Hunting The Eye

[Aela Talith]

[member="Ryan Korr"] | [member="Darth Isolda"] | [member="Soeht"]​

So this was it.

It was odd, really, she had never expected to be doing something like this. The Jedi order had always been something loosely in her life. Her mother, Kira Talith had been a Master within the Jedi Order for over a decade. She had visited temples, met Masters, even studied under some of their tutelage for most of her life. Yet she had never joined them. The reasons were her own, though in the end they could always be chalked up to her fathers opinion of the Jedi Order, his influence tainting the organization within her eyes.

Perhaps that was laughable now, considering Aela's own position, but it was still true.

It was amusing then, that Aela had been the one sent to the Jedi Temple to exchange data between the two Orders. It was nothing of note, routine really, but Aela had an odd feeling within her stomach. She didn't quite know what it was, never did. They were odd sensations, trembles that tore through the force, like someone had dropped a rock into a pond. The ripples came to her, but she could never tell their origin or why they began.

Yet she could feel them.

Now more than ever.

Something was about to happen, something big. She was unsure of what, but as she made her way through the temple, datadrive in hand she couldn't help but mull her situation, a frown on her face as she made her way into the council chamber.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

A window took up one side of the council chambers. Ryan Korr stood before it, posture rigid, hands clasped behind his back. The view on Chazwa could not rival the old chambers. A pale imitation of Coruscant, at best. For perhaps the millionth time, Korr was reminded of just how much the Order had lost. Sometimes, deep in thought, he would catch himself wandering the halls looking for the room of a thousand fountains. Until he remembered it no longer existed.

He closed his eyes. Tried to let go. Why was this so difficult? The others, they seemed to practically skip about. Did they have no sense of just how much the Order suffered? Did they not realize they were slowly being ground into oblivion, or else made irrelevant by...

Another presence entered the room, bright and clear.

Other Orders...

Slowly, Korr turned around. Eyes of iron and steel met a burnt-orange stare.

"Master Talith, I presume." A statement.

He bowed slightly. "I am Master Korr."

A routine information sharing program, newly established. Normal business, Korr supposed, but he couldn't help feeling that this small program was one of many that would slowly see the Jedi Order fade into obsolescence. Still, it was good to see that they were not the only ones in the fight. At least the Galactic Alliance had a spine. More than he could say for the Silver Sanctum.

"You have the data?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

"I do." Aela said, looking at the man as though he were an oddity. "Thank you for greeting me, Master Korr."

She had never met anyone on the Jedi Council, save for Corvus Raaf, and that had been ages ago. It seemed odd to her that this would be their first meeting, strange that the timing seemed to be so off. She frowned slightly, pulling up the datadrive and offering it to him.

That odd dark feeling still hung in the air, the strange overbearing thought.

She couldn't quite place it, identify it. The young Marshall felt as though something big was on the horizon, something that would be coming to them. Her eyes shut for half a second, her head growing slightly woozy as the force trickled into her. It was an odd rush, like the injection of a drug she had not quite been expecting. Her knees grew weak, and the blackness behind the lids of her eyes flashed with an astounding vision of butchery and death. Her eyes snapped open, a slight hiss of a breath pulling into her lungs.

Instinctively, Aela took a step back from the Jedi Master.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Impassive features looked back at Aela. Pale and smooth shaven, but marred by an old scar that ran just under the right eye. No laugh lines edged into these features, which might as well have been chiseled from granite for all their expressiveness. Whatever artisan fashioned this man made up for the lack of color with locks of hair that tumbled down, long and swept back. Red as blood.

In contrast, the woman before him had eyes like suns and hair of white-gold. If the Jedi were paragons of virtue, then her stern appearance mingled with such feminine elegance certainly fit the part. She seemed troubled though, if not in expression then in the slight hesitance in the Force.

"Of course Master Talith," Korr accepted the data drive. "I-"

[member="Aela Talith"] recoiled as if stung, a warding hiss issuing from her lips.

Polished cordiality left as the timbre of his Coruscanti voice turned stark and crisp.

"What's wrong."

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

She flinched slightly again, as though there was something coming from him that she was quite weary of.

"I'm sorry Master Korr." Her eyes were wary of him, her body language telling the same story. "There is...I..."

Aela trailed off for a moment. This was not something that she often shared with others, even among the Jedi. Few within the New Jedi Order knew of this particular gift and less knew exactly what it entailed. She was hesitant to share this bit of knowledge, but it seemed rather unfair not to tell him. "I am partially blessed with the gift of farsight, Master Korr. It does not come often, nor does it show me as much as it does others, but...there was something. A well of darkness. Like an overlapping wave of pure dread."

It had happened the moment she stepped too close to him, the moment she had handed him the drive.

She wondered what it had been, would he have insight as to it?

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

A well of darkness, could this be the storm within, my rage which can never be quelled? Inherited by my Vahla blood and forged in the crucible of bitter pain. But no, others might have sensed it before. The galaxy does not spin around my axis.

"Do you think it pertains to this data drive?" Korr glanced at the item in his hand. "The greatest Jedi who ever lived tried to avert the destiny he saw in his dreams. He became the very thing he swore to destroy. Can we ever avoid destiny?" The Jedi continued to stare at the drive in his palm, though it had long passed his interest. "I'm Vahla. Some say my people are bound to darkness. Should I consign myself to my fate, or do I struggle to the last gasp?" Ryan met her eyes. "Another great Jedi said the future is difficult to see. Always in motion."

He walked over to his council chair. The drive slid into one of the arms. "Let's see what black holes your data pulls us into."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

Aela nodded.

She actually had no idea what the datacard held upon it, she hadn't bothered looking. Intelligence gathering was not her strong suit, in fact it wasn't even anywhere near what she was good at. Most of the people within the New Jedi order referred to Aela as a hammer, the anvil being whatever building she was currently in and the piece of metal she was hitting being whomever her opponent was. The young Marshal was not a subtle creature, and she had neither the grace nor the technical ability to be a spy.

The datacard slipped into the holo-projector, and after a passcode was entered the projector immediately popped up with a display.

The images caught Aela by surprise, surprise and horror.

They were pictures of a ritual slaughter, or mass murder and death on a scale that reminded Aela of what she had seen so long ago on this missions with the Galactic Alliance. There were hundreds of bodies, each one mutilated in some way, cut up or broken, skin peeled or their faces contorted in pain, hatred, and despair. Aela's face paled, her hand covering her mouth. The images shifted, showing more of the slaughter, more of the death, and then finally a single woman.

The Eye of the Dark Lord.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Bile rose in his throat. The images raked his mind, tugging at emotions he thought he'd buried long ago, until the grave digger herself appeared before him. A face he recognized all too well. Her face a ghostly pallor, with hair darker than a raven's feathers and two pinpricks of silver for eyes. She seemed to stare directly at him.

Watching.

Waiting.

Ryan recoiled into his seat, lips twisting into a reviling sneer. Anger blew through the doldrums of his heart, a hot wind, herald of an an approaching storm. The Jedi Master's fingers wrapped tightly around the armrests until the knuckles bled white.

Between clenched teeth he spat out a single name. "Isolda."

How many Jedi had been tortured at her hand? How many turned by that temptress' wiles? Quinn had said the witch was still alive. Ryan had hoped she'd been wrong. Another forlorn wish, burnt to cinders by the atrocities laid out before him.

Eyes like granite turned toward [member="Aela Talith"]. "Do you know what that woman is. What she's done." His voice was flat. Empty. "I swore I'd kill her. It seems she survived Prakith. Are these recent?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Ryan Korr"]

Aela had an idea of whom Isolda was, though only due to her title.

"The Eye of the Dark Lord." Aela commented slowly, not wanting to be wrong or to offend Ryan by her lack of knowledge. "She is the closest of the One Sith to the Dark Lord, stands directly beneath him and in in essence his regent."

She spoke like a text book. "These photos are recent, last week I believe."

There was still a tinge of horror in her voice, shock. Aela had only ever seen slaughter like this once before, and it had nearly made her sick. She remembered seeing those bodies, the smell of them, it made her want to puke just thinking about it. She was a Marshal of the New Jedi Order, but no one should have to see that, no one should have to go through that. This woman, whoever she was, whatever she was, deserved to pay for the crimes she had committed.

"Do you know where she is?" Her lips thinned.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Last week. All this time while they had been playing politics and quelling internal feuds, the Dark Lord's own Eye had been out there, committing slaughter with wild abandon. Korr felt sick. He swallowed hard, traces of guilt running through him. I should have ended this long ago.

A strange connection bound him and Isolda to some fate he could not yet see. It was more than just a thirst to meet out vengeance for what she'd done to Quinn. This ran deep in the blood. Korr knew the answer, but he wasn't willing to accept such a destiny.

"No. Her location remains unknown. We know as much as you. Perhaps a bit more. I was there during the counter-strike of Prakith. I witnessed the forces she could command in the seat of her power. The chamber of the Eye collapsed. I thought her dead, buried beneath the rubble. Years later I'd heard rumor, but I failed to investigate."

These deaths. He could have stopped them, could have stopped her. If only he had listened to Quinn.

"This needs to end." He eyed the shifting images. "We can analyze the commonalities in victims and places of death. Perhaps form a pattern to predict her next move."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Soeht]

Some time ago, on a planet far away...

They were pictures of a ritual slaughter, or mass murder and death on a tremendous scale. There were hundreds of bodies, each one mutilated in some way, cut up or broken, skin peeled or their faces contorted in pain, hatred, and despair.

Soeht silently watched the hologram. An armored female stood next to him - manning the controls of the holoprojector.

The holovideo suddenly ended.

"That's it," said Sonolka in a monotone, who was the woman next to Soeht.

"This was delivered, correct?" asked Soeht - which he got a nod in affirmation from Sonolka.

Soeht then stood up and began to leave the chamber he was in. He opened the door to leave before his partner interrupted him.

"What's next?" asked Sonolka.

After a short pause, Soeht answered, "I've made arrangements for [member="Darth Tuk'ata"] to raid Cato Nemoidia. Maybe the right people will hear of it."
___________________________

Eventually, a plea for help from Cato Nemoidia would go out to the Jedi - especially to ones such as [member="Ryan Korr"] and [member="Aela Talith"]. The Sith attack.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Soeht"] | [member="Ryan Korr"]

"We will stop it." Aela said stepping forward.

It was a declaration of intent, one that would show Ryan, and anyone else who would eventually join them, that Aela meant for this to happen. She didn't like the slaughter of innocents, no Jedi did of course, but this...this was something on a different scale. The woman who conducted these massacres had to be punished, she would need to be brought to justice and account for the things she had done, Aela and Ryan would see to it that she would.

"You go through the data." Aela said. "I'll see what resources I can pull."

Aela could only agree with Ryan, and eventually the two began to form a small cadre of Jedi from both Orders. The information they collected from the data was helpful in predicting Isolda's movements, and the attack on Cato Neimoidia was predicted before it ever actually happened. There was a bit of luck involved in that, but Aela hardly cared, both Ryan and She had done work enough on this missions to not care about a little good luck, especially when it was in their favor.

"She's there." Aela said to Ryan, standing over a large holo-map of Cato Neimoidia aboard the Slith-Class Frigate that Aela had taken from the Alliance Military. "Or someone whose connected to her is."

The ship that they were traveling on was not a heavy warship, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead it was a fast strike frigate, meant to quickly go in, hit the target hard, then get out. That suited their operation just fine, especially given that they didn't quite yet know what they would face. If it really was Isolda...well then they would have the arms to take her out, if it wasn't, then they would be able to secure the area. Either way the single Frigate should be enough, and if it wasn't then they would return with more reinforcements later.

Shifting slightly Aela pointed to the map. "There, this bridge City is the one under attack."

That's where they were headed.

 

[Darth Tuk'ata]

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Ryan Korr"]

A stack of smoke reached up into the sky. It originated from a fire on one of the bridge cities of Cato Nemoidia. A One Sith gunship flew over several buildings - gunning down the city’s security.

Riding on the gunship was Darth Tuk’ata, a Sith Knight of the One Sith. Twin to the late [member="Darth Nephthys"], yet not the more recognized of the two.

“A frigate is descending on the city, Lord Sith,” reported a soldier in the gunship, “We need to leave.”

Darth Tuk’ata’s right hand hovered over his lightsaber before he answered, “We can’t leave now. Not until we destroy the palace.”

Or else their mission to scare Cato Nemoidia into submitting itself to the One Sith would be pointless.

“Full speed ahead,” commanded Darth Tuk’ata.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

From above, the cities of Cato Neimoidia looked odd. Thin ribbons of metal, stone and glass, strung between enormous rock formations that jutted from the planet. Their quarry was easy enough to find. When searching for Sith, one needs only look for the destruction left in their wake.

Korr grit his teeth as he spotted the black smoke issuing from the city. A roiling cloud, billowing out into the air as if to wave a flag proclaiming the presence of the Sith. More than that, Korr could also feel an aura below them, familiar in the way one might remember a passing face. But it was not Isolda.

Furrowing his brow, Ryan looked to the targeting display. A gunship had appeared on the readout. Hostile.

"Take out its engines. Bring that ship down. "

The pilot, seated in the VT command throne, nodded once and willed it so. The ship responded to his thoughts, linked as one. Korr's frown darkened to a scowl. Such invention smacked of the Vong. Old scars itched at the thought of them and what other chairs they employed.

The attack frigate's heavy long-range ion cannons shuddered, dispensing a pair of blue bolts that hissed through the air toward the gunship.

[member="Darth Tuk'ata"] | [member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Soeht"] | [member="Darth Isolda"]