Star Wars: A New Dawn

"The spoils of war go to the victor, after all.", Darren said and crossed his arms loosely.

Their shuttled landed and the ramp lowered.

Désir stepped down with Talia close behind her. They were met by a few Elite Sith Warriors.

"Lord Maeror is at the vault awaiting you." The lead said.

Darren gave the Sith Warrior a nod and walked past the group with Désir and Talia in tow, heading towards the temple. "Has he found another one, you think?"

"Another what?" Désir asked walking with Darren. "He wants what's in that vault and the holocron you hold is they key.'

"I am referring to other 'keys'.", Darren said. "I keep wondering what else such a powerful being might need after unlocking Darth Sidious' secrets."

"He has shared little with me or anyone of his goals outside of conquest." Désir said. "I asked him one but he gave no answer."

"I see. I suppose being his offspring doesn't grant one every possible advantage.", Darren said with a more sympathetic tone instead of mocking before entering the vault with the two.

"I'm his adoptive daughter." Désir said. "He found me when I was a girl."

They trio entered the citadel and came to the vault, Maeror stood, his back to them as he studied the large doors.

"You have not failed me this time." Maeror said. "Bring it to me Darren."

"That explains a lot.", Darren muttered out of ear shot before they entered the citadel and met with Maeror. "Yes, my master." He walked over to his master and brought out the holocron, holding it out to him.

Maeror turned and the holocron floated to him as he pulled it in with the Force.

"Finally." Maeror said putting it into the slot on the door. "The only way to open this door is with that holocron." He said as the holocron turned, the massive doors slowly opening.

"And now I have what I need..." Maeror said.

Darren stepped back as the doors to the vault opened up. He felt something omnious as the draft sent the stale, dead air out into the large and spacious cavern.

(heading to bed)

Maeror stepped into the vault, filled with ancient Sith artifacts and the holocrons of long dead Sith Lords, all collected by Darth Sidious. Now to be used by Darth Maeror. It was ironic, the very man he hated had exactly what he needed.

Désir watched her master entered the vault and she felt something in him, he was elated. She was shocked for a brief moment her Master was happy but the feeling quickly vanished, snuffed out by quickly as his rage and sorrow took hold again.

*remember if he says she's held by them case will rebel. If he says that unfortunately the Jedi are holding her because she's too dangerous, case will jump to wanting to rescue her and will want to train straight away.*

"Black hair about shoulder length. Probably about your age or a bit younger, she looks worn out and ragged so I guess everyone looks old when they're exhausted. Oh and she's got this thing on her arm like a special device."

Angalacon turned looking out of the viewport. "And this woman concerns you why?"

Ink's characters are used with his permission; he's busy with birthday amusement. My apologies for the lateness, but I didn't get home until a few hours ago, and I've been having internet issues.

----------

Ena's thoughts ground to a halt out of sheer shock. They weren't surprised? At all? Just immediately start firing as soon as an emergency decompression goes off? The commander of that ship isn't even Force-sensitive, for fuck's sake! There's no possible way he could've seen that coming unless he's just so used to Jedi overcoming the odds that he didn't even hesitate.

Fortunately, Zora, with her greater experience, was quicker on the uptake. Her brow furrowed in concentration. "Ena, was it? You hacked the console before. Could you use it to initiate a cascading failure of the ship's reactors?"

Rowena stared. "Oh. Oh yes. Of course," she said dazedly. She ambled over to the console as Leia bundled everybody into the ship, hacking into the terminal using the same access port she had before. She overwrote the security profiles on the reactor hardware, removing the control rods to a dangerous degree and simultaneously increasing reactor output. Alarms blared and the heat noticeably turned up in the hanger bay.

"C'mon Furball, get on! You flew us into this mess, you're flying us out!" Nix demanded from her position on the loading ramp.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your armor on, Queenie!" Ena snarked back.

"Queenie?" Nix muttred as the newly-minted knight dashed past her, her face twisted in an expression that was half distaste, half surprised, as though she'd just found a new flavor of food she didn't much care for.

Ena vaulted the pilot seat and took the handgrips, startling Chewie as her foot barely missed his face. "Hold on tight." She flicked on the comm, watching the hyperdrive power up. "Jumping to hyperspace in three... two... one!"

The Falcon's drive lit up and they blasted out of the hanger bay at light speed. As they were jumping, Ena read surprise from the Ravager's commander. He'd recognized what they were trying to do and was attempting to get away. He might make it away from the blast. The other two ships would definitely not be as fortunate.

"Jump now!" Admiral Jace barked, his fleet jumped to hyperspace as planned they'd accomplished their mission but lost two ships, the Maddened Ardor to the Jedi and the Fury to the reactor overload from the former ship.

Admiral Jace grimaced, he'd just lost several thousand good men to a distasteful tactic. He clenched his fist. "Jedi..."

-----

Admiral Ackbar watched as the two Leviathan-Class ships were destroyed. He sighed sitting back, even with all the heroics the Shipyards were lost. Too many fighters had made it through, and they had also jumped away. A perfect hit and run attack, similar to the kind he'd commanded as part of the Rebel Alliance.


(Oh well happy birthday to him! No worries on being late either man)

(haha I'd be doing the same)

Case rolled her eyes at him, "Hello? I'm the one constantly getting images of her. Okay, perhaps on this strange coincidence this woman might be my mother... that would make sense. But I'm seeing all sorts of people. I saw Trent, I see my friends back home with the Jedi, Yes, I'm obviously special, but I don't want to be. I just want to figure out who I am and just be me. The most basic thing is the hardest."

Angalacon looked at her. "Search your feelings, you have visions of those close to you. Perhaps they have this woman in their custody?"

Kitty leans back in the cockpit and crosses her arms, pouting. "Well that sucked," she says flatly.

"Definitely could've gone better," Jaxie says, leaning against Ford's seat.

"Didn't have enough ships to turn this'n around," Cairn says, tipping down his hat. "Saw what they were doin', but a couple o' freighters weren't gonna win it."

Siha stops shielding and Raptor and stands, apparently not even dazed.

"All that and you're not even a little tired? Impressive," Jil says.

Siha smiles.

---

Nix leans against the wall of the cockpit with something of a smug grin. "Bet Jarice is throwin' a tantrum about now."

"Jarice?" Zora asks.

"The one who attack Coruscant was someone else. They wouldn't waste him on this. This was one of their officers. And the only officer that pulls crap like that out of his ass is a guy named Jarice," Nix folds her arms.

Zora ponders for a moment. "A strategist, then. Regardless, this 'Jarice' may not like what we've accomplished but he succeeded in what he was doing."

"Yes," Leia says. "The shipyards are in ruin."

"Which is a major hit to our resistance as this Sith Empire grows," Zora says.

---

Nazrin reports to Maeror as he's summoned, apparently regarding Cervana's failure to secure Leia. The door slides open and he quietly stands in the doorway.

Ford sighed looking out at the shipyards. "We need to do something fast or this war will be over before we know it."

Cassus slumped back against a wall shaking his head.

-----

Jarik looked out into space and sighed. "The Republic just got knocked out essentially..."

-----

Maeror was studying a artifact, his back to Nazrin. "Has she recovered from her wound yet?"

Tsuni leans against her console as she hears Jarik's remark from her comm to the bridge. She closes the comm. "I would not be so quick to make that assumption," she says to herself.

---

"A plan would be the first step," Jil says, making her way to the cockpit with Siha.

"Would be nice if it'd stop being such a surprise. They're fast. We gotta get faster or sneakier," Jaxie says.

"And we're gonna need a whole lot more power," Kitty says, crossing her legs up on the dash.

---

Nazrin nods. A droid appears at his side, projecting the plans for the woman's new arm before Maeror. A design that would inarguably lend to increased power. A stronger swing, lightsaber resistant, and so-on. But given the needles, screws, and various fixtures where the stub would go, likely rather... uncomfortable.

Darren sat infront of a work station inside his quarters, performing adjustments on his lightsaber. He occasionally thinks about the past, despite knowing how much it hurts him. The hate is supposed to make him stronger, though he knows that's not all he needs to focus on. The teachings of his master and the disciples were important as well for his own goal to extract revenge on those who left him to rot in the cold dark.

Ena slumped over the console, having deactivated it and given control to Chewie so he could jump them back to Mon Calamari and guide them back to the Inflictor. She still felt the ringing in her head and sinking in her stomach from all the deaths she'd caused when she vented the first ship, and blowing up the second had just made the sensation that much worse. Every dying scream, every fearful thought, every moment of pain they felt all transferred to her.

"The biggest problem," she muttered, picking her head up again and trying to focus, "is that they always have the initiative. We're always reacting to what they do. So we've got to strike first instead, or at least screw up their plans ahead of time so they can't."

Another wave of pain assaulted her temples, and she set her head down on the console again. "Ugh."

Maeror studied the plans for a moment and he nodded in approval, the pain caused by the arm would be punishment enough for her failure.

-----

"We'll need to acquire better intelligence." Ford said. "We know little to nothing about our enemy save for their ships are more advanced and they're Sith."

"We need to locate their weak points." Cassus said. "Strike at their vulnerable and key worlds. It's what my people did in our war against the Republic and Empire."

"Don't remind me." Ford said

"It is rather annoying how they always seem to catch us unawares," Zora agrees.

"It's just how they operate," Nix shrugs.

"If you were aware of that, then why didn't you-"

"Should I really have had to say 'stay on your guard?' I wasn't aware my job was to report on common sense."

Zora stares at Nix for a moment, then turns back to the front of the cockpit. "There will no doubt be a meeting. The Republic and the Empire will have to discuss steps from this point onward."

"If they don't rip out one another's throats first..."

"...Fair," Zora concedes.

---

"For the time being, what we 'need' is to regroup," Jil says.

"Doc's right, Boss" Jaxie says, leaning on Ford's seat. "We can come up with a plan once we got everyone in one place."