The Bottom of a Bottle

[Sinistra]

She listened and watched him turn towards her, boring into her with those burning eyes. She sighed, considering the potential proposition and weighing it against the things she already knew she had working. There might be a chance to swing this into the things she already had going, she might be able to juggle them but it might require her to send her team on the hunt as well. She could not afford to have her missions sidetracked more than they were. She had precious little free time and while she was here with Carach, she was biding her time to arrive at a meeting in the Western Outer Rim that could prove to be fruitful to her plans. It would need to be cultivated carefully and that would require her fulltime commitment.

She pursed her lips, biting the inside of her cheek as she met his gaze.

"That depends on who's asking; Carach or Voice of the Dark Lord."

The Dark Lord's directives took precedence. Carach's could be worked in but it would require some sacrifice. Perhaps the rework of a timetable, although until she had her meeting in 2 days time, she would not know how much time or sacrifice it would require.

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

"Carach. Always Carach for you, my dear."

He wasn't really one to push his title into someone's face to get what he needed. Early on the Sith had realized that this wasn't the best way to cultivate positive relationships with other people. Perhaps it wasn't the 'Sith Way' to be diplomatic and a reasonable human being, perhaps he should be an obnoxious little schutta who strong-armed people into doing what he wanted. Threaten people.

Ah well, he was always a pretty crappy Sith Lord.

[member="Kira Corsai"]

 

[Sinistra]

There was a crooked grin on her face as she shook her head. There were at least three things that could wait or better still, be delegated down to Fela. It would take some careful rearranging, but she could fit it in. If it kept the Voice of the Dark Lord content and her in his good graces, then it might be worth the extra effort for the coming operations.

The smile was gone, if he was going to be all business then so would she. She pushed the covers off and rose, her muscles and joints protesting the movements as she acutely felt the effects of her deeds the previous night. Dragging her clothes off the floor and throwing them on, she pulled a datapad out of a leather case she carried with her. She sat, still a little disheveled, on the edge of the bed near his knees, scrolling through her diary.

"There will need to be some juggling of my schedule, but if you have reliable intel we can move on now, then I can see that it is done. Beyond that, I do not have time for an extended mission and a long hunt. So what's your timetable, manpower needs, and objective?"

The moment for indulgence and fun was over. It was time to go to work.

[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Carach watched her dress. The hunger inside him raged, but he extinguished it firmly and without any doubt on his mind. There were more important things to do than an extended session of previous acts already rendered and done - perhaps after this was done they could continue where they left of, but as it stood the Sith Lord had to think about the mission first. If he didn’t then they could disappear once again and leave him with [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]nothing[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]And yet. As she sat by his knees, so did the Sith move a fraction. One moment he was still leaning against the pillow, the next his hand brushed her hair away and his lips lingered at her neck. It would not go farther than that.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Now. The two of us. Destruction.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]There was a not-so-subtle innuendo in it, but the core stayed the same. He detached himself from her and started dressing too.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“We will need to move fast, immediately and hit them hard while they are off balance. We strike, ensure they stay down and extract the information [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]I [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]need. If we take too long, they will fade into the dark again before we know it.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

His lips on her neck earned him the cluck of her cheek, but her eyes stayed on her datapad. Now, them and destruction were pretty wide open. Currently, she was not prepared for the mission but it would take no more than an hour to be ready to depart. Her ship was parked on the outskirts, her tactical gear and everything she would need was there. She nodded her affirmative as she rose from the bed.

"My things are on my ship. Meet me there in an hour, and we can be off. Private dock, bay 49. It's a flat black star courier. Don't be late."

There was a smirk on her lips as she gathered the rest of her things and headed out of his apartment into the bright light of a new day.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Forty-five minutes later, she was showered and changed, her fitted black tactical suit hugging her curves while she stood in front of the mini armory she had in the cargo area of the courier. Her full hood was not on yet, there would be no need to completely mask herself until they arrived on site. She would be carrying her sabers, but she was grabbing some slicing gear, some grenades and anything else she could think that would be useful. The case was almost ready to be closed and she glanced at the chronometer to see how long had passed from when she walked out of his place.

He was a wily one. If they could get this cleaned up in 2 days, then she would not need to push back the meeting on Gerrenthum. She couldn't think about that right now, not around someone with his mental abilities. Best to keep her thoughts blank and her systems locked. One could never be too careful.

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Sixty minutes later a Sith Lord knocked. Nothing as pedestrian as a knock on the durasteel hull of her little hangar door, no, the knock happened telepathically with the subtlest of touches brushing past her mind in an effort to let her know that [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]he was here[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]. Carach wasn’t wearing any armor, a simple hood obscured most of his face and the rest of the details were equally… [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]blurry[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] though for different reasons than one might expect. The fact of the matter was that in a lot of ways the Sith was a Force Warrior. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]In the sense that he did not utilize many other things than the Force in combat. It simply wasn’t in his nature to handle things in any other way - years of practicing and using the Force left him with a width potential in that unseen power.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]He could do things few others could by himself, but augmented by [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]them[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]? Carach was pretty much unstoppable by any reasonable efforts.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

She glanced over as he strode up the ramp and she nodded in greeting a moment before she hit the controls to raise the ramp. She wasn't quite used to the way he invaded her mind but it was growing less unnerving as they spent more time in proximity. She beckoned him to follow her silently, as she climbed the ladder to get to the main deck of the courier. She strode to the cockpit and slid into the pilot chair, flipping the switches to take the ship systems off standby, the ship shuddering as the engines engaged. She turned on the navcomputer but before she turned back to the co-pilot seat, a no nonsense expression on her features.

"Alright my lord, where are we headed?"

A dangerous proposition to be sure, to have such a pair working together for a common goal was certainly ill omens for those they had marked as prey. Sinistra had no illusions about her place in this duo; he was a nexu and she was an overzealous housecat. At least, that was what she had always been her goal. She preferred when people underestimated her. It made her job so much easier. The pecking order on this was clear from the description that he had given her. He was the lead on this one, she was just the muscle to keep the op on target.

Fine enough. It had been a while since she had gotten to stretch her legs anyway.

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]To him it was like [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]breathing[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] - touching minds and hearts. It was natural, easy and it prevented a lot of complications. In the grand scheme of things Carach might have halted it anyway, if she had asked him to, but no such requests were given as of yet. He followed her into the cockpit without saying anything of note, noting the interior of the ship and the state of it: making sure you knew your surroundings was always quite important.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Amusingly enough?” Carach shook his head at the thought.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Zeltros. They are gathering together on [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]Zeltros[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px].” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]It wasn’t actually that strange of an idea. Zeltros was infamous as a world that warded of invasions and attacks by the sheer virtue of the pheromones in the air. A fortress hidden away in the depths of Zeltros’ hormones… nobody would wander in accidentally and the people that came in unprepared would be far too busy partying their brains off. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Very beautiful.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Carach approved to a degree.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

Zeltros. The haven of the pink-skinned pheromone pumping empaths. Zeltros was Sinistra's least favorite planet in the entire galaxy. She could not stand not being in control of her desires and if the natives of the pleasure world decided that you would cast off your inhibitions and enjoy yourself, then there were certainly enough of them to be overwhelming with their efforts.

When it came down to it, Sinistra did not yearn for the physical intimacy she felt other sentient species probably spent their lives in pursuit of. There were serious things to do in her mind, and she didn't give energy to things that would not progress her ambitions. The previous night had been a brief and eye-opening foray into the mind of a particularly high ranking One Sith lord. She worked the tension out, and rode enough endorphin that she felt some of the tightly wound senses begin to extricate themselves. She was never fully at ease away from her safehouse and until she managed to get back there, she would be ever vigilant. It was the routine that had kept her alive for as long as she had been.

The trip in to the Core wasn't entirely unpleasant although the conversation was rather pedestrian. There were remarks about some of the slight modifications that had been done to the ship, the obligatory discussion of Sith history, what had happened to her during the Netherworld, nothing that was overly taxing or truly revealed much of anything other than the ship had been modified by a freelance shop, she sides with Palpatine as a manipulative mastermind, she was under deep cover during the Netherworld and the rest is classified. The conversation was polite and in the gaps here and there, she thought again about what she saw in his vision, piecing it out.

He was a clone, but the things put into him, what were they? Did he wake up? How did he train? She had more questions now than answers, and with the complicated nature of that kind of sharing, she could think on it for years and probably never get to the bottom of his mind. It was an interesting exercise in supposition for the lags in talking.

The cerulean blue of the hyperspace corridor abruptly ended, spitting them back into realspace and with a firm grip on the yoke, she engaged the sublight engines. The black courier sped quickly towards Zeltros and breezed through the AT controllers who queried the new arrivals. The coordinates to the hideout were fairly easy to find, although it would require them to leave the ship a little ways away and trek in.

She put her masked hood in place, her identity and features hidden from view. She took this part very seriously. She had too much at stake to be lax about covering her face now. Taloraan could not be repeated.

The courier was parked in a docking bay at a relatively dilapidated spaceport on the edge of a bad part of town. It was well after dark and their movements would be shrouded by the deep shadows of night as they moved. She was unfamiliar with any of his fighting tactics, but she noticed that he carried no saber. She let her eyes linger, wondering if perhaps he hid it elsewhere on his person but given the attire, that was unlikely. Did he just not carry one? How strange.

She waited for him to descend the ramp first, completely geared up and awaiting to make his move in the direction of the hideout. This was his mission. She was just along for the ride.

"After you, my Lord."

Her insistence of formal address in conversation had probably not gone unnoticed. To her it mattered little what they had been doing the previous night. That was then, this was now. He was higher on the food chain and she would give the devil his due.

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]For twenty years Darth Carach, Voice of the Dark Lord, had reigned as one of the closest confidants of the Dark Lord. From the time that they had sheltered themselves on Prakith, plotting in the heart of the then-powerful Republic, until now [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]they[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] were the ones who ruled the core. Carach represented the inherent stability of the One Sith… or perhaps he represented something entirely else - perhaps he represented competence, experience and [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]power[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px], enough to keep the hounds at bay and ensure that his reign was long and stable. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Semantics. The entire point was that Carach was [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]used[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] to being exalted in one way or another. His word made law, his acts [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]were[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] law and that was the end of it. As such he did not think much about Sinistra’s willing to play this role.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Did the Sith Lord realize that it [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]was[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] a role she was playing? Undoubtedly. And so he would play the role of the superior Lord, whose words were followed and whose acts were never scrutinized. Because at the end of the day? These sort of missions needed clear hierarchy and structure. Otherwise it would all come crashing down around them.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]His first step took him outside the ship. As the step was taken his face morphed, changed and twisted in different contours, until finally Carach’s face was gone… this time replaced by a solidified and opaque obsidian-colored surface.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Few people truly knew the limits of Carach’s power. Even fewer knew what artifacts he had held in his hands in the past. The [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]Yoke of Seeming[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] had been one of them. An artifact that allowed the wearer to shape the Living Force around them. Quite handy for an operative [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]or[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] a man who enjoyed wearing different identities and lives, like a different man enjoyed wearing new suits. The mask was an extrapolation of that artifact mentioned before.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Forged in the cold fires within the depths of his fortress on Tython. It was biochemical in nature combined with certain elements of metallurgy. A difficult accomplishment, to be sure, but it had been worth it in the end.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]It was imbued with certain powers. One of which was [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]an ancient Sith Alchemy technique[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] that allowed expert alchemists to change their appearance without much trouble. A second was the same ability the Yoke had been known for.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]What other abilities it had? Only Carach would know for sure.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“This… is going to be fun.” the tapping sound of a cane - one which had [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]definitely[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] not been there before - could be heard as it clicked against the floor, in a clear pattern as the Sith Lord walked forwards.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Into the unknown.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

The unknown happened to be a rundown flea market on a side street next to a shipping company and a dive bar. Flea market was probably being generous, it was closer to a black market. Lots of people coming and going wouldn't seem out of place on this street, and with his mental tricks and the subtle incantations flowing from her masked lips, the oneswho might have noticed something suspicious coming through the shadows saw nothing. The emanations of the darkside snaked out from her as she moved, causing a feeling of dread that caused bystanders to rethink being out the night and seek the lighted spaces inside from the sinister motives of the unseen pair.

The incantation changed as they entered their destination. The Cabal were underprepared for the threat of possible discovery, as the security within their headquarters was minimal at best. The cameras were not enough to cover all approaches, there were gaps in the vision field. She slipped unseen past one of them along the wall. Past the market was a duracrete reinforced wall protecting their objective.

She paused considering what the best entry strategy was. They would not be expecting the attack, they would be caught off guard but Carach was looking for information. They would need to be cautious to leave someone alive to get plumbed for information. She paused only a moment before the main entrance before her hands moved in a very specific set of motions and the entrance way exploded in a fireball and broke the vestibule of the doorway free of the duracrete. The newly formed portal showed chaos within but Sinistra proceeded forward, her saber hilt in her hand.

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The remnant of the Star Cabal weren’t exactly primed towards their former glory. They hid in the darkness amidst the pheromone clouds, because they simply didn’t have access anymore to the kind of assets they had called upon in the past. Such was their destruction that the only thing they could rely upon now were the [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]secrets[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] they had collected across the years - one secret which Carach was particularly interested in and wasn’t contained in a data chip or anything else. It would be in the head of one of them. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The explosion rocketed the scene. Not that there were many onlookers to be found. The subtle incantations made by Sinistra and his own influence within the Force had made sure that nobody would be here anymore, [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]except those that they were looking for themselves.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Carach stepped through the opening just created, right after Sin and a hearty chuckle escaped his faceless visage. Quite disturbing for the uninitiated, perhaps.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Powerful. You continue to scratch my curiosity, my Lord.” his hand carefully swept to the side and an unseen Force lashed out. It caught two specimens - they had been running towards them with makeshift weaponry, keen to take aim - but the Sith Lord had not waged war for the past decade to be thwarted or surprised by a few bumbling simpletons.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]That same unseen force kept them pinned to the durasteel wall.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Take point and have my back. I will see if there is anything to extract from these sentients.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]With that said Carach stepped up towards them.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"] [/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

She nodded her affirmative as she advanced down the hall, the silver humming rising to a screech as she ducked a swing from a doorway and turned the silver blade loose upon their knees, cutting them down to cries of agony. Perhaps a highly trained force user like Carach would look upon her masked form and see her as she truly was, but these underground members were well out of their depths.

When she reached down and grabbed them by the shoulders, they did not see a black tactical suited curvaceous form. They screamed in abstract horror before her magics continued, invading their minds and projecting the illusion of their worst nightmares as flesh and bone. They were begging for their lives, and she left them disarmed in a heap near where Carach had split off.

She wove more magics together and her illusions duplicated her, so that there were half a dozen of her splitting off to search further into the compound. Her invasions into the minds of her foes did not seek to gain any knowledge, rather than infest them with terror and subjugate them to her will. Her connection to the dopplegangers whispered back the answers to the questions she sought.

"Three more, my Lord. Holed up in a bunker down the hall."

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Where are they.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The Sith Lord stood still in front of the two suspended men. They couldn’t move, speak or do anything else - the hidden force was firmly wrapped around them, prohibiting them from doing anything but [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]hanging[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] there in the air. As such the mental question was all about pulling out images from their subconscious more so than an actual question.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Kinda like when you tell someone [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]not[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] to think about a pink elephant. What’s the first thing that comes to mind then?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Exactly.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Where are the GenoHaradan?” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The question evocated certain still memories from their consciousness. And the Sith used that, latching onto them and firmly snatching them away from the two captives. He didn’t immerse himself in them though, a dangerous practice without a medium or storage device.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]A single hint was gleaned from the hidden memories though. One of the three men Sinistra just mentioned would have the location.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]His hand twisted. Two loud cracks were heard as the captives’ necks were violently snapped.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“I need only one of them.” [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]which one… was the question[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“We will capture all three of them, then sort it out afterwards.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

She took the cue and carried on to the bunker, the duplicates heading off to explore other rooms and make sure nothing vital was being overlooked. In the meantime, she would have to get through this bulkhead as quickly as possible. They were in a sunken area of the compound and it was not outside the realm of possibilities that they would have an emergency exit down there to the sewers. She would have to be swift. She grabbed the door latch, an unintelligible word slipping from her mouth. Tendrils of thick, inky black being wrapped her hands and the latch until she took a deep breath and yanked backwards, the manifestations of the dark side lending her added strength to rip the door off the wall.

There was a stair well beyond and peering over the railing, she could hear them escaping, the panting and pounding of their feet echoing up to her ears. She looked back towards where Carach stood, the dispatching the first small group of misguided fanatics.

"Going down."

She vaulted over the railing and landed in a crouch at the bottom, her silver saber the brightest light in the darkness. The lead one squeaked as she stood up, firing a blaster at her, the green bolts reflected by the bright glow of white to sizzle into the walls. The three panicked and nearly tripped over themselves but the arms of the dopplegangers were there to envelope them, dragging them back up the three flights of stairs to the main level.

Her extra eyes had noted a small server room, and a well stocked armory. Perhaps the greater spoils were in the minds of the three captives, now terrified at the feet of the Sith. Her duplicates still bled fear into the minds of the cabal and where they should have seen petite armored women, they saw only monsters. The monsters parted to let Carach enter the circle, his prey cornered and waiting.

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The Sith Lord entered the circle - he didn’t see the monsters like the three men, but he could [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]sense[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] the exertion of power coming from Sinistra. It was clear she was doing more than simply creating duplicates of herself to make their work more efficient. There was no time to appreciate the quality of her creation there and then, though, there was [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]work[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] to do.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“We work rather well together, my Lady.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Three mental shards embedded themselves deeply into their mental state. They went limp immediately thereafter, seizing their needless screeching, whining and general annoyance.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“You do not cease to impress.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Carach stepped closer. An expression of scrutiny could be found in his gaze as he pondered his next move, after a few moments he decided to ask Sin’s opinion. Perhaps he was the leading party in this foray, but that did not mean that she was only there as his tool - she probably had an opinion on how to further deal with this situation.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“I will need to interrogate them [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]extensively.”[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] Some thought that being a mentalist meant that he could simply extract all the information that he needed from one’s mind. This was a huge generalization of a very complex process.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The truth was that the mind - any mind - closely resembled a maze in intricacy.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]It would take time to fish out the relevant information.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“How do you think we should procede?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

"Hmmm," she thought, all the duplicates now mirroring her movements and speech, so that her musing hum came out in a chorus around him. "I would suggest incarceration, sending a team in to sweep the server room in the back,and posting some surveillance here to see who comes poking at the ruins. As for them in custody, well that's the fun part. We don't know who has the most information, if the ringleader is here or not, so they should all get a nice stay in your tender care until there is no corner of their pallid, little minds left that you haven't graffiti-ed with your name."

There was a smile under the hood, she would love to put the three of them to the pain, to have them cry for a mercy that would never come, however she just didn't have the time. Besides, these suspects were part of his investigation and enjoyment of those privileges would be his to dole out. If she had the time. If only.

She looked down at them, wondering what these cabal members had been doing and where they had turned their focus. Penetration on these kinds of levels was usually pretty hands off and the people involved were so indoctrinated that they were raised in these groups. Was that the case with these remnants and would they ever truly rid the universe of them?

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Good solid thoughts. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Carach was once again not disappointed at the display of competence, but that left them with the actual execution of the matters. He could sense a certain fragrance of urgency coming from her. She had other things to do, it seemed. Important things. The Sith Lord would have pried… if not for the fact that he had his hands full with the excitement of cracking this [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]case[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]. Besides. She earned some modicum of privacy for the moment.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Perhaps later. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]If there was one commodity that Carach had in spades it was time. Time for his plots, time for his moves and time to figure out these strange thoughts he was having.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“That’s what we will do then.” a moment's thought later, he shrugged.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“I got the sense you are needed elsewhere. I think I can handle the rest of this on my own, don’t stay a stranger.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]With that his attention went back to the three limp operatives. Hunger. Knowledge. Those things were so closely entwined for him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"][/SIZE]

 

[Sinistra]

She bowed to him, a sign of duty and respect before she turned and made her way from the room. The dopplegangers existed for a moment's breath longer before they dissolved into inky black pools of smoke and melted into the shadows of the room. She had told him her time was limited and she was glad to see he respected her commitments, although she couldn't tell if he had simply remembered her words or had taken it from her mind. She didn't like that he could affect her in such a way. She would need to bolster her mental defenses before they crossed paths again.

The trip back to the ship was uneventful and within an hour she had lifted off and cleared the planet. It was a long trip to where she was going. There were a couple stops to shake a tail, should there be one, but at the last microjump she made, she called Fela.

"It's done. Burn the coms, make arrangements to recondition the ship, and make sure my tracks are covered. Much as you can. Communications from the home office are to be scrambled and passed encoded. Make sure Dawson and the ciphers are working on it."

She killed the coms and replotted a course to the meeting on Gerrenthum. It would be an interesting meeting.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Several months had passed and Kira was starting to get used to the daily routine on Gerrenthum. She was behind her desk fairly early in the mornings, a cup of caf in one hand and the reports of her analysts in the other. Perhaps it was a need for a change of pace, but she was actually enjoying herself as she helped this fledging group take its first steps. They had the potential to do a great many things that perhaps the greater One Sith could not.

They were skittish of force users still. But that would change. She would see to it.

[member="Gregori Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Gerrenthum, Anoat Sector.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6667px]Outer Rim[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Gerrenthum was a city planet. Akin to the bright, shining lights of Coruscant, Denon, Etti IV and others it was a hallmark of civilization’s ability to cut out society virtually [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]everywhere[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]. And her trail led him here… why wasn’t he surprised about that? The whispers of an Imperium at the edge of the Galaxy, the smoke and mirrors of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau and a new name running through all those circles.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]How… amusing.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Director Corsai. Your five ten meeting has arrived.” the neutral tone of the secretary drifted by before the intercom buzzed out again. The doors of the office opened themselves, and in came a figure that was… distinctly different, but distinctly familiar.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Miss… Corsai, thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]A splendid tux, groomed features and a certain sense of [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]peace[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] radiating from Gregori Starvald. This was a whole different look for the wild, rough Sith Lord she had met those many months ago.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Kira Corsai"] [/SIZE]