Private Eol Sha: Down the Dark Path (Ziso Kus)

[Darth Grimm]

The Volcanic Planet of Eol Sha

The planet's surface was blasted, an entire hemisphere glowing red with magma from it's own Moon having struck it's surface, and being shredded to pieces. Upon the other side of the planet was a cracked and bleeding continent where a signal emitted. The seat of the Galactic Standard Droidworks Manufacturing plant, which spanned over cracked rivers of blazing hot magma. A faint blue shielding covered the base, protecting it from the horrible heat, but inside it required no generators or power plants. The entire factory was powered by the planet itself, even the shielding. The immense energy requirements were all supplied by a series of Impervium churn that spun deep within the lava flow, spinning turbines and sending crackling electricity throughout the facility. Blackened on the outside, and rising up like some infernal fortress, it was spectacularly practical. No odd spires or aesthetic nonsense. Just pure functionality. At the roof was a landing pad where massive cargo ships unloaded cargo, and were re-loaded with hundreds of blue-shelled droids. The Excellent Economy droid (designated EE droids) which sported cylindrical head casings and featured a standard protocol design.

Among them were standard loading droids and factory droids performing last minute touch-ups, scattering sparks over the surface, cast by the wind which seemed constant on the planet's turbulent surface. There seemed to be turbolasers, but they were unmanned and did nothing when ships descended. That was because the ships that arrived... were invited.

A group of the blue-chassied droids climbed through a circular port that opened for them and closed behind. Perhaps about 13 of them, all unarmed, lined up to circle the landing pad as if awaiting something. Finally, from a doorway that jutted up from the roof slid open and a creature in a black cloak emerged, standing tall. At about 6'4", he was intimidating, but he could not be seen behind the robes which fluttered across his face and obscured all but a slender arm, whose fingers wrapped around the haft of a long black staff.

In these days, it was hard to mistake a Sith for anything else, and most assuredly this was a Dark Side Adept at the very least.

What he was doing at a droid factory was a matter of conjecture, but here he was.

Meanwhile, the cargo ships were leaving and returning, each with new shipments, loading and offloading their contained cargo. Beside the cloaked figure was a cyborg, who's implants allowed him to speak binary to the droids and translate instructions back and forth. The cloaked being appeared to be discussing something with him. Meanwhile, a beacon rose from one of the corners, flashing gently. The signal going out was a binary signal, sending out navigational data and a message - That a new producer of protocol droids was now in operation. Cheap, efficient, intelligent droids, meant to make the lives of their owners easier.

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Droids didn't often matter to Ziso in the grand scheme of things. Some had hidden tech that she could utilize, such as the infiltrator demolition droid of old that helped her to keep her figure short and unassuming. To gain every edge she could in a fight, she needed her cybernetics to hold every advantage they could.

Cheap, efficient, intelligent droids?

That smelled of ulterior motives. That was more enough for her interest. The assassin snuck aboard one of the cargo ships, tucked away in a corner as the ship landed. The Force settled around her as it always did, a subtle suggestion to just look away. Ignore. It worked on some machinery, even droids, though the more out of place she was the more likely she was to be seen and noticed.

In this dark corner though, that'd do enough.

As the ship landed though whatever stealth she was attempting to do was suddenly an issue. A very big issue. The Force twisted. Someone else was here, someone much more powerful. She remained out of sight as much as she could as she escaped the vessel, crawling silently along as her cybernetics did their work.

She wanted to go unnoticed, get some secrets, and leave, but it seemed her day was going to be anything but that simple.

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

The skull like head of the Darth rose, but there was no one here but droids and a cyborg to notice the change. They did notice however, when he ignited his pike. A woosh as the short blade glowed a powerful crimson, carrying the hum of a specialized lightsaber crystal. Grimm reached for the gem he carried, which pulsed with crimson light. He walked with a stoop, a deceptive limp and dependency on his staff hiding the knowledge he possessed, and the strength he could call upon. His hand with the gem thrust out, two fingers gesturing to a pair of droids that immediately dropped their load. They split in different directions, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The dark figure had not said anything, so neither droid knew what they were looking for, but they did know that it was far too soon to reveal their nature.

Grimm then pulled off his cowl, his bald head with scattered black whisps of hair made him look like the incarnation of death itself. A pair of onyx-black eyes set into his deep sockets spun and changed, glowing red, then blue, then white. Each going through a spectrum of light to see if he could detect anything, but through the duranium hulls that he himself had ordered, there was no way to detect anything within his cargo ships. The Sith Lord shuddered visibly, and soon his mechanical eyes were hissing steam. An older model, they used the energy from his body to operate, but needed to expel moisture to function.

The effect was that clouds of thin white steam occasionally jetted from his eyes.

"You can come out, sspecter," said Grimm, bluffing. "You are disscovered."

He grasped his staff with both hands then, the touch of the red Soul Gem igniting runes throughout his staff. Only a few runes lit up, but they were Sith Runes, and they boosted the physical strength that Grimm lacked. He suddenly stood erect. A tall man at his height, 6'4" at full height. He grasped his staff, which now bore the look of a lightsaber pike. A fearsome weapon, held in the bony hands of a creature that - 30,000 years ago - had been called a master of the weapon... but did he still have the skill or strength to utilize it?

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Discovered.

Ziso froze where she was, flat against the ground, crawling along the platform to stay out of sight. But the voice, the sound of a lightsaber burning into existence, had the cyborg fully attempting to hide further. Muteness in the Force, a shimmering to disappear, everything she had to fade away. But she was found, wasn't she?

An agonizingly long few seconds of silence filled the air before the acolyte stood. Slowly emerging from behind the boxes. It wouldn't be long until the droids abound found her if she didn't move. Cold calculation spoke that she had better odds standing now than later. She remained huddled under her cloak, her cybernetics hidden beneath the unnatural shade it offered. She was barely five foot like this, but that was all part of the misdirection she reached for.

"I did not expect a Sith here."

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

Grimm took a moment to examine the newcomer. A cyborg who's body screamed of technological acuity, with a build that exemplified pain over function, but was indeed quite functional. This was clearly Sith work, yet the cyborg seemed surprised to see a Sith here, monitoring a droid factory. The Dark Lord examined her thoroughly with his mechanical eyes. Some of the modifications were quite apparent, but others had no clear designation.

"On the contrary, I expected the Republic or the Jedi to discover me first. Yet here thou art." He spoke with an affectation that hadn't been used in tens of thousands of years. "So thou must understand that I cannot let thou leavest alive." The droids stiffened and stopped, but with a wave of Grimm's claw-like hand, they backed away, and went back to work. Though they could probably overwhelm her with numbers, he did not intend for her to face them alone... but seemed ready to take her on himself.

"Defend thyself, interloper." And Grimm clutched his pike, gripping the haft as he leapt with unnatural agility, his glowing lightsaber spear thrusting towards the chest of the cyborg. He moved with a speed that seemed impossible for a creature that was as weak and as slight as Grimm, but the attack was aided by the Force. Tracers of light followed the runes.

Externally, Grimm attacked without mercy, but internally Grimm was fascinated with the stealth of Ziso's form, the ability she had to hide all but a flicker of her presence from the Dark Lord. Grimm had not sensed her so much as he had sensed the danger she presented. This was something he could work with.

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Ziso's eyes narrowed, but she didn't move right away. His threat was heavy in the air. She knew this place, so she had to die. It was an honest way of thinking, but it only confirmed to the Cyborg that there was, in fact, something greater with these droids. She wanted to learn more, but before she could react he'd lunged out.

Ziso swiveled, twisting as her cybernetics aided her in not just being skewered. Her eyes widened, but she betrayed no other emotion as she pulled a lightsaber from within her cloak. A swipe upwards, aimed for the staff of the pike rather than the blade, all to try and disarm her foe while she could.

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

Grimm's staff shot up with the deflection, but he was ready. He kicked the base of it, letting it twist in his hand, and sending a flurry of strikes as he bent and spun the staff over his back and into his other hand. The blunt base came up at where her sternum should be, and then rolled over his back to be caught by his other hand, where it spun and landed again, with the lightsaber pike poised for another over-handed strike. Grimm stopped and let out a wheezingly slow laugh. "Thou hast some skill, alien..." he said, revealing that Ziso's species was not known to him - either because of the cybernetic armor she wore, or because of the rarity of the Kaleesh. "...but art thou capable of defending against this?"

Suddenly his outstretched hand clenched and his telekinetic pull reached for the very physical presence of the cyborg, attempting to draw her towards him as his other hand thrust the spear in a flurry towards her chest-plate. As he did so, his power seemed to be lessening. The pull was strong, but his movements were becoming imperceptibly slower. Still forceful, and still faster, but as each moment passed, he seemed to be losing a bit more of his edge.

It felt like he was aging in real-time. Like his strength was going from a fencer in his prime to an aging warrior. One who still had the great skill and experience of his youth, but who lacked the reaction time to time every strike and press the kill. It was a clear disadvantage that begged the question why? Why would such a being risk himself in such a duel when he could have probably ended the fight in a few strikes? Why was he allowing the fight to be prolonged?

Still, the way he fought did not leave too much time to think. He was a master of the Lightsaber Pike in an age when many Force Adepts experimented with unusual weapons. The pike afforded an advantage that lightsabers did not. Reach and accuracy. Whereas some criticized blasters for being inelegant weapons, and touted the lightsaber as the weapon of the 'civilized,' the lightsaber pike, with a resistant material as it's core makeup, was the weapon of choice for a true warrior.

Grimm was already impressed with Ziso's skill at deflecting his first strike, but would she be able to do so twice, or was the first just a fluke?

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

What was to be a swift disarming strike immediately had Ziso on the back foot. The bone mask of her cybernetics kept any emotion from showing, but desperation had taken over. Her blade came back around, to hammer down in some defense. The machine parts of her body kept her wrists from bending, from her blade from giving way under his sudden onslaught of strikes.

It did little for the blow to her sternum. Metal rang as her claws bit into the platform, keeping her from being pushed back farther than a few steps of torn up metal. She lifted her blade, held aloft in one hand as she steadied herself. There was no charging in, an assassin didn't strike out blindly. They reacted, they learned. They-

Flew. She blinked rapidly as the Force suddenly pulled her forward towards the Sith's waiting blade. A hiss escaped before the calculations came through. She was weightless practically in the pull, sailing right towards the blade without any sign of stopping, right until her compacted cybernetics extended to their full height. A clawed foot caught the ground long enough to twist her momentum. The blade carved through plates of her chest, through her cloak, but she went into the guard of the staff, past the bladed edge to bring her own blade across for his neck.

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

A short twist of his spear and the back end stopped the strike just short of his bony neck. His robes sizzled lightly from the proximity of the weapon. "Good... good. Not perfect, but good. Thou hast sacrificed thyself for a killing blow." Grimm twisted his body away, gaining distance as he held the staff aloft. Once he was fully distant from the attack, he thrust the attack aside. Ziso's lightsaber remained humming and Grimm's disengaged, leaving just the light of a single saber in the heated air. All at once, his power diminished and he collapsed against his staff. The runes ceased glowing. As did his gem.

"Come," he gestured to her, and turned his back. "We will repair thy damage and see to thy health." He snapped a finger. Two of the droids followed obediently, drawing scanners from hidden compartments in their arms and legs. The Sith Lord hobbled towards a pair of doors jutting from the rooftop. They hissed open, revealing a staircase that led deeper into the complex. Inside were hundreds of the same blue droids, each one performing a unique task. They were clearly different from the average protocol droid. They paused sometimes to look, showing autonomy and independence. They sometimes talked amongst themselves, and had almost human behaviors, though they only showed this when they thought no one was looking.

Ziso, they assumed, was a guest by the way Grimm treated her. Even though they had just witnessed her fighting him on the rooftop. No one would have lived to see the inner sanctum, and they all knew it. Ziso was the first to be brought past the upper levels. The first to meet Grimm directly. This was an unusual change in behavior and the droids took it in stride. Grimm himself knew that greater forces were at work though. The Galaxy had a sinister mind, and the Dark Lord suspected everyone and everything sought to kill him. Even ancient tradition was specifically catered to destroy him in particular.

"Tell me, cyborg, why cometh unto Eol Ssha? For me? For mine technology?" His voice shuddered, hissing harshly, and suppressed coughing. Clearly he was in failing health. Considering the display he had just put on, it must have been quite impressive when the skeletal Sith Lord was in his prime...

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Ziso breathed heavy. The carve across her chest was calculated risk. If she beheaded him, she'd be able to repair the damage. She'd failed that. Danger to her inner organs for nothing of gain. She wasn't about to give up though, holding her blade as she skittered back and away, to be prepared for the next clash. A clash that never arrived.

She blinked slowly as the Sith's blade extinguished. There were a few moments before her own fell silent and retreated back under her cloak. It was wrapped around her once more, fully encasing her in a way that made it difficult to tell what exactly was underneath. She followed quietly, letting her gaze shift to the droids as they made their way deeper within.

There was no other choice. If she didn't come along, she was certain he'd end her. Slow as he seemed now, the skill he showed was an unknown that she didn't dare test yet.

"Technology. The droids seemed suspicious. I was looking to use them to improve my own cybernetics."

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

"A warrior must know when to take the greatest of risks to disarm or dispatch their foe," Grimm said, his voice unusually strong, even as his physical body physically weakened. "Honor, fair-play, chivalry, these are things that do not exist in combat." He led her through vast hallways, past assembly lines where dozens of EE type droids hung, where they received automated touch-ups from a series of machines. As they progressed, Ziso could see the various states of assembly of these droids. Near the beginning, she could see the vast array of deadly weapons being placed in housings in the arms and legs. Sonic disruptors, neurotoxins, and so forth.

These droids were not just what they appeared - high-tech protocol droids, but assassins. Protocol droids could go places and be near people that an ordinary assassin couldn't dream of being. It was a remarkably brilliant idea. Offer a droid that could do all the things and more than what a protocol droid could normally do - like the R2 unit was to astromech droids - and fit it with the skill and tools to enact mass syncronized assassinations. One could conceivably destabilize the entire Galaxy - regardless of affiliation.

A Jedi would sense them, probably, but senators and admirals? First Order heads and Galactic Senate? They wouldn't stand a chance to these hidden killers. There was a brilliance to it, but one that reminded those versed in history of other such synchronized assassinations.

"We sshall see to thy repairss... For thou hassst promise," He seemed weaker and weaker as they progressed, until he was hobbling like an old man, leaning upon his staff. A pathetic shell of what Ziso had faced on the rooftop. It looked as though she could easily slay him and take the droid factory for herself at this point, but then Grimm said something that might banish any such thoughts completely. "...and then, once thou art whole again, I sshall teach thee."

They arrived in what looked like a medical unit. A few piecemeal droids sat unfinished against the walls. Others in glass cases looked like prototypes, and then another, which was half-ripped apart stood out from the rest. An IG droid. One of the numbered units, not one of the lancers - though those were equally terrifying.

Somehow, Grimm had captured one without triggering it's failsafe. If Grimm were capable of such a thing, there was no telling how much reverse-engineering he had placed into his EE droids. The thought to any resident of the Galaxy might have been mind-numbing. Imagine a cadre of protocol-assassin droids, placed in key points in the Galaxy, all with the programming of the most deadly, most self-aware droids that ever reached the market.

It was apocolyptic.

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Ziso remained huddled under her cloak. Her figure had returned to it's shorter stature, her features all obscured by what was clearly an effect of the cloth itself. She nodded once. The life of an Assassin was a life of cheating, unfair combat. To win was to kill. There was no limit, no line that couldn't be crossed, if it meant victory.

Her gaze focused on the droids, especially as they were opened. Her hunch had been correct, they were more than met the eye. Her eyes wandered back to the Sith, narrowed faintly. He seemed weaker, but Ziso knew better than most to never judge by appearances. She herself worked to ensure as little information could be gleamed so surprise was on her side. The more she was underestimated, the easier a blade could be slipped unseen.

".. What would you teach me?"

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

The Dark Lord turned to face her, to say his face was gaunt was an understatement. His lips were drawn to his gums, so thin that it was hard to tell there was even flesh there. To most, it would be a horrifying sight, but the cyborg had seen even worse in her own reflection when she had originally been rebuilt. "To fight. To defeat any enemy. Including myself. To usse the Dark Sside, if thou art able." He gestured to the table.

"Lay there." He circled around the table, muttering to himself, seeming like a madman as he concerned himself with the machines there. He pressed buttons and touched screens, and a series of arms descended. Needles filled with unknown liquids. Vices meant to adjust and apply new plates and additions. "I will not modify thee as you thou art, if later thou doth decide a change in thy being is needed... I shalt consider thy requesst."

Grimm cast his staff aside, and instead of clattering to the ground, it screeched across the floor as if it were compelled to stand straight, and resisted any effort to move it.

His murmers took on a spectral quality and the room visibly flickered into darkness, before the lights returned to full brightness.

"Uli izizi um cvul, ililul chadzi sichi ottoi ᠎tuti yul ana..." the words lit up a single crimson Rune on his staff. The crimson light slithering from the base, up to the middle where the single rune glistened like glowing blood.

"The Spirits of the Ancients have heard our call."

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

"If I am able." She echoed the statement, eyes narrowed in distrust. That was the trick behind it. This was part of a test, a larger test that she didn't fully grasped. Still hadn't even as she laid on the table. Compliance was how she would survive for now. She glanced to the staff, narrowing her eyes for a moment. She felt the Force, even could use it to some degree.

Not to that degree.

"What do you mean ancients?"

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

"Quiet," snapped Grimm in annoyance, but answered anyway. "There are Sspirits as old as time that are ssteeped in the Dark energy of the Force. They are around uss at all times, their will becomess the power in the wordss." He chuckled deeply, a gutteral sound in his chest. "Think thou that the wordss have power without the sspirits of the ancient Ssith?" He laughed. "Without them, the wordss are without meaning. They cannot take hold. Same with the lettering."

Grimm raised his hand, and the droids moved quickly, tapping at panels which lowered the machinary down towards Ziso's chest. Needles dripping with ichor, clamps which snapped and attached. Torches that heated and repaired plates with durasteel and impervium - a metal which had once been used in the Clone Wars on ship plating, and in the walls of Onderon. Lightsaber resistant, but not perfectly so. Threaded alloys through, and throughout.

Ziso had thankfully experienced no biological damage, but there was much physical damage to her chestplate. This was repaired quickly and with minimal discomfort. Then the machines withdrew and rose back to the ceiling. The droids spun about to observe. Grimm threw out his hand and his staff returned with such a forceful smack that it seemed far too forceful for his frail body.

"Thou hast much to learn, Apprentice." The last word sent spittle dripping down his chin, as he had only the thinnest lips to catch the spray. "Under my tutalage, thou shalt learn the greatest ssecrets of the Ancient Ssith. Thou wilt learn the alchemy, the language the ssorcery, and the traditionss of King Adas himsself. Thou sshalt learn the sskills that crushed the Infinite Empire..." To this, there was no room for debate. Grimm would give her no chance to deny his gifts. He fully intended to kill her if she failed him, and expect her to kill him if he failed her.

Grimm turned to examine the readouts from the sensors in the medical tools, pondering over them one by one. "Thy ssynapsess were created, it sseemss, to defeat Force-Userss in combat. Thy memory cells store the fighting styless of those thy fight. Formidable indeed, but thou musst learn to formulate thine own sstrategy. Until then thou sshalt be... incomplete."

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Ziso fell silent as she listened. Spirits? Ancient words and lettering? Sorcery. She knew of it, and what it could provide. Her own cloak had aspects of it, though crude and inexperienced. Her eyes focused on the droid stitching her cybernetics back together. Curiosity at the metals that acted like thread. Plating torched on. There was mild worry about her precious few organs that remained, but she knew better already than to question.

Than to even flinch.

Slowly the Cyborg sat up, glancing to the screens herself. Alchemy and Sorcery, for an assassin? It would give her more tools to use, and if she could make better cloaks than what she wore, that was already a boon in her mind.

"That sounds ideal. Simply parroting what I see will only get me so far."

Darth Grimm

 

[Darth Grimm]

As if reading her thoughts, Grimm spoke; "The greatesst of the Ssith Asssasssins utilized every asspect of their training to defeat their enemiess. Thou hasst a great sskill already." Grimm said nothing of himself sharing this aspect - the ability to lower his strength in the Force. This was not praise. This weakness was a double edged sword, and he intended to fill the gaps where she lacked. "Thou shalt learn the Force, though the Jedi would have rejected ssomeone like thee, for it is not the strength that matterss as much as the sskill, and a fool knows not how to compensate. Only how to wasste a talent." Grimm raised his hand, and a syringe wiggled free from the robotic arm above, struggling and then breaking away, then shooting like a bullet into the chassis of one of the droids standing by.

The droid struggled and fell, a crackle of electricity indicating it's fried circuits. Until Grimm gestured to them, the others did not move to help their comrade. "Repair thiss one," he ordered, then gestured towards Ziso to rise from the table, her repairs completed.

"Come. We musst begin thy training now. Time iss a luxury for the young." Grimm's hand outstretched, his staff snapped into his palm with a cruel sounding 'crack,' but he simply leaned heavily against it and awaited his new apprentice.

​

Ziso Kus

 

[Ziso Kus]

Ziso watched the droid fall from the sudden syringe. Thin, hollow metal, accurately disabling and destroying a droid. The cyborg was only that much more aware of how precarious her position was here. She had still more spots that could be hit within her chassis to end her life. It was a sense of dread that she didn't dare let influence how she moved.

She got up as prompted. Immediately fell in line to follow the Sith.

"You spoke of the Force. Is that what I am to learn first?"

Darth Grimm