Better Start Runnin'

[Asharad Graush]

It was after the destruction of some worthless Antistarfighter Frigate. Nothing that was truly of consequence. He was already receiving reports that it was capable of being replaced by the end of the day.

That report had been a few days ago.

Left and Right were still upon the Star Destroyer, King Adas, and it lingered on the edge of known Space.

On this day he had received a message that he was required on the Adas, again, and so he had ventured out with his Daisya Infiltrator to the edge of the Galaxy to see what required his attention. There was a doubt that it was anything truly important, but Right had the tendency of contacting him when necessary, and being brief. Qualities he could respect. Qualities that made sure Right stayed alive when he made his jokes.

Not to mention, A'sharad wasn't entirely certain he could kill the older Sith Warrior, not in a direct duel. He was larger in height, and had been a Sith Warrior much longer than him.

And in combat, his opponents tended to end up hanging out of walls, even ceilings.

 

[Asharad Graush]

Regardless, A'sharad didn't need to think about such things when it came to Right, for he served him. From what he could tell, he had almost no ambition. Not for gaining more power in the House Graush, he wasn't even apart of the main line, just a cousin, he'd achieve nothing unless he had killed the entirety of A'sharad's direct relatives. His siblings and his mother. He doubted that'd happen. It mattered not, however.

The Daisya Infiltrator dropped out of Hyperspace, immediately he contacted the Star Destroyer that was lingering on the edge of the Galaxy waiting for him.

"Adas. Tractor beam me in."

A few moments later there was a lock, and his ship was being drawn into the distant Star Destroyer's hangar bay.

He took that time to head away from the cockpit and to begin changing out of his Officer's uniform from the First Order.

 

[Asharad Graush]

By the time Vyrassu had stripped himself down, the Star Destroyer's Hangar was opening up, light spilling forth into the void of space as the sole tractor beam that held it continued guiding it to its opened maw.

Neatly folding the Imperial uniform, he placed it atop the neatly folded bed within his chambers, and then he exited, closing the door. Heading back to the cockpit, A'sharad shut down the rest of the ship and pulled his black cloak off of the wall and cast it over his head and shoulders, #no shampoo. Heading towards the rear of the ship, he waited until he felt the ship touching down onto the hangar bay flooring before he depressed the ramp button inside the ship.

It slid open, revealing the darkly clad and armoured Sith Knight that the Sith on board knew as Lord Vyrassu.

Head of House Graush.

Left and Right stood to either side of the Infiltrator's ramp, awaiting him.

 

[Asharad Graush]

Walking down the ramp, Left and Right both turned to face the rest of the welcoming group. An assortment of technicians, zuguruks, and others that had nonsense to report to him. The sort of thing that he could've had received to a desk rather than being told in person. It was beginning to physically hurt to act as if he cared about what ninety-nine percent of these people had to say to him.

"You'll be called," he started out, drawing silence from the group, "When I require you." And then he walked into the turbolift at the edge of the Hangar bay. The Sith trio had long legs, powerful strides, and the shorter zuguruks and human technicians had to work hard to keep up with them.

Too bad.

Left and Right walled them off, their broad armoured shoulders blocking the entrance and then backing into it with their Lord.

A journey to the edge of the Galaxy in a large ship, that's interior was surprisingly small wasn't the best way he wanted to spend his weekend, and yet, here he was. When the turbolift doors sealed shut and they started to ascend, he sighed as he said, "Report."

 

[Asharad Graush]

Neither Left nor Right appeared to have acknowledged those words physically, for their backs were still to him as they blocked the doorway.

A moment later, Right began speaking. He was the talker out of the two of them, and Left seemed content with keeping his mouth shut, always.

"Molecular shielding is on its way. First ship already off of the line, prepared to be sold to the Galaxy." His voice was deep, guttural, thought his words were almost croaky, as if he had recently lost his voice. Curious. Who did he talk to?

A'sharad nodded.

"Something else has been prepared for your visit here today."

A'sharad stared at his back expectantly, for dramatic effect, the Sith Massassi turned his head to look to A'sharad with an amused look on his face.

"Interdiction, My Lord."

 

[Asharad Graush]

"Was this... Sanctioned?"

There was no Board of Directors to sanction anything. It was just A'sharad at the top now, after he had had Right kill them all. Naturally, this had left Right alone on Tantorus to run the entirety of the company in his absence, only recently had he returned to take his position up as his bodyguard and enforcer upon the King Adas. And then he had come to the realization, his golden orbs widening.

"You did," Right answered. The turbolift doors opened, and the trio strode out.

"Noted. But without my direct consent," he said, surprisingly light. They turned down a hallway, and they continued speaking. On their way to the bridge it appeared.

"It is done. The Interdictor was attacked on the way here by pirates on the border of the Unknown Regions."

"Where is it now?"

"The pirates are being lured here, My Lord."

 

[Asharad Graush]

By the time they got onto the Bridge, the Bridge was already working hard.

One person crying out: "Numerous ships on the long range sensors!"

Another saying: "Four of them!"

There were ensigns and officers alike rushing back and forth across the Star Destroyer's bridge, information being sent. A'sharad spotted the back of the Captain, or, was that the Captain? He looked different, when he turned around, gone were the features of a non-force sensitive Human Captain, and in his place was a female Sith Pureblood.

"Lord Graush," she stated crisply when the trio got onto the bridge. Between the large forms of Left and Right, he brushed past them and strode past the Captain that was approaching the trio.

"Put the ship on red alert. Target the point of their potential realspace reversion."

A countdown of ten seconds was started, someone was calling out the numbers.

There was a nod of her head, and she immediately set to work. Shooting a look over his shoulder at Right, the Massassi said, "The other was weak."

A'sharad nodded.

He could agree with that.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The first ship that came out of hyperspace was the Interdictor Star Destroyer. It immediately started for the Star Destroyer that's guns were swinging around to target the area it had just entered.

A moment later another ship had dropped out of hyperspace, the tactical display classifying it as a frigate almost immediately. A'sharad's gaze swept across the Bridge, and then onto the frigate that was ahead of them. It looked as if it was deploying its fighters. By that time, there were several other alarms going off and voices mentioning that the other ships were soon going to revert. Naturally, they didn't know the exact location where the Interdictor was going to drop out of hyperspace, the pirate ships were smaller.

They would've had to have guessed where it was going based on its trajectory and speed.

One guessed right, others were on the way.

Two others, A'sharad realized. That's why the frigate wasn't fleeing.

And then an ancient Imperial-II Star Destroyer dropped out of Hyperspace.

"Pirates?" A'sharad shot over his shoulder at Right, who didn't seem to have an answer for that.

Two other ships dropped out of hyperspace as well. A cruiser, and what could've passed as a supply ship.

The Pureblood Captain didn't hesitate at all, she was already barking out her orders to the bridge. Blaster fire belched out from the King Adas aggressively.

"What was it you wanted to show me again?"

 

[Asharad Graush]

"The Interdictor in action, My Lord. This is its first test."

Vyrassu shot daggers from his eyes at Right, who just shrugged in response.

While the pirate ships fired upon the Interdictor and the Adas, the Interdictor was swinging about. It was rotating on its axis, taking most of the fire from the frigates, cruiser, and Star Destroyer.

"Bring us closer," he heard the feminine, yet, powerful voice of the new Destroyer's Captain. "Fire on that Star Destroyer. Deploy fighters."

Within moments, there were small bolts and explosions exploding some distance away from the Adas. Nothing of consequence not yet. As the Interdictor continued to rotate, the guns on its starboard and dorsal plates began swivelling about and firing upon the pirate forces. It was slow going, faster than what the Adas would be able to, but turning while under fire was still damaging. Its shields were slowly lowering.

Gunners were targeting weapon emplacements to reduce the fire of the Star Destroyer. They were coming from one of the flanks of the Star Destroyer rather than from straight ahead.

"This doesn't seem necessary, really."

 

[Asharad Graush]

Turbolaser bolts splashed aggressively across opposing shields. Missiles were destroyed before they got too close to a ship, and if they did happen to get too close to the hull, fighters shot them down, or even intercepted them wholly with their ship and blew up. The ultimate sacrifice, and A'sharad felt them all, in the Force, and via looking at the tactical display screen. They fought, and they died, for him. Most of his pilots remained standing however, they were trained, having fought in many battles against the Galactic Republic, some even against the Alliance.

They were used to each other and its each other's unity.

They'd flown with each other for years.

The only difference in the ship was A'sharad's presence in place of his Father's.

"Those bombers are to disable the carrier," Right said after a quick glance to the tactical screen. They were heading for it while laser cannons and flak cannons targeted other things, such as missiles fired earlier, or the fighters that were running distractions.

 

[Asharad Graush]

"They're going to be disabled before they get there," A'sharad said. They still had some ways to go, and he doubted it'd be so easy, even if they were pirates, they were well equipped ones. A Star Destroyer in their possession? Even if it was slightly retrofitted with fewer guns, it was still a highly powerful weapon in terms of ships. However, they were pirates, chances were it was barely able to operate with its minimal crew. Fewer than the standard minimal crew.

They likely had some form of automated systems running some of the systems they didn't expressly need a human's touch for.

Such as when some of the turbolasers went wide on their targets.

Curious. A'sharad thought.

"Switch target's," he said lowly to the Captain. "Fire on the bridge."

The new class of Star Destroyer that the Adas was didn't have the large, ridiculous structure sprouting from the main hull. It was an Imperious Star Destroyer, an old one, but refurbished with modern day weapons, but not much more. It didn't ave additional guns as one might think, not like other ships that would've had that. Acarus had preferred the simpler ships, which had evidently been a mistake where the company was concerned. The one time when he had tried to create more complex ships designs, the company had disappeared from the Galaxy and had focused on building itself up.

 

[Asharad Graush]

As if to illustrate his previous statement of the starfighters being destroyed before they got to the frigate's engines, the point defense lasers of the cruiser targeted the missiles they had fired, destroying most of them while the frigate's own laser cannons took care of those that had slipped through the cruiser's firing arc. The Pirate Destroyer was blocking the Cruiser from sight of the Adas, though A'sharad wasn't concerned with that. What pirate didn't keep the biggest ship for themselves? Once the Bridge was destroyed, they'd be without a head.

The Interdictor was finally in position.

On the screen there was a large build up of power, power that was being generated above where the bridge would've been on the Interdictor's ship.

The Pirate Destroyer's Bridge was under assault. Its bridge's shields for the most part protecting it from the onslaught, but as they drew nearer, it became more and more difficult to shoot out the missiles and warheasds that were being fired at it.

"Ram through its top," he said.

The Sith Pureblood Captain had been expected to argue with him, to say that it wasn't the best option. This fight was taking too long. A'sharad was surprised that she had agreed and had issued the new orders. The bottom of the Adas was going to clip the top of the Pirate Destroyer's Bridge, just enough to take it out completely before leaving the rest of its ship a headless chicken, so to speak.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The pilots had made critical mistake.

Too low, they had gone.

Their underside voided fire from the cruiser on the other side and below the Pirate Destroyer, but while being so close to the opposing Destroyer, instead of merely clipping its top, the bottom end of the tip arrow-headed through the edge of the Bridge's structure, immediately venting atmosphere as more and more of the Adas's hull barrelled through the rest of the T structure atop the hull of the ship.

Within moments, it was gone, bodies flying past the Adas's bridge, but A'sharad ignored those.

"The cruiser's below us. Have the Interdictor target it."

"Yes, My Lord," the Captain said, masking the distress he could hardly feel quite well. A'sharad filed that away for another time.

The Pirate's Imperial Star Destroyer had ceased its fire, or at least most of it. Its bridge had likely been tied in directly to the gunnery deck, thus allowing only a handful of bridge officers firing the majority of the guns. Slaved systems and all that. A mistake, A'sharad thought. Shouldn't have fielded such a large ship in unknown territory, especially against a single adversary, or at least, what they thought would've been a single adversary. "The shields are down, Lord Vyrassu," A'sharad heard Left say. There was a nod of his head, until he realized that he had met the Adas was effectively naked.

 

[Asharad Graush]

"Reroute power from non-essential areas. Draw life support from empty sections."

The ship was on red alert.

No one would be in the barracks, and this fight was clearly going to be too brief to have actual boarding parties. The armouries were cleared of Life Support as well, if only because those Troopers that were on board would've already colelcted their gear by now.

Within moments, the temperature there would've started dropping at immense rates, the air impossible to breathe, for there was none.

"Redirect the power to the underside of the hull." The cruiser was beneath them, firing, with the shields underneath them, it was the only actual option for them.

"The frigate is turning, preparing to jump."

The technicians and Sith forces on Tantorus already happened to know what they needed to do. They knew their job, Right had made sure of that. It was easy, they already had the build up of power for the gravity well, their shields were low as was, and then the mass shadow had been sent across space, essentially blanketing it and all the ships that were within the firing arc of the ship. Ships that were behind it? They were capable of jumping into hyperspace unimpeded by the mass shadow, it was a projector, and it had been projected in the other direction.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The King Adas was caught in the Mass Shadow as well. A'sharad, nor his Captain had plans to jump into hyperspace any time soon, but still, even if they had wanted to, they weren't going anywhere.

The Interdictor's weaponry continued to fire on the much smaller Cruiser. The frigate wasn't escaping, and with its weakened shields, more fighters and bombers swarmed it. Within only a few minutes it was destroyed. Bodies vented before that, escape pods were jettisoned, but to where? The Interdictor's tractor beams caught them before they could get too far. But, really? Where would they have gone anyway? But with the escape pods in the tractor beams, they were destroyed, pinpoint laser cannon shots piercing the armour of the pod and venting the air and killing those inside.

If they were lucky, the laser cannons had scored a hit against the engines and blew it up. If not, they suffocated and died some time later.

A'sharad watched with interest.

"Bring us lower. We're bringing down that Cruiser," A'sharad said. The Captain continued to distribute those orders that the Sith Knight was giving her effectively. She commanded the ship perfectly, she was hardly older than he was.

 

[Asharad Graush]

Minutes later the Cruiser was burning.

An Imperious Star Destroyer and Interdictor Star Destroyer firing upon it, crippling it even further as smoke billowed up from its hull. Oxygen was being vented, fuelling the fires that were pockmarking the entirety of the hull.

"My Lord, the Cruiser is charging up its engines."

Curious.

"Is it going to escape?"

"I don't believe so my Lord, the Projectors are still up. Besides... It's too beat up to actually make the jump and live." A'sharad turned his head to the Captain.

"Turn off the Interdictor. Allow them to escape. I want them to understand what challenging the power of Tantorus does to them," he said, while simultaneously walking towards one of the gun operators. He was whispering lowly with him, back and forth they went until the gunner appeared to be showing him something and the guns outside the ship targeted the Cruiser.

The Interdictor turned off, and the Cruiser immediately began turning in the same direction as the frigate had been earlier. Naturally, it didn't get far. Just before it was meant to enter Hyperspace, tractor beams from both the Interdictor and the Imperious latched onto the ship. They pulled at it in either direction. The ship was slowly tearing apart as A'sharad was taught the controls. He pressed a button. A single shot from a quad heavy turbolaser lanced out towards the cruiser, and there was a miniature explosion, unseen due to its distance.

A moment later, more explosions occurred throughout the ship, from front to back, there were reactionary explosions as the ship was not only torn in half by the tractor beams, but also by the explosions racking it.

 

[Asharad Graush]

"The Interdictor Star Destroyer works my Lord."

"Suppose it does, yet this demonstration cost us."

"It certainly did, My Lord, but the crew was bored of merely waiting on the edge of the Galaxy doing nothing." That came from an unexpected source. The Sith Pureblood female behind him. It brought a frown to his face as he turned away from Right and looked upon the newly made Captain.

"This is on the both of you. You'll return to Tantorus, retrain, and repair." He shot a look at Right from over his shoulder. He had been that a lot today he realized.

"Yes, My Lord," Left and Right said in unison, and the Captain echoing their words a moment later.

 

[Asharad Graush]

"Plot a course for Tantorus," he said. A moment later, the Interdictor jumped into Hyperspace, its trajectory was taking it for Tantorus as well. The crew of the Interdictor was further ahead than A'sharad's own, he thought, but it was no matter. A moment later, they were jumping into hyperspace, leaving the wreckage behind them.

"Remain here," A'sharad said to both Left and Right and then he passed between the both of his bodyguards and headed off of the bridge. They were in hyperspace now, there wasn't much escape from the other Sith, but he still had his own private chambers. Getting off of the bridge, he turned his head from side to side before he thought of where to go. He certainly didn't want to see anyone. He knew that the moment he got off of the Bridge Deck, he would be swarmed by technicians and zuguruks alike who wanted him to help them with something.

His decision had been made.

He made for his private chambers, the door automatically opening as it read that it was him, and then sealing itself behind him. The lights came on automatically, he relieved himself of the black cloak on his armour, he strode to his bed, and he just dropped down upon it.

 

[Asharad Graush]

Hours later they had come out of Hyperspace.

A'sharad had cleaned himself up since then, freed of his armour after waking up and throwing it off his bed. This time as he exited from his private chambers, he only bore the black robings of the Sith, cloaking his entire being in shadow and mystery. When he walked out of the room, as he expected, Left and Right were there on either side of him. He sighed, as he pulled the hood up and over his head, and then the door of his chambers closed behind him.

There were shipyards orbiting Tantorus, had been for years since the conception of Tantorian Industries, the first iteration of the company, but now it was Vitiate.

The Interdictor Star Destroyer from hours ago was already there, docked, having repairs conducted. How long had they been there? It didn't matter, he supposed, past the Bridge the trio went, he wasn't at all interested as to the state of the rest of the ship, but he knew that it was on its way to the shipyards.

Perhaps clipping another ship wasn't the best idea.

He pushed the fact that they had left a more or less in tact Star Destroyer behind them, but he was content in the fact that the ship was flying without a Bridge. It could act independently without a bridge, from the Engine Room likely, but that was merely for navigating. No coordinates could be plotted unless one of them sliced into the computers, oh wait, those were gone too. A slight grin slipped onto A'sharad's face. They'd find it there within a week, he knew, the Adas always stopped at those coordinates.

 

[Asharad Graush]

The Imperious Star Destroyer was docking with the shipyards by the time that A'sharad and his two bodyguards had gotten to the Hangar Bay.

A'sharad's pilot had been left behind the last time he had gone back to the First Order.

He had remained on the Imperious, likely telling stories of his greatness, no, really, he had some illusions that A'sharad was a kind Sith Lord and wouldn't kill him, or anyone. Brainwashed? Maybe slightly touched. A'sharad loved killing, Left and Right couldn't help but snicker as they walked onto the ship, his pilot leaning on a pile of crates nearby to the ship, telling a story of some sort before the trio boarded and he scrambled after them.

The Sith Knight cleared his throat as he looked towards the pilot as he took a seat in the cockpit.

"We're turning to the First Order. The three of you will swear to the Supreme Leader, so that you may accompany me on First Order business." He said, a decision that he had been fighting himself with over the last few weeks. "You two," he pointed to Left and Right? Who else would he direct it to? "Will be masked and armoured at all times. None will know you for what you are," he explained. The pilot started up the ship as he listened, and soon enough they were exiting the hangar bay, turning away from the shipyards and Tantorus itself before jumping into Hyperspace.

Another ship to join the ranks of the First Order.