Mission Nothing Beside Remains (Tarkin Initiative)

[Keldan Andro]

NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS

KELDAN ANDRO
?????
ATRISA

For the first time sent he had fled Mahporeem, Keldan was fleeing the kind of terror one only feels when their life is truly in danger.

He had barely managed to block the attack of his doppelganger foe, and had spent nearly the entirety of the fight being on the defensive. Being apparently the same person as him, Keldan had assumed that his enemy would have the same level of skill as him, but he couldn't have been more wrong in that regardless. His doppelganger self had infinitely more skill with a lightsaber than he did, which was becoming more and more apparent the longer the battle went on. Doppelganger Keldan locked his lightsaber blade with the real Keldan, taunting him as he nearly brought him to his knees.

"Weak and pathetic. You lack conviction, trainee", the doppelganger hissed as his lightsaber inched closer and closer toward Keldan's neck. Keldan responded by kicking his doppelganger in the stomach and rolling away, desperately looking for some sort of emergency gate release so that he could escape his current predicament. Not being able to find one, he wheeled back around toward his attacker.

"Conviction or not, I won't lose to a Dark Sider like you!"

The doppelganger lunged forward yet again, swinging his lightsaber at Keldan with near impossibly fast speed as Keldan did everything he could to just keep up with the flurry of blows.

"And what do you know about the power of the Dark Side?", the figured mocked him with as he pressed Keldan further and further back into the walls of the bunker. You know NOTHING of it, as you know nothing of being an Imperial Knight!"

With that final statement, the doppelganger knocked Keldan's lightsaber out of his hand, sending it flying across the room. For a moment, Keldan thought about using the Force to pull the weapon back into his and continue his fight, but decided against doing so. The doppelganger was right...he didn't really know anything about being an Imperial Knight or a Force user, and the whole reason he had come to serve under Tydeus Shorn was because he had been afraid of who he was, and what he had done back on Mahporeem. He was scared and confused, and hadn't even realy bothered to ask himself what it meant to be an Imperial Knight in the first place. At that fear, all that worry, all that running he had done...he would do it no longer.

Keldan turned to face his doppelganger one last time.

"You're right. I don't really know anything about what it is to be an Imperial Knight. But I know this: I won't die here afraid, scared to face you or anyone else anymore. If I'm going to die here, I'll do it like a man, like a true Imperial Knight would. Come on now, what are you waiting for. Go ahead, strike me down!"

The figure said nothing as he raised his lightsaber aboard Keldan's head. Keldan took a deep breath, the last he would ever take on this mortal coil, at peace with himself if just for the moment. The lightsaber blade came slashing down...

As passed straight through Keldan as if it hadn't even been there.

Startled, Keldan looked back at his attacker, only to see the ghostly visage of Tydeus Shorn instead.

"Hmmm. Perhaps there is hope for you yet, Keldan Andro", the figure stated before it and the world away melted, returning Keldan back to where he had been before, inside the ruins of an abandoned bunker within the Death Star remains. Unsure of what that had all been about, Keldan turned around to leave, nearly stepping on the Blue and Red Kyber Crystals that were on the floor behind him. He picked them up, and with the words of his doppelganger still ringing in his ear, he placed them in his pocket, exiting the bunker once and for all. It didn't take long for him to stumble upon the real Tydeus Shorn , who had apparently been looking for Keldan. Keldan immediately bent down on one knee in supplication as he tried to explain himself.

"Lord Shorn, my deepest apologies for the trouble I've caused. I encountered a dead zone where I lost comms, I have been trying to find my way out of it ever since. I regret to inform that I have failed to find our objective, though I did stumble upon this".

With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the Blue Kyber Crystal, deliberately choosing to keep the Red one hidden. He presented to Tydeus, hoping the gift would be enough to placate his likely anger.

TAGS:
Galen Dooku
Sid Berik
Aymeric Prendergast
Tydeus Shorn
Lareva
OPEN

 

[Aymeric Prendergast]

NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS
Ghost of the Core’s Past - Chapter 1

ROTTWEILER​

ATRISIA

"Filtration," Aymeric repeated the word, tasting the irony on his tongue like copper. "A picturesque term for losing one's grip. You call it ambition; I call it delivering one for the team."

As Diocletian began to distance himself, heading toward the coordinates of his lost initiate, Aymeric raised his voice just enough to ensure the rasp carried through the metallic groaning of the wreckage.

"Sleep well, Knight," Aymeric called out, his tone dripping with a synthetic, hollowed-out politeness. "The black box is in the safe hand of the Inquisitorius. I shall make sure Director Tarkin is personally appraised of your... instrumental contribution today."

Aymeric turned his attention back to the blackened housing. The recovery unit were already moving with efficiency, mag-locking the crate for transport. The psychic stain of the dead technician was finally beginning to fade from Aymeric's mind, replaced by the cold, rhythmic throb of the neuro-scars at the base of his skull.

He tapped his wrist comm, opening a high-encryption channel directly to the Inquisitorius tactical hub.

"This is the Fourth Brother," he rasped into the comm. "Objective secured. The black box is under Inquisitorius custody. Prepare for immediate extraction at the secondary LZ."

He paused, his sulfurous eyes scanning the horizon of the Atrisian countryside one last time.

He gestured to Ark to begin the climb back out of the crater. Behind them, the trench was a testament to the Empire's arrival, but in Aymeric's wake, the only thing left for everyone else would be the scorched earth and the lingering chill of a shadow that had already claimed the prize.

DT-1111 | Diocletian Mecetti | Galen Dooku | Junko Ike | Keldan Andro | Lareva | Sid Berik | The Arkanian​

 

[Tydeus Shorn]

NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS

"Lord Shorn, my deepest apologies for the trouble I've caused. I encountered a dead zone where I lost comms, I have been trying to find my way out of it ever since. I regret to inform that I have failed to find our objective, though I did stumble upon this".

Tydeus said nothing, his eyes like twin shards of steel boring into the kneeling initiate, then panning to what he held. A blue kyber crystal. The Imperial Knight pursed his lips. Kyber had... peculiar properties. And the disturbance he felt in the Force earlier could have been a result of the kyber.

"Keep it," Shorn replied, "And get up. Do not run off on your own again, Initiate."

The irony of telling Andro this was not lost on Tydeus, who up until this very moment had been a lone vornskr on the prowl for Sith.

"Knight Marshal Dooku can decide what to do with the kyber," Tydeus shrugged, "He might let you keep it."

Speaking into the comms, Tydeus said, "Found him. We're heading back to the shuttle now."

Tydeus looked back at Andro, "Let's go. The Inquisitors found the data cache. We're done here."

Turning on his heel, Tydeus strode back toward the shuttle - making sure to keep the initiate in the corner of his view at all times.

TAGS: Diocletian Mecetti Keldan Andro​