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?

---

 

[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

---

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...

---

 

[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 offer 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 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...

---

 

[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 Sith Order, the questionable order of impenetrable dogma and duality, uncertain about their own desires and their ambitions, torn by dynasticism and a veiled meritocracy. The Sith Empire; the governmental body which had to encompass the entirety of the Sith, which had to be the foundation of the Order and its tenets. He had been part of them, He had seen firsthand their strengths...and their failings. He had experienced their religious antiquation, their bureaucratic dogmatism, their denial of their own decay.

Their failure, their flaws, they were nothing more than an inverted variety on the theme already lauded by the similarly blind and besotted Jedi. It had made it clear to Him, that there was no more need to follow their tenets, their rules and their designs. It was back then, before he had even grown into the being he was today, that he had decided to chase not the satisfaction of merely having power, but the idea of growing beyond the limitations which plagued both the jedi and the sith, to reach and even exceed the stories from old, where sith weren't limited by religion and regret, where jedi sought strength and weren't content with the status quo.

In his search for knowledge, his ever growing desire to understand and implement things long forgotten or deemed beyond the reach of mortals, the Lord of Hunger had begun to set up the N&Z as both a powerplayer in military hardware, ships and vehicles, always making sure it retained a position on top of its market, while at the same time carefully nursing it into the most dangerous shadow company in the galaxy. Research thought lost would be dug up and recovered from hidden libraries, hideouts from ancient times and long dormant laboratories, thus before it had even been given the name, Section C had begun its life as a hidden division within the N&Z and would as such remain active, even when He was in stasis.

The search for knowledge and ever more immoral research, had brought the Lord of Hunger to unlock the secrets of the Vele Jivanikas jewel which had been passed in his family, managing to unlock the runes which surrounded the corrupted Rainbow Gem and as such allowing the spirit of his forefather and first of his kin; Arcosius Nargath . To have the means to gain the lost knowledge from the past, to be able to pick the brain of the very man responsible for the very genesis of House Nargath...it all came together, culminating into the form the Lord of Hunger had managed to achieve.

His extensive research, his search for knowledge, his continuous altercations with the Sith and Jedi, it granted him knowledge the restrictions of both would have never gotten him, powers that would be hidden from him due to their "alignment". And with that knowledge, he managed to get more clever, more in tune with the narratives spread accross the galaxy. Putting two and two together wasn't hard anymore when the clues were there, when the hints were strewn all around him. Her hadn't betrayed herself, but the encounter with Ayra aboard the Death Star, the strange way in which the self-styled sith managed herself and the blatant disgust towards those who called themselves the Sith Order. By putting two and two together, it was clear that she was either a scion of the One Sith ideology or perhaps of the older Rule of Two, with the latter gaining more validity when the clues began to fall into place, like pieces of a puzzle.

"You are now at the heart of Section C, the heartn of the N&Z's true identity," Kronos was quite succinct with his wordchoices, betraying that underneath the layer of electronics and mechanical flair, the powerful AI did indeed carry the will, the mannerisms and the voice of the monster responsible for the technological masterpiece's existence. "And the Master does have a little message for you...if you would allow me."

As the platform was descending ever deeper into the bowels of the immense undergorund facility, the Sceleratis controlled by KRONOS moved its hands, as the screens which seemed to display schedules and time tables suddenly revealed the face of the abomination within the force that had been the Lord of Hunger. Intense, vibrant crimson and golden eyes stared towards the platform, a twisted, devious grin on the man's face.

"You thought you could continue this charade with me, child?" The man on the screens tilted his head, the grin growing wider and more prevalent. "You have hidden your traces very well, but you could blame your master...former master for having made things much easier on my part. You are the product of an antiquated, defunct system, a relic of the past trapped in a rapidly changing galaxy... but you mistook me for a useful pawn, you mistook me for being a puppet on a string, never realizing that perhaps you had taken a bite too large to chew or swallow..."

The platform reached the lowest level, where there seemed to be almost nothing, just rows of lights and a seemingly neverending darkness. A strange light began to glow in the distance, while the voice on the screens was still audible. "You have grown strong, you have grown wise... but your desire to stand at the top of your dogmatic rule... has blinded you and thus it has shown itself to be worthless. You have forgotten the very reason the rule exists, you have forgotten why it was created...and why it has failed. Do not tie yourself to the relics of the past... I am not the future of the sith or the jedi...they are both beneath me...and soon...so too will be the very force itself."

More lights began to rise from the darkness, humanoid shapes, with at their center a well-dressed man walking calmly towards the woman, while the Sceleratis who had accompanied her took several steps back and kneeled, it became clear that it was the Lord of Hunger who was approaching, several strange, ghost-like appearances walking next to him. "You'll have to choose... do you choose for a future in which your power is limited...or do you wish to seek for the limits and break through them?"

 

[Her]

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Tags: The Lord of Hunger

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"You are now at the heart of Section C, the heart of the N&Z's true identity..."

Paradigms often shift and change as the people involved adapted to transient events happening all around them. Association was an apt word to describe the relationship up until now. Her might have been in the Section C for three years but she was never really apart of Umbrella during all that time. Even the distinction, or rather promotion to the elevated level of Director of an entire subsidiary called Tarsai could not complete the entry and subsequent fold of an enigmatic woman into the corporate entity that was called the great Nargath and Zanareth ' UMBRELLA ' Corporation.

Umbrella had always been a means to an end. A temporary relationship that could be measured in mere hours or decades. They could easily severed at any moment when it appeared they were no longer useful or if they became a hindrance to the Work.

By associating herself to Umbrella, Her utilised the company as she saw fit. They were to build the weapons or to supply the ammunition that was necessary for the dreaded Imperial March. First to the Empire of the Lost and then to the states of the Imperial Confederation as she continued to fulfil Velran Kilran 's destiny by completing the annexation of the Thandon Star Cluster; and by proxy Her had become a rich and powerful woman through the many schemes of which Umbrella had been working in for the past three years.

There would be no Vūm today without Umbrella. No economic or political influence to bear as Her continued the Work.

To build up a new Grand Plan.

"...And the Master does have a little message for you... If you would allow me."

As the platform continued to descend Her turned in the centre of it to look around. The streams of data reflected in the screens and walls around Her begun to blink out one-by-one. Corporate advertisements across a multitude of star sectors located several hundred parsecs from the Redoubt disappeared as well. Astrographical charts written or taken by a dozens of cartographers joined them in the dark as they were each replaced by the face of a man Her had come to loathe as he appeared on every surface to surround the Dark Lord as she continued to descend into the pits of the tomb.

"You thought you could continue this charade with me, child?"

Prostration was not an act of a Jedi. Contrition was; and yet one of their own had knelt in the sands amid a fallen, long lost civilisation in spite of their Jedi training and creeds. Indoctrinated...and intoxicated by certain truthes.

"A true master never reveals him or herself," Ayra had taught.

Charade. Fiction. Obfuscation.

Myths.

Falsehoods.

Her.

"You have hidden your traces very well, but you could blame your master..."

At the turn-of-the-ninth century a woman called Alicia Drey met with the-then C.E.O of the Santhe Corporation. That meeting with Vyllia Sancetti had been the beginning of it all. They would go by another older name known to some of the Sith as Ayra. What followed were a series of inexplicable yet related events that transpired across the Outer Rim Territories. In many ways things had changed out there beyond the Mid-systems where Imperial remnants lingered amid Sith tyranny and Diarchy.

In other ways they had not.

"You have grown strong, you have grown wise... but your desire to stand at the top of your dogmatic rule... has blinded you and thus it has shown itself to be worthless..."

Embers and smoke trailed through the air in a blindingly hot, scorching day beneath a Kalist sun and orange skies. Then the dirt came for the gravesite and swallowed it burying the ashes underneath as the desert sought to reclaim the city where the cremation had taken place. It was almost as if Ayra had never lived at the end.

"...You'll have to choose... do you choose for a future in which your power is limited... or do you wish to seek for the limits and break through them?"

The platform grinded to a halt and with it came an emergence. Her turned to face L.O.H as he walked towards her. Those calculative, sad cunning eyes darted from him to the ghost-liked apparitions that walked towards her side-by-side. It felt as if this was also another ending. Whatever dichotomy Her had with the Lord of Hunger was coming to a close after today. A new relationship was set to be borne. It remained to be seen if it would erupt into catastrophe or something better than what had been beforehand.

Her's mind raced. There were many reasons for why Umbrella and this man would want to sever the connection to the Rule of Two. This confident, malevolent man had been seemingly trying for a long, long time to erode and escape the trappings of the Human condition. Yet every man reaches their breaking point, particularly, when it comes to the aspects of a relationship where he feels as if he were used. There was no amount of economic or political posturing that could abate or survive the ego. Eventually a man must take back what is his.

Recompense. Retaliation. Revenge. Her had put the levers in motion to initiate the Mandalorian-Diarchy war on Yaga Minor. It had broke the Diarch's crusade before it could ever start against the Sith and the Jedi. With the fall of the Diarchy came with it Umbrella's investments and time. It was the same for the Mahporeem stations that had once been manned by Mandalorian's until the I.C.D had moved in to apprehend them. Lianna City would join them too. It was destroyed and fell the Imperial Confederation to boot.

Ayra. Warden Primus. Her. There were two central figures to these transient events and they were both at the bottom of this tomb on the precipice of something else. They could no longer continue or survive beneath a dichotomy of merely being associates or pretend partners anymore.

A man must take what is his in the end.

"I have chosen the Dark Side," Her retorted. "I am free. I will destroy the Sith. Then the Jedi. Through destruction I breed creation."

Lowering both her hands behind the back, at the naval where her spine curved upwards to support a cunning and powerful mind, Her adopted a meditative stance taught to all Jedi from the days of their youth. In the sterile air of the tomb, in spite of being surrounded by the kneeling, prostrated Sceleratis, Her regulated their breathing and felt the Force flow through her to soothe any nerves or trepidation that she felt. The pommel of her Lightsaber hung from the left hip and it was a comfortable weight in front of the majestic Lord of Hunger as he seemed to launch an attempt to court Her further into the bowels of Umbrella.

His questions sounded like an offering rather than a threat. Was this to be an apprenticeship?

Is this how the Lord of Hunger sought to own Her?

"Through victory my chains are broken," Her ushered solemnly. "At the turn of this century Umbrella was a limited apparatus consigned and outcompeted by rivals such as the Trade Federation of Planets. Shipping lanes throughout the quadrants of the Outer Rim were filled more by the Arceneau Trading Company then they were with your products. You hadn't even reached the Mid-systems until I arranged the acquisition of Tarsai."

L.O.H spoke of limits and breaking through them from the basis that the Rule of Two was dogmatic and antiquated. Notions that rung true even to Her. It was an ancient philosophy that had been adopted by a fallen Jedi as they sought to recomplete the Work that had been accomplished previously by those who had also immersed themselves into the tapestry of Darth Bane. Devotion, alongside concepts such as loyalty, were antithetical to the pathology of the Dark Side Force and yet Her aligned themselves to what Ayra had taught because it was a means to an end.

Just like Umbrella was.

"It has been five years since the beginning of this new century," Her continued to say as she juxtaposed L.O.H's question about limits and breaking them against Umbrella's new found position in the modern day.

"Ever since we begun to conspire together I have turned Umbrella from an outside source and potential competitor to the Imperial remnants into a machine from which Mahporeem could not work without. Umbrella is no longer the outsider overshadowed by bigger and more powerful conglomerates such as the Trade Federation or Arceneau anymore. You have economic and political influence, levers and leverage that you did not have until you met me. It is all because of me. Not you."

Lifting her left palm into the air Her gripped one of the Sceleratis with the Force and yanked it up from the ground to levitate it in front of them. It hung there held up as if by invisible strings. Like a puppet who was suddenly under the control and authority of something elusive. An invisible presence that could not be seen and could yet be felt by those all around it. Contorted and trapped by the Dark Side as all those who came into contact with Her ultimately were.

Her said: "In spite of all that I have done for you, you have lured me here into this trap. There are people that I needed who have been killed by you; and all of this because you have identified yourself as a useful pawn in my conspiracy. Are you going to kill me now, Credius Nargath?"

---

 

[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

​

"I have chosen the Dark Side," Her retorted. "I am free. I will destroy the Sith. Then the Jedi. Through destruction I breed creation."

The Lord of Hunger's eyes seemed to grow slightly more vibrant upon hearing these words, feeling them resonate within him. She wasn't lying, and because she wasn't lying, these words, this vow she uttered held more value to the monstrous man than she could've ever thought.

"Through victory my chains are broken," Her ushered solemnly. "At the turn of this century Umbrella was a limited apparatus consigned and outcompeted by rivals such as the Trade Federation of Planets. Shipping lanes throughout the quadrants of the Outer Rim were filled more by the Arceneau Trading Company then they were with your products. You hadn't even reached the Mid-systems until I arranged the acquisition of Tarsai."

A soft, somewhat sinister chuckle escaped the man's lips, his eyes looking down upon Her with an intensity only those who knew 'more' could effectively demonstrate. raising his left hand, he stretched out his indexfinger, the electrum plated fingertip upon the black, polished duraflex glove shimmering in the twilight of the underground facility. "While I will acknowledged your...efforts have been useful, you overestimate your own impact upon the N&Z. The N&Z was not in my control, it was merely a cloak to hide underneath, run by my troublesome nephew. Yet, was it not THAT nephew who convinced the Diarchy to be indebted to the N&Z, culminating in the build of one of the galaxy's most modern and most efficient shipyards. Was it not that very same nephew, who by gaining Karl Von Strauss in the N&Z had managed to gain a strong foothold within the Empire of the Lost? Was it not through the combined effort of Amalia and myself that we gained a nigh monopoly within the TIC?"

His eyes slowly seemed to be drawn towards the pommel of the lightsaber on the woman's hip, a smirk appearing on the Lord of Hunger's face which betrayed that he was expecting her to utilize it sooner or later; the weapon of a lesser warrior, the crutch for both the majority of the sith and the jedi...a lightsaber. It wasn't that the Lord of Hunger could not utilize such a weapon, but in all honesty...he himself was not in the need of any weapon by his side, for he himself was already more of a weapon than anything those artisans on coruscant and illum could create.

"You created opportunity, that I will give you," The man leaned a bit forward, wagging his outstretched index finger a bit. "You overestimate your importance, you bloat your successes...not realizing we have also capitalized on your failures...and that of others. Who do you think ended that damn incursion by the High Republic when that fool of a Sularen thought he could get away with imprisoning one of their own? Who do you think had to mop up the mess you created when you had your ICD forces take control over the gateway stations on the TIC and Mandalorian border?"

"In spite of all that I have done for you, you have lured me here into this trap. There are people that I needed who have been killed by you; and all of this because you have identified yourself as a useful pawn in my conspiracy. Are you going to kill me now, Credius Nargath?"

The ground rumbled, the smile on the Lord of Hunger's face was gone, replaced by a strangely neutral expression which seemed to border on disappointment. Yet his presence, his inexhaustible and undeniable depth could not be ignored, as the very pressure within the space seemed to change, to intensify; A wave of cold unfurling itself from within the Lord of Hunger, gnawing at both the physical and mental senses of any mortal nearby.

"You have done many things, my dear..." The abomination within the force seemed to let out a sigh, as if contemplating how to exact his cost from the woman before him. "You have done things that would be considered very useful by any person...but you have also caused an almost equal amount of damage to the company's reputation and economic strength. You seek to use the N&Z for your own goals and as we had agreed...I would support your designs and your desires on the condition that they did not interfere with my own plans, my own desires...my will."

Taking in a deep breath, the pressure seemed to vanish in an instant, as the man turned around, allowing his back to be turned towards the woman, not as a sign of trust, but a sign that his control of the situation was absolute. "Tarsai is not a payment for your accomplishments... it is your last chance to prove that our desires and our goals can co-exist. Your people, your pawns...just like mine...can be replaced."

 

[Her]

---

---

Tag: The Lord of Hunger

---

"While I will acknowledged your...efforts have been useful, you overestimate your own impact upon the N&Z. The N&Z was not in my control, it was merely a cloak to hide underneath, run by my troublesome nephew. Yet, was it not THAT nephew who convinced the Diarchy to be indebted to the N&Z, culminating in the build of one of the galaxy's most modern and most efficient shipyards? Was it not that very same nephew, who by gaining Karl von Strauss in the N&Z had managed to gain a strong foothold within the Empire of the Lost? Was it not through the combined effort of Amalia and myself that we gained a nigh monopoly within the TIC?"

Her licked the front of her teeth, and pouted her lips thoughtfully, as the L.O.H justified himself to her. She listened to what he had to say about Tertius C. Nargath but that isn't what she was hearing as she looked upon him. Standing in front of Her was an abomination who sought to erase their limitations and escape the lamentation of a man to become something else. Would such a monster lower themselves down to justify themselves to Her if they were still not that same man?

Someone less cunning than Her would have picked apart the questions and played into the semantics. They would have pointed out that those shipyards were lost without the Diarchy. If Her was like the other Imperials that the L.O.H courted with then she would have dissected von Strauss' contributions to Umbrella and juxtapose them against the fact that both the Empire and the Confederation had died under his leadership as an Imperial Moff and Exarch. Certainly, Her would have pointed out that the monopoly that they used to own in the Confederation wouldn't have happened without her neither.

Umbrella's first foray into the Imperial remnants had come about through their letter to Drey Incorporated requesting their aide in a construction project that had yielded Deinon Station. Not through any of the other deals that resulted in the creation of N&Z EnSol or the other half-dozen assets that Umbrella were now in control of.

Everything started with Her.

Without Her then Amalia Visconti or Tertius Nargath would have never embedded themselves into neither the first or second Imperial occupations of the Tion Hegemony and Ash Worlds. Umbrella would never have enjoyed the vast sums of revenue and profit that they generated through the Mandalorian-Diarchy war either.

But Her was more cunning than everyone else and was far too smart to be pulled down into semantics to argue over nothing...

"You created opportunity, that I will give you... You overestimate your importance, you bloat your successes...not realizing we have also capitalized on your failures...and that of others. Who do you think ended that damn incursion by the High Republic when that fool of a Sularen thought he could get away with imprisoning one of their own? Who do you think had to mop up the mess you created when you had your ICD forces take control over the gateway stations on the TIC and Mandalorian border?"

Her wasn't the type of justify themselves unlike her powerful associate. To explain the intricacies of the varying factors that were at play, at the time, when the I.C.D moved in to seize the gateway stations would be a mistake. She neither felt the need to point the obvious contradictions in telling someone that they have created opportunities for Umbrella and were simultaneously bloating their importance or successes. She remained quiet and learned much as Her read in-between the lines.

To learn that the N&Z were involved in the crisis above Corellia was music to her ears...

"You have done many things, my dear... You have done things that would be considered very useful by any person...but you have also caused an almost equal amount of damage to the company's reputation and economic strength. You seek to use the N&Z for your own goals and as we had agreed...I would support your designs and your desires on the condition that they did not interfere with my own plans, my own desires...my will."

"I cannot be replaced," Her pointed out to L.O.H as the Sceleratis continued to levitate in front of them. "Or you would have killed me by now."

Unlike the Lord of Hunger there was nothing about this woman that could be considered powerful. While her compatriot carried himself with an air of majesty and aura, with fine clothes signifying his wealth, electrum weaves found in the varying ornaments or tools that he had at his disposal, and a body that had been honed through a combination of training and experimentation, Her was a small woman by comparison with nothing to show in comparison. To the naked eye there was nothing to show any strength that Her could possess. There were no feats in the Force or signs of esoteric powers that L.O.H could know about either.

The only thing stopping Umbrella from dismantling this woman was him, and the longer that L.O.H listened, the more it seemed that the decision would cost him once he took everything into consideration. It was the basis of their dichotomy right from the beginning when he had exposed his existence to Her during the Sartinaynian Crisis. Rather than hurting his plans he ought to assist and divert her away from bringing about consequences that would hurt him or the company. It was better to make this woman useful rather than having her as a liability.

This was why Her was here at the bottom of this tomb. It was a reminder that the dichotomy between the two of them could only continue to survive so long as Umbrella was positioned to capitalise on her Work. Anything else was to be considered as wasteful and to be ultimately taken as the first steps towards severing their seminal ties that L.O.H had negotiated in the Ghost Nebulae three years ago.

"If you do not want to kill me then you must want something else," Her continued to say as she followed the statement with a rhetorical question. "What could that be?"

As L.O.H turned his back to her, Her studied him thoughtfully and a new cunning idea come to mind. This was the moment to seize the moment. To strike when it was the most opportune. She was surrounded by the Sceleratis and yet they hadn't made a move to even so much as restrain her. Credius did not want to hurt Her. Instead he wanted to warn his associate to watch herself or he would act. She would make him pay the price for his mercy.

"Tarsai is not a payment for your accomplishments... it is your last chance to prove that our desires and our goals can co-exist. Your people, your pawns...just like mine...can be replaced."

"I know that I want to take Amalia Visconti's position in Umbrella," Her declared. "Starting today we will initiate a timeline for her removal as the chief executive officer in the company. In five years time I will move on as Director of Tarsai to assume control of all of Umbrella and all of it's divisions..."

In this game pawns are often used to take others off the board first.

"You will make me irreplaceable starting today. Then I will forgive you for what you have done to me and my associates back in the Galaxy."

---

 

[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

"I cannot be replaced," Her pointed out to L.O.H as the Sceleratis continued to levitate in front of them. "Or you would have killed me by now."

With his back turned towards the woman, the Lord of Hunger slowly raised his right hand into the air, electricity and a deep, black miasma concentrating around his hand. Within the blink of an eye, he moved his hand, flexing his fingers ever so slightly. Then, without warning, the Sceleratis she held in her grasp in between them, suddenly burst into pieces, rivets, plates, even individual electrical components, it was all laid bare, but as the man moved his fingers again, a single twitch of his fingers managed to take control over the blade and the rifle the Sceleratis always carried... both now being pointed towards the cloaked woman. "I can kill you ... but that does not mean I desire to do so. You have immense potential, be it in both subterfuge and intelligence, even in the corporate world you hold immense potential... but just as you are unpredictable to others, you seem to have difficulties handling the aftermath of unexpected turns in your own plans..."

The Kneeling Sceleratis stood up now, as one of them was handed the large black blade of the dismantled member of their group, while another was given the ranged weapon they all carried. As the monstrous man lowered his hand a bit, the bits of the dismantled sceleratis would also drop down...unless if she was still not willing to drop the charade that had to look like a threat.

"If you do not want to kill me then you must want something else," Her continued to say as she followed the statement with a rhetorical question. "What could that be?"

"Perhaps I still wish to see that potential of yours be ripened into its full capacity," Credius sighed, before letting out a dry chuckle, tilting his head in such a manner, that he could look at Her directly, without having to turn his back. "It is disappointing that you'd stick with the dogmatic idocy of the Sith...no matter which path of them you desire to walk on. You may find me revolting, you may find that which I am now, an abomination... but I do wonder... How powerful you would have been if only you walked my path."

"I know that I want to take Amalia Visconti's position in Umbrella," Her declared. "Starting today we will initiate a timeline for her removal as the chief executive officer in the company. In five years time I will move on as Director of Tarsai to assume control of all of Umbrella and all of it's divisions..."

A deep, raspy laughter ressonated throughout the entire cavernous space, a shift in demeanor so vast it could even be felt through the force. It was clear that while he was laughing, the Monster she was engaging was not exactly keen on the tone of her voice, her demands and more importantly the demanding, almost imperative tone used against Him.

"I'll have to disappoint you...but you will never have all the divisions...not as long as I maintain the system in the way my nephew set it up," A chuckle escaped his lips, because it was all amusing. The nephew who had actively managed to restrain the Lord of Hunger's influence on the company unwittingly, had also accidentally created the failsafes to keep him in power if the time ever came for him to hold the entire N&Z in the palm of His hand again. "As chairman of the Corporation...I have the final word, I control the financial division with the IMF... if I were to remove Amalia from her position of CEO...she simply regains her former positions as leading firgure for the Security Division and Section C... not to mention she'd retain a director's position. She'd effectively be more free than you... You want to be seen as irreplaceable, you want control...than I advise you to use your position as director wisely. Exapand the N&Z's influence and thereby your own, stop trying to one-up me and you'll see how much greater our partnership can be."

"You will make me irreplaceable starting today. Then I will forgive you for what you have done to me and my associates back in the Galaxy."

"No my dear...you will not forgive, nor be forgiven," The man once again chuckled, raising his hand once more making the entire bottomfloor tremble as he began to exert his will. Her might've always hidden her strengths, her identity and her true intentions. But the fact that he no longer hid in the shadows also made it more dangerous, for only those who were certain they could stand at the very end would dare to be so in the open, so falsely vulnerable. "If you want to be irreplaceable, you must make yourself irreplaceable...even if I were to just put you in a higher position, if you slip up...if you try to lash out, you are not irreplaceable...you asked for five years...I'll give you five years, become a vital part, prove yourself and I will indulge you. Fail me...try anything against me... and the consequences might no longer be implied to just some of your low level pawns... one would Rue the day that happens, no?"

​

 

[Her]

---

---

Tag: The Lord of Hunger

---

"If you want to be irreplaceable, you must make yourself irreplaceable...even if I were to just put you in a higher position, if you slip up...if you try to lash out, you are not irreplaceable...you asked for five years...I'll give you five years, become a vital part, prove yourself and I will indulge you. Fail me...try anything against me... and the consequences might no longer be implied to just some of your low level pawns... one would Rue the day that happens, no?"

Her understood the subtle threats. She considered Rue in the moment. There was something there that kindled somewhere between caring and loathing, Her would quietly admit to herself. It was as Ayra taught her: the apprentice is a necessary step for a Sith Master to take. Not does such an individual pose as a true challenger to the mantle, thereby keeping the holder strong so as to keep their place, but a successor also continues the lineage after your death. Her was not deluded as into thinking that she was immortal. These circumstances were proof enough of that. It was only her cunning mind and well placed influence in Umbrella that abated the likes of L.O.H or Amalia Visconti from killing her and Rue. No... If someone was going to kill Rue one day it would be Her and not the Lord of Hunger.

As the Sceleratis collected the weapons that L.O.H had been using to threaten the Dark Lord, Her folded both arms back behind her back and reassumed the meditative pose that she had adopted at the beginning of this confrontation. Not only did Her have five years to increase her influence in Umbrella, and earn the second-highest office in the company, but she had also earned a reprieve from L.O.H's wrath. For some strange, almost inexplicable reason, L.O.H desired a partnership elevated beyond what they had built over the past three years. It was almost like he courted Her like an apprentice with the way he spoke. Like there was a lesson intermingled with all of the threats and allusions to what he did know or what he didn't.

So she would give him what he wanted.

L.O.H had made himself crystal clear after today. There could be no more damage to Umbrella or she was done.

"Five years then," Her muttered sadly.

~
​

HOURS LATER . . .

​

Wind swept through Her's long, blonde hair as she re-emerged from the tomb. She busied herself by replacing the robe she had discarded some hours ago on what felt like a march into certain death. It would be easy to call Her a coward given that she practised in the darkness and out of the visible eye. Manipulation and deceit had become her verse but she was not a coward. While she had been outnumbered and outgunned in the Redoubt (due to L.O.H's sinister and well played trap that had lured Her from the Mid-systems and into the furthest reaches of the known Galaxy) Her had nevertheless walked in and emerged stronger from the confrontation itself.

Bane would nod at her seminal efforts, Her felt. It was only through strength that you gain power.

As she sat there in the seat of the Gala fighter, watching as the ship powered up and performed a diagnostic before take-off, Her looked at the ground at her boots and starred into nothing. For all her cunning and manipulative plans, for the conspiracy she had created among the Imperial remnants and Nabooian aristocracy, Her felt conflicted. The path that she traversed was often difficult and edged nearly all the time upon catastrophe or ruination. Yet a fork had opened up and if it was navigated successfully then Umbrella itself would hers to command.

She should be sat here feeling a mixture of excitement and that certain satisfying feeling one gets when they avoid being killed. But Her didn't feel any of that.

All Her wanted to do was sleep.

[ THREAD EXIT ]​

---

 

[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

​

"Five years then," Her muttered sadly.

The Lord of Hunger looked at how his associate left the area, returning to the surface utilizing one of the many elevating platforms. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the Sceleratis, letting out a sigh as he glanced towards a shadowy spot nearby. Out of said shadow, a woman cloaked and armed with two elongated vibroblades appeared, kneeling in front of the abomination within the Force. As He looked down upon her, a subtle smile appeared on his face, if only for the blink of an eye, a sort of amusement seemed to flicker within his terrifyingly inhuman eyes.

"You've heard it... she wants your spot," Credius' words were flat, almost without any concern. "It is clear as day that at some point, her ambition will attempt to reach for my own throat;"

The kneeling figure nodded in agreement, clearly having gotten the same impression from this exchange of words and hearing the desire from the monstrous man's associate.

"Five years..." The man sighed before suddenly turning his face, his attention towards the elevating platform Her had taken to leave the underground. "If she is smart... she would not try to anger me within this timeperiod. She'll most likely utilize this time to make herself as indisposable and irreplacable as I have demanded, but her hatred and her ambition will reveal themselves when she has been given any sort of control over the N&Z. In the meantime, I want you to integrate Section C further into our security, when we've audited Tarsai Vigil, I'll have it be put as a semi-autonomous division within N&Z security, She will maintain her direct control, but we'll have our eyes and ears."

"As you desire, master," The figure stood up, made a swift bow and retreated back into the shadows.

"Five years..." Credius exclaimed in silence, repeating the words and feeling them roll across his tongue with a somewhat bitter taste. "let's see how brazen she'll be."

EXIT THREAD​