Dopey Badger Meets a Sith

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Theme
In the cargo area of their transport Daniel gripped a long metal rod in one hand and regarded the mound of twisted black robes on the ground with some measure of trepidation. He wanted to talk to their captive, but was a bit worried about doing so. He bit his tongue and extended the rod, scrunching up his face like he was poking a bear.

Daniel prodded the unconscious form of their captured Sith Royalty awake with the piece of pipe. He didn't want to get too close. Even out cold she gave him the willies. Sith were scary to Daniel; he didn't understand what the Force was or how it was used. He only knew that it was basically magic and magic was scary too.

He double checked to make sure that the remote for the stun-cuffs that bound her arms and legs together was dialed up to ten. If she tried anything, he'd zap her into unconsciousness again. He wasn't too concerned about that though, he just wanted to talk. He had never really met anyone from the Imperial Republica before...let alone a royal. He wondered if they were as bad as his kinsmen made them seem; surely not all of the people could be totally bad.

If Daniel was anything, he was kind to a fault. He'd give anyone the benefit of the doubt...he still wore his full kit though, but his helmet sat on the ground by the door.

He tensed as she roused herself. Once he was sure that she could hear him, he gave her a friendly smile and pulled the rod away.

"So uh, sorry about taking you captive and things. Hurting people is mean. Did you sleep ok?" It seemed like a reasonable question to Daniel.

@Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Consciousness came ever so slowly for Alexandra as the effects of the stun blaster began to wear off gradually. Brightness flooded and distorted her vision with both eyes opening slowly and taking in the new and unfamiliar surroundings. Pain swept into recognition as her unconsciousness had been masking the light injuries from the manhandling but otherwise they would disappear but not before she recognized the new restraints placed upon her limbs and her captor watching.

"It certainly wasn't what I'm used to I suppose but it was better than what one might expect given the circumstances, thank you."

Slowly Alex pulled herself up into a seated position to better take in the surroundings and the device that now held her at its mercy. Some unknown ships cargo hold meant that she could certainly be in space which ruled out an easy escape if the opportunity presented itself. The device would make fighting difficult if not impossible, but her captor had not bound her mouth shut which could only mean that they intended to speak with her which was something that she could work with.

"Have I been asleep long? I'm not particularly fond of traveling awake so hopefully, we're already at our destination wherever that might be? You also have me at a disadvantage of not knowing your name, as I have already given you mine. I suppose you also have some questions for me to answer?"

@Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel was taken aback by just how collected she seemed. It couldn't have been comfortable to sit up with her arms in stun-cuffs behind her back and her legs cuffed together at the knees. He had to admit, he was a little impressed.

"About two hours," he said, before adding sheepishly, "Probably would have been a bit less but I put another stun bolt into you at the port before we took of. Just in case, you know?

He shuffled over to a stack of crates and half sat, half leaned against them as he thought about what to ask. He had wanted to talk to her, but he hadn't really thought far enough ahead to figure out what he wanted to actually say. All he had were half pieced-together thoughts and ideas. He made a show of inspecting his blaster pistol to buy time. It seemed like an appropriately Mando thing to do...Daniel was honestly still getting the hang of how to be all butch and Mando in front of other people.

At heart he was still just the local baker, making bread and pastries for his friends and family.

He decided on a question, inelegantly phrased, of course. "I do have a couple questions." He began. "I want to ask about your Empire. Why are you so mean to everybody? You take what isn't yours until you have so much that you don't know what to do with it. Why? Why is that important?"

@Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Alex winced at the trouble she had gotten herself into as the multiple stun cuffs made their presence frightfully familiar with her arms locked uncomfortably behind her and legs stuck. They certainly made any prospect of escape pointless but to make matters more frustrating, she also enjoyed a throbbing headache from the earlier horseplaying.

For all intents and purposes, she was stuck watching her captive slip further back and make himself comfortable while fumbling around with his sidearm. Her pulse quickened at the sight causing a flurry of thoughts to enter her mind although none were solutions to the current predicament as she scoured her brain for something from her earlier training on Coruscant, thus far nothing came to mind. His next question, however, caught her by surprise.

".....I don't know." she managed to answer sheepishly before looking down with a quiet sigh. The man before her was an enemy, someone she shouldn't trust but she couldn't shake the kind, honest vibe that surrounded him which made things complicated as she tried to collect her thoughts. "Not every Imperial is mean you know, at least I try not to be but sometimes things are just not ...fair." The longer she spoke, the less confident her voice became.

Alex shifted again trying to sit comfortably but without much luck, as her arms strained from the awkwardness, small tears formed as she pressed on. "The Empire is supposed to bring peace and safety, how can it do that if the galaxy is under the control of anyone else?" The empire must survive, she thought if to splinter into small petty groups, it would bring countless suffering especially among the innocent which Alex couldn't even contemplate.

@Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel wanted nothing more than to let her out of the stuncuffs when he saw that she was obviously uncomfortable. The tears were maybe a bit much but he got her point. He knew better though. Everyone had been very clear to him that she should remain tied up at all times. More than anything he didn't want to disappoint his family when it seemed like they were just starting to accept that maybe he was more than the Dopey Badger they had named him.

So he held back and watched her suffer. It was one of the most difficult things he had ever done. So instead of dwelling on the fact that now he might be the bad guy, he thought about what she said.

Control.

He didn't like that word. People used it so often and it always had bad results. It started fights with no purpose other than someone wanted to be above someone else because they thought it was the right way to do things. "But people in the Empire don't want to live like that." Daniel had heard about different groups starting to resist their Imperial overlords and he thought that was a good thing. "If they did, then they wouldn't have to fight their way away from the Empire. Look at what the Empire did to my people. What they are still doing...and you say that we need the Empire to live our best life."

He looked at her shift uncomfortably on the ground and added, "You'll probably be more comfortable if you lie back down." But for the first time he wasn't sure if he should have offered her assistance. Somewhere, slowly, in the back of his mind he was beginning to understand.

@Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Alex wiggled fruitlessly on the spot whilst Daniel spoke, trying to listen and move but nothing was coming from her efforts yet. With some manner of indignation, she folded at his suggestion to lie down but found herself on her side while looking upward toward him which offered a tad bit more comfort than the previous position had.

"Well...of course not everyone is happy, but that is how we have lived in peace for the last five hundred years is it not? a war between our peoples will only end in pain and suffering for both sides which neither of us wants. People are hungry and scared and they need our help, not the constant threat of dying in someone else's battle that they want nothing to do with. I just don't understand why you feel so wronged by the Empire.."

Alex closed her eyes momentarily while trying to remember anything recently she might have heard in relation to what Daniel had said but nothing immediately came to mind that would be significant enough to cause this much chaos. She had heard rumors of fighting between Mandalorians and others, everyone knew that fighting had broken out but there wasn't much in the way of reasons floating down to the low echelons where she sat. Even for technical royalty, there was only crumbs to follow although there had to be some spark.

@Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Genocide.

Her people, the Sith, had murdered an entire world of Mandalorians and she knew nothing of it. What did they teach on Courscant? Even Daniel, far from the brightest of men, had learned and understood what that meant and he had finally, after staring at their captive, understand the systemic hatred for the Sith.

"The Sith slaughtered millions of my people," he said acidly. "I thought you would have known." His disappointment was palpable in the air he had thought that maybe he would learn something from her, something that would convince him that maybe they weren't so different and that he had been wrong to take so many lives at Kuat. But he hadn't. She was nothing more than the fool everyone thought Daniel was.

"How can you say that the Empire brings peace when they kill millions, oppress billions and shun trillions?" Daniel shook his head. "I'm an idiot and even I know that to be a lie. All you want is to control and take for your own gain. People will always starve and be in pain, with or without your precious Empire. Nothing you do will change that." He crossed the room and began rummaging in a cabinet. He returned to his previous spot in front of the captive Sith with a twist of heavy wire.

"You say people would die in a battle that's not theirs? Any battle that would free them from you genocidal, magical freaks would be a battle worth fighting." It was the first time Daniel had ever been so cold. His hands were trembling as he began bending and twisting the wire. For the first time as well, he understood what it meant to be Mandalorian.

@Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Alexandra's jaw dropped as Daniel spoke as the metaphorical bomb dropped, his answer was nothing to the scale of what she expected. The claim was utterly absurd and unbelievable surely, such an event would be public knowledge as it would be impossible to keep a lid on that kind of secret. "That's impossible.." .... "I don't believe you...nobody could hide that if it were true." Alex shook her head in disbelief, trying to shun the accusations.

The Empire was a pretty cush place for her to live in owing to the many privileged walks of life that she came from, the fact that she was both human, force sensitive was only outmatched by her surname. It certainly was no secret to Alex of the suffering that the lower classes, even humans on her home planet were unhappy but it just didn't sit right with her that the solution to all of it was more fighting, more death but his words ran cold.

Alex eyed her captor cautiously as he rummaged through a cabinet, pulling out some kind of wiring or cord, the type of which didn't look pleased with the way things were going. Concern and fear flooded her thoughts as she tried to get back into a seated position in vain before she then froze as tension filled the air. "Please." It wasn't quite her begging for her life but it wasn't not either. "The Empire is vast with many innocent people in it who have had nothing to do with attacking your people. If you must take my life as payment for wrongs done, know that they would not support such atrocities as you say happened." Alex held tightly onto the stun cuffs, forcing herself not to cry at the hopelessness.

Perhaps she had overplayed her hand, having been too confident that she would talk her way out of trouble. She wondered if her family would ever hear of what happened to her or learn of these last moments. She didn't want to die a martyr, Alexandra wanted to change things for the better but all that now lay at someone else's feet for the first time in her happy little life.

@Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

"Your life is not worth taking," Daniel said coldly. He felt nothing but purpose. "The fact that you don't know anything about the crimes the Empire has committed is unbelievable," he was speaking as he had heard people do in the holodramas. "Your crime is inaction; you were born to privileged. Born to a station where you could have made a difference but you did nothing but reap what was taken from those below you. People may die and I hate that they will but it will not be senseless murder like you think. That was what your family did when they purged worlds of the living."

He stopped talking and concentrated on his hands as they twisted the heavy wire into his clan's symbol: the face of a badger. He did not feel the disgust he had expected. He felt cold and clear. She was not worth killing, she would kept as theirs a pawn, reminded daily of her own worthlessness and failings. To Daniel, right then, she represented the entierty of the Empire and everything they had done to his fellow Mandalorians and the innocent people of their worlds. He knew he had killed thousands when the ship exploded at Kuat but it had been a for a cause it had not simply been because those people annoyed him.

He would take the memory of their deaths to his grave.

From the lower shelf of the cabinet he was leaning on he pulled a torch and clicked the igniter. With his hands steady with purpose, he held the crude brand over the flame until it was white hot.

"I will not kill you," he said as he walked over to her and planted a boot roughly on her stomach to keep her pinned. "That would be too kind, instead, I will mark you. Forever a reminder of your own weakness and helplessness. Where is your Empire now?"

With one swift motion he thrust the glowing brand down, between her breasts and into the flesh over her heart. There was a sickening sizzle and the smell of burnt flesh. Above it all came a chilling scream, Daniel didn't know if it was him screaming or her or both. He pulled back the brand and on her chest, above her heart, was the mark of Clan Solus.

He knew she would not die, but she would spend her recovery in pain and alone. He turned at a sound behind him, eyes wild and saw Leandros standing shirtless and open mouthed.

"Ni ganar karhr kaysh asas cuun, emuurir mhi karhr cuun calyar. Kaysh adate malyasa'yr kar'taylir biai katcurye la cuyir, va e'nr kyr'amur a taylir emuurir c'eyi'a. La cuyir katkta ui puse jii."

Never before had there been such cold hatred in the young Mandalorian's voice.

@Xorism @Painus

 

[Leandros Solus]

Theme​

Leandros sat on the edge of his bed, bare feet making contact with the cold durasteel flooring of the ship. He rested his hands on his knees, eyes closed in meditation. There was much work for the clan to do in the coming days and they had only just begun. With the captured Drast now firmly in their possession, a message could be sent to the Boy-Emperor Elix of the threat that his former puppets carried. They were no longer mere weapons, but rather tools of Kad’s divine will, forged in His image to do battle and liberate the children of Mandalore.

He inhaled deeply, opening his eyes. Dan had been watching the prisoner for some time, now. Leandros was growing concerned for the boy. The light seemed to have vanished in his eyes on Manaan when Leandros had to step in to rally the clan into action, and his words prior to their departure were cold, authoritative – not at all like the cheery, aloof disposition the lad typically carried. Perhaps he was beginning to realize the nature of his life, or perhaps something more foul was afoot. He did not trust the Witch they brought along with them in the cargo hold, and Leandros was worried for the boy being alone and subject to her foul word. Such people had the power to twist their words as if they were some venomous ichor, infecting those of weaker will around them and turning them to their cause. Yes, perhaps he should check on the boy, perhaps get him some foo-

A scream; primal, blood-curdling, the kind that chilled ones to the bones. Leandros rose from his bed quickly, not even bothering to clothe himself fully, and ran to the cargo hold. The scene before him stunned him, and he found himself standing there, mouth agape involuntarily.

Dan held some kind of metal brand over the woman, asking the question of where her Empire was now. With force, he plunged the white-hot brand onto her bare chest, burning the flesh permanently, irreparably. He was branding her as if she was livestock. The scene was so stunning that Leandros was, for once, at a loss for words. This was not the Dan that he knew. This was… something darker. The foul witch had poisoned him, he was sure of it. Leandros, unable to figure out what to say, simply shouted out ”Boy!” to get his attention.

Dan spoke, his voice serpent-like, his words callous and cruel. The light in his eyes had become like those of a man jaded by conflict, not of a boy barely matured. Leandros thought for a moment, looking between the burned woman and her tormentor, before finally speaking up, his voice firm, but not upset, ”Gar ganar cuyir gotal'ur burc'ya, Ni haa'taylir.”

He approached Dan, reaching for and grabbing the metal brand from his hands. He tossed it to the corner of the cargo hold and placed his arms on Dan’s shoulders, looking into his eyes. ”A Ni chaab gar ca'nara ti Turjilyi'r ganar ja'a'r gar sa'lanr,” he spoke, releasing Dan to look at the Drast on the ground before them. ”…For she was never human to begin with.”

These words were deliberately chosen in Basic for the Drast on the ground to hear. To hear that, even despite her noble upbringing, she was not their equal. She never would be.

On the eve of battle, when a man sets before his eyes the transparisteel face of his helmet and steps off from the line of departure, he divides himself. He leaves behind the man that knows compassion, which holds love for his kin, which lifts his voice in chorus. That half of him, the best part, a man sets aside and leaves behind when it is his time for war. He banishes from his heart all feelings of tenderness and mercy, all compassion and kindness, all thought or concept of the enemy as a man, a human being like himself. He marches into battle bearing only the second half of himself, the baser measure, that half which knows slaughter and butchery and turns the blind eye to quarter. He could not fight at all if he did not do this.

That is why when Dan finally understood that this woman was not a human, but rather livestock, Leandros pulled him close, embracing him. The boy was learning. The boy was maturing. The boy was being guided by Kad Ha’rangir to bring violence and battle to their eternal foes.

He released Dan after a few moments, looking back at him. He spoke now in Mando’a, looking deep into his eyes. ”Gar cuyir hibirar meg bic tid'ica at cuyir Mando, b'amr. Aalar or'parguur bu'yrao kaysh. Bu'yrao kaysh adate. Pirimmur ibac at hbina gar o'r olaror cayatr. Partaylir meg val narir at cuun adate, par tion'tuur gar duumir etie tome'tayl at gataya par a a kusa'yr, gar ganar trattok'or etid.”

With a firm squeeze of his shoulders, Leandros let Dan go and turned to watch the Drast writhe.

@Lucid @Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Unforgiving, torturous pain.

There was no other way to describe this barbaric torture nor was there any way to justify it. The radiating heat itself was enough to cause a cascading panic within her system as the white wire drew nearer. The inevitable hatred fueled attack seared deeply, an involuntary shriek burst forth from her lungs to pierce the room while force lightning erupted from her fingertips that had been hidden underneath her back.

Arced lightning etched its way between the cold hard floor and Alex's back, spreading out in two unique cones of a twisted forked pattern within an instant causing further light scarring on her shoulders. From above the pattern developed into something akin to a pair of folded wings if gazed upon just right but otherwise disappeared a moment or two later leaving markings in the floor. Finally, her eyes rolled suddenly to the back of their sockets as the intense pain override her ability to stay conscious, the combination of pain and her own infliction did seem too much for the novice force user to handle.

Alex's body was sure to survive this part of her ordeal, but what of sweet innocent Alex herself? Time would tell of its full effects.

@Lucid @Painus

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

But she was human.

Daniel knew that in the core of his being. She was human and he had done something terrible to her...the lightning was weird and scary but still it didn't change how Daniel saw her. He might have marked her as livestock but he had been lying to himself; it was too far, much too far for him to go to see another person as livestock but in that moment he had and it scared him.

He deftly let Leandros pull the wire brand from his hand and fell into the big man's embrace. He knew it was congratulatory but Daniel just took solace in the fact that even though he had done something so horrible, his friends hadn't abandoned him. Furthermore, Leandros' words set something alight inside him.

He was understanding what it meant to be Mandalorian. All of it, not just the hatred and the anger but the resentment and feeling of having been used by Alexandra's people for centuries upon centuries. He knew that the Sith had to be removed from the Galaxy, he knew that they did terrible things to their people. It crystallized a desire in him a very unmandalorian desire but one he knew he was born to nonetheless.

It seemed absurd to him just then but he knew it was true.

He would lead his people to remove the Sith from the galaxy and free the oppressed. The Mandalorians had fought to earn their freedom from the Empire, but there were people who could not. Even if he had to continue to do horrible things, even if people would continue to die, Daniel would bring the Mandalorains forward to reclaim the galaxy for the freedom of those who had long since forgotten what it was.

//Thread

@Xorism @Painus @Sreeya