Sith Empire: Gand Adventure (My Apprentices, and any Sith that are interested)

[Ashin Varanin]

Parliament Hall

The aid was useful, and needed, but terribly disconcerting. To Ashin's perceptions, it was not unlike being Spencer's glove. Once more the Sith Lord was reminded that, in certain highly specialized fields, prodigies like Bastila Shan and Spencer Jacobs could achieve things she simply couldn't. She felt much like she imagined Darth Bane had felt when he learned his apprentice could use Sith Magic, when he himself could not.

Spencer's influence translated Ashin's efforts into terms the Gand mind could better understand. And Ashin's efforts were deceptively simple. The deference and acknowledgement which Gand gave to their leaders and hierarchies began to be applied to the leadership of the planet's new rulers. They wouldn't like it, but they would understand it on a gut level, or whatever passed for guts among Gand.

"They'll defer to us," she said softly. "To you and me, and to all of us. That's a lot of responsibility, Spencer."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Responsibility…defer to us….you and me

Spencer repeated what Ashin spoke to her; she didn’t understand why they would defer to her. Ashin was the commander and she was merely here to do a job for the woman. Spencer had not put into perspective on what was going with the parliament. They were calm and accepting of what was happening, but the rest of the planet. Spencer did her best to shut off those receptors as she continued to feed the Gand what Ashin wanted them to hear. If she could, Spencer would have wanted to try and take control of the entire planet this way, show them that there was no harm and the liberation of their planet from the dictator was something good.

More and more threads burrowed into Ashin’s connection feeding it the power and finesse it needed to pierce the Gand mind. Spencer still being unable to separate herself from those she was connecting too, Ashin got a more in depth understanding of Spencer’s background. Memories of her parents in the forest of Dathomir performing the ritual to will the force into a living being, other than the Masters of the Order – Ashin was the only one to know of how the blonde padawan entered this world and why the force manipulation came quite easy to her.

Ashin…why must we be responsible for them…why can’t we let them rebuild their own government and live in peace? Are we the only ones who can provide it for them?

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin staggered under the impact of the revelation, but tried to keep her presence of mind as she continued to weave the Force.

Of course we could -- and they would tear themselves apart. You and I can both sense that they need leaders, structure, hierarchy. They've spent centuries bowing to dictators. We can give them what they expect...but we'll do it better.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer understood, she had seen the past through their eyes. She wanted to create something new for the Gand, she could feel their suffering and it hurt her. The last thing she wanted was for people to suffer in this galaxy, she had to make a change and the Gand were going to be a stepping stone for that change.

I understand, I want to provide them with a secure leadership and you're right we're perfect for the job...I want them to not suffer anymore. Its all I feel from them, from the entire population -- they're scared and they suffer...I don't want anyone to suffer anymore...

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Suffering is part of mortality, Spencer. All we can do is mitigate it. And the fear will pass once it becomes clear that we're giving them freedom. Not perfect freedom, of course. They want leadership, strong leadership. So all we have to do is show them that we only use force against the forceful. Their Dictator, for example. And that awareness will only come in time. This world will have no more purity squads, no more political officers, none of the trappings they associate with their Dictator. We'll leave orbital defense forces in place, and let those ships serve as a warning against further violence. And rather than tax them, we'll employ them -- offer all manner of jobs and opportunities. The Empire has a place for the Gand.

 

[Allyson Locke]

The Empire. That was right, she was here with the Empire. A surge of guilt washed over her as she remembered her place in the order. Though she wondered why the Jedi weren't here, why wasn't the republic saving this planet. She started to doubt her loyalties with the Republic, but she couldn't focus on them her mind was directly attached to the Gand as well as Ashin. Refocusing her mind to continue to press Ashin's message into their minds she nodded showing her understanding.

Suffering is part of mortality? Hate creates suffering which is a part of the dark side...does that mean that everything leads to the dark side? The what is the light...what are the Jedi?

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Suffering isn't part of the Dark Side, it's part of everything. Jedi self-discipline only helps you grow because it's painful, uncomfortable, awkward. Suffering is inevitable. Dark and Light are how you respond to it -- and what you're willing to do to make it go away. But I think you've learned today that it's not quite so easy to categorize reality into one or the other. You did the right thing, but some Jedi would call it Dark. Was it?

 

[Allyson Locke]

No, I don't think it as dark. I prevented this world from destruction. Though I did it by force and control...I'm good though...I saved them.

Spencer continued to search for something that justified what she had just done with the Jedi Code, every time though the fact that she had taken control of something's mind.

I don't regret it...despite my violation of the code...in the end I changed the galaxy.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Like I told you when I found you, Spencer...there was a time when I was a Jedi, and when the Code was enough to prepare me to make the differences that needed to be made. Then I grew out of it. The Code still has value, but some things just need to be done -- and if you and I are among the few that can actually do them, we have a moral duty to at least try.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Team B
Anaya's eyes widened in surprise as the gand avoided her saber, realisation dawning on her than this was not going to be as easy as she planned it to be. catching her returning saber she tried to bat away his barrage of blaster bolt, but the effort of holding him and doing so was to much and one slipped through searing her shoulder. She let out a shout of pain, releasing the gand from her grip as well as one of her sabers.

Pain pulsed across her shoulder and arm and she retreated a step as she blocked his remaining fire. Pain was not her enemy, pain was her friend, pain was all she knew. The crack of a whip across her back, the strike of a backhand for her disobedience. Pain made her and so she drew on her pain and on her fury. Her hand stretched out, summoning her saber back to it and she ran at the Gand, her speed increased through the force.

Feet from him she jumped, slicing her saber towards his head as she moved over him and spiining on her feet as she landed to slice both sabers across his back, before force pushing him away from her.
A quick glance around told her they were well matched, and quite possibly outnumbered. Hurry up Ashin she urged, before giving herself over completely to the darkness in the force and allowing it to control her attacks and defence as she threw herself into the approaching gand.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Group C

The fortress shivered with explosions as Sith breached the walls and engaged the Dictator's elite guards. Among tight-packed outbuildings, a huge old Whiphid fought, his crimson lightsabre a blur. He had opted against a skinsuit, preferring an actual hardshell space suit -- not bulky enough to be power armor, but more than enough to keep the corrosive atmosphere at bay. He was, at this point, surrounded, a beacon for enemy attention to ensure that subtler operatives could breach the more central walls and barriers. A stentorian roar, projected by the suit's vocoder, attracted many, many Gand.

For the moment, the old lor pelek could hold them off. Red lightning flickered from his great three-clawed hand in sparks and snaps, cracking carapaces and bursting insectoid eyes. A circle of Gand soldiers surrounded him, their weapons either ranged or capable of blocking his lightsabre. He had switched the weapon to its second phase, narrowing the blade and doubling its length, in order to trade finesse for distance. They would swarm him eventually.

For the moment, he was knee-deep in dead Gand and loving it.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Team C

Tossing aside his overheated empty weapon, Daxton drew his side arm and blasted a Gand defender from the balcony above. The Sith Knight and his team had breached the palace's front entrance and were encountering heavily armed entrenched defenders. Dodging behind a wall as return fire headed his way, a Sith commando crouched in the cover behind him.

"Sir, we have the oxygen tanks you wanted." Pointing at the four long metal tubes filled with oxygen that his team had lugged with them.

Reaching out to the Force, Daxton grabbed the tanks effortlessly and said, "Keep your heads down, when these blow we charge them, understood?"

Force pushing the oxygen tanks through the air, he sent them spiraling like missiles to the defenders position before peeking out of the corner and blasting them with his fire arm. The resulting explosion threw shrapnel into the atmosphere along with poisonous oxygen, which burned the lungs of any Gand within range and forced them to choke on their own blood.

Charging into the foyer, they encountered no further opposition as his teams began the mop execution of any Gands still breathing. As soon as the Foyer was secured, they would spread out and begin a room to room search for the Gand dictator.

 

[Sven Talith]

Group C
While the other Sith assaulted the front of the fortress and forged a path through the Gand elite guard Sven was doing something entirely in character, he was sneaking. Quietly and quite effectively Sven moved through the fortress, quickly and almost entirely unnoticed he bounded over wall after wall and room after room. Slowly he tapped the blaster on his hip, and then he turned and slipped into the throne room. His eyes opened wide for a few seconds as he realized where he was.

“Well...at least this isn't grand or anything.” Sven said to himself as he passed a gold statue of what he assumed was the Gand dictator. The Throne itself was covered in jewels and ornately carved, it reminded him of Moridin's throne...although that was decidedly less gaudy. The Emperors son moved towards one of the walls, and slowly be placed his ear against it. He began to knock against the wall with the hilt of a knife, attempting to find a hollow area.

Finnally he found one, and he grinned. Sven looked around searching for a trigger mechanism, with a shrug he stepped up to the nearest statue. He began to poke and prod at it, pulling on the statues arms stabbing its eyes and doing anything else he could think of. Finally after some time he pulled on one of the Gand's toes. To his surprise the wall next to him opened up.

The Dreadlord's son grinned, and then stepped into the secret passageway, dictators were too easy.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Team C

Kicking down a door, Daxton was greeted by a sight of cowering Gand slaves and household help. "We surrender." They wailed piteously for their lives as the rest of the Sith squad secured the room. This was third room they breached, the defenders seeing the tides of battle going against them either fled or surrendered and hoped for leniency. Whether they lived or died did not matter to Daxton. That was for the reprocessing camps to determine, but he would accept their surrender if it meant being able to secure the palace more quickly.

Picking on with the most gaudy robes he said, "Take me to your leader." Giving the Gand a choice to either betray his master or die horribly at the hands of the Sith Knight. Obviously he made the smart choice and gestured that he would take them to where the dictator was holed up.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Group C

Velok got his back to a wall and took the momentary opportunity. A storm of red lightning fountained from his free hand, slashing a line across the oncoming Gand. In the resulting pause, he filled his lungs and roared, setting his feet. The Force Bellow ripped out from his mouth, the shockwave spurred and amplified by the focus that was so inherently linked with the deep-gut breath controls of an old martial artist. The hemispherical wave ripped up the ground, and threw Gand into and through buckling walls. An outbuilding tilted and shuddered.

The armored old Whiphid switched his lightsabre back to its normal phase and waded into the broken survivors. A Gand fell to pieces around his blade as he marched into the core of the citadel. There were others at work, homing in on a certain location; he would follow them as best he was able.

 

[Soeht]

It seemed that Kulsso was eventually able to break out of @[member="Anaya Fen"]'s Force choke. Upon landing on his feet, the Gand looked up to see Anaya leaping toward him. He brought his vibrosword up to block Anaya's first attack at his head. Then, he leaned forward and swung the blade back to prevent the lightsabers from cutting into his back due to her second attack. He was barely able to keep both of Anaya's blades from piercing his exoskeleton.

When Kulsso was pushed forward by Anaya's Force pushed, he tumbled forward with a coordinated yet rough roll. When he faced Anaya during this feat, which would have meant that he was upside down, the Gand quickly aimed and fired several shots at the Sith Knight. At the end of the roll, Kulsso got on his feet in a kneeling stance - ready for Anaya's next attack.

As one battle raged, the other fight nearby began to get dicey. When @[member="Darren Shaw"] threw his lightsaber, the Janwuine was quick to disengage Darth Apparatus. Using his shockpod staff, seemingly impervious to lightsabers, the giant Gand swatted away Darren's lightsaber. It still returned to the Dark Jedi, yet the Gand escaped harm and ignored Darren's taunt.

Seeing an opportunity to attack, Darth Apparatus swung his lightsaber forward in order to slice the Janwuine. Yet, the giant proved to be deceptively fast for his size. Once again, the Janwuine's shockpod staff met Darth Apparatus's lightsaber. Then, with a lightning fast strike, the Janwuine punched the Sith Lord in the face.

A loud crack echoed through the air. Darth Apparatus stumbled back as he covered his face with his left hand - still holding his lit lightsaber with his right. The Janwuine took this lull to assume a defensive stance as he crouched slightly and gripped his staff with both arms. The damage the Darth took did not seem to be much as he quickly recovered his footing. However, constant hissing could be heard originating from the Darth's crimson mask. Others would have been able to see a fracture running down the middle of his mask through the gap of his fingers. The noise coming from his helm was the oxygen gas within rushing out. In due time, Darth Apparatus would have been without breathable air.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Team C

Daxton followed his Gand guide deeper into the palace until they reached a large door to which it pointed at. Dismissing the Gand, who quickly fled from the scene, the Sith Knight reached out to the Force and sensed the presence of multiple individuals as well as surprising pair of energy signatures.

Forcing the doors open, he smiled as he greeted the sight of a cluster of Gand, all bearing firearms and a pair of humans wearing the roles of his hated foe, the Jedi. Beneath his silvery mask he smiled as he saw who the human Jedi was, although he made no move to reach for his own weapon.

"Leave him to us." The Jedi said to the Gand. The Gand nodded and said, "Fine, looks like we will have to take the long way."

When the aliens left, Daxton said, "It has been awhile Jedi Master Tolliver. I see you have a new apprentice. Did you tell her what you did to the last one you had?"

"Do I know you?" The Jedi Master replied as he and his padawan drew their swords and prepared for his attack.

Shaking his head as if in disappointment, Daxton said, "I'm cut to the core. Master Tolliver, am I that easy to forget? Well I guess you wouldn't recognize this blade then."

Activating his blue lightsaber, awareness flooded the Master's eyes as he recognized the Sith standing before him. "That blade is belongs to Kitana Sunstrider. That means you're Bane."

"I will tell you this, Master Tolliver. She fought well, although she cried like a baby when I ripped her soul out of her body. She is watching us this very moment. I would give me great pleasure to let her watch as I cut down her friend and lover."

"Bane you bastard!" The Master screamed as he launched an attack that Daxton easily parried into his apprentice's blade, kicking the apprentice in the jaw before delivering a series of probing attacks against the Jedi Master.

 

[Garza]

Darrens blade returned to his hand. He felt the hilt slam into the gauntlet with a satisfying thwak. Darren took advantage of the Giant attacking the Sith master. he circled around to be at the back of the beast. Darren had however used his faters blade with the force. to hover just above the head It was not ingnited however. When Darren lept forwards to strike at the thing he would make the Giant turn around to face him. Using his body as the diversion Darren would activate the blade straight into the giants head.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Team C

"Open doors. Open doors are a good sign."

Perhaps three hundred pounds of armored Whiphid tromped into the sanctum sanctorum as a Jedi Master took a swing at Daxton Bane. Velok paid the conflict no mind. Instead, he quite sensibly circled around. He did so by inscribing a rectangle in a nearby wall, then putting his shoulder against said wall. Instant door. He turned left in the close confines of the imperial bathroom, then repeated the process to break into a large corridor full of statuary.

At the far end, a group of armed Gand -- the fleeing dictator's guards -- opened up with automatic weapons. The old Whiphid dive-rolled behind a gigantic bronze urn. The bronze deformed and splashed under the onslaught. He was pinned down, spattered by liquid bronze -- not a promising situation. Warm fluid trickled down his back; his nephrostomy tube had ripped free. Growling viciously to himself, the crouching Dark Lord put his hands together and began to conjure a Force Wraith, a construct of energy given some semblance of will. Constructs were a specialty of his, but he had never tried to weave one this quickly. He opted for simplicity, for the sake of time, and watched as a spiderlike form of crackling red energy took shape on the floor beside him.

As he hunkered down beneath the diminishing cover of the urn, the Force Wraith scuttled out, zigzagging down the hall. Insectoid screams erupted as it slashed into the formation, each leg a blade. The blasterfire faltered. Velok hiked up his robes and replaced the tube in the hole that led to his kidney, then rose and charged. Red lightning fountained from his free hand.

 

[Sven Talith]

Team C
While the other Sith were unsubtly making their way towards the Gand dictator fighting through the remaining enemy forces Sven simply sneaked past all of them. He moved like a snake, hiding against walls and using a personal cloaking device to reach the very end of the secret passageway without at all being noticed. Apparently Gand were incredibly unreliable when it came to such things as Sven managed to get all the way to the Dictator.

The man...or alien stood alone, the last of his guards sent to fight the rampaging Sith. Sven watched him for a few seconds, and then unwound another cords from his wrist. The Assassin looped the cord in a knot, and then stepped behind the man. Then with a simple flick of his wrist and a press of a button Sven uncloaked.

He appeared just as the det-cord wrapped itself around the Dictators neck. At the same time Sven kicked the mans legs out from beneath him, choking him with the thick cord and letting it wrap tighter around his throat. The assassin grinned as the man almost immediately surrendered, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The Dreadlord's son simply smiled and pulled his Westar-34, placing it at the base of the mans skull and fingering the detonator for the det-cord to take the mans head off. Sven grinned, and then spoke “Lets wait for my friends shall we? I'm sure theyll be here soon.”