Dad said Demonsgate ain't too bad [ The Covenant ]

[Micah Talith]

Former Moross Crusade Territories
Demonsgate System
Demonsgate

The Rising Tide

Demonsgate, also known as NCW-86, was a planet in the Outer Rim's Kathol Rift, near Yvara. From space the planet often appeared to be engulfed in flames due to the volcanic activity bleeding ionized particles into the atmosphere that interacted with debris attracted from the Rift. In reality, Demonsgate possessed a biosphere full of life including many indigenous, non-sapient life forms.

Though habitable, the planet was relatively arid with most of the water below the surface. The multitude of active volcanoes kept the planet fairly seismically unstable and many superheated geysers would appear on the surface as a result of the underground lava flows hitting the underground water pockets.

It was a planet that had served the late Moross Crusade well in the past, and it was the objective for the members of the Covenant.

The lore of the Old Gods still would linger in the system; some still faithful to the old ways. Demongate had been originally colonized by the Moross Crusade, their phrik deposits mined under their rule. Others had come after the Event that took so many into the Nether, but there were still survey maps, mines, and insider information that the Covenant would take advantage of today.

The Taliths would just not mention that the reason they had that information is because Neth the Keeper was their father.

That was a small detail all the Talith kids knew should be kept quiet. Either way, navigating through the Kathol Rift allowed a measure of practice with instinctive navigation too for those who were interested in sending out probes. While this was primarily a mining trip to gather resources, training was always an option that could be done at any time.

They were already prepping the shuttles, and those involved would follow the designated guides to the coordinates down upon the volcanic planet below.

 

[Liliane]

Lilin had no idea what the kark the Covenant was doing most of the time -- while a lot of the members stayed together probably for a lot more than her, she was living in her happy little cozy flat in the core of the galaxy, ironically in the One Sith space. She wasn't part of all of the discussions they had, sometimes didn't even participate in their gatherings.

But she did want to join them on the trip to Demonsgate.

Everybody had received the guides and coordinates and were able to go to the planet to do something there. She didn't know a lot about the backstory of this trip, but she thought she'd enjoy it.

If in the beginning of her membership in the Covenant, she'd been slightly nervous and not used to this system, then now she knew at least the majority of the faction's members by their names, some of them were even her friends. She enjoyed being with them and doing things together.

She thought it would be the same this time.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Kaili Talith]

Once more Kaili was on an adventure into old Moross space yet for something that was connected so tightly to her family she felt oddly disconnected from it all. She knew of Demonsgate, somewhat. She knew just about as much as Micah did, if not less. It wasn’t as much that she didn’t care for it as much as it was exactly just that. Kaili didn’t really care about it at all. Her dad had been a god, she was the daughter of a god and all that said to her was that she had a lot more pressure upon her shoulders than she’d ever wanted.

There were two reasons she was here with Micah. One, she needed to get some of the supposed phrik for projects of her own, and two, she desperately needed to hang out with her brother. The Astronautical Academy was cool and all, but for all it was worth it was not home.

Though with Kaili being Kaili she had 'temporarily' skipped away from her brother the-one-who-actually-cared-about-Moross-stuff in order todo her own check up on the ships. They had workers for this, yes, but she was in the Astronautical Academy for a reason. Her hands rooted around an open panel by the side of her shuttle. She had gotten instructions from the grease monkey next to her to clean out the main fuselage drains.

... Or whatever it was that he called the part, it was something like that.

Gloves off she stood there getting her hands covered in dirt. Oil, grease, there were a lot of things to cover her hands in and for a short moment she withdrew her hands to check if anybody saw her. Nope, nobody. Her finger traced along the side of her forearm to draw a smile and the girl chuckled before going back to work.

“Just gotta...” The girl focused. “There. Good as new.” She said as she looked for the mechanic again. “... I hope.”

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

"Preliminary readings are good in the southern hemisphere."

Micah would adjust his drexal leather gloves over his right hand as he kept a half ear on the update and another on the holographic map in front of him. Several crews and shuttles were already departing towards the planet, and he would join them soon. It may not be the most fruitful of expeditions, but they were aiming to try and use the resources Moross Crusade would have left.

"Geographic scans are positive, with three potential mines revealing small deposits."

He gave a nod, frowning slightly. It would be silly to think that there would be no Moross citizen there, which is another reason why he was going himself. He rather not have to deal with a potential confrontation in his hands.

"Good, tell Aela." Micah said, starting to move towards his own shuttle. Along the way, he thought of his father. Of the conversation they had back on Kashyyyk years ago and of his time as a False God for countless citizens across the Former Moross Territories.

Were they doing the same here? Aela and the Covenant?

Did the end justify the means?

It was a nagging question in the back of his mind and he wondered, if perhaps, his father already knew what they were doing?

 

[Liliane]

Taking a deep breath before stepping into her ship, she started her travels. She had no idea where the other people could have been, but she thought she'd contact them on the travels. To be honest, she wasn't even sure who else was supposed to join this little trip besides her and MIcah, the latter was the leader of the mission, that's why she knew that. But anybody else -- no idea.

Her ship started and she looked out of the windows for a while before she would realise she had to contact others. But how should she do that? Her knowledge of technology was quite lacking.

"Droid, would you please somehow contact [member="Micah Talith"] and tell him I've started my travels and will be there in a few."

It was a shame that she hadn't even thought of what to call her droid, not even speaking of using his model name. Because she didn't know what model he was besides the fact that he was an astromech.

Sometimes she felt like a real embarrassment. Thankfully, she had a few other strengths to her.

 

[Kaili Talith]

But Kaili’s mind was not diving as deep into the morals of things. The Covenant to her was an ideal much rather than an actual second coming of the Talith clan or a connection to godhood. Aela lead by example, not by proof of might or force. It was all a bunch of volunteers and misfits looking to tear the Sith a new one and right now, well, Kaili had volunteered for mechanic duty.

The chief engineer came back and inspected Kaili’s handiwork. With a slow nod he pursed his lip in approval and gave the girl an oily pat on the shoulder as well as a thumb up. She done did them stabilizers good. A smile spread on the girl’s lips as she wiped her hands on her handkerchief. It was messy, oily and nail chipping. Work on ships weren’t easy, but it was rewarding and Kaili patted herself on the shoulder as the man went back to his own station.

Stepping into the shuttle’s cargo hold she withdrew a tiny little box. Entering her three digit code the small refrigerating unit opened itself as the internal servos hissed and raised her lunch sandwich out of the box and into a position of obvious lunchtime display.

With a victorious bite she looked around the hangar for [member="Micah Talith"] and whoever was coming along.

“Micaaaaah.” She spoke to herself and sighed. “You suck at being on tiiime.”

He was no doubt playing day shift manager again. Kaili took another bite of her sandwich and continued her lookout from the loading ramp, munching all the while.

@Lilin Imperiuse

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"] [member="Kaili Talith"]

"Annnnnnnndd duty calls," Micah would quip, spinning on the ball of his boot towards one blonde girl. His baby sister. A hand would immediately rise up to muse her hair as he strode on by.

"Got some sleepies on those eyes, Kai," he'd joke, teasing his little sister. The corner of his mouth went quirking up some more, fully expecting Kai to bat at his hand. She always did.

"Micah, got a call a head saying that they'll meet up with us dirtside," came the relay of information from another Covenant member, a young Rodian with blue green skin. Akia Do was her name, a whiz when it came to communications and pilfering free Hulunet videos.

"Got it." He went jogging up the shuttle's loading ramp, grabbing his juice of namame nectar he left behind.

"Hurry up slow poke!" he shot out to Kai, again laughter beaming in his eyes. Their next stop would see them groundside.

 

[Kaili Talith]

The kid huffed much like her brother would have predicted with a swing to knock his hand away, much like Micah had predicted as well. She got up from the ground and eyeballed the girl that approached them. She didn’t remember her, she knew her brother seemed increasingly aware of this girl, but Kaili herself did not really know who she was. At least on the name-basis. Which was weird, how often was it that Kaili encountered Rodians in the first place? Not often.

“So who was that?” She shot out in a yawn. “Your girlfriend? Does mother know about this?”

“And don’t come complaining to me about sleep when the ship works like a beaut.” She smirked at her brother. “Unlike you I actually spend my time practicing skills that will get me somewhere. Literally.”

A stray hand went up to rub her eyes.

“Anyway, the ship has been prepped for endurance and ‘going the distance’ at this point. I wouldn’t expect any real problems unless you plan on navigating into an asteroid.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to lead us into an asteroid field.” Kaili sighed. “Again.”

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Demonsgate

What a colossal blunder that had been so long ago, Triam reflected upon her memories as she stepped upon the rocky earth. She had gotten a bunch of mining freighters and hired a bunch of people to come help her, only to discover the Moross Crusade beat her to it. Then one of her idiot 'helpers' negotiated a deal out of them. So she mined a bit, and got a decent amount.

Originally the plan was to sell it off to Popo, but the amount she had gather simply wasn't enough to justify the "ton" he demanded. So for more than six years she had been sitting on it, and recently sold all of it to a group of fellows from the Techno Union. She didn't care for them, but that was what she did. It wasn't like she was selling weapons directly or offering her direct services.

Besides, she made a pretty penny off of it, and got a new set of armor on the way along with a new droid, and some other artifact yet to be named, along with an incredibly cool new stealthy fast ship to replace her old hunk of junk. It would probably take a while to break in and make it into a home, let alone the time it would take for her to actually use the damn thing.

Not today though. Demonsgate these days was mostly neutral, the Moross Crusade having long fallen out of favor here, though the millions of residents in this region of space still held firmly to their beliefs, even if their living deities were entirely absent and assumed dead.

Meanwhile, Triam just sort of followed the kids on this one, awaiting to go groundside, maybe recover some of her old equipment if it still existed.

 

[Liliane]

The ship Lilin came to the trip to went into hyperspace and, judging by her location in the galaxy, she guessed she would get to the meeting place fast enough (she didn't care about any scientific details and numbers, nor did she know anything about them) and be able to join others. Oh, what a fun all of that would be. Even though she was not sure if she was going to fail miserably at doing what they were going to or if she was going to shine.

Yet something told her she would not find a new hidden talent that day.

She stood up to walk to the back of her ship and make it sure she had everything she needed with her. The bag she'd packed with her was full of many things, her lightsaber and some exploration outfit the most noticeable of these items. She would go nowhere without a weapon, no matter whether the mission was peaceful or not. It was just better to be safe than sorry.

It was one of her wishes to never bump into any problems because of a lacking gear. She would have everything around her which would make her feel safe from armour to food to weapons. Oh, well, her blaster was not with her this time -- she thought she'd do better with just her lightsaber than with both ranged and melee weapons.

That is, if she had any reason to use them that day at all.

Time passed and the girl exited hyperspace. Even faster than she had expected.

"I am near the meeting point," the girl contacted Micah, again via whatever her droid did, "where shall I head to find you?"

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"] [member="Triam Akovin"] [member="Kaili Talith"]


A chuckle came from Micah, pausing right at the top of the ramp to glance at his youngest sister. Devilry shone in eyes that would mirror hers.

"Maybe I am!" he sang, darting into the shuttle with all haste as if intending to go to the cockpit. His laughter would echo down the corridors, the hiss of hydraulic doors closing the ramps behind the group once everyone had made their way in.

Lilin's voice would crackle in his earwig not a few seconds later, and his breathy lighthearted voice would reply through her ship's comm.

"I'm having coordinates sent down to you, down the southside. There are already a few of us there," a woman named Triam should be there. He hadn't talked to her personally but his sister had.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Triam arrived at the meeting point and just sort of looked around at all of the people congregated here. Once again she found herself surprised that there was so many others involved in this little band of what at first was... a bunch of kids. It would take some major getting used to, Triam wasn't usually one to... actively volunteer to help.

Her idea of "help" in the past was to sell a weapon or a fancy trinket to individuals who threw enough money at her. This though... this was a whole new ballpark for it, and it made her slightly uncomfortable here.

At any rate, once her Ship landed, she opened up its ramp and brought a few Covenant members inside to check out her amazing mining equipment. Six Super-Frames all holding their Repulsor-based Super-Drills or Super-Shovels, just waiting to pull in six tons of Phrik should they ever find that much that is. What she needed to do was to put a sifter into the containers, so that it removed any of the excessive amount of other debris she didn't care about and got right to the good stuff.

"Want me to climb into one?" She asked a little boy, probably no more than 15. It truly amazed her that the youth could get caught up in these... politics, so early in life. She just hoped it wasn't wasted on a lost cause.

[member="Micah Talith"], [member="Lilin Imperieuse"], [member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

“I hate you.” Kaili mused as she followed her brother into the ship. There was no spite to it, she merely found the idea of crashing violently into an asteroid, having the ship explode and at worst suffocate to death something she would much rather avoid. This kid, Micah, knew nothing about piloting ships. Kaili did, but he didn’t. At least not as gracefully as the girl could do it.

Her finger drummed at her pendant for a second as she considered what to do.

Decision made itself and Kaili headed into the cockpit to potentially chase her brother away from any piece of navigation hardware that he was most definitely bound to destroy one way or another. The pendant may have been the reason she could do anything related to ships herself, but that did not mean she couldn’t allow herself to grow just a slightly thicker skull and/or ego.

She let others speak to Micah should they need to. When he had a moment of peace she approached him once more.

“So we go to Demonsgate, we get the phrik and that’s it, right?” Kaili perked her brows. “It’s not cursed, is it? I mean planets don’t get a name like ‘Demonsgate’ without reason.”

@Lilin Imperiuse
[member="Triam Akovin"]
[member="Micah Talith"]

 

[Liliane]

Lilin nodded after hearing the boy's words and took a glance at the coordinates. Yeah, she figured she could get there on her own. So down the ship went. She had to be honest, this was not one of the most welcoming places in the galaxy, so she hoped hard it was going to be worth the struggle. If not, somebody would face the wrath of Lilin Imperieuse. Which was definitely nothing too dangerous, considering how unskilled she was.

Her ship landed on the land and as soon as she left the chair of hers, she took a deep breath. It was going to be a fun day. It had to be one. Every other day she had had with the folks of the Covenant had been good.

She made her way out of the ship and already noticed Triam there. At least she thought it was her. She'd actually seen the woman once or twice, so she kind of knew what she looked like. But she couldn't be sure -- after all, she'd definitely never talked to that member of the group and had never spent too much time anywhere near her.

People seemed to be interested in something inside her ship, so she took a few steps closer to them to see what all this fuzz was about.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

In those few steps, it would be quite clear just exactly what the "fuzz"... was.

Triam Akovin, the insane woman she was, was currently walking off the ramp of her ship with some robotic monstrosity wrapped around her armored form. It's large footfalls could be heard as it carried a Super-Drill and a Super-Shovel in each arm, with a massive container on its back. The hydraulic frame, which was what was supposed to be a simple piece of technology, nearly counted more as a vehicle than... whatever it actually counted as.

The mad woman was beaming with a smile, as her helmet was placed in her backpack, so she appeared more personable to the children present. With a lot of raucous laughter, the other Covenant members cheered for whatever reason as the mining behemoth clanked its way out of her ship onto the surface of Demonsgate.

"Let's see what this bad boy can do!" She grunted loudly as she jostled the controls forward, before sounding off warning lights on her back so the other people would make room, before she dropped the empty container on the ground. Circling around it, she took a position next to it, as she highlighted a rocky target, and fired a repulsive field at it, crushing the formation into tiny chunks of rock. Her drill kept firing pulses into the target area until there was a formidably deep hole in the rock, each pulse issuing a small cheer and rise in laughter from some of the younger members, while older ones tried to calm them down so as to not encourage Akovin in her antics.

Her other mechanically over-layed arm stretched out as she retracted her drill arm from duty, creating an invisible scoop with her shovel, before inflating the bottom field to push up and levitate a lot of rubble she had just created. With dust leaking out the sides, one could even tell where the bubbles were approximately located. With a rather uncareful imprecision, Triam turned her machine as she moved the rubble from the distant rock formation, to fall dramatically loud into her massive container.

Out of the corner of her eye, and over the din of the crowd, she spotted a face that was at least somewhat familiar. Familiar enough to brag with anyway.

"Yo, Lil, right?" She questioned, not to sure on the names really. Too many faces to remember in so little time. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

Okay.

So maybe, for the first time in several years... ever...




She was actually having a good time, and it didn't involve violence or credits.

This is good for me, she thought smiling as she desecrated more rock formations for the children's amusement.

[member="Micah Talith"], [member="Lilin Imperieuse"], [member="Kaili Talith"],

 

[Liliane]

Lilin nearly choked when she heard that Triam brag. Of course the view was wonderful -- things she'd probably never even seen before all layed out in front of her, most likely difficult to handle and on par with the galactic techology. But that did not make her feel any easier. The atmosphere was just too lighthearted around her and she couldn't just refrain from commenting sarcastically or at least with some snark to her.

"Huh, I've seen better."

A lie, it was. But not a lie that could be detected easily, she thought. After all, her tone made it a bit difficult to tell if she was telling the truth or not.

Her eyes turned from the people to her ship. She didn't know where others were. Were there others? Of course there had to be -- she couldn't even notice Micah just yet. And where there was one Talith, there just had to be others as well, right?

Perhaps they would show up eventually.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Triam Akovin"] [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] [member="Kaili Talith"]

"Nah, not cursed." Micah told his younger sister. "The name comes from the the way ionized particles flare when viewed up in the atmosphere. It's actually quite habitable. A bit arid maybe -- most of the water is in underground caves."

Micah would inform Kai of more details about the planet, perhaps with a bit too much gusto and likely would have lost Kai's interest two minutes in. The Talith was quite into the history of Moross and her people; that also included former planets and keen areas of interest. And while it was extraordinarily interesting to Micah, it was a sentiment that wasn't quite shared by the rest of his siblings.

It wasn't long before their shuttle also met up at the designated meeting point. Shuffling out, in no time did they come face to face with the forward advanced party. Now... where was Triam?

Well, at least he figured that was her name. Micah would not have to wait long though. Word got out of a ship that had brought all kinds of mining equipment already

"Come on," he gave a beckoning nod to Kai. Time to meet the expert of the group. Besides he was curious. Along the way, he caught sight of a familiar petite figure.

"Sup, Lil?" he'd call out from behind, reaching up in an attempt to ruffle her hair in good nature, flashing a grin. "Nice of you to join."

He swung his gaze over to the other woman beside her. He nodded a greeting and gave a crooked grin.

"Hey..." he shot a glance over to the gear and beyond to the teenager using one of them. "I take it you're Triam?" he held out his hand.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Thoroughly satisfied now, that that specific rock formation was now nothing but rubble collected into her vast bucket, Triam nodded in satisfaction, paying no need to the snark she received from Lil.

"Yeah yeah," She dismissed her veiled sarcasm with a wave of a hand, before the restraints on her mini-vehicle lifted so she could jump down and meet with one Micah Talith, who happened to know her name... though, given her reputation, few people in the Covenant didn't know her name. It was sort of a fact she had to live with, considering her past infamy in the Cauldron... and being one the finer tech masters in the galaxy who actually knew how to acquire vast quantities of some pretty rare stuff.

It was kind of her thing.

"You'd take it correctly, sir." Her feet threw up some dirt as she hit the ground and walked over to the younger fellow. "Akovin, at your service." She outstretched an armored hand with a pretty smile, looking for a shake or something.

[member="Kaili Talith"], [member="Lilin Imperieuse"], [member="Micah Talith"]

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Triam Akovin"]

"Good to have you," he took the hand shake with a firm grasp along with a devilish grin. He gave a nod out towards the heavy gear in the background. "Yours as well, I take it?" a brow would perk in interest and hide under his mop of dark brown hair. He may be fifteen, but it was clear he was growing into the man he would one day be.

"Aela says your the subject matter expert, round here." he mentioned his sister, as she had a bit to say about the woman. She had originally had some reservations, but was aware that Triam would be an asset. Micah, on the other hand, was far more outgoing and friendly than his sister.

"So what would you have us do?"

 

[Mao]

These kids weren't the only one who were on Demon's gate to get a bit of phrik.

Elsewhere, members of the PMC Omega Pyre were doing their own excavation. It was a small group, no more than twenty, but they had with them plenty of mining droids and equipment to make due. This was a way for the Pyre as a company to grow, specifically, when it came to phrik. They already had a mine in Seltos, but with things progressing how they had, it was always a good thing to expand and make a few credits down by the southside.

Security would first be deployed to ensure the vector was stable. The subject matter specialists - those who knew the terrain and were able to identify good potential mining points were next.

Mao was leading the group of security, ensuring everything would run smoothly. Behind her, the sound of hydraulic mining gear was already starting to drown her ears.