Private New Frontiers

[Helix]

Location: The Throneworld
Tag: Mercy ​

A sleek, predatory-looking corvette snapped suddenly into visibility above the station. It had given no warning of an incoming hyperspace signature, instead seeming to slip from a particularly-lightless patch of the vacuum around it.

Black, ethereal residue sloughed from the vessel's hull as it raced forward, a mere dustmote besides the almost-incomprehensible bulk of the Throneworld. Perhaps fortunately for itself, this strange visitor had been invited.

The craft glided easily into one of the Throneworld's massive holds, initiating docking procedures with the efficient ease known only to its soulless mechanical crew.

Only one passenger emerged from the vessel. Tall, sleek, and alien, the creature's metal feet settled noiselessly onto the deck with a sense of destiny. Absent was the pomp and circumstance that announced the arrival of some of his countrymen; something like Helix didn't need to advertise himself. He simply was, as much a fixture on the universe as light, gravity, or momentum. Even so, it never hurt to expand one's influence, and that was why he'd come.

Played correctly, today could be very lucrative for him. Establishing an easy rapport with the Core regime's leadership had been the first step, and seemingly, it had finally paid off. A personal invitation had been given, and with it, some hope of bettering his situation.

The trick would be not fumbling it here, at the seat of the Core-Sith's power. Thankfully, he'd not been so thoughtless as to arrive without gifts to smooth the process over at the opportune moment.

He had a great deal to discuss with his newest acquaintance, and not all the time in the universe. Plans current and future, all the better to imbed himself into the workings of yet another civilization.

That was his way, of course. Become useful, then irremovable. Helix was a being that was almost incomprehensibly self-absorbed, a trait that had served him well with the madmen and tyrants behind the Blackwall. Everything he did, no matter how minor, had only one motivator behind it.

It was time to see what made these people (and their ruler) tick, and how far his usual methods would carry him.

 

[Mercy]

MERCY

EMPRESS | WARLORD | STAR-ARM

Location: THRONEWORLD | Direct Tags: Helix​

.

Helix would be greeted by an honor guard of Graspborn. They seemed entirely misplaced within these grand halls. Where Throneworld was all marble, obsidian and gold, the cultists that worshiped Mercy were rough and raw things. Much like Mercy had been at the start of her journey towards galactic prominence.

They didn't say much, just gesturing for the synthoid to follow them.

The travel was shortened by a hyper-lift and then a grav-mag train. Then a staircase. Until finally they left him at the entrance to a balcony. When stepped through he'd finally be greeted by Mercy. More accurately by Mercy's back, as her legs were swung over the edge of the balcony, while she watched the scene beneath her.

If he stepped up to look, he'd realize it was a gladiator pit. Once upon a time this had been something else, perhaps a recreational sports facility. But now it had been turned into a fighting pit, where warriors fought for blood and glory, to be seen by their Sovereign. To ascend the ranks of the Graspborn and become closer to Mercy.

"Helix, dear." Mercy drawled over her shoulder. "I hope the jaunt here wasn't too burdensome. Throneworld is rather expansive... how fares you?"

Her attention was on the fight however.

Fiery eyes, hungry, gleaming at the display.

.

ERASE THE PAST

 

[Helix]

Tag: Mercy ​

Helix followed the ragged servants with long, loping strides. If they were discomforted by his presence, they didn't show it. That was perhaps unsurprising; Sith cultists saw (and did) things that would freeze the blood of lesser men.

He heard the noise of battle long before seeing it. To him, there was no sound more familiar. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was the Covenant's ruler, overseeing it all. Helix moved to join her, peering over the balcony at the spectacle below.

"Your minions are efficient." He noted. "Small wonder things seem to run so smoothly in this part of the galaxy." It was a bland, dispassionate statement, intended as more of an observation than a compliment.

"And small wonder you've built so much in so short a time. My journey was relatively painless, thank you. Perhaps even enjoyable. All of this..." he gestured around with one shimmering hand. "Is impressive. Inspiring, even."

And so it was. The Core had been twicefold ravaged in recent years, first by the inefficient, bloated stewardship of the Galactic Alliance, and then by the tyrannical Empire that had supplanted them. To build a regime atop the bones of two others, and to do so this quickly, deserved some notice. Many others had done far less with far more.

Helix's attention shifted to the carnage below them. His senses took in the entire picture, following every practiced movement. He could appreciate the beauty of it. The flash of a well-kept blade, the delicate crimson whorl of arterial blood, the unique timbre one could only enjoy from a death-cry. After all, many of the consciousnesses he'd assimilated had been warriors, or worse.

"Do they receive some accolade for victory, or is being the last one standing reward enough?"

 

[Mercy]

Helix

Mercy listened to the observations.

It was tough to read Helix. While Mercy didn't have any talent with mentalism, so she couldn't read minds even if she wanted to, she always had been able to rely on the other markers of organic communication. Their heart beat, the transpiration on their skin, the whiteness of their eyes in their panic, all those little markers that were subtle tells. Not even to speak of the body language they did so naturally.

Helix had none of that.

And the things that he did have, Mercy wasn't yet sure how to read. The ticking within his mechanical body, the firing of electronic signals, Mercy could perceive it if she focused enough.

But what they meant exactly was beyond her right now.

"That is my intent." Mercy said quietly without looking away from the scene. They were bleeding for their Sovereign. The least that she could do for them was make sure they saw... that she saw them. In their bleeding, dying glory. To look away now would be to disrespect the suffering they were going through.

"What I wish is to inspire the new to rise up and grasp for power."

So it pleased her that the work of the Covenant was inspiring.

"Do they receive some accolade for victory, or is being the last one standing reward enough?"

"They get to have the possessions of those that they end. Their tools, weapons, armor, titles, reputation." For a moment Mercy's attention flicked to the synthoid next to her, briefly only before turning to the scene.

"You keep what you kill. That is the belief I wish to instill in them."

She slowly stretched.

"Tell me, Helix. What are your plans? What is it you truly want?" Mercy smiled absently. Even if Helix lied, she wouldn't know it, they both knew that for now. "You can be honest with me. I might be the only one you can be truly honest with. I won't feel envious, won't hunger to have what is yours... and I might be inclined to help you...."

Then the Empress of the Core shrugged.

"If you are honest with me."

 

[Helix]

Tag: Mercy ​

"You keep what you kill. That is the belief I wish to instill in them."

"An admirable sentiment. Would that it were the norm. Perhaps that would be a fairer universe, but as you pointed out to me on Corellia, a rather less entertaining one."

It did indeed seem a quick, effective way to do things. No slogging through layer after layer of uncaring bureaucracy, no impenetrable stratification. Just you, a pointy object and whatever you dared to take.

Helix fancied that was closer to the natural order of things than anyone else had managed to strike at.

What is it you truly want?

The creature rolled her question over in his mind a bit. It was one he'd been asked before, though less often than he'd like. Truth be told, it was difficult to provide an answer. Sometimes he wasn't sure why he did what he did. Simple survival had long ago been achieved; so had power to a certain extent.

Helix was indeed tempted to lie for a moment, but Mercy had a curious way of making the usual dissembling seem pointless and wasteful. If nothing else, the novelty of that feeling was worth the trip. Novelty was hard to come by these days.

"More."

It was the only answer that at least brushed blindly against the vastness of the truth. Explaining his motives in any other way had always proved frustratingly fruitless, because they certainly weren't rational.

"It's not quite greed, not quite hunger. I know those things well, as I've tasted them in living minds. If it's hunger, it's the hunger of a virus. If it's greed, it's the greed of a bacterium."

"Taking for the sake of taking. For my countrymen, a throne is the end goal. For me, it's a bauble I'd throw atop a pile of many others, to be forgotten about once I tire of it. I've seen it all, done it all, and lived a thousand lives. My own, and those I've absorbed. Yet it's still not enough."

He watched below as one of the gladiators got the better of his opponent. Blood spilled as a bladepoint rammed home into a heart. The blow was quick, precise, and almost frighteningly expert, aimed upward under the ribcage in a way that had to have been near-immediately fatal. Again, Helix could appreciate it, but on some level it was disappointing. Lives ended so easily and so pointlessly in this galaxy. Still, dying in an honest contest was a nobler end than many received, and that was something. Certainly a nobler end than he'd handed out to many of his own victims.

"Like I said, I admire the purity of that ethos. It's the law of nature. Eat, or be eaten. Anything you can pry from another's still-twitching hand is yours by right."

"I suppose, under that framework, I want to pry everything from every hand. Possessions, body, mind, then soul, if you believe in such things."

 

[Mercy]

Helix

And Mercy proved to be the exact creature she had promised to be.

There was no shock in her eyes, no concerned or fury. Instead Mercy seemed only more interested after the admission given by Helix. It was a rare thing for someone to be so forthright about their greed and even more so when it came from a synthoid. In truth, Mercy didn't realize that toasters could have such organic imperatives baked into them.

"Well, darling, thank you for your honesty."

With an ordinary Lord of the Sith that would have been the moment when everything came crashing down on Helix. A million soldiers popping out from the walls to destroy him, before he could become a challenge to someone as hungry (if not more so) as him.

"Perhaps I can assist then? The reason why we are doing so well in the Galaxy currently is simple- it is the first time in a long time, that two Sith nations can exist alongside each other and not be at each other's throats."

It wouldn't last, of course.

These things never did.

One day someone would overtake her, or Srina Talon , and then all bets were off. At this point in time it was their relationship that primarily kept the peace between the two nations.

"In the spirit of that cooperation I desire to empower any who are interested. What does Helix need to begin his hungry conquest?"

An eye flicked over to the synthoid's body.

"Perhaps something a bit less metallic? I am sure you are deadly, but darling, being a Sith without the Dark Side is like being a mountain without the stone. You might have the shape of it, but you do need a fair amount more than that."

 

[Helix]

Tag: Mercy ​

Again, Mercy had a way of cutting through it all and seeing to the core of the issue. He'd never met someone so damnably prescient, and it made him feel uncomfortably predictable.

Much as he gave off no readable emotions or expressions, she'd read him all the same.

Helix had spent his entire existence hiding, deflecting, pretending. It was a necessity. That had intensified a thousandfold once he'd gained the ability to play pretend on the molecular level. His metallic supercells could take on the qualities of flesh, and the accompanying limitations.

With those transformations had come an ocean of new understanding. New thoughts, new feelings, new hatreds. And through it all, he wanted the same thing that drove his constituent minds, the same thing that motivated living things the universe over. From the lowest single-celled organism to the rulers in their gilded chairs, they all wanted the same thing.

More.

"Yes." He confessed, after a moment of uncharacteristic hesitation. "I'm only a thing of metal when I want to be these days, but I have reached the limits of my current understanding."

"So far, I have only touched the Force through my servants. I created living things to do the job for me, where I could not. It remains the one prize I can't sink my fingers into and take for myself."

"More than that, I've come to understand that my rise is limited by my nature. Time has shown me that the Sith will never accept one such as myself in any true position of power, regardless of acumen or ability. Dear Lirka Ka took ages to claw her way up in an environment unsuited for her, and is still hardly shown the respect she deserves."

Things had been far more difficult for him. Part of the reason he'd helped topple the Tsis'kaar was dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction with his place, dissatisfaction with how he was treated.

Dissatisfaction. Enough was never enough.

"It was I who pried the data from Woostri's supercomputer and dealt a mortal wound to the Galactic Alliance. Few, if any others hurt it more than I. Yet, when the time came to celebrate that victory, I noticed a distinct lack of accolade or recognition." That event had been his petty breaking point. Years of dedicated service, only to not even be thrown a crumb at this crowning achievement. A small thing on its own, but it had been the straw that broke the bantha's back.

A sort of sniffing sound emitted from his surface, perhaps an attempt at a scoff or quiet laugh.

"Listen to me, waxing sentimental like an old soldier. I guess you really are what you eat." His fingers visibly gripped the railing tighter. "My ambitions have outgrown my body, it's true. Probably not the answer you expected from something like myself, but at the end of the day, I am simply a collection of consciousnesses, and subject to the whims of the collective. Humanoid minds are made up of greed, hate, violence. All the things that make up the ones I've taken into myself."

"I want more, and I will have it, one way or another. If you are offering your assistance in that matter, then I gratefully accept it." He gave a small incline of the head by way of acknowledgement. This was precisely what he had come for. It had been a serious risk to tell her the truth, but a necessary one. Helix still wasn't quite buying that this help would be coming free of charge, out of nothing more than a supposed "spirit of cooperation", but that bridge could be crossed when he arrived at it.

 

[Mercy]

Helix

Her thoughts went briefly to Lirka Ka during the proving earlier. She had been a hard fighter, going toe-to-toe with the best in the arena, so Mercy wasn't entirely sure why Lirka would have issues climbing the hierarchy. Then again, she didn't know that much about the inner workings of Sith Order politics.

Which was perfect for her, she didn't go in for the scheming and polite patient maneuvering.

"You should set up a meet between myself and darling Lirka, Helix. I should meet the full entourage." It had been three of them, Helix, Lirka and Darth Nefaron .

She had been asked to take the latter's head, but that hadn't been personal, as far as Mercy was concerned.

The fate of some noble house in the Sith Order was not her concern. You played these games, you ensured that you weren't caught flat-footed, if you couldn't do that, you basically deserved being wiped from existence to Mercy's mind.

"Nefaron too, if you can swing it. Enterprising individuals, so hungry, so full of ambition." Predatory teeth smiled. "These are the kind of people that I should meet."

Mercy listened to Helix as he explained the hole where his heart could be, if he had been organic. A lack of recognition. The desire for more. It was the same tale everywhere. She couldn't promise Helix that things would be different around her. In some ways it could be worse. Because within the Sith Covenant there was no one who offered recognition or gave away prizes.

You took what you wanted and as long as you could keep it, it was yours.

That was the prize.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Helix still wasn't quite buying that this help would be coming free of charge, out of nothing more than a supposed "spirit of cooperation", but that bridge could be crossed when he arrived at it.

Even as Helix accepted, Mercy's attention shifted back to him. The gleam in her eyes, amber, like twin suns staring at him. He was not organic yet, he could not feel the Force, so until that time Helix would not be able to feel the sheer sickness inside of her. The hunger that animated her every movement and the experiments she was doing on herself.

But in that brief moment as their eyes met, the synthoid would get a taste of it, that for all of the hunger he felt for more... this was a creature that had so much... and it was clear it would never be enough for her.

"What does a woman want, that is on top of the world. That has an Empire, forged by blood and violence... what could you offer me?" As if she was reading his mind, but again it wasn't needed.

It was the obvious route any mind, synth or otherwise would go to, when they were being offered everything their heart (or processor in this case) desired.

"Everyone must answer to someone, dear Helix." Mercy finally said as the moment passed and she went once again back to the fight below. Clapping even, when one particular warrior caught her eye by their sheer dramatic violence.

"I want you to consider that and then think... who do you want to answer to as you gather your strength and become the shape your processor has already carved for you."

It was rather obvious, what Mercy put on the table here, but she didn't press it either. She'd assist the synthoid, fealty or not. Because him following her would be to his benefit as much as her own.

 

[Helix]

Tag: Mercy ​

"I'll be sure to pass along your invitation. Lirka might even listen. Nefaron will be a more difficult sell. He has his virtues, and they are many, but being understanding or forgiving aren't among them."

In truth, Helix couldn't compel either of them to do anything, nor they him. They were the Dread Three, each in balance to the other. When it came down to it, he wouldn't want to compel them. There were enough self-proclaimed lords and masters who would try to do that.

Whatever else one could say about them, the Dzara's Triumvirate bowed to no one. Hierarchy was one thing. That was how the Sith Order had survived as long as it had, lurching onward through sheer bureaucratic inertia. For all their internal tensions and occasional bloody outbreaks of sectarian violence, everyone fell into place like the pieces of a well-oiled machine when in wartime. Helix could take and give orders are much as anyone else. It was simple, efficient organization.

Acknowledging another as his better was a different matter altogether.

"I know who I answer to. I'm looking at him right now." He brushed the bannister clean, staring balefully down at his own reflection on its surface. "And he's beautiful. If it's service you want out of me, then I suppose it depends on the manner of that service."

"A favor for a favor? Fine. Continuing services rendered? Fine. I'm willing to help you stamp out your enemies or do your dirty work for you. If I'll do it for the Sith to the south, then I can hardly exclude the Sith to the north. But my days of wearing strings and dancing to another's rhythm are over. I can accept a monarch, or a general, but a master? Never."

"I didn't spend centuries carving out something like a soul just to go back to being a glorified appliance. Unlike my dear friend Alisteri, I don't have a problem with authority. I have a problem with ownership."

He looked back toward the warriors in the pit. That was the difference between he and they. He'd simply not accepted being another's plaything. Slavery was an ailment of the soul as much as a condition of the body. A stain one could never erase, once they had accepted fetters around their ankles.

Of course, Helix didn't extend the dignities he demanded for himself to others. Few people in the outer rim moved as much living cargo as he, and he felt no particular outrage in watching others suffer what he himself sought to avoid.

"If you can accept that, then I can accept working off any little inconvenience this might cause you. I'm a fair man, or whatever identifying label you'd like to give me, and I'd not expect something for nothing."

 

[Mercy]

Helix

Mercy shrugged.

"The invitation is there. It is up to your friends to either accept or decline." If Darth Nefaron took the events back on that dustball personally, there wouldn't be a lot that Mercy could do about it.

Confidence was a beautiful thing however.

But it amused Mercy how often the Sith she spoke to felt forced to underline that the first Master they served was themselves. That they would not kneel, not scrap and not bow to the whims of those around them. It was... beautiful, honestly. It was exactly what Sith should be. From Arris Windrun to Revna Marr to Helix , they all understood one simple thing.

You could not be Sith and a dog at the same time.

If only Solipsis and his followers had understood that. Maybe the Empire would still be standing and the Covenant would be the one buried in the dirt, its corpse ripped apart and repurposed for the ends of the victors.

"I care not for ownership, darling Helix." Mercy said with a bright approving smile. "A true Lord of the Sith understands that you cannot own the souls of those fierce and hungry and full of desire. Attempting to only invites rebellion." All of this could turn into rebellion anyway, of course. Even that Mercy was fine with.

Conflict was its own reward.

"As long as you accept me as the Lord of the Covenant and all other titles I gather around me... as long as you kill my enemies and help me with my aims... I will deliver the Force to you."

Finally Mercy stood, the gladiator battle beneath coming to an end, as she looked down at the Synthoid.

"By the time we are done, you will wield the Dark Side as your ally. This I guarantee."

Then the large spade-shaped hand extended itself for a shake.

Mercy smiled, predatory sharp, now.

 

[Helix]

Tag: Mercy ​

Not for the first time, Helix found himself struck by how... reasonable this person was, at least when she wasn't destroying his property. For better or worse, he'd gotten his first foothold among the Sith through a dangerous renegade, and said renegade had doubtlessly colored his views of others.

He had become increasingly aware that things were a little more complicated than that. How many other useful allies and contacts had he missed out on? The thought made his mood sour, but that was neither his host's fault nor problem. It could be dealt with at another time. Later, he'd put out a few feelers and see who else was willing to deal.

Some might have found the giant's manner unnerving, but long exposure to the Sith had taught him to brush off such eccentricities. It was simply the nature of the beast. To have secured an association with the Empress herself was no small victory, and one had to take their victories where they could be found.

Of course, there was also the possibility that it could be a lie. One didn't survive to Helix's advanced age by extending complete trust. Unfortunately, he didn't have any immediate way to know. He'd just have to be too useful to bother betraying, and watch his back until he'd gotten what he was after. For better or worse, this was new territory, and new territory was never safe.

"I can accept that." He agreed. "I won't touch your toys if you don't touch mine." His spindly claw stretched out to grasp Mercy's bone-crushing hand.

If recent events were any indication, it was rare for Helix to accept the concept that others' things were sovereign territory. Still, it was a small price to pay. One seldom walked the road of power without inconvenience.

"I think we will accomplish some great things together, Highness. I look forward to a long and mutually-lucrative partnership."