Sting

[Darth Prazutis]

In Orbit, Outskirts of Junction

It was on the outskirts of the trade world that [member="Kenara Dray"] found herself, amidst a group of smugglers that were the last link in one massive chain. Years of dedicated, hard work went into establishing a complex smuggling ring that managed to worm its way like the links of a chain through Sith Space and straight to the industrial powerhouse of the Kol Huro System, where countless billions worked to death in slave labor cities. It was a rather complex ring that worked to get prisoners out with each doing its part, the next never truly knowing what the last was doing. In fact many of the links didn't know what they were smuggling just that it was dangerous, and that it paid good money. Only a rare few in these links knew what was going on, the scope of it. It was the first and only smuggling chain to worm its way through the harsh imperial security.

A small task force of about twelve frigate sized ships and three cruisers, a small fleet sat in the outskirts of Junction a neutral world just on the outskirts of Sith space. This force was led by a Cragmoloid by the name of Arlum, a rather infamous smuggler who ran his own ring in years past, and was the first to crack the security of the Old Sith Empire and run a rather lucrative ring through their space. Arlum had always been pro democracy, pro liberty since the deaths of his family. H was the originator of this new ring that was able to smuggle inmates right out from the industrial cities and liberate them. It was on the bridge of the cruiser Dauntless that he stood alongside the hired Zeltron dark jedi who had been working with them for some time now.

"We've taken extra precautions for this latest bunch, words come down that there's a high value inmate aboard they were able to evacuate. Triple the credits for the HVI alone, a Jedi." The nine foot tall Cragmoloid said, resting on a rather long metal railing that ran around the center of the bridge, it seemed to groan beneath his weight. "We all get paid a hefty sum for hauling out this bunch." Arlum said, just as he finished an alert flashed across one of the monitors and there was a resounding alert from one of the crewman, a ship had exited hyperspace, a blockade runner. The ship was cleared and brought close until a docking tube was finally attached.

Video from the hangar flashed on one of the screens as the security team stood ready to receive the new arrivals, just as they always had. Out from the tube came twenty seven inmates all wearing various dull rags that crews along the way had managed to secure for them, with the lead man clearly being the HVI as one of the crewman brought out a device that could read his force sensitivity. Quite suddenly however the seemingly worn men struck out with lightning fast reflexes, and deadly precision. They all shifted shape and a black armor enveloped them, it too being polymorphic in nature they drew hidden weapons while others began cracking open supply crates.

Iron Wolves.

These were an elite force of Gurlanin clones, a force so secretive it wasn't known beyond legend. A force of legendary Mandalorian commandos that served House Zambrano and its two lords alone. As clones of the Undying they butchered the security team with such swiftness, such ferocity they weren't even able to get so much as a shot off. Out from the ramp came what can only be described as a storm, a beating heart of darkness, an ocean of dark side energy so strong it could be felt rocking through the walls of the ship. Even on the monitors the man was massive, eclipsing eight feet tall in dark armor. He effortlessly smashed a soldier into a pulpy mass through but a single application of the force.

Quite suddenly a massive alert rang out "Captain were caught in a gravity well, the fleets trapped. We have dozens of signatures exiting hyperspace." One of the crew bellowed. Quite suddenly a rather large fleet exited hyperspace surrounding the smugglers on three sides, but that wasn't the eye grabber. A massive ship over six miles from bow to stern exited hyperspace its entire hull sleek, black and it was filled with row after row of deadly weaponry. A arsenal not in the dozens but the high hundreds surely. A massive green beam erupted from the bow and scythed one of the cruisers straight in half, completely bisecting the ship.

It was a trap.

 

[Kenara Dray]

Hello, darkness, my old friend.​

I've come to talk with you again​

Because a vision softly creeping,​

Left its seeds while I was sleeping.​

​

And the vision that was planted in my brain​

Still remains​

Within the sound of silence.​

It was supposed to be simple.

Get in.

Make contact and get their hands just a little dirty.

Get out.

Her glittering fuschia orbs stared out of delicate features that left everyone around her guessing as to her thoughts. Slender arms were crossed over her chest, and she remained silent as the bridge around herself and Arlum was abuzz with activity. Kena had worked with him long enough to read the tension in his massive shoulders; simple though it was supposed to be, he had his reservations.

An HVI. A Jedi…

She freed one hand to pinch the bridge of her nose and suppressed the sigh that threatened to emerge past her lips. It was almost too good to be true, and she’d told Arlum as much. There was just no damn way an actual Jedi would be anywhere within their group’s reach. The Sith would never just let a valuable chip like that slip through their fingers, unless it was deliberate. But there was no talking the Cragmoloid out of the run.

Kena’s gut didn’t like the odds, and her Force sense liked it even less. But there was a metric chit ton of money on the line and even she couldn’t deny that it would be a welcome windfall. Might even be enough to get her Core-side to continue the search for her twin. That thought led her on a tangent that she allowed herself to entertain in an effort to reduce the slowly coiling tension along her spine. She hadn’t seen her sister in almost twenty years, but she had little doubt she lived.

She would have known, otherwise, and spared several dark moments to mentally curse her whore of a mother one more time.

There was a flash of something arcing through her senses that forced her to inhale sharply, her mind snapping back to the present. Gaze turned to the monitor Arlum was staring at while the blockade runner discharged the inmates they’d contracted to rescue. She stepped closer, edging around the massive Cragmoloid in her way, eyes narrowing as she focused on the tall figure in the lead.

Something wasn’t right, and even as she opened her mouth to speak the Force twisted and snapped in her mind. The sense of foreboding had shifted into full on alarm that was soon echoed by every alarm on the bridge screaming in unison as the hidden fleet materialized around them. Kena breathed deeply and paid no attention to the rising panic around her, mind utterly arrested by the pure void that stalked through the hangar bay.

It was a sight to behold and it took her just a little too long to manage to tear her gaze away from the monitor. “Arlum, split the crew. Send the evac orders. This is a code black and you know it.” She had to shout to get his attention over the volume that the panic had reached around them while she’d been oblivious.

“Where in the Maw do you think you’re going, Kena?” he shouted back, watching her lithe form stalk through the bridge towards the turbolift.

“I’m going to go do what I do best.” She purred as the door began to whoosh closed after she stepped inside, her smile the least Jedi like expression that had every graced her mouth. Fingers reached up to fluff her ebon locks and she winked before the door finally closed.

A handful of moments more saw the lift reach the level of the hangar bay, the heels of her boots providing an unhurried sound as she sauntered her way toward the main doors. There were crew people panicking and running for their lives, while she just walked, her hands clasped together at the small of her back, light glinting off the worn black leather the clung to her form. One hand freed itself to gesture and open the doors with a flick of a wrist, returning to the small of her back.

The carnage was, in a word, impressive. What was left of a crewman she’d spoken to not an hour prior landed at her feet with a splat, and she barely broke stride as she stepped over him and into the hangar. Fuschia orbs sought out the source of the power that was battering at the edges of her senses, clawing as it sought purchase against her mental shields. It was almost overwhelming and the darkness she’d long held tight rein on within herself fought against her normally durasteel-clad control.

That…wasn’t good.

Well…it really depended on which definition of good one was working towards, and hers had always been questionable at best.

Almost of their own accord, her hands came away from her back and rested on her hips as she stopped and simply stared, a single brow lofted. “Well…you’ve certainly made an entrance…not a bad one, either, honestly. Don’t suppose you’d like to tell me who you are?” she purred quietly, adding a thread of the Force to ensure he heard her.

And a thread of pheromones just because she shouldn't.