The Ziost Flame was a standard Harrower-Class Dreadnought without a standard track record. In the many operations that Darth Set and his Red Dawn set upon, the Harrower had faced countless battles over a relatively short period of time. And it survived each of them, defying all odds. From flying above Corellia in the early days of the renewed galactic war, to bombarding planets in Republic space, to even fighting the False Emperor above Illum. The Flame had flown high and proud, burning an Imperial sigil into each world it struck. To each system, to each man, to each destroyer it burned… an unforgettable name was seared into their histories. And it was all by the decree of the draconian warlord of the Red Dawn, Darth Set. Set's origins and nature are fairly unknown, an oddity even among Sith. The Empire hated aliens and generally still distrusts them, so for this certain Darth, things must've been particularly difficult. The Darth's species was unknown, as he was some sort of canine-headed humanoid of a rather large height, with multiple other animalistic features. It was hard to tell what the Darth looked like beyond the obvious skull-shape, for he wore a strangely designed helmet. Of a unique species of unknown origin, of a culture completely unknown to Imperial customs, and from a section of space never explored… Set was an extreme oddity. Considering he managed to reach his position and earn so much prestige within the Empire, he was something to be feared.
So seeing the scorched remains of his flagship, his chariot of war, on an uncharted world… It hurt. Avadd felt that it clouded many of the operative's minds, their focus waning just slightly due to the grief they felt at the sight of the possible grave of their honored master. To Set's apprentices, pain granted focus. Life without harnessed pain is a life unlived, as pain was possibly the greatest motivator in the galaxy. Sure rage and love drove thousands to bring war over the unending history of the galaxy, but the center of all of these conflicts was the desire to cause or to cease pain. And the Behermo twins, they were the most focused of all. The two were cynical of the Sith, skeptical of the Empire. They had been hurt so deeply by the Sith that they could never trust any Sith, even each other. Born of Ziost, raised of Ziost, prided by Ziost. The Jewel of the Empire had been their home. That home was no more. The Sith Emperor was allowed to become the greatest monster in galactic history by his Empire, and the Empire had lost everything to that. So many worlds, so many lives… And another entire Empire. All lead to ruin by Sith ambition.
The Flame was set on its side, buried in the soil of Amun. To explore the ship, everyone needed to be very careful. The ship had held up so far, but will their tampering finally bring it to collapse? Avadd knew she wouldn't die to a ship's destruction, but the others? They were without the same power she held. Where she would be able to feed on her suffering for potential years, they would be dead within the week. Indeed, such an experience would likely make her into a stronger warrior, but it would be the grave of her allies. There was no future in leaving the people who support you to die, even if your personal abilities improve. So she watched the others scale the hangar's floor, attempting to reach the doors to the rest of the vessel. She and the lizard were to be the last to climb, for they were the heaviest of the company. At least the other five would be in place if Avadd and Okk proved too heavy for the vessel's compromised superstructure. Okk hissed through his teeth, "Not like. Atmosphere heavy."
"The air is heavy, but mostly with emotion. This world is powerful in the Darkside, Corporal." She followed Arcisina's movements, seeing that the Chiss was nearly at the top.
Okk's big orange eyes narrowed, "Like Kaas. But different."
"All of us are familiar with the shadows of Dromund Kaas." Avadd suddenly felt somewhat insecure, looking back, seeing the deep shadows that already had been cast behind them, "But this world is new to us. Hopefully, the feeling won't be alien for too long."
"Eyes are on back." The corporal was on edge, his species' natural predatory instincts driving him into somewhat of a heightened state of awareness, "Like shadows are watching…" He paused, drawing a small blaster rifle and a vibrosword, "Suggestion."
"Since you can't climb with all that in your hands, you're asking to stay behind. To watch the entrance." Avadd didn't speculate for long, seeing that the intent in the trandoshan's body and aura, "So be it. Perhaps this is for the better. One heavy body climbing is better than two."
"Fingers not meant for climbing small Imp grapple line." The Trandoshan flexed his three fingers around his blade, a sharp and raspy laugh leaving him, "Better if I stay."
Avadd did not respond to that, for she had nothing to say. Small-talk was not her specialty and anyways, there was a mission to complete. The floor had been scaled, the line now lowered for her. It was unfortunate that so much time had to be spent waiting, as the incline would have been easily scaled if it were made of any other material. But it was a slick Imperial floor. The ground was so well polished, that even after years of sitting unmaintained and in ruin, that it remained too smooth to climb. The rest of the ship would be easy enough, for the hallways and most of the command rooms were filled with enough panels and machinery that they should be scaled with little effort. She gripped the line tightly, pulling herself up with mostly her upper body strength. Her feet were little more than anchors, for using them to climb would only cause her to slip. Unlike the soldiers, Avadd's boots were worn, their traction little help these days. Perhaps it was time for her to find new gear.
It was not a hard climb, but it still gave her a nice warmup. The Sith's muscles were finely tuned for combat and high-exertion activities, this being no different. Pulling her weight upwards was not a simple task, after all. After a handful of minutes, she joined the rest at the top of the hangar bay. And considering that Donovan, Morgan, and Rathwell all left by the moment she made it to the top, she figured that they had heard her conversation with Okk. This left her with the Chiss, who's crimson eyes had already scanned the location of their next objective. The bridge. Arcisina walked the hangar wall, looking up to the door they needed to reach. Hesitantly, she waited for Avadd, who looked down to check on Corporal Okk. The Trandoshan had lit a few makeshift torches, giving him some light. He paced the bottom, stepping over destroyed starfighters and bodies, checking on the contents within them. The Chiss cleared her throat to get Avadd's attention, "Ma'am, the door is open above. Strange, right?"
"Not entirely. The Eternal Fleet cripples starships with Skytrooper pods, remember?" She clicked her saber to her belt, walking over to the wall that lead to the opened door, "The Fleet bombards the vessel from the outside while their droids break the ship from the inside. So, someone probably ran through those doors the moment power cut off. Seeing that it's halfway open, I think that's the case."
"I apologize for not being aware. The Ascendancy did not fight Zakuul like the Empire and Republic did." The agent reached out, gripping a pipe that stretched the wall, "What should we expect, then?"
"It's possible that the Skytroopers are still active. I don't know how long the droids are able to last on minimal power." She began to climb, same as Arcisina, "But, they won't be any trouble now. Without a central core and with such low power, they're probably as much of a pushover as a protocol droid."
"So you say, ma'am." The next few moments were spent in relative silence, the pair climbing to the top of the wall. Avadd didn't like the prospect of seeing more Zakuulan droids in the wreckage of an Imperial vessel, a sight she had gotten all too used to in the years prior. Her pride as a Sith and Imperial was already damaged by the events on Ziost and the foolishness of the Sith during the years before the fall of Zakuul, so this sight would do her little good these days. Attempting to rebuild broken pride is a hard thing to do when the things that made you proud are either dead, missing, or share the same doubts as you. Already she attempted to put the bodies Okk was picking through to the back of her mind, but she knew very well that those men died with the pride of their Empire still intact. Set went missing before Zakuul effortlessly crushed the Republic and Empire, so his ship going down in a blaze of glory still likely seemed glorious to the warriors who fell. They didn't know that the Eternal Fleet was a bunch of mindless machines, ruled over by children. They couldn't have known, so maybe they went down proud, thinking they blew other strong warriors out of the skies. Not some toys of humans playing god…
The silence was music to Avadd. Though she was used to the hustle and bustle of Kaas City or her homeworld, there were times where voices were unwelcome. Observant, Arcisina was acutely aware what she was feeling, the Chiss keeping silent as they pulled themselves through the partially agape door, exploring the halls leading to the bridge. Curiously enough, there were fewer corpses than Avadd expected. The Ziost Flame had a crew of thousands, with a troop capacity of even more. Though the elite of Darth Set was much smaller in scale, he was not foolish enough to deny the power of numbers the Army and Navy often provided. There were hundreds dead, but the numbers didn't seem to be high enough. The lack of Imperial droids was also interesting, though not entirely shocking. There was little trust for droids in Set's heart, for the Sith Lord always believed that he could get better results from ten men than a thousand droids. That and Set could sense whether or not someone had betrayed him. A machine's heart never betrayed what it was programmed to do.
Avadd didn't hold as many strong feelings for machines as her master did, but she preferred the company of organics, nonetheless. The only droids to be found in her or Set's company were often simple machines, like astromechs or protocol droids. Maintenance or service guided droids were much cheaper than battle droids, and much easier to deal with if something goes awry. As they passed by a clearly gutted medical lab, Avadd began to wonder if there was actually something else out on Amun, or within the Ra-Atum system. Pirates weren't too far fetched of an idea, as they were relatively known for squatting in unexplored territory to escape the eye of the law. The possibility that it was some unknown space-faring people wasn't too hard to believe, as well. With the idea that an entire galaxy conquering Empire hid in the same galaxy the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic lived in made the idea of smaller enclaves and planets just, completely reasonable. But on Amun? It didn't feel right. Worlds so strong in force energy rarely flew under the radar, with nothing happening on them. Even Odessen, a world in the hard to explore Unknown Regions, had a sizable impact on the galactic stage.
Arcisina poked through the remains of an officer's body, searching for something. This intrigued Avadd, leading the warrior to join the agent back in the present. The Chiss was analyzing the officer's clothes and what remained of his body, after years of rotting and being eaten away by carrion, notably looking at his wounds. It seemed she had been studying marks on the walls, doors, and other bodies as well. The Sith knelt down, "I get the impression you're finding something."
"The marks on this officer do not add up to typical blaster trauma." The agent pressed her fingers into the old wound, "Much too long, not carbon scored similarly, and not deep enough." She looks up, her large pure-red eyes peering into Avadd's questioning gaze, "I am unfamiliar with Zakuul's weaponry, but the cause of death here seems to be by Lightsaber."
"Saberstroke. No Knights could've been here… and Skytroopers only use vibroblades." She clicks her tongue, "Clearly Imperial, too. You've been studying the rest of the bodies, as we've gone."
Arcisina nods, "While most of them were killed by blasterfire that's irregular to standard Imperial firearms, many of them appear to have been brought low by weapons typically used by the Imperial Navy." She stood away from the body, spraying some disinfectant onto the finger she pushed into the dead officer's wound, "It's possible that amidst the battle, there was a mutiny."
"A mutiny? While none of the Red Dawn would mutiny, it's possible that some of the officers supplied by the Army were a liability in battle." Avadd rose to her full height, pointing her saber toward the bridge, "The only Sith aboard this ship by the time of its disappearance was Darth Set. Seeing that he should be occupied with blasting the Eternal Fleet out of the sky, by this point, I can only think of two things that would take him out of the bridge. A mutiny is one of them. The other, though, is something I'm concerned about."
"What may that be, if you do not mind answering my query?" The Chiss drew a blaster pistol from its holster, looking to where Avadd was pointing her saber.
"That the Ziost Flame crashed here for a reason." Avadd grunted, lowered her blade, approaching the entryway to the bridge. Her partner was not too far behind her, analyzing each doorway they passed, both hands gripped around her pistol. There was light pouring from a slight crack in the bridge's doorway, as these doors remained shut after the power died on the Flame. It was no surprise to Avadd that the vessel's bridge was in such a state that so much light could stream through its entry doors, for Zakuul probably finished the ship by firing a concentrated volley into it. Enough had to be intact, though, for the distress beacon to go through. Even if the beacon came from the lower command rooms, without the bridge's signal array, the beacon would only make it so far. The gap was not wide enough to easily see through, so Avadd wondered if she should cut the door open.
Arcisina poked around the door as much as she could, considering the angle they were at, seeking any possible mechanism that might get a powered down door open. She even began tugging at wires that were empty of energy, seeing if any of the tech she had could put enough juice in to get the doors open wide enough to get through. She was a clever one, this Arcisina, but there was a limit to what intellect got you. For Avadd, the door was no puzzle. It was simply another obstacle. She drew back, tensing her muscles, bringing her arms close to her chest. The worn red material around her arms began to tear as more energy filled them, as the Sith began to pull at the power of the Force. Like a pistol, she shot her arms forward with extreme speed, blasting an incredible amount of raw force energy forward. While it would not be a weapon good enough to throw most trained force-users, it was well-enough to crumple metal and men.
That was adequate, the door blown away with ease. The Chiss looked up, startled for a moment, returning to the familiar stoicism of her people. She nodded, "I forget that the Sith can do that." She brushed a loose strand of blue hair out of her face, "We do not have such powers in the Ascendancy, after all."
"Always confused me how you could turn away such power." Avadd rolled her shoulders, her arms now sore from the power she used, "I have met Sith Chiss, exiled from their homes, never to return."
"It's seen as an impurity, since it is rare among our people. Considering that we choose to build our society on the idea that all of us have equal opportunities, such impurities cause disorder within our borders." Arcisina tilted her head in respect, "No disrespect to you, Lady Behermo. In your Empire, those with your features almost always have some latent power in the Force. To you, it is normal. To us, it is a risk."
"Thus, your allegiance to the Empire." Avadd notes, stepping through the opening she made. This was met with silence, but the silence was the only answer she needed. The Chiss were proud, almost seen as arrogant. To Avadd, this was easily understandable. The Warrior was a true pureblooded Sith, a rarity even among those who shared a similar look to her. Her family's tree was all of the original Sith, refusing to interbreed with humans or other Sith. Perhaps it was to sustain their species, or perhaps it was an experiment, either way… she was a rarity. Her blood was pure Sith, and she had some pride in that. She dressed like the traditional Sith, she did her best to apply herself to their ways, and even knew a great deal of Sith Alchemy due to her studies. While she was no sorcerer like her brother, she chose wisely to study nonetheless. There was pride in not submitting oneself just for the sake of power, or at least not admitting it. The Chiss bowed to the Empire because the Empire made the Chiss strong. Their cooperation benefited the Chiss much more than it did the Empire, and the Imperials knew it. But the Imperials also never turned down an ally, especially one that shared so many similar ideas when it came to essential warfare.
So the silence was one of respect to the land, to the heritage, that Arcisina came from. They both knew why the alliance existed, even to this day, and there was no need to harm the agent's pride by speaking on it. Especially not in such an unknown situation. As they walked into the ship, Avadd sensed Arcisina's unease. Unlike the others, her unease was not born from the bodies of their comrades or the corpse of their ship, it was born from other feelings. Now that she had been made to see the possibilities of a mutiny, and her existing observations on the lack of service droids and Skytroopers, Avadd could understand the reasoning behind the Chiss' unease.
At this point, Avadd would be glad to see her Master's corpse, instead of his masked visage staring back at her. If he was dead, they could at least blame this incident on pirates or technology fizzling out. His life would only draw more questions, and they weren't questions Avadd would be proud to ask. Nor did she think she could face Set now, realizing that he had hidden from the war against Zakuul until he sensed the end of the battle. The bridge she walked upon was hardly recognizable, scorched metal and destroyed technology lining what remained of the room. The roof had been blown out, the front was entirely missing, and only the back section was somewhat intact. Luckily enough, the back was all she needed. Typically the monitors in the rear of the bridge were used for data-gathering and event logs, as well as distress communications. In these computers would the story of the last hours of the Ziost Flame be told. All they needed to do was find the data uplink, pull the memory chips out, and plug them into Arcisina's decrypter.
In minutes, they'd know whether or not Darth Set died with honor.