Private To Travel Far and Wide

[Lirka Ka]

CORUSCANT

Coruscant, ever vast. Ever scarred by war. A trillion souls all crammed within the metal labyrinth. It was easy to get lost. It was rarely so difficult for all sorts of nefarious little creatures to slip. Especially in this new Age of the Sith, the Dark Side ascendant and its many little monsters that followed in its wake.

The notion of a Sith controlled Coruscant was a fascinating prospect to Lirka. The galactic center was not a place she oft prowled with how long it had been a center of the Jedi's might. Alas. Today would be no different, to be a Dark Councillor was to be a busy beast. But the most wicked of monsters possesses plenty an ability to get where they needed to be, especially one so steeped in the ancient ways of Holy Rhand like herself.

A Pawn would prowl these streets for her today. At a glance, but a man. Clad in a grimy cloak, looking up and around at all that is astonishing in this place so bristling with life. But a propagation of the dark desires of Sith that laid far away behind the ever mysterious Blackwall, and the evils within.

But a Pawn's purpose was a simple one. A tendril of inky blackness to prowl and hunt where its master could not - in a place as large as Coruscant, it certainly took a little luck for a hunter to find its quarry. Yet, time was of no object to the machinations of the dark side. Like a pilgrim upon Jutrand the Pawn walked among the crowds, drawn to the edifices of the planet's current occupiers: process of elimination was always a good way to find a person of interest.

Acier Moonbound

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[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Coruscant swallowed people whole. Among the trillions moving through its endless streets, one more hooded traveler meant nothing. That anonymity was keeping Ace alive right now.

A weathered brown cloak concealed most of his frame, its hood shadowing the pale locs that framed his face. His cybernetic left hand rested beneath the folds of the fabric, never far from the lightsaber at his hip. Outwardly, he was unremarkable.

His presence on Coruscant had been Lorn's decision. If someone hidden within the Sith Order truly wished to make contact with the Vanguard, then there was no one better suited to meet them than someone who had spent months living as one of the enemy.

The mission itself carried no shortage of risk. Coruscant was the capital of the Sith Covenant, and crossing paths with the wrong acolyte, Knight, or Lord wasn't impossible. Months spent rising through their ranks had earned him power, responsibility... and recognition. Drawing attention was not an option.

As he walked, Ace deliberately drew his presence inward, reducing his imprint upon the Force to little more than a whisper. It wouldn't make him invisible, but amidst the countless lives flowing through the city, it was enough to avoid standing out.

Months spent with a bounty on his head had taught him how to disappear into crowds, how to watch reflections instead of turning his head, and how to recognize when someone else's pace began matching his own. Even now, a fugitive from the High Republic, those instincts remained second nature.

Dark eyes wandered across storefront windows and polished transparisteel, searching reflections more often than the streets themselves. Every route, every intersection, every passerby was quietly assessed without ever breaking stride.

Most people moved with purpose. Workers heading home. Merchants closing their stalls. Travelers trying to reach the next transit platform before the doors sealed shut.

But one figure stood out. Hooded, much like himself. Not stationary, but never seeming particularly committed to any destination either. They drifted with the crowds, paused, moved on again. Searching for something... or someone.

Ace didn't look twice. He simply shelved the observation and continued walking.

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

A traitor? A madman? The prospects were endless. But strange things happened in the Galaxy endlessly. Was it truly so maddening that there was a dissident voice behind the Blackwall that trapped and shrouded the evil of the Sith? Time would certainly tell. Off in a faraway land, Lirka reaped the benefits of her Rhandite ways - a Pawn was like a window that allowed one to gaze far and wide. To the uninitiated, it might have seemed just another of the trillion of miserable and dejected souls in the Galaxy.

But there were tells. Small things. Glimmers to pierce the shroud of mystery - to show oneself as an outsider. Coruscant for all its vastness was a place suffocated by the mundane existence of the common-folk, it was wonder at what most might've simply walked by. Draped in their heavy cloak, the Pawn lingered at market stands longer than one might've, looking towards the sky at gleaming advertisements. To be a man walking with no purpose on a world driven by the purposeful.

With these sort of hush-hush dealings, there was no way of knowing what Lirka was to actually be looking for. But thankfully she was a skilled enough puppeteer to draw enough attention to a watchful eye. And any minion of the Jedi she certainly expected to be watchful, especially so deep within the depths of Sith territory like Coruscant.

The pawn quickly turned on his heels as some new bauble caught "his" eye - opening up some of what laid hidden underneath that cloak, it was only a brief flash.

The symbol of the southern Sith, the monsters behind the Wall.

Acier Moonbound

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[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Several minutes passed without incident. The crowds ebbed and flowed around him, swallowing faces as quickly as they revealed them. Ace made no effort to seek the hooded figure out again. If they were nothing more than another traveler, there was no sense wasting thought on them.

Then movement caught the edge of his vision. The same hooded figure, turning as though some new curiosity had stolen their attention, and for the briefest instant, the folds of the garment shifted.

There. The insignia of the southern Sith. Ace neither slowed nor turned his head. If the display had been intended for him, then whoever wore the cloak would be watching for a reaction.

So he gave them one. At the next intersection, he veered from the main thoroughfare into a quieter commercial district, where the evening crowds thinned and the streets offered more than one way out. Storefronts lined either side of the avenue.

If the signal had been meant for him... the next move belonged to the figure behind him.

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

A certain beauty could be found in these games. The hunt to find the something within a sea of nothing - a charming little puzzle for the attentive mind. All the most important things happened within muck and mire, is what Lirka had come to posit in her many years.

And here in the endless, suffocating, muck of Coruscant she would fish out a gem most precious.

The marionette on invisible strings walked - the false eyes within his head were attentive ones. The veering of the hooded figure after the Pawn’s brief flourish: a sign, certainly. So did Lirka’s minion follow - hurried steps, impatient steps. In the ever-shaky moment of grandeur, how could one not move with hurried glee? The true game would begin once they finally met.

With each step that Acier Moonbound took, the Pawn followed suit in its choppy sloppiness. The strings may have been invisible, but a puppet was always still a puppet. There was no great care taken now, he was being followed. Openly.

With presence now revealed, and whatever potentiality would come from their meeting now laid in the first hand played by the contact Lirka now sought.

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[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace heard footsteps. Impatient and hurried, but above all else alone. He heard them long before they drew close enough to matter. They matched his change in course without hesitation, carrying through the quieter commercial district until the noise of the main thoroughfare had faded into a distant hum.

He came to a stop. For a few silent moments, he simply watched the cloaked figure approach, dark eyes studying them without expression. Their posture. Their gait. The subtle shifts in weight that spoke louder than any face hidden beneath a hood.

The signal had been received and answered. Ace understood the need for caution. Better than most. Months spent among the Sith had taught him that trust was often the quickest route to a knife between the ribs.

But this... this little game had long since outlived its usefulness. He was standing on Coruscant; the beating heart of the Sith Covenant. Every minute spent lingering in its streets was another minute inviting the wrong set of eyes to stumble across a former Sith Knight who had very good reason not to be found. The fact that anyone had chosen this world of all places for a clandestine meeting was irritating enough.

His patience had its limits. "Talk." The word came low and coarse, carrying neither hostility nor warmth.

Only expectation.

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

For all the shrouds and masks, some things could never be escaped. While she was ever distant from their happenings upon Coruscant, Lirka always found some way to add the tinge of grating annoyance that followed her presence. An ever goading prodding of friend and foe alike.

Their little game, the choice of decor and the dangers it brought. All carefully picked to add the razor’s edge to the whole meeting.

The Pawn ceased, its puppet strings jerked to a halt. The hood was dropped, and Acier Moonbound was quickly met with the fact that their meeting was being conducted through a repugnant layperson. Humanoid, gaunt and almost in mockery in life. Vacant eyes like a droid’s photoreceptors, a jaw ever so slightly slack as he spoke.

Though, quickly first did the Pawn bow. Just another prod, Acier treated no different than a Sith Lord.

“But of course, My Lord. We extend dark greetings to your from beyond the Blackwall.”

Slowly did the creature rise with its pitifully jerking movements.

“Yet, we do not dare waste your time. To speak plainly, we exist here as representative of those who believe in the value brought the Vanguard. With understanding that the Blackwall shall make the goals of the Jedi…strenuous.”

And within those eyes, the vague presence that somewhere, far far away. A grim specter grinned wide in emotionless taunting.

“Is this an accurate assessment of the calculus?”

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[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

The moment the hood fell away, Ace's stomach tightened. Whatever he'd expected, it hadn't been... this. The gaunt figure before him looked less like a man than something wearing the memory of one. Vacant eyes stared without life, movements arriving in stiff, uneven jerks that seemed forever a heartbeat behind intention. It was unsettling in a way a Sith Lord never had been.

Outwardly, nothing changed. Only the slightest tightening of his jaw betrayed any reaction as the creature bowed.

"My Lord." The title lingered. Whether it was spoken because whoever stood behind the Pawn knew exactly who Ace had once been, or because this thing simply addressed anyone above its station with such reverence, he couldn't yet tell.

He listened in silence. A representative. Not the architect. Someone hidden beyond the Blackwall had chosen to speak through this... thing. More importantly, they knew enough about the Vanguard to understand its objective. They weren't blindly reaching into the dark. They knew Lorn sought a way beyond the Blackwall, and they believed that knowledge was worth approaching.

Ace remained still, his expression unreadable beneath the shadow of his hood. Only after the Pawn finished did he answer.

"More or less." He folded his arms across his chest, allowing the words to settle between them before speaking again. "But let me ask you something."

His voice remained level, carrying none of the irritation from moments earlier.

"If it's true that... whoever you're speaking for is Sith..." His eyes remained fixed on the Pawn. "...why help the Vanguard? What's in it for you?"

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

There was a certain horridness to the ways of Rhand that did not align with the rest of the Galaxy. Some would call the Perunn Nebula that majority of Rhandites resigned a prison, surrounded by the chaos of the Unknown Regions to keep its foul sorcerers away from Galactic affairs. Unfortunately, a leech like Lirka had sucked away the value of their teachings and brought that foulness right back to the wider Galactic fold.

Besides, meat-puppets had their use. A Once-Sephi could only stretch her consciousness so many times.

Distantly, Lirka admired the stillness of Acier Moonbound as she examined the man’s features through the Pawn’s eyes. He was an unfamiliar bit of calculus, a foreigner to her own machinations. For now at least. She’d relish the day when they’d finally met in battle, for such was the inevitability of such things.

Dear inevitability. Primordial Darkness. The simple cruel truth of existence. It’d explain everything about the poignant question asked by Acier, but alas, Lirka could not proselytize today lest she reveal herself too soon.

Yet, the truth could be explained in more simple ways.

“Aaahh…a most poignant question, my lord.”

The pawn grinned in its slack jawed wretchedness

“There is a certain…simplicity to things. Value to be gained in violence. Your people exist on disadvantaged ground, you would flail against our wall and bleed before you accomplished anything much of worth. But sometimes it only takes a little push to even the battlefield.”

The grin disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

“To be blunt, my lord. If you succeed, the Sith behind the wall are unworthy to exist. If you fail, then it is your people who are unworthy. Worthiness must be tested, always.”

And the cosmic truth was nothing more than violent, bloody, meritocracy.

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[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace listened without interruption as the Pawn spoke, his attention fixed on the lifeless eyes staring back at him. Whatever Sith sat at the other end of those invisible strings, he let them make their case.

And there it was. It shouldn't have surprised him. Some part of Ace had still hoped there would be something more behind the offer, some practical motive he could understand. Territory. Leverage. The removal of a rival. Instead, his expression fell slightly, not with disappointment so much as quiet exhaustion.

"So you just want it to be a fair fight."

There was more he could've said. He understood the philosophy well enough. Strip away the strange language about worthiness and testing, and it became something painfully familiar. Might made right. The strong survived, while those who fell merely proved they hadn't deserved to stand in the first place. It wasn't all that different from Varin.

Ace found the idea just as repulsive now as he had then. Strength wasn't what determined someone's worth. If anything, possessing it only increased the responsibility to protect those who didn't. He'd learned first hand what happened when power became its own justification.

But none of that changed the reality of the situation. Whatever he thought of the Sith's reasoning, the offer itself was practical. Potentially invaluable. The Blackwall remained one of the greatest obstacles standing between the Vanguard and its campaign against the Sith Order, and someone on the other side was offering them an advantage.

Ace glanced away for a moment, considering what little he knew before his attention returned to the Pawn.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers." His arms remained folded across his chest. "What can you tell me?"

Lirka Ka​