Those Like Us

[Vrak Nashar]

Athiss

His homeworld was in turmoil.

Civil War cut a swath across Athiss, infighting between families, the Council, everyone. It had all worked out so perfectly, he couldn't have asked for more. He and Neesa had killed Lord Baltha, and the empty position upon the Council had sparked a scramble for power. It was beautiful. Siedra had acted exactly the way he had wanted her to, the others of course opposed her, and in a matter of days everything had exploded like a powder keg.

Skirmishes were flaring up all over the planet, small battles and raids the families conducted against one another. Siedra was holed up in a city in the north, the remaining Four Councilors had retreated to their estates, and everyone seemed to be clamoring for as much power and strength as they could get.

The Chaos that now raged across Athiss had allowed Vrak to return to his homeworld, the Hssiss-Class stealth ship landing on the ground of his former estate, now a barren ruin. When he and Seraphina had left this place he'd known someone would take it. He hadn't expected them to destroy it. He frowned as he stepped off the ramp of his ship, surveying the broken pieces of his palace. Several of the spires had collapsed in on themselves, a few walls were bashed to bits, and even the central dome looked as though a war had torn across it.

He frowned and shook his head. "Ensure the structure is safe."

The central palace would likely been fine, it had been built to last. That was all they would need for now.

"Then call what remaining allies I have." Most had abandoned him after his long absence, but not all. "It's time."

Chaos was all well and good, but eventually it had to end.

He just had to be the one to end it.

 

[Yidhra]

Three long nails drummed against a block of overturned rubble. Used to be that it was an ornate chunk of the ceiling, complete with bas-relief depicting wars long past. Now it was just a chunk of orange stone, much like the rest of the planet.

At the sound of a vessel landing, the nails scratched to a sharp stop. Their owner curled her nose, tendrils twitching.

Promptly, she rose from her perch on the broken rock and swept the dust from her robes.

Finally.

Her steps were determined, yet ever-plagued by that asynchronous lagging leg. They rang out clearly in the abandoned structure, down the halls and corridors of the sprawling palace of House Nashar. She emerged through a broad archway, narrowing her eyes at the advancing figure of their first (and likely the only) remaining heir.

“Nashar,” she greeted when he came close enough to hear. “Good to see you’re still alive.”

The sentiment wasn’t entirely insincere. Allegiances among the Sith were as whimsical as the weather, and harboring any kind of loyalty in their society was tantamount to suicide. She’d be lying if she didn’t admit that she thought Nashar had a rare combination of ambition and drive, however; the same kind of combination that one so frequently saw realized in great warlords and leaders of the past.

His death would’ve been horribly inconvenient, if nothing else. Yidhra would have been forced to find another competent individual, and with the war on, many of those were lying face-down in a bloody ditch.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Delilah Ames"]

His lips thinned as he wandered through the ruins, the voice echoing against the broken blocks around him. His gaze snapped towards the other Pureblood, tension running through his muscles. Athiss was never a safe place, not for him, not for anyone with any real ambition.

Friends often betrayed friends. Brothers and sisters killed one another, and sons murdered their fathers. It was simply how Athiss worked. If you had power there would inevitably be others that craved it. Vrak had plenty of nominal allies, Neesa, Savan, Berin, and of course Yidhra. The latter had been absent as of late, though he supposed that was no real fault of her own. The woman had likely been securing her own position and now with the Civil War raging had seen opportunity.

He couldn't blame her. "Death does not suit me."

The Pureblood said simply as he stepped through the ruins, his foot landing on mosaic tile that had once decorated the lobby of the palace, He frowned for a moment, looking down at the now broken picture of his families ancestry. It was regretful that this place had been destroyed, he had hoped to find it simply controlled by one lordling or another. A sigh escaped him, a small shake of his head as he turned towards the woman.

"I hope my little war hasn't been too much of a hindrance to you." There was amusement in his tone. Perhaps she would be surprised to learn this was his doing, perhaps not, it didn't really matter. "I needed a way to return."

 

[Yidhra]

“I’ve always thought of war as the natural selection of the sentient man.”

Yidhra smiled, but she only smiled with her lips, and with her teeth. Her eyes stayed the same dead, off-orange color of an overripe corpse.

“Sometimes it just needs a small push, no?”

She matched his brisk pace as he headed inside, past the destruction and the remnants of ancient glory beneath the film of dust. Despite her limp, the sith had little trouble navigating through the debris-packed corridors, because she’d walked them a hundred times in his absence. The deeper they went into the citadel, the more the rubble gave way to clean, colorful motifs. Mosaics and reliefs, statues poised in niches, tapestries, sconces, carpets, chandeliers and pillars and furniture.

And people.

What looked like a dead ruin from the outside teemed with life the deeper they went, like poking a stick into a tree and being assaulted by a swarm of angry insects.

Crates of weapons lay about, of supplies, rations, medpacks and ammo. Sith rushed to and fro, shouting and gesticulating and, in one instance, staring at each other in a deadlock.

“As you can see, we’ve been busy in your… absence.” She said little, after, preferring the work to speak for itself. It was better that way.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Delilah Ames"]

"How clever." Vrak said with no small amount of amusement in his voice.

They had used the ruins of his estate as a hiding place, a command post. There was no symbolism to the act of course, Vrak was no great hero among the Sith of Athiss, but not even Siedra would have thought to look here. She was his greatest rival here on this world, the woman that had stood to gain the most from his absence and death. She likely thought him gone from this world, unwilling, or simply unable to return and wield any real influence.

Why bother with the destroyed remnants of his home? It was always the grandest of flaws when it came to his people, Narcissism and ego. It was a depressing fact that Pureblood especially had a tendency to get ahead of themselves, weighing victory before it was assured. Siedra was the same way, so was Vrak for that matter, but that didn't stop him.

"I supposed it's better than being out in the open." Most of the cities were either claimed or under siege from what he understood. "Though you'll need more to do anything of note."

He hadn't expected this much to be honest, though it was a nice little bonus.

"I need to get to Xer'al." The city that Siedra held under her control, surrounded by an army and fortified like one of the ancient fortresses. Getting inside would be hard.

 

[Yidhra]

“Of course I will,” she said with a nod. She liked saying things with a nod. It gave people the impression she agreed with them. They felt validated in their opinions, and because ‘people’ on Athiss were by and large sith, it was incredibly easy to do this. By their very nature sith were convinced that their opinion is The One True Truth™, and everyone else was foolish and blind.

Which suited Yidhra just fine, really. Hubris was the No. 1 cause of death among the sith. It affected both the young and the elderly, indiscriminate neither about gender nor about blood purity.

“We’ve recruited plenty of stragglers and those forced out of their territory by the war, and more join each week. They fuel their own thirst for vengeance with each new arrival… it’s beautiful.”

She led [member="Vrak Nashar"] off into a repurposed dining hall. The long table and its elaborate incrustations of red garnets lay buried beneath blueprints and maps, weighed down on the ends by precarious towers of datapads. On the far end, two dust-covered scouts were arguing about paths through a canyon; at the middle, a hunched sith was staring intensely at screens of code.

“There’s plenty of obstacles between here and Xer’al. Siedra has the city locked down tight, and there are battles raging all over.” It was classic opportunism. Three thirds of the danger of a Civil War were the enterprising scumbags who figured it was the best time to make their move. With a war on, who was going to notice? Scavengers, criminals, social climbers; everything and everyone, both high and low, clambered into the race for riches.

“What happened to you?”

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Delilah Ames"]

"I am aware of the obstacles." He was partially responsible for them after all. It had been his design that this civil war was started under. Neesa had helped him of course, but his actions had ended Lord Baltha's life and sent every Pureblood on the planet scouring for his seat on the Council. Vrak couldn't blame them, after all he wanted that very same seat, but he knew that in the end it wasn't a force of arms that would bring it to him.

"They must be overcome." Vrak told her plainly. "I am in possession of a virus."

Biological warfare was nothing new when it came to Sith. Their people had been using virus' and other pathogens upon one another for centuries. Usually they were easily broken by the force, only the weak fell victim to them. This one however was different. "It will allow be control of Siedra's armies."

As long as he was able to infect them anyway.

The first step to that was getting into the city, beyond that? They would have to find out just how Siedra kept her Massassi supplied.

"As for me..." Vrak trailed off for a moment. His six month absence from Athiss had caused his downfall, or rather the downfall of his holdings here. He'd been gone so long that the vultures had been able to swoop in and take what they'd wanted. Upon his first return he simply hadn't been in a position to take anything back. Now? Now it was different. "A period of solitude on Naboo."

It was easier than saying 'I was sent to prison'.

 

[Yidhra]

She paid attention to his words, kept an eye on him as he spoke. Still, she moved over to the woman working at the terminal, exchanging updates in the lull of Vrak’s speech.

At the mention of a virus, Yidhra perked up. She didn’t even try to conceal the excitement that glinted in her yellow eyes, nor bite back the grin that split her lips.

“A virus,” she purred, straightening again and wandering back to his side.

“The new cities aren’t made for sieges anymore,” she mused out loud, stroking a tendril idly. “Their food is an obvious vector— or the people that bring them supplies. What does it do? How does it work?” Though Sith Magic and Alchemy were her first love, she’d always had an affair with the magic of science. If you squinted hard enough and applied some ingenuity, you’d be hard-pressed to tell one from another.

Combined, however… Yidhra was ashiver at the very thought.

“I see.” She knew better than to prod. If he’d been willing to say, he would’ve told the whole story, so clearly it was something damning, or – at the very least – humiliating for his reputation.


[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

"It is from Bestia's designs." Yidhra would recognize the name as being from one of the Dread Masters from the Resurgent Empire. Vrak knew that the woman was well studied in the arts of Sith Alchemy, and Bestia had been one of the most powerful Sith Sorcerers to ever live. That alone would meant she was recognizable to anyone with a modicum of interest in the subject. He frowned for a moment, inspecting their surroundings before continuing.

"It will twist the Massassi." Broken creatures as they already were. "Make them more open to my influence."

Vrak was no Sorcerer himself, no alchemist, but he was well known for his abilities in Sith Battle Coordination. Most on Athiss were well aware of how Vrak could twist even the closest allies to turn on one another. It wasn't the same as Sorcery, not really. He didn't try to show someone their fears, he didn't try to terrorize them, he simply took their very thoughts and broke them to his will. Sometimes it didn't work, but this Virus would make it much easier.

"Once her armies are infected, I can take control." He said simply.

It was not an elaborate plan, at least not this portion.

Once he had Siedra's armies however she would be defenseless, and once that happened Vrak could kill her.

 

[Yidhra]

Her interest jumped another level, eyes glinting with the promise of malice and discovery. She was this close to salivating outright.

“Fascinating,” she practically purred, smiling ear to ear. “I could tamper with it, make it even more effective.”

Yidhra’s fingers itched with the urge to play around with the infection, explore its secrets and uncover new ways to make it more potent. There was power in the knowledge of the old, but time and evolution always brought with them new approaches, fresh outlooks, ingenuity of different generations. Sith Alchemy was an art, and therefore infinite by its very nature.

“Why limit ourselves to Massassi when we could have it all?”

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

"The Virus causes a breakdown in the system of its host." An unfortunate detail that not even Bestia had been able to work out of it's function.

He wished it were otherwise, but the design of the pathogen was such that it was simply...destructive. First it consumed the mind, then the body. Within two weeks the host would degrade beyond a state of recovery, turning them into little more than hulking monsters. A few thousand Massassi becoming less than thoughtful creatures he could deal with, but the whole of Athiss? No.

"I don't need a planet full of degenerate beasts." He told Yidhra. "An Empire is not built on the force of arms alone."

It took more than just two hands to shape a kingdom.

"The Massassi will do. They are little more than a distraction." The warriors would bend knee to whomever showed themselves to be strongest, and when he killed Siedra and made it known that he had killed Lord Baltha as well, that would undeniably be him.

 

[Yidhra]

Yidhra nodded, only half-listening. Her mind was running a million miles a second as it sought to marry her scope of knowledge with the kind of depraved ingenuity found only in the best of mad scientists.

“That’s a pity,” she said in the tone of voice that implied it was a pity she intended to rectify in the near future. And she did, truly. A virus that facilitated mind control? Incredibly useful with unruly subjects such as the Sith. When – Yidhra thought in ‘whens’, not ‘ifs’ – they moved their, ah, organization offworld, then they could whip out the good old enslavement approach. Lesser species were so much easier to subjugate, really.

“Very well. I assume you will want a complete overview of our military situation now that you’ve returned?” Warmongering was, after all, what [member="Vrak Nashar"] excelled at.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

In truth he hadn't expected there to be much of a military situation at all.

Vrak had never focused on the collection of armies. Sure he'd had a few hundred Massassi, enough retainers to keep him safe, but he'd never thought of himself as a commander of armed forces. He had always allowed others to complete those tasks for him, those loyal to him. He supposed that would have to change now. If he were to seize control of Athiss, take a spot on the council, he would need to take a more direct approach when it came to these things.

"Yes." He answered her simply, coming to a stop before a holo-table with a map of the area.

He frowned for a moment. From what he and Neesa had learned there were four separate groups attempting to secure the now empty position on the Dark Council. There was Siedra of course, holed up in her fortress. Then there was Vir, a Pureblood thrice his own age who had long ago made it clear that he wanted more but had never quite gotten there.

The other two...Vrak didn't even know their names.

 

[Yidhra]

“Drzad!”

At her call, a man at the far back of the expansive chamber looked up. He was tall even for a pureblood, with plenty of spikes jagging his silhouette like some of those armors in absurd hologames. His eyes were a the muted orange of a setting sun, his mouth perpetually grinning for the scar that had taken off half of his lower lip.

He was, naturally, the commander of the fighting force they’d amassed over time. Before he’d met Yidhra, Rahaz Drzad had been little more than a commander of a group that had taken to the mountains at the start of the civil war. They were bandits and opportunists, for lack of a better word, until they committed the fatal mistake of trying to attack Yidhra’s vessel.

His five associates had succumbed to their own worst terrors within seconds of attacking the ship, but Drzad had held fast. He didn’t hold so fast after Yidhra had the luxury of focusing on him and him alone, of course, but that force of will had been impressive enough that she merely rendered him unconscious.

After a few longer, in-depth sessions at what passed for her laboratory here in the Nashar palace, Rahaz Drzad had become a willing and ready servant to her whims.

“You’ve the privilege of briefing Vrak Nashar himself,” she spoke as the sith joined them at the table. Turning to [member="Vrak Nashar"], she added: “I have another matter to attend to in the meantime. If you’ve need of my services, I’ll be in my laboratory down the hall.”

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

Time.

That was the issue. He had lost so much of it upon Naboo. Six months of work. Six months gone in the blink of an eye. Everything that he had worked for, every connection he had built, every factory he had commissioned, all of it gone because of one ridiculous human girl. He scowled slightly as the other Pureblood apprised him of the situation, droning on and on about how Athiss was falling deeper and deeper into chaos as the days went on.

It was good news, at least for what he needed, but Vrak knew that it was just a second rate circumstance.

Had he never been captured, had he been free the entire time he would have been on the Council by now. No one would have been able to stand in his way and his fleets would have taken half the Caldera, now? Now he was stuck leeching back his throne. The Purebloods lip's thinned, his fingers slowly curling at his side as the man finally finished updating him of everything that had been happening. He let out a sigh, glancing at the map.

"Very well." He told the man. "Fetch your mistress."

It was time to move.

 

[Yidhra]

Waging a war with aspirations to victory meant that the actual ‘warmongering’ was only the very tip of a massive iceberg. A great chunk of the heavy mass lurking underwater was data, and knowledge derived from the information it provided.

Yidhra was a pureblood, and therefore given to arrogance simply because of her genes. But the innate wasn’t impossible to overcome, especially when a fact as brutal as complete physical ineptitude was staring you in the face. She was conceited, but she wasn’t dumb.

And so she didn’t monger war. She gathered intelligence instead.

It was in the middle of this that Drzad entered her study-turned-rubble-turned-laboratory. His expression was one of carefully masked constipation. His left eye was twitching.

“Nashar wants you,” he grunted, ignoring the poor wretch on her table. Yidhra nodded and disposed of her red-speckled gloves after she meticulously put away her tools.

The advantages of being sith: blood was completely invisible even when you were drenched in it.

“Yes?” she inquired after she sought out the man in the main room.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

It was time to strike back, at least nominally. Athiss was falling into Chaos as he had wanted, but if chaos reigned too long then there would be nothing left to take back. He frowned for a few moments and then slowly pulled something from his robe. Between dark crimson fingers sat a vial, an odd sort of purple liquid rested within. He frowned for a moment at the map that sat before him, then slowly waved Yidhra over to come take the small sample.

"This is the virus that I mentioned earlier." He had already discovered the weapons side-effects, an unfortunate fact that he would have to punish the good doctor for, but it hardly mattered in the moment. The virus would fulfill it's purpose here.

"I need a delivery system for it." He told her. "Preferably something that can be taken with us into the city."

The way he phrased his words made his intentions more than clear.

They needed to infiltrate the city that Siedra had holed herself up in. Vrak still had plenty of resources, including the Devourers and the other ships they were building. The weapons would be useful here, though first he would need the Virus to be ready.

 

[Yidhra]

“A vector, of course,” Yidhra replied as she took the thin vial from his grasp. She held it up to the flickering light, eyeing the violet liquid with a critical eye.

“What’s the timeline?” she said as she secured the virus in one of her many pockets. “Do you already have any plans for entry? The people involved? Intel?” The more info [member="Vrak Nashar"] already had, the quicker they could move.

Siedra had locked her hold over a massive city, and the sheer numbers alone meant they couldn’t survive in complete isolation. They had to be getting their supplies from somewhere; now it was simply a matter of creating a stable strain of the virus that would survive long enough in the food to infect the populace. After that, Nashar could exert control over the massassi in the metropolis, aiding their infiltration and subsequent conquest of the city.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

"I have ships." He was the only one.

Before his capture on Naboo Vrak had ensured that most of his resources were at least tucked away. A part of that was the Devourer Interceptors and the dozens of Hssiss Shuttles that he had manufactured. There were the cruisers too of course, but they would be a bit...too much for simply infiltrating a city. It was better to just take a few of the interceptors, after all they wouldn't need to bring their own army to take over the city. That was what the Virus was for.

"We can take the southern ridge." He pointed at the map. "Ordinarily it would be watched."

Dozens of guards, radar towers, and turbo-lasers. "That won't be an issue."

The beauty of stealth ships. Originally Vrak had commissioned them for assaults on other worlds, a way to strike at his enemies without them ever seeing it coming, but they would work well enough here. Albeit they would have to move quickly.

 

[Yidhra]

“It won—? oh, I see.” She leaned closer to study the holomap where [member="Vrak Nashar"] had pointed. The blueprints themselves had been a pain to acquire in the first place. It had taken plenty of extortion, bribery, and Sith sorcery to retrieve them from the closed system where they resided, deep in Andal. Like stealing an egg under a sleeping Krayt dragon, except Siedra could do things to people that made the beast seem as tame as a household cat.

“Very well, Nashar. Is there anything else that could impact the way I design the vector? Any requirements?”

Dealing with an angry Pureblood down the line would be so very tedious. Better to clear up any issues before they had a chance to happen – it made for far smoother sailing that way.