Private The Lost World of Kytrand

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Heading towards: Kytrand

Aboard: Bacta-Works Cruiser (Windu's Hand)

Nathan looked at the Galactic Map since Tython had fallen. A big ugly splotch of territory in the heart of the Core was now owned by the Sith.

And dangerously close to Kytrand.

Their control was not absolute... however they had managed to reach the core, they were still surrounded on all sides.

Nathan had no choice but to start ferrying as many Clones out of the Kytrand System as possible, and depositing their forces in other, navigable parts of the Deep Core, prepping for a massive, full throated attack as the Kytrand Army begin establishing stations to operate from. It had to be done carefully. Secretively.

The Alliance surrounded the Dark Empire. They barely controlled three hexes worth of territory. But they had to be driven back quickly, smashed before they could truly dig in.

Kytrand could still be used in either case, but they would have to be a ton more secretive about it no matter what they did going forward.

Nathan waited aboard Windu's Hand, it's orbit above Coruscant pre-arranged to pick up Elias Edo and whoever else he trusted on the trip.

Aboard this ship were nothing but Bacta-Works employees. He was already ordering skirmish attacks all along the Dark Empire's foothold in Alliance Deep Core space. He was probably the only one doing so at the moment.

Nathan awaited in the hangar of the ancient cruiser, waiting for whatever ship Elias would bring to dock. He was wearing his normal, frayed robes.

He was apprehensive. He knew Edo's trust in him was heavily strained. He had gotten a lot of Jedi out of the temple on Dagobah, lots of vital info out, but revealing he had revived a gigantic Clone Army had pushed that trust to the limit, and only by how Nathan had gone out of his way to save Dagobah Jedi and delay and drive back a massive Droid Assault from the temple using the Clones he had awakened, as well as using the Clones to help evac civilians at Yumfla had counterbalanced it. Barely.

Nathan, however, was determined to prove to maybe his one actual work friend beyond Kinea Lewellyn that he wasn't the Jedi Order's enemy.

So, he had made this arrangement. He would take Edo to Kytrand, and whoever he brought along with him.

In the interest of maybe salving what he could describe on a basic level as a conscience, he had also extended an invite to Valery Noble and Kahlil Noble to take them along for the fun also. (He hadn't described it as anything beyond "Super Secret Lost Fun Hidden Jedi Planet" in a message left for them in the temple, due to both the stress of recent events, long nights and his own sarcasm making what should have been a confession more of an invite)

He was tired. Exhausted. The months and months of running around as a Padawan between Various enclaves as a courier--

(Cutaway of various enemies in New Vegas being blown away by firearms)

--and making sure quality was maintained in his corporation had finally gotten to him. The war against the Sith, the Personal War trying to find The Cult and stamp out their activity.

It had finally begun to get to him, wear him down. His own personal morale raised only by a recent marriage.

Nathan waited, wanting to see who would take him up.



(Special invit to Efret Farr )

 

[Efret Farr]

Location: with Elias Edo , approaching Nathan Bloodscrawl 's meeting point

Since Efret had been troubled over the morality of the creation of luggabeast, it was a foregone conclusion that her feelings regarding cloning were just as dubious. <Clone-person army?> she signed, her brow deeply furrowed. <When this, 21 #BBY?> The history buff in her was showing. It was hard for it not to act reflexively judgmental, though of course she hoped that the long-since past was not going to in one way or another repeat itself.

In time she would develop another reservation as well, once she learned about the extensive bacta operations on the Kytrand's surface, for she had an allergy to the gel. The last thing she wanted to was fall ill on the eve of war. That'd make her even more worthless than if she hadn't returned to Coruscant from the Mid Rim.

Then she uncrinkled her face. <But I glad you ask-me come with.> She smiled at him despite her only realized reservation. Regardless of that one and the one she had yet to come to know, Elias' logic about this place that he had shared with her after the all-Jedi meeting was sound. If they all played their cards right, settling some of the Jedi interested in going into hiding here would be a win-win, even if it was still close to what was now Dark Empire space. Should there ever be a time to test the wisdom of that saying that went "hiding in plain sight", now might be it. <I trust you. Only nervous.>

Outfit + equipment; lapel translation clip (currently switched off); lightsaber (green blade color)

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Efret Farr | Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: CORUSCANT

A “colorful range of emotions” couldn’t begin to describe what Elias was feeling as he prepped the Calypso for departure. It was more like the whole damn visible spectrum, and then some; disbelief at the existence of an army of Force-sensitive clones, anger that Nathan Bloodscrawl had awakened them, alone, distrust by the secrecy, and a certain unplaced mixture of guilt and justification, all at once. The same thoughts that hit him on Dagobah flooded his mind now. They’d come so far from those tunnels on Sullust, how could Nathan still be such an enigma? Why did he have to hide? What did he have to hide?

Elias was deep in thought on the whole thing as he loaded crate after crate onto his freighter, stopping every so often to check in with Efret Farr before returning to work. On his last trip up the loading ramp, he looked to her to ask if she was ready.

<Clone-person army? When this, 21 #BBY?>

Elias snorted. He wasn’t sure if she meant to be sarcastic or not, but he took it as a quip and let the humor lighten his mood. <Roger, roger> he answered with a grin, wishing he knew a bit more GBSL - and that his poor impression of a B1 battle droid was as funny to her as he thought it was.

<Glad you come with me,> he attempted with a kind smile. <Ship become… alone?> Elias laughed nervously, rubbing his neck. “Damn, this is harder than I remember.” He gave the crate next to him a triumphant pat.

<Last one. Ready to go?>

The Calypso was stocked with a week’s worth of water, foodstuffs, and all the standard equipment he usually brought with him on expeditions. Even with the few crates of Jedi salvage he rescued from Dagobah still aboard and destined for Bogano, there was ample room for anything of note they might find on Kytrand. All his ship was missing was them.

Spoiler: Calypso Deck Plan

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

While Elias Edo and Efret Farr prepared for arrival, Nathan again felt a deepening pit of anxiety at his situation.

So much had changed. He had changed.

Yet he had never seemed farther from his initial goal then now...

He sensed something as he waited for their arrival. Something familiar, yet... foreign...

He blinked and was in a white void.

"You vex me, Father."

Nathan turned, spotted his daughter, Laertia Io , in a white version of biker leathers with gold spikes on the jacket. These days, known by her Cultist name of The Parliament.

"What do you want?"

"I am so curious as to why you believe you can convince them to stay quiet about your massive Clone Army..."

"You've been keeping tabs."

"Of course." she replied.

"I am going to destroy the Cult, and you along with it. Nothing you say will avert this desire in me..." he snapped.

"Time and again The Cult has beaten you. Humiliated you. What makes you think this time will be any different?" she asked.

"Because this time I don't intend to stop until your false goddess is a greasy smear on my fist..." Nathan replied icily. (Let the universe howl in despair, for I have returned: 10,000 XP)

The Parliament looked at him crossly.

"You leave me in an awkward position, Father. Would it truly be too much to let it all stay in the past?"

Nathan looked at her in open horror at her seeming inability to comprehend.

"Do you even understand the depth of your treason?" he asked in a pained hiss. "Your Mother was murdered by that thing. That thing murdered me next. And after all that, of having to feel Lysandra being completely obliterated spiritually, what do you go and do when you grow up? You betray and butcher your fellow Jedi, and then you date the reincarnation of the monster that killed your Mother. Then you marry the beast that murdered my parents."

"Okay, okay, the first two parts of that complaint, I get. I do, honest!" The Parliament chirped. "But that last part...even you can't deny that was a self-own, making sure Elaine would get ambushed. Sure, you couldn't have known, but that doesn't excuse you. Abandon this madness! Without me, what will you have? I'm your only flesh and blood left! The Jedi won't treat you even a tenth as well as I could. What's the Light Side given you that the Darkness can't? The Darkness even raised you from the dead!"

She got in his face.

"You will be a slave to a bunch of dusty old fools in bathrobes. All that you have gained, they shall dash aside and tear asunder. Is that what you truly want? Kissing their ass forever and never doing your own will?"

"I live with Lysandra's pain as she died every single day." Nathan snapped. "You have no idea how awful that is. The sacrifices I would make to be rid of it. To silence it. She loved you and wanted the best for you. And so did I..." he said, fighting back tears. "But for the sheer disloyalty you show her in particular...I shall not relent."

The Parliament's eye twitched.

"Just like a Jedi. Stuck in the past. Only remembering the wrongs done, not seeing the opportunity...it's the same thing I hated about men like Coren Starchaser . " she sneered.

"Your cult murders younglings regularly. Don't you get sanctimonious with me." he replied with cold fury.

"And the Jedi don't? Constantly taking in youth for training, pumping them up with propaganda, and then sending them into some backwater to die in the latest war? Like you would have happily preferred for me? At least my Cult gets to the point quicker." she scoffed.

Nathan eyed her.

"What the hell happened to you to make you so bitter towards them? It can't just be the Bryn'adul. This was building up for a long time, wasn't it? The Bryn'adul was just the final straw."

"What happened to me..." The Parliament snarled. "Is the same thing that will happen to you, if you keep trying to work with the Jedi."

"What is it, Julia? What's the real reason you can't let this feud with the Jedi go?" Nathan pressed. "Is it really conviction? Or just simple wounded pride at this point?"

"I could ask the same of you and your feud with the Cult." she hissed.

"Not an answer." he responded.

"Oh sure, Father, it's easy for you to commit to destroying an evil Cult after they killed your wife! But who punishes your side when all is said and done? Hmm? Who punishes them? No one. No one ever punishes them when they get it wrong. Not really. It's too convenient not to. I'm sick of that." she hissed.

"I used to think my master, The Amalgam, was evil. And then I watched them, really watched as they selfishly threw away a chance to possibly save trillions. If you only heard the pathetic bleatings of Jedi students protesting the idea of team ups, screaming and crying their pathetic little hearts out about how a team up would invalidate their suffering. What's the point in being good? Righteous? If you have to share a space alongside that level of selfishness, just to be called a good person, then I'm glad I've murdered so many of them. They're evil. That's their secret. They're as evil as the Sith are, it's just that they're better at public relations, at saying things fools want to hear. Because it's better than dealing with the ugly truth."

She grabbed him by the collar, and he saw the hate filled madness on her face for Jedi.

"I must bring them low! They must be punished! And if that means helping to destroy this bloated Alliance that they prop up, so they can know what it's like to be a fugitive, so they can finally experience all the destruction they hoped to avoid passing it off to the less fortunate, the ruin they inflicted on the whole Galaxy, shamelessly touting it to be the will of the Force when it was nothing but their own ego telling them what they wanted to hear...then destroy it I shall. Maybe then the lesson will be learned.

"You're sick and delusional." Nathan replied, having heard a rant from her similar to this, albeit with slightly more details and reasoning. But she didn't seem to be lying.

It was the Cult's programming, he realized, fixating her on the reason she rebelled...and yet not triggering her cognitive dissonance. Her hot blooded emotions did the rest.

"Doesn't mean I'm wrong about them..." she retorted.

Nathan blinked and he was back in the hangar, just in time to see the Arrival of the Calypso...

He was badly shaken.