86 Interlude: Darkness falls
"There is a place in the galaxy where the dark side of the Force runs strong. It is something of the Sith, but it was fueled by war. It corrupts all that walks on its surface—drowns them in the power of the dark side. It corrupts all life, and it feeds on death."
- Kreia, KOTOR II
Malachor V. That was arguably Revan's greatest achievement. In a single stroke he ended the Mandalorian Wars. It was an event that echoed throughout the galaxy and was heard by those touched by the Force.
The Mandalorians were broken in that battle. The Republic won.
That's what everyone knows for sure of that battle.
Then there are the rumors. Some say that Malachor V was a trap. That it was the moment when Revan showed his true colors and sacrificed those under his command who held their loyalties to the Republic and their homes in higher regard than the loyalty to Revan himself. They say that he used Malachor V to turn all but one of the Jedi who joined him to the Dark Side.
Others believe that Malachor V was a freak incident of war.
I've been above that broken world. I've walked across it's ravaged plains. Even four hundred years later I could still feel the screams of the dying. I could still sense their fear and taste echoes of their pain.
There was no great revelation – no clue if Revan wrought that day was intentional or not.
There was a great revelation – even centuries later, Malachor V was different. I could sense it screaming at me through the Force. That planet was a place of death. It was covered by intangible oceans made by the Dark Side itself. When I was on the surface, I nearly drowned in the sheer corrupting power of contained on that wretched world.
When I stood there and opened myself to the Dark Side, it drove me to the edge of madness. Malachor V left its mark upon my soul and made me understand that no matter what Revan intended to do upon that cursed world it didn't matter in the end.
A single act of war tore a wound in the Force itself. One that feeds on life and corrupt everything it touches. After seeing it for myself, I knew. I knew how Revan turned every single Jedi who followed him but the Exile on his side. I knew why almost every soldier in the Republic army under his command chose to turn against the Republic.
Until I stood above Kamino attempting to replicate Revan's feet I wasn't sure how he did it, I just knew in my bones why he succeed.
Almost a billion died when the first barrage hit Kamino. A third of them were lucky – they had just an instant to begin feeling pain before the orbital bombardment turned them into ashes. Others were flash-burned to death by the thermal impulse or torn apart by the shock-waves and were lucky that their brains lacked sufficient time to register the agony.
I felt their pain anyway. The Force echoed with their dying screams regardless. From men, women and children, to the tiniest microbe – I could sense their deaths. The oceans boiled, cities burned and those on the edge of the orbital strikes wailed in agony as their skin melted or were boiled in the ocean which used to offer them protection.
The tiny part of me that contained the tattered remains of my conscience recoiled by all that death I was responsible for.
Most of me reveled in the power of death. The Dark Side shook with the influx of power my actions fed it with and ensured that I would love every moment of it.
At the same time, every man and woman in my fleet screamed when the death of a billion people hit them like a sledgehammer. It was only the gestalt making us all as one expanded mind that kept their minds from shattering.
The second barrage hit. The third. Kamino screamed.
The bombardment continued. Ships died when the CIS pressed their assault in order to try preserving their ground forces down on the planet. I fed the echoes of those deaths into the gestalt making my people experience them just as I made them feel everyone below us dying.
Something tore in the Force and the Dark Side itself boiled upon Kamino's vaporizing oceans. Those few still alive down there within deep shielded bunkers had a moment to scream in desperation before their lives were consumed. A ripple went over Kamino and every single still living thing on the surface was snuffed out of existence. I felt the few enemy Jedi who hadn't manage to evacuate in time scream like damned souls when the Dark Side claimed them for its own.
I could feel everyone bound to me recoil from what we just wreaked upon Kamino. I could feel their minds begin to fray under the strain of the Dark Side.
I could sense their very sanity begin to shatter when every single one of them comprehended what it truly meant to murder a whole world.
And I loved every single moment of it.
Clones and natural born alike screamed for respite. They needed for something, anything to take away the pain. It was their darkest hour and I was there to offer them succor when they needed it most.
The Dark Side offers many gifts. It could mask many things. It often lies.
Most importantly it helps us in our darkest hour. It can help us believe the lie that the monster in the mirror isn't our distorted reflection. Its greatest gift is that it can hide us from ourselves. It can drown our pain and suffering in the screams of our victims. In our darkest hour it could offer us the succor we so desperately need… and the price is one that we would gladly pay.
Pain, suffering, fear and despair – those are no longer things we should be wary of. They're nothing we need to fear, because from now on they're merely our instruments.
I was what my people needed. I was the shoulder they cried on. I was the helping hand that dragged them back beyond the edge of madness. I was the one giving them the warm hug they craved and telling them that everything was going to be fine. I was the one who convinced them that they could live with the burden of murdering Kamino and every living thing upon that planet. I was the one who convinced them they weren't monsters in their own eyes.
I am the one who damned them and they were grateful for it.
I am the Dark Lord of the Sith and the Dark Side is my eager servant.
