Before the Hammer's Fall

[Darth Carnifex]

​

Ashrah, Hodasal System
Seven Standard Hours Before The Sith Attack On Mandalore

Plans were progressing at an exorbitant rate, each domino falling perfectly into place, each piece moving across the board as foreseen. The Emperor of the Sith was a warrior, a soldier with few peers to rival his power. Yet, he was also a schemer, a plotter, someone who could plan years in advance and ensure that his agenda was fulfilled in accordance with his design. The fall of the Mandalorians was not something he had entirely desired, but his constant meddling in their government and people had a profound effect on their ability to keep hold of their possessions.

It was inevitable that he would need to intervene personally. Even as the small indistinct shuttle dipped down through the clouds above the idyllic grasslands of Ashrah, battle fleets and invasion armies were being meticulously moved into position. In a few hours time, the Empire would launch a direct assault upon Mandalore and finish what the great Emperor Darth Moridin started over twenty years ago.

But before that could happen, the Emperor had one last thing to do.

The shuttle touched down outside of a farmstead, one of hundreds that dotted the world's plains and prairies. Only the Emperor emerged from within, a dark cloak cast about his imposing figure that trailed behind him in the breeze as it swept through the valley. He would advance, slowly and implacable, up towards the house that sat upon a hill overlooking the surrounding land; the perfect vantage point for someone who wanted to keep aware of any unwanted visitors.

Of which he was surely unwanted.

He stopped and waited.

She would come to him.

[member="Keira Priest"]​

 

[Keira Priest]

Once upon a time, Keira had thought that her removal from mainstream galactic politics was enough to be left unbothered by the squabbles of the larger galaxy. She’d believed that since she had no dog in the fight any longer, the wars would simply pass her by and continue as they always did, inevitable and destructive as ever. That she wouldn’t ever again receive visitors - if the man in question could be called that - that weren’t otherwise immediate family or former brothers-in-arms.

For a short while she’d sat perched in a second story window with her rifle on her lap, watching him approach in the crosshairs. It would have been an easy shot for someone with her experience, and with her distinct lack of a Force presence he wouldn’t have so much as sensed her intentions. But, no, that would have brought the very war she wanted to avoid directly to her doorstep, and that was the last thing she wanted or needed at this point in her life. As fitting as killing the Sith Emperor would be, and as satisfying as it would no doubt feel, that wasn’t in the cards for her anymore.

That didn’t mean she hadn’t replayed the scenario over in her head a few times already.

When he stopped and it became clear he would move no farther she sighed, leaning her rifle against the wall and standing from her chair. Well, if he didn’t at least have the common decency to knock on her door when he came calling, she figured that meant she was supposed to meet him in the middle. Either he knew better after the way their previous interactions had unfolded, or he wouldn’t be here long. She liked to think it was a combination of both.

Throwing on her leather jacket and holstering her pistol she glanced out the window at his robed figure, rolling her eyes with a curse and throwing open the door, letting it fall shut behind her amid a series of expletives in Mando’a.

After making her way down the hill to him, she studied their surroundings for more of an entourage before looking up into his eyes. “Two things: how’d you find me, and what the hell do you want?”

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"It took some time, if that makes you feel better."

The wind tugged at the Emperor's cloak, momentarily pulling it aside to reveal an ornate cuirass of black steel and hammered gold inlaid with the iconography of the Sith; and a single lightsaber hanging loosely from his left side. Recent conflicts had left their mark upon him, his tattooed face crossed with scarification alongside the rest of his body, the latter hidden beneath his flowing vestments. His right eye glowed like molten gold, his left shimmering like jade. Both were obviously organic, but his left was noticeably foreign to his body.

"And is it not within my right to visit my wayward child? Even one as reckless, impulsive, and obstinate as you?" The last few times they had met had ended in violence, each one exacting some form of injury against the other in one form or another. This time, however, it appeared that both did not openly seek conflict with one another; though both were obviously prepared for it.

"You look well, this planet seems to suit you."

[member="Keira Priest"]​

 

[Keira Priest]

“Maybe you should have taken that as a hint that I don’t want to be found.” And for once it wasn’t personal. Ashrah had been chosen because it was a relatively out of the way and uninhabited planet, dominated by small settlements as opposed to sprawling cities, and hardly the center of any sort of commerce. It was just the sort of place one who was tired of the squabbles of the later galaxy would make house, but apparently it wasn’t out of the way enough.

Keira took note of his weaponry but didn’t comment, aware that each were as well-armed as the other and leaving it at that. It was his next - likely rhetorical - question that earned first a raised eyebrow and then a short, bitter laugh. “No, actually, it isn’t. Because I was never your child, and we stopped being in-laws over a decade ago. You don’t have a right to anything anymore, and you never really did, if you think about it. So spare me all of this.”

But, of course, a Lord of the Sith wasn’t so easy to get rid of. They shared the same obstinance, albeit for different reasons. He wouldn’t be leaving until he got what he wanted, and she had a feeling that didn’t include whatever attempt at pleasantries and normalcy was going on right now. He’d never been the type, and even if he was, he knew better than to try the act with her.

With a sigh, she glanced to her house for a brief second. “Fine. if you’re going to bother me, I at least want to be comfortable during it. You can come in, but don’t get wise with it.” Without waiting for an answer she turned and walked back up the hill, entering her home without bothering to hold the door for her unwanted guest, falling back into a chair in the living room.

When he entered she didn’t bother giving him time to sit. “Cut the osik, then. Why are you really here?”

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Emperor followed his daughter-in-law, a title he would continue to use despite her insistence to the contrary, into the quaint farmhouse. He was forced to duck beneath the support beam of the entrance because of his frightening height, bending over as he walked until they reached the most comfortable space of the living room where he could stretch up to his full height without fear of banging his noggin' on the ceiling. His eyes scanned his surroundings, taking in all of the accoutrement that Keira surrounded herself with these days. Truthfully, it was a far cry from the opulence that the Emperor was surrounded with on almost a daily basis, but this drastic reduction was comfortable in its own way.

"Like I said, I came to visit my daughter." A misdirection, a deflection from his true purpose. "Would you find it amusing to know that you are not the most disappointing child I have accepted into my family? I have observed that the women born from my loins tend to be the strongest, the most convicted, the ones who are the most loyal and capable. The men, on the other hand, tend to fall short of the mark. It is quite an interesting predicament to have one of your own sons, born into immense wealth, power, and prestige, give up his birthright to fornicate with the Jedi." The venom in his voice was palpable, the air in the house growing thick with anger as the Emperor momentarily allowed himself to visibly seethe.

Then the anger was gone, replaced by cold indifference.

"You say you have cut yourself off from galactic affairs, so you most likely do not know what it happening. The Jedi are at war with the Mandalorians, and the Mandalorians are losing."

[member="Keira Priest"]​

 

[Keira Priest]

A shrug of the shoulder. “The Jedi are only slightly better than your kind. At the very least their uselessness extends only as far as their own people are concerned. You and yours make that everyone else’s problem. Neither of you are deserving of any kind of respect.” The Jedi were despised due to their inaction, and the Sith due to their propensity to create a massacre wherever they set foot, and otherwise wreak havoc. “Why not just kill your son, then? That seems to come easily to you.” An off-handed remark that wouldn’t exactly get under his skin, but it directly contradicted his insistence that the two were anywhere close to family.

The first real piece of news he delivered left her silent as she contemplated it, a quiet scoff escaping her. “You think I’m surprised? After everything I told her Yasha ended up allying with the Sith, and now look at them. Can’t even call them Mandalorian anymore, after all this. Any true vode left a long time ago. What’s left can hardly be called warriors.”

Shaking her head, she looked to him. “That alliance didn’t last long then, ‘lek? You don’t bring me anything surprising. I pulled my clan away for a reason, and it looks like I did that just in time.” It was almost amusing, but she for the most part felt nothing but indifference and disgust at what her culture had become. Once they had been a proud people, but that had devolved all too quickly into semantics and politics they should have never concerned themselves with, and in short measure what was left had grown soft.

“At this point the vode should break and start over fresh. There’s nothing that can be salvaged, and it’s better that than this ongoing embarrassment.” At one time she’d fought for the empire she now condemned, but times had changed quickly and without warning.

“What’s your stake in this, then? I can’t imagine you came here just for that.”

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Oh, I disagree. There is much to be salvaged from the Mandalorian's plight." The Emperor moved across the room, slowly and meticulously, to pick up one of the few nicknacks that Keira chose to adorn her living room with. "The clans are divided, not just the ones who stayed loyal to Yasha, but the ones who abandoned Ra Vizsla's successor as well. A people, once so strong and united they could rival both the Jedi and Sith with little effort, are reduced to squabbling fiefdoms separated by intense enmity and the immeasurable gulf of space. Clan against clan, sibling against sibling, parent against child. Such internal division has served only to weaken everything that made the Mandalorians strong."

He turned to look at her, "You are no longer one culture, you are a dozen. This diaspora of Mandalorians has allowed new thoughts to take shape, for leaders to interpret the Resol'nare as they pleased. Now those different viewpoints are so irreconcilable that there can be no restoration of what came before. Eons ago, it was said that it is impossible to destroy the Mandalorian people because they were a culture, an idea, and that it was impossible to destroy an idea in perpetuity. I quite agree with that statement, it is how we Sith have persisted for so long. But the man who spoke those words could not have realized the true downfall of the Mandalorian people."

"That it would be wrought by the Mandalorians themselves. Even you are guilty of this, Keira. Enmity has broken your people and in a generation's time the Mandalorian culture as you were raised in will no longer exist, replaced by a thousand different successor cultures waging brutal genocide against one another in their crusade to prove that their own interpretation is the true and right one." He spread out his hands in conciliation, "Though, to be fair, the Mandalorians did not do this to themselves of their own volition. They required a push."

"That is why I brought Ra Vizsla back from the dead and commanded him to build an Empire of Mandalorians to serve as kindling for the Inferno that would burn your people down."

[member="Keira Priest"]​

 

[Keira Priest]

“It was a woman that said those words. You should learn the history of a people you worked so hard to manipulate.” There was something missing from her voice, but it was hard to put a finger on it, though whatever it was had been replaced with a cold, detached anger. “You know, from the beginning I felt the Sith were too involved for their own good. I guess I should have been proactive about that even before I challenged, because by then it was too late.” Once, her former elder brother had established a crusade against all Sith, one she had happily obliged, but that had ended far too soon to reconcile the damage done.

With a heavy sigh Keira pushed herself to her feet, stepping past him and into the kitchen. “I’m getting a drink. Help yourself, nothing’s poisoned. That’d be too easy for you.” As she poured herself a glass of whiskey she considered her options, perfectly aware of where every weapon and her armor were stashed in the house, and then realizing that violence here would only drag her back into conflict she had no place in any longer.

Shaking her head she drained her glass where she stood, pouring another and returning to the living room to sit, closing her eyes for a brief second as the warmth of the alcohol washed over her. “You know, I should kill you.” Slowly her eyes opened, and she watched him. “I mean, think about it. It would be a fitting end for the both of us. Almost poetic.” She took a sip, not once glancing away from him.

A quiet snap and she unholstered her pistol, looking it over, finger resting decidedly away from the trigger. “One shot from this moves faster than any species can react, even you Force-users. Too fast to be blocked by a lightsaber, and even your telekinesis isn’t quick enough the majority of the time. It was made to put an end to people like you.” She seemed to genuinely consider that prospect for a moment before it returned to its holster at her side, and she leaned back, draining more from her glass.

“But that wouldn’t really accomplish anything in the end, other than making me feel good. And I’m not as young as I used to be, so war at my doorstep doesn’t seem as enticing, if it’s all the same to you. That’s just something for you to think about.”

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He laughed, genuinely. "Do you really think a bullet would put an end to me?"

Ever since he had broken the restraints on mortality imposed upon him by the galaxy, the Emperor no longer had any fear of stripping away his mortal coil. For he knew that there existed ways for him to return to life, cheating death yet again and prolonging his life far beyond what fate had intended.

"No, daughter. Neither of us die this day. When I leave, your quiet life of isolation and detachment shall be maintained. From here I will travel to join the attack on Mandalore, which should be underway within the hour." His fleets were arrayed, their bellies bloated with strike craft, drop ships, and troop transports in the thousands. It was an invasion force that was strong enough to overtake multiple star systems, perhaps even entire sectors, all concentrated in a direct strike at one planet.

Mandalore, the home and hearth of the Mandalorians.

"I would offer you a place by my side, but I anticipate your rejection will come most brusquely."

[member="Keira Priest"]​

 

[Keira Priest]

A noncommittal grunt was her only immediate response, glass raising itself to her lips seemingly of its own accord, only half of the alcohol remaining now. “Well, at least you got one thing right. As satisfying as it would be to put an end to those that let this happen, I’d only be helping you, and that isn’t on my agenda. I make it a point to kill Sith, see, you can understand how that goes against that principle.”

Keira sighed, shoulders sagging slightly, less in defeat and more so in some version of relaxation, the concept so foreign that her body wasn’t sure how to process it, regardless of his presence here. “Do me a favor and get shot while you’re there, it’d at least make me feel a little better.” An attempt at humor, though one could take it either way.

“Make it a point to forget this meeting here. I’d rather not have any more unwelcome visitors. I’m sure you understand.” His presence here was only barely tolerated, and any others that showed their face would be shot on sight with the most immediate prejudice. “I would say I appreciate our talks, but I make it a point not to lie to someone’s face.”

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Very well."

He turned to leave, his footsteps heavy on the wood floor as he neared the door. But he stopped, just for a moment, and cast a last glance at his errant daughter-in-law. "I hope one day you will join me, you are destined for much greater things."

And then he left.

Cape blowing in the wind behind him as he walked across the yard towards his shuttle, which had remained idling ever since he stepped off of it. He never looked back a second time, his eyes faced forward on where he was going rather than where he had been. Stalking up the ramp, he was greeted by one of his apprentices that he had commanded remain behind on the shuttle unless called for. She looked at him now, her face betraying little other than the mildest touch of concern.

"She will not join us, master?"

"No. She is stubborn, set in her ways."

"Is she to be terminated, then?"

"No, let her enjoy her exile. Perhaps the enslavement of Mandalore will spurn her into action, or maybe she will remain ignorant of the galaxy. Regardless, we will let Keira Ticon's destiny play out to its natural conclusion."

The shuttle rumbled as it rose into the air, turned about, and blasted off into the distance until it was little more than a black dot on the horizon. Then it was gone, ferrying the Sith Emperor away from Ashrah and towards the growing war fleet assembling on the edge of Mandalorian space.

To war.

[member="Keira Priest"]​