The End of Eternity In The West

[Kay-Larr]

It was a race. A race to get back to Zakuul. Days earlier [member="Darth Tacitus"] had given Kay an ultimatum, one that she was quick to reject. That ultimatum consisted of her and others in her government to surrender themselves to the Dark Lord and denounce the Eternal Empire that they were trying to rise in power.

Unfortunately Tacitus wasn't her only enemy. [member="Loreena Arenais"] had left her a message about the First Order. They wished to retake the area surrounding Zakuul as well as the planet itself. They believed themselves to be the most stable of anyone else staking a claim on the planet. In some respects, Kay was starting to believe that too.

But she needed to get there first.
The Free Lady could only go so fast. The little freighter could only hold so much fuel, and the distance that was needed to cover was vast. Did Tacitus anticipate her stubborness? Was he already on his way? Was he accompanied with a number of fleets? Her own army and navy weren't quite up to bar in dealing with a full invasion. But she knew that they'd die trying anyways.

Kay was drinking her tea in her quarters when the freighter shuddered and came to a stop. That seemed early. Or did she just lose track of time? After setting the cup down, she got up and headed to one of the small windows. A sense of deja-vu accompanied the dread within her gut as she saw the Star Destroyers nearby.

The Captain of the Free Lady sounded the alarm, his voice heard over the ship's comms. ~We've been pulled out of hyperspace. Shields are up in case they open fire, but it won't be long before they have us surrounded. Should I hail them?~

Kay shook her head, her eyes not leaving the window. "If it is any of those that I think it could be, they'll hail us. Just be ready to try to get us out of here." They might not be able to use the hyperdrive, but they could use evasive maneuvers. Being small, they had that advantage.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Soundtrack: Witcher 3 OST: Witch Hunters​

Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

As it was pulled from hyperspace, two Adjudicator-class Star Destroyers flanked the small freighter, one on each side, massive weapons already turning to point at the helpless vessel and tractor beams locking it into place. Directly in its path, lay the ship which had ripped it so violently out of hyperspace and abruptly ended its journey back to Zakuul, a single Overseer-class Interdictor-Carrier hybrid, completing the deadly triangle that was a favorite tactic of the Eternal Navy. And these three ships were not alone.

A colossal shadow glided over the small freighter and its captors, shrouding them in an ominous, cold darkness. Above, blocking the dim light of the nearby star, an immense engine of destruction slowly positioned itself like the fist of an angry god about to smite an ant. Its immense hull was shaped like a spearhead and bristled with countless weapons, enough firepower to depopulate entire star systems with ease. It was the Midnight Exigent, flagship of Darth Tacitus and the Confederacy's much-feared Sword Armada. It dwarfed all of the other ships put together.

Another tractor beam locked onto the freighter even as the other two released it and began pulling it towards the belly of the immense Super Star Destroyer above, which stood poised like a titanic predator from hell about to swallow up its prey.

If the occupants of the freighter expected some kind of lengthy message demanding their surrender and then launching into a series of elaborate threats in order to let them know what would happen if they refused, then they were wrong. The little freighter was trapped, there was nowhere for them to go and thus, such a message would be pointless.

Instead, the single transmission that was broadcast, was short and to the point, the channel closed before the crew of the small freighter could respond. "You are now in the custody of the Eternal Navy. Prepare to be boarded," said a rough, heavily accented voice in a flat tone, ominous and lacking any emotion or personality. After that, only silence.

The Free Lady would then be pulled into the cavernous hangar of the colossal warship and set down on one of the decks, where a team of Combat Engineers immediately set about the task of breaching the freighter's airlock with laser cutters, placing small explosives at key points to facilitate their work. Behind them, a full section of Ultranauts stood ready to charge into the ship the moment its airlock was forced open, supported by a section of Ghost Troopers, thirty soldiers in total. Two white-robed Wardens of the Shroud accompanied them, black-bladed lightsabers already in their hands, ignited.

The occupants of the small freighter had but moments to contemplate their horrible circumstances, before fate's cruel talons closed in around them for good.

 

[Kay-Larr]

The Free Lady shuddered as the two tractor beams took hold of her. The colour of the beams radiated through the window. "Oh no...." Kay spoke under her breath. The Free Lady was good, but not THAT could to get out from the grip that held her. It was a trap that they had somehow fallen into.

She removed herself from the window, her skin just crawling as she felt the influence of the Darkside. Who was it that had found them?

~They aren't opening fire. With luck they want us alive. What would you like me to do?~

No sooner did the Captain finish his question, that the transmission from the Super Star Destroyer came through. Kay clenched her jaw. Even diplomatic immunity wouldn't work here. Not after the ultimatum that [member="Darth Tacitus"] had sent and the reply that she had given him. "You and your crew stand down. We'll all be prisoners of war. The less resistance, the better." Or at least that's how it was supposed to go.

~Understood.~ Outside of the Captain there were two other crewmen on board, a co-pilot and an engineer. They all watched from the cockpit, their eyes glued to the viewscreen as the Free Lady was swallowed up in the hanger.

Kay on the other hand almost ignored it all. She finished her tea and then put the cup away. She went over to her closet and proceeded to put on her Monarch armour, even as the Free Lady was getting broken into. She had a feeling that she'd need it today. Then she just sat on the end of her desk, arms folded across her chest in defiance as she stared coldly at the now opened door of her quarters. Internally she was gathering the Force around herself, waiting for the right moment to strike.

How did Tacitus find her? Was he keeping an eye on all hyperlanes going to Zakuul? Or did someone on her crew betray her? It could be as simple as a tracker device placed on the hull during one of their stops. Either way, she was bound to find out son enough.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

With a loud bang, the breaching charges tore open the airlock doors, which fell away shattered, torn open like a tin can that someone put a grenade on top of, letting the baleful white light of the hangar be the first thing to invade the small freighter. The soldiers, experienced and well-trained veterans who were experts at this kind of close quarters combat, wasted no time charging inside, lobbing tear gas grenades and making sure to swiftly check each and every corner as they advanced further and further inside the small vessel.

Not knowing how many occupants there were and taking no chances, they had taken measures in case they ran into any Knights of Zakuul. Each section of soldiers had two cages with ysalamiri, each slung like a backpack. The crew were quickly found and restrained, viciously beaten by their captors, then dragged outside and made to kneel in a line, to the side of the small freighter, soldiers guarding them with fingers on the triggers of their rifles, ready to end their lives at the first sign of trouble.

Working swiftly, the engineers quickly gained control of the ship's systems, locating their quarry even as the rest of the soldiers searched the ship. It took them mere moments to reach Kay, several Ghost Troopers dashing into her private quarters, accompanied by the two Wardens of the Shroud in their suits of white armor, black-bladed lightsabers already lit and held ready. If she chose to resist, the two Wardens and the soldiers would simply beat her to a pulp, the Ysalamiri insuring that she could not lash out at them with the Force, although the lizards also prevented the Wardens from using their own Force-given abilities, which would not impede them much, since they were trained for such situations. Once she was dealt with, they would restrain her with magnetic handcuffs and a voidstone collar around her neck.

With the engineers already having taken control of the ship, they would then force the ramp to the cargo hold to open, Kay's captors marching her out of her ship, bringing her to a halt in front of her beleaguered captain and crewmembers.

Kay would then be forced to watch as an officer barked a short order in High Nelvaanian, the harsh language of Tacitus' people, to which the soldiers responded by pointing the muzzles of their rifles at the crewmember's heads and ending their lives with a flash of light, bits of charred bone and brain matter splattering across the deck. Another short order and the corpses were carried up the freighter's ramp and unceremoniously dumped inside the cargo hold, ramp closing as the engineers exited the small ship, which was then lifted up by a crane and cast out of the dreadnought's hangar, abandoned as if it were trash. A gush of wind forced itself out through the breached airlock, like the last breath of a dieing creature and then, the small freighter went cold and dark, a lifeless vessel adrift in the cold embrace of the void.

The last thing Kay could see through the cavernous opening of the hangar as her guards would drag her towards the turbolift that would take her to the cell which had been prepared for her in the dreadnought's brig, were points of light extending into lines as the immense ship and its escorts jumped to hyperspace.

 

[Kay-Larr]

They came.

Shouts and cries came from her crew as they were beaten down and dragged out. They followed Kay's orders and stood down, though that didn't seem to help them any as they were forced to kneel before the Free Lady, all bruised and bloody.


Ysalmiri....

Kay felt their Force dead bubbles as soon as the soldiers breached her quarters. She wasn't expecting that. Nor was she expecting the rush as they all attacked her at once. The light armour was a saving grace, protecting her body from many of the punches and kicks. Kay fought back, swinging her own punches and kicks, though the strength in her blows did little against their own armour.

Her head however wasn't protected. Such a disadvantage was utilized as the soldiers went after it, punching her left eye, her cheeks and her jaw in quick succession.

Kay's vision blurred in the one eye as it began to swell as she was restrained. Half walking, half being dragged, she was taken out of her ship and looked at her crew. They were beaten worse than she was, their uniforms providing little protection for them. She searched the hanger, looking for [member="Darth Tacitus"] , yet that search was quickly interrupted as the order was barked, leading the soldiers to open fire and kill her crew....

There was no point in crying out, no point in trying to lash out. Kay just bottled it up inside. She had to. Even as she watched as her crew and precious little Free Lady was tossed out of the Super Star Destroyer. The small freighter and been with her for decades. And now? Now it was left to float in the vastness of space alone.

Once again Kay half walked and was half dragged as the soldiers brought her to the turbolift. Her mind reeled over possibilities. Was she being taken to Zakuul? Or to Tacitus' homeworld for trial? Either way she knew that her death was far too important to have hidden behind closed doors.

She closed her eyes and merely waited as the turbolift began to move.

Defiance. Stubborness. They were her downfall.

At least she had the time to finish her tea.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

Kay's captors dragged her into one of the ship's prisoner cells, a featureless white box enclosed by a forcefield and bound her to shackles built into the walls, leaving her suspended. Guards were posted outside of her cell, along with another Ysalamiri cage, some extra security even with the voidstone collar they had strapped around her neck. They would then leave her there to rot for almost twenty hours, though she would have no means of keeping the time while inside the cell. The guards outside were rotated at irregular intervals and the lights were kept on at all times, to further interfere with any attempt at counting the hours.

Though she had not yet been interrogated, the psychological war against her had already begun, all part of a meticulously crafted plan which Tacitus had come up with. The twenty hours would provide a reasonable interval between her last possible communication with Zakuul and the time of interrogation. It would allow Tacitus to utilize a few creative tools that he had set up just for this occasion.

Once the twenty hours were over, twenty long hours without food and water, guards would then unclasp Kay from her shackles and drag her into a turbolift which descended several decks to what, at first glance, looked vaguely like a surgery room. A square chamber with white walls and what resembled an operating table in the middle. At the end of the chamber, directly opposite from her, stood her enemy, the man who had orchestrated her capture and was responsible for the deaths of her crew.

Silver hair framed a scarred face, lit up by a pair of slitted, cat-like eyes that glowed with the baleful golden light of the Darkside. He wore a white military uniform with no embellishments or jewelry, only a longsword suspended from his belt. In his hand he held a datapad off of which he was reading something. He was accompanied by two frightening-looking men wearing some kind of trench coats, standing silently at attention as they awaited their leader's commands.

Upon stepping into the interrogation chamber, one of her guards lashed out with a punch aimed at Kay's stomach, then unceremoniously threw her on the floor, the second guard stepping in to deliver a hard kick aimed at her ribs. "You stand before the Eternal Emperor," the soldier said in heavily accented Basic. "You are expected to grovel and beg."

 

[Kay-Larr]

A white box...Why couldn't it of been a pretty blue? Or even green?

Kay hated white rooms and white coats. They merely served to remind her of the insane asylum that Thraxis put her into. But would [member="Darth Tacitus"] know about that? Probably not. White was common. It fooled the senses.

She leaned her head against one of her shoulders and closed her eyes. The skin on her face tingled from where she was punched, her left eye feeling more swollen, though she couldn't exactly know for sure. There was nothing but silence and that in itself was a blessing. After her capture by Prazutis, she knew the value of sleep and so she took advantage of the silence and calmed herself into a light sleep.

Kay didn't sleep the whole twenty hours. She dozed on and off as time worse on. She craved her tea of course, moreso than any other food or drink. Her Sapir tea was soothing. It tended to cradle her like a warm hug.

But there'd be no such thing here.

Finally the guards came to move her. Maybe now she'd get some answers instead of spending all this time waiting.

The next white room wasn't a plesant sight to see. Were all the rooms white? Her eyes fell upon Tacitus and the two next to him. For the moment they seemed to ignore her, more or less it was all part of a tactic. He was using some kind of playbook for this, she just needed to deduce the strategy.

The punch came swiftly, though her light armour saved her from getting the wind knocked out. Kay was thrown to her hands and knees when the kick to her ribs came, almong with the order for her to grovel and beg. "I'll do no such thing..." In her mind she saw herself attacking the soldiers, using leg sweeps to bring them down before she'd climb on top and try to rip their helmets off so that she could beat their faces with it. But no. That wouldn't do well here. Instead she just got to her feet and stared hard at Tacitus. "I am not afraid of him. Perhaps it is he that is afraid of me." He did cut her off from the Force, afterall. He kept her bound and shackled. If she wasn't a threat than he'd of left her alone. Darksiders like him had egos to match. And she'd get her digs in while she could.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

Her defiance merely caused the guards to seize her by her hair and cruelly slam her head against the table that was the only furniture in the room. "The next time you speak disrespectfully or out of turn, we will break your fingers," one of the guards said before proceeding to deliver a savage beating to her until the Sith Lord ordered them to stop with a wave of his hand.

Ignoring her jibes, Tacitus regarded her with what seemed to be a mixture of curiosity and disinterested disgust, like someone contemplating a bug that he was about to squash under his boot. He spoke a few instructions in that strange language of his people, to which the guards would respond by forcing her to her knees, arms held tightly behind her back as one of the individuals in trench coats walked up behind her, grabbed a fistful of her hair and proceeded to pull it up and away, exposing the back of her neck. With his free hand, he brought up a small device, which painfully etched a series of glyphs into her skin using a laser, most likely a prisoner number. A protocol droid carrying some folded-up clothing in grey coloring, then entered the room.

Manhandling her like she was a sack of potatoes, the guards forcibly removed her armor, methodically and efficiently working through the straps and clasps that kept it in place, stripping the protective equipment from her and tossing it to the floor like a piece of trash. The bundle of grey clothes was then roughly shoved into her hands, a set of roughspun prisoner overalls. They gave her no boots or shoes to wear. "Get dressed," one of the guards instructed. "Quickly now, before I lose my patience."

Through what was clearly an ordeal meant to humiliate her, Tacitus just sat there in silence, his cat-like eyes occasionally lifting from his datapad to watch what was going on, but otherwise treating her like a piece of furniture. He gave her a minute or two to get dressed, before finally setting the datapad onto the table and turning his full attention to her.

Inwardly, he laughed at her pathetic attempts to get a rise out of him, a favorite tactic of do-gooders everywhere in the galaxy. Such feeble, childish tactics did not work on him. Now, the real mind games would begin.

"Before you get any ideas in your head that you will somehow escape, or that someone will rescue you, let me make myself clear," he said to her in a cold, business-like tone that held not even a hint of emotion. "No one is coming for you. Not your Zakuulian followers, not your husband and most certainly not your Mandalorian friends," he spoke, pausing a brief moment for effect. "Your husband is in no position to swoop in and rescue you, the Mandalorians were quite eager to give me the flight plan of your ship after I had a brief conversation with [member="Yasha Cadera"] about the consequences, should they refuse to cooperate and your followers, well..." he said, pushing a button on his datapad that caused a hologram to appear in the air.

The holo showed Zakuul, but not as she had last seen it. Of the once proud spires that pierced the clouds, only broken stumps remained. A cloud of ash covered the planet, the orange glow of massive firestorms visible upon it like paint on a canvas. Triangular-hulled ships, Star Destroyers much like the ones that had captured her freighter surrounded the planet in a precise formation, unleashing salvo after salvo of turbolaser fire upon the world's surface. The entire planet was being bombarded from orbit, the surface cracked and melted into glass, the atmosphere burned, the seas and swamps and oceans quickly boiling away. In its current condition, it was highly unlikely anyone was left alive down there, or anything beyond the hardiest of single-celled microorganisms, but the ships were still bombarding the world, thorough in the devastation they caused.

It was all fake, of course. The horrific images of Zakuul being destroyed, the part about the Mandalorians betraying her, all of it a carefully calculated and constructed lie designed by the dark mastermind to break her. In truth, it had been easy for one of his spies to covertly strap a hidden transmitter onto her ship, during one of the stops along her journey. But she, of course, had no way of knowing what Tacitus had planned.

Another press of a button and the projection shut off, leaving only the Sith Lord's eyes fixed on hers. "As you can see, there is no hope left for you. No chance of escape, nothing and no one to mourn you or desire your release. I have made sure of that," he said. "Understand that I am not like the enemies you are used to dealing with. There is nowhere you can run, no hole you can crawl in, that is beyond my reach."

A nod from him was the signal for the two trench coat-wearing individuals to spring into action. The table was raised in a vertical position and she was strapped onto it, arms and legs splayed. A buzzing device that looked vaguely like a misshapen lightsaber, was pressed against the back of her skull.

"Now," he said ominously, "Let us begin."

And then, the true pain would, indeed, commence. Pain like the feeling of being boiled alive from the inside out, like the sensation of eyes exploding our of their sockets, of flesh melting and peeling away from the bones. A thousand agonies and more, all at once, each moment and each breath a living hell.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay grit her teeth as her head was slammed into the table. The words of the guard just falling more or less on deaf ears. Most especially as she was repeatidly punched and kicked. Again she was grateful for her armour and how well it protected her from the majority of the blows.

The next thing she knew she was on her knees, with her arms held tightly. For the second time in her life she had something etched into her neck. Her hands clentched into fists as she held back her screams, beads of sweat now forming on her forehead. With her good eye she looked up at [member="Darth Tacitus"] as he watched her. She knew this game. He was showing her his control over what happened to her.

Her armour. No...

The protective gear was removed, now leaving her more vulnerable to their blows. By the Force she really wanted her tea right now! Kay took the clothing and got herself dressed, shirt first followed by the trousers. She was going to make a quip about how badly they are treating a lady, but she refrained from doing so.

That was when Tacitus decided to give her his full attention. The words that poured out of him were hard to believe. Yasha wouldn't give such information so freely. Yasha always protected her. It had to be a lie!

Then came the images of Zakuul as it lay waste under attack. ".....No...." The one word was uttered under her breath. Where were the Zakuulan armies? The fleets? Did Tacitus have a head start while she was on Kashyyyk? With the voidstone collar she was shut off from her husband, so she couldn't even reach out to him for confirmation or for help. Where was he? Where were their children? Was Lori alright? Kay wasn't sure if Lori had been on Zakuul at the time of the attack or not.

But right now her current situation was what mattered. She met his gaze with a look of disbelief and hatred in her eyes. "How could you?!! All those innocent people!!..." Kay grit her teeth again as she was strapped to the table, standing upright. Something was placed at the base of her skull, right at the top of her spine. Seconds later all that she felt was pain. Holding in her screams only lasted a few seconds, before the sounds poured out of her. Every muscle tensed up, her back arching against the restraints as it tried to move away from the instrument of pain. Every cell of her body felt like it was exploding. Her heart pounded in her chest as she screamed and pulled against the restraints. This was deja-vu, a memory from her past that she didn't want to revisit. And it was punishment.

Punishment for her crimes against the Elders of Commenor. She was sure of it.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

A cruel routine would settle in over the following days as the ships made their way back towards Nelvaan. Twice a day, Kay would be taken out of her cell for sessions of torture lasting several hours, Tacitus' agents making liberal use of the nerve induction technology that they had, to put her through a variety of hellish tortures without inflicting actual physical harm. The Sith Lord wanted her relatively intact for trial and execution.

So far, all of the sessions went the same way. The guards dragged her to the interrogation room, where she was strapped to the table, tortured for several hours, then returned to her cell. There had been no questions asked, not yet. Tacitus had not deemed her resolve to be shaken enough for that, though he had not seen fit to inform her of his thoughts, or even be present during the long hours of torture.

Several weeks after her capture, the colossal warship shuddered as it emerged from hyperspace and made a brief stop along the way. The reasons for this, would be revealed to her soon enough.

Like in the previous days, the guards dragged her from her cell and into the interrogation room, where the two Psi Corps operatives awaited her, their torture devices already prepared. This time, though, something was different. A protocol droid was also in the room, holding a plasteel box. Tacitus was also there, standing somewhere to the side as the guards raised the table into its vertical position and strapped her into the restraints.

At a wave from Tacitus, the protocol droid stepped forward with the box. "Good evening, prisoner one-nine-zero-three-four," he said, addressing her not by name, but by the number that had been seared into her neck. "I had a present brought for you, delivered straight from Zakuul," the Sith lord spoke, a hand gesture ordering the droid to lift the lid off the box. "Something to remind you of the fate of those who commit themselves to conspiring against the Eternal Empire."

The droid tilted the box at an angle that would make its contents visible to her. Within the confines of the plasteel container, stacked side by side, were five severed heads, the stumps of their necks charred black by the lightsabers which had removed them from the shoulders of their owners. The five heads of her Scions, delivered by the assassins sent in to infiltrate Zakuul and eliminate them, frozen in carbonite for the duration of the journey, though Tacitus intended to tell Kay a slightly altered story about how he acquired them.

This was why the dreadnought and its escorts had made a stop earlier. "My soldiers captured them when the Eternal Army stormed your palace on Zakuul, a few hours before we reduced that planet to a lifeless ball of glass," he explained. "There was remarkably little resistance in your capital, after our artillery shelled it with chemical weapons."

Another wave of his hand sent the droid scurrying off towards a panel in one of the walls, which slid open to reveal a chute which no doubt led to a garbage incinerator. Without any pomp or ceremony, the mechanical creature dumped the box and its contents inside, as if it were insignificant trash to be disposed off without second thought.

At a nod from the Sith Lord, one of the interrogators pressed the torture device against the back of her neck and activated it, letting the horrific pain course through her for a few moments before removing the infernal gadget. The time for questions had finally arrived.

"Tell me," Tacitus said, clawed hand reaching out to grab a fistful of hair, yanking hard to force her to face him. "Who assisted you in seizing power on Zakuul?"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Routine. There was something to be said about that. Sometimes people can become numb to it. Othertimes they became obsessed with it. Kay on the otherhand used it to keep herself sane. Each torture session was excruciating, but all that she had to do was wait it out. During the breaks in between sessions, she'd either sleep or eat when they force fed her enough to keep her alive. Despite all of the pain she'd endure during the torture, she soon came to realize that there was no physical harm done. It was all in her mind, brought forth by the device they put at the base of her skull each time.

That didn't make the sessions any easier, but it did make them more bearable. Kay's screams and cries echoed through the room each time, her throat becoming raw because of it.

Finally [member="Darth Tacitus"] himself was there in the room. Maybe now the torture will end. Kay looked to him with bloodshot eyes, her skin lacking in it's usual healthy colour. Her wrists and ankles were bruised from the restraints and her constant struggles against them while being tortured.

The very mention of a present didn't exactly thrill her. Kay's eyes were then directed to the box the protocol droid carried. As the lid opened she saw them, the heads of [member="Jareth"] , Octavia and the other Scions lay within, their dead eyes seeming to stare up at her. Was this what the Scions had predicted? There was no stability for Zakuul but death. There was no rise for the Eternal Empire except for the one that Tacitus led...

Oh no...

She closed her eyes as the heads were disposed off, tears threatening to fall as she came to realize just how much of a pawn that she was. Her reign was always meant to be short lived, only to bring about...him.

The buzzing of the torture devise was turned on, Kay's eyes snapping open as she knew what was coming. A split second later and the pain jolted through her body. She screamed, her back arching against the table as her muscles tensed. But instead of lasting for hours, it had stopped. Her body fell against the table and as Tacitus grabbed her hair, she offered no resistance. When she spoke, her voice was rough and raw. "They are dead...they are all dead...You killed most of them." The Scions and Baron Morcus...They all had a hand in her escape from Purgatory and putting her in power. Now she was the only one left.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

He listened to her speak with a flat, emotionless expression on his face. To him, her ordeal was merely a question of mathematics, just another equation that needed to unfold in certain, specific ways. There was no hate, no sadistic pleasure, nothing even remotely human in his otherworldly feline eyes, just calculation, logic and infinite patience. He didn't even grant her the courtesy of making it personal.

Everything he did, was merely part of a plan, just another step towards achieving whatever hidden agenda his unfathomable intellect pursued. Logic and reason deprived of even the slightest ounce of compassion, or the most meager hint of mercy. He took no pleasure from her suffering, felt neither remorse or glee, the simple, horrible truth was that he didn't care about Kay's torment at all.

He measured her words, weighed and dissected every minute detail of her every reaction in his mind, then selected the appropriate response. He raised his arm and struck her across the face with the back of his hand, hard enough to give her a painful jolt, but not hard enough to do any serious damage. "Not good enough, prisoner one-nine-zero-three-four," he said and nodded to the Psi Corps operative behind her.

The interrogator tweaked some settings on the torture device, grabbed a fistful of her hair, brutally forcing her head down, then pressed the infernal machine against her skin and activated it. The pain inflicted upon her before, during the previous torture session, would seem like a mere shadow compared to what she would feel now. To the sensation of every molecule in her body being torn apart into its constituent atoms, the pain of being crushed to death and burned alive in the infernal furnace at the heart of a star. And the pain would go on and on, for ten minutes, without pause, without respite, without the merciful release of death.

And then, at last, the pain would stop. "Let's try that again," Tacitus asked in the same flat, business-like tone as before, the same cold, inhuman look in his eyes. "I want the names and last known locations of everyone who helped you take power and everyone who helped you fund and arm this terrorist rebellion of yours. If you hesitate, lie, or leave anything out, I will know. And then, I will have you tortured for the next twenty-four hours continuously," he said, a kind of brutal finality in the way he spoke the words, one that seemed to say he would do exactly as he threatened to do.

"Keep defying me and I will do the same thing to your family," he added, followed by a moment of pause to let his words sink in. "As I have said, one-nine-zero-three-four, my power is absolute. There is nowhere that you, or anyone, can hide that is beyond my reach, do you understand that? If you do not cooperate fully and without hesitation, I will destroy everything and everyone you love, slowly and painfully. Now answer the question."

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay's face stung from where [member="Darth Tacitus"] had hit it. An interrogation. That's what this was about?

That sudden realization was soon interrupted as the infernal device was placed onto her skin and turned on. Kay screamed again, her muscles tensing, her heart pounding, and her body fighting against the restraints to try to get away from the pain.

Those efforts were futile, they always were....

Tears freely fell from her cheeks as the pain suddenly stopped, her body slumping back against the table. The threats against her family felt very real. Tacitus found her easily enough. Finding her family would be just as easily done. At least they played no part in Zakuul. For once she was grateful that she didn't have their support.

"Morcus...Baron Morcus...But he's dead. I was there when he died of a lung infection...Jareth, Octavia...the Scions told Morcus about their visions...You killed them." Her voice was still rough, the words barely above a whisper. But Tacitus was close so that she could be heard.
"They funded it. The Mandalorians had nothing to do with it. They spoke against it like everyone else did...."

Pain , especially prolonged pain, was a great motivator.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

He shook his head, as if disappointed. "Stubborn and predictable to the end," Tacitus responded, right before he struck her again, this time with a punch just below her solar plexus, with enough strength, he reckoned, to drive the breath from her lungs. "I already know that the Mandalorians supplied you with ships and arms," he said. "Why do you protect them? They were quick enough to betray you when I threatened them with doing the same thing to Mandalore, than I was about to do to Zakuul. This lie will cost you the life of one of your children."

He nodded to the interrogator, who then promptly pressed the infernal device to the back of Kay's head again, forcing even more hellish torment upon her. This time, the pain would be alternated between boiling, burning and electrocution, so intense as to feel as if each individual cell in her body was being subjected to this hellish abuse, stuck in a permanent state of being destroyed as if time itself was frozen.

Ten minutes later, the pain would stop. Tacitus was ready to ask another question. "What about the Silver Jedi? The Outer Rim Coalition? I know you met with both. I want to know everything that happened at those meetings, every word, the names of everyone who were present, what they said and what they did. And I want everything you have on the Mandalorians, everything you know about their military and intelligence operations. Lie to me, or withhold any information and I will kill your other child as well," he threatened her.

"Do not, for one second, doubt that I will do this," he said, pressing a few buttons on his datapad. Reaching out, he then grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked hard, lifting her head and shoving the datapad's screen in her face. A picture of her husband and children, chained up to a wall in what looked like a cell, was displayed on it. They were bruised and battered, looking like they were tortured, another one of Tacitus' elaborate fabrications, a highly complex computer simulation designed to be perfectly lifelike, to make the deception complete. "My agents are everywhere, one-nine-zero-three-four. Nothing and no one is safe from my wrath."

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay coughed harshly after [member="Darth Tacitus"] punched her. Oh how she hated him and those just like him. No matter what she gave him it was never enough!

Her screams were more hoarse now, at times just catching in her throat and unable to come out at all. It was like living out a nightmare, one that she had lived through many times before.

Finally the pain stopped once more, her body shaking instead of falling limp this time. Slthough there was no real physical damage, in her mind she was going through shock.

What Tacitus asked of her was impossible. She had next to no knowledge of her niece's military, something that she knew that he'd find hard to believe. If only she was subjected to a truth serum instead. Then this would all go easier.

The sight of her family caught in chains didn't sit well with her at all. With no access to the Force, she couldn't feel them, couldn't search for the truth in what she was seeing. She didn't want to believe it. But it looked too real...

"The ships and arms by Mandalore...I bought and paid for...They were not gifts." Kay shuddered as she fought back the urge to pass out. "The Outer Rim...that meeting was just to establish trade, but no agreement was made. The Jedi...that was just for me and my crimes against Commenor....I don't know anything about Mandalore's military and intelligence. I was kept out of that on purpose..." She was an easy target. Giving her secret intel was a big mistake and everyone knew that. So she was always kept in the dark.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

Once again, he shook his head. "Disappointing, one-nine-zero-three-four," he said, the look of disgust on his face being the first sign of emotion he showed since the whole thing began. He tapped a few buttons on his datapad. "We're skipping the truth serum procedure," the Sith Lord explained, as casually as if he was talking about a school science project. "If your conditioning allows you to withstand what we already did to you, then we won't get anything out of you that way, either. But first..." he spoke, a gesture of his hand causing two guards to march into the room.

The guards worked through the straps and shackles holding her to the torture table with swift efficiency, removing them one by one, then restraining her wrists and ankles with some sort of magnetic cuffs that stuck together when activated. One of the soldiers then grabbed her by the hair, twisting her black locks around his wrist as if to secure a rope. When Tacitus and the interrogators exited, the two guards followed, dragging Kay behind them like a sack of potatoes. Two more guards closed in behind, cutting off any avenue of escape, even with the magnetic cuffs preventing her from moving and the collar cutting off her access to the Force.

Dragging her by her hair, they took her into a turbolift, which descended several levels more, into what appeared to be a large cargo hold. At the center of it, a vat with some kind of bubbling liquid had been set up, which boiled and hissed ominously. At a hand gesture from the Sith Lord, the guards hoisted her up, one holding her shoulders, the other one her head, forcing her to look.

The vat was an industrial crucible of some kind and it was filled with bubbling, boiling molten gold. The true horror dangled above the vat, suspended by chains. Her husband, [member="Veiere Arenais"] and her two children, bruised, beaten and visibly tortured, shook feebly as if struggling against the bonds, hopelessly trying to form words through the blood-stained rags with which they had been gagged. They were held up by a winch, which looked like it came from some kind of construction machinery. It had taken Tacitus a not insignificant amount of effort to set up this scene. The undead creatures had to be disguised to look like Kay's family and the illusion spell had to be just perfect. With the voidstone collar around her neck and the ordeal she had endured, he reckoned it would be impossible for her to tell the difference.

"This, one-nine-zero-three-four, is the beginning of the price for your lies," he explained, waving at the three 'prisoners' dangling precariously above the angry molten metal below. "The beginning of your punishment for the crimes you have committed against the Eternal Empire. For the heinous and vile way in which you have attempted to usurp and corrupt the very soul of this nation," Tacitus spoke, a terrible finality in his tone, the words chosen carefully to build anticipation for the fake atrocity which was about to occur.

"You have given shelter to our enemies, those who unleashed genocide upon our people, back when you were ruler of Commenor," he said, referring to an old incident where the Commenori government allowed a certain frigate belonging to Kuat Drive Yards to pass through safely through their territory, away from the Nelvaanian ships who were attempting to detain those within it.

"We let you be, that time. But it was not enough for you, was it? You repaid our forgiveness by attempting to usurp the very soul and identity of our nation through your false, illegitimate and illegal claim to the Eternal Throne," the Sith Lord spoke. "And in doing so, you have endangered everything I have ever worked for and fought for, every sacrifice I have ever made to protect trillions of lives and thousands of worlds, an entire galaxy, from extinction. And for what? Glory? Wealth? Power? All meaningless and worthless pursuits, materialistic gains meant to satisfy your own selfish wants and desires for an ever growing quantity of more," he said, his words carrying a bone-chilling wrath that shattered the detached demeanor he previously had.

"All that which you so selfishly desire, I shall grant to you now. Here it is, then, the wealth and power that you crave so much, all your pathetic wishes made manifest," Tacitus spoke, then pressed a button on his datapad. The chain began to lower, slowly submerging the pitiful forms of her fake family into the molten gold below. They screamed and shook, a horrible smell of burned flesh filling the cargo hold and then they fell silent as the boiling metal engulfed them. When the chains lifted, all that was left were three golden skeletons slowly twisting against their restraints, their empty eye sockets boring into Kay's eyes, as if to shout their silent condemnation.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay's brows lifted as [member="Darth Tacitus"] informed her that a truth serum was off the table. So he had it? He was going to use it! Why would he choose not to? "No....wait..."

She winced as the guards came, half expecting to be forced to face incredible pain once more. Instead they released her from the table and cuffed her. Moments later she was being dragged by her hair. What was happening now? Where was she going?

Her eyes were drawn to the vat straight away. And it wasn't until they had propped her up that she saw the figures hanging above it. "No..."

Her attention went to Tacitus as he spoke, seeming to deliver a sentence to her, as though this entire sham had been a trial. "I haven't lied to you...I swear!" But how could she prove it? Tell him what he wanted to hear? She'd have to make some of it up! And then when those lies were discovered, he'd punish her more.

"No...that's not what happened. I didn't ask for this. Stop it, please!" It was the first time that she had asked him for anything. But her words just fell on deaf ears. Her family were lowered into the vat. If it weren't for the guards holding her, she'd of collapsed right there on the floor as her knees buckled. Kay cried out in anguish as her heart broke into pieces...

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Kay Arenais"]​

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• CNS Midnight Exigent
  Exigent-class Star Dreadnought, Deep Space

He regarded her silently, watching her as she struggled and pleaded, like a loth wolf might regard a squirming gizka trapped under its paw, a look of contempt mixed with disgust in his eyes as she begged for the lives of her fake husband and children. As soon as the mock 'execution' was over, the guards lifted her by her arms, one of them grabbing a handful of her hair and forcing her head up just as another guard delivered a punch to her face. Kicks and punches to her ribs and abdomen followed as the guards inflicted another beating upon her, each blow designed to cause the maximum amount of pain while doing as little damage as possible.

"You dare make demands of the Eternal Emperor?" one of the guards yelled at her, an Anubian. "You, a worthless, pathetic insect dare make demands of one who sits above the gods themselves? You, who demands the protection of others because you are too cowardly to fight your own battles? You aren't even worthy of being crushed under his boot."

The guard raised his fist to punch her again and froze as Tacitus lifted his hand. "<<Enough,>>" he commanded in High Nelvaanian. As the guard stepped back, he turned his attention to her, taloned hand whipping out to grab her jaw, closing like a vice and lifting her head to faced him. "You're just a pawn," he said in a contemptuous tone. "Just a worthless, mindless puppet in someone else's games, too stupid to even be aware of the strings, let alone who or what is pulling them."

"Even so, the law is absolute. You will face justice for your crimes, on Nelvaan. I've given you chance after chance to avoid this fate, yet you spat on every olive branch I've ever given you. Now, you will face the consequences of your actions. A final lesson, right before you die, alone and forgotten like the pathetic coward that you are."

"Goodbye, one-nine-zero-three-four. We will not see eachother again until your trial and execution. Until then, I see no reason to waste any more time with you."

He turned to his guards. "<<She is to be allowed no more food, water or sleep than is necessary to keep her alive until we reach Nelvaan. Her torture sessions are to be increased to a minimum of twelve hours per day, at irregular intervals. Now get this wretched thing out of my sight and back into the hole where she belongs.>>"

 

[Kay-Larr]

What speaking could she do while she was being punched and kicked while being held upright? None. And with herself being cut off from the Force, she couldn't fight back very well either. Her heart was shattered with the deaths of her family, her pride was shattered with the deaths of her government and people. And now her body felt as though it was being shattered day in and day out.

Kay looked to [member="Darth Tacitus"] as he held her jaw, blood trickling from her nose and her mouth. His words were true. She was a pawn, although she had tried to make the best of the situation and gain control of it. But her strategy had failed. She had failed.

A trial and execution. More than likely the trial would be a sham, and so it was an execution that she faced. But what other punishment did she deserve? There was no other. Still the very thought of being alone and forgotten threatened to bring her to tears. That is if she even had any left.

Kay didn't understand what was being said, yet she knew that it wasn't pleasant. She shut her eyes and retreated inside of herself as she waited for the next series of blows to come.