Habits

[Jairus Starvald]

Mawr, Tython System.
[member="Darth Adekos"]

Falling, falling, falling… the dominos went downhill. Should have known, should have guessed, should have foreseen it really, but that’s what happens when you get comfortable. You grow soft. Complacent even. The wild flees out of you once civilization takes root. Carach doubted he could ever get back into that mindset of the early days - killing indiscriminately, karking all that moved, brazenly throwing his money and reputation around like it was some kind of gorram boulder to be used as a maul.

No.

Those days were long behind him. Too much had happened, too many of his friends and siblings dead for the ambitions of the one. Now all of that was washed away too with the rebellion. Things were still chaotical, loyalists pitted against rebels all across the great territories.

It was time.

The Voice of the Dark Lord had chosen the Tython system as his personal fiefdom, but whereas most only saw the planet of Tython… Carach had seen more. Eleven planets, some with moons, others with space stations, but all of them with purpose.

Carach had called for Adekos, his friend and fellow conspirator in many schemes. They were to meet on a station orbiting one of the moons of Mawr.

It was a pity, really. So much work… so much profit, what a pity.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Darth Adekos had never cared for Tython. The only landmark he considered significant, the citadel of Belia Darzu, had been destroyed by some bumbling nitwit. An attempted salvage operation had produced nothing. Thus, it was useless. Carach had higher ambitions for both the planet and the system. Unsurprising. Adekos could imagine that use could be derived if one looked hard enough and developed the land properly. The Umbaran simply believed his efforts were better applied elsewhere. He never looked very into Carach's machinations. It wasn't his business.

Only now it was apparently becoming part of his business. Adekos had maintained no assets in One Sith space, aside from an office and research facility on Telti. If anyone aside from himself even knew about the place, Adekos would have considered packing up its contents. There wasn't any need to. Not yet, anyway. It was hardly an urgent matter. From the tone of Darth Carach's summons, this, however, would be. A single shuttle, innocuous by all counts (probably a Santhe design), touched down in the hangar bays of one of Carach's space stations.

Or was it a One Sith space station? Depended on the length. The irreversible laws of reality often dictated such arbitrary constraints. The usual, dramatic fog expelled itself as the loading ramp descended and Darth Adekos stepped outside. He was looking worse for wear, perhaps a bit too similar in appearance to the duo of TA4 Bodyguards that came with him. Accidental exposure to the Technovirus and his increasing apathy for maintaining appearances despite Dark Side corruption had taken its toll.

"Darth Carach. A pleasure as always." Adekos greeted. "How can I help you today?"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

“Walk with me, please.” the deep, low voice grated. Slightly worn, tired, exhausted, but still a foundation of steel entwangled between the syllables. The Sith Lord had ruled as the Voice for years and that authority was ingrained in him now, as easily worn as a fine, familiar cloak. Adekos would have noticed a few things as his shuttle exited hyperspace and shuttled him towards the moderately-sized station (it was always better to keep the exact details of metrics in the shadows, less hurt feelings that way). One of the things noticed was the large quantity of warships spread through the systems.

All part of the sector fleet that served its Voice. So, technically, they were all owned by Darth Carach and wasn’t that the best kind of ownership?

“Coruscant was a gorram mess.” he stated, out of the blue, as they walked. It was a reference to the coup attempt by the rebels, of course.

Another thing that Adekos would know was that said sector fleet should have been warring against the Republic… and if not that, then at least patrolling and/or skirmishing against the rebel forces throughout Sith space.

So why was it here? Why was the Tython system locked down and packed to the brim with armament pointing outwards?

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Having never been one to pry into the affairs of his colleagues (or more to the point, his shuttle lacked passenger windows), Adekos had no line of questioning. Instead he merely followed after Carach, gesturing for his droids to stand guard with the vessel. He doubted he would have need of them for polite conversation. It didn't take long for Carach to remark upon the affair at Coruscant, which elicited a chuckle from the Umbaran. "Don't sound so surprised. Such seizures of power, when executed by the dull and unimaginative, are often messy." He dryly remarked. Mephirium was a popular character, but the method in which he moved was... Flawed, so far as Adekos was concerned.

If it had been his coup, things would have gone differently. Securing the loyalty of the army would have been his first move and that would have been done quietly. There would be no brazen assaults directed at Coruscant, no half-hearted planetary invasions carried out against a palace garrison that was only marginally surprised. He and the Sith who followed him would have simply entered the palace. It was their right to do so, after all. Then Adekos would have kicked down the doors to the Dark Lord's throne himself.

No pitched battles. No defenses to be overcome. No mercenaries. No armies. Just a group of Sith revolutionaries pit against their loyalist counterparts.

Just as it should be.

Alas, among the ranks of the Sith guts were plenty and brains were scarce. A tragedy, that. "It matters little. We'll be long gone by the time the new regime cements itself enough to notice."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

Carach merely shook his head at that, at first.

“All the work put in, washed away by the stupidity and avarice of the unworthy.” he’d say after a few more moments of simply walking. The walking did him good, felt cathartic, made him forget just how stupid the whole situation really was.

The walk didn’t take long enough, though. A turbolift ride was filled with some filler chatter about this experiment and that, his technovirus appearance got brought up, but was swiftly passed off as the risks of their trade - nothing to worry about, just part of the scenery.

Finally then the observatorium came round.

Big, transparisteel windows gave Adekos the full view of the system. Three-hundred and sixty degrees of it.

Warships all around.

“What do you think?”

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"Ambition clouds judgement." Adekos said, sympathetically with a light sigh. "Such if life, I'm afraid."

The rest of the trip was uneventful, though fairly suspicious. Adekos still had no idea where he was going or what this was about and could only guess as to what was waiting for him at the end of this turbolift ride. Eventually it came to a halt and the resulting view was... Interesting. All of Carach's fleet had been amassed. Presumably they were also crewed and loaded up with as many passengers that answered to Carach as possible. It was just a guess. If Carach had already amassed this much, chances are he went the extra mile.

And if they were on ships, then that could only indicate one thing.

Adekos stepped forward, itching at his chin as he squinted out the window. Why did people keep trusting all of these assets to Darth Carach? It was like they had no idea who he was or what his habits entailed. Theft. His habits entailed theft. And Adekos was beginning to suspect Carach was going to be enacting the theft of the year. Or month. Thievery on this scale by men of his stature was surprisingly common. One need only ask the last Foreman of the Techno Union.

"Going somewhere? Somewhere permanent, it looks like. You're a little over-packed for a day trip."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

Carach stepped up next to him. Big hands wrapping itself around the railing, pressure building up as he witnessed just what he had forged over the last decade - witnessed just what he was about to lose, because of the self-entitlement of others. This was a good thing in all honesty. The Sith Lord had needed this reminder that nothing was eternal in this Galaxy. An image of his sister flashed before his eyes at that particular thought.

All dies eventually.

“I would not call it theft, my friend.” he had slightly cocked his head, listening silently for a moment. It wouldn’t be a surprise to Adekos that Carach had heard the exterior of his thoughts.

They had worked together for many years now.

Few things escaped a specialist of mentalism.

“This glorious Sith Empire was forged by his Voices and Hands, but it was all owned by him. With the Dark Lord dead… and loyalists pitted against rebels… well, as I see it? There is no true owner out there for now.”

That would change, of course. Once the fighting died down someone would take power, or far more likely a big assortment of someone’s, but Carach wouldn’t be there for that. He had held his position as a Voice of the Dark Lord the longest - he didn’t count Kaine, considering Vornskr had died over twenty times during his reign.

Not exactly a steady rule, no?

Just then - almost as if it was choreographed to perfection - did the Chrysalide exited hyperspace. Cold, blue hues washed over its polished hull, a gleaming dagger in a black space. More followed soon after, stranglers of his forces, perhaps.

Catalys and him had an understanding. With the Dark Lord gone?

“But, yes. I think it’s time to move on to better and brighter things. I am assuming your offer still stands?”

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Adekos snorted. Did this man just skim his surface thoughts? How invasive. Maybe that offer no longer stood because someone got a little touchy-feely in the thought department. "Confiscation? Secession? You're taking things that were only lent to you. It's largely theft. Not that I'm at all opposed to it, I'm merely making an observation." The one hundred and fifty million ounces of Onderonian gold Darth Adekos had 'confiscated' during the One Sith's subjugation of the planet were testament to that, as was the slightly smaller amount of precious metals he had lifted from Phu. Nothing ever got done in the galaxy without substantial amounts of wealth, and this Sithling simply loved to acquire it in its purest form: gold, silver, platinum, and gems.

It's a living.

"I'm sure the last will and testament, the chain of command, and the usurpers would dispute that." Adekos continued his dry observation, only to be interrupted as if on cue by the arrival of the Chrysalide. Four thousand kilometers of pure, undiluted compensation. It would have brought a tear to the Umbaran's eyes had one of them not been missing and the other one lacking capacity for it. The Chrysalide was an impressive vessel, even if bigger wasn't always necessarily better. Then again, the bigger the ship the more turbolaser batteries, so...

"The offer still stands, but we'll not be able to sustain such a force as we are now. Not to mention the Yagai will get the wrong idea if we roll up to their doorstep with..." He gestured to the Chrysalide. "Fortunately, I did foresee you would be getting handsy with the Dark Lord's military once he perished and prepared accordingly." The Umbaran produced a datacard from his pocket and held it out for Carach to take. In it were the coordinates for the Helska system.

"These are the coordinates to a remote, frozen world in the same general vicinity of our operations. I recommend you order your forces to shack up there and await assimilation into a new government."

If this were anyone else, Adekos would have proceeded to quiz Carach on the logistics of this operation. Did the soldiers know? Were they getting paid? Were they willing? Were enough supplies available? Could they be tracked? Were they loyal? But this was Carach. These questions, undoubtedly, already had answers. Carach could be insufferable, but he wasn't stupid.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

A smile followed. Carach didn’t argue the case any further, because what would it matter at the end of the day? The opinion of the rebels mattered little to him, the loyalists that were still part of the equation would either start working with them, against them or perhaps they would be able to prevail against the bulk of the rebellion.

But what was the point? The Dark Lord was dead and with him the unity of the One Sith. He had been their linchpin, the one thing holding everything together.

Without him it would all turn into a squabble of people grabbing for power they didn’t need for purposes undeserving.

Carach took the datacard, but there weren’t a lot of frozen territories in former Primeval space.

“Helska? Used to be overrun by the Primeval.” a frown came and went. “Well, at least my men won’t be bored, enough shooting practices for the lot of them.”

There probably wouldn’t be a big concentration of the cultists. Helska didn’t have much in the way of strategic importance and neither did it have any worthwhile resources - as far as he knew. But there would be stranglers… there always were.

“How are things holding up on your end?”

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"Even when the Primeval held the system it was remote and sparsely populated." He explained. "There are seven planets. Some more fertile and resource rich than others. If your men run out of supplies, they will have planets to scavenge from. Provided they at least attempt to remain covert, I doubt there will be much issue. Try not to shoot anything you don't have to."

Moving so many ships and personnel was risky. The rewards of having a fleet and army ready-to-go once they needed it far outweighed the risks. If the Triumvirate were to survive, they couldn't waste time recruiting solely from the worlds they already occupied. Carach's men were already trained, disciplined, and equipped. They would do fine as they were and be given less-One Sith affiliated equipment as was warranted, perhaps when the Triumvirate could afford such luxuries.

Darth Adekos grimaced when Carach asked how he was holding up. Did he really have to ask? "I've been turned into a one-eyed, quasi-mechanical monstrosity by my own negligence." He looked at Darth Carach, mechanical eye rotating as it focused on the human. "You'll understand when I tell you I've seen better days by far."