PROLOGUE:

Three thousands of years before the Galactic Republic, before Emperor Palpatine's soul-crushing empire and the fearsome Darth Vader, darker powers dragged the galaxy down into misery and suffering. Horrible, inhumane events: all caused by the obsession of one particular Master of the Sith in destroying the very fabric of the Force.

As consequence of greed, lust, and of war: a beast of Hunger rose from the depths of darkness. Prepared to devour the light, then to devour the darkness itself, until nothing was left. Until even the beast had found his end too or exist as the sole entity in the universe.

And you wonder where are you as you read these words. You exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time: you are guided by the Force.

Right now you have the chance to see it. To see the power that once threatened to annihilate all things until nothing would have remained to continue the legacy of life.

Close your eyes and let the time going backwards by the Force's will and command. The Force has a story. A story, it wants to tell you about. It wants to warn you, me, all of us, about three people's actions and consequences of following the path of self-destruction: about one's obsession with destroying the driving force behind creation, about one's endless hunger for life and about one's ultimate secret to immortality. You don't need to be afraid; you just listen to it and follow it back in time.

Before these dark events transpired, it goes as back as possible it can… So it can give you a glimpse of what it was once. So you can know the horrors of those events and how the beast of hunger made his way to the surface to destroy a galaxy.

And so it begins...

Green and orange laser beams covered the dark dying sky. Blue, yellow and green sparks flew in the air obliterating the gloomy surface of Malachor: a potent world infused with the dark side of the Force, a living manifestation, like Korriban.

Mandalorian slaves were being transported far away from this wondrous place sipped into the Sith influence. Among these slaves, a human male stood too: Vodan Tenebb. A man recently abducted from his home planet. Onderon.

Vodan desired more than ever to make his way out of there, but he did not have the ability to wield the Force to plan such a bold attempt. He was a mere man. And life had shown him this considering his recent tragic events.

His white eyes gazed at the visible stars, his slave suit was dirt of the work he has done during his deport. His face was scarred. His left eye was shortcut during his deport. His entire body was subjected to the barbaric torture of the Mandalorians. The man's stance was knackered, his spirit, broken, marked by the actions of the baneful past.

The war drums beat louder and louder as the conflict intensified. Masses of republican and Mandalorian starships land-crashed. Some of the starships ascended into the depths of the sky and exploded while on the land men's corpses were paving the cold harsh soil. Fleets after fleets continued to firepower one in each other; each side desiring to end this spanning conflict, that has caused major losses on both sides.

"So fools, don't they realize they fight a war that cannot be won?", he clenched his fist, softly, trying to draw the attention of those who were with him. The slave looked through the window: he knew that his life has come to an end. There is no reason to hope that some saviors will come for them. Not that he ever had hope in his life or faith in the Jedi.

Suddenly, a huge vortex appeared in the sky catching into its gravitational field every spaceship: small or big, it didn't matter. They were drawn into the abyss.

Vodan knew that he would be safe when the void was swallowing everything in its path. He knew that the Mandolorians had a somewhat concern to preserve their slaves in check to take no hit in their financial support. It was a well-known fact that the Mandalorians upgraded their vehicles to repel gravitational fields and the slaves would be put automatically in cyrogenic capsules.

Here it was not the case. This sky-abyss was too powerful.

The destructive void violently swallowed everything in its path: Republicans and Mandalorians alike. A horrifying picture of death. The surface started to change: the soil turned gray and dusty, the plants withered and their remains ascended into the air or might have disappeared mysteriously.

The slave ship was crushed into the vortex. The abyss took every one and every living thing on the planet, killing them, creating a breach into the very fabric of Force. And Vodan didn't escape its wrath.

Death and tragedy lay on the evil marvelous planet that once belonged to the old Sith Empire: a rich and powerful world in the dark side, now a wound where the Force was echoing with the screams of the dead.

But has anyone survived in the ensuing battle?

Desolation

Chapter I

A heart beats, two eyes open up, a body moves…

The broken man awakens from the sleep of death; he feels like it has been a short-lived moment, like when a being closes their eyes and then opens them in a matter of second; though it has passed some good years.

Six years.

Six years, since Revan, Alek and Meetra Surik: three famous rebellious Jedi alongside Revan's loyal followers, have defeated the Mandalorians by using the Mass Shadow Generator created by their Zabrak engineer Bao-Dur.

Vodan heard about these three Jedi and the Revanite movement too; but he didn't know who was to be blamed for this catastrophic event. He had other problems to worry about now. Vodan slowly punched the vehicle's windows. The physical effort he performed to break them left him weakened and he collapsed on the ground.

Around him, the chaotic starships and fleets that have attacked each other ceased to bring fire and destruction upon the world, as if an unnatural force participated to their tragic demise. Vodan put himself up back on his feet and found himself in a junk yard of ships—some of the Republic cracking the planet's ground, other of the Mandalorians that were physically torn apart by the bizarre phenomenon.

When Vodan fully regained his consciousness: he experienced a feeling of emptiness. A feeling of 'hunger'. He felt his heart beating faster: his blood pumping quicker in his ravaged body. He began to manifest convulsions.

Unwillingly, he 'heard' the thought of a helpless, yet, infuriated being,

"Someone, come here. I'm trapped into this damn ship!"

Vodan followed the sound in his head, walking upon the lifeless soil of Malachor Five, stepping on light stones and crushing them. The source of the voice led the former slave to a crashed Neo-Crusade starship.

The Mandalorian trapped within the crashed ship tried to press enough force on the glass to shatter it, but with no success.

"Damn it, need to get out of here. I don't even know how much it passed since I was kept in stasis.", the brave man kept to punch the starship's barely broken window.

Unbeknownst to the hardened man, Vodan stared at him with a deep desire to end the warrior's existence . Kidnapped from his home, forced to do tasks for a slave, Vodan was more than happy to strike down that Mandalorian fighter.

The attempt was an utter disaster. The warrior noticed Vodan's presence and used his gauntlet for the last time to destroy the starship's glass, hitting the man with it and breaking the gauntlet in the process.

The Mandalorian warrior lunched and grabbed the slender man by his arms lifting him up in the air with his sheer physical strength. The warrior saw his uniform and knew the person was one of their slaves, apparently this one survived in the ensuing battle.

"You filthy, slave. I'll take your life, now. No one defies Juelko-Au'rak Dae'co Kabaarness the Second, no one. Ever!"

Juelko-Au'rak Dae'co Kabaarness the Second or known by his allies as 'Jad Kay the Second'- was one of Mandalore the Ultimate's closest allies. He has fought Jedi, even dark side practitioners during his life as bounty hunter before he entered into their Neo-Crusader ranks. In spite of his lack of Force sensitivity, Jad Kay learned on his own skin how to resist and combat powerful Force-based attacks by wearing unnoticeable amulets in his armor that deflected Sith lightning, mind tricks, mind illusions, it allowed the user to be rendered a blank spot in the Force. The tiny amulets stuffed into his armor were passed to him by his deceased Dark Jedi father Juelko-Au'rak Dae'Co Karbaarness the First, receiving it before he became a fully fledged warrior into the Neo-Crusade movement. The amulets had the power to protect one's signature from one of the most hideous abilities of the dark side used by the Sith: the Force drain technique.

The bad shape Mandalorian warrior held Vodan by his fragile neck ready to squish it. Then, it happened: a mysterious craving for life and Force sprung out of Tenebb. The charmed amulets have protected Jad from many Force abilities, but the slave's power was different. Tenebb's hunger disrupted his precious amulets of their magic, consuming the Force energy within them. Before grasping the concept of death, Jad was gone. His lifeforce and his soul were consumed as fast as the thought. Fastest type of consumption.

This abominable inconvenient result of the Mass Shadow Generator has created a monster, a devourer of all living things, a wound in the Force—a relentless force of hunger.

Vodan felt an agonizing pain before devouring the Mandalorian's essence, as if his very being was absorbed by a black hole. Never to return.

When the lifeforce of the warrior filled him, Vodan felt complete again.

A moment of euphoria and wholeness, but it did not last long, the excruciating appetite for life induced him into a stage of agony again. Vodan let his all-consuming hunger to be his guide in absorbing all the energies resulted from deaths caused by Revan's devastating device. Craving for Force energy, lifeforce, and death; they became his primordial thing.

He fed instinctively with the deaths of all those on the planet: hundreds of Republican soldiers and Mandalorian warriors alike. He might have done that even when he was in the cryogenic capsule.

Vodan walked through the graveyard of broken warships, reaching into an area populated by a non-sentient hostile semi-humanoid species called 'storm beasts': monstrous creatures twisted by the long gone-energy of the dark side of the Force. The storm beasts were two meters tall with green skin, red small sharp teeth, and black eyes.

The creatures acknowledged the man's presence and they set an ambush. The human ran as fast as he could trying to save his life throughout the cracked and twisted wasteland covered with jagged cliffs and plagued by constant lightning storms.

In a flash of dark side power, the beasts cornered the human, ready to kill their defenseless prey.

Fear crippled in Vodan's mind, and he straightened his hands at the hideous monster suspending them into a sudden whirlwind of thirty meters high hurling the storm beasts out of the planet's orbit. Performing such a devastating attack took its toll. And Vodan collapsed on the lifeless ground.

With no exterior aid, Vodan wondered himself if he was truly able to practice the mystical power used by the Jedi and Sith, so simply called, 'The Force'. But how was he capable to use it in the first place, since his parents were no real scions of a sensitive in the Force but mere men with simple daily works and daily problems?

If this mysterious energy inhabited his ravaged body; of what other wondrous things was he capable of, Vodan asked himself again. His mind consuming questions were met by the exact answers when a beautiful elderly woman with hooded face dressed in a black robe was coming to him stepping out from her own starship that landed near the young man.

She walked elegantly toward a collapsed man and kneeled on her both feet,

"Who…khhh…are…hhh, you?", he was barely breathing.

The enigmatic old figure laid her soft left hand fingers on his head,

"I hold the answers to your questions, seeker."

"My name's Vodan Tenebb. Son of dead Tenebb and his wife.", he blinked twice,

"What's yours, old woman?", he slowly exhaled,

"Darth Traya. That's what they call me.", she softly said,

"What are you doing on this planet?", he added,

"What can I hope to find but truth and revenge.", the elder woman told him.

"Revenge, against who?", he stood up holding himself by the woman's shaking hand.

"Who else but the Jedi.", she added gazing at the stars and worlds that were in the cosmos, barely seen by the naked eye.

"When it comes about the nature of the Force and the truth of this perverted universe, they are so arrogant and ignorant. They think the Force is somewhat split apart in two. They are so naive.", Traya amused herself.

"They fail to see the light and the darkness are working one with each other and have no concern for what is happening around in this universe. These Jedi are so blind, they do not realize the Force controls everything and everyone of us. It is its will everything happens this way. And I hate it for that."

"They must see the truth. And I will make them to see it, no matter what happens to this galaxy."

"I hate the Jedi too. Because of them the galaxy is always enslaved. They have a great power but they don't care to use it to protect those who cannot defend themselves. They are sunk into their peaceful ways and refuse to see that the galaxy is constantly changing. It's only the Republic that matters to them. And that's all."

"Because of them, my parents died in a spaceship explosion at the hands of a couple of bounty hunters and I was left to 'rot' in an orphanage, I was everyone's joke. I hate them all.", Vodan angrily clenched his right fist with despise remembering about his past.

The old woman wished to continue their dialogue but the man had more to tell,

"I hate all the Jedi, especially one: Revan."

"Revan, the Prodigal Jedi Knight?", she said,

"When I searched for my parents' death cause, I have found out those hired bounty hunters tried to frame-up Revan, so the Republic would lose their faith in him and his followers in their battles against the Mandalorians."

Traya sensed his immense hate for the Jedi and Revan, seeking it as the perfect opportunity in destroying the Force and make the Jedi see the 'real' face of this universe. For her, Vodan Tenebb was essential. And his strange condition made him even more priceless to her.

"You will always find out that nothing else brings people closer but hate itself."

"Let's share our contempt for the Jedi and the Republic. We will make them pay for their utter ignorance and we will show them the consequences of the truth."

"Become my student and I shall learn you the ways of the Force. I will make you more powerful than you can ever imagine, mister Tenebb."

"To be like a Jedi?", he replied back,

"Like, a Jedi?", she laughed and puffed her chest out,

"No. Those ways are long obsolete."

"I will learn you the ways of the dark side. The ways of the Sith.", she looked at him, right into his eyes. The only thing she could see was an immense void of unnatural blackness filled with hate and antipathy.

"I consider your words, old woman.", he nodded.

"But what should we do?"

"First, we shall go for a walk.", despite being an elder, Traya's body was still attractive and beautiful to the men of her age. And she was walking quite fast.

As the two moved on the crackle soil, Vodan was unsure about where they were heading,

"Excuse me, but where more exactly are we going?", he looked at her while they were going.

"We are heading to an ancient academy that once belonged to my ancient predecessors. That structure holds secrets waiting to be unlocked by someone."

"After all, what is the meaning of knowledge if one is not willing to use it?"

"I'm not a man of knowledge. I care only about taking my revenge and to give a lesson to these worlds, to know that I exist."

"Yes, but remember, that with knowledge, there is power", the Sith Master added.

"I hurled thirteen beasts out of this planet's orbit. I don't think I need any 'knowledge'.",Vodan said to the elder woman.

"Yet that action exhausted you. Your attack was uncontrolled, sloppy, pathetic. You might have died as well."

"That is why knowledge is an essential part of one's evolution to a higher degree of existence. Without knowledge, we are governed by other forces. As most civilizations of this galaxy are."

Yet why him?

Vodan had another unanswered question. And the Dark Lord read his mind, offering it,

"If you wonder yourself why I chose you, is, because I can see your true nature. You are a breach in the Force. A void. You defy the very nature of the Force."

"You are not a slave to the Force as I am or all around you are. You are preying upon the Force like a wolf. You have the capacity to decide your destiny.", she dramatically said it.

"In time, even the mightiest of warriors would flee from your presence. Your potential of achieving power, it is, endless."

While they were talking, Traya and Vodan reached the Storm beast pen: a place where twenty monstrous creatures were ready to slaughter them.

"We're good as dead, let's run, Master.", he turned his back, and he might have run if she didn't stop him by Force-stunning his feet.

"Wait and think before acting. We shall pass safely and unharmed."

The Dark Lord subdued the storm beasts to her will, using a Force power, and they walked without problems among them.

"But how?", Vodan asked himself to the sudden stop of the creatures. How could they not see them? Was there a magic trick the elder woman did not wish to say?

"That is the power of knowledge, young man. With knowledge you can do so many things even if you lack tremendous power.", she said staring at the huge doors that led to the old Sith academy.

Traya and her companion kept walking unharmed by the ferocious beasts. In that very moment, Vodan's appetite for Force energy provoked tormenting distress making him fall on his knees. Traya sensed his involuntary wish to devour life, "You have something deep hidden within yourself, an all-consuming hunger that draws into itself everything around you."

The Sith Lord watched the beasts and had Vodan to do something,

"Absorb these creatures' signature in the Force."

Vodan straightened his hands at the storm beasts. Colorless liquid-like beams touched their bodies taking their Force energy and lifeforce away. The storm beasts would have screamed in terrible pain being devoured by an event horizon. But they didn't have enough time register it.

Vodan sucked them completely. Their physical shelters were gone, drawn into the walking abyss.

For a few moments his appetite was filled, but his Master promised, "Your hunger is severe, but once we will learn the powerful secrets within the Academy, we shall find a way to help you in ending your addiction to Force energy."

"Yes, Lord Traya.", he slowly breathed. But another question escaped his mouth, "Why, Master, why am I having this pain?"

"What happened to you it was because of the Mass Shadow Generator. A device constructed by a Zabrak engineer and designed by Revan.", Traya added trying to infuriate him, trying to turn the ravaged man to the dark side,

"REVAN!", he raised his tone in silence,

"The same crude instrument that ravaged the surface of this whole world."

"No one was supposed to live in the ensuing battle. But you did.", she smiled unnoticed by his eyes.

"You surviving the destructive the Mass Shadow Generator was one of the Force's plots in the grand schemes of things"

"In its hypocrisy, the Force brought a knife upon its own throat. It's ironic."

"You possess the power to defy its will. And maybe end it once and for all."

Traya opened the Sith Academy's massive gates with her telekinetic power. They were old and rusty, barely opening manually. But they responded to the woman's strength in the Force.

"This is the place, young one. We are here.", she looked at the colossal interior side of the old structure.

His revenge was awaiting like a beast trying to make its way out of the pit. The Dark Lord laid her hand on his shoulder and a warning followed,

"Before entering here, I must be sure of your loyalty pledged to the Sith Order."

" I already gave you my agreement.", he added,

"Your mere 'agreement' means nothing to me. If you do not learn the ways of the dark side and accept them or just for a moment you hesitate and try to walk the path of moderation, it will tear you apart. It will destroy you. There shall be no hesitation from me to end your life if you betray us."

"I think I don't understa-"

"How much would you be willing to sacrifice to meet your purpose? Would you ever going to stop, are you really ready in risking everything to fulfill your goals; even if it means to hurt the ones whom you love or love you?"

"But Mas-"

"The dark side is a dangerous and treacherous game at best. Once you have taken the path there is no turning back."

For Vodan the old woman was suddenly so a guidebook, "You still have a choice, young man. You can choose to leave from here and die with dignity on this world keeping the purity of your soul and become on with the Force, unable to take your revenge, or you can follow the path of darkness that will deform you and shall offer you powers far beyond your understanding."

Vodan's heart beat faster, his blood pumped quicker in his veins as Traya's words pierced into his soul,

"Whether the choice, there shall be consequences."

"How can one hope to love and redemption if he has already lost everything he held dear?", he added,

"Vengeance is the only thing that flows through the veins of my hands now."

The shadow smiled at the answer. And the shadow's chest puffed out with irony, filled by a sense of victory over the poor man's mind.

Knelt before her at the Academy's entrance: images and voices with him flashed in his mind. Like kids who bullied him at the orphanage, men who laughed at him because of his status in society. And these flashbacks determined him to make his final decision, "I swear to you I'll learn the dark side ways. After all what can one risk if he has lost everything?"

"Then it is done, my apprentice. We can go inside."

As the two walked, they were visited by mysterious dark side warriors dressed in black suits who used stealth generators to fool the eye. To a Force-sensitive that was not the case.

"They are what is left of Darth Revan's Guards. They are watching over this place since their Dark Lord has left them on this barren planet. But they no longer wish to serve him as he abandoned them."

"Welcome back Lord Traya.", one of the Guards added: the tone of his voice modified by the vocalizer of the mask.

Vodan wondered how did they know her and how did she know them? Unaware Traya played with him using the Force to alter his senses and shape an imaginary starship into his mind. As if she was his savior.

The ancient Sith Academy on Malachor was formed from three parts: the Crescent, located to the west, a hall with many alcoves that were frequented by Darth Revan's ex-Jedi companions who managed to hide in the old Academy before the Mass Shadow Generator was activated nullifying everything from the face of the planet. To the east, the Proving Grounds was a warren of small and cramped rooms in which many fallen Jedi trained.

The two walked, accompanied by the warriors, through the large parts of the building heading in the northern point of both wings that led to the Academy's central area, the last bit of open space before the innermost sanctum of the Academy. The Core.

The Core was a claw-like altar—suspended above a massive geyser of dark side energy—stabilized by three bridges that connected to the rest of the Sith Academy. It was created by the mysterious Sith Empire Traya learned in her historical studies. Here Darth Revan used the Core's immense power on captured Jedi to test their spirit, if they lasted its dark side powers, they were killed, if they fell they became Dark Jedi and sent to Korriban.

Traya and her Sith apprentice with the warriors walked on one of the bridges heading to the claw-like altar.

The Dark Lord ordered her Guards to form a circle around her and Vodan for initiation. Traya had him kneel into the heart of the ancient Sith Academy where his transformation to the dark side was completed under the watch of the Chaos-dwelling Sith ghosts.

Traya took her lightsabre out of her black robe and she activated it. A crimson laser blade passed over his right shoulder to left,

"The galaxy shall remember this place of death. The place where Darth Nihilus, reaper of stars, was born."

"Yes, Master.", he replied with apathy.