The Galactic Exodus Chronicles Part 2 :The Galactic Civil War

by Lord Exar Kun

Now with the rebels dealt a mighty blow, and the renegade Moffs about to strike, the galaxy finds itself moving closer and closer to full blown war! The Galactic Civil War is about to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting galaxy, and this is not the war you remember in the least. Follow Exar Kun, Darth Vader, Leia, the Emperor, and everyone else through this next chapter of the GEC.

63. Chapter 63

Chapter 63

(Chommell Sector, Kreeling System, Kreeling Orbit, Praetor II-class Battlecruiser Ire)

The massive praetor-class vessel hung like a great dagger of death above the world of Kreeling. Smaller Imperial-I's and Imperial-II class stardestroyer's escorted the grand ship as it patrolled over the planetary orb below. With smaller cruisers, such as the Tartan cruisers or Broadside-destroyer's maintaining their daily patrols over the planet and through the system alongside the mighty command vessel. Of course the term 'daily,' was used loosely in the great vacuum of space.

Nevertheless, the massive ship was under the command by admiral Teren Rogriss. The fleet at his disposal, designated 'Task-Force Three of the Chommell defense Initiative.' A massive fleet of over three hundred warships designated to patrol the key systems of the vast Chommell sector. There were ten of these Task-Force's in total, in conjunction with the stationary defense fleets and sector patrols. Grand admiral Josef Grunger was in direct command of the overall Chommell Task Force operations under orders by both the Emperor and Lord Vader to defend against possible enemy incursion into the sector. One of few that remained loyal and in control of by the Galactic Empire in the Mid-Rim little to no subversive actions reported.

"Admiral Rogriss." His captain saluted as he came aboard the bridge. Rogriss was a man known for his honor, and sense of duty. He commanded, and better yet, gained the respect of those under him within the Imperial ranks.

"What are we looking at here Kinthus?" Rogriss addressed his captain informally. Kinthus waved the admiral to the front of the bridge where out the viewport was the object of the alert that now spread from this ship to the rest of the fleet and whole armada throughout the sector. On either side of the Ire was an Imperial-I class stardestroyer with smaller vessels lining up and forming into forward advance formation against single Imperial-II before them all.

"The ship jumped out of hyperspace ten minutes ago. We've attempted contact, and they've sent their security codes per request."

"They any good?" Teren asked as they reached the very end of the bridge. The captain nudged his head to the side and clasped his hands together behind his back.

"They're outdated. But they don't show on any of the watch-lists for Moff turned vessels. We contacted them to verify and request their emergency security codes, but they refused to continue contact unless it was with you admiral. Per your orders the fleet is on full alert and Grand Admiral Grunger has been brought up to speed on the situation. Sir." Kinthus bowed. Teren nodded, and silently watched the smaller vessel for a few moments.

"Where is the grand admiral?" Teren asked over his shoulder.

"He's in defensive formation above Naboo, sir. He's given operational authority to you, admiral. He wants updates, and the ship boarded or destroyed if they do not bow to your every command sir." Teren nodded.

"Given this ship along with the entire Task Force watching their every move I think it's safe to say they haven't a choice in the matter captain." Kinthus cracked a smile and bowed his head.

"I agree in full admiral, sir." Teren chuckled, and sighed.

"Right. Well get them on the comm and patch me through. We'll see what they have to say for themselves. Who's their captain?" Kinthus took a moment to remember.

"A captain by the name of Morbus. He's the one who relayed their...dissatisfaction at being treated like common criminals. When we requested their emergency security codes that is."

"Well we'll see who's more dissatisfied when we're through here. Me or them." Teren quipped as he made his way to the side video communication terminal. Kinthus nodded to the comms officer who patched through the video feed from the wayward stardestroyer.

"What's its designation?" Teren asked in a quick low whisper.

"The Malignant, admiral." Kinthus whispered back with an almost disgusted tone at the name. Teren shrugged at the name. It did sound rather uncouth even for an Imperial warship.

"Captain Morbus of the Imperial-I class stardestroyer. This is admiral Rogriss. Commander of Task Force Three, aboard the Praetor-class battlecruiser Ire. I understand you have refused to transmit emergency security Ident' codes, and will only speak with me." Teren paused as the video came into view of a younger man wearing the usual officer's uniform of a ship captain. He was slim, and looked quite stiff in stance.

"Admiral sir. It is a pleasure to meet you. I apologize for the circumstance, but we had to be sure we weren't being intimidated by Moff thugs." Teren suppressed a groan of irritation.

"Now that you are we must do the same. Authority has been given to me by my grand admiral in command to use all necessary force to compel you to cooperate captain. This is not open to negotiation." The captain seemed to grow agitated as Teren went on.

"So captain Morbus, immediately relay to my ship your emergency identification codes, so we may verify you are who you say you are, and cease with these stalling tactics, or games, or whatever your angle here is at once. Am I understood captain?" The man turned to his right, and then back to Teren before he took a step back, and another man cam into view.

"Admiral Teren. It is a pity Grand Admiral Grunger was not present. With a ship as massive and with as much firepower as the Ire I would have thought him personally interested in commanding it. I mean, a praetor is by no means a small ship." The elder man spoke and Teren reared his head up into a defiant and stiff stance as he cast a weary glance that spoke volumes to captain Kinthus.

"Moff Kaine. You dare show your face here?" Teren seethed as the Moff folded his arms across his chest and held a slim, but gloating smirk over his features.

"It's 'Grand Moff' Ardus Kaine now, admiral." He corrected and Teren cast Kinthus a disgusted glance.

"My congratulations, traitor. Unless you're here to surrender yourself and your pack of traitors along with you, I will blast your ship into dust. As you said yourself this is a praetor class, and as you may have been able to tell, I have over a hundred vessels here above Kreeling. I can call in the other Task Force's at any moment, and you'd have nearly five hundred ships bearing down on you." Captain Kinthus stood tall and defiant as his admiral spoke of the great power that could, and would be brought against the Grand Moff and supreme commander of the Moff traitors himself. It made him proud of his admiral too, and to serve beneath him. The admiral made a motion for him to order the ship's weapons primed, and Kinthus caught the gesture and relayed the look tot he other lower deck officers who did their jobs of ordering the ninety cannons readied. As the rest of the fleet was brought to battle readiness as well.

"It is disappointing that it's you in command of the Task Force, admiral Rogriss. Had it been grand admiral Grunger, perhaps he could have been reasoned with. I've read your file, and the Intel on who was presently in command here was spotty at best. You and your idealistic sense of honor and foolish devotion to it will blind you, but I will offer it nonetheless." Kaine vaguely went on and Teren already knew what was coming and braced himself for it with a disgusted sneer upon his face.

"Order your men to stand down across the fleet, admiral. Bring them down and join the Moff Alliance, and the revolution. Help us bring down the Emperor, and suppress his reign of terror. You and your men will be a boon and quite welcome among us all." Teren glanced to Kinthus and back toward his men. Some looked slightly afraid, and Teren could understand why. They were young and fresh out the academy officers. The others, the older ones, all took defiant glares and sent their emotions out through their body language. They gave their admiral all the strength he would need, on top of his own defiant disgust.

"Myself and my men would rather jump into the lava beds of Sullust than join with you Moff. We didn't join you when Vellam turned traitor, and we certainly wont do so now." Teren scoffed. "Besides, with our firepower and your one ship on opposing sides, I know who I'd place my bet on winning." Kaine feigned a sad sigh.

"None can say I did not give you a chance admiral. Now because of you, your men, you, and more importantly, Kreeling itself shall burn." Kaine threatened, and stood wholly defiant and unfazed by the admiral's own defiance.

"Admiral sir." Teren turned toward the hyperspace scanners officer. He looked worried. "Scans are picking up several...hundred reentry pings. They just came in." As he finished Teren turned back toward the viewport and jumping in as beams of light itself, came hundreds of Imperial designed and made warships. They littered the vacuum and formed around Kaine's warship.

"Enemy warships in bulk sir! Counting well over three hundred and rising jumping admiral!" The officer called out.

"This wont end well nonetheless for you Kaine!" Teren seethed. "Cut the transmission and get this traitor out of my sight!" Teren smirked as he saw Kaine frown with rage before the video was cut. Already though, the outside lit up with exchanged turbolaser fire, and missile launches from the opposing fleets. The Ire rocked as enemy fire slammed against its powerful and robust energy shield, and its own cannons opened up on the nearest stardestroyer that blotted out and hid from view Kaine's own stardestroyer.

"I want makeup details now! Give me a full comscan readout on the fleet and unleash all fighters, interceptors, bombers, everything from our allied vessels!"

"Aye admiral!" Kinthus replied and really didn't have to do much else. The officers in command of such operations had heard and had begun working on it already.

"I see mostly destroyers, and smaller vessels. I want concentrated firepower on breaking their support. Focus on the nearest destroyers, corvettes, and battle cruisers. Make the capital vessels and stardestroyer's secondary unless necessary. Get interceptors to protect from bombers on our forward battleships, and have the broadsides focus missiles on those forward vessels!" The ship rocked, but Teren felt secured in his knowledge that the ship had a shield only penetrated by concentrated fire from multiple ships.

"Sir, they outnumber us two to one and climbing! Should we call in reinforcements?" Teren nodded, and faced out the viewport as the fleet came under way and both sides advanced smaller vessels forward to begin close engagement.

"Send word to grand admiral Grunger. All system defense fleets and patrols need to be put on high alert. I want no reinforcements pulled from our pool until we absolutely need them. Send immediate word to Anaxes and report of a Moff incursion into Chommell." Kinthus nodded, and made to begin his duties as the ship rocked from fire received and given back in return.

"Hold together, and strong men! We'll send more of these treasonous scum back from where they came if we just hold strong and united!" The men gave small cheers and hums of approval as the battle went on.

And the invasion of the Chommell sector came underway at last.

(Epica)

Her vision cut in and out, the darkness surrounding it making it ever hard to see even as she forced the eyelids to open. A ringing went off in her ears and seemed to penetrate down into her very mind. The smells of burnt metal, and other assorted materials met her nostrils, and she swore for a moment she tasted whatever this pungent mix of smells were on her tongue.

She was on her side, and to her back she felt something hard, and metallic based on the ring It made when her boot slammed against it. A groan escaped from her and a seethe followed quickly thereafter. Pain shot down and then back up her whole body.

Leia forced herself up and into a sitting position. Her back fell against whatever was behind her and her head followed suit as she managed to keep her eyes open and look up to the sky. It held an odd hue to it, and was otherwise clear. Streaking through the skies across her vision in all manner of directions flew a great many shuttles of varying size and model. Guiding and escorting them were dozens of fighters and interceptor units. Their screeches filling the air as they went about and around one another.

"Over there! Quick!" She heard through her foggy senses the cries of who she thought was Shira's voice. Leia groaned out and made to look toward where she thought her voice had come from, but she felt too weak, as her head began to pound with pain. Footsteps through grass met her ears until finally several of them rounded and came beside her. She managed to straighten and focus her vision until she saw several medical troopers beside her with medical cases. Shira among them as she fell into a kneel from a run beside her.

"Leia! Thank the Force you're in one piece! If you weren't I'd have to change my name now and head toward the Outer-Rim." Shira joked with a weak grin. Leia cast a weak gaze her way and reciprocated the weak smile.

"Give her the injections and some bacta for these cuts. Do your damn jobs I should say."

"Right away ma'am." The trooper replied, and readied a syringe, as the other medical units began applying bacta to her flesh. The coolness of the gel like material almost seemed like a sting and she seethed as it was applied to her and forced her slightly more awake. The sting of a syringe piercing her flesh and entering her vein also sent a sharp awakening string up her arm.

"Sorry milady." The trooper replied to her seethe as she waved his apology off and leveled her gaze toward Shira who smiled her way. Behind the red head lay a wasteland. Shred and torn meta and corpses were everywhere as smoke rose about the region. Clouds, ash, and falling particles of debris fell across the fields, and Leia lightly coughed, not knowing if it was an actual cough or a subconscious one at seeing so much falling debris.

"Milady Brie, I recommend you place your breather back on and give our lady Vader hers immediately."

"Oh right." Shira responded and snapped around her mouth a black and foreboding breathing mask. It reminded Leia of her father's helmet for a split second before she noted Shira extending another one toward her. Leia eyed it for a moment before taking it and weakly strapping it on behind her head and around her mouth and nose.

"Sorry about this Leia. Those crazy bastards. They blew a damn nuclear weapon right on top of their own base. Not only that, but air sweepers and probe droids have detected masses of that chemical toxin the inquisitor warned us about earlier." Leia narrowed her eyes but nodded. Shira's voice sounded odd and garbled through her breather. Making Leia wonder what hers would sound like as she spoke.

"What are our causality numbers? And, what are we doing about fallout?" Leia noted that her voice sounded just as garbled and robotic but weak nonetheless. Shira nudged her head to one side.

"We lost about three thousand men in the blast. Those who were too close and had advanced from the opposite direction of our own emplacement along the hills. The chemical release around the valley was worse. Another four thousand men have been found with chemical wounds along their bodies, and have seemed to have asphyxiated to death. All in all, however, we could have lost more if we had committed a frontal and full blown assault." Leia nodded, and waved the troopers aside and grasped Shira's hand, and the girl automatically began helping her fellow Sith acolyte stand.

Leia momentarily shakily stood still and gained her balance as she rubbed her head as it became clear to her the little puffs of falling debris was nuclear fallout.

"The fallout?"

"Oh, right." Shira looked to one of the troopers.

"We've begun air-scrubbing and issuing radiation absorbent cocktails to all troopers and planet side personnel. Nuclear weapons are ancient, primitive even. We have the necessary equipment and medical materials to make sure all grounded men are kept safe. The blast was the only thing that caused real damage. Radiation burns and purely heat based burns from the bomb itself are our worst enemy at the moment. We have about just under ten-thousand men with assorted burns." Leia eyed her left arm and her abdomen and took not that her shirt was ripped, and torn, and burned all across. The trooper pointed her way as she took note in fact.

"As you can see milady, you too took some burns, but the bacta will be more than sufficient in cleaning, and healing the wounds. They should heal with no scarring milady. That I can assure you." Leia nodded again and turned around. She took note that she had indeed been laying against the tipped over back of an AT-AT. Around it were piles of other imperial class tanks and walkers. Some bodies were strewn about as ships screeched overhead in patrol. A grim sight indeed.

"What of the Moffs?"

"The camp is gone. Destroyed, and with no chance of getting near without some air purification. The concentration of radiation is still too strong even for the absorbers to take the brunt. But, the base is worthless the whole thing was vaporized. The fleet took off too. About a minute or so after the bomb went off." Shira explained.

"So it was certainly planned on their part. Good to know." Leia seethed as she bristled with anger, and let the Force flow into her, and fill her with energy and renewed wrath.

"The inquisitor?"

"He's setting up the forward medical camp about twenty miles out. It's safe from the radiation. The bomb we suspect was a tactical grade explosive. Highly concentrated in its immediate area, but less powerful the further out, and at a lesser distance." Shira went on.

"What about survivors? From commander Viathan's forces?" She finally asked, and Shira nodded.

"Happy to report all surviving members of the commander's force have been rounded up and taken to the medical camps. The commander himself reported in. He looked pretty beat up. He wanted to come looking for you too, but the medical team looked him over and reported that his body is still under attack by the pathogen of the Moffs. So we managed to make him stay." Leia turned toward Shira with a look of surprise and horror.

"Pathogen? You mean he took in whatever Trachta cooked up and released in the air?" Shira nodded.

"Sure did. From what he looked like, I'd say he's sleep deprived, cut up, full of that gas, and...angry." Leia raised one brow as she idly rubbed her right hand over her left ribs and felt a sharp pain shoot through her.

"Angry?" Shira shrugged.

"He didn't say much, but he was covered in blood, most I don't think was his, dirty, and the dark side coiled around him like a tight fist. I tell you your friend has some serious rage in him."

"Tell me about it." Leia sighed, and then quickly seethed and held her ribs in pain.

"Pain milady?" One medical trooper asked, and Leia without a second thought nodded, and bent over herself slightly as the pain went off in small tremor like waves inside of her. The trooper rushed over, and slowly sat her down atop a fallen piece of metal that she couldn't tell what it had been sheared off of. The trooper pressed his hands against her and she felt the air sucked from her as he pressed upon the epicenter of pain. He quickly took out a scanner and went over the spot and nodded to himself.

"Bad bruising of the ribs milady. They're luckily intact, but you need rest, and a cot to lay in. Besides, the radiation absorbents and breather will only last for so long." Shira nodded in agreement. Leia idly and subtly nodded as well, and let her eyes drift over the wasteland of death and destruction before and around them all once more, before she received aid to stand by the trooper and Shira, and the team made their way away from the site and to a nearby and waiting shuttle. Leia's mind swimming in the memories of what had happened, and those who died, those who lived, and the Moff responsible for it all. It made her feel incredible rage.

'In that way, I suppose, we feel the same way Vale.' Leia thought as her rage bristled. 'Trachta! That snake will pay. I swear that.' Her nostrils flared silently in continued seething rage, as the shuttle took off, and allowed for her the sight of the distant remnant...more a crater, of what had been the Moff base.

---

"Our rage is the same my friends. Our hatred like a boiling pot that has, despite the heat and evaporation of the boiling fluid within, overflowed with out fury!" A chorus of rapturous guttural howls and roars filled the air in defiance and total agreement. The horde of surviving Massassi warriors, all in their sparse armor, drenched in blood over cloth and golden holdovers from their ancient ancestors, huddled together with lanvarok spears and Sith lanvarok shields in their hands. Standing atop a PX-10 combat vehicle, covered in blood as his Massassi allies were, hair disheveled, eyes glowing crimson in hate and the dark side, and body shaking in rage and tiredness, Viathan addressed them. The camp of troopers went about their business as if the rally were not happening right beside and among them. But, some would stop and watch as the youth went into his tangent of wrath and hate before the crimson alien horde.

"We will hunt down this errant Moff onto the edge of the galaxy. And, if need be beyond!" Another unashamed cry of anger rose forth in agreement and raised fists with weapons in hands rose with them.

"I will never rest, and never forgive! I shall not allow the memory of Grash'kil Un'thrasha be forgotten! I shall never allow the hewn corpses of your and my comrades in arms be forgotten! For we will impart upon the Moffs and their foul pack of simpleton drones the greatest of vengeance sparked and fueled by the heat of our hatred! For our hatred is greater than their largest warship!" The roar rose high and the Massassi unleashed all the air from their lungs as the dark side whipped around them all and fed that hate Viathan spoke of.

For a moment Viathan felt his eyelids fall and seek to stay closed over his dried and aching eyes, but he slammed them back open and called on the Force to fill and awaken him with a jolt as he had for hours now. Before them all and seeming less vigorous than his kin was Zar. The future warlord of his people looked down to the soil and his facial growths twitched in unspoken and unreleased rage. The Force wrapped itself around him as he clutched both hands around the lanvarok spear of his own with a terrible might. Were it not made of fine metal by the Massassi warriors of old, Viathan would have thought him possible of snapping it in half.

In Viathan's right hand still remained the brand of his fallen protector, and guardian, his comrade Grash. He climbed down from his mock podium, and came before his mighty comrade. Zar angled to look slightly up but all the same down toward Viathan. The boy brought the bloodied brand up and placed the steel of the blade into his left hand, and the hilt freely into his right, and lifted both arms up, and presented the blade to Zar.

"I would think that h Grash would want, whom would have been his future warlord and master to have his brand." Viathan offered with what he hoped was sufficient humility in his voice.

Zar reached forward and took the hilt in hand, and bowed his head. Viathan took a step back and brought his right hand to his chest. A sign of what he hoped once more, was deep humility before his Massassi comrades.

"Grash was loyal. A silent but effective warrior. One that held deep respect not just for me and our lord Kun, but for you, and his people. I know he wanted nothing more than to serve and raise from the dust of history the glory and name of the Massassi once more." Viathan went on. The surrounding crimson warriors grumbling in agreement and listening on as Zar nodded lowly.

"I shall never forget his sacrifice made for me. A warrior until the very end! Never giving in and fighting on until his body could take no more. Those who came against him fell in droves, and were ill prepared for his unwavering will and determination to never fall or surrender to those beneath him. Of this I know!" Viathan declared and his Massassi comrades erupted in raw howls of wild fury and anger, but mingled with pride in their fallen comrade.

"I know this. I know that for every one of your fallen, of our fallen comrades, allies, and kin, we shall take a hundred of theirs!" A renewed howl rose. "For every bone they broke, and every body they mutilated we shall impose upon them double the cost and triple their toll in blood! We will rain down upon them, from whatever hold they fester upon in the galaxy a torrential flood of their own blood before the end and they shall know horror! We will show them our hatred! For it is greater than their anemic will and pathetic drive! For, if no one else, I alone shall see it done, and Grash'kil Un'thrasha not just avenged, but immortalized as the sound all Moff heathens hear just before the stroke of the blade upon their necks!" A great roar erupted and the Massassi drew the raw and intense darkness within and around them all near and it whipped almost as tangible gusts of wind. Zar lifted the bloodied blade of his fallen comrade and roared a mighty and deeply originating roar that overshadowed his brethren. His wholly yellow eyes glowed brightly and greater than any fire.

The officers and troopers of the medical camp could not ignore the fiery roars of passion and anger erupting from their alien allies. They turned and glanced over as the Massassi, in their golden and sparsely placed armor, bodies drenched in blood, and united in their rage cried out. They had to admit it though, the passion of the alien brutes did send similar thrills of anger, and passion against the Moff fiends through them. Especially those troopers who were now confined to cots from the nuclear blast or were suffering burning pain in and outside of themselves from the gas unleashed by Moff Trachta.

"There will be no pyres to dead enemy, or for the fallen comrades. None for we have no bodies to burn." Viathan stated with curled lips of fury and disgust. The mutilated and torn bodies of their dead allies having been undoubtedly vaporized to dust in the blast of the nuclear detonation.

"There are no bodies to burn, save one. I sent a team to retrieve Grash's body from the woods. We will burn him as a warrior deserves, and would want my friend." Viathan placed his right hand upon Zar's shoulder in assurance.

"I shall spill the blood of enough enemies for both myself and Grash with his very blade, lord. We only await your command to be unleashed!" Zar growled in his deep and accented voice. Viathan nodded.

"In time, my friend. All in good time. For now, all of you must rest. It has been a long day, week, and a long battle. Epica is our rallying cry, but now we must, all of us, rest." Viathan declared, and Zar bowed his head once more before signaling to his surviving and tired comrades to move out. They had made camp alongside the medical camp, and had set up small places to sit about, or lay on cloth along the dirt to sleep even as the star of Epica hung high in the sky. The light and heat of the day would do little to stave off their sleep.

The Massassi departed from him and went off to their encampment. Leaving Viathan to stand alone, before he shakily sat himself down on a nearby medical crate. His eyes drooped once again, and he forced them open again as the troopers walked by him and went about their business. The shadow of an approaching figure fell over him, and he forced himself to look upwards. Meeting his vision was a teen. He held an air of assurance about himself, too much Viathan even thought, and looked to be more noble in birth than an inquisitor, as his robes and armor signaled him to be. Viathan sneered in disgust at the notion of the inquisitors and averted his gaze back to the ground to watch the grass below rustle in the light breeze.

For several moments they were silent. Viathan didn't say a word and the boy said nothing in kind. Viathan felt his hands clutch tighter and tighter into fists as he waited for him to either leave or speak, but instead he did neither. His teeth began to grind together and the Force bristled around him. Lack of sleep, and pure anger still raw at his losses surged through him and Viathan could not stand this silent figure any longer.

"Is there something you need, inquisitor? Or, are you here to simply bother me?!" Viathan demanded and jumped into a stand, and stood slightly taller than the fellow teen. He calmly watched Viathan and shook his head, and maintained his calm coolness.

"Not bother, no." He responded simply and Viathan felt his spine tingle with utter rage and wrath.

"Then spit out why you loom over me, inquisitor, or begone from me! I have had enough annoyance for one lifetime! The last thing I want is you to shadow over me like some stone obelisk." Viathan barked as his body shook with that same and growing rage that screamed to be unleashed. The blonde inquisitor raised one hand and motioned it from right to left.

"Calm, my dear Valek, please calm yourself. Such stress will give you a quick death. We can't have that now can we?" Viathan felt more rage spike through himself. The mentioning of that name made his teeth grind harder and his jaw clamp tighter together.

"Never refer to me by that name, do you understand inquisitor? Make no mistake, I care little for how you know me or my birth name, but if you utter it again I will silence you." The boy smiled and bowed his head. His continued calm demeanor doing nothing more but infuriating Viathan further.

"Of course, of course, I meant no disrespect. I only sought to gauge your reaction. And, the signals are clear. Forgive me," The boy bowed, his short blond hair waving about his head as he did, and his smile remaining as Viathan's weary red eyes followed his movements.

"I am Darssus, and I come to you as an ally, and friend, dearest brother." The boy greeted with a wide smirk along his features as he took a dramatic bow before Viathan. For his part, Viathan sneered.

"Don't call me brother. I am no one's brother. Certainly not some inquisitor who stomps his way before me, and does nothing but seek to irritate me." The inquisitor, now named as Darssus reeled back with hand to his chest in mock shock and horror. The smirk never leaving his features.

"Certainly you'd recognize me!" Darssus exclaimed. Viathan's glare only grew deeper. It was then that Darssus' features changed to anger, and realization.

"Ah, I see then. Father has failed to speak of me. I'm sure he'd say it was a slip of hi mind, or some simple nonsense to placate me." Darssus brought his hand to his forehead and shook his head. Irritation and ire rose off of him in waves, but he was quick to calm himself and mask his emotions from Viathan, who cocked a brow in confusion at the inquisitor's reaction.

"Kalev Zalliste, he's your father correct?" He turned and asked. Viathan looked about himself. No one seemed to notice or care about his and the inquisitor's conversation. He grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him further away. Darssus seemed not to care or mind the rather forceful shove. Indeed he didn't even yank his arm away when Viathan dragged him away from the main body of the camp.

"It is not some great secret, but I am Viathan. Valek Zalliste, yes I was born with that name, but now I am Viathan. Given time I will earn my Darth moniker and serve the Emperor with the power and strength to fulfill his will." Viathan whispered in a low growl.

"As for Kalev Zalliste, do not speak so loudly of his relation to me. It would be greatly appreciated, inquisitor." That was more of a demand than request. Darssus cocked his head to the side in a shrug.

"It is understandable really. Kalev is not a man anyone would want to openly align themselves with. It would be the same as advocating for the plague by making yourself an open ally of the man. He has his uses of course." Darssus went on.

"That's all fine and good. What business do you have with him? Why does he irritate you so much, and more importantly why or how does it concern me at all?" The inquisitor folded his arms.

"Why Kalev Zalliste. Such a genius he is, but so petty indeed. He seeks perfection because he was born on the knowledge and thought that he was so deeply lacking in it. You are the pinnacle of his perfection dearest brother. I am the absence of it. At least in his eyes. I am Darssus Zalliste, and I am your brother, by blood." Viathan froze. He did not go into shock, he did not laugh, he didn't even feel his body stiffen in surprise. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep he thought, but he only stared toward...Darssus. His crimson eyes still hung low, as he simply looked toward him.

"A foolish attempt at a joke!" Viathan suddenly exploded. His voice rising and his arm rising to point toward Darssus. The dark side fueled him and sent a flood of adrenaline through his body once more.

"I will cut you down if you dare speak such foolishness again! I am not some simple trooper, or officer to be toiled with for your enjoyment or fun inquisitor!" Viathan seethed, his body shaking and a finger pointed very near to Darssus' face. Yet the inquisitor was calmer than ever.

"Your reaction is wholly understandable. Trust me though when I say that I am indeed your brother." Darssus assured. Viathan felt his lips only curl even further in anger and disgust.

"I am warning you-"

"Tell me, did Kalev rail about how you are his perfect creation? How you are the pinnacle of all that he is? And, of how the Force is the greatest show of evolution and that thus you are the greatest of his bloodline and evolution of the Karthasian blood? Has he even already propositioned you to retake Karthasia and all of Corat for the sake of our ancient blood and people?" Darssus asked as he crossed his arms. Viathan paused, his mind reeling and thoughts swirling. Though he was sure it was because he hadn't rested properly in a while, and his body ached in every possible spot.

Viathan stared for a moment longer and Darssus cocked one of his eyebrows in anticipation for something, if anything to be spoken by Viathan. He groaned and shook his head before turning and throwing his hands up in defeat whilst stomping away from Darssus.

"Hey!" The inquisitor called as Viathan made away form him. His thoughts racing blood pressure very noticeably rising and vision blurring with tiredness. The crunch of grass beneath his boots and those of Darssus audible in his ears, along with the camp bustling about its business, as Viathan made his way toward the Massassi camp. He didn't know why, but only that he wanted to be around his fellow warriors as visions of his karking father swirled in his head, and the stink of truth in Darssus' words stung in his ears.

"Will you wait one moment?!" He flung around and Darssus stopped before the swinging action struck him.

"What is it that you want?! You want some affirmation of kinship or do you want me to believe you with no proof? I am no fool, and the Empire is full of treachery and trickery and revenge or mindless ambition! I will not be made a fool of, and I will see to it how you came to know my fathers' words!" Darssus merely cocked his head to the side and sighed.

"My you are quite the temperamental one aren't you? Can you not see that I am your brother. No, rather I should ask if you could not sense it? The Force reveals all truths and brings...most lies to the surface. At least where lightning, force, and a bit of torture can be brought to bear. Dear brother, don't let father steal your trust of me away. The man is a self serving fool, It will be through one another we survive and attain true power." He coiled a gloved hand into a fist and a proud smirk lined his features. Viathan snarled lowly and readied to shout back once more.

"I would refrain from shouting so much child. Especially when the one before you speaks in truths." Viathan stopped himself from shouting and made to look for the spirit. It had been silent since the bomb had gone off some time ago, and Viathan lowly jolted at its icy cold presence returning to him.

"Do not address my presence and do not seek me out. Know only that I can confirm for you that the boy before you is your kin. Before you ask how I know this and openly make yourself seem a fool," The spirit preemptively silenced Viathan who maintained a glare the way of the inquisitor who seemed confused at his silent stare.

"I am given great power to see all those who share your blood, and the blood of your father. I see now the past of this boy. He is of your blood. Though diluted and less than what runs in your or your father's veins. I would advise against alienating yourself from him, he could prove useful in empowering you, and aiding in your growth in the Force." Viathan groaned and his thoughts sparked with the question for why the spirit did not reveal itse-

"I do not nor will not show myself before this one. He is not the one I have been waiting for. That honor is yours, child. Make allies with him, use him as you will, but do not needlessly make enemies where none currently exist boy. It would be ill advised."

The spirit went silent, and Viathan hummed out one final, but lower and calmer sigh before he shook his head and shrugged as his...brother watched on confusedly.

"What is it that you want from me...brother?" He smiled a broad and what seemed genuine smile as he clasped both hands onto either one of Viathan's shoulders.

"Why as I said dearest brother of mine! To meet with you, make allies with you, and to know you as father would deny me the right!" He pulled Viathan into a clasping embrace and held him close, Viathan did not respond at first until he finally let his hands weakly pat his...brothers back and armor through his cloak. The blonde boy with hair weaved with a fine and glittering hue in places pulled himself back and smiled to Viathan who maintained his look of complete lack of strength as all ire and resistance left him. All visions of hate and wrath against his father for such secrets and encroachment onto his life again having to wait until a later time.

"It pleases me that you have felt the truth. Of course you know brother the Force is a powerful tool you may use when a question is in need of answering?" Viathan managed a low grumble. He did not appreciate being talked down to as a child.

"I am well versed in the ways of the Force, death and battle, Darssus. I have plenty of masters whom I must learn from. I shall not be seeking out another anytime soon." He raised his hands in surrender and bowed his head.

"Of course brother, of course. I understand entirely. Tell me, how was the battle?" he asked suddenly with a gleam of great wonder in his eyes. Viathan cocked a brow at the sudden turn and shift.

"Was it as bloody and enthralling into the darkness as all the reports say? Did you let the enemy fall in droves and wave your way through their corpses and broken bodies?! Oh had I wished to have come to you sooner brother and be beside you upon the field of battle and take pleasure in watching your every movement as you made low the enemy!" Viathan found his lips curling upwards to one side in confusion and a mild sense of disgust. Not in really anything his...brother said. More in the lustful gaze he took as he heard the sound of his own silky voice speak of the blood and toil of a battle. His thoughts no doubt in a great flurry to imagine up the death wrought before the coming of the Imperial forces and Trachta's horrors imposed.

"No offense, but I have just come upon some very mind boggling information about you being a thing that exists, I have been poisoned, have drugs coursing through my body that make me feel sick and tired. As well as have bruises, burns, and healing gashes all along my body. I wish some sleep before I answer for the next crisis I am beyond sure will unfold in no time at all within this galaxy of madness and death." Darssus sighed, a content, and accepting sigh, but a sigh no less. He grasped Viathan's shoulders once more and shook his brother.

"I understand dear brother. We may share stories of death and blood, and our eventful as impending rise to glory once your wounds have healed. For when the time comes we will both share in the death and spilling of Trachta's blood, and avenge this minor defeat. Rest easy dear brother whilst I watch over you." He gave his right shoulder a pat, and Viathan merely assented with a nod and once again turned back toward the Massassi camp.

The red warriors standing tall as ever though but slightly above that of a grown men bowed low before him. Their anger, wrath and rage quite clear through the dark side of the Force. Yet they knew their lord, and commander had been saved not even by his own power, though they knew it to be great. He was instead saved by one of their own, a Massassi of immense worth and might. His body would be burned in a pyre this night and their lamenting turned to unstoppable wrath.

For now though, Viathan nodded to each and every warrior as they did so in kind, their head growths falling like hair about their shoulders in reverence, and memory of Grash'kil Un'thrasha. Until at last Viathan found for himself a cot that he knew whom not it belong to, and he fell himself upon it. His body laid down and a sigh of pain and relief flooded from him. A lone Massassi warrior came upon him on his cot and merely moved along knowing that the lord needed his rest.

For later that night they would burn a pyre in the honor of their fallen, and he would attend. Where blood would be called for the spilling of their blood.

(Coruscant, Imperial Palace)

Smoke had cleared from the skies for some time, but the cracked, and torn tops and ruined districts of Coruscant still showed through as gashes to the great city-world. The smashing and snapping of metal against metal sounded out as the distant but clear workings of worker droids and engineers went about healing the ruined metal kingdom that was the capitol of the galaxy, and of the Galactic Empire. Hundreds of droids now swarmed about the palace with their Imperial engineering-officers watching over them and pointing out where and what needed fixing. As the edict that had come down from the Throne itself was to rebuild Coruscant view-pane for view-pane, foundation block for foundation block, metal wall for metal wall, until the marring of Coruscant by the URM and the droids was, as it had been decades prior, wiped from sight and memory.

Within the palace remained the Emperor himself. The dark brooding Sith Lord sat upon his throne elevated above the ground of the throne room in totality. The hate that came pulsating off of him filled the grand palace as it towered over all else upon Coruscant and arguably in the galaxy. The blatant and bold attack by that witch, that hangover from his days of plotting and twisting to attain power of the whole of the galaxy, brought boiling and brooding darkness to the Dark Lord of the Sith. The whole of the Empire's military complex had relocated to Anaxes, and left him here on Coruscant alone with the barest of ministries needed to maintain control by remaining here on Imperial-Center.

His fingers intertwined before him and looming glowing yellow eyes pulsed in his hatred as the dark side flurried about him and whispered of all the toils and death that pulsed forth in echoes across the whole of the galaxy. Betrayal, and incompetence surrounded him! The Sith knew it to be true. Vandron's death the attack on Coruscant, the sudden deaths and rise of the Moffs! He knew it to be true. Darth Sidious could smell the stench of treason, and he had an idea whom the vipers in the tall grass were.

The far door to the throne chamber slid open and Sidious heard the fall of multiple footsteps. He could sense who they were and for that reason he did not swivel his throne seat...yet.

"I do hope that either one of you have come bearing fruit on the source of the plague of treason that infect our fair empire." Sidious commented as the dire and deep tone of his voice echoed through the chamber. The footsteps ceased, and the Emperor could sense they bowed before his turned back to him, and he smirked darkly as his power forced the fools to bow even when he did not show them any form of respect. For peons, especially failed ones, deserved it, not!

"Your majesty." The voice of Armand Isard sounded first.

"Your most glorious, highness." Then came Lord Cronal's voice. His voice dripping with malice and disgust. Sidious knew not for him. Indeed he struck terror into the heart of both Cronal and Isard. Rather, Cronal dripped his voice with the venom of disdain for all that did not fall to its knees before the Empire, and its mighty Emperor.

"Dispense with the pleasantries." Finally his throne chair swiveled around and the Dark lord beheld the two men at the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne where it would have been had the chair not been elevated even higher. Sidious did not bother lowering his throne and chose to bear his eyes down onto both of them from up high.

"I ask again, do either of you come with information for me? Who is a traitor within our grand Empire, or what group of men are? Are they even men? Aliens, or are they the women of Coruscant? Perhaps of Kuat?" The Dark Lord mocked in a tone that sounded a mild snarl of contempt, even if Sidious knew he was simply toying with both men. He had no inclination to cut either one down...yet.

"I have no intelligence pointing to anyone, your majesty." Armand spoke as he averted his eyes to the floor while clasping hands behind his red officers styled suit.

"The transmission we picked up several months back was encrypted and nothing was recorded save for a snippet of data packets that lead to a Moff controlled relay in the Mid-Rim. No sweeps of data stores here on Coruscant has revealed any new information. That, and the rebel attack caused severe damage to many data centers and communication hubs on planet save for the Holonet hub, which as you know-" Sidious raised a boney and deathly gray hand to silence Isard as he rambled.

"Spare me director Isard. You have found nothing of importance, and little new." Armand bowed his head.

"Yes, your highness." He turned silent. Sidious turned his head to Cronal who stood in his robes that covered his body quite well and even hid his face from director Isard. Sidious could see through the small usage of the Force to mask the man's identity though. It was droll to the Dark Lord, but he saw the use in keeping one's true identity hidden until the time was deemed right.

"Lord Cronal? Tell me you have brought me something of use." It was far more a demand and not a request or question. The robed and cloaked man bowed his head in a low dip of reverence.

"Your majesty. I have not found anything of greater importance in regards to the communication picked up several months back. However, our spies to the front, and of course integrated within the naval and army elements have given me an interesting insight. It is...quite telling whom is gearing themselves for an ultimate confrontation." Sidious leaned into his throne and nodded.

"Leave us." He flicked a wrist to Armand who quickly bowed and strode back down the long hall to the throne. The Force clearly filled with the man's uneasiness and fear. That and his appreciation for being allowed to maintain his own head atop his shoulders. The door slid open and then quickly back down leaving the two dark Force practitioners alone for a moment only with the oddly both soothing and perturbing ambiance of the room to accompany them.

"What have you to report, lord Cronal?" Sidious broke the silence with his dark slithering voice echoing the walls of the throne room.

"It has become painfully clear, my lord, that Exar Kun is preparing himself for an eventual confrontation with you. Whether it comes before or after the war I cannot estimate for certain. Only that it will come, and he has gathered a following of servants once loyal to you." Sidious rumbled lowly and seemed to almost growl in anger and irritation.

"This is already known to me, Cronal. I hope you haven't wasted my time." Cronal bowed his head.

"I wouldn't imagine it, your majesty. I do have a list of your wayward acolytes. The young Offee has fallen under lord Kun's power and command. Mara Jade has reportedly been easily turned to his side by the most simplistic of irritations. Not to mention the turning of Arden Lyn. I had always held distrust for that witch my lord. She does not even claim to be Sith, and she's wrapped up in her childish thoughts on dead men thousands of years old." Sidious sighed and curled his lips into a sneer.

"They are all childish and lost. In time, lord Cronal, given enough time, I shall retake these three. Surely one or two may die, but I will let lord Kun think he's won himself several devotees and acolytes, when all he has truly done is relieve me of the burden of training them myself." Cronal looked surprised.

"You mean, you knew they would turn?" Sidious scoffed.

"Of course not, but it was a possibility. Alas when you send children to do a Dark Lord's work there tends to be a great cacophony of error after error. In time young Jade will hear her master's call, and she will come crawling back to kiss the floor I walk upon. Offee will in time see herself lack anymore use of Kun and she will come thinking herself ready to defeat me and I will cast her low. In that moment I will either make her my own again, or set an example of the true 'strength' she retains. Lyn? Well, as for her, she may well be the one who has to die on principle." The Sith lord tipped his head up in thought before cackling.

"Perhaps I can even cast some illusions over her mind of dear Xendor, old, waning decrepit and begging for her aid and death before I snatch him out from under her pathetic nose. To watch her writhe in horror and despair would make me quite pleased." he grinned wickedly and endlessly cackled for a few moments more as Cronal nodded in appreciation of the sentiment.

"So, lord Cronal," Sidious finally addressed with dying laughter still within his tone. "As you can see I am well aware and in control of these petty grievances lord Kun has exploited into mountains of misguided self-righteousness against me. He too, despite his usefulness, will in time come to see the error of his ways. Before the end that is." Cronal bowed his head.

"Truly you are impeccable in plotting, your majesty. But what of the boy, Zalliste? With all the treason that takes place under the 'care' of Exar Kun, would it not be safe to assume his falseness?" Sidious scoffed openly and waved his hand before himself.

"Please, that is near insulting Cronal. The boy is weak willed, a servant of masters. A leader only when lead himself, and a warrior for his Emperor and its Empire. He was born, bred and taught to serve, he will die to serve and live to serve. Valek, or as he seeks to call himself, 'Viathan,' is one tiny spec in an impossibly vast pot. Do not concern yourself with him any, lord Cronal. Seek out corruption and treason against me where there could even be some to find." Cronal nodded and relented.

"As you decree, your highness."

"Indeed." Sidious smirked and basked in his own power. "Now, what treason lay within the officers, and soldiers of the Empire? Any word on further subversiveness from within our ranks?" Cronal cocked his head to the side.

"Nothing concrete, my lord. There are rumors, and whispers, but nothing out of the norm from ambitious officers looking to plant the seeds of paranoia among the inquisitors, so they may claw their way up the chain to power." Sidious nodded and held a look of mild vexation about him.

"As is commonplace, lord Cronal. Does, per chance, anything stand out?" Cronal hummed and let his hand crawl along his chin in thought.

"Well, one thing has perplexed me. Not because I think anything is going about at the moment to signal impending deception and doom, but it was no less interesting." Sidious motioned for him to proceed.

"Both lord's Vader and Kun have met with admiral's as of late. Both of these men have also gained power and prestige around the same time. Both are ambitious, and both exceedingly loyal to the Empire. However, as that statement may sound soothing to you, my lord, their dossiers show a sense of loyalty to not you, your highness, so to speak. Rather, to the ideal of the Empire itself. Indeed one has been known to express disdain for the Force in his off time, and when his lips prove too lose." Sidious leaned forward.

"Tell me who you speak of and which lord they've met with then, my good lord Cronal." He beckoned.

"Some time before the battle of Coruscant, lord Vader met with now acting admiral Thrawn. Who, may I remind you, gained his new position by direct recommendation and commendation by lord Vader. Not only that, but as of late the good admiral has lost three systems to the new acting URM commander in the Allied Tion Sector." Cronal added the admiral's recent shortcomings with an air of contempt and mockery about his voice. Sidious leaned into his chair once more, and clasped his hands in his lap along his dark robes. Thoughts rushing through his head.

"Thrawn...that alien should be pleased he had the honor of rising to such high a position. If he has gained it through sheer nepotism, then he has played the game well of power-play. If, though as you insinuate, lord Cronal, we find ourselves with a filthy, and failed admiral on our hands who seeks to ally himself with lord Vader over the Emperor of the whole of the Empire himself," He referred to himself in the third person. "then he should be firstly watched. If the opportunity arises after sufficient evidence has been gained, then he should be stripped of rank and eliminated."

"I agree utterly, your eminence." Cronal gleefully announced.

"Now of the second admiral?" Cronal bowed his head again.

"Yes, very recently, lord Kun met with Grand Admiral Zaarin. A sufficiently analyzed attack on the admiral's base of operations on Shantipole station by the Moff forces has left the admiral with a great mess to clean up. However, lord Kun had met with the admiral prior to the assault, and reportedly in private. I had an agent on the station and he reported the presence of the Sith lord to the Inquisitorius. I took command of his operational status and have sent him to spy on lord Kun. However, he has not reported back yet. I can only assume he has been killed, or otherwise impaired by the lord." Sidious once again lowly grumbled in thought as visions of such a meeting passed through his ind, and the stench of treachery whether it was true or not filled his nose and that foul air filled his lungs. Sparking then from the elder powerful Dark Lord, a fiery burst of internally swirling wrath.

"Was this agent of any importance?" Cronal scoffed and motioned his hand before himself.

"No, your majesty. He was indeed a rather lacking inquisitor if I may speak boldly about the fool. He was one of the early converts from the failed Jedi camp. One of the few made into one of your earliest of servants from that abducted group of Jedi failures heading to join the Agri-corps. Perhaps you remember my lord, the one who was burned with ancient markings on the right side of his face?" Sidious scoffed in turn and nodded.

"Yes, yes. That one was lacking indeed. A good thing you sent him before Kun. Had he succeeded in returning I might have had him killed now that you've reminded me of him. He thrusts himself just to the very cusp of the dark side, but treads lightly thereafter. He is no Sith, and he is of no use to me. Perhaps, in death he will be of more use than in life." The Sith lord mocked with the hint of a cackle on his voice. The glee of the thoughts of the weakened fools of his Empire being slaughtered and weeded out by his enemies who thought themselves greater than himself was all but tangible for Sidious.

He did so enjoy watching the worms writhe and bicker whilst he remained ever watchful, all powerful, and as always, in command.

"Yes my lord. Allow me then to do you a service and mock the fool for immediate death should he be alive! Consider it a great gift from me to you. Had I known you found such drifters within the Inquisition so...pathetic, I would have purged him and those of his ilk sooner." Sidious waved him off, though he indeed felt flattered at his servants utter servitude and attempt to placate him.

"It doesn't matter. I am far more interested with the movements of admiral Zaarin and lord Kun. The failure of one Inquisitor is by comparison of little importance. Hmm," He hummed in pondering thought.

"Where it comes to lord Kun, leave that to me. I believe I have the integrated boy for the job where keeping tabs on the man is concerned." Cronal nodded.

"What of lord Vader, your majesty? Surely your apprentice, with his children and blatant other acolytes mean you harm and destabilization." Sidious cackled.

"As is the way of the Sith, my dear lord Cronal. It is all a wonderful game. We shall let lord Vader be. He still has his uses, and given enough time, I shall easily snatch from out under him, his little cadre of devotees. Including his enticingly powerful, and increasing, children. However, where it comes to admiral Thrawn, I do believe I have the solution to our suspicions. An agent of whom I think deserves above all others to track, watch, and in time, eliminate Thrawn." Cronal cocked his head to the side.

"May I ask whom, my lord?"

"His name is Naiias. You would not have heard of him, lord Cronal. He has proven himself capable in the far unknowns of the galaxy. He has...shall we say, a grudge to bring to bear upon admiral Thrawn. I have so far kept the wayward fool at bay, but now I shall unleash him upon the object of his wrathful drive." Cronal bowed his head, and fully accepted his Emperor's wisdom.

"Go now, lord Cronal. Return to your operations, shadowy actions, and war against treason to our wondrous Empire. And, do not fear, lord Cronal. For when the time is right the galaxy will be brought to heel, once again, and my power only tripled." The Emperor smoothly and coolly informed Cronal who beamed in his master's pride and assurance, and bowed in reverence once more. He quietly and obediently made his way from the throne room, and left the Emperor Palpatine to cackle in glee and make a very interesting holocomm call to a sure to be, excited youth. And, inform him of a task being opened to him that he has been waiting for since his very birth.

For the Emperor, was, and is no fool, and his eyes and ears were everywhere.

(Stardestroyer Magnificence, in orbit over Pelagon)

"Come on you bastard!" The interrogator whipped his metal prod across the ribcage of the tied inquisitor who groaned but merely swung after the strike. His eyes were closed, his face seeming blank save for his mouth hanging open ajar as if he were a hanging corpse forever stuck in the pose he had taken to his death.

"Alright, lay off him men." Carsol spoke aloud and stepped forward. His two under-interrogators stepped back from the inquisitor. The one who had just struck him sneering the unconscious figure.

"He's worn out. I think he needs a little incentive to wake up." Carsol said in a slithering cool tone that spoke of the pleasure he took. He beckoned the interrogation droid forward and pulled a syringe from its many assorted previously created cocktails. He snapped the syringe with his fingers and then grappled Raydonn's left arm and found a vein. He pushed the syringe in gingerly and injected the serum, whatever it may have been, into the man. He pulled back gave the droid the syringe to dispose of and clasped his hands behind his back as they silently watched and waited. For anything and everything to happen.

First a groan escaped from him, and then his head snapped back up from the side, and his eyes flashed open. His eyes shooting from left to right and over again. His chest, bared before and allowing them to see his many scars and the fresh ones as well, began to openly heave and his breaths became rushed and ragged.

"Wha..."

"Welcome back to the realm of the living, my inquisitor friend. For a moment we had thought you may have died on us." Carsol greeted as Raydonn glared daggers his way.

"What did you put in me you son of a kath hound?!" Carsol shrugged.

"Petty name calling wont fix the situation you find yourself in my friend. As for what you were given, it's a little mixture made just for waking someone from a much needed rest. It sends a little jump to the body. See, we wouldn't want you getting too much sleep now would we?" Raydonn indeed snapped his eyes shut and then open again as the demand of his mind and body to give into sleep was ever present but his heart was pounding a mile a minute and his thoughts were even more jumbled than before. Sweat poured from him and he felt every painful welt, bruise, and burn across his flesh ebb and then increase in agony along his form.

He fixed his eyes, dark blue as they were, now blotched with yellow and wrath, on the main interrogator of the three and let his hate flow through him, fill him and empower him.

"When I get free of these chains, you'll be the first to go." Carsol chuckled and waved the feeble threat aside. Raydonn took note how dry and weak his voice had begun to sound and growled with even more rage at how pathetic he seemed in this moment.

"Now, all childishness aside, let us return to what we were discussing before you fell into your stupor. What is the name of your handler, and what is the main objective, or rather what, was the main objective of your mission here?" Carsol asked and took a step forward.

"Beyond your confrontation with my lord Kun, you remained hidden in the shadows. Obviously your main goal was not to attempt, and foolishly so at that, to kill my lord Kun, but to either follow and gain information, or find a suitable spot to kill him perhaps? Nonetheless, what was your goal, inquisitor filth?" Raydonn shook his head as his thoughts were addled and seemed to bleed from one to the other as the disruptor atop his head like some cursed crown and the drugs worked together to confuse him and weaken him.

"I...was...trying to find the fresher, I really had to go was all." he smirked as the pain rumbled through his body and twisted at his insides. Carsol sneered and snapped the droid over.

"Give him some shock therapy." The droid whirled and approached Raydonn.

"Really? Come on no-" The droid extended a prong and before he could finish the tip snapped onto his ribcage and a charge of electricity entered his body. His screams rung out as he attempted to snap his mouth shut and deny the interrogators the pleasure.

Carsol waved his hand up and the droid ceased.

"Let's try this again then. What was the main priority of your mission against lord Kun? Don't make me give you more truth serum. It is stated too much can give you brain damage after all."

"Yeah...I ca...n hear the worry in your voice." Raydonn growled outwards.

"Speak now inquisitor!" He shouted and Raydonn sneered.

"Go kark yourself, Carsol. You're pretty powerful aren't you," He mocked, his voice dripping with contempt. "standing feet away, glaring at me, while you let your droids or men whip me around up close and in person. No real manhood to come over here and get up close and personal. Real scary Carsol, you're a true paragon of power and intimidation." Raydonn smirked as dried blood along his lips creased with his lips, and the bruises along his body shook as weak and scratchy laughter escaped from him. Carsol sneered and approached.

"I'll show you, you little whelp!" He snatched from the second interrogator the metal prod and switched on the heated tip of it. With a thrust he jutted the prod forward and the heated end of it, searing hot, slammed into the right underarm of the inquisitor. Raydonn scowled in pain and kept his mouth snapped shut and his body shook as he forced himself to not scream. The pain flooded through him and his mind was overtaken by the pain. His body cramped up and his muscles became rigid and painful as every old wound screamed out across his form and filled him with even more pain.

Until finally his eyes slowly forced their way open through the wince of raw pain coursing across his body and his teeth became bared, and with a released howl of pure power and wrath a great wave of power screamed out through the Force. With it the three men flew back with various grunts and cries. The Massassi guards to the back of the wall on either side of the door were slammed into the back and they growled outward. As Raydonn's disruptor atop his head went flying off of his head, and his thoughts became clear and focused.

With a snarl, but grin of accomplishment, Raydonn sent the Force flaring up his arms and snapping along the chains holding his arms to the ceiling. Until at last they cracked and the man fell to the ground. He fell onto his knees and threw one arm down to block his fall. His muscles screamed in pain, and shook, but he kept himself from falling to his face.

He rose back to a full stand as several old wounds bled, and every bone, and muscle ached. His eyes were glowing fully in the yellow of the dark side. Before him the three interrogator's shook their heads and struggled on the floor where they lay. The two Massassi were already back on their feet and brought their lanvarok's before themselves pointed toward the inquisitor.

"Now...this...is more how I like it." He laughed as he shakily brought his arms up and fell into a fight ready posture with fists raised up and arms stretched forward. Though his arms still shook and his footing remained unsteady.

The Massassi howled and stomped their way toward him as Carsol and his two men rose up and made for the door, but found it locked. Only the Massassi being capable of opening the door from the inside. Carsol shouted toward the warriors but they ignored him and Raydonn smirked as they neared.

"Let's see how this goes eh boys?" With that, one of the beasts threw his lanvarok up overhead and swept down upon Raydonn.

---

"I must say I am impressed." Exar expressed with a smirk as he sat down in a chair and rested his left arm along the tabletop.

"The planet, sure it looks like the Corellian-hells wasted over, but it's ours." Kun chuckled as his three acolytes entered into the room.

"Yes well, if we had more support from maybe a division or two...or maybe a Massassi war-group with us, things would have gone over a lot smoother." Kira replied and jumped down into a lazy slouched seat near t her master, and folded her arms with a grin along her greenish features.

"Maybe, if you say, I don't know, faster and more efficient conquest you could stop hording the Massassi for yourself and Viathan. That toad doesn't need them all after all." Kira spat. Kun glanced Mara's way and caught her roll her green eyes, and madam Lyn merely watched on silently.

"Well my dear, that 'toad' has just undergone a battle in which he and his remaining forces were not just gassed, but nuked. I'm sure you can find it within you to respect the troubles of your fellow acolyte, and his need for additional forces. Especially those of the Massassi, my dear madam Offee." She half sneered in return.

"Nonetheless, I will accommodate you. I had planned to assign you a contingent of Massassi, and war-trained tuk'ata as well. As will the both of you as well get your own force to use as you both see fit." Kun motioned to both Mara and Arden. Kira in turn clapped her hands together and giggled.

"Great! About time I got something better to use than the stormies. Good fodder but not much up here if you know what I mean." She giggled as she pointed to her forehead.

"Perhaps, and this is just my opinion Kira," Mara spoke up and stepped near to Kun to face Offee. "if you didn't subscribe to human wave tactics, and blind charges while you lounge around and do things, I guess, from the back lines, they would last a little longer than five minutes. And, if when support did come your way, you didn't use it for target practice while you take your sweet time getting to an objective, they, and if I may be bold, I, will last a tad bit longer." Mara smiled and crossed her arms, as Kira nodded and her lips curled in what seemed an exaggerated look of thought, or contemplation.

"You know what Jade?! That's an excellent idea, but you forget one important factor."
"Oh and what's that?" Mara asked with crossed arms and cocked brow.

"The very important question is this; do I give one damn? Because if I did I may actually have heard your suggestions and cared. Which I don't. So...yeah!" She smiled sweetly, and Mara rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air.

"Whatever Offee, do what you want, but don't blame others for your failures and shortcomings, okay?" Kira sneered Mara's way and made to respond as Kun threw both hands up.

"Children, children!" He rose to his feet. "By the Force, why is it all my acolytes must be children? Enough, the both of you, or I'll make you both read the compilation detailing the rise and fall of the Old Republic, latest edition, unless you both stop!" Both of the teens huffed and silenced themselves, and Kun looked between them both.

"Good. Now if you both don't mind, I need to talk with madam Lyn. Wait outside, and await my instruction." He motioned to the door in a sweeping manner, his cloak waving about him. Both of them gave one another sneering glances and bowed to their master, and gave one another wide berths before exiting the room. The Force reeked of the dark side and animosity between the two, and Kun smirked as they exited with the door sliding shut after them.

"I swear, children and their even worse teenager growth period, are perhaps the most awful people in all the universe." Kun sighed and crossed his arms.

"Hmm, yes well, it has been a long time since we were teenagers or children at that. Hasn't it been my lord Kun?" She asked, and finally broke her silence.

"Ha, indeed it has been." Kun laughed. "Now, madam Lyn, tell me. How did our two young charges fair on the planet? Sure I got their interpretations of themselves, and one another, but what do you think of them?" Lyn cocked her head thoughtfully.

"Well, they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Kira is indeed wasteful of units under her command, but it benefits her. She comes in after or from a flank and decimates the enemy lines. She's quite unconventional." Exar nodded. "Mara, on the other hand, has a direct but tactful approach to things. She's willing to help units of troopers, or officers, and is more than willing to undertake solo operations to ensure a whole platoon doesn't get wiped out. Despite their, obvious difference, Jade was more than willing to aid Offee in bringing down what had been an enemy unit she was tasked with destroying, but with that in mind, Jade gained something out of it with having two towers occupied by enemy forces brought tumbling down." Kun nodded along the whole time.

"So they both have their strengths and weaknesses indeed. I shall keep them in mind when I send them on campaigns, or sub campaigns. I'm sure they will have little trouble working away from each other." Kun smirked.

"Tell me, lady Lyn, how was the battle for yourself?" She shrugged.

"Easy enough. It's odd to me, but war rarely changes. The only thing different in these times are the less need and use for melee weapons such as vibroblades, swords, knives, and a few less Force practitioners in the field of battle. Otherwise, nothing is new. Bigger blasters, bigger egos, and bigger heads are thrust into the battlefields. That is all, Kun." She explained and forced a nod of agreement from the Sith lord.

"Bigger egos eh? May I ask whom you speak of my lady Lyn?" Kun beckoned, and Lyn scoffed.

"Why I'm sure you know, my lord Kun." She neared and he mockingly smiled.

"I figured as much. You know, for someone who needs my help you do love to annoy me don't you?" She rolled her natural golden eyes. As she came nearer still to him and placed her left hand onto his chest.

"Please m lord, if I really wanted to irritate you I could touch you here knowing full well you wont do anything. Not because you can't but, but because you want to see where else I can touch you." She smirked, and Exar openly growled.

"You tread a dangerous line my lady Lyn." She smirked and her fingers began crawling up his chest toward his right shoulder like a mock spider.

"Hmm, I like treading the line, my lord." Her voice lowly purred, and her eyes narrowed.

"My, my, I would have thought you to be far more self controlled than this my lady. For someone working towards resurrection of a dead lover you sure do seem...'in need,' of 'distraction.'" Exar smirked and flicked her hand from his body and crossed his arms. Arden in turn raised her right arm, and brought the massive droid arm before Kun's sight.

"You will find, my lord Kun, that this ugly attachment often makes for an easy eyesore to drive men away. You are simply easily entertained. Indeed I wonder to myself if you find someone like me with such a terribly ugly droid arm captivating, what else captures your fancy, hmm?" Exar jeered in return into a laugh of disbelief and mock insult.

"Would you believe that under Emperor Palpatine, I became aware of a group of men, mostly Moffs mind you. Who were part of a club, elite as they were secretive, that formed little bordellos across the Empire, that were full of all manner of deviancy?" She raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Why you could get whatever you wanted. From the finest Zeltron, to the scaliest Trandoshan woman. I think there was one Moff, who I believe joined the Moff Alliance, named Garmesh or something, who fancied himself orgies. He was very specific too. Two underage twi'lek girls, a Neimoidian dancer, and for whatever reason a male Devaronian." Exar broke out laughing and held an obviously half amused and disgusted grin on his face.

"By the Force! Why did I need to know of such things madam?" A twinkle of mirth lay in her eyes.

"Why, I was merely adding that there are all manner of men with all manner of deviant desires in the galaxy, my lord Kun. I wanted to see if any of that turned you on. Like I said, my droid arm is most of the time a turn off." Kun snickered some more and slowly but surely coughed his way out of the laughing fit.

"Well you'll be happy to know my lady I have no desires for underage girls, nor do I feel any attraction to men, Devaronian or otherwise. Nor do I really find Neimoidians attractive. As a sign of appreciation, however, you will find I can admit to beauty where it is to be found. To admire it, is not the same as desire it." He declared as his gray eyes traveled from her hips to her smiling face. She smirked and gave a single huff of a laugh.

"Fair enough, my lord."

A moment of silence passed, but then suddenly...the blare of an alarm went through the ship. Kun and Lyn turned their heads upwards as the alarm rung loudly in their ears and nearly felt like it vibrated their forms.

"What in the name of the Force is wrong now?" Kun asked just as his comm went off.

"Lord Kun here." The alarm echoed through the comm.

"My lord! This is captain Quor!" He shouted over the alarm.

"I can hear, captain. Please do report as to why this alarm is ringing incessantly in our collective ears?!" He tried to keep his voice level and not seem as if he were making a demanding howl to the captain.

"My lord, the prisoner...he's escaped!" Exar was stunned for a moment and he went silent and numb. Arden investigated his face, and had never seen such a look of shock cross his features before.

"Wh...what?! How did he escape, and where is he now?!" He seethed and lost for a moment his composure as the dark side flared outwards from him.

"We...we don't know, my lord. We rushed a security team down to the level where his room is, due to a signal of the door opening without prior authorization form the inside or out. The response team reported back that...lead investigator Carsol was...well severely carved into. The two Massassi guards are both beaten down, but alive. He must not of had the ability to kill them, and wanted to get away as soon as possible, but Carsol and his men are all dead. Throats slit on the two underlings, but Carsol seems to have been disemboweled, stabbed into a multitude of times, and...we think the blade he used, torn from a Massassi lanvarok, is the one we've found lodged down his throat." He explained in gruesome detail. Arden cocked her head to the side.

"A side project my lord?" He cast her an irritated glare but didn't answer.

"Where is the scum captain?!" He demanded as his tone grew low and rumbling, the echo of the dark side's wrath and power bleeding through into his tone. Arden indeed felt a chill travel along her back and bristle her hair on her neck, as a chill whirled about the Sith lord.

"He was spotted moving onto the next level up. Contingency plans for prisoner escape dictate that we shut down the shuttle bays, and block out communication save for the main console here on the bridge. Security teams are on patrol and searching for him, and the armory is on guard. However," Quor went on. "his movements suggest that he's attempting to access a comms console. As we were shutting down the communications array we detected an attempted call out towards the Core. We shut down before it made its way out to the relay. At least we believe so." Exar furrowed his brow, and lowered his comm as he fell into his thoughts.

"Why access the comms system? You have no weapon, no shirt, no pants...you're shut up with drugs, beaten bloody." He glanced to Lyn. "You're taken prisoner by a hostile allied force, you break free after interrogation, and chatting with the hostile unit in question. Why is the first priority of yours to access the communications system?" He asked in hypothetical over the endless blare. Arden tipped her head upwards in obvious contemplation.

"Well, I suppose if I've learned something I was sent to discover I would take my moment to break free and relay a message, or word of warning to my handler. Did you, by chance say something you may regret now that your 'friend,' isn't under wraps?" Kun looked horrified and glanced around to the side as captain Quor questioned where his lord had gone.

"That sneaky little worm!" He exploded and the dark side burst to life. Arden put her hands up and motioned him to calm.

"What?! For the love of the Force." She replied, and Kun seethed seemingly toward nothingness, his nostrils flaring and lips curling in rage.

"His endless goading and prodding! His irritating attitude and abrasiveness! He wasn't trying to simply annoy me or goad me, not for the sheer fun of it. That little kath runt, wanted me to spill my plans, and actions!" Arden looked surprised.

"He wants to confirm for whoever the Emperor has on my backside my treason and give him an ample basis to shut me down or kill me all the same. The Moffs, the rebels, Dubrava, Organa...Viathan. Kark!" Kun howled in fury.

"Captain!"
"Yes my lord." Quor responded quickly at the snap.

"You bunker down the bridge and set checkpoints, that whelp is not to reach the comms system under any and all circumstances! Am I understood?!"

"Ye..yes my lord, explicitly!" Quor responded, the full wrath of his lord coming as a shock to him.

"Good, I'm on my way. He'll be heading there without a doubt. Do everything and send everyone you can to impede him."

"Right away my lord." Exar nodded though Quor could not see him and made to stomp passed Lyn while motioning her to follow. She did so quickly and without question, for the first time catching a glance of him in a full commanding and domineering mode of action.

"The both of you, no back talk, and don't even start with one another. Follow me and do so quickly. We have a leak to plug." His command was swift and deep and both Mara and Kira went mildly wide eyed, nodded and followed after the two adults as they, as a group, stomped their way down a hall leading toward the bridge. The two girls eyed Lyn, but she could only direct them to follow, as they silently followed after their dark Lord and Sith master in silence. The blare of the alarm sounding in their ears and endlessly droning the entire way. As they, and the inquisitor made to intersect one another. Without knowing so.

---

Raydonn leaned himself against a sleek and unbearably cold wall, and clasped his right arm around his left hip. Burn wounds from the prod used by Carsol sent shivers of pain coursing through him, and he seethed. He picked himself off the wall, and forced himself forward. The only weapon he had on him was a sword he had taken from one of the Massassi guards. It had been at the brute's belt and side, and after Raydonn had managed to knock him and his buddy down, he had taken the brand.

His mind so fixed on his hatred and anger, he could not see anything save for his desire to gouge into and carve the interrogators apart, and thus he did so. Carsol was nothing more than a mangled corpse. By the time he had breathlessly stopped carving the wretch up, Raydonn had turned to see the groggy Massassi brutes rousing. He knew it was a fight he could not win, and he had wasted time already. Raydonn retreated from the room, tripped an alarm and raced to the nearest comms console. Coruscant, and the Emperor had to be informed on the full treachery of Kun!

Yet, he had reached a console, and had to thrash a few troopers against a wall out of his way. He had begun transmitting but then the whole karking ship went haywire, and all connections were severed with only the request to send package leaving the ship! He had cursed his luck and smashed his already bloodied and bruised fists into the console, shattering it, and possibly dislocating a finger or two.

So, now here he was traversing the endless halls of a stardestroyer, and making his way toward the bridge as the blaring of alarms rung in his ears, and his vision grew cloudy from pain and exertion. His nostrils flared as he took in air to fill his lungs and pound oxygen through his body. The smell of his own blood and the sterile stale air of the ship mingling together and giving him a jarring, near disgusting aroma to partake in.

With another groan he picked himself off the wall, and yanked the brand up and rested the cold blade that felt like fire, onto his right shoulder, and pushed himself forward. His feet were bare, and his stomps along the ground loud and thudding. He forced himself through the pain and the aches that shot through and across his form and down the hall.

The Force spiked through his mind, and he darted his eyes right. A curve in the hall lay before him, and then came three troopers. They turned and paused with a stop.

"The prisoner! Blast him down." The center one pointed, and the other two troopers aimed and fired a wild spray toward him. Raydonn ducked down, and sped himself up with the raw power of the Force fueling him. They closed in on him and fired at the floor and wall nearest to him forcing him to move to where they'd fire, but he was too quick with the Force fueling him.

With a howl of power, he swung himself up into a jump, and curved his legs inwards, and swung the sword overhead, and brought it down onto one trooper. He cried out, and then Raydonn felt the blade slam down and pierce the helmet. The man went limp and fell over. Raydonn pulled the brand and slashed right and cleaved into the exposed spot of the next trooper. He seethed and blood splattered before he swung and fell against the floor.

The third trooper came up behind Raydonn and slammed his blaster into the back of his head. Raydonn groaned and fell forward onto one knee.

"Freeze you scum, or I will put a bolt in the back of your ugly head!" He seethed from behind his helmet, and Raydonn ran his left hand up the back of his head looking for blood. He found none, but felt his vision blur over once again. His lips curled in rage and wrath, and with a quick motion of his free left hand the Force exploded out from his form. The trooper cried as he was thrown back against the far wall.

Raydonn turned and flew toward him with brand ready to pierce. It reached the trooper and the blade slammed and cut through the man's abdomen. He lurched forward and blood began spilling from the wound across the blade, and onto the white floor below. He gurgled, and Raydonn yanked the sword out as the body limply fell onto the floor with his two dead comrades. Raydonn groaned once more, but forced himself to turn and make his way back down the hall where he twisted right from where the troopers had come from, and found a turbolift. He entered and took it as high as he could. His mind set on getting to the one place he knew communications would be maintained even under a lock down. The bridge.

The lift continued to rise for some time, and Raydonn once again found himself leaning, and angrily thereafter forcing himself to stand straight and keep himself in a ready composure to fight. He rode the lift as high as it would go, and indeed, due to his impromptu prison cell being in the bottom of the ship and to the back near the engines, the lift rode almost to the very top and heart of the bridge of the stardestroyer.

He readied the blade and stood fast as the turbolift came to a slow and pleasant stop. The doors swung open and he exited back out into a hall. The blaring alarm all the way never ceasing to ring in his ears. He bound off the turbolift and into the hall and made his way through the winding halls. He came across no one as he went and spread himself outward with the Force. He felt no life near to him but in the distance, and a great gathering of it. It spiked through him warning and worry, as he neared the bridge. He was no fool, and knew there would be all manner of troopers and enemy forces guarding the bridge from his attack. He readied and steeled himself for what was undoubtedly to come, and ran his way from winding hall to winding hall. Left then right, and right, to left through these halls. Long halls leading to turns and winding corners. Many doors along the way were shut, and in lock down, the alarm blaring and lights whirling in alarm and clouding his vision and thoughts even further as he held the heavy brand with aching muscles and set himself squarely on the prize of the bridge.

Until he made a final turn and found a long hall before him leading to a great door that within contained the bridge of the stardestroyer. He stopped and let himself catch his breath. For before his yellowed eyes were a great many troopers. Mobile metal cover had been put into position and had five men at least behind them each. Four auto-turrets had been activated and left two on either side atop the ceiling and from the floor. Extending himself outward with the Force, Raydonn could sense even more men lying in wait behind curved bends in the hall leading to the bridge. The door was closed and likely shut with added security door behind, and in front of it stood an officer with officer guards on either side of him. Raydonn narrowed his eyes and recognized him to be the captain of the ship. The man foolish enough to throw his lot, and that of all his men behind Exar Kun, and forsake the Emperor himself.

"Inquisitor Raydonn." He greeted coolly and loudly over the blare of the alarm. "If you would do us all a kindness and cease this foolishness? I have just received reports that you've killed at least seven good men aboard this vessel and injured a good many others." Captain Quor spoke as Raydonn neared with brand held high and ready with very soft but careful steps.

"Captain, you should know your place when addressing your betters. Not only that, but you surely should know by now that your lord Kun is in direct defiance of the Emperor, and against the very good of the Empire. You should be helping me relay what valuable information I have to the Emperor." Raydonn shot back. The captain rolled his shoulders and sighed.

"I haven't a clue what you're on about. All I've seen so far is a lone wolf, rogue inquisitor attempting to assassinate a lord of the Galactic Empire aboard my vessel." Quor retorted masterfully. "Surrender now, and I am sure the death sentence handed down to you will come quick and painlessly. Unlike the deaths you imparted onto my fighting and serving men. We are at war, if you've forgotten, my 'friend.' Every man counts and you've taken from us all a handful of men. How shameful of a 'patriot,' such as yourself." He went on with a calm and almost serene face and tone.

"You play your words very well captain. Now, stand aside, and I wont do to you and your men what I've done to every other one that has dared get in my way! I will inform the Emperor of this treachery. Then you and your lord will answer to him." He brought his brand forward and aimed toward the captain and his men.

"So, how about it, captain?" Raydonn broached.

"The good captain will defer that to me, inquisitor." Raydonn froze. Before him and coming from the left and turn in the wall beyond his sight came the robed, and very angry looking Sith lord. Beside him followed three others. All holding sabers in their hands and waiting behind the Dark Lord.

"How is it that you made it here before me?" Raydonn growled.

"Well look at you. You look like you've been beaten and hopped up on drugs. Oh that's right, you have been." Kun sneeringly mocked with a hint of glee and victory in his eyes.

"Now, I would suggest that you stand down. In the state you're in you'd hardly be a fight worth engaging in. And, besides even that," He waved his arm around and from the corners came at least two dozen more troopers all aiming down way towards Raydonn and ready to fire on him. He eyed them from left to right and held his simple brand before himself. The turbolift behind him whirled open and warily glanced over shoulder to see two Massassi come through followed by six more troopers garbed in the normal white armor.

"I think that sword alone wont save you from this, my conniving little friend." Raydonn narrowed his gaze back to the Sith lord who approached slowly by several steps. "Did you think I wouldn't put the pieces together? Especially since your first move was to make a call at this ship's expense. I must say you played me very well, inquisitor." Raydonn smirked and bowed his head.

"Why thank you. It wasn't that hard really. As I said, you like to hear yourself talk. Perhaps even to your own detriment, Exar Kun." Raydonn spat the name while maintaining his smirk.

"Indeed. However, I must thank you. You've taught me a valuable lesson. Even in victory I should definitely keep my thoughts, and ideas wholly to myself. Rather, I should do all I can to force from your maw every last shred of valuable intelligence I can. Then dispose of you just as quickly." He snatched up his saber, and exploded to life one side of the brilliant double-bladed blue beams. The three girls following in his wake activated their own sabers. The younger ones had red each, whilst the older one activated a green saber from a hilt that was rather odd looking and seemed more like the hilt of an ancient metal war-blade. Her right arm was a massive droid replacement, and her eyes seemed from afar yellow like his own. Yet they seemed less glowing, almost golden and natural. Raydonn felt a spark of memory flash through him, and for a moment thought he should have known who she was, but his memory failed him and he raised his brand higher in defensive posture.

He felt the hall through the Force and extended himself outward. There were dozens of enemies surrounding him, and all more than willing to bring him down. He didn't know what Kun did to deserve these people's loyalty and even affection, but it only made the Force spike through him in worry even more. He steadied his breath and drew on the Force to alleviate his pain, while at the same time calling on that very same pain to fill him with more power, thus creating an endless cycle of need and renewal.

Then Raydonn sensed it. His eyes fell to Kun again. The Sith lord's gray eyes seeming full of wrath and ire as he neared slowly and carefully. His cloak and blackened gear around his body whirling and moving about him. At his belt though there it hung. A glimmer of metal against the blaring lights of the ship. Raydonn's eyes grew wider with elation, and tension left him even if it was ever so slight. He lowered his arms and seemingly the brand to a surrendering level against the floor, and gave pause to Kun and thus his followers.

"Giving up, inquisitor?" He smirked triumphantly, and Raydonn smirked back.

"Nope." He threw the brand down and with a quick snap of his left hand outward the object snapped away and pulled from Kun's belt. The man staggered forward and growled in fury, as the object snapped into Raydonn's waiting hands, and he clasped it with as much strength as he had within himself. His thumb moved about the trigger, and with a snapping hiss came to life the purple beam of his own lightsaber. He swung it freely about himself and fell into a juyo ready posture with a glimmer of mirth and defiance in his own eyes.

"Thanks. I'd almost thought I had lost my lightsaber forever there for a moment." Kun's eyes narrowed in clear wrath and he sneered. He raised his left hand and the troopers and Massassi backed off.

"Leave this wretch to me and my acolytes, men. I wouldn't desire anymore of you fall to him." Raydonn couldn't help but curl his lips in disgust as the Sith lord came off to the men as the caring benevolent leader. They ate it up and their praises were silently sung through the Force. Save for the Massassi warriors who seemed disappointed but acquiesced to his commandment.

"How magnanimous of you, lord Kun. Considering how many in the galaxy are dead directly because of what you and lord Vader have done, I find this gesture lacking." The men seemed confused by what he said, but Kun for his part merely scoffed.

"You think yourself a wise, and good man. At least that is the image you wish to portray. In reality you are a fool. But one simpleton amongst a sea of gathering idiocy that is this joke of a Galactic Empire. The inquisitors, hands, dark Jedi, and even the Moff institution before their ultimate betrayal. All of it, part of a machine dedicated to the continuation of one man's rule. Rather than the building of a dynasty and order for and of the Sith for the betterment of all through the strengthening of the few. It is the duty and right of the willful, powerful, and strong to dominate, but then lead and empower the weak. From them they can rise and become strong themselves or forever reap the rewards of servitude to the powerful." Exar went on, and Raydonn felt his brows furrow.

"The corruption and perversion of power that is the emperor would see the whole galaxy, and even more still, the universe fall save that he maintain his throne forevermore. He has taken the ideals of power and strength and twisted them for his own goals, and hides himself behind a thin veil of patriotism and fear. An authoritarian who needs nor desires the love and affection of his people, save that they serve him and kiss at his feet. What this galaxy needs and desires is a man that will lead them, empower them, change them, and better them! All that man would need is to gain the love of the people, make them want him above all others, and hone struggle between the strong so that only the most powerful lead the galaxy into the unending dawn!" He spoke as a man who truly believed what he said, and Raydonn sensed the men about him all finding his words impassioned and speaking to some inner want within them all. Even his 'acolytes,' as he called them were transfixed by his words.

"The cogs of power have become muddied and rusted by the likes of the Moffs, the flaccid senate, the incompetent leadership that has since been gutted of the navy and army of the Galactic Empire. This galaxy deserves a better brand of leadership, and a willful one who seeks power first for himself, but through this grants to everyone greater power and strength than they've ever known. A new golden age has dawned, my friend. It has dawned within a body filled to the brim with poisoned blood." he paused and readied his saber in niman opening stance. "And the only way to cleanse this body, is to let that poisoned blood spill to the floor, and wash the body anew like a babe fresh from its mother's womb." Raydonn felt his mind whirl with all that the man said, and sickeningly enough found himself finding...much to agree with. He shook his head and redoubled his stance, and rolled his shoulders.

"As I said before, Kun. You talk too much!" With that, the man flung himself forward. His saber overhead slashed down as he flung upwards and then down. Kun met and parried him aside. Raydonn landed and slashed left across Kun, who parried and carried him right of himself. Raydonn let himself carry and swung a full circle from left and then back in a circle slashing against Kun once again. The Sith lord blocked and clashed with him.

He smirked in Raydonn's face and with both hands clasping his saber, the Dark Lord, threw his weight against him and pushed Raydonn back. His saber went overhead in a falling avalanche like move of a djem-so practitioner, and fell with mighty force down onto Raydonn. Raydonn threw his saber up and parried, but his arm muscles screamed in pain as his saber bounced back near to his head and he reeled and swung away as Kun followed after relentlessly.

The Dark Lord swung down again and clashed, Raydonn met and blocked, he swung right then left up from under his arms, and each time threw Raydonn back off his balance, as he struggled to maintain his body strength after hours upon hours of stress and torture. Exar slashed form over left shoulder down across. Raydonn dove under and around Kun, and jumped back up swinging right to cleave into his back. The Sith lord swung with great speed and threw his left hand under right arm, sending a shock-wave of Force power into Raydonn who was shoved back but held his own.

Exar turned fully to face him again, but instead of raise his saber to fight Raydonn again he smirked, and Raydonn cast him a wary glance, before the force sung out through him in warning. He swung around quickly and clashed his saber against a red one. A girl with greenish skin and dazzling blue eyes looked him in his face with a sweetly feral grin.

"Hi there." She giggled, and threw her weight down and forced Raydonn's saber to the floor where it left burns along the metal. She slashed upwards and Raydonn jumped back. His shirtless back hit the cold wall behind him and he dove his head down right as the girl slashed where his neck had been and left another darkened mark along the wall.

Raydonn threw his left arm out and connected the back of his hand against her face. A loud crack rung out and she staggered to her right. She turned back on him and smiled even as a very small trickle of blood formed at the corner of her mouth. Raydonn cocked an eyebrow, and backed up whilst glancing toward Kun who was in the same direction.

Raydonn swung himself right and his body twisted as he leapt into the air, and slashed down across Kun's body. The Dark Lord parried and let Raydonn fall right. The inquisitor carried his momentum and swung back right in a full circle and connected his saber across the girl's and then Kun's once again.

The Force struck him with a warning and he ducked as Kun swung from behind. Raydonn twisted back around and shoved Kun back with a small push through the Force. Raydonn twisted back left and connected with the girl's saber and used the Force to send more power down his arms and up his legs as he pushed her back an into a near run that had her reeling and growling in frustration. Raydonn threw her back and swung his saber up. He slashed down left, but his saber once again clashed before it could swing at the girl.

This time it connected against the green of the woman's saber. She easily and almost nonchalantly forced his saber back toward his right with her one droid arm, before she threw it aside, and thrust her left arm up in a punch the connected against his ribs. The wind was knocked form him and he reeled over from the force of her blow. His wounds near began stinging and burning, but he quickly flushed the pain into the Force and dove into a roll besides the woman's legs and behind her, barely missing as she swung her saber down to slash into him.

He jumped back up and immediately swung his saber up with him and connected against the red saber of the last girl. Her hair was a brilliant red and quite bountiful that went well with her emerald green eyes. Her saber was even less red and more a magenta, but nonetheless, she slashed up and met his own defensive parrying slash. Raydonn hopped to his left and thus the girl missed swinging back down into him. He slashed right and she ducked under and swung back to her right near his abdomen. Raydonn stabbed down and clashed with her, before Raydonn forced his ever sore left leg up and connected his foot into her gut and pushed her back into a stagger that elicited a growl from her.

There he stood then, with all four of them before him, and his back to a small army of blasters ready if able, to shoot him down.

'Better keep them in their sights too. Or I'll get shot down faster than I could even think.' He thought to himself and shook his head through the pain. The red headed girl and the green hued one neared closer to him while the adults hung back and Raydonn sighed.

"Are you kidding me with this foolishness?!" The green girl howled and jumped at him, her saber swung down, and he blocked, before she fell into precise and yet furious blows aimed at his weakened flanks. From left to right and then slashed up before lightly cutting down at his feet, before she would swing around elegantly and send a small pulse of power through her swing and shove him back some. All of it letting Raydonn know she was using a far more warped version of makashi to duel him.

The girl slashed from her left up and toward his head right, and he parried it, before she slashed down and immediately swung back up, connecting with his saber and forcing his arms back. The red headed girl then jumped in and slashed at his exposed left with his arms raised up with his saber. Raydonn threw himself right against the wall, just as the green girl stabbed into his now exposed gut. He threw his saber up and both arms out and sent both children flying back. Just in time to snatch his falling saber back into his hand.

The girls groaned and growled in anger, even as Raydonn staggered to one knee from the pain and exertion, and then forced himself quickly there back to his feet as the two adults moved passed their fallen younger allies.

"Madam Lyn, if you'd be so kind, and go for his legs. I'll take his upper half."

"As you wish, my lord." She lowly called back, in an almost flirty voice, but Raydonn passed it off as the haze of combat and pain surrounding his senses. The Sith lord mocked him with a grin and the open declaration of his tactics to kill him. Raydonn sensed the man thought he couldn't fight for much longer, and he may have been right. But, Raydonn steeled himself and unleashed a growl of fury and let the dark side fill him and feed of his pain even more.

The woman came first. She swept low across from left to right and Raydonn sidestepped to his left. Kun came in swinging from behind her, and right to where Raydonn would stand. The inquisitor then stumbled back and was barely missed by the humming blue saber and fell hard onto his back. He groaned out a rough breath but quickly thereafter rolled to his right away from where the one Kun called Lyn, slashed down.

Raydonn jumped back up and slammed downwards. The woman blocked and slashed her weight right and threw Raydonn against the left wall from his point of view. He weakly slashed back right across the woman's vision, but she leaned back away and Raydonn stumbled back right. Kun moved around her and slashed up from under his right arm across Raydonn. The inquisitor blocked and caught the saber in a clash. He shakily and forcefully attempted to push Kun back, but the Dark Lord seemed unfazed by Raydonn's waning strength against his own.

Raydonn seethed and his nostrils flared, but try as he might he could not force anymore power out of his body. The Force began to falter, and his senses cloud as the pain became all too much to bear beneath the might of the as of yet unhurt Sith lord. Exar slashed left and Raydonn was forced into a swing in the same direction. Exar then threw a hard right kick into Raydonn and he flew back against the floor and slid back on it. He coughed from the slam to his back and staggered to his side before limply forcing himself to rise again.

Exar approached and the troopers nearest to the two back away, and almost formed a half-circle about the two men. Raydonn came to a full stand and brought his purple humming saber before himself. Exar brushed his saber in a swift single motion from his left to his right and snapped Raydonn's arms aside.

Kun raised his left arm and his fingers curled inwards. Raydonn seethed outwards, and his body went stiff. Exar motioned his left wrist in a quick snap and Raydonn's figure went flinging to Kun's left against the wall. A loud thud rung and Raydonn's groaned out forcefully. Exar approached his fallen figure and Raydonn once more was attempting to push himself off the floor.

A weighted boot from the Sith lord fell onto Raydonn's left wrist. Within that hand was his saber hilt, and the inquisitor seethed out in a long loud hiss of pain.

"This is your end, inquisitor. Accept it, and be free of your woes and pain." Raydonn glanced up, through bruised and bloodied eyes, with all manner of the same bumps, cuts and bruises across his body and face. Raydonn laid his head back against the cold floor, and Kun alleviated his boot but a fraction.

A roar then sounded and the inquisitor threw his arm up and Kun went staggering back. Raydonn jumped back up and swung down left. Kun blocked and parried down, and Raydonn swung up right and then spun into a slash across Kun's figure. The Dark Lord blocked and caught the saber as Raydonn slammed back down overhead. The Sith lord once again threw the inquisitor to the side, and landed a final hard kick into his abdomen.

A harsh breath was forced from his lungs as he staggered backwards and fell onto one knee. The man was now panting. His body wasted and spent. A trickle of blood fell from his body in several places. Along his stomach there were old cuts and gashes that had reopened, and every burn and point that was shocked, sent waves of pain shooting through and up him.

He forced himself to look up and have his eyes meet those of the Sith lord.

"Surely you realize that it's over? You have no fight left in you inquisitor." He brimmed with victory as he spoke.

Raydonn sighed, and let loose a breathy laugh. "What? You're gonna kill me now then? What's different between surrender and fighting to the death if the outcome is the same?" He replied with a wistful grin along his features.

"Can I kill him master?! Please!" Kira asked from the back and approached with crimson, curved hilt saber at her ready. Kun turned to look at her, Mara, and Lyn along with the massive audience they had. He turned to look back to the man who even now was calling on the Force to feed into himself and fight. Though the Dark Lord could sense it was failing him.

"All of you...leave us." he motioned his arms around the room lazily. Kira looked disgusted, Mara looked confused, and Lyn merely cocked her head. The men, though they all shared similar confusion began slowly backing into the bridge or back into the turbolift or maybe into adjoining rooms about the hall.

"What a karking killjoy!" Kira in frustration grumbled and stomped off toward the turbolift. Mara followed after, less noisily and rolled her eyes.

Arden approached Kun from behind.

"What are you doing?" Exar glanced over his shoulder her way.

"Making a business offer. Now if you don't mind, milady." Exar whispered over shoulder as Raydonn watched on with a pained look of befuddlement. Lyn hummed with interest and ran her left hand onto Kuns shoulder.

"Don't take too long then, milord. I think there's a lot more to discuss between us that needs going on." She laughed almost sarcastically. "That is when you're done playing with boys." She let her hand fall from him, and Kun growled in annoyance, and frustration while she deactivated her saber and strut off. Given a few moments the hall was cleared and only Kun and Raydonn remained eying one another. Both sabers were still active, but only one was a threat. For a time it was only the hum that filled their ears, until finally Kun spoke aloud.

"For someone as resourceful as you, someone as smart and conniving. Is this is? Is this the point where you give in, give up, accept death, and have accomplished little. I dare say, even nothing?" Exar asked with a cocked head and raised brow. Raydonn returned his gaze to the floor beneath and shook his head as a sarcastic breath left his lungs.

"I died...a long time ago." He hissed through pain and anger. "What happens to me now, matters little. You won, good for you." He spat. "Now finish the karking job." His saber deactivated but the hilt remained in his hand as it lay on the ground.

"You know for all its worth, I believe that peace is worthy of pursuing. Why do you let yourself be used in such a manner?" Exar asked and leaned himself down to level with Raydonn.

"You are worth far more than...this!" He motioned to the pitiful state Raydonn found himself in.

"Had you worked for me I would never have callously discarded you in such a manner, nor to gain information as you have been sent to get." He declared so assuredly. Raydonn glanced up his way with a half sneer, and half thoughtful look.

"Now you're not the type I think to so easily join up and switch sides. However, based on all those old scars, and your little admission of old Jedi loyalty, I think it's safe to say you were broken, and re-molded into something you didn't have a choice in becoming. Is that right?" Raydonn didn't answer, yet Exar nodded as if he had.

"I had been a Jedi once. Then I went out into the galaxy and it changed me. I met a ghost. Literally. Freedon Nadd. He was a vile man in both life and death. He tortured me, played me, and it could be said that he twisted me into something I hadn't wanted to be. Yet, in time I became to see how things were, and how pleased and happy even my life now was. You have taught me another lesson, my friend." Raydonn groaned.

"What's that, huh?" Kun smirked.

"Well that some men can break and be reshaped. And others, others are broken, and must be fixed. I think you're one of those. I think that you know what I said before our fight was true. I think you know that this empire needs changing, and I think you know that your emperor, your head of state and head of government is a narrow minded self serving old man. Without this war you know as well as I that his reign would have gone uncontested, and his perversion of the power and strength of others whittled down and weakened until the galaxy itself became a twisted extension of his whims and desires." Raydonn said nothing only focused on his breathing and pushing beyond the pain.

"So, how about this. A one time offer. If the answer is yes, then you get to live, and go on serving, not the Emperor, or even me if that makes you feel better, but the galaxy and its betterment. If, however, you choose no, then death is certain for you. But, it would disappointing to see you die before you could be reborn as you were, and as you were meant to be." Kun offered with a slick, and self assured smirk along his features.

"Not to mention, I should tell you, your death warrant has been issued by the Inquisitors." he added almost as an afterthought that h too pleasure in relaying to Raydonn. The man looked up into Kun's eyes and searched them for the truth or lies behind them.

"Think of it as an added incentive to join with me, work with me, and see the galaxy, yes through death and war, come out of it anew, fresh, and better for it." He offered in a low intone with a welcoming, though Raydonn suspected feigned smirk on his face.

"I'm...more than sure you're playing me. Just as everyone else ever has, Kun." Exar chuckled, and raised his arms in a shrug.

"Tell me though, does it matter? At the end of the day my friend. You could die and experience all that you would have before now, and have no meaning and no purpose. Or, you could live, go on, see if you like the change of scenery and work for a better galaxy. Whether you believe in what I say or not." Exar offered all the while maintaining his ever victorious and insincere smile. Raydonn went silent, thoughts muddled, pain all consuming, vision blurring, and strength failing.

The silence remained for some time, save for Kun's ever present humming saber. The Sith lord loomed over the fallen inquisitor, and awaited his answer. Raydonn groaned out, and cast Exar a final look of pain mingled with what seemed to be contempt.

"I...don't come...cheap."And with that, he fell onto the floor onto his face, and his vision went black, and he faded into unconsciousness. Exar smirked and shook his head.

"Excellent choice, Raydonn. I think we'll make good use of you." He chuckled and rose to a stand. Soon to call in the Massassi to carry the beaten, broken and bloodied man to a bacta tank. Where Kun was sure, he'd have his work explaining on this turn of events cut out for him.

(Allied-Tion Sector, Omman system, Omman)

"I am willing to hand over this lot of officers. In return your men vacate the wheat fields to the northwest of the forward lines." The Feeorin, general Narthun spoke in a deep and gruff near baritone of a voice. His naturally yellowed eyes staring into the blue hologram before his person, as four BX-commando droids stood behind him in honor-guard formation.

Above him zoomed the warbling of vulture and hyena class droid ships. In the distance intermittent explosions and endless blaster fire was clear, as great and pitch black smoke stacks rose into the air in the distance and blotted the otherwise blue skies of the midday upon Omman.

"What need does an army comprised of ninety-eight percent droid forces have for wheat fields? Or any given foodstuffs, general?" The man asked through the holocall. His hands were clasped behind his back, and his already blue figure was made even more blue by the hologram.

"Omman is an agri-world. No side gains anything by letting it burn to the ground, admiral Thrawn." Narthun replied with coolness about him. "The need of the people throughout the galaxy is great. Food is in short supply in key sectors in all quadrants of space. I and my superiors are not blind, nor are we foolish. It is clear that the Moffs, and your Imperial brethren are in need of food, as are my people." Thrawn raised on eyebrow in clear sneering but subtle contempt.

"Your people? You have no people, general. Your 'people' are made nearly entirely of droids, and those foolish or brazen enough to sign in league to the URM slaughter and pillage where they arrive. Your madwoman of a Jedi leads your armies in genocidal carnage across Hutt space, and has brought a rain of destruction to numerous worlds, not the least of which being Coruscant itself." Thrawn rolled his shoulders and clasped his hands behind his back once again.

"No, general Narthun. I think your people do not suffer enough. Whatever 'people,' that is you speak of. Otherwise systems throughout the Outer-Rim critical to food supply would not be at this very hour burning under droid footing. If you're so desperate for food, I suggest you begin concocting foodstuffs from death and burnt soil. For that is all you have left for everyone else in your wake!" Thrawn declared with a harsh inflection though his manner and tone remained seemingly neutral and cool.

Narthun felt his head and chin tendrils bristle as anger shot through him, and his massive hands drew into tight, bone-crushing, fists.

"Very well. Let us ignore the demands of the hungry then. What of these men?" He motioned a sweeping arm towards twenty imperial officers. They were beaten, bloody, disheveled, dirty and on their knees with two droideka's behind them with their blaster arms moving back and forth about the group. They were all, also gagged with cloth wrapped around the backs of their heads and harshly pulling into their mouths and making only their harsh breaths and mumbles audible.

"Surely they are worth more to you than the wheat fields? From what I've heard a quarter of the fields has been wasted by artillery shelling in any case." Thrawn scoffed.

"Yes they have been. By your forces' doing." He pointed an accusatory finger Narthun's way.

"Last night your droids commenced a raid on forward command posts in the fields that you are more than aware were outside the farming zones. Upon your attack your B3 ultra's used their flamethrowers to burn my men out of dig holes in the dirt. Rather than stop there, they moved after the fleeing units into the fields!" He contemptuously looked upon Narthun as he spoke, and then paused.

"Do not claim to be an innocent party to this. Nor dare claim naivety, general. As ever, all losses incurred upon Omman are by the fault of your callous and crude droid units and the incompetence, or acquiescence of their leaders." He sent a subtle jab Narthun's way. The Feeorin felt one side of his face sneer, and a growl escaped from his throat.

"Nonetheless," He growled out through half grit teeth. "your empire has made it quite clear how desperate it is to keep what officers it has left, within their command and in service." Narthun grinned viciously. "After all, the Moffs took more than their fair share of your craven officer corps with them in the splintering of your nugatory empire. Those left lie in mass graves, burnt, charred, piked, broken, flayed, or joined with us in kind. Those precious few whom have some worth about them die in droves. Now, I hear your cadets, many killed in the great reawakening of the droid armies, make up a vast bulk of your officer backbone." Narthun chuckled deeply and his chest shook from the mirth as Thrawn glared back near expressionless.

"I would say you need every last ounce of useful blood you can find, admiral. It matters little in the end." He grinned ever one, as his yellow eyes traced the glare in Thrawn's face with great pride. "For in time, as I have above Desevro, I shall burn your fleets, and scorch the worlds with your dead. Save this one offer I give to you to save that which will feed not only those of ours, but perhaps, reach others in need across the galaxy." Narthun stepped nearer to the kneeled men who all spat venomous, although muffled and unheard words his way with their silent glares being all the expression they need show.

"Spit on my extended hand, admiral, and the deaths of all those not only here on Omman, but across the stars, who die and lay dying to hunger, shall be upon your head." He intoned darkly with a motioning to the heavens above him.

"Take but this one extended hand, as a sign of civility in a galaxy so lacking in it, and I think you shall be greatly pleased in the outcome. At least for now." He smirked. "Would you not only be an admiral who saved the lives of over a dozen officers, but the bringer of grain to a galaxy starving for it?" Thrawn's nostrils flared, but he showed no true signs of wrath and anger. His head tipped upwards in a moment of thought, and a breath escaped from his nose.

"No." Narthun's expression turned to rage, and wrath. A far off serious of bursts from a bombing run sent a glow of fire and light about him and lit the Feeorin like a beast from a Corellian tale of dark creatures and demons as he looked into the face of the ever calm and sickeningly serene admiral.

"These fine men knew the risks of war, as did any they may have left behind. They will be honored in death by the Empire's continuation of the war and eventual victory, general. Your false extensions of civility are meaningless to me, for I see the beast in your clearly displayed in your actions. Like your superiors you seek, and attain victory through brute force of your crude droids. You burn, destroy mutilate and scorch what you cannot bend. Your actions above Desevro taught me much of you, and you general are a blunt instrument. A beast of war, that knows how to punch, punch hard, and punch swiftly, surely. But a beast that is far too focused on the charge is too blind to see the pike raised to gouge into its throat." Narthun openly growled and his tendrils bristled and shook with his wrath.

"Whatever comes, shall come general. Be it the fields burn or they survive to feed those hungry you claim to care for, we shall see. Just know for every man of mine that you kill, I shall destroy a thousand droids." Narthun grinned like a feral animal.

"For every thousand droids you destroy ten-thousand will march in after, and another fifty for those lost ten, and a hundred thousand for every lost fifty! We are an endless rising tide! You are the fading shoreline!" He howled and raised his left arm, and whilst staring hatefully into the eyes of Thrawn who watched in silent, and cool contempt, he smirked, as the droideka's blasters whirred to life, and the officers spat muffled curses the general's way.

Narthun thrust his arm down, and the droideka's easily and immediately opened fire from left to right red bolts flew. They slammed into the backs of the men, and their heads, burning and scorching the bodies as they fell forward in muffled screams of pain, and cries of terror. Within seconds the men all fell over limp and dead. And, Narthun approached and spat onto the nearest corpse.

"This is what awaits all your men, and your empire, Imperial wretch!" Thrawn stared coolly, as ever back toward Narthun and smiled.

"Until the next time we meet, general Narthun. You would be wise to hope it is not anytime soon. For you should not expect a quick death when we do meet again." With that Thrawn faded as the connection was cut. The Feeorin roared like an untamed beast and lunged toward the holoprojector. His hands beat into the machine. Slamming down dents into the machine and unleashing the distinct sound of twisting metal. He threw vicious kicks into the now broken machine and his breathing became ragged and heavy. The thick smells of death and smoke now entering into his nose and the murky air to his lungs as he forced larger gulps of air into himself. He leaned over himself and clasped his hands to his knees, and took a few moments more to breath.

He continued to silently collect and calm himself and catch his breath when the distinct sound of a droids metal legs nearing him reached his ears. He picked himself up and took in another great breath.

"General Narthun." He turned his head right as the commander BX unit approached with blaster in hands.

"Speak." It bowed its head.

"With the negotiations failed, I recommend immediate implementation of secondary plans." The deep baritone common of the commando droids came forth from the commander as its white photoreceptors glowed bright. Narthun looked into the distance. An open field was before them, and it served as the forward lines between the two forces. A column of AAT and Persuader-class tanks with heavy artillery support was advancing with thick columns of B1 battle droids moved through and alongside the tanks.

The enemy was holding them back y a line of AT-ST's and assorted imperial-made tanks units. Dug-in along a three mile length was a shabbily dug trench where troopers with heavy mounted turrets and repeaters sprayed wildly into advancing droid columns. So far he'd lost three battalions of tanks, and six divisions worth of battle droids. Behind the enemy were the objective, the grain fields. Only late raids, and artillery had pierced their lines and damaged the fields, that the imperials sought to defend. Intelligence was that they were harvesting the crop early in hopes of saving what little the soil had to offer for themselves.

Narthun bristeled and looked to the skies as vultures flew alongside hyena's as escort. Ear splitting anti-air cannons behind enemy lines, maybe even in the fields fired up and lit the sky with beams and bursts of light. One wing of vultures exploded and the hyena's dove in low and dropped a pathetic payload inside the front of the enemy, and sent one placed turret exploding, its three stationed troopers likely exploding with it.

"Yes...yes." He growled. "Unleash the incendiaries, and burn them out from their holes!" He ordered, and the BX nodded as it relayed the commands.

The sky in ten minutes time would be littered with a great swarm of droid fighters and bombers. The fighters acted as shields against the AA cannons. The bombers dived in low, and unleashed the bombs onto the grain fields. The explosions sent white phosphorous exploding through the fields, and the fields went alight so brightly that the star looming above nearly seemed pale by comparison. The rising smoke stacks in a great mass column behind the now trapped imperial forces sent their lines into disarray as the fires neared their lines from the back, and droids advanced from the front.

General Narthun would then send secondary lines of spider walkers, and crab droids to directly assault and shore up losses from the initial strike. The lines of the imperials would soon be laid waste to. The dead of the imperials piled and placed before the fires that raged not only to the immediate fields but soon spread deeper and deeper into the vast food fields about the dozens of miles this one sector of the world used. For general Narthun would take Omman. Even if it meant burning all the fields upon the world, and taking form the galaxy millions of tons of food.

After all, there were other agri-worlds out there. And if they too did not surrender, then they too, would burn.

(Osarian System, Expansion Region, Osarian)

"What do you mean, nuclear explosions?!" Vader demanded even as in the distance a bomb exploded and a buildings entire line of glass windows shattered and sent piles of broken shads to the distant ground below.

"We...well my lord, it would appear that our attack was expected. Moff Trachta-"

"Why were precautions not undertaken? Why was a plan not made to eliminate the enemy camp from high orbit?!" He broke Piett off. The captain was stiff as a plank of wood, and swallowed hard and out of sheer terror.

"Such an operation was...de...deemed nonviable my lord!" He stammered. "The planetary shield is deeply built underground and would have required a full scale invasion of that particular sector to take control of. It may have taken some days if not weeks to acquire. The...primary objective of the operation was to secure, and rescue surviving allied forces deep in enemy territory within the forests on planet...my lord." Vader felt rage climb up along his spine, and his gloved hands formed into fists as he looked into the frightened face of Piett in hologram.

"I'll take it from here admiral. Thank you." Vader snapped out of his deep ire as the voice of his daughter clearly came through. Piett looked shocked and stepped aside some as Leia came into view. She had bandages along her arms, and face, she looked okay, but beaten up. Her hair was tied back, and she wore a sleeveless shirt to allow her skin more air, as well as to not infringe the bandages wrapped around her arms. She stared into the comm and her father's mask.

"Father, leave the captain alone. Without him and the efforts of everyone else involved here, we may have lost even more than we actually did. Not only that, but I'm alive, Shira is fine, we're fine." She greeted with a curt tone about her. Vader crossed his arms, and felt some of his anger ebb. Though only slightly.

A distant artillery line firing in succession caught his attention for a moment. He caught sight of Luke and Starkiller looming around a ridge overlooking a city in a valley. Along the ridge were the artillery pieces for long range bombardment. In the valley hundreds of walkers and tank columns escorted by gunships, and four infantry division were now pushing into the city as smoke rose high from the edges into the very heart of it. The Moffs were so far on the extreme defense, ever since the orbital bombardment, and subsequent bombardments to pacify problem sectors.

Vader shook himself and returned his attention to his battered and likely, previously bloodied daughter.

"This is precisely why I should not have allowed you to undertake this foolish endeavor! Trachta has always been a conniving and thoughtful killer. Even in defeat he is dangerous. Now I hear you were in the blast of some archaic nuclear blast, and exposed to his chemical weapon!" Leia crossed her arms and shrugged.

"Yes. But, for the most part we made it out okay. We lost a few hundred troops in the initial strike on the Moff camp, and in the blast we lost several hundred more, with thousands in need of burn treatments. Myself included. And, everyone is being issued radiation absorbents, and gas masks while air scrubbers are deployed to clean the area. Needless to say father, the Moff camp was obliterated in such totality that no evidence, nor any recovery efforts can be made on the site even if it were free of chemicals and radiation. Nothing is left." She explained in a relaxed manner. Vader, behind his mask, cocked an eyebrow, and felt perplexed.

"You take these series of events quite well. Perhaps too lightly even, Leia." She narrowed her eyes.

"Not at all father. I'm not going to sit here, and blame myself, admiral Piett, general Immodet, commander Viathan, or the inquisitor; who may I add was an unnecessary addition to our command staff, but nonetheless I'm not going to blame any of them for what was committed by Trachta! No one could have predicted the madman would do what he did. But, he will pay." She intoned, and Vader felt himself beam with very subtle pride. His daughter was slowly but surely making him more proud by the day with her attitude shift in this war. Though he knew she was far from converted to the Sith ideology. However...

"Inquisitor? I did not assign any inquisitor to the fleet. What was one doing in a detachment of Death Squadron?!" Vader demanded in a baritone of a roar. Leia sighed.

"I know you didn't command him be here father. I think he was assigned here on orders by the Emperor, or someone looking out for the old mans 'interests.' Probably wanting to keep tabs on your operations, or maybe even the counterattack in general. It's sad and irritating to say though, without his last minute assessments and changes to the attack plans we may have lost more troopers than we have. For that, I think he deserves commendation. Not saying I want him to hang around forever, but give credit where it's due I say." Vader felt anger spike through him once again.

'That old wretch! If I were as impulsive as I once were I'd come to you now and take your head from your shoulders!' Vader seethed in silence as the darkness whirled about him.

"Understood. Keep him clear of yourself, and do not engage. When you do be as curt and terse as allowed. We needn't clue him into anything we're planning or doing. That which he cannot decipher and come to know about on his own is not his to know." Leia nodded.

"Yes father." She smirked. "How's things on Osarian? I heard Luke and Starkiller have been impressing the men." Vader cast the two another glance. Luke was pointing down into the valley. Starkiller looked to where he pointed and nodded as they took note of a Moff battering position along a sub-sector of the city's limits. Luke then jumped up and ran to one of the artillery coordinators, and began talking to the elder officer.

"Indeed they have. Your brother is a natural for not only the Force, but battlefield awareness. You both are." Vader beamed once more. Leia smirked and bowed her head.

"If you say so father. I haven't done too much on my own yet. When I do, I'll be sure to let you know. Then I'll accept your praise." Vader smiled. His daughter was far too often proved to be much like himself. As ever, he wasn't sure that was to prove to be a good or bad thing.

Vader sent Luke another glance. The boy and Starkiller returned to overlooking the battle beyond. The artillery officer gave the line the go-ahead to fire after repositioning, and the great barrels slammed back as massive green bolts flew up into the air with bursts into the air before they arched down toward the valley and city below. The green bolts of power flew and impacted the site spotted and pointed out by Luke with a mighty and fiery explosion. Followed by several more. Luke jumped up with arms in the air in a cry of success. Starkiller shook his head but held a smile on his features as well.

"Tell me," Vader returned to Leia. "What of your friend? The commander." Leia shrugged her head to the side.

"He's alive. Trachta ran him and his troopers, and the Massassi warriors through the wringer, so to speak. The Moff butchered, mutilated and broadcast across the entire planet images of dead Massassi and enemy troopers. Their...bodies were quite brutalized and maimed. Trachta seems to have a real complex about him, and he makes me sick!" She sneered, and Vader nodded.

"Understood. I will put an order out. Trachta will be priority one if found and cornered. To either kill or capture." Leia nodded.

"Hopefully captured so he can be taught some lessons firstly. Death would come too soon, and easily for the man." Vader only nodded once more.

"Beyond that, commander Viathan, has regrouped what forces he has left and is ready to reembark on the conquest of the sector. A corridor has been opened for Imperial entrance into the Vensensor sector, and Moff counterattack has been stepped up along the frontline systems now under Imperial control once more. So..." She went on and dragged out. Vader cocked a brow, and had a bad feeling about what she was about to say.

"I've offered and have been accepted to carry on with your detachment and shore up Viathan's fleet." She smiled sweetly, and Vader felt his face contort in bewilderment and anger. He opened his mouth to retort...but nothing came, but a gasp of air!

'The gal!' He seethed inwardly.

"You volunteered a detachment of my fleet?!" He roared in reply. Luckily the artillery and booms afar muffled his voice from others and their hearing. Leia raised her hands in protest.

"Now, father, hear me out on this one."

"I grow tired of doing such." He growled darkly through his mask. She seemed to ignore him.

"The relief fleet charged with support this sector already made their move against the system in full strength, and as you know they got decimated. The forward attacking armada is spread out between ten separate systems, and the Moffs are flooding in reinforcements. Without a force to bolster Viathan's forces which are being pulled from the ten active fleets, leaving him a skeleton fleet, he will fail in future attacks, and give the Moffs freedom to launch a powerful counteroffensive." She reasoned out, and Vader felt that familiar sense of irritation rise up the back of his spine. It irked him far too much when she argued reason with him. She often times more than not, was right.

"If I don't shore up his forces with those you gave for me to use here, then you're looking at an entire portion of your general front along the Expansion-Region collapsing and allowing a Moff resurgence into the Inner-Rim in the worst case scenario." She smirked and clasped her hands lazily behind her back.

"Face it, father. Without my volunteering of your detachment, this whole front will be faced with having to bolster this sector. Perhaps even to the detriment of the surrounding sectors. Why let a problem get to the point of emergency, when we can preempt it and possibly even prevent it from happening at all?" She asked with an air of confidence and assurance within her tone. It irked Vader to no end.

"I could have the fleet remain, and have you return here to be with me and your brother." Vader offered. Leia cocked her head to the side and shrugged slightly.

"True. But I don't think the Emperor would be all too pleased that you finally let me off the leash, just to put me back on one. Just think father. I can help beat the Moffs back, the Emperor is happy I'm out in the open for him to 'manipulate,' or at least try, I prevent a cataclysmic loss of territory and position from taking place, and I gain some much needed experience. I'd say it's a win, win, win, situation." She smiled.

Vader crossed his arms over his chest and tipped his head down. He closed his eyes and let himself think it over. Indeed, he couldn't well allow for a whole forward sector that has broken into a border sector facing the Mid-Rim to collapse, and he couldn't order Vellam to force his men to give up an easy counterattack opportunity. That would undoubtedly weaken his position in the Moff Alliance to the point of a revolt or coup attempt. And, yes. The Emperor is undoubtedly pleased he let Leia off the leash, as she said. And, it did nothing but irritate him. So he finally sighed.

"Do not think me so easily defeated Leia." He pointed an accusatory finger her way. "You shall not always get your way, but in this instance. I must agree with your reasoning. However," He continued just as she was beaming in her victory.

"You will from here on out report to me on every move you are to make, save for those done in emergency and those out of your control. Divert all strategic planning to the local Imperials in command of the war effort, and Piett is in official command of the detachment, save for yourself and Shira. I do not want to hear of you undertaking another battle in which you have little to no information on the enemy makeup and weaponry. You will also continue to train, as I have ordered, and do all you can to keep up with Shira, and you should contact me to maintain your studies and power. Am I understood Leia?" His commanding voice asked, and Leia nodded, though her face showed a halfway frown on her features.

"Yes, father. Loud and clear. Besides! I think I have a new sparring partner here." She smirked, and Vader shook his head lightly.

"As you say Leia." He sighed. "Now, rest and be well." Vader stated his goodbyes. Leia smiled and bowed her head again.

"Be well yourself...father." She beamed. It was as close as he was willing to go to saying 'be safe,' and 'I love you,' t her, and she knew that. She knew what he meant. She knew he was slowly but surely changing, and she knew well herself for the better. Even if he remained a dictatorial, Sith lord.

He nodded, and cut the connection. Osarian was still in need of conquering.

(Epica, Same Time)

"Quite the story indeed, my young friend. How then do you feel?" Viathan kept his eyes to the ground, only now slowly lifting them to look into the face of his blue-hued master.

"I feel...numbed, but then there are moments I feel all consuming rage. I want to mount Trachta's head on a pike! I want to let the fields be bloodied by all treasonous fools who joined the Moffs! Then I feel as though I want nothing, but to crawl into a ball somewhere dark and cold and bask in my own disdain and envy. I want nothing more than to be left alone to bask in my hatred and disgust, but I know I can do neither. I may only do as I can, and continue along in this war and continue losing, failing, maybe winning now and again, and fighting until I myself lay dead. One amongst the many millions." The boy answered with dark spots under his eyes, and eyes themselves glowing red with the dark side. He had bandages along himself now and seemed to have cleaned himself up and put on a new simple tunic and clean clothing. His expression was dark yet apathetic, only his eyes let Exar catch a glimpse of the lurking and untamable beast that had always lay dormant within the boy.

"You've won, my apprentice. That is indeed what is important here in this story. True, a great marring of your, and our forces has taken place. A terrible cost was enacted upon the Massassi, for which I, and their kin shall grieve. Yet through it all, your...'friends,' lived, you lived, and a great deal of men who I know shall feel indebted to you survive to fight another day. Your actions here on Epica shall be sung through the Imperial ranks in praise." Exar cocked his head to the side.

"And...well we now know you have extended family members. I must say this intrigues me. The Force is clouded when I seek to think on the coming of this boy, Darssus you says his name was? Strange your father would not warn you of him. If his words are indeed true, and he is an unloved, unwanted experiment that your father could care little for. Are you sure you can trust what he says?" Viathan sighed, and out the corner of his eye he caught the shimmer of the spirit that had not since left his side in some time.

"I do not know yet if I may trust him in full or even partially on a personal level master. However, there is no deception in what he claims. That being my brother of course. Though I suspect he is not my full brother, but perhaps something akin to a half brother. Nonetheless, a brother." Kun nodded.

"Very well. Keep him at arms length." The Sith raised his hand in caution. "We wouldn't want him playing you, or us for fools. I would even contact your father, whilst he is present and see how things turn out when confronted with his stories. Then, and only then may your true opinion and observations be proven."

"Yes master." Viathan bowed.

"Viathan," Kun spoke on. "You must come to let some of this battle go. Too often do you let way on your mind, your own failures. Failing, and surviving to fight again and undo, and learn from past mistakes, this is what makes your stronger. Expecting perfection is a moronic demand made of any two-bit Sith lord. Rather what should be asked for is failure, for when one survives, and lives on to tackle such things again, and have learned from these failures, they come out the better. The stronger even." Viathan numbly nodded to his masters words.

"I am not perfect either boy. Why, just some time ago I let my own self confidence nearly be our undoing. An inquisitor made it his mission to spy on me, and he was captured. Had I known tat was his plan all along I may not have been so easy to mock him with my plans and knowledge. For he made to break away from my grasp, and alert the Emperor." Viathan snapped his attention back to his master. Exar smirked and shook his head to alleviate Viathan.

"Needn't you worry. We stopped him. Myself, Offee, Jade, and madam Lyn. However, I think he may even see things form our point of view. It only brought me to the point of near collapse. So far he has proven himself the hardest to convert to our cause. He may yet need to be watched, but for now, as he recovers in a bacta tank I shall endeavor to remember my failings, and never be so lax again. I have, out of my own self-confidence and arrogance made myself stronger through my failure." Viathan nodded. He wasn't so sure as his master was on such things. His mind reeling back to his younger years under doctor Lucentos. The man had...seen things and taught things differently, and even now he unconsciously knew he was what Viathan based his failings and victories upon.

He did not like revisiting those memories. Yet his dreams were often plagued with them. That, or apocalyptic hellish visions of war-zones, mass graves, allies impaled and bleeding pools of blood endlessly. His mind was flooded with such things, and failure only seemed to make his nights even more unbearable.

"Do you remember, my apprentice, the battle of Coruscant? I'd imagine you couldn't forget it." Viathan was snapped back to attention by his masters words. He nodded.

"Do you remember then, when you fought Kellia Nelrain?" Again Viathan nodded as his brow began to furrow in confusion. "There was a point in your battle that I felt so clearly you had lost all sense of control. Unleashed form you came a great and powerful wave of darkness and power. Do you remember? I spoke of this to you before?" Viathan again nodded, only this time looked to the dirt below in shame. Memories of his angered master flashing through him, and another failure upon his shoulders, he hadn't even thought about at the time.

"When that point had come, and I felt it through our bond as master and apprentice, I had lost my sense of the battle, and I was hit by enemy blaster fire." Viathan returned to looking to his master, his eyes now widened with worry, and anger. Though it was directed inwards.

"What?" He asked. Exar raised a quieting hand.

"I had not been so forthcoming to you on the matter, for I knew you'd take it far too personally, and even now from the vastness of the stars I sense your hatred, anger, and vile disgust with yourself. It is enough, apprentice. I am fine, I lived, and I have come out the better for it, but now so should you. I chose you among all those in this galaxy, and not merely because you were the first I laid eyes on after my return from the long darkness of separation of spirit and body. Within you lay that beast, and indeed it is untamed. It should be unleashed, but to do so you should feed on your anger, hatred, and disgust, but it cannot solely be that for yourself. Direct it, release it, and let it go and impart it upon your enemies. Center yourself see to it that all that darkness welled within you be unleashed in furious and righteous wrath against your true enemies, and not against yourself. Not so much so that in time you grow to seek your own destruction even above your enemies, and my enemies. For they are many and vast." Viathan felt his jaw clamp. Anger, rage, hate, disdain, irritation, agitation...he hadn't the words for what he felt, and he wished so deeply to unleash it on someone, or something! His master was yet the vision of calm, collected power. He was sure of himself and his power that he could smile in your face and think of your impending death and doom. Viathan knew he would show himself a fool, a weakling, and master of nothing! Now he learned he had caused his master to be wounded on Coruscant! Because he couldn't control that rage that lay within, and now that boiled, then cooled in him off and on!

It confused him, and made him wish it to end, or be released, but he didn't know how to or where! He lacked direction, he lacked control, and then he would have too much and bring his ambition to go on to near dangerous levels of apathy. He felt lost, and this travesty of a life only kept becoming more confusing and filled with the stench of triviality and death! He closed his eyes and felt himself begin to rock back and forth as his mind reeled.

"What do I do master? I don't know how to handle what I feel, and how to proceed. I am...lost." He pleaded. Any other Sith lord, Viathan knew would have him likely kill himself for shame in such a weak and pathetic child to have as an apprentice, but Kun only nodded before he spoke.

"It is no great sin, to commune with the Force apprentice. Through it I gain much centering when I find I need my thoughts and feelings gathered and clear for myself. Other Sith would tell you it is far too much a skill of the Jedi to commune and delve themselves deeply into the Force and be calmed by its presence rather than endlessly feed on your own hate and wrath. I am not one of them. Most have forgotten," He smirked. "I was once a Jedi. I am Sith, and yes I use the dark side, but I am no fool who cuts himself off from one thing merely because it was taught in another school of thought. I subscribe to the Sith teachings and power, but I will not cast aside skills and tools I learned from another school simply out of what? Loyalty and petty labels? No." He shook his head.

"Find some time, you have a few days I hear before your next strike against the Moffs. Commune with the Force, your holocron from that...lord Ruin I believe you said. Speak read from your gathered dark teachings, talk with your 'friends,' or if your prefer to call them allies. Form for yourself a center, a line of thought and an identity Viathan. You have the name, but now you need the will and ambition to be your own person reborn in the Sith. You have for too long taken onto yourself all these things with no method of consuming and condensing it, because you do not wish to be Valek, but are Viathan, yet have no deeper understanding of yourself and your desires." Kun smiled.

"These are not easy times, or easy things to solve, but all these things you need aid with here and now can be solved once you know where you stand and what you are. Dwell inwards and explore yourself, and then you may venture out and meet the challenges of the galaxy head on." Viathan felt unsure, but a small whisper in the back of his head almost made him hopeful in what his master spoke of, and so he bowed his head.

"Yes master. I will try."

"Good!" Exar smirked. "Feel free to contact me when I am available when and if you have questions apprentice. We are too far apart for me to teach you the more outward secrets and powers of the Force, and in time we shall delve into those things when we can, but for now then you must come to know yourself, your power, and your wants. You may even come into powers on your own and of yourself." Viathan smiled weakly.

"Yes master." He repeated.

"Good... Now, I must be off. We are mounting a force to begin moving against the Moffs at Bethal and secure all main systems of the Pelagia province. They are on the defensive, even their little move at Shantipole will prove nothing but a small meaningless splash in an unstoppable imperial tide of reconquest." His self assurance and smirk forced one, even if small, onto Viathan's features and he nodded.

"Until we next talk my apprentice." Exar bowed his head, and Viathan bowed his body deeply in respect. The connection fizzled out and left Viathan alone within a vacated tent for a few moments for him to gather his thoughts. Luckily despite him sensing it near, Viathan didn't hear the voice of the spirit sound through and jolt or bother him for some time. Indeed he hoped it remained that way for a few hours more.

Finally, he ventured out and threw the flap of the tent aside. Only after he purged the comm terminal of his call to Kun. Just to be safe. It was dark out, the lights of the camp were all on and about, and the imperials were going about their work. Tending to wounded, marking down supplies, and what needed to be transferred back to the fleet, and what needed to remain to garrison Epica.

Viathan turned right. His destination was near. He made his way toward the Massassi camp where a gathering was taking place. As he neared, and the imperial side of the camp diminished into the Massassi side he found all the warriors, only a few now from a force over a hundred strong, they all had gathered just beyond their camp. Along with them were the troops and officers who had fought with them, including Hoy, whom Viathan bowed his head to in passing greetings.

Viathan passed by Darssus, his brother smirking and waving to him, and Viathan returned, though tersely, the greet and made his way further among the men and Massassi until he was at the front of their gathered number, and stood beside Zar'kai. There before them all was a pyre made of gathered wood, and sticks from the forest. Atop the pile were the many dead Massassi, and even troopers, who had died and whose bodies survived Trachta's mutilations and machinations of hatred and spite.

Zar bowed his head in greeting and his head tendrils fell around his head. Viathan bowed and patted is Massassi comrade on the shoulder. At his side was sheathed the ceremonial sword of Grash. All the Massassi held in their hands their lanvarok spears and stared forward. Viathan turned and faced the gathered Massassi and men.

"In honor for those who fell in the forests on the battlefields, and for the Empire, and their lords and masters. We commend their bodies to the honor of the Massassi fallen, even if they were not one they died as brethren and comrades. The Massassi may seem barbarous to some, and you may keep that opinion. However, the honor of burning their dead is as good a warriors honor in death as one can achieve, rather than be mutilated and strung u like an add from a madman as Trachta did to your allies, friends, and the Massassi." Viathan addressed, and sensed the troopers all well with rage and hatred. The Massassi all grunted and growled to his words as they expressed the same emotions.

"We burn them, not just to honor them. But we burn them so that we let their cinders and ash burn into our minds of what took place here these last few days, and instill in us a fire that shall never be put out until Trachta himself burns before us all!" The men and Massassi cheered and let the whole valley, and those not taking part in the ceremony beyond hear their wrath and ambition.

"We may have been beaten, bloodied, and humiliated on these fields and in these forests, but we shall avenge for every death a thousand Moff traitors every day! The galaxy shall know our wrath and Trachta shall cower in the dark forevermore afraid to be seen! For should he then surely his end draws near as does the swords, the bolt, and the saber! Let these fallen honored burn so that this fire never dies within us, but fuels our rage, and drive to cleanse the galaxy, and rebuild our Empire, from the filth of the traitors, usurpers, and cowards who have aligned themselves with a murderer of even his own men!" Once more they cried out, but even stronger than before. Their rage knew no bounds, and the fires within them had indeed already been kindled, and Viathan merely needed stoke the flames.

He turned back and lifted his hood in reverence over his head, and nodded to Zar, who bowed and lit flame to a simple torch the beast wielded. The beast stepped forward and threw the torch to the sticks, and the flames erupted and began consuming the honored dead. The cries of the men dimmed and then silenced as all stared forward in reverence to lost comrades and friends. Only vengeance and anger filling their hearts, as the promise of meeting the enemy again was assured.

"You know how to turn sparks into a wildfire." Viathan glanced left. Silently and almost jarringly he hadn't noticed the approach of the princess. Yet there she stood with her friend, a red headed girl, he believed her name had been Shira as he remembered, stood. Leia and her both also had hoods over their heads, and both wore dark cloaks, from where they had gotten them, he couldn't say. Nonetheless, he bowed his head and returned to facing forward.

"The indignities visited upon them, and myself by Trachta must be avenged. I assume you don't approve." He spoke as a matter of fact. Leia crossed her arms and looked forward to the growing bright flames.

"Of the hatred spreading among everyone here? Perhaps not, but it is understandable, and I would be wholly without merit to ask them to not feel it. It is natural to feel as they do, and frankly after what my father's men experienced, eve if brief, was more than enough to prove to them and myself that Trachta is a rotting appendage that must be cut from the galaxy." Viathan turned toward her. Her candid wording catching him slightly off-guard. She glanced his way as well and smiled.

"Violently if need be."

"My sentiments exactly." Viathan glanced as Shira spoke up in agreement with Leia.

"Then...we are in agreement my lady...I mean Leia." Se lightly chuckled and nodded, as the three stared forward once again. The Massassi around them began going to their knees while keeping their lanvaroks pointed to the skies above, and they bowed their heads in reverence and respect. The snap and subtle roar of the flame and its heat filling them all and igniting their memories, and hatreds.

"My apologies for my terseness as of late." Viathan spoke lowly. "I have had much to think over in the last several hours."

"I understand." She replied sincerely. "Seeing a whole army melted away by an enemy such as Trachta can give anyone pause, and need to breathe. Don't worry," She looked his way. "my feelings weren't hurt my friend." Viathan subtly smiled and bowed his head in thankfulness.

"Seems you'll be stuck with me anyways." She continued, and caught his glance once more. "I convinced my father to allow the Death Squadron detachment with me to shore up your forces. Now don't see you wouldn't need them." Her right hand flew up to silence him, and indeed he had made to speak in retort.

"You know as well as I that you are in dire need of fresh troops, and these men are more than fired up enough and angry with Trachta to give his troops, and those of the Moffs a powerful answer to this series of travesties. Besides," She smirked again, a twinkle of mirth in her brown eyes. "You'd have two more Sith acolytes working with you, and as far as I remember we didn't do so bad on Coruscant." Viathan scoffed, but it was more a breathy laugh.

"I suppose it would be good to have fellow acolytes around. And...perhaps we could catch up on how these last few months have been."

"Indeed." She smiled, and nodded. "Though I think a lot of it will be full of death and chaos."

"As are times of war." Viathan remarked and she nodded in agreement.

"And I do hope we can have a good old fashioned friendly spar." She smirked with a new sense of confidence about her. "I think you'll find I've gotten a great deal better than our last, so long ago." Viathan lopsidedly smirked and at the same time shook his head.

"I look forward to it, my friend." He returned, and the three fell silent and watched the flames.

"Friends are we?" Viathan again found himself disturbed to glance right and find Darssus standing there looking forward.

"I have been friends with the princess for some months now Darssus. More so than I have you."

"Ah. Still unsure of the truth of my words are we? Well I shall endeavor to fully prove myself with you brother." He chuckled. Viathan forced himself to not roll his eyes.

"I believe you, I just don't trust you yet."

"All the same brother." He patted Viathan's right shoulder. "When Trachta is before you as a gift for you to do as you will, from me to you, then I will hope you can see the loyalty I hold for you, dearest brother." Viathan sighed.

"We shall see. Perhaps when we stand before our 'father,' we shall come to know one another more."

"Perhaps indeed." Darssus' tone grew slightly sour at the mentioning of Kalev. "Oh, but due tell brother, does that one catch your fancy?!" Viathan turned slowly to look his brother in the eyes. Darssus' tone had returned to chipper, and he looked over Viathan's shoulder to the princess and Shira. They caught the inquisitor's gaze, and both subtly waved his way.

"Greetings madams." He lowly called politely. They quickly went back to looking to the flames.

"In the name of the Force are you talking about?" Viathan returned with an almost cross tone in his voice and forced his eyes forward as the girls had. Darssus laughed.

"Just testing the waters, brother." He sighed, and again pat Viathan's shoulder, much to his irritation.

Thus they all finally fell to silence, and watched the flames engulf and burn away those who remained after their deaths from the battles before. The war all about the galaxy still raging, with more to come. None knowing just how much more this conflict had yet to unleash upon them all.

None knowing just how low, dark, and murky the waters would become in the blood of the wretched and the innocent. For even now, but a phase of this conflict was to come to fruition as a mighty fleet made its way toward the edge of Mandalorian space. One that would set but another standard for the war even lower than it already was.

For now, they watched the flames of death and honor, and hear the crackle and snaps in silence, even in sereneness or peace you could call it. For the flames of war ever still, burned.

---

Authors Note: As always please excuse or point out any and all grammatical errors, and leave a review if you don't mind. Hope you all like the story so far. It' not even close to being done. XD

Also Darssus is not my character he was desired to be added in by another author whose name I will not mention for now, needless to say I hope I wrote him much to the liking of you guys and him as well. Please anyone let me know if you have any questions or something along those lines, and uh...yeah, enjoy. :)