[img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/7/78/Demolisher-SWArmada.png/revision/latest?cb=20151007030244[/img] [i][b]In Orbit over Thule [/b][/i] “Admiral sir! There's a ship leaving the planet!” “Do you have a visual?” “Yes sir…” Screed recognized the ship as a basic Imperial troop transport...before Endor barely just a year he remembered a warning for a similar ship deserting belonging to one of Vader's personal servants. “Why did that Mandalorian fool leading the Raptors let this ship escape? The person on that ship is someone of interest…” And danger Screed omitted...Screed had personally seen the trails of bodies the child had left during Trachta’s aborted coup on Imperial Center. Anyone close to Vader tended to be a living army even his alleged blood relative Skywalker is a one man army if the Holonets claims were to be correct. If such a person got something that even Screed was oblivious to in the storehouse he and the entire galaxy could be in peril. “Is it wise to speak of Rua Skirata so with Raptors present Admiral?” "I won't tolerate failure even from the Warlords own elite." Screed raised a finger to the officer. The Demolisher’s XO, had long grown accustomed to Screed’s aptitude for biting commentary on those the man who, had circumstances gone differently; very well could have counted amongst the founders of the new order. It had been an honor to serve him once, seeing the man go from an illustrious battlefield commander to a broken ruin serving his rival and nemesis hurt those who’d long served him aboard the demolisher as much as it had the man himself. But mouthing off to the Hound of Zsinj often meant trouble. Albeit not old school Imperial trouble, but a more passive aggressive sort. Withholding of provisions, tebana gas, cartridges and missiles. “He’s ordered that we use proton missiles to detonate the interior of the complex, I can order a bombardment of the building and the surrounding area if you feel it more efficient Admiral” The man bowed his head, avoiding the gaze of a man who had lost his ability to put up with nonsense along with his eye and arm. “Hah! Typical of you and yours Terrinald! I’m sorry, Admiral Screed hero of the Republic and builder of the Empire!” officers not in crimson suppressed groans but looks of disgust flashed across their faces as the Mandalorian warrior, still covered in the blood of an adept that had once been on their side walked in. laughing and close to his chest were two young women with platinum blond hair and Raptor dress tunics, which were entirely opened revealing their torso in its entirety, additionally, pressed against them on either side were a pair of similarly disheveled, only their hair was a deep dark indigo, one was a Zeltraon and the other clearly a Chiss. They looked like whores, yet smelled of blood and carbon. That’s mostly because they were whores in a prior life, sex slaves to Dozo Besadi Zor or “Dozo The Gallant” or “Dozo the immense” for he was unusually gigantic for a Hutt so young. These sex slaves had also been some of the last living members of the Mecrosa Order, an ancient cult of dueling masters who once were counted as legitimate threats to both Jedi and Sith only to be exterminated and relegated to the dustbin of history or the musty halls of eccentric nobles who practiced their combat techniques. His “Lady-Hawks”, may have been little more than shadows of the true Macrossa Order but they’d acquitted themselves well enough to have gone from a simple “gift” from Dozo to Zsinj to the personal bodyguard and assassins of Zsinj’s right hand. A gift, regifted to Rua after he lost an eye in the service of Zsinj. The Chiss, had the scalp of one of the guards who fought so bravely down below freshly cut attached to her belt, blood trickled onto the command deck and her eyes flickered at Screeds command crew who were all visibly disgusted and infuriated. It wasn’t enough for Screed to have been beaten and in the service of his one rival, but he needed to know he’d been broken. More importantly, his crew needed to see it. “Yes a base delta zero would be more efficient, but I don’t really want efficiency in this, I want to send a message to the rest of the galaxy, that the age of force users dictating anything to the rest of us is at an end. The rest of the planet belongs to its biome, not those ghosts” At least, that was what Zsinj wanted. “oohh...Screed, you look as terrible as you always do! Cheer up! This was a great victory! Yet you look like I took your other eye!” he frowned, as if to stop and think and then he grinned “This is about the little grave robber isn’t it?” "Of course it is, his ships signal is changed but the reports on the ground and the ships description matches one of Vader’s enforcers. I may personally know this one, he’s left piles of corpses during and after both Trachta and Zaarin's failed coups. He was specifically trained to be a counter to force users despite being blind to it. He was much like his mother's people a test subject for a twisted design." Screed noticed not only were the Raptors female but aliens one belonging to that wretch Thawn’s race and the other the hedonists of Zeltros. He was not going to enjoy this assignment no. “Your soldiers could have easily taken him down with superior numbers and you let him slip away, and what little I know of what these storehouses contained he could have made off with just about anything, Hive Virus, the Blue Shadow virus, plans for a superlaser!” “I don’t think so” Rua remarked, his cyborg eye had been feeding him translation data, though he understood Sith runes to an extent on his own. “I believe what he took from there were lifepods, it’s probably some ancient corpse, or a soldier from some bygone era, a shade perhaps or some such. Granted, you’re right he could have made off with bioweaponry.” That had been sufficient enough concern to make him hesitate, but he figured any plague unleashed by that idiot kid was probably going to turn loose on some Republic world, or the Remnant (heh, lets see that bitch push her religion in the face of a plague), or if they got really lucky. Pentastar space. The human with blond hair nuzzled into Rua’s armor “You hear that Mando? The kid you spared was trained to kill force users,an arkanian experiment race” murmured the chiss, who had the look of a feral animal as she gazed at Admiral Screed. “You might just have competition” The Zeltron whispered as she broke from the mass of flesh and walked towards Screed “He fears what could have been unleashed, I can sense it but its logical his fear, we may have errored” “I may have errored, you four were busy slaughtering elites” Rua conceded, his features somewhat losing their cocky grin, though it seemed less about what was removed and more about what was missing before he even arrived. “I’m tracking a Jedi Screed, I don’t have time for a dead cripples lackeys, as for a superlaser Arlani, my little chiss serpent liberated the schematics herself” “Rua says Zsinj will refuse them though” she play pouted, her eyes flickering to Screed “Rua says Zsinj thinks superweapons are stupid, would you refuse such strategic weaponry?” she asked, a bit of the mask of the demure whore slipping. “I know your games Raptor, decline from insulting my intellect as you remain on my ship.” Screed was no fool, Zsinj was meeting him with passive aggression trying to test the old Admirals nerves by sending alien whores as his observers. Had this been the old days he could have just tossed the aliens out of the airlock and called it a day or sold them to the nearest Hutt or Zygerrian. Alas these were hard times. “Be mindful Mandalorian that “dead cripple” held the entire Galaxy by its throat, the boy himself is an Echani. I’ve personally seen him butcher men in half smiling at Vader’s word, if he is a rival Warlords asset expect a bloodbath to follow. His kind were specifically engineered to treat battle and death as if it was communication.” Screed himself thought little of Near and Non Human races but he could not deny the skills of them he did not survive the Clone wars and the retaking of the Rim by underestimating the Alien. If anything his familiarity with them was what made him even more disgusted by their existence without Human rule. The Zeltron’s eyes flickered for the briefest of seconds with annoyance, it was rare for her to be so casually dismissed and Screed’s hatred rolled off him like waves down the side of a mountain despite her best efforts to mollify the fury. Instinctively she began to take a step backwards only to halt herself and move forward half a pace. “Oh I doubt you know my games Admiral Screed, you don’t strike me as a man who partakes in such, diversions..shall we say? Though, you probably should, you look like a man, well mostly a man who could use a vacation” her posture shifted as she began to slowly nudge against his mental defenses only for Rua to make a whistling noise which brought her out of her concentration. “Nyria, Nyria my darling if you keep that up Screed will shoot you, then I’ll have to behead him in front of his entire crew and that would be most, unprofessional. After all, we’re not the old Galactic Empire” Rua’s dig morphed into a slow nod in agreement, it was hard to dismiss Lord Vader even if he was a broken down old cripple who turned out to be a Jedi who betrayed his own. Memories of Scout flashed through his mind and his eyes narrowed “I know very well what manner of grip Darth Vader held on the Galaxy, his master’s. If the rumours about him being Anakin Skywalker are indeed true, then I’ve little in the way of a need to respect the memory of a man who betrayed his own” that last part was tossed out with venom towards Screed as well, Jan Dodanna at least had the sense of honor to continue to fight for what he believed in. Granted, the Republic was a disaster, anyone with any understanding of history knew it was too big, too clunky and too subsidized to survive. Which was ultimately what would have doomed the Empire had it not be damned at Endor. Though, perhaps more so given that the public works and welfare budgets were orders of magnitude higher under the Empire than the Republic, as if everyone and their mother went in for a hand out at the end. “I know what Echani are Screed, you forget I’m half Arkanian again? The boy I saw in those caves had no interest in serving any faction or any warlord. He looked like he had no idea what he was doing with himself or going to do with himself, in which case he’s more of a danger to whatever group he throws his hat in with. Either way, it's moot. I’m hunting a kriffing Jedi Master who is acquiring sith artifacts and not some librarian turned would be sith conqueror, though my data tells me he too served on the Council of First Knowledge before his dissertation” “Or are you telling me one rudderless tank spawned mutant is a greater threat?” Preempting Screed’s response Rua sighed, disentangling himself from the whore-killers and waved a dismissive sigh “It’s all for not really, I’d rather test my skills against that Echani and by extension the shadow of his master than chase an old cripple through the stars” “Have it your way, if he becomes a threat later I’ll be sure to tell Zsinj who let him slip by.” Screed was certain nothing good would come of this, there was something wrong about that planet. There was something wrong with EVERY planet the Sith Lords frequented Thule was no different. Screed also knew better to underestimate anyone in their circles additionally, even datapad pushers like Pestage and Doriana had fangs of their own. Screed utterly ignored the Alien Raptors jabs, he had no time for rabble aboard his ship, observers or not. He did not allow the Mandalorians jabs to bother him either, Jan was dead the Republic was dead the Empire was dying but Screed still lived and that's all that mattered to the Admiral at this point. He merely gazed into the void contemplating what manner of secret did that Half Breed come across and how dangerous could it be?