Return to the Galaxy

[Reyven Samoth]

Dromund Kaas...

It had been ages since he'd been on the surface of the planet. Nearly a millennium. For too long had he watched pretenders ruin what he had strived to create. The galaxy scoured by sickness. The galaxy returning to its base levels. It was recovering, but it needed guidance. He needed to make sure the Sith were on the proper path once more. As the Fury-class shuttle touched down on the lush, storm-cloaked world, he was already on the loading ramp and making his way down to the world.

Humid air hung about the master as he looked about. He had intentionally set down near Kaas City. He had to test these would-be Sith, their soldiers. See how well they performed. As he approached the gates to the city, he spotted a gathering of guards and made his way over to them, figure hidden beneath his crimson cloak. His mask hid any indication of emotion as he watched them for a while before they noticed his presence. One guard turned to regard him for a moment, unsure of what to make of him given that he did indeed look like a Sith, but not any Sith that they'd seen before. "Is there anything I can do for you? Are you lost?"

Reyven simply shrugged and without making any noticeable movements lashed out through the Force on their minds, digging into their deepest fears and unleashing them on the unsuspecting troopers. Their allies became a manifestation of that fear by his guidance and they turned blasters on one another, firing until only one remained, armor scored and bleeding, but definitely alive. Reyven released the hold on his mind and stepped to the survivor. "What's your name, soldier?" The man seemed visibly shaken, but managed out a name. "J-Jorus, Jorus Temril, sir."

Reyven nodded at him. "Tell your commander that the Sith's troops need more mental conditioning to resist such attacks. As you have first-hand experience now, I expect you to have some command over this development. Tell your commander that you deserve a promotion to accomodate that command, and that if he has any problems with my decision, he can come speak with Darth Sanctis." With a sharp turn he left the man and made his way into the city proper.

Time changed all things, it seemed.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Jorus Temril's report filtered up the chain of command quickly enough. The Emperor's laws were clear, but from time to time an established Sith would enter the Empire without knowledge of, or regard for, those laws.

Basically, no pointless massacres.

To that end, he had employed a Master of some experience, a peer, strong enough to impose his will on the rank and file. Strong enough to curb their excesses and demonstrate the consequences of their actions. That was Ashin Varanin's job, a job she had done before in another Sith Empire, and she was good at it. Even when the perpetrator was a man whose file went back almost a millennium.

Even when the perpetrator was one of the few alive who could actually challenge her for depth of experience.

As it happened, she was already on Dromund Kaas on an unrelated matter. The world had few cities of any significance, and -- by airspeeder -- she was at the city in question within the hour. From there, it was a simple matter of Force tracking -- a skill she had learned from a student of the Keedael. The biggest game on the planet was, at this particular moment, Reyven Samoth, and she wasted little time in walking the streets, armor clanking around her, until she found her fellow Master of the Dark Side.

"You're new in town, Lord Sanctis," she said, facing down the masked man, "and the Emperor offers clemency to new arrivals. A free pass, if you will. A free mistake. Yours was to assume your dominance over his soldiers. Even the Sith who actually have the right to give orders to those units -- even they are accountable to the Emperor's laws. Massacres like the one you perpetrated are utterly illegal, even when performed by Sith.

"My name is Lady Ashin Cardé Varanin; I doubt you've heard of me. All you need to know is that I'm a peer of the Emperor, and I'm here to enforce his laws. If you intend to make a future for yourself in the Sith Empire, you will need to abide by those laws."

 

[Reyven Samoth]

He took it all in with a mix of rage and amusement. "How kind of him to offer me a 'pass'. I see why it is now that this empire is so pathetic at the moment. Are you here to tell me that it's illegal to sharpen my sword as well? Are these even Sith anymore? Or just Force users who no longer agree with the Jedi entirely. That was no massacre. If I wanted to perform a massacre this city would be devoid of life. What occured here was a test, and the empire failed. Troops should be prepared to fight Force users. They are devoid of mental barriers of any kind. It's a disgrace."

He folded his arms across his chest as he stared at her through his mask. "And as far as my dominance goes, I'm fairly certain that I've showed what level of dominance I have over his soldiers. Maybe if they were better prepared that wouldn't have been the case, no? Laws such as these in a true Sith empire would not be laws. These would be called heresy. Culling weak from strong is a basic tennant of the Sith. Grooming these soldiers to be a proper tool, and make no mistake, that is all that those without the Force are, requires sharpening them to a fine edge. Removing the imperfections."

He couldn't help but chuckle at her. "Though you need not worry. I'm not here to cut my way through their ranks. I... left something here ages ago. I am here to reclaim it. Honestly you should thank me for that, as well. I doubt any weak-minded individual on this planet could handle its presence."

His arms fell and he stepped forward, heading towards the Citadel. It was a good marker for where he was heading, though not the intended destination.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

(I'm sorry Rey, i want to post in this but im leaving tomorrow for a 2 day trip so ide hold up the thread)

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin stepped into Reyven's path.

"No."

 

[Reyven Samoth]

(I guess we're waiting on Mori now, then. I'm cool with that.)

 

[Ashin Varanin]

(I think he meant we could go on without him and was apologizing for not being around to jump in and greet you personally. Your call.)

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

(What Ashin Said. Go on without me and ill jump in on Saturday night. Or keep going until you need me and then ill be there Sat.)

 

[Reyven Samoth]

(Oh... well it was phrased badly. ...Jerk >.> Anyway, to continue!)

A brow raised under his mask. "Miss, I do believe you are confused. Nowhere in all of those words that I spoke was a request for permission of some sorts. If you would prefer that there be a massacre, however, you can continue to block me. However, as you said, I've been given a pass. So provoking me would be an error on your part and I'd be entirely justified in killing you, am I correct?" He extended his right hand out and the hilt of his saberstaff shot to it. It remained inactive at the moment.

"I suggest you consider your next actions very carefully, as I haven't fed since those soldiers and they aren't very filling."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"You are not, in fact, correct. Perhaps you weren't paying attention when I told you that there are laws here -- the Emperor's laws -- and I am the arbiter of that law." Without haste, Ashin unclipped the simple lightsabre that clacked against her armored hip. "And when I tell you that you won't go into a city owned by the Emperor to obtain unspecified but important items -- when I tell you that you don't have the right to impose your will on Dromund Kaas -- when I tell you that you won't put that city at risk with your presence, hungry as you are -- you will listen to me, or you will face the consequences."

 

[Reyven Samoth]

"And I told you that I am not bound by heretical codes of conduct. This is a Sith world, not a planet for confused Jedi. And this city is at no risk at the moment other than to its own weakness. I am in perfect control of my own conditions." Currents of electricity crackled along his frame as he stared her down. "And the item in question is my own, in a structure of my own creation. From an age of true Sith." His free hand waved across him from right to left, pulling with it a wave of Force energy in her direction with enough force that it would feel as though a speeder hit her, the aim to send her out of his path.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

A power fully as great as Reyven's anchored Ashin's armored frame to the street, strengthening the joints and tissues of her body to deal with the efflux of the telekinetic force that broke over her like a wave. Permacrete cracked beneath her feet, but she stood firm.

"Thus far you've made your assumptions based on other assumptions, and on the scantest of evidence." The ground rumbled, and gigantic boulders rolled up through the street to form an imperfect seat -- a rock throne. Ashin sat upon it, arms resting on the jutting crests of those rocks. "As for what you consider a true Sith...well, that debate is as old as the hills, Sanctis, and that accusation has never been anything more than an excuse. Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh threw the same words in each other's faces before the assembled Lords of their age -- but you're not playing to a crowd today. You're in an interview, and it's not going well."

 

[Reyven Samoth]

"I think I've communed enough with the dead to have a good enough grasp on what a true Sith is. I think I've seen how vast our empire was compared to this one to understand that our methods were indeed superior. I've nothing to prove to anyone here, and you seem to be under the illusion that that is the case. I have come to recover my items, and if you would like to try and steal from me, then you are foolish indeed." He stretched out his grasp in the Force to the energies surrounding her and the 'chair', and with no warning, he caused the chair to explode.

"I cannot abide foolish behavior."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

But ‘without warning’ had only limited application to a Master. From the first day, a dozen wars ago, her training had focused on instinct -- precognition, but not the sort that clouded attention with sensory images. Ashin half-rose from her chair, hunching forward so that the armor of her neck provided cover for her skull. As before, the Force changed her armored form into a bastion.


Rock chunks battered her from shoulder to foot with bruising force, rattling and crashing against the alchemical plate armor she wore. The angled patterns of lacquer scored and chipped.


She rose to her full height.


“Better, but we expect more from a man as presumptuous as you. For the amount of power you just expended, that was spectacularly ineffective.” She walked towards him, thirty pounds of alchemical plate rustling softly around her. “Oh, I suppose you could compare it to my throne...but my simple suggestion of authority convinced you to act like a child, rather than the nine-hundred-and-forty-year-old Master you are. Yes, I’ve read your file, Sanctis. In several places. You’ve made a name for yourself.


“Earn it.”

 

[Reyven Samoth]

"I'm surprised you would even deem that an 'amount of power'. Hardly registers, really. Besides, it all gets recycled in the end. All things do. I'm not one for poetic imagery, but I imagine there's a tree or some such nonsense growing on the remains of my corpse somewhere. I used to use armor similar to that. It inhibits movement too much for my tastes. Acts as a conduit, too." A single finger pointed towards her, an arc of electricity leaping from it towards her form. It wasn't visually impressive, but that was the point. It carried with it the power of normal Force lightning, very focused.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"Thank you for that lesson in elementary metallurgy. Having learned from the three greatest alchemist lords of the Unknown Regions..." She shrugged and raised her gauntleted left hand. His bolt struck her palm, and she opened the hunger within her. The energy of the blast seared her palm within the gauntlet, but she devoured the vast majority of the voltage before it reached her bones. She fed off the pain, too, recycling the efflux of it, the peculiar energies given off by anyone in pain.

Within her, there was silence vast enough to devour the lightning entirely and feed that insatiable hunger. But she could discipline herself, even against that hunger. To give into it would let her devour cities, worlds, in the manner of ancient Lords, but she found the strength of discipline much more broadly applicable.

With a sigh and a lopsided smile, a reflection of the taste of the absorbed strength, she nodded. "Finally, something I can respect. Economical, direct. Perhaps your interview isn't a total loss. Again."

 

[Reyven Samoth]

He sighed. "Well, perhaps I should change tactics, then. You seem fond of these tools, let's see how well you maintain that love when you're shown their true effectiveness. What you gain when you don't coddle." He closed his eyes, opening himself to the senses that the Force provided, his 'sight' taking in all the citizens and guards nearby. Energy, not simply lightning, but the Darkside manifest in crackling bolts of ebony electricity, traced his figure as he dug into himself and drew from the planet's own twisted reserves of the Darkside. This was an indeed a planet of the Sith, and he used that to his advantage.

The black bolts shot from his arms, down to the ground, and jumped in random directions about him as a miasma of darkness began to form at his feet, building and intensifying his strength as he meditated. As the darkness grew, he felt out the tendrils of the Force, the connections between all things. The Jedi referred to it as the 'living' Force, but it was simply another fact of existence, something to be bent to his will.

He reached out along those threads, channeling the darkness into every living person, be they guard, drifter, homemaker, it didn't matter. They were all useful to some end. He filled their hearts with dread, weakened their resolves, showed them the horrors of Chaos. He pushed them to the brink of insanity, but kept it from going beyond that. They were no use if they broke down entirely. He gave them a source of this feeling of dread. A monster they needed to destroy to return their sense of peace, what they had anyway. That target was the woman standing in his way, and the mob was all too happy to oblige in the subconscious request, gathering whatever they could and taking to the street to head in her direction.

"This is what happens when your most impressive feat so far was a throne of lies. Your move."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. This isn't even close to being a fight, you senile imitator -- neither qualitatively nor quantitatively."

A low hum built in her base of her gut as she stretched out to the deeper currents of the Force, the currents that helped define this world and its patterns of life. Viewed from that perspective, Reyven's alteration of the population's mood was a sharp asymmetry, atonal, incongruent. And as she had done so many times before, to gigantic slums, academies full of Sith and fleets full of Masters, she smoothed those currents back into their proper place. She stole the energy from the mob's fear, left its people listless, fed off a portion of the energy he had put into it-

And raised her hand, gauntlet clutching the sigil of the Sith Emperor. Their common sense reasserted itself, and they wandered away, numb with fear but utterly unwilling to move on it.

Ashin's hand descended, clipping the sigil to the hip of her armor, and she approached Reyven once more.

"You come here, onto our land, to kill and subvert our people -- and you do it with such presumption. You have no such rights on this world unless the Emperor allows it. So far, you're only a criminal who says things like 'throne of lies' because they sound pretty, not because of any intrinsic meaning. I remain unimpressed, and -- until His Majesty arrives -- mine is the voice that matters here. I've explained my authority over Sith who break the Emperor's laws in his own territory -- laws such as those that forbid Sith from treating the people as you do. You are perilously close to becoming an enemy of the Empire. Do your best to hurt me if you can, but involve the people of this city again, in any way, and I will kill you."

 

[Reyven Samoth]

"Oh please, you don't even want to hurt these tools. You cannot kill me. You are no Sith. You are weak and hide in a shell. But if that's what it takes to get a real response from you..." He turned his head to one of the dumbfounded citizens and, manipulating his control once more, forced the man to punch himself in the face, just once. "Involved again. Please, show me your awe-inspiring ability to kill. Do something other than ramble on and react to life. I do so hate passive-aggressive people."

 

[Soeht]

A crack of lightning struck a nearby tower. The deafening thunder that quickly followed drowned out the ambient noise of the city. A blinding flash washed over the fight for but a split second. Due to the frequent lightning strikes all throughout Dromund Kaas, this should have hardly disturbed them.

Yet, this moment was enough for Darth Apparatus to appear several meters from the dueling duo. He stood on a path raised just a meter from the ground yet with a solid, permacrete base. His right hand extended beyond his midnight black cloak and gripped the railing of the walkway. He peered through his crimson mask and looked down on Ashin and Darth Sanctis.

Neither of the two of them should have been able to visually recognize Darth Apparatus. Darth Sanctic had apparently been out of touch for years. For Ashin, Darth Apparatus was absent when Darth Moridin ascended to the title of Sith Emperor.

"T͝hi͡s i҉s p̴oin͏tle̴s͘s," claimed the Darth. His very voice and presence would have felt disgustingly malevolent - as if a deep seated loathing enveloped his heart.

"I w͠ill ̧k̷i͞ll̀ ̡ýo͝u ̕b́o͏t̸ḩ ͟i̵f̨ ͏tḩi̸ś ̶co͡n̴tìnu̧e͜s̵," he threatened.