House Feud: Unsettled Scores

This is for the Run-On Event for the House Feud Unsettled Scores between Marka Ragnos and Ludo Kressh.

Event Details

House Run-On
The recent events continue to unfold but how is your House dealing with it and what things are happening inside the Great Library on Tarthos and Dentavii Base? Has the murderer been sighted recently? Have you been travelling in pairs like the Consul has demanded? Has your Quaestor called an emergency meeting to discuss who the possible culprit is?

This event will run through Chapter 1 all the way until the end of the competition. Please consider that when jumping to conclusions or introducing new tangents to the storyline that may contradict what is later written. The idea is to provide your immediate reactions based on the official facts available.

Judging Criteria
Imagination/plotline - 20%
Realism - 20%
Character development - 15%
Consistency/coherence - 10%
Detail/Description - 5%
Intricacy of plotline - 5%
Interest - 5%
Imagination/writing style - 5%
Maturity of the writing - 5%
Vocabulary/Grammar -5%
Length - 5%

Scoring
Participation: 2 points
First Place: 10 points
Second Place: 8 points
Third Place: 6 points

First House: 20 points
Second House: 10 points

Please Note: This Event will be judged on a House basis with all posts by members of a particular House considered as one whole. Both Houses contributions will be assessed given the Judging Criteria outlined above and a score calculated to determine the winning House. Please be sure to consider your actions in-character especially when interacting with members of the other House during the story.

Updates to the story will be posted reguarly on the House Feud Website (www.nagasadow.org/us.php) or on the specially created post on this Message Board. It is suggested that you always check for Updates immediately before making a post to the Run-On to ensure you are up to date with the story. Further Updates may be made available via E-Mail or through in-character discussion on IRC at prescheduled Events during the competition (details of such Events will be made available in advance via E-Mail).

Please use your imagination but do be sure to keep to the story, the only person who knows the identity of the attacker is me and until an official Update is released revealing his identity or announcing his capture he will remain at large, so please, no heros saving the day in the first five minutes. Do feel free to speculate or make wrongful accusations and arrests but consider your place in-character: nobody knows what is going on.

Remember: imagination/Plotline and Realism are the highest scoring categories for this Event.

This Event will run for the full duration of Unsettled Scores and will continue into the later Chapters. It is expected that the Chapters will be released roughly one per week meaning it is important to ensure your House remains up to date when contributing to the Run-On. It is also recommended you start early in the Run-On to ensure you get a chance to set your stories up before the plot advances too far and you are left behind.

PLEASE ENSURE TO INCLUDE YOUR ID LINE IN ALL POSTS. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN YOUR POST NOT BEING COUNTED FOR SCORING.

PROLOGUE

Prologue

Two men stood watching the white spire of Sadow Palace from an open viewport as it blushed a mixed shade of pink and orange in the dieing sunlight. They stood in a room as neglected as the palace had once been two years before. The walls crawled with black vines that twisted in the shadows and bugs that would have tried to scuttle up the two men’s feet had they not been held back by the unsettling red glow emitting from a metal cylinder held by the taller of the two.

The younger of the two wore a black uniform that matched the color of his hair. His skin was a dark shade of blue and his chest adorned with medals indicating his military status. The elder figure stood a good half foot taller and was wearing a simple black robe that kept his face carefully hidden.

The Chiss turned from the window and studied one of the creepers that was ensnaring some kind of beetle. He watched it for a second before looking back at the second of the two men. “Do I have your permission to commence then, my lord?” he finally asked.

The cloaked figure did not return the officer’s gaze but simple nodded. “Yes, colonel. This cannot be postponed any longer. Have my interceptor readied as well.”

The Chiss raised a look of concern but his voice remained unreadable. “It will be done, my lord.”

The second of the two men finally turned away from the window, allowing the light to illuminate his grey-green skin. “I have permitted this game too long. This time there will be no survivors.”

---

Muz Ashen Keibatsu awoke with a start. The room was on fire with warning lights. Pulling himself out of bed and throwing yesterday’s clothes on he glanced wearily at the suite’s datapad.

ALERT. INTRUDER. ALERT.

Not again, don’t they ever get tired of breaking into this place? thought the Proconsul before racing out the door.

---

ALERT. INTRUDER. ALERT.

Raistlin Majerus slammed his fist into the durasteel wall creating a small dent before snatching his lightsaber from beside his bed.

---

“Son of a Murglak!” spat Manji Nekura Keibatsu as he stormed into the control center. “What the frack is it this time? Hutts? Wookiees? Enraged killed Ewoks?”

Major Karis’tren’kanuro stepped away from the central console, acknowledging the Krath Archpriest with a swift salute. “Currently nothing but the warning sirens. The security patrols are trying to confirm that there has been a breach. We will know in a few minutes, sir.”

Manji gave the Chiss an angry look. “What? Are you telling me this is just a security failure?”

Major Strenk shook his head. “That’s just it, sir. We don’t know yet.”

---

Lieutenant Ranla’rma’kanuro stepped uncaringly over the bodies of his former men quickly making his way to the front of the platoon. “Did any of you see them? Who were they?” he ordered.

They all stood silent as if they had just emerged from a terrible nightmare. Lieutenant Armak levelled his gaze at one of the men in front of him. “Well who was it? Don’t make me ask a third time.”

The Seprosian looked back at the Chiss officer with his eyes wide open in fear. When he finally raised his head to speak Armak could see that half his face had been burned away as if it had been caught in a flash firestorm. He spoke in a hoarse rasp. “Eyes… those eyes…”

Armak gripped him by the collar and pulled him forward until they were face to face. “What about his eyes?” he demanded fiercely.

“Those eyes… those three eyes…” was all the soldier could manage before he grabbed hold of Armak to steady himself. But he was already too far gone and a second later his knees buckled.

Armak’s eyes grew wide with shock. “Somebody help this man. Take him to the medical wing immediately,” he said. Two of the soldiers who had escorted him moved around and took hold of the Seprosian before pulling him up and carrying him off into the darkened forest. When they were gone Armak turned back to the group of soldiers and asked again. “Would somebody tell me what is going on here?”

“We… we don’t know, sir,” said one of them finally, his voice trembling. “It was… it wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been real.”

“What was it?”

“A ghost. It has these three evil eyes. It just was… there,” the solider shook his head. “It came out of nowhere. Took us all by surprise. Three-Forty-One took the worst of it. You saw his face. It just burned him alive. It was like lightning shooting from his hands…”

“Lightning, you say?” Armak said curiously. Even for a Chiss there was no doubting the slight tremble when he spoke. “And he had three eyes?”

The soldier nodded feebly. His right shoulder had been badly burned too. Armak studied him carefully for a moment. “Did you see where he went?”

“No,” replied the Seprosian shaking his head. “He just… disappeared.”

“Disappeared,” Armak repeated more for his own benefit. A second later he was frantically tapping something into his comlink

---

“We’re getting a report now, my lord,” said Major Naf’ora’kanuro. “It’s coming in from Lieutenant Ranla’rma’kanuro somewhere on Tarthos.”

Muz drummed his fingers impatiently. “Well put it through, Forak.”

The Major keyed in a few commands and the blue image of Lieutenant Armak appeared from the room’s central holo-emitter. “…attacked by a Force wielding darksider with three eyes. I can only conclude that we have a rogue Dark Jedi, possible a Gran, on the loose in the Tarthosian forests. Requesting immediate naval support to recon the area and locate the enemy’s position.”

Muz looked from Armak back to Forak. “Do you think that wise, Major?”

“While I am not familiar with the Tarthosian forests, my lord, were it on Sepros I would be making the same request.”

“I thought it was on Sepros?” responded Muz. “Haven’t the warnings been raised all across system?”

Major Forak glanced back at the tactical display. “No, my lord, the only reported sightings are from Tarthos.”

“Then why…” started Muz before shaking his head and dismissing the thought. “Either way it doesn’t matter. Lieutenant Armak,” he said turning back to the hologram, “you have my approval to begin conducting sweeps of the area.”

“Understood, my lord.”

PLEASE BEGIN POSTING BELOW.

"You all know why you're here."

The Great Hall of the Marka Ragnos Cathedral on Tarthos hummed with quiet chatter as Manji stood before them, fists on his hips as he glared down at his house. At that moment a few Apprentices slipped in at the back, nervously scurrying to their seats.

Growling quietly, Manji suddenly span round and smashed his fist against the marble throne standing behind him on the raised podium. Chips of marble span away, skittering across the floor in the sudden silence that filled the Hall. Turning back, the Archpriest gave his audience a twisted grin then began to speak.

"Better. Now, listen up. There has been an attack on our security forces by some kind of mysterious, ghostly figure with- apparently- three eyes. We don't know who it is, or why they're attacking CNS, but they're a danger."

Checking his datapad for the record of his earlier conversation with Muz, Manji sighed to himself. The Proconsul had sounded unsettled as he explained the attack that had taken place on Sepros- Muz being disturbed was unfamiliar, and had a tinge of disquiet about it.

Anyway, pushing the sensation away, Manji continued to address the crowd, his eyebrows contracted, the scars across his face and the sword guard covering his right eye a testament to the battles he had endured. This was just another battle as far as he was concerned.

"According to Muz, there have also been attacks on Sepros from what seemed to be a rogue Dark Jedi with three eyes- but that's not important to us right now. What is important is staying on guard until this threat is neutralised. All of you need to stay alert- at the moment Lieutenant Armak is conducting a series of searches of the Tarthosian jungle where we believe this figure has gone. Understood?"

A quiet chorus of assent was his answer and Manji nodded decisively.

"Right. Now get out of my sight."

As the crowd dispersed one figure strode towards the Archpriest, hand on the whip at her hilt. Shaking her hair back, Kat Pridemore, the newly appointed Aedile of the House, smiled reassuringly.

"Chill out, Manji. I'm sure the patrols will find whoever did this and extinguish him."

Glancing at her, Manji chuckled darkly. The Knight seemed permanently cheerful- in fact, he had seen her angry only once, and that had been the time when she had fought him to prove her skill in combat. Somehow, she provided a calm, positive yin to counter his vicious, aggressive yang.

With that kind of balance of leadership, how could one rogue Dark Jedi defeat them?

Another chuckle broke from Manjis throat as he stepped off the podium and moved off to check the defences, Kat walking calmly behind him.

KAP Nekura Manji Keibatsu/(QUA)/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow

Muz stamped around the bridge of the 'Fallen Spear' en route to Sepros. With Xanos on Antei to deal with some business, he would have to deal with this mess.

"Three eyes..." Muz grimaced. He knew of only two that could fit this description. And neither was good news in his black eyes. The lightning bothered the Proconsul as well. The elder powers of the Dark side were not yet within his own grasp, and the gulf of knowledge that seemed to seperate his understanding from those abilities frightened him.

Who knew what else this foe had to offer?

Sitting down into the captain's chair, Muz opened the frequency to Ludo Kressh space. "This is Ashen. Forkall, respond." He knew that the clan rollmaster was out running security details when he got too fed up with the endless paperwork of his job. He would prefer to have the sith backing him up, as his Guardsman was needed elsewhere for the time being.

"If you know yourself and know your enemy, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles." The old warlord axiom rang through his memory. He did not know the enemy.

He knew he had to ensure Sepros' security before he could retire to Tarthos to see what he could discern in the library of all this. Muz wanted to get it done, and try to get more knowledge, try to find out exactly what he was up against.

Xanos was due back in a few days, but the time between here and now seemed as if the galaxy could swallow him whole in that time. Staring at the void and distant suns, Muz found no solace in the inky night.

KE Muz Ashen Keibatsu (Krath)LHoJ-P:HRLD-PCON/Naga Sadow

Xhedias sat at his desk in his office on Sepros. Just hours ago he issued a warning to all of those in Naga Sadow. "Equites pair up, Knights triple and Journeymen get into a group of 5 or so. Saftey in numbers and I'm not writing up the papers for your funeral." Troopers came in every twenty minutes or so to ask him if he had seen anything, one more trooper just walked in.

"Sir, are you alright?"

"I'M FINE! NOW LEAVE ME BE!" The Battlemaster's voice roared, shooing the trooper away. Nearly instantly his comm unit began to beep at him. Growling at the constant distractions he picked it up and put it to his mouth.

"What now?"

"I'm enroute to Sepros, meet me in the docking bay, I have something that must be said in person."

"Alright, but I think this is a little overboard. The trooper that said he saw the ghost just got back from a battle nearby with the natives. He's just got that post distress symptom. There's nothign to worry about."

"You never were one for brains Forkall. How do you explain the 3rd degree electrical burns over 90% of his body?"

Grimacing at the comm unit he nodded and shut it off. Propping his cloak back up onto his shoulders he stood up from his leather chair and checked his waist for his saber. Nodding in approval he proceeded to the armoury. Clicking his boots along the corridor he passed many patrols that saluted him, not paying attention he stopped at the door and passed through the retinal scan.

"Welcome Rollmaster." The AI voice said to him.

The doors hissed open and not a second later the Sith bursted into the large room. Looking around he noticed a katana, a blaster, and a thermal detonator missing. A look of complete fear washed over the Equite's face. Snatching two thermals fromt he rack he placed them in his pouch and dashed out of the room and towards the bay. Putting the comm to his mouth, he attempted to contact the Major.

"MAJOR! Raise the alert level, SOMEHOW I think it's armed." Switching channels he then again attempted to contact Muz.

"MUZ! Get your arse here NOW!"

Whispering to himself as he ran down the hall way sent chills up his spine.

"I'm not the top predator on Sepros anymore, and this predator some how got into the armoury."


SBM Xhedias Forkall (Sith)/RM-RM-EP/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow [GMRG: G:OHC] [PA: DS] [ACC: GDR]

With a sigh, the Sith removed his flight helmet and headed for the cantina on the Sepros base.
He had just returned from a punishing assignment, having vaped several pirates who had been attempting to yet again hijack Bob's liquor ship. All of sapphire had participated, with Raidoner flying assault lead as Macron was a medicre pilot.

"Frelling idiots," he mumbled as he reminisced about the satisfying screams from the comm during the battle. "Not as good as killing them face to face slowly, but it was fun though." He had a habit of talking to himself, as not many people liked to visit him in his various laboratories. Being thoroughly insane didn't help either.

Macron walked with a clicking sound of his armored bootheels down the hall. The alarm had been sounded, and he very curious to see what the hell was going on. Xhedias was practically flying down the hall and nearly ran smack into the Knight with a snarl. "Watch it meathead!" he turned and realized it was Goura, and stopped for a second.

"So what's the fuss man?" asked Macron quizzically.

"You hear? Somebody robbed the blasted armory," Xhedias spat.

"No way... who the hell? Well, if you knew who they would be dead so I answered my own question, I suppose." The Commander chuckled at his own dumb gaff. "Ah crap... you don't suppose..." Macron got a worried look on his scarred face and ran at breakneck speed to his lab here on Sepros.

The door had been forced, and his lab was a mess. Various bits of equipment lay strewn everywhere, and his Silooth/Taozin DNA mutation cell culture was gone. That particular bit of engineering had kept him up many nights, and he was consumed with rage at the dissapearance. His notes had also been stolen. A strange smell of ozone permeated the air, and his guard droid looked to be slagged.

His comlink burped a message as he roared. "Macron, this is Muz. What's your situation?"

DJK Macron Mandalore Goura (Sith)/CMDR-EP-SWGN/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [KSOE: ENV] [ACC: CBT]
SC-SoA / StA-QL / DC-KC-O / Cr-4A-2S / CF / LSB / DSS-QK-QL / SI-SoW-SoL / S:-1R-7Al
{SA: U:TL - U:TW - G:LS - G:CM - G:LA - G:IRC - G:AIC - G:MED - K:CORE - K:GS - K:POET - K:RO - O:CORE - S:CORE - S:ISET - S:ESET - S:TAC}

Raistlin made his way through the ship corridors of the Frigate Foresight still half asleep. He was operating on someone else's schedule and he was tired, switching time zones and hyper-jumping wore on someone, even those who could recharge their spiritual batteries with relative ease, such as the Jedi. He rubbed his eyes before punching in a number of buttons and entering the turbolift. A set of 3 untrained Jedi, only one of which he recognized, entered. As a matter of fact, that was the whole reason he was here....

Raist had been called back to the Orian System after being sent on a top secret mission with the Foreisght. As the Janthiri pirates went, so did the Orian Run, muscling several of the other, small criminal and political entitieis that claimed dominion to the small sector run of space protection money. For months Raist had been infiltrating the mercenary organization, escaping a little over two months ago only to return with command of a portion of the Khar Shian. He had been privateering in the Run, shutting down convoys and hijacking merhcnats or entities related or dealing with the Janthiri Overclan, even now the holds of the Frigate were filled. He was not happy to be back, on some kind of witch hunt for which no one knew what was going on.

But he knew why Goatham had called for a temporary ceasefire and an immediate recall to Orian, before leaving. If there was someone who was trying to get into CNS's secrets, it did have much to hide. For a long while since entering the system, Naga Sadow had been biding its time, slowly working to seize total control of the limitless dominion surrounding them. Big plans were already set in motion and if someone from the outside, such as another clan was trying to disrupt their plans... welll.... there would be a full-scale war.

He entered the bridge and was immediately saluted by all on deck, Captain Brinkman included.

"At ease captain." Raist said, moving to a chair made for him before sitting down.

"Any news?" Raist asked.

"Simply that there are still reports of the murderer at large. The guard have declared martial law on Tarthos, which is where Proconsul Ashen has requested your services." brinkman noted.

"When did the order come through?" Raist asked

"While you were asleep. He didn't want to bother you, as he was informed of your 6 hours of sleep in the past 6 days. I didn't feel it prudent enough to wake you, and besides, we were hours away from Orian anyway." Brinkman said, smilig back at him.

"Appreciated. Definately. Have my ship ready within the hour. With luck, we'll be back to take it to the Janthiri in no time. And..... I get dibs on anything that turns up interesting from those convoys." he flashed a smile befores standing up.

--------

It was bright day on Tarthos, midway through the summer season on the world as Raist piloted his ship down into the hangar bay for which he was assigned. The heat was stifling, made worse by the fact that the internal air cooler was not operating properly onboard the Enforcer.

He hit the ramp easy, and with a few clicks of his thruster jets, was nestled in securely. Grabbing a few necessary items he strolled off the ship as a welcoming party around him bowed low.

"Raistlin, you honor us with your prescence." Quaestor Manji said reaching out a hand to him which Raist clasped warmly.

"Manji, always a pleasure dude."

"I have briefed Marka Ragnos on the situation, we are sticking tight together. I don't understand why Muz sent you out this way, when he should be equally as worried about Ludo Kressh, no?" Manji asked as the two men began to walk, entourage behind them.

"If whoever is up to this is after military secrets, yes. But there's a lot of places they could strike and do us damage. I don't think the situation is cause for major concern, but I want to make *sure* they don't take the Library, as does Muz. Of all the secrets we possess, the library is the best held." Raist said pausing for a second

"In any case, it will come to fruition soon, whether here or elsewhere. And they will be dealt with the same as we always have, with ruthless efficiency." Raist said, smiling as he made his point.

"I agree, they won't be able to deal with us full strength, for we grow stronger daily. Come Raist, Aedile Pridemore said she wished to see you, and I wont keep her waiting. Besides, some of the new house recruits are dying to meet you as well." Manji said, supressing a chuckle as the two men exited the hangar.

Callus still hadn't got settled in very well in his new surroundings in Clan Naga Sadow partially because this was the first time in quite awhile that he wasn't going to be holding a position in his clan. It could be because he had left his last clan in less than an honorable way. He had finally found his quarters on the asteroid base where for some reason he had been assigned and tossed his now grey TIE Corps duffle bag onto the bunk and went to relive himself after the long trip out to the Dentavii Belt.
An alarm went off just as he was zipping his fly up and he was amazed that something was going to happen on this backwater base as he gathered his saber and two punch daggers and slid them in sheathes on his wrists. He stepped out in the hall as people were rushing toward a gathering crowd Callus turned away and headed for the security center.

When he reached the security center the guards wouldn’t let him in. “What! Let me in now! Do you know who I am?” He fumed at one of the guards who gave him a blank stare as he remembered that he wasn’t anyone in this new clan and didn’t have any of the pull that he did when he held a position, this, he thought was going to be a problem.

He turned back to where the crowd was asked what was going on.

“Looks like somones been killed.” Said an Acolyte.

Callus shook his head and went back to his small quarters where a message was waiting for him from the Rollmaster of House Marka Ragnos, Xhedias.

Callus,
It has been a long while since we’ve been able to be clanmates unfortunately you’ve come at a very awkward time for us what with these killings and all. If I remember correctly you’re pretty handy in a fight and we could use your help on our end. I know that you’re currently on Dentavii and that is where one of the killings occurred so I want you to take pictures of the body and bring them to me on Sepros. We’re going to need all of the help we can get if we want to get this guy.
Xhedias

“Great now I have to go someplace else.” Callus said and made his way to the hanger and into his Z-95 that was launched shortly there after for Sepros.

The shuttle left hyperspace and Malisane checked the system map, before turning the shuttle towards the planet and boosting the thrusters to maximum. He was in a good mood. A nice simple retreival mssion was now behind him and after a quick report to Xhedias he was looking forward to a few hours in the training simulators and a decent meal in the base's mess.

He entered the atmosphere and flew smoothly down to the Sephros Base and having recieved his clearance guided the craft into the hangar and docked. He gathered his possessions and walked down the ramp. He sensed something was wrong and noticed the base seemed to be on higher alert than normal, larger patrols and security guarding every door. He sought out a familar face. Heading down the corridor he saw Macron in the doorway of the armoury speaking into his communicator.

The dark jedi knight turned and recognised his most recent flight member. "One moment please Muz," he said into the communicator, "Malisane where the hell have you been you missed the briefings?"
Malisane saluted. "I've been on an information retrieval mission for Xhedias on Bespin. What's happening Commander?"

"We are trying to establish that at the moment." Macron replied, "There's reports of our security staff having been attacked by a suspected force user and as you can see the base armoury has been ransacked. Xhedias has issued orders that those of you holding journeyman rank stay in groups of five or more for your own safety. You had better find the rest of Sapphire Squadron and stay with them till you receive further orders."
Malisane nodded. "I need to report to Xhedias first then I'll join them Commander." He saluted again and hurried off.
Macron continued his conversation. "Sorry Muz carry on."

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Xhedias' cloak flapped in the wind that he was creating striding down the hall towards the docking bay. His student only about a hundred meters struggled to catch up with him. Finally finding him in the bay, he saw his Master pointing and screaming into directions, ordering the gaurds to "move their lazy arses." Walking up behind his master Malisane cleared his throat to get the attention of his Master. Spinning around he met his Apprentice with a grim looking face.

"Master, I have news from Bespin. The traders are planning on moving the gas in eight days."

"Good, we need that to power various things. Very good Malisane, no doubt hacking the computers wasn't easy. Your success has been noted, I take it that Macron wants you to say with Sappire?"

"Yes Master."

"Good, get to it." Malisane bowed his head respectively and turned his body, moving away fromt the docking bay.

The level of HLK presence was getting to be a bit irking. Xhedias wondered when a fewllow member of HMR would show up. Already contacting Callus and giving him an assignment would keep him busy and his mind focused after the depature of his last clan. With Voort killing the Acolyte things were sure to get messy, it was inevitable. He needed the guidance from his father-figure, Muz would be here soon.

SBM Xhedias Forkall (Sith)/RM-RM-EP/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow [GMRG: G:OHC] [PA: DS] [ACC: GDR]

Callus' ship landed on sepros and he climbed out carrying his data pad with the images of the killings that he had transmitted to him en route to Sepros. When he had left the hanger the hallway was bustling and it seemed that no one was paying him any attention and that suited him just fine. It was alot better than having people whining at him all the time.

This was his first time on sepros so he was greatful when he saw Xhedias standing in a doorway a bit down the hall way. He strode up behind him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Xhed it has been a long time." Callus said cooly as Xhedias spun around.

"Callus, am I glad to see you," Xhedias said exchanging the gesture. "I see that time has been good to you. Not to worse for wear."

"You'd better be glad too. I have a bad feeling about this incedent."

"You don't know the half of it..."

Revenant, like the rest of Sapphire Squadron, had just returned to Sepros from a mission. Now that Bob's booze was safe he had been looking forward to some rest and recuperation. With these killings and the base on such a high level of alert that didn't look likely. Oh well, the quicker they got this sorted the quicker he could sleep. Right now, however, he had been instructed to wait with the rest of his squadron for an update from Commander Macron.

Shadows erupted from the walls, their tendrils dripping forth and dragging acolytes to the walls. The screams echoed through the hall as the tenebrous tentacles slammed them into the durosteel over and over with sickening noise.

Muz reached into the force, feeling, hoping, trying to sense... And found nothing. The Force yielded no secrets to the Epis today. Muz watched in horror as the journeymen were battered into puddles of gristle and crushed sinew, his violet sabre casting an eerie glow on his futility.

Kill.

Muz shook his head, trying to chase the voice out. The inner demons of dementia had ridden with Ashen snce before he joined the Brotherhood, but their volume, their severity had increased as he moved further down the path of darkness.

Destroy them. Choke them on their own entrails. The sweet sound of evisceration...

Muz snarled, his eyes becoming narrow slits of pitch as he threw himself at the suffering with abandon. The purple arc severed young Malisane's torso as the shadow wrapped around his throat, the blood of the journeyman mingling with the shade. The Nagamichi slid from the hilt at his side, swinging wide at Daniel as the tendrils wrapped around his legs, dragging him to the floor.

Muz's mind screamed as he watched the carnage at his own hands, unable to stop, unable to interfere. The voice had seized control.

Get out! You are not me. Muz willed the words through his mouth, shouting at the voice ascendant.

Dull laughing filled his ears, the baritone malignance inflamming the Equite's rage.

You are not me. I just made you up to hurt myself.

The door at the end of the hall slid open, and the shadows stilled. The thick warrior frame of the Gamorrean stepped through, a wide grin on his porcine face.

And it worked.

The shadows slid toward the Knight, congealing at his feet and sliding behind him. He stepped forward, his sabre illuminating the battered and bruised as he cauterized their suffering with swift strokes. Muz felt his body sidestep, and saw beyond the Obelisk. The shadow behind him had a face. The crown eye, the thrice...

Muz felt something inside shift, began to feel the breeze on his skin again. Hefting his sabre, Muz flung forward, his blade cursing the darkness with it's violet light.

The face grinned, smashing forward with blackened arcs of electricity, throwing Muz back onto his own shadow. The pit became deeper, and Muz fell beneath the floor, his eyes locking on the beast. It had a leash... Falling further into his own shadow, muz steeled himself for a landing that never would come.

Muz sat up with a shock, sweat moistening his brow as he looked out through the window of the Fallen Spear.

Remember.

"Muz, this is Xhedias, we need you down here, and in a hurry..."

--KE Muz Ashen Keibatsu (Krath)/LHoJ-P:HRLD-PCON/Naga Sadow

Raven looked at his hands, then felt his head. He had just done somthing he had never done before. Panicked. He had never felt someone so powerful erupt with so much emotion before. Raven's keen sense of emotions had gone haywire as something he could not define had gone on in someones head. He decided to contact his master, Manji about it, but for now, he needed to find a partner before anyone caught him, as he was usually solitary.

He walked straight into Kat, the newly appointed Aedile.

"No partner, eh?" she observed.

"Looking for one. Are you headed to see Manji? I need to see him soon."

"Actualy, I was."

"Mind if I tag along?"

"Not at all, if you can keep up." She grinned.

When Kat left Manji's office, Raven was permitted to enter. He greeted his master with a bow.

"Master."

The Quesator went straight to the point.

"You came to ask something?"

"Yes, I was recently walking throught the corridors, and I felt a surge of emotion, though I can't place what emotion it was. It was plenty more than enough to overload my Senses and affect me physically. I thought it best to cantact you directly."

"And you were right to. I, too, felt something not too long ago, though your emotion sense is quite powerful, so it may have been amplified to you. However, your added information is enough to make me consider contacting the Proconsul. You are dismissed."

"As you wish, Master," And Raven left the room. He went directly to his quarters and began to meditate on the previous events.

(Dossier #4183)
GRD Raven (Krath)/TYR/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow [ACC: SKR]
DC / Cr-1S / CF-BlF / LSB / S:-2Al
{SA: U:TL - U:TW - G:IRC - G:AIC}

Malisane sat in the briefing room sipping a cup of black coffee from the dispensor. It was foul but somehow warm and reassuring. He was worried by what Macron had told him. He had the idea fixed in his mind that the Brotherhood and Clan Naga Sadow were untouchable, and his belief was shaken a little. They were under attack and neither his Master nor his Commander seemed to have any better idea of what was going on than he had.

The door suddenly slid open and he went for his sword, before relaxing as Revenant entered and looked around the room. “No one else here?” he asked in surprise.
Malisane shook his head. “No, saw Macron half an hour ago outside the armoury, not seen the rest of the Squadron. Haven’t been back more than an hour though.”
Revenant nodded. “So any idea what’s been going on around here?”
“Well as far as I can make out someone or something has attacked and ravaged the armoury. Macron was investigating it didn’t have long to speak to him he was trying to get hold of Muz.”

Revenant considered this. “So we don’t know what’s happening?”
Malisane sighed. “No,” he replied, “and what’s worrying me is that the Clan leaders don’t seem to know either.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Revenant asked.
Malisane shrugged. “Well I’m drinking this coffee unless you can think of a more interesting idea?”


PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

The door hissed open as Macron entered with a scowl on his face. "Coffee? At a time like this?"

He looked over the two Sith as they tensed. "And you didn't even make me a cup," he chuckled as they relaxed. "Hot, black, and oily baby just like I dig it."

The two smiled in relief. It was only his usual warped sense of humor again.
Revenant nodded and poured, and Maliasane grabbed another lawn chair for the Commander.

The Knight spoke as he sat down."Here's what we do. We find the bastard, and kill him. Even a powerful person can be killed in certain ways. Things like a no-suit space eject, large explosives, or a dip in a vat of acid will do it." He looked quite excited at the prospect. He had never stalked quarry this powerful before.

"So what did you find at the Armory?" asked Malisane.

"Not much. No fingerprints, no DNA that wasn't cooked by the lightning. For all we know, it could be an alien with neither. But I did find this." He placed a datapad on the table.

"Floor pressure monitor reading. We are dealing with a being that walks, at least and probably weighs around 95 Kg. Now here is what we do next..."

Macron's plan was sound. The three of them would head west of the armoury. West seemd the most logical direction since that was where most of the incident reports after the break in at the armoury were coming from. They would take an electro-stun net and motion sensors. Any form of energy weapon used in the net's field would cause a feedback loop and knock the target out for hours. It seemed to be moving towards the library, so that was where they would go.

As Raven stepped out of the office, Manji sank back on his haunches, feet tucked beneath him. For once, the warm, minimalistic surroundings of his office failed to soothe him- usually he could rely upon them to remind him of his homeland, and calm him down.

This time, he could still feel a lingering scream in his head from that strange surge of emotion. And like the Guardian, he had no idea what it pertained to. At the moment all he could think of was a memory from the past, long ago.

'You sense a ‘disturbance in the force’? I thought I might have broken one of the bottles in there…like thousands of alcohol particles screaming, then suddenly silenced…'

With a sudden chuckle, Manji shook his head and snapped out of his gloomy reverie. It didn't matter what the explanation for all these incidents was- as long as he and Muz fought side-by-side, nothing could stop them. And with the Keibatsu family steadily growing within the halls of Naga Sadow, time would see them regaining their rightful position as overlords.

At that moment, a buzz of static announced the voice of Muz.

"Manji? Get your backside down to the hangar bay, we need to talk. Xhed- or should I say Shimura- is here already."

Pushing himself up, Manji picked his daisho up from the sword stand in an alcove at the side of the room and pushed the two swords through his belt as he spoke.

"Affirmative. See you there, bro."

Sliding the door open with one hand, Manji left it open as he hurried through the halls of the Cathedral, heading for the hangar.

---

"So, what do you think we should do?"

The newly-christened warrior of the Keibatsu risked a glance up at the eyes of his companion. Jet-black, they gave Muz a menacing air even when he was amused. Stroking his goatee, Muz stared blankly ahead as he bent his mind to the problem. Suddenly he glanced over, hearing footsteps.

"Hey, Manji. Good to see you, bro."

Stopping next to them, the Archpriest grinned cheerfully.

"Good to see you too, Muz, Shimura."

As they nodded acknowledgement, the Archpriest continued.

"I meant to ask, bro- something strange happened an hour or so ago. Raven and myself both felt a huge surge of emotion in the Force- something powerful. Other people probably sensed it too, but... have you got any idea what it was?"

A shadow passed over the Epis' face as he spoke.

"Yes. It was me."

KAP Nekura Manji Keibatsu (Krath)/QUA/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow

The three Sith slowly and quietly moved along the passageways, Revanant studying his motion scanner and silently indicating this way or that when they reached a junction. Whatever it was, it was still heading for the library.

Malisane took the rear, following the other two with the net over his shoulder and his free hand hovering near the hilt of his katana. Like Macron the idea of taking on a powerful unknown creature, especially here with his Squadron comrades, filled him with excitement. The concern he had felt earlier was gone now. Whatever faced them was no match for the combined might and interlect of the three.

They reached the library door. which had been ripped open. The lights were off inside and the smashed switch showered sparks in the darkness. Macron glanced at Revenant who nodded. "It's in there."
The commander smiled. "We have it confined. We have no need of assistance we will capture it and drag it before the Clan Summit for the glory of Sapphire Squadron."
Malisane looked into the darkness. "Commander if you don't mind I suggest we do not just charge into there. The thing could be hiding anywhere and it may be able to sense us first."
Macron nodded. "I concur. What have you in mind?"
"I suggest we lure it out," the young flight member replied, "bait a trap and then spring it with the net before it knows what is happening."
Macron considered this, liking the simplicity. "What do you suggest as bait Malisane?"
"Well it was my idea and I have trust in the speed and reactions of both of you." Malisane replied.

Macron glanced at Revanant, to see the older flight members eyes gleaming in approval. It was risky, would require split second timing and if it went wrong it would put the young Sith in danger. But if it worked it would be a quick and decisive victory. He had faith in his team.
"We will do it." he declared.

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Muz glared at the marred underside of the Fallen Spear, the scuff and scorchmarks from the mission on Dromuund Kaas. Scratching at his chin, he thought for a moment. "Shimura, I want you to go back to Sepros."

"Sepros?" Xhedias's eyebrow went up in curiosity. He had figured that Muz would have wanted to consolidate his power base, rather than distribute it.

"Sepros." Muz nodded. "Bring Sanjuro here. I don't want my son falling under the sabre, and tensions are high as it is." Xhedias nodded, turning on his heel to get aboard his TIE. "And Xhed..."

Xhedias spun, looking at the Proconsul.

"Be careful. Beowulf, Dessan, Zacfer... all excellent saberists. And I have heard that Blade has returned."

Xhedias chuckled nervously. Beowulf was one of the best saberists in the Brotherhood, and his return to Sadow had been seen as almost prophetic. He would have to be careful indeed.

As the TIE scrambled from the Tarthos hangar, Muz snarled. "What's wrong, Muz?" Manji swung his gaze at his brother.

"I forgot to warn him."

"About who?" Manji's forehead creased in question, the tsuba 'eyepatch' moving slightly.

"Macron." Muz swore under his breath. "My guardsman would be watching over my son until my return."

Manji chuckled quietly. "Macron is but a knight..."

"And my Black Guardsman, brother, and has been under my tutelage in the arts for a long time." Muz's hand rested uneasily on the hilt of the Nagamichi.

"Certainly Xhedias..." Realization swept across Manji's face and froze his words into a soundless curse.

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

The shadow snarled at Malisane, the wide toothy maw of the beast scorching into the Journeyman's memory as it faded from view.

"What the frell was that?" Malisane stuttered.

"Son of a Chiss...This must be an elder... Nothing else could have expected..." Macron's voice was interrupted by the alarm built into the Black Guard Armor he wore. Examining it briefly, Macron spun on his heel, anxiously stepping back toward his quarters.

"Macron?"

"You guys get back to the cantina, on the double. I have some dire business to attend to."

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

"I am here under the orders of Muz Ashen Keibatsu, Proconsul to this clan, and your Liege, Macron. Stand aside and release the boy." Xhedias held the saber loosely in his hand, his finger on the activation switch.

"Lies." Macron spat the word as if it were venom. "How do I know that you do not still carry the Entar worm in your body, Forkall?"

Xhedias swore, his teeth gnashing at the implications. "You will release my kin, or you shall choke upon your own cries, young Mandalore."

Macron laughed, throwing back a vial of swirling green liquid. "Your violence has betrayed you, Entar."

"I AM NO ENTAR!" Shimura bellowed, the crimson blade of his sabre filling the hall with the color of rage.

"I just will have to check your corpse for the disease maggot myself, then." Macron smiled as the concoction seethed through his veins, the formulae enhancing his skill, his speed. He merely needed to hold the Zabrak back until Raidoner arrived. His sabre splashed forward, igniting in a fluid movement. The student of Manji and Muz both, as well as an adherent of ancient Sith traditions, Macron was a far deadlier opponent than his rank implied.

Shimura's eyes narrowed, his blade spinning back to the 'no-form' of Vapaad. "I am not leaving here without my cousin."

"You're not leaving here at all, Betrayer."

Shimura stood before Macron, the tendons in his arm and the veins in his head standing out, his muscles flexing to the point of ripping. His body tensed up into a rigid network of hardened muscles until suddenly he was relaxed. The angered facial expression of the Zabrak died out into a emotionless look.

Quickly striking out at the young Knight, it was taught to him while he dabbled in the art of Vapaad but the Knight was also taught in the art of defense. Usually not a big user of the Force Shimura let the Force guide his body as if it were his own. Lunging attack after attacking pressing the Knight back to his heels.

The energy drained out of the Battlemaster as he came back to his senses, dropping out of the form of Vapaad and stood slightly of course from his opponent. Reversing the grip on his blade he let it point at the floor and the razor point at his opponent.

"I was a Black Gaurd too, don't you remember?"

"Quiet Entar, you have no room to talk."

"Oh? I don't? While you were in your lab playing with your projects, Bob was teaching me all these wonderful forms. I'm sure Raidoner would love to take the position of Commander, but that isn't my goal, yet. I will be taking my cousin, whether I have to pry the keys from your saber wounded body." Shimura smirked a bit as he knew he had the upper hand in the situation.


SBM Shimura "Xhedias" Keibatsu (Sith)/RM-RM-EP/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow [GMRG: G:OHC] [PA: DS] [ACC: GDR]

"Damn you, Shimura." Of course, the Battlemaster had the upper hand. Only the fact
that Macron was a devotee of the ancient Makashi style had saved him, as well as that concoction he had slugged. His dance with the blade had been one of timing, and conserved motions. It would do no good to try to offer a strong face before the Zabrak. Only a blade of bamboo could stand before that storm, not a strong and haughty oak.

And the drug was wearing off. This made him a bit fearful, but he would look Death in the eye and spit in his empty eyesockets. Macron feared very little, and Death was not on the List.
But Muz certainly was.

Just then, Muz's voice came through the armor comlink. "Let the boy go- he is needed."

"Ah crap," Macron spat. "Some other time then, my friend." The Sith knight deactivated his blade
with a snap, and showed his filed pointy teeth to the Rollmaster. Xhedias would have had him dead to rights had the battle continued, but he had survived. That spoke well for him.

Shimura glared at the Knight and walked towards him, deactivating his saber and putting it to his belt. Standing before the "Mandalore" he struck him in the stomach with a closed fist. Not seeing the blow coming Macron doubled over wheezing for air. Taking the keycard from his belt the elder Sith put his hand on his shoulder and pushed the younger one to his back.

"Next time you won't be as lucky."

Still gasping for air, Shimura smirked and unlocked the sliding door and poked his head in. A fairly kept room, with many drawings from his father, Muz. He noticed that Sanjuro was sitting in the corner, obviously overhearing the conflict that was happening outside his door.

"It's time to go, your father requests your presence."

The first time he had actually seen his cousin in person, he noted the Zabrak qualities in him. He also noted the distinct Zabrak bloodline within the Keibatsu family.

"Ok, lemme grab my sword."

Shimura allowed him to do so and eyed the Sith as he walked out, who was now sitting up on his own getting assistance from his flight leader, Raidoner.

"We will be taking my new ship back to Tarthos. It's a slightly modified KSE Firespray, "Clotted Wound" is waiting."

Shimura and Sanjuro walked down the hall towards the docking bay. A fire was beginning to brew, starting with the sparks of a hot headed young Zabrak and a clumsy Gamorrean.


SBM Shimura "Xhedias" Keibatsu (Sith)/RM-RM-EP/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow [GMRG: G:OHC] [PA: DS] [ACC: GDR]

"I lost a good member last night, ProConsul, and you have done nothing. Has Zorrixor's bias made you forget your roots?" Pridemore snarled through the commlink at her master. "If he is not to be punished, I must know why, lest my other acolytes worry themselves to death in fear."

"Kat, I'll remind you to watch your tongue. Second, It bears noting that the acolyte had been in direct violation of the rule of pairs." Muz sighed as he noticed the commlink alert from Daragon. Pressing a button, Robert's face illuminated half of the viewscreen.

"What the hell, Ashen? You send your little lackeys to pound one of my best men, you kidnap another, and you keep Raistlin at your whim. I demand you tell me what is going on."

"Robert, I am sure Xanos will..." Muz started to speak, but was interrupted by the drunken Sith's infuriated ramblings.

"Is that Manji next to you?" The eyes squinted further. "I knew it...I just knew that you would favor your brother in all of this. Well, Nekura...If it is war you seek..."

"War We seek?" Kat's voice played over the intercomm in response. "You drunken, slovenly fool! It was your bacon-faced knight who stated this whole mess!"

"Hold!" Muz bellowed. "Must I remind you all that we have a common foe here?"

"A common foe?" Bob laughed sardonically. "Don't try to calm my blood, Keibatsu [Expletive Deleted]. I see your plans. And I shall not let the Sword of Kressh tarnish with the taint of a Krath." Bob spat on the viewscreen, his visage flashing off immediately.

"Common foe indeed." Kat snarled. "I will show you the 'taint of the Krath'..."

"Kat, you are ordered to not engage any memb..." Muz's voice stilled as his former student's image vanished from the screen.

"Frell."

Malisane sat in the cantina nursing something stronger than coffee. He was getting slowly drunker. He felt like his world had collapsed. The news of the fight between his Master and his Commander had hit him like a falling rancor.

He took a long swig of his drink and studied the bottom of the glass, before pouring another. He didn't quite know what to believe anymore.

He had watched out of the viewport as Xhedias left in his ship in puzzlement then a growing sense of realisation. After they'd been told the news and Revenant had gone to check how Macron was, the young Sith he had started on the drink. Maybe unconsiousness would be a good idea at this point? He took another swig.

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Breaking the silence with his usual brand of flippant humour, Manji chuckled quietly.

"Well, things have gotten interesting."

Turning away, the Archpriest moved for the door. Turning, Muz glared at his brother.

"Where are you going?"

Turning back slightly, Manji lifted his chin and fixed Muz with a proud stare. His right hand rested lightly on the hilt of his Kunisada blade, and in that moment, Muz saw clearly the strength of the Keibatsu flowing through his brother's veins.

"He wants war- and war he shall have."

Turning, Muz exploded in a fit of rage.

"NO! This is just what our mysterious assailant wants- the Clan divided, tearing itself apart!! You will issue the order for no member of Marka Ragnos to engage a member of Ludo Kressh- right now!"

For a moment Manji stared at his brother, the tension crackling in the air between them. Then he flashed a grin and sank back into his usual lazy slouch, letting the tension pass. For the Archpriest, familial ties and the ties of friendship were too strong to be broken so easily.

"As usual, you make perfect sense. I'll find Kat and tell her to calm down and think rationally about this."

As Muz straightened up, breathing out heavily and running a hand over his face, Manji shrugged mildly.

"Besides, it's only one Acolyte. Not a huge loss."

Looking up, Muz shook his head slowly.

"That's not the problem, Manji- the problem is this age-old rivalry between the orders. You heard Bob's comment about the Sword of Kressh... despite our opening both Houses to members of any Order, the old rivalries still remain."

Slowly, Manji nodded, then turned away. As he reached the door of the office, the Archpriest glanced back at his exhausted, dark-eyed sibling.

"Let's try and keep the lid on this s**tstorm, shall we? However... if one of my people is attacked, I reserve the right to do some serious damage to the attackers chance of having children."

A snort of laughter came from Muz even as he shook his head slowly. Grinning, Manji brought his hand up in a thumbs-up then moved out of the room, kimono flapping about him as he walked away.

---

"Kat, listen to me-"

"I will NOT take that drunken, bloated, mindless fool insulting me and my Order! If he threatens the Krath, he will pay the price!"

Suddenly, tired of trying to talk sense into the raging Aedile, Manji brought his hand across and smacked the Knight across the face. As she reeled then caught herself, hate-filled gaze coming up to meet the steely eyes of the Archpriest, Manji spoke again.

"Listen to me. Our job is to keep things calm. How on earth are we supposed to deal with this unseen killer if the Clan is tearing itself apart once again? That invasion of the Consciousness was bad enough, I don't want it happening again. You're capable of thinking logically- think about this. This... thing wants us divided and running. I will not let that happen."

For a moment the Aedile stared blisteringly at Manji- he could almost feel his skin melting off from the heat of her stare. Then she turned, hair whirling around behind her as she strode away. Grimacing, Manji smacked the back of his head and began to rub his neck as he stared after her.

"Damn. That could have been handled better."

KAP Nekura Manji Keibatsu (Krath)/QUA/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow

He walked past Kat in the hallway who was obviously mad over something, shouting could be heard in the room before he saw her.

“What about the Sword of Kressh?” Shimura asked as Sanjuro ran over to his father. Muz looked up to him after hugging his son and began to speak.

“Bob stated that no Krath would be holding the Sword of Kressh.”

“Wonderful! I’ve got just the thing.” The Sith said as his glance changed from Muz, then to Manji. “I will take it, and it deserves Bob right for adding to this.”

“Shimura, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Muz said as he pulled his long brown hair back.

“I don’t? From what I’ve heard Bob took a stab my house.”

“MY house.” Manji said, correcting his cousin.

“Yes, your house, my home. I will let no such thing happen.”

“You’re as much in the middle as I am in this.” Muz said to the newly found family member.

“I really don’t think I am. I protect my home first, my job second. Before I was Rollmaster I was a Commander.” The Sith said as he crossed his arms.

“There will be no war.” Manji said, unsure if it was true or not.

“We will see.” Shimura said as he briskly walked down the hall to find Kat.

“DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID!” Manji yelled at him as he stuck his out of the doorway.

Malisane sat in the cantina, now very drunk. Betrayal that's what it was! How could Xhedias do that to him? He'd been loyal, he'd served well. He wanted a ***** explanation, he wanted answers and Xhedias was going to give them to him!
He got to his feet holding onto the metal table. He grasped his katana and shoved it into the scabbard, after the third attempt of fumbling. He wandered over to the door and out into the corridor.

He lurched down towards the hangar, rubbing his eyes trying to clear his vision. On the flight deck the Sergeant recognised the flight member. "Are you alright sir?" he asked.
Malisane nodded. "I need my fighter now."
The sergeant shook his head. "I'm sorry sir all the Sapphire fighters are having a software upgrade."
Malisane looked around the hangar. "The rolemaster didn't take his old shuttle where is it?"
The sergeant replied. "It's here sir, but you can't take it. Commander Macron has ordered a ban on leaving the base until further notice."
Malisane tried to step around him and the sergeant blocked his way. "I cannot let you leave sir." he said placing a hand on the Sith's chest.
Malisane regarded the man through the haze and brought his fist around in a wide arch and smashed it into the side of the NCO's head with a crunch. The man fell to the hangar floor.

Malisane stepped over him and walked up to the shuttle and up the ramp. He slumped into the pilots chair and shook his head before slowly entering the launch sequence. The engines began to power up and the shuttle lurched up into the air, slowly turning as Malisane clumsily guided the controls. Alarms started ringing through the hangar.
The communicator burst into life. "This is docking control you do not have clearance return to the flight deck."
The young Sith ignored this, struggling with the controls in his drunken stage throttling the craft forwards towards the closed spacedoors.
"This is docking control again the spacedoors are closed you cannot leave the hangar. You must land."
Malisane laughed, this was Xhedias' old ship and the rolemaster had programmed a few surprises into it and his apprentice knew them. He keyed in a sequence and with a creaking sound the spacedoors slowly began to open and more alarms went off as the hangar depresurised. He grinned drunkenly and increased the throttle speed towards the doors.

"Malisane this is Macron," a familiar voice filled the cockpit, "don't be a damn fool land that shuttle immediatley that's an order"
"I'm, I'm sorry Commander, need answers." he muttered back.
"What are you talking about?" Macron demanded, "land that shuttle now."
"Sorry, can't," he slurred staring at the opening doors growing closer, " left, me, have to know, why?"
"Malisane for.." The young jedi switched it off cutting out the voice.

He increased the throttle to full and the shuttle leapt forward. He struggled the contols and misjudged glancing the shuttle off the doors with a horrendous crash and bounced out. He managed to climb up out of the atmosphere leaving the base behind. Tarthos, that's where his master would be, stood to reason. He programmed the course into the autopilot and the shuttle entered hyperspace.

Back in the base Macron stood in the command room. "Track his course." he ordered.
"He's entered hyperspace sir." one of the flight crew responded."
"What heading?" Macron demanded having a horrendous premonition.
"Tarthos sir." came back the unnessary reply.
Macron staggered back. "If he lands on Tarthos in that state at the moment who know's what they'll do to him? Scramble every fighter available on intercept course. Tell them to shoot him down if they have to."
"We can't sir he hit the spacedoors on the way out they've shut and jammed. Repair crews estimate two hours minimum before they can open them and launch."
Macron slumped back into a chair. "Malisane you fool!"


PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Raven leaned back in his chair and looked around his quarters. Bored. Not one assignment from any of "the powers that be." That usually ment something was up. He wondered if he should go to the Krath archives and research this 'thing' that had the Clan in such dissaray. He had heard that the entire Keibetsu family was here.

Raven reached over and unsheathed his katana. He pointed it towards the ceiling. He had studied the anceint philosophies of bushido, but he was no master. Only a master with a sword. He thought it would be neat to be a Keibetsu, having your entire Dark Jedi family together. He put the sword away, back on its stand with the wakizashi and tanto. Dreams that would never come true. They were useless thoughts.

He felt fluctuations in the force. Anger no doubt. It was strong. That might explain why everything had slowed down. Somebody "up there" was having an argument.

Raven's computer bleeped. He looked at the new message:

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE HOUSE MARKA RAGNOS QUESATOR

THERE SHALL BE NO ENGAGMENTS BETWEEN THIS HOUSE AND HOUSE LUDO KRESSH.
ANY VIOLATORS WILL BE SEVERLY DISIPLINED.

"Hmm. Pretty direct," Raven whispered to himself. "Something is wrong."

He strapped his katana to his belt and opened a comm shannel to Lech.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You have any idea what just happened?"

Bob, the Ludo Kressh Quesator, just insulted the Krath and House Marka Ragnos and Voort just killed one of our Acolytes."

"Your kidding."

"No."

"Damn those filthy worms. How dare they!"

"Cool down, Manji'll take care of it. I hope. I haven't gotten anything from him lately either, so i think we are all bored."

"I think I'll just run through some saber training sims."

Raven cut the channel and turned the training holoprojecter on and inserted the Shein training chip. He picked up the two training sabers provided. He turned up the skill level on the holoprojector, In hopes it would become more interesting.

(Dossier #4183)
GRD Raven (Krath)/TYR/Marka Ragnos of Naga Sadow [ACC: SKR]
DC / Cr-1S / CF-BlF / LSB / S:-2Al
{SA: U:TL - U:TW - G:IRC - G:AIC}

Kat was furious... she blindly walked through the halls, muttering under her breath and cursing out Manji and Muz Ashen. Those two... they were going to be the death of her. And this THING that was out there... killing her people.. that was just too much.

Pulling out her whip, she twitched it, venting some of the fury that the situation created. Growling low under her breath, she headed to her office to prepare.

"I understand we have some heads to roll." A casual voice that seemed too relaxed for the anger twitching on his face. Shimura... better known by her as Xhedias leaned against the Aedile's doorway.

Keeping her voice level, but the green eyes still shone with anger. She wasn't certain what side this member of the Keibatsu was on... and she was beginning to question her own roll in the drama. But there wasn't time to consider that yet... she had a house to prepare and protect, with whatever means necessary.

"At this moment, there are quite a few that I would love to see rolling," her growl emphasized the point, "but I'm not certain which we should focus on first. Although you would love to hate Macron, I personally have a good relationship with him... and Bob and I get along very well... something has changed, and I don't know what it is. That worries me."

Kat's concern seemed to wash over her face.

"I'm furious, and once this thing is resolved, Bob will not know what hit him... and Manji deserves a kick or two as well... but I need to know what's really going on. Want to help Xhed? Or Shimura, I suppose."

Her grin lit up her face, though the anger still stayed in her eyes. If anyone stepped the wrong way, they wouldn't know what hit them... the wrath of a woman was something to be feared, but one with a whip, that was another issue altogether.

Macron slumped back into a chair. "Malisane you fool!" he smacked his fist into the counter top ineffectually.

The Commander was worried. He had just had his butt kicked by Shimura for no good reason.
And now reports were in that Bob and Kat, as well as the Keibatsus had just had a row. He wondered what the hell was wrong with these people. Some damn thing was wandering around killing their Brethren, and yet all these spoiled brats could do was bitch at each other.

And now, Malisane had left against direct orders, as well as Sanjuro leaving with Shimura. Problems abounded here. Then, they got worse much as the ancient Sith Philosopher Murphy had predicted.

His comlink lit up code red, and Macron retreated to his shabby office to take the call.

"Macron, this is Bob. Gather Sapphire, Take Voort and Rai with you, and go to Tarthos to see what the hell Raistlin is doing. I'll have the rest of Iron Fist and Night Death hold down the fort. Khar Shian Strike Force is inbound right now from Dromund Kaas. Daragon out."

"Crap," the Sith muttered to himself. "Well, so I am commanded, and so I go." As he stormed out of the room, he found the head engineer and spoke. "Get those damn doors fixed As Soon AS Possible. You will be seeing Blinky my IT-3 droid on a personal 'date' if I have to wait much longer. Understand me?" Macron poked him in the chest with a finger.

The man nodded nervously, and turned immediately to the comm. "All hands.... clear the hangar doors immediately. That is an ORDER!"

The Knight made to ready his vessel, and caught Raidoner and Karimicus in the halls.
"I need you to back me up, guys. I can't have Shimura kicking my arse like that. Zabrak Pig," he spat on the floor. The two Sith smiled evilly at each other and nodded their support.
"Thanks guys," spoke Macron with a rare smile.

"Get Konar too. Malisane already left, so gather up the rest of Sapphire. It is time to get to the bottom of this. I think only by petitioning the powers that be directly can we pull our Clan back together. No fighting, remember that. " The alchemist grabbed some of his precious fluids as he left his quarters, wondering when he would see them again.

Raven felt an angry Kat walking outside his door. He turned the holoprojector off. Opening the door, he looke around the corner.

"Want to help Xhed? Or Shimura I suppose."

"i'll think about it," Shimura said coolly.

Kat began to march down the aile to her office, but stopped dead when she saw Raven.

"What do you want?" Irritation echoed in her voice.

"Calm down. i'm on your side. Something's up. Don't tell me nothings going on, i know that's not true. This is important. It's not like your anger is hidden from me, you know that. What's going on, and do you need my help?"

"Manji. Bob. Muz."

"I heard about Robert. What's with Muz and Manji?"

"That Acolyte Voort killed. Those two won't let me do anything about it. NOTHING!!" The Marka Ragnos Aedile exploded. "THAT FOOL AND HIS BROTHER!! MY CHARGES ARE BEING KILLED WHILE THEY FORCE ME TO SIT AND DO NOTHING!!! AND THAT DRUNKEN FOOL IS OUT THERE SLAPPING MY HOUSE AROUND!!" Kat relaxed and breathed heavily.

"That makes me, very, very, angry. And nobody likes me when I'm angry." Raven's eyes narrowed and began to glow.

"Then we are in agreement. I could use some "freinds" right now."
Kat grinned, but this time it had so much evil, Raven didn't think this was Kat. And it wasn't. This was a mad Kat.

Shimura felt the heat of the Aedile radiating from her, as if it could have caused blisters on his pale white face or make the ink of his tattoos run. Stepping back he let Raven take the brunt of the screaming and tried to slip out before it became any worse.

“Shimura! Where are you going! We have planning!” Kat said as he tried to leave.

“You know, I was never one for thinking…or planning for that matter. You know me better than most here, I’m a…spur of the moment kind of person.”

“Yes, but I need you Xhed.” The Sith managed a glare at her. “Er, Shimura.”

“Wait what about me?” Raven asked.

“You can help too.” The Sith said.

Kat remained seated as Raven and Shimura took a sit before her desk. Leaning over the front of it Kat pulled a piece of paper from the top drawer and a finely made pen from another drawer. She tapped the point of the pen against the paper creating a few dots, attempting to get a few ideas. Raven stared into space and jumped as the door slammed open.

“Kat I didn’t mean t- Oh, I see you have company.” Manji said as he rushed into the room.

“Cousin, sit down, we wouldn’t want to leave you out on such a important session.”

“Session…what’s going on here?”

“Nothing, just getting back at Kressh.” Kat said through here teeth, her temper seeming to rise again now that Manji was in the room.

“You read what I had to say, no engagements.”

“Oh, we wont be engaging, but we will be setting the playing field for one, under our own terms.” The Sith said.

“Huh?” The three Krath said in unison.

“Look at it this way, Bob likes beer, we don’t know what Raist likes, even if he likes anything at all. Macron likes alchemy, Voort likes purple toys…and I’m clueless about Rai. Seeing that I’m Rollmaster of both Marka Ragnos and Ludo Kressh, I will cancel all orders for alcohol, uses for alchemy projects, and…purple toys. Depriving all of the senior members of the things they look forward to.”

“If you do that, it will surely bring war to the houses.” Manji said trying to deter the Sith away from his idea.

Shimura brought out a datapad and tapped a few buttons, studying hard for a minute then looking back up the three Krath.

“It’s done, I have made no real engagement, but, I have created one. Look at that Manji I just walked around your ruling, and I WILL finish Macron this time.”

Malisane felt his eyes grow heavy and he was having problems staying awake at the controls. The shuttle returned to real space in orbit of Tarthos. He entered the atmosphere and angled the ship down to the surface scanning for a suitable landing site.

A second later alarms filled the cockpit and a computer voice announced, "Atmospheric shielding failing."
This startled him back into sobriety faster than a hundred cups of coffee. If the atmospheric shielding failed entirely the shuttle would burn up on entry.
He shook his head trying to clear it as he fumbled with the controls trying to boost the main deflectors to compensate. The shuttle shuddered and glowed red as the tremendous friction threatened to rip the craft apart.

Finally he managed to level out the shuttle at thirty thousand feet. The deflectors had saved him for now but the steering was sluggish even taking in to consideration his half drunken state. Suddenly the port thruster crackled then exploded lurching the shuttle to one site. He desperately tried to keep it level trying to compensate. He needed to land and quickly. He guided the damaged shuttle downwards desperately searching for a suitable landing site.

The shuttle bounced along the ground taking out vegetation and wildlife as the now terrifed Sith desperately tried to stop it. Finally it hit a large rock and bounced onto it's side. Malisane stuggled to his feet. The cockpit terminals were on fire and smoke was filling the ship. The extinguishers weren't working either. He grabbed his sword and climbed along the wall holding a cloth over his mouth. He found the emergency hatch and pulled the lever. He tumbled out onto the ground landing painfully on his right leg.
Staggering to his feet he glanced at the shuttle. The starboard thruster was on fire and flames were licking out of the hatch. As he started to half run, half lurch away from the shuttle the explosion hurled him to the ground and he lay unconsious in the glow of the burning shuttle.

"He's alive." Raven said nudging the body with his foot.
"Shame." Kat said as Raven flipped the Sith over.
"I recognise him, "Raven replied, "One of their protectors."
Kat smiled evily. "Well no point taking him back we may as well put him out of his misery now."
Raven looked at the Knight. "He's also Shimura's apprentice. He might not be pleased if he finds out."
The Krath scowled "Very well take him back and dump him in a cell. Shimura can decide what to do with him."

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

The only sound echoing through the darkened room was that of metal being scraped with stone. Slow, precisely timed strokes of a sharpening stone running all along a huge and ancient sword. The little sparks were the only brief moments of light. And that pleased him. The simplicity and precision of this pleased him most than almost anything. He delighted each second, each stroke, as if caressing a fair lady with long braids. Nothing could interfere... Or almost nothing.

Something knocked at the door once. Something dead, he thought. The door opened, followed only by a swift blow of a razor sharp blade. A metallic thud of a protocol droid hit the floor followed by a plea for apology.

"Lord Scithe! Oh, forgive my manners, sir. But your liege, Master Robert is trying to contact you for some time now and.. Agh.. Bzzt..."

The Battlemaster emerged at the comm room of the Obsidian, searching for the terminals. Not one of the officers stood in the way, for they have all already seen what would happen to argue with him in this mood.

"C'mon Bob, spit it out already."

The comm flicked to life almost instantly. The voice of House Ludo Kressh Quaestor stabilizing through the network.

"Bzzt... ..ou son of bantha! Where the #$%# you were hiding?! We are already at war and you simply disappear. I just bet you were shrinking that old blade of your again..."

Scithe just thought to himself. Ah, old Bob... I missed him...

"Could you be more direct, Lord Daragon, you should I just turn this out?"

"Agh.. Ok, then. Now you say you didn't listen to the alarms and the reports. Could you be such an $#%¨$%%¨ as to not listen to that damn sirens?!"

"Who insulted you, my friend? You only talk so coesively sober if someone has made you angry..."

"That nasty aedile of Ragnos. Well, but that's another matter. We have a hidden assassin roaming the system and someone needs to catch that mofo. Is that anyone else on Obsidian? I want everyone on this yesterday."

"I still haven't the time to look the platform, but I'll take a look. ...and Bob, my friend... You need another bottle."

----------------
SBM Scithe (Sith)/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]
SC-SoA / StA-QL / DC-KC-O-CS-D / (BNG)(BNAg) / Cr-1D-1S / DSS / SoL
{SA: G:LS - G:CM - G:LA - G:IRC - G:ICQ - G:MSN - G:HTML1 - G:PHP1 - G:AIC - S:CORE - S:ISET - S:ESET}

"Commander, the doors are open now," the Head Engineer reported nervously. "Good. Leave me." As the Sith nodded and spoke, the human left quickly with a relieved look.

Macron had much on his mind at the moment. Khar Shian had arrived at Platform Obsidian, and the Knight had no clue what Bob wanted with them in-system after so long. Perhaps it was a show of force, or as a deterrent to their unseen attacker. Whatever the reason, the Commander had not been apprised of it. However, that much firepower in a volatile situation made him nervous.

Macron boarded his modified Star Wing assault gunboat, the Silooth and began his preflight check. All of Sapphire Squadron were aboard their vessels as well, except for Malisane. If he were going to go treat with the Ragnosians, he would do it from a position of strength. They had no respect for weakness. Scithe had reportedly been doing a security check on Obsidian, so Macron felt some small comfort there. The Battlemaster could handle himself well.

"By the Dark Lords, Malisane will be found and returned. He had not been given leave!" Macron growled between clenched teeth. "Not to mention he violated the Order of Pairs." Sepros had been quiet as well since the last spotting of the invader, and Macron was pretty sure this thing was going after tastier game. Like the Great library, which is exactly what he would have done.

"Sapphire Squadron, you are clear for launch," came the flight deck officer over their comlinks.

"On my mark, three, two one, launch.." Macron spoke over the comm.

The Squadron was away, and headed for Tarthos at flank speed. One heavily modified Assault gunboat, and ten modified TIE fighters shot into the blackness of space like angry hornets.

"Flight leaders Two and Three, form on my nine and six. Jump coordinates follow. We rendezvous at Tarthos in fifteen minutes. The Wandering Soul will meet us there."

Macron tried to raise Kat on his secure link. perhaps she could be the voice of reason, but he had also heard she was pretty pissed over Voort killing an Acolyte. As well she should be.
He got no response, so he tried to raise his Master.

"Hello my apprentice," came the voice from the Quaestor.

"Greetings Master. I am inbound with all of Sapphire to meet with you guys and try to hash this thing out. I need your excellent advice, so we can all try to pull this Clan back together. Can you set up a meeting with Muz and Kat as well? And inform 'Shimura' to be careful of what he eats... or breathes... or touches. He owes me an honor debt, and I will not forget."

Malisane awoke awoke with a groan. His head felt like someone was crushing it in a vice. He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. He rubbed his eyes. He was in a grim featuresless room with one light on the ceiling dimmly illuminating it. He felt under him. He was lying on a metal bench, cold and unpleasant under him. His tunic and trousers were stained and ripped. He felt his forehead where he could feel the faint remains of a cut someone more skilled than him had clearly healed.
Where the hell was he? He turned his head to look to one side. Against one wall was a heavy metal door. He was in some sort of holding cell.

He slowly but surely pushed himself to a sitting position, feeling his limbs dull and faintly unresponsive, his stomach heaving and his head spinning. He slumped back against the wall and remembered. "Oh god what have I done?" he muttered. He closed his eyes and leaned his aching head back against the wall.

The door slid open and Shimura entered, looking angrily at his student. "So you are awake?"
Malisane opened his eyes. "Yes master." he managed to say.
"What on earth possesed you to come here?" the Zabrak demanded, "considering events this is not the place for you. You should have remained on Sethos. This foolishness I did not suspect of you."
Malisane looked back at him. "Master I had to know what was happening." he replied, "I know what you and Macron did, I don't understand any of this."

Shimura sighed. "Malisane you are new to Clan Naga Sadow, you are yet to understand it fully, and those who belong to it. One day you will, but not yet. I do not have the time to explain to you. It seems to me at the moment this cell is the best place for you to remain until events play themselves out, for your own safety more than anything." He turned to leave.

Malisane tried to get up to follow but his head swam and his legs gave way and he slumped to the floor. The Zabrak glanced at him then walked out, the metal door sliding shut behind him. Malisane lay on the floor, staring up at the door and his head pounding, still unable to fathom what was happening.


PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Shimura walked out from the holding cells and turned around at the entrance to them, tapping a few numbers into the keypad, locking the doors. He turned to the two guards that stood at the door.

"Open this for nobody but me."

The guards nodded while the cloak of the Battlemaster fanned out as he spun his body, moving himself down the hall to the Aediles office. Popping his head in the door he noticed that the room was very quiet and empty. "Maybe the party has moved." Moving down the hall a bit further he poked his head in the Quaestor's office and saw Kat and Raven sitting in front of Nekura.

"Macron sends his regards Shimura." Manji said.

"Good, he should be thinking about his own right about now."

"Now, he seems to be coming here, with Sapphire squadron too. He will be meeting with Muz, Kat and myself to bring the Clan 'back together'."

"Very good, I'll sit in on this meeting, but bringing the whole squad is asking to get shot at. He wouldn't bring it unless he planned on taking this to blows." The Sith stated in a usually calm presence.

"We will see what the future brings us." Raven insisted from no where.

"I already know what the future brings."

"Let's hope it be peace." Manji said hopefully.

"With my stunt? Not today, not tomorrow."

As Sapphire Squadron made a rendezvous with the Wandering Soul, the frigate Foresight was present and the rest of Khar Shian was there as well. Macron knew this was a touchy situation- Bob was not screwing around here. He must have sent them ahead as insurance.

He intended to start no trouble, but he would be damned if he let it find him or his squad.
"Dammit, this escalation crap is not helping my case here Bob," The Sith thought.
"I gotta play it cool and relaxed, like Manji taught me."

"Alright guys, landing formation on me. No shooting, even if they shoot first. They couldn't possibly be that dumb- the Soul alone could pound that base to dust with turbolasers. Let's call that a deterrent to certain hotheads in Marka Ragnos. Besides, then we would certainly die as well. So not hotshots or heroes today, got it? That means you Raidoner. Thanks." Laughter from the comlink was his reply.

Speaking of hotheads, Macron read a datalink from his computer as R3 made with the landing maneuvers. He had obtained a sample of Shimura's DNA a long time ago, as he had done secretly with many others. He had a little surprise in hand in case the Zabrak got fiesty.
Macron knew if he faced him again in single combat he was a goner, so he did what he knew best. He prepared to fight dirty. And hoped it would not come to that.

"Tarthos base, this is Sapphire Commander. Request landing clearance please."
The reply was quick. "Clearance denied," replied an officer's distant and bored voice.

"Whaaat? Who the hell is this?" Macron spat and slammed his fist into the durasteel cockpit bulkhead as he broke comm protocol.

"Listen here, you piece of enlisted filth. You get me clearance, or else I report that you have engaged in Clan disruptive activities. This is a diplomatic mission of the highest priority."

Laughing a bit as he put the comm link away just after he was finished talking to the control tower. Dashing down the hall he felt the wind in his face and kept running, using his strong thighs to propel him forward with his leaping strides. Kick opening a door he traveled up a flight of spiral stairs, hopping up he skipped every other step. Reaching the top of the tower he could see the frozen terrain of Tarthos. A officer pulled the headset from his face and set it down turning to the Sith.

“Sir, he is demanding to land, I can’t keep stalling him.”

“Right, right,” picking at one of his dorsal horns he thought about it for a moment then responded again. “tell him only the gunboat is allowed to land, if this is a diplomatic mission, the fighters should only be escorts.”

“Yes sir, I will be in contact with you via comm link if any problems arise.”

“You do that.”

Shimura bolted to the stairs again, leaping from each landing to the landing below. After five or so consecutive jumps he reached the bottom and sprinted towards the docking bay, either ready to escort the diplomat or cut him down where he stands. Only time could tell and the Sith was curious to see if any blood would be shed.

Kat stalked towards the docking bay. She wasn't pleased with events, but someone had to keep Xhedias from charging the second someone sneezed. Besides, a tiny bit of show on behalf of Marka Ragnos might go a long way... in keeping peace.

As the doors opened with a whoosh, she paused, taking in the scene before her. Shimura had positioned himself, weapons at the ready, just outside the doors of the craft. The first one out the gunboat was very recognizable to the Knight.

As the Zabrack started to step closer, Kat's heeled boots could be heard across the docking bay. Her grin was already plastered on her face, though the eyes couldn't hide the anger boiling beneath the surface, for any who knew her well.

"Macron, my friend..." Her greeting paused the confrontation, as Macron dismissed the Zabrack to head towards the Aedile. They briefly hugged - the tension briefly fleeing before she escorted the group towards the conference room. This was not a friendly meeting, unfortunately.

Shimura seemed a little irritated at her interference... Macron and Shimura kept exchanging glowers... but Kat just kept her face plastered with the grin that she couldn't feel yet, leading them away.

This was very uncomfortable, and she was really not looking forward to the meeting with the Keibatsu brothers... Master and Quaestor or not, she had very little patience with either man today.

Tharivol walked into the docking bay, his boots making heavy sounds along the metal floor. His black armor gleamed in the artificial light and the black cape flowed behind him as he moved forward. His gloved hands were at his side until he stopped just before the small assembly. The priest then lifted each fist to the opposite side on his chest in salute and spoke.

"Greetings Envoy Macron. My master Nekura Manji Keibatsu Quaestor of House Marka Ragnos invites you too meet to discuss the current situations. If would follow me to the conference room were there are refreshments waiting we can commence immediatly."

With that the Krath Priest turned and began to walk out hoping that by interrupting the informal meeting he had abrogated any confrontation that might take place. Now was not the time for battle, especially in the docking bay were proper "arrangements" couldn't be made to ensure a favourable outcome for House Marka Ragnos.

Manesh woke up to the sound of knocking. He got out of bed, walked up to the door, and hit the "open" button.

He saw Malik, taller and more red-headed than ever. "Malik, you shore! What do you want?"

Malik motioned Manesh outside. "Look around. Where did everybody go?"

"I haven't a clue. I'm not really sure I care that much."

"I think something's going on."

"Like what?"

"Like the clan being under attack."

Manesh was cynical. "And how many times have we been attacked like this? It always ends up the same way."

"Yeah, I know, but this seems different."

"It ALWAYS seems different. A new and EXCITING threat to reveal itself to the thread." Manesh then dawdled for a bit. A few moments later, he said, "If there was an attack on the clan, shouldn't we have been notified about this?"

"Yeah. But hey, let's walk around and knock on doors."

***

On the 3rd level on the HLK base in Dentavii, Manesh knocked on a door. "Hello? Anybody in there?"

Malik did the same on a nearby door. "Raidoner? You in there?"

Manesh asked, "Do the Sith of this clan even inhabit this base anymore? I mean,yeah, I'm forgetful, but I don't remember the living situations changing."

"Maybe we've been in our quarters too long, rotting away."

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should check Clan communications."

"Yeah! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Why didn't you think of that? Why did I JUST think of that?"

"I think we're just slow."

***

Back in Manesh's quarters, they looked back on the logs. Manesh said, "Damn kids."

Malik wasn't so concerned with that. "All of this is going on, and nobody bothered to ask for our help? We're like one of the freakin most powerful Jedi IN this clan."

"They don't appreciate us."

Manesh realized what he was doing, and said, "Alright, I think we're focusing too much on ourselves here. Look at these squadron movements. Look at some of this footage. There's like, a civil war going on or something."

"Yeah. Looks like Ludo Kressh vs. Marka Ragnos. Also looks like family stuff involved too."

Manesh didn't like the sound of that. "Oh, Goatham is right. I just HATE the whole idea of families. I also don't like these petty wars people have amongst themselves. And take it from me, someone who's very emotional and very petty."

"Takes one to know one."

"So what do we do now, fellow Sith Warlord?"

"Do we side with Ludo Kressh?"

"I think we have to. But I think we're smarter than this. We know that something funny is going on here. I mean, yeah, we're Dark Jedi, but we're supposed to also believe in order. And this is chaos. Everybody not where they're supposed to be."

"People are not going to understand the big picture. We're going to have to side with Ludo Kressh. It makes sense. It's our house. They're going to understand that."

"Alright."

"Let's go to Sepros. That's where the action seems to be."

Macron's anger could be felt thru the sound of his voice as he scalded the officer at the landing platform of the Tarthos base. That officer clearly had his orders just as we had ours and our orders where no attacking no matter what! Something that Raidoner really did not want to follow.
Raidoner was not the only one with an itchy trigger finger but 95% of the squad had a thirst for blood, heck even Macron himself had to fight his inner urges to feel the inebriating high of the heat of combat.

Raidoner could feel Macron about to give in on their shared urge to destroy by the sound of his voice and truly wanted Macron to give in in on his anger and release the squad and allow complete the annihilation of the Tarthos base, but Macron was Raidoner's sworn brother in combat and one thing Raidoner had was honor and loyalty to his Brethren so to not allow Macron to lose face and be scalded Bob Raidoner decided to call upon the force.

*Macron try to focus on the officers voice and use a mind trick on him while I use my battle meditation to back it up and keep the whole base at bay* Raidoner said to Macron via the comm link.

*Karimicus use your Battle Meditation also.* Raidoner said to his comrade.

*Roger that* Macron replied with a fed up voice.

The Sapphire Squad flew in a landing formation as the Tarthon's hangar door opened, Macron flew in first followed by his two flight leaders Karimicus and Raidoner.
At this point to Raidoner this had been a simple accomplishment that he hated to have made simple.

"Orders are Orders" Raidoner muttered to himself.

Raven stood outside the meeting office. He touched each and every one of the people coming in in the force, picking out any spies. If anything happened, he would have the entire house alerted in an instant. There would be no Kressh attacking Ragnos here. Rave could tell the emotions were already escalated, this could end up being a disaster.

((sorry bout the short post but i thought this was needed here but there is no more to say bout it.))

Shimura stood on Kat’s left side, Macron on her right. The anger boiled underneath his skin and it felt like he had to take his clothes off to relieve himself of the heat. He heard a whining of engines and spun backwards, seeing the two TIEs coming into land.

“I SAID YOU’RE NOT COMING IN!” The Sith roared at the top of his lungs, the vein standing out in his neck.

Shifting his head to the access button only thirty meters away, he outstretched his hand and let his fist uncurl into a flat barrier of flesh. Thrusting his hand forward he let the rage flow from his fingertips as an invisible wall of energy slammed on the access closing the doors instantly. Moving his head he shifted to the power supply and aimed his hand at it. Amplifying the rage in his head he shoved another blast at it, only stronger, causing the box to overload and spit electricity at those that got near it.

“Pull up! Pull up!” Macron barked into his helmet link that went to his squad.

The Battlemaster shifted the collar of his outfit as the rage and anger drained from his face. “Now, can we proceed to the meeting?”

"Yes, Battlemaster," Macron chuckled. His Bretheren had not let him down, and even now the forces of Kressh were stirring. Old powers moved again, wakening in their hunger for battle.
The Forces of Kressh were alive again, and seething with the hunger for slaughter. Scithe, Manesh, and Malik had secured their power base.

Raidoner had honored him by an attempted landing anyhow, as had Karimicus. Macron knew it was selfish of him to divert their attention to his needs, but yet the whole cohesiveness of the Clan could depend on it. He needed to present strength, as he knew he was much weaker than most of the Ragnosians.

"Thanks Guys. You rock," he thought. He coughed as Shimura eyed him. He smiled and nodded at the Zabrak.

"Thank you Tharivol and Aedile Kat ," he bowed as he acknowledged the Krath's formal diplomatic request. Protocol demanded that he comply closely and honorably, as Manji and Muz had taught him. He was in a dangerous situation here on Tarthos, and needed every advantage he could gather.

"I am in your debt. Please lead me to the place of meeting. I am at your service."

The guards looked up as the robed figure approached, raising their rifles. The figure drew it’s cowl back and the guards stood to attention respectfully, recognising a senior member of their own house.
“I will see the prisoner.” The figure ordered.
The guard shook his head. “With all due respect Battlemaster Shimura has ordered no-one but him may enter this cell..
The figure stretched out a hand and the guards eyes glazed over and they slumped to the ground silently. The figure leaned over them quickly entering their minds and erasing their memories.

Malisane looked up in surprise as the metal door slid open. There was no-one there. He got to his feet and crept over to the door and looked out. He noted the two unconsious guards, and saw in surprise a bundle of clothes. He knelt and examined them. They were a set of protectors robes bearing the symbol of House Marka Ragnos. Confused but not looking a gift horse in the mouth he slipped them on quickly. He slipped his hand in the pocket and found a hastily scrawled note.

“Your squadron members are orbitting outside. I suggest you find a sneaking them into the base. The balance must be restored if we are to avoid further hostilities.”

The note was unsigned and Malisane tore it up. He slipped out of the holding area and headed down to the flight control, knowing the way from previous visits to Shimura.

The flight control supervisor looked up as the door opened. He recognised the robes of a protector of HMR. “I am Malisane, apprentice of Battlemaster Shimura. There is a suspected threat to our house and it is his intention that we request Sapphire Squadron to assist us.”
The controller looked confused. “But the battlemaster said they were not to land.”
Malisane gave him a hard stare. “Do I have to ask the battlemaster to come down and explain each of his orders to you personally? I am his apprentice, I speak with his authority!”
The controller shrugged. "Well as the battlemaster should know the door is currently jammed those ships are not landing for at least twenty four hours."

Malisane considered his options. "Very well this conversation never took place. Keep working repairing those doors I will not accept twenty four hours." He turned and left the room. His only course of action now was to attempt to escape.

He headed down throught the corridors seeking an alternate exit. He turned the corner and came face to face with a startled Raven.
"Malisane!" the Guardian said in astonishment.
The Protector backed off ready to go into his combat stance. "Shimura seeks my presense I must go."
Raven shook his head "I know nothing of this."
Malisane looked at him. "I don't want to fight you Raven let me past."


PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

"Hellooooo... Someone just say 'Hi', godammit..."

The comm ehoed through the entire network on Obsidian and again no sign of life besides the useless droid and a few officers. Battlemaster Scithe was still in a bad mood, but somehow he knew the situation was starting to get ugly, and fast. If he knew the crazed people of Ludo Kressh at least half he imagined, (and he did) he could have a feeling they were doing something real stupid right now.
But something hit him in another direction. Something about a killer on the loose and Bob too annoyed with the Ragnos people to mind.
Scithe emptied another mug o' milk ™ and hit the comm link again to a different location.

"Obsidian defense grid to Dentavii base. Here is Battlemaster Scithe. Do you copy Dentavii."

The metallic sound came on response.

"Huh? Scithe?! You still alive, man?! We thought we lost you with the luggage on the way from Ullyr..."

"Malik?!... I mean, Lord Malik. Heh, I guess that's what I get for running up the wrong way, huh? A backwater defense grid and no one to bother... I was starting to enjoy it."

"Me and Manesh were just packing things to go to Sepros and see what the heck those dumb fodders are doing without us."

"What!? They just started another bar brawl and forgot to invite the two ubermen?!? Hahahaha!! ...Well, I mean... So you two think this situation is getting out of hand already?"

"That's still to be seem, Battlemaster. But we could really have to hold things up if somehow Marka Ragnos decide to attack us."

"Too late, sir. The scanners here point that Sapphire is already on Ragnos grounds. It seems this time the dumbs changed the battlefield."

"Oh, crap. That will make things uglier."

"Just my words... By the way, Bob has just asked me to look on a serial killer loose on the system, but the dumb fodder forgot to tell me where to look."

"WHAT!!! The idiots are starting a war and there's someone else invading our home and killing people?!?! "

"Uh... Yup."

"Oh, dammit. I guess we'll arrive late for the bar brawl again..."

-----------------
SBM Scithe (Sith)/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]
SC-SoA / StA-QL / DC-KC-O-CS-D / (BNG)(BNAg) / Cr-1D-1S / DSS / SoL
{SA: G:LS - G:CM - G:LA - G:IRC - G:ICQ - G:MSN - G:HTML1 - G:PHP1 - G:AIC - S:CORE - S:ISET - S:ESET}

A low growl erupted from the Battlemaster’s mouth as he felt his student had been released from his holding cell. His emotions were starting to bubble over the top, wishing to grab the pathetic alchemist by his throat and lift him off his feet, wanting to choke every last ounce of life from his body. A half smile came over his face at the thought of killing the Commander. He left the thought drift from his head as he thought about the upcoming meeting, whether if they went sour or not. And if they went sour if he should kill the Commander, or merely take him as a prisoner of war. War…hopefully this is not what it comes to…but they seem to push that button every time.

Tharivol bowed slightly as he ushered the group into the briefing room, the only real room that had enough size for the meeting at hand. Walking into the dim room, Shimura noticed Muz sat at this end of the table, with Nekura at his right. Shimura only saw it fit to sit at the left hand of the Proconsul. Nekura’s Guard sat to his right, Kat sat somewhere in the middle on Manji’s side while Macron growled, not being allowed to sit next to his Master nor able to shield the ProConsul. Now sitting across from Aedile of Marka Ragnos and close to the Rollmaster, Macron cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak.

To kill or take hostage…what seems more fun? I don’t think killing would be that sporty, he has to chance against me, I’m superior to him. I think a beating before I take him to the cells is in order.

“What do you think Shimura?” questioned Muz.

“Sorry, my thoughts occupied my attention for the moment.”

“Ah, what thoughts are these? Care to share?” Macron insisted on knowing.

“I’m not at liberty right now, can you repeat that?”

Callus rolled his Head Hunter into the space over Tarthos and saw an entire squadron circling the base. “Well this can’t be a good sign.” He said to himself as he signaled the squadron. “This is Dark Jedi Knight Callus Bo’Amar. What is the meaning of this blockade?” No answer came from the squadron bur from a controller in the hanger.

“Sir, the doors are currently jammed and we are unable to land at the moment. I apologize for any inconvenience.”

“Well controller, what squadron is this?”

“Sapphire Squadron of House Ludo Kressh.”

“Kressh is it?” Callus thought of a plan that would perhaps give someone a chance to get those doors open and launch some sort of offensive from HMR. He pulled his fighter into a gentle curve and strafed the squadron that so carelessly drifted into his reticule. Now the chase is on. He thought to himself as he turned tail on the squadron and shifted his shields aft and began to lean on the accelerator.

Raven instantly shot his thoughts of Malisane to Tharivol, Shimura, Manji, and Muz. He reached out with the force and dove into Malisane's mind.

"Raven, I said let me through!"

He pushed harder. The protector was resisting well. There was something he knew and and Raven again relayed this to the others in the room. He turned to face the Sith.

"I have notified the occupants. You will have to wait until I get their response. Until then, you will not enter."

Malisane looked at him. "Raven I'm not trying to enter I'm just leaving. That's all I want to do." He looked at the Krath. "If you try to stop me we fight. Personally I don't know how that would go and I don't imagine you do either."

Raven looked at him. "Really?" he asked.

Malisane nodded. "I don't know what's going on here and I don't want to know. There's my Master and my Commander in there ready to tear the hell out of each other. I've had my fill of this. I just want to get back to Sephros. I think it might be better if you forgot you saw me. Otherwise it's going to get upleasant."

Raven shrugged. "Get out of here then." he replied.

Malisane nodded and walked past him and turned the corridor out of sight.

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Macron smiled as he sat down at the table, ignoring the slight against him in the seating.
"Trivial," he thought. "Well, just one click of this actuator, or my life signs stopping and those nanobots I coughed out earlier will eat Shimura alive from the inside out. They are multiplying even now inside him, waiting for my cue."

That DNA sample had come in most handy indeed. Since the bots were nanionic in size and keyed with his DNA, they were impossible to get rid of by convetional methods or the Force. Macron loved his wicked toys so.

The Knight smiled a bland smile, and nodded at Shimura.
"Look folks, let's not waste time or words. We have a situation with a capital "S" here on our hands."

He indicated Shimura with a thumb. "This guy is ready to kill me, and that is fine. We are Sith. But, there are Clan members dying all around us. Whomever has set this whole thing up has done a masterful job of screwing with us all. That pisses me off even more than horn-head over here, and it should you as well. Let us put aside our differences, and fight this foe we cannot even seem to spot first."

"Gentleman, and Lady? Your input?"

Malik noted, "This is a really crappy ship you got here Manesh."

Manesh replied, "Well, it's my old ship from my Emperor's Hammer days. Escort shuttle."

"I never liked fighting against those things. That rear turret could be very nasty."

"I hope so. You'll be manning the turret if we get into any kind of trouble."

Malik didn't like the idea of being a turret gunner, but it made sense, since the two of them were the only people on the shuttle. "Oh how lovely. By the way, why doesn't anyone know about this ship?"

"People know about it. They just don't use it because it's old, and it barely works. And if they seem to be ignoring us, actual people, then how are they going to remember an old shuttle?"

"Yeah."

"Nobody in the hangar bay. Very weird."

"Yeah. So we're going to get Scithe?"

"Yeah."

Manesh typed in the coordinates to the Obsidian defense grid, and off the shuttle went.

***

The Old Timey Club was about halfway to Obsidian.

Malik asked, "So there's a killer out there."

Manesh agreed. "Yeah. This is the Dark Brotherhood. People get killed all the time. It really makes you wonder how much we're supposed to care about the safety of our clan-mates. How do we manage to form large groups and not end up killing each other?"

"Well, I think this is an outside threat, and this guy might want all of us dead."

"Yeah, but so far nobody with our powers has encountered the spooky ghost thing, or the serial killer thing, or are they the same thing? I'm not really sure."

"So yeah, the clan should stay in strong form, to defeat this thing."

"Yeah."

"So who do you think is orchestrating the whole thing?"

Manesh thought about it for a moment, and only one person came to mind. "Den Darkhill. I really hate that guy."

Den Darkhill used to be in House Ludo Kressh, until the split. He failed to side with the Dark Brotherhood, and became an enemy. In a personal attack against Manesh, he outed Manesh amongst the Brotherhood's enemies. "Yeah, he was kind of a jackass."

"He didn't appreciate all that I had done for him."

"I'm kinda feeling like that myself these days, among all of the new members."

"Me too."

A few moments passed, and Manesh said, "I really hope it's Den Darkhill. I really want to kick his ass."

***

The Escort shuttle arrived at Obsidian Defense grid control.

Raidoner noticed the hatred in the air specially coming from Shimura, formerly known as Xhedias. Once a good friend of Raidoner now a bitter enemy!
Raidoner would not allow Shimura to harm any of the Sapphire Squad specially Macron!
Both Sith Battle Master's knew each others potential and Raidoner was itching for a worthy adversary.
Macron played the diplomatic role but deep in his heart he wanted Shimura served on a dissection table and Raidoner was ready to deliver.

Shimura noticed that Raidoner glared into his eyes from where he stood behind Macron, Shimura even tried to stare back at Raidoner looking deep into flight leaders eyes. But Raidoner did not even blink causing fear into the Zabraks soul, Shimura knew that Mandalorians always killed their enemies slowly and painfully and by the way Raidoner gazed at him staring straight into his eyes with the furry of a thousand Rancors...Shimura knew for sure that no matter what took place between the Houses he would have to kill Raidoner or face a horrible demise at the Mandalorians hand.

The old piece of metal hit the floor of the docking area of Obsidian with a dangerously loud clunk. The pressure tunnel was extended and Battlemaster Scithe was just by the door of the decompression chamber waiting for the Warlords of Kressh.

The door opened to reveal the two shadowed forms of Manesh and Malik Sadow, two of the most powerful beings on Clan Naga Sadow, just after Consul Xanos and Lord Tron himself. Scithe made a polite bow in honor of such important people, even if just for the sake of the moment.

"Hail, milords. Doth thee fare well in thy journey?"

Malik looked back in a half-puzzled expression.

"Well, I know everyone here in this cutscene is way older than the common membership, but ancient english was a little too much..."

Scithe raised himself holding tightly a grin.

"Sorry, sir. I just couldn't hold it. By the way, where did you get that flying junk? It almost make mo proud of the T-Wing I had 'acquired' on my way back (well, not exactly back, since it was first time I arrived on Orian, but...) home."

Malik just made a lateral glance to the other Warlord.

"Ask Manesh. I have nothing with that."

The offended proprietor of the 'flying junk' bolted.

"Hey, you two better change subject here or I'll put both of you to ride it in the torpedo launchers. By the way... Scithe, are you coming with us to solve this problem? We suspect of an old enemy of mine is behind all this. Den Darkhill..."

Now it was Scithe's time to make a puzzled look.

"Den who?"

"Den Darkhill..."

"Den Dark... Oh, I remem... Muahhahahaha!! C'mon guys! This is really old indeed. Where did you dig that from? Den Darkhill! I have already heard about vengeance is best served in a cold platter, but this guy is just eating it on liquid nitrogen."

Manesh gave him a hard glance

"Coming or not?"

Scithe just gave a smirk and responded.

"Well, sure. I was getting rusty in here... Where to?"

Malik proposed

"I say we try to find the enemy on Tarthos."

Manesh made a hand gesture to the other two Sith.

"Come inside folks. It's planning time. And Scithe, please, bring a technician..."

------------------------------
SBM Scithe (Sith)/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Malisane was lost by now. He had reasoned out there must be another way out apart from the hangar but he couldn't find one and he could hardly ask for directions. I was begining to occur to him that his HMR robes were actually less of a disguise than not wearing them. There weren't enough protectors in the house that people wouldn't notice a new one all of a sudden.

He turned a corner and stopped at the robed figure in front of him, wearing the emblem of Marka Ragnos but no insignia rank. The figures face was covered by its cowl. "So Malisane you are following my instructions?"
Malisane studied the figure in front of him. He tried to sense something from it and may as well have tried it on a rock the mind was closed. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"Never mind who I am you need to bring Sapphire Squadron inside as I suggested."
Malisane shook his head. "I just want to escape I should never have come here."
"You are needed here Malisane there are not enough members of either house who are staying neutral and not seeking a confrontation."

Malisane shook his head. Who was this, obviously a member of Marka Ragnos was helping him but who? He reached out with the force, doing something he hoped the other wouldn't expect. He used telejinesis to push the hood slightly to one side. "I know you," he said, "you are.."

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI

Muz reached back and slapped Malisane for his curiosity, using the same motion to pull his hood back to cover his face.

"But, but...you aren't in Marka..." Malisane stuttered at the Proconsul.

"I was a member of Ragnos for longer than you've been here, Protector." Muz spun on his heel. "I need the odds even here, otherwise these...brats... will never cease arguing."

Malisane bowed, backing away from the Epis. "What would you have me do now, Sire?"

"Get to the central control, and check to see where Manesh's beat-down shuttle is."

"Manesh has a shuttle?"

"Just go." Muz was aggravated. His machinations had been going to plan, but the people weren't acting in ways he had really expected. Manesh, Malik, and Scithe would be landing somewhere on Tarthos within the next hour, and their presence would bring the Elder out of hiding. By then, he had hoped to reunite the houses, and be able to rally to the Warlords aid and stop the elder.

Muz rubbed the small pendant in his pocket. The Talisman should prove necessary to help them capture this monster before Xanos returned. He wanted to question the Elder before Xanos arrived, because if it was who Muz believed it to be, Zorrixor would waste no time putting the fool to the blade. And he didn't want to be forced to take them all to the Chamber of Justice. No, best to solve this before Xanos returned, indeed.

Muz had excused himself to go to the head for a bit, and Macron smiled at the group.
Kat was obviously irked at the earlier incident, and the Sith did his best to smooth over the rub.
Raidoner had made his way into the Chamber, and stood at macron's side even though he had not been honored with a chair. Macron attempted to give his seat to the Battlemaster, who refused with great honor.

"Kat, my friend.. I am sorry about your Acolyte," came the raspy voice of the Envoy.
"That bit of sloppy handedness annoys me too. I can clone him if you wish... but it just wouldn't be the same I am afraid. These unseen assailants have got us all jumpy. Please forgive Voort for his rash actions, I beg of you."

The alchemist knew the Bad Thing was loose on Tarthos, and needed to conclude this peace meeting as fast as possible so they could devote their combined energies to the problem at hand.
The Commander was sincere in his words, and the times he had begged anyone other than his Master were few indeed. He had begged Manji plenty of times, but those agonizing and horrible episodes were not relevant to this conversation. He had given her his best, and honored their friendship.

"So can we let this lie comrades? Can we seek a peace, and smite this vile pestilence that saps the Power of Sadow?" Macron queried as Muz slipped back into the chamber. Kat looked at him with narrowed eyes, and nodded her grudging assent.

Muz sat back in his seat of honor as the assembled group shifted in the attempt to find some confort in the hard butt-numbing chairs. Xanos had designed them that way on purpose, of course. Relaxation did not breed action, in his mind.

The comlink in Macron's black armor chirped, and he asked the group to let him connect.
"Yeah, whatever," came the response from Shimura. Raidoner moved a bit closer to Macron, and smiled a grim and portentious smile. Macron rested his hand gently on Raidoner's arm, and looked at him with a calm look in his eyes.

"One second, Shimura Keibatsu, and my honored friends," the Knight spoke. "My Liege, and my Master, and my Friend. Grant me this please," asked the Commander. The group seemed to reach some level of assent, and the mead and drinks were passed about in relief.

Macron eyed the text message. Malik, Scithe, and Manesh were inbound to Tarthos. The Old Powers made him nervous, and he knew he must defer to their authority. He was chaff in the wind compared to their power. As Macron smiled, his facial scars and tattoos contorted in a ghastly manner. He typed back.

Raistlin sat dangling his legs from a vista atop one of the uppermost levels in the Dark Citadel on Tarthos, half-mediatating, and half-brooding about his situation.

Two days on Tarthos had produced nothing, and with no leads from Sepros and Goat still away on leave, Raist was beginning to contemplate what he was doing out here, when the Janthiri were probably running billions in stolen goods through the sector as he sat here, the humid, oppressive night air hanging from him.

In the summer Tarthos became a lifebed of activity and the whole planet felt..... alive, buzzing with energy, from the industrialized nations of the world working to mine to the wildlife on Tarthos, countless untold species waiting to be discovered that only presented the opportunity but 6 months of the standard year. He had definately missed Tarthos, and here, back in his reserved room in the House that he had built, he felt at ease. If he ever decided to retire from his Aed-ly spot, this is where he would retreat to, an agent of the Clan and its liasions as opposed to working for HLK. Still..... the boredom was getting to him.

In addition, there apparently had been some kind of inter-house problem, between members, which was rather odd. Though Dark Jedi infighting was common, for a variety of reasons, members of CNS usually got along with one another, realizing early that they stood for common ground, regardless of House Fealty.

‘This is why I don’t deal with politics anymore…” Raist sighed, forgetting about the matter, as it didn’t concern him. His loyalties lie with Naga Sadow, and if anything, he felt more partial to HMR, considering he built the house into what it was today, as did his Quaestor, Bob. However, the house’s roles had been shifted and reorganized, and now, the militant wing of CNS was HLK., in a sense. Letting other matters fall behind, Raist began to formulate the situation he was in.

Though the House had been following the rules of pairing up, the assassin or whatever it was hadn't shown its face, and it left him agitated. He had been training intesnely during the two days he had been here, harder then he had in a long time, and the effort had left him tense, and his muscles sore. As he stood, stretching, he felt the need for a massage. He was about to boot up his ACM Pleasure Droid when he remembered where he was.

There were a few benefits to visiting at HMR......

Hitting a button he began talking..

"Manji, what's up my man?" Raist asked.

"Nothing, on my way to sleep for morning lecture, any word on our situation?" Manji queried back

"Quiet as a Bothan Spy in a podracing match my man.... listen, can you get a massage to my room? You know my type man... i'm sore as hel....." Raist trailed off.

A chuckle welcomed him on the other line, and Raist broke into a smile of his own.

"Sure thing my man.... i'll talk to you tomorrrow, let me know what you think."

Raist clicked the button off, and went to the refresher to shower. 20 minutes later an incoming on his personal turbolift alerted him to the prescence and after allowing them up Raist was blown away.

A gorgeous brunette and an equally gorgeous but much better-proportioned Twi'lek exted and Raist couldn't help but do a double take. As a ear-to-ear smile began crossing his face he warmly introduced himself to the two ladies, who were happy to be here.

As he laid down they began giving him a deep tissue massage, and Raist quickly drifted away......


*BEEP BEEP *BEEP *BEEEEEEEEEEEEPPfzzzzzrrrrrr........" Raist swore as he slammed the palm of his hand down on the machine by his bedside. He had no clue how much time had passed only that his hand was in a slight amount of pain.

He stood, half-groggy, the two women startled as he made his way to the personal holo-receiver in his room. Not even halfway there it began to go off with a priority message.

"Major Nuk-cho'Urdo" Raist said, recognizing the native Saraii's face, blue as it was against his armor.

"My Liege, there has been another murder, level 4, not 5 minutes ago, I have a full deck sweep in progress."

"Damn!" Raist screamed, choosing his way with words around military, for decorum reasons. "I don't want it to escape. Send an emergency comm to everyone and let them know the deal. I want no corner of this base unturned Major. Meet me with a team of your finest to Hangar Level 1 ASAP. Raist out."

Raist became a flurry of action, grabbing clothes, blasters and his lightsaber before hastily leaving his room. Within moments, he arrived on deck 1, where a phalanx of 6 of the Khar Delba elite stood, Major Cho’ur being one of them. Saying nothing, they began moving, conducting a sweep of the area, opening crates, ripping through ships, checking for any kind of trace.

20 minutes later they found nothing…. Raist couldn’t even sense anything through the force, no trail, no leads…. Nothing

The entire situation was giving him a headache, and by the time they got the ‘All clear’ report from HMR, and had proceeded to lock down the complex, Raist had briefed almost everyone on the current situation on Tarthos.

While the deceased was a new recruit to the clan, Raist was angry that someone had the gall to sneak around, and more impressively, they could pull it off against a veritable army of Dark Jedi.

He headed out, to meditate on the situation, something he hadn’t done in awhile.

"But with tranquility, comes clarity…." And so that mantra began being chanted in his mind over and over.

Staring out at the night sky, the Archpriest sighed heavily. Things seemed to have quietened down- the conflict between Macron and Shimura, which would have led almost directly to an all-out war between the Houses, seemed to have faded slightly. Now his apprentice and the rest of Sapphire Squadron were bedded down in the guest quarters of the Cathedral, staying out of trouble.

However, slightly more disturbing was the news of the arrival of three of the old stalwarts of the Clan- two Sons of Sadow and a Sith Battlemaster who had recently reappeared known as Scithe. The last thing the Archpriest needed was three slightly-drunk Sith arriving on an already-volatile scene.

Taking a swig from the bottle of sake he had begun carrying around with him for occasions like this, Manji sighed again.

"Dammit. Why is life so difficult?"

The question raced up to the stars, seemingly unheard. Then a voice drifted up from behind Manji, answering him.

"Life's not that bad. At least you've got plenty of sake."

Turning, the Archpriest chuckled quietly as his Black Guard came out from the shadows of the stairwell and kneeled down next to him. Turning his gaze back to the deep reaches of space, the Archpriest spoke again.

"Nice evening, huh."

"Not bad."

"What's your take on all this fighting stuff?"

Stroking his chin carefully, the black-clad Priest thought for a moment.

"I don't know. Somewhere out there is a rogue Dark Jedi, responsible for the deaths of our brethren, and yet we're stuck squabbling amongst ourselves, torn apart by old hatreds. It's quite pathetic, really."

As he rubbed his eyes Manji leant forward with a mild growl.

"Tell me about it. I'm just trying to keep the peace."

He was cut off by Tharivol, who sat up straight and stared forwards.

"But I know this- anyone who threatens you will die. Slowly, and painfully."

Grinning, the Archpriest patted the Black Guardsman on the shoulder, still gazing out at the shrouded darkness of the Tarthosian jungles. Then, suddenly, the tranquil scene was shattered by the chirping of his datapad. Quickly Manji opened the commlink to see the face of Raistlin Sadow.

"Raist dude, what's up?"

Urgently Raistlins voice came back at him, sounding tense.

"In case you didn't know- there's been another murder."

"What?!"

Sitting bolt upright, the Archpriest stared down at the Son of Sadow as he elaborated.

"A new recruit to the Clan. We've done a thorough deck sweep, but found nothing. This can't have been the work of any Naga Sadow Dark Jedi- there aren't even any leads in the Force. This is something different- probably that rogue."

With a deep breath Manji pushed himself up.

"Shiiiit... well, thanks for letting me know. Catch you later, Raist."

With a bleep the channel closed, leaving only silence. Turning to Tharivol, the Archpriest unleashed a crooked grin.

"Just when things are beginning to quieten down..."

Macron checked on his flight members as they retired in the guest quarters. He had decided to go to the Cathedral to meditate, as he seldom needed sleep these days. Far too many chemicals for that to happen were coursing through him, battling each other. When he did sleep, it was for days. He had slept two weeks ago, so he was fine for now.

He missed these old halls, having been forced to spend much of his time since becoming Commander on the Wandering Soul or one one of the Kressh bases. The booze was excellent, but he was tired of recyled air and stale ration bars. Tarthos had life and smells to be savored, as well as some of his best friends about. The sake he had brought back from Dromund Kaas seemed to please his Master, and that was good.

It was odd, that the Ragnosians were some of his best friends but now things were so unsettled. Shimura had left him alone for a bit, and that was good as well. Macron did not fear to die, but he had lots to do first before that happened.

Macron was an excercise in duality. He had close friends, but treated his enemies horribly. He meditated on that thought.

As he meditated, the doors to the Cathedral opened. Several Obelisk troopers entered, sweeping the area. One tapped him on the shoulder as Macron opened one eye and returned to his normal sickening train of thought.

"What dammit?" the Knight spat. "This is not the Sith you are... oh. Okay you're a trooper." He turned around with an annoyed look, and decided not to use the Force.

"Er, Sir. you are not on my list... You must not be a House member here. There has been a murder, and I am to check all credentials," came the troopers modulated voice through his armor comm.

Macron rolled his yellow eyes in disgust. "Look man. If you were doing your job, you would already know who I am right? You must be new. It's Commander Macron. Here's my datasig."

He presented the chip to the Trooper, who saluted professionally and turned to leave. A sickening plop resounded, and a severed head dropped to the floor between them from above.
It was still wearing a helmet. It looked to have been torn off, not chopped with a blade.

The Trooper drew his weapon, as Macron moved to stand beside him. The sounds of pounding feet came from up the hall the rest of that search group came running. There was no sign of an intruder. However, Macron's suit air analyzer did register a brief and unusual pheromone trace.
He would investigate that reading later.

Macron thumbed his comlink. " Ah frell... make that two murders. One of the troopers just got it.
We found his, ah.... cranial unit only," he giggled. " I'm securing the Cathedral. Macron out."

Kat growled at the comm. Two murders? In such a short time... One was bad, but two? The Knight quickly grabbed her whip and exited into the emtpy hallway. Her heeled boots clicking on the floors echoing through the silence.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it youself, it would seem." Kat grumbled under her breath, but she knew that her Clan and House would fight beside her with a moment's notice. She was just extremely frustrated with the situation.

The Aedile headed into her office, seeking refuge from her thoughts, hoping she might find something of use in the notes she made about the situation. Perhaps there was something she was missing... and there was little time for her to figure it out - she didn't want another death on her hands.

As Kat stared down at her desk, the door slid open again. Kimono fluttering about him, Manji moved into the room, brows creased in anger. Throwing himself down into the chair on the other side of the desk, the Archpriest leant forward, speaking urgently.

"Kat, I know you're still angry-"

A snort of laughter cut him off as Kat glanced up grimly. Undeterred, Manji pressed onwards.

"-but you have to realise, we all need to stay calm. I'd like just as much as you to rip Voort into little piggy shreds then feed them through a lightsabre blade, but I owe too much to Muz. He wants the two Houses to stay together while Goat is gone- he doesn't want our Consul coming back to find them openly warring with each other. I hit you because you weren't listening to me."

For a moment Kat held his gaze, then nodded imperceptibly and looked away, speaking quietly.

"Anyway. Another murder? Who the hell did this one?"

With a shake of his head the Archpriest pushed himself up, lightsabre clanking slightly.

"I don't know. I was on my way down to the Cathedral to find out- but it can't have been a member of Ludo Kressh."

With that, he was gone. Behind him the Aedile stared at nothing, thoughts churning wildly- a battle between what she wanted to do and what she had to do.

---

"So, Macron... tell me what happened."

The alchemist giggled quietly then began to speak, voice as usual harsh with the chemicals he ingested.

"Well, myself and this trooper were just discussing the play of light on the autumn leaves of Tarthos, when the severed head of a trooper dropped down between us."

Looking up, the Archpriest rubbed his chin slowly.

"From up there? Hmm... the air vents?"

Turning swiftly to the leader of the search party, Manji gave his orders.

"Run several scans of the air vent system- particularly the area above the Cathedral. I want to know if anything's been there in the last couple of hours- try thermal, x-ray and motion scans. And check the holorecords- we have cameras up there, don't we?"

The trooper saluted then moved off as Manji turned back to his apprentice.

"And if that doesn't show us who perpetrated this little slaughter... I'll eat my short sword. Blade first."

Malisane walked back along the corridors. His Marka Ragnos robes disgarded. He'd managed to get hold of Malik, Scithe, and Manesh and with the hangar doors still jammed by Shimura's questionable behavior the three were going to land outside in approximatley half an hour. He supposed he'd better meet them. He looked down at himself. He was a mess, his flight clothes still torn burned and dirty. He needed a shower and a change of clothes before meeting the arrivals. He'd been messaged to say that the rest of his Squadron had taken up residence in the guest quarters and headed that way.

He was still nervous about all this and wanted to clear out but Muz had been clear about his instructions and the Protecter accepted he was going nowhere. Anyway as far as he knew there hadn't been any further trouble yet so hopefully things would calm down now.

He rounded a corner and stopped. He caught a flash of movement at the next junction, something dark disspearing quickly. That wasn't a guard. "Hello?" he called out down the corridor. There was no response. Malisane felt a sense of dread. There was a feeling that something wasn't right in the area, his glowing force senses tingling. He reached for his katana before realising he still hadn't retreived it following the crash. Should he go back the way he'd come? He decided against it. The guest quarters were only a couple of corridors away and once there he'd be amongst his fellow Ludo Kressh members.

He moved slowly along the corridor, sensing ahead of him and finding nothing. He turned the next corner and had a flash of something dark, then for the second time in twenty four hours he slumped into unconsiousness.

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

"What the hell is going on here?"

The furious voice of the Ludo Kressh Quaestor tore through the viewscreen, hacking into Manjis nerves as he knelt before his low desk, expression blank. As the Archpriest waited for an opening to mount his defence, the tirade continued.

"I just recieved a message that one of my House, a Protector named Malisane, was knocked out while walking the corridors of your Cathedral! Apparently, he is lucky to be alive!! And you tell me 'nothing is going on'?!"

Sick of the irate Quaestor, Manji slammed his hand down on his desk, attempting to silence Bob.

"I will repeat what I have told you several times- he was not attacked by a member of Marka Ragnos. When he was found, there were no traces in the Force indicating the presence of a Krath."

Bob sneered coldly, his patience broken.

"I'm supposed to believe these words, from the mouth of a filthy, conniving, lying Krath?"

Furious, Manji pushed himself up, an accusing finger pointing down towards the viewscreen.

"That is it! I've had enough of you insulting my Order and my House!"

Leaning forwards, the Archpriest hissed quietly to the sneering Sith.

"You want war- and war you shall have. Starting with the massacre of the Sith currently residing in our guest quarters."

"You wouldn't dare-"

Before Bob could complete his frenzied protest, Manji slammed his fist down on the control panel, cutting off the link. Moving to the sliding door of his office, Manji yanked it open, the echo of wood banging against stone carrying down the hall. Magnifying his voice with the Force, too angry to use commlinks, Manji bellowed into the corridors of the Cathedral.

"Pridemore, Shimura, Thorin, Lech, Phantom- in my office, NOW!"

As the echoes died away, the Archpriest moved out of his office and strode down the corridors, catching Kat as she moved out of her quarters.

"Get everyone in my office and have them wait there. I'm going to slap some sense into the head of that foolish Protector."

---

Slowly, Malisane rose from unconsciousness- to the unfamiliar sight of a well-lit ceiling above him. Then he realised he was strapped to a bed. Standing over him, Manji hissed quietly, hands on his hips.

"Awake, are we?"

As the Siths eyes rolled over towards the Krath, Manji leant forward and snarled angrily.

"I hope you realise that your stupidity has forced me to declare war on Ludo Kressh, as well as slaughter every member of Sapphire Squadron?"

Malisanes eyes widened slowly as he realised the magnitude of his actions. Manjis grim countenance seemed to fill the entire world, complimented by the drone of the torture droid floating behind him.

"And for that... I will make you pay."

Walking out of the meeting he felt like choking the life out of anyone and everyone that came in contact with him, his natural solution to the problem was taking it out like a classic fighter. His boots clicked down the hall way as he walked, reaching into his belt he pulled out his leather gauntlets and slipped them over each one of his hands. These gauntlets had a small metal piece on each one of the knuckles that helped increase the damage done with each blow. Working his pale hand into the finger sleeves so it would fit nice and snug.

Walking into the gym and sparring area he saw Tron demolishing a punching bag. Naturally curious to see what the Adept was doing here, he normally was not be seen anywhere in the Tarthos base. There was a certain mystifying aura around him that fascinated the Battlemaster.

"Tron, sir...it's plesent to see you here sir."

"Ah, enough with the formalities. You're a young buck, this bag isn't offering me much satisfaction, let's spar a bit."

"Uh...yessir."

The Battlemaster turned his back for a moment to put space between him and his opponent. Tron raised a hand at the Zabraks back and coursed the energy through his finger tips. The electricity split from the main branches and hit the younger Sith with incredible force that put him on his knees. His neck beginning to convulse and his arms shaking from the intensity, his clenched fists almost had so much pressure his fingernails were threatening to rip through the leather and into his palm. The electricity stopped flowing through the Adept, Shimura fell to the ground with smoke rising from his clothing.

Tron walked over to the fallen Sith and propped him up about so that he could talk to him.

"Waddya do that for?"

"I felt something in you...tracking chips of some kind? I'm not sure what it was, but it won't be bothering you now."

"Uh, thanks...you could have warned me though..."

Shimura's comm link barked to life with Manji's voice.

"GET OVER HERE!"

"Good luck son, I'm hoping this war won't tear to much into it's members."

"Why didn't you try to stop it?"

"Let's look at it this way, it is a way of culling the weak, we will always have more that wish to join."

Leaving the gym he made his way towards the Quaestor's office and waited for him to show up. Shimura nodded at the fact that he had to accept this war and that he would be the culling that Tron talked about, he would be the strainer that let the strong survive, and it wouldn't be many that would be allowed to live.

"Blood and ashes." Muz kicked a boot through crumpled robes, the steam still rising from the perforated body of a ragnosian acolyte. The hall was full of them, the result of a Trooper assault.

"These children didn't even have training sabers." Muz looked down at the blood drenched marble. "They didn't have half a chance."

Macron stamped through the doorway, and froze at the carnage. "Who the..."

"Leave." Muz raised his head slowly, his sable eyes burning. "Collect your men, and get back to Sepros IMMEDIATELY. I will collect you when i need you."

Macron opened his mouth to speak, then realized himself, and saluted, spinning to leave. The Ragnosians would blame Kressh, no matter what the truth of the matter really was, and he knew that staying here would mean his death. Fearing death...no, Macron did not fear death. But he knew that his master knew many fates worse than death.

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

Muz kicked in the door of the Ragnosian war room. Literally kicking it in, the wood splinters spraying up like water. "All right, you dirty frellers... the next kill is either from me or this mysterious elder, or I'll be collecting sabres from each one of you."

Manji's eyebrow went up, the tsuba eyepatch swivelling a bit to reveal the scar damage below. "What are you going on about, brother?"

"Look down in the commons room." Muz sneered. Half our younglings were just gunned down."

Manji stepped to the security camera, pressing buttons until the charnel house images sprung forth. Manji stared at the screen silently for a moment.

The pregnant moment gave birth to rage, the anger coloring Manji's face a deep crimson as he bellowed in rage. "DARAGON!!!" Manji spun, his hands on the hilts of his swords. "A life for a life. Shimura, Kat...Sapphire..." He stamped toward the door, his sandals echoing dully.

Muz swung unexpectedly, his fist smashing the Quaestor's face, knocking him to the floor. Manji recovered quickly, rolling backwards into a crouch, the kunisada blade sliding from his belt. Shimura and Kat stepped sideways, their sabre blades erupting with the razor hum of luminescence.

Muz calmly looked at them, the violet of his own sabre blade glinting dully off of the blackened slits of his eyes. "Step down. That is a direct order." Muz stared straight into the glower of his brother, unaffected by the attempt to intimidate him. "And tell Tharivol that if he values his soul, he should put down his weapons, and get out from behind me."

Tharivol stepped out of his concealed spot, placing his sword down with a grimace.

"Good." Muz deactivated his sabre. "I've already sent Sapphire home. I knew that you would barely be able to restrain your rage. We have an outside enemy, and they want us to fight each other. Divide..."

Manji rubbed his head slowly, responding by rote. "...and conquer." The words sunk in slowly, Shimura nodding slowly in recognition.

"Now...I need people to come with me...people who aren't going to be fooled by the petty attempts to turn us against each other."

Kat clipped her sabre back on her belt. "Come with you where?"

"Inos."

Shimura sighed in disapointment, the damned Commander slipped out of his grasp once more. Killing the blade he looked at his elder cousin studying his expression, he was serious, he wanted to go to this Ice planet and look for the dark one there.

"I'll go with you, if you do find this being I want to hear the screaming, grating sound of my lightsaber against his."

"I'm not sure," Muz started, "you seem to have a biased opinion towards Kressh."

"Be as it may, I've been fighting fire with fire. I trust your word that Kressh is not starting this. I trust your council."

"Good, now who else can I trust to go with me?"

Malisane lay strapped to the bed, cut and fried by Manjis missplaced vengeance and the work of the torture droid.

How the hell had he ended up here? He'd tried to do his best, had followed orders and tried to do what he thought right, and it had all gone horrendously wrong. He closed his eyes. The image of his attacker lay in front of him, making him shudder. He knew now, but he was too terrfied to speak of what he had seen for that split second, and who could he trust now in the Clan to tell?

Revenge that is what he wanted now, revenge on Shimura for abandoning him, revenge on Manji for his tortures, revenge on what had attacked him, what might be lurking somewhere around to finish the job. He strained against the bonds that held him and lay back despondently. What was left now? He wanted to get away, away from Tarthos, away from the opposing House Marka Ragnos, maybe even away from the clan? A few hours ago that last idea would have been unthinkable, in his short membership Clan Naga Sadow had been ingraved on his heart, but was it still the Clan he had thought it was?

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Raistlin heard the news that BoB Fett was being accused oftreason the minute it happened, ad Bob immediately ordered him out of Tarthos, and back to the command of the Khar Shian. As he made his way toward the hangar where his ship was clocated he had noticed intense stares and probes from most of the members of HMR. Not that it bothered him, any who dare make a move would get struck down like the traitorious dogs they were...

Tron Dlarit Sadow built this House... and this Clan. It is to he and he alone that the Houses swear fealty, not to one another. The competition between the two had become fierce, and Raist testamented it to a release of built-up hostilities among the Dark Jedi. It had been some time since the clans engaged in warfare, and Raist knew that soon, there would be new horizons for the Jedi to conquer, it was but only a matter of time. Still, for all the mjajor problems the Clan wished to attend to, its minor ones seemed to forever overpower it.

He boarded his ship, and took off, not saying goodbye to anyone. The craft flew a very tight route, after a mod that linked the Nebulon-b Frigate "Foresight" directly to his craft. a homing beacon of sorts. He cut a hard spiral into the atmosphere of Aeotheran, whooping as he hit the throttle on the Shinn Prototype, the craft responding incredibly.

With a minor jostle he soon was flying through the trees of the old House Primus Goluud. Dialing down the inertial compensator he swooped down running acourse among the treetops, before making a beeline for the former Citadel, now in use mainly as storage.

He flew by low, the massive tower stretching nearly 100 stories to the sky, while not as massive as the 175-story originial Darg'barh'h Citadel, the recreation was indeed a masterpiece in its own right, with stronger fortifications from the ground up, the tower was impressive, black, ominous and forboding, In the twin starlight of the Orian System skies, the Citadel stretches above the surrounding treeline, casting a perpetual darkness from the stars upon the canopy underneath.

Smiling he exited back into the inky blackness of space, turning sharply and heading for the hangar of the Foresight. As he docked, he wondered what Bob was up to and hoped he could shed some light on the incident surrounding them all.

Otherwise, Raist felt the Clan might be in for some trouble.

Macron shut his mouth immediately and spun on his heel. Muz was right as usual.

He ran to gather his Sapphire Squadron mates, and urged each of them to make haste. "Drop your cocks and grab your socks. Time to fly. Right now, code red. Hustle up. Move, move move!"

The group awakened with sleepy eyes and jumped from their beds hearing the code and the fear in Macron's voice. "Flight leaders- I need you to shepherd my flock here. Get these guys home safe. That is an order. I have to find Malisane."

Raidoner and Konar saluted and suited up quckly. The group wasted no time and sped to the hangar. Macron stayed behind, even at the risk of defying orders.

"Malisane... where are you? " he thought as he reached out with this mind. A faint groggy
impulse came back. Images of a gurney and an IT series droid welled up in his mind like phantoms.

"Tortured?" Macron hissed as his eyes narrowed. He began stalking straight towards the detention block area. He grabbed an extra flight suit and instructed R3 to prep his ship and keep her hot. "By the Dark lords. Someone will pay for this. Besides, I was supposed to torture him for going AWOL like that anyhow. I've been robbed."

The Knight was stopped at the door by a pair of security guards. A quick flip of the wrist popped a capsule of Sith gas out as the Commander activated his suit air system. The guards slumped to the floor, unconscious. Macron ignited his crimson blade and cut through the door, kicking it in inwards.Malisane lay on a gurney, attended by an IT-0 droid.

"Good thing they haven't upgraded to IT-3's yet," he mumbled as he grabbed the droid and deactivated it, receiving a nice dose of toxin in the bargain. He gritted his teeth against the agony and shouldered the moaning Protector. A few minutes later, they were aboard the Silooth and on their way to rendezvous with the Wandering Soul and the rest of the Squadron.

Lucius got into his TI and yawned, getting out a cigarette from his pocket. He lit his cigarette and watched the smoke go up. The Jedo Hunter inhaled the smoke and sighed with relief.

Lucius started the ship and a minute later he was flying in space, leaving Tarthos behind.

"Lucius, you ready?"

Lucius looked at the screen and saw Macron's face emerge on it. "We must meet on Wandering Sould as fast as possible"


"copy" was the only answer that the Sith gave.

A minute later a huge ship emerged from the darkness. Lucius piloted his TI into the ship. He jumped out of the TI onto the hard ground and put out his cigarette. The ship was empty, with the exception of the few robots cleaning and maintaining it.

"Must be the first one to arrive" Lucius smerked.

"Ah, finally my members are arriving" Macron emerged from the darkness. "Follow me into the room" he commanded as the Jedi Hunter followed.

"We must decide our course of actions" Macron started "this is getting out fo control, and I want my Squad to put and end to this"

"Well you can count on me" Lucius said coldly "I will kill anyone who stands in our way" he stated as he sat down at the table

"Patience is a virtue" smiled the commander as he sat down at the table.

Manesh, Malik, and Scithe arrived on Tarthos, although with a bit of delay.

Manesh asked, "Where the hell did everybody go?"

Scithe suggested, "Maybe if you didn't get distracted so often, we'd have caught up with everyone."

"Well, I'm sorry. There's a lot going on in my head."

Malik motioned to the base. "We should check out the base."

"Agreed."

***
Malik approached a bed. "Someone was really badly messed up here."

"Yeah. A member of Marka Ragnos probably did this to a member of Ludo Kressh."

"How do you figure?"

"Oh, you can sense these things."

Scithe asked, "so, where do you think everybody went?"

Malik said, "Only a handful of messages were sent throughout the base. Apparently there was a second murder. Marka Ragnos blames Ludo Kressh."

"Again? Weren't we blamed for the first murder?"

"Blamed? That guy with the pig face did it! Apparently he's in our house."

"Oh."

"But we don't know about the second murder. Must have been one of those ghost things people keep on talking about. Maybe it's some kind of droid thing that Den Darkhill made up. He was also good with the machines."

Malik said, "Den Darkhill is history. He went his own way before the split. So stop talking about him. I think the guy orchestrating all of this is somebody who was involved in this clan more recently, like, within the past two years. Someone like Lenzar."

"Lenzar? Lenzar never bothered me, and he never did anything to me."

Scithe said, "Let's not go there."

"Fine!"

***

After a while, Manesh and company discovered that Muz was leading a contingent of higher-ranked clan members to Inos.

Manesh asked, "Inos? Where is that?

Malik shrugged. "I know where it is."

"We always find ourselves one step behind everyone else."

***

As the group walked back to the shuttle, Manesh noticed something.

"Do you see that?"

Scithe said, "Yeah, I think I saw something."

Malik said, "No, I didn't see anything."

An object appeared to be approaching the group.

"See it now?"

"Yeah."

Manesh activated his lightsaber. Malik and Scithe did the same. "Now, since I am the strongest of the bunch, I will handle this thing."

Malik asked, "I don't even know what that is."

"Looked like a ghost to me."

"So is this the thing that has been driving everyone nuts?"

"Must be."

The Ghost approached the three of them, but it did not stand a chance. It was destroyed by the three.

Malik noted, "Well, that was anticlimactic."

Manesh asked, "So, what do you see?"

Scithe looked at the remains. "Looks like a droid?"

Malik said, "Looks like a human being."

Manesh asked, "Are you okay Malik? I see a droid too. This proves that this whole scheme is the work of Den Darkhill. He was very good with machines."

"You mentioned that."

"I'm telling you, he was THAT good."

"I don't see a droid. I see a human. Someone I've never seen before."

"How could we be seeing the different things?"

"I have no idea. Some kind of mind trick?"

"Aren't we better than that? We're pretty high ranking."

"Well, Yoda was a Jedi Master and he didn't see a huge conspiracy happening right in front of him."

"That's true."

Manesh suggested, "Let's take this thing with us."

"Agreed."

They loaded the carcass, or droid, or whatever it really was, into the shuttle, and off they went to Inos.

The Battlemaster opened his mouth to speak to his cousin once more but felt a nudge through the force, barely there. His student, he had forgot about him, How could I have forgot about him, he is suppose to be great...and I left him...well, time to go get him now. Shimura turned around without the permission of any of his superiors.

Dashing through the hallways he had dozens of thoughts flying through his head, one of them was not defending his tortured student. You don't learn from pleasure, pain is the best teacher. His view of this kind of teaching often sparked a disagreement bettwen himself and the Aedile who thought differantly. Coming to the room that he thought his student was in he found that the door was in, walking in past the table he looked into the room farther into the back. He saw nothing but restraints and a broken investigating droid.

Shimura knew exactly who took him and tried to catch up with them. Skidding into the docking bay he watched the Commanders Gunboat take off.

"Dammit....once again he escapes my wrath..."

Malisane lay on his bed watching the guards outside the medical bay like a hawk. Following the gunship docking with the Wandering Soul, Macron had left to meet the rest of the Squadron and the Protector had been trolleyed off to his current location. The medical droid had tended to his injuries and assured him that his wounds would completely heal with a few days rest.

This didn't comfort the young Sith much. He was glad to be off Tarthos and was greatful to the Commander for rescuing him, but he knew the guards were here to keep him where he was. Despite the following events, Macron obviously hadn't forgotten his unauthorised escape from Sephos, adding to this crime that of drinking on duty, assault on a deck sergeant, theft and destruction of a shuttle, damage to the hangar door, and worse deliberatley disobeying the Commander's direct orders, albeit all under the influence of alchohol and confusion.

Besides this Malisane knew if the attackers were able to get into and move about both Sephos and Tarthos undetected, there was no reason to assume they couldn't get on the Wandering Soul with simular ease. No Clan Naga Sadow localion was safe at the moment. He had to get out of here.

He was loyal to Sapphire Squadron, and to his House and Clan, but right now the young Sith wanted to survive more than anything, and maybe work towards revenge on those who had wronged him. Sapphire Squadron was presumably wasn't going to stay on the Flagship, and then the time would come.

PRT Malisane (Sith)/FM/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow [ACC: INI]

Kat's thoughts raced... Inos? She remembered Inos well. And now they were heading back to that frozen hell. Kat gritted her teeth, but joined them on the ship. The laughter within her head grew louder, and she cringed, sliding into a dark corner of the ship, hidden in the shadows, away from the rest of the group. They were almost ready to leave.

Inos...

The logs told the whole story - her visit was rather eventful... and left her haunted. She found the answers to many questions, but the answers left many more questions. Kat anxiously twisted the handle of her whip, her palms moist from the worries on her mind... her grin was gone.

She hoped someone thought to leave a good squad here at the Catherdral to protect what they had left... or they would have to take everyone.... or hide everyone. Bob would be there soon, and all who remained would either need to be strong, hidden, or die.

Kat was rather worried... she had a lot of friends in Ludo Kressh.. she didn't want to think about the consequences of this war. And the voice continued to laugh in her head. She closed her eyes, a low growl in her throat.

The voice rumbled through her head, getting louder every minute... she tried to quiet it, but the words just echoed... “Go now, child. Bring me back what I demand.”

In the ready room of the Wandering Soul, Macron was in a meeting with Bob and Raistlin, and Voort and Jonus were there as well. Some of the members were present physically, and some linked via holonet. Malisane was recovering in the medbay, and Lucius had just returned from a long range foray.

From the Foresight via hololink, Raistlin spoke up.
"This is bad man. We are jumping around like mad. Seriously Bob, do you mean to attack? I mean... hmm."
Voort gave a squeal of concern in the background, punctuated by the crunching sounds from some hapless lifeform that he was gnawing on.

Grumbling came from the group as Daragon gave his assent. Even now, the entire fleet was assembled in one spot, in orbit of Amphor. The gas giant would shield their signatures and give little warning of any impending attack. The strike cruiser and Nebulon class vessel were surrounded by scrambled fighters. Marka Ragnos had many powerful warriors, but the might of a strike fleet was not to be ignored. They were fully armed and ready.

Macron stood up, and smacked his hololink. The Commander was quite hot under the collar, uncharacteristically so even. He spoke with passionate words and gestures, and walked back and forth on the deck with his boot heels ringing with each step.

"No way," growled the Sith. "I will Not attack my Brethren. This is not right. These enemies are trying to divide and conquer us. Leveling the Tarthos compound will not help. Yes, we have the power to do it. But it will not solve anything, and in fact will weaken us all considerably. Have you not thought to consider that you may be falling into the trap laid for us by our stalking enemies perfectly? To have the power to do a thing is good only if you use it for the right purpose. Have no doubt, I am no pansy arse "goodie" two shoes here. You all know what I am about."

Evil chuckles came from the connected links. They did indeed. He gave no quarter, and asked for none.

The Knight continued to speak. "But I say we should be supporting these stalwart Clan members on their Inos run, instead of leveling their compound. I have a feeling they will need us. Just for once, let's do the unexpected and not play into the hands of our mutual enemy. Maybe we'll get to bust some non-Clan heads out there."

A grudging assent came back from the speaker as the group let go a collective sigh of relief.
A very near disaster had been averted, and only just barely.

Macron came out into the lobby and took a quick look around. It seemed strange that none of the Saphire Squadron members were on the Wandering Soul yet. The Knight smirked and decided to see what Malisane was up to.

He came through the halls and entered the new hallway when his gace went white and his bright yellow eyes became pale from the anger. Macron was standing beside the two Guards who were suppse to be guarding Malisane. The guards were lying on the floor passed out and some blood was visible from their pale faces.

Macron spit in anger and turned towards his ship. Whoever did this will pay!!

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

"Delta ready to attack, sir" Lucius spoke through the radio on his TI
"Gamma ready" Malisane spoke quietly
"Good, then proceed with the plan" Raidoner said as he smirked "They want war, they will get it"

The fleet of Sith Fighters was getting closer to Marca Ragon' headquarters in Tarthos.

Lucius lowered his TI and pressed the shoot button. A few laser left the ship and hit the defense of the Marca Ragnos Base. Sith Flight Team started the attack on the house of Marca Ragnos.

Raidoner gave the signal to break formation, Karimicus wanted no part of this attack that was unauthorized after Macron had managed to cool things down with the house of Marka Ragnos.
Raidoner appointed his apprentice Lucius as a squad Leader and Melisane as his back up, the Sapphire squad was totally committed to make the members of Marka Ragnos bow down to the House of Ludo Kressh and always regret every display of disrespect they managed to bestow upon us in the past. Raidoner wanted only one thing, "Xhedias Forkall" was the prize Raidoner was after.

Raidoner launched missiles from his TIE Oppressor at the Thartos's turrets taking them offline, Lucius quickly dispatched all the Sith fighters that managed to launch just before Melisa damaged all launch pads on the Tarthos with her Ion torpedoes.

Every hit was strategically planed out causing the element of surprise to be a deadly blow to the Tarthos, Raidoner asked for Xhedias to launch and face him but got no reply.

The Sapphire squad once again had proven their worth sadly against their fellow Clan members but Raidoner always believed that one must always defend ones house to the full extent of ones power.

Tarthos remained in ruins, the Sapphire was leveled it and left as quickly as it arrived and now we play the waiting game.

Raidoner knew that their Sith would retaliate against the Sapphire, but that is what Raidoner wants.

As the Sith Squad left all that remained was to pick up the pieces but just as the surviving members of the HMR though it was all over they saw the Iron Fist Brigade suddenly appear being led by Blade Dranal and Ziguarath, the Obelisk held their sabers high as they entered to wipe out the remaining members of the House of Marka Ragnos.

Even the wounded were slaughtered like womp rats by the Iron fist, they wanted to strike fear into the hearts of all in the Clan and other Clans might think twice before they challenge us.
Blade Dranal a master at strategic command and Ziguarath was as strong and cold hearted as they come the HMR had no chance their Obelisk Brigade was promptly wiped out and all that where left were its Krath.

Screams filled the halls of the Cathedral... the volley of blasts echoed. Kat watched, nunb at the destruction below them. She scrambled from her seat, looking at the new attack. They had only just left a bit ago. While she looked on in surprise, and then rage, the voice in her mind began laughing at her fury over the destruction.

She held her head, feeling the pain and fury rage inside her. The Knight growled "Stop it!"...

Shimura looked at her oddly, even as he growled outside the window, "They will pay for this."

The destructive bolts fired across to the buidling, taking down the tower first, followed quickly by the rest of the complex. The demolition happened so quickly, it was almost finished before it was done.

Seeing how they were only one ship, it was good that the attackers seemed singleminded on the task at hand.

Her home had just been leveled - watching the volly of blasts of ships on the helpless buidling.... With a growl escaping from her lips, she recognized the identification of the attackers... it was the Sapphire Squadron.

Macron looked on in shock at the viewscreen. The blasts rocked the compound, and the damage was serious. Not irreparable, but still a solid blow. And one that he had not ordered.
In any case, Iron Fist had obviously acted under other orders that he was not aware of.
As he unclenched his fingers from their death grip on the command chair, he put his head in his hands and sobbed. Even his best efforts had come to naught. What could he really do anyhow, only being a lowly Knight? He hoped his friends were okay.

"By the Dark lords. I know what I can do. I will make sure my friends survive. " the Sith turned to the Captain of the Wandering Soul. "You will fly escort to the Spear. Now." The Captain gave him a sneer and denied his request, saying he did not have the authority.

Macron lit his blade, and Blinky the IT-3 droid rose up from his casing on humming replusors.
The Captain gulped audibly, seeing his slow and agonizing Death in Macron's eyes. He knew it would take days at the least. A wave of the Sith's hand slammed the security doors shut.

"Now do it, or I swear to Darth you will beg me for death like a little whimpering girl
by the end ." The orders were given, and the security codes changed.

Macron sneered at the captain as he grabbed him with Force assisted speed and shot him up with a hard dose of
Sith poison. "Fool. I am A Sith. Never deny me."

"Squadrons One and Two, you are hereby ordered to let no harm come to the Spear. Squadron Three has gone rogue. Fire on them if engaged, try to use ion cannons," came Macron's voice over the comlink.

The people aboard the Spear noticed the looming shape of the Wandering Soul drop into hyperspace very near. They saw the fighters pour out of the vessel, and swarm around them.

"Umm, this is not cool," came Shimura's voice. "Yeah looks grim," responded Kat from her posiiton near the window. All of them had visions of turbolaser blasts slamming into their craft, and their hot ions drifting throughout space for all time.

A gruesome smiling familiar face lit up the holoscreen. "Hi folks. It seems I have a discipline problem on my hands. Squad Three has gone rogue on me. I'm here to make sure you are protected personally. "

"How can we trust you bastards, after what you did! Besides you don' t have that power anyhow..." yelled Nekura at his apprentice.

The viewscreen panned out as the camera droid backed up. The Sith now had command of the vessel, and the captain was strapped to a chair in the background. He was screaming with agony as an IT-3 droid worked him over. A nearby 21-B meddroid made cooing sounds as it followed behind the interrogation bot.

"Let's just say- he has become most cooperative recently. You are guarded. If I wanted you dead, I would have just vaped you all like Muz taught me, right?"

Pulling the Aedile to the side out of the view of the holo, making sure he could not be seen or heard, knowing this he let Manji continue yelling. His clenched fists were balls of fury ready to start rolling down the hill of HLK.

"You know how to pilot the Spear better than any of us. Pilot us to flagship, and we can take over the ship, and it won't be our fault, seems like a lot of people are going "rogue" as Macron calls it since this thing popped up."

"Shimura, this isn't very bright."

"We don't fight to the bridge, we get to the bridge, then take it over, lock it down, and then we have an instant flagship in our control." The Battlemaster crossed his arms and his mouth went into a tiny straight lining, indicating a certain revenge he wanted.

The way of the Sith, planning, backstabbing and working their own agenda. The Battlemaster had not realized the change he was beggining to have but it seemed that when he wanted something desperatly enough it came to him, as he knew his fighting skills would when the time was needed for them.

Raidoner noticed the Spear drifting in space as he requested docking the flag ship opened fire upon the Sapphire Squad, thus giving Raidoner a reason to satisfy his blood lust so he gave the order to disable the ship.

Lucius had lead his wing men to the rear of the flagship while Melisane circled the flagship in an attempt to shoot out its guns and get them off line. Raidoner took the flagship head on firing directly at the bridge. Raidoner orders Acerbus and Garreth to each come from opposite angles and fire upon the bridge, an old Sith trick to destroy the bridge and tow the ship away.

As all 3 Siths flew in on them the last thing the members of the bridge see is the flash from the laser cannons melt away the ships glass shields the ones that are not burned are sucked into the vacuum of space to die a slow death.

*We have disabled the Spear, call in a towing freighter to move the flagship and claim it as a Ludo Kressh prize* Raidoner said to Lucius.

*Should we not attempt to board the Spear and check to see if any of our HLK brothers survived?* Lucius asked.

*Fine I will call the grunts to await pick up from our transport to board the Spear* Raidoner replies.

Raidoner informed Blade Dranal and Ziguarath that their plan was a success and that they had captured the Spear and needed the support of the Obelisk order once again.
Blade Dranal loved the idea that the Spear was being claimed by HLK so he boarded the ship with the Iron fist Brigade and headed to dock with the Spear for a forced boarding.

Kat frowned a little... she knew that Shimura didn't trust Macron, and she understood why... but things had to be handled, and letting the two get together wouldn't solve that. She let her thoughtful expression slide into slight sigh.

"Not this time - we have more pressing concerns. The base is pretty much done... all thoughs who can survive will. And I know Macron - he's got our back. If he didn't want to, he would have finished the rest by now," Kat slowly walked through her arguement.

Shimura protested immediately, pushing a little bit. "If he's on our side, we will know once he's in custody. If not, then at least we are not in danger of being shot in the back."

A cloud covered the Knight's face, as she considered it. Although she was Aedile, Shimura was influential, and of higher rank. But, he also was rather hot headed, and his anger with Macron was obvious.

Kat nodded, and started to the door, "I think I will see about flying this beast again." Kat grinned weakly, heading towards the bridge. She missed handling the controls on this baby. Turning back to the Rollmaster, she added, "But I don't know that I can help you take over that ship... we shall have to see."

As the words escaped her mouth, another ship fired on the Spear. Kat swore, running to the deck, Shimura following.

"Let the engines die - Now!" Her scream into the comm unit coaxed people into action. The Aedile knew a bit about tactics, and about this ship. As she headed towards the bridge, a flash erupted from the general vicinity, throwing her to the ground. Snarling, Kat leapt back up.

"To the secondary deck." Her feet flew. She would not let them take this ship - not if her last breath depended on it. Kat started the repair droids, and the nanintes... she may not have weapons, but damned if they wouldn't get her precious ship out of there intact. Muz would kill them if they didn't - if the Procounsel happened to not be on the bridge at the time.

"Let's go to the docking hatch, we can catch them there when they try to pick us up."

"Let's man the guns first!"

"Is the reactor blown?" Shimura asked.

"I don't know, I'm not on the bridge."

Both the Krath and Sith growled as they turned to go their seperate directions with Raidoner standing before them, already docked, his hand on his lightsaber.

"Looky what we got here Kat, a stray HLK dog. Awww poor puppy, what do you say Kat should we just put him down? He's not looking in to good of shape."

"Go for it, Master isn't going to be pleased at his cowardly antics."

The HLK Battlemaster growled as he drew his lightsaber, the birth of the white blade came with a hum. Shimura did the same, his blood red blade seeked contact or it could have been the feeling of the wielder.

"So Mandalore, let's see if you have the skills to prove worthy of your name."

The Zabrak lunged foward striking low, in a beserker state at the sound of the screaming clatter of the lightsabers. Striking out with his fists, feet, elbows or knees, the Kressh was not as agile as the Ragnosian as the Kressh began to take a beating. The constant attacks suprised the Battlemaster somewhat as he was pushed onto his heels, the fighter he was, Shimura noted his and dived foward, spearing him around the waist causing both himself and his opponent to drop their sabers with a metallic echo. Raising himself to his hand and knees Shimura knew he was the better fighter, more experianced, faster, stronger and more durable.

"You sicken me." Shimura said as he backed off his opponent that now lay on his back, looking up at the ceiling.

Lucius came running down the corridor as he heard voices echoing on the other side of the hallway. Lucius opened the door as he saw Shimura towering above his master.

"Die Mandalore Scum" Shimura hissed as soon as Lucius ran into the hallway.

"Stop" he sopke loudly enough for everyone to hear. Everyone in the room turned around, as they saw Lucius standing holding a gun pointing at Shimura.

Battlemaster put his hands up and faced the Jedi Hunter. "perfect timing" he smirked.

Raidoner rose and faced Shimure smiling. "Imagine Marca Ragnos actually defeating The great Ludo Kressh" he smirked. Raidoner swung his fist and punched battlemaster in the nose. Shimura fell back as Sith commander picked up his lightsaber and walked over to the Aedile.

"Looks like we got ourselves a hostage" he said triumphantly as he took Kat's lightsaber.
"Please follow me my mistress" he smiled to Kat as he signaled Lucius to leave the ship.

"we will let Blade deal with this flagship" Raidonre smirked as he started to walk towards his TI.

"Stop." a voice said.

Raidoner turned to see Malisane, stood katana in hand watching them.

The flight leader frowned, "Yes?"

Malisane looked at him. "I'm grateful for the pair of you breaking me out and returning my lost katana, and I helped you in the attack on Tarthos even though it was against Macron's orders, but I can't allow you to take my master hostage."

Raidoner looked amazed. "He is the enemy and we are Sapphire."

Malisane shrugged. "Just as Lucius is your apprentice I am Shimura's. I don't know how this is all going to turn out, and I guess following our attack we're all in as deep in trouble as each other now, but I suggest you give Shimura and Kat a shuttle and let them leave." He stared the battlemaster straight in the eye and waited for his response.

At that moment, as the triumph of Ludo Kressh seemed assured, silence fell. The rumble of engines about them seemed to fade as footsteps whispered through the corridors of the 'Spear.

Out of the darkness, two figures moved. Coat flapping about him, the Proconsul of the Clan moved out of the shadows, black eyes burning with a horrific rage. Before the eyes of the Sith could follow, his sabre came up, violet blade aiming at them. His voice seemed to echo in their ears.

"Get. Off. My. Ship."

Beside him, the Quaestor of Marka Ragnos stood proudly, eyes burning with anger. His right hand twitched convulsively on the hilt of his katana, his left clutching his lightsabre. He took a step forward- Lucius and Malisane, lower-ranked Sith, backed away. An aura of power seemed to glow around the Krath, more so than before. He could feel strength rushing through him, his strength in the Force increased. Teeth gritted, the newly-elevated Epis snarled furiously at the Sith.

"Just as I suspected- you Sith are cowards. First you bombard the Cathedral then you sneak on board this ship and attempt to take prisoners."

Instantly, a ringing slash combined with a vicious hum filled their ears, the katana unsheathed and ready, the lightsabre burning with a bright silver light. When Manji spoke again, his voice seemed quiet compared to the sound of his blade- his revenge.

"Leave. Now."

Arrogantly, Raidoner kept the lightsabre levelled at Kat's chest. However, behind him Shimura pushed himself up- then called upon the Dark Side, aiming a telekinetic strike at Lucius' hand. The blaster was thrown away, Lucius left unarmed. Instantly Shimura hurled himself at the Sith Battlemaster, a scream of rage ripping from his throat.

One punch bludgeoned into the back of Raidoners skull, the second blow slamming into his kidneys as the Sith turned in confusion. Doubling over, Raidoner coughed in pain as Shimura roared again, bringing his elbow down on the back of his neck. The poleaxed Battlemaster collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain. Standing over him, still twitching with rage, Shimura raised a boot to stamp down on Raidoners face and crush it across the floor of the 'Spear- but as he prepared to finish his opponent off, Muz spoke again.

"Stop. Don't kill him."

Looking up at his cousin, Shimura almost choked in disbelief.

"W-what the-"

Moving forwards, Muz levelled his sabre at the fallen Sith, speaking angrily.

"He's contemptible, cowardly and filthy, but he is needed alive. And besides, I don't want Raidoners brains all over the docking bay of my ship."

As Shimura and Manji chuckled wryly, the Proconsul squatted down and pulled Raidoners head up by the hair, speaking into the Battlemasters blood-smeared face.

"You will leave, now, by order of the Clan Summit. Get back aboard the Wandering Soul, into the custody of your Commander... and go. Remember- directly disobeying a superior is punishable by death."

Pushing himself up, Muz took in the other Sith with a deathly gaze.

"Count yourselves lucky that I don't report this offence to the Dark Council."

Defeated, broken, the Sith slunk back to their ships. Only Malisane remained, bowing deeply to Shimura. Turning to face his Apprentice, Shimura wiped a smear of blood from the corner of his mouth and grimaced. Then he lunged forward, smashing his fist into Malisanes stomach. Uncomplaining, the Protector doubled over in pain then sagged to his knees, his masters wrath breaking about him.

"That is for joining in the attack on the Cathedral. Now go. I will contact you later."

Pushing himself up, Malisane bowed again then staggered off. Turning back to his cousins, Shimura breathed out heavily. Manji grinned, deactivating his sabre and slipping his katana back into its scabbard. Turning to the Proconsul, the Epis chuckled quietly.

"One of these days, that Raidoner... I'm going to tear him limb from limb for being such a dunce. Anyway... you're taking the ship to Inos, right?"

Muz nodded and the Epis rubbed his chin in thought.

"I was going to head back down and get the Cathedral rebuilt- but I guess you could use me on this one. We go to Inos, find what we need, then we come back here and annhilate the [Expletive Deleted] out of those [Expletive Deleted] Obelisk, right?"

A chorus of nods confirmed his words, and the Epis chuckled again.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Shaking his head, Muz grinned.

"There's the slight problem of getting the engines running first..."

Some of the rubbles of what once was part of the great Cathedral of Tarthos went loose and moved away to reveal three figures covered in dust and debris. Three figures who were definitely not happy with all the developments. Dust settling slowly against the gentle breeze, the middle figure sweared.

"Someone will pay dearly for all this. I just need to know who the heck was the idiot..."

"Yep, we know it, Manesh. This is the ugliest stupidity someone could have managed to produce." Was Malik's turn to speak, beating dust from his robes. "But we still need to find any clues to who was the idiot."

"Shall we move to the former comm tower, gentlemen?" Scithe looked as ummoved as always. "Maybe we can extract some info from there."

After some time of search and digging, the three were able to locate an officer under the consoles of the comm room, trapped and agonizing.

"Hey, folks. Look! I found one..." Malik said almost yanking the officer's head off by the collar.

"So what? Have him speak who made this?" Manesh said already going to check.

"Nope. But it will not take long, isn't it officer?" Scithe said with a grin bowed over the agonizing and now terrified officer.

----

"No way. They can't be that stupid. Macron was supposed to be much smarter than that." Malik said with a little disappointment.

"Can't you all see it? It was Darkhill and his nanomachines controling the ships." Manesh spat. " I swear it! He'll die slowly..."

"Uh... Not again that Darkhill stuff, man...I mean, sir..." Scithe started looking for some loose thread on all this nonsense. "As we could see, there was no decent fighter left on Tarthos to defend the base against those morons. They were all going to Inos. Maybe it was all forged by this mysterious killer and some brainwashed stupid."

"Yeah, whatever..." Manesh let the Darkhill fall behind and conceded. "But it could be him afterall."

"So, what now?" Malik said after putting some useless pieces of a datapad together as if trying to fix it.

Scithe frowned. "We'll get back to that escort junk back there in the jungle and find someone who can explain this. I guess we'll find everyone on that Inos iceball."

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

SBM Scithe (sith)/Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow

Malisane, clutching his stomach slightly hurried to catch up with his fellow Sapphire members and the three of them dejectedly boarded their TIEs and launched out into space.

"Set trajectory for the Wandering Soul we'd better report back to Macron." Raidoner ordered

Malisane sat in his ship thinking. "I don't want to go back yet I want to see this out. If we go back to the ship we might be spending the rest of this affair in the brig." he replied.

Lucius came back over. "You heard what Muz said."

Malisane replied. "I can recall his orders. I don't recall him saying immediatley did you?"

Raidoner considered this. It sounded tempting. "You serious about this?"

The protector shrugged. "The way I see it I might not be in Sapphire much longer anyway with one thing or another I've done so I don't have much to loose and maybe you guys don't either. I say we find an asteroid to hide behind, see where they go and follow them. What do you guys say?"

"We could launch another attack Raid" Lucius smirked

"We need Macron's support" started Raidoner

"We cant get it. He is defending Marco Ragnos, think about it" lucius said quietly

"Then we have no choice" smirked Raidoner as he turned his ship over and set course for the closest asteroid.

The three Sith landed and came out of their ship, seeing nothing but sand and rocks on the samll asteroid.

Raidoner ut the microphone back in his ear "We have to contact macron" he said "We can not attack Marca Ragnos by ourselves again, or we will get killed"

As soon as Macron came online his voice roared over themicrophone

"Idiots, fools, Morons" He screamed in Rage "Board Wandering Sould NOW, I need my full squad on there."

"but..." Lucius started

"Do it now, or you will pay" Macron cut him off "Over"

The three Sith looked at each other in confusion

"Now what?" Malisane asked

The shadow surveyed the burning wreckage that had once been the northern wing of the Great Library of Tarthos. Though the majority of the fortress remained intact it would take months to rebuild and the priceless artifacts that had been destroyed could never be replaced. His eyes narrowed on the remaining starfighters circling the area, raining red hot plasma down from above. Fools. This had not been part of the plan. Things had gone too far. Those who had broken their vows of brotherhood would be disciplined.

The grey-green alien skin of the shadow creased in anger. "Idiots. Must I do everything myself?" he spat.

The shadow summoned the darkness of the Force to him in a tangible mass that enveloped every part of his being in a thick black cloud. He raised an outstretched hand as he channelled the power of the dark side into a canvass that stretched across the planet. Focusing harder the shadow could feel his skin begin to burn and peel away as he shaped the sky into a mesh of ships and cruisers. Drawing on the ancient darkness that flowed from the Great Library to sustain himself he forced the image of the illusionary battlefleet into the minds of the pilots who still filled the sky with their humble fighters.

---

"Frack!" screamed Lucius. "What in the hell?"

Raidoner glanced down at his tactical display and his eyes widened in disbelief at the size of the battlefleet that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Lines of frigates, corvettes and star destroyers filled the skies and at least three wings of advanced fighter craft were pouring forth from the new ship's hangers.

"Flight Leader!" cried Lucius. "I'm not getting an IFF signature, are they friendly?"

Raidoner drummed through his tactical controls as quickly as he could to try and get a signal. The ships were practically invisible to his sensors. "Reading nothing. They must be stealth ships."

Lucius glared out his viewport at the new arrivals. "House Marka Ragnos must have called for reinforcements. What do we do?"

"Fight them, what else?" replied Raidoner with a touch of bravado.

The insignificant flight of TIEs flung themselves at the illusionary battlefleet. Seconds later the fleet opened fire on Sapphire Squadron's remaining ships. The shadow concentrated harder, filtering images into the young Siths' minds.

Raidoner swore over the channel. "I'm hit!" He glanced out of his portside window and saw his wing had been blasted clean off. "I'm going to bail out! Ejecting!"

Lucius swung around to evade the wing of fighters that now turned to attack him but his actions were far too late. The ships moved with unbelievable speed and control, their lasers tearing through his ship. "Going down! Ejection system damage! I'm going to have to make a crash landing!"

---

The shadow released his hold on the pilots' minds and the illusionary battlefleet promptly vanished. In the distance he could just make out the parachutes of those who had managed to eject. Those who hadn't had flown their ships right into the dark forest far below, streams of smoke were already rising up from where they had crashed. Reaching out he could still sense the presence of those who had crashed- but just barely. Lucius and the others would not have escaped injury.

He turned his gaze skyward again at those who were still safely glinding down in their ejection chairs. He reached out into the Force again and channelled the dark energies into the clouds far above. Lightning arced from one to the other as he twisted their currents into a storm that eclipsed the black night sky. Bolts of searing white lot shot down, tearing through those who had managed to eject before their fighters had spiralled into destruction. He took pleasure in the pain that pulsed through the Force as Raidoner and the others were sent crashing to the ground, charred and burned from the blistering heat of raw lightning.

The shadow let go and shrunk back into himself. The clouds opened allowing moonlight to flood the forest. The distance still held the sight of the blazing ruins of part of the Great Library. It now also held a number of small peaks of smoke from where the starfighters had crashed.

The shadow pulled his hood up over his head and sighed. This had been unnecessary. The masquerade would have to end soon. The chaos and death that the fools from House Ludo Kressh had wrought so close to Inos would only have negative repercussions. For the Marked clung to death... and this would only bring the true target running...

He shook his head. "Much to learn this Clan still has. It seems a further lesson is in order..."

For a second time in twentyfour hours Malisane lay next to a burning ship on the ground of Tarthos.

He'd been lucky, one of the first few ships to be hit by the attacking fighters he'd managed to crashland his stricken TIE and stagger out of it before the horrendous lightning storm had broken out above. He shifted and a surge of pain shot up from what he guessed to be a broken ankle.

What the hell had happened? There was no way Marka Ragnos had suddenly got that fleet from so quickly, and yet obviously they had done. Maybe another clan, maybe allies amongst the Imperial remnants, he had no idea. He knew one thing though, whoever it was would likely be searching the ground for survivors, and he had no idea if Raidoner or Lucius were near or even if they were alive.

He crawled accross the ground, using his limited abilities to control the pain. He found a rock and levered himself up onto it painfully, and sat on it staring at the wreckage of the crashed TIE. Why hadn't he returned to The Wandering Soul, why in fact had he left it in the first place? He spied a long branch nearby and used what strength he had left in the force to drag it towards him. Right now he needed somewhere to hide. Any thoughts of Inos or Shimura or whoever was left alive of Sapphire didn't matter now. He was alone in enemy territory and at risk of discovery. He used the branch to lever himself up and take the weight of his ankle, then hobbled off for the shelter of the trees.

Muz's eyes narrowed, the force falling in torrents around him. A light breeze from the Tarthotic fields waved through his hair as he turned his eyes skyward. This was intense...the force was screaming as whoever was guiding it was slapping it around to their own bidding. Something looked familiar about those ships...

Manji would be halfway to Inos by now, and he would have the heads of those responsible for the damage on Marka Ragnos, on the Halls he helped build. If he had known what he did now when he had Raidoner under his fist, the Mandalore wouldn't have lived another moment. The treachery... the mind-stilling corruption that he had broken the ties of brotherhood with... This violence was to be kept in check, and only loosed upon enemies of the clan. And he...

Opening fire on his ship was one thing... barely forgivable. But wholesale demolition on a clan holding... Muz growled, the plans half formed in his mind. Watching the trailing lightning chase ejectees to the ground, Muz stamped toward them. Every last one of them would be in his...custody before too long.

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

Muz lifted Raidoner's smoking body from the escape chair, a sneer on his face. Groaning in pain, Raidoner tried to open his eyes.

"Have I passed?"

"No." Muz tossed the body onto the fender of the speeder. "And it is not over, Mandalore. Your pain will be legendary."

Raidoner channeled the force, trying to heal the damage. Muz erupted in rage, his saber lighting at his side. Leaning in to the charred husk of a Mandalorian, he smiled a feral grin. "I hope you enjoyed flying, Mandalore."

Raidoner swore at his commanding officer, reaching futilely at the Epis' throat, trying in vain to crush him.

Muz sidestepped the clumsy attack, swinging the blade down in a precise arc, then flipping it back to connect again, the sizzle of cauterizing flesh filling his ears.

Raidoner screamed as the flesh dropped to the ground, his arms cauterized at the elbow.

"One for Tarthos, two for me." Muz set his jaw as he pushed the Battlemaster back onto the speeder. "It will take months for you to learn how to control the mechanical replacements well enough to fly again. Maybe in that time, you will learn respect and brotherhood."

Raidoner slumped back, the pain taking his consciousness for the time being.

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

Manji stared through the viewscreen of the Fallen Spear's array, his eye falling darkly on the frozen iceball called Inos.

The communique button lit, and Kat came over to open the link. Muz's face filled the screen, a blood smear down one side of his face.

"We've lost every one of our younglings. I've rallied the survivors, and we are starting the reconstruction. This time, no sith flight will be able to take her down."

Manji glowered. "Every youngling?"

Muz nodded gravely. "All thirty seven of them. I'll be moving 3/4 of the padawans from Ludo Kressh here to compensate and punish."

"Who was responsible?"

Muz snarled, then let a evil smile cross his face. "I have him."

"Good." Manji cracked his knuckles. "Keep him alive until I get there. I have just arrived at Inos."

"I've got the situation under control here. Be careful over there."

"Will do, bro. Manji out."

"I copy," replied Macron from the bridge of the Soul. "I'll send over some techie droids. We'll have those engines up and running shortly guys. Hang in there. Flights One and Two should be able to cover you until then."

The swarms of TIE interceptors flew a circular ring about the Spear, as Macron beamed over surplus power on a tight microwave link. The extra power should keep life support and vital computer resources up and running for his friends.

The troubled look on his face indicated his level of concern. The rogues had been shot out of the sky by some unknown force that had then dissapeared in a lightning storm. He wondered if they were dead by now. He had felt a tremendous usage of Force power on Tarthos as well.
Even his meager skills could detect that much power.

"Would serve them right I suppose. Saves me trouble of a court martial," he wondered.
As the repairs were completed, the Spear left for Inos under it's own power.

One of the Wandering Soul intelligence officers came to him, with an intercepted transmission. the officer gaped at the squirming wreck of the Captain strapped to the chair behind him. The IT-3 droid was still at work. Even thought the mass of flesh had lost the capacity for speech, the agony it endured was reflected in the ripples of it's convulsing flesh. Macron ignored it and keyed up the data.

"....I've got the situation under control here. Be careful over there," came Muz's voice.

The Knight reviewed the transmission and sighed. Raidoner was in deep pudu this time, and there was nothing he could do about it. He turned to speak to the Seprosian intel Major.

"Yes, I know. Raidoner has been caught. Good job Officer Brakom. You may leave. Navigator, make course for Inos. We'll be sure they are not interfered with in this misson."

Malisane slumped against a tree painfully and rested.

He looked to where the cathedral burned in the distance. The young Sith's brain had started to clear a bit, the pain sharpening him up.

He thought about what had happened, about what Shimura had told him a lifetime ago in the cell He had said the protector would understand one day.

They'd wanted this. Muz and the clan summit, and the house leaders, Bob and Manji and the rest. Between them they could have stopped it, but somehow, for some reason, they hadn't. He, with Raidoner and Lucius, had decimated the cathedral, killed god knows how many of their own clan, but they were just pawns in this, they'd been allowed to do it, he was sure.

Who was pulling the strings here? Who was slowly moving them around like chess pieces?

Malisane didn't care anymore. He was out of it. He'd been locked up, let free and used, attacked and tortured and locked up again and persuaded to attack the cathedral, and now he'd escaped death at the hands of the fleet. He had no way off Tarthos but maybe he could find a hole to hide till the dust settled.

He picked up his stick and painfully limped on looking for shelter.

Muz sealed the wall behind him, sealing off the access to the defense grid. That would hold this tight until the construction could be completed.

Something glimmered in his mind, a slight twinge in the Force hinting at something. Muz gave in to his instincts, following his whim outside, through to the ancient ruin where the Stone Lion once came.

His hand on his sabre, and his eyes darting in wary curiosity, Muz felt the sense grow stronger.

The Shadow stepped from the rune inscribed walls, pushing his hood back to expose himself to the Proconsul.

Muz relaxed a touch, recognizing the face. "I knew you weren't on..."

"That's not important. Why are you still here?"

Muz scratched his chin, confused. "Fixing the damage that damn-fool Mandalorian wrought. Why?"

"What lies on Inos is far more important, and dangerous." The shadow spoke.

"Is it who I think it is? The Caeri..."

"No." The grey green skin of the alien glistened in the evening light. "It's much worse than that."

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

Muz piloted the shuttle to the Astronicus' Reach, the ship heavy with warriors as well as the traitorous Sith.

Raidoner flexed his new arms, the Mandalorian Crushgaunts having been a perfect, albeit painful installation on both arms. Looking out the viewport, he saw the capital ship and dropped his jaw. "I didn't know that Ragnos had a capital ship of such magnitude..."

Muz snorted. "There's a great many things you did not know, Mandalore. Like the fact that the Fallen Spear is my personal ship, and that it would have taken your whole squadron to disable...not just one wing..."

"But I missiled the..."

"Don't fall prey to illusions so easily, Raid."

"And the power went down...I know I disabled it..."
Muz grinned. The Artificial Intelligence of that ship was probably smarter than the sith. "It's called tactics, Raid. Didn't you think it odd that everyone was waiting for you on deck?"

Raidoner focused on his new hand, cursing his mistakes as he tried to retrain the severed synapses. Muz had replaced the Sith's hands, but made him swear a blood oath to him...an oath of loyalty that no Mandalorian would ever throw aside.

Lech grimaced at Malisane, talking at Muz. "Why did you let him live? He killed dozens..."

"..And he will pay for that...in blood spilled in combat, at my side. Maybe one day, his debt will be paid and he can be trusted to work on his own...but for now... he will be my shadow."

Turning back to the controls, Muz opened a link to the 'Spear.

"Manji, We are boarding the Astronicus' Reach and will join you at Inos shortly. Meet you at rally pont Tango alpha niner."

Just as Muz was about to leave a burned Sith came out from the trees. The Proconsul turned around and seeing the Sith he smirked. Lucius was barely standing but still alive. The Sith took a step closer and looked his proconsul in the eyes.

"Dont leave me here" he spoke quietly, but the lack of hope was head in his voice. Muz smirked as he came closer to the Sith. The proconsul clenched his fist and hit Lucius in the face. The Hunter fall down as blood started to drip down his chin.

"This is for being a smartass and attacking your own clan" Muz smirled "You will repay your bept to the clan, but for now you will come with me"

Lucius got up and bowed. Muz turned around walking away, as the once proud Sith followed.

Malisane sat resentfully watching Muz and Raidoner talking. He'd limped out of the trees to find half a dozen Ragnos troopers waiting for him blasters raised. With his ankle in it's state he'd gone quietly, as they'd surrounded him and escorted him to the Proconsul. who'd glanced at him and contemptously directed him to the shuttle.

He sat rubbing his ankle which now seemed to be sprained not broken but was still painful. He seemed to have come off better than his companions. Raidoner was still trying to get used to his new arms, and Lucius sat with his burned flight suit, hair and skin, being treated by a medic who wasn't exactly being gentle rubbing a salve on the flesh.

He didn't understand what Muz had in mind for them on Inos, his suspiciouns had been confirmed by the Proconcul's words to Raidoner. Why did he want the three injured Sith with him when so many other members were going? Malisane didn't know the answer but resolved to be on his guard.

The Commander motioned towards the twitching mass behind him as the medics came into the bridge. "Get that sack of crap out of here and into a bacta tank," he muttered. "Bob will be pissed if he dies. Stat. And in case any of you get any funny ideas about overpowering me... well. just look at him and think twice."

The scurrying Wanderg Soul crew members drug what was left of the captain off on a replusor gurney with alacrity. The alchemist petted his droid, quite happy with the upgrade he had done to it. "Good work," he said softly as the IT-3 droid purred at him. "Aren't you a cutie, snookums? Good droid."

Macron turned to the First mate, who had just been summoned to the bridge. The Sif was a calculating man, and had clearly seen what had happened to the Captain. He hoped to be put in command if the torture victim was unable to continue in his duties. And he clearly thought the Knight was insane, which was an accurate asessment.

"Now on to buisness. I see we have arrived in orbit of Inos. Excellent. I want a full scan of the planet. See to it that the Spear is protected. And, send a full message to Bob, Raistlin and Manesh detailing what happened," canted the Sith.

"Sir," replied the Mate. "won't you be court martialed?"

"Yeah, probably," said Macron wistfully. "I kinda like torture though. I'll take my lumps like a man. Now open a channel to Muz. I need an ETA for the Reach, as well as instructions. See if you can figure out what happened to my Squadron members down there. Dolts. Ah well, the way of the Sith lies with passion, I suppose..."

What had happened was almost inexcusable. Immediately after being informed that someone had issued a call of arms against HMR Raist had ordered his House to stand down. Onboard the Foresight, he had made sure the Nebulon-b had not engaged in any kind of hostilities, and the incredible difficulty and ommunications breakdown that had occurred resulted in extensive damage to the Cathedral on Tarthos.

It would not happen again..... on his honor.

Now the fleet stood assembled outside of Inos, awaiting orders, and in order to quell the madness going on, something had to be done. Raist had no clue what to expect, but if someone didn't take the reigns here, they would all be in serious trouble.


"Open a comm frequency to all HLK members, personal, and broadcast, override code Zulu-Alpha-9er-Echo"

A clicking, followed by a beep and silence indicated he was online.

"To all members of Ludo Kressh, this is Aedile Raistlin. I am assuming overall command of this operation and unless you receive an order, from myself, Bob, or Clan summit, it is to be disregarded. Your Commanders and leaders have been temporarily stripped of their authority until further notice, stay sharp, further orders will come. Raist out."

As the link broke, Raist slumped in the command chair. Thoguh he hated admin work, it wa s anecessary step to prevent the further escalation of hostilities. Only by working together would they be able to get to the bottom of what as occurring in CNS.

It was something even he was curious about, at this point.

Raven's tattered cloak danced in the wind as he surveyed the damage done by Sapphire Squadron. He held his katana in his hand, eyebrows furrowed in anger. If he ever saw Macron again, he would do everything in his power to kill the Sith, for ordering this attack!

He raised his blade, pointing it towards the sky. "By Marka Ragnos himself I swear, those reponsible for this atrocity will PAY!!"

"Oh Good, Raistlin has taken control. Thank the Dark Lords, I never wanted this responsiblity anyhow. I just had to be sure my friends survived." thought Macron as the comm spat out it's message. He had been relieved of command.

The Clan must survive and prosper. He would assure that no matter what the price, even if it be his own miserable and worthless life. His thoughts and body were heavy as lead. He would gladly sacrifice himself, and his Squadron if it would stop the unknown assailant. In a flat second.

"First mate Sajjus, you have the bridge," he said as he got up slowly. "Send someone to ready my Assault Gunboat please. I will be joining my Master and my Liege on Inos shortly. You are in charge now, per Aedile Majerus. Heed him well. You know we are in a most difficult situation. The Clan must prosper. And the price of failure is dear."

The Sif nodded as the Commander stalked off the bridge center of the Wandering Soul. "Thank God he is gone," he thought. The sight of his Captain reduced to quivering meat had disturbed him, even as a battle hardened warrior. An alchemist could be a bad thing if he was pissed at you. A quick death by turbolaser was far more preferable.

Macron was lost in his own thoughts as he stalked toward his ship. Passion consumed him, and he did his best to meditate and control his emotions. His IT-3 droid Blinky followed him. Macron spoke aloud, mostly for his own insane benefit but he knew the black durite clad droid heard him. He had grown rather fond of the gruesome interrogator bot.

"Ah to be like you my friend. All you have to do is get your nasty job done. I envy you Blinky. I suppose we are very similar in many ways, except for having emotions." The Knight petted his black IT-3 ball as it floated along with him on repulsor coils.

The droid chirped at him quizzically, not comprehending his words. Macron met his security droid in the Hangar, and boarded his vessel. "I wonder who hates me now......" he thought.

Raistlin stood, stretching as he took his leave of command from the bridge of the Foresight. Though he could have very easily have chosen to lead from the confines of the ship, any kind of productive action he could get himself involved in was something he enjoyed. With nary a word to anyone he entered the turbolift, and upon hitting a few numbers, the lift lurched to life, stopping only a few moments later to let Raist off.

A single set of doors met him as he wlaked off the lift, being guarded by two members of the elite Saraii Blue Guard. No words were exchanged as he entered his private quarters, taking up nearly a full deck. He entered, making his way to a closet. Snatching a few choice weapons, and some supplies, he quickly headed to the refresher unit.

30 minutes, a shower, and a wardrobe change, Raistlin was ready. Dressed in a triple-wrapped black tunic, with a black cowl over his face and a knapsack on his back. he was warm here, but he knew that on the harshly cold planet of Inos, where there was such a concentrated landmass, and an equally concentrated pocket of cold air over it, that he would be ready.

He shut off the lights, and within moments was standing by his personal ship, the Nemesis Enforcer. A quick launch sequence later and he was out in space, orbitng the Khar Shian fleet.

"All Kressh forces, check in, State position and status." Raist clicked off his broadband comm receiver, waiting for a response. Within moments he could begin planning a beachhead, and hopefully, some answers about what exactly had been going on the past week in CNS

He kicked back, relaxing, rolling up a cigarra as he waited.

Shin'ichi loaded the last pieces of equipment he would need for the trek upon Inos' frozen surface. Already wearing his thermal suit he primed his weapons with a substance meant to increase their resiliancy to cold weather thus reducing the chances that one or more of them might fail. He checked the blades at his side and his lightsaber one more time before exiting the barracks section of the Fallen Spear. A few moments later he entered the bridge and approached his Master.

"I am prepared Manji-Sama." he said plainly.

"Excellent. Once we land I need you to proceed to the rally point at Tango Alpha Niner. Report anything unusual immediatly, but most importantly I need you to ensure the security of the rally point. Muz should be here soon, and once he arrives we can take it from there."

With a nod Shin'ichi turned and marched out of the bridge unslinging his sniper rifle as he walked through the door. Sometimes you need a little extra insurance. he thought to himself as he approached the loading ramp.

Several moments later the ramp dropped and he was hit by the frigid air. Shin'ichi hated cold weather and this planet was all ice. With the resolute mind of a professional warrior he stepped upon the frozen surface and began his lone reconaisance to the rally point. Krath willing I won't run into anything. he thought, then grinning to himself said in his mind yeah right and maybe one day Shimura and Macron will kiss and make up. With this he continued the long cold journey to Tango Alpha Niner.

Right arm thrust into his kimono, Manji gazed out at the frozen wastes of Inos with a bored gaze. Then he turned from the bridge window, grimacing as he threw himself down into a chair.

"Dammit, I hate waiting. When's Muz getting here?"

As if on cue, the commlink sparked to life, the voice of the Proconsul gushing forth into the bridge of the 'Spear.

"Manji, you there?"

Leaning forwards, the Epis spoke with his usual lazy, arrogant drawl.

"Right here, bro- hearing you loud and clear. Where the hell are you?"

"The 'Reach is just dropping out of orbit. We'll be with you ASAP."

Grinning, Manji spoke again.

"Excellent. Soon as you get here we'll move out- Shin'ichi's gone on ahead."

"Roger."

Then the Epis leant back, gazing out at the sky intently. Soon enough, a large blot on the sky announced the arrival of the Astronicus' Reach, heading for a point on the frozen ground alongside the 'Spear. Pushing himself up, Manji grabbed a bundle of cloth on the back of the chair, throwing the heavy overcoat over his shoulders before thrusting his arm back into his kimono and striding from the bridge, to the exit ramp of the ship. Nodding at the assorted warriors of Marka Ragnos, Kat and Shimura amongst them, the Epis raised a hand, gesturing for the ramp to be lowered.

Glancing at his team, the Epis grinned widely.

"Now, it's bloody freezing out there- everyone keep together. We're meeting with the 'Reach first, then we'll proceed to the rally point."

A gust of cold wind and a scatter of snowflakes bore witness to his words as the ramp thumped down, opening onto the bleak wastes of Inos. Pulling the collar of his overcoat up around his ears, the Epis sighed heavily.

"I hate the frackin' cold."

Raidoner still being interrogated by but the clans summit about his actions realized that his fellow house members would have the suffer for his capture and his sworn blood oath, he was no longer solely a just a member of HLK but a member of the entire clan and that his blood oath to Muz meant he would have to defend the HMR just as his own or face the shame of being considered the son of a thousand kath hounds.

But what of Blade Dranal and Ziguarath who where in route to board the Spear, I could only imagine they turned back once they saw the sight of all the capital ships.

Raidoner did not want to have to face none of Obelisk's allies in the battle field.

Raidoner looked at Lucius as he grunted when the medical droid attempted to patch him up and says to his apprentice;
*There is no pain where strength lies*
The Jedi Hunter immediately stops grunting and shakes with anger as a sole tear drips from his left eye starring at Raidoner who believes he has just got the swing of his cyber-cloned arms and hands.

Melisane who is wondering where they are being taken? and why? asks Raidoner if they are going to be made to conduct a suicide mission for the actions taken? or are they to be imprisoned?

Raidoner shakes his head and says with an evil grin; *They now know how committed we are to defend our Houses honor even if it takes an all out assault with in our clan, we are now considered the most blood thirsty of all Clan Naga Sadow we are now considered heroes with in our house and the most bravest of warriors among the clan*

Melisane ponders on the words of the SBM and smiles evilly as he lays down on the medlab's bed.

Raidoner continues to test the censes and reaction time to his new hands as their ship has reached their destination and begins to dock.

As soon as Raidoner turned around the Protector's smile dissapeared to be replaced by a grimace.

He didn't feel like a hero of House Ludo Kressh, he felt like an idiot. How the hell had he let the pair of them persuade him into the foolhardy attack on the Cathedral. He'd wanted to escape but the price had been too high, far too high.

He privately thought the price his flight leader had paid for the attack was justified, maybe even a little lienient. The protector was also paying the price, he like Raidoner and the battered Lucius was effectively a servant of the proconsul now, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

They were on Inos now, or nearly. He hoped this business would be over soon, and he just hoped he came out alive and intact and could get back to his envoy work and his studies and put all this behind him.

Manji peered skyward, seeing the Astronicus' Reach change direction and vanish into hyperspace.

"What the frell?"

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

Muz stood on the comm deck of Sadow Palace, grimacing. Somehow the Wanderer had managed to pilfer one of Manji's ships and make it all the way here, the seat of Sadow's Power.

Muz tapped out an encoded message to the away team on Inos, then closed the console down. The groans and meaty thumps outside the door served as Kiln's calling card. The adept was smart...he knew to seize control, on must control communications.

The silver blade of the enemy slipped through the door, leaving a trail of molten metal. Muz smiled, his sabre in hand, the purple light emanating across the room as his left drew forth the Nagamichi blade. Feeling his mind slip into Zanshin, the battle mind, Muz prepared himself. He finally had a challenge worthy of using Sokan on.

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

Manji scrambled everyone off the remaining transports into the Bay of the Astronicus' Reach. The voluminous ship was comfortable to him, the style of the old capital ship understated, yet powerful.

"Urgent coded message for you, Quaestor." The sif officer bowed slightly as he presented Manji with the datapad.

Manji snapped it up, flicking it on and inserting his code cylinder. His eye spun over the words once, twice. The datapad fell from his hands, and Manji's gaze went glassy.

Shin'Ichi swung his head at his liege. "You all right?"

Manji shook his head back into action. "Sepros is falling. Set a course." Manji barked at the officer. Manji turned to Shin'Ichi. "Find Blade, find Raistlin, get Xhedias...get them all on the fastest ship, and get them to Sadow Palace as soon as possible... We need the best saberists there and immediately."

Shin'ichi ducked his head in a quick bow and bolted for the comm array.

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

Muz slipped under the silver arc of the Wanderer's blade, evading the strikes asquickly as the Adept could throw them. Muz thanked the gods that he had managed those years of long nights training with the saber, and that the Adept did not. Rolling to avoid another strike, and using his sabre to deflect another, Muz backflipped, covering his retreat with a swirl of blades. Sokan was doing well for him...or the Adept was toying with him.

Muz felt the tremors of the Force, the wake left behind Xanos before he arrived. Reinforcements would be a good thing. Kiln felt it too, his eyes narrowing as he focussed his animosity.

Kiln's strike feigned left, then collided with Muz's sabre, the focussing tines disintegrating under the silver light, then the crystal array smashing, the violet blade fizzling out. Muz tossed down the defunct weapon, sliding both hands onto the alchemically treated sword, parrying away the following strike as he backed up.

The door whooshed open behind Kiln, the form of the Falleen Consul revealed as his red sabre snapped to life from both ends. Muz reached into the force, pulling one of the obelisk sabres from the hallway beyond the Consul to his waiting hand. Igniting the red blade with a cruel hiss, Muz regarded the flanked enemy with renewed vigor.

"Zorrixor..." Kiln snarled, his twisted face accentuating the syllables with perverse emphasis.

Xanos snapped his saber into it's two component blades, leering at the Wanderer as he lowered himself into the ready stance.

Kiln unleashed electricity at the two, the blue arcs spreading from his fingers at the pair of them. Muz caught the energy on the borrowed saber, the sizzling electricity restrained by the plasma of the blade. Xanos focused the enrgy, a white sphere at his outstretched fingers collecting the lightning.

Xanos flung the power back at the foe, Kiln spinning and deflecting the blast off of him, the energy crackling across one of the computer arrays in the room. Muz swung his sabre and sword, the blades attacking in tandem as Muz threw himself at the enemy.

Kiln summoned the force, pushing against the attack, stilling the strikes in midair. Xanos struck to take advantage, only to find the Adept's skillful force freezing his attack mid-blow as well.

Breathing heavily under the strain, Kiln fucused the force, breaking out the window of the room. Releasing the force, Kiln dove through the makeshift exit, narrowly avoiding the attacks of the Summit.

Muz stepped forward, glaring through the window as the Wanderer escaped. "I'm surprised."

"So am I." Xanos muttered. "He wants us to follow him."

"Look, I didn't think for a second that I alone, or even with you, could best this guy. You said yourself that he was more than a match for even Dark Jedi Masters, and I am still an Equite." Muz watched the tattered cloak flap as Kiln ran. "Hell, even with the Clan here..."

"No one said anything about killing him, Muz." Goat interrupted, a restrained grin hiding in the grey-green corners of his face. "Although that would be a pleasant bonus."

"What the hell?" mumbled the Knight as all the ships seemed to peel away from Inos. They all seemed to be headed to Sadow palace at flank speed. Something big was going down, and wanted to be there for the party. The Silooth was quick for a Star Wing, and thre Sith pushed the engines hard.

As the Silooth jumped toward Sepros and the Palace, Macron wondered what was up.
If that blasted alien was as bad as he had been told, he would be chaff in the wind compared to it. Although, maybe his Taozin monster hybrid might slow him down enough for the Clan to whack the bastard. Macron doubted it though, and anyhow the thing was still under lockdown in the palace somewhere.

He popped out of hyperspace as the comm lit up. "Star wing, you are not... oh it's you Macron," chuckled Muz. "With all the blast marks on your vessel, I didn't recognize her for a second." The sound of running footsteps came from the background as Muz breathed heavily.

"Well thanks My Liege," came the reply." She'll hold up. What's shakin?"

"A bad enemy has violated the Palace. We need all hands to help repel the invader. Go to the Reach and get our Clanmates here."

"Roger that," replied Macron. "Meat popsicle on the way, for what it is worth." He found the Reach's IFF code marker and jumped again.

Malisane waited a few minutes till after Muz had left then left the shuttle and walked out into the hangar. He could sense flashes of the force and conflict and plotted the direction it was coming on. The he turned around and headed off in the opposite direction.

The corridors were deserted as he walked down them, most of the guards either dead or hiding. He reached the cantina and noted it was also deserted. He shut the door behind him then reached out with the force and dragged the vending machine accross it. Wiping the sweat from his brow he wandered behind the bar and saught out a bottle of Correlian Brandy.

Whatever was going on in the base wasn't his concern now. Older and more experienced Jedi were on the case and the best thing he could do was stay out of their way. He found a glass and poured himself a large measure and relaxed.

Muz heard a scream, as sharp as any man could produce. He, swong around and burst out the doors.

"What the hell..." He mumbled.

Raven collapsed in front of them, bleeding greatly from a horrendous gash across his chest.

"By, the Dark-ness, myy lorrrd-s, give me the energyyy to conn-tinue myy l-ife.."

Black energy swirled around the wound as the Guardian slipped into unconsiousness, attempting to heal himself. Muz looked at his brother's apprentice. Seeing that he would soon die he held his palms toward the dark jedi and released black energy into the wound. it began to heal quickly.

The Proconsul looked at his master. He didn't even have to think about the cause of this.

"Kiln."

"Of course."

Raven slowly picked himself up, picking up his Katana as he rose. He pointed to his ship, the Fearless.

"I can give you a ride. Its the least I can do." Then Raven did something he hadn't done in a very, very, long time. He smiled, geniunely, thankful he had not died.

Xanos stood at the front of the hangar with Muz beside him and studied the gathering of clan before him. The divisions were still there, he noted. Macron stood in a group with Manesh, Malik, Scithe, and Voort, the Ludo Kressh members looking out of the corner at their eyes at Manji, Shimura, Kat, Tharivol and the healed Raven stood in a group some distance away. Raidoner and Lucius stood to attention behind the proconsul, still bound by their oaths.

The consul addressed them. "By now you should all have been informed of the situation here and what has happened so far. The plan to draw out Kiln Tobasa.has been a success. Myself and the proconsul have already confronted him, and as we speak he is present in this base. The only way out is through this hangar. A party of us is going to find and confront him, and some of you will remain behind to ensure he is not allowed to escape us once more like he did on Inos."

Muz spoke up beside him. "Kiln is more dangererous than you could possibly imagine. Anyone who sneaks off to confront him theirself had better hope Kiln finishes with them before I get my hands on them. You will follow Xanos' and my orders to the letter."

Xanos nodded. "The assignments for this are as follows..."

To avoid interrupting the consul's briefing Raidoner whispered to Lucius *If we get can get to Kiln before the rest of the clan does we can prove our value as Mandalorian Warriors, it is our duty to face such a formidable adversary. His death by our hands would bring us great honor*

Lucius nods as he listens to Raidoner.
Raidoner nods back as he moves towards Muz and whispers *My lord, may I request on behalf of myself and Lucius that you allow us to track and kill this warrior of such skill?*

*After the stunt you pulled your in no position to request anything* Muz replies

*We mandalorians are well known to quietly hunt and track our enemies, we are no mere huntsman, we are predators..so please allow me to make up for my past mistakes by granting me and Lucius the right to hunt this warrior our own way*

Muz looks at the Mandalorian undecided.
Raidoner awaits his Proconsul's reply.

The Clan Alchemist stood with his black cloaked head bowed with all the rest of the assembled Dark Jedi. As the winds whispered, all their attire fluttered. Many Dark Jedi felt their hearts quicken that day in the thought of the Dark Blessing of Combat. It was widely known many would die.

It was time to seek the way of the no-mind. A Struggle for survival was upon the Clan.
It was Time to Destroy, or be Destroyed.

Macron feared the wrath of the Inner Circle, and knew that he may soon face it.
He had failed as a Commander. He had lost his position as a Black Guard to the Proconsul to an ambitious person due to his inefficiency and overwhelmed timeframe. He was a failure, apparently.

Because of the actions of his Rogue Flight, he now stood a high chance of a court martial and gentlemanly 'discussion' with the Inner Circle in answer to his ability to command his charges. He would pay for the decimation of the Tarthos Cathedral. He was the Officer in Command.

Friends had fired upon Friends, and the perpetrators were his Squadron Mates. This was Mutiny. The Pedagogue began to meditate upon his particular worthlessness. The Precious Library had been bombed, and that was tantamount to sacrilege. Nothing could have happened that was worse in his mind. Although he had not ordered the strike, he was beholden to the law of the Commander.

He felt the agony of fear and guilt as the Dark Side burned him. The Power had failed him often as of late even in his Antei battles, and he wondered why. Could his faith be strong enough? Had the Dark Side left him as a waif? Could he have done something wrong? Why had his Battle Team mates attacked Tarthos?

By the Dark Lords, his passion as a Sith burned true. His gut twisted. The Sith felt like he was on fire from within. He felt as if he could not control his own way. He hated that most of all. He could not see the Path, and he knew it was because of this Invader. Anger began to bloom in his soul. His hatred felt like a burning black coal lodged in his throat. His armored fists clenched in rage.

The simple Knight felt he had done his very best to hold the glue of the Clan together. Even to the point of commandeering the Clan Flagship to make sure the Brethren of Marka Ragnos survived. And he had, even in the face of wild cards and an unseen invader.

Even through all this, Macron was ready to serve his Clan as he bowed his head and thought, "Sith Lords of Old Please Aid my Cause. I Honor the Sith Tradition and My Clan and House. I hope only to die with honor."

Arms behind his head, the Epis waited for the Consul to finish. The only message coming from the aged Falleen seemed to be a grim one.

"... remember this- none of you have the slightest chance of defeating Kiln Tobasa. He is more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

It seemed as though the Consul's eyes alighted on Raidoner and Lucius as he continued, face stark.

"Your only job is to block off the exits- if he tries to escape, hold him until myself, Muz and the other elite saberists of the Clan- Raistlin, Beowulf- arrive. Do NOT attempt to tackle him yourself. We have had enough deaths in this Clan as of late- I do not want more dying through their own stupidity."

This time, the Consul definitely glared at Raidoner. Chuckling quietly, Manji lowered his head as Xanos turned away, cloak swirling about him. Then he looked up, staring at the other warriors of Sadow around him. Macron stood apart, head bowed, fists clenched. Curious. Normally the young Sith would be happy to take part in a mission like this.

Leaving Kat to divide their forces, sending them to various areas of the palace, Manji moved over to his Apprentice.

"Something up, kid?"

Looking up suddenly, Macron glared- then saw who it was and lowered his eyes.

"Nothing, Master. I was just thinking about how those fools have damned me. I was responsible for their actions- they bombarded the Cathedral, I was to blame."

Manjis one eye widened before he leant forward and clapped the Sith on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. Although the leaders of this Clan (myself included) often have our brains scrambled by alcohol, we can see right from wrong. You won't get blamed for something your rogue subordinates did- especially if they continue to make arses of themselves in Muz's custody."

Looking up, Macron felt something stirring within his chest- hope. At that moment, his precarious connection to the Dark Side seemed to solidify, the twisted grin returning to his face.

"I... I guess you're right, Master."

Chuckling, Manji tucked both arms behind his head again.

"I'm always right. Now, let's go and defend the main gate, shall we? If that Adept tries to get past us there, we'll make him pay with everything at our disposal."

A giggle broke from the Commanders lips before he spoke again.

"Right on. Let's go!"

"Just a moment."

Turning back to his Aedile and the soldiers of Marka Ragnos, Manji cleared his throat then spoke loudly.

"I want to re-iterate what the Consul just said- nobody try and confront Tobasa. If you see him, inform someone much more powerful than yourself and stay out of his way. No action hero crap, okay? Leave that to myself or Shimura. Or better yet, leave it to one of the elite saberists Goat was talking about. Understood?"

A chorus of assent came from their throats, prompting a grin from the Epis.

"Excellent. Now, move out."

Raidoner's anger could seen thru his eyes *I am a Warrior not a security guard* the mandalore spoke under his breath.
Lucius tried to control Raidoner's rage by pushing him back and telling his master to zip it.

Raidone closed his eyes and counted to 10 in order to calm down and focus.

*I'll show that arrogant Krath who's truly an elite!* Raidoner said.

*Lucius you stay here and help guard this exit, while I retrieve Kiln's head as a gift to those Keibatsus from us Goura Mandalore's* Raidoner said to his his yougn apprentice.

*But the consul said that we are to guard the exits?* Lucius replied.

*yes he did, but im off to check every exit there is and I might run in to this Kiln and we shall see who proves the better warrior...So if he comes this way just send me a message thru our personal comm link* Raidoner says.

Lucius only nods as Raidoner heads out with his saber at hand.

Raidoner walked down the corridor, sabre in hand ready to be ignited, using his force senses to try and seek out the opponent. This is how a Sith should act, he thought, not standing waiting for someone to find you but seeking them out. Besides he felt better doing something rather than nothing, and he'd show them.

He passed the open door to the cantina. "Who's there?" a voice asked.
He turned to see Malisane stood there, bottle in one hand and katana in the other.
"How much of that you had?" the flight leader asked.
The protector shrugged. "A couple of drinks for a bit of clarity," he replied, "catch!"
Raidoner caught the bottle and took a drink, letting it flow down his throat. "Where've you been?"
Malisane shrugged. "Just thinking," he replied, "trying to make some sense of all this."
The battlemaster replied, "I'm not trying to I'm just getting out there and doing something, like we did on Tarthos."

The protector stared at Raidoner. "Well that was a foolish escapade and we appear to have survived it. Maybe we will this time."
Raid looked at him. "You coming?"
Malisane considered it. The drink had once again put the steel in him, the ambition, "Why not," he replied, "what else am I going to do?"
He left following the Flight leader down the corridor, katana in hand.

Sith head off seeking Kiln, Malisane was a bit drunk and Raidoner was intoxicated by his arrogance and ambition.
As thy neared a corner Raidoner spots Kiln, he was attempting to hide against the wall, Raidoner sent Malisane who still was unaware of Kiln's presence.
Malisane walked passed Kiln staggering in a drunken state. Kiln thought he had given the the drunk protector the slip when he turned to move he found Raidoner grinning facing him.

Raidoner had a smirk in his face as both men faced each other, Kiln bounced backwards as Raidoner drew upon his saber, Kiln used force push causing Raidoner to slide back with out falling. Raidoner bounced back striking Kiln's blue lightsaber as saparks flew. Kiln countered with a torso lightsaber strike that Raidoner did not know.

Kiln knocked Raidoner down, at this point the Mandalorian used his personal comm link, Lucius ran to his masters side, WereDan who was drinking left his room in an attempt to save his master.

Kiln now faced 4 people, Raidoner used force push on Kiln causing him to stumble, both Mandalorians and Malisane drew upon him.

Kiln sneered, and spat at the four warriors, "You fools. A bunch of Sith children hoping to stand against me? HA!" Throwing his hands out in front of him, blue-white lightning arcing from his fingertips with an ear-piercing hiss. Malisane, Daniel, and Lucius were all caught off-guard, their skill in the Force not great enough nor their blades well-made enough to counter or absorb the lightning. The Journeymen were hurled against the walls of the corridor, and finally slammed against the ground into the blackness of unconsciousness.

Raidoner and Kiln Tobasa stood alone, sabers ignited and ready. Raidoner's mechanical hands flexed in preparation for the coming battle. "Your head will be a trophy on the Proconsul's desk, Wanderer." Spat the Battlemaster angrily. He lunged forward, his white lightsaber clashing with Kiln's blue saber once again. Although the Adept parried Raidoner's blow, the Equite quickly countered with a wide slash towards Kiln's waist. The Wanderer blocked, turned, and leapt off the corridor wall, spinning and slashing with precision at the Sadowite's upper torso, almost getting the better of Raidoner. "Bantha poodoo! These mechanical arms have one hell of a learning curve", thought the Kressh, frantically parrying as best he could as Kiln landed, bringing his saber horizontally above his head. "I have had enough toying with you, weakling."

With this, he twirled his saber in a fast spinning kata-attack, delivering a series of quick spinning slashes that Raidoner could barely counter. Despite his somewhat-drunken pride, he knew he was bested. He ended his thought of regret when Kiln's last blow locked Raidoner's saber with his...now it was a test of strength worthy of the Mandalore. They both used the Force to augment their efforts, but even between the Elder's skill in the Force and the Equite's sheer strength, none seemed to be gaining any ground.

Both warriors sensed and heard reinforcements coming down the hallway. The group rounded the corner, and the elite group ignited their sabers. Xanos, Muz Ashen, Shimura, Raistlin, Nekura Manji, Beowulf, and Macron Goura sprinted towards the duelists. The powerful Kiln realized that even he was overpowered here, disarmed the unsuspecting Raidoner, and force-sprinted down the corridor towards the hangar, intent on hijacking a ride out of Sadow Palace.

Sending the rest of the group after the fleeing Adept, Xanos skidded to a halt, staring down at the kneeling Mandalorian. Surprisingly, rage brought a flush to the cheeks of the Adept, his teeth gritted in fury. Then Xanos reached down, yanking Raidoner up by his collar and delivering a smashing back-hand punch to the Sith's face.

Raidoner went down like a log, half-stunned from the force of the blow. Spitting contemptuously in the Sith's direction, xanos turned and moved after the rest of the group, hurling a bitter warning over his shoulder.

"The next time you directly disobey my orders, I will personally remove your head. You make me ashamed to call myself a Sith."

As the Consul entered the hangar, he found a deathly silence. Tobasa stood, backed against a TIE Interceptor, sabre out. Around him stood the six warriors, blades all pointing towards the Adept. Violet, silver, scarlet and emerald blades cast a rainbow glow of light over the Adepts face as he glanced from one aggressor to the other, unsure of which to attack first.

A lone Battlemaster and some weak, pathetic Journeymen he could destroy without even thinking- but against the former Commander of the Guard, three warriors of the Keibatsu, the elite saberist of Naga Sadow and a crazed Sith alchemist, he would have a tough time of it. Not to mention the Dark Adept strolling calmly towards the stalemate across the hangar floor. Looking up at his foe, Kiln sneered coldly.

"Xanos. Hiding behind your men as always?"

Lifting a hand, Xanos gestured for the Dark Jedi surrounding Tobasa to move away as he unclipped his lightsabre from his belt, the scarlet blade rising to point at the Adepts throat. Without looking at them he gave his orders.

"Form a fighting ring. If he tries to escape, all of you do your best to cut him down. And watch out for the lightning."

They nodded, aware of the devastating effects that Kiln controlled. Striding forwards arrogantly, the Adept stared at Xanos, lifting his chin.

"You believe you can defeat me one-on-one? Foolishness. This is foolishness, and you know it."

A brief smile lit the Falleen's face as his outer robes hit the floor and were kicked out of the circle.

"Enough talking. Let us duel."

As the ring closed about the two, Macron hung back for a second and triggered his helmet comm. "Sapphire... this is Macron. If anybody launches from this base without the right clearance, shoot them down with ion cannons. We don't want this bastard getting away again."

"Roger," came Konar's reply along with the tinkling of stubbies in the background. "We launch in 2 minutes."

"You launch in one, dammit," growled the Commander through gritted teeth. "Or... no beer for you."

"Yessir, make that 59 seconds," came the now motivated reply.

"enter code pk-niner seven six," the Sith entered via text on another channel. Deep inside the base, a door hissed open. Macron had created a backup for just this situation, one that may slow the enemy down should he escape them. The form began to awaken and lumber towards the hangar to guard the vessels therein. he would see if his forays into genetics had been successful.

"Good idea," came Raistlin's voice as well. "I'll be there in a flash... just got my TIE advanced up and running. See you in 30 seconds, I am right down the hall." His footsteps could be heard clicking as he approached.

"sssst- Macron. We are inbound on your signal," came the unexpected voices of Blade, Manesh, and Malik. "Keep the channel open."

The net was fast closing about the enemy. With the fresh arrivals, there may a good chance he would go down.

Xanos stepped forward, and lit his double bladed saber-staff calmly. The red light pulsed from it as he eyed Kiln, who raised his own blade.There would be no way for him to bullcrap out of this one. Xanos wanted him captured, and every Clan member there would gladly die to see it done.

The silence was broken only by the humming of the many lit blades in the room.
Without further words, the two powerful beings stepped forward to strike.

As they circled Kiln the sounds of blasters came from nearby. Macron's communicator beeped. "Commander this is the guard captain. I'm outside the armoury. We're under attack from our own forces, two squads of our guards have turned against us and we're outnumbered."
Macron cursed "Malisane, Lucius, get up and get to the main corridor outside the armoury. Some of our guards are trying to storm it."

The two Sith members got to their feet grogily and rushed off towards the armoury. Malisane spotted a line of HLK guardsmen crouched behind a makeshift barrier raining heavy fire on the armoury, where the corpses of loyal guards lay.

The two Sith drew Katana's and charged, Lucious yelling a challenge. The guards turned and Malisane blanched as he saw their eyes. blank and staring. "They're being mind controlled," he yelled,"must be Kiln."
"If they take the armoury we're in trouble. They might be planning to blow the base."

The two Sapphire members charged the controlled guards, dodging blaster fire until they were sything amongs the soldiers, katana's flashing hacking at heads and bodies and limbs and felling guard after guard.

The fight was too close to use blasters now but the guardsmen tried to club the two Sith with their rifles. Under the control of the renegade they showed no fear or pain, often ignoring grevious wounds untill finally they fell dead.

The two Sith fought desperatley and determinably until the last fell. Lucious stopped and drew a deep breath. "We got them."
Malisane shook his head. "No I can hear more in the armoury. We'd better get in there." Katana's raised they advanced grimly forward.

Raven ran around the corner and found himself face to face with Malisane.He couldn't trust anyone.

"So, Malisane, and I see you too Lucius, are we on the same side now?" He didn't pause for an answer, "I heard fighting over here, what happened?"

"Kiln's mind controlling our own soldiers." He pointed to the barred door to their left. "There's more in there."

Raven whirled his Kyantii knives. "Lets move!"

They did their best to smash the door in, but it wouldn't budge. "How about a new idea."

Lucius sneered. "Count on a Krath to come up with a million failling ideas for every problem."

Raven spun on the Hunter, blade at his throught. "We'll never get anywhere if we argue. Combined, our macrokinetic skills should get us through the door. Lets put our energy together."

Grudgingly, the two Sith and Krath put there force together. They became one and energy flowed inbetween them, bursting with the Dark Side. They passed completely through the door, and pounced the unsespecting rougues.

The fight was quick and reletively one sided, the two sith cleaved the guards down quickly fighting side by side, and Raven darted amongst the guards his twin knives slicing and skewing the mindless automations before they had chance to react. A guard reared up behind Malisane rifle raised to strike the Sith and the Krath darted forward slicing a knife across the guards throat. The Sith turned and nodded a quick thanks to Raven.

A minute later the three journeymen stood amongst the corpses breathing heavily, their clothes splattered with other peoples blood.
"Thanks Raven." Malisane said with a grin, "good fight there.
Raven nodded. "So we trust each other?"
Malisane shrugged "We're both Naga Sadow. The elders are busy with Kiln this is our concern."

Lucius had been looking around the room. "Guys check this out."
The looked around. Explosive charges lay everywhere, primed and ready to go off, detonator wires leading off under the door of a sideroom.
The Krath gasped. "If this lot goes off it will put this base in orbit and all of us with it."
Lucius nodded. "We can't disarm them individually we need to get to the detonator."

Malisane walked over and kicked the door in. Behind it a lone mindless guard stood holding a detonator.
The three journeymen backed off. "If we rush him he'll trigger it." Raven pointed out.
Malisane nodded. "Any ideas?"

Raist watched the fight intently, with both admiration for the form in which the two elders displayed. Kiln Tobasa and Xanos Sadow battled as the rest of them looked on... though the battle was showing neither side had the advantage, Kiln was more in control, in terms of technique, and the fact that the two Elders were almost nullifying the other's Force powers, it was going to come down to prowess and mastery.... Prowess he knew, Goat possessed, but mastery? A different subject entirely.

Though none would admit to it, the warriors standing around him showed fear.... in one form or another, fear of the Adept, and his tenacious skill. Fear of the unknown.....

Raist watched as Kiln delivered a vicious roundhouse kick to the head of Goatham, forcing him to stumble back and nearly drop down to the floor.

He knew Kiln would prevail, as he made a move toward the two, he was held back, and Goatham encouraged him to stay. Kiln howeverm turned toward him, displaying a wicked smile, baiting the Exarch.

He could feel the anger boiliing inside of him... but he held his ground. He would wait. If Goatahm showed signs of failure, he would dispatch the Elder, for he longed for such combat.

Indeed, it had been some time since he had been involved in such... deadly personal combat, and he stepped back, the blades of the duleists crashing, causing ozone to filter through the air. He started stretching readying himself, in case the he had to step into the fray. He let his mind go blank, entering a warrior's state, his eyes showing a single-minded focus. He would not fail.

-Raist

Lucius clunched Katana in his hand.

"well Krath, any ideas?" he smirked

Raven looked around

"well we could use the..." he started talking
"Shut up" Lucius finished his sentence, "I was being sarcastic, fool. Maybe thats what he wants, maybe he wants the whole damn thing blown into pieces?" He asked Malisane.

Protector Lokked at the fellow Sith "we are all together in this" he said

Lucius looked at the Krath and said clamly "Whats your plan Krath?"

Raven smiled "We need a gun" he smirked "this time I will go with Sith and use a little violence"

Lucius smirked and got out his DX-2 and handed it to Malisane. "You got better shooting skills.

"The gun is illegal" malisane stared
"So are the best things in life" Lucius smirked

Malisane took the gun in his hand and aimed.

Nervously Malisane turned and levelled the barrel of the Disruptor, staring down it at the blank-eyed Guard. Behind him, Raven and Lucius backed away, to the door of the room. Sweating slightly, Malisane swallowed.

Then pulled the trigger.

As the bolt burst towards the guard, his arm moved. Pulled upwards by the power of the Dark Side, it yanked the detonator into the path of the blaster bolt, bringing the two into conjunction. The force of the shot knocked the guard to the floor, the detonator sparking dangerously in his hand. In the split second before it exploded outwards Malisane, Lucius and Raven turned and fled, sprinting down the corridor. Silence seemed to echo outwards from the armoury, then-

They all heard the explosion. The very foundations of the Palace seemed to shake with the power of the detonation, a tremendous roar which surged outwards, ringing in their ears. As they straightened up, confusion reigned, the combat between Kiln and Xanos momentarily forgotten as each fighter stared back towards the source of the detonation. Straightening up, rubbing his ears, Manji summed their feelings up in his usual succint manner.

"What the f-"

Before he could finish Xanos turned, seizing the advantage, and leapt at his foe. Caught unawares, Kiln stumbled backwards, the circle turning to enclose him once again as the Consul rained a barrage of attacks down upon the Adept. Face twisting in anger, Kiln suddenly lashed out with the Force, a telekinetic blow slamming into Xanos' stomach.

"Insolent wretch!!"

As the Consul stumbled, Tobasa turned and leapt up onto the wing of the starfighter behind him. Slowly he moved towards the cockpit- only for Raistlin to leap up onto the fighter, lightsabre levelled at Kiln's throat. An arrogant grin flashed across the Exarch's face as he prepared to stop the Adept from escaping- with his life, if necessary.

Angrily Kiln continued to move towards the cockpit, lightsabre coming up to engage with Raistlin's, but at that moment the Consul leapt up onto the starfighter, continuing the attack. Wheeling to face Xanos, Kiln was forced into combat once again as the assorted warriors of Sadow watched anxiously.

Kat nervoulsy twitched her whip, watching the battle with interest. She really didn't have much to do in this arena, not yet. Her sharp eyes kept a weary watch on the rest of the Journeymen, keeping them close.

She turned her head to the sound of Macron speaking on the comm to his team. With a brief nod in his direction, she continued her rounds. The clash of sabers and the occassional crackle of force lightening silenced the crowd while everyone waited anxiously for the outcome. If Kiln won, there would be a hard fight for everyone else. No one wanted him to win.

As the battle paused, with Kiln aiming towards the starfighter, Kat realized the potential of an escape. Even if the Sapphire Squadron were waiting, as she was certain they were, the possible escape was too much of a risk.

She quickly reached out, grabbing a rushing team member. Her voice whispered soothingly in his ear, giving him direction... stepping back, he nodded his understanding and continued. Although the ship was very close to the battle, it was a risk they had to take.

The Aedile quickly strode towards Raistlin, hoping he would help remedy the situation.

As the circle of combatants watched, the drama played out before them.

Kiln narrowed his eyes and gestured towards Raistlin. The power of the shockwave was intense, and even the hardened Equite did not stand before it, as Xanos had predicted. He fell off the vessel and struggled to get to his feet. He had blocked the lightning with his blade and his skills, however. Kat rushed to help him up and pull him aside.

Tobasa laughed a hideous laugh, and then realized his mistake. He had spent far too much time and power on the Exarch, and had neglected his true opponent during the passion of the fight. Xanos slashed the back of the Intruder with Force lightning, which he only deflected part of in his surprise.

As the blue tendrils blasted some flesh from his back, the Assassin screamed in agony. He absorbed part of the energy and turned it to healing the wound as he deflected the bolts with his blade, but he had been wounded. The Consul smiled calmly as he moved yet again.

Macron keyed the active switch on his experiment control device, and the beast he had summoned earlier lumbered into view. It was substantial, and resembled a mutated 5m long infant cross between a Taozin centipede and a Silooth beetle. The beast had some blinking lights and various pieces of metal strapped to it's carapace and head, as well as metal clad claws. Tubes and hoses pumped fluids through it's body with a throbbing noise.

"Hello Pookums," cooed the alchemist. "You're just a baby. Good ... thing. Now you go over there and don't let the bad man open those bay doors. You love daddy!"

Lucius ran towards his TI and jumped into his seat. He quickly activated the launch sequence and was in the air in less then ten seconds. Raidoner followed, so did Malisane and other members od the Sapphire Squadron.

"They need us their now" raidoner spke calmly as he took the lead and flew towards Macron's location. Lucius' fighter was speading right after Raidoner, fllowed by Malisane and then the other Sapphire members.

Lucius put a cigarette in his mouth as he saw a rescue vessel coming in from the space, heading straight for Sapros.

"Target aquired" smirked Flight Leader as he turned on the boost. Lucius flew in from above, just as the vessel's guns started to shoot at the Squadron ships. The Battle Team circled the ship, not giving it enough time to even try and turn around. The Interceptors fired the guns and the missiles as the rescue ship started to catch fire.

"One more round should do it" Raidnore reported to Macron as the latter smiled. "Good"

The rescue Vessel tried to turn around as the engine could not handle it and it plunged into the free fall. The Flight Members watched as the huge piece of metal fall onto the planer, exploding into little pieces. Once again the Squadron proven itself a worthy Battle Team.

Raidoners Tie Interceptor flew right threw the blast, Raidoner loved to mark his fighter with good old blood and guts. He believed it would drive fear into the enemies hearts. Macron kept the squad alert and warned Lucius that he best not be drunk this time, Lucius could only assure his Aedile that the slir in speech was cause the commlink was lagging. Raidoner kept circling around expecting another attack, his primal instinct told him to anticipate that something was gonna happen soon.

Lucius flew by his Flight Leader and inhaled the smoke. He let the smoke out slowly and turned on his commlink.

"What are the orders sir?" Lucius asked Raidoner.

Battlemaster looked around and shrugged. "I bet there will be another attack after this one, I doubt that they only sent one rescue ship"

Lucius smirked and looked up in the sky.

"I understand" Lucius noded "But what about Marka Ragnos? This is the perfect time to attack and make Lude Kressh a dominant house" He said in a calm voice.

The Flight Leader looked up and nodded "Just watch out for the enemy ships for now"

"Over and out" smirked Lucius as he threw the finished cigarette on the floor and sighed.

"Copy that, Sapphire," the Sith spoke into his helmet comm. "Incoming hostiles, one half parsec out.... What's that? You have fire. Go, Go, Go...." The Knight hunched over and shrank back from the crowd. He did his best to tune in the fleeting signals amidst the hiss and crackle of the unit. It was obvious, jamming was in progress.

"All vessels... move out. intercept incoming vessel and attendants. Fire with ions whenever possible- Xanos and Muz will want to ... talk to them," the alchemist screamed into his comm unit.

Muz yelled something about a battlefield commission as the Aedile of Kressh to him as he babbled. 'Wha... okay. No time to talk as Raist is down."

"Obelisks, prepare to board that enemy Corvette and disable it," he hissed into the comlink as he backed away. "We have to Know where they came from..... don't let me down guys."

Raidoner lead the Sapphire squad escorting 4 unit transports from the Iron Fist Brigade to board the a medium sized cap ship called the Executor of the Wanderer's group.
The Sapphire Squad were the only ones that could reach and keep it busy so that the Iron Fist Brigade could get there before they jumped into an unknown spaceroute.
*All Units break formation and prepare to engage the enemy in our mynok wing wave* Raidoner said to the Squad via the commlink.

All ships engulfed the Executor before any of the Wanderers crew could get to the turrets, each squad member knew where to strike and slow down a medium cap ship...But they have been known to cripple a large destroyer. The Executor crew were in an utter panic, the medium cap ship was forced to slow down and defend itself as the Iron Fist Brigade 4 transports began their forced docking sequence.

*We could of blown that poodoo barge to the next dimension, but nooo they want the Wanderer alive for some reason* Lucius said angry that he was not allowed to destroy the medium Cap ship.

*I agree, but we need those Obbies to interrogate the Wanderer and its crew to find out what the purpose of their mission was* Raidoner replied as the watched flashes from the Obelisk's lightsaber spark from the ships windows.

Lucius lit another cigarette and fired a few bullets into the ship.

"Damn, cant even destroy it" he sighed as he lowered his ship and flew around the capship. The wait continued for a few minutes until the Obelisk Grigade reported mission success.

"Lucius, get inside the ship and see that no one gets killed" raidoner commanded.
"Affirmative" stated the flight members as he prepared for boarding.

Raidoner signaled Malsane and a few others to stay in the skies and watch out for any other threat as he lowered his ship and followed the caphip to the planet.

Lucius landed inside the ship he once tried to destroy and got out of his interceptor. He was followed by Malisane. Both Sapphire Members walked through the blood filled hallways into the commander's room and found Brigade's Leader in it, holding the captain of the capship by his neck.

The Obelisk stood up and looked at the Sith. "Go into the control room, there are more important hostages there, I will handle this one" he smirked.

Lucius and Malisane turned around and followed the hallways that led into the control room, The walked in and saw hostages tied up and some dead on the floor.

"This will teach them to mess with our Squadron" Lucius smirked as he lit another cigarette.

Acara took on look at his screen and let loose another couple of ion blasts taking down another enemy fighter. Brining the ship to bear he rejoined th rest of the group. This had been a difficult battle for him, he was still getting used to the speed of a TIE interceptor compared to the Blade 32s he was used to flying back on Adumar.

Sin awoke as if from a dream. The battle had filled him with adrenaline and blood lust. "comeon!" He shouted as he emptied a final ion shot into annother faceless attack craft. "That looks like them all." He said flicking on his comm.

The space arround the capship was littered with the remains of many destroyed vessels. Bodies hung in the darkness arround them lifeless. Sin wondered if this was the end of the killing. he was allso aware of a nexus in the force, a point where things all came to join.

"Ive got a bad feeling abbout this." Said sin as he transferred annother fifteen perent of his tie's power to the weopon systems. "Make shure your all on your toes."

Sin was new to the squadron but was begining to gain a footing. "Im going to pull in close to the corvette and patroll the area."

The Wanderer and Xanos now fought even harder, the Assasin filled by rage from the wound and Xanos fueled by his pride in himself and his clan. Xanos twin blade twirled around behind his back and sliced to the front, but Tobasa blocked with obvious strain. Using the Force, he opened the hatch to the starfighter. Kat and Raistlin stood in front of the hatch, blocking him. Kat stated firmly and coldly, "You will not be leaving so soon, Kiln."

With another massive Force Push, the two Sadowites stumbled and the Wanderer saw his opening. With Force-enhanced speed, he leapt into the cockpit of the starfighter, his head missing the frame by about an inch. The hatch slammed shut as Kiln pumped the reactor of the Sapphire Squadron TIE Interceptor, the engines roaring to start. There was a collective Force Pull from the room as they tried to stop him, but it was futile. As Macron's fifteen-foot-tall baby monster roared and charged to stop Kiln, it was annihilated by the Interceptor's pulsing lasers, and with a Force Pull the bay doors were open, the Assasin escaped into the Sepros atmosphere.

Macron screamed into his comlink, "Sapphire Squadron, Kiln Tobasa has just stolen one of OUR TIE's and escaped! Stop him, use lethal force if necessary!"

"Roger that, Macron. I'm on him." came a young, confident voice over the comlink. Macron recognized it as Acerbus. His Interceptor rolled towards the planet, Kiln's a distant blip on the radar. "Accelerating to attack speed...I don't think Kiln knows the finer points of handling that thing." he said over the comlink coolly. He quickly closed the distance between himself and Kiln, and began his attack run.

Lucius I strongly suspect you meant to post that on the Battleteam Feud Runon

yes, yes I did