Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Private IGBC │ The Empress

I really don’t like that implication.”, he said with a sigh.​
He was once the governor of Bastion; he knew what it was like to fill out the ever constant influx of documents, and meeting with every half baked power monger looking for a promotion to mover and shaker. Even still - it never got easier; and somewhere in the back of his mind, he missed the week long training sessions he endured with the Telos Holocron. Nothing quite like entertainment than having the greatest Sith in the history of the Galaxy yell at you all at once for being slightly off point of a Juyo cadence.​
Would you like a drink, Caulder? I’m feeling especially parched.”, he said as the group finally closed into the hallway their rooms were contained in. His gaze moved to the Sith Lord, with his own hand on the handle of his door.​
 
Caulder stuffed the handkerchief back into the pocket it came from, raising an eyebrow at the Chairman's offer. He glanced over his shoulder as they arrived just outside Dorian's room, ensuring that there was no one - or no thing - to eavesdrop on them.

"I would advise against such indulgences if you still intend to go sight-seeing, Mr. Harper," he droned.

Any clandestine visits to Krath outposts were best undertaken as sober as possible. As dependable as Caulder found the Blackwell agents, he did not trust them to hold for very long if a gaggle of screeching Dark Side adepts came falling from the ceiling.
 
Sight seeing with a touch of drink in me would be preferable.”, he laughed - though short as it was. Without another word, Maliphant entered his room. The door slammed behind him, and taking post were two Blackwell Security Guards.​
Adekos would be guided to his room before the same would occur - leaving a few graceful hours to do whatever it was he pleased. An hour after midnight, a guard would offer a soft knock on the door -​
Mr. Dune?”, the security guards voice offered.​
Whether Adekos opened the door or not, he’d continue’​
Mr. Harper has requested your presence on the landing pad. He’s ready to go sightseeing.”​
 
Was Galidraan really all that bad? What a mistake you made. Continue to make. Wretched, cowardly -

Adekos spasmed awake, jolting forward from the couch he'd fallen asleep in. His hands dug into the leather armrests, leaving faint imprints. A dream. Nothing more. What a nuisance. Perhaps there was an implant to suppress such... No, that would be worse. He ran a hand over his face and was disgusted to feel sweat.

One of Maliphant's goons was knocking on the door. Time to visit the Krath. Glorious. From one nightmare to another. Adekos rose with an ease Caulder Dune could only dream of, and took some token steps to make himself presentable.

---
Caulder Dune emerged onto the landing pad, steadying himself through the support of his cane. And with his other hand he rubbed his eyes drowsily, yawning for affect. He came to a stop before Harper, smiling weakly. "I trust you've found something worthy of our attention...?"

 
I have.”, Harper offering the elderly banker his own smile; muted as it was. Considering the time, they didn’t have to try to so hard to maintain that constant stage presence as the sweet and relatively innocent banker;​
Instead, Dorian motioned the man onboard the GS-77 that had brought them to the planet. It took only a moment for a few of the Blackguard Security to follow on board, while many more remained at the palace to protect their rooms from would be spies. Maliphant found his way to a comfortable spot, sighed, and crossed his legs - losing a touch of the body language Dorian carried.​
An underground Krath Temple that has survived the various attempts to conquer Teta, and the Jedi Purges.”, he idled, his gaze suddenly becoming far more judgemental as it wandered to the Blackguard Security Forces.​
You know… We should invest in some more - Oh, what's the word…”, he said as a thumb rested against his chin.​
Some better guards. Elite? Impressive?”, with a wave of his hand he dismissed his merry thoughts.​
Regardless, something more intimidating. More effective than… these people.”​
One of the Guards glanced at Maliphant, but as Maliphant furrowed a brow back; the man turned away, offering no words of dissent.​
 
Adekos seated himself in the transport, setting his cane aside by wedging it callously between seats. Any Krath cultists they happened upon would have no qualms beating up a hobbled old man, so it was more convenient to simply dispense with the routine entirely.

He wrinkled his nose at the mention of better guards. "I had assumed you brought your best. What's wrong with this lot?"

At the very least, these Blackwell folks looked the part. And they looked enough of the part that they didn't attract any undue attention. Which was good for the mundane sort of people like Harper and Dune. Anything flashier would raise questions.
 
If they were my best, they’d be Sith, Adekos.”, Maliphant sighed as he glanced the armored men over.​
No… They are good, but for corporate security. Repossessing corporate assets, taking others, general protection; but they don’t intimidate like I’d hope, nor will they stand up to more… dangerous opponents -”​
He glanced to Adekos with a smirk;​
Its not as though Dune and Harper are Sith Lords afterall, what happens if a Sith or Jedi attacks us - are we simply supposed to stand our ground as weak bankers? Of course not…”, he sighed.​
Just… something more focused. Chairmen Security.”, he said with a tap of his finger on his chin.​
The ship hit a bout of turblance before a robotic voice came over the intercom -​
ETA: 5 Minutes.”​
Seems we’re almost there.”, Maliphant offered in response.​
 
"I meant from your lightsaber-less employees, obviously," Adekos droned, shaking his head. "I find there is no reasonable defense against Force Sensitives bent on your destruction, save some Force Sensitives of your own. If you truly worry over such things, I suggest simply minimizing your public appearances. It's done wonders for me."

Holographic appearances were a favored and simple practice, but more recently he had taken to remotely piloting a cloned double. A special implant along the clone's brain, coupled with his command of the Force, and that was that. Problem solved. By and large it was a difficult and expensive approach, but you simply can't put a price on safety.

Darth Adekos doubted he would have made it this far if he had.

He scratched his nose face idly. "Blackwell has a much nicer ring to it, anyway."
 
It should.”, Maliphant offered as the ship came to a crawl through the atmosphere.​
It is the largest industrial company the IGBC owns right now.”​
The ship’s landing pad opened just short of its actual touchdown, giving them a momentary glance to the leaves and dust that shot outwards from the overgrown, cemented plaza they had landed in. The Blackwell forces were first off the ship, guns pointed outwards like it was the preferable option - leave alone that at least Maliphant had his lightsaber stowed away, and the combined two were some of the more powerful Sith Lords in the galaxy.​
With a faint hum, Maliphant took a step off the ship as he continued their conversation;​
Disappearing for ten years doesn’t sound like an option, Dune.”, he offered in response as he glanced about for the entrance to the tunnel. After a moment, there was a small opening of plants from the Force, and Maliphant began to strode towards - covered as it was.​
Would you approve the funds for it if, by chance, I made them robots?”​
With a squeeze, he made it past the tight exterior stone path - partially destroyed from years of weather. Inside was dark, with a faint musky smell that implied its age and decrepit nature. Maliphant took a whiff, sighed, and resorted to simply holding his breath; his record thus far was 87 hours, and shouldn’t be any trouble in here.​
I do know how you love robots.”​
 
Adekos snickered as he rose out of his seat. He rolled his shoulders, seeking to wring out any remaining stiffness in those joints. "It was closer to twenty."

He had gotten a lot of thinking done in those twenty years, in-between dismantling Abominor and Silentium to see what made them tick. The kind of thinking that could only leave a man with the conclusion that everything is pointless. But a fun kind of pointless, if you could busy yourself with the right challenges.

Not unlike a Banking Clan.

"I've spent enough time fretting over droids," Adekos said, somewhat wistfully, following closely along the path. "It's all old hat for me now. The new project is cloned cyborgs."
 
Pausing, Maliphant offered Adekos a questioning glance - the premier Mechu Deru expert of the Galaxy was no longer as interested in robots as he was half organic cyborgs? His brow furrowed, but he chose not to follow up on it; mostly because Maliphant’s understanding of the finer details of droids was rudimentary relative to Adekos.​
Well, if the papers who up your desk - sign em, won’t you?”, he idled as they came to a central atrium. The walls were covered in a variety of sigils, many of which were written in a code - things that neither Adekos nor Maliphant would likely understand off first glance.​
Maliphant hummed softly as he pressed a finger against the stone, as though reading the sigils through sensation might make a difference;​
Any idea what this means, Dune?”​
My sources indicated this temple held records related to Exar Kun and his fall - even the rumor cultists returned the Dark Holocron here; though I’m less convinced now…”​
 
Adekos wrinkled his nose. "Don't look at me like that. I know what I'm doing."

Suffice to say, it was easier to make people into perfect droids than it was to make droids into perfect people. If only Darth Adekos had stumbled upon such an epiphany earlier, he might have saved himself a great deal of hair-pulling irritation. He scoffed lightly when asked to sign those papers, saying nothing else on the matter.

They entered a musky atrium, dark and gloomy. His eyes transitioned to low-light vision automatically, giving him a lovely view of piles of rubble and scarred columns. What a dump. Surely this place had been picked clean by scavengers already. He followed Maliphant's attention to one of the far walls, which was coated in various Sith runes.

He squinted, more out of habit than need. Already the runes were being analyzed, cross-referenced. Indicators popped up along the corners of his vision, translating the runes into something more intelligible.

"Wards and invectives," he announced after a moment. "The usual arcane nonsense. If this is how they secure their facilities, I'd hate to see how they store their records."
 
Arcane nonsense.”, Maliphant idled, a finger carefully moving across the grouping before furrowing his brow.​
Probably weakened over the years, but still there.”​
With a slightly harder press of his finger, Maliphant flooded the wall of raw Force energy - and like clockwork a small pop echo’ed through their senses before falling quiet once more. On a side wall, a door that was hardly seeable before began to slide from its seamless integration, and move aside.​
Glad to see we aren’t completely helpless.”, Maliphant laughed as he wandered towards the far more conditioned cave - stone carefully carved with the face of Exar Kun, Marko Ragnos, and a variety of other Sith Lords the Krath seemed to worship. Maliphant glanced over a few before heading deeper into the tunnels.​
At the end of their descent, an atrium opened up with a single large statue behind a tomb; and off first glance, neither would recognize who the statue was. Until, that was, Maliphant offered the answer quietly;​
Krath.”, he offered a few steps towards the statue.​
I recognize the depiction from holotapes I saw on the way to Teta; but there's something off about it…”, he idled before motioning to the crest on the statue’s forehead.​
Isn’t that the symbol Exar Kun had?”​
 
Adekos observed the emergence of the side passage with bemusement - which only grew as he entered the next hallway, flanked by the grimacing visages of long dead and pathetically primitive Sith Lords. Powerful men and women, to be sure, but hardly of any noteworthy vision. Especially Exar Kun.

Bludgeoning a Supreme Chancellor to death in front of the whole senate. How utterly uncouth.

He raised an eyebrow, watching as Maliphant trailed closer to the statue. Adekos felt much safer where he was, thank you.

"The mark of Ragnos," Adekos observed. "An unsurprising addition. They did so love Kun and Qel-Droma."

Darth Adekos sighed wistfully, idly surveying the rest of the room from where he stood.
 
Exar Kun was an impressive Sith for his time - but that was using the term liberally. The reality was that he was only good at dueling for his odd blade - something everyone was used to seeing now, and the sith spirits that kept his power imposing. In truth, he wasn’t all that impressive alone; Maliphant having little true respect for the ancient Sith.​
I suppose they did.”, Maliphant offered in return as he glanced over the statue of their god once more, glancing to where his fingers pointed.​
The room as a whole had a variety of crypts on the wall - many of the bodies wrapped in leather, clothe, or various other materials. They were likely those who served under the Sith in the center tomb; which made sense - this era were Sith were far more temperamental about their power base ‘outliving’ them. Maliphant imagined the majority of them were poisoned, stabbed, or buried alive in this tomb.​
Where the statues’s finger pointed, however, was to a specific corpse - though what made it different wasn’t immediately obvious. Without offering anything to Adekos, Maliphant wandered over and began to climb the crypt openings in the wall, hoping to reach the corpse - to see what was so important about it, much to Adekos’s likely judgemental gaze.​
---​
Higher in the tomb, the Blackwell Security forces walked about - some glancing over the runes themselves, as though they would understand them, while others simply watched the entrance of the area; their focus on security, but not on what was to come. Without their realization, and likely before most could react -​
They were cut down in a single move, from one or many was not known.​
While Maliphant was busy searching for whatever puzzle the crypt held its treasures behind, Adekos would likely feel the sensation of the men’s death, and notice nothing nearby to cause it. Half a dozen men in only a few seconds, and not a shot fired - what could it mean?​
 
Judgmental indeed, Darth Adekos watched in abject horror as his earnest companion begin his climb. Dust was kicked up, loose dirt tumbled down. So unsanitary.

"Really, Maliphant, you should have brought a repulsor droid," he scoffed, shimmying away from some falling debris, "Or a ladder, at least."

An archaeologist might have screamed in protest. Adekos only whipped out another handkerchief, quick as you please, holding it just over his nose and mouth. As if those stray particles would have really done anything to him should they be mistakenly inhaled. Old habits.

A wave rippled out in the Force only a moment later, catching the Umbaran off guard. He sucked in air, a hissing gasp, and - as if that weren't enough - he dropped his handkerchief. Death. Shock. Flashes of pain. It had been a while since Adekos had felt the simultaneous deaths of many sentients. Such anguish, such misery.

Such a waste.

His lightsaber came away from his belt. This one was new - tastefully gilded, embellished with a relief of a vixus. A lightsaber was such an ugly thing, far be it for him to not inject a little elegance into an otherwise stark cylinder. The crimson blade sprang to life in his hand, and his feet slid into a defensive stance.

"Maliphant."

Said with dread, in the clear tone of a command.
 
Just as Maliphant had reached the corpse, and his eye spied a small piece of electrum, did he hear Adekos call from behind him - fear the craven’s voice. It almost forced Maliphant to roll his eyes - but as he grabbed the key to the tomb, he felt the deaths as well. Or rather, the lack of life - as almost all his guards presence in the Force was suddenly gone; and that could only spell bad news.​
Maliphant let go of the ledge, tucked the key into his pocket, and pulled his lightsaber from his belt in one fluid motion; his own almost invisible to all but the most sensitive of eyes and ears. His gait was slow as he crossed the tomb to Adekos, but there was a distinct change in the air - Even if they couldn’t feel exactly where, at least three individuals had entered the tomb with them.​
His brow furrowed, but he didn’t speak, simply looked about for the first to strike out; but it wouldn’t come. Instead, a man walked down from the stairs, his boots clicking against the stone. When in full view, it was obvious to them both it was a Jedi, lightsaber in hand, and a light side aura about him. If not slightly muddled, he spoke with a pragmatic ‘hero’ voice that sent a cringe up Maliphant’s spine;​
You Sith are painfully easy to get into a trap…”, he offered, the sensation of the others moving through the room intensifying.​
My name is Jedi Knight Artorius Krev, and you both are under arrest in the name The Jedi Order.”, he offered with his blade igniting in a harsh blue light that worked against Adekos’s own red.​
Just a knight?”, Maliphant offered with a cock of his brow.​
What?”, the Jedi offered back.​
 
Artorius Krev. Even his name sounded heroic. Adekos only frowned at the Knight as he moved in. Krev's companions remained cloaked - quite well, too, as even the sensors buried under the Umbaran's flesh could not quite pick them out. He had only their presence in the Force to go off of, and surely they must have been aware of that.

"Oh, forgive my friend, here," Adekos chimed in, a bitterly apologetic tone, "He's merely expressing disbelief. Surely someone capable of murdering twelve armed guards so quickly is at least deserving of the title Master."

Adekos glanced one way, then another, estimating the approximate location of Krev's doting companions.

"Or perhaps Darth would be more appropriate. I don't believe our escort was given a chance to surrender."

Adekos personally had little doubt the Blackwell agents would have passed on that opportunity, obviously, and probably put up a good fight. It was merely the principle of the matter. Besides, there were more than enough methods to incapacitate rather than kill. One would think a Jedi was familiar...

 
Maliphant offered an testing glance to Adekos, and it seemed Krev had thought the same thing - as he too glanced to Adekos, though with a gaze filled with far more disappointment, and the ever so light sensation of anger.​
Another Sith who presumes to know the Jedi Code - and wants to throw it in a Jedi’s face.”, he sighed as he flurried his blade.​
Do Sith share a playbook on these things?”​
Maliphant shrugged - though probably inappropriately. He didn’t respond, and Artorius leveled his lightsaber as Adekos in the next moment;​
Give me your name, Sith, and surrender your lightsabers to me. Master Morga has taught us redemption is the first goal, but a Jedi would rather see you dead than continuing to spread your evil…”​
 
Redemption for some but not others, redemption for those with magic, but not those without. Always the same with these people. Was a little bit of consistency - some even disbursement of mercy - so much to ask for? Apparently so.

He scoffed, again, as most sneering Umbarans do. "I'm under no obligation to do either of those things."

His left hand curled into a fist, which he wrapped behind his back. One of the more formal dueling stances of the Tapani, which Adekos borrowed liberally from. He found their methods blended well with the elegance of Makashi, and it tended to throw off the more puritanical practitioners of that form.

"I've little desire to fight you, Krev, but if you insist on making this 'arrest' I'll have no choice but to defend myself."
 

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