Those Like Us

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

"No." At least not that he knew of.

Irajah had put one surprise into the Virus, but other than that everything had been find during the test. He suspected that the Good Doctor had likely planned to ruin all of it, simply having lost out on the opportunity tod o so because of one thing or another. He frowned for a few seconds as he thought back to his time with the woman, how she had resisted him. His lips thinned.

He would have to make her pay eventually, perhaps kill her.

"See that it is done." He told Yidhra, that same expression on his face. "We have only a short time."

Slowly Vrak came to rest his hand on the edge of the holo-table. "I cannot let chaos ruin this planet."

Not before he could conquer it.

 

[Yidhra]

Few people could address her in that tone and get away with it, but [member="Vrak Nashar"] was one of them. Something about physical violence and an unrivaled thirst for power? Oh, Yidhra hated disrespect, but she hated being dead even more, so the only reaction Vrak received was a subtle twitch of a tendril.

“I’ll have the first vectors ready by tomorrow evening,” she said, already moving away from the operations room. The vial in her pocket was burning, her fingers itching to get to work. Didn’t everyone always say you should enjoy your job?

Within minutes, Yidhra was already engrossed in her work, poring over the details of the virus through microscope lens. Her lips were stretched in the kind of smile you didn’t want to see, ever, period, on someone poking a virus while muttering Sith incantations under their breath. It was the kind of smile that looked its best lit by the red blade of a lightsaber (though colored reflectors could do in a pinch). It was the kind of smile that accompanied blood-curdling screams in icy, destitute dungeons of abandoned fortresses.

It was a smile that felt right at home on the face of Yidhra Dottash, Sith Sorceress Extraordinaire.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

Vrak spent the time Yidhra worked on the virus to gather the resources that he needed. The City would not be easy to pass into even with the stealth fields of his ships. Once they passed over the city walls they would have to reach into the food-stores and a dozen warehouses to actually distribute the virus itself.

The process would be somewhat difficult, and Vrak wasn't exactly known for his tactics in stealth.

The Pureblood was a keen strategist, but his own talents did not lay in the shadows. Sure he could scheme and maneuver the pawns, but skulking about in the dark? No, that wasn't him. Thus he would have to bring the correct players to the field, a difficult enough proposition considering his rather depleted resources. It helped that the Sphere of Education had long since been his playground, nearly all of the off-worlders brought to Athiss owing him some sort of loyalty.

"Ready yourselves to the South of the Estate. The Interceptors will be waiting there." He wouldn't go to the City, not until the virus had run it's course.

Once Siedra's Massassi were infected he could do the rest.

"See if she's ready." Vrak told one of the women near him. "The faster this is done the better."

 

[Yidhra]

All her three workbenches, her desk, and even her ~torture table~ laboratory slab were chock-full of specimens. Containers of varying shapes and sizes housing all kinds of foodstuffs occupied every inch of horizontal space, with some failed experiments stuffed into corners and onto shelves. Nashar’s ancestors would surely weep if they saw what had become of their honored halls, but needs must what needs must.

Yidhra only cared for tradition so long as it served her ambitions. Ancient-decorations-turned-lab-stationery didn’t move her one bit.

What moved her, currently, was the large holo-clock she’d set up on the wall. Working under pressure was good, the sith had always maintained. One, it prepared you for the toils of real life and two, it kept you quick. If she hated anything, it was boredom, and so she always give herself tight deadlines and tall workloads; just to keep herself entertained, you understand.

It worked out well in this instance, because by the time [member="Vrak Nashar"] required his virus, everything was ready and waiting. The vector was armed, primed, and loaded into canisters that would make for easy and safe transport. The last thing they needed was a premature outbreak among their own forces.

Yidhra had a group of workers deliver the containers to the ships as she joined the pureblood, smile in place.

“What now?”

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

"Is everything ready?" He hated this, the rush of it, the urgency.

His original plan to take a seat on the Council had taken entire decades to lay out. He had plotted and schemed for more than half of his life. The rise, the thought behind it had been gradual, slow, not this rushed mess. The Virus was an unsure thing. He had no doubt that it would work, but there was a rush to it, a certain game of chance that Vrak didn't want to play. His lips thinned slightly, his knuckles pressing against the side of the table.

His capture on Naboo had been a disaster.

Six months lost. All of his progress gone, everything that he had planned for simply wiped away. There were still those loyal to him, but they were all a shadow of what he once controlled. The Pureblood frowned slightly, casing a glance around the room. For the first time an inkling of doubt passed through him. Even with everything he had now assembled, there was no guarantee he would be able to dethrone Siedra, no assurance that he could take his seat on the council.

There was no turning back now.

No other option. He had to this or nothing.

 

[Yidhra]

“Yes,” she said and gestured at the men loading the vessels with the contained vector. Within three galactic standard hours, the stealth ships will have infiltrated Andal and disseminated the infected rations among the populace. Then it was just a matter of waiting a few days for the virus to spread and incubate… rather like watching dominoes fall.

Yidhra grinned the unpleasant grin of a bad job well done.

“I’d like to access to Siedra’s personal library after you kill her,” she added after a small pause while they observed the final stages of the process. The pilots were already strapping into their cockpits, ready to maneuver the ships into the fortified city. Yidhra could only imagine the exhilaration burning in their veins, could nearly taste the copper of adrenaline on her tongue.

Suppressing a shiver of delight, the sith turned fully towards [member="Vrak Nashar"]. “And after the council…?” The myriad options, the holocrons, the histories, oh—! She was practically salivating at the very thought.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Yidhra"]

Good, at least he wouldn't have to wait any longer. With every passing moment Athiss fell deeper and deeper into Chaos. The remaining four Councilors weren't doing much of anything save for ensuring their seats remained safe, and while that happened...everything else was falling apart. The faster he could take his proper place the better he would be able to secure Athiss and push their world to where it needed to be, he frowned slightly, then regarded the woman.

"You'll have what you need." Vrak assured her. Siedra's library was quite extensive. "I do not forget those loyal to me."

He had no doubt that Yidhra was just as ambitious as him, but their positions were hardly similar.

"The Chaos here will be quelled. Once Athiss is silenced...we'll see where the dust falls." That was as much as he would say on his intent regarding the council. Some might have thought it all rather obvious, but there was still a game to be played here.

A game that would last until after he'd taken his proper place.