Dominion Darkened Oasis - TSE Dom of Saleucami

[Kaalia Pavanos]

Location: Outpost Talos
Objective: [III] Purge the heretics

Siren One flew past and moments later the shield surrounding the outpost flickered and fell away, granting Avacyn and the Crimson Lance access to the southern tower. The application of water shaping split the water surrounding the island, creating a path for them to walk. It was only when the Sith forces were at their doorstep when those still inside the southern tower were able to react. Many had taken up arms to defend the northern tower from Velok's forces, though this left them wide open.

The entrance was blasted wide open and in poured the Crimson Lance, blaster fire accompanying them. It wasn't long before the ground floor was cleared of opposition and it was then when Darth Avacyn herself made her entrance. "Keep the ground floor secure. Let nobody in or out- I will take care of the rest."

The turbolift had been cut off before the Sith forces had made their way into the tower, leaving only one way up and down. Avacyn made her way towards the first flight of stairs and began making her way up, lightsaber hilts in hand. All who remained in the tower would die.

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Outpost Talos - Objective 3
Kaalia Pavanos


The Whiphids laughed as they helped their burnt and bloody leader upright. <He looks so peaceful. Like he's taking a nap.>

"Kark off," Velok chuckled.

More Whiphid-scale laughter shook the north tower. <I was talking about this little one.>

Velok eyed the enemy commander, who was dead and curled up in a small bundle. <Falling on him seemed the best option.> One claw probed the lightsaber wound. <He stung me pretty well first.>

<Swatted like a bug.>

<Heheheh.>

 

[Avernus]

LOCATION: Surface of Saleucami, Wilderness crater thirty kilometers outside of Taleucema
BYOO: Roots Bloody Roots
TAGS: Ruek Tast

Darth Avernus stood just beyond the end of his personal ship's boarding ramp. His boots sunk several centimeters into the swampy substrate beneath him. A strong expression of antipathy was smeared across Avernus' face, growing even more intense as he picked up his foot to take a step forward and heard the mud squelching beneath him. The muscles in his face were so tight with discontent that one could wonder if they would get stuck that way. The smell of hydrogen sulfide rose up from the mire beneath him as his footsteps disturbed the long undisturbed sludgelike soil of this particular swamp. As the stench assaulted his nostrils, he let out a loud and angry groan, startling a few nearby birds into flying off. This place was awful, and these roots had better be worth the money or Ruek would have some explaining to do.

The roots of the Bubse tree were said to have incredible medicinal potential. Even more interesting than that, were the prices some segments of the roots had known to reach on the galactic markets. The circumstances were perfect to break into this market, just as The Empire was breaking into the occupation of this rock. He looked up as he heard the engine drone of the slaves' transport shuttle overhead. The shuttle touched down about ten meters from Darth Avernus, sending more hydrogen sulfide fumes into the air as the landing gear sunk several centimeters into the mud and further disrupted the sludge.

A large group of slaves, equipped with tools to dig for and extract the roots exited the shuttle followed by a group of droid enforces about half as large. The slaves had been mostly briefed beforehand on what work they would be performing and wasted no time in beginning to set up a small base of operations and prep the surrounding area for the job. They wouldn't yet be able to begin their work until Ruek Tast had properly explained the method of extracting said roots. He oversaw the slaves from afar, waiting on the arrival of Ruek and her wilderness wisdom.

 

[Ruek Tast]

Location: Saleucami wilderness.
Objective: Safari!
Tag: Avernus

The RZ-1 Interceptor touched down on solid soil a small trek from the main party. There Ruek checked the items Tast called off from his mental list.

"Shield generator lookin' good?"

Ruek tapped the oval shape on the armor's utility belt, "Full charge."

"Backup pew pew?"

"..."

"Humor? Uncheck." Tast may have been localized to her mind but his lighthearted moods made her feel physically worn. Of course, she was also just a grouch.

She raised the slugthrower, "Pistol. Check. Alright, enough of this," she shoved the pistol into a holster and whipped the main tool of the trade over her shoulder: a modified E11 sniper rifle. After locking the interceptor she carried herself and Tast toward the checkpoint.

She felt the heat bloom in her mind again as Tast rummaged around, "Curious a Sith Lord wants to go on a safari while the the rest of the Empire is occupying cities, yeah?"

The dunes soon changed to swamp as Ruek made quick headway through both environments. Her voice was relaxed but obviously her focus elsewhere, "The Empire takes, in return it gives. Bubse trees are something the Saleucami people have been keeping to themselves. We can make better use of the resource."

"Ah. Yeah." Tast seemed unconvinced.

She paused, "What? You don't think I'm right?"

The warmth was fading, a signal that Tast was retreating to his own part of their shared headspace, "No, Rue, no. I mean...just stay sharp, yeah?"

Ruek's brow furrowed. Whatever he was on about Tast wasn't sharing for now. She adjusted the filter setting of her helmet before continuing.

- - - ​

Ahead were the shuttle crafts. Ruek turned her visor away from the slaves leaving the ship, choosing to focus on the man woefully dressed for this kind of outing. He was an odd race she'd never seen before, and red skin was probably going to be the only thing they had in common.

The closer she trudged the more evident the man's irritation. She spoke, "Lord Avernus?" She gave a curt bow, enough to be respectful, "I am Ruek'Tast. You're going to want a helmet or mask, sir, the fumes are going to get worse."

"From the looks of the man he should have been titled Lord Opulence," Tast echoed.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Objecitve I: Bring Taleucema to its knees.

Are you in place?

Ophidia huffed as she clambered over the final edge and looked out over the grand skyline of Taleucema. She touched the side of her helmet, pressing the com.

"I have reached the peak, readying gas now"

The Rattataki shrugged a satchel off her shoulders and opened it up to see the four canisters inside. She pulled two out, then went to one of the top vents. She unscrewed the lid and slipped the canister into the ventilation shaft. Then the next. Four shafts, four canisters. Slowly, an invisible mist poured out of the four canisters and was drawn into the vents by the building's fans.

"Gift has been given." Locking the doors and turning off the lights now.

The building went dark as its doors and windows clamped shut. The fans kept on going, sucking tainted air into the ventilation and dropping its insidious influence on the unsuspecting persons within.

 

[Argir Granic]

Location: Taleucema
Objective: Occupy The City
Tags: Mordecai Zambrano | Lirka Ka

Blaster bolts whizzed over Granic's head as he ducked down behind a piece of jagged ferrocrete, the Legionnaire to his right taking several shots before falling back to the ground. It took only a glance to know that the soldier was dead, the top part of his head was missing entirely. There was little time to mourn in an active combat zone, especially when the enemy was peppering your position with a seemingly endless barrage of laser fire. There's wasn't the only skirmish happening throughout Taleucema, the local militia was well-entrenched and dedicated to giving the Empire a rigid middle digit before they were driven out. That they would be driven out was obvious, the Empire was far larger and more well-equipped than these local soldiers, and they knew that. Major Granic prophesized that those that escaped judgment today would remain a thorn in the Empire's garrison on Saleucami for months, if not years, to come.​

​

Regardless, that was something for the Conquest Consolidation Corps to contend with down the road, he was just here to ensure initial pacification succeeded. Tugged a flash-grenade from his side, Granic primed the detonator and flung the device back up over his head and towards the approximate location of his assailants. Hoping that they didn't have light-dampening headgear, Granic bolted from cover the moment the flash went off. He lunged, rolled, and swung behind more effective cover right as a trail of blaster bolts shadowed his path. ​

​

A close call, another in a chain of dozens of close calls over his career. ​

​

Around the corner were the rest of his tank crew, including their surviving communications officer. Though the enemy had jammed conventional communications, the Empire had begun to invest in unorthodox methods of keeping in touch despite such hindrances. The comm officer was biologically linked with a Yuuzhan Vong biot called a villip, which could transmit instantaneously across vast distances through a telepathic neural network. When all else failed, these biots allowed the Empire to remain coordinated even in the direst of circumstances. ​

​

"Inform air command of the enemy's position, and request an airstrike."​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Objective II: Oversee reclamation of the Cloning Facility
Allies: Tuuli Miles Darth Malevolum Alaako Maashaa Vigdis Zambrano

Her smile of receiving Mishel Kryze's report vanished as multiple presences made themselves known and were requesting to see here. She agreed with the spy that her debriefing could wait for now, that they would discuss her mission more once Saleucami was secured and the rumors of a Mandalorian excursion to reclaimed their increasingly devastated homeworld were dealt with.

"Tell young Mister Miles he can meet me," she replied.

Aedan had a complicated history with the Sith, but she tolerated the pirate as he was friendly with Solan and others she had continued contacts with. She had never met the son. Regardless, and if the young Miles still desired to meet, she would turn her attention to the problem at hand. The pirates were dug in within the lower levels, and this time, she couldn't deploy Seefeuer without infecting Sith forces. Her scientists from Spaarti were just waiting for the all clear before they would move in themselves. They were currently prepping a first batch of cylinders and other needed equipment at the Aurora facility to be shipped to the site.

"Have the advanced teams breached their defenses yet?"

 

[Tuuli Miles]

Objective II: Land and meet a legend.
Allies: Vigdis Zambrano Taeli Raaf Darth Malevolum Alaako Maashaa

Tuuli hummed as he received word that Taeli would meet with him nodding as the shuttle finally came to rest on the ground and he stepped forward off of the ramp turning to bow towards the interior a small grin on his lips as he gestured for Vigdis to join him. He than spun and started making his way into the interior of the compound making his way towards where Lady Raaf had set up her command center listening as alongside them troops of Red Fang slowly filtered their way into the depths of the compound to take up the assault. He tuned them out as he turned into the command center bowing at the waist politely before straightening showing mismatched eyes of Ice blue and deep violet. "Lady Raaf my name is Tuuli Miles the son of Aedan Miles and Livia Miles. I would first like to thank you for agreeing to meet me at this time. But moving rapidly onto the reason for this meeting I hear you are having troubles with some renegades who would consider themselves pirates. I have dispatched the Red Fang to prepare an assault and after this meeting I shall join them. But my father has recently had to move a large portion of his facilities and has some Cloning tech that he purchased from you that he has offered to The Sith Empire as a thank you for keeping an eye on me while he prepares for his future engagements against those who place value on planets over people. Honestly I feel he just wants me out of his hair and somewhere to seek out training. Given my area's of desire fall outside of what his friends use I figured I would come and visit the glorious Sith Empire to see if I could find someone to teach me here." Tuuli smiles calmly as he stops talking his stance relaxed as he stands before one of the most powerful people within The Sith Empire with the daughter of another of the powerful standing with him. Some would find his mere presence within the Sith Empire shocking when they considered who his father was but those same people were not aware that his father had been supporting and working for the Sith Emperor for longer than he had been a Pirate.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Heavy thuds resounded through the building beneath her as breakers were shut and locks sealed. Darth Ophidia could feel the thrumming of electricity halt beneath her, and yet the gas continued to fall through the vents and spread throughout the floors beneath her like deadly mist. She checked her helmet, making sure it was properly sealed and would keep the gas from reaching her eyes and airways, then patted her sides to ensure she had all the tools needed for her insidious mission.

"Going in."

She let herself fall backwards, and rather than be caught by the concrete and steel, she fell through darkness. As her body curled back and put her feet beneath her, she landed crouched in a long hallway.

It was dark, as expected, hiding the fine fog from sight and wrapping the assassin in its cloak of shadow.

She turned her wrist, pulling out the shikkar attached to her wrist. In her other hand, she concealed her lightsabre. It was not active, and it was not the weapon she would use first. Rather, it was like a key through all locked doors. Stretching the shikkar-armed hand out, Ophidia closed her eyes and navigated through sensation in the Force. She felt the walls, but did not touch them. She felt the floor under her feet, and the stacked floors beneath.

She felt the people within, their fear calling to her like iron to a magnet.

The sabre in her hand quivered in a call to violence, but Ophidia bit down the urge and pressed on down the hallway.

 

[Avernus]

Location: Surface of Saleucami, Wilderness crater thirty kilometers outside of Taleucema
BYOO: Roots Bloody Roots
Tags: Ruek Tast

---

'Lord Opulence' could have indeed been a better title for Darth Avernus, especially considering the questionable outfit he wore in this swamp. He would show to tells of regret, and rather just anger and disgust that the swamp dares sully the hems of his pant legs. He sighed dramatically with clear displeasure as Ruek'Tast informed him of needing a mask. He rolled his eyes and held up his hand in the direction of his ship. The sound of glass breaking and things being knocked over reverberated out of his ship as a respirator flew out of the ship and into his hand.

"For everyone's sake, I'd hope these roots are as great as you made them out to be." Avernus' voice was muffled behind the shielding of the respirator that fit awkwardly due to his bone spurs and facial appendages. "I'll not suffer this putrid wilderness for no payoff," he continued, clearly irritated about the environment in which he found himself. With one squelch following another, his boots trekked awkwardly through the mire towards the slaves, gesturing for Ruek'Taste to follow him.

 

[Ruek Tast]

Location: Fine ol' swamp.
Objective: Little bit of digging.
Tag: Avernus


"I thought we were assigned for him?" Tast echoed from his mental burrow. Ruek didn't reply, aware that this Lord Avernus was a so-called Sith, one of the sects of magicians who had a penchant for just... hearing and seeing things others could not. At least, that's what she gathered from scattered shipyard rumors.

With a dutiful nod she trudged alongside the Darth. She hazard a glance to the slaves ahead then looked back to the environment as if to study it.

"Once we find the target flora your... men will want to start digging at the base then expose the lateral roots that extend from the taproot before cutting." She took a quiet breath. Talking to someone other than Tast took a surprising amount of effort, "They are big, even for secondary roots. Makes it easier to handle. Yep."

She furrowed her brow even deeper than it had been, "Uh, oh, yes. Boulders. They do not exist here. If you see one, avoid it. That is all, for now."

Phew. That was too much. She felt exhausted and wanted nothing more than to not have to utter another word. That would be too good to be true, however.

"It's alright, don't worry. Ya got this. Just you focus on the objective ahead and don't let Mr. Outrageous fly off in that hat he's wearin'." Tast's voice was soft and soothing. It was an odd trick of his, able to provide relief through his words. It was a spell that Ruek much appreciated, and it reminded her to activate her own charms.

As they walked, she shoved a hand into a pouch on her belt removing a small container. From inside it she plucked a pinch of Serrian salt and a small feather. Placed between two fingers the feather was snapped, ground between her palms with the salt, then thrown into the mud before her steps. She purposefully landed a boot on where the simple concoction fell, then continued walking.

"Bad mudsinks if we continue east. Faster route but not with this crowd," She pointed north of their location, "North is firmer, goes up slightly so better drainage. Will tack on two hours, perhaps."

 

[Argir Granic]

Location: Taleucema
Objective: Occupy The City
Tags: Mordecai Zambrano | Lirka Ka

A trio of air superiority fighters screeched overhead, proton payloads slamming down into the claustrophobic alley between buildings with a thunderous roar. The local militia that had pinned Major Granic's forces were vaporized along with the majority of their surroundings, which cut it awfully close as far as the Major was concerned. Still, results were results, and the way forward was cleared into a nice molten glass floor. Charging ahead, the Major and his remaining legionnaires thundered on past the ruined alley and further into the city's heart.​

​

After some time marching, they found an empty building to convert into a make-shift redoubt and got to work reinforcing the entryways in preparation for a potential enemy attack. They'd pushed far into the city and were in danger of being cut off from the rest of the Empire's advancing force. So, for now, they'd hunker down and wait for the line to move. ​

​

They erected some barriers with whatever material they could find, even laser cutting sections of the outside ferrocrete to push up against the doors and windows. ​

 

[Vigdis Zambrano]

Objective II: Land and Meet a Legend
Allies: Tuuli Miles Taeli Raaf Darth Malevolum Alaako Maashaa

Vigdis joined quietly, puzzling with the rumination of her childhood friend. Crew members replaced, plans enacted. Shaking off the shackles of her duties for a while felt... satisfying. Contented to observe and learn, the daughter of Darth Prazutis walked along in thought.

“I wonder, Tuuli. I wonder very much when your schemes will tangle you up past all else. And I hope to be there to bail you out when they do.” She hazarded a smirk, chersilk cloak covering the mahogany curls of her hair from the illustrious Taeli Raaf.

Taeli.

Vigdis held in a breath until Tuuli walked from the command deck of the ship. Slowly out, fixing her hood all the deeper, her face covered in the same shadows her father lived within as Shadow Hand.

“Coming, Tuuli.” Taller in the scant years since her teens came upon her, Vigdis was a picture of health once denied a fragile girl-child snatched from a harrowed near death. She kept her chin high as was her Station, but behind the cloak. Finally coming upon Taeli, the young Zambrano curtseyed, black and red eyes flickering up to watch the curves of Taeli’s face.

The Lady of many forms of Knowledge was before them, bowed to in respect by Tuuli. A simple boy of noble hardworking and unscrupulous parentage. The most complicated boy in the Galaxy to the teenaged girl standing behind him, hands folded in her cloak before her.

“While he prepares for his future engagements against those who place value on planets over people…” Tuuli’s words, and ones that stung across Vigdis’ cheeks.

“Master Raaf…” One step at a time, Vigdis came in line with Tuuli and with the mashing of her lips together, doffed the cloak from her head. “I trust this is not an entirely unwelcome surprise. Greetings from my father, Braxus, to the wisest of us all.”

The Princess searched Taeli’s eyes, wondering what she’d make of all this. A pirate and a princess come bearing both gifts and aide in the latest endeavour.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Objective II: Oversee reclamation of the Cloning Facility
Allies: Tuuli Miles Vigdis Zambrano Darth Malevolum Alaako Maashaa

Progress was being made even before the young pirate's forces went to join with the Sith Legionaries, Adepts, and the Lady Malevolum in their assault upon the entrenched rogues in the facility. She had her back to the two teenagers as they entered the command center, her gaze following the feeds from the forces dispatched and their progress. The command staff looked at the two as they got closer, shifting their attentions back to their monitors or relaying command instructions.

Her head half turned as Tuuli gave his greetings and reasons for coming, a small half smirk tugged at her lips. She was curious about what his desires might be, and how they might be different from his father and his associates. But there was the girl...

Turning to fully face them, purple eyes danced slightly in mirth at the girl, the slight smirk formed completely for a moment. Through the Force, and her own mastery of sorcery and alchemy, she could sense the workings done. Far be it for her to ruin the illusion of the day, that said, she gave Vigdis a small wink.

"Not a completely unwelcomed surprise," she replied. It never was with her. She turned her attentions, as they were, to Tuuli. "I am aware of the irritation that the Bryn'adul have caused for your father and his friends, they are not the only ones who had to relocate significant resources from Kesh before its fall. But neither of you came all this way and sought a meeting with me to discuss resource management. What might the pirate scion of Aedan Miles and his differing desires and the daughter of the Shadow Hand seek?"

 

[Lirka Ka]

Location: Taleucema

Lirka's mind was a warped and broken thing, ripped and torn asunder by the combat stims that so constantly pumped in and out through her veins, whilst the flash memory training of her revival made it so the boundaries of time became blurry, where past and present intermingled within her perception of the burning worlds around her. There was standouts, of course, most of all were the Confederate campaigns against the Jen'ari heretics some time ago: the very campaigns where Lirka had died the first time around.

As she rampaged through Taleucema, a near unfathomable mass of armored muscles that moved with the refined grace of a dozen dancers, the spectacle blurred into something must different. An inferno roared around her, there was nothing more in her mind but fire and screams: fleeing civilians that had died long ago as the relentless march of battle droids stormed out from their Droch Landing Pods. Fire engulfed the hab blocks of Copero as the Jen'ari soldiers moved in to intercept their relentless advance. It was pointless.

Lirka was a flurry, a lost soul given purpose: she was annihilation, she was carnage, she was death. Her blade swirled all the same in the present, slaughtering those who stood in her way who were both real and fictitious: slashing open bodies just as much as the open air, another roar filled the thundering echos of warfare: amplified a dozen times over by her helmet, a mockery of the Force Screams she had become so accustomed to back when the Force flowed within her body.

"Destroy it all! Leave nothing standing!"

At least, in her lunacy, Lirka could still inflict the brutality of Imperial retribution. Even if it was in her own twisted perception of things quite far from Imperial retribution, cold and heartless brutality all the same at the end of the day.

 

[Argir Granic]

Location: Taleucema
Objective: Occupy The City
Tags: Mordecai Zambrano | Lirka Ka

Some more fighting had transpired before the first white flag had gone up from the city's defenders. Though he loathed to accept it, Major Granic was obligated to accept their sign of truce and met the enemy commander exactly halfway between the two sides. By what he could gather, similar events were transpiring across the city as the local leaders caved to the Imperial war machine and were commanding their soldiers to stand down. ​

​

By the time that Major Granic had negotiated this group's surrender and had relieved them of their weapons, the entire city had surrendered and was accepting the Imperial Legion's occupation. Major Granic himself was among those who were allowed to witness the negotiation inside the city's primary municipal building, which was being led on the Imperial side by Darth Wyyrlok XXIV, one of the Kissai Loremasters that had achieved the annexation of Chad several months earlier. ​

​

Though the fighting with the city's defense force had all but ceased, that did not mean that the city inhabitants themselves would roll over and accept the Empire's jackboot. Small skirmishes still erupted periodically, which had to be dealt with the Legion wherever and whenever they popped up.​

 

[Darth Wyyrlok XXIV]

Location: Taleucema
Objective: Negotiate the surrender

The Chagrian known as Wyyrlok XXIV absently looked out the wide panorama window that dominated the exterior wall of the Chairman's office, his face contorting with visible displeasure with the city's architecture. Much of it had been constructed along the lines of the original Pantoran colonists who founded it, but as you went further towards the edge of the city different styles began to take over; primarily those favored by the Hutt-dominated cultures to the Galactic Southeast. As a purveyor of more refined Sith and Imperial aesthetics, he found it to be utterly distasteful. He'd have to submit a report for the city to be rebuilt once this whole affair was concluded.​

​

He now turned back to face the assembled local leaders, all of whom had at one point or another defied the Emperor's will to mount their pitiful excuse for a resistance. Now they were all cowed, their fear radiating off of them in putrid waves. No doubt his frightful appearance, his heavily tattooed skin and devilish horns, contributed to that. The lightsaber at his side, very visible as he angled his torso to look back at them, didn't help either. He smiled, many sharpened teeth interlocked together in a fierce and unsettling grin.​

​

"Gentlemen, shall we begin?"​

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Eenie meenie miney mo-

Ophidia went from door to door, listening, reaching out, feeling and sensing what was on the other side. She was not there to make a massacre, not this time. No, she was there for someone special. From door to door, she could feel the minds spike with fear, then fall to restless slumber.

She heard their dreams, the nightmares stampeding in the forefront of their minds.

Ophidia went down to the floor beneath, then beneath that again.

Her senses tugged at the clues of the one she wanted.

Catch the bad chick by the toe-

She stopped by a door and hovered her palm right in front of the door. Her eyes closed as she breathed in and pushed through. The door creaked, then hissed as it opened. Ophidia slipped through, quiet as a summer breeze.

Her burning eyes fell on one body, then another. They were crumpled up on the floor, asleep. Neither one was the one she desired. The one she wanted was still awake, if a bit drowsy. Force users were always difficult to knock out with gas.

Ah, the closet.

 

[Tuuli Miles]

Objective II: Meet with Taeli Raaf
Allies: Vigdis Zambrano Taeli Raaf Darth Malevolum Alaako Maashaa

Tuuli smiled as he bowed once more respectfully his mismatched eyes flickering brightly even as words of the Red Fangs progress filtered through his ear piece. He nodded and glanced at Vigdis in thought before he finally shrugged. "Well you see my aims in life involve stealth and subtleness compared tot he rather grandoise methods of my father. My reason for being here is I figured while spending time in the Empire I might as well make myself useful thus I brought the Red Fang unit with me here and dispatched them into this area to assist in reclaiming it. My companion is with me for her own reasons but I welcome her company completely." Tuuli winked at Vigdis teasingly as he glanced at her hiding his ice blue eye from view for a bare second before turning back to Taeli. "My father has often spoken of you with great respect though Lady Raaf it truly is an honor to get even a moment of your time." Tuuli stops and tilts his head with a hum as he hears that the Red Fang had started to slowly progress into the enemy ranks nodding as he turned back to Taeli another notice springing up on his data pad that the transport had finally entered the system.

 

[Vigdis Zambrano]

Taeli Raaf Tuuli Miles

All it took was a knowing smirk and wink from the Madame of all Intellectual things, for Vigdis to once more feel as they should. During such strange days, having one method of stability was all Darth Prazutis’ wide eyed daughter could manage.

Taeli didn’t mind her dropping by. The relief stuttered out of her in one long held exhale. That was, until Tuuli gave her a bit of a quip and a look.

“Tuuli! Honestly.” Vigdis ducked her chin down with a flush to her cheeks. The wink! Must he have winked so? She hid her smile behind a gloved hand, as futile as it was to hide. The Red Fangs went about the work of the day, Saleucami’s subjugation would be complete. If Clan Corek left anything worth taking, Vigdis hazarded to ponder. Had they?

The long time Mandalorian Clan had more time to prepare than the miscreants on Moridinae, and the lack of Corek warriors was telling enough. They were gone.

“Master Raaf, while my companion seeks training among our noble peers, how may I be of best service to you?” A reintroduction to a friend, a silken message of both fealty and the search for a teenager’s stability in an imploding galaxy. “It does seem this planet is devoid of most the warriors who called it home.”