Ask Eviscerate Them

[The Storyteller]

The fear-stricken knight didn't move after he was forcefully slammed into the ground and they could make their way inside without an issue. About thirty seconds after they had started descending a faint scream could be heard coming from above and it wasn't hard to imagine that the feral-looking Anzat had turned the unconscious knight's brains into soup for his nourishment. A rough fate, being scared into falling to the Dark Side only to be left behind to meet the fate you were so scared off to begin with. If anything it proved the Imperial Knights were no Jedi..

Eventually the silence of the cave was interrupted by voices coming through small openings to the right of their narrow corridor. "The Dark Lord wants the book right away," a raspy demanding voice said and was immediately rebutted by a higher-pitched whine; "We don't even know if he's on Prakith or Anoth, stupid."

A frustrated grunt followed and then the sound of a bag being thrown around, "We both spotted that Haulcraft in pursuit and the Anzati made clear we're-" his voice died after a shush. "With any luck they'll take each other out."

If the Imperial Knights continued they would reach a large circular area, surrounded by rock on all sides except for two corridors. There was some faint white light lanterns, a crate with ration packages and a small power converter that seemed to power a heater. On the far side wall was a large of wall-painting in red and white paint. It depicted the Eternal, large and threatening, crushing a bunch of nightsisters under its heel.

The raspy demanding voice seemed to belong to a middle-aged weequay that was almost entirely covered in burn scars. He had a lightsaber hilt clipped to his belt, but his tunic didn't immediately cry out as Sith. More mercenary, scoundrel and pirate. The second individual, the one with the higher pitched voice, was a human woman barely in her twenties. She wore black robes and held her lightsaber in her hand as a reminder to everyone around her that she was as volatile as he speech made her appear to be.

Suddenly a comms unit lit up, showing a small holographic buste of an older woman with Dathomirian roots. "I verified the book. It's real. The Dark Lord will meet us on Dathomir so let's go."

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn winced slightly at the sounds of the screams outside, but there was nothing to do about it now. He had tried to change the man's mind and pull him back from the brink, but he wanted none of it, and now he would lie in the grave he had dug.

Seems that way, Varyn agreed. If the Empire thought that invading a world of witches was bad, invading a world of vampires was arguably even worse. He wasn't eager to partake, let's just say that.

The further in they went, he began to hear voices echoing down the tunnels, his gut churning as he listened. He did his best to note down whatever they said. Anoat, Prakith, Dathomir... he? The Dark Lord wasn't a "he" which begged a question in Varyn's mind. Who is "he?" Raze? Or someone else making a play for leadership over the Sith? Kriff, hopefully the Eternal's not back.

Too many questions, but it was clear that they were... actually, maybe they weren't Sith? The man wasn't dressed like a Sith - but that didn't really mean anything - and his mind snapped back to Operation Oracle and the fact that that whole thing had been about Crimson Dawn rather than the Sith.

Of course, he could just let the ISB sort through it all, but for the moment, he just remained to listen. If they started to leave, he would leap out with his saber ready and engage the Weequay man, hopefully taking one of them alive.

 

[Merian Sere]

Merian came to much the same questions. Who was this Dark Lord they spoke of and why was it not Darth Tempest? Which book? Why would they be on Prakith or Anoth? And how did it always come back to Dathomir?

So the Sith did know they were followed. The young woman mentioned the Anzati and the Knights taking each other out. Bit late for that, Merian proudly thought. Picking Anzat to hide had been a clever choice, but it hadn’t stopped them. The Knights were fewer, but they’d made it here, and they would see them to justice.

Merian followed Varyn’s lead. She stayed in hiding, hoping to hear more, something material, something damning. Her heart pounded in her ears, but she knew how quiet she was to outside observers. The Knight had this distinct feeling that things were about to go down in the next few seconds. Her body was a bowstring, ready to let loose. If the Lord Commander leapt from his cover, she would be there to back him up.

@Phoenix @Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

"Alright, let's go-" the weequay said as he walked over to the power converter and shut it off before signalling a nearby droid to start the hovercart. It seemed like they were planning to bring the crate with ration packages and the power generator with them. "-though I'd rather go to Omega or Daedalus instead of that witch's planet." a comment which seemed to confirm the suspicion that he was more of a spacer than perhaps an utterly devoted Sith.

"Idiot," the young woman shook her head and seemed to give a respectful bow towards the crude painting of The Eternal. "He wants us to undergo the Baptism Ritual. We all saw what the Nighsisters did to the Imperial invasion army." unfortunately the images of Imperial soldiers rising from the dead to kill their former comrades at the behest of just a handful of Nightsisters using their signature magick, had been shown in the Galactic Senate and had thus become public record. Evil Force users who only knew Dathomir because of the Witch Queen protecting it, now saw an opportunity to take their magick for themselves.

"Wasn't Nya's clan destroyed anyway?" the weequay began moving towards the other opening, prompting the young woman to follow after using the Force to load everything on the hovercart. "That's what the Book of Shadows is for."

Just before the weequay reached the other corridor, Varyn leapt out from the darkness. The weequay dodged it, but only barely, as he unclipped his lightsaber and stepped back into the small rock-encased room. The young woman's lightsaber sprung to live and bathed the area in dim red light just as Merian joined them to back up the Lord Commander. "Guess I underestimated you," she grinned with malice as if a fight with the Imperial Knights had been her wish this entire time.

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn listened to learn whatever he could before intercepting them as they came to prepare to leave. His saber burst to life in his hand, the quiet hum and faint heat that it gave off were a welcome and reassuring feeling aginst the otherwise cold, vicious, and disturbing world they were on. He hated it here, but a lightsaber was an ever-present companion. Jedi, Sith, Imperial Knight, alone or surrounded by friends, the lightsaber was one thing that had always been there for him.

Varyn's eyes settled on the woman who seemed so ready to fight him, wondering if her confidence was an overconfidence in herself or a testament to some strength in the Force that Varyn had yet to note. She did seem to be the more knowledgable of the two, and the Weequay was still giving vibes that perhaps he wasn't even an actual Sith.

Surrender, he demanded, not that he was banking on that happening. Assuming they didn't, he darted forward at the woman, slashing with his left saber at her belly and maneuvering toward her left side so that she would be between him and the Weequay, making sure not to put himself in an exposed position between the two of them.

@Eccles @Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

Like his shadow, Merian sprung from cover after Varyn. Her own lightsaber hissed in her hand a second after his. She hadn’t been on Dathomir, but she’d heard the horrors directly from the mouths of those who had, the sight of their bravest comrades defiled in death. The offhanded way the woman mentioned their fate made Merian’s blood simmer. Good. She’d use the strength against them. She felt her stuncuffs dangling at her hip, begging to be used.

“Engaging two hostiles. Move to assist,” she ordered in her comlink, though Varyn would hear nothing in his. Merian hadn’t activated the transmission—she doubted it would have reached the ship even if she had, considering previous results—and besides, there was no one left to back them up unless they abandoned the ship. But the Sith wouldn’t know that, and perhaps the thought of being outnumbered would pressure them into making mistakes.

Then Varyn engaged and Merian knew her task. Her eyes found the Weequay who’d stepped back into the room, the one who may not even be Force-sensitive, and her arm went up as she attempted to slam him into the stone wall. Regardless of the result, she would charge to engage him, possibly taking him out and keeping him from moving to flank the Lord Commander. That was her role. If she kept the Sith locked in single combat with Varyn, they would prevail, Merian was sure of it.

@Phoenix @Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

"Alright, we surrender," the woman smiled just as Varyn began his attack with his left lightsaber. She daftly stepped to her own right revealing ample training in fencing techniques and parried the slash at her belly. Soon Varyn's movement to the left made it impractical to put any strength into the lefthanded slash and the woman batted it back towards him. "He still attacked me," she gasped, mockingly. "Are you sure you're not a Sith," she seemed to measure Varyn up as she assumed a fencing stance that was well-known among Serenno nobility. Judging by her looks, although she was a bit paler due to Dark Side corruption, she could very well be a cousin of Knight-Captain Kalique Demici.

Meanwhile Merian Sere would no doubt be surprised when the Weequay countered her Force push with one of his own, resulting in the entire room being suddenly filled by forceful winds for a second. Unlike the young woman he didn't seem interested to toy with his victims and used the Force to pull Merian's left leg out from under her during her charge towards him. Aiming to unbalance her enough that if she persisted on the attack, he would have no trouble to bat her lightsaber away and decapitate her in a single swift stroke.

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[Varyn Atrix]

The woman showed her own skills at fencing, and although Varyn didn't immediately recognize her exact technique, he did recognize that she was skilled at what she did. Varyn had auditioned to be a blademaster for the Sith academies, and he could easily recognize the technique of someone who knew what they were doing.

Quite, was the only response that Varyn gave. He had never been much of a chatter while fighting except for the purpose of throwing his opponent off mental balance. Mental focus was a critical part of using the Force - and by extension dueling - and if he could interrupt that, all the better.

She looked shrunken and pale, the corruption of the darkness particularly present within her and telling its own story. There was no saving her, and Varyn wasn't a Jedi anymore. He had no obligation to take her alive.

He watched the way her weight shifted and let himself be swallowed up in the Force. He could all but see the engagement that was about to take place in his mind's eye. It was crystal clear and he didn't hesitate.

He launched toward her like a blinding flash, the Force powering and guiding his every movement. His right saber swung down at her from her top left shoulder, cleaving toward the center of her body and hoping to force her into a block so that his left - still ready to defend him if need be - could sweep around and cleave her in two at the waist. With only one weapon, it was a particularly classic and difficult thing to defend against.

All the while, he would press forward if she fell back, forcing her to block rather than be able to simply retreat or dodge.

@Volene @Eccles

 

[Merian Sere]

Merian hesitated for the briefest moment, but in the end she halted her stride before she was in reach of the Weequay, cursing her armor under her breath. Without its weight, she might have gone along with his tripping attempt, used her momentum, dove forward and rolled under his blade to slash off both his legs at once. But the plate was too cumbersome, and a failed attempt meant death. Instead Merian stopped and stabilized herself. Reddish eyes considered the Weequay anew, assessed the new challenge he posed. Then she was back on the move, if more slowly, deliberately, lightsaber raised in an expecting fashion. Her plan hadn’t changed: so long as she held his attention, her side would have the advantage. If he turned to overwhelm Varyn, she’d be on him in an instant to make him regret it.

@Phoenix @Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

"His right saber swung down at her from her top left shoulder, cleaving toward the center of her body and hoping to force her into a block so that his left - still ready to defend him if need be - could sweep around and cleave her in two at the waist. With only one weapon, it was a particularly classic and difficult thing to defend against.."

Varyn had underestimated the recklessness of the Sith's fighting style. As he moved forward to cleave her, the simple fact was that he came into her reach sooner than she came into his. She suddenly lunged forward, driving the tip of her blade forward in a direct line towards his heart while her body lowered as it stretched. Varyn wouldn't have time to cleave her down first and while he would try to block in time with his left, the intended wide attack had positioned it too far away to prevent a hit.

The lightsaber's tip pierced Varyn's right shoulder, having been directed away from his heart by the lightsaber in his left hand, preventing the intended attack with his right as tendons severed and the strength quickly faded from his right arm. The Sith was now exposed to the Lord Commander's left saber, however, so she quickly tried to disengage and move backwards, starting by retracting her lightsaber and pulling her body back by shifting her weight to her back foot and retreating from the lunge.

The damage to his shoulder wasn't permanent if treated with bacta and a kolto-bath within 24 hours. Assuming, ofcourse, the Imperial Knights survived this encounter.

"Then she [Merian Sere] was back on the move, if more slowly, deliberately, lightsaber raised in an expecting fashion."

The weequay, who was standing with his back towards the exit, mirrored Merian's movement and walked slowly into the dark corridor that lead out of this area. He didn't seem interested in taking the initiative as he wordlessly stepped back to keep an even distance between himself and the knight.

Faintly, coming from the same corridor, they could hear a ship's engines starting to power up.

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn felt the saber pierce through his shoulder, but with the pain came an opportunity. He was an exceptionally powerful Force-user, and had specialized his whole life in dueling. His speed and reflexes were faster than nearly any other beings in the galaxy, and the Sith would quickly find out that her exposed positioning came with a detriment of its own.

Form X was a saber style that focused on precision of movement, much of its wrist and blade work inspired by Form II, and Varyn executed that quickly and with years of experience and practice.

Even as he slid to his own left and away from the saber wound to his shoulder, his left wrist flicked across like a flash of lightning with speed unmatched by most in the galaxy and slammed the blade across the woman's throat as she started to pull back in the hopes of exiting his reach, but unable to given her overextension.

They all made mistakes. He had on more than one occasion and it had nearly cost him his life on multiple occasions. That voice nagged at the back of his mind once again, ever-present and causing him to question if he really did have a death wish. As saber duels often were, it was only a matter of seconds before it was all over.

@Eccles @Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

Merian caught the sequence from the corner of her eye and it was enough to make her pause again. She had to make a choice, and watching the fight turn sour prompted her to intervene—the Weequay was not worth losing the Lord Commander. But as quickly as he’d lost control of the duel, Varyn regained the upper hand, reassuring Merian enough that she let go and resumed her chase. She thought to toss her stuncuffs over to him to assist, but it looked like the young Sith wouldn’t be alive to need them. And that made capturing the remaining fugitive that much more important.

Merian went into the corridor after the burned older man. Her hesitation had lasted less than a second, swift as the lightsaber strokes, and he’d only been slowly stepping back. If he turned tail to run, Merian would use the Force to pull him back when he couldn’t easily counter it. Otherwise she would keep closing the distance between them, unrelenting, ready to defend against more of his cheap tricks.

Her eyes went all over him and his burn scars. She didn’t know the story behind them, but the excerpts she’d heard let her imagine one. He hadn’t seemed particularly thrilled about what came next. Maybe there was something there.

“Imperial justice will be more lenient than whatever he does when he learns you compromised the mission,” she said, at last breaking the silence between them.

@Phoenix @Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

The young Sith had been both thrilled and frustrated. She had found the weak-spot in the knight's defense, his overconfidence, but instantly realized that her own survival had depended on her attack delivering a fatal wound. He had been just fast enough to parry the tip of her lightsaber away from his heart and that exposed her to a counterattack that was most likely fatal. She knew this as it was a risk in her impulsive style she had often been warned about during her sessions with the Blademaster. Regret, however, wasn't the way of the Sith.

If she had managed to step back completely she would've won the remainder of the duel easily, but not her opponent's skill, but her own impulsiveness that made Varyn's swing connect with her throat. He wasn't fast enough to decapitate her, but the blade did burn an opening into her windpipe and she lost her footing, grabbed her throat and fell to the ground, compulsing as her lungs no longer got the oxygen they needed. It was a gruesome death and as she lay there dying tears began running down her face. Faced with inevitable death the way of the Sith was easily abandoned..

The weequay had reached the corridor and had made sure that the Imperial Knights wouldn't be able to outnumber him, forcing them to fight him one-on-one in the narrow and dark corridor only he knew where it lead to. He didn't seem distraught by the death of his fellow Sith and instead seems to rather enjoy the limp right arm of the knight that had killed her.

"We've served our purpose, child," he replied as the sounds of engines powering up behind him grew louder, "We got what the Dark Lord wanted. No mere copy of it, but the actual book right from under your noses on Raxus."

With his head he motioned towards the Lord Commander, "You should help him. If you die he won't be able to survive the Anzati between this cave and your ship." The young woman had been able to almost match the Lord Commander in speed as if she herself had been just as close to being a Blademaster as he had once been. The weequay was older, had more scars to show his experience and through the encounter so far he seems unphased, as if he had seen it all a thousand times before.

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn had had worse injuries before, and despite his damaged shoulder, he wasn't dead yet.

You don't serve Tempest, he stated. Everything the man had said had indicated as much and although there was mention of a book stolen from Raxus, it wasn't answers.

Who then? Surely he's someone I'd have heard of, he said. He was a former Sith, after all. Anyone of note was a name Varyn was likely familiar with at this point. Of course, it may have just been a nobody who deceived a few followers, but Varyn doubted it.

And why take the risk of Raxus? he asked. He heard the ship engines winding up, and if he had to risk his own life to stop the man from escaping, he would. Varyn had always been one who could and would adapt on the fly, and he already had at least two alternative plans for surviving this if need be. After all, the Force was still his ally in more ways than one, and injured arm or no, it still bent to his will.

@Eccles @Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

Merian raised her blade in defiance. It was her only answer, almost a salute. The Dark Lord doesn’t have anything yet, she wanted to say. Your death is worse than mine. She’d always been expendable. Besides, he was wrong. Injured or no, Varyn hadn’t needed to lift a finger to repel the Anzat on the way here. He’d be just fine without her—maybe he’d even be pleased. Again today, she hadn’t made the best impression with him.

But Merian stayed silent. The Lord Commander had asked questions, and as much as it pained her to admit they were more important than her grandstanding. She waited for the Sith’s answers if any were coming, and all the while the knight bid her time. They couldn’t let him escape. The corridor was too narrow to allow Varyn and her to fight side by side, but he was in a position to support her with all his strength in the Force and it was past time she made herself useful. She trusted him to read her intention. React first.

As soon as the Weequay’s answers came, or earlier if none did, Merian charged him again, only this time with Force-enhanced speed that let her close the distance in a blink. The narrow hall forbade the man sidestep her: Merian was ready to knock his blade aside, ready for the same trick he’d used earlier, and fully ready to use her armored body as a battering ram.

@Phoenix @Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

The weequay smiled. The wounded man had asked two questions as if to strike up a conversation more befitting a lounge on Daedalus. One of them he would answer right-

-He only barely managed to block Merian's blade, holding it with two hands to make sure it couldn't be knocked aside, locking himself and the Imperial Knight in place within the narrow corridor. "You're as reckless as she was," his raspy voice seemingly admired the attack by the knight, "Join us."

He began stepping back again, hoping perhaps that if the knight didn't follow his movements their locked sabers would end up being freed from each other. "With his own Nightsister coven-" which should answer why they had come to Raxus to steal a Book of Shadows, "-he will become the next Eternal."

If Merian didn't mirror his movements, the weequay's left hand would let go of the hilt.

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Well it was part of the answer, and it put them on the right path. A wannabe Eternal was planning to take over a coven of Nightsisters. Great. What he did know was that the prospect of an Eternal returning unnerved him and opened a pit in his stomach. Having that person in charge of a Nightsister coven was even worse.

Merian leapt for the Weequay a moment later, and Varyn decided that it was a prime opportunity. The space was tight and his shoulder was injured, but he didn't need to be in direct proximity or uninjured for the Force to do its work. He still had line of sight on the man. This enemy of the Empire.

He reached out to the Force and let it wrap around the man, pulling him into a stasis that was hard enough to break on its own. Could he brake it? Perhaps, but breaking it while also fending off whatever saber-assault Merian launched at him was far more difficult. A dirty one-two punch, but Varyn really wasn't above a little dirty fighting. Hopefully, restraining and slowing at least his arm would offer Merian a free hit to take the arm or worse.

@Eccles @Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

“As reckless,” Merian echoed, keeping the Weequay’s blade locked with her own. Every step of his she matched, forcing him to keep both hands on his hilt just as she did. Extending Varyn’s window. “More deliberate. And alive.”

Without warning, Merian’s left hand let go of her lightsaber and reached for the concealed vibroknife that never left her thigh. In one practiced motion, she drew the short blade and stabbed it at the Sith’s right flank, even as his lightsaber started gaining ground against her now one-handed grip. The surprise attack had taken less than a second.

Anytime now, she thought, gritting her teeth and returning her hand to her saber to defend herself, dropping the knife if she hadn’t struck true. Her charge had hinged on Varyn’s support; if it didn’t come, and soon, things were going to get ugly fast.

@Phoenix @Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

What the Imperial Knights didn't know was that this particular weequay had been one of Darth Vyrassu's champions in ages past. He massacred populations, enscened horrific sights all for the Councillor's quest to discover the true origin of death and destruction. He had not just revelled in the Dark Side's alchemy at the time, but his skill at causing the destruction of entire alien civilizations had caught the attention of the new Dark Lord. He was going to join his council.

Wounded severely, Varyn's Force stasis attack lacked the strength to hold the weequay and while it did keep him in place long enough for Merian's vibro-knife to penetrate the armor and thick leathery skin on his right flank, he broke it quickly and unleashed a Force push with both hands that was strong enough to send Merian backwards by ten feet. Thanks to her training, Merian would be able to land on her feet and not fall prone.

Next, the weequay used the Force to yank Varyn's righ arm downwards. The piercing wound in his shoulder had severed tendons earlier, but this move would make it seem to the Lord Commander like his entire right arm was being torn off. Whatever willpower he had conjured that had allowed him to shrug off his wound earlier, would be gravely tested.

Then, he chuckled, "Alive, Roan always said that for us darksiders," the chuckle stopped as he pulled the knife from his flank and assumed a slightly wobbly fighting stance with his lightsaber in front, blood was flowing from the wound almost instantly. "Living is no longer an option. That's why our bodies change to mimic corpses when we use it." The pale complexion, the yellow eyes and the darkened veins all mimicked the looks of a cold dead body. Was this what the weequay had understood of Darth Vyrassu's quest for the origin of death? Were those that used the Dark Side merely corpses hastening the same fate for those around them?

@Phoenix @Volene

 

[The Storyteller]

As more seconds passed, the wobbly fighting stance of the weequay seemed to lose determination. He started to blink a few times more as the blood kept flowing from the open wound and down his left leg. "Your order is no match for-" he trailed off, frowned and tried to refocus on Merian, "-for chaos. He revels in it, believes it to be the key, and-"

The weequay lost his footing and almost stumbled before touching the wound with his left hand and being surprised at the amount of blood that covered his palm and fingers. "The wound didn't cauterize," He looked at Merian in surprise as he he couldn't fully connect the dots that explained why he thought his wound wasn't as bad as it actually was. Did the statis do that? Was it because he didn't tense up, didn't even try to dodge or block it?

He slumped to his right, against the cave wall and then his legs seemed to lose the strength to keep him standing and he dropped to the floor, his lightsaber disengaging and falling from his hand. Meanwhile the engines seemed to have powered up and kept sending warm wet air through the corridor towards them. A mist fell over they weequay's eyes as he uttered a half-chuckle, apparently finding his death on this forsaken planet amusing in his last moment.

The Imperials pressed on to find a clearing with an open ceiling where a Nightsister was waiting on the ramp of a ship. She appeared to have been waiting for her two fellow Sith to arrive and was surprised when she saw the Imperials arrive instead. She proved to be less formidable an opponent and when the Imperials searched the ship they found a book providing indepth details on Nightsister magic, their history and rituals including the Baptism on Dathomir.

They used the ship to get back to Raxus, avoiding the feral locals of the valley and returned the cave system to them after what seemed like a few weeks of Sith-control. The ship's logs showed destinations like the Daedalus space station, Raxus, Anzat and Prakith.

/ END THREAD

OUTCOME:

Lord Commander Varyn Atrix (@Phoenix) and Imperial Knight Merian Sere (@Volene) managed to track down the Sith Terrorists and kill them. They returned with a physical copy of a 'Book of Shadows', which was stolen from the residence of ISB commander Levik Karn, and the knowledge that the Sith are split on who they call their 'Dark Lord'. Unfortunately they did not find out this new Dark Lord's name.​