Korriban – Heart of the Tomb Ascendant
The shadows thickened as Queen Suama, Royal Guard Commander Nyota, and the awakened Shadow Trooper Eid-Varak descended deeper into the tomb's guts. The labyrinthine halls were carved from obsidian and shadowstone, veins of red-gold circuitry pulsing dimly beneath the surface ancient conduits reawakening for the first time in over a million cycles.
They passed mummified Mahasimu from a forgotten age, standing in silent alcoves with energy blades still sheathed at their sides. Sentinel constructs the size of dropships remained inactive, heads bowed, still waiting for the command that had never come.
No one spoke. Only the sound of footsteps and the distant chime of ancient security AI humming across the halls accompanied them.
The Door of Kings
At last, they reached it.
A towering tri-chambered gate that extended nearly a kilometer in height, wrapped in coiled restraints, layered with arcane seals, and embedded with a lattice of stasis runes designed to anchor time itself. No regular Mahasimu even nobles could approach this place without Sovereign DNA clearance.
Eid-Varak stepped forward, raising his hand. Embedded in his gauntlet was a shard of the First Crown's neural core, allowing limited override authority.
He spoke in the Ancient Tongue a language of growls, subharmonics, and psychic inflection:
"Mu'thae val'eth… Oth'kar Mal'gus, vak'thara Suamae."
(By blood and order… Rise, Lord Malgus. The Sovereign commands it.)
The gates hissed with tension, seals melting away as runes flared. The inner pressure release groaned like the world weeping.
They opened.
The Awakening
Queen Suama stepped forward alone. Her voice, regal and cold as death's kiss, echoed across the hall:
"Darth Malgus… Waken. The multiverse is unworthy of your absence any longer."
Her hand hovered over the Royal Sigil Port embedded in the sarcophagus. The AI required no confirmation.
DNA MATCH: EMPRESS SUAMA VERIFIED.
ALPHA-OMEGA OVERRIDE INITIATING STASIS RELEASE.
The restraints uncoiled.
The tomb hissed open with a seismic shudder. Frost evaporated in curls of steam. The chamber brightened. The black silhouette stirred.
Malgus stared at her with open scrutiny. The golden sigils of sovereign power glowed on her neck and wrists. Her aura was unmistakable the heir of the Ancient Queen.
But even so, he did not bow.
"I recognize the blood. But I bow to none—save the First Mother," he said, voice low, metallic, and full of ancient disdain.
"What does her shadow want of me?"
Suama inclined her head, acknowledging his autonomy.
"The multiverse is burning. The Third Archone has awakened. The Silent Ones stir. The Thalor have broken the ancient seals. The war to end all memory has begun."
"You are not here to serve me. You are here to awaken what was sealed with you."
Malgus turned, his eyes narrowing at the vaults stretching far beyond the horizon—trillions of stasis pods suspended in rows across a blackened abyss, each dripping viscous black liquid from their seals as they pulsed with life returning.
"Then I will begin with the filthwork."
He raised his right arm his palm crackling with violet command sigils.
"Eid-Varak. Order the awakening of the full caste of Sand People. Every unit. Every sleeper. Rouse them. Let them scrub the tomb of stagnation. Let them polish the bones of gods. Let them prepare the Darkstar."
Eid-Varak, standing beside the twenty Sand People by the tomb's entrance, immediately turned and issued a series of ancient code-transmissions. In unison, the Sand People moved jerky at first, like marionettes with memory-lag then with purpose.
Thousands of service elevators hissed open. Thousands more Sand People began to emerge from deep cryogenic vaults—grey-skinned, heavily wrapped in breathing cloth, their feline muzzles twitching, voices hollowed by neural taps and implanted filtration coils. Their speech came in bursts of whisper-data and code chirps, not meant for organics.
Armed with mechanical brooms, plasma siphons, reclamation drones, and containment tanks, the awakened caste scurried forward with terrifying efficiency, cleaning up the thick black liquid that oozed from every opening pod. They wiped walls, sterilized gantries, scraped clean the resurrection floors where black ichor dripped like industrial blood.
Within minutes, entire stasis hangars flickered to life, lights returning for the first time in eons.
Malgus' Command
Malgus turned again to Suama.
"They will clean. They will prep the maintenance bays. They will reactivate fusion canals, cleanse hyperdrive veins, and prime resurrection conduits. But until it is done… I will not awaken the Darkstar."
Above and below, in distant chambers carved into the planet itself, tens of trillions still slept shadow troopers, pilots, beasts, and slaves frozen in time. Their pods hummed faintly, like a cathedral full of sleeping titans.
Command Throne of Aldre
Malgus walked with heavy steps to the edge of the Command Throne, a monolithic structure built for warlords that outlived entire galaxies. Beneath him, the Aldre core reactor capable of disintegrating planetary crusts was beginning to stir. Entire planetary plates groaned under its weight.
Beside the throne, a second sarcophagus opened.
Eleena Daru, his faithful slave and companion, rose without a word. She blinked once, leaned against him gently, and adjusted the respirator at his side.
"You live again," she said softly.
"No," Malgus replied. "Now I wage war again."
Final Sequence
As the dark reactor spun into slow life and command systems began syncing across miles of buried circuitry, Malgus raised one final order to the AI system.
"Bring this world to its knees. Begin primary warm-up cycle for all core weapon systems. Unlock the planetary clamps. And awaken… the deep vaults when I say so."
The Darkstar Aldre groaned like a continent breaking. Above them, the skies darkened as the crust began shifting mountains splitting open, revealing metal plates and engine arrays beneath. The world had not been a tomb.
It had been a shell.