Private The Meeting

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: Ceremonial Stealth Robes

Armed With: Clandestine Blades (Hidden up sleeves)

Arrived in: Emperor's Shuttle Replica (Black Hull, Red Viewports)


The Stealth Shuttle that reached Terephon was of the Highest Quality.

SIA, as ordered by Tavius Rhyven (Being mentioned here for the purposes of reference to story in question) was looking for whoever was responsible for the recent attack on the Hapans. Nathan's advantage was that he only ever dealt with the Crimson Veil by proxy (And it had been strictly their operatives as opposed to any of his that had carried out the attack), his instructions delivered via cut-out messages that made use of the One Time Pad method whose highly flammable decryption sheets had been entrusted to a single member of one of the most fanatical of Kalen's supporters and each pad made from true random number generation methods from probe Droids that self destructed via a special acid gas canister after delivery was made, and each piece of the Droid constructed from scrap from the junkyards of the Hapes Cluster itself, nothing that could be traced back to the core or to him. Scrapyard constructed shuttles that delivered small amount of Electrum Bullion mined from Asteroids in the cluster also had similar self destruction measures, themselves constructed by reprogrammed construction droids operating on automatic programming assembled by House Io Defector Droids for an extra layer of deniability. He also made sure never to maintain more than one actual operative in the cluster itself, to make searching for his organization by a rival party like searching for a needle in a system sized haystack. He had made sure to never be directly involved in the System at any point, and never sent instructions through transmission, even encrypted ones. The one exception he made was with the attack he initiated on the Queen's supporters (The ship he had sent it from had been immediately scrapped after the cancelled mission) and the transmission he had sent Kalen , who he had sent a shuttle similar to his own on automatic pilot.

Nathan stepped out of the shuttle, hood drawn over a shadowsilk mask and with a voice modulator attached to his throat, waiting for Kalen to show. The meeting site was an oasis in the marshlands, a small dry spot. He was due virtually any second now, and didn't want to stay here longer than necessary. Even this small meeting was dangerous.

The Alliance was being blamed for the attack, but Nathan was determined to unseat Aurellia by any means necessary. He refused to allow her Alliance with Black Sun go uncontested. The Alliance may have wanted to shrink away under the guise of sovereign rights but also conveniently wanted to ignore the fact that the only reason Aurellia was in a position to cede at all was by allying with some of the most vicious criminals in the Galaxy. Her rule was completely illegitimate from the word 'Go'.

Nathan would not ignore it. He could not ignore it. He had seen how this society worked, and how desperate Aurellia was to preserve it no matter the cost to the men of her society.

And how the Jedi could look at it and abide what went on in the cluster, how they could just ignore it under the guise of not wanting to be like the empire...he was personally incapable of looking at it as anything less than cowardice.

So he would fight. Or fund the fight. He would try to do what had been a failure the first time around. He had to try. What he saw here was evil, and it had to be opposed. He had never been of the same mind as the Jedi on the matter of Hapan Culture.

It had been a Hapan Gun of Command, used on him as a teenager, that had forced him to give Alja Rippen the means to bring down Castle Bloodscrawl's defenses.

He had never forgotten that about The Hapans.

Not ever. And he was not about to rest until the horrible monarchy that sanctioned such devices, that made slaves of others, was no more.

Even if he had to tear down their gilded peace of mind...

 

[Kalen]

Kalen arrived in his own transport, having refused the shuttle which the mysterious "Patriarch" sent him. He knew better than to let his guard down, even for someone who seemed so... enthusiastic about their cause. It was enough that he was coming here in person, rather than sending in a representative to speak on his behalf.

Before exiting the shuttle, he took a look at the landscape of Terephon. The last time he was here was when he was just a boy. The lush wetlands and distant, looming mountains brought back memories of hunting alongside his family. To the elites of other Hapan worlds, Terephon was a backwater useful only as an untamed wilderness for their sport. Yet cities rose from the marshy plains, their grand architecture copying that of the motherworld. The lights of one such city, called Ouruboran after the current reigning Ducha, could be seen in the distance.

It was twilight, though like most planets within the Cluster, here there was no true darkness. He descended the loading ramp, breathing in the night air. The oasis was calm, the waters untroubled. On the dry bank he spotted a cloaked figure. Slowly, he began to approach them.

"I am the one you seek," he said. "I am Kalen. And you must be the Patriarch..."

Nathan Bloodscrawl​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan stood, looking out on the distant marshlands, not looking at Kalen at first .

"When I was a boy..." Nathan began, voice electronically disguised to have an almost Kylo-Ren-While-Helmeted-esque tone. "I knew a woman that I thought could be trusted. Her Mother was Hapan, her Father...was not. She was a Jedi Master. I was going to be apprenticed to her. Or so I thought."

He continued staring out into the swamp.

"My family guarded a secret that would cost them their lives to protect. A secret worth dying to a man over. The authorities knew we had it. The woman's own former master wanted it. So they sent her, who had my confidence, to bring down the defenses of my Family's stronghold. I foolishly let her through the security field. I was young and stupid. Stupid..." Nathan repeated the last word deliberately. "So perhaps I deserved what happened next."

He finally turned to Kalen, shadowsilk-gloved hands clasped together over his waist, hood drawn over a Shadowsilk mask, making the space where his head should be a black void.

"She wormed her way past my family's initial suspicions, and got me alone to talk. And that was when my life changed..."

Nathan took a step closer.

"I'd never seen a Gun of Command before that moment. Didn't know what it was. It had been given to her by her own Mother. This esteemed Jedi Master proceeded to use it on me to force the security codes to my family's stronghold out of me and then left me restrained in my own room while the military launched a lightning raid on it. My own personal fethin' Order 66."

Nathan suddenly paced a bit towards the edge of the swamp oasis.

"My family refused to surrender the weapon's location. It was too dangerous to be used. Too dangerous to ever uncover. So they launched the assault proper. My cousins died. My Uncle died. My Sister died first. Then My Older brother. Then my Grandfather. The security forces loyal to us died. I hunted the master down, and battled her through the stronghold as it crumbled from fires and artillery. The attacking Force was slaughtered also, but that's never consoled me even one bit."

Nathan turned to face Kalen again.

"For what she had done...I didn't give her a Jedi death. It was because of me that the stronghold was so easy to destroy. I shot her in the face several times for that. Gave her the death of a thug in the alleyway. Then I witnessed my parents die. I survived. But I wasn't myself for a long time afterwards. For various reasons. But that was my introduction to Hapan Culture and how it treats men as slaves to command and destroy at leisure. And I've detested it ever since. When The Jedi intervened during the time of the Queen Daaray, I was serving as an active member. Being on Hapes... brought back bad memories. It disgusted me how so many thought the Hapans shouldn't be made to play by the same rules that the rest of the Alliance member worlds had to. How so many thought Daaray's fascism and tyranny needed a delicate approach just because of 'sovereignty'. Oppression has never cared about what's between someone's legs so long as it can function uncontested. And that's what I can no longer do. Watch it go uncontested. Watch as the foolish Alliance pulls back as the false Queen allies herself with terrorists just to prop up her rotting, dying culture for another generation or so."

He pulled out a Holodisc handing it to him.

"The two hundred I targeted were not random innocents, they were either enforcers who committed the worst of the atrocities Daaray ordered across the cluster in response to you killing the prince and princess in that wedding, or they were supporters of Aurellia who murdered Hapan Moderates who wished to enforce the ERA across the Cluster in anticipation of Aurellia taking the Throne. I don't target randomly. I have no doubt you'll be able to corroborate the information on this disc with your own sources. Lots of evidence I managed to gather. Military records, eyewitness accounts, visual and audio recordings, that sort of thing..."

 

[Kalen]

The Patriarch's face was masked and his voice was electronically disguised. Smart man. Kalen listened as their mysterious benefactor told a story of betrayal at the hands of a Hapan woman. Perhaps he believed that Kalen would find some common ground between them. Indeed, there were some similarities between their tales. But it was not the same.

"If you had not had this personal experience, I wonder, would you still support our cause?" Kalen asked. Though there was no face visible for him to read, he never took his eyes off the Patriarch. "Or would you be like the rest of the Jedi, ignoring the injustices and inequalities of our civilization in the name of peace and sovereignty?"

How tired he was of the minimization of their struggles. Both natives and outsiders had trivialized and downplayed the horrors of a system which could sentence a man to death by forced suicide. A system which made victims of half its population, propagating unscientific stereotypes about their psychology and biology in the name of enforcing cultural mores born of vengeance. A vengeance for crimes committed by men so long-dead that not even their bones remained!

"The Alliance's days are numbered," he said sharply. "They no longer matter. With Aurellia in power, the Black Sun is our new enemy. We should turn our focus to fighting them."

Then the Patriarch brought up the subject which Kalen had been most apprehensive about: the killing of one hundred Hapan women in positions of power and influence throughout the Cluster. It had been a coordinated mass murder - undisputedly, an act of terrorism. It was reminiscent of the Crimson Veil's early operations intended to grab the galaxy's attention, and for that very reason Kalen disliked it.

"You have kicked the hornet's nest, drawing the eyes of our enemy to us during a time of weakness. That was impetuous of you." Kalen shook his head. "I ask that you take credit for the assassinations. Announce yourself as the Patriarch, a new and independent entity fighting for the freedom of Hapan men. Draw the heat away from us, and you will give us a chance to regroup and reestablish ourselves. Then we can make a true difference."

He wondered now if he was wrong to listen to Alicio Organa and go willingly into exile. Handing the reins to Nimaa'ri had given Hapes two years of relative peace. But now that peace was shattered, their hard-earned progress undone, and he had to rebuild the resistance from scratch.

Oh well. Better luck this time.

Nathan Bloodscrawl​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

The Patriarch wheeled silently on Kalen , though the voice remained no less calm.

"Even had I not been the victim of a gun of command and even had I not been the victim of a Matriarchal society very similar to yet even more evil than the Hapans who victimized you, I could not abide what I see here in The Cluster..." Nathan said.

Nathan frowned at his next suggestion.

"I can't do that...SIA is already investigating the attack. The Alliance is dying, but it's also a Hypocrite. Even now despite letting the Hapans cede it cannot stay out of their affairs. My reach extends across systems. Across the entire Alliance itself. To out myself now jeopardizes all of that. My advantage...and yours...is that they Do. Not. Know about me. I'm your secret weapon. During your exile I discreetly kept the Crimson Veil alive. Prevented it from disbanding. Cultivated new membership. Had I seen actual change I might have thought twice about doing what I did. As such, the die is cast..." The Patriarch continued.

"Besides...I had my reasons for making it so public. Normally, I operate quietly. If a death must happen, I make it look like an accident. Heart attack or something like that. The reason I made the attack so blatant was because it will draw all attention to Hapes itself. Aurellia's security forces are going crazy trying to hunt people they will never find. There are actually very few members of the Veil on Hapes itself right now. A token force of maybe a dozen, all highly placed and who have airtight covers...all the ones who committed the actual attack fled the planet through the corridors I operate and were given facial reconstructive surgery not hours after the attack itself."

The Patriarch stepped closer.

"That's the kind of power I bring to the table. Discreet, but I still bring it. I can supply your movement with weapons, explosives, ships all outsourced...I have the means..." he elaborated. "You'll be better armed and funded than you ever were when Daaray was still sucking wind. But I cannot do as you ask. To out myself would annihilate both our advantage in this situation. No. I cannot out myself...but I can provide you something even more valuable to the Veil than drawing the heat away from you. I provide a means to hide from it..."

He turned away, looking out at the swamp.

"So fitting you would ask to meet on Terephon...all the attention on the attack on Hapes has the Queen and Black Sun distracted elsewhere. Such as away from Terephon..."

He turned back to Kalen.

"I offer Terephon itself as a hiding spot. What if I told you that not three days before you arrived, I had the Ducha of this world, Ourubora Fal'Shivvy , killed and replaced by one of my operatives?"

Her name was well known to the Veil. Ruthless, sophisticated, and intelligent, and said to be even more of a Misandrist than Queen Daaray ever was. Ourubora had carried out truly vicious acts against the Veil to serve the no mercy mandate by the long dead Queen...and was rumored to have strong ties to Black Sun itself.

If what The Patriarch was saying was true, then it would no doubt confirm that The Patriarch possessed a truly horrifying level of reach and ambition...but that he had just handed one of the most secure places in the cluster to the Crimson Veil on a silver platter.

Ourubora was one of the strongest, most vocal supporters of Aurellia ...

"Terephon will be the ultimate staging ground for the Veil. That is what I offer in place of outing myself, a planet sized hiding spot to build yourselves up even further under the Queen and Black Sun's nose, under the Aegis of an operative so highly placed that not only can she hide you wherever she chooses, but is in a position to influence the Queen herself. That is the kind of pull that I have." The Patriarch stated.

 

[Kalen]

A matriarchal society even more evil than the Hapans?

Kalen showed no outward reaction, but internally he rolled his eyes. Arguing over who was the greater victim would be pointless and petty. The fact that the Patriarch was attempting to bait him into such a childish competition did not bode well, however.

The Patriarch's speech revealed his ambitions for Hapes, but his plans seemed chaotic and disorganized, full of foolhardy ideas that were more likely to backfire than succeed. Moreover, he seemed to have an inflated view of his own importance.

"I didn't ask you to out yourself. I asked you to distinguish yourself and your actions from the Crimson Veil," he clarified. "That would not require you to reveal your true identity."

"During your exile I discreetly kept the Crimson Veil alive. Prevented it from disbanding. Cultivated new membership. Had I seen actual change I might have thought twice about doing what I did. As such, the die is cast..."

Kalen held up a hand, interrupting the Patriarch's rambling. His gaze was cool, and the corners of his mouth curled into the barest hint of a smirk.

"I think there has been a misunderstanding, Patriarch. This meeting is your audition. Your chance to prove your usefulness to the Crimson Veil. We are open to taking new members. But you're already talking as if you were our leader. You're not even one of us."

Who was this guy? Was he a bloodthirsty madman with delusions of grandeur? An opportunist hoping to use the Hapan rebels to his advantage? A spy for Aurellia, pretending to be their ally while he concealed a blade behind his back? Kalen didn't know what to think. And not knowing made him unlikely to trust the Patriarch.

"So fitting you would ask to meet on Terephon... all the attention on the attack on Hapes has the Queen and Black Sun distracted elsewhere. Such as away from Terephon... I offer Terephon itself as a hiding spot. What if I told you that not three days before you arrived, I had the Ducha of this world, Ourubora Fal'Shivvy, killed and replaced by one of my operatives?"

Kalen froze. "What?"

Ourubora wasn't just familiar to him. Kalen had known her, in all the worst ways there are to know someone. Cunning and vicious, she had been one of Kha'la's cronies before she threw her lot in with Aurellia. Now the Patriarch was claiming to not only have killed her, but to have replaced her with one of his own operatives.

Despite his annoyance with how presumptuous the Patriarch had been, he found his negative opinion of the man changed dramatically.

Provided he was telling the truth about Ourubora.

"Show me this operative of yours, and you can consider yourself a member of our crew."

Nathan Bloodscrawl​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

That last part had definitely gotten Kalen's attention.

"As you wish..." Nathan said. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that Kalen was mistrustful.

He sent a message out to Magdalena through the Force.

"Step back a bit. This freaks people out sometimes..."

A spark of green energy appeared in the air between the two, before reality seemed to tear in a seam around them.

Even here, even now, Nathan was incredibly devious. What stepped through the swirling green portal that opened up wasn't quite Magdalena Bloodscrawl , but rather, one of her sub personalities, Margaret (The personality that had served as his 'Grandmother' during the Plague Era) who had been assigned the responsibility of channeling Ourubora, which required Magdalena to become Margaret first. Or make a copy of Margaret to operate as her. She exited out of the portal in a black Hapan Gown.

"Greetings, Patriarch!" Margaret said, playing along with her role, her wizened features cracking a smile at him, before focusing on Kalen .

The Patriarch nodded back.

"And you must be the rebel I've heard so much about..." she said, giving a gracious bow to Kalen.

"Kalen, this is Lady Margaret. She's a member of a species called Force Spawn." The Patriarch explained. "Force Spawn are capable of...absorbing people... afterwards, they can 'channel' whoever they absorbed. They gain their form, memories, and personality...but while taking the form of whoever they absorbed, they believe on a surface level that they are who they absorbed..."

The Patriarch turned to Margaret. "Show him."

He then turned to Kalen.

"Hope you didn't eat anything before you got here." he snarked.

Margaret's form bulged and warped horrifically, skin bulging and shuddering all over her face and body as involuntary, metallic, pig like squealing escaped her throat as the transformation took place, her aged figure vanishing under a voluptuous, bronze skinned form with chocolate hair and icy blue green eyes.

Ourubora Fal'Shivvy blinked, then scowled as she saw Kalen. The hate in her eyes was so genuine it was honestly scary. She then launched into a Canon-Accurate tirade that would be extremely familiar to Kalen based on the reports he had of her.

"What? How did I get here, Womanslayer?!" Ourubora demanded in a haughty hiss, her Hapan Accent rich and fluid. "What have you done, traitor?! Well so help me, I don't know what you did to get me out here, but when my security forces arrive, you and your comrade will HANG--"

"Will we now?" The Patriarch asked dryly.

Ourubora wheeled around. "SILENCE, INFERIOR! I AM THE DUCHA OF TEREPHON! I'll have your whole family fed to Nexu!"

She wheeled on Kalen, pointing.

"And you--" she sneered, "I shall parade your body through the streets of Hapes before delivering you to Aurellia herself!!!"

"Yeah, that's nice. And it's enough..." The Patriarch said.

Just as Ourubora was about to launch another tirade, she froze, the same, horrific transformation process playing out in reverse until Margaret stood before then once more.

Margaret exhaled, her face still bubbling a few seconds before resetting.

"She was a serious schutta..." Margaret admitted.

"So what do you think, Kalen? The Patriarch asked...

 

[Kalen]

Kalen wasn't sure what he expected. For a portal to open up in the middle of the oasis, though... that definitely wasn't in the cards.

Out of the swirling green gash stepped a frail old woman. She was finely dressed in a black gown in the Hapan style - but she clearly wasn't Ourubora. Kalen's gaze briefly flicked toward the Patriarch, stern and expectant, before resettling on her. "I am Kalen, General of the Crimson Veil," he said.

The Patriarch introduced her as Lady Margaret, a Force Spawn. Kalen had never heard of such a thing, nor did he have much interest in the ways of Force Users. But he could not deny the great potential she exhibited when, just as the Patriarch had promised, Margaret transformed into the spitting image of Ourubora Fal'shivvy.

A battle-axe to the core, Ourubora was so extreme in her misandrist views that she often seemed more like a parody of a Hapan noblewoman. As she launched into a shrewish tirade against the two men present, Kalen couldn't help but laugh. He hadn't laughed in ages. It felt so indescribably good, seeing his old foe chained and put to use against her own allies.

"Incredible," Kalen said as Ourubora turned back into Margaret. "This 'absorption' you mentioned... Does Ourubora's spirit live on through her? Or is she truly dead?" He would prefer the latter, of course, but even if it meant the vicious harpy still existed in one form or another, Margaret seemed to have her well in hand.

"You've managed to impress me. That is not an easy thing," Kalen said, facing the Patriarch. "You would be a welcome addition to the Crimson Veil. But if you want to join us, you must heed my orders. I am a reasonable man, provided you give due notice to me before you act in our name." Ultimately, his misgivings about the Patriarch had more to do with the mysterious figure's unpredictability, and the fact that he seemed to have so much power and influence with which to enact his wild schemes. That kind of raw power needed a steady guiding hand, lest it lead to ruin rather than revolution.

Nathan Bloodscrawl​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"Ourubora is stone dead..." Margaret assured Kalen .

"Sure, I'll take your orders. However, in the interest of full transparency, I must warn you of something regarding Margaret. Her transformation abilities have a single catch." The Patriarch explained. "Tell him."

"Ourubora is dead. I have perfect control over her form and personality... provided I get regular breaks from being her. One to two days off is normally enough. If necessary I can remain as her for up to a solid three weeks. Any more than that and it becomes harder to 'wake up' from being her." Margaret explained. "I'll still be able to somewhat influence her because I'll be her subconscious, but if I have to continuously remain as her for up to six months or more is when things get dicey. The longer I stay as her, the harder it becomes to stop 'being' her. Should the latter occur, you will have to find some way to inject me with this..." Margaret said, producing a hypostim with a glowing green fluid in it.

"It's a vial of my own blood, in case you need to immediately shock me out of her persona, you must find a way to get close enough to inject me with it." Margaret added.

"To be clear, she would eventually 'wake up' on her own, but it might require her to build up strength over the course of entire months to do so..." The Patriarch added. "Possibly years, if she was trapped as Ourubora long enough."

"I can still influence her, even if I become trapped, but not as greatly as I could if I maintain a regular break schedule. A day here or there, even a few hours would be enough to be of immense help." Margaret said. "But I cannot remain as Ourubora on a constant basis. When I am not her, I can help the Crimson Veil in other ways with my sorcery. I can open up portals to allow your forces to travel from one spot to another almost instantly provided sufficient preparations were made before hand, for example. As Ourubora I can make her forget who you are and make her unconsciously ignore your and the Veil 's presence as you set up shop on Terephon. There are a couple of private buildings I have discovered that she owns where even her own Security isn't allowed into that store a lot of her riches. Tunnel networks only she knows of that stretch all the way out from Terephon's capital to the very swamps beneath us. She was quite a vain, paranoid woman."

"If you need to speak to Margaret immediately you could discuss some code phrase she'll unconsciously obey to become herself." The Patriarch suggested.

"If you want, I could find some way of disguising you so you can move about the palace..." Margaret mused. "I must warn you though. To channel her effectively, I must keep in character as much as possible. Ourubora can be exceptionally spiteful to her servants. Especially the males. I won't be quite as horrible as the real one was, but that doesn't mean I'd be all that pleasant. Honestly, to avoid stressing you out, you're better off somewhere else on Terephon until you need to get in touch."

 

[Kalen]

Ourubora was dead. The news gladdened Kalen's heart.

But Margaret's abilities weren't without their drawbacks. Kalen frowned, expecting some catch, but what they told them didn't sound so bad. "I am sure any help you can offer will be of use to us," he said. "Nor would I want you to overstrain yourself in the name of keeping that wretched woman's ghost alive. We will do whatever it takes accommodate you. Take as many breaks from being her as you need."

He was still in awe of the incredible opportunity this presented. Already his mind was turning over the possibilities. One idea in particular stood out.

"Are there other operatives who can do what you can?" he asked Margaret. "For what I have in mind, I need only one more."

Moving slowly and carefully so as not to draw suspicion, he took out his holo projector. The hologram which appeared on the display showed an old woman with dyed black hair and violet eyes.

"Secciah Khal, the Ducha of Harterra." He managed a grim smirk. "She was my mother-in-law. I know firsthand how evil she is. For years she's been playing the long game, trying to put her House on the throne. Her next move may be her most important one yet - and I expect she'll do it soon, because she isn't going to live much longer."

Nathan Bloodscrawl​