Malice and Maladi

[Ylva Wolfsbane]

Ylva was yet again annoyed by the sight of yet another angry person desperately trying to get killed. Of course, she heard many other voices coming from behind her and knew she was outnumbered, but since when that stopped her anyway? Luckily for her, before Ylva decided to get her vibro-ax, a familiar face showed up, telling the girl to put her weapon down, which she obeyed immediately with a confused look on her face.

Immediately, Ylva laughed, seeing Enyo right in front of her after a long time. "That your girl? I like her guts." She said, examining the girl like a predator. "Glad they're still inside her." The look on the gang member's face was amusing, now that she knew Ylva was with her boss. It was obvious she respected her words a lot. She walked beside Enyo towards their camp, to meet her gang, meanwhile catching up a bit. Talk about pillage and conquer, and you shall make a Space Viking very happy, which could be seen from her face very clearly. "Say no more. I'm in." She said, as they continued the tour.

The gang were a disorganised bunch with almost no military training. They lacked discipline, and some of them needed their tongues to be cut off. But still, what Enyo asked from her was not impossible. After Ylva gave it a second thought, she answered.

"They are pathetic. It's going to take time, but give me a place to train them and equipment to make their life hell, and I will create you a proper army. Give me permission to sacrifice the weaklings who can't keep up, so it will provide good hunting for the rest of the gang." She said. A lot of them weren't going to make it, but the galaxy didn't have a place for the weak.

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Amara Zarides"]

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Ylva Wolfsbane"] [member="Enyo Typhos"]

The ‘Valorum Memorial Spaceport’ fully lived up to the name of its illustrious namesake; it was a grand façade over a hollow shell filled with inequality and inefficiency.
Hardly the best spaceport on Coruscant, Amara was taken by just how decayed it was as she stepped inside. She and Faelar had already arranged for a shuttle to the orbital dock, but even reaching that appointment was rife with contradictions.
As soon as one entered beggars and peddlers of all sorts moved in. A dozen faces, a dozen heartfelt appeals and great bargains, sometimes from the same person. Amara did feel for them, but she had a job to do and besides, it wasn’t her job to fix centuries of grave economic inequality and social dislocation.

Pushing through that she was treated to the most apathetic security scan ever. At first she had been concerned that her lightsabre might become an issue. However, when it passed through the scanner a plump woman had come forward.
“Ma’am, is this weapon registered with the Jedi Council?”
“Uhh…yes. Definitely!” she said.
Without checking, she nodded. “Are you, or have you ever been aligned with the Sith Empire, One Sith, Resurgent Empire, New Sith Empire, New Sith Order, Sith Ascendency, Sith Brotherhood, Sith Sisterhood or the New Sith Imperial Ascendency Order?” she asked, reading off a list.
“Definitely not,” Amara said. “Do all those even exist?”
“Look, I just get a list, do you want to be cleared?”
“Oh yes, please.”
“You don’t look like a Sith. Enjoy your journey, Miss Zarides,” the woman said and stamped her pass.
As Amara wandered through to meet Faelar she looked back at the security desk. “Of course, if I was a Sith I’d hardly admit it to them.”
“I think it’s because you said ‘please’. No Sith would do that without irony,” Faelar said as they headed to their shuttle….

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"], [member="Ylva Wolfsbane"]


A normal person would have probably been...very disconcerted by the idea of 'sacrificing the weak'. Or disgusted. Enyo was not a normal person. To her, morality was like a leash. "Whip them into shape by any means necessary. The weak are just deadweight. Weakness is failure. Failure is death. If someone cannot perform, he forfeits his right to exist. But any decimations must be approved by me," she said authoritatively. She trusted Ylva more than her gang of deplorables and scumbags, but suspected she might be a little overzealous sometimes.


It did not escape her attention that the Voss woman was watching them. Enyo shot her a glare, whereupon the alien looked away. There was a knowing gleam in her eyes. Enyo made a note not to trust the scarlet skinned alien at all.


"My sister is getting us a ship. I have a large target in mind. A very large one. You'll get the details soon." The rest of the gang would be deliberately kept in the dark. As far as Enyo was concerned, they only cared about loot and would turn on her without a second thought if they got a better offer. Activating her comm, she hailed Amara to check on her progress.

 

[Ylva Wolfsbane]

Ylva nodded to Enyo's words, it was good to see her thoughts about the weak people haven't changed still. "I will give them a chance to prove me wrong. Otherwise there won't be anyone left to train here." One would immediately understand Ylva wasn't that impressed with the gang, but it was a habit from her old duties. Also they didn't let her sacrifice the weaklings there, but giant Midvinter beasts did the job. "And I will let you know before a sacrifice happens. Ear shall be pleased." Yep, she was overzealous sometimes.

She also caught the Voss woman watching them. Well, she didn't like her, call it a gut feeling, but there was something unsettling about her. But if Enyo was keeping her around, it meant she was useful in some way. Only the time would tell. Ylva didn't have the chance to get to know the others very well yet.

"Your sister, huh?" She heard the name quite a few times, and it seemed it was their chance to finally meet. Of course, she had high expectations. "Well, I'm going to get to know the gang a bit. You know where to find me when you're done."

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Amara Zarides"]

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Ylva Wolfsbane"]

After a shuttle ride the equivalent of a 3am New York taxi journey, they came to a nice looking space station. The Rodian barked something unintelligible at them, like all cab drivers everywhere, so Amara gave him money to go away.

SYI was on the ball though and they were met by someone so officious and sleek that he was either a used speeder salesman or a robot. Amara considered that a droid would be more humanlike than him.

“Miss Amara and companion, I’m Carrack Fyn, Mr Yerevan has instructed me to make you feel welcome and introduce you to your new ship. You have made a fantastic choice with the Quasar, might I say. It’s been engineered by the finest minds in the galaxy for the purpose of speed, comfort and protection.”

Amara shared a glance with Faelar. She didn’t get a chance to reply.

“If you’ll come this way you’ll see that the opening hatch has a nice incline here, and it can be adjusted by use of this control panel here. Opening into the ship is a decorated foyer from where access to the bridge, accommodation or leisure rooms are all possible.”

For some reason the phrase ‘we don’t need to do dev threads anymore’ kept going through her head, but she didn’t know what that meant. Finally, she had taken enough. When the man was babbling on about lighting control panels and mood ambience, she’d finally had enough.

“Mr Fyn, thank you so much for your help in showing us around. I’d like to take this opportunity to pass on my appreciation to Mr Yerevan. For now though…go away.” A slight inflection on the last words made them a command which could not be ignored.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it! Enjoy!”

Amara activated the multipurpose control panel after he was gone to seal it up and then flopped into a chair.
“Well, this is nice! We could get a shower and some food whilst we wait…” and then her commlink beeped. She’d set Enyo’s ringtone to a somewhat menacing tune from the holovid ‘Fangs’.

“Enny! We’re on board the ship and I didn’t kill anyone though I was tempted! How about you?”
She expected that Enyo had killed at least one person of the Deplorables. It seemed like the only way to inspire them.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Ylva Wolfsbane"], [member="Amara Zarides"]


"I believe Ear and I will get on very well. The ship should be ready soon. Pick five who are good enough to join the crew," Enyo said dryly. Cue the cyborg going native and becoming a barbarian queen. While Ylva went off to 'get to know' the gang - and probably earn their obedience by bashing a few skulls - Amara called.


"Good. It is important we avoid drawing attention. Archangel may have eyes on Coruscant," Enyo responded seriously. "I had a few minions branded or caned. They seem to have learned their lesson, for now. My companion from Midvinter has joined us. Ylva will help whip them into shape and weed out the pathetic."


Looking at the hostile glances from some thugs and their general lack of military discipline, Enyo had the feeling that this would be hard work. By their very nature, thugs were Chaotic Evil. But she would force them to switch to Lawful Evil because that was her preferred alignment. "I may kill the Voss woman, if she keeps staring at me," Enyo muttered as an aside.


"Have you swept the ship for bugs, tracking devices and self-destruct protocols?" Her paranoia was deeply ingrained. Moreover, she had reason to be suspicious since their sponsor was a mafia boss. She would have bugged the ship as well if their positions had been reversed.

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Ylva Wolfsbane"]

Enyo put her feet up a bit, all as nonchalant as maybe.
“I’ve not taken a full tour yet, but I’ll be doing that very soon. We’ll make sure the ship has been delivered to us clean and tidy. Also we’ll give the computers a good run down. Don’t want any glitches or bugs showing up. I’ll get onto it right away. What are you up to, are you joining us up here?”
Just in case there were hidden cameras, bugs or self-destruct sequences she wasn’t going to say anything out loud. No, experience with Archangel had taught her to disable that source of trouble first and then speak freely.

Faelar understood though and had begun a tour of the ship, one which Amara would join soon. Alas, she lacked Enyo’s skills with machine magic, but she had a pretty good idea where to look.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"], [member="Ylva Wolfsbane"]


"I'll be up in a bit. Making a selection. I feel like going on a shopping trip, but we have to make a withdrawal first." Wait, since when was Enyo interested in fashion? Have no fear, dear reader, she was still super butch. Presumably it was code for something.


Enyo had a plan and a target in mind, but she would not divulge details while she was surrounded by her gang of deplorables. No, she would not Ylva pick the worthy, leave Coruscant and then tell the goons what their target was. Thus she would eliminate the possibility of leaks.


If any of her minions suddenly changed their mind, she could just space them, after all! "Make sure everything is ready once I arrive. I want to take the bird for a ride," she ordered and then switched off the commlink, ending the call. And now we shall utilise the time and tested plot device called the time skip, so that we reach the point where Ylva has made her selection.

 

[Ylva Wolfsbane]

It was the time to meet the gang, and do her part of the job. And possibly try not to break so many skulls. After all, there were not so many of them, and Ylva knew how to preserve. Ylva walked towards the first goon she found. In an ordering way, she spoke.

"I want you to gather whoever that can wield a weapon in the main area. If I don't see everyone there in two minutes, you will be punished." In her voice, one could clearly feel the anger. Her as a commander was almost as scary as her going full berserk. If they couldn't handle that, that was their problem.

"A karking ogre giving me orders, it's turning into a circus..." He murmured as he turned his back to the one he just insulted. Wrong move. Ylva, as quick as a predator, caught his hand from the back and squeezed it as hard as she could, causing the man to shout in pain as his bones crackling under pressure, which turned all the attention towards them. He tried to get himself free, but Ylva's grip was quite strong.

"Disrespect me again and you will lose this hand. Do you understand?" She shouted. "Do you UNDERSTAND?" Once again, she gave it a little bit more strength and caused the man to stutter something to save himself from the immense pain he felt. "Good. Now go. You only have a minute and a half." Everyone turned back to whatever they were doing afterwards.

They would become strong, or they would perish. That was the motto. And soon, everyone would gather and their training session would finally start.

"I am Ylva Wolfsbane. Your new commander. I will whip you into shape, and you will become strong. Or else, you will be sacrificed to the Goddess of Hunt. If you can't satisfy her even there and bring bad luck to the army, I will hunt your spirits down and send you to void. Now, show me what you are made of." After the show from before, none of the gang members said anything, but prepared their weapons.

Of course, they only had a limited time. If they had more, she would send them into a very difficult mission and select the few who survived. But for now, she put them into different groups, and made them fight each other, the rule was simple, there was none. Some would bleed, some would hurt themselves pretty bad. Some would survive. And Ylva would be watching, evaluating every move.

The Voss woman was nowhere to be seen, good. She didn't like her one bit.

And thus, lucky few were selected. They were bruised, yet they handled themselves well in the battlefield. But of course, they were only the best of a pretty pathetic bunch, so it wasn't an achievement.

She moved towards Enyo, with the "worthy" soldiers right behind her. "They will be useful to you in the next raid." She said to her, with no indication of praise to the soldiers.

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Amara Zarides"]

 

[Amara Zarides]

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Ylva Wolfsbane"]

Fear was a dangerous tool. It would cause compliance for sure, but it engendered no loyalty. Thus, it was wise to temper fear with caution and reward.

All of this was unknown to Amara as she sprang into action on board the ship. She performed a leisurely inspection of the ship, though her eyes were tuned to all the possible hidden locations for cameras and mics. She found two of the former; ostensibly security cameras for the cargo hold and the entertainment areas. They swiftly found themselves disconnected.

Next, an inspection of the bridge determined that the computer systems were limited and had some areas with hidden administrative commands. Amara could not deal with all of them immediately, but she could use a computer spike to disable all irregular outbound and inbound data passage.

SYI should have expected nothing less. Besides, Amara knew that with her mechanical wizardry Enyo could root out all the remaining ‘irregularities’ and disable them.

“I feel like a drink, Fae, is there a bar?”
“Looks like it, and it is full?”
“Excellent. Crack us a bottle and we’ll wait for Enyo.”

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Amara Zarides"], [member="Ylva Wolfsbane"]


It would be a good idea if Amara did not get too tipsy. And got rid of the bottles by the time Enyo arrived. The cyborg just happened to disapprove of liquor and tobacco. She would be aghast if she found out that Akure had introduced her little sister to alcohol. By contrast, homicide was ok. That kind of thing made a woman out of you. She was such a textbook Puritan. The cyborg had not been idle, for she'd dealt with tedious administrative affairs.


Anyhow, Ylva had made her selection. Enyo gave her a nod. "You've done well," she said, eyes travelling over the thugs. They were the best of a pathetic bunch, but they would do for now. The weak would perish, the strong would flourish.

she spoke in a commanding voice.
"Listen up. You passed Ylva's test. You serve me and me alone. Do your job well, and I will reward you with glory and loot. Surpass my expectations, and you'll become my vanguard. The Iron Fist. Disappoint me, and you'll die. Now to business, we have our first raid target,"


The silence was broken by a Trandoshan. He was bruised and bloodied, but had acquitted himself well. After being disarmed, he'd used his sharp teeth to bite an opponent's ear off and jabbed his claws into her eyes. One of his orbs was a crude cybernetic. "You strong. Want real hunt. Hope our opponent is worthy. Weak scores not pleasing to Her," the lizard man hissed. "What is our target, boss? We claim slaves?"


"Need to know basis. You'll learn in time. Suffice to say it will be very bloody and profitable," she responded. "Get patched up and grab your gear. Take your best weapons and armour. We leave ASAP." Presumably this would mean another time skip to wrap things up and get moving.

 

[Ylva Wolfsbane]

She nodded to the praise, but she didn't do anything just yet. It was just the beginning. These ones had potential, but they didn't join a training session with a Valkyrie berserker yet. Only then their true worth could be evaluated. Yes, self-confidence was her strong suit.

After listening to Enyo giving orders to the selected, and those left the scene to prepare for the raid, she approached her. "The red skinned woman didn't join the training. There's something with her that I don't like. If I were you, I would get rid of her." And then, she also moved to prepare for the raid. Before she completely left the scene though, she turned back and asked.

"Do you have a ranged weapon of sorts for me to use? I prefer heavy ones."

With that, the writer ran out of more things to say, so we shall continue with the timeskip.

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Amara Zarides"]