Private The Price of Obedience

[Karl Von Strauss]

The Price of Obedience

​

The galaxy had a habit of forgetting places. It was one of the many things that Karl had begun to appreciate about it.

Empires rose and fell; names that had once commanded fleets became footnotes in the next century's history books, and places that had been important enough to kill for became nothing more than abandoned structures left to rot in the dark. This was one such place.

Far from the remnant so of the Imperial Confederation, farther still from Mahporeem and their burgeoning empire. Farther than any territory Karl could reasonably be accused of controlling. No banners. No escorts. No familiar faces. Just stone, darkness, and the dull crimson glow bleeding down from somewhere high above.

Karl stood alone beneath it. He had arrived early; not because he was particularly concerned about being kept waiting, but because he preferred to see a place before someone else had entered it. The red light caught against the wrinkles in this old man's face, and deepened the shadows along his long coat. Thick cables hung from the ceiling like roots of the galaxy's largest tree, twisting and turning through the darkness. He watched as dust particles danced so gracefully along the beams of light. Karl's engineering ear could hear the vibrations of a machine that continued to run nearby, despite it most likely outliving whatever purpose it was built to serve.

Unthinkingly, Karl took out a white handkerchief from his coat pocket and coughed into it. He lowered his head and glanced down; crimson stole the white away. Despite all the treatments, he wasn't getting any better. Maybe his body was just adjusting to the continuous pain. He tapped his mahogany cane on the ground; its metal cap tink, tink, tink hit the floor and reverberated through the chamber.

He walked over to a strewn-about chair and used his cane to stand it upright. He brushed the dust off and sat down, looking again up to the red light. He had no visible weapons, not that there weren't any on his person. More importantly, he had no insignias upon his person. Whatever this meeting became, Karl had no interest in allowing it to become associated with the man he had once been.

The galaxy knew Karl von Strauss, or, at least, it thought it did. That was becoming increasingly inconvenient.

A faint sound carried through the chamber. Karl smiled and closed his eyes as he looked down towards his hand upon his cane.

"You know, the last time we had a conversation that was just the two of us, you were the one waiting for me."

Her​

 

[Her]

---

---

"Sieliel Dimegor delivers a security and situational dossier dubbed ' The Trigonus Report ' to members of the Imperial Ruling Council on board a super star destroyer in the wake of a costly battle for the Empire of the Lost, where a weapon was detonated resulting in severe losses. The report obfuscates the creation and machinations of a seditious organisation inside the Empire called the ' Fifth Wing ' and the presence of the Sith while detailing a Jedi conspiracy to destroy IMPERIALISM across the Galaxy."
-- A description of the Trigonus Report.

---

Tag: Karl Von Strauss

---

Beware of the old man who was still playing a young man's game.

Klick-clack.

Somewhere nearby boots were treading along the dirt that had gathered across the pavement and old stone. They belonged to a woman who von Strauss had been looking into for quite sometime. To say that Her shared a complicated working relationship with the Exarch was an overstatement to say the least. The former had come into possession of enough circumstantial evidence to make him suspect that this strange, enigmatic woman either knew, or was the individual codenamed " LAETOR ", while the latter had assisted him in a cover-up that had seen to the end of Liraeth Deschart and her administration over the late Imperial Confederation.

Karl had more than enough reasons to burn this woman out of the Imperial remnants permanently, and in turn, so did Her as it came to protecting her elusive identity.

Yet neither had made a move on each other.

Not yet, at least.

Amid the crises, and secretive projects, to the connections of Umbrella and service to the Imperial cause, both of them continued to endure one other in the throng of a conspiracy that was now embedding itself in the last stronghold out there on Mahporeem.

Brosi quaked but did not buckle unlike the dust and dirt in this old place as the Dark Lord of the Sith walked elusively, enigmatically towards a man whose politics and leadership had been instrumental in Project Tion.

Klick-clack, klick-clack, klick-clack...

"You know, the last time we had a conversation that was just the two of us, you were the one waiting for me."

"I miss the rain," Her admitted as she snuck out of the shadows and into the red light floating above near Karl.

She wasn't wearing the disguise of the Warden Primus anymore or trying to play the part of an Imperial amid the brass in New Aldera among von Strauss' late COMECI. Perhaps Dimegor had at least half-right about the Jedi conspiracy to destroy Imperialism. As Her stood near the Exarch it was harder to tell whether he was talking to an old peer from his commission, a comrade from the Thandon Incursions, or someone who had yet to identify themselves as Jedi or Sith.

"What are we doing here, von Strauss?" muttered Her's cunning mouth beneath the rim of a cowl.

---

 

[Karl Von Strauss]

The Price of Obedience

Her
​

"I miss the rain,"

"It was an easier time." He said, meeting her gaze. "All things considered."

He did not stand up from his dilapidated seat; instead, he leaned back and crossed his legs. He looked at the face of someone who could've been his downfall, and someone who he knew very little about. That part annoyed him; he and her had been in the same room numerous times, and still he couldn't find a shred of literature on her personage. For all intents and purposes, she was a ghost, but this ghost had been busy.

"What are we doing here, von Strauss?"

"I've never known you to beat around the bush, so neither shall I." He said. "You have the connections to make something happen. I know that despite your work in the Republic, you've kept your finger on the pulse in the remnants. Mahporeem in particular. I hope the Khonshu stations serve you well."

After that last statement, a small smile crept at the corner of his mouth. While he had not been at the meeting that he was referring to, he had a few acquaintances who were present. That and the fact that he was still a Director on the board of N&Z. He shifted his weight, placing his other leg back onto the ground, and leaned forward on his cane towards the mysterious woman.

"I could acquire them myself, of course. But, in doing so, would make people ask questions that I have little interest in answering." He paused. "I need bodies. A great number of them. People who can disappear without anyone particularly important asking where they've gone."

 

[Her]

---

Tag: Karl Von Strauss

---

"You have the connections to make something happen. I know that despite your work in the Republic, you've kept your finger on the pulse in the remnants. Mahporeem in particular. I hope the Khonshu stations serve you well."

Red lights swirled above both of them as von Strauss spoke. The lights briefly illuminated Her's face as it hung there beneath the cowl of her robe and it was filled with contemplation as Karl explained his thoughts. Not only had he come to the realisation that the woman stood before him had connections that he needed now but had also been following Her as she worked in the Mid-systems where the High Republic could be found. The fact that he mentioned the Khonshu's stations and alluded to the recent Tarsai summit in Corrox was also intriguing. I

t almost sounded like a warning.

As if von Strauss was telling Her: ' I am still following you. '

"I could acquire them myself, of course. But, in doing so, would make people ask questions that I have little interest in answering... I need bodies. A great number of them. People who can disappear without anyone particularly important asking where they've gone."

Raising the palm of her hands to the hood Her lowered it onto her back. She then held her gaze with Karl for a moment as if she were contemplating his request. It was in that moment that Her decided that she needed a smoke. Turning away from Karl, as she pulled out a small hand-sized case, Her produced a cigarette from it and lifted it to her lips. As it hung there in-between them she lit up the end and exhaled a satisfactory toke as she fumbled the case back into her garments.

"I can do this," Her said softly as she turned back to face Karl. It hadn't take much time to decide on helping the Exarch out. "Where do you need them? How many?"

---

 

[Karl Von Strauss]

The Price of Obedience

Her
​

"Where do you need them? How many?"

Karl's brow raised slightly at the woman's immediate answer. He had expected negotiation, perhaps even suspicion. Instead, she had simply accepted the proposition. Efficient.

A slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he leaned back from Her.

"Fifty thousand." He let the number hang between them for a moment before continuing. "Not immediately, of course. I have no need for them all at once. A steady flow would be preferable."

He tapped the tip of his cane once against the floor. tink, tink, tink.

"Violent offenders, preferably. Murderers, pirates, gang members, career criminals." He caught Her's gaze and held it. "People already accustomed to violence, and people that won't be particularly missed or noticed missing."

Finally, he stood up slowly. He walked closer to Her, his nose tingling at the scent of the cigarette between them. He kept his eyes locked to Hers as he came up beside her. He lowered his voice; it sounded low and gravelly, carrying the quiet authority of a man who no longer needed to raise it.

"The old Tion prisons would be an ideal starting point. I understand the fall of the Confederation complicated matters of ownership and control, but you, Warden, were involved with them once."

Karl drew a slow breath through his nose. The motion was almost imperceptible, but it caught somewhere in his chest, and for a moment the effort of breathing showed on his face. He held it there, refusing to give the pain any more acknowledgement than necessary, before carefully exhaling.

"I imagine..." A brief pause. "...you still have a few keys?"

 

[Her]

---

Tag: Karl Von Strauss

---

"Fifty thousand... Not immediately, of course. I have no need for them all at once. A steady flow would be preferable."

As von Strauss conferred his request Her quietly thought about it. It was not the first time that she would have done something like this for an accomplice. Before the second incursion on Brosi, Her had orchestrated transports containing I.C.D prisoners to land in concert with The Lord of Hunger after the Man-Behind-The-Curtain made the peculiar request before the invasion had commenced. There were also, of course, the slow supply of other inmates to Umbrella locations dotted throughout the Outer Rim Territories as per L.O.H's orders that Her had been helping with.

She had even recently been in one of those facilities to meet the man himself.

"Violent offenders, preferably. Murderers, pirates, gang members, career criminals. People already accustomed to violence, and people that won't be particularly missed or noticed missing."

Her studied von Strauss thoughtfully while he continued to explain his position. As the Exarch for the COMECI, Karl was undoubtedly familiar with the protocols and operations of the I.C.D during the three year reign of the second Imperial occupation in the Tion Hegemony and Ash Worlds. Although the men, women or aliens that had been taken by the I.C.D were designated as violent offenders (and the other criminal archetypes Karl had suggested for Her to use in his request for prisoners) the truth was that they had taken virtually anyone and everything who had ushered even the remoted of criticism towards the Imperial Confederation.

Under Her's watch the I.C.D were not going to allow another bout of riots breaking out like the ones that had come about after the Empire of the Lost fell. Although their work had ironically contributed to the demise of the second occupation it had nevertheless resulted in vast swathes of dissidents or agitators being taken among those who would usually be considered innocent or not criminal in nature. Given the state of things in the old territories of these defunct Imperial superpowers (and the status of the prison complexes that the I.C.D had constructed in it's heyday) Her considered how difficult it would be to process what Karl wanted.

Then the wily Exarch offered a solution.

"The old Tion prisons would be an ideal starting point. I understand the fall of the Confederation complicated matters of ownership and control, but you, Warden, were involved with them once."

"Yes I was," Her admitted quietly.

Tion. It was a former agricultural world until the Sith Empire destroyed the star system three years ago. Although the Fifth Wing were deemed responsible for the economic collapse of the Empire of the Lost, Her considered the Fall of Tion to be the starting point that led towards the transition of the first occupation to the second in the form of the Imperial Confederation. It had been the beginning of the end at the time. Nevertheless the Sith attack and the consequences of the Base Delta Zero that had destroyed the planet's surface served Her well in her politics among the likes of von Strauss and the other Imperial brass as she had utilized it to justify the creation of Project Tion.

Now here Tion was being used again for some other dark scheme in the works, Her guessed.

After the Planetshift, the planet and her three formerly industrialised moons were retaken before subsequently being quarantined during the entirety of the second occupation. During that time the Imperial Corrections Directorate constructed several prison factory grade facilities across it's barren wastelands while what was left of the infrastructure that had survived the Sith invasion in 902 ABY were salvaged and repurposed to service Umbrella's commercial activities in Imperial space.

However, it remained to be seen what had happened to Tion given that it was subjected to a second attack some three years later after the first. The fate of those Imperial Factory Prisons (and other infrastructure which predated back to the Empire of the Lost) was unknown to Her at this time.

"I imagine... You still have a few keys?"

"Yes," Her lied to von Strauss.

"Where would these prisoners be taken too?"

---