Year-round Halloween

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

Ms. Lopez

My name is Sorosel. I am blackmailing you.

Regarding your recent operation on Jiroch-Reslia, I bribed one of your contractors, a Whiphid shaman named Anraq, to record and transmit the proceeds. It seems he was saddened when your plans changed to assume that he would be party to mass slaughter. After several successful transmissions, I am in possession of the following material:

• Visual recordings in which your personnel and contractors hunt and kill dozens or hundreds of prisoners in a sporting manner on Jiroch-Reslia, as part of a major Star Tours contract.
• Voice recordings in which you personally order your personnel and contractors to hunt and kill said prisoners en masse within a confined area, as part of a major Star Tours contract.

Anraq informs me that your budget for this project is precisely one million credits. He also informs me that the current Tunroth government is experiencing public relations issues due to the project in question. Therefore, you will transmit precisely 1,000,001cr to the attached account number, or the following events will take place:

These recordings will be sent to the governments of the Order of the Silver Jedi, the Galactic Alliance, and the Mandalorian Crusaders. These governments have jurisdiction over your facilities on Ringo Vinda, Eriadu, and Cademimu, respectively. These recordings will also be sent to the Tunroth people of Jiroch-Reslia. Once public unrest results, a complimentary copy of these recordings will be sent to the First Order, specifically the office of Grand Moff Natasi Fortan. This complimentary copy should aid her office in determining accountability for the public unrest in question.

I expect your response within fifteen standard minutes and your payment within one standard hour. If you have a counteroffer with a value equal to or greater than 1,000,001cr, you have one standard hour to make your case. I fully expect you to deploy slicers to locate or neutralize me. That's a distinct possibility. However, I strongly doubt they can do so within the day, let alone within the time frame I've given you.

Thank you for your time,

Sorosel

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Ouch. That was not going to end well. Blackmailing attempts would have to be borne out of other budgets. There were going to be serious problems afoot that would cost more than 1,000,001 credits to Star Tours if she did not pay Sorosel. The backlash in Mandalorian Crusader territory alone would cause problems of that magnitude, let alone Eriadu or Ringo Vinda. Plus the only slicers Dunames knew about were in SJ territory: Marcia and Jessica (even though Jessica was largely unproven as a slicer, and the latest rumors placed her on Vulpter) so any extra slicers Star Tours would have to be borne from the IT department, that she didn't know much about. And the blackmailing party could have grave implications for galactic peace if they make good on their threats. It was interesting to see where it would go: the operation has snowballed, but there were no new death sentences being handed down on Jiroch-Reslia since the beginning of what was called the Cemeterygate. What Sorosel was not aware of was that his transmission addressed to Dunames would be transmitted to First Order authorities once the response was made and, from there, he would be accused of extortion pertaining to this project within the next 45 minutes. He would be accused of bribery and of extortion. But, for the time being, Dunames would pretend to make the payment.

------------------------

Dear Sorosel,

Since I estimate that the cost of these informations being revealed across the galaxy is a lot higher than 1,000,001 credits, to Star Tours alone, let alone all parties involved, I have no choice but to make the payment: it is a rather small price to pay for ensuring what's left of galactic peace.

As a result, payment arrangements will be borne out of the contingency fund, and payment will be on its way. However, please be warned that First Order banking procedures may take a while longer than an hour to be carried out and it may take a pretty long time before the payment has cleared a FO bank.

Dunames

------------------------

[member="Velok the Younger"] [member="Darth Veles"] [member="Harley"] [member="Nick Sept"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

Ms. Lopez-

The time limit is non-negotiable. The onus for obtaining and transmitting the funds within the next 49 standard minutes is entirely on your shoulders. Please do not attempt to stall; I am a professional. More to the point, I am a contractor. I am one layer of obfuscation between you and the person responsible for your blackmail. I am answerable to those above me, and they have instructed me in no uncertain terms that I am not to bend or waver on any point related to the timetable. Nor am I in control of the disbursement of the information I mentioned. By now it has been passed along to my higher authorities, who will contact the Silver Jedi, the Alliance, and the Mandalorian Crusaders at precisely the time we've discussed unless they are in receipt of 1,000,001cr by that time.

On a personal note, I would invite you to examine your options. Creative thought has been known to impress my employers in the past. Persons in your position have gone on to become trusted allies just as often as they've had their lives ruined. It would be beyond my pay grade to suggest that you consider this a test, and indeed you would have no reason to trust such a suggestion. In any case, please transmit the funds to the account within the next 47 minutes.

Thank you for your time,

Sorosel

 

[Hailey Sosis]

Harley was still wandering aimlessly through out the graveyard, she was still looking at gravestones. She was also trying to figure out, what she should have on her own. She eventually decide on, I thought he was happy to see me, not bloody a lightsabers in his pockets. She also wanted it have unicorn pegasus on the top of it, so she could be different. She saw two of them talking, as she sat back and leant against one the gravestones. She began pondering the meaning of life and death, and the codes of the sith and jedi. Then she realized something, they where both the same, just one big ego trip. They where just trying in one way or another prove there right and the others wrong. They both commit mayhem in the name of code, and they both where scantamonisouse in there ways.

Then all off sudden a butterfly landed on her nose, and she forgot all about she thinking about. Just looked at the beauty of the butterfly.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Harley"] | [member="Velok the Younger"] | [member="Dunames Lopez"] | [member="Darth Veles"]

​

"Careful, we must be.​

Insanity of the mind...​

Might be contagious."​

Tai Fa mumbled while looking through the data-streams being send to him by the way of encrypted channels. In truth, he had expressed his doubt with this entire enterprise from the start, yet the avian could not deny the fact that he was always overly cautious in his dealings throughout the years.

Opportunities multiply as they are seized, after all.

"Boss?" Vnut asked over his shoulder as he guided the little shuttle through the air.

Fa waved his wing, almost as if gesturing the issue away. It mattered little for now, what did matter was guiding this operation towards a favorable outcome. A little scavenging and shipping company had applied for permits two weeks ago, gaining some small hold on a few holding bays three clicks away- it had taken some capital, but this was critical.

This would have to be approached carefully. The First Order was not known for their sense of humor in most matters that concerned them personally.

"Rest easy, old friend.​

Our wings fly steady and true.
Await us real soon."

A message would find itself to one indignant Whiphid.​

 

[Dunames Lopez]

------------------------

Dear Sorosel,

it will take just a few more minutes, hopefully it will clear the bank in time. I have about 20 minutes left...

Dunames

------------------------

While [member="Harley"] sees the next shipment of death-sentenced prisoners arrive, Dunames keeps her fingers crossed while the payment is in the process of clearing the bank. Hopefully [member="Corvo Santagar"] will receive the message about the threat to galactic peace Sorosel and its crew represent in time to locate Sorosel and its superiors so that he could take action about these people who intend to use the Cemeterygate as a casus belli especially as it pertains to the Alliance. Meanwhile, somewhere at the Ministry of Justice, the Assemblage of Three ponders the supplies of death-sentenced prisoners at their disposal. Once their stocks of death-sentenced prisoners have been evaluated, the Assemblage of Three, as well as any cabinet members at their service, contacts Dunames again. This time around it's the minister of justice, while an important official overseeing the judicial processes on the planet, is not part of the Assemblage of Three:

"Dunames, the supplies of death-sentenced prisoners available on this world are running low. We cannot afford to violate due process, to subvert the judicial processes or to perform miscarriages of justice just to get the project done" the minister of justice for Jiroch-Reslia told Dunames.

"How long does the process for transferring death-sentenced prisoners from off-world FO facilities take?"

"Doing that will unnecessarily drag the project out, and by now you know that the project is a PR thorn on our side: the faster we can get it done, the faster we can open it and the faster we can move on"

"May justice still be served adequately. How many death-sentenced prisoners are left?"

"The first two shipments represent about half the supply we had at the onset of the crisis. You understand that we need apply death penalties only to the most serious crimes: the Tunroth do not seem to be overly violent in their criminal approaches"

[member="Tai Fa"] [member="Velok the Younger"] [member="Darth Veles"] [member="Nick Sept"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Tai Fa"]

By now, Velok was at the open-air top floor of a near-empty parking garage, about two klicks from the cemetery perimeter. The ageing Whiphid adjusted his bags -- one hissing, one clanking -- and tapped out a quick reply.

Sympathy is yours
Eloquence may birth fatigue
Last line was lazy

I have ascended
To join you in the high clouds
Thirty-Ninth and Beech

***​

​

​

What Sorosel was not aware of was that his transmission addressed to Dunames would be transmitted to First Order authorities once the response was made and, from there, he would be accused of extortion pertaining to this project within the next 45 minutes. He would be accused of bribery and of extortion. But, for the time being, Dunames would pretend to make the payment.

​

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

Ms. Lopez-

I appear to be under a most recent indictment for bribery and extortion -- or at least, this particular identity does. I blame myself, of course. I didn't explicitly instruct you to avoid contacting the authorities.

Please understand that one million credits is an insignificant amount to my employers, and I will be paid regardless of the success of our operation. I tell you this so you'll know that neither of us has an incentive to let you stall in hopes of eking out a greater certainty of payment.

Nevertheless, I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

You have three minutes to complete the transfer, whether from corporate or private funds as necessary This represents a minimal decrease in your total time and an only modestly punitive reduction in your remaining time. In one hundred eighty standard seconds, four transmissions will be sent as discussed, unless my employers are in receipt of 1,000,001cr.

Sincerely yours,

Sorosel

 

[Darth Veles]

The holy connection between the amphibious Sith and his Order’s homeworld wasn’t there yet, telling the assassin he had more than enough time to prepare the ritual before the Dark Side’s blessing hit this world in its fullest, the exact moment to conduct the ritual and give birth to a something unnatural and beautiful, like a vial of distilled chaos itself. Those uninitiated and willing to build the gateway to the Void really had no idea about the end-product’s true power and purpose – and that was fine by Veles. They didn’t need to know. His breathing grew faster, affected by excitement and worry that swelled inside the Mon Cal’s body like a rapidly growing tumor. There was a first time for everything, but mucking up this particular ritual carried great risks. Still, while new to creating a nexus, the Sith Lord was no novice to the Dark Side’s ways, copulating with the Force for over twenty years.

Walking in the circle he had drawn across the hardened ground earlier, Veles had determined four optimal spots based on the four winds to evenly distribute the incoming energy across the land before centring it all into the open grave. More circles appeared he carved them in these locations, all punctiliously even and symmetrical, all touching the dominant circle in the middle. When the basic sketch adorned the cemetery’s floor, the amphibian looked it over, again and again, correcting the last details and ensuring everything looked as it should. Then came the part that involved simply digging the lines deeper into the ground, a primitive task that only stole a few minutes. Again, the walking stick had turned out to be an excellent tool to do this with and soon enough, the Dark Lord stood above a finished drawing.

Now to gather the prisoners and make them stand in the right place.

The hardest part, which he fully realized as evidenced by a dark frown twisting his features when his glance washed over the sentenced sentients.

 

[Dunames Lopez]

-------------------

Dear Sorosel,

The money has cleared the bank: now the promised 1,000,001 credits is under your possession. Just in the nick of time.

Dunames

-------------------

While the First Order Security Bureau, under Corvo Santagar's watch, is now furiously looking for Sorosel (or whoever is hiding under that name), Dunames was a little worried about whether the blackmailer will actually carry out the threat. She wondered where was [member="Sentiri"] or [member="Hyori Tal"], where she needed them to find out where Sorosel was hiding the money, or where Sorosel was. But the third shipment of prisoners was withheld until the first two was dealt with, or so the Assemblage of Three informed them. How much longer would Jiroch-Reslia and the Assemblage of Three be safe from the galactic spotlight? How will the local government be dealing with the fallout of the backlash this project generated? Turning a cemetery into an amusement park? Only the most crazy ultraliberal, dark-sided capitalist would ever dream of doing it even if said cemetery was full and could not hold more graves.

"We will not ship any more prisoners to Lesrekta until the first two batches are dealt with"

"Better limit the damage before these deaths leak into the galactic news feeds!"

[member="Darth Veles"] [member="Velok the Younger"] [member="Tai Fa"] [member="Harley"] [member="Nick Sept"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

Ms. Lopez-

Thank you for you time. As per the specifics of our arrangement, the information in question will not be transmitted to the Silver Jedi, the Mandalorian Crusaders, the Galactic Alliance, or the Tunroth people. Naturally, my employers will keep it in reserve, in the event that you attempt short- or long-term retaliation.

Best wishes,

Sorosel

***​

​

Velok watched [member="Tai Fa"]'s shuttle approach. A message scrolled across his datapad, and he pushed a button, whuffling with pleasure.

***​

​

Sorosel's transmissions wouldn't prove hard for the First Order to track, all things considered. Once they got past a couple of random subspace relays, they would home in on a small hotel room in Cloud City. Upon knocking down the door, presumably with extreme prejudice, they would find a gutted comm unit, as well as a recently decapitated protocol droid holding a script.

Eventually, forensic analysis would determine that a good quantity of Whiphid hair was caught in the joints and gears of the droid in question.

***​

​

Exeunt​

 

[Dunames Lopez]

The One Sith and the Sith Triumvirate made no attempt at commercially exploiting their own dark-sided nexuses. Tython, Ruusan and the like. Yet Dunames always associated greed and its attenant vices with the dark side. And commercially exploiting a Force-nexus the way the Assemblage of Three intended to do, even if it was met with a marginal audience, is still a net gain financially for the future of the cemetery, since Tunroth regulations forbid reassigning cemetery plots to other dead. And also even if it only had 100 paying visitors a day, the status of this theme park of a cemetery as a Force-nexus would be safe so long as customer satisfaction is there, that is, whether the promised thrills have been delivered. Dark-siders, such as the Knights of Ren, would then be able to gauge customer satisfaction by how strong the dark side was in the park. Rumors are that the governor of Jiroch-Reslia is a dark-sider himself.

"Other commercial attempts made at building dark-sided Force-nexuses close to major cities were met with much local resistance: how can you be certain that there would be no impact that wasn't already felt?"

"Most cemeteries containing graves of dark-siders already have some dark-sided energies inside the cemetery: cemeteries that large carry large NIMBY factors even when there is no dark-sided nexus involved. That's what the Knights of Ren told the governor before the bidding process ended"

Light-sided Boz Pity is another cemetery of galactic significance, and very few that doesn't work in the mortuary industry want to live there. Much like Lesrekta with respect to Jiroch-Reslia. Small-scale cemeteries were usually met with a lot less resistance than large-scale cemeteries; for many humans or from Near-Human species, it was preferable to build many small neighborhood cemeteries to one big cemetery. And yet the Tunroth were more willing than most to build cemeteries thta can dwarf cities.

[member="Velok the Younger"] [member="Darth Veles"] [member="Tai Fa"] [member="Harley"] [member="Nick Sept"]

 

[Darth Veles]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipeqYnxfsLs​

Nobody wanted to follow him voluntarily and partake in this bizarre and perverse experiment only he understood. Veles had expected this outcome, ready to correct it. Blinded by the sudden and unexpected chance at freedom, the prisoners saw no reason to not try a dangerous romp with lady Luck. Escaping the salmon-skinned assassin experienced in such trivialities as hunting down sentient beings had therefore turned into a task doomed to fail. Most had tried to resist, beat the cane-wielding cripple; it went about as well as jumping into a meat grinder. The Force possessed many ways of turning even the toughest men into whimpering children who understood the best choice to avoid being mentally and physically crushed by the darkness was to succumb to another’s will, obey. None stood a chance against the Dark Side, none dared to oppose Darth Veles’ commands imposed upon them.

A group of five filled each small circle once the Mon Cal had evenly distributed this batch into his work, only the largest drawing carved in the ground continued to maintain its integrity and solitude for now. Fear and resignation alike polluted the clean waters of the Force with their stench and for a moment Veles worried failure was inevitable – the two dominant feelings stood no chance in binding the Dark Side’s might. Chains forged by fear always shattered under pressure. If only he had a way to fill their hearts with hatred, focus their anger! Upon observing the subdued men, looking into their eyes, the answer became apparent – it was himself, the one standing in the way of their freedom. When their gazes locked, the Sith Lord felt a sudden, hateful surge directed towards him. Excellent! Wearing the smile of a victor, the Mon Cal slowly drew their attention, backing in their anger.

The time was right, revealed by a shift in the Force.

Stepping in the middle circle, Veles raised his hands towards the darkened sky, voice booming in a challenge to the Dark Side itself.

“I invite thee, formidable Dark Side: approaching storm, bringer of death, searing whip, executioner’s blade - open to the heart of thy lonely servant. To me, praying to thee, answer! Bestow thy power upon this place!”