Graviton Engorgement [SITH]

[Onrai]

THE MAW, 69th Imperial Assault Fleet, Tulak Hord-class Star Destroyer Gorgon, Bridge

The Maw. An ancient construct of black holes woven together to seal off the Dark Side entity known as Abeloth. Centuries ago, there was an Imperial research and development outpost located in the cluster of black holes, and though they had grown more distant, the installation of multiple connected asteroids coming to ruin, there were still things, interesting artifacts stashed here that could quite possibly give whoever acquired them an advantage in the upcoming war.

And it was because of these artifacts that Circe and the 69th Imperial Assault Fleet were here with several Captivas-class Star Destroyers. Circe needed to move forward with her agenda, and the best way to do that was to acquire technology from the Maw for the Empire... and herself. That was what the Captivases were here for.

"All ships, set scanning to your broadest frequency range. Anything we can find here, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, we take with us. We're not leaving anything behind. Understood?"

Silently, she motioned for the bridge crew to scan the black holes. She was looking for an extraordinarily faint signal...

@[member="Nicholas DragonsFlame"] @[member="Gregor Gideon"] @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra watched silently, but not the sith, the officers and navigators. Finding the work more interesting than anything the sith aboard could show her as she stood there on that bridge. She could tell the sith officers were feeling a mixture of annoyance, worry, and amusement at her interest but their feelings didnt matter to her. Knowledge was all that mattered and she would learn as much as she could in the time she had.

 

[Onrai]

Turning, Pandeima noticed someone rather intriguing on the bridge of her vessel. The woman appeared to be, for better lack of term, a standard Dark Side apprentice. Imperial blue and grey armor, kama... There was nothing that distinctly caused her to stand out amongst the multitude of Darksiders she knew. Or perhaps it was her rigidness to the standard that made her unique among them.

"The name's Pandeima, leader of the 69th Assault Fleet. Nice to meet you..."

@[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Held up her hand, not realizing who'd she had asked to wait. Her eyes were focused on them doing navigation calculations, this lasted for several seconds before she turned and looked at her. "Hello, im Alexandra, leader of nothing. A pleasure to meet you too miss Pandeima." She looked at the other calmly and relaxed, her expression almost not entirely there, her focus was still on the many things happening around her.

 

[Onrai]

@[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"]

"I'm glad to have you on board here. You'll be the first to see the rewards, and the first who reaps the rewards." She smiled, turning back to the bridge. "Continue scanning... I want something out of this place."

"Ma'am, we're detecting something unusual emanating from one of the asteroids."

"Send a few shuttles to the location. Whatever that signal is, I want its generator."

 

[Gregor Gideon]

Command Bridge -- Tulak Hord-class Star Destroyer, Gorgon
The Maw

Gregor Gideon had found himself participating in more and more excursions and expeditions into various sectors of the galaxy. This particular expedition had been mounted by the Sith known as @[member="Pandeima"], whom Gregor had become increasingly familiar. She was powerful, intelligent, and resourceful. Exactly the kind of Sith that the Inquisitorius known as Gregor Gideon was thoughtful to keep tabs on -- but not necessarily to detect any signs of dissension or disloyalty, but rather, to see what levels of prominence she would eventually rise to. And, if in fact, Gregor could assist in any capacity he could.

Such as now.

"Ma'am, we're detecting something unusual emanating from one of the asteroids." He had heard one of the naval subordinates speak. So Gregor, from the rear of the bridge, began to stride forward to where the Dark Jedi @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"] and Sith Knight @[member="Pandeima"] stood.

"What is it you have located?" He spoke simply.

 

[Onrai]

"If I knew, I would've picked it up by now. As it is, I have shuttles en route to determine whatever these peculiar items are..." And she did indeed. She wanted as much of the things she could get here as possible, in order to fit her ever-growing personal fleet with the most advanced weapons available.

"Ma'am, this is Shuttle Team 1. We've landed on the asteroid. There appear to be several dismantled weapon prototypes here. They're all in poor condition. We're bringing them aboard and returning to the Gorgon."

"Excellent. Once we have the weapon prototypes in our hangar bay, leave and continue searching the area." She paused, raising an eyebrow at both @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"] and @[member="Gregor Gideon"].

"There's something here that I want, and I believe the two of you can assist me. The few eyewitness reports remaining from the Battle of the Maw Installation state that one of the black holes nearby swallowed an Imperial Star Destroyer, the Hydra, along with the Death Star prototype and the Sun Crusher. Obviously we can't dive into the black hole to retrieve whatever marble-sized pieces of hyper-dense matter remain, but that's why I've thought up a plan."

Motioning to the Captivas-class Star Destroyers in the area, of which there were six, she continued. "I believe that if we find the black hole, which should have a microscopically greater mass than the others due to their uniformity, there is a way we can retrieve whatever may be in the event horizon."

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra blinked, thinking back to her lessons on black holes. "How... how is that even possible to retrieve something from a black hole, event horizon or not."

 

[Nick Dragovalor]

Nick leaned against the wall on the vessal, arms folded as he kept his hood down. Though he disliked working with Circe, the reward she had offered was something of interest to him, and for that he had agreed. A Sith should never have to work for free you know...

His blue eyes scanned the people he would be working with curiously.

@[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"]
@[member="Pandeima"]
@[member="Gregor Gideon"]

 

[Onrai]

She turned to @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"]. "Good question. I've had the finest minds in the Imperial Science Corps working on that, and we've come up with a way to get the job done. Notice the fleet of Captivas-class Star Destroyers." She pointed at the small squadron of aging Interdictors floating outside. "These interdictors are going to focus their gravity wells on the exact same spot. Their goal is to get the black hole spinning at such a speed that the event horizon is flung off by the centrifugal force. Once that's done, and if nothing comes out, we're going to evaporate the black hole through using the gravity wells to force it to accelerate its lifespan and vaporize into radiation. Following that, a specially insulated shuttle will journey to the location of the black hole, still highly radioactive, and bring back whatever remains. This of course being after we find which black hole has the greatest mass..."

Pausing, she turned and eyed @[member="Nicholas DragonsFlame"]. "I'm placing you in charge of this part of the operation. After all, you will be reaping the rewards of this venture soon enough. Inquisitor Gideon, please stay with me. I'm going to need your help transporting some of our findings to Imperial Research and Development. The boys back home will love this."

@[member="Gregor Gideon"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

She choked on her next words, "Uh, just how highly radioactive are we talking?" She rubbed her arm, which had still ached every so often from the duel that had made her known to the sith and had gotten her drafted.
@[member="Pandeima"]
@[member="Gregor Gideon"]
@[member="Nicholas DragonsFlame"]

 

[Nick Dragovalor]

"It's karking Circe, you weren't expecting radioactive?" Nick cracked from where he was leaning, after hearing Circe's briefing.

He sighed. Another one too fool to realize the dangers of working with the mad woman.

@[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"]

 

[Gregor Gideon]

Gregor shot a quick glance in the direction of @[member="Nicholas DragonsFlame"], before returning it to @[member="Pandeima"] and @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"].

"Let the Dark Side be your shield, and know no fear." He addressed the Dark Jedi, before speaking to the Sith woman, "Your dedication to the advancement of Imperial research is noted, yet again."

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra muttered something about morons and radioactivity before she walked away. She headed towards the view port and waited.

 

[Onrai]

Eying @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"], she smiled. "Oh, don't worry... it won't affect us. The immediate area where the black hole was will still be highly radioactive, though. Residue from our burning the hyper-dense matter away. The matter has to be converted to energy one way or another, after all. Whatever we find will be "hot" of course, so we'll take it to be decontaminated."

Turning to look at @[member="Nicholas DragonsFlame"], she sighed. "Oh, Nick... Be ambitious and forward thinking. If you don't, you'll never progress far forward as a Sith." If only he knew about her future plans with the Serpena fleet...and the technology involved as well.

As @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"] walked away, Circe smiled, hearing the praise of the Inquisitor known as @[member="Gregor Gideon"]. He was scoping out her loyalty, yes... And it was for this reason that she intended to reap as much from the Maw as she could.

"Ma'am, we've detected the black hole with the highest mass. Shall we begin?"

"Proceed."

 

[Nick Dragovalor]

"If I wasn't ambitious, I wouldn't be here" he corrected crossly. "I'm just stating the obvious" he said with a sigh.

Why he bothered helping anyone here, aside from the obvious for the rewards, was a mystery to him.

 

[Darth Vazela]

Obscurity - Almania System.
Observational deck.

Preparation. For all plots to be enacted, preparation was necessary for the various pieces, factors in other terms, to put together and placed into one path, in which the journey led to a conclusion. Whether the conclusion was a positive or negative end for one side or the other was an inevitability. It would need to be meticulous, for what the Sith Lord who planned to enter the life of one Circe. He had need of her.

He would need to meet her.

An transmission, originating from the Almania system, was transmitted from the Obscurity to the Gorgon. The bleeping sounds coming from the bridge to it's communication officer would alert him that a certain somebody wanted to converse via hologram.

Who could it be?

 

[Onrai]

"Nick, explain to me why-" A beeping on the comm disturbed Circe's glancing at @[member="Nicholas DragonsFlame"]. "Excuse me." For the moment, she left the bridge, entering her private quarters and initializing her encryption key as the shimmering form of @[member="Darth Vazela"] appeared in its blue-toned holographic glory.

"Well... I suppose I can spare a moment. Please, identify yourself and state what you need from me. I will take a while to get to it, considering my operations here, but I can begin looking things up."

 

[Grimm]

Docking Hanger -- Tulak Hord-class Star Destroyer, Gorgon
The lone soul was currently doing his own job, which was to evalute the weaponary on the ship. So he could find some good equipment...well for himself as he would sell whatever surplus was left. It was the duty of a warmonger and Merchant to do such things. Of course his employment of being apart of the sith had been a excuse to study the ship's interior, weapons and along with the wreck that may hold item's of importantance. Such a clever ploy to scout out so far, of course what else could catch his attention. He was also a tinker on the side, with creating new weapons that could benfit himself in the future.
So he decided to join the team that was doing the protection job as a regular soldier aboard the ship. Sadly it was not much needed to do such a task, just prounce around with a blaster. Which Grimm did not need to hold, only his blasters would do and his other equipment. He was much smarter to know the capitilies of such tech that could be in that dump spot, the merchants and smugglers were all talking about it. Yet, it would be sucide to enter a sith airspace with only freighters against a ship of this strength.
The hooded figure would only move along his path, looking for his next detour. Which was the ship's armory if it had one?

 

[Darth Vazela]

"Hello, Circe." The hooded figure, adorned in a dark, hooded robe, folded his hands into his sleeves as he sat on the holographic representation of the throne before the Sith Knight. "My name is Darth Vazela. I know of your work on Aeten two... and subsequently I am summoning you for a more direction conversation."

The Sith Lord transmitted the coordinates of the Almania system before continuing, "There are two towers on the outskirts of Stonia, the capital city of Almania. You will meet me there in one week."

The holographic representation of Vazela disappeared, signaling the end of his transmission, leaving Circe with a decision.