Oh Hans knew that there was a fleet incoming. You couldn't just drop an Immortal along with an entire battlegroup into one of the most heavily defended systems around - and the Captain absolutely didn't expect they'd roll over for his little Star Destroyer. However, there had been something amiss about the Byss system as of late. It was rather peculiar why the One Sith hadn't acted upon it until one such Imperial officer chose to do so. Nothing had went into the system and nothing came out. Of course supply lines and messages weren't instantaneous, but you'd assume that such things happened with a quickness.
Yet Byss had gone dark recently. That was when Hans stepped in to the field to check things out. There was no telling what happened with the Talith family, nothing at all. Heck, he'd even expected to be obliterated by the time he even got close to the system. The radar system installed generations ago was still working properly - which probably signaled to these Sith gents about their arrival - but it was otherwise stark cold.
Voices resounded within his ears, blood furiously pumped across his body, and his breathing was even. Sylvanan made some good points about these things and that incoming message from [member="Vrag"] was, well... interesting to say the least. They were the invaders? They were enacting aggressive tactics. If he remembered, not a single shot had been fired and not a single life had been lost on either side.
"Thank you, Mister Tal'Verda, but I know what to do. Apparently acting within Imperial Standard Operating Procedures is considered to be a treasonous act." Hans sighed. The Lambda-class shuttle had already taken off and the little white dove of a starship was just slowly puttering around the Scourge's bristling weaponry. Of course the vessel outclassed many other warships still to this day, but he was in no position to take on a fleet. Losing about forty thousand lives in an instant wasn't his style - at all.
"Patch me through to their commander, I assume they're hailing me as well."
The communications officer replied, "Aye, sir, they are. I'll just re-route the signal through the Scourge's broadband antennae."
Hans nodded, smoothing out his uniform before he rose before the on-board Hologram projector. On the Immortal's end, a tall, lean-built Imperial officer of the Captain's designation would materialize before them. Short, crisply cut brown hair accented piercing green eyes, all topped off with a mildly innocent look upon his visage.
"This is Captain Hans Vaiden of the ISD Scourge. I understand that my actions have been considered aggressive. If that's the case, ma'am, I can assure you that nothing out of the ordinary has happened or is happening." That Sith emblem upon his lapel gleamed proudly. "With all due respect, have there been any reports from the Byss sector as of late? In conjunction with fleet command, this popped up as an anomaly and the Scourge swiftly responded - as it was the closest vessel in the vicinity."
He was being entirely truthful. Not once had he mentioned the claim for power in all his life, though his thoughts told otherwise. That deep, brooding desire for more power and wealth beyond comprehension lingered within the back of his mind like an old memory. But otherwise, he kept those thoughts suppressed and out-of-line with his Imperial service.
Service, Fealty, Fidelity. They were the traits he lived by, the traits he'd die by.
[member="Tmoxin Temi"], [member="Sage Bane"], [member="Sylvanan Tal'verda"], [member="Darth Carach"], [member="Cyrene Miles"], [member="Detritus"], [member="Lucullus Lacar"], [member="Cylus Jest"], [member="Kyle Amedis"]
