STAR WARS
THE CRIMSON BLIGHT
Episode 8: A strife with death
Ord Canfre system: On board the Silent Fang.
As soon as they left the orbit around Ord Canfre, they received a priority call from Dromund Kaas.
The siblings were seated in the conference room, when they accepted the incoming call. With the exclusion of Tikala, who was standing outside the door, listening in through her comm link.
A holographic image flickered and the female sith Darth Deedrah appeared in front of the trio. "Greetings Lord Briza, I have just finished reading the report you sent me, I am very pleased with your handling of this operation. Your teamwork and coordination was excellent and even stood your ground to face unknown odds."
"Thank you my lord." Briza bowed her head slightly for emphasis. "We wish only to show our commitment to serve."
Deedrah smiled in return, but changed to a serious attitude when she spoke again. "We have a new mission for you. Another Tenken Syndicate hideout is rumored to be on the nearby planet of Forsen. Locate this hideout and find out what is happening, we must know more of this Psiron monster!"
"We will set course for Forsen." Briza promised with stern determination in her voice.
Mathorn made a confused expression. "But? Didn't we kill the leader already?"
Terrow moved closer to his brother and elaborate in a low voice. "We killed the official leader, not the culprit."
Mathorn was puzzled for a moment, then the logic clicked in place. "OH! That's right, forgot for a sec."
"Have you learned more of this Psiron enemy we are facing? We are aware that his capability is disturbing and seems unworldly at times, not to mention extremely dangerous." Briza asked, as any new information on this foe, would be worthwhile.
"As of now, the info we have of Psiron is very limited. We only have a few records of his previous master's doings, mostly because her talents seemed inapt at that time." Deedrah elaborated on what she had been told from Darth Imperious discoveries. "And as we know. Her latter success is solely the result of Psiron's help."
"If I may ask my lord. How goes the decoding of the hideouts datacore?" Terrow asked carefully.
Deedrah smiled in return, as she elaborated the current state. "Though the data hasn't been decoded yet, we have sent agents to occupy the Tenken hideout and clean sweep the place for further clues."
"How is Darth Imperious doing against the Republic?" Briza asked, as she was curious to hear what was happening in the war.
"In the last talk we had, he and his peers helped locate and successfully break open the secret prison on the planet of Belsavis. The news of the deed should be appearing on the vid within hours." Deedrah told them proudly, despite the information being somewhat classified at the moment.
This made Tikala's eyes go wide. Millions of highly dangerous criminals were being held there, this was a catastrophe for the Republic as a whole.
Both Deedrah and Briza looked to Mathorn to see his reaction on the news. But as luck would have it, Mathorn seemed almost indifferent. He had forgotten the significance of this planet's importance in the large scheme of things.
Deedrah turned her attention back to Briza and concluded the briefing. "I am sending the information we currently possess. Go with haste and may the force serve you well."
Briza bowed her head slightly, as the hologram flickered out.
Terrow was the first to rise from his seat. "I'll order the course to Forsen at once." he stated and hastily exited the room.
Followed by Briza, who without saying a word, headed directly for her office. The updates from Deedrah might already have arrived.
Leaving the room, Mathorn looked at his younger sister, who was still standing in the hallway with a troubled expression. "Something wrong, Sis?"
"Didn't you hear it? The empire has just attacked Belsavis!" Tikala exclaimed, still shocked by the news. "Millions of psychopaths and insane war criminals from all over the republic, are now loose to spread chaos and mayhem."
"OH! That's... very bad!" Mathorn uttered, as he suddenly remembered the prison planet's importance.
Tikala calmed herself. There was no need to worry about something she could do nothing about at the moment. "I'll go meditate. I suggest you do the same or get some sleep."
"Alright sis. It has been a long day I suppose." Mathorn nodded and went to the crew quarters, he shared with everyone else.
A little later. As Briza was about to go to bed, she found Tikala meditating next to their bed. "Not ready to go to bed yet?"
"Please sit with me, I want to try something." Tikala requested calmly, all the frustrations from the day's events, seemed to have vanished completely.
Though tired, Briza did as asked. "Very well little sister," Briza yawned, hoping it was something worthwhile.
"First imagine our energies as separate energies, Independent and isolated." Tikala said in a slow soft voice.
"That requires no imagination, it simply is." Briza muttered indifferently.
"Now imagine our energies merging into a single large pool of energy, shared and open." Tikala continued in the same tone.
"I hope there is a point in all of this." Briza thought to herself, as she was imagining a shared resource of energy.
When she sensed her sister had obtained the required mindset, Tikala continued. "Now open yourself up to it through the force and reach out to me, as I would you, in sync."
Briza felt their force connection merging, both inside and beyond their own beings. Its energy was neither dark nor light, just raw available power. The feeling was exhilarating, despite her tiredness, she literally felt powerful. "How much force lightning could I unleash in this state? Together they could kill a dark council member!" She however knew from their past experiments, how difficult it would be to fight in this state.
Tikala tried to expand outwards with their force-link, sensing everything and everyone with the force. She and her sister could see the vivid dreams of those who slept, hearing the thought of those who were awake. And felt the feelings of everyone on board the ship.
Briza had never experienced such a pureness in herself, as the waves of energy streamed through her. Then she suddenly noticed their combined power fading as her sister had mentally exhausted herself. "That's quite enough little sister. You need to rest and be ready for tomorrow."
Despite Tikala still being somewhat able, she nevertheless was lifted from the floor and carefully placed on the left side of the bed by Briza. Who helped her out of her jedi rope and made sure the warm quilt was comfortably covering her.
Tikala suddenly got the idea how a mother would tuck her children in for the night. She however would never have imagined it would be a sith lord that would be the first to tuck her in for the night. "The force moves in mysterious ways sometimes" She thought to herself, seeing the comical part of the situation, before sleep overcame her.
Briza changed into her night clothes, before she too got under her own quilt and let herself descent into the dreamworld.
Belsavis: Republic space
On board his dreadnought flagship the Empires Vengeance, Darth Imperious was seated at his desk contemplating. Through a ring of monitors in his cabinet, he was observing how a battle he had set in motion was unfolding. He had just ordered a battalion of sith warriors led by his sith juggernaut Vendictous to strike at a republic outpost.
But in truth, the enemy at home, the ominous Psiron, still occupied his thoughts. Through the revealing of the Mask, he had seen the past of Psiron... but the present still deluded him. "He used to be a human boy strong in the force, but what is he now? Just a man with a plan... Or a being of unknown abilities?" Knowing the past of an enemy was all well and good, but more recent information was needed to solve this mystery.
He had briefly read the report of the events on Ord Canfre. While he would agree with his new apprentice that the mission was concluded as a success, it didn't really bring much new intel on Psiron's overall abilities... or his whereabouts for that matter.
He was directing a war party, giving orders and drawing lines... without thinking much of it, like a second hand task of such. It had become almost mundane to him as of now.
At times, he wondered if Psiron could have been a dark council member, bringing glory to the empire... Had a proper sith lord found him, instead of this Drenas ...a weakling and a moron, with a lack of knowledge and vision. In the memories that were given to him, Imperious had seen Psiron threatening to turn Drenas psychotic, on a multitude of occasions using madness inducing force abilities, more or less at random.
However, the memoirs of Psiron's former master, had so far given him the best clues as to where he could be hiding. In his dreams, he saw visions of places Psiron had been as a child, from lush green forests, to barren desolated gray wastelands.
The next morning, on their way to Forsan. Mathorn, who was walking aimlessly around the ship, once again found boredom creeping in on him, decided to ask a question that had wondered him for some time now. He lokated his older sister in the ship's gray and black living room, which properly was cozy in the eyes of an imperial captain. "By the way Sis, where did you get that blue lightsaber? Did you kill anyone famous?"
Tikala who stood nearby, turned to look over at her older siblings, as the origin of the jedi tool in question, was something she too found curious... and foreboding.
Briza was seated on the black couch with a datapad in hand. She looked up as her brother spoke to her, laid the datapad down on the table in front of her. She unclipped her second lightsaber and ignited it's blue blade, illuminating herself in a shower of blue light, as she elaborated. "Despite what you may think, this lightsaber was from a jedi who I let escape. As far as I know, he is still alive, but with only one hand nonetheless."
"So... Big Sis do have a heart!" Mathorn jubilated in high spirit and gave his big sister a hug. With Tikala making a soft smile in approval.
While pushing Mathorn away and giving him an angry glare at the same time... Briza replied. "His apprentice however, decided not to heed my warning, so the moron got decapitated."
Sensing less than approving glances from her siblings, Briza returned to their original topic. "Anyway. I like the smooth handle of this weapon. Back when my old lightsaber was destroyed by our little sister, I chose this as my replacement." Briza finished by turning it off and showing them the handles fine archaic, with an electric silver finish to it's design.
"It's pretty." Tikala commented, as she studied the elegant craftsmanship of the blade.
Over the comm, everyone could hear the Twi'lek pilot voice encoring from all the ships' many speakers. "We are arriving on Forsan in twenty minutes."
Briza immediately clipped the weapon back onto her belt and quickly uttered. "Everyone! Get ready."