compliance shall be rewarded. Tell me who sent you, and I shall inform you of your mission."

The prisoner began to tell Ashura everything as the Sith continued to work his mind control over the puppet, programming the man into a sleeper assassin, with his target being the person who sent him to spy on the Brotherhood. Ashura would later arrange for the spy to forget about the programming and have him think he escaped, returning to those who sent him while following his new masters' orders and finally assassinating his target. The spy was just an expendable tool for Ashura, his alpha test. The Sith knew he would have to refine this ability. After all, progress requires experimentation.

The Crystalline Blood of Naga Sadow

The crystalline blood of Naga Sadow was rumoured to have been taken from Naga Sadow's deceased body by his loyalists before it was interred. Rumours and hearsay from past millennia said the crystalline blood could be used to summon the ghost of Naga Sadow to call upon his dark powers to smite down enemies. Actual research on the blood has determined that the blood does possess an extremely high Midichlorian count and is extremely dark side aligned. Due to the crystalline blood circular shape, it has been used in place of a synthetic lightsaber crystal that produces a blood-red lightsaber blade, however, how it differs from a regular lightsaber crystal has yet to be researched further despite the apparent fact it enhances the wielders capacities some. A stone tablet was found with the crystalline blood, a ritualistic incantation written in the form of a haiku and in the old tongue of the ancient Sith is carved on the tablet, and while something is lost in the translation the chant is as follows:

"Our dark lord has died,
Oh, blood please renew our lord,
Our eternal god.
His life eternal,
Death has no meaning to him,
A blessed illusion.
Only time will tell,
His essence shall endure on,
As will his hatred.
Blazing eternal,
The dark heart of a master,
Beating forever!"

[Option 1]

"A Failed Defence"

Colonel Aleck Winters dodged left as he avoided a blaster shot from the Collective's shock troopers. He had been pinned down by three Corsair Hive Mind Marines until he was forced to make a desperate move or risk getting shot to death as his cover was blasted apart, unfortunately for him, the pain penetrating through the left side of his body meant the enemy blaster had hit him. 'That's just crappy luck,' he thought to himself as he fell to the ground, and his vision started to blur slightly, 'I didn't think I would go out like this.' His blacking vision spied the Collective forces converging on his position and with his death imminent the wounded soldier's mind flashed back to how he ended up in this position.

The initial defence for the Shadow Academy orbital platform had never been about defeating the Collective forces but containment instead. Hold the from breaking inside long enough to evacuate personal and critical artefacts that were invaluable for the Brotherhood. The enemy forces were too vast and overwhelming to defeat, and it had been a long and bloody battle to fend off the invading army. Aleck had been fighting on the front, and it was brutal as the Collective's hive-minded soldiers were damn near unbeatable. It was how their minds were linked as a group collective controlled each soldier. Brotherhood scientists had tried to explain it like the soldiers were worker ants and there was a queen ant overseeing everything, but that seemed too tame for what was happening. After fighting and watching the enemy Aleck could only describe them as having one mind with multiple arms to get the job done. He didn't put much thought into it as his focus had been on the here and now. He had been disappointed that their first layer defence broke after only an hour and the invading force made their way deeper into the facilities with 67% of the evacuation completed. It had been losing battle to hold off the Collective as all that hard planning was for nought.

'Karking Murphy's law' Winters gritted his teeth as he waited for the end as his hate-filled eyes stared up at his executioners. However, it seemed that Murphy still wanted him around as its plaything as the Collective's shock troopers were blasted back by an explosion. Unfortunately, he was also caught in the blast and was sent flying back. As his vision blacked out, Winters saw he was being dragged back by some of his soldiers before everything went dark. This blissful darkness was practicality heaven compared to that living hell of fighting and watching his men die. His eyes then shot open as adrenaline began rushing through his system, Winters could feel his heart trying to rip itself out of his ribcage as his eyes darted to the faces of the combat medics patching him up. "The Colonel's going to make it Major Miles," one of the combat medics said to his second-in-command, "his wounds are critical and need to treated urgently, but he is out of this fight." Winters cursed the attrition of this battle having on Brotherhood forces, outmanned and overpowered, and now he was out of this fight as while his wounds were patched for the moment he couldn't continue the fight. He cursed Murphy move as he was carried away from the combat zone as he felt it was his duty as an officer to lead and inspire the men regardless of the outcome of the battle.

One Hundred Days: Last Chance

Taken from Colonel Aleck Winters War Journal

Day 100 of Invasion

This will likely be my last entry in this journal. As such, I will probably procrastinate, so please be tolerant with me, future reader. It has been over three months since the Breachers have invaded our galaxy, these interdimensional beings that pop into existence, and are damn hard to kill. It is not like fighting the Collective, or anything else I previously had experience with, and these giant bugs rely on instinct only. I'm sure I am just repeating what I have already written, but I feel I need to streamline it for you, just in case you have glazed over the other ninety-nine journal entries. When these xenomorphic monstrosities first appeared, they were resistant to lightsabers and blasters and immune to Force abilities. I was in Eos City when the invasion started.
I saw these creatures rip through Dark Siders and soldiers like they were cotton candy. Lightsabers bounced off their carapace exterior, and it took severe strength to cut one apart, which meant many died before even getting a chance to kill these beasts. It was worse for those only armed with blasters, as there appeared to be no damage at all after a few shots, and only heavy-duty blasters would have any effect. Luckily for me, I had my slugthrower with me, and I always have heavy-duty slugs which saved my bacon that first day. I was able to make it to the local garrison and from there make it to the spaceport. I bet you think I should have remained on the planet. It seems cowardly to run away, and you would be right, but I don't know if you were there at the beginning. The death toll was in the thousands after the first few hours, we needed to regroup, and that is why the survivors retreated. I cannot remember the name of the starship I was on, or what model it was, and I was to busy thinking about the mission ahead. My regiment was waiting for me to take command, along with the brigade we were assigned to, and we made our way back to Eos City.
We were determined to rid the vermin from our city. How wrong we were. It did not take us long to discover how rapidly the Breachers reproduced. Post mortem on a few of the corpses determined what happened. The Breachers would fill a body with hundreds of larva, and in a matter of hours, they would hatch and eat the corpse from the inside, after that they began to grow rapidly. I saw a man eaten alive by a horde of Breachers no bigger than a juvenal womp rat. It had only been five hours since the invasion started and there were ten times the amount of Breachers then first reported.
We lost the city in twenty days, and we did not give it willingly, as we lost more people then Breachers killed. We retreated to the Iron Legion HQ, that building was still standing, we were still in with a chance. The perimeter held for thirty more days, but it was merely a matter of numbers. There was too many of them and not enough slugs to take them out. We had many weapons and ammo drops over those thirty days, but it was not enough. Then the news came which we dreaded. It seemed even the mighty Dark Council members were not strong enough to stem the invasion, and over three-quarters of the council died, including the Grand Master. They did not go quietly into the night. The surviving members made there was to our location and were to be evacuated. I was lucky, I got to leave with them, and I watched from the shuttle as the Iron Legon fell. I should have died with my men. It is something I regret, but life has its plan, I guess. It seemed the egg heads had figured out how the Breachers pop into our dimension but lacked the organic material to replicate the process, and I, of course, volunteered to lead the mission to get it. It took twenty days to get everything we needed, that is twenty days of doing nothing but hearing how our planet was being overrun, twenty days of soldiers dying mercilessly by these kriffing monsters. After that time we were ready, we dropped in Sorasu Desert, the place with least enemy activity, and set up our portable garrisons. My regiment moved out, it took us ten days to arrive, and we surgically struck the Breachers hive. There was no chance of us winning this engagement, but it was enough to kill the largest of the beasts and take the parts outlined to us. The Breachers were riding our arses as we hauled back to base. That was another ten days of good men and woman dying to get the material back into the hands of our superiors. The onsite scientists got to work creating something that would help end this war, and it was our job to hold out until they did, and it was not easy. Twenty days and nights off us holding off the Breachers, and so many soldiers laid down there lives for this mission, and we had to burn their bodies to ensure no larva would survive if implanted — wave after wave of Breachers and we held. With the device ready, I gave the command, and we retreated inside. Ships in orbit firebombed the surrounding area killing off the Breachers in the thousands. We didn't do with earlier as we needed to respite to get everything ready. More forces landed in our area and prepared for the final part of the plan. We are going to take the fight to the Breachers home dimension. Crazy? Mad? Yes to both. But we need to do something to make this all seem worth it. The increase in perimeter allowed my refilled regiment to rest for the first time since this war started, and for ten days, we prepared and readied ourselves, until today.
It had all come down to these. Right now, in the next few minutes, we are going to open a portal into the Breachers home dimension, fight our way to the heart, or as close as we can to it, and set off an explosive device that made Alderaan seem like a firecracker. Well, calling it an explosive device looks rather tame, compared to what the Dark Siders are calling it. A Force weapon, something called a Thought Bomb. It is our job to protect them so they can set it off. It is a one-way mission. I want you to know I died doing my duty. I want you to remember these last words I tell you:
My name is Colonel Aleck Winters, I have no regrets, and I will become one with the Force. Win or lose. I will not go quietly into the night!

Manually added by Warlord Bentre Kairn'tel Sadow