Skirmish Tales of the Underground: Operation Dawn Veil [TJO vs. DIA]

[Wuxia Wukong]

Wu frowned as he considered the dragon man Laphisto's points. They were well reasoned, well argued. The points of a philosopher or perhaps a lawyer. Wu often wondered if he would have been a just lawyer. He did so love a debate. Wu considered his counter points carefully for a few moments before speaking, a gentle frown on his forehead.

"I would like to believe you. Truly I would. I do not know the Diarchy well, yet I know certain truths. Your masters are former Sith. They have removed the Darth, yet retain their suffix names." Wu made his first point calmly. "Nor do I believe they have entirely renounced the dark side."

"Your government seems to believe it is the best culture in the galaxy. That is elitism, which leads to oppression. That your expansions are justified due to this." Wu made his second point with a shake of his head. "Such arrogance of belief that one is totally in the right, that one's nation, culture, way of life is the best is what has lead to too many wars and conflicts."

"I believe the Jedi with whom I serve have pure intentions. I believe those whom I protect have expressed their wish for freedom. It would be weak, cowardly and duplicitous for me to simply abandon them to their fate in the naïve hope my adversary is as honourable as he appears." Wu explained.

"I cannot accept at face value an opponents proclamations of safety and security for my charges, no matter how much I wish they were to be true." Wu spread his hands in a gesture of 'what would you do' gesture.

"You claim the Jedi of old, of your time, attempted peace, diplomacy and negotiation. So let me ask you. How many times were you forced to turn away from those in need due to diplomacy? How many times did you sit idly by while tyranny, oppression, evil caused untold suffering? How often did you do nothing?" Wu grimaced at his own conscience squeezing his heart.

"I remember times when I did much the same." Wu said softly, quietly his voice full of shame, and grief.

"I was one such Jedi. Content to merely wonder the galaxy where the Force willed ignoring the conflicts of the greater powers. Pretending to be blind to the suffering caused. I have decided to no longer do nothing. I have acted." Wu took a breath "Perhaps it is the wrong course of action, perhaps I am like the Jedi of old. Unknowingly leading clone slave soldiers to their deaths in an unjust war. Convinced by the actions of the other side of the righteousness of my own… I hope not."

"My course is my own, but once set upon, it is not easily shifted. I have been told by people afraid, people in terror they wish to leave. I find no wrong in that and will do my utmost to protect them so that they may." Wu nodded satisfied with that argument as a good reason to defend the people and help them escape.

"Without interference." Wu said the last with firmness.

Then smiled brightly and gently.

"Though I appreciate the debate it is most illuminating."

Too many of his students got confused looks on their earnest faces, as he argued a point, back and forth, half arguing with himself in an effort to clarify his own views. It was refreshing to debate with someone skilled enough to do so with such a vastly different perspective to his own. Wu took a small breathe.

"It is a pity we could not meet under auspicious circumstances. I imagine I would enjoy a long conversation with you on many subjects." Wu inclined his head slightly in respect.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto listened in silence, his gaze fixed on the Jedi as the man spoke with conviction and sincerity. There was no malice in Wu's words only belief. Belief was dangerous, Laphisto had learned, precisely because it burned so brightly that one could no longer see the shadows it cast. When the Jedi finished, Laphisto exhaled through his nose and gave a slow shake of his head. "You ask how often I did nothing," he said quietly. "Less than you think, master jediand more than I should have."

he shifted his weight from one foot to the next as he half leaned His voice carried the gravel of memory, tempered by restraint rather than pride. "I have seen what comes from rushing to action without understanding. I have watched entire worlds burn because someone was certain they were right. Peace through violence is no peace at all it's simply terror with a cleaner banner."

He paused, letting the words breathe, his visor turning back toward the Jedi. "The Order I knew believed diplomacy alone would save them. They thought reason could calm every storm. But when they failed to act, empires rose. And when they acted without reason, those same empires turned to ash. The truth lies somewhere between the two and too few ever find it."

Laphisto's tone softened, though a frown creased his features beneath the helmet.
"The Force does not demand that we act," he continued. "It demands that we understand why we do. To draw a sword without first offering a pen is to condemn an entire people to one label enemy. And I have buried enough under that label to know the weight of it."

He lowered his rifle slightly, though not in surrender. The motion was contemplative, his posture relaxed but unreadable. "The Diarchs, do wield the Dark Side. That much is true and not something they hide. But they do so in balance. They acknowledge the darkness, the way one acknowledges fire: not to revel in it, but to ensure it does not consume the light."

For a moment, his voice grew distant, almost wistfull"I learned long ago that rejecting one half of the Force out of fear of corruption is no virtue. It is ignorance. Perhaps your masters have forgotten that. Perhaps mine remember it too well."

Laphisto exhaled, the sound low through his respirator, and finally tired of the weight across his chest. With a practiced motion, he slung his rifle onto his back, the weapon locking into place against his armor with a magnetic snap. His hands rose as he spoke open, unarmed, deliberate. "Those who walk the path of the Dark Side," he began, his voice calm but resonant, "are not bound to evil any more than those who walk in the Light are guaranteed virtue. The Force is not a compass it's a current. And anyone, Jedi or Sith, can drown in it if they mistake their conviction for truth."

His gestures were small but expressive, his tone level and precise the cadence of a commander used to both briefing troops and addressing philosophers. "If this state you call despotic were truly an empire of tyranny," he said evenly, "you and I wouldn't be having this conversation. We would have fired first and asked questions later."He let that hang for a heartbeat before motioning lightly toward Wu, the faintest tilt of his clawed hand.
"The fact that you stand here, speaking your mind accusing the Diarchs of corruption and their followers of blindness — without so much as a weapon raised against you… that should tell you something."
Laphisto's gaze shifted briefly around the clearing, noting the soldiers still holding their rifles leveled at the Jedi. He cleared his throat softly, the corner of his mouth twitching under the respirator. "Metaphorically speaking, of course," he added dryly. "Considering the circumstances, I imagine thisdoesnt help make my point but to be clea. Their orders are precautionary not punitive. You're being aimed at for alleged slavery, not for dissent."

His head tilted slightly, his tone softening from argument to explanation "Any citizen under Diarchal law may question their rulers. They may speak against policy, against leadership even against the Diarchs themselves without fear of reprisal. That isn't oppression, Master Jedi. That's accountability. That's trust."He let his hands fall back to his sides, shoulders squaring as his gaze lingered on Wu "A ruler unchallenged is a ruler untested. And the Diarchs, for all their power, understand the weight of the eyes that watch them."

A brief pause followed not silence, but reflection. "The galaxy has seen what happens when leaders place themselves above scrutiny. When faith becomes law, and power goes unchecked. The Diarchy was built from the ashes of those mistakes Jedi and Sith both." Laphisto's voice dropped a degree lower, quieter but sharper. "We did not abandon morality, master jedi . We simply stopped pretending that the Light was the only place it could be found."

For a moment, silence filled the air only the faint hum of the soldiers' rifles and the soft rasp of his respirator breaking it. Laphisto's gaze drifted downward, his expression hidden behind the blackened visor. When he finally spoke again, his tone carried the gravity of memory. "In my time," he began slowly, "after the Council discovered what Ajunta Pall was teaching, they branded him and his followers as heretics blasphemers against the very fabric of the Order. Their answer wasn't dialogue. It was extermination."

He paused, his voice softening with the weight of recollection. "And they sent me to do it. To hunt down the man I had once spoken with, learned from… a man I had encouraged others to listen to. Because I had dared to believe that knowledge even dangerous knowledge deserved to be heard. Tell me, Master Jedi" He lifted his gaze again, looking at Wu and the ship behind him briefly. "What is true freedom, if not the freedom of thought? The freedom of expression? the freedom of choice?"

A faint bitterness edged his next breath. "The Council feared ideas more than weapons. And in doing so, they made martyrs of thinkers." Laphisto's arms crossed over his chest, his posture heavy with conviction. After a moment, he reached up, unsealing the clamps of his helmet. The hiss of escaping pressure broke the quiet, and he lifted it free revealing a face weathered by centuries of conflict. His eyes were calm, steady, but there was something ancient in them something that had seen too many crusades disguised as righteousness.

"Fear," he said quietly, "is the oldest chain in the galaxy I've seen it raise armies, silence truth, and burn worlds to ash. The people you fight for they may well be afraid, Master Jedi. But fear taught is fear controlled. And I've lived long enough to recognize who always profits from that arrangement."

He let his words hang for a moment, letting the truth settle in the space between them. Then his tone softened, almost mournful.
"Who's to say these people weren't lied to? That their fear wasn't shaped crafted to keep them compliant? To make them see enemies where there were none?" His eyes drifted over the horizon, as though looking beyond the battlefield itself. "Who's to say this whole conflict wasn't orchestrated another design of those who thrive on division to make us turn our blades on each other yet again?"

Wuxia Wukong

 

[Diarch Reign]

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Location: Dantooine
Tags: Lorn Reingard
Gear: Amulet of the Warden's Eye, Bladefather

---

As the distance manifested between them, Reign marked the adoption of the form V stance.

good this will make it easier

Form V was familiar, and Reign was eager to see how an adversary fared against his own "Dominion" variation of the form. His anger surged but he had no time to utilize it as the Jedi began probing attacks.

As his enemy's saber was brought upward Reign caught it with his own blade in a low horizontal block, duplicating the move as the upward stroke was tried again. Finally bringing the bronze blade in an arc to bat the gold blade of the Jedi away from his thigh.

Pivoting away with the momentum of the block, Reign brought his blade back across in a horizontal strike looking to cut his enemy in half. Following it up with two diagonally downward strokes from the left and right sides, looking to do his own probing of the Jedi's defenses.