At the Mercy of Strangers

[Darth Kravos]

Darth Kravos was here for business as one might expect, and he knew that people would have a problem with it. Everyone would instantly recognize who he was, and he made no attempt to hide it. He wanted people to realize precisely what was coming and precisely what the threat behind this was.

He'd brought with him the freshly minted War Master who had just recently defeated Essia Contaris. News like that spread quickly, and while Kalladrrl was someone he was familiar with, he'd never had any extensive interaction with him. But there wasn't much that was more intimidating than a Force sensitive Wookiee.

He turned to the new War Master and spoke to him as they approached the CEO's office. There were Imperial ships prepared to jump in from hyperspace at his request, and numerous Imperial troops and Sith had come aboard as an escort as well. For the moment Kravos was just going to have a talk... The Nessem Shipyard has been strong armed by the FTG. The short version of this, is we're going to switch their loyalties, no matter the cost, he said.

The truth was, he didn't expect this to go smoothly, which was why he had brought soldiers with him, though they weren't overt yet. Just casual men and women who could bring a lot of pain and death in an instant.

 

[Kalladrrl]

The Wookiee was arrayed in his battle armor, his lightsabers at his hips, along with a pouch that would hold the datapad he held in his hand, and that currently held a computer spike. As they walked, the War Master reviewed numerous screeds of data from the troops assembled by himself and the Dark Lord of the Sith, administrating their forces with reports from lieutenants and commanders under Kalladrrl’s purview. Kalladrrl had taken to his new role swimmingly and in celebration had elevated his wardrobe subtly, the black cloak the hood of which bobbed with each of his monumental steps trimmed with a thin line of gold on its edges. He stowed the device as the Dark Lord spoke and Kalladrrl nodded deferentially before he spoke.

"YnnanwrokkanaGuilderrrooynnanllarrnaKorribanycrranympyrna, rranKravos." he said with a soft basso growl, his tone easy and yet formal, reflecting the status to which he had been risen and his junior membership within the ranks of the Sith Council. "Rrooffnakannrnalarrroo. Ohrwrokkamarranakaanndarraaa, mumnakkannaarr. Rroohrnarrfanapahnnakrallandaan." Kalladrrl paused before his tone took a more respectful slant. "Ynnnarrfaynharrarraakanna, rrani. Rrooooorrgallarrraaparrnaohrraffanalla."

@Phoenix

 

[Darth Kravos]

Kravos glanced over to the new War Master as he spoke. While the Dark Lord wasn't fluent in shyriiwook, he been to Kashyyyk on a couple of different occasions and had learned to interpret the language using the Force. Almost a mental connection that allowed him to hear his partner's intent behind the words. Not reading thoughts by any means, but a nice pass for gaining the idea of what he was saying.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see much of a fight here, he said. Something told him that they weren't going to be seeing a fight like he'd had on Manaan or Telos. Perhaps things would change around, but he doubted it.

I suppose we'll see what their ground forces are like, then, he said after the War Master mentioned that the majority of their forces wouldn't be on the station. As they headed toward the CEO's office, the two came to the external security checkpoint where a half dozen guards stood in position. They had no idea what they were going to be up against armed only with blaster pistols.

Halt. State your business, the head guard said, holding up a hand and sending a shifty look toward the two. It was clear that they were very dubious about the prospect of facing off against two people who exuded darkness and intimidation. @Rexx

 

[My-rah Jade]

​

A miralian woman stood on a walkway suspended above her ship, the Shangri-la, inspecting the work that had been done on it. Some minor upgrades and a little maintenance. Nothing major, but she always made sure to inspect any work that she let someone else do on her baby. A protocol droid shuffled down the walkway towards the woman. "Mrs. Jade, the requested work orders have been completed. As usual, the invoices will be sent to the Free Trade Guild management. We appreciate your business as always." As the protocol droid spoke, a little astromech droid rolled out from behind him and over to My-Rah, issuing a series of beeps and whistles as it arrived at her feet. My-Rah smiled at the little droid. "Well, if their work passed your inspection Bee, then I guess I can trust that it's taken care of. I thank you for the yard's services. Have the docking collars removed and the Shangri-la prepared for take-off please. I'll be leaving shortly."​

My-Rah walked off down the walkway, her astromech, Bee, rolling behind her. The protocol droid shuffled off in the other direction, sending the orders to it's counterparts in the dock on a data pad. The clamps and collars holding the Shangri-la in place groaned and shook free of the ship until only the pressurized boarding ramp remained, holding the ship in place in the hangar. Alarms sounded as the atmosphere was drained slowly from the hangar and the floor of the hangar began to open, exposing the room and the ship to the open space below. Light from the system's two suns glinted off the Shangri-la's fuselage. She was a beautiful craft.

As My-Rah walked down the walkway, she glanced at the main thoroughfare down below, and froze in her tracks. She suddenly reached out and gripped the railing of the walkway tightly. So tight that he green-skinned knuckles almost looked white. What the hell was HE doing here!? My-Rah recognized the scarred face of the Dark Lord of the Sith Empire from all the holograms and vids. Word around the cantina was he had been seen all over lately. Probably related to the empire's recent aggressive expansion. And he appeared to be walking alongside a wookie. As if he needed the bodyguard. Kravos seemed to be heading to the offices. As he moved past below her, My-Rah typed frantically on her wrist-mounted data pad. Pressing a button in the corner, she knelt down next to her astromech. "Bee. Get to the ship and send this message to you-know-who. With Daesha gone civilian, I don't know if he'll care anymore. But someone needs to know about this."

As the little astromech beeped in acknowledgment and rolled away to the nearest lift, My-Rah walked with a cool, even pace down the walkway, keeping her distance, but keeping in sight of the sith below. She gingerly rubbed the grips of her twin blasters hanging from her thighs.

 

[Kalladrrl]

Kalladrrl took in the Dark Lord’s words in silence. Perhaps there would be violence, and perhaps not, but the War Master was ready to act as the threat of violence for Lord Kravos, not that he needed it; his reputation as a warrior was galactic in scale, almost equalling the Empress in bravery and exceeding hers in skill with the lightsaber. Kalladrrl felt beholden to the Dark Lord and not merely because of their relative positions on the current council, but because Lord Kravos had been mighty enough to hold his current position as well. That made the Dark Lord his superior in more ways than one, and so he followed Lord Kravos’ lead.

That lead, however, took them to a security checkpoint that blocked their access to the interior offices of the facility. Six menial guards blocked their way and their chief had the audacity to command them to halt. Without prompting, Kalladrrl stepped forward, his position level with the Dark Lord’s elbow.

"Ynnrwrokka," he began, the helmet lending a disconcerting metallic quality to his guttural words, "narroharrrugh. Ohrnnynnrkarffa." Kalladrrl’s hand waved and the power of the Force would pulse out from him, projecting the puissance of the pair and disquiet to those deadened to the Force’s call; if they were smart they would stop their prattling and let the Dark Lord and the War Master further into the facility, lest their lives become forfeit under Force and saber.

@Phoenix

 

[Darth Kravos]

The Dark Lord could feel the Force flux in the Wookiee and he projected it into the Force so that even these people could feel it. They quickly turned away and Kravos continued onward. He was vaguely aware of someone following after them, but as they made their way deeper into the offices, the hallway consumed them and her line of sight would be gone.

He turned this way and that, making his way to the office where a woman - his secretary - stood up and tried to stop him. He stopped and looked straight at her. The helmet itself was intimidating enough, and he didn't flinch until she backed down, clearly not wanting to tangle with the armored man.

He proceeded to barge into the room, making his way to the desk of the CEO. We know that you have business with the Free Trade Guild and that they... manipulated you, he began. You are now under the protection of the Sith Empire. You will build for us monthly, we will pay you on time, and we will keep the Free Trade Guild from bothering you anymore, he stated. It was clear that it wasn't really a question, and Imperial troops would be here to secure the station soon unless someone from the FTG stepped in. @Yuan @Rexx

 

[My-rah Jade]

My-Rah was having to pace her breathing as she hugged the wall in the hallway. She wasn't usually one to get this nervous when faced with a challenge... But this wasn't one of your normal challenges. The dark lord of the empire was here himself, along with a non-to-friendly looking wookie. That was certainly enough to wake someone up in the morning. Breathing deeply a few times, My-Rah got her wits about her and clear her head. She had to be smart about this.

There was only one logical reason for Kravos to be here. The Empire was planning on taking the Nessem shipyards under their control. My-Rah didn't know if Allard and the others were still planning on making use of the shipyards now that the Guild was being restructured, but she couldn't just sit idly by as a major asset was being swept out from under the Guild while the others were still working out the finer points of how to restructure a blossoming galactic organization.

My-Rah worked a few things out in her head before moving. She had some experience from her past with the Sith, or the Exiles as they were calling themselves back then. She knew that they were capable of incredible things, but she also knew that they weren't immortal. She had seen plenty of Exiles die during the war. Still they weren't easy to kill. Perhaps fighting wasn't the way to go this time. When you can't run, fight. When you can't fight, deal. That was smuggling 101 right there. That made sense. The best way to approach this was from a business standpoint. Pushing off the wall, My-Rah pulled something out of her vest and stuck it against the wall, then she turned and headed down the hall to the office.

As Kravos finished his spiel to the shipyard lead foreman, My-Rah leaned against the doorframe behind Kravos and the Wookie. "Ahem! You know, the Exiles would do well to learn a better business acumen. All of this stomping around and taking things by force really puts a lot of strain on you Imperials, wouldn't you say? Why go through all the effort when there are deals to be made that could save you all a lot of headaches, and improve your public relations throughout the galaxy?" My-Rah leaned there with a smirk on her face. This would be fun... If she got out of it alive.

@Rexx @Phoenix

 

[Darth Kravos]

Kravos was attacking in the most nonviolent battle that he had ever been a part of, but his mind was in the state of a battle nonetheless. He wasn't here to play games or make deals or have chats. Whatever this woman was doing was merely to buy herself time for allies to arrive, and Kravos didn't like his meetings being interrupted.

The Dark Lord didn't waste any time nor did he wait for the woman to finish her sentence. The Force lashed out around her and gripped her like a vice, squeezing and crushing rapidly in such a way that it would snap her like a twig. She would be able to feel it tighten rapidly around throat and chest and limbs - locking them to her body. It would continue like a python, crushing the target within moments until her body was like jelly.

It was the danger of confronting a Sith Lord alone, and Kravos - more than any other Sith - had a reputation that he lived up to. He was a man steeped in violence and not afraid to use it as his means. Even as he crushed her, he drew the Force to himself, letting it form in his free hand as well, though there was no sign of any allies for her. Whether she was suicidal or merely thought that bargaining with the devil's enforcer was a good idea, he didn't know, but he also didn't care. He wasn't here to strike deals, he was here to take this shipyard by force. She could have retreated, but she didn't. Now she would pay with her life. @Rexx @Yuan

 

[Kalladrrl]

Kalladrrl felt the Force surge within the Dark Lord as Kravos wheeled on the interloper as she spoke, applying pressure to every surface of her body. That was well. The Empire had not sent diplomats in this mission; the Empress had deployed two masters of war, one of whom was nigh-unparalleled in battle. Kalladrrl followed the Dark Lord’s lead and from the fingers of his left hand issued an expanding cone of lightning that would envelope the one that had interrupted their discussion with the chief executive of the shipyard, the torrent of electricity expanding in diameter so that it would crash over and about the body that Kravos held in his mighty grip, his face a sneer under his helmet even as he gathered the Force into his other hand in a mirror of the Dark Lord.

The pair that stood within the office were not ones to be trifled with whatsoever; Darth Kravos’ reputation for wanton slaughter was known in every corner of the galaxy and Kalladrrl had defeated a powerful warlord from the days of the Exiles with his prowess wielding the Force expressed as lightning. Everyone would hear whispers of fear speaking his name and this was but another step on that road. Perhaps Evandrus could have been bothered to negotiate, but not Kravos and Kalladrrl. They were warriors, the both of them.

@Yuan @Phoenix

 

[My-rah Jade]

My-Rah was well and truly screwed. She should have known better than to tamper with two high-ranking sith. But she had never been good at keeping out of trouble. Playing with fire was one of her bad habits. It was bound to get her killed, and now today seemed to be that fateful day. How sad. She hadn't accomplished any of her goals. She hadn't made anything of herself. Her name wasn't known across the galaxy. Was she really fated to amount to nothing and meet her end like this?

But then, My-Rah had other traits as well. For instance her incessant scheming. Her distrust of most living beings. And her love of things that go boom. These traits tended to get her in trouble too, though in different ways. Every now and then, though, these traits had a tendency to save her life. That's why she made use of them, almost every chance that she got.

Kravos was quick to act. My-Rah had expected some banter, perhaps a little monologue. The exiles she had served during the wars tended to prattle on about how much better they were than you. But not this one. Apparently he was dark lord of the sith for a reason. As the force wrapped around her and crushed her, two factors bought her some time. The first was her armor. Her concealable urban protecting armor didn't do much, but it slowed the crush ever-so-slightly. The other was her physiology. Miralians were flexible. Very flexible. One of the most flexible humanoid species in the galaxy. As Kravos crushed her, her body contorted to save itself. Her ribs still cracked and her neck was still squeezed, but she had a few seconds more to spare than another species might have. Seconds weren't much to work with, but they were all she had.

As the lightening struck and coursed through her, burning her straight down to the bones, her hand clenched. Perhaps it was involuntary, or perhaps it was planned. Only My-Rah knew. It was lucky that neither sith had bothered to read her mind (or control it for that matter) or they might have been aware of the tiny trigger mechanism clutched in her hand. As her hand clutched, the button was pressed, and the Detonation Pack she had stuck to the exterior wall of the office erupted. Space was at a premium on a station like this, so the office was small. Structures were built light, so the wall wasn't thick. This was no bunker. The wall to the side of the two sith blew inwards, the shockwave, debris and heat blasting across the room.

My-Rah was no fool though. They would not be killed by this much. As the cloud of dust and smoke billowed through the room, a Thermal Detonator, ignition light blinking, rolled across the floor towards the two sith. My-Rah, nursing four broken ribs and a fractured arm, not to mention singed skin across her body, tapped a button on her wrist. She fell backwards as her jet-pack ignited and blasted backwards out of the room. Twisting her shoulders, she bounced off the walls as she haphazardly flew down the hallway back towards the hangars. Back towards her ship. Back towards life and freedom. Her own green blood blurred her vision in her left eye and ran from her lips, and smoke still rose from her skin. She was probably past half dead, but she wasn't there yet. She wouldn't stop fighting for her life until she arrived on death's door.

@Rexx @Phoenix

 

[Darth Kravos]

Kravos saw the woman's body cave in under his grip. The sound of cracking ribs and cartilage could only narrowly be heard over the sound of the electricity singeing the air. The smell of burned flesh filled the room and gave it a sickening smell of burned flesh. It was as the life slipped out of her that the detonation went off. His armor protected him from the blast and he flinched, ducking down out of reflex but not releasing his grip.

Then it was over. The woman's broken and singed body fell to the ground next to the entrance and Kravos reached out his senses to see if anyone else was nearby. There was no one. The two Sith were left standing and the man - the CEO - was on the floor behind his desk. He was curled up with his hands over his ears and the Dark Lord gripped him by the shirt, easily lifting him up and pushing him back into his cushy chair.

Remember our deal, he stated, staring through his faceplate at the CEO who nodded with a faraway look in his eyes. We'll secure operations for you and you'll provide us with ships. Our troops will keep the FTG from further bothering you, he said before turning back to Kalladrl.

I'm sure you can arrange to have the IDF move troops here, he said to the War Master. After all, military operations were well within his theatre. It would be up to their newest member of the council to ensure that the base did not fall to the enemy. He was confident that he would see it done. With that, he turned to leave. After all, neither member of the Council had time to spare. The facility was theirs without further conflict, it seemed.

//Thread