"Come before me, my servant," the gravelly voice said. "I require your presence, for I have a quest which requires your particular attention."
	The voice of the Emperor clear in his mind, Jask Pithrel rose from his meditation and donned his red uniform, the uniform of the most elite military unit in the galaxy: the Imperial Royal Guards. He made his way through the palace, ignoring the awestruck stares of the masses as they saw the red cloak swish into their view. They are right to be frightened, Pithrel throught. 
	Pithrel entered the atrium of the Emperor's throne room, barely nodding to the two other Guardsmen standing to either side of the main door. The double doors slid open as he approached, one of the guards having pressed a button on a comlink hidden beneath his cloak. Pithrel strode into Palpatine's inner sanctum to find the Emperor seated in his throne, looking out the gigantic vewport at the vista of his capital: Coruscant.
	"Ah, there you are. I have a task for you to complete, one that, if completed successfully, has the potential to grant great rewards."
	Pithrel stood silently as Palpatine beckoned him forward. Palpatine pointed a withered finger and the holoprojector flickered on. The holo was of a rotting temple in the middle of what looked to be a sweltering jungle. "This is what remains of an ancient Sith temple on a planet that has no name, only designated as M3924560. In this temple somewhere is a powerful Sith artifact, which I require for certain... experiments," the Emperor hissed. Retrieve it for me, and you shall be greatly rewarded. Does this task suit you?"
	"It does, my master," Pithrel said, his voice altered by the full helmet he wore. 
	"I feel that I must warn you, however. All who have set foot on this planet have never returned. It is said that the spirits of defeated Dark Lords guard this temple and its contents. Do you still wish to complete your task?"
	"I do, Master."
	"Very good. There is a shuttle waiting for you in landing bay THX-1138. Report immediately back to me once you have completed your mission."
	Pithrel bowed to one knee, then rose and turned, his red cloak swishing as he walked from the throne room. He proceeded immediately to the assigned landing bay, seeing the shuttle and the two stormtroopers standing guard to either side of the entrance ramp.
	"You are to accompany me?" Pithrel asked them.
	"Yes, sir. Under direct orders," the left one said, as if he were afraid Pithrel might order them to stay behind.
	"All right. Let us depart," Pithrel told them. He walked up the entrance ramp and immediately began folding the seats in the rear bay down into the floor. He ordered the stormtroopers into the cockpit with the pilot and co-pilot. "Are you aware of the intended destination?" Pithrel asked of the pilot.
	"Yes, sir, planet M3924560. We were informed just before you arrived, sir."
	"Very good. Take off and inform me when we have reached the planet. I will be in the rear bay, meditating." Pithrel turned and stalked into the now-empty cargo/passenger bay. The cockpit door slid into place after him.
*	*	*
	"Sir, we are presently in orbit over planet M3924560. What are your orders?" the stormtrooper who opened the door asked.
	"Scan the surface for the crumbling ruins of an old temple, then set down in the nearest clearing."
	"Right away, sir," the trooper acknowledged, then turned and informed the pilot. Pithrel donned his helmet and armor, deciding to leave the cloak behind, as it might become entangled in the foliage of the jungle. 
	"We've located it almost right below us, sir. There is a clearing about one and a half klicks from the main entrance."
	"Very good. Set down there."
	The pilot nodded and landed the shuttle in a large clearing, right next to a derelict ship that was completely overgrown with foliage. The rear cargo hatch was down. There was a slight bump as the pilot cut the repulsorlifts just before the landing gear touched down. "Sorry, sir."
	Pithrel waited silently for the ramp to lower, and followed his two troopers down into the clearing. "Stay here, watch for movement in the jungle. I'm going to inspect this ship."
	The troopers acknowledged the order and Pithrel walked up the ramp into the derelict. It was dark, but the enhancers in his helmet let him see adequately. In the center of the cargo hold was a landspeeder that seemed to be in working order, and Pithrel confirmed this by checking the levels on the power supplies. As he walked around the speeder, he noticed a slumped form in the corner, and stopped in his tracks as he finally saw what it was: a human skeleton, still wearing clothes. This was strange because the bones seemed to be blackened as if burned, but the clothes were intact. 
	"Sir, I think you should check this out. There's some sort of weird mist forming and - " The trooper's communication suddenly cut off with a strangled gurgle. Pithrel looked outside the cargo bay and saw his troopers motionless on the ground among some sort of weird knee-high mist. Not willing to take any chances, Pithrel jumped into the speeder and took off toward the temple.
	Noticing that the entrance to the crumbling edifice is at the top of a staircase, Pithrel jammed the throttle forward and rode the speeder up the staircase into the doorway.
	The entrance is some large atrium with columns lining three walls and a large open doorway in the far wall. Cautious, Pithrel quietly stepped out of the speeder and began a cursory inspection of the atrium. There was nothing spectacular or strange except for a large carving in the floor just in front of the open doorway that depicted two dragons fighting. Pithrel, wary of any traps that could be in a temple as old as this, especially a Sith temple, wisely stepped around the carving. He walked through the doorway into a hall that sloped slightly downward. Lining the walls were statues of what looked like ancient warriors. Pithrel took a closer look at one of them. The warrior-statue's body was that of a human skeleton, outfitted with a loinguard, greaves, gauntlets, and a wicked-looking spiked helmet. They also carried shields and swords made of some ancient-looking metal. Shaking his head in amazement that someone would take the time to carve such detail into something that was designed to scare people away, and was not frightening at all, Pithrel continued down the long hallway until it came to sort of a T-junction. Taking the right path, Pithrel came to a huge room. In the center of the room, stretching from the floor to the ceiling, were four enormous white glowing columns. The light inside was shifting and roiling as if alive. Pithrel walked closer to one, and peered into it. Suddenly a face appeared in the light, anguish obvious on its face. Pithrel jumped back, then looked closer again. The face disappeared, then reappeared - atop a body clearly clothed in Jedi garb. Although there was no sound, Pithrel could tell it was wailing. He looked around the other columns and saw more faces inside, all of them in agony - and all of them Jedi. 
	Pithrel felt his toe bump against some raised stone in the floor and caught himself before he could put his whole weight down and fall. He looked and there was a hole in the middle of the raised stone with some sort of engraved hieroglyphs around it. Pithrel himself didn't recognize it, but the computer hooked up to his helmet by comlink did. The readout was displayed on the inside of his visor, sort of like a heads-up-display. It said, "The staff of darkness can free those trapped by the light."
	Interesting, Pithrel thought. I don't suppose the staff of darkness could be in the other room.
	Pithrel turned and searched the rest of the four-column room as best he could, but found nothing. He even began to search for secret hiding places behind the walls, but to no avail. He walked back out into the hallway and took the left path this time. This room was smaller. The only thing here was a raised pedestal with some sort of round, glowing red crystal set into the middle of it. Torches lined the walls; strangely, they were still burning. 
	"I don't suppose you could be the staff of darkness, could you?" Pithrel asked aloud, apparently of the red crystal. No one answered, of course. "Well, since this is the only other room in the temple, I guess you're the artifact my master requires, so come with me," Pithrel said, reaching out to take the crystal off the pedestal. It didn't budge, so he tried to pull it straight out. This time it moved, but Pithrel had about four feet of it out of the pedestal and it still wasn't done.
	The red crystal was actually a staff, about six feet long, stamped on the top with the emblem of a crescent moon and some stars. Suddenly a skeletal arm popped out of the hole the staff just came from and grabbed Pithrel by the wrist. A demented laughing sound came from somewhere. Disgusted, Pithrel drew his forcepike and sliced the arm at the wrist, leaving the hand wrapped around his wrist. 
	Pithrel turned and walked toward the doorway that led into the hall when a great rumbling knocked him to his feet. He stood to the sound of marching and clanking metal. Suddenly the hallway was full of those warrior-statues he saw on the way in, only they weren't statues anymore. Pithrel slid the staff into the sheath that normally held his forcepike strapped to his back, and stood brandishing the pike and his heavy blaster pistol. Three of the warriors in the front screamed and charged. Pithrel backflipped, catching the outermost two under the chin with his feet. Their heads went flying. When he landed, he executed a spinning kick that decimated the third's ribcage. He began firing into the rest of the group, but the blaster didn't seem to do much. The next one attacked, and Pithrel swiped with the pike, lopping its head off. He began to work his way through the group, and was on his way out when he remembered the emblem on the top of the staff: a crescent moon and some stars. The staff of darkness! 
	Pithrel did a spinning jump and landed with his feet atop the heads of two of the warriors. The spikes on the helmets weren't all that sharp, so Pithrel began to leap from helmet to helmet, heading back toward the four-column room. Once there, Pithrel jammed the red crystal staff into the hole in the raised stone. The effect was dramatic. Something deep within the temple screamed, and all four columns just shattered. All around Pithrel the spirits of the trapped Jedi were coalescing in the room. Those with lightsabers ignited them and charged the skeletal monstrosities in the hall. Pithrel retrieved the staff, and ran out through the chaos in the hall. The spirits of the Jedi were decimating the warriors. Pithrel slid the staff into his forcepike sheath again and ran back up the hallway.
	He noticed, both by feeling it and by a temperature readout in his helmet, that it was getting hotter as he got back out towards the main atrium. He also saw intermittent bursts of reddish light. He skidded to a halt in the corridor just in time to dodge a huge flame burst that came barreling toward him. Dragons! he thought. 
	He was right; there were two dragons in the atrium. One a bright red, the other ice blue. They were circling the atrium, as if watching each other. Now and then one of the dragons would fire off a flame burst toward the other one. They're fighting each other! Pithrel thought. He inched out into the atrium, waiting for them to blow flames at each other, but as soon as his foot cleared the hallway, whoosh! He barely dodged the fireball. Damn it. The speeder he brought here was burned to a crisp anyway. 
	Suddenly a crackle in Pithrel's helmet comlink caught his attention. "Sir! Sir, where are you?"
	My stormtroopers! "I'm in the temple. There are two gigantic beasts in the main atrium and I cannot get past them without your help. Come at once, and bring firepower."
	"Sir! Yes, sir!"
	Pithrel crouched down in the corridor, waiting to see if the stormtroopers would prove to be enough of a distraction so that he could slip by the dragons unnoticed. In a few moments he heard the rattle of their plasteel armor coming up the stairs. Both dragons turned their heads to look, and Pithrel crept out of the hallway and along the wall until he reached the corner. The stormtroopers came in firing bursts from heavy blaster rifles, and the dragons were angry. They blew multiple flame bursts at the troopers until Pithrel could see their armor begin to sag from the heat. He was inching along the wall behind the red dragon, when suddenly the blue dragon lurched forward towards the stormstroopers that were steady firing all the while, and picked up one of them in its mouth. The trooper let out a scream that was silenced by a crunch. The other trooper was beginning to get shaky, and Pithrel was almost to the doorway, so he made a run for it while the red dragon munched on the second trooper. He heard the bounding footsteps of the blue dragon turn and follow him through the door.
	"Pilot!" Pithrel shouted into the comlink as he ran. "I'm coming to you. Prepare the shuttle for takeoff. Now!" Pithrel heard a double-click as acknowledgement of the order. Pithrel burst through the treeline into the clearing, the dragon hot on his heels. He ran up the entrance ramp, closing it behind him. "Go!" he yelled. He felt sudden heat as the closed ramp was blasted by the dragon. 
	"Want us to kill it?" the copilot asked.
	"No," Pithrel said, breathing deeply. "It was only doing what it was supposed to do."
	The shuttle shot into hyperspace.
*	*	*
	"My master," Pithrel said, down on one knee. He presented the red staff to the Emperor.
	"Ah, my apprentice, you have retrieved the artifact. Wonderful," Palpatine said, gently lifting the staff from Pithrel's outstretched hands. "I have something for you in return, my young servant." Palpatine reached into his robes and removed a small crystalline cube. "Do you know what this is?" Palpatine asked.
	"It appears to be a holocron, Master," Pithrel answered.
	"Very good. But, it is not just any holocron. It is the only surviving holocron of the great Dark Lord of the Sith, Exar Kun. I am giving it to you, so that you may train in the ways of the Dark side of the Force and become my Hand." Palpatine placed the little crystalline cube into Pithrel's hand. "Rise, my servant. Go, and meditate on the coming events so that you may be stronger and more prepared for the approaching storm."