The Lengths That I Will Go To (Invite)

[Coren Starchaser]

“I don’t frelling care what they say, Arsix.” Coren shook his head at his droid. He was loading up the ship, arms and ammunition, armor and equipment. The Tachyon Rising was his home, and it would be again. It didn’t matter. He failed his apprentice, letting her fall into the embrace of the frakking Wrath of the Dark Lord? He didn’t care what they said about Gabriel, did anyone look at the man? He was the Wrath, somehow fooling the whole Alliance in the biggest con the galaxy had seen. And they wanted to frakking talk to him, and talk about it?

No, you dump that rabid animal in the pit, same with that other Sith, what was his name? Mudrack? No. You dumped them in the lava, and you left it at that. Sith gave up their rights to any trial by choosing that life, or existing in that life. It was a disease and the only release for the galaxy was death. Coren was not having any of this half-assed bull that the Alliance was pulling.

Coren was a soldier. He had no place in a galaxy without a war, and if the Alliance was going to discuss that he was reacting too strong on a government and people that were subjugating the galaxy? Fine, they didn’t need him? He didn’t need them. It’d be that simple. Sure, he’d be there anytime the Alliance struck, but when the Sith finally came to their door with domination on their mind?

Not too radical now, was he?

He walked up the ramp carrying more of his weapons and the droid looked at him. The Spaceport Controller seemed to want to speak to him.

“I don’t want to speak to them. Hang up, and power up the engines.”

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

For once actually looking the part of the Jedi Master, Jacen calmly walked out in front of the ship. Coming to an abrupt halt he turned on the spot to face the cockpit. His hands came up and pulled back his head so that Coren could see his face.

There was an expression of grim determination on his face but this didn't reveal Jacen's emotional state. His hands came back down before him, each vanishing up the opposite sleeve as his arms came to rest together across his stomach.

He stood there impassively, eyes searching for Commander Starchaser at the helm. Perhaps he had spent too much time with Master Adonai and had adopted a few of her traits during his probation, perhaps he simply wished to see if Coren would come out and speak to him of his own accord.

He certainly hoped he wasn't about to be turned into a bloody streak across the deck floor.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu ran as fast as she could to the hangar bay where [member="Coren Starchaser"]'s ship was docked. The disgraced Jedi Knight was probably the last person that Coren wanted to see right now, but the green alien girl could feel something off in the Force. Starchaser was about to do something very rash, something for which she herself felt fully responsible. She'd karked up big time and the rest of the Galactic Alliance would be paying the price for it if Coren left. The Alliance needed him, and so did she.

As she rounded the corner there was the Rising, but it wasn't alone in the hangar. Her dark eyes widened as she saw [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] standing right in the path of Coren's ship, with his hands out. A few surprised blinks came. Well, that was one way to get Starchaser to stay on Sullust.

Stopping to catch her breath, she flicked a switch on her commlink to hail Coren who was presumably in the cockpit, getting ready to wander the stars, as his family often did.

"Commander Starchaser. It's your apprentice. I really need to talk to you. Please."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

So the pilot was working at his ship, loading it up, and having the idea of the Unknown Regions, maybe he could find his people. The ones who understood just what kind of disease the Sith were on the galaxy and how to properly handle them. To understand that in order to fight monsters? You needed to be monsters. There was no place in the galaxy for certain types of people, but the use of them? They could tear down the Sith, and be the wall to the regulars of the galaxy, and let them exist.

That was his problem with the majority of the Jedi. They wanted a world where they could exist. Sorry, but your ancient rival and antithesis was taking the galaxy by storm, and you were worried about where your karmic score was? No. You were the ones capable of fighting on even terms, and that meant you had a frakking responsibility to do what you could, to take out the Sith, to wipe them from the galaxy.

And the ones that slept with them? They were a weak link in the chain, simple as that. And this was one weak link he was responsible for instructing. Responsible for and failed. The pilot turned from his droid and descended the ramp, a few more crates, and things that needed to be loaded. And right now? It seemed no one was assisting him, and the loading droids weren’t obeying his identity card.

Fine.

He could do it himself. His astromech was reminding him that there was a call on the comlink, but the pilot shook his head, looking up from the crate, he could feel the pair in the hangar. “Come to see me off, then?”

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

"Yes...I mean, no! I mean..." The Mirialan shook her head, wrestling with the words. Tears threatened to fall, but she blinked them back. She'd lost her parents, her employer and best friend, and soon, she would lose her former mentor. To lose Coren, a man she looked up to with ferocious admiration, would be a devastating emotional blow at this juncture. Selfish girl. This isn't about you, Chev.

"I failed you, Mast...Commander Starchaser," she said, a deep rut in her smooth green brow. "I wasn't keeping my wits about me on Taris, and I let my emotions cloud my judgement, something a Jedi should never do." She'd said the "J" word. She knew how Starchaser felt about the Jedi, but the Order was all she knew. Although Coren's view on the Force was more unorthodox, Chevu still followed the traditional tenets of the Jedi. Or tried to anyway. She glanced over at Master Voidstalker, still standing in the Tachyon Rising's path. Their trespasses weren't the same, but she felt that perhaps soon she could seek some spiritual guidance from one who had also recently strayed from the path.

Her eyes turned stormy as she turned back to Coren. She was desperate for Starchaser to stay, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. He was turning his back on everything she had grown to love over the last few months with the Galactic Alliance and it enraged her.

"As wrong as I am, you don't get to do this, Coren. I won't let you leave over this."

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen took a few respectful steps back. He would try and grasp his chance to talk to Coren before he left, but for now the master and apprentice needed some time.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He looked from Jacen to Chevu after he spoke. The former was taking a second to stand back it seemed, while the latter, so very much like himself, hot headed, and known to go off at a moments notice (people Yoda would hate, after all), started to speak. And stutter. What did she have to say? No. He fething failed. And what could he do? Exile? No, but clearly, if the tones from Ijaat and Sarge were anything to scoff at, he was unwanted in this military, he was too radical. Why were people taking Gabriel as anything that could be true.

For all anyone knew, it could be the Wrath of the Dark Lord pulling a long con. People changed the way their Force signature worked. Not Coren, but the ones who had actual training? Yeah, they could move the Force in ways he couldn’t fathom. Yet everyone was keeping an open mind of the right hand of the enemy within their midst.

Sure, maybe he was trying his best to pull a con when he gave the same being, @Reverence or [member="The Revenant"] a free pass, but he was not going to let the man out of his sight. What was he supposed to do? They were at war, he was a soldier. There was no place for him if there wasn’t an enemy to destroy.

Failed? Sure, they failed one another. He didn’t put into his lessons the sheer necessity of this war, of the reason behind the move to end the Sith. He decided to let Chevu learn that on her own. Educate herself on the known aliases and appearances of the revolving anatomy of the Dark Lord, of the high leaders in the One Sith. “The Jedi don’t come into this. I should’ve taught you better. Taught you who to look for and how to deal with them. The Jedi, they will get you through, maybe they can reeducate you.”

Was he turning his back? No, not to him. To him he was getting out to the galaxy a place where he could see what was going on. There were no shades of gray when he worked on his own. When the Jedi weren’t a part of the equation. When his leadership and his ideology wasn’t questioned. The Sith were a plague, and if they didn’t want to assist him?

He’d do it on his own. He could rally people to his cause. “Its not over only you. During the trial it was clear I’m not fit for this nation. I’m too radical, I’m not thinking clearly when one of our own slept with the Wrath of the frakking Dark Lord.” Was there anger? Some. Was there passion?

In heaps.

He wasn't going to waste his time not doing what he felt was right.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]
[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu let out a long, frustrated huff. The usually reticent Mirialan found that she had quite a bit to say to Coren, her usual jumble of thoughts as clear and sharp as a horizon line.

"And how well was it working for you when you were on your own, Commander?" she growled. "How big of a dent can just one man make? This Alliance is our biggest hope for cleansing the galaxy of the dark side and you know it." She shook her head incredulously. Starchaser could be so infuriating sometimes. His bullheadedness. His propensity for black-and-white thinking. His knee-jerking. The same traits that made him perfect to lead the charge against the Sith also made him the most hard to handle when it all went wrong.

"You're going to leave because the NJO isn't as radical as you are? For ideological reasons then?" A sharp, derisive laugh came. "That sounds more like the Jedi that you disdain."

Her dark eyes narrowed ferociously. As much as Chevu wanted to pretend this was solely about the Alliance, it wasn't. There was a sharp ache in her heart. It hurt to see him leaving. They were Master and Apprentice and he was walking away from it. Since they'd joined the Alliance, Jedi Masters from all walks of the galaxy had joined the New Jedi Order. She was spoiled for choice if she needed a new Master, yet she could only see herself with the man standing before her.

"You just said it yourself. You're not thinking clearly. All the more reason that you shouldn't fething abandon us!"

Abandon her. Isn't that what she meant?

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Things to say? Yeah, a lot should have been said earlier. Coren should have approached the other Marshals separately, and got them thinking about what to do with Chevu, without including the full-of-themselves people, like Sarge. Coren couldn’t fething stand that being. “If I’m not turned down by the others in the group? My group focuses on the mission, focuses on what needs to be done. Not what seems right. If we’re going to win this war, we can’t focus on saving ourselves. No, we’re the light side, it doesn’t mean we need to be nice about it.”

If someone was breaking rules? Or someone was looking like the enemy, you dealt with it as brutally and efficiently as possible. When she brought up the New Jedi Order, he looked over at Jacen, one of the few in that outfit he respected. The man was tough as nails and did his best to keep up with the war, and make himself useful. He didn’t seem to worry so much about the karmic score the rest of his type did.

Didn’t he also let loose on his stranglehold on the light? Useful.

“I’m nothing like the Jedi. They are facing their ancient enemy and they’re more than willing to deal and speak to one who looks to be leading the charge, instead of locking him away and handling the situation.” He was not matched for this government, or they weren’t matched for him. What was his reason of staying.

“Its seems the Jedi have ways they want to handle it, and history books show nothing but failure in the way they approach things.”

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Sithspit, he was stubborn! The thing was, Chevu understood Coren's point of view about the Jedi. She'd been struggling with most of the tenets herself, and had begun to emotionally disavow some of them. Sometimes peace wasn't always possible. Sometimes emotions happened. The waters were muddier when it came to Gabriel. He had not been proven to be guilty of any crimes. If his story was true, which Chevu felt it was, he was an innocent victim.

"Gabriel is being held in an alchemized cell. He can do no harm to anyone in there. You said so yourself, the day he showed up on Sullust: Why should he be killed when he can be used? He knows things about the highest ranking One Sith members. Their strengths and weaknesses. What technology they're developing. Their military strategies. He can help us."

Chevu did not want to bring down the guilt hammer on Coren, but she couldn't help but point out that his actions would have a ripple effect on those closest to him.

"Coren, the Jedi are only one part of the Alliance. We have the Wild Knights, the Tiburons, and the GADF, not to mention our diplomats and emissaries. What are your pilots going to do without you? Can you imagine the look on your niece's face when she finds out her Uncle flew the nuna coop and isn't going to give her those flying lessons after all? She'll be devastated. Audrey adores you."

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Stubborn was definitely one word for Coren Starchaser when it came to most things. When it came to the Sith? It was putting it politely and definitely an understatement. There were people that were the same way when it came to other races, for him, it was a way of life that had done its damage to his psyche. And then Chevu was going to call him out for being hypocritical?

If the Wrath of the Dark Lord was on their planet, and lying, there was no frelling way the Corellian was going to be honest to the man’s face. No. Starchaser made part of his early living running guns and piloting for a number of people where his wit was what saved him. His ability to read a person and say what they wanted. Additionally, it was the writer’s retcon of Coren’s actions and speech. The character wrote himself.

And that was why he was still going off the handle.

“He can also continue to lie to our frakking faces, Chevu.” He shook his head. Then the thought of the rest of the government, the Tibs, the pilots. Audrey. “She can find her own pilot trainer. I’m clearly not fit for the job of anyone’s instructor.” She proved that to him.

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="The Revenant"] so they can read what Coren's mind is doing

 

[Chevu Visz]

Ugh. Arguing with Commander Starchaser was a bit like smacking your head on duracrete repeatedly. Frustration boiled in Chevu's veins, and she clenched her fingers into fists, fighting the urge to release a burst of the Force at the man. She'd made her case. If it wasn't good enough, there was nothing else to say to him, well, except for the thing that she hadn't been saying. An audible swallow came.

"You're going to just say, "kark the Alliance" then? Just like that? After all the hard work that you've put into it? That we've put into it?"

Crossing her arms, Chevu angrily averted her gaze, tears filling her brown eyes. It hurt too much to look at him right now. She cared deeply for him, more than she dared admit.

"You're just going to leave me, too?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Placeholder 0133]

Rook hadn't been informed Coren was stepping off . He would not have expected to -- were he in Starboy's position, he would have gone for a quiet exit too. That being said, he had no intention of letting the man get away without having a word.

Besides, this was easier to focus on. Rook had his team back, Qyren, and all the hell that came with it. Coren and the Tiburons? When he was with them, he was the muscle. That was easy. Rook wasn't ready for this emotional roller coaster that he'd been forced on. If Coren went, then so did his stability. The Dreadguard had no loyalty to the alliance, nor to any other galactic powers. He was loyal to people, Coren being one of them.

If Starboy thought the alliance was ill equipped to deal with the Sith, then Rook would take his word on it. He, Khelgast, maybe Qyren and the MK-I, they'd listen to, so long as Rook believed him. If they needed to take another route to complete their final objective, then so be it.

Unfortunately, due to recent events, he'd lost all empathy for the kind of emotional displays Chevu was going through. Losing your mother and little sister to the kind of men she took to bed could do that to a man.

"Sir," they held the same rank, but he insisted, "You're not leaving without my team. We're prepped. Say the word."

Rook stared from over Chevu's shoulder, his visage hidden by the helmet's visor. It didn't matter of course; any soul with a bit of common sense could tell he was staring right through the girl from the tone of his voice.

[member="Coren Starchaser"], [member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

No one had been informed with Coren’s decisions, not Chevu, not Audrey, not Rook, not even Spark had known what he was planning. That was because Coren Starchaser didn’t exactly plan, per se. He acted. The wind blew northerly? He went north. And the fact that Chevu and Jacen knew where he was going to be? That was… He wasn’t sure. Happenstance?

He was looking at Chevu and all he was seeing was his own failure, failure to prepare her and the others for what the Sith could do, for their faces, for knowing that they needed to be destroyed. The Corellian shook his head. What was he going to do? Was he leaving? Was he committing treason and striking out on his own to handle the Sith? Was he taking his ship and his belongings for a joy ride?

The man had no idea. He had no direction, he acted, that was what he did. He saw. He aimed. He fired.

“You’d be better off with another teacher.” Hope to hell not one of the Jedi. If it was Jacen? Maybe. Maybe he’d approve of that.

But still, before he could even think, he saw his right-hand come in. “The Alliance needs you, Rook. They need the ‘Guard.” What next, Jacen going to hit him with some form of guilt, intentional as Chevu or unintentional as Rook?

[member="Rook"]
[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu heard footsteps behind her but felt no Force signature, which told her that Commander [member="Rook"] had arrived. Perhaps word was getting around the biodome that one of the GA's top Commanders was about to perform a disappearing act. Rook's arrival frayed Chevu's nerves. This was all going very badly. She wanted to talk to Coren alone, but she had a feeling there would soon be a crowd in the hangar. Still, if she couldn't talk some sense into Coren maybe he could.

Chevu tried to ignore the Dreadguard's tone, but instead, it hit her like a punch in the gut. So she was going to be a pariah now. That was just perfect. She glared at Rook and shook her head, blowing a few rogue strands of jet black hair out of her way.

"I don't want another teacher," came her response. She glanced over at Jacen, hoping that he didn't take offense to what she was about to say.

"I don't want to sit in a Temple and meditate about the Jedi tenets. I want to make the Sith bleed. It has to be you, Coren."

If he left now, she knew she'd carry on fighting. Feth it, maybe she'd just train herself. But she knew one thing. If he left now, she'd never forgive him.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Placeholder 0133]

"The Alliance is a means to an end. So long as I have the Dark Lord's head by the end of the next galactic year, I could care less who marches with me into his palace."

Rook caught Chevu's look. He'd liked the gal, as much as you could a friend of a friend. He was not aware of her activities, though judging from Coren's reaction to this man, the Wrath, turning up, he assumed she had something to do with it. He was not as zealous as Coren, he could be reasoned with, but men who were known figures of the Sith's leadership structure?

Well, the Dreadguard had always looked down on force sensitives. To them, a runaway Sith was no more valuable than any one of their soldiers. Keeping one alive was not worth all this. This Wrath should not be allowed to continue breathing, something he felt Coren understood.

So when Starboy tried to dissuade him, Rook just shook his head.

"This Sith they've captured should be the example, not the exception." He cast Chevu, then Jacen a look. "You religious types started this whole thing. People with some sense, who don't have things whispering into their minds about the force, should be leading this war effort. The Sith should be hanged."

Disapproval laced his words like the venom that it was. Part of him was defending Coren's decision, and the other part was defending his own to go with Starboy. Stars knew he was tired of Jedi spewing their redemption ideals again.

"In short, I understand your decision Coren. If you think the alliance is ill equipped to deal with the Sith, then we'll figure something else out. The Republic already tried the compassionate route. Take a look at Coruscant and see how well that went."

[member="Chevu Visz"], [member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren grinned as he looked over Rook, the man knew what he was on about, knew what Coren was all about. “We’ll make it happen, Rook.” He needed Rook to be here for the Alliance. Rook lead the Dreadguard, the Mark 2s at least, and one of the Mark 1s, he wasn’t sure how the hierarchy went, but he still just let it happen. “If you want the Sith to bleed, you need to prove it. The Jedi may not let that happen.” He forgot for a moment that Jacen was there, the one example of a Jedi, barring [member="Jorus Merrill"] (who was stalking this thread) that Coren could see eye to eye with.

He needed the GADF, he needed the support to run this military against the enemy. He would get there, to Coruscant again, and remove the Dark Lord’s head with Rook at his side. He’d remove the Wrath’s head quicker.

Remove the hands from the hands, the voices from the voices, and Vrag from the whole of existence. Coren had big plans for the Sith, and in no small part did he forget salting and burning the earth on which they had made their home. “The Alliance can do it, we just need them on our page. They have hardware and numbers we can use, they… the do need our help.” They’d be frelling lost without the pair of Commanders.

For the first time since he’d entered that hangar, Coren took a breath, a deep breath, an old breathing exercise his long dead father had taught him. And he let it out. Tension was rolling off him, even if the fires inside Coren were only dulled to stormy seas.

"Its survival, and if we don't have the Alliance at our back, who are we fighting this war for?"

[member="Rook"]
[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]
[member="Rook"]
[member="Chevu Visz"]

Jacen stepped forwards again, once more making himself part of the conversation. When he spoke, it was in a quiet, almost hushed tone. The kind of tone that forced others to lower their voices and speak on his level.

“The Alliance fights for the safety of the people within its boundaries. It will endure. Chevu, I’d like a word later. Coren, I was hoping to catch you for a while before you went,” he said, as his eyes turned towards his ship. “You don’t happen to have anything to drink up in there do you?”

 

[Chevu Visz]

All ideological debate aside, the GADF couldn't defeat the Sith without the help of the Jedi. It was foolish to even think that they weren't necessary. Chevu narrowed her eyes at Coren and Rook. It was arrogance that would divide the Alliance, not her dalliance with the brother of a Sith Lord. She opened her mouth to let both of them have it, but clapped it shut when she saw Master Voidstalker approaching.

Jacen wanted a word with her later. Chevu turned towards him with a tight-lipped smile. "Certainly, Master Voidstalker," she told him with a nod.

"I'll be in my quarters. I suppose I'm to be confined to them for a bit. You can find me there."

A mixture of fatigue and nausea hit her in a powerful wave. Chevu needed to go before someone noticed how sick she was. She was done arguing. She'd said what she needed to say to Coren, and the ball was entirely in his court now. Without a word, she whirled on her heel and walked out of the hangar, refusing to look back.

If she meant a damn to him, she'd find out. If not, she would fight the Sith without him.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Rook"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Placeholder 0133]

And that was that. If Rook felt a shred of compassion for the woman, the barest remnant of sympathy, he did not show it. He watched her go with a thin lipped expression, and it was only when she had gone that he reached up to remove his helmet. Rook was not old. There was a reason he preferred to wear his helmet around people. You tended to lose respect when the men and women you were commanding were likely older than you -- now whether or not they had the experience to go with the years was another matter entirely.

With a sigh, he turned to Coren. "The alliance is your baby. It's the easiest place for me to get what I need done." He cast Voidstalker a look. Another Jedi. He fought the urge to curl his lip in disdain. Rook did not have his dislike for the force users before joining the alliance. It was recent ineffectual leadership and hesitation that had changed his opinion of the galaxy's protectors.

They were, after all, who the Dreadguard had been initially created to exterminate.

"I wasn't with the main group on Coruscant for a reason. My mother and sister we refugees on the planet. I went to liberate them. We made it to the space port. When we arrived, a Jedi Padawan I'd known from my time with Ession came at us. Snapped my mother's back, ran Sara through. They're all time bombs, Coren, and so long as they allow these cultists to walk freely, they'll continue to be that way."

His expression did not shift. His voice did not waver. Gone was Alexander's good humor -- he had the look of a murderer, and one who had the tools to accomplish his gruesome goals. "You need to either find a way to control them, or get them out of the system of power. Otherwise it's only a matter of time before they all slip up."


[member="Chevu Visz"], [member="Coren Starchaser"], [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]