Soul Searching (ORC Dominion of Echidna, Hex Q-56)

[Dax Perl]

Legends tell of a place near the ancient planet of Echidna, past the moons of Lamia, Ruby Dear and Kharlon, a rare phenomena may occur, perhaps once every century or so. Some say its a side-effect of Vong experimentation, others say it is the result of the slaughtering of the Vong, but the effects are the same regardless. Once in a hundred years, a mysterious vessel known simply as ‘Seeker’ appears, crewed by the souls of the dead.

But fear not, dear traveler, these ghosts are not the spirits of ill will you’ve heard of in stories. These are the souls of those you’ve known and loved. Those you miss most dearly, and wish to share one last meal with, one last parting word. Will you take this chance to meet with the dead? Will you brave the cold dark vacuum of space to make amends in death, when you could not in life?

Objectives:

1. 
   Find the Seeker, inform others of its location.
   
   Location of the Seeker is subject to RNG. You may see it for a moment before it disappears elsewhere. You will have to account for travel time between locations, of which they are Echidna, Lamia, Ruby Dear, and Kharlon. Day 3, the final location will be set.
   

[*]
Commune with the dead.

1. 
   Say hi to your dead mom and dad! (Looking at you Batman)
   

[*]
SURPRISE MOFO!!! (Don’t worry this won’t come till the end of the thread)

1. 
   *Evil chuckle*
   

 

[Zak Amroth]

"That is...genuinely unsettling."

Zak trotted down the bulk freighter's loading ramp, knapsack slung lazily over his shoulder. Rata'Tosk spaceport took after the rest of Echidna's heavily Vong influenced culture. His surroundings were, in a word, gross.

"Okay Z, not one of your finest ideas," the young Jedi muttered to himself, quickly beginning to feel as usual that he was out of his element.

Echidna was a ways off the beaten trail, so to speak, and from the unnerving glares that followed him through the dockyards Amroth was willing to lay odds that most of the planet's denizens had never seen a near human before. Outside a takeout menu, that is.

"Thanks again for the lift!" he paused to wave enthusiastically back at the grizzled freetrader crew which had begrudgingly allowed him transport in exchange for the unpaid labor. They all ignored him, but the young Kiffar shrugged this off nonchalantly the way he did everything.

"Okay, now where to start," Zak slowed down, realizing after a while that he had no idea where he was headed, "Anyone seen the Seeker?"

He'd need a crew, probably. One crazy enough to join him on this little treasure hunt. If he brought back secrets from the underworld, a master at the Praxeum would be sure to take him on as their apprentice.

[member="Dax Fyre"]​

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Space was a lonely, dark place. Kaia knew that. She wasn’t really afraid of most things, to be honest, unless you were within a few parsecs of a hypertrail, you didn’t see anyone for weeks. Well, depending on what you were doing. As a Warden, the youngest Starchaser made it her whole mission in life to find other ships, to track down disabled vessels and give them a hand or two. It meant sometimes, just delivering hyperfuel, and other times chasing off pirates. She had to watch out for traps, but it wasn’t that often she got the danger sense for that.

The majority of people in the galaxy were a bit boring, and she liked that. Not everyone was a Sith trying to murder the rest of the galaxy. People were mundane, boring, and just looking to make ends meet, more often than not. And well, she could accept tips as a Warden, there was nothing that ever said no to that. Try accepting tips from a terrified citizen after you blast a Sith in their home.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

But today? That didn’t matter. Making a natural 19 on her spacer lore knowledge check today reminded Kaia of the legend of the ship known as Seeker. This vessel was rumored to be crewed by the dead. And since Kaia couldn’t find [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] maybe…

No, right?

Kinsey wasn’t dead…

Still, the Wnadering Star was tunneling through hyperspace towards Echidna.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

Objective 2: Commune with the Dead

After the release of CCA: Tax Tales from the Talz, Griet had more than just a few requests from testamentary executors, Talz or not, for advice regarding CCA implications of a taxpayer's death. However, she knew that one couldn't talk about post-mortem implications of CCA without also talking about capital gains or losses, nor about loss carryovers. Typically a taxpayer that dies with an unincorporated business in tow can either rollover the business' assets (and liabilities) to a testamentary trust or a living family member, under Section 70(6) of the Talz Income Tax Act, in which case the transfer is made at UCC or ACB depending on the asset. If they instead sold the assets to an arm's length party, With that said, when she starts communing with her dead clients whose testamentary trustees hired VPN, the first thing that comes to her mind is not so much anything related to their deaths unless they died in any of the engagements she fought in. Instead, she started telling them about the tax consequences to their estates of their respective deaths. Such as Brie.

"Fiscalist Actual, what are the tax consequences of my death to my family?" Brie's Force-ghost asked.

"At death, you may offset any accrued capital loss against any type of income, and it may be carried back one year; however, if a 70(6) rollover is effected, it essentially transfers all tax consequences to the estate unless one elects a value higher than the UCC/ACB, up to the fair-market value at death"

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Find the Seeker
Allies: [member="Dax Fyre"] @Endeavor @Kaia Starchaser

Meanwhile, Janick flew her first starfighter sortie in months, especially since pilots typically fly less and less as they go up the ranks, and even more so for elite units. The reports were most disturbing: no amount of mental data transfer skill would help her out here, assuming these reports were correct. And even Force-based methods of detection seemed to be much more difficult to use than usual. There's too much Force-based interference out there; it's as if some sort of Force-ECM is active; speaking of which, I probably ought to make some device that can jam Force-sensory. Useful against BM, useful to remain undetected. It creates a lot of static but while the Force-noise would be centered on the device, it would be able to jam Force-communications and Force-sensors, she thought, while realizing that she would need to buy a few universal jammers to make it work. In effect, it amounts to a portable Force-nexus (or as close to one as feasible with a universal jammer) and she needs to activate the autopilot so that she can fully concentrate on using the Force for locating the object they all call the Seeker.

 

[Dax Perl]

Seeker.

That was a legend Dax had seldom heard since he'd first joined what was then The Kathol Outback. Nonetheless, it was one that had stuck with him. Hell, who didn't find talking to the dead interesting? He didn't know when the the Seeker had made its last appearance. It must've been near a century ago. Recently, reports had been popping up of a mysterious, ghostly vessel popping up near Echidna, not unlike the OSS Ophidia from years before. But it couldn't be her, the Ophidia was abandoned out past the spiraling arms of the galaxy long ago.

Of course Dax had gone poking around. The more he prodded, the more substantial the claims seemed. A vessel, appearing for a moment before disappearing the next. Not into hyperspace either. The vessel always seemed to travel in the void and disappear as if it had never been there. No hypertrail, no heat signature. Nothing. The Grand Marshall figured others would search for the ship, that they'd have their own reasons for wanting to speak to the dead. He wondered how many would be similar to his own.

A blip appeared on the holo-projector, then several others heading towards Echidna. Well, he hadn't been wrong, others certainly were looking for Seeker. May as well find out who was around.

"Unknown vessels, this is the Azalea. Looking for the Seeker?" he'd ask, "Any sightings yet?"

[member="Endeavor"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"] | @Griet van Vilet | [member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Zak Amroth]

"You looking for the Seeker?"

Zak had been in the middle of haggling with a street vendor in broken Bochi over the most palatable, least alive looking delicacy on display, when a sleazy looking Selkath had approached him unprompted. The young Jedi eyes this uninvited third party before nodding eagerly.

"You speak Basic!" he cried out in relief, genuinely glad to hear words in a language he understood, "What'll it cost me?"

"Just a small finder's fee," the Selkath genuflected obsequiously, before motioning for Amroth to follow, "I can show you, come come."

"Show me, huh?" Zak stroked his chin thoughtfully, seeming to contemplate the urchin's offer, "Lead the way, my good man!"

Strutting off after his newly contracted guide, the Kiffar once more took in his surroundings. His first impression, "gross", didn't even begin to describe Rata'Tosk city. This was the frontier alright, even for the Outer Rim everything seemed truly alien. Zak paid no mind as the Selkath urchin led him off the main road and down a series of blind alleys until he turned the corner and there was no one to be found.

"H-hey!" he called out to an empty alley way, "New friend?"

"Alright pahteesa, empty your pocket-" from behind him, Zak could hear the Selkath's voice catch in his throat.

"Looking for this?" the padawan asked, dangling a nasty looking disruptor pistol. The same one his would be mugger had been reaching for only to discover it had been lifted, "You really should be more careful around here. Echidna's a dangerous place, so I hear."

Letting loose a startled yelp, the Selkath took off down the alley. With an exasperated sigh, Amroth took aim at a fire escape hanging over the alley a few meters in front of the urchin's path. Rusted metal violently dematerialized, and a now untethered pile of scraps tumbled down right on top of his quarry.

"You're lucky atomizing people isn't like, the Jedi Code or whatever," Amroth cheerfully informed the pinned Selkath squealing now in terror, "Say, you wouldn't happen to have a ship would you?"

He rifled through the trapped and wounded thief's pockets, tossing most of the junk over his shoulder but holding onto a few trinkets. Finally, Zak found what he was looking for. Scanning the datapad in his hands, the Kiffar's smile widened.

"Access codes, shiny. It cool if I borrow this?"

The Selkath let out a pitiful groan.

"Thanks, pal!"

[member="Dax Fyre"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"]​

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Ghost ships were something of a mystery, but with the galaxy being so large, and so many groups out there? Who was too say if it was something that could happen or not? The Force was mysterious, the Kathol Rift was a place where the laws of physics seemed to be thrown to the solar winds. But who was she to say it couldn’t be true? Just a Jedi Knight, and not even a well trained on. She had passed trials of exploration and assistance, but not much beyond that.

Her droid beeped at her, pulling her from her thoughts on her cousin.

“Right, pulling to real space.” She muttered as her YT-2400 reverted back to the starfield. When she entered the system, she let his sensors scan before firing a boosted sensor, compliments of her father’s company. The sensor boost would get her any signs in the system that her local scanners were not picking up.

“All ships, this is Wandering Star of the Outer Rim Coalition.” She broadcast, as she started piecing through the list of data coming across her screen.

[member="Endeavor"] | [member="Dax Fyre"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"]​

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"All stations, it looks like our target has heavy ECM jamming" she answered [member="Dax Fyre"]'s question over comms. "All I can detect is some general area from where a lot of sensor static is coming, but no more than that; I'll try to close in but I'll stand ready to bug out if the target proves hostile"

Janick was apparently unconcerned with whether said ECM jamming would affect comms to people such as [member="Kaia Starchaser"], [member="Zak Amroth"] or even @Endeavor that were also looking for the elusive ghost ship. She feels that her controls were shaking when she was dealing with an enemy about which nothing seemed to be known other than some general location and some presumed EWAR capabilities; for what she knew the target may as well be suicidal to attack outright, but she'd rather stay out of what she presumed to be point-defense range, knowing that the jammer's signature gets more intense the closer she gets to it. Plus, from the sensor signature of the jammer, she could tell the power of a jammer model; it was very similar to the EWAR equipment mounted on the GE's EWAR platforms as she faced them on Dagobah. Ouch. The GE may have left lots of wrecks behind on several theaters, Varonat, Dagobah, Tatooine, Charros, but did the Seeker travel to any of those? Janick thought, while the possibility that the EWAR could be GE in origin was perhaps a little too far-fetched to her taste.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

"Then, how is the... 70(6) rollover provision implemented?" Brie's ghost asked.

"One last thing: the 70(6) rollover provision is typically implemented under the auspices of a will, when a testamentary trust is established. If you expect those assets to be distributed in short order, then the trust can be designated a Graduated Rate Estate, which has a maximum lifespan of three standard years from the date of death of the deceased"

Graduated Rate Estates, in Talz tax parlance, differ from regular Talz trusts in that they are subject to the same tax brackets as individuals, rather than the single-bracket 33% tax rate applicable to all other trusts. A similar provision to the 70(6), the 73(1) which is implemented inter-vivos and most commonly associated with separation or divorce, is typically associated with divorces but is otherwise essentially the same as the 70(6). And also the infamous Section 85 rollover, which is typically used at incorporation of an unincorporated business or between two companies in a parent-subsidiary relationship. All three rollovers allow to elect any value between the lower of ACB, UCC and FMV, and the FMV, which means that, should the FMV be lower than the lower of ACB or UCC, you don't even have a choice in the matter and it's best not to elect to use a 70(6), 73(1) or 85 rollover, since you'd be then rolling over a capital loss. But Brie wasn't subject to the income attribution rules, nor the dividend/capital gains stripping rules, so there was no use for Griet to talk about those topics.

 

[Dax Perl]

"All ships, this is the Wandering Star of the Outer Rim Coalition,"

"All stations, it looks like our target has heavy ECM jamming,"

Staticy comm chatter began to flood Dax's ears as multiple ships began to drop out of hyperspace near the Azalea, interference sourcing from what the Marshall could only presume was the ship garbling all transmissions going in and out, although he could still barely make out what was being said.

"Janick, figures I'd find you out here," the Rogue said, "I'm not sure that that's an EMF jammer though...chalk it up to the supernatural...just hope we don't get any Starweirds popping up on anyone's ships, damned things are annoying as hell."

As Dax spoke a new mysterious reading would begin to appear from the same area that Janick was picking up as the source as the disruption of communications. A brief flar of energy, and its sudden disappearance heading off in the directions of one of Echidna's three moons, although which it really was, it was hard to tell.

"All vessels, looks like our prey's getting away, heading towards Lamia, Ruby Dear, or Kharlon. Destination uncertain, pick a moon and babysit 'er. Fyre out."

As the communicator shut off the Rogue turned to his helmsman, "Take us towards Ruby Dear. Maybe we'll get lucky."

[member="Zak Amroth"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="Griet van Vliet"]

 

[VildarnTentoria]

<From Aloha Archae>

_________________

Soul Searching
__________________

Objective: Commune with the Dead
Goal: Communicate with spirits
Post: 1
Location: The Seeker

Vildarn, Commander of the Stars To Embers and member of Storm Fleet had been given this amazing opportunity to join the search for a vessel referred to as The Seeker. Vildarn was a skeptical man and didn’t believe such a thing was truly possible but when the ship actually appeared on sensors he’d needed all his strength to avoid ordering his ship to open fire.

Of course his second in command Brook had talked him into believing this a once in a life time opportunity and had requested that the ships legend be given a chance. Preparing squads of droids, Vildarn would board the ship and if possible, would attempt to commune with the dead and perhaps even gain insight otherwise out of reach.

 

[Zak Amroth]

"I don't speak that!" Zak finally shouted back in frustration at his 'borrowed' alien transport's voice alarm which was loudly repeating some kind of gibberish on a loop, "Even the panels are in Selkath! Basic! Baaayy-sssiiick."

Somehow through trial and error the young Jedi had managed to launch without exploding or crashing, but he hadn't yet figured out how to safely break orbit and he was pretty sure the ship's landing gear was still down. The pilot's console in front of him was lighting up like a Life Day wreathe, flashing text in an inscrutable foreign language. He was afraid to touch any of the alerts in case it made things worse, and only in this moment as he tried to figure out a next move did it occur to him that maybe he hadn't thought this all the way through.

"Focus, Zak! You can do this," he cleared his mind the way the masters at the Praxeum had taught him to, and as he sat there awaiting a brilliant stroke of meditative inspiration, he subconsciously rested his hands on the display in front of him.

It felt like the breath had been driven out of his lungs, and suddenly he was falling. He landed in the same place, only this time the Selkath he had robbed was in the pilot's seat, and by now Amroth knew that this was another one of his psychometric visions. An alert chimed on the panel in the pilot's memory, and he reached out to activate it. Even though the creature wasn't speaking Basic, somehow Zak could understand him. The conversation didn't make sense out of context, but he inferred enough to understand that someone had sent him a transmission and he was responding.

His eyes fluttered open, and the Kiffar was back in the real world. Looking down at the display, he saw that the same alert from his vision was flashing now. On instinct, he reached out and pressed it.

"All vessels, looks like our prey's getting away, heading towards Lamia, Ruby Dear, or Kharlon. Destination uncertain, pick a moon and babysit 'er. Fyre out."

"Communications!" he shouted in triumph, reeling at the implications. Maybe his quest wasn't so dead in orbit after all, "Now, what's a Lamia?"

[member="Dax Fyre"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="VildarnTentoria"]​

 

[Kir Tillian]

Comms chatter echoed across the channels around Echidna as Kir dropped out of hyperspace. Whether he was where he had planned to go, he wasn't quite sure, but sensors were definitely telling him that it was Echidna and its three moons. Something about a ghost ship, the Seeker. Kir wasn't even sure if such things were possible, but there were some ghosts in his past that he needed to make peace with, whatever it took, and he wasn't fool enough to try and go to the Netherworld. Gates still existed, but only the mad and the Sith tried that.

Kir just wanted to live his life. Be normal, more or less. None of that mysticism and supernatural. But still, this chance to try and make things right lured him onwards. He couldn't turn down an option like that.

"I read," Kir replied, "Deputy Tillian en route to Lamia." By which he meant, actually Lamia. He powered down the tumbledrive and rerouted through the Mynock. It wasn't far. He nudged the thrusters forward. "Keep an eye out. We're not the only ones out here."

His hands moved along the controls as he pushed the ship to his highest speed, sublight anyways, which wasn't a whole lot. It puttered along and he kicked his boots up onto the dash as his eyes darted along the sensors and across the viewports, searching for wherever this ship might be found. Or maybe they wouldn't. That was more like what he expected.

[member="Zak Amroth"] @VildarnTentoria @Dax Fyre [member="Griet van Vliet"] [member="Janick Beauchamp"] [member="Kaia Starchaser"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I'm en route for Kharlon now"

Then its EWAR suite, presumably containing universal jammers, is truly universal in its jamming capabilities, so that it can even create sufficient background noise in cronau radiation to baffle cronau sensors, Janick thought, while realizing that perhaps there is some alchemical treatment applied to the jammers themselves; she would be led to think that some sort of thrust trace damper would allow it to confuse cronau radiation as well. However, she knew that most thrust trace dampers don't work so well when full thrust is applied. With [member="Dax Fyre"] being headed for Ruby Dear and [member="Faenula Triscan"] to Lamia, and [member="Zak Amroth"] being somehow hidden by that same noise in her scopes, she decided to activate the stealth suite so as to fly to Kharlon undetected, should the ghost ship open fire at her upon detection. And yet, she knew that she couldn't apply maximum thrust when in stealth mode. Maybe she can fly about as fast as an A-wing, with or without tow cables, but that's still enough to catch the ghost ship with a full-power bomblet in a surprise attack if it came to that. And that gives her more ideas for her very own alchemical universal jammer, to be built upon return.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

"What happened with my RRSP money?" Brie's ghost asked.

"Your wife was named the beneficiary of the RRSP in your will, so your RRSP was rolled over into hers, tax-free. Now, if you had a minor kid as an additional beneficiary, the kid's share of the RRSP would be usable to buy a term-certain annuity whose present value is precisely that, and the annuity payments must cease before the kid turns major"

If a RRSP subscriber or RRIF annuitant died heirless, on the other hand, the money is deemed to have been withdrawn at the date of death for the fair market value of its contents at the time of death, and taxed as such. Plus one can roll over the cash in the deceased's DPSP to a living spouse's RRSP/RRIF, much like one would roll over a RRSP/RRIF; at death, a DPSP is treated the same as a RRSP/RRIF in Talz estate planning. If, on the other hand, Brie named a financially dependent child or grandchild as one of the beneficiaries of those plans, that child must 1) have lived with the deceased and 2) their net income for tax purposes (NITP) must have been less than the basic exemption (plus the disability amount if the child was financially dependent on the deceased because of a disability). But some clients found out that it was preferable to transfer the money into a lifetime benefit trust if the beneficiary is disabled since it allows the beneficiary to withdraw as much or as little as one wants to, unlike a RRIF or a term-certain annuity, where sometimes the minimum withdrawal amounts may be inappropriate for the beneficiary in its situation.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Keeping an eye on everything was a lot of what Kaia did. The dark haired Starchaser was looking for anything that would help give her a sense of purpose. And that was trickier on some days more than others for the girl. When she reverted to real space, she was seeing the battle ahead of her. Or… whatever it was. She looked again and shook her head. What was that ship? Alliance and Coalition vessels lighting up her scopes. Looks like she found her friends. Turning back to her droid, the probot was floating over to the sensors where it was plugging in, to help identify the ships present.

Then the large one was tagged.

“Was that the Seeker?” She asked over open comms. That was when Dax came back across.

“Right… Uhh Wandering Star on the way to Kharlon. Lets see if we get lucky.” Falling into the Force, she pointed her ship in the direction, activating the hyperdrive and shutting it off, just quick enough to move her ship the microjump to the moon.

 

[Dax Perl]

As the multitudes of ships, ranging from small light freighters to massive vessels of war like Dax's own streaked into the empty void of space, alighting the Azalea's viewports with the image of a hundred shooting stars. Dax's lip curled into a smile as his own ship began to make its jump to hyperspace, joining the others in their mad dash across the system to find the mysterious ship, to settle their own scores or simply have their names struck down in the legend itself. His reasoning for searching for the Seeker may have been grim, but the sight of so many Coalition and allied ships working together, and for once not in a time of war, it was a good feeling. One he hadn't experienced in a long while.

Elsewhere in space the Seeker had not yet appeared, even as the searching vessels dropped out of hyperspace with pinpoint precision around their destined planets. Each moon seemed free of the disruptive aura of the ghostly vessel. Was the information the ship-finders relayed wrong? Or had the vessel just not dropped out of hyperspace yet. Such was the situation around Ruby Dear as Dax's own vessel arrived at the moon a few minutes after he had made the initial jump.

"All stations, report in. No sightings near Ruby Dear. Any luck over by Lamia or Kharlon?"

(Sorry for the delay guys, exams have been kicking me in the butt)

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Griet van Vliet"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="Kir Tillian"] | [member="Zak Amroth"] | [member="VildarnTentoria"]

 

[Zak Amroth]

By now Zak had figured out how to work in a basic sense the transport's most essential functions with the aid of his natural talent for psychometry. So many visions in rapid succession had drained him physically, however, and he was currently sipping gingerly from a container of liquid he hoped was fit for organic consumption.

His destination, the moon of Lamia, was not far in an astronomic sense, but hyperdrive control was complex enough that the Jedi was still hesitant to risk attempting to program a jump, especially such a short one. So he chugged along on sublight engines, it would take him a few hours yet to reach the moon's orbit but he was just entering sensor range now.

"All stations, report in. No sightings near Ruby Dear. Any luck over by Lamia or Kharlon?"

"Uhh, I think I've got something..." Amroth shouted at his comm panel, still not entirely certain he was actually broadcasting, "Let me try and lock it down."

There was definitely something on his sensors, but everything was still displayed in Selkath so he had no way of knowing exactly what. Making a few intuitive taps on the screen, he finally managed to produce what appeared to be another ship's telesponder registry. There was a single word rendered in Basic, 'Mynock'.

"Nevermind!" he shouted on the off chance anyone could actually hear him, "I think it's just one of you guys. Stupid ship..."

The Seeker had never felt so far away, yet still not an hour ago Zak hadn't even had a ship to search with. He was determined to see this through to the end, even if he had to teach himself how to read Selkath to do it.

[member="Dax Fyre"] | [member="Kir Tillian"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="VildarnTentoria"]​

 

[Griet van Vliet]

"Conventional wisdom holds that, for military personnel, wills should be made on the day of enlistment, or as soon as possible after service begins, but all too often people neglect to do so, most of the time because they can't afford a will. Understandably if it's a person with little or no assets, nor families, it's not that big of a deal but it can become a legal nightmare for people with either families or significant assets"

"What do you mean, a legal nightmare?"

"Many family law cases are about estate disputes, but I'm not a family lawyer, nor a tax lawyer. All I can say is that, although the Talz don't per se levy estate taxes, deemed dispositions at death can trigger what effectively amounts to an estate tax without the use of rollover provisions in a will"

For those with assets and a family, but that die intestate, i.e. without a will, each planet is different, but the Talz typically give the first 50000 to the widower, and the remaining is distributed among the surviving family members. If there is neither a surviving spouse nor descendent, this is where intestacy rules get more complicated, and relatives are exhausted starting with the siblings, parents and grandchildren of the deceased. Only if there are no surviving relatives left after exhausting the fourth degree can the government seize the estate under Talz intestacy rules. It goes without saying that wills must be remade if significant beneficiaries in the original die before the testator does, with all the costs and consequences that ensue. Estate planning is a delicate topic and, of course, she had a will made, with the understanding that she may have to change it at any time; her single biggest asset is her share of VPN - owning such a big chunk of a galaxy-wide accounting firm would mean that a big chunk of money would be at stake here.