[@countlessinsect] [i][b]Lythos IX Corporate Sector[/b][/i] [img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1a/23/2c/1a232cb5171e6ebd6aad08febc67558a.jpg[/img] "Truly, I'm surprised she objected to such a presence on the Island, not that I'm complaining. Shore leave was a damn sight for sore eyes" A member of the 104 muttered, he was sitting on a rock. Lazily enjoy the tropical breeze while his fellow soldier, both off duty enjoyed a leg from one of the immense water fowls sold at the local market. None of them had enjoyed fresh meat since Endor, when Imperial access to agriworlds suddenly became tightly rationed. Feeding Coruscant and the other world cities in the core and colonies region became integral to keeping riotous populations down and thus the military (outside of the command level officers and the flags of course) had been stuck on combat meal packs for months. Dreskal, the one currently devouring the roasted leg with enthusiasm only a Hutt could match muttered something about avoiding the tropical fruits. Earlier, one soldier picked the wrong one and shat himself to death from dehydration before anyone realized. Invictus Janus said something of a force prayer at his funeral, that had been on the first night of a four day stay. Aladar had wept, wept! No inquisitor nor Acolyte, nor Hand nor wannabe Sith had ever shown the clemency of those two and a sense of religious fervor was building in the Long demoralized Remnant forces. But it was so much more than that, word had begun to spread from their lips to the farmers and then to the ports. The Galactic Empire was changing, it was a new day and the discordant, divisive republic and the solitary Pentastar alignment and Zsinj's gilded Empire would all soon look like poor options! At least. that's what the men said. "The Janus family is pretty high brow, she's probably used to pomp but I think she's worried about Pentastar thugs coming to bother us, where she'd be a lot less conspicuous alone." The fowl eater shrugged, both failed to notice the soft tracks in the sand before they were carried off in the breeze. As had the sentries of the vaunted five hundred and first, who walked between trees and foliage and passed in front of a waterfall as the Highsinger passed behind it, mistaking his crested head for that of a tropical bird. A few hundred men, even energized warriors willing to fight for their new leader made for a great deterrence against divisions of enemy soldiers. They did not, however make for a good deterrent when the threat was a lone killer or a small clique of elites. Over the past seventy two hours the men relaxed more and Invictus Janus slept for ten to sixteen hours out of most days, lazing in the sun as a great serpent who'd just begun to digest an enormous meal. The Inquisitor turned Apprentice, had taken to guarding her until she was told to practice her force to muscle control exercises from the old days in the Jedi temple. Swimming around the tropical islands was both a welcoming exercise and a fun diversion, in truth it was hard to imagine anyone threatening her. Perhaps that had been her mistake, for one morning during exercise meditations her senses, amplified by her change in emotions bristled through the force. Something approached, something artificial and at first she thought it was merely a serving droid only for its footfalls to sound heavier, more concealing, more...threatening? The apprentice rose to her feet, whirring around a hand resting on her Lightsaber until the droid which was partly obscured by the sun uttered a word that almost floored her.... "Master" and it was stated with almost reverence? She could detect no menace which was odd because evidently the Highsinger bounty hunting and assassination droid was not only real but standing beside her master?! Part of her wanting to yell and reprimand the soldiers but another part of her realized how correct Master had been in her observance that the large number of men weren't going to protect her from any real threats. "Stand back!" Aladar was dense, as her master was fond of saying, but she wasn't stupid (As her master was also fond of pointing out), she wasn't going to attack this droid, jump the gun and over react based on his breaching the perimeter but, she also wasn't going to allow it to get [i]too [/i]close until she rose. To Aladar's surprise a hand rose in reassurance and the woman rose from her seat, as a serpent climbing a wall. The woman let out a breath and smiled as an ocean breeze passed through her bone white hair. "Ah, forgive me for not warning you dear apprentice, but I wished to both test your senses and..I wished to test the abilities of our guest" Mryia turned her head slightly, enough that her eyes locked on to Highsinger "Neither of you disappointed me" Though the way she said it, implied the notion of either of them failing her was simply impossible. "I had despaired most at the thought of your death, you know?" She'd used the word death instead of deactivation or destruction for to Miryia there was no difference between Highsinger and the few organic sentients that she considered worth the various gasses they breathed. She had been engineered to live a around fourteen hundred years without taking force potential into the equation, but she knew her half human children likely died before they reached five or six hundred years and her grandchildren and great grandchildren were all dead and entombed at the Janus necropolis, none of this grieved her, for her genetic lineage lived on in minor branches of House Janus (though that was a tad bit insulting), she knew her progeny lived and died well. But the thought of knowing nothing about the fate of the Highsinger had brought her to tears. It was funny how the heart worked and it was another example of how stupid Jedi were for trying to suppress emotion instead of wielding it intelligently. "Only to see patterns of the one I helped construct in the bounties collected on a dozen worlds since my departure. On, the assassinations of many others. The viral containment failure in the research outpost at Aquarius was a particularly brilliant maneuver, was it not the same strategy we implemented on Wu'han Four in the ninth year of the war?" Her eyes flickered with a zeal, a fire that was unmistakably hers. Though, the confirmation of her identity was given a secondary verification when she'd spoken of something only she could know as the rest of the Galaxy seemed to still believe both incidents were just misfortunes. Though the Wu'han breached had killed something like fifteen of the thirty two billion sentients she'd destroyed during her grand crusade against the Sith and the Aquarius outbreak only brought down a few warlords and their attendants. "And the recent one, the terrorist attack on that space station, I've heard Emperor Zsinj is blaming Tyber Zann, how could I not recognize my Highsinger?" here, Miryia extended a hand gently grabbing the wrist of her apprentice, leading the taller woman almost as a mother would lead a child. "Apprentice Aladar, meet the only other sentient besides yourself who has the honor of knowing me, wholly and totally. The Highsinger, my lance in the dark, my crimson left hand" "My, gray rider." Death with servos. The apprentice bowed to her predecessor as Miryia turned her whole body and faced Highsinger. "Yes, it is me old friend, I yet live and there is so much still to be done!"