Chapter Nineteen

Hyperion realized that even if his intel made it to Dantius in time, he might still have to make his move and soon. The sons of Verrin were almost as trained as they could be before further testing, whether abroad or on Balmorra, had to be done without him. They would need to complete missions to prove their worth, most of all once Jadus was through with them. Which only left talking to him about what missions they should undertake in order to test their worth as Emperor's Hands. They ultimately agreed on missions that would test their ability to perform stealth tasks including deception, misdirection campaigns, and test their ability to save themselves if they were rooted out as liars by the likes of the Jedi.

Hyperion had taught them how to fight Force-sensitives and other enemies such as Mandalorians and other raises known to best Forceful warriors in the past. But Jadus was teaching them the skills they hoped would help them avoid the need for such confrontations in their jobs as the Emperor's eyes and ears wherever they went. They were getting the most well-rounded Sith training that any acolyte could ask for and yet they still harbored resentments toward each other. The most likely reason was because Prince Blob had been discovered with an imported sugar treat in his foot locker, an idea on Hyperion's end to make them grateful for whatever gains they made even if they were born royalty.

When Hyperion had found the sugar roll, he had reminded Prince Blob that he was a filthy disgusting pig then turned on his brothers. "Prince Blob has disgraced his bloodline and he has disgraced all of you," he had begun. The princes said nothing and stood at attention as he added, "I have tried to teach him and I have failed. I have failed because you people have not given Blob the proper motivation to see past his weaknesses and embrace the Dark Side rather than running from it! So from now on, whenever Prince Blob screws up, I will not punish him: I will punish each and every one of you!

"And where I stand, ladies, you owe me for one imported sugar roll. Now drop and give me one hundred on your knuckles, you paid for it Prince Blob, you eat it! They will suffer for your lack of vision while you bask in luxury!" Then Hyperion had stuffed the roll into Blob's so that he could eat, tears rolling down the bigger Zabrak's eyes as his brothers paid the price of his gluttony. Later that night, they had tortured him with a combination of heavy rocks they'd stuffed in their socks, Force Lightning, and various Force Chokes as well as pommeling him.

The Zabrak species' natural resistance to pain meant that Prince Blob survived it all but suffered emotional scars and physical marks. Hyperion had seen them the next day and much as he may have sympathized with Prince Blob, he never let up his verdict. Each and every time that Prince Blob made a mistake, it was tallied and at the end of the day, his brothers paid the penance while he watched. With each time that the brothers saw him basking in comparative luxury, regardless of Prince Blob's distaste for it, they tortured him more and more. Then, after three months of this gruesome behavior, Prince Blob finally killed one of his brothers.

Since his victim had been Prince Bantha, the murder might not have intimidated the others if not for the violent way in which Bantha had met his end. According to the brothers that almost witnessed it, Prince Bantha had decided to continue the teasing and torturing already begun by their siblings during the day when Hyperion had called another tally. This was keeping in mind that the others still had to pay for their mistakes in addition to paying for Blob's in each tally. When the torture became too much, Prince Blob finally snapped and tore his brother's arms off even as he was being barraged with bolts of Force Lightning. The feat of physically ripping his brother's limbs had been unimaginable enough but when Hyperion learned he'd charged through enough Force Lightning to knock down a Jedi Knight, he knew he'd finally reached him.

In addition to tearing off his brother's arms, Prince Blob had Force pushed him against a granite wall then slid him across it to somewhat skin his back. He'd concluded the assault by beating the remaining life out of Prince Bantha even as the man had tried to defend himself. Prince Slinky had been the one who reported the incident to Hyperion in the aftermath of its finish and Princes Dandy and Glass had been the first to see the end results. From what they had seen, Prince Blob had finished off his brother by slamming his forehead into a toilet bowl hard enough to break the bowl in half as well as the kid's skull. After that, Prince Blob started becoming one of the best pupils that Hyperion had trained according to the Sith ways.

He was finally becoming the Sith Berserker that Hyperion had seen in him all along, with some saying he could be in line to replace Hyperion as the Emperor's Wrath if need be. Two more died from the physical exertion of training followed, Prince Blind and Prince Dandy being the two. This left just Blob, Small-Fry, Jester, Slinky, and Glass with Glass having the most trouble keeping up while Blob now had the least. Small-Fry and Slinky, who had previously been Hyperion's two best, now put their efforts towards getting their rightful place back from Blob. On the one hand, Hyperion was proud that one of his densest students was finally getting the hints and the others were finally dead but on the other?

He knew he was creating vicious hyenas out of Blob's brothers with Small-Fry and Slinky both possessing the ability and the cunning to do him in if they felt it fit. Hyperion could see the glisten in their eyes as they bided their time for the perfect chance to strike him down. Blob, however, seemed either to not notice or care which unsettled Hyperion even if he knew it was all part of the training. If Blob wasn't careful, the jealous brothers would carry out a plot from which Blob could never recover. He wasn't sure if he wanted Blob to win or for Small-Fry and Slinky to reclaim their spot as the top dogs of Hyperion's decreasing list.

Hyperion was even considering giving them a chance to prove their worth to him through combat and missions that would allow them to test their skills. If he went with any kind of testing for them, he would have to give them missions first then test each other in combat when they returned. So it was that he decided to speak with Jadus of critical importance that their pupils could complete. Missions that would advance the Sith imperative without placing them at unrealistic risk in addition to (for Hyperion's Republic mission) not accelerating their return to prominence. By now, the intel he sent Dantius should be arriving to Dantooine any day now and fortunately, the differences between what he sent and what he was now seeing were largely miniscule. too small to be relevant to the Jedi Order and the Republic.

So when Jadus pointed out the missions he believed could be completed by the princes, Hyperion thought carefully. One of them was a mission to go to Mandalore and start assassinating chief leaders so that Mandalore could remain divided long enough for the Mask to return to someone the Sith trusted. This one would probably be entrusted to Slinky who was the most cunning and the most obvious candidate for the mission. Another mission, that Small-Fry could perform, involved infiltrating Kuat Shipyards and programming certain modules of droid to sabotage Republic machinations. Yet another, that Blob could perform, was to sabotage operations among the Republic Ministry of Defense which risked the revelation of the Sith's return.

The fourth mission, within the ability of Glass, would require the death of various traitors who deserted the Empire before its fall from prominence. That left only Jester, whose mission it would be to seek out those who were still loyal to the Empire and persuade them to begin diverting funds to a renewed war effort wherever they could. For all his humor during the early stages of training, his jests had revealed a capable manipulator who could toy with the ambitions and inhibitions of more corrupt beings. In the hopes of countering each mission and making sure it ended failure (though not kill the boys) Hyperion sent Dantius holovids of each of them in action, this way they could be caught and forced to retreat. If they somehow succeeded even with the deck stacked against them, then they would prove themselves to be truly fearsome and Hyperion wasn't a traitor to the Republic.

So far, he was impressed by a couple of things. First was that Jadus had not come forth to accuse him of double-crossing the Empire. Was the Voice simply biding his time until he could visibly prove Hyperion a traitor? Or did he know of Hyperion's treachery and have some twisted use for it in his plans for the throne?

At any rate, the second thing that surprised him was that the Emperor still had not yet hinted any suspicions of his Wrath's true colors. Was the training of his sons what had convinced him that Hyperion was somehow on his side or was he also keeping it to himself? Was he waiting for Hyperion to make some irreversible mistake that revealed his true allegiance before striking him down? Those questions would linger along with questions about Lord Jadus, who he feared more than he feared the Emperor.

The last thing he was surprised by was that Morgana had not yet called a Kaggath upon him. Was she biding her time until she knew she could win with the resources she had or was she working on a more sinister way to defeat him? Such questions annoyed and bit at him like snappy dogs waiting for food from a stingy owner that was feasting before his eyes. He knew that the only way he was going to find out the answer was when they inevitably made their power plays. And that was the one part, if anything, that he didn't like about being part of the Sith Empire. Or being Sith at all for that matter, even as Lord Crassus continued to heap praise upon his successes, saying he was becoming more and more the model Sith every day.

Chapter Twenty

Morgana decided that Hyperion had lived in luxury long enough and that the time had come to make her move. But she could never hope to gain the throne of the Emperor until she had eliminated him then staked a reason she should have it. So it was that she gathered the Devils of Mustafar for one last job: eliminate the Emperor so that she could challenge Hyperion then use his death to catapult her career to the pinnacle of the Sith world. If Verrin fell to mercenaries, he didn't deserve his throne anyway and his bloodline would have to be decimated. In all, there were over a hundred mercenaries with slugthrower rifles and pistols in addition to missiles, jetpacks, shields, and harnesses along with poison darts and infrared scopes.

If they were swept aside from existence by the Emperor's power then they were unworthy of their repute and he had earned his seat fairly. Morgana would also have to think about the best time for the mercenaries to make their move then it hit her. The jubilee celebrating his seventeenth year on the throne was at hand in a couple standard weeks. In addition to the more lackluster military guard, the Emperor would be emerging then to celebrate the reforms he had approved for the Empire. To destroy him outright would be one thing at any other occasion but to thoroughly humiliate and defeat him on the day of celebration for his reign?

It would not only justify Verrin's destruction and attempts to destroy his heirs that would surely follow but since Hyperion was there, it would also question his strength. If he failed to save his lord and master then Morgana had legitimate grounds on which to challenge him to a Kaggath in addition to the insult he'd done her family. But she needed a way she could deal with the Emperor's sons separately: if they came back from the missions Hyperion sent them on in one piece, they would be entitled to resources equivalent to being on the Dark Council. It was a decision that the Council, the Emperor, and Hyperion had almost unanimously agreed upon for the boys provided that the resources were inferior to what was commanded by their voters. The boys agreed to be given the resources of Darths who had not yet made it to the Council, the next highest honor they could expect to achieve provided they didn't pass their final tests.

Quantitatively, this wasn't much individually but could combine to overwhelm Morgana. So she reached out to the one person who shared her visions of destroying Verrin and Hyperion, if for his own egotistical reasons. Lord Imperius of Utapau agreed with Morgana that Verrin had become soft to let Hyperion order in reforms the Empire needed. More, he commanded one of the largest portions of resources after Vowrawn and Ravage. Easily enough to contend with all five of Verrin's sons if he declared a formal Kaggath against the boys after they completed their missions especially true if none of them were strategically inclined.

So once Verrin was removed from power, Morgana and Imperius made an agreement: Morgana would challenge Hyperion to a Kaggath while Imperius challenged the Emperor's sons. Imperius would declare his Kaggath on the grounds of demanding proof that Verrin's bloodline had not grown weaker than even Verrin himself. Morgana would challenge Hyperion on the grounds that he had abused his powers as the Wrath and influenced the Emperor to his doom. If Verrin successfully repelled the mercenaries, especially without aid, they would bide their time and wait for another opportunity having officially sized him up now. So it was that they made all the necessary preparations that needed making in order to set the trap for Verrin.

Firstly, the Devils of Mustafar would be given the invitation to join the jubilee as Morgana's paid addition to Imperial Guard. Next, they would use the poison darts, thermal detonators, and EMPs to get past the inferior security detail without Verrin being able to stop them. After that, Hyperion would be separated from the Emperor to take care of a false lead on a Jedi infiltrator. From there, when Hyperion was out of the way, the remaining Imperial Guards would be killed off and the mercenaries would make their move against the Emperor. They both knew that Verrin was no alchemist, no sorcerer, but he would still be extremely powerful all the same.

His weakness, however, was the fact that any complex powers he knew would require time to concentrate on and from there would weaken him. If he could be persuaded to use one of those powers then he would be too vulnerable to prevent himself from being killed by one of them. However, if he reserved them and instead used more battleworthy powers, he could still be wounded enough for a well-placed sniper to finish them off. That was where a sniper she hired in Hutt Space would finish the job if it was needed and the man would be paid either way. They managed to get the necessary details taken care of within the week before the jubilation ceremony was supposed to begin.

The Devils were not named as Devils of Mustafar but were instead named as a mercenary security detail that was brutal in the effort to excise any threat. A hundred and twenty bodies were available from the Devils, fifteen from the Imperial Guards, and twenty-five Mark I war droids. The Devils were staged in the perfect position to place grenades into the bodies of the war droids when the time came. There were fifteen more who could shoot the poison darts into as many guards as possible before then using flamethrowers to throw them off then blast them. Once they had dealt with the Guards, they would then attack the Emperor and see what could be done about destroying him while Hyperion was kept out of the fight along with the Voice.

Jadus would be coordinating the motions of the celebration and would be teleporting to and fro in order to perform his necessary functions. As such, he could be forced to stay out of the fight in order to make sure that the Emperor was able to prove how omnipotent he really was. Jadus would also see this as a chance to make a potential grab for the throne as well while Verrin was distracted. It would be the perfect opportunity and if Jadus challenged a weakened Verrin to a Kaggath than neither would be allowed to utilize their resources as they were too closely intertwined. There were too many rivals and not enough certainties though the ones that lingered were the ones that counted.

For example, if Morgana released allegations and counter allegations by various members, she could count on the others being distracted with their petty rivalries. It risked bringing the entire Empire down but as long as they restricted the fighting to each other, they could be replaced. More, they couldn't afford to waste more than lightsaber duels on one another as long as no Emperor was declared in the off chance that they had a true ability to lay claim to the throne of the Empire itself. Therefore, Morgana and Imperius would have to be careful about how they moved and when they struck against the Council members. They would need to make sure that the ones who remained were weak enough to be defeated by them so that when one of them was declared an Emperor, they could start again.

Meanwhile, Hyperion would have to be dealt with if he somehow survived the Kaggath against Morgana as well. Most likely, he could be dealt with through poisons that affected his connection to the Force in addition to his physical strength. Or Morgana could challenge him to a lightsaber duel in conclusion to the Kaggath so that she could prove herself against him forever. If she could somehow eliminate Imperius along the way through understandable circumstances such as a sabotaged ship or an infiltrator who could destroy him then she was set. On the other hand, if she could secure his loyalty, perhaps as her new Wrath when Hyperion was dead, then she would have an ally she had wrapped around her pinky.

Aside from the two of them being different species, it was not impossible to find him an attractive prospect. He had power, he had experience and on top of that, he had centuries of life ahead of him. It was difficult not to imagine a more worthy Emperor's Wrath to have by her side as she conquered the galaxy. More, he would be biding his time for the chance to take the galaxy once she fell and he would outlive even Lord Jadus. He would be powerful and cunning well into the five-hundreds at this rate and could yet be the most powerful Sith in existence.

Morgana could also use him to secure her own existence if need be, transferring her essence into him. Once she'd done that, she could survive for centuries more and carry on the legacies and tradition of the Sith. She could then have clones of him prepared for her essence to be carried on throughout the millennia to come, perhaps even clone one of those green tridactyl creatures who could live to nine centuries. Granted, she would lose significant stature in choosing one of them but they were as close to immortality as she could achieve in the absence of total preservation. The prize of eternal rule was too enticing not to attempt to grasp and if she could just swat away the other hands striving for it, she could finally enjoy revenge.

The jubilee came and when Jadus was dismissed to help coordinate the other elements of the celebration, Morgana set the wheels in motion. "Sniper, get into position in case Verrin survives the onslaught. Devils, begin your onslaught: start with the Mark I war droids then work your way up to the Imperial Guard. Comm me again when you have destroyed the Emperor," Morgana told them. It was critical that they think they'd have a chance or else they wouldn't fight as hard and Verrin would destroy them all.

Hyperion, chasing down the false lead she'd set at Verrin's request, would be unable to assist his master in time to save him if he fell. The board was set, the pieces of Morgana's plan were moving, and the Dark Council, Jadus, and Hyperion would be helpless to save Verrin. Their only hope would be if Verrin somehow saved himself but Morgana had a feeling such was not to be. When the Devils had infiltrated the ranks of the security detail and simultaneously destroyed all the war droids, she knew the fun was starting. She just sat with Imperius and watched it all.