Jumpin Jack Flash

[Jairus Starvald]

Some men enjoyed to put things in stone, make them obvious and unchanging. They preferred to know exactly where and when their assets were located, but some were different in those regards, they didn’t enjoy cementing down their grasp on reality and preferred to keep it all nice and easy. They liked to be flexible in their approach to things, Adekos and Carach were both part of the later grouping.

A long, long time ago there had been a nice Sith Lady in the employ of a now-defunct Sith Empire, it cannot be stressed enough how long ago it was. But this Sith Lady had managed to come up with a construction that had taken its design philosophy from a certain Rakatan creation.

You might see how a man like Darth Carach found himself interested in the nice Sith Lady and more importantly in the thing she had designed for the Empire of old. Which is exactly why Carach decided to visit [member="Darth Adekos"].

It was time to get to work, for the glory of the Tion Hegemony and the economical viability of the credit. Oh… the credits that would be earned after this project was over and done, it would be grand.

The experimental reactor was almost done, the Foundry had been moved and was currently being analyzed by his scientists, this might very well become the last portion of the plan. The piece that would make it all the more interesting.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Up until now Adekos had been having a pleasant day. The Coruscanti sun was shining, the Coruscanti birds were singing, the Coruscanti grass was growing. But since Coruscant was an urban planet with hardly any flora or fauna, the birds that were singing were actually jailed prisoners and the grass that was growing was actually the profits Adekos was rolling in after partnering with several private prison companies. The facilities he employed to rehabilitate those he abducted off of the underground had since reached full capacity. So he had little choice but to only ship there those who were assessed to be fixable. The rest would be sent to traditional prison. But traditional prisons were fast filling up as well, so Darth Adekos moved to the private industry for assistance.

It was paperwork related to this venture that Adekos was filling out when Carach entered his office. Doubtless the gargantuan human had cleared himself of security and his ever-vigilant secretary with White Current or mind tricks. Needless to say, Darth Adekos was less than enthused with the presence of the man who diddled his disciple. But since the Umbaran still had his sense of professionalism about him, his displeasure could only be sensed to those reasonably attuned to Umbarans- not felt or seen. Adekos placed his pen down with an audible clack and stared at the interloping Carach.

"This had better be good."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

He actually simply showed his ID as any normal lawful-loving Sith Lord would do and cleared himself by sheer virtue of being the Voice of the Dark Lord and current overseer of the Corusca Sector- you know, that sector Coruscant was part of. Though that might change soon enough, considering Carach was setting his sights on something more interesting.

But that wasn’t the subject of this meeting, and so we wouldn’t be hearing of that anywhere here. Instead the gargantuan human walked into the office and simply nodded in response to the question.

A mentalist knew a pissed off friend when he saw one.

It seemed Adekos was still a little indignant about the whole Jem-thing, inwardly Carach sighed and reminded himself to somehow make it up for the Umbaran. They were friends, somewhat and he still had a burn mark on his ass from the last assassination attempt.

Fething pyro-droids.

‘Remember that holocron you found?’ the Sith asked. ‘Darth Mekhis? I believe it might contain some information that might be useful to us in the project we have been working on.’

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

So it was related to Carach's little foundry project. It was an impressive goal as far as Adekos was concerned, but that was all he felt towards the endeavor. There was already a more hirsute Umbaran businessman contributing to that little play for power. Now he was being dragged into this on account of the information stored in the Mekhis Holocron. Given Mekhis' life works, it was unsurprising that Carach had need of the information therein. Adekos had picked it up from a museum Ashera, though an Ewok almost foiled him. Almost.

Adekos leaned forward, hands steepled on the desk. "The Holocron of Darth Mekhis contains a great deal of information. All of which might be useful to your project."

"You'll need to specify. And also, perhaps, elaborate on what I stand to gain from parting with the requested information."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

"The Sun Razer." Carach simply replied, while sitting down in front of Adekos. It seemed time had come again to start the negotiating process, the Sith wondered if the man had anything in particular he wanted or if he was simply fishing the waters.

In truth he didn't need the holocron all that much, somewhere in the depths of his extensive archives there probably was an answer to be found to the questions he currently had.

But how long would it take to scrounge up the relevant information and even more important... who would he bounce off to get that higher work result? No, he would need at least someone to pad the pertaining numbers.

"What would you like in return?"

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Adekos gave Carach an expectant look for a moment before reclining back in his chair. "Ah. The Sun Razer. You know, Darth Mekhis was something of a genius. It would take millennia to come even close to replicating what she accomplished with the Sun Razer."

Sun Razers were expensive pieces of machinery, built to circle entire suns. They were unrivaled in terms of churning out energy and matter, leeching directly from suns and stars. A feat that had only been accomplished centuries prior to the Sun Razer by the Star Forge. The secrets to constructing the Star Forge were long lost to time, but the secrets of the Sun Razer were trapped in a tiny little pyramid crafted by Mekhis herself. There were two reasons Adekos had not constructed one himself already. The first being that he, personally, had no need for such a thing. That much power needed a clear and concise purpose. To build one now would simply be overkill, not when his plans didn't call for it.

To give it to the One Sith or some other faction he favored would likely hold negative results. Frankly, given the One Sith's proclivity to Vong, Adekos had little desire to see it wasted on them. Giving it to Carach would also see it exploited for something stupid. If Adekos was going to subsidize such a project with invaluable information, Carach was going to have to give up invaluable information of his own.

"No one can do what Darth Mekhis did- not without the blueprints locked away in her holocron. As such, I require the archives of a Sith Lord who did something equally irreplicable."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

Carach studied his fellow Sith for a while, pondering and mentally going over all the various things he could offer Adekos. It wasn't a spoiler to say that there was a lot of things he could offer.

In the end he settled for something that the man could use in lieu of something that sounded impressive, but was ultimately useless to him. A Sith Lord that had created something beyond parallel, at least within its own limit of sphere.

A scepter that was capable of draining Force Nexus, could project blasts that obliterated anything on its path and could even be used to make others force sensitive.

The Scepter of Marka Ragnos.

"Have you ever heard of Marka Ragnos?" It was a rethorical question. Only the illiterate and the nonsensical Sith had never heard of that particular Sith Lord.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

The Umbaran huffed indignantly. He was not in the mood for rhetorical questions. Although Adekos had probably been searching for something deeper, he had learned through many years of failures to be content with what was offered. Could he haggle? Yes. Would he get anything more from it other than a migraine and a profound sense of wasted time? Absolutely not. Ragnos was fine. Ragnos was good, even. Darth Adekos didn't shift from his reclined position just yet, instead eyeing his colleague with the same skepticism he eyed just about everyone else.

"Give me the information to construct the scepter of Marka Ragnos and I shall give you the information to construct the Sun Razer."

Considering what the Sun Razer was capable of (or what it would be capable of on a roleplay board without rules), this was an absolutely lopsided trade in Carach's favor. But Adekos had it on good authority that Gerion Ardik and Hegemonic Automaton would be given space on Carach's replica Star Forge once it was completed, so to ask for much more would have been garrish. Besides, Adekos would be a contributing name to the most efficient factory in the galaxy. That was its own reward.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

‘You have yourself a deal.’ the Sith responded with a short nod, he didn’t smile, didn’t grin and didn’t otherwise project a sense of satisfaction. It would have been undignified and he reserved those giddy expression for back at home, not to throw them in the face of a business associate.

He didn’t ask Adekos how he would create the Scepter, it would need a lot of resources (though substantially less so than a new Sun Razer), knowledge of alchemy and sorcery and the balls to apply both in the correct fashion. The Sith was training himself in both those arts, but was far away from a Rave or a Valik.

But the bureaucrat Sith must have some kind of source that would do the work for him, he wouldn’t have agreed to such a deal otherwise and that was enough for Carach.

The Sith would make copies of the specific portions of the text and send them over to Adekos at the first moment of convenience.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"Excellent." He said, eventually. The Umbaran sat back up straight in his chair again. Now they could get to business.

Adekos had a plan. Not a very good plan, or necessarily one that would be quick to unfold, but he had a plan nonetheless. Rebuilding the Scepter of Marka Ragnos would take time, patience, and a great deal of expertise in the more arcane aspects of the Force. Darth Adekos did not have any level of skill in Sith Magic or Alchemy, but he knew some people who did. Some people who were desperate to get things back that Adekos had taken from them, for instance. Maybe they weren't a master alchemist, but they were skilled enough to do so. Regardless of the naysayers.

"More to the point, I do have the holocron. However, the portion containing the Sun Razer's schematics is currently inaccessible."

The second of the two reasons Darth Adekos had not already constructed one.

"When I came into possession of the holocron from that Asheran museum, the apex was missing." He paused, then elaborated. "That would be top part of a pyramidal structure, Carach."

Condescending to Darth Carach wouldn't restore his apprentice's chastity, but it would at least make Adekos feel better about dealing with that insufferable, gargantuan man. "Though Darth Mekhis' own theories and instructions in Mechu-Deru and associated skills remained, her schematics are contained within the apex. We'll have to locate it in order to get your new Sun Razer. Fortunately, I have an idea of where it might be."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

Ah. So that’s why Adekos was so keen to accept the deal offered, he didn’t actually have the information he was seeking and that made Carach sigh just a little bit. It seemed that they would actually have to go on some kind of merry chase to find it, claim it (probably vanquish some beast, raiders or slavers) and then return to find the secrets of the Sun Razer.

He had an idea where the apex might be himself, but in the end it would make more sense to do this with Adekos. Simply, because he would need the base holocron to actually unlock the keystone’s secrets- well, pure technically that wasn’t true.

With the technology inherited he could have easily gained access to the knowledge through it, or even ask Dissero to take a look at it. But we aren’t here for logic or rationality, friendship transcended such… matters… yes.

Carach sighed.

‘Very fortunate, yes.’ the Sith replied, it wasn’t entirely clear if he was being sarcastic or not.

If the keystone was located where he thought it was, they would need a couple of stealth transporters at the very least. It would need to be a silent extraction, while packing enough heat to make sure nobody tries to mess with them.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

MANY HOURS LATER...

​

The two Sekario-class stealth transports cut through the frigid skies of Rhen Var. It wasn't until now that Darth Adekos began to doubt the necessity of stealth transports. After all, the Silver Jedi lacked even the basic semblances of government. Not to mention Rhen Var was an uninhabited world with no infrastructure or populace to speak of. The two Sith Lords probably could have crashed a star destroyer into the planet and rapidly terraformed the world into something more closely resembling Mustafar before the Silver Jedi stirred from their complacency-induced nap. And even then they probably wouldn't do anything. Adekos had heard the stories about those dreadful massacres on Voss...

The ruins of Mekhis' fort were easy to spot in contrast to the ice it was embedded in. Although the fort was dilapidated beyond all repair, Adekos had to admire Mekhis' style. There was certainly something about frigid worlds like Rhen Var that had more appeal than other planets. Maybe Adekos would construct a private retreat on one of them. The solitude and the cold would do him well. The Sekarios circled the ruins several times, fully cloaked mind you, before beginning their descent. It was then that Adekos could see there was already a shuttle parked outside.

"Is that the only entrance?"
The pilot nodded. "Looks like it."
"Set us down a few meters away, keep the cloaks engaged."

With a nod of affirmation from the pilot, Adekos looked back at Carach.

"We're going to have to make this quick."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

The existence of the shuttle meant a simple thing.

Someone had beat us to the punch, either they were mercenaries, smugglers or some other vagabond element that was using the general laxness of the Silver Jedi Order to get a little bit of profit out of the glory of old, or it was the Silver Jedi that had finally decided to get out of their temples and actually do some of that protecting they always claimed to do.

Nah, it were probably scavengers. Which made this far more easier for the two Sith anyway, meant that there wouldn’t be any backup or any of the sort. But Adekos was right, better to handle this quickly and above all silently, nobody wanted to attract the wrong kind of attention.

He was certain they would be able to deal with even the two and a half Rendillian Star Destroyers the SJO employed as their so-called fleet, but why excrete more effort than necessary on the likes of them?

‘Right you are.’ the Sith replied, while the shuttles settled themselves down a respectable distance away from the original unknown shuttle. Carach stepped out of the shuttle and took a quick look around them, it seemed all was clear for now.

But he didn’t say anything about that, didn’t want to jinx it.

Instead he started walking towards the entrance, assuming that Adekos was right behind him or maybe he was doing his stealthy approach thing.

Could be tactically smart.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

It was amusing to watch Carach, being the oversized Sith Lord that he was, clumsily wade through the knee deep snow. Although a snow storm had not quite begun just yet, the howling winds were more than enough to cover their approach. By the time the two had plodded past the empty shuttle, they could more clearly see the entrance. There was but one man standing guard, a scavenger bundled in more clothes than one would think he could afford. He wasn't even facing forward, instead standing as closely as he could to a heat generator. Understandable, but ultimately not a good thing for him.

"Pardon me."

No sooner did the scavenger turn around to face Adekos did the Umbaran reach out with the Force, grasp the man by his head, and slam it into the eroded duracrete wall he had been standing next to. The now-unconscious scavenger slid to the ground and stayed there in a miserable heap. At least the lamp would keep him warm. Darth Adekos, meanwhile, was more than pleased he wouldn't have to be dealing with any Silver Jedi. He could finally exercise some mercy for once.

"After you, most gracious Voice of the Dark Lord."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

Carach rolled his eyes and walked into the remnants of the fortress proper. It was a trainwreck, one that had already happened- more than once it seemed, not that they had been expecting any differently really. It had been many many years since someone had last walked these halls and actually decided to clean them up.

Up ahead a few scavengers were busy looting some kind of caches scattered across the debris, back facing them and far more worried about what they were taking apart to really wonder about what could be behind them.

The Sith indicated to his companion that he would take care of the one at the left, which would leave the one at the right for Adekos. An invisible force slowly crept up around the vagabond’s neck, still incorporeal, until Carach jerked his hand and made a fist; twisting it in the air.

Neck was broken, dead came instantaneously.

But Carach was looking for new enemies immediately after, no time to savor the kill, no savor to begin with while fighting these mongrels. A part of him hoped there would be Silver Jedi here soon, maybe some kind of patrol.

Now that would be interesting.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Adekos didn't feel the need to engage in any activities as barbaric or gross as breaking necks. Frankly, he found the sound to be uncomfortable. It nearly sent a shiver up his spine as the crushed spine echoed through the corridors of the fortress. That was only the type of thing he would engage in with someone he intensely disliked on a personal level. Or a Silver Jedi. Or a Mandalorian. Or a Yuuzhan-Vong, if it were possible. But the Gran that whirled around and tried to level his blaster rifle at the two of them were none of these things. A muted Force Push flung the Gran into the wall behind him, whereupon he hit his head with severe force and fell unconscious like the one that had been guarding the entrance.

It was strange that Carach had only broken one of their necks instead of both simultaneously. And here Darth Adekos had thought Carach's diminished presence in the Force was just his mind playing tricks. How very peculiar. Fortunately Adekos was far too polite to openly address such things or express any desire to act upon them. Whatever had mucked with Darth Carach's personal power was none of his business.

"You know, it would have been easier- and much quieter -to simply push both of them at once. Not to mention much less time consuming. I hope no one else heard his neck snap like that."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

Carach simply didn’t want to steal the show once again, after all his exploits he thought it was best to give Adekos’ a small spot on the stage for his own show. The day he couldn’t break two necks at the same time with basic telekensis, or shove them against the wall was the day he would retire back to a little farm on Serenno and spend his last days playing banjo music while sipping moonshine.

Probably.

‘Don’t jinx it.’ the Sith simply said, because it was the way of the world that once you get a lucky turn… you don’t talk about it outloud. Because that’s when everything goes horribly wrong.

Somewhere in the distance he could almost hear the sound of dice being thrown by the Gods that Be, to see if they would get another encounter- feth.

There was suddenly a lot of blaster fire in this room.

‘Just had to jinx it.’

A lightsaber blurred into motion, white light illuminating the dirty-faced mongrels that were attacking them.

Carach had never enjoyed employing those red lightsabers, it simply seemed so… obvious. Why would someone knowingly use the signature weapon of a Sith Lord, when you were trying to be reasonably inconspicuous about it all? It was as if someone pulled up a mask during an armed robbery and started screaming his name out loud.

Sorta. Okay, maybe that wasn’t a good analogy, but you know what it means.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

"I can't believe you buy in to such superstition."

Never mind the fact that said superstition turned out to be accurate. Mere coincidence; nothing more. His own crimson lightsaber sprung to life in his hand. Darth Adekos had since abandoned the curved Makashi hilt when he discovered that it actually offered little, if any, advantage over the standard hilt. If anything it was more a hindrance, as it impeded the ability to traditionally fence, which was good for Makashi. With precision and grace, Adekos aptly deflected one, two, three bolts back into the men who had fired them.

A masked human was flung onto his back and began making choking noises after one bolt hit him in the throat. An uncomfortable looking Nautolan was spun around after the second impacted him in the shoulder, and the third, another human, was likewise floored when his blaster bolt found a home in his chest. This was quite the melting pot of scavenger crews. Then again, the galaxy was a big place. All scavenger crews should have been this racially diverse.

The Umbaran spun, swatting another blaster bolt back into the Iktotchi it originated from. "Next you'll tell me one of these oafs is going to bring in a heavy slugthrower of some sort."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Darth Adekos"]

All was silent for a moment as the last scavenger bit the dust.

For a moment Carach truly believed that Ardik was right and it was all simply superstitious make-belief, that this entire battle had been pure coincidence and that all would be much easier for here on out. That the fact that Adekos was jinxing it again did not truly matter.

But those flutterly dreams were quickly dashed, their wings ripped out when the guy with the minigun walked in and started spraying the room with bullets. It was a good thing Carach got the slightest precog warning of danger, that made him dive for cover.

Otherwise he would have been positively riddled with holes right about now.

‘You were saying?’ the Sith Lord shouted out to his companion and pondering how best to approach this situation.

Preferably without getting shot in any of the bodily parts he had, so in the end he simply… disappeared out of view and decided to take a detour. He would walk around the whole problem and see if he could end up behind the shutta with the mini-gun.

Either Adekos had the same idea, he was dead or was trying to tackle the big fella right now.

A question of Win, Wi- hrm, or win.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Abrupt minigun entrances or not, Darth Adekos still wasn't buying into this superstition thing. Superstition was for fools. Getting riddled with minigun bullets was also for fools, which was why Adekos bolted wordlessly away from Carach and the minigun man and dove into an adjacent room. Slugs filled the air where the two men once were, but now Adekos had no idea where Carach had gone off to. Hopefully he was dead, though most likely he was invisible. Maybe it was even possible Carach had immersed himself so professionally in the White Current that he remained invisible even after dying. A most impressive feat. Maybe Adekos could mechu-deru from the grave once he passed on.

There wasn't enough left in this room for it to be obvious what its purpose was before Mekhis died and her fortress was abandoned. The entire room had been stripped bare- and probably not by these treasure hunters either. People had been here before the Umbaran and the Giant. Would the apex even be present? Hopefully it would. There had to be a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow- especially if that rainbow included a minigun-toting savage. What kind of fool brings a minigun to some tomb raiding? Then again, they had probably been expecting Silver Jedi.

As usual, all problems could be traced back to the Silver Jedi. Knuckle-dragging misfits, the lot of them. Adekos, meanwhile, would wait in this room for Carach to resolve the situation. Until that minigun fire let up, the Umbaran was essentially stranded.