A Lost Queen(One Sith Dominion of Kuat)

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Alric Kuhn"]

"And me, I'm coming." Came the unnatural, clearly synthetically overlayed voice of Darth Adekos as he quick-walked across the durasteel floor of the hangar towards Vornskr and Kuhn.

He had intended to be part of this little diplomatic mission, largely because he liked diplomacy far more than gouging people's eyes out with knives or whatever it was most other Sith did for fun. The only reason he had been delayed was because he had been screaming at [member="Zothustro Quill"] over a commlink, giving him explicit instructions to keep order in Hegemonic Automaton's holdings at any and all costs. If employees had to be shot, shoot them. Regrettable, but such was the nature of this crisis.

"Apologies. Business matters. It's since been resolved."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Darth Adekos"]

Alric looked to the new man who sounded like a robot.

“Okay.” He said quietly before turning around and rolling his eyes. These Sith were all oddballs. Shifting slightly Alric moved up the ramp of his ship. His secretary followed after, and he expected that the two Sith Lords would follow as well.

The meeting would be arranged between himself, The Queen and owner of Kuat Drive Yards, and these two Sith Lords. The objective would be a simple one, peacefully negotiate the integration of Kuat and its Drive Yards into the One Sith.

With the chaos running through the Empire, this was a important first step.

While Titan Industries managed to sustain itself quite healthily throughout all the panic, mostly due to its high level of alert status, things were beginning to quickly degrade. What was needed now more than anything was stability.

He knew that more than most.

 

[Reverance]

Turncoats...

"Most rumors have some semblance of truth in them..." He smiled as lifted himself from the vehicle seat and stretched nonchalant, hugging the inner wall of the vessel. His right hand drifted to Roecnar, feeling the phantom lingering of Reebas, lost so mindlessly upon Kashyyyk in that fight against Kana. He sat silent, watching the Firrerreo grab hold of a grenade and activate it, effectively putting it in the oven. Tilting his head, he thought about how unfortunate it would be to die in this Star Viper. He didn't even really like the ship, now that he had The Right Hand and The Conquerors Ring. But not really minding all that too much, the door slammed open and the Sith Knight launched the cooked grenade into the group of men.

Ting. Boom.

It got a single bounce before igniting and sending shrapnel out in every direction, at the center of the majority of the soldiers. Bodies went skating across the slick surface, some intact, some not so much. But a grenade is only a grenade, thought the Sith Lord, as he leaped from the Viper and ran forward, the force and it's imbued speed hunkered upon his shoulders, pushing him hard in a gale of power towards the remaining two soldiers. Blasters fired out as he moved in vectors, a red blur of crimson saber bounced from chest outwards, deflecting the beams towards the ceiling before being upon them. A slash across the neck, one fell down. An upward swing, the mans weapon destroyed. His left hand jumped out to clench throat and trachea under a fierce grip, tightening like a vice, as he pulled the man towards him. "Millions have disappeared and seemingly died...whats a few more?" With a twitch of the wrist, the neck and spinal column severed and the body went limp, falling from opened hand. Scraping residue between his thumb and fingers, he looked back towards Vrag, or where he assumed she would be.

"I didn't realize men had such power...to send you into hiding..." A jab returned. They would need to move, he thought, as forces would soon be on them once more and the open arena was hardly the appropriate format to fight off blaster fire.

[member="Vrag"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

Stepping out of the tower, Alicia entered the riot. To her left at the side entrance, a man was being mugged by rowdy teenagers. She could sense the adrenaline running through their bodies via the Force. See that the beast within them had risen their snouts on the eve of a new era for Kuat. It existed in all Humans, the wanting to do something so evil, nihilistic and sadistic, only to be pushed to the side in way for what was right, laws and the inability to get away with such things.

But today, that wasn't the case. You could practically do anything and get away with it, if you were smart enough.

Like swindling a trillion credit company.

Underneath her dark robe, she wore black leggings, t shirt and combat boots. In the pockets of her trousers was a Lenoi I, a datapad that Chandrila DataTech designed and manufactured. It would be a tool she would use to swindle Kuat Drive Yards.

Patting her pocket, Alicia took the moment to observe her environment. She was reminded of a time she had helped a certain gangster on Coruscant, long before the One Sith had revealed themselves; and the chaos of that particular night, when she had slain so many.

 

[Vrag]

Turncoats

Bang!

And then screams, and the wet sounds of flesh sliding against permacrete and durasteel. Not pretty, but certainly not the worst she'd been privy to. The Knight followed Reverance a few breaths later, sacrificing speed for precision as she cut into the side of the scattered squadron in her Niman form. It was what she fell back on when surrounded by blasters and soldiers who weren't on her side.

A few stray, panicked bolts charred her plate armor, but it did its job, barely slowing down her lethal progress through the enemy ranks. She kept moving, a collected momentum versus the frightened mind of a troop in the throes of death. It was never going to be a fair fight, not with this particular pair of ruthless Sith.

As if on cue, the one-eyed man called back at her, the words drowned by the blaster fire narrowly missing her shoulder. She cut off the offending appendage with a quick upward strike, finishing the job with a shiak through the shooter's heart.

In the momentary lull, Vrag glanced around them, her blue eyes zeroing in on a stairwell.

The roof? Upper floor? No time.

She motioned to the man, not really caring if he followed or not as she made for the transparisteel door. Reinforcements would doubtlessly swarm them given the chance, and they had to deprive them of their advantage.

[member="Reverance"]

 

[Quietus]

Silence reigned.

A strange quiet - not quite the calm before the storm. More like the calm within a storm, at the eye of a hurricane. The worst had come and gone, but dark clouds and a terrible maelstrom still tore across the horizon. She was ready for it.

"Your orders have been enacted, Your Majesty, would you like to hear the reports on Kuat City?"

"Leave them on my desk. What is the status of the Council?"

"Only seven could be located," DiVanca sighed, a deep frown etched into her face, "the remaining five have been added to the list of those vanished."

"Get their Heirs placed in, those who have none to account for we will take care of in due time."

"Yes your Majesty," DiVanca gave a trembling nod, her datapad chimed and moments later, "Representatives from the One Sith are requesting an audience with you."

"Send them in. Tell the remaining Guard to stand down - I will not tolerate bloodshed or death due to their own foolishness."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Darth Adekos"]

He frowned slightly as his secretary told them they now had a set appointment with the Queen of Kuat.

It was a good thing of course, a very good thing, but he had not yet decided who would do the talking. Technically, Vornskr had the authority to do whatever he pleased right now, and he had no idea who Mr. Robotvoice was. Though Alric doubted that he had more authority than Vornskr did, otherwise he would have heard of them.

“Gentlemen.” He finally said as the lambda-class shuttle surged into space. “I would like to propose that I do most of the talking. I believe Her Majesty would be more open to see this as a partnership...rather than an occupation.”

That was pure logic, logic that he hoped the two men would follow him on.

 

[Cordelia deWinter]

Find the Queen of Kuat and negotiate with her - Alric Kuhn heading this up
Within the Palace grounds to discover more information
Hope to not get shot in the panic.

[member="Lorelei Darke"] [member="Alric Kuhn"]


The palace was in chaos; but organized chaos. The Queen of Kuat would prepare for any condition that could and potentially would befall Kuat. Her people knew her to be well prepared and a persona of strong character that looked out for their well being.

They would look to her in these trying times.

Her speeder would arrive within the outskirts of the Palace, and immediately she would be hailed to identify herself. So she did.

​

"Lady Cordelia deWinter," her voice would relay the information. "A representative of the One Sith Empire."

She would not know if this would work, but one couldn't help but try. If emergency protocols were in effect and most especially if the One Sith were to potentially attempt to reach a method of diplomacy...

One did not want to shoot the messenger.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Alric Kuhn"]

This man, by appearances, seemed reasonable and even-tempered enough. His position as the owner of the gargantuan Titan Industries would indicate he at least had some skill in negotiating things. As a fellow businessman, in private at least, Adekos could respect that. The Darth gave Alric a nod of acknowledgement. "Speak as you will, then. I'll follow your lead."

Truly it was a cold day in hell when a Master in the ranks of the One Sith willingly told a non-Force User they would follow their lead. Fortunately for all present, Adekos was now less concerned with keeping up his usual Force Sensitive supremacy and more concerned with ensuring the One Sith survived this horrible tragedy that happened to cause half the galaxy's population to evaporate. Or something. Adekos was fuzzy on the details, as he had been in his Lucrehulk when all this went down.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Agreed."

Vornskr strapped himself into the shuttle as it thundered out from the ship's hanger and into the dark void of space, slightly turning to start it's approach to the planet. He wouldn't argue with Mr. Kuhn on this matter, despite himself having more authority than either him or the new addition Adekos. If a Sith came in and negotiated the terms for an alliance between the Kuati and the Empire, they might be more than adverse to actually doing so. Making Kuhn the middle man was a better strategy, as he wasn't a laser sword wielding maniac that could throw mystical powers around like it was going out of style. It would also be prudent to not let the fact that the Force wasn't answering to the Sith's demands as well as it would normally, the Force itself seemed to be flowing erratically, chaotic and turbulent. Even earlier Vornskr was having some difficulty scrying into the minds of others.

"So long as they submit, I do not care who talks."

[member="Darth Adekos"]
[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Reverance]

Turncoats...

No retort? That was unfortunate. A little bit of healthy back and forth was good for the soul, he thought. The spare lightsaber sprung to life in the left hand. It felt odd and simple and really quite cumbersome, an ungainly and inelegant thing. No curvature, no bone, no spirit. But it deflected blasters all the same, the light red snap-hiss sending bolts upwards and down with the flick of the wrist and the rotation of the elbow. Glancing shots sent the energy charring against the floor in elongated gashes.

The woman was signalling towards a transparisteel door and he realized the significance. A set of stairs behind it, a route to the next floor. After all, the helm was likely in that direction. With a nod, he approached the door and placed a flat left hand against it, after deftly extinguishing the spare saber and placing it back on the belt. It wasn't opening, evidently they didn't have the details needed. That was fine, he had spent much of his life practicing a special capacity that most assumed was purely an ability of the gifted. His perception jumped from his mind and hand and he surveyed the door, cracks and fissures upon the microscopic level, looking for an occurrence of seemingly consistent length. After a brief moment, he tongued his cheek and moved his hand just a smidgen to the left. The force leaped out of him through telekinesis as he wedged the power into a deep and invisible fracture, shearing the transparisteel, as the entire door blasted inward in fragments toward the hallway.

Turning his attention towards [member="Vrag"], he cocked his head towards the stairs. He could feel the resistance, their enemy, and it's congregation before him. He could sense that they were on the right path. Silently, he once again gestured for her to take the lead.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Darth Adekos"]

Submit?

He very much doubted that the Queen of Kuat would submit to anyone or anything. Mostly because he knew the history of the planet, and the history of what the woman had done. She had used the clockwork Rebellion as a means of gaining power on Kuat. That was an opportunistic woman if he had ever heard of one.

“Thank you.” Alric said simply.

That was good enough for him.

If the two men would follow his lead then these negotiations could go well, very well. The Lambda-Class Shuttle began to drift towards the Drive yards, where he had been informed by his secretary that The Queen was waiting. The came in for a landing, approaching with it slow monotonous progress.

 

[Isar]

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. The sound of tiny feet on the floor, following in the wake of the company of towering knights in all their dark armor. The rat climbed over the corpses that marked the Sith's trail. Suddenly, it stopped, perched on top of a body. It sat up on its haunches and began to quiver, gray form unfolding, fur changing to brown and expanding. In a whirl of popping bone and undulating fur the rat disappeared. In its place stood an Ewok with perilous black eyes.

Warok glanced at the body he stood on. He poked the head with a foot, then jumped up and down on the back several times. It squelched. Warok nodded, as if satisfied, then slapped a paw to the skull and muttered something unholy.

Green, fluorescent tendrils of energy poured from his paw and slithered into the eye sockets of the corpse, where they coalesced into two glowing orbs. Warok slouched as if it'd taken a great strain on him, then he patted the corpse's head and rose.

The corpse rose too.

Warok smiled. With so many people disappearing there was a shortage of walking bodies in the galaxy. He could help to fix the problem.

The Revenant followed him, one step behind, just as he followed in the wake of the Sith Lords.

[member="Vrag"] | [member="Alric Kuhn"] | [member="Reverance"]

 

[Vrag]

Turncoats…still

She fell into a relaxed stance — what an odd choice of adjective, so out of place in the middle of battle — keeping an eye out for enemy fire as her ally went about removing the obstacle in their way. Be it luck or simply coincidence, the coast remained clear for the duration of [member="Reverance"]'s tampering, and she took those few moments to catch her breath.

The squad they'd put out of their misery was but the vanguard of the traitor, and her gut wasn't all that enthusiastic about climbing those stairs. Without any other feasible option, however, the woman moved past her gallant companion anyway, her dry smirk hidden behind the darkened visor of her helmet. If she was to die today, she'd at least go with a poodoo-eating grin on her face; quite opposite of the billions that were gone in an instant when this clusterkark began.

It would not do to linger on such thoughts, however, and the warrior pushed it all away, burying her concerns and fears in a shallow grave. It was a veritable graveyard by now, there at the bottom of her mind, in the deepest recesses where light never reached. As it should be.

No time. Her heartbeat led the pace of her leaping steps, and the woman ascended the stairs in but a few breaths. Between the thrums of her heart, the Knight came bursting through the upper door, a maneuver much like the one she'd first tried out on Manaan. A few more stunts like that, and she would slap a patent on it. Retire, maybe, get a series of vids filmed after her.

Die Hard? Commando? 20,000?

A comic book series would work, too. She wasn't all that picky, really. Then again, when you're slamming into enemy forces with the speed of Force in the middle of hostile territory, everything seems like a sunny alternative.

[member="Warok the Defiler"]

 

[Quietus]

Planetside - Palace Grounds - [member="Cordelia deWinter"]

Circumstances most unfortunate, Cordelia had shown up for the party dressed to the tens and walked in to something very different. The moment One Sith left the woman's lips, the Guards moved to apprehend her, a la Senator Leia style. White gown and all, the woman was put in cuffs and taken in. The paranoia of the riots wasn't helping, but at the very least she wasn't abused along the way.

She was taken to a holding cell within the Palace - the massive campus, as she would find, was also strangely bereft of the life one would expect to find. Normally standing as a grand place of commune for the Council and the Aristocracy, the quiet of the Palace might strike one as strangely eery.

After some time to herself, a shadow approached the cell. A Noghri female adorned in the royal colors of Kuat: black and red. The creature peered at Cordelia, pale saffron eyes narrow but curious.

"Who are you," came her hissing voice, "what is your purpose here."


~~~~~~~~~
Kuat Drive Yards - Operations Sector - CEO's Office Chambers [member="Darth Vornskr"] [member="Darth Adekos"] [member="Alric Kuhn"]
"You are not to speak, Miss Leonardi," the Queen had left her vigil at the bay window now and taken up residence at her desk to pour over the riot reports. The numbers were dismal - casualties were low, thankfully, but the wounded were beginning to pile up in the local hospitals. With Doctors and Nurses amidst the millions to have vanished, things were looking quite grim.

DiVanca put up no argument to this order and merely nodded in reply.

"You will stand behind my desk when they arrive. You will not move from that spot, understood?"

Silence, a nod.

"Miss Leonardi."

"Yes, Your Eminence, understood."

"You must have your wits about you. Now is not the time to wilt, it is the time to build your resolve. All is not lost, not yet."

"I truly hope not, Your Majesty."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Darth Adekos"]

Alric stood to his full height.

The Hangar they had been directed to was close to the offices, so when they were met by a detachment of the Kuati guard Alric only nodded to them to lead the way. Flanked by the two Sith Lords Alric momentarily felt himself an Emperor. Both men had enough power to crush him in a second, yet neither would.

It was a very strange feeling. A very strange one indeed.

The odd group moved through the halls of the Kuat Drive Yards, shambling until they reached a hall with a little more décor. Alric adjusted his tie and straightened his jacket. If he was gonna meet a Queen, he was at the very least going to look good. The Kuati Guard lieutenant looked over the group, a scowl on his face.

“Please.”

The man bade them in, opening the door.

Alric was the first to step into the office, his face a mask. He recognized Lorelei Darke almost instantly, the other woman he assumed to be a secretary of some sort. “Your Majesty.”

It was said with a slight bow.

 

[Cordelia deWinter]

Find the Queen of Kuat and negotiate with her - Alric Kuhn heading this up
Get arrested like Senator Leia in episode 4

[member="Lorelei Darke"]

Cordelia would not fight, instead she would go willingly. Sometimes, the best method to get to an objective was to get the short cut through being apprehended.

A Noghri female would approach adorned in the royal colors of Kuat: black and red. The creature would peer at Cordelia, pale saffron eyes narrowing at her but curious.

"Who are you," came her hissing voice, "what is your purpose here?"

​

​

​

Ever cordial, and every bit a lady, Cordelia would give an incline of her head in greeting.

"I am Lady Cordelia deWinter, a representative of the One Sith Empire." it was said in a voice that held no ill will, a mere informatory reply.

"The disappearance of the people of Kuat is not a singular event... It appears it is galactic wide..." her voice would slow, she was deliberate and careful with what she would say so as to not offend.

"I simply ask if I may be of service -- a bridge to the Voice of the Sector for any aide?"

 

[Reverance]

Turncoats...

The Sith Lord followed superwoman up the stairs, her armor all jingly and jangly. He silently thanked the plates of Lotek'k hide in between the segments of his armor, adding bit of cushion and a dampening of the noise upon person. The sound could be grating, to say the least, though the armorweave cloak helped as well . Without a pause or moment of break at the top of the flight, she broke through the closed door to find herself upon a hallway, now filling with the legions of the rag tag and those that would turn against supposed despots, forcing their power against those that should have really just accepted it. He silently wondered what their expressions would have been, had he rode [member="Vrag"] in like a metal surfboard upon rushing tide. Alas, life is filled with regrets for opportunities missed.

As she broke in, he followed quickly behind and flung up his armored left hand against a horizontal deluge of slugs. Apparently these battalions weren't as well armed as those in the hangar bay. As he lifted his hand, extending over the right side of Vrag, and maybe her shoulder depending on whether she was crouched or not, he released an intent to resist the enemy. From his palm, a shimmer of translucent black energy domed down and upwards, cleaving the hallway in two with an energetic net to stop those projectiles in their place. They found themselves upon a halt, like wax shot into ballistic jelly, leaving trails of their wake in the energy, before being cast out with shimmering pulses in the power. The men before them gasped as they struggled to reload their weaponry and Gabriel prepared to drop the shield, should Vrag decide shes done bursting through doors and wandering into rooms aimlessly, comic book style.

"Wanna try that move again?" He imagined an unheard of game, where people throw large heavy balls into standing pins. And just like that, the shield would drop, the pins reset, and he would hold up his saber, in preparation for the charge.

Perhaps more fodder added to the rift. Something to be used by the unknown follower, [member="Warok the Defiler"]. Hordes to be added to the Ewok's undead army.

 

[Vrag]

Turncoats… <_<

The screeching of metal against permacrete was one of those things that were worse than screams of the dying and meat slapping against the floor. It would send chills down her spine, accompanied by shudders and the grinding of teeth, but the Knight was relentless in her imitation of a blonde surfer from down under; the only thing missing was a blinding white smile. A matter of greater concern to the hypothetical filming crew was all the excess upon her person, however; plate armor, the padding underneath that, the angry red blade searing flesh from bone… The producer could only pray to the Photoshop gods that those details would be omitted from the final movie poster.

The warrior in question — quite unburdened by those problems — finished her crowd-surfing episode with a rather graceless forward roll, using the gained momentum to knock over the man standing in her way. She scrambled to her feet with the same efficacy and lack of elegance, using his body as a live shield against enemy fire.

The other part of the Terrifying Two was already living up to that hastily conjured moniker, intimidating the would-be insurgents with pants-wetting displays of power. Vrag, a woman of a more practical nature, grabbed the slugthrower of her unwilling protector, downing a few of his co-traitors with a spray of bullets.

"Nah, I'm good!" she called back at [member="Reverance"], her blue eyes darting around the room to plan their next course of action. "You think we can make a fast one for that door?" She jerked her red blade in the direction of the helm, keeping to her pragmatic style as the lightsaber cut down a fool who thought he could flank her.

She still had a few grenades left, and if the Sith Lord was as tough as they said he was, they had a solid chance of breaking through. She kept her dying meat shield in front of her as she made her way through the slaughtered opposition, making sure to keep the remaining resistance between herself and the pair of turrets guarding the door at the far end of the corridor.

"Big bada-boom?" she offered to the one-eyed man, gesturing to grenades clipped to her utility belt.

[member="Warok the Defiler"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Alric Kuhn"]

Darth Adekos did not bother to stand up any straighter than he usually did. He was not a preternaturally tall man. It wouldn't matter if the Umbaran had been wearing stilts, standing anywhere near Kaine would make him look like a dwarf regardless. Before long they were met by a detachment of Kuati guard. Wearied looking gentlemen, no doubt concerned for their families on the surface. Portions of his own family had gone missing as well. Thelon Ardik, his wife Patricia. One of his three brothers, Cyrus, had also vanished along with their maternal grandparents- Tiberius and Nezra Vercet.

Nasty business, this rapture event. Whoever caused it was going to get a strongly worded letter. Provided, of course, the Rootai Council managed to keep order on the planet. The last he had heard from Osiris, another of his brothers, there had been a lot of fires and a lot of mobilized noble militias. That wouldn't end well.

But that was a problem for Umbara, not the One Sith. The large group meandered through the halls of the shipyards seemingly without end, in total silence. This probably wasn't a good atmosphere for idle conversation anyway. After getting scowled at by a lieutenant, they were permitted entrance to an office, wherein a suitably Queen-looking woman and her secretary were waiting. Alric bowed, and Adekos matched him in doing so. He said nothing, as per instruction.

By a non-Force User.

Oh, what a strange day it was.