STAR WARS AFTERMATH
Three days have passed since the conclusion of the encounter on Kenari with Clan Plagueis. While their presence had been greatly unexpected, it did not at least lead to war.
Both fleets had ultimately departed almost simultaneously after a two-week battle, but with no evidence that either side had succeeded in the endeavor and retrieved the Ark. The only ones who would knew the answer to that were Appius and Teebu, both of whom had retreated to the upper levels of the Taldryan Tower upon their return to the system and have been completely quiet since.
Unrest has grown within the senate and an emergency session has been called with all members of the delegation asked to be in attendance.
While this is quietly going on, the remainder of the Taldryan Republic is continuing on with its day-to-day routines like everything is completely normal.
Supreme Chancellor’s Meeting Chambers
Teebu stood quietly in front of the large bay windows in the rear area of the office of the Supreme Chancellor, looking out over the city of Port Kasiya with his fingers intertwined behind his back.
Unlike normal, his attire was not the typical white military uniform he wore, but was instead the armored plate and red cloth of the Taldryan Senate. A white cape was draped over his left shoulder, clasped in the front by a golden Taldryan crest.
The sun had ever slightly begun to crest over the top of the Arreat Mountain range, the first solid rays striking the tower, giving the sign that mid-day had just begun.
A small beep came from his commlink, to which he reached down to his side and retrieved it.
“Apologies for interrupting you sir, but your shuttle has arrived.” the voice on the other end spoke.
“I will be outside in a moment. Thank you.” the Ewok replied before keying his commlink back off and placing it back at his side. After a deep breath he turned and proceeded outside.
The exterior doors slid open and two white robed summit guard members who had been standing outside were now lock-step with the Vice-Chancellor as he walked down the walkway towards the black lambda that sat on the landing pad below.
The ramp had already been lowered, the pilot and several technicians standing outside. As he approached, they all saluted across their chest.
“Ready to go?” the pilot asked as the trio walked past them and onto the lambda.
Teebu gave a soft smile with a slight nod. “Absolutely. Let’s go have some fun.”
The small group followed them on board and the ramp rose back up into the shuttle. It was barely a few moments later that it had risen in the air and turned towards the north away from the city.
Gehn looked around as he wandered the streets of the Ektrosis Waterfront, glancing down occasionally at his datapad.
“Playground…playground…” he muttered to himself as he spent a significant amount of time going from level to level, exploring what he could. “Where is it?”
He finally let out a sigh before dropping his pack next to a bench, taking a seat for himself. It was an impressive city, that it truly was. He had seen quite a few, but the organization and care put into this one…it was somewhere that the citizens were proud of.
One final glance to his datapad, he stood up once more and began exploring down yet another path trying to find the illusive bar he had been told about. He really wanted to see it, and enjoy some of their drinks.
But first…he had to find it.
Aylin sat in the corner of the Playground, poking her drink with the straw it had come with. Normally she would be her happy childish self, but this time that was no were near the state she was feeling now. She had lost her new friend Deezn in the search of some stupid artefact that she now doubted was even on this ship. When she had gotten back, and her leg patched up, she had learned that Appius, Ankira and the kids had left too. All her close friends were gone now and she wondered what she would do next.
Gehn finally wandered into the playground, looking around as the amazing place that it was. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted <@417336769181122562> whom he had recently met while with Teebu on the Leviathan during the conflict.
He took a deep breath and steeled what energy he had left and made his way over to the corner table where she sat. Carefully he slid his bag up onto the rounded couch before climbing over and taking a seat next to her.
“Mind if I join you?” the Ugnaught asked as he looked at her curiously.
Taldryan Republic Senate
The Taldryan Republic Senate Chambers were designed similarly to that of the original that used to exist on Coruscant before the senate had been purged by Emperor Palpatine, though of a much smaller scale given the size of the fledgling republic.
The entire chamber was completely filled, one of the few times where all members had been present, with senators from Port Kasiya, Caleria, Chyron, Seitia Prime, and the dozens of smaller cities and towns that dotted the Kasiyan landscape.
At the heart of it in a large platform which had raised from the floor far below, sat the Interim Supreme Chancellor Teebu Nyrrire. To his right sat Interim Vice-Chancellor <@351852811883118594>, and his left sat a Chagrian by the name of U'Quay Beran, who was the Senate Administrator.
U'Quay slowly rose to his feet, the loud chatter of voices throughout the chamber coming to a complete stop. The chamber sat in complete silence as he looked around before speaking.
“Members of the Republic Senate. We are convened today to begin confirmation proceedings for the placement of the Interim Chancellor and Naval Grand Admiral Teebu Nyrrire to the full post of Supreme Chancellor,” the Chagrian slowly spoke before pausing for a moment, then continuing. “But first, a request has been submitted by the senator of the fourth district of Caleria and seconded by the senators from the first through third districts and the fifth through eleventh district senators from Caleria, as well as the delegation from Chyron.”
The platform slowly turned in the chamber until it faced the area where the Calerian delegation sat and he continued. “The floor recognizes the senator from the fourth district of Caleria, Cassandra Tyris.”
One of the pods within the Calerian delegation moved forward out into the open field, several spotlights from the ceiling dropping down onto it.
Cassandra slowly rose to her feet, a tall Epicanthix with red burgundy hair tied behind her in a ponytail. She was dressed in a gold and white outfit, reminiscent to that used by the High Republic many millenia prior. At the base of the front drape of her robes was a brighter gold Taldryan crest.
“Thank you, Administrator,” she opened with a deep and firm voice, “Senators, as you are all aware, we are here today to confirm the Vice-Chancellor into the post of Supreme Chancellor. It was the wish of the outgoing Supreme Chancellor, Appius Wight and unanimously supported by the Admiralty of the Taldryan Republic Naval Fleet.”
“I both respect the retiring Supreme Chancellor as well as the fleet, that is not a question at all,” she continued after a brief pause, “But I do question the Vice-Chancellor himself.”
This caused a brief commotion throughout the chamber with noise levels rising as they began to talk. U'Quay stood once more and bellowed out a brief request for order, the chamber having quieted once more.
“Vice-Chancellor Nyrrire came to Taldryan as a traitor to his own people, who are a part of the very Brotherhood that this Republic swears allegiance to. And despite concerns within the Taldryan leadership, he was accepted and proved his worth,” she continued once things were completely silent for a moment. “He helped orchestrate the liberation of Port Kasiya, and personally oversaw the construction of Caleria for the settlers from Ostara who did not wish to remain in the city.”
“He oversaw the mission to remove the ascendant meteor that nearly cost us everything and would have, had it not been removed. For his efforts, I must give the utmost of thanks.”
Applause broke out within the chamber for a few moments.
“However. Since then, he has colluded with one of our direct enemies. The 19th Saber Imperial Remnant. He had been captured by one of their agents, held captive for the better part of half a year, personally trained and rebuilt by one of their own,” she added as her tone shifted to a far more serious one, her gaze locked directly upon the platform where the Ewok sat. “Even now, he still refers to her as his master.”
“Master.” she said again with emphasis. “How can he serve the people of this republic with his full capabilities, if he himself is swearing fealty to an enemy?”
U'Quay leaned over to Teebu and whispered quietly. “…how can she possibly know about that? That information was restricted..”
“And not just that, but I have in good faith that the fleet has had ample access to ships and technology that would have seen the rescue of the people stranded on Ostara by the ion storms far sooner than we would have been. An option turned down by Vice-Chancellor Nyrrire himself.” she continued before stopping for a moment, as if considering her next words very carefully.
“Because of his compromised status,” she started before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, “I move for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Nyrrire’s leadership, and request a committee be convened to select candidates for Supreme Chancellor.”
Teebu sat back, completely in shock. His eyes were widened and he did not speak. The chamber at first was a chaotic ruccus as senators argued and yelled out over each other, some in protest and others in support.
U'Quay yelled out for order, but the chamber itself would not listen. The panel that sat at the front of the platform began lighting up as votes came in for the motion.
It was a landslide.
He was no longer going to be the Supreme Chancellor as he had thought.
…nor was he going to be the Vice-Chancellor at all.
It was over.
Aylin glanced up from her drink and looked curiously back at him.
“Sure, I guess,” she said after a moment. “Don’t think I have seen you here before.”
He shook his head negatively. “No, I don’t think we’ve actually been introduced actually. I saw you on board the Leviathan while we were in orbit over Kenari, I was working on several of the TIEs making sure they were ready for service.”
“I am Gehn.” he said with a smile, his eyes closed. “And you are?”
“I’m Aylin. One of the mechanics and making things go boom people.” She said as she returned to stare at her glass.
“If it was a different day you would get a more fancy greeting… So welcome to the Playground.”
Gehn slowly nodded his head, already understanding as he had heard what had happened. “Yeah…the Supreme Chancellor stepping down. It was quite the surprise, honestly. But at least they are still living nearby though in Caleria so they aren’t far away.”
He sat back in his seat and let out a slight sigh. He had an idea of how to cheer her up. “So as a mechanic, what do you traditionally like to work on? And your favorite boom?”
She glanced towards him again, frowning slightly.
“I work on droids and weapons most of the time,” she said as she tapped the table.
As on que, a small milicreep like droid appeared and chirped happily.
“This is Siky, my close companion on many missions that require special talents.”
“As for my favourite boom?” She asked, before sighing sadly. “That was the thunder glitter bomb. Specially made to work with a Spacewizards lightning attacks.”
He blinked with legitimate surprise. “Wait, you’re the glittermaster I’ve heard so much about? Oh wow, I actually had no idea that was you.”
Giving a glance to Siky, he gave a wave and a happy smile. “Hello there Siky! You’re an adorable little thing. Did you construct her?”
Aylin nodded, “I did indeed, programmed him too. And yes, I’m the glittermaster, though not everybody was quite happy about that.”
“Oh, I’ve been very happy about it. Seeing those massive glitter plumes instead of major explosions has been a highlight of my day. In fact, there’s been several occasions after the fighters have launched that I would quietly have the Levithan’s course adjusted just so I could get a solid view of the surface of worlds where I had heard you were gonna be so I could watch from orbit.” he said excitedly with much enthusiasm before a brief moment at the end. “Though…I rarely get to go down to the surface of places. I’m usually always stuck in the hangar.”
He turned his attention back to Siky, lowering a zooming monocle over his left eye as he leaned in. “The craftsmanship is impeccable, solid plate sizing with not a single gap that I can see, high quality parts too…quite a bit of Corellian make. I’m extremely impressed.”
Siky showed itself off as Gehn was looking at him. The Nautolan watched him and a soft giggle escaped her lips.
“Perhaps you can jo….” She didn’t finish her sentence when she remembered what happened to Deezn. “Nevermind… it’s not safe to be there.”
“Hm?” he asked curiously as he looked up from Sily, who was now shaking his droid butt in a cute way at him. “Not safe to be where? I am actually very good with bows.”
She looked curiously at him, “Bows?”
Siky waved his little antenna and chirped the same question.
He gave a nod before turning to his large pack and foraging through it. It was about thirty seconds before he brought out the segmented pieces of a Nightsister Energy Bow and placed them upon the table.
“It’s an exact replica, part for part, that the Nightsisters used to use many many years ago. It took me quite a few years to get the design down, but…it’s definitely my favorite weapon. I’m also very good with other ranged-style weaponry as well, building them at least. Not as good utilizing them.”
The Nautolan stared in wonder at the bow, “an energy bow? Dang… I thought they had all disappeared.”
Siky ran along the pieces and inspected every bit of it, beeping and chirping away.
“I’m good with the heavier range of ranged weapons and explosives. Guess we could learn a thing or two from each other,” she said with a smile.
Gehn smiled back as well. “Indeed. I’d always love to learn more on explosives. I can wire something to malfunction and explode, but the last time I handled anything that was actually explosive in and of itself…well…I was bald for a month.”
He scratched his head with a slight chuckle.
She chuckled softly, “sounds like how I started.”
She waved over a waiter and ordered some drinks for them.
“Ohy, look at this!” one of the Playground’s bartenders called out as they flipped the channel on the screen. A newscaster from the local Kasiyan Live channel was on the screen.
“New developments live from the Taldryan Senate. A no-confidence vote has been put forth and passed in Vice-Chancellor Teebu’s leadership. The planned confirmation vote has been suspended, and nominations for Supreme Chancellor are now taking place.”
Three pictures appear on the screen, one of Koda, Jorm, and the other of Cassandra.
“Currently three nominations have been made by members of the senate, Elysian Governor Koda Kendis who is currently acting as Interim Vice-Chancellor, Chyron Chancellor Jorm Na'trej, and Calerian 4th District Senator Cassandra Tyris, with more nominations expected shortly.”
Gehn watched the screen curiously as the waiter brought the drinks. He took hold of his and took a drink of it, his expression suddenly going sour.
“Whew…what is this?”
Aay'han had a very confusing few hours. She had no idea what to think or even feel as her feet just seemed to carry her along. Her mind had been racing, but she barely noticed where exactly she was.
Having gotten home a restlessness had settled in her, she had dropped her bag at the door and immediately left again. Her face and armour still smeared with blood and dirt from the hunt.
Walking seemed to make it easier to think, or at least she supposed it would. In the back of her mind she had settled on the thought of meeting the others at the bar. It couldn’t be any worse than the first time around.
The doors before her opened of their own accord. It seemed awfully bright in the room. Voices echoing as they reverberated through microphones to be heard.
A distant buzz as buttons were being pressed but she kept up her pace, the sudden change in the muttering voices tugged Aay'han out of her miandering reverie. What was even more unnerving than the many voices, was the sudden deathly silence that had become even louder than when they’d all been shouting.
“Huh… This isn’t the bar…” Was all she could manage. Keenly aware of having many eyes upon her. Not many of the faces looked friendly or familiar to her. Reflexively her hand went to her weapon for comfort.
As the ramp onto the lambda closed and it just as quickly departed from the Senate grounds.
Teebu was standing in the back, by himself. Koda had gone on his own way following the sudden upset, and the summit guard was no longer with him either.
He was holding a glass of Whyren’s Reserve, staring at it while contemplating his next thoughts.
He clenched the glass tightly in his paw before he grunted, turned to the side, and hurled it against the wall above several seats.
The alcohol went all over the passenger bay along with glass shards. Within moments, the door to the cockpit opened and the co-pilot stepped into the bay. “Sir, is everything alright? I heard a-”
“It’s fine, lieutenant,” Teebu cut in before he could continue his statement, “Leave me be and keep us headed back to Caleria.”
The co-pilot stood there for a moment in silence before giving a slight nod in response and a softer toned verbal response. “Yes, sir.”
After the door closed, Teebu sat down on one of the un-soaked seats and raised his right leg onto his left as he began massaging his forehead. His eyes briefly opened as he remembered hearing a slight noise after the glass had shattered, and he stopped.
He turned his head towards a small closet in the back. “If anyone is in there, come out now.”
<@359063763736854538>
She chuckled. “It’s what we call Rocket Fuel, it’s a mix of different drinks. Bit on the strong side at times.” Taking a sip of her own drink she wiggled her nose at the burning sensation. “Seems they were a bit royal with the strong drinks this time. I could offer you a CafPow instead, if you like?”
The sour expression on his face did not fade as he slid the drink further onto the table. “Yeah, that’s definitely comperable to it. And sure, I’ll try it.”
Aylin waved another waiter over and ordered two CafPow’s, making sure they didn’t mess up the combination this time.
“Don’t drink it in one go or you might get the jitters,” she said with a chuckle. “Or if you are like me an experienced energy drink drinker.”
He turned his head a bit before looking at the glass and the insane amount of carbonation.
First came a light sip. His eyes went wide as he downed the entire glass in one go, ignoring her warning.
“Oh…oh this is good.”
Aylin stared at him and if she could blink she certainly had. “Oh wow… No one of my friends was able to do that.”
Gehn nodded in confirmation as he wiped his lips off. “You wouldn’t believe the number of nights where I’ve literally survived on these kinds of drinks when doing heavy overhaul work. My species naturally is able to push through a lot of things, but tiredness is one thing that still ales us like everyone else.”
Teebu continued to stare at the closet, but as nothing came out he looked back ahead before leaning his head against the headrest with a deep sigh. There was no way it was an enemy, they would have already sprung against him if it were. Maybe something just fell over perhaps. That, or he was beginning to lose it with everything that had happened.
The first thing would be to realign his bearings once the shuttle arrived at the Naval Headquarters in Caleria, maybe even just deeply concern himself in fleet paperwork and tasks. Possibly even just return to the Leviathan and stay there for a while. He had options, at least, and that did bring him a bit of comfort. The political life was a life he definitely did not enjoy, and the thought of what would have happened if he had been confirmed as Supreme Chancellor still worried him even now.
Maybe this was actually a blessing in disguise…he could focus on what he loved, what he was good at…naval command. No bureaucracy, no red tape, those were things he could leave to the Admiralty board to resolve.
It should just be a couple more minutes before the shuttle arrived and he could get these thoughts out of his mind. Teebu moved his right hand onto his lightsaber and lightly tapped it.
Jorm smiled to himself, not that anybody could’ve told the difference to his usual face.
“Looks like that’s that,” the man behind him mumbled.
“Yupp. Not gonna lie, feels good,” the Kiffar replied and half-turned to look at his partner in conversation.
Red skin and blue hair stood in contrast to a nondescript suit while the Zeltron tapped away on his datapad.
Jorm could see several upside-down windows open, one of them with a musical composition program.
Never change, B-Man.
Then he did a double take on his erstwhile adjutant’s face.
“The hell, Beat,” he took off, “I know it’s not my job to stare you deeply in the eyes, but when did you stop wearing contacts?”
“Those? Just took them out for the session. I wanted to look presentable if anybody ever looks it up in the archives, seems like a historic turning point to me.”
Jorm raised an eyebrow and tugged at his own t-shirt, which looked like he had fought - and lost - a six-way paintball war.
Beat rolled his eyes.
“Anyway, Senator Tyris obviously turned our morsel into a banquet. And guess what, Bossman? I’ve got a hint that Operation Snatcheroo totally works if you give the word. Solid tracking, assets in place.”
“Sweet. Punch it,” Jorm replied as Teebu left the Senate in a disgraced Waddle.
A solid target lock derived from satellite triangulation guided the captured and re-crewed Marauder-class corvette out of hyperspace and right on top of Teebu’s massive shuttle.
Tractor beams flashed into life, the hyperdrive spun up again, and not even fifteen seconds after it emerged, the mechanical bird-of-prey escaped from the sublight dimension again, dragging the Upsilon with it.
Teebu’s thoughts shot to straight attention as the shuttle suddenly rumbled and it’s interior alarms began going off. He jumped from his seat and ran to the front cockpit where the pilots were scrambling to regain control.
“Emergency transponder activated, remote notification dispatched to the Bastion Battle Group and the Leviathan.” one of them called out.
“We’re firmly locked in a tractor beam, nothing is responding that would let us free.” the other said reluctantly.
Teebu shook his head as he walked up between them and pointed ahead.
“Those are lightspeed lines. You break us free of whatever has us here and we don’t have the velocity to match, we will be torn to shreds,” the Ewok said as he analyzed the situation, “The longer we are here though the better, it will give the Leviathan more time to catch up to us. It’s hyperdrive is nearly unmatched, so whoever opted to be this bold will just as quickly regret it.”
“..and what happens if not?” the co-pilot asked, a little worried.
“Then…we play it by ear.” Teebu said back as he watched the lines ahead. At this stage, all any of them could do was wait.
Aylin chuckled. “I know that all to well. Hours on end working on that last thing with only CafPow running through your veins. They find it a miracle that I’m still alive with the amounts I drank of it.” She looked at her drink again. “Well, you sure knew how to improve my mood after all what happened. So I guess I should thank you for that.”
It seemed there really was no rest for the wicked. After being dragged out of retirement and away from her business endeavours by the almost-war with Plagueis, Erinyes had returned to Kasiya only to start playing saleswoman and delivery girl. Today she was riding with the Consul’s Choice Distillery street crew as they went around dropping off products to some of their new clients in Port Kasiya. At the moment, that meant hauling cases of booze into the Playground’s storage room.
The turbulence forced Aay'han’s body through the doors. She had not realised she had been asleep until her body had tipped itself out of the cupboard.
Instincts steadied her body as she caught her balance. The sound of speech carried her out towards the cockpit.
As she approached she recognised Teebu’s back and silently loomed behind him, a quick glance through the viewport and consoles didn’t yield much to her grogy mind.
“What’s going on? Are we being abducted?” Her tone fairly neutral to the whole affair but her dishevelled appearance was probably not overly reassuring given the circumstances.
“Apparently so. Not sure by who, or why, but…gonna do what we can to get out of this. The Leviathan should be on our location shortly.” he said back to Aay'han. “And if something happens, at least we are getting you out.”
After stacking boxes upon boxes upon boxes, Erinyes decided to take a well-deserved break and meander out into the Playground’s seating area, with… yet another box full of bottles under her arm, though some of these ones had fancy golden-trimmed labels. She spotted Aylin and an Ugnaught she didn’t recognise sitting together, and moseyed in that direction at a “slow enough for someone to warn her off if it was meant to be a private meeting” pace.
“You’re welcome. You are a friend of Teebu’s and therefore a friend of mine.” Gehn said as he noticed the newcomer approaching. He remembered seeing her with drinks, and assumed she was a vendor. “I have credit, you have wares?”
<@645466919415054357> <@417336769181122562>
“Better to get out together, more chance of survival…” She leaned over him slightly to get a better view.
All she saw was the starlines of lightspeed and a massive ship above them.
“If anything happens…tell the others.” Teebu said lastly.
“I do have wares. No need for credits, these are free samples.” She dug several bottles out of the box, labelled by Kasiya Estates Vintners and Consul’s Choice Distillery, and placed them on the table. “I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Erin.”
“I am Gehn?” the Ugnaught said, but ending with a question as he eyed the strange colored drinks in the very unique bottles. They looked quite tasty…but knew appearances could be deceiving if the first drink tonight was any indication.
“Emerald wine, Socorran-style raava made from a local variety of berry that’s a bit spicier than the zsajhira, and the dark blue stuff is the first attempt at a local tsiraki with botanicals from the Scios Range. I’d stay away from the clear stuff unless you have a second liver or live off Rocket Fuel like Green Bean here does.” She gave Aylin a wink.
“… I was trying to get to the pub, got a drink in here?”
Teebu glanced around the shuttle before pointing to the back. “Should be a bottle of Whyren’s back there, probably on the floor but still intact.”
“Stage two,” Mica spoke into the helmet microphone of her borrowed vacuum-sealed light armor.
It wasn’t her usual attire, in fact it felt too big and clunky on her lithe frame, but it would allow her to keep breathing if anything went wrong.
“Roger,” the answer came, the transmission slightly crackling in the scramber field and tinny from encryption, “drop, crack, skeedaddle within ninety seconds of… now!
The corvette exited hyperspace with a lurch.
The thrum of thr hyperdrive was replaced with the distant whine of tractor beams drawing even more power and the grinding of the hangar floor, itself the hatch to the cavernous space, rolling partially open.
Then the screech, creak and crack as the Upsilon’s upswept wings crashed into the Marauder’s downswept ones and lost the fight for integrity, unceremoneously snapping off.
The main body of the Upsilon, large by any shuttle standard, smacked into the corvette’s bottom and clogged the narrow opening.
"Seventy-eight secs left,* the voice from the bridge announced.
Mica didn’t confirm - there was no need - and just lined up with the equally fully sealed breaching team.
Suspended from the recovery crane above her head, a composite beam laser intended for second-stage shipbreaking unloaded its energy through the shuttle’s upper hull, cutting a four feet hole within ten seconds.
As the slab of hull steel fell inwards, her point men opened up with grenade launchers.
Half a dozen sonic and blinding grenades were pumped into the hole, followed by a few stun charges, then her team was moving.
"Sixty-one.”
The eight teammenbers dropped through the hole and fanned out, hitting every body they found with more stun fire from their blasters.
“Up here in the cockpit,” one of them called out and double-tapped the little fuzzy creature, its taller companion, and the pilot despite nobody moving.
Then he dragged the Ewok back.
“Uhm, boss? Is he a Forcie?” The boarder pointed towards the lightsaber in Teebu’s hand.
“Definitely maybe,” Mica responded and snatched the weapon away, “hit him with the sedative to be sure.”
Her team complied and jabbed Nyirre with a syringe.
A muffled blast from behind signalled the destruction of the shuttle’s hyperdrive.
Thoroughness pays.
Then they were off again, scuttling up a narrow stair lowered by the hangar team, Teebu in tow like a wet rucksack.
“Twenty,” the captain announced.“
"Hull patch and cut loose,"Mica ordered. Jorm had shrugged off anybody on the shuttle besides Teebu, making it her choice, and she was no murderer.
The sticky foil was applied to the shuttle’s wound in seconds, then the crippled Upsilon was finally released from the Marauder’s claws and drifted away while its captor jumped to lightspeed on a new vector.
Just as the countdown finished, the Leviathan jumped into the area as the Marauder-class Corvette was leaving.
“Upsilon-class Shuttle Furbringer, this is the Leviathan. What is your status, over?” a voice called over the comm.
One of the pilots, still disoriented, managed to radio back. “We’ve been breached, the Grand Admiral has been taken. Repeat, has been taken.”
“Understood. Relaying to Leviathan actual, we are bringing you into the hangar bay now.” the voice said as a tractor lock was calmly placed upon the shuttle and it began moving back towards the massive capital ship.
“Oi! I told you not to call me Green Bean and they have been messing with the recipe again of the drink,” Aylin said as she crossed her arms.
“That’s easy enough to fix. Either the regular bartender’s off, or they got your version mixed up with mine. I’ll be right back.” Erinyes set the box of bottles down at the foot of the table and cantered off to the bar.
The TV shifts yet again to the senate for another breaking news update. “Good afternoon Port Kasiya, Mirada McCay here with another live update from the Taldryan Senate. Five delegates have been named for approval to the position of Supreme Chancellor, and one has declined to proceed forward with their nomination, Chyron Chancellor Jorm Na'trej. The Senate has now entered private session and a formal vote is expected at any time with Senate Administrator U'Quay at helm of the meeting. Stay tuned.”
On the floor next to her lies one of Teebu’s white and gold Taldryan sabers. <@359063763736854538>
A few minutes later, Erinyes returns with a tray of three deep glasses carrying seemingly-identical drinks, though one glass is a noticeably different colour. She sets the two same-coloured glasses down next to Aylin and Gehn, while keeping the differently-coloured one for herself, and floats the tray over to a passing server. “There, try it now. I watched them make it this time.”
<@417336769181122562> <@61385159655559168>
Gehn stares at it carefully. He was very much a lightweight when it came to alcohol, and could feel both Erinyes and Aylin’s eyes boring into him intently. The pressure was rising.
He took a light sip of it, waiting to see what its flavor and strength was…
Gehn would be able to tell it was a milder—and presumably correct—version of the Rocket Fuel from earlier. Even so, it was still strong enough that taking it slow would be advised.
His face immediately grimaced like before, not nearly as bad, as if a sour gumdrop had been placed in his mouth.
“Gehhhh…yeah…if I’m going to be around you two, probably gonna have to get used to this.”
“Hey, drink whatever you want. I’m not here to judge.”
“We just had a flash on the rear sensors when we bailed out. Judging by the mass, could’ve only been the Lev,” the voice from the bridge announced.
Mica heard the last words double as she entered the command deck herself.
“No surprise there. How long until we zig?”
“Ten… five… three, two, one,” the helmsman counted down, “change of course and… back into hyperspace we go!”
The Captain behind him nodded and turned to Mica, indistinguishable behind the anonymous helmet and armore everybody on the ship wore.
“That’s the fourth of the five pre-programmed legs. Is the pet secure?”
“Out like a candle and high as a kite to boot. The boys are bagging him right now,” she replied.
“Excellent. Crew, start the purge.”
All around them, crewmembers inserted datadisks into their consoles, feeding them with an Imperial Remnant deletion algorithm. In addition, they flipped covered switches on devices bolted onto their stations.
An alarm chirped throughout the ship, cueing the crew to leave their stations and head towards the hangar.
Mica stepped up to the helmsman’s station and put a device in place - nothing more than a robotic arm with a simple logic circuit slaved to a countdown.
She double checked the timers and counted down with them.
“Exiting… now,” the helmsman announced and pulled the hyperspace activation lever back.
As the Marauder entered realspace again, Mica closed the robotic claw over the lever and started the timer while the helmsman changed course for the final time.
“Zagging now. Ass towards Kasiya, nose pointing right at Virgillia,” he stated.
“Automatic’s running, and so should we,” Mica responded.
The helmsman grunted and motioned for her to lead the way.
It was a hundred-metre sprint down the spinal corridor that took them less than twenty seconds, then they both jumped into the empty air above the once again open hangar floor and latched onto a zipline that reached up through the atmospheric force field.
Mica looked down as her zipline motor pulled her out of the ship and towards the waiting craft - the two-prongued, garishly painted form gave it away as an Ember Swarm Decimator. Besides it, another equally colorful Decimator pulled away, half of the Marauder’s crew aboard.
The zipline ended in a wide open airlock that left the inside open to hard vacuum, but that had been accounted for. She rode in feet first and rolled out of the way for the Helmsman, joining the other half of the crew cooped up like fowl in a cage - and Teebu, wrapped into a softshell plastic bubble with an oxygen generator.
The airlock closed and the Decimator reverberatedinaudibly as it jumped to lightspeed, then it’s Commander’s voice filled her helmet.
“Jump successful, scopes are clear.”
Meanwhile on the Marauder, the first countdown expired. The simple logic circuit bid the robot arm to bend, and pulled the hyperspace activation lever forward. The ship followed suit and jumped beyond lightspeed.
Fifteen seconds later, the second cooldown hit zero - and ignited the scuttling charges.
As thermal charges vaporized every console and computer core on the ship, more explosives excited the near-full hypermatter fuel stores beyond stability.
While going as fast as it possibly could in hyperspace, the ship tore itself into a cloud of superluminous shrapnel that would re-emerge spread ofer lightyears of space.
“I definitely don’t expect people to keep up with my drinking. The ones who try usually regret it.” She slid into a seat. “So, where you from, Gehn? You look kind of familiar.”
Gehn’s head kind of lowered and his thumb circled on the glass as he took a drink, forcing it down this time with clenched eyes.
“I’m originally from Bespin. Spent the better part of a decade doing maintenance work on Kessel after the Empire came,” he started with a remorseful voice. The cheery Gehn was gone. “When it was finally freed, I was transferred to one of Moff Genko’s kyber mines doing the exact same thing in the Subterrel sector.”
“And you don’t drink? Colour me impressed. How’d you get this far into the Outer Rim?”
“Teebu, actually.” he came back with, a little color back in his face. “He rescued me when he was a prisoner there as well. Though he had it far worse than I, the Moff personally handled his torture sessions. When we escaped, he brought me here after the battle over Saijo.”
“As for the drinking part, just never had access to alcohol.”
“I see. Well, I hope things have been better for you since you got here.” She waved to a server to refill Gehn’s empty CafPow instead of inflicting more alcohol on him.
No sooner than it had been served, without even a glance, the glass was empty. As if it had never been filled again.
“They have been, though Ive mainly been stuck on the Leviathan doing the exact same thing all over again. Its been hard to get out and do anything with as much work as there’s been.”
Erinyes snapped her fingers in recognition. “Are you the one who fixed the wobble in the Nightshade’s portside engine? The chromium-plated Decimator? That’s been bugging me for months!”
He gave a slight nod. “Yeah, that was a fun one. It was a full overnight teardown, the 6th interior support joint had failed so it was giving a massive amount of movement on the lower left. Took me about eleven straight hours.”
A white, red, and gold Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft dropped out of hyperspace, a crackle came over Taldryan comms, “This is Governor Koda Kendis, let’s wreak some havoc. What’s the status of our ‘illustrious’ Grand Admiral?”
“Governor Kendis, this is Leviathan actual.” the familiar voice of Captain Chella Orsonn responded on the comm. “The tracking device on him has gone silent, so we are assuming some kind of interference, but last we managed to track it was on a course of 298 towards the Tunka and Koradin sector areas.”
“You, sir, deserve a weekend off. If you ever want to come out to the Retreat or one of the resorts at Mytilene, let me know, and the Clan will foot the bill.” Erinyes frowned at the messages coming from her comlink. “Did something happen to Teebu already? He’s barely been out of the Summit Guard’s sight for a few hours.”
Gehn’s face suddenly went serious like a Wookiee with a life debt. “What’s wrong?”
“Beats me, this is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Understood, Leviathan. I’ll make my way towards Tunka and run some scans, hopefully I can narrow the search.” Koda plotted the course
Erinyes sighed to Gehn and Aylin. “We seem to have misplaced an Ewok.”
“I should have given him an injected tracker,” Aylin muttered softly.
She looked at Erinyes, “Are we going to try and find him again?”
“This Kendis person seems to be on the trail already, but it wouldn’t hurt to be ready as backup. Teebu vanished too quickly after losing his Summit Guard detail for it to be a coincidence.”
Meanwhile the holofeed shifted once more, some patrons getting annoyed it was going off yet again. But everyone seemed to watch with anticipation when the Chagrian Senate Administrator U'Quay appeared.
“Members of the Taldryan Republic. It is my honor to announce that the Second Supreme Chancellor of the Taldryan Republic has been selected.” he said firmly as he looked around the senate chamber before starting to sit at the end of his sentence. “The senator from the 4th district of Caleria, Cassandra Oriana Tyris. Supreme Chancellor Tyris, if you will.”
A red burgundy haired woman stood from behind the massive platform, now dressed in a slightly revealing but incredibly professional purple and blue Jedi garb. Her hair was in a ponytail, with a slight bit in front of her face on the left side. Her eyes were a soft teal color that seemed to change depending on the light’s angle. “Thank you, Administrator U'Quay.”
She turned her attention to the cameras and the senate at large. “I want to thank the members of the senate for entrusting me with this important duty.”
She continued with an opening speech for another couple of minutes before a thunderous applause throughout the senate. The feed then shifted back to the holoball match, where the patrons in the Playground cheered just as hard as the senate had just been.
“I agree,” Gehn said as he downed the alcoholic drink next to him by accident, followed by a slight gag. “Some-something is amiss.”
Erinyes’ eyes shot up at Cassandra’s image before the bar’s TV changed channels. “Damn, that’s the new Chancellor? What I’d give for some shady backroom dealings with her… Ahem. Easy there, Gehn. Take a second before you stand up, or you’ll be on the floor.”
He, unfortunately, was already face down after tripping over his bag that sat next to him.
“Well, I guess I can’t really fault anyone else for drinking on the job.” She bent over to help Gehn stand up and collect his things, since the Ugnaught looked like he needed a place to sleep off his unintentional drinking binge. “Take it slow, now.”
“I’m good, I’m good.” Gehn said as he made his way to his feet. “Let’s go.”
Erinyes hesitantly let the Ugnaught try to stand on his own, and beckoned for Aylin to follow. “Come on, we can all take the Nightshade.”
Once he was on his feet, he seemed to do just fine.
The next stop for the three of them would be the spaceport, where they could climb aboard the same chromium-plated Decimator that Erinyes had described. A yellow-toned astromech warbled hello to the new arrivals, identifying itself as R3-N3.
( <@417336769181122562> to keep you in the loop)
“Hi, Sparky.” She patted the droid’s dome. “We lost Teebu. Can you grab his last vector from flight ops and plot us a course while I start the preflight?”
Siky chirped an hello to the droid and stated it could help as well.
Aylin looked around. “Uh… what are you planning if we find him? I don’t exactly have my gear with me.”
“Well, that’s that,” Jorm repeatet Beat’s earlier words, “will there be snacks now?”
“Aren’t you supposed to shake her hand and welcome her to the neighborhood or something? I mean, if we’re speaking of navies, that lady has the biggest around here,” the Zeltron suggested.
“Ah hell, why not. Let’s set up some future scandals,” Jorm accepted and got up.
“We can stop off and get it. I’ve also got an old chaff launcher you can turn into a giant glitter cannon.”
R3 was happy to accept Siky’s help, and trundled over to a scomp link to access the ship’s communications and start figuring out where Teebu had gone.
A mischievous glimmer came over her eyes as she grinned, “now that is a challenge I gladly accept. I didn’t know you were into glitter.”
Siky beeped and skittered after the big droid to help him search.
The droid beeped excitedly and plotted the course. It was a straight southeasternly course towards Caleria. Most of the way there the emergency transponder had activated and suddenly shot straight out into space at a high velocity far beyond the capabilities of the shuttle according to Sparky.
“I’m into large distractions, and I’ve learned that you’re very good at making those, especially when glitter is involved.” She listened to R3 and Siky’s report as she settled into the pilot’s seat. “Okay, so… physics says Teebu was probably kidnapped?”
Gehn went to work on the console, tapping into the system’s long range detection system. “Confirmed. Something about the size of a corvette. But it was gone no sooner than it appeared. That’s all it could detect.”
“It was right on top of them like it knew exactly where it was going to be…”
“So the simplest explanation is that it did know where he was going to be.”
He nodded in agreement. “There’s no doubt. But the flight data logs and locator are fully encrypted, I made sure of that myself so its positioning outside of the V.O.D.O system would have been virtually impossible. Every access for its location has been fully legitimate as well and dual-encrypted, both from Taldryan Tower and the Senate complex.”
He sat back for a moment thinking. “I can’t think of how they would have triangulated it.”
“Maybe his attackers were Force-sensitive.”
“If there was no technical way they could’ve tracked him, but they did it anyway, they must’ve done it in a non-technical way… right?”
Gehn pondered for a moment as he scratched his chin. “Possibly. But they still would have had to have the timing down. A tracking beacon or something perhaps? Or yeah, a seeker or something that had a mental lock on him. I would check with the senate guard, a unit of them observe the force when in session for that kind of thing. Maybe they detected something if that was the case.”
“If there was a seeker that locked onto him on the senate grounds, that is.”
As Koda continued on his plotted course towards Tunka, his ship’s emergency systems begin going off as lights begin flashing reflecting the rapid decline of the shields. Something was occuring in lightspeed at his location.
“What the blazes..?” Koda looked around and checked his systems before running a scan of his immediate surroundings.
His systems were fine for the immediate moment, but his shields would only last for another seventeen seconds before they collapsed.
Around his surroundings, his sensors detected hundreds of thousands of pieces of high-speed debris all headed af an angled direction to him, at a slightly slower pace than his maximum speed.
Koda looked around for the closest edge to the asteroid storm and made a b-line for it to avoid them all.
There was a asteroid storm not far ahead, and just barely makes it out of lightspeed and behind an asteroid as the shields collapse and the engines and rear armor take critical damage. The asteroids around him were taking massive pelts however, with fragments of them flying off at high-speeds as they were slammed by the miniature objects at light-speed level speeds. There were also several larger metallic fragments floating past at fairly high speeds, but not nearly as fast as the little.
“That’s definitely not normal.” Koda attempted to establish a connection with the Leviathan
There was no response but severe levels of static.
He sighed and double checked all of his systems, “I really need to get a co-pilot.” He hoped he wasn’t in any immediate danger, but he figured that there was something here that was destroyed.
Aside from his engines being damaged, and his rear armor plating torn to shreds, but everything else was operational including his communications systems.
Despite the engines being damaged, however, they were still capable of being used normally.
The Bastion was already beat to hell anyways, what’s a little bit more damage?
Koda navigated the ship through the asteroid and debris field, turning on the flood lights to see if there was anything specific he could see.
Each time he went out from between asteroids, his hull took repeated damage and the durability levels quickly began slipping.
At one point, he did take notice of a much larger piece of metal plating with scorch marks which had been torn on every side.
<@351852811883118594>
And then it stopped. Aside from a few smaller hits onto the asteroids, the high-speed field suddenly ended.
“Well how about that?” Koda said to himself, he went to go investigate the metal plating with scorch marks.
The plate itself was grey in color, with some tinges of red coloring like it had a pattern before which had went across it. Most of the red was gone from fragment impacts but the outline was still there.
Koda didn’t quite know what ship it belonged to, but where there’s one piece there should be another. Koda kept looking around, taking it slow to avoid any debris damage as his shield recharges.
There were pieces of varying sizes, small, extremely small, others so small he only saw them as brief light specks as they disintegrated against the shields.
The speeds of those were just enough that his shields were no longer climbing in durability…but was not falling either.
Other larger pieces had embedded themselves in the asteroids, some having created massive craters.
While he was looking around at the debris, Koda kept trying to reach the Leviathan.
He had no issues connecting this time, with the debris field having passed.
“Leviathan communications center, yes Governor Kendis?” an unknown voice to him came across the comm unit.
“I’ve arrived in the Tunka system, and I’ve found a major debris storm. I thought it was just asteroids, but we have some kind of decimated ship here with scorch marks. I don’t have any means of properly identifying it.” He relayed the information
“Understood, forwarding to the bridge. We will take a look at the data. Is your ship still travel-worthy or do we need to dispatch a ship to retrieve you?”
“This old girl is still kicking, I should be fine. If not I can make some quick repairs. Bastion over and out.”
“Understood, Governor. We’re here if you need us.” and with that the channel was closed and it was just Koda and the loneliness of the asteroid field.
He was used to being in the stars alone. While he had the time he figured he would work on repairs, anything inside first. But if repairs were needed outside he would put his helmet on and get a proper seal.
(Short Timeskip, 6 hours)
<@359063763736854538> is safely aboard the Leviathan, awaiting a meeting with her friend Captain Orsonn while sitting in the Grand Admiral’s quarters, which was a rather luxurious space. (Check image)
<@351852811883118594> has managed to repair the exterior of his vessel, with worries about how it will progress back at lightspeed due to the amount of damage the rear had taken which cannot be repaired in field. His options are to travel home system by system, exploring the galaxy a bit, test the fates and go to lightspeed anyways (as his ship is a badass.), or request aid from the fleet. (Roll of 54/100)
<@645466919415054357> has been summoned to the Taldryan Tower, up to the 552nd floor, where the original ruins of the old Presidential Tower were before the War for Port Kasiya.
<@414705077484257280> ‘s crew has successfully secured the package, and what happens next is well…on you.
<@417336769181122562> and Gehn are together, in a location of her choice. (If you can decide.)
“We’ve been through worse, darling.” Koda patted the main console of the Bastion and set in the coordinates to meet up with the Leviathan and zoomed into lightspeed, having a very bumpy ride.
Ooh, the Presidential Tower… Erinyes hadn’t been here since before she’d had to care about Kasiya’s civilian government.
What a weird thought.
Anyway, here she was, waiting outside her meeting with the new Chancellor with datapad in one hand and flask in the other. Time to see how much this Cassandra person cared about the Summit Guard’s daily activities, how well she handled nicknames, and whether Erinyes would have to explain how Teebu went missing so quickly after being let out from under the Summit Guard’s gaze.
The Presidential Tower, or as the secretary called it the Chancellor’s Suite, was an illustrious looking area. It looked almost similar to the original that existed years ago on Coruscant. When she first entered, there was no one there. The secretary motioned to a set of doors on the far right, which led to another hallway of red carpeting and dark yellow colored walls. Statues lined both sides, with another set of larger doors straight ahead, and a smaller set to the right.
As the next set opened, Erinyes was able to see the backside of a large chair, eerily reminiscent to that of Emperor Palpatine.
“Welcome, General Ténama.” the voice of Cassandra spoke, the chair slowly turning around. Her right leg was crossed over her left, and her head was resting on her left fist, elbow on the armrest of the chair. “It is an honor to meet a legend, such as yourself.”
Erinyes grinned and plopped down in one of the chairs across from Cassandra. “Now, now. Flattery will get you absolutely everywhere. What should I call you? Grand-successor? Cass? Something entirely less appropriate for a public setting?”
A deep smirk came across her face. “And there’s that former Consul snark I heard so much about in the archives. You may call me whatever you wish, most call me either Cassandra, Ori, or previously at least, Senator Tyris.”
She slowly rose to her feet, her massive frame over a full foot taller than Erinyes’. She linked her hands behind her as she walked over towards a table on the side, before unlinking them to be able and pour two glasses of an amber looking liquid. “Though some have taken to calling me Lord Second, whatever that means. I found nothing referencing my predecessor Chancellor Wight as Lord First, so…”
Both glasses in hand, she turned and brought one over to her and handed it to her. “Here.”
“Thanks. "Erinyes sniffs the glass, mostly to look pickier than she is, and sips from it while she sizes up the sizeable Epicanthix. "I trust your security arrangements have been adequate in the few hours they’ve been relevant.”
No sooner than it touches her lips, does the cold, rich flavor palette of wine rush into her mouth.
Cassandra gave a nod as she sits back down, this time with her knees together and her hands resting upon them. Her demeanor and attitude seemed to shift. “Yes, it has been nothing but swell since my appointment. Initially it was several Ewoks, which was a little odd given it would take about five of them to match my height.”
“That was one part unprepared body doubling, and one part diversity initiative Teebu implemented. We called it Ewoke.” It had also been a deliberate test to see how much the new Chancellor would complain about the failure, but Erinyes wasn’t about to admit that, as she waited for Cassandra’s reaction.
She blinked, a little surprised by that. But her response was neither negative, targeted, or hostile; instead, voiced as supportive and curious. “Interesting. Though with policies the way they are, that double system seemed to fail, didn’t it? I do not fault you, however, as the protection detail ended immediately following dismissal. It was his own error in tactics to have his military guard so far away, though from the reports I have read, it would not have mattered had they been present or not.”
There was a strange air of kindness coming from her.
Erinyes shook her head. “Those particular Ewoks were also part of the Summit Guard; that’s why they didn’t go with Teebu when he left. When Teebu first joined the Summit, he quite reasonably pointed out that he didn’t have a convincing body double. A small detachment from his private security detail joined the Summit Guard for that purpose. Unfortunately, shuffling guard taskings went a bit slower than Senate procedure for once, so we found out we’d need an Epicanthix instead of five Ewoks in a trench coat about the same time everyone else did.
"As for Teebu, I haven’t spent much time investigating his disappearance; personal fondness for him aside, he stopped being my problem as soon as you all voted him out of a job, as you noted. Of course, if you want the Summit Guard to look into things, that’s your prerogative.”
She broke out laughing, raising her right hand to her lips as she did so, her eyes closed. “Five ewoks in a trench coat, oh I would have loved to have seen that, hehe.”
Once she composed herself, she continued. “But yes, I am already aware they were part of the summit guard. I have read the report briefing from the senate guard as well as from the Admiralty around his other guard detachment. As for investigating, that is being left to the Office of Secret Intelligence. We have other issues that are rising up, unfortunately.”
“Oh? Do tell.” Erinyes took another sip of wine. “Incidentally, if you’re a fan of Chandrilan amber, I can arrange to have a planting of their grapes at Kasiya Estates.”
“Amber? Whatever do you mean?” she asked as she motioned to the liquor. It was a vibrant teal color, not amber as her mental image had originally conveyed of it. “But yes, that would be enjoyable. I would like that.”
She finished off her own glass before sitting back in her chair, arms on both armrests with her expression shifting once more to a more serious tone. “Upon investigation of the information found near the Tunka system by Interim Vice-Chancellor Kendis, we have identified that the vessel which had been transporting the Grand Admiral was destroyed while in lightspeed. It is still unknown what events led to its destruction, however a massive debris field is passing through the Tunka sector as we speak. It will arrive in the Koradin sector in approximately thirty-two hours.”
“It’s also a damn sight easier than getting Toniray grapes, what with their home planet not existing anymore.” Erinyes frowned over her glass at both the news of the lightspeed accident, and the prospect of wasting as something as valuable as a Toniray on a glorified staff meeting, though it was flattering that Cassandra had gone to the trouble of bringing it out. “So, someone waited for Teebu to lose his Summit Guard entourage, then went after him—while offering no signs of a credible threat to OSI despite the operation being extremely well-coordinated—and has now gone kablooey, to use the technical term.”
“That is the gist of it, unfortunately. However, given the organization that they went to, I believe it to be a feint. If they wanted him dead, why not just destroy the shuttle? Instead, something conveniently occurs in lightspeed while the ship is traveling to the exact realm that he has direct ties to and would have no reason to commit such an act?” she replied back. “Which on that topic, I wanted to ask if you have had any experience with their leader. Grand Moff Jafan Sloven.”
“No, I’ve been camping out at a winery for the past eighteen months, without full access to the intelligence reports.”
“So this will be a blind conversation then.” she said, a little disappointed. “Because though we may be enemies…he must be warned.”
“I try not to be the kind of leader who takes classified documents to their private resort after they retire. It results in people calling to ask my opinion on things.”
Erinyes shrugged and polished off the glass of Toniray. “I’ve gone into more desperate situations with less information. Besides, unless he’s about to walk through the door or his file is longer than some of the Academy courses I had to supervise, it’s not like I won’t have time to read it on the way over.”
“As far as I am concerned, as the head of my guard, you may take what you wish when you wish. You have already been assigned level 8 clearance, granting you access to even the lowest depths of the tower within terminal dogma.” she responded to the first statement, after politely waiting for her to finish the second. As she started again, she handed Erinyes a datapad. “I have an emergency holo conference with him in ten minutes. Quickly brief yourself on him, and then observe and give me your thoughts following it.”
“Wonderful.” Erinyes took the datapad and started to skim it.
A few moments later, she reached for her flask of tsiraki. “Oh, lovely. A spook.”
“Oh?” Cassandra asked inquisitively.
“I used to work with a lot of those types, on some things I’m probably still not allowed to discuss.” Erinyes sighed. “If Sloven was smart and patient enough to not immediately try to set himself up as a warlord after the fall of the Empire, I can make a few educated guesses about him, and I don’t like most of the answers.”
A few paragraphs later, Erinyes snorted. “I told Appius that trying to play nice with business magnates was a waste of time. You give them a long enough leash, and they try to blow up your headquarters. Then again, if it was Yorinobu’s stupidity that forced Sloven into the open, maybe it’s a good thing we let him live.”
“That, or it was a timed move and he was already planning to come into the open. With the Final Order gone, and the Republic in full disarray, there would be nothing to significantly stand against him.”
“If he’s that crafty, aren’t we playing into his hands by warning him about the attack on Teebu? For all we know, he set it up himself as a ruse against us.”
“On the other hand, I guess seeing his reaction to the warning would let us learn something of his intentions.” Erinyes rubbed the bridge of her nose. “See, kark like this is why I kept Biask as head of OSI. He was always a lot better at the wilderness-of-mirrors thing than I am.”
“Vodo Biask is actually the reason we know of the catastrophic events that are about to befall Sloven’s throne world,” she continued before staring straight at Erinyes after leaning in towards her. “That massive debris storm I warned you about…it’s origin point is not far from the Caelus System. And based on the rotational orbit of Virgillia, it is going to strike it straight on. Bevelle will be obliterated. We will be blamed.”
Erinyes raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I have several questions. First, why didn’t anyone tell me Biask was giving advice from beyond the grave? Second, do we care that people will blame us for destroying Bevelle? That might seem rhetorical if you’re making such a fuss about it, but I’ve found that a lot of the people who care about things like ‘democracy’ and ‘doing the right thing’ are more concerned with others’ opinions of them than they need to be.” She paused for a swig of tsiraki. “Third, what exactly are we supposed to do about a massive debris storm? And for a bonus question, what’s this about one of Sloven’s minions ‘getting her claws’ into Major Malfunction?”
“I was unaware that you were unaware that he was alive, and also the central artificial intelligence that runs the entirety of Port Kasiya and Caleria. As for why…the combined fleet of both Moffs in inclusion to the central fleet that Sloven has, we would not stand a chance. We are lucky he has turned against Moff Genko. The survival and needs of Taldryan comes first, and I will not lead us to an unwinnable war.” she said as another glass of the wine popped up in front of her somehow, followed by a chirp. “According to intelligence, Virgillia has a shield similar to ours. If we warn him, we gain favor and it gives them time to activate it.”
“..and who is Major Malfunction?”
“Dasha. She’s a major, and likes hack into systems and shut them down.”
“Ah yes…I remember reading a briefing on that. The same woman who saved the Grand Admiral and trained him, is the same one who deceived Dasha and nearly gained possession of a particular ring, the ring of Vodo Biask.”
“Unfortunately, she only got picky about which systems she hacked for fun after she caused a logistical bottleneck and I almost bounced her off the ceiling for it.” Erinyes blinked. “I thought Dasha was going to give that ring to Zakai or something.”
She pulled out another datapad and examined it carefully. “Apparently she had, but Zakai Biask refused it. It wound up in possession by Teebu, who had a latent force sensitivity that awakened the spirit of Vodo. Somehow, it made him whole again in spirit and allowed the Ewok to become fully versed in the force. However, it began to corrupt him. This was when they attempted to make a move on the ring through Dasha, but it was seen through by none other than the Ewok and Chancellor Wight. Ultimately, the ring was inadvertently destroyed and his spirit was transferred by Dasha somehow into the Taldryan data core.”
The familar voice of Vodo spoke from behind them. “I don’t like when people tell stories about me.” It was a blue holographic form, relayed by several image projectors built into the walls. He looked at Erinyes with a slight smile.
“It’s been a while.”
“Well, stop spying on literally everyone in the city, ya creep.” Erinyes grinned at the projection. “You’re looking good, for a dead guy.”
“And you’re looking good for an old lady.” he snarked back with an equal grin. “And Im not spying, came to tell you that you have a call on encrypted channel 14. Origin point, Bevelle City.”
Cassandra gave a slight nod. “Thank you, Vodo. That will be all.”
He nodded and looked back to Erin. “We’ll have to catch up. Have the engineers install projectors at that new compound of yours. I’d love to see it.”
“Sure. We’ll have to hook you up to the Getaway anyway.”
“Nothing on sensors. Spies back home confirm that neither the Lev nor other TAL ships are anywhere near us,” the Decimator’s Commander stated through his helmet com, “and quite frankly, after that getaway, the dip through the junkyard, and the corona slingshot, they’d be so insane that I’d just drop the bear and hyper out.”
“Looks like they aren’t though. Set course for the rendezvous point and then the hand-off,” Mica ordered. She was still fully armored up like everybody else on the team, anonymous beyond the general terms of height and stature, and they all would remain so until their package had been delivered.
The slightly scorched Decimator in fiery livery turned and jumped away to hand off excess crew, and finally to meet the customer.
<@679032520699805708>
.
Aay'han sat within the office, her fingers danced across the decorations adorning the hilt of the alien lightsaber. Her mind was going over and over the events replaying them in the safety of her own mind. It seemed like the only place that felt normal.
Her braids had started to rebel against the ties holding them. Skin itching with the grime still smeared across it. Any onlookers would hesitate to disturb her an aura of rage pinged off her without any realisation.
She still nursed the bottle of alcohol she had been given. Having placed it upon the floor next to her boot. Every now and then she would lean down to swipe it up for a swig.
The door slid open to the large room and Captain Chella Orsonn walked in. She proceeded over towards the window area where Aay'han was sitting and sat down next to her. “I’m sorry it took so long to see you, Aay'han. It’s been nothing but chaos as we search the nearby systems and go over information. Are you alright?”
The woman didn’t immediately garner a reply from Aay'han. Her taking a seat caused a jerk in the girl but she tried to mask the affair by reaching down for the bottle taking a generous swig from the contents. It didn’t hide the change in her eyes, the calm pools of Hazel to chaotic crimson.
“Fine enough, what’s happening? Where are we going?”
Chella sat there quietly for a moment, wanting her friend to settle a bit. Last thing she knew she needed was to lean too heavily on the bottle.
“At this stage we are returning to Kasiya. The fleet is being recalled due to a situation in the Koradin sector, but the OSI is taking over the hunt. So far…we haven’t found anything leading to Teebu. If past experiences are anything, however, he will show up at some point again.”
“So, what you’re telling me is you have nothing… How long until we’re back?” Her hands clenched on the blade hilt with half a mind to use it.
“No, we’ve found plenty. We know it was very orchestrated, and from what Vodo has been able to identify, they went to great lengths to make us think it was the 19th Saber. But the circumstances are far too…convenient.” she said back, reassuringly. “It gives us a general feel for the direction they would have gone in. If they did that much, then they would want to zig and zag to mask their pathings. But definitely they would not have gone to the south due to the pirates and the reinforced Saijo line, and the northwest is out due to the feint. So its east towards Mustafar, northeast towards Scholae Palatinae territory further out, or north along the Trade spine. The new Supreme Chancellor is supossed to be reaching out to Scholae Palatinae to inquire if they’ve detected anything, and our allies in the north are combing the sectors.”
“As for how long until we return, we should be dropping out of lightspeed at any point. Vice-Chancellor Koda should be arriving back as well about the same time.” Chella said after a pause, noticing her hands on the saber. “Use that anger wisely, towards those that did this and not yourself. It isn’t your fault, what happened. Forensics on the shuttle indicated that even had his personal guard been present, it was far too quick and calculated. They knew exactly where he was.”
She slowly stood and walked over to the bar, filling a glass with water before bringing it back over to the table and very slowly sitting it down without a noise. “Here. Once we are back, is there anywhere you would like to go? I can have a transport ready.”
.
Considering the words she nodded and relaxed back into the comfort of the seat. Settling herself in to watch the view uncertain what to do with herself.
“I haven’t much to do back home.” The sad truth of it being she had very little beyond Tracinya and Juhist in the form of ties. It wasn’t easy for others to spend long with her, sometimes she would just wait for her next job they had for her.
“Well, thats one downside of peacetime. There really isnt much to do outside of random things, or monotonous repetition if you’re in the military like I.” she said softly before snapping her fingers. “I know! What’s something you’ve always enjoyed but never been able to do?”
“Even if its been just a really long time.”
Cassandra turned her chair as a large hologram image of a gruff looking imperial appeared. He wore the traditional green colored uniform, with the rank insignia of a Grand Moff. His beard, which was very thicc, was solid black in color with black hair. He was standing, arms linked behind him.
“Well now,” the man started to say with a snide overtone in his voice as he looked up and down. “The rumors that have already crossed my desk of the new Supreme Chancellor’s beauty were completely off. Far better than I had anticipated.”
“Grand Moff Sloven, I presume.” Cassandra bit back, having completely ignored his attempt at being cute.
His facial expression shifted to a cold, emotionless appearance after it was apparent his tactic was not going to work. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company today, dear?”
“I’ve called you to warn of an impending threat against Virgillia, particularly Bevelle City.” She had gone straight to the point, leaving little to no wiggle room outside of the topic.
“A threat, you say?” he asked, with a solid feigned voice of curiosity. “Whom would dare threaten my empire? It would not be you, would it? That would be the worst tactical blunder anyone could make. So please, tell me it isnt.”
Before she could say a word, he brought his right hand in front of him and snapped his gloved hand, with an open mouth smile. “Oh, I know! The threat is you want to merge our worlds and have me marry you, meaning my empire would no longer be mine. Thats it, isnt it?”
The Epicanthix tapped her finger on her armrest impatiently. “First, are you done? Second, I have no interest in someone like you much less men. So dispense with the flattery, it’s unbecoming of someone of your station.”
His smile faded as he crossed his arms. A slight smirk came across Cassandra’s face as she noticed this shift, a sign he was now in a defensive posture.
“So be it. What is this threat you speak of?” he asked, this time the tone of his voice being more serious.
She tapped several keys on her chair, which Sloven turned to look to his left. He reached down with his right hand out of view.
“A debris storm. A large capital-class ship was destroyed in hyperspace enroute to Tunka. We are unsure of the exact specifics at this time, but based on the orbits of your system, we estimate the field will strike Virgillia. Our estimates show Bevelle would be utterly devestated. I was calling to warn you, to ensure you had your shield up prior to its arrival.” she then explained in a calm manner, with no indication of his previous slight having bothered her. “Last thing I want is a war between our two factions, had you thought we were behind it. Or, had simply known about it and said nothing.”
He paused for a moment, looking away from the feed. “Hm.”
“If you’re trying to detect it, you wont. Much of it is superluminal traveling at lightspeed, we only identified it when one of our own was caught in it’s tail.” Cassandra added, with a hint of oh, and by the way in a slightly condescending tone.
“When is it due to arrive by your estimates?” There was no remark to the tone at all, an air of seriousness about him now.
“Thirty-six hours. It will strike at roughly 2357 hours directly over Bevelle.”
He reached up and scratched his beard before looking back at her. “We will make sure the shield is up. Most likely augment it with support power from our energy grid to ensure nothing gets past. If what you say is true, then I will owe you.”
She gave a slight nod, with a light smile. “No owing needed, your excellency. Just one friendly leader to another.”
*“Hmph. Indeed. Sloven, out.” he said sharply before the call terminated.
Slowly her chair turned back, and she looked at Erinyes. “Impressions?”
<@645466919415054357>
“Apart from needing to go to Iridonia for my rite I’m happy to help out wherever. It’s not like I got much waiting on me.” She spoke idly but she was twitchy
She turned her head a bit trying to stifle a slight laugh by letting out a slight sigh instead. “I’m not meaning for business or work, I was meaning for relaxing and unwinding. Go and ski on the mountains of Elysia, explore the Karufr Lowlands forest and go hiking, race podracers on the track in the Wilds, snow excursion…anything to get your mind off things and live a little.”
The Imperial-Class Star Destroyer Palpatine reverted to normal space above the Decimator. The panel on Mica’s Decimator flickered a feeble warning; cowered into submission by the mighty flagship of Scholae Palatinae.
“Decimator, we are activating slave circuits and will guide you into our hangar. Any attempt to regain control will result in your immediate destruction,” the crisp Imperial female voice stated before disappearing from the comm. An unnatural silence filled the command deck of their ship. Mica looked at her crew, hoping the face she gave them let them know she was still in control of the situation, while she swallowed the lump of apprehension. This deal had better pay off.
She felt the ship move of its own volition before the tractor beams jostled them. These Imperials weren’t taking any chances as the bow of the ship was turned towards the hangar as twin TIEs launched and took up position as escorts.
She began to think of raising of the price as their ship was brought to an unceremonious landing. Several squads of stormtroopers raced out and took formation near the boarding ramp as it descended. Their blasters at the ready.
Mica disembarked first, as was her right and privledge, as the victor. Her crew escorted the unconscious creature secured to a hoverbed. “I was told I would be meeting with Kamjin,” Mica said, full of swagger.
A hard faced Imperial officer sized Mica up. “The Emperor is not in the habit of dealing with…procurers of goods. That will be my job,” the officer said, a Colonel if Mica judged her insignia correctly.
“This is important cargo and I had an agreement,” Mica countered.
“Yes and that agreement will be honored. I believe the Bureau of Interplanetary Trade is finalizing an agreement with the Chyron government. I must say that shows a greater degree of subtlety than I expected of your kind,” the Colonel said.
Mica had half a mind to start a fight over that ‘your kind’ comment but a quick count of the blaster nozzles pointed in her direction settled the argument before it could begin. “Fine,” Mica said, wanting to conclude this transaction as quickly as possible now. She motioned with her fingers and the crew handed the controls of the hoverbed to a deck officer who took the still unconscious Ewok into Imperial custody.
Mica took one last look at the would be ruler and boarded her ship with her crew. As they took over she thought she saw a red blur appear on the hangar deck. No matter, it wasn’t her problem anymore and it never would be again.
Kamjin, Emperor of Scholae Palatinae, strolled onto the hangar deck. His crimson armor glinting in the bright lights while his earthen cloak flowed behind him. He would not be patient. Not after all this time. Not for this.
The squads of stormtroopers brought themselves to attention. “Is it him?” Kamjin asked while still several meters way. Colonel Deprina was running a scanner over the Ewok. She took her time, not willing to jeopardize her life by answering to eagerly.
Kamjin brought himself up short. It looked like him but they all looked the same. Certainly to the farmer the Nerf looked different by for Kamjin food was food; and Ewoks were nothing more than a delicious meal.
Kamjin stared at Deprina. Finally she nodded. It was Teebu. “Wake him up,” Kamjin ordered. He would have one last conversation before he brought an end to this dance.
One of them pressed a button on the side of the container, and it hissed open with a gaseous unlock. As the lid lifted, Teebu’s eyes slowly began to drift open as he began to lift himself up.
“Ugh…what in the world happened…?” he said to himself weakly as he managed to fall from the inside of the container before climbing to his feet. He glanced upward, seeing the familiar face of Mica…and the unmistakable form and clothing of Emperor Lap'lamiz. “You. Only you would have been so bold to seize me from Kasiya like that. When Taldryan finds out about this…”
Kamjin lazily raised his hand and sent a bolt of Force lightning cascading over the Ewok. “No one will ever know where you were,” Kamjin said, sneering as his manical face was illuminated.
Teebu went flying backwards to the ground, writhing in agonizing pain as the bolt ran throughout his body, briefly illuminating his internal skeleton. With several deep breaths, he slowly brought himself back to his feet. He would not fall here.
“Tell me, your excellency…why are you doing this? There was peace between our peoples…why would you risk shattering it like this?” he said, his breathing slightly labored. He was, at least, persistent.
Kamjin raised his other hand sending dual cascading torrents of Force lightning crashing into the Ewok. He cackled with unhinged pleasure.
“Peace…is a lie. You foolish creature. There is only passion and I am very passionate about my dining. Scholae Palatinae navigates the political currents as it sees fit. Your Republic as you call it will be no better than the former Republic we replaced,” Kamjin sneered, reaching out with the invisible teethers of the Force to yank the smoking Ewok back near him. “And as I said, no one knows this is where you’ll meet your end.”
The Ewok fell forward, sliding across the floor, his golden colored pauldrons scraping the hangar deck as he did so. Once again, he brought himself back up to his feet. A slight smile and laugh crossed his face as he did so. “The fact that you think I was talking about Taldryan that time…amuses me.”
He looked up at Kamjin, not offering a bit of resistance as he straightened his burn-scarred and damaged uniform, bringing it back to presenting status. “That tells me you are unaware of what has occurred this last year. How my dedication to the empire yet still usurps any forms of loyalty I tried to have. Plagueis, Taldryan…even as I tried, it held for neither.”
He paused for a moment before continuing. “I even fell to the vices of Taldryan’s greatest threat, simply because it’s leader and command staff were former high-ranking imperials. Given your allegiances being so close to mine…it would be a waste to kill and eat me. Do you know why?”
Kamjin pinched his forefinger and thumb together, smirking as the hapless Ewok grasped for its throat as it was lifted into the air. “I do not care,” Kamjin said, lowering his hand while keeping the Ewok suspended clawing at its throat for air.
“Your pathetic people chose to side with the Rebellion. That’s a curse that’s in the blood I’m afraid. Whatever allegiance you think you’ve held has been an illusion. While I hope it was for the enjoyable and amusement of your Clan and the rest of the Brotherhood; it disgusts me,” Kamjin said, flicking a tatter piece of Teebu’s uniform.
“You don’t deserve to wear this,” he said, ripping the Grand Admiral uniform from Teebu’s furry body. “This is earned through a lifetime of service. Dedication. Loyalty and a brilliance you clearly haven’t mustered,” Kamjin monologued before seeing Teebu’s eyes begin to roll in his head.
With a dismissive motion of his hand the Ewok crumpled back to the floor.
He began laughing as, surprisingly enough, he brought himself back to his feet yet again. He continued laughing before it faded, his face taking a serious expression . “That is where you are wrong, your excellency. I never sided with the rebellion. Even following the end of the war when I lost my official capacity as an Admiral, I kept killing them. I never stopped. My resolve, and resilience, is what earned me that uniform. And even without it on, my pride still stands.”
Teebu looked Kamjin straight in the eyes his expression hardened. “And that pride dictates even if I am to die here, it will be on my feet. Facing my enemy. Like a true Imperial.”
“I will not cower from you.”
And with that, one of Kamjin’s lightsabers left his side and was in Teebu’s hand. Its vibrant blue color appeared as it was ignited and held in front of him. “Nor will I go easily.”
Kamjin reacted immediately, his own blood red lightsaber sprang to life. Secretly, he had wanted it this way. As their blades began to dance, the squads of stormtroopers backed up in amazement as their Emperor parried and reposed the jumping attacks of this little bear.
Kamjin smirked as his cloak twirled behind him as they moved around the hangar. It wasn’t enough to simply kill the bear. Nor was it enough to feast upon him. He wanted to humiliate him. To prove to it that Ewoks could never truly be what he claimed to be. Then, and only then, would he end it.
Teebu continuously shifted from offensive to defensive and back again, leaping around Kamjin while using his mastery of Ataru to his advantage. The only issue he was immediately running into was his opponents own mastery of Niman, using subtle telekinetic moves to try and both draw him in for strikes but also keep him just far enough back from properly trying to strike his weak areas.
As they fought, the Ewok took a telekinetic strike straight to his chest, barely having time to bring him his barrier in front of him to absorb most of the impact. Had he not have, he most likely would have been incapacitated from the shear force of it. With a single deep inhale and exhale, he launched himself back at Kamjin, using his own telekinetic strength to reinforce his movement towards him.
A single bolt of lightning shot towards him, he knew what Kamjin was hoping for. To use the saber to block it and give up his advance. Instead, he let himself fall and roll to the side, narrowly missing its strike as it hit the floor where he had been standing instead. He went in, aiming straight for the Emperor’s side, and just barely had a graze and a cut before he was thrown back yet again, one of the counter-strikes from him taking off his left furry ear.
This charade had gone on far enough. Kamjin’s eyes pulsed with putrid yellow as he opened himself to the Dark Side. With a howl Kamjin launched himself at the Ewok. With each slash he felt the Ewok’s resolve falter.
More so, he felt his own saber fight against Teebu. He hadn’t won that blade and the kyber, while not bled, still was bound to Kamjin’s will. With a mere suggestion the blade began to wobble in Teebu’s hand. The slightest opening that allowed Kamjin to break through his defenses. A blow to the bicep saw the lightsaber drop, deactivated, from Teebu’s grasp as Kamjin dropped his blade to sheer the Ewok’s thigh.
“You never stood a chance. When I said I’d eat you, I meant it. But, I’m not content just with you now. Once I’m sated and hunger again…I’m going to find your village and I’ll eat everyone you ever loved.”
There it was. The opening he had needed. His last second illusion had worked, Kamjin’s lightsaber passing through what he thought was Teebu’s thigh but instead pure air. The unignited saber faded from the floor, as did the injured Teebu from in front of him.
Directly above him, lightsaber pulled behind him with teeth clenched, Teebu brought it up and forward to bring down upon Kamjin, who had just managed to see through it but had a brief moment of surprise with his own fear that he may not be able to bring his lightsaber up in time. As the Emperor brought his own lightsaber up however to at least attempt a parry, a single blaster rifle bolt struck Teebu in the side and knocked him off course. One of the stormtroopers had apparently feared the outcome of this act, and chose to act themselves.
Teebu dropped the saber as he twisted in the air and collapsed to the ground. He gripped his side, where the shot had gone straight through him. Kamjin reached out with the force and pulled the lightsaber to his other hand, looking down at the Ewok for a moment.
Unsurprisingly, yet again, the Ewok brought himself to his feet but with barely any strength remaining. Most of his concentration had now gone to preventing himself from passing out from the wound, the fight having left him now.
He stood straight up as if at attention and slowly took in a breath of air. Kamjin walked towards him and arced his saber horizontally. Teebu kept his eyes open and did not turn to flee, nor turn his back. Just as he had said he would do, even upon his death. He did not fear it. He had a good life, had accomplished plenty, and it was time he paid for the atrocities he had committed over several decades. He let his last breath out as the lightsaber passed through him and cut him in two.
His upper torso fell backwards while his lower simply crumpled to the ground.
Kamjin turned and with a slight nod of his head the trooper who had fired found his neck snapped. As the trooper crumpled to the ground he stared at the Ewok with a look in his eye.
Of the surviving troopers they never could tell what that look was. Disgust? Respect? Loss? For ages they’d tell the story differently each time.
Later than evening, Kamjin sat at the table in the officer’s galley. He swirled a dark red wine in his glass, one of the few vintages that remained from his home planet. The platters of various cuts were arrayed before him. The smell was exquisite. The presentation beyond what you’d have found on Corsucant. There were an assortment of simple sides. Nothing to heavy as to distract from the main course.
Kamjin raised his glass, the nose carried a nutty and earthy aroma. His mind flashed back momentarily to the Ewok’s homeworld of Endor. He took a sip, savoring the wine, while carving into a perfectly portioned filet mignon. Taking the bite the meat melted in his mouth, as he always knew it would.
He chewed with the patience of an alpha who knew no one would challenge him for his meal. As the starscape bled into the familiar tunnel of hyperspace, Kamjin felt his tension leave his body as he went in for another bite.
Before Erinyes could reply to Cassandra’s question, Vodo’s hologram appeared with a concerned look upon his face.
“Excuse me, Supreme Chancellor…I have…news.” the holographic image of the Twi'lek spoke with a somber voice. “A disturbance in the force…the Grand Admiral…he is dead.”
She leaned her head back against the seat, briefly closing her eyes before rubbing her forehead with her hand. Barely a day in, and already she had stumbled this severely. “Thank you Vodo. And, I am sorry for your personal loss. Notify the fleet and OSI, call off the search. Shift to investigative reconnaissance mode instead, we will find who killed him.”
He gave a slight nod before the hologram faded.
“Well, I guess that answers that dilemma.” She raised her flask in an early toast to the fallen Ewok. “Anyway. Sloven’s about what I expected.”
“A chauvinistic pig, at the least.” she remarked as she grabbed the glass from her armrest and swirled it’s contents. “One that one day will present a threat to us, without a doubt.”
Cassandra brought it to her lips and took a brief sip. “Still, if he truly means to owe us, that might prove useful in the future if even for just Taldryan’s benefit with no reciprocation from us.”
“I doubt he has the integrity to repay that favour in a way that’ll benefit us. If I were in his shoes, I’d make a show of repaying a favour in a way that hurts us somehow, but also make us look like the bad guys if we turn him down.”
Briefly, V.O.D.O.‘s hologram appeared behind Erinyes, smirking. “So you were paying attention all that time.”
Erinyes turned around with a grumble. “Dammit. I’m going to have to start pretending to ignore your advice again, aren’t I?”
“You thought I would let you off easy?” The hologram faded.
“It was his idea to gauge your perception skills, even though your record indicated otherwise.” Cassandra said as she slowly stood and extended her hand out towards her to shake hers. “You passed with flying colors, and you saw exactly what I did. As did my droid. So your worthiness to stand at my side and lead my guard is absolute.”
“Oh, uh… thanks?” Erinyes stood and shook Cassandra’s hand. “I’m glad you have confidence in my ability to see your continued welfare as a benefit to both myself and the Clan.”
“Republic. Whatever.”
“That isn’t what was tested. What was tested was your perception of gauging those around me, who interact with me, and soon my Vice-Chancellor. As well as hopefully gauge threats not around us as well.”
“And yes, I know that is new to you as well. Something your successor set up.”
Erinyes snorted. “I’m a Sith, remember? Everyone is a threat, especially when you have enemies who are capable of messing with seeming allies’ minds. The question is whether their interests are more in alignment with yours or someone else’s.”
“As for Taldryan, run it like a republic if you want, but I’m going to deal with threats as though it were still a Clan. Just so we understand each other.”
“I would expect nothing less. As far as I am concerned, Taldryan comes first even before my own self. Be it as its former Clan status, or as a Republic. If any part of this republic were to act against it, I would expect it to be handled.”
“That sounds lovely. So, who do I need to vet as your Vice-Chancellor? Or do they have to be elected first?”
“There’s a few I have in mind.” she said as she crossed her arms, and tapped the side of her face. “So let’s go and begin meeting a few of them. One is out in the city, and there’s a good bar I hear as well. Supossed to have some good food and drinks. Give us an opportunity to get to know each other better on a more personal level away from these settings. BD-6, let’s go.”
A small droid suddenly appeared from under the table, and leapt up Cassandra’s side before standing on her shoulder, giving off several chirps.
“Perfect. I need to get back to delivering booze and making money for us anyway.”
“Hey, did you record that flight control jerkface,” Mica asked the Commander as the Decimator jumped into hyperspace once more.
“Sure thing. That soundbite about slave circuits on this here pirate ship will be a blast in the bar,” the man replied.
“Good. Shoot me a copy, I know just what to do.”
With a renewal in the tension of her body she considered the suggestion carefully. Fingers idly reaching for the tabac pouch and rolled herself a cigarra.
“So what you’re saying is that I should pretend this never happened to us for a few hours?” Aay'han was very confused by this woman, her hobbies tended to be not so healthy for those around her at the best of times, she didn’t think the Captain would appreciate her doing it on her ship.
Without really asking for permission she lit her smoke savouring the first inhale.
“Not at all. Proccessing it is the most healthy thing you can do. Doesnt mean you don’t have to be stressed while doing it.” she said as she extended her hand out, motioning at the pack. “May I as well?”
Aay'han happily rolls the cigarra for her, offering it to her along with the lighter.
“… I’ve experienced it, survived it. What’s there to process?” The girl looked even more confused than she normally did.
<@417336769181122562> and Gehn had arrived back on the Leviathan, and had proceeded to the engineering bay to work on the new weapon she had gotten from <@645466919415054357>. This had been the first time Aylin had ever been in the lower decks of the massive ship, having normally always been near the hangar bays and command sections.
Despite being this far down, conditions were kept absolutely immaculate and maintained, even to a higher standard than the heart of the ship above. Though once they arrived in the engineering corridor and entered Gehn’s private workspace, that beauty disappeared.
Grease was on the walls, dismantled droid segments, bridge panels and screens, fighter engine segments that had been lifted there via a lift which was along the ceiling and through a removable wall plate allowing access to the engineering and maintenance bay. Around every major thing were dozens of parts, plating, and overall what appeared to be junk.
Despite the chaos…there appeared to be order. Specific tools sat in front of specific things in an exacting order.
He went over to his desk and flipped a switch, a large rectangular table-looking platform rising from the floor. A light descended from the ceiling to better illuminate this specific section. “Put it here.”
Chella took it with a nod, and lit the end of it like a professional. She gave the lighter back before taking a long puff and letting it out in a ring. “I can see the tension in you, your mind trying to hold things together. While you yourself may have processed it…I guarantee your mind has not. The moment I approached, I saw how you reacted. Even just a simple bump during a shuttle ride will probably trigger you for a while.”
Leaning back against the chair, she took another puff and this time let out three rings, of descending size. “By doing other things, you can help it to relax and uncoil itself. I learned that from my predecessor when I was but a Ensign fresh on the bridge years ago.”
“Oh yeah, that.” Aay'han gave a slight chuckle. It was at best odd at worst disconcerting. “That’s my usual, nothing to be particularly worried about.”
She was happy to share her time and smokes with her. Even offering the bottle to her to share if she’s willing.
She graciously took the bottle and took a swig of it. She tasted the flavor in her mouth before sitting the bottle down. “What..exactly is this? It tastes like pure alcohol and nothing else.”
Aylin looked around the room with a grin on her face as she followed him into the workspace. When the table was ready she placed the cannon onto the table.
“Feels like home here,” Aylin said as she looked at the droids. “Used to work on a lot of different droids to the annoyance of my family…”
She placed her big bag next to the table and squatted next to it to start pulling out items they would need to convert the launcher into a proper glitter launcher.
In turn, Gehn sat down his bag as well and walked over to one of the nearby walls. He slid a small card into a crease line where two of the wall panels met, and it went in. Another platform raised up from the floor, but this time a massive tool chest with hundreds of various tools, bits and pieces of various sizes, anything that could ever be needed for a repair.
“I always repaired them because I loved it, even with my life on the line sometimes. Makes me glad I always had a strong work ethic in relation to mechanical work.” he said as he examined his tools, considering carefully what they would need that she may not potentially have. He collected the tools, and made his way back to the table.
Axios. The last words of a man who wasn’t quite as dead as Erinyes had thought, now the name of one of Taldryan’s capital ships. This new Nebula-class design was a fitting successor to the one she’d christened, Erinyes had decided.
Whether the pilots of the fighter group met the same standard would be another question.
Erinyes strode down the corridor that connected the ready rooms to the hangar, searching for an officer: Commander Farelle, the leader of Scourge Squadron. According to his record, Farelle had served Taldryan with distinction for years. He was just the kind of person she’d need, at least in the short term.
The Duros pilot came to attention when he saw Erinyes. “General. What can I do for you?”
“You can tell me more about the pilots of Scourge Squadron,” Erinyes said, holding a datapad out to Farelle. “You’re being placed on TDY to the Summit Guard effective immediately, and I’d like to know who I’m working with.”
“I see.” Farelle skimmed the datapad’s display, then set it down on a holoprojector, and paused for a moment before speaking. “We’re all former New Republic Defence Fleet. Some of us joined the Resistance and flew against the First Order at Exegol. There wasn’t much to do after that, so we joined up with Taldryan back when Rhylance was Consul. The rest is history, as they say.”
Erinyes nodded, and reached out with the Force. “Mm… I sense apprehension in you, Commander.”
“Powerful Sith tend to get that reaction from me, General.” To his credit, Farelle didn’t flinch from the accusation.
“I appreciate your bluntness,” Erinyes chuckled. “One of the names of your reserve roster caught my eye: the Ugnaught, Gehn. I thought he was a mechanic aboard the Leviathan. How did he get his wings?”
Farelle tilted his head thoughtfully. “Gehn’s an odd one. Grand Admiral Nyrrire brought him to Taldryan after Saijo. He asked to be posted as a pilot, but the brass put him to work as a mechanic—'needs of the service’ and all that. He got chummy with a couple of my pilots when we were on exercise aboard the Lev and they all hit the simulators together. He’s never formally gone to flight school as far as anyone knows, but it turns out he handles a stick as well as anyone, so we pulled a few strings and had him listed as a pilot trainee. Not that it means much when we’re stationed on different ships, but… I don’t know, maybe it’ll help convince the brass to send him to flight school.” The Duros shrugged.
“Interesting…” An idea began to form in Erinyes’ mind. “Has he seen combat before?”
“Once, on an anti-piracy patrol when one of our regulars was in the medbay.” Farelle shifted slightly from foot to foot.
Erinyes raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“He got bloodthirsty.” Farelle sighed. “The fighter controller ordered him to break off when the pirates retreated, but he ignored orders and pursued them until the Lev had to tractor him back in. There’s no question he’s got skills, but he’s going to have to learn how to follow orders if he ever wants a spot in a fighter squadron.”
“I see.” Erinyes tapped her chin. “Thanks for the info, Commander. For the time being, you’ll be assigned as escorts for the Supreme Chancellor, until we have more interesting work for you. The transfer orders are on the datapad.”
Farelle nodded, and Erinyes bid the Duros farewell. In the Axios’ corridor, she pulled out her personal datapad and tapped out a message to the Leviathan requesting a certain Ugnaught’s contact details, then brought up a blank transfer order.
“Some fancy stuff the furball likes drinking. He said I could have it. Tastes like a very sweet wine to me.” She obviously wasn’t thrilled but decided not to complain as it was a freebie. “So what hobbies do you have? Maybe I’ll borrow a few.”
“Well, I particularly like skiing down the slopes of Mount Arreat, I also like-” Chella had started before being interrupted by a chime from her comm. She reached to her side and grasped onto it, flipping it on. “This is the Captain.”
“Ma'am, priority one holo communication from headquarters. It’s on encrypted channel 6.” the voice of the communications officer came across.
“Thank you.” she replied as she closed the comm and stood up. “Excuse me for a moment, Aay'han.”
Chella made her way to the nearby holotable and with the press of several keys, a holo of Admiral Zangar Estyrix appeared. She bowed her head, eyes closed. “Admiral, what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I am afraid I have some bad news, Commodore.” Zangar started, his voice distant with worry. “The Grand Admiral is dead.”
Chella’s eyes shot straight up meet the Admiral’s, her expression suddenly that of complete shock and disbelief. “W-what? Are you certain?”
“I’m afraid so. V.O.D.O has confirmed it through the link he had with him, and a final mental message that was sent just prior to when their connection was severed.” Zangar continued, his own expression unchanged and still steeled as always. Chella fell backwards into the seat she was then standing in front of, her eyes quietly darting around. She had no words for what she was hearing. How? Why? Who? “The Admiralty board has just finished its emergency meeting regarding this, and the decision is unanimous. Though unprecedented, myself, Admiral Baaru, and Admiral Gilran all concur on it, as did the recently deceased Grand Admiral.”
She looked up at Admiral Zangar, still confused. “Sir?”
“His reports on your development are nothing short of spectacular, and in his personnel logs it was his recommendation that in the event he became Supreme Chancellor, he would want command of the Leviathan to pass to you. However, none below the rank of Vice Admiral has ever commanded a Taldryan Flagship. Therefore, rather than change that tradition, we have decided to grant you a field promotion to that rank instead. Congratulations, Vice Admiral Orsonn. Updated command codes are being dispatched now, expect them within the hour.”
She gave a brisk nod, her own expression now hardening. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
Just as quickly she was on her feet and saluted. Zangar did the same, and as he was reaching off to the side to terminate the call she quickly cut in. “Oh, sir, if I may?”
“Hm?”
“What was his…the Grand Admiral’s…last message?” she asked, trying not to let emotions get to the head of her.
“It was two words. Mangata Ephemeral.” Zephyr answered as he watched the newly minted Vice Admiral carefully for a few moments. “Good luck. Zephyr, out.”
The hologram of the Admiral faded, Chella sitting in her seat now contained in her own thoughts much like Aay'han had been. Those two words rang in her mind…
“Mangata Ephemeral…”
Gehn continued to work on the new weapon with Aylin, honestly having the most fun he has had in a long time. The other mechanics he often worked with never had the same depth or passion for the craft, so he felt alone in his task. But Aylin? She was just as dedicated, if not his direct equal, when it came to the life of an artisan. He kind of wished she were in the military, though he would never say it. Nearby, his datapad lit up, a message from the bridge, but neither of them had saw it.
“Hm.” the Ugnaught pondered, scratching his chin while holding his elbow with his other hand. “We need to rework the propulsion mechanism, but we can’t use the standard or it’ll set the glitter aflame. What do you think, air pressure shears? It would definitely get it some good distance. And depending on the glitter’s composition, could make it dangerous at close proximity if the pieces were flat and sharp enough.”
<@417336769181122562>
She tilted her head as she pondered about it. It was certainly a possibility, but it would need more tinkering on the glitter.
“I guess it could work, yes, or we use delayed glitter deployment. Then we don’t have to worry to get the glitter to catch fire and it would be more useful in different environments, kinda like a rocket or bullet. Or I need to alter my glitter formula. It’s now made to work better with Force users, but I have different versions of my glitter composition.”
Whilst the Shaevalian-Umbaran was uncertain of what fresh hell he had walked into, there was no question that Celevon wanted nothing whatsoever to do with weaponized glitter.
Instead, the Sorcerer made his way to the bar, nodding almost absently in response to the greetings. Being referred to as ‘Governor’ would take some getting used to. The battle with Clan Plagueis had made several distinct memories resurface, all of them with varying levels of unpleasantness.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked, continuing about his motions to finish drying off a glass before it was returned to the rack.
“Corellian Rum on the rocks. Leave the bottle,” Celevon instructed, only to receive a shrug in response as the bartender grabbed the bottle and rang up the purchase ahead of time. A swipe of his credit chip paid it off and the Sorcerer retreated to a corner, his mind focused on a decade in the past.
When the Clan went to war with itself after a power vacuum, the Elder’s vessel had been annihilated in battle. To date, Celevon was unaware of how he survived the capital ship’s explosion, only that he awoke in an escape pod some hours later.
“A delay might give the enemy ample time to react…or stand there and laugh thinking the ignition failed and nothing happened, before the grand finale. It’s a gamble.” Gehn said as he scribbled notes onto his datapad. He whistled what sounded like a droid call, and a small mouse droid came out from a pile of debris.
Gehn sat the datapad on top of the droid. “Take this to C9P4 and R9, tell them to get me fifty prototype pieces as quickly as possible to these measurements.”
The mouse droid chirped several times before going back into the pile of debris.
It was only maybe twenty minutes before the mouse droid came back with a small container, that also contained several droid fingers. The Ugnaught quietly stared at the container as he lifted it onto the table. “Um…tell C9P4 thank you.”
The droid shot off before Gehn motioned to the container. It contained a small amount of brilliantly reflecting glitter.
Aylin arched a brow at the result before chuckling. She ducked under the table again and rummaged around in her bag. When she appeared again she placed a few empty shells onto the table and 3 bottles of glitter, all marked with a code to see what kind of mix was inside them.
“Be careful with the last bottle, it has the itchy version of glitter in it, highly irritatable and even worse to remove.”
Gehn scratched his chin before smirking. “You truly are a devious little one. I like you, a lot.”
He then looked at the empty shells, a little confused. “Either these are empty, or the glitter is transparent or microscopic. Cloaked even maybe. But that would defeat the glamor purpose of glitter if so…”
She grinned from ear to ear, “Thanks!”
“You first guess is correct,” she said as she picked one up, “but I like the cloaked glitter idea, need to keep that in mind. Save that idea, Siky.”
Her little droid chirped and wiggled it’s little antenna as it did what it was asked.
With being on a different ship and all that, Erinyes could hardly just drop in on Gehn and Aylin, so she departed the Axios for Kasiya instead. She could fill Gehn’s transfer order out over a carafe of something, and she knew just the bar to do it at.
The Axios’ shuttle hangar was as bustling as ever, with mechanics scurrying to and fro to ensure that every ship passing through their hands was in tip-top condition. Erinyes commed R3 to let her back into the Nightshade, and she and the droid began running through the Decimator’s preflight checklist. She’d only recently taken up flying again, and it was a little surprising to her how much she’d missed it. Maybe she’d use her semi-retirement as an opportunity to spend more time in the cockpit.
Once the ship was humming along to her satisfaction and R3 was nestled securely in his corner of the cockpit, Erinyes commed traffic control. “Axios tower, this is the Nightshade, requesting launch clearance.”
A short while later, the Decimator sailed into the blackness of space. Erinyes’ co-pilot Kiza, the usual operator of the ship, emerged from her cabin and took the right seat in the cockpit. “Where we off to this time?”
Erinyes shook her head. “Just planetside. I’ll probably be stuck there for a while, until everything gets sorted out with the new Chancellor.”
“Congratulations, I guess…” She had eavesdropped on the whole conversation, but had the grace to at least wait until the end of the chat.
It was hard to ignore it, not that she really cared what the outcome would be.
“Who killed him?”
“I don’t know. I also don’t even know what those words mean much less if theres a hidden meaning.” Chella said as she stood up and immediately began thinking. “Let’s go do something fun. Your pick. Anything at all, even dangerous.”
Giving her a long slow look. “Are you for real? It’s a Clan, you should be expecting the worst.”
“On the contrary, it’ll help me think. And given the system’s scanners we would notice anyone trying to skulk up on us, and the entirety of the fleet is here as well save the Floatilla.”
“Gonna celebrate the promotion then?” Aay'han could change topics without missing a beat.
“Sure, why not. Let’s do that. I’m gonna let the bridge know I’m going off-ship for a bit, meet me in the hangar bay in fifteen.” Chella said as she scooted out the door and to the right.
The banter continued as Erinyes, Kiza, and R3 maneuvered their way through Kasiya’s atmosphere. Eventually, Erinyes left the controls to Kiza and went aft. Once she was out of earshot, she grabbed Gehn’s comlink frequency from her datapad and sent the Ugnaught a hail.
<@61385159655559168>
While the pair continued working on the new weapon, quite a bit of progress having been made, Gehn glanced down and saw his commlink light up.
“One sec, Aylin. Could be from one of the squadrons again,” he said as he plucked it from his belt and turned it on, “Deck Chief Gehn.”
“Hi, Gehn, it’s Erin. I have an opportunity for you.” With her other hand, Erinyes had already started filling out the transfer form.
“Oh, hello Erin!” Gehn said a little amused that it wasn’t one of the squadron commanders…for once. Someone else actually called him. “What opportunity is that? Need the summit lambas worked on? New weapons for the guard? Anything you need I’ll gladly help you out with.”
“It’s a little more exciting than that. How would you like to fly ships instead of just tinkering with them?”
He blinked several times, a little taken aback. “Wait. What?”
With a brief pause he wanted to make sure he heard that correctly. “You’re wanting me to be a pilot?”
“I’m wanting you to both pilot and tinker. So yes, piloting would be one of the things you’d do.”
“What about the Leviathan? I dont think Teebu would appreciate it when he gets back. Aside from that though…definitely count me in. Be a very nice change of pace. That and chubby-looking guard armor…”
“Good. I’ll get the forms filled out. You’ll have a few days to talk to your department and let them know.” She briefly considered telling Gehn about Teebu’s demise, but quickly decided that since she wasn’t Consul anymore, it was conveniently not her decision to share such sensitive information.
“Understood. I’ll notify the Lieutenant and get things rolling on this end.” Gehn said as he clicked his comm off. The prospects flowed though his mind…
His own lab on the surface, more room to tinker in, new designs and concepts he could work on with <@417336769181122562> together…
He liked the idea a lot.
With that errand out of the way, Erinyes returned to filling in Gehn’s transfer paperwork. It would make for a quiet ride back to Mytilene, at least.
Gehn looked at Aylin with a sly grin. “What kind of workshop do you have size wise?” <@417336769181122562>
Aylin shrugged slightly, “almost the complete 42nd floor of the tower is ours to work on. So a fair bit bigger then this room.”
Aay'han gave a slight nod and left her to sort whatever she needed to do. Honestly her mind just blotted it out due to how boring it seemed.
Space as black as antimatter greeted the Greater Drake as it emerged from the swirling blue vortex of Hyperspace. In the pilot’s seat sat Anders, tapping the screen of his datapad. He pursed his lips as BUDD-E, his little droid companion, hopped up onto his shoulder and beeped into his ear.
“Yes, Buddy. We should be arriving at Kasiya in five… four… three… two… and one…”
Anders pointed in front of him as the Perune moon of Kasiya emerged into view. Anders whistled to himself and shook his head.
“I must say, Buddy. Considering Taldryan was once the mightiest Clan in the Brotherhood, I’m disappointed. I was expecting something more grandiose, more spectacular. The majority of the moon seems unsettled from what I’m seeing here. Where’s the development? Where are the signs of Brotherhood dominion in the system?”
BUDD-E beeped, and Anders allowed himself a snort.
“A Republic… How asinine can they be? History is doomed to be repeated by those that fail to learn from it, and we all know what happened the last time a Republic tried to grace the galaxy.”
Anders was interrupted by the sound of the communication systems coming to life.
“unidentified craft, you are entering Kasiyan space, state your name and intention of we will be forced to take action.”
“My, oh my. A little hostile, aren’t we?” Anders smirked to himself. This was going to be good. “I am an agent of the Inquisitorious here on an assignment. I am hereby requesting permission to land.”
“We don’t have anything on our records about this…”
Anders rolled his eyes. “Of course not. Because the societies of Councillor’s do not answer to mere grunts performing menial tasks.”
BUDD-E beeped excitedly, and Anders raised a hand. The little droid high-fived him.
“Listen,” Anders said. “What was your name again?”
“It’s-”
“It doesn’t matter what your name is,” Anders suddenly interrupted. “What matters are the consequences for not letting me land. You see, it matters not to me. I’m a simple man. All I need is good food, good caf-stim, and the right to shoot lightning at fools. However, if I do turn around, I’ll have to explain to my superiors that you refused entry to me. That will go higher up to the Voice of the Brotherhood, and you will bring the wrath of the Council upon you, and your Supreme Chancellor, who will no doubt be unimpressed by your actions.”
There was silence for a few moments followed by the sound of static in the cockpit.
“You have permission to land in hangar 6.”
Anders smiled. “Very good. Please do inform your Supreme Chancellor that I wish to have a word with her upon my arrival. You did good today, my good man. You are a credit to your profession.”
.
The resignation of Appius, the ascension of Cassandra to Supreme Chancellor and the air traffic disturbances had been all over the local holonews network. In the orbit of Chyron, in a cockpit that smelled with the aroma of its pilot’s Corellian Rum, none of the news was good.
Rohla downed the last of her drink and put the glass down with a thud. “So what we gonna do now, Gen’ral?”
“Sorting out Wight’s mess was always a reliable source of income.” Even pensive, each syllable of Zentru'la’s voice carried a percussive rumble. “We can only hope the new Supreme Chancellor is happy to continue the arrangement.”
The sun was going down by the time the Lambda shuttle touched down on the far end of Port Kasiya. With a hiss of hydraulics and a puff of compressed air, the ramp came down slowly and from it, a lone Kessurian came out, a satchel hanging from his shoulder. The red-skinned man, Malfearak, had sunken, sleep-deprived eyes and his skin was still caked with the dust from his travels. He felt as tired as he looked, if not moreso.
Still, he was glad for his feet to be firmly planted on a planet again. The trip out from the Outer Rim had been a long one, with multiple stops along the way. He’d dropped off the last of his crew at a medical station, bid him farewell as he was rolled away on a gurney, knowing full well the Weequay wouldn’t make it through the night. It was a shame, really. The man was a good worker. Never shied away from a heavy load and did as he was asked without a complaint. In fact, Malfearak wasn’t sure he’d ever heard the man speak in his presence.
In any case, he was looking forward to a strong drink and a good night’s rest. Maybe he’d find himself a cantina to plant his backside in, maybe even some company. That sounded good after the last six months digging up dirt. He wanted to say the work had been fruitful but that would have been a lie. It’d been dirt, more dirt and only dirt. He had convinced the Headmaster to free him up and divert resources and time from other projects only to come up empty handed. He wasn’t looking forward to submitting his report. After two years moving from digsite to digsite, stopping in civilization only to resupply and blow off some steam, he simply had not had a lot of contact with the Brotherhood. The Shadow Academy supplied him with shuttle and crew and so long as he delivered on his projects, they mostly left him alone. With his recent failure, something told him that was about to change.
Maybe that was why he had been told to report to Clan Taldryan. The order had been cryptic, suggesting he would learn more about his assignment at a later date. He suspected this was punishment. If that was the case, he loathed to think what Archenksova might do once she actually read his report. He had never thought much of the Brotherhood’s so-called clans, having spent the better part of his life working directly for the Academy.
He adjusted the satchel on his shoulder, let out a long-drawn sigh and plunged into the sea of people lining the streets of Port Kasiya.