Beatdown Level: Grandmaster [Tion Hegemony]

[Tahira Solo]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

A week ago she thought the One Sith successfully killed her husband, the Great Mentalist. And not just one of his usual deaths, the death. The one that would rip her apart. Not even Deagan or Patches would be able to...

not even Ti'Cira.

Midnight-average looking hair shifted against her shoulders as she adjusted the black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose. With a little white-current and illusion help, she looked and felt nothing like Tahira Solo or a force master. She was a painfully average looking woman and assistant to Selka Ventus. She stood next to her boss needing no introductions as a well-paid wallflower.

Her status was clear of someone well below the Inner Circle, much along the lines of one of [member="Lucien Cordel"]'s servants, except that this servant had an MBA and was a whiz with numbers according to the mocked-up background sheet.

 

[Caulder Dune]

Slipping his "present" for Tyrin into the man's breast pocket

It's a truly stupid man who would think even a kowtowing wretch such as Tyrin would allow such a thing. The Umbaran deftly slapped Jacen's hand away. It was completely irrelevant to him whether or not the Sithling managed to keep his grip on the severed digit, or if it went flying and wound up on an appetizer tray. Tyrin was not letting it be slipped onto his person.

Aghast and utterly infuriated, Tyrin subsequently exited the soiree after Jacen wandered off to go chug alcohol and feverishly check his stocks like the petulant wastrel he was. Cavill would receive a strongly worded E-mail later. Primarily an apology and the location he would drop the Telos Holocron off at.

There was a time and a place for vengeance. This wasn't it. Or perhaps it had been, and there would be another opportunity like it again. It hardly mattered. Tyrin's most pressing concern was to get this foaming-at-the-mouth sociopath off of his back before he broke it. As much as he would have liked to hear whatever banter Ovmar and the others came up with while they wasted time instead of clearing the building and murdering Je'gan, he had precious little desire to remain here.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Kentarch"] [member="Jacen Cavill"] [member="Darth Janus"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Danger Arceneau"]

Tension, paranoia, a flying finger, a BlasTech exec muffling his mind and stalking off wordless -- the only part of this that rings true is the avarice. I toss my 'aide' a glance that she knows how to interpret, an expression that shows on my real face but not the illusory one. I always look like myself to her, both because that's our deal and because she can see through anything I make. I'm no prophet, but I take a quick look forward, and it's going to be interesting.

I take Arkantos' spiel and card with the kind of basic comments he'd get from a moderately-well-trained CEO who relies on her people for specific financial expertise.

At this point, I'm wondering what the trap will be. My guess is personal combat, at least primarily. They've never seen my wife in action; even if they've got my number, they won't see her coming. That should give her a little extra buffer of safety; that, and they'll be focused on me. One way or another, I'll make sure of that.

I'm just not wild about witnesses, so people begin to find reasons to leave the chalet. Nighttime tryst -- luxury hovercar comparison -- suddenly called home for a sick child -- anything I can think of.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

It was then that the titan maned Trade Queen in her solitude would set down her glass and glance over at her datapad. Oh it was a more decorative type, but a datapad just the same. A few seconds would pass before the woman would make her decision.

An encrypted message to [member="Rave Merrill"] would soon find its way over to the woman. In it was the simple following question.

{ Where is she? }

 

[Tahira Solo]

[member="Selka Ventus"] and generally all

His dark eyes said it all. She knew even before the look. It was a trap.

The effort it took to use the bond she shared with Je'gan Black Eyes to communicate was like breathing.

We could run. We could disappear.

Life had made, both of them, masters at that. They would survive. But she had a feeling it wasn't an option anymore; not for either of them. It wasn't a life worth living.

Although, maybe someone like Patches or Ti'Cira would disagree. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe if she contacted them. Maybe...

There were a lot of 'maybes' and not enough time.

A sad smile curled on the corners of Selka's assistant's lips.

 

[Arage Bao]

I sighed, the Tion Hegemony didn’t seem to be that different from all the other Sith groups. So much infighting, egos at play. It was annoying to say the least, as tension ran high I took a little break to visit the bathroom. Hey man, even a Sith Lord needed that once in a while, especially when you are just about to throw down with a former Grandmaster, don’t want the water to run while you are busy with an epic showdown.

Didn’t take me too long, before anyone even noticed I was rounding back again. Right in time to see Ardik leave the scene. Well, that wasn’t going too well, as I stood in the door opening I saw people starting to leave. Confusion was painted all over their faces, as if suddenly more than a hundred people at once realized they had something better to do than be here.

Only two people in the whole area didn’t have that expression on their face, the target and… an aide? Could be anything, maybe Je’gan was getting old and just forgot to influence his own aide too. Maybe he didn’t have the mojo, maybe… the aide wasn’t a simple aide and we were are fekked. Either way, I did two things.

First of all a delicate telepathic message to Cavill and Valik.

“Selka’s aide is trouble. Assume the same amount of trouble as Selka herself. It’s time.”

Didn’t wait for them to reply or do anything though, instead I took the offensive. As false Selka was influencing the crowds to leave, I tried to sneak my way into his mind. Delicately, my mind moved along the echos of the people, trying to hide my presence while at the same time feeling out his defenses.

There were times to take a hammer and start beating at the Gates of Hell. This wasn’t that time, I was pretty alright, Spencer was stronger than me and this guy was definitely more experienced than me. Maybe, if I put everything I got into one single attack, I’d be able to make ‘im crumble, maybe. But there was this other person involved, and I didn’t know who or what she or he is. Skillset, Jedi, Sith, a God of Vengeance? I hadn’t a clue, and so it wasn’t the time to take chances.

Instead I’d try to slip my way through his defenses, and fight the good fight from the inside. Try, this ain’t rocket science, a whole number of things could go wrong.

[member="Tahira Solo"] [member="Danger Arceneau"] [member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Darth Janus"] [member="Jacen Cavill"] [member="Darth Kentarch"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Tahira Solo"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Jacen Cavill"] [member="Darth Janus"] [member="Darth Kentarch"] [member="Moira Skaldi"] [member="Peyton Steele"]

Not sure, lover. If they know this much, who knows who they might have in their sights, or where they might look for us if we get out. Aleidis, Patches, your crew. We're swimming in deeper water than normal. Feth -- someone's trying to get in my head. Someone good. Not sure I can do this without letting him know for sure what -- feth. He's good. I had to put up a good-sized wall. He knows.

It's Ovmar, over by the bathrooms. The others are too close. Keep them off me if they go for it.

Normal procedure for me would be to let him in and trap him, but Ovmar has a specialist's finesse. It's been some time since I've run into another me, and I don't want him anywhere near the inside of my head. The wall that goes up is absolute, like he was poking something with a stick and ran into neuranium. I strike back and strike back hard.

It's a two-pronged assault. The first is textbook: overwhelming light, sound, sensation. The second is more incisive, a strike at the linkage between his mind and his body. I put a lot into it; most people would look like they'd be having a grand mal seizure right about now.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Danger Arceneau"]

Look up.

Out of view of most windows, but not from Danger's balcony, a Sekairo-class stealth transport decloaked. Its running lights were off, and its engines; it floated in something like silence. A force cylinder ascension tube connected gently with the balcony's surface beside Danger, behind a potted plant from the perspective of the door inside. It was a large plant.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

At long last they were finally getting to the point where things got interesting. The guests had all finally left the building, being lured away by the awesome power of mentalism that for this or that reason made them think it was a good idea to clear out, leaving the Sith lords, 'Selka Ventuss' and 'her' aide. No collateral damage to worry about, the stage was set for a great deal of carnage and Force-empowered mayhem.




Where was Moira in all this? Well, while the location where the business gathering was taking place was rather isolated, there were still a few small buildings outside. Sufficient for any competent sniper to have a good vantage position crouched on the roof and beholding the aforementioned individuals through the scope of a long-range rifle designed to mete out death. So this was what Moira was doing, now that 'Marita' had vanished after managing to persuade the foppish aristo to send plenty of creds to an offshore bank that would totally not result in him getting bankrupted and losing every single cent.



The rifle she was holding currently had been placed on the roof in advance, hidden inside a case. To be more precise, it was an Imperial Intelligence Bureau - that of the Atrisian Empire or 'Galactic Empire' as they liked to call themselves despite never having been galactic, not of the Sith Empire, just to clarify - issued Shadow Rifle . Its rare and refined gases created what amounted to an invisible laser beam. While it had only a few shots, the specially designed barrel disrupted the sound of the blaster once it was fired, making it hard to differentiate exactly from where the shot was coming. A redirection crystal could be used to mimic a normal blaster being fired from a direction different than the original trajectory. Moreover, a droid could not be sensed in the Force, though she was equally incapable of using it and would be fooled by the power of the White Current just as an easily as an organic, and there was no malicious intent that could be perceived either.



She adjusted the rifle, having 'Selka' in her sights as her finger moved to the trigger, preparing to fire. As she recalled from Rave Merrill the lethal kill shot would have to come from her special permakill gun or Jacen's similarly special permakill sword to keep the White Current Mindfrakker/Tycoon of Ugly Freighters from body-hopping. That did not mean crippling could not help though, if she was successful. Then there was his...aide. Analysis had concluded with reasonable certainty that the Force Master who had defeated Moira on Seoul had probably been Tahira Solo.

 

[Arage Bao]

The moment his walls came up, I knew we had a problem here. Didn’t try and poke a hole through his defenses, might have been successful, but I’d put myself open to an assault I wasn’t prepared to receive. Moment my own walls closed around me, I knew I had been right. I slumped to one knee, trying to steady myself against the wall. Bit of blood trickled from my nose, as he tried to separate essence from body.

With some effort I steadied my breath, will focused into a single point of incision. Behind my walls, I gathered strength to hit him. Wouldn’t be hammer, wouldn’t do a thing. Instead I opted for something else, during my probing he had put up his walls awfully quickly, should be some structural weaknesses. Hopefully.

Braced myself against a new wave of attacks which would be incoming, while gathering strength. When the time was right, I’d shove a figural hundred lightsabres right through that Neuranium wall.

[member="Selka Ventus"]

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

Despite what most people saw when they looked at me I was far more at my ease doing this kind of job than wearing a suit and skirt to please buyers. My Defel Mimicker was top of the line and when I was still it made me just about as hard to see as it's name sake. I stepped lightly as I made my way to the ship, a pathfinder-class, that was supposed to hold the target or at least the targets things. The ship was under heavy guard and I ducked down behind some crates as they made their patrols. I wasn't overly worried about cameras as they would see the same as any person but I was worried about droids to a degree. The scanners would pick me up and I'd be in a tough spot. I had my hair pulled back and held by the black hood of my jumpsuit that left only my eyes exposed. I opened the first crate carefully and activated the universal jammer I had brought to help jam the ships communications. The would not take long to notice and that meant I had to move quickly.

I moved from crate to crate and finally was near enough the cargo lift to find a way inside. My heart beat furiously as I watched some supplies being loaded. Seeing the opportunity I popped a crate while the loader was turned away and tucked myself inside. Being a vahla I had no bones only cartilage but even so it was a tight fit and I had picked a crate of parts that were not comfortable to be pressed against. I waited and was relieved as the crate lifted and was carried to the ship and loaded on board. They had evidently not learned to check all crates before loading them...lucky for me.

I waited a few minutes until the sounds of people moved out of the cargo hold before I emerged and began my search for the ships reactor junction for the rest of the ship. It didn't take long before I was pressed inside a maintenance bay near the engines. According to the schematic from the maintenance bay computer, I had found the comm power cable that supplied the comm suite near the cockpit. Finally I pulled on my insulated gloves from my small pack and cut the wiring. The ship was now def blind and mute, three things that would be getting attention in 5...4...3...2...1.

The security alarm began and I quickly cut that also, ending it abruptly. The timer on the universal jammer ended and the unit shut off right on schedule. A quick press of one key on my data pad would alert my boss [member="Rave Merrill"] and her associates that part one was complete.

[member="Moira Skaldi"] [member="Tahira Solo"] [member="Danger Arceneau"] [member="Darth Janus"]

 

[Tahira Solo]

ALL

He knows.

The illusion of the aide disappeared like a second skin, exposing Tahira Solo. She could get by with illusions and was more than adept in white current but there was no need to split her attentions anymore. Especially when so much was at stake. She grimaced, feeling her husband’s reaction to the mental attacks from Ovmar.

They were in a ballroom with huge windows leading to balconies and separate rooms. Too much exposure. Myrtle-ellipses flicked around the room to confirm the last of those without a malevolent force signature were gone. She knew she had Je’gan to thank for that. Je’gan didn’t need sight for mental attacks. She knew he would be able to track her moves and thoughts without the need to mentally speak. It would be just like that time, on the ship with the beasts and when the lights went out.

With a downward motion of her fist, the force wove through every blind, curtain, door, window. She closed them all, sealed them in, and shut them off from the outside world. She wasn’t expecting every door or window to hold for long but it would be enough to plunge everyone into sudden darkness. She was a master healer and TK specialist to the tiniest detail. Every crack of light and exit was accounted for.

Next to Je’gan’s side, she released a semi-circular force push into the darkness. It was mid-level, nothing too strong. Just something meant to disorient and nudge those closest to their position into more manageable groups and away from her husband.

[member="Jared Ovmar"][member="Moira Skaldi"][member="Rave Merrill"][member="Selka Ventus"][member="Danger Arceneau"][member="Darth Janus"]

 

[Danger Arceneau]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

Well not -quite- what Danger was expecting. Talk about door service. She would muse that Merrill had quite the shiny silent ship.

And she would promptly then wonder who she had to jiggle the girls over to get one herself!

All internal jokes aside, Danger would soon disappear from the balcony, heels taking her up the Force cylinder into the awaiting ship.

Leaving the fate of the would be fake Selka in the hands of her corporate brethren. What she did not witness firsthand could not be held against her or her counterparts.

Frankly, the doppelganger had his comeuppance coming to him for abusing the real selka has he’d done.

She’d have a mind to wonder if Merrill knew this all along? Was he in it? Curiouser and curiouser.

Just how far deep did this deceit go? She wasn’t making any excuses with the Oiran Companion House, but they made their choices willingly and were fed, clothed, and given fair pay. A choice was involved.

The real Selka didn’t even get that.

Once she ascended the tube, she’d find herself within the bowels of the Sekairo-Stealth class ship.

Yup, I want one.

 

[Valik]

Valik, all told, was not the best of combatants for an open brawl. He had a very particular talent for building things, and a near unchallenged supremacy at it. So when the telekinetic assaults started coming Valik took it like a non-forcer, getting thrown like a ragdoll backwards, letting his PDA, a sort of Force-Field Sith Amulet of his creation, mitigate the blow.

"Oh God!" He cried in terror, before heading behind the nearest secure location, namely, behind the bar. From there he began to work, not igniting a lightsaber, summoning electricity, or throwing small pointy objects at high velocities, but instead concentrating on the air around "Selka Ventus" and her aide. Concentrating intently he focused on manipulating the air, changing it from oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, all of the other trace gasses, into a unique and particular type of poison. The kind that put one into a spinning rage, the kind that made one draw on the darkside, weakening one's connection to the light. The kind that if it took Selka and her Aide off-guard for but a moment, would be worth it, and effects would be permanent without the near-immediate efforts of a master healer.


Sadly, he was dealing with a master healer. And a man who'd touched the darkside before and had experience with it. And such a powerful application of alchemy would counter-act the efforts of Art of the Small and his Force Disperser, likely revealing that there was a Sith behind the bar. But Valik didn't have all of the information, so he went with the best shot he had, and he'd always wanted to try changing the atmosphere mid-battle anyways.


[member="Tahira Solo"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Darth Janus"] [member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Moira Skaldi"] [member="Danger Arceneau"] [member="Darth Kentarch"]

 

[Moira Skaldi]

Neighbouring building
On the roof top
Playing Hitman



So within a span of a few moments chaos had broken out. That was good because chaos was everything. Moira's robotic eyes flashed as she switched her vision mode to infrared in response to everything going dark in the ballroom. Likewise it appeared that seemingly at the wave of a hand all windows and doors had been slammed shut. Obviously Moira could neither use nor the feel the Force but she had enough experience to suppose this had been due to telekinesis.



Just before things had gone dark the appearance of the woman with 'Selka' had changed, revealing [member="Tahira Solo"]. Now they had already fought on Seoul and despite her massive machine superiority complex and droid supremacist beliefs Moira was quite capable of admitting that she had been outclassed, but the droid was not out for revenge or something petty like that. She knew the woman to be a very powerful telekinesis master - really, she and Kerrigan would meet, though hopefully the latter would be dead soon if a certain delightful plan worked out - and thus taking her out or at least wounding her, which was admittedly more likely than a straightforward kill, should improve the odds. Perhaps it would upset the focus of Je'gan, given their personal affinity.



Either way, presumably the focus of the two Force Masters would be on the Sith Lords in the ball room with them, so Moira adjusted her rifle, aimig away from Je'gan towards Tahira. She took aim with machine precision, calculating the distance and velocity of the shot, and then squeezed the trigger, aiming for her head. The Shadow rifle had been designed as an assassination weapon, so the sealed window should prove no bother. Gazing through the multi-spectrum scope she homed in on a particularly weak spot of the window. Likewise the shot was invisible, making tracking very difficult and due to the specially designed barrel sound would be disrupted, also making it difficult to find out from where the shooter was firing.



Of course, the arcane power of the Force was limitless, so who knew what would happen! It was an annoying variable that tended to mess up plans a lot.

 

[Peyton Steele]

Parties. Why did it always have to be parties? Peyton didn’t mind them that much, they were easy to get a few bucks off. Men and their minds, sometimes it was too easy. But here? She was doing something all much more… interesting. She had worked for entrepreneurs before, but this was something else, there were a lot of faces here. There was a mission here, but really, there was time? Wasn’t there?

Wearing a simple black dress, the blonde made her way to the bar, trying to see who was alone and who was not. Really, she could pay for her first drink, and probably should to see what attention she could get from the crowd. And then it was time to get to work, right? Of course.

Nodding, she approached the bar, and leaned forward, getting the bartender’s attention and ordering a simple whiskey and soda. She was a traveler, and the whiskey was always simple to get. Taking a look around, she sipped her glass. Now where? Selka, right? That was the person in charge of Silk, who did make some decent ships.

Stepping away from the bar, she made a slow walk around, lucky that her boots covered her holdout blaster.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Janus"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Jacen Cavill"] [member="Peyton Steele"] [member="Moira Skaldi"] [member="Danger Arceneau"] [member="Tahira Solo"] [member="Valik"] [member="Jiana Korr"]

Ovmar's assault ran straight into a normal weak point, an obvious weak point. It found traction in Je'gan's memories, one specific set to do with one specific Force ability. It was, all things considered, one of Je'gan's more traumatic memories, a splintered horror dreamscape created by Karma Shanshu. He'd gone mind to mind with her in the dream world, despite disorientation powerful enough to incapacitate even Je'gan. Since then, he'd weaponized the form of oneiromancy he'd learned from the encounter. Ovmar might learn a little too much, but there was a good chance he'd get caught in a very vivid memory, a gateway into paralyzing dream.

A phenomenon that would only be aided by sudden darkness - Tahira closing the curtains. He sensed her illusion-masking go down and dropped his own. The dark-skinned young CEO in the cocktail dress became a weatherbeaten man of apparent middle age, wearing a large hat, carrying two curved but deactivated lightsabres-

And standing two metres back from where 'Selka' had been.

The angle was just barely wrong. Moira's blaster bolt winged his left arm; ruthlessly, he walled off the pain with expert and instinctive crucitorn. But that, and the process of resisting Ovmar's assault, took the bulk of his focus, for exactly the wrong moment. Black eyes went wide, flicking toward the bar behind which Valik crouched, as the air acquired a familiar taste.

Eight hundred years he'd been alive, in one form or another. He'd been a Sith Lord skilled enough to trap himself in a cycle of reincarnation. He'd served Krayt and Wyyrlok, trained alongside Ket Van Derveld, gone head to head with Malice Draclau. He had never seen alchemy like this, though he knew it for what it was. He'd taken a couple of breaths, too, before he fully recognized what was going on. Tahira could handle her own exposure easily, but Je'gan...

So much for this body.

The sabres flared to life, sky-blue, the left a breath slower than the right. That blaster burn was going to be tricky if they kept Tahira occupied.

His mind slammed back into Jared Ovmar's, mentalist to mentalist; anything else was suicide. This time he wasn't satisfied with going for a grand mal seizure. This time he aimed to put Ovmar in a coma and move on.

"COME ON!" he roared, sabres levelled at the pack.

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Tahira Solo"] @Je'gan Olra'en [member="Peyton Steele"] [member="Moira Skaldi"] [member="Valik"] [member="Danger Arceneau"]

I moved across the room and paused by the hatch as I listened for guards. My black hooded jumpsuit hid all but my eyes as I tried to decide on how I would incapacitate all of the guards and take control of the ship alone. My eyes saw the shadow of a guard before his feet were heard as he crept along the way. I pressed my self against the wall and waited. Soon the hunched figure of a sneaking man came though the doorway.

My slender arm shot out and snaked around the man's neck as I pulled him back and down to my height then with a quick jerk he stopped his struggle and I put him in a crate for later.

'One down,' I thought as I moved into the other corridor and made my way to the engineer bay.

 

[Peyton Steele]

What was she supposed to see? Right, the leader of Silk... Well, tango tango tango she looked around, and was sipping on her whiskey. She could do this, or at least be partially useful. Looking around, that was when she clued into probably what she was needing to see. That one woman was now a man? The Force users in this galaxy and their crazy... whatever. Mind games, crazy thought powers. Maybe she should just move to Myrkr and live with those Mandalorians. She couldn't drop her glass fast enough.

Making a move to slide herself over and behind the bar, she pulled her holdout blaster from her boot and leaned up from behind the bar. Sure, probably not the best cover against a Force user, but the only thing better would be her ship. That was something she missed. She could use that and probably... no, it would most likely backfire on her.

Then when the man roared, Peyton leaned up. She could keep him distracted, right? Looking around, she wanted to identify her friendlies and employer. A shot fired from her being deflected the wrong way? Probably not the best.

And this was the last time she agreed to take a job where she knew there was going to be fighting a Force user in a fething dress.

 

[Caulder Dune]

@Je'gan Olra'en | [member="Moira Skaldi"] | [member="Valik"] | [member="Tahira Solo"] | [member="Danger Arceneau"] | [member="Jared Ovmar"] | [member="Jacen Cavill"]

"It's happening." Tyrin remarked, eyeing the pristine retreat from a long distance away through a set of electrobinoculars.

Despite being delivered the severed appendage of his father figure, Tyrin still had a job to do. His job would be to send droids to do his jobs, as was befitting a man of his stature. He was not going face-to-face with Je'gan. Almost every time he went up against anyone in direct combat, it ended poorly. Logic dictated that he should avoid direct combat and instead keep a wide array of minions to handle his dirty work.

So he was going to do that instead.

Standing next to him was his trusted aid, @TD-18. A Super Tactical Droid salvaged off of Mustafar back in the days of the Death Watch.

"The droids are in place."
"Give the signal."
"As you wish."

-----​

​

Without much warning, five B2 Grapple Droids burst into the room. Locked doors were of little consequence to the hulking automatons. They took but a moment to survey their surroundings, locking in on Je'gan before deciding that he was the person they were supposed to kill. They would pay little attention to anyone else. Really, they were just here for fodder. Using droids against someone who could trick droids was probably risky, but if Je'gan happened to use his fancy magic tricks to make them register Darth Kryptus as their target instead...

Well, Tyrin wouldn't consider the droids wasted.

Regardless of this, they all took off towards Je'gan at a dead sprint, fully intending to pummel the illusionist into submission.