Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on the Unchained and codify a character established in rp.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Friend and ally of Phoebe, field operator for the Unchained. She also provides cultural insights into Tephrike, serving as a point of view character.
Permissions: She can use Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers equipment due to Firemane gaining access to ARGH tech in this thread.
Links: After Darkness, Into Darkness, Elpsis, Tephrike, Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: Equivalent of mid-twenties, as she is a clone.
Force Sensitivity: Apprentice.
Species: Mirialan.
Appearance: Mel is a youngish Mirialan female of shorter than average height. She has a grim, determined look, steely blue eyes and dark hair, which she keeps at a practical length. She wears common clothes when not in armour and foregoes adornments. One noteworthy feature are her facial tattoos. These are traditional Mirialan markings. Mel did not know that this was a practice among her people until she fled Tephrike. The Dominion is a multispecies society and not speciesist, but it is not multicultural either.
All its citizens must be subsumed into the extremely conformist culture of the Dominion, and so the regime done its best to eradicate the culture and customs of the people it rules over. It calls this policy The Three Togethers: Eat together, live together, work together. Everyone must be the same. Mel had the tattoos done with the help of Mirialans employed by Firemane. At first she was suspicious, suspecting that it was a way for Firemane to brand her, but then she was shown the history and the famous Mirialans of the past, and decided to take it on to connect with the old ways. The backs of her hands also bear tattoos, atop each knuckle joint. Mel's life has not been easy and so she has her share of scars. Many of them were inflicted during her time in Serene Springs, where she was subjected to torture. Wearing a shock collar left her with burn scars on her neck. Her feet are scarred from being shackled.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Melanie Goes by Mel. The Dominion has replaced family names with occupational surnames based on the job a citizen has been assigned, so she has no family name.
Loyalties: Elpsis, Mara Technician, The Unchained, Phoebe.
Wealth: Mel is not wealthy. The Unchained are composed of refugees who are just starting to build a new life in the stars. Thus they are poor. Not wanting to be dependent on Firemane's subsidies, she has started setting up a trading network though. Her position in the hierarchy of the Unchained gives her a certain ability to requisition resources.
Notable Possessions: She still owns the broken collar she was forced to wear while in Serene Springs. It prevented her from accessing the Force and kept her in line with electrical shocks. She holds on to it as a memento from these dark days. Moreover, she has a collection of guns. She owns a holopic of herself, her template and several of her clone siblings.
Skills: Mel is a Force-User, but has little formal training and lacks many of the skills commonly associated with space mages, eschewing the flashier manifestations of the Force. However, her extrasensory perception is potent. She excels at using the Force to enhance her senses and aim, especially with guns. Her skills in this field can be compared to that of a Grey Paladin. Using the Force, she can improve her quickness and accuracy.
Indeed, she can intercept blaster bolts, slugs and even shrapnel from explosions with her own blaster bolts or projectiles. In short, she is an ideal gunslinger, using the Force in an auxiliary role rather than making it the mainstay of her skill set. She can use the Force to stop blaster bolts and slug rounds or alter their trajectory. Likewise, she can augment the precision and power of her strikes during unarmed combat. Mel is more used to slugthrowers, but has been quick to adopt blasters and has become very good at using them. She is also a capable gunner in space combat. However, her command of typical telekinetic powers such as Force Push is negligible. This seems to be inherent to her, so it cannot be changed through training. Mel has some skill at Force Stealth, enabling her to mask her presence, and Tutaminis. She can use the Force for physical augmentation, especially to enhance her speed and reaction time. Moreover, she has a knack for Jedi Mind Tricks.
Mel spent some time as a smuggler and black market trader or, as the Dominion would call it, a 'social parasite'. As a result, she has acquired an understanding of business and basic market economics. This has helped her adapt to the outside world and is useful for ensuring the Unchained have the supplies they need. She also has a good grasp of low level logistics. She has started setting up a trading network, using legal and underworld contacts to procure what the group needs. She also helps assess the values of booty acquired on raids and ensures a fair division of the spoils. The galactic market operates on an entirely different level compared to what she knows from Tephrike, but ultimately the only difference is one of scale. The time she spent on the run has made Mel observant and she has a good eye for detail. Aside from her combat and logistical skills, Mel has talent as an artist and a writer. Indeed, she used to work for the Dominion's propaganda ministry.
Personality: Mel's life has not been an easy one. Much of it has been spent in chains or trying to resist being chained. She had the misfortune of being born on Tephrike, a war-torn, impoverished planet. She grew up in the territory of the Dominion of Light, an orthodox, totalitarian Jedi theocracy that sought to exercise total control over the lives of its citizens. This was believed to be the only way to avert the eclipse of the Light and the triumph of the forces of darkness. Obedience to the Dominion was the sole path to salvation.
Long before she was born, Tephrike was torn apart by a multi-sided civil war. When the outbreak of the Gulag Virus brought civilisation to its knees and sent the planet spiralling into chaos, the local Jedi enclave decided to take control. Acting as latter-day Jedi Lords, they sought to wrest order from the chaos. Their original intent was benign, but they were corrupted by their power while still being adamant about being a force for truth and justice.
Their idols are Grandmaster Yoda, Lord Hoth and Mace Windu, though their interpretation of their ideals is extremely warped. Many of their leaders would make Jorus C'baoth, Atris and the Jedi Covenant proud. The culture of the Dominion does not espouse personal happiness as the highest goal in life. Instead, the credo is 'you are nothing, the Dominion is everything'. By any acceptable metric, their clone troopers are slave-soldiers.
She does not have a mother or father, for the Dominion has taken the old Jedi order's policy of nonattachment to its extreme conclusion and applied it to muggles and Force-users alike. Rather than leave reproduction to chance and allow individuals to indulge their passions, the miracle of life takes place in a medically sanctioned way in a sterile laboratory. Intercourse is criminalised. After all, passion and lust lead to the Dark Side.
Thus Mel was raised in a laboratory and grew up as part of a batch of clones. Interestingly, Mel has not wholly turned against this culture. She hates the total control exercised by her former government, the indoctrination and forced aging, but still supports a continuation of clone culture, but one based on comradeship and family rather than enslavement. She sees it as part of the Tephriki's culture and national identity. She categorically rejects the idea that the clones are just duplicates of their templates or unnatural beings that possess no rights and can be treated like an organic form of droids. Cloning should be continued, but clones should be given freedom and choice instead of being forced into service. And the technology used to create them must be improved in order to ensure that they grow up healthy. This makes the acquisition of more modern cloning technology one of her goals She is very opposed to how the Old Republic treated its clone army, seeing them as a slave army. She is a strong proponent of clone rights and dislikes despotic regimes.
Mel has a tough shell that takes a while to crack. She has some serious walls in place. When Elpsis first met her in Serene Springs, a Dominion brainwashing camp, the Mirialan was cynical and standoffish. She dismissed the newcomer's claims of there being life outside the Galaxy as tall tales. To a degree, she was putting on an act. Loose talk could arouse the suspicion of the guards and lead to punishment. Secretly, she was part of a group of prisoners plotting to escape. These prisoners became the nucleus of the Unchained, the group of Tephriki exiles and fugitives she belongs to. The revelation that life did exist on other worlds and galactic civilisation had indeed recovered from the Gulag Virus had a profound effect on her.
Mel is practical, adaptive and independent-minded. She adopts a pragmatic attitude in combat and will not hesitate to kill or maim opponents. The Dominion has a highly conformist culture, so she grew up ignorant of many of the traditions and customs of her people. This has changed now that she has left her homeworld. Since then, she has sought to educate herself about the customs of her species and adopted a number of them, such as tattoos. She is an admirer of Arwen Cohl, a Mirialan freedom fighter and mercenary who fought against the Trade Federation. She is less positive about Luminara Unduli, as her experiences on Tephrike have left her with a pretty negative view on Jedi, particularly those who led the clone army.
Mel has history with Phoebe, a fellow inmate of Serene Springs. However, she is less prominent in the Unchained's hierarchy. Mel broke under torture in the camp, which is a source of shame to her. This may be one of the reasons why she has not sought to gain a more prominent role in the group, though it would have been within her means. She has sometimes moderated Phoebe's harsher tendencies, such as when the Nautolan rebel leader was frustrated by Firemane's withdrawal from Tephrike. Mel is stronger in the Force and more interested in developing her Force abilities than Phoebe, but accepts the Nautolan's position as leader.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Blasters, slugthrowers. She is fond of the Renegade Heavy Blaster Pistol, as she likes the heavy punch and slim design of the weapon, as well as the Magnetic Revolver. A Shatter Pistol is her weapon of choice when she needs to eliminate a foe without making noise. Mel is a gunslinger, relying on her aim, fire discipline and quick draw to deal with most threats. She also makes use of melee weapons such as vibroblades and vibroknives. She often carries an Energy Chorded Combat Knife.
Combat Function: Mel grew up in a war-torn hellhole and found herself on the bad side of a repressive theocracy. She spent some in Tephrike's seedy underbelly. This has given her some good survival skills. Now she is a field operator for the Unchained. She is particularly talented gunslinger, possessing a good eye and fast hands off the draw. Her aim is uncanny, and further augmented by the Force. Her weapon of choice is a good pistol or a carbine, preferring to eliminate her opponents with a few precise shots.
However, she can utilise melee weapons such as vibroblades. Her Force Senses are quite good, allowing her to anticipate dangers and spot hidden foes others might miss. Moreover, she has some talent with stealth, enabling her to conceal her aura and escape scrutiny. Mel is not constrained by a code of honour. As far as she is concerned, it is a fancy word to excuse stupidity. Thus she will do what is needed to survive and protect her comrades. Mel has not been trained in the use of a lightsabre. Indeed, she had never seen a lightsabre until her encounter with Elpsis. While not unknown, these weapons are incredibly rare on Tephrike and reserved for the upper crust of Force-Users. She knows what these weapons can do and adjusts her gunslinging accordingly though. When she encounters glowstick-wielders, she will resort to using guns that fire rounds their sabres cannot easily deflect, such as shatterguns firing hypervelocity projectiles.
Strengths:
- Gunslinger. Mel is a very good shot. She is at her best with a blaster or slugthrower in her hand. She has shown a preference for carbines or pistols. Moreover, she is skilled in unarmed and improvised combat.
- Mel has a strong affinity for the Force. She is particularly good at using the Force to enhance her gunslinging, allowing her to pull off tricks similar to those of a Grey Paladin. She can even stop blaster bolts and slug rounds or alter their trajectory. Likewise, she can use the Force to guide her own blaster bolts and projectiles.
- Mel has received no training in the use of a lightsabre. Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, where most Force warriors use Force Imbued or alchemised weapons.
- Negligible skill with most common telekinetic powers. Outside of her niche, her command of telekinesis is unimpressive and better suited for utility than direct combat. Thus she is not someone who can hammer enemies with powerful blasts of telekinetic energy or throw heavy objects around.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Virtually every world in the Galaxy was affected by the Gulag Virus. Galactic civilisation crumbled, interstellar trade collapsed and trillions died. The Dark Age lasted for about four centuries. Tephrike was hit especially hard. Isolated from the rest of the Galaxy, the planet regressed. Though rich in raw materiels such as precious ores and alloys, the planet had been dependent on trade to sustain itself. Now there was no one who could buy their ores and sell them food.
Countless died due to starvation, ecological disasters, riots and civil war. Tephrike's fragile democracy collapsed as the federal government proved unable to resolve the crisis. Its party system was fractured along lines of class and species. The Jedi of Tephrike were forced into a protective role. Believing themselves to be the last Jedi in the Galaxy, they held their Order responsible for the Long Night, as they had been unable to prevent the release of the Gulag Virus.
Finally, the Jedi staged a coup to topple the governments after its troops gunned down peaceful protesters. It was supposed to be a provisional emergency dictatorship that would restore order and then step down to enable a transition to democracy. However, over time it evolved into a totalitarian theocracy. Corrupted by their power and scarred by the horrors of never-ending bloodshed, the Jedi became the very thing they were sworn to destroy, while remaining adamant in their belief that they served the Light. They called their new state the Dominion of Light, a nation where every citizen would be controlled from cradle to grave.
Two factions rose to oppose them. The Disciples of Vader venerated as the long-dead Dark Lord as a God and preached a gospel of human supremacism, Dark Side worship and enslavement of all non-humans, drawing support from fallen Jedi and humanocentric portions of society. The other group was the Republican Guard, a secularist faction run by a military junta that idolised the Old Republic and opposed the Force theocracies, believing that the Force itself was a disease that led those sensitive to it to evil.
It received the backing of aquatic alien communities and of Yuuzhan Vong, who were targeted for extermination by the Vaderites and the Dominion. The Guard turned to terrorism, stirring up insurgencies in the lands of its enemies. Pervasive low-intensitiy conflict was followed by phases of intense battles and violence. The Dominion remained the strongest and largest nation, but could not unite the planet. All the while Tephrike bled.
This is the world Mel grew up in. Her birth was nothing spectacular. Indeed, it had been planned, for she was a Dominion clone. Her template, Melania Reporter, was successful propagandist for the Ministry of Enlightenment, the ministry of propaganda of the Dominion. In fact, she was so good at her job that her superiors decided that these skills had to be preserved, and so she was included in the Blessed Lineage Project. This was far more efficient than leaving reproduction to random chance.
Like the Republic during the Clone Wars, the Dominion made ample use of cloned servitors, but took this a step further. People were grown, raised and educated by the state and assigned a workplace so that they could devote their energies to spending the rest of their working life repaying the Dominion for its benevolence. This was also the case with Mel, who was grown in a birthing pod. Because her template was a known figure with some clout, she was given better flash conditioning than a common clone trooper meant to fight on the front lines.
She was given the best of flash conditioning so that she would have all the knowledge she needed to function as a productive human being. When she took her first breath, Jedi healers and some of her sisters were there to welcome her into the world. Even before she took her first breath, her flash memories had sought to imprint on her that the Dominion was benevolent and that it was her duty to follow in the footsteps of her template, who had become an influential figure in the ministry.
Like all clones, Mel was raised in a communal centre. There she was part of a batch of clones. Officially the Dominion had sought to do away with family units, regarding them as a bourgeois construct. However, one's fellow clones were essentially one's family. They went to school together and spent most of their off-hours together. As a result there was a lot of camaraderie. Growing up, Mel was a sickly child with a weak constitution. Tephrike's isolation had caused it to regress and so the medical technology was not the best. When a disease broke out, it was feared she might die.
However, her template pulled strings to ensure the little clone received prioritised medical care from the Jedi healers. Gradually, the girl recovered. Melania visited the centre frequently, bringing small gifts such as chocolates and fruit. Mel was deeply affected when she and her fellow clones saw a propaganda movie that showed how the Vaderites murdered the mentally and physically infirm, labelling them as 'useless eaters'. It is pertinent to note that while the Ministry of Enlightenment spread many lies, they did not make anything up in this case. The Vaderites were really that barbaric, so one did not really need to invent war crimes for them.
Mel did well in her education, and was put through a series of standardised tests to determine her future career. While it was expected for clones to walk the same path as their templates, deviations were not unheard of, though the Dominion's conformist society frowned on them. Her test scores determined that she would be suited for work in the Ministry. Young Mel was a bit shy and disliked public speaking, but she had a way with words and talent as an artist. She also displayed an interest in poetry.
Thus Mel left the centre. Her new workplace was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering concrete that rose hundreds of metres into the air. The Ministry exerted total control over media, entertainment, the fine arts and education. No movie could be made, no song composed and no book published without being approved by the Ministry. It also controlled the education system, selecting teachers and writing textbooks.
At first Mel was given simple tasks, working in the department that came up with pamphlets, public service announcements and propaganda posters. For instance, she was involved in spreading the story of a miner called Ajax Worker, who was said to have set a new record by mining a hitherto unheard of number of durasteel in a single shift. His records set an example throughout the country. Workers were exhorted to follow his example by exceeding production targets, giving birth to the Ajaxite movement. This was one of many ways the Ministry tried to raise morale among the labour force and spur them on to intensify their efforts. The war, as Mel and others were told in the Ministry's struggle sessions, was still raging on the frontlines and everyone had to do their part. Otherwise Tephrike would forever be shrouded in darkness.
Mel also wrote a short story about the model worker, which was aimed at children and detailed how his self-sacrificing efforts were vital in thwarting the machinations of the evil Sith and the diabolical rebels. This landed her a job in the literature department, where she spent time editing school textbooks and children's stories. She maintained contact with several clones from her batch. She was deeply shaken when one of her siblings was murdered in a Republican Guard terrorist attack. However, Mel was increasingly pulled into shadier work, for she was recruited by the department responsible for correcting history to ensure it followed the party line. The Dominion could never be seen as being fallible. When a famous Jedi Knight, a model worker or an artist was declared an unperson, any references to them being anything other had to be removed. If the Grandmaster made a prediction that turned out to be false, history had to be doctored.
She was pulled into the case of Grand General Korsun Soldier, hero of the Battle of Destiny against the evil Vaderites and highly respected military theoretician. At the time he was Deputy Minister of Peace and Chief of Staff of the Grand Army. However, as time went on he started to have 'immoral' thoughts and even arrested a Jedi Padawan for punishing a 'disrespectful' officer. Therefore, the Council performed a double cross on him and denied him reinforcements, even ordering a supporting unit to withdraw, so Korsun lost a battle. He was then removed from command and 'voluntarily confessed' to wanting to overthrow the Council in league with the Republican Guard, for he had manifested Aruunzebist tendencies.
Mel was called in to write a smear piece on him, but to her she learned that it was a frame up. As part of her duties, she had to listen to audio interviews in order to prepare them for broadcasts. In the process she had to what Korsun said in such a way that made him sound guilty. One of her fellow workers, a woman called Myra Technician, was also troubled. She had been assigned to help out on the technical side. The two spent a lot of time together. Their shared doubts and the feeling of isolation brought the two together and they entered a brief relationship.
One day the two managed to enjoy a brief respite by visiting a park in Nexus City. Melania knew about the relationship, but did not report them. However, she admonished Mel about being careless and for putting herself in danger. However, the two made the mistake of not making their condemnation damning enough. A co-worker reported them. One day Myra had simply disappeared and was not seen again. Any enquiries a desperate, inconsolable Mel made failed.
The Mirialan was sent exiled from the capital in order to 'reforge herself among the people'. Now she had to work on a collective farm. What she saw there was very different from the image the Ministry fed the people. The farmers were no full of joy, they just wanted to survive. Living conditions were poor and farmers were oppressed by the government, being treated in a manner akin to serfs. They had to give up most of their produce to the state and were dependent on it for the supply of machines. A lot of their work had to be done by hand. Unused to heavy labour, Mel struggled to adjust. Indeed, she had to steal and make deals with black market traders during a particularly bad harvest. However, she survived. Eventually she was allowed to return. Melania had used her connections, but also told her sibling that she could not do more for her.
Mel got her job back at the Ministry, but did not regain the right to live in the capital. Instead she was assigned to a propaganda company, which accompanied the troops on campaigns, boosted morale and reported on events for the home front. It was obviously a test. She received some basic self-defence training and then she was off. She was assigned to a unit of the Grand Army of Light charged with rooting out Republican Guard partisans. It was a dirty war characterised by brutality on both sides.
The Dominion regarded its enemies as infidels and treated them accordingly. However, she had to report in ways that made the Dominion look good. Mel was happy when Dominion clone troopers liberated a Republican Guard detention centre, where the rebels had held, often abused and 'cured' captive Force-Users, whom they regarded as diseased. The captives received medical attention and aid from the Dominion.
The Mirialan regarded the Guard as a threat and what she saw in the camp seemed to validate this. Their Yuuzhan Vong warriors frightened her. But she performed her duties mechanically. Then came the Netherworld Event. All of a sudden people started vanishing. This was calamitous across the Galaxy. But on Tephrike it was seen through the prism of eschatological beliefs. Many thought the end of days was at hand. Temporarily cut off from central command, the unit Mel worked had to fend for itself. At the time they were stationed in a remote settlement. There the troops were trying to keep order, in the face of a mass panic caused by the rapture. Mel had been conducting 'morale interviews', when they came under attack. The Republican Guard had taken advantage of the crisis to carry out a massive counter-offensive.
The fact that the Force was out of balance worked to the rebels' advantage, as their troops did not have Force-Users. The building Mel was working in was wrecked by a bomb explosion. Mel heard an inner voice, urging her to leave, just before the detonation. She could not explain it, but had the presence of mind to try and ferry people out. Her forbearance ensured her survival, but she was injured by shrapnel. The Jedi commander had been killed by a Yuuzhan Vong sniper. Rebel partisans and Yuuzhan Vong warriors assaulted the settlement. Their artillerists shelled it with mortars. Mel was forced to defend herself.
Her self-defence training was only basic. She knew how to fire a pistol, but little more, and she had never fired a shot outside of the shooting range. Thus she was understandably terrified. Nonetheless, she tried to get an injured trooper to safety. She managed to control the shaking of her hands and shoot a rebel, but then she was injured. However, her strong emotion produced an extremely unexpected result. When slug rounds shot towards her, they suddenly stopped in mid-air and hit the ground. It was as if she had willed them to stop. This enabled some soldiers to get the drop on the shooters, enabling a more orderly retreat.
However, her Force awakening did not come without its consequences. The fact that she had used the Force to protect herself was noticed by one of the Jedi present. His name was Kyrric. He was a Kel'Dor and the apprentice of Battlemaster Mahtara. Being a dutiful sort, he had to question her once they were out of danger and had linked up with reinforcements. The Jedi assumed that she had been hiding her Force powers and did not believe her claim that had only just manifested them.
Mel was conscripted into the Order and given 'remedial' training. She was put into a penal unit. The Dominion was at war, so her training was very ad hoc. Her skill with the gun improved. Indeed, while she was lacking in many of the traditional powers, the Force seemed to aid her whenever she picked up a gun and fired at a target. But she was soon thrown into combat. The Republican Guard had launched an all-out offensive against the Dominion, seeking to overrun it and instigate a general uprising. The fighting was fierce. Thrown into combat with little training or experience, Mel had to learn on the job, become tough and fierce in order to survive.
The situation took a turn for the worse when the Vaderites joined the invasion, acting as de facto co-belligerents of the rebels. They had recently undergone a regime change that brought a faction of Light Sith to power, who urged their brethren in the Dominion to join them and throw off the yoke of the Jedi. Nonetheless, many Vaderites still followed the old ways, including disdain for non-humans. Mel's unit participated in the Battle of Grimwater Swamp, one of the bloodiest fights of the conflict.
To illustrate the nature of the engagement, at some point Dominion generals seriously considered dropping a tactical nuke on the enemy. Synthia Vao, a Dominion clone trooper who also participated in the battle, simply called it hell. Mel would have agreed with this assessment. The unit she belonged to was made up of the dregs of society. They were deserters, heretics, petty criminals and camp inmates who had been released so that they could fight and redeem themselves on the field of death.
Amidst the massive downpour, the ground turned to mud and swamps so the wounded drowned and the dead were buried and uncovered by bombardments. Both sides shelled each other relentlessly. The vermin gnawed on the flesh of the dead and dying alike. The Vaderites tied captured Dominion soldiers and alien civilians to post in the path of the attackers, so that when Mel and her fellow soldiers got close the bombs strapped to them went off. This was against the teachings of the Vaderites' new leader, but the Sith commander was a traditionalist and they were far from reach of Lord Salus.
Mel and her comrades retaliated by killing any Sith they got their hands on. The Jedi General Asoka did not care much for the lives of simple clone troopers, and people like Mel were even more expendable. Again and again, they were thrown against the enemy. Like many soldiers in her unit, she took drugs to numb herself and escape the hellish reality. The Dominion's Inquisition deployed blocking squads armed with machine guns in order to deter desertion. The brutality of the combat, the endless bloodshed and the fact that lives were reduced to numbers got to Mel. The Mirialan fought bravely, managing to use her marksmanship to kill a Sith Acolyte.
But she had had enough. She deserted during an assault, fleeing into the swamps while hell rained down all around her. The Vaderites were overwhelming her unit. They needed to pull out of the salient, but the orders were not one step back. So Mel took matters into her own hands and escaped, killing some soldiers from the Inquisition blocking squad. The penal battalion was otherwise wiped out, for the Dominion had used it as a speed hump so its proper troops could get into position.
Mel hid in the swamps. She did not know where she wanted to go, just that she wanted to be as far away as possible. She ended up encountering some Vaderites. However, it turned out they were deserters like her, who had had enough of the war and their Sith masters. Some were Light Sith, who had joined Salus full of hope for a change, only to have their illusions destroyed. They were hounded by both sides, which led to an uneasy truce. Mel went underground. The Mirialan already had experience with smugglers and black market traders from her time at the collective farm, so she drifted into the underworld and became a smuggler.
Given the many crimes her masters had committed, it no longer seemed immoral to her. Some of her new allies stuck around. It turned out that Mel had a knack for organising things. She tried to keep her head down during the bloodletting. She started smuggling surplus food to feed people who needed it and get medicine from the commissariat to the sick. Of course, these were the actions of saboteurs, wreckers and sloths. The group picked up deserters and fugitives, swelling its ranks.
Eventually they started smuggling forbidden literature and pieces of tech. Mel's neophyte Force talents were a boon in combat, and she had a good eye for detail. She could grease palms, plot smuggling routes and build connections. Corruption was rampant, and troopers were willing to look the other way in return for getting their cut. The threat of exposure lurked at every corner, but looking back these were happy times. For a while they operated outside of ruins in a 'dead zone', an area that had been completely devastated by this or that battle. Inevitably, all good things come to an end, and so the group was exposed. They made the mistake of agreeing to smuggle out a wanted fugitive.
Mel fell into the hands of the Jedi Inquisition, which had launched a crackdown against 'social parasites'. By now the Netherworld War had come to a close. The cost had been staggering, but the Dominion had prevailed. Mel was put on trial for her crimes. Needless to say it was a show trial. One of the witnesses was none other than Myra. Contrary to what Mel had suspected, her lover had not been killed. Instead the truth was a lot worse. The Inquisition had seen 'potential' in her and decided to reprogramme her into an obedient drone. Having been stripped of her old personality, Myra denounced her friend. Her appearance broke Mel. She was forced to confess to an absurd list of crimes. However, she later retracted her confession.
She was sent to Serene Springs, a concentration camp and brainwashing facility run by the Inquisition. There she was subjected to a strict regime of forced labour. Abuse was constant and indeed normal. Before every meal she had to recite the Jedi Code, or else she would not eat. Here Mel met Phoebe, a Nautolan prisoner. Phoebe had grown up in Republican Guard territory, but been locked up for being a Force-User. She and some of her friends had been able to escape with the help of a Jedi Shadow, who deceived them about the true nature of the Dominion. For a while the Jedi used her for propaganda. Indeed, Mel had heard about her during her time at the Ministry. But when Phoebe realised the true nature of the Dominion, she and her friends tried to escape, but she was caught.
The two women became friends. Phoebe was a camp elder, which made her responsible for a group of prisoners. She had to ensure the directives of the camp administration were carried out, but was secretly trying to undermine it. The prisoners were used as slave labourers, but their rations were inadequate and medical care was poor. Mel put her smuggling skills to good use by setting up an illicit trading network, trading favours with corrupt officials and guards. Their currency was cigarras.
Several officers and functionaries were corrupt, exploiting the prisoners as a source of labour for personal projects. Moreover, guards often stole food from prisoners they considered uppity or limited their access to it. At one point, the rations were so low that some inmates received as little as seven hundred calories per day, forcing them quickly into starvation. Mel traded goods on the black market in the camp. Anything and everything was traded, from food to buttons or clothing. For a while she worked in the camp kitchen, where she gained access to food to steal. She managed to establish a network among the workers there.
This helped save lives. However, she was forced to arrange an accident for a prisoner suspected of being a snitch. This helped gain Phoebe's trust. Sometimes the camp administration allowed prisoners to write letters to their loved ones. Needless to say these letters were strictly censored. Not all of the prisoners were literate, so Mel sometimes wrote the letters for them. Sometimes she was able to insert coded messages that helped give the recipient an idea of what was really happening.
However, she had to be careful. One camp guard often beat and abused her. For a while she worked in the section that was responsible for confiscating the possessions of new prisoners. Inmates like her were assigned to collect and sift through these confiscated items. They were separated and sorted in a warehouse, and then transported back to the Dominion. This gave her the chance for theft and bribery. She was able to obtain extra rations and clothing; items which could save lives. But it did not last. When the authorities carried out a crackdown, she was punished and assigned to the labourers who toiled in the mine. The labour was backbreaking, the guards were cruel and abusive.
Phoebe and her group were plotting. Mel's smuggling activities had saved the Nautolan's life when she fell sick, and now Phoebe repaid the favour. Matters took an unexpected turn when outsiders appeared in Tephrike's orbit. At first, most prisoners dismissed stories of space people as tall tales. But gradually stories spread. However, it was hard to discern the truth, for the Dominion claimed that its heroic forces had repelled the 'Firemane Sithspawn'. Mel first crossed paths with Elpsis when the captured Firemane soldier was assigned to a work crew in the mines. Not trusting the newcomer, Mel was gruff and standoffish. Harald, a Zabrak friend she had made in the camp, was more welcoming. Outwardly Mel dismissed Elpsis' stories. In her eyes, the girl was being careless and was possibly crazy.
However, the Mirialan was hiding a secret, for Phoebe and her people were plotting an escape. As more and more stories of the war reached their ears, the group feared that the Inquisition would 'evacuate' the camp, especially after they learned that the Grand Inquisitor was expected. With her connections, Mel was an important part of this plan. She was able to arrange for some improvised weapons being smuggled in. However, Elpsis panicked after she realised that the Inquisition's mentalists had started to rewrite her memories. Thus she tried to burn her collar. However, she did not have enough time to finish the deed and the damage to the collar was spotted by Harald, who denounced her. If one prisoner escaped, the others would pay the price. Elpsis was arrested by the Inquisition. Mel was also caught up in the round-up and taken to interrogation. There she was brutally tortured. She tried to resist as much as she could, but eventually broke under interrogation.
Meanwhile, Elpsis had been brainwashed into becoming 'Jedi Roxane'. The Grand Inquisitor arrived to gloat over his new drone, and ordered a purge. However, when Elpsis was able to overcome her conditioning with the help of Diona, her former jailer, and rebelled. The commotion was heard in the mines. When guards approached the prisoners, Phoebe and her crew suspected the worst, and rose up. Shortly thereafter a Firemane task force assaulted the Dominion troops stationed outside the camp. Elpsis was able to kill the Grand Inquisitor after a brutal fight. Then she joined the fight, burning her way through Dominion soldiers and Inquisitors.
The rage-filled pyromancer liberated Mel from her cell. Mel was shocked to see her, even more when she noticed that Diona, a former Inquisitor was with her. Filled with anger and guilt, she joined the fight against her oppressors. None of the camp guards or functionaries were spared in the fiery conflagration. Those who surrendered were killed. They had all been complicit in the system of terror. A Jedi task force led by Jedi Kyrric, which was supposed to retrieve Elpsis so that Mahtara could use her as a bargaining chip, had to surrender to Firemane, as they were caught in a cauldron. Elpsis and the surviving prisoners were evacuated by Firemane. It was the first Mel had left Tephrike and seen the stars. The flagship of the Firemane exploration fleet seemed enormous to her. Once aboard, she and the other Tephriki were received by Tegaea Alcori, the leader of the expedition and Elpsis' adoptive mother.
A representative of the Republican Guard, Firemane's ally of convenience, was also there. Tegaea thanked the Tephriki for their aid, especially in the rescue of her daughter. She offered to resettle the prisoners in a safe area. If they wanted to continue the fight, Firemane could provide them with resources, but for a price. There was general consternation when she declared that Firemane would be withdrawing its troops. The corporation had given the Dominion a bloody nose by taking one of its fortresses in concert with the Guard and had saved Elpsis. It did not want to get bogged down in a war far from home. The assembled Tephriki were disappointed. Phoebe was especially angered. Mel swallowed her disappointment to calm her friend down, reminding her of her responsibility to her people. However, Tegaea softened the blow by declaring that Firemane would leave a parting gift by razing the headquarters of the Vaderites, Castle Maysaf.
This met with general approval. When Firemane's turbolaser cannons rained hell on the castle, Darth Furcht, Dark Lord of the Sith, and his lieutenants tried to strike back by summoning demons, which manifested aboard the ship. Some possessed crew members, others appeared as demonic shades. Mel was on the bridge, watching the bombardment, when all hell broke loose. Grabbing a pair of blasters, she defended herself, shooting possessed crewers. She ended up behind cover alongside a ghost from the past.
For one of Firemane's Tephriki allies was a young computer expert called Mara Technician. She happened to have the same template as Myra. The young clone had used her computer skills to create a power surge, which the shades were quite allergic to. She was no soldier though, so Mel defended her fiercely. In the end, the shades were banished when Tempest, Saito and Karrigan'Xalda slew the demon controlling them. Castle Maysaf was levelled and Furcht perished in the firestorm. After the cleanup, Phoebe convened an assembly of the freed prisoners and their leaders. They eventually reached a consensus to leave Tephrike and find a safe place to settle on and rebuild, so that they could live in freedom. But one day they would return. Mel is happy to have escaped the madness. She is less invested than some of her comrades in going back to Tephrike, though what happened to Myra and the members of her penal unit haunts her. In the meantime, she is focusing her efforts on helping the Unchained, as the fugitives now call themselves, get on their feet, care for their people and build their own culture.
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