What makes a man?

[Ellie Mors]

5 out of 6


Equality - the greatest fallacy since the day the Jedi claimed to be protectors.

As far as the eye could see, from every planet, and across every star, there were men, women, and children that judged each other based on far too many factors to count. Men that believed women to be weak-willed, frail, and inferior - women that thought men pig-headed, blood-lusted, and driven by the most base of instincts. Humans that saw themselves as superior to the rest of the riff-raff across the stars, and non-humans that felt much the same way - or perhaps, held an ironic prejudice against humanity for the superiority exerted by the few of their kind, seeing themselves superior with their delusions of morality and ethics.

It wasn't the only reason the leader of the Krath was never seen without a full suit of androgynous armor and a smooth, featureless, helmet, but it was certainly one factor - albeit relegated to internal conflict with potential rivals that made up the underlings that followed their lead. The only weakness that was evident to those that stood in the company of Xzav Ine was a lack of force sensitivity, and perhaps the hint of some sort of insecurity - believed by many to be a lack of trust to not be targeted when not wearing the guise of the stoic leader of the Krath.

And here was this masked enigma, waiting to meet a certain Sith Lord in an old warehouse on the world of Makeb over the desire to undermine the Alliance in the Core.

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Tytos Ardik was not a Sith Lord. But he was the next best thing: wildly rich and unbelievably ruthless. Substituting wealth and resources for magical powers was on the rage these days. Perhaps not as powerful as having both magical powers and money/resources, but it was up and coming. Definitely starting to trend among the youngsters, that was for sure. They were catching on. Pretty soon Tytos wouldn't be unique any more. It would have been sad, but money has ways of dulling such emotional pains. Much better than, what? Therapy? Talking it out? Hard pass.

He had better things to do, like take trips to Makeb. Isotope 5 was usually the only reason anyone would ever want to come to this dusty little backwater. It was actually the only reason Tytos had decided to show up on this dusty little backwater. Originally he was here to supervise a raid on an Isotope 5 storage facility owned by some minor mining company. But once that was underway, he went back to his shuttle and flew out to this warehouse where some Krath dignitary had asked for a meeting. If it would get these people to stop blowing up his holo-mail, fine, he'd do it. Whatever.

The shuttle touched down just in front of the entrance, and Tytos disembarked in the company of Deglarch, his Morgukai bodyguard. There were other soldiers waiting on the shuttle if things went awry, but that probably wouldn't be necessary. Deglarch hauled open the door for Tytos, then led his charge inside. Both were somewhat surprised to see a heavily armored soldier-sort-of-or-maybe-assassin waiting plainly in full view for them. Tytos had been expecting a representative of the Krath to be more... Mystical.

Expectations and reality. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised. Maybe he should have been relieved. Technology tended to be more reliable than mysticism in his experience.

Deglarch quickly scanned the room, then settled his gaze on [member="Xzav Ine"] when he detected no additional threats. Tytos, meanwhile, checked his chronometer and then announced: "I've got ten minutes. Let's hear it."