Prologue

In the last days of the Old Republic, the Sith - followers of the dark side of the Force and ancient enemies of the Jedi Order - were only two: a master and an apprentice. Although this was not always the case. A thousand years before the fall of the Republic and the rise of Emperor Palpatine, the Sith were numerous...

Lord Kaan, Master of the Sith and founder of the Brotherhood of Darkness, walked like a high shadow in the darkness of the night across the bloody battlefield. Thousands of Republic soldiers and almost a hundred Jedi gave their lives defending this world from his army, and lost. He enjoyed their suffering and despair; even now he could feel them spreading around like the stench of the dead scattered across the valley.
A storm was gathering in the distance. Each flash of lightning that lit up the firmament momentarily illuminated the silhouette of a grandiose Korriban temple rising above the bleak horizon.
A couple of figures waited in the middle of the carnage: a human and a Twi'lek. He recognized them despite the darkness: Qordis and Kopej, one of the most powerful Sith Lords. Once bitter rivals, they now served together in the Brotherhood of Kaan. Smiling, he quickly approached them.
Kordis, tall and lean as a skeleton, parted his lips in an answering smile.
“This is a great victory, Lord Kaan. Too much time had passed since the Sith had an academy on Korriban.
"I see you're eager to start teaching new students," Kaan replied. - I hope that in the near future you will please me with many powerful and devoted adepts and Masters.
- Will please you? - pointedly asked Kopezh. - Didn't you mean to say "please us"? Aren't we all part of the Brotherhood of Darkness?
The question was met with casual laughter.
- Of course, Kopezh. I just made a reservation.
"Kopez refuses to celebrate our triumph," Qordis said. He's been like this all night.
Kaan clasped the Twi'lek's burly shoulder.
“This is an important victory for all of us,” he said. “Korriban means more than any other world. This is a symbol. Sith birthplace. This victory is a message to the Republic and the Jedi. Now they will definitely recognize us, and they will tremble before the Brotherhood.
Kopez shook off Kaan's hand and turned away with a light thump from the tips of the lekku wrapped around his neck.
"Celebrate if you like," he said over his shoulder as he left. But the real war has just begun.

Part one
Three years later
Chapter 1

Hard labor exhausted Dessel so that he was barely aware of what was happening around him. His hands ached from the brutal vibration of the jackhammer. Shards of stone flying off the cave wall bounced off his goggles, stinging his exposed face and arms painfully. Clouds of fine dust hung in the air, obscuring his eyes, and the shrill howl of the hammer completely drowned out all other sounds as he, centimeter by centimeter, painfully broke through the thickness of the cortosis vein in the mountain.
Immune to fire and energy, cortosis was highly valued in the production of weapons and defense, of interest to merchants and the military alike - especially in a galaxy engulfed in war. Highly resistant to blaster charges, cortosis alloys could supposedly withstand even the impact of a lightsaber blade. Unfortunately, the same properties that made it so valuable made it extremely difficult to mine. Plasma torches were absolutely useless - annealing even a small area of ​​cortosis-filled rock could take more than one day. the only effective way his prey was the brute force of a jackhammer stubbornly pecking at the vein, chipping off the cortosis piece by piece.
Cortosis was one of the strongest materials in the galaxy. The impact force quickly wore out the hammer head, dulling it until the tool became completely useless. Dust clogged the hydraulic pistons, jamming them. Cortosis mining was ruthless for the equipment... and even more ruthless for the miners.
Des had been working for almost six standard hours. The jackhammer weighed more than thirty kilograms, and the tension required to hold it up and press it against the rock was already beginning to take its toll. Hands were shaking. Lungs struggled to take in air, choking on the clouds of fine mineral dust thrown off by the head of the hammer. Even my teeth ached: the vibration seemed to be trying to shake them out of my gums.
But the miners on Apatros were paid for the amount of cortosis they mined. If he leaves now, then another will take his place, starting to develop the vein and taking a share of the profits. And Des didn't like to share.
The howl of the jackhammer grew significantly higher, becoming a screech that Des knew all too well. At 20,000 rpm, the engine was sucking up dust, like a thirsty bantha sucking up water after a long march through the desert. Regular cleaning and maintenance was the only way to keep the tool in working order, and the Outer Rim Mining preferred to buy cheap equipment and replace it rather than blow maintenance loans. Des knew exactly what was going to happen next - and a second later it did. The motor exploded.
With a disgusting sound, the hydraulics jammed, and puffs of black smoke poured from the back of the hammer. Cursing RVC and its corporate politics, Des freed his convulsively twitching finger from the trigger and tossed the untimely dead equipment to the floor.
"Move back, boy," a voice said.
Gerd, one of the other miners, tried to push Des aside to work the vein with his own hammer. Gerd had worked in the mines for almost twenty standard years, during which time his body had been reduced to a mass of hard, knotted muscles. But Des had been on the job himself for ten years, ever since he came here as a teenager. He was built no worse than the old man, and besides, he was a little larger. He didn't budge.
“I haven't finished yet,” he said. - The hammer is dead, that's all. Give me yours and I'll work on them for now.
- You know the rules, man. You stop working and someone else takes your place.
Technically, Gerd was right. But no one has ever occupied another miner's site due to equipment malfunction. Unless he got into a fight.
Des looked around quickly. Apart from the two of them, standing less than half a meter apart, there was no one here. This was not surprising: Des usually chose caves far from the main tunnel network. It was a coincidence that Gerd was here.
Des has known Gerd for most of his adult life. The middle-aged man was friends with Harst, his father. When Des first started working in the mines at thirteen, he was often insulted by the older miners. The worst tormentor was his father, but Gerd was one of the main instigators, who did not deprive Des of ridicule, insults, and sometimes even slaps.
Their persecution ended shortly after Des's father died of a massive heart attack. Not because, of course, the miners felt sorry for the orphaned young man. It's just that by the time Hurst passed away, the tall, skinny teenager they loved to bully had turned into a mountain of muscle with heavy hands and a fiery temper. Mining was not an easy job; it was more like hard labor in a prison colony of the Republic. Everyone who worked in the mines got bigger, and Des happened to be the biggest of them all. Half a dozen black eyes, multiple bruised noses, and a broken jaw in a month were enough for Hurst's old friends to think it best to leave Des alone.
And yet, they seemed to blame him for Hurst's death, and every few months someone tried to get him again. True, Gerd was smart enough to keep his distance - until today.
"I don't see your buddies around, old man," Des grumbled. "So get off my lot and no one gets hurt."
Gerd spat at Des' feet.
You don't even remember what day it is, do you, kid? The shame of the family - that's who you are!
They stood so close together that Des could smell the sour smell of Corellian whiskey on Gerd's breath. This man was drunk. Drunk enough to come looking for a fight, but sober enough not to go first.
"It's five years today," Gerd said, shaking his head dejectedly. - It's been five years since your dad died, and you don't even remember!
Des didn't think about his father at all. He didn't regret losing it. His childhood memories were only of his father beating him. He couldn't even remember the reason; Hurst rarely needed it.
- Can't say I miss Hurst the way you do, Gerd.
- Hurst? Gerd snorted. “He raised you after your mom died, and you even have the audacity not to call him dad?” Oh, you ungrateful brat of the Cat hound!
Des gave Gerd a menacing look down on him, but the interlocutor was too full, he was sure that he was right and outraged enough to be afraid.
- Didn't expect this from such a suffocated puppy like you... - continued Gerd. “Harst always said you were good for nothing. He knew you weren't all right... Bane.
Des' eyes narrowed in fury, but he didn't fall for the provocation. Hurst called him by that name when he was drunk. Bane, Curse. He blamed his son for the death of his wife. Vinyl for being stuck on Apatros. He believed that his only offspring was the bane of his existence. He told Des too often in his drunken stupor.
Bain. The name personified all the viciousness, pettiness, and wretchedness of his father. This awakened the most secret fears of the baby - the fear of disappointment, the fear of loneliness, the fear of cruelty. When Des was a child, this name hurt him more than all the slaps on the back of the head and slaps on the arm of a heavy dad. But he grew up. And over time, he learned to ignore both the hated nickname and the insults thrown in the face by his father.
"I don't have time for this," he grumbled. - I have to work.
With one hand, he yanked the jackhammer out of Gerd's grip. Putting his other hand on his shoulder, he pushed him away. The drunken man caught his foot on a stone and fell heavily to the ground.
Growling, he rose, clenching his fists.
“Looks like your daddy has been away for too long, boy. It's time to put your brains in place!
Gerd was drunk, but he wasn't stupid, Des realized. Des was bigger, stronger, younger... but he'd spent the last few hours working with a jackhammer. He was covered in soot, and sweat was running down his face. The shirt was soaked through. Gerd's clothes, on the other hand, were still relatively clean: no dust, no sweat stains. He must have been planning all of this all day long, slacking off and thumping while Des wore himself down.
But Des wasn't about to give up the fight. Throwing Gerd's hammer on the ground, he took a fighting stance, legs wide apart and arms outstretched in front of him.
Gerd rushed forward, twisting his right fist in an uppercut. Des took the blow with the open palm of his left hand, absorbing its power. With his other hand, he grabbed Gerd's right wrist sharply; jerking the old man toward him, Des ducked down and spun around, hitting him in the chest with his shoulder. Using his opponent's move against him, Des straightened up and yanked hard on Gerd's wrist, throwing him over him and knocking him back to the ground.
This fight should have ended; Des had a fraction of a second when he could drop a knee on the enemy, cutting off his lungs from the path to oxygen, and, pinning him to the ground, unleash with his fists. But that did not happen. His back, exhausted from long hours of holding the weight of a thirty-kilogram jackhammer, cramped.
The pain was unbearable; instinctively, Des straightened up, clutching at the small of his back. This gave Gerd the opportunity to roll to the side and get back on his feet.
Somehow, Des managed to get back into a fighting stance. His back ached in protest, and he winced as he felt hot daggers of pain pierce his body. Gerd saw the grimace and burst out laughing.
- What's wrong, boy? You should have known not to wave your fists after a six-hour shift in the mines.
Gerd rushed forward again. This time, instead of swinging his fists, he was waving his clawed fingers, ready to grab whatever they could reach. He tried to negate his height advantage young man by getting close to him. Des tried to dodge, but his legs were numb and completely unresponsive. Gerd grabbed Des by the shirt with one hand, grabbed his belt with the other and knocked them both to the ground.
They grappled with each other, wrestling on the hard, rough stone of the cave. Gerd buried his face into Des's chest to protect him, preventing him from punching or headbutting. He was still holding Des's waist, but now with his other free hand he was blindly striking upwards, where he assumed Des' face was. Des had to twist his arms around and wrap them around Gerd, blocking them so that now neither of them could land a hit.
As long as they were so intertwined, strategy and technique meant little. The fight became a test of strength and endurance as the two fighters slowly wore each other down. Dessel tried to roll Gerd onto his back, but his tired body failed him. The arms were heavy and sluggish; he could not achieve the desired goal. But Gerd managed to twist and turn, freeing one arm. He still pressed his face tightly against Des's chest so that it remained closed.
Des was less fortunate... his face was open and vulnerable. Gerd swung his free hand, but struck with an open fist. Without calculating the direction, he drove with force thumb on Des's cheek, just inches from the real target. He swung again, hoping to gouge out one of his opponent's eyes, blind him, and make him writhe in pain.
It took Des a second to realize what was happening; his tired mind became as slow and clumsy as his body. He turned his face away just as the finger stabbed painfully at his ear again.
Dark hatred boiled up inside Des - a flash of fiery passion that incinerated exhaustion and fatigue. The mind suddenly cleared up, and the body felt strength and energy. He knew what he would do next. Moreover, he absolutely knew exactly what Gerd would do next.
He couldn't explain how, but sometimes he could just foresee the opponent's next move. Instinct, one might say. Des was sure there was more to it than that. It was too detailed, too precise, to be mere instinct. It looks more like a vision, a swift look into the future. And whenever that happened, Des always knew what to do. As if something was guiding him and guiding his actions.
When it was time for the next strike, Des was more than ready for it. He already had a clear picture in his mind. He knew exactly when to expect it and where it would be applied. This time he turned his head in the opposite direction, thrusting his face into the blow and opening his mouth. Precisely timing, he clenched his teeth with force, which dug deep into the dirty flesh of Gerd's finger.
Gerd screamed as Des clenched his jaw tighter, ripping tendons and cutting into bone. He thought he could bite his finger right through, and then (it happened as if by a wave of thought), he bit it off.
The scream turned into a piercing shriek as Gerd loosened his grip and rolled to the side, clutching his mangled hand. Crimson blood welled up through his fingers as they tried to stop the bleeding from the stump.
Rising slowly, Des spat out his finger on the ground. The taste of blood burned in his mouth. The body gained strength and vigor, as if some kind of powerful energy spread through its veins. The enemy was no longer up for a fight; Des could do anything to Gerd now.
The old man rolled on the ground, pressing his hand to his chest. He moaned and sobbed, begging for help.
Des shook his head in disgust; Gerd was to blame for everything. It started out as a simple fistfight. The loser had to end it with a black eye and a few bruises, and nothing else. Then the old man upped the ante for more high level trying to blind him and he responded appropriately. Des had learned a long time ago not to escalate a fight unless he was willing to pay the price of losing. Now Gerd has learned that lesson too.
Des was quick-tempered, but he wasn't the type to finish off the defenseless. Without looking back at his defeated opponent, he left the cave and headed back through the tunnel to inform one of the chiefs of what had happened. Then someone will come and take care of Gerd's injury.
He didn't worry about the consequences. The medics can reattach Gerd's finger, so in the worst case, Des will be out of pay for a day or two. The corporation didn't care too much about what its workers were doing as long as they continued to mine cortosis. Fights were common among the miners, and RVC almost always turned a blind eye to them. Although this fight was just terrible, compared to others - fierce and short, with a bloody end.
Just like life on Apatros.

Chapter 2

Sitting in the back seat of a bus used to ferry miners between Apatros' only colony and the mines, Des felt utterly devastated. All he wanted now was to go back to his bed in the barracks and go to sleep. The adrenaline drained him to the core, leaving his body numb and aching. Hunched over in his seat, he surveyed the interior of the bus.
Normally, a dozen more miners would have crammed into the transport with him, but this time, apart from him and the pilot, the cabin was empty. After a fight with Gerd, Des was removed from work with impressive speed and without any pay, ordering that he be taken back to the colony.
"Things like that don't work anymore, Des," the chief said, frowning. “But this time we have to teach you a lesson. You are not allowed to work in the mines until Gerd recovers and returns to work.
In reality, he meant only one thing: You will not earn a single loan until Gerd returns. But he will, of course, continue to pay for room and food. Every day he squanders will be added to his account, adding to the debt he has worked so desperately to pay off.
Des calculated that it would be four or five days before Gerd could hold the jackhammer again. A local orderly, using a vibroscalpel and sinteflesh, sewed a bitten off finger in place. A few days of kolto injections and some cheap drugs to dull the pain and Gerd would be fine. Bacta therapy could cure him in a day; but bacta was expensive and RVC wouldn't be chasing after her unless Gerd had mining insurance... which Des doubted very much.
Most miners never cared about a company-sponsored insurance program. More importantly, she was unaffordable to them. Considering that the miners had to pay for housing and food, and their salaries barely covered the cost of transportation to and from the mines, it became clear why many believed that even without insurance premiums they gave the RVC more than a solid part of their hard-earned money.
Although it was not only about the price. The men and women who toiled in the cortosis mines seemed to be in denial, refusing to acknowledge the potential dangers and threats that lay in wait for them every day. Insurance would force them to face hard and hard facts.
Few miners lived to old age. The adits gathered their terrible harvest by burying bodies in caves or incinerating them when someone stumbled upon a pocket of explosive gases locked in the rock. But even those who left the mines did not live long after that. Too many caves were taken from them. Broken and exhausted for decades hard work sick from the poorly purified air of the mines, sixty-year-old men looked most like ninety-somethings.
When Des's father died (of course, without any insurance), all that he got from him was the privilege of taking over the account accumulated by the parent. Hurst spent more time drinking and gambling than working. In order to pay monthly rent for room and food, he often borrowed from the RVC at interest, which was criminal everywhere except the Outer Rim. The account continued to grow month after month, year after year, but Hurst did not care at all. He was a single father with a son he hated, trapped in a relentless job he despised; he gave up any hope of escaping Apatros long before his heart attack killed him.

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction

There must be two of them; no more no less. One - to embody power, the other - to crave it.

Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith

From the translator

Once upon a time, the Sith Order teemed with followers. But the inevitable rivalry dragged them into endless battles for their own superiority. This continued until one Dark Lord finally united the Sith to enslave the galaxy and completely eradicate the Jedi. However, then the reins of government passed to another, much more powerful than the entire Brotherhood of Darkness, who eventually realized the full potential of the Sith and took possession of such an awesome power of the dark side that history had not known for a long time.

Darth Bane is the Sith who destroyed the decrepit order, and created a completely new one on its ashes, subject to different laws. A simple miner's boy, an army soldier, and later a student of the Sith, Bane reached the very heights of power thanks to deceit, steadfastness and, of course, the Force. He completely revised the concept of the former Sith philosophy and replaced it with his own: the Rule of Two, which states that from now on there will be two Sith - a teacher and a student. It was only thanks to this outstanding man that the new order - secretive, weaving intrigues from the depths of darkness - centuries later achieved what the old one failed to do: squeezed the galaxy entangled in networks of deceit in an iron fist and almost completely destroyed the Jedi.

The Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Bane, born in the hard labor mines of Apatros under the name Dessel, and his Rule of Two were originally invented by the creator himself " star wars”, by George Lucas, for the Episode I storyline.

This character, as usual, was further developed in the Expanded Universe, in which the graphic novel Jedi vs. the Sith, published in all its glory, described the adventures of Darth Bane and the Brotherhood of Darkness during the final battle between Light and Darkness on the planet Ruusan. Although later separate fragments of the short story did not escape the fate of the apocrypha, most of it, albeit with some changes, was included in this book.

A story that appeared some time later called "Bane of the Sith" by the famous writer Kevin Anderson brought a lot of new things to the biography of one of the most intriguing Sith, and told about his fate after the death of the order. However, at the moment, the story also partly does not fit with the official "canon", partly contradicting much that was written later.

Subsequently, Bane was only briefly mentioned in various artistic sources of the saga, but almost never appeared as an independent character.

To write a full-fledged novel about Darth Bane, the writer Drew Karpyshyn, who had already established himself well in the world of Star Wars, was invited, who was noted as the lead screenwriter of the famous computer game Knights of the Old Republic. Karpyshyn managed to most fully and colorfully describe the life story of the Dark Lord and the path of his formation in the service of the dark side. From his pen came out a fascinating and exciting novel, which was appreciated by every fan of the legendary saga.

An interesting fact is that this book is the first published Star Wars novel that tells entirely about the times of the Galaxy almost a thousand years ago, and whose pages are almost completely devoted to the followers of Darkness. As one Western online reviewer put it, “You will learn more about the dark side of the Force and the Sith from this novel than from all the Star Wars literature. Indeed, there is so much Darkness here that only a negligible fraction is allocated to the Light.

But why is this book so interesting: penetrating everything and everything with dark philosophy, from which goosebumps run down the back, but which you want to learn more and more? Or the intriguing story of one man who single-handedly slew an entire order with the power of cunning and cunning, and whose legacy ultimately led Emperor Palpatine and his sinister apprentice Darth Vader to power over the Galaxy? Or maybe just an interesting and entertaining story, from which it is impossible to tear yourself away until the very last page?

Path of Destruction has all of this and more. And now it can finally be read in Russian.

In conclusion, I would like to express my deep gratitude Natalia Harina akaMara Jed Magnifique for invaluable assistance in editing and proofreading the translation, Nadezhda Kontar akaComO'K for good support, as well as to all those people who were waiting for the novel, helped with advice and kind words, and without whose assistance I would never have been able to finish what I started. Thank you all, and may the Great Force be with you!

Evyn Jade(www.swbook.ru)

In the last days of the Old Republic, the Sith - followers of the dark side of the Force and ancient enemies of the Jedi Order - were only two: a master and an apprentice. Although this was not always the case. A thousand years before the fall of the Republic and the rise of Emperor Palpatine, the Sith were numerous...

Lord Kaan, Master of the Sith and founder of the Brotherhood of Darkness, walked like a high shadow in the darkness of the night across the bloody battlefield. Thousands of Republic soldiers and almost a hundred Jedi gave their lives defending this world from his army, and lost. He enjoyed their suffering and despair; even now he could feel them spreading around like the stench of the dead scattered across the valley.

A storm was gathering in the distance. Each flash of lightning that lit up the firmament momentarily illuminated the silhouette of a grandiose Korriban temple rising above the bleak horizon.

A couple of figures waited in the middle of the carnage: a human and a Twi'lek. He recognized them despite the darkness: Qordis and Kopej, one of the most powerful Sith Lords. Once bitter rivals, they now served together in the Brotherhood of Kaan. Smiling, he quickly approached them.

Kordis, tall and lean as a skeleton, parted his lips in an answering smile.

This is a great victory, Lord Kaan. Too much time had passed since the Sith had an academy on Korriban.

I see you are eager to start teaching new students, - Kaan replied. - I hope that in the near future you will please me with many powerful and devoted adepts and Masters.

Will please you? - pointedly asked Kopezh. - Didn't you mean to say "please us"? Aren't we all part of the Brotherhood of Darkness?

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction

There must be two of them; no more no less. One - to embody power, the other - to crave it.

Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith

From the translator

Once upon a time, the Sith Order teemed with followers. But the inevitable rivalry dragged them into endless battles for their own superiority. This continued until one Dark Lord finally united the Sith to enslave the galaxy and completely eradicate the Jedi. However, then the reins of government passed to another, much more powerful than the entire Brotherhood of Darkness, who eventually realized the full potential of the Sith and took possession of such an awesome power of the dark side that history had not known for a long time.

Darth Bane is the Sith who destroyed the decrepit order, and created a completely new one on its ashes, subject to different laws. A simple miner's boy, an army soldier, and later a student of the Sith, Bane reached the very heights of power thanks to deceit, steadfastness and, of course, the Force. He completely revised the concept of the former Sith philosophy and replaced it with his own: the Rule of Two, which states that from now on there will be two Sith - a teacher and a student. It was only thanks to this outstanding man that the new order - secretive, weaving intrigues from the depths of darkness - centuries later achieved what the old one failed to do: squeezed the galaxy entangled in networks of deceit in an iron fist and almost completely destroyed the Jedi.

The Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Bane, born in the hard labor mines of Apatros under the name Dessel, and his Rule of Two were originally conceived by Star Wars creator George Lucas for the plot of Episode I.

This character, as usual, was further developed in the Expanded Universe, in which the graphic novel Jedi vs. the Sith, published in all its glory, described the adventures of Darth Bane and the Brotherhood of Darkness during the final battle between Light and Darkness on the planet Ruusan. Although later separate fragments of the short story did not escape the fate of the apocrypha, most of it, albeit with some changes, was included in this book.

A story that appeared some time later called "Bane of the Sith" by the famous writer Kevin Anderson brought a lot of new things to the biography of one of the most intriguing Sith, and told about his fate after the death of the order. However, at the moment, the story also partly does not fit with the official "canon", partly contradicting much that was written later.

Subsequently, Bane was only briefly mentioned in various artistic sources of the saga, but almost never appeared as an independent character.

To write a full-fledged novel about Darth Bane, the writer Drew Karpyshyn, who had already established himself well in the world of Star Wars, was invited, who was noted as the lead screenwriter of the famous computer game Knights of the Old Republic. Karpyshyn managed to most fully and colorfully describe the life story of the Dark Lord and the path of his formation in the service of the dark side. From his pen came out a fascinating and exciting novel, which was appreciated by every fan of the legendary saga.

An interesting fact is that this book is the first published Star Wars novel that tells entirely about the times of the Galaxy almost a thousand years ago, and whose pages are almost completely devoted to the followers of Darkness. As one Western online reviewer put it, “You will learn more about the dark side of the Force and the Sith from this novel than from all the Star Wars literature. Indeed, there is so much Darkness here that only a negligible fraction is allocated to the Light.

But why is this book so interesting: penetrating everything and everything with dark philosophy, from which goosebumps run down the back, but which you want to learn more and more? Or the intriguing story of one man who single-handedly slew an entire order with the power of cunning and cunning, and whose legacy ultimately led Emperor Palpatine and his sinister apprentice Darth Vader to power over the Galaxy? Or maybe just an interesting and entertaining story, from which it is impossible to tear yourself away until the very last page?

Path of Destruction has all of this and more. And now it can finally be read in Russian.

In conclusion, I would like to express my deep gratitude Natalia Harina akaMara Jed Magnifique for invaluable assistance in editing and proofreading the translation, Nadezhda Kontar akaComO'K for good support, as well as to all those people who were waiting for the novel, helped with advice and kind words, and without whose assistance I would never have been able to finish what I started. Thank you all, and may the Great Force be with you!

Evyn Jade(www.swbook.ru)

In the last days of the Old Republic, the Sith - followers of the dark side of the Force and ancient enemies of the Jedi Order - were only two: a master and an apprentice. Although this was not always the case. A thousand years before the fall of the Republic and the rise of Emperor Palpatine, the Sith were numerous...

Lord Kaan, Master of the Sith and founder of the Brotherhood of Darkness, walked like a high shadow in the darkness of the night across the bloody battlefield. Thousands of Republic soldiers and almost a hundred Jedi gave their lives defending this world from his army, and lost. He enjoyed their suffering and despair; even now he could feel them spreading around like the stench of the dead scattered across the valley.

A storm was gathering in the distance. Each flash of lightning that lit up the firmament momentarily illuminated the silhouette of a grandiose Korriban temple rising above the bleak horizon.

A couple of figures waited in the middle of the carnage: a human and a Twi'lek. He recognized them despite the darkness: Qordis and Kopej, one of the most powerful Sith Lords. Once bitter rivals, they now served together in the Brotherhood of Kaan. Smiling, he quickly approached them.

Kordis, tall and lean as a skeleton, parted his lips in an answering smile.

This is a great victory, Lord Kaan. Too much time had passed since the Sith had an academy on Korriban.

I see you are eager to start teaching new students, - Kaan replied. - I hope that in the near future you will please me with many powerful and devoted adepts and Masters.

Will please you? - pointedly asked Kopezh. - Didn't you mean to say "please us"? Aren't we all part of the Brotherhood of Darkness?

The question was met with casual laughter.

Of course, Kopezh. I just made a reservation.

Kopezh refuses to celebrate our triumph, - said Qordis. He's been like this all night.

Kaan clasped the Twi'lek's burly shoulder.

This is an important victory for all of us,” he said. “Korriban means more than any other world. This is a symbol. Sith birthplace. This victory is a message to the Republic and the Jedi. Now they will definitely recognize us, and they will tremble before the Brotherhood.

Kopez shook off Kaan's hand and turned away with a light thump from the tips of the lekku wrapped around his neck.

Celebrate if you like,” he said over his shoulder as he left. But the real war has just begun.

Part one

Three years later

Hard labor exhausted Dessel so that he was barely aware of what was happening around him. His hands ached from the brutal vibration of the jackhammer. Shards of stone flying off the cave wall bounced off his goggles, stinging his exposed face and arms painfully. Clouds of fine dust hung in the air, obscuring his eyes, and the shrill howl of the hammer completely drowned out all other sounds as he, centimeter by centimeter, painfully broke through the thickness of the cortosis vein in the mountain.

Immune to fire and energy, cortosis was highly valued in the production of weapons and defense, of interest to merchants and the military alike - especially in a galaxy engulfed in war. Highly resistant to blaster charges, cortosis alloys could supposedly withstand even the impact of a lightsaber blade. Unfortunately, the same properties that made it so valuable made it extremely difficult to mine. Plasma torches were absolutely useless - annealing even a small area of ​​cortosis-filled rock could take more than one day. The only effective way to extract it was with the brute force of a jackhammer stubbornly pecking at the vein, chipping off the cortosis piece by piece.

Cortosis was one of the strongest materials in the galaxy. The impact force quickly wore out the hammer head, dulling it until the tool became completely useless. Dust clogged the hydraulic pistons, jamming them. Cortosis mining was ruthless for the equipment... and even more ruthless for the miners.

Star Wars

Darth Bane

Path of Destruction

by Drew Karpyshyn

Star Wars

Darth Bane

Book 1

Path of destruction

translation: Evyn Jade (www.swbook.ru)

proofreader and literary editor: Mara Magnifique

"There must be two of them; no more, no less. One - to embody power, the other - to crave it."

Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith

From the translator:

Once upon a time, the Sith Order teemed with followers. But the inevitable rivalry dragged them into endless battles for their own superiority. This continued until one Dark Lord finally united the Sith to enslave the galaxy and completely eradicate the Jedi. However, then the reins of government passed to another, much more powerful than the entire Brotherhood of Darkness, eventually realizing the full potential of the Sith and taking possession of such an awesome power of the dark side, which history has not known for a long time.

Darth Bane is the Sith who destroyed the decrepit order, and created a completely new one on its ashes, subject to different laws. A simple miner's boy, an army soldier, and later a student of the Sith, Bane reached the very heights of power thanks to deceit, steadfastness and, of course, the Force. He completely revised the concept of the former Sith philosophy and replaced it with his own: the Rule of Two, which states that from now on there will be two Sith - a teacher and a student. It was only thanks to this outstanding man that the new order - secretive, weaving intrigues from the depths of darkness - centuries later achieved what the old one failed to do: squeezed the galaxy entangled in networks of deceit in an iron fist and almost completely destroyed the Jedi.

The Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Bane, born in the hard labor mines of Apatros under the name Dessel, and his Rule of Two were originally conceived by Star Wars creator George Lucas for the plot of Episode I.

This character, as usual, received further development in the "Expanded Universe", published within which the graphic novel "Jedi vs. Sith" in all its glory described the adventures of Darth Bane and the Brotherhood of Darkness during the final battle between Light and Darkness on the planet Ruusan. Although later separate fragments of the short story did not escape the fate of the apocrypha, most of it, albeit with some changes, was included in this book.

A story that appeared some time later called "Bane of the Sith" by the famous writer Kevin Anderson brought a lot of new things to the biography of one of the most intriguing Sith, and told about his fate after the death of the order. However, at the moment the story also partly does not fit with the official "canon", partly contradicting much that has been written.