[ENDGAME - Flashpoint] Wretches and Kings

[Ellie Mors]

x
Empress Teta

It was a quiet night, like any other in the capital. The hustle and bustle of the political forum silenced as politicians, the aristocracy, and nobility retired to their homes, to their husbands, wives, and children. So protected, so privileged in their seat above the common man. They were the remnant of a bygone era, a Krath that would have welcomed their leadership with so much more vigor than their former Empress had if their alignment had been anything but with the Jedi. Secured in their position with the threat of an intervention by a galactic superpower in the name of a purge of the dark side if any resistance rose up, protested the abdication of the throne by the people's champion - a threat reinforced by the war the Alliance that had conquered them in.

Too long had this gone on, the nobility and the upper class enjoyed growing fat on the discomfort of their citizens - they grew complacent on the silence of the public. Any why wouldn't they? Any show of support for an Empress that was outed as a Sith that had fallen in with the "enemy" was certainly a show of support for the Sith themselves, wasn't it? It was time for a change, an exchange of power from one hand to the next. The machine was broken and it needed to be replaced - its parts forcefully removed and its operators punished for their participation in its exploitation of those it survived on. The start of a new era, a leadership under a Krath led by the tired youth.

-

She grew up in a privileged home, to a father that was paid to represent the people as an aristocrat in the parliament and a mother that lived comfortably at home in their mansion, but she saw through the machinations of a predatory political climate when the Sith revoked the rule of the man that had been the acting political ruler of the Krath - watched as her parents lost everything. Watched as her mother committed suicide and her father turned to alcohol, never acclimating to the change from a cushy life to a life where real work was required to survive with a limited budget. But she didn't seek vengeance against their new leadership - instead the blindfold was removed from her eyes and she saw how hard it was to live at the bottom of society.

Life wasn't easy at the bottom - it never is - and thanks to a dismal genetic pool, she was never the picture of femininity. Her boyish looks, her plain features, they lent to a life in the labor force. She joined up with the Krath at their lowest levels, initially ignored until she cut her hair short and enlisted in their youth movement to clean up the streets - a choice that pushed her to the extreme she now found herself in now.

Xzav Ine strode through the streets without her signature armor, her helmet gone. Hardly recognizable as the militant leader of the Krath, answering in secret to their Empress in exile, Xzav strode towards the Iron Citadel with one goal in mind.

Change.

[member="Vilaz Munin"]

 

[Vilaz Munin]

He had been here only once in his life, the day when the Mandalorians under the rule of Mand'alor the Architect, otherwise known as [member="Gilamar Skirata"], assaulted the Core World of Empress Teta. A world once controlled by the One Sith that was now nothing but ruins. It was a command that Vilaz didn't wholeheartedly agreed to during that tie when he was much younger then. However, he didn't break his loyalty he had to his brethren and Sole Ruler and thus fought beside them until the end. The end of that battle resulted in a defeat for the Mandalorians with many casualties that included the death of their Mand'alor and other high ranking officers. All for what? To avenge the death of the deceased dar'manda, Mia Monroe? A fate of her own choosing as she fought as a mercenary for the Galactic Republic against the One Sith.

It was pathetic, or at least for him it was. Emotions ran high within the upper echelons of the Mandalorians that resulted another tragedy for them. Clearly pathetic. They were weak before, and now that weakness evolved into something more diabolical that many fell to it.

But not him.​

​

It's why Vilaz was contracted for this assignment. Out of all of the..."Mandalorians" out there that were just a joke, he was one of the minority of Mandalorians that was taken serious. His culture mocked by public weddings and whatnot. Disgusting was all he could think of that nonsense. Disgraceful too.

But today would be unlike those years when the Mandalorians invaded Empress Teta. The Munin and a unit of his trained warriors accompanied him for this mission. No, not mission more like...revolution. His heart held hatred for the Galactic Alliance and for its Jedi. Wished nothing but for them to cease breathing. Fortunately, the time had come for such event, and the Concordian and his warriors would raze to their liking.

Vilaz did not come here as a conqueror unlike that time ago when his people attacked this world.

No, he had come here as a savior.​

​

[member="Xzav Ine"]​

 

[Ellie Mors]

x

Politics were a fickle thing, and even the most fanatic of extremists fell victim to the divisions they caused. The Krath were no different - neither were the Jedi or the Sith. People always saw a different vision, and they always justified the means they took to get there with their lofty goals. Who were the Krath, really? A bunch of rich nobles, or perhaps their bored children? History would like us to believe that the Krath were extinct, and that they'd only ever been the most affluent of the most powerful youth in the system. In reality, and in the modern era, they were as diluted and divided as any political or religious group - those that desired to relive the Sith wars, once led by the late Keto line, and those that sought an end to the subjugation of their system by republics and so-called democracies. A Teta for Tetans, Xzav had described it - a Teta free from the grip of the foreign powers that wanted to wear the three jewels of the core like a crown.

Sure, they'd thrown in their vocal support for a free Coruscant - why wouldn't they? They were just as exploited as they were. Freedom was all Coruscant wanted, after all, and they'd even voiced their own support for a core free of outside influence. An independent core. Of course there were elements in the Krath divided on this matter - those that wanted to build themselves up as an unrealistic empire, and those that had, as Xzav desired, wished largely to be left to their own devices and to build themselves up rather than expand like some tyrannical state. Even the replacement that had stood in for her empress-in-exile had supported this, but the division ran deep enough that even a Keto wasn't immune to the ambition of those in their own group.

The very man and woman that occupied this Iron Citadel were that woman's parents, even if in name only.

-

There were only two weapons on her person, a pair of knives that never left her side, but they were two more than she needed - both of which were held within her sleeves. Two of the royal guards approached her with blaster rifles drawn, leaving their posts at the gate, one trailing slightly behind the other. "Name and identification." The one that drew closest demanded, his gun raised to aim at her chest threateningly. Her lips transitioned from a thinly pressed line to a grin, her expression clouding as she continued her approach without a word. "I said identify yourself!" The guard shouted, firing a warning shot up into the sky - a shot that stopped her in her tracks as her eyes followed the course of the green bolt into the sky before it disappeared. "Yeah, next one goes in you if you don't follow my instructions." He said with a smirk, relaxing his shoulders a bit as he stopped and aimed the weapon back at her. "Don't need to be scared, girl, just show me your I.D. and we can both be on your way when you turn around and leave the royal palace behind."

Amusing. She smiled.

"You think I'm afraid of you?" She asked, looking up again, and raised her right hand to gesture towards the sky. "What, because of that?" She asked, laughing openly. "No, you've done me a favor." Xzav informed the guard as she started walking towards the gate again, ignoring the guard as he narrowed his eyes and prepared to shoot. "I'm warning you - I'll shoot!" He said, his finger curling around the finger. "Go ahead and try." She replied dismissively, nodding her head to the other guard that had trailed behind him. A shot rang out, blood spraying across the duracrete pavement, but it wasn't the sound of a blaster that ripped through the air - it was the sound of a Mandalorian ripper as it punctured the back of the man's neck and separated his head from his shoulders.

Xzav had intended to fire a blaster into the air as a signal to [member="Vilaz Munin"] and the rest of the Krath and Mandalorian mercenaries she'd included in her coup that they were starting - she wasn't disappointed, of course, that one of the palace's own had done it on their own volition, however unaware they were. "Kill anyone who comes to stop me." Xzav said as she passed through the opening gate, the Mandalorian dressed in the guise of a guard nodding in affirmation of the command. The plan was simple - across the Royal District were numerous agents of the Krath loyal to her and Mandalorians that were placed strategically around the capital, each agent and Mandalorian were assigned to an important family that had formed an opposition against the younger generation of the Krath or had supported their continued alignment with the Alliance. Xzav was to personally handle the Keto family - the late Nadja Keto's mother and father - while Vilaz would deal with the Wulfes, the only branch of the royal family that supported a voluntary membership with the Alliance.

This wouldn't be a hostage crisis - there would be no ransoms paid, no price that could buy them what they were coming for.

This would be a purge.

This is a revolution.

 

[Vilaz Munin]

All ears were waiting. Waiting for the signal that would birth this revolution and free the Tetans from years of oppression coming from the bilateral accord of the Jedi and Galactic Alliance. How hypocritical and double moral those ideas were. They say they fight for freedom; freedom for the people, but there was no freedom to be seen here. It was all just a fabricated lie constructed by the noble elites of Empress Teta and the upper echelon of the Alliance. After the forced exile the very recent Empress had to suffer the planet became nothing but a puppet that was leeched to benefit the stability and expansion of the now under sieged Alliance. All simply because of the opinions and ideals that the Empress expressed which went against every cornerstone this double moral government was build upon.

But in order to efficiently tear down those settlements, they needed to plan...carefully and intelligently. Vilaz was a man that crusaded outright indiscriminately against anyone. He cared less about civilians, simply because they weren't his people. But for this particular event he wouldn't fall on his barbaric, cruel yet effective methods of combat. The man had some sense of humanity and honor within him to which he agreed to Xzav's strategy. The only thing he hated about it was that the was stripped of his personal Mandalorian armor and donned the armor of deceased Royal Guard. It did have...some quality to it as they were meant for an elite unit instructed to protect the nobles with their lives, but it was inferior when compared to his own.

Just his thought and opinion.

His anticipation for the woman's signal grew desperately. One of his officers, Davaab, was assigned to her as security detail and to take the first life of this revolution.

But then...

PEW​

​

...and it commenced.

Work had to be done now and quickly. Vilaz and his associates, a mix between Krath agents and his warriors, were assigned to Wulfes. Not one would survive and the Warlord would see to it. The rooms would be painted with blood and the floors littered with flesh. No mercy would be given today. Only death which would secure the victory for the revolution and the future of the Tetans.

The Mandalorian and his allies strode through the hallways swiftly as they could not afford their targets to escape with their lives. There'd be some obstruction in their way with Guards loyal to the families, but it'd be a pest that would be suppressed without any problems.

[member="Xzav Ine"]​