Borderland Admirals: Sv'Yato Fleet Cometh (Ashin Varanin)

[Manu Xextos]

"But Sir, we're flying the wrong colours!" The Commander of the Pra'Kara's docile face was contorted in a veil of caution. The commanders and captains of Admiral Manu Xextos' Sv'Yato Fleet had for the most part been flying no colours but devotion to their Admiral: it helped when Manu recruited his chief officers from his own House. The 5800 m battle fleet had picked the Systems worlds of Tythe and Nelvaan barren and clean when they shipped off after Druckenwell, nothing remained of their terraforming efforts or the settlers Manu had brought to the worlds he was once Viceroy over. The settlers had grown restless as the fleet maneuvered through vacant space lanes and held breaths - they had to make Fringe Space.

There was a demon at Manu's back and it was not a demon of physical cause. Supplies running on strict ration, the former Jedi Master paced the bridge of his flagship the Brynjar and waited out Commander Feah's tempest.

"They will see us. An invasionary battle fleet coming into their space. There's enough trouble as it is with the Republic and the One Sith we don't have the right colours. It could be seen as an act of war, Admiral please!" She said it out of devotion, he could feel her care and respect for her crew from there. Paired with the tensions and the collective held breaths of every sentient on his ships, it made the vein on Manu's forehead ping and bulge. His teeth grated in his jaw.

A warm hand folded tiny fingers into his: Erryn Xextos. His wife. Payment in full for the deception which had Manu spying on the CIS until the day it dissolved into the Systems. Erryn scanned up in her husband's face and smirked. He let out his own held breath and held up his free hand.

"Hush, Commander. Do you think I would have led you this far to throw you gap-mouthed into the abyss? Have a little faith."

"My faith is in you, and it is not in question. My faith in them? Has yet to be tested."

"Fair. Well! Let's test it, shall we?" He cut off the channels with his commanders and nodded to his comm officer. "Open private channel with the specs I gave you."

"Ready, Sir."

"This is Fleet Admiral Manu Xextos of House Xextos, [member="Ashin Varanin"]. Do you copy? The Sv'Yato Fleet is on Fringe border, we're flying the wrong colours a little assistance would be grand. Varanin? Are you out there?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"]

Of the thirty-odd campaign tabs that adorned the chest of her unremitting black uniform, most derived from the days when enemies had been obvious, dreams feasible. Dreams of Unknown Regions unified, patrolled, safe. Dreams of a confederation of honour and cooperation.

Today was not a day for dreams.

The Permanence-class battleship Korhal writhed under the Chimaera's guns at extreme range; thus ever to traitors, even ideological ones. This crew had meant to defect, ship and all, to the Protectorate, a move of conscience, a move that had Ashin's sympathy. But defection was defection, treason was treason, and freedom had its limits, even in territory that venerated it.

She'd tricked the Korhal into a microjump and a solar flare. Shieldless, it took pinpoint hit after hit from her eighty energy torpedo projectors. Beams of fire flickered and pulsed between them, the eye's reaction to an incandescent energy packet travelling twenty percent of lightspeed.

In due course, the Korhal lapsed from functionality.

They'd called her back for this, in part because she had the best chance against the Korhal and its commander, in part because she went back a long, long way with that commander. And one couldn't spend all one's time as a Jedi without raising questions about the need for loyalty tests.

She'd ruled all of them once. Perhaps this was because they remembered.

Once the cooling wreck passed into the hands of salvage, rescue, and imprisonment crews, the Chimaera leaped away to meet this newest summons. When Xextos received a response, it was in the form of a hyperspace reversion, a battered but fully functional command ship, and a moderately recognizable reservist in the uniform of a flag officer. Her face said early thirties; her eyes suggested that estimate might be off by a couple orders of magnitude.

"This is Grand Admiral Ashin Varanin on behalf of the Fringe Confederation. Welcome to free space, Fleet Admiral Xextos."

 

[Manu Xextos]

The Chimaera bolted into the space before the Sv'Yato Fleet's position and the empathic Echani felt the collective threat level of every officer and soldier on board raise. The hackles of a warrior people spun his gut and churned his muscles to grab for his lightsaber, chase it down and see what lied beyond the pair of ageless eyes in this unrecognizable young thing. Caution was a curse word, an opening lock-box of defensive tactics and the Admiral bit the inside of his cheek. He nodded at his comm officer as he stood on the holoprojector pad and his signal would continue on [member="Ashin Varanin"]'s sensors. The uniform Manu wore was an ancient one - the same uniform he wore under his armour on his Last Day before being suspended in crystal, before waking up after eight hundred years. The fabric was white and silver, it styled him as the General of the Kae's Command, an ancient title far dead to the noble worlds which left Thyrsus and Echan in separate wakes. His officers and those who could be seen in the transmission wore not the uniforms of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but of the Royal House and the House Najwa. Relics as much as the man himself was a relic.

She spoke, the legend and awe-inspiring defender, and the tension stabbing at Manu's neck uncoiled off for another day when tensions were useful and crafted decisions for tactical precision. The crews unknotted and relaxed. . . a bit. As Manu spoke, his Second in Command started calling down the tactical units from their stations and the fleet of twenty four ships from Star Destroyers to Carriers, Cruisers and a Yacht or two began to drift from their defensive clusters. They could breathe - Fringe Space was free.

"The collective gratitude of my fleet is laid at your feet, Grand Admiral Varanin. Thought I'd give you a courtesy call. Got some new colours for me to fly? Our time in the Systems Authority passed with the bang on Druckenwell. May we have a word in private, Grand Admiral? I come bearing more than ships." Manu's head quirked to the side. This wasn't the face of Ashin Varanin he knew. . . what'd the Empress done now?

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"] would see a single point of continuity, one connection between who she'd been on the throne and the face he saw now. Fifteen years of exposure to a wide variety of Sith poisons and magics had turned her eyes a Bando Gora blue; the glow had come and gone. Mostly gone, lately. The end result didn't end up looking natural.

Not that she'd have chosen the eyes as the sign of her sins -- but eyes had been changing, one way or another, for the whole history of the Dark Side.

"Of course, Admiral. Feel free to come aboard the Chimaera at your convenience." She offered a bleak half-smile. "Forgive the mess." His uniform's iconography tugged at her, though she couldn't place it at first. When it clicked, it clicked hard. Her wife had been the ruler of Eshan. She'd spent an awful lot of time there, before the Fringe and in the early years, surrounded by the formal and even the antique.

 

[Manu Xextos]

"Thank you, Grand Admiral. I'll be sure to bring a feather duster. Do you require any engineering assistance? The crew of the Yash is one of the finest I've ever seen at repairs. Admiral Xextos out." The holoprojection faded and Manu stepped off the holo-pad. "Ready the Echa'Nibus, Erryn love, feel like a trip?" The clone looked up at her husband, a model of Erryn's face and by all accounts every piece of her, but the cloying idea that her soul was gone clung to the underbelly of Manu's relief. She took his hand and they walked together to the Echa'Nibus.

Was it wise, bringing his prize to the bastion of [member="Ashin Varanin"], when her wife was once ruler of the Echani left over? Erryn hadn't spoken since coming to the Brynjar under his mother [member="Ahani Najwa"]'s charge and Manu stocked it up to absorbing information, or maybe she was repaying him for all his mute years after the monstrosities of Keth and the death of Manu's father Urdu. Still, in short order an honour guard and the Xextos couple were in transit to the Chimaera. Once aboard, Manu held Erryn close to his side as she stared wide-eyed at the vastly new technology and conglomerate of peoples. She wore a long silver dress, the badge of her once office as Kae a faded heirloom from her husband's scant collection of yesteryear. Coming up to the Grand Admiral, Manu's eyes narrowed.

It was Varanin, he hadn't a mistake. The seven foot Echani Master came up to Ashin and snapped to attention, saluted and bowed. "Thank you. Find a new sense of personal fashion, Grand Admiral? I trust whoever felt the end of that battle you were in is no longer an issue. Hopefully none of my fleet will cause issue for you. . . Let me introduce my wife, Erryn Xextos."

'The memory implant worked, but Erryn died 750 years ago. She's a little quiet. . . thank you.' Manu telepathically fed the thought to Varanin, and with it a stroke of minor concern. Would Erryn manage to find her feet? Why else would a man go on a perilous journey to the Confederacy, start a terraforming process on formerly dead planets, spy on a council of Masters which included the dreaded Ket VanDerveld and 'defect' to the Fringe? Why else would a man move mountains but for the woman he had loved for eight hundred years? It might be a false-start, a piece of oblivion in the cold deep of space but it was the closest Manu Xextos would get to the life he sacrificed for his wife and their children. Behind the couple, the Honour Guard contained some identical faces to Manu and Erryn, proof that for the Echani the Royal House which stood for thousands of years existed still in one form and another.

"I come to officially present the Sv'Yato Fleet to the Fringe Confederation Navy. My ships are yours, Grand Admiral. I also come with refugees from Tythe and Nelvaan, my Viceroyalty. When the Fleet made for the Fringe Border we would not leave our civilian fellows behind. . . especially after Druckenwell. The people were afraid and I had brought them to Tythe as a place of safety in the first place. Most have come from the formerly Sith world of Chandaar. Echani all and human-Echani cross breeds. We need a place to stay, Ma'am. A planet we can call home. We have terraforming equipment, we can take an abandoned or besotted place, I know it's a lot to ask."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"]

She held her peace throughout, apart from appropriate acknowledgements.

"There's nothing unusual in your request, Admiral," she said at last. "The Fringe has been a destination for major refugee flows on several occasions; we have no quotas, and our borders are generally open. We're used to handling large influxes. And as it happens, I have a world in mind. A harsh world, nothing like Chandaar, but a good one.

"I know Chandaar," she added, off the cuff. "I ruled it briefly, under Moridin, and I had some history with it before then. I might know some of your people. But back to the world I have in mind. It's called Sabarene. It's far out, far beyond most Fringe territory, deep in the Unknown Regions. Arid, plenty of desert. The Graug colonized it the hard way, killed off most of the nomadic P'w'eck tribes, then the Republic came and wiped out the Graug. Sabarene isn't a Fringe Confederation world, largely because nobody's there anymore. If you don't mind the localized scars from Daella Apparine's orbital bombardment -- she killed a couple of million Graug in a matter of minutes -- and the remoteness of the location, it's yours. It's a good world, as I said. I've spent time there and enjoyed it. The world has value."

 

[Manu Xextos]

"My people will be glad to hear it. They could use some freedom and a permanent place to set down roots. It's been a longer road for some of them than others. I won't lie and say I'm devoid of the relief myself."

How did the Force move in such ways, the ties and bounds seemed perpetually in motion - catching in spider-thread arrays even for a planet like Chandaar. "Our daughter Chiara was a Chandaari Princess. There was a coup and she was left for dead on an ice floe, but I rescued her and we took her in. When we had our daughter, Chiara was the best big sister. She'd teach Divya all about being a Princess and tried to be as culturally Echani as possible." Manu chuckled softly, his skin began to luminesce as if the crystals which had kept him in stasis were singing of the past. "After I disappeared, Chiara liberated Chandaar. She adopted my mother's youngest - a boy named Yuca. When I awoke from the krystalsøvn it was a Chandaari who had come to get me. They'd made it a . . . oh an old folk tale I guess. The girl who found me had thousands from Chandaar that wanted to live away from the Sith Empire. They're all aboard my ships. Funny how the Force works, tying us together in ways to be seen after the fact. I'm sure you were a decent ruler."

Far out. Isolated and buffered by the Fringe State, the possibility of building down a new home was ever present. The Fleet could home up, deploy from a place protecting the further borders and the badlands. It was a tactical set-up point, a starting point.

"Sabarene. I don't mind a few scars. We've got moisture farming equipment with us, irrigation systems and enough equip to make a decent start on farming the land in a year." The name flowed off his lips and into his wife's ear. Erryn perked her head to the side, studying [member="Ashin Varanin"] as she spoke. "I take it Sabarene will be a useful tactical point for the Fleet? Or do you have more use for the Fleet elsewhere. I hear there's a war brewing and the Fringe has allied itself with the Sith. Where does that put little Light Sider me and my troops? How close are we to war?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"]

"Look at a map with me, Admiral."

The ready room's holoprojector flared to life, depicting a multicolored galaxy. Deft, familiar motions, as instinctive as combat, re-centered the map on the rimward side of Fringe space. At times it felt like she'd spent most of her life in front of this map.

"This is Soledad, a heavy-gravity cloning world, an autonomous kingdom within the Fringe. This is the Ssi-Ruuvi star cluster, location of our largest shipyards. And between them, here-" An uncolored dot glowed brighter, acquired a segmented indicator halo. "This is Sabarene. We have proprietary routes through the hyperspace disturbance, fast enough to make it a valid reinforcement point for the capital, but basing your fleet out of Sabarene allows us to shore up defenses against our primary enemy.

"The Lords of the Fringe were founded to defend the worlds of the Unknown Regions against whatever's next. Whatever threat swarms out of the dark tomorrow -- that's our primary enemy. In a very real sense, we've been the galaxy's shield. Some of our enemies have been extragalactic, though none of them from that vector. Sabarene is a defensive line, just in case someone out there has found a breach point."

 

[Manu Xextos]

The map had been the most updated map of the Galaxy Manu had seen yet, he stood back beside [member="Ashin Varanin"] and kept his hands behind his back as he let the information flow. A strategic post, barren now and needing defenders to refuel and resupply the rest of the Navy. "So you're not so worried about the Republican backlash against our alliance with the One Sith you're more concerned with what comes after. With the next lurking, skulking thing. Ovmar was talking about Rhand last time I saw him. If there's worse then that about you're going to need someone to cover it. I can run defensive patrols here." He pointed at the map, swept his finger along the spine of the Fringe all the way to Ssi-Ruuvi.

"And here." he swept his fingers past Soledad toward Dosun, "But if war comes to Lujo or to Trevura or Thakwaa I won't be able to make it in time for more than a fall-back push. Which, given the strength of the Navy isn't so bad a thing, if we can exhaust any invaders with our strong ties to the Force until I mobilize a partial attack fleet. I don't mind playing the fallback guy, the crew on the Brynjar alone is 36,000 strong and we're loaded to the brim with another 10,000 civilians, scientists, families. They're all predominantly Echani, a few thousand Chandaari and refugees from Nelvaan, Tythe and other Systems Authority border worlds who were too scared to stick around for Druckenwell two-point-oh. Between my Star Destroyers, Cruisers and Corvettes I've got 45,000 trained and operating naval crew aboard. The last count on our civilian payload is 120,830 and some of those are Echani infantry, Nelvaan hunters & scouts and Confederacy loyal to me. So, with the populace we have coming to Sabarene, we'll be making a significant effect on the ecosystem. There were a lot of folk who couldn't take the turmoil, they'll be glad for the grounding.

For the most part we'll be self-sufficient but we may need a hand once in a few lunar cycles. Whose in charge of the military and navy? Who is my contact point with the rest of the Fringe? Anybody I should know? I can't get ahold of [member="Jared Ovmar"]."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"]

"There's no need for you to worry about Sabarene or Lwhekk -- both are defended by forces equal to your fleet, or greater, and their patrols cover their surrounding areas. I'll put you in touch with their commanders to coordinate patrols. And there's certainly no need for you to worry about Lujo, Trevura, or Thakwaa. We like Sabarene for accessibility, but if war comes to the bulk of the Fringe, you're backup, not first response.

"As for contact points, you'll have to split your time between setting up your people and working with the leaders of the Fringe on their terms, in order to build strong connections. We're a mutable, moderately democratic confederation; our leadership changes. I generally find that Lucianus Adair and Spencer Jacobs are good places to start. As for Ovmar, the fastest way to get his attention is to ask Santhe/Sienar for a maintenance and starfighter resupply contract on your fleet. He's one who splits his time too many ways."

 

[Manu Xextos]

"That does give me time to get my people settled. We've been patrolling the Systems Authority borders between the Protectorate and Moross for over a year. My crews have gotten used to being first fleet response for invasionary forces or things going bump on planetary nights. Thank you, Grand Admiral." Manu saluted with a bow, as Erryn came back to his side from wandering around the area looking at all the brand new things. Manu's chest rose, he put his arm around her slim shoulders and a shining relief came to his face. No passion, nor drug, nor weapon of war, nor ship of the line could mar his devotion to the memory of his Echanar and he was true to his bond.

Erryn became him like no person became another, their journey hazarded by the rocky outcroppings of war, tragedy and time. A smirk grew into a grin, she looked up at Manu as if to share the joke and the man's lips pressed together in an attempt to keep protocol. It was failing fast. "Sabarene, love. Wanna go meet our desert home?"

Erryn nodded furiously, a massive grin on her face. Had this once and past Kae been the origin of Ashin's spouse's family line? The massive Jedi Master was Empath first, his road to wholeness was laid in the vacuums of space and in space he made his homestead, but for the woman at his side. A shadow, a flicker of her. Was that all of Erryn he would get? Could not more be done to bring the soul of his Echanar back to him, from the encompassing flood of the Force? "Thank you, [member="Ashin Varanin"]. . ah, one more thing. It's more of a personal nature. . . After picking up Erryn, Ahani Najwa disappeared off my radars. She skipped out from two escort corvettes, a long range tracking system and the Vi'Nu Star Destroyer's sensor array. I can't feel her presence in the Force and being that in my time I was one of the strongest Empaths and Force Sensers in the Jedi Order, that's not an idle sort of phenomenon. I can only assume it's going to lead to a great deal of trouble.

Ahani Najwa is mental. No one's mind can withstand eight hundred years of torture and yet she's still capable. The fact my mother can cobble up enough of a mind to fall back into her tactical & combat training is an impressive combination of her own willpower, the drive to find and protect our family and my skills in medicine. I can't tell you how many times I've cured addictions and healed neurological scabbing on that woman and maybe that's my point but the last I recall Ahani was searching for our bloodlines. She's an obsessed, violent Sith Master who thought [member="Spencer Jacobs"] was one of ours.

It's an easy mistake to make. My empathic powers hadn't been seen in the Royal Family. By the time I was three I could feel the entire population of planets, and Ahani took care to keep me as far from Palpatine as possible. When I married Erryn, I brought those predispositions with me to the Royal House, and my son Lochan carried on the Empathic traits. I know enough about time and genetics to know the similarities are just that - similar. But to a mind like Ahani's, with its fractured webs she may be looking for a deeper connection. She wants Spencer to be one of ours so she can feel like a mother and grandmother again. I'm afraid she's dangerous only if the fantasy in her mind is questioned. That woman has ripped stars apart and conquered planets for her kids. I need her back, and I'm sending forces out to find her, so I can continue working on curing her mind. If she comes up, please call me. I'll come get her before there is any trouble. Just wanted to give you a heads up."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"]

"Not insurmountable troubles, Admiral." She thought vividly of Spencer, and a certain throne-shaped chunk of Nihil smokestone, and Echani genealogical databases. "In due course. I'll put out some feelers, put you in contact with the resources you'll need and the connections you'll need to have if you mean to cement your presence and role here. This isn't to say your acceptance is conditional -- I still have some pull around here -- but you'll need to get close to at least some portion of the High Council, and sooner rather than later. Just a reality of the Unknown Regions."

 

[Manu Xextos]

"No, not insurmountable. I guess I'm more concerned about making sure my Mom doesn't decide to become a one woman army against some poor planet 'just because'. That woman needs direction like humanoids need oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere."The Unknown Regions. How tentative was the Fringe hold on this space? However tentative it was, Manu would make it a mission to increase that hold. It all started with the journey to Sabarene.

"Getting close to the High Council is in my plans, so yeah that works. Works well, thank you Grand Admiral. I've been meaning to meet Jared's young thing. The Military Affairs Councillor. You know, that girl from Naboo. Andra? Yes, Sivas. There's a lot to be done, and I'll leave you to yours, Ma'am. If that is all, I'll take my leave. Thank you for seeing me, my crews are going to rejoice when they find out the end to our journey in in sight."

Manu saluted with another deep bow, "Grand Admiral." And if that was all, he'd go back to the Brynjar, his clone-wife in tow.

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Manu Xextos"]

It was, in fact, all. As Admiral Xextos departed, Ashin found herself oddly distracted by something he'd said. Well, several of them. The extent to which he'd talked about his mother suggested a very real possibility that Ahani Najwa formed a threat. She'd have to look into this.