Expansion The Empires Fall | Overtaking Syngia Trade Sector

[Darth Malvus]

Encrypted Response – From Darth Malvus, Planetfall Citadel Ruins

Transmission Route: Shadow Eclipse Command Channel

Clearance: Black Prism – Supreme Authority

The air within the ruined throne room of Syngia’s main citadel was heavy with smoke and blood. Amidst the flickering flames and the shadows cast by collapsed pillars, the holographic visage of Darth Malvus appeared—hooded, armored, his crimson eyes gleaming like twin dying stars.

His voice came low and deliberate, the sound of fate made manifest.

“Let them watch.”

He stepped forward, firelight reflecting against the black durasteel of his gauntlet as he looked up toward the projection.

“Let them bear witness to the fall of their jewel from the safety of the void. Let the light of their cities burn bright enough to sear regret into their cowardly eyes.”

He paused, letting the silence drag just long enough for it to settle deep into the hearts of all who listened.

“They will do nothing—yet. Fear binds them more tightly than any tractor beam. But if they move… if even a shadow slips too close to the surface…”

Malvus raised a hand slowly, fingers curling like the talons of a predator.

“…strike them. No warnings. No mercy. Crush only what dares to interfere.”

His voice lowered, darker now.

“We control the air, the sky, and soon the will of every surviving voice on this world. Maintain the blackout. Let no signal leave this sector.”

His head tilted slightly, as though sensing something beyond the room itself.

“The Force coils around this moment. We are not just claiming a world—we are rewriting its meaning.”

Then, sharper, commanding:

“Hold position. Await my signal for final planetary lockdown. Soon, the last resistance will be extinguished—and the shadow will fall fully.”

The transmission ended, leaving only the silence of war behind.

 

[Yulvaris]

In the Hangar of the Shadow Eclipse

The Dark Side felt stronger than ever as he steeped himself in its deep waters within the Onyx Chimera's meditation chamber. Everything was chaotic, and he could hear the voices screaming out in futility for reprieve and hope. As enjoyable as it was to hear the force whisper these sweet nothings of countless deaths into his ear, he had a mission to undertake and an excellent first impression to establish.

“This bloodshed is exquisite, my friend," he whispers to the darkness engulfing him, "but incomplete. Show me: where might we best twist the knife?"

He patiently stews in the pitch blackness, murmuring incantations of Sith magic to further coax the dark side to heed his call. Indeed, the dark side answered as he could feel its nipping cold embrace wash over his limbs and blanket his frame before something came into view within his mind’s eye...

Edges of the City Gates to the Forests

The closer they came to the outer gate, the quieter the world became.

Here, at the threshold of the jungle, the echoes of the crumbling city faded behind them. No blaster fire. No screams. Just the heavy silence of untouched wilderness ancient, brooding, and alive.

From this vantage point, the orbital station now a falling monolith glowed in the sky like a second sun. A dying star, plummeting from the heavens.
A nova of destruction.
A harbinger meant not just to devastate, but to reshape the world beneath it.

Jard knew this path well. He and his master, Perenelle Dee, had traversed it many times in their attempts to understand the Genesis Pool that strange, alchemical well hidden deep within the wilds of Syngia. The pool were powerful, ancient beyond reckoning. They twisted nature, reformed it corrupted it.

What once had been a lush and peaceful biome had long since turned feral. The flora grew like walls of green teeth, and the fauna... the fauna were monsters. Beasts born of Sith alchemy and primal instinct, shaped by centuries of dark influence.

They had tried to tame them. To study them. Control them.

They failed.

The beasts had adapted. They had learned.

Where once they could be scared off, they now charged toward sound especially the whining hum of repulsorlifts. That instinct had proven deadly time and again. They weren’t pets. They weren’t weapons. But tonight, they would be used like one.

Jard revved the engine of his speeder, letting the whine climb to a scream. The sound cut through the still air like a blade. Leaves rustled. Birds fled the treetops.
From deep within the jungle a response.

Roars.

Dozens of them. Maybe more. The sound of great beasts snarling, screeching, thrashing against one another in a frenzy of rage and instinct.

Jard gritted his teeth, eyes fixed on the great gate ahead.
A relic from a different time its durasteel doors rusted but massive, meant to contain what dwelled beyond.

He shouted over the roar of his engine, voice filled with purpose.

“OPEN THE GATES!”

Slowly, groaning under years of weight and disuse, the gate began to lower. Vines snapped, metal creaked, the ancient mechanism trembling as the divide between civilization and wildness cracked open.

And then they heard them.

The beasts were coming.

The ground trembled with the force of their stampede. Shapes loomed between the trees massive, armored, reptilian, some quadruped, others slithering, many with tusks or claws glinting like obsidian. Their eyes burned with primal hatred, their howls shaking the leaves from the canopy.

Jard’s grip tightened on the controls. The engine screamed beneath him as he revved it again and again baiting them.

"Come on, you monsters... chase me."

And they did.

Like fire through dry grass, the creatures surged forward. The hunt had begun. Jard turned his speeder toward the distant lights of the Citadel, the city silhouetted against fire and smoke.

He didn’t look back.

He didn’t need to.

The jungle had been unleashed.

Now, the beasts would follow.

And the enemy... would have no idea what was about to hit them.

The vision then ends, as the shadows swirling around him slowed, wrapping him in an embrace before the dark side whispered yet another voiceless command.

"Kill Jard..."

He exhales, his breath shuddering as he drinks in this power. He did not have to voice his compliance: the dark side would simply feel his eagerness. It would know his ambition.

He could sense the entropy that filled the atmosphere with even greater depth, which only felt stronger as his senses stretched closer to the world's surface. All the while, the Sith glyphs and runes decorating the walls, shelves, and cases within the ship began to glow brighter and pulse at the cadence of his heartbeat. Then, up at the cockpit, switches were flipped and buttons were pressed as the ship began to hum to life. All the while, Yulvaris could feel himself swaying and mumbling in tongues as he dove deeper into this darkness. It was not a surrender to, nor a robbery of, but a dance with the darkness, which seemed to only grow more intense with time as both took ever more from the other.

The cloaking array was activated. The throttle was engaged. The Onyx Chimera lurched from dormancy like a caged animal at last set free and pounced from the hangar and into the vacuum of space.

Yulvaris could not feel any of this, but there was a knowing and a sense of utter control that caused a small grin to emerge across his once placid face as he felt his eyes begin to roll back while his chanting continued. He called the shadows to further smother his frame, as his presence in hastily dwindling until it was as though he was nonexistent in the force.

The ship moved like an angel of death as it seemed to waltz around the blaster fire, debris, and starships - friend or foe - and before long, he made it to the atmosphere and began to breach as the planet's gravity involuntarily drew him ever closer into the fray.

 

[Yulvaris]

On Syngia, Near the Forest
A cloak of fire blankets the otherwise imperceptible vessel as it careens toward its destination. It began to rumble as it descended, faster and faster toward the Earth. However, Yulvaris’ trance holds as firmly as his grip on the controls, as he wills the ship pull up; and with encouragement and time, the Chimera obeys and slows its descent at the behest of its master.

The flames that once constantly licked at the cloaked starship dissipated as it hovered across the surface of the war-torn world. The Chimera slithered around the dogfights and anti-aircraft artillery that peppered the skies and rooftops respectively. The temptation to disembark and ravage the resistance, and their weaponry was present, but ultimately fleeting as the dark side continued, pulling him toward his true goal. It would not be long before he found a place to hide the Chimera: one of the now gutted, ramshackle buildings proved a rather nice den for his infiltrator to lie in wait.

As it kissed the ground, the life that was granted to the ship through the combined will of Yulvaris and the dark side left as quickly as arrived. There was a stillness around and within the ship, until the meditation chamber hissed and crept open to reveal the now standing Yulvaris. His obsidian robe and burning crimson eyes made him look akin to a wraith, with shadow obscuring his visage above his nose. The door to the meditation chamber closed on its own as the door to his ship whirred open.

The first thing to greet him was the air. As zephyr kissed his skin, it carried with it another gift: the aroma of kicked up dust from freshly made rubble and the pungent, intoxicating odor of infernos burning whatever or whoever remained. He breathed deeply as he absorbed this aroma, before he ambled down the walkway, the sound of his footsteps muted as he descended.

When his feet alighted upon the earth, a rapid series of vision about the destruction had been fallen in this planet from their glorious siege raced across his mind before fleeing as quickly as they came. He chuckled darkly, before peering through the opening of one of the buildings as he was able to glimpse some of the fighting and what he had come for: the gate. His gaze travels up as he senses another. This other happens to be one of the generals: it appears that they were assigned to this place.

It also appears that he is waiting for something: likely the same thing as Yulvaris.

Without further dawdling, he wills the door of his ship to shut with the force, before he outstretched his left hand toward one of the boulders from the rubble. The pebbles that were draped upon and around it cascaded off of it as it rose into the air and slowly floated towards himself. With a small hop, and one hand behind his back, he wills the boulder to rise and carry him toward the general at the bridge.