Just another day at the office...

[Darth Imperatus]

Melkaroth Tyrin, knight of the resurgent Sith Order and Admiral of the One Sith's fleet had carried out a wide variety of tasks in recent months, but police work had never yet been one of them. Still, routine missions were usually considered to be better than life-or-death skirmishes with Republic vessels.

An unidenitfied vessel had been deteced dropping out of hyperspace some distance outside the Coruscant system. Normally, word of this would never have reached him, but this case was a peculiar one: the vessel was the size of a military frigate.

With Coruscant occupied, resistance movements had sprung up left, right and center, and those movements needed weapons. With Coruscant so close to Republic space, and with the majority of the One Sith fleet occupied trying to defend the narrow strip of red-colored space in which it resided, a black market arms trade, most likely aided or possibly fully organized by the Republic had bloomed. Small vessels regularly slipped through the One Sith's nets to offload their illegal cargo to smaller transports, which would then fly directly to Coruscant. The cargo of one large freighter might be offloaded to a dozen unassuming shuttles at a predetermined location in deep space, making it almost impossible to intercept.

A frigate was extremely bad news: if it was facilitating some sort of clandestine trade of illegal goods then it could be carrying enough to keep a major resistance cell going for months; even if it wasn't, such a large rouge vessel so close to the One Sith capital had to be taken seriously. Melkaroth's ship, the Matador, had departed Coruscant immediately to intercept. The Dark Blade class Star Destroyer wasn't the fastest ship that could have been scrambled, but the presence of such a massive vessel would most likely scare away any shuttles hoping to receive the cargo. Granted, it would most likely also scare away the frigate itself, which Melkaroth didn't want: he wanted to find out how and why such a vessel had slipped into the One Sith's territory.

"We're closing on the vessel, my lord." said Arvol, the ship's captain.

"Prepare to engage tractor beams." said Melkaroth. "Order them to halt and prepare to be boarded."

@[member=Paega Anginous]

 

[Paige Argous]

[member="Melakoth Tyrin "]

Paega had heard rumors. Rumors that finally, a group of Sith had emerged victorious in claiming Republic planets. And not just any Republic planet. The very capital. Coruscant. She had no way of verifying the rumor as a fact. Ever since the old Sith Empire collapsed at Dromund Kaas, the blonde Sith Knight had traveled away to the Outer Rim planets, out of the Republic's reach.

She lived isolated for months, which gave her plenty of time to train by herself, and meditate. After a while however, Paega felt an urge to come back, to take part of what was happening the Galaxy. Thus she had sneaked onboard some frigate at a spaceport, one that was apparently headed towards Coruscant.

"Feth! Tractor beams!" someone yelled. Lots of yelling followed, and curious to find out what had caused the noise, Paega came out of the room full of cargo that she had been hiding in. No one aboard the ship to care really about the fact that a random person just showed up inside their ship. All crew members had decided to arm themselves with a blaster rifle. It seemed to her that the ship was about to be boarded. Leaning against the wall, Paega simply observed what was going on, unconcerned for the moment.

"Fire immediately when the door opens!" said the person who was apparently the leader of the group. It seemed that there would be a short skirmish. Paega planned to simply take off in an escape pod if fighting reached her. She was plenty close to Coruscant's orbit, after all.

 

[Darth Imperatus]

The doors of Melkaroth's meditation chamber swished open, to reveal the ship's captain. Arvol stood smartly to attention and remained that way for several seconds until Melkaroth rose to his feet. "Tractor beams engaged, my lord." he said. "We have them."

"Very well." said Melkaroth. "Bring us in to dock with the vessel and prepare boarding parties, captain. Inform your defense gunners to destroy any escape pods, life signs or no--if this ship is carrying military supplies, I don't want them lying around in deep space for anyone to find."

"Yes, my lord." with that, the captain exited, walking back onto the bridge and relaying his master's orders to the crew. Melkaroth returned once more to a kneeling position, his head bowed. He had noticed something just before he'd been interrupted by the captain...a tremor in the force. He tried once more to sense it, focusing his mind fully. There it was again--the hint of a presence. Who was on that ship?

_________________________

The massive Star destroyer glided slowly closer to the frigate, its tractor beams still holding the vessel firmly in place. A small tunnel extended out towards the frigate's main entrance hatch, magnetically locking itself onto the side of the hull. The breaching crew rushed forward through the new walkway, and set to work with their laser cutters while the rest of the boarding party stood ready, blasters pointed at the door. One of the breaching crew gave the door a solid kick and in fell inwards, free from the surrounding metal. As soon as the opening had been created, the stormtroopers rushed forwards. They were greeted immediately by a hail of blaster fire, and two troopers fell. The stormtroopers continued to rush forward as they returned fire. It was clear that the defenders were not professional soldiers, and many of them broke cover completely, unable to get a shot off before being hit. After the first few fell the rest were more cautions, but the stormtroopers continued to lay down a blanket of suppression fire, charging through the corridoor until they could get a clear shot at each of the outnumbered defenders. Within a minute, the corridor had been secured. The stormtroopers now split up, blasting open every side door and fanning out through the ship as even more of them continued to pour through the breach.

 

[Paige Argous]

@Melakoth Tyrin

It had been some considerable time since Paega had last heard the sound of blaster fire being exchanged. There was a loud 'thunk', probably of the boarding party entering the ship. The next very instant, blasters began firing away on both sides. The blonde Sith leaned over a corner to check what was going on. The crew of the frigate were being killed off by.. stormtroopers. Paega blinked in slight confusion. It became clear to her now that Sith indeed seemed to now be in control of Coruscant, this confirmed all those rumors.

She considered for a moment of simply walking out and using Force Push to send all those stormtroopers flying. That would be plenty of fun. Sure, the blonde Sith were usually on the same as stormtroopers. But at least for the moment, Paega was not affiliated with anyone, not even this Sith group. This gave her considerable freedom in her actions. Suddenly, she smirked to herself. She had gotten a better idea, this one involving the cargo of the frigate.

Within a few minutes, before stormtroopers reached where she was, Paega was done setting up. The blonde silently closed the lid of one of the cargo containers, before starting for the door. During the flight to Coruscant, Paega had checked to see what cargo the frigate was carrying. Along with a random assortment of grenades and blaster rifles, she had also discovered powerful explosives. During what little time she had before she was discovered, Paega had activated the explosives, and set up the explosives to explode in about two minutes. Paega was sure that this gave her plenty of time to make it onto the other ship.

"Catch me if you can, motherfethers!" the rogue Sith Knight yelled as she began sprinting towards the entrance in the corridor. There was about a minute left, and Paega was now running for the doors to the other ship after having slain about half a dozen stormtroopers. Using the Force, she propelled herself forward, dodging blaster fire to the best of her ability. Very soon, this frigate would be turned into space dust, along with everyone onboard, and hopefully Paega would have made it safely onboard the star destroyer.

 

[Darth Imperatus]

Melkaroth was interrupted once more as the blast went off, sending tremors through the Star Destroyer. Quickly rising to his feet, Melkaroth entered the bridge.

"Report!"

"The vessel has been destroyed, my lord!" replied the captain. "The blaster fire must have triggered an explosion."

"Did any of our men get out?"

"No, my lord, the explosion went off without warning." said the captain. Melkaroth could see the sadness written on his features, but Arvol remained professional as always.

"My lord!" yelled a crew member. "I've got reports coming in from deck thirteen--a female force user has boarded the ship! Several of our men have been killed."

"Jedi." snarled Melkaroth. "Captain, send reactionary teams; to lock down deck thirteen; nobody gets out. I'll see how well this Jedi fights an equal."

[member="Paega Anginous"]

 

[Paige Argous]

@Melakoth Tyrin

Paega could hear the very audible explosion as the explosives did their job within the frigate. She didn't have the time however to admire her work, as more and more troopers came to stop her advance. With the power of the Force and her crimson lightsaber, however, Paega wasn't quite concerned with the troopers.

"Is there no worthy opponent of mine on this ship?" she questioned as she used Force Push to throw a dozen stormtroopers against the wall, before decapitating another stormtrooper nearby.

The rogue Sith was eager to see who came to fight her. She decided that she would decide whether or not she wanted to join the group of Sith by judging her opponent's words and actions.

 

[Darth Imperatus]

"Pull your forces back, Lieutenant. Secure the exits to this deck and make sure nobody else got aboard. If there are any other intruders, I want them alive unless they're force-users. I'll deal with this one." without waiting for the officer's response, Melkaroth turned and strode calmly away.

The enemy force-user wasn't difficult to find: he merely had to follow the trail of destruction. Around him, squads of stormtroopers, most of them battered and understrength, rushed to escape from the unstoppable foe.

Within two minutes Melkaroth entered one of the ship's mess halls; a large, plain room packed with steel tables bolted to the steel floor. On the opposite side of the room stood the force-user, her crimson lightsaber activated.

A sith. Melkaroth's anger boiled over. The only thing worse than a Jedi was a traitorous Sith, and this one had the gall to board his ship and kill his men.

Melkaroth strode calmly forward, passing several dead and unconscious stormtroopers as he did so. Several were slumped up against the wall, and had clearly been thrown against it with a considerable amount of force. Clearly, this was a powerful opponent. Melkaroth could have demanded her surrender; the ship was locked down and within minutes they would be back in the Coruscant system where there would be little chance of escape. His anger, however, prohibited him from doing so. This Sith was a traitor to their order, and she had personally insulted him by intruding on his ship and slaughtering his troopers. He wanted to make her pay for that...personally.

He pulled out his saber, activating one of the two blades, ready to fight. The cyborg would have little chance of catching her if she tried to run, but if his opponent didn't know better than to turn her back on him, she would suffer the consequences.

[member="Paega Anginous"]

 

[Paige Argous]

@Melakoth Tyrin

When she had taken out last of the stormtroopers standing in her area, Paega discovered herself inside what she thought was the ship's mess hall. It seemed rest of the forces had retreated, and the rogue Sith guessed it was because there was a more powerful enemy approaching. Paega stood calmly with her lightsaber drawn, waiting for her opponent.

A man soon entered the room, and Paega could tell that he was a Force-user, and a trained one too. He seemed calm striding in, but Paega could tell he was not at all very happy. By the time that he activated his lightsaber, the blonde knew that she was facing another Sith. A sith against another sith, she thought with a smirk, just like how things had been back during her time in the Sith Empire.

"So the rumors were true." she said mostly to herself, both excited and fascinated at the fact that Sith had indeed managed to conquer Coruscant. "Well you look angry." Paega said calmly with a grin at the man.

 

[Darth Imperatus]

Melkaroth responded merely by bringing his hand out to his side and launching a horizontal slash aimed at his enemy's midriff, swinging with the full strength of his powerful cybernetic arm. Melkaroth was a man of few words, and when there was a fight to be had he didn't bother wasting his breath with the idle chit-chat which some Sith enjoyed. If the strike was blocked he would slide his blade up, using the momentum to bring his saber above his head and come down with an overhead strike. The first attack was merely meant to force his enemy to block and knock her off guard--the second was meant to kill.

[member="Paega Anginous"]

 

[Paige Argous]

@Melakoth Tyrin

Her opponent was clearly well-trained in lightsaber combat. Paega brought her lightsaber blade around, upon instinct, to block the slash towards her midriff. The rogue combatant observed the opponent quickly recover from the clash, before going onto a second attack that was an overhead strike. Instead of bothering to block the incoming overhead strike, which had provided her with the time needed to act, the blonde skipped quickly to her right side before propelling a Force Push using her free hand towards her opponent, aimed to send him flying.

 

[Darth Imperatus]

The attack took Melkaroth by surprise, and he didn't know what was coming until he felt himself being thrown through the air. He landed hard on his fleet, with the sound of metal hitting metal ringing out across the room. He had only flown a few meters, owing to his great weight; he might have been able to resist the attack entirely if he hadn't been caught off guard. He needed to be more wary of this enemy.

Infuriated, he reached out through the force, latching on to one of the heavy metal tables that filled the room. Lifting his arm and clenching his black gloved metal hand into a fist, he pulled the table from the floor, rewarded by the satisfying sound of tearing metal. He stood there for a moment, leaving the table floating in the air, then quick as a flash he hurled it at his enemy with all his savage strength and immediately began to stride back towards her, moving to exploit the opening he had created.

[member="Paega Anginous"]