New Trials.

[Darth Ferus]

As a Sith, trials were a normalcy. Every day, in new ways, young Sith were pushed to their limits, be it physical or mental. Fortuna herself had been pushed to a breaking point so often that she wasn't sure if she was actually broken or stronger than before. Yet again, she was to be tested. A traitor had shown their hand on Balmorra after leading a rebel sabotage on one of the Imperial bases located planetside. It resulted in an almost complete loss of the facility, but only a few deaths. Many had gotten out before the detonation due to an anonymous tip. Thus the traitor wasn't a top priority worthy of true Sith.

But acolytes would do just fine.

Fortuna found herself on route to the planet with another acolyte she had met once before. [member="Garivald"] was a stronger acolyte, or at least the girl hoped. They'd have to fight through a rebel base to get to the traitor himself. Both hands rested down by her sides as she looked out the transports windows, red eyes observing the lines of the stars that passed by in lightspeed. Close by her spear rested against the wall, freshly polished. Well, it only looked like that. The alchemised blade was permanently shined due to the process that made it, keeping rust and dirt from ever touching it's blade. Of course, the weapon was only a temporary one. Fortuna hoped to be able to fight without it soon, though how soon was yet to be seen.

A beep set off as the pilot pipped in over the coms.

"We're almost to the planet, be ready to get off. I won't be here long, and I'm sure your masters wouldn't want you to come back without completing the job." Usually there was more respect for Sith, but as an acolyte she wasn't a true Sith yet. Thus, she had no claim to demand respect, unless she earned it herself. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet. A sigh escaped the females lips as she moved to leave her room. Last thing she wanted was to return to her master empty handed after all. A quick wave of her hand caught the spear in a telekinetic grip, making it float behind her. She couldn't hold the weapon herself of course, it being to heavy. But her skills with the Force was more than enough to be able to carry the weapon.

"Well, time to get started."

 

[Garivald]

He thought he was going to loose his mind.

Yet again the universe had found a way. He was once again flying through space inside a giant metal deathtrap. It was as if the universe took pleasure in his suffering; treating his suffering like a cruel joke that never got old.

He was being sent to Balmorra. Apparently an Imperial traitor had smuggled a group of rebels into an Imperial Base stationed down on the planet. They had then proceeded to strategically take over the base; resulting in the deaths of a handful of Imperial Soldiers. The retaking of the base, while normally under military command, had been overruled by the Sith Lords. They had instead decided to send both himself and another acolyte to regain the base and apprehend the traitor alive. This was yet another test... a trial that needed to be overcome. The two acolytes were to prove their worth. To show the Sith Lords that their continued training in the darkside of the force was worth the effort.

At least he'd been sent on this mission with a semi-familiar face. He had been part of the same group of acolytes sent to train as [member="Fortuna"] a while back on the ancient sith homeworld; Korriban. Learning different force techniques from different Sith Lords, they had barely spoke during their time on the planet. Still the blue haired, frail looking young female had left an impression. Out of all the acolytes, she had set an example by being the first to introduce herself to everyone. In so far as sith could be towards one another.... he hoped they could be... allies of sorts.

A beep sounded in his room, notifying him that the intercom was on. "We're almost to the planet, be ready to get off. I won't be here long, and I'm sure your masters wouldn't want you to come back without completing the job."

He sat up from his cot, fur bristling at the intended slight.

If the acolytes survived the mission, he would have to instruct the pilot on his behavior. As a future sith, such blatant insults could not be tolerated. While he took no pleasure from such actions, and in fact disliked doing such things; he would do his duty to the empire. Not fearing and respecting the sith would eventually lead to dissent withing the empire; making it weak.

Just like what had happened at the base on Balmorra. Such things needed to be corrected if the empire was to remain strong.

Standing up, Garivald placed his hand against his cabins wall, waiting for the nausea to dissipate. Once gone, he pushed off and walked around the room collecting his gear. Grabbing his weapon belt he fastened it around his waist. Leaving the cabin, he began walking down the hallway. Stopping a few feet away, he watched as Fortuna left her room, spear hovering next to her through the manipulation of the force.

"Well, time to get started."

"I agree. The sooner we are away from this ship the better."

Continuing down the hallway, he entered the common room area. Walking over to the window he queasily looked out the window. They were descending downward and would be planetside within the minute.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Silently the girl followed [member="Garivald"] , her eyes staring ahead with a coldness one would expect from a Sith. But deep down, she was still struggling with her emotions. Fear being the most prominent. Fortuna, with an acolyte she had only met in passing, were to take on a rebel group in their own fort who had successfully taken out an imperial station. The odds looked grim. Yet even though she figured death was a decent option, she felt excited. A shiver of joy went down her spine as a smile tugged at her stoic frown. She looked forward to this sort of test, and simply couldn't wait to begin.

Thankfully, that wouldn't be too far away.

"Landing now; get your shit and get out."

Once more the pilot spoke up. A pang of annoyance caused the hair on the back of her neck to bristle as she made her way to the ramp. She expected some disrespect, but this was going too far. This man would soon learn a lesson, but not just yet. Fortuna had a task, and she wasn't about to ignore it. Without so much as moving a hand her hood went up to cover most of her face, specifically to keep her true identity hidden on this planet. While certain people would guess her Sith, she hoped to at least make sure they didn't know which. From under her hood she looked about the spaceport.

"We're looking for an astromech. It'll have the location we need to find the rebel base." Or something like that. The Imperial Officer that had seen the pair off had said there would be a droid waiting, but Fortuna wasn't sure she could remember which one. Hopefully she was right though, she didn't want to look foolish in front of a fellow acolyte. Though, thinking about it now it may have been a medical droid. Stupid. A frown formed over her lips as she continued to search around, unable to find one herself. Hopefully her.. Partner was having better luck.

 

[Garivald]

"We're looking for an astromech. It'll have the location we need to find the rebel base.", [member="Fortuna"] called out from behind him, as they stepped off the ship and onto the spaceport. Refusing to admit that he hadn't payed attention when the Imperial Officer had seen them off the ship, Garivald grunted quietly in agreement. As she stepped up next to him, he looked down at her, noting that she'd raised her hood to partially cover her face. Ears flicking, he felt mildly irritated. He couldn't hide his identity as she was doing. All those layers of clothes didn't mix well with him. It rubbed against his fur the wrong way and caused him to sweat profusely.

Looking around, he observed the dock. It was densely populated with civilians, both leaving and arriving to Balmorra. Mixed in among them were various droids of different make and model. Searching for a specific droid would take to long if they stuck together.

"We should split up to cover more ground. I'll search this half of the area, if you take that side."

Acknowledging his suggestion, she turned and headed off to one side of the spaceport. Turning, Garivald headed to the opposite side and began searching for the astromech. He hoped it would stand out somehow. That it would get his attention in someway. Astromech was not a language he was fluent in. All that beeping and booping sounded like just that to him; beeps and boops.

After he'd been searching for a while; having no luck in finding the astromech droid, he noticed something odd. He was being followed around by a bipedal droid that was waving its arms around and calling out to him.

Stopping, Garivald waited and watched in amusement as the droid continued waving its arms in the air; closing the distance.

"Greetings, master. I am CM-D8; medical assistance droid. Would you happen to be Acolyte Garivald?"

The look of amusement on his face was quickly replaced by a neutral expression.

"Yes I am. What do you want?", Garivald growled; not bothering to hide the animosity in his voice.

"I apologize for being late master. Human relations is not part of my primary programming. It took longer for me to obtain a speeder than I had anticipated. I have been sent to aid in guiding you to the base."

His fur bristled in anger as he scowled at the droid. That kriffing officer had fed them the wrong information.

"Follow me droid. I need to find my... associate."

Turning, Garivald opened himself to the force and quested for Fortuna. Not being very skilled in such techniques, it took him a minute to find her. Not bothering to see if the medical droid followed him, he made his way through the crowd of bystanders until he reached her.

"I found the medical droid that's here to take us to the base. It has taken the liberty of renting a speeder."

After a moment, he looked towards the ship they'd arrived on.

"Not only do they mock us, they also seem comfortable in giving us the wrong information. Such behavior will need to be corrected before to long."

 

[Darth Ferus]

"I feel like this is a test by our masters. I wouldn't be so quick to punish those possibly listening to orders from higher Sith. Though, that pilot is certainly asking for a beating." The rudeness of that pilot really dug into Fortuna and her patience. Part of her did just want to turn her head and crush the ship right then and there. Dark eyes glanced between the droid and [member="Garivald"] . So she was wrong with what it was. Damn. "Right, well. At least we got the droid. So, droid. Tell use what you know."

"Of course masters. Your task is to clear out the rebel base and capture the traitor alive. The other masters say there are only twenty, but they have high grade weaponry, and they think they found an old imperial droid factory. While shut down, they still could have scrapped and made new military grade droids. They're hiding in this factory, and most likely planning another attack. Time is of the essence, so please hurry." Fortuna smirked as she listened. They treated the two like dirt, then demanded they hurry. Odd way to get people to hurry for them. Dark eyes returned to her fellow acolyte.

"Might as well get goin, right?"

 

[Garivald]

The words of [member="Fortuna"] mollified him slightly. Plus he was mildly irritated with himself. It had never dawned on him that the Imperial Soldiers were following Sith orders when it came to how the acolytes were treated. At least when it came to the officer... but that pilot though... he had taken to many liberties as far as Garivald was concerned.

Ears twitching, Garivald turned as the droid explained the current situation. A mild grimace flashed across his face, when it came to the old droid factory. That complicated things a bit.

"Might as well get goin, right?"

"Indeed. Depending on the condition of the factory... their numbers could easily double. Triple if they have anyone even half skilled at engineering. We should leave now. The sooner we get there the better. Droid take us to the speeder."

"Of course masters. If you will follow me, the vehicle is parked right over here."

Garivald followed after the droid as they made their way through the spaceport.

First they'd been treated poorly and now they were expected to potentially fight an army. This mission was just getting better and better.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Maybe it means they'll be a challenge, right?" Another bad attempt at humor. Her arms were crossed over her chest, though to hide the shakiness of her hands. She didn't want to show any fear to [member="Garivald"] , less he should become a rival. Or something. Paranoia wasn't the best feeling, but Fortuna was quickly learning how common of an emotion it was. Her eyes looked over to the droid as they followed it to the speeder.

Quickly she would step in, sitting down almost immediately. Not one to waste time, her spear came in to rest on her lap, and her eyes went to look out the window. It shouldn't be long for the pair to be able to make it, but that was only the beginning of the real challenge.

 

[Garivald]

"Maybe it means they'll be a challenge, right?"

Ears flicking from amusement, Garivald looked over at the female acolyte; who had climbed into one of the speeders passenger seats. They hardly new each other and here she was, making light of the situation. Wait... she had made a joke... right? It was hard for him to tell with others.

His master; from when he was a slave; had a decidedly cruel sense of humor. He had made it a habit for the farghul half-breed to be the main focus of his amusement.

The things Garivald found funny or entertaining were often considered a bit... odd by most peoples standards. He decided to not think on it any further. So far as he was concerned [member="Fortuna"] had made a joke and he would take it as such.

As he followed the other acolyte into the speeder, he showed his teeth in what he considered a smile. "If the mission gets to boring we could always chuck the medical droid at their droids.", he said, offering a joke of his own. "It would be interesting to see how the droids reacted." He then sat down in one of the other passenger seats.

"Oh please, do not do that masters. I understand if you are angry at being detained for so long. I really did hurry as fast as was possible. If you would ju-"

"Be quiet droid and just get us there." Great. They were given a droid without any humor protocols.

"Of course masters. Give me a moment to upload the coordinates to the autopilot. After I do that, we should arrive at the base in approximately five minutes, thirty-seven seconds. If there is heavy traffic, our time of arriva- "

"Droid... be quiet."

Entering the land-craft, the droid gave directions to the speeders autopilot. Raising itself further off the ground, they took off at high speed towards the rebel occupied base.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Fortuna giggled.

A very simple, small laugh. Her dark eyes watched [member="Garivald"] and the droid during their exchange, and she found it hilarious. The poor droid didn't realize the humor behind it all, and though she felt bad for the metal husk, it's reactions were perfect. Her gaze turned away as soon as the conversation was finished however, to look out the window. A low whine began, and they shot off.

"Well, now we begin, right? Yay." The sarcasm was practically dripping. This wasn't going to be fun.