It is unaVOIDable, it is your destiny. [TSE Dom of Nathema Hex - AN,21]

[Cassandra Paige]

Cassandra caught the intended barb. But how could an attack like that strike true when there was no target to hit?

One of the very first things [member="Itash Mecetti"] had taught her was how to hide her signature within the Force. Better and yet again all to gain by keeping that as an ace up ones sleeve, yes? The fact that Cassandra was rather smug about it was the flash that Cerbera caught- Cassandra had not been born with the sensitivity required to manipulate the Force, but through a continued ritual with Tash they had kept it as part of her. It was not permanent and that rankled. But someday. Yes. There was nothing that Cassandra Paige wanted that she did not, in time, come to possess.

Instead of a smirk the expression turned into a sunny smile.

"Mmm I am sure that the things us poor mundanes miss would be simply hair curling."

A small barb of her own.

She did not miss the way the 'offer' was presented. Like scraps from a table to the dogs. Good dogs, loyal dogs, but still.

For now, for all of the smuggness at her burgeoning abilities, Cassandra knew the line she walked here was a fine one. So she let it lie because there was no gain in making a fuss. She had learned a long time ago that there were people you could push and people you ought not. [member="Cerbera"] certain fell into the later category.

For now.

"Our scope is usually not so much the 'grand', but you know that already," Cassandra said as they stepped into the facility and started heading down. The cool air, the cleanliness of it- this was much preferable to the outside verdancy and mess. As much as Cassandra could find it interesting from a business perspective, in truth she hated all of that.

"However I have no doubt that this invitation considers our capacities, rather than our deficits, so I am very interested to hear what you have up your sleeve."

Working with the green skinned woman had, after all, always been profitable.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

"Mmm, truly. Sometimes it is unbearable to watch."

The hair comment was either unnoticed or disregarded. Either way it seemed that even now Cassandra was fairly below her notice. Known enough to give her a job when that was beneficial for Cerbera, but not truly important enough to consider her words in any other way than background scenery. Maybe that was for the best when it came to Cassandra though. One could only wonder what happened to the rare individual that did draw her attention and interest for the long term.

"Indeed, but that fact does not lower the quality of what GenPals can accomplish with proper motivation and means."

She was, of course, speaking of her own little pets that they had created together.

That had been an interesting project to say the least. They were still scurrying around in her labs, running their own little projects and assisting hers. Maybe Cassandra would meet them today. It all depended on if they were on a break or not, really.

"How much do you know about the Yuuzhan Vong?" The alchemist asked curiously as the doors slid open and allowed entry to another set of non-descript corridors. These would lead to her personal labs.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Objective: 3 - Agricultural Revolution
Location: The Verdant Valley
Equipment: [ Attire ] [ Wristlink ] [ Lightsaber ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYWW8eF8Ao​

​

Saddle up, Sith!

The Cathar and the Zabrak were each riding atop the backs of eopie. The Polydroxol was seemingly content to lounge on the lead wagon, observing as the two organic younglings darted back and forth with their mounts.

They were driving a herd of nerf into the Verdant Valley, headed for a new commercial farm that was being established there so that Nathema might better serve the Sith Emperor as an agriworld. Already, the trio had encountered an acklay in their quest to deliver the livestock and supplies, but that was exactly why this task had been given to such aspiring Sith.

Well, Sith wannabes anyway.

With a ten-gallon hat, which was too large for him, propped atop his head, the young Cathar was galloping down one side of the herd. That was no mere nerf rustling, either. There were future McYoda youngling meals in them there nerfs! A fact that was not only apparent the the younglings.

On a ridge above, the Cathar could make out the outline of a nexu, prowling beside where the herd was moving. The feral predator was no doubt looking for a nerf that was isolated away from the herd. Or else debating its chances at making a run into what could easily become a stampede.

The child's long-handle lightsaber rested across his lap as he bounced atop the eopie, one hand holding the reigns and the other rested on the silvery cylinder as the boy's amber catseye kept a casual watch over where the nexu was moving above them.

There were any number of predators on a Sith world. Which made the nerf rustling part of the job actually interesting. When they got back to Bastion, they'd be able to talk about fighting an acklay! And they were only halfway through the trip to the farm, so Force only knew what might happen. They might get to tangle with a pack of nexu as well.

What class was this grade even for? Did nerf rustling count as a physical fitness credit?

Who knew. Between sitting in a classroom on Bastion or battling acklay on an alien world, the alien world was definitely much more interesting!

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Objective 4 - BYOO
Study the history and wildlife of Nathema

Moving away from the voreclaw specimen, Taeli started going over the initial data of the sleen and nexu they had captured. Comparing it to standard creatures, she was interested in seeing what mutations had exactly formed from the exposure to this planet steeped in the dark side. The nexu was, for all intents and purposes, absolutely terrifying. The darker fur coat, the glowing orange eyes... the darkened claws and fangs. She was particularly interested in the calcification that had appeared along the legs of the creature near the paws.

Taking a scalpel, she took several experimental slices at it and was pleasantly surprised at seeing no damage at all. Something a little tougher. A vibroknife was the next object of choice and it produced the same result. Absolutely fascinating.

"Get measurements on this nexu," she ordered. Even judging by the eye, these beasts were larger than a normal nexu. The same could be said of the sleen.

Moving away again to the voreclaw, she regarded the creature with curious eyes. The voreclaws, so the stories said and she wouldn't know the validity of such until she had the holocron in her possession, had survived the Nathema ritual deep underground. But they would still have been affected by it, and she was curious how. They would need to access the creature's genetic memory to learn more.

 

[Onrai]

The resulting beam penetrated through the shielding of the Pellaeon, inflicting critical damage to the vessel's unoccupied bridge, venting it into space. "Well... that went far better than I expected." Vanessa watched. "Continue firing. If we've given this little old corvette the necessary firepower to cripple a Star Destroyer, imagine what the production version of the vessel will be able to do..." She smiled, pondering the many ships that would end up suffering critical existence failure, or otherwise end up in the hands of Sith R&D. With the neutering of the Commenor fleet after Kay's surrender to the Sith Empire, this would prove to be most effective against any remaining points of Commenori resistance.

But no. The prototype of this vessel would not end up in Sith hands. The Sith already had competent corvettes, more than were probably necessary in truth, and it would be quite useful if the Lancet were offered to the Krath for use by their forces. The Rampant II would be a design for their use.

The production modulators, on the other hand...

 

[Mythos]

Objective: III A Feast for the Horde.


Everything proceeded as the empire had forseen. His ships landed and brought forth his people, days with no sign of trouble. Unsurprisingly to Mythos problems only appeared when stagnation took hold, when the expansion stopped, did predators and the beasts of the wild threatened the people.

The Magnus landed to refill it's quota of souls here, the fuel delivered one way or the other. Living beings began to go into the behemoth that needed a crater to land and be stationed. These beings would then be used to fuel the entechment and the Magnus would fire again.

Mythos used the ship as a command post to spread the settlement, near two rivers it sat using the streams as fresh water. He oversaw the construction of this city as an agricultural center using his knowladge of world building that he honed. Expanding his knowladge with experiments like this were all recorded into a holocron.

First and foremost were the buildings of law enforcement and imperial law. Those had been taken care of before hand, the silos of food as well.

Mythos had a plan, he would make the silos larger, larger than anything he had ever heard of and claim the vast plains for a crop worthy of an entire legion. Without food no empire could ever hope to continiue, Mythos would secure thid logistical asset but multiply it tenfold.

Mythos then opened the agricultural department of his company used strictly for record keeping and research for now. It counted with only twenty people but it was there, buzzing with counts and logs and other technical things.

The Pyramid ships at first acted like housing but now they began to leave one by one as the settlement was built one after the other. Mythos periodically would visit the housing encampents to bring aid personally, he then supervised the construction of the more specific buildings of the settlement like water purification station.

It was the job no one wanted. It was tedius and time consuming but it had it's own rewards. After a few weeks of hand blistering work Mythos found a basket fillled with produce and fruits in the ramp of the Magnus. Inside was a note: 'The Best of our crop for the best of the Lords'

Later that day an alarm came from the north sector. A place called Verdant Valley. An Anubian officer piped up with the report. "There seems to be an Acklay attack, there is however an Acolyte of the empire on it"

Before them both in the Magnus they saw [member="Micah"] and his Zabrak friend. They both clearly had it all under control. Mythos turned to his Tuk'ata Groom and placed a datapad on his armor. The hound sped off into the distance in the direction of valley in question. "They don't look like they need any help but Groom wants to hunt"

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Emperor cast a side-glance to Darth Amortem as he hobbled up next to the small gathering of high-ranking overseers and architects, who moved off to the side to continue their discussions without intruding on the Emperor's own. They had known each other for a very, very long time, more than most others who stood close to the Emperor in the Empire. He and Amortem shared a belief for a unified Sith, and that is what made the aging Amortem an invaluable ally in bringing the other noble houses of Serenno to heel once the Dominion had been driven away.

"There are still secrets yet to be unearthed," cryptically spoke the Emperor, his eyes falling back over the slowly growing structure of the new Sith Temple, "Perhaps we will uncover something of Vitiate's, I have ordered the site of his former palace to be quarantined for study. None may enter without my permission."

He didn't expect to find anything worthwhile, Nathema had sat unguarded for many centuries and had been occupied by many of his enemies. Still, if there was something to find, the Emperor didn't want some ambitious Lord getting their hands on it before he could. Even now a large force of Blackblades and Imperial Sentinels stood to watch over the Northern continent, stopping and detaining any unauthorized entities that dared to breach the Emperor's edict.

Now his gaze fixated on the hulking Karkarodon that gawked so openly at the construction efforts, "Is this the slave?"

[member="Tehkyram"]​

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Maintain composure and dignity.
Allies: [member=Darth Carnifex]

Amortem chuckled. "Good, good. One victory was never enough for you, was it? Though I suppose for a man of your stature, death is hardly the final opponent. For me, on the other hand..." A sigh. "I suppose ultimately I have been mistaken all these years. The true final opponent for me is in fact life. Better to move on to the abyss than to remain in this twisted old form, yes? Depart this shell for something more liberating..." He trailed off, looking at the temple begin to form. Such an astounding temple, a perfectly ordered and ergonomic design, with minimal structural strain. How wonderful.

He hated it. It needed to have more pain inherent in the design. There had to be some sort of expression of the suffering inherent in life. Otherwise it may as well be a Jedi temple.

Tehkyram, meanwhile, felt the gaze of the Emperor sear into his flesh. Instantly he turned to face the radiant darkness and dropped to a single knee, his head bowed and eyes averted from his majesty. "What is thy bidding, my liege?" The traditional greeting, but with very specific syntax. The Emperor was the ultimate authority, but not a master. Nor was he his lord- that title was used for Imperials referring to Sith Lords. Liege was the appropriate term, recognizing the Emperor as not only a lawful authority but as a spiritual authority as well. He was in the presence of greatness, his diction was of the utmost importance.

Amortem, of course, found the whole spectacle amusing. "Yes, yes, but not for much longer. He'll be embarking on his trials soon, preparing to transition into proper Knighthood. Should he succeed, he'll also be awarded his freedom and Imperial citizenship. That makes him eligible for inheritance. I suppose I'll give him roughly one-third my assets, bequeath the other third to the Empire and the Order, and then wrap up the other third in funds for my Son's little personal project. He's told me it's coming along quite well, by the way. He cannot wait for you to see it. He insists that the reveal will be worth the secrecy, and that you will be taken aback by the results they have achieved. Though he was disappointed it wasn't ready in time for the scouring of Commenor. But no, Amseth is not happy about his being 'cut out' of my will. Evidently obtaining my title and all my hard assets isn't enough for him. But such is youth, no? Always wanting more. It's what makes him a fine Sith, his ambition and desire." A long, drawn out ramble about his beloved Amseth. Each word spent singing his praises rather than Tehkyram's was like a lash on his apprentice's bare back. There was great enmity between the two despite them never having met, both of them competing for the attention and affection of the Lord of Grudges. Amortem found it delightful, each of his heirs being a tool to torture the other.

"But enough of Amseth. You know him well enough and will see him plenty more times in the future. Yes, I must cease my old man rambling and get to the point. This is my masterpiece, Tehkyram. A corruption of the Mandalorian phrase 'From Death'. I purchased him from a friend of mine who trafficked in gladiators. He was scrawny, malnourished and mutilated, marked by disease. He could not read nor write, and spoke only the most guttural and crude basic. And yet, see what I have done with him, my friend! Through my training, I have built a Sith worthy of your gaze. I saw that primordial darkness within him, that same raw anger directed at all of existence that I have known my whole life. And I nourished that hatred like I nourished his mind and body. I not only fed him with food and books, but I fed his soul with the fuel he was looking for. And what splendorous results! He returned from Commenor with the heads of five Jedi for me. Amseth gets the brains, and I've donated four of the skulls to the temple with the fifth to be fastened into a chalice for later purposes." He meant Tehkyram's knighting, but best to keep that a secret for now. No reason to give him too much praise. "I do hope that once I have let go of this world, old friend, you find Tehkyram to be a worthy living legacy. His desire is pure, his will incorruptible. He is an avatar of hatred and destruction, a weapon as great as any planet-killer. At your order, he will bleed the galaxy dry."

Tehkyram stifled a shudder. The praise was overwhelming, not just in its warmheartedness but in how burdensome it was. It was a promise he would have to devote his life towards. Even in freedom, he would be enslaved to his master's promise to the Emperor. That was Amortem's genius, disguising cruelty as kindness. It was a profound evil, one he admired. It would be an honor to revenge himself upon his master in the way that Darth Bane intended. A relief from his cruelty, yes, but also a profound honor.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Objective 4 - BYOO
Study the history and wildlife of Nathema

"Maiyijia wa ri drosar anas tash shias. Dzatwi uynsutu ri kakija iw ri sosutiwisosutua. Kurososuti ki ri Diyina iw Raria," she intoned, her hands on either side of the head of a restrained voreclaw specimen. Black and purple energy twined around her fingers, slowly slipping in and around the monster's head as her spell continued and repeated. It was a pity that she didn't have a machine or an easier way to access the genetic memory of the creatures, but alas, she would make do with Sith magic.

She had to delve deeper into it, pull the instincts of the creature out into the open and discover what was the root of those instincts and changes. In a way, it was almost similar to one of the spells she had learned from Darth Zannah's holocron. In that case, it was pulling out the nightmares of the subconscious, those deep-rooted primal fears that every species had on some level. The creature was trying to break free of its restraints, desperate to escape the being causing it to relive memories that were not its own, torturing its mind.

"Maiyijia wa ri drosar anas tash shias. Dzatwi uynsutu ri kakija iw ri sosutiwisosutua. Kurososuti ki ri Diyina iw Raria."

In her mind's eye, she could catch glimpses and impressions of what the voreclaw was feeling, the Sith spell granting her visions of the experiences. She still wasn't where she wanted to be in the past, she had to delve deeper.

"Maiyijia wa ri drosar anas tash shias. Dzatwi uynsutu ri kakija iw ri sosutiwisosutua. Kurososuti ki ri Diyina iw Raria."

And the monster roared in sheer primal panic as the chanting continued.

 

[Ras'kala'han]

OBJECTIVE: IV ; Searching For Power
LOCATION: The Deep Wilderness; Nathema

~​

​

He didn't want them to see him. He didn't want them to look him in the eye. Antherion, the Darth Vesper, on a world touched, irreversibly tainted and riddled with the artifacts of the mightiest of the Sith Lord to ever live in history - a Sith Lord he had once served in the Empire of - was hiding his shame. He could not stand to be on the front. He could not stand to throw himself into more battle and bloodshed while this hollow pain gnawed at his heart and tore at his soul. He would come out of his hiding when he could look his fellows in the eye, join the peerage of Lords and stand with equal dignity. Not a moment sooner.

But even as he waited for that day to come, this pain made him no less deadly.

"Show me," Antherion whispered under his breath, walking forward through the forest without abandon, without regard for subtlety or safety. "Show me what you found, all those millennia ago. Show me the secret to your heartlessness. Show me the key to your power." He pressed a hand to his chest, biting his lip. A memory of a face, a human face:

His sister, tears streaking her face. His sister, withering and dying. His sister, who was his to kill, whose power was his to steal, who belong to him and was his to possess, taken from him forever by time and the ravages of the twisting nether of the Force. There were many faces in his nightmares of late, but this was the one that haunted him the most. He did not know how to process the twisting in his gut, the knife-like feeling in his heart that he never before had felt. He only knew he wanted it to stop.

"Show me how you were free."

He closed his eyes for a moment, pressing the Force for a hint - a clue. He got a direction. Southwest. He turned and faced the thicket of trees, raising a hand as he closed his eyes and concentrated. There was a hiss, and a sickening shiver as the energy leaped from his fingertips, and a sting in his eyes at coils of black smoke, and a strong smell of burning.

He slashed the hand in a quick chop and the air cleared. He had no regard for this wilderness, and no reason to fear spending the coin of his power freely. He had enough suffering to fuel it. Leaving a scorched trail, he tread on the grey cinders, the path clear, intent on finding the object of his desires.

 

[Elline Adasca]

[member="Adrian Vandiir"]

“These spirits seem sentient enough to be classified as another form of lifeform. Interesting. What keeps their connection onto our plane or existence?”

She was taking nothing more than a random stab at how spirits worked, she was a woman of hard science and biology. Mystical nonsense was all illogical and hurt her head. But, if they could be understood, they could be captured, and then the possibilities would be endless.

When they began to walk, she did in silence. Such a diminutive girl, she was little compared to those grizzled soldiers and the ofher Sith. But it didn’t seem to bother her, she was too invested in the scene and the possibilities it held.

 

[Darth Prazutis]

The Shadow Hand walked alongside his apprentice [member="Sienna Vekarr"] through the dark ruins of the Sanitarium. It was now filled with life as laborers, construction droids, and soldiers moved about the chaos all directed by Chief Engineer Chifirox. They worked tirelessly to rebuild the ancient sith structure and restore it to its former glory. It was almost beautiful to see the machine of the Sith Empire move even in such a place of death and darkness they seemed perfectly at home. Everyone they passed showed respect bowing before the Shadow Hand, showing their fealty. "A different lesson for you today my apprentice. You must project strength if you are to lead. The strong rule and the weak die that is our creed. But we do not always use the hammer, we must extend the olive branch to worlds that wish to join our Empire. All in our Empire hold value gifts in the force or not. These laborers are the very foundation without which everything crumbles, they are a cog in the machine."

 

[Cassandra Paige]

'Proper motivation' in the case of Cerbera's pets had meant the green skinned woman practically looming over the shoulders of GenPal's scientists. Not something Cassandra planned to subject them to again if at all possible. Larry in particular, she thought, would never be the same. She also suspected he was utterly smitten and had to resist wrinkling her nose. But then, Larry's favorite projects had been entirely suspect so it shouldn't surprise her.

"Mmm, a bit," Cass murmured as they stepped out of the lift and into the hallway. Her heels takked neatly on the tile floor as they walked. While the woman was not a biologist or geneticist herself, it would have been impossible to run a company focused on bio-engineering without becoming at least passingly familiar with the Vong and their work.

"Truly amazing what they accomplish. We have had successes replicating certain projects in the lab. Nothing fit for sale, but the base processes are very useful in expanding the effects we can produce. One of the labs is dedicated to that- reduced risk of cross contamination unintentionally."

She paused as Cerbera opened a door, ushering the redhead inside.

Cassandra paused just inside the door, grey eyes sweeping the room.

[member="Cerbera"]

 

[Mythos]

Objective: III A Feast for the Horde

Vitiate had a holocron, Mythos knew this for a fact, the holocron in question was not here, at least his archaeology teams did not find anything and they always found a clue if anything was here. There was a deeper reason than just that which kept Mythos here and not with [member="Darth Prazutis"] and the Emperor himself... If he was there he could not build them the city he knew he was capable of building.

A buzzing metropolis in the plainsland, a city folk town where before it was countryside yet loosing none of it's agricultural power. The reaper plows were brought in from planetside, old ones, needing repair and recomission. This was handled by the agricultural department of the empire and administered by the wing of Mythos' company.

Now, finally, the silos began to be built. Seveteen silos, half a mile long each, quarter mile long and several stories big, all underground as bunkers. Each silo could withstand a blast from the Behemoth, under the first layer were several yards of thick reinforced durasteel and an internal sheild generator.

Inside the Silo bunkers there would be a set temperature to keep the crops from rotting and a sprinkler system that sprayed preservatives and genetic mutation protines that made the food last longer and be more nutritious at the cost of some of it's flavor. It was by far the largest logistic problem Mythos solved since the Ancient Eye.

All the data collected, experiments, faliures and successes went into "The World Creator" holocron, something Mythos had been creating since the ancient eye, a treasure with no equal.

Pyramid in shape like most holocrons one thing set Mythos' apart: it was one in a half meters tall and the same wide. It took three Anubians to lift and move it. This holocron did not deal with abstracts and lessons of the force, instead it held inside it all the architectural, engineering, agricultural, techological and militaristic knowladge one needed to create an empire out of a single planet.

A holocron of the force would never have the space needed to hold inside just the specifications for a complete military with naval and ground forces, let alone the ways to recruit, draft and create it's burocracy in more than couple of ways.

The Holocron as of now held seven different structures for a planetary military. The Holocrons that Mythos had collected up until now could not hold in data that information all together.

"My Lord. The Holocron is now halfway filled". Anoh-ek said, The Anubian in highest command in the ship, his armor showing the awards for battles with jedi, sith and imperials.

"It should be about three more systems before it is filled Anoh-ek. Be sure that all the data of the silos is uploaded by Imperial Officer Makonthir personally. I wish to have his 'exponential growth theory' inside the holocron as well"

 

[Vestille Thumahra]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbdm5M30kFs[/media]​

​

Vestille Thumahra​

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Hell​

Objective IV :: Suffer​

​

The jungle mutated and shaped itself as it saw fit. An ever-changing playground of torment.

The bodies of Pestilence slowly got to their feet, at first it was simply one or two but as the moments ticked by, another one soon found its footing and then another. Seven Two men had been led to their deaths that day, their graves mapped out in the marshes and swamps that surrounded them as they were slain at the hands of the Confederacy and their Galactic Alliance associates. In truth, anyone could have seen that the brave men and women of Pestilence had a non-existent chance down amid the swamp of Dagobah yet their training, their doctrine, their zeal; it had all given them something unbreakable and impossible to see through like a thick fog cast upon their judgement, the thought of still being superior and capable of turning the situation around using their superior knowledge of tactics, training and physical augmentations to crush the scum that sought to overthrow the arm of the rightful rule over the Galaxy. How wrong they had been, how blindly they marched into certain doom and to never question or disobey orders; their perfections turned against them and leaving them for dead and no doubt forgotten.

Yet now here he was, surrounded by the shambling corpses of his comrades as one by one they turned their twisted faces and stared with dead yet hungering eyes; mixes of the craving for revenge and anger mixed with the desire to feast upon the man who had been the one that led them to the abyss and its firm grasp. Their idle shuffling and getting to their feet soon turned to purposeful stumbles towards the last living soul in his own man made hell. At first, there seemed to be no ways to arm himself, no blaster available to his open grasp as if they had simply turned to dust and no longer existed; he was truly alone in this regard, not even the weapons he trusted to assist with the carrying out of duty had abandoned him in his greatest hour of need as the agents of the abyss sought their prize and their reward; the feast of flesh that was wrapped underneath a thick armored shell which seemed to remain but for how long?

Nothing made sense in this place, everything was evil. He had to get out, by any means necessary.

Whatever feelings the Colonel felt for his fallen comrades and the shock of seeing their dead states reverted was soon pushed aside as if it were nothing; they weren't Pestilence anymore, they were hollow shells of friends and brotherhood that was now to be manipulated by the puppet master behind the blood red fog that covered the swamp. Vestille felt like he was being watched, observed and perhaps even witnessed as his trauma took form and embodied itself as nightmares yet this time, he was not there to simply sit and idly watch as if he were the spectator of his own misery; he was in control, his hands and will held in its usual zealous grip as Vestille took his stand. One by one the hollows came toward him, arms reached out and teeth ready to tear chunks of flesh from the living in order to sate the endless hunger and yet each one found itself at the hands of a controlled monster, a slave to doctrine, to order and the directive to uphold it no matter the cost. Limbs, jaws, heads, whatever the Colonel got his hands upon, it sunk in like hooks upon prey and ripped and tore without hesitation or doubt. The more blood that soaked his armor, the more something deep inside began to take shape and grow; the beast had remained dormant for the longest time, allowing the logical and zealous shield of the mind falter under the consistent slaughter and bloodshed that surrounded the Colonel.

This wasn't a nightmare, this was a trap.

Vestille had kept no count of the time or the number of mangled and crushed bodies that now lay within the murky waters beneath his feet, his entire form shifted into some sort of automated overdrive against the mob of dead comrades. Their intent was to feast? So be it, the mind snarled, allow them to feast upon their own dead and suffer. It was this that invoked some sort of reaction from the presence behind the fog, the one that had taken up some sort of spectator of this grand spectacle of misery and torment. It wasn't until the last of the dead had been torn apart that there appeared to be nothing more than the Colonel and the presence left within the realm of hell that kept Vestille imprisoned for to the convinced eye, it seemed to expand for eternity in every direction; trees of flesh and bone, ground of blood and bile and a sky of smoke and fire. Wherever he was, Nathema, it was gone.

He was weak. Perfect.

As if something had stabbed him within his back, Vestille froze up and quickly lost his breath. This sensation, no matter how much it felt as if someone or something had somehow sneaked up upon him and thrust a blade deep into him, ignoring the armor that clung to his body like a second skin, this carried something much darker than a simple bite of steel. With no real chance to look behind him, Vestille found himself frozen not only upon the spot but felt something cold seep into him; a sensation that pricked and was as pitch black and empty as space itself. Whatever humanity or sense of it was quickly shrouded by this sensation and snuffed out without as much of a whimper or fight. Perhaps he was hallucinating, dying right there and then with no ability to act upon it other than simply watch his life slip away. Perhaps this was it, he would die in this hell and nobody would know. Perhaps accepting his face was the easier option, to simply allow this sensation to cease everything that made him Vestille Thumahra, the Haunted Commander. Yet as the moments went by, he felt no closer to the abyss, no sensation that it was opening its jaws to grant the frequent visitor his permanent stay. Instead, the fog seemed to lift as a shade appeared before his very eyes.

Formless, simply shadow. There was no way to touch it in his state. All he could do was watch and listen.

We're the same, you and I. I sensed you the moment your presence set foot upon this world. The shade's voice sounded... Strange; almost the very same that acted as the voice of the beast contained deep within his psyche yet... How could this be? Vestille was not a man of the occult, the paranormal; his knowledge and talents came from warfare and doctrine rather than the study of ghosts and magic yet, here he was, at the hands of something manifesting as an entity modeled after the feral animal that he vowed to keep contained and controlled. Something upon the planet had called like a siren to the Colonel, ensnaring him into a trap made of his own mental fractures. He tried to ask a question, speak, move his arms or do anything at all yet he was powerless to do so. More tendrils rose from the bloody swamp water and reared their points before thrusting themselves deep into Vestille. Agony, torment, darkness; it was flooding his body like a tsunami as his defenses faltered and buckled. He had failed and whatever he had fallen into now created a fusion; together, the same, the mental trauma now had a host to form its own physical manifestations. Now we will become one.

Another tendril rose and struck right at the helmet, ebbing the cold void into his mind. Everything turned black and silent. Metamorphosis was at hand.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

Larry had been an absolute darling to work with.

It wouldn't have surprised her, if Cass' office had received numerous requests from that one for further cooperation with the Sith Alchemist. His mind was fascinating truth to be told. Not a forcer, no, but still brilliant enough to keep Cerbera interested in some ways.

"Mhm, I am pleased you do not share the mindless hatred that some fester in this Galaxy." The Sith Lord complimented her as they stepped into her laboratory. It was... unlike what someone might expect from an Alchemist. The room wasn't dark. There weren't ritual knives sprayed around. Blood wasn't pooling in the corners of the room, neither were there corpses decorating every field of the lab. Instead it was clinical and clean and numerous complicated machineries were whirring in peace.

Several of her Apocutelypse Squad were mulling about and working on smaller projects.

They knew better than to intrude.

Cerbera strode towards the main console, her thin fingers already sweeping the biometric coding mechanisms aside as it scanned her. "The Yuuzhan Vong created much in their time, but I was most interested in something entirely else."

A flick of the finger and then something projected itself before them. "Something... ambitious. How would you like to assist me in creating a large, living ship, darling?"

 

[Onrai]

With the successful test of the beam modulator on board the Lancet, Vanessa was quite pleased. Now her Krath allies would have a suitable craft capable of engaging and destroying the brigands remaining within the now almost empty Core. As for the beam modulator itself - it would be installed in something smaller, more compact, and otherwise more capable of guarding itself against any attacking ships. At the least, it would be more durable than the corvette.

"The test was successful." Said the bridge officer to the Sith Lady.

"Fantastic… It seems we have the presence of the Emperor as well as other Sith here. Leave them be - their numbers are... unusually excessive, even for the conquest of this world."

"Treasonous thoughts?"

"Of course not. But do they know I don't intend to betray them, or do they still harbor suspicions I will?"

 

[Mythos]

Objective: III A Feast for the Horde- Finish the Silos

The silos underground were designed first as bunkers with several layers of defensive systems and even half a regiment there to defend it. Mythos now moved several turbolasers and automated cannons from the Oversight to here in order to defend the trenches and bunkers that now served for the supply of a legion.

What he came here to build was set, now it was time for him personally to go down and supervize and refine the more intricate and delicate buildings and infrastructure details of the city, bunkers and military base as well as the positioning of His turbolasers.

Planetary defence was not something he could feasibly build with his enterprise but it was something he could design and emplace through the Sith Empire. Four planetary defence canons were ordered and brought down into the planet and Mythos placed them all in different hemispheres.

The largest one, an experimental photon canon meant for planetary defence was here in the silos, it first used in the Immortals. "Create the Rancor line here, i will use it should it ever come under attack. For defence against raiders construct the trenches closer to the ridged mountains. "

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Honestly, the view from the doorway could have been almost any GenPals lab. Right down to unauthorized creatures scurrying about (though she supposed these were technically not only authorized but desired. She would never understand it). Not quite what she had been expecting. It was a pleasant surprise in a day she had prepared herself to be full of, if not unpleasant, at least only moderately unappealing things.

She trailed behind [member="Cerbera"], increasingly.... was there a word that conveyed a perfect cross between curious and concerned? Cass didn't know. There should be one that covered the equal measures of both feelings.

Cassandra blinked as the holo came up. It was.... frankly it was hideous. Why would anyone want to create.... a ship!?.... like that when the sleek modern lines of so many of the current offerings coming off of the Sith Empire construction yards were an option? Not to mention the realities of a living being of that size. The mess, the limitations..... the mess.

The redhead was rarely at a loss for words, but she did not reply for a moment, trying to come up with something, anything beyond her initial reaction of 'but why though?'

Ultimately, it was the business aspect of the proposition that let her step beyond that.

"It is.... far larger in scope, both literally and figuratively, than anything GenPals has worked with in the past," Cassandra said slowly. "I do not believe, however, that it is outside of the scope of capacity, though unless you have a facility in mind it will take something far larger than anything GenPals currently owns. You have considered the..... limitations of course? Of a living ship."

This was her way of delicately reminding her that it would require things like food, rest.... a place to..... defecate.

Why on earth anyone would want this was beyond her.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

An amused glance back towards Cassandra.

"It is a world eater, darling, it will get all its needs when it is unleashed." Her designs were quite simple for it. In essence Cerbera had always been interested in extracting, cultivating and experimenting the various strange worlds that were spread throughout the Galaxy. More often than not it was a process that was slow and the larger the bounty the longer it took. This was fine for sporadic missions, but her needs were outgrowing the processing speed of her current means.

The more she mastered... the more she needed.

Perhaps in a way this was a way for Cerbera to study Cassandra's reactions. She knew that the woman next to her was basically heartless, soulless and cared little for others. But there was a difference between the evil of the small... and the scale that Cerbera suggested right now.

If Cassandra helped with this?

It would most likely put billions if not trillions of lives on her shoulders as well.

"I am aware that your company is quite invested in appearing... PG thirteen." A smirk there. "I can shape a facility for us. It will be unpleasant for your sensibilities, I am sure, but it will be off-the-books and your scientists will have all they need to assist mine."