Tempestuous Torment

[Onrai]

Trayus Laboratory, Malachor V

Vanessa steamed in frustration. In anger and hatred, emotions she didn't ordinarily let steep, she stamped around the core of the Trayus Laboratory, Force Pushing droids and other things out of her way as she raged. Twice now the Darkheart project had failed. Twice her corrupt infiltrators had been lost to her! And what would happen the third time she attempted to snare a Lightsider and corrupt them into an instrument of hidden darkness, spreading the touch of the light? Probably the exact same thing. She fumed, muttering under her breath.

"If only there was someone who could actually help me with corrupting those damned Lightsiders!"

[member="Velok the Younger"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

"I'm told," said a deep voice from a nearby door, "that you have ambitions of the infiltrating kind. Your Darkheart project has potential, by all accounts. Infiltration of the Jedi is an angle rarely tried and even more rarely achieved."

Velok entered the laboratory and stood to his full height.

"My name is Velok. You may have heard of me. I'm here to help."

 

[Onrai]

"We've met before." She said. "You helped me acquire a body." She was a bit confused as to why Velok did not recognize her Force presence given he had been the one to help craft her a new body. "Unless 'Velok' was just a title and you're the second one to hold that name." She smiled nonetheless, pleased that she now had assistance from one of the wizened Sith alchemists within the galaxy in this process.

"I'm glad to have your help nonetheless."

[member="Velok the Younger"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

"The Velok you knew was my father," Velok growled, "and he is not fondly remembered."

He took a seat on a human-scaled workbench so he could look [member="Vanessa Vantai"] in the eye.

"Your project, I'm told, aims to embed infiltrators in the Jedi Orders. That goal is what I'd call an underserved niche. Too few infiltrators these days, too few serious attempts to implant or turn operatives. I think your strategy is to lure existing Jedi to the Dark Side rather than use impersonators. What methods have you used so far? Mental manipulation, personal or ethical seduction, Sith poison, coercion? Some are, to my mind, more effective and harder to detect than others."

 

[Onrai]

"I assume you... participated in his removal from this plane of existence." She said. If Velok was dead, she had no means of gauging how best to react to the Whipid before her utilizing the same name.

She nodded at Velok's assessment. "You would be correct in my choice of corrupting Jedi instead of sending disguised Sith to join their orders. As nice as it would be, I've found that Jedi themselves work best, as when they return they can shroud their true alignment in ways Sith infiltrators cannot." She pondered on his words for a moment. "Two subjects so far. Both failures. The first was a combination of Sith poison replacing thirty-six percent of her blood, physical stimulation in the form of a massage, offering of luxuries, coercion, and ethical seduction - she was blind and I gave her a way to see that hopefully proved addicting. I was so exceedingly close to a success with her - then that damned Krest showed up. Threatened to destroy my lab. He did offer me an alternative target - and I'm pursuing that now."

"The second was an Echani. Padawan from what I can tell. She said she had fallen and been molded into an instrument of darkness before being saved. I was initially rough with her - tried luxuries and Sith Poison. She was... effectively impossible to deal with. A failure in every sense of the plan." Her attention turned to the third and most recent one. "The third is a Commenori woman. You may have heard of her - Lady Kay Arenais, Queen of the Commenor Systems Alliance. I am worming my way into her good graces - an easy task - and will begin the process of corrupting her soon."

[member="Velok the Younger"]