Private Several moves ahead

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: The Redoubt
OBJECTIVE: Take a few pieces off of the board
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Her

Deep in the underground of the Tomb of C; the effective headquarters of not just Section C, but also the main stronghold of the Lord of Hunger himself, the silence within the private level of the monstrous abomination within the force was strangely pressuring. The rooms upholstered in luxurious granite and electrum shimmered in the warm, yet dim light reflected upon the gold-colored surfaces and the deep black stone. There was narry a sound, with its occupant sitting silently in front of a small square table hewn out of and decorated with the same materials which made up the entire structure of his quarters. Slowly his right hand moved towards one of the luxuriously adorned and meticulously manufactured pieces upon the small square table, His fingers gently caressing the piece he had reached out to.

In Coruscant a archeologist and dealer in old artifacts would be found strangled in their own bed, no witnesses, no suspects

With His index finger and thumb, the man would move a piece across the table, sliding it over a couple of black and golden squares, knocking aside another piece in the process, a soft, nigh unnoticeable smirk appearing on the man's face.

In Theed, the capitol of Naboo, a former assistant to the office of the Senator of Naboo would be found lifeless in an alleyway, stabbed several times in the back, their credits and their datapad missing and pressumed to be stolen in a robbery gone wrong.

Again the man's fingers grabbed hold of a piece on the board, slowly moving it across several squares, followed by another and another piece.

A former Prison Warden in service of the Imperial Confederation had been found drowned in their own bathtub, no foul play has been suspected...

Another piece was being gently pressed forward across the board, slowly the board began to show a pattern, where a pair of white and silver pieces were being surrounded by an overwhelming number of black and gold pieces.

"To remove loose ends efficiently, there is no better method than to cut the threads that hold them."

"Arya, had you not been blind to your own apprentice's devious nature... you would've survived."​

 

[Her]

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Tags: The Lord of Hunger

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It is a strange thing to be attacked when you are used to being the one who did the attacking. Yet the inexplicable or unexplainable deaths associated to Vūm could not be ignored. What appeared as randomness to others associated to Her was revealed to be in accordance to a design. These people and the circumstances surrounding their tragedy appeared to be random. There was nothing to link them together, at least, on the surface. It was what was underneath the layers of secrecy, conspiracy and sedition where Her ought to dig to discover who was the one attacking her assets.

That digging took her to the furthest reaches of the known Galaxy.

To the Redoubt.

Above the temple a screech pitched through the storm clouds which raged overhead as a solitary Gala Fighter broke through the clouds on a trajectory towards the site below. As Her flew above it and in rotation to survey the landscape below for threats only for something strange happened to the ship. The control stick in her hand begun to move on it's own. Her released her grip and raised her hand to the control panel so that she could pull up a diagnostic subroutine to find out what was happening only to discover that she had been locked out. Someone else was in control of the fighter now.

Suddenly helpless Her could only watch as the flight rotation she had been performing previously changed course as whoever or whatever it was that was now in control of the Gala took her on an intercept course with the strange and awful structure down below. The holographic interface in front of Her vanished and took with it the short preliminary scans of the temple itself. Her hadn't learned much about the building in the minutes before she lost control of the ship and now whoever was in control was taking into the Tomb of C itself. It did, at least, confirm one thing, however.

Umbrella were present here. After all this one of their products. One their ships. Only they could take control of the fighter like this and they weren't the types to greet you cordially when you've entered one of their many black sites. But there was something else here. Someone else. Her had first felt this sinister presence in the Force during the midst of the Sartinaynian Crisis. There were other times as well which always left an impression that was hard to ignore. They had been working together for three years making Umbrella rich as the company moved in to soak up the profits and commercial opportunities that arises in the wake of the destruction wrought by a conspiracy that had shaped the Outer Rim Territories since the turn-of-the-century.

Her conspiracy.

With him.

The Lord of Hunger.

Taking a deep breath Her closed their eyes and slumped their head forward to meditate in the moment. It was a Jedi technique to calm the nerves and soothe the mind in a moment of crisis or emotion. With the Gala no longer under her control, Her surrendered to the moment and allowed the fighter to be flown towards it's landing zone. As it pertained to the man in question Her knew that there had always been murder in her heart for him. Had the time come to end L.O.H?

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[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: The Redoubt
OBJECTIVE: Take a few pieces off of the board
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Her

​

The Tomb of C was a masterpiece in brutalist art and design, while many mistook it for something much older, more ancient due to its design being very reminiscent to that of the Sith temples of yore, the location had managed to protect it, the details had managed to hide it from people to discover that indeed... there was some sith inspiration to the design, but as it also held iconography completely uncustomary for the sith, this was something different. Surrounding the massive central structure, were four pairs of massive, weathered statues, each depicting a different man...or perhaps the same man?

Her would be able to realize what and who they depicted, they represented the different faces, the different stages within the life of the man she despised, the being whose past was filled with moments of absolute power, of undeterred defiance to the status quo. It was this man who decades ago has humiliated Marlon Sularen in their youth, it was this Being who survived the Blackwing pandemic on Atrisia and who had grown beyond the limitations of humanity in the process. The statues, while weathered and eroded showed the Sith, they showed the Marquis, they showed the Chancellor and they showed the abomination he had already been more than four decades ago. The Lord of Hunger was old, perhaps no immortal from a thousand years ago, but for a human, he had long-passed his expiration date, he had cheated death and had become one more akin to the Sangnir, more akin to the monsters stalking the wastes of the Redoubt itself, the shades and wraiths of the Nether and the Void itself.

The latter might've gained some context through Her's own senses, as the Tomb, despite the monument not celebrating the death of the man who was housed within, reeked of death. It held a concentration of necrotic energy, of unnerving power from beyond the grave. A connection, a rift to the nether matured through the death of many a brave soul. Whatever went in...was dead, whatever came out...was sustenance. As her starfighter was being dragged down, forced by the power the N&Z and perhaps more importantly KRONOS held over the creations of the company, the true scale of the tomb would come into view, with the statues towering in the air as she was forcefully brought to the ground.

It seemed that this was how far the AI was willing to bring the woman, as if there was a certain sadism hidden within the AI's programming. There would be no welcome party, no greeting faces, but the temple, the tomb's central structure rose from the ground like an unyielding scar on an already ruined world. All around her, there was nothing but an endless wasteland, whatever life there had once been, had long been displaced or devoured, replaced by the husks of unlife still roaming the desolate landscape in search for their next meal, their one and only sustenance: living beings. However, as if by a miracle or perhaps something much deeper programmed into their very core; these undead, these creatures from beyond the grave did not set foot beyond the very statues surrounding the tomb.

Inside the temple, the tomb's interior was sober, hard lines, electrum detailing, etchings of beasts and creatures too foreign for the normal people to understand, there were firebowls containing eerie green fire suspended from the ceiling, bones littering the ground and at the center of it all would be two things that certainly would catch Her eye... a somewhat differently designed N&Z logo on the ground with clear edges splitting it apart and a bit further away, behind a short staircase a pile of bones and husks in front of a vortex, a rift which seemed almost akin to the portals the Lord of Hunger seemed to create, but this one was different, MUCH different, as it radiated with a depth within the force and whose alignment seemed 'off', as if it held both sides in perfect balance, yet reeked of death and desolation.

 

[Her]

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Tag: The Lord of Hunger

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Her sat in the seat of the Gala fighter after it touched down. She hadn't made the move to open the seal and leave the ship yet. It wasn't hesitance that kept Her from stepping outside to find L.O.H, Umbrella or potentially anyone else that could have something to do with the recent attacks on Vūm. Patience was the virtue of all Jedi. Although Her traversed the galaxy now, by following the pathology of the Dark Side of the Force, those same traits and attributes taught by the Jedi (or indoctrinated) remained with the enigmatic woman in spite of the fact that it had been several years since she had left the Order.

The Redoubt looked desolate. Much different to the Jedi archives Her had stolen from the library on Ossus. This was a place that was supposed to be a colony of the Chiss Ascendancy according to the Jedi cartographers that Her had read about before coming here. However, the Chiss were gone now with their homeworld destroyed during the Second Great Hyperspace War. It appeared that Umbrella had moved in quite sometime ago according to what Her could tell about the mega-structure nearby. This was their modus operandi. In the wake of catastrophe the company, or to be accurate, he moved in to pick up the pieces.

Her couldn't tell if the outside was hospitable to Humans and she wasn't going to take the chance. Fixing an aquata to her mouth, so that she could breathe without fear of inhaling any toxins, Her went to raise a hand to open the Gala so that she could disembark. But before she could reach the button Her paused as she felt the overhead canopy detach with a familiar mechanical whirr filling her eardrums. Whoever or whatever was in control of the ship wanted her to leave.

Detaching the safety harness that had kept her tethered to the seat during flight and transit, Her leaped out of the chair and landed on the ground to squat low to the ground. Heavy dark robes trailing around her in the air and draped around her petite figure as she slowly rised up to standing. As she stood there, gathering her attuned senses to the Force, Her felt as if a thousand eyes were staring at her from all around. She felt a twisted amalgamation of rage, fear and a certain loss of faculties tied to an assortment of victims turned into bioweapons or experiments that were dotted around the area. Yet, they would dare not take even a single step towards Her and the building ahead. There was fear in them. Trepidation. It was as if they felt like if they were near the temple then they would die.

"There is no door that a true Sith Lord cannot enter."

Her turned their gaze back to the structure as the old maxim, among many, surfaced and reverberated in the mind. She felt that fear and trepidation permutating via the Force through the assortment of bioweapons and the victims of the Lord of Hunger erode away. They were replaced by the same intense focus that had driven Her to conspire against the Sith and Jedi Order as the Dark Lord of the Sith. Fear was for the weak. She was stronger than any being alive today. Far more powerful. Graced with a certain purpose and immersed in the tapestry of Darth Bane.

There was nothing that would stop Her now.

Raising the cowl of her robe to conceal her supple, ivory white skin; the esoteric tattoo etched onto her neck; and the flowing long strands of blonde hair, Her marched towards the entrance of the tomb to find her co-conspirator. The closer that she got to the entrance of the tomb the more Her was certain that the Lord of Hunger was here. Questions rummaged through her cunning mind but Her ignored these thoughts. It mattered why L.O.H was attacking her organisation but it was beginning to pale in comparison to why he had brought her here. She recognised that he had purposefully lured her to this place. Was it a trap, or something else?

Green embers briefly illuminated Her's face as she passed through the corridors on course for the main antechamber. Her movement were guided by her feelings and emotions. They took her to where the vortex hung in the air like a spectre of death and desolation. She felt still in the presence of the vortex itself. Cunning red eyes traced beneath the hood to look upon the old emblem of the Nargath and Zanareth. This place was old. There was a history somewhere in this tomb that could be traced back to a man who had turned himself into an abomination that Her had been feeding for quite sometime as she chased her own ambitions to destroy the Sith and Jedi.

There was some curious about all of this if not for the fact that Her felt like she was in imminent danger. She was on the furthest edges of the known galaxy. Further than even the times that she had traversed the hyperlanes between Mahporeem to Enarc. Her was surrounded by death and decay with an eerie quietness as she baited L.O.H to reveal himself to her...

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[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: The Redoubt
OBJECTIVE: Take a few pieces off of the board
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Her

​

The aquata would be able to make the air breathable, it wouldn't however be able to remove the taste of metal from the air, a rusty tanginess which was positively familiar to any who had been to war, who had endured the horrors created by the folly of mortals. The Redoubt wasn't much different, for it had been torn asunder and shredded under the weight of the galaxy's greatest wars, the lack of interest in its waning years further compounding the desolation it began to represent... like the silence on a battlefield after the war.

The tomb's size, its aethetic, it all screamed domination despite its own slow erodation. Dreams and memories of a distant past filled both the outside and inside of the massive structure. To those sensitive to the Force, the tomb represented something far more virulent, something far more dangerous than the mere desires of an ordinary man. It represented the depths through which the Lord of Hunger had trudged, the darkness he had traversed, the unyielding will, passion and hunger of a being who saw themselves as beyond the limitations of both the Sith and the Jedi.

In the center of this thick, pressuring presence of the force, the rift, the incomplete vortex of hunger and hatred shimmered, shuddered, and most importantly pulled. It's entirety smelled and sensed exactly the samen as the decay which surrounded the Lord of Hunger, it had the same unsettling discordance at its core as He seemed to have. Hungering for victims to fall into itts trap, the rift shuddered with every step one would make when coming closer, shimmering with a strange otherworldly light and an underworldly darkness woven into one.

The old N&Z emblem at the center, faded and eroded by time, but with edges to it which seemed more polished, fresher and worn through use rather than time, properly betrayed the true owner, the true purpose of this place. Even if the monument itself seemed more like a gravesite, a mausoleum or tomb, the emblem of the N&Z had no place in what ought to have been a place of mourning and remembrance. It was the clearest sign to the true nature and purpose of this location.

Several moments in that place, moments which seemed to last for minutes, maybe even longer, the only sound within the tomb was the whirring of the rift, the churning of the energy within and without, though this was quickly ammended. The sound of hydraulics, electronics and metal shifting could be heard, when from the shadows within the large interior space, several pairs of red optics became visible. these red lights seemed to move in a strange unison, an elegant dance through the darkness around Her , revealing themselves to be the eyes of the Sceleratis ; the terrifying droids who acted as the Lord of Hunger's personal guard, his personal assassin squad, his shadows. Despite their appearance, there seemed to be no immediate enmity, as if no order had yet been given to take care of the visitor. Their arms were held to their sides, their weaponry left untouched as the droids slowly approached the Sith, until they stood at the edges of the emblem...

A loud hiss, the screeching of metal on marble, the slow churning of internal mechanical locks could be heard before a shudder ran through the entire emblem representing the Nargath and Zanareth Umbrella Corporation. One of the Sceleratis' eyes turned purple, as it walked upon the emblem which began to reveal itself to be some sort of platform awaiting departure into the depths below.

"VISITOR," The voice was mechanical, hollow and devoid of any humanity...but at the same time also strangely familiar, the voice of KRONOS rang through the tomb, the purple eyes of the Sceleratis droid beckoning the Sith to join them on the platform. "The Lord of Hunger is awaiting the Child of Bane."

Should the Sith decide to step unto the platform, it would shudder once more before it would silently and smoothly descend into darkness, for a few seconds that would be all there'd be... until the magnitude of the underground facilities would be revealed, with the platform being only one of many, with hundreds, if not thousands of droids running about, soldiers and scientists visible through glass panes, some exercising in large training areas, others working on what seemed to be certain creatures and beasts held in captivity. This was the epicenter not only of the Lord of Hunger's power, but also the core of Section C... the largest shadow of the N&Z... untouched by the light from above...

 

[Her]

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Tag: The Lord of Hunger

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Beneath the cowl of her robe, Her settled their gaze upon the Sceleratis as they surrounded her. Another sign of the L.O.H. She recognised the technology from their first meeting in the Ghost Nebulae when the offered had been made for Her to begin colluding with Umbrella in the wake of the Sartinaynian Crisis. Although it had been three years since then these machines were undeniably succinct and their form unmistakable. As she stood there, while the Sceleratis continued to emerge to surround her at all sides, Her felt that there were too many to fight even for someone as powerful and as strong as she was in the Dark Side of the Force.

Yet they did not raise their weapons to shoot and kill her.

They were just another sign that of the L.O.H's wealth, prestige and power in his own right.

This man was not to be trifled with. That he was indomitable and his will was absolute above all others who served to merely extend his grip upon the paradigms that he had build up; or to open up new avenues and opportunities that he could take, exploit and fit into his schemes upon schemes. Designs within designs. An architect who had built up a conglomerate which spanned across the Stars.

With the Sceleratis surrounding Her they each came a warning and a reminder.

At any point Umbrella can crush you.

"The Lord of Hunger is awaiting the Child of Bane."

The hairs on the back of Her's neck stood up as KRONOS spoke through the Sceleratis that were encircling the Dark Lord. It was more than fifty-years ago since Ayra begun practising the Rule of Two, and like those who had immersed themselves into the tapestry of Darth Bane, Ayra had passed along her secrets, thoughts and lessons to a single heir until the time came where the paradoxical dichotomy between the pair came to an end through a challenge, betrayal or a mixture of the two.

Since Kalist they had been plotting together in the shadows until they emerged at the turn-of-the-ninth century as Ravelin was bombed by a Mecetti Star Destroyer.

Hidden by their powers in the Dark Side.

Until now.

Turning her gaze away from the purple-eyed anomaly that had surfaced through the Sceleratis, Her felt the old marble beneath her feet quake and heard the whirring of pistons retracting as Umbrella's emblem exposed the innards of a life which led down into the darkness. Taking a few steps towards the ledge of the lift, Her stared down into the dark as he mind raced. She contemplated turning back around. No doubt she would have to evade the Sceleratis and the other bioweapons that seemed to surround the tomb but Her felt like she could make it back to the Gala and taking back control of the fighter before fleeting the Redoubt.

But as she contemplated withdrawing, Her felt drawn towards the depths below. When she had departed the Mid-systems on course for this place (following star-charts stolen from a library on Ossus) Her thought that this was all about Vūm. She didn't understand why Umbrella were targeting her associates but inevitably, eventually Her would uncover the truth and deal with it accordingly. Her had even daydreamed that it was Visconti behind the assassinations so that she would finally have a reason to eliminate the woman. But all of that was washed away by the revelation that somehow L.O.H had come to the inexplicable knowledge that the Rule of Two was once more in effect.

This was not about Vūm or the Work anymore. It was about survival. For the past three years Her believed that the Lord of Hunger was a Sith Lord who was operating beyond the lines of the Sith Order. There was something useful in that type of relationship, particularly, when Umbrella had an abundance of resources, technology and contacts through the Outer Rim Territories that could prove useful in the Grand Plan. But usefulness, influence, wealth, resources, innovation-- these concepts, while useful, paled in insignificance to survival and continuation.

This was the key difference between the Rule of Two and the Sith scattered throughout the galaxy.

It was why Her stepped walked into the center of the platform. To survive. As the floor above begun to seal itself in, with the platform descending down below and exposing the underbelly of the tomb, Her lowered the cowl of her robe, unbuttoned it and then discarded it onto the floor. Esoteric tattoos gleamed and glistened along ivory white, pale skin as the artificial lights of passing droids, drones and the many hundreds of platforms shone over the Dark Lord of the Sith as she was carried down to the bottom...

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