In the Company of Ruin

[Atom Smasher]

​

The aftermath of Dubrillion left the taste of rust in Sato's mouth. Leaning against a house blown out of bricks and dust, civilians left slaughtered in the wake of the Rebel alliance's hypocrisy, the Sith Acolyte released a burst of laughter which shattered the silence and caused her comrade to turn around in rage. Holding her electro-staff over her shoulder, she bared her teeth and smiled a wicked smile as the other Sith pressed a finger to his lips.

"Shut up!" The male Acolyte hissed beneath his breath, gesturing for her to be quiet as he scouted the other side of the street.

The Imperial forces had not deployed Sato to fight in the main conflict, instead testing her abilities, and her loyalty, by assigning her and other Acolytes the task of rooting out any remaining Rebel operatives. The latter was still to be questioned. Playing with the end of her pigtail, the teenage assassin stared right into the eyes of her fellow Sith and walked around the side of the burnt out house.

Hearing footsteps from behind her, she looked over her shoulder to see the other Acolyte running in her direction and flailing his hands up and down, probably demanding her to stay put. The dumb kark couldn't just tell her. Grimacing, Sato continued to walk around the house, where she found the back door and rattled the lock, which would not budge. She slammed a foot down on the wood, bashing the door inward and onto the floor inside.

"You need to stay at your assigned post!" The other Sith demanded in a hushed voice. Ignoring him, Sato walked inside and kept her back planted on the wall, eyeing each corner for any signs of Rebel scouts.

"The Rebels are gonna see us if we're standing out in the streets all showy-like." Shrugging, Sato slid across the walls and looked around corners, gently pushing open doorways and peering through the ajar spaces. "We're better off looking in their hidey-holes." She said as she opened the door to the lounge room, where she saw a flayed, dead woman laid across the coffee table.

"I said get outside!" The other Acolyte continued to bark orders at Sato, all though he was the same rank as her. Like her, he didn't even have a lightsaber.

Sato was having none of it. Spinning around at a breakneck speed, she thrust her electro-staff towards him, which was caught by his training saber. As he pulled the blade upwards, Sato's staff slid across the length of the weapon and slashed his cheek. He brought his down and towards her side, which she deflected with the other end of her staff. As she pulled back the blade and spun the ends around, he made for another slash, but was not quick enough.

The end of Sato's electro-staff cut through his mid-section like a knife to a fresh piece of meat. Blood spilled out of his mouth as he clutched his side and fell lifeless on the floor. Sighing, she attached the weapon onto it's strap and jolted suddenly, having heard the sound of footsteps approaching from the front of the house.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"I thought I heard voices," he called back over his shoulder to the others as they fanned out through the wreckage to search for survivors. Those on Dubrillion who were not joined with the combat ready unit were presumed either dead, taken prisoner, or missing in action; and the task of searching them out fell to the mercenary groups who were hired on for the initial combat. Since the Dark Lord intended to keep them on the payroll, he decided to give them another task to get his money's worth, and he believed the risk to be minimal enough here to prevent any excess hazard pay. "I'm going to check it out."

"Confirmed," another voice shot back, "but be quick about it, and keep your gun up."

"Yeah, yeah," Alkor murmured to himself as he flipped on his light and swept the area with his rifle. He was paranoid that some disgruntled Rebel survivor might jump out at him from any one of the myriad corners as he pressed forward, but to his relief, it never actually happened. Years of having Force Senses suddenly stripped away made the whole ordeal that much more rife with anxiety. Fortunately, he did have his HUD, and he picked up on the faint sounds of movement in a room only several feet away. He pushed the door slightly open just in time to witness a young girl with an electrostaff impaling someone dressed in similar garb lethally.

"Hey!" he shouted, but his helmet toned it into a monotonous, near calm sound that distorted his feelings on the matter. He was a void in the Force, a being who by all rights did not exist in the fabric of a Forceful galaxy. Despite that, here he was, armed and swinging the door open. "You, you're Sith Imperial, aren't you?" he asked, not convinced that the girl wasn't a traitor. "What's going on here?"

He pointed the muzzle of his weapon toward the fresh corpse. "Unless I'm way off base, you're not supposed to be killing your own. What was his offense?" Alkor still remembered the laws of the Empire, and how murder- except in very specific circumstances- was disallowed within the ranks of the Legions and the Sith alike. He doubted that some girl who didn't even have her own lightsaber met any of those criteria.

"Centaris!" the voice came from outside, "you're burning daylight. We've got ground to cover and only a few hours left to do it."

"Coming!" he shouted back. "You're coming with me," Alkor told her. "We're searching for survivors. I'm bringing you in under that order."

"We've got a report of Rebel elements still alive in the area," the other voice called again. "We're being diverted to deal with that!"

​"Roger," Alkor muttered. "Alright, I'm bringing you in after we deal with the Rebels, but you're still explaining this situation to me while we walk."

[member="Sato Ryuu"]

 

[Atom Smasher]

The sound of footsteps crushing debris echoed from around the corner. Sato's eyes narrowed as she planted her back against the wall. Peering around the other side of the wall, her gaze fell over the armored figure of a Mandalorian working under a contract to the Sith. No gasp fell from Sato's breath, she simply stood in the center of the small corridor and wiped the blood off her electro-staff with a smirk.

"Hey yourself." She stated nonchalantly, running the end of the blade over her black robes. When the man asked if she was a Sith, Sato simply stared him down with deep, dark eyes. "That's right, now get out of my way." She demanded and fastened her electro-staff onto her back. When she tried to walk past him, the Mandalorian stopped her, only to inquire about the situation.

"I was searching inside of this house for any remaining rebels, he kept ordering me to stay outside." Shrugging, she pointed to the dead Acolyte. "He was holding me back from doing my job, so I stabbed him." She spoke in a dead and monotonous tone, clicking her tongue with a slight raise of her eyebrow as she openly admitted her crime. Looking down with contempt at the Mandalorian armor, she glared with contempt, still boiling with rage from her treatment at the hands of a mercenary.

"I thought Sith were supposed to kill other Sith if they got in the way." Screwing up her features, she expressed her disappointment to the Mandalorian's revelation of the laws. "Aw man, it's not like on Nar Shaddaa." Huffing, she followed the Mandalorian out of the house with a reluctant sulk. As he spoke into his comm-link, Sato pulled her feet towards the door and walked into the street behind him.

"Search for survivors!?" The chaotic young Acolyte cried, disappointment dripping off her tone. "That's not what Sith are supposed to do." She slumped beside the soldier and moaned while they walked through the street. "Sith are supposed to kill people." Sato continued to sulk.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"You kill enough of your allies and eventually you won't have any left, ad'ika." Alkor knew from experience that Sith understood the value of resources, and that they would never squander them so indiscriminately. Was this girl some kind of initiate, without a Master to teach her the ways of their kind? It seemed likely that she was not apprenticed by her attitude.

"This is still a war-zone," he reminded her as they moved through the neighborhood with no intention of concealing themselves. Other Mandalorians and various Bounty Hunters, Mercenaries, and paramilitary assets kept their weapons at the ready as they kicked in doors, barked orders, and led a trail of survivors out into the open. "We have enough problems on our hands without fighting each other, so if you keep that point of view, you're going to find the rest of them happy to oblige you."

He waved a hand to indicate all of the heavily armed individuals.

"Radio ahead and let the Imperials know I've found one of theirs among the refugees," he told another man, who gave a stiff salute in response. When he turned back to [member="Sato Ryuu"], he lowered his vocabulator to the point where only she could hear it. "I'm leaving out certain details of the report. Don't make me regret it."

He began walking again abruptly, headed toward one of the myriad closed doors that lined the avenue. There were many places a Rebel Force could hide, but these men had all day to search. They would find what they were looking for.