Some men just want to watch the world burn ... [Jorus Merrill]

[Lucien Cordel]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Lucien had been a spoke in the wheel for a long time and up until very recently it had served him well. Recently however his opinion of the whole thing had soured.He was no longer at the top and his friends were either absent, presumed dead or little more than traitors. Added to that the fringe was falling apart, he had no intention of staying or going off to repeat the whole process again. The rules had metaphorically kicked him in the groin so he resolved himself to join a side that wanted to tear up the rules ... the only issue was contacting them.

A man like lucien could't just stroll into a rebel base and expect to leave alive. They would have to come to him, he would need to bait them. He had spent weeks lading a careful trap. first he had paid a small fortune to have craftsman forge a fake laser focusing gem. Then he had arranged a small leak of information on this supposed focusing gem. A short time later he had charted a course and sworn the drunkest captain in the unknown regions knowing that soon after he would get drunk and blab ... then he had that captain drowned.

Thus the rather odd situation where upon lucien was sat in the cockpit of an empty transport, with a rather pretty glass orb hoping to be attacked by rebels. The Journey had thus far been terribly boring siting alone thinking in a chair could only hold someones attention for so long.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lucien Cordel"]

A unique focusing crystal, presumably with weapons application; a mysterious death, presumably due to some skullduggery; a plot half-glimpsed, presumably part of the Fringe Confederation's collapse. The Underground as a whole was still riding high after the Battle of Taloraan. An opportunity like this couldn't be passed up.

She hadn't been there for Taloraan. Most of her life these days was either study at the Levantine Astronautical Academy or secondment to the Frontier Corps for special assignments. But every now and again she had or made a break, and on one such break she'd caught the edge of this affair while drinking aboard Rebellion Actual. The Garden of Unending Delights, her father's frigate, wasn't a warship so much as a pleasure yacht carrying half a squadron of the deadliest fighters around -- and enough flame carpets to torch a small moon. And flame carpets were useless in space. So when it dropped out of hyperspace by Cordel's freighter, its cannon fire was very mild. The same could not be said for the six Dominus-class starfighters, equivalents of the ancient TIE Defender they resembled, which closed in around the freighter from all sides with ion cannons blazing.

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien smiled for all of about thirty seconds before the ion cannons began to fire on his ship. why was everyone so bloody violent these days? He rocked back and forth as what shielding his freighter had took an utter battering. It was in that moment, as he watched his shield levels deplete, that lucien realised how foolish he'd been they could kill him right here and now. If they didn't blow his ship up then they could just board him and beat him to death ... none the less it was too late to turn back now.

Lucien lent back in his chair and took a deep gulp of brandy from his hip flask then indicated his surrender. "I am alone and seek Parley with whichever among you would claim seniority ... I have some explaining to do" He was going to need some more brandy, this could be the very last thing he did. He rather hoped it wasn't if lucien was going to die he rather hoped he could do it in decadence. Lucien looked himself over, If he was going to be killed he would do so with the dignity and togetherness he was once famous for. He just had to wait now.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lucien Cordel"]

The ions took down his ship systems moments after he finished his transmission, and with no comm receivers operational, no response would be forthcoming. At least not by comlink.

The elite starfighters returned to the Garden of Unending Delights, and the modified Huttese light frigate closed in on the freighter. At the helm, Captain Alexa Tal'Verda Kol-Rekali scrutinized the sensor data. "Hold's empty," she said offhand to the Arcona behind her. "One lifesign."

The Arcona burbled.

"No, I agree. I don't like it either. But bottom line, we don't have a force cylinder and I'm not letting that ship in my hangar. I'll go across with a boarding party."

Burble.

"Then comm Actual, just be sure to use the pingback breaker station as one of your relays."

***​

​

The ships trembled against each other. Alec, bearing a Bloodstripe riot gun with a glowrod for a bayonet, entered the disabled ship. No lights, no gravity -- she floated with the expertise of a career spacer, one who'd spent more time in zero-gee than on a planet. At her back floated a handful of Underground zero-grav commandos.

"Come out," she called. "Let's talk."

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien sighed as the power when out and he started to float, he grabbed for the glass orb and although he succeeded it left him the wrong way up. It was rather undignified, he was glad his guests are yet to arrive. He rather liked having a chair when people came to see him, it allowed him to appear more villainous. However one couldn't always get what they wanted and so it came to pass that he was left floating in the dark as a ship moved closer to his. One could do a lot of contemplating alone in the dark all of their regrets, hopes and dreams. A few moments later he felt a group enter, it took him some time to figure out how to move without gravity, he wasn't a spacer. eventually he grasped it enough to move himself.

"Hmm I rather hoped that it would be Mr. Merrill greeting me here but I'm sure you'll be just as good" Lucien replied as he came into view "Lord Lucien Cordel, a pleasure to make your acquaintance" He added with a smile eyes slowly connecting with [member="Alec Rekali"] and her many armed companions, He needed to make himself familiar he found people were less trigger happy when they knew the name of the one they had their guns pointed at "... No doubt your wandering whats going on?" He moved closer. "I'm afraid you've been on the wrong end of a web of deception, there is no focusing gem and no deal with the sith , it was all just bait I want to make a deal with you " he said tossing the glass orb in Alec's direction.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lucien Cordel"] - that was a name that any Undergrounder knew after years of war with the Fringe. Cordel had served in a variety of high offices. So far as Alec could recall, though, he'd never been linked to any of the times when the Fringe Confederation had raided Underground bases in the Neutral Zone. He'd once helped capture Jorus Merril, but hadn't been involved in the torture that had followed. Alec snagged the crystal out of the air, examined it, and tossed it back to someone with a scanner. As a sign of goodwill, she lowered her Bloodstripe and floated closer. She arrested her momentum with a grip on a bulkhead door and came to a halt just outside lightsabre range.

"All right, Lord Cordel, I'm Captain Alec Rekali. General Merrill's the one who sent me to try for this raid; he's a bit busy for something like we thought this was, but that's before we knew you were involved. He'll want to talk with you for sure. He'll also want to know what this is about."

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien breathed a sigh of relief when [member="Alec Rekali"] lowered her gun. She might have known him but he didn't know her and guns unnerved him. He noted how even outnumbered by heavily armed people he could still inspire some small measure of apprehension, perhaps even fear. The Sith in him enjoyed that and the diplomat in him considered that. "A Pleasure Captain, My lightsaber is floating around back there " He said gesturing behind him "Your welcome to take possession of it until I have proven I'm not a threat, I'm going to need to keep the cane you'll find along with it however ... bad knee" (See class in his bio) He hoped that would relive some of the tension in the room.

"The generals reputation precedes him, I am eager to talk to him ... do what ever you feel necessary I won't obstruct you" He said subtly offering his hands. "just try to avoid creasing anything I do hate to meet powerful people looking like Ive just been dragged from an alley" He added with a smile , he was of course completely sincere however.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lucien Cordel"]

"Barth." Alec shifted her head in signal and one of the Underground men floated past her and Cordel, heading to secure the lightsabre. Alec's focus stayed on the Sith Lord. "The cane's fine. General Merrill's eighty thousand light-years away, and it'd take him a good while to get here, so in the interests of his time and yours, I'll set up a holocall. Top quality. Stent, get this ship operational so Lord Cordel can talk to the General with his boots on the deck."

In a fairly short amount of time, power came back online. Light and gravity returned to the ship. Alec's boots hit the deck with the deftness of a career spacer. A portable holopad had been brought in; now, secured through multiple relays, it flared to life, displaying Jorus Merrill, life-size.

"Lord Cordel," said Merrill's image, "it's been a while. Captain Rekali, can you and your people give us some privacy?"

"Yessir." Alec and her boarding party slipped back through the airlock to the Garden, leaving the two Masters to their discussion.

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Much obliged" Lucien replied, he very much doubted any cause for fighting would arise but if it did it was nice to have Class around. Once this 'Barth' had secured his saber he opened his palm and class shot across the cockpit to his hand. A Holo-call was perhaps the safest option [member="Jorus Merrill"] had a reputation as a dangerous man. Whilst Captain Rekali's crew went about getting him power again, Lucien went about preparing for the moment when gravity got it's self into gear again. Th moment came and lucien landing with significantly less grace than his fellow occupants. His right leg naturally buckling ... It had taken a long time to make that convincing.

Lucien was slightly in awe of the General, the man was a living legend, Of course he gave no real outward indication of that. "General Merrill, Charmed as ever" Lucien replied " It has indeed been a long time , yet you seem unchanged " Lucien supposed he had changed very little as well such was the reward of excess wealth. Lucien moved back over to his chair once the captain had withdraw forgoing any limp or outward sign of injury after all he had moved onto a new game now. " I hope I can trust to their integrity" He pointed toward the Garden with his cane "If they talk and people hear I'll be in hot water and If word gets out about the proposal I'm going to make to you, I'm as good as dead" After all as Jorus knew better than most the fringe were not a group who pussy footed around.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lucien Cordel"]

"I can't speak for Captain Rekali and her people, Lord Cordel." Jorus was a good thirty thousand parsecs away, communicating instantaneously by HoloNet. The wonders of technology. "But they've been operating in this area for a good while, and they understand operational secrecy. Loose lips sink ships is a principle that keeps them alive. Welcome to how the other half lives."

He hooked his thumbs through his gunbelt and scrutinized the image. "It's not often that a Sith Lord gives me a call, and you've gone to serious lengths to make this call. So let's hear this proposal of yours, and you've got my word it stays between us two and the people I trust. I can't offer better terms than that."

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien nodded "very well, My Proposal General is this I wish to join 'the other side , I have served Oligarchs and their Ilk too long and for too long I have been derided" He thought of Ovmar and the high council, even the democracies were lies he saw that now "However I don't intend to be one of these silent saboteurs or smugglers, not in the conventional sense at least" Sneaking around blowing stuff up whilst having dirt smeared over ones face was neither one of lucien's skills or inclinations " I will bring different skills to the table, I boast an ability which I assume few others in your organisation possess I can walk the walk and talk the talk of the major factions and that means I can get the invites to the big ticket events, I can be your man on the inside as it were" Lucien was still slightly shocked his plan actually worked, it wasn't everyday one got a rebel on the line "I've also trained quite a few powerful people which I can of course do for you, so General [member="Jorus Merrill"] have I got your interest?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lucien Cordel"]

Jorus nodded slowly. "I hope you understand that I can evaluate your proposal at face value and still pay attention to all angles. There's no denying that your defection would be a massive step in the right direction, and you'd be an asset. You've got intel and connections we can't match. For training...well, we've got that covered.

"I'm sure you understand that I'd be stupid not to ask for a good faith offering -- whatever intel you have on current and former Fringe leaders and their nastiest starships, on the One Sith alliance, anything like that.

"Our structure's cell-based. That means you'd have to work with very few Undergrounders and wouldn't have to participate in larger operations. What you're proposing is more than enough. You're certainly not a field operative.

"You're a Sith Lord or close enough, so I have to know what's in this for you. How comprehensive do you want your revenge to be?"

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Of course, I would expect nothing less from a man of your caliber " Lucien smiled into his hand for a brief moment. Complements appealed to his ego, which had been feeling somewhat neglected of late. It also seemed he would be able to avoid snot nosed trainees "Thats good, I never liked teaching newly minted demigods to pick their noses with the force anyway"

"Ah so a little quid pro quo , very well I can't give you massive amounts of detail the civil war has ... complicated things, I'll give you what I can though" Lucien shuffled in his seat this was going to take a while "Currently at the top of the heap is Ovmar who is serving as emperor, for the most part he has the loyalty of the army" Ovmar was the main one "Most of the other ex leaders have gone dark Shinju , the cannibal, has been mostly isolated on Rakatta whilst Ashin has journeyed off who knows where and Andra and mikhail were in hiding last I heard of him, the alliances are up in the air till Ovmar makes a move for now the fringe is just about holding together" It was all a bit speculative, war did have a habit of karking everything up.

Lucien was also relived to hear he would be working only with a small group, the fewer the number of people in the loop the more protected he was and the fact he wouldn't be expected to work the field was reassuring, Lucien did rather hate a mess. Talking of making a mess the talk moved on to Lucien's motives. It was true that lucien was a Sith only by circumstance with very little of his influence or reputation stemming from an ability to shoot lightning, he did have the ambition of a sith though " My revenge general ... I want to take everything from them" his knuckles were white as his fist clenched "I want Ovmar and his cronies rendered but footnotes on history and even then only as jokes , referenced only i conversation by children stating just how much of a douche he was"