Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Public Refrain | Post-Korriban Annihilation Thread

Dreshdae

Deciding whether their assault on Korriban was a victory or not came down to the individual. On paper, their objectives were more or less achieved. The forces of the Sith empire were hunted down, many imprisoned, others killed, and the places of knowledge on the accursed world purged of anything they might have had to offer. Korriban, for better or worse, had lost its teeth for the time being. That being said, the Maw and its sycophants had made off with much of that supposedly purged knowledge, and as far as the Crusade and its allies knew, succeeded in whatever it was they had come to the Sith homeworld for.

The ritual the Ashlans uncovered had been attempted, though the results were far less than desired. Rather than cleansing the dark heart of the Sith academy, the ritual had failed entirely in the hands of Cedric. The power the Ashlan priests had gathered sputtered out uselessly within his very flesh, its cleansing energies muted into nothingness just as they reached their climax. Serving as the projector for for ritual, Cedric suffered a clean blow straight through his right leg, severing the limb and ruining the ritual before it could come to its inclusion. Momentarily thwarted, those within the chamber had retreated briefly, and in that time the Maw too absconded from the world.

On paper they succeeded. In reality, they had only bloodied Korriban's nose rather than killing it in its entirety.

The Ashlan fleet and elements of its allies' own lingered quietly over the world. Many had already returned to their home nations, though a few remained to scavenge what they could from the Sith homeworld. A meager occupation force remained on the planet, though their purpose was less to govern the populace so much as to protect the archaeological dig sites and the various government teams combing through the population centers for any knowledge that might prove useful. There were talks of the possible demolition of the Sith academy and the valley of the dark lord as a whole, but guerilla remnants of the Sith army made such operations impossible.

The whole endeavor was proving to be too expensive to maintain much longer. For the Crusade's part, they would need to return to their own realms to consolidate power. Soon, Korriban would be abandoned once again.

Cedric looked over the remains of the Sith Academy from his temporary quarters in Dreshdae. He sat alone atop the balcony, a glass of Balmoraan Bluesky quickly warming in his hand as he flexed the toes of his cybernetic limb for what must have been the hundredth time in the last hour. The Maw warrior that had removed his leg had the courtesy to do so just below the knee, and a robotic replacement was relatively easy to come by given the relatively clean cut. It would take some time to grow used to the change - perhaps he never would. Either way, it would serve as a constant reminder of the ritual's failure, and of Darth Solipsis Darth Solipsis slipping through his fingers once again.

For a moment, a quiet fury arose within the exile with a heat matching that of the sun beating down upon his shaven head, though it quickly melted away to apathy. There was little point in getting upset about something he couldn't change.

Auteme Auteme
 
if they're watching anyways
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Cedric Grayson Cedric Grayson

Auteme was not a soldier, no matter how many battles she'd 'fought' in. This sort of thing was exhausting. She'd head back to Coruscant, spend days resting; mulling everything over, telling herself it'd be alright.

This time she stayed. This most evil of places, surrounded by militants, but she stayed. She didn't rest. She paced, she checked the news, she stayed up late into the night. An invisible momentum gripped her, forcing her to push forward. Her mind couldn't stop working, even in the brief bouts of fitful sleep she had. There were ghosts in this place. They didn't ignore her.

On the day she decided to leave, she finally decided to speak to Cedric. For some reason she'd avoided him -- perhaps it was the flash of terror she'd felt when he'd begun his ritual, or some small, lingering distrust. Yet when she went to him on the balcony it faded.


"I could get you an organic leg, you know. Tissue replicators are becoming cheaper in the Core. And I assume it's better long-term than a cybernetic." She joined him, finding herself a seat.
 
Auteme's voice drew him from his private ruminations. Brief confusion played across his features for a moment, though it was quickly replaced with a slight smile. "I may take you up on that. My father lost his arm during the war with the One Sith. I never got used to the cybernetic - couldn't stop staring at it anytime he took off his jacket. I think that bothered him." Blue eyes darted down to the robotic foot once again. The distinct inhumanness of it wasn't as disturbing as it had been when he was a boy, but it still felt wrong. Unnatural.

"I don't think we won this," he added, a bit quieter now. He found himself reaching reflexively toward his belt - more particularly to the place he used stow his cigarillo. The habit had been dropped for the sake of his lungs years ago, but the instinct was still there. Probably always would be. "I can't keep the Crusade here much longer. We don't have the resources for a long-term occupation. The more we spend here, the less was have to rebuild the rest of the Wyl sector."

The exile paused for a moment, taking a short sip from his glass as his gaze drifted back toward Auteme Auteme . "Haven't seen you since the assault on the academy. How you holding up?" Not that he'd expected her company beyond the expectations of their unspoken alliance against the Sith, but he felt that they'd established the basis of a rapport. That she'd not left, but remained in Dreshdae over the past few day told him that she'd opted to avoid his company. Or perhaps she'd just been busy.

Cedric swallowed the thought with the rest of his drink.

Auteme Auteme
 
if they're watching anyways
"I'm alright," she said. "And... I don't think we won this, either."

Admittedly, military 'victories' would never sit right with her. They'd attacked Korriban before. Bloodying the Sith, even shattering their empire; it wasn't enough. Blood ran thicker than water, and run it did.

Still, she'd be lying if she said her mind was stuck on that.


"Back- back in the fighting, right before you engaged Solipsis, you... you muttered something under your breath. A name.


"Kaigann."

Pain was etched across her face, but her tone stayed dead calm.


"Did you mean Kaigann Fossk?"

No matter how much she wished it weren't the case, she couldn't deny what she saw.
 

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