Private &nbsp; The Crystal Defection

Ova Ziss's rental ship speeds back towards Dantooine using the hyperdrive route. He crunched his teeth. He felt freshly angry from his confrontation with Admiral Marlen Sularen at the political function on Bastion. Marlen Sularen, a person whom Ova perceived to be a terrible character, a genocider, had shown up uninvited - merely to throw shade at the entire affair. Ova scoffed into the air, thinking about what Marlen's alternative might be, if he opened his yap to explain it. Ova doubted that Marlen even had the concepts of an idea of a possible thought of a plan, for Myto's Arrow and the Tingel Arm.

Ova was carrying some of that prior anger from confronting Sularen as he headed towards his meeting with

Antipater , together with a new bodyguard,

Ma'lur'kek'thwin .

It wasn't that Ova was "better" - far from it. Ova had squeaked through most of his life through trial and error, and he had made plenty of terrible mistakes. But Ova knew, at the very least, that he had enough belief in the so-called light side of the force to not blow up planets. Now that he thought of it, That should've been how they introduced him at the party, Ova scoffed. "Marlen Sularen: this guy blows up planets". Ova chuckled as he imagined the HoloNews prefixing every single story about Sularen with, "Admiral Sularen, the guy who blows up planets, said today that---".

Ova smirked. Maybe he'd pay a few HoloNews outlets to write some slander about Sularen, the same way that the Galatic Alliance libeled Darth Sirius.

Now, Ova was delivering two million dollars of crystals to...? Someone? Ova didn't know the name or identity of the mad warlord who was purchasing these kyber and dantari crystals, but he was coming here in-person.

Ova's bodyguard, [

Ma'lur'kek'thwin ], was following behind in their own ship. The bodyguard was a tough, lizard-like woman, with a literally rough exterior. They would meet and set the ground rules, and then the purchaser - finally identified as

Antipater - would be grounding down with that.

All that Ova knew about the customer was that he/ she / it, was a droid. A droid from Jaemus.

Ova had never been to Jaemus: he had never had a particularly good reason to come to Jaemus. It had a reputation as...well, as something of an un-democratic planet. Every time the mineral baron looked at the productivity numbers from Jaemus's factories, versus his own, he was floored. Looking at pictures of Jaemus's large city over HoloNet, all of those statistics made sense. The planet appeared cleaner and more sterile than a surgeon's blade. Ova couldn't imagine living under that kind of oppression. As awful as piracy was on Dantooine, thank the Force that piracy was the least of the planet's problems.

Ova flipped on the transmitter as he began to near the atmosphere of Dantooine.

[TRANSMITTER - ON]
This is Ova Ziss, callsign Kathhound, to UMB25. We are bearing East to Dantooine from Entralla. Report callsign and bearings. You have the K.C and D.C on board, correct?
[TRANSMITTER - OFF]

The response came quickly.

Callsign UMB 25, this is Grenz, we are bearing North and East towards the Dantooine Enclave Docking Hangar. K.C. and D.C. inbound.

[TRANSMITTER - ON]
Excellent. UMB25, meet me at the Docking Hangar. Kathhound out.
[TRANSMITTER - OFF]

[...]

Image Credits: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Dantooine was once a beautiful planet full of forests, prairies, rolling hills, and gentle coasts. Nowadays, much of that beauty had faded due to multiple Sith, Mandalorian, and Jedi campaigns. The Jedi Enclave, recently reclaimed from pirates in a magnificent battle, remained in a state of reconstruction. Funny enough, the Sith hadn't utterly obliterated Dantooine's hangar bays, because they knew they would need to refuel and re-arm themselves. Therefore, the docking bay was intact, and Ova landed his rented ship into it quickly. He resolved that he wouldn't be leaving Dantooine for some time after this little excursion.

Ova's hired muscle

Ma'lur'kek'thwin would be the next ship to arrive. Ova would wait until she arrived at the docking bay, and then he would meet her. He would be wearing his tan-colored governor's cloak along with a blue tie and a blue overshirt.

"You've made it! - Governor Ova Ziss." Ziss shook hands with the female bodyguard, whose name was Ma'lu...Ma...uhhhhh....well, it was too much of a mouthful for him to pronounce, so he eventually just settled on the first part, Ma'lur. "Ma'lur. Very good - I trust that you received the details of the job? Two million credits, potentially deadly, all of that fun?" He smiled at her, speaking in jest. It wasn't his first time hiring a bodyguard. Bodyguards like his son-in-law were composed of at least 15% stale comedy, just like Ova.

"The pay will be forty thousand credits: two percent of the deal. I trust that will be enough danger pay?"

[...]

"Look alive", Ova tells his bodyguard

Ma'lur'kek'thwin as he pointed into the skies.

Another ship, which could only be that of

Antipater , was beginning to land.

Ova gestures Ma'lur closer, and he mutters to her in a low voice as the ship finalizes its landing. A few soldiers stream out of the craft, but Ova is nonplussed. It was common for dignitaries to bring their guards with them and it didn't necessarily mean a fight was brewing. "I don't know much about this droid, but we did a credit check, and he's involved with Sith war-making. He knows people who've made war on our planet - but I'm not ready to do guilt by association. Jaemus is on the political maps as an independent system.

Antipater would be the last one to arrive off of the ship. When the ship landed and docked, Ova Ziss would be there at the landing to greet Antipater.

Ova felt surreal as he walked up to greet Antipater, as if it weren't really happening. He was accompanied by both

Ma'lur'kek'thwin and also his bodyguard and son in law, Grenz. He walked with a certain amount of confidence, but inside, he was sweating bullets. Ova was also accompanied by a small squadron of four Diarchy TAB droids.

"We meet at last", Ova said to Antipater. He offers the droid a handshake, which felt kind of weird, as typically droids would be the ones shaking his hand. "And my son, Grenz." Grenz, dressed in his Mandalorian armor, would offer a handshake, and Ova hoped that Ma'Lur offered a handshake too. Ova stares at Antipater for a moment, and you detect a fraction of a glimmer in his eye. Ova gestures towards the large rental freighter behind him, where all of the kyber crystals were located. "And this, is your shipment."

Ova's employee Grenz, and a few UTA employees, stood ready to load the kybers into Antipater's ship - but they hadn't done it just yet.

It was time to get all of his questions answered.

"As you can imagine, I have more than a few questions about your purchase. The foremost being - and I pray that this is a fair question - why?" Ova looks the droid up and down: Ova was definitely expecting a sentient being, and it showed. "What use would you have for -my- kyber crystals, in particular?" He spoke dismissively, but also with genuine curiosity. "I have a million reasons not to give you any kyber crystals. Most people would never have gone through the trouble to have this meeting at all. But I came out. I came out, because I was curious about your answer to that question. 'Why'."

Antipater · Sunday at 9:57 AM

It was a nondescript freighter that ended up landing - a standard-issue Excursor. The loading ramp descended, and the first to disembark were a handful of battle droids, led by a single stormtrooper commander. They stood to either side, waiting, while Moff Antipater disembarked.

The droid had a rigid, perfectly mechanical gait - every step a precise and uniform measurement. He wore the sharp uniform of an Imperial official which had apparently been pressed and cleaned with great care.

He paused at the end of the ramp and let the welcoming party come to him. Oh, but there were a lot of them… Ova Ziss himself, a Mandalorian, and some manner of lizard. Antipater silently shook each offered hand before returning them behind his back. His inscrutable faceplate focused on Ova as he talked. Eventually he answered:

“It is my intent to utilize these crystals to kill the Emperor, Kaigann Fossk, who you know as Darth Solipsis and others know as the Sith’ari.”

Treachery - flatly and indifferently recited. Antipater might as well have been admitting to stealing plums for all the enthusiasm he mustered.

“As for why you: they are not being sold elsewhere.” The droid moff tilted his head slightly to one side, continuing to study Dantooine’s governor. “Are you satisfied?”

Ma'lur'kek'thwin · Sunday at 3:38 PM

LOCATION⠀\|	Docking bay, Dantooine
OBJECTIVE⠀\|	Bodyguarding

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀When the President of the United Trade Authority had made an arrangement to have a small-time Ssi-ruu thug his secondary bodyguard on a highly suspect trade of some kind- crystals she would come to find out, sooner than expected- Ma'lur could not have been more perplexed. Did someone who had the green light on her data drop pass on her info to the President's people, and choose to make employ rather than sell her data to the Law (whichever variant of it the UTA chose to broker with)? She chuffed at the navigation screen aboard her own ship, stowing away her curiosity as she trailed in the wake of the President's rental through atmosphere.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀It didn't take long for her to arrive on his heels, donned in a sleek black bodyglove, a thick leather vest over it, and a belt of pouches which anchored around the base of her tail. Pleasantries exchanged with her employer, the joke of two million credits nearly took her out at the knees. "I thought it wa-" A much more deft hand at leading conversation, Ova's words cut in to illuminate the joke, and the Ssi-ruu chuckled politely, nodding to his summation of their deal. Forty thousand was no small chunk of change, and it'd go a long way if she kept her head about it.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Then the droid arrived. Antipater, the contract summary had said. More pleasantries- as was the way of deals like this- and when it came time for her to shake the droid's hand she did so readily. No reason to be the thorn in what was ostensibly a bog standard trade. Especially when Ova made it known that the contents weren't just any sort of crystal, but kyber. For the time being, seeing the conversation merely stood to be a tense one, and not one that required either her or Grenz' sort of finesse, Ma'lur lingered in the President's shadow. If she held any thoughts about the droid's casual confession of an assassination plot, the Ssi-ruu's features gave nothing of note away.

Ova Ziss ,

Antipater

|⠀TAGS

Ova Ziss · Sunday at 5:19 PM

Objective: Sale of Kyber Crystals
Location: Dantooine Landing Pad
Tags:

"You're going to kill the Sith'Ari?", Ova asked breathlessly. He turned to Ma'lur and Grenz while crossing his arms, as if to say what in hyperspace is this droid thinking?! Grenz just shrugged, equally breathless and without a response. Then, Ova turned back to Antipater, who was stone-faced. "Let me clarify, 'cause maybe I have too much wax in my ear: you are going to neutralize Darth Sollipsis?"

Ova couldn't help but chuckle.

But the droid's expression didn't change. If it was a joke, it was a bad one.

This had to be some kind of prank, or jest, or...

No. It's not a joke. Look at his face. He is serious.

"No. I'm not satisfied at all. Now, I have even more questions than I do before."

Grenz chuckled in the background. Ova silenced him with his own icy stare. Grenz went quiet. Really, really quiet.

"I'll tell you, I have every intention to give you your crystals", Ova continued, stroking his goatee with contemplation. "I don't like the Sith either. They've destroyed Dantooine with their poor leadership." Ova ground his teeth, thinking of Admiral Sularen. "Darth Sollipsis - correctly me if I'm wrong - is he not the Emperor?" He turned to Ma'lur quizzically. "That is the Emperor, right? Or have I gotten a bad case of space sickness?"

Ova took a slight step forward towards Antipater - not a sign of hostility, but a subtle sign perhaps of Ova tying to understand the droid better: trying to 'meet the droid in the middle' with his non-verbal behavior. Ova was stuck right in the middle, indeed. The droid's intentions, in Ova's mind, sounded absolutely genocidal, but the flood of 2 million credits into Dantooine could change the planet forever. Hearing the droid's intentions, though, made him want to take the Universal Mining Barge right back around and take all the kybers back to Peragus II. Dantooine is - and has always been - a tiny planet, even with the Jedi Enclave's historic role during the Old Wars. If the Emperor came back to Dantooine one more time, they would annihilate the planet. Ova was sure of it.

"And how, pray tell, do these crystals fit into your plan? What---what IS your plan, exactly?"

Antipater · Sunday at 10:25 PM

"Let me clarify, 'cause maybe I have too much wax in my ear: you are going to neutralize Darth Sollipsis?"

“No. ‘Neutralize’ would imply the possibility of non-lethal pacification,” Antipater clarified shortly as Ova Ziss gave his nervous chuckle, “I intend to have the Emperor conveyed directly to whatever pagan afterlife he believes awaits him.”

Antipater was not well-acquainted with the finer details of Sith religion. Whether they turned into restless spirits or were chucked into oblivion or entered a spectral fugue state for a few decades before unceremoniously returning to life was outside the scope of his present concerns.

His present concerns being to convince the governor of Dantooine to hand over the crystals. The ones he had already paid for. In full.

The droid-moff did not retreat or even react to Ova edging closer. He answered again in his harsh, synthetic monotone. “Enough has been divulged as it stands, governor. Suffice to say that the best remedy for a Sith Lord is a number of Force Sensitives - ones who are properly equipped and trained. These crystals will assist me in seeing to the former.”

Ova Ziss · Sunday at 11:26 PM

Objective: Sale of Kyber Crystals
Location: Dantooine Landing Pad
Tags:

"You could hire some Mandalorians, you know. They're pretty good at killing force sensitives, too."

Ova smiled, but Antipater's cold look didn't falter. Tough crowd, tough crowd. Or perhaps a faulty personality matrix. Ova sighed, leaning his head back a bit. He simply wasn't willing to let those credits go. And if the droid was going to wipe out a bunch of SIth, it wasn't Ova's business.

"Fine. I can't legally stop you from doing whatever you intend to do with these kyber crystals. They are your crystals now."

Ova whistled loudly, and gestured at the engineers to bring out the crystals. Engineers clad in yellow and orange jumpsuits walk down UMB35's landing ramp, with two metal boxes in tow. They gently placing two metal boxes near

Antipater . One contained kyber crystals; the other, Dantari crystals. Ova clicks the boxes open, allowing Antipater to examine the merchandise, or even to simply walk off with his purchase.

"I have only one request." Ova brought his hands to his lips, pursing them and hoping he won't eat his words later.

"When you make the attempt on the Emperor...I want to be there." Ova's expression was as serious as that of his customer. He watched the kyber and Dantari crystals exchange hands with his hands crossed over his front in a military-esque stance. "The devastation the Sith'Ari caused...the Dantari lives whom he has taken... You don't have to fight the Sith alone, you know", Ova said urgently. "Let me talk to my friends in the Diarchy. They can help you with whatever you're planning. You won't be able to kill a Sith Lord alone, no matter how many force sensitives you hire."

"Trust me...Grenz has tried."

"It's true", Grenz the Bodyguard said softly but certainly from behind Ova.

Antipater · Monday at 12:31 PM

"Many options are being explored simultaneously," Antipater conceded rather coolly.

The droid's gaze flicked to the boxes as they were presented. A cursory scan revealed the crystals to be authentic. For everything else, he had employees to do for him. The stormtrooper commander stepped forward with a rather bulky, two-handed device: some sort of contraband scanner. Adept for detecting explosives, listening devices, and the like. He passed it slowly over each crate.

As the commander carried out his search, the droid continued. "I am more than aware of your friends in the Diarchy: Rellik and Reign, the twin Sith Lords. That you demonstrate antipathy for one devotee of that awful superstition and not others is typical, though it does call into question your judgment."

Antipater remembered the Diarchs and their hollow speeches well. They could obfuscate and preen as much as they desired, but they had hosted agents of the Sith Order - the butchers of Tion, among other worlds - and welcomed them as friends.

They were opportunists. Antipater faulted them less for being opportunists and more so for presenting themselves as otherwise.

"Allow me to offer you some advice, governor Ziss: You would do very well to attend to the Sith in your own borders before attempting to get involved with mine."

A steady alert tone emitted from the device. "Security spike," the commander announced, seemingly nonplussed.

"How novel. Don't worry. I would have done similar in your position," he looked steadily between Ova, Grenz, and the Ssi-Ruu. "I believe our business here is concluded. Will that be all?"

The moff gestured to two of his own droids. They marched forward with heavy, plodding footsteps and took the crates aboard his freighter. The stormtrooper followed after them. The crystals would be transferred to a new storage receptacle. Later, the governor’s crates would be ejected into Dantooine’s orbit.

Ova Ziss · Monday at 10:40 PM

Objective: Sell Kyber Crystals
Location: Dantooine Landing Pad
Tags:

Ova sputtered. "Sith Lords? N-no, no, I know the Diarchs Rellik and Reign. They reject the Jedi and Sith. That's not how I know them."

Antipater's next words hit Ova like an asteroid field against a ship's hull. He was casting aspersions on Ova's leadership, and on his own ability to handle Sith as the Governor on Dantooine. And, you know, the droid had a point. Maybe Ova could be taking care of those pirates and Sith a bit faster and more expeditiously. Maybe Ova didn't know the Diarchs as well as he thought, after all. Maybe he should push through his security license faster.

But it didn't change much for Ova. The planet had been run by plenty of Sith before.

"Now listen here, if there's one thing I know, it's how to handle my own--"

"Security spike."

Oh no. They found it. They actually karking found it.

Ova looked at Grenz, whose face had turned beet red at the mention of the security spike, because he was the one who placed it in the first place. Ova's face was also quite red.

He got you. He got you good. Just admit it.

Whatever momentum Ova was building in his speech fell dead. He stopped, and started again, grateful that Antipater didn't fill him with blaster rounds right then and there.

"You got me", Ova said, putting his hands up, and then immediately in his pockets. Antipater's scans would not detect anything unusual in Ova's pockets - just a fist full of embarrassment and crushed ego. "I promise I didn't intend to do any damage. It's just a radial spike keylogger between friends. I wouldn't have gotten any information from you anyways, right? You've clearly thought a lot about your plans."

"No. I suppose there's nothing else. If you need more crystals, you know where to find us."

Before Antipater can turn fully around, Ova adds one other thing.

"Wait. - I...meant what I said. If you need help...." Ova trailed, seeing a look from the droid that made him feel that his message was already received.

Antipater · 2025-01-14T19:11:52-0500

A radial spike keylogger. Between friends. How very amusing. "Of course."

Antipater could occasionally detect humor, but he lacked the necessary protocols to derive any joy from it. To him it was just another sensory phenomenon, no more worthy of acknowledgement than the smell of smoke or the soft touch of gaberwool.

Or so he told himself.

The droid turned to leave, but stopped half way, seemingly to receive Ova's parting statement. He paused there for what what felt like an eternity, though no more than a few moments ticked away.

"If you wish to help," the droid eventually told him, "Tell your Diarchs to stay away from my planet."

His gaze flicked between the three of them one last time: the governor and Grenz and Ma'lur.

"Have a pleasant evening," he added.

Antipater climbed the boarding ramp and vanished into his freighter. The remaining droids followed him shortly thereafter. The ship's engines flared back to life as takeoff procedures began.