Sith Politics: No More Games

by PlanetSmasher

Darth Nox is finally ready to make his move for the Imperial throne. Yet, he must do his part to protect the Sith Empire from utter destruction under the weight of the mighty Galactic Republic. Even as he fights to defend the Sith Empire, his most powerful servants move to rebel against him. Can he hold the Empire and his own Sphere of Influence together? (Book 3 of Sith Politics.)

9. Exercise, Real Estate, and Spies

Exercise, Real Estate, and Spies

The Citadel was more a vertical city than a building. It had its own power grid with its own power reactor, with no reliance at all on the city's power grid and reactors. The Citadel had its own water supply, and its own sewage treatment facilities. Its holo-net servers were on a different network than Kaas City's holo-net servers, although this was primarily for cyber security concerns.

The 171st Military Police Regiment was stationed within The Citadel and exclusively responded to calls and investigated crimes within the government mega-building. However, the 172nd, 173rd, 174th, and 175th military police regiments serviced Kaas City. They operated independently from one another even though all five regiments were from the same military police division.

Six hospitals served the occupants of the tower, exclusively, and each had its own emergency medical care units. Eight fire suppression reaction companies also exclusively responded to fire alarm and emergency medical rescue calls within The Citadel.

The gargantuan tower had several shopping centers, interspersed throughout the building, which exclusively catered to the occupants of the mega-building. There were many, many shops, restaurants, entertainment centers, even cantinas. All were conveniently located to help the nearly one hundred and fifteen thousand office workers of the myriad governmental departments blow off a little steam without the need to leave the massive tower during their work shifts. This greatly helped the workers to return from their lunch breaks on time since they didn't need to leave the building.

There were no civilian residential districts within The Citadel; civilians went home to the megalopolis after their work shifts were over. However, there were several military barracks and bachelor officers' quarters deep in the sub-levels, from the four hundredth sub-level down to the six hundredth sub-level of the massive building.

The military personnel who served in the military headquarters section within the tower, the Imperial Reclamation Service headquarters, the military police, and the military personnel assigned to the military guard section, which manned security check points throughout the tower, were all housed in these barracks and bachelor officers' quarters. Flag officers, such as generals, admirals and above ranked officers, and married officers of any grade lived elsewhere.

Married officers lived in a collection of residential towers owned by the military located an hour's commute to the west of The Citadel. Flag ranked officers were assigned housing at several luxury residential towers in neighborhoods only minutes away from the mammoth government building.

However, Sith who had jobs in The Citadel were not provided with housing. They were expected to provide their own housing. Their salaries were such that if they had difficulty finding suitable housing, they were considered weak. It was a sign of poor financial strength.

Yet, it was easy for Sith lords to find quality housing in Kaas City. Demand for housing was moderately high, but finding a place to live wasn't hard. Additionally, by city ordnance, Sith lords got a five percent discount on rents and leases of residential real estate. Sith lords could easily find very nice digs, at reasonable prices throughout the city. Also, while luxurious housing was a bit more difficult to come by, especially if one were particular about which neighborhood he wished to live in, one did not have to wait very long for something to become available.

Like any large municipality, Kaas City needed and had a large bureaucracy to run the megalopolis. However, Kaas City differed, in one respect, in that they had two bureaucracies, one for the city and one for The Citadel.

Like everything else about Kaas city and The Citadel, the bureaucracies operated independent from and autonomously from the other. In fact, at one point, they were too separate.

As a result, this bureaucratic system had to undergo a very careful and thorough reorganization. The current building administrator and the building management divisions under the office of building administration was made into a subordinate department within the city's bureaucracy. It was no longer an independent commercial operation.

The Citadel was once ruled by a building manager who was a lord of the Sith. Lord Veradin ran a private property management firm which oversaw the maintenance and administration of the mega-building. This powerful Sith lord, had won contracts from the city to also oversee the municipal administrative processes of the gargantuan tower.

She gradually took complete civil control of the building from the municipal administrators of Kaas City. Veradin made her move when she submitted the proper documents and arguments in favor of separating The Citadel from the administrative rule of Kaas City. This would create a separate municipality named Citadel Tower City, and she would be appointed its mayor. It very much seemed that the Dark Council was about to let her have her way. Naturally as the mayor of the seat of the Imperial government, she would be elevated to Darth.

The mayor of Kaas City, Darth Rykath, who'd been appointed by the Dark Council to administer the great city, had discovered what the building manager was up to. The mayor, therefor, had set a trap for the building manager.

Comically, the building manager stupidly fell for the trap and ended up with very serious criminal corruption charges set against her. If convicted, her sentence would have included one or more of the following: loss of all of her wealth, loss of her title, and banishment from Kaas City.

Lord Veradin knew she would lose everything. So, in a plea deal, she agreed to resign from her posts as chief executive officer and chairman of the property management firm. In exchange, the criminal charges against her would be dropped.

In utter humiliation, she sold all of her real estate and most of her belongings, furnishings, art, speeders, and all of her slaves on Dromund Kaas, and she sold all of her shares of the property management firm, which she ran brilliantly for over fifteen years. Then, as agreed, she resigned in disgrace.

Lord Veradin transferred all of her credits, well over twelve billion, to a bank on Hutta. Then, abandoning her title, lord of the Sith, she moved away from Dromund Kaas. Under a new name, with new clothes, and a new hair style, she moved to Ziost to start over, fresh.

In the meantime, Darth Rykath had sent one of his followers to take over control of the building management office, and began the reorganization process to ensure that his rule over the building was permanently secured.

This was why, despite how self-contained The Citadel was, there was no doubt that the gigantic tower was a verified part of Kaas City. There would be only one mayor and city council to rule and govern over both the megalopolis that was Kaas City and the mega-building that was The Citadel. The two were welded together under one governing entity in true Sith fashion. This worked out well for the denizens of Kaas City who worked at The Citadel. There would only be one city tax levied on their salaries.

Keeper looked at the chronometer on the dashboard of his sports speeder. He had plenty of time. He was exiting the express lanes two hundred stories high, and rapidly descending and decelerating. With only a few kilometers remaining on his commute, he finally entered the local traffic pattern. Directly ahead of him was the gargantuan edifice, The Citadel. It was an illusion, but the mega-building seemed to stretch into space.

At the base of the building, at ground level was a kind of moat. While it didn't have any water in it, it did provide a wide gap on all four sides of the gargantuan building that prevented anyone from approaching The Citadel on foot. The dry moat was less like a moat, and more like a deep canyon.

It was five hundred meters across and five hundred sub-levels deep. The building went all the way down to nine hundred basement sub-levels, and its foundational columns went another thousand meters below the bottom level of the massive building.

The building's foundation was solid, even if five hundred windowless basement levels were exposed in the dry moat-canyon. All nine hundred sublevels were two kilometers long, and one kilometer wide, and those dimensions held true a hundred and fifty stories above ground level.

Above the one hundred and fiftieth story, the building began to taper, every fifty stories, then every forty stories, then every twenty, every, ten, and then every five, narrowing lengthwise, until the upper building floors measured one kilometer square, all the way up to the seven hundredth story, tapering again until the floors measured five hundred meters squared up to the one thousandth story.

The last three hundred stories of the thirteen hundred story tall building tapered again, until at the very top, a five hundred meter high steeple reached high into the sky atop the gargantuan tower. The Citadel was a very tall building.

Three hundred and three sub-levels down, on the eastern side of the canyon-like chasm, was Nox's private speeder port. Although Keeper knew of the private port, he would never dare use it. The dark lord usually had 2V-R8 drive him to and from work, dropping off the Sith lord or picking him up from that private speeder port whenever he was on Dromund Kaas.

The outer perimeter of the canyon, on all four sides, was parking for The Citadel. The topmost open air parking was visitor parking. The twenty sub-levels of underground parking was all reserved parking. A section of the lower level parking structure was set aside for the motor pool which was operated by the Imperial Army's 5727th Mobilization Division. This division was tasked with supporting the transportation needs of the military units operating within The Citadel. The mobilization division primarily operated in and around Kaas City and also to and from the Spaceport six hundred kilometers to the east of the megalopolis.

The majority of the parking structure, however, was allocated for the civilian, military, and Sith personnel who drove in to work every day. The majority of these workers took shuttles from the parking areas to the massive parking deck at the foot of the gargantuan building.

This deck, two kilometers long by two hundred meters wide, was dominated by taxi kiosks and their taxi passenger loading zones along the outer edge of the platform. The parking shuttle passenger loading zones were located along the centerline of the two kilometer long deck. However, the valet parking spaces, reserved for lords of Sith, moffs, and other very important bureaucrats coming to work or to visit on official business, was located along the base of the building on either side of the massive entrance.

Keeper piloted his sports speeder into the huge open air speeder port, located at the southern side of the gargantuan edifice, coming to a stop over a valet parking space. He picked up his slim briefcase from the passenger seat and exited his vehicle. He didn't get far before the valet parking space told his speeder where in the open air visitor parking lot, across the canyon – dry moat, to go park.

The spy chief was on his way to Darth Nox's office to give his weekly report on the current situations developing throughout the Sith Empire. As usual, he wore an Imperial Army officer's uniform. The uniform made him fit right in at The Citadel, even though he wasn't, nor was he ever, in the Imperial military.

Watcher Two, waiting for Keeper's arrival, was also in Imperial Army officer's uniform. Unlike Keeper, she started out as a military intelligence officer. She worked her way up to the rank of major before she was poached by Keeper and recruited into Imperial Intelligence. A few years later, the agency was disbanded by the Dark Council, but Nox quickly recruited the two, using their expertise to professionalize his personal spy network.

Watcher Two had been waiting for Keeper at the enormous entrance of the mega structure. She fell in on his right side and locked step with him as he entered the gargantuan edifice. The two walked briskly, making their way towards the northeast corner of the cavernous ground floor lobby of the government building.

The cavernous lobby was filled with throngs of military personnel, civil servants, and other officials, coming or going to or from their offices. Keeper and Watcher Two walked for several long minutes before they finally reached one of the turbolift lobbies which bordered the cavernous main lobby. It was about a hundred meters south of the northeast corner of the lobby. This side lobby, which was quite large in its own right, held the specific bank of turbolifts which all went down to the basement sub-levels on the eastern half of the building.

Four of those were express lifts, which stopped every fiftieth sub-level and were the fastest way to get to the three hundredth sub-level, on the northeastern quadrant of the building. As Nox's spies entered the turbolift lobby, they both froze in their steps upon hearing a familiar voice over the din of the crowds.

"Come here, Thin Man. I will have words with you."

Keeper and Watcher Two turned about to face Khem Val behind them. Khem Val was leaning against the wall with his huge arms crossed over his massive chest. The beast was not wearing his usual armor.

The green skinned, heavily tattooed monster was dressed in a dark brown sleeveless, buttonless vest which he wore open at the front. The Dashade also wore a matching dark brown simple head scarf, which draped down the back of his head and neck, and a dark brown kilt that ended just above his ankles.

The only armor the behemoth chose to wear were shin and foot guards, which protected the tops of his bare feet and toes, his shins, and his knees. He also wore an old fashioned baldric belt made from real animal hide and durasteel fasteners. His monstrously huge vibrosword hung from this belt, suspended over the back of his shoulder, giving the gargantuan Dashade a decidedly savage appearance.

The Dashade had been patiently waiting at the right corner of the lift lobby opposite from the bank of turbolifts, which was why Nox's top spies had failed to notice the beastly Dashade. They entered the side lobby, immediately turning towards the last four turbolifts, the express lifts, on their left. This gave their backs to the Dashade monster.

"This is not the place to have words, Lord Khem Val," Keeper replied, speaking loud enough to be heard.

The Dashade merely motioned for Keeper to draw closer, which Keeper did. The hulking beast offered Keeper a disposable datapad, which the spy chief accepted.

Looking up into the towering monster's eyes, he asked, "Now what?"

"There is one who is plotting betrayal against our master. Investigate this," Khem Val commanded, in a low voice.

Keeper stepped back a pace as Khem Val suddenly pushed himself from the wall and took his first step towards the lift lobby threshold. Keeper watched the monstrous Dashade stomp past him as the behemoth made his way out of the turbolift lobby and into the vast main lobby towards the speeder port outside. The crowds kept their distance from the hulking beast, staying well out of the monster's reach.

Darth Nox's spy chief slid the slim profiled datapad into the breast pocket of his uniform as he made his way back to where Watcher Two stood waiting. Watcher Two made a brief face, showing her disgust, when Keeper spoke two words.

"Palace intrigue."

Keeper and Watcher Two sat in the reception office waiting for Darth Nox to become available. The spy chief thought to make good use of the time and decided to have a look at the datapad the behemoth Dashade had given him.

Handing the datapad over to his second in command, he commented, "I have to give it to Lord Khem Val. His surveillance techniques are top notch."

The datapad's screen displayed security video footage which followed Virulous from Nox's office to an exclusive gymnasium which catered to the elite of elites. Shortly thereafter, the petite Sith lord emerged from the gym, this time in civilian clothing. If it were not for a small white arrow pointing out the subject, Watcher Two would have missed Virulous' exit. The hood of the Sith lord's drab jacket covered her face effectively, and the Sith lord's unremarkable attire was entirely easy to miss in the crowds of civilian government workers walking about in the video.

The surveillance video footage followed her out of The Citadel to the crowded taxi port at the edge of the expansive speeder port. The canyon-like gap was visible at the southern edge of the platform which served several taxi companies. Watcher could make out several other taxi kiosks, further in the distance from the taxi kiosk which Virulous approached. It was finally her turn.

The carnage she perpetrated at the taxi kiosk was recorded and undoubtedly under investigation. However, once investigators figured out who the perpetrator was, the investigation would be filed away as Case solved and closed. No further action required.

Theoretically, investigators could ask Virulous why she did it, but why take unnecessary risks with the lives of the investigators on the case? It's enough to know that she is the apprentice of Darth Nox and that not a single prosecutor will try her case, nor would any judge accept the case in their courts.

What Watcher Two found most impressive was that the security surveillance video picked up at the Sith lord's destination as she stepped out of her taxi droid. This meant that Khem Val had to figure out which taxi line Virulous used. Then he had to slice into that taxi line's central mainframe where every passengers' taxi trips were recorded by taxi kiosk droids located throughout Kaas City.

He had to slice into the database, decrypt it, then figure out which droid accepted her trip order, and then figure out which trip order was Virulous' out of the thousands who had ordered trips through that kiosk droid. He had to have had it all done in real time to get her destination. Then he had to slice into the surveillance security video networks at her destination in time to record her exiting her taxi and meeting with the probe droid which approached the Sith lord.

The Dashade would then have had to slice into several surveillance camera networks to keep following her movements as the probe droid guided her to the next building located at the next block, where he finally recorded her meeting inside with an unarmed medium grade war droid.

"The droid was obviously stolen from the Army," Watcher Two deduced, thinking, "That'll be a good place to start running down who stole the droid, and who bought the stolen droid. If I'm lucky, I'll figure out who Virulous was meeting with remotely via the droid."

"This is a beautiful piece of work," Watcher Two said, with deep admiration, "Have you considered recruiting him, Keeper?"

"He thinks of us as his tools to use as he sees fit. He'd likely take offense if I asked. He probably believes that joining us is beneath him," Keeper replied with a sardonic grin.

"He may be a brute of a monster, but he is seriously competent, there is no denying this fact," Watcher Two observed. "This work… I mean, this work means that he had to slice through several different security video monitor networks and the taxi mainframe, in real time and kept up with her movements! I'll have to slice into the taxi mainframe and learn how he was able to single her trip out of the hundreds of thousands of trips on that database," Watcher Two said, in considerable amazement.

"There were only two gaps in the coverage," Watcher Two told Keeper, "One was at the gym. That's the one all of the moffs, the darths, and lords of Sith like going to. I suppose the elite don't like being surveilled while they work out their flabby bodies." Watcher Two laughed at her own joke.

"Or while they discuss illegal or treasonous business," Keeper said, adding his two credits on what he believed was going on in that gym.

"The other gap in coverage was inside of the taxi droid," Watcher Two said, as she continued her very positive critique of Khem Val's work.

There was no need for Watcher Two to explain that gap in coverage. On Dromund Kaas, the security monitors inside of taxi droids were, in fact, a part of the droid. The droid did not operate that camera unless a crime inside the taxi was in progress. The Dashade would have to hack into the droid itself to get at the camera, and that would have been a huge time sink. It wasn't worth it.

"But if you look at the time stamps on the video," Watcher Two had been saying, "you can tell that the taxi made no detours from the start to the end of the trip."

"Perhaps I can get him to do some work for us, from time to time," Keeper mused, "if I were to frame it as though it were a favor or a cooperative endeavor to further the dark lord's aims. A favor which I would repay with credits."

"Or with information on the location of some tasty force sensitive for him to munch on," Watcher Two said, laughing.

Watcher Two returned the datapad to Keeper after watching Darth Virulous jump between two enormous trash compactors and igniting her lightsaber as the two droids self-destructed.

"Will we investigate first, or will you give a preliminary report to the dark lord?" she asked her superior.

"I don't want to unnecessarily sow distrust between the dark lord and his number one follower. It could destabilize his entire power structure," Keeper replied, adding, "We'll look into this, first."

"It looked to me that she didn't expect the droids to self-destruct and was greatly startled by it," Watcher Two said, adding, "Having audio would have been useful."

"And her back was to the surveillance monitor. So, lip reading is out," Keeper added.

"I'll look to see if we can get a video from another angle," Watcher Two said.

Keeper nodded his approval and rose to his feet to go into Nox's office. 2V-R8 had announced that the dark lord was ready to receive him. Just before entering Darth Nox's office, Keeper turned to face his second in command.

"Watcher Two, I authorize you to slice into her home and work computers to search for evidence there," he said, before turning and stepping through the door into Nox's office.

Watcher Two was genuinely surprised by those orders. She expected that Keeper would want to develop outside evidence first, before taking the drastic measure of slicing into a Sith lord's computers, especially a Sith lord who answered to no one but Darth Nox.

---

Very early the following morning, Nox was nearing the end of his biweekly marathon endurance exercise routine, which consisted of a very rigorous regimen of resistance weight training exercises, a ten minute long sprint on his treadmill, followed up by another rigorous regimen of resistance weight training exercises, and then another ten minute long sprint on his treadmill, all without using The Force and without breaks in between.

Almost immediately following his treadmill run, he began his martial arts routine, consisting of unarmed hand to hand combat stances, thrusts, kicks, leaps, and leg sweeps, also without The Force. He finally wrapped it all up with his armed combat training routine using his custom fabricated sabrestaff simulator, but this time he had to use The Force.

His sabrestaff simulator consisted of an inert sabrestaff hilt fitted with heavy solid metal rods in place of the saber beams. The simulator mimicked the design of his current sabrestaff which he's had for the past five years. The inert hilt weighed as much as the real thing when deactivated, but the metal rods simulated the weapon's resistance to being moved around when the magnetic force field generator coils were activated.

He conducted his routine without resting in between exercises with the goal of maintaining peak physical condition and improving his stamina without relying too much on The Force, except to manipulate the very heavy weapons simulator the way he would with his real sabrestaff.

In this way, when he did face an enemy, he would not be over reliant on The Force to compensate for a lack of stamina or lack of physical strength. This would also allow him to focus his use of The Force for powerful Dark Force rituals. That's not to say, that he would not use The Force for martial combat, but that his physical conditioning would permit him to face a weak foe without relying on The Force all of the time.

The dark lord had been conducting these training sessions for over a decade, but starting five years ago, his training routine had changed, taking on a more challenging level with the increased modes of lightsaber forms, techniques, and stances made available to him because of the design of his new weapon.

Thirteen years ago, the Force ghost of his distant ancestor, an ancient Sith Lord named Aloysius Kallig, had instructed his descendant, Kallig, on how to locate his weapon. Nox had been using that weapon up until five years ago when it developed a crack in the body of the hilt. Nox was forced to retire his family heirloom weapon.

The dark lord found himself with an opportunity to develop and fabricate a new weapon. He took advantage of the moment to expand his lightsaber combat forms and options with the design of his new weapon.

As a result, Nox expanded his combat skill set. Sometimes he trained with his weapon in its sabrestaff configuration, and other times he would separate the staff into its twin lightsaber configuration and train in dual-wielding combat techniques or in single weapon techniques. Sometimes he would train right handed, and other times left handed. Nox trained for every possibility, even for worse case scenarios, like losing the use of an arm.

In retiring his old weapon, Nox removed the crystals, power core, and plasma emitters from the ancient bright matte stainless metallic colored hilt. He mounted the now inert ancient sabrestaff onto a very expensive, very hard to obtain, highly polished, beautifully carved, natural greel wood floor stand. Greel wood was prized for its natural deep scarlet color and black wood grain texture.

The ancient heirloom weapon was now on display in a prominent spot on the floor near the right corner of the office. The floor to ceiling, wall to wall window offered a panoramic view of Kaas City's skyline and served as the backdrop for his sabrestaff display in the office where he pursued his ambitions for the throne. All of his offices were located on the second floor of his palatial home. If Nox wanted to work from home, he would go to one of these offices.

After retiring his old weapon, Nox wrote up the specifications for his new weapon. One thing that he craved from his ancient weapon was greater power output. Shortly after finding his ancestor's sabrestaff, he upgraded the antique, installing modern plasma emitters and a new high density power core. The power core was itself limited because the ancient hilt was shorter and narrower than modern sabrestaff hilts, meaning the power core had to be custom fabricated.

The design of the ancient sabrestaff hilt limited what he could do to upgrade it. For example, he could only install one power core, with a smaller than standard size and which would have to supply power for two high energy plasma emitters and two magnetic force field generator coils.

Modern sabrestaff hilts had two power cores, each powering one high energy plasma emitter and one magnetic force field generator coil. He had to custom fabricate the magnetic generator coils, too. They were also smaller than their modern day equivalents.

In the days before he had acquired his business, Transformative Technologies, Nox programmed his ship droid with the schematics to custom fabricate the magnetic force field generator coils for the nonstandard sized emitter port shrouds on each end of the ancient sabrestaff.

Ironically, it was partly because of the limitations of his heirloom weapon, that Nox found himself relying as much on marshal hand and foot combat, as he did his weapon. His weapon could only last so long on one charge. It forced him to rely more on Dark Force techniques, during combat than his weapon. Nox's fighting style was influenced by the limitations of his ancient weapon.

Although he found success in increasing the power output of the relic gifted to him by his ancient ancestor, he found that the increased raw unfiltered power of the plasma streams was damaging to the ancient kaiburr crystals.

Nox experimented with adding a third, filtering crystal which would pre-filter the plasma stream before it hit the two filtering kaiburr crystals. After a great deal of research and trial and error, he found that tektite crystals worked the best, but it also had the unexpected but eye pleasing effect of adding a very deep red hue to the resulting saber beams.

Armed with his past successful experience with modifying his ancient weapon, Nox constructed his new weapon. There were a few but important differences to the weapon he designed. His ancient weapon was only fifty one centimeters from end to end and three point three centimeters in diameter. His new weapon would have a total length of seventy centimeters and have a diameter of four centimeters. His new weapon would be 19 centimeters longer and seven millimeters wider. It would be a much easier weapon to handle, and safer, too.

Another feature he added to his new weapon design was that the sabrestaff would be able to be separated into twin lightsabers. Each twin would be thirty five centimeters in length, a bit oversized for common lightsaber hilts, but the slightly oversized hilts would then be able to accommodate his two custom-made oversized power cores, one for each plasma emitter and each magnetic force field generator coil.

Nox gave the specifications for his power core design to the CEO of his business, Transformative Technologies. The dark lord had also given him very precise specifications for both the high energy plasma emitters and the magnetic force field generator coils which, if his calculations were correct, would result in a very powerful weapon.

"The energy output of the plasma energy emitters in my specifications are much higher than what would be found in common blaster pistols and rifles, Veld," Nox explained to the CEO of his technology business, "I want plasma emitters capable of outputting six hundred percent more energy than what are found in Imperial Army issue blaster rifles. However, the emitter plates need to fit within the lightsaber hilts with half a millimeter of clearance between the edges of the emitter plates and the interior of the hilt, and they must remain cool during continuous operation."

Nox handed Veld a newly fabricated sabrestaff hilt, with its locking and unlocking mechanism, and showed him where in each hilt the power core, high energy plasma emitter and the magnetic force field coil went, including the internal wiring.

Having explained all of the details to the CEO of Transformative Technologies, Nox left Quesh, his business' new location after it moved from Nar Shaddaa.

Veld Ming Terrek got started, assigning an engineer to take exact measurements of the cavities within the hilt. This engineer took liberties to examine the locking / unlocking mechanism as well. The measurements the engineer took would determine the dimensions of the components they were going to design and fabricate. The CEO of Transformative Technologies then assigned three experimental design engineers to each work on the power core, high energy plasma emitter, and the magnetic force field generator coil.

Designing and fabricating the nonstandard overpowered components with the dark lord's exacting specifications wasn't hard for these engineers. In fact, they had improved on his specifications. The problem lay with the difficulty in acquiring the materials. The materials required to make the components operate at the performance standards Nox had specified were very expensive and not very easy to obtain. As a result, the dark lord had to wait some time for the parts to be fabricated and shipped to his residence.

A month prior to leaving Dromund Kaas for Quesh, Nox had obtained Andronikos' aid in designing the mechanical locks for his new hilt. Besides being a ruthless pirate, Andronikos was an expert fabricator. The semi-retired pirate had built the prototype sabrestaff hilt with the locking/unlocking mechanism and turned it over to Nox.

"Here you go, Boss. It'll join and unjoin the way you wanted them to."

Before he met Nox, Andronikos commanded two different starships as a pirate. He had to make frequent repairs to his ships after each raid because of the incredible damage sustained to the starships when attacking, forcefully docking with, and boarding other starships.

Many times the repairs required him to fabricate and machine components to replace broken and damaged parts on his starships. Ultimately, on two separate occasions over two different planets, both starships had been blown to pieces from under him. In both situations, he conducted emergency landings, which were immediately followed by extraordinarily violent running blaster battles as bounty hunters on Duros, or law enforcement officials on Tatooine, attempted to kill or capture him and his scattering pirate crews.

He had given his pursuers on Duros the slip. Then he stole another starship. After his escape, he recruited and hired a new crew to resume his life of piracy in open space. Then he was shot down again.

---

Many years ago Andronikos was holed up on Tatooine, desperately hiding from bounty hunters and dedicated lawmen, while waiting for an opportunity to steal another starship to make his escape, again. However, all of the landing pads, and the main spaceports were under heavy guard. Andronikos was effectively pinned down and unable to make a move.

Darth Nox, known as Kallig in those days, was on Tatooine searching for an ancient artifact that once belonged to Tulac Hord. It was a holocron. The artifact was rumored to be in the collection of a mob boss on Tatooine. Darth Zash had sent Kallig to verify the rumor and to take possession of it and then bring it to her.

Kallig had trouble with the local thugs. Whenever, he tried to get information out of them, they always wanted something for it. After paying them, the information he'd get from them in return always turned out to be lies.

As an inquisitor, he'd developed Dark Force techniques which allowed him to be quite an effective interrogator. Using The Force, he could tell if his subjects were lying to him. So, instead, he'd invariably end up killing the informants and recovering his credits and then some. Eventually, the gangs started gunning for the Sith lord.

While Kallig was rethinking his strategy, he'd met and eventually hired Andronikos as muscle. Andronikos wasn't the talkative type, Nox found. However, Nox had used The Force on a few occasions to deflect bounty hunters. This saved the wanted criminal from capture.

"This isn't the bounty you're looking for," the Sith lord said.

"This isn't the bounty we're looking for," the hunters mindlessly repeated, to Andronikos' astonishment.

"You don't need us, we can go on our way," Kallig said.

"We don't need you. Move along. Move along," the heavily armed and armored Advosec hunters repeated.

It never ceased to amaze the pirate whenever the Sith did one of those mind tricks. Andronikos started to realize that he could probably make his way off world with the help of this Sith, but he knew he'd be indebted to him, and that was something the pirate didn't want.

"He could be my ticket off this rock. I need to figure out something to trade with him," the wanted criminal thought to himself.

Kallig did not ask this of his hired gun, but Andronikos realized that if he could help find this thing the Sith was looking for, he could use that as his bargaining chip. Andronikos called an old associate of his. Using his connections with his old partner in crime, he was introduced to the local mob boss, a Hutt named, Gragaroh the Hutt.

Gragaroh had eyes and ears everywhere. The Hutt agreed to discover the whereabouts of this ancient device. In exchange, he wanted Andronikos to eliminate a local gangster, who'd gone rogue and stopped paying tribute to the powerful mob boss. Andronikos accepted the deal without hesitation.

"Hey, boss," Andronikos said to Kallig, a short while later, "I got the local mob boss to use his network to figure out who has this holocron you've been after. All we gotta do is take out some local thug who's gotten too big for his own good."

"I didn't say you could do this!" Kallig shouted at his hired goon, "What if this mob boss decides to keep the holocron for himself?!"

"Easy, Boss. No need to shout. I can hear you just fine," Andronikos said, holding his hands up placatingly, "If we take this thug and his goons out, Gragaroh'll know that we ain't small fry. He won't do nothing dumb like try to keep your prize," Andronikos gave a predatory grin, "but if he does try to keep it, we'll know where your holocron is anyway."

Kallig nodded, slowly, his acceptance of Andronikos' suggestion.

"Very well," Kallig said to his hired gun, "Where do we find this thug? Let us go dispose of him."

"Not so fast, Boss," Andronikos said, "Let Gragaroh the Hutt find your prize, first. If we kill Branno now, Gragaroh won't have any motivation to keep looking for your holocron."

"Very well," Kallig replied, accepting the pirate's reasoning.

A few days later, Andronikos knocked on the door to Kallig's room at a run down, dusty inn.

"Enter!" Kallig ordered.

"Hey, Boss! Gragaroh's found your prize. Now it's time to do our part. I already cased Branno's hangout. He's got ten goons working for him, but they don't always hang out together. So, the most we're likely to run into is four or maybe five of 'em.

"Andronikos," Kallig, began, "if Gragaroh is as powerful as you say, wouldn't he have already taken this Branno fellow, out on his own?"

"Yeah, you're right, Boss. But why waste your own manpower when you can farm the hard work out to third party contractors?"

Andronikos then offered Kallig one of his spare blaster pistols.

"Here you go, Boss. You're gonna need this."

Kallig looked at the weapon and was quite honest with the pirate.

"I've never fired one of those before. I'll stick to my own weapon."

"If you say so, Boss," Andronikos replied, already regretting taking the job of dealing with Branno.

Andronikos walked into a cantina and sat at a table. Kallig sat on a chair across the table from him.

"We've got a problem, Boss," Andronikos said, "Branno's got company. That's Kleenah Tram. It looks like they're gonna team up on Gragaroh."

"So, then let me guess. Everyone in the pub, giving us hard looks are their henchmen."

Which it turned out to be everyone in the cantina, minus the cantina staff.

"Yeah, Boss," Andronikos said dryly, as a barmaid approached their table.

"What do you guys want?" she asked with a surly attitude.

"You ain't getting nothing for them, little lady," a gruff voice said from Branno's table, "They was just leaving."

Branno was a burly Houk. His ally, Kleenah Tram, seated across the table from him was a Trandoshan. The henchmen were a mixed group of aliens and humans.

The barmaid and the bartender both ran out of the dining area and into the kitchen. They knew how this was going to play out.

Andronikos got right up and took his first step towards the door.

"Andronikos," Kallig said, a warning was in his tone, "Stand at the door and don't let anyone out."

"Sure, Boss," Andronikos said, with every intention of making his escape.

As soon as he stepped on the door's threshold, his ears were assaulted with the explosive crashing sound of furniture destroying itself. He took a few running steps out, but returned to the door to look inside of the cantina.

Kallig was finishing off those who'd survived his explosive Force Push attack with his sabrestaff. A handful of the gangsters, led by both Branno and Kleenah Tram, had survived the Sith lord's initial explosive attack.

They quickly reorganized themselves for a counter attack, firing their blaster pistols wildly at the Sith lord. Andronikos watched lighting – lightning – shoot out of the Sith lord's hand and strike them all. The gangsters stopped shooting, and seemed to be shaking and trembling where they stood. When the lightning ended, the six gangsters dropped to the floor.

The unnatural speed at which the Sith dashed forward and skipped from thug to thug, impaling each one with his weapon, was chilling to the pirate. It was over between eye blinks, but the pirate was further astonished by what the Sith lord did next. After securing his weapon, Kallig bent down to rummage through the pockets of his victims and began taking their credit cards, datapads, and any jewelry the dead wore.

The barmaid, bar tender and the kitchen staff came out when things had quieted down. Kallig saw them come out and spoke coldly to them.

"I'm hungry. Make something good for me to eat."

He stood there, waiting for their reply. Andronikos finally found his voice.

"Yeah. I could stand for a bite of something, too. And barkeep, bring me something to wash it down with."

The barkeep signaled the kitchen staff to get moving, as he poured a beer into a frosty mug and set it on the bar. Meanwhile, Kallig returned to rummaging through the bodies for loot, Andronikos looked for and found a table that was still intact, and righted it. He then retrieved the chairs he and Kallig had been sitting on earlier. It seemed those chairs were behind the Sith lord when he unleashed his attack, thus surviving the destruction in the Cantina.

The pirate sat after retrieving his beer from the bar and watched as Kallig rummaged through the few remaining bodies. The Sith lord deposited his spoils onto the table, and then walked behind the bar and proceeded to wash his hands in the sink. Then, selecting a bottle and two shot glasses, Kallig proceeded to the table Andronikos had set up. As Kallig sat, he placed the glasses down and poured both he and his hired gun a drink. Kallig raised his drink.

"To a job well done," the Sith lord said, in toast.

"Here! Here!" Andronikos, toasted before tossing back his drink, and then following that with a swig from his beer.

Andronikos watched as Kallig began to drain the credits out of credit cards of the dead, and depositing those credits into his own credit card.

The Sith Lord then started going through the datapads, accessing any banking accounts the thugs might have owned and drained those accounts into his own. Andronikos watched in fascination at the demonic speed the Sith lord's hands moved.

At last, the barmaid came out with their dishes. Real fear was plastered on her face, as she tried to find a clear spot on the table to set the plates down.

Kallig had to shove his spoils to the side of the table to make room for his meal.

"Hun, could you bring a pitcher of whatever this beer is, and an extra mug?" Andronikos asked, smiling.

"Ye-yessir," the barmaid replied, with real fear in her voice.

"Barmaid," Kallig said, without any warmth in his tone.

"Ye-yes-s-sir," she replied, near to tears.

"How am I supposed eat without cutlery?" Kallig asked, eyeing the poor young woman, coldly.

"I-I'll br-bring th-those, sir," she replied. She turned and practically fled into the kitchen.

However, she never returned. The barkeep brought out the cutlery and the beer with two frosty mugs.

He smiled at his two customers.

"Let me know if there's anything else I can get for you," he said, adding, "Thanks for cleaning those guys out, they were ruining my business. Don't worry about paying. It's on the house."

The proprietor returned behind the bar and waited for his two customers to finish their meals. Kallig enjoyed his midday meal.

"I see you like taking loot after a job," Andronikos observed, pouring beer into Kallig's mug.

"Loot?" Kallig asked, lifting a bite of food to his mouth.

"You went through their pockets," Andronikos explained, before biting into his sandwich.

"Ah, that," Kallig replied, before his next bite of food, "Prizes of war," Kallig chewed, then explained, "I deserve them. I took what was rightfully mine."

"Makes perfect sense to me," Andronikos said, nodding his agreement.

"It is well that you did not flee as you had originally intended, Andronikos," Kallig said, eyeing the pirate, "I would have had to hunt you down and kill you for your betrayal."

The Sith lord then cut another portion of food with his knife, and used his fork to put it into his mouth. Andronikos looked at Kallig as though his employer had become a liability.

"It's a Sith thing," Kallig explained, while chewing, adding, "It makes us look weak if our followers abandon us. We have to find them and slay them for their betrayal. Don't worry about it. You didn't run away."

"Sure," Andronikos replied, "If you say so."

"You can have the jewelry," Kallig told the pirate, "Some of those are quite nice and should fetch a good price. That will be your share."

"I didn't do nothing, but stand at the door watching the massacre," Andronikos replied.

However, that didn't stop him from going through the jewelry.

"You stood at the door and kept them from leaving as I had asked," Kallig replied, coldly eyeing Andronikos, sipping from his beer mug.

Andronikos began to realize that his employer was probably not going to pay the second half of the agreed fee. He also realized that he might not be able to make his trade.

Kallig rose from his seat and stepped outside. Shortly after, Andronikos joined the Sith lord.

Two hours later, Kallig was in the palace of Gragaroh the Hutt. Andronikos had convinced Kallig to let him do all of the talking.

"Alright, Gragaroh the Hutt! We made a deal. You found what we needed, and we did what you wanted. We got rid of those ungrateful mailoc turds who thought they were too big for you."

Andronikos pointed at Kallig and said, "Don't disappoint him, Gragaroh. He doesn't like having his time wasted. He kept his end of the bargain. Now it is your turn to keep your end."

Gragaroh looked at Andronikos with new eyes.

"You make him greater than you. You have a well earned reputation. You are a fierce pirate. Yet you defer to this unknown one," Gragaroh said, then asked, "Why?"

"Because I just stood at the door and watched him kill just over twenty of the meanest goons in all of Anchorhead, Gragaroh," Andronikos replied, adding, "He's from the Sith Empire, he's a Sith."

Gragaroh didn't fear Kallig, but he realized that he was facing the Sith Empire. He knew he could not contend with the Sith Empire, but he could not lose face in the presence of his henchmen.

"I am strong, I do not fear a lone man, but the distinguished guest in my palace is a representative of the Sith Empire," Gragaroh said, "I give the proper respect and offer hospitality to the Sith Empire's representative. Andronikos, you are correct. We made a bargain, and I honor my bargains. I give to him what he seeks as we have agreed."

A female Twi'lek advanced on his signal and bowing in a most respectful manner, presented Kallig with the ancient holocron. Gragaroh the Hutt had purchased it from his rival. The Hutt mob boss had judged Kallig's service a good trade for the cost of the purchase.

A short while later, Andronikos, pleasantly surprised, verified that he was paid the remainder of what he was owed. That's when he made his pitch.

"Well, I did an extra bit of work for you, Boss, when I got Gragaroh the Hutt find your holocron for you. I say that deserves a bit of a bonus."

Kallig was waiting for the pirate to ask for more credits.

"What do you want, Andronikos?"

"Take me off this rock; drop me off anywhere, Boss. I don't care where as long as it's out of the Tatoo Star Cluster, and as long as it's got big cities on it."

Kallig recognized Andronikos' tenacity, cunning, and resourcefulness, and he recognized the pirate's ability to navigate the complexities of doing business in the underworld. This gave the Sith lord an idea.

"I can take you with me off of this planet. However, if I take you with me, then you must come into my service."

Andronikos made his counter, counter offer.

"I'll pay you back all these credits as my fare to whatever star system you're headed to. Then when I get off ship, we'll part ways."

"When you have changed your mind," Kallig told the pirate as his answer, "find me at my starship at launch pad one hundred thirty six. I'll get rid of the security at my launch pad," Kallig said, adding, "Your service to me shall begin then. Do not turn my offer down so easily. You'll find many opportunities for your own side businesses, if you come to work for me. Also, your salary shall not be unsubstantial. My launch time is set for twenty one hundred, galactic standard."

The Sith lord then turned away, leaving a bitterly disappointed and desperate pirate behind. Andronikos realized he was destined to be trapped on this dusty desert world.

"Blast it all!" Andronikos cursed, making his way back to his room at a rundown inn.

Not an hour later, Andronikos was at Kallig's starship with his gear. As promised, the security at the entrance to the walled launch pad was gone, nowhere to be seen.

"I'll lie about taking the job and then make a break for it, the first chance I get," he figured.

As soon as Andronikos stepped through the heavy duty sliding door and into the walled-in launch pad, he stopped in his tracks. Andronikos had to gawk at the starship.

"I can't believe it," the pirate said under his breath, "It's an actual Sith Empire Navy warship."

At the bottom of the ramp was a huge monster of a beast. Its huge arms crossed over its massive chest. It had to be at least three meters tall! Andronikos had never seen one of those before.

He walked towards the bottom of the ramp. The huge monster drew and activated its massive vibrosword, and stomped its way towards the pirate.

"Stop where you are, vermin trash! If you attempt to flee, I shall strike you down and feast on your carcass!"

"Hey! Take it easy, fellah! I was doing a job for Kallig. He's offered me a ride on his ship. Yeah?"

"Worm! Trash! You shall refer to him as your master, you scum!"

The monster was quite insistent.

"Whoa! I'm just a temp hire! I ain't got no masters!"

"Leave him be, Khem. I told you to expect him," Kallig said from behind the behemoth, descending the ramp.

Khem Val huffed angrily and turned back to return to his post at the bottom of the starship.

"Look at your starship," Andronikos said to Kallig, approaching the pirate across the hard packed sandy launch deck, "You some kind of big shot?" Andronikos asked, mystified.

"I am a Sith lord," Nox said, as though reminding a half-wit, adding, "I have some political power. I serve under one of the twelve rulers of the Sith Empire."

"In other words, I can use your connections and earn a bunch of credits doing side jobs like you said. Yeah?"

"Come into my service, Andronikos. You shall be rewarded."

"What'll be my job, though?" the pirate asked.

"You shall be my connection to the underworld. You shall carry out my dirty work, and you shall captain my starship," Nox replied, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the Imperial Navy Fury-class Interceptor.

"You got yourself a pirate," Andronikos answered, meaning it.

---

Years later, Nox spoke to the semi-retired pirate and expert fabricator, describing what it was that he needed his new sabrestaff hilt to do. That was all the information Andronikos needed to design and fabricate the locking and unlocking mechanism for Nox's new hilt.

The engineers at Transformative Technologies admired the straightforward and simple to operate design. However, being engineers, they couldn't help but add their own refinements to the locking and unlocking mechanism, greatly improving its reliability and durability and thus greatly improving the hilt prototype.

While the dark lord waited for the components from his engineers at Transformative Technologies to arrive, he ordered four new synthetically produced uncut kaiburr crystals. Nox believed The Force was with him. At about the same time that the Sith lord received his four dark red cylindrical crystals, by courier a month later, he also received the completed components from Transformative Technologies.

In addition to the components fabricated by his engineers, Nox also received the prototype sabrestaff he took to his engineers. However, he also received a newly fabricated refined version of the sabrestaff hilt, with the improved locking/unlocking mechanism, all based on Andronikos' design. The engineers even added a nice touch, staining the highly polished metal a very nice gun metal blue.

Nox set his components aside and turned to inspecting each of the four cylindrical artificial gem stones. Each artificial kaiburr crystal cost him an astounding one hundred ninety two thousand credits. The incredible cost per crystal was owed to the level of perfection in the crystalline lattices of each example. The fact that his custom fabricated crystals were larger than the standard size for such crystals also added greatly to the cost. The four crystals were rated to be one hundred percent free of any imperfections. They were about the size of the stoppers used for wine bottles but with a two millimeter wider diameter.

To protect the synthetic kaiburr crystals from the huge surges of energy emitted from the plasma emitters, Nox ordered hundreds of kilograms of translucent black tektite stones. Of the massive collection of translucent tektite that he received in the shipment, he found a half dozen stones that could be cut to the proper dimensions and polished to mirror finishes on both sides of the resulting discs.

Of great importance to him was that each of the two discs, which he would eventually settle on using, had no imperfections. They were perfect in the evenness of their very, very dark translucency, perfectly even in their polished mirror finish, and perfectly symmetrical in their dimensions.

Each disc was perfectly three millimeters thick at each area of the discs where thickness was measured. The polished surfaces aligned with their crystalline orientation. This ensured that the crystalline structure was not at an angle relative to the direction of flow of energy as it passed through the black, darkly translucent discs.

The black translucency of the tektite material is what gave Nox's saber beams their unusually dark red color. Without these disks, the synthetic kaiburr crystals would not keep their sharp edged cuts, and would deteriorate over time from the assault of the massive amounts of unfiltered energy flowing through them from the plasma emitters. These tektite crystal discs were the secret of Nox's lightsaber and sabrestaff constructions.

It was because of these dark discs that the very high energy plasma streams from the plasma emitters would be perfectly prefiltered. This ensured that the filtering kaiburr crystal would receive an already smoothly uniform, ultra dark stream of plasma energy without reducing the power throughput. The prefiltered plasma energies would be further refined and sent on to the second focusing beam emitter kaiburr crystal.

It was from the focusing beam emitter kaiburr crystal that the energies would be projected in a focused beam of deep red plasma which could stretch for many kilometers. Any combustible materials affected by this beam of plasma energy would instantly burst into wild flames as the beam swept across the materials, like a laser. However, the focused plasma beams of each emitter were not allowed to project unrestricted.

The plasma beams were captured and concentrated into very narrow shafts of magnetic fields. They were restricted to only one meter in length and three centimeters wide at the base and two centimeters at the tip of the beam. The magnetic fields were what gave the beams their solid forms as projected by the magnetic force field generator coils.

This was how the deep red, perfectly smooth, highly stable, and uniform saber beams were formed. The concentration of the plasma energies in that confined space was how the very high energy throughputs were achieved, making the beam capable of cutting through meter-thick durasteel plate armor.

If the magnetic force field generator coil was not properly designed, or if the calibration of the coil was off and not matched for the energy output of the plasma emitter, then the beam would manifest as a turbulent and rough saber beam. Such saber beams were very eye pleasing and even intimidating, but energy throughput would have to be sacrificed for such aesthetics. This is because some of the heat energy would not make contact with the material that needed to be burned through.

Most lightsaber designs had two filtering kaiburr crystals, and then a highly polished and extremely pure ultra-clear optical crystal lens to focus the saber beam for the magnetic force field generator coil. Nox chose to use a different but well established design concept.

In his design, the second kaiburr crystal was cut to not only filter the plasma stream but to also act as the focusing lens. As a result the beam emitters of his weapon had no optical crystal focusing lens. They were just open ports from which the saber beams projected. As with all lightsabers and sabrestaves, the port shroud contained the magnetic force field generator coil.

If Nox were to put his weapon up for sale in the very limited market, he could easily command several million credits for it. Nox's sabrestaff design, with practice, could very quickly be separated into twin lightsabers, and then just as quickly reassembled into its staff configuration.

While this concept was not new, what was different about his weapon was the use of tektite crystals as prefilters and the overpowered but cool operating plasma emitters and power cores. Nox was in a very enviable position of having access to engineers who could fabricate high powered, high quality purpose made components.

Most Sith and Jedi who constructed their own weapons normally turned to used component vendors to purchase off the shelf parts with normal performance ratings in their own lightsaber designs. These off the shelf components came from sources such as plasma emitters from old blaster pistols, power cores from portable handheld welding torches, and stripped down magnetic levitation generator coils modified to act as force field generators.

Each finished lightsaber hilt, in Nox's design, was a hefty four kilograms which included the weight of the oversized and very dense power cores within each of the twin lightsaber hilts. With the twin weapons joined as a sabrestaff, the weight was a solid eight kilograms. The hefty weight was also owed to the thickness of the metal walls enclosing the internals of each hilt, which lent to the weapon's solidness.

The metal rods of his sabrestaff simulator weighed twenty two kilograms each! Together with the sabrestaff hilt, the simulated weight of Nox's weapon, with both saber beams in operation, was an incredible fifty two kilograms!

The heavy weight of the rods simulated the resistant force created when the magnetic force field generator coils were in operation. It was why the weapons were almost exclusively used by trained Force users. It required the use of The Force to overcome that force to nimbly maneuver the weapons during combat.

The Force user had to exert several times the weight of the resistance, plus the weight of the hilt in order to effectively wield it. In Nox's case, he easily exerted between twenty to twenty five times the fifty two kilograms of force required to overcome the static force which tended to keep the weapon immobile when the twin magnetic force field generators were activated, but this was on par with other Force users who were armed with sabrestaves. The same effects applied to lightsabers, but the required force needed to overcome it was generally half as much.

The reasons for training with a simulator rather than his real weapon was that, first, it did not glow the way a lightsaber would, and thus his enemies and rivals would not be clued in as to which of his estates he was at while on Dromund Kaas.

Many times in the past, Nox enjoyed the night time view of Kaas City with his deceased wife, Ashara Zavros. Together, they would look at the sea of city lights from the patio deck of one of their homes in Kaas City. On those many occasions, the two would play a game, where the object was to spot the glow of lightsabers as anonymous Sith lords trained with their weapons in their homes.

"Let's see who'll find the most hidden Sith," he'd say, as a challenge to his late wife.

They would then compete, searching for evidence of lightsaber training coming from a tiny handful out of the many millions of windows from the thousands of residential towers. Their view of the Kaas City skyline was quite spectacular. From their penthouse perch atop their residential tower, they could see thousands of residential and commercial towers. There were so many windows from which so many different colors of light shown out in the night time hours.

He and Ashara found quite a few Sith by playing that game, spotting them from many city blocks away, or even from a couple of kilometers away. The glow of the anonymous Sith lords' weapons could be seen from the windows of their condominiums, or from the patios of their distant penthouse homes. The two would laugh as they joked of Jedi living in their city when they'd spot a blue or green saber beam, from time to time.

The joke was especially funny to the couple because Ashara was once a Jedi, and although she was Sith, she adhered to her modified version of the Jedi and Sith codes. One of her weapons was her Jedi weapon, with a blue saber beam.

Very early in their relationship, when she was only his apprentice, Nox had gifted her with a quality lightsaber, which he had fabricated himself. This was before his discovery of tektite crystals, so the weapon sported a brilliant red beam. He thought she would retire her old Jedi weapon after receiving the superior weapon.

Instead, she took to dual wielding the weapons. Like her stubborn adherence to her combined Jedi and Sith philosophical views, she chose to arm herself with both a Jedi and a Sith weapon.

Then one night, in their Dromund Tower home, two years before her death, as they played another round of their game, he realized this could be one way that his enemies could determine when he or Ashara Zavros were present at any one of their homes, making it easier for their enemies to get at them when their guard was down. The two practiced their lightsaber and sabrestaff combat skills in the reception halls of their penthouse homes. At that time, Nox owned five properties in Kaas City, and six others scattered around Dromund Kaas.

On the patio of Dromund Tower, Nox turned back to look at the east facing wall. It was one continuous slab of permaglass, from floor to ceiling and spanning the entire width of the penthouse. The interior was brightly lit, and everything inside was visible. During training, their saber beams would act as a kind of beacon, alerting their neighbors, rivals, and potential enemies, watching their palatial penthouse residence that they were home.

Although he owned many residences in Kaas City and around Dromund Kaas, his primary residence was Dromund Tower. It was where he, Ashara Zavros and their two small children preferred to live, their favorite home. Nox and Ashara were always eager to return home, to Dromund Tower, to their two small children and the children's nanny droid, after completing their missions in the early days of his time on the Dark Council. It was their largest home, and the children loved running and playing in the spacious residence.

After the attack, meant to kill him at Dromund Tower, he began to randomly choose which of his residences he would live, never staying for longer than a month at any one. He began doing this to keep his enemies guessing where he was residing at any time.

Training with an ignited lightsaber, however, would tell his enemies which of his homes he was at, and thus the reason for his sabrestaff simulator. A determined enemy could eventually pinpoint which of his homes he was at without his sabrestaff giving his location away, but why make it easier for his foes to find him?

The other reason he started using his simulator was that it greatly reduced damage to his real estate properties. In the past, he's had to make many expensive repairs to his residences, because of a miscalculated move that would end up burning gashes deep into walls, and floors, severing plumbing, electrical or data lines. Sometimes he'd accidentally flash a piece of furniture into flames.

One day, shortly after having fabricated it, he was training with his new weapon simulator in the reception hall of one of his smaller homes. He accidentally destroyed a priceless irreplaceable oil painting mounted on a wall. On another occasion, this time in Dromund Tower, he accidentally smashed another priceless piece of art.

It was a bust carved from mahogany obsidian stone of Emperor Vitiate when he yet lived in his own body as a Sith Pureblood! It was his true identity before he became incorporeal! This was the only known likeness of the nearly immortal former emperor when he was a mortal. The bust was set on a stand at the side of the reception hall.

The two accidents caused him to suffer several hundreds of millions of credits in lost personal worth. Since then, he conducted all of his training out in the patio.

Based on characteristics that he wanted for the saber beams of his new weapon, Nox calculated the angles of the cuts the cylindrical synthetic gem stones would each undergo. He programmed the angles of each facet into a simulation program. This program helped him to design the best geometric angles of each facet of the synthetic crystal in order to produce the hottest and most focused beam for each saber hilt of his new weapon. Yet, Nox had to be careful not make the beams too narrow.

A beam that was too narrow would be extremely energetic, but present less surface contact area to transfer heat energy. Of course, if the beam were too wide, the energy density of the surface area would be too low, but it would also destroy the weapon, as the over wide beams would come into contact with the beam emitter port shroud where the magnetic force field generator coil was housed. When he was sure of the calculations, he brought his ship droid to his starship, docked at the tiny spaceport in Kaas City.

Giving his droid the calculated dimensions for the cuts to be made, he said, "Input these numerical coordinates into the computer numerical control machine, then double check to be sure no errors were made when inputting the parameters."

"Yes, Master," 2V-R8 replied.

Nox followed the droid to the engineering department and stood silently as 2V-R8 set the CNC machine up for its task. Two crystals would be cut according to one set of programmed parameters, and the two remaining crystals would be cut using another set of parameters. The operation took twenty minutes to complete for each crystal.

Just over a month later, with all of the components completed and tested, it was time to put them all together. Assembling the power cores and plasma emitters and the tektite discs into their respective twin hilts was easy. Setting the synthetic kaiburr crystals was not easy. They had to be perfectly aligned. For this task, Nox had to use The Force.

The filtering kaiburr crystals had to be perfectly aligned with the plasma emitters and then locked in place with the crystal locking clamps. If perfect alignment was not assured, the energy stream would enter the crystal at an angle relative to the crystalline lattices of the crystals. This would cause refractions at a molecular scale, causing wear and tear of the crystal, degrading its performance over time.

The focusing kaiburr crystals, from which the saber beams would actually be emitted, had to be perfectly aligned not only with the filtering kaiburr crystals, installed earlier, but with the beam emitter shroud port. Improper alignment would result in the plasma energies accumulating unevenly within the magnetic force field, giving uneven temperatures at different parts of the saber beam.

It was a very difficult task to perform, and the best way to achieve perfect accuracy was through The Force. Through The Force, the Jedi or the Sith lord assembling their weapons could see at the atomic level, clearly identifying the crystalline lattices and the facets of their cut crystals. This allowed them to make the ultra-fine adjustments needed to achieve perfect alignment, and to perfectly clamp the crystals into place.

This process could not be easily done by machine, even if controlled by the most powerful computers, which was why lightsabers were always handcrafted weapons, never produced on an assembly line. This level of perfection was not a luxury; it was a necessity. It wouldn't do to have a lightsaber that destroyed itself in a matter of months, because the crystals were not perfectly aligned.

Nox had ordered a one meter cubed block of granite some weeks prior to completing his weapons build. He brought one of his captured lightsabers which had a similar weight to the separated hilts of his new weapon. Standing in front of the solid block of granite on the floor of his lab, he activated the captured lightsaber. Its rough green saber beam projected from the perfectly transparent optical focusing lens mounted in the bottom of the emitter shroud port.

The turbulent beam had a rough raspy hum which spoke of the weapon's raw unrefined power. This contrasted to the smooth and well defined lines of the deep red beams of Nox's twin weapons. It produced a much smoother deep hum as the plasma of the saber beams boiled the atmosphere coming into contact with them.

Nox thought of his captured weapon's simple and effective design as a nice piece of work. However, in his opinion, the dead Jedi had missed opportunities for refinements which could have better realized the weapon's full potential.

He tipped the blade downward and grasping the hilt with a feather touch, allowed gravity to pull the weight of the hilt down. As the rough green beam burned its way into the granite block, bright red glowing molten rock oozed up out of the bore hole.

Three brief seconds later, Nox stopped the blade from sinking deeper into the rock and shut the weapon off. He measured the depth at fifteen centimeters. He was impressed. Nox walked away from the stone block and busied himself with some work as he waited for the block of granite to cool off.

When the stone block had cooled, returning to ambient temperature, Nox used The Force to flip the granite block to another surface before repeating the same test with his new weapon. He had separated the twin hilts and tested each one, allowing the granite block to cool again before flipping the block to another clean surface and performing the test a third time. In three seconds one of the twins burned its way down twenty centimeters, while the other twin scorched its way down twenty three centimeters into the solid granite block.

Nox was immensely pleased with the performance of his twin weapons, but also slightly disappointed that the weapons' performances showed a difference of three centimeters. It meant there was a deficiency in the plasma emitter, the power core, or the magnetic force field generator coil of the weaker twin. He was so very painstakingly exact with his work on the crystals and in setting the crystals in their respective hilts that he refused to consider the possibility that there might have been a slight flaw in his own work.

Nox had 2V-R8 engrave a simple pattern to decorate and differentiate between the twins. He finished off the engraving work, by having the droid inlay brass into the thin groves of the pattern. The weapon was quite striking to look at, with its gun metal blue finish and simple filigree pattern done in inlaid brass to decorate it. The better performing weapon would become his main hand weapon, and the other, undecorated twin, would become his offhand weapon.

After five years, Nox had long ago gotten accustomed to the eight kilogram weapon hanging from his utility belt. His utility belt did more than just hold his weapons and have compartments for his equipment and supplies. The belt had a built in load balancing field generator. It didn't reduce the weight of his equipment, but automatically created a field that shifted the balance of the belt, so that the weight rested evenly on the wearer's hips.

The dark lord ended his lightsaber combat training routine, simulating the powering down of both hilts. Then, in one fluid motion, he expertly joined them back together as he brought the simulator sabrestaff to his side, holding the training weapon in place as though he had secured it to his utility belt. Thus, he brought to an end his biweekly hours-long grueling regimen of exercises. Needless to say, he was exhausted and drenched in sweat.

However, rather than lie on his back on the white stone tiles of his patio to catch his breath, Darth Nox sat, crossing his legs as though to meditate. The dark lord gently set his fifty two kilogram simulated weapon onto the stone tile in front of him. He looked off to the Dromund Kaas skyline as the first rays of the morning sun, rising behind his residential building, began to glint off of the east facing windows of the towering buildings.

As the star rose in the sky, the red rays of the early morning star gradually spread down the towers, igniting windows as they too reflected the light of Dromund Kaas' star. The red rays gradually shifted to a golden brilliance as the light continued to creep down to the lower levels of the buildings of Kaas City.

However, Nox was not taking in the beauty of the scene. Nor was he delighting in the serenity of the moment. He was instead intently staring at the one towering building which had no golden reflections of Dromund Kaas' rising star. The building seemed dark compared to the others. It seemed dead compared to the others.

It was Dromund Tower, his old home. The soot staining the tower's exterior, where the fires consumed the uppermost floors, seemed to swallow up the rays of the morning sun, leaving a dark and seemingly hollowed out spot in the otherwise golden cityscape glowing in the early morning sunlight.

It was a perfect allegory to Nox's heart. Twenty three months ago, his two small children died in the bombing attack and resulting fire, leaving a blackened hole in his heart. The attack was perpetrated by pirates of the Exchange Gang who'd been hired by Darth Acina, Darth Nox's nemesis at the time. Nox's face creased in anger, as he imagined Acina watching, from this very patio, the destruction of his home.

In the end, however, he had utterly crushed her powerbase, killing most of her followers and destroying her legacy. Nox's ruthless and overwhelming response to the attack perpetrated against him saved his own legacy from being attacked and destroyed by others on the Dark Council who may otherwise been led to believe that his powerbase had been greatly weakened by Acina's attacks.

Additionally, his final battle against Acina also served as a demonstration of his own personal power and as a lasting warning to the others on the Dark Council not to cross him. He brutalized her, incinerating her flesh with the fury of his Force Lightning attacks, breaking her bones with his unmerciful attacks as he slammed her with powerful compressed waves of telekinetic energy.

His use of The Force was so overwhelming, that members of the Dark Council had to guard themselves from the spillover of his attacks while they witnessed, in growing fear, this demonstration of his control of The Force. His cruelty while destroying his enemy, even as he unmercifully refused to grant her a quick death, was an indication to his peers on the Dark Council of what to expect from him, if they crossed him, too.

The top twelve stories of the building had been destroyed by fire including Nox's two story palace atop the two hundred and forty story building twenty three months ago. After all of that time, the insurance group responsible for insuring the real estate property, had finally completed settling the claims of the deed holders who'd once occupied or leased out the destroyed units, including Darth Nox's claim for his two story penthouse. With that, the demolition crews had finally begun work to partially dismantle the tower.

As for the furnishings, tapestries, trophies, and treasure lost to him in the fires, all worth well over eight hundred million credits, Nox had to hire an army of accountants and attorneys to be sure that his claims were properly settled with several different insurance groups which had insured all of his stuff.

As was the custom among Sith locked in blood feuds, after defeating Darth Acina, Nox had taken all of Acina's personal assets as prizes of war, including her palatial residence which he now occupied. He had completely remodeled her three story penthouse palace at the top of a very exclusive two hundred and ninety story residential tower on the eastern end of Kaas City.

His great victory over a hated enemy was not what was on his mind, however. Neither was the enormous wealth he'd attained at the end of his Kaggath. Instead, he sat somberly on the veranda of her former palace, numbly staring at his old ruined home and thinking of his two dead children who'd been murdered by Acina when she firebombed Dromund Tower.

"Come here, R8," Nox commanded in a low and somber tone.

In a very short while, 2V-R8 emerged onto the patio, which could only be accessed from the master suite on the topmost level of his three story penthouse. The ship droid approached Nox where he sat cross-legged, in the center of the expansive patio staring off into the distance. When the droid had come to a stop, standing next to its master, Nox spoke.

"Contact the property management firm in charge of Dromund Tower. Tell them I want to speak to them."

"Yes, Master," 2V-R8 replied in its artificially cheerful tone, "I will call them as soon as their offices are open for business."

"Yes. That's fine," Nox replied.

A slight smirk developed on his face, as he recalled that most of Kaas City was just beginning to wake from their slumber.

"Prepare my breakfast, I shall not be long in the fresher," Nox told his droid.

"At once, Master!" 2V-R8 said, and artificially enthusiastically promised, "I shall prepare a most delicious and nutritious meal to complement your robust physical training this morning!"

Nox broke his promise, he spent considerable time in the fresher, enjoying the pulsating beats of the shower as it massaged his shoulder and back muscles. He couldn't resist, and got in the hot tub for additional relaxation in the water jets. He emerged fresh, relaxed, fully dressed in his blood red medium grade, flexible armor with deep black accents and markings, ready for another glorious day. This time, his hair was set in a folded top knot set at the back of his head.

He set his utility belt on the table a few seats away from where his breakfast was set, taking his real sabrestaff to his seat. As he sat, he set his weapon onto the table just beyond his breakfast dishes. 2V-R8 then removed the plate covers, revealing Nox's breakfast.

As Nox began to dig in, he asked his droid, "Who has sent messages for me?"

2V-R8 began to list the names of persons who'd left messages for him, along with a very short summary of the topic. When Nox heard a name or a topic he thought important, he stopped the droid, telling it, "I'll hear that message."

The messages were given in the order that they had come in, so it was some time before 2V-R8 said Darth Marr's name.

"I'll hear that message," Nox told his ship droid.

The holographic image of Darth Marr, in miniature, appeared on Nox's breakfast table, just past his breakfast dishes, and immediately began to speak.

"It is most egregious, what you have done, Nox!"

It was rare for Marr to refer to Nox without his title. So, the dark lord knew that Marr was quite furious about something, and Nox was pretty sure what it was about. A sneer slowly stretched across his features as he chewed his breakfast.

"I do not know what you think you will accomplish, but it completely throws off our strategy for our coming reemergence from hiding! Return my call immediately!"

Nox had a mouth full of food, and gave a few chuckles as he chewed.

"Hmmmph! Hmmph! Hmmph!"

"So!" Nox thought, excited and amused, "It seems that Moff Pyron has made his move and has taken Marr completely off guard!"

Nox wanted to go over his strategy for the coming offensive with Moff Pyron, when he finally met with him face to face, but he knew that the Moff would likely have his own ideas about what to do, and Nox was ready to accept whatever that strategy was.

Valion Pyron was one of the winningest strategists that the Imperial military fielded.

"Losing the winningest strategists must have stung Marr very badly," Nox thought, smirking as he chewed his next bite of food.

It was Pyron's track record of victories that led Grand Moff Regis to award him with command of two full army groups and two full navy groups, three armies and three navies in each group.

It was the single largest military command in the Imperial military that was not tied to governorship of a star system and its populated planets. Yet, Nox worried this force was woefully inadequate to wage an all-out offensive against the Galactic Republic. Nox remembered the last conversation he had with Valion Pyron on the moff's flagship the Doombringer.

Moff Pyron had said as much to him, telling Nox that he would need to recruit a few other moffs to add their commands to his. Nox worried that still might not be enough. He also worried that Marr's forces would be orders of magnitudes larger than his own, even if the majority of those forces were on loan to Marr from the other dark lords on the Dark Council.

"How will I enforce my claim to the throne if I can't even present a credible military presence to my rivals?" he asked himself, and then answering his own question, "That's what this is about. As I win victories, I'll gain greater support from the military. My forces will grow, and I will be able to expand the offensive."

Over the next two hours, Nox listened to several other messages, making quick notes for actions to take to fix whatever problems the messages were about.

2V-R8 told Nox, "Master, the Imperial Dromund Kaas Property Management Company president is on hold, waiting to speak to you."

"What does he want?" Nox asked.

"You wanted me to contact them, Master. They are the property management company for Dromund Tower."

"Ah! Yes! I'll take the call in my third office," Nox said, rising from his breakfast and taking his weapon and utility belt with him.

Seated at his desk in his third office, Nox told the droid, still in the kitchen cleaning up, "Put the call through."

The miniature holographic images of two business men, kneeling, appeared over his office desk.

"Dark Lord, my name is Patrous Khang. I am the president of the Imperial Dromund Kaas Property Management Company, and this is my associate, Megasto Panno. He is vice president, overseeing the Business Development Operations of the Imperial Dromund Kaas Property Management Company. We are deeply honored to be contacted by you regarding your inquiry for a business arrangement. How may we be of service?"

"How many floors are you rebuilding, and have any of them been sold?" Nox asked.

The two men knew that Nox was the previous owner of the two story penthouse palace. They believed that the dark lord was probably going to inquire about selling him the new penthouse. However, the property management firm had decided on other plans for the penthouse.

"Dark Lord, we've barely started the demolition work. So, we haven't begun to advertise, much less sell any of the properties. The rebuilding plans call for a total of twelve reconstructed floors. Additionally, we've decided to develop the penthouse into two separate penthouse suites." the vice president of Business Development Operations of the Imperial Dromund Kaas Property Management Company, Megasto Panno, answered.

"Is that so?" Nox responded, seemingly with great interest.

"Yes, Dark Lord," the president of the Imperial Dromund Kaas Property Management Company, Patrous Khang, replied, adding, "It will take some time before the work is done. The top twelve floors have to be deconstructed, and then rebuilt with all new materials. It will be a long process of some months."

"That's great news," Nox said, "Sell them all to me."

The two businessmen looked at each other with some astonishment and worry, which Nox could plainly see in their holographic images.

"You don't think I can pay for it?" Nox asked conversationally, but in actuality, he was offended that the two men would express doubts about his wealth.

"Dark Lord, there are twelve floors total. The lower floors will each have four units, and the top two floors will be developed as two separate penthouses," Megasto Panno said, truthfully, but then added the lie, "We planned to sell each unit, on the lower ten reconstructed floors, for twenty million and the penthouses for eighty million each."

The two men were not in Nox's presence, fortunately for them. However, Nox had no reason to doubt them. He could not sense their emotions via holo and could not tell they were attempting to cheat him. He quickly calculated the cost, coming up with a total, nine hundred sixty million credits. He could definitely pay it, but he didn't want to pay that much.

"Sell the top two floors to me for sixty million each and design them as a single, two story penthouse unit, and sell the remaining units to me for sixteen million each," Nox said, in his counter offer.

The two men calculated what that would be. They came up with seven hundred sixty million credits. In actuality, they had planned to sell each unit for fourteen million and the penthouses for fifty six million each.

The two property management executives had expected to earn six hundred seventy two million credits as wealthy Imperial citizens, from all across the Sith Empire, purchased individual units over a short period of less than a month from the time they began to advertise. Now, however, there was no need to advertise.

Since Darth Nox was about to buy all of the units from them in one fell swoop, and being that he sat on the Dark Council, Megasto expected the dark lord would pay it all at once. Originally, the two of them would have split ten million in commissions. However, he and his partner now stood to earn an additional seventy eight million more from the sale than the two businessmen had anticipated.

Additionally, since advertising and marketing were no longer required, Megasto planned to keep the money that had been allocated for that purpose, twenty million credits. Megasto and Patrous would now split one hundred eight million credits in total.

Patrous Khang, kept his sabacc face on, hiding the panic that caused his heart to leap into hyperspace. He didn't want to take any more risks, so he spoke before his associate could try to ask for more.

"It is acceptable, Dark Lord, the property management executive said, to the chagrin of his associate, "It is not as much as we had hoped to make, but it will still be profitable."

Nox felt smug, thinking, "Ha! I got a great deal!"

Before ending the business meeting, Nox gave them the contact information for his slave accountant, Yannos Kanton Bae, a man he had captured on Alderaan during a military campaign on that planet years ago. They would send the deeds for each property upon receiving payment to his accountant.

Nox smiled smugly, pleased about his latest real estate acquisition.

As soon as the connection ended, Patrous whirled to his right and unloaded on Megasto.

"What in the Nine Hells were you thinking?!" Patrous exploded on his associate, "He's a dark lord on the Dark Council! He could have our whole families hauled away to become slaves on some forsaken prison labor world at the edge of the galaxy somewhere – if he didn't decide to order our executions instead!"

"Think about it, Pat," Megasto countered, reasonably, "He's a dark councilor. He's not spending his own money. He's got bottomless Imperial government pockets to dip into. Now the property owner will get his money, while you and I will get our original commission, plus we'll get to split ninety eight million credits as our bonus, on top of our ten million in commission," Megasto made air quotes when he said bonus.

"All Nine Hells, Meg! You're a dangerous maniac! You want to cheat, not one, but two members of the Dark Council?!"

Darth Vowrawn had purchased the burned out floors of Dromund Tower for a steal. The insurance group which had recently settled all of the real property claims of the deed holders of the destroyed units, was finally in a position to sell the floors, or individual units. The group was desperate to recover their losses. Vowrawn made an offer to buy everything from them in one sale, which the insurance group, gladly accepted, recovering seventy percent of their losses.

Vowrawn decided to work with the Imperial Dromund Kaas Property Management Company, which were already the property managers of Dromund Tower, to redevelop and then to sell the individual units, making a huge profit. He was certain that wealthy Imperials would climb over each other for a chance to buy homes in Kaas City. The very wealthy, seeking closer ties with government bureaucrats, would claw over each other for a chance to live in Kaas City, the seat of the Imperial government.

Unlike, Nox, who actually used his own money, Vowrawn dipped into his sphere of influence's budget to make the purchase. He had a plan for laundering the Imperial funds, too, growing his net worth. Neither Sith lord would ever learn that each had conducted business with the other. The property owner was anonymous, and the buyer was also anonymous.

Pleased with himself, Nox left his third office in which he conducted personal business, which was any business relating to his personal finances, and his private business interests. He walked several meters down the hall, on the second floor of his penthouse residence, walking past another office. His second office was dedicated to his work directing the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge. This was one of the offices where he worked from home if he didn't feel like going to The Citadel. Nox had other such offices in his other residences.

He had another office, on that floor, which he called his first office. Here, he conducted official and unofficial government business, not relating to the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, but related to his goals of realizing his ambition of ascending the throne and becoming emperor.

Upon entering this office, he walked to his desk and immediately got to work, opening a computer file that contained his plans for his military offensive. His plan took into account that he would have, at minimum, six full armies and six full navies to command, but possibly as many as twelve armies and twelve navies, depending on how many moffs, Pyron managed to recruit.

Unlike his private business offices and his work from home offices, which he had in multiple residences, Nox had no other office which served this particular function in any of his other residences. Some of what he did in this office could be construed as treason, and he didn't want to have so many records of treason or other criminal activity for his enemies to exploit. From all of his residences, offices, and computers, this was the only office where he kept his plans to seize the throne.

The dark lord carefully studied Moff Pyron's military strength, and reviewed his strategy for relaunching the offensive. Although, theoretically, he could attack two star systems in two separate operations with these forces, while keeping a third of his forces in the reserve, he decided not to split his forces in such a manner. Instead, he opted to use overwhelming power to sweep through and crush the enemy.

Nox decided that attacking a single star system with four armies and four navies, leaving nothing but rubble in his wake, one star system at a time was the way to go. He would keep two armies and navies in the reserve. Also, he would then force Marr to take over operations, fielding occupation forces to defend Imperial gains and to pacify the conquered populations, allowing Nox to move on to the next star system.

Pyron wanted to recruit others to join him in support of Nox's offensive operations, but the dark lord had warned Pyron not to expose himself to possible betrayal. As such, Nox's plans called for operations to take place on two worlds in a single star system at a time, and no more than four worlds in the same star system. It was a very conservative approach, which would permit him to execute his offensive operations with incredible destructive violence at an incredibly fast pace.

The idea was that as he won victories, more moffs would join his offensive, and he would be able to expand and replicate the strategy to more than a few star systems at a time. The speed and destruction would be such that Republic worlds that found themselves in his path would sue for peace and surrender rather than face annihilation.

How big of a start he got, however, depended on how successful Valion Pyron was in recruiting a few other moffs to join him. That was the only unknown, a rather large unknown that he had to deal with. With those questions out of the way, all that was left for him to do was to decide where to start, and Nox was convinced the best place to begin was with the re-conquest of Balmorra, and the razing of Corellia.

Retaking Balmorra from the Republic would substantially deny them the ability to rapidly replace damaged and destroyed war droids, as well as reduce their wartime heavy manufacturing capability for that region of the galaxy, while substantially increasing the Empire's capabilities in those same areas.

As for Corellia, Nox knew that re-conquering that world would be next to impossible. Corellia was conquered, the first time around, with the cooperation of the local Corellian government, alongside several thousands of corporations, who'd all fallen in line after the board members of several large corporations were arrested and very publicly executed as examples of what would happen to those who failed to cooperate with the Empire.

For good measure, the corporate office buildings, the manufacturing facilities, and warehouses of those uncooperative executed corporate executives were utterly destroyed with bombardments from imperial warships in orbit. The pinpoint accuracy of the, very, singled out corporations served as examples of how individual businesses could be punished. The shareholders of those businesses had also felt the pain of the attacks as the value of their shares evaporated in very short order. Tens of millions of shareholders lost their life savings, or came close to financial ruin.

The Corellian government and the corporations headquartered on Corellia had come to understand that if their world became a battlefield, that it would suffer utter ruin as the city world would be razed to the ground at the hands of the Sith Empire. By surrendering to the Empire, the war damage could be substantially limited, and after the war, they could rebuild and recover their losses. They knew the Galactic Republic would not do such an evil thing, razing an entire city world. In the end, they chose to surrender to the Sith Empire rather than fight.

The capitulation of Corellia had taken the Galactic Republic central government on Coruscant by complete surprise. Kallig's campaign to capture Corellia ended in complete success.

However, the machinations of unknown actors began to unravel the Empire's very quick victory when Darth Vengean, the author of the conquest of Corellia and the dark lord who sat over the Sphere of Military Offense, was assassinated. Many believed his follower, Darth Baras, had done it because there was never any other suspect. However, there was never any evidence to prove the murder was his doing.

Then Darth Thanaton recklessly conducted his Kaggath on Corellia against Kallig, Lord of the Sith. The Empire had yet to have Corellia firmly in its grasp, when Thanaton's foolishness caused extensive damage to Imperial military units still engaged in operations against Corellian resistance forces. These rebellion forces were organized by labor unions and by local law enforcement agencies, not by the local Corellian government.

Taking Corellia however, in Nox's opinion, was not going to happen a second time. This time, the Galactic Republic had taken measures to defend against invasion. However, as the center of naval ship building for the Republic Navy, Corellia could not be ignored. Nox decided the best course of action to take was to do to Corellia what Darth Malak had done to Taris three hundred years before.

The first phase of his strategy was the re-conquest of several worlds the Empire had won, and then lost, or were in the process of losing again. The initial part of his operations would be centered on recapturing lost territory, and to crush the Republic's efforts to retake other territories that the Empire had initially taken from them. The next phase of his campaign would be to expand the war and to conquer new territories. Nox saved the changes he'd made to his strategy in the computer file.

Next on his agenda was to call Darth Marr and confront him about Moff Pyron and the two, three, or four Moffs he'd managed to take with him. In the end, however, Darth Nox decided not to return Marr's call. It promised to be more trouble than it was worth.

"Let him stew," Nox thought with a smirk.

However, Darth Nox had one more problem to deal with. It would prove to be a significant obstacle to his ambitions.

Darth Arkous.

Darth Arkous was the dark lord whose sphere of influence was Military Offense. He was newly elevated to the post by the Dark Council. Darth Marr, whose sphere of influence is Military Defense, had been running both spheres of influence because of Darth Vengean's assassination.

The Republic had run a series of counter offensives that saw them make impressive inroads towards recapturing planets they'd lost to the Empire in the Sith Empire's surprise offensive. With Vengean's assassination, the Sphere of Military Offense was leaderless, and lacked focus. Moffs, conducting operations in several theaters of operations, did not coordinate with each other and at times were at cross purposes with one another.

Darth Marr was forced to take over control of the Sphere of Military Offense, in order to bring continuity to the Empire's prosecution of the war. In recognition that the responsibilities of the war were too big for one leader to handle alone, the Dark Council elevated a Sith Lord whose war record was proven, with many victories. Darth Arkous was that Sith lord.

Marr was preparing to hand off the major offensive operations of the war to Arkous, but that would put an end to Nox's ambition to run the offensive war effort on his way to the Imperial throne. Nox had attempted to divert Arkous to the Sphere of Sith Intelligence, in order to keep the seat for the Sphere of Military Offense open.

He had the backing of Darth Ravage and Darth Mortis, and nearly convinced Darth Vowrawn and Darth Aruk. However, Darth Zash, sensing that Nox was after something, decided to throw a wrench in his very convincing argument to seat Darth Arkous on the Sphere of Sith Intelligence. In the end, the vote went in favor of Darth Marr's motion, making the vote five to three in favor of seating Darth Arkous over the Sphere of Military Offense, and five to three against Nox's motion to seat Arkous over the Sphere of Sith Intelligence.

Nox was furious at Zash for interfering, but he kept a neutral expression and held his tongue. He didn't want to tip his rivals off that he might have plans to seize control of part of the military beyond his own forces, for his own purposes.

For the first time Nox, very seriously, considered assassination to rid himself of an obstacle as a necessity in this case.

"Darth Arkous must have an unfortunate accident," Nox thought.

He thought back to when Zash was a lord of the Sith, and she plotted the assassination of Darth Skotia. Thinking back to that time, he realized that if the Dark Council really cared, they could have exerted a greater effort and committed more resources into the investigation of Skotia's death.

However, the Dark Council didn't really care about Darth Skotia. He wasn't a dark councilor. Darth Arkous, on the other hand, is a dark councilor. His murder, especially with the Imperial throne empty, would cause a great deal of alarm and panic within the dark council.

Nox knew he would probably be the very first to be suspected because of his strong stance opposing the seating of Arkous over the Sphere of Military Offense. He would be especially suspect after taking control of offensive military operations against the Galactic Republic, which was Arkous' purview. That would reveal his motive, and would turn the entire council against him. Nox would then be forced to give up his ambition for the throne as he would then be focused on just surviving the Dark Council's unified front to take him down.

"R8, contact Keeper. Tell him to report to me in person for consultations," Nox ordered his droid.

2V-R8 was in another part of the penthouse palace performing its household tasks.

"Yes, Master," the droid's voice said via the house intercom system.

In fact, the droid was connected to the intercom systems in all of Nox's residences and his starship in this same fashion. It was a great convenience to the dark lord and his inner circle of followers.

Darth Nox wanted to leverage Keeper's unparalleled expertise in spy craft and covert operations, but he knew that Keeper was a patriot. Nox knew that he could spy and scheme any which way and that Keeper would support him, so long as no harm came to the Sith Empire. He needed to know whether Keeper would support him, or if Keeper's patriotism would become a liability for him, forcing Nox to eliminate the spy master and his second on command, Watcher Two.

With that out of the way Nox left the First Office, which he thought of as the Office of the Road to the Imperial Throne. The dark lord walked some meters down the hall and entered his Office Away From The Citadel, the Second Office. There, he got back to work, immediately diving into a progress report from Darth Komo. Nox was pleased that his decision to rescue the Makebi peoples from their impending extinction proved to be most beneficial to the reclamation of Taris.

However, he was concerned that there was a small ungrateful element within the Makebi peoples who seemed to be agitating for rebellion. They were trying to convince the Makebi workers to go on a work stoppage campaign. 'Going on strike,' they called it.

Their goal was to obtain ridiculous political powers through forced negotiations. They wanted to organize elections of representative political principals who would negotiate the demands of the common Makebi refugee with their Sith rulers.

Fortunately, Nox's foresight into this very possibility and his forward thinking in appointing Katha Niar to organize and establish a citizenship program had gone a very long way towards keeping the vast majority of the Makebis in line. They understood their new home was governed by a different set of laws, regulations, traditions, and beliefs. They wanted to prosper and were, therefore, reluctant to go along with this scheme of the rebels.

Another group had organized to counter the ridiculous proposals of the agitators. They argued in favor of conformity to their new reality. This group enjoyed the broad support of the Makebi peoples.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Nox expressed his incredulity.

"Where do they think they are, the Galactic Republic?"

Darth Komo's recommendation was to allow the loyal counter group to drown out the agitators, and to use restraint when dealing with the dissidents after their arrests. Nox resolved to allow Komo to handle the matter. He seemed to have a good grasp on how to deescalate the unrest.

An hour later, 2V-R8's cheerful voice came over the intercom.

"Keeper is waiting in the vestibule, Master. I am bringing your tea service."

"Bring the tea to the First Office," Nox ordered, "and bring Keeper there. I'll be there, waiting."

A short time later, the droid set the tray down on the side of Nox's desk and poured Nox a cup.

Setting the teapot down, the droid announced, "I'll go get Keeper, now, Master."

2V-R8 turned about and made its way out of Nox's office.

Down at the first level, at the entrance to Nox's penthouse, Keeper swept his eyes around his immediate surroundings. He spotted two hidden video security recorders. He knew that despite being left alone in the vestibule, the droid who'd let him in was still monitoring him. After some time had passed, the droid had finally returned.

"I thought you'd forgotten about me here at the door," Keeper said.

The spymaster knew that wasn't the case, but saying random things like that to a droid could sometimes yield information.

"I apologize for keeping you, Master Keeper. It was time for my master's tea service. I had to prepare it and bring it to his office. The dark lord will see you now. Please surrender your blasters and any electronic devices you have on your person. Place them on the stand, here," the ship droid said, sweeping its mechanical hand to indicate the stand at the side of the vestibule.

With that, Keeper learned that the delay was not ordered by the dark lord, but rather by the droid's priorities. If the droid had said anything that suggested that it had indeed forgotten him, then Keeper would know the droid was lying, which would mean that he was in trouble with the dark lord. Droids, unless specifically programmed with a complex assortment of protocols, algorithms, and specific subroutines were terrible liars.

Keeper obeyed the droid's instructions without hesitation and completely, setting on the small stand two compact blaster pistols, his three heavily encrypted holo-transceivers, his two – also heavily encrypted – datapads, his wallet, and the keys to his sports speeder.

2V-R8 produced a device from a storage compartment in its chassis and used it to scan Keeper's devices and then Keeper's person. The scan revealed there were no signatures associated with spy tech on the spy master's devices or his person. It also ruled out the presence of explosives.

"Please follow me to the dark lord's office, Master Keeper," the droid said in its preprogrammed friendly tone.

That his employer, Darth Nox, wanted to speak face to face in his private home was an indication to Keeper that Nox wanted something highly irregular of him, especially since he'd just met with Darth Nox in his office the previous morning, and that the dark lord did not say anything to him then.

However, Keeper refused to speculate on what his lord might ask of him. Instead, he swept his eyes everywhere.

Keeper took note that Nox's residence was more of a museum of art and trophies, and was possibly more likely an artful storage warehouse than it was a luxurious residential palace. He noted the private speeder port outside of the wide permaglass sliding door. A modified speeder was parked there. It was one that was specially made for the dark lord to accommodate his Dashade attendant.

Up the stairs to the second level, Keeper followed the droid down the long hallway, and looked to his right, out of the window. The floor to ceiling window ran the full length of the hallway offering a panoramic view of the eastern side of Kaas City. The Citadel was not in view from this side, but it had just started to cast its early afternoon shadow on the smaller towers below. In fact, the dark lord's tower was also in The Citadel's shadow.

When he entered Nox's office on his left, he expected it to be filled with other trophies, souvenirs, and mysterious Sithly knickknacks. Instead he found himself entering a professional business office setting. The droid entered behind him, walking to an alcove set up for the droid at the side of the office.

Keeper took a few steps to the center of the office and knelt before Nox's desk, planting his fist onto the rug, covering the metal plate floor.

"The dark lord honors me greatly, allowing me into his august presence in his own home. How may I serve you, my dark lord?"

"Rise, Keeper," Nox intoned.

When Keeper rose to his feet, he found Nox indicating a chair set at the side of the office.

"Bring that chair to the front of my desk and sit in it," Nox ordered.

Keeper did as instructed, positioning the chair in front of Darth Nox's desk. He sat, his face absolutely devoid of any indication of what might be swirling in his mind, waiting to see what Darth Nox would say. He spotted a tea service at the side of the dark lord's desk, verifying that the droid had been truthful to him.

"2V-R8, conduct a thorough sweep for spying devices in this office," Nox commanded.

"As you wish, Master," the droid replied, cheerfully, as it began a full spectrum sweep for spy tech.

Nox and Keeper both remained silent while the droid spent five minutes scanning every nook and cranny in Nox's office. Keeper was slightly astonished as the droid, not only scanned his person again, but Darth Nox as well, and the dark lord did not object, instead waiting patiently as the droid completed its task.

Nox reached for the teapot and pour tea into his cup, offering none to Keeper. Behind the dark lord was a floor to ceiling, wall to wall window, offering a view of Kaas City to the west, and the sky-piercing tower, The Citadel. It was an impressive view with Dromund, their star, hidden high up behind the tower. Keeper also took note of the beautiful greel wood sculpture holding up a sabrestaff in display.

"There are no anomalies, Master. I have found no indications that any listening or recording devices are active or dormant in this space. Also, there are no indications of transmitters or receivers, active or passive in this room. What else can I do for you, Master?"

"Stand in your alcove and wait for my instructions."

"Yes, Master."

Nox watched as the ship droid turned about and walked to its station. When the droid turned to face the interior of the office and became still Nox turned to face Keeper seated in front of his desk.

"As you can see, this place is clean. We can speak freely, here."

A very uneasy feeling began to dampen Keeper's mood upon hearing Nox say those words. He had a bad feeling Nox was going to ask him to do something dangerous and potentially treasonous. Sitting before the Dark Lord of The Sith, Keeper wondered what it would take to steer his dark lord clear of foolish adventures.

"The Imperial throne is empty. I know I'm not the only one making my move for it. You have to be aware of all of this. Yes?" Nox said, starting the conversation.

"I am aware, Dark Lord," Keeper said in a neutral tone.

Keeper was actually greatly relieved that this was the topic on the dark lord's mind. With the throne empty it would be natural for the dark councilors to be making their individual plays for it. This was something he anticipated, but he knew he needed to move carefully. With the throne empty, suspicions and fearful tensions were very high.

Keeper also noted that Nox had yet to mention his apprentice, which meant that the dark lord was unaware of her suspicious movements. Watcher Two was interviewing the Duros security consultant who'd provided his services to Darth Virulous. Later, Keeper would get her report about what she'd learned from the interview.

"I must make my move," Nox told Keeper, "I need to know that I can count on you to support me when I do."

Keeper knew that he had to speak carefully lest he offend his lord and lose his lord's trust, but he felt it necessary to show Nox that he had been thinking about this, too.

"The dark lord must surround himself with wise men and women who will carry out your will, while doing no harm to the empire. If your ministers make mistakes, it could reflect poorly on you. If your ministers were incompetent, no matter how loyal, the Emperor would be seen in a bad light. Has the dark lord considered who would form his government when you have secured the throne for yourself?"

Nox blinked in surprise at Keeper's reply. It was as though Keeper had been anticipating this conversation. Keeper saw Nox's reaction and became worried that he had greatly miscalculated. His heart rate began to rise.

"Did he just call me Emperor, or was he speaking generally?" Nox asked himself.

"I thought to take my followers in my powerbase up with me. You don't think they will suffice?" Nox asked, baiting his spy chief.

"There are many talented individuals within the dark lord's powerbase. Has the dark lord decided which ones he will appoint to which ministerial positions?" Keeper replied, masking his growing fear, believing that he had grossly overstepped his bounds.

Nox was not expecting the conversation to go as it was. It was as though Keeper was eager to thrust Nox up onto the throne. He'd been sifting through Keeper's emotions, looking for deceit, but he could sense none, but he did sense Keeper's fear.

"It seems you have a plan in mind, Keeper. Let me hear it."

Keeper realized that he was being drawn into this topic, because of his miscalculation. He realized that Nox was testing him. He had no other choice, but to go all in and make the best of it. He struggled to keep a calm exterior, and to control his breathing. He knew that if Nox thought there was treachery in his words, Nox would kill him where he sat.

"If the dark lord wishes, I can compile a list of each of his most capable followers, their strengths, weaknesses, and their accomplishments. The dark lord will then have an excellent resource with which to judge which of his followers to appoint to which ministry."

"That will do," Nox said, "It is a most excellent suggestion. However, there is another matter that I must address."

Nox knew he had to be leery of Keeper's sudden enthusiasm. Keeper had always been reserved, extremely conservative, very rarely suggesting anything or volunteering more than was required. However, Keeper's growing anxiety was a concern to him. He couldn't understand why Keeper was becoming increasingly fearful. He needed to test his master spy.

"I want to ascend the throne to rule over a prosperous, powerful, and ever victorious Sith Empire. Doing so, will ensure that my rule will be popular and supported by my rivals. However, I must eliminate my competitors and the obstacles that impede my path to the throne," Nox said candidly, making clear what he meant by adding, "If half of the Dark Council has to die for me to realize my ambition, then I will kill half of the Dark Council."

Nox waited for Keeper's reply. He wondered if Keeper would balk.

"Sith Politics is none of my business, Dark Lord. The security of the Sith Empire is my only concern. If a rival of yours gets in your way, I'll find ways to get him out of your way without harming the Empire."

"So, killing my enemies is out of the question?"

"Elimination of your rivals and enemies is not an issue, Dark Lord. Historically, Strong Sith lords have always asserted their right to rule, and in many cases those less powerful have died in the struggle. It is only natural that my dark lord would also vie for power."

After a moment to think on Keeper's reply, Nox found himself not entirely convinced and decided to push him.

"I tried to have Darth Arkous seated over the Sphere of Sith Intelligence, but the others saw fit to seat him over the Sphere of Military Offense. That is a problem for me," Nox confessed.

Keeper, coming to believe that he had not angered nor offended Darth Nox, ever so carefully so as not to be noticed, relaxed his tensed muscles and brought calm back to his mind so that his heart rate would get back under control. It was a mistake that Keeper came to think that Nox had accepted his stance, and that he would not die that day. He had no idea that his dark lord could read every emotion violently swirling within the stoically poker-faced spy chief.

Nox took note that Keeper's anxiety had melted away. He became puzzled by this and decided to probe his spy chief further. Nox needed to understand what Keeper was thinking about and why he had such reversals of fear and calm.

"It was my intent to take back control of my military vassal and, with him, lead my forces in an offensive operation to recapture the worlds we had previously conquered but then lost to the Republic. The idea is to build a reputation as a military conqueror worthy of the support and adoration of the moffs and the Imperial soldiers in the army and the navy, and to have at my back a military force ready and capable of backing my claim to the throne when I made it.

"Darth Arkous, however, now sits over the Sphere of Military Offense. He could stop me, would stop me, because offensive military operations fall under his purview," Nox concluded then asked, "Do you see my dilemma?"

"Then you want him dead?" Keeper asked.

"Do you think you can make it happen?" Nox asked, surprised that Keeper would be so direct, but then reasoning, "I'm being direct with him, so it follows that he should be direct with me."

"It can be done, Dark Lord, however, it might cause more problems than it might solve," Keeper replied.

Darth Nox was intensely sifting through Keeper's emotions, but he could sense neither deceit nor hostility emanating from his spy chief's psyche and this pleased him greatly, but he wanted to be sure.

"Then have him killed," Nox commanded, setting the final test.

"If that is your will, then I will see it done. However…,"

Keeper was speaking as Nox examined his emotions. He felt Keeper's very strong resolve to get it done. That's what Nox needed to be satisfied that he could depend on him, but he realized that he would have to be careful about what orders to give his spy chief going forward.

"… I must advise you to…" Keeper was saying.

Nox interrupted his spy chief, "On second thought. I think you're right. It would cause more trouble than it is worth. I would likely become the first suspect. I need to have him removed in a more artful fashion."

Keeper never understood how close he was to instantly losing his life and how narrowly he averted death. He offered a suggestion to his dark lord.

"A scandal that would see him voted off of the Dark Council in disgrace, Dark Lord?"

Nox's interest was piqued.

"Do you have salacious information on him?" Nox asked. Then he said, "If you can arrange for such a terrible scandal to humiliate him before the Dark Council, then I would get what I need without raising suspicions."

"I have to start digging, Dark Lord. I have no information on Darth Arkous."

"In that case," Nox said, "if you can't find a humiliating piece of information with which to discredit him, then perhaps it can be arranged for the Republic, or the Jedi to know his itinerary. They may want to capture or kill him."

"I'll make something happen, Dark Lord. For your safety, please let me work at my own pace, and without your oversight. In this way, you will be just as surprised as the others on the Dark Council. You will have the protection of plausible deniability."

"Months. No, weeks," Nox said, setting a deadline regardless of Keeper's request.

"I'll strive to have something happen within months. Anything hastier will be dangerous."

"The sooner, the better," Nox replied.

"Then, I shall take quick action to make something happen sooner rather than later, Dark Lord."

"Good, Keeper," Nox said, nodding his satisfaction, "That's what I wanted to hear. I hope you will be able to deliver." Then he asked, "I don't need to tell you to keep this conversation to yourself, do I?"

"Of course not, Dark Lord. You know my record for discretion."

"Very well. That is all. You may leave to carry out your task," Nox said, dismissing his spy chief.

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