The Thieves of Yutan

[Klesta]

By now Yula considered that many among the Sith were simply clueless, as she witnessed it on Yutan: Darth Ferox, Darth Ophidia and especially Darth Abyss. And also Mala Arar, Thengil, The memories of the assault on the Jedi Temple on Yutan left her ambivalent: yes, she had her moment of glory, but she also had her moments of anger. In fact, she was overwhelmed by her feelings of anger at her fellow Sith every time memories from the assault surfaced: lack of anti-aircraft, for one, and also inappropriate tactics: to her eyes, these bad Sith are just a gang who want to see action and explosions when they do act. Oh, Darth Abyss was one clueless Sith Lord: I feel that he can't plan robberies worth two beans! If I wanted to steal the tree, what I would have done would have been to pose as a landscaping company, and then claim that she soil around the tree has been contaminated. Or, alternatively, if I wanted to steal the contents of the vault filled with Jedi artifacts, I would have pretended to be a company making building inspections. Never would I have launched a full-scale assault for the purposes of robbery. And somehow I was dragged in the mess! Yet her path crossed one of the participants in the attack on Yutan once again, and another one who was hailed as a Thief of Yutan by the Sith Inquisitor: [member="Darth Krieg"], by virture of robbing the secret Sith vault of the temple. She arrived with her two lightsabers in tow, but without any of the stuff she stole on Yutan:

"Hi, my name is Yula"

 

[Darth Atrox]

"Your thoughts betray you, Yula."

Darth Krieg made no formal greetings, and turned fluidly on his heel to face the General. The man's fearsome optics surveyed the woman, occasionally squinting as he probed her for weaknesses. Her mind was an open book to the Knight, and despite not having any formal training on how to fully explore it, Yula's train of thought could be translated into his own.

"May I ask, how I would infiltrate the ranks of Republic soldiers and Jedi dressed as a, what was it, maintenance worker?"

Krieg asked with a hint of humour and sarcasm, allowing himself to take a seat and a sip of the liquor on the table beside his metal chair. The two were aboard a rather small ship with most of it's space sacrificed for the rich man's private quarters. With a simple flick of his wrist, the two guards (not that he needed them) stationed at the entrance left the room in a silent rush.

"Take a seat, and speak."

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

"They themselves need their own complement of maintenance workers, but I digress" she told [member="Darth Krieg"] once seated. "Also regular building inspections are required by Republican law; I would assume so anyway"

Darth Abyss might have been in command of the entire operation, her role until Carnifex came was to contain the enemy ground forces until Carnifex could come, and also she was responsible for the entire anti-aircraft apparatus, which managed to take down all the attack craft inside the temple and then some. It was going to be a long road to Sith-hood, how far will she get until she will fully earn the respect of her troops? She knew that, regardless of the flag under which that army would fly, for it to be effective, she still need the troops to respect her.

"I know that so many think evil is the key to success as a Sith. I took advantage of the confusion of the assault to move in and steal the contents of the vault filled with Jedi artifacts. That said, I still have a long way to go until I can stand on my own as a Sith: I learned very little under Darth Ferox. Perhaps I can get a little more out of my learning under you. I know I need to channel my emotions and to embrace them, and not to needlessly kill, but I already knew that much about the dark side and the Sith ways long before I even met with Ferox in the first place. All that I do know about the Force is telekinesis, Force-sense and, surprisingly, Drain Knowledge, but if I use Drain Knowledge at this point, it is going to make me very tired for just a small bit of information. I think it makes sense to set forth an agenda for my training, if you agree to train me. But I do know that learning of the Force is going to last for a while, well after I earn a Darth title, that is, if I earned one at that point"

 

[Darth Atrox]

He gave a simple shrug of his shoulders and reclined on his seat.

"From a certain point of view, evil is the key to the Sith's power. We embrace our emotions, let them fuel us and our lust for power. Passion. Strength. Power. Victory. These can all be translated as the bases of evil, much like the foundations of a building. Anyhow, to start you will not be putting your Force skills into practice. I want you to study one ancient Sith Lord, and tell me how they achieved power, how they lost their power and how you will prevent that from happening to you."

A smile formed on his lips as he picked up a datapad from the otherside of the room, and summoned it to him with the Force.

"I will soon be travelling to Korriban to study the tombs. Perhaps you could join me and learn a little more about your path to the ultimate power."

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

"Oh, yes, I would love to go to Korriban and study the tombs. And which Sith Lord is that? There are several tombs of historically significant Sith"

She was willing to be patient. If it was the price to pay to learn more about how to use the dark side of the Force, so be it. Of course, having a clear knowledge of one's limitations, why it was a limitation, what to do to address them and why was not enough but it was a good start. But she also knew about how most Sith Lords would eschew scholarship almost entirely nowadays, and rumors to this end circulate about a few Lords that were participants in the Yutan assault. She was more familiar with the history of training methods of Force-users than she was with the stories of the historically significant Sith Lords. Yet somehow, passion, strength, power and victory do not necessarily imply that evil is required to achieve these in her mind. She might not know that much about the stories of particular, historically significant Sith Lords, yet she knew people could write dissertations on the lives of a single Sith Lord.

"I always hear about how some Dark Jedi could use the dark side of the Force to do good, and how some Light Sith could use the light side of the Force to do evil, which, to me, means that evil is not as essential to the success of dark-siders or of Sith as you may think"

[member="Darth Krieg"]

 

[Darth Atrox]

Spoiler

Can you find the Sheev cameo?

Krieg shrugged his shoulders. "All of them. To truly understand the Dark Side, you must become familiar with all of her ancient practitioners." he continued before standing up at the start of her next sentence. "Your claims are deluded. Dark Jedi are neither Sith nor Jedi, they are Force-wielders who practice the Dark Side but do not conform to our religion, or the dogmatic narrow minded views of the Jedi. There are no 'light side Sith', who you are referring to are fallen or rogue Jedi who are simply dipping their toes in the pool of darkness we wallow in."

With that, the Knight placed his cloak and lightsaber on the chair behind him and marched over to the other side of the room. There, he grasped two long sticks. "I have changed my mind. Today, I will teach you how to use the Dark Side to fuel your attacks. Stand."

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

Essentially applying my emotions in my attacks, especially the more primal ones, she thought, upon hearing about [member="Darth Krieg"] telling her that he changed his mind. Perhaps she was still going to Korriban in the end and study the lives of the people entombed in the Valley of the Dark Lords. But she knew that it would be best to actually get started doing the practical training while en route to Korriban. Speaking of which, she had to book a ticket to Ziost afterward so that she could proceed in the purchase of the Sith Inquisitor from the proceeds of her sale of a few stolen Jedi artifacts from Yutan. But enough of what she would envision to do once there. She grabbed one of the two long sticks, and she remained calm, knowing that it wasn't the right moment to use the Force and the resulting use of her more primal emotions. And yet Dark Jedi fit her vision of what a fallen or rogue Jedi who simply dip their toes in the pool of darkness [Sith] wallow in, more than a Light Sith would. Light Sith would be people who use the light side of the Force and still somehow follow the Sith Code, but from how the Sith Inquisitor described the Light Sith (even though, in fairness, Darth Banshee was described as a Light Sith mostly because her highest-profile apprentice became a Jedi and took five years to do so) as people who put more thought into their actions than other Sith. And not simply because not all Sith who go to the light can actually become proper Jedi.

"Now, how am I to channel my more... primal emotions in battle to increase my effectiveness at using the dark side?" she asked, with her long stick.

 

[Darth Atrox]

"I want you to open yourself to your feelings. Fear, greed, anger, jealousy; these all give us power to take the upper hand over our opponents. They power the Dark Side energy you and I can both produce. Do not think about where your stick is going to go. Allow the Force to guide every muscle in your body, leaving you free to focus fully on powering yourself."

The lady before him would make a powerful Sith yet, she had the potential and the untapped raw power inside of her. He just had to teach her how. In a few swift movements, the Force propelled him through the air as he began to let go of his conscious mind, the Force feeding him information on his opponents next move, and how he will counter it.

"The Jedi are encouraged to feel no emotions. No love, no hate. Only a void equivalent to the vacuum of space inside their hearts. That is what separates us from them. Living beings need to feel something to properly live. It is just that we then use those feelings, that raw emotion to give us focus."

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

Anger is more effective than fear, greed or even jealousy at powering up attacks. Yes, there is place for fear, greed or jealousy in using the dark side, but not every emotion is suitable for using the dark side in every occasion. Yet in her anger she used telekinesis to throw her stick at him, not caring for a moment where it landed, so she simply used her fear to rush forth and collect her stick again, using telekinesis. But, because she was a beginner at using the dark side of the Force, that sequence of movements cost her a lot of Force-energy. Then again she knew that her Force-training wasn't free. If her pain came from using more powers Now that she has a better idea of exactly what it means to let the Force guide every muscle in a Force-user's body, she has an additional Force-power in her repertoire: Force-speed. She was angry that she had so little Force-energy to use it for enhancing her own motion. Or pushing/pulling things out of desire.

"It feels a little tiresome and angry at the same time to use the dark side" she said, panting, after a few moments of using the Force for enhancing her motion.

[member="Darth Krieg"]