Chapter 1

Location: The Our Lord Mandalore's Eternal Vengence space station in orbit above the planet Mandalore

Lady Vestara Khai, secret Dark Lord of the Sith, sat inside the grotesque flying eye known as ship flexing her perfectly formed little toes inside her boots. The truth was, she didn't need boots because she didn't really have toes.

The moment Marvid Qreph had placed a blaster bolt through her right ankle and another through her left knee, the fate of her toes was already sealed. By the time she was able to get medical attention, that didn't involve a Mandalorian Beskar dagger, the surgical droid had given her no choice but amputation and robotic prosthesis.

She had bought the best replacement; she had the money. They even looked real, being covered with synthskin that would adapt to variations sensed in the surrounding real flesh. It would get goosebumps in the cold and would tan in the sun. Vanity was part of it, but not hers. She had learned enough about the non-Kesh Sith to know that vanity did not stand in the way of ones goals. True Sith of old got the job done, sometimes they had to win ugly. Many times they were ugly. Palpateen couldn't have even taken last place in a Gamorrean beauty pageant. The point was that they won.

But the Sith of the Lost Tribe were the only Sith that mattered in the here and now. And in their haughty naiveté, her artificial right foot and her artificial left leg would be a line too far for them. As it was, her goal was already akin to defying the gravity of a black hole. She had betrayed her people, she had killed and helped kill many sabres and Dark Lords and for a time she even was the friend of her people's sworn enemy: The Jedi.

The result was that her people's takeover of Coruscant was a complete and utter failure. Oh, it would have probably failed without her in the equation thanks to the Jedi's and Abeloth's schemes, take your pick. But all eyes would be on her on her return to Kesh, the former and latter nowhere to be seen.

However, she was on the cusp of defying that black hole. Her mission had been the key that opened the door back to her people. True, killing two thirds of the Calrissian family had only been a two thirds success, but her clients could be persuaded to view it as complete victory. After all, the result would surely be the same. Lando's company would be directionless. Whether he was dead or just completely broken and depressed it didn't matter.

The Qrephs may have died a year before, but their economic empire along with its network and connection of pirates and corrupt politicians lived on. To be honest the Qrephs obsession with the project at Base Prime had all but sealed them off from the rest of their self sustaining organization. It "lived on" as a zombie organization for the first several months; bribes were paid, resources we still being smuggled, and pirate raids inside GA territories continued on. But without the Columi at the helm, the company merely existed without direction. It couldn't last that way forever and it didn't.

Incidentally or most likely not so incidentally, Senator Luewet Wuul's replacement as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Mineral Taxation, Senator Goshawn VoxHayly had decided to appoint himself heir to the empire the Qrephs had left behind. And in all fairness he was the being in the highest position of power in the Qrephs web of schemes.

That isn't to say that all those on the Qrephs payroll were ready and eager to hand over the whole "Chandrilan Pie" to Goshawn. But with enough blood spilled and enough dirty hands being washed by dirty hands, his position was now stable and secure.

Vestara, with not too much difficulty, could have secured the spot for herself. In fact, that had been her intent after recovering from her wounds and surgeries. After all no one but the Qrephs were aware of her last minute, uh... demotion. But the stars had all aligned to open a gateway back home, back to Kesh. Simply Put a big enough gift to the lost tribe would change her "Betrayal" to "True Sith Initiative". Her "Overreach" to "Perfect Ambition". When She had dispatched that disgusting "Sul" Senator to place then Qreph puppet VoxHayly in that position, he had recognised her skill and also appreciated the promotion at her hand.

With the Qrephs dead he had reached out to her through the Qreph's security contractor, Mirta Gev, with a deal meant to placate her possible desire to rise in status. For him it was easy. Her reward for a mission accomplished would be that several members of the Sith tribe could be placed in key positions within the GA Government through his newly acquired network of bribes and connections. This was a no brainer for him.

He liked it initially when it turned out that the Sith were clandestinely involved in the upper echelons of the GA government. They where an attractive charismatic people that could be of great use. Undoubtably they would use their new positions to further their own Sith agenda. But he was convinced that they would not try to blatantly take control of the galaxy from Coruscant. Not after their nose was bloodied in that Abeloth, Jedi debacle. He was unaware of Vestara's current position of outcast and thus how much more valuable his end of the bargain would be to her. Delivering these high positions in the GA to the Sith would be a temptation they could not resist. Redemption was near. Of course there was her end of the bargain: Lando had to finally be neutralized.

The problem of Calrissian could not be overstated. With the size and scope of his personal business venture growing all the time, Lando was practically a proto-sovereign state. His spice mines put him light years ahead of the competition in the medical field. His asteroid and planet mines allowed him to basically control the commodities market; it lived and died by his success or lack of it. Then there was Tendrando arms. Between his battle droid factories and rumoured secret weapons lab he could soon challenge the Mandos or the empire in his own right. However, as impressive as all this was it was nothing compared to the dumb luck Lando had at finding himself at the middle of things, and blowing carefully laid plans to hell.

Coupled with his close ties to the Jedi order, he would be a lurking danger of unknown depths to what was left of the Qrephs neatly placed house of sabacc cards. After all it was his mining operations and Jedi ties that led to the Columi's end. With Lando gone or at least at the bottom of the pit of despair, everyone would continue to hear whispers of Coruscant's rot without the whole thing being aired out in the open by Lando and his friends.

Vestara flexed her toes again, wondering what Ben would think of them; What would he would think of her new depths.

With a sickening feeling lingering deep inside her she clenched her jaw and swallowed nothing but air. She had actually done it. She had murdered a loving innocent Mother with her beautiful 7 year old and by some fluke it had been a long drawn out painful affair, not the instant snuff out she was aiming for. Vestara was no Sadist. She always endeavoured to be the perfect sociopath with a blush of megalomania, like the great Sith Lords and Darths of history.

She wouldn't take pleasure in undo suffering and death, she simply would do what was needed to be done for the ultimate good. Pain and suffering were a means to an end not the end itself.

She told herself these things and many others and her beautifully artificial toes continued to flex in her boots.