Private Hammer and Minds

[Lirka Ka]

Fortress Imperious, it was a dark tumor on Concordia, like a growth that had spread the all consuming cancer of Lirka's destructive rule over so much of Mandalore and it's worlds. But Mandalore was gone now, and it's suffering irrelevant: only Moridinae, birthed from the fires of a dead world stood. It was mighty, in it's simple and crude way, one of the Grand Moff's many projects that had reached from her de-facto throne. And for it was one of Lirka's many projects that had now summoned Aerarii Tithe to Concordia, For Lirka's ever watchful eyes had taken note of the rather greedy little banker.

He amused her, if one was to put it in a crass way. But Lirka always had some dark intentions layered beneath her innocent feelings. For the suffering of Tithe, his fear after the failure as Mygeeto: and his subsequent overcoming of such a gross failure had left her interested, he had strength, and Lirka always held the deepest interest in Strength. The Fortress had been prepared of his arrival, an entourage of Legionnaires ready to escort him to the throne room Lirka had fashioned for herself within the bowels of the icy fortress: whilst offically she had no control over the warriors, the vast majority bent the knee to the Moff know.

Bootlickers and lap-dogs was her preferred type of minion to surround herself with, tied with the cruel and callous of course. She merely lounged in waiting, she knew the man would show: none would be so foolish as to deny her rare generosity, unless they wished for death of course, but she had higher hopes for this one over the normal lot.

 

[Aerarii Tithe]

Fortress Imperious

---

Aerarii had learned long ago that when a Grand Moff summoned you, it was best not to keep them waiting.

With that in mind, he had made his way to Concordia in the Mandalore/Mordinae Sector with all haste. His last journey here had been as part of the Defence of Mordinae, then the then-Treasurer General had been responsible for broadcasting propaganda to rally the Sith-Imperial Legionnaires and dishearten the enemy. Part of that broadband had been relaying the words of Ka herself.

As he walked through the halls of the Fortress Imperious, Tithe reluctantly admitted to himself that he had no idea why he had been summoned here. He and Grand Moff Ka had worked together before as Sith-Imperial governors, including responding to the Apostate rebellion. There was little Tithe’s Sector Group II could offer her - New Imperial order forces had sliced the region in half and had captured the worlds of Mygeeto and Scipio. Was it a matter of money - did she need financial advice, or for the Moff to wave something through as the Chair of the Foreign Investment Board?

Tithe strode into the throne room alongside the escort which had been provided and offered the Sephi a bow and flourishes. “Grand Moff, a pleasure as always.” He looked around the ice-locked fortress. “I, ah, boy I like what you’ve done with the place.”

---

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

Everything about Lirka's claimed lair was to make many of those inside feel small, a cog in the great working machine: only those with an arrogance large enough to blot out the stars were to overcome it, one of the Sephi's many great artistic works. Every action had an artistry to it, such was her way, to become a gross perversion of her people's artistic culture.

Her "throne" was the most heinous of them all, it seemed dull at first: black metal, such as one would expect within an imperial facility. But upon closer inspection, it's true horror showed: bone, hundreds of thousands of bones, all broken, warped, twisted, and forced into large etching and detail across the dark metal. The bones of many of those slaughtered by Lirka's savage crescendo to the Mandalorian genocide. Her pleasure with the whole ordeal barely hidden, a sick and tormented love of suffering.

Lirka was noticeably shorter, and just generally less of the Goliath she had been upon entering the Empire: though, she was easily as large as most of the hardiest of humans, her form was more...lithe. Like a predator, it's aura was radiant from the genderless armor she had adorned in what had really been...always. What laid beneath the baroque plate was a mystery known only to a select few...

"Do not be stupid, Tithe. I do not desire empty compliments, nor did I bring you hear to lick my boot. Speak freely."

Seemed she was more lucid too. She rose from her throne, the soft whine of servos within her armor following: she turned to slightly to one of the "statues" that adorned the chamber, seems they were not statues at all: instead, Lirka's rather hidden alien guard.

"San, salen Ebrath."

With a nod, the warrior moved towards one of the doors behind them and disappeared with the hiss of a blast door.

"Do you drink?"

How...frighteningly casual

Aerarii Tithe

 

[Aerarii Tithe]

Fortress Imperious

---

The armoured Sephi rose from her dread throne, cautioning Tithe against the usual pandering he laid on heavy when meeting with superiors. If there was one thing within the Sith Empire larger than their military might, it was the egos of the Sith Lords and Ladies. The governor offered a slight bow of the head as a sign of understanding and a request for forgiveness.

“I came with all haste to answer your summons,” Tithe explained. He was, however, not about to admit that he had no idea why his presence on Concordia had been requested. Did she need his assistance to draft another of her mandates for dealing with the Mandalorian slaves? Or did she need to secure further financing from the SIBC to complete her planned transformation of Moridinae?

The Grand Moff dismissed her hands, which was generally considered to be a bad sign. Moments later, however, she offered the bureaucrat a drink. Not exactly how he expected the meeting to go. “Most certainly, I’ll have, ah, whatever you are.” Assuming whatever she drank was not lethal to human physiology.

“Now, how may I be of service? Given the troubles in Sector Group II, I think it’s indubitable to assume that you’re instead seeking my financial consul?”

---

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

Glowing eyes fell upon Aerarii Tithe , she had gained a new respect for the man after the immense amount of screeching nonsense that had come in the wake of The Circle announcement. Reasoned voices had found a way into Lirka's cold dead heart, at least, a little bit. Letting loose a low and garbled chuckle the woman reached up to her helmet with the hiss of depressurization: finally, the beast showed her face for once in a rare moment.

She was much less ghastly than before, thankfully, but she was just as uncomfortable to look at as before: too perfect, the strange patches of dim color within her deathly pale skin, the vague outline of new tattoos being prepared to seemingly cover her entire face, or close to it. Without her helmet Lirka's horrendously thick alien accent was shown in full force, one of the few things tying her back to her upbringing in Thustra's nobility.

"Walk with me."

She now moved to follow after her silent guard, moving into the back Chambers of her Throne Room: most likely a breach of some protocol, whatever these rooms had been had now been hacked up and converted to her "living" chambers; a training arena and forge, with various arms and armor arranged around it, dominated it all. Not quite somewhere you expected a being to live.

"I do not require your consul, Tithe. But..."

She reached out, grabbing two glasses of some crimson liquid sloshing slightly within: she seemed to be mulling for a moment, how much of her plans would she decide to reveal?

"But. There will be a new influx of Legion and Armada assets returned to your warzones in the North, I would enjoy your support in keeping the more conservative leaders in Government "off my ass", as they so crassly say."

Lirka had said much worse in her day, but might as well seem all fancy and polite for the politician. She handed Aeraii one of the glasses, giving him a nod.

"Wine. From my homeworld, made when I was but a girl."

Might as well see if she could make him a little...looser. Tithe fascinated the woman, and she wanted to see just how useful he could be to her many plots and schemes for the Empire.

 

[Aerarii Tithe]

Fortress Imperious

---

Tithe followed Grand Moff Ka away from his abhorrent throne to what appeared to be her living quarters, which were a far cry for the ostentatious accommodate he kept on Orinackra. To each their own he figured - it was safe to say that the Sephi dedicated more of her time to ruling her domain and subjugating the Mandalorians than she did to interior design. Still, it was far from the worst he had seen - the bureaucrat shuttered as he recalled the near-torture dungeon which the Lords and Ladies of the Sith liked to call home.

Ka handed him a glass of wine, a vintage from her childhood, which is he was not mistaken was some time ago. She then made her wishes known - for the governors and viziers on Bastion to keep their prying eyes away from her.

“I think it’s safe to say that the central government’s gaze is well and truly drawn to the west,” Tithe replied. The path of devastation the New Imperials were carving toward Bastion, straight through the middle of Tithe’s own Sector Group II, was the subject of basically every bureaucratic and military meeting at the moment.

But was it more than this? He had heard that the Grand Moff enjoyed undertaken her own often unsanctioned.experiments and ‘beautification projects’ with the subjects and planets of her domain. Were her future plans again running counter to those of the Empire? Could they run in parallel to his own goals?

Tithe tasted the wine. While sweet on the nose, it had a tart mouthfeel. The near-immediate warming of his stomach spoke to its high alcohol content.

“But I could take additional steps to, ah, maintain the attention of the authorities from your interests. The last thing we need is unnecessary distractions.”

---

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

"Such a shame is it not? The machinations of the Sith, those foolish Cultist we have dubbed Master for so long have let the Jedi cancer go unmolested still."

The hate that bubbled from the word Jedi was something primal, grim, far different than her ravings in the field of battle and senseless dramatics in that same field. Someone had grown a bias, it seemed. But like a flipping coin, she returned to the cold and "friendly" demeanor she had kept, moving over to racks of weapons and armor. Looking over them with a love only a lunatic like Lirka could understand.

"I thank you, Aerarii Tithe ."

She reached a stranger piece, nothing quite like the gaudy pieces of warplate that were much closer to pieces of art than anything remotely functional, it was crude, brutish, a gruff parody of the armor worn by the Mandalorians: burned with blaster fire and battle damage. The amusement Lirka's face held starring at it was not hidden, not like any of the Imperials would know her criminal alter-ego had existed.

"Tell me, my friend. Are you prepared for if we lose?"

Was it treason to say such a thing? Maybe. But Lirka never really cared about such things, she was a grim woman, older than many within the Imperial fold, it had been her nihilistic, cynical, and most of all: prepared. But as she asked the question, Lirka reached a particularly flashy Electro-Hammer, plated in some sort of gold, her claws forged of dark metal ran gently across it's form, waiting for an answer to her question.

 

[Aerarii Tithe]

Fortress Imperious

---

The encounter had taken a dangerous turn.

And it wasn’t due to Lirka acting hospitable. The drinks, offer thanks, touring her private abode and being on a first-name basis was… unsettling. The bureaucrat almost wished for the Sephi to return to her crass and anger fuelled self - at least then he knew what he was dealing with.

No, this was something altogether different. Was this a Saaraishash trap, a test of his loyalty? Were agents of the Emperor standing by the burst through the door and abscond with Tithe to a hidden dungeon world for a torturous ‘re-education’? It certainly didn’t feel like a setup - even if she was complicit in the ruse, the mere act of Ka proposing a Sith defeat was a high crime in and of itself.

He looked to the towering governor. There were only two dozen Grand Moffs within the Sith Empire, the five of them claimed responsibility for all worlds under the Sith domain. There were few higher placed than her within the Emperor’s confidence. Did she truly believe that the Sith were at risk of losing power? Or more importantly, did she know that Tithe had long felt the same?

“I, ah, in my experience I found it fortuitous to be prepared for all eventualities,” he replied diplomatically. He needed to choose his words wisely, lest they be his last. “I’m assured that the New Imperials will be routed before they can take Bastion.” ‘Assured’ being the keyword, in that he did not fully subscribe to the assessment. Tithe’s role within the economic machine of the Empire was often misunderstood - he didn’t study credits, he studied the behaviours of people and the choices they made. And right now, the market forecast was not looking good.

---

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

Lirka turned to face him, half a snarl on her face.

"Do not be daft, boy."

And there was the Lirka everyone knew and "loved", but she was quick to return to her more calm demeanor: clearing her throat, before taking a long sip of her wine, she didn't hide her annoyance about the nativity of Aerarii Tithe ; these young morons. They were so blind to the truths of the Galaxy, the one truth: everything dies.

"My...apologies. I am old, very old: Empires have died, lived, and been reborn before my eyes countless times. We said they would never take Mygeeto, never claim your domain. Tithe. Foolhardy devotion will leave this Empire dead, and it's peoples little more than mewling children fighting over it's scraps. I will offer you a sliver of my wisdom, my friend. Prepare. Plans within plans, schemes within schemes: everyone you know, is but a tool to be used."

What a friendly mindset. Finally, the beastly woman reached out and grabbed the massive gold plated hammer. Easily she moved it with one hand, moving the weapon to Aeraii. A smirk had grown across her unnatural features now.

"And be gifted my Arts. Suffer not your foes."

Certainly an interesting choice in gifts.

 

[Aerarii Tithe]

Fortress Imperious

---

Tithe’s suspicions that this was a Saaraishash trap quickly faded. Ka’s words did not merely skate on the edge of heresy, they careened right over with little care for the consequences. While not a strictly anti-Sith sentiment, her observations about the death of the Empire would be cause for summary execution if they were made publicly.

He nodded slightly to the Grand Moff in a sign of agreement. As he had said, he too saw the value in planning for all future possibilities, including those which could be deemed traitorous.

Then the second to last things that he was expecting - after Ka airing that she saw the Empire’s days as limited - happened. The Sephi presented him with a gift.

Tithe graciously took to gold-plated electrohammer. “The, ah, workmanship is exquisite,” he observed. The bureaucrat had never been one to favour arms - he preferred to conduct his battles in the boardroom - but the skilled construction and unique aesthetic of the weapon could not be ignored. He gave the weapon an experimental swing, and was surprised to feel the weapon self-correct it’s trajectory. “Oh my, is that an AvXRD Ripper?” He was very familiar with the melee AI assistant, having used on Mygeeto. He activated the electro blade and swung the weapon again, the air crackling with deadly potential.

“And to what do I owe such an esteemed honour?” Tithe asked. He knew all too well that few things in this universe came for free.

---

Lirka Ka​

 

[Lirka Ka]

Lirka looked at him, with a mixture of annoyance and a well hidden smirk on those disgustingly perfect features: beauty was something so beyond this creature, and even now she had warped it's concepts into her own unnerving ends.

"It is of my own craft. Of course it is exquisite."

Seems someone took pride in their work. She kept one of her clawed gauntlets on the weapon's shaft still, those eyes, like two diamonds that pierced into the soul of a weak-willed man, tore him apart starred at Aerarii Tithe in the end, then Lirka allowed herself a grin: where one may have expected humanoid teeth, there was no such thing: it was like a mouth of razor blades, they seemed almost sharped. Sephi and their melodramatics.

"I provide where I can, Tithe."

Ah, the carefully worded question of "What did Lirka want". She liked this man, he was a man close to her own heart, though albeit so grossly tainted by the naivety that plagued this Galaxy. Maybe she needed to gather her allies and wanted-allies for a tour of Rhand, see the dark truths of their shared existence. One day, maybe.

"It is a reminder, I am a powerful ally-"

Her grasp on the weapon tightened, pulling Aeraii forward some: even in her more "meager" form, her strength was well beyond her peers. And whatever friendly facade she had been putting on disappeared for a brief moment once again.

"-And the last enemy you will ever have."

She put the man down now, that smug smile appearing across her lips once again. Yes. He would do nicely.