The entrance to the vault was buried beneath centuries of stone and forgotten rituals.
The Shadowguard had cleared the way with explosives and picks. Kael descended alone.
The stairwell spiraled downward for what felt like hours. The walls were smooth, obsidian-black, etched with sigils Kael couldn't fully decipher—not Sith, not Jedi, but older.
Something about them pulled at him.
Not through the Force.
Through something deeper.
Something primal.
When Kael reached the bottom, the air had changed. Thick. Pressurized. The Force itself hummed in the chamber like the coiled breath of a god.
At the center of the vault was a pillar of light — not mechanical, not Force-imbued. Alien. Ethereal. A shape hovered in the light. A box? A case?
No. A coffin.
Kael stepped forward.
[System Alert: Hidden Legacy Detected]
Relic of Unknown Origin located. Alignment: ???
Warning: Scanning this relic may alter your fate. Proceed?
[YES] | [NO]
Kael smiled.
Yes.
The system pulsed.
A vision stabbed into his mind like a spear.
Flashes of a war long forgotten — not Sith, not Jedi. A third power. Masked, robed, wielding technology fused with the Force.
Kael stood amid the wreckage of a battlefield. Silver-armored titans fell to blackened earth, their weapons screaming in static tongues. A great machine towered above them all—living metal, pierced by sabers that did not glow red or blue, but white.
And at its heart, a voice. Not words. Not speech.
Just a feeling:
"Begin again."
Kael snapped back into reality, knees buckled, sweat cold on his back.
The coffin opened.
Inside was a suit of armor. Jet-black. Smooth and seamless. Crafted from a metal he couldn't identify, not durasteel, not phrik, not beskar.
Something else.
Something designed to survive extinction.
A helmet lay beside it — faceless. Hollow-eyed.
And beneath the armor, embedded into the platform, a data crystal.
Kael reached for it.
[Item Acquired: Forgotten Coreplate]
[Relic Grade: Unique]
Defense Rating: ++
Passive: Null-Field Pulse (50% damage reduction vs Force-based attacks)
Module Slots: 3
Bound to: Kael
[Data Crystal Added to Inventory]
Requires Advanced Decryption Core to access.
He looked at the armor, then at the dead walls of the vault.
Whatever this was… it had been hidden from the galaxy for a reason.
And now it was his.
Forging a New Doctrine
By nightfall, Kael had returned to his command ridge. The armor remained sealed in his personal chamber.
He summoned the Shadowguard.
All three knelt. Silent. Waiting.
"The Jedi and Sith are children," Kael said. "Locked in a game they never invented. But there was another order before them. One that did not fear evolution."
He raised the crystal between his fingers.
"I will revive it. Not as a religion. Not as a cult. As a doctrine of control."
He pressed the crystal into a decryption terminal connected to the core systems. It flickered, then stalled — locked behind layers of pre-Republic encryption.
"I need the tools to crack it," Kael muttered.
Then he opened his system.
STATUS MENU
Level: 12
Stat Points Available: 5
Skill Points Available: 1
Attributes:
Strength: 15
Agility: 18
Midichlorian: 8,055 (+10 from allocation)
Skills:
Force Manipulation Lv.4
Combat Instinct Lv.4
Tactical Command Lv.2
Lightsaber Combat Lv.1
Force Sense Lv.2
Bone Craft Lv.1
Weapon Proficiency – Blaster Lv.1
Passive:Veil of the Void (MAX)
He allocated all five points into Midichlorian, raising his stat to 8,065.
His Force control expanded again. His reach stretched beyond the canyon, brushing against distant signals — weak, scattered.
Like… seeds.
Or embers.
Expanding the Web
With the data Vessa had provided earlier, Kael unlocked access to several Outer Rim communication relays.
He redirected power from the temple ruin to a new tower: a subspace frequency amplifier built from both scavenged tech and primitive components. Primitive, but functional.
He began broadcasting encrypted signals in dead languages.
Not to call for help.
To test the air.
To see who was listening.
Within hours, he got an answer.
A faint ping.
Encrypted. Layered. Dangerous.
The message decoded slowly through the system's auto-translation protocol:
"We see the ashes of the forgotten. You wear their shadow. State your intent."
Kael smiled.
He replied with three words:
"I will rebuild."