Dust to Dust

[Kainan Wolfe]

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[-SOUNDTRACK-]​

Attn: [member="Salij-Nekt"] | [member="Roella Arwyn"] | [member="Sena"]​

• Military Occupation Zone
  Nibelungen, Capital City, Immediate Aftermath of the Invasion

War was evil. The sky above this once great city, was covered in smoke and ash from the still-raging fires of the battle that ended just hours before. A battle which had gained the Shrouded Republic a foothold in the galaxy and a home for its people. War was a necessary evil.

This city was once the seat of power for the Jedi Autocracy, a symbol of the Lightside and the dominion of the strictest interpretation of their order's misguided and hypocritical code. It was now the dominion of a different kind of strict law.

A military patrol was the only thing moving on this street. The survivors of the attack, and there were many, despite the apparent silence, did not dare to poke their heads outside. Having lived in near-complete isolation, these people had never expected to witness such an invasion. Now, they were afraid and directionless.

The military patrol kicked in one of the doors, their dark gray armor blending in with the environment around them. Some of these civilians had thought to hide surviving Jedi in their midst. As if that would ever work. As if the Shrouded Republic and the Ancient Eye did not have Force sensitives of their own. The distinctive, snap-hiss sound of a lightsaber igniting was followed by the sounds of the soldiers' weapons.

Pop-pop-pop. Pop-pop-pop. Not blasters, but the slugthrowers which these invaders were so fond of. Weapons which the Jedi's lightsabers could not defend against. They made short work of the Padawan hiding inside, the soldiers dragging the civilians outside in shackles, forcing them to kneel in the street. A new law reigned over the city. And the young couple had committed one of the worst crimes there were.

The patrol's commanding officer recited the same words he had earlier recited to the old woman down the street. "For the crime of committing the treasonous act of sheltering an enemy combatant, in accordance to military law, I sentence you to death," said the officer. The couple whimpered, the young man trying to shield his wife with his arms. The officer aimed his rifle. Pop. Pop. There was no trial. No mercy. Just summary execution in the open street, many more such executions taking place within the city.

Kainan Wolfe, the Lord of Shrouds and leader of this strange human army, had given the order that an example was to be made. Those who thought to hide Jedi in their midst and foster treasonous thoughts against the world's new overlords, would soon learn the better of it.

The warlord himself, was in one of the city's former parks, now turned impromptu spaceport for the military shuttles that were landing and departing. Four AT-ATs stood silent watch, one at each of the avenues that led towards the park. TIE Reapers buzzed overhead in pairs. Kainan Wolfe took security very seriously.

The warlord awaited the arrival of two of his associates, the mercenary Sena and his new-found protege, Roella Arwyn. He did not expect an Anubian executioner, however.

 

[Salij-Nekt]

Salij stood watchful over the execution enacted by the officer. No mercy, as it could see. It was quite...well, interesting to watch. The Anubian watched from afar as it went over, though there was one thing that interested Salij the most. It was the human leader, [member="Kainan Wolfe"]. The Anubian had felt his dark power, and had felt drawn to it when he had felt the power. He was once again drawn to the human, wanting to know what that power was. Even though it partly knew that it was in fact the force, something he had dabbled in.

Salij began to approach the human leader Kainan from afar, gazing up to one of the AT-AT's that he passed. It was large, and Salij-Nekt had not seen anything like that before. Well, except for the battle just before. With his axe attached to his back, he approached Kainan. "Human, you showed great power in the past conflict. And the execution was a spectacle" The Anubian said. And then it just stopped there. He was not much of a speaker. He just stood there. Staring at the human, it had not met many humans before. His eyes no doubt filled with darkness, and his mind replaying the violence of the battle.

[member="Roella Arwyn"] [member="Sena"]

 

[Sena]

Sena walked up the ramp into her personal corvette. Two of her personal guard flanked her, stopping once inside the ship. Taking her seat, the ship's interface snapped to life. A sigh escaped the woman's lips as the engines started up, climbing to a roar before the ship jumped out of the Talavara. Once she was clear of the battlecruiser, the corvette's engines opened up, launching the ship at lightning speed toward the moon.

Once the Talavara's role had been completed in the battle of the moons, she took her ship back into space to prepare for meeting her acquaintance. [member="Kainan Wolfe"] was the leader of armies, and one of the men responsible for the invasion. Sena had been invited down to meet with Kainan. The corvette touched down on the outskirts of the landing area, the engines being louder than what ears should be exposed to. The ramp extended down, letting a tall, slender woman dressed in black and white, with a large black bow holding her hair up, two long ribbons hanging down to almost touch the ground. Her face, posture, and clothing were spotless. Not a hint of dust, dirt, or wear.

Spotting her targets, a man and a tall creature that Sena had never seen, she started toward them. Taking a moment to look around as she walked, she took in her surroundings. The place was gray. The death and destruction she herself had helped to bring left heavy smoke in the air that blanketed everything.

As she approached the two figures, she gave a curt smile, though it did not touch her eyes. "Hello," she said, "congratulations on the success here today, Mr. Wolfe."

[member="Salij-Nekt"] [member="Roella Arwyn"]

 

[Roella Arwyn]

Roella had never seen a world so torn apart.

The princess of Talravin had grown up on a world still covered with beautiful nature. Most of her life had been spent exploring meadows and forests, riding well-bred horses, and swimming in rivers filled with water as clear as the sky. Peaceful. Beautiful. Looking upon this husk of a world, she missed those meadows, forests, and rivers. This was a world of death, destruction, and misery, now. And she had contributed. Part of her didn't quite know how to feel about that.

She wandered the streets of the city, the hilt of Thorne on her back, underneath Dawn, her golden shield. Her gold-enameled armor was in sharp contrast to the despair and grey of the city, a shining beacon of light in the dim twilight that had overtaken this moon. Roella of the House Arwyn, heir to the throne of the Talravani Queendom, wielder of Thorne, had killed for the first time in her life. She had shed blood. For a moment, she stared down at her hands, clenching them. By the Seven Sisters, what have I done?

But really, there was no time for sorrow, or regret. [member="Kainan Wolfe"] was responsible for freeing her from her prison, and most likely, for saving her life. Who knows what would have happened if she had stayed there? Well, there was no time to think of such things, now. Now, she would have to think of the future.

She found Kainan in a park, heavily guarded, with two others with him. She did not recognize either, but she supposed she didn't recognize much of anyone this far from home. She stayed silent, behind, gauntleted hands clasped in front of her. She closed her eyes and sent a quick prayer to the Seven Sisters of Song, asking for their forgiveness, this day. Forgiveness for what she had done, and for what she suspected she may still yet have to do.

@Sena @Salij-Nekt

 

[Kiso]

Kiso was torn about what had transpired, in the heat of battle the cyborg general had not hesitated to issuing the necessary orders to ensure victory for their ground forces, but now, with the battle over she bore witness to the destruction she had helped in. People being dragged out into the street and shoot and point blank range as an example for those to see, it felt wrong, but at the same time she could not help but feel it was necessary to do so. "Jess, do you think that this is wrong in anyway, I know that these people are fanatic, their way of life sheltered and distorted by this so called Jedi autocracy, but theses executions".

"It is not my place to question orders sir, this is war, the dominion was not different, but would you not be used to it, where you not a mercenary most your life", Kiso gave a sight before turning back to her second in command, "yes, but as a mercenary you usually didn't get to know the whole gist of the conflict, your company commander accepted the contract, you where shipped to some would to fight, there it was kill of be killed, no good guys just trying to make the pay to survive.... I joined the Shroud Republic to prevent people like me and you from loosing their home to some tyrannical super power, I just hope with the action being carried out today we are not slowly becoming those that we strove to fight against".

"What are you going to do K"?, Kiso looked down, before returning her gaze back over the battle field, the place still strewn with bodies of those who had fallen, "Nothing, for now, I will see how things go, I just hope our actions do not affect the alliance we have with the metal lords that I put a whole heap of effort into". In this sort of instance Kiso could only really think of one person who would know what to do 'Boss, what would you do in my situation...'.

[member="Roella Arwyn"] l [member="Sena"] l [member="Salij-Nekt"] l [member="Kainan Wolfe"]

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

Attn: [member="Salij-Nekt"] | [member="Roella Arwyn"] | [member="Sena"] | [member="Kiso"]​

• Military Occupation Zone
  Nibelungen, Capital City, Immediate Aftermath of the Invasion

The warlord was reviewing execution reports from his units out on patrol throughout the various Military Occupation Zones established in areas controlled by Shrouded troops, when a strange, warlike Anubian carrying a massive axe, approached him. His Wolfguards tensed at this stranger's approach and moved to bar his way, but Wolfe sent them away with a wave of his hands.

"Greetings, Anubian," the warlord responded, his attitude polite and professional. "The army of the Shrouded Republic is well-trained, disciplined and efficient," he said, acknowledging the compliment. "As for the executions... They are a necessary evil. The Padawans are being given a chance to live and be reeducated in the spirit of our values, however the full-fledged Jedi Knights and Masters are simply too dangerous to let live," the warlord explained, his voice loud enough so that the other figures who were approaching, would hear.

He saw both Roella and General Kiso approaching and could tell, by the expressions on their faces, that Wolfe's orders in regards to the treatment of the Jedi, were troubling them. Wolfe had always been very good at reading people. "These people are fanatical in their beliefs. They draw on thousands of years of tradition and changing their minds now, would be impossible, especially since up until a few hours ago, they ruled this planet since it was colonized," he explained. "Letting them live, would only provide the foundations of a well-organized insurgency later on, one which would claim untold thousands of collateral casualties. The best way to defeat a terrorist uprising, is to prevent it from happening in the first place."

In truth, Wolfe did not enjoy these executions anymore than his subalterns did. But as a ruler, it was his job to make uncomfortable decisions such as this. It was up to him to make the choices that would result in the least loss of life. When it came to choosing between what was right and what was necessary, Wolfe knew that a good leader chose the latter.

But the warlord did not have any more time to dwell on these thoughts. The corvette landing in the trampled remains of what was once a beautiful lawn, marked the approach of one of his most powerful allies. Looking as immaculate as ever. the woman known only as Sena, despite the efforts of Wolfe's intelligence teams to dig up a full name, was the captain of the massive battlecruiser that waited in orbit. She was one of Wolfe's contacts in the Outer Rim Coalition and she had accepted Wolfe's offer to assist with the battle. Of course, in exchange for a hefty fee, but that was only fair.

"Greetings, captain. I hope your trip down to the planet's surface was uneventful," Wolfe addressed her, his demeanor as professional as when he had greeted the Anubian. "I'm afraid our provisional forward command post is not much to look at."

 

[Salij-Nekt]

The Anubian looked to the guards of the human, and lifted a lip at them. But the human commander waved them off, and it turned it's attention back to him. "Necessary indeed" Salij said in response to [member="Kainan Wolfe"]. "Action had to be taken, to show who is in charge." It's hands clenched, hearing of the Jedi Masters that needed killing. He had never faced off against a Jedi before. He thought it could be fun, although very dangerous without a weapon to combat them. "I would gladly hunt them down and-" He cut himself off as others soon arrived. Salij made no greeting, but did acknowledge them.

"A command post none the less" the Anubian muttered, observing the forward command post. He so desperately wanted to question Kainan of the dark force within the human, but others were around. It was most curious to learn of these powers that it had yet to understand. Another thing that was most curious was the amount of humans about, that seemed to be higher up in the chain of command. Most curious, indeed.

@Kiso @Roella Arwyn [member="Sena"]

 

[Sena]

The last bits of the conversation between the tall creature and [member="Kainan Wolfe"] touched Sena's ears. He was a man that had radical ideologies, but that made little difference to Sena. The galaxy would just keep killing each either way, and Sena would simply make money off of the galaxy' ventures. As far as she was concerned, who governed whatever part of the galaxy was not a problem for her. She would always find a way to slip out of sight, as she had done for over a millennia. The destruction here was but a fraction of the vile that this galaxy could unleash.

Sena looked around and all of the movement. The military presence was dominating to say the least. "No," she said with a tone of high confidence, "I think we made sure that things will be smooth for us around here. And as for the state of the command post, I agree with our accomplice here, it will serve its purpose either way." As she noticed two more figures approach, Sena figured it was time for introductions. She had never been one to be shy. "I am captain Sena," she said, turning to the tall creature, and then the other two in turn. "Our mutual associate here," she looked toward Kainan, "has brought us here to celebrate in our victory." Celebrate came out almost sarcastic as she saw the looks on the faces of the two newest members of their group. "It is most wonderful to meet you all."

[member="Salij-Nekt"] / [member="Kiso"] \ [member="Roella Arwyn"]

 

[Kiso]

Kiso turned away from the ruined city, cape flapping against the ash filled wind as she walked towards the group that had been gathering not far away, Jessica in tight tow behind the cyborg general. Among the groups was of course the Lord o Shroud himself [member="Kainan Wolfe"], the leader as stoic as ever, though Kiso wondered when the usually force hating man decided to take up leaning his hidden power, guess it was a typical fight fire with fire sense of thinking.

Next to him was a woman, one she had heard about before but never met in person, [Individual profile, name-[member="Sena"], current rank captain], "more military person hu, better then those ancient eye fellows, something about them just rubs me the wrong way". The last of the group was one of those Anubis huminiods, probably the one in change of carrying out the executions, and if the proceeding battle made anything clear, they where all for violence and killing.

Upon coming closer Kiso snapped a quick salute to the Shroud Lord, "M'lord, things are proceeding as plan, minor amount of resistance have been met here and their, but in all the city and planet is under our control".

[member="Salij-Nekt"]