Faction Directive: Purge

[Rinea]

DEEP SPACE - QUIBERON SECTOR
UNV VAUNTED INTEGRITY
Tags: Darth Anathemous | Linegrave | Sachi Maren


The Fleet held pattern far from any system with even the nearest star a dim and distant light, and at its head was the remnant's flagship, Vaunted Integrity, where High Command convened to address the threats of treason--once and for all.

The most senior officers gathered at a round table in a room not far below the bridge. However, elsewhere in the ship, something else was afoot.

"What do you mean the power keeps cycling?! Try it again!"

"Systems aren't responding, sir. Sensors are offline."

"Get them back up, now!"

The door to the control room opened for Rinea, who found the entire staff in uproar over a sudden technical failure. Long and short-range sensors were currently offline, meaning the starship was effectively blind to its surroundings. The Chiss officer acted as if she belonged and used the opportunity to access one of the computers.

In another area of the ship, Linegrave 's door would open, with no one standing guard outside.

The final stroke of the keys--a simple ping sent out to another ship, located at a nearby point within deep space. Darth Anathemous had already received the details via a holodisk. Her ship would fly in during the sensory outage and dock with an emergency airlock located beneath the bridge, and only a few halls down from the conference room. The disk also contained a route to and from the room. Everything else was left up to her.

Like a ghost, Rinea left as silently as she entered.

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Armor + Robes
Tags: Rinea Linegrave Sachi Maren |

The ship had docked without issue, as the chiss predicted.

Darth Anathemous stepped through the airlock, heralded by the clack of armored boots and whirring of Exo-muscle.

Not Kaila, not the fleet's secretive financier nor that woman who so gingerly shared smokes with Rinea— only the intelligence officer's secret weapon remained now. The poor fools in that command center had never heard that name, never seen the Lord of Blades take the field beside emperors and conquerors.

They had no idea what was coming.

In another time she might have pitied them, but that was not what she needed of Anathemous right now.

The young Darth didn't look at the first guards to approach, didn't even lift a finger. One second they tried to point a rifle, in the next they'd been thrown against the walls as she passed them by, leaving them limp. Unconscious perhaps, but she wasted no time checking. The march continued down the hall towards the only thought on her mind; her target.

A quick glance at her gauntlet-computer told the Sith her query wasn't far, just down a couple more halls and turns. Assuming nobody noticed her long enough to raise the alarm, Anathemous was certain she'd make quick work of High Command.

The thought quickened her pace from from a march to a run, and from that to a servo-assisted sprint.

Whatever awaited her around the next corner, it wouldn't be a problem for long.

 

[Linegrave]

Rinea | Darth Anathemous

Oh, it had already started, well Rinea worked fast.

She took her time with it. The dear Sith would need time to do her thing, she didn't want to interrupt her in the middle of it. Linegrave sure knew she didn't like it when she was being interrupted while she was doing her work.

Clothes put on. Armor on. Saber pike clipped to her belt. Linegrave sipped from her cup, the wine tasted good, but she couldn't drain it. A clear head was necessary when the future was being dictated anew. Head tilted slightly and then she nodded. "Yes, I do think that that is enough time. We still need to walk over there after all."

Linegrave set herself into motion.

The corridors were busy past her specific corner. All of them hushed up when she passed. Like a storm cloud ruining a sunny day. Another corner turned and now up on the elevators.

This was going to be such fun.

 

[Rinea]

Rinea sauntered down the hall as a team of engineers scrambled to inspect the malfunctions, but it wasn't just the sensors or the power cycling; various systems across the board experienced malfunctions.

A pair of techs knelt in front of an exposed panel to investigate the situation.

"Can't believe it's already falling apart like this. I swear it was all green the last inspection."

"Well, that is why they call it the cascade effect."

The Chiss slowed her movement and subtly reached into their minds, filling one with distracting thoughts about the other. She knew the two would occasionally fraternize. Thankfully, that was an advantage now and would slow down their work.

It wouldn't be too long before they realized the problem was anything more than a simple bit of sabotage. The Sith Lord would undoubtedly have trouble leaving, but the officer had every bit of faith that it would be done.

She switched channels on her comms. "Enjoying your walk?" Linegrave

Darth Anathemous

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Armor + Robes
Tags: Rinea Linegrave

Anathemous rounded the corner with quick strides.

A technician looked up from a door panel which had locked him out, first with confusion at the heavy footfalls, then in a panic. He went for the alarm opposite from the panel but cried out in pain as a blur of crimson light passed by. His severed hand hit the floor first, then his knees.

His cries alerted a two man patrol who came running from one of the few unlocked doors ahead, quickly taking aim at the intruder. She skidded to a halt, throwing out an open hand. Two shots zipped past, but her attackers ceased to move as if frozen in time, muscles twitching but unable to obey command, left with only fearful glances.

The wounded technician beside her tried to press the alarm, but was met with a purple haze as lightning loosed from her opposite finger tips, coursing through the electronics until they popped and spat sparks of their own.

Only then did Anathemous release her grip on his compatriots, and by then her nimble shoto had already sailed back, right through them and into her waiting hand. Just as easily the blade was sheathed in her belt as though nothing happened.

She continued running towards the doors ahead, each pumping stride accompanied by heavy breaths, and every step closer, another question.

How far was Rinea willing to go?

If she was willing to wield Anathemous as a weapon against her own, what else would she do to achieve her ambitions? She wanted to trust her of course, she'd already gone further than most to earn it.

But she couldn't help feeling difference between her and her masters weren't so black and white.

Not so much as Rinea made them out to be.

Suddenly a smell assaulted her nostrils; burnt rubber. She glanced at her arm where a plasma bolt had burnt through her synthatex sleeve, and only now was the pain beginning to register.

Kaila grit her teeth and shook her head.

Anathemous was rarely so distracted in the field.

 

[Linegrave]

Rinea Darth Anathemous

"Quite." She responded to Rinea's question. "Be a dear and let me know when I can start moving in that direction with purpose."

Every fiber of her itched to go already.

Her senses were stretched out, always wary of schemes from Sith vermin, but for now the Lord seemed to be adhering to the route that had been agreed to previously. The one that would minimize the loss of life of the innocent. It was one thing to agreed to wholesale slaughter of a lazy council that would cause all of their deaths, but Linegrave was less happy about the loss of those who were simply in the way.

But there was nothing to do about it now.

She kept up her current trajectory.

It would be a long loop, circling around, just letting everyone see her. As long as the alarms didn't ring that is all she had to do. The senior council hadn't called for her after all. They still thought her under house arrest, even if it was mutually agreed house arrest.

 

[Rinea]

High Command was well unaware of the events that transpired elsewhere in the ship.

No alarms have been tripped. However, local interior defenses would trigger a general alert to be investigated further. Rinea could only provide so much interference; it was impossible to shut down defenses completely without raising suspicions that might've compromised their plan.

"I trust her to move fast," Rinea responded to the Cipherum. "Make your way. Make a show of things if you have to, but her escape is paramount."

She wondered how Kaila--no, how Anathemous was handling the situation. "I'm sorry," she whispered to herself. "This is the only way."

The Chiss arrived at a security room.

"Ma'am," one of the officers greeted her with a nod.

She took her seat and switched the feed to the room where High Command met. Already, they were deliberating charges of blanket insubordination against swaths of the junior officers. Her included.

Darth Anathemous | Linegrave

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Armor + Robes
Tags: Rinea Linegrave

It all happened so fast.

She jammed her saber into the door panel, it slid open and all went silent.

They stared, High Command, Anathemous, an exchange which past in a heartbeat and yet for all of them, it felt as though the longest they'd ever endured. Her gaze swept the gathering, taking in every face, that split second of confusion twitching with the first signs of realization.

A beat passed.

Just once.

An of the officers went for his pistol, and sealed the fate of everyone in that room.

She brought her saber up with practiced ease, batting the shot away with great strength which sent it tearing into the man closest to her. The sith's gaze sharpened on him even as movement struck her periphery. He'd identified himself as the current threat, and even as Anathemous swung sidelong into his compatriot, she looked at no one else.

One tried to stand in her way but the laminanium boned Sith backhanded him with a closed fist.

The shear weight and power behind that blow sent him colliding with another officer, though broken and bloodied, the man had died long before he touched the ground. She'd already leapt upon the table before the others thought to stand, and when the man who shot at her had an opening to do so again, she'd already entered a sprint.

One swing from below, another on high, two more shots sailed into the ceiling and showered the room in sparks.

The third swing came right down the middle.

Another shot rang out from behind, the impact of which made her stumble to one knee, gripping the edge of the conference table for support. She could feel their panic in the air as she stood again, the burning hole in her robes revealing not wounds but the black sheen of Sith steel.

It fueled her power, eased the flow of dark energy already pooling within.

When she turned with an outstretched hand, everyone and everything that was not nailed down began to lift as though gravity had no dominion here. All except Anathemous.

They hit the ceiling, some dead on impact.

She took but one moment to confirm their identities, that all her targets were present, before throwing her saber.

The nimble blade spun in a circular motion for a few seconds, destroying light fixtures, raining sparks. Only when all had gone silent again did it return to her outstretched hand, suddenly clipped to her belt.


Golden eyes searched their stilled faces, confirming one by one that that all Rinea's targets were down. Right until she spotted the camera.

There was little risk that her identity may be revealed, no face to see here, only the fiery glow which peered from the shade beneath her hood. No face, no person to recognize, just a fiery glow which had only grown brighter, feeding off the dark side which bled from the chaos.

She didn't know who was watching, could not comprehend in this moment that perhaps it was Rinea's guiding hand.

These were the eyes of an animal, staring at another threat.

The remains dropped all around, and as she reached out one last time, the lens began to crack.

Then the feed went dead.

 

[Rinea]

Red eyes watched coldly as one by one, her superior officers were cut down.

The pace at which the Sith Lord moved, the ferocity in her actions, the disregard of an empty heart... There was no hesitation. No mercy. In a twisted sense, it was like watching an artist paint her masterpiece in cauterized flesh and the sparks of material damage. She couldn't even keep up, as each one died before the Chiss had a moment to identify the individuals.

So this is the power of a Sith Lord. She mused to herself. There was both pride and fear behind the thought, but also disgust, and in a strange way, a sense of shame on Kaila's behalf. Although Anathemous was ever the beast, Rinea couldn't help but feel as if it was her own hand covered in all that blood.

"Be direct, child. You are using your pet to murder your brothers and sisters of the cause. For the sin of being slow, cautious, more concerned with the well-being of today than the well-being of tomorrow." She raised a finger. "I do not disapprove, but when one plans treason, it helps to plan it with both eyes open and no self-deception involved."

The officer furrowed her brow and bundled the cloth of her uniform in a clenched fist. Linegrave was right. Rinea hated to know it.

When the Darth turned her attention to the camera, she couldn't help but feel seen. For a moment, it was as if the Sith's eyes closed the very distance between them. Rinea felt herself in the room, and she was frozen. Not only in the sense of shock, but literally--she felt frigid. A blue hand reached up to touch the collar of her jacket as she flashed back to that moment in the alley.

Fear.

The feed went black, and Rinea shook herself back to reality only when the alarm was raised. By now, the whole ship was on high alert. It wouldn't be too long before the sensors were back online, and Kaila would have to hurry if she were to make it off the ship alive.

Darth Anathemous

 

[Linegrave]

Rinea Darth Anathemous

Head tilted a fraction a moment before the alarm started.

Linegrave grabbed the first officer that passed her, yanking him into a pause. "Go to the bridge, see what the fuck is happening, I am going to check on the alarm. Have a squad of security troops assemble and await my instructions immediately." Before the officer could respond, Linegrave had already let him go and left him in her wake as she stomped her way to the elevator.

She unclipped her lightsaber pike and as the doors opened she could only scowl.

Already bodies. Living, dead, it didn't matter. People got hurt. Her hands were itching to put the Sith through the viewport, no matter what deal Rinea had made with her.

She followed the trail of mayham, inching closer and closer to the conference room that had contained the senior leadership.

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Armor + Robes
Tags: Rinea Linegrave

Kaila blinked.

Hands dropped to her side.

It wasn't till now that the moment processed in her mind, glancing over her shoulder, surrounded by the bodies of a foreign command staff. She took a few, deep, steadying breaths and pulled her lips into a thin line. Not for them, not exactly. It wasn't that she was incapable of remorse, rather she simply did not know them well enough to feel it to the extent that most deserved. Kaila, Anathemous, whoever she was now, had trained her entire life for this, even before she was Sith.

Was it too late to be anything more?

Looking at the carnage, Anathemous exhaled slowly and nodded to her own question.

She'd done her job, now she was walking back out that door, passed the melted lock and into the hall. The technician from before, missing his hand, crawled away into a nearby room. The sith just pulled her cloak tighter and walked passed.

It wasn't until she heard footsteps again that she began to run, remembering now that she was on a timer.

Sensors would be online shortly.

"...shit..."

One hand on her sheath, one arm pumping, the lord of blades was prepared to draw upon and crash through whoever or whatever stood in her way if she had to.

Kaila would escape one way or another.

She always did.

 

[Linegrave]

Rinea Darth Anathemous

Linegrave moved resolutely.

Like a glacier finally getting into motion after an epoch of frozenness. She turned another corner and suddenly was face to face with the vermin.

Before Kaila could respond with her sabers Linegrave twitched her fingers.

The Force immediately moved through and then past her. Like a cage around the Sith so she couldn't attack or withdraw.

"Interesting." Linegrave said quietly as she watched Irons like an insect. "Rinea has quite some faith in you. I wonder what inspired that."

Letting the Sith know that whoever else Linegrave was, she was in the know. Which meant that she presumably wasn't going to try and kill her.

"Did you finish your task?"

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Armor + Robes
Tags: Linegrave Rinea

Anathemous saw the barrier before she knew what it meant.

She slid to a sidelong stop, one hand still wrapped around her sheath, the other hovering just above, ready to summon the blade within. The pause hardly lasted, a glanced exchanged not with Linegrave, but the distortion between them. Something was wrong with the air.

Before Linegrave spoke, the Sith had turned around and swung at the opposite wall of translucence.

A grunt was her only reaction, but for a moment, she was already pushing her fist slowly through, light shimmering around it as she summoned up a barrier of her own, pulled close to the skin. If one were familiar with Tutiminis, they may recognize the similarities as Anathemous acted on the transitionary state between barrier and bodily shield, forcing them to stay in the in-between phase.

The pressure made it difficult, but her fist slowly sunk deeper, spurred on by Exo-muscle and shear will, turning a cumbersome protection bubble into a spear tip, with which she planned to force her way through.

At least, until the woman spoke.

"Interesting." Linegrave said quietly as she watched Irons like an insect. "Rinea has quite some faith in you. I wonder what inspired that."

Golden eyes regarded her over broad shoulders.

Linegrave's intention may have been to establish a degree of trust, but the former Kainite had made a career of preparing for betrayals that may or might never come. Her fist continued to pierce the veil, slowly.

Perhaps that was enough of an answer, that someone so distrusting put it aside for Rinea.

Letting the Sith know that whoever else Linegrave was, she was in the know. Which meant that she presumably wasn't going to try and kill her.

"Did you finish your task?"

Anathemous did not answer.

Only nodded.

 

[Rinea]

"Ma'am."

Rinea stared at the blank screen.

"Ma'am, what are your orders?!"

She snapped back into the real world and glanced over to the source of anxiety. A security officer. Others in the room scrambled to and from their stations--it was chaos.

The Chiss took a deep breath and steeled herself. "Lock down the ship and send a general fleet-wide alert. We are under attack!" She barked back.

Then, she stood from the chair and left the room, making her way towards an elevator that would carry her further up the command tower. A soldier rushed out of it, nearly bumping into her. Where are you going? She wondered. The confusion worked to their advantage, but it also highlighted the many glaring problems the fleet had faced up to this point. Such confusion and doubt would have no place in its future.

She stepped into the elevator and went up.

Get off the karking ship, Kaia.

Darth Anathemous | Linegrave

 

[Linegrave]

Rinea Darth Anathemous

"Not very talkative, are you?"

Bemused as she watched Kaila dig her way through her field. It was like watching a trapped animal chewing its way through their own leg just to be able to get away.

"Oh well. Run along, Sithling. The other way, this way has quite some soldiers coming in soon. I will give you... a minute head-start." She snapped her fingers and the shield suddenly fell away.

She had made sure to intercept her right where a blind spot existed in the security system. Alongside with ensuring that the guards were some ways behind her and kept the line.

"One... two... three..."

Yes, Linegrave was actually going to count.

Maybe that was when the realization would hit. This was a game to her. Something fun to play with, because she was so utterly bored by how things had gone up until now.

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Armor + Robes
Tag: Linegrave Rinea

Anathemous ripped her gauntleted hand away soon as barrier dropped.

She'd been nearly elbow deep by then.

The Lord of Blades simply marched by as if nothing happened, and yet her step slowed for just a moment the two women nearly brushed shoulders, regarding Linegrave from the corner of her molten eye.

"If you ever threaten my mission again. You will lose your fucking asset."

Anathemous rarely swore.

Her voice was soft, young for a Sith of her station, but carried that hint of weathering that only war and experience could. It may carry that Imperial accent now, perhaps showed signs that they'd tried to tame her over that short life of hers, but every waking moment of it had been spent doing exactly this.

Maybe she was the animal Linegrave thought she was, but just like all the others, she gave her reason to be nothing else.

And then, quickly as she'd arrived, Anathemous was gone round that corner. The Exo-muscle was working overtime prevent her legs from tiring, allowing her to keep up a powerful sprint throughout the remainder of the ship. She'd wasted a few seconds to remind them she wasn't there's to tame, but she'd made up the difference faster than most.

<<"Zero, get ready to detach on my mark.">>

​