Dominion Run to the Hills | NIO Dominion of Baltizaar Hex

[Zef Halo]

OBJ II

Zef Halo, grumpy ol' scoundrel, had no idea why a scumbag like himself was invited to this clearly top secret and galaxy-impacting meeting of the Trade Federation capitalists. Decades ago he would've realized that he could sell the information provided here to infochants across the galaxy for a hefty sum of credits but now? Now all that took his attention was the free drinks and free food. Maybe bingo, too.

The meeting started great - they weren't really talking that much, thus not irritating the old smuggler; yet, as time passed the dialogue became extremely heavy and full of terminology that sounded virgin to Zef Halo.

Observing these unfortunate proceedings, Zef realizes that he may have to use his firearm to deliver his comfort from harm.

Zef has seventeen cartridges to expend (sixteen residing in the pistol’s magazine, with a solitary round placed in the chamber and ready to be fired) on the ceiling, and he uses many of them. Afterward, he shares the credit for neutralizing the situation with no one but himself, as it is clear that Zef did all of the difficult work.

"Y'all gonna keep bitchin' and bickerin' or y'all gonna go and actually do stuff?" idiots. He went back to digging into his Jell-O.

Gat Tambor Lucien Dooku Lunafreya Solidor Agrippa The Hutt etc etc

 

[Jaeger Harrsk]

OBJ I By the Sword

Dr. Rurik's blade surprised him and went straight through his chest.

"o

k"

And then he died.

--

Somewhere far, far away from here, a clone opened its eyes for the first time and saw the label on its vat - Therran Graush 2: Electric Boogaloo. This would not be the last time the New Imperials see of Therran Graush.

Rurik Fel Dorian Sicarrio

 

[Rurik Fel]

// PARABOL ACTUAL //: Imperial Knight Commander
// OBJECTIVE //: By The Sword
// FOCUS //: Dorian Sicarrio | Jaeger Harrsk
// IMPERIAL KNIGHTS //: Errant Varanin | Lambert Vasari | Mavia
Armor | Lightsaber | The Vane | Pistol | Grenades

P A R A B O L

And so that was it. Another pitiful life dedicated to the malfeasance of the dark snuffed out by a blade of vengeance, by the will of order. Rurik pulled the blade from Therran's chest as he felt the man's flesh sear and burn around the plasmatic silver before he turned to Dorian. That was only one slain, in spite of the severing of the snake's head there were still many of these foul cultists which needed to be put to the sword.

"You did well, Knight. All the same....all the same there are more. We musn't leave this place to be reclaimed by these foul parasites. We must end them all. They are beings of chaos and disorder made manifest. We will snuff them out." Rurik said, the mouth piece of his metallic visage barely moving with each word as his eyes peered coldly to the knight. He was a frigid man before he peered into The Twilight but now...he was greatly divergent. An 'offness' enveloped his form, his behavior. Though he still continued his crusade unfettered, even if his injuries sustained, injuries none had ever looked upon directly inhibited him from his full previous combat ability, confining the use of his lightsaber to his right arm, projecting his strength into each harsh strike.

Continuing back down the corridor, the cobalt eyes of a Bando Gora cultist met his own before they were filled with the fear of finality in that final moment as he cleaved his silver blade through his collar bone and into his abdomen. Another. Ended.

"If the seeds of chaos are left to grow in the darkest corners, it will bring about our undoing. We must take the work into our own hands, Sicarrio." Wymar stated sternly.

 

[Dorian Sicarrio]

Rurik Fel Jaeger Harrsk​

Again, Dorian had come so close to the killing blow, but the cultist slipped away again, leaving only a bit of cloth. Teleportation? He'd never seen that done before. Unless... no. There was no one faster than Dorian. There were people who were stronger, maybe, but no one faster.

Rurik's comment made the knight pause and roll his eyes. "Dude, it's a reference. I'm not scared," he said defensively. Maybe he should've been. Dorian's gaze locked onto the hooded cultist at the top of the citadel. He could tell that their opponent was trying to do something. Dorian began to draw breath in preparation to end the ok-psycho's reign of terror, but instead he found his lungs constricting instead of expanding. There was a supernatural pressure on his heart that threatened to crush it.

Dorian was forced to one knee as he desperately pushed back against the crushing force on his organs. He knew the basics of Force resistance and telekinesis, but it was immediately clear to him that he wouldn't last long against the cultist's attack. The sudden pain made it difficult to concentrate, and without absolute focus he'd soon die...

Until the pressure was suddenly gone. Dorian coughed and groaned, glancing up at the now-lifeless body of the cultist impaled on Rurik's blade. The knight pushed himself to his feet again. If Dorian had been alone, he would've lost -- that realization made him marginally more grateful for the Knight Commander's presence. Compared to Dorian, the metal man seemed to be completely unaffected by the Bando Gora leader's attack. Testament to the guy's endurance.

Perseverance seemed to be the name of the game with Wymar, like many Imperial Knights. If they had a job to do, they'd work until it was done. Dorian missed the flair of the arena at times. Rurik's talk about seeds and chaos and darkness, though, actually interested Dorian. In terms of personality, metalhead didn't have much, but Dorian had realized that he really had no idea what was up with the guy. Why he did things, what his philosophy was...

"People can change," he said absentmindedly, before realizing that he'd actually voiced the thought. Was that an actual ethical opinion? He looked over at the Knight Commander and advanced behind him. Righteous murder and cleansing wasn't his cup of tea. He couldn't tell if it was better than killing for show. "Guess that's just your opinion. I'm here, I'm working, but I don't entirely get your deal with crushing the enemy and whatnot. Wars are never really 'righteous', man. I'll fight, I'll kill, and that's life. Trying to justify it like that is just weird. No offense."

 

[Rurik Fel]

// PARABOL ACTUAL //: Imperial Knight Commander
// OBJECTIVE //: By The Sword
// FOCUS //: Dorian Sicarrio | Jaeger Harrsk
// IMPERIAL KNIGHTS //: Errant Varanin | Lambert Vasari | Mavia
Armor | Lightsaber | The Vane | Pistol | Grenades

P A R A B O L

He couldn't slight Dorian for his perspective. It was a human one...but all the same, humans were flawed. He nodded once in acknowledgement to it before surging forward as the ethereal scream of another Bando Gora cultist shrieked out before Rurik put an end to that one with a silver streak of the blade to sever its neck and snuff out the life of another warrior before him.

"People do change...just as you have. You were aimless before you swore to the Codex, before you became a Knight of the Empire. I changed as well...I was once a Jedi, I owed my allegiance to the Grayson Imperium, the pact of Silver and before then I was born in the purple of aristocracy. I was destined for a life of comfort and luxury within the Sith Empire...but I answered the call of the light instead. Where I was expected to be inducted as a Sith, I rebelled and I became a Jedi...but the Jedi espouse false virtue. We wage this war, this war onto the darkness...and where are they?" While he'd fought alongside them in the larger engagements the New Imperial Order had involved themselves in with the Sith Empire even still the Silver Jedi Order lay dormant in the shadow of darkness.

"Light casts a shadow, Dorian. I saw that shadow at Mirial. There is so absolute truth in the dark nor the light but where the Jedi espouse a faux virtue...the Sith, the darkness are wholly insidious in their ambition. Power, greed, passion. There is no truth in the false dogma of the light, nor is there truth in the wallowing blackness of the dark. There is discipline, through discipline you will be free. Not from anything else." The Imperial Knight says, invoking his core value.

 

[Dorian Sicarrio]

Rurik Fel​

"Through discipline you will be free," he repeated under his breath. The ideas just seemed antithetical. He'd said the words and joined up with the Imperial Knights in search of some kind of discipline and purpose, but he believed that he'd left his freedom behind. Pushing the boundaries of what was allowed to him was really the only way he knew to express himself among the Force Corps. Still, he'd decided to pursue it. Just like Rurik, his mother had been a Jedi, and for a time before that an Imperial Knight. Something had drawn her to that life. She'd found something important, just as Dorian needed to. He was changing, but the path was uncertain.

All he had control over was himself. That was what it meant to have discipline, wasn't it? Light, dark, whatnot, and everyone was somewhere in between. Some people might 'espouse' false values or even outright evil ones. Still, it was all subjective. And it was up to him to choose where he wanted to be. He'd chosen to join the New Imperial Order to stop being aimless and find purpose. As it stood, he seemed to have made the right choice.

Dorian grunted. "All this light and darkness talk hurts my head. People are different. People talk a big game and can't back it up. Deal with it or something." As he glanced around the citadel, the battle seemed to have begun to slow. Rurik was still slashed and hacked his way through a few more cultists, but Dorian had decided to slow down, take a walk. He was sure metal man wouldn't mind a bit of light conversation.

Or... maybe it'd be heavy conversation.

"Mirial... is that when you found Mavia?" He had a hunch. Of course, Mavia didn't exactly gush about her familial relationships or past, but Dorian had a certain talent for sniffing out tragic backstories. He reeked of it.

 

[Hunter Blackburn]

Objective: Operation Burrito
Location: Baltizaar | Residential district
DK-03

The rubble began to shake, the air grew thick with the must of sheer testosterone, as the presence of Adrial became known. His home, his abode, his belongings all ruined! Ruined by a fucking burrito! The furnace within Adrial’s heart came alight, it burned brighter than the primary of Thrysus.

With a flex the rubble exploded outwards and standing in its wake was the Thyrsian warrior, his body a testament to the gods of swoll. Each muscle bulged, the veins appeared as though they formed canyons upon Adrial’s ebony flesh. Eyes completely white the man walked up behind the darktrooper that was attempting to flee.

A large palm rested on the shoulder of the darktrooper before pulling on it to turn them around. Other fist rising to the sky Adrial brought it down to hammer on top of the troopers head and drive them into and through the floor.

 

[Rurik Fel]

// PARABOL ACTUAL //: Imperial Knight Commander
// OBJECTIVE //: By The Sword
// FOCUS //: Dorian Sicarrio
Armor | Lightsaber | The Vane | Pistol | Grenades

P A R A B O L

"It was...I was a Jedi among the Silver Order then, we went out to attack the Sith and the masters gathered to invoke a Wall of Light to purge the darkness. It worked...but in its wake thousands of innocents were blinded in its light, Mavia being one of them. It was a bewildering action to me...as a Jedi. It was hardly ever what they did...but what they claim, the virtue in it. It was delusional." Rurik said outright. He continued pacing through the halls of the Citadel with heavy steps. The madness had long crescendo'd and now the combined force of the Imperial Knights and the Auxilia had burst through and conquered the defenses.

"But such it is...people are delusional in their beliefs. The light...the darkness, more often than not it goes full circle long enough to become the same. There is only the grey. To see yourself manifest in the dark or light...foolish. You see it now, the Sith Empire and Silver Jedi Order falter...it is those in between that prosper." Rurik stated.

 

[Dorian Sicarrio]

Rurik Fel​

Dorian, for once, found himself truly listening to someone else talk. It was a terrifying prospect. Still, he nodded to the Knight Commander as he spoke. Dorian found it to be a realistic and compelling perspective. Nobody was perfect, nobody could be completely good or evil or dark or light. Trying to define things in black and white terms was a pretty dumb way to do things. Dorian wasn't a 'good guy', but he didn't see himself as evil either. Maybe he'd just spent so much of his life avoiding both the Jedi and the Sith to think about the darkness and the light.

Yet he couldn't help but think of his mother again. She'd believed in the good in people, in the light, in aspiring to be greater. Was it right to toss away those kinds of ideals so quickly? Shouldn't everyone aspire to be better? Dorian joined the Force Corps in search of purpose, to feel good about what he was doing and feel like he'd actually achieved something in life. Instead he was just doing what he was good at -- fighting. Killing. That wasn't much better.

He didn't discount the good things, though. As Rurik had said, Dorian had changed. Finding such dedicated and skilled people around him had brought him further than he could've hoped. Sure, he still grated on Zovesa's nerves and chafed at the rules, but he did respect these people. In some cases, maybe he even cared about them.

"Anybody who goes on and on about darkness and light is probably a psycho," he joked. "So what, you're telling me you don't have any beliefs of your own? What makes you think you're not delusional to everyone else? I mean, of course I don't think that. I just think you need a hobby or something."

 

[DK-03]

Objective: Operation Burrito
Location: Baltizaar | Residential district

DK-03, covered in Palprotein, looked up amid the rubble.

This didn't quite go as plann-

A hammer of a fist slammed against his helm, driving DK-03 through the floor.

OW.

What was tha-

The burrito, lodged in the residential building, began to shake.

"Mama."

The floor collapsed as people ran for their lives, evacuating the building, the giant metal burrito caving in on the building and the Darktrooper.