Private The Nature of Justice

[Enlil]

The hours that followed the initial escape were tense, and tedious in every sense of the word. Commissioning the assistance of a local pilot to help him off world was... difficult. There was some reticence revolving around the death of the Viceroy Apparent, and turmoil rising around an attack and endangerment of several persons of importance. He heard the words "mandatory lockdown" and "blockade" several times before he finally made the point clear.

"We fly, or you die." The use of force to get ones way was barbaric. It left a taste in his mouth that fouled even the notion of fine wine, and as they made rendezvous with the Agents of Chaos' ships just outside the system he dropped a handful of golden coins in the pilot's hands.

The man sighed, resigned. He could not return now, not after he'd aided in the escape of a fugitive from sovereign law. The King understood his predicament. But, he felt something else foremost. The man had been liberated from his former way of life, and now, he could seek something better and more fulfilling elsewhere.

Now, he was aboard a ship that received news of his arrival and requested his presence immediately. One Alwine Daye had not wanted to leave him behind. Yet had he not remained, they may not have escaped, and that could not be allowed to happen.

No justice would be served by playing into a lie. When liars win at their games, only despair follows for the righteous. He stepped from the bay of the large ship and into one of the hallways, where he was greeted by a Protocol Droid. "This way, please," it gestured as it hobbled down the metallic walkway ahead of him.

The King wondered as they walked whether this ship were present in the conflict at Ryloth, the location where all of the Confederate delegation lost their attention. He wondered how true the statements of terrorist activity were, or how much of a war actually broke out. What could he trust of what they said, after they threw their lot in with the man who betrayed the trust of the very people he swore to protect?

What had the Galaxy become while he slept, dreamless and without comfort?

 

[Alwine Daye]

Enlil

Everything hurt. Alwine locked her jaw as she tried to make herself rise from the chair she had been sitting on, needing two attempts before she was actually standing, leaning against her walking crane.

For hours now, she could find it not within her to rest. Her body ached, the events on Siskeen having taken a dire toll on her physical state. She had not arrived there, planning to fight, and thought that if violence did break out, she would be in the backlines.

But that was not what had happened.

Instead, the Agents of Chaos had been tricked into coming, violence being part of the plan all along. Dib had sent his kin to kill people on the Scintilla before they were even given choice, and Alwine had been the one to shoot the man between the eyes.

There had been running after that. Running and folding through space, something that Alwine's body, so recently brought back from the dead multiple times over, had a hard time managing. She knew. Oh, she knew very well that the moment she went to sleep, she would be stiffer than ever when she woke up. A few medical teams were in charge of fixing her so that she would physically function better, but it was still a matter of time.

Time which she apparently had less of than she thought, for it was clear to her that whatever would happen on Ryloth and Siskeen in the next few days, she, alongside the rest of the Agents of Chaos, had poked a slumbering dinosaur with a sharp stick, and drawn blood.

And she was damn proud of it.

But the actual moment… She had asked them. She had asked them both to come with them, to not remain behind. They had both chosen to stay despite that. She could not fault them, could not put any blame on their shoulders for it, yet Alwine's personal sense of loyalty would not let her forgive herself for it. She ran the scene over and over in her head, trying to find a loophole, trying to find any detail she might have missed that could've ended the meeting in another way.

But she could not.

Tired. She was too tired. Her body needed sleep, it needed to recover. But there was no time for any of that. Once they returned… Once they returned, there would be all the bodies to deal with. Millions of refugees. They had dared.

"Ms. Lechner, you have a visitor," came in a droid's voice from the comm.

Alwine blinked. Ms Lechner. No. The moment she had heard it now, she knew it was wrong. But she would think about that later. For now…

She was still standing. Slowly, Alwine walked towards the door. She would not be seen as weak, they would not see her crumble at her failures. She would analyze what had happened, she would learn, and she would become better. And while she did that, she would make those around her better too.

When the door opened and Enlil's face came into view, Alwine paused, and stared. Enlil. On their ship. Alive, and well, as far as she could see.

The next moment, her stick dropped to the floor as she launched forward, wrapping her small hands around the man. It was most unprofessional. And she did not care.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered.

 

[Enlil]

Droids were another anomaly that took him time to adjust to. Automatons gifted with life through unnatural means were a mainstay in this new culture, but the very idea of a machine that could move on its own was still very much out of reach in the days he remembered. Dreams, plots, schemes, but never anything realized.

When this metal being led him, the King found himself in awe. It moved with purpose, if not grace. Perhaps that was a flaw they had yet to work out of the system?

He only barely noticed that they had moved toward a medical ward once the Droid announced him. The smell of sterilization surrounded him, and it was foreign to his senses. Enlil had seen places of healing, but nothing so austere. He could taste the cleanliness, uncomfortably so.

Alwine appeared when the door slid open, and Enlil was wholly unprepared for the woman to launch forward and embrace him. It was very rare, indeed, for him to be touched.

I thought you were dead, she said.

I thought that too, once. For a very long time.

"I made certain they could not give chase," he told her, "not to myself, and certainly not to you lot."

There was much to be said about the Confederacy, from his relatively short dealings with them. Opportunistic sat at the forefront of a list of terms he might use to describe them. But this was not the time for him to reflect on that.

"It is good that you are well," he told her.

There were more important things to attend than his stance on that particular Galactic Superpower.

Enlil waited for her to finish her sudden display of affection before he asked. "And the others? Are they safe as well?"

Alwine Daye | Annasari | @Agents of Chaos who were on Siskeen who might want to join

 

[Domino]

In the darkness of space, which wasn't really dark, there was rarely an absence of light where most sentients plodded about. It was more to do with a lack of anything to see reflecting the light making the eye trick the brain into seeing the absence of light as darkness. Which was something that Domino wasn't even considering as her small flotilla of three ships made the down-jump translation out of hyper space some distance the AoC ship.

She'd picked a distance she thought far enough to not cause alarm or seem threatening without having to then slowboat it for a hour into range of those she'd come to meet. Not that the two Isumaru refueling ships and her little Sangromancer would likely be considered threatening by anything a size class above a corvette. Of course to Domino having anybody just drop in like she was would have been treated like a threat until proven otherwise. Hopefully bearing gifts would go some way to smoothing over initial contact.

Not waiting for a hail, the Twi'lek keyed her comm active and, after a half second to ensure it was broadcasting, sent a tight beam yet unencrypted transmission to the others' ship. "Attention Agent's vessel, I am Domino of Outer Rim Resources and I've brought two ships with me laden with fuel and a few tons of other general supplies." From here her voice lightened from its initial business-like hail. "If you're amiable I'd like to discuss future dealings as well, but even if you aren't I'd still be happy to donate this to what I see as a worthy cause."

Alwine Daye Enlil

 

[Alwine Daye]

Enlil Annasari ansari Gabriel Volturi

Alwine was not one who often offered hugs. More often than not, she was a woman who remained standing firmly in place. But now, she had not merely offered, she had gone out and done it. To know that Enlil was safe and sound, that he was still whole. Only when he spoke did she snap back to herself and released him, taking a step back, and triedto smile.

The others? Alwine nodded. "All alive and well," she said, "Even Gabriel Volturi . I have not yet asked him how he did it, but he has a new body here that is in the process of forming, and his mind is intact."

She had not even had the time to give it proper thought. Gabriel had been in the frame when Alwine broadcasted the final speech while they were leaving Siskeen.

She opened her mouth to say something more about the matter, when the incoming hail from Domino was received, announced from her commdevice in speaker mode.

Someone who thought they were a worthy cause? Admitting so, while they were all still close to Confederate space?

"This is Alwine Lechner, Head of the Agents of Chaos speakers," she introduced herself as her hand flicked over the device, "Will you permit us to run a few security scans?" Turning her attention back to Enlil , Alwine motioned towards a nearby table. She needed to sit. She also needed to make sure he was being well taken care of. "Are you hungry? Thirst?"

 

[Domino]

Upon hearing the request Domino pulled back on the triple throttle of the Sangromancer, a move soon followed by the pair of tankers she was escorting. "Go ahead Ms. Lechner, we'll hold position until given permission to approach." Domino wasn't sure what they wanted to scan, they were obviously armed, unless it was simply to confirm the ships weren't stuffed with commandos and the fuel was there. Confident everything would check out, she took the opportunity to unstrap her crash harness and stretch. She could probably run a cycle of the caff machine and be back by the time they finished and if she didn't the ship would pipe the call down to her.
Alwine Daye Enlil

 

[Enlil]

While he did not know the man by name, when the King had seized command of the flames he was certain that he watched Volturi die. There was a familiarity when he was mentioned that allowed Enlil to know who Alwine meant. "He managed to survive?" He gave a slow nod. "Then all is well. I had no intention of taking any life in that room."

He reached up and held his chin in a contemplative manner. The very idea that new bodies could be grown was... unsettling. Strange powers, unnerving truths- what else would he learn about this new Galaxy?

The King regarded her and broke his train of thought to help her to the table. "Let me assist you," he pulled the chair out for her. It was a strange thing, the lack of servants, the sensation of doing things for himself. It felt... nice. "If you have wine, something full bodied and dry?" he inquired.

"Things happened at Siskeen... that were not according to the itinerary I was given."

Alwine Daye Domino

 

[Alwine Daye]

Enlil Annasari Gabriel Volturi Domino

Alwine nodded to herself and released the orders to scan Domino 's ship. As the Twi'lek had expected, there was nothing that came up in terms that they would consider dangerous. Everything they'd been told had checked out. The drawbridge was lowered so that Domino could come on board, though there would be enough people waiting in case it was another elaborate trap. Once on board, Domino would be escorted by a droid to where Alwine and Enlil were seated.

To Enlil, she nodded. Gabriel had survived. She still did not know the mechanics of what exactly he had done, but he had done it - as the body they had met him in burned away on Siskeen, a new one was forming right in front of their eyes in the medbay. Had Alwine not been partially accustomed to people switching bodies by now, she would have had a much harder time digesting the entire thing.

A grateful smile she gave him as he pulled the chair for her, and she sat down, the stress on her body more than visible right now, but she made the attempt to motion for him not to pay it any heed. There were more pressing things right now. Her still broken body would wait, because she would give it no other choice.

"Bring him a wine that suits his tastes," she said to the droid, and waited for it to wheel away before she turned to Enlil again.

"We have been betrayed," she said simply to his statement, "Dib never had any intention of freeing his own people or planet. And still, he was more than happy to sacrifice the lives of the Rylothians for it - for it was he that opened the door and invited everybody to today's events."

And they would herald Dib as a hero, because she had shot him. Alwine couldn't care about that though. When you were betrayed, when you were used, you took care of the root of the problem. The Confederacy would find the way to be blind about Dib's actions that had led to it happening and would lead to a very bloody future. And they would be blaming Agents of Chaos every inch of the way. That was all right though. She had little faith in their ability to play themselves successfully as victims in front of anyone that wasn't already within their borders. And those, Alwine mused, would likely be freed from the Confederate grasp soon enough.

But there were other questions though. The Lupine would not hurt over the Rylothian lives lost during the battle, but the refugees… Was it worth it? she couldn't help but wonder. Were those millions of lives worth a potential success on Ryloth and Siskeen? It was a big question, and one that she did not have an immediate answer to. Ryloth and Siskeen must be freed or this loss will be even bigger.

"I should never had let that girl handle the talks with him," Alwine admitted, closing her eyes, "I should have gone myself to speak with him."

 

[Domino]

Once given permission to approach, Domino signaled the tankers to hold off until given docking and transfer instructions. She took the Sangromancer II in by herself and nestled it up to the extended docking collar. Making her way to the airlock, she checked over her shipsuit for anything out of place. It was a little formal with its pauldrons and gold trim but it looked good for an introduction and she was trying to get used to the thing.

After stepping onto the new ship and greeting the rather large reception party, she'd submit to another security screening if there was one, they'd only find a single lightsaber openly clipped to her belt. The protocol droid was pretty chatty as it lead Domino down the corridors of the ship and Domino started seeing how long she could get it to talk with as few words as possible on her part. Entering the med-bay the reality of the situation hit her. Here she was, supposedly to meet someone in charge, and they were in the med-bay, a rather busy if subdued med-bay. Yeah, things were bad.

Domino let the droid introduce her and gave a slight bow of the head. "I'd like to extend my condolences for..." She trailed off, how did you sympathize with a war kicking off and a million dead civilians on your watch? Anything said would be a platitude. She wasn't good at this diplomatic stuff when it wasn't negotiating if she was going to attack or not. "Screw it, you've probably heard of me, I want in."

Alwine Daye Enlil

 

[Enlil]

"Dib portrayed himself as a man of the people," the King spoke slowly. "He spoke to me of acting in their best interest, and wishing for the prosperity of his world. Perhaps there was more that I missed, as I only came late to the conversation, but I misjudged his character."

His eyes narrowed. "But, I am now aware. Failure and tragedy make for excellent teachers, and men with wisdom seldom repeat their mistakes. I know, now, not to place faith in the goodwill of the Confederates. They act in their own best interests, by laws that suit them alone."

He paused. "That does not excuse the situation at Ryloth. I was never informed of that, and the actions taken by the Agents of..." the word almost tasted like poison on his tongue as he spat it. "Chaos."

"A war should never have accompanied talks of peace. By condoning such, your group has neutered the pretense by which their claim held weight. If the situation could not have been reconciled without violence, talks were meaningless to begin with." Enlil scrutinized the actions of both parties, not one above the other. He made sure to drive that point home as he spoke to Alwine Daye , giving her direct eye contact all the while.

When the wine came, he accepted it with a respectful nod of his head and sampled it quietly. He gave another nod, this one as approval.

"I accept my place in all of this and cannot pass judgment for things I had a hand in. That would be a miscarriage of justice." A reckoning would come for anyone who did wrong in the Galaxy. It did not have to be by his hand, nor would it be right for it to come from him.

"I suppose my concern is this- what do you seek to gain from destabilizing them? What drives you to action against them? Would it not be better to leave them to fester like an old wound and rot away?"

The corrupt always did, after all.

At that moment, Domino entered the room and Enlil was quite sure... he had no idea what was going on.

 

[Alwine Daye]

Enlil Annasari Gabriel Volturi Domino

"The attack on Ryloth was coordinated with Dib himself," Alwine answered. She would never hide from choices she'd made, even when she believed the choice had been wrong. "But we remained true to our word. The attack on the Rylothy capitol dome was not done by the Agents of Chaos - our forces were all focused on military targets. We gave them time to respond diplomatically, but they chose to ignore it and accuse us without as much as conducting the most basic of investigations."

But his concern… Alwine listened. She knew they would not agree on the situation on Ryloth, but the argument was moot at this point. It had happened, the way that it had happened, and much like the millions of now dead refugees from HOPE, there was no way to take it back. She wasn't even certain that she would take it back at all, even had she been given the chance.

But what did drive Alwine to this? In most of the previous wars conducted by the Agents of Chaos, she tended to stay clear. Every single time she had not maintained her distance, she had been hurt - severely so. Alderaan forces had mistreated her until the Queen of Alderaan stepped in. And in SIth space…

And yet, both of these were different.

"It is personal," she said. She would not conceal the truth, nor would she find shame in it, "I grew on a planet called Stewjon. The Confederacy arrived one night to help out with a matter of some ghosts that plagued the local population, and before we knew it, we were now a Confederate planet. But things did not improve as a result of that. The Confederacy turned a blind eye to what was happening on the planet they now owned and now took taxes from. People like me… We were tortured, burned, bones broken. I was branded as a witch and I nearly died because of what they put me through.

The Confederacy never cared. They came, after months, because one of their leaders was involved with my brother, and he suffered an aching conscience after abandoning his siblings there. Had it not been for that, I would now be dead. But even after that, the situation on Stewjon remained bad. I tried choosing to go back there, to help improve the planet that I had been born on, but instead the locals tried to murder me. This time, not for being a witch, but for being a woman in charge.

The Confederacy loves to claim the care about the little people, the innocents. They do not. They love to claim they are not an empire. They are. Nearly anything they do is either to gain more territory that they tax dry, or something because one of the people in charge personally care about. They are a blight upon this galaxy, and they will not fester or rot away - they will instead continue to grow, until more and more of the galaxy is within their grip. They love to claim that every planet who joined them, has done so willingly. But none of those planets actually have a choice - what worth is there to consent, when the only alternative is to be brutally invaded and taken away? What worth there is there to saying you are against slavery, when you simply take more and more people you can use and tax, ignoring their wishes entirely?

It is so easy to point at a whip and say this is a weapon to hurt a slave. But they do not go for that - instead they go for layers of use and abuse, of pretense. This galaxy will be eternally better without the Confederacy."

Domino entered the room. Alwine could not completely let go of the shadows that appeared on her face one, but she still offered the Twi'lek a friendly smile. Condolences were given, and then…

Alwine blinked in surprise. It was only a few hours ago that she had called all the Twi'leks of Ryloth to rise up against their true enemy. And now there was one of the, on this ship, wanting to join.

The smile widened then. Perhaps… Perhaps it was a sign that her speech would work, would help the planet go dark against he purple.

"Welcome to the team," she smiled. Background checks and the rest of that stuff would wait for later, "I am Alwine Lechner, Head of the Speakers. This is Enlil, King of…" she realized… She didn't know of where.

 

[Domino]

Now it was Domino's turn to blink in surprise... that had been easy. Maybe. She doubted that it was as simple as passing two scans and not trying to blow everybody up and you were in. "It's a pleasure," her voice was dubious, making it clear that she was more paying out the traditional pleasantries rather than finding any real pleasure in the current circumstances. Nevertheless she gave the two a respectful, if quick, bow of her head.

These two looked like they were close and she felt like she was intruding but pressed on. Hopefully they'd forgive her. "I came after hearing about the recent attack on the Scintilla. That kind of depravity," there was no other singular word for it. "I knew I had to do something to help. Fuel, food, some basic medical supplies, bacta; not much but what I could grab. It's all yours." She stopped, gave a slow shake of her head and explained. "I've been still for too long, placing myself outside of others' problems. I think it's time I came back to it and shared the fruits of my knowledge." Okay, she was stopping before she got pretentious, but it was how she felt and was as good an explanation as any.

Alwine Daye Enlil