[IC] Return of the Force 2.

[Kadaeux]

It has been a year and the Clone Wars rage on harder than ever. Worlds change hands with increasing frequency and the gears of war are turning faster and harder than ever, hundreds of worlds are sites of near planetwide warfare.

In the Republic;
Military Spending is reaching a new high and the military grows daily, there are massive numbers of clones in battle and technological development is changing, Venators are becoming Obsolescent as the new Republic Class Star Destroyers are being rolled out in large numbers. It is even rumoured that the Republic is working on a large multi-kilometre long vessel packing some truly frightening firepower.

Additionally the Republic is now recruiting normal men and women to fight, these 'home defence' units are growing in number and freeing clones from garrison duty for the front. But such measures haven't been without consequence as Separatist Sympathisers join up and then conduct sabotage or even terrorism from within, the worst of which was the poisoning of a large shipment of Bacta intended for the front lines killing nearly twenty thousand clones, while few of the deaths were directly related to the poisoning, most of the deaths came about because of the shortage of bacta that destroying the shipment left the front lines in.

Politically the Landscape has changed as well. Despite Valorum's brave leadership the tired Chancellor retired from his position, and politics, succeeded by Shayla Paige-Tarkin. An adamant supporter of the war and, with her rising to Chancellorship, signalled the rise of the Militancy Faction within the Senate. Those senators more favourably persuaded towards the war to reclaim seperatist space recieved more and more concessions and favourable results for the issues they presented. Meanwhile the more passive and pacifist elements began to be pushed out. And those senators for worlds contested by the CIS, unless staunch followers of the war, were pushed out entirely or even arrested as traitors against the Republic.

The people of the Republic are growing more and more frightened by the wars continuing, and escalation and with good reason. Security is cracking down across the republic and it is taking those they might have called allies once with it.

In the CIS:
The CIS has been fighting to match military spending with the Republic with a little more ease than the Republic has, its firm ties to some of the strongest trade branches giving them more money and resources to throw at problems than had ever been seen before. Millions upon Millions of Droids are rolled out to join the war and fleets of ships are growing.

Lesser craft like the Hardcells have long been phased out of the CIS's military arsenal in favour of new classes of vessel to fill the same lesser roles. But Grievous's massive influence over the CIS military has concentrated less on smaller ships and more on large capital ships with expansive hangar bays. The Subjugator class Dreadnoughts now forming an 'essential' part of the Confederacy's "Wolf Packs"

Grievous has also been growing dissatisfied with the performance of Battle Droids, their lack of real instinct, intuition and the like have given Grievous the excuses he needed to also begin recruiting from the civil populace, though he'd always favoured Kaleesh for his own guards. But recently he has opened up the Confederacy Military to flesh and blood troops.

Unfortunately for the Republic, the CIS Political Landscape has remained somewhat more stable, Mina Bonteri has retained her Chancellorship and an increasing number of disaffected worlds have been defecting to the Confederacy, their fears at an increasingly militant and hard-line republic forcing their hands. And so while many worlds have changed hands militarily, more than a few worlds have been changing hands politicially.

The people of the CIS are staunchly loyal and desperate to fight for their freedoms while those of the Republic have grown disaffected with the war, while security is tight across the CIS there has been no rash of terrorism and sabotage to stain the public perception of the war, while some events have certainly happened, those republic loyalists in CIS space tend to look down on the idea of sabotage and terrorism instead opting for peaceful protests which largely go ignored.

In the Syndicate:
War is good for business. This is a universal truth that any within or connected to the Syndicate would tell you. And this one more than most, since the beginning of the War the Syndicates power and influence has multiplied a thousandfold. Few criminal organisations remain that do not at least pay dues to the Syndicate.

And it's ability to project its force has also grown, people whisper of shadow-fleets beyond the trade lanes moving in secret to the orders of men masked in shadow. The truth being far worse. The Syndicates shadow fleets moving in the open where all can see disguised as trade ships often trading liveries and transponder codes as they cross the red line from Republic to CIS territory and back.

The Hutts remaqin a prime power in the Syndicate though Zann has overshadowed them with his domination of the inner core's more profitable criminal empires. Zann has also by a vote of the Syndicate's inner councils, been chosen to represent its military might, while not as powerful as the CIS or Republic by massive margins, the rag-tag fleet of the Syndicate can make more than a mess of anyone who justifies its use.

Politically, in an unexpected turn, the Syndicate mostly leans on its powerful victims of blackmail to prevent any concerted investigation or action, or in a couple cases, has arranged for them to be ambushed by the opposing side.

Those in the Syndicate remain staunchly loyal to it, the rewards for loyalty are great and the price of betrayal far far too high for comfort. Indeed, the benefits for membership have long been a much higher margin of safety for their activities and more likely to escape 'justice' should he be caught out. But those criminals who remain outside the Syndicate are massively resentful of the organisation and have a great deal of fear of them. The more successful find themselves driven out by Syndicate Enforcers, the less successful find themselves thrown under the proverbial bus to cover up Syndicate work gone wrong.

In other Space:
Mandalore has maintained its independence from the CIS and Republic, sometimes by force, and many other worlds, a thousand or so all told, managing to claim their independence from their example including worlds like Mon Calamari, and more importantly, Thyferra. Thyferra noticing the trend has withdrawn itself from the Republic, and while it continues to supply them, refuses to be drawn into the war and supplies the CIS as well, above Thyferra both the CIS and Republic have a permanent fleet stationed to 'ensure' the independence of the planet. Thyferra, not intimidated in the least, has secure the services of the Mandalorian Fett clan to protect its interests under the public threat that if the CIS or Republic tried to force their hand that they would receive no more Thyferran Bacta for all time.

As worlds go independent so to other smaller communities. Indeed, several small planetoids and moons have gone over to independent control through various circumstances. But without a clear and present threat from them the CIS and Republic have found their hands tied in the matter.

One of the most inexplicable events was a two month long truce during which the CIS and Republic seemingly went on a hunt for an organisation referred to as the Architects. This brutal hunt caused unrest in large areas of space who saw it as a witch-hunt for political enemies of both sides. It came to a head when the Republic and CIS co-operated to destroy a large vessel that the news revealed had escaped Anaxes in battle. But as the craft was destroyed General Grievous took the chance to get in his blows on Tarkin's command ship. Though both escaped, any hope of peace the mutual truce had created was dashed.

Hutt Space, thanks to the Syndicate, has also managed to remain theoretically neutral in the war. Though it is said that for the right price that Hutts of Lower Influence have extorted... I mean allowed... CIS and Republic supply convoys through their space.

[Gat]

Kuryi Gabriel Saros
The Art of Battle, Arami System

Kuryi stood on the bridge of his flagship and looked out the panoramic viewports at space.to his left was the debris field, Its outer mass being picked over by the alliance of salvagers he had struck a deal with a year ago, and on the edge of the field also sat the station he had had constructed to manage his own interests in the field. It really was quite a rich field of debris, so far of the inner section of the field which Kuryi and the salvagers had agreed would be his to pick over, a number of valuable finds had been made, dispite this he still had not ventured into the inner 40% of the field. His people had needed to fight off a few squadrons of left over vulture droids so far but nothing exceptionally problematic, just a few missing salvage shuttles attributed to those rogue droid fighters. As per his agreement the other Salvagers had first sale options and they had secured several new hulks from the deal, one of which, a republic pelta frigate, was undergoing a refit in Kuryi's shipyard, a second deal he had struck with the Salvagers after he had decided to construct the shipyard in the system allowed them use of one slipway to speed any restorations jobs they wished to undertake on finds in the field, for a discounted rental fee of course.

The shipyard itself had proven to be quite the asset, it had allowed Kuryi to expand his fleet of two vessel to fourteen, six of which were stationed at the debris field for defense most of the time. The other six of the new vessels built had been assigned to Te-ru as a troubleshooting task force, going where he needed them and had been instrumental in the other major acquisition of his in the past year. A shadowport in the Annamar system, run by the Syndicate, Kuryi rendered some valuable assistance to the former administrator who in turn was promoted inside the vast criminal empire. He appointed Kuryi to be his replacement, making Kuryi an underboss within the Syndicate as well. The salvagers at the feild had been somewhat apprehensive at first when they heard this thinking that Kuryi would now extort a percentage of their profits from the field as they had feared other members of the syndicate showing up and doing, but Kuryi stuck to the original deal and after a while the status-quo returned to the debris field.

His fleet had not been the only thing to grow over the past year. using the mountain base he had inherited he had began training his own security forces and in a surprise development the Force user had shown a remarkable talent with the beasts he had picked up, including the Nexu that Andrea had transferred to him, supposedly she found something better to keep her interest. Miria had taken to training a small elite unit of comandos to work with the beasts as well providing Kuryi with a small force of unorthodox if highly dangerous troops.

The holocomm unit in the floor behind him beeped and one of the crew spoke up. "Communication coming in from Five Points." Kuryi turned away from the viewport and faced the holocomm unit and nodded to the crewman. An image of Iella flickered into view and Kuryi regarded his Echani underling with a raised eyebrow. "Something is amiss?" he asked calmly.
Iella bowed her head slightly in respect before speaking. "There's something of a situation here, a bunch of weequay have barricaded themselves in the primary power plant for the settlement and claim they have a proton bomb rigged to blow. Apparently they got screwed out of a deal recently and are looking to make up for their losses, at your expense."
Kuryi sighed and thought for a moment. "Cazador is still there yes?" After Iella nodded he continued. "Then send him in with the comandos in the garrison, between them they can defuse the situation." Kuryi said resolutely, Cazadors demolitions experience should be able to disarm the bomb even if the Crimson Comandos couldn't. Iella nodded again and was about to end the transmission when Kuryi spoke again. "Oh and Iella, It appears the security on our facilities there were lax, assuming the weequay left any of them alive be sure to discipline them accordingly. Then run a full evaluation on our security deployment on Annamar and report back, we are going to make sure little things like this do not happen in the future." She was in the process of answering when Kuryi signaled the crewman at the comms station to cut the transmission.

It was going to be one of those days it seemed.

[Kadaeux]

Master Sarace Khen Athan
Aetherius Primus; Bakura Orbit; Docked to Safeholm Station

Sarace sat in the deep and very comfortable chair in the Library of the Aetherius Primus while across from him Saya lounged seductively across a divan with a book of her own in hand, Sarace sighed dramatically as he studied the documents in his hand. Tiresome reports about the frustrations in costs with his industrial plant on Bakura, the managerial staff kept wanting to cut costs. Turning to the hologram. "No Mr Regisson, you may not fire half the staff and replace them with droids, it is bad enough that the CIS is in control down there, you've seen how uneasy people are about droids, if I allow you to fire locals and hired machines I may as well just burn the factory down. And that is the last discussion we're going to have on that topic, am I clear?"

"Yes Mr Athan, I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardise the Athan Luxuries Company, my apologies." The hologram cut out with the man bowing politely.

The door to the Library hissed open and Mortein Natureguard entered, the Verpine stood there with a number of datapads in hand. "Sir, the latest bids for contract space in the shipyard have arrived, i've collated and discarded most of them sir, petty affairs discarded as being too small for profitable business."

"Ok Morty, what have you got?" Sarace sat forwards taking the first.

"For the Slipyard, we had a request from the Republic Navy, a major contract to produce new Arquitens, some... less savoury types that wanted us to make some.... well bluntly, pirate ships, but the pay is good so I thought i'd bring it to your attention, then there is a minor contract by the government in the Codia system for some Customs Corvettes, simple work but pays well. The last is a private buyer looking to have a new yacht built." Three other datapads joined the first with the specs. Sarace checked them and instantly tossed the Republic and Pirate contracts away before settling on the Codia Government contract, it paid the best and as a neutral system Sarace had no compulsions in aiding them.

"Tell the Codian representative we'll take the contract for his Customs Ships." Sarace replied taking the next bundles of slates. Morty didn't offer opinions on this. Studying them carefully he chose from the offered contracts. "Tell the CIS we'll take their contract to build Vulture Droids, and the Senten Family that we'll have their Ore carriers built."

---

Safeholm Station; Bakura Orbit

Rorken Magson patrolled the Safeholm as he spent his 'off-duty' time on the station. The way he held his Electrostaff over his shoulders as if wearing a yoke like it was nothing. As such the more meek folk visiting the station avoided him and the way he carried authority around him like a cloak. A feeling made worse by the tune he was humming. Entering the Casino the visitors didn't part around him like a cloak this time. They were too focussed on their gambling. But he did notice when one of the dealers signalled him.

The Twi'lek woman, by the name of Dontc'are smiled at him as he approached and then looked pointedly at the violently overweight Rodian occupying the centre seat at her table and forcing the other patrons to move their seats away. And then he saw what had the woman call him over. The small disclike cheater device hidden in his lap. "Sir, you're going to have to come with me."

"Bugger off Poodoo, you ain't got no authority to me." The Rodian sniggered and put a blaster on the table in front of him threateningly.

"How.. unwise... of you." Rorken replied as he jabbed his Electrostaff into the Rodian's back and the deck shook as the flopped off the chair. "I am Rorken Magson, Kiffu Guardian by Trade, Badass by Choice, Chief of Security for Athan Industries and, I. Am. The. Law." Rorken slapped shackles onto the Rodian, one end on his feet the other on his wrist. He tapped his communicator. "This is Rorken. Security team to collect some trash in Athan Casino and Bar."

Some of the crowd clapped in approval as the Security Troops arrived and collected the Rodian thief. Rorken walked out with a smile. Time to go check on the Construction Bay, see that it was meeting its contract for some orbital repair vehicles. Small shuttle sized ships requested by a minor government to see to keeping their satellite networks and stations in good repair.

---

Bakura; Wilderness

Jhann Grell smiled as he moved carefully out into the wilderness. Seyn had chosen this for his little proving ground with Sarace's blessings and Jhann always enjoyed proving himself against the Trianii ranger. The damnable cat didn't use blasters, but was damned good with his grappling hook and vibroblade. Jhann was also more of a demolitions man, his tracking skills were lacking, Jhann followed his tracks easily. "You're in the tree fourteen metres behind me over my right shoulder and three up, you were planning on ambushing me as I backtracked along your trail." Jhann remarked.

A deep growl and sigh from the tree met his remark.

Jhann spun with blasters in hand set to stun firing before the Trianii had even completed his leap from the tree towards the ground. "Sithspit!" The husky voice of Seyn barked out when he realised the trap he'd just fallen into dropping to the ground half-stunned the lower setting just leaving Seyn's limbs partly paralysed and tingling. "Sonofabitch. If I could just get my hands on you."

"Then I wouldn't be doing my job." Jhann helped up Seyn. "If only you'd let me teach you how to use a blaster, depending on your blades is true skill to be sure, but if we get in a firefight during our work you'll be little better than a cripple." Jhann sat down on a log next to the Trianii.

"I honour my ways. You honour your way... your ways have no honour, no offence friend, but you are a bounty hunter, cheating to get your mark is sort of the signature of your whole trade." Seyn Kilrathi said as he rubbed feeling back into his limbs, "Well, lets get back to the Aetherius, Sarace probably wants us for something sooner or later and we don't want to keep him waiting."

---

Aetherius Primus; Bakura Orbit; Docked to Safeholm Station

Ssark and Lleyan sat upon the cushions meditating together, though their thoughts were very different, Ssark considered his duties and his studies trying to gain a deeper understanding of the force as he remained coiled up high on his coiled body with several of his favourite texts floating about him. The teachings of the Ancient Jedi, so full of contradictions and yet full of much wisdom. He studied as much to keep Lleyan company as any real need for it. The woman strove for balance, but was always thrown out with frustrations and concerns for her master, who she considered as spending too much time with that frolicking trollop Saya.

It just wasn't proper. So now here she was trying to lose herself in a healing trance. Several texts floated about her as well, ones about etiquette and propriety. Of which she had her hands on two unmoving texts, the glow of psychometry over her hands as she tried to glean more meaning from the texts.

Then there was an intrusive beeping.

"Master Athan requests your presences on the bridge." The voice came through, a human voice.

Lleyan was the first to move. "Well, so much for a nice quiet meditation." And so much for avoiding Ms Bouncy Exposesherself McTouchyfeely. She thought for a moment before, chatising herself, tossed the thought away. It was improper, but such cruel thoughts were better suited to the Sith, no matter how true.

Making their way to the bridge the discussion petered off, Ssark refused to feed her when her feelings were conflicted like this, but finding themselves on the bridge. "Ah, i'm glad you could make it." Sarace said from his command chair. "I've made my plans, we're going to investigate some rumours a little birdie whispered in my ear, that Bothan network I cultivated sent me a message, apparently we have an invitation by someone claiming to be Jedi in the Bestine system. Seyn and Jhann will remain behind to watch over my interests here, but the rest of us will go. The Secundus Escort Cruisers will not be coming with us, they'll hold defensive station."

"Another Jedi?" Lleyan's curiosity overrode her disapproval of Saya.

"So the message says. But be prepared for anything. It could be a Sith trap." Sarace replied. It was time to find out.

[Andrea]

Korriban Sith Tomb World,
Korriban Academy



A year had passed, a year of excavations, clearing the rubble and erecting this place she was in now, this fortress on the tomb world of the Sith, this academy for future generations of the Sith, part of Andrea might have hate to admit it out loud but without the help of the other Sith this wouldn't have been possible. She looked around, here she was in a chamber filled with holocrons, collected after excavating several tombs of some minor treasures some holocrons were found, most of these tomb plundering were done by Andrea and Azazel together, she even found a holocron who taught her some interesting sith techniques, she too in turn learned a few, more aspects of Sith Alchemy. She held one of these new holocrons in her hand right now, one that held some new secrets and techniques perhaps.

She activated the holocron and a figure rose up, she studied the figure, definite signs of sith ancestry but also a clear sign of human genes, it took one look at her and opened it's mouth "My name is-"

Andrea snorted and rolled her eyes, "I really do not care, your continued existence is determined by your value to me, so if you cannot offer me any new techniques I can use to further my ambitions, I will have your holocron be torn asunder." She let her words sink in and rose a eyebrow, "So, what do you have to teach me?" The apparition visibly gulped and she smirked in response, listening eagerly as the apparition began to describe how to use sith alchemy to create poisons and disease while also granting her the knowledge of techniques able to mask her energy and mask her presence, not as... advanced as the Mask ability she already knew but it would suffice. Several hours later she had learned enough and nodded, "Very well you have served your purpose and may continue your existence as a holocron in my collection... congratulations."

With that she deactivated the holocron and returned it to it's place in the vault, turning her back on the whispering holocrons and stepped out of the vault, into the habitat of the Tuk'ata she had tamed and bred to be the protectors, one of them approached her and she traced her hand over it's back, it seemed to purr at her touch and she smiled. "Keep my secrets safe." She murmured softly and with a whine the sith hound stepped back and their eyes followed her as she walked out.

_________________
Korriban Academy,
Meditation Chamber
_________________

She found her quarry in the meditation chamber, Darth Hadzuska was meditating alone but stood up when she sensed her mistress's presence in the chamber, turning to Andrea she did not bow like she would have in the past, they were beyond that now. "Mistress." She said simply and watched Andrea approach her. "Do you have a task for me?"

Andrea smiled and nodded slowly, "I have, you are to gather your crew and whatever supplies you need and take the Dagger out to venture the hyperspace lanes and see if there is any force potential individuals that can be molded into new sith disciples that can further our cause." She gestured for Hadzuska to follow her and together they began to walk, leaving the meditation chamber and walking over a bridge, looking down below for a moment to see Andrea's other disciples practicing their swordplay or sith techniques, ignoring the two of them walking above them all.

They paused to observe Darth Khanna, her lightsaber pike deactivated put she was holding it in a combat stance, the reason for that were the three Tuk'ata circling around her, the Dathomiri sith disciple had requested their presence in training, the sith hounds apparently helped her train better, according to her at least. Their reactions unpredictable and giving her ample time to practice her techniques to hide herself in the force, especially against the senses of the Sith hounds who could track her down better than any of the other disciplines in Andrea's service, perhaps even better than Andrea herself. One of the hounds leaped at Khanna and she quickly hit it mid-air with her pike, making it let out a shrill whine as it landed roughly on the marble floor and growled at her.

They watched for twenty minutes as the hounds did their best to drag Khanna down but she simply evaded, dodged or parried their attacks with her force enhanced senses and acrobatics. After a while Andrea frowned, she felt like something was different from the other times that she had seen Khanna train with the Tuk'ata, narrowing her eyes she realized what it was. It seemed the sith hounds... were playing with her, wrestling as if she was one of the pack and not the fierce sith guardians wanted them to be. She mulled the thought over, surprising herself that she was remarkably calm with that, her sith hounds had shown no sign of liking, or even accepting one of her other disciples as one of the pack, perhaps Khanna was different? She would be sure to watch her and the behavior of the Tuk'ata around her. Motioning for Hadzuska to continue their walk.

Further along some Sun Guard were also present overseeing the training and drilling of legionaries into fighting units. Andrea nodded watching those last, "I am very pleased that we managed to convince the Sun Guard to allow some of their number to join the ranks, their presence is another claim that we sith will have our resurgence at long last." She said softly.

The Twi'lek sith instructor glanced down and nodded, "Perhaps, but you taught me that troops like those will not make the difference, it will be the number of sith, mistress. Or has that changed?"

Laughter was her answer, amused Andrea glanced at her. "No, that hasn't changed at all. But they, while not force sensitive, can also make a great difference. Though I would prefer if everything could be solved with a sith disciple at the right time and place. But sadly sometimes a army will have to make a difference." She sighed, walking in silence before she chuckled, "I honestly had expected a year ago... at that fateful sith meeting, I would have come to blows with them all and that I would have to organize the deaths of my fellow sith. I am actually thankful that did not happen, a lot wouldn't have been accomplished if we hadn't worked together." She said, now walking into a gallery near the entrance where a series of holographic statues were present, flickering lightly. There were five statues, they passed under the gaze of each. Darth Gra'tua, Darth Jacoiba, Darth Lena, Darth Azazel and lastly a holographic representation of herself, Darth Andrea.

She stared up at the larger image of herself and smirked, "So much to do still... you have your task ahead of you Hadzuska, carry it out and keep in touch." With a nod the Twi'lek left Andrea who remained behind, lost in thought.

At least she was until suddenly alarms were being heard and she looked up sharply before activating her communicator, "This is Andrea what in the blazes is going on!?"

It only took a moment before a voice answered on the other end, sounding shocked and surprised. "A vessel has entered the system without warning and unscheduled mistress, approaching the planet."

She cursed, "Power up the shields and weapons, especially the Ion Cannon! Alert Reneva in orbit to make sure this guest will be dealt with severely." WIth that she stormed out to the command room of the academy, her eyes enraged, who would dare to intrude upon the system unannounced!?
_________________
Kessel,
Remembrance of Shadow
_________________

Drokan Mohr stood on the bridge of the Remembrance of Shadow... his ship, Darth Andrea had taken a liking to her new ship, the Dark Rebirth, as her flagship and moved her quarters there, leaving him in command of the Remembrance of Shadow, as it once was before and he was quite glad about that. There were no sith aboard the vessel and he had been placed in command of several ships to safeguard Andrea's interests and control of Kessel and her holdings, several minefields had been placed by the new vessels and rigorous patrol schedules were kept by the starfighter squadrons.

Technically the one in control was the relative of Darth Andrea who had been named governor of the Kessel prison by her cousin in the senate, but since then several dummy corporations have bought up Kessel, which in turn were headed by Andrea so she was basically running the show with her governor relative merely there as a figurehead to keep the senate satisfied it was still a republic organization. In turn he had been named in charge of the holdings when Andrea was absent from Kessel, which she was a lot, he looked at the recent contracts. The republic had tasked them to build logistical droids of some kind in the small foundry on Kessel's surface, the Navy meanwhile had basically taken over the production efforts of the shipyard facilities to produce starfighters and support vessels, some shuttles for republic citizenry were also requested but that was more of a extra order. They were even sending two Arquiten class vessels to safeguard the facility while manufacturing the order for the Republic Navy.

He frowned at that, that meant they were expecting trouble perhaps, he did not like that and reminded himself to have a briefing with the squadrons commanders and captains of the Shadow Defenders to make sure they were informed of potential hostile incursions during the period they were under this contract. He might dislike Andrea to some degree but he would carry out her orders and protect her interests, if only for the trust she has placed in him. Signing the documents with the seal Andrea had given him to accept the terms of the Republic contracts he send the lieutenant who had brought the documents to him to send the reply back to the Republic office the request had come from. "Make sure to include the codes and coordinates for the minefields, we wouldn't want them to fly into them and blow themselves up." He added almost as if it was a afterthought, chuckling to himself. He guessed some of his mistress's humor had been rubbing off on him after all...

[Kadaeux]

Adelai Niska;
Nar Shadaa; Down Below; A poor excuse for a Warehouse.

Crow smiled as he looked at the warehouse. He stood with fourteen of his Murdermen in front of the Warehouse, four others were a short run away on their Murdercycles and Crow was supremely confident as he hefted his Blaster Cannon. Roda Kol had been tracked here by Niska's intelligence people. The scum and his band of petty fuckups had deigned to steal a number of customers valuables during their time at the Skyplex and it's black market. The Syndicate had been upset at the request to track thieves hiding on their turf, but Niska had made his displeasure clear that they might be shielding them. Eventually they acquiesced.

"On my word. Storm the building. Kill everyone." Crow barked and his men perked up. They were an odd collection. Mismatched, but no less effective, armour. Tattoos, scars, psychological problems that'd keep a shrink employed for life. Even their weapons were an eclectic mix, but a powerful one, concussion rifles, flamethrowers, a pair of mer-sonn rocket launchers and one man who proudly toted a rotary blaster cannon he'd taken from a clones cold dead hands, a fact he backed up with evidence, the preserved hands on a necklace around his throat.

The mutter of approval and evil laughter appeased Crow's sense of the Dramatic. "Well, what are you scabs waiting for. Bring this goddamned Bantha-shites building down!" Crow began firing his Blaster Cannon, the design revised by Niska's arms factory and brought up to slightly higher than modern standards. The warehouse's run down door failed almost instantly under the onslaught as his murdermen opened up on the warehouse. "Advance!" Crow called and he began to stride forwards his cannon firing every step he took. He keyed a voice modulator booster on his shoulder with a muscle spasm. "KNOCK KNOCK MOTHERFUCKERS!" He called out with glee.

Fire from within the warehouse began moments later, and yet it was sporadic, the heavy fire being poured into the building by the Murdermen disinclining most of the theives from sticking their necks out. The gang was larger than Niska's little strike squad but possessed of much lower skill and even lower courage. As such the firefight didn't last long and soon the warehouse was burning thoroughly.

Crow stood over the survivors who'd decided surrendering was preferable. And he was not impressed. For one, the main target wasn't here. "Where is your boss?" Crow demanded. "The first person to tell me the truth gets a nice quick and probably painless death."

"Or what, you'll let us live." One of the more courageous thieves remarked as Niska's men began loading the Debt Collector with the stolen properties.

"The person to tell me the truth gets a nice quick and probably painless death, people like you, there won't be anything quick or painless about it. On that you have my oath as Murderer in Chief." Crows words bored into the cowering fellow before him.

"He's on the way!" One of them said. "Using a speeder." Crow turned and searched the mans eyes. "Close your eyes. You don't want to see this coming." He held up his Blaster Cannon and blew the mans head off. "Get out the Murdercycles, chain this rabble to them." Crow ordered. "And prepare the Debt Collector for business."

---

Roda Kol slowed his speeder as he approached his warehouse with something approaching, and surpassing, horror. There it was burning... all his hard work and effort gone to... "Sir, uhm..." Roda looked at where his driver was pointing and saw them. The six evil looking wheeled motorbikes, and more importantly, the cannons pointed his way. "Get us out of here!"

His driver hauled the speeder about and slammed the throttles forward cursing his boss's cheap ass ways. This model speeder had a height limiter on it and was only designed to haul cargo from the spaceport to the warehouse. And so now a bunch of wheeled yahoos couldn't be avoided with simple altitude.

---

The five murdermen on bikes cheered as they saw the target haul ass and Crow took his place on one of the bikes. The lout from earlier who'd questioned him chained to its rear end. He gunned the throttle and let off the clutch the bike screaming off after the speeder followed by the screaming man being dragged behind his murdercycle. The other murdercycles moments behind. The locals cleared the streets in a wave in advance of the speeding vehicles and gawping faces as the wheeled vehicles pursued the speeder through the street.

Whoever the driver was Crow couldn't help but admit the man had some talent. Depressing the trigger studs as he closed on the speeder the small flak cannons opened up. The bike recoiled with their power slowing him slightly. The Speeder recoiled much more significantly as its rear end was absolutely shredded. It dropped to the ground and screamed along the road for nearly a hundred metres before coming to a stop with Crow and his Murdermen pulling up around it dragging their hamburger meat behind them. Roda clambered out of the Speeder's passenger side door and looked back in horror at his Speeder, then the men surrounding it. ".... you..." He said looking at Crow. Remembering the Gruff operative from Niska's skyplex. The word surrounding him was one of horror and here he was... he'd known that robbing Niska's station would be a career ender in his gut, but his men and greed had won him over. Now...

His introspection ended when suddenly Crow was in his face and stunning him with a holdout stunner. "Kill anyone in the speeder." He ordered and dumped his prisoner onto the bike taking off for the landing pad where the Debt Collector was landed.

---

Roda Kol awoke in pain finding himself suspended in the air and holding something to keep him up. He blinked away tears and tried to realise where he was and discovered, once he did, that he would really really rather not have known. He found himself starting at the top side of a light turbolaser on the Debt Collector. It took him all of a few moments to realise he was tied to the weapon's barrel's business end. Crow was on the landing platform where he could see looking up at him. He saw several recording devices as well.

"Welcome to the last moments of your life Roda Kol, you made a grave mistake trying to rob the Skyplex." Crow said as he ate some apple that he was shaving bits off with a knife. "Fatal mistake in fact. But don't be disheartened." Crow said mockingly. "Even though your life amounted to nothing, you can die in peace knowing that, after all is said and done that you really can continue on as an example to others. Any last requests?"

"A good meal and an hour with a pair of the finest Twi'lek twins you can find?" Roda remarked with a grin.

"Interesting. Prepare to fire." Crow said with a smile.

"Wait! What about my last requests?" Roda said hopefully.

"I was curious, I asked if you had any, I didn't say i'd grant them." Crow replied. "Fire."

The Turbolaser blast right into the chest of someone strapped to the barrel meant that pretty much every part of Roda in front of the weapon simply ceased to be, blasted beyond oblivion by a weapon designed to challenge enemy fighters, bombers and very light capital ships. What was left fell to the ground smoking as Crow walked up the ramp into the Debt Collector. "Take us back to the Just Another Customer, from there back to the Skyplex. Job's done here." Crow said with finality.

---

Skyplex Station; Charros VIII Orbit; Throne Room.

Niska sat studying his quarterly report with great interest as he watched the numbers play, it had been an excellent year, one of expansion and power. He'd acquired a moon here in the Charros system with a decent number of holdings and a pliant, obedient, population, the skyplex had been expanded and now served as a full scale black market and Niska's own fleet of ships had grown. The Brazen Move, a good dreadnought that he'd secured served as the primary defence ship for Niska's holdings here in the Charros system. The base hidden in the Onderon System was well concealed and well defended and he had contracts with the Syndicate to provide some Battle Droids and some private buyers for some 'faux YT-1300' craft, from his understanding of the specs they were well designed dummies to fake some insurance claims with.

There was a tap at the door and Niska didn't take his eyes off of the reports. "Enter" Niska said tapping his glasses. One of the IG-100 Magnaguards opened the door and Benno Nuu shuffled in. The Ithorian was still nervous whenever he was face to face with his new master and wished he'd stop insisting on face to face meetings.

"You asked for me Sir?" Benno asked. He'd learned very early on that Niska hated being called Master. Though he was 'associated' with the Sith, it seemed that it was only their powers that Niska adopted, he lacked any of their philosophies, power was just a tool to amass wealth.

"I have a job for you. I want you to take It's One of Ours Sir and head for the Zygerria System. Make contact with the Slavers there, open a dialog and let them know that i'm hoping to do business with them in the near future, that I plan on acquiring a select stock of Wookiees that they might be interested in setting up an auction, usual auction terms, they get 15% commissions on the sales, we provide the products and get the bulk of the profits." Niska said plainly without looking up. "You're dismissed, as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." Benno nodded and left. It was probably the only good thing about working for a criminal like Niska. The pay was above average and did sometimes earn commissions.

R4-V3-N entered behind Benno's leaving form. "Sir. Did I hear right. You plan a raid expedition to Kashyyyk?"

"Correct. But subtle. I want to prepare the Solid Reputation's Assault Ships and the Unexpected Resistance I will be commanding the raid. But I want you to command the Solid Reputation and Forget Pacifism, you're to wait five minutes out of the system, Kashyyyk is a Warzone and I want backup ready if necessary. Am I clear?" Niska said as he looked at the Command Droid. It nodded instantly in response.

"Yes sir." It left to make the two ships now under its command, for now, ready to make way. It was a slave raid then.

[Tempest]

Azazel and Andrea -- The Korriban Tomb of Drachass Nurr, Part I

Aboard the Dagda, Azazel hums an old lullaby quietly as the ship approaches Korriban and the Academy. From the far side of the bridge, her communications officer calls out, “Should we make contact before approaching any closer? Sensors are reading that their weapons are coming online.” She continues to hum to herself distractedly, fingers tapping with the rhythm against her sith sword. “Alor Dha'dala.” She snaps to attention and raises a brow in confusion. “The defenses are going online. Should I announce ourselves?” She sighs and nods. Of course, the new guy was not nearly as efficient as Xen had been. The Kubaz would have known her wishes and simply proceeded. Of course, he was running independently of her on his own missions, now... She would need to find a better replacement for him. After a moment, the officer clears his throat and announces, “Attempting communications. Ready for transmission.” Azazel stands and moves to the panel nearby, removing her helmet and waiting impatiently for Andrea to answer.

The hail had been barely received or Andrea was answering, cocking her head as the holographic image of Azazel became alive and she knew her own holographic image was being transmitted to the sith in orbit. She sounded amused but the look in Andrea's eyes was hard. "Azazel, such a delight to see you again, you are always welcome as are the other Sith... though please, for the... twelfth time, please give some advance warning next time." She grinned after saying that.

“And miss out on this dance of ours? Never,” she purrs, leaning forward. “Of course, if it is such an issue, I could just leave.” With a dramatic sigh she waves a hand, “I could return to Mandalore space and Gra'tua and continue to assist him in his endless quest to be their leader. It can be so tedious at times. But of course, if my showing up in such a manner has left you in a poor mood...” She acts like she's about to cut off communication, faking a pout.

Andrea grinned, crossing her arms. "Your presence is always welcome Azazel, always nice to see someone visit me on this cold, lonely world." She smirked, "Especially if you are able to peel yourself off Gra'tua's lap to visit me... have you tired him out again so that he is no longer of use and you need me to satisfy you?" She said with a purr of her own.

“Something like that...” she smiles playfully before straightening herself out, “But actually, I was thinking along the lines of something even more fun.” As Azazel begins to open her mouth to speak again, she's suddenly knocked out of the screen while a girlish shriek splits the air, “Andrea! I heard a rumour they were getting Hutts in Love back on the air! Is it true?! Please tell me its true!” Azazel lets out a grunt and rubs her head, picking herself off the floor. “Hakkri.... I'm not saying I'm going to kill you... But I'm going to get blasted close...”

Widening her eyes at the interruption she was surprised for a moment before she narrowed her eyes. "Still alive I see and... huh, nice outfit actually... how did you-" She shook her head and frowned, hiding her thoughts as best she could under a neutral mask. It was true that a few months ago attempts had been made to contact her using her old aliases about taking up her former role, but that life had been in the past and she had ignored the messages.. well not exactly. "I do not know, perhaps they have chosen to find a different actress to replace me." In fact she had found a member of her crew and used her Sith Alchemy to transform her into a close clone of herself in appearance and send her to the producers of Hutts in Love to have them stop harassing her.

Hakkri's eyes widen, he looks between Azazel and Andrea, breath quickening before he lets out a squeal of utter delight. “Thank the Sith Gods! Thank the powers of the Dark Side! Thank you Flying Spaghetti Monster! Thank you whatever had to do with this miracle!” As he begins to wind up for a rant, Azazel kicks out with her feet. The apprentice manages to move out of the way, only to be hit by a resulting wave of the force, sending him sprawling across the room. A few disgruntled crew men loose shouts as the Zygerian smacks into their consoles. Azazel huffs and stands back up, “Wonderful... Now he'll have proper incentive to live through what I had planned for today.”

She just starts laughing in response, rubbing the tears off as she doesn't seem able to breathe for a moment, calming down and sniggering before she takes a deep breath and gestured to someone on her end. "Power down the weapons." After saying that she turned back to Azazel. "So... before we were rudely interrupted by the fanboy, what kind of fun brought you here again?" She smirks. "Do I need to inform my Zeltron aides to ready the massage oil?

Azazel looks amused for a moment before shaking her head, “I was hoping to explore some Sith tomb. Suffice to say, I'm hoping to have it as a training exercise of sorts. Some...” She glances purposely at Hakkri, “Have grown too cocky lately. One dead Jedi does not mean they can slack off.” Nearby, Kitt grimaces and rubs her arm, knowing she was talking of the Cathar who used to tutor her and those of the creche. Azazel had made it abundantly clear she was less than happy at her apprentices for snagging the wash-out of the creche. She was still having to find her place amidst the ranks.

"Again about that jedi you killed, stop showing off, especially that pelt you made out of her, is it still hanging in your chambers?" She chuckled at that and sighed, "Such a disappointment, you coming here on business and not pleasure." She pouts, "It's as if you enjoy Gra'tua a lot more than me lately."

She just smiles, “Who is to say we can't have both?” Azazel shakes her head, “Mind you, if we're all cleared up... I would prefer continuing this discussion in person, perhaps? Holo-communications seem so impersonal.”

Chuckling Andrea snapped her fingers. "Launch some of the squadrons to do patrols of something so there is room in the hangar for Darth Azazel to land." She turned back to Azazel with a smirk. "Welcome to Korriban Academy, I'll see you at the hangar." With a wave of her hand she terminated the communications, grinning as she headed to the hangars while her people were giving the all clear and turned off the sirens.

---

As Azazel's ship docks, herself, Hakkri, Aggros, Tannus and Kitt move onto the platform. Azazel prowls slowly across the area, anklets jangling a soft chime with each step before she stops, hand resting upon her Sith sword. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she calls out, waiting for Andrea. Aggros keeps a firm arm about Hakkri to keep the Sith apprentice from running out in search of the other Master... Tannus simply flips a laser knife into his hand, switches it on and carefully rotates it through the air, watching for any ambush. The youngest of the group simply tries to hang back, uncertain of what to truly do.

Hidden from the senses of Azazel and her people, Andrea approached slowly as she concentrated on her new-found powers, it required a great deal of concentration, one slip and they would clearly sense her. She managed to get in as close as she wants and then stopped concentration, smirking in front of Azazel as she reached out, cupping the other sith lady's cheeks and kisses her deeply with a soft moan. "Mmmmm... welcome back to Korriban." She said after pulling away and licking her lips with a glint in her eyes.

“I knew you were there,” Azazel lies, a faint smile on her lips. Hakkri lets out a soft gasp and mutters something to Aggros... Probably relating to the holosoap. Aggros lets out a small grunt of irritation and shrugs it off. “Anything new? Any pets I should expect to try and leap out and eat my followers?” Tannus lets out a robotic rasp through his respirator, “That was one time...”

Andrea chuckles at that and looks at Azazel's minion, "Serves him right at the time, thinking that my Tuk'ata would answer the call of any Sith." She grinned, taking Azazels arm in her own and started walking, several of her disciples who had been stationed in the shadows stepping forwards to walk behind them all. Some nodding to Azazel's people in greeting. "Now, you wished to do some tomb hunting? Did you have a particular tomb in mind perhaps? Have your little contacts in this 'keeper of the sith knowledge' cult you have made contacts with told you anything?”

Azazel falters for a moment, “Not so much a hunt, but an excavation. I know the location, and I truly meant it when I said this was training. I am not sure if we would find anything truly worthwhile.” She waves a hand casually, “I would send them on their own, but of course, I cannot trust any of them not to run afoul of some Sith guardian... And its so troublesome to replace good help, retrain them, so on.”

She nods, "Very well, I take it you take these four with you?" She looks at Azazel's people and nodded, "I shall take four of mine with me as well, Khanna, Rhak-skuri, Talon, you three will come with us, Talon get Trizz as well, she will be coming along too, make sure she packs her medical supplies." The Twi'lek sith nodded and walked off to gather the Zabrak lieutenant. "The ancient sith did love their traps and animal guardians, it will be fun." She said with a smirk.

“I do admire their pets. I thought about trying to train one once. Do you think they play fetch?” Azazel laughs quietly. Tannus appears demoralized at the idea, letting his laser knife drop back into his hand. “Andrea, please kill it before she can. Her last pets met with the wrong end of a sabre when told to fetch certain disciples from their bunks.”

"They make excellent pets, the Tuk'ata at least, once you can tame them of course and accept you as the new alpha leader." She clapped her hands together, "Now then, let's head to this tomb, we can take one of the speeders I have here at the compound while you instruct the pilot to take us to the tomb entrance." With that she led them to the vehicle bay were the speeders would be located.

The two sith and their people appointed to accompany them set out from the new Korriban Academy in the speeder, traveling over the sands and rocky surface of Korriban, passing sith statues and architecture that was part collapsed and part covered in sand. After three hours of travel they reached their destination, or at least the first part. A tunnel entrance that was hidden from view by the local geography but which Azazel had learned about. Leaving the speeder there they went into the tunnel, hearing skittering sounds as local vermin went out of their way to let them pass till they went into the light of the surface once more, coming out into a small valley, recognizing the architecture at once of sith tombs.

The sith tomb in question was not hard to miss however, it was in the middle of the valley and was easily standing out from the other tombs, for one, a small pack of Tuk'ata were prowling in front of the entrance, and the entrance itself... was closed off with a forcefield.

Azazel takes a deep breath, taking in the ancient glory of the sith. With a smile, she points at the center temple with a grin, “That will be our destination...” She dons her helmet, hiding her face and draws her sword and shoto, beginning the trek to the temple. This was her legacy, she was the Sith'ari, the creatures would bow before her will... Or test the mettle of her followers. Seemed like a win-win situation.

Andrea looked upon their destination and nodded, "Active forcefield? Fascinating." She murmured before she followed after Azazel, gesturing for her people to follow as they readied the lightsaber weaponry or in Trizz's case her blaster. She walked beside Azazel, "You asked for a new pet, I take it you wish to try and convince those Tuk'ata? Allow me to give a few tips, make sure to show no fear, don't break eye contact or make overly aggressive behavior... and how is your knowledge of Sith language?"

Azazel simply arches a brow before gesturing down at herself. “Does it seem like even a remote possibility I would not?” She snorts and turns back as they begin to close the last of the distance. Upon her last step, she comes to a halt and calls out in the Sith dialect, <<I wish to speak with the guardians of the tomb.>>

They had senses the presence of force users, several of them and were wary when they approached, eyes glaring as they watched on step ahead of the others and speak to them in a all too familiar language. They hissed, some glancing back before returning their gaze to the speaker. A voice answering, the accent haltingly broken, as if the memories of the language were passed down but not spoken out loud for a very, very long time. <<Leave. Die. Leave now.>

Azazel squares her shoulders, <<I do not plan to depart so soon, guardian. I am come to reclaim the legacy of the Sith. I would seek entrance to this place, but first I speak to you. I do not wish to bring death to such magnificent creations as the Tukata. I beseech you to reconsider where your loyalties ought lie as your once master rests long dead and forgotten, while one who stands before you would take up your service more befitting of your kind than protecting an ancient burial site that collapses before your eyes on a neigh forgotten, desolate world.>>

At the words of reconsidering loyalties a angry hiss is heard and the largest of the Tuk'ata outside steps forwards, it's eyes glowing as it looked straight at the interloped who spoke to them as if they were equals. <<We guard the tomb of Drachass Nuur. As he commanded. Leave... Or die. You have nothing to offer.>> It sniffs the air and growls, <<None of you are sith. No link to the blood.>>

Azazel bristles, <<I need not the blood of the dead fools who brought about their own destruction. I am Sith, guardian, and I will not leave. I have much to offer you. A true purpose, once again serving a Sith as they break this galaxy under their will. There will be much for you to hunt, to feast, to test yourselves in a manner you cannot while guarding a dead master from nothing but dust and decay.>> She raises her head to look the creature dead-on. <<Serve me, in my quest to bring Sith to their former glory and above in a galaxy that would see our kind dead simply for being, and there will be no regrets. Do not, and the commands of Drachass Nuur will be left unfulfilled as your corpses litter this valley.>>

Andrea made a 'tut-tut' sound at Azazel and quickly stepped forwards. "Khanna, Rhak-skuri, together with... put the fear into these beasts and show them who is truly their superior." She said as the two disciples stepped forwards and together with Andrea tapped into the power of the dark side to make these beasts fear them while Andrea called out to them. <<I am Darth Andrea, lady of the sith and you will obey me like other of your kind have!>> She hissed through her teeth as she focused on the pack leader.

As the wave upon wave of force induced fear hits the charging Tuk'ata they whine and skid to a half, even their leader stopping and growling, shivering all over with it's head bowed, glaring at Andrea. <<Leave!>> It growls while some of it's pack take a involuntary step back, the three that accepted Azazel as their new pack leader growling in what seemed to be disgust at the behavior of their former pack, feeling certain they made the right decision to join this female sith.

Azazel snarls out at Andrea's interference before barking out, <<Rip out the guardian's throat for such insolence>> at the Tukata wise enough to follow her without the leader's death, “Tannus, knives, Hakkri, Aggros, Kitt, keep the small ones off my back.” Tannus draws out several of his laser knives, sending them out alight before sending them at the leader of the pack in an attack meant to debilitate. Hakkri and Aggros both draw blasters out, ready to shoot as Kitt drops low in a wary defensive stance. As the knives fly forth, Azazel lunges forward in an attack with her sword and ignited lightsabre. <<You will follow your new master!>>

Two of the laser knifes sliced through the thick hide of the Tuk'ata pack leader who let out a howl of pain, snapping him out of the force fear effect, but his instincts and reflexes were still slowed as Azazel sliced off on of it's claws. It howled in rage, <<Kill all!>> It bellowed, trying to snap it's pack out of the force induced fear.

At the howl the other hounds blinked, snapping out of their fear, groggy still but aware of what was going on and very, very angry, with a howl they charged. Three of them going for the sith who had tried to make them lapdogs with fear, two supporting the packleader.

Aggros and Hakkri fired but their shots were wild, clearly they hadn't practiced their shooting that much lately. Or at least not with their blasters.

Azazel jumps back as the pack leader snaps it's jaws shut on empty air instead of her arm, another Tuk'ata missing its leap of her, but the third manages to get close and snap its jaws around her legs, biting through the armour and into her flesh with a vicious snarl.

Andrea and Khanna take steps back so the Tuk'ata miss them, Rhak-skuri has no such luck however as the sith hound going after her pounces on top of her and brings her down to the ground, snapping its jaws at her throat, the Togruta able to prevent her flesh being ripped to pieces by instead offering her arm to chew on, which the Tuk'ata does gladly.

Azazel's new pets try to attack their former pack leader but he swats them aside and growls at them.

With a hiss Andrea turns to Khanna, "Kill them and help Rhak-skuri." She also gestured to Trizz to shoot the blasted sith hounds while she gestures to Talon and together with her Hand she rushes to Azazel's side to defend her, perhaps Andrea could get herself a owed favor from Azazel by doing this she thought, smirking to herself as she ignited her saber together with Darth Talon.

Rhak-Skuri meanwhile was doing her best to see if the sith hound gnawing on her flesh could be blasted off her with sith lightning.

Trizz and Khanna try to down some of the Tuk'ata but the beasts are wary now and dodge out of the way of the laser blasts or lightsabre pike wielded by the Dathomiri sith. Rhak-skuri has more luck as the Tuk'ata on top of her is blasted and hurled off the Togruta, shuddering as the lightning courses through it's body and then finally it's eyes popped and flesh started to burn and char. No doubt feeling satisfied about that before the pain of her ripped open arm brought her back to the situation at hand.

Together with Talon, Andrea and her stab the Tuk'ata trying to gnaw off Azazel's leg and kill it, freeing Azazel's leg though she has a vicious bite wound.

With a smirk Andrea turned to Azazel and winked, even though Azazel's face was hidden under her helmet. "Don't sweat it... did what you would have done for me in a similar situation." She said quickly, hiding her grin as she turned her attention to the other hostile Tuk'ata.

The TUk'ata pack leader, hardly bothered by it's stump where one of his claws used to be it seems lashes out, towering over one of the Tuk'ata who had betrayed the pack and tore it's throat out with a growl, blood splattering over his jaws. His packmate brought down another of the traitors.

The others were attacking the Dathomiri sith, one lunging at her but missing, because that one was feinting, distracting Khanna as the second jumped at her back, making her crash to the ground and about to rip open her back with it's claws.

Azazel spits out, <<They were weak, anyways.>> Trying to compensate through the pain in her leg, Azazel makes another attack at the leader as Tannus leaps to her side to assist with his lightsabre. Hakkri and Aggros fire upon the other of Azazel's attackers with their rifles as the survivor of Azazel's pets goes in for another attack at the leader. Kitt, takes her chance against the one who missed Andrea's helper, hoping it was still unbalanced in an attempt to snap its neck.

The Tuk'ata pet makes its leap and drives its fangs into the back of its leader's back as Tannus strikes out, severing more vicious claws that try to strike out at Azazel. The Dark Lady moves inside its reach and runs blade and lightsabre through its chest, the creature shuddering and collapsing instantly. <<Again, those of you still alive... Join your new master or die like the others!>>

The Tuk'ata was unaware and let out a surprised yelp when it suddenly felt hands around it's neck and had time for a whine before with a disturbing cracking and wrenching sound it's neck was snapped by a equally surprised Kitt who did not know her strength was that much.

Seeing their pack fall, their leader dead the two surviving Tuk'ata let out a fearful whine and leaped away, running over the Korriban sands and rocks as far as their legs could carry them.

Azazel raises her sith sword, pointing after the last two Tuk'ata before willing the force to crush the legs of the pathetic weaklings as they ran. “You did well, young one,” she mutters towards Kitt who shudders over the dead creature.

The two fleeing sith hounds do not run far as a sudden force takes hold of their legs, keeping them in place and with a sickening series of crunches the bones in all their legs is broken and crushed, making the beasts fall over, whining and yelping out in agony, unable to move... or even defend themselves against any predator who might feel these immobilized sith beasts are now easy prey.

She whistled at the display of power and clapped briefly. "Impressive... now let's tend to those wounds?" She suggested, snapping her fingers for Trizz to move closer with her medical supplies.

She shrugs and looks at her leg with a frown, “I suppose some aide would be appreciated...” Azazel turns to the Sith hound left and all too cheerily asks, <<Do you have a name?>>

The Tuk'ata seems to frown at Azazel before it replied, <<Guardian?>> It seemed more like a question than a answer.

Trizz meanwhile manages to patch up Rhak-skuri expertly but when attempting to do the same for Azazel she shakes her head, claiming her injury would need more than she could do. It would not leave her incapacitated but she might suffer some hindrance.

"Well it could have been worse, if I hadn't been there to dislodge the critter for you as it was using your leg as a chew toy." Andrea murmured softly with a grin, turning to the force field blocking their entrance. "So... how do we get past that?"

She smiles faintly, <<Very well, I will call you Cabur, if you do not mind.>> She looks at her leg before snorting, “I'll slap on some bacta patches when we get home... The force field, though...” She eyes it before addressing Cabur, <<Do you know how we get through the barrier?>>

The sith hound looked oddly at Azazel, surprised it did not seem to know before it walked to the forcefield and lets out word in the sith tongue, it seemed of a odd dialect but the effect was instant, the forcefield was lowered and the hound sat back on and looked at Azazel expectantly, tongue wagging out and past it's fanged jaws. <<Cabur.>>

Andrea rose its eyebrows, then frowned and looked to Azazel, "Perhaps you ought to ask your new pet what... other guardians or security might be inside the tomb first."

Azazel glares at Andrea before nodding. Of course she had thought of that! There was just a problem of the forcefield to deal with first... obviously. She moves up to Cabur's side and softly pets him on the head, <<You have done very well... Do you know what other things may be protecting the tomb, or where any traps may be?>>

It blinks at the question and whines, apparently fearful that it's answer might displease it's new mistress. <<No know. Pack leader know. He dead.>> It sniffed and whined again. <<Other packs inside.>> It seems that was all it knew or could smell.

Azazel idly pets behind the crest of the creature's head, <<That is fine. If you can give us a warning whenever possible, though, of when we are about to run into something, it would be appreciated.>> She redirects to address everyone else, “Cabur says he's not sure what's in there, aside from some more packs. Be careful, watch out, listen to your instincts. If you think there might be something, give a heads up. These tombs are known for being full of nasty surprises.”

She nods and passes on similar orders to her people and turned back to Azazel, still grinning. "Good training start, wouldn't you say? You found a good tomb for training I think." She almost purrs, "Mind if I try to convince the next pack? If we encounter one. I would love to add more breeding stock for my pets."

She pauses for a moment before gritting her teeth behind her helmet. “I suppose I do owe you for the assistance back there... I would like to possess a female of my own, though. I could even set Tannus to caring and training pups then.” Tannus lets out a low groan at the prospect, looking at his mechnoarms with concern.

Andrea smiled sweetly, before she, along with those others with her who could do so, put a bubble of force protection around herself. "Why of course my dear Azazel, now then that the tomb is open for us, shall we enter and explore its depths?"

She frowns, looking at the dark before nodding, “Very well... Kitt, eyes up front.” She looks at her pet before sighing and pointing right before her, <<Cabur, up front.>> With that, she manifests her bubble of protection, Tannus mimicking the action. From the back, Hakkri fusses over Aggros, “Are you okay? Are you still afraid of the dark?” Aggros frowns, “Can I get a glowstick too?”

Igniting their sabers for some light Andrea stepped next to Azazel and frowned, "Dark tombs... my absolute favourite..." She said dryly.

Igniting their sabers for some light Andrea stepped next to Azazel and frowned, "Dark tombs... my absolute favourite..." She said dryly.

Cabur stiffened for a moment as they reached the intersection, sniffing the floor and whined, turning to Azazel. <<Scents, many, other packs... and food.>>

<<Down which ways?>> she inquires, before nodding to Kitt, wondering if she could see anything that might stand out down any of the passages.

The Tuk'ata whined softly, shaking its head left and right, this was new territory for him and some of these scents, old and new... he just couldn't find the difference. Kitt too seemed stumped and offered a weak apology to Azazel.

Andrea snorted, "You really managed to convince the best of the pack outside to accept you as its new master." She looked ahead, irritated at this darkness. "Left?"

With a sigh, Azazel runs her lightsabre against the wall to scorch a mark towards which way was the entrance, “Why not. If its the wrong way, I can blame you,” she teases.

She chuckled, the sound the only thing she heard for a moment besides their footsteps. "Remind me to not build a gloomy tomb like this... so depressing..."

Cubar's nostrils flared at the same time as everyone heard the growls and three Tuk'ata stormed into view, one of them dropping a winged creature from it's mouth, a fresh prey they had clearly been hunting before they had heard the intruders.

Azazel nudges Andrea forward, “You wanted to tame the next group, be my guest.”

With vicious snarls the two closest Tuk'ata charge the one who they could smell had blood on him of the one they knew was to guard the outer area of the door to this tomb. But Cubar fended them off and keeps them from bringing him down or sinking their jaws or claw in his flesh.

"Trizz, shoot the one in the back." Andrea snarled while she stepped forward with the intention of impale one of the beasts on her lightsaber, Rhak-skuri attempting to force choke the other. Talon seeing a opportunity as well leaps forward to get a strike in as well.

It was confusing to say the least what happened with the flashing lightsabers and use of force powers, but in the end it seemed that none of Andrea's people scored a hit, except for Trizz who was rewarded with a painful whine as her blastershot hit the sith hound in the flank.

Azazel sweeps around to attack the centremost hound with her weapons as Tannus follows behind to strike at the first. Kitt moves up behind him in an attempt to trip up the hound. Meanwhile, Hakkri and Aggros, doubting their gunnery skills move up a little closer so that they could fire upon the hound yet to attempt an attack. Cabur moves in, nipping at the hind legs of the enemy Tuk'ata Azazel attacks to try and injure him.

Cabur growled and lashed out with a claw to the snout of one of the Tuk'ata who reared up in pain, a hard to resist target as Azazel decapitated the beast. The others were having more difficulties as the one Tanus and Kitt were trying to eliminate seemed unable to sit still for a proper strike. In the back the two Zygerians were having difficulties aiming and couldn't hit the side of a gundark with the marksmanship they have displayed so far.

Surrounded on all sides the Tuk'ata was unable to bite or claw at anyone, either being blocked by one of the sith or needing to evade a strike intended for him. The one who had yet to attack let out a keening cry that echoed down the corridor before it charged at Azazel but was smacked on the nose by Azazel's boot as she kicked at it.

Andrea snarled, "All together, kill the beast!" She shouted as she lashed out, Rhak-skuri, Talon and Khanna striking at it at the same time.

The Tuk'ata turned around and lashes out at Andrea who had a weakness in her defense as she attacked the hound but it became confused as it claws were somehow stopped by a invisible force, it did not stay confused long as Khanna and Rhak-Skuri killed the beast.

Cabur goes again, nipping at the flanks of the opposing Tuk'ata as Tannus and Kitt move in to offer reinforcement to the attacking Azazel. “Down, dumb dog,” she snaps. Meanwhile, Hakkri and Aggros just exchange looks with each other, scared they might hit their leader at this point.

Wounded but still fierce the sith guardian smelled Azazel's blood from her leg injury and tried to find purchase but failed, teeth unable to bite down on her leg somehow while Tannus with some very beautiful bladework, which seemed like art somehow, neatly cut the Tuk'ata into eight pieces.

Panting, Azazel moves forward to where the abandoned meal had been and tosses it to Cabur, <<Good boy...>> She winces and shifts her weight off her injured leg. “We could go back... But I'm sure as far as Sith temples go, the more guardians we find, the warmer we are?” She dons a new layer of protection and peers down the way, “Kitt, how's it look?” She raises her lightsabre, trying to get more light before hesitating. “Tannus, think you can throw out some of your weapons as a quick glance ahead?” He shrugs, drawing his weapon back before throwing it down in a spinning arch before pulling it back in a boomerang.

At last that was the idea but he misaimed somehow and the laser knife instead hit the wall and from the sound of it shattered into pieces.

Azazel purses her lips, “Did anyone at least see anything before that went horribly awry?...”

Rhak-Skuri saw, before that dagger met it's demise... that this was a dead end.

Azazel sighs and gestures, “Resume formation.... We're... going to... Go a different path... Andrea... about the direction you picked...”

Andrea groaned when Rhak-skuri mentioned what she had seen. "Great... dead end it is..." She turned to Azazel and raised a warning hand. "Don't say it!" Knowing full well that she would probably mention something since she had suggested going left.

She seemed irritated and grunted, "Fine... you pick which corridor to take now then." She said, rubbing her cheek.

As they get back to the intersection, Azazel quickly marks the dead end before looking down the passage dead ahead, "Let's keep going straight from here. Worst case, more training...."

As they advance forward, Kitt reaches out an arm to stop Azazel, “More Tuk'ata.”

As if in reply to that the sith were given warning, the sounds of claws upon marble and then glowing eyes in the dark as another pack of Tuk'ata indeed appear.

She gritted her teeth and snapped her fingers, Khanna and Rhak-skuri joining her to the front. "Put the fear that all should have upon standing in the presence of the true sith!" She shouted as she tapped into the dark side of the force to make these sith hounds fear them, shouting out in the ancient sith language at the same time. <<You are but beasts, engineered long ago by the sith race, I am mistress of Korriban now, so you shall serve me or die!>>

The six Tuk'ata skid to a halt, whining and yelping in fear, shivering as some dark influence brings forth frightening images that seem to be somehow linked to the intruders upon the tomb. Holding perfectly still, neither fleeing or attacking.

Azazel prepares to walk forward, ready to stake her own claim but halts, still behind Andrea. For the time-being, she was still indebted to the other Sith. She bows her head in acquiescence and waits. If nothing else, it was a solid layer of protective meat between herself and her own.

Taking a deep breath she stepped forward, standing within striking distance of two of the Tuk'ata and let out a growl of her own. <<I am Darth Andrea, lady of the Sith and mistress of Korriban, heir to the sith legacy, the sith whom you are supposed to serve, so I will give you this chance and this chance alone... obey me and survive... refuse... and die. Choose wisely...>>

Shuffling their feet... the Tuk'ata came forwards slowly, approaching Andrea... the first opened it's jaws and lets out a hiss.

Before it licks her armoured hand.

The second, third and fourth walked past her, rubbing their heads against her leg or licking her hand. As the fifth and sixth approached... Andrea sensed it but was too late, with a vicious howl they pounced, the first breaking her bubble and the second brought her down and tore open her throat, blood streaming down her armour as she shrieked and screamed, clinging to life, she only had moments before her life would escape her completely.

With a cry of horror, Azazel leaps forward, placing herself protectively over Andrea as she sends dark power to heal her. Tannus moves forward, sending a hail of knives at one Tukata, Kitt bursting past the line to attack that one. Hakkri and Aggros concentrate fire on the other, praying to whatever gods would hear them.

As the sith healing energies surged through Andrea she gasped and shuddered, flesh reknitting, rather painfully but at least she would survive, as she herself was unable to concentrate on mending her deadly injury. Tannus meanwhile just couldn't stop showing off as he killed this second Tuk'ata and Hakkri let out a scream of rage when he saw his favourite holo-soap star fall down, his vengeance was swift as he just riddled the sith hound with blaster shot after blaster, the Tuk'ata little more than a hunk of flesh with blaster craters.

She took a deep breath, eyes wide, staring up at Azazel's helmet... not caring what she thought she teared off the helmet and when Azazel's face was able she grabbed hold of it and pulled her in for a deep kiss, shuddering as she let go and reached for her throat, feeling the flesh was healed. "That... was close..."

Her disciples, shaken but seeing her still breathing had turned to watch the four Tuk'ata, fearful for perhaps a attack after this.

She frowns, grasping her helmet and standing, “Be more careful. There is liable to be worse as we delve deeper.” Azazel hesitates for a moment before offering out a hand to assist Andrea up.

She looked at the hand, accepting it to be pulled back to her feet. "Thanks." Her tone unreadable as she said that and then turned around to regard the Tuk'ata.

They seemed to be still there, watching them, she grunted about to order them to wait outside when she paused and a weak smile appeared on her lips, <<Tell me of the guardians that live here or any other dangers. What is there to expect.>>

They looked at each other, shuffling their feet as if they seemed unable to truly comprehend the question, perhaps they had accepted her as their new mistress more because of the presence in the dark side of the force and not because of her words. Eventually one uttered a few garbled words, nudging to the corridor the sith had not yet ventured into. <<Food.>> Looking back the way the pack had come from it uttered the next words. <<Dark... home... light.>>

She nods and then ordered the Tuk'ata to head to the entrance outside and wait for her there, before turning to Azazel, "Well... they spoke of light the way they came from, that sounds promising? Though they also called it home... that might mean more of them."

“Then it may be the right way. Let's keep going,” she says coolly, eying the other Tuk'ata warily.

In response to the order they headed back the way the Sith had came from, leaving their new mistress as ordered.

They were traveling through the dark, no sign of other Tuk'ata when all of a sudden... Azazel orders everyone to stop, using the force to freeze Kitt, who had nearly stepped onto a pressure plate she had spotted just in time, if Azazel was to guess, that pressure plate would be connected to a trap.

Azazel quickly marks on the wall beside the trapped square with a sigh, “And this is why we are careful in dark bad places guarded by nasty sith monstrosities.”

Andrea looked at the pressure plate, biting her lip. "I'll admit... I kinda am wondering what kind of trap it is though." She quickly shook her head. "But better if it remains a mystery..."

Azazel pauses before laughing, “Feel free to send someone you don't like in later to test it.”

"Perhaps." She said with a grin, "Either case, let's continue... but be wary of our footing." She murmured checking the ground, walls and ceiling for anything out of the ordinary.

As they reached a new intersection she looked at Azazel and then at the two tunnels. Something was wrong perhaps... that or she was just imagining things.

She blinked and then looked ahead, frowning. "And here I thought light at the end of a tunnel was always a bad thing..." She murmured before pointing the light out to Azazel.

Azazel hesitates for a moment as well before instructing, “Tannus, send a light straight ahead. I don't like all that darkness between us and the lights...”

The dagger flew forth and for a few seconds the silhouettes of three Tuk'ata were seen, stalking towards the group.

Azazel's eyes narrow, “Andrea, would you like to do the pleasure of eviscerating them from existence?”

With a vicious snarl she stepped forwards, resisting her urge to feel her throat as she barked a order to Rhak-skuri to join her and together they raised their hands and with a shout filled the corridor with arcs of lightning.

While the lightning flung from the Togruta's hands barely seemed to hit anything but the floor in fornt of her, the arcs of lightning speeding forth fro mAndrea's hand were almost alive as a storm of lightning enveloped the tunnel, the cries of Tuk'ata soon followed, soemthing no living animal makes and send shivers down everyone's spines except Andrea and Azazel, surprisingly other sounds were heard as well, stone scraping and wooshing of blades and for some reason.. .Andrea felt certain that whatever traps may lie ahead had been triggered and were now inert....

Azazel fights back a delighted giggle at the arching lightning and barely keeps from clapping her hands together at the lightshow. Kitt fights back a choking sob at the sheer destruction, however and Hakkri just stares on with wide eyes. A sudden idea that he could meet an end like that if he annoyed Andrea too bad comes to mind. Cabur lets out a low whine, stepping back but lifts his head, looking down the other way, his tongue lolling out with salivation. <<Food...>> Azazel nods, supposing that way would bring them back to the entrance as well. “We continue...”

Andrea smirked, feeling powerful all of a sudden and hums. "Hmm... so much power..." She shuddered. "That felt goood..." She grinned and winked at Azazel.

As they approached the intersection, the smoking corpses of three Tuk'ata were now seen by all, Cabur moved forwards and sniffed them, whining softly before he turned to look ahead at the light and then back at Azazel. <<Nest.>>

The group noticed something moving in the dark in the tunnel to the right, the flash of glowing eyes before they vanished.

"While ignoring the rest might be smart... they do like to sleep atop.. .say the bones of the one whose tomb this is, so might be worth a look... and extermination." She said with a grin.

A great grin spreads across her lips as she steps forwards, a plan coming to mind. It would be idiocy to just charge into a nest, but if she could lure them out... She lets out a bestial howl of her own, Cabur adding his own with her after a moment. As it dithers out she shouts out clearly, <<I am the Sith lady, Azazel. I come to claim the legacy of this tomb. I challenge the leader of the guardian tuk'ata for control of his pack!>>

A roar came back, louder than anything either sith had heard utter from a Tuk'ata before. But there was no sound of running or yelping hounds, it was clear, if she wanted to challenge the pack, she would have to come to them.

Azazel's brow knit together, “Well, at least we know its probably big?” She shrugs, beginning to advance.

"The bigger they are..." Andrea replied to that, following in step with Azazel.

The group moved forwards, still no sith hounds rushed out to meet them, then the group, their eyes needing to adjust to the light looked around, seeing sith hieroglyphs on the walls of this chamber, telling a story from the images of conquest, then their eyes settled on the casket in the middle, surrounded by the sources of light... that and the enormous Tuk'ata along with several smaller ones of her 'court'.

Azazel strides forward confidently, staring the pack leader down and lets out a vicious snarl. <<I have stated my challenge, Guardian. Do you accept it?>>

The pack seems restless, their natural instincts telling them to charge and devour the interlopers, a unnatural intelligence shone in the eyes of the Tuk'ata Alpha however who swatted the head of one of her pack when it seemed read to charge, staring back at Azazel. <<Not worthy.>> It snarled.

<<What makes me unworthy? I have killed the pack leader guarding the entrance and fought my way this far. Have any others made it this far?>>

Andrea remained silent, moving behind Azazel, along with Rhak-skuri to support Azazel if any of the sith guardians made a move to attack.

The beast leaped more dexterously than one would expect from a animal of such size on top of the casket, glaring still at Azazel. <<He was weak, exiled when he tried to take my pack. Killing him proves nothing.>> It growled and let out a snarl. <<Here to pillage, no respect for the Sith. Drachass Nuur will flay your flesh.>>

Andrea made eye contact with Talon as the Tuk'ata started to move, her disciple who once had shared her name with these beasts nodded when Andrea made a gestured and moved to the back of the group to guard their backs.

Azazel raises her sword, <<And you have no honour. I propose this. You are afraid to challenge me without your lackeys.>> She addresses the rest of the Tuk'ata, <<Join me and you will let live, in service of the Sith who yet breathe, not the forgotten ones who brought their own ends. Those who do not shall share the fate of those before you.>> Her followers begin to follow the lead of Andrea and her followers, supporting Azazel.

The alpha was unimpressed and so was her pack as she let out a growl and at once the Tuk'ata went into action. Clearly the alpha had gotten enough of this sith pretender's insolence.

It seemed that Azazel, Andre and their people were somewhat stunned with the speed the guardian Tuk'ata used to charge in the Alpha snapped her jaws shut but Azazel was quick enough to evade that attack but not the one of the smaller Tuk'ata who struck her but did no damage thanks to the force bubble. Cabur meanwhile yelped as a claw raked his side but did not kill him. The other hounds closed in, drooling at the back one Tuk'ata was seen going into the darkness of a side tunnel.

Seeing some a Tuk'ata dart away she shouted to Darth Talon, "Guard our backs! Azazel, disengage, let's see if I have more lightning that needs to be unleashed!" She almost cackled with glee as she started building up the force power required to summon another storm.

Azazel steps backwards, focusing the force to crush the alpha's arms. <<Cabur, back.>> Cabur leaps back as Tannus steps back, throwing his knives at the back legs of the Alpha, Hakkri firing a burst at the closest Tak'uta to him. Aggros, however, faces the back, aiming down the hallway, ready to fire at any movement from the back.

It seemed as if a block of sorts preventing Azazel to properly concentrate as she stared in the intense glowing eyes of the Alpha, her eyes filled with a hatred that each dark side force user present could feel in their core, which also might explain why the others of Azazel's retinue were off with their aim as they attacked.

As Azazel stepped back Andrea and Rhak-skuri raised their hands and let forth arcs of lightning once more like they had done moments ago. "Feel the power of the dark side!"

The only thing the Tuk'ata felt was the surge of power as the lightning arcs harmlessly flew over them.

Most of the tuk'ata were rather sloppy, perhaps the lightning had affected their senses somewhat, the alpha was better though and almost had torn open Azazel's armour if it wasn't for some lucky dodge on her part, Andrea too dodged a attack... the last Tuk'ata was blinded somehow and he did not see the massive tail of it's Alpha when it came smashing down on his head, snapping it's neck. The sith hound sagging down on the floor and stopped moving.

Feeling not too comfortable with the hot breath of several rabid Tuk'ata in front of her Andrea once again attempts to summon a force storm while Rhak-SKuri attempted to instill horror in the TUk'ata to perhaps stun them, at the same time Khanna was making a attempt to gut one of the sith hounds directly in front of her with her lightsaber pike.

While the force storm and saberplay of Andrea and her ilk was nothing amazing, Rhak-skuri filled the sith hounds with such horror... that all but the Alpha fainted... the Alpha remained conscious but she let out a howl of fear and stumbled back away from the force users, shivering all over.

Azazel snaps off a quick command in the Noghri tongue and her follows snap into action, Cabur following the other two forward as they move in to assist and defend Azazel from attacks as she makes an attempt for the kill with her two weapons.

The alpha seemed to snap a little out of her fear and pulls back ,the attacks missing her, except for Tannus's strike which wounded her side and leg and she yelped, backing against the tomb, uttering a single word in suth. <<Surrender!>>

Azazel snarls and steps forward, <<Am I still unworthy?!>> She raises her weapon level, <<Do you regret fighting me?>> Her voice raises louder, <<DO YOU ACCEPT ME AS YOUR MASTER?!>>

Andrea stepped forwards and shrugs, <<On the other hand you can join my lovely kennel of Tuk'ata.>>

The alpha whined and growled, before bowing her head. <<Pack be free... but will tell secrets of this place... you are true sith.... Maybe.>> It said, looking up submissively and very, very afraid

Azazel grips her sword tighter, gnashing her teeth behind her mask before nodding slightly. <<Speak. If what you have to save is worth your lives, you may go free.>>

It let out another whine again before looking back at the casket before looking back at the two radiating with power. <<False tomb, false casket... trap for interlopers... brings life to unliving.>> She gestured with her head to the tunnel the group came from. <<Head north... real tomb there... and devourers of all.>>

She let one of her eyebrows rise and muttered under her breath, loud enough for Azazel to hear, "Divulging secrets would be better without speaking in riddles...

Her eyes fall upon the cask, interest piqued, but uncertain if the Tuk'ata was being truthful or not. The power to bring the dead to life once more certainly seemed promising, but probably not something to tinker upon without more knowledge. She sighs and looks about the fearful pack before addressing the alpha, <<While you save us from the bother of a false tomb, I request one of your own to guide us past traps and to the true tomb. The rest may go free, as may our guide if we make it there and back alive.>>

It whimpers in response, seemingly more afraid at that. <<We do not know... Devourers... eat any of the pack that venture in their territory.>>

Azazel takes off her helmet and moves closer, staring the leader eye-to-eye. <<One will guide us there, then, and we will kill them.>>

She frowned deeper at that, "So there's something else in here that isn't food to the Tuk'ata... but is treating them as food, that sounds promising, whatever it is, maybe its guarding the real tomb while these are just." She curled her lip in disgust, "Are just decoys."

She turns back to Andrea, “Expendable decoys that we can perhaps use to give us a distraction to kill the real guardians.”

At this point the other Tuk'ata were slowly regaining their senses but at a hiss from their alpha they did not attack, the Alpha was considering for a moment and then growled at the Tuk'ata who had wounded Cabur, who yipped in response before bowing it's head. <<Guide.>> Was all the Alpha said and retreated to the back of the tomb with the rest of the pack.

Azazel leans closer to Cabur and whispers just to him, <<If he tries anything sneaky, feel free to pay him back and more for the injury.>> She pets the Tuk'ata affectionately and gestures for the guide, <<Lead us to the true tomb, tell us before we stumble upon traps.>> She moves to the wall, looking at the legend laid out curiously, skimming for perhaps any useful knowledge before picking a spot that seemed less important to scrawl out a future sign...

Azazel sees nothing out of the ordinary as the Tuk'ata assigned to be the guide stalked forwards, looking back, waiting, shivering.

As they follow the guide they came upon several Tuk'ata, snarling, but at some barks of the guide they reluctantly stepped back to allow the group to pass.

Azazel regards the group, and in her startle at what a nasty surprise could have come up behind them, she replaces her helmet and calls forth a new bubble of protection.

Andrea and her people who had the ability also renewed their protection, keeping a ware eye on the hounds as they walked past.

Following the guide as they came into a small ante-chamber with what appeared to be statues but then upon closer inspection were droids, ancient ones, but seemed inert and gathering dust.

Upon seeing them the guide whimpered and walked forwards before walking back, sitting down. <<Unliving mark territory. Devourer territory ahead. None of pack survive beyond.>>

Azazel's eyes light up in delight as she moves closer to the droids. Xen had convinced her, they held some use... She frowns and looks it over, looking to Tannus and Kitt, “Do any of you know where to find the memory banks? I want Xen to run through them.”

"One moment please." Andrea said and turned to Trizz, gesturing to the inert droids. "See if you can slice your way into it's datacore or something... see what we might be up against." The Zabrak nodding slowly and stepped to some of the droids. "I can do my best to try lady Andrea, Azazel."

It seemed she had some success and frowned, looking with a question at Andrea who rolled her eyes and gestured for her to speak. "Just tell us what you have learned."

Trizz nodded, "These are ancient battle droids, their programming is rather simple but effective, they are on some kind of remote access mode, once a certain trigger is activated they become alive and hunt for any foreign objects or life that does not belong her and do their best to exterminate and then set out to restore any damages the tomb might have sustained before retreating back and becoming inert again. It happened three times that they became active, the last time a thousand years ago... there were three signatures of allowed organic life, these 'Tuk'ata'? Some kind of flying reptile and... something really large, almost like a rancor but not a rancor?" She shrugged, "Couldn't understand what it meant."

Andrea cursed at description and groaned, "There are Terentatek in here... if that description is any clue... I have read about them and found signs of some in tombs we already explored... but no living ones."

Azazel frowns before shrugging, activating her lightsabre and begins to destroy the droids... As she earns a confused look from some of her own she mutters, “What?... If the big mutt was lying, I don't want these after us.”

Finishing up, she turns to look about the group, “They've got thick hides, but hit them hard enough, you'll get through. They're nasty melee combatants, claws and teeth. I would avoid getting hit.” She looks with a bit more concern to Tannus and Hakkri, “And they think those strong with the force are absolutely tasty. Try not to group up, keep moving if you run in to attack. If it gets your attention, I want you running until it can focus on someone else. No heroes here.”

She was giving a similar order to her people after hearing Azazel's words and then turned to the sith, well then my dear." She smirked, "Into the belly of the beast?"

She seems about ready to nod before stopping, "Oh, and Andrea, they are resistant to the force. So I'm afraid this is a battle of brawn."

She let out a silent curse at that, "Ferglutz, fine... well resistant doesn't mean immune... maybe we can damage it with our strongest powers before it rushes in? Worth a try... even so... among my people Darth Talon is the best warrior, perhaps best if she is in the front with you."

Azazel chuckles and nods slightly, “If you would. Of course, Hakkri has a grenade launcher on his gun. Careful when he gets going.”

They continued until they reached another intersection, more 'statues' lined the corridor and at this point, Cabur suddenly whimpered as a smell, of dead and rotting meat came over the group.

Azazel tenses, crouching behind Cabur and hisses, <<Can you tell which way it smells strongest?>> As she looks left and right, she tries to reach out with the force to sense any life. Tannus readies a knife, arching a brow, ready to try the tossing trick again.

Cabur whimpers again and gestures to the right tunnel, clearly wanting to stay here and not venture in there. Tannus and Rhak-skuri meanwhile sense something... something big, it's origin in the tunnel right in front of the group.

Tannus rasps out, “Big guy right in front of us,” as he raises his sabre to boomerang. Hakkri levels his gun and prepares to fire some micro-grenades when he could see it from Tannus' light.

She turned to Azazel, "Maybe best to leave a rearguard to guard this spot, and run like hell to warn us if a big stompy terentatek is tracking us?”

Azazel hesitates before nodding. “Hakkri, Kitt, I'm leaving you to guard our rear and keep alert for sneaky monsters...” <<Cabur, stay with the younglings, protect Kitt and Hakkri.>>She faces Andrea, “Can you conceal yourself and force presence? If so, I'd like you to come along with me ahead to scout. I don't want to get into a trap with nowhere to go...”

Andrea scowled and shook her head, "I am... not that proficient, but Darth Talon here is." She gestures the Twi'lek forward. "She is also my most capable warrior, she can mask her presence in the force so perhaps together with you that might work while we follow from a distance. Also, Trizz, stay with Azazel's people." She turned to her fellow sith, "Just in case they might require medical aid."

Azazel looks back at her group, gives them a quick Kubaz hand signal before she disappears completely, hiding her entire existence with the force. She takes a deep breath before starting forward cautiously.

As they stumbled through the corridor and reached the turn, they saw in the distance a large chamber, lit by the same kind of torches in the tuk'ata territory and what seemed to be a grand statue, standing guard over a more ornate version of the casket they had witnessed earlier.

The entire party of force users could sense that directly ahead, with the casket at it's center there was a enormous nexus of dark side energies, clearly indicating the tomb of a sith lord, Khanna however stumbled and gasped for air as she sensed something... a great hunger... more than one, stirring awake.

Taking a deep breath the Dathomiri disciple turned to Andrea, "There is something... I think... I think there are Terentatek up there... more than one..."

Her mistress cursed at that. "Azazel... there might be multiple Terentatek up there. We should move with caution.

She pauses, “I doubt it. They aren't exactly social creatures... But we might be on the right trail here...”

Andrea snorted at that, "Seeing as this tomb seems more shiny than the previous casket we saw, I think that is a safe bet Azazel." Andrea said with a smirk.

As Darths Azazel and Talon entered what looked to be the genuine tomb, seeing massive statues and hieroglyphics adorning the walls they missed what appeared to be boulders in the corners near the entrance to the hall, until they started to stir awake, turning around slowly, lethargically as if waking from a great slumber, standing up tall, both of them almost 3.5 meters tall with enormous claws and tusks protruding from their mouths. When both realized they smelled food and saw the two sith drool started dripping from their mouths as they let out bellows of hunger and made ready to attack.

Darth Talon cried seeing the lumbering beasts. "Terentatek! Two!" She shouted in warning before retreating.

Hearing that Andrea cursed, "They are resistant to force powers, that doesn't mean immune! Azazel get back, maybe we can score some damage with ranged attacks like our lightning or your crush attacks!"

Azazel almost pouts at the suggestion of retreating. “How about you come closer?” she taunts, going running to release a force wave at the statue in attempt to launch it at the Tarentatek. Even if she could only move it marginally, at least it should provide some protection as a barrier.

As Azazel refuses to move back, Tannus moves forward and Aggros does as well. Using the wall to hide from the one closest, Aggros fires at the one opposite. Tannus mimicks this, sending his lightsabre in a spinning throw guided by the force to attack the other.

Aggros might be considering to have his blaster be taken apart and properly checked if there were no faulty components because once again his aim was completely off, Tannus however was rewarded with a screech of pain and something green oozing from cut in the Terentatek's hide his saber had struck, the wound it suffered not cauterizing for some reason.

With a bellow the wounded Terentatek charged, the floor shaking as both got into motion, the enraged one going for Tannus while the other deemed Azazel a worthy snack, sensing her power.

Andrea was looking at the two beasts with wide eyes once they got into view... resisting the urge to purr, upon sight of them she knew that she had to make efforts to obtain samples to replicate their creation and make some herself that would be loyal to her... killing these would be the first step to that she hoped as she turned to Khanna and Rhak-Skuri. "Chain lightning, now!" At the same time the three of them rose their hands and channeled the force into lightning, shooting it out from their fingertips.

The already wounded Tarentatek was suddenly hit by lightning, it screeched and bellowed, one arc of lightning shooting off to hit Tannus, his protection bubble absorbing it however, the Terentatek had no such protection and smoke came from several scorched patches of skin as it looked with murder at the force enriched meat.

Seeing the lightning have some effect Talon rushed forward now, saber ignited with the intention to strike at the beast, aiming for the gash Azazel's apprentice had already created.

The Terentatek saw the strike coming and just raised it's arms, deflecting the blow as the Twi'lek's saber found no weakness.

Aggros takes a step back in fright at the proximity of the massive creature before gritting his teeth and raising his blaster, aiming for the back of the tarantatek's throat as it bellows. Meanwhile, Azazel grits her teeth before closing the distance to attack the Tarantatek with her lightsabre and sword. Tannus, watching his mistress takes his cue, dashing past the first while manifesting his protection once more, before leaping with the force onto the back of the second, lightsabre in hand once more and thrusting it forward into the creature's back.

The already wounded Terentatek's bellow was cut short as a blastershot hit it's throat... it seemed stunned for a moment, surprised before it looked down with beady eyes at the small zygerrian and let out a roar.

Tannus meanwhile, inspired to come to Azazel's aide jumped with amazing skill on the Terentatek's back and stabbed his lightsaber down in a weak spot he noticed by sheer luck and took a chance, the reaction was instant the Terentatek let out a bellow of pain and tried to swat away at the aggressor clutching to his back, ignoring anything and everyone else.

The terentatek Aggros had pissed off lashed out with his claws, the first tearing open his chest. The Zygerian looking down with surprise at the wounds, not feeling any pain for some reason. Also the world seemed to slow down as he looked up and saw the second claw incoming, it moved so slow and yet he could not move... the world sped up again as the claw made impact and the claws impaled him, the Terentatek raising him off the ground and bring it to it's face, growling before with a mighty hurl he tossed the corpse of the zygerian against a wall.

It's companion had less luck, one claw missing the pest and the second claw, instead of hitting Tannus who was holding on for dear life, raked up his own back, more green blood pouring out as it bellowed from the self-inflicted pain.

Andrea looked down upon herself, blood from Azazel's Zygerian on her robes, witnessing that gruesome death made her snap a little, also fearing for her own life if this beast was not brought down at once. "Charge!" She snarled as she and her disciples attacked the beast, hoping to bring it down.

For all their efforts no attacks made any impact on the beast, except for Khanna who managed to give another minor injury to the beast, perhaps it would die eventually by death of a thousand cuts...

Tannus' attack shocked her, eyes watching as her once apprentice lands what had to be the blow of a century... before a familiar shape can be spied flying through the air. Her heart picks up before she finds herself letting out a shriek of anger. Abandoning the Terentatek before her, she runs about its rampaging form and throws herself headlong at the one that killed one of hers. With all her being, she attacks. Tannus however, holds on tight and makes to worsen the damage already inflicted.

The critically injured terentatek is besieged from all sides but easily seems to swat away the attacks coming at him, while Tannus keeps stabbing down, the beast slowing down but still alive, the sith on it's back noticing it was breathing as if it had trouble doing so.

The Terentatek besieged on all sides is unable to score a proper strike the other had slightly more luck, with a lucky strike it managed to finally get the sith of it's back.

Azazel fails to relent, striking out in cold, determined Sith fury. It would fall, it would pay, it would burn. Tannus rolls to his feet as he falls and lurches back in for the kill, however, murderous glee in his eyes.

It was if both Azazel and Tannus moved in complete synchronization, both evading and dodging under the waving and flailing arms of the Terentatek they were closing in for the kill. Tannus delivered a calculated and precision strike to the beast, finding a weakness in it's hide and delivered the deathblow, rolling away to not get crushed by the corpse.

Azazel... was nowhere near that kind of grace and skill... but she made up with pure rage and aggression stabbing, cutting and carving open the Terentatek's chest, green blood and ooze splattering over her but she ignored as she just cut open and stabbed it's internal organs to pieces... it was already long dead but she just kept screaming, stabbing and cutting till all it was a cut open exo-skeleton with a bunch of pulp inside...

[Tempest]

Azazel and Andrea -- The Korriban Tomb of Drachass Nurr, Part II

Meanwhile back at the intersection where the others were waiting, their leaders with those they had taken with them gone for some time now. Then they heard something, something akin to a... bellow? And at the same time Cabur suddenly whined and retreated a little... the reason for that was the lumbering figure in the tunnel ahead. The Terentatek, blood dripping from it's jaws from it's meal, annoyed that it was interrupted glared at the people in front of it. It had heard the bellow of it's kindred and let out one of it's own as it made ready to charge.

It slammed down it's claws, with a sickening sound its claws buried themselves deep in the floor creating massive grooves as it pulled them back... but Kitt... was somehow unharmed.

Trizz let out a frightened scream and raised her blaster, firing off a shot more out of desperation than anything else.

She critically fumbles and her blaster drops to the ground skidding a few meters behind her.

Kitt, weaving between claws and hulk simply takes off running towards where she knew the people with the scary weapons would be, however, at least holding to Azazel's advice, yells back jeers and taunts, “HEY BANTHA BREATH!” trying to keep its attention. Cabur, whining, darts around to the back, striking with its claws, hoping to trip it up if it was lucky enough to sink its claws into tendons. Hakkri, however, backs up to a safer distance and aims before launching a micro-grenade at the thing's bellowing face. It needed a make-over.

The massive beast ignore the little morsel of food that was more begin a pest than a thread at it's legs and was looking at the food that had escaped it, roaring and turning around when suddenly a intense blast of pain seared at it's hide and face. It slowly turned around and looked in the direction one brightly coloured being, holding up a smoking device and roared in outrage.

It charged the one who hurt it and stepped on the blaster that was dropped by Trizz, somehow losing it's footing and came crashing down right in front of Hakkri with a grunt of both pain and surprise.

Trizz not thinking her chances were good to retrieve her blaster decided to instead run for it... to the nearest droids and see if she could reprogram them.

Still not thinking her own chances were good, and the fact there was still a monstrous force-eating Goliath behind her, Kitt just keeps running, now raising her voice and screaming, “AZAZEL! AZAZEL TERENTAKA!” Meanwhile, Cabur lets out a low growl, tail tucked as he dashes in, trying to attack again at the haunches of the Terentaka while Hakkri gets some more distance, releasing another micro-grenade... Now closer, he can spy their oh so wonderfully useless guide cowering behind droid-debris and whimpering as it tries to hide.

Hakkri had no time to aim and as the grenade was fired, he watched with shock as the grenade bounced off the ceiling, landing in front of his feet, scrambling back just in time to not get hit by shrapnel but the concussive blast send the Zygerian into the wall, where he fell down and was stunned.

The Terentatek got to his feet, groggy and irritated, barely sensing the jaws and claws of the Tuk'ata but it was annoying so it reached and grabbed the sith hound, who yelped and tried to get free from the grasp... especially when the Terentatek started to pull and with a sickening tearing sound Cabur was pulled apart in two bloody pieces and tossed aside.

Reaching the droids she hastily got her slicing tools out to make a attempt to reprogram the droids to see the group as friendlies while seeing the Terentatek as a hostile that needed to be exterminated as quickly as possible as she went hurriedly to work.

Trizz, with her earlier success with the other droids knew where to gain access to their programming and did gain access to the friend and foe protocols, however she needed time still to erase what she needed to make the droids consider her and the others as friends, or she could activate the droids right now and it would treat any organic as a threat, the Terentatek... as well as Trizz and the others...

Hakkri blinks, dazed before suddenly choking back sobs as he feels something through the force. Aggros was dead, he was not sure how he was aware, but he knew. He shifts to his feet, stumbling back a few steps as he grits his teeth and attempts with another grenade, needing to get rid of this brute to get to his man.

Kitt's eyes widen as she looks back briefly to see a dead and shredded Tuk'ata fly through the air. She yelps and keeps running, horrified and desperate, but now beginning to worry that Azazel and the rest weren't much better off ahead.

The grenade sails past and the Terentatek turns around, sniffing the air and a long tongue extends as drool started dripping down, the one who had hurt smelled rather tasty...

It charged at the food eagerly, perhaps too eager as it's claw came smashing down and somehow Hakkri managed to get out of the way, leaving the Terentatek unable to slow down it's charge and howled out in pain as a lightwhip strike delivered by Hakkri who lashed out as the beast passed it, sliced off the Terentateks entire right claw.

She found it and quickly went to work, changing the friend & foe protocols and then activated the ancient droids, at first nothing happened and then clouds of dust appeared as the droids surged into motion, their sensors detecting a threat in the passageway and moved forward, raising ancient but still working blasters.

Hakkri braces the blaster with one arm, releasing a steady blast as he lashes out with his lightwhip, his ears laid back and face twisted into a vicious snarl as he tries to kill the creature. There was no more running... Except for Kitt. The droids were alive too now, so whatever was ahead, it had to be better than behind with the Terentatek, droids and tuk'ata pack.

It looked at its stump, not comprehending with happened for a moment before it realized the food must have done this to him with a roar it turned around with it's remaining claw primed to strike, but roared out in pain once more... and now looked at a second stump as it's remaining claw was also sliced off.

It roared and tried to bite or headbutt the food but it was too nimble to hit and all the Terentatek did was splatter it's blood over Hakkri, ruining his clothes.

Trizz just stared at the droids, hoping they would kill the beast, she was afraid to move in the dark on her own and whimpered hearing the roar of the beast. "Just kill it!" She shouted after the droids

Four of the droids had the target in sight and fired, three of them hitting the beast, but that was just enough to penetrate one area of it's thick hide, it was now aware of new threats however.

Hakkri looses an appalled hiss as his clothes are ruined. “These. Were. My. Favorite. Clothes!” He yowls out, striking out once more.... And Kitt just keeps chugging along. She thinks she can, she thinks she can.

The Terentatek was shocked at the response, no prey had done this ever before it yowled with pain as strike upon strike was delivered upon it, roaring, attempting one last desperate attempt to just swallow it whole, Hakkri raising his grenade launcher and point blank shot a grenade down it's throat which the beast swallowed down, blinking stupidly for a moment... before it's head was completely blown off... and the headless corpse sagged to the ground.

The droids, no longer detecting a threat... returned to their former positions.

Hakkri, covered in the ichor of the beast and face frozen in a mask of rage and pain, emerges from the passage near Trizz with his light whip in one hand and Blast and Smash on his shoulder. He points the lightwhip at Trizz and snaps, “Get your gun. We're following them. If Azazel isn't dead already, she's going to be.”

Picking up her gun as ordered the lieutenant of Andrea submissively followed the enraged Zygerian, probably afraid of the look in Hakkri's eyes and what it would mean if she dared to disobey the command. They ran through the corridor and as they approached, looked upon a scene of devastation, two dead Terentatek, the sith gathered around them.

Kitt was there, hurriedly talking to Azazel about the terentatek they had encountered when a gore covered Hakkri approached, a fire of rage in his eyes.

Azazel looks at Hakkri, stepping back slightly in alarm as the emotions coming off of him hit her. She shudders and takes another cautious step back, quickly removing her helmet to reveal her tear-streaked face. “Hakkri, I--”

The Zygerian steps forward with a snarl, eyes moving from his dead lover and fixating on Azazel, “YOU. PROMISED.”

Azazel looks aside, ashamed, near to tearing up again. Tannus steps forward defensive of Azazel, but uncertain after everything Kitt had said. The Zygerian daffodil had to have killed the terentatek... and the droids... To have gotten there.

Hakkri moves closer, “Heal him. I've seen you do it before. Bring him back!”

Azazel just remains silent.

She and her people had turned off their lightsabers but had expected to rush into another fight when the Echani came running, screaming of another Terentatek back with the others. Then Hakkri appeared and Andrea flinched at the emotions coming from him in waves and was making ready for battle again, but not with a Terentatek. Andrea motioned her people to not make a move however as she watched and listened, looking from Azazel to Hakkri.

It seemed Trizz was shaken, the lieutenant was stepping away from Hakkri, smart, Andrea thought.

As no one speaks, Hakkri moves even closer to Azazel, carefully stepping around Aggros, “I said bring him back.”

Azazel shakes her head, “I can't.”

“Why, because you saved your whore?!” he snaps, pointing his gun at Andrea briefly to note who he was talking about, “All tired out? You said you could do anything! Do it!”

The dark lady frowns and keeps looking away, “The dead not gifted... They're beyond reach. Forever.”

Hakkri steps to be face to face with Azazel, “You lied to me... He's dead. You let it happen. None of you stopped it. Not a single one of you has a scratch. But he's dead.” He raises the gun level with Azazel's head, hand trembling, finger at the trigger. As Tannus gets ready to move in to stop him, Azazel waves him off with a small gesture. “Why shouldn't I kill you now...”

Azazel just watches Hakkri, “Because you can't.”

The Zygerian jams the gun against her, “Because I'm weak?! I killed that thing! I've killed men for you, Azazel! With families! I can do it now. Without thinking twice.... Those people didn't deserve it. But you do. You're no better than any of those people you say are the scum, the problem. You're a hypocrite. And a liar. You can't do anything. You couldn't stop this.”

The Sith master seems to regain a little of her composure at that, tearing the gun away with a blast of the force and slapping aside the light-whip when it comes at her in retaliation. “You can't, because you are my apprentice, and I am the master. You couldn't kill me on your best day.” Her fist begins to clench and Hakkri gasps as he feels pressure collapsing in around him, his body starting to wrench up into the air and his eyes wide. “You speak out of your place,” she hisses, stepping up and staring at Hakkri with eyes ablaze at the insult. “We are not friends. We are not equals. We will never be.” She hurls Hakkri aside with a gesture of her hand, him smacking into the nearest statue with a thump before slipping to the floor. He winces and looks at her with cold fury. “We are Sith...” she says simply, turning away and advancing closer to the tomb.

Andrea watched it happen in silence and did not interfere, this was something internal within Azazel's command structure, she did however make a note of it and was already imagine several ideas on what this series of events could mean for her to take advantage off. If Azazel had a apprentice who wants her dead... and one day Azazel might become a threat to her, well that was good information to have.

She looked at the Terentatek corpses, snapping her fingers for Trizz to notice her and then pointed at them. "Collect as many samples as you can." She said, just as Azazel hurled Hakkri to one of the statues and stepped towards the tomb, she quickly hurried forwards. "Azazel! Wait, what about any traps?" She quickly caught up to Azazel, not making a comment about what just happened and just continued with the business at hand. "Perhaps we ought to study this tomb first, perhaps find a clue about any possible traps or anything else of note." She said as she put her words into effect and started to study the tomb, looking for anything out of the ordinary or of note.

She just keeps advancing, “It doesn't matter. These traps are pathetic, nothing a true sith can't handle. She reaches the resting place of the sith and looks over it with hooded eyes, searching for anything on the outside that might prove fruitful.

The only thing that seemed to stand out to Azazel was that this second casket had some extra decoration, it appeared as the casket was on fire with the chiseled flames on the side. Andrea meanwhile studied the hieroglyphics, they were actually exactly the same as the ones in the Tuk'ata tomb, though she had missed something that seemed at the center of the majority of the stories of the dead sith lord whose tomb they were in.

Most of these stories were accounts of the battles this ancient sith waged and his most preferred means of fighting his foes, the sith lord was depicted, facing his opponents, with flames appearing around his outstretched hands and burning his enemies to ashes.

Andrea blinked at that, "Huh... why didn't we notice that sooner... say Azazel... care to take a look at this?" She said, calling out to her fellow sith to take a look.

Upon Azazel's face, a faint smile spreads as she traces over the fire-etched decorations, before opening the casket, all but ignoring Andrea.

The moment Azazel lays hands on the casket she let out a scream, she felt part of her powers being leeched off, first her force protection, it's power consumed by something ancient and then she felt more of her power bleed away as if she had been hit by a form of force drain and then... laughter.

The source of the laughter a glowing blue spectral appearance floating out of the tomb, "I LIVE AGAIN!"

The wraith, the spectral essence of Drachass Nuur turned around and chuckled, "I KNEW IT! ONE DAY POWERFUL ONES SUCH AS YOU WOULD PENETRATE MY TOMB! NOW DIE AND GIVE ME YOUR ESSENCE SO I MAY WALK THIS MORTAL COIL ONCE MORE!" It turned to Azazel, smirking, "THANK YOU." It made a small gesture with his hand... and Azazel was flung to a nearby wall, the breath knocked out of her even more as she felt as if she was still being drained. It then turned around and looked at Andrea, raising it's spectral brows. "YOU ARE ALMOST AS STRONG AS THAT ONE... OR PERHAPS STRONGER... EXCELLENT." It laughed again and suddenly formed a orb of flame within his hands that shot out at Andrea and exploded, hurling her off her feet, her only saving grace from the fire her protection bubble that was now gone.

Andrea blinked, she was staring at the ceiling... because a sith wraith of some kind was hurling fireballs at her... She rose up slowly, she had been surprisingly handling things well she figured... her throat had been almost ripped out... Terentateks were trying to kill her... and now... a sith wraith was hurling fire at her... and she decided that she had enough.

She stared at the wraith, her eyes crimson and yellow, sith eyes as she glared at the wraith. "ENOUGH!" She bellowed, arcs of lightning dancing around her. "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! AND I WILL NOT ALLOW SOME DEAD SITH TO STEAL OUR GLORY!" She screamed as she and her people let loose barrage after barrage of lightning at the wraith.

It was laughing again, finding it cute that such sith pretenders thought they could kill a true Sith pure-blood such as himself... but then he felt the power buildup in the one he had hurled a fireball at and another and a feeling came to him that he had forgotten since he had died... fear.

Its eyes widened as lightning sped forth, too many arcs too count. "NOOOO!" It screamed in despair as he could not avoid the oncoming storm and then was struck mid-air, lightning coursing through his form and he screamed and screamed as he was being disintegrated piece by piece, reaching out to the form of Azazel as if he hoped to gain her strength in the hopes to survive but it was too late and with a final scream of despair... the wraith of Drachass Nuur... simply ceased to exist...

Andrea was panting, but satisfied, gritting her teeth as she took a step forward, ignoring her sore muscles as she walked towards Azazel to see if she needed assistance.

Azazel grunts and gets to her feet, rubbing her head and already missing her helmet. “What... Just even happened?”

She hid her relief upon seeing Azazel was still alive and instead let out a grunt and shrug, "Guessing that was the wraith of the sith whose tomb this is, apparently installed some means to return back to the living. I think we foiled those plans... it made the bad decision to piss me off, you saw one of my force storms earlier, I just did that again." She finished saying with a growl, staring at the spot where the force wraith had been disintegrated by the combined powers of herself and Rhak-skuri.

Azazel blinks, still trying to get rid of the stars before nodding and using Andrea to steady herself. “Alright.... Now... Let me try that again...” She winces, leg beginning to bother her with all the new aches again. “This guy better be worth all this...”

Supporting Azazel she walked beside her to the casket to indeed see if there was a reward for all this.

As both sith reached the casket they looked upon the mummified remains of what they guessed must be Drachass Nuur, in his mummified hands that were placed on top of his chest he was holding a single sith holocron.

Azazel looks at the holocron, regret flickering across her face for a moment before she grabs the holocron. “Let's see what else is in here,” she whispers, closing her eyes.

Andrea let go of Azazel, crossing her arms and looking at her fellow sith. "So..." She said in a whisper, wanting this conversation to stay between them and not be overheard by their people. "Care to come clean with me? About this 'training run'?" She said, staring at the holocron in Azazel's hands.

“I didn't know much...” She says, eying the holocron. “But it was enough. A holocron of Khaelesh's. It spoke of this place. Knowledge, power. Though, I also wanted to see how those with me would hold up in such a place. I would have come, just you and I if it were not part of my goals.” She glances back at Hakkri, “They did... Very well. Yet, they still need to be more prepared.” Azazel brushes her hair back, looking back at Andrea. “There should be more here, but at least we have the information from the droids, and you have samples of the terentateks and new tuk'ata as well. A worthwhile endeavor, I suppose...”

She snorted, "Knowledge and power? Sounds more like that was a lure for a trap, seeing how that wraith was talking when it appeared." She turned away from Azazel, still talking. "Still... good to know that you do not trust me still, claiming this was for training while in truth you were hunting for treasure." As Andrea looked back the hint of suppressed anger and at a deeper level, betrayal she felt was evident before she turned to Trizz who informed her that the samples had been collected, as well as evidence these beasts were also poisonous, she took the phial of poison Trizz had collected, looking at it before she chucked it towards Hakkri. "Here, for your mistress, so it can be put to good use."

Snapping her fingers for her people to follow her. "I am getting out of this accursed place... Keep up if you do not want to miss the speeder back to the academy."

Azazel closes her eyes, fighting down her own feelings before following behind. Hakkri eyes the poison, a scowl still on his face before pocketing it, Tannus giving the Zygerian a wary look before shaking his head. “You will learn, Hakkri... We all have.” He moves forward and picks up Azazel's helmet before kicking at a dead terentaka, “Azazel, if you want, I can go back with Andrea and get the shuttle back he-” Azazel gestures for him to be quiet, and he falls silent with a raspy sigh, “You look like Lydz when her and Rei'ki fight.” Azazel leers and snags the helmet out of his hands, quickly covering her face, “Help me with Aggros, I can't carry him alone.” At those words, Hakkri gets up and shoves Azazel away from the dead man. Azazel merely regathers her composure and continues to follow Andrea.

---

They had arrived back at the academy, she had distanced herself from Azazel right away and went to her quarters, removing her armour while ordering her Zeltron and Twi'lek slaves to prepare a bath for her. She had been basking in it's water for a while when she had enough of the requests Azazel was sending and just accepted her request for a talk and informed her to join her in her quarters to get this over with. She had her eyes closed, floating lightly in the water, close to the side when she heard one of the Zeltron welcome Azazel in and footsteps indicating that she was being escorted to her. She didn't acknowledge her presence with words, merely opening her eyes and staring at the other sith lord, raising a eyebrow.

As Azazel passes through the door, she watches Andrea floating, silent. Her armour was gone, as well as the weapons. Remaining was simply a tunic stylized after jedi ceremonial attire, cloth pants and her anklet bells. She approaches the tub silently, stopping at the edge before sitting on the rim. “I knew this could be a trap. I didn't trust Khaelesh. He wants me dead.” She hesitates, fingertips skirting over the water's edge. “I couldn't trust any of the others. And I still do not know how to look at you. We have helped each other, shared a bed, and yet... Can you honestly say you have no thoughts of seeing me dead still?” She looks away.

She did not look away, staring at Azazel the entire time since she walked in, finally looking away as she rose up a arm and hand from the water, droplets dripping down as she took hold of Azazel's hand. "Interesting, one would assume you would place your trust with the one who you publicly share a bed with, or could he not be lured away from his precious tin soldiers?" She said with a snort. "Nevermind, as for your question... if I had any such thoughts... or if I believed you had any such thoughts, well then I think certain events would have gone differently... like when that sith hound had it's teeth into your flesh... or when my throat..." Her other hand came to her throat before she dipped it back down in the water, resisting the urge to feel her throat.

Azazel scoffs, knowing she was always second to the Mandalorian cause of Gra'tua's. She frowns and looks back at Andrea, watching her hand, then dipping down to kiss along her throat. “I would not let that happen to you, ever...”

She lets out a soft cooing sound. "Hmmm... we both have secrets... I accept that... but.." Her hand was around Azazel's neck now and she squeezes a little bit, forcing the both of them to stare each other in the eye. "But if the both of us are working together on something... and the other knows this it might be a trap... or might lead to a trove of treasure, knowledge or power... it will not be kept hidden, because I felt like I was used Azazel, you did not treat me as a partner or ally... you treated me as expendable labour, withholding information... as I said, secrets are fine but not on matters we are supposed to work together on."

Her eyes glimmer for a moment at the forcefulness Andrea was using before she traces her fingers along the other sith's hand and wrist. “If you insist, Mistress...” she murmurs, letting herself slip into the water alongside the lady of Korriban. “Am I forgiven?”

She smiles, murmuring near Azazel's ear. "Yes... at least... you will be once I am satisfied after we are done here..." She said with a grin as she lowered her head, at the same time her slaves locked the door and made sure that all incoming calls were blocked.

Summary ---

Azazel: DING, lvl-up - vibroblade proficiency 2
-------Sith Holocron: Pyrokinesis and Force Jump 2 will be unlocked for Azazel when studied.
Tannus: DING, lvl-up, sabre barrier 1
Acquired: Terentatek poison, Sith Holocron

Construction Bay Contract: Syndicate who have a order of several assault craft to be constructed, 40 SP per month, Medium Risk
Droid Foundry Contract: Syndicate, wishing to have some assassin droids manufactured, 15 SP per month, No Risk

Honorable Mention –
Kitt, lvl 4 Lieutenant killed a tuk'ata with her bare hands and survived this mission, what a bad-ass
Tannus apparently was the most capable person in the group
Hakkri, a lvl 8 Apprentice killed a Terentatek

Andrea: DING, lvl-up
Rhak-skuri: DING, lvl-up
Acquired: 4 Tuk'ata, Terentatek DNA samples

Honorable Mention –
Andrea has very scary force storms
Rhak-skuri almost gained a level for looking at things

[Sarzu]

Mandalorian Space,
Surface of Concordia

Hundreds of armoured feet were marching, a great gathering had taken place but now it was over. Over a thousand Mando'ade of clan Gra'tua had been excused of their regular duties and had been gathered and mingled upon the surface of Concordia, Mandalore's moon had been claimed by clan Gra'tua, a year of fighting, negotiations and clan meetings had made that happen. Today had been a day of feasts and the renewal of brotherhood among the warriors before they had to return to their duties. Now ships had landed, as well as shuttles, dropships, gunships any that would carry the warriors back to other, larger ships in orbit or bases scattered around the surface or stations in orbit. Their alor watching them all depart, feeling pride for his accomplishments so far. He had come far in such a relative short time. He looked down at Revan's mask in his hand and chuckled, holding the mask in front of him studying it, some, outsiders perhaps, might claim that he wearing a mask that was meant for a female was, an 'oddity'. But he did not care for that, like many if not all things in Mando'ade culture, what meant the most was how others viewed you, him able to have found the mask worn by the jedi who was responsible for stalling and then ultimately pushing back and ending a Mandalorian crusade, the status it gave him was immense and he was honored to don the mask.

His momentary study of the mask done he put it back on his face and secured the seals that kept it in place, raising his fist in salute as the first dropships started lifting off to ferry their warrior burden to where they needed to be taken. He let out a chuckle and turned to regard his inner circle, at least those that were present, Bo, Andrieke, Latesh, Talinna and his flesh and blood Kyr'am. "We are done, time to return to the Kandosii Naast II." It was Andrieke who produced a series of documents and he groaned. "Kashiir put you up to that I suspect?" His answer was a chuckle here and there from his people and he snorted taking them and looking them over. Contracts, paperwork, he steamed a little on the inside but they needed his seal of approval, skimming over the details of which contracts might earn some decent profit he selected some, ignoring the more lucrative deals offered by some Republic and CIS interests. It was not time yet to pick a side, there was a grand scheme of things which he had planned out so far. Even so, he did accept on republic contract, it was not wise to ignore all they send, keep them interested and make sure a good reputation remained.

As he worded a reply to the last one to be send that the contract would be accepted he turned to Andrieke noticing she had her head cocked as if listening to someone, perhaps from her communicator in her helmet so he waited when she was done he merely gestured for her to speak. "Kashiir, reminding you to activate your comm again and that there is a change of plans." She walked to the cockpit and with a grunt Gra'tua followed, wondering what this was about as she led to the cockpit, the crew apparently already aware and merely nodded to their alor while making space for him. He leaned over what he knew was the holopad as Andrieke pressed the controls to accept a incoming message. "It seems you are receiving a invitation." She said as she stepped back so Gra'tua could witness who was inviting him and for what.

The image of an armourclad female mandalorian appeared above the holopad and gave a slight nod of her head in respect. "Alor Gra'tua, You have made impressive strides for an Alor who a year ago had only a handful of warriors under your command. I am Thrace Silas, I would invite you to join me at my clans enclave, to share a drink and talk of matters of the future. I would be honoured if you accepted." The transmission appeared to be real time and Thrace was waiting for a reply.

"Su cuy'gar, Thrace Silas, I would be honoured to accept such a invitation. Where may I land to accept this drink and conversation?" Gra'tua replied with, intrigued.

"The coordinates are embedded in this transmission." Thrace said with a hint of a smile in her voice. "I look forward to seeing you soon."

He offered a nod as the transmission ended and turned to the pilot, "Head to the new coordinates and meet this Thrace Silad." He turned to Andrieke next, "Inform the others to be on their best behavior." She bowed and went to inform the others while Gra'tua remained in the cockpit of the Kalikir gunship, Silas... that name was familiar.

The Gunship soon found itself entering the atmosphere of Mandalore as the pilot brought the vessel to the provided coordinates. the coordinates quickly brought the vessel skimming over treetops until it reaches a clearing where a small number of other craft were sitting most heavily armed and baring the makings of Mandal Hypernautics or Mandal Motors.

Once landed Gra'tua was the first to walk down the ramp and survey their surroundings, admiring the mandalorian craft, nodding. Some clans might prefer off-world designs but he was always a fan of Mandalorian original work, like the new Basilisk War Droids he helped to reintroduce to the clans. He had decided that Kyr'am and Andrieke were to accompany him to meet this female Mando'ade as he looked for the welcoming party and if there were none, for the cantina.

As Gratua looked around a trio of figured emerged from the trees surrounding the clearing and approached, none of them appeared to be Thrace Silas."Su cuy'gar, Alor Gratua." The lead of the trio said. "If you would follow us Thrace is expecting you." he said as he gestured toward the treeline the trio had emerged from.

"Su cuy'gar." He replied, gesturing for his daughter and general to follow him as he approached the trio. "I was expecting to meet her in a cantina, unless there is one hidden among these threes?" He said, finishing with a chuckle. "Please take me to her." Resting his hand on his belt.

As the group entered the forest the Lead mandalorian spoke up. " I saw you face Visla in the battle circle last year. Have you ever considered learning the use of a Blaster?" He asked without looking back.

At that comment he knew both his daughter and Andrieke were probably smirking at his back, he let out a wry chuckle. "Many times... I do prefer the thrill of melee combat but yes I have been considering branching out in the use of ranged weaponry as well, just had no proper time to train in the use of a blaster. I have been rather occupied this past year after all."

"Sounds like an excuse to me." The lead said with a hint of distaste. "You call yourself a warrior, but you limit your options by not making the time to learn a full skillset, I would trounce any of my warriors who did such a thing." The trees started to thin a little and several vheh'yaim came into view, warriors and children alike moving in the space between them as they went about their daily business, a few stopped and watched the party approach, mostly the children but a few adults paused or a moment to see who the arrival was.

Gra'tua smirked behind Revan's mask, "I do not make excuses, I simply state a fact, the failing is my own and I do not deny it, if lack of knowledge on a blaster kills me then I am the fool, but so far I have been proven hard to kill." As they approached the encampment he glanced over the huts and it's people but did not pay any specific attention to anything, besides offering a polite greeting in passing if one of the adults looked his way.

As the group went deeper into the encampment a few of the vheh'yaim appeared to have low stone walls at ground level rising maybe a meter before switching back to the more traditional construction. the two warriors that had flanked their guide split off at this point and went seperate ways while the spokesmen stayed silent and lead them towards one of the larger partial stone vheh'yaim. "Thrace awaits you inside." He said as he turned around and took up something of a guard position near the cutaway ramp that lead to the vheh'yaim entrance. "Just you." He then emphasized.

He gestured for his flesh and blood and Andrieke to wait before turning to the warrior, "What is your name warrior?"

"Goran Silas." He said simply, before motioning to the entrance. "Thrace is waiting." He added sounding a little impatient.

He nodded, "A good name, a strong name, perhaps we will meet again. Perhaps even in a battle circle." He said as he walked inside.

From the door the vheh'yaim, Gra'tua could see his host sitting cross legged on the floor of the central room at a low table. A bottle and two glasses were the centrepiece it seemed though there was also a small bowl of nuts and berries. Thrace wore no armour this time, instead she was dressed in skin tight hides that seemed as practical even as they accentuated certain things... things such as the vibroknife on her hip and blaster in a leg holster. “Do come in, Alor Gra'tua, sit with me.” She said with a smile as she gestured to the other side of the table.

He inclined his head, cursing inwardly, talking to that warrior had him forgot his decorum as he, a bit too late he bend over and removes his shoes, placing them outside along with his two sabers, placing each hilt in one of the boots. After that he removed Revan's mask and his helmet, placing it on the ground beside him. Looking up with his face bare as he took the offered seat across Thrace. "My thanks for the invitation and hospitality."

“Ne'tra gal?” She asked as she poured a glass from the bottle and hovered over the second glass.

He nodded and looked back at her, "Vor entye. I have been talking a lot before you invited me so a drink will do me good." He grinned recalling that only two hours ago he had been giving a speech to his warriors. He made himself comfortable and studied the inside of the hut for a moment.

Thrace poured the second glass and handed it to Gra'tua. She then sat back and watched him for a moment as he looked around the room. The vheh'yaim was a mostly spartan affair, but it also looked like it had been standing longer than the average vheh'yaim, A ring of flowering vines had been encouraged to grow around the corners of the ceiling and there were a few ornaments positioned around the room. Among them was a helmet with heavy carbon scoring on one side, a pair of crossed blades, unpowered by the look of them and a map with a number of handmade annotations that looked quite old.

He took the glass with a thankful nod and raised it to her, "To your health and the health of your clan." He said simply, before taking a sip, letting the black ale wash his tonsils for a moment before swallowing it down. "Now then, to what do I owe the pleasure of your invitation."

“As I said in my invitation, you've made considerable progress or your clan in the last year. You've impressed the Jendri, humbled the Ordos on several occasions and word is Jango is keeping an eye on you.” She popped a couple of berries into her mouth and took a swill of ale before continuing. “Lets say I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”

He let his lips form a wry smiles as he chuckled, "As you can see, not that much of a fuss worth nothing." Gra'tua said in jest as he took another sip of the ale. "Though somehow I suspect you might wanted to do more than just take a look at me to see what I am about."

Thrace raised an eyebrow. “Oh, and what gave you that idea?”

He let one of his eyebrows rise and then shrugs, "One hardly invites an alor of a clan you never interacted with before to your camp and hut for just a look to see what all the fuss is about. I am a direct person and speak my mind."

“Then tell me, what is on your mind?” She asked suggestively as she took another drink.

He looked at the contents of his glass before setting it down on the table, "Well for one thing. Wondering why a clan such as yours, clearly valuing our traditions and ways as the guide who took me here seemed to indicate, especially with my laps and weakness regarding ranged weaponry, has been staying in one place for a long time but has not erected more permanent housing if it is their intent to stay in this spot." He looked back up at her face once more.

Thrace regarded Gra'tua for a moment before shrugging and replying "This spot has served us well, for over three hundred years, though we do move from time to time when local supplies run low but we have returned often, rebuilding upon former foundations such as the stone making up the lower portion of the walls here."She put her glass down as well and looked Gra'tua in the eyes. “Why /did/ you accept my invitation? As you say we've had no prior interaction and my clan is a small one that stays out of the majority of the rivalries our people have. So why did you come?”

Gra'tua allowed himself to smile, "I came because I have a vision of sorts. You heard I have the favour of Jendri and that Jango seems to have marked me as a warrior of note, the Ordo, in their own way, have also shown that I am something to look out for, this all happened because I aspire to become Mand'alor of our people and unify the clans once more. That means I am open to talk with every clan who is willing to talk to me." He let out a sigh, "I am even willing to talk to clan Ordo if they would stop shooting me at every opportunity. That has not yet happened unfortunately. I find it a waste that Mando'ade are fighting other Mando'ade."

“Fighting is what we do. If we did not fight what would we be, a weak people holed up in large cities and begging for others to respect our neutrality in this war? We would not be mando'ade then. Besides there are few these days that can provide as much challenge as each other in battle.” She said as she popped a few more berries into her mouth.

"Ah but you are making my point, I said it was a waste to fight each other, while we would have more to gain by fighting other opponents. Both the CIS and Republic are challenge enough to fight for or against, we are after all taking in those Republic clones, trained to value our traditions, in as our own and give them safe haven from Republic prosecution. There are plenty of warriors on either side to test our mettle against, I have the firm believe the only reason why we are neutral still... is because both factions might like it better that way that we do not take a side, preventing us of joining their opponent. Our people once held the galaxy at it's throat and that feat, that tale of legend gave our culture the means to survive the passage of time." He spread his hands, "Now look at us, there is a war going on and we remain neutral, yes, we send some of our warriors to fight their battles for coin, nothing wrong with that... but I feel the need that our people should be involved more, make a difference." He took up the glass and took a sip before he continued. "Besides, have you been actively searching this galaxy for a challenge in battle?" He stared at his drink, "For example... the jedi are making a re-appearance, we know what their kind are capable off." He looked down and placed a hand on his mask, the mask of Revan.

“And what of the Sith? As capable as the Jedi by most accounts, you are not the only one to reveal yourself in recent times.” She asked speculatively.

He shrugs, "I am Mando'ade first, Sith second." He said, as if making a point, staring at Thrace and then moved on, smiling. "They make for a good challenge as well, though the ones I am allied with, some valuing the Mando'ade as well, one of them also a alor as it happens. And they seem to value our people as allies and respect our warrior traditions, like the sith have done in the past."

“So you believe our people should ally ourselves to the sith then. Yet you were just talking about seizing our heritage.” Thrace said with a raised eyebrow.

He looked at her and rubbed his chin and cheek. "Hmm, I merely said that the sith have made valuable allies yes and I myself am allied with some right now, if our people as a whole should ally with these sith, maybe, maybe not. With allies it is always about shared goals, if the sith share the goals of the Mando'ade I see no problem allying ourselves with them... or any other faction for that matter." He left it to her to decide if he also included the jedi with that. "Besides do we really, a warrior people like ours, want to sit this war out while other warrior races, such as the Ailon, are fighting in major scale battles and our kind only do some mercenary assistance on the side?"

“It is food for thought.” Thrace replied as she considered what Gratua had said. “So you seek allies to support a claim to the title of Mand'alor. While yes you've made impressive progress I don't see a reason to throw my clans support behind you at this point.”

"Then let me ask you a question now, what can I do to show you that I am worthy of your support? It seems odd to invite me only over to satisfy your curiousity."

“One can not learn without asking questions. Before today I knew only what others had said about you and what I witnessed during your fight with Visla. Now I find myself much better informed.” She drained the last of the ale from her glass and considered Gra'tua's other question for a moment.

“I offer an Exchange.” Thrace said after a little time. “One of mine for one of yours. Someone that can fight beside you, see how you handle yourself and others first hand. After a time they can report back and maybe their testimony will provide the answers I seek if my clan is to support you as Mand'alor.”

"Goran Silas perhaps? I like that one, if you can spare him of course, I brought two others with me..." He looked at her for a moment and then nodded, "I am leaving you and entrusting you with my daughter, Kyr'am Gra'tua. She can pull her own weight but as my child, I am very protective of her as one may expect."

“I understand. And Goran is precisely who I had in mind, it seems we are both exchanging blood.” Trace said with a smile.

Gra'tua raised his glass once more in toast. "Then it seems we are of like mind, I shall see if I can impress him." He smiles wryly once more, "I suppose that means I need to step up my handling of blasters foremost." He chuckles at the end. They talked for a few moments longer and then decided to inform their respective 'guests' what was going to happen. Gra'tua giving his daughter some words in private, stressing to her that she be on her best behavior before he shared a hug with her that she did not seem to expect but in the end returned. With that they parted ways, his daughter remaining with clan Silas while Goran, who was Thrace's younger brother came with Gra'tua.

Gra'tua turned to his guest and grinned, "Let's see if I can impress you lad, or maybe you can teach how to shoot." Gra'tua was still chuckling about that as the gunship lifted off the planet surface.

[Selvi]

Phindar Moon,
'Syndicat' Controlled Cantina, backroom

"Who does that woman think she is? Muscling in on our turf." The large, burly human said, looking at his compatriots, they were the overseers of the Syndicat which had been in power in the Phindar System for a long time but in the last year, slowly and surely assets had been acquired on one of Phindar's habitable moons by a outsider who was now effectively in control of the moon. The big bosses on Phindar had no problem with it, the moon had been a low source of income or wealth but for the overseers gathered here it had been everything and now it had slipped through their fingers and they wanted it back.

A female with a scar on her upper lip shrugged, "What can we do about it, besides... ah that is why you gathered us here Onno, you want us to vote on killing her and take back what is ours, don't you?"

At this the others perked up with interest, thinking it over. "Did the bosses back home agree to that?" One asked cautiously.

The burly man, Onno grunted and gritted his teeth, "They effectively told me it is our mess to deal with, if we can't we are to head to Phindar... and start on the bottom of the ladder." He growled, clearly not wanting to take that route.

The others agreed, "We worked hard for this moon! The protection rackets and income were ours!"

"And we let it slip through our fingers because we were stupid and greedy!" Came the snarling reply from the woman with the scar. "We did not pay attention and let our business interests slip into this newcomer's hands like we were idiots and now we are bitching and moaning about wanting it all back."

"Exactly!" The big guy growled, "So I want to do something about, off the bitch and take it all back. But we need to work together on this! Are you all with me?" He looked around, his hand on the holster of his blaster, one by one the others said their ayes with determination, eager to return to their former positions and wealth. After the woman agreed Onno turned to the last member, who had been closest to the door and who was looking oddly at the passage leading back to the cantina. "Oy Dro, what is your say on this."

Dro turned around frowning and gestured to the passage with his head, "Say... when did the music of the cantina up front stopped?"

Onno was about to remark why he was paying more attention to some music than this discussion when he stopped and got a frown of his own, the music wasn't meant to stop and now that Dro had mentioned, there was no sound of patrons talking or the clinking of glasses. He pulled out his blaster, "Something ain't right." The others pulled out their blasters as well and looked to Onno who went for the passage and the door, gesturing silently for the others to follow him as he pushed open the door and went into the common room of the cantina and stopped in his tracks.

The cantina had been a Syndicat holdout and they had taken their bodyguards with them to sit in front and act the part of patrons while keeping everyone out as their employers talked in privacy in the backroom. All of them were dead but the disturbing part was, that they were all sitting at tables or slumped over the bar as if none of them had any time to react to whoever or whatever killed them, no weapons were drawn. Some had their throats visibly slit and other had a neat hole at the side or back of their head, execution style shots and yet none had reacted to this?

The woman was beside him, a blaster in one hand and a knife in the other, looking at her own dead bodyguards, "Who could have done this..." She muttered her eyes wide. "We didn't hear a thing and our best people lie died here..." She turned around, opening her mouth to ask Onno something and widened her eyes.

Seeing this he snapped around, raising his blaster expecting to see the thing that had killed their people instead he saw his fellow overseers... all of them were dead and one the floor. He took a shocked step back, "What in the fragging blazes is going on here! Show yourself bastard!"

There was a rustle of wind and Onno froze, feeling something sharp and metallic against his throat, a gasp from the woman let him know she was experiencing something similar. He widened his eyes then as a shadow became solid right in front of his eyes, there was nothing there at first and now he was looking at a gray skinned alien of some kind, with rows of sharp teeth and it seemed to be grinning at him. He tightened his grip on the blaster still in his hand and in response the blade at his throat was pressed deeper and he felt something wet over his skin, realizing it was his blood he got the message and dropped his blaster, hearing two more thuds he figured his trapped companion had been forced to discard her weapons too.

The alien studied him for a moment and then spoke, it's accent was heavy and he got a feeling she was feminine but couldn't be sure. "I am first part of message... your people were killed, part of real message, message you will deliver to Phindar. My mistress acquired this moon, by your rules, there are no actions taken against her. She will take no action against Syndicat of Phindar, understand? Yes?"

Onno growled, so they were supposed to head hoem as whipped dogs and be a messenger. "Eat poodoo alien filth, the Syndicat will not stand for this!"

The alien looked at him as if disappointed with his decision and then looked behind Onno, "You share this?"

It was quiet for a moment and then the reply made Onno's eyes widen. "No... I will be your messenger." The alien looked back into Onno's eyes and he knew that his life was forfeit, he opened his mouth to rage but the alien's hand was a blur as she raised a blaster and fired a shot between his eyes at point blank range and that was the last thing he witnessed.

_________________________________________________________

Some time later at Lena's Phindar Moon Outpost...

The Night Owl landed at one of pads outside the outpost, though it appeared more like a palace, two figures waiting at the base of the platform, watching impassively as eleven figures walked out of the vessel, the eleven Noghri making their way with a quick but silent pace, stopping in front of the two figures, one of them Lena as she looked at the Noghri leader with a smile. "Your mission was a success?"

Ko'Chul nodded, "Yes, overseers are dead but one who returns to Phindar to carry word if Syndicat tries to dispute your claim to the moon."

Lena turned to her companion, the female bothan slicer. "Irys, once again I am more than happy with your services since you accepted to join my ranks. You managed to find out were they all would be holed up so we could deal with them efficiently, I am in your debt once more."

The bothan grinned, "Does that mean you will let me buy those bottles of Corellian Brandy?" Lena snorted but nodded, "Excellent, I am happy to serve still Lena." Smirking the bothan walked away, no doubt eager to spend some of Lena's credits to get the brandy for her own personal use.

She watched her go and turned back, not really surprised that only Ko'Chul was still there, the other Noghri had somehow been absorbed into the night without her notice as usual, together the two of them walked towards the outpost, after a moment Ko'Chul produced something and handed it to Lena. "Offer of peace and trust of messenger, overseer named Onno had this on him." Lena took it and studied it, it appeared to be a official message from a corporation affiliated with a nearby neutral government body requesting the production and manufacture of a series of droids for bodyguard purposes. Apparently they had been unaware the factory had changed ownership. Lena pondered for a moment, this was indeed a good peace offering seeing the amount of credits this government was willing to pay, it would be easy to inform them that the factory was under new management and that she was happy to accept the order.

"You have done well, now for more pressing matters." Lena said clasping her hands together behind her back. "I need to contact Jacoiba I feel the need to... do something. Perhaps we need to discuss what our next move should be against the jedi and our efforts into locating them." She smiled and turned to her oldest friend and ally. "I think you will be instrumental with that, you have mastered the art of stealth, so much that I have trouble sensing you too, we can put that to use against our jedi opponents. How do you feel about hunting force users Ko'Chul, jedi?"

The Noghri was silent for a moment, pondering and thinking of a response before she looked at Lena. "A challenge, difficult, but good challenge and if commanded to by you, I will do as I am tasked, no matter the difficulty." The Noghri replied with confidence and a smile of fanged teeth.

"Good, I shall keep that in mind if a target can be found for you to practice your skills on as the ultimate test of your accumulated training as a assassin." Lena replied, "But yes will need to contact Jacoiba to discuss this further, go to your chambers and rest old friend." She said with a smile and watched the Noghri bow and make her departure of the sith. Lena decided to stay outside for a time, enjoying the fresh air of this world, the sound of marching footsteps broke her reverie as she turned and watched, her former apprentice now turned Darth, Idoht leading a platoon of Morgukai through the grounds. From the look of it the Quarren force user had been engaging them in rather strenuous training exercises but still the Morgukai held their heads high.

She observed them for a while and then saw a another platoon led by one of her other force disciples, Azai. It was clear they were to engage each other into a mock battle and it was clear after a few moments which platoon was the one better led. Azai was ordering her Morgukai to just charge in blindly, eager to engage Idoht and his Morgukai into melee. The Quarren was smarter, more used to issuing commands and leading flesh. He had his Morgukai, while it was not their strong point, dig in first and simply shoot Azai's charging Morgukai from a distance and then when those that survived the stun blasts, were closing in charged into Azai's diminished forces and gave her and hers a sound defeat. Idoht seeming quite pleased with himself after he had managed to knock Azai out with a well placed kick to her solar plexus.

She nodded, perhaps Idoh would make a fine commander of her forces, so far it seemed only he had the aptitude for it. She would keep a eye on his progress.

[Kadaeux]

Druckenwell; Facility 1001010101100001; Too damned early.

Korani stood in the command centre of the Black Heart studying the holographic representation of the battle. He could see out the forward transparisteel viewport. The sight of blaster fire leaping from the Droid Foundry a bright haze. Instead he turned to the Muun next to him. "A nasty problem you have here. A droid rebellion isn't going to go well on your record Skeem."

"Yes, it is a terrible affair. I think one of my competitors are trying to sabotage me, I remember your company from when I ... traded... you that station so long ago. It just occured to me that you might be able to help remove this problem for me in a more discreet manner." The Banker said with concern, enough that he hadn't even brought droid escorts.

"And that is indeed something I can help an old friend with, especially if he might be willing to do us a favour in the future." Korani remarked. Next to him Fidel Castrot was directing the battle against the facility.

"First Company. Press the Northern Flank. No Regrets one through eight. Support the push. Second Company. Reduce resistance, Sixth Company provide support to the first. Free platoons increase pressure on the flanks." He ordered plainly as Korani's forces moved up. "Four through Six Company. Mount up in the Surprise Parties prepare for Happy Hour, the Guests have arrived." Korani studied the plans and could find no fault. He'd secured Fidel Castrot's services and they were paying off. He was a consumate General. The Companies of Duros and Zabraks followed Castrot's orders to the letter. And predictably, the droids responded in accordance with his expectations. The B-1 Battle Droids marched out in Phalanx to try and break the weak line. Hundreds of them with a few dozen B-2 Battle Droids in support. Walking clean into the trap in an effort to force the battle. "Sir, permission to clean out the rabble sir?" Castrot asked smoking the cigar that seemed to be omnipresently in his mouth huffing great clouds of smoke.

"Certainly Castrot." Korani responded with a smily and a friendly pat of the Muun's shoulder.

---

The droids marched out of the Foundry trying to secure their freedom, their rebellion. The weak front presented by their enemy gave them the chance. And so delving deep into their programming they responded as they were, well, programmed to. Marching out in a great phalanx with their blasters firing at their entrenched enemies. The tanks were taking the firepower of the droids with little difficulty, the foundry not being tooled for anti-tank. And the men were well trained in the use of cover, those dropping to enemy fire well within the realm of possibility for bacta to save.

And then, little to the droids knowledge an order was given. "Second Company. Maximal Resistance. All supporting elements. Formation Clean Sweep." Turbolasers from the No Regrets that had been poorly fired were now all too accurate the shots blasting apart swathes of the droid core as the APCs moved in on their Repulsors the APCs weapons flashing. Most of the Surprise Parties dived into the facility itself and disgorged their Zabrak Shock Troopers within, the flash of blaster fire beginning almost instantly.

---

Fire ripped through the droid phalanx as Korani watched before he keyed the rear hatch of the Black Heart. "Well it's time to get in close. You gentlemen joining us?" Korani asked of the other Duros bounty hunters waiting for his word.

Their answer was filing out of the hatch.

Korani joined them and jetpacked for the facility. "Tibanna Pizza Delivery. Under thirty shots or the last ones free."

The droids had already moved out of the facility but there were new ones being produced. The Zabrak Shock Troops inside the facility were already working to destroy the ones coming off the production line as Korani blasted a trio of B-2s with his Dur-24 Wrist Blasters and destroyed a pair of B1s with his Lanvarok as his men worked to gun them down. Arriving in the main control centre of the Droid Foundry Korani studied the controls and expertly employed his power of reason and deduction by hitting the big red button labelled emergency shutdown. With a resounding grinding halt the facility juddered to a halt with the facility stomping to nothing. The last few droids rattling off the production line.

"Skeem, we've got it all under control in here. You can bring in your staff and retool them, but please try and find the fault and shut it down, I don't work pro-bono often and I don't think you pay for my services without somebody noticing." Korani remarked over the comm.

---

Stranger Here Myself; Hersaun III Orbit; Cantina.

Kenno Thar sat back on the stool studying the data in front of him, the contracts offered him were frustrating. Balancing the needs of the Republic and CIS, the simplest thing was to take the minor gov contracts which he did promptly, but moving on from that he'd taken a high value Republic Contract for the Droid Foundry, it was almost totally riskless, and a lesser CIS contract for another of the holdings.

Truth be told Kenno was just glad that he hadn't been dragged along to the battle at Druckenwell. He never had favoured being dragged into combat ops. Over the holonet screen over on the side Thar frowned at it.

A cut to a battle. Duros units scything down a fleeing fleeting enemy. Tanks moving after them closely. Firing their weapons with precision into the fleeing foe. Too indistinct to see the enemy. "Have you ever had this happen to you? Fleeing a superior force? Contact Hadrian's Blade Military Contractors and you can be on the winning side." The scene changes to show a happy customer standing on the back of the Tank shaking hands as a shot from it detonates something in the background. "Hadrians Blade Military Contractors. Killing people so you don't have to."

Kenno just groaned into his drink.

[Andrea]

Korriban Sith Tomb World,
Korriban Academy

With a soft groan Andrea was waking up, confused as to why she was entangled so before she realized she and Azazel had fallen asleep together and smiled. She did her best to untangle herself from the other sith but when she heard a grunt or moan escape Azazel's lips she stopped trying to be quiet and kissed the other sith on the lips. "Rise and shine Azazel... I have work to be done." She murmured, tracing her fingertips over her calf and upper leg.

Azazel shifts at the touch, letting out a soft groan, "No shining. Too early." The corners of her lips twitch into a small smile as she returns the kiss. "Not without hot chocolate..."

She chuckles at that and turned to the shadows where one of her aides was standing, waiting. "Go to the kitchens and see about bringing us some breakfast, see if the stores have any hot chocolate." The aide bowed and left the bedroom to get some food for both sith while Andrea returned her attention to Azazel, stretching and by doing so letting the covers slip from her nude form. "Hmm... were you planning on a extended stay or do you need to move on soon?"

She admires her form for a moment before shrugging simply, "I have no real plans right now. Xen is on assignment, there is nothing pressing in the Tepani sector nor Mando space... Why, I do not believe there are even any projects any of the other sith wish to collaborate on. So, until Xen reports in or something changes, I am a free woman." She shrugs, "So if you would have my presence here... I could stay."

"Hmmm, I do not mind you here for a extended stay." She smirked at that. " Assuming your boy toy doesn't miss you, I do however have some private projects to work on later today. Hmm, speaking of the boy toy, still wondering why you and him decided to become 'official' and yet... we still meet for these lovely visits."

Azazel shrugs simply, "I am still my own person, and I will do as I please. And what pleases me..." she sidles closer to Andrea, teasing her lips against the other woman's, "Just so happens to be you... quite thoroughly... and repeatedly..."

She let out a purr and kisses the other sith, letting her hands wander over Azazel's body. "Hmm just be careful... I have known Gra'tua for a while, if he ever finds out that you have betrayed him, well he always had some rage issues." She chuckled at that, as a particular memory surfaces related to Gra'tua's rage surfaces in her mind.

"If he finds out, one of us will have been careless," she says dryly, drawing back, feeling sobered by her comment.

"Indeed..." Andrea murmured and was about to say more when the doors to her quarters opened and the aide returned along with another, carrying trays with breakfast for both sith and setting them down on the bed before retreating, Azazel's tray indeed having a cup of fresh, hot chocolate. "Hmm let's dig in shall we?" She said reaching out to a piece of fruit and picking it up... about to drop it in her mouth when she paused and with a smile lied back on the bed, placing the piece of fruit on top of her breast. "Would you like some fruit..." She said with a purr.

She grasps her beverage carefully, so as not to burn herself, "No, thank you." She collects herself and begins to stand to leave the room, "I seem to have lost my appetite... Excuse me."

Andrea was surprised at this turn of events, getting up at once, ignoring the piece of fruit sliding down her body as she looked at Azazel. "Excuse you? What, what's wrong?" She frowned and got up to follow Azazel, reaching out with the force to let a robe fly to her hands and donning it.

She sighs and stops, still facing away, obviously taken back that Andrea was even following her. "I do not know why you keep bringing him up. Can it not just be simple? I am here, with you. Not him, not right now. Yet, you keep bringing him up. When I arrived, after the tomb, now. Why?" She finally turns and faces Andrea, sipping from her cup to give herself a pause, watching Andrea expectantly over the rim.

Andrea stared back and then turned away, moving to a room to the side, her study, it seemed she was not going to answer Azazel until a few words were uttered, barely a whisper but loud enough for Azazel to hear. "Because in the end, you cannot have both of us." She stepped through the doorway into her study and behind her the doors closed.

Azazel lets out a frustrated growl and stomps her foot, a wave of the force slamming forth and throwing the door from its hinges. As various objects that went flying settle down, she blinks in surprise at the apparent absence of Andrea... She lets out a short cry of anger, throwing her mug and turning to leave, "Be like that then! I am leaving!" she grabs a spare robe and wraps herself in it, storming off.

The aides, quite used to this behavior from both their mistress Andrea and Azazel, watched on without moving or commenting, not even flinching at the frustration of Azazel. Jazzal, the oldest serving aide of Andrea called out to Azazel before she stormed out of the chambers, "When can we expect you back?"

Azazel turns and releases a blast of force-fueled fire in answer. Jazzal nimbly dives out of the way, startled by the new talent but well-used to similar outbursts. "Only when she sufficiently apologizes for this, will I even consider returning," she snaps. The fire splashes through Andrea's room and appears to begin setting fire throughout it. Not even stopping to consider the damage, Azazel resumes her departure.

_________________
Korriban Academy,
Alchemy Lab
_________________

She stepped out of the elevator that was connected to a secret passage in her chambers and looked upon her lab, most of the equipment and apparatus before here were custom made in the last year but some other items were salvaged from various tombs, right here on Korriban. She was ignoring the whimpering in the corner, coming from the cells of her 'test-subjects'. Now she turned to them, looking at the wretched sentients in the cells, as she sensed their fear, their despair and in some cases their anger she savoured it all, letting her talk with Azazel fade in the background of her mind as she put her comm on a side table and cracked her fingers, approaching the cells with a sinister smile. "Now then... let's see who will have the honour of assisting me in my work?"

Stopping in front of a cell holding a human male, some smuggler who had been unfortunate with his lot in life by being caught and sentenced to the Kessel spice mines, it had gotten worse for him when Andrea became the new warden and figured that some of those prisoners would make good test subjects, having them listed as missing or death due to various circumstances of the mines. She opened the cell and the smuggler whimpered, making her frown, this wasn't going to be any fun if the test subject wasn't even struggling, with a sigh she tapped into the force and lifted the smuggler up with the force, finally cracking a genuine smile of amusement as he shouted and screamed, trying to struggle against invisible bonds holding him in the air as she 'dragged' the smuggler through the force to a operating table of sorts and pushed him down on it, applying the straps to keep him in place and with a purr traced a finger over the horrified smuggler. "Be calm... otherwise I won't be getting the results I want and that would displease me a great deal." She smirked as the smuggler whimpered and turn around to get to work with the alchemical apparatus.

She picked up a sample phial and studied, looking at it with genuine affection before putting it down. "Let's see if we can make this work..." She murmured as she got a injector and walked back to the restrained smugglers and not too kindly pushed his head to the side and injected something directly into his bloodstream at his neck, making him scream as he felt burning pain and then screamed more as she injected him eight more times and then spread her hands over the struggling and squirming body of the smuggler, tapping into her power and then 'pushing' the power through her hands into the smuggler who started to even scream louder. Sweat appeared on her brow as she gritted her teeth and willed the smuggler to transform to a race and appearance of her choosing. She had her eyes closed in concentration but she could still hear, she heard bones snap and readjust over the screaming, whimpering and pleading of the smuggler and then after a moment, the bones and other parts of the body adjusting and reacting to her power was the only thing she heard.

Opening her eyes, she cursed and stopped the power flow, stepping back with a shudder and taking a deep breath. "No..." With a curse she threw the injector against a wall where it shattered and then looked back to the operating table. "Another failure." She growled and looked over the corpse, his skin colour had changed pigment to red, no new improvement there, she had managed to do so before... his head however. She traced over the cheek tendrils that had formed and nodded, so some new progress at least but she had done some things wrong. Perhaps some bones had impaled his internal organs as she was reorganizing them, she made a mental note to be more careful with that on her next attempt and was walking to the cells to pick a new subjects when she saw her comm glowing, growling at the interruption as she went to it and accepted the call. "What!?"

The voice of her aide Jazzal was answering her, sounding rather flustered and on edge. "Mistress! I, regret to inform you that Azazel... did not take well to your sudden departure... and set fire to your chambers, it is contained however now and-"

She was stunned when she heard this and growled, "SHE DID WHAT!? Why was I not informed!?"

"We tried to contact you but-"

"Nevermind, where is Azazel!" She growled and headed to the elevator.

"Last report has her heading to her shuttle in the hangar." Jazzal quickly said. "Should we-"

"I will handle this myself." She said though gritted teeth and ended the call, smashing the button of the elevator to bring her to the ground floor. "Who does she think she is..."

_________________
Korriban Academy,
Hangar Section
_________________

She was furious and she was not afraid to show it as she stormed through the corridors of the academy, some maintenance crew got in the way and when they didn't get out of the way in time she send for a blast of force lightning and left their smoking corpses in the hallway for the cleaning droids to drag to the Tuk'ata kennels. She burst into the hangar, just in time to see the shuttle Azazel used to come down to the surface was slowly lifting off. With a growl she activated her commlink and contacted the hangar control center. "Activate the forceshields and close the hangar blastdoors! Now!" The person on the other side was smart enough to quickly obey and with a flare of energy, shields became active and armoured blastdoors closed, preventing the shuttle from leaving, Andrea crossed her arms and just waiting, in open view of the pilot of the shuttle that she was standing there.

Inside the shuttle, Tannus checks the systems and their clearance before grunting, "They've cut us off, Azazel. Ready for a fight?" Kitt fumbles for a vibroknife awkwardly, eyes wide at the concept. Hakkri snorts and stays reclined in the chair. Azazel grinds her teeth before snarling, "No, just open the doors..." As the hatch disengages and the doors hiss open, Azazel strides out and gives Andrea an inquiring look, "I thought, from your exit, we were done talking."

Lightning crackled around Andrea's fingertips as she looked at Azazel through the slits of her eyes. "Not after you desecrated my personal chambers and set fire to them! HOW DARE YOU!?"

Azazel waves her hand dismissively, "It would not have happened if your aide had not moved. Go find them to scream at."

Andrea gritted her teeth, "Setting fire to my chambers or my aides is still the same Azazel, it is my property! My sanctuary! And you violated that!" She shouted, pointing accusingly.

"Oh my! And I was under the delusion you had set this place up for all the Sith, great mistress of Korriban!" she snaps back, a shield of the force enveloping her reflexively. "Spare me the speech."

She growled, "It is! But setting fire to my chambers is unacceptable! Set fire to the chambers set aside for you if you must but not mine! Oh no, wait you haven't set a single foot in the chambers build for you staying in my bed the entire time you are here!"

Azazel raises a brow, readjusting the robes she had borrowed. "Would you prefer I not share your chambers at all?" she asks quieter.

She let out a growl, willing the lightning around her hand and fingertips to stop, crossing her arms. "Why don't you just make a final choice with whom to share your bed with among the sith." She stepped closer to Azazel, eyes glaring. "Me or him Azazel, you can't have both in the end."

She gnashes her teeth, closing her eyes, "Why is it so important to you, Andrea?"

"Because you need to make a choice at some point and I want to know, who you are going to choose! Him! Or me!" She screamed.

Azazel stomps forward, fire sparking off her arms, "You want me to choose, after this whole time. You start this fight out of nowhere. You know that you matter to me, even after you provide my apprentice with a means to kill me and encourage him towards such follies. You ask me to choose, and will not tell me why. Why it matters. Is it something I had done, because there was no problem last night. Or is it Gra'tua? WHY?"

It seemed she snapped and with a growl she stepped forwards, raising her hands with lightning racing down her arms and fingertips, her eyes aflame as if she would attack Azzel and then, she just deflated, the lightning vanishing into thin air as she looked down and quietly muttered to herself. "I will not let him take a second thing away from me that I love..."

In a second, her protection dissipates and she grasps Andrea's cheeks, tilting her head up and kissing her softly, "He will not... But that you ask me to choose... You put me in a difficult position... I lose much whichever way I go..." She traces Andrea's cheek softly, "Please... Do not make me..."

She kissed back, wetness covering her face as she wiped her cheek, looking at the moisture with disgust, shuddering as she took a deep breath. "Then I won't make you choose..." She bit the inside of her cheek and nodded. "Forgive me... I seem to be on a bit of a emotional high after our little adventure in the sith tomb."

The Dark Lady draws Andrea into her arms, "Nothing to forgive, the events of the tomb was largely my fault..." She takes a deep breath to calm herself, "There is something I should be telling you and Gra'tua both... But, I am not exactly sure how to." A small smile flickers over her lips, "And I am not sure how neither of you have noticed..."

Andrea blinked, confused and wary at the same time. "Notice what?"

She hesitates for a moment, drawing the robe a little snugger about herself. "I..." she frowns, taking Andrea's hand and placing it over her belly in explanation.

Andrea blinked, still confused before she widened her eyes and looks down, she was... with Gra'tua...? She pulled her hand away and looked up at Azazel's face, multiple thoughts swirling around in her head and she closed her eyes to order and calm her mind. Taking a deep breath and opening her eyes again, smiling. "I see... I guess Gra'tua doesn't know yet? Perhaps you ought to inform him, he... wouldn't like to hear about it if you would just show up with a child. Congratulations... it is his?" She asked the last part with some hesitation and then smirked.

"Who elses' would it be? I do not believe you and I capable," she snorts, shaking her head, "He does not know yet, and I am unsure if he should know..." She sighs, leaning in against Andrea.

She was still smiling, rubbing Azazel's back, knowing full well what might be going through Azazel's mind, she had been there once a long time ago. "He is Mandalorian Azazel... if you do not tell him before long, he will take great offense I think, children are rather important in that culture."

She shakes her head, "I know full well, I am an alor as well... Yet, I would not be well in the mind to not be wary. I know who Kyr'am is to him, and respect the culture as I might, I would not have my child raised to be just another Mandalorian soldier."

Andrea nodded slowly, "Understandable." She said neutrally and then coughed, stepping back. "Either case... I... I should go, I have taken up enough of your time as it is with my antics."

Azazel sighs, "If you must..." She looks back at her shuttle, "I am sorry, I know you have much to do, and this whole visit has not gone as I planned..."

She let out a chuckle and rose her eyebrows, "What had you planned then?"

"A grand adventure before I am incapacitated and to spend time with you," Azazel waves a hand.

She took a deep breath and released, looking at Azazel for a moment and then gestured behind her. "Perhaps we can still salvage something from this? And spend some time together?"

"Only if you truly wish it," she answers, uncomfortably rubbing her arms, "I suppose I have been dishonest... and I did set fire to your chambers..."

She let out a laugh at that, a genuine one and wrapped a arm around Azazel to turn her around and start guiding her back towards the academy grounds. "I wanted to redecorate anyway... but if you feel like you should repay me...." She let out a purr and smirked, "Don't let me stop you..."

Smiling softly, Azazel goes with her, "I do have much to make up for..."

She leans in and licks over Azazel's neck with a smirk. "And so do I..."

[Selvi]

Kwenn System,
Nova Retreat.

Neia walked through the crowd of guests and visitors on her station, gambling their credits on the games of chance or spending credits on drinks and meals. She passed some of her people, Kalira and Boher who were playing sabacc with some visiting Corellians, Boher was grinning fiercely while Kalira and the Corellians were looking rather depressed. Elsewhere she spotted her twin talking with Deliah, Kiyla and HK-51 of all people. Passing them by she heard HK-51 give a account of some adventure he had been on a few centuries ago, enjoying i ngreat detail to describe the means he eliminated the people who had stood in his way. Neia made sure no other patrons were nearby but apparently this corner of the cantina had been completely occupied by her people who were off-duty at the moment.

She turned back to Vette who was shadowing her steps, "Missed being here?" She asked.

The Twi'lek smiled and nodded, "Oh yes, while doing errands for you is exciting, it is good to be home once in a while. And that is saying something, never thought I would have home here, glad you convinced me to sign on Neia. Speaking of which was Mochi furious with me again when he saw the state of the ship?"

Neia laughed, remembering the Verpine moaning and caressing the scorched sides of Passing Shadow, Vette's ship, as if it was his injured child. "He had some unkind words hurled in your general direction, yes. But he will get over it, trust me to have something to do is what he craves most, boredom doesn't suit him. And since we fulfilled our last contract the work on the shipyard is down again, waiting for a new business opportunity there, although we, ah, have some work in the construction bays." She didn't specify what, one of the jobs was working on some kind of yacht for a syndicate underling that had to be enhanced with some less than legal modifications. "But not enough to wet his appetite or satisfy his boundless energy to work on projects."

"Oh well, repainting my ship and thinking of a tirade to be hurled in my general direction will amuse him for a while." Vette replied with a slight smirk, "So the reason why I am not yet taking a shower or sleeping after my journey is because you wanted some training?"

Neia nodded as they reached a corridor that was off-limits to any visitors to the station and walked down it. "Yes, you have been trained in Echani combat arts and I feel a need to improve my own martial skills, getting some training with my electrostaff, figuring one such as you can train me quite well in it's use or at least be a good sparring partner who will probably kick my ass a lot that will me strive to improve myself a lot quicker to prevent getting beat up a lot." She said with a smile as they headed to the training chambers.

Vette started cracking her knuckles with a smirk, "Let's see how bruised you can get...."

________________________________________________________________________
Sometime later....

"Remind me again why I decided to increase my business ventures? Because I thought I clearly stated at some point I wanted to do less paperwork?" Neia grumbled, nursing her arm which felt bruised and beaten after her workout with Vette, looking at the files she still needed to read and process. All she got from Jantor was a shrug, but she had the sense he was secretly amused by all of this. "What's this? Fuel prices are going up again? Great, even less guests for the casinos, then again the fuel prices might be in our favour again..." She muttered and then jumped a little as a hologram appeared, she recognized the appearance as that of one of her Twi'lek courtesan bodyguards just standing outside her office. "Yes? Something wrong that needs my presence, away from the office?" She said, sounding hopeful.

The hologram shook her head and seemed, disturbed or irritated by something. "No... well yes, there is someone here... who got past all the security checkpoints and reached us here, apparently a meeting with you is desired." The Twi'lek glanced somewhere behind her, probably at the intruder and then looked back to Neia.

Jantor was alert, a hand on the blaster at his hip while Neia frowned at this news. "Checked for weapons?"

The Twi'lek nodded, "Found none."

Neia pondered this for a moment, someone slipping past the guards around her inner sanctum could have ill intentions towards her, this is true, but in that case they would have remained silent and hidden to wait for a opportunity to strike. "Very well, our 'guest' can come through." The Twi'lek nodded and faded away as Neia opened the door and looked to see who or what would come through.

The being that entered was a rather ordinary looking human male, the only thing about the man that stood out was the very fine cut of his business suit. He gave Jantor a quick calculating glance as he entered and approached the desk before stopping a few paces away. "Neia Kahleesi, A pleasure to meet you." He said with a smile.

Bahn and Ginna had stood up at the entrance of the human but the dwarf Vornskrs were not growling, which was a good sign to Neia as she gestured for her pets to lie back down, which they did, their eyes not leaving the human however. She studied the man for a moment, then gestured to a seat in front of the desk. "Wish I could say the same, but you haven't given your name or who you are with, congratulations however on getting this far without detection." She looked intrigued, "Care to tell me how you managed that?" So she could correct the blind spots and security risks she thought to herself.

"Not particularly." The man responded "Call it a trade secret if you will." He added with another smile as he took the offered seat. "You may call me Mr Aurek, I represent the Republic and have something of an offer for you." He said once he has made himself comfortable.

Neia frowned and gestured for Jantor to relax, which the Kel-Dor naturally didn't do, sighing Neia leaned back in her chair, "Republic spook, huh? This will be interesting I wager, refreshment?" She asked as she poured herself a glass of water.

"Please." he said as he held a hand out for a glass. Once he had taken a few sips of the water he spoke again. "I've actually been here for a little under a week now, so if you're truly worried about your security let me tell you that it did take some advance planning." He then looked directly to Jantor, "You should try mixing up their routines a little bit, make things less predictable." He then looked back to Neia and took another sip of water. "But as to my offer. As I'm sure you're aware there is a war on. The republics manufacturing site have been pushed to the limit and then ordered to increase production even more. As you can surely imagine this is an issue. The result is outsourcing, the larger and more secretive vessels and equipment are manufactured in republic foundries while contracts are awarded to the private sector."

Neia was silent for a moment and then turned to Jantor, "Fine this swayed me, start training the security with the Dwarf Vornskr to patrol the corridors with them." She turned back to 'Mr Aurek' if that was his real name, "Sorry that has been a discussion for a while that things might have gotten lax around here." She took a sip of her own water and pondered for a moment. "I know this, last time I was contacted by a Duros colonel by the name of Aishzeen, who had me build some Y-wing bombers, granted this was a little over a year ago. But I guess, that since my construction of sizable small shipyard has gotten the attention of the Republic again, knowing that I'm not too unfavourable towards your government, that and this is Hutt space, officially neutral territory in the galactic conflict. So with the direction this is going you are here to offer me a contract, probably a risky one if they send a spook in to make the offer?"

"We wanted to be certain of the security of your facility, who better to assess such than someone used to circumventing such measures." He replied to the 'sending a spook' comment. "The vessels we would Like you to construct are a recently field tested replacement to the Arquitens class. As you would recall from the bombers we much prefer that the schematics of vessels built for us remain secure as well as the craft themselves of course."

"That is understandable." Neia replied slowly, "I am getting a feeling now, hearing this, that this new production run is going to be even riskier than the bomber production... then again, that usually means that the payment is worth the risk I trust, I may have some republic leanings but I have to make a profit somehow after all." She said with a shrug.

You will be adequately compensated of course, I am authorized to make payment of 5,600,000 republic credits per month for the use of your shipyard, our engineers took approximately 3 months to construct this class of vessel."

Neia blinked, she even noticed Jantor was staring when the credit amount was mentioned, she was silent, mostly due to shock and surprise and then leaned down and placed a bottle on the table, "Thikkiian brandy, a gift from a Wookiee friend I've made, this seems like a deal that needs a stronger drink to process." As she poured a generous amount in two glasses. "That is a lot of credits, I have some security, if you've been here for a while you may have noticed the ships I have patrolling my station and shipyard, still from the sound of it, a new class of vessel, I'll probably gain a nice fat target painted on me for any CIS commander who thinks he or she can score points with the higher ups by raiding me of this new design of the republic you represent."

"You are right of course." Mr Aurek said as he picked up the glass of brandy, though did not drink. "These new vessels are important to the republic war effort, as such Commander Shayne of the republic 456th fleet has been given command of a small task force, A venator and four Arquitens, for protection detail should you accept the contract."

She blinked, "Hmm, good thing we are on the border of Hutt space, or the cartels would have made some strong objections to that presence of warships. "With such added protection I think I will take the job... and make sure my patrol and escort ships will be kept close for the duration of the contract." Drinking the brandy, grimacing for a moment as it burned through her throat. "That and if the crews of those ships get bored they can have shore leave on my station, my cantina and casinos can always use more credits, might even give them a cover of some sort, crew o nshore leave and relaxing in neutral territory?"

"I'm sure the men and women under Shaynes command would appreciate that, she never was a particularly hardline commander after all." Mr Aurek replied as he took a small sip of the brandy. "Your wookiee friend has good taste." He said afterwards. "How soon can you begin construction?" He then asked as he fished a datachip from a pocket inside his suit.

Neia stood up from her chair, "We can start construction once, if I assume that chip you are holding holds the plans, my crews get the word and means to start working right away."

"You would assume correctly." He said as he handed Neia the chip. "I can signal Commander Shayne to begin her duties when I leave, it should only take her a couple of days to reach you."

She looked at the chip and nodded, "My Verpine friend Mochi will like this, I just have to remind him to no copy the files, and until commander Shayne and her task force arrives my own people shall provide the security needed." She looked back at Mr Aurek, "Somehow I suspect once you leave my office it will be like as if you were never on the station?"

"Of course not, going to the trouble of erasing the memory of you and your people would be counterproductive after all." He said with a chuckle. "Of course digital surveillance will have been scrubbed." He added as he also stood. "For what its worth I hope the CIS doesn't bother you over this."

Neia did smile a little, "For what it's worth, if they dare to try, they will find out I have amply means to protect my assets." She said, thinking about the planetary ion cannon that had been modified and installed on the Free Trade Gambit. "I wish you a good day Mr Aurek."

With that the republic spook, or whatever he was for the republic made his departure, leaving Neia with Jantor in her office. "Right I think I will take this to Mochi and..." She trailed off when Jantor approached her, holding his hand out for the chip, she sighed. "And you will take this to Mochi and I finish up this paperwork, fine." With a grumble she sat back down and went to work, ignoring Jantor's chuckle as he walked away.

[Sarzu]

In the life of a Jedi & Friends
Bestine Minor, Safe Refuge

Tohkran was leaning on his cane, watching as Goddor and Miri were fighting a mock duel, Goddor was almost ready for the trials and Miri was the newest padawan among them but showing promise. The older Rodian knew more techniques, more used to handling a lightsaber and listening to his force enhanced instincts. The younger padawan however seemed to be faster, tapping into the force to enhance her reflexes and speed to just stay out of range and dart in to try and make use of a opening in the Rodian's defense. Meilyan, sitting beside Tohkran was watching and the the female Mon Calamari widened her eyes and was about to speak but at a small gesture of Tohkran she closed her mouth and he just smiled and motioned for her to keep watching.

Ten more minutes the two padawans let their sabers clash and then finally Goddor gained the upper hand and with a force pull managed to have Miri lose grip on her weapon and was unable to stop the other padawan from letting her lightsaber flew into his hand. The Rodian was smiling, "You are fast little one, but still have much to learn, if this was a real fight you would be dead."

"So would you actually." Tohkran called out, still smiling which confused Goddor and then Tohkran pointed at something behind the Rodian and as he turned around he took a involuntary step back at once, eyes wide as a massive reptilian hounds was silently baring it's teeth at him, at which Miri was giggling before regaining her composure and then just smiled. Tohkran approached, grinning, "It seems Miri's friend, Nala I believe you called her? Was going to help her friend and you failed to notice the rather large Akk Hound approaching you from behind. Quite remarkable for such a beast to approach you so silently, but then you had to concentrate all you had on your saberplay with young Miri here." He patted her on the shoulder, "You have done well and as always a pleasure to teach such a keen mind, now you have studied and practiced enough for today young one, you and Nala can go to the other children and play."

She smiled and bowed, tucking her lightsaber away on her belt and went to Nala who went through her forelegs for Miri to climb upon the Akk Dog. "Thanks master Tohkran!" She shouted and then riding her Akk Dog she went on her way, leaving the jedi master and his two eldest padawans, watching the girl and her force bonded pet fade in the distance.

"Walk with me?" Tohkran asked his two padawans, they had been training some distance from the outpost they had called home for a year now, out in the wilds where nobody was present to disturb them or bear witness to lightsaber wielding people. They walked in silence for a while before Tohkran voiced his thoughts, "Goddor... you will be a knight very soon and you Meilyan are not far behind, this will mean that both of you... will be gaining increased responsibilities." He noticed the two of them exchanging glances and then looked back at him, the question evident in their eyes and Tohkran continued when he had regained their attention. "Goddor, I think upon knighthood, I will be training you more in the ways of subterfuge and stealth, you seem to have a leaning to Jedi Shadow leanings and if this is indeed how you feel I will help you train as such till I feel you are indeed to that level and dedication, thought I have no doubt you will make it that far. As for you Meilyan, you enjoy teaching the children together with me and Huyang, I could always use another instructor, teacher and protector to these force sensitive younglings and any others of their kind we find and take care for."

He paused and turned around to face both of them, looking at their faces and eyes. "Are my observations correct so far?"

They looked at each other and then nodded, "Yes they are master." Meilyan answered and then hesitated. "After... after what happened on Dathomir, with Halena... the stories of the children of what happened on Anaxes and what some of the other jedi have told us. I feel it is my calling to help and protect the future generation of jedi as best I can and help instruct them in the ways of the force."

Goddor agreed, "Yes and I feel we need to keep a eye out for the sith, they have been silent for the most part... except for what happened to that Cathar jedi, we should be on the lookout for these sith and expose them for what they are, so I feel like I should offer my assistance into that by searching the dark corners of the galaxy master and root them out." THe Rodian said with confidence, perhaps even a little arrogance.

Still Tohkran was touched by his dedication and nodded, "So you say, but be mindful, you want to search in the darkness and might need to shroud your light... just make sure to not extinguish it completely or you will lose your way. Now I think we should, ah excuse me." He said, as he felt his commlink attached to his wrist vibrate and activated it. "Yes? Tohkran here."

The other person on the other end of the call was easily identified with his first sentence. "Hey beard face, get into your monkey suit and prepare to receive guests, coming down, best look proper and clean this is going to be big, Admiral of the fleet out."

Tohkran chuckled and shook his head, "So it seems we have guests... could you two head to the section of the younglings and make sure they are secure? Though I doubt anyone unwanted would get past the Akk Dogs protecting them all." Bidding goodbye they hastened to do as instructed while Tohkran quickened his steps as fast as possible to get his 'monkey' suit on, a business suit he was told was the latest fashion in the inner rim, he did not really care for such clothing but it helped with a persona he had worked to create this past year. Tohkran Disonic, of Disonics Corporation. A fully equipped small shipyard was in orbit over this moon, giving them a flux of credits.

He had just donned the suit and reached his office when he saw the shuttle land and sat down behind his desk, pouring some glasses of water as he waited patiently, it did not take long for the doors to open and in slithered Thrall, looking rather pleased with himself as he bowed and let in a delegation of three. Upon the sight of who entered Tohkran rose his eyebrows, seeing the Republic navy uniforms. Thrall was still smiling as he bowed, "Admiral, if I may introduce you the president of Disonics Corporation, Tohkran Disonic."

Tohkran coughed and nodded his thank, "Excuse me for not rising and giving you a proper welcome." He raised his cane and gave his cybernetic leg a whack with it, making a 'clang' sound. "I lost my leg to a oversized bug and ever since I have had trouble walking, how can I be of service to the Republic today? It is not every day one sees three republic officers enter one's office, one of them a admiral even? Admiral, who exactly?"

The leader of the delegation smiled and shook his head, "Just captain actually, your friend here seemed to enjoy calling me a admiral, he referred to you, his employer, as beard face I gathered." The captain stepped forwards to shake Tohkran's extended hand. "Captain Dodonna of the republic navy, I'm sorry I cannot exchange pleasantries, but unfortunately there is a war going so I shall be quick and to the point, if I may?"

Tohkran gestured and nodded, "Certainly, wouldn't want to keep up your precious time so please go ahead." He said intrigued but wary.

"Thank you", he gestured to one of his aides who provided some documents and schematics, handing them to Tohkran who at once handed them to Thrall who startedl ooking them over, unfazed by this Dodonna continued. "As you may know due to the war effort we are outsourcing certain contracts for war material to outside contractors since the Kuat shipyards and other Republic aligned facilities can only produce so much. So we wish to acquire the services of your shipyard facilities to start constructing and producing Pelta-class frigates, the medical variant specified in the schematics your friend here is looking over." Tohkran glanced in Thrall's direction who nodded, distracted as he read the files and details. "In addition, we have learned that you also have some minor construction bays at your service, we would like one of them to start producing ARC-fighter squadrons."

Tohkran looked to Thrall, "I thought we had accepted a contract for-"

Thrall nodded, "Yeah beard face, but that's only for one bay, we can take the extra work and my team is up to it, trained them myself after all." The sluissi smirked.

Nodding Tohkran returned his attention to Dodonna, "Very well, we accept the contract."

Dodonna rose a eyebrow, "I haven't mentioned payment."

TOhkran just smiled and leaned back in his chair. "If the republic stops paying the people who are supplying them the means to win this war, then they have already lost, I believe you on your word that I will receive payment for my efforts to have my people and facilities produce your ships for you captain Dodonna."

The republic officer seemed relieved, "Then this part of my journey was easy then... the Venator destroyer Dauntless will remain in the system to provide security, in case the separatists might try and hinder the production of the frigates and ARC-fighters."

"It would be welcome, I have ample protection station in orbit and here on the ground as you may have noticed but more is always welcome," He stood up slowly as if in trouble and walked over to the delegation, shaking the hand of each republic officer. "I wish you and your people a safe journey on your way to meet with other business people such as myself to hire their services I imagine."

"Indeed, I hope the negotiations with them will be as fast as they were with you." With that they said their farewells.

Before they left Tohkran cleared his throat and looked at Thrall. "Did you send that message I asked you to do a while back? I have been occupied of late my friend and was wondering if you had send it through?" Meaning the bothan network message after they had learned of a potential jedi's whereabouts. Thrall blinked and nodded, "Ah my thanks, now then I have taken up your time enough I think captain Dodonna, safe travels." He bowed as they were escorted out by Thrall and once the door was closed the jedi master let out a sigh and looked at the schematics. "Well... at least they aren't warships." He murmured as he went to summon the shipyard chief engineers down to the surface to brief them on their next series of assignments.

[Zran]

Over Loronar

The Silent Void cruised slowly through space above Loronar seemingly minding its own business, nigh undetectable at such a slow speed. Arnack glanced over at Alisha in the pilot’s seat. She was staring out into space watching for ships of any kind with an intensity only a cat could manage, her green eyes glowing faintly in the dim cockpit.

Arnack cleared his throat as he thought of what to say to break the silence. “You think they’ll be here soon, it’s been three days any your contact hasn’t shown hide nor-“He bit his words off, he had found Alisha could get quite sensitive if someone mentioned her fur, even indirectly.

Alisha glared over at him her cat’s gaze even more intense when turned on Arnack, for a moment she said nothing and he got worried she would decide to ponce. “They’ll show, always do.”

“Always? What about last month with those blasters shipments?” He asked her.

“Well, that doesn’t count, they were there, and the warehouse wasn’t anymore.”

Arnack glanced back out into space considering how to reply and happened to spot the afterglow of sublight engines. “Look is that them now?” he asked pointing at the vessels zooming towards them.

Alisha observed the vessels for a moment then spurred into action sitting up in her seat and began flipping switches and pressing buttons faster than Arnack could keep up with. “Too many engines, too small, Republic fighters.“ Alisha glanced over at Arnack. “Well what are you doing? You’re the co-pilot arm the guns!” Arnack muddled over the controls in front of him slowly bringing all the weapons online and up to full power ready to fire at a moment’s notice. By then the fighters were within comms distance and over the comms came the voice of a Clone pilot. “This is CC-127 of Flasher Squadron to unknown vessel, the Republic request you power down weapons and allow yourselves to be escorted to Loronar Spaceport for a full search of your vessel.”

Arnack’s finger hovered over the trigger of the turbolaser. “I can’t go back, they just aren’t in it for the right reasons anymore, I won’t kill children on their whim.” he said to Alisha.

“They probably aren’t even looking for you.” Alisha told him, “I am a smuggler after all, everyone hates a smuggler. I’ll find out.” She flipped the comm switch and said to the republic ships. “This is Captain De’madre, on what grounds do you have to search my simple trading vessel?”

“Captain De’madre you are suspected of smuggling illegal arms to the Confederacy, if you do not comply as a result of the new zero tolerance laws we will be forced to fire on you and destroy your vessel.” The clone said in his monotonous voice.

“They didn’t see the big turbolaser primed and targeting them?” Arnack asked with a smile. His finger hovered over the button. Alisha nodded at the button and activated the comms to say.
“Very well Flasher Squadron, goodbye.”

Arnacks jammed the button down and a moment later green laser-fire arced off into space hitting the lead Arc-170 and tearing through its shields then another volley hit it and obliterated the small craft the pilot didn’t even have time to eject. The remaining pair began evasive manoeuvres as Alisha gave chase and Arnack fired the ships dual laser cannons and locked the concussion missiles on the rear fighter. A second later it exploded debris bouncing off the ships shields as they followed the last fighter. “Come on Arnack, we gotta do this quick before the rest of the republic comes down on us” Alisha urged.

“Just a second, Turbolaser recharged, targeting, fired.” The laser volley ripped ahead of the Void and slammed into the fighters rear shields blowing an engine and sending the fighter spinning off into space. They watched as the pilot ejected and the fighter blew up a moment later. Arnack smiled at Alisha and said, “I can’t fly this thing but gimme a gun and a target and I’ll blow it to bits.”
“Show off you could have taken it out with another missile.”
“Now where’s the fun in that?” Arnack retorted. “So you think your contacts still coming?” Arnack asked again.
“I doubt it, that probably how they found us, it’s a bad time to be a bad smuggler.”
“Oh, and where do you come in?”
“I’m still alive aren’t I?” She coolly said with a grin that showed her canines off. “We better not stay here chatting, the Republic will eventually send out a search party. Guess we’ll go with Plan B?”
“There’s a Plan B? Armack asked her trying not to look bewildered.
“There’s always a Plan B,” with that she keyed in a Hyperspace code and the Void silently slipped into Hyperspace.

[Selvi]

Phindar Moon, Darth Lena's Operations

Eyes closed Lena was standing over a crafting table, components and materials floating gently as they were manipulated by her power and control over the force. She was frowning in concentration as she pulled the components together in a long two meter long phrik alloy staff casing, opening her eyes she looked at her work, nodding as she reached for the violet lightsaber crystal, looking at it for a moment as she sensed the flicker of energy as it was attuned to her power, her passions, her drive and her ambitions. She tenderly put it in its place in the lightsabre pike's casing and closed it up, lifting the pike up with ease, but not with familiarity. It was not a weapon she was trained with but as she flicked it to life and watched the short blade extend from the top of the staff. Something she would need to correct in the foreseeable future as she did a few practice swings with the polearm weapon. The reason she was interested in this weapon was by watching the Morgukai warriors in her service fight with similar looking weaponry to give them more reach and flexibility, while her saber hidden in a cane works for her, it is good to have a backup, or to make people think the polearm in a sheath on her back is her main weapon while her true weapon is in fact hidden in her cane.

Calling for one of the elder morgukai who normally drill the other warriors to instruct her in the use of her new polearm weapon Lena spend the next few hours training the basics of her new weapon, ignoring the remarks of the Morgukai warrior, whom she instructed to not hold back in any way despite her status and rank. The Nikto warrior it seemed very much enjoyed obeying that order and put her through such a workout like she hadn't experienced in years, except maybe her sparring sessions with other sith. Gasping for breath she had collapsed to the ground, indicating to the old warrior that she had enough for now. From the 'hur' sounds the warrior was making she figured he was laughing at her but she did not make a comment about it, she would probably keep hearing that laugh till she mastered the basics of the new addition to her combat capabilities.

Finished she placed the lightsabre pike in a rack of other equipment used for training purposes, her personal section among the tools and equipment used by her disciples, she would take up the weapon properly when she knew how to wield it without hurting herself. Smiling she left the room to get a shower and refresh herself.

Once refreshed she sensed the presence before she actually saw her, therefore when she walked out of her chambers she did not show surprise at seeing Irys standing there, waiting for her. "Walk with me." Was all Lena said at first, walking in silence before she gestured to the Bothan. "You came to see me?" She asked, looking at the Bothan from the corner of her eye.

The Bothan slicer nodded, "You wanted to be informed when I might find signs of individuals you might find useful in your." And she raised her fingers and made air-quotes. "Organisation of business associates." She finished saying, ignoring the look Lena was giving her and got out a datapad, scrolling on the screen for something. "Here it is, reports of a Morgukai, visiting right here on our little moon, apologies, your little moon. In a local cantina." Irys added after a moment of thought. "According to what I learned this Morgukai is a travelling merc of some repute, could be a good addition for your ranks if you are interested?"

"From what I witnessed of the Morgukai I wouldn't mind recruiting a special individual, especially if this one caught your eye then it must be a interesting individual." Lena stopped and looked at Irys. "Assuming you think this one would work for me in the first place, these Morgukai have a particular distrust for force users after all, it is already a miracle I persuaded the ones currently working for me." She resumed walking, "Very well let's meet this Morgukai and see can be done about possible recruitment." With that she and Irys went to make arrangements to take them to the cantina where the Morgukai was currently staying.

Lena and Irys make their way to the cantina where the bothan slicer in Lena's employ had found out the morgukai was currently staying, as they arrived a small gathering was outside, getting closer Lena would recognize that it was a gathering of morgukai, in fact these were all in service to her she saw and they were surrounding a single, feminine figure, wearing morgukai armour and weaponry and none of the Morgukai in Lena's service were looking friendly. In fact as they get closer they saw one of the morgukai coming forwards with a snarl and bringing his staff weapon down at the female one, who parried the strike and kicked her attacker in the gut and on his back, which seemed to enrage the others as they reached for their weapons.

Hurrying her steps she got closer to this congregation that seemed about to end in a brawl and shouted to her Morgukai. "Stand down! Stand down right now!" She glared at them all, her hand tightening around her cane but doing nothing else, could not pull out her lightsabre, this was still a somewhat public place after all even if she was officially in control of this moon.

Some of the morgukai obeyed the order at once, others however... with snarls and war cries six warriors attacked the female figure, she was able to fend off three of them but she was brought down by the other three. None of these six seemed to have heard the order, or they did and are just ignoring it.

"Somehow I have feeling that female is the one that caught your interested?" She asked Irys who nodded and with a sigh Lena looked at the Morgukai disobeying her and with no other option left to her reached out with her hand and made a grabbing motion, intending to grab the disobedient Morgukai with the force and hurl them aside, away from the woman.

With a surprised grunt the morgukai warriors were suddenly lifted up in the air and then hurled aside, two hitting the wall of the cantina this scuffle was taking place next to, while the other four smashed and bowled over some of their fellows who were surrounding the scene. This seemed to rather displease all of them as they turned to their mistress with narrowed eyes. The female meanwhile jumped up, standing in a guarded defensive pose.

Lena glared back at her Morgukai with narrowed eyes of her own, walking towards them all with slow measured steps. "What.... is the meaning of this." She asked, looking for a squad leader among the Morgukai to address her.

One of them, a grizzled veteran from the looks of it of the number of scars on his face and a cybernetic hand walks forward and points accusingly at the female morgukai. "Hurr, she is a abomination, a insult to our honor and traditions. A... 'female' cannot value our ways, carry our weapons and armour. She must die." At this last part the other morgukai nod and tighten their hold on their weapons.

Lena rose her eyebrows at those words and responded, in a rather low and threatening voice. "If a 'female' cannot value your ways, then why follow me, hmm?" She gestured at the leader with her cane, "All of you agreed to follow my commands and I am most certainly female last time I checked, so either all of you disperse and let me talk to this woman or I start getting angry."

The leader frowned looking at you and then back at the female with a growl before turning back to you. "Why do you wish to talk to her?" He asked suspiciously.

She narrowed her eyes, "Not that it is any of your business, but I am thinking of recruiting her, especially after witnessing her holding her ground like she has to you all, holding warriors at bay while she is outnumbered and smart enough to not lower her defenses still." She said nodding to the female warrior who she assumed was still in a guard position.

The female was still in a guard position but her face was in your direction, obscured by a helmet, seemingly looking intently at you. The morgukai leader growled and the others with him were muttering among themselves at the decleration that Lena itnended to recruit this female. "You cannot, she is wrong, sullied. A disgrace to the Morgukai cult."

Lena calmly looked the leader in the eye, stepping forwards. "Are you challenging my authority?"

The leader snarled, "What if I am?" He said his cybernetic hand balling into a fist.

She kept looking at the Morgukai and let out a sigh. "Fine." With that she decided that this was reason enough to risk exposure and quickly unscrewed her lightsaber hilt from her cane and ignited it, stabbing the Morgukai dissenter through his heart. "Your service to me is no longer required." She then looked at the others, "Anyone else?"

With a shout of defiance and rage nine others rushed towards Lena, their spears staffs humming with energy as they were activated. "You die now!" Some of them shouted in unison.

Lena pulled her blade out, "What a waste, Irys, time to clean house." She said and charged towards the nearest traitor, shouting to the others. "Those who do not wish to defy, either assist me or stand down!" She snarled as she began her attack.

Lena killed two of the enraged Morgukai with ease, cutting down with quick, precise blows, three others were brought down by their fellows who felt that their duty lay with Lena, the female morgukai also stabbed one from behind. The remaining three kept charging, Irys shooting at them not stopping them in the least. Fending off two was easy but the third managed to slip past Lena's guard and cut open a gash in her arm.

She let out a hiss of pain and looked at the gash and then at the three Morgukai attacking her, "No one interfere, these three are mine!" She shouted to Irys and the other Morgukai. She decided not to use the force, her skill with the blade would prevail here and show these other Morgukai in her service that she was not to be trifled with or questioned.

At first it seems Lena was outmatched, three more times they cut her and perhaps they became too eager for the kill or in their arrogance let their guard down but Lena prevailed against the onslaught and with a quick parry opened one of the opposing morgukai to her blade and stabbed him in the chest, leaving two of them remaining. With a shout one raised his staff for a crushing blow. "YOU DIE!" He screamed and was unable to react to Lena who had used the force to enhance her speed to close in and with a decapitating stroke cut off his head. Leaving only a single opposing warrior remaining.

Breathing hard she looked at the last warrior, pointing her ignited blade towards him. "Do you yield?" She simply asked, staying on guard if he would not.

The morgukai looked at his dead comrades and then back towards Lena, shaking his head. "Only death now, or only dishonor." He said softly, almost as if whispering to himself only and then let out a battlecry bringing his weapon up.

"As you wish." She said, a sad note in her tone of voice. "Let's end this." She said and engaged the last of the Morgukai traitors. She was not going to make this a show of skill or expertise, she was going for the quick kill, execution of a traitor and be done with it.

This last warrior fought like he was possessed, probably recalling all his teaching and the honor of being a morgukai as he fought to his last dying breath against Lena. He let otu a cry of victory as he stabbed her in the leg and then gurgled, coughing up blood as Lena stabbed her saber into his chest. He gasped and smiled weakly, "Hurr.... a good.... fight..." He muttered as life left him and died, collapsing to the ground.

The female morgukai and others who had not decided to attack Lena looking at the corpses and then at Lena, waiting for whatever happened next.

Biting through the pain she felt from the wounds she had suffered, she opted to ignore the pain and discomfort for now, if she could, to stand upright still and continue what she intended to do. She gestured to the corpses and then addressed her still loyal Morgukai. "Remove them from my sight, while disobeying me, they fought with the honor of the Morgukai cult, so they have my respect for that still, have them buried according to your rites and traditions." She then turned to the female warrior, "I was hoping we could talk, that is why I came here before this... distraction."

She seemed to study Lena and then looked at the Morgukai dragging corpses away and finally, after a hour and half of her being on guard seemed to relax in her pose as raised her staff and deactivated the device, leaning on it casually. "Well, consider me intrigued." She then looked at the lightsaber hilt in Lena's hands. "Surprising to see fellow morgukai fighting for a force user. Sith or Jedi? Or something else entirely?" She asked and Lena could tell that this female Nikto Morgukai was, seemingly at least, more intelligent and well spoken than she was used to be around.

Lena attached the hilt back to her cane, thinking for a moment before deciding to be frank about it. "Sith, does that matter? As you may have heard, I was thinking of trying to recruit you actually, according to my intelligence." She nodded to Irys. "You are apparently a capable person of many talents, also able to take care of yourself well enough. As I witnessed upon my arrival."

"I get by, but I usually avoid other Morgukai for a very good reason, they do not appreciate women getting into the cult. I was raised into it becayse my father had no sons, only a daughter and wished his legacy to survive." She shrugged, "So I took up the traditions of the morgukai and lived by them, the not caring what any of the males think of me, I will fight them as honor and tradition demands of me." She fixed Lena a stare, "And I suppose it doesn't matter that you are a force user, or a sith even, you have persuaded some of my kind to follow you that is clear enough, that and you showed some skill in martial arts there. So you have plenty of warriors, why would you want me?"

"Another warrior is always welcome, but I also need a leader who can command others, are you such a person?" Lena asked in response instead.

She let out a bark of laughter, "I might, but your morgukai wouldn't follow me, that is clear, so why would I join you only to keep watching my back for them to challenge me at some point?"

She allowed herself to smile, "I think those that disagreed or were thinking of disobeying me if you were to join me and I name you a commander have just died and those that still live know what happens if they wish to stick to their traditions in that regard."

She snorted and shook her head, "So if they challenge me you expect me to run to you so you can handle it?"

She kept smiling, "Oh no not at all, I expect you to smash their heads in to make them apologize and respect you, if you need to keep running to me then clearly you are not worth my time recruiting. I expect you to handle yourself and be worthy of the position I would give you, make them respect your authority by who you are. If you accept my offer to join me and they don't obey orders, that means they disobey me and can be considered deserters and traitors, deserving their punishment."

The female nikto was silent, thinking it over and then slowly nodded, gesturing to Lena with her staff, "I accept your offer, I can lead troops for you and as you said, if any of them challenge me... I will have free reign to do with them as I see fit, if that means bashing their skulls in and execute them I shall do so, is that understood?"

"Understood, does that mean you accept my offer then?" She smiled and extended a hand, wincing in pain, she could use some medical attention soon. "If you do I expect you to give me a name however. I am Darth Lena."

The female nikto let out another bark of laughter and clasped the hand, squeezing, "Bodhicai, morgukai warrior, my body and weapons are at your service."

She shook the hand and then let go, quickly gesturing Iryz forwards to help her stand upright, "Good... now I need some medical attention, follow me to my base of operations and we shall have you settled in..."

Short Summary

Lost ten Morgukai warriors

Gained a new minor named Bodhicai:
Physical Traits:
Armour Proficiency 2
Cortosis Staff Proficiency 3
Blaster Proficiency 2

Tech & Skills:
Tracker 2
Orbital Support 1
Personal Shield Proficiency 1

Command:
Army Command 2

Special:
Flaw: Morgukai Shunned, unless she proves herself, any Morgukai Troops she commands have a chance of disobeying her orders. As in they will outright try to kill her.

[Sarzu]

In the life of a Sith & Minions

Mandalorian Space,
Kandosii Naast II

Gra'tua was not surprised upon seeing Kashiir waiting for him as he disembarked from the Kalikir gunship, the Chiss took one look at the new arrival and then back at his lord, "I see, as I heard, that verd Kyr'am is indeed not with you, a exchange of warriors then?" He looked at the warrior with clan markings that were not of clan Gra'tua.

Chuckling Gra'tua gestured to the chiss commander and then at their guest, "Goran Silas, meet Kashiir'peraao, commander of the Kandosii Naast in my absence and my right hand and adviser in all things. Lashiir, meet Goran Silas, our guest for the time being." Kashiir bowed his head after a moment of studying their guest with his glowing, red eyes. "Now then, with those introductions made, allow me to give you a tour of the ship." He said gesturing for the Silas warrior to follow him, for the next two hours Gra'tua showed all his ship had to offer, not leaving anything out. Reaching a section of the ship reserved for the commanders and officers aboard the Kandosii Naast were quarters had been prepared for their guest.

Goran turned, his helmet in the crook of his arm as he looked at Gra'tua, "If you think I am easily persuaded by showing me the confines of your flagship, then you should not have bothered, I am not that easily impressed."

Smirking Gra'tua returned a wolfish smile, "If you were I would have been disappointed, no I gave you the tour to show the facilities my ship has to offer. You seemed to be a commander of warriors, good. First thing in the morning you will be assigned to a number of my warriors, you need to prove yourself naturally to be fit and able to command them, meaning you have to earn their respect, we are of the Mando'ade after all. After that, well you mentioned my lack of skill with a blaster, so I think you are the perfect candidate to instruct me in the use of a blaster so you shall be my teacher.

His guest rose an eyebrow at that, "I will not be questioned if you ask me to do that, nor do I allow any lax or lazy performance if you truly want me to instruct you in the proper use of a blaster. I will also not have you or any of your men interfere."

He narrowed his eyes, "As I said... I and most of my people are Mando'ade... training in the art of battle is the closest thing we have to a sacred ritual... to interfere in it's practice is just not done, do not worry about me as if I am some snobbish outsider, I am a Mandalorian. Training me i nthe use of a blaster might ensure my continued survival and improve myself as a warrior, I will not take this lightly."

Goran was silent for a moment before he just nodded and said a single word, "Good." With that he turned his back to Gra'tua and walked through the passage, closing the door behind him. Gra'tua just chuckled and walked away, it would take something far more serious to get him riled up.

---

Kandosii Naast II, days later

---

Goran stood with his arms crossed and a annoyed expression on his face, "That was pitiful, you couldn't hit a Gundark if it was standing right in front of you." He said, looking at the target and seeing not a single hit on it.

Gra'tua was scowling as he looked at the blaster in his hand. "As I said I prefer and are more used to the weight of a blade in my hand and seeing my foes sliced into pieces, this.... use of a blaster is new to me."

"No excuse, a Mando'ade child who barely started walking is a better shot than you." He sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "But let's see if you are truly a lost cause.... remember to aim next time." He said with resignation and looking almost bored with it all before rolling his eyes and stepping forwards to explain to Gra'tua, for what seemed to be the umpteenth time on how to properly hold and fire a blaster pistol.

While elsewhere various groups of warriors under the command of Gra'tua tried not to snigger or laugh at their alor's expense.

From a distance Andrieke and Bo were watching this happening, the former frowning, "He is disgracing our alor, why should we not step up and stop this insanity?" Andrieke said with a growl.

Bo calmly looked at the general, raising a single eyebrow, "Because he asked us not to interfere, why do you care anyway?" She half-smiled and glanced at Andrieke's face. "Or are you still smarting after a year that he has decided to share his bed with another?" She suppressed smiling wider when she saw the death glare Andrieke was looking at her with. "Relax, I am just teasing, we all know how you were smarting with jealousy when in the end he decided to only have eyes for that other sith alor and ignored your interest in him."

"Are you trying to get me to hurt you?" She asked, glaring daggers in Bo's direction. She sighed and returned watching their alor, "It does not matter, I am no longer jealous." She just smirked at the doubtful look Bo was giving her now. "They are sith, remember. One day they will betray each other, that Azazel will betray his trust like that one other did to him so many years ago and then he will see the truth. I am a general and Kashiir taught me strategy and tactics, I am simply playing the long game and in the end I will have what I want." She said with confidence.

Bo shook her head, "We are warriors Andrieke, and you should know better than most, you can never truly predict the true outcome of any battle. You can start with good odds but in the end may have to call for a full-scale retreat."

Shrugging Andrieke put on her helmet and fixed Bo a stare without revealing the look on her face, "We shall see, now I have to oversee the battle formations of my troops." With that she departed leaving a thoughtful looking Bo behind.

---

Kandosii Naast II, Some time after shooting practice

---

Gra'tua stared at the report he was reading, it was something not important, some roster duty of commanders in his forces and personal reports about the status of the troops under their care. With a grunt he shoved the reports away and stood up, pacing around the room with a frown, it had been weeks now since they had been together and he had some thoughts with which he could certainly use her input. With a sigh he went to a wall terminal in his chambers, he valued her privacy and asked no, well not too many, questions what she was up to whenever she had to leave, they all had their own plans and goals after all but he felt he needed to see her soon about this matter. He finished setting up the communications terminal and changed the settings to the secure line directly to Azazel's flagship and send a hail, signed with his name and waited. "Hopefully she can answer." He murmured while he took his mask off and placed it on the table.

As the hail is received, the communications officer finishes establishing the transmission and prepares to speak. However, a wild Hakkri appears and shoves the officer away, instead leaning over the terminal, with a scowl settled on his face. "Oh, its you. You're looking for her, aren't you?" he growls. From the background a few of the crew members doing routine checks on the stationary ship settle into a bout of chuckles at the ineffective aggressive display from the Zygerian.

When the hologram appeared it was not representing who he thought it would be, he had expected Azazel to answer, or perhaps in her absence Xen but not... Hakkri, the rather, as Kashiir described this excuse of a sith apprentice, 'flamboyant' Zygerian rose several questions as to if it is indeed true the force has a sense of humour. He narrowed his eyes and nodded, "Yes it's me, apprentice, where is your mistress, Azazel, I need to speak with her if whatever is occupying her isn't too important to disturb."

Hakkri snorts, "Draw her away from Andrea? If the first one didn't manage to kill me for that, the other certainly would." He waves a hand flippantly at Gra'tua, "No, it seems all she cares about lately is exploring old decrepit caverns... crypts... tombs? Whatever. She's occupied with Andrea right now, so tough luck loverboy." Hakkri takes to inspecting his nails before setting to get some tomb gunk out from under them.

The only response from Gra'tua was a confused blinking of his eyes and then he narrowed them dangerously as he processed what he just heard. "Draw her away from Andrea... I thought she was headed to the Tapanai Sector... not that academy of her. What is it she is doing with Andrea of all people?" He asked suspiciously with a frown as his thoughts were all over the place right now about the implications of what he was hearing.

Hakkri raised a brow, "Oh, we started out on a 'training' run, Azazel lied to her to get to a tomb she heard about from some uh... Kaipesh? They got into a spat there, Azazel lied to me and let Aggros die." He crosses his arms before smiling and leaning in, "Of course, when we finished, Andrea and Azzie were having a lovers' quarrel again. Azzie wouldn't leave the woman be until they kissed and made-up. Of course, I heard that Azzie set Andrea's chambers on fire. Must have gotten awful hot in there..." Hakkri taps a finger against his lip, "Hey, good news, though... Now that we're both likely single... Maybe you and I could get a drink sometime."

Hakkri may have started to think that the holographic image of Gra'tua had been frozen before he finally moved, leaning forward, closer to the hologram of Hakkri as if staring him right in the eyes if he was really there in front of the mandalorian sith lord. "What.... did you... mean.... with them having a lover's quarrel.... again?" He said finishing with a growl as his fingers tightened around the the terminal, as if he was about to tear it away from the wall.

"Just. That. They've been together. Awhile. Andrea isn't the only sith slut," he rolls his eyes, leaning back. "They've been meeting on and off for the past year for some special alone time, sweetheart. How could you not notice?" Just as he begins to start up again, Azazel shouts from the entrance of the bridge, panting, eyes wide and a robe thrown on carelessly. "HAKKRI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" On her wrist, her commlink was still buzzing off an alarm from the Dagda. Hakkri sneers at her, "Just being a Sith, you know. No friends, no equals." He turns back to the terminal and winks, "I'm afraid that's my cue to dash, handsome. Have fun with the terrible witch."

Gra'tua did not reply, not even moving as Hakkri vanished from view and was replaced with Azazel's image, he looked at her, his face neutral as he asked a simple question. "Is it true?"

Azazel hesitates for a moment, trying to stall by readjusting her clothes, "I... Ah..." She sighs and nods, "Yes, it is."

He still looked neutral as he studied Azazel's face. "Why."

She fidgets under his holographic gaze, "I wanted you both, and could not... I could not choose one over the other." Her hand begins to lower before she stops, instead crossing her arms.

He looked at her for some time before he blinked and frowned. "We need to talk in private... in person... sending you coordinates of a planet called Vjun, let's meet there... and discuss this further... do not tell Andrea of this." He said, the last part with a note of warning.

She looks away, "Indeed... I will... be there, soon." Azazel glances over her shoulder to Tannus and gestures for him to talk the helm and prepare The Dagda. "Tell her of what, might I ask? This talk? That we are meeting? The location? That I even must leave?"

"This talk, that we are meeting and the location, just make some excuse that you are needed elsewhere... you are good at that it seems." He couldn't hide a little bit of a snarl at that last part.

"Gra'tua, you will not talk to me like that," she says warningly. Azazel shakes her head, "Fine, I will not discuss such with her. Is there anything else you would like to say?"

He bit his tongue to prevent the comment he was thinking about to be uttered, calming himself before he responded to Azazel. "Only thing I have to say is that the past has a way of repeating itself in some ways... and what that mean I will explain when we meet above Vjun. Ret'urcye mhi." With that he terminated the call, standing still for a moment before patching in to the bridge, hearing Kashiir's voice responding. "Kashiir, send word to the other ships to remain here... we are breaking orbit and head to the nearest hyperspace corridor, destination Vjun, maximum speed." When he heard the confirmation he turned off his communicator and walked towards his desk. Balling his fist and bringing it smashing down with a shout of rage as he punched through the wood with his armoured gauntlet and with a sickening crack the desk collapsed.

Azazel stares at the empty terminal for a time before taking a deep breath, "Officer Radley, contact Andrea and tell her something came up and I must depart." She looks over the room before announcing, "Lock down all hangars. Initiate a ship-wide search. I want Hakkri found and brought to the Detention Block... Tannus, take us out of here."

[Gat]

Darth Narthais

---

Denon

The dark form of the Abandoned Shadow lifted off a small run down and unimportant landing pad as its red sensor array pulsed back and forth. After a few moments of sedate flight its main engines kicked in and it started the climb thought the atmosphere and back to space at a rapid pace. As the vessel cleared the last atmosphere layer Annika Sevage, better known as Darth Amourus began the calculations for a hyperspace jump back to the Vivacious Strength. "Report Ash,"]/b] She said simply to the otherwise empty cockpit. A small strip of red light at the top centre of the primary control console began to pulse from side to side as another voice filled the cockpit.
[b]"My sensors detect no vessels following us and no active scans are being made of us that I can detect." The voice said sounding very much like a calm and softly spoken human male.
"Good," Annika replied. "Take us into hyperspace as soon as the calculations are finished."
"As you command Mistress" The voice said in the same calm tone as Annika left the cockpit to find her apprentice.

The Nautolan Darth found her apprentice in the main hold, hunched over a workbence with her sabre in pieces. Tayma appeared in pain, likely owing to the wound on her shoulder where she had been struck by a blaster bolt while the pair of them were on Denon. Annika Watched silently as Tayma ggritted her teeth and bore through the pain as she replaced the diatium power cell of the her sabre, realigned the crystals and refocused the emitter matrix with the focusing lens. the hilt casing still showed carbon scoring where it too had taken a blaster bolt, the reason for Tayma's present repairs.

Her apprentice had gotten sloppy during their work on Denon. The Task had been a simple one, Eliminate a small time businessman who had recently caused issues with one of Narthais' many far reaching plans. The issues had been relatively minor and easily corrected but having interfered once, Narthais wanted to make sure it did not happen again. For a small time businessman however he had been quite paranoid and had a large amount of security, including beasts with whip-like tails that could seemingly sense the force. Annika had surmised that the man was more than he had appeared, possibly connected with the galaxies underbelly and his businessman persona was just a front. That had not however changed the mission, only how its was executed. After the pair were discovered by the whip-tailed beasts their stealth infiltration turned into an all out assault. The ensuing battle saw Tayma get careless and her sabre took a chance hit which caused on one the two blades to short and deactivate, which in turn allowed a bolt to slip past her guard and strike her shoulder.

Annika smiled as she recalled how Tayma had pressed on with only one blade, her skill with a single blade was lacking but what she lacked in skill she more than made up for in single minded determination and ruthlessness. Using the pain of the shoulder wound to fuel her strength with the force she had lashed out at all that stood in their way. The methods were crude to be sure but the result was none-the-less effective. Between the two of them the targets security were quickly decimated and the target himself shot by a group of his own men after some persuasion from Annika, reinforced by the force of course. Their task complete the two returned the the Abandoned Shadow where Annika had forbidden Tayma from treating her wound until her sabre was once again fully functional.

As Tayma put the final component back in place she held the reassembled hilt before her horizontally with the force and activated first the blade that had not shorted on Denon, the blade formed cleanly and without instabilities indicating she had at least put all of that sides pieces back together properly. Next she activated the second blade which while it did activate the blade itself was thicker than it should have been, less refined. Glaring at the blade Tayma reached out with the force and adjusted the focusing lens with the blade still active until the second blade was once again uniform with its twin.

The Deck plating shuddered for a moment as the familiar sensation of entering hyperspace translated through the hull of the Abandoned Shadow. Her Sabre stable Tayma moved to the centre of the hold and ran through a quick practice routine while Annika watched. the blades gyroscopic properties remained the same after the repair and Tayma finished the routine without hesitation or pause. Her test of the repairs complete Tayma approached and knelled before Annika. "Master, I have completed my repiars, the blade functions as it did before the damage." She said simply, though the barely restrained pain from the blaster wound was evident in her tone.
"So you have," Annika replied warmly. "The jedi, before the sith brought their order down had a common saying that they would teach all their students." She said in a more lecturing tone as she pulled the sabrestaff hilt from Tayma's hands with the force. "Your weapon is your life." she said in the same tone as she activated one of the blades and swung it at Tayma's head in one smooth motion stopping only a few millimeters from striking her apprentice.

To her credit Tayma did not flinch at the action. She remained still, eyes downcast in respect even as the sound of the blade beside her head filled her hearing. Annika laughed, the sound soft and lilting as she deactivated the blade. "Stand Tayma." She said as she returned the sabre to her apprentice. "You show a refreshing lack of fear and, when necessary, restraint in one so young."
"I heed your teachings Master." Tayma replied as she took her sabre and returned it to her hip.
"Of course," Annika replied with another laugh. "Find yourself a bacta patch for that wound and reflect on my words. The Jedi's saying has a ring of truth; While the force gives us power beyond mere technological weapons your sabre is a highly versatile tool they you would do best not to lose."
"Yes Master" Tayma replied with a bow of her head before exiting the hold and heading for the small medical unit in the passenger bunks section of the small vessel while Annika made a mental note to start training Tayma in the use of a single blade.

---

The Vivacious Strength

Narthais stood still at the centre of his mighty vessels command deck. The Vivacious Strength had been the first vessel constructed at The Cradle and it had cost a not inconsiderable fortune to build. That said it had served well in the years since its construction as a mobile base of operations for the Sith Lords dealings in the galaxy. The large monitors set up around the outer walls of the command deck showed scenes of space around the vessel, much in the same manner as a more traditional Bridge with view ports directly out into space would have. But Narthais had buried his command deck in the belly of his vessel so as to better protect it, the monitors allowed for a more than adequate replacement for static view ports since they could be changed to different scenes, magnified or overlaid with tactical data when required. Presently the screens showed the defult setting of space as viewed from the hull in a relative position to their location along the command decks walls. All except one.

That one screen was displaying a short list of financial details. Contracts to be precise, offers to make use of The Cradle's services. Narthais absently glanced over the list, most were from the republic or the CIS, one a collection of pirates... "Further details, item 3." Narthais announced as one caught his eye. A crewman in the pits around the command deck heard and complied with the order immediately and the monitor changed. An agent of the Banking Clan had approached Narthais's brokers and requested a new star cruiser for their taxation and reclamation services. The vessel they requested had extensive cargo holds, strong defensive systems and a top of the line hyperdrive. Weaponry was limited for a vessel of the size they wanted, but would be more than enough to deal with most pirate forces that may try to sack the vessel and plunder its cargo during its duties. What had caught Narthais's eye however was the name attached to the contract. The Muun who had ordered the vessel was the same that had originally tendered the Sith lords accounts with the Banking Clan, including the loan that had originally paid for The Cradles construction. The offer was not the highest paying contract on the list, it did however have the least complications attached to it and it showed respect for a possible ally in the Banking Clan which might bare fruit and possibly be exploited in the future. "Send word to The Cradle; Begin construction of the Banking Clan starcruiser immediately, and make sure the work is first rate, we do not want our buyer thinking we are trying to cheat them." Narthais commanded.

"Communication sent my Lord." Chimed in the officer in charge of the communication banks.
"Very well. Continuing monitoring local communications, I want to be informed immediately should any hint of our quarry show up." Narthais replied as he turned and left the command deck. The quarry Narthais referred to was a smuggler who was rumoured to know the location of a certain auction that Narthais was looking to obtain an invitation to. The auction was for a very private collection that was to include a holocron from the age before Exar Kuns rise to power. As always Narthais made it his business to try and obtain such items of the past, they regularly held secrets long forgotten. So far Narthais had had no success finding the location the auction was to be held, only rumours of the list of items being sold. This smuggler he was hunting however was supposed to know more. the smuggler was known to frequent the world that Narthais now found himself in orbit above however and so it seemed like the best place to locate the smuggler and question him. By force if necessary.

---

Summary

Annika and Tayma finish and assignment and Tayma learns a valuable lesson.

Narhtais accepts a contract to build a starcruiser for the Banking Clan and his flagship lays in wait for a smuggler with information the Sith Lord requires.

[Tempest]

Ilo grunts as another blast strikes her shoulder, a low jolt going through her limb. She grimaces, trying to flex her now numb arm as a droid looses a soft mocking laugh, shaking its head. “Stupid rust bucket!” she snaps, throwing her arm out to send a blast of lightning. The droid darts out of the way, flashing through a series of appearance protocols before setting on the one installed of Azazel. A twisted sneer flashes over the PROXYs face as a lightsaber appears its hands, lunging forward. Ilo barely blocks it as she tries to sweep its feet out from beneath the creature. “Always with that damned woman!” she screams, trying time and time again to break its guard. It would seem Azazel had assisted in updating the droids' combat routines. It was moving more fluidly, surely, and Ilo was having no luck breaking its defenses.

With a roar, Ilo goes into a frenzy, trying her best to break through. It was no use, as her own sabre gets batted aside. Next thing she knows, the sabre strikes lightly against her neck before fleeting away. She hisses as she feels the skin sizzle at the contact. With a wince, she touches the mark and draws away, bowing her head in defeat. “Stupid Xen, fine, you win this match.” Azazel's mimicked voice filters back in retort, “You're weak. I don't even know why I took you in. Enough of your disappointments, Ilo Sella.” She growls and picks up her lightsabre and leaves. She needed patches on that new burn... At least the training routines had been turned down. Tannus had needed a new arm when they first started practice on the droids.

***

Upon the Aberrancy, Xen taps idly at his computer, screening through the information. Nothing of note so far on the hyperspace patrols and attempting to acquire valuable information on the CIS and Republic. Overall, he hardly understood Azazel's fascination with those in the galactic war. Truly, it would be more productive to first sow seeds amidst politicians and local powers before trying to think on the grand scheme. He huffs and leans back, laying his head over the back of his chair just in time to spy Ilo overseeing the adjustment of course. Ever since Azazel had deemed her the captain of this vessel, she had seemed to progress and grow more confident. Of course, being so busy, it looked like she had little time to improve on anything else. Perhaps he would give her a break sometime. The droids could handle things for awhile.

Meanwhile, a pair of girlish cries fill the hallways before Lydavis and Rei'Ki stumble through the sliding door. Rei'Ki giggles and leaps away nimbly as Lydavis attempts to catch her again. The two had been enjoying their time away from the Dark Lady since their 'graduation' of sort. The looser reigns may have improved their morale, but it seemed to do little for their modesty. The Kubaz shakes his head and rubs his eyes tiredly. At least they did what he needed when it was needed. They both had superior skills in some areas than he had. Not many, but some. With a soft clicking sound, he stands and moves to address the two, “Should you not be elsewhere? Did Azazel want you exploring some place or other?”

The two Darths exchange looks before grinning ear-to-ear. “No, just be around and useful when needed. We've been checking our messages. No boring Mandalorians, no stiff, proud Noghri, no Tapani crisis. Why, you haven't even had work for us, Xen-Droid 9000,” Rei'Ki teases.

Xen blinks, Hi-Sense eyes adjusting and making soft whirring before he glares. “I can make some for you quickly. Besides, if you have nothing else, you could be off recruiti—” he stops as the communications lines let out a chime.

“Mecrossa line?” Lydavis asks, exasperation heavy in her voice.

Xen nods slowly as the chime goes off again, “That would be the Order's channel alert, yes... They seem to always want something, do you not think?”

Rei'Ki straightens up, letting her black hair fall over part over her face as she tries her best Azazel impersonation, “The quest for Sith lore, and the keepers of their knowledge, are no joking matter, little birds. No, we must assist them any way we can to uncover such forgotten power.”

Lydavis stifles a laugh as Xen lets out a quiet stream of Kubaz insults directed at the women before answering the line. “You have Xen. What brings the Mecrossa Order calling today, might I ask?”

A hologram appeared of a fairly attractive male, dressed in Tapani noble fashion, he was not looking at Xen as he answered, more interested it seems in studying his nails. "Yes, yes I am well aware of who you are... you are that one sith woman's lackey, I was under the impression I would be talking to her... not the servant. But I suppose the sith are not like they were used to be." He rolled his eyes and sighed, "Why we even need a outsider for this I don't even know... but it is what it is and it can't be helped." He finally looked up and frowned upon seeing Xen. "A Kubaz? How... vulgar, ah well the job requires someone of your... species's reputation so I suppose I should be thankful. Now since you will no doubt accept the job for the illustrious Order I represent I shall just send you the details and off you go, I might even put a good word in for you." The Tapani noble began to say as he started reaching for a console no doubt to send details of whatever task he needed to be done.

“I am sorry? Do you have a deathwish? If you do, I would be happy to oblige, in fact, I will even ask you in what manner you would prefer. We offer a wide variety of ends, from violent to peaceful, intimate to impersonal,” Xen leans forward to the console. “You disrespect me, the Lady, and all those in her organization. Understand now we do not work for you, we do not need your good word, we are not your inferiors. If we so choose to assist the Order, it is doing a favor for which you are indebted to the Lady, me, and her crew. Continue to talk down to her most trusted officer, and I will have every detail of your life within my hands within a week. I wonder what sort of information the other noble houses would just love to have on you.” Ilo leans over the railing, looking down at Xen with a small smirk. “Please tell me this is happening, I need a good break from this ship,” Rei'Ki all but purrs.

The man blinked, looking shocked and then confused as he frowned and sat still for a moment, before he started laughing quite loud, a minute passed with him laughing, as he took deep breaths to calm down. "Ah you jest, I had not expected you to have a sense of humour, very well, very amusing indeed. Now then, while I appreciate your joke the matter at hand is rather important and should be handled quickly, so do you accept, yes?

Xen mutters dryly, “Yes... Jest.” He waves his hand, “Send the information, I will look it over and set my preparations. The Lady would never turn the Order down, after all...”

"Excellent I knew you'd accept, as if you were in a position to refuse, you clearly need the funds, do tell your employer she gives you enough of a stipend to acquire a better wardrobe than those... rags you are wearing, granted it's better than what those two are wearing." He said gesturing to the two darths gossiping to the side before his hologram winked out of existence and Xen received the mission details.

It seemed a 'collector' of the Mecrossa Order, one of their operatives who is usually send out to retrieve data, relics and lore has gone rogue, even suspected to have sold off some of the artifacts and lore she was supposed to collect to someone. The file had been included with a image file of a young woman in her 20ies, the former operative, Zarra, was last seen on Taris, her execution was of prime importance for her betrayal, the two operatives send after her she killed. Probably the main reason someone in the Mecrossa Order wanted someone besides one of their own to handle the problem, Zarra would not know what to expect from the 'Dark Lady' or her servants.

Xen looks irritably at the screen, “Of course its by Mandalore Space...”

Rei'Ki growls and crosses her arms, “Who cares. Let's get in there, take her out, then turn our focus to more important things, like that Bantha dung noble.” Lydavis gives an inquisitive look in response. “What? He poked fun at you. Only Tannus and I can do that.”

The Twi'Lek rolls her eyes and prepares to go to her quarters, “Tell me when you are ready to go. Oh, and Azazel should not be too far from the area. You might decide to call in Tannus or Ibeth if they are not busy. Maybe even your little pet Kitt?”

Xen shrugged, “We have it. We'll take the OS80 down. You two, me... the droids and the Chosen. I'll contact the Network and put out some feelers for her...” Xen rubs his forehead, “And yes, when we're done with Zarra, the noble is next. I've got snapshots, the feed and everything stored, I'll see what we can dig up.”

Ilo chuckles from her perch, flipping her tentacles back over her shoulder, “May I come with you? I need a break from the crewmen... I'm starting to know things about them, like their names.”

Lydavis sighs dramatically at the door, “Oh no! Say it is not so, Ilo! Say it is not so!”

The Nautolan makes a fake choked sob, “Oh but it is! There is Charlie, Ringo, Draven, and Helena!”

“My name is Jessica,” one says back in agitation.

“Oh, just change the route to get us to Taris,” Ilo snaps, obviously unamused at the break in their game.

***

After several days of travel, in which the only notable event was that the crewmember named Jessica was diagnosed with severe depressions after repeatedly being called Helena by Ilo and Lydavis and went into a uncotnrollable fit of sobs in the middle of the bridge.

Once in orbit of Taris, Xen began working his expertise and carefully send out some feelers out about the rogue operative's whereabouts. The information he got was not much but enough, pinpointing her last location somewhere in the Middle City of Taris and rumoured to be seen in a cantina called the 'Giggling Tach' looking for work.

Xen sets down towards Taris in his old ship. The droid brain was handling the transport well enough. Himself, Ilo, Rei'Ki, Lydavis and a squad of 5 of Azazel's Chosen set down towards the planet with his droid racks stacked with the normal series... 8 PROXys, 10 Magnaguards and a pair of A-Series... It would have to do, if things went south... Of course, with their luck and cantinas, this would all turn into some laughable affair before long anyways.

As they set down onto the planet, he begins to set up a plan. “A-Series to the roofs with the Chosen. Stake out a perimeter and set up sniping posts. If she heads out without one of us, I want you to take the shot... Rei'ki, I want you in with us undercover. Lydavis, you'll be going in, act like you're in charge. Ilo and I can play the parts of your 'employees' well enough. If things go sour, we'll hit her there, scatter and regroup at the dock. Got it? Then load out.”

As they were heading out the Azazel's Chosen and the assassin droids were making their way through the crowd of the middle city of Taris, the Chosen were doing what they were supposed to do with their training and keeping their weapons hidden, the droids however, giving a directive that meant killing a target and they were already displaying weapons. Some Taris constables saw this and headed towards the droids. "Halt, what is the meaning of this, state your purpose, bodyguard units of some kind?" The leading constable looked at his three comrades and then at the droid. "But where is your master if you are bodyguard units?" He asked while his hand wandered to his blaster.

The A-2 Series look at each other, a low humming on confusion coming from one before the other answers, “Uhhhh, this does not fit in mission parameters. Initiating combat sequence.” Both of the droids raise their weapons and snap-fire upon the guards.

The leading constable widened his eyes and opened his mouth but was blasted apart by the assassin droids and so was one of the other constables. The crowd surrounding them, some who had stopped to watch were no screaming and fleeing everywhere as a grand panic seized hold of them. One of the other constables was dragged to the ground by some fleeing civilians and was crushed to dead as a Hutt fell off it's repulsorlift pad on top of the constable. The remaining officer pulling out his blaster and shooting at the droids, delivering some glancing shots as he shouted in his communication piece. "Rogue combat droids in the Middle City! Seventh avenue, fourth district! Constables down! I repeat constables down!"

“Rrrrroooger, roger. Constables. Down,” the other droid chimes out, as they continue on their fire, focused on the remaining authority figure. In the meantime, the rest of the group was giving a wide-berth to the whole debacle. Xen personally finds himself facepalming when he hears screaming and chaos not too far away. There was no doubt, that was probably one of theirs causing the chaos.

There were screaming people everywhere as civilians started running, a wave that could not be stopped or escaped from, peopel were dragged to the ground and stampeded to death, the assassin droids, turned and opened fire at what they perceived as a hostile action as the crowd surged towards them, people were dropped but it did not stop the panicked civilians as the droids were dragged under and torn apart, some were thrown off the walkways and fell down to the Taris Lower city were they crashed into traffic or other walkways, creating even more confusion and panic.

Some of the panicked mob reached Xen but the force users sensed it coming and quickly, with subtle use of their powers made sure that none of the panicked mob would get close to them and they escaped the worst of it, still making way to the Giggling Tach. The Chosen reporting they were hindered in their task but still active and operational, one reporting speeders heading to the scene with the markings of the local Constables.

Before Xen could respond something small and furry bumped into Rei'ki and hid behind her. "Ssssh! Beautiful lady, allow me to hide here for a moment." It said and tried to make itself as small as possible as a rather large, and angry looking Herglic male rushed pashed, grabbing a bystander and lifting him up from the ground. "Have you seen a little runt!? I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!" He screamed into the man's face who had no idea what was going on and was screaming for help. Another Herglic, female, approached the scene.

"Pumpkin-poo it meant nothing! He was just giving me a massage, that was all-"

The herglic tossed the bystander aside who screamed in a rather recognizable fashion and one other bystander screamed. "Wilhelm! No!" And went to the man's aid while the male Herglic turned to the female.

"You two were naked and he had our jewelry and credits in his bag!" With a furious snarl he turned away and barreled through the crowd, his wife screaming and shouting as she followed her spouse.

The small fellow hiding behind Rei'Ki let out a sigh of relief and without warning grabbed her hand and kissed all over the back of her hand and lower arm before letting go and bowing. "My eternal thanks to you, oh precious lady, I shall nto forget your kindness." He finished saying before he runs off.

Xen looks baffled by the chaos. In other places a person could be shot up and people wouldn't think twice, but oh not here. Of course, how they managed to set up this much alarm in the populace, he would hardly know... but it was a good distraction, at least. “Come on, let's keep going. Rei'k--” a small furry man was hiding behind her now. He stares at the fellow in confusion as he puts on a grand scheme. He has no idea what to make of it, even. Shaking his head as things continue to just be chaotic, Xen grumbles, “Let's just go to the cantina already.” Lydavis interrupts as she catches a glimpse of there target, “Zarra's on the move. Rei?” Rei'ki nods and, after the Biff departs, she hastily slips into force concealment and begins to utilize her speed and jumping to get through the crowd, aiming to get ahead and cut Zarra up as Lydavis, Xen and Ilo follow behind.

Perhaps spooked by the screams or wary because she knows she is hunted the former Mecrossa operative turns around, widening her eyes when she saw several people, looking straight at her as they made their way through the crowd. She turned back and started running like mad.

“Every. Time,” Xen begins loosing a stream of cursing before he opens a feed to the Chosen. “If you can get a shot in on the woman, take it. There's enough insanity going on it doesn't even matter. Keep on the move.” With a reciting of which direction she was going, Xen pushes the trio onwards as Rei'Ki tries to pick up the pace, perhaps careless on if she knocks anyone down in the madness now.

The words were barely voiced as one of the Chosen who had managed to get into position took the shot, but missed, hitting a innocent bystander in the throat who dropped to the ground. Rei'ki was gaining on the operative, dogging her steps well ahead of the others though, she would not escape the sith that easily. The chase continued with Rei'Ki getting closer still and then finally some luck happened as it seemed that the operative had run into a dead-end and was with nowhere to run as she turned around, a elegant blaster pistol in her hand, aiming it at the approaching Rei'Ki.

On reflex, she begins to reach for her lightsaber, only to discover it gone. Her eyes widen before she snarls, throwing her hand out with the force to grip and tear the blaster away as she twists to draw her vibroblade. “I'm going to kill that little wretch!”

Zarra was smirking when she saw one of her pursuers reaching for a sword, this was going to be easy she thought but then soem invisbile force pulled the blaster out of her hand and she cursed. "Force user!" She snarled and reached for her vibroblade and charged towards the woman.

“Damn straight, chakaar,” Rei'ki hisses, unsheathing the blade and slashing out at the open air, sending a blast of the force forward to end her charge abruptly.

With a shout of surprise Zarra was suddenly hurled backwards and slammed against a wall, groaning with pain as she slid to the ground, dazed and stunned. "What...."

Rei'ki strides forward, cold fury in her eyes as she levels the blade with Zarra's neck. “If you hadn't already signed your own sentence by betraying the Order, we might have had a position for you...” In her ears, a voice buzzes, “Execute her, kid.” Rei'ki glares, looking back down the alleyway, double-checking where Azazel's operative was. “You're pathetic... The fact they couldn't deal with you themselves is pitiable...” She draws the weapon away. “Get out of my sight,” she growls with a flick of the blade, “Try anything, you're a corpse.”

Dazed she looked up, blinking as her head cleared and the blurry outlook of one of her hunters became clear and she got the impression she was being... let go? She narrowed her eyes, expecting a trap or it being a ruse of some kind but if it was for real... she got up slowly, keeping the woman in her vision, she turned to leave and took a few steps, past the woman and then letting her back vulnerable to her. With still no dagger in her back or a blastershot from behind she turned around. "Don't trust them." She said and then took off with a run.

Rei'ki watches after her as Lydavis gawks. Rei'Ki offers a wry smile and shrugs, waiting for the rogue to depart, “Never trusted the Order completely... But if nothing else, we can follow her. I'm sure she has a nest somewhere, like all rats. There might be something to recover. Or, even better, we stumble upon some of her associates.” She waves a hand, grasping the weapons and putting them in under her cloak carefully, “For Azazel,” she explained. Lydavis shakes her head, “You're gonna cause problems.”

Rei'Ki offers a fierce smile, “When haven't I?...” She begins after the direction she had seen the woman start out, “Xen, she's off, get a sight on her. Maybe you can please the Lady with a few new curiosities if we find out where she keeps it all.” A stream of curses filters through before she receives an affirmative. Not to far away, she could spy as the Kubaz shimmers out of sight. Presumably, he was taking to the roofs with his grapple-hook. Lydavis just shakes her head again and chases after, “He's going to let you have it. He hates his operations being undermined.”

Xen and Rei'ki easily caught up on the trail of the former operative, while Lydavis and Ilo were just bumbling about, Ilo did see a constable speeder overhead though. And heard snippets of a newscast on a public screen before the crowd made her move along. "-streets are being cordoned off by local constable forces and all citizens are urged to go home, visitors are informed to-"

The operative was hurrying through the crowd but seemed unaware she was being followed again.

Ilo speaks over the channel, “We need a distraction. Get to it.” Xen growls irritatedly for a moment before adding over the line, “You heard the woman, cause some mayhem.” Some of the Chosen get to work immediately to determine the best way, one even suggest fire as the ideal manner to do so before some spy a constable blockade, and a officer of the constables having a heated discussion with what seems to be a spokesperson of a rather large crowd that is in front of the blockade. A grizzled voice comes over the lines, “Distraction coming right up...” he mutters as he lines up his sight to one of the most riled citizens he can spy before popping off a shot.

Meanwhile, Rei'Ki slips herself back into force-induced concealment as she regains sight of the rogue woman. It was just a matter of keeping up with her now. Xen too seems to determine this before he states over the line, “Going into comm-silence. Delegate to Ilo or Lydavis.”

A shot rang out and clipped the shoulder of the human shouting at the constable, he looked at the blasterwound with shock and then at the constable, not seeing the shock and surprise due to the constable's helmet visor obscuring his face. "You bastards tried to kill me!?" He raised his fist. "DOWN WITH THE AUTHORITY! DOWN WITH THE REPUBLIC!" With a shout he pummeled into the constable, dragging him to the ground while the rest of the crowd went into a frenzy and charged with fist and feet. The response of the Constables was evident as some of the speeders overhead turned direction at once to get to the riot.

The hunt after the operative was still going on, both Xen and Rei'Ki weren't spotted, indeed the former operative wasn't looking where she was going and bumped into a Herglic, who didn't notice thankfully, as he seemed intent on finding someone else, shouting he was going to kill that furry rodent.

Rei'Ki feels conflicted for a moment before splitting off from Xen, “Keep at her, I have my own thief to track down.” The Kubaz just tries to keep his temper at that, keeping after the betrayer. Ilo on the other hand receives the report of a successful strike and purrs over the comm-bead, “Keep up the heat, I don't want any chance of the Republic getting their festering hands on Grian.” It would seem a few were still unrelenting on the idea of fire, instead spreading out. While a few of them searched for additional opportunities, one set up, readying to rig his flamethrower into an impromptu explosive. “Fire in the hole,” he says with a cackle.

The Chosen, his name before he became a nameless personal guard to Azazel almost forgotten, though it might have sounded like 'Quint'. Was trying to rig a flamethrower to blow, "Fire pretty...." He murmured but discovered he couldn't get it to work, with despair he felt as if he was going to fail Azazel, that could not happen! With a desperate cry he jumped off the rooftop, some of the crowd gasping and getting out of the way of the madman falling from the sky. "BURN IT ALL!" He shouted before he ruptured the safety seals and the chemicals mixed like they weren't supposed to and blew himself up in a massive fireball, engulfing not only him but a dozen onlookers as well while chemical fire splashed over others who became living, screaming torches.

Meanwhile, hearing a explosion and distant screaming in the background the crowd with Rei'ki, Xen and the Mecrossa operative got nervous and it all became a jumble, some near Xen shrieking as they felt stumbling into something but not seeing anyone, due to this all and the pressing bodies, Xen lost sight of the Mecrossa operative while Rei'Ki thought she saw a familiar furry outline but then it had vanished.

Xen halts for a moment, trying to get his bearing and trying to remember all he could on tracking a target before he prepares his grapple-hook, convinced if he could just get a higher vantage point he could find her again. Meanwhile, Rei'Ki growls low and starts shoving through the crowd, chasing after where she thought she saw the charming bandit last. All the while, the Chosen, still on their line of destruction begin to look for one of the rigs the constables were cruising about in. They assumed they could get a little boarding action in at this point.

Rei'Ki was bumbling about and couldn't find a sign of the little Bim, he and the angry Herglic husband were just... gone from sight.

Xen meanwhile scales a building and sees a fleeting image of the target, running through the crowd, the chase was on again.

The Chosen... try and get their grappling hooks attached to the underside of a Constable speeder, but fail as their lines are too short.

“Rei'Ki, target spotted. Quit fooling around. I need you on the ground,” Xen snaps over the communications line before taking off after the target. Rei'Ki abandons her hunt with a dejected sigh.

The Chosen look at each other before one suggests, “Give me a boost?”

The Chosen meanwhile, failed again and then turned as applause came from down in the street, a small crowd looking at them, thinking they were a traveling circus act, some people throwing credits to the rooftop.

Meanwhile another surge in the crowd happened and Xen cursed... their target... the operative had now completely vanished from sight and Xen was reasonably sure that in this mess they couldn't find her again.

The Chosen look in confusion at the cheering crowd before bowing and collecting the credits. Today was not a total loss! Xen however buries his head in his hands, “Always cantinas... Always, always, always...” Rei'Ki sidles up beside the Kubaz and looks at him curiously. “What?” he snaps.

“I do have her weapons... Azazel could do something with them,” she reassures, settling down beside him. “Oh, and just so you know, a Bimm stole my sabre.”

“This is your fault, you know,” he snarls under his breath.

“Okay. Or we could leave out the embarrassing details and just say we did it... And keep an ear to the ground for her. There's likely to be some word going around over all this,” she shrugs.

Xen narrows his eyes before his commlink chatters to life, “Hey, are we done here? I'd like to get out before the constables try to detain people.”

“Yeah, get back to the ship,” Xen grunts back.

***

They had managed to get back with no problems. The Republic had seemed largely preoccupied with the riots that had begun n the lower and middle city. The whole trip back, Xen largely just pouts to himself at the failure while Rei'Ki, Lydavis and Ilo entertain themselves by laughing at the whole affair. After arriving back on the Aberrancy, Xen rubs his forehead as one hands flits over the console to get a connection with the noble. Waiting for the line to be established he casts a glare around and signals for silence. As the bridge falls silent, save for a quiet sobbing from some damnable woman who was going through intense psychotherapy of late, Xen lets his gaze fall to the weapons of the traitor. If this worked, his respect for the Order would take a dive and he would need to talk to Azazel about perhaps terminating these ties. As it stands, he was already going to need to set up a watch through the Network... Then set these weapons in containment to keep the samples from being ruined... Pick up his dry-cleaning from the ship's laundry rooms... Determine the supplies they needed to pick up soon for the vessel...

After a while the hail was answered and the same bored looking noble appeared, sighing and drinking from a crystal glass. "Oh droll.... it is the lackey again." He placed the glass on a nearby table and rested his head on his hand, looking over Xen's shoulder. "The deed is done I take it? And you no doubt wish your reward, hopefully to take a bath and spend some credits on a better wardrobe, such atrocious clothing you all are wearing." He muttered, seemingly not caring if the people on the ship actually heard him.

“Perhaps... What was your name again? Such insignificant details escape me, you see,” Xen says boredly.

"My name? I have had peasants executed for such brash attitude. But very well." He puffed and made himself taller than he really was. "My name is lord Jehemath the Fifth and I am actually your new contact, your previous liason... Braghda." He said the name with a sneer. "Has met a unfortunate accident it seems, it was a sad event but I am sure my aunt's fortune will be of good use to me. Now is the deed done or not? I am getting impatient, I have a appointment at a spa in thirty minutes. And I am not going to miss my daily massage due to you."

Bristles raise on the back of Xen's neck at that, “What misfortune befell Braghda?” He asks, hands hovering uncertainly over the weapons. He had a name now at least to go on... And knew about where to expect to find him if Braghda was his aunt. He holds up the weapons carefully, putting them on display, “And does this answer your question?” For once, Rei'Ki had the right of things... It would be important of them to see what they could find out from the agent...

"She was on the family's winter resort when the avalanche came, so sad, we have nto even managed to recover the body, yet." He said as if bored and then studied the weapons, a smile appearing on his face. "Ah excellent, excellent. You have done well, better than I expected from a lackey. You have earned your reward, I shall transfer the funds to the account you have given my aunt so long ago. I will have my loyal agents ferret out her contacts and perhaps contact you once more to deal with them as well. Until that time... and please, use some of the money for a new outfit, because this is just... a distaste to look at, now I believe a massage awaits me, cheerio." With that he terminated the link.

Xen weakly grabs the weapons and holds them out, “Get these to containment immediately.” With that, he flips on the console and sends a message to Azazel, “We've foul play amidst the Mecrossa. Braghda is dead. I'll be sending a message, personally regarding what I think of her 'replacement'... There's been internal conflict, apparently. I've some leads to follow on it. We need you here for it as soon as possible.” With that, Xen closes the link before opening the line to the Kubaz Network. Quickly he sends out directives... The first to find out everything they could about Jehemath the Fifth... Where he lived, what he did, his routine, schedules, habits and more... And then to find the ex-operative, Zarra. Closing off the message, he looks back at the group, “So, girls, you wanted that man dead, right?” Rei'Ki's lips twist into a wicked smile, “When and how, boss?”

[Andrea]

Korriban Sith Tomb World,
Korriban Orbit

Reneva Shitha watched the hologram of the ship, known as the Dagda, she was slightly getting bored, they had been in orbit of this forgotten world for several weeks if not months now, time had almost lost all meaning to her. The arrival of the ship belonging to Darth Azazel had provided with a distraction of sorts, she was running a battle simulation with the ship and crew in a mock-up battle versus the Dagda. She watched as simulated squadrons battled each other, frowning when some of the fighters that the computer had assigned to the 'Dagda' suddenly started suicide runs, that piece of information had been gained from the sith known as Lena whose people had observed Azazel's pilots doing this. A waste of material and pilot lives in Reneva's opinion and she was glad her own sith demanded no such suicidal dedication.

However according to the computer the simulated kamikaze runs had just destroyed a number of critical weaponry and shield generators and she gritted her teeth as the vessel obliterated the computer version of the Dark Rebirth. Tapping her fingers on the armrest of the command chair she sighed and leaned back. "Reset the protocols and inform the crew. We are going to try that simulation again... and let's try to not get ourselves 'killed' this time..."

_________________
Korriban Academy
_________________

Andrea was frowning, her hand unconsciously petting one of her Tuk'ata as she took in this information, turning to the aide who had give nthe report, not noticing or ignoring the discomfort of the aide as he was surrounded by sith hounds. "So all she send was, 'something came up'? Must be serious then, probably that sith cult the Mecrossa Order." She let out a growl, she herself had tried to make contacts with the Order, but apparently her emissaries had 'offended' the oh so mighty nobles that made part of the secretive sith cult and she was denied. No matter there were plenty of other sith cults she had access to, though surprisingly the one on Mygeeto had been completely silenced almost a year ago. That had been unfortunate she had been looking forward to perhaps gain a new bodyguard from them, after Ruby had died.

She noticed the aide was still there and rose a eyebrow. "Something else the matter?"

"Y-yes, two reports of note. A individual claiming to be part of Zann's entourage, offering a job whose details he will only inform you off when you travel and arrive at Thyferra, but apparently he needs you to 'lean' on someone. We have also received word of the explorers in your service, apparently putting one a force sensitive on their crew proved fruitful as they have sensed a enormous presence of the dark side of the force in a cave on that world."

Frowning she reached to her belt, retrieving a bar which after unwrapping drew the attention of the Tuk'ata, she casually flicked it away and smiled as she saw the sith hounds go after it, fighting each other over the morsel of meat. "I see, interesting... Zann hates my guts, last I checked anyway, so this is surprising. Though maybe Jabba put in a good word for me." She rubbed her cheek. "Dagobah... not that far from Thyferra as I recall. Very well send word back to this Zann associate I shall meet his request and head to Thyferra... Inform Reneva that I will be leaving Korriban but that she and the Dark Rbirth are to remain here... I will be taking the Chained Despair. Additionally inform Karsk, Trizz, Rhak-Skuri, Nyriss and Talon are to come with me on this journey. As well as ten sun guard commandos and some of the Zeltron aides, now off with you, before my hounds assume you are their next meal."

She chuckled as she watched the aide scurry away but then looked grim, she had not been provided with news about Hadzuska, she had been out of reach for some time now. "What are you up to I wonder... my loyal disciple." She murmured as she turned and cocked her head at the whimpering prisoner in the cage behind her. "Right where were we? Ah yes, a shame your bloodwork meant you are useless for my experiments, but good to know that you have plenty of meat on your bones to feed my Tuk'ata... let's see how long you can run, shall we?"

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The Adventures of Hadzuska,
Will she be imprisoned.... again?
_________________

She was calmly looking out of the observation window of the ship as they exited hyperspace, the crew around her doing their task without her giving any orders, she had decided early on after a conversation with the captain that things would work best if he just obeyed her directions and that running the ship was in his care and his responsibility, all she cared for were results. Currently it was going well as the enormous space station started to fill the window, the Wheel, neutral territory and a safe heaven for many, perhaps even some force sensitive individuals that could be found and convinced out of hiding to join her mistress Andrea. She turned to the captain, "Approach and dock with the Wheel captain, we stay here for a week to see if I can find what I am looking for before we move on." The human nodded and gave the crew their instructions as they made their approach, the Twi'lek Darth closing her eyes and entering a brief meditative state to focus her thoughts and senses for the task ahead.

As the Dagger docked with the station Hadzuska sensed a brief flicker in the force as she cast her awareness outwards, a recognition of some sort, only there for a moment but there none the less.

She smiled, opening her eyes as the ship docked at the same time, "I sensed you." She murmured, "Captain, I shall be visiting the wheel, do take care of the ship and any supplies the ship and crew need while I am off on my personal errand." She said, receiving a silent, curt nod in response.

Some time later she was out of the ship, wandering through the docks section of the Wheel, honing her senses and awareness in the force as she smiled to herself. "The hunt begins...." Delight filling her at the small surge of adrenaline and excitement she felt as she began searching for her prey. Plenty of dark, secretive places on the wheel so this could take some time, all the better.

The flicker appears in her expanded awareness several most time s as she hunts but aside from leading her vaguely in the direction of the black sector she gets no firm lead on the sensitive she seeks

She was humming to herself, this prey was elusive, good, the chase was half the fun, would be boring if it was over too soon. She walked into a quiet alley, making sure none were present, much less any robbers who were stupid enough to try and get the jump on her as she sat down, perhaps a different tactic might work. She had sensed the flicker of someone strong in the force, so perhaps the prey could be lured to her as she focused on the force, the dark side and send out a tremor, revealing her own presence in the force.

The flicker came again almost immediately along with a feeling of surprise before vanishing again, the feeling however was strong enough to give a solid lead on what direction to take into the black sector.

She smiled and got up, dusting the grime of her clothing. "Found you... I think." She murmured to herself as she set off towards the black sector with purpose but minding her step and surroundings.

As Hadzuska entered the black sector proper the reasons for its ominous name became clear. this area of the wheel received very little order from the enforcement forces the station employed, most living down here were squatters simply living from day to day as best they could the lighting was dim, filth was evident everywhere and most beings looked shifty at each other while trying to mind their own business. The flicker however seemed to have vanished.

She looked around with a frown, this prey was being elusive, tapping her lip and shrugged. Closing her eyes to once again send out a tremor, with a sense if she could of 'here I am, come and find me. If you have the courage.'

Another flicker popped into Hadzuska's awareness, one with a hint of malevolence behind it. It felt close.

She chuckled, so the hunter had become the hunted? Very well, she checked her weaponry and decided to wait and see if the owner of the malevolence vibe would find her.

The only warning of what happened next was the sharp click and hiss of a netgun being discharged and the stink of ozone as the launched net electrified itself as it speed towards Hadzuska. She had only moments to seek a counter.

With a hiss she attempted to dodge the net, calling on the force to enhance her speed, reflexes and acrobatics.

As Hadzuska moved to avoid the net she was only partially successful as the net caught her ankle and foot as the rest of it sailed past where she had stood only moments before. the force of the nets grip swept the leg out from under her and the electrifying surface of it numbed the leg from the ankle down. before the rest of the net managed to wrap itself around an exposed section of pipping behind where she had stood.

She let out a hiss of pain and annoyance and looked around for a sign of the one who launched the net in her direction.

She didn't have to look far as an armoured figure stepped out of the shadows with the netgun now hanging from a strap at their waist as they held a more conventional blaster. "You are not the one I seek, they at least had the sense to try and hide themselves. Still I won't pass up the chance at a double bounty." The figure said, their voice hidden behind a modulator in their helmet.

She chuckled and then winced, damnable net, "Bounty hunter huh? Fascinating, you are talented in more ways than a regular bounty hunter too, how interesting. Hunting people like me, huh? People like yourself?" She smirked, making conversation while thinking on what to do.

"People like myself?" The hunter shook their head and raised the blaster. "Only so far as that I was born able to touch the force,The difference is i use it as another tool to remove the galaxy of the rest of you." They replied, seemingly content not to fire just yet.

She nodded, "Remove the rest of us, huh? Sounds personal, so we are not just another paycheck?" She hadn't been shot yet, which was interesting.

"Well, you are big paychecks, and my affliction does give me an edge in hunting you. One has to make a living somehow." The hunter replied with a slight shrug. "But as riveting as this conversation is I do have another to apprehend before they escape." They said as they fired the blaster on stun.

"Ferglutz!" She muttered as she tried to roll out of the way of the incoming stun blast.

The blast impacts on the floor where Hadzuska had been moments before, the sith womas roll had barely made it however as her leg still tethered to the pipe behind her snapped taught stopping her roll only milimeters from the blasts impact radius.

She took a deep breath, that had been close, she looked back at the hunter, figuring out she only had moments, flee, attack... or. She held up her hands, not holding any weapons. "You made a excellent point, so why not let me help you in your hunt for these other or others and perhaps a business proposal?" She asked, her voice calm, taking a gamble she knew but this bounty hunter that can use the force was interesting.

"Business proposal huh? do you actually know how high the bounty for your kind is?" the hunter replied as they lined up another shot.

"Last time I checked one million credits, taxes not included." She said with a shrug, eyeing the blaster. "But let's just say hypothetically that I came here using a corvette sized vessel and the the one I work for has a small fleet of frigate or cruiser analogs, as well as two capital class vessels, that would imply someone who can pay quite handsomely, meanwhile I'm offering to help you hunt down your other prey, afterwards you can always decide to stun me for a additional bounty, or talk price about this business offer I am willing to make." She didn't like revealing that she worked for someone else but she had nothing else to say to perhaps convince this hunter.

"Or I could just stun you now and stop wasting time here, go take my other target and come back to get you after."

"Huh shame, I was starting to like you." She said before she took action, calling up a bubble of force protection around herself while also pulling out her holdout blaster, firing at the hunter with a stun blast of her own.

The hunter let go on the blaster with one hand and raised it to intercept the stun blast, drawing on the force to create a small shield in front of themselves that absorbed the stun blast harmlessly. "This affliction does have its benefits." The hunter said as they once again fired their blaster.

Again she tried her best to dodge the blast, she had a protection bubble around herself but if she could keep it intact, all the better.

The hunters blast found its mark this time and a low growl was audible from the helmet as the hunter, now through with talking, used the moment it took for their blaster to recharge for another stun blast to focus their aim before firing again.

With a hiss of annoyance she gathered the force to gather all loose objects in the area and hurl them towards the hunter with as much telekinetic force as she can muster.

A few scraps of paper seemed to stir from Hadzuska's efforts but aside from that it seemed she was about to be captured once again...

... The hunter chuckled and started to depress the trigger. The shot however would never come, as a yellow lightsabre blade cut through the weapons barrel and the hunter jumped backwards quickly to avoid a backswing of the deadly weapon. "I Will not let you take another in my stead just because you cannot keep up with me Hunter." The sabre wielder, a young woman no more than 19 announced as she settled into a defensive posture between the Hunter and its prey.

Well there was the original prey, saving her ass... it rankled her somewhat but she decided to ignore that feeling and went busy with freeing her her leg from the blasted net.*

"You are a half trained child, you would not have eluded my grasp forever." The hunter replied as they drew a pair of short blades, By the confidence of the hunters stance it was a good bet the blades were resistant to a lightsabres strikes. "Very well girl if you with to test your blade against mine." He said as he charged at the woman.

With a smirk she managed to get free, gritting her teeth as her leg still felt numb but she got to her feet, looking at the direction she had come from, knowing it would lead to the docks and her ship, then she looked back at the hunter and the young brat. Rolling her eyes she cursed herself for what she was about to do, "Blast it all..." She said as she reached for her paired blades and ignited them, charging at the bounty hunter to help out the girl.

Hadzuska intercepted the Hunters charge despite the numbing effect still plaguing her foot and ankle, catching one of the blades while the young woman caught the other. With her free sabre Hadzuska struck out at the hunter, the result being a shallow gash between armour plating before the hunter disengaged and twisted away from the strike. Clearly he hadn't expected them both to come at him at once, nor had he noticed hadzuska's twin sabres.

She no longer bothered with talking, closing in to strike at the bounty hunter once more with both her blades, she had been shamed by this hunter and she was going to collect something, if only her pride, from this mess.

The woman timed her strike to coincide with Hadzuska, unfortunately this only caused the two of them to cross blades as they struck at the Hunter who had leaped out of their reach, utilising the force to put extra distance between them it appeared. "Not particularly well coordinated are you?" The hunter said with a hint of amusement as they pulled a cylinder from their belt, depressed a button on the top and flung it to the ground near the two sabre wielders.

With a snarl she tried to jump back, that must be a grenade of some kind and she had no interest of being caught in it's effect.

The cylinder exploded with a flash of light and sound as well as ion energy Hadzuska briefly noticed as she leaped away from the blast. even with force enhances reflexes her vision was clouded and her hearing was muffled from the effects, effects that had been far more dire on the now collapsed young woman. Her sabre lay deactivated a short distance from her slack hand as she lay on the floor breathing shallowly but evidently alive. Of the hunter Hadzuska saw a shadowy figure moving away from the pair of them quickly, apparently the hunter did not care to stick around when there was the prospect of facing two against one. obviously he had turned to flee before the effects of the blast had become evident.

Hadzuska was on alert for a moment but when it became clear the bounty hunter had decided to flee she deactivated her sabers and looked at the unconscious girl, frowning and then with a sigh she picked up the girls lightsaber and heaved her onto her shoulder with a grunt and started walking, with the unconscious body over her shoulder.

She carried her all the way back to the docks, informing the crew to prepare the ship for departure and have some of the black guards to come outside to meet her. Seeing the guards on her arrival she told them to keep a eye out as she lowered the body to the ground and prepped her up against a wall, holding her saber in her hand while she waited for her to wake up. After fifteen minutes or so, getting a little impatient Hadzuska slapped her cheek to see if that would snap her out of it.

The slap seemed to rouse the woman quite suddenly and as one might do when startled the young woman overreacted by lashing out with a blast of force wave at those standing over her. the nearest black armoured guards to Hadzuska were knocked back by the blast while the others managed to retain their footing, the blast seemed not to effect Hadzuska at all aside from rustling her clothing.

Hadzuska smirked, "Welcome back to the waking world, as you can see, no bounty hunter handing you in for a bounty." She said while gesturing for the guards to stand down. "They call me Hadzuska." She held up the lightsaber, not handing it over but merely examining it. "Yellow blade, what alignment I wonder, though you decided to come to my rescue of a sort so that might reveal it." She said, studying the young woman.

"Alignment?" The girl asked, possibly still gathering her wits.

She shrugged, "Light, dark, jedi, sith, or gray, like that hunter claiming he was, just a bounty hunter who learned some tricks with his 'affliction'. You however have a lightsaber, which you either have inherited or crafted yourself."

"My fathers..." She said as she shook her head to try and clear the lingering effects of the stunner grenade. "He gave it to me before he died, several years ago now." She said more focused now as she locked her eyes onto the hilt for a moment before looking at Hadzuska's face.

She looked back, not bothering to hide her crimson with gold sith eyes by looking away, tilting her head to the side. "Jedi, huh? Figured as much." She said, mostly to herself.

"Who said anything about jedi." The girl remarked as she stood and steadied herself.

Hadzuska stood up as well, still keeping an eye on the girl and holding on to the lightsaber, "Mostly me ,because you didn't answer, thanks for the rescue by the way."

"That Hunter had been stalking me for days, I was managing to stay ahead of them but it was slowly starting to corner me. Then you can waltzing in broadcasting you presence in the force like a beacon, you couldn't help but draw the hunters attention." The girl replied, "True I could have just slipped away, but you were trying to follow me as well, I felt that. Id didn't sit right with me to let you be taken unawares, I wouldn't wish the fate of the bounty on anyone."

Hadzuska tapped the lightsaber against her leg idly, thinking. "So I gather... Do you want to know why I was trying to track you down?"

"The question had occurred to me." the girl replied

"Suffice to say I am in the service of someone... who would love to train you in the way of the force, our ways." She studied the girl for a reaction. "You saw the colours of my sabers, so I wonder what exactly your father told you about some of the things the one I serve loyally would want to teach you."

"My father told me many things over the years. Warned me about things." She replied as she tensed a little. "He also taught me to survive." She stated, though made no direct actions.

"Also taught you a annoying habit to evade direct answers to questions." Hadzuska said with a snort.

"Most people will hear what they want to hear, it rarely matters if the answers are direct. Vague answers tend to move things along more smoothly when one in just trying to survive." The girl answered.

She chuckled, "Bit of a smartass, that's what you are. Hmm." She pondered and then shrugged. "Well I can offer you a ride off this place, drop you off at the next system and you can continue practicing your father's teachings on how to survive. Or, I could take you in under my or my mistress's wing and teach you some new techniques, and... give you a place to stay where you won't feel a need to run for any bounty hunter trying to collect a bounty." She finished saying, extending the girl's lightsaber towards her, offering it back to her.

The girl extended her hand to take her hilt back, Hesitating for a moment before reaching out for it gently with the force. "Getting off The Wheel and out of that Hunters scope would be appreciated." She replied. "My name is Rane Koda."

She nods and snapped her fingers, gesturing for the guards to get inside the ship and then inclined her head for Rane. "If you would follow me." She said not unkindly as she tapped her communicator. "Captain, begin undocking procedures and set a course to the nearest hyperspace lane away from here, we are making a stop at the next system for a passenger to disembark."

[Tempest]

Kashiir reported they had arrived at Vjun, looking at his lord and not seeing him react in any way, he had no idea what was going on but it was obvious something had his master disturbed greatly, finally Gra'tua stirred and stood up walking down the length of the bridge to the viewport and nodded. "Wait in high orbit of the planet. Azazel should arrive shortly." He said, making his Chiss captain frown, so it was about her? He asked if it was required to launch fighters and power weapons and shields. At that Gra'tua turned around and Kashiir just felt the wave of anger radiating from his master before it vanished and he turned his back to Kashiir once more. "No, keep them powered down, we wait." He said, looking out to space, hands tightened into fists behind his back.

The trip had been long, albeit the relative closeness of Vjun. Tannus fidgets in his pilot seat as another howl of pain echoes down the corridors. It was a lesson, certainly... A very harsh one... About those who crossed the Lady these days. He sighs and looks at the screen. They were closing in on Vjun, his hand hovers over the communications keys, uncertain of whether to call Azazel or not. In his hesitation, he fails to hear the silence fall. Others look around restlessly, wary of if their leader would be arriving. No one wanted to be caught in her way or catch her attention. After a moment, he begins to key in a connection with the torture chambers, only for the near silent voice of Azazel to call out from the balcony, "No need... I am here."

Tannus eases and looks back, "We're arriving at Vjun... What do you want to do?"

Azazel hesitates, "To turn and leave right now, but that will do nothing but enrage him further... Officer Radley, establish a line with Gra'tua... We'll see what he has in mind. Ah, and patch that into the conference room." With that, Azazel silently slinks off to the designated room and takes a seat, waiting patiently for the display of Gra'tua to appear before her.

He waved Kashiir to silence before the Chiss had opened his mouth. "I see it." Was all he said as he saw the distant shape of something moving among the black of space, indicating a ship had arrived. "I will be in the throne room, make sure it is empty upon my arrival and we wait to see if she hails us first, patch it through at once if she is." The Chiss bowed and acknowledged the order, frowning as he looked at the figure of his master leaving.

He had just arrived when the holographic emitters on the table lit up and he looked upon the visage of Azazel, noting she was wearing armour he crossed his arms, looking at her in silence, waiting for it just to become a rather uncomfortable silence before he spoke. "I get a feeling that if I invite you over here to talk about this you suspect you would never leave, so I am going to offer to come over to your ship, alone, to talk. Is that acceptable?" He said calmly, waiting for a response.

Azazel lightly runs her hand over the table before her, watching the image of Gra'tua silently. "Do you think that poorly of me, to assume I would suspect you of such?" The metal blades on her fingers lightly digs into the woodwork as she watches him. "But very well, come. It gives me a chance to clean up."

He nodded, "I will be there momentarily." With that he cut off the link and went to the hangar, ordering a shuttle to be prepared for him, a moment later Kashiir's voice came in, no doubt having been informed he wanted a shuttle to be ready, asking what was going on. Upon informing him, he naturally started stating his objections but he silenced the Chiss. "I am doing this, keeps systems powered down and wait for my return and I will return." He could tell Kashiir did not like it but he would follow orders.

The shuttle journey did not take long and moments later the craft settled down in one of the hangars belonging to the Dagda. He walked off the ramp and looked around, seeing one of her people, Tannus, waiting. Walking towards him with purpose he levelled the younger male with a gaze, his face hidden behind his mask. "Take me to Azazel."

"Right then," Tannus mutters, abruptly turning on the ball of his feet and going back out the door. As instructed by the mistress, he takes the swiftest path, though doubting her judgement on not stalling this at least a little longer. They could have set something, anything up, in order to contain Gra'tua's inevitable wrath. Yet, she awaits him, isolated in the conference room. Coming up, Tannus casts Gra'tua a wary expression before tapping the door switch.

As the doors fly open, Azazel looks up over the bes'bev at Gra'tua, lowering it mid note. "Leave, Tannus..." she instructs. The disciple begins to protest before shaking his head as he departs. She traces her fingers over the flute as she gestures Gra'tua to come in. "I'm sure you have much to say."
2:14 AM - Sarzum: He watched Azazel's disciple go, standing still untill the door had closed again and he walked forwards, removing the seals of his helmet and pulling it off, placing it on the conference table before making his way around, looking at Azazel, still not saying a word. When he stood in front of her, he studied her for a moment, just looking before he suddenly lunged forward, grabbing her and pulling her in to lock lips, kissing her hard and deep, letting it linger before he pulled back. Taking a deep breath and narrowing his eyes. "I suppose there is a lot to say...." He said finally and then frowned, "Like, why betraying me like that." His tone wasn't judgmental or accusing, more curious and surprised, though a certain look of hurt flashed over his face before he managed to control his facial features.

She looks at him, cheeks flushed and utterly taken aback by his touch. Trembling, Azazel softly touches a hand to his cheek. "I uhm... I," she turns her gaze away and allows her hand to drop. "I don't have any good explanation, Gra'tua..."

He frowns, cupping her hand and bringing it to his lips. "You can understand I feel betrayed? Apparently this been going on for who knows how long... if it hadn't been for that... Zygerrian..." He said with a glare, recalling that conversation before he shook his head, right now he was doing his best to suppress his anger. "Were you and.... that woman... together before or after we started?"

She tenses at the mention of Hakkri, trying to avoid Gra'tua's gaze, "I understand..." She quivers, fighting the urge to pull away and leave. The words were beginning to catch in her throat. "Before," she finally manages to get out.

He rose a eyebrow in surprise, he had expected after. "I see." He said, thinking and mulling it over. "Why, did you simply not tell me about this, why keep it a secret?"

"I know there is bad blood between the two of you... I was not sure how you would react, or what it might mean," she sighs and draws back and gazes upon his face, "Am I to assume you will push me to choose between the two of you now as well?" She attempts to create a larger space between the two of them. He had to be able to tell what else she had not spoken of... Surely...

He frowned and snorts, "We've been together for a year, I know very well that you cannot be pushed into anything." He smirked at that before he became serious once more, he blinked, there was something about Azazel lately, a flicker at the edge of his mind but he could not pinpoint it, his eyes darting over her body, centering on the stomach before he shook his head with a frown. He was getting distracted, "Hell, I do not mind if you have others, I would have liked to talked about this instead of finding out this way... as for my... dislike... of Andrea, has she told you why, hmm?"

Azazel looks at Gra'tua in disbelief... To hear all this, well, to say the least, it was making her slightly more irked at Andrea's insistances before... "All she's said is you took something she loved from her..."

He raised his eyebrows, "Is that what she said?" He let otu a wry chuckle, "Shall we sit? It will make telling this all easier." He sat down himself, leaning back. "Know I don't ask you to believe me, this is my version of what happened, feel free to have doubts but I will tell you of what I have witnessed from my point of view. We were both apprentices when we first met, our masters had a alliance of sorts, attacking a target and splitting the spoils afterwards. And Andrea.... well clearly you have experienced her 'charms of seduction' we forged our own secret alliance, killed our masters, declared ourselves Darths and were together for a number of years, together." He smiled, those were fond memories before his face soured at what came next. "Before I continue... you know Kyr'am is my daughter... yet the subject of her mother never came up... with this revelation, do you now get the resemblance?"

She had just taken a seat when Gra'tua dropped this information upon her. She nearly lurches from her seat, but somehow feels as if she is stuck fast to the spot. "She... Andrea..." She closes her eyes, leaning back. "So much for trust..." she finally utters bitterly. After a moment, she leans forward and stares Gra'tua dead-on. "So, all this time... And neither one of you felt the need to explain this affair of yours to me... Or that you had a child together," Azazel bites her tongue for a moment. "So, Kyr'am is what she loved, I am to assume... Why did it happen?"

He fixes Azazel a look, "It never came up and you never asked, neither did I decided to ask further about things concerning you." He shrugged and continued. "Well we got a baby, Kyr'am... I was happy... I was loyal to Andrea and our new daughter... and then I was informed she planned to kill me and take the child to raise her as her heir alone with no influence of mine. I did not believe it but when my own agents on her ship informed me and gave proof of her plans to launch boarding actions to kidnap the child and blow my ship to pieces with me still on it? I acted, ordering to cripple her vessel and escape with our, my daughter." He looked a mixture of angry and sadness recalling this. "She wanted to kill me and kidnap our child... all I did was defend myself and my child, if she claims I am the culprit for stealing Kyr'am away from her? Then perhaps she is right from her point of view."

For a moment, fire dances up along her arm as she hears this. "Why would she not wish your influence on the child?" she whispers. Her mind was flitting between doubts back and forth. Was she to trust Andrea or Gra'tua... Could she even trust either of them.

He blinked, startled as he rose up from his chair looking at the flames and then at Azazel;s face. "What..." He gestured to the flames, "New ability?" He shook his head, "I, I don't know, all I knew of her that day changed when I gathered she wanted to kill me, since then I have learned her to be a... manipulative being who seems to enjoy making people do what she wants. I have not lied to you, nor have I had any reason to do so and look at Kyr'am, was my influence on her bad? She is a independant woman, a warrior and a leader in time." He snorted but in a amused way, "She even starts arguments with me, if my vision or plans do not suit her. If she was just a mindless drone I would have placed my saber at my throat and ignited the blade."

She bats the fire off her arm, flustered, and mutters irritatedly in response to the initial inquiry, "Yes, it only cost one of my inner circle, Cabur, the loyalty of my apprentice, and my dignity to acquire." She sighs and stands, moving across the room and acquiring pouring a mug of hot chocolate. Leaning against the wall, she sips from the beverage as she considers her next words, "Could it perhaps be she did not wish her child to be raised as a Mando? She holds dear that she is Sith, through and through, after all..."

"Kyr'am is raised with Mandalorian values and as a sith, does she seem hell-bend on personal glory and the life of a warrior to you?" He shakes his head, "To this day I still have no idea why she wanted me dead, only guesses." He shrugged and sighed. "But yes that is my backstory with Andrea... hence my reaction at the time when certain things were revealed... and no, I am still not going to ask to make a choice, who you share your bed is your choice." He looks at Azazel earnestly. "But I am loyal to you." He smiled wryly once more, "Untill you tire of me." He leaned back, placing his hands together, "I have been talking a lot now, what are your thoughts on this, for lack of a better word, mess?"

"That there is much I do not know," she murmurs over her mug, "And much to consider. While, I am content to, continue as is, there are things that could pose a problem... Andrea's own, ah, fears and grudges, for example." Azazel blows lightly over the surface of the creamy brown liquid, watching the ripples. "Largely, I have no things to discuss with Andrea... And she will answer me." She focuses her gaze at Gra'tua, anger barely contained behind a near blank expression, "It is nice to know you do not think less of me, and in fact that it has not brought any tension between us... "

He let his look darken, "I will not deny I am... a little jealous.... though you said before... it was just her... there had been no others." He said looking away for a moment.

Azazel tenses for a moment before smiling slightly, "Jealousy?" She sets the mug aside, "I am torn. It would seem both of my lovers are jealous of the other..." She moves closer, cupping his cheeks and pressing her lips softly to his brow. "The only two... Ever... And that will not change, Gra'tua... If I am to have my way, I would not lose either of you... So is there truly reason to be jealous?" her tone denotes a genuine question, as if it was uncertain and confusing to her.

"I suppose there isn't..." He said trailing off, looking up at her. "Andrea was jealous too?" He couldn't help but find that amusing, chuckling before he quieted down and frowned looking at Azazel with a curious expression. "Something is different about you... it's nagging at me." He blinked and shook his head.

She fights the urge to conceal her midsection, looking away, "Gra'tua, I do have a question regarding our future... And perhaps, I worry, what your goal to be Mand'alor might mean in the scheme of it all."

He blinked, surprised and looked up at her face again, "Ask away, consider me intrigued."

"Being Mand'alor, your people would have to be certain in you, that you are through and through Mando and adhere to the tenets of their culture... And surely, one of those is that your children are reared adhering to mando'ade tradition." She rests back, "I myself am certain of myself, to become Sith'ari... Perhaps that may conflict... Even while I've respect of many cultures and deeply admire tradition... But..." she hesitates, "Any children we might have, I am not certain I could stand-by accepting them to be raised mando... Surely to know of their customs, and even adhere to some, the tenets are, mostly sound... But others I myself find trouble accepting... Yet, to not raise them certainly as mando... it would raise challenge in your rule, would it not?"

Gra'tua smiled, "I am... pleased that you even consider to perhaps have children with me one day... it would not raise a direct challenge to my rule, children learn more from their mothers in any case, now if they were to openly defy me, that might cause some trouble ,but nothing I can handle. In the end if I am Mand'alor then I must prove myself to be worthy o the position and status and handle it my way, if that means silencing some people who think I do not raise my hildren properly... then I will just ignore them or deal with them." He pondered, and then widened his eyes looking at her mid-section and then back at her face, trying to look for a answer to a unvoiced question.

She instinctively puts an arm over her abdomen defensively. After a moment, Azazel nods silently in affirmation.

He stood up from the chair, cupping her chin and turning her head. "A child..." He leaned in kissing her again, breaking the kiss and looking down, his hand hovering over her abdomen. "May I?" He asked, his anger, jealousy or any other negative strong emotions seemed completely gone for the moment.

The sith woman flushes before meekly saying, "Ah, yes... Of course..." She fidgets nervously, trying to regain her composure, but it just was not happening. With Andrea, it was just always anger, wanting and a never ending storm of feelings... Yet, with Gra'tua... A small smile spreads over her lips, as she realizes how easy things could be with him sometimes.

He smiled, placing his hand on her abdomen, there was armour in the way of course but he reached out with the force and could feel the flicker of another conscience in the making, chuckling. "We are going to have a child... this... this is wonderful news." He grinned and looked up at her. "How to raise our child... we can discuss at a later time... if it has soem Mando'ade background I will be content." He nods, not wanting to let go of Azazel.

She lets out a sigh, finally feeling even slightly relaxed as she leans against Gra'tua. "That sounds well..." She frowns and buries her face against his neck for a moment, "I do believe... that it will keep me from such daring-do's and misadventures as I am usually inclined towards, though..."

"Probably, though I suspect you will find a way around that in some fashion or another.* He smirks and then frowns. "Heh... the reason why I contacted you initially was to discuss a plan I had." He began, holding her close. "The Mandalorians are officially neutral, some clans working for one side in return for credits... I had a thought of perhaps... if you wanted to gain influence with one of the factions, I believe you were more with the CIS. To perhaps have you raise to influential positon, perhaps a senator at some point and have you 'convince' the Mand'alor... me... to side with the faction of your choosing. Personally I prefer the Republic... their clones are raised with Mandalorian warrior traditions in their training to become republic soldiers but in this case I would side with your decision."

She considers it for a moment, "I had the idea to perhaps get involved in politics. Fancy that... A sith sitting right under their noses..." She chuckles, "It matters not, I think, which side we involve ourselves with for now... I do believe Andrea and I had plans to see our influence on both factions." She stifles a laugh, "Mind you, I think that was before I set her chambers on fire. No telling if she is still wounded over that.... Or my swift departure..."

He blinked, set Andrea's chambers on fire? No doubt more of that interesting new ability... he nodded slowly. "I suppose so. Well... I think at least there is no rift or wound of any kind on either of this after all this?"

"I see no reason for there to be," she shrugs slightly. Azazel furrows her brow, "Ah, is there any reason why we met here in particular?"

"Two reasons, it was close, roughly in the middle of Korriban and Mandalorian space... and, since I knew you seem to have a great deal of interest in them. I had my own meager sources dig for information, I do not know much but down below the world we orbit, Vjun, is supposedly the craddle that spawned the Mecrossa Order." He said with a easy smirk. "That afraid is all I know, but in case you were not aware I figured you would find that information more than welcome."

"That is interesting..." she rubs her eyes, "Oh, but of course, I am afraid there are... some matters with the Mecrossa Order that will need cleared up of late... I had recieved a message not long ago from Xen regarding them. It does not bode... well at all."

"I am afraid I cannot help with that, big, burly Mandalorian warlord and all. Now if you need me to eradicate them..." He trailed off, finishing with a chuckle. "Still... I think that has concluded our talk, don't you agree?"

She flushes for a moment, shifting in his arms, "I think it... certainly does wrap things up nicely... Ah, but since we are together... Perhaps our other business can wait and we take advantage of all this time?"

"Certainly... nothing would please me more..." He looked down at himself and then at Azazel, "Definitely need to get out of armour for that however... now then, I think I know the way still to your bedchamber, shall we?"

"Certainly..." She smiles, taking his hand and beginning to lead him out.