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Darth Tiamat

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Since Denon, Tiamat had been waiting for her summons. She had weighed the consequences of showing up by portal during the invasion and the attention it would draw by not only the troops but whatever spies who reported to their Dark Lord. It had been an opportunity to test her engineering skills that would not be missed, and luckily it was successful as it was impressive. Though the idea of someone else potentially wanting to use her work, that was not something she had given too much thought about; there was certainly a level of control she enjoyed having with her engineering skills and research, and the idea to be at the leverage of another...well simply, it left her uneasy. How much would she have to give up and was she willing to do that? She regretted not thinking about it sooner, because she still did not have a clear answer even for herself.

On top of everything, Emryc was still missing. He wasn't dead, she would know, but his absence still gnawed at her. At a time like this, she would have confided in him on, pretty much everything, and knowing when it was done, she could rush back to him to debrief and find some calm just being within his presence. However, that was not an option; he had warned on such, that one day he would not be around. She just did not realize how soon he had meant those words with questions still raised on the reason for his disappearance.

Tiamat would find her own tranquility before she entered; she had taken time to pay extra care to how she not only physically prepared herself, but mentally also. Her holo-pad was tucked underneath her arm as she stood outside the doors, glancing down briefly to ensure she was fully presentable. It had forced her to finally take the time to clean and repair frays in her armor collected from Denon and she would admit it looked sharper than it did when she first gotten it. She would be given the clear to enter and she felt her step stutter when she realized the Dark Lord sat behind a desk like some Corellian market big-wig, but her blue gaze hardened and she knelt upon entering, the doors closing behind her and the silence would hang until the Eternal spoke.

 

The Eternal

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The Eternal watched as its next appointment entered. A newly christened Sith Lord, that alone would not have warranted summoning the woman to its presence. The reason she had been summoned was because of the reports it had received from Denon.

Denon had been a rousing success as far as the Eternal was concerned. Territory taken, a traitor dead, a Jedi councilor dead, and Raze disappeared. That wasn't to be overshadowed by the reports of the Eternal's scouts, but there was certainly no denying that if the reports were true the Eternal needed to know about it.

The woman entered and knelt. Another person who seemed surprised by the Eternal's office choice. Did they expect that it simply stood all day every day?

"Rise, Lord Tiamat," it instructed.

"You seem unsettled," it said, seemingly aware despite her attempts to calm herself. It wondered at the source, but it could guess as well. The question wasn't entirely out of niceties, either, but it felt no need to offer an explanation.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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The Sith Lord rose to stand upon the Dark Lord's directive. She removed the holopad from underneath her arm and held it with both hands in anticipation for the Eternal to ask of her work. However, a different observation came from the Dark Lord as they pointed out the uneasy feelings experienced by Tiamat currently. She was not surprised, but not put off by the observation either.

"I am adjusting to a change in seasons." she explained, trying to think of the best way to put how she felt without delving into the details of her story. There was clearly a lot going on for the young Sith Lord, but nothing seemed like it was focused on one thing and as she adapted to a life of new loss and gain. She did not think the Dark Lord was the personable sort, keeping things short and to the point was probably ideal given the real focus of the meeting was likely her work on the hypergates. "It will not keep me from neglecting my work." she assured the masked being.

"Which is why I believe I am here because of my work and how I arrived on Denon: a feat of myth, but now reality my Lord." she activated her holopad, the holo-image of one of the gates blinked to existence over the tablet. She observed the Eternal, watching for shifts in its own body position for his reaction as she was unable to read any facial expression whatsoever. The red head paused, her silence lingering until the Dark Lord permitted for her to continue to share what she had discovered and engineered.



@Phoenix
 

The Eternal

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What an incredibly diplomatic answer that told the Eternal nothing. While it wasn't shocked, it was still disappointed by the non-answer. It wondered at the reason behind it, but did not press further for now. Even so it was still aware to the subtlest of shifts in the Darth's moods or feelings. Nothing was hidden before the Dark Lord.

"Correct," the Eternal replied. There had been a directive several years ago for the Sith to look for the hypergates, but the results had been fruitless.

The Eternal leaned forward looking at the projection she was displaying.

"How many gates have you discovered? And where?" it asked, clearly quite interested in what the Sith Lord had discovered. These were potentially incredibly valuable to the Order. It let her continue without interruption as she gave whatever presentation she had likely prepared for this scenario.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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Her eyebrows slowly raised in mild delight as she watched the Eternal lean forward to look at the image that floated above her holopad. He wanted to know more and so Tiamat continued.

"Dantooine, Lothal, Vrogas Vas, and Planet Theta..." the images of the worlds would blink in to view as she spoke, "Four so far, but more to come my Lord. I have completed the necessary code to filter through coordinates to find others, it will still take some time, but much faster than having to search system to system physically." she explained, hoping he had the patience as she did when it came to the limits of even the best technology.

Tiamat pressed lightly on her holopad and a video came up of the different locations, blurbs of information popped up next to each gate. "The greatest enemy of these gates is the wear of time; Dantooine's gate is in the caves with no clear path. Its not ideal, but it can be of use. The gate on Lothal is out in the open, and has become a sort of a tourist attraction with its unusual rock formation and odd instances, but the people are simple its where I jumped from to Denon... then there is Vrogas Vas, and lastly Theta." she flipped the image to the cave where the gate had been and the ash and skeletal remains that covered the floor.

"Blackwell has been looking into this technology too, but with less success. This is what can go wrong with a hypergate, thus we need to be cautious." Tiamat explained and paused as new images came up with equations and jump codes, "The safest route is between two gates, they're imperfect though and we cannot just jump anywhere on a planet, only where an access point can be created through the field folds, multidimensional travel is fickle." she paused glancing at the Eternal, "However, having the access gate points on these worlds, we can open an exit portal for one way travel to nearly any system in the galaxy, my Lord." she looked back at her holoimage.

"Though I am uncertain just how many and what exactly we can move through them. I know so far small groups of troops, but nothing else yet, however..."

She flipped the image again, now one that looped freighters and single occupant craft disappearing into thin air as they shot across the projector, "This is a famous piloting race, Dragon Void Run, if my suspicions are correct, I am assuming what these pilots are going through are not just a mere phenomenon, but another hypergate. We wouldn't need to rely on hyperlanes, a jump from one system to another within mere moments...." Her eyes widened with her own anticipation what the Sith could do with technology that outpaced the rest of the galaxy.

"Questions so far, my Lord?" Tiamat stopped and looked up at the Eternal, waiting for the Sith to speak.

 

The Eternal

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The Eternal listened in silence. It weighed each of the words the woman said carefully, and mulled through the possibilities of how to use it. Deploying scouts and assassins to anywhere in the galaxy had a vast number of uses to the Sith.

"How precise can these 'access points' be?" it asked. "A single building? A mile wide area? A whole system? Or do you have no influence over where they are?" it asked. Deploying troops directly into enemy strongholds sounded too good to be true.

"This race. Is there evidence of a gate there?" it also asked. Being able to have ships evade detection in hyperspace lanes and dropping directly onto a planet like Coruscant would also be incredibly useful to the Order. This was about as talkative as the Eternal ever was, but there was a great deal of complexities to be worked out in this particular topic. Partial knowledge could be more dangerous than no knowledge at all.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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Tiamat listened carefully to the Eternal's questions. She had a feeling there would be a question on precision, after all it would be ideal to just teleport wherever one's heart desires. That of course was the too good to be true, "Not entirely, we can pick a point, planet side, closest to the destination where we want to arrive. It is dependent on where the portal opens and its going to open where it is most stable. Otherwise, you may find yourself lost quite literally within dimensional folds and I can only assume that means certain death." she paused, reminding herself not delve too much into the technical jargon.

"So far, I have been able to jump one way within five to ten miles of my goal. As for the gates themselves, as they are more permanent structures, they are clearly fitted on the most stable points on the planet Those cannot be moved." Tiamat explained. She flipped back to the images of the race, having the loop freeze and notes blurbs popped up.

"The race is based on technology that no one can figure out how it works, but it works and it creates wormholes for the pilots to run through. Once they hit a certain point, their ships are carried through space without the aid of a hyperdrive, lightyears away from the start line." Tiamat highlighted the station, pulling up images of the unique computer systems from the holonet public domain, "These markings and this set up is characteristic of the other gates and Gree technology I have seen."



@Phoenix
 

The Eternal

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The Eternal continued to listen. While dropping soldiers directly inside the Senate building might be impossible, that didn't mean there weren't still applications to being able to drop troops directly onto enemy worlds. The Republic and the FWA had been a thorn in the Dark Lord's side for a century, and while there was expansion into their territory, the Eternal wanted vengeance. A statement.

"But the race can send ships through space?" it confirmed. That was a means to invasion if the Eternal had ever heard one.

It held out its hand for the datapad she was using to project, waiting for her to hand it over so that the Eternal could look through it personally.

"How did you find these gates?" it asked. "And how do you locate more? Do we know how many were made? Is it possible to make more?"

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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Tiamat nodded as he confirmed the theory of ships going through a hypergate. "Ships, perhaps not some of our larger ones, but it can send ships without relying on lightspeed. Thus avoiding sensors that the FWA and Republic would normally use to detect abnormal entry into real-space." Tiamat confirmed, trying her best to control the small grin that was pulling at the corner of her lip. She knew exactly what it meant for the Sith if they could avoid the use of hyperspace routes, though that would just be the tip of the iceberg. Tiamat saw the evolution of the technology to something that could be more sinister.

Her thoughts paused when the Eternal extended its hand for her holopad, She pursed her lips, feeling uncomfortable handing off the device for the Dark Lord to inspect; it was more or less a part of her, it would be like as though someone wanting to give a piece of herself. The woman stepped forward though, obeying its gesture and not to leave them waiting as she handed the Eternal the holopad.

"The first one, Blackwell." she simply answered, "They had a team who found one on a world dubbed, Theta, about thirty years ago. Unfortunately, they all perished while reverse engineering the technology. Once I learned about this, it piqued my curiosity and soon a passion." she explained, "I am currently running coordinates now with the gates for system hits; they seemed mostly isolated to first and second quadrants*, I generally have to make repairs before using them since...significant time has passed. Their numbers in total?" Tiamat shrugged, "I do not have an answer, my Lord, but if we can fully stabilize one way travel, then, millions of exit points." the woman paused as she watched the masked Sith read through her report.

"To make more...I do not have an answer to that. I think that is what Blackwell attempted, we may need alchemist to recreate materials not commonly found in the galaxy. Then...possibily but not guaranteed." the Sith woman explained.


@Phoenix

*OoC: northern half of the galaxy on the atlas/map
 

The Eternal

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The Eternal's mask was eternally stoic. It had no reaction to Tiamat's further explanations, though it did note how Blackwell had repeatedly cropped up throughout the conversation. It was uncomfortable with this.

It scrolled through the reports on the datapad before setting it down atop its desk directly in front of the Eternal.

Your contact at Blackwell? Who are they? How much do they know? it asked.

The series of questions the Eternal was going to ask was seemingly endless, but with how precarious its position was these days, it needed to be certain of exactly what it was dealing with. People outside of the Sith having access to this power could prove detrimental to the Eternal's power base.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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She felt her hands needing to be occupied as her holopad rested on top of the Eternal's desk; she eventually settled on folding them against her back as she stood attentively, listening to the questions that seemed to just fire off impulsively. Her eyes focused on the Dark Lord's mask, her demeanor seemingly much calmer as she decided how to answer. Her contact at Blackwell? She felt that was privileged information; last she needed was the Dark Lord's spies making a menace and severing ties to her acquaintance there.

"They know as much as I knew when we first discovered the remnants of the research team. That was years ago; nothing notable in their research has garnered any attention to such technology. Plus with an accident like they had, funding would have been pulled and they would need to go back to theorizing before attempting to repair or rebuild another gate." Tiamat explained, her thoughts certainly were drawn back to the discovery made by Blackwell and if they would make any further progress. With what she was able to find, she could only assume the worst with what she did not know. This pushed her to make sure she found the other gates first and be the first to successfully make the jumps.

"Blackwell's game involves credits, they won't play with an idea unless they know what they can profit from it. However, once the Order begins using these, there is a good chance Blackwell will dive back to uncovering the mechanisms to make things more...competitive." explained Tiamat.



@Phoenix
 

The Eternal

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The Eternal was not thrilled about her evading its question, but perhaps it could find the information in her datapad. It stood from where it had been sitting and placed the datapad in a drawer of its desk.

Very well. I'll be taking control of the gates beginning immediately. Dantooine, Lothal, Vrogas Vas, and Planet Theta, the Eternal said. Its gaze was unyielding behind the mask, and it was now quite clear why the Eternal had asked her here. There was dissent in the ranks of the Sith, and the last thing it was going to allow was someone else to have control of such a dangerous system.

It paused for a long moment, prepared for the potentially violent lash out about the news. Sith were jealous of their secrets, and it had expected to have to pry the information from her, but she'd simply handed it over. If the Eternal weren't a heartless husk of itself, it might have thanked her for that.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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The young Lord's eyes followed the datapad into his desk drawer, still finding it quite unexpected the Dark Lord would have a desk. Now if she were the Dark Lord, she would flaunt her power, but then again, if she had the reputation that the Dark Lord had currently, she too would hide behind a desk.

The masked figure spoke, indicating her work was now under its control. "Yes, of course my Lord." she stated. Emryc had warned her of such, as soon as another more powerful that her found out what she had, it would be taken. "I am eager to see them utilized and their potential not wasted." she nodded and bow her head gently. Her gaze fell onto the Dark Lord once more as it paused; she wondered if it expected more resistance, there were many in the Sith Order who despised their leader, Tiamat had her own reservations, but there were other ways to build her own power.

"One request my Lord." Tiamat continued, "Darth Raze has been missing and I wish to acquire his ship to aide me in bringing him back. I am certain I can find some clue to his whereabouts on there that perhaps others who are not familiar enough with his habits to know where to look." The woman explained her reasoning, confident in her assertion, "He is still powerful, and still holds influence, to let him be absent for this long, may be an imprudent decision."

 

The Eternal

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Excellent. The Sith Lord was going to be very compliant and didn't seem interested in putting up any resistance. Perhaps the Eternal would keep that in mind in the future. Loyalty was a useful thing to have and offering her a reward for hers may not go amiss.

The mention of Raze and his ship also captured the Eternal's attention. That was a means of tracking the Sith Lord down? The Eternal had already marked the man for likely removal, though his location was still a mystery.

The Eternal spoke after a moment.

Lord Raze is your former-Master, it said, though it wasn't clear whether it was a question or a statement.

And you're claiming you don't know his location? Where did you last see him? it asked.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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The Eternal remained silent, letting a few moments pass before it spoke again, confirming what it already knew, she indeed was Raze's apprentice. The redhaired Sith gave a nod to affirm it's statement, it already knew her connection to the missing Darth, though that seemed to be the once piece about her that many knew her as: Darth Raze's apprentice.

The Eternal questioned her knowledge to his whereabouts and where she had last seen him. She thought it would be obvious that if she did know, she wouldn't take such measures as asking for his ship. As much as she knew how Emryc endeared his ship, if he were still present, there would have been other ways to having it returned to its owner.

"The infirmary, shortly after Denon, my Lord." she stated, remembering her last hours with him before he vanished. Her suspicions laid still with the Station and their doing and the Dark Lord now laying claim it did not seem to know where he was either. Though, it did not settle her assumptions that it had something to do with Emryc's disappearance, "He's not dead, he's not in distress, therefore he is somewhere and I will find him." her gaze fell on the glow of the Eternal's mask.



@Phoenix
 

The Eternal

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The Eternal looked at her for a long moment, weighing whether or not it believed her. It supposed there was no sense to her asking for the ship if she already knew where he was. It nudged up against her mind in the Force, but found that in only a passing thought it was unusually walled off. There were no passing thoughts that could be sensed from her mind. Peculiar.

It didn't press further, but instead spoke again.

You are a Sith Lord now. What are you ambitions? A seat on the Council? Perhaps to usurp me one day? it asked, surprisingly blunt about the statement. It was the way of the Sith, and in some ways the Eternal would have been disappointed if none of its underlings had their eyes set on a higher prize. But if they came for that title, of course, they would find nothing but death.

Even so, if she had aspirations and goals, revealing a portion of them may not be unwise. The Eternal could be a powerful ally despite some individual's belief to the contrary.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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The shadows shifted around her, feeling the Dark Lord's touch graze against her mind but it would not press further as it detected something usual about it. Her chin subtly tipped just a bit taller as she felt it retreat, but was certain the Dark Lord would only have more curiosities about the Sith woman. She doubted any of them inspiring, probably more in the realms of suspicion as it worked to find out her intentions and now her ambitious as it asked rather forward of her personal aspirations.

A seat on the council?
Perhaps to usurp me one day?


"Perhaps both." she did not hesitate with her response and fought to hold back a cocky grin. Tiamat had contemplated and even entertained herself on how she would rule. It was hard for her to imagine as a ruling body, much of her ideas took her back to Andraste and how she could compare to such a ruler when she thumbed through the history books in between being a human computer for the hypergates. The idea of beings bowing to her and following her command had its appeal.



@Phoenix
 
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The Eternal

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Behind the mask, the Eternal actually smiled. Not that the mask would reveal that fact. It held no qualms with her aspirations. She had a great distance to go yet before usurping the Eternal.

Very well, Lord Tiamat, it said. She seemed uninterested in sharing her plans, which the Eternal was unsurprised by. Most Sith Lords weren't.

I will investigate the whereabouts of Lord Raze's ship, it said, though it had no intention of actually handing it over to her. If anything, the ship would "happen" to vanish.

In the event that you find him, inform me. I wish to speak to him. I will make it worth your while on your climb to "both," it said. It was the most direct offer of assistance she would likely ever receive, and the Eternal knew well how to deliver.

That will be all, it said with finality.

@GABA
 

Darth Tiamat

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Tiamat stood in stillness, not realizing she had been holding her breath as she waited for the Eternal's response to the idea of possibly overthrowing its thrown at some point. When the Eternal spoke, the redheaded Sith inhaled, seeing as though it expected such a response as fact. Sharing anymore to such a plan she felt would be unwise, given that just it knowing about the hypergates seemed to have removed her from the entire project. The woman opened her mouth to say something about the ship, but the Eternal made it point that it would investigate its whereabouts.

She pursed her lips, preventing herself from arguing from fact that it most likely knew of its location. She had heard that phrase from those uninterested in the effort; smart ones would allow enough time to pass before following up with her with empty results. She expected the same from the Eternal. However, what she did find interesting was its offer for information on where Emryc was located. Her eyebrows rose, interest growing in her blue eyes as she started processing ideas with this tidbit of information.

That would be it though, a greater reward for the Eternal, some promises of a reward if she demonstrated her loyalty to the masked leader, and that was how things were as long as she stayed where she was in the order of power.

"Thank you, my Lord." she bowed before taking her leave. There was much more work to be done.



/END THREAD
 
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