With a sigh she slumped down on a small couch next to her Holo-terminal throwing her datapad onto the coffee table. If anyone had warned her that the Dark Council meeting would be so stressful and exhausting, she would have considered twice before becoming a part of it. She enjoyed the power it came by being on the Council, however she hadn't signed up for all the arguments and pointless debates. There were handful of members that she actually considered tolerable others were as bad as Thanaton. His name still left her with a bitter taste in her mouth; however, his death did leave her with quite considerable power-base.
One of her first actions as a Darth was to purge all those that were still loyal to Thanaton starting with the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, she made sure that everyone working under her were loyal and weren't planning to stab her in the back as soon as an opportunity represented itself. She was never the one to be overly fascinated with dusty artifacts and tombs, but she took her work seriously. It was up to her too preserve mystical knowledge of the Sith, and guard the secrets of her order, those were one of the first words Darth Marr said to her as she accepted her seat on the council. She had to admit she found herself to be intrigued by possibilities that opened to her as she dispatched teams to work on several planets in the galaxy, which sadly now included Korriban as well. Devastating attack by the Jedi and the Republic required a thorough search in order to find what was taken. She was the single force that tore Korriban from Republic's hands, not that she had many good memories of the blasted place, but she couldn't leave it in the hands of the enemy.
Hearing her holo-terminal beep to life she groaned. Taking back the planet almost by herself wasn't easy and overseeing the repairs personally was tiring as well. She grumpily got back on her feet and answered the call.
"Finally! I thought you will leave me waiting for another day, Lia."
"Zane..." Aurelia sighed not bothering to sound more enthusiastic.
"Awwh, is that how you greet your favorite brother?" he grinned light heartedly which only made her roll her grey eyes,
"You are my brother, but I have never said you were my favorite one."
"Touché. I wish this was a social call but it's far from that."
Aurelia grimaced rubbing her temples. There was always someone that needed more from her, no matter her position or titles that came with it,
"What do you need me to do?"
"It has to do with Incursion of Korriban amongst other things, so I thought you would be interested."
That did catch her attention. Her eyes immediately snapped up to look at her brother,
"I am listening."
"I thought it was fair to include you in the loop especially since we all have to thank you for reclaiming Korriban. Darth Arkous lied to you just as he lied to me in his motives when we assaulted Tython."
Darth Aurelia scratched her chin looking thoughtful for few moments before saying,
"Just as I thought, he seemed too elusive and deliberate with his praise. I was right, he was hiding something and whatever that something is I am not comfortable with it at all."
He nodded looking grim even over holo-transmition,
"It's worrisome to say the least. I thought about consulting father about the whole situation but I can imagine he won't be as flexible as you are…"
"How thoughtful of you" she replied with slight hit of sarcasm in her tone of voice.
"I wish I was teasing you Lia, but I am serious. Father will want certain prof before getting involved, especially considering who our allies are."
Titling her head slightly to the side she frowned,
"I wasn't aware of any potential allies; I thought you were on some solo-man quest?"
"This is too big even for you, sister, to take on alone" he chuckled before his serious tone returned "Few members of Republic managed to connect the dots as well, their Colonel Rian Darok and Darth Arkous planned both assaults too carefully for it to be a coincidence, they happened almost precisely on exact time. Commander of Havoc Squad, Jedi and an SIS Agent were part of the original strike team on Korriban, just as I was for Thython. Lana somehow came into contact with the SIS Agent and this is how a new operation was born…"
Aurelia spent few seconds staring at her brother with strange look on her face. Her mind wasn't able to figure out how anyone of them survived long enough to form any sort of an alliance. They had been at war for so long that they were beyond talks about peace, the hatred was something ordinary… one was bound to destroy the other. Blinking those thoughts away she said slowly,
"I can see why you decided not to bring the matter to father. He would simply insist for you to dispose of any Republic members, had you not possessed enough prof that there is a bigger threat out there."
"I believe we have too little to convince our father all we are certain of is that Arkous and Darok are working together and that ancient Rakata artifacts were stolen from both Sith and Jedi. I would feel considerably more comfortable if you decided to help as well, and you are one of the most informed people I know when it comes to artifacts."
Darth Aurelia suppressed a sigh. Her brother was asking a lot of her, she was supposed to work with a Jedi… and other Republic goons. If Dark Council found out, she would have to have a strong reason to do so, not to be seen as a traitor to the Empire. That was without taking her own feelings into account when it came to Republic. In general; however, something gave her a feeling that her presence was needed there more than on Korriban its reconstruction progress.
"I believe you want me to cover your back if this little Alliance blows up in your face as well…" she inquired with slow and clear tone.
"That is one other reason yes" he confirmed with a short nod, after quickly looking over his shoulder "I do not have much time, we will begin with planning a strike on the research facility soon. We believe it will give us more information as to why they need those artifacts and what they plan to do with them. I have already sent you the coordinates to our temporary base, though nobody knows you will be arriving…"
She grinned with a soft spark igniting in her eyes,
"Wonderful, at least I will be able to have a little fun, since I will probably be too late to be any help in breaking into that research facility. Will Lex be joining us as well?"
"Brother dear got sent to an important need-to-know agent mission so believe he will be gone for quite some time" Zane answered before he stepped towards the holo "I have to go now, but I believe I will be seeing you in few hours."
"You shall."
