Bestine System: Sarace Khen Athan meets Tohkran.

Sarace sat down on the Divan that served as the unconventional command seat of the Aetherius Primus, and while he had great respect for the authority of command he also was of the great opinion that one didn't have to be uncomfortable to command. Indeed, his people often commented that his bridge was the most comfortable in the galaxy. Indeed, the Aetherius Primus, while very functional, was built with a degree of comfort in mind. Though he didn't admit to anyone that the 'Meditation Chamber' was just a rephrasing of Massage Parlour. The fact he had some twilek masseuses on retainer had nothing to do with his meditation.

But he'd been travelling in receipt of this strange message to the Bestine System and they were about to.... suddenly there was the juddering of deceleration ... make that, just had, emerged from hyperspace within. The eight worlds and sixty-nine moons were nothing too unexpected, though he was personally homing in on the origin point of the message. A moon orbiting Bestine IV.

"Engage the communications array. Signal reads. 'This is Sarace Khen Athan, CEO of Athan Enterprises. Connoiseur of some very old arts and recipient of a transmission that says the resident governor of this moon might share the same interests.'" Sarace ordered and the man operating the communciations console relayed the recorded sequence to the target moon.

Saya cocked her head. "Isn't that just a little bit vague?"

"Given the galaxy's opinion of our kind, caution never hurts. Navigation, keep the Hyperdrive powered and ready to escape at a moments notice. Shields on 10% standby mode."
Sarace ordered.

Thrall looked at the message and nodded, "Yep, this is something beard face wants to know, relay it to him personally." He said to the communications officer and then turned to one of the others, "Inform the rest of the fleet to inconspiciously fly over here and closer to our new guest." A wookiee crew member yelped something and Thrall rolled his eyes. "How should I know? Tell them to fly casually or something!"

Meanwhile on the surface Tohkran was listening to the relayed message and nodded, activating the comm terminal in his office. He was still wearing what his friend still called 'the monkey suit' and hailed the vessel. "Greetings, I am Tohkran Disonic, of the Disonic Corporation, mister Athan, how nice of you to accept my invitation. I had heard about your fondness for certain old arts and may have a few... objects that hold mutual interest. I would be happy to invite you to the planet's surface."
Sarace frowned as his sensor operator spoke up. "Sir, we have ships 'flying casual' in our rough general direction."

"Weapons hold." He ordered as he frowned. They weren't on a hostile vector, but this was hardly unexpected. "But bring them to readiness power, but don't engage in any weapon locks unless they do." He took over from the comms officer. "I'd be very interested in accepting your invitation, though your defences aren't inspiring a lot of confidence, they do know that highly armed ships don't do casual very well, right?"
Tohkran looked genuinly surprised, "Excuse me?" He frowned and then sighed, holding up a finger. "One moment." He did not end the call with his guest while he opened a second line to Thrall. "My good friend, if you were worried for my safety, please don't bother and send the ships back on their regular patrol schedule please."

Thrall blinked and seemed to study his hands. "I have no idea what you are talking about beard face..." He started humming.

"Thrall... I am on call right now with my guest, who I invited, whose safety is my responsibility since he is my guest and I don't want him to feel threatened."

The Sluissi blinked and sheepishly replied. "Ah... oh... it's, yeah ok I get it. Sorry beard face." With that he terminated the call. And shrotly after that the ships returned to original courses.

Tohkran sighed, leaning back and rubbed his temple. "My apologies, he is a good friend but somewhat protective of me, a landing pad is cleared for a shuttlecraft at my compound."
"Many thanks. I find my confidence that we can do business somewhat restored. I'll be there shortly with a small contingent of my crew in a Shorien class Shuttle." Sarace remarked.

Heading for Hangar A-1 Sarace put out the call over the intercom. "Rorken, Ssark, Lleyan and Saya to Hangar A-1, Saya, bring two units of Trianii commandos with you. First impressions and all that." Climbing into the craft it didn't take long for Saya to pilot the shuttle down to the surface alighting lightly on the landing pad within the compound with a sultry grin.

"So, who we meeting." She asked.

"Tohkran Disonic, or so he claims. Politeness tempered with paranoia is readiness, and be ready." Sarace said as he hit the ramp release and walked down.

Tohkran was waiting a number of Cathar and Kiffu with him, although the latter dispersed soon after, resuming their patrols aroudn the compound, leaving him with only a token squad of Cathar warriors. He made a stiff bow, leaning on his cane. "Welcome to Bestine Minor, my home and place of business." He said while subtly trying to sense the force potential of his guests, blinking when he sensed a great deal of potential in four of them, most importantly in his main guest. He was using his own concealment to hide most of his force presence he focused on his guest, armoured he saw and wearing two interesting items on his belt, "I ca nsee already that you may have a interest in what I have." He said, gesturing to the lightsabers on his belt.

Sarace smiled a sort of half-cocked grin. "Indeed, though you shouldn't restrain yourself like that, you might pull a muscle." He chuckled. "Though I do hope those aren't of a somewhat reddish hue, I find the owners of those tend to be churlish and disinclined to peaceful solutions."

He rose an eyebrow, gesturing to the Cathar to remain calm he unscrewed the top of his cane loose and ignited his yellow blade. "Yours?"

Sarace took his blades and ignited them and signalled his people to do the same. In all instances the blades were a rich white in colour. "I find white has a rich purity about it." Shutting down his blades he returns them to his belt. "It's a pleasure to meet you Tohkran." Sarace said holding one hand extended.

He turned his lightsaber off and returned it to the top of his cane, taking the hand and shook it. "And you, Sarace. Well then if we can dispense with the cloak and dagger rituals. Welcome to my small sanctuary." He gestured to the Cathar, "I think things will be fine now, thanks." Turning back to Sarace he gestured to one of the buildings. "I suggest we head inside, get a drink and talk, shall we?"

"That sounds like a fine idea." Sarace reached back and took something from one of the Commandos. "Indeed, I brought a fine Corellian Brandy procured from my trade routes for the occasion. Of course, I brought them in case it turned out less friendly, do you have somewhere my men and women can mingle with your own in the meantime, guarding shuttles inspires boredom and boredom inspires mischief and mischief inspires unhappy security chiefs." He chuckled.

Tohkran thought for a moment, "Well in that direction." He pointed. "Are the training grounds for my people, my Cathar here can show your people and they can freely mingle there, noticed you had some Trianii with you, I have some in my employ as well who are currently on the surface who would no doubt like to interact with more of their kind. That would suffice I imagine... though best to stay away from the area that is warded off with signs saying 'wild beasts' they aren't exactly wild but rather very protective of certain things close to that area."

"Ah. A special enclosure to house your accountants." Sarace remarked with a grind. "Well, you heard the man, you can go mingle, you two guard the shuttle, precautionary, you'll be rotated out in thirty minutes." Sarace said his tone turned authoritarian. "Anyone too inebriated to fight by the time we make our leave of our host here will be conscripted to cleaning the sewage outflows of the factories back home. Am I clear?" Sarace remarked. They all nodded and went off to socialise. "They're a good bunch, trustworthy, but they need guidance from time to time."

"I suppose so, I somewhat more relaxed I guess, as seen with your initial welcome, my friend in orbit who was a bit too protective perhaps." He said as he walked with his guest and eventually entered the building, a smaller mess hall that was currently empty, taking a seat in a lounge area of the mess hall, sighing as he let his leg rest. "Apologies." He tapped one of his legs with a clunk sound. "One leg lost, the other filled with cyberentics. But welcome it is somewhat difficult to find another jedi in this day and age."

"It is good to be welcomed. As you say, we are a rare breed these days, a situation made worse by the Republic's virtual institutionalised ignoring of incidents against force users, or the standing bounty on our heads. A policy that the CIS seemed to have adopted." Sarace sighed. "But with a galaxy at war perhaps there is the potential to turn that around."

"Yes... I hope to see the day that we once again can just reveal ourselves openly without people seeing a credit number over our heads." He asked for a number of glasses and then placed the mon a table between himself and his guest. "I had gathered soem signs you were one of us and figured a invitation was needed to confirm my suspicions, I am glad they have."

"Truly, if it had been a hunter you'd have had your hands full, though given what i've seen I expect you're no easier to attack directly than I." Sarace said pouring a measure of Corellian Brandy and signalling to Tohkran if he'd like some.

"Oh yes, I have some defenses in place to keep my interests and people safe." He raised his glass for Sarace to fill and then took a sip, nodding. "Good brandy, but then it is Corellian after all. But yes, I am actually in contact with some other jedi on occasion, we do not stay together in one place, for safety naturally."

Sarace relaxed at the fiery sensation as he took a mouthful of the strong drink. "Naturally, especially since the Sith play their own hands too, I even heard through the grapevine that there was both Sith and Jedi at Anaxes when... well I'm not quite sure what it was... happened."

Tohkran rose a eyebrow, "You heard about that? Yes... it was a mess... I was there but encountered no sith. It was a disturbing place and I am glad to see it gone and that it was reportedly destroyed by both Republic CIS forces in the area, though there is no conclusive proof for it."

"The rumour mill was full of the Anaxes battle for days, it is beyond strange that it kept as nothing but rumour though. Nobody seems to be able to offer any insights into the fate of whatever that ship was. Regardless, it is a strange time. And I find my position remaining quiet, building up my industry and forces and helping when there can be no evidence of my aid is no longer sufficient. I won't choose between CIS or Republic. And yet action must be taken. I find myself at a loss as to what." Sarace said with some remorse.

He shrugged, "I am in a republic system and recently accepted a rather risky Republic military contract. Some of us feel that perhaps by developing contacts in the governments we can, with time, influence politics or public favour into accepting us once again. I admit I am somewhat supportive of the Republic's effort, others... not so much."

Sarace nodded, "Yes, I inhabit a system nominally CIS, though their presence is mere token, I doubt that a serious effort by the Republic would be challenged by the CIS. But I can't support a government that supported four centuries of prejudice." Sarace took another mouthful of drink. "Though I can certainly help friends."

"Well that settles my question if you were itnerested in meeting with other jedi, with what I ahve heard so far, that would be a yes? You do strike me as a warrior more than a business man I must admit."

Sarace nodded. "I am, I take on those more martial jobs who's causes fit what I believe are good ones. The unfortunate so often fail to have a strong hand to protect them. I strive to be that strong hand where I can." Leaning back Sarace relaxed a bit. "As for meeting other Jedi, certainly. While we must be apart for safety and securty, we are strongest together."

He nods, "Indeed, it is up to my friends and collegues however if they wish to meet you. So perhaps, with your permission I can give the myour contact details and they can make their own introductions. I can however give you the name and location of a person who is a friend to us but not a jedi herself."

"I'll allow it, and I might be interested in meeting your friend." Sarace looked over his shoulder as Saya came in. "What is it Saya?" He said fondly putting a hand on her waist.

"Soldat, uhm, how am I going to phrase this...." She seemed hesitant. "He uhm, fell down the stairs..... and died."

"Well shit..." Sarace said dejectedly.

Tohkran coughed in the middle of a sip, slapping his chest in a coughing fit. "Excuse me?"

"Well contrary to popular belief heads aren't meant to turn around that far..." Saya remarked.

Tohkran looked horrorfied, "I... well , my apologies for the loss." He seemed shaken at his and cleaned his face. "I... sorry my thought process was somewhat interupted, but yes. This friend is quite the face in busines circles, Neia Kahleesi, she is based on a station called the Nova Retreat in the Kwenn System. Just tell her you are a friend of me and she'll know what that means."

"Please don't tell me she's a funeral director as well." Sarace said... "Saya. This is an ill tiding, I want you to go and take Soldat's body back to the shuttle, recall our people." Sarace turned to Tohkran. "This was.... entirely unexpected...."

"I'd say... not the kind of thing I'd imagined or hoped for when we would meet." Tohkran said still somewhat shaken. "I, my apologies, I never knew the stairs on my compoudn were that dangerous..."

"They probably aren't. Soldat was probably trying to show off with some stunt." Sarace replied. "He was known for somewhat less than intelligent action."

"Well not the end-note I was hoping for, still, I hope that meeting a new jedi with the prospect of more in the future are still a good tidings for us both." He said standing up to show his guests out.

"I agree, feel free to call on me if you have need in the future, but for now it seems I have a funeral to arrange." Sarace said with some remorse.

He nodded silently and walked his guests back to the shuttle launch pad, speaking up before Sarace would leave. "If you have a need, feel free to call on me as well if I can in any means offer assistance."

"Farewell Tohkran. And may the force be with you." Sarace bowed deeply and backed onto the shuttle as the last of his men and women climbed aboard. It lifting moments afterwards.

Kwenn System,
Nova Retreat.

Sweat was pouring down her face, panting as she parried and weaved around the strikes of her opponent, a Ailon swordmaster, Neia was almost regretting her decision to ask one of them to be her sparring partner, forgetting at the time they pride themselves to be a warrior race, equal or perhaps even better than Mandalorians. But she wanted to see if her new skills with a electrostaff were indeed a improvement or not and so far... well the match had been going on for thirty minutes, before she would have been disarmed or 'killed' in less than ten minutes so there was definite improvement. She couldn't beat the Ailon however and after several more minutes she yielded, acknowledging the better skill of her sparring partner. At first she did not enjoy the prospect of a warlike species like the Ailon being present on her station and other operations but she had learned to accept them and even value them. A few months back there had been a disturbance of sorts with a visitor who claimed her people cheated at the gambling tables, she suspected it was true because Boher had been involved. Some of the Ailon had been present and the disturbance had been quickly disbanded and the troublemakers send off station after the worst of their injuries had been taken care off.

She dabbed her forehead with a towel and looked around, seeing others also practicing and honing their skills. Off to the side were Vette, HK-51, Kalira and Jantor engaging in a shooting competition with the droid proclaiming Vette was only winning due to superior droid-like cybernetics enhancing her reflexes and sight. Her sister was training with her shock whip lashing out at targets that had sensors installed and gave exact details if her strikes were effective in regards if she was actually hitting a organic or droid opponent.

She whistled and her constant companions on the station, her first two dwarf-vornskr reared up their heads and walked to her side, following her as she started to trek back to her chambers for a relaxing shower and a nap. Of course, three more steps and she was at the door of her chambers and her private comm started buzzing, with a sigh she tapped the device on her wrist. "Neia here, I could ask, can this wait, but it probably can't? Am I right?"

The yelping, howling and barking of a Wookiee were heard as Gaarwarr first chuckled and then began to speak, thankfully she had picked up his language so she didn't need Kalira to translate anymore. <"Not really. Word has come from your spy contacts. Apparently valuable cargo can be found in a warehouse on the planet Syvris. They thought you might find that interesting.">

She frowned, "What kind of cargo and to who does the warehouse belong to?"

There was a pause and then Gaarwarr continued. <"The cargo is unspecified only that it is very, very valuable according to your contacts. The owner is a black market dealer who isn't affiliated with the Syndicate, a freelancer, with enough power and wealth to get his own deals going it seems without having to worry about the Syndicate, which does suggest a certain amount of danger involved if you wish to take this cargo, though I must voice my opinion that any act of thievery is something I would not condone but I would not stop you."> Makign a grumbling noise after the last sentence.

She smiled, "Noted, though if it is a black marketeer I doubt he got his hands on this cargo without stealing it, are we talking about an entire warehouse full of goods or a small package? Also if it is a carbonite shipment I am not going to take it, it might be the son of a crimelord and that only gives trouble."

<"Surprisingly it appears to be a small package according to the spy."> Came the reply.

"Very well, convey my thanks to the contact and tell them I will investigate and see if our black marketeer really needs such a valuable cargo. I am reluctant to take the Gambit or one of the other vessels since we have our risky contract with the republic. So I think I will just take the Maiden." Neia said, musing as she began planning.

<"I trust you will not go alone?">

"Not to worry, if Vette is available she can come along as backup along with her vessel, I was thinking of taking Mirelle with me, Maaike and HK. With maybe a squad commandos mixed in. The others, either have other tasks or are... perhaps not the best suited to 'rob' a black marketeer warehouse. I'll tell them we will be leaving tomorrow... now I am going to be occupied for the next 3 hours so I can finally refresh myself and get a nap." Hearing Gaarwarr laugh she just smiled and turned the communicator off.

In the life of a Sith & Minions

Gra'tua looked at the vessel growing distant from the observation window, this... distraction was hopefully settled now, though he would wonder and be wary in the foreseeable future of what Andrea might do. Thought that would have to be a worry for another time, this had been a surprising series of events. Finding about Azazel and Andrea... and then settling things with Azazel to find out she was with child as well. He frowned as he sensed a presence behind him and turned around to see Goran Silas standing there with his head cocked. "Yes?" He asked, curious why his guest had decided to appear on the bridge before they were about to jump to hyperspace.

"Why were we here? It seems to be a awful waste to venture out of Mandalorian space... meet with someone on another ship and then apparently head back to Mandalorian space, I was expecting, I don't know. Something more grand, a excursion of some kind, perhaps a mercenary endeavor. Or do you enjoy wasting time for your warriors?"

He was baffled for a moment and then snorted, "You clearly have not been involved with a woman for a considerable amount of time. I needed to meet with my other half as it were to discuss some matters... and receive some joyous tidings in fact. So I most certainly don't see this as time wasted and I suggest you think on such things before commenting on the way I do things." He was silent for a moment to let his words sink in, "Anyway, since you are here, lets head to the practice range together, I have a feeling I might finally pull off what you want me to do..."

"You mean actually hitting something with a blaster? I will be amazed if that is so..." Goran replied dryly as he walked after Gra'tua.

Aboard the Dagda – Departing Vjun

---

After Gra'tua had departed once more, Azazel could be found pacing the corridor outside the conference room. People would pass and look at her curiously before quickly scuttling off as she glared. After a time, concern began to grow, primarily concerning her blocking access along a central corridor due to the risk of fatal injury. In response, the crew of The Dagda managed to convince Tannus to not only relieve himself from the wheel of the vessel but to also try to figure out what she was doing.

Cautiously, Tannus approaches her before clearing his throat. As Azazel looks up, he raises his hands, “Not to intrude, but what has you a fit?”

Azazel shrugs her shoulders, but at Tannus' expression indicating he was not believing it, she sighs. “I cannot decide if I ought contact Andrea or not. There appears to be a lot that has been unsaid. I am not quite ready to have to end any alliance with her. It would hardly be fruitful... Not at this time. Yet, I have reason again not to trust her. I always have, I suppose. Yet, I was beginning to think... Perhaps...”

Tannus gives her an incredulous raise of a brow, “Uh-huh. The alliance. That is what you are worried about... Look, just go call her. We've got a little time before we rendezvous with Grian.”

At that, Azazel flashes her disciple a pitiful look, her uncertainty on full display, “But what if it is nothing good?”

Tannus grunts and grasps her shoulders, leading her through the doors to a communications module. “Just do it. You're a Sith. You're our teacher. Our leader. You are Sith'ari. You've taken on far fiercer things than this without a hint of doubt or fear, why begin now?” His voicebox crackles before he adds, “Besides, talk of the ship, I hear you and Andrea have a habit of making up quite thoroughly... And loudly.” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Azazel flushes and glares before punching his shoulder, “You are not supposed to know that...” She bites her lip and looks at the console that was almost taunting her. It was perhaps the most terrifying thing she had ever seen in her life at this very moment... And yet. She sighs and reaches out shakily, fingertips hovering over the keys.

With a roll of his eyes, Tannus brushes aside her hand and keys in the code to reach Andrea. “I will leave you to this,” he says, ready to leave. Azazel reaches out to stop him before he raises a hand up, “No, no. You will be fine. I am certain of this. Just be the Lady we know. Enough of this meek creature masquerading as you.” With that, he goes through the doors and closes it, leaving a very wide-eyed and quivering Azazel waiting expectantly for Andrea to answer.

Reneva frowned when one of the crew got her attention, indicating a intercepted transmission meant for Andrea, seeing who it was she sighed and rolled her eyes. Why was the mistress gone during times like these, she answered it and stood at attention, watching the form of Darth Azazel take shape. She bowed curtly, "Lady Azazel, I am captain Reneva, apologies but mistress Andrea had to leave Korriban shortly after your own departure. Can I be of assistance?"

As the connection was made, she tenses up, waiting for that terrible and alluring woman to appear before her... Until someone else appears. Her lips purses and brows knit into a look of indignation before she crosses her arms, “I do not care who you are or are not. All I need know from you is how I can contact Andrea.” In the back of her mind, she tries to come up with reasons Andrea would not be on Korriban. She was always on Korriban!

She narrowed her eyes but stifled her comment she was about to make. "My apologies, she apparently had pressing matters to attend personally. I could give you her contact details but I do not know if I am supposed to, after all I would not want to anger the one I serve if she needed radio silence."

“You will. Or you will be the one to explain to Andrea the consequences of my not talking to her,” she snarls, gripping the edge of the console tightly. “I am not in the mood for some lackey of hers to be denying me.”

She blinked and took a involuntary step back, "I... well I suppose my lady would want to talk to you at any time. Allow me to... patch you through to her right away, my apologies." She quickly closed the feed and contacted her mistress, informing her what was going on.

Andrea chuckled, "I see, well Reneva your loyalty is noted but indeed, best not to piss off Azazel in the future, I will talk to her." After a moment Andrea spoke up. "Azazel? It's me, everything well you left so suddenly, was surprised especially after you saying you wished to spend time with me... though as you may have guessed not soon after you left I received news that needed me to be off Korriban as well."

Azazel takes a deep breath to try to collect herself. Reigning in her anger was being... particularly difficult at the time. After a moment she shakes her head, “Perhaps... Gra'tua had contacted me. All the same, I suppose. Xen got back with me about some... problems... But...” She looks at Andrea, uncertainty beginning to appear once more. As her eyes begin to water, she blinks it back and finds herself struggling to continue talking. Perhaps it was lucky that the holographic feed was offline.

She froze a moment at the sound of Gra'tua's name, stiffening before she relaxed, there was no holographic transmitter on this ship so Azazel could not see her. "I see, but... what?"

She shuffles, trying to work past that bothersome block to her voice. It seemed as if a millennium was passing by before she finds her voice again. “Hakkri talked to him first... He told Gra'tua about us. We met up, to talk... He... Talked of some things, though.” Her voice begins to crack, “Do you have any... anything... you would... would like to share with me?”

She widened her eyes and was stunned, a flicker of a thought that she had the foresight to send away the others so she could take this call in private because she did not want them to see her right now. "I... that depends, what did the illustrious Gra'tua tell you? It must have been something... interesting, I guess, some fairy tale no doubt."

“It was, perhaps... It was about two young sith...” she murmurs, staring at the empty screen hollowly. “And their child.” She leans closer to the console, touching her head to it, mouth only inches from the audio receiver. “Have you heard that one?...”

She was quiet for some time and then let out a sigh. "I might have... experienced that one. But perhaps, whatever version you may have heard... maybe those two young sith were, somewhat too young and each made stupid mistakes that one might regret years later."

“Why did you try to take Kyr'am from him?” she barely manages to whisper. She bites her lip to fight back any noise as her eyes begin to glisten with tears, “And why.... Did you never tell me any of this?”

Damn that bastard of a Gra'tua, she thought, gritting her teeth as lightning played along her fingertips before she took a deep breath and willed herself to calm down. "Is that what he told you? From what I recall he tried to kill me and took my daughter from me... and have you told me everything from your past? Some things people do not like to remember."

Her fist slams against the metal and she fails to even wince at the pain that lances up her arm, “WHAT SHOULD I TELL YOU, ANDREA?! THAT I GREW UP ON SOME FAILING GAS MINING PLANET?! THAT I WAS DYING IN MY CHILDHOOD BEFORE SULLIVAN FOUND ME?! That I spent years with no one, but that old woman?... That she looked at me like a daughter... Died... in front of me and I could not... not..” she chokes back a sob and starts to weakly slump against the panel. “Or... maybe... that you were my first?...” She buries her face in her hands, wiping her eyes and cheeks before quietly adding, “This... This is entirely different from anything I had to tell... Both of you, for a year... Kept that from me... And you... You...” She whimpers, “You tried to kill him first... You tried to take her first...”

She was shocked and flinched away from the terminal before collecting herself. "Azazel..." She said, trying to sound soothing. "You are upset, that is understandable with what you have heard... but please this is not the best time to talk about this... maybe we can talk, in person soon... I can't break this off... as much as I want to right now."

Nothing but silence and quiet sniffles meet Andrea for a time as Azazel attempts to collect herself. Rage begins to flood through her... At Andrea, for talking so much of trust and yet always holding so much from her. And all the while leaving her in an emotional whirlwind... At Gra'tua, for all this time telling her half-truths and yet being so indescribably perfect, as a leader, as a riduur, as a potential father. But never truly holding her heart... And at herself, for being made the fool and letting herself come across as some weak and lost child. Taking a staggering breath, she stares ahead at nothing. “Do whatever you want, Andrea...” A bitter laugh escapes her lips, “You wanted me to make a decision... Said that I was going to have to... I am... starting to see the truth in that.” She closes her eyes, trying to recompose and prepare herself for what she needed to say. It was like she could not breathe and that her world was spinning. “You make me a wreck... And I cannot keep allowing that... I can't keep playing these games with you...”

"I am going to kill Gra'tua..." Came out as a whisper, she was not even sure she had said it out loud. As she looked at the bulkhead as if not seeing it, stunned by what she was hearing.

She furrows her brow, unable to hear what Andrea just said, if it was anything at all. She hesitates for a moment, unsure if the other Sith would speak up or say anything. Part of her hopes for something, anything, for something to stop her before she finds her lips moving without her accord, “I don't really see us talking after this... But... Good bye, Andrea...” she kills the connection. Still staring at the console she whispers to nothing at all, “I love you...”

Azazel's voice breaks her out of her stunned silence and she reached forward, as if she was about to reach out for Azazel's cheek but then realized that she was not really there... and that she had just terminated the call. A sob escaped her... and then a scream of pure rage and grief as she felt the hull shudder at her rage and she just curled up, sobbing.

---

Convergence: The Dagda and Abberancy – Approximate location of Togoria

---

Azazel slinks about her ship, hand lightly gripping railing to support herself as she wanders aimlessly. Her wristlink chimes off at her in an endless shriek. She ignores it. Before long, she finds herself crossing before the door of the torture rooms. A soft sniffling whimper comes from the open door. She blinks and looks up, curious at the noise and who could be making it. She hesitates and stops at the door, listening to the sobbing from inside that seemed to be reflecting how she was feeling. She closes her eyes, rocking on her feet as she listens. After a time, it begins to dawn on her who the source was. It only made sense. “Hakkri?” she croaks out, throat raw and voice strained.

A frightful whimper echoes out to meet her. It was if Azazel's stomach was twisting in knots as she quickly walks through and looks down at the table. Hakkri lets out a frightened yip and strains weakly against the restraints on his limbs and across his mid-section. As if for the first time, Azazel seems to notice the damage she had inflicted. Across his chest in winding script of innumerable people, the same words wind and twist, 'I will obey the Dark Lady – I will not act against her wishes” Horrified, she reaches out and traces over the text, following the raw, healing flesh from his abdomen, across his chest and up along an arm. The swollen flesh was hot under her touch and concern knits over her face as she surveys the rest of him. Razor thin lines weaved out over the areas that were barren of her scarlet scripture, a web only to plot out the future lines. Through his opposite shoulder, a blade was jammed deep. A resting place for the blade as she had taken a break. Other such wounds were evidenced on his body in areas less vital, wherever she had been forced to break.

Tears begin to blur her vision as she whimpers, “Hold still, Hakkri...”

A dry, cracked version barely reminiscent of Hakkri's voice meets her, “No... Don't.... Please... No... More...” Azazel looks at him in shock before biting her lip. Her hand gently cups his cheek as her other hand reaches for the blade. She grips the handle of the blade and tries to be reassuring before ripping out. A shriek of pain leaves Hakkri as Azazel sobs out shaking apologies. The blade clatters to the floor and she wraps her arms about him, shaking and trying to comfort him. Her wristlink resumes chiming off before a low series beeps as the screen lights up, her position shining clear.

“Hakkri...” she whines. The Zygerian simply gasps and tries to ignore the pain of her weight on his injuries. Quickly, she shifts and starts to undo the straps. As she releases the last of the restraints, she moves aside to pick up a towel and a discarded set of robes. She presses the towel to his shoulder to staunch the blood as she fights back tears, “I should not have done this to you... I never meant... I... I...”

Hakkri lets out a strained chuckle, an arm loosely draping about her frame. “You... are a fucking mad woman...” His face blanches and he lays back with another series of whimpers. Azazel could see his grasp on the world fading for a moment.

She draws Hakkri tightly into her arms and kisses his brow, “Hakkri... Shh... I'll take care of you... It'll be alright...” She looks over her shoulder at the door, “SOMEBODY GET THE MEDICS!” Xen clomps up to the door, eyes adjusting. In each hand he holds a container. One his gear pack, the other a safety locked capsule of considerable size. His gaze shifts across Azazel to the ragged form in her embrace. “Oh Xen, thank the gods of Sith... I need you to help him. Now.”

Xen hesitates, setting the capsule against the door frame as he steps closer cautiously, “What happened? Who did this to him?” His gaze flickers over to the knife and he finds himself stiffening, accusingly focusing on Azazel once more. “My Lady... Are you alright? What did he do to you?”

Azazel's eyes widen at the stare, “I... He did not do anything. Stop hesitating, help him.”

Xen gives her an uncertain look before nodding and moving closer. He gestures for Azazel to lay him down. As she does, he spies the full extent of the damage and the blood that had begun soaking into Azazel's robes. A soft curse in Kubaz leaves him at the horror, “You should talk to me, Lady... About what I have missed.” He settles his pack onto a nearby metal table, knocking off the torture instruments as he begins to rummage for his medic's kit.

Azazel frowns and draws back, moving back to a chair nearby and slumping into it. “It has been... A great deal. Since I sent you off.”

Xen levels her gaze on her as he investigates the damage, hands hovering over the open kit as he determines what he would need. Settling upon needing to fight the growing infection first, he grabs a syringe and vial. Carefully he measures it out as he talks, “Start with where it starts. Move on from there. I am always at your service.” Hakkri laughs bitterly, “Korriban...” Xen fixes a shocked look upon Hakkri, “Was it Andrea?”

The Sith woman hesitates, hand moving to her mouth and nervously she finds herself biting on her nails. “N-no... Yes.... Sort of...”

Xen furrows his brow, placing a hand down on Hakkri's shaking form to steady him as he applies the injection, “You aren't making any sense...” He furrows his brow, seeing Hakkri's state, “Where is Aggros?” At the mention of that name, Hakkri looses a heartbroken wail and falls into a fit of body-wracking sobs, ripping the syringe right from Xen's hand. Xen grunts, “Son of a Bantha... Hakkri, stop!” With that, he jerks out the syringe and uses it as he picks a new vial... a sedative... He begins to measure the new syrum, trying to calculate the appropriate dose for Hakkri. “Azazel. Get it together.”

Azazel looks at him with wide eyes at him dropping the titles. She swallows and nods, “We were on Korriban... For the Sith tomb I found in Khaelesh's holocrons. We were right, thinking it was a trap laid out by him for me... The bastard...” She takes a deep breath, “I found a holocron, though... But...” She watches with morbid intrigue as Xen injects Hakkri again. The Zygerian whimpers at the icy fire as it floods into him. Xen fixes her with a stern gaze. Azazel fidgets and sighs, “We were in a tomb, and Andrea almost died. I stopped it... But.. Later, we ran into... Terentatek. Several of them. Hakkri was staying back, he... He single-handedly killed one. The other two... Tannus and I managed to kill them... But not before... Before one got Aggros... and he died... I couldn't help. He was gone before I could get to him.” She sighs and rubs her face, “The tomb was a trap. Hakkri... did not react well. I reacted worse. I did not think. I triggered the tap. The spirit of the tomb tried to drain me... Andrea stopped it. Still... What happened...” She shuffles her feet, watching as Xen begins to disinfect the wounds and cover them with patches. Hakkri was glaring at her groggily, his eyes fluttering as he fights to remain conscious.

“Andrea and I fought. Things... were alright then. But then Gra'tua called. And Hakkri answered. He let the skifflin out of the sack. Gra'tua found out... I was.. Angry. Before I even... Met with him... I took it out on Hakkri... But he was just angry, about Aggros... Rightly so...” She reaches out and lightly grasps Hakkri's limp hand, his eyes were finally closed, though fidgeting in the sedative induced catatonic state.

Xen sighs, “What about Gra'tua?”

Azazel looks to Xen, “He is fine... He knows about... Well.” Xen looks warily at her belly and nods knowingly. “Andrea knows too. But, Gra'tua told me.. About Kyr'am. About him and Andrea...”

Xen narrows his eyes, beginning to place Bacta patches and binding the injuries. “What about them?” Azazel looks sideways, “That they were lovers. And Kyr'am was their daughter... That Andrea tried to take Kyr'am away and kill Gra'tua.”

Xen cuts the bandages to size and adheses it to itself, he gives her a look to continue. When no words come, he moves closer, taking the Lady's hands in his blood and chemical soaked ones, “Tell me what happened and what I need to do.”

Azazel sighs, squeezing his hand lightly, “Gra'tua and I are well. However, when I talked to Andrea... She... She still would not tell me things. Still would not, just be honest... I... Ended... it...”

Xen's face transitions... from shock, to confusion, to disgust, and finally to approval. “You knew you needed to. She was holding you back, Azazel.”

Hakkri snorts through his nose weakly, “You gave up love?” The Dark Lady looks at Hakkri, cheeks streaked with tears, eyes red and puffy. She shoves past Xen and moves to Hakkri's side, snarling. Inches from his face she snaps, “What do you mean...” It was too late, even breath spills from Hakkri, and his face was a smooth, peaceful mask of slumber. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!” she cries, shaking him lightly. “Love?! She drove me mad! She gave me doubts. I am not well about her! She leaves me sick and wounded. If you call that love, it is a curse!”

Xen looks at Azazel and Hakkri with anger flickering across his face as he utters a snort. “Pfah. Love... That was simply lust, Azazel. It was a secondary, inconsequential emotion. Let it go. It is far better.” He draws Azazel away from Hakkri. “I will see that the medics take care of him. For now, though... Let us see to other matters.”

Azazel shudders and looks at Xen, “How can you be so cold?” she murmurs.

Xen stifles and narrows his eyes upon Azazel. “I am not. I simply am tired of these distractions that only appear to bring you personal pain. This Zygerian. That Sith harlot. Even that ridiculous Mando who thinks himself to be the next Mandalore. They are nothing but distractions keeping you from your destiny.” He closes his eyes and rests back against the wall. “I am not cold, mistress. I am simply looking out for you, your well-being, and the promises of a reformed galaxy. So, excuse me if I have no sympathy for the Zygerian who reportedly attempted to attack you... Or the whore who was bound to kill you sooner or later. I barely tolerate the warrior given he has kindly provided you an heir to your legacy.” He rubs the side of his head and it was almost as if a screen flickered on the back of his eyelids. The integrated HUD was less irritating than before...

Azazel looks at the Kubaz, mouth agape, “What have I turned you into...”

Xen flinches in irritation, looking through the feed, “You have not turned me into anything. I simply aspired to be what all those under your reign ought to. Anything less is an insult. If they truly wish to follow you, assist you, and be even a footnote in your story to come... They would do as I have. For you, Dark Lady.”

Azazel frowns and keeps her hand clenched about Hakkri's. “I am not sure that is what I ever wanted.”

Xen sneers, “No, but it is what you need.”

She quivers for a moment, frightened, for the first time, at the dedication of her operative. They stayed there in silence, despite Xen's urging her to other matters. It was not until the medics arrived that Azazel would leave Hakkri's side. Tannus made reports that they were going to stop in Togoria's orbit and refuel. Perhaps it would be a good chance to pick up on information or simply enjoy what the station had to offer.

–

Azazel sits upon a grassy plateau with her head bowed, deep in meditation within the hydroponics bay of the Dagda. The simulated environment was pleasant and the plants grew high in every direction. Save for the crew dedicated to tending to the bay, it was almost always empty. After a moment she begins to hum, a low tune along to a lullaby. She waits like this, arms resting lazily on her knees as she tries to calm her mind. It was proving to be difficult, like a snarled mess of fury, fear, sadness and more. That was what she ought to embody, but she could not bear to allow it to continue. She had to reign it in and control it. She needed to mold it into a deadly weapon to focus upon those that she deemed fit, not allow it to bubble over in her every action. She wavers in her peaceful melody, one that she could never forget but could not remember where she had heard it. She stops and opens her eyes as she hears a the rustle of foliage nearby.

Azazel furrows her brow before relaxing again as if she had not heard. The rustle comes again, followed by soft approaching footfalls. Azazel reaches out with the force and lazily tries to determine who it was. A sharp inhalation comes from the young woman as she backpedals, “N-no! Don't do that! It feels so very strange...” The Dark Lady crooks her head to the side, a small smile spreading before she ceases. A sigh of relief leaves Kitt as she stands there, staring up at Azazel with confusion... And that was all she did. “I never imagined a Sith trying to meditate. Or in a place like this, either.”

Azazel shrugs slightly, “It is... Quiet, and reminds me of worlds I have been.”

“Theodis used to always still in the meditation chambers... She was not particularly fond of plants. I think it was more this one weed Ba'alkyri planted as a joke. It would make her lose her senses for a time and she would act no better than the younger of the creche,” Kitt says with a small laugh as she remembers. “What does this place remind you of?”

Azazel hesitates, “Honoghr, in particular. I enjoyed it there. Some call the people primitive, but their sense of tradition was uplifting. There are other places... So many, I can hardly name. Yet none so relaxing to be as with the Noghri. Simplicity can be a blessing at times.” She lays back into soft grass and turns her gaze upon the young woman who her disciples had taken with them in hopes of training. “Come, join me.”

Kitt stands her ground, not coming any closer, “Are you sure?... Xen always scolds me not to approach you. Many of your followers advise to leave you be as well. I do not believe I should.” She bows her head. It seemed she was quite firm in a belief she was not worthy of approaching the Dark Lady.

Azazel scoffs, “Ignore them. Some of the elder members in my following have come up with some very strange ideas. If I do not wish someone near me, I will tell them as much. I, however, do enjoy the company of those I am supposed to trust.”

The Echani purses her lips, “And you trust me?”

“Why should I not? You have long since stopped your rebellious strikes against me and mine. And you did not flee from the tomb when you had many a chance. In fact, you assisted against the tukata. And you even came, for me, when the Tarentatek attacked those of you in waiting.” She closes her eyes and shrugs, “You have not left my services. You train with the others. You even seem to attempt to please those positioned above you. I am not concerned.”

Kitt crosses her arms and narrows her eyes, “I could have hurt you just moments ago. There is no one watching. You did not know I was here at first. You aren't even armed.”

Azazel lets a small smile flicker over her lips, “Perhaps... Yet you didn't. I would call it Jedi stupidity, yet if that was the case, you would have attacked me for being Sith. No, perhaps you feel loyal to me? I wonder why that is...”

The girl tenses before sighing, “You gave me the gift of sight. Before, Theo was unsure I could ever do much of anything. Yes, I may be Echani, but without my sight I could do little. And unlike the Arcona, I did not have other means of seeing the world. I was... A washout of the creche. Children far younger than me showed more promise in every way. And when they tried to train me in the Echani ways of fighting... I could not learn. Yet, within days, you saw that I could see, that I could learn... You would see me with purpose while I would only be just a useless cripple otherwise.”

Azazel hums a few bars of the lullaby, “You do not paint a pretty picture of your old master. Were the other Jedi just as bad?”

Kitt hesitates before shrugging, moving closer, “No, I do not think... Well, maybe. I heard talk of two of them always arguing. And Ba'alkyri did not exactly like them. They could talk all day and reach no decision for action, she'd snap. She... She was angry for awhile there. Maybe that is why she left Theo's charge for so long. If she had been there... I don't think I'd be here. Or that...”

Azazel looks up at the Echani now, “That I would have brought the Jedi to her end?”

The girl freezes and looks at Azazel with wide eyes, “Yes—I mean... I mean... No. You... They might both be dead then. I never experienced the power of the other Jedi... But... What I have seen of Andrea... Gra'tua... Or, by the stars, you. I don't think Theo or Ba'alkyri, or even all of Theo's students together... They wouldn't stand a chance, I think...”

Azazel rolls her eyes, “You all had a poor teacher. The Cathar was barely an apprentice herself. Jedi or not, she was a humiliation to force users everywhere.”

“She tried, though... And she gave us all a home.”

Azazel falls silent for a time. “She did not care well enough.”

“And you do?!”

“Yes.”

“And what of Hakkri? What of your men you have silenced yourself? I hear the stories... I saw what fate met Aggros,” Kitt snaps.

“They choose to follow me. There are many who I could care less about. Many are hard to think of as more than simple pawns, but because they allow themselves to be so. They no longer think for themselves. I may lead them, but I am not the one who tells them to behave so,” Azazel murmurs.

“But Hakkri...”

“Is my apprentice, and I hold him highly. He was fully explained to what it meant to be held as he was. And yet he betrayed my trust. And even declared he wished me dead. There are... Consequences, to crossing one such as myself.”

“And you call that caring?”

“In a way, it is... If he cannot follow my instruction, then I cannot protect him. I can only plan for so much and if I must worry about him double-crossing me... Or if he goes out on his own because he cannot trust me, there is nothing I can do. I am sorry for what befell Aggros. I was careless then. I let greed and anger guide me... But how Hakkri reacted, it was a risk to him and everyone who follows me. I cannot have doubt in the ranks or many more will die and for no reason.”

Kitt pauses for a moment before moving forward and sitting beside Azazel. “You're a strange lady with strange thoughts.”

“But I care for my apprentices and closest followers as if they were of my blood,” she closes her eyes, enjoying the artificial sunlight filtering through the canopy above.

Kitt falls silent in thought, “That is why you killed Theodis?”

Azazel grows quiet, “If the Jedi did not wish to see the Sith dead, what concern is it to me what they do or who they are? As it stands, they see themselves as our sworn enemy. Your Theodis and her 'padawan' attacked my followers. Lydavis. Rei'Ki. Tannus... They harmed Tannus greatly, to the point he needed cybernetic parts to remain alive. Someone had to answer and pay the price. And yet, the blood debt is still not fulfilled.”

Kitt shivers at the thought before growing confused. She sits in thought for a moment before nudging Azazel's shoulder, “And what about me?... Would you... If I...”

Azazel looks at the offending hand to touch her, a small glare before her expression relaxes. “Yes, you are of mine. Any action against you would be more severe than that against myself and there would be hell to pay.”

Kitt appears shocked for a moment, scooting closer and beginning to lay down beside Azazel, “Why?”

Azazel has to stop for a moment in thought. “I took you in, I saw you stronger, and I made you whole. Why would I not be offended by any harm to befall you?”

The Echani fall silent before moving close enough to rest her head against Azazel's shoulder, “What about Andrea?”

Azazel stiffens between the question and contact, “She can take care of herself.”

“That's not what I asked,” Kitt says, words quiet with drowsiness.

“It does not matter anymore,” Azazel hisses.

Kitt sidles a little closer, curling against Azazel's side, “You two?...”

“I think I have things to attend to,” the Sith mutters, beginning to rise, letting the Echani fall to the ground.

Kitt frowns, pushing herself back up to sitting and looking up at Azazel, “Wait, I—”

Azazel pauses, looking down at Kitt, gaze hard. “What?”

Kitt fidgets under her glare but asks quietly, “After you are done, could... Could we... Train?”

Azazel nods simply and turns to leave. Kitt sits there on the grass, watching until Azazel disappeared through the flora. The Echani feels a warmth on her cheek as she eventually lays back down, staring at the spot Azazel had occupied. “Until then...”

–

The Dark Lady huffs and leans back into the chair of her throne room. The medics were keeping her up to date on Hakkri and it seemed like he would be fine with a little rest. It appeared most of the damage was superficial and he would be better in no time at all. However, now she was left waiting for her disciples and Xen. They had to discuss the latest events and she would be deciding where they would go from there.

Rei'Ki and Lydavis are the first to arrive. They always seemed to be with each other and usually hand-in-hand. Azazel gives them an irate look at the public display of affection. They both let go in embarrassment and take their seats at the table. Rei'Ki had one arm wrapped about a containment pod long and oblong in shape. Azazel arches a brow and the Dathomiri sets it down. “Weapons from someone the Mecrossa Order set us after...”

Azazel nods slowly before leaning in, “Where is your lightsaber?”

Rei'Ki coughs, “A small furry man filched it. I tried to find him, but we were in a rush and things were... chaotic. He got away in the confusion.”

Azazel sighs and draws the container to herself with the force and opens it up. Inside was Zarra's gun and vibroblade. “You have my permission to look at my collection and take up a single one of the lightsabers. Avoid Solomon's. That one is off limit... Has anyone tampered with these?”

“I was the only one to handle them physically, I believe. That was when I picked them up after my scuffle with the woman. I thought I might allow her flee and that we would follow her. I would have seen we learn more that way and perhaps acquire artifacts she supposedly stole to sell. However, I suppose I overestimated Xen's capabilities as he lost her when I went after the thieving Bimm.”

Azazel nods slowly, “I think Xen has taken too much upon himself in my absence. It is affecting his performance... Regardless, a few moments of silence while I try to read these...”

As Azazel touches the weapons, closing her eyes to try and focus on gaining any images or insights and freezes as images flowed, too many to keep track and she can only glimpse a few. Zarra killing someone by stabbing the person through the heart. Her running through corridors as if hunted down and chased. Her hand on her holster as she talks to a holographic representation of someone wearing noble clothes, a sigh of relief at something the man says and as Azazel tries to focus on the noble the images falter and fade away.

She gasps and let's go, raising her eyes to look at the two. Just then, Ilo, Tannus and Xen come in. Tannus and Ilo were sharing insights, Ilo with the command of ships and Tannus with the piloting of them. It encouraged them both to better understand their roles and how they could work together in order to improve naval combat performance. Xen stops, seeing Azazel already with the weapons out. He shoots a glare at the couple at the table and clenches his fists as he moves to take a seat closest to Azazel. Only to have Tannus tug it away with the force. “Afraid not, Grian. Ibeth still has claims to that seat. He will arrive soon, actually. He was coming back from the Aberrancy after briefing them on the new routines.”

Xen releases a stream of curses to which Azazel clears her throat, “He is the most senior officer in my service, Xen. That still stands.” Xen silences and moves a little further away as Tannus and Ilo move to seats on either side of Rei'Ki and Lydavis. “Has anyone seen Kitt?”

Xen leans forward curiously, “Why?”

“I am going to begin her training as a combat specialist. She will be, subsequently, elevated to the status of a Junior Officer and, upon completion of her training and with a live mission performance review, she will be elevated to Officer status. So until, from here forward, I will have her in our meetings... Speaking of, though, the latest word on Hakkri?”

Ibeth knocks on the doorframe and walks in, “Status stable, medics have issued his release on the condition he takes it easy. They're a little worried about some of the deep wounds, but he will be here.”

Xen bristles and stamps his fist upon the table, “Are you just allowing anyone into these meetings now? I understand your senior trainees, and even Ibeth and Ilo given their command of your fleet. But those two weaklings?! Why don't we just hold these meetings in the barracks so everyone can come, hmm?”

Azazel slashes her hand through the air, “Enough, Xen. These outbursts are becoming tiring. My operations have grown far too much for just a small number to handle.” Ibeth walks over and takes the seat beside Azazel with a smug grin. “You are, by far, one of my most esteemed officers. Yet, you are beginning to grow far too arrogant. Remember, when you first joined me, you were nothing more than a two-bit slicer and eaves-dropper.” Xen glowers and flops back into his chair.

Ibeth leans back, resting arms behind his head as he looks to Ilo, “Been a little while since we last spoke. How is the Aberrancy running?”

Ilo rests her hands on the table, “Running at 10% above last quarter's checks. The crew has improved efficiency by 60% in regular tasks and procedures while all troops have passed physicals and exceeded combat expectations. The rest of the fleet?”

Ibeth looks surprised before chuckling, “Doing well, really. All green across the board and that leaky faucet on floor 2 is finally fixed. As far as the Tapani Defense, they've fallen into their role well. I'd see them with their own independent admiral, but at the moment, yourself and I are the only ones available. I would fast-track someone to the position as soon as someone suitable to the position presents themselves.” He rubs his eyes before standing and going to the drink dispenser. After a moment, he comes back with a steaming glass of... Something Azazel would prefer not to identify. “Enough business, though, how is everyone?”

Hakkri weakly mumbles from the door, “Apparently in one piece, but I'm having my doubts.” Kitt offers him support, holding him up. “Remind me not to go blabbing next time...” His eyes flicker over to Azazel uncertainly and she fidgets when seeing the fear in his eyes. “I'm out of commission until they can assure I can hold myself up. So I guess that means vacation time. Anyone heading towards a resort world? Nice sandy beaches, no giant monsters trying to eat you, cute young men with amazing bodies?”

Ilo chuckles, “If you find the place, tell me. I'll take my leave of absence with you.”

Hakkri offers a wry smile as Kitt helps him into a chair. Azazel watches the two quietly before shrugging, “Some of us will be heading back to the Tapani sector. There is too much shady business going on there for my liking. The rest... Well, I would have you exploring Togoria for any possible recruits... In specific, I want to know if there are any of those... Gifted, upon the surface. Scout out the womens' cities first before heading out to the tribal men. Even if there are no potential force-users, the men, I hear, are known for their strength and capabilities in battle...” She looks about the table. “I am looking for volunteers for each mission. Those up for the Togoria run?”

Xen nods, Tannus leans forward with a wink. Lydavis hesitates for a moment before raising her hand. Ibeth coughs to show his interest. Azazel looks upon them, lips pursing, “No, Xen, I will need you for the Mecrossa... Are there any in particular who feel they must come with me to deal with the Order?” Rei'Ki raises waves a couple fingers at Azazel as Kitt nods meekly.

She scans out the group before looking at her wristlink, reordering the groups. “Hmm... Ilo and Hakkri, you are those left... Hakkri, I would have you come with me... Ilo, Togoria. Perhaps Ibeth can give you a quick rundown and help your command structure, seeing how Xen has done little to improve that situation.” Ilo nods and runs a hand along her tendrils.

With that, Azazel stands, “Dismissed... Kitt, come along.” The Echani woman looses a small squeak and jumps from her seat, banging her knee into the table. She hardly lets it slow her as she hops awkwardly after Azazel until it finishes smarting.

“Why, uhm, did you want me with you?” Kitt inquires.

“You wished to train.” She looks back at the Echani, “Or did I hear you wrong?”

Kitt swallows, suddenly frightful, “Oh. Yes. I did say... Right... But... Uhm..” She holds up her hands, “How? I can't...”

Azazel smiles slightly, “I had a thought about that. I have not tracked anything down for it yet, but for now, I will use a training blade... And you... Well, we will see how well you can use armoured gloves...”

Kitt blinks in confusion, “What are you talking about?”

“You are Echani, and you are talented with your ability in hand-to-hand combat. I would see you develop that... And I think, given time, you may be capable of fighting a lightsaber wielding combatant with naught but your hands.”

Kitt looks at her with disbelief, “Have I done something to make you wish I had no arms? Is this how you got Tannus?”

Azazel laughs, shaking her head, “No, no. Just trust me on this one.”

–

Kitt looks at her hands covered in electric-proofed tape with padding along her palms, wrists and forearms, “Are you sure this will work?”

Azazel thinks about, “Well,if it doesn't, we'll soon find out.” She swings the training sabre experimentally and mutters about it being too light.

Kitt flexes her hands and takes a combat stance, “Fine, come on.”

Azazel pauses for a moment as she thinks before lunging forward. Almost as soon as Azazel moves, Kitt somersaults out of the way, landing lightly on her feet before darting forward to land a punch. Azazel leaps back, landing awkwardly for a moment before finding her footing. “I almost forgot you were sensitive,” Azazel murmurs.

Kitt shrugs, and gestures towards Azazel's leg, “I thought that was better?”

Azazel shrugs, “Still a little tender.”

“Maybe you should have actually kept off of it... We can stop now, if you'd like.”

The Sith shakes her head and darts forward, arcing the sabre upwards. The Echani puts her hands down and blocks the attack before Azazel draws back and goes in for another strike. An arm is raised and stops the weapon in its tracks and pushes away, sliding in and striking with an open palm at Azazel's torso.

Azazel coughs and stumbles back, wincing slightly at the enhanced strength attack. “Not bad... Armour would probably stop it... Maybe when we get you those gloves, have something the can penetrate through... or crush it..” She raises a hand, rubbing a hand over the area of impact, it was likely to bruise. “Again.”

Kitt swallows and raises her hands defensively before darting in this time. They continue in like this, Azazel offering corrections anytime her weapon made a connection with flesh. Their stops began to grow fewer and further between.

Finally, Kitt moves in, getting the hand of darting between blocking the blade, at least while Azazel was holding back. She knocked aside the weapon roughly and readied to throw her fist in for a gut punch. Azazel's eyes widen and suddenly she releases the blade, dropping her weapon and drawing in the force, only to throw Kitt away with a violent wave. Kitt goes flying, landing upon the floor with enough force to bounce off and continue rolling. Azazel pants and wraps her arms about herself protectively, “That's enough...”

Kitt blinks and looks at Azazel, confused, “I thought I was doing well...”

Azazel nods slightly, “Yes, quite... I think, though... I would have you sparring with others from now one...”

Kitt frowns, pushing herself up to her feet, “I want to train with you, though...”

Azazel slowly begins to relax, “Ilo and Rei'ki are each as strong as me with a single lightsabre. And Lydavis with two. Hakkri and Tannus each can practice with you with alternative styles given their different weapons... I would even have you train against alternative weapon styles... I however... do not think I can continue training like this.”

Kitt begins to walk forward, “Why not?”

“I... Have my reasons,” she flips off the training weapon and throws it aside, “I will arrange sparring partners for you, don't worry...” Azazel begins to turn and go, and Kitt runs up beside her and wraps her arms around Azazel tight.

“Was I too rough? I could be gentler... We could do no contact... Or am I not good enough? I'll practice everyday, I'll get better... Please, keep training me...” Kitt whimpers, not letting go.

Azazel remains motionless, “I cannot. I will supervise, though.” Kitt nods against her back, burying her face against her. Azazel sighs, “A shame you are not better suited to force training... I imagine you might excel beyond the others...” Kitt remains silent for a time, her smile hidden at such a comment. “Come along, little one... Let us have the medics see to those burns. They don't look so bad, but just to be on the side of caution.” Kitt gradually loosens her arms before nodding in agreement, "Alright... Thank you."

In Hyperspace, en route to Coruscant

A'sha was slouching somewhat in the pilot's seat, monitoring the monitors. By now hers was a token presence, it was rare that the navicomputer would slip up and get a major hyperspace lane wrong, but Silla would leave nothing to chance. She watched the counter of parsecs go down as time dragged on. Her mechanic had been in a foul mood for more than a week, insisting on replacing what seemed like half of the ship's parts and even get spares. And so it happened that the closest planet was Coruscant. The mercenary/jedi was more than anxious to go to the large megapolises, the planet-wide cities like Coruscant. It reminded her of Metellos. Not that she was paranoid and fearful of large cities, but they unmistakably evoked memories of that long-past hardship. She didn't notice that her brows had furrowed, though she did notice the hand that landed on her shoulder.

A'sha turned her attention to the young woman who stood beside her and felt her expression relax. Out in the field, she would've felt the owner of that hand long before they were close enough to touch her, but her senses were lax on the Hound. It was home, after all.

"What is it, Silla?"

"You should get some sleep." it didn't sound like a suggestion.

With a snerk and a shake of her head, A'sha raised her hands from the consoles before her and slowly rose to her feet. Before she could stand all the way, however, the consoles began to chirp and beep away, signalling that the ship was about to drop out of hyperspace. Soon, before the pair was Coruscant, its dark side illuminated by innumerable lights from the gigantic city on the surface.

"In a moment, then, we'll get to dock first." she muttered aside at her mechanic, who lazily plopped down in the co-pilot's chair beside her.

The monitors and equipment blinked again, a message was coming up from the planet's surface. Someone was expecting them, it seemed. The jedi narrowed her eyes, before opening a comm channel. The voice of a young man rose from the console, his tone decidedly neutral, giving nothing away.

"I hope I find you well, spacer." the man started, and after a brief pause added "I'll be brief, I have a proposition for you."

"Not one for introductions, I see. I'm listening." A'sha replied in a non-chalant tone that was well-practiced.

"It's not exactly secure to divulge too much over an open channel like this one. We'll have to meet in person for that. At any rate, I'm in need of transportation and I'm told you're a dependable sort."

She didn't even bother asking where she got that kind of reputation.

"About as dependable as mercenaries get, you'll find. I'll need more than that to take on what you have for me, however."

"I certainly hope so. I'm sending you the address I want you to meet me at, we'll talk about the specifics there, I assure you, I can more than compensate you for your service."

With that, the comm channel was closed and the women were left thoughtful, staring down at the consoles from whence the voice rose. A'sha glanced aside at her mechanic, arching a brow some inquisitively.

"You think this might be a set up?" the younger woman asked, seemingly skeptical of the notion herself.

"Unlikely, we haven't stirred up enough trouble to be asking for it. Yet." the jedi mused, and raised a hand to stroke her chin "Though this might be the one that does the stirring. We've done refugee runs before, but Coruscant isn't on the front lines of the war. I have a feeling this man's trying to evade something, or someone."

"Why else would he hire a couple of low-profile mercs like us?" Silla nodded to herself, and offered a teasing smirk at her companion.

"I may not be Jango Fett, but we're also not getting shot at as much, I imagine." A'sha quipped back, then glanced down at the consoles as whoever contacted them on the surface transmitted his files as promised. A set of coordinates, an address in one of Coruscant's seedier wards. "We're going down to G-17, it seems. Probably some run-down cantina. Nothing out of the ordinary, but keep a blaster handy once we land. Oh, right...I guess we won't be sleeping yet."

With that, the woman took control of her craft once more, and followed all the legitimate channels for landing on the planet's surface, in one of its innumerable wards, which just happened to be a bit more run-down than the rest. The landing pad was not too far from the coordinates they were given and through the wonders of modern navigational technology, the jedi began to make her way through the dimly lit streets and alleyways toward the designated location. Contrary to what her title might suggest, A'sha opted for something less conspicuous than the flowing robes that one might expect from jedi, in stead clad in a full suit of armor, complete with a helmet and all vaguely concealed beneath a token cloak. In a slum ward like G-17, she didn't stand out much.

Her hunch turned out to be spot on, upon reaching the coordinates, the only notable thing in sight was the bright neon pink sign of a regular shady cantina - a pole-dancing twi'lek. The scene was complete with its own drunken vagrant gracing the ground close by the front entrance. The mechanical doors opened soundly enough and in the armored figure stepped, taking a moment to inspect the dimly lit interior. It was clearly one of the more frequented establishments in this part of the ward - the bar and the tables in the dark corners all mostly had someone already occupying them, likely waiting for someone themselves, but few paid her any more heed than to acknowledge that she was standing there, save for one man raising his hand to beckon her over.

A'sha crossed the distance toward the expectedly dimly lit table in the far end of the cantina and stood before the table, hand on her hip. The patrons that weren't drunk seemed to take note of her armaments. A blaster rifle slung over her shoulder, and a smaller side-arm secured at her hip. Nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, the most dangerous of her weapons was hidden from sight. A lightsabre out in the open before a firefight began was asking for one in the first place, be it out of hatred for those who usually bore such weapons, or greed for such a prized and rare piece of technology.

"You're the one that called for me?" A'sha asked, her voice slightly distorted by the helmet.

The man simply nodded. He too, kept his appearance hidden, though under his cowl one could see youthful features, and clothes a little too clean to belong to a local. She sat down across from the man, keeping her side to the door. The man, notably, was facing the way out. A clear sign, if ever there was one, despite his veneer of calm.

"It's simple - I need you to get me to Hutt space, any planet will do. I arrive there in one piece, you get to fly away with a healthy sum of credits." the man explained, his hands coming together before him and clasping into one another. They were steady and nimble, but not worn or rough like hers, A'sha noted.

"There's more to it than that." she replied simply, her faceplate turned toward the man, giving the notion of an unbroken, ceaseless stare. He couldn't tell, at any rate, the visor didn't show the eyes. The Mandalorian effect, A'sha liked to call it. After a brief pause, the man inclined his head somewhat.

"True. There is the matter of the cargo I bear. It needs to arrive there with me safely."

"And I'm not getting paid to ask questions." A'sha mused, dryly.

"You're not getting paid to ask questions." the man replied, just as well, and slid a small datapad over toward the woman.

A moment of silence ensued, though not complete, as the other patrons were busy muttering between themselves in alien languages, some of which A'sha couldn't place or understand. Her hand dropped to the datapad and turned it toward her, then her eyes turned down toward it. The number was high enough to both make her feel certain there was going to be a certain amount of risk involved in this assignment, but also meant it was more than simple smuggling. Whatever the man was having her ferry him with, was clearly valuable. She had every intention of finding out what it was, of course, though she never needed to ask with words to see why certain things were significant, to whom, and why. And there was that subtle feeling in the back of her head, that faint prompt of intuition that urged her to accept the deal, as if it promised to lead her into something greater.

She finally broke the silence between them and slid the datapad back. "My ship isn't far, get your cargo."

Chained Despair,
Hyperspace Transit to Thyferra

Andrea had her eyes closed as she meditated in the cargohold, she missed the comfort of her chambers to center herself, but that was not possible right now, mostly due to her currently being on a ship in hyperspace, the second reason was because her chambers were still being repaired and refurbished after Azazel had burned it down. At the thought of Azazel she gritted her teeth as her anger returned, the reason she was meditating was to calm herself. After the call with her sith lover, she clenched her fists, former lover she corrected herself, she had done her best to find solitude aboard the craft and calm herself since that abysmal call.

She heard the sound of footsteps and still with her eyes closed extended her hand, opened her hand and let lightning cackle and arc around her fingertips. "Leave. Now." She managed to growl out to whoever was there, she hadn't even bothered to try and sense who it was.

Silence answered her, indicating that the one who disturbed her meditations was still there then her intruder answered, recognizing the voice belonging to Darth Talon. "Will you kill me if I do not leave mistress?"

Frowning she turned around, opening her eyes to look at the Twi'lek disciple, she was... surprised and weary at the same time. Talon was standing there, calmly looking at her, studying her and when she had spoken not a hint of fear was present in her voice or body language. She stood up slowly, locking eyes with Talon the entire time, crossing her arms, "Are you challenging my authority?" She asked slowly, whispering the words but audible enough for Talon to hear.

"No mistress, I am not." She responded, again in that calm, neutral tone of voice.

Andrea gritted her teeth in annoyance and again she felt lightning arc around her fingertips, she balled that hand into a fist and then released it. With a flick of her wrist her lightsaber unhooked itself from her belt and flew into her hand, igniting it with ease. "I will not have my authority questioned by anyone Talon, not even my own hand... I said I wanted to meditate in peace and yet here you are, disobeying my direct order, which should mean I execute you. Right here, right now."

The Twi'lek looked at the ignited blade and then at her mistress, stepping forwards but not igniting her own saber. She was still approaching when Andrea let out a growl and reached out with her other hand, more lightning appearing as she narrowed her eyes and mentally started to prepare herself for a fight. Blinking in surprise when Talon went through her knees and sat on her knees, looking up at Andrea and tilted her head, baring her neck. "If you wish to execute me, do so mistress. I am your hand, your servant. I may have disobeyed that order, but I have other orders you have given me that precede that one. You gave me the task to be your hand, your bodyguard, your assassin and guardian of secrets mistress. To be always at your side, standing in the shadows if necessary. I have heard most of what was... said in your conversation with Darth Azazel, I understand that you may be distressed right no-"

"YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING!" She shouted, enraged and with a gesture and tapping into the force grabbed hold of Talon and lifted her off the ground, holding her in place as she stormed forwards her snarling face inches away from Talon's. "You are a servant, it is not your place to 'understand' anything but to obey my commands and serve me with loyalty and dedication!"

She did not struggle in any way as her mistress held her like this with the force, still calm. "I am obeying your commands right now mistress, if killing me grants you some measure of calm and a clear head, take it. My life is yours. If that is what you want of course."

Andrea blinked, was Talon... really that dedicated to her, with a growl she brought her lightsaber close as if to decapitate her servant but still she remained calm and did not struggle in anyway. Standing like that for several more moments she deactivated her saber and returned the hilt to her belt, lowering Talon back to the ground at the same time. "No... not killing you is not what I want to do."

Rubbing her wrists and turning her shoulders after Andrea's grip on her with the force had been released Talon continued. "Then what do you want then, do you wish Azazel to die? If so I could-"

"No!" Andrea said at once, cutting Talon off for any further mention of that. "If anything I would have that blasted filth that must be related to a Hutt of a Gra'tua to die, but no I do not wish him eliminated either... not right now." She sighed and for a moment looked small and vulnerable, whispering, mostly to herself but Talon must have heard it. "I just want her back..." Gritting her teeth as she realized how pathetic and weak she must sound right now she straightened herself and stared hard at Talon. "But that is impossible and pointless to even consider. You will not repeat what I just said to anyone. Or I will have your head cut off that body of yours, which while it would be a waste I can always find a replacement."

"Of course not mistress... but why would it be impossible?"

Andrea snorted in response and shook her head, "Because clearly she hates me right now, apparently I had to tell her every dirty little secret of something that had happened almost twenty years before I even met her!"

Talon cocked her head, "Perhaps, perhaps not, mistress you told me you would stop at nothing to get something you wanted, are you implying that there is something, or someone, you cannot get after all?"

She blinked and looked at Talon with surprise for a moment before she narrowed her eyes. "You.... are a sneaky one." She muttered.

Talon shrugged and for a brief glimpse she almost seemed to smile before her features continued keeping their neutral and impassive look. "I am a reflection to the training my mistress, you, gave me."

Shaking her head Andrea turned and gestured to Talon, "So I gather, you are dismissed Talon. Have me informed where we are next time we drop out of hyperspace, I will resume my meditations." She heard Talon turn around and walk away but before the disciple was completely out of her presence Andrea spoke up again. "Talon... send a message to my contacts among the cults and spies... have them try and keep a eye on Azazel for me about her whereabouts." She heard Talon respond a affirmative and then was left alone once more as she closed her eyes, muttering quietly to herself. "It seems you are not going to get rid off me that easily Azazel...."

_________________
The Adventures of Hadzuska,
Dropping off a passenger....
_________________

Hadzuska was leaning against the wall of the cargo area of the corvette, looking at her guest, when her communicator gave a alarm she casually activated it and was informed they were about to drop out of hyperspace near a inhabited planet with a local spaceport. Informing the captain to keep up the good work and inform her at once when they had arrived she ended the call and walked towards the young girl. "Well then, it seems we will be arriving soon at a planet with a spaceport." She said while stretching, cursing that bounty hunter silently as her leg was still aching a little.

"So it would seem..." Rane replied as she seemed to shift from a slight case of discomfort. "I do appreciate the ride. The hunter would have caught up to me again eventually had I stayed on the Wheel."

She shrugged in response, "You saved me, knowingly or not and this is the least I can do to return the favour I suppose." She smirked, "Unless you have changed your mind about the offer of teaching about the force from my mistress." She chuckled but stopped when the voice of the captain came through her comm again. "Ah we have arrived, and are moving in to land on the spaceport on the planet below us. No idea what it's called probably a minor traffic place if it is close to the Wheel as it is." She said as she felt slight vibrations a moment later as they went through the planet's atmosphere.

"Your teachings run contrary to what I was taught. While My training was far from complete I feel I owe my father to stick to his lessons." Rane replied with a slight shake of her head. "His lessons are the reason I returned to save you. So maybe you owe him too, from a certain point of view."

Hadzuska looked at her curiously. "Funny that is not what you said before." She mused, "Well then my thanks to your, I assume, late father. And perhapss his teachings are contrary to what my mistress offers." She tilted her head, "I however didn't even mention what kind of teachings those were."

"Part of surviving is being perceptive. Your tattoos, and crimson blades mark you as a student of Sith teachings." Rane replied as she tensed a little.
AndiSyl: Smiling Hadzuska looked at the yougn woman. "Perhaps and what does that mean according to you?"

"That you embrace your agressive feelings, often in the name of personal agenda's, or so I was told." Rane said as she looked Hadzuska in the eyes. "That you follow a path different to my own, one I do not wish to tread."

"Interesting, is that what you were told... or what you observed so far?" She asked.

"You acted upon aggression against the Hunter." Rane replied with a calm voice that belied what she was feeling. "As to your motives I cannot say, nor have I had much dealings with other students of the sith."

"Aggression? I was actually talking to him before, I only resorted to violence when it seemed he would not listen to reason and wanted to capture me for a bounty, I hardly doubt you would have reacted differently under the circumstances." She said with a shrug. As she was informed they were cleared for landing and would touch down upon the surface in a moment.

"You were annoyed, frustrated, aggrivated, You used that when you struck at him." Rane said with a shrug before smiling slightly. "Perception is not only what one sees with their eyes. Particularly for thsoe trained in the Force."

She just nodded and was about to respond when she felt the ship had touched down and the cargo ramp was being lowered. "Well we have arrived." She gestured to the ramp being lowered. "Over here please." She said going first.

Rane hesitated slightly at the tone Hadzuska used, but then staying on the ship wasn't going to make the apprehension she felt any better. So she followed Hadzuska to the ramp, resisting the urge to pat her sabre to make sure it was still there.

Hadzuska was the first off the ramp and stretched, gesturing out to the spaceport, their berth empty but for themselves, "Well here we are, as I promised of giving you a ride, think you can manage finding your way off this planet and stay away fro mthat hunter?"

Rane kept walking for a bit after she got off the ramp, putting Hdzuska between herself and the ship before she turned back to face the twi'lek woman. "I should be able to manage something... though... might I ask another boon from you?" Rane said as she glanced at her feet for a moment. "You may have noticed We left the Wheel and all I had with my was the clothes I wear and my fathers blade... if you could maybe spare a few credits?"

She chuckled, "I suppose saving my life, is worth more than just having you be a passenger for one trip." Hadzuska answered and went through the pockets of her robe, producing some credit chits and tossed them to young woman. "Should be enough to buy some food and get yourself as a passenger on a leaving freighter or something."

"Thank you," Rane said as she caught the chits, which quickly disapeared into the folds of her clothes."Maybe we will meet again and I can repay you." She said with a short bow.

She smirked, "May the force be with you." She watched Rane walk away and called out. "I feel compelled to ask one last time. Are you sure you do not wish to go with me, where you would be safe from the hunters and others wishing ill towards our kind?" She said in a calm, neutral tone of voice.

"Though our paths may cross from time to time I have no deire to walk yours in its entirety." Rane said, echoing what she had said before as she turned and started walking away from the ship. "You stay safe though Zuska." She called over her shoulder to the twi'lek woman.

She watched the padawan go and nodded to herself. "Well I tried, she walked back up the ramp, eying the blackwatch soldier standing atop it. The soldier gestured to the retreating back of Rane Koda and then raised his rifle. She shook her head, "No, I promised her a ride away from that world and I did, I have no urge for her to die. Gather some supplies and we are off this rock to continue our search." With that she looked back one last time. "Wonder if she survives." She mused to herself.

In the life of a Jedi & Friends
Bestine Minor, Safe Refuge
The search for a new padawan

Tohkran watched on as he saw Meilyan was instructing some of the younglings on how to meditate, chuckling softly when she noticed that two of the younger boys had actually fallen asleep and was shaking them awake to remind them that meditation was not the same as sleeping and proceeded to instruct them in the way to clear their minds and focus, without falling asleep. "She's becoming a fine teacher." He mused to himself, it was true Meilyan seems genuinely to care for the well-being of the children and he saw that instructing them also gave her further insight of her own capabilities, by teaching them she was teaching herself.

Well that, and Huyang was also instructed her in saber combat and fighting thanks to his accumulated knowledge over the centuries since his construction as a instructor for jedi younglings and lightsaber expert. Perhaps if Meilyan was interested by helping to instruct the younglings more often he could also satisfy Huyang's request of a additional teacher or a assistant in his teachings at the same time. Something to consider he thought to himself and then smiled seeing Meilyan make the children laugh as she briefly levitated off the ground and rolled mid-air.

He became aware of a presence approaching and turned just as the shadow of the Herglic Marack enveloped him, smiling he nodded. "Ah, Marack, good to see you my friend. Is the ship prepared?"

"As ready as it will be." The Herglic said with a shrug. "Still want to go to Atzerri? It isn't the most hospitable place you know."

Tohkran started to move to the landing pad, Marack walking at his side as he answered his friend's question with calmly. "Yes, I have heard rumours a force user might be hiding there, they might be false of course but since it is close to here I figure I ought to check it out if there is any truth to it. From what I gathered, while a unsavory place, it is a planet where one can find refuge and hide." Nothing further was added as the duo reached the 'Killer Whale' and boarded it. Tohkran making himself comfortable while Marack went into the cockpit which was adjusted for his size and within moments had the freighter lifted up from the ground and into space.

It was not a long hyperspace journey and some time later they dropped out, Marack saying over the ship's intercom they were approaching the planet now and that he was finding a suitable location to land for Tohkran to start his investigation if the rumors were true of a possible force user hiding on the planet. Once landed he bid his friend to stay with the ship while he went out and started to search for some of the local cantinas and other, similar establishments to see if he could learn anything about local tales or legends of a person or being with 'mystical' powers.

After passing though several establishments in Talos, mostly getting only nonsensical gibberish from drunk spacers a few of the stories Tohkran was hearing started to form a pattern. Several of the stories mentioned odd happenings in the Pemblehov district, though considering the drug trade there it could easily be a wild bantha chase.

He nodded to himself and frowned, while it was feasible for someone to hide in a district like that it also bode concern that if he questioned things further there or seemed too overly curious other people might take interest in him, unwanted interest. But with nothing else left to do he decided to venture into the Pemblehov district and see the if the things he heard about that place were true or not and continue his investigation.

Pemblehov seemed much like the the descriptions he had heard, not the cleanest looking area of the city though brightly lit enough to almost rival the traders plaza. the crowd was more likely to stick to themselves here though except for those that were working, several of which called out to Tohkran as he passed trying to entice him to take part of their services including a gungan and togruta female among the many twi'leks that were visible.

There were also a number of less flamboyant characters seeking Tohkrans attention offering all manner of vice from simple Tobacco to Deathsticks, Rill spice and Rokna blue. Most of these people had a bodyguard nearby, some remaining less conspicuous than others.

Taking a deep breath and smiling kindly at the nice scantily clad Twi'lek but refusing her offer to join her in a private room he continued on his way, perhaps, in a district like this a newcomer had to face some thugs eventually. So perhaps if there was a force user here he should learn if there was anyone the locals gangs, thugs and other criminal groups avoid after either having a single person keep several opponents at bay or simply managed to persuade them to do something they normally would never do.

After some discrete inquiries, and being told to shove a blaster up his arse in multiple colourful ways by a few people he questioned, Tohkran learned of a dealer who seemed to be rising fast despite the competition in the area.

Until about a year ago the dealer, was relatively unknown, like the majority of the pushers in the district. then for some reason more customers began to repeat their business from him, fewer complained and even a few regulars from others began to buy from him. The dealers product wasn't above standard, in fact is was of pretty average quality. Eventually a few of the more prominent and wealthier dealers tried to find out how this low level dealer was getting so much business. some of them sent discrete questioners most of which came back with little of use, others tried sending enforcers to eliminate the dealer, they never returned.

"I see... well thank you for that information... but I sadly have to refuse to shove a blaster up my arse... even if you pay a hundred credits to see it... Good day." He quickly left before the man could offer more credits and decided to go on the information he had received to find out if he could meet this dealer and see if his suspicions were correct of where he could have gained the edge to rise so quickly.

The dealer was actually rather easy to find, despite the attempts on his life he chose not to hide so that his clientele could more easily find him to feed their cravings. Tohkran found himself at a modest apartment complex, his information lead him to believe the dealer had set up shop in the basement of the complex.

Walking into the complex he made his way to the basement to find the dealer, frowning to himself however, if he was a force user he was not sure what to think of using his gifts to be a drug dealer but he would first meet him to see what to make of it all. It was wise remain guarded and wary though.

The basement was large, likely intended to be used as a storage facility if the apartments above had been owned by a single entity, as it was more than a few people had moved in with crude lean-tos thrown up against structural supports or walls in the basement with clusters of trinkets or other basic utilities for living around them. A few quiet questions soon lead Tohkran to the dealers area of the basement, a section that had reinforced walls around it and appeared to be a secure lockup area from the complex's original construction. At the entrance stood a Gungan and a Human armed with blasters and vibroblades, security it appeared.

Tohkran approached the security, leaning on his cane, mostly trying to convey the appearance of someone who wasn't a threat, that or at least make the appearance that he was someone they could easily handle if he was a threat. "Good day." He bowed his head. "I was told a certain businessman resides here, I was hoping to meet with him and perhaps discuss some maters."

One of the guards stepped inside the door and returned with a strongbox a moment later while the gungan kept their eyes on tohkran. "Leave your weapons here." The human said as he opened the strongbox, a pair of blasters were already inside.

Tohkran retrieved the blaster at his side, which was more for show than anything else, and placed it in the strongbox.

The human guard eyed the cane Tohkran held for a moment before tapping his foot.

Tohkran looked at the guard and smiled softly, "You wouldn't try to take an old man's walking stick, would you?" He said, putting some suggestion wit hthe force in his words while tapping his leg, indicating it was a prosthetic due to him having it lost at the hands of a oversized bug.

"I've seen plenty of otherwise harmless folks hide blades and occasionally blasters in 'walking sticks' my boss prefers caution. Leave the cane." The human guard replied

"I suppose that is understandable, but most people would also install such things in prosthetics, so I suppose it is only fair you also check my leg if you wish to carry out your job? I do rather wish to keep it though, unless you have any spare hover chairs around, preferably ones that are not made or supplied by jawas." He replied with a smile as he placed the cane in the hand of the guard.

"You make a valid point." The human said as he walked back through the door and retrieved a hand scanner. "Pants, drop em." The guard said flatly.

He raised a brow and calmly rolled up his pants to the point where the prosthetic was attached to his flesh. "Scan away."

"Keep being difficult and we'll make this a body cavity search, in the interests of being thorough of course. I said drop them." The guard replied flatly again.

He shrugged and dropped his pants unceremoniously. "At least be so kind to not push a blaster up my ass, I had that rather strange offer several times today. Among other things to stuff in there..."

"I'll only stick something up there if I intend to pull something else out." The guard replied with a grin, "Him I cant speak for." He said as he nodded his head at the Gungan guard who was eyeing Tohkrans crotch.

"Haa," The Gungan replied with a slight snort. "Meesa not interested, hesa's 'concealed weapon' would makes a jawa weeps."

The human guard laughed and began scanning Tohkrans leg. After a few moments the human stood up again and nodded that Tohkran could pull his pants back up and proceed through the door as he put the strongbox back with Tohkrans cane and blaster in it.

He endured it in silence and nodded to both guards after he pulled up his pants and let him through, limping as he moved forwards.

Once through the door Tohkran was in a well lit and spartan hallway that had been painted a soft purple colour with several doors along its length all heavily secured by electronic and physical locks. At the end of the hall was an open set of doors that lead to a room furnished in lavish fashion and set up similarly to a throne room... if a small one.

He frowned at the sight but continued making his way to the chamber with the throne room setting, looking for the supposed Balosar dealer he had been told about.

Tohkran would need to wait for a few minutes before he caught sight on anyone, a door to the side of the room opened and a spacer and a balosur, likely the dealer emerged. The Balosar ignored Tohkran after a brief glance at him and continued speaking with the spacer, shaking his hand and assuring him he would find the product to his liking. before bowing slightly and letting the spacer show himself to the exit.

With the spacer gone the balosar turned his attention to Tohkran. "Ah a new customer! what can I get for you my friend?" The balosar said enthusiastically

Smiling Tohkran extended a hand. "Well I heard that you were a up and rising dealer in this district who surprisingly manages to stay not one, but two steps ahead of anyone else."

"Indeed, indeed. Elan Sel'Sabagno is my name. I like to think I stay ahead of the competition by providing discretion and superior customer service." he said with a broad smile. "Maybe with a good bit of caution when it comes to who gets in here as well." He added referring to the guards at the main entrance.

Tohkran tried to cautiously sense anything from the Balosar but he wasn't getting any hint of him using or being capable of using the force. "Well Elan Sel'Sabagno, I am Toh and I was wondering what exactly you have in your stores as it were you can trade with. Though I must say this is not what I expected, I mean, no offense and excuse me for saying this but I hardly expected a Balosar to be running such a profitable operation, surprising that none of the others tried to take you out for muscling in on their territory. You must have a interesting edge."

"Oh some have tried, and failed, this place is quite secure... even if I have had to replace the front doors a few times." Elan said with a shrug and a frown at the entrance. "As for my edge, lets say I know some powerful people, used to work for them on coruscant before I 'upgraded' as it were and as I said, I provide superior service." He continued as he turned to a table along one of the back walls that held a number of containers. "But business, yes business. I have a wide range of products on offer for recreational needs, Black Hole, Thyssel Bark, Gunjack, Magravian Cat, Slick. Or if you're looking for something with a stronger kick I have Rokna blue and my specialty; the finest Deathsticks in the galaxy, 100% pure."

Tohkran nodded slowly going over the drugs, he really started to hope that this man was not the force sensitive he was looking for. "Quite the selection, no, ah problems with the Syndicate or one of their affiliated groups I trust? It would be somewhat problematic if I buy goods only to have the Syndicate move in and take it all because one hasn't paid their fees."

"I mentioned knowing powerful people yes?" Elan said as he picked up a vial of Slick and examined its viscosity for a moment. "Now I will warn you, I don't deal in bulk or large quantities, after all I don't want my customers ODing, these drugs are for recreation after all, cant have customers killing themselves by accident, bad for them as well as my business."

"Naturally, the last thing one wants is have a customer die." Tohkran said, still smiling but growing a bit more restless inside, he was starting to believe he had hit a death end. "How much are you asking for your... 'recreational' goods."

"My prices are competitive I assure you, 200 credits for the really good stuff, ranging from 30 credits for the less potent kinds. Single dosage only." Elan said as he put the Slick down and picked up a Deathstick. "So, you wanna buy a Deathstick?"

Tohkran sighed and waved his hand, "No I don't want to buy any deathsticks."

"You don't wanna buy any deahsticks." Elan said as he put the drug back on the table. A moment later Tohkran found an inactive vibroblade at his throat, the wielder was not Elan and appeared to be a living shadow now that Tohkran had reason to focus on them.

Tohkran rose a brow. "Impressive. Your edge, or one of them I take it? Rather sharp too."

"My bodyguard." Elan said with a nod. "What did he do?" Elan asked the Defel.

"Used the same trick on you that I used on the spies the other dealers sent after you." The Defel answered. "Think carefully about anything else he says." The Defel added, keeping the blade at Tohkrans throat.

So this sentient knew what a mindtrick was and he could use it himself, so the rumors and tales he had heard about were true, partly at least. "You are quite skilled at keeping out of sight, understandable I guess. I was actually hoping we could talk." He calmly said, he figured if he made any move he would feel how sharp the 'edge' really was.

"To Schaduw..." Elan said with a puzzled look. "Most people don't even know he exists..."

The body guard... Schaduw, stayed silent.

"Most people probably didn't knew what to look for." He looked down at the blade at his throat and then at Elan. "If am to be killed without having a conversation I would humbly request my body and personal effects be delivered to a Herglic at the spaceport, he will have them returned to my people."

"Who said anything about killing you, just don't try tricking me again with whatever powers you seem to have." Elan said as he moved away from the table and around the room a little. "Do you actually plan to buy anything or are you just going to waste my time?" Elan said as he turned to face Tohkran again, gesturing for Schaduw to lower his blade as he did, the Defel lowered the blade but otherwise didn't move away.

Tohkran nodded his appreciation and rubbed his throat a moment before answering. "How much does a conversation cost with your man, Schaduw, was it? Assuming he, and you have no problems with that."

"Cost..." Elan said, seemingly confused at the word for a moment before the meaning registered. "Well I can't say its a terribly orthodox request... lets say 200 credits then." Elan said with a smile.

Tohkran nodded and then glanced over at Schaduw. "Assuming you have no objection of course?" He said while holding some credit chits in his hands but not yet handing them over.

Elan took the chits and waved to a side door, though not the one he had come from with the spacer before. Schaduw merely inclined his head and headed towards the door.

Following Tohkran went through the door, seeing a chair he went to it and sat down with a sigh, massaging his leg, the flesh and blood one. "Well." He started, looking up to regard the Defel. "I must admit I was starting to believe the tales and rumors I heard were false until you sensed what I was doing to Elan, my apologies for that but I was not interested in buying any Deathsticks and was looking for a excuse to leave and cut my losses."

The light was such that trying to make out Schaduws expressions was next to impossible as the Defel replied. "Who are you?"

"As I said, I go by the name of Toh, Tohkran in full. And as you may have noticed we might have something in common." He replied, looking curiously at the Defel.

Schaduw shook his head and spoke again in a peculiar tone of voice as he spoke again. "Who Are You?"

He blinked. "I am Tohkran.... jedi." He blinked again and shook his head, looking at the Defel. "Well... that was surprising, you are strong... natural talent or trained by someone?"

"I found a while ago that I could get some people to answer my questions if they wanted to or not, or convince them to do other things, even forget things at times." Schaduw said simply before tilting his head. "You know there is a bounty on jedi?"

Tohkran nodded, "I am aware, are you inclined to collect it? Though I would suggest to not do that, there is a bounty on force users in general, which I suspect you are too, though you may perhaps not know it that you are using the force for your persuasion skills."

"A hunter tried to take me in once, when persuasion failed my blade dissuaded him sufficiently." Schaduw said as he held the blade before him and ran a finger along the flat of its edge. Tohkran could see the blade was clearly the work of a masterforger.

"I can believe that. How came you to be in the service of Elan here?" Tohkran asked, interested in the answer.

"He pays me, gives me a place to live, a purpose." Schaduw said as he leaned against the wall. "And it gives me a chance to help his 'customers'."

At that last part his eyebrows perked up, looking around, he doubted if there was surveillance in this room Schaduw would have said that out loud but still. "I see, and may I ask how do you help his customers?"

"You'll find Elan is far from the worst of the dealers in this area. He only gives out single doses, preventing overdosing as he said. but he was a medical student on coruscant before he got too deep into the drug trade. in addition to the drugs themselves he keeps a stock of medicines that can reverse the effects or temper the side effects of the drugs he sells. usually they don't solve the addictive effects but they do temper the less pleasant effects." Schaduw said as he sheathed his blade again. "When customers leave with their product I tend to slip them a counteragent. Elan doesn't keep as close an eye on the medical stock levels, he uses them on occasion to make other drugs but otherwise just keeps stock levels consistent and orders more then one is getting low. I'm sure he knows someone else is taking them, though I'm not sure he is particularly worried about it either."

"I see, very noble of you to do so, I commend you on your actions. Know I think I ought to come clean why I came here, looking for you from the rumors and tales I've heard." Tohkran continued slowly, tracing through his beard for a moment to order his thoughts. "As I said, my name is Tohkran... and I am a Jedi. I do hope you either have not heard or at least have a skeptical view of most of the boogeyman tales surrounding Jedi. Either case, I came here hoping to find someone strong in the force, because I heard rumors of such a individual being present on this planet. I was hoping to meet this person and talk, just like we are doing, and perhaps be able to offer him or her safety from the hunters out there in return for training and help me do some good in this galaxy at war. If that person was interested of course, I do not force anyone and I am happy to answer any questions you may have for me."

"What do you mean by that 'good in the galaxy'?" Schaduw replied after a moments thought.

"Well for example, I have a small shipyard business and I refuse to make war material for any of the current sides in the wider galactic conflict, if I have to take a governmental contract it is either for the local police forces or, currently a contract building medical frigates for the Republic. Other examples are that I would like is to see slavery, which I see with increasing pace being more widely accepted by the CIS, be abolished. The jedi were once called the peacekeepers and guardians of the Republic, aiding police forces into apprehending criminals and be diplomats during times of war, I would like to see those days return."

"That does sound more enticing that guarding a drug dealer and trying to limit the effects of his drugs on his clientele." Schaduw replies, "And you think my persuasion implies I could be one of these Jedi Guardians?"

Tohkran leaned forward and studied Schaduw for a moment. "Your persuasion abilities are what I, and others like me, call a 'mindtrick' and might indicate you have other abilities. Have you ever managed to do other things that are unexplained abilities? Besides your persuasion, perhaps when you were in a high emotional state that things moved on their own or levitated, perhaps you once needed a weapon to save yourself and one flew from the ground right into your hand?"

"I rarely find myself in situations that I can't talk my way out of." Schaduw said with a shrug.

"That is commendable I suppose, but yes if you are interested I would like you to welcome you to join my company and learn whatever I can teach you, at least the techniques and abilities you are interested in or have a affinity for."

Schaduw tilted his head back in thought for a few moments before he spoke again. "If I were to go with you, who would help Elans customers?"

Tohkran scratched his beard. "You bring up a good point, you mentioned that he wasn't particularly worried about the missing medical stocks, do you think he actually knows what you are doing and is ok with it? Perhaps you can actually use your persuasion abilities to make Elan rethink his life a little, to do what you do currently. Stopping the trade in drugs is rather impossible, but perhaps making sure a dealer actually slips his customers a counter-agent once in a while and doesn't oversell his drugs to them just to keep them addicted and earn credits might be a good thing." Tohkran offered.

"I could do that." Schaduw said as he pushed off the wall and walked out the door. seeing Elan across the room he walked straight towards the balosar dealer.

"Finished talking already?" Elan said as he fidgeted with something in a case.

Schaduw stopped a pace from Elan and looked him straight in the eye as he spoke, using the 'mind trick' as tohkran had called it to lace his words. "You will start giving your customers the counteragent to their highs when they buy them, you will not charge them for the counter agent." he said in the same peculiar tone he had used on tohkran.

"I will give my customers the counteragent, I wont charge them for it." Elan replied looking a little vague for a moment, he blinked a few times as Schaduw broke eye contact but otherwise showed no evidence to knowing what had happened.

Tohkran followed quietly and observed Schaduw using his abilities, not interfering, after a moment he cleared his throat. "Well then, Schaduw, does that mean you accept my offer?"

"Offer? What offer?" Elan asked raising his voice a little.

"I'm leaving, you'll need a new bodyguard. You shouldn't need worry too much though, the other dealers are pretty convinced you're untouchable at this point." Schaduw said in response to Elan. "Maybe Derrick at the gate could do it, he's competent."

"Derrick is noticeable, not a shadow on the wall that most people dismiss." Elan said with a snort "I could increase your pay if you're unhappy with the current amount." he added with an almost pleading tone.

"This job was never about the money" Schaduw replied as he turned away from Elan and walked to Tohkran. "Lead on then." he said to the Jedi.

Tohkran nodded and bowed his head towards Elan. "I hope your business stays as healthy as the health of your customers." He says and leads Schaduw away, back to the entrance to retrieve his blaster and cane. As they walked he turned to Schaduw, "You should also know I have several others who I am currently instructing to understand and develop their abilities. I hope you get along with them." He said with a smile and then went silent as they reached the entrance and he nodded to the security. "Hello again, I am here to collect my blaster and walking stick."

"Sure gimpy" The human guard said as he opened the strongbox which now only held Tohkrans gear.

He ignored the look Schaduw was giving him at the name and just chuckled, accepting his blaster and cane back. "Oh I do believe Elan needs to talk to you Derrick." Tohkran added and with a last smile turned and walked away, with a almost literal shadow following him. The journey to the Killer Whale was without trouble and Marack was already waiting for them. "Marack, my search was successful as you see. Schaduw meet my friend Marack, Marack meet Schaduw, who will in time become someone who allows me to call him friend as well." With the introductions done there was nothing else to be said really and they walked aboard the freighter with Marack going to the cockpit once more, leaving Tohkran with his new padawan who he started to talk about what it would be like to be among the others in Tohkran's care.

The Tiraahn system

So far so good. Several hyperspace jumps without incident and the Hound was handling well. A'sha set the navicomputer's coordinates for the next lane and left the ship to fly itself. The Republic had a strong presence in the area, for now she needn't worry about any hostile surprises and they were close to the hyperspace lane, a few minutes and they'd be one more jump closer to their destination. A'sha stood from her chair in the cockpit, stepping out along the corridors. She spared a glance into the crew quarters. Their passenger was sleeping soundly, a rare occasion – the man barely ever left his cargo out of sight. This was her chance to take a closer look at it.

Rounding the corners of the corridors, she stopped at the cargo bay doors, throwing a glance over her shoulder before stepping in and making straight for the container their contractor had brought aboard. It was large, but securely sealed, and the doctor would probably be able to tell if it were opened without his permission, it was certainly a state-of-the-art box, if ever there was such a thing. She needn’t pry it open to catch a glimpse of its significance, however. A’sha closed her eyes as she pressed an open palm against the container’s cold surface. Her mind stilled, and her senses reached out, tracing along the threads of the Force, that bind everything and everyone.

There he was...the young doctor, feverishly tapping away at the container's panel, checking up on it, hour after hour, like a man possessed. Sweat is beading down his forehead. He's not in his right mind. What is he afraid of?

The images ceased as A'sha pulled her hand away and gazed intently at the container. Her lips pursed and she contemplated opening it then and there, as her hand drifted to a control panel on the side of the device. The sound of the cargo bay doors opening made her bring her hand away as if it were burnt and she turned about sharply, an excuse ready in her mind, before she saw her mechanic standing at the threshold. With a sigh, her frame relaxed and she took a few steps closer.

"What is it, Silla?"

"We've got a problem, we're in queue for the lane, but there's Republic ships here and they're hailing us." she seemed worried, her eyes glanced aside from her partner to the container.

The jedi lightly placed a hand on her mechanic's shoulder, giving her a reassuring, perhaps even somewhat cocky smile as she stepped past her toward the cockpit once more. The traffic about the ship seemed to have stirred the doctor's light sleep. He was standing with his head out of the crew quarters, looking groggy and more than a little wary.

"What's..going on?" he muttered as A'sha stepped past him on the way to the cockpit. With no answer forthcoming, other than a shrug of her shoulders, he followed.

The woman sat in the pilot's chair and turned her attention to the scanners. Customs corvettes, and squadrons of fighters. Things were bound to hit a bump along the way eventually, she thought. She opened the channel between the Hound and one of the corvettes and a simple demand chimed over the speakers.

"Freighter "Hound", prepare your ship to receive a search party for contraband."

She didn't respond, didn't really need to. That she remained in place and powered down the engines would be telling enough that they intended to comply. She leaned back in her chair as movement caught her eye from the view port. One of the ships in queue had broken off and was speeding away from the Republic's forces. Needless to say, the corvette and its escort disengaged in pursuit. This could be her chance to speed past and enter hyperspace. Another pause..customs had already hailed them and they had their ID signature. The jedi raised a hand to her chin in contemplation.

"Shouldn’t we be moving along to our destination, captain?" their passenger sounded, perhaps for the first time, alarmed. A’sha could sense, and evidently see his anxiety. It only seemed to grow as she made no move to steer their craft away.

"They already know we're here. If we slipped past them now they'd simply notify the Republic forces in the next system and we'd be apprehended there."

Her reply, or rather, the calmness with which it was delivered did not seem to put the man’s mind at ease in the slightest.

“I can get us through this.” She reassured him, looking him squarely in the eye, her tone grew serious. “However, for me to do so, you have to show me exactly what your cargo is.”

Ba'alkyri and Company in. . .
The Temple of D--*KZZRT*
AKA) How Everything Went Wrong on my Vacation on Arkinnea

---

Ba'alkyri rubs her eyes as Zobis pilots. “This one is happy to report we are approaching destination...” The Jedi master nods and fixes her mask on securely, before looking up and over the rest of her company. There were the three knights who remained with her even after Theodis' death. She was delighted to have their support with her and to know her oldest friends and the closest she had to family were secure in her leading them in the wake of Theodis' death. Alyssandri was the most uncertain in her command, but if only because she had seen herself as Theo's successor should anything happen. Writh seemed unconcerned, happy to follow in her footsteps in a path he saw as righteous. Perhaps the hardest to read was Vitril. She had been a great assistance in holding the allegiance of the Kiffu, but she seemed distant and hollow in the events that had come.

With them, though, were their apprentices... Rather, her, apprentices. Two who had risen from the creche... Kreeva and Chris. They were both promising in the times to come and both were eager to join her in this endeavor, given the link to the Jedi. They were quiet, though, uncertain of their rights to stay with her when the rest of the creche had been passed into the care of Tohkran and Cyphor. They had been Theo's creche and, yet, now they were under the wing of one they had barely ever noticed as their superior so long ago. Ba'alkyri winces at the thought but quickly remains calm, laying back. If nothing else, perhaps this adventure brought to them from one of Theo's old lorekeeper connections would ignite a lively spark in them.

It had been a strange frantic message sent to her upon her flagship. The lorekeeper had contacted her, claiming to have found the remnants of a former Jedi enclave here on the world of Arkinnea. It was a promising prospect to look into. However, the recent activity of the CIS and Republic had shown her the need for remaining under the radar. As much as she would like to step into the limelight to show the galaxy the jedi were not the same as the bantha dung sith, it would bring about... less than desirable consequences. Not that it stopped her all the time in her vigilante work, as some of the news reels had begun to call it.

Emerging from Hyperspace the sight of the planet below would be one not terrible impressive. It appeared to be a fairly normal world, but also a quiet one, there was little traffic in the system and all of it seemed to be CIS in origin. Fortunately it seemed that their arrival had been undetected by the CIS forces in system. Zobis would point out the presence of two Lucrehulks with some concern with regular vulture droid CAPs around them, some entering the atmosphere to overfly the capital. However there doesn't seem to be any obvious activity in the direction of the co-ordinates the Loremaster provided.

Ba'alkyri grows quiet before directing to the co-ordinates. “Go in low, try to give them a wide-berth. And by the light side of the force, try to keep our presence minimal.” She observes silently, eyes scanning the horizon. It was a gutsy move to take what was essentially a smuggler vessel with no weapons into CIS territory. If they ran into trouble before they could land and shutdown their systems, they were in for a world of hurt.

As the descent begins an alert chimes and Zobis gulps. Despite their stealthy approach it seemed that a trio of Vulture droids on patrol noticed the ship and began to head on an intercept vector. Zobis however noted a canyon and forest that she thought she might be able to lose them in. But she notes that if she's wrong the world of hurt might be self inflicted.

At a questioning look from the Barabel, Ba'alkyri nods her consent. Worst case scenario, they need a few repairs and they have to exercise force healing a bit earlier than expected. “Everyone, better get your harnesses on.”

Zobis took the ship low into the canyon the Vultures chasing after her with extreme precision and skill, one of the Vultures flew clean into a rock overhand that Zobis had deceived it into and growing cocky Zobis hugged the canyon walls more closely, close enough that a second Vulture droid was destroyed trying to match her skill. A skill that evaporated as she pulled up and into the forest. Suddenly Zobis couldn't avoid branches or trees to the point that one of the others on board went 'you missed one' now and again. The Vulture Droid was similarly handicapped and exploded however not before it had gotten a volley of shots off which annihilated the shield generators.

And suddenly... the Baal IX came apart, torn nearly in half as Zobis fought to slow them down. Soon only the main trunk of the ship and the people within came to settle down on the forest floor not far from the co-ordinates. It was going to require a salvage crew to get the Baal-IX airborne again.

Ba'al unstraps from her harness and looks in horror at the damage to her ship. Her eyes water at the horrible sight, having had spent so long aboard this vessel when she had first left Theo's command after the first meeting of the Jedi. She focuses herself, “Is everyone alright?” A menagerie of sore groans and curses meet her, with Zobis snaking out from the cockpit, a few cuts and scrapes but nothing so wounded as her pride. She nods, “Alyssandri, with me, let's try to cover up this crash site as best we can...” The Knight woman groans, all but falling out of the straps and landing roughly, “Right... Whatever you say, boss... I vote for a new pilot, though...” With that, the two women climb out of the wrecked old ship and begin work trying to cause a surge of plants to envelope the crash site and hide it from prying eyes. Meanwhile, Zobis sets to marking the coordinates of the wrecked vessel on her commlink.

Zobis has no difficulty marking the location of the site on her commlink, but after a good ten minutes Ba'alkyri can't help but concede that they're simply not going to be capable of covering up the site, there was too much ship covering too much area.

“Right... Zobis, clear?” the reptilian woman nods, checking her commlink. “I know it isn't your normal deal, but if you could navigate us to the coordinates? I know it will be a longer trip on foot... but perhaps this is all for the better. We wouldn't want the Separatists to follow us there.”

Kreeva rolls his eyes, crossing his arms, only to receive a rap upside the head from both Vitril and Allysandri at once. The Chiss winces and rubs his head as Chris stifles a laugh. “We're behind you on this one, Ba'al... Zo-zo, you really should get better at that whole landing thing, though,” Allysandri says. The Barabel releases a threatening hiss before straightening herself out, trying to retain some pride, “Master Theodis had no problems with this one's piloting, Sandri.” The female knight narrows her eyes, “And look where that got her.”

Ba'alkyri bristles and swipes a hand through the air, “Enough. Zobis, send an encrypted message off to the other Jedi about our location and what we've found... Judging by the welcome party, I doubt they're hospitable enough to give us a ride off this rock. After that, we're going to the coordinates the loremaster gave us.”

As Zobis attempts to send the message she aggravates a crack in the commlink and breaks it in two the energy discharge burning the tip of her finger.

Another of Ba'al's people sent the message with eyes rolling, probably Allysandri. Heading in the direction of the co-ordinates soon finding themselves heading onto a plain where a broken down ruind could be seen. It was not much to look at little more than rubble, but its position co-incided with the co-ordinates.

Unfortunately, with the stars high in the sky nobody could do much more than make out some small movement in the dark. The place was clearly not lit. But there did seem to be the sound of activity coming from within.

After about a million jokes about how Zobis was breaking everything she touches, they had finally arrived... and were about as blind as the Arcona amongst them. After a moment, she could hear the faint rustling of those around her about to ignite their lightsabres for light. She utters a soft hiss for silence before pausing, trying to trigger her shadow vision in order to perceive the world around them. Better not to immediately give away their location. Meanwhile, Writh whispers, “I only see little rodents, small animals.” Ba'alkyri still holds for silence, though, trying to perceive if there was an immediate threat.

Ba'alkyrie saw the temple thrown into a more stark clear relief. And much more importantly. A pair of B1 Battle Droids that appeared to be standing outside the main entrance standing guard.

Ba'alkyri pauses, surveying the droids that were waiting just ahead. “There's some droids up ahead... Kreeva, Vitril, Sandri, don your protection, get into range and when I give the word, lightsabres... Knights guard the padawan, he can disable one of them... I'll move in and take out the first, the second if you need help...” With that, they all don their force defenses. Ba'alkyri goes into a cloak of concealment and begins forward.

From just ahead as they move in the Droids look at each other. "What's that?

One of the droids said. The other shrugged. "How should I know, i've been here just as long as you have."

The first turned towards the light. "Halt, this is a restricted area!"

Ba'alkyri hesitates for a moment, “Stop here... you'll see the signal soon....” With that, she continues forward, still concealed, to get in position to take out one of the droids.

"What was that?" The droid on the south end of the door remarked turning its Blaster flashing firing blindly in the direction it thought it saw movement. The blaster bolts hitting three patches of ground, a slightly lopsided tree and a nocturnal bird trying to secure a mate.

She stops for a moment, before raising a hand, channeling the force to capture the two in a stasis field.

The attempt falls short of its goals only the closest droid being trapped in the stasis field. The other realizes that they're actually in trouble. "We're under attack!" It calls out loudly and fires towards where it thinks it was under attack from.

Ba'alkyrie manages to deflect the seemingly unnaturally accurate bolts from the B1 Battle droid. Maybe it was malfunctioning?

Kreeva takes that as a sign, moving forward a step and attempts to disable one of the droids. Meanwhile, Allysandri attempts to urge the plants to snake up about the droids and force their weapons to aim down. Vitril holds their weapon at the ready in order to deflect any incoming attacks as Ba'alkyri curses and surges forward, drawing and igniting her lightsabres.

Kreeva succeeds in disabling the droid as Ba'alkyri moves in and removes their heads without any further difficulty leaving the entrance defenceless. But the sounds of droids within can still be heard clearly.

Ba'alkyri waves her group forward with an ignited blade, shifting to the side as she waves her group forward. “Sandi, Vitril, we've got more.” With that, she crouches down, lips twitching up into a faint smile before she releases a repulsing burst of the force to send rubble flying forward.

The force repulse blasts out well enough throwing debris. But it was not all that well thought through as Ba'alkyri's force repulse begins collapsing a section of the entry hall, a large piece of masonry only just missing her head as she moves out of the way in time.

She looks with wide eyes at the area she had just occupied before slipping back into her camoflauge to lurch forward into the area to get a better look, if nothing else, as to what was laying inside. Meanwhile, the rest continue to try and keep up.

And yet as she stepped into a wide antechamber with some clear ruins available around her it becomes clear that she's not fooling anyone the dust from her force repulse outlining her clearly enough for the Droid Receptors not notice. "It's a Jedi! Open fire!"

The four droids open fire and while one misses marginally, the rest don't. Two of the shots to little more than cause light burns as the hit, but one of them seemed to actually do well at shooting and hit Ba'alkyri in the midriff dropping her to the ground breathless and in some agony. While the shot wasn't lethal, it was in an extremely painful area.

“A little help?!” Ba'alkyri shouts out, willing a new wrap of protection over herself as she moves to stand. Allysandri and Vitril are the first on the scene, as Allysandri moves in front of her and throws a wave of force directly at the two who were closest together. Meanwhile, Vitril, standing behind her, channels a whirlwind on the only droid she could see ahead of her, “And here we thought you had it, great master Jedi.” Everyone else was trailing after, incapable of such speed as the others.

Allysandri smashes the two droids into the wall where they crumple down clearly disabled while Vitrils attempt to disable another with a whirldwind gets cut short as she stubs her toe on a piece of debris that Ba'alkyri had previously dislodged, the pain enough to suggest a broken toe.

The two droids in the chamber not disabled return fire, but the unexpected attack, despite their prior accuracy, had confounded their aiming this time leading the volley to fail. But the sound of more droid feet closing could be heard.

At the pitter patter of incoming droids, Allysandri rushes forward and launches another wave of force clear through the decayed remnants of the door, “Knock-knock!” Meanwhile, Ba'alkyri follows similarly with the other door. Vitril bumrushes the closest droid with her lightsabre to bring it down as Kreeva comes up behind, attempting to disable the farthest droid.

Ba'alkyri's wave punches out and destroys all four droids from point blank and a small section of the retaining wall. Within the room there seem to be a lot of old terminals decayed beyond any possible use.

Meanwhile Allysandri's force wave loses momentum as her concentration is broken by seeing four droids at point blank ready to punch her full of holes.

Vitril manages to engage the droid and destroy it before it expects it, though Kreeva's attempt to disable the another droid falls flat.

The surviving droids visible open fire on Allysandri, the one furthest from her having the most luck, but along with the poor accuracy of the four she faced in the other room she managed to block all the bolts from causing any real damage.

Giving up on trying to disable the droid, Kreeva attempts to inspire valor through the force to those around him. Meanwhile, Vitril moves in to defeat the last droid in the room as Ba'alkyri moves alongside Allysandri to fend of the droids with their sabres. The rest of the group was almost there. They'd arrive some day. Surely.

Vitril manages to bisect the droid she faced as Kreeva inspired them all towards greater heights. Greater heights that were just a bit too far for Ally or Ba'al to reach their ability failing them against mere B1 battle droids.

Three of the Droids fortunately couldn't seem to hit the broadside of a barn, but the closest did manage to get a shot at Ba'alkyri, her force defence negating the hit..

“Did I ever say I hate droids?” Ba'alkyri snaps as she decides she had enough and attempts to simply freeze the droids in place with a stasis field while Ally continues to try and hack them up. Meanwhile, Vitril moves to check the next closest room, waving Kreeva to come with her. If anything, he was an effective mascot! . . . The others were still on the way.

Two of the droids are frozen barely by the power as Ally successfully sliced apart the other two. This room smells of decay and dust and ancient books can be seen decayed to nothingness, even nudging one with a boot is sufficient to crumble the book to nothing.

The last two droids being disabled, Allysandri executes the first while Ba'alkyri pulls the weapon of the other away with the force. “Zobis, get your slicer gear out.” Meanwhile, Vitril and Kreeva take their look into the first room they come by.

As Zobis attempted to slice the droid he triggered a short disabling his gear. A situation made worse when the short caused the B1 to headbutt him breaking his nose. Vitril and Kreeva meanwhile discovering the unexplainable joy of an oversized janitors closet.

The barabel hisses and draws her blaster, shooting the droid and moving away with a leer, “It was busted already.” Alyssandri rolls her eyes and moves to check the next room as Ba'alkyri sighs, “I think it is just a bad day for you and tech...” She moves to the other Jedi's side as Vitril and Kreeva move to the next room.

Allysandri discovers a room littered with technical detrius. Some lightsaber parts are visible in the debris as well as several clear sections indicate some large crates were removed from the chamber. Virtril discovers what looks like a rock garden that leads deeper into the building.

“Got a pathway here... Going on ahead. If we're going to be here awhile, we might as well clear the building. Padawans, with me... Writh, I'd like you here with me too,” Vitril calls out.

Ba'alkyri flinches for a moment, about to argue against her before sighing, “You heard the lady. Sandi, Zobis, suppose that puts you with me.” With that, Vitril and her group continue forward as the Master and her small group continue their sweep.

Vitril and team spot droids ahead but they don't seem to have noticed working at something. However Ba'alkyri and team are fired on by a droid hiding in one of the atriums leading deeper in.

Vitril presses a finger to her lips and gestures at Kreeva and Writh to get to work. The former attempting to disable the droid from afar, Writh to freeze a droid in stasis. However, Allysandri and Ba'alkyri both surge forward to deal with their droid.

This time everyone except, as usual, Ally manages to accomplish their objectives which is why Virtril found himself with chills up his spine as a deeper droid voice joined the audible noise. "Intruders found. Terminate."

The rapid fire from the B2 hammers at Vitril most of the bolts being deflected desperately but several burying themselves into Vitrils right kneecap blasting through the flesh and severing the leg outright. Vitril would definitely require a prosthetic once this was through.

The Knight falls to the ground, screaming in pain, spurring Writh to action as he ignites his sabrecane and attacks. Kreeva's eyes bug out wildly as he frantically tries to disable the droid. Chris, still barely more than a crecheling in skill moves forward to fend off another attack that might be directed at Vitril. Ba'alkyri's group, however, continues onward into the dark building, all certain that the others could handle themselves.

Writh finds himself struggling against the B2 before Kreeva manages to disable it at least temporarily, but the moments pause before Writh finished the disabled droid revealed 2 more B1,s approaching before they too opened fire.

In the other hall the team moving forwards also began to notice signs of Droids.

The blasts took Writh in the chest, though his force protection did reduce some of the damage, they did not reduce it enough leaving him to know that after this he would be out for at least three weeks recuperating.

Writh gasps out in pain, stumbling back and throwing a hand out towards the darkness where the blows had come from, hand igniting with green lightning. Meanwhile, Kreeva's teeth chatter as he grips his weapon, moving forward to try and disable more droids, Chris moves forward to attack with her lightsaber.

Writh manages to engulf both his attackers in the emerald lightning overloading their circuits as Kreeva manages to disable one of the droids in the room off to their left. Chris finds herself without an opponent with which to strike. But the moment does give her the chance to see that room was a commissary, the old tables still there.

Meanwhile the second team found themselves attracting the attention of a small host of droids who open fire.

The shots spit at Ba'al with some accuracy, only her force abilities and armour kept it from being more than the 2nd degree burns her right inner thigh now sported.

Ba'al winces, and moves in to attack the droids, getting a wall between herself and the other firing droids. Allysandri follows suit. Zobis moves in and fires at the farthest away droid. Meanwhile, Chris moves in and engages a droid with her lightsaber as Kreeva attempts to disable the one farthest in the room.

The attacks of Ba'al, Allysandri and Zobis fail badly to achieve their objectives as does Kreeva with his abilities. Chris however manages to fuck up well and truly royally misjudgin a strike her lightsaber hand twisting on the droids chassis the light blade slicing across her face enough to erupt in pain, it would take some weeks to recover from it, but at least she didn't lose an eye, ear or nose.

The attacks of Ba'al, Allysandri and Zobis fail badly to achieve their objectives as does Kreeva with his abilities. Chris however manages to fuck up well and truly royally misjudgin a strike her lightsaber hand twisting on the droids chassis the light blade slicing across her face enough to erupt in pain, it would take some weeks to recover from it, but at least she didn't lose an eye, ear or nose.

The two fighting Ba'al and Ally however seem to manage to literally behead themselves on the Jedi's lightsabers and the shooter at Ba'al fails to hit.

The one in hand to hand with Chris fails to hit, but also fails to kill itself as its others failed so spectacularly to do. But the one shooter, just managed to avoid hitting Chris.

Ba'alkyri goes to defeat the last droid, shouting at the other two in the room, “Go clear the other room!”

Alyssandri and Zobis both go, Alyssandri engaging the nearest droid as Zobis fires at the droid next to Chris, the padawan whimpering in pain as she tries her best to dispose of the droid before it gets her.

Ba'al fails to do much of anything to the droid she's facing as Zobis attempts to shoot the droid next to Chris missing it marginally while Allysandri successfully dispatches her target. Chris however appears to be struggling to face her target which retaliates with its rifle butt.

Fortunately neither Chris nor Ba'al's attackers are able to land a hit in their condition.

Whatever haze seemed to fall over Kreeva, he appears to snap out of it at the sound of more struggling and new sparks and pops from another dead droid. He raises a hand and attempts to disable the droid attacking Chris, much as she and Zobis each try to destroy it.

Thinking that 3 ought to have one droid under control, Allysandri goes back to help the injured Ba'alkyri dispatch the droid. Her injuries must be getting to her for the thing to still be in one piece!

The two droids are destroyed without further effort. Allysandri and Ba'alkyri discover the room they're in is quite definitely a kitchen, the woodfired stove visible under much debris.

Seeing the droids all dead... Kreeva turns to glance at Vitril and Writh, wincing at their state... before surveying the other room they had seen some droids working in.

Meanwhile, Ba'alkyri pants and pats Alyssandri on the back appreciatively before going to the other room. “What happened?”

“Writh and Vitril both got hit pretty bad... I don't think Vitril is going anywhere anytime soon,” Chris whimpers, looking at the finally destroyed droid.

“What?”

“She uhm... Her leg decided to split.”

Ba'alkyri frowns and looks back at Alyssandri, “We're stranded... Are you up to keep going?”

“Not if its just the two of us. I'd rather barricade ourselves in til help can arrive,” she shrugs.

“Help isn't going to arrive anytime soon. We need to be able to get to supplies.”

“... Well, blast.”

Ba'alkyri shrugs, “Look, I'm going to clear it with or without all of you...”

Writh grunts, trying to keep from probing out his chest with his hand as he staggers about the corner, “Coming... Just... Expect lightning.. I'll follow in the shadows...”

Ba'alkyri looks at the injury before nodding slowly. Kreeva swallows, “I'll go too. I mean, I feel like this is sort of my fault. If I did better--”

“You are not to blame,” the woman snaps, eyes glinting behind her mask.

Allysandri sighs and looks at Chris, “Fine, I'll go too... but that one is staying with Vitril. They're both too bad off.”

And so they moved on...

It would seem for once, they had gotten the actual drop on a droid... And without hesitation, Ba'alkyri and Alysandri move in to take it out while Writh begins down the opposite way quietly to stop anything from flanking them.

Though they got the drop on the droid they couldn't manage to put it down their attacks just missing as it shouted. "HELP HELP ROGER ROGER!"

Though Writh's investigation revealed another that opened fire on him.

The droid firing at Writh hit him with a burst of fire, the first causing a deep wound to his shoulder as a second narrowly splashes him in the face removing one ear and the last, to add insult to injury, strikes his weapon hand charring the flesh.

And in retaliation, the Arcona makes a feeble attempt to to blast the droid before he collapses. Seeing one of his knight instructors fall after a burst of gunfire, he runs forth, trying to disable the attacker. Meanwhile, a droid down... Ba'alkyri and Alyssandri exchange a glance, a competitive smile flashes over Alyssandri's face as she takes off with a burst of speed to find anymore droids as she cleared the building. Ba'alkyri splits off, gesturing Zobis to follow.

Writh's desperate moves pays off in time for it to deflect Kreeva's attempt to disable it against the watch Kreeva was wearing stopping it permanently.

As the blast of emerald lightning ended and the droid dropped as if sensing the force a hologram came on. "If you're watching this you are a Jedi, or I hope not, Sith. As well as seeing this. I am dead. Perhaps long ago as you reckon time. This was my sanctuary, as of the time I was preparing this message the Sith were planning to raid this little private enclave. Forseeing this I packed up the greatest of my treasures and " *KRZZZT* The image fizzles, "Go to the Vergesso Asteroids, you will find my trea..." *KRZZZT* "there. Use the force. It will.." KRZZZT the image dies permanently.

Kreeva blinks in confusion at the hologram as Writh crooks his head weakly to one side, “What was that you said, Kree?”

“Uhh, not me.”

Meanwhile, Zobis and Ba'alkyri attack a droid they came upon. Allysandri, beating her to the farther room, does much the same.

The droids are torn apart without much effort it doesn't take long to realise that they were now in the dormitory part of the complex. An ancient poster of a nude Twi'lek on the wall crumbles as Zobis touches it. Ba'alkyri frowned at Zobis... for touching it, or where, we'll never know.

Ba'alkyri and Zobis continue down the halls, as Writh and Kreeva take a breather. Meanwhile, Alysandri was already in what appeared to be the last room. And without hesitation, she leapt at the droid with her sabre.

The droid unimpressed levelled its blaster and held down the trigger.

The shots were furiously deflected by Ally just avoiding having them touch her skin.

Allysandri drops down low as she sends a wave rippling at the droid.

Without proper time to concentrate the wave just didn't have enough juice as the droid continued to fire at her it did little more than push it a bit.

But it couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.

And with all this failure to hit each other, it had given Ba'alkyri plenty of time to arrive on the scene. She attacks with a force-assisted leap. “Not fair, I was here first,” Alyssandri declares as she strikes out at the droid.

Allysandri leaps and strikes at the droid. It crumples into ruin against the wall and the head pops off and smashes into Allysandri's face leaving a big bruise that resembled the B1's eye sock straight smack-bang in the middle of her forehead where the whole galaxy could see.

Ba'al stifles a laugh and Alyssandri groans and rubs her face, “Ow...”

Zobis paces over, “This one believes we ought collect our stragglers, perhaps?”

The Diathim appears confused for a moment before it dawns on her, “Oh! Oh, right. Yes. Let's... You think Writh was holding up alright? He was pretty banged up already...”

Zobis pauses and looked at her singed finger, “Perhaps. Of course... It appears none of us are without injury today...”

Alyssandri sticks out her tongue, “Your ego doesn't count.”

The Jedi master rolls her eyes and begins walking back the way they came... “Thank you for volunteering to track down some food and water, Zozo.” Ba'al smirks and crosses her arms as she walks. Hopefully... Someone else had found something. So far it was truly as if they went through all the trouble just for new wounds and trash.

---

Results

Chris: injured 2 weeks (face)
Ba'al: 2 minor injuries (abdomen, inner thigh)
Writh: injured 3 weeks (chest, shoulder, hand), half-deaf
Vitril: Needs a new leg
Alyssandri: Big face bruise
Zobis: broke everything technological she touched, including the Old Ship

Quest update: Go to Vergesso Asteroids for more dramatic, life-threatening fun!

Neia Kahleesi
Syvris System

Piloting the Maiden Neia did the last systems check as she brought the vessel down on a berth on the surface of the moon, turning around she looked at Mirelle standing behind her while she and the other cockpit crew were working at the controls. "Can you tell the others we are about to touch down and prepare to disembark?" The jedi nodded, dressed a little less conspicuous than she would back on the station in the Kwenn system, her sabers hidden under her clothes but easily within reach.

She walked out of the cockpit and headed to the sections where the others were, Maaike was looking over her slicing tools and equipment while the Twi'lek courtesans and HK-51 were checking to make sure their weapons had a full charge pack in them. All of them, save the assassin droid, were looking up as Mirelle approached. "We are about to land according to Neia."

Maaike smiled ruefully and patted her tools before covering them up and placing them in her satchel, securing it to her waist. "Let's hope this will not turn out to be a disaster in the making."

Mirelle frowned when she heard her say that. "Bit of a pessimistic view, I hope you are confident in your skills, because if this warehouse has any security we probably need you to disable them."

Still smiling Maaike shrugged, "Oh I'll manage, one thing I'm wondering about is why you are going along with this? I mean... aren't jedi all... well, not into breaking and entering, theft, all that?"

She rubbed her cheek a bit embarrassed and then looked down on the ground. "Wellll.... from what I understand this man who the warehouse belongs to makes some shady deals on the black market and is on par with the Syndicate if not worse apparently? And it isn't as if the jedi have been paragons of justice lately, we all had to do what we had to do to survive. We aren't stealing from someone who funds charities or something similar and I promised to help out Neia for giving me a home, people I trust... a family. So no I don't have a problem, you?"

Maaike smirked and got up, stretching. "Oh no problem at all, will be like old times."

Meanwhile back at the cockpit Neia was talking to Vette who was following them in her vessel, Passing Shadow, "You found a place to land?"

Vette's holographic image nodded, "I have Neia, I will be joining you and the others shortly on the ground, think this won't be as easy as it looks?"

Neia shook her head, her eyes looking out of the front viewscreen as Syvris's shadowport came into view. "When has it ever been as easy as it looks? No I am expecting trouble of some kind." She smiled and spared a glance at Vette's holographic image. "I rather have my best friend there with me as back-up if things go rather sour."

The Twi'lek operative chuckled and smirked, "Also a bonus that your best friend is also a expert marksman. Anyway I'm cleared for landing, see you on the ground in twenty." With that she signed off, leaving Neia to pilot her ship to her assigned landing spot after which she and the others would meet up with Vette on the ground as promised before making their way to the warehouse.

Following the information given Neia and her people make their way through the streets of the shadowport to a warehouse section, meeting less and less people on the streets as they go. Soon enough the street is abandoned save for themselves and they stop in front of the warehouse belonging to the black market dealer. It appeared currently not occupied and in service. On the right was a large loading dock for ships and speeder transports to deliver and pick up goods, the loading dock doors were sealed naturally of course. On the left was a more common door, probably for the employees, it was locked as well but had a console panel to the side, which seemed to require a keycard of some kind to enter.

Neia looked at the warehouse, she felt some foreboding for some reason and turned to Vette and HK-51. "You two, please circle around the warehouse, look for any sign of occupancy or guards then report back." With a nod both Vette and HK-51 went into separate directions to circle around the warehouse, front to back looking for anything out of the ordinary.

After a number of minutes both report back, HK-51 seems certain no meatbags were inside the premises, Vette als agreed that it seemed the warehouse was empty, besides that her enhanced eyesight had spotted a back entrance to the warehouse, cleverly hidden at the side in a passageway between another warehouse. It also had a console panel but it had appeared older and less maintained than the one at the front.

"Thanks Vette, HK. Let's try that backdoor, from the sound of it that panel is easier to slice into, though I can't speak for that, not the slicing expert here." She turned to Maaike, "You ready to do your specialty?"

With a grin Maaike cracked her fingers. "Love to, give me a moment and I'll see if I can slice that door open or perhaps see what kind of security we can expect." She said, eagerly brandishing her slicing tools as she urged Vette to lead the way and once they had arrived at the backdoor motioned everyone to back off while she went to work with the panel.

While trying to get around the security protocols Maaike accidentally slips her hand and crosses a few wires she shouldn't, freezing in place but it seems, on the surface at least, no alarms were set off, though she had no idea if there were any silent alarms. She murmured that she could keep trying though. With a click the locks of the backdoor were disengaged but she did not open the door yet, turning to Neia. "I can open the door, but I do not know if there is a alarm attached to it, I can keep slicing and see if there is a alarm and shut it off, or just open the door and take our chances, your call."

She bit the bottom of her lip and sighed, "Try to see if there is a alarm system... just... don't set it off while searching for it please." She looked to the others and gestures for them to keep a lookout for anything.

After a while Maaike didn't find anything or she had already disables it and opened the door, closing her eyes and holding her breath, only to release it wit ha sigh and open her eyes when no sirens or anything of the sort were heard. "We have gained entry it seems Neia."

She nodded, hardly relieved, they seemed to be able to get in, but would they come out again. "Vette you take point, HK you are second, me and the commandos will follow up with you Maaike and you Mirelle taking the rear, let's go in and see what there is to see."

What there was to see was a rather dark, dimly lit warehouse, large stacks with crates of all sizes were stocked together, labels here and there of what was what. Searching for one container, a small one at that, would be a rather momentous task. Near some of the stacks were cranes and lifters obviously designed to reach the top shelves and get the crates from there down to the ground.

Vette looked up some of the stacks and the paths between them. "So... how do we find that one specific cargo crate?"

Smiling Neia reached for her datapad with the information that had been given to her by her contacts. "The crate is labelled Jabiim vegetables, spoiled. Probably a false listing to draw away suspicion as for where to find it. Well I imagine, or hope at least, that there might have been consoles near the stacks that contain information about the warehouse contents and with a simple search function can locate it. That or find the main office and look for warehouse manifests of the contents there." She pondered, "Don't want to spread out too far... Ok we split up in teams of five, each of us taking one of the courtesans with us." She nodded to the Twi'leks who had their blaster pistols out and at the ready. "We can cover more ground that way but I want us to keep in constant contact and as soon as a team finds a terminal or the head office, report in and guide us to your location so Maaike can work her slicing magic again."

Once divided they set out in search for a console or anything that might help them to look for the cargo crate.

The only sound were the soft footsteps of the burglars as they wandered around the stacks Mirelle and the courtesan with her almost getting lost in the stacks before they managed to find their way out and bump into Maaike and the courtesan with her. Eventually a sudden transmission burst came over the communicators and it was Vette's voice, announcing they had found the main office or at least what she thought was the main office and described how they got there. HK-51 was about to respond to the meatbag he understood and would make his way there when he suddenly leveled his blaster and aimed at the third row of a nearby stacks, the courtesan following suit. "What?" She asked.

HK-51 was silent for a moment and then came the sound of something scuttling over the crates, getting closer and closer, before it suddenly... stopped. After a pause the sound did not return and the courtesan relaxed a little. "Vermin?"

"Skeptical Remark: Perhaps. Eager Anticipation: Let's hope it is not vermin but something that means us harm so I can kill it." With that he lowered his blaster carbine, somehow ,despite his droid features, one could almost see he was dissapointed he didn't get to shoot anything.

Eventually all the teams were reunited at the main office which was a closed section and once again appeared to need a passkey of some kind to enter.

Without even asking or looking at Neia, Maaike already stepped forwards with a grin to unlock this next puzzle.

The next puzzle appeared to be of a newer generation than the security on the backdoor and Maaike activated a protocol she really shouldn't. The door remained shut, what was more a yellow light next to the door suddenly turned red and a tremor was felt by everyone. Maaike had bigger issues however she saw what was coming and quickly let go of her slicing tools and jumped back, putting distance between herself and the security console as a power surge went through it, ruining her slicing tools, but luckily for her did not shock or harm her in any way thanks to her reflexes.

It was clear however, this time a alarm of some kind was activated, the repercussions of it would soon become clear.

Maaike was cursing but Neia paid no regard to it. "Well there we have it now, no other way but to try and blast that door open I suppose." She gestured to the Twi'lek courtesans to come forward, they were trained in demolitions and grenade use they could probably find a explosive way into the office, without blowing it completely up. "Everyone stay alert, I think we will have company soon." Maaike was grumbling going over her ruined tools with a sigh, she had coem attached to those tools over the years.

No sooner had she said that or her words came true, HK-51 was the first to notice, hearing the same scuttling sound as before and sharply turned around to look at a far section of the stacks they had all come from, sure enough something came into view, making the noise. Vette turned a moment later, just in time to see the first emerge. A droid of some kind, scuttling on six legs though both the photo-receptors of HK-51 and Vette's eyes were drawn on the heavy repeating blaster attached to the underside of the robotic 'spider'. Upon seeing them it blurted out a series of clicks and whistles, which HK-51 could understand as it was a variant of a droid dialect. <"Identify yourself or die.">

Vette kept her eyes on the droid but spoke up, "Neia... company is here and it doesn't look friendly."

She turned away from the courtesans working with demolition charges and widened her eyes at the sight. "Security droid of some kind?" She asked out loud, hoping anyone could confirm that.

HK-51 let out a sound of wonder. "Amused Clarification: It seems to be a security droid, yet it should have fired when it should. It just asked us to identify ourselves or die. Foolish machine, the meatbag who programmed it to protect this place should have it open fire at once when it encounters intruders that are not recognized."

Vette hissed, "Let's not give it ideas."

"Agreed." Neia replied, "HK you could speak to it? Perhaps you can convince it should leave us be and that we are supposed to be here?"

There was no need for that, while the security droid could only speak a droid language it was well capable of understanding galactic basic and when it heard the assassin droid it knew these were intruders and opened fire with it's heavy repeating blaster. But the five blastershots were shot wide and did not hit anything, at the same time as it was shooting it let out a loud screeching sound. Which was answered by several similar sounding screeches all around the warehouse followed by rapidly approaching sounds of scuttling robotic spider legs. Meanwhile the courtesans told Neia it would take at least three minutes to set up the charges properly in the right proportions.

Neia cursed, "Shoot it! You, you and you, keep working on blasting that door open. Everyone else, defensive positions if you can and destroy that droid and any of its friends that are no doubt converging upon us! Activate your shield generators if you've got them!" She finished shouting, opening fire with her blaster along with the others at the first droid.

Neia and HK-51 were reacting faster than the others blasted the security droid apart, HK-51's precision shots doing most of the damage however while Maaike it turns out, discovered her blaster had a dry power pack and needed to replace it, quickly because other spider droids, all armed with repeating blaster cannons scuttled into view from the pathways between the stacks and some on top of the stacks. All in all, eight droids had arrived and were opening fire.

One fired at Neia the blasts impacting on her shield, thankfully being soaked up but seeing as it was a barrage of several blasts the entire shield was completely depleted after the barrage. Maaike managed to duck out of the way as the droid targeting her fired, its shots going wide while she put a new charge pack in her blaster. Two spider droids, who had witnessed HK-51 being the main target for his shots on their fellow security droid opened fire on him. He managed to evade the first barrage but the second hit him full on and actually managed to sever his leg with the blasts. Thankfully HK-51 was a droid and had no fear of bleeding out as he landed on the ground and managed to crawl upright and resume firing if he wished. He was just not as mobile as before and could probably not evade a second barrage.

Mirelle had her lightsabers out and ignited and this prompted two more droids to select her as a target. The first fired and the blasts were aimed perfect, Mirelle however decided to deflect them right back at the droid's power supply and as the blasts hit him there it suffered a rather severe case of being torn apart to pieces as a explosion wracked its spider-like body and it dropped off the stacks, forcing the other droid to quickly step out of the way, foiling it's aim at the jedi.

Another fired at Vette but she rolled out of the way, too nimble for now to allow herself to be hit like that. The last fired at the Twi'lek courtesans but their armour and shields soaked up the hits, for now.

Seeing HK go down Neia shouted to Mirelle, "Go to HK-51 and protect him! Now pick your targets and fire. Vette you and me fire at that one, HK and Maaike, the one over there in the stacks, guards, focus on the one shooting at you all!" Mirelle meanwhile obeyed Neia's command and went to HK, ready to deflect incoming blasterfire, she could use a ranged ability to perhaps inflict damage as well but instead decided to call on the force to instill her friends and comrades with courage and strength as she used the force power valor.

The spider droids quickly scuttled into cover behind cargo crates or stacks of the warehouse, only HK-51 somehow manages to shoot and destroy one. The two Twi'leks firing had somewhat worse luck as their weapons jammed somehow.

The spider droids seemed to have time needed to adjust their aiming as the next barrages all shot wide, the Twi'lek courtesans forced to duck for cover while trying to get their blasters to work again. The last spider droid scuttled over the stacks rapidly and turned its cannon in the direction of Vette and opened fire, emptying the charge pack of its weapon but to devastating effect. It burned through her personal shield and then impacted on her armour, penetrating it and hitting her square in the chest. Her eyes wide as she fell backwards, still alive and breathing but badly hurt.

Neia looked with wide eyes at Vette, holes appearing in her armour as her shield dissolved and she fell to the ground of the warehouse. "NO!" She exclaimed and squeezed the trigger of her blaster at the droid that had done this, the others firing too, if able. The Twi'lek courtesans quickly asking for their comrades to toss the mblasters that werent jammed so they could also return fire at once.

Seeing this and feeling her force valor being in effect she decided to become more aggressive as well. Tapping into the force to gather a bunch of loose objects, sicne this was a warehouse that ought to be easy and hurl them at any spider droids that were in close proximity of each other.

It was utter chaos as blastershots were fired all over the place but hit none of their intended targets, Mirelle's boxes hitting empty air as the spider droids quickly scuttled to cover, Neia herself suddenly felt the grip of her blaster become hot and only due to a sense of warning threw away her blaster just as it overheated and exploded, in fact not taking her hand with it which might have happened if she had been holding the blaster still.

Meanwhile the demolition charges the three Twi'leks had been planting were set and went off as soon as they backed away, the controlled charges doing their job unlike everyone else at the moment as the door was unable to withstand them and was blown open but more importantly allowed the three courtesans to rejoin the others in fighting off the security droids who were about to open fire again.

Perhaps too eager for the kill of intruders the droids fired again, most missing once more, the one firing at the Twi'leks managing to keep them in cover, another, who had its charge pack emptied firing at Vette attempted to charge at Neia but tripped over one of the crates hurled by Mirelle and needed to get its footing back. Mirelle meanwhile was rather hard pressed as two of the droids fired on her but her protective bubble managed to soak up the hits that came through her deflective parries, while one of the droids was screeching out 'error, error' as its own blastershots returned to him and destroyed him.

Seeing the one what had shot at Vette go down Neia gritted her teeth and retrieved her electrostaff, charging at the thing before it could get up again and see if she could destroy it with electric shocks from her melee weapon. The others kept firing while Mirelle put up a new protection bubble around herself before using her electric judgment force lightning on a target.

HK-51 and the Twi'leks managed destroy another spider droid each, HK on his own while the Twi'leks needed to combine their firepower to bring the other down. Mirelle's green lightning missed it's target while Maaike just missed, shouting out she was never good with shooting. Neia meanwhile had to halt her charge as the spider droid reared up and lashed out with one of it's legs like a spear. Neia was able to stop just in time and not impale herself on the droid appendage.

The droid facing Neia decided to lash out with its legs, trying to stab and tear into her. The one who had been shooting at her still saw it had a high chance of hitting it's fellow droid and went for a new target, firing with the other two who were still operational.

Neia managed to block the strike coming at her with her electrostaff, the others were not as lucky, Maaike's shield was hit by a full burst of one of the droids, while Mirella was also saved by her force protection. One of the Twi'leks was not as lucky as she became somewhat perforated by the droid's blasterfire riddling her through.

Neia was looking for whatever controlled this droid's actions, it's central processor or the like to make a strike at it and hopefully kill it swiftly while everyone else resumed firing. Mirelle leaving HK-51 to charge at one of the spider droids to get it within melee range of her sabers.

Noticing what might be the droids central processor Neia lashes out against it and scores a hit, electric surges coming through making the droid spasm and shudder before it collapses to the ground. Probably determined to avenge their fallen sister the remaining courtesans open fire with well-aimed, controlled bursts from their blasters. Destroying the remaining spider droids without effort. The last sound being a mighty crash as one of the spider droids crashes from the stacks to the ground below. No sound of other security droids are heard approaching.

Taking a deep breath Neia was shivering all over, leaning on her electrostaff as she took stock of the situation, HK-51 seemed only irritated at the loss of his leg, probably his saving grace that he was a droid. Her heart stopped however upon seeing Vette still lying on the ground and she rushed towards her, checking her pulse, feeling there was one still and that the Twi'lek operative was breathing still. "Mirelle! Get over here! Quickly!"

The jedi answered the call deactivating her lightsabers but instead of hiding them placed them at her belt. Kneeling beside Vette she reached out and placed her hands on the wound, concentrating on the living force to help heal the wounds Vette had suffered. They were all rewarded with Vette coughing and spluttering, blinking as she looked around. "Am I dead?"

Neia let out a sigh of relief and laughed letting the pent-up nerves and fears lift off her shoulders. "No, you are not, sorry if that is a disappointment."

"Oh no, I like living... besides, Boher still owes me thirty credits and I intend to collect those, but not over my own dead body thank you. I am okay Neia, just need to stay in a medical bay for a while I think." She said, wincing as she traced over the blaster holes in her armour. "Thankfully I didn't only invest in a personal shield but also some armour."

Making sure that Vette would stay alright she asked Mirelle to look after her while she went to the courtesans and looked down at the dead commando. "We will not let her remain here, make sure she is brought back to us so we can give her the burial she deserves back at the Nova Retreat." The other courtesans nodded, their faces neutral, one of them handing the blaster of their fallen sister to Neia because she had lost her own. "Thank you." She murmured, placing the blaster at her waist and then looked at the door of the office. "Time to get moving again." She said to herself as she went in to look for a manifest of any kind to look for the crate labelled Jabiim Vegetables.

It seemed that the owner of the warehouse clearly liked order because Neia needed barely any time to search the records for what she needed to know and found the exact location of the cargo crate in question, as well as the best route from the office to get there.

Surprised that she found it so quickly she gave the task of retrieving the crate to Mirelle and two of the courtesans while she, Maaike and the other courtesans would do their best to carry their dead and injured to the backdoor entrance to get out of this place.

Mirelle and the two courtesans didn't run into any more spider droid security droids and found the crate, it was a small cargo capsule, barely able to contain anything it seemed and yet Neia's contact had informed her the contents were quite valuable, it could be carried by a single person. One of the courtesans picked it up and carried it to the exit and within moments they had rejoined Neia and the others.

They left through the backdoor and headed back to the street, once they reached the street they were bathed in light from a speeder spotlight, revealing the silhouettes of four humans, blasters drawn and aimed at the group. "Hold it right there... drop your weapons. The boss would like to have a word with you all." Came a voice from the speeder.

Neia cursed silently, were these in the payroll of the black market dealer? Had they also activated a alarm that alerted him wherever he lived? Either way, she had wounded with her, even one of her people dead and had no desire to be captured and possibly tortured. Luckily most of her people had comlinks implanted under their skin so all she had to do was whisper to them. "I want grenades thrown towards those people and everyone else open fire with blasters. Knowing Maaike and the Courtesans would hear her, perhaps Mirelle too with her jedi senses. "Now!" She exclaimed and raised her blaster to fire.

Their waiting party was utterly surprised by this course of action and one of the leading humans was shot between the eyes by Neia, the grenades and other blaster shots meanwhile went wide as they were blinded no doubt by the light from the spotlight. This caused the men to open fire however in retaliation.

It was brutal, Neia, Maaike, HK-51, Vette were all hit by the blasts, all went down to the ground, not moving at all. Only the Twi'leks and Mirelle managing to evade the blasts. The nafter a moment HK-51 started to curse, that all meatbags were flawed and idiots. HE was still talking and yet had been hit by several blasts.

Mirelle had looked on in horror as almost every went down but hearing the assassin droid speak made her wonder, no hope that whatever these people shot with was not lethal. "Take them out!" She shouted hopign her force valor effect was still inspiring them all while she let out a blast of lightning.

The lightning from Mirelle hit two of the humans who dropped down, twitching. The same voice as before cursed loudly, "A forceling!? Poodoo! Shoot her, shoot her! That one is worth a million credits!" Then he cursed again as several blasts of the Twi'lek courtesans impacted the speeder chassis. However all they hit is empty air as they suddenly have rather bad luck after such a fortuitous starting salvo. Meanwhile HK-51 had crawled himself upright and managed to get his blaster carbine out ,eager to shoot at some meatbags.

Well apparently whoever they were wanted to turn her for a bounty, she had no intention of letting them. "Focus on the speeder! I will keep that last man on the ground busy!" She said to the courtesans before bursting out of cover, igniting her sabers, making herself a target and hopefully giving the courtesans the time they needed to neutralize that speeder.

A charging jedi is something the enforcer hardly ever saw so he was quite shocked to see a woman with two lightsabers charging directly towards him, she was upon him before he could squeeze the trigger of his blaster and two saber stabbed him through the chest. The people in the speeder meanwhiel were distracted as several stray shots of a crippled assassin droid flew over them, distracting long enough for one of the Twi'leks to get a lucky throw and land a frag grenade in the open speeder. "OH F-" Was all they heard before the speeder was engulfed in a ball of flame.

Mirelle blinked, looking at the devastation, she had actually hoped they would be able to use that speeder to quickly get away, but this was also a good outcome she figured, quickly deactivating her sabers to went to the Neia and the others. She let otu a sigh, "They are alright!" She shouted at the courtesans, the blasters must have been set to stun. It would mean however they would not wake up for a long while, she glanced at the warehouse, it had room for ships landing, hadn't? She turned to two of the courtesans. "You two, go to where we have the ships berthed and get them over here, we can't carry everyone with just the five of us that are able to walk properly."

The nearest courtesan nodded. "So get our ride off this world to here, got it." The two commandos went running off at once to carry out the command, promising to be there soon.

After a hour with the roar of engines came the Maiden touching down, the Passing Shadow followed, it's arrival silent thanks to its more stealthier configuration. Both ships descending their ramps with the courtesans quickly coming out, one of them reporting she saw several speeders heading towards the warehouse district.

"No time to lose then." Mirelle responded, "Get everyone aboard the Maiden. You flew Vette's ship here, you can fly it back Nova Retreat." The courtesan ndoded but helped first getting everyone aboard the Maiden before quickly running back to the Passing Shadow and get aboard, lifting off at the same time as the Maiden to make their escape off this world and get out of the system to return to the Nova Retreat as soon as possible.

As they lifted off a number of speeders stopped at the warehouse, several cannons on the speeders opened fire but proved ineffective as the ships sped off. One lone man stepped out of the leading speeder as the ships vanished from view and watched them leave. Balling his fists as he started to suspect what might be missing from his warehouse. "Recover my droids... and recover any usable images from their memory cores. I want the bastards found who stole from me..."

---

Summary:
HK-51 lost his leg, needs repairs
Vette, wounded (chest and stomach injury), needs 2 weeks of recovery
1 Twi'lek Courtesan dead

Neia, Maaike & Vette are also all unconscious due to stun blasts?

Obtained a cargo container, not opened yet.

In the life of two Sith & Their Minions

She moved without hindrance or hesitation as she went through the motions, her silver blade flashing and twirling in her hand like a whirlwind, normal speed at first and then she subtly started to tap into her reserves of the force, letting it flow through her body, her muscles, speeding herself up till she became just a blink in the eye of a mundane person who would watch her, moving faster than any ordinary human or some alien species. Shots were fired and she moved quickly to intercept and block them with her blade, letting her blade flash all around her to deflect the incoming blasts, letting them sail harmlessly away from her.

"Enough."

Was all she said and the guards stopped, returning the safeties on their blasters and holstering them. She slowed down, finishing the routine she had been instructed in as a little girl and with a deep breath jumped, landing on one foot, balanced and frozen. Exhaling she closed her eyes and slowly brought her other leg and foot down, standing upright, taking another deep breath and opened her eyes at the same time as she deactivated the silver blade, reaching out to let the longer cane part fly into her hand so she could screw the saber hilt back to it's hiding spot.

"You have improved." She startled reached for her saber hilt again, her fingers brushing over the hilt before she withdraw her hand and chuckled. The voice had come fro mright over her shoulder and Lena calmly turned around to look at Ko'Chul with a raised eyebrow. The female Noghri showed her sharp teeth in a wide grin before handing her Sith lady a datapad. "New. Reports. As you requested."

She took the datapad and nodded. "Thank you." Gesturing to follow she started to walk to a nearby desk on which a plate of food was already waiting for her, sitting down she gestured to a empty seat but as always Ko'Chul preferred to stand, half in the shadows, ready to vanish when required. Smiling to herself at after that little bit of tradition she took a sip from a glass of water and then went to enjoy her meal, letting the datapad wait. News and reports could wait, her stomach could not. Only when her plate was finished she reached for the datapad once more and began to read it's contents after confirming Ko'Chul had not moved from her spot.

"Another brawl between the Morgukai and Bodhicai I see, I guess they have too thick heads to let my orders sink in that easily." She shook her head, dissapointed in her troops. "Nothing to do about that for now, time will tell if they will accept her or she will die at their hands." She scrolled down, ignoring most of the reports of her facilities, she slowed down as she reached the news and updates from her contacts, frowning. "Irys reports my.... 'sensitive' information stores and databanks have been breached and leaked somewhere and that several people have already stopped giving me their updates as I requested. I see... well that will be her priority to find out were the leak originated from and who is responsible, as well as restore it to it's former operational status." Her frown got deeper as she reached the second bit of bad news, "And my contact in Chancellor Bonteri's office is recovering in a bacta tank after a attempt on her life. Unfortunate."

"Read further please." Came the voice of her Noghri confidant.

She frowned at her for a moment but then continued reading, seeing why, Irys had marked two interesting tidbits of information, which she also noticed that Ko'Chul had already informed Irys that she was interested in either task outlined. "I see... so notorious Cad Bane is putting a crew together to hunt down a potential powerful force user on Ord Mantell." She read the second piece from some of her Kubaz informants. "And the Republic is going to attempt a daring raid on Thyferra to sabotage a shipment of Bacta meant for the CIS leadership..." She tapped her finger on the datapad and then looked to Ko'Chul. "You are interested in undertaking either task?" The Noghri nodded. "Any preference?" She got a shrug in response. "I see... why I would love to test you against both a powerful force user and Cad Bane... but I think the wisest course of action is to intercept the Republic strike team headed to Thyferra and stop them. I would not wish my contact in Bonteri's office to die because of a lack of Bacta."

Ko'Chul bowed, "I will prepare my team." She said with a smile and made to leave but at a gesture from Lena she paused, "Yes?"

Scratching her cheek Lena stood up and walked towards Ko'Chul, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Leave some of them alive... I think it would be most interesting to have a number of surviving republic members of a strike team conducting a rather illegal operation on a neutral world to sabotage medical supplies, don't you agree?" She was answered with a nod and another grin with her teeth showing. Lena let go and blinked, once she opened her eyes the Noghri was done. "Glad she is on my side." She said with a chuckle and then returned to her desk, there had been one more item on the datapad she needed to read.

It was two reports molded into one it seemed, the first from one of the 'loremasters' in her employ, a number of historians, collectors of various 'arts' and other such individuals. One had send word to her that he had found information of some kind of ancient former Mandalorian base or outpost, now in ruins on the world of Teth in the Baxel Sector. Once recovering that information he had learned of rumours that the Mandalorians used this ancient base as a storehouse of an ancient and powerful secret, guarded by what he referred to as 'ageless terrors' that stood guard over it. Naturally there was no specific information what these terrors were, which was just typical.

What was not typical was reading the attached section from a information broker who had provided some curious intel, the loremaster had asked this information broker to learn more about the Mandalorian ruins and the rumours attached to it and had found out that the CIS has also developed a interest, believing this ancient 'storehouse' was the location of some kind of Mandalorian superweapon and are preparing a expedition to Teth to claim it. "Well now, I suppose if the CIS are showing interest they think the rumours have some ring of truth to them. Best to make sure they don't get it then." She said to herself and ponders. "Mandalorian ruins... I guess I need a Mandalorian to help me..."

She tapped a console on her desk and watched it activate, nothing happened at first and then a small hologram appeared of the bothan slicer Irys. "Lena." She said and nodded, "I take it you've read the report?"

"I have and even made a decision, You, along with Bodhicai and a number of my disciples will accompany me on the Regret, we are going on a excursion." She replied already going over her own items she was going to bring.

"I thought so, I will inform Verat to plot a course to Teth."

Lena chuckled, "Thank you but delay that, inform him to plot a course for the Mandalore system first, I think I want to partner up for this excursion." She smiled, "And I know just the person to ask."

---

Mandalorian Space,
Kandosii Naast II, orbit over Concordia.

"Do it again." Goran Silas said in his best drill-instructor voice. Rolling his eyes behind his mask Gra'tua aimed and waited, firing again in rapid succession as the target orbs appeared on the holographic practice range. Once done he looked up, five out of twelve orbs had been hit, it did not take long to hear Goran once again, "Abysmal, try again, how can you even expect to hit a gundark with shooting like that."

Gra'tua chuckled, "I am not training with a blaster to shoot Gundarks my friend, I am hoping to learn enough to be somewhat capable on the field of better and to do honour to my clan and name as a warrior of the Mando'ade."

Goran did not look impressed with those words. "Even so, try again and do better this time, or we move on to dueling and I will not have a training blaster with a lower setting."

"Would you kill me for the sake of teaching me a lesson Goran?" Gra'tua asked, half in jest and half serious, chuckling as he finished saying that, that chuckling stopped when Goran answered him.

"Yes. If you are not worthy of the lessons then I would do that certainly. Now enough talking and try again."

---

Kandosii Naast II command bridge

---

"Well this is indeed a surprise." Gra'tua said with humour as he leaned back in his command throne, Kashiir standing beside the throne. Gra'tua stood up and opened his arms in welcome to the guest who just entered his bridge. "Darth Lena, what brings you to my corner in space?"

She looked around, typical of Gra'tua to invite her to a place where his status as some kind of a Mandalorian warlord was evident to all, she smiled however and bowed, acknowledging him as the master of his domain. "A request to join me in a venture I wish to embark on Gra'tua. Something that might even interest you actually."

He frowned behind his mask, Lena asking for aid? She was the most enigmatic of the sith alliance and by far the most secretive. Granted she had sough a alliance with him before but that did not mean he trusted her, he did never say that of course. "Something that might interest me? Do tell."

She approached and crossed her arms together, making eye contact with that ridiculous mask he insists on wearing each time. "I have obtained some information, about a possible ancient Mandalorian base on the world of Teth, not only that but that it was in its time a storehouse where some kind of ancient secret is stored, guarded by what my informant tells me is a 'ageless terror'. It might be nothing but tales turned into myths but at the same time, the CIS have also heard of these ruins and believe it is the resting place of some kind of superweapon of the ancient Mandalorians. Wanting to claim it for themselves no doubt."

Upon hearing this Gra'tua chuckled, "A superweapon? If the Mando'ade had those then why would they have lost the Crusades of old?" He frowns and ponders in silence for a moment. "However, in the event that something might indeed be stored there... which you suspect there might be, you do not wish to see it in the hands of the CIS?"

"Indeed, perhaps it would be better if one of us were to claim the contents of the ruins then these CIS, don't you agree? Lord Gra'tua?" She answered with a smile, so far so good in trying to get him to come along with her.

He returned to his throne and sat down. "Kashiir, send word to the fleet, they will be in the command of Aeshi and Gilad, we are going to Teth, along with Darth Lena here."

"As you command my lord." The Chiss replied and walked to the walkway running across the bridge and started shouting out orders.

Smirking behind his mask he regarded Lena. "Let us travel to Teth and see if we can't stop some CIS upstarts from meddling with my people's history and legacy."

Lena bowed. "May fortune and the force smile upon us, I will return to my ship and inform my ships captain to follow you closely." With that she left, both of them preparations to make before leaving for Teth together on their respective ships.

Cyphor Fey'lar
Pandorum, In orbit of Comra's Moon
Private Hanger Bay 2

R2-AT0 rolled into the hanger bay alone and lowered the ramp to the Ashlani Traveler by remote before proceeding to board the craft. The little R2 unit had been built and outfitted especially for the Ashlani Traveler when Cha'alla commissioned Too to construct the vessel. Cha'alla had no mechanical skill herself beyond knowing how to construct and repair a saber or other simple mechanical faults, so Too had included Ayteeoh to act as the ships mechanic when he drew up the Travelers specs. On top of mechanical repairs Ayteeoh also assumed the role of copilot and was capable of running the vessels basic systems alone, vessel start-up and simple maneuvering among them. after reaching the top of the ramp the little maroon R2 unit made its way to the interface socket in left rear of the cockpit, plugged itself into the Travelers control systems and began running through pre-flight checks.

After a few minutes another entered the Travelers cockpit, Clezo, Cha'alla's young rodian padawan. Clezo had grown both physically and in the force in the past year since he first became Cha'alla's padawan, Cyphor had remarked a few times that the dynamic the two of them shared mirrored his own with Cha'alla for many years. Clezo was a little impulsive, he took chances when he thought they could pay off, even when there was little certainty. This had a few times prompted Cha'alla to pull him out of the fire so to speak, but it had also accomplished mission goals where Cha'alla may have been more cautious or by the book. As a result Clezo found himself listening to the same lectures Cyphor had heard from Cha'alla for years, which had caused Cyphor to break out in laughter the first time he witnessed the young rodian being chastened. of course Cyphor had been the leader in the dynamic before so he had summarily chosen when he could ignore Cha'alla's lectures, Clezo had no such reprieve.

"Hey Ayteeoh, the Traveler ready to fly yet?" Clezo asked cheerfully, the little R2 unit beeped an affirmative which a monitor above the droid translated into galactic basic. "You going to be ok without us?" Clezo asked, his tone a little more sombre this time. AT0 Beeped a positive affirmative and followed up with a statement that it hoped the mission did not take long. "I'm sure you'll be back with Cha'alla and I in no time, Ayteeoh." Clezo said once again cheering his tone. No sooner had he finished speaking, he heard voices coming from the boarding ramp.

"Captain Matrix and his team is more than capable of protecting the ship should we run into pirate or the like, Cha'alla." Clezo heard, the voice belonged to Mara Bell, one of Cyphors inner circle and one of the best pilots in the small fleet. Though Cyhpor and Nikan were regarded as The best in the fleet, Mara often claimed that was only because of their connection to the force. She had trained most of the pilots aboard the Nebulae Queen and usually acted as flight leader when the Nebulae was on a combat mission. She was also a naturally gifted navigator, which was the reason she was aboard the Traveler and assuring Cha'alla that her ship would come back in one piece. Cyphor had been contacted by a CIS liaison officer that was acquainted with Colonel Drogan Hosh, whom Cyphor had protected on his landing on Jabim over a year earlier, though he had not been a Colonel at the time.

"The task is very simple," Mara said to Cha'aala as the two of them walked into the cockpit. "I'm just mapping some Hyperspace routes in the mid rim, its a bludge assignment practically." She concluded as she took a seat at the pilot controls and ran her hands over the primary controls, committing their location and feel to memory.

"The lanes you are to map are unstable and unpredictable, thats why they're not mapped in the first place." Cha'alla responded with a cautioning tone. Clezo had heard that tone many times over the past year after he had done or suggested something rash.

"You are not my master Cha'alla, don't presume to take that tone with me. Smugglers and other less reputable types have maps of these lanes already, incomplete as they may be, a skilled navigator and pilot can ride the lanes so long as they use caution and pay attention, Believe me this is not my first rodeo." Cha'alla looked about to say something more but Mara spoke again before she could utter a sound. "As we already discussed I'll have Captain Matrix aboard with his commando squad in case I do run into any of those less reputable types and the stealth systems on the Traveler should allow me to avoid detection even if we do encounter any of them. I promise, your ship will come back without a scratch."

Cha'alla raised an eyebrow and smiled a little as Mara finished her sentence. "I was going to say I trust you." Cha'alla replied, her smile turning into a soft laugh.
"Well...uh..." Mara said looking a little embarrassed.
"Come along Clezo, Captain Matrix has his team aboard and I expect Ayteeoh has the Traveler ready for departure by now." Cha'alla said as she turned towards her padawan. Ayteeoh beeped a cheerful affirmative at the statement and as if to emphasis the point the vessels docking thrusters began powering up. Mara odded at the droid and began making a few quick checks of her own, not that she didn't trust the R2 unit, it was just a habit of hers.
"You take good care of her Ayteeoh, Clezo said as he left the cockpit and headed for the boarding ramp. Weather he meant Mara or the Traveler was unclear and Ayteeoh's translated reply in the affirmative gave no hints either.

A few minutes later Cha'alla and Clezo stood side by side at the hanger entrance as they watched the Ashlani Traveler's main engines come ro life and shoot the black vessel out into the void of space. "Come." Cha'alla said as she placed a hand on her padawans shoulder. "Let us see if Cyphor has anything for us to do for him while the Traveler is on assignment with Mara. If not, maybe its time to have a discussion with Too about his former peers." Clezo nodded and the two left the hanger to seek out Cyphor.

---

Pandorum, Lightsabre Practice Chamber

Cyphor shifted his stance as Kalmi struck out at him with both the training sabres she was wielding, the twin blades came from the same direction, had the same orientation, and the same force behind each of them. Blocking the strike was not difficult. Cyphor applied just enough pressure to stop the blades momentum and then pushed back hard, now inside Kalmi's guard he started on a back swing strike... only to watch Kalmi spin away from the blade and bring one of the two she held up to deflect the strike and then thrust with the second as she completed the spin. Cyphor countered by leaping backwards a short distance rather than try to recover his blade and block the thrust. it was the first time in the last few weeks that Kalmi had been training with twin sabres that she had started to incorporate actions she might normally take with her staffsabre, only without the two blades mirroring each other constantly she was able to perform similar strikes in less time and with slightly different angles.

Cyphor raised an eyebrow at this development, he had watched the others training with her as she practiced with paired blades, they all knew she was unused to the style and most had allowed her to take the offensive, Cyphor himself had allowed her that when they had started their duel 10 minutes earlier. It was interesting that it was during a defensive action that she started adapting her more standard form. Curious to see if the pattern would continue Cyphor loosened his grip slightly on his sabre and stepped forward into a Juyo stance.

Kalmi had only a moment to see Cyphors shift before he charged her, his sabre raining relentless blows as she struggled to keep up with the onslaught, the two blades gave less stopping power than she was used to, only one hand on each hilt to stabilize as opposed to two hands on her usual sabrestaff hilt. it made defense less an act of strength and more one of avoidance and deflection, getting her blades into just the right angle to let Cyphors strikes slide off them and away from her as she desperately tried to hold her balance and get the other blade up for the next incoming strike.

Cyphor smiled as he saw the reaction to his aggressive strikes, Kalmi had previously been following the same strikes with both blades most of the time even in defense against the less meaningful strikes her opponents had attacked her with up till now. Her strength with the staffsabre had always been in defense, using the polar blades and constant movement to catch strikes one after the other, often alternating blades.

Just as she was doing now.

Being forced onto the defensive, a situation she was comfortable with for the most part, she had resorted to adapting her practiced style rather than trying to use the twin blades as one.Alternating one blade to the other, spinning between blocks to better bring the next one up as if she was still using a sabre staff, even her grip on the hilts had shifted as if mirroring that attitude as she now held her offhand in a reversed grip. Each block flowed into the next and as Cyphor backed off his vicious strikes those blocks flowed straight into attack using the same merits. Constant movement from both blades as she returned Cyphors strikes and put him on the defensive this time, each strike flowing into the next weather it struck air or his blade. When she did meet his blade with one of hers she didn't push back against the block as some did, instead she let the strength of the block reverse her motion and brought the second blade up from a opposing angle without missing a stride.

Another few minutes of back and forth strikes across the length of the chamber went by as Cyphor switched from attack to defense and back again, forcing Kalmi to shift as well most of the time as she was still unaccustomed to the style and unsure of her capability despite her progress in this session. Stepping back from an attack and deactivating his sabre, Cyphor signaled that the duel was over, Kalmi likewise deactivated the two blades she held and performed a short bow which Cyphor mirrored.

"You've made progress this session," Cyphor said as he stood erect again and returned his sabre to his belt.
"I realised that despite their differences in configuration and handling I still wielded two blades." Kalmi replied as she used the force to guide the hilts she had been using to the rack on the side of the chamber where the training hilts were kept. "I just needed to adapt my thinking to the less solid grips."
"Did you realise this before or after you were already doing it?" Cyphor said with a smile.
"I think about the same time you did, just before you started attacking with Form VII." Kalmi said in reply. "You were inside my guard and I reacted without thinking as if I was wielding my staffsabre, when you backed off I had a moment to think about it, then you went on the offensive and I started reacting as I normally would." She added as the two of them started heading for the benches along the side of the chamber.
"You were not as sure of yourself still, you would have countered many of the attacks I made had you been using your sabrestaff." Cyphor said, half questioning and half stating fact.
"The feel is different, the gyroscopic force of the blades do not match and I need to control each one with only a single hand rather than guiding the blades with both. Its not as stable." Kalmi replied as they reached the benches and picked up a bottle of water each.
"It will come to you in time if you keep practicing, try encouraging your training partners to attack you, defense is always where you have felt the most comfortable, Form III may not be as practical with paired blades, but it does still work." Cyphor said before taking a long drink of water. "Maybe try stepping into Form V it emphasizes a strong defense with immediate counterattacks, two blades lends itself to the form well." Kalmi nodded at the advise as the door opened behind them and Zane approached the pair.

"Hope I'm not interpreting sir, But we've received a report from Captain Valko that may interest you." Zane said as he came to stand before Cyphor.
"And what might the report contain Zane?" Cyphor replied before he took another shorter drink of water.
"There is tell of a legend on Kashyyyk of a jedi living on the forest floor, some of what the captain heard has been around for thousands of years, but there were a few wookiees that claimed to have seen the jedi in the shadowlands recently when the captain was on kashyyyk a few days ago." Zane replied as he held up the dataslate he carried. "The full report from the captain is on here."

Cyphor took the data slate and nodded to Kalmi to go about her own business, afterall she had a padawan scampering about the ship somewhere, hopefully in the ships library studying but one never could tell with newly raised younglings, and Kathlyn was only a month raised from the creche. Looking over the report the details were sparse except for a few positive points that strongly implied that Captain Valko believed the Wookiees he had spoken too while on Kashyyyk. "This war has brought many of our kind out of hiding, its worth investigating at least." Cyphor said as he handed the slate back to Zane, "Find Hayle, have her prepare her ship for a trip to Kashyyyk, taking the pandorum into that potential conflict is a bad idea so the Nightclouds Reward will have to suffice. Tell her the passengers will by Myself, Kalmi, Kathlyn and a squad of blood hunters."
"Cathar sir? A squad of my brothers would be more than capable on Kashyyyk." Zane replied as he took the slate and tucked it into a pouch on his belt.
"Kashyyyk is on the point of open conflict between the Sepratists and Republic, Id rather not spark an invasion inadvertently." Cyphor replied, "Besides the blood hunters have good tracking experience and are more familiar with forested regions. They've lived in such places, not just trained in simulations or practice drills."
"Point taken sir." Zane said with maybe a touch of forced civility to his voice, he didn't like his brothers being considered second best at much, though he grudgingly accepted Cyphor's reasoning. "I'll go find Hayle." Zane added before turning and leaving the practice chamber. Cyphor took another drink and shook his head a little, he was going to have to find someone among the Cathar troops to bring into his inner circle, someone to help counter the preference Zane had shown over the past year since Cyphor had taken on more Cathar troops. That was however a task for another day, for the moment all he wanted was a shower.

---

Pandorum, Cyphors Quarters

Cyphor had not long stepped out of the shower and dried off when his intercom interjected into the quiet of his quarters. Finishing getting dressed by throwing on a lose shirt he went to the desk and activated the audio. "Whats up?" He said while he grabbed his belt and latched it around his waist.
"We're picking up a distress call on one of your private frequencies sir, its from one of the other jedi." A crewmember on the bridge said over the comm.
"Pipe it down here, I'll give it a listen." Cyhpor replied as he took a seat at the desk. a few moments later the file for the distress call appeared on his system and he started the file playing.

"This is Ba'alkyri -- We've crash landed on the planet Arkinnea after being attacked without warning by the CIS on the way to a rumoured ruins of a jedi enclave on-world. I think they're trying to jam signals. Please provide assistance."

Coordinates to their crash site were attached to the message along with a timestamp that was nearly half a day old. Cyphor grinned slightly to himself. Ba'alkyri had been outspoken about their collective lack of progress as a group at the first meeting in Neia Kaleesi's space station, she had been similarly unfavourable after Theodis' death, the first time he hears of her making a dedicated effort to act and she gets shot down and stranded. The universe had a sense of humour afterall. The message started to loop again and Cyphor ended the playback. in doing so he noted messages from his assets on Coomra's moon. The construction bay aboard the Travellers Respite had accepted a small contract from the local business on coomra to build orbital transport shuttles and the droid foundry was building protocol droids on order from the local government. Neither really concerned Cyphor at the moment however. Cyphor through for a moment and contacted Cha'alla's commlink, a few moments later she responded.
"I was just on my way to find you." She said as her voice came through the intercom. "Something up?"
"Ba'alkyri had her ship shot down on Arkinnea, I'll be leaving for Kashyyyk soon so I want you and Nikan to take the Risk vs Reward and pick her up, you'll likely need to clear the hanger to get her ship aboard as well so have the risks fighter compliment transferred to Yexn we'Be Cbetabin before it leaves there." Cyphor replied simply.
"Nikan will want to bring his fighter along if there's a chance we'll get shot at." Cha'alla said after a moment of silence.
"I have no doubt he will, one fighter wont prevent you fitting Ba'alkyri's ship in the hanger. Besides, Ba'alkyri was shoot down by the CIS, having Nikan in his fighter may just prevent you from having the same issue if you also run into them." Cyphor replied simply.
"Then I shall make arrangements immediately." Cha'alla said before the connection was closed.

The last month had been two quiet anyway through Cyphor to himself as he reflected on everything that had happened this morning, first the contact from the CIS about a scouting mission, then the kashyyyk thing and now Ba'alkyri. Things were about to start getting interesting again...

---

Chained Despair
Polith System, approaching Thyferra

Andrea walked into the cockpit section of the ship, standing behind her disciple, Nyriss, who was piloting the vessel as they entered the Polith system and made their approach to Thyferra. "So we have finally arrived, about time." She muttered to herself, "Use the contact information we have received..." She turned to the others of her disciples and inner circle who entered and stayed near the entrance. Her face contorting in a mask of suspicion and perhaps a hint of some worry. "And see if this is some kind of elaborate trap we are about to fall into."

As Andrea's vessel approached her sensors would inform there was a fair degree of traffic taking place in the system, especially around the world of Thyferra, what was surprising was that it was evident a large number of Republic marked vessels were there, as well as a equal number of ships belonging to the CIS and neither side were firing upon each other. Both sides needing the Bacta they acquire from the world they were orbiting to be delivered all across known space to supply to various hospitals and battlegrounds. It actually seemed both sides were also watching each other as droid fighters and republic fighter squadrons patrolled and guarded their various vessels.

Eventually after some time of broadcasting the signal on the frequency given it was answered with a simple text message that read the following: 'Lady Andrea so nice of you to come, please dock with my vessel and we can discuss the matter at hand.' The signal originating from a ordinary looking merchant bulk transport.

Frowning she rose her eyebrows upon reading the message and the read it out loud, turning to her people. "Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like a trap?" She received a series of head-shakes in the negative. "Thought as much... Nyriss, approach the transport and dock as requested. Rhak-Skuri, Karsk. You force protection or shield belt active you two will be the first to go in with myself to see what we might face." Her disciple and black-watch commander nodded.

The three of them were waiting at the airlock as Chained Despair docked with the transport, as the hatch opened and saw the interior on the other side of the other ship she took a deep breath and willed the force to form a protective bubble around herself, sensing Rhak-Skuri doing the same, while Karsk had his hand hovered over the controls of his shield belt. Nodding to them both she went first, followed closely by the two others as the three of them stepped into the transport.

Upon entering they were beholden to the sight of a cargo bay area of some kind, several cargo containers stacked together on either side of the airlock, between them and right in front of Andrea stood a lone figure, dressed in rather expensive looking clothes, as the figure approached she could see that this was a Squib of all species. The small stature alien smoothing his hands over his clothes and tried to appear taller than he was, a hand going over the fur on his head as if preening himself and then bowed. "Lady Andrea a pleasure to meet you, my name is Janeeiusnar-Korjakk, you may call me Jan for short."

She looked stunned and rather surprised at the... short... furry... Syndicate contact? Of all the things to expect a... Squib... was not among them. She shook of her surprised and crossed her arms. "Well... you know who I am, I now know who you are." She narrowed her eyes. "And you contacted me saying you were in the service of Zann, who last I recall would like nothing more than to have me killed. So why would one of his people want me to help out, hmm?"

At that Jan laughed, with good humour apparently, then he coughed and calmed down. "Ah yes, I suppose that would seem strange, but not to worry, not to worry. I can understand you might seem skeptical but I am thinking of opportunities here and hope you see the same. Yes you may consider my esteemed and wonderful employer might rather see your severed head on a platter but I see the bigger picture you see!" He said excitingly pointing at the ceiling to punctuate his words. "I consider the following, I wish to impress my employer, so I came here to acquire a great amount of Bacta Zann can use for himself or sell on the black market, there's always a demand for Bacta, especially in times of war. Now I sadly hit a snag that apparently someone informed the local dealers about my appearance and affiliations with the Syndicate so nobody would sell to me but then I had a ingenious idea!" He pointed at Andrea with a grin. "I thought of you! You could perhaps acquire the bacta in my place, in whatever way you wish as long as you can guarantee I can retrieve it. I get the Bacta, I pay you a nice reward for your trouble, I also inform my employer that you are not as bad as he thinks and even helped him get a tidy profit from selling Bacta and in turn I am rewarded for my service with a more prestigious position... as well as a bigger paycheck, of course. A fine proposal, don't you agree, yes? Oh please say yes, we have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose, pretty please? With a, as you humans sometimes say, cherry on top?"

She frowned as she listened to this irritating fuzzball, this sounded.... too good to be true. She closed her eyes as if lost in thought as if mulling this 'proposal' over, but in reality she reached out with the force to see if she could detect any hint of duplicity, lies or any kind of bad vibe from the Squib.

All Andrea could detect was a myriad of feelings from the Squib, too chaotic to get a definite reading and as she opened her eyes she would see a big smile on Jan's face and his head quickly nodding up and down in eagerness. "What do you say?"

She sighed and pinched her nose, "I suppose, against my better judgment, say yes, give me the details."

"Oh happy day! Thank you! You'll see this will earn us both a nice profitable outcome!" The next hour Jan explained the details, he had on good information that a human trader in Bacta, named Kevin Stahn, had a warehouse stocked with the medical wonder cure, ready to have it shipped out to a buyer in the Republic. He suggests to threaten, blackmail or otherwise convince Kevin Stahn to have the bacta be transported to this Syndicate vessel and in return Andrea would be handsomely rewarded with credits and perhaps even come into the good graces of notorious crimelord Antone Zann. Jan had already taken the liberty to set up a meeting with the Bacta trader on Andrea's behalf and all she had to do was show up and do her best to get this deal done.

When she heard that this little runt had already set up a meeting she hissed and showed her displeasure, "I do not like it when people make arrangement in my name without my prior knowledge or approval, I have executed people for less grievous offenses so keep that in mind if after this you might wish to continue dealing with me." She growled and then snorted. "Very well, I shall meet with this Mr. Stahn and see if he can be convinced to part with his precious bacta." With that she snapped her fingers and with her people returned to her ship.

They left Jan behind on his ship who was waving excitingly at their retreating back, grinning and merry as he shouted after them. "Good luck! I have faith in your persuasive abilities! I shall wait in eager anticipation!"

As the airlock sealed and locked itself behind her Andrea rolled her eyes and groaned, "What a insufferable little creature!" She rubbed her temples she had a headache due to irritating voice and too happy attitude of the Syndicate man. She gestured to Karsk who stepped forward, "Inform Nyriss to land the ship on Thyferra and then we head out to be on time for 'my' appointment with that bacta dealer." The grizzled veteran nodded and went on his way.

Rhak-Skuri coughed and spoke up, "What is the plan... mistress."

Andrea raised a eyebrow, snorting at the way her oldest disciple said that last word with such disdain but ignored the remark. "I will head to the meeting with my Zeltron aides I brought along, as well as Talon. She as a Twi'lek can appear, like the Zeltrons, to be eye-candy instead of my bodyguard. I will attend the meeting and see what might transpire, I already have some thoughts floating around in my head that could be used as arguments... it sadly all depends on the attitude of the dealer which can be completely unpredictable. Hell for all I know instead of a human its a floating brain in a jar than read my mind and sense I am a sith without any way to hide it." She shrugged. "I'll see when I get into the office."

With that said she decided it might be best not to show up in armour and instead went with some of her more luxurious looking clothing she had with her while Nyriss piloted the ship to the surface and landed, finding Talon and her Zeltron aides ready for her she smiled and nodded to them before looking at those that would be left behind. "You will all remain with the ship, no exploring and stand ready to perhaps... forcefully extract us if things go sour."

"Do you expect that to happen?" Came a reply of Trizz who was tossing and catching a knife in the air.

"I almost expect this bacta trader to have somehow have connections up high with both the Republic and the CIS which might mean that if I cross him both factions will hunt me down."

There was silence after those words and then Trizz just shrugged and nodded slowly. "Right... well at least life will be interesting that way." Most of the others just groaned or rolled their eyes in response to that.

_________________
Surface of Thyferra,
Outside the offices of Kevin Stahn....
_________________

As the small party approaches and is welcomed into the building that housed several delegations and offices of some of the major bacta suppliers Andrea and Talon would both notice the presence of several small hovering droids recording everyone who entered the building, as well as the number of security droids that were silent watchers and guardians of the traders, two such droids were intently following the new party of Andrea as they crossed the threshold.

"Welcome, how can I be of assistance?" Came the voice of a feminine droid who instead of legs had a single wheel that enabled it to quickly move around as she approached the newcomers. "Do you wish to make a appointment or do you already have one?"

Andrea looked around, paying minor attention to the security, if everything went smoothly they wouldn't have any trouble with whatever security they had in place here. She turned to the droid and smiled, "Yes, in fact I have one. With Kevin Stahn."

The droid cocked her head and was silent for a moment before she nodded and made a u-turn with her wheel and gestured to follow. "So you have, allow me to take you to his office, this way please." The droid led the sith lord and her small retinue through a hallway, stopping in front of one of the offices on that floor and let out a series of vocal sounds no organic being could make. The reply was the door opening and she gestured in. "You are expected, may your business here be profitable to all. Good day." And she drove away, back to the entry hall of the building.

From within came a cultured sounding voice. "Do come in, I hate drafts." As they entered they would see a middle-aged man with white hair sitting behind a desk who nodded to them while he placed his signature on some documents along with his thumbprint before filing them away. Silver eyes with gold irises studied Andrea intently as he gestured to the empty seats in front of his desk. "Refreshments?" He asked as he reached for a decanter that seemed to be filled by something blue with green.

She put on her friendliest smile that she was capable off and walked in, closely followed by her aides and Talon, taking place on the offered seats and lightly shook her head. "Not for myself thank you, my aides are free to partake. If your offer includes them as well. A pleasure to meet you, I have heard much about you before coming here, my name is Andrieke, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The trader nodded and poured some glasses presenting in front of the aides and then a fourth in front of Andrea if she decided to change her mind. "Kevin Stahn, at your service. Now what is...." He trailed off, frowning as he looked at Andrea's face as if it was familiar to him and he was trying to remember. He shook his head and smiled, "My apologies, I was distracted for a moment, where was I? Ah yes, how can I be of service to you? I am afraid I have no further information besides that we have an appointment at this time and place, but no further details as to discuss what, rather strange I must say though I suspect you wish to obtain some large quantities of Bacta otherwise you would not speak to one such as myself." He finished saying with a wry chuckle.

Her thoughts were running wild, had she met this man before? Did he knew her from somewhere? That was impossible wasn't? She kept her smile however and nodded, "Yes I am, I have under good authority you have a supply at hand, isn't that correct?"

He frowned and leaned back in his chair, bringing his hands together, looking quizzical. "You are well informed a large batch of Bacta is all ready to be shipped out but I am afraid that batch is already spoken for, I can however arrange for a similar amount to be ready for sale in six months, we have orders that need to be delivered upon from the Republic, CIS and other private buyers to handle first." He chuckled and shrugged apologetically. "There is a war going on after all and Bacta is in very high demand during times as these."

"Yes I am aware of the war, but I'd really like that shipment, I represent some people who desperately need it and I was hoping that you could perhaps be persuaded to change your mind and have the shipment to the Republic be delayed and give this batch of Bacta to the ones I represent." She said, still smiling.

Kevin frowned deeper. "I'm not sure what you are expecting of me? Delay a shipment... also how did you know it was going to the Republic? I never said as such." He narrowed his eyes. "You aren't some kind of CIS representative trying to give a edge to your side of the war are you? I must stress that Thyferra and it's Bacta trade are neutral in this conflict. Both sides need our Bacta and we do not tolerate any interference in our dealings from either side..." Again he trailed off and shook his head. "My apologies... you really do have a familiar face, have we met before?"

She almost cursed out loud, making such a simple mistake! She of course knew where the Bacta was going thanks to that irritating squib but obviously which sides buys what shipment isn't meant to be public knowledge. And where did this man knew her from!? She had never met any Bacta dealers before, that she could recall anyway. Her smile faltered a little and she shook her head. "Oh no, no. I represent some private buyers who purely need it for themselves and are not involved with either side of these horrid 'clone wars' as they call it. I was merely hoping that some deal could be arranged, are you sure there aren't any options available?" Perhaps she needed to risk using a small suggestion or nudge with the force to get what she wanted from this man. But for now she was hoping to find a hint if he could be bribed or otherwise persuaded. "As for us meeting before, I think I would have remembered that, I am sad to say that we have not met each other before today." She winked and grinned.

He shook his head in response. "I am very sorry to you but as I said if you wish a large shipment like that then I am afraid you must wait just like everyone else. Six months, though if I make some inquiries I could potentially make it five months and that is pushing things...." His eyes widened and he suddenly stood up from his desk and he pointed directly at Andrea. "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" He shouted.

She must have had a deer in headlights look on her face for a moment before she tried to calm down her breathing, know who she was? How!? She had never met this person before in her life, but she was not going to draw her lightsaber or hurl lightning around and she prayed to whatever infernal divine beings were out there that Talon kept her cool. Thankfully it seemed that she was taking her cues from Andrea as discussed and did not decided to reveal her saber from hiding and cut this man in two. Still trying to remain calm she kept smiling. "You.... do? And who am I exactly?" She placed her hands in her lap, slowly building up the power to unleash her lightning if he was about to call security or something.

Kevin Stahn was still staring wide-eyed at Andrea and his pointed finger was shaking. "You are the star of Hutts in Love! I watched the old series and have seen the first episode of the reboot! And you are now here!? In my office! Your holo-soap drama is one of the most watched series of all time at the moment!" The man sounded positively thrilled at having a celebrity in his office.

Andrea blinked.... and resisted the urge to groan and facepalm. Really? Was this something to worry about for all time now? That damned soap opera drama would haunt her for the rest of her life? First Azazels pet Hakkri and now this guy!? Then again on the other hand this might be her way in, so she quickly made a hushing gesture and spoke up. "Please! Not so loud, I am incognito here, do you know how hard it is to travel around without being hassled all the time?"

The dealer looked bashful and coughed, sitting back down, perhaps a bit ashamed and embarrassed of his reaction. "Ah yes. Of course, my apologies miss. It was just... unexpected." He blinked, "I actually thought you were somewhere in hutt space now, shooting the next episodes, at least according to the tabloids." He coughed and looked away for a moment. "If you read such materials of course." He rubbed his neck and tried to return to his professional self once more. "Still, why would you need so much Bacta? You are a star in a soap and not in the service of a private hospital or similar."

She was thinking quickly and then smiled wide at a idea, leaning in and whispered. "Can you be trusted with a secret Kevin? If I may call you Kevin of course."

"Oh of course you may, of course... uhm if you wish for privacy this office is soundproofed, you do not need to whisper." He said, perhaps a little bit flustered.

She grinned, "Well you see... I am probably going to spoiler a few of the future episodes with what I am about to tell you so keep it to yourself at all costs." She took a deep breath and acted as if she was nervous and fidgeting for a moment. "You see there is going to be a arc this season where it turns out that my big rival, you know, Anega the Huttspawn, has a daughter who wants to ruin my name, what is even a bigger reveal is that she is in fact a force user! A hutt jedi of all things!" She said with wonder and was not going to be surprised if those silly producers and script writers weren't going to really have something like that. "One of the producers actually managed to obtain one of those genuine swords of theirs, you know a lightsword or lightblade, whatever they are called. But to use that the insurance people demanded that safety was guaranteed because one slip-up and the paperwork would be a horror to behold. That and there is a speeder chase scene or two and the stunt crew want some proper medical aid on standby so they figured that perhaps a large stockpile of bacta in reserve might be for the best when we start shooting the episodes. And with everyone busy I had offered to see if I could get some shipment of bacta."

She bit her lip and blushed, looking away for a moment and then stood up, circling around the desk to stand right in front of Kevin and reached out to caress his cheek, letting out a purr and wink. "So.... I am now wondering... since you figured out who I am... if you really cannot be persuaded to give me that bacta so we can continue the shooting of those episodes on schedule...." She leaned in and licked over his neck to his ear and murmured. "I would most certainly.... love... to make it worth your while..."

Kevin coughed and shifted in his seat, looking at Andrea, he was sweating and quickly reached for his glass and took a large gulp of the nectar to cool his nerves, his eyes roving over her body. "I.... I see... well... I suppose I could... tell the republic that unfortunately their shipment has to be delayed because the batch is contaminated or some such..."

She purred again and smirked, "You could? Oh how wonderful Kevin!"

He nodded eagerly. "Yes, just tell me where it needs to go and I will have it arranged."

Still smirking she snapped her fingers and Talon produced the datapad with the details about that annoying squib's transport vessel. "If you could have it shipped to that transport currently in orbit I would be so pleased... in fact. If you make it happen now..." She grinned and turned to her aides and Talon. "You can leave us, return to the shuttle and inform the others I will be in later today... Kevin here, is going to take me out for dinner... and discover together what happens after dinner." She licked her lips while her two aides giggled and stood up, followed by Talon who only made to leave after a meaningful look from her mistress. Once they left she turned to Kevin again, "So... want to see how nimble I really am...?"

_________________
Considerable time later.
On approach to Syndicate Transport....
_________________

Andrea was humming to herself, it had been a good time... Kevin was good, it wasn't mind-blowing or anything but he left her well satisfied. She had ignored the looks from her people when she had finally returned to the Chained Despair and had at once ordered to lift off and head to the Syndicate transport and have this business settled. She looked up at the intercom when Nyriss's voice came and informed them all that they were about to dock with the transport again and she looked to Rhak-Skuri and Karsk. "Same deal as before, protective measures up and ready for any hint of betrayal, I still don't trust that little fuzzball or anyone linked to Zann." She looked at Trizz, Talon and the Sun Guard. "You all stay here and ready to come in if there is even any hint of a double-cross."

They all nodded in response except Trizz who raised her hand. "How do we know you need our help?"

Andrea snorted and rolled her eyes. "When you hear angry shouting, screams and sounds of blasters being fired, that is your cue. Now lets get this over with." She had put her armour back on and readied a bubble of protection just in case as she stepped back on the transport, Karsk and Rhak-Skuri in tow.

It was the same scene as before for the most part but this time Jan stood in front of a large canister that had various symbols on it in a variety of languages, all meaning the same thing: 'Medical Supplies, Bacta.' He clapped his hands together and smiled as Andrea and her people approached and bowed. "You managed it! I knew you would! Well done, well done indeed, the Syndicate, myself and Zann owe you thanks for the profits you will give us once we sell this on the black market! Oh yes!"

She snorted in response and crossed her arms. "I don't care, I am expecting to be paid, I did what you wanted now give me my credits." She narrowed her eyes. "And don't forget you also would put in a good word for me to Zann, so I wouldn't have to worry about him trying to have my killed any more."

Rhak-Skuri widened her eyes and drew her lightsaber igniting it at the same time and let out a hiss. "We are betrayed! I sense several people waiting in ambush!"

Andrea blinked and growled and turned to Jan. "What is the meaning of this you little runt!" She shouted, making sure her people would hear her agitation and charge in.

Jan smiled. "Ah yes... about that. There has been a change of plans." With the grinding of gears the airlock sealed shut behind Andrea, Rhak Skuri and Karsk. Only Talon had time to get through, preventing the others from coming in at the same time the scrambling of feet were heard and on top of the containers on either side of group came a gathering of humans, rodians, weequay and nikto with blasters trained on the foursome below. Jan was still smiling and chuckled to himself, "This is definitely my day, with this bacta I would already be in favour with the boss but once I hand over your corpse he will be really pleased with me! You have no idea how annoyed he was when that slime of a hutt put you under his 'protection'. Jabba can't save you now."

She growled and lashed out with lightning at the filthy rodent. "And nobody can save you!"

The lightning went right towards Jan... and made him flicker, revealing Jan to be a hologram, still smirking the Squib bowed. "Oh... I am so sorry, don't worry I am nearby but I am not that stupid... right enough talk, kill them and lets get out of here." With that he vanished and the men on top of the containers made ready to fire.

But because the Togruta sith had sensed the ambush Andrea and her people were ready and managed to use their reflexes and training to dodge the initial wave of blasterfire.

Enraged at this betrayal, even if it was expected but to have been fooled by a squib of all things! She would find that rodent and rip him apart! Almost in syn with Rhak-Skuri she took the left while her disciple took the right and they both unleashed a force storm from their hands towards the Syndicate thugs, hoping to see them burn alive with dark side lightning. Karsk just got out his blaster rifle and started firing at the thugs while Darth Talon made a attempt to jump on top of the containers and get within slicing and dicing distance with her saber.

The lightning storms came but did not hit any of their intended targets, in fact the arcs of lightning spoiled Karsk's aim and he was unable to get a shot off, at the same time Talon decided not to jump because she had no interest in jumping into the path of the lightning.

Disoriented and perhaps a little bit unsettled by the madwomen throwing lightning around from their fingertips the thugs continued to fire and some hit Andrea, her bubble of force protection soaking up the shots and protecting her from harm.

She roared in outrage and attempted to do it again, "Rhak-Skuri! Together on those fools on the left! You two deal with the others!" She shouted and combined her force storm with Rhak-Skuri, unleashing it towards the thugs on the left while Talon and Karsk would deal with the thugs on the right.

They had not expected the sith to do that trick twice in a row it seems and before they could step out of view five out of six thugs on the left container screamed out as the lightning coursed through them and fried them alive, screaming in pain and agony they shuddered as the storm hit them full on, when they finally stopped screaming they just fell over, their bodies still smoking.

On the other side Karsk was laying down covering fire while Talon made the jump with a fierce cry she managed to make it, landing right in front of one of the Syndicate thugs who stared open-mouthed, no sentient being, least of all a Twi'lek should be able to jump that high! Was his last though before Talon's blade cut him in half.

The lone survivor on the left container, shaken but not out of the fight, turned his blaster at Andre and fired, not believing what he saw when his shot punched through her armour and scored a grievous blow. The shot burning through her flesh and through her lung.

The others were in disarray with one of the sith suddenly on top of the container with them and were shooting wildly at her, with some shots missing her while the others were deflected away with her saber.

She coughed and reeled, blinking as she suddenly felt numb and looked down at her chest... seeing a rather big hole in her chest plate. "Oh frell me..." She muttered, coughing up some blood and went through her knees and then fell over. Coughing and wheezing as she placed her hand on the wound and tried to focus, use her rage, her despair, her fear to gather the dark side energies to heal herself.

Rhak-SKuri saw this and tried not to smile, was that bitch Andrea going to die here!? She could only hope but right now, even though she would love to blast lightning at the body of her 'mistress' she could not do it now, these Syndicate fools were trying to kill her too and Talon was still there... the loyalties of that Karsk were also in question. She reached out with the force in a attempt to grab hold of the single thug still up there, raise him up to the ceiling of the cargo bay... and then just let him drop to the ground to see if the fall would kill him.

Karsk saw his employer fall but ignored it, he was a trained warrior and would stop to investigate once all hostiles were dead as he resumed firing.

Talon saw the one she had sworn to protect fall to the ground and let out a scream of despair and loss, fearing her mistress, her sole purpose of existence was dead she turned to the thugs on top of the container. Raising her blade to let the crimson light cast a eerie glow on her face she let out a warcry and charged with the intent to dismember and kill...

Rhak Skuri thought she had the last thug but instead one of the corpses started to levitate up in the air, Karsk was still not hitting anything but Talon was clearly channeling her rage into something productive cleaving one of the thugs in half as if it was nothing.

At the same time lightning coursed over Andrea's body from her hand, the energies she was conjuring pouring into her lethal wound, repairing damages done to her lungs and internal organs. Her lung was not filling up with blood anymore and she gasped, gasping for air and coughing, but otherwise whole once more.

The Syndicate thugs had not trained for any of this, fighting force users and lightning, cutting people in half force users at that. The survivors dropped their weapons and started to beg for mercy.

Talon would have none of it and with a shriek of rage she cut down two other thugs and moved to another. "No mercy! Only death!" She shouted.

"Stop." She froze, her blade inches from the neck of another of the thugs as she looked below, seeing her mistress, alive and slowly standing up she backed away. Andrea took a deep breath, closing her eyes, feeling a shudder down her spine. So she was still capable of cheating death, good. She exhaled and opened her eyes. "Right then...." She looked at the surviving thugs. "First... one of you will open that airlock and let me people aboard... second... you will bring me before that coward of a Squib, do all that and I might decide to let you all continue your sorry existence." To emphasize her point she let lightning dance around her fingertips, her eyes completely turned crimson with gold from all the dark side energies she had summoned in this short encounter.

They did as commanded, one opening the airlock, letting Andrea's people in, the Sun Guard storming in with Trizz and Nyriss hot on their heels, they secured all but one of the thugs, that one brought Andrea, Talon and Rhak Skuri before a rather less confident looking Jan who seemed rather afraid upon seeing the still breathing Andrea before him. "Ah... uhm... you passed the test. He... hehe.... you are not falling for it I take it." He gulped and nervously looked for a way to escape, seeing that was not possible he knew he had lost but he could still bargain for his life. "Don't kill me! I can still pay you for the bacta!"

Andrea snorted, crossing her arms. "As if there was any doubt of that... transfer the credits to my account... with a bonus or I will flay you alive you miserable excuse of a life." She growled and stared with utter hatred and disgust at the Squib.

He made a eep sound and quickly hurried to a console, with Andrea watching over his shoulder she could see that he quickly transferred the credits, a very nice sum at that, to her account, the confirmation of which came in shortly afterwards that the money had indeed be transferred with success. "There, all good, yes? So... we all have a good laugh and we go our separate ways and live happily ever after?" He said, sounding hopeful.

"Not exactly..." Before the cowardly little creature could escape she placed both her hands around his head and unleashed sith lightning directly into his skull and liquefied his pathetic little brain. Not stopping till his eyes popped and she finally let go to let the corpse drop unceremoniously on the ground and turned to the thug who had brought her to him. "So... with him dead, it falls to you to return this transport to the Syndicate and I suppose get yourself a nice reward, enjoy."

The thug just looked at the corpse, pale as a sheet.

"Atta boy." She said, patting his head before she walked away, humming happily.

Rounding her people up she returned to the Chained Despair in a very good mood. "Well that wasn't so bad in the end." She said mostly to herself while Nyriss went back to the cockpit. "Earned some credits, was able to let loose of some anger issues after... after my conversation with Azazel." Her shoulders slumped a little after saying that but she let out a grunt and shook her head. "Time to continue, Nyriss, set a course for Dagobah. I have a dark side cave to explore..."

---

Lydavis stretches and enjoys the genuine light as she walks about the foliage beyond the Togorian womens' cities. They had been warned—repeatedly—about the dangers of going out into the territory of the more primitive men. Outsiders genuinely were not welcome there. Yet, the group all seemed much to be in agreement that their chances of finding a force-user candidate of genuine note was poorly within the capital. Besides, the risks seemed far more favorable here. Even if she was getting attacked by bugs. “Why did we have to walk this way?”

“Because I imagine they would react far worse if I landed the craft amongst them,” Tannus shrugs, easily bounding about the fauna.

Ibeth sweeps away low-hanging branches with his staff, “Yes, but I imagine weaponry of that calibre pointed at their faces might be quite the quelling force.”

Tannus chuckles, “Is your answer to explode everything with ships?”

“Anything I can't blow up myself, sure,” Ibeth smirks.

Ilo sighs, looking about with red eyes, “Why do we always end up in such primitive environments, again?”

“Azazel likes them,” Lydavis shrugs, “Just be happy you didn't have to try and wrestle with Noghri.”

Tannus sighs, “With how loud we are, I'm surprised they haven't ambushed us yet.”

As those words leave Tannus rustling is heard in the branches above and Lydavis and Ibeth look up just in time to see a party of six feline Togorian, wielding swords and spears about to jump down.

Without waiting, the three Sith wrap themselves in protection as Ibeth stops, planting his staff in the ground and looking up, “I am Ibeth Nikto, Morgukai and Disciple of the Dark Lady. We seek to talk.” He sets his jaw, fingers gripping tight on the cortosis staff.

The Togorians remained silent and then jumped down, surrounding the four off-worlders. The one who landed in front of Ibeth reared himself up to his full height, a scar running across his forehead and over his left eye which only contained a white orb, cocking his head while leaning on his spear. "Don't see many off-worlders around here... and usually Mandalorians or other like-minded people searching for Togorian mercenaries." He shrugged, "Never heard of this 'Dark Lady' but talk if you want, we might listen."

Lydavis stifles a laugh at the mention of Mandalorians before Ibeth nods and leans against his staff, relaxing as if the warriors surrounding him worried him not. “I imagine you wouldn't. She prefers to be less known. But she does seem impressed with the tales of Togorian culture. She—and ourselves included—are always interested in learning more about other peoples'. And, truthfully, away from the populace cities, we tend to find certain individuals talented in... ways other than simply smashing and shooting.”

Tannus nods and looks over the Togorians, “Indeed. But foremost, it would be rude of us to ask more without offering to explain more ourselves. Have you any questions for us?”

The older Togorian muttered something in his native tongue and glanced at his fellows, who jsut grunted a response back, one of them said soemthing and gestured at Tannus that made two of the other let out a sound that vaguely sounded like laughter but at a gesture of the elder they went quiet as he spoke up again. "You wis hto learn about our culture? Surprising you go to the wilds for that, usually people like yours ask the women about everything and they are happy to tell you."

Tannus grins, “And where is the fun in that? We see enough of cities all the time.”

Ilo grimaces and crosses her arms, murmuring to herself, “You maybe...”

Ibeth shakes his head, “Ignore them. They do not quite understand cultures such as ours or the ideals of honor. Something the Dark Lady wishes to invoke in them one of these days, though.” Lydavis sticks out her tongue at the comment quickly. “But yes, I understand the divisions, but perhaps we could learn more of your warriors... We have dealt with the Mandoa and Noghri, I am Morgukai myself... Yet each are different, yes?” He drums his fingers along the staff as he surveys the older feline man. “But, to understand you, and to even begin to understand what you all are capable of, we cannot simply ask the womenfolk of your world. They only present one aspect and cannot truly demonstrate this side of your tradition.”

The elder opened his hand and let his claws spring out, grinning, showing razor harp teeth. "You almost sound like a slaver trying to learn our way to make it easier to get labour. Do you want to know what we do with slavers around here? Especially to those who might think of taking our children or mates just because we men like the nomadic ways of old?"

Ibeth raises his staff challengingly at the elder, “You insult me greatly. Take back those words, because we are not such filth.”

Lydavis rolls her eyes and moves between the two, “Enough of this. The big guy might give a damn about your culture, but I for one have had enough of these challenges in the middle of nowhere. The boss isn't here, and I don't intend to have to wrestle the natives when she's gone. So, for the sake of simplicity, have you encountered any force-users or heard talk of them amongst the other nomads.” Ibeth lets out a low growl at her interruption but still does not lower his weapon.

The elders hairs were rising and he was about to growl when the Twi'lek stepped forward and spoke up. His snarling face was replaced by one of confusion and then a guarded expression. "A force user...: He laughed and shook his head, "You came here looking for legends and myths? There's no such thing here."

It was Ilo's turn to step in, apparently, though she was especially careful to avoid some small lizard creature scuttling near her feet. “You're lying,” she states, fully aware through the force. With a quiver of her leku, Lydavis scowls at the elder, “Now that isn't very nice. Why don't you tell us the truth, now?”

At the tone of voice the other Togorians growls and raise their spears and scimitars, readying themselves to either attack or defend themselves while the Elder takes a surprised step back before narrowing his eyes as he ignored Lydavis's suggestion. "Why should I tell you the truth? You are giving me no reason to trust you. In fact quite the opposite."

Ibeth frowns, looking at the group around him, “Girls. That is enough...” Lydavis turns to snap at him before Ibeth raises a hand, “You're protecting them, then?” She harrumphs and draws back, fighting back the urge to take out her frustrations with the Togorian leader.

The elder looks from the snarling Twi'lek to the Morgukai, "If there were such a person, why are you looking for one, I hear that there is quite a bounty on force using individuals."

“We are well aware of that,” he says, crouching down and picking up a rather large and squishy bug. “Think fast,” Ibeth directs as he tosses it straight at Ilo's face. She lets out a shriek, putting her hands out and stopping the creature, suspended in the air before her as she looks about with frightful eyes, “Why would you do that to me?!” Ibeth shakes his head and gestures to the three younger individuals.

The elder widens his eyes and then looks at each of the off-worlders before looking at Ibeth. "You are all shamans?"

Ibeth laughs, shaking his head, “Not myself, I'm afraid. I'm just good at the fighting parts, but they are.” Tannus sighs and scratches the bridge of his nose, “Scaly, your bad breath could have the same effect, I'm sure.”

The elder relaxes a little and seeing that the others do too. "So you are just looking for kindred?"

“Always,” Ilo supplies, “It used to be far easier, or so I hear, but the bounty does pose a problem to having 'shaman' conventions.”

The elder nods after a moment and gestures. "We'll take you to him then, as you may understand he leaves away from the camps and we... well most of the younger ones are afraid of him, because of his abilities that they can't explain." He says, hoping nimbly over a fallen tree as he began to lead the group through the jungle. The other Togorians taking up position around the others, following as well. After some time through the jungle, the only interesting bit happening when a large spider dropped on Ilo's head at which she shrieked why that always was happening to her. The group reached the base of a mountain with a path leading to a cave above, a totem that looked somewhat scary facing them. Gesturing at the totem the elder spoke up again, "Warning that nobody should trespass, but I think he would like a exception for others of his kind."

Ibeth is about to begin in when Lydavis reaches out a hand, “This is no beginner... He very well may rival Tannus and myself... Be careful.” Ilo looks worried for a moment. Tannus however just gets a small smirk at the corner of his eyes as he nods to the elder, “Thank you for leading us here. I am sorry for the aggression and half-truths earlier.” With that, he decides to take the lead himself into the cave.

The elder follows, motioning the others to stand back at the beginning of the path. As everyone enters the cave they see that is definitely inhabited, cooking utensils and a sleeping cot of leaves in a nich of the cave wall, and at the far end, sitting on the ground a Togorian male who opens his eyes as people entered his home, frowning he looked at the elder. "You brought off-worlders?"

The elder nodded and gestured, "Three of them are shamans." Was all he said.

At that the cave inhabitant turned his attention to the others. "You are practicioners of the living force?"

Tannus eyes the individual up and down, “Yes. And you are as well?” Ilo looks curiously at the shaman, she knew the same question was on all of their minds... Whether he was more Jedi or Sith. So far, walking in on the man in what appeared to be meditation... It did not seem like a good sign.

The Togorian gestured at them all. "Lightsabers?" He asked quietly.

Holding his hand out, his lightsabre snaps to his hand. Ilo more cautiously slides hers from her side as Lydavis shifts the skirt of her dress to reveal the harness for it upon her leg. “Do you have one yourself, shaman? I imagine they are not very abundant, especially...well...” Tannus gestures slightly about the cave.

The Togorian regards the lightsabers and then with a nod reached out and two sabers flew from hidden niches in the walls to his hands. "I have made my own saber and have the saber of my former master." He says showing two plain looking sabers. "So what brings you to my cave, in search of me?"

Lydavis shrugs and moves forward to sit upon her knees across from the Togorian. “Our mistress. She is always on the look-out for other practitioners or those who show promise.” Tannus nods slowly, crossing his arms, idly playing with the lightsabre between mechanical fingers. “You said former master? There is another?”

"Not for a long time, he died." He said simply and then cocked his head. "Your mistress? I see, and what do you mean by 'show promise' exactly?"

“With the force, as pupils, allies, leaders,” Lydavis looks over the objects of the cave, suddenly feeling quite terrible for many of those who were not as lucky as to have found their way amidst other force-users or those who could at least accept them. It was not a comfortable living. “And our teacher, Azazel. She is still alive and well, but otherwise busy.”

At that point the elder piped up, "They also called their mistress the Dark Lady."

The shaman cocked his head at that, frowning. "Oh? Why would you call her that?"

Ibeth perks up at that, “A name that seemed to stick since her time with the Noghri. She earned their respect as a warrior and was for the most part adopted amongst the clan Jucchat.” Lydavis nods slowly, “She had challenged their best warriors, even the Matriahk's own son in honourable combat. We are still friends of the clan to this day... The title... It could have been her hair. Or the colours she wears... Or perhaps it is because she is Sith.”

The Togorian blinked at that revelation, looking at each of the off-worlders. "I. See." With that revelation he activated his sabers, two blue blades shimmered and glowed into existence. "I suggest you leave, or I will be forced to defend myself and those I call friends."

They all stay put defiantly. “You assume we are here to cause you harm?” Lydavis snaps, “We have been accused twice today now. We've presented no harm to you or your friends.” The Twi'Lek glares at the Jedi indignantly, “Jedi or Sith, we're all alone in this Galaxy and yet there are still these hostilities from ages past that have no bearing today. We are not all great monsters that old stories paint us out to be.” Tannus fidgets for a moment, itching at the idea of testing himself against another Jedi.

The Togorian got to his feet and said something to the elder who looked warily at the off-worlders before replying something fast and then ran out of the cave, leaving the 'shaman' with those who claimed to serve a sith. "I have no desire to work with a sith, I have protected these people, my people, from slavers and the like. My master wanred me of the dark side and those who use it. My last warning, leave. Now." He growled.

Ilo and Ibeth each begin to back away, but Tannus and Lydavis each stay, Lydavis still upon her knees as she looks up at the Togorian. “We have stopped slavers and pirates. We have protected those who have suffered at the hands of such rogues, who experience injustice.” Lydavis bows her head, “I will not fight you. We did not come here for that.” She looks up at the Togorian, “But please, do not continue to insult us or our mistress. She is a good woman who has saved each of our lives.” She slowly rises to her feet, “And she would help your people too if she knew of the slavers.”

The Togorian looked them both and then turned off his lightsabers, but kept holding them. "I do not want to fight... and I do not want to join with a sith either. Leave." He said pointing at the exit of his cave.

Tannus sighs and begins out with the rest of them, but Lydavis remains for a moment. “Do you know anything about the slavers?”

"They try and take the youngest of my people and sell them to the highest bidder, that's all I need to know to stop them whenever I can." He replied warily.

She frowns before nodding, “Indeed. As anyone ought to.” She looks back at the entrance before extending a hand carefully, “I am Lydavis, by the way.”

He looks at the hand but remains where he was standing. "Mrarw. Now go, or I will expel you by force."

“Force be with you,” she bows, “I hope we cross paths again. I would like to know you better.” As she turns to leave, Tannus stops to allow her to catch up, “Careful. If Rei was here, she might get jealous.” Lydavis tenses, “No. He's a great person who deserves our respect. He's like Azazel... Just protecting the people he cares about.” Tannus shrugs, “Fine. What's with you and the slavers?”

Lydavis hesitates, “Azazel does not tolerate them. Nor will I. We're going after them.” As they exit the cave, Lydavis looks for the elder. Seeing no sight of him, she crosses her arms. “We'll go back to the city and look for some information.”

At that comment, Ilo shudders. “We have to get back to the ship... Through the forest... Don't we?”

Ibeth smirks, “Yes.”

---

Meanwhile, the Dagda was in hyperspace on the way to the Tapani sector. Most of the crew was idle and enjoying the break from action, save for those in charge of navigating and ensuring they arrived at their destination. That is, all except for Azazel, Kitt, Xen and Rei'Ki. Azazel was busying herself, attempting to establish contact with the darksider cults and whatever other factions she could in an attempt to mine more information on this mysterious Zarra and this joke, Jehemath the Fifth, who was perhaps the greatest insult the Mecrossa Order could have sent her way. So far, though, no one had any good news. It was so bad, in fact, that one of those she contacted simply gave her a blank stare and inquired, “Zarra who?”

Xen, though, was having similar luck from all he was attempting to organize in the search. That is, all but himself. Through his own means, he had successfully managed to dig up more than enough on Jehemath 5. To the point, a smug expression was over his face and he was lording it over everyone he passed. Azazel simply shakes her head, the faintest smile hinted at about her eyes. It would seem she was still right at times to have placed her faith in the Kubaz.

And so it was, then, that Azazel, Rei'Ki, Kitt, Hakkri and Xen wound back up in the conference room. The Sith'ari sits, a cup of hot chocolate in her hands, waiting in the meeting room. Kitt sits nearby, staring at her whenever she felt she could get away with it. In this, she manages to notice Azazel was occasionally casting a quick glance at the comm-module. Finally, the young woman pipes up, “Azazel, will I be training today with you?” Azazel is slow to respond, taking a sip from her mug before letting out a hiss and drawing the cup away as she burns her tongue. “Azazel?”

The Sith appears to snap out of it, halting in the nursing of her tongue as she looks up, “Oh. Yes, certainly. I'll be observing today as you spar with Rei'Ki. She offers a variety of skills alternate of my own as well as lesser force skills so that you might learn to combat against those. We will start small and build from there, perhaps.”

Kitt nods slightly, expression showing she was perhaps a little upset. “I've been thinking...”

Azazel begins to appear distracted again, blowing cool air over her mug, “Mm?”

She hesitates for a moment, “Well... It's about...”

The Sith looks up, boredly and a bit irate, “About?”

Kitt fidgets and looks away, “About training. You want me to be capable of opposing a Jedi. Yet, I'm not sure I'll be as fast, or able to stand against much of the force-based attacks. Not without further enhancements. But I have no intentions of being like Xen or Tannus. I like my body just the way it is.”

Azazel pauses before shrugging, looking into the cocoa and the swirling foam, “Tannus did not wish for much of that, and there was little other choice, but he enjoys the benefits. Xen, however, did all that of his own volition in order to assist me. I would not command someone to sacrifice their own physical form for no reason than for a minor performance improvement.” Kitt nods slowly, ready to drop the discussion. “That is not what you wished to talk of, though.”

Kitt freezes, “No, it was.”

“I do not like people lying to me, if you had not noticed. That is, in part why Andr—“ Azazel frowns and changes direction, “I do not appreciate it.”

Hakkri nods from the doorway, “Amongst other things... Of course, who would ever act against the illustrious Azazel?” Hakkri chuckles, hobbling in with a limp and taking a seat across from Kitt.

Azazel smiles faintly, “I wonder who, indeed...” She casts a dangerous look to Hakkri.

Hakkri grunts and leans back into the chair, “Is it just me, or is it... Quiet and... Empty around here. Too much room?”

Azazel gives a small gesture of her hand, “Yes, I suppose. The ship has had a great many expansions and it is rare for all my flock to be together at once anymore...”

Hakkri gives a sad look, “No, not like that... I mean... Warmth, cozy comfort. Its like... Everyone gives me so much space now, and I feel like I am always alone.”

The human woman frowns and leans over her mug, a few flickers of fire running along her fingers. “Ah, like that... Yes... I... Suppose?” Her eyes flicker up to Hakkri's and her own pained expression seems reflected on his face. “You and I need to talk about some things...”

Hakkri flinches back and away, eyes wide, “Actually talk?”

Kitt looks at him with a frown, “Why would she do anything otherwise?” Hakkri gives her a confused look, before looking at the scarred lines on his arm. “She had her reasons for that, though...” She swallows slightly, a little uncertain. In the Echani's mind, she pondered the idea that perhaps that was simply the dark side of the force, having drawn Azazel to a brief moment of insanity. A bitter smile slowly crosses her face as her own thoughts turn sarcastic, Yes, and she was with that witch, Andrea, because she warped her mind too. Sure.

Azazel waves her hand dismissively, "Yes, I do mean to genuinely talk... We could talk here if you wished, though? If it would make you feel more assured of my motives."

Hakkri ponders the thought before shaking his head, "If I know you... and I think I do... either you or I would prefer if not everyone was aware."

Kitt huffs and crosses her arms, "I'm not the blabber here! Anyone, especially Azazel, could trust me with anything they had to say."

Hakkri gives the Echani a curious look before looking to his master, "A little fast, even for you, to replace Andrea... isn't it?"

She gives him a confused look, "What are you meaning? I am partner to only Gra'tua now."

Hakkri mouths a big O with a surprised look before smirking and looking at Kitt. "Poor dear. You should just change your sights now, Azzie is a tough nut to crack, but regardless of HOW SILLY SHE IS BEING, her heart of ice and stone melts only for the crazy sith bitch." He gestures over his form, "Really think she would have done all this for the Mando hunk? Oh no." He gives an amused look Azazel's way.

The Sith woman sips from her hot cocoa, gaze shifting to a very scarlet crimson. Was the Zygerrian possessive of his role as friend and confidant to her? Surely. It was heart warming to see. She shrugs and sets the mug down,"I believe it is time you were off any pain killers. You are making no sense."

Kitt touches her head to the table and hides her head with her arms, "yeah, that must be it. Hakkri is delirious from meds."

He prepares to speak up before simply shaking his head, the womenfolk were both hopeless. "What exactly are we waiting for anyways? Xen-droid? Rei-Rei?"

Azazel nods, setting a surge of heat into her drink that was getting too cold. "Yes. About the unsightly fool who speaks down to my followers." She snorts and begins to drum her fingers on the table. "Xen believes he has found some very promising information that would shed light and allow myself to make a more educated decision. Though, it is not as if it will spare him for the insult he has paid to me."

Kitt looks at her with wide eyes at that declaration. Hakkri himself chuckles, "That's our Azzie... I heard a little... are you so sure he arranged Hejaran's death?"

She nods, "Quite."

Hakkri huffs, "Damn shame, I liked the dragon lady."

Azazel arches a brow and steeples her fingers. “Indeed. Her and I held an… understanding, after all.”

The Zygerrian stifles a chuckle, “Oh, right. The same one all are expected to have. Follow you, or die. Cross you, and die. Be of use to you… or die. Azzie, has anyone told you… that you have quite the brutal business plan? Perhaps we should work on that.”

Pursing her lips, Azazel crosses her arms, “It is effective and efficient, though… And credits only buy someone for so long, after all. And then they start asking more of you. Just a complete headache at the end of the day, really.”

“Oh, sure. But you could always try making them like you. I am sure you have some likable qualities. You know, besides being a big scary Sith,” Hakkri teases.

Kitt clears her throat and nods, “So does, though.”

“Shh, shh. None asked the peanut gallery, junior,” Hakkri coos.

Azazel pinches the bridge of her nose and waves a hand, “No. I see little need to change my ways now.”

Hakkri raises a challenging brow, shifting ever so slightly to reveal more of his scarring. “You do not say…”

Azazel sticks out her lower lip and raises her nose, “Oh, keep this up and I’ll just leave you to your own devices after this meeting.”

The Zygerian gasps dramatically and clasps over his heart, “Oh, sweetheart, how can you be so cruel!”

She winces and lowers her gaze, falling silent, remembering the conversation with Andrea. “I wonder myself…”

Kitt slips from her chair onto her knees before Azazel and grasps her hands, “You are not. Don’t listen to Hakkri.” She leers at Hakkri even as Azazel draws away from the contact. “I-- but…”

Azazel shakes her head and looks back at the door as her senses tingle. “Rei’Ki? How long have you been there?”

The Dathomiri shrugs and strides forward, dragging Kitt away from her master and back to her chair before taking her own seat. “Long enough to see you and Hakkri awkwardly trying to take low blows at each other. You two really should kiss and make up alright.”

Hakkri’s ears lie back as he bares his fangs in a growl. Azazel looks confused for a moment before crossing her arms. “And what? Sit together watching that abominable show with her in it, eating ice cream and crying together? I think not. I am above that.” Azazel sniffs and looks away indignantly.

Rei’ki hesitates before her mouth spreads into a wide grin. “Yes. Exactly that. You and him. You can tell him of Aggros’ funeral arrangements and he can help you with your woman troubles. At the end of the day, as well, Xen may be your doctor, but he is no one’s friend.”

Azazel leans forward, livid as she snaps, “You, say this to me, when you pursuited a relationship with one you nearly killed, who was as likely to see you dead as well?”

She looks taken aback by the sudden outburst from Azazel. She hardly responded to their relationship in the past aside from a glance or two to tone it down. “That… It…” Rei’Ki narrows her eyes and leans forward, “How is that any different from you and Andrea? You have the most ridiculous love-hate relationship I have ever seen. So much to put Hakkri’s holosoap to shame.”

Everyone in the room could feel Azazel channeling the force in as her anger grows. Kitt releases a soft curse at being able to tell. Her senses for such were all but useless typically. Azazel stands and fire flickers over her form as her cloak flutters. “You are still a child, Rei’Ki Avella-Lei Tallek. You and Lydavis both. You know not of what you are talking. Continue to waste your breath on such nonsense and you will find yourself running short of it.” Her eyes flicker darkly, “Do I make myself clear?”

Rei’Ki gives her a defiant look before nodding, backing down. Hakkri releases a low whistle as he leans over the tabletop, closer to Kitt. In a hush-hush whisper, he murmurs to her, “See? Nothing gets to Azzie so much as her Sithy-Sweetie. You should have seen her poor, lost, love-sick gaze at the holosoaps before they were an item. Sad, really.” He looks over at Azazel before his mouth moves in an ‘O’ of understanding. “Oh, dear… She’s going to kill us all at this rate. Still have those Jedi friends? We might need a savior. I almost like my odds with them more than Miss Manic-Depressive right about now.”

A lick of flame shoots by Hakkri’s head as Azazel growls, “I heard that.”

“Heard what, exactly?” Hakkri offers a wry smile, easing back.

Azazel crosses her arms, “I am not in some emotionally unstable state.”

Hakkri jerks a thumb at some of the slagged metal of the table, “Sweetheart, I’m not saying that, your actions are. Didn’t you lay down the law when one of us scuffed your precious table?”

The Sith opens her mouth to speak before the fires beginning to scorch through her robes die out. “Death by chocolate,” she murmurs, drawing her arms about herself and trying to look small.

Hakkri looks at Rei’Ki for help. The Dathomiri just glares and turns away. Hakkri mimes out a melodramatic sigh of exasperation before moving to Azazel’s side and wrapping her in a loose embrace. The Sith sighs and lets her forehead touch his belly. Hakkri winces, “Right, right… I’ll head to the kitchen and get the spoons. But you need to change your diet. I hear all and see all, and you shouldn’t be getting so worked up.”

Kitt looks confused around the room. Rei’Ki just shrugs and waves a hand. Mouse-like, Kitt lets out a tiny cough and then murmurs when Hakkri looks her way, “I’ll get it all and bring it by, after training? Azazel promised…”

Hakkri shakes his head, “No, no. She will not be participating… Rei’Ki can, though. We’ll go as a happy little group, I suppose…. You know, without Mr. Grumplestiltzkin.” Kitt blushes and nods and the room falls silent.

It stays like that, quiet and strained until Xen walks in, tapping at a datapad and speaking into his integrated comm-set. Numbers, figures and data was streaming over his visual database and blocking out most of his sensory feed, leaving him nigh blind as he stumbles into the room. He grunts and feels his way through the doorway, confused by the open door before murmuring aloud, “Right, Azazel, you’ve been slacking on your exams. It is important--” he goes silent before chattering something in an alien tongue. “--Important for your health and safety and--” He freezes and murmurs a stream of commands in yet another a language before killing the audio and voice feeds. “And the child. I’ve told you time and time again. Trust me, trust Ibeth, and even those force brats of yours. But--” as he kills his data stream, the room comes into focus and he can see everyone looking at him in confusion.

Azazel has her jaw dropped open in shock at his slip. Hakkri places his face in his palm. Rei’Ki releases a low whistle and murmurs, “So that is why she’s a wreck…” And Kitt looks at her with wide eyes and just a bit of dismay.

Xen coughs and adjusts his coat, moving his datapad over to the holographic display. With a flick of his hands, the information begins to stream over. Most of it seemed like needless bits. A display of his appearance, his childhood homes, dead relatives, including the face of Braghda, but eventually, it stops upon a symbol of the Mecrossa Order. “Right, enough gawking over nothing--” Rei’Ki snorts in response to him calling that slip nothing-- “Here is what I have found out…” Clearing his throat, he begins:

“Lord Jehemath the Fifth, nephew of Lady Braghda. To the public he is just another spoiled and too wealthy noble of the Tapani Sector who indulges himself on every turn and who has a reputation of preferring women who are already married to other nobles. The one time one such cuckolded noble spoke out and demanded satisfaction, turned up dead a day later. He had been in several deals these last few years and actually was nearing financial bankruptcy as some of his business ventures were a bit, shall we say, foolish to even spend money on. Then his aunt died and he was somehow the sole heir, inheriting her entire fortune.

“What Xen discovers behind the scenes is that Jehemath has been part of the Mecrossa Order since his youth and mostly handled and governed over a handful of operatives, such as Zarra, sending them out to eliminate threats to the order and find relics and knowledge that are worthwhile to them. It seemed his aunt Braghda was sometimes displeased with his work and has on multiple occasions been forced to intervene. Ever since he assumed his aunts position in the order there have been reports of operatives wishing to be transferred to others in the order. But at the same time Jehemath is somehow able to recover certain artefacts deemed lost which forces his superiors to not have him replaced just yet.”

Azazel nods slowly, leaning in over the table and tapping a feed to draw it back to an image of the one called Zarra. “This woman, I believe to have killed Braghda. I’m sure he set it up. Ironic, that she did not have a tighter reign on her hitman nor properly ensured his comfortable living. It does seem she may have brought some of this upon herself. If she had just kept him satiated… Though, from the sounds of it, he is quite the disgusting man… Useful… But disgusting.”

Xen nods slowly, tapping the blank datapad against his arm, “Truthfully, if a Order like this sees use in him… Even with these reports… He must have some great capability. Yet, he is hardly leadership material. If he remains in power, while it may be beneficial in the short term… I feel he would be capable of singlehandedly driving the faction to the void.”

Rei’Ki crosses her arms, “Who cares. He’s treacherous. And an ass. I’d sooner see him dead.”

Kitt furrows her brow, “Why not remove him from the position, but employ him otherwise?”

Rei’Ki flicks her lightsabre out, the one she had taken from Azazel’s stores to replace her own. “Because. He insulted. Lydz.”

Kitt rolls her eyes, “Personal child stuff. If he has his uses, remove the damaging aspects… and employ him in a direction beneficial to us. If we kill every individual to speak out, be rude or be just the slightest insubordinate, there would not be much of the Galaxy left.”

Azazel appears as if to weigh the options in her hands, “We will see, perhaps… Xen, thank you.” The Dark Lady begins to stand, but starts to lose her balance. The unsteady Hakkri reaches out and loops an arm about her before whistling and nodding for Kitt to come over. The Echani rushes forth and slips beneath Azazel’s other side. “I am fine. Let me go,” Azazel whines.

Hakkri purrs and nuzzles her cheek like a kitten, “Nope. You’re just too warm and sweet and wonderful, Azzie. And Kitt looks happy right where she is.” Azazel glances at the fair-haired woman with an arched brow only to get an averted gaze. “Training?”

Azazel nods.

---

Kitt pants, having fallen to her knees as the electricity of the practice whip surges through her body. Hakkri looks sympathetic and draws the weapon off of her, taking note of the singed flesh along her forearm. “Look, if this was the real deal, you’d be looking an awful lot like Tannus. Maybe we should take a break?”

Kitt shakes her head, weakly climbing back to her feet and adjusting the impromptu guards taped over her forearms. “N-no. I have to keep trying. Keep pushing. I’ll show you up one of these days.” Hakkri hardly waits for her to finish, instead, flicking the whip towards her face. She catches the incoming weapon within a taped hand and yanks it aside, sending Hakkri following after and towards her as she knocks a fist into his abdomen.

Hakkri whimpers and releases the practice weapon, hand moving to his belly and feeling over it. “Medic! Medic help! I need an ice pack!” he cries out in a silly manner, trying to lay it on thick. Rei’Ki rolls her eyes and draws out a practice physical blade and tossing the padded plastic-plate bracers and gloves to Kitt.

Kitt looks at her in confusion, “This isn’t anti-force fighting…”

“Focus on just one, you’ll be dead. Azazel will be getting you something, a Mandalorian equipment of sorts… And it will enable you to do much more than stop a lightsabre. And we do not always go against simple foes as that. If I had my way… You would have your melee and ranged training. A blaster of some sort or another. Imagine, you are so far out, your shield is barely holding and you cannot close the gap. Myself? I could use my force speed if necessary. But you? You will need to kill things from afar… Hakkri here supplements his own inexperience with firepower, afterall.”

Hakkri shrugs, “All true, but I hear I overcompensate for something as well.”

Rei’Ki snorts, “I hear it let you take down the Terentatek?”

Kitt shudders at the memory… and feels ashamed at how she herself had run crying for Azazel. Hakkri just shrugs, “I think it may have been the weakest of the bunch… Clumsy and not the brightest.”

“Whatever, you still killed it.” Rei’Ki readies the blunted blade in an offensive position and waits for Kitt to fix her practice armour, “Still, you will improve. We all have. now… Begin!”

---

Azazel lays back, sprawled upon her bed and staring up at the screen in confusion. “A child’s show?”

Hakkri shrugs, a spoon of ice cream in his mouth. Muffled by the object in his mouth, he mumbles “Yeaw, itsh okawh. Fawnny.”

A song begins to play in offkey voices as animated characters start to move over the screen. Azazel blinks and points at a small weird creature with a cat face, “What is that even?”

Kitt blushes and watches it with obvious interest, “Its Laike. She’s a… Well, its something weird in the show. None of this is based on things in the real Galaxy, though.”

Hakkri gives her a curious look, “You’ve actually watched this.”

She coughs and shrugs. “It was on when I was smaller, before…” she drifts off before stealing the ice cream bucket and taking a big mouthful. One that she instantly regrets as she experiences brain freeze.

Azazel blinks, “I see. I suppose it is a change. We will see how good it is… But I am not impressed so far.”

“Just wait. It gets worse,” Hakkri chuckles.

“It does not!” Kitt whines, poking the Zygerrian.

“Ohhh yes it does. You just have childhood nostalgia to help you through it… Speaking of… Aren’t you a little yoouuuung to be here with the big girls?”

Kitt glares and brandishes her spoon threatening, “I am an adult and you know it.”

“Do I?... Are you? I can’t tell. All toddlers look the same to me.”

Azazel rolls her eyes and watches the scene unfold above from the projector. “She is old enough to be under my instruction. What does it matter?”

Hakkri smirks and leans in, “Cuz, sweetheart… If Andrea were to walk in, it might be the difference between her getting jealous or just assuming you are being motherly.”

Azazel furrows her brow, “But Andrea will not be walking in. Ever again.”

Kitt seems to perk up upon hearing that, staring down upon the Dark Lady as a small smile passes over her lips. Hakkri gives her a warning look before softly tracing through Azazel’s hair. “Just illustrating my point, Azzie. Don’t you fret.” A small smirk passes over his lips as he imagines protocols he could get some of Xen-Droid’s PROXYs to run in order to pay Azazel back for things of late. The entire debacle with Andrea certainly opened a menagerie of ways to make her suffer, even if she was so much stronger.

Kwenn System,
Nova Retreat.

She woke up with a headache, groaning as she lifted herself up from the ground. "Statement: Employer meatbag is conscious once more." Frowning she turned and saw HK-51 sitting against a nearby wall, trying to get up she felt another stab of pain in her head and groaned again then blinked. HK-51 had his leg in his hands, then it came back to her, the spider security droids, the warehouse... and then the ambush outside.

"Back among the living I see?" Came Mirelle's voice as she walked towards Neia and sat down. "Sorry you were actually over the stun blast a while ago but decided to let you, Maaike and Vette sleep, especially Vette. She's still hurt but she will make it, some weeks in bacta will set her right again." She gestured to the side where Vette was lying on a bunk, secured with straps so she wouldn't roll off.

Neia nodded, slowly and was relieved to not feel another stab of pain. "Are we still headed for the Nova Retreat?"

Mirelle smiled and shook her head. "No, we have actually just arrived when you came to."

"Right... let HK-51 be taken to Mochi for repairs, Maaike and Vette to the medical bay while you... well help me to my office and we see what we risked our lives for."

Once everything was settled and several people were assured that Neia was fine and that unfortunately the only loss was one of the courtesans Neia found herself in her office with Mirelle, Jantor and Gaarwarr. They had opened the container and found datapads, documents, datafiles... all on Syndicate people in high ranking positions. As soon as she gathered it was about the Syndicate and what kind of information she stopped reading and put it all back into the container. "So... that black market dealer was blackmailing the Syndicate and that is why they weren't bothering him."

Mirelle looked aghast, Jantor looked intrigued and what Gaarwarr was thinking... well wookiees were hard to read. "What are we going to do with it?"

Neia bit her lip. "Well... I think I should contact my... associate in the Syndicate, I think it is best this information is turned over back to them."

Gaarwarr spoke up, <"Perhaps, or perhaps it should be distributed to the Republic or the CIS, or both. These are criminals.">

She nodded and saw Mirelle was about to agree with her fellow jedi but she raised her hand. "True... but the Syndicate is a powerful player, right now the Republic and CIS don't know I have this, if I give it to them well the Syndicate would find out it came from me. And yes they are criminals, but others are doing things that might be considered for the greater god, smugglers delivering food and medical supplies to blockaded worlds. There are other examples, not to mention this station is in Hutt space, Syndicate space and I am offering it as a safe heaven to any Jedi that might come across it." She took a deep breath and looked each person in her office in the eye. "So I am going to contact my syndicate associate, perhaps even Zann himself if he will take my call."

After a shot bit of waiting the call is answered and a scaled face with distinctly avian features appeared on the holo. "Lorda Kahleesi, Gooddé da lodia." The being said in huttese with a slight bow of its head.

Neia nodded in greeting to the holographic image. "Gooddé da lodia, Urai Fen. I hope I am not disturbing anything but I have something for which I felt immediate contact with the Syndicate, with Antone Zann, was required. Is he, or you available for a moment to discuss something?"

"Antone is otherwise engaged at this time," Urai replied switching to galactic basic, "But I have time to discuss with you."

She nodded before gesturing and then lifting up the container. "Tell me, have you been informed about a black market dealer on Syvris who apparently keeps Syndicate influence away from him? Well in here." She placed the container back down in front of her. "I have... well several reasons that enabled him to do so. Blackmail information on several syndicate people of the region where he operates."

Urais brows rose slightly at the mention of Syvris, "I have heard tell of a nussence on Syvris that has frustrated Zann Consortium interests in the region." Urai's head turned slightly as he looked at something outside the field of the holoemmiter. "And how did you come across these, 'reasons'?" Urai then asked after a few moments

Neia shrugged, "Well I went to Syvris to pick up a shipment of Jabiim vegetables and when I found the container it somehow contained this information, now I really have no interest in keeping them, so I was hoping Antone Zann might be interested in getting them off me."

"I am certain Antone would gladly take such information off your hands." Uari replied "What do you propose?"

She smiled, "I can keep the information safe for the moment and I would be happy to hand it over to you or one of Zann's agents who might pass through the system to pick it up. I do imagine handing this in is worth quite a lot to Zann." What he did with the information was up to the Syndicate leader of course.

Urai was quiet for a moment, possibly in thought before he replied. "What it is worth to Antone, only Antone, can say. I can make arrangements for one of the Zann Consortiums Defilers to pay you a visit and retrieve the information within a few days and am authorizing a small advance payment for your troubles, five hundred thousand credits. Once Antone has a chance to determine the information worth perhaps more will be forthcoming."

She nodded and smiled, "That seems acceptable, I will accept whatever Zann is willing to pay his emissary or he himself has gone over the documents to determine their worth. If a password or identification code could be provided when that Defiler arrives, wouldn't want to hand this over to one of Zann's rivals or someone else entirely."

"A wise precaution, the Defiler will use the phrase 'Tyber sends his regards'. On that note, I advise you keep the container sealed, I Believe Antone would value the information more the less people knew about it." Urai replied with what appeared to be something of a grin on his repto-avian features before he signed off.

Neia leaned back in her chair and looked at her people, Gaarwarr and Mirelle didn't look too pleased but she hoped they saw that her reasons for doing this were valid and for the greater good to let these lesser evils be kept from the Republic and CIS. "Well then, best to prepare the arrival for 'Defiler' whatever or whoever that might be."

<"When something called a Defiler comes along I wonder what we should expect and worry."> The Wookiee replied in what everyone in the room had learned to understand was his 'dry' voice. <"I think I will meditate on this and hope that the right decision has indeed be made today, I accept your decision Neia, I do not necessarily agree with it but I accept your judgment in this."> With that he left, Mirelle following after him to meditate together.

That left Neia with Jantor and she sighed, pinching her nose and looked at the Kel-Dor. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

He was silent, seemingly thinking it over. "Time will tell, I know one thing, the sooner that container and its contents are off this station and off our hands the better. Question is, what are you going to do now?"

Neia stood up and sighed, "My body demands sleep... but my mind demands that I practice with a blaster... I was not of any real help in my own opinion... and one of the courtesans died on my watch and I feel I owe her to improve myself."

Jantor stopped her, "It wasn't your fault, people die and from what I heard those security droids were nasty pieces of work."

She smiled and stepped to the side and then walked past Jantor, speaking over her shoulder at him. "I know, thanks. I still owe it to her to improve myself and be better in the future."

Jantor shook his head and watched her go, the nturned to her desk to see the container, sealed again, still sitting on her desk, he activated his comms. "This is Jantor, I want security posted around the clock to every passage leading to Neia's office and some guards in front of her door at all times, not only when she's in it, at all times.... I want it so that not even a republic spook can enter without our knowing... again." He muttered the last part as he received confirmations of his orders.

---

Summary:
Neia and her crew have returned home.

Blackmail information found and promised to Syndicate, down payment of 50 SP received.

Kuryi Gabriel Saros
The Art of Battle - Arami System

Kyrui had been relaxing in his sanctum, enjoying the ministrations of his handpicked selection of aides when his commlink had gone off. Generally his crew knew better, Te-ru would do so when she knew it was important enough and strangely he had discovered Iella would interrupt even for slightly more trivial matters, he suspected that was because she knew she was one of the few aboard that he could not deliver a swift beating to. Checking the commlinks text screen caused all irritation at his subordinates to vanish however, it wasn't from them at all. The commlink as reacting to the private hypercomm channel in his office. Quickly dismissing his Aides he dressed and strode through the sanctum doors and into the office.

Tem minutes later he strode onto the bridge and waved Eahns question without bothering to listen to it. "Prepare the ship for immediate departure, we're stopping by the complex to pick up some people then making best speed for Annamar." The bridge crew leapt into action as they ran through the various routines needed to take The Art of Battle into hyperpace."Open a channel to the Luciano, I want to speak with Te-ru before we leave." he added as he went to stand before the bridges holo communicator. after a few moments the full sized image of Te-ru flickered to life in front of him.

"Sir?" She asked simply.
I want you to send some of the field defence ships to join Solace at the Complex, I have word of an imminent attack on Annamar and want to make certain my other assets are protected while I deal with that. You are to keep your task force here, the Torrio as well." Kuryi said as he inserted a data stick into the comms panel to his left and sent the relevant details of the attack he had just received word of to Te-ru's vessel.
"You think someone might try to strike here sir?" She asked as her eyes flicked over the data on the screen beside her.
"I have no intelligence to that, my intel all points to a single attack on Annamar by rivals in the syndicate. I would at least set up diversionary attacks on the complex and here if it was my operation however so I prefer to stay cautious." He replied
Te-ru nodded her acknowledgement before speaking again. "We will stay on alert here." She then turned to issue orders to her own crew as the holo image flickered out.

"Ships ready for departure." Eahn spoke up from behind Kuryi, the Twi'lek apparently taking the initiative to gather the reports from the bridge crew while Kuryi had been speaking with Te-ru.
"Good, then lets head out with haste, I already sent word to Iella on Annamar to be on alert. She should be able to handle things before we get there." Kuryi said as the helm and navigation crew brought the ship to the nearest hyperlane and the vessel made the jump to lightspeed.

---

Iella Akura
Five Points Outpost - Annamar.

So soon after dealing with the weequy at the power plant and now they would be attacked by people that were apparently competent. well at least she had finished the security review Kuryi had previously ordered. Now she was going over the reports of that review again looking for anything she may have missed the first time. she'd even gone so far as to consult Adia Zylen when the new protocols had been written up. so far they'd had a few minor mishaps as the security got used to the new measures, mostly a case of mistaken identity or purpose. now the new protocols would be tested by 'professionals', least that's was what the intelligence Kuryi received indicated. Kuryi had also said he was on his way with special reinforcements to suppliment the current security measures in light of the intel. Iella just hoped it would be enough.

---

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

The whines of engines died out as the freighter landed on the surface of the moon, Meilyan and Goddor waiting for its occupants to leave the ship, Tohkran ahd contacted them on his approach and informed them that his search had been successful. Sure enough the hatch was lowered and they saw Marack's massive form get out first, followed by Tohkran but nobody else initially. Goddor frowned at this and turned to Meilyan, "Didn't he say that he had found someone strong in the force to be a new padawan? Yet I see nobody beside master Tohkran and Marack?"

Meilyan was nonplussed as well, "Perhaps he found someone but needed to get his or her affairs in order and will join us at a later date?"

The Rodian padawan frowned, "Perhaps, still that might be risky and that doesn't sound like our master..." He trailed off, blinking and then looked closely. "Our master, is it me or does he even have a bigger shadow than Marack?"

There was no time to answer Marack muttered a greeting and lumbered past them, Tohkran smiled upon seeing them. "Ah it is good to be back and be among friends, Goddor, Meilyan. It is good to see you both, allow me to introduce you to Schaduw." He gestured to his left and something changed, the shadow seemed to 'shimmer' and solidify. He couldn't help but chuckle at their reactions, "Do not be alarmed, Schaduw is a Defel, his race has evolved in such a way that in 'normal' light he appears as a walking shadow."

The Defel was quiet as he studied his surroundings and then looked at the two others, Tohkran had mentioned those two, he had called them 'padawans' like he was going to be, so these were also students of his and able to control the force which he claimed he could too with his ability to influence people. He bowed his head, "Greetings." He said simply.

Meilyan was the first to get over her surprise, the female Mon Cal bowing her head. "Welcome to the Safe Refuge." She gestured around the area, "A place where we can be ourselves without having to worry about bounty hunters trying to capture us."

Goddor nodded in support of those words. "Indeed. A pleasure to meet you." He blinked when he noticed the Defel staring at his waist, at the lightsaber he carried there. "Interested in the blade?" He asked grabbing hold of it and showing it to the new padawan, flicking it on and letting the purple blade materialize as the scent of ozone filled the air.

Schaduw looked at it, "Yes... I had heard of these blades." He turned to Tohkran, "Do I need to get one myself?" He sounded a bit reluctant at the prospect.

He was answered with a chuckle and a shake of Tohkran's head. "If you do not want a lightsaber then I won't force it upon you."

Letting out a small sigh of relief Schaduw nodded, "No offense but... I think I prefer my own vibroblade, I made it myself and it has been a part of me for years, it's liek a extension of my own body so familiar and trusted I am with it."

"Like I tell all my students, these two and the younglings. It is not the blade that makes a jedi, it is the way he acts, his state of mind and his values." He asked for Goddor to turn off his blade and then led the three of them to the main compound. "Now lets get you settled in some quarters and have you meet the rest of the gang... oh when I introduce you to Thrall... let's just say he has both earned the right and yet at the same time he hasn't to call me by inappropriate names but I let him because for some unknown reason morale is increased if he keeps doing that." He politely ignored the stifled sniggers and chuckles from his two oldest padawans in response to that.

"I see..." Schaduw said, "You have a strange crew that you surround yourself with."

Tohkran let out a chuckle and looked over his shoulder, "Probably because I am a strange person."He grinned, "Now then, like I said, lets get you settled and start with your first practice to see if we can unlock your full potential."

It was some time later and Tohkran was sitting opposite Schadow, meditating for a hour and a half now and then he opened one eye. "So you know how to meditate? Or to have patience at least?"

The Defel shrugged, "Being a bodyguard usually meant to be patient a lot of the time. I found way to keep me focused while in essentially doing nothing. Is that what you wanted to teach me?"

Tohkran chuckled, "Maybe, or maybe I wished to teach how to meditate, clear your mind and thoughts of all emotion and see if you can feel... sense... and touch the world around you, but without using your normal senses, without using your sight, taste, smell, touch or hearing... if you can do that then the lesson will be successful."

"That sounds awfully cryptic..."

Tohkran grinned and shrugged, "I suppose so... welcome to your first lesson as a jedi."

"Please tell me that I am getting paid for this..." He was answered with soft laughter.

---

Several days later, Tohkran's office

---

"Fascinating..." He murmured softly to himself as he kept reading the information relayed to him by the bothan network contacts he had established. Word had reached him before that there was insurrection taking place in the Antar system against the CIS occupational forces. Now he had received more detailed information. These rebels were using guerrilla tactics against the CIS forces on Antar 4 with some moderate degree of success, the actions performed by them were not ones done by amateurs or common folk disgruntled with their invaders.

The part that had him fascinating however were the reports them being led by a jedi, that bit of information, along with the system of Antar rang a bell with him, he had just send some of the information to his loremaster and was rewarded with a quick reply that confirmed his suspicions. "Antarian Rangers... could it be true? I thought they had been disbanded centuries ago..." He said to himself, trailing off at the possibilities. If some of them survived... if they still existed... and they still might assist jedi, which according to the information he had received it might be the case, well that might open up possibilities.

He looked at a other message taht arrived first however and frowned, Hoddo, his Hutt contact, apparently had need of his services and would in return pay a substantial reward, he wouldn't say what the job was in the communique, only upon arrival of he himself to Hoddo's palace.

Frowning he pulled up a galaxy map and highlighted Antar 4 and Hoddo's moon in Hutt Space, nodding slowly to himself as a plan formulated. The Antar System was on the way to Hutt space, he could theoretically first go to Antar 4, see if the reports had any truth about there being a jedi there leading the rebel forces on the planet and then move on to Hutt space to see what Hoddo wanted from him.

Making up his mind he contacted Thrall, "My good friend... prepare the Illusion of Grace for a journey... also... inform all ships to report in what commando and special forces they have available... I might want to... change their roster for something..."

En Route to the Tapani Sector – The Dagda

---

Azazel lounges upon the bridge, staring at a shoe lazily lifted into the air. Xen grimaces and leans back from his console, covering his face and releasing a heavy groan. “Lady Azazel, the spies have turned up no new information on Zarra. Meanwhile, the bounty hunters had a sighting on her, but met with trouble. One of the survivors reported back that she had expected them.... She devastated their numbers and they will be out of commission for two weeks. They've retreated and need to rebuild...”

Azazel breaks away from staring at her shoe, and the strange scuff along the side she did not remember. “Oh? Well, what a shame. Very well. I suppose we will have to rely upon other means to contact her...”

Kitt arches a brow at her, confused by her nonchalance of so many dying. The Dark Lady had said something about her lack of concern for many. Yet, they had died under her instruction. She frowns and turns away, leaning against the wall. Azazel sighs and rubs her eyes, “How much longer til we arrive? I am growing weary of being aboard this ship and doing nothing!”

“Soon, Dark Lady. Soon. I assure you.”

“You said that hours ago!” she whines and buries her face with her arm with a harrumph.

Hakkri rolls his eyes and reclines back into a chair at an empty console, clicking to start a new game of Solitaire. Rei'Ki peeks over his shoulder and directs him to do a series of moves. Hakkri growls and snaps back, “Hey now, this is my game. I don't need any help. You know, that's why they call is Solitaire. As in one. Alone. Me.”

With a lurch the ship is violently thrown out of hyperspace, sensors blaring out alarms as soon as they get a chance to get online and register what was out there. Three frigate analogs attacked by a heavy cruiser analog with a small swarm of fighters, with no time yet as to determine what or who exactly are out there.

With the lurch of the ship, Hakkri goes flying forward, his face smacking into the console with an audible thump. Rei'Ki's peel of laughter is drowned out by the sirens but Xen looks up to another segment of screen. “Three frigates and a heavy cruiser with a whole next of fighters. Cruiser appears to have a gravity well generator. Orders?”

Azazel sighs in exasperation, fighting back a childish tantrum at being delayed before sitting up. Tell our fighters to prepare to launch... Establish a communication line with the cruiser. We need an ID on the ships before we get involved.”

After a quick scan it appears to be that the frigates are of a variant used by the CIS as munition transport vessels. Nothing too strange about that since the front lines are not that far from the region of space they were traveling through, what was strange was that they were attacked by a Lucrehulk class vessel. At the same time as this information was coming in the hail was just ignored and the Lucrehulk and its swarm of fighters continued the assault.

She continues to hold her hand up for them to wait as the reports file in. She hesitates before calling, “Launch the fighters, but hold back from attacking until my order. Attempt to contact the frigates. This does not sit right, these are all CIS affiliated vessels.”

This time a response comes in, a panicked sounding man. "Oh thank the stars! Save us! We are being attacked by pirates, privateers, scum, whatever they are! We are getting pounded here!" As those words come through a wing of fighters destroys three of the engines of one of the frigates in a massive explosion.

Azazel pinches the bridge of her nose, “Fair enough. Ready weapons and focus fire upon the Lucrehulk! Order all starfighters to get the opposing fighters off those frigates.”

Xen looks at Azazel in confusion, and terminates the communication line, “But what if--”

Azazel growls, “If it wasn't a pirate vessel, they should have allowed contact. They did not. If I am wrong, though, very well, I will blast them both to dust and salvage the scrap!”

Fighters are launched and it becomes clear to the command crew on the Lucrehulk that the new arrival isn't staying out of this, mostly evident that several targetting sensors are aimed at the Lucrehulk. Changing course to face the new threat, a third of it's fighter squadrons break off the frigates and turn to engage while the Lucrehulk itself starts to show one of it's weapon arms in the direction of the Dagda.

The Dagda fires its hypervelocity gun and the readings that came through before the sensors went out and the bridge was covered in darkness was that the blast punched through the shields and straight into one of the hangar arms, blowing a large chunk of it off, making it spin through space.

Azazel goes into a giddy fit of laughter as the last second report files in before the lights flicker out. She blinks and raises her hand, a wreath of fire wrapping about her hand and providing more light for them all to see by, “Well, that was a very interesting test run. Xen... We will have to rework the budget, though, I think and integrate a dedicated power supply...” She looks about, furrowing her brow, “What are you all sitting about for? Get the power back online!”

This is sure to mean a promotion!

Shit, what does this button do... Why are these set-ups so strange, why did I become a pilot again... Oh shi--

Fire pretty....

Azazel blinks in surprise, violet fire flickering a few sheds redder at the devastation ahead of her she could simply watch. How many of those small specks of fire were her squadrons, anyways. How Ibeth managed to keep track of all this was beyond her!... Though, perhaps she could use a little more training in the art of naval warfare. Perhaps Gra'tua may have a few good tips... “What is taking you so long? You are all lucky the life-support held or we'd all be dead by now!”

“We're working on it, Dark Lady! Power will be up soon!” as if as evidence, the lights flicker on few a seconds.

Azazel growls before looking at Xen, “Ready boarding parties. If it comes to it, I want a contingency plan for those freighters. Got it?” Xen blinks and nods, eyes flickering through programs before he whistles and gestures for Rei'Ki and Hakkri to follow.

Suddenly the ship shakes as if it is taken fire and Azazel can see that several laser blast impact upon her ship, right before the systems get back on and her shields are once again active. What was damaged became clear as reports come in. "... D-a-a-ark Lady... uhm... they damaged the Hypervelocity Gun..."

The same wing as before finishes the job and completely obliterates what remains the the enemy wing it had already severely diminished.

Her other squadrons meanwhile are not gaining or giving any ground against the enemy waves of fighters.

She was going to make a nonchalant comment about it being repairable before Xen releases a cry of horror. “HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT I WENT THROUGH TO GET THAT?!”

Azazel winces and tries to get the ringing out of her ear before clearing her throat, “Well, we have other guns. Use them.” She turns to Xen and points at the doors, “You. Go. I want you getting over to those freighters now while we have the attention of the fighters.”

Xen reluctantly ceases his fuming and snaps a salute, his two temporary assistants following suit. Meanwhile, Azazel looks over the scans. “Take out the approaching wing with whatever we've got. Direct one-third of the pilots to split off and direct heavy fire upon their ship's core.”

One third of Azazel's pilots head off to the Lucrehulk while the other 2 wings made a daring move to lure the remainign enemy fighters within the killzone of Dagda's laser batteries. The simplistic droid fighters taking the bair as they believed their targets were fleeing before them, eager to execute their kill commands.

When the signal was given they were within range Azazel's pilots suddenly increased their speed and sped away as quick as they could while at the same the Dagda opened fire with its laser and flak batteries. Simply obliterating the enemy swarm that had descended towards Azazel's Flagship.

The other weaponry of the Dagda create some dents in the Lucrehulk's shield, some punching through before it's armour stopped them from doing any real damage however.

The cruiser decided to return the favour and opened fire with all weapons facing the Dagda. Numerous blasts reached her and all hit her dead on. Xen looking at the screens the first to see it, their shields were completely gone... and they only had their armour to protect them.

Azazel's heart-rate was picking up to hear Xen's report, “Get your boarding party launched now!” She looks about the room. “We've taken out the swarm, just the queen to go. Strafe out of range of that arm and fire everything we've got. Regroup the squadrons. Send in the MKIIs with heavy disruptor fire to break down shields, follow up with heavy fire from MKIs and all supporting fighters.”

Xen worries about leaving the Dagda but initiates the launch of the boarding parties. Within the two DALSC crafts, he was alone with two full parties of the Chosen. Meanwhile, the other ship was full-up with Hakkri, Rei'Ki and a squad of both Noghri Saboteurs and Mandoa Commandos. As they launch, he organizes them into two parties. Each DALSC accompanied by a Firespray craft. They would each flank and prepare a frigate each at Azazel's command.

The boarding parties were away in their transport ships, its pilots wondeirng if they were really that dedicated to Azazel when they noticed that about 10 enemy squadro nwings were still in space... attacking the frigates they were supposed to board. Dozens of droid fighters surrounding the frigates trying to disable or destroy them.

The two capital vessels exchange fire but neither scoring any remarkable hits, the Lucrehulk not even able to gain the advantage with the Dagda having its shields down. Meanwhile the interceptors make a strafing run, their weaponry not designed to attack capital vessels but they did destroy one or two guns, maybe three.

Xen's voice chatters over the comm-feed. “Uhhh, Lady. You might have forgotten about all the fighters back this way... Mind sending the fighters our way, perhaps?”

Azazel's jaw drops before she clears her throat, “Very well, you heard the man. Redirect... fighters?”

A low mutter goes through the area as Azazel clears her throat, Kitt speaks up at that point, “Hey, enough lip. She hasn't failed us so far.” She turns back to Azazel, “Same orders in attempt to bring down enemy battlecruiser?”

Azazel nods, hands fidgeting at her side, “Indeed. Get your acts together, your aim is sloppy.”

Grateful to see some fighters coming to escort them the boarding parties continue on their way, the pilots seeing one big explosio nas the already damaged frigate was torn apart from multiple bomber runs by droid bomber fighters.

The interceptors again managed to take out a few guns but nothing that might make a big difference...

Meanwhile back at the Dagda.....

One of the bridge crew saw what was coming and stood up. "INCOMIN-" Was all he managed to utter before the barrage of blasts struck the ship. Explosions rocking the ship as several systems were hit and reports were coming. "Two turbo laser batteries destroyed! One engine gone and the spinal cannon is damaged!"

One of the more... courageous bridge crew cleared her throat. "Perhaps... perhaps we should retreat?"

Azazel tenses, teeth gnashing as she grips tightly onto the railing. She does not run. She never runs. She was the Sith'ari and the galaxy would bend to her will. This was just one more trial, and she would not be defeated here. Looking over the crew, a single individual pipes up helpfully, “Sensors read that while the Lucrehulk has major power fluctuations a lot of its weapons are still online, however the gravity well is failing.”

Azazel slices a hand through the air for silence, her whole body trembling and her knuckles turning white from the strength of her grip. “Prepare hyperdrive. Keep on the assault until that gravity well breaks...” Her eyes flicker over to Kitt, “You... Get down to the ships... Get as many people as you can ready to launch on the OS80 and NuClass Shuttle. Redirect the boarding parties... and all starfighters... To attack those blasted droid fighters. Give them all a chance to escape.”

Capital class weapons exchange fire but the Dagda proved too fast for the Lucrehulk while in turn the Lucrehulk had enough mass to soak up the hits so far. Azazel's fighter squadrons had more luck as they destroyed several droid fighters, this however made the swarm aware of a new threat and several squadrons turned around to engage the new threat.

Azazel looks to her crew for confirmation, and no answer comes back. “Make the fighters aware they need be ready to break. We'll hold off as long as we can for their return once that gravity well goes down. Continue attack.” She tries to smooth over her demeanor and hold calm, but the situation was proving too much. She tries to take a deep breath. A hand grasps her shoulder and gives a reassuring squeeze. Azazel looks over to see Kitt and clears, “I told you to ready those ships...” She simply shakes her head and stays beside Azazel.

The Mass Driver crews of the Dagda were feeling lucky it seems as they saw their shots punch through the Lucrehulk's armour as if it were tissue paper. The Lucrehulk suffering such damage as its mass gravity generator failed and was deactivated to conserve power that was being bled all over the ship.

Azazel's fighter squadrons successfully breaking off and staying ahead of the enemy droid fighters as they return to their home base.

Azazel meanwhile sees the two frigates suddenly accelerate and then vanish, as their hyperdrive engines have engaged and they fled as soon as they realized the gravity well generator was no longer holding them back.

She gnashes her teeth, staring at the enemy ship with nothing but contempt. She then falls back into her chair, burying her face in her hands. Kitt hesitates for a moment, looking at the Dark Lady before Azazel speaks up once more, “Hold the line, give Xen, Hakkri, Rei'Ki and the rest of the boarding party a chance to enter hyperspace. Prepare to retreat and lay down a minefield before engaging the hyperdrive.”

As the last of Azazel's fighters dock aboard the Dagda the boarding ships with Xen and the others on board enter hyperspace to get the hell out of there, the Dagda laying a minefield right before it too made its escape into hyperspace, Azazel confident that if the Lucrehulk tried to follow, it would first need to find and detonate the minefield, preferred by having the mines detonate against its hull no doubt.

---

Azazel raises her wrist to her ear lazily as the communication line feeds through, “Xen, what do you need?”

A delay meets her before a static voice comes through, obviously he was not back on board yet, “Azazel, confirming our rendezvous. The Red Sanctuary?”

Azazel hesitates for a moment in thought before loosing a sigh, “Yes, very well. We have extensive repairs to undertake and it would perhaps give us time to continue our... What is that word you love so much... Sleuthing?”

A chuckle filters back, “Certainly. Being in Tapani Space may make it easier too. Palms to grease, people to knock over. They just do not respond as well if you fail to surprise them with a knock on the door.”

“Humorous...” she sighs and rubs her eyes with her other hand, peering between her fingers at the dimly lit ceiling. “Get the parts, we'll get the repair bay to handle them and see how it goes from there... Where are you anyways?”

“Tapani Sector, same as you, falling a bit behind. The Dagda has superior hyperspace travel, admittedly.”

“Ah, very well. We will meet you there, then... Do be careful, though.”

“Roger that, Lady. Master Grian out.”

Azazel shakes her head and stares up at the white-wash ceiling, watching the slowly shifting lights play over in pale hues. She closes her eyes and sighs, nuzzling into her pillow and reaching out carefully to the space beside her, a frown knitting upon her brow. “Just a mess of trouble... First Korriban, then the Order, Andrea... And now this... Perhaps I do need a vacation...” She huffs and draws a pillow against herself, hugging it tight and inhaling deeply. Gra'tua's scent from when he stayed with her floods her senses and her eyes shoot open wide as she sits up. Dropping the pillow she raises her hands, rubbing her eyes. “If I had never met any of them... This would be so much simpler.” She leans back against the head of the bed and stares at a wall, various objects of importance to herself decorating the surface, her eyes focusing upon the blade of her master. “Sullivan, you rotten old hag... You knew it would be like this for me some day. I envy you. Just lived in the shadows, never dealt with anyone. So much simpler...” She stands and raises her hand, the lightsaber flying into her grasp as she looks it up and down... Each mark upon its surface she knew intimately, a deep nick clear along one of the plates, tears along the leather, the end sheared at an angle messily....

Azazel ignites the blade with wonder as emerald light explodes before her. That disgusting color that the old woman loved so much. Her lips part in a fond smile. As much as she wanted to wring that old wrinkled fool's neck in her youth... It was just that, the frustrations of youth. “Oh, but if you had never found me and taken me under your wing...” That old painful memory of knowing she would have died stabs through her... but accompanied with something else. “I would never... Never have become who I am. For that I am thankful... And for your love...” A tear trickles down her cheek, “You left too soon, Mama Sully... I need you now more than ever... I know I always said that I never needed you, but I was wrong...” Disengaging the sabre, she draws her knees in against her chest and buries her face, ignoring even as voices begin to raise outside her door to the point she could hear them through the sound-proofed door. Shouting begins to raise higher and higher in volume, to the point she could almost make out the words.

What catches her attention, though... is the sudden sound of a scuffle, a heavy thump against the door and a scream of pain. Azazel stiffens, looking up... but found it too straining to even stand and ready herself to fight. The door swishes open, and Kitt thumps to the ground, a nasty knot upon her head and bleeding slightly. Standing above her is a raggedy red-haired women, the sides of her head shaved clean. A wrench of some sort Azazel could not identify was clenched tight in her fist and her figure was enclosed in a jumpsuit. A starfighter's jumpsuit. One of her starfighter's jumpsuits. Her confusion is apparent on her face as she tries to determine... Who this woman even was.

“What... In all the Galaxy... was that?!” she snaps, striding forward and slipping her wrench within her toolbelt, eyes trained upon Azazel.

Azazel slowly begins to draw the conclusion that she was talking about the spacebattle. With a small wave of her hand, she dismisses her, “It was an unfortunate setback.” She raises her hand, returning the lightsaber to its hanging place.

The red-head stops in her tracks, taken aback by the answer. “A... setback?” She steps forward, rage twisting upon her face and balling her fists as her face flushes almost as red as her hair, “A SETBACK?! That was a massacre!”

Azazel raises to her feet, glaring icily upon this lowly pilot who was continuing to dare to raise her voice at her. “It was, what it was. It is over now. As is this conversation.” She begins to turn away, but halts at the heavy clomping of military boots over her floors. Likely scuffing and scratching them to no end.

And suddenly, she is gripped by her tunic, being raised up off the ground by this smaller woman. If she was intimidated at all to have Azazel looming above her so, it was not showing. In fact... “That,” she hisses, “Was your own damned ego getting in the way. That was your incompetence as a navy admiral getting my squadrons blaster to bits. THAT/ WAS YOUR FAILING AS A LEADER!” the pilot begins to shout, before tacking on with the bellow of a dragon, “YOU GOT THEM KILLED FOR NOTHING!”

Azazel looks upon this fiery woman with wide eyes, unsure how to even hold herself, leave alone say a word. This accusation was unheard of. It was unwarranted. She had no failings as a leader. She had always lead them to victory before and it would surely be the same in the future. She lost this once, but it was a fluke. She would certainly have won in the end. Her lips part, whispering out, a quiet, lethal undertone present, “And you suppose... that you could have done better?”

The threat goes clear over the pilot's head as she shakes Azazel roughly, answering without the slightest bit of doubt, “Damn straight I would have. I at least know the first thing about a fighter. About ships. About anything. What do you know?!” She grips tighter, drawing Azazel nearer her face, “You don't know shit. You couldn't even tell port from starboard! What the hell were you doing, leading all of us into a fight... Why the hell did you take Captan Nemain from the helm?!”

Azazel frowns, remaining silent in thought, about to draw herself from the red-head's grasp. Instead, she allows herself to hang there awkward, shoulder slumping as she looks upon this obviously insane woman challenging her. She had to have a deathwish. Why she did not take her chance in the dogfight was beyond her, though.

The pilot grits her teeth, about ready to shake Azazel again in demand of an answer, but reluctantly places her down upon her feet. Shoving her roughly, she growls, “You better get your shit straightened out, Kurkova. You make a damned fine figurehead, but that's about it. Get anymore of my men killed like this, and I'll take it out of your hide myself. Your fancy ass force powers be damned!” She turns and begins to stomp off, just as Kitt begins to stir.

Azazel holds her hand out, freezing the pilot in place with a gentle grip of the force. “Who are you?” The pilot slowly drifts, suspended inches above the ground herself now. Her body is ridged and proud as she glares down upon Azazel and struggles in vain to break away. “Truly, tell me.”

The pilot spits out, “Xaff. Bezol Xaff. Put me down you bitch! I've seen what you do when you hold people like this, not even the guts to fight me fairly!”

Azazel blinks in surprise and barks out in laughter, no warmth to be had in the gesture. “Bezol, welcome amidst my officers.” She releases her grip and straightens herself out, smoothing out her tunic with a feint smile upon her lips.

Bezol pauses, ready to lunge forward with a balled fist ready to lash out. “What?”

“I would have your insights amidst that of the others in the future,” Azazel shrugs, waving a hand, “Speak on behalf of those below you, challenge my plans. If you have anything to say against any of my decisions... Follow through.” Her eyes harden as she steps forward, grasping Bezol's jaw, her nails biting into flesh. “Harm those of mine like this again, and I'll roast you alive.”

Bezol slaps Azazel's hand away, ignoring the scratches to appear on her face as she juts out her chin and squares her shoulders, “If she hadn't made a fight to get to you, I wouldn'ta had to clock her one.”

Azazel sighs, shaking her head and moves over to Kitt's side, looking her over and cupping her cheeks, “Little dove, wake up, wake up.” Kitt's head lolls and she looses a groan. Azazel tenses and looks back to Bezol, “Cold water, now! Over at the counter, in the icebox.” As Bezol fumbles, Azazel tries to stir Kitt, softly caressing through her hair, trying to see just how bad the impact was and shaking her. Without warning, Bezol stabs into the bottle with a pocket knife and glacial water comes spilling out over Azazel and Kitt in a flood. Steam rises off of Azazel as she fights the urge to yelp and shake at the sudden chill, but Kitt splutters and gasps, eyes fluttering open.

With a cry of relief, Azazel draws her tight into her arms and presses her lips carefully upon the Echani's brow, “Kitt, little dove, stay away... You have suffered a very bad head injury and I need to bring you to the medics...” Kitt remains quiet and still.. Shocked and cold, she was not sure what to do. Yet, she begins to relax and nuzzle in against Azazel without concern. “Kitt, did you hear me? I need you to try and stand up.”

The Echani simply looses a quiet groan, not wanting to move from this quite yet. Azazel tightens her embrace before deciding, “Bezol, I need you to help me carry her. We're bringing her to the medic, help me keep her conscious.”

At that, Kitt groans out, disapproval at this point as she hugs Azazel back, “No, I'm fine... Just... Let me rest...”

Tensing at the contact, Azazel is unsure how to respond before looking at Bezol, “Help me move her to the bed, at least... Then call a medic in here.” Bezol nods and as Azazel shifts back and slips an arm beneath Kitt, Bezol mimicks on the other side. They haul her up and carry her cautiously to the bed. A wave of her free hand, and Azazel sends the blankets flying back. They lay the Echani out and Bezol immediately leaves the room to summon a medic. Azazel meanwhile moves back over to the counter, opening the icebox and withdrawing a frozen pack. She grabs a towel and wraps the pack and moves back to Kitt's side, placing the pack upon the knot on her head carefully and taking the chance with the towel to check the bleeding. It was nothing too bad.. At worst a stitch or two... “Such a silly thing... You should not have done that.”

Kitt blushes up at her, “But I did, I had to.. I just did not expect her to hit me with that flex wrench.”

Azazel raises her brow, looking at the Echani curiously, “And why do you feel you had to? She is just a pilot, if she wished me harm, I could have easily dealt with her...”

Kitt's cheeks somehow manage to tint deeper, even going so far as to spread to the tops of her ears, “Because... Because...” she begins to raise up from the bed, but Azazel holds her down. She opens her eyes back and looks up at Azazel with a questioning frown.

“No, no, little dove. Do not sit up. I do not want you to get dizzy,” Azazel looks up as the door swishes open. Bezol comes through and explains the medic would be on her way, though was rather upset and busy because of the number of pilots and injured crew members from the battle.

Kitt looses a sigh and shifts ever so slightly as Bezol leaves. Azazel looks down upon her and smiles slightly, “Sure that you're fine?” Kitt shrugs slightly, closing her eyes. “Ah, suppose we will have to cancel that training session then, if you are not sure...”

Kitt tenses, “Well... I think I am feeling better... It is just smarting now.”

Azazel leans in and murmurs, “Then we will keep it simple today. I will call in one of the Noghri, perhaps. They could perhaps teach you some of their fighting styles with hand-to-hand...” She pauses and begins to lean back. “I would have you rest for now, though. At least until the good doctor gives you a bill of good health.”

Kitt shifts a little restlessly, garnering another touch from Azazel for her to stay still. Kitt calms before murmuring, “If you are to keep me bedridden, would you at least keep me warm?”

Azazel furrows her brow, looking at the blankets over top of Kitt. They were not heavy, given her preferences... The ice water really could be bothering her still. Azazel cautiously moves, slipping down to lay against Kitt's back and rubs warmth into her limbs. “You have a habit about defying my wishes today.”

Kitt remains silent, closing her eyes, “Suppose I do... Going to punish me?”

Azazel furrows her brow, unable to see Kitt's face from where she was. “No. I think not. But I had my reasons to command such...”

“You thought The Dagda would be lost...” The Sith remains quiet. “It would not have been... It was not... I have faith you will see us all through... Stubborn or not.” Azazel frowns, letting her hand fall. “You tried to make sure we all got away first... And that the pilots of the squadrons all made it out safely... You do care, even about the nameless faces... And when you decide something... You are... terrifying... Nothing stands in your way... and that is remarkable.” Azazel was becoming thankful that the Echani could not see her face like this as her eyes were beginning to water. “Azazel, Bezol is wrong about you... And Hakkri... Everyone is...”

“They are not, though,” she finally croaks out and draws away. Azazel stands up from her bed and wraps her arms about herself, facing away from the Echani. “No... They are right... And the sooner you come to terms with that, the better off you will be.”

Kitt turns about, holding the icepack to her head still as she stares at Azazel's back. “And you think I am the silly one...”

Azazel sighs and opens her mouth to respond before the medic arrives. Disgruntled, overworked and tired, the medic grunts and hefts their portable medkit. “What seems to be the problem?” Azazel nods towards Kitt and the medic sighs, moving over and inspecting the wound. Azazel watches curiously as the medic uncaringly opens his bag and draws out a bottle, quickly spraying the laceration before pulling out a bacta patch and slapping it on. “Done. Don't sleep for a little while. Just to get over the concussion.” The medic stands up, closing their bag and looks Azazel over. “I expect you in my office soon enough. Master Grian may be trying to play nursemaid or whatnot, but he is hardly qualified. I assure you, Lady Kurkova, for the sake of your offspring, if not yourself, come see us. Four months and still you remain so stubborn!”

Azazel tenses and glares at the medic, “Doctor Hidka... I will attend whenever I am ready to do so. However, do you not have pilots and crew to tend to?”

Hidka pauses and shrugs, “Tanks at max capacity so far, all we can do for the rest is stick them full of bacta and wrap them in bandages.” He slumps his shoulders tiredly and begins to walk off once more.

“Do get some rest, Hidka. I thought I had instructed your entire staff to take on alternating shifts to prevent exhaustion. That's how accidents happen in the medbay.” Hidka waves his hand wearily and keeps going. Azazel furrows her brow, suddenly beginning to think. “Bacta, huh...” She quickly raises her wrist to tap out a message reminder for herself before glancing over at Kitt... Who was staring at her in absolute shock. “What?” The Echani simply points at Azazel's abdomen with a raised brow. Azazel furrows her brow, shifting and placing her hands carefully to try and determine if it truly was showing now. “That ridiculous Hidka...” she growls, awkwardly trying to rearrange her tunic. She had given up the close-fitting clothes a little while ago already!

“You... You really are...”

Azazel frowns, releasing her grip on her sash. “Ah, yes...”

“And Gra'tua?”

“Aware and even happy.”

“... Andrea?”

Azazel tenses, looking taken aback, “She... I don't know. There was... A lot that came up.”

“Is that why... Well...”

Azazel pauses, striding closer and plopping down beside the Echani. “Oh no. She... No... They both were not forthcoming with much to me.”

“Yet, that whole time Gra'tua was here...” Azazel shrugs simply in response. Kitt tenses and softly slugs her shoulder, earning a surprised look from the Darth as she begins to rub at the sudden soreness. “You make no sense. Gra'tua, you forgive and keep around and even...” her voice trails off before she shakes her head, “But you end things with that woman for... The exact same thing he did? Azazel, is this some sort of strange Sith custom? Then again, apparently Jedi were not supposed to fall in love, or have relationships or feel at all.”

Azazel raises her brows in surprise, “Not a custom I am aware of... But I see the truth now! The reason between this great feud between Jedi and Sith! The Jedi are just jealous they get none, obviously. All that pent up...” She rolls her hands, looking for the word.

“Sexual frustration?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, yeah... Apparently Theo had no issues with that, though... She roared. A lot.”

“So she never tried to instill such values in all of you?”

Kitt shrugs lazily, “No, not really. She was hardly a Jedi by traditional standards. Or even those we hold now. She abandoned her teacher before her teaching was over and... I suppose so much was lost. She never wanted to be a teacher, or a Jedi, or be responsible. She just... Inherited the burden of her teacher. It infuriated her brother. He wanted to be a Jedi, and there she was... Always outshining him. Always better. The favored child.” She shrugs, “I guess... I was jealous too, of the others in her creche. They learned. They could understand a lightsaber, and how to tap into the force... They were making things float and spin and trying to play tricks on each other... On me. So, I started to get overlooked.” She looks over to Azazel, “I thought the same was going to happen here. I am not a force user. I could not be the first apprentice of any of Talekk or Velle. So what use was I? Just a blind, scrappy wash-out.”

Azazel looks at her curiously, “Curious...” At the confused look to meet her, Azazel sighs and begins to explain, “I do not understand, how you could be so ignored. So far you have been one of the most persistent and hard working of my followers... Just short of Xen, at least. It makes little sense.”

Kitt flushes and shrugs, “Maybe I did not have a reason to try and stand out before.”

“Yet you do now, do you?” Kitt nods, shuffling uncomfortably. “And what would that be?”

Kitt pauses before turning to smile, “Yeah... And maybe I'll tell you sometime... If we can keep talking like this in the future.”

The older woman's brow shoots up in surprise, “I could pluck the answer from you if I wished, you know.”

“Yes, I know... But I also know you won't,” Kitt smirks just a bit smugly.

“And what makes you sure of that, little dove?” Azazel snorts, crossing her arms.

Kitt leans in and murmurs, “Because you are fascinated by interesting things, and enjoy the game to posses them without brute force.”

Azazel chuckles, “You would make a frightening Sith.”

“And thankfully I am not. I would not have caught anyone's attention if I was just another of your apprentices,” she crosses her arms behind her head and gets far too comfortable in Azazel's bed.

“If you could still throw Rei'Ki across the room, regardless of how you achieve it... I think I still would have noticed,” she murmurs, reaching out and smooths a corner of the bacta patch back down.

Kitt laughs and nods, softly catching Azazel's hand. “If you weren't using those force power of yours, I could probably pin you in nothing flat.”

“You are not that good yet,” Azazel chuckles, drawing her hand away. “Come, get up. We will go find one of the Noghri warriors... And this miss Bezol. I would like to see her own capabilities as well. Hopefully she is as good a shot outside a fighter as in it.”

---

Azazel clomps into the quarters of Bezol and a few others. Apparently, even with the additional space, many of her followers still preferred to bunk in the same quarters. Asking around, it was easy enough to find the pilot... And she now sat before Azazel at a small desk that folded out from the wall, chewing on the eraser of a pencil with reading glasses on as she looked over a large sheet of draft paper. She looks up for a moment before returning to the article, sketching a few new lines and jotting down notes... before carefully erasing. “Yes?”

“Wrap up, I need to do an evaluation.”

“What of?”

“Ground performance,” Azazel answers, resting against the doorway.

“And you can evaluate that?”

Azazel steps forwards, putting her hands atop the blueprints. “Indeed. I am no figurehead, Bezol. I am the most competent woman you will ever see on ground missions.”

Bezol furrows her brow in frustration before pushing her reading glasses onto her forehead and reclining back, “Well, gee lady, I don't care much.” She raises her hand, placing the pencil between her lips and chewing lightly, talking around it, “Look, if you need me to pilot some rig, any rig, I'm your woman. But once we hit dirt, I'm out.”

Azazel raises a brow, before shifting her hand aside and looking at the blueprints curiously. She scrunches up her nose as she can barely figure out what it was she was seeing, “Podracer?”

“Sure enough, genius. So, aside from that whole evaluatin'... Whatcha need?”

“You to come with me. To the training rooms. So I can see what you are capable of,” Azazel lifts up the paper, folding it up and tucking it away inside her tunic, “Or you're never seeing your precious papers ever again, mwahaha.”

“Damn, woman. They said Sith were evil bantha dung, but did I listen? No,” Bezol snorts and stands, “Fine, whatever. But if you pit me against that runt, it is not gonna look pretty. I brained her once already.”

Azazel shakes her head, “Do not underestimate her. Otherwise, you might be the one flat on your back this next time.”

Bezol rolls her eyes, slipping her suspenders back onto her shoulders as she stands, “Yeah, sure. That little runt would like that. Word around the crew is she butters her toast on the other side.”

The Sith raises a brow, “Pardon me?” She was genuinely confused by the expression.

Bezol sighs, reaching forward and fishing her blueprints out of Azazel's clothes and carefully putting it inside a hard hip-pouch. “Like you, you butter yours on both sides. Don't get why, imagine it gets messy, butter all over your hair... Or do you prefer jam... No, no, you are probably one of those fancy pants snobs who only eat designer condiments on their toast.”

Azazel blinks in absolute confusion, “I will admit, I am lost.”

Bezol sighs and rubs her eyes, “She's a fruit. Likes girls. You like both. Simple enough for you, doc? Or do I gotta dumb it down some more.”

She shakes her head, crossing her arms, “And why does everyone say that about Kitt?”

Bezol sighs, “I dunno. I don't start the rumors, just spread 'em. But hell, she's turned down every guy on board whose ever asked her out. Gets people wonderin', ya know?”

Azazel shrugs, “No, not really. Of course, rumor once was that I was a military droid gone rogue and introduced to religious doctrine. You know, on account that I did not sleep with everything that moved.”

“Implying I do?”

“Never said that, but hey, whatever flies your freighter,” Azazel counters with a slight smirk.

“Oh, you catch on, but shame you're thinking your celebrity ex with that one,” Bezol smirks and gives a flourishing bow at her waist, “So lead the way, darth broad.”

“You are going to hurt for that one,” Azazel warns.

“Oh, Ah-zah-zi-el, I already am,” Bezol snickers.

---

Kitt shifts through the movements slowly. Following from one position to the next in fluid transitions, she carefully repositions her feet. The Noghri warrior, small even to her, shows the movements with obvious practice and skill. He begins to start through the positions again, feet moving back and adjusting his weight... Before suddenly lurching forward, palms spread out flat and and arcing through the air in a deadly slicing gesture. Kitt was ready this time and dives down, below the arc before putting her hands up, clutching the Noghri's wrist and placing a hand upon his torso. Using his own momentum against him, she sends him sailing over-top of herself and smacking into the ground.

She begins to move in order to pin him and end yet another impromptu match, but she finds herself staggering as she suddenly grows dizzy. The Noghri springs into a crouch and kicks off, flying forward and knocking her down by her midsection. A muscled leg jams into her diaphragm roughly and cuts her breath short before he grasps her throat, pressure lightly upon her carotid and windpipe. A hand is raise and held with tension, ready at any moment to strike like a viper and slice with those claws. “I submit,” Kitt coughs roughly and squirms beneath him. The Noghri nods and steps off of her, only for Kitt to swing her legs about and knock him back down. Quickly, she scrambles and catches him in a hold, arms wrapped about his head and ready to snap.

The Noghri remains tense but makes no movements, “There is no honor in this. It is a hollow victory at best...” Kitt quivers, failing to release as the Noghri continues to stay still as death.

Azazel strides forward, tapping Kitt's shoulders. It was like a switch was flipped, the Echani instantly disengages and sits upon the floor, crossing her legs. “He is right, you know. Honor is one of the few things we ever truly have. Honor and memories...” She looks down at Kitt, obvious disapproval upon her face. “I would see you keep yours intact...” She kneels down and rests her hands in her lap as the Noghri rubs over his throat. “Noble Jucchat warrior, thank you. I apologize for this blow to your honor. This grievance will not go unnoticed or unpaid.” She bows forward still upon her knees.

The Noghri grunts and stands, “It was not you who offended me, Dark Lady.”

Azazel straightens herself, staring the Noghri eye-to-eye. “I am afraid I have, though. She is under my tutelage and therefor was my responsibility. A slight by her was a slight by me, for I failed to teach her properly.” Azazel stands and looms down upon the Noghri, eyebrow raised challengingly.

He grunts and nods, “Prefer you payment in trial or tribute for this insult from your...” The Noghri pauses, sniffing and crosses his arms, “Your consort?”

Kitt blinks in surprise, turning her head away and flushing. Azazel however steps forward, “She is not my consort. Call tribune throughout your tribesmen, let them determine what is befitting.”

The Noghri furrows his teeth, a low clicking coming from the back of his throat, “I would prefer tribute, Dark Lady.”

Azazel nods, “I would not put you in such a position of conflict, for honor or loyalty. Have you a price in mind?”

He rolls his his, scratching at his neck in thought, “Do you have any... of that weird human food... Large round disks of bread, sauce and cheese...”

Kitt furrows her brow, “Tapani Slices?...”

The Noghri snaps, “Yes. The Tapani Slice. I demand a tribute of Tapani Slices.”

Azazel rubs her eyes, almost regretting the fact her soldiers were becoming spoiled as a result of interacting with those of the Tapani system. “Very well, an offering of Tapani Slices will be made available soon... In fact, I'll be sure someone in the kitchen staff programs it into the food synthesizer. Just for you.”

The Noghri clasps his hands before himself and bows, “Thank you, Dark Lady. I will inform my brothers and sisters.”

Azazel nods, trying to keep the humoured expression off her face until the warrior leaves the room. She turns to Kitt who simply shrugs. Bezol calls out from the back of the room, “I don't care much for this whole honor deal, but if I get to see a fat Noghri out of this, I'm sold.” The other two women cannot help themselves a moment longer and burst out into laughter.

Kitt, still trying to catch her breath attempts to pant out, “Ah, so... Ditzy the Looney Cathar cartoon marathon?”

Dark Rebirth,
Hyperspace Transit to Kessel.

Reneva was sitting in the command chair, she had to admit, Andrea did get some good toys, she was leaning back comfortable in the chair, her eyes looking at a holographic representation of the sector of the galaxy they were currently travelling through that surrounded the chair, she only had to reach out and the sensors in the chair would register which system she wanted to take a closer look at which would make the projectors enlarge the information she was after and also give her navigational data hovering in text next to the side. She was studying a lot of navigational data lately, apparently Andrea had seen it fit to give her the order to brush up her knowledge and to, quote: 'be more useful or suffer the consequences'.

She nodded and stood up from the chair, walking across the bridge to the navigator section and addressed the crew there. "Are we about to exit hyperspace around Trogan?"

The crew at their consoles and looked up in surprise and then at each other, one of them, a lieutenant from the looks of it, nodded slowly. "It seems so ma'am. We aren't going out of a job, are we?" His subalterns chuckled at that.

She showed a half-smile playing on her lips and shook her head, "Nothing to worry about just yet lieutenant, I am only getting the basics of navigation from my attempts at studying the subject." She looked up and nodded when one other bridge crew member reported they were about to drop out of hyperspace and once they did it was indeed confirmed they were now at Trogan. She was pleased with herself, only a few months ago all this talk about hyperspace navigational charts and hyperspace routes would make her head hurt, now she had fairly guessed where they were dropping out, granted she had mostly gotten lucky with her guess, but still the sense of accomplishment gave her some satisfaction.

She however straightened out her uniform and glanced around imperiously at the bridge crew, "We only finished the first trek of our longer journey, we will get supplies and then continue on our way, we are on orders of our mistress, Andrea, to rendezvous with the other ships at Kessel and wait for further instructions, now back to work." She received a numbers of 'ayes' and salutes in return and marched back to the command chair to resume her studies.

_________________________________

Korriban Academy,
Conference Room.

"Darth Hadzuska, how are you?" Darth Khanna asked as she saw the holographic projection of the Twi'lek sith instructor.

Hadzuska bowed, her image not perfect as she was transmitting from a large distance. "I am well, is Andrea present?"

She shook her head, "She is not, errands called her away from Korriban I am afraid, you have acquired new potential candidates to join our ranks?" She received a laugh in return and Khanna frowned, "Did I say something funny?"

The Twi'lek sith smirked and shook her head, "Private joke I suppose, I have not acquired any but... I have learned that a... individual in Hutt space might have a pair of slaves who are... strong in the force. The thing is, this individual is a Syndicate man and I wanted to converse with Andrea to see if she would allow me to, see if I could acquire them... and wanted to know if I should use all means, or only use diplomacy."

Khanna frowned and then chuckled, "You know your standing orders... any and all means necessary. She has already ruffled some Syndicate feathers, I think she can handle some more."

Smirking Hadzuska nodded, "I suppose so... I shall travel to Hutt space then... and see if I can acquire these twin slaves. Hadzuska out." And with that she terminated the call.

---

Chained Despair,
Andrea's journey to Dagobah

The Chained Despair dropped out of hyperspace, Andrea still frowning and shaking her head, "Why in the hells... would I ever wish to acquire snowglobes? Why would some merchant be travlling around the galaxy even selling them? It makes no sense." She muttered.

Karsk shrugged, "I actually might have bought one."

She raised a eyebrow and stared at the grizzled warrior. "You keep surprising me." In a bad way, she thought to herself before she shook her head. "Nyriss, have we arrived?"

The intercom flared to life and the voice of her pilot came through, "Making our approach of the world of Dagobah now, trying to find a suitable landing spot near the coordinates given."

Nodding Andrea smiled and cracked her fingers. "Right then, let's see what this wamp planet has to offer me..."

After too long searching the pilot reported back saying that the only suitable landing site, if one even existed, had to have been on the other side of the planet. Though he suggests maybe the foliage is thin enough to simply break through and land anyway.

Andrea had ordered the ramp to be lowered and stared down at the inhospitable planet with a frown. "Don't bother... I think if we land here we will only find out the ship will be sinking in the bog." She turned to some of the Sun Gaurd, attach some lines, Me, Talon, Trizz and Karsk will be rappelling down them, Rhak and Nyriss, you will remain on the ship while we are down there."

Moments later lines were secured and Andrea and the 3 others she had specied were moving down to the 'ground' below while the ship hovered above them.

The team dropping down arrive on the world safely... or so it seems to be for the moment anyway. Though some grumbling growls from the murky water advise against skinny dipping.

She looked at the mud already caking on her boots and sighed, this was going to be one of 'those' planets. "Right lets move on and get to the cave, Karsk, Trizz, in the middle, Talon you take the rear, use your senses and reach out with the force to beware of any dangers that might lurk here..." She frowned and shook her head, "Assuming you can sense any with the strong presence of so much... life... on this world." She blinked, untouched by civilization, or at least so it appeared and yet such a strong presence in the force. It was fascinating... and unnerving at the same time. "Let's move on." She said, mostly to herself as she took the lead, trying to follow the coordinates given by her explorers as well as attempting to sense the dark side presence of this cave.

As they move through the swamp suddenly a voice comes out of the air. "What doing are you, hmm? Of my garden get out. Yes, hmmm." The speaker a short greenskin about two feet tall with large prominent pointed ears said poking Talon in the back with a short stout stick.

Andrea and the others froze, she turned seeing Talon with wide eyes at the back of the line, reaching for her saber hilt but at a motion of Andrea she stopped, instead Andrea cocked her head and studied the... creature that had appeared.

She tried to sense if this creature was strong in the force but all this... background force presence was interfering and she shook her head. She cocked her head and addressed the little man. "I am Andrea and I came here looking for a cave... you said, this was your garden?"

"Yes and no. If looking for a cave, you are. To the right place you have come. Many caves on dagobah. Yeesssssss." The short fellow said oddly his speech disjointed. "Of the garden you out. Ruining the flowers, you are." The fellow solidly whacks Talon with his stick this time.

Talon yelps in surprised pain and then growls but again at Andrea's gesture she backed off. She was frowning now, this was his garden... a swamp garden? Well this was some weird hermit living here for sure. "Well... my apologies, the cave I am looking for is a particular one however, it probably... attracts the more ferocious of creatures this world has to offer while every other species would evade it with a wide berth, perhaps you can point me in the right direction? So I can get off your garden all the quick."

"On my garden, not, you are. Though, this great sleemo is. Yeesssssss." He whacked Talon again this time jabbing his stick into Talon's right foot.

Talon growled again and turned to the little bugger. "Would you stop that!"

Andrea looked puzzled now, first this hermit said they were on his garden, now they weren't? She sighed, "Right... well happy to have met you... we will be on our way." She snapped her fingers and turned around to take the lead again and search for the cave.

"No caves in that direction. Fools trek, on, you are. To my home come. Me, you shall share dinner yes? Then tell what you wish to know, I will. For fee." The little green fellow remarked.

She frowned not liking that in the slightest but one loo kat Talon told her that she too couldn't sense the cave so with a mental sigh she turned back to the fella. "I do not like accepting invitations... if the one inviting me has not introduced himself yet while I have said my name."

"Oday I am. To yoda I am groundskeeper. Been unpaid for 400 years I have. Hmmmmmm." The green fellow said heading off into the swamp. "Careful to stand not on Steve you be."

She had no idea who this Yoda person was or why one would needs a groundskeeper for a dump like this, she also had no idea what or who steve was but she decided to make sure where to step wherever that little green fella would step on, making sure her people did the same.

For some minutes the fellow marched on until reaching a composite mud hut, a mud hutt only just over four foot high... for the ceiling. Oday entered through a door archway only three feet high waving for his unexpected guests to follow.

Karsk took one look at the hut and its interior and then seemed to realize he was a 2 meter 10 giant. "I will remain outside my lady."

Andrea looked up at the big guy and couldn't blame him, she wish she had a excuse like that. "Any of you laugh..." She said, leaving the threat hang in the air as she bend over and crawled inside the hutt, followed by Talon and Trizz, the latter was hiding a smirk but once inside looked perfectly neutral.

Once inside Oday moved over to a pot of some unidentifiable stew cooking over the fire and began stirring it. "Guests in my home, you are. Know your names, I would, before we dine." He said as he got out some bowls from a shelf.

"As I said Andrea." She repeated, looking at the stew.... and frowned, making sure someone else would eat it first if she ever decided to take a bite, she gestured to the others.

"Talon." The Twi'lek sith responded warily, eyes on the stick at all times.

Trizz was looking all over the hutt at the snakes slithering about and the herbs, mostly thinking to herself what cures and poisons there were here in this hut before she looked up. "Trizz." She said with a shrug and resumed her observation.

From outside came a lumbering voice. "Karsk."

Oday worked to scoop the food into bowls, if it was food, the brown claggy consistency wasn't generally something most bipedals considered terribly appealing. "You seek the the dark cave, not do you, hmm?" He passed bowls to the three inside. It began to pour with a thick treacly rain. A rain typical of a swamp. "Full of dangers, the trek is. Many make the attempt and fail. Yes, hmmm. Do, or do not, there is no try." Oday shrugged, "Or say, so yoda would. I think, full of it, was he. Paid me he still has not. Yeesssssss."

She frowned raising a eyebrow. "Many have tried? I thought this planet was off the charts, not worth visiting and yet you say many have made the attempt?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"So say Yoda would. I think, full of shit, was he." Oday replied.

She drummed her fingers on the side of the cup. "Still you can point me in the right direction of the cave?"

"Yes. Two hours that way. Yes, hmmm." Oday pointed as he began eating.

She noticed Trizz seeming to study the dish before shrugging and eating some of it. Andrea took a polite bite, swallowing it without really tasting while she thought for a moment. "Anything I should know about the cave?"

"Of a bantha smells like the wrong side. If being generous, I am. Of snakes too lots." Oday shrugged.

She nodded, deciding to thank for his hospitality and assistance by finishing the bowl and then placing it near him. "Thank you, for the food and the direction, I hope this Yoda of yours pays you soon." With that she crawled back outside and let out a groan as she stretched, Trizz and Talon following. Talon had not touched the bowl at all and Karsk had not received one. "Right, this way then, two hours of a journey apparently, so no time to waste."

As the group advanced deeper into the swamps Andrea managed to avoid several nasty pitfalls that could have easily broken a leg before the sense of the cave began to make itself felt. A tugging on her subconscious barely perceptible.

She stopped for a moment, for the first since touching down on this soil a sliver of excitement entering her state of mind. "We are close now... be on your guard and follow my steps." She stressed to the others while she hoped to find the entrance to the cave soon.

Finally the sensation grew to be strong enough to be practically pricking the skin of both force users. It's appearance however left a lot to be desired. For one, it seemed that Oday had been using it as a dumping point from whatever latrine he had set up. Rubbish and other... bodily products... decorated the entrance to the otherwise simply dim cave overhung with rich moss and ... rich odour.

She pulled a cloth out and placed it on her mouth... this place... this was it? She had to admit some disappointment upon seeing this but it couldn't be helped. "Trizz, Karsk, you two remain outside... Talon and I will enter the cave." With a not to her Hand they stepped forwards and entered the cave, ignoring the wretched odour.

The deeper Andrea went into the cave the more her senses began to deceive her. She saw a woman rolling around with of all the creatures a Hutt. It didn't take long for her to realize that Talon was no longer with her. It took slightly longer to realize that the woman appeared to be her. "Come join us." The creature remarked. "You know you want to."

She looked at the scene with disgust and growled. "That never happened." She stated and then looked around. "Illusions? Bah, I am Sith. I conquer my fears, doubts and enemies at every turn so give me your best and not this pathetic display." She closed her eyes and focused on the force within, trying to reach out to Talon.

The image changed to reflect her daughter in the embrace of a hutt. "Why did you abandon me mother? I only wanted to be like you. And you've left me in the hands of a madman."

She opened her eyes and stared, narrowing her eyes and then snorted. "You... my real daughter doesn't even know I am her mother, much less spend any time with me, is this really the best you can do?" She said with disdain as she crossed her arms. "Bored now."

"She doesn't have to know. You do. Do you wonder what the animal whose only thought is sating his own desires does at night. But if that is not enough..."

The shapes change and merge. And suddenly it looms in the dim light of the cave.

A Terentatek.

She rose a eyebrow, "Now you get more interesting." But before she attacked she decided to see and sense if the Terentatek was not her own Hand, Talon, with these illusions it could be anything.

There is simply too much ambient force to be certain of anything. A situation made worse when the beast doesn't hesitate to strike. But it's clumsy attack doesn't even come close to breaking Andrea's defences.

She jumps back after the clumsy attack and frowns, reaching out with the force to use force horror on its psyche, that should reveal some clues.

The beast recoils shortly before charging back in but it.... slashes off its own hand on the other arm with a very Talon-like scream. The illusion shattered Talon falls to the ground scrabbling for the hand severed by her own... other hand.

She rolled her eyes. "Knew it, oh you big baby." She picked up the hand and slapped Talon's cheek with it so she would snap out of it. "Here." She pushed the hand in her remaining one that was still attached and pointed to back to the entrance of the cave. "Get to Trizz and have her give you a hand." She kept a straight face saying that.

Talon let out a whine but complied, gritting her teeth as she held onto her severed hand as she walked shakily to the exit, or she hoped it was the exit.

Shaking her head Andrea looked around. "Anything else? Maybe some visions of Gra'tua fucking Azazel? Anything?"

As the illusion fell a small starship, a pod really, revealed itself within the cave concealed deeply but open to the elements, within it sat a small skeleton of the same apparent race as Oday, on its lap a Lightsabre rested and in a small compartment the sight of Jedi holocrons was clearly visible.

She raised a eyebrow and then glanced back at the ceiling of the cave. "Thank you, it has been interesting." She looked at the pod. "Assuming this isn't another illusion." She stepped forwards and looked at the skeleton. "Explains the lack of payment that green fella was muttering about." She reached out for the saber and the holocrons, activating one to see what would happen or who would appear.

Images appeared and a soft voice, bit of a old person from the sound of it, started explaining how to bend the force to push away objects, people and she shut the holocron off. "Right... jedi or sith I wonder?" She murmured to herself looking at the skeleton and then shrugged, reaching out with the force in a attempt to close the pod and then lift it up to carry it outside.

A voice floats in the wind. "Do, or do not, there is no try."

She blinked and then frowned. "You read that in a fortune cookie or something?" She shook her head and continued walking.

She walked outside and rose a eyebrow at those standing outside, Talin was there with her stump outstretched while Trizz was looking over it with some medical equipment, Karsk had his blaster at the ready but relaxed when he saw it was Andrea. "I have returned, with a prize. Anyway..." She activated her comm and contacted the ship, giving their current coordinates and activating a beacon just in case so Nyriss would find them easily enough and then she turned to Karsk. "Go back to the hutt and tell our gardener I might have found his employer, what's left of him, if he wants proof, offer him a piggyback ride on your back back to me, somehow I think he might enjoy that."

Some time later Karsk returns with the green hobgoblin in tow looking very upset. "Broke my door getting in he did. Too tall by far is he."

Andrea had set the pod down and upon their approach just opened the door again, revealing the skeleton within. "Is this your master?"

Oday looks over the skeleton. "Think not I do. Saw him last with skin on."

She received a signal that Nyriss was on approach and then turned back to Oday. "Yes... I imagine he did, but how long ago was that." She gestured at the lightsaber in the pod, was he a force user?"

Oday looked closer at the Lightsaber. "His that is. Yes." He nodded.

She nodded and then looked up as the Chained Despair hovered into view, ramp being lowered and several Sun Guard appearing over the edge lowering lines once more. : Uh-hu, and what about these other items in the pod." She gestured to the holocrons. "Know what those are? Or perhaps which ones he valued most?"

Oday moves forwards with surprising agility for someone of his size and apparent frailty taking one of the Holocrons and activating it studying the projected information. "AH! Two parts Swamp Monster Bowels, four parts snake bile and only six parts swamp mud." You have a feeling that you just got the 'correct' recipe for whatever it was you ate four hours ago, your stomach rumbling in black sympathy.

At that point Nyriss came down one of the lines and raised a eyebrow. "You wished me to join you mistress?"

Andrea nodded and gestured for her to wait. "Karsk, work with the Sun Guard to bring Talon back in the ship." THe big commando nodded and without effort lifted up Talon, Trizz following closely to monitor her patient. Turning back to Nyriss she gestured to the pod. "Psychometry, every inch of that pod, the skeleton and the lightsaber, leave the holocrons for now."

The zeltron disciple nodded and approached the pod to use her psychometric ability to learn what she could.

The holocrons however had been steeped too long in the Darkside for anything meaningful to be determined and the same remained for the pod, though the psychometry did reveal that it had suffered significant damage to its inertial dampeners. Of the lightsaber and skeleton only a faint residue of the lightside remains. Not enough to even learn the name of the dead occupant with and certainty.

Andrea listened to it all and nodded, "Right back up you go, oversee the retrieval of the pod and its contents, we will take it with us back home." She then turned to Oday. "So... it seems your master is dead and you are stuck on this world, how do you feel about that?"

"Feel like all that property you're taking, cover my back-wages for 10 years at least, I do." Oday responded instantly.

Andrea smiled, "I actually have a different offer for you, how would you like to work for me? I have holdings and property that are not a swamp. And plent of gardens... actual gardens, that need attending to."

Oday puffs up almost turning red so offended was he. "Not actual garden is this!" He says with the deepest tone of hurt.

Andrea sighed. "Oh for the love... let's just get to the point." She spread out her fingertips and launched lightning at the creature.

The blast struck him solidly... leaving a slightly cooked green thing behind.

She cocks her head and shrugged, "Huh interesting, thought he was a force ghost. Ah well, too dangerous to be left alive with what he showed capable of doing. "She said, nodding to herself and then went to one of the lines, being the last that needed to get aboard her ship.

Once aboard she had the ramp closed and contacted Nyriss. "Set a course for Kessel, we stop at the nearest planet for proper medical care for Talon however, maximum speed." When confirmation came she let out a sigh and went to her section of the ship to meditate.

It had been a long day...

---

In Summation:
Random Filler stuff and Navigator trait gained for Severa after studying/training.

Hadzuska has learned of possible twins strong in the force who are slaves.

Andrea visits Dagobah, takes the cave tour and comes out with a couple of souvenirs, two of which she has to meditate on.

And her Hand, Talon, lost a hand, can be re-attached at proper medical facilities.

Cyphor Fey'lar
Nightclouds Reward, on course for Kashyyyk.

Cyphor relined in one of the lounge couches as he watched Kalmi go through some basic force exercises with Kathlyn. The two had only been paired for a couple of months now but already they seemed to share a strong teacher-student bond he thought to himself. It had been interesting this past year watching first Cha'alla and then Kalmi train their padawans, while both of them used some of the structures he had used to teach them both brought their own style to the practice, which in reflection highlighted certain aspects of his own teachings that he might have done differently. It was something to think about at least while Nikan and Nayanna still looked to him as their master despite how he hated the term. He had officially named them knights, but they were yet to receive padawans of their own in part due to their ages. Regardless Cyphor saw the two of them taking other roles rather than acting as teachers, afterall, not all Jedi took padawans in the old order, Cyphor saw no reason to force it on his students now.

As these throughts ran around in his head the intercom signalled and Hayle's voice came over the lounge speakers. “Cyphor, come to the cockpit for a moment.” she said simply, her tone brooking no argument despite Cyphor technically being her employer. Nodding for Kalmi to carry on Cyphor rose and headed to the cockpit. The door slid open smoothly on his approach and he stepped inside and went to stand behind Hayle's chair.
“Something up?” He asked as he glanced out the cockpit window at the tunnel effect of hyperspace.
“Sensors picked up a freighter ahead of us a few hours ago, its about twenty minutes ahead of us and moving just as fast as we are.” Hayle replied as she gestured towards the sensor readouts. “Readings show a standard bulk freighter but at this speed the hyperdrive engine at least is an aftermarket job, and this route is not a standard one.” She added while Cyphor took a seat in the copilots chair.
“So, smugglers most likely then.” Cyphor said as he looked over the readouts himself. “Tried talking to them?”
Hayle shrugged. “No response, not everyone wants to talk these days, specially smugglers on a job.” She answered.
“So why tell me now?” Cyphor asked as he looked up from the sensor readings.
“I dunno, a feeling maybe, everything looks normal, maybe I’m just paranoid, but we are bypassing a major conflict point with this jump.” Hayle said with a small sigh. Cyphor was about to respond when the sensors registered a fluctuation ahead. “What was that?” he asked as Hayle and he both watched the sensor readings. A moment later the freighter exploded.

“What in the name of the Force was that!?” Hayle exclaimed. Cyphor was studying the sensor logs at the time of the fluctuation and the explosion to try and figure out just what had happened. “If they were smugglers its possibly you'll spot something in the logs that I'd miss.” He said calmly as he directed Hayle to study the logs as well. Theoretically if there was something ahead they had a bit under twenty minutes before they themselves ran into it, a little checking wouldn't hurt and still give them time to try and avoid what might be out there.

Minutes ticked away, four to be exact before Hayle discovered that the explosion had been external, the fluctuation the sensors detected was the vessel veering slightly off course, it appeared the freighter had collided with something. “I'd call it sloppy piloting,” Hayle said after she had told Cyphor what she'd found, “But there shouldn't be anything to run into out here in the first place.”
“You want to drop out of hyperspace?” Cyphor asked, afterall she was the one that had put them on this route in the first place as a way to avoid the Corsin system.
“I think so, but not just yet, I'll wait till we're about five minutes out, getting there on sublight will take a lot of time if we drop too soon.”
“Its your ship, Your call.” Cyphor replied simply.
“Remind me to get one of those fancy sensor arrays Cha'alla had put on the traveller, I'd rather like the extra detail it offers for times like this.” Hayle replied as she set a timer for the drop out of hyperspace.

The timer ticked down slowly, five minutes to drop... four... three... “Hayle...” Cyphor said with an odd look in his eyes. Hayle registered Cyphors 'warning' a moment before the Reward glanced... something... and she dropped her ship out of hyperspace immediately, the whine of the engines was audible from the cockpit as they strained at the sudden jolt out of hyperspace. As the sensor readings came in for real space a number of anti ship mines were showing up about an hour ahead at sublight speeds. Had hayle not dropped out when she had she suspected the reward would have gone up like the freighter ahead of them had.

“Guess this smuggler route isn't as safe as it was supposed to be, those weren't there the last time you passed through here I take it?” Cyphor said with a small grin.
“No, they most certainly were not.” Hayle said as she took a deep breath at the closeness of it all. “And stop grinning.” She said clearly before she started muttering under her breath, Cyphor caught 'crazy jedi bastard' uttered among other things.
“Sensors are only picking up that patch of mines.” Cyphor said as he focused on their situation.
“That doesn't sound right...” Hayle replied, her brow furled in concern. “I wouldn't call myself an expert on space warfare but I know enough that you trust me with Pandorum, if someone wanted to reliably mine a hyperspace route you'd need a lot more than 1 or 2 patches of mines.”
“Maybe its a very old field, left over from a previous conflict, these might be all that's left and it was dumb luck that they were so close to our course this time.” Cyphor remarked.
Hayle frowned at the sensors and again muttered something about upgrading to the fancy ones on the Ashlani Traveller. “I'm going to take us closer, see if the sensors cant get a better read, I'm sure there's more and I don't want to re-enter hyperspace until we're clear of them.” She said as she throttled up the sublight drive and kept a close watch on the sensors.

As the Nightclouds Reward gets closer to the patch of mines they detected Hayles suspicion bore fruit. There were more mines, a lot of them, and eventually sensors detected a Republic Venator class Star Destroyer at the edge of the field laying what appeared to be the last of the mines.
“Well, I'd say they're new wouldn't you?” Hayle said as the sensor data on the Ventaor came in.
“It appears so.” Cyphor replied. “So we go around the field then. Even at sublight I don't like our chances of getting through there.” He added.
“Agreed, I'm sure we could pilot through it on a good day but one wrong slip and we won't be around to see the result... well you might... jedi ghost thing and all...” Hayle said as she started setting a course that would take them around the field on the far side from the Venator.
“Id still rather not put that to the test, I'm not even sure I could make the transition to a force spirit, many masters spent decades trying to learn how and never succeed in the old order.” Cyphor replied sounding a bit more subdued than he usually was.
Hayle shook her head and got out of the pilots chair. “Here take the stick, it'll take us some time to clear the field so I'm going to go sit in the turret in case that Star Destroyer has any fighters out.” She said as she headed for the gun-well. Cyphor nodded and shifted to the pilots chair. “And start the nav computer on a hyperspace course, I'd rather not stick around a moment longer than necessary.” Hayle called over her shoulder. Cyphor smiled slightly at that and started the computers calculations. He then made a note to have the sensor logs saved to a data pad so that the location of the mine field did not get lost, he was aware of several people that would value its location.

The field turned out to be larger than Hayle had initially suspected, it took them almost a day to get halfway around the field at sublight speeds, thankfully without encountering any fighter squadrons from the Venator, likely its entire hanger compliment had been filled up by the mines it had laid. The Venator left around the same time they were halfway around the field and everyone on board - Kalmi, Kathlyn and the blood hunters having since been informed of their situation - breathed a sigh of relief. Another day of sublight travel saw them clear of the field and the Reward jumped back into hyperspace to resume its trip to Kashyyyk. Now they just had to figure out how they were going to land when they got there, Hayle said she still had a few tricks up her sleeves, Cyphor however wondered if her tricks would be enough.