Private Dark Designs

[Marlon Sularen]

D A R K_D E S I G N S

DARK EMPIRE
KAMPE, DEEP CORE

​

At long last, Sularen had returned to the Empire. After enduring humiliation and torture at the hands of his enemies from Corellia for weeks, the Warlord of the Empire had been liberated from a Forgotten Sons black site and brought back to the safety of the Imperial Deep Core to his headquarters on Kampe. While Sularen still had scars from his imprisonment at the hands of his enemies, his resolve had grown stronger as the Warlord became more determined now to take more decisive action to eliminate his rivals and secure victory for the Empire. Already he had begun drawing out plans for retaliatory strikes against the Corellians and Forgotten Sons as well as making plans to get back at Jasper Kai'el and Braze for capturing him at Coruscant. Once his preparations would be complete he would strike back and strike without mercy to ensure that those who had undermined him would never try to act against him ever again.

However for now, those preparations had been brought to a temporary halt, for today Sularen was going to be visited by an old friend and ally, Onrai whom he had been acquainted with since the days of the Second Great Hyperspace War. She had been present during Sularen's extraction from the Socorro Belt although the Warlord could recall how she spoke with a hint of frustration, going further to dismiss his desires to strike back against those who had captured him and speaking about a "Come to god" moment, whatever that entailed. Nevertheless the Warlord was open to speaking with Onrai once more as he remained eager to return to engaging with the rest of the Empire's higher-ups and leading the Imperial military in future campaigns.

Thus, the Warlord would patiently await the arrival of his guest seated behind his desk within his office reviewing his many plans for potential incursions and major offensives against the Alliance in the meantime. The Warlord was determined to ensure that the mistakes suffered at Coruscant would not be repeated and to prevent his rivals from catching him off-guard ever again. Judgement would be delivered upon the enemies of the Imperial Warlord and his meeting would be the first step towards ensuring such an outcome would occur.

Tags | Onrai ​

 

[Onrai]

Marlon Sularen

Onrai had not said much to the Warlord of the Empire since his return from Corellian captivity, but she had pondered, certainly, the future possibilities of what to say or what to do. She had personally rescued him from a magma cell - what had essentially been a deathtrap had anyone been able to open it up - and had told him they needed to have a "come to god" moment. That moment would be soon enough. The door would open leading to Sully's office, then close, as though someone had come in, but no one was there. For a moment, all remained quiet.

Then a voice whispered over Sully's shoulder.

"Welcome back."

Onrai looked down over his shoulder, down at the Warlord. She was in full silhouette form - seemingly haired, seemingly robed, yet everything seemed to blend into the same shadowed emptiness, monocolored with no signs or slivers of light reflecting from any angle or aspect. A negative emptiness within the universe. "I'm glad to see you so readily transitioned back to your given role. I guess now's the suitable time to talk." She walked around the desk, sitting down across from him and leaning back in the chair. "So what exactly happened? You said you had safeguards against two measly Jedi - a master and their bratty Padawan - and they were able to overcome your safeguards, your security, and your own personal abilities."

This seemed to be a good place to start.

 

[Marlon Sularen]

D A R K_D E S I G N S

DARK EMPIRE
KAMPE, DEEP CORE

​

As Onrai arrived, Sularen set aside his holopad as she spoke, greeting the Warlord of the Empire before moving on to inquire as to how a pair of Jedi had managed to overcome the security measures within his old flagship and even take down his flagship. As Onrai finished, the Warlord sighed as this wasn't really a topic he liked to go over. The INV Predator was one of the most powerful and advanced Imperial warships by the time of the Imperial assault on Coruscant, not to mention the fact that it had been specifically equipped with internal security measures designed to counter-act boarding parties. It had partaken in countless battles across the past few decades and was managed by a veteran crew, while being protected by an equally experienced garrison.

For two Jedi to arrive and simply take down his ship with all the precautions in place, with ease was beyond humiliating, although fortunately it was something that had been done in the chaos of one of the largest and intense battles of the Core Wars so far. Nevertheless it was still a big wake up call to how much of a threat the New Jedi Order posed to the Empire. "We we're caught off-guard and outmatched." Sularen said plain and simply. "I was busy leading the entire Imperial fleet against the Galactic Alliance and were not expecting to face Jedi considering the New Sith Order and Dark Side Elite's attack on the Jedi Temple itself." the Warlord added. They were excuses but reasonable ones nevertheless. It was as Derix Tirall once said, "there were always things out of our control" and the arrival of the Jedi was simply that. Something that was completely unexpected in which the Warlord himself could not anticipate and properly counteract.

Tags | Onrai ​

 

[Onrai]

Marlon Sularen

Onrai gave a soft sigh in response to her long-term compatriot's excuse for why the Jedi had been able to penetrate his defenses and capture him. "This is why you have a patron, Sully. " She said. "You don't have to be caught off guard when you have divine protection. oversight of omniscience. If you had prayed and asked me to come and save you, to help prevent this entire circumstance from happening." She looked at the Warlord of the Empire and internally pondered, whether or not there was a possibility of Sully being open to such considerations.

"All I ask is for you to understand that, insofar as our relationship goes, I intend to ask more of you. And in exchange, I will give you more - for example, the power to touch that which neither the Jedi nor the Sith will ever know. You need not tell anyone you possess it, but in the event you need it, you will have it. The time has come to pursue the bigger picture given the... silence of the Emperor and the inevitable struggles that will come herewith. Which comes to, likely, the second point - opened with a question.”

She shifted a bit in her seat, the darkness of her essence sinking somewhat into the cracks of the chair. “Do you believe in anything? I don’t mean believe in the cause of the Empire, or the Maw, or the Final Dawn - I’m talking in the sense of a belief in divinity. Incarnate, ethereal, or even impersonal.”

 

[Marlon Sularen]

D A R K_D E S I G N S

DARK EMPIRE
KAMPE, DEEP CORE

As Sularen responded, Onrai offered a soft sigh before speaking how divine protection and prayers would have enabled Onrai to intervene in order to prevent his capture at the hands of the Jedi, although the Grand Admiral was quick to offer a rebuttal although maintaining a cordial and professional tone as to not offend Onrai. "Well i was in the middle of leading Imperial warships into battle against enemy naval forces. It's kinda hard to pray especially when you have to give to keep track of two separate engagements, giving orders and constantly analyzing the situation." the Warlord said.

Then Onrai, spoke further talking about how she could give the Grand Admiral powers that neither the Jedi or Sith could even know or touch further weighing in that the Grand Admiral would not necessarily need to explain to anyone about his powers only using it when absolutely necessary. Sularen instantly knew that Onrai was referring to the Anti-Force, which to this day Sularen still struggled to understand even as Onrai presented it as the ultimate counter against the Jedi's force abilities.

Sularen also knew that wielding the Anti-Force would make him a target of the Sith, Dark Jedi and even the Jedi if word was to come out that Sularen was able to wield the Anti-Force, something which could further derail the Warlord of the Empire from his plans and ambitions. As such a wise course of action would be to maintain a distance from the Anti-Force. "As much as it is tempted to be able to wield such powers, i do not wish to stoop so low to the level of the Jedi by requiring some sort of mystical power just to be able to content them. Plus, regardless of whether i tell anyone or not, i won't be able to keep those powers a secret if i had them, which would instantly make me a target from the Sith, Dark Jedi, Jedi and more. I'm already have enough enemies now and i have zero intentions of further expanding that list."

Finally, Onrai then asked the million credit question. Did Sularen had any sort of religious beliefs, which was a topic he had already discussed prior with Derix Tirall during a prior meeting. Just like during that meeting, Sularen's answer would be the same even when faced with individuals like Onrai and the individual exploits of the Jedi. "No, i don't believe in the divine or in superstitions. Why do you ask?" the Warlord of the Empire answered, speaking plain and simple offering only a response with no further explanations regarding his stance.

Tags | Onrai ​

 

[Onrai]

Marlon Sularen

"A prayer can be as simple as a thought, Sully." Onrai replied. Their alliance had existed for decades - she had not sensed much of anything insofar as apprehension, fear, or a pleading for aid from an ally from the Warlord during the incident in question. "You might want to have someone who can dedicate themselves to reaching out for aid in the event you need it. After all, I'm not that far away at any given point in time." One of the benefits of no longer being confined to the limitations of a corporeal form - albeit a billion different voices made it hard to listen to one over the other.

So it was that Sully rejected the offer - and as expected, Onrai desired to press the issue somewhat more. "Then you will always be handicapped against them. The Jedi care little about wishes - the Sith even moreso, to be fair. The Imperial war machine will not care about whatever advantages you gain. After the failure at Coruscant, desperation is beginning to sink in among the more radical members of the Empire, and solutions thought unheard of are becoming more viable. As mentioned before, the Emperor has become nearly nonexistent, which has further thrown us into disarray. Accept what I have to offer, and you may yet be better prepared for the Chaos I have yet divined in our future."

Then came the final inquiry. "I ask because I wondered what you had faith or belief in - and admittedly, I'm surprised at your atheism. I would at least have expected you to believe in something abstract, like the Cosmic Force, if nothing else."

 

[Marlon Sularen]

D A R K_D E S I G N S

DARK EMPIRE
KAMPE, DEEP CORE

Sularen was quite intrigued as Onrai explained the situation of the Empire, or at least what she thought of the situation of the Empire. She spoke about how Sularen would remain handicapped without Onrai's gifts, how after Coruscant more radical elements of the Empire were growing more desperate and how the Emperor's absence had thrown the Empire further into disarray. It was true that the Empire had grown stagnant, but the situation was far from abysmal. The Warlord still had many tricks up his sleeve, many cards to play against the many obstacles the Empire faced from their enemies to the Core to the corporate powers that opposed it.

"In all honesty, the last thing the Imperial Military needs is to resort to more mystical and occultist solutions to the many problems." Sularen began. "We have many enemies such as the Alliance and the Corporate powers that have embargoed us, not to mention many other actors that have not revealed their hand against us. To resort to mystics and the occult, which the Sith and the Dark Side Elite already cover would be seen as a sign of desperation and weakness by our enemies and rivals. At best such things should be used as a last resort, something the Military should fall back when absolutely necessary." the Warlord further explained.

"But now at this time, i do feel that it is too soon to resort to the gifts that you have offered to me, especially when i have plenty of other options in the form of various projects i have in place to challenge our enemies in the Galactic Alliance Defense Force and the New Jedi Order."

Tags | Onrai ​

 

[Onrai]

Marlon Sularen

"You're too dismissive."

As he explained his methodology, she gave a soft sigh. "There's an old saying in the galaxy that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. To a degree, this is true - the Celestial understanding of how the fabric of the universe is put together is far more complex than even the most skilled Imperial astrophysicist could imagine. The issue is not whether something is mystical or occultish. It's whether the solution is something our enemies have the ability to counter with their own abilities." A hand moved, the shadowed smoke manifesting over his desk as images formed within it - representative images on Tython, a manifestation of her confrontation with Eina L'lerim-Vandiir outside the former Jedi temple visible. Onrai watched as the seraphic Ashlan sought to overcome her allegedly Dark-Sided foe with a wave of Light, only for Onrai to quite literally shrug her off and walk past her into the temple. A demonstration, of sorts, to showcase what she was speaking of.

"The Jedi have the Light Side. Something that cannot be countered by the Light Side is the Anti-Force. If I had been a Sith, Eina's Wall would have seriously injured if not killed me. Instead, the energy she dumped into trying to block me from access to the temple only further strengthened me. The Anti-Force is not some mystical construct to be summoned through arcane and occultic means. It is a tool, masked in symbology but founded in the dichotomic science of existence - of the equal and opposite reaction to a given exertion, a given Force." She chuckled at the analogy - the universe the Anti-Force was yet bound in was made of the same matter as realspace, and yet, like antimatter, it existed in direct contrast and opposition to the Force, that great power the Celestials themselves called their own.

Then he spoke of other projects. "Projects? You've been awfully tight-lipped. Tell me about what you've been working on - remember, I am as much technologist as I am mystic."

 

[Marlon Sularen]

D A R K_D E S I G N S

DARK EMPIRE
KAMPE, DEEP CORE

Sularen watched as Onrai projected an image of a previous confrontation on Tython with someone named Eina, with Eina projecting what seemed to be a wall of light in an attempt to subdue Onrai to no avail as the attack would have zero effect on the force entity who just shrugged it off and passed forward onto the Jedi Temple. It was an impressive display, but nevertheless it only reinforced his point. Despite the Dark Empire's inclusion of the New Sith Order and the Dark Side Elite, the Imperial Military was still a mostly secular force largely ran by non-force users. Regardless of how Onrai tried to present the Anti-Force as something the Military could use as a means to counter the Jedi, such a proposal would always be met with internal resistance and Sularen had seen first had what entanglements with Sith and Force Users had done to the Final Dawn costing him an important decades long mercenary contract.

"While it is true that our solution needs to be something that our enemy will have great difficulty matching, the solution must be something the Imperial Military will be fully dependent on. It is not just one solution i seek but many solutions, many tools that can be wielded in variating ways as to stay ahead of the enemy." Sularen responded. "Say i accept your offer and make full use of the Anti-Force in future operations and campaigns, regardless of how effective it is against the Jedi, they will eventually find a means to counteract the Anti-Force especially if we become over reliant on it as a method to deal with the Jedi, hence my desire to keep it as a last resort means rather then some sort of jack of all trades that will solve all our problems" the Warlord further explained.

"As for my projects i have been working on a few assets for the Imperial Military for usage when the Alliance inevitably strikes against our holdings in the Deep Core. I expect them to become more desperate to gain some sort of victory after their failed offensive against the Sith Order" Sularen said answering to Onrai's inquires about the Warlord's projects. Sularen then took out a few documents displaying the plans and blueprints for many of the aforementioned projects which included : The retrofitting of a SGHW-era prototype Torpedo Sphere, the development of a new missile boat and droid starfighter. "The answer to the superior numbers and overwhelming firepower of the GDAF Navy is merely a few state-of-the-art quality assets powerful and effective enough to make a large difference. After all we still lack the industry and shipbuilding capacity to win this war with numbers alone." Sularen further explained.

Tags | Onrai ​