I'd Like to Thank the Academy

[Tmoxin Temi]

Location: Cosmina Academy for Practicioners, Crina

While Commander Temi’s battalion traveled systematically room by room through the Cosmina Academy for Practitioners looking for those final holdouts or any survivors after the quite uneventful siege of the facility, Tmoxin herself was doing her own thorough search but of a different kind.

After the teacher’s wing had been secured, she set up camp in the Dean’s office and began rifling through the desk drawers, cupboards and lockers for anything of value. She wouldn’t personally pocket anything like a common thief would. Any holdings, valuable items, antiques or artifacts would be confiscated, shipped off to an Imperial Inquisition storage facility and eventually sold at auction, the credits used to pay for training, recruitment and numerous other Inquisition activities. Even the safes were not off limit. In addition to her guards, she had brought along a special ops slicer to crack any codes and Thermal detonator tape if all else failed.

Two stormtroopers entered the room with crates and began packing up the room, starting with the statues of Cosmina, the first Queen of Crina. Tmoxin sat at the Dean’s desk examining what was on his datapad, which appeared to be nothing more than administrative dealings with the school and his calendar for the day. The raid on the St Tiberius Military Academy would have been much more fruitful in terms of valuable military intelligence which is what she was really searching for. She quickly examined the itinerary of the Dean of which the first item was “Meet and greet at 9am with Jerec Wraith, Practitioner and Visiting Professor." That was around the same time that Tmoxin and her men stormed into the Academy and began rounding up the students, forcing them to either flee or submit to Force collars and cages. The battalion hadn’t located the Dean yet and they hadn’t located this visiting professor either. No matter, she thought. Even though they would be treasured personnel to capture.

It felt good to sit for a moment after the adrenaline of the siege had worn off. The Hapan officer removed her helmet and tendrils of her red hair fell down to grace her white armored shoulders. She watched her men pack up the room and then they moved to the nearby Library to continue their confiscation. Tmoxin looked out the window at the rather beautiful view of the river, a welcome sight that was in stark contrast to the Crinan landscape which was dotted with incoming Sith fighters, fleeing ships and smoke from nearby ground skirmishes.

[member="Jerec Wraith"]

 

[Jerec Wraith]

Crina​

Comina Academy for Practitioners​

Stormtroopers, they were everywhere. Everyone was being rounded up, and here he was hiding in a storage closet with the dean. “What are we going to do, Jerec?” Annoyance was the only thing that was visible on the man’s face when the air escaped his nostrils that quickly. Blue orbs peered through the crack as they went through the crack between the two doors. Idly, and with a little bit of interest he watched as the moved with precision. It only took a few glances, and he knew exactly what he was dealing with. “These are real troopers, Dagna. They won’t stop until they find us.”

It was the truth, he had studied them from afar for decades.

“Well, at this point it seems we have one choice.” Dagna looked at him in the confined space, panic written across his face. “What are we going to do-”

There was a loud thud as the body fell in the closet, and he picked him up quickly. Joints, weary from age creaked and he audibly groaned from the effort. With the Dean scooped up in his arms, he willed the doors opened. Rifles, all standard issue from Blas-Tech, pointed right at him. Staring down the barrel of some many “ole reliables” would cause most to be afraid. Wraith didn’t show any of it, instead he let the darkness seep from his words as he spoke to every soldier in the room. “Lower your weapons, I mean you no harm.” Every rifle lowered as if they were all on marionette strings.

“Now point me to your commanding officer.”

Five Minutes Later…​

Strolling into the room, he dumped the Dean’s unconscious form on the floor. Leaning against the wall, he pulled an apple from his pocket while making sure his lightsaber was quite visible. Sizing up the red-head, he calmly took a few bites before speaking. “Look, I know you are probably about to say something about capturing me. I’d rather not have to do that, so just tell me what you are looking for and I’ll show you.” He tapped the Dean,”you can even have him.”


[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

As the figure appeared in he doorway, Tmoxin who was alone now - and probably a tactical faux pas on her part to be alone - immediately skittered back and dove for cover behind a knocked over metal cabinet, her standard E-11 raised in defense. If an intruder was in her space, her actions would be instinctual from her her years in the Hapan Royal Navy, directly protecting the Queen as her Secret Service agent, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Red Ravens and now as a Stormtrooper Commander.

"Stop right there or I'll shoot," she warned him from her poorly protected corner of the room.

Her gaze moved from his blue eyes, to the apple he was calmly eating, to the lightsaber at his belt. If this man one of those Cosmina Practitioners, Tmoxin was in trouble. She could call for backup now, but even at acolyte level he could, with one sweep of his hand, smash her against the wall or cleave her in two with the saber. And then she would be leaving her soldiers to fight a practitioner alone and while she was a coward on some level, she still had morals when it came to losing troops.

"Who are you and who... is that? she asked. Her two hands were holding the blaster, but they were trembling slightly betraying her fear. She was extremely alert, senses honed from years of these types of tense, smaller tactical engagements. Which is why she was still cursing herself for having the other troopers move off so quickly to the library. The best she could hope for here is that the Force user was part of the Sith and was an ally. And the way he threw down the man's body like a peace offering... well, there was a possibility he was on her side after all.

"And is he... dead?"

[member="Jerec Wraith"]

 

[Jerec Wraith]

“Listen red, you can go ahead and shoot me.” Without a single care in the galaxy, he calmly crossed the distance and took a seat. Along the way, he managed a swift kick into the Dean’s ribs. An audible gasp of pain was heard as the man started to draw to consciousness. With his free hand, he slid a chair in front of him and twisted it so that the back was to the lady with the gun. Straddling it, he sat down and leaned over it. Everything about the situation on his end seemed like this was a meeting between friends, and that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

In the darkness, he could feel everything, and he smiled because of it.

“Oh him, he should be fine.” Another kick, and another audible gasp of pain. Life was still flowing the waste of a man, but Jerec turned his attentions to the nervous woman with the rifle pointed at him. “That’s the dean, a rather incompetent sack of spineless man. He also has the alien members of this poor cabal located in a shed about two hundred meters west of the main building. I know he was wanting to save them from you, but I quite frankly want to see them in chains.”

Xenophobia at it’s finest, he thought.

“As for me,” he said before throwing the apple core to the floor. “I’m Jerec Wraith, I’ve lived longer than you ever will, and I want to be of use to you.”

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Her blaster still firmly trained on him, Tmoxin watched the intruder kick the other man in the torso and then sit down casually in front of her. You could shoot him now while he’s relaxed, she thought, but as he was a force user his nonchalance didn’t give her any advantage. He would still block her shots, send her blaster flying and force choke her to the ground if he was powerful enough.

For now she crouched behind the metal cabinet, her years of military training making it quite easy for her to stay in this awkward position for some length of time. But when this mysterious man finally admitted he was pummeling the Dean, she audibly exhaled and with some reservation, began to rise.

As he finished with the statement, “I want to be of use to you.” Tmoxin finally straightened up and relaxed her arm with the blaster, keeping it at her side. “Mr. Wraith, while I’m not familiar with each and every Sith Lord obviously, I am familiar with most of the higher ranking ones. But your name does not ring a bell. But since you’ve brought me the Dean and his cohorts, I’m going to assume that you among the ranks of the Sith.”
She bent down slowly and picked up her helmet which had been flung across the floor when she was first startled by Jerec Wraith entering the room. “Am I to assume correctly?” she asked.

"I want to be of use to you," - those words were very convincing, but the Hapan officer was going to give him three minutes to explain himself and once those three minutes were up, she would have a plan figured out to get herself out of this room safely, whether it was calling for backup, asking him to disarm or by some other means of persuasion.

[member="Jerec Wraith"]

 

[Jerec Wraith]

“Am I to assume correctly?”

Curiosity, he liked it. That meant he had a slight angle to work, and he would pursue it as relentlessly as possible. Her assumptions, well they weren’t too far off base, even if she was wrong. “You can assume whatever it is that you’d like to Red, I’m not your commanding officer.” Reaching inside his robes, very slowly, he pulled out a pack of his sweet addiction and lit up a cigarette. Taking in a few drags, he just let silence be the only sound in the room while he felt out the situation with the darkside. Life experience had taught him to let the Force suggest a path, and when it didn’t suit him he had a plan b.

Make his own path.

“I am a Sith Lord, and my other name is Darth Lokus.” Another drag, and he managed a slight smile despite the fact that she had only lowered her weapon. Tension was still very much in the air, but he kept normalizing the situation. “I prefer Jerec, it’s the name I gave myself a decade ago to better suit who I am.” Why he had done that, and it’s influence were stories he never shared. Nor would he explain why he was just casually talking to the trooper before him. Wraith had his own plans, and he had to do everything he could to ensure they kept going the way he wanted them to.

“Me handing the Dean, and his less than desirable students over is an olive branch if you will. I’ve been on my own for quite some time, and would like to rejoin the galaxy. So, if you could assist in that. I would gladly do what I can to help aide you in anyway possible.” Another drag, and he held this one for a moment before letting it slowly release from his mouth. “If you try and order your men to attack, or put a Force collar on me and you will learn why I’ve survived so long by myself.” A playful smile crossed his sharp features.

“You’re choice, Red.”

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin’s armored hand jerked a little towards her own blaster when Jerec Wraith pulled out the cigarette and lit it up as though they were in a basement cantina and not a ransacked Academy. But since this "Darth Lokus" admitted he was with the Sith, and didn’t appear to be a foe, she had no real reason to doubt him.

Besides he had brought her a valuable prize – the Dean of the Academy – and offered to reveal the location of more prisoners for the Sith to try and convert. Frankly since they were of an alien race, Tmoxin would have had them all rounded up, imprisoned or even executed, but the Sith were not as choosy and the ones who could be repurposed would be.

“An olive branch,” she repeated. “That makes it sound like you and I had a dispute to begin with. I don’t know you nor you me so … Darth Lokus, is there something about your past that I should know about? Something that would make you need me to help you versus it just being a favor?"

As she suspected, his gift to her was not unconditional. Still the Hapan officer began to feel she may just have the upper hand on this blue-eyed, somewhat rakish Sith Lord. Why was his coming back so problematic that he needed to “help aide” her in anyway possible?

Either way, his whole proposition was so intriguing that she delayed calling any of her troops back into the room. She was visibly at ease now and walked back around the Dean’s desk, righted the chair which had been knocked over, and slowly sat down in it. She looked down at the Dean writhing on the floor wondering if he was resentful that she was sitting in his seat of power.

“Please don’t call me Red. I prefer Commander Temi… Or Tmoxin if you like,” she said. “My men will remain in the library for now. And I have no Force collar or tricks up my sleeve,” she raised her hands up and turned them so he could see. “This is good work,” she continued, motioning to the helpless head of the Academy. She finally smiled, most of the tension having drained from her face. But she still held a regal air as she asked, “What else can you help me with?”

[member="Jerec Wraith"]

 

[Jerec Wraith]

“Commander Temi, no wonder you don’t like hearing nicknames.” Another drag of his cigar preceded his next comments. “Most Hapan women don’t like even being talked to like equals, seems you’re pretty progressive." If one lived long enough, they learned enough about different cultures. Dossiers were something he never forgot, and one on Hapan names that he had seen when he was a Jedi Padawan came to mind as soon as she said her name. As did a few other do’s and dont’s when speaking to Hapan women. Eidetic memory let him instantly recall all this, and he proceeded along.

That particular mission had been almost sixty years ago.

“Oh, we have no disputes to worry about. I’ve been independent for about six years. I tried to avoid that whole Akalha business and just scout the galaxy out.” What he didn’t say was just as important. I’m an energy vampire, and I feed off the souls of Force users and mortals alike without preference My reason for staying away is that I had fed on so many of my peers before my brother first murdered me, that I had to become an island. I also had to spend twenty years trapped in the nebulous region between life and death thanks to him, but my research saved me.

No, this wasn’t a story to be told. He kept to the details.

“Please, don’t insult my intelligence. I’m quite aware every unit comes prepared to deal with Force-Users. That’s the way it was when I was with the Sith properly before I had to disappear, just make sure it stays that way.” He sat up straight then after saying that, before throwing the now finished cigar to the floor.

“I can help you with whatever you need, so long as you can safely get me back to the One Sith. I’ll spill every secret I have, anything you wish to know. Or if you need something done, name your price. I’ve named mine.”

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]​

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin smirked at Wraith’s comment about Hapan woman. “I may be Hapan but the Imperial warmachine is extremely male dominated. I’ve learned very quickly that some men’s egos are more fragile than they let on.”

She watched him carefully as he stubbed out his cigar on the floor, the Dean behind them still moaning softly in pain. Then she let out a chuckle which eventually morphed into a hearty laugh. “You want me to help you get safely back to the One Sith?” Then she appeared more serious, thoughtful and a bit cross. “I can barely get myself safely back to the OS half of the time,” she snorted.

She leaned in towards him, clasping her hands on the desk in front of them.

“One thing I don’t understand, however, is why do you want to come back to the Sith when independence has appeared to suit you?”

At the last statement her eyes appraised him starting with his face and moving down to his muscled physique. But her evaluation of Wraith didn’t last long and she faced him again straight on, awaiting his response.

[member="Jerec Wraith"]

 

[Jerec Wraith]

“We me tend to be more sensitive than we let on, and those with greater egos tend to be lesser men.” It was a truth he himself had come to face, for he had been folly to it as well. That as the one and only true great advantage to an unnatural life, he had many experiences to draw upon. Did it make him wise? Most certainly not, but it did help him when he needed to connect with all different sorts of individuals. Had this been a male commander, he would have played to the man’s ego. If it had been the typical damsel in distress, he would have pretended to be a hero. It was made him such a fluid creature.

Jerec was truly adaptable.

“It’s not really the Sith I look to rejoin, I just need the means to reach out.” That was the absolute truth, he really didn’t want to join the Sith. While his power was fully rooted in the darkside, he had no plans on being around an order of fools. Reports had reached his ears, he knew of the Vong modifications. There just weren’t many factions in the galaxy for a man with his abilities to go to. Sure, the Republic was practically a dictatorship at this point in time. Yet, he couldn’t fake being something he wasn’t. Eventually a time would come when he would be exposed, and all the dark powers he knew would give him away.

Maybe the Techo Union, but one more option appealed to him.

Leaning forward, he inched closer to her as well. “Independence does suit me, but I’d be a fool to not want to take capable help when I see it. Most commanders would have needed twice the force you have to capture this location, much less hold it.” It was a compliment, and the truth, all mixed in words blunt enough for the Hapan to appreciate. He never brought up her gender, just kept playing it straight. No need to accidentally insult someone from such a strong culture. “What do you know about the Imperial Remnant?”

That devilish grin appeared, and he locked his eyes with hers.
[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin wasn’t immune to flattery – in fact, she also used it as a tool with which to manipulate those susceptible to its charms. And his assessment of her capture of Crina was honest and also seemed sincere. But she was smart enough to become complacent over a silver tongue.

“What I know of the Imperial Remnant is only this so far,” she said, motioning to the room. “Crina, this Academy… not much else.” To be honest the Remanant as an enemy hadn’t really been on her radar until she got the call to sack the Imperial fortress-world. “And if you’re asking me to spy for you on the Sith? I like danger as much as the next military officer, but I do not have a death wish.”

She studied him again, trying to guess his end game. Finally she said, “But Mr. Wraith, I could always use the help if you are offering your services. And obviously, if you have secrets, I’m all ears.”

Tmoxin could hear the footsteps of the Blood Monarchs moving back up the hallway and towards the Dean’s office where her and Jerec Wraith were.

[member="Jerec Wraith"]