The Harvest

[Darth Prazutis]

Carannia, Capital City of Serenno...

A temperate wind swept over the elegant cityscape that was home to some of the wealthiest benefactors in the Outer Rim. Carannia was a pampered, powdered world with its white streets and high strung nobles living in elegant, massive walled palaces looking down from their high balconies at the lesser fortunate peoples who drudged in crowds below. Serenno was one of the luckiest, and busiest worlds in the Outer Rim sitting right on the Hydian Way, a major hyperspace lane that ran clear through the core and down through the southern portions of the Outer Rim. If the way most of their citizens lived was any inclination however they had done very well for themselves. The skies were littered with a wide assortment of skycars, transports, freighters and other ships going to and coming from space.

Descending through the clouds and busy skyline was a shuttle transport, and to anyone and everyone who gazed upon it, it was just that. However unlike most transports instead of heading straight for the Carannia Spaceport, it veered away from that hot spot of activity and further north deeper into the massive cityscape. It was inside this transport that Darth Prazutis, Dark Lord of the Black Empire sat with [member="Matsu Xiangu"] a sorcerer he knew quite well. It had been some time since he was introduced through their mutual contact in [member="Darth Carnifex"] but they had frequently associated with one another. In recent times this couldn't be truer with Prazutis's defection from the One Sith.

The concept of order was a lie, a charade that he and Carnifex bought into in order to remain chained by a now deceased Dark Lord. The only truth about the force and about the world was chaos, destruction. That was to be their new fate they were to be agents of conflict, heralds of death to keep the turbulent waves of the force in line, and keep a fresh and steady flow of souls sent to the Netherworld. They would be butchers that would bring the galaxy to its knees. During any other time of his life Prazutis would have found the story Matsu told him about her experiences in the Unknown Regions, what she had been opened up to in the far flung darkness and her mission in the galaxy, he would have found it preposterous, perhaps crazy even. But the more he considered her theory combined with the conclusion he and Kaine came up with, it all made more sense.

Ours is the Way.

Matsu had graciously opened up his mind and her works to the Dark Titan and he readily absorbed the knowledge, the power of undeath. The malefic necromantic magic that would be their instrument to bring entire worlds to their knees. He practiced with corpses of varying shapes and sizes, and a multitude of amounts deep in the laboratory complexes of Vain Hollow. But they were just that tests and this, what they would be doing to the high class people of Serenno was the ultimate test in his new abilities. The target was picked carefully and plans were made, as a former Dark Councilor and Director of One Sith Intelligence he could easily get them on the planet and move all the resources they needed into play.

Prazutis sat cross legged on the floor of the transport, his eyes shut meditating calmly. He wore a black formal business outfit witch matching black gloves to keep with both the attire of Serenno, as well as the weather. After all they couldn't go parading around in their full robes or armor, plus giving off such a sickening dark side presence in the form of artifacts would give them away far too soon. Their personal gear including his lightsabers, armor, personal dark side artifacts, and runeblade, and more were packaged in a series of sealed, biologically encrypted, locked turadium crates with a dual wrapping layer of high grade force nullification resin and nightshadow. Each of them had their own crates carrying all of the gear they needed, and they were set to that persons biological parameters to ensure only they could open them.

He felt the shuttle touch down and stood up a sharp hissing sound was heard as the ramp opened to the outside world "Let's go." Prazutis said to his ally as he walked down the ramp and out into the large hangar. The private hangar was empty with the exception of a small team of men who moved to secure their crates in one of the pair of SUV Skycars that sat nearby. A table littered with items sat not too far from the docking ramp they stepped off of where a man dressed in a relatively similar suit as Prazutis stood, a young man easily in his thirties with windswept black hair and blue eyes. The Sith Lord didn't bother asking the mans name or making an introduction he simply ordered "Give it to me."

"We've prepared the pair of identities as you requested my lord. Credit and debit cards, social security cards birth records, citizenship records, addresses, schools, we've taken the liberty of backstopping your identities to prevent investigation."

"I don't need any screw ups, are we secure?" He asked.

"Yes my lord, you're identities are iron clad and can hold up to investigation by any and all resources the local government has to offer." The man replied.

Prazutis stepped past the man to the table and collected some of the items "I've taken the liberty to smuggle us on planet using fabricated identities, and slid us through the system through my more greedy contacts that expedited our arrival. No one knows were here."

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

No one knows we're here.

The muffled sound of his voice brought her back then, the drone of reality encroaching on her. She’d left the confirmation of the details to him as most of the men were waiting for his approval regardless, creatures eager to please a man for whom their existence seemed a trifling matter. She was a ghost, the silent shadow that drifted alongside him, a phantom where he was raw and real. That same duality was at play with that which lay within their smuggled crates. No doubt that which Prazutis had brought with him would choke the very air with the dark, cloying and unmistakable. Matsu had always come as she was - perhaps to her disadvantage, but she had made it as far as she had so perhaps her proclivities were useful. When her crate was opened, one would find nothing inside but her lightsaber and an alchemized sword her short-lived first Master had forged for her.

What was harder to hide was her physical appearance. Of course, she could had used her power to convince anyone who saw her that she did not have arms forged of black plexisteel and phrik, that the lower half of her face was not a gnarled mess of scar tissue that would make her unmistakable to anyone who’d seen her visage tick across the Holonet’s newsfeed. It seemed an unnecessary waste of her energy however, when she was so well-known for stepping out in nothing less that couture. (And for a second, she missed Ygdris more than anything, how she always used to tease when Matsu could go nowhere without a fur coat or a pair of heels like to wound.) Though she was pretending to be someone else, fashion was form among the rich on Serenno, and she fit in in a long-sleeved pantsuit, a mask straight off the latest runway shows fixed over her mouth.

“Excellent,” she purred, her voice reaching just Prazutis’ mind as she palmed the false documents. As the private shuttle intended to carry them towards their target lowered itself, Matsu felt the unmistakable crawl of her Children drawing near trickling up her spine. “Everything is in motion.”

_____________________________________​

“Oh, very gallant,” Persephone teased, attempting to keep her face in something of the mock anger she’d been affecting, though Medes was making it hard. His grin was just so infuriatingly charming - half goofy and half endearing, he knew he was deserving of her irritation for standing her up the night before, but he was also confident enough to get out of it. He’d picked the flowers to accompany his apology with his own hands there in the very park through which they walked. He was lucky she was giving him the time of day at all to try and make amends.

“I can be,” he said, holding the flowers and returning to walking at her side when she refused to take them. “Sometimes I just make mistakes. Don’t we all?”

Her jaw jutted out in a display of unconscious stubbornness and he saw her looking around to try and deflect her attention from him. The park was busy as it was an unseasonably warm day, couples, families, even businessmen and women on their breaks cutting through the greenery on their way to whatever important place they were going. That was what she did - if she didn’t look at him, she couldn’t give in to his charm. He was about to reach out and grab her chin lightly, direct her gaze to him, when he realized she wasn’t looking at just anything. She was looking up.

He followed her gaze.

Up high, just beneath the atmosphere, a ship was barrelling downwards towards the earth. It was not a reckless speed, and if he’d hazard a guess he might have just said it was an overly confident pilot tempting fate. But it wasn’t the massive ship that was interesting so much as the fleet of military starfighters searing through the sky towards it. The fighters drew in close, circling the descending freighter so quickly they were approaching blurs, as if trying to contain and convince the ship to change its course. And then, without warning, all the fighters started to scatter as several canisters that were small in comparison to the freighter they were released from, but large enough to be seen from the ground, were shot outwards from the larger ship.

“What’s happ--” Medes began, but quickly stopped in favor of a yell of surprise and clapping his hands over his ears as the canisters sucked all sound from the air and then let out a massive, synchronized sonic charge. It nearly deafened him but he could still hear screams as people started backing away from the carnage up above. Flaming pieces of starfighter could be seen glittering up near the clouds, those unfortunate enough to be caught in the explosions instantly breaking to pieces and clearing a path for the freighter to continue.

“I don’t know, but it’s bad,” Persephone said simply, grabbing his hand before she took off running in the opposite direction.

[member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Enyo Typhos"]​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Streets of Carannia...

“Everything is in motion.”

"Than we do not have much time."

After the two Sith Lords entered one of the vehicles the sleek black SUV skycars sped off onto the skyroads of Serenno. Prazutis sat in the back of the vehicle with [member="Matsu Xiangu"] while two operatives and former Blackblade Guardsman drove in the front seats. The crates holding their gear sat in the second skycar that followed them. After taking a sharp turn two police vehicles took position one in front and one behind the small convoy, clearing a path as they moved through the streets. Each and every part of this operation was carefully planned out right down to the data that filled the fake identities they used to smuggle on world. Resources and puppets eager to serve the Dark Titan were moved into place, and brainwashed Carannia State Policemen were apart of that plan.

There wasn't many times that someone like Prazutis could feel impatient, he was Anzati with a massive lifespan he was rarely impatient. But plans that needed to be perfectly timed were one of those times. The Communications Hub sat just on the outskirts of the relatively quiet industrial sector just to the north, and they needed to take and take over that base before her children, their children crash landed. Just enough time to allow rumors to spread, chaos, fear, and mass panic to set in before the chaos all started. The freighter was getting closer and closer with each passing moment, he could feel the magic imbued bodies of the small horde from this distance. It was always better to be safe than sorry, they needed everything to fall in place in order for them to have the desired effect.

"Let's hurry this up. Signal ahead I'm giving the expedite order." Prazutis ordered to one of the guardsman.

"Yes my lord." The agent said relaying the order ahead. The two would feel the push on the gas pedal as the entire convoy sped up, the engine roaring. "The Communications Hub is where all the satellites and communications for Serenno are ran to and from, everything is kept operational through the three massive satellites there. It's controlled by the Armed Forces of Serenno. We'll have to turn these fools into our meat puppets and seize control of this facility and have them shut down communications, before we can work on a more permanent solution in the destruction of the satellites dishes."

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Darth Prazutis"], [member="Matsu Xiangu"], [member="Valiens Nantaris"], [member="Maelion Liates"]


With barely a ripple the Lightbringer emerged from the tunnel of hyperspace and was steered towards the orbit of Serenno, a planet most known for pompous, ambitious nobles who lorded it over the 'common rabble' and had an overinflated opinion of themselves. The ship's stygium array, coupled with the finest engine emission controls available meant the ship would be invisible to most observers. Certainly today, when there was so much else going on planetside. Serenno was in for...interesting times!


In the belly of the vessel, two of Archangel's agents faced one another. One was a deceptively human looking blonde, whose facade concealed the fact that she was an HRD. Once she had been human, but her humanity had been stripped from her and she'd been remade in Archangel's image. She went by the name of Vess. The other was a woman of flesh and blood, but she had not come into being in a mother's womb, but in a cloning tube. She wore the face of Siobhan Kerrigan and her name was Enyo Typhos.


Both were in the ship's spacious training room, wielding a blue and purple lightsabre each. The training session had been going on for quite a while. Idle hands were the devil's workshop. In order to complete her task, Enyo would have to become stronger. There was no time for idleness in the forge of Archangel.


The clone had aggression and vigour, but her blows and slashed lacked precision. For the time being Vess was on the defensive, defending herself against the flurry of attacks. The droid could obviously not use the Force, but thanks to her buried photoreceptors, motion trackers and sensors, she was able to keep able to keep up observing her opponent despite the latter's Force-enhanced speed. Throw in a processor that enabled her to calculate and plan at a high-speed rate, and she could project the path of Enyo's purple blade to dodge, parry or block it.


"Your coordination is slipping. Blind aggression will not defeat me," Vess observed, as their blades clashed and she blocked Enyo's attack. Undaunted, the young clone attacked again, though this time with more focus, going low so that the purple blade slashed across the droid's leg, creating a shower of sparks. "Better." The clone moved in for a follow up cut, but the HRD was faster and smote her on the neck with her hand.


She had only used a fraction of her strength, but Enyo howled and gasped in pain. Looking as dispassionate as ever, Vess launched a blow directed at Enyo's head. The clone was lucky to block the strong blow when she brought up her blade to block, but such was the impact that the lightsabre fell out of her hand and she was knocked back. The energy sword cluttered to the ground and switched itself off automatically since it was no longer being used.


The assassin droid cocked her head slightly, as if assessing whether Enyo was about to yield, then charged at her. But Enyo rolled away quickly and, pulling at the tangled web of power that was the Force, summoned a strong blast of telekinetic energy and rammed it into the droid. An organic warrior would have probably been tossed into the wall, but the droid was sturdier and heavier than her slender appearance would suggest. Nonetheless, she was sent flying and slammed into the ground with a loud thud.


By the time she was on her feet again, Enyo had recovered her lightsabre and the purple beam sprang to life with a snap-hiss. Panting strongly, Enyo charged and thrust at the droid with the tip of her sabre. Their sabres clashed...then suddenly the landscape seemed to shift in Enyo's mind and she was seized by a terrible headache.


Suddenly she was no longer in the training room, at least in her mind. Instead she saw herself in a burning city. Corpse-like abominations stalked the streets, killing or devouring anyone they saw. She could hear screams, blasterfire...and in the centre of it all was an Atrisian looking woman. She had metal arms and no jaw, but her Force aura radiated tremendous power. She knew that face...

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She nodded, a gesture she found more and more helpful lately. There were days she still tried to open her mouth, days she still tried to answer someone with her real voice and not the one that could only be created in the mind. It was strange because she’d never bothered to talk much before, but she still found ways to miss that sea-glass smoothness that was her speech. Sometimes, in her dreams, she still saw her teeth strewn in a neat little line leading away from the gore where her mouth had once been, the glare of his green lightsaber bouncing off their enamel, her legs disconnected and creaking from the twisting in her spine from her.

The vast majority of the galaxy was, as he put it, a collection of ‘meat puppets’ for her. Even before the loss of her mouth she’d spent years cultivating her mentalism and the strength of her mind to the detriment of many other abilities. Her brain and her necromancy were the two things she held most skill in, and if it was infiltration and control they sought than she was the one to assist - being forced to live within her own head, and the minds of her others, had made her connection to the inner workings of the mind even deeper than before. Now she was quick - now she lived there.

Their shuttle hissed to hover over a walkway leading towards Communications, their appearance and demeanor suggesting they were supposed to belong there. On a good day that might have gotten then fifteen feet before someone questioned them. But today was not a good day for security on Serenno, if the tension in the air could be used as a measure. If she’d had a mouth she might have struggled to suppress a proud smile, random images of the freighter in the sky blowing the first of the Serenno security team to intercept it out of the sky filtering through her mind from worried strangers all around her. It was obvious that something much larger was at play, allowing two well-dressed individuals with confidence in their stride to pass unbothered for much longer than might usually have been allowed.

And when their stroke of luck played out, when they came as far as confidence would get them, Matsu pressed outwards and clamped cold fingers around the guard’s brain whose responsibility it was to scan those entering and leaving.

He let them through without much ado.

__________________​

By the time the freighter was touching down in the spaceport, every team in the area was en route to intercept. It had ignored every request, every warning, and every shot meant to kill since it had broken Serenno’s atmosphere and that silence was more frightening even than its brutal show of force. It groaned to a silent stop as the engines turned off, its feet on the ground - a seeming time bomb, eerily quiet in its namelessness. Highly trained teams of military men and women swarmed the hangar, intent on stopping whatever it was that threatened their planet in its tracks.

Silence.
Silence.
Silence.

The freighter let out another long groan as a massive bay door lowered on its hinges, hitting the ground with a thunderous thud.

It was the sound of steady but nervous breathing of the soldiers that set off the creatures inside the ship, a telltale chorus of screams that preceded their emergence - a wave of rot, thousands of corpses sprinting out of the confines of their darkness towards the light and so. much. food. The front line fell to bullets but those who hadn’t been hit in the brain rose again, joining their brothers streaming towards meat and exits to the streets outside. A monstrous, enormous, and half-rotten Rancor stomped off the ship, letting out a roar that sent men sprinting in the opposite direction despite its swinging fists catching them in their flight. The crunch of their bones in its teeth made it hungrier, its lumbering steps a harbinger for the horde as more of its counterparts unloaded themselves, the front lines of a slaughter that was just beginning.

[member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Enyo Typhos"] | [member="Maelion Liates"]​

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Matsu Xiangu"] @Darth Parzutis

Vess parried the lightsabre stab at her chest, drove it aside and made a slash, but stopped the blade inches from Enyo’s waist. The blades were on low power, but the intent wasn’t to maim Archangel’s prize.

She tilted her head to the side. “Enyo. What is wrong? Are you functional?” she asked impassively. It was probably an organic thing.

“Landing in ten standard minutes,” the blank voice of the ship computer came back to them.

They had no idea that below the zombie invasion had begun!

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"], [member="Darth Prazutis"]


Aboard the Lightbringer, orbit of Serenno.

"Task Force personnel, proceed to the shuttle immediately," the blank voice of the ship's computer helpfully informed them. The Lightbringer was not appropriate to land, hence transport ship. Archangel had planned to test out a new toy or two. Such as a liquid metal HRD. It would have been useful for abducting annoying nobles and replacing them with mechanical facsimiles.


Enyo took a deep, shaky breath as she tried to regain her composure. The lightsabre blade lying inches from her waist did not trouble her. The sabres were on low power, and a little burn was far less frightening than what the vision had showed her. "I had a...vision," she finally said, ignoring the question. "I saw monsters. Zombies. They just landed. They're killing everyone in the city. It was...terrible." She looked rather shaken.


Enyo was still very young and naive. She had taken her first steps into darkness, but did not know the full score of Archangel's nefarious schemes. That would, however, change. "I saw a face. [member="Matsu Xiangu"]. She's down there." The Voodoo Queen, the Despoiler of Kaas.


She had stood up to and fought Kerrigan, whom Enyo loathed. That was what had first attracted Enyo's attention when she heard the holonews. Thus she had tracked down what stories she could find about the enigmatic witch. But she was also unleashing a legion of zombies to murder innocent people. Little Enyo still considered herself a good person. The veil would soon be torn from her eyes.

 

[Darth Prazutis]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4usGZ9nJuQ[/media]​

​

These were highly trained, well equipped soldiers from the elite Serenno Armed Forces that converged on the hangar. Serenno was dominated by the wealthy and its armed forces reflected such ridiculous wealth the great houses possessed by having some of the best gear money for an army that often appeared more of a private military could buy. But nothing could've prepared them for what spilled out of the freighter. Before the creatures were even in sight it was the smell first that rolled out like a tidal wave a foul stench of putrefaction wafted out. A brutal stench of thousands of decaying and rotting corpses at various stages of the process of death all packed tightly into an air tight freighter just waiting for the slightest rush of air.

Men and women were sent coughing and vomiting at the stench that was an attacking army of its own, a stench so foul it stung eyes, and felt as if it could boil off eyebrows off of ones skull. A vast moaning legion of thousands emerged spilling out from the crowded freighter, their moaning voices turned to screeches and screams as the smell of fresh meat, of life was so close. The sound was so great it drowned out the screams and yells of soldiers, it even drowned out the sound of gunfire as these soldiers frantically unloaded on these seemingly endless legions. As bullets pierced and the dead fell, spraying blood and flesh, they stood once more some with the sway of intestines from their pierced guts, it was a grotesque and unnatural thing. In any other situation, any other creature these soldiers would be cutting them down in droves.

They were not prepared.

The horrors finally emerged from the sea of death as various rotting rancors spilled out stomping forth, its massive sweeping claws sending some of the retreating soldiers crashing to the ground. Those unfortunate to stand or whose bones were broken and splintered were gone, dragged under disappearing under the hungry legion torn to shreds through many grabbing hands and chomping teeth, their screams drowned out by hungry roars.

____________​

​

As the two shuttles landed and the group disembarked on the landing platform they took in the full scope of the large communications hub. Three gargantuan satellite dishes sat in a line off to one end near a large fenced off area of what appeared to be massive power generators. The entire communications hub was surrounded by a large electrified, barbed wire fence with only one entrance closed off by security. They landed on one of the platforms reserved for visiting dignitaries avoiding ground entry. While transmitting security codes can only get you so far, it was the soldier standing guard on the platform who's job it was to screen each and every person arriving.

In addition to Prazutis and his fellow Sith Lord, there were six other agents. Four men in the accompanying SUV and two in the front seat of his own. All of them wore similar light black gear and combat armor with standard issue blackblade assault rifles in their hands, sashes around their backs. Two of these men began pulling the crates down from the SUV and loading them onto loading carts while the other four stood in formation behind Prazutis. They could easily have butchered their way through this base from the beginning, killing all who stood in their way and then shut down the hub, but that wasn't nearly as thorough as what they were about to do.

A serious and alarmed look formed on the face of an approaching soldier who moved to grab his assault rifle, but before he could form words the man stopped dead in his tracks. He could feel her application of the force, her iron will wrapping around the mans mind and bending him to serve her own. He not only cleared them for entry, the soldier even opened up the doors for for the passing group. Prazutis strode through the facility with a demeanor and posture like he owned the building. Passing soldiers and employees he reached out with the force in tandem with Matsu to ensnare the minds of those around them, silencing their concerns and potential alarm as the group moved down the winding hallways.

They entered through a set of double doors and into a huge, wide room the opposite wall was filled with a massive screen split up into different parts each screen showing some form of data while rows and rows of employees sat at stations, it was the control room for the Central Communications Hub of Serenno. A man walked up to the group wearing an officers uniform of a Colonel, a scowl on his face. "Who the hell are you and how did you get into my facility!" The man said pointing at them. Prazutis wrapped his cold, iron grip around the mans brain and squeezed, seizing control of his will. Just then communications exploded from the beginning conflict between the soldiers and the horde, their horde. Rumors abound and fear allowed to spread before everything went awry. "Shut it down."

"All of-"

"Yes shut all of it down. The entire planet goes dark now." Prazutis ordered. The unusual request drew some looks from nearby employees, but they too would fall under their spell soon enough. "Give these men the clearance to go wherever they may please." Prazutis said, and already the commander made it happen and not only gave them clearance, but worked to give their entire group clearance. It wouldn't be enough to just electronically shut down communications, the military would make this their first target. They needed to make a more permanent solution. The agents he brought with them would plant powerful bombs on the satellite dishes, and the power generators. "You may proceed. I want this done quickly." The agents beat their chest with their fists, a sign of respect and acknowledgement, and immediately took off.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"] [member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Maelion Liates"]​

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Limitations.

She didn’t think about them much, though in some ways her life was defined by the concept. She was as powerful as she’d become because she refused to accept that which had been laid out before her as her lot. Hunger was the key to break all barriers. And yet even at the top of some imaginary food chain there were limitations. The planet’s defenses still posed a threat. There could easily be Jedi on the planet’s surface on some mission. But worst of all, she left her Children to their own work, without her. They were capable, but she ached - some hollow sensation reminding her they were nearby but without her watchful eye.

Prazutis matched her in many interests, but she held none of his brusque, authoritative manner. People listened to her out of some strange mix of fear and love - they needed her approval as much as they wished they did not have to be in her presence. Those around them listened to Prazutis because he accepted no other option. That she no longer had verbal speech was irrelevant.

They buzzed around the two Sith like worker bees hustling to satisfy their queen, hurried glances at the two dark lords snuck when it was thought they could be afforded.

Matsu’s silence was broken only by a deep, sharp inhalation of breath when the information she wanted finally passed through her mind. “The planet is ours,” she whispered in his head. “As soon as your men destroy the generators, I look forward to seeing your work.”

________________________​

Light.

Where their Mother pondered that which presented a challenge, it was light that would have given the Undead pause. So long they festered in shadow, so long they shuffled through the dark, waiting for Her to come and release them to a slaughter. They blinked, squinting despite their headlong run out of the hangar towards the wide-open killing fields of the city. The blinding however, was only temporary. Like hungry dogs their primitive instinct was heightened once the living started running.

They moved so quickly that it took a minute for those with air in their lungs to process the growling horde. Power had just shut down, the usually imperceptible hum of massive machinery leaving their world startlingly quiet. It was funny how silence could be so loud, but it disappeared in the wake of hundreds of pounding footsteps and hungry slavers. Elsewhere on the planet a team of men and women were gearing up to face the incoming threat reported by the spaceport but it would be too little, too late for those who had been loitering directly outside. Those that did not fall to the undead themselves tumbled from the sides of walkways, screaming as they hurtled through the air towards quickly approaching and entirely unforgiving earth.

_________________________​

“What the FETH was that sound?” Medes hissed, finally having gathered his feet to run beside Persephone instead of trying to catch up. She’d been suspiciously quick on the draw - had she been hiding some latent track & field skill?

“I don’t kn--” Persephone began, swallowing her words when another horrific roar leeched through the air from somewhere behind them. All that mattered was getting as far from the spaceport as possible.

[member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Enyo Typhos"] | [member="Maelion Liates"]​

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"], [member="Valiens Nantaris"], [member="Maelion Liates"]


Serenno was engulfed by darkness. Both literally because power had just shut down and figuratively because the tendrils of the Dark Side now ensnared this planet. A horde of ravenous, vicious undead was being unleashed upon the city, driven by hunger and hatred for the living. Serenno was an old, proud world. Its Counts prided themselves on their wealth, power and refined manners, but none of this would matter anymore. No one would come to their aid. Assuming the Mandalorians or Jedi ever heard about this atrocity and deigned to take an interest, they would be too late.


You had to be either very morbid, stupidly heroic or disturbingly opportunistic to descend upon this doomed world with your ship under such circumstances. Archangel was definitely opportunistic. The Archangel dropship gracefully descended from the sky. By the time the city came into view, the spaceport had been turned into a killing field. Serenno's finest and bravest were being drowned in an ocean of zombies.


Those who fell became fodder for the undead and soon arose again, replenishing the ranks of the living dead. Archangel would deliver 'mercy' and 'salvation' to these benighted souls. Enyo steeled herself aboard the dropship, once again checking her weapons and making sure her bolter was loaded, though she knew it was. Fear threatened to grip her like a vice, though she tried to draw strength from this emotion, like she'd been taught.


Darkness called to her like a siren. She could not help but feel disgusted and repulsed by the horrors taking place down there, for the images of her vision were deeply imprinted upon her mind. Yet she also felt strong anger against Kerrigan for being safe and sound in her luxurious villa while horrors were being unleashed here. The dropship descended, seeking a suitable landing spot since the spaceport had evidently been compromised.

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Some time passed after the soldiers departed to complete their work placing the bombs. Prazutis had all of the command centers employees gather on one side sitting on the floor. The Dark Titan and the two guardsman dropped the crates in the room and the men took part in helping the man put the armor on. The set of phrik plated armor was infamous, iconic even for those who knew about him or saw him in what little clips there were. Prazutis slid the ring concealed inside the crate on his finger, placing valthris the dark crystal's amulet around his neck, and putting on his phrik plate. Finally after the armor and other equipment was on he clipped two lightsabers and Daesumnor, the soul reaping runeblade to his hip.

Finally with no longer a need to conceal himself and with the presence of such dark artifacts, the Goliath of Panatha let his aura flow. The dark side rolled off of him like a thick fog choking the air with its presence, unsettling even those without the gifts of the force. Prazutis stood towering over the colonel and the sitting staff of the station, the entire group flanked on either side by the two blackblade guardsman. The four agents who departed finally returned in the same formation they left in. They bowed to him while the leader in charge handed Prazutis a detonator and spoke "It's done my lord."

"Good. It's time we joined our friends." Prazutis said pressing the button. The entire building shook as a thunderous explosion erupted nearby, blowing in some ground level windows from the sheer force while the power generators and dishes exploded, crashing to the ground. The Sith Lord didn't so much as flinch during the endeavor while screams and voices of terror escaped from the captives. Prazutis grabbed the colonel by the throat with one hand and lifted him clean into the air off the ground, the runeblade unsheathed and in his other hand. He impaled the man on the blade choking out his shrieks and sounds of pain with an iron grip, staring into the mans eyes until his very soul left his body and danced along the blade, entering inside it.

"Kiha ri tsûduma dradzia diâ wiji ani arkis ant ri kraujas iw ri ruai" He said in the ancient sith tongue, the dark magic filled the mans dead body while his eyes glowed brightly for but a brief moment before darkening once more. Prazutis dropped the now animated corpse to the ground and turned around, a present to the remaining employees who had no idea what fate awaited them. "Lets go."

[member="Matsu Xiangu"] | [member="Valiens Nantaris"] | [member="Enyo Typhos"]​

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Darth Prazutis"] [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Tilting her head to the side, Vess processed her words. The alarms from the front and also the distressed voices of those coming from below told Vess that this was true. Enyo had indeed foreseen this, though that was not logical, the ‘Force’ was not that.
“This complicates matters. These monsters and the Sith Lord are outside of parameters. We will return to orbit and reconsider our options,” Vess said, suddenly robotic.

They were close to the ground. Close enough to see the lights go out, to see the civilians were being hunted and destroyed.
It was logical to cut their losses and to regroup, so if Enyo wanted to interject now was the time for her to do so!

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"], [member="Darth Prazutis"], [member="Matsu Xiangu"]


The power of the Force was a pathway too many abilities some considered to be...irrational. Regardless, Enyo had foreseen the calamity a couple minutes before it took place, now the Zombie Queen had unleashed terror and the undead upon Serenno. The dropship was close to the ground. Enough to hear the screams and see people being hunted down and devoured. The lights had gone out. Enyo was so focused upon the devastation that it took her a moment or two to hear Vess' words. What reasons could Archangel have to get involved?


"No. Unit Silhouette is still on the planet. She was supposed to retrieve data from House Corinno. The liquid metal prototype is too valuable to be lost or destroyed," she said. She glanced out and looked upon the carnage. Her senses were still weak, but she could feel Xiangu's presence. It was like a malevolent spider in a web. Was she being pulled into the web? Probably.


"This planet is doomed, but there are still people Archangel can 'save'." Save them by processing them. They would be far better off as machines. Her tone was unusually firm. Presumably the two morally compromised Archangel operatives would run into the Dynamic Sith Duo.


((Posting ahead to move the Archangel duo towards the planet.))