The Old Sith Trials

IC LORD HYPNOS
Triumphant Engine Room

If Hypnos needed any more indication that this was clearly not Venomis, the fact that it followed his plan willingly and to the letter was a strong factor. The creature’s thralls strolled right into the open pod that Hypnos guided towards them. He closed the hatch and sealed it. Now where to put these things… The teleportation device that rested within was nearly infinite in its capabilities, thanks to its efficient bending of physics. Hypnos could send the sweet substance anywhere.

So where would it cause the most chaos?

Hypnos thought for a second. It would do no good to send the creature to some random point in space. It could simply reactivate the teleporter and come right back. No, Hypnos needed to strand it. He had a sizeable base still probably active on Raxus Prime. But there was no point in sending it there. Just droids and garbage. Korriban would serve as an ironic destination; sending an inherently pleasant creature to the dead Sith world would prove interesting indeed. The spirits in the Valley would certainly be perplexed by such a nice being intruding on their rest. It would probably sprout flowers in its wake upon the bloody sands! A laugh almost formed in the bowels of Hypnos. He had to get this creature out of here. He was starting to feel giddy. Joyful. He quickly conjured the image of Korriban to his mind, the Valley of Sleeping Kings. The coordinates came to him. He projected them into the teleporter. The pod vanished.

Much better. He turned to face Toxmalb, who was struggling with a computer terminal and the detached hand of a dead technician. More comedy. Hypnos began trudging in his direction but was stopped in his tracks by a wall of luminescent energy. “Ray shields! We’re better than this!” his vocabulator growled angrily. “Of all of their tricks, this seems amiss.” He calmed himself. A minor distraction. He would let them think they had bested their doom momentarily. He could still reach out for the control panels. He branched his senses past the plasma wall in front of him. He felt through the inner workings of the computer system. But he could not force any changes. What was this? It was reminiscent of the biotechnology of Zonama Sekot. The Yuuzhan Vong! Hypnos couldn’t influence it. Not with Mechu Deru anyways. “Find a new body, mostly intact. Use your lightning, fake its life, an act.” He was hoping Toxmalb followed where his plan was going. “Into its brain delve for the pass. While you do that, this trap I’ll harass.” He left Toxmalb to enact his new plan.

Hypnos looked at the multiple projectors for the shields that encaged him. The fools thought they could keep him with this simple trick. He looked into the circuitry. Advanced, no doubt, but not infallible. He could easily trace the signal that told the shields to stay on directly to its source. The Force would take care of the rest. A few crossed wires, a feedback loop of signals, an overloaded circuit. Hypnos made small but powerful changes all the way up the electronic path. Once the wires for the ray shield were disconnected, he telekinetically yanked the modules out of the ceiling. A good shield was difficult to come by, and he’d destroyed the last few with a grenade. This would definitely come in handy. He brought the pieces towards his hull and grafted them to him, creating the proper connections and diverting the appropriate amount of power. “They can’t stop us, let them try.” He rumbled while striding towards the monstrous hyperdrive that kept the gargantuan ship plummeting at faster-than-light speed. “The Force is with us; they will die.”

Hyperdrive technology was notoriously fickle. Even when it was first utilized, there was little understanding of how it worked. Few beings in the galaxy were truly savants in the art of astrogation: Rakata, Bith, Duros, Givin, Arkanians. Astromechs could perform the calculations in near instants. But none could match the technical superiority of a Sith Lord with Mechu Deru mastery that literally communicated electromagnetically. Lord Hypnos was in his element. He found the motivator, the most fickle piece of machinery of them all. These necessary devices were responsible for the shut-down of droids and machinery all across the galaxy. Hypnos was going to mutilate it. He channeled all the rage in his being he had for these simpletons, all the contempt and hatred he could conjure, and directed it into the center of the hyperdrive, twisting and fracturing metal and distorting the delicate machinery. If he couldn’t control it, he would kill it. This was the center of Lord Hypnos’s being. This is what linked him to Venomis, to the True Sith. Hypnos hungered. Not in the same way as past Lords such as Nihilus, but very similar to Venomis. He longed for control. It would all be his. Or it would be nothing.

TAG: Darth Dreadwar

IC: Robyn Shaire
Location: Outside Dreshdae

The transfer of power was just as tiring as Robyn expected, and she could only stand it for a few seconds before pulling her hands in and withdrawing. Forget about warmth! she sighed, holding her head with her eyes still closed, I felt like Lady Viscretus was dying of thirst just now and I was a glass of water! She ran a hand across her forehead, hoping that her own "withdrawal" was gone. ...she had better be thankful for this.

She took a single step back with a laugh when Viscretus chided her eyes being closed. I thought for sure nobody paid enough attention to notice or care. Explaining her ability to see with or without her eyes would definitely be interesting... though evidently it would have to wait. Red shapes began to materialize behind her closed eyelids again, far too bright to be that of another pack of tuk'ata...or friends of the assassins?

Neither, another pair of Sith rolled in on Speederbikes, and Robyn took a wary sidestep as one bike pulled to a stop right beside her. "Great...now what?" she muttered half to herself, immediately recognizing the bright red skin and lekku of Darth Talon. It took some effort for her to resist snorting at the fact that her head was indeed all Robyn could see -- she was covered up with a coat!

The other Sith tossed his coat to the ground, and Robyn hesitated for only a second before pulling it her way through the Force. If he doesn't want it, I will gladly take it off of his hands. "The blood of a 'maiden', really? You just want to drain me dry without so much as a whimper, don't you." she spoke up then, wrapping the discarded cloak over her shoulders, "There are thousands of maidens in this Sith Temple alone I'm sure! Why me in particular?"

TAG: Darth Catalyst , Darth Dreadwar ,Volshe , Shira

IC: Alisha Tano
Location: The Triumphant, Alisha’s personal Quarters

Alisha was still moving forward, glancing behind her to see if Xal’den had followed when the beast made its move. The sound of thick glass smashing made her whip back around and she could only watch the monster make quick work of the viewport in her room, just as it had Shira’s wall. The glass of a window shattering in space, was never a good sound.

Not just in space, hyperspace!

Grab something! She had no time to feel anger at its attempt at escape, or even disappointment that she wouldn’t get to cleave it in half after all. Instead, Alisha could only cry out in panic as she was yanked off of her feet and practically pitched forward. She felt the tips of her horns painfully make contact with something hard and she tumbled backwards onto her bed. The air whistling through the still-open viewport violently pulled on anything not nailed down, including her entire bed frame! Its thick headboard was the only thing keeping Alisha from being sucked out into the harsh vacuum alongside the monster.

Even while catching her the bed was visibly shifting against the floor, but it held her for the few seconds she needed for durasteel plates to slam shut and seal the broken window. She was safe, and practically held her breath while everything that was in the middle of flying to the hole clattered back down to the floor. “Are… are you all right, Shira?” Alisha remained laying halfway on her bed for a few seconds just to steady her breathing and heartbeat before suddenly gasping.

“Oh no Xal!” She hastily rolled over off of the bed and ran back out of her Quarters to see him slumped against the wall. There was no blood she could see, but his aura had gone frighteningly dim. Alisha crouched down in front of him, visibly wincing at what looked like a dent above. Thank the Force you were still out here when that thing busted the window! She thought, nervously checking his vitals. “Y-you’ll be all right... you’re just...unconscious...” Alisha bit her lip, feeling both relief and fear knitting together. He’d survive, but there was still that comlink message to contend with. His entire barracks, men and women he’d worked beside for what, years now…? All dead, all at once.

Alisha entered a quick request for a medic on her datapad, and gently clasped Xal’den’s hand in both of hers once it was through. He was in for a very painful awakening... “That message… the Commander said these monsters were heading for the Engine room.” She stood up slowly, with her businesslike composure firmly back in place. “We’ve got to beat them there before they strand us in space! Mentor, come on!”

TAG: Shira , Darth Dreadwar

IC: Jania
Fresh Arrival

The Imperial shuttle broke through the orangish red atmosphere of Korriban a little after noon time and though she couldn't see the activity happening on the surface below, the shuttle's occupant was excited out of her mind. Closer and closer they flew to their landing zone and it was to the point she couldn't even sit down anymore though the pilot had rudely suggested she should about four times. Pacing back and forth from the cockpit to the cargo hold, Jania could feel the force strongly on this planet but the feeling she got was icy at best.

"Pilot how much longer until I'm on the ground at the academy?" She asked impatiently now entering the cockpit for the 19th time in the last few minutes. Her feet had went back and forth so much it began to sound like a strange rhythm.

"Not much longer now may you please sit? I'm sure it would feel a lot faster if you stayed in one spot." The pilot sucked his teeth as he answered with a question of his own. When she waved him off, he simply clutched his grip around the steering controls more as he wanted nothing more than to drop this acolyte off and head back to their command ship for a new assignment.

It took another ten minutes before the shuttle finally touched down on the landing bay and Jania practically skipped to the door as the boarding ramp extended to touch the surface. When the door opened she stepped out quickly while looking around. Taking in a breath of fresh air she continued to walk towards the building near the landing platform as she was confused as to who she needed to see or speak to. Before she could turn around and ask the pilot if he possibly knew she noticed that the shuttle was already taking off. Once it was gone she was standing there by herself, dressed in acolyte clothing, and with a used training blade attached to her back by a loose strap.

IC: Darth Avaris
The Throne Room

She thought for a minute that she could risk an answer. She got lost in the thoughts before she realized that he was waiting for her response.

“I understand, Emperor.” She bowed deeply before she continued to think.

It seemed very clear to her that the only two options were that he was either truly “beyond death” or that he wanted everyone to believe he was. The second one was the one that made more sense.

Nobody was ever actually beyond death. Only the dead were the ones that got reprieve from it.

She wouldn' not question him though. Asking questions wasn’t why she was here on Korriban and she wasn’t going to risk her life with them.

“What do you wish of me, my Lord?"

tag: Dreadwar

IC: Blessed Toxmalb
Engine Room, the Triumphant

Toxmalb gaped as he stared at Hypnos, black eyes filling with the red of blood. The mechanical Sith Lord seemed to have no ability to affect the inner workings of the controls, but Hypnos did not explain why; Toxmalb could only imagine some sort of Force-mediated cunning of Volshe, shielding the controls against mechu deru, or perhaps organic technology. Yet he could not bring himself to think overly long on it, nor on attempting to decipher Hypnos' annoyingly ambiguous order, which seemed to hint at necromancy and powers beyond his ken. Not even on how swiftly Hypnos seemed to change his mind mid-plan, the droid lumbering towards the hyperdrive with destructive intent that shone through the Force.

Toxmalb's thoughts were consumed with how Hypnos had disposed of what he was already thinking to himself as being Anti-Venomis. Toxmalb was no master of mechu deru, but his familiarity with Kathol technology, and how it interfaced with the Force, told him where Hypnos had sent the pod.

Korriban.

He turned from the consoles towards Hypnos and the hyperdrive, and suddenly the vast room shook, the ship itself lurching, and in that moment Blessed Toxmalb knew Hypnos had succeeded. The Triumphant had dropped out of hyperspace. Toxmalb could not bring himself to feel triumphant.

"Do you know what you just did?" His rasp seemed strained and raggedly scratchy with anger. "That was Korriban! You sent that mockery of our master to Korriban, to the lair of the Dread-King!" Toxmalb pointed a crooked finger in accusation, voice growing higher with each second. He referred, of course, to the mysterious Night Herald of Typhojem Himself, the Lord of the Nihil Retreat, the Right Hand in the Rule of Three. The shadowy general who had led the legions of the True Sith in war, carving out their territory in the Unknown Regions and stitching the Rakatan Archipelago to the Dark Worlds, who even now, it was whispered, prepared the galaxy for the Awakening through softening up the Rim and bringing to heel the misguided brethren the True Sith had left in the known galaxy. The one they said no living man could kill.

The Dread-King of Nilrebmah.

Toxmalb had known and served the ancient and loathsome god well before he had departed these realms, and he knew Darth Dreadwar would use such a slight to elevate his own position in the chaotic, feudal hierarchy of the True Sith's hordes; the Dread Lord of the True Sith become Emperor of the False was treacherous and always pursued his own designs. What was that infernal phrase he always whispered? One level higher, I play. "Do you wish to provoke him to attack the Rot-King?" he snarled. "You risk revealing our presence to the galaxy before it is time! Unravelling all our Masters' centuries of schemes and breaching the secrecy upon which they depend! You rash, impetuous fool!" Toxmalb glanced around warily, noticing the thralls bleeding black venom as they hovered around the two Sith sorcerers, and then, slowly, gradually, beginning to circle in like vultures orbiting carrion. The wound around them rippled with deadly discontent, as if the fabric of the Force itself was caught in a high wind. "Venomis will annihilate us for this!"

Toxmalb could only think to save his own skin by demonstrating zeal in destroying the traitor. Yes, traitor, for in the tongue of the ancient Sith, failure and treachery were one and the same. But just as he began to summon an etheric spear in his hand with which to prove his competence and loyalty to the Rot-King, the ship lurched again, and Toxmalb noticed a cerulean glow gather around a complex apparatus on the other side of the engine bay.

A backup hyperdrive.

Toxmalb pivoted, hurling the spear of midnight black not at the droid-encased Shard but at the backup hyperdrive across the room... Just as Alisha Tano and a conspicuously barefooted Shira A'dola ran into the engine bay, followed by a cadre of a dozen Imperial Knights that had joined them on their way from their barracks, and a number of elite Stormtroopers to match the scores of Technobeasts and Shamblers awaiting them that instantly turned, snarling, at their entry. If the newcomers did not prevent the corporeal javelin of Rhandite sorcery from whistling into the backup hyperdrive and crippling it through its recondite power, the Triumphant would surely be doomed. Still, the newcomers were interposed between the hyperdrive and Hypnos; they would have to be defeated for Hypnos to use his mechu deru.

Meanwhile, Grand Admiral No watched on the monitors. Shira and Alisha had both entirely ignored his orders, which would no doubt be annoying, but the Grand Admiral could contribute to the battle in his own way. Ray shields had failed, but there were ion turrets within the engine bay that could drop from the ceiling and open fire on the intruders, although due to the sensitivity of the technology within they had been designed so that the ship's commander would have to manually control them, the ability to hit only enemies and not the hyperdrives not being trusted to an easily compromised droid intelligence. Speaking of droid intelligences, there was a small cadre of droids that could be activated to join the battle as well, each capable of being remotely controlled by No - or more strictly, the Trandoshans he controlled - thanks to helmets with antenna that formed a wireless connection to the droids' brains. No, however, had other concerns to deal with too: a beeping from his consoles alerted him to the fact that a pack of Mnggal-Mnggal-dripping Shamblers were, well, shambling down the passageways of the Triumphant right towards the Empress' quarters.

TAG: Darth Catalyst Shira Padawan4687 Volshe

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IC: Darth Apollyon and Darth Talon
Outside Dreshdae

"Lady Talon, I find myself quite able to complain," Lady Viscretus interjected. "This Xirr has little say in such matters. I would be far better if you would not bloodlet the Initiate without my permission. Nor will you - or anyone else - lay a hand upon the assassins, unless it is to restrain them. They are mine to deal with."

Her last instruction was followed by a firm message through the Force. And do not question that beyond your station.

Talon opened her mouth to reply, but turned at the spark of the electrocuffs, noticing Kevala slump to her knees... and the grin that Kevala had attempted to hide. Experimenting with their restraints was entirely normal, but the elation she felt... These assassins are insane, Talon realised. But then that was entirely expected. One would have to be mad to come to Korriban and attempt to assassinate the Director of Sith Intelligence. What had they been thinking?

By the time Talon had turned around again, Xirr had answered her. "I don't know, Lady Talon... Perhaps we should fall on the side of caution and bleed her dry?" Xirr seemed to entirely ignore the belaying order of Viscretus, something Talon found singularly unwise. "Think about it: We could use her corpse as food for the slaves for a week! What are your thoughts on the matter, Lady Talon?"

Talon was too busy chuckling to answer. Oh, Catalyst... Only you would give a fellow Sith Lord the finger.

“I’m afraid Lady Viscretus is right,” Catalyst interrupted with a mocking tone. “We got to the initiate before you did and we won’t be giving her up until our task is complete.” He put up his arms in an exaggerated shrug. “I suppose you could follow us and hope the jaws of a Tuk’ata find her,” he glanced behind at Apollyon, who shot him a scowl while silently praying Dreadwar would find some fault when it came time to performance review and feed him to his own pen of hounds, taking no care to hide her thoughts from him. “Then you would have your blood," Catalyst continued, "although, you’ve got some catching up to do if you want to prove yourself more valuable than her. I believe she’s killed two or three of the hounds already. She’s proving quite the prodigy.”

Talon's sniggering died down to an amused smile. "Peace, my Lady Viscretus," she purred, inclining her head respectfully. "Peace, Lord Xirr. As amusing as the thought is of feeding this pink-cheeked Initiate to the slaves, those who bully this rrrobin tend to end up with their wings clipped." Talon had sent her own Inquisitorius to investigate the spate of gruesome death occurring around the Temple, and had determined a pattern common among them: they were last seen antagonising Robyn Shaire. Talon was not quite sure what to make of it; either Shaire was far more lethal than she seemed, or something or someone was watching out for her. "But the blood of a maiden is not the only requirement of this ritual, you'll recall. We also need the entrails of a Tuk'ata," Talon gestured towards the many dead hounds that lay around them, of which several's internal organs had spilled from their opened abdomens, "and the bone of a mongrel Sith, and if these jolly tomb raiders are going to the Valley, I'm sure you'll find bones of ancient hybrids in one of the crypts. Go with them, Xirr. If Shaire is slain by Tuk'ata, you have all the blood you need. If she survives, well, I'm sure Lady Viscretus will permit a pinprick."

"Are you two freaks enjoying yourselves?" Apollyon spoke up, snatching Talon's attention. She was looking at the twins, having also noticed the strange reaction to the shock. "I'm sure the High Inquisitor can give you plenty more electricity!"

"I'll do no such thing," Talon replied, although a spark of Force lightning snapped into life at her fingertips, warning Kevala and Scionica not to try to escape. "I'll abide by your wishes, Lady Viscretus. I shall take these two to the Temple to join the other prisoners of the day, and then leave their interrogation to you upon your return. Come along you two," Talon's voice was all business, as she pulled the twins into stumbling forward with the Force. "Good luck, Lord Xirr. May the Emperor protect you." She nodded to him as she walked past him and the rest of the group, leading the twins behind her up the winding mountain path to the Temple. She would have to walk them back to the Temple, for she could not risk putting them on speeder bike, but since there were not enough for the group Talon depressed a button on a wrist device and powered up the two bikes to fly on autopilot ahead of her. Once she was out of sight of the group, she smirked at them. Viscretus only said not to lay a hand on them. She said nothing about talking to them.

"Do you two have names?" Talon queried, keeping a firm grasp on the end of the electrified twines that bound them, the arcs of green energy magically bending around her crimson hand. "And you've got to tell me... Did you really think you could overpower not one but four Sith?"

Apollyon watched Talon depart with a sense of relief. Competing with Viscretus for command of the team was bad enough, but a third Lady of the Sith - and Catalyst's snarky boss at that? No thanks. "Welcome aboard, Lord Xirr," the caramel-skinned Sith Lady smiled at him. "Well, let us hope we can now make haste to the Valley without further complications."

The rift cutting through the wall of mountainous terrain on the other side of Dreshdae's ruins was visible, as was the pronged tip of a pyramidal structure that could only be the abandoned Sith Academy of an ancient era. Apollyon began to walk towards the ruins of the Dreshdae settlement; it only would be a short walk through and beyond, to the Valley. Apollyon could already feel the thrum of power, a thrill of anticipation building in her veins tempered by a sense of foreboding. Unbeknownst to Apollyon and out of sight of the team, a single pod ship of alien design and eldritch dimension spontaneously appeared in the Lower Valley at the other end of the miles-long canyon, cracking like an egg to spill white fluid upon the orange sands.

TAG: Volshe Padawan4687 dice Darth Catalyst Shira

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IC: Darth Dreadwar
Throne Room

“What do you wish of me, my Lord?" Lady Avaris' question seemed plaintive. The ancient wraith's cowl rose haughtily, as if his invisible features of shadow were inclined in arrogance. "I wish you to prooove your understanding to me, Avarisss," the Emperor hissed. "If heresy is truly expunged from you, your obedience to my teachingsss will bear fruit in that which you teach another."

He stepped slowly, deliberately down the steps of the throne's dais, drawing even with her as he began to stalk towards the throne room's exit. He paused, and his hood turned to his left to look at her. "Go to Acolyte Disembarkation. There is a new arrival," the hood rippled as Dreadwar breathed in deeply, as if scenting fresh blood. "Teach her. Test her. In time, if she proves her worth, take her as your apprentice. Raise her in the image of a true and loyal Sith, and the suspicion of heresy will fall from you. Fail..."

Avaris fell to the floor, seizing in violent fits as her entire body was wracked by straining shudders at the briefest mental touch of the Sith Emperor. In her mind, she perceived a great yawning maw, a black hole yearning for her to fall into its event horizon. "...and I shall bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, to be stripped of all power and laid bare before all the instruments of suffering, to scrabble in dumb agony until I grant the mercy of death."

The Sith Emperor swept from the throne room without another word, leaving a shivering Avaris to the cold embrace of the floor, an aide greeting him once he passed the great doors of ebony. "My Lord Emperor," the brunette woman bowed hastily. "The crowd has gathered, and the press corps are ready. The prisoners are being led out from the dungeons towards the rally as we speak. All await the dread speech of His Majesty."

TAG: avaris

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IC: Darth Brutus
Landing platform

Jania Kio would rapidly discover the air she was breathing was not so fresh. The landing platform jutted out from the imposing stone wall of the Sith Temple to hang over a quarry that was known to the Sith within as the Valley of Carrion. The canyon was steeper, narrower and considerably smaller than the Valley of the Dark Lords some miles to the east, bare of all monuments, for it was not a burial valley for the Lords of old but rather the failed Acolytes of the present.

Not that there was much attempt to bury. Corpses and skeletons had piled up easily to five layers thick a hundred feet beneath her feet, a testament to her future fate should she fail her Trials. The bridge between the landing pad and the entrance to the Temple's Disembarkation Hall seemed almost perilously narrow, as if to pointlessly instill a sense of fear in all new arrivals, but mercifully short, and on the other side, standing between two gargantuan statues of a hooded figure that most ominously lacked any kind of face, was Darth Brutus.

He, too, was mercifully short.

Indeed, he stood a mere eight inches tall, for Brutus, you see, was a Neti sapling. A shape-shifting species of humanoid trees, believed by many in the galaxy to be mere myth. And yet here Brutus was, the offspring of a recently dead Jedi Master known as T'ra Saa, determined to make up for his seed mother's folly through embracing the Dark rather than the Light that had rewarded her service with pointless death. Brutus may have been young, but Neti did not grow in the way humans did; his emotional intelligence was still juvenile, but his ability to grasp knowledge - and the Force - was quite adult.


"I am Brutus," his voice was something between a squeal and a croak, entirely too adorable for a Sith yet offset in its innate cuteness by the fiery yellow of the speaker's eyes. "Hi Jania. A Sith Mashter is coming to get you, but da spoopy Emperor told me to come here and answa any questions you have while we wait because we might be waiting a reeeal long time because the Masthers are always slow and da Emperor is always slow, I wonder if he's slow just to be spoopy, he always walks real slow and talks real slow and... I am Brutus!" He grinned shyly, bearing wooden teeth.

TAG: @lordjania avaris

Kint' eyes snapped open as he plunged into the unseen depths of the subterranean cavern. He gasped, but his ragged lungs found only water, and not air. Panicking, he looked about, kicking off of the gravel bottom, his lungs crying for air. Finally, he broke the surface, and lay on his back, his lips filing in air. Dreadwar's words echoed in his head. "So," he thought. "It is between persevus and myself. Time to end this." Standing, he shook himself, allowing the water to flow off of him. He slipped the mind trap into his satchel using the force, careful not to touch it. Then he cloaked, hiding himself both from physical and mental searches, before approaching the mirror stealthily. He could see persevus behind the mirror, as well as the quivering reck that had once been a living creature. He unclipped his saber from his belt and tossed it into the air, catching it with the force and holding it there, twenty feet from his body. Then he ignited the saber, swinging it down to decapitate dynoksis. While he did this, he dove underwater, keeping in the deeper water until he was back around behind persevus. Then he rose from the water like a ghost, completely undetectable, about fifteen feet behind persevus . All persevus would see was a ligbtsaber igniting and cutting down the foul creature, leaving him to assume that a cloaked Kint, wielding the saber, stood beside dynoksis.

elu
@ Darth Dreadwar

IC LORD HYPNOS
Triumphant Engine Room

Cold indifference met Toxmalb’s fury. Hypnos was busy tracking another signal from the auxiliary bridge. They were being spectated again, Hypnos had no doubt. The operating hand behind the ray shields had made a mistake and was quickly trying to repair it. Hypnos found the broadcasted message that was relayed to various sectors of the ship.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO END THE DROID.

LEAD THEM TO ME.

Curious. Hypnos was certain it was not a congratulatory meeting that the commander of this vessel sought. Nevertheless he had effectively ordered a ceasefire. Confidence swelled in Hypnos. They could not fail now.

The swirling mass of Shamblers that had encircled the two Sith brought Hypnos’s attention back to the engines. "Venomis will annihilate us for this!" Toxmalb seemed scared. Hypnos, though, saw nothing wrong with his plan. He too was aware of the eldritch powers of Darth Dreadwar and he knew exactly where he had sent the anti-Venomis. The “one level higher” philosophy was not unknown to him either. Hypnos was far removed from Dreadwar’s leveled mind though. He played his own game. He had stared into the eyes of Venomis and seen the broken seals of Typhojem’s cage.

Hypnos knew no fear. Hypnos was crazy.

Not the blathering madness of a simple man overcome with incomprehensible sensation though, Hypnos’s insanity was a calculated force, like everything else. He knew Fear was a key component of the Dark Side of the Force. He knew Fear had the ability to control. Hypnos would not be controlled. So he eschewed fear. In its place, there was a plan, a calculation, a contingency. Anything that fell outside the scope of these was dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly. This was the thought behind the Anti-Venomis, and the organic technology that plagued this ship. Dreadwar would deal with one abomination for him. Hypnos could deal with the other, with or without Toxmalb’s assistance.

As Toxmalb readied the midnight colored spear and aimed to pierce his photoreceptor, Hypnos felt the rumble of the Triumphant’s backup hyperdrive kick on. Hypnos had still succeeded. What Toxmalb may not have realized was the time he had bought them. Even a ship so absurdly advanced as the Triumphant was not perfect. The backup hyperdrive could not possibly be as efficient as its counterpart. No ship’s was. The ship may not have been stranded but it was limping. Hypnos had devised a new plan. Before he could enlighten Toxmalb though, the spear the sorcerer had conjured was flying past him towards the backup hyperdrive. Hypnos turned to face new opponents: The Sword, and The Hand, accompanied by a garrison of Imperial Knights. Hypnos relied on them to play into his plan. He pulled his thoughts inward and relayed from his core a telepathic message to Toxmalb. While they are here, nothing left we can do. Though we now have an escort out of the blue. He included an image of the message intercepted from the bridge. To their heart we will quickly be led. Once we are there, they are all but dead. He desperately hoped Toxmalb would heed his words this time as he silently lowered his blaster cannon in a show of surrender.

TAG:Darth Dreadwar ,Shira ,Padawan4687 ,Volshe

IC: Jania Kio

Early confusion

Jania looked at the unidentifiable creature as he approached her and spoke with the intelligence of a young child. She looked down at him in confusion as he asked to get out any questions she possibly had. On this topic she thought hard about what she could ask without giving too much away about herself. The Apprentice that had delivered her from Rishi had told her the Sith are smart and would easily be able to pick apart her mind even if she didn't want them too. Recalling these words she looked at the little creature once more as she finally thought of the question she could ask.

"What will be expected of me here? I know I am to serve the Sith but I don't really know what that means. I don't know much of the Sith ways but I do know that they have the same abilities I do and use them for the dark side or something like that. I'm just so confused." She knelt down so she would be able to hear his answers as she thought it might be disrespectful if she picked him up in the palms of her hand. The teenager was curious about what the answers would be but she knew that no matter what they were she was already committed to this so there was no turning back.


Tag: Darth Dreadwar ,avaris