Jedi Insurgency 112

That feeling of harmony that was born from the combined understanding of three Jedi had long run cold in Corvus’s system. At the moment, his veins were turning ice cold as the Force was sending him not too subtle warnings. 

Having piloted the Falcon to land at a spaceport in Theed, Naboo's capital, he was expecting an easy infiltration into the palace. Instead, the moonless night was particularly dark, and a fog so thick he couldn't see three inches in front of his own face permeated the air. 

Leaving Obi-Wan and the rest behind, Corvus was flanked by his two students. Following the map feature, and being able to follow one another thanks to their Force Bond, they had arrived at the gates to the palace in record time. 

Before their infiltration, Corvus paused in place, and spoke over his shoulder to discuss the eerie situation with Jax & Yon. 

“This darkness isn't caused by the Force, yet I sense something vile has taken root in this city.” Corvus softly intoned, his voice was barely above a whisper. 

He had seen and experienced a lot since arriving in the galaxy far, far away, yet the fear of the dark, of the unknown was a primal instinct. To face a lasersword, or the cunning of Thrawn, these were tangible, and easily understood by the rational mind. Even something as outrageous as [Force Lightning] wasn't all that scary. Call him superstitious, but a palace shrouded in fog was creepy, and it didn't help that the Force was pinging him constantly. 

“The smell is awful! Master, please hand me a mask.” Yon complained, and covered his nose. 

Taking a mask out of his inventory, Corvus briefly slowed in his action as he processed Yon's words. As of late, this student of his had been particularly keen on scent/smell/breath related abilities. If whatever was in this palace was triggering him so bad, that he had to cover himself up, then this was no simple foe. 

As Yon was gearing himself up, Jax slipped on a half mask that covered his nose/mouth-one with a rebreather-and ‘stared’ at Corvus with his eyes closed, and a furrowed brow. Holding a hand against the wall to the palace, he concentrated for a second, and shook his head. 

“I do not understand. The wild is roaring. Life has decayed, yet it is everywhere. What does this mean?” Jax spoke in a cryptic tone. 

“Did you find something?” Corvus asked in concern. It was never good when your team of mystics started talking in riddles. 

Jax merely shook his head again. This time, he was clearly frustrated. 

Corvus could only sigh. This was supposed to be an easy mission. Introduce the perfect politician, aka, Obi-Wan, do some casual sabotage on the sidelines, and ruin Palpatine’s day. However, that simple goal had spiraled out of control now that he had stumbled onto something strange. 

Shaking his head, Corvus decided he had to investigate. Although the palace didn't seem like an ambush, it radiated danger. He had to be cautious. 

“The plan was to split up, and try to find the Queen. To discover any information that might be beneficial to our cause on Naboo. That mission hasn't changed.” Corvus explained to Jax & Yon. 

“What about that scent of decay? Should we investigate?” Yon enquired. 

“Our first destination shall be the security room. From there, hopefully the recordings shall give us the answers we seek. You two follow me, I don't like it here.” Corvus said, turned invisible, and then hopped over a large, black, iron wrought gated fence. 

After circling the property, he couldn't find any easily accessible entrances, and decided he would try his luck on an inconspicuous side door. 

Walking towards the door, he felt his boot step in something wet. Bending low so that he could see within this damned fog, he saw that it was a still slick puddle of blood. 

‘Beware.’ Corvus silently warned his party through their link, and shared a brief mental imprint of what he had seen.

Moving forward, he tried to open the door by finding a button to press with the Force. However, unlike all other previous doors, this one was closed shut with a solid wall of durasteel. Even the large windows as seen in the movies had been covered!...it was almost like someone had triggered an emergency release switch, and every door/window into the palace had been locked up tighter than a bank vault. 

Hesitating for a moment, Corvus considered abandoning this mission. Yet in doing so, he would leave his team unprepared for the scheduled meeting at the museum. As much as he didn’t like this, he had to press on. Igniting a lightsaber, he quickly got to work, and cut a hole in the wall.

Once an entrance had been made, a faint, almost tangible musk wafted outward. Even through the auspices of his mask, Corvus felt like gagging. It was such a gut wrenching stench, he felt like grabbing his stomach, and falling to the side. 

“Yon, your new ability allows you to breathe in space. Try using it on yourself, and covering us as well.” Corvus hissed. 

“Stand closer to me.” Yon replied tensely. 

Seconds later, a cool current covered them, and the foul odor that could compete with a filth God's armpit had vanished. 

Peering inside, Corvus was met with a beautiful mansion's decor. Fine paintings, lush rugs, delicate pottery, and a hundred other niceties were everywhere. It was regal, and felt like a true palace, a place where a monarch would live. That being said, the carpets were rife with stained blood, and bloodied finger marks scraped into the ground as if someone were trying to crawl away from being dragged. A smashed bust lay scattered on the ground, and 8 out of 10 light fixtures were broken, or swaying. Light flickered in the hallway, and the stench of death permeated the air. 

Adopting a grim visage, and clenching his jaw, Corvus was beginning to form suspicions as to what had transpired here. Yet he hope that his fears would remain unfounded. However, with Palpatine being pushed into a corner, he doubted there wasn't any low that the old prune wasn't willing to stoop down to. Clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles must've gone white, he gathered his courage, and advanced. 

The palace was quiet, too quiet. Besides the occasional squeak of their boots on the floorboards, the mansion was still as a grave. 

Following his map feature, they arrived at the security room without incident. During their journey, they spotted more evidence of a desperate struggle. However, there was yet again a should he say, disturbing lack of corpses. Frowning to himself, he finally entered the security room. 

Dropping invisibility, Corvus’s mask gleamed faintly in the flickering light of the monitors as he leaned over the control panel. His gloved fingers danced across a keyboard as he retrieved the last few hours of surveillance footage. What he discovered was disturbing. No new palace guards had not reported in. Neither had the staff. No distress signals had been sent

Rubbing his chin in thought, he realized that there must be some malevolent force at play. That someone had planned this. But who? And furthermore, why? Was it really as he suspected, and a pawn of Palpatine had caused havoc, or was it some third party unrelated to the conflict between Sith & Jedi? 

Searching for answers, he began to parse through various feeds. 

At first, the footage showed palace staff running down corridors, guards shouting into commlinks, and the sealing of doors. From what he could gather, they were trying to create some form of containment. Corvus  fast-forwarded through the initial panic, his eyes didn't blink for an instant. 

Then he saw it. 

On one screen, in the east wing corridor, the guards encountered something out of a horror novel. Their skin appeared marred, darkened with something web-like and pulsing veins, or spider-like webs. They shuffled like creatures that had learnt to walk for the very first time, yet moved like the most ravenous of beasts. 

The guards opened fire without hesitation, filling the hallway with bursts of red light. Unfortunately, these blasts of plasma were rarely effective, and the small patches of charred flesh did little to stop the assault. 

Corvus watched on as the defenders’ formations broke, and screams filled the air. The feed went static for a moment, and he swapped the feed to a different recording. 

In another corridor, palace attendants fled for their lives. Their terrified expressions and desperate pace said it all. The attendants tried to escape through the service tunnels, but the durasteel curtains had closed, there was no escape. Watching the helpless maids be torn limb from limb, Corvus could only shake his head in pity. Being hunted like that, it was a terrible way to go. 

Corvus switched feeds again, this time to see what had transpired in the main hall leading up to the throne room. What remained of the guards stood their ground for a last stand. They tried to resist, but those misshapen figures outnumbered the guards 3 to 1. It was a helpless situation. 

Swapping between feeds to see if he could find anything else of note, he discovered something peculiar. 

A lone figure in a full-body hazmat suit walked calmly through the palace courtyard. White and featureless, they moved without urgency, passing through the frozen crowd of abominations as though they weren't there. The creatures made no move to stop or even acknowledge the figure. 

Corvus narrowed his eyes.

The figure paused beneath one of the more obviously placed security cameras. Slowly, deliberately, they tilted their head upward. Then, in a gesture that made Corvus roll his eyes, the figure raised a single hand and waved at the camera. It was a brief, casual wave. As though this were all a game.

A moment later, the figure turned and walked out of frame, vanishing into the shadows of the outer gardens.

The recording then ended, and he could now guess as to Queen Neeyuntee's fate. 

Corvus stood in silence for a long while, the cold glow of the monitors cast long shadows across the room, and bathed half of his mask in darkness. The Force stirred around him, it carried a note of uncertainty and weariness. 

Corvus copied the footage to a secure holodisc and turned to glance at the boys. Their emotions were tumultuous, and questions burned in their eyes. 

“Master. What did we just see?” Yon questioned. 

Corvus ran a hand through his hair, his mouth was set in a grim line as he recounted the old lore. 

“In ages past, the Sith, in their arrogance, sought immortality. They did so by many means, one of which was via biology. One madman, Darth Drear catastrophically achieved this over 4,000 years ago. His project has been attempted off and on several times, yet always resulted in failure. 

Now, I fear, we have come across this virus once more, ‘the Sickness’ has returned.” 

As soon as Corvus had finished speaking, the final security tape had come to an end, acting as a trigger of sorts. When that happened, a blood curdling roar echoed throughout the palace, and black veined monstrous former humans began to drop out of vents, and crawl out from under couches. 

The Blackwing virus was upon them. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

AN: Star Wars Legends lore plays no games. The villain of this arc was actually foreshadowed, believe it or not.