Play Testers Wanted Pt. 15

"That was a foolish move boy!" A male voice cried out and the assembled members fell silent and moved away from me.

"You should be dead! Why aren't you dead?" Arthur screamed as bluish vapors rose from between the fingers of my left hand. The light grew brighter and the fog grew thicker. Arthur howled in horror as my left hand shot out and gripped him by the throat and squeezed. The soft sickening crunch of his neck shattering filled the room.

"Well. So, that is where it went. How interesting." The Eternal Master chuckled. "Points to a dead man." He paused and looked at the other two masters. "Read my prediction if you will."

"Full marks to the Heir of Shaw," the Hidden Master read aloud.

"It is agreed. Booker, may I call you Booker?" The Eternal Master asked.

"Absolutely." I stammered as I pulled my left arm against my body. The cold sensation grew worse.

"I approve Duke Ravenstorm's adoption of Nick's heir. Since Arthur Essex chose to cheat his siblings forfeit any claim on his title or holdings. Said assets will be transferred into Booker's control immediately. Thank you for an entertaining evening. I will expect to see all of you at the New Year's celebration." The Eternal Master rose and the other two of the triumvirate flanked him. The trio approached me, and the Eternal Master spoke to me before he left. "Give me your ring." I hesitated but Wraith sent a pulse transmission. It is okay. I fumbled and barely had the strength to remove it and hand it to the masked figure. "Good. After such a show of skill and nobility I grant you the rank of Master of the Hand." He placed a new ring on my finger. "Welcome back to the fold Left. You have been missed."

It took everything I had to remain standing while the trio left the top deck. I felt the vibration through my feet. The gate thrummed to life as they departed the yacht.

"Catch him!" The Sword Master ordered as my knees buckled. I drifted in and out of consciousness. Once more I found myself floating inside one of those damned tanks.

'Relax Booker, we are going to be fine.' Left chuckled. 'I rarely speak with my host directly, but you are an interesting character. I see why she chose you. No, don't try and speak just think hard at me.'

'You are real.' I gasped sending bubbles floating to the top of the tank. I lifted my left hand and flinched when I saw the distended dark purple veins bulging from my hand and lower forearm. I twisted my hand until I could see the grizzled face looking back at me. 'You are the Left Hand of Darkness.'

'I am. You can call me Left or Sinister. Either one is fine by me.' It chuckled. 'No, you are not inside that quaint game of yours.'

'I do not understand. Do not take this the wrong way. What the hell are you?'

'Oh, that is easy, I am a genetically engineered lifeform. A weapon of sorts that your brother found in the City of Iram of the Thousand Pillars.' Left explained. 'I can absorb and break down toxins and the like, lucky you.'

'I thought being Nick's heir was bad enough, now I have a damn title and even more responsibility.' I snapped feeling a bit sorry for myself. 'What would Nick do?'

'Help people of course,' Left suggested. 'He set up that new V.A. bureau and funded it generously. He also blackmailed several politicians with records of their wrongdoings to push through legislation. Kat has wisely maintained the practice. Those two have changed things and continue to do so.'

'I guess I have to do some research.' I said as I yawned.

'Relax boyo, it is just a mild sedative to facilitate your detoxification.' Left chuckled.

The Moons of Korriban:

I woke transitioning from the White Room and into the game. I regained all my faculties staring up at the moons of Korriban. My first action was to bring Left up to examine it. It looked normal, there was no sign of bulging black veins or arteries. I turned my palm up and looked at the gentle female face looking out from the seven-pointed star branded into my flesh. I fought the panic of knowing my physical body was poisoned.

"All is well Master," Left informed me with a naughty wink from the palm of my hand.

"I trust you." I replied and got my bearings.

I was near the waterfall close to the proto Sith village. I got to my feet and found my inventory returned to its reduced state again. It was time to fight the boss and finish the quest here. I dashed through the village, down the tunnel to the edge of the Dark City. I moved so swiftly few were aware of my passing. The swirling icon was in the middle of the main temple. I strode up the stairs and felt the raging storm of a potent Dark Side user. Since I had cannibalized the parts for Mornar, I drew the ancient Sith sword instead. The air stunk of ozone and the crackle of electricity echoed within and across the ceiling of the pillared hall.

"Who are you?!" The unseen speaker demanded.

"I am Darth Valakhor." I replied coolly. Amethyst lightning raced down, and I caught it on the archaic blade. The strange metal gobbled up the energy and there was a brief glimpse of the hidden runes protecting the weapon. Sith sorcery did not weaken over time.

"I asked you a question. Who are you?" The voice came again.

"You believe me to someone else." I said and a second more potent blast struck. The sword absorbed what it could, and the excess coursed through my body. The pain was excruciating. My fangs shot out and I hissed instinctively.

"There. Your true nature is revealed my lord." The voice said in what passed for a soothing tone. "Why do you deny your name Master Nocturnal?"

"Perhaps I travel in disguise." I fired back as I topped the steps and entered the temple. "I never knew the Sith had gods." I said seeing the stylized pillars depicting the saints of old. "Who are you?"

"I am the guardian of this place and your humble servant." It rumbled and the sound of thunder accompanied his statement. I brought my blade up as my humble servant tried to murder me to death. The sword spun and deflected the massive blasts of energy away from me. Some passed out of the temple but most slammed into one of the stone pillars. Shallow cracks formed after the first volley. I was given the briefest of respites before the second volley began. I tried to reflect the blasts, but the angles of attack were always changing. I tried to sense his location, but I found no clear distinct direction. If I did not act quickly, I would be forced to remain on the defensive and be worn down to a nub.

"Come Master, surely you can do better than that or shall I claim your title after all these years?" He chastised me. "I expected better from you. Pitiful little man I shall end you and take up your former mantle."

I conjured the sun bright flame and even though it dazzled my eyes it did far worse to my hidden enemy. I set the roof of the temple ablaze with an incandescent inferno. A shriek of agony filled the structure. I got my first look at my foe. As the flame faded, I saw it, a Sith Wraith. Unlike the ghosts of Jedi, the few Sith that manage to conquer death they were forced to haunt the resting place of their physical remains. It was darkness, evil, and unquenchable rage made manifest. The aura that the wraith produced bordered on the visible spectrum but was fully seen in the ultraviolet. The dark purple haze flickered and danced over the outline of the creature.

"You wound me Master. I pledged myself in life and death. In death I must seek to destroy you and end this suffering." He raged as he closed the distance between us. I tried to utilize the Wind Sword technique, but it passed right through him. Laughing the wraith pulled his own unholy weapon from its sheath. Crimson flame burst from the rune carved edge. Our weapons clashed, locked, and white fire contested with scarlet. "You must die!" It shrieked in disbelief and I pushed my sword forward despite his inhuman strength. The clean silvery light consumed the red and flared to a blistery intensity. The wraith's concentration was shattered. "Strike true Master."

I did. As his control wavered my blade raced along the length of his and took his head. The shockwave threw me back. It traveled outward in an unchallenged sphere of compressed air. The hidden sarcophagus cracked and spilled its contents upon the temple's floor. The skull from the mummy rolled free and tumbled down to the main floor and came to a rest at my feet. I rose and brought my foot down hard shattering the skull. Teeth, bits of jaw, and slivers of bone shot out in all directions. The last wail of the lost soul faded into silence.

"Well damn," I cursed and approached the steps leading to the dais and the seat of the long dead high priest of the forgotten Sith gods. Four they were four dark elements that embodied the Dark Side of the Force. First and oldest was the goddess Argana. She was the mother of passion and the element of fire. Carved there on the first keystone pillar were her cold sharp features. Her eyes seem to flicker in the shadows above me. Next and husband of Argana stood tall stern Vitru, the earthen god and patron of strength and stone. His visage was as cruel as his wife's were lovely. Third and husband to the last was Pnurik, god of power and water. The deity of the flood, the torrent, and the unchecked river. Only he smiled in his graven image. His eyes were alight with madness and chaos. Storm god and still worshipped in isolated communities that bordered ocean or riven for fear of facing his wrath if his sacrifice was denied. Last and feared as much as her peers stands Utria, the goddess of the air and embodiment of victory. Storm crowned and lover of Pnurik. She lends to him her terrifying winds and he grants her the frozen rain and sky fire that even today the greatest Sith use to strike down their foes. She is the living embodiment of Force lightning. Her features are as fair as her sister goddess Argana and her expression as wild and expressive as fearful Pnurik. She is cloaked in crackling lightning and I could feel a whisper of her presence.

"Ghostfire." The voice crooned cold, sensuous, and hungry.

"Ghostfire," a male voice croaked through dry cracked lips.

"Ghostfire," the words bubbled up from crushing dark depths.

"Ghostfire." She whispered as a light breeze caressed my naked neck.

"Aw hell," I muttered as I sheathed my weapon. My gut screamed this was not a fight I could win with a weapon. "I am Ghostfire."

"Stand between us." A feminine voice demanded. A circle of black flame manifested at the precise center of the temple. I was teleported inside it and felt her hunger. My clothing, weapon, and mask were sent into my inventory without me doing it.

"Attend us," a male voice added as the floor inside the circle changed to blood red marble with dark veins running through it. I was forced to my knees as an unseen weight knocked me down and continued to press down on me.

"Feel us," a male voice roared as a column of water pounded down on me from above. I was on my hands and knees now. Mist rose from my body as the blend of carnal heat and torrential rain mixed.

"Endure us," a female voice whispered as hurricane force winds buffeted my body and lightning streaked down and struck me repeatedly.

I cried out but gave them nothing else. When I tried to dive into the protection of a meditative state the agony of the elements made that impossible. I quickly abandoned that strategy.

"Fuck you!" I screamed and they lashed out.

"Insolent!" Vitru roared and the pressure increased.

"Passionate," Arganna moaned and the heat tripled, and my erection was exposed and like a bar of steel.

"Disgusting," Pnurik growled and the rain turned to sleet. My exposed flesh was cut and slashed to ribbons.

"Animal!" Utria whimpered and the lightning split and danced across my back digging into the exposed wounds.

Something inside of me snapped. Enduring was not enough. I had to fight back. I tapped into my vampiric abilities and drew upon those strengths. First, I took on a gaseous state. The lightning, pressure, sleet, and heat could not touch me. I drew on Force drain and attacked all four elements. I began spinning creating a vortex with me at the center. The heat of the flame and the lashing winds help build up the speed and strength of the tornado I had begun. The downward pressure helped focus and compress the vortex to hurricane levels. The falling rain and sleet added mass and even more strength to my storm.

"Your time is over!" I howled touching the minds of the lost gods. "No one remembers you!" I screamed over their howls of denial. "Oblivion awaits you!" They were captured by the maelstrom, channeled through me, and reduced to raw power. All my meters were in the red. They had been buried beyond green and I had only one chance to survive. I dumped the excess into Left. I hoped it might translate over to real life though I knew better. I collapsed back to a physical form and lay on my belly gasping for breath. I checked my HUD, and my meters were buried deep in the green. I forced myself to stand. The stones around me began to creak and crack. The throne atop the dais shifted back and a crystal cylinder rose into view.

"No fucking way!" I gasped seeing the uniform, robes, and mask. Small bits of rubble fell and struck me and the area around me. I raced up the steps and smashed the cylinder to dust with a single strike. I dressed in the clothing, slipped into the hooded robes, and finally donned the archaic mask. The creak became a tearing sound as fissures formed in the pillars, the roof, and even the floor. The temple was self-destructing. I struck the bottom of the cylinder with my foot. I dropped into the shaft the cylinder had used to reach the surface. I felt the annihilation above me as the shaft shifted and shuddered. I reached the bottom and rolled to my feet expecting anything.

'Ding! Quest Successfully Completed. 'Put the Lost Gods to Sleep.'

I took in a deep cleansing breath and exhaled slowly. I looked around. My night vision revealed the glowing runes decorating the walls of the chamber. The roof was barely eight feet in height, twenty feet wide, and perhaps a hundred feet in length. The room was hot, stream rose from narrow slots carved into the floor. I walked over to the left wall and examined the runes. They were not glowing, well not with the power of the Dark Side. Instead they were crystals, and the radiance was coming from outside. It took my brain a few seconds to reconcile what I was seeing.

"Fuck me sideways." I gasped as I watched the magma slide across the exterior of this chamber. "It is buried under the surface of the magma. No wonder the floor is smoking." The walls were cut from thick blocks of Korriban diorite. The stone rated an eight on the Mohs scale for hardness. I will not lie. I was nervous about walking around a block of stone submerged in magma. The runes talked about a Sith lord named Darth Primaris. He had created this space to hide from the other Sith. Whoa, he was so naughty he had to hide from his or her own people. "Oh, Primaris what were you up to?" I muttered as I continued to read the runes and found out the why he was hiding and built this secret lab. "You were practicing Sith alchemy and sorcery on your own people. That is a big no-no." I chuckled just before my foot hit a pressure plate. I leapt back expecting a trap but instead two panels in the floor split apart and a obelisk, cut from the same diorite as the rest of this place rose up and penetrated the air like... well it was very masculine.

The grinding sound stopped, and silence returned to the chamber. The stone was covered in a mix or Sith and alien characters. The panels were one atop the other. The top eight blocks of the octagonal pillar were Sith and below them the alien characters. I scanned them and there was a one to one correlation.

"Rosetta Stone?" I thought aloud. "Left? Can you scan the pillar for me?"

"Just hold me up and walk around the pillar." Left replied. I did just that. I moved slowly but Left was much faster at picking up on languages than I. "May I borrow your powers for a bit?"

"I trust you." I said. I was saying that a lot lately. I felt a mild draw of power as left manipulated the air, cooled the steam and formed a sheet of water.

"Look." Left said and I glanced through the water and saw that the alien runes had changed. "Amazing. They were meant to be viewed under water. Wait. I know these characters or ones like them." The hieroglyphics reminded me of those used by the Elder Things. The aquatic theme used marine creatures as the primary imagery the way the Egyptians used dung beetles and jackals. "Let us start at the beginning." I found the first panel and read.

'I am their mother.' An interesting opening line, I guess Primaris was a female. 'I took of my own flesh to shape them.' Perhaps not, could be either, I continued reading. 'I gave them the name I deciphered from the world where I found the ruins.' A click followed by the hum of an ancient holoprojector came to life. The image was terribly blurred at first, but over time the lasers aligned. It was a star map. I looked at the pulsars and plotted the location of the star system. It was deep in the unknown regions. 'The culture died out ten thousand years ago. I have traced their last attempt at survival to Rakata Prime. The brought the plague.' What plague?

I moved to the next panel. 'The Vath begin their life cycle as an egg.' A second hologram was activated, and a small sphere was displayed. The egg trembled and three tentacle-like protrusions extended from the dripping surface of the egg. Instead of suckers along the underneath there were sharp needle-like hairs. 'The egg layer will attach to the back of the host, slice the epidermis, and insert the egg near the spine. In the case of a host without a spine then the egg is placed as close to the brain as possible.' Not a facehugger then, I thought. This is not describing a Xenomorph. "Depending upon the size of the host it can take an embryonic Vath years if not a full decade to reach the second stage.'

The third panel described the second stage or what Darth Primaris called the egg layer step. Another hologram appeared and showed a long serpentine shape with bumps covering its body. The thing moved and showed it using hidden arms to drive into the flesh of a creature. The head of the thing used its razor-sharp teeth to pierce the host's skin, pull open the flap, and one of those bumps popped off, sprouted the tentacles and pulled itself into the wound. The hologram pulled further and further back until it revealed the host was visible.

"A Rancor?!" I exclaimed. "They use Rancors as hosts." When the eggs matured, they were nearly seven feet in length. 'The egg layer produces eggs for one solar cycle. It implants as many eggs as it can. Those eggs that are not implanted are buried and recovered later. It is here that the egg layer becomes a full-fledged adult. They seek out a sentient host and bond with it. During their bonding they learn the language and guide their host in one of four paths. The paths are as follows, the warrior, the sage, the worker, and the assassin. The Vath will abandon a host in favor of one closer to their chosen life path. Once they find a suitable host, they will stay with it until it perishes or dies of old age. Often preparing the next host by creating a group or institution to choose from.'

The next panel described the next stage. After a full life they undergo a metamorphosis. They return to their egg laying stage before they die. However, this time the eggs produced carry the memories of the parent. They are known as the royals or nobility. The host they take is only for nutrients. Once they had fed from a series of feeder bodies they emerge as mature adults. They are brought an appropriate host to inhabit. Nobles rarely left the new home world.