Shiny

[Neesa]

http://starwarsrp.net/topic/32233-kelsier/



Her brown cloaks had been swapped for white. Lots of white. Neesa had never, in all her life, imagined there could be some much snow and ice in one place at once. Even in the capital of Canal it was cold. Apparently the thick ice above them was insulating. Neesa didn't understand how that could work.

She didn't travel well, it turned out. She had thought Athiss a long way from her home. Lord Sitas had laughed and shown her a map of where they had been and where they were going. It had taken days to get her through hyperspace. Travelling to another entirely alien world, having been cramped up in a shuttle for days and being frozen to her core had all made her a little emotional and tetchy. She was always emotional, but usually kept it beneath a frosty demeanour.

But there were positives too. The local people were of the echani race. Sitas had explain that she wasn't echani but Nagai with a touch of sith blood. But they all had skin as pale as hers, but with silver eyes and stark white hair. Winter foxes in the snow. Sitas had her hair dyed, given her contacts and a pale lipstick and she blended in.

They even all carried knives openly. Neesa had always been fond of knives. She'd stopped to watch a public display where two echani seemed to dance with blades. The point seemed to be to show off how agile they were and how close to cutting one another they could get.

Her master was elsewhere in the city. She was with [member="Vrak Nashar"]. This time she was the one warmed greeted. He wasn't ignored completely as she generally was on Athiss, but given curious glances.

"You said we were here so I can steal something because I'm a thief," she hissed at him. In a foul mood despite the culture around them, she had repeated this complaint several times. "But not a tonne of something! And don't tell me size matters not again. It does, I'm the thief remember."

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

Normally Vrak wasn't one to deal with slaves out of hand, but seeming as he was currently wearing the mask and thus wasn't actually "Vrak" there was no issue in actually...comforting Neesa, or as much as any Pureblood could comfort anyone anyway. "We will still be stealing."

Vrak pointed out to her.

"Just on a grander scale." This project was important for what they had planned. It was the next step in actually moving them towards what Athiss needed. Preparations back home were already being taken. He had put the mines acquired from Lord Gelder to good use, and the manufacturing centers he'd acquired after the death of Lord Belfir were being refit for more...modern standards. By the time they returned from this world things would be ready for production of the prototype.

"If you wish." He would throw her a bone. "While we may I can explain why this is so important."

It was likely very rare that Neesa actually learned why she was doing something.

No doubt she was used to secrecy and lies, but then again, Vrak was no different than her Master. He simply saw opportunity in truth.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

"Pick pocket on your left, green hood," she replied out of hand. "Watch your belongings." It was a different city, but she could see some similarities at least.

The snow crunched underfoot. She'd never experienced that before. She started to wonder how she would go about staying quiet in such conditions. Not that she was going to sneak off with a tonne of whatever these crystals were. She grimaced as a particularly biting wind caught them.

"Please do, it will keep my mind off the parts of me that are fething freezing off," she muttered, street girl coming forwards. "And who it is we're putting out of pocket."

She hoped it was someone rich. The spiteful part of her would enjoy that.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

"Lord Gelders mines have provided me with an abundance of resources." Vrak said simply as they wandered through the snow. The cold did not seem to touch him, or at the very least it hardly seemed to bother him. He simply wandered forward as though it were a hot summer day on Athiss, fingers lacing forward as he gently tugged his hand to the side. The pickpocket suddenly 'slipped' on a patch of ice and went tumbling to the ground.

There was a loud crack as the man's head struck the pavement below, blood quickly seeping into the white around him. "These resources are ostensibly for the improvement of Athiss."

They would be, in a way.

"However, some have been secreted away to Manufacturing facilities I have managed to acquire through...other means." Thanks to Taheera's help of course. "These Facilities are slated to create a ship for our use in the greater galaxy."

He half turned to her. "What we will be stealing today will aid in the creation of that ship."

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

"How will we use it?" she asked. Neesa had been on two ships in her entire life. As far as she was aware they took people from place to place. Apparently there were a lot of places. Some of them fething freezing with ice for sky.

She couldn't help but look towards the pale figure on the ground. Should she feel something for him? That could have been her just five years ago. But it hadn't been her. Sitas had seen her potential when she had tried to steal from him. Neesa knew that she had never meant to be in that low station. She was meant for greater things and she had proven herself with sweat and blood.

She almost thought she should have felt something, but nothing. Just annoyance at the weather. She pulled her cloaks around herself even tighter.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

"The first steps in our return." Vrak said as they continued to wander.

Quickly they were nearing the facility. Everything was set in place, if his agents were to be believed. There was no need to rush, not yet, and slowly...very slowly, he thought that he was beginning to entice Neesa. That was his intention after all, bring her into the fold.

"We have been too far gone from this Galaxy." He said quietly. "The Sith have been lead astray."

Just up ahead their target appeared. "I intend to change that."

Their return would be glorious, but it had to start slow.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

It wasn't difficult. She didn't really have a grasp on the scale of the galaxy. Her master had come from Athiss and settled down in her home city. Aggressive expansion was a phrase he was fond of.

She didn't hold an important position. Another Lord wouldn't order her around when she wore the robes that marked her as Sitas' hand, his apprentice in the dark arts, but her part was still small. A tool. Though in the last few months she had grown her understanding of how Athiss worked. Started to get a feel for the city. She had contacts all of her own now.

She had to believe she could increase her station. Knowing she was meant for greater things was what drove her. Being a big part of a small organisation was one thing. An organisation that held power across a swathe of a galaxy far larger than she even understood was a different game altogether.

"Those who fear challenge want to avoid it by keeping Athiss isolated," she remarked, making it clear she didn't count herself among that group.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

He smiled at that. "Precisely."

The facility was now just up ahead, looming in place. Their shuttle was in orbit of the planet and would come down when they gave the signal, the other team would strike to keep the guards busy. It would all work quickly and smoothly, hopefully with no one interfering in the plan. Vrak realized that when dealing with the greater galaxy things often got...twisted, but right now that was not a concern. It seemed that everyone upon this world was more than happy to mind their own business.

Perhaps it was because they were warriors. They knew better than to interfere in matters that were not their own. "Weakness is bred from stagnation."

He sounded almost...sad.

"Athiss has been stagnant for a very long time." He paused for a moment as they stopped just in front of the facility, he looked down at Neesa for a moment, then spoke again. "Would you like to help me change that Neesa? Show the old world what strength we have?"

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

She slowed her pace. The city was a connected series of settlements dug deep into the ice. The trains took the residents between all the different districts through tunnels dug through the ice. If this went south and their transport was delayed it would be very easy for the authorities to box them in.

Neesa liked contingency plans, but she didn't bank on failure. They had some time now. They had to strike just after the cargo train pulled up to the mines. When the loading droids had brought the containers out, but before it was loaded onto a carriage.

"I'm here aren't I?"

She realised after replying so curtly that it was because the weather and travel had left her in a foul mood.

"I wasn't meant to be.. Like him," she added in a hushed tone. She looked back over her shoulder towards the boy who had slipped. Helpless. She wondered if Lord Sitas had ever told Vrak where he had found Neesa. "There ain't much Sith blood in me, but I'm with you."

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"]

"Our blood marks us." Vrak agreed as he waited quietly. Purebloods prided themselves on what they were above all else. It was they that stood above the rest. Sith all across the galaxy could claim to be the strongest, the most powerful, but even the strongest of them paled in comparison to a true Pureblood.

That was simple fact.

"But it does not make us." Vrak said with a scowl. "Some of my kind grow weak, tired. cowardly."

She looked down at her. "You stand above them."

That was probably the only time that Neesa would ever hear something like that from Vrak, and it showed the disgust he felt for some of his people. Purebloods were better than others, just by their nature, but Vrak believed that some of his kin had soiled their blood enough to make them less. It was a mark of just how seriously he took all of this.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

She twisted her upper body towards.him, peering out at him from within the hood pulled tight around her face. White wisps of dyed hair slipping free into the cold. Of course she couldn't see his expression, just the cold gaze of his mask.

Her eyes snapped forwards once more. She could feel rather than hear the rumble of the train approaching. Neesa focussed on that. She was left bewildered by his comment, as close to a genuine complement as she'd had from Vrak. Her master had told her she was above those who she had left behind on Magnus, but had never suggested her worth was greater than any other Sith.

She didn't know how to reply so she didn't.

"There," she murmured catching sight of the train. It was a robust looking cargo train. No wheels, it hovered above the track. Yet the tarnished industrial looking metal of the carriages made it look anything by hi-tech.

Neesa started to flex her fingers to warm them through and took a few steps back to keep herself out of view. It was come into the platform down on their left and then the doors to the facility would open. Once the containers were put beside the platform for the cranes to load up it was time to move.

 

[Saff]

There was a pleasant difference behind the world she was on; accustomed to crowded humid hub worlds like coruscant or sin filled cesspools like Nar Shaddaa, but the ice worlds; to Ebony, they were things of beauty and she rather much liked seeing them stay that way.

So she was contracted to do in any case.

Her black suit made her stand out, more than her good looks did, and more than the armour or saber at her hip. So with legs crossed she deemed it better to simply wait atop the roof of the train as it pulled into a stop at the station, opting to simply take freed up forms of transport over the exorbitant prices of taxis.

However, everything was rather difficult for Ebony when she reached the halt, when two very heavy presences came to meet the train. She had gulped, knowing full well what darkness wrapped around the sith.

[member="Neesa"]
[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"] | [member="Ebony Blackheart"]

The force instantly began to rush through him. His fingers flexed, his muscles tightened, the darskide rushing through every fiber of his being. The saber-staff that had been concealed upon his lower back was slowly slipped into his hand, though not yet ignited. He watched the train below, lips thinning as the cargo does slid open.

This strike had been planned, the cargo droids moved smoothly and quickly, placed against the ground in the same fashion as it had been for the last hundred deliveries. He frowned slightly as he watched the droid place another stack ontop of the pallet, the cargo crates being stacked three high before a new pile was started. He glanced up to the sky for a moment, as if he would be able to see the ship waiting for them there. His gaze then quickly returned to the train. "Go."

Vrak said as the final cargo crate was unloaded.

In an instant his lightsaber burst into life and Vrak dashed forward.

He became a blur as he rushed over the snowy landscape and bounded down towards the cargo bay, slicing one of the droids in half on his way down and landing with a hard thud against the ground, the force pushing out from him.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Vrak Nashar"] [member="Ebony Blackheart"]

Neesa sprinted for the mid-section of the train. Better to find cover there than go straight for the guards and try to close the distance under a hail of blaster fire. She heard and felt an explosion in the distance.

Their distraction was in place it seemed. She heard a warning shout from the train, felt it even more clearly through the Force. She snapped one of her sith swords free. It felt more naturally in her hand than anything else, an extension of her arms. The blaster bolt deflected off it surface harmlessly.

Kicking up a shower of snow she slid to a halt, keeping enough momentum to roll right under the train and come up on the other side. It was chaos now. Glorious chaos. She flicked one sword into the air and closed her eyes. Freeing a knife from her belt it was sent arching over the train, guided by the Force. On the other side a guard dropped to his knees and peered under the train.

Neesa caught her falling sword in her outstretched hand. The guard caught a knife in the back of his neck.

 

[Saff]

Ebony rose to her feet upon seeing the sith pounce into action.

There was something off however, the red skinned one; as far as she knew, those types of sith were stories; even further, she'd learnt they'd been almost bred out of existence prior to the fall of the sith.

So she was double surprised by the red skin of the man.

She vaulted off of the top of the cargo train, soaring through the air into the growing scuffle, the amber hue of her blade hissing to life as she drew it from her belt; her deep blue eyes training between the smaller more nimble girl that darted about and the presumed master tearing through whatever came into sight.

Her decision was made, the younger one first. Master Sith usually weren't the easiest to reason with; and apprentices tended to rush to their master's aid, whereas in her experience the opposite scenario was much rarer. So she thumbed a pad on the armoured compartment on her left leg and out sprang plasteel hilt to a sword, which a moment later expanded out into a full length curved blade.

She darted around shots and panicked workers, exploding through the snow in a burst of unnatural speed propelled by the force, she ground to a halt before @Neesa.

"Sorry to say, but i'll need to intervene here" she said with mock sympathy, saber and blade raised and ready.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"] | [member="Ebony Blackheart"]

He turned on his heel, lightsaber thrumming within the snows. His eyebrow raised as he looked at the one who had spoken. She didn't wear any armor that he recognized, nor did she have any symbols upon her that would explain what she was, but he didn't particularly care.

Vrak motioned to Neesa who had just slid into the scene, almost literally.

"Kill her. Fighting whoever this person was seemed entirely beneath him, especially when there was other work to be done. One half of his saber-staff still unlit Vrak turned away from the woman, deciding that she was not worth his time and that Neesa could take care of the problem for him. In the distance and explosion went off, the ground shaking slightly as the second team began their distraction of the authorities.

A fire would begin, followed by slaughter.

It was in no way subtle, but it would do.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Ebony Blackheart"] [member="Vrak Nashar"]

Neesa canted her head to one side. The position of her feet changed and then changed again. First she transitioned from a mobile stance to fight enemies armed with blasters. No need for too much stability in those conditions. Then she swapped again when the black-clad woman drew a second blade, shifting her stance for a two bladed threat.

One lightsaber, one metal blade. One would come quick, the other would carry momentum into each block and parry. Neesa held one curved sithsword out, tip towards the woman's neck.the right was held out to one side. Flakes of snow landed on those gleaming blades. One touched a rune engraved near the hilt and instantly melted.

I should have brought hand warmers.

"You will be," she called out in a singsong voice. A tight smile. The Force moved around this woman darkly; she was a genuine threat.

Neesa shot forwards, drawing the Force around her. As she closed the snow drift before Ebony exploded upwards as Neesa reached out through the Force.

Neesa vanished behind the shield as the snow rained down over Ebony. Yet instead of diverting her course she accelerated. Several small objects fell free from her cloak as she ran. Like a snow fox, the deathly pale assassin, garbed in white, emerged straight through the cloud of snow. The light glinting off twin blades visible first. Both came in at Ebony's right side, high and low in a wicked swing.

 

[Saff]

Ebony instantly fell into her primal instincts; fight to survive. Raised a slave, born in crime filed slums, everything was a fight, and here was no different; thing was, here she was an arsenal.

Her first weapon, and her second greatest, was the force; when the snow was spurned upwards, her gloved hand holding the blade, her left; played out around the weapon and the wall of snow bounced around her, the blade dropped and she caught it on the top of her boot, just at the toe, balancing it easily right in the centre.

When the sith came through, her sword flicked up and the planted it in the ground, springing over it using a finger for balance over the hilt of the blade, she landed, saber still ignited and lunged in from behind her opponent, eyes scaling her every feature, every part of her and watching every small object that fell around her. Anything was a weapon. Something she enforced when blasting forth in a burst of unnaturally high speed and stopping just inches from the girl with the point of her saber, but instead shot a hand out under the backwards facing blade due to her dual wielding stance and slammed a wall of telekinetic force into her opponent, sending her back but doing no damage.

Ebony raised up and collected her blade, rolling her shoulders and bouncing between heeled feet.

"Why here?" she called across the commotion, she was in a state of peace, the world rotated in harmony for her as chaos rolled about; the darkside and light side of the force wrapped around her, she could feel the rippling pulses of the lightning in her right hand, but also the gentle touch of simple telekinesis in her left.

[member="Neesa"]
[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Neesa"] | [member="Ebony Blackheart"]

While Neesa dealt with...whomever was attempting to get in their way Vrak went about his business.

The plan had been a simple one really, strike at the unloaded cargo, call down the ship, and then quickly leave. There was no need for needless slaughter or killing, though that didn't meant it wouldn't happen. From the explosion in the distance and the sound of sirens it was obvious that death was already occurring, just on what scale Vrak didn't really know. It didn't really matter all that much either, the other team had their assignments just as Vrak and Neesa did.

He smiled slightly as he moved towards the crates.

His lightsaber flicked up to reflect an incoming bolt back towards the security trooper that had fired it, deflecting it so it struck into the man's chest.

The trooper flailed for a second and then fell back to the ground, either dead or unconscious. The Pureblood ignored the felled man and retrieved a small device on the side of his pocket. His thumb pressed against a small switch on the device, then he placed it against one of the large cargo crates. Above, in orbit of the planet, the shuttle that had been waiting in standby quickly began to descend, becoming a spec in the sky as it dropped down towards their position.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Ebony Blackheart"] [member="Vrak Nashar"]

The telekinetic strike knocked the air out of her chest. Neesa was lithe and nimble and managed to keep her footing even on the unstable terrain. She left an arc gouged out of the snow as her trailing leg carved through the snow as she span.

What an odd thing to be asked a question in the middle of a fight. When Neesa asked questions it was after victory had been achieved and the other party could be made nice and pliant. She opened her mouth as if she was going to reply, but none was forthcoming. Instead she heaved ice cold air into her lungs. It burned but every mouthful of air was necessary.

Her original plan had been to give ground, but now that wasn’t required. Those objects that had fallen from her cloak as she’d rushed forwards were Splinter Knives all coated in SmartTranq. They each shot up out of the snowdrift towards Ebony’s back and legs from different angles.