The chamber was alive now.
Deep beneath the ruined surface of the forgotten world—its name long lost to time—Darth Serion stood before a humming core of ancient Rakatan machinery. The walls pulsed with circuits etched into obsidian, veins of red energy spiderwebbing across the stone like blood under skin. The air was thick with pressure, like the Force itself was holding its breath.
He was still adjusting to his new body, but the instincts were frighteningly precise. The Force flowed differently now—obedient, as if it recognized him as something more than mortal. His Earth-born thoughts remained, anchoring him, sharpening his perception beyond what any Sith before him had ever known.
He knelt before the artifact. A triangular monolith, half-submerged in broken crystal and dust, engraved with glyphs from a time when the Rakata still ruled the stars. It pulsed faintly with power. Untouched. Waiting.
"You're still alive," he whispered.
The Force responded—like a breath across the back of his neck.
He extended his hand and pressed his palm against the surface. A shock of pain surged through his arm, racing through bone and nerve. He grit his teeth but didn't pull away.
"I remember you," he whispered.
And he did. From Serion's memories—the ones that weren't his, yet lived in his blood—he remembered activating these monoliths centuries ago. They were Waygates, ancient Rakatan hubs used to control planetary-scale systems: weather, gravity, power generation, even time distortion fields.
The monolith pulsed brighter. The glyphs realigned. A series of symbols illuminated in sequence—first Rakatan, then shifting seamlessly into Basic, as if recognizing the mind behind the hand.
ACCESS GRANTED.CORE LINK ESTABLISHED.SYSTEM: PLANETARY RELAY NODE ALPHA—ONLINE.
From above, stone ceilings cracked apart, revealing columns of machinery buried beneath the surface—towers of ancient metal rising like the bones of dead gods. The wind outside changed direction. The ruins began to hum.
The planet, once dormant, was waking up.
"Yes," Serion murmured, eyes glowing faintly with reflected red light."You will be the heart of my new empire."
He activated the holomap again, now with new parameters. Rakatan satellites, long hidden, flickered online. Abandoned AI cores requested instruction. Deep orbit weapon systems pinged for reboot. A fleet-sized orbital station registered in decayed geosynchronous orbit.
His mind whirled with potential. This wasn't just a forgotten relic—it was a world-forge, an ancient Rakatan cradle world, once used to prepare war fleets for galactic domination.
"Perfect," he said, standing tall."The Eclipse Imperium begins here."
And yet, even as victory stirred in his bones, Serion felt it.
A tremor in the Force. A subtle ripple. As if something—or someone—had noticed the activation. Across the stars, a veil had stirred.
"You feel that, don't you, Sidious," he muttered, almost amused."Good. Keep watching. I haven't even started."
He turned back toward the monolith.
"Now... wake the foundries."