Private Thunder and Lightning

[Gerwald Lechner]

WEARING: This
WEAPONS: Ferrum Solus | Blodmåne | Strømafbryder
SHIP: Vigfjall
TAG: Mercy

The Perann Nebula swallowed stars.

From the bridge of the Vigfjall, Gerwald watched the last familiar points of light disappear behind the spreading veil of violet and bruised crimson that filled the viewport. Sensor returns had already begun to degrade as charged particles rolled across the hull, turning reliable readings into uncertain ghosts. Navigation had been reduced to carefully plotted corridors assembled from Imperial intelligence, old hyperspace records, and what little information could be pulled from vessels foolish enough to have ventured this far and fortunate enough to return.

Somewhere ahead of them were the Sorcerers of Rhand.

Gerwald had spent enough of his life around practitioners of the darker mysteries of the Force to know better than to dismiss them as another collection of cultists hiding beyond civilized space. The Sorcerers had survived because others underestimated them, building their traditions around death, entropy, and the certainty that everything eventually surrendered to ruin. Ordinarily, Gerwald might have been content to leave them buried among the dead worlds and strange phenomena they preferred.

They had made that impossible.

Intelligence gathered over the previous months suggested the Sorcerers were no longer content to remain isolated. Agents had begun moving beyond their traditional territories, while whispers had reached Imperial ears of preparations, alliances, and an increasing interest in the Sith Order. More troubling was the name appearing repeatedly among intercepted communications and fragmented reports.

Srina Talon .

Gerwald's jaw tightened.

There were threats one watched and threats one prepared for, but there were others that deserved to be removed before they ever reached the people they intended to harm. This was the latter.

The Dread Wolf turned from the viewport and moved toward the tactical display dominating the center of the bridge. A projection of the Perann Nebula hovered above it, incomplete by necessity, with known routes appearing as thin lines cutting through the interference and several possible locations marked deeper within the cloud. None had been confirmed, though Gerwald intended to change that soon enough.

Gerwald had not assembled a fleet for this.

A fleet announced itself, giving enemies time to scatter, hide, and prepare whatever horrors the Sorcerers of Rhand believed would preserve them. Gerwald wanted something considerably simpler. They would find where the Sorcerers had entrenched themselves, tear through whatever stood between them and their quarry, and leave enough ruin behind that no one mistook what had happened for a warning.

Warnings left room for defiance.

Gerwald intended to leave nothing.

It was why he had asked Mercy to come.

There were people Gerwald would have chosen if diplomacy had been required, and others better suited to quietly unraveling whatever schemes the Sorcerers had set into motion. Mercy belonged to neither category. Gerwald had asked her because when the time came to turn violence into an answer, there were few people he would rather have standing beside him.

There was another reason as well.

Srina trusted Mercy.

Gerwald did not need to explain what that meant. Whatever relationship existed between Mercy and the Empress was their own, just as Gerwald's loyalty to Srina belonged to him. It was enough that the Sorcerers of Rhand had chosen to make the Empress the object of their ambitions.

They had made their choice.

Now Gerwald and Mercy would make theirs.

His golden gaze returned to the shifting projection.

"We find them," Gerwald said, his voice carrying easily above the quiet hum of the bridge.

A new burst of interference rippled across the display, causing several stars to vanish from the navigational projection before slowly returning. Somewhere beyond the interference waited a people who believed ruin was the inevitable fate of everything that existed.

Perhaps they were right.

Gerwald regarded the darkness beyond the viewport.

"Then we destroy everything."

 

[Mercy]

MERCY

EMPRESS | WARLORD | STAR-ARM

Location: On The Vigfjall | Direct Tags: Gerwald Lechner | Equipment: Warform​

.

The Sorcerors of Rhand were a practically legendary group.

Legendary, because the Lords of the Fringe had systematically wiped them out all through the Unknown Regions several decades ago, until the aegis of Spencer Varanin and Ashin Varanin. The fact that the Sith Order spies encountered intelligence that they were returning, seemingly obsessed with Srina Talon was... interesting to say the least.

When Gerwald asked her assistance, Mercy didn't hesitate. What person didn't want to fight the legendary enemies of your former idols? She'd never admit that Spencer and Ashin had been her idols, of course.

That would be embarrassing.

But stepping into their shoes and waging war against the Rhandites was something that made Mercy salivate.

"We find them, then we destroy everything."

Mercy hummed there with a smile in response.

"You speak my language, Lechner." She pulled a cigarette from her case, offering him one as well, if he so desired. "Then again, I hear from my sestra that you prefer absolute destruction yourself."

They hadn't had an opportunity to do a lot of chatting. They had met during one of the dinner balls hosted by the Sith Order. But Mercy had been pretty obsessed with the banquet table, balancing like three or four plates at once. That had made it difficult to do some proper conversation before Gerwald had to play host again.

"We know where they are gathered? Station, moon, some unfortunate planet?" The tactic would be the same, but she wondered just how much she'd have to hold back.

.

ERASE THE PAST

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

WEARING: This
WEAPONS: Ferrum Solus | Blodmåne | Strømafbryder
SHIP: Vigfjall
TAG: Mercy

“You speak my language, Lechner.”

The corner of Gerwald's mouth pulled upward.

"That is the precise reason I asked you to accompany me on this little excurstion."

They had not spoken much before now. Their paths had crossed, certainly, but knowing someone by reputation was different from standing beside them when violence was the purpose rather than an unfortunate consequence. Mercy's response told Gerwald considerably more about her than their brief encounter at the banquet ever had.

There were campaigns where restraint mattered. Cities needed to survive conquest, infrastructure needed to remain useful, and populations often had to be ruled when the fighting was finished. Gerwald understood those necessities even if they did not always suit his preferred methods.

None of those considerations followed them into the Perann Nebula.

"If something stands between us and the Sorcerers, we break it. If they send something against us, we kill it. I don't need their stronghold intact, and I have no interest in taking prisoners simply for the sake of having them."

Gerwald's eyes dropped to the offered cigarette when Mercy produced the case and extended one toward him.

"No."

There was no disgust attached to the answer, nor any particular judgment of the habit. Gerwald simply had never understood the appeal. He watched Mercy light her own before his attention shifted back toward the tactical display, though the mention of her sestra earned a slight turn of his head.

Absolute destruction.

The corner of Gerwald's mouth pulled upward again.

"I would be curious to know what else my mistress has told you about me."

It didn’t matter what stories Srina had told her. Whatever history existed between them, whatever version of him had been passed along in passing conversation or warning, Gerwald was curious in a distant, passing way, but it didn’t change the present moment or the task ahead.

Mercy’s question brought his attention fully back to the projection.

"We have a location."

Gerwald reached toward the display and expanded one of the markers buried deeper within the Perann Nebula. The surrounding navigational data shifted with it, revealing the intelligence they had managed to assemble before departing. It was not as much as Gerwald would have preferred, but waiting for certainty would have given the Rhandites more time to prepare whatever they intended for Srina.

"Here."

His finger settled beside the marker.

"The intelligence is good enough to put them in this region. Beyond that, the nebula has made conventional reconnaissance unreliable. We will know exactly what they have chosen to hide behind when we get close enough to see it."

Gerwald seemed entirely unbothered by that prospect. Whatever waited for them would change the manner in which they approached the problem, but it would not change the outcome.

Station, moon, planet. Mercy had been right to ask, but Gerwald suspected she already understood the answer mattered considerably less to the two of them than it might have to anyone else.

"If it is a station, we board it. If they have taken a moon or a planet, we land." His golden eyes moved from the projection to Mercy. "Either way, I want the Sorcerers themselves."

There was little value in destroying their stronghold from orbit if the people responsible managed to escape it. Gerwald had not crossed into the Perann Nebula merely to damage their infrastructure. The Sorcerers had survived their supposed eradication once already. He had no intention of allowing history to repeat itself.

"They were hunted to near extinction once, and somehow they survived."

Gerwald straightened, regarding the marker for another moment before looking toward the turbulent colors beyond the viewport.

"I would rather not leave my offspring the same problem thirty years from now."

 

[Mercy]

Gerwald Lechner

"I would be curious to know what else my mistress has told you about me."

"That if we don't end up competing against one another, we could become vast friends, because we share a hunger for battle and an appetite for good food afterwards." Mercy shrugged with amusement at that. Once upon a time she would have scoffed at such predictions. She had found men to be loathsome creatures who were only good to be thrown into the meat grinder.

That was a long time ago.

Mercy was not blind, she had seen first-hand how so many men had proved themselves capable in their own way. From Lysander von Ascania to Varin Mortifer to Meliant . Each had proven to be a pleasant surprise.

So who knew. If she had become able to see Lysander as a son, Varin as a nephew and Meliant as an ornery nerf herder... maybe she could come to see Gerwald as a friend.

"They were hunted to near extinction once, and somehow they survived."

Gerwald straightened, regarding the marker for another moment before looking toward the turbulent colors beyond the viewport.

"I would rather not leave my offspring the same problem thirty years from now."

Mercy nodded, even as those golden eyes were still glued to the hologram. She for one was happy they somehow found their way back out of extinction.

Otherwise she wouldn't have been able to fight them here, today.

"I wouldn't count on it, Lechner." Mercy finally said, glancing over to him. "These cretins will always come back. It's like the Jedi. We put them down. They come back. And like the Sith. They put us down... we come back."

She drew from her cigarette and blew the smoke out, enjoying the death in her lungs all the same.

"But that is good. It would be a shame if we were the last ones to enjoy this foe of legends."

The ship was brought closer to the nebula, the interference was a pain in the arse, but the closer they got the more was coming through the sensory array. The hologram seemed to be responding, feeding more intel to them, as the array got more info to work with. Eventually, it crystallized, into a rogue moon.

No planet attached to it.

Perpetual darkness.

Mercy's eyebrows went up, but her eyes gleamed feverish bright.

"Oh, that will be fun... very... very fun."

It had been a while since she could cut loose.

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

WEARING: This
WEAPONS: Ferrum Solus | Blodmåne | Strømafbryder
SHIP: Vigfjall
TAG: Mercy

Gerwald laughed, a genuine sound, brief but unmistakable, as Mercy relayed Srina's prediction. Of course that was how the Empress had described it. He could almost hear the Echani delivering the assessment with that maddening certainty she possessed whenever she believed she had already understood someone better than they understood themselves.

"Competition, battle, food... and mead."

The emphasis on the last word was an addition to the list. His grin remained as he looked toward Mercy.

"Perhaps she does know me too well."

The Dread Wolf had no objection to competition. There were few things capable of sharpening someone faster than another person determined to surpass them, and he had never been particularly interested in surrounding himself with people who could not challenge him. If Mercy proved capable of doing that, all the better. The prospect of discovering which of them could leave the larger trail of bodies behind was considerably more appealing than most contests he had been subjected to over the years.

The conversation shifted back toward the Sorcerers as he considered Mercy's assessment, and she was right. Empires fell, Orders collapsed, and enemies thought themselves victorious, only for whatever they had tried to destroy to crawl from the ashes generations later. He had lived long enough to see the cycle repeat more than once, and the Sith themselves were perhaps the greatest evidence that annihilating an idea was considerably harder than annihilating the people who believed it.

"Perhaps," the Lord Commander said as his attention returned to the hologram, "but if they come back after today, I want them to have to work for it."

The display changed before he could say more.

Scattered fragments of information began to resolve as the Vigfjall pushed deeper into the nebula. Broken sensor returns became terrain, mass readings gained definition, and the vague marker they had been pursuing finally surrendered something tangible.

A moon.

He leaned forward slightly as the holographic image sharpened. There was no planet for it to orbit and no distant star casting light across its surface, only a rogue body wandering through the Perann Nebula beneath perpetual darkness.

Mercy's reaction drew his gaze from the projection. The feverish gleam in her eyes was impossible to miss, and Gerwald knew that look because he had worn it himself often enough.

Whatever uncertainty remained about Srina's prediction disappeared in that moment. Mercy was not looking at the moon as an obstacle or considering how dangerous whatever waited beneath its surface might be. She was looking at it with anticipation, the same kind Gerwald felt beginning to stir within himself now that there was finally something tangible waiting for them.

The Dread Wolf smiled.

"I think I understand why Srina likes you."

The Lord Commander reached for the controls on the tactical display, enlarging the moon and the incoming sensor information around it. They finally had their destination, and whatever mysteries surrounded the return of the Sorcerers of Rhand could wait until they were standing among the people responsible.

"Have them find us a landing approach," he said, his golden eyes remaining fixed on the dark moon. "The flagship is too large to set down there. We'll take my personal shuttle. I don't care how close. We have kept them waiting long enough."

He turned slightly over his shoulder, casting a look back toward Mercy as he started to move. "You coming?"

 

[Mercy]

Gerwald Lechner

"I think I understand why Srina likes you."

Mercy chuckled at that.

"I don't think even Srina Talon knows why she likes me." Just that she did. It had started with a lot of acrimony. But in the end Mercy had won her over, the way she won a lot of people over. By being herself, right or wrong, by never backing down. By having a large heart that pulsed to its own beat and having loyalty to those she considered hers... in a way most Sith never did.

A shit Sith, Mercy called herself often.

He turned slightly over his shoulder, casting a look back toward Mercy as he started to move. "You coming?"

And he'd find Mercy already stepping up along him instead.

"It has been such a long fucking time since I could cut loose, Lechner." Mercy drawled as they walked out. "I wasn't sure what to expect, when you invited me along, but if this is the usual thing for you... you can invite me more often."

Back in the Core space... she couldn't do this as often as she liked.

She had to rule. The same issue that Srina had back here.

It didn't take long before they arrived at the hangar bay. Both of them eager to get the bloodletting started. But Mercy did take a moment to whistle at Gerwald's personal shuttle.

"See, doesn't matter how far I rise... I will always appreciate a solid ship. This one is gorgeous."