I'm The Night

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"] | [member="Vrag"]

Gerion's consciousness slithered through the station's computer systems like a snake prowling for prey. Complicated ancient technology made for a difficult time in finding what he needed to find. Was there even a shut down command that could be issued to these droids? There had to be. Several times, Gerion thought he had found what he was looking for. No such luck. To his credit, he had managed to shut off the lights in the cafeteria, engage every single blast door on the floor above him, and accidentally vented the oxygen in three hangar bays. Well. Where was never any learning or experience to be gained without failing a few times. At least, that was how he rationalized it.

Fortunately he wouldn't have to rationalize it much longer. Gerion found the command and control system he had been looking for and prepared to flip the switch on just about every damnable robot in this space foundry. But that imbecilic AI kept pestering him.

"Will they dream?"

"Probably not. Stop asking me."

"I don't want to die."

Gerion's eyes rolled behind his eyelids to such a degree it almost broke his concentration. "You're not alive."

The Force worked in mysterious ways, but this time around it wasn't all that difficult to understand. Gerion's influence pressed into the system, and the AI's power core shut down, disabling it unless someone manually turned it back on at the source. Finally, sweet silence. The next to go were the other droids, as the Umbaran issued a universal shut-down command. Before Vrag and Ovrani could complete their epic battle with the metal behemoth, the thing pitched forward and fell flatly onto its stomach.

Then Gerion's voice cackled over the loudspeakers.

"Could I trouble someone for an estimate on how much longer this whole affair will take?"

 

[Hira Mitsae]

And so it was that the merry band of misfits completed their mission, they had managed to get to the holy trinity of the compulsory forty posts together and brought peace to the land of the Factory, now no one would be able to claim that they weren’t taking the rules seriously or something as crazy as that. With the Rakatan AI disabled and Ardik’s deftly manipulation of the computer system they had managed to finally neutralize the Foundry’s defense systems, with no threats looming over them anymore, they would now be able to all go home and take on for the team.

Or in Irani’s case, multiple hits for the team, at least that’s the impression he got from the general aura Vrag was currently excreting. Which was fine to him, because sometimes rough loving was exactly what the doctor had order for ya.

At any rate, they (and Matsu Xiangu, because she had also been there from the start) met each other again in one of the many hangar bays the installation sported. (One of the ones that Ardik hadn’t decided to vent during his experimentations with the AI network)

Deciding that enough was enough for one day the party of heroes (because every story needed a ragged band of misfits in the protagonist role, even if heroes was really a term that depended on the perspective of folk) departed from the station, Ardik probably went back to tasting wine at one of his luxurious estates on Raxus Secundus. Vrag probably went back to one of those Vong-Infested planets she called her home to further hone her battle skills and fantasize about rough handling one very attractive Voice of the Dark Lord. Xiangu probably went back to Coruscant, because she oversaw that planet these days.

But what of Darell Irani, otherwise known as Darth Carach and currently being nicknamed Ovrani by his friends and associates? What did he decide to do after they had managed to reclaim the legends of Rakatan Old? Well, that is what we would go into next, because this story wasn’t yet finished.

No, one could say that this story had just only begun.

[member="Gerion Ardik"] | [member="Vrag"] | [member="Matsu Xiangu"]​

 

[Hira Mitsae]

Whilst his friends went back to their respective stations, homes and lives, Darell Irani still had a whole journey ahead of him. Thankfully a journey which had severely been downcut because of the assistance Xiangu, Ardik and Vrag had given him, but a journey still. His current destination was the Tython System and the small corporate fleet which surrounded the temporary orbital spaceport hanging above the blue orb.

After the dominion of the Sith of Tython the Voice of the Dark Lord had laid claim on Tython as his personal domain, a bold statement which had been supported by the Dark Lord as a boon, a gift for the many years of service Darth Carach had put forward to the cause of the Sith. And so Carach had started to develop the Tython System, he would probably never call himself the Emperor of Tython or anything as drastic as that- one could only give so much munition to Gerion, before you realized you were really only committing self-despoliation.

Eridium Industrial had been busy these days, first with the creation of a proper fortress for the Sith Lord, because a Sith needed a home, a place where he could brood and commit vile experiments in the Dark Side, no? At least that was what Ovrani figured when he commissioned the creation of the stronghold on the location of the remnants of one of the ancient Jeedai artifacts. Underneath the Fortress the raging storms of the Force continued still, giving out a looming presence of… finality? to the entire mix.

But slowly Carach was starting to use those same storms, twisting the energy further into a keen vortex which could be used to harness- But perhaps that was enough exposition for one time. The point was that Darell Irani was currently headed towards that same system, to meet up with the Eridium fleet so they could properly secure the Foundry.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

It would take him an hour or so, before he could get there of course. The travel time between such distances wasn’t a simple thing, especially when your transporter did not possess a 1.0 hyperdrive which seemed to be all but compulsory for any space vehicle these days. Which seemed strange to say the least, a 1.0 usually meant military-grade hardware, why and how would a starting smuggler with no dime to his name have a cutting-edge spaceship with a 1.0 hyperdrive?

Those were the sort of musings that passed Irani’s mind as he leaned back in his chair and let the soft hum of Hyperspace lull him into a vague sense of sleep. The iridescent highlights of blue streaks flashed outside of the ship, viewport almost having the sensation of frostation. But that too was simply the mind playing tricks, or was it?

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother these days.

The soft leather pressed against his back, it beckoned for him to relax and get some downtime. To simply let go for now and get some sleep, his eyes slowly closed and off he went towards the land of dreams, just for a few moments of course.

Just… to let those eyes rest for a minute or two.

Before he had set off on his journey Darell had sent a message to the Tython System, that was the beauty of being in a Sci-Fi setting these days, you could practically send a message to the other end of the Galaxy and they would receive it almost instantaneously. Things were almost built to be practical and easy.

The message had basically said that the mission was a success and that preparations would have to be made for a jump to unknown coordinates, just a way for Darell to cut down on waiting-time. By the time he arrived they would be ready for him.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

A ship dropped out of hyperspace, its sleek forms suggesting civility and taste coming from the owner of it and perhaps in some ways that was the reality, whilst in others… it was far from the truth. Which people like Gerion would only love to underline with a big, fat red marker. The arrival kicked in the thrusters of the transport, just to stabilize the approach vector and minimize the amount of turbulence that any occupants might feel at entry-date.

Irani felt the shocks quite keenly, crashing out of his chair face-first into the monitors and controls of his ship. Wasn’t a pleasant landing all things considered, but what could you do? A beeping red light would notify the Sith Lord slash Businessman that there was a transmission incoming, it took the poor lad a few moments- moments in which he was groping around blindly, while holding his head with the other hand.

Eventually he managed to reclaim some sense of dignity, settling himself back onto the seat with a groan before taking the call. It was one of the leading engineers of Eridium Industrial, the name currently slipped Irani’s mind, but he wouldn’t let that get in the way of a good old conversation though.

‘Yes.’ Darell said, pretending to be fully in control of his pain levels and actually succeeding in seeming quite in control over everything.

That was the trick of leadership most of the time, it didn’t come to actual capability, strength or self-respect.

It came down to being perceived as owning all three of those qualities.

From the words of the wise.

Darell didn’t actually know if anyone had actually ever said that, but that wasn’t the point of the saying, now was it? Even if he was the first one to come up with that, it didn’t necessarily weaken the point, it might even make it more relevant.

Or maybe he hit his head really hard and the things he was currently thinking… weren’t actually making much sense.

Who knew these days.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

In reply to the short ‘Yes.’ of his boss, the leading engineer of Eridium Industrial was slightly befuddled. (He definitely had a name though, but that wasn’t really all that relevant for this portion of the story, so they would have to gloss over that detail, until the timing was a little better for the flow of the story) Befuddled mostly because he hadn’t actually been sure what to expect after receiving the burst of information from that unknown sector, the kind of information they had received from their boss… well, it made them all kinds of enthusiastic.

‘Mister Irani, sir. Are you… well?’ the question was posed carefully, you never really knew how far you could go with showing concern to these corporate types, sometimes they just really got all angsty for no reason at all.

In response to this Darell simply blinked a few times, until finally giving out a reply. It wasn’t every day that one of your employees decided to ask you a question of the personal kind, instead of going right to business. ‘Fairly well… Doyle.’ because that was the guy’s name, which suddenly somehow popped up in the Sith Lord’s mind.

Talk ‘bout some ‘saved by the bell’ nonsense.

Doyle was not exactly convinced by the reply, but he wasn’t anything if not professional and so simply nodded. His boss had said his piece and who was he to say anything else? A few taps were heard from the background as the engineer typed out something on a screen.

‘Sir, we received your transmission an hour ago, fleet still needs some preparation here and there, but it’s about ready to depart.’ an awkward cough here and there. ‘Frankly, sir… the team is most interested in how and where you manage to keep finding this kind of data.’

‘First Anil Kesh and the other temples, now this again. We are astonished of the readings we are getting.’