Dominion The Shadow War - Act One - Quiet as a Shadow (Silver Jedi Concord dominion of Orleon)

[Silver Strand]

(Quick OOC Background here)

Orleon, home of the Nimbus Alliance, has been struck by the Crymorah Syndicate. With a mass of pirates and mercenaries by their side, the Syndicate raiding party overwhelmed the motley array of starfighters and tramp freighters thrown up by the Alliance in a last bid, desperate defense. Descending in gunships and heavily armed blockade runners, the Syndicate indiscriminately blasted their way through Nest's Paradise, causing catastrophic collateral damage in the process and throwing the city into chaos and mourning. After destroying much of the space port and raiding much of the nearby warehouses of any goods, the marauders departed, leaving behind a shattered nation on its knees. The clans are recalling many of its members home as part of the summoning for a rare Family Council. With eyes on the expansionist New Imperial Order nearby, their newly annointed leader, Thalia Nest, calls in a few favors with nearby Silver Assembly representatives asking for aid for her nation in its time of troubles.

Scene 1 - Clouded Skies

Nest's Paradise, Orleon
The fires have been put out and much of the rubble has been cast off into the seas, but the clouds above Nest's Paradise are still gray and desolate. The two hospitals on the island city have been overloaded -medical resources and personnel are short. The Silver Assembly has dispatched a group of jedi, political representatives, and disaster relief personnel from the Silver Service Corps to see what can be done to help prevent further loss of life and property. Perhaps just as importantly, they have been instructed to entertain an audience with Thalia Nest herself regarding the Concord's friendship with the Nimbus Alliance. - a hazardous and tedious process given the Nimbus Alliance's reputation.


Scene 2 - Darkened Starlight

Ship graveyard surrounding Trasse

A hyperspace scout with Clan Chussido, Darweetu has tracked down some of the mercenaries and pirates that accompanied the Crymorah Syndicate raiders to the nearby Trasse System, home to a supposedly abandoned Imperial base. But something is wrong. A large number of deserted hulks are found orbiting the old base. Some are clearly ancient and haven't moved in years. Several were spotted attacking Orleon itself but have suffered new damage since that battle. When Darweetu first arrived on the outskirts of the system, her sensors showed over a thousand life forms in the area. Now there are only several hundred. Her anger tempered wariness of the unknown danger in the system, Darweetu and her scout ship wait on the edge of the system - waiting for other ships of the Nimbus Alliance and the Concord before pushing her luck any further.

 

[Gir Quee]

Spaceport, Nest's Paradise, Orleon

Salmakk and Gir strolled down the ramp of the Setting Sun, itself a relic of better times for the adopted brothers - back when life was simple on Hast. A gentle breeze almost immediately brought the familiar humid and salty air of the sea, but almost immediately afterwards the blonde man caught a waft of ozone and leaking chemicals. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, even his surveyed the landing areas, now mostly ruined duracrete pads with a smattering of metal debris. The city might be called a paradise, but clearly it's not anymore. No sooner had he strode down the ramp when a motley trio followed down in his wake: Ariela, his "assistant", Sariya, his echani bodyguard, and Dav, resident scumbug and tenuous connection to the criminal underworld.

Sariya playfully sauntered up and tapped his shoulder, "Looks like a nice vacation spot, boss. How long are we going to be here?"

Salmakk's mouth gaped open, "Are you sane? People are dying here..."

She eyed the mon calamari seriously, "People are always dying in these parts. It's linked to Hutt Space. But I can tell, you've never been there, have you?"

"Not in any sort of particularly dangerous fashion," frowned the blonde man, surveying the damage, "like most sane people. But forget that, some of these structures seem less than stable to my eye. Salmakk, your expert opinion?"

That gripped the engineer's attention from the echani's triteness, "They'll stay standing for now, but they're not habitable...not at least in galactic standard sense. That block over there clearly doesn't have any power, probably doesn't have fresh water."

"Good thing they get plenty of rain here..." quipped Sariya.

"That's not funny."

"What?"

"The admiral is right," cut in Ariela, "you're going to have to have a better hold on your tongue when the others get here..."

Even as the replica droid spoke, they could hear the whine of repulsorlift engines of more ships from the Silver Jedi Concord and their allies arriving. The admiral looked around. Things aren't great around here clearly, but where is the welcoming party? Where is the Alliance?

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Mykal-class Courier Another Chance, nearing Trasse

The jedi master found himself with his eyes closed, meditating on the Force as the glowing lines of hyperspace travel filled the ship's bubble canopy. Silence had become a rare luxury for him lately, between attending various meetings on behalf of the Silver Jedi Order, teaching other jedi, or relunctantly following the path of the Guardian - one which he followed even now.

An old master's words echoed out to him: You will find wisdom, she said, when you have conversations with the dead.

It was cryptic advice that the susevfian had found could be interpreted in at least a dozen different ways, whether it was having discussions with a holocron's gatekeeper or simply reading the ancient works of literature. Yet he felt that the most fulfilling way to follow that advice had been to commune with the Force itself. He hadn't encountered any Force ghosts - at least not yet - but he felt that some spirit or spirits in it were leading him even now to his true destiny - in that search for meaning, he took comfort.

His transcendant reverie was interrupted by a remarkably loud intonation form the ship's flight console, announcing that their reversion to realspace was eminent. His eyes fluttered open before he double checked his flight harness. He tugged at it, noting with satisfaction that it still held tight. All right, good so far...The flashing lights of hyperspace ceased, and the man quickly cut the power to most of the ship's nonessential systems, letting it glide almost silently towards another hull that seemed almost adrift in space. Reaching out through the Force, the jedi could feel Darweetu's presence, before he pushed his consciousness outwards to feel for the presence of others.

 

[Vaux Gred]

Dinii-class Heavy patrol ship Seeker III

It had been a long time since Vaux was behind the controls of a vessel as heavy as this. Dang. Come to think of it she hadn't flown something like this since she'd become a fighter pilot. Sure Dinii-class ships weren't quite scouts, but she didn't trust that super light scout fighter Ares came up with a while ago so she'd stick to using this beast. Scanners didn't seem to be picking up anything yet, at least until she spotted a couple of blips.

"VK, get on the turrets just in case." The droid whistled before connecting to the ship's droid port, while the C1 aboard seemed annoyed.

"You should have brought more cre...."

"Oh, ne'johaa (shut up) already!" She slowly pulled the ship around, opening up a channel to the courier and scout ship. She'd try to not sound annoyed at a certain droid, but she'd let her Concord Dawn way of talking hopefully hit it.

"Sorry I didn't bring anything more scouty. Only scout my 'lovely' engineer friend had looked like it was made by Sienar, and I don't really trust these kind of places."

Travot Ravenna

 

[Ura Iolar]

Ura quietly followed behind Gir, mostly keeping to herself, and Balru by extention. The young presence was definitely a bit worried about how both her and Ura would react to what was a combat zone, but the Lervonian Padawan needed to do this. Plus, being on light duty meant she was just there to help relief efforts. Of course Sariya's words weren't exactly helping the Padawan's demeaner. It was already hard enough to see what had happened, but the timing of the comment.... Heck even the droid was telling her to shut it. Ura would finanlly speak a little after that, hoping beyond anything that Sariya wouldn't be able to feel how aggravated her words made the Lervon behind her monotone voice.

"She's right. Take it from the Padawan from a planet the Bryn took. Stuff like that doesn't help."

Gir Quee

 

[Madison Starr]

​

Orleon Spaceport
w Gir Quee | Ura Iolar


Gir, Ura, Ariela, Dak, and Sariya dismounted their ship nearby. Alas, no Alliance welcoming party had come out yet to meet them. A pity. Though, perhaps Madam Nest was simply just busy. You couldn't blame her. This "paradise" looked a complete mess.

Madison Starr gazed out at the debris and destruction as her Medical Pelta-Class Frigate slowly came to a landing outside. She stood on the small bridge of the vessel. Overlooking the pilots and sighing to herself. If this was the aftermath of Bryn Space? It seemed law-less and wild. Perhaps that exactly what she should have expected anyway.

Moments later,

She was dismounting the frigate with the rest of the security team. They'd repurpose the ship into a mobile hospital and start taking patients soon. But first? She needed to make sure everything was safe.

Madison Starr wore all black leathers except for her soft orange fur jacket. Twin plasma-wands equipped against the small of her back and her infamous blaster pistol hidden away inside her coat.

She slowly approached Gir's landing party. Looking around to see if Thalia Nest had finally shown up.

 

[Gir Quee]

"She's right. Take it from the Padawan from a planet the Bryn took. Stuff like that doesn't help."

"All right, all right, I can take a hint..." said the echani, throwing up her hands as if to ward off blows from Ura Iolar .

For now. Gir let a small smile briefly curl up his lips. As good as she is in a tight situation, this is not her thing...not yet at least. But who knows, if these people are as salt of the earth as Dav makes them out to be, they might get along just fine...The admiral heard the whine of the repulsorlifts behind grow louder as Madison Starr 's medical frigate came in to land. The man was certain that it would be well received, and he could already see figures in the distance pointing and looking at it - the old design was famous and well-known. Doubtlessly word of mouth would spread quickly, even in a city where the most modern of comms technology was down or in chaos.

Even as the medical frigate's landing party joined up with the Setting Sun's passengers, he heard a lower pitch whine from around the building before a trio of almost starship-like landspeeders zipped around the corner. While not an expert on ground vehicles, the admiral could tell that the vehicles were probably reasonably fast and rugged, but their tan base coat showed signs of paint chipping and recent scouring from blaster fire - they probably had been hit themselves in the attack of Orleon. The doors popped open, allowing a motley group of people to depart, headed by a slim brunette woman wearing what appeared to be a combat-ready jumpsuit, complete with holstered blaster pistol. The others seemed to be equally ready for combat, though the blonde man guessed by their lack of standardized uniform and seemingly random weapons that this was more of a hastily thrown posse rather than a true security detail.

The woman eyed Gir, Madison, Ura, and the others in turn and offered a warm smile, "I am Thalia Nest, leader of Clan Nest and by extension, this city as well. I wish I could offer you better hospitality than this, but times are...not the greatest..."

That's an understatement...

She gestured at the medical frigate, "I...our people truly appreciate you bringing a medical ship to us. There are still many who could use more help than we could provide. I will be certain to have one of our doctors or medical administrators to get in touch with your crew there to start coordinating care.

I know that I am asking much of you, but I would like to start our meeting as soon as possible...in somewhere more private. Do any of you need to get anything from your ships before we depart? Or do you have questions of me? Otherwise, the speeders there will take us away to my my offshore residence to talk about things in a little bit more conventional surroundings..."

 

[Tsheersk]

Tsheersk's Horizon-class, Trasse system

Tsheersk received the signal and traveled to the Trasse system from Telos IV. What was the Trandoshan doing on Telos? Well, because Telos IV is currently not a part of any major factions, he thought that some Sith may take refuge there and he decided to hunt them down. He did not found any Sith, but got into a fight in a local cantina.

Tsheersk realised that if there is any Crymorah Syndicate raiders left, this is a good opportunity to fight them. Tsheersk quietly said: "Well, this is where the fun begins..."

Then, the Trandoshan tried contacting nearby ships in the Trasse system: "I'm Tsheersk, I came as reinforcement."

Travot Ravenna Vaux Gred

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Mykal-class Courier Another Chance, nearing Trasse
Allies: Vaux Gred | Tsheersk
Enemies: TBA

His comlink headset buzzed as the others announced their arrival. Travot glanced at his ship's sensors: There's four of us...and none of us are very large or have a lot of people...His eyes turned to a number of the hulls orbiting around the old imperial proving grounds. During the time he had waited for others to arrive, he'd had a chance to better inspect the drifting space hulks. Most of them appeared to be ancient bulk freighters and drone barges, nearly worthless on the modern market. He guessed that at one point, the old base had been used as a dumping ground by pirates looking to simply hold and offload cargo taken from their prizes before using it or selling it themselves somewhere else. There were nearly no modern vessels present save for a trio of warships that had participated in the Crymorah Syndicate attack. The largest of these was a Terrik-series Attack Frigate gaudily painted in a dazzling black and gold color scheme, followed in line an almost stock CR90, and lastly by an almost decrepit looking Discril-class Attack Cruiser. That last ship had no life form readings on it at all, while the Corellian Corvette had probably half a dozen - but reaching out through the Force, Travot could tell that none on the CR90 were conscious - a troubling finding. Perhaps more ominously, there were still hundreds of lifeform readings on the attack frigate and on the asteroid base, but when he reached out through the Force to those presences, he felt fear, anger, chaos, and death.

The same sort of feelings that one might find on a battlefield.

Yet there were no signs of obvious conflict from the outside. Are they having an internal fight? Or is something else going on? Part of him wondered if maybe they had accidentally stumbled upon a group of Starweirds, but something felt off.

He toggled his comlink, "This is Master Ravenna of the Silver Jedi Order. Everyone present, let's take our craft in to dock with that attack frigate over there. All of their combat systems are powered down, but I sense that something is not right there. I'll meet you all in the airlock area there."

'This is a dangerous course of action," warned Darweetu, "my scanners show that there still dozens of enemies onboard."

"Maybe," said the large man, "but something doesn't feel right to me. I don't sense any hostility towards us, and they clearly aren't ready for combat."

"You're a braver person that I. Myself and my ship will wait out here, ready to go if any of you need a hot extraction."

She might right...He goosed his courier forward, slowly letting it run up to speed while he headed straight for the frigate. He half expected at least one of the gun turrets to suddenly pivot about to face and shoot at him - but none did. Instead, as he neared the craft, he felt more lifeforms disappear and fade away into the currents of the Force. He started to feel a sense of danger for the first time - whatever was responsible for killing those onboard the frigate could be a threat to him. The Chance swooped in to dock at one of the starboard docking ports. Wearing his plate armor and wielding his inactivated saber, the bulky man stepped through the passageway and climbed onboard the attack frigate. Half of the lights were out in the docking array, and those still on flickered. There were two bodies on the floor - both appeared to be humanoids in their earlier twenties, wearing garb commonly worn by spacers. Each had pistol still holstered to their belt, yet blood clearly had been pouring out of their chests for minutes. Neither breathed.

Fear and anger tugged at him in equal measure.

Well, this is not a good sign...

 

[Haro Harend]

'So much pain. So much suffering.'

Haro Harend disembarked the Concord transport, taking in Nest's Paradise sorrowfully. He had heard of the world- a unique fusion, a balance of man and nature. It wasn't quite Coruscant, but it wasn't Haruun Kal either. He hadn't been able to enjoy it in his youth- too many wars to fight, to busy hiding.

He walked down the ramp, hastily stepping aside so the medical personnel rushing forward wouldn't inadvertently trample him in their haste to get to an overwhelmed, under-staffed, and under-resourced hospital nearby.

'It's 874 ABY. All the war, the death, the sacrifice, the comprises we made for peace...and it's like we're in the same place.' A freak accident involving a hyperspace jump and a eldritch blast from a Force Storm conjured by the long-thought dead Sith Lord, sent Haro crashing to Asog- nearly 849 years into the future. Fighting his way across a battlefield against a New Sith Order and the self-styled New Jedi Order, he managed to abscond with a Sith vessel- which was promptly track-beamed by Concord vessel. Haro was treated for his injuries, and subsequently interrogated by a Silver Shadow. Sensing no deceptions- "Buddy, in this galaxy, anything's possible"- he gave him passage to Kashyyk, where he was welcomed to Silver Rest. However, after recuperating for a few days, Haro leapt at the chance to do some good and see more of the galaxy- anything to stop dwelling on his past.

Haro paused in his internal musing, glancing backwards towards the coast, then walked towards it. It would have been beautiful, if not for the air still smoky from the recent conflict. The Korun peered forward, taking off his glasses.

"Why am I here? This a job for Skywalker, Kestis, or Katarn...why did the Force send me here?", he mused aloud. Sighing, he trudged back up the beach, back to where the Concord transports had docked. He spotted a number of people mingling near the landing pads, two of whom he recognized from the in-flight briefing- Gir Quee , who he was to rendezvous with and support, and Thalia Nest, leader of . He picked up the pace, catching the tail end of their conversation:

"...Meeting as soon as possible...in somewhere more private. Do any of you need to get anything from your ships before we depart? Or do you have questions of me? Otherwise, the speeders there will take us away to my my offshore residence to talk about things in a little bit more conventional surroundings...

"Water, if you have it", Haro grunted as he walked up to the assembled group. He inclined his head to everyone in the group. "Haro Harond, Jedi. Just got in."

Gir Quee Ura Iolar Madison Starr

 

[Tsheersk]

Horizon class, Trasse system

Tsheersk heard Travot's message and then Tsheersk responded: "Copy that."

Tsheersk boarded into the same dock as Travot, took his lightsaber and took a step into the attack frigate. He noticed the creepy environment and then he said: "What happened?" The Trandoshan realized that the fun is about to begin.

Travot Ravenna Vaux Gred

 

[Vaux Gred]

Vaux looked at the frigate, smiling a little as she thought. Honestly this entire places seemed like a gold mine to her.

"Right Jetii. Following you in. If we survive this I'll have to do some ship hunting through here." She would push the heavy patrol craft forward, taking a lower docking port before grabbing her new Bando Gora Needle Disruptor, loaded with power cells, and her custom Trayc'kal. She decided that should be all she'd need for this right. She looked back, getting VK to follower her while the Seeker III's C1 droid would stay put. She would soon look into the fridate, seeing the two humanoids on the ground, and the blood. The Mandalorian would kneel down, looking at them. She took particular note of the still holstered weapons.

"That doesn't make sense.... VK. See if this tub has security cameras or something." She would then quickly pull both pistols, not trusting this situation right now. The potential that someone, or something, a lot stealthier than them was around. She would look at the two Jedi there, notable eying the Trandoshan. "Whatever it was, these two never saw it coming."

Travot Ravenna Tsheersk

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

CAEDYN ARENAIS​

---

Objective One: Provide medical support & meet with Thalia Nest.
Location: 2x GR-75 medium transports > Nest's Paradise, Orleon.
Attn: Gir Quee // Travot Ravenna // Vaux Gred // Ura Iolar // Madison Starr // Tsheersk // Haro Harend

---

​

It had been a while now since Caedyn Arenais had last spoken with any official representatives of the Silver Concord, let alone left his homeworld of Mnemosyne mission-bound for the Order of the Silver Jedi, yet both of these things had occurred following the news coming from Orleon. Residing upon the outskirts of the Mnemos Jedi Temple grounds, Caedyn had very few obligations that would keep him from agreeing to help.

Seeking Caedyn's assistance, Gir Quee had reached out to the former Jedi Knight who had ties to both the Mnemos Government and the Humanitarian Organization called Lifeline Connect LTD. The latter of which Caedyn had called upon and managed to requisition two GR-75 Medical Transports full of personnel and supplies all ready to provide relief to those in dire need; It had been the Bryn'adul who had motivated Caedyn to found the Humanitarian Organization after-all, for times just like these.

Seated within the passenger bay and awaiting word from their captain, Caedyn looked over the datapad held by both hands in his lap, trying to refresh and catch up with all that had happened since he had been away from the Silver Jedi Order. He had found himself at a crossroads where the consistent conflict he faced within his Jedi profession had begun to distract himself from the original motivations that led him to join and become a Jedi Knight; Caedyn had lost faith in most people, though he would never have admitted it to another, and he had begun to look upon the Galaxy through a bitter view, slowly deterring his old compassionate self from keeping an open and empathetic mind towards those he interacted with.

Caedyn's decision to resign as a Jedi Knight had offered him the distance and the time to return to calmer and more humble roots where he had been able to unwind and seek guidance from the Force, as well as the mentorship of his father's spiritual company from time to time. Naturally, being contacted by the Silver Jedi after so long had brought about a great deal of nostalgia and curiosity for that old life he had left. It was easy to wonder how the Students that he had last seen training within the Silver Rest were doing nowadays, and what new Jedi had arrived and started down their path towards Knighthood...

"Caedyn?" an unfamiliar voice caused the man to stir from his thoughts, turning to look upon one of the flight attendants, a younger woman who wore the uniform of the crew of the ship. "Sorry to disturb you, but the Captain wished to inform you that we'll be arriving shortly and Concord personnel are expecting you".

"Wonderful, thank you" Caedyn replied politely, offering a gentle smile.

 

[Travot Ravenna]

"What happened?"

Travot turned to face Tsheersk , "I'm not sure...not sure yet, at least."

He knelt down and pressed a hand against one of the corpse's backs. It didn't move, nor did he sense any life in it, but it was still warm. He frowned as he turned the rodian's body over to face him. The eyes didn't blink back at him, instead seeming to drink in the whole room around them.

"They must have died recently," said the bulky man, even as the mandalorian woman removed the weapons from the holsters. Probably not a bad idea...

"That doesn't make sense.... VK. See if this tub has security cameras or something. Whatever it was, these two never saw it coming."

Travot nodded in agreement Vaux Gred 's assessment. Even she spoke, his eyes scanned the abdominal wound on the rodian spacer. Most of it was a tangled mess of blood and clothing, but there was a glint to something small inside there that didn't seem right. He stretched out a hand and concentrated on it. Shards of glass rose up from out the wound. He rose up and kept the shards suspended in the air for the others to see. A closer examination showed flecks of purple underneath the blood that had dried over the shards.

"This isn't normal glass, like from a window. It's something else...not something from this vessel, or anything commercial that I've seen. Seems almost artisanal given that color. "

The large man gently rolled the other body over. This one didn't seem to have an obvious, external wound. Instead, blood seemed to have pushed itself from the inside out. Dark purple and black splotches covered the man's pale skin like splashes of paint. Travot frowned.

"That's a lot of bruising and internal bleeding...whatever killed these two isn't something normal. You both have weapons or some way to defend yourselves, right? We don't need to be next ones to die. Any ideas on what we're facing here?"

(OOC suggestion for Vaux: try using the "roll dice" feature on the post here. Depending on what you roll, I'll give out more details on what your droid finds in the ship's computers).

 

[Jax Thio]

Location: Jax's X-Wing
Equipment: Galactic Alliance Flight Suit, Jax's Prosthetic Arm, Jax's Second Lightsaber, Promise Ring to Jairdain
Tag: Travot Ravenna , Madison Starr, Caedyn Arenais, Vaux Gred , Tsheersk

While he was sightseeing at Kayshykk, Jax received the distress call from the Silvers regarding a disturbance occurring in the Trasse system. The Jedi Master hopped his X-Wing with BB-12 crying at the fact that his vacation was over and rendezvous with the fleet. As soon as Jax came out of Hyperspace, he reached for his radio. "Attention all Silvers," Jax said. "This is Jedi Master: Jax Thio of the Galactic Alliance ready to assist. How may I be of service?"

Jax hoped that things wouldn't be too bad, but there was a great disturbance in the Force. Obviously, there was something devious going on here.......

 

[Tsheersk]

Attack frigate, Trasse system

Tsheersk tried thinking of what it could be and he made the guess: "I don't know, perhaps there is a traitor in their ranks?"

Then, the Trandoshan's comlink buzzed: it was Jax's message. Tsheersk responded: "This is Tsheersk the Jedi Knight. We see spacer corpses, enemy turrets are not working. Maybe you can help?"

Travot Ravenna Vaux Gred Jax Thio

 

[Vaux Gred]

(OOC: So I didn't know the site had a bot and did it on the SJC discord. Hehe... ha....)

Vaux looked as the Jedi began to pull shards out of the bodies. She really didn't like the looks of that, and she couldn't help but feel ever so slightly jealous of the ability to use the Force. She shook it off though, and turned to look closely at the glass. He was right. Transparisteel wouldn't shatter like that. Heck, considering what she had done to fighters in the past it takes a lot to break that stuff. She figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least see if this strange glass was somewhere else nearby, but this was a combat ship, not some luxury freighter or cruise liner. Even if this ship was run by the ghost of Hondo she wouldn't believe something like that would be here. Vaux may not have had the Force, but something about this gave her a bad feel.

"I'm a Mandalorian. Of course I have a weapon or three. As for what could've done this.... The injuries are just so different that they don't make sense. At least not if it's the same thing." VK, meanwhile, would begin tapping into a slot he found, and at the same time would pick up the new transmission, and whistle over to Vaux.

"Alliance, 'ey? Not sure if they'd know something we don't."

Travot Ravenna Tsheersk Jax Thio

 

[Madison Starr]

​

Orleon Spaceport
P2 - Haro Harend | Ura Iolar | Caedyn Arenais | Gir Quee


Thalia Nest arrived and beckoned the group to follow. Madison gave a nod of understanding and nod to Haro's arrival as well. Everybody seemed ready to depart. So Madison turned and gave a comm back to the security team of the Pelta. She'd be going with the main group for awhile.

When the Medical Frigate acknologed the situation, she hung up, and returned to Thalia. Letting Gir and his associates take the lead on this one.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir turned around to face Haro Harend and offered a nod of polite acknowledgement even as one of the clansmen accompanying Thalia handed the jedi a bottled water. This will go better with several jedi around...He spared a brief glance at Madison Starr and Ura Iolar . While they were all very different, he knew that their reputation alone could easily smooth things. Thalia looked over the assembled group and offered a constrained smile.

"We should go now. Please everyone, take a seat wherever you can find it. I realize it's not probably not the nicest ride you've been in...but well, it's what we have right now."

The admiral nodded in understanding as his party clambered into one of speeders, with Ariela preferring to stay close to him in the back of the speeder even as Dav and Sariya took spots closer to the doors - but for very different reasons. Sariya preferred to quickly get into a fight if one was breaking out, while Dav would likely be the first to try and escape such an ordeal altogether. Their driver, a lanky man wearing a tan, pocket-studded jumpsuit offered them all a lopsided smile.

"The name's Jan, pleasure to make your all's acquaintance. I could give you a quick tour on the way there, but the way things look would probably be unrecognizable with the damage and people swarming around trying to fix things and help people and what not. But feel free to ask me any questions while we roll through."

If the admiral thought he might be able to take in much of the sights, he soon found he was sorely mistaken. Jan gunned the engine, sending the speeder surging forward at speeds where he could only catch glimpses of their surroundings. The buildings looked like they might have been beautiful once - and might be once again after some work. Gleaming light-colored stone and steel monoliths that grew to the sky among a verdant sea of green. But that all quickly disappeared as they entered a dark tunnel set into a rocky wall. The glow panels within the tunnel bathed the speeder's occupants in a cold, polarizing light - he almost felt like Ariela looked more mechanical than she was really was, while Sariya's already pale skin made her look like a ghost. But within a few minutes, the speeder jetted out onto a sandy beach, complete with small villas sprouting up the hillside and tropical trees interspersed among them. He managed to catch a glimpse of the sea, noting that it seemed relatively placid, and briefly reminding him of his ocean homeworld.

Suddenly the craft swerved to the right and onto a narrow stretch of duracrete that stretched out into the ocean. Water lapped over it from time to time, making the man wonder if that was intentional for conservation purposes or if it was just getting worn down by the passage of time. But they were moving too fast for him to catch any detail of its aging. The speeder soon decelerated, only slightly slower than the initial acceleration before it passed through a gateway and into the villa's enclosed courtyard. The villa itself seemed modest in size for a woman of Thalia's supposed power, yet the man noted that the walls remained perfectly white and devoid of any sort of staining or erosion while the potted plants that ringed the courtyard were almost too healthy looking. Old family home? His reverie was interrupted by Jan promptly shepherding them all out under a crimson awning, where they were once more but politely waved inside. No time for sightseeing, huh?

Thalia offered a warm smile as she walked in with them, as did most of the Nimbus Alliance clansmen did. A duros can around to immediately serve refreshments and a young falleen woman seemed to make it a point to meet every delegate present with a warm smile. While other clansmen of the Nimbus Alliance quickly attended to their guest's needs and started to converse, Thalia beckoned Admiral Quee and a few other members of the delegation to a more secluded spot in the corner of the living area. She gestured for them to take a seat, even as she sat down and reclined in a high-backed chair

"Welcome to my home....my family's home really. I figure things can be a little less intimidating here, and we can talk more openly...without fear of any...uh...public misunderstandings that might make either of our lives or missions more...shall we say difficult.

I must thank you for your prompt aid, and especially those that you sent to accompany Darweetu as they track down the attackers.

But this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

There can be no doubt that Nimbus Alliance and Crymorah Syndicate are at war, and it will get ugly in ways that aren't common between more civilized opponents who follow some form of common galactic law. You all are now a part of this war too, whether that was intentional or understood when you arrived here.

So I must now make you understand what's really going to happen, because the balance of power is shifting. We...and by we...I mean the various...independent enterprises across this stretch of space have had a number of...ah...informal agreements, understandings if you will that have kept things relatively peaceful. Some of that is clearly out of the window. I suspect some of our old friends and business partners will rally to our cause, and some might stab us in the pack. But the same goes for the Syndicate too - someone's always looking to get another leg up on their potential competition.

This is not always a clean, clear cut conflict. We have some ways, some methods of doing things out that you might find...morally questionable. I need to know how far you all, as representatives of your Order jedi, and you of the military, admiral, think you can feasibly stomach.

Because this is going to be a tough fight. If we're going to fight clean, we'd need a good portion of the Concord military - but I know we don't have that, not with the Imperials knocking at the border. So we have to fight dirty, or start finding some good alternatives to it.

As we speak, a team from one of the other clans in the Alliance is en route to firebomb what we believe to be a large Syndicate clearing house. Destroying it will hurt them greatly, hitting them in the pocket book where it counts and more importantly for you, admiral, it will hopefully take down their leadership. But there's going to be excess damage - some of their slave trading partners frequently take their ships there for "exchanges", and knowing Ryell's men, I won't be surprised to hear if there's some other collateral damage to other buildings and people around it.

I can't stop men out after blood without giving them a good alternative and quick - a different plan to act on soon. So what you can you all give me instead before things start to spiral into more...morally dubious areas? I'll answer any questions that you have if we can come up with something better..."

Caedyn Arenais

 

[Travot Ravenna]

"I don't know, perhaps there is a traitor in their ranks?"

Travot considered Tsheersk 's answer, "Maybe, that would explain how the attacker got onto the ship in the first place. It would explain why the spacers here didn't draw their weapons and were surprised. But these wounds are weird..."

He continued to study the bodies carefully as the trandoshan jedi spoke to Jax Thio . As he did so, he listened to Vaux Gred as her droid attempted to access the ship's computer systems.

"I'm a Mandalorian. Of course I have a weapon or three. As for what could've done this.... The injuries are just so different that they don't make sense. At least not if it's the same thing."

"Certainly not the same weapon or technique," agreed Travot, "my first thought was maybe some sort of exotic weapon, maybe a concussion rifle or sonic blaster. It's not unheard of for some of the more adept criminal types to have some sort of favored exotic weapon that could give them an edge, but something about this just doesn't match up. Was the glass simply there incidentally? Maybe a glass figurine or dinnerware that the rodian just happened to be carrying when he was attacked? But anything like that seems odd to be carrying around, especially given who and where we're at."

The mandalorian's droid offered a few sounds, and activated a nearby visual display flatscreen mounted on the bulkhead wall. It flashed through several images, showing that a large number of the security cameras were offline for some reason, while others apparently were online even now but the rooms they were in were largely still dark, despite obvious light sources still being on nearby. Out of the corner of several of the feeds though one could occasionally catch a glimpse of quick moving, shadowy humanoid. He squinted as he viewed the feed. Multiple humanoids? None of the shapes seemed to match up exactly with the others in the other feeds, but the jedi couldn't tell if that was the result of simply using cheap cameras, some sort of stealth technology used by the intruder, some inherent property of the figure's biology, or something else. Perhaps more alarming were the other bodies of the newly dead. One body appeared to be halfway through a wall. Others had obvious cuts on them again, though one actually looked like it might have been slain by a lightsaber. Occasionally, he could catch sight of a walking crewmen in one still, then blackness, and then when the darkness disappeared there'd be a pile of ash where the crewman once stood. Travot frowned.

"Whatever that is doesn't look like anything normal. Hard to visual anything on there, but it doesn't seem to be carrying any obvious weapons - no exotic weapon like I thought might be causing this. This is much more dangerous, maybe some sort of sithspawn, military experiment, legendary creature, or some sort of Force user?"

He briefly closed his eyes to concentrate on the Force, only to feel several more presences fade from existence, "And it's still out there now, killing things onboard this ship."