Transparent Darkness [Silas Ren, open to Republic]

[Greifen Ren]

The tip of a vibroblade thrust through the air, aiming directly or Greifen's heart. It surely would have been a deadly blow, were it not for the red blade of Ren's lightsaber that hissed menacingly through the air, deflecting it sideways. Then came the counterattack. Greifen riposted, and thrusted forward with the tip of his blade, catching his enemy defenseless and spearing him through the neck.

The sparring droid buzzed and fluttered to the ground.

Even though Greifen's lightsaber was only on stun mode for training purposes, the droid was nearly broken from the weeks of abuse it had taken. The young Acolyte of Ren had been training hard under his new master, the great [member="Silas Ren"]. He would hopefully be pleased with the progress of Greifen's bladework, and the apprentice prepared to show his master the desiccated droid as proof of his handiwork. Yet a buzzing on the shuttle's alert system drew his attention away from the droid. Cowled in black, Greifen perked up.

The buzzing of the ship's intercom could only mean one thing. They had arrived at their destination, the cosmopolitan Republic world of Nubia.

There were only three Knights of Ren in the fledgling First Order, yet their Darkside cult was already deep at work. The Supreme Leader had sent his warriors of the dark to Nubia for a reconnaissance mission against the Republic, to scout the corporate planet of Nubia and bring back any information regarding the Republic's dealings there. As far as Greifen knew, the Republic did not yet even know the First Order existed. And that was just how he liked it. The First Order had been keeping a low profile in the first few months of the movement's inception, and Greifen was not about to spoil that by doing anything stupid on this mission, like getting captured.

The young Acolyte picked up his training gear, wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, and headed down the hallway to find his Master.

 

[Antoir Setrrin]

Something whizzed over her head, and once more the 'mad merc' found herself scowling. When she turned she wasn't at all surprised to see a group of rowdy teenagers sneering at her. While not all of Nubia's inhabitants were like the group in front of her (not even close), this wasn't the first time that the largely human population had singled her out. It was less that the woman was simply non-human, of course, and more that she was far from it.

Another object came flying her way (this time a fruit), though she avoided it with a simple shift of her body. What had shot her way now slammed into the stone wall behind her. Taking a deep breath she narrowed her eyes, staring hard at the youngsters, who were now seeming to doubt their decision-making skills. Two of them took a step back, while only a couple held their ground, seemingly waiting for her to make a move.

"That was rather... rude. Perhaps you could refrain from repeating your actions?" She suggested, ignoring the rustle of her cloak in the wind. Though the breeze wasn't that strong, it was enough to swirl the fabric around, briefly revealing pieces of her armor. That was enough to get the kids to leave the Sithspawn soldier alone. They scoffed before turning to leave, pretending to simply be bored instead of frightened.

She didn't hold it against them, really. The galaxy had been locked in a war for years, countless worlds had been brought close to complete destruction, and here she was, seeming more Sith than Republic in appearance. They had no way of knowing her allegiance, which currently lay with the Jedi's bosses. No, they saw her, seemingly damaged and rugged, and they assumed she fought for those in black robes.

But she didn't, and she knew that, and that was enough for her.
And so the Mad Merc continued walking, heading towards her hotel room...

 

[Mr. OOC]

Silas sat in a meditative trance within the confines of the shuttle. Normally he preferred to pilot himself, having grown up to be completely independent of outside forces, as a necessity for his departure from his home. He'd refused to be bandied about and controlled by anyone. Now he'd submitted himself to a Supreme Leader. At first he'd believed this a mistake, and he still had misgivings about undertaking this endeavor, but he'd come to realize that for order to be restored to the galaxy, he had to be willing to sacrifice himself and his morals. Far more noble than most who utilized the darkside could ever conceive of being.

The chime of the comms alerted him that they were approaching their destination. For a few moments longer he lingered, waiting. It wasn't abnormal for him to linger like this for long periods at a time. But he was really waiting for his apprentice to arrive. He knew the man was coming. And he knew that his apprentice expected him to be impressed.

When the man neared, he nudged the door open with the Force without moving. And he waited for Greifen to enter before he opened his eyes, still hidden by the mask, to look at the being across from him. He held his gaze upon the man, and refused to acknowledge that his apprentice's training efforts were doing him justice. He did not wish to inflate the mans ego. That would be a waste of training time. He needed his apprentice to believe himself a failure if he was going to rise to his potential.

"You took too long. When we return you will spend two days silently contemplating your lack of speed, and you will not eat or obtain sustenance during that time."

He stood and straightened his robes.

"Move to the ramp and prepare to land. Remember your lessons on disguising your Force signature and keep your weapons out of sight."

[member="Greifen Ren"]

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic walked down the hallway of the space harbor Mantic felt relieved that things had gone smoothly. The nubian senator had been escorted home and with that his duty had been lifted. He wished to return to Ossus and continue both his own and his padawans training, and unaware this eagerness had put his senses on edge.

Normally he would not have sensed them at all. In fact, the dark side was a rather common occurrence these days and not even the jedi could no longer react on them all. But...

He slowed his steps. A sound... boots of iron marching... An image flashed before his eyes... a thousand white storm troopers, raising their fists before one man... a jedi?

He stopped and looked bewildered at his hands. What was this? Mantic was not accustomed to such direct force visions. It was not something he had been seeing before.
He turned his face to the nearby observation window. the evening was setting and the soft lights were going dimmer. something was out there, for a brief period of time he sensed a powerful dark side presence. Then it dissipated quickly. Too quickly.

[member="Greifen Ren"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"] [member="Silas Ren"]

 

[Greifen Ren]

Greifen lowered his head reverently. "As you command, my Master."

That certainly wasn't the reception he had been hoping for. All of his training, all of his hard work during the journey to Nubia - rewarded with punishment? Perhaps he should not be surprised, for [member="Silas Ren"] was a difficult master. He sometimes wondered whether his master truly cared about him at all, or if he simply enjoyed abject cruelty. Greifen would turn this over in his head as he headed towards the ramp and immediately concealed his Force signature, knowing that their shuttle was landing. He also replaced his signature black robes, folding them up and putting them aside, instead donning a more inconspicuous brown robe that would help him further blend in.

Pulling the robe over his head, Greifen wondered how he would do his duties over the next few days without food or water.

As he was left to contemplate this, the shuttle began to land at the Nubian spaceport. No doubt his master heard this as well, and he would expect Silas' appearance any moment as the ramp began to lower and Greifen took in his first breath of Republic space.

[member="Mantic Dorn"]
[member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

Of course if he told his apprentice that he cared, it would only serve to weaken the way that they treated one another. It was necessary that Greifen think he was a hardcase, uncaring. Necessary because Silas was molding him to be a great weapon, and a great weapon could not be great if he believed that he was. He could only be great, if he knew that he truly was not. The greatest Force users in the galaxy had been small town nobodies that everyone had looked down upon. They were not the people who already had power and were worshipped. That was why the Knights were better than the Sith.

Like his apprentice, Silas removed his typical robes in favor of a brown one. He also removed his mask, which might have been a surprise to Greifen, as Silas rarely ever did so. The face beneath was remarkably handsome, owing to his Hapan heritage, and not overly old in appearance, but certainly set in a way that bespoke of experience.

"Stay close to me and do not draw attention to yourself. We should be able to pass as Jedi if need be."

Silas had been one until very recently. A Rogue, but still a lightsider. Now he wasn't one, but only in the sense that he didn't truly believe that there was any sides of the Force. He'd drifted a bit far into the darkness, using too much of the Force to do evil, but he was slowly trying to work his way back to neutral. Only a neutral aligned user of the Force could ever bring balance to the galaxy. That was his aim.

As the ramp lowered, he stepped out without hesitation. Nubia was not all that strange to him. They'd settled down in Nuba City Spaceport, so they would have to take the monorail into the city itself. An inconvenience if they needed to make a quick escape, but such was the nature of reconaissance. He led his charge along, meandering slowly through the crowds, careful not to seem in a hurry, since he wasn't, and careful not to cause any sort of commotion. Many nodded to him because of his robes, but most just went about their business. At the monorail, he climbed aboard and settled in to head for the city.

"First time on Nubia, Greifen?"

[member="Greifen Ren"] [member="Mantic Dorn"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]

 

[Greifen Ren]

Silas' removal of his mask did not go unnoticed by Greifen. For a moment he set his eyes upon his Master's true face, a sight that he rarely saw, and drank in his image. He removed his gaze just as quickly, trying not to let it linger there and cause any unwanted attention. When [member="Silas Ren"] commanded him to stay close, Greifen merely lowered his head in a small bow of obedience. Despite the fact that his Master was hard and cruel to him, such was Greifen's loyalty to the Knights of Ren that he would follow his Master's command to the death. The Knights of Ren were the only thing that mattered to him now. He had given his life to the order, and in turn, the order had given life to him. Before he was nothing; a nobody lost in a galactic sea of faceless cretins. Only now, when he had ceased to be the empty entity known as Vond Greifen and became Greifen Ren, did he feel truly alive.

Greifen followed his master down the docking ramp and took in the bustle of Nubia City Spaceport for the first time. It was much like any other spaceport, filled with creatures and species of all kinds, except there seemed to be an even more heterogeneous mix of aliens to Griefen's eyes, owing to the fact that it was a Republic world.

"It is, my Master," Greifen answered Silas in a low tone. "I have never been to any Republic world before. It seems... bothersome..." Greifen grimaced as he slid past a bumbling Rodian who carried with him the thick drunken scent of cantina swill.

"My Master," Greifen posed, "Is it possible for the Jedi to... sense the Dark Side within us? Depite the fact that we have hidden our powers? Or is the Dark Side strong enough to hide itself from them completely?" He asked his master in a hushed voice as the two traveled through the spaceport.

[member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]
[member="Mantic Dorn"]

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Now it was gone. Swept away just under neath his watch. Was it merely imagination? He knew it had been there, or he sensed that he was right.
While most of his mind told him to leave, to take the easy route out that was not what he would choose to do.
He could not ignore it.

If the dark side was present here as well, it could be a sign of something terrible to come. Quickening his steps Mantic navigated through the crowds of people in the space harbor. He was not sure about what to do but he had to do something.

His fast paced march ended at the local ticket office.

"Excu... hey, over here.." he raised his voice to get the attention of the multisensor droid working inside. Its artifical femal featrues turned toward him.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

Mantic relaxed.

"Please, could you give me a list of all ships that has landed within the last hour. Are there any ships registered as non-republic?"
While it was no odd request it was not common either. The droid turned and started to punch in some commands on her console. Soon the visitor screen embedded in the counter in front of Mantic started to show a longer list of arrivals and departures. The jedi bent over and started to scroll looking for anything out of the ordinary.

[member="Silas Ren"] [member="Greifen Ren"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

On the plus side, it was a temperate world – with shallow oceans separating its two land masses. Of course it was not for tourism it was most commonly known but its famous star drives.

Yet as she approached the planet, she was almost surprised that it was not heavily urbanised and instead had a relatively rural landscape. It was only just considered a Core World, given its location.

So she headed to the western side of the large mountain range that was the geographical landmark that told her she was close to Nubia City – significantly more industrial than the norm for the planet.

In fact, as she approached it, she was dismayed to see it was shrouded in dense smog – no doubt the result of copious factories. So she turned to the west of the city, to the spaceport and received landing permission.

Yet as she finally touched down there was a small alarm sounding in her mind. The Force was telling her something, although the what would take more specific investigation. Why were routine missions always the most challenging?

[member="Mantic Dorn"] | [member="Greifen Ren"] | [member="Silas Ren"] | [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

"Not particularly bothersome so much as it is... busy. I spent much of my life on backwater worlds. Busier worlds are very unnerving."

The tram was making its way along to the first stop in the city. As it did so, his apprentice asked him a curious question. While it was indeed possible for someone to sense a dark presence in the Force, the two of them had masked their signatures. While Greifen was no doubt not as proficient at this as Silas was, the latter suspected that the few Jedi he could feel on the world would not pose too much of a problem provided that he and Greifen didn't cause a problem.

He was about to answer the question when something gave him pause. Turning his head, he looked up at the sky was a curious expression on his face. Somewhere up there was a very powerful Jedi. More than powerful enough to detect Greifen. Possibly powerful enough to detect him, even, should he not employ the current. He decided to forgo the latter. He'd tainted it enough lately.

"We may not be spending much time gathering information here. There is a strong Jedi presence arriving."

Turning his attention back to his apprentice, he spoke further.

"Yes, it's possible for them to detect someone who isn't skilled in hiding their signature. Possible, but not a given. The Emperor hid himself among all of the Jedi on Coruscant hundreds of years ago and was only revealed when he revealed himself. Remember your lessons and be patient. We do not have to resort to fighting them unless forced."

As the tram rolled to a stop, he stood and moved his way through the crowd and into the city. They would see what they could and report back. If they were lucky, they wouldn't be bothered.

[member="Mantic Dorn"] [member="Greifen Ren"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Silas Ren"] [member="Mantic Dorn"] [member="Greifen Ren"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]


Kay had joined a small group of Republican Senators to Nubia in order to help work on trade relations between their planets that they represented. As the economy on Commenor, the planet that she represented, was growing quite well, it was only fitting that she go along and lead this venture. It was about time that she invested herself a little less in what the Cartel was doing and more on strengthening the Republic. She was getting a little too popular and figured that backing off a bit would make her actions against them a little less predictable.

After the days's meetings, Kay decided to have a bit of alone time and tour the area herself. She kept her Force signature small like a tree nut, as she was taught. Other Force users were bound to be nearby and she didn't want to be discovered for being anything other than a Senator. As she walked through the city streets, caught up in her thoughts, she thought that she had spotted Greifen in the crowd up ahead. Was he really there? The last time they had met, he gave her a small interrogation. But that was a while ago. More than likely she was forgotten about. Or so she had wished.

 

[Greifen Ren]

Greifen nodded reverently as his master spoke. He had heard tales of the great Sith known as Palpatine, who managed to hide his presence in plain sight amongst some of the most powerful Jedi of all time, for several years. Such a power level must be beyond imaginable, at least in Greifen's young Acolyte mind. It was no mistake that Palpatine was rightly considered to be the most powerful Sith Lord of all time. A sentiment that was also echoed by the young Ren's opinion, not least because the Knights of Ren idealized the Palpatine-era Empire.

"Understood, my Master. I will be ever vigilant," Young Greifen responded, and immediately doubled down on concealing his Force signature. Meanwhile, they had a mission to complete.

"Master Silas, perhaps we should enter the cantina there?" He pointed to one of the dingy-looking offshoots from the street, buzzing neon signs signaling food and drink. Above the doorway, aliens bustled in and out, and two neon drink glasses fizzled in and out. "Much local information can be gathered from such places."

[member="Silas Ren"] [member="Lady Kay"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Mantic Dorn"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]