Kyriaki
Dark Phoenix
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Role: Force hunters.
Permissions: Blanket permission for anything made by Val here. Can use Firemane stuff because I own the company.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard, Tephrike, Force-Dead, Yuuzhan Vong, Infusionional Transmutation for the Removal of the Cursed Soul Shadow, Kreia.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Seekers of the Malevolent Shadow. Official name is Special Observation and Vigilance Units.
Affiliation: Republican Guard, Tephrike, Extraordinary Commission for Preternatural Control and Regulation.
Classification: Force Hunters
Description:
"I only know one truth: It's time for the Jedi end."
- General Aruunzeb. May have also been said by a wise Jedi many centuries ago.
"I am a soldier of the Republican Guard, the sword and shield of the innocent.
I seek out the shadow so that my people may live in the light.
I believe in Tephrike, united and free.
I reject the lies of the Malevolent Shadow, and embrace the holy struggle against its tyranny.
Through storm and fire, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with my comrades.
I will face the enemy without fear, and I will put my nation before my own life.
By my blade, justice will be done for the fallen, by my shield the truth will be guarded for those yet to come.
I swear this oath by my sacred Motherland."
- A Seeker's oath of allegiance
For over a thousand generations, the rights and lives of the common people have been trampled on by theocratic sorcerers. Those who wield the Force possess unimaginable power to destroy and oppress. All too often the common people are caught in the middle of a holy war between rivalling Force cults that brings nought but devastation to their doorsteps. The Force itself is a malevolent entity, using sentient beings as pawns by granting a select few power they cannot control. Time and again, those who wield the Force misuse it and cause misery.
On Tephrike, a war-torn planet brought to ruin by the machinations of Force-Users, some of the common people have decided to fight back. The Republican Guard rallies all progressive, revolutionary forces that want to build a world free from the tyranny of Force-using elites. The struggle is an arduous one, but it is for the greater good. However, the Force is insidious. Not all of its wielders are as easily identified as Sith and Jedi warriors. Rebellions are built on hope, but if the cycle is to be broken they must be fought with cunning and viciousness. Force-using cults must be identified and crushed. Those born with the condition through no fault of their own who have not committed crimes must be isolated and taught to reject the malevolent curse and, ideally, cured of it. Force usage be controlled and contained - no matter the cost.
The Extraordinary Commission for the Preternatural Control and Regulation is responsible for fighting this shadow war against the Great Oppressor. The Seekers of the Malevolent Shadow are its martial arm, though they also work in cooperation with regular forces of the Republican Guard. They are organised into small detachments that can work together, but also operate independently or be assigned to more regular formations as a support force as needed. While separate from the Commission for the Preservation of the Revolution, the Seekers will sometimes operate in cooperation with the Republican Guard's secret police.
Theirs is a struggle fought in the shadows, but it is no less important than that of the noble partisan, even though no ballds will be composed about it. Each recruit is issued a copy of the Regulator's Guide to the Pernicious and Corruptive Entity Known as the Force with Special Reference to the Manifest Horrors Entailed'. Or just 'The Regulator's Guide' for short because Tephriki make everything so damn long. The book describes the Force as a parasitic hivemind that cultivates its prey by offering them powers, until they burn themselves up and their souls are consumed by the Force. The Force has a will, and it cannot be used safely without being enthralled by it. The idea that a few sorcerers can alter the shape of the world because it is 'the will of the Force' is abhorrent to them. One chapter in the book is, ironically, based on the teachings of the apostate Kreia...or rather fragments from a history work discovered over the centuries and expanded out.
There are no racial or gender barriers among the Seekers. Significantly, each and every Seeker is Force-Dead. Yuuzhan Vong have been recruited to its ranks in significant numbers, and they have shared the science that allows the Commission's scientists to turn agents completely void in the Force. Thus they are rendered deaf to its siren call, whispers and temptations. The procedure is risky which is why only volunteers are accepted. Only the most dedicated professionals who are completely committed to the Republican Guard's cause can shoulder the heavy burden. Togruta, Cathar, Mon Calamari, Twi'leks, Trandoshans and Zabrak, are well-represented among their ranks.
Unsurprisingly, many of the recruits are people who have experienced the crimes of the Disciples of the Vader and the Windian Jedi Order first-hand. Refugee camps are a common recruiting ground. A few of the Seekers used to be Force-Sensitive, but underwent treatment to 'free themselves from the Cursed Soul Shadow'. These are often among the most dedicated, embracing their new path with the zeal of the converted, though others are more cynical about it or try to show empathy to Force-Sensitives who aren't a direct threat while still carrying out their duties. All cadres are obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to the struggle for a free, Equalist Tephrike, and more particularly, to the Republican Guard.
A senior officer once likened the Seekers to a 'sort of military-religious order of sword-bearers', and though the unit is a secular organisation, the comparison is not altogether inaccurate. The Seekers fight and die for their faith in the liberation of the common folk from the chokehold of the Malevolent Shadow, making sacrifices with a fervour seen only in wars of religion and martyrdoms. The partisans are people of a special cut, and this applies in particular to the Seekers. Captured Seekers are routinely tortured and executed by Vaderites or Dominion Inquisitors. So they are issued cyanide capsules, and instructed to commit suicide if they are in imminent danger of being captured so as to prevent the enemy from gaining information on the Republican Guard, possibly through torture.
The results of all operations are diligently passed up the command chain to senior officers who, if necessary, punish lower ranking combatants and commanders for unsatisfactory performance and for breaches of the code of conduct. All Seeker cadres are made aware of these codes and the associated punishments. Basic training includes both military and political components. With regard to the latter, political component, Seekers are required to spend time reading and memorising Republican Guard literature and viewing Republican Guard films. The military component includes military exercises in physical fitness, infantry skills and small unit tactics, weapon usage, map reading, and the use of code words, but also more specialised skills related to intelligence gathering, sabotage, interrogation, investigative and detective work.
Composed of soldiers recruited from various branches of the Republican Guard and allied militias, the Seekers are charged with identifying, locating and incarcerating or eliminating Force-Users in rebel-controlled territory. By their very nature, they straddle the line between a special operations unit of the military and the police. Where needed, the Seekers can request support from regular rebel troops, militias and the security police. The Seekers form mobile squads to assist partisans by identifying and arresting Jedi, Sith and cultists, interrogating captives, educating the population and unmasking stay-behind organisations. They will also combat hostile Force-Users during such operations. They will take charge of an investigation when a settlement is believed to have fallen under cultist influence.
There is always the problem of Force-Sensitives potentially slipping through screening. But the Seekers are not averse to employing long-term strategems to lure them out and identify them, including observation, interviews and engineering situations where the Force-Sensitive will inadverently reveal themselves. Force use is, after all, often triggered by strong emotions. Moreover, certain squads of Seekers have access to Vornskr. These canine predators were introduced to Tephrike centuries ago. They are particularly useful because they can sense the Force, and regard Force-Sensitives as their favourite prey. Select Seekers are trained to tame these dangerous predators and serve as their handlers.
Seekers dispatched on missions to track down hidden Force-Sensitives tend to actually be quite thorough because accusing someone of being a closeted Force-Sensitive is a very grave accusation. This has, ironically, led to them being employed on assignments to put down demagogures and violent mobs who wrongly accuse others of being 'witches' or secretly practicing Force worship. They possess powers of arrest to detain renegade Force-Users, cultists and those suspected of aiding them. Officially, while the Seekers are supposed to protect the common people from the Force-Users' vile sorcery, they must also protect Force-Sensitives who have committed no crime and have been afflicted with a curse they are not responsible for. However, not all Seekers make this distinction or care about legalistic niceties. Political commissars are assigned to the Seekers to maintain discipline and morale, as well as adherence to the rebel movement's rudimentary laws,
The Seekers are equally trained in combat, small unit tactics as well as investigative and detective work such as investigation, interrogation, observation, surveillance and data analysis. These qualities make them a well-rounded, flexible force despite their small size. They will also serve as muscle to secure Jedi or Sith relics or tomes so that they can be destroyed or locked away. To this day, the Seekers tell tales of a brave Rodian Seeker who, when cornered by Jedi, chose to be riddled with bullets and fall into a lava pit with an enchanted, cursed ring instead of let it fall into their hands. The Seekers use a volcano on one of the southron islands called the Mouth of the Cleansing Flame for this purpose.
Zhaelor Lah serves as overall leader of the Seekers, though he may also lead individual detachments in the field. He is a Yuuzhan Vong and borderline zealot who has become renowned for tracking down and locating Force-Sensitives in hiding, rooting out Jedi and Sith cults and destroying their tomes. His success rate is impressive, as is his body count. He has been responsible for shooting Force-Sensitives, even Padawans, on the grounds that they were too dangerous to be left alive. He is a figure of hatred for the Progressivists, who regard him as cruel and tyrannical and believe his brutality blackens the name of the Republican Guard.
But he is neither a mindless berserker nor insane, but cunning and crafty. Zhaelor was born in Vaderite territory and experienced the Vaderites' genocide against his people from an early age. He grew up in a world that despised him simply on account of his species, and believed he was worth less than dirt because he was an 'abomination'. He made himself a name as a fearless partisan leader and hunter, which makes him untouchable for those who consider his methods too extreme. For a while he was a judge on a people's tribunal. In that capacity he was involved in numerous trials where defendants were sentenced to death for alleged counter-revolutionary offences.
Zhaelor is a strong supporter of imposing mandatory Force-Deadness on Force-Sensitives. One cannot allow freedom when the Force is inherently corrupting, swaying even the purest. He fears the rebel movement is only doing damage control and not doing enough to hold back the tides of darkness. He does not discriminate on the basis of species, for speciesism is a tool used by evil magi to divide the people against themselves.
Tanaara Sol is a senior member and a Twi'lek female. Ironically, she used to be a Force-User herself. But she had the misfortune of being an alien Force-User in Vaderite territory. Her parents tried to her, but word got out. Her parents paid for this with their life. The Vaderites routinely killed alien Force-Users as they considered a perversion, so she was forced to flee. Captured by another Vaderite security force, she managed to hide her Force-Sensitivity, but was brought to a concentration camp, where a doctor subjected her to brutal medical experiments. She was sterilised without her knowledge. The abuse she and other prisoners endured eventually caused her to snap, unleashing her power in a destructive, chaotic fashion. She managed to escape during the chaos. But on the way her health began to decline due to the operation. Luckily she was admitted to an underground hospital secretly run by Republican Guard sympathisers. The partisans who took her in, not knowing of her taint. When it was discovered she got the 'choice' to be cured. Tanaara is less zealous but ultimately think it's a good move. She feels strong hatred for Sith and is suspicious of humans.
Andronikos Kynigos is a human and a Jedi defector from the Dominion. His surname means 'hunter'. He was prisoner during the Battle of Fortress Purity, where close to the end of the battle his superiors senselessly sacrificed Jedi child soldiers to buy themselves time. He was a Padawan during the battle. His captors initially used him for propaganda and as a recruiter among other POWs. They eventually allowed him to join their ranks after his conversion was deemed genuine - and he survived the procedure. This gives him all the more reason to show his devotion to the new cause. His Yuuzhan Vong tattoos are just the most striking visual manifestation of his new creed. He is very good with animals and serves as the vornskr handler within his unit. He treats his vornskr like an overgrown puppy, then sets it on Force-Users.
Unlike his compatriots, Hraldo was never a Force-User. The Rodian operative is a committed Seeker, but less fanatical than Zhaelor. He considers himself an actual investigator and uses psychology when questioning suspected cultists and Force-Users rather than brute force. He is very thorough in investigating alleged cultist activity and unidentified Force-Users, refusing to take drastic action solely on the basis of hearsay without evidence to back it up. He is known to punish Non-Force-Users for 'excesses'.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Veteran
Equipment: This is a list of what's available overall, rather than something every single soldier would carry into battle all at once.
Armour:
- Blast Vest, Kinetic Armour, basic helmet, gas mask/rebreather OR Clone Trooper Armour. In either case they wear this with Camofibre for camouflage.
- Stouker Concussion Rifle
- Dart Rifle (variable chemical payload)
- Outland Rifle (with optional scope)
- KIIR-25 'Thunderlance' Vibroharpoon Gun. Used by specialist as the weapon needs to be imported and thus is not commonly available.
- Scatter Gun
- Chitin Carbine
- Mk II Boltgun. Used by specialist as the weapon needs to be imported and thus is not commonly available.
- BR-4 "Baleful Bantha" Blaster Rifle
- Verpine Shatter Rifle, for sharpshooter/sniper
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
- ATA Pulse-Wave Blaster
- Hard-Sound Gun
- SH-9 Slugthrower Pistol
- Ripper
- Verpine Shattergun
- FWG-5 Flechette Smart Pistol
- FC-1 Flechette Launcher
- Imperial Heavy Repeater. Used by machine gunner.
- Model MGL-1. Used by grenadier. Usually mounted on another rifle as an under-barrel grenade launcher.
- Multi-Weapon
- Talon Vibrodagger
- Razor Bugs
- Tsaisi. Limited to officers and select members.
War Beasts:
Explosives and Traps:
Combat Function: Without exception, all Seekers are Force-Dead. As a result, Force-Users cannot sense their presence, read their minds, or mentally manipulate. Moreover, they cannot be affected by most direct Force attacks. The mission revolves around identifying and eliminating hostile Force-Users. To that end they employ small unit tactics, intelligence gathering, ambushes, traps and anti-Force-User equipment. As a rule, the Seekers will not engage a Jedi, Sith or another hostile Force-User on their lonesome, but seek to attack them from multiple angles, employing feints, traps, specialised gear and the element of surprise wherever possible. It helps that Force-Users cannot use their preternatural powers to anticipate the actions of the Force-Dead.
Certain Seeker detachments have access to Vornskr. These dangerous, noctural predactors are very helpful for their mission because they can sense the Force, and regard Force-Sensitives as their favourite prey. Select Seekers are trained to tame these dangerous predators and serve as their handlers. The Seekers use Vornskr for tracking, and hunting as well as to serve as guard animals for camps and sensitive locations.
The Seekers will also serve as muscle to secure Jedi or Sith relics or tomes so that they can be destroyed or locked away. However, they lack integrated heavy support on their own, which means they do not perform well as frontline troops leading a charge. They work best on the hunt for a single individual or small group of individuals, not facing off against a whole legion.
Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): N/A.
Strengths:
- Force-Dead Witchfinders. The Seekers are all Force-Dead, making them completely void within the Force. As a result, they cannot be sensed or mentally manipulated through the Force and are immune to most direct Force attacks.
- Courage, flexibility and skill are common traits of the Seekers. Trained in combat, small unit tactics as well as investigative and detective work, they are a well-rounded, flexible force.
- The Seekers are Force-Dead and thus completely void within the Force. While a great benefit, it does have the normal associated downfalls in that they cannot be aided by the Force either. For example, Force Healing or Force Valour will not work on them. Additionally they are not immune to Force Lightning or its variations, and can be indirectly affected by the Force.
- Specialists, not assault troops. Lacking heavy integrated support on their own, they are more suited for specialised tasks than taking the leading role in pitched front-line combat. On the whole, they are best deployed hunting for a single individual, a small group thereof or accomplishing a specific tactical objective, not facing off against entire legions.
Rebellions, it is said, are built on hope. But they require more than passion and fervour. This may be less uplifting than a tale about plucky rebels defeating arch-villains in thrilling duels. When the outbreak of the Gulag Virus sent Tephrike spiralling into chaos, the Jedi assumed a protective stance to try and restore order. But as so often, good intentions were left astray. Faced with a world gone mad, the Jedi seized control to wrest some order from the chaos.
What began as an emergency dictatorship to stem the tide soon evolved into a repressive theocracy called the Dominion of Light. Schismatic human supremacist Jedi created a fanatical cult called the Disciples of the Vader, which rose in revolt against the Dominion. Both were opposed by the Republican Guard, a vanguard revolutionary movement that fought for the rights of Non-Force-Users and an end to the tyranny of the Force...by any means necessary. To suppress cultist activities, and identify, apprehend and eliminate hostile Force-Users, they created the Special Commission on Force Matters.
It soon evolved into the Extraordinary Commission for Preternatural Regulation and Control, a full-fledged secret police. The impetus for this development was the assassination of Zoho Koquon, the first leader of the Republican Guard, by a Force-User. His death had a radicalising effect on the revolutionary movement. All Force-Users were suspect. Those who had not committed crimes yet needed to be isolated and cured of their taint.
The Seekers of the Malevolent Shadow evolved into the martial arm of the Extraordinary Commission. In the early days the rebels were getting refugees from all over. Thousands upon thousands were fleeing the war, hunger, natural disasters and banditry. The rebels did what they could to provide shelter in improvised refugee camps, though they were plagued by disease and malnutrition. However, the new arrivals also needed to be vetted, for the rebels feared contamination by unidentified Force-Users as well as infiltrators. The Seekers started as an improvised solution, being composed of agents of the Extraordinary Commission as well drafted militia, partisans and refugees who helped weed out Force-Users from amongst the crowds and then dealt with them if they became violent. It was a grim task. No ballads would ever be composed of it. But a necessary.
After Koquon's assassination they provided much-needed muscle for the investigations, carrying out round-ups, interrogating suspects and guarding the black sites. And as General Sinya Kairn led the Republican Guard on a crusade to avenge the martyr's death and free more of the common people, they began to go on the offensive. Militants found eager converts among the survivors of Dominion or Vaderite massacres. Revolutionary terror, in their view, was a justified response to the cruelty the Force-Using tyrants had subjected them to. It was she who made an alliance with the Yuuzhan Vong, who were facing a brutal genocide at the hands of the Vaderites, and authorised the programe of turning select non-Yuuzhan Vong soldiers Force-Dead. Thus the modern Seekers were born.
An investigation by the Seekers discovered that a prominent Republican Guard general had secretly set up a unit of sanctiond Force-Users, who were kept on a leash and used as special operatives to combat Jedi and Sith. Inevitably, some managed to defect, though several were probably loyal. But in this political climate, this was unacceptable. The Force was a malevolent, eldritch entity. Any attempt to utilise it was inherently corrupting. Rumours abounded that he was using them as his personal hit squad. The Seekers laid siege to their base, and stormed it after a gruelling battle. The casualties were high, but the message had been heard loud and clear.
But many innocents fell victim to the Seekers. When the partisans managed to seize a village or a small town, special squads of the Commission would root out cultist activity. Residents would be encouraged to inform on those practicing 'superstitions'. The cheapest and surest way of waging the war against the witch and the demon was by execution. Its victims included 'cultist hostages' who had been rounded up and executed in retaliation for Vaderite or Dominion attacks. One such massacre took place in 'retaliation' for the Vaderite 'sterilisation' of the Blue Bridge Commune, which had been rendered uninhabitable. Wholesale arrests and use of torture became a staple of the system. The Seekers were judge, jury and executioner.
Seeker detachments were drawn into the Battle of Synorostad, after purging Sith cultists real and imagined in the hinterland. Here, the troops of General Kairn made their stand against the Vaderites. The first Vaderite assault was repelled. Divided into small combat groups, the Republican Guard partisans used hunter-killer fire teams of snipers and machine gunners to decimate Vaderite infantry, while anti-tank gunners engaged armoured vehicles. Many partisans were irregulars and militia serving under their commander, which complicated effective battlefield coordination. The partisans only had limited heavy weapons, including a handful of old tanks.
The Seekers carried out surgical strikes against individual Sith to undermine the enemy's morale. Select Sith were ambushed by snipers and dosed with poisoned darts laced with a serum that would temporarily weaken their powers. Their corpses were hung from trees or fed to Vornskr. Others were taken captive, dosed with a serum that would mutilate their Force connection and then crippled and drowned...or implanted with improvised explosives and left to be found by Vaderite soldiers that would inevitably be deployed to rescue a Sith. But even so, the battle could only end in defeat. The Vaderites learned their lesson. Leveraging the heavy firepower of their artillery, they would proceed block by block. Their methods were simple: level a city block with artillery and air strikes, send in veteran infantry and snipers, and kill anyone they encountered, whether civilian or partisan.
Among other things, they utilised white phosphorus rounds, thermobaric bombs and nerve gas - weapons the partisans had no ability to stop. Seeker bodyguards died alongside Kairn when she was slain by the Lord Commander of the Sith Chevaliers while leading a diversionary breakout. He himself was later taken out by a partisan suicide squad. Partisans fell back, breaking up into small groups and moving into a sniper-based defence while carrying out a tactical retreat at the cost of much of their equipment.
Following the death of General Kairn in the battle, the Republican Guard moderates its policies somewhat. The Seekers' methods were professionalised. The increasingly hysterical religious mania was substituted by a 'medicalised' discourse that treated Force-Sensitivity as a disease. Thus the Seekers evolved into a cross between cultwatch and special purpose unit. Moreover, they along with the Extraordinary Commission were split off from the Republican Guard's secret police to alleviate concerns about abuse of power.
But the Seekers continued to exist as their watchful, punitive arm. When the Netherworld Crisis sent Tephrike spiralling into chaos, the Republican Guard seized its chance to strike against the empires of the weakened Force-Users. The Seekers benefited greatly from the fact that the Force had been thrown out of balance, enabling them to capture or eliminate several Jedi and Sith.
However, the Netherworld War soon turned into a meatgrinder, for the expected general uprising did not materialise in the Dominion. As Republican Guard forces were decimated, even Seekers were forced into the hellish battle of Fortress Purity. Faced with Dominion numerical and material superiority, many perished during the battle or the long, gruelling retreat. Moreover, the raptures had led to mass panic, leading to an angry mob storming the Amidala Asylum, where Force-Sensitives considered redeemable had been detained. Some of the inmates escaped, forcing the Seekers to hunt them down while trying to clean up the mess created by angry mobs. They also fought against millenarian cults that had arisen as a result of the calamity and were in some cases influenced by Nether demons.
In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Fortress Purity, the Republican Guard went on the offensive. Now it had the support of its unwieldy ally Firemane. However, the rebels rightly distrusted the foreign capitalists, fearing that the star people intended to vassalise them...and were not only invested in them attaining victory. It didn't help that Firemane had Force-Users in prominent positions. The Extraordinary Commission was given the duty of monitoring contacts between rebel forces and the star people.
As the partisans achieved initial successes, the Seekers were called in to screen the liberated - or conquered - population. The vanguard revolutionary movement faced the problem that its soldiers were moving into territory that had been under the thumb of the Dominion for a long time. Moreover, many of these areas had been badly damaged by the fighting. When the partisans occupied the district of Laokita, they proclaimed that they had come as liberators.
Indeed, Dominion officials who had committed abuses were punished, political prisoners were freed. The peasants were promised land reform and the abolition of the collective farms the Dominion had used to hold them in bondage. However, the Republican Guard also carried out harsh requisitions to provide its partisans with food, even though this meant civilians would suffer. They also burnt and looted Ashlanite temples, not recognising that while the corrupt Cenobites were unpopular, several of the clerics were honest shepherds of their flock. Some more pragmatic Republican Guard officers and Popular Front cadres believed it would be more advisable to compromise and monitor the Ashlanite believers instead of engaging in all-out repression. Distasteful, but they believed they could separate the more moderate ones from the hardliners, thereby making the peasantry more amenable. They also argued that while young Force-Sensitives needed to be weaned off from the Force, they should be allowed contact with their families under monitoring.
But hardliners in the army disagreed. A zealous Seeker commander was convinced that the mysticism, and veneration was proof that the believers were part of a cult and conspiring against their liberators. Unrest among the peasantry and attacks on partisans were viewed as proof of a grand conspiracy steered by Jedi Shadows. In truth, there were no Jedi and the Dominion had not had the time to set up a sophisticated stay-behind cell system...because those who could have had been purged by the previous administration. So Force-Sensitive youngsters were deported, and the Seekers initiated a brutal purge to root out 'superstition and subversion' amongst the people.
No Jedi were ever found, but many people were cruelly murdered, or 'disappeared' and tortured. Seekers as well as regular partisan troops and militia committed extrajudicial killings, including killing prisoners taken on the battlefields, and were responsible for disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest, detentions, and extortion. The crackdwn triggered a rebellion against the rebel forces. It was put down after a brutal inquisition, but the uprising was fodder for Dominion propaganda and the surviving Ashlanite fled into the forests and mountains of the neutral zones, from where they continued the struggle.
Not all contemporary operations were this grisly and self-sabotaging though. On the Vortanstad front, a Seeker detachment led by a Rodiana agent called Hraldo conducted a careful, methodical investigation into the activities of Ashlanite preachers and Jedi who had gone underground after the fall of temple in the rebel-controlled southern zone. They were able to uncover a conspiracy to assassinate General Drakka Orada, a leading rebel commander. The Seekers thwarted the Jedi Shadows' attack and killed them. It helped that this Seeker unit had taken a comparatively benign attitude towards captured Padawans and low-level Ashlanite believers, instead of engaging in pure repression.
More recently, a Seeker detachment managed to root out a Sith cult proselytising in the southern neutral zone by spreading rumours of a Sith holy site. The partisans had found a cave which looked like a Vader helmet somewhat naturally. Disgusted by the sight, many wanted to just dynamite it and move on, but one of the Seekers had an idea. She spread around information about this place being mysterious and through agents allowed a famous Vaderite archaeologist called Tephrike Jansen to find word of it. He of course believed it was a man made cave with links to the fabled 'Castle of the Vader'. So he managed to persuade several Sith and Vaderite sympathisers to head there. The members of the expedition expected to find relics that would allow them to awe their natives, and sway them to their cause. The group arrived and explored the caves, not realising the Republican Guard had wired up the cave with dynamite. They blew it, killing or trapping everyone inside. However fortune smiled on Jansen and he was not there at the time. The Vaderites dramatised the incident into a story where he was fighting off slavering Vong and Gungans.
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