Grathan’s estate looked almost exactly the way that it had in game. Large, heavily fortified, surrounded by guards, and in all other ways entirely unwelcoming. It was also surrounded by imperial soldiers loyal to the Dark Council, with blaster bolts or mortar shells occasionally being flung one direction or another, and I sighed in no small amount of aggravation at the sight of it all. Getting past the loyalists wouldn’t be too difficult, I had permission from my master to penetrate the compound, and I imagined they’d be very grateful for anything that might help take the pressure off of themselves.
Not that my being here was actually intended in any meaningful way to take the pressure off of them, that wasn’t my purpose, but if it just so happened to be a pleasant side effect, neither I nor anyone else would likely be too disappointed about it. Though I wasn’t looking forward to telling ‘The Duchess’ that her troopers had gotten their brains scooped out of their skulls and stuffed into a bunch of droids. I’d always felt horrible about that bit, the woman was clearly a good officer that cared about her troopers and she deserved better than to lose the vast majority of them.
Alas.
“Well, it won’t be the hardest nut I’ve ever had to crack, but it certainly won’t be the easiest, either.” A helmetless Iisa remarked from beside me, the two of us crouched in the canopy of some titanic oak-like trees and looking at the compound sprawled out before us with microbinoculars. “That being said, it’s obvious that they’re not expecting anything particularly clever. The patrol routes are solid but predictable, the defenses have gaps where we can avoid the heavy turrets, and I don’t see any of his apprentices on patrol.”
“I certainly won’t complain about not having to fight Sith of unknown skill and power in the middle of their own damn base. There’s being bold, and then there’s being a suicidal moron, and I’ve come much to far to die here and now like that.” I responded, tracing the semi-familiar roadways laid out through the compound, simultaneously heavily and sparsely defended. “Hmm. I might be able to just walk in, depending on how well I can spin a lie. A rebellious young Sith, looking to make a name for herself?”
“Not likely.” she scoffed almost immediately, shaking her head at me, muted Amusement filling her presence. “There is no chance he won’t recognize your name, and quite probably your face as well. It wasn’t so long ago you made yourself quite infamous on this particular planet, remember, and in the sort of way that would certainly catch the attention and the memory of a Sith Lord like Grathan.”
“Fair point.” I conceded with a grimace, lowering the microbinoculars and letting them dangle from the strap around my neck for the time being. The Force only knew how many holos of my face were floating around the Imperial datanet by now, between the slave revolt at the Khai estate, my time at the Academy, and the recent debacle with the Black Talon, never mind strolling around the capital with a living mountain like Khem on my heels. Add to that the fact that my appearance was distinctive enough to be remembered even without holographic confirmation, and the simple ruse of walking in the front door went from ‘risky’ to ‘monumentally stupid’.
Pity. It would have been so much easier, or at least more convenient. I’d have walked in through the front with Khem, Iisa -who was now following the canonical Bounty Hunter storyline, so far as I could see- would have used her jetpack or Mandalorian fuckery to get in, such as offering to take a bounty or some such, and Vriska would do…whatever it was Intelligence agents did to get in and out of places that they shouldn’t be.
“Then we do it the hard way. Let’s get back to the estate and come up with a plan that is at least halfway decent. The Force helps those who help themselves, after all.” I sighed in acknowledgement, before glancing at her. “Unless you have some good ideas on how else we can get some intel right now? I don’t doubt that you can think of quite a few things they didn’t bother teaching someone like me back on Korriban.”
“I have a few ideas, yeah, but all of them chance kicking off a fight with just the two of us and blowing our element of surprise. If I had my cadre or access to their equipment it would be a bit different, but my aliit’alor doesn’t want me using them for the Great Hunt.” she half-confirmed, and I gave a sharp bark of laughter.
“Let me guess. Since Tarro Blood is cheating his sad little shebs off, she wants you to win with no support or resources beyond what’s already yours and what you can get in the effort?” I asked dryly, not that the question was actually much of a question, and she glanced at me sidelong with raised eyebrows.
“More or less, yes. It’s not actually against the rules for me to use all the resources I see fit, so long as they are my resources, but my mother is firmly of the opinion that dealing with Blood should be dealt with as ‘fairly’ as possible.” the way she said fair left little doubt as to her opinion on the idea, never mind the fact that the both of us were quite aware that fair fights didn’t, and shouldn’t, exist. And even if they did, Tarro Blood certainly wasn’t deserving of them. Though my respect for her climbed higher as she continued. “Though, I think it’s less to do with fairness and more to do with proving just what’s wrong with him. He’s a coward that has others do his dirty work, and he doesn’t even have them confront his opponent directly, but try to cripple their support. This is about the pride of Mandalore and making sure those that follow the example of Mandalore the Lesser are reminded what being Mandalorian truly means.”
“Ori’jate.” I murmured, letting the Mando’a phrase for ‘well done’ fall from my lips and hoping that it was close enough in meaning -under the current context- to ‘damn straight’ to get my point across. Mandalore the Lesser, I knew, was well-named. A human gladiator that has achieved crushing victories in the arenas of Geonosis and, by proclamation of the crowd and his deeds, been named Mand’alor. Sole Ruler of all Mandalorians. He had also, unfortunately for him and a whole lot of other people, been an incompetent idiot that had gotten his position entirely due to the behind-the-scenes rigging of Imperial Intelligence. His stupidity had eventually gotten a lot of mando’ade and Imperials killed, and when he tried to hold a Great Hunt to boost his popularity, the victor had promptly slaughtered him and claimed his throne, leaving us with the man now known as Mandalore the Vindicated.
I still didn’t quite understand why The Vindicated had remained allied with The Empire when it was revealed that they had so disgraced something so culturally sacred as the title of Mand’alor, but I rather expected the answer was not dissimilar to that of the Chiss’ own nominal pseudo-submissive alliance with my star-nation. It was simply better, at least for the time being, to go along with the Empire than risk significant casualties and destruction at ‘our’ hands by picking a fight. Especially since Chiss Force users…weren’t really a thing.
Mostly because anyone found with Force sensitivity were exiled if they were from a lower class, or drugged to the gills to suppress it if they were from a higher class. And anyone found actually using the Force in Chiss society was, without exception, subject to summary execution. Low and behold, they didn’t have any home-grown Force users to help them resist the Sith Order. Idiots. And idiots that wouldn’t learn the lesson, either, apparently. After all, in several thousand years from the current day, Thrawn would have never even heard of the Force or know what it was when he met Anakin and Obi-wan during the events of Outbound Flight.
Honestly, sometimes I wondered just how much misery I could prevent by simply slapping enough sense into the right people across the galaxy. Probably a lot. Probably not as much as I hoped, either, because people were people and sentient beings had a remarkable talent for being stubbornly stupid even when their stupidity was actively killing them. The Chiss were a perfect example, the Mandalorians another, and Force knew the Sith were the worst offenders of the bunch. All of which I had hopeful plans to fix and work on, and would-be allies that thought the same as I did like Marr, but somehow I doubted it would be easy or quick.
“Plotting something? You’ve gone quiet.” my companion prodded me, verbally and physically alike, back into focus, and I huffed softly.
“More thinking about how completely fucked the galaxy is. Now come on. Back to the estate.” my words earned a snort of laughter, and she was still laughing when we finally reached the ground and headed for the nearest air taxi a handful of minutes later. As we flew, or more accurately were flown, back in the direction of the Luwian Estate, my thoughts moved naturally from thinking about the Chiss as a whole to one Chiss in particular.
Vriska had been badly shaken, to say the least, when she had finally rejoined all of us. Unsurprisingly, of course. Even by the standards of the Sith, Jadus was a truly disturbing man. One that I intended to see dead or neutered, metaphorically -and quite possibly literally- long before he could drive Vriska into the manipulative, brain-washing hands of the Star Cabal with his ‘spread fear through the galaxy’ and cause the Sith to tear each other apart to ‘make the Empire stronger’. Just about the only thing he was right about was that there were many Sith in the Empire that were either holding our people back or outright detrimental to us.
Of course, how he had come to that conclusion, what he intended to do to change it, and what he desired for the end result of that change were starkly different from my own opinions on such matters. I, for example, didn’t want to drown the galaxy in fear and fire. In fact, I considered that stupid and counterproductive, short-sighted and virtually guaranteed to result in the Sith eventually being wiped out.
Fear was a tool, yes, an essential one even, just as much as love or respect were. But that didn’t change the fact that it was also a blunt instrument that dulled with overuse. Push a sentient being far enough with fear, give them nothing else, and eventually they either broke entirely -leaving you with a useless puppet- or they snapped back and tore your throat out. History was littered with examples of both, and the Sith Order itself was perhaps the greatest historical example of the latter. How many times had the Empire torn itself apart because Sith Lord A had pushed Sith Lord B too far, and Sith Lord B had decided that dying was preferable to continuing to live under A’s heel? And decided that a whole lot of people needed to die in an effort to solve the problem?
Many times. Many, many, many times. To a greater or lesser degree -usually greater, quite frankly- perhaps, but it had happened often all the same. And now, unfortunately, Vriska was caught up in the middle of one such issue. One that would have to be maneuvered through very carefully if I didn’t want to get killed. Jadus, unlike Baras, would have no qualms whatsoever of killing me directly, personally, and without hesitation if he deemed it necessary.
That being said, she was aware that something strange was going on. She wasn’t stupid, she’d had what little forewarning I’d given her, and being an Agent freshly returned from her first true solo mission that was immediately earmarked by a Dark Councilor to investigate some special, talented terrorist ring within moments of meeting the man was suspicious no matter how much foreknowledge you did or didn’t possess. She knew that there was something dangerous afoot, and I knew that I was going to have to figure out a way to give her more help.
I’d have to be subtle about it though.
It’s not like I could just tell her ‘Hey, so your new boss is going to fake his own death while killing thousands of important Sith and Imperials, his genuinely psychopathic daughter will take over, and Imperial Intelligence will be destroyed in no small part because of his plot to plunge the entire galaxy into absolute and unrelenting terror while you’re brainwashed into being a trigger woman for a galactic Illuminati bent on eradicating all Force users everywhere’.
Not least because saying that all in one breath would be a hell of an effort to undertake, nevermind the fact that she was a Chiss and might -until properly seduced and befriended- go ahead and sign up with the Star Cabal of her own volition. I’d like to think she was better than that, but Chiss culture wasn’t exactly famous for being weak or easy to break from, and she wasn’t long out of the Ascendancy heartlands. Or so I assumed, God only knew the real story behind her, and I very much doubted I would for some time yet, even if I would get bits and pieces over time.
“Hey, stop brooding and get out of the damn skycar. Let’s find those girls of yours so we can put our heads together. We’ve places to be, goals to pursue, and bastards to kill.” Iisa’s voice once again drew me from my thoughts, and I wondered if this would be a recurring feature. I certainly wouldn’t object if it did, I needed someone to draw me out of my brooding a little more firmly than one of my other girls might, provided any of them save Nicky would try in the first place.
Hmm, someone with a solidly direct and down-to-earth personality would probably come in handy too. Someone that would keep things simple, notice things that I wouldn’t, who had the kind of insights and awareness that a Force user simply didn’t. Someone who wouldn’t look at things from the perspective of a spy like Vriska either, for that matter. Mhm. If I didn’t want to draw the gorgeous redhead into my orbit already, I definitely would now.
She was already moving as I slipped out of my own seat, her sabatons clanking softly on the plating of the landing area as she strode back towards the woods, clearly intent on walking to the estate as quickly as possible. Frankly, I’d have rather grabbed a swoop bike or two and made our way there a bit quicker, but it was no more than half a mile to home and this area was kept well cleared of any potential threats. Certainly of anything that could feasibly pose a threat to the two of us together, at any rate.
The walk was a quiet one, at first, the only real sounds being the crunch of branches, leaves, or other natural detritus beneath our feet and the constant thunder in the distance. It was an easy one as well, my body far happier to embrace the breezy humidity of the perpetually-cloudy Dromuund Kaas than it had been the dusty, dry, and hot Korriban.
Then, quite casually, Iisa spoke again, sounding as if she was discussing nothing more than the weather.
“So, Mako told me all about your ‘studliness’ and how much effort you seemed to put into making your lovers scream. So why don’t we spend the walk having a nice chat, one warrior to another?”
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“Are you pleased to be back amongst your concubines, walking the halls that you took from your once-enslaver, daughter of my daughters?” Kallig asked, several hours later, striding along beside me as I wended my way somewhat aimlessly through the corridors of the Luwian estate. My conversation with Iisa on the walk had been a frank one, once I’d gotten over the surprise at the blunt way it had started -not to mention the fact that it had caught me entirely off-guard that Mako was so willing to tell the Vizla heiress details such as that. The planning session that had followed had been loose, dependent on several more scouting forays to see what, if anything, changed in the defenses and routine we had noticed from day to day. Now, as dinner cooked and we waited for Nicky and the others to return from their own daily affairs, I was…well, bluntly, killing time.
Which brought me back to my ancestor’s question.
“Very pleased, grandfather. I missed the girls terribly, and I know that they were…out of sorts while I was gone. And while Korriban may be a holy world to our Order, but it’s atmosphere is the exact opposite of what I find pleasant. Dromuund Kaas’s constant storms and dampness aren’t spectacular either, but they’re far more preferable to say the very least.” I responded, getting a scoff of amusement from the ghostly form. Lips quirking up in a smile, I shrugged. “It’s true. Heretical though the idea might be, what I’ve seen of Alderaan or Naboo make them far more appealing to my tastes than just about any other planet in this galaxy.”
Kallig hummed softly, the sound rippling oddly through the Force and the air alike in the way that only the dead could manage, echoing faintly. The estate’s lighting flickered through him in ways that still managed to catch my attention, even after weeks of becoming somewhat accustomed to his presence. Force ghosts, I had decided some time ago, were a damned strange thing to grow used to.
“Heretical, perhaps, but not unreasonable. In my time, I traveled to a thousand worlds and more, fought on hundreds, and even I could acknowledge that some of them were more pleasant than the heartlands of our empire.” he mused contemplatively. “Korriban has it’s place, of course, and that is to be the crucible of our people. To cultivate strength through hardship. Though it seems to me that it has become a place of suffering instead, and most of those that emerge from it have mistaken that suffering for empowerment.” His head turned to look at me from the corner of his eyes, the faintest curve of amusement on his lips. “A failing that you, I think, were never in danger of falling prey to. You know the difference between strength and suffering.”
“I certainly like to think so, yes. And, to my good fortune, I seem to have found in my girls other people that think the same way.” I smiled back at him briefly, eyes turning a bit distant as I contemplated things for myself. “A foundation to build a new people, a new culture, a new Empire on. One that will last longer than the others, one that will be able to exist in the galaxy rather than uniting it’s neighbors in pursuit of it’s destruction.”
“Bolds words, child, even for one that sees as much as you do. But you were charged with returning our family to glory. It is for this purpose that you woke me from my dreams, restored my mind to me, and have bound me to your side. I can think of few things more memorable, more glorious, and more fortuitous for our name than for it to be linked to the forging of a new Empire. I hope to see you succeed.”
“I don’t plan on failing, grandfather. I have too much to do.”
“No one ever does, child. Now turn your eyes to the world around you. You’re not as alone as you might have thought.”
And indeed I wasn’t, because I had by habit wandered into the largest of the estate’s sitting rooms, and staring at me from where they were scattered about the room was my family and our guests. Most of whom looked exasperated, some of whom looked deeply disturbed, and one of whom looked vaguely amused. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mandalorian was the last of these, and I coughed awkwardly as my cheeks stained pink.
“Well, that’s embarrassing.” I drawled after a long moment, running my hand through my hair. “Not only did I not notice where I was walking, but I didn’t notice any of you were here. Grandfather will never let me hear the end of it.”
“…you know.” Iisa said after a long moment of silence that followed my statement, sounding a little disappointed in spite of the amusement in her expression. “I had really rather hoped that I’d managed to stumble across the single Sith in this galaxy that wasn’t, on some level, a raving lunatic. Unless you consider being sex-crazed lunacy, which is certainly possible….”
“While I don’t disagree that she’s a sex-crazed maniac, you don’t need to worry about her sanity. She’s not hearing voices in her head, nor is she seeing people that aren’t actually there.” Nicky interjected dryly, sounding like she was trending from ‘exasperated’ towards ‘amused’ herself, getting doubtful looks from many.
“So, what, is she having some sort of strange Sith telepathy, is that it? Talking to someone far away using the Force? Is that a thing?” Mako asked, curiosity and excitement edging out discomfort, and I could feel my ancestor roll his eyes.
“Not quite, no.” I hedged, eyeing the room at large, before groaning softly to myself the the encouraging look Kela was giving me. As reluctant as I was to reveal anything of importance to people whose loyalty I hadn’t yet secured, having those same people think that I’m a delusional maniac wasn’t particularly beneficial for me either. Especially since most women probably considered that something of a turn-off in potential partners.
Who would have thought it?
“With respect, my Lord, the only other option is that you’re speaking with the dead…” Revinal -and why was he here, he’d left this morning to check on the repairs and refits to the Black Talon, I wouldn’t have thought that he would be back this quickly- was speaking with exquisite courtesy, deference even, but it was painfully clear to me that he was now questioning signing up with me in spite of what the other options had been at the time.
“She is.” Nicky made the choice for me, giving me a speaking look even as the unaware scoffed and gave her looks that spoke quite clearly of their opinions on her own sanity. Huffing and resisting the urge to roll my eyes -I couldn’t really complain at her, since I’d come to the same conclusion, that revelation and swearing to secrecy was really the only good option before us- I flexed more power through the metaphysical filaments that linked Kallig and myself.
A moment of effort and, quite suddenly, the ghostly form of my ancestor became abruptly visible beside me, easily seen by everyone in the room. Hazy, perhaps, compared to the depth of, well, solidity that I’d been able to achieve in the Dark Temple or on Korriban, but his features were more-or-less discernable and his existence was now quite obvious.
The reactions were, perhaps unsurprisingly, quite varied.
Mako, predictably, shared the most dramatic reaction with Vaenia. Reactions that consisted predominantly of bulging eyes, breathy -almost squeaky- high-pitched squeals of surprise and fear as they scrambled backwards in an effort to get away from the glowing, mostly-see-through person that had abruptly appeared in front of them.
Vriska’s reaction was the exact opposite of theirs, being nothing more than a widening of scarlet eyes and an imperceptible inhale as her torso shifted backwards a grand total of, perhaps, two inches. From the purely physical, visual perspective, she might as well have been settling her weight instead of reacting with any sort of surprise. Goddamn Chiss stone-face nonsense, never mind the training she’d have received from Intelligence.
Kory and Yashia, one having been in my company unbroken for months at the Academy and Yashia having been a guard stationed on Korriban, took the sight in with something resembling weary resignation. As far as they were concerned, this was one more oddity amidst a multitude, and if it was a bit stranger than the others, well…strange was the natural life experience of the servants/lovers of a Sith.
Revinal and Iisa likewise shared a reaction: widening of the eyes, followed by narrowing, alongside a bit of paling…and nothing more. One had to wonder about that. I mean, I suppose I could expect some stoicism from the mandalorian, but the captain’s apparent equanimity was almost off-putting, if I was going to be honest.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Lord Aloysius Kallig, Grand Marshall of the Armies of the Most Holy Sith Empire. Contemporary to, and closest friend and ally of, Tulak Hord himself. A mix between a Dark Councilor and the Emperor’s Wrath, to modern understandings, as well as my direct maternal ancestor.” I introduced him with a broad, sweeping gesture. “He is an often-invisible shadow at my side, advising and critiquing me in equal measure as I work to restore our family to the glory and privilege that it once held. Grandfather, these are…”
“Their names are known to me, blood of my blood.” he interrupted my introductions calmly, his eyes sweeping the room in a way that could only be called calculating, even judging. As though he was weighing their value to our House with every breath they took. Which, in all honesty, he probably was. “I have, after all, been at your side for many long months. The concubines and servants of my descendant, those that will carry the bloodline into it’s next generation, and those that will protect them. A fine foundation upon which our House will be rebuilt.”
“My family and my allies, grandfather.” I retorted, the words not quite a chastisement, and he gave me an amused glance side-long.
“Whatever you might call them, child, that is how our people shall see them. Capable though they might be, each and every one, and affection for them you might hold, but even in your lofty dreams of the future do the Sith still rule the Empire. Even amongst the most loving family and closest of allies, one must lead and others must follow.” his words most certainly were a chastisement, if a gentle one, and I could see and sense his amusement both as I scowled. Returning his attention to the room, he continued. “I am not, and have never been, in the habit of threatening those that are loyal. It is a poor Lord that rules only through a fear-wrought iron grip. It is a poor Lord that cannot earn the loyalty, if not devotion, of those that serve them. Most of you have seen the strength of my scion, in character and in battle.” he tilted his head in the direction of everyone save Iisa, before turning his eyes to her. “You have not. But the Qo Hyal Asha are not without honor of their own. For the sake of a girl barely known, you took the life of a stranger, and for that girl’s sake your own life was threatened in turn. So it is now for the daughter of my daughters that I say something not dissimilar to her own words: if you believe yourself unable to work alongside her, to keep her secrets and stay your weapons so long as she and hers does the same, leave this place now and live.”
The silence that filled the room following his words -his commands- was a deep and profound one, but it was one that balanced on the edge of a blade as well. While it wasn’t quite accurate to say that a gauntlet had been cast, a challenge and choice had certainly been laid at Iisa’s feet, back by a threat that would make anyone pause.
“I’m not inclined to let myself be threatened, by anyone, alive or dead. I’m not accustomed to being intimidated, either.” the mandalorian woman started, sending the tension ratcheting several notches higher as she met Kallig’s eyes with her own and held them there. The staredown continued for a heartbeat, before she continued. “That being said, I’m not inclined to betray those that have shown me trust nor share secrets that aren’t mine to tell, so long as that courtesy is returned. Nor am I stupid enough to, even if I threw my own nature and honor out the window, betray someone that can call up the dead from millennia past. Vestara hasn’t done me any harm and doesn’t seem likely to do so, if only for Mako’s sake. So we have a bargain between us, Lord Kallig. I’ll not betray your scion so long as she doesn’t betray me, and if anything greater than myself should ever conflict with that vow, I’ll give her fair warning and leave as soon as required.”
A fair enough promise. She wouldn’t betray me unless greater causes, such as the good of her people or my going off the deep end, required it or I betrayed her first. Since I wasn’t inclined to do either options one nor three, nor anything remotely similar, I wasn’t terribly worried. And as for the sake of her people, well, hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary. And if it was, hopefully she’d give me a chance to talk with her about the situation and seek understanding before she tried to use her admittedly impressive arsenal of weaponry to reunite me with The Force.
“Hmm. Acceptable terms, daughter of the Taung. This bargain will serve us well.” he inclined his head fractionally in acceptance, looking pleased even through his solemnity. “I have known many of your people, in the time where I still lived. Those that gave their word kept it. I expect not less from you.”
A flicker of complex emotions crossed Iisa’s features at that -surprise, some curiosity, and more than a little pride- before she inclined her head in return, leaving my ancestor to hum in satisfaction and fold his hands behind his back.
“I look forward to watch how you all grow and rise at my scion’s side. There is a touch of destiny to each of you. The Force walks before you, and fate surely follows in your wake.” he remarked thoughtfully, before vanishing back into the ether without so much as a ‘by your leave’, leaving me to deal with the fallout of the last several minutes.
Sighing softly to myself, I settled mentally in preparation for the doubtlessly-intensive conversation that was surely about to begin.
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