Base Of Operations

OOC: Only members of the house can post in the runon. No member may post back to back. Ashura will make posts with NPCs in both house runons, please follow the guidance of these posts and incorporate them into your runon. All previously posted plot updates and Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 should be used in the creation of your story. Chapter 3, when posted, should also be incorporated into your story.

For record, in case we have anymore DB website issues, here is a link to a copy of both houses roster.

http://dbmember.com/HMR%20Roster.htm
http://dbmember.com/HLK%20Roster.htm

REMEMBER, YOU CAN NOT EDIT YOUR POST FOR ANY REASON AFTER IT IS POSTED. YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED FROM THE RUNON IF YOU DO SO.
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No one could forget the order. Despite days of negotiation, and an apparent unspoken cease fire in place, the order was still valid. Every element of the Clan's forces still obeying Derev Niroth had a standing order to fire on any asset following Faeril if they "interfered" in the Search and Rescue Operations. Everyone knew it, it was unspoken, but very much present on the mind. Now with orders to land on the surface, it seemed all but impossible to avoid the orders implementation. Civil War was at hand.

Kicking back with a sigh, Manji squinted his one good eye as he stared up at the ceiling. Things were certainly in a bit of a mess. He'd been in the training room, working through the forms to keep his hand in, when Derev had stormed in, rage blackening his face.

--

"Manji? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I got back from Kyataru yesterday- things are running pretty smoothly there, so I reckoned I'd come and see how things are going here. Not too well, I see..."

Turning away with a snarl, Derev paced the room, his robes flowing around him.

"The insolence of those Kresshians! They dare question my right to assume the position of acting Consul? I'm the Quaestor of Marka Ragnos, and senior to Faeril!"

Shaking his head slightly, Manji turned away and went back to the forms, silver sabre blurring as it span through the motions with practiced, deadly ease. His voice rose slightly, over the humming whine of the lightsabre.

"You know I don't approve of your little power-trip, Derev. My interest in this whole mess is resolving things without too much combat, for once... I don't really want to have to dismember any of the Keibatsu over on Aeotheran. At least, not before we've had a party to celebrate my temporary return."

Spinning round, the Quaestor stared daggers at the Epis. Manji's sabre kept moving, but his entire body tightened, ready to fight if Derev wanted to push him. A twitch pulsated in Derev's cheek before his face twisted into an unpleasant sneer. He knew of Manji's martial prowess- every member of Naga Sadow had witnessed the fury of the Epis' fighting style at least once, and had heard of the victories he had secured over the greatest warriors in the Brotherhood. Derev could not hope to defeat the Epis in combat. Relaxing, the Quaestor turned away.

"As long as you fight to aid House Marka Ragnos, our goals intertwine. Remember that."

--

Now, an order had been circulated for teams to land on the surface of Inos' moon, to find the downed ship. Manji sighed again, his hand reaching out for the jug of sake he always carried. It was certainly a tricky situation, and thinking wasn't really his strong point.

Taking a drink, the Epis relaxed as the warmth of the alcohol flowed down his throat. With a chuckle, he lowered the jug.

"Ah well. Guess I'll have to go along and make sure nobody kills anybody else over that ship, huh?"

The one good eye narrowed momentarily.

"Besides, Derev got it wrong... my loyalty is to Marka Ragnos, but also to Naga Sadow."

Jade walked in to the training room and heard someone comment about fighting also for Sadow, she nodded and responded without looking to see who it was first, "As do I." Turning she saw Manji standing in the room taking another drink. She bowed instantly. "Master Manji, I haven't seen you in ages." He had been her first master, showed her the ropes and took her to JH, before suddenly disappearing into the vastness of space.

Her robes flowed around her as she stood back up and looked at him. His mutterings had been truer then he realised, at least in her opinion. She was loyal to her house, to Marka Ragnos, but she fought for Naga Sadow, she refused to see her Clan torn apart but foolish actions, and trigger happy journeymen. She smirked and wondered if perhaps the quality had come from him as well as her other masters. "It is good to have you back."

"It's good to be back, kiddo."

Relaxing his shoulders, the Epis lowered his sabre with a wry smile. Jade nodded and moved forwards, a curious expression crossing her face.

"Where exactly did you disappear off to?"

Shrugging, Manji slipped his sabre back through his belt and tucked his right arm into his kimono, striding off through the corridors of the Harbinger. Jade followed, her own dark robes swirling about her. Waving his hand vaguely, Manji attempted to explain his absence.

"I just... got a bit claustrophobic, y'know. I felt like spending some time away from the House and the Clan, so I headed off to Kyataru and spent some time travelling around the place on foot, honing my swordsmanship up. A warrior's pilgrimage, as it were. Tried to avoid relying on the Force at all, like I used to."

As they neared the bridge of the ship, Manji grinned disarmingly.

"Then I started to miss fighting Dark Jedi. We're really the most fun opponents to fight, after all."

Jade grinned as the blast doors to the bridge slid open, revealing the crewmen working busily at their terminals within, and Derev standing before the viewscreen of the starship. Raising his voice mockingly, Manji quickened his pace as he moved towards the Quaestor.

"Yo, Niroth! What's the plan?"

Jade followed him onto the bridge, it was great to have her original master back within the arms of Marka Ragnos, she had been rather distant and hid for a while when he left. She wondered what it would have been like to travel without depending on the force, it had been a while since she had done so herself. Jade grinned and smirked at the comment, indeed Dark Jedi were the most fun, after all who else could you find to fight you and be willing to stab you in the back even though they called you a 'friend.'? She frowned as he turned n and walked towards Derev, she would have to talk to him about the kiddo comment.

She looked at Derev and nodded as she glanced at her before looking back at Manji. “We destroy Ludo Kressh in their attempts to plot against us that’s what the plan.” Jade smiled as an esthetic response more then actually meaning it. As she had told Manji she fought for the Clan and then the house. She could see Manji doing the same in his stance before Derev.

“I hope things can be solved with Faeril and Bob before it get’s that far.” Jade nodded to Manjis response.

“I think things have long passed negotiations, you better be prepared to fight for your House.” Derev gave the man a hard stare.

“We all want the same thing, victory.” She nodded to Derev who gave her the once over and pressed his lips in a fine lined grin.

“Good.”

Jade looked at Manji and reaching through the force found the old connection she use to have to speak to him telepathically. “You have my support.”

Zaxen stood at the podium in the Night Hawks ready room. The quiet rumble of hushed conversation quickly died off as the lights dimmed. The view screen lit up and a tactical chart showing the Marka Ragnos elements in Blue and the Ludo Kressh ships in red above a purple spherical body representative of Inos.

"Okay Hawks, listen up. As you know the word has gone out that we are to begin SAR missions for this downed mysterious craft. Faeril and House Ludo Kressh are openly opposing this. Our orders are simple. Find the crash site, secure it, and retrieve anything of value. If we are opposed we have orders to engage and destroy any opposition."

A low roar of mumbles broke out at the last statement and questions began to fly at random. One voice in particular voiced a question "Sir won't this reflect bad on us when the Governor General returns?"

Zaxen sighed his own thoughts worried about this very issue. "That's not our concern. Right now I primary focus is getting down there, finding this wreck, and figure out what is going on." If we don't the Governor General may not have anyone to be angry at when she returns."

Flipping a few switches the display shifted view and zoomed in on several of Inos's moons and Zaxen contiued the brief. "We suspect that the wreck is somewhere in this cluster of moons. The surface of most are covered in heavy metals and thick atmosphere. Ionization is possible and scans will have to be close and narrow beam. So its probably going to be a long day out there. Only one moon has no breathable air but it also will be relatively easy to scan. "

Switching back to the larger tactical display several flight paths were drawn out from the Harbinger to the target area. Zaxen continued "I want four ship flights for each moon and rotation time of five ours. All craft will be on ready five alert. Questions?"

None came but the air was thick with them as each pilot and navigator felt the weight of what could only be termed a civil war. No one wanted to go out there today but all knew that they would.
Zaxen took no solace in the orders he gave nor in the ones he followed. Deep down he knew this was all wrong.

"Ok lets go to work." Zaxen said and set everyone filing out and rushing to the squadron locker room.

This day would end in blood of brothers

Dark Brotherhood Shuttle
En-route to Inos Moon 6

Sitting back in his chair, Manji gazed out at the blackness of space. He'd had little trouble commandeering a shuttle; there might have been no love lost between him and Derev, but the acting-Consul of Naga Sadow was not yet blinded enough by power to fail to see how useful the Epis could be. One powerful, battle-hardened Dark Jedi could prove a formidable obstacle to Ludo Kressh's plans to gain control of the fallen craft, and even if Manji could not fight the entire House on his own, he could certainly cause them great difficulties until reinforcements arrived.

Smiling grimly, the Epis reflected on Jade's telepathic message. She'd certainly developed greatly since he'd last seen her, and it was good to know that she didn't intend to blindly follow Derev.

That said... I wonder who is really following Derev? Or is he being manipulated by someone higher up?

Questions and ideas chased each other through the Epis' head, until he snarled and shook it angrily.

No point thinking about all this stuff now, you'll just give yourself a headache. Meditation might help.

"Computer, journey time to Inos Moon Six?"

The digital voice chirruped and responded smoothly.

"ETA two hours to Inos Moon Six."

Shrugging, the Epis pushed himself out of the leather chair and sat cross-legged on the cockpit floor, exhaling heavily.

"Well, I've got two hours to kill... might as well try and sort my head out with all this."

House Feud Run-On Event Finished.

Thank you to those who posted.