Avengers Rise

[Asharad Graush]

Somewhere in Outer Rim,

A'sharad was lounging within a chair in his private quarters on a Star Destroyer.

Thousands of crewmen running back and forth across the ship, working, testing, simulating different battles and scenarios should they encounter foreign ships in this area of Space.

Naturally, he was met with nothing.

It was of no consequence.

He was within a meeting with his Board Members who were currently on Tantorus. All of them were Sith Purebloods, all of them respected his power, now more than ever as he revealed the not-so secret of him slaying his Father. With that announcement, they were forced to follow him now, though he doubted few were happy to follow after a product of inter-species relations, even if he was strong.

"Have you received my newest designs?"

"Yes, My Lord..." There was a pause. Thus, a problem.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, My Lord, we are merely uncertain as to how soon you want the product completed."

And now he realized, he was being questioned. His leg swung off the armrest that it had been hanging off of as he sat up straight in front of the holoprojector. His private quarters were made to perfectly fit the chambers that were on Tantorus. He raised an eyebrow as he looked to each and every one of the holograms before him.

 

[Asharad Graush]

"As soon as possible," he said coldly, his golden orbs were burning.

Something was off.

Even from across the Galaxy he could sense that much, but he made no mention of it, not verbally anyway. Some of the other Board Members looked antsy, but no more than they normally did. They were hiding something from him. He could tell that much, he had hand picked every single one of them. They were intelligent, they knew how to help him further his company and they all served a purpose. Of course, that also meant he knew how to read each and every one of them.

"We just wanted to make you aware that the first ship will not be completed as fast as it is normally," and at that, A'sharad had the guise of understanding as he leaned back into the chair.

"I see. And why is that?"

"The sheer amount of weaponry, and reinforced weaponry, My Lord, we'll have to procure more materials. We've yet to construct something as this." Another spoke. He looked to see who it was as he leaned back into the chair. The Sith Knight closed his eyes as he clenched his jaw, but he said nothing.

"Very good. Thank you, Board Members." He would give them a chance. "Is there anything else you'd like to share with me?"

 

[Asharad Graush]

"No, My Lord. Not on the subject of this ship anyway."

A'sharad said nothing as he awaited the report.

"We have been developing a new weapon. A plasma railgun, a weapon that has not been seen for some time in the Galaxy. We're certain," he paused as he looked about the entirety of the room, "That it'll come as a surprise for the rest of the Galaxy."

"I am curious as to what it can do, of course," he said expectantly. It was clear that he was waiting for a description of the weapons applications.

"Oh, well, once it comes into target with a target, it sticks to the shields and the hull. Melting through it until there is nothing left," the Board Member said, almost as if he was unsure. "You see... There is little information on that sort of weapon."

"Very well. I will be visiting soon. Expect me."

"B-but My Lo-"

He cut off the transmission.

 

[Asharad Graush]

A'sharad remained seated in his chair.

How far did his senses in the Force reach? He couldn't say.

He raised a hand and on the table before him, after all of the holoprojections of his subordinates disappeared, the lighting of the room automatically brightened.

There were a handful of credit coins left on the table. They... Sat there, immobile, until he snatched them with the Force.

They were pieces of metal, useless, alone, he realized. But with the aid of the Force, the coins were strong.

The Sith Knight illustrated this when two of them began to orbit each other, spinning, and spiralling around each other, close, but never quite touching. It was almost as if they were dancing, if coins could dance, and then they stopped. Then... They went through the table in front of him, naught but the Force forcing them through it. He got up to his feet as he force crushed the projector and left the room, also scattering the remainder of the coins on the table.

 

[Asharad Graush]

A'sharad had exited his chambers.

He headed towards the Bridge.

There was no hustle and bustle on the ship. They were lax, not that he minded, there was nothing to do on the edge of the Outer Rim, especially when they were so far down from Yalara.

There were unexplored systems, but none that were named. None that were important enough to investigate.

The Sith Knight rolled his shoulders as he came onto the Bridge.

"My Lord Vyrassu!" The Captain exclaimed. He was happy to see him. And why not? A'sharad didn't treat those who served well badly. He may have been Sith, but not all Sith were like that. Not all of the One Sith anyway. Not always. He had learned that originally they had set out for a good cause. Peace. No genocides, nothing. But that had changed as the Order grew. As was to be expected, as the heroes of the One Sith fell, the monsters rose.

"Report."

"Nothing of consequence, my Lord. We happily await your orders."

"Good. Plot a course to Tantorus. We're going home," the Captain's eyes widened. It had been years since he had heard those words.

"Of course, My Lord."

Vyrassu walked pass the Captain's chair. He didn't require relaxation. He needed to kill.

 

[Asharad Graush]

"A question, My Lord," the Captain had said, approaching him from behind, but having stopped a few metres away when he had addressed him.

"Speak," he commanded without turning.

"Why back home? There are better places to go to. We can go to Copero. Your father had visited there once."

"He did. He achieved nothing. Soon enough, I will venture to the Chiss, and I will take what I want. But until then, we go to Tantorus." He rotated his head to the man that was behind him, his golden orbs watching from him from his peripherals. "Is there anything else?"

"How long do you expected us to be there?"

"Briefly. An hour at most."

"Very good, My Lord," and he backed away, allowing A'sharad to sit in his solace at the front of the Bridge in front of the viewport as he watched the streaks of white light go past.

Hyperspace.

 

[Asharad Graush]

They were ever so slowly growing closer to their home planet of Tantorus.

The Sith onboard had all once served the One Sith directly. Then, they had been assigned to at the time Malphas, a Sith Knight who had claimed the title of Darth Acarus. Also known as his Father. They had fought in skirmishes along side each other with the Galactic Republic. If it had been on the ground or in space, it made no matter, they had all fought with his Father, against or with him.

They were Sith.

And A'sharad had killed his Father, and thus, his Master.

They all served him now.

Loyally, he might add.

As they drew closer to the planet, he could feel the Dark Side of the Force growing stronger. The planet was inhabited by the Sith Purebloods. Millions. Tens of millions in fact. So many following the way of the Ancient Sith, there were still power struggles for even the most basic of necessities. The planet was strong in the Dark Side, probably even stronger than the nexuses of the Dark Side that the multiple Jedi Orders across the Galaxy had in their possession. Of course, he didn't know that for sure.

He had only visited Korriban once, and that had been many years ago for a fruitless trip.

 

[Asharad Graush]

A'sharad could remember the day well, but not his age. He remembered being young.

Ten. Maybe eleven, or perhaps even sixteen. In truth, it made no difference to him. It had been the Way of the Sith, that's what he remembered.

There had been ten of them. Ten Sith acolytes scheduled to travel to the planet of Korriban to test their mettle against the terentatek. One Sith Knight was to guide them along the way.

A'sharad killed without remorse.

There was no care for those that he left behind him.

One by one he killed them all. Inadvertently taking them all out from weakest to strongest, so that the one that came next wouldn't expect it if they were lacking brain cells. It was almost a shame however, that, when he got to the last one, it was over. The fighting between the acolytes had been much more exciting than the actual journey to the planet. Even when they got there, it had been lackluster. A day with no event.

There were only two of them.

One a Knight, the other an Acolyte.

A terentatek wouldn't have been attracted to them.

They left the planet after multiple days.

 

[Asharad Graush]

There had been an entire crew that piloted the Sith Fury Interceptor to Korriban. They were enclosed together with the ship through Hyperspace.

On the way back to Prakith, A'sharad remembered the rudeness of the man. He thought the Sith weak now. With the falling of the One Sith, he had thought himself better than serving as a mere pilot for two Sith Purebloods, even if one was little more than a mongrel in blood. A'sharad remembered his face well.

After his lightsabre had cut through all the furniture in a rage, he had gone for the pilots and the rest of the crew.

Random technicians, unarmed, incapable of fighting against one that trained to be Sith from birth.

They died easily.

What amused him more was when the pilot had tried to fight him.

When that failed, he attempted to beg for his life.

When he had heard the begging... He had damaged the navigation computer. It took them much longer than it should've to return to Prakith. Weeks actually.

The Imperial pilot had died on the last day. He had been sustained through the Force that entire time. Oh, and bacta. Also through the power of bacta. But when he died, that too, had been a disappointment.

 

[Asharad Graush]

How much blood had coated the consoles... The main room... The storage rooms... All of the rooms.

All of the rooms coated in the blood of the pilot.

Everyday featured another room for torture. A different layout. A different method of torture used every day. Every single one more wretched than the last.

And then his eyes opened.

The Star Destroyer was orbiting the planet Tantorus.

There was beeping from behind him. That wasn't supposed to be happening.

"My Lord, we have no communication with Vitiate down below."

Slowly, he turned around, his golden orbs burning in fury as he marched across the bridge to the console. "What is the meaning of this?"

"They, uh, they're jamming all the sensors system wide."

"Bring us down."

"A shuttle is being pre-"

"The Star Destroyer."

Had there been complaints, A'sharad knew not, he was returning to his chambers. If this was the Board Members seizing power from him, he was going to kill them all. Their deaths would be dragged out to last for months. That, he promised. Their tolerance for pain? It would be used against.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The Bridge Crew of A'sharad Graush may have known the Sith Knight very well. Many of them had served under his Father's watchful gaze, and now they were his.

However, many of the remaining crew didn't.

Most were fleeing from the worlds of the One Sith and had come to expect punishment from other Sith. He gave them an opportunity to serve him on his ships and whatever defenses that he saw fit. Many of them were already trained, o he gave them a uniform and weapons. After they were screened of course. Many claimed a noble background, and what was nobler than working your way up from nothing to greatness?

The Sith High Colonel couldn't imagine how many would die underneath him when the First Order came to open war with the Galactic Alliance.

Likely many.

Still, as he passed them, he'd offer a nod and his best smile.

When they died, it'd be better for them to know it wasn't because he had wanted them to.

 

[Asharad Graush]

On his way to the Hangar Bay, he had encountered many people, moreso than he would normally if there wasn't a situation going on planet side.

They weren't exactly planning to land on the planet below them, but rather, they were going to deploy a few hundred metres above his company and the nearby city. They were going to find out what was going on, and then he was going to put an end to it.

"This farce comes to an end," he muttered to himself as he passed two Massassi standing at his shuttle.

"Bring us down to the planet. Bring me to my company's building."

"Yes, Lord Vyrassu!" There was a pilot already in the seat. It appeared that the pre-flight check had finished just as he had arrived to the ship. Good. A dozen or so Sith troopers loaded up onto the ramp of the shuttle with him, just as they were breaking the atmosphere of the planet.

 

[Asharad Graush]

As the heat of the entry into the atmosphere spread across the shields and hull of the Star Destroyer, A'sharad focused.

He cleared his mind of his anger, of his irritation, of any and all distractions that would otherwise pester him in the field of battle. He doubted there would be combat this day, but still, it had become a common occurrence for him to do the ritual.

He exhaled.

From below, they must've appeared to be a large crimson ball of fire descending through the atmosphere and soon after the clouds.

But no, it was merely a Sith's Star Destroyer.

Around him he could sense each and every one of the presences of the hardened Sith troopers behind him. His Sith troopers. He would've grinned had this been any other time, but instead, he just focused on the closed ramp before him. "We've been cleared, My Lord."

"Bring us down."

 

[Asharad Graush]

The Star Destroyer's hangar opened up as if it were a gaping wound in the body of the gigantic vessel.

Out from it came dozens of shuttles with a dozen of Sith troopers. They came directly for Vitiate's building.

Once upon a time everything had been upon the shipyards that orbited the planet, but in Acarus's later years, he had decided that a building on the planet, that people could actually see without having to leave the planet would inspire more awe. More came flocking for work under the Graush House. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.

Too many for A'sharad to bother counting.

A'sharad's shuttle angled downwards, for the landing pad at the top of the building while the other shuttles were loading at the base of the building and surrounding it. Something was up. Those who had the Force amongst the Sith Troopers could sense that.

The two Massassi on the left and right side of A'sharad breathed heavily. They too could sense something was wrong.

They touched down onto the roof of the building, and the ramp opened to reveal no one.

"Secure the building," he ordered. And the Sith troopers funnelled down the ramp past him and the Sith Warriors and entered the building's rooftop entrance.

"Co-" And then there was the sound of blaster fire before the last soldier had even entered the building.

What were their names?

"Left. Right. Kill whoever is left."

They were the Sith who had been with him on Bespin when some Darth Abyss had wanted to attack him. They had taken positions on his left and right ever since that day. And they were named as such.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The rooftop entrance opened up to a stairwell.

It went down a dozen steps before turning into an office room, or rather, more of a guard station as the two Sith Warriors found when blaster fire erupted again. Of course, it had been late. Left and Right had already begun the attack on those who had felled A'sharad's loyal troopers.

A'sharad, without waiting for anyone said to the pilot, "Lift off. Return with more." He imagined the entire first wave of soldiers that he had brought along were facing the same trouble.

Down the stairs he went, and he was faced with a rather disgusting scene.

There were bodies stuck in the duracrete walls, no doubt with the help of the Sith Warriors. In addition, there was caved in heads of workers, and technicians, those who actually worked for him.

His mouth was nought but a thin line.

Lowering himself to one of his Sith troopers, he pulled the comm out of their fallen helmet, and he heard the reports of what was happening on the first floor.

"Right. Cover the turbolift. Left, the stairs." He waved them both off as he crushed the comm in his palm, and walked towards the nearest computer. It appeared to be intact. Good. He started on accessing it, but he soon came to realize that he wouldn't be able to from this computer.

"Idiots..." He muttered to himself. Naturally, without permission, his Board of Directors had implemented a different security system, and he was incapable of getting to his own surveillance footage from the computer. Slowly rotating his head, he spotted one of the cameras in the corner, and he pulled out of the wall with the aide of the Force. It came out in tact, thankfully, and he rose up from the computer.

He may have been cruel and ruthless, but he knew technology.

"Left," he called out and he walked to Right, on the other end of the office level floor, where the turbolift would be.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The Sith Knight strode through the office slowly.

Dozens of people worked on this floor.

He didn't look around, but he knew there were corpses behind every desk, every fallen computer. There were even holes in the transparisteel windows, and some were even shattered completely. The wind sounded as if it carried the voices of all that were dead on the floor.

It didn't matter to him that these people were dead, that they had died while he had been gone.

It was that the building had not been reclaimed by the time he had returned.

When he found the Board of Members, he vowed, he would kill them all, himself.

"My Lord," Right, said, as he forced open the door of the turbolift. "The lift awaits," a three fingered hand waved into the lift. The turbolift was coming up.

It wasn't stopping.

"Hold them in this immediate vicinity," he ordered as he stepped into the lift and dropped onto the lift. He bore armour, but the Force had silenced his landing. The would be storm of rage within him was stoked, instead, rather than boiling over, it merely bubbled. He had learned to control his anger for situations such as these. The lift came up to the top floor. One of the many office floors, but specifically, to the one that he had just been on.

He heard the door to the lift open up.

Blaster fire.

Deflections.

He heard it all.

He ignited his lightsabre.

Three of the apparent traitors stepped out of the lift. He caught the lines holding the lift.

It didn't fall.

Repulsors.

He slid down the side, his lightsabre still humming as more soldiers flooded out through the door. It was getting intense out there. His feet were grounding him to the elevator wall, but he still hugged it closely as he forced crushed the repulsors. The container that held the lift fell, and that meant so did the rest of the occupants. He tucked himself into the wall as it collapsed past him, and then he force leapt back onto the office floor.

Five of them. None of them watching him.

Left and Right became aggressive.

A'sharad cut two from behind.

Across the back of the knees, they dropped to the ground. Two heads fell to the ground. There was one man left after Left and Right brutally murdered the other two. They deactivated their lightsabres, but A'sharad didn't. No. He force crushed the blaster in the man's hands. And then the Force dame down atop him as if it were a piano, flattening him onto the floor as the Sith Knight walked above him.

 

[Asharad Graush]

A'sharad finally deactivated his lightsabre, but the Force continued holding the man down. It was effortless to do so.

Telekinesis was his specialty.

A rancor may as well have been holding him down with its entire weight.

"Who sent you?"

"Lord Ubaron will not serve you anymore!"

Ubaron... Ubaron... There was a dumbfounded look on the Young Graush's face.

"I don't know who that is."

"Fool!" The pinned man said. A'sharad didn't respond. Instead he crouched down above the man.

"One of my Board of Directors then? Did he pay you well? Did you think you were going to succeed?"

"He'll destroy this place before he lets you gain anymore power!"

"Shame," A'sharad said. "I grow in power every second," he breathed out, his hand wrapping around the face of the Sith trooper. "You should've worn a helmet. I would've enjoyed killing you with it. Ironic, no?"

"I don't fear death, mongrel!" A'sharad nodded. The man's voice was muffled by his palm, but he could feel when the man spat out against his palm.

"Good."

He brought the man up to his feet after positioning him perfectly.

"You should've remained loyal."

"I remained loyal to my Lord!" He spat out.

The man was struck with a blast of Force Lightning. Not enough to throw him down the turbolift as Left and Right clearly thought. Both of them frowned simultaneously as they stepped forward to deal with him personally, but he waved a hand up as he waved the man into the lift with a nudge of the Force.

Down he went.

Walking towards the turbolift, he watched the body fall until he couldn't see it anymore.

There was a thud.

In the same instant, Sith Lightning exploded out at the bottom of the turbolift shaft. With bad eyes, one wouldn't know what had happened, but A'sharad, and his two Sith Warriors could see, clear as day that it was lightning being released from the body.

 

[Asharad Graush]

A'sharad looked to either side at Left and Right.

"We go down. The vault is below the earth."

They both nodded to him.

Together, the trio stepped into the turbolift shaft, and dropped to the bottom. They all sported the black cloaks that most Sith did. Their cloaks flapped around their armoured bodies as they fell past all the floors, one by one, but experiencing it, it felt as if they were passing the floors five at a time. They were coming up to the ground quickly, and as one they all ignited their lightsabres. Jamming them into the walls of the lift, A'sharad slowed his own descent, but used the Force to aide his two bodyguards in doing the same.

His arms felt as if they'd be ripped out of their sockets from how sudden the slowing had been.

In fact, he was certain his arm was dislocated, but his palm was still tight around the hilt.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The trio finally got down to the bottom of the lift together.

A'sharad's shoulder was indeed dislocated.

He rolled his shoulders back before he nodded to Right.

Was there a grin on his lips? Probably, and then the arm was violently wrenched back into position via the Force. The Sith Knight nearly tripped over something wet, and then he realized it was the body of the Sith trooper that he had thrown off of the first floor. Curious.

The Sith Lightning scorched the debris of the turbolift, the duracrete, and the rest of the shaft.

Effectively a lightning grenade.

He'd have to do it again one day.

"Let's go."

He placed his deactivated lightsabre onto his belt as the trio threw the doors of the vault off of their hinges.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The Sith Knight strode through the opened doorway.

Down the hall, then to a right, a left, another right, and then straight.

They walked for a few minutes, and then they were in the room that would lead them to the vault door.

Naturally, there were obstacles in the way.

None that he himself had implemented.

From right to left his gaze went. Before the trio? Dozens of Sith troopers and Sith acolytes who had evidently betrayed him and the rest of House Graush. He recognized some of them, but he didn't recognize names. His teeth grinded upon each other as his left hand dropped to his side again. His right hand manipulated two credit coins out of his pocket.

"They all die."

This time it was Left's turn to have a lopsided grin on his face as the trio leapt into the battle.