Session export: [Taldryithmas] Rescue the Vice-Chancellor!

It was amusing to her, repressing a chuckle as her tail swished from left to right. So much death and destruction from nature’s sneeze. How could they have let it escalate like this?

She could still feel the snow under her soles, squished until it became a layer of ice. The sunlight was already starting to annoy her, glaring at her with mocking rays. With a sigh, air hissed out of her mask as she adjusted her visor to turn it darker and darker.

Her platform tapped on the tiles, then against the wall, trying to break off the frozen water. “Eventful, for a first visit.” She said with a barely audible, aristocratic voice, tinged with dissatisfaction.

Standing in the middle of square in front of the Tower, Ankira smiled to herself. The place felt like home, just as cold, just as much snow as she would have had there everyday year round. It made her feel alive, even if it was cold. Uncomfortably cold for most of the people around her.

Walking closer to the Tower, she showed no difficulty in navigating the snow at all.

Soaring through the skies along with the sunrise, Governor Koda Kendis approached Taldyran Tower. He transmitted his clearance codes as he slowed his approach, reducing how much his jetpack was outputting. He gently landed on the platform outside of Chancelor Cassandra’s office and approached the entrance, his boots clacking with the metal. Koda’s midnight blue armor shimmered with accents of gold and his fur collar always kept him warm, the cold never bothered him anyways.

Dasha shivered under her layers. Even all of her space travel, she was still unaccustomed to the cold.

She looked almost comical as she semi-waddled around the tower in multiple layers to the point where she looked like a marshmellow with arms, legs, and a head with a Taldryan duffelbag of equipment strapped on diagonally.

Erinyes had been there the whole time.

No, really. She’d been in her office at the Tower, checking up on datawork, when the storm hit. I’ll wait until it lifts to go back to Mytilene, she’d thought. There was no point trying to catch a shuttle through a blizzard, even if the civilian ones hadn’t all been grounded. She would’ve had to fly it herself, and that was more effort than she’d felt like putting in.

Then it just… kept snowing. And snowing. And snowing. And snowing. Waiting until the blizzard was over turned into coordinating the Gendarmerie’s efforts to dig people out of the snow and keep the city from falling into chaos when the power went out.

All of which was to say that Erinyes had been living at the Tower since the fiasco began, catching naps on the garrison bunks and eating mess hall food. At least they’d had emergency power, so she could do things like nag the technicians to tinker with her gear because they had relatively little else to do. She had an upgraded suit of armour now.

Was she wearing it? Hell no. The thing was too clunky for everyday use. She was wrapped in a nerf-wool blanket, like any normal person would be in this cold, and sipping a hot toddy at her desk.

The turbolift reached the top floor of Taldryan Tower. General Zentru'la knew it well - the panoramic views of the city still offered no tactical advantages whatsoever. Every spot the office could see could also see the office, and its high profile inhabitants. It was the biggest, easiest target they could have chosen for the office of the Supreme Chancellor.

Zentru'la didn’t care much for the Vice-Chancellor. They had only met once, but he talked too much and accomplished too little. But a contract was a contract, and if he was being paid well for a job well done, then the job would be well done. His only apprehension was the team - cohesion and team synergy took time and training to build, no matter how high a quality the fighter, it’s the team that know and trust each other that operated with optimal efficiency. He had a strong team. It would have been a lot easier just to fight with the team he had already built.

Regardless, he had a reputation to uphold. The General gets the job done.

The doors from Cassandra’s private meeting room opened and several individuals of various races in senatorial garb all walked out talking amonst each other, including a Gungan that was openly criticizing and griping about the Chancellor. A Twi'lek in more formal garb, with a stripe down the right side with the three taldryan colors, stepped out.

“Everyone, the Lady Second will see you now.” he said as he guided the group inside.

In the massive meeting room stood Cassandra in front of a large hologrid which illuminated the Arreat Mountains. Red markings were all over it, along with light red dust simulated in the air. Her palms rested on the edge of the table as she stared at it in contemplation.

“My lady, your guests are here.” the Vizier said quietly.

She turned and greeted them with a warm smile. “Good morning everyone. Apologies for the sudden redirect back here, but…it would seem that we have lost our mouse, Anders, yet again.”

She gestured to the holotable and with a movement of her finger it zoomed in on the summit area of the mountain. “Last known location was just outside the former Cloudhaven wreckage which is being repurposed and rebuilt into a new city to help supplement our ever growing populace, and provide a solid home for many of our more…quiet…operations.”

“We have not heard from him, neither has the researchers and workers at Cloudhaven. About an hour ago as the storms continued to intensify, we also lost contact with them as well. So we have no idea what is going on other than the mouse is loose somewhere along the summit trail in the proximity of Cloudhaven. Your mission, will be to rescue the mouse and bring it back and put it back in it’s cage. Any questions before I move on to the environmental details of the mission?”

@here

The meeting room was impressive. Clearly, Clan Taldrya knew where to invest their hard-earned credits. The red-haired Epicanthix had a sense of nobility about her, and she was almost as tall as Tir'eivra herself. Those who were invited into the room next to her were equally imposing, and diverse to say the least.

There was a hint of spite in the woman’s voice when she mentioned her mouse. Alaisy’s tail swooshed from side to side as she thought about it.

A hiss came out of her mask, her eyes obscured by the darkened visor. “Just one question, if I may. How does a Vice Chancellor go missing? Multiple times?” Her metal knife-like nails scraped against each other.

“That is a question I would love to know the answer to myself, honestly. He has seemed to make it a habit, and unfortunately he always seems to make his way back. Until this time.”

Koda was not used to seeing people taller than him, he grumbled to himself, his voice crackled out of his helmets speaker “Maybe he’s doing what I do and it’s deliberate. The man always has his reasons for doing what he does, for better or worse.” The Mandalorian crossed his arms.

Somewhere between waiting and entering the room, Dasha appeared to have found woolen socks that now covered her Sephi ears, wrapped under a scarf worn like a bandana over her head.

She immediately spots a warm air vent and goes plop herself down in front of it.

Ankira took up a place next to Zentru'la. She wasn’t bothered by the cold at all and had to chuckle softly when she saw Dasha. Quickly she returned to a more serious stance.

“Perhaps we should threaten his ade, seeing as how protective he is about him,” she said with a smirk playing on her lips, “Maybe he comes running back then.”

Erinyes sipped from her mug and shrugged deeper into her blanket. “Make him think someone else is doing the threatening. He comes back, an enemy gets destroyed, and he gets to learn he’s not the only one who knows how to be a manipulative little kark. With basically no risk to the rest of us.”

Ankira was a refreshingly familiar face. Zentru'la had seen the effectiveness of the Mandalorian in battle first-hand. Cassandra’s description of the task seemed to lack one crucial detail, if this was a simple search and rescue mission, why hire a mercenary? Zentru'la wasn’t search party material, he was the option to break through heavy enemy resistance through surgical precision and overwhelming firepower. Cassandra wouldn’t have picked him unless she expected a fight.

“What’s the intel on hostile presence?”

“I’m glad you asked, General.” Cassandra commented as she changed the view of the holoscreen. It brought up a large view of a subsection of the Cloudhaven station which had crashed into the hole it had bored into the Arreat Mountain summit range. It looked to be about three-hundred floors deep.

“In recent months, unusual activity had been detected in sub-level 118 just at the point where the heat and radiation from both the station’s reactor core and the underground lava flows are overwhelming. Droids had been seen, which refused all interaction and interface, and instead opted to remain away from people. Their numbers since that initial sighting have been increasing, with armed ones seen on sub-level 134 at the last reported survivable limit.”

The screen highlighted that floor range. “The data core which is located on sub-floor 219, has proven to be un-hackable and has actively resisted any and all attempts to do so. The thought, is that the original AI which controlled the station and the droid network may still be operational. With the snow and weather cutting off contact, though it has not been proven, the fear is it may be an ample moment for them to strike. While we hope this is not the case, and it is just the weather causing the outage, it is a risk that must be acknowledged.”

“So, our primary objective is to save Anders, right? Not to investigate the potential droid menace?”

“What if Anders is held by the droids? We can destroy them, right?”

“We can just do both. I get to thrive in the cold, destroy some droids, and loathe a rescue mission in front of Anders? Is it my birthday or something?” Koda chuckled

“Ours, I think,” Ankira said with a chuckle.

“Yes, Erinyes. The primary objective is to save Anders…not investigate whats going on with Cloudhaven and its inhabitants. You are entirely correct.”

Dasha decided to stay where she was… for now… and took out a datapad to try once again to get a ping off of any of Ander’s devices. Though probably like before, his is probably still very protected…

Erinyes stood and padded her way out of Cassandra’s office, pausing to ruffle Dasha’s hair through her tuque as she passed. By the time she got back to her own office, she’d finished her hot toddy, and started getting ready for the mission. Lightsabers, check. Envoy bag, check. Fuzzy pink headset with cat ears, check. Rations… she opened her desk drawer and frowned at the single half-empty bottle. That wouldn’t do.

There wasn’t much for Alaisy to check, she’d go nowhere without proper preparation. Tir'eivra had her liquid food stored in the backpack she wore, it wasn’t tasty, but it had all the nutrition she’d need for a long trek. All the Sith had to do to access it was pull at the straw hidden in her mask. The only time she wore anything more than what she had on now was in climates particularly nasty to the material it consisted of, like acid rain, or blazing hot deserts. The only maintenance it needed was an occasional shining.

However, waiting for an hour was a tedious business. The true challenge was always finding efficient use of lost time. Before Cassandra had finished her sentence she had already left the room.

Ankira took the rations and canteens that she might need on the trek and stored those in the pouches on her belt. All her other items were with her all the time so she didn’t need to waste time on getting those. All she needed to do now was wait for them to leave to start searching for Anders

During the hour wait, Koda checked over all his weapons and armors systems, making sure that everything was working at its peak for the time being. He checked and cleaned his blaster pistol four times over.

Zentru'la doubted that whatever ship the chancellor was providing would get them in quicker than The Harbinger, but he would go along with the plan. Using this ship would free The Harbinger and the rest of his team to take other contracts. His armour would keep him warm in the cold conditions, and his weapons were always at the ready, so there was very little The General needed to prepare

Dasha was strapped in as usual, her gear securely strapped as well due to… let’s say she tends to NOT have luck with flying.

Her puffball of clothing seemed to almost sigh, anyone could see a dejected look on her face as if she was saying, ‘not this again’ as she braced however she could.

Alaisy held on as much as she could. What else could she do?

All she felt was an incredibly painful jerking at her shoulder from the seat belt. Vision went black as pressure strained her head. She blinked slowly as awareness returned. The Sith held on and pushed herself against the floor after unbuckling. With some heavy breaths, she climbed to the far end of the ship.

With an unsympathetic and aggressive, modulated voice she asked. “Did we lose anyone?” She rolled her shoulders and motioned for everyone to get over to her. “Get over here! Do you not feel the ship leaning?”

“I’m here,” Ankira said as she appeared next to Alaisy, “But if we do not leave soon, we don’t be here anymore.”

She moved towards the hatch and hoped that it was still working. The sounds around her weren’t that promising to her. She waited a moment for the others to join up here before she tried to open it, lest the change in movement would tip them over to soon.

When Zentru'la was right, it meant something went wrong.

The Harbinger would have taken that shot without so much as a drop spilled of the pilot’s drink. Not that it would have needed to, Rohla would have had the ship doing gymnastics and taken out the fighters before landing. The Chancellor had much to learn on resource management and allocation, but this wasn’t the time for that. Getting the job done was all that mattered. The ship shook a tiny bit with each of the mountainous General’s heavy footsteps as he walked to the hatch to help Ankira

Koda braced himself in his seat, actually sitting in one for once, and groaned as the ship rocked them all about. Once they were steady enough he quickly released the safety bar and got up, “That’s it. It’s official. I’m flying my own ship from now on.” He made his way to the side of the ship that was rising to help level it.

The attack had caught Erinyes napping. Thanks to the Force’s warning, her hands twitched as though she were maneuvering a fighter to dodge the incoming even before she fully awoke. Her eyes snapped open a split-second before the shot hit the Kom'rk, then spat something impolite when the impact threw her hard against her restraint harness.

It only took a moment for her to unbuckle herself from her seat, but fighting gravity all the way to the hatch was much harder. Once there, she raised a hand in the “Force Push” gesture, telegraphing it just enough that others could coordinate their efforts with her.

“You don’t actually want us to surrender, though.” It wasn’t an attempt to influence the man’s mind or anything, just a statement of fact.

The display was dramatic. However, the equipment seemed, antiquated, to say the least. The eyepatch seemed even more pretentious.

Alaisy noticed the specific stare-down and swayed her hips to give his gaze a fluid rhythm to witness. Her tail flowed opposite to her towering frame, creating a streamlined contrast. If anything, it stretched her muscles and cracked some joints stressed out from the rough landing. Yet her hand had been reaching out to her backpack as she tried to maintain his gaze.

When she was done with her act, she bared her claws in a fluid Teras Kasi stance, mimicking a vicious wampa. Behind her, one could hear a metallic ticking sound. Tir'eivra’s millicreep droid, Creepy, had been released, hiding behind her tall frame.

She let out a modulated chuckle. “Ugly? Too late for that, love. Have you seen yourself?”

“Because here’s the thing: between running the Summit Guard and all this CEO-ing I’ve been doing, I’ve learned more about logistics than I ever wanted to know.”

And now, she was going to stall for time by sharing that knowledge with the entire class.

“In this environment, between the radiation degrading your rations and having to use small transports that can past Republican sensor nets, I doubt you have the supplies to hold us captive long enough to be worth the effort.”

Hopefully, this would give the team the opportunity to… prepare themselves somehow? Reorient themselves after the crash?

“Then there’s the problem of actually securing us. Zentru'la’s chin alone could cut through any bulkhead on Cloudhaven. You’d have to evac us somewhere to secure us, which’ll only last until the Regent finds out you have a Daughter of Taldryan in a cell.”

Now, it wasn’t even about stalling, honestly. Battles begin well before weapons are drawn, and Erinyes was very good at goading opponents into making mistakes.

“Oh, and the conspicuous lack of shooting while we were all bailing from the shuttle. Prefects aren’t usually stupid, so I’m guessing you saw who you were up against and realised that even if you manage to take us by force, it’ll cost you more droids than you can afford to lose. So, you’re putting on a brave face and trying to get us not to fight so you can deal with us a different way instead—like locking us in cells and letting starvation or radiation kill us. Well, unless you really are stupid enough to think that this team can’t deal with a couple dozen battle droids that are older than I am.”

“Lucky for you, I have a solution that benefits both of us.”

Zentru'la’s repeating blaster was ready in his hands. Lowered, but ready. The best path to victory was not to fight. Less ammo expended, less tear on weapons, less chance of something random, unexpected going wrong. He waited to see how Erinyes’ attempt at diplomacy played out, while ready to blast battle droids at any moment

“Well, maybe you should’ve thought better of letting a Taldrya lead you, then.” She shrugged. “In any case, the smartest move is to let us stow away to Karufr on your shuttle and tell your superiors you saw our ship go over the cliff.” It was technically true, right?

“Or, you can take your chances against a guy with an assault cannon and a Star Destroyer prow for a chin, a guy with a hammer taller than you are, a Mandalorian whose missing husband you slandered, an eldritch abomination, and the one of the most prolific bombers in Taldryan’s history. And me, I guess.” The implication that Erinyes was the least of their problems might or might not be true, but the prospect would scare the hell out of Major Ad-something. Hopefully.

Dasha just stayed quiet in the back, tapping away on a datapad like a child following their parents around… well she would look more so of the part with the puffball appearance she has grudgingly adopted as a lesser evil to being cold.

Koda did his aboslute best to make himself look as bulky as bossible and took his hammer off the side of his jetpack, “I’ve been trained by some of the greatest the Grand Army of the Republic offered. Your clankers don’t stand a chance. They don’t have souls to feel guilty over destroying.”

Ankira held her hands over her holstered Westars, but she would have them in a blink if they think anything stupid.

Nope, Dasha was not tinkering for the droids, instead she was tinkering with their comms and blocked. But since she was, she shoved into the comms a command over comms with human male leader’s voice that commanded “DANCE” to override the ‘Kill them’ command.

This was followed by all droids and magna guards (and the human leader’s) earpieces, speakers, and other units start to blare at max volume, “LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW!” song on repeat to block any communication efforts.

Dasha kept Taldryan frequencies just fine if not some noise cancellation.

Zentru'la raised his repeating blasters and unleashed a barrage of fire at the B1 battle droids

Together with Zentru'la, Ankira unleashed a volley of shots from her trusty Westars at the B2 battle droids infront of her.

Erinyes was airborne by the time the first shots left the B2s’ wrist blasters. The ancient lightsaber manuals had a strategy just for this situation: “jump over their heads and hit them from behind”. She landed on one knee, and gravity carried her main-hand lightsaber into her grip. Sharp-scented ozone and the hiss of snow evaporating against plasma filled the air as the Adept’s amethyst blade made two quick horizontal swipes across the trio of B2s.

The B2s sufficiently barraged, Zentru'la charged towards the nearest droideka, head down, shoulder up, forming a barrier with his beskar plate. The plan was simple enough: get inside its shield. Then use his raw strength to lift up the droideka and point its blasters at the other ones, using its shield as protection

Time to take out their ranged capabilities first

It was always nice that droids gave her a fair warning before they had fully activated, their lights and servos whirring on. While the metal buckets still needed to start their calculations, she had her plans ready to be executed.

One pear tree, very dangerous

She pulled out two round objects from her backpack, holding one in each hand. With her thumb, she pressed the crimson button, activating a thermal detonator. Tir'eivra grunted as she tossed it towards the B2 droid.

Then she leaned down, tail slinking down. The magnaguards were barely finished with their flourish. Her electric-blue eyes squinted at the droideka closest to the tall woman.

Smooth enough terrain

With a delicate, low throw she rolled an EMP grenade towards the menace as it activated its shield.

Alaisy’s heels dug into the ground. Metal taps behind her. Then she fired off her mitrinomon thrusters that were built into her platforms.

As it propelled her up in the air, blaster fire followed her. A millicreep droid became visible. Her droid Creepy crept towards the second closest rollie with smooth, zig-zag motions.

Oh, goody. A considerate Jedi-killer droid.

Erinyes lunged forward with a thrust aimed at the MagnaGuard’s “stomach”. The droid backed away, keeping its body out of reach of the Sith’s lightsaber, and swung one end of its electrostaff to knock the thrust aside.

The parry met empty space. Erinyes reignited her lightsaber inside the droid’s guard and swept it upward, severing its closest hand from its arm. The MagnaGuard valiantly tried to sucker-punch her away, but Erinyes slipped outside the blow and behind the droid’s back. A quick figure-eight twirl later, the MagnaGuard lay quartered on the ground.

Erinyes extended her free hand to seize the MagnaGuard’s electro-staff with the Force before it fell to the ground. With a sweep of her arm, she flung the weapon at one of the droidekas attacking her, aiming to spear it between the optical sensors.

Zentru'la grabbed the droideka by the legs, lifted it up in the air and slammed it into the closest other droideka

“Let’s dance.” Koda smirked under his helmet and let out a battle cry as he charged at a magnaguard, swinging Oathkeeper upwards and sending it’s head flying. The magnaguard, being a magnaguard, of course still moved around. Koda quickly followed up with the opposite side of his weapon and bisected it down the middle using the axehead. The other two magnaguards circled around him, the one behind Koda spun it’s electrostaff around and was about to jab Koda with it when the Governor unholstered Due Process and fired it point blank into the droids power supply…from the front, and the blaster bolts continued out the back. Koda spun his blaster around fired off another shot into the final magnaguard, with the barrels starting to glow.

As the magnaguard fell, three destroyers aimed their blasters at him. “Ah kriff…” Koda cursed to himself, quickly activating his energy shield as they started to fire. He knew it wouldn’t last long, so he quickly charged behind one of them so that the other two might start firing at the one he was hiding behind. As his shield started to flicker, he over so slowly moved his right arm inside of the shield to fire shots from his wrist blaster into the destroyer. The droids shield started to flicker as it’s power was destroyed, Koda hid behind it as it was peppered with blaster shots from the other two.

The boot thrusters stuttered. Alaisy gritted her teeth as the mechanical hand dug into her second skin. She let herself drop down. It was better to help the magnaguard out as it pulled at her leg, by going with the motion.

“You want it? You got it!” Tir'eivra rammed her metal heel into the droid’s optics until it released her. With a thud she landed with her weight shifted to her platforms. The line of blaster fire was interrupted by the large magnaguard frames. She hissed as she blew air through her teeth, those metal pincers were not made for comfort.

She stretched out both hands, vibronails aimed at the magnaguards. Electric-blue eyes framed by sharp liner showed her malicious intent as she reached out into the Force. A beam of crackling energy coalesced onto the droid. The jolt whirled and connected with the other nearby droids as she channeled her pain and anger into the stream.

The droidekas shifted their optics from Alaisy to the little millicreep that was heading their way. Their heavy blasters were unable to precisely pinpoint the swirling pattern of its little legs. One bolt hit the head of Creepy , its embedded generator absorbing it. It slipped behind one of their shields and latched onto their metal spine. Once hooked in, it began slicing.

Ankira jumped back and in a reflex swung her arm as if to deflect the swing of one of the Mangaguards. For some reasong its angle of attack changed without being touched. Without thinking twice she shot the guard a few times before it could regain himself and attack her again.

She needed to gain more distance. Getting her jetpack to fireup she shot up into the air as she kept shooting at the droids that were attacking her.

Erinyes was speed. She charged toward the droideka, deflecting any blaster fire that came her way, then stabbed through the shield and slashed downward to halve the droid’s body. Simple.

Then there was the small matter of Major Ad-somethingorother. The Sith wasn’t in a generous move, so she reached a hand out and seized him with the Force, Vader-style. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Ankira saw the struggling human reaching for his weapon from the sky. She wasn’t going to let anyone get hurt besides him and aimed her Westar at his hand, shooting the pistol out of his hand before he could fully aim it at Erinyes.

The Sith let out a deep sigh, her mask hissing. The droideka under control by Creepy began shooting at the other. Both droids deflected their barrage of blaster bolts. Alaisy ran between the collapsing magnaguards and managed to get behind the last rollie. Her claw slowly slipped into its polarised shield and tore at the wiring.

No longer having any target left other than the Major, Creepy programmed it to surround its former master. Alaisy stood guard next to it with her hands folded behind her back.

With a brief but grateful nod to Ankira, Erinyes strode towards the major. She flicked her lightsaber to its training setting, and keeping him suspended in midair, she smacked the hapless officer about the body with the blade—once, twice, three times. Between the third and fourth strikes, she flipped the weapon back to its normal setting, then carved a gash through the major’s codpiece. It wouldn’t be deep enough to wound him, but it would definitely let the bitter cold inside.

“Mm, my thumb must’ve slipped. Fine motor control gets a little hard when you’re out in this cold for too long. Anything without thermal protection’s likely to get frostbitten—maybe even gangrenous. If only there were a convenient ship where we could warm up.” Erinyes arched an eyebrow at the major.

Zentru'la unloads his repeater in a stream of continuous fire at the one remaining droid

Koda braced against the destroyed Droideka and slowly moved through the snow towards the next closest, using it as a shield. He repeated the process of slowly moving his arm through the shield to blast it with his gauntlet blaster. Once the second one was out of commission he dropped the old droid and replaced his impromptu shield and, once again, repeated with the last one.

Erinyes loosened her grip slightly. “Talk fast.”

“You’re more useful alive.” Erinyes deactivated her lightsaber and stripped the man of his code cylinder, comlink, datapad, and any weapons he might still have, then opened the shuttle’s boarding hatch. “Come on everyone, it’s cold out.”

Inside the passenger compartment, she set the major down in one of the seats, then opened her backpack and retrieved a set of stun cuffs to secure him.

Alaisy scraped a clawed hand along the ice of the shuttle’s hatch. Creepy followed her in, attached to the droideka. She tossed the frost right on the Major’s lap as he stretched.

“I would have killed him,” she whispered.

Ankira landed with a crunch of snow underneath her feet and watched Erin with her living dummy and Alaisy wander into the shuttle.

Looking back towards Zen and Koda, she saw that they were done too. Dasha was probably also done playing with her droids.

She walked up the ramp and narrowed her eyes at the sliced droid that Creepy brought in.

“Surely we aren’t bringing all of these beskar'ad along, are we?”

While the Dasha’s set were still dancing, the Sephi adjusted a voice modulator and took over communications of the droids, Dasha gave the command to have the droids encircle the human, standing… as they awaited the next command.

Electric-blue eyes peered at the man cuffed to his chair. His plea to have them kill him was rather pathetic. There were worse things than death, but nothing refreshes the pallet better than hope, or anticipation.

A warm low-pitched chuckle came from behind her mask, followed by a hiss of expelled air. Tir'eivra stood in front of him, looking down. Her tail swished playfully from side to side.

“Such a brave gentleman, why would they send out such a creature full of life and expect him to live up to his potential with mere droids at his command, mhm?”

Her stance swapped as she leaned on one leg. Alaisy ignored the tightly packed confines of the shuttle, focusing solely on the Major. The Sith’s whithering aura grew stronger.

“Your life does not have to end here, with a frozen crotch, used like a tool.” Her tone seemed more sultry than before, the mask’s modulation amplifying her voice’s smokiness.

She leaned forward, over him. Her claws tapped his armor as she let her fingers walk over him. She pressed down between the plating at the joints.

His reaction amused her. He seemed so sensitive for a hardened leader.

The Sith let her mind sink into the Force, dipping into a pool of liquid darkness. Closing her eyes, she felt a cold breeze. She focused on her fears and pleasures, concentrating those thoughts.

The image of the Major appeared before her, ethereal. Her body moved with the motion, her hands done playing. In deep rumination, she raised herself up and placed her heeled boot on the tip of the chair. .

Down came a whirlwind of tendrils, crawling and clawing into his brain mass. Unspeakable horrors oozed in and corrupted his hopes and dreams. She dominated his desires and strengthened his phobias as her boot moved an inch forward, between his legs.

The hiss from her mask seemed downright frightening. Her eyes opened wide. She snaked back to her full height, tilting her head. Seeing him struggle as the pull of the Force was coming to a peak was liberating.

“I could watch you squirm forever. Or I could end it all. Your choice.” Her aristocratic voice faded out into a whisper as she said the last word.

Koda’s nose twitched under his visor, he couldn’t stand idly by as this man was being tortured, no matter what his crimes were. Koda knew that pain far too closely. His blaster had finally cooled off enough to not risk being over heated, he made sure the safety was off. “Ease off the torturing. We’re taking him alive and preferably without the trauma you Sith-scum come along with. We’re on a mission to rescue the Vice-Chancellor, not torture everyone we come across. If you have an issue with that, I have no issue putting you down.” Koda was ready to fully draw on Alaisy at a moments notice. Koda’s focus was on Alaisy and the man, and them alone, the world slowly muting everything but what was in front of him as he cut himself off from his emotions, giving the sith little to work with.

“Probably too late to avoid the trauma.” Erinyes shrugged. “If you want him to stay alive longer, convince him to get us past their air defences. Flying low enough to avoid them will get us smashed into a mountainside by one wrong gust of wind.” The (other) Sith set off for the cockpit to start the shuttle’s preflight.

“I am done anyway. I will remember this.” Alaisy’s eyebrows pulled closer together. He should have known better that there would be no inhibitions when Sith are threatened. Thankfully Tir’eivra had had her chances to express her frustrations on Kasiya not long before, so she kept her composure.

But there was no harm in casting some venom. “If you were going to pull that trigger you would have had larger problems than the Major here.”

Alaisy chose to hang out just outside of the cockpit, away from this sickening empathy. Koda could have a front row seat to watch the Major struggle against his fear.

The white Mandalorian glanced between all of them. She could sense the emotions and the changes coming off of them, it was confusing her a little too. Why had Koda suddenly changed so much that he became dim to her senses while Alaisy was almost on fire to her senses. And the human? He was all over the spectrum she could see. She shook her head, partly she might have felt sorry for him, but they had a job to complete and she didn’t care how they would get their answers as long as they got them.

She moved away from all the droids cramping up the space they had and moved closer to the cockpit as it seemed most of the space was left there. Looking to Alaisy for a moment she hoped that things wouldn’t get out of hand before they had rescued Anders.

Koda ripped his arm away from the man and grabbed the scruff of his coat, “Damn right you will. But don’t confuse my mercy as friendliness.”

He dragged him to the ship, glaring at his ‘allies’. He didn’t enjoy working with sith, but he doesn’t have much choice these days. Better than working with Jedi too afraid to take action.

Erinyes glanced over her shoulder at Koda and his new bestie. “You might as well bring him up here if he’s going to get us past the perimeter.” Plus, that way she could get her stun cuffs back. She’d need them for later.

Then, with beeps and boops from the instrument panel and a whine from the engines, she brought the shuttle into the air. It wasn’t the worst turbulence she’d ever flown in, but it wasn’t great, either.

“And people say I’m too attached to the past,” she muttered at the sight of the recreated Citadel. Between gusts of wind, she reached over and released Adhuris’ stun cuffs.

“You’re up, Major. Think of how many lives you’ll save by not making us shoot our way through the base.”

“You can say the smart thing, or you can say whatever she makes you say.” Erinyes tossed her head vaguely in Alaisy’s direction so she could keep her hands on the shuttle’s controls.

Koda loudly cracked his knuckles behind the man, “You stay alive if you cooperate. These are dangerous mountains after a dangerous storm, a lot could have happened. Droids don’t exactly like the cold.”

As to support <@645466919415054357> and <@351852811883118594> ‘s words, Dasha had broken through and took over control of the droids she had manipulated communications for. With that she had them all stand at attention then on guard, pointing their weapons at the Major.

Erinyes sensed the fear before she smelled the ammonia. Sighing, she snapped her fingers in front of the major’s face. “Hey. Hey. Focus. Tower’s waiting for your clearance codes.”

“Give them your clearance, and tell them you lost the others to bad weather.” Sheesh, whatever happened to officers thinking for themselves?

“You saw their ship take fire and crash at the bottom of the cliff.”

Erinyes just shrugged at that. If these idiots wanted to send more of their troops after the team, so be it. Once they were inside the AA gun perimeter, the major wasn’t useful anymore anyway. To take advantage of that window, she put the Lambda into a climb and opened the throttle.

“So you just want to have more dead people? Fine by me,” Ankira said as she crossed her arms. One fight more or less wouldn’t matter to her anyway.

“Tell them to not send the extra platoon. We want to avoid as much attention as we can right now. Needless bloodshed will only increase the chances of the Vice-Chancellor being killed if he hasn’t been already.”

After the comm closed and the shuttle was safely past the AA perimeter, Erinyes turned her attention to the major, though she kept one eye on the controls. “You know, Major, I’ve been thinking about what you said about Karufr City being for the people the Taldrya forgot.”

“What’s your issue with the Vice-Chancellor, then? He might be an ass, but he’s not a Scion. If you knew we were coming for him, you could’ve just turned him over and we’d have left you alone.”

“Huh. Was it him who ordered you to continue?”

Erinyes had to try not to laugh at how absurd this whole situation had become. It was almost as much of a struggle as flying the shuttle through the damn blizzard. “Well, I can assure you that if he knew anything about it, he didn’t share. All Cass knew about this whole situation is that Blueberry disappeared and Cloudhaven’s droids are active again.”

Vice Chancellor

She had met the Chiss in person. He was one of the very few who had shown Alaisy proper respect and etiquette. What seemed to be an immoral and unethical decision to the Major, and strangely Erinyes too, may have been an efficient solution to a minor problem.

“We have one mission, focus.”

“You have one mission, maybe. Some of us aren’t so shortsighted.”

“That is correct, I do. And if you do not, please forward it now to the rest of the team.” Tir'eivra had noticed the reluctance in the mission itself. “But, before you do,” she slid a thumb along her neck as her eyes peered at the Major.

“Protecting Taldryan. The entire Clan, not just the Scions.” She shot a pointed look at the Major, then turned her attention back to Alaisy, though she was still keeping an eye on the shuttle’s controls. “We don’t have time to discuss the politics now, and I’m not sure you’d care even if we did. The short version is that there was already one schism within Taldryan that could devolve into civil war. The major here just alerted us to a second one.”

“Though if he keeps impressing me like this, he might not be a major for much longer.”

“You are right, I do not care. It may be wiser to let Command know what you have learned and get back to our singular goal.” She crossed her arms and leaned back against the other side of the cockpit.

“I would, but we have to get him out of his cell first.”

Ankira was listening to the whole conversation between them and frowned slightly. Appius would never let people get hurt if they had to continue their work there. Guess there is a night and day difference between them, more then she believed there to be at first.

Normally Erinyes would’ve enjoyed sticking around in the cockpit, but this one smelled like piss. Instead, she shepherded Adhuris toward the Lambda’s boarding ramp, both to keep an eye on him and to make sure Alaisy didn’t zero him at the first opportunity. “Tell the welcoming party you have our attention, and that if they’re smart, they’ll use it to explain what’s going on here.” She telekinetically drew her backpack into her hand as she walked past, and finally popped her flask open for a drink.

Zentru'la’s blaster was still in his hands, lowered but ready. The ramp shook as he took one singular step towards them, watching for their body language to spot any sign of weakness

Ankira stepped into view, stopping a few steps behind Zen. She looked at the soldiers before them and frowned slightly. Perhaps they didn’t want to fight them at all, or it would turn into hatred the moment they saw her. She hoped Appius was good enough for them that they choose the peaceful way. ‘But a person in danger makes strange leaps… or something along those lines,’ she thought to herself.

Ankira tilted her head at that statement and moved her hands away from her holsters holding them both in sight of them.

“I would suggest you do the same and we can talk like normal people.”

Dasha had the robots under her control waltz out to The Blue Danube Waltz briefly before distantly flanking and dropping their firearms to their feet.

“Yeah. Go back to your barracks and get cleaned up.” Erinyes shooed the major away, towards the city, then huffed and folded her arms across her chest. With her lightsabers in wrist slings, she couldn’t exactly keep her hands away from them, so the locals would have to be content with her keeping her arms in an inconvenient fighting position.

Speaking of the locals, she turned to the soldier who had told Ankira to disarm herself and raised an eyebrow. “Bitch, please. You make a big show about how only did this out of desperation, but your people shot at us first—twice, within five minutes, and making absolutely no effort to explain the situation until it was clear you had no other option.”

“And yet, despite that, and despite having both General Raptor-Puncher and Blue Fury on our team, we sent your own man back to you in one piece with a message that we were willing to talk. And you’re accusing us of ‘unnecessary violence’?” Erinyes had built up enough steam by now that it wasn’t clear whether she was acting or genuinely annoyed. “How about you lower your weapons and get your kriffing supervisor or representative or whatever down here before we start feeling the need to defend ourselves?”

There was a deafening click-clacking noise as a tall woman clad in shining black made her way down the shuttle ramp. The metal creaked, rang, and almost bent around the heavy platforms. The sinister hissing of her mask made the Sith seem hostile without holding any weapons in her hands. She was a weapon, and there was no subtlety about her. Blades on her boots, shining claws, and an enigmatic tail.

Alaisy had darkened her domed visor, hiding the cold chill of her eyes. She held her hands up and pivoted her head to look at her squad. The way she held her arms up made the nails look all the more intimidating, like one of her animalistic Teras Kasi attack stances. A droideka followed obediently behind her, twin blasters lowered.

A modulated cackle mocked the crowd at the bottom of the ramp.

Erinyes looked backward when she heard the cackle. When she saw Alaisy’s entrance, she sighed loudly and rubbed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger. Not that it wasn’t funny—it was an effort of will to stop herself from laughing, in point of fact—but the timing was… well, let’s just say it was optimised for dramatic effect, not diplomacy.

Oh well.

Erinyes turned back to the Karufr City garrison. “Okay, I get why you want to keep your weapons raised. I don’t know if it’ll help, but I get it.”

“Prime your weapons all you want. They won’t help you.” Now it was clear that Erinyes was genuinely annoyed, and getting more so by the second. “You really don’t know who you’re dealing with, do you? I guess you didn’t see Adhuris begging us to kill him after he pissed himself in fear, or how we dealt his little gaggle of battle droids without breaking a sweat.”

“Tell your boss that they can either stop acting like a spoiled kriffing Tapani princess and meet us as equals like they said they wanted, or we’re coming inside to free Anders on our terms and anyone who tries to stop us will be treated like an enemy. And remind them that I’m not known for my patience or self-restraint.”

“That would be wise.” For good measure, Erinyes fixed a glare at the lieutenant’s retinue, to make sure they all lowered their weapons.

The tall Sith hadn’t expected a full surrender. Alaisy crossed her arms and relaxed her tail, scraping her durasteel nails.

The aristocratic lilt and smokiness of her voice overcame the modulation. “This is the single most intelligent gesture I have seen in quite a while. Now we can try to be nicer.” She singled out the slowest soldier to lower their weapon and stared at him, her back arched down. “The Force seems to be with you. Feels better with your entrails inside of you, does it not? Keep it that way.” Her tail swung gracefully in a motion that could be considered threatening, or condescending until he too lowered his weapon.

Then she settled somewhere in the middle of the squad, keeping her eyes set on the Major. Somehow he was still the most difficult one to convince, and the one she trusted the least.

Patience, let us savor the satisfaction until hope returns.

Koda made his way down the ramp, not saying enything, still keeping the loudly judgemental aura about him. He looked around the area for anything suspicious while everyone else was chatting, the others seemed to have it handled for now.

First to be attacked. Then to be threatened. All the way escalating to being welcomed with open arms. It seems to be the reverse of her first visit to Taldrya. What madness was this? Her tail twitched together with every muscle in her body. So little did she trust this Nautolan, certainly less than the distance she could throw him.

Go with it. Etiquette.

Her own thoughts amused her. Tail swinging excitedly, a soft chuckle coming on behind the mask. “Oh! Are you not a glorious sight for sore eyes.” The visor kept her smiling eyes out of sight for now, giving her ample opportunity to keep them darting between the many droids, squad members, and now this General Le'tau. Her posture remained straight, her click-clacking steps graceful and imposing.

Ankira kept her eyes on the droids, she wasn’t worried about the Nautolan, but she did not like the amount of droids around them at all. Even with Dasha on their sides it would be tricky to outsmart them before they were Utapauan cheese. She kept her hands at her sides, close enough to have quick reach, but relaxed enough to not show anything threatening.

Dasha was just glumly marching along, in the middle of the group, as the droids she had ‘commandeered’ were marching behind the group….. already spreading her virus to other droids through their comms by short range proximity, though not quite activated yet. Of course there would be an automatic trigger and a manual trigger attached.

Her ears were still cold even under the socks that makes her look like she had oddly shaped Nautolan lekkus. She looked displeased enough that anyone would assume she was too upset with the cold to have bothered with her appearance.

Zentru'la immediately began sizing up the Nautolan. He could see how he had risen to the rank of General. Sometimes, just being big was enough to command respect among military types, even without any tactical acumen.

“We’re here for the vice-chancellor. Nobody needs to get hurt as long as we get what we came for.” He still held his repeating blaster in his hand. The Vornskr Battalion were still on call to sweep Karufr city while giving Taldryan plausible deniability. The tactically correct move for Le'tau would be to accept his demands

Dasha snapped a quick picture of the image of Anders basically down to his underwear on her tablet with a childish snicker.

“Probably the same containment field. Appius is that kind of fanboy,” Erinyes muttered, taking a slug from her flask. Then, she spoke up. “So what exactly did Anders want you to do, General? Major Adhuris said something about forcing you to build the city despite awful working conditions, then hinted that there was some other issue.”

Ankira just shook her head slowly at the explanation given since she couldn’t see the image and glanced towards Dasha when she heard the snicker.

“That sounds reasonable to me.” She briefly glanced to the others, though she didn’t expect any of them to be thrilled with the idea of acting as a “representative of Taldryan”, as such. “Just to clear something up, though, Taldryan’s leadership wasn’t ignoring you. I was Vice-Chancellor after Appius’ disappearance until Anders replaced me, and this is the first I’ve heard of any of this.”

“Oh, if he’s not in danger, there’s no need to rush.” Erinyes smiled. “I’m curious about your operation. Whose idea was it to recreate the Taldryan Tower out here?”

So much for dignity

This could have been them. And in Alaisy’s case if they’d have to strip her down it would be similar to scalping her second skin off. Abominable and unfitting for someone of Anders’ stature.

She tapped her boot after hearing Erinyes telling the General there was no rush.

More wasted time

“How about we get to the negotiations, perhaps they are not unreasonable.”

“Appius ordered all this?”

Erinyes sighed. It was just like the Mandaboo to want to surprise everyone with some grand heartwarming gesture.

“Yeah, sure. I’d like a word with Anders before you turn him loose, though.”

“Oh, not at all. I’d actually prefer audience participation.”

“Stay, please. A General of your stature shows strength and conviction to your cause. Your authority is welcome.” Tir'eivra’s voice was alluring, modulated, and smoky. There was no way she was going to let him back out.

Ankira gave a single nod to let them know they should meet up with Anders.

The clamminess was enough for Alaisy to swap her breathing over to her own oxygen supply, lest her lens might have fogged up. This made it much more comfortable, and the hissing a little more high-pitched. She ran her metal nails along the neglected duracrete, some of it so brittle that it crumbled off. In a way, she felt at home in these forsaken kinds of places. After all, she had imprisoned and tortured others in far worse places. The scenery was inspirational, a sudden urge building within her to show this faction how it was truly done.

Her eyes followed the Nautolan behind the dark shiny dome, keeping her slender body so close to him that she could feel any sudden movements running over her spine. The only thing that was granted any attention was the fancy gear resting in the depot. Sorrowful to see it lying there, glinting and gleaming, but if she needed a lightsaber in a pinch, she now knew where one was.

Curved hilt.

She flicked her wrist in a motion that one would do when wielding a dueling saber. It made her scratch in a circle on the wall with her nail. Even with her expertise mostly focused on Juyo she could make it work for her. More aggressive, risky, and unpredictable than perhaps what it was meant for. The urge to call it to her hand with the Force was great, but she saved her wicked thoughts. Those would be pent-up for later, nothing had gone according to any plan yet.

Only two mechanical sentries guarding such a powerful prisoner. And there were no obvious traps or secondary blast doors to secure him, or them.

Seeing the Vice Chancellor spinning around like a rotisserie tip-yip was somewhat disheartening. The sparks of the containment field made her tail twitch.

“Vice Chancellor, a pleasure.” She inclined her head in respect, keeping her words to a minimum and leaving room for her superiors to converse. Her posture mostly disappeared behind Le'Tau, preferring a spot behind his back for maximum effectiveness.

“Cassandra’s been busy. There’s a blizzard going on. Port Kasiya is snowed in and virtually shut down, and the off-world guests to the Expo are trapped here.”

*Don’t worry, though. Cassandra thinks highly enough of you that she sent us in her own ship.“ Erinyes’ tone was neutral, even a bit cool. It would’ve struck Anders as odd that she wasn’t taking the opportunity to belittle him or anything. Maybe the old drunk’s political instincts had dulled after being isolated from true Sith for so long?

"Alright, General.” Erinyes folded her hands behind her back and began to pace. “Let’s negotiate. What are your terms?”

The Mandalorian looked curiously at the floating Anders. Why would such a prison be here? Unless… would Appius really want to trap other Force Users in there? She shook her head almost invisibly. She shouldn’t think such things about her riduur.

She glanced back towards the entrance they just got through and wondered if she could wake up the little droid. It could probably help them with the prison cell if Dasha was to distracted with her own droids.

Ankira rolled her eyes at the last comment. “Dar'Jetii and their tricks…” she said softly as she stepped closer towards the entrance, trying to get a good layout of the room and the two droids.

Seeing Le'Tau stonewall Anders like that warmed Erinyes’ heart amidst the chill of the subterranean prison. “Deal– oh, I guess there’s one other thing. The Chancellor sent us here to secure Anders’ release. I’m sure she won’t have any problem agreeing to your terms, but she’d probably ask that he be let go now, rather than languishing here while we get the rest of the logistics sorted out. How would you feel about that?”

“Perhaps leave him cuffed on the way out, as a gesture of goodwill?” It felt strange being the one to remind them. But at least it would prevent her from causing any further animosity.

“We can take the whole containment unit, if General Le'Tau doesn’t mind. Anders poses a grave threat to the Republic’s security. It’s only reasonable he stay detained during the trip back to Port Kasiya.”

A long, drawn-out hiss of air escaped Alaisy’s mask.

What the actual?

She was truly puzzled. First the dancing droids, then the peeing Major. And now they were supposed to send a contained package of Anders? Where was this going…

“He has been a aaray in the shebs,” Ankira said with a shrug, “Let’s keep him without his mind toys.”

Alaisy merely looked towards Erinyes and Anders, then back to Zentru'la. They were the higher-ups, someone would know what was going to be part of the plan here.

Her tail erratically moved from left to right, hanging slightly low. She couldn’t help but tap her boot, waiting. Her breathing was suddenly very quiet. Beneath her mask, she was grinding her teeth.

“His ego.” Erinyes began to pace a circle around the containment unit, in order to keep Anders’ gaze. “It was one thing to see him fawning over Muz like a Core Worlds aurodium-digger, or threatening to kill Aylin’s fish for the crime of making him look silly in public, or insisting on using my given name because… well, hell if I know why, but it comes across as awfully petty. Unprofessional, even.” She took a pointed slug from her flask of tsiraki.

“Those are all minor issues, though. They’re nothing compared to being the cause of an armed civilian revolt. I’m sure someone of your intelligence has no problem understanding that forcing people to work in dangerous conditions will cause them to rebel. The only reason you’d have to not know how bad things were is to assume General Le'Tau was lying.”

“You also apparently decided the Chancellor didn’t need to know about the prospect of an armed revolt because you assumed you could deal with ‘the rabble’ yourself. Except you couldn’t, and getting yourself captured forced Cassandra to send us to rescue you instead of making sure people in Port Kasiya don’t freeze to death. For all we know, the Traditionalists are using the Republic’s weak disaster response as an excuse to stage a coup. Not to mention General Le'Tau’s forces shooting us down en route.”

Erinyes paused for another swig from her flask. “I can deal with you having a brittle ego, Anders. It’s annoying as kark, but you’re far from the first prissy little flower I’ve met. Endangering Taldryan’s security because of your disdain and disregard for people you see as beneath you, though? Give me one good reason I should let you walk out of here under your own power instead of shipping your arrogant blue ass all the way back to Arx with a note for Idris to send someone competent.”

“I say we keep him suspended, but upsidedown. Get some blood flowing to that brain of his for once.” Koda softly chuckled under his helmet.

“Oh, and I should also point out how the main reaction from all of us unprofessional inferiors to Cassandra sending us to rescue you was ‘do we have to?’. You owe Zentru'la your gratitude for his commitment to his duty being as strong as his chin.”

What did I just get mixed up in?

This was an odd way to get a history lesson. This felt eerily similar to the thing she hated most, drama. Alaisy leaned against the wall, trying to disappear.

On the far side of the room, the hidden lens of a security camera briefly glowed red as it turned on and discreetly focused on each of the people present in the room with Anders one by one including but especially Alaisy. It was almost as if it were especially curious about her, as if she were an unknown quanity. Once it had done so, it discreetly turned back off.

“As long as he gets back to Kasiya unharmed, we have fulfilled our contract. Containing the target may make for safer transport,” said Zentru'la, not caring at all for the Vice-Chancellor’s position and status, as that wasn’t relevant to the mission

Alaisy peered toward the imprisoned Vice-Chancellor. “It will be good to get out of here.”

Something is not right

Despite the arguing, cease in hostilities, and the apparent resolved issues there was a chill running over her spine.

It was kind of a surprise to Erinyes that Anders had taken his criticism… well, relatively gracefully. He’d only actively insulted three of them, and actually owed up to his mistakes. Compared to the Sith she’d met over the years who liked to blame everyone else for their failures, it was a pleasant surprise.

“That’s a good start. Just to avoid any future misunderstandings: first, don’t use my given name. Everyone who was entitled to that is dead, and mostly not by my own hand. Call me Erinyes instead.”

“Second and more importantly, I don’t fault you for not knowing how bad things were here when General Le'Tau first contacted you. My problem is that when you had the opportunity to ask, you either chose not to do so, or promptly ignored the results you got. If you had a reason to doubt what you were told, it wouldn’t have cost you anything to pause construction for a day or so while you investigated. I know the Inquisitorius is full of career schemers who will lie to make themselves look better at your expense, but Taldryan doesn’t operate that way.”

With that, Erinyes turned to General Le'Tau. “Cut him loose. Once our comms are clear, I'll–” As if on cue, her cat-eared headset comlink started chirping with a backlog of unread notifications. “… start arranging your building supplies.”

Alaisy was ready to catch the General as he fell lifeless towards her. She pushed his corpse back at the B2’s and ran towards the supply room. “I am taking this for now Vice Chancellor, you will have it back.”

Ankira moved between Anders and the droids, raising both her Westars at them.

“Never trust droids…” She said as she narrowed her eyes.

With a sweep of her arm, Erinyes flung her lightsaber at one of the B2s, blade igniting in midair. While the weapon was in flight, she dashed towards General Le'Tau, hoping that a man of his size wouldn’t have died instantly to the droids’ blaster fire.

With Ankira and Erinyes comfortably dealing with the two B2s, Zentru'la trained his repeating cannon on the entrance in case there were reinforcements

Tir'eivra flourished the curved hilt, getting a feel for it. She had never used a dueling saber before. Against a bunch of droids, this was going to do just fine. Better than in the Vice Chancellor’s hands right now. He needed some time to recover.

Crack-hiss

Her eyes lit up as she saw the black blade with its amber outlining. The low hum was satisfying. Her tail agreed, showing some excitement as it swished widely back and forth.

This will do

Alaisy rolled her shoulders as she saw both Erinyes and Ankira take care of the B2s.

“What now? Is there a quick way to either shut down the droids or get out with our objective still intact?”

Ankira staggered back a little as she got hit by the shots, but grinned at the droid blowing up from her shots.

“No idea, maybe Dasha knows. She speaks and dreams droids as far as I know”

<@77213354619318272>

“They shut down when you shoot them.” Droids were no major threat, but staying around in enemy territory for no reason was never a good idea. Extraction of the target was top priority for General Zentru'la. “Escape would be quicker if we release the vice-chancellor, and go directly to the ship.” It made sense for him to take the lead, with his huge frame, covered in Beskar, forming a shield for the others.

Dasha frowned as she was tapping furiously at her tablet, attempting to get into their comms to figure out why the droids were acting this way.

“Right. Anders, you can walk, can’t you?” She knelt down and placed her non-lightsaber-catching hand on General Le'Tau’s chest and let the Force flow.

Once Alaisy was done figuring out how to make optimal use of the saber she could feel Erinyes’ pull on the Force, probably trying to prevent him from dying.

“Erinyes? I am no beneficent healer, but I may be able to help. If you are willing to give some of your vitality.” Tir'eivra’s voice was notably careful. She didn’t particularly care if the General died, but it could look good on their mission here if she assisted.

“Yeah. Enough to get him on his feet, anyway. The bacta patch will do the rest.”

“Very well. Just keep some painkillers ready,” Alaisy click clacked over to the Zeltron and kneeled down in front of the General, resting on her knees, shoving the tall heels under herself. She clipped the curved hilt under her backpack and placed one hand on Erinyes’ shoulder and the other on Le'Tau’s lower ribs. Her head turned up and her eyes closed. Beneath her mask, she bit her lip so she could taste the iron in her blood. It had helped in the past, to better her focus on death-cheating-rituals.

A hiss of air escaped her as she tugged at the Marauder’s strong presence. Lifeforce ebbed away and flooded into Tir'eivra’s body. A dark gift from the scarlet-haired woman. Before she could enjoy it, she commanded the wave to flow into her other arm, through her fingertips. Nails clawed into the Nautolan’s skin as she pushed raw energy into him.

“I hope this is enough.” The black-clad Sith removed her hand from the shoulder but left it longer on Le'Tau. The moment the Force began to clench and tear at her own soul she let go of him too. Her hands raised up to the level of her mask and palms firmly pressed against eachother.

Dark Side energies only ever felt like two things: rage, or death. Sometimes both, if you were really unlucky. Erinyes’ stomach turned a little at the feeling of her life essence being sucked away. It brought back unpleasant memories.

🎶 Hello darkness, my old friend… 🎶

She shook it off and started digging through her Envoy kit for the bacta patch inside. “General Le'Tau,” she called out, unnecessarily loudly to anyone who wasn’t just waking up from a coma. “We’re under attack.”

To make her point, she pressed the bacta patch over the wound, through the hole in Le'Tau’s armour. It’d probably hurt like hell, but it’d wake him up.

“Your droids turned on you. We need to get topside, now.” Erinyes helped Le'Tau to his feet. “Is there a route up besides the turbolifts?”

Koda pulled his hammer of his back and cracked his neck side to side, “Time to smash some clankers.” He wore a big smile under his helmet

@here “Sooooo…. uh….” Dasha piped up and drew a finger across her tablet to project some surveillance cameras for people to see what was going on. The warzone above and around them.

Koda took a big underhand swing with his hammer, swinging it right into the droideka, shattering its armor and sending chunks of it into the other destroyer droids.

Alaisy peered at Erinyes, licking her lips behind the darkened visor. It was as if she had just finished one of the spiciest bowls of noodles ever. Tireivra inclined her head at her. “That was a rush.”

Potent

She snaked up to her full height, unclipping the lightsaber hilt. Ready to enter the fray.

Erinyes smirked at Alaisy’s comment. “That’s what she said.”

The mirth evaporated from her face when she saw the feeds that Dasha had projected, though. “They’re going to get slaughtered. Anders, can you help General Le'Tau walk?”

Ankira followed after Koda and opened fire at the still rolling droids.

“Like holobowling, but this time the pins will win,” she said with a chuckle as one of the droids exploded.

Zentru'la charged, using his large, heavily armoured frame as a shield from the others and gunning down droids at point blank range. “We need to move quickly.” Although B2s would be easily carved apart by this team, it may be B2s now, but what would come next? They were deep in enemy territory, where the enemy had the home field advantage and could deploy anything, the only sensible decision was to move quickly

“Somebody skipped arm day,” Erinyes quipped as she watched Anders struggle with the General. Then, she flung her lightsaber in a line aimed to cut through all of the droidekas currently behind Zentru'la. After all, shooting someone in the back was just unsporting.

The lightsaber bounced off the closest droideka’s shield, and Erinyes frowned. She gestured toward the droid, and the lightsaber reversed its direction. This time, it pierced the bubble and speared through the droid’s cranial processor, then continued on the same path to neutralise two more droids until the 180° behind Zentru'la were clear.

“Zen, can you have the Vornskrs meet us at the control bunker? We’ll probably need reinforcements to secure the city.” Then, to Dasha: “Malf, get us maps of their air defence grid.”

<@339758862406254592> <@77213354619318272>

Zentru'la tapped a commlink as he attempted to take all of the droid fire on his beskar plate. “Spear, this is General Zentru'la. We need reinforcements. Deliver the Mudhorn Company to the control bunker.”

While the others were figuring out tactics and maneuvers Alaisy stepped forward. Her boots stomped on the duracrete like threshers crushing ores. The frequency of click clacks increased, Anders’ curved hilt held at her back. Despite the tail not being prehensile, it kept well away from the obsidian and amber plasma of the blade.

A cadre of magnaguards stepped forward, meeting her charge. It was their funeral. An electro-staff held forward. She battered it hard with her first strike. Her momentum turned into a dance as she flung herself backward with a clean flip. Her boot connected, kicking the mechanical construct in the optics. It had wrongly calculated to retain stability by pressing the weapon to its chest. Now her bladed heels had split its head open.

One

The Sith ducked after deftly landing. Metal legs became stumps as the black blade seared through them like butter in a wide slash. She spun the weapon effortlessly. The alchemical grip felt as much part of her as the latex skin that held it. Her claw raked the chest of a falling magnaguard, ripping through wires with vibronails in an uppercut.

Two

A staff crashed down upon the tall woman as she snaked upward like she was fluid. She caught the blow while turning around. The elegant twirl suddenly went in reverse, using its momentum. Alaisy threw the Vice-Chancellor’s curved hilt from one hand to the other as she smacked down the electrified pole with vengeance. Electric blue eyes peered into flickering crimson as she thrust the superheated obsidian into its chest. .

Three

Her hand motioned for the saber to go forward, doing a feint attack. Unafraid, the next clanker swung wide at her. She pulled the blade back. It almost stumbled as it hit the air, rotors recompensating. Still wobbling, a low stab surprised it, slicing the metallic hips apart. It tumbled down. Finished by a crunch and clang of her boot.

Four

A series of satisfying blocks happened as the last magnagaurd dueled with her, flashing brightly every time their weapons connected. Her wrist was unstrained by the surprising lightness of the lightsaber. The buzzing of the droid’s staff held on. The tall woman chuckled as she delivered furious blow after blow. She made a goading strike as it flung their weapon vertically at her. A sidestep evaded it with comical ease. Then a final diagonal slash split the robot in two.

Five

A drawn-out hiss escaped her domed facemask. Tir'eivra took the hilt back with her right. With a guarded stance, one boot forward, one hand behind her back she stood her ground.

Meanwhile, Dasha was keeping close to the rear of the group while trying futility to hack in though she was using cameras to try to see absurd numbers of enemies incoming from any side she could, thankfully… the corridors were small enough that the group could take on.

After glancing around at the sundered pieces of B2 and droideka, Erinyes decided to give the droids a taste of their own medicine. She dramatically extended a hand outward, palm up, using the Force to lift the wrist blasters and point them at the nearest droideka.

Pew pew pew.

The curved hilt was great at battering away blaster bolts, but Alaisy was unable to get close enough to do any damage to the droidekas. She looked towards the rest of the squad, to see if they would be willing to just get past these rollies. “How about we skip this part?”

“Yeah. Cover the wounded.” She moved to do the same, positioning herself between Anders and Le'Tau and the droids that were deploying behind them. Her lightsaber swept in figure-eights to ward off any incoming blaster bolts… but to her mind the best defence was still a good offence.

Wrist blasters might be ineffective, but what about the wrists themselves? Erinyes tilted her hand, and the severed droid arms sailed underneath a droideka’s shields to pummel it like improvised clubs.

As amusing as the exercise had been, it took far longer than they could spare. Erinyes released her telekinetic control over the droid limbs and reached for her comlink as she swatted another volley of blaster fire away. “Ar-Mic, this is Erinyes. Get the Wild Schuttas and Qek-Resh-Forn airborne ASAP. Stand by for AD intel.”

Then, to <@77213354619318272> : “Malf, we really need those air defence maps right now.”

Dasha’s index wavered hesitantly which she’d choose then just closed her eyes and pointed, hitting the camera where the Taldryan Military were struggling. She peeked an eye open and started sending out the commands for the droids to get weapons and help what’s left of the humans while they blared, “WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU!”

The Sephi quickly turned her attention to pulling up the air defense maps as told, while scrambling communication lines to important outposts to delay their response if it works.

Koda focused all of his efforts on a single Droideka. He wasn’t sure why, but this one pissed him off just on how it looked. Regardless, the shield was up. Koda didn’t care. He slammed his hammer into the shield, and when it bounced off? He did it again. And again. And again. Until the ray shield failed and a dent was forming in the floor beneath the droid.

Dasha held up her tablet to invite BUDD-E to access to port to get the info.

“Do what you can.” Dasha offered knowing full well the droid can store and process things quickly.

“Make sure it gets to the Summit Guard right away, or our ride will get shot down.”

They were trying to collapse the tunnel with them inside it!

Aha.

Ahahahahahahahahahaha.

No.

Erinyes dropped her second lightsaber into her other hand. Then she turned into a blur, practically teleporting from the tunnel into the middle of the pack of droids. What followed looked vaguely like a sunset had been sucked into a tornado: a blaze of red, orange, and purple that swirled around the enemy, consuming everything it touched.

What droids? There were no droids here. Just a slightly panting Erinyes and a whole lot of scrap.

Then, as nonchalant as a walk in the park, Erinyes doused her off-hand lightsaber and poked the turbolift call button. While they waited, she sipped from her flask. After all, it was important to hydrate while exercising.

Dasha checked to see if any of the droids she had control of were still functional.

Dasha recalls the remaining functional ones to basically guard the group’s escape path and rear, joining in the back.

“Shortcut!” Ankira shouted as she shot the window to pieces and moved towards it. “Get one of the ships here and we get out now!”

She looked towards the others, she would have no problem jumping out of the window and fly off, but the others had to jump and rely on getting caught by the ship.

Dasha gave ‘uppy’ arms (arms up as if she was a child looking to get picked up) which looked even more adorable with her puffball layers and ears in stockings attached to her head by a scarf.

Ankira sighed softly and then picked up the Sephi like a mother would to a large child and looked out the window, “Better hurry up.”

A blast off with her jet boots was more than sufficient, perhaps she could even carry one of them with her.

In person meetings were generally a waste of time and a security risk, if there was a contract on offer, it could be sent directly to the Harbinger. Having so many high profile individuals in one place unnecessarily was a disaster waiting to happen. But at least Anders’ choice of attire suggested the next contract may come sooner rather than later.

“I’ll be better when you’ve settled the invoice you received 23 hours ago.”

Cassandra raised an eyebrow as she snapped the datapad back to her hands and examined it.

“How generous, Vice-Chancellor…giving up your salary for the next three years to pay all of his fees, in addition to the extra credits in gratitude…you also have my thanks.”

She then levitated it to <@339758862406254592> for his own examination and approval.

Ankira glanced between them and let out a soft chuckle.

“I’m glad everything is done and hope the people are getting better work circumstances as well.”

Alaisy watched with her arms crossed as the theatrics played out. She smiled behind her mask, wondering when the Vice-Chancellor would have a word with Draca. She had returned the curved lightsaber to Anders without protest, despite having grown quite fond of its design.

So many debts

“They are. Now that we know they exist, we’ve folded them into TEAD’s construction division, and they’re getting the appropriate pay and benefits for the kind of work they’re doing.” Erinyes sighed. As much fun as it was to blame Anders for this whole incident, he was only the spark that lit the powderkeg. Why had communications been blocked for so long? And why, oh why, did Supreme Chancellor Mandaboo decide to keep the whole thing secret in the first place?

No, it wasn’t a secret. It was a surprise, and meant to be a fun one. It just went horribly wrong.

“Ankira, when you see your husband again, tell him his skull’s as hollow as his helmet sometimes.”

“When I get to see him I will tell him…” she frowned slightly underneath her helmet. Erinyes wasn’t the only one with questions about whole city and why he would have kept it a secret from everyone.

Suddenly, Erinyes’ datapad started chirping its “priority message” notification, breaking the momentary silence that had fallen over the office. The Zeltron reached for the device, frowning as she turned it on. If it was that important, why weren’t Cassandra and Anders getting the same alert?

Oh. Oh.

Wordlessly, Erinyes reached for her flask… and drained the entire thing in one shot.

Cassandra had a similar thought, even taking a moment to glance at her chair’s internal display only to see nothing at all.

“Please don’t tell me the winery has burned down or something…”

“Nope. I won a prize.” She tossed her datapad to Cassandra, with the Grand Master’s message displayed on the screen.

Her jaw all but dropped as she read it.

“Congratulations are in order…Emissary.” she said as she raised her toniray-filled glass from her left armrest. “Well done. This is truly a great day all around.”

A strange way to hand things out like this. But she was pleased that Draca had carried with him Alaisy’s message. She still wondered how the Vice-Chancellor had reacted, and how the young Zabrak felt about it in the aftermath.

“Mhm… indeed, Vice-Chancellor.” Her voice was regimented and aristocratic. She was going to ignore the room and just open it right there after catching it with her claws.

The hilt was curved like Anders’, but the angle was less extreme. If it was imbued with alchemy or made from any precious metal she couldn’t tell. But there was no signature emanating from it.

Good

Tir'eivra preferred it that way. If anyone should make any such improvements it would be herself. It felt lightweight as she spun it in her hand and then tossed it in the air, to then catch it again. The grip was mostly metal and smooth. Pleasant, as it would stick too well to her gloved hands otherwise. Much more comfortable than her spiny saberstaff.

“This will do.” She inclined her head as his crimson eyes peered at her. Her electric-blue eyes focused on the hilt and willed the Force to slide it open. Her breathing ceased entirely.

It began to hover and disassemble in mid-air. With a nail, she pried out the crimson crystal from her pocket and flipped it in the air with her thumb. It fell between the floating lightsaber parts and socketed into place with a satisfying click and crystalline, high-pitched ting. Her other hand made a stirring motion, bringing all of the pieces together like a puzzle, forming a completed hilt.

Crack-hiss

The Sith’s red burst to life, filling the room with its light. Alaisy produced a modulated chuckle behind her facemask. She flourished the lightsaber in Cassandra’s office out of all places. After a few flicks of her wrist, careful enough to not damage any furniture, or people, she turned it off again.

Dasha’s ear twitched at the news as she figured she’d need to attempt to intoxicate Erinyes into… well not blocking shipments of materials for the Sephi’s ‘experiments’, especially when she was getting close to a good combination of ‘sparklies’.

Cassandra slowly clapped as she leaned back in the dark obsidian chair.

“Goooood. Gooooooooood. Most impressive.”

She placed her hands on the armrests and uncrossed her legs as she stood up and slowly approached Alaisy.

Though she towered over her, she did not make it feel awkward or intimidating. Instead, she extended her hand outward towards her.

In her hand rested two golden code cylinders and a jeweled Taldryan lapel. Ruby, sapphire, and amethyst.

Alaisy clipped the hilt under her backpack. She saw the Epicanthix approaching her and the slow clapping was rather ominous at first. Cassandra’s size was certainly impressive to witness, somehow giving Tir’eivra a better idea how she came across to others herself.

Was that inappropriate?

Then she was handed the cylinders and the pretty looking Taldryan lapel. Colorful, although not as intriguing as the Burgundy-haired woman herself.

“Thank you, a pleasure.” The shiny Sith inclined her head.

“No, the pleasure is all mine…Governor Tir'eivra. Your actions during this mission demonstrated your commitment and loyalty to my Taldryan, and those aspects are equally rewarded.” Cassandra said with a smile as she bowed her own head forward. “Perhaps, may chance, my Vice-Chancellor can learn a few things from you in regards to being rewarded for good service.”

Once the gesture was finished she briefly glanced at Dasha and Anderson with a raised eyebrow trying to contemplate what schemes the two were already up to despite Anderson having just returned. That smile from him, she had learned, was able to tell tales. She made her way back to her chair where she grasped onto her glass and raised it to take a sip.

As she did, she paused and glanced at it.

Strange…the flavor seems oddly…enhanced…for what it usually is.

The Sephi’s ears perked up in delight and she nodded her head vigorously.

“No.”

The room paused as she said it so firmly, so confidently. She floated a datapad over to him.

“We’ve lost all contact with the city. Entirely. So instead, we will be forming a task force to travel back to the city and figure out whats going on.”

“Much as I’d love to help with that, I apparently have to go start a new job. And, y'know, pack.” She rose from her chair and headed for the office door. “Cass and Anders, I’ll get with you about oversight of the Summit Guard later.”

Dasha checked to see if the bug she had planted on the droids were still viable and/or they had spread. Thinking it was unlikely but… everything was worth a try.

There was only static, as if either the signal was being blocked or the bug had been disabled.

At this point it was impossible to determine which.

“Very well.” Koda kept his arms crossed, “It’ll be good to keep their resources flowing to potentially assist with repairs.”