NationStates Jolt Archive

They came not in the night...not under the cover of darkness...not under a veil or shadow. No, they were not afraid to show themselves. This was not an enemy we had known - this was not an organized force of soldiers, of talented professionals and bred clones. No, these were psychotics so ingrained with a passion for death and killing that they swarmed past the greatest defenses man could lay, and overcame them like a swarm of insects. Man killed man, beast killed droid - and lives bled upon the earth. All for passion.

-Archived Recording - Unknown Soveriegn Guardsman, S-Alpha Legion


Talasea

The shapes in the sky were familiar ones to Dominion warriors across the Shroud, but they were not family. They were not of the Dominion, did not react nor attack with the same elite organization that had defined Amazonian soldiers as extraordinarily disciplined and well-trained. These fell with a fire, with a zeal and lust to crush any and all in their path. The birthworld of the Emperor Droma was the first to truly feel the pain and the fire these new invaders brought, but they certainly would not be the last to fall beneath the heel of the Two Sith - better known as the former leaders, Lords Nihilis and Ludo Kressh.

One swathed in hunger, in lust, in raw, churning emotion. The other a picture of grave reason, of pure logic, of planning and strategy.

Kressh and Nihilis did not run the entire show from the front though. No, they had much more, more than anyone had thought, more than even the calculating and balanced Marka Ragnos from the Imperial Spire on Amazonia had thought as the plan of the rebelling Sith struck with a terrible vengeance and spite. Lightsaber and plasma sword clashed on the natural bridges that spanned kilometers-deep chasms on Talasea, mountains shattered beneath the eruptions of seismic charges, and hanging cities from the beautiful landscape - suspended amongst the low-lying stratus clouds of the canyons - were torn off their moorings and cast down to death as if they were mere spider webs, floating perilously in the wind and caught between two monstrously larger and angrier forces.

Lords Ragnos, Sadow, and Sion, from their iron tower on Amazonia, were not slow to respond. The lights of turbolasers and rush of antimatter warheads electrified the stars above Talasea, splitting apart the devastating machines of man and spilling their guts of creation from man's hands and God's to the cold, dark depths of orbit. Hate rang back and forth, tearing at the fibers of each other faction's heartstrings with little care for the mere pawns that carried out the master plans of those who moved the pieces across the board. Those serving under the banners of peace rushed forth to bring war to those who simply tried to live in harmony with fellow sentient, bring their death machines and instruments of terror to every corner, every home, every nook of the mind's eye.

Talasea was the first gameboard upon which the pieces of the players were scattered. Major pieces under the players entered the game; important role players such as the cyborg Sangheili general Crypt and the Sith Marauder Athon Onasi directly moved into combat against the hordes that had flooded from space against Talasea. Even as worlds darkened on Amazonia's communications grid, and voices went cold and silent on the outer reaches of Dominion space, Talasea baked in the fires of a Sith-wrought hell.


Oovo

The Sith tomb world was a dusty and dark place, its atmosphere and star shining bright through a cold sky but a soulless dark reaching even into the guts of those with unparalleled fortitude. Something felt wrong about the world, but to Ludo Kressh and Nihilis - pure followers of a Sith Order that seemed to be dying in the progressive Dominion of modern days - it was home as home could be. The hewn caverns, cut canyons, and titanic statues to Amazonian Sith Lords of times forgotten reached out with staring eyes and stoic postures, leaning farther than their straight replicas would show as they drove their silent words into hearts and minds. Oovo was cruel to those who had not reached their own trials by fire.

But Nihilis and Kressh knew this world - and deep underground in the massive network of subterranean tunnels, caves, caverns, forgotten cities, and other striations, they had come across what they sought as both stood before a wall of pure onyx.

In front of them, a tall figure turned. The figure's face was not like the prototypical Sith Lord, covered by a hood and darkened by shadow. Rather, it was a mirror of chaos and hatred, strewn across a canvass of shredded skin and hardened bone. A headress of a Nexu skull, complete with laigrek horns rising from its top and implanted through means otherworldly, stood atop the hairless head. Simmering charcoal eyes steamed out from sunken sockets, black orbs zeroing in on the kernels of anger before them. A mouth, slightly ajar, lay in a snarl beneath an outurned and small nose that complemented the high cheekbones of the figure. Muscular, yet ghastly arms stood out from a thickly-built torso, adorned only in the skin of a Sangheili and Jiralhanae laced together by forces immaterial.

The voice spoke as the figure turned fully around - and what was apparent was the lack of humanity of the finger. It took a step slowly towards the two Sith Lords of the rebellion that faced it, both with the spite and anger in their hearts that fed the fire that raged inside the finger. Its voice crackled, snapped, pulsated with an energy that raged with the battles of time immortal between the pure sides of black and white, hot and cold, evil and good. It was not Human, it was not Alien...it was.

"There is work to be done."


OOC: Note, if you want to join, TG me and Tarsonis and I will see if we can accomodate you - this is going to be pretty exclusive and has a zeroed-in purpose and goal, but we can be open, depending on the circumstances. We are flexible.

“From the hearts of Men, doom shall be born. The great shadow will spread from its tomb and the universe will burn. The denizens of life shall cry to the heavens for merciful death, and the shadow will blanket all. But from beneath a hope will be kindled. The tears of the fallen will cleanse the fabric of reality, and the bird of fire shall outshine the stars. – Prophecy of the Kelmorian Combine

Elumarnia: Residential Sector

She walked across the blasted landscape. The whole world burned. Embers flared around her as she aimlessly strolled. All around her chaos raged. A black dragon, eyes glowing red like coals shouted its triumph across the skies, before clashing with its opponent. The majestic Griffin answered its call, a piercing shriek signaling the challenge. As the two clashed in the air all around her the chaos ensued, the fire always burning. Those allied with the dragon and those with the Griffon locked in epic battle. As the battle raged the Dragon cast the Gryphon to the ground, and trumpeted loud and clear its victory. And as it did so its exposed neck was struck by a bird of fire that had come to the Griffin’ aide, and the two struck down the Dragon and consumed its flesh. Elated she turned away from the battle and gazed upon the endless sea of corpses, reaching out to her…pleading. They swarmed her pulling her down, she couldn't breath, desperately she fought but could not escape and as she felt her breath leaving her she,

…sat bolt up in bed. Her heart thundered in her chest as she sought to catch her breath, the thin sheets stuck to her naked skin from the sweat. Glancing next to her at the man, lying unconscious after their previous affairs, she began to calm remembering where and who she was. She was safe on her home planet, surrounded by friends, family, and the Tarsonian Army, on a secret world, she had nothing to fear. Silently she slipped from the bed, and found her clothes that lay forgotten on the floor. This was the third night, she’d had this nightmare, the faces of the damned burned into her memory invading every aspect of her life. She couldn’t escape from them. She ducked into the hall pulling the hood on her cloak up over her head. These dreams meant something, and she had to find the one man who could help her sort out what…her father.


Temple Complex

To one who had never heard of psyonic abilities the sight of man floating a meter of the ground would seem absolutely impossible, however Kevin Kast was doing just that. Deep in his meditations, he could sense his daughters unrest, and could feel her focus shift to him…she was on her way. He heard, no he felt the doors to the Meditation Hall open and the lithe form of his daughter attempt to enter in the room unnoticed. “You can stop “ he said, “I knew you were coming the second you left Zell’s room.” At this his daughter flushed obviously embarrassed. “You..You.. You know?..” was all she could manage to say. “Your 21 years of age Keslia,” he replied simply.“Your affairs are your own accord whether you wish to consult me or not.” Keslia came forward and sat in front of him cross legged in meditation position like him. As she did this he lowered himself to the ground. “Now, my daughter…what is this dream that troubles you?”
* * * * * *

Keslia related the entire dream to him, down to the very last detail. It came out in a relieved rush as she finally opened up to someone about her fears. “I know it means something,.. but none of the others are having similar experiences, and they started soon after the end of the Previous mission.” He father seemed to muse over this comment for some time. “The art of Dream interpretation has long been abandoned in out country. Dreams are too easily compromised to be reliable however they should not be discounted completely. It’s obvious these dreams have something to do with our previous mission. Perhaps you have become somewhat over stressed from your experiences.”

Keslia started to reply, when her head was a gripped by a powerful headache so much that her vision went blank. She tried to fight it when the voice of her father sounded through the chorus of pain. “You’re a psyonic, tuned in with the life force of the universe. You are experiencing the life of the universe all at once your must focus. The life force is reaching out to you but you must be able to answer try and clear your mind.” Keslia tried to do just that, though it wasn’t easy. The pain was over bearing. Finally she managed to push the pain to the back of her mind and let her mind clear. And she could see. All around the world, the air too burned.


* * * * *
Kast watched his daughter intently as she experienced her vision. He tried to view in but the power was so great it pained him to watch. Apparently the Universe meant for her to see this alone. “What do you see,” He asked her. “It’s burning….all burning… everything.” She began to repeat this over and over again….each time louder till she was screaming. Guards rushed into the room prepared to deal with a threat, but Kast waved them off. “Whats burning?!?!” he said forcefully grabbing his daughters shoulders as she writhed in the sand floors of the Meditation hall. “WHAT’S BURING?!?!?!” As he said this she suddenly stopped, writhing and open her eyes. They were aflame with the notorious blue energy of psyonics. Her response was a whisper. “Talasea….Talasea burns… The shadow…it’s coming everything is dark!...The great shadow returns!” And with that she fell unconscious. Kast didn’t know who or what this shadow she spoke of was, but he knew what Talasea was, a world in the Dominion of Amazonia, the country they just left. The war had begun. Reaching out with his senses, the radio on one of the guards, was ripped from his shoulder by unseen forces and flew into Kast’s outstretched hand. He typed in the Chancellor’s code and pressed the call button. “Nicoli,” he said…. “this isn’t over….it’s only just beginning…”

Talasea

A projectile slammed into the battered assault tactical defender, blowing fire out of the shattered command pod of the assault walker. The vehicle took a staggering step forward in its death throes as the turret gunner bounded off his gun and jumped from the top of the walker to avoid a similar fate. The ATD stumbled and fell, its six-legged body crashing down to the temperate grassland of Talasea with a resounding thud. Dominion troops and Clone infantry gathered towards the smoldering rear of the downed walker, using the vehicle for cover against the pushing wave of attackers slowly pouring across the contested natural bridge. Two Dominion falcon attack craft zipped overhead, pulsing light laser fire down at the attackers before jetting away from retaliatory fire on booster jets.

The initial Sith sweep had been stymied somewhat by the arrival of Onasi's support fleet, and the Sith warships had been pushed back to the moon of Talasea as they regrouped on its far side for another push. Rather than give chase, the Dominion vessels had instead immediately deployed ground assets to attack the armies raging across the world below. Onasi had personally took to the ground combat to lead the troops alongside his infantry commanders on the field, but the Sith enemy was proving far more stubborn to go down than the younger Sith Marauder had initially thought. Though they used similar technology and fighting machines, the Sith schemes and tactics of total war were lashing the world into a battlezone were a yard or two was progress.

Onasi huddled with his respective infantry commander, a veteran clone named Thire. Laser fire shrieked overhead, red bolts blasting from the enemy lines as blues and greens rocketed the opposite way from the encroaching Dominion forces intent on forcing the Sith to the other side of the natural bridge. The city beneath it had been spared for the time being, a fate that had not been holding true for many of the civilian establishments that seen their mooring magnetic grapples shredded by concentrated fire and left to plummet into the chasms below. Civilians had no way off the world with the Dominion fleet too concerned about the Sith ships in orbit, and the raging battles on the planet continued to be fierce.

Onasi took a glance around the side of the downed modular battle tank, a plasma driver shell shearing past the top of the burning attack vehicle. The Sith battalions across the bridge were still in force, but were certainly getting slowed to the point that neither side was really making substantial progress on the other.

"Move your forces into attack positions," Onasi ordered as he motioned for several nearby Shock Troopers to come to him. "I'm going to go around and see what I can do."

"Around sir?" Thire's white and yellow helmet stared back blankly. "There's not much to go around with."

"I'll find a way," the Sith replied, tightening his group on his saber. "Let's go."

"2nd company, full fire on their assault tanks," Thire instructed. "Push them back!"

MBT units rippled salvos of plasma driver fire from their primary cannons, blasting into armor shields or packed groups of infantry and sending explosions blasting across the Sith lines. Return fire accompanied the attack, but the concentrated Dominion assault picked up in intensity to drown out the counterargument. Onasi took his five Shock Troopers down to the bridge's edge as focus was taken on the primary Dominion group, giving the quick-thinking Force wielder the time he needed to come up with an idea of his own to begin routing the enemy.

"Grapple lines," Onasi instructed to the troops, pointing at one of the support cables lining the natural bridge's edge. "Hook your lines to that support and let's get around behind them.

A quick affirmative around the soldiers trained their entire lives to follow and fight got the ball rolling, and Onasi hooked a hand on the line as he attached his saber to his belt. The five Shock Troopers followed suit, hooking their grappling attachments of their DC-23 modular rifles to the cable. The six swung down on the arcing cable, picking up speed as they sledded to the minimum apex and spun up again. The Shock Troopers latched hands to the cable before pulling up their pistols and firing a magnetic grapple to the bridge above, hooking and disengaging their DC-23s in the process. Onasi did it the Sith way, simply flinging himself with enough velocity and focus towards the bridge above, and securing a handhold onto a rock ledge. He pulled himself up as the six Dominion soldiers found themselves inside the Sith lines, shortly behind the primary fighting line.

Onasi spoke not a word, but ignited his sapphire lightsaber in the midst of several Warrior droids to speak his mind.

OOC: retcon previous statements about the introduction of the STSS pheonix, i have a different plotline for that.


Elumarnia: High orbit

The STSS Tigerclaw had become almost as familiar as the Daedelus had been, and it was Kast's new home away from home. The former carriar having been destroyed in the previous engagement had caused need for this rather new Battle Cruiser to become the Flag ship of the Tarsonian Fleet. And the Tarsonian fleet was once more heading to war. Below on the planet surface, drop ships littlered the ground loading up supplies and and troops, and then returning to their ships in the heavans above. All this Kast observed from the Bridge of the Tigerclaw. He sat in the command chiar, a rather spartan looking throne, but confortable, with computer pannels in the arms. As he read the reports of mobilization procedures his mind wandered to thoughts of his daughter. It didn't feel right that she had decided not to come on this mission. It was she who suggessted it, but she believed the dreams had a more complex meaning, and she felt she must discover what ever that may be. When she had told him this, Kast had put the Seven Horseman at her disposal. She was the Junior Officer of the Group but now she was in command for this one mission... whatever that mission was. Questions had arisin as to whether Kast was putting his daughter over the interest of the people, but he didn't care. He had questioned it too himself but was confident he had made the right decision.

Turning back to the matter at hand he read through the final reports stating that the fleet was ready to move out. 150 ships in all, half the fleet was brand new ships, created from resources that their agents had earned doing lucrative missions for other nations. Sturdy tested designs with all new state of the art armor and Shielding, and the older ships had been brought up to speed. They were ready for a fight.

"Send the orders," Kast said to the Communications Officer, "all possible haste to Talasea, in a few hours we shall be decending into what i believe will be epic battle. We fly at full alert."

As the fleet headed for the now opening hyperspace window, 7 men and women stared up from the surface below and silently prayed for good luck.

Talasea

An Otari-class corvette slammed across the prow of a Dominion Voxyn-class battlecruiser, shearing the frontal bridge node off of the vessel and sending brilliant blasts of flame out from the cruiser as the corvette exploded in a swath of fiery blossoming hues. The battlecruiser veered down into the planet's gravity well, flames shooting out of the breaking hull like party streamers as the ship broke up into a flaming flower upon contact with the high atmosphere. Both engine rod nacelles ripped off from the superstructure as anyone unfortunate enough to still be alive in the now-shieldless hull was either flung out into the low-air ionosphere or burned alive inside the furnace as it plummeted through the planet's topmost regions. Rubble from the collision slammed into a passing fighter formation as it rushed to engage a gun frigate, smashing apart one of the fighters as the group attempted to evade the erratically-moving debris.

Torpedo fire rippled past Cassus Fett's Defender-class superiority fighter as he and Gamma group zipped past an exploding Nova-class Sith frigate. As the Dominion's most trusted independent warrior, Fett had a hansom salary and fighting skills to boot that he used liberally on a frequent basis for the Amazonians. His pilots behind him flew in tight formation, dodging missile fire and rippling plasma driver shells as they flew harder in towards the core of the Sith fleet. The space battle had devolved at this point into a mess of 1-1 or 2-1 fights between capital ships that preyed upon one another at close range with every weapon that could be turned to bear, while fighters and bombers picked around the larger ships and used weapons on each other and the engaging capital ships. Fett had a larger purpose in mind, however, as his flock of twelve fighters hurtled in towards a large Vindicator-class dreadnought spearheading the attack.

"Tighten up," Fett commed over. "We're headed towards the main hanger bay."

"Affirmative lead," came a reply, "Moving in."

Fett was cool and collected as fire rippled in. The warrior activated his missile launchers, positron torpedoes streaking out and punching a hole in the shield grid of the hanger bay. Fett and his group streaked in as new shields and force fields struggled to repair the old one, forming up as Fett's fighters touched down in the hanger, Sith soldiers coming out to meet them with laser weaponry and like.

"Use cover and move quickly," Fett commed, in control, just before slamming open the hatch of his fighter.

The warrior quickly activated his personal energy shield, crouching alongside his fighter as laser shots came in. Fett pulled out an LS-89 electron beamer, scanning just past the hull of his fighter as the other pilots had made their ways out and were returning rounds with various weapons. Levelling the gun into a firing position, Fett streamed a pulse through a cluster of five Sith soldiers moving into the hanger, cutting down all five and moving on to eviscerate a sixth with the continuous-fire beam of the weapon. A concussion rifle shot blasted apart the head of one of his companions, splattering blood and brain across the man, but he fought on with a dogged determination and veteran's eye. Rather than taking the quick shot and trading blows, Fett calmly remained in cover while darting his sights across the opposing obstructions, lancing out a beam every time an enemy soldier popped his head up and proceeding to behead the enemy.

Two actual Sith dashed into the hanger bay, each wielding a lightsaber - though as Fett noticed from his extensive time around the Dominion, the nonchalant way both carried them told the veteran soldier that neither was much more than an Acolyte. He switched weapons, moving his electron beamer to his back in favor of an AMC-5 assault rifle with projectile bullets. As the two Force-wielders moved in, Fett and several of the other pilots sprayed rounds across the two as the other few kept the heads of the Sith soldiers down. The two Sith deflected the shots well enough to keep them out of harm's way, dashing up to close with the Dominion pilots. A quick swipe of the saber had hacked apart two pilots before Fett jumped up to confront the nearest one, whipping out an amphistaff and engaging the weapon to straighten into a solid and sharpened shaft.

The Sith hacked down, thinking the weapon an ordinary vibroblade at first until Fett's weapon clashed with the lightsaber in a lock. The young Sith was momentarily stunned, enough time for Fett to slide into a defensive position to keep the lightsaber extended beyond the Sith's easily retractable reach and activated his wrist-mounted poison dart gun at point-blank range. The small kyber dart smacked into the chest of the unarmored Force warrior, a momentary look of shock and surprise on his face appearing as the Fex-M3 toxin inside the dart flowed into his body, causing the stored energy within his brain to be released as the Sith's brain literally boiled away. The shock turned into a frozen look as the man tumbled to the ground, dead within 3 seconds to Fett's quick move.

The other Sith warrior, having decapitated one of Fett's comrades, quickly turned her attention to Fett. She absorbed a quick blast of bullets from one of the other Dominion pilots, Force-pushing him back into a fighter as she swung her blade at Fett. The warrior countered with a defensive flick of the amphistaff, the living melee weapon clashing and deflecting the strike of the energy saber of the Sith. She swung again in anger, wildly striking for Fett's torso as he kept his weapon in control. A focused attack from the remaining Sith soldiers kept Fett's comrades under wraps, forcing the warrior to confront the angry Sith acolyte on his own. She was too caught up in her emotion after seeing her comrade killed in such a fashion. Her style was out of control, too frenetic to keep up for a long and extended fight against a veteran melee wielder. Fett kept her thinking on the aggressive, looking for a potential point to take advantage of her weaknesses and utilize the multi-dimensional weapon he wielded to take her off guard and end the fight.

The Sith acolyte swung again, a long lancing blow from the side that Fett quickly took a move on. Pinning the blade to the side by slipping inside, Fett used his free hand to activate a field disruptor on his belt and grabbed a hold of the Sith's arm in one quick movement. The disruptor coursed energy through Fett's personal shielding, striking the Sith hard and jolting her backwards even on its lowest power setting. Fett took advantage, knocking her saber from her hands and then using the snake-like creature's poison banks within its head to fire a quick burst of organic spit straight into the Sith's eyes. With a scream she stumbled back, clutching at her face as her sight fell away, leaving Fett to move in. A quick blast from one of his comrades raked plasma-coated bullets across her back, the shots rippling through flesh and lung. The Sith arched her back in pain and shock, a surprised and agonized face coming across. Fett finished it, straightening out the living weapon and slashing directly across her abdomen.

Her intestines and stomach bubbled out from the L-shaped cut Fett had made in one swipe, guts falling to the floor as blood and stomach cavity fluid followed up. The Sith acolyte whimpered slightly as she hit the floor, Fett standing over her with a look of complete nonchalance on his face as his enemy writhed in pain and agony with organs leaking on the steel hanger ground. The life drained from the Force wielder, her thoughts and soul ripped free from the world as she died beneath the tall figure of an enemy who cared less whether she was a Sith fighting for those wishing to usurp the Dominion or an innocent woman with child on the passive slopes of a grain world.

Fett's men, now down to a total of 7, had finished the rest of the Sith soldiers off.

"We need to access the main elevator causeway and make our way to the central bridge and engineering ports," Fett came in coolly, as if he had forgotten a pitched battle that had killed 5 of his men had even just occurred. "Tou, take Kee, Vasai, and Po'na and move to the reactor - I uploaded it into this datapad. Usai, Q'olon, you're with me as we go to the bridge."

Lainas Tou, his wingmate and friend, nodded silently to the warrior as he took the datapad. Tou, having lived on the grimy and crime-ridden Rim world of Ita-Mai most of his young life and losing his tongue and one organic hand to gang law, had mastered non-verbal communication and paired his experienced demeanor with Fett's cool sense of patience in fights. He motioned with his robotic hand to his three as they moved towards the opposite end of the hanger. Fett took his others through a one-floor lift, moving on to knock out the Sith fleet command vessel from the inside.

Talasea Deep Orbit

The Battle over the planet raged in epic proportions. Ships crumbled under the weight of turbolaser and torpedo, while others reigned supreme casting down their opponents to the incinerating atmosphere below. But all this would be overshadowed as a force of 150 ships, traveling full speed at hyperspace and having suddenly stopped, tore a massive rift in the fabric of subspace.

Bridge of the STSS TigerClaw
Kast felt adrenaline pump through his veins as the battle came into view. Oh what an epic site it was. "Execute battle plans." was all he said. Fighters and Gunships screamed ouf of launch bays. Sith ships were identified and engaged. The rebellion needed to be Crushed here before it got much larger. Kast watched as the Dominion forces, recognizing a new ally, began to fight with renewed cause, Moral Soaring.


Elumarnia

Its burning....All burning...Everything Burning....

Keslia snapped out of her meditation, her focus broken. Sweat beaded her brow as she tried to slow here breathing. She had been trying to Meditate on her dreams and up to this point had gained nothing. "Calm youself child she could hear her father chiding her. You need to focus on the solution...not the problem.

Finally calming herself, she began again...no longer trying to recall her dreams, but searching for void, the endless energy between worlds and the nexus of all life. Suddenly she found herself, surrounded by a black and dreary landscape. The dark world, felt...wrong, as if sick, something plauged this world like a parasite, she could feel its pain. AS she tried to follow this connection, she could feel a presence. It felt oily, and dark, and encompassed all. Who is this that enters my realm with out my permission!

Recognition struck Keslia's mind, this was the shadow from her dreams...and she had wandered right into his trap. THe presence threatened her very sanity. IT ripped at her mind, tearing at the moorings that held her to this world. She fell craddling herself unable to stand upon its sheer might. Curling into a ball she wept knowing her end. The pain was overwhelming and she felt the end at hand when....it was gone. A distant curse was the last she heard of the voice.

Now Keslia could feel warmth on her face. It spread through out her body, filling her spirit, and she opened her eyes. She found herself, surrounded. Encompassed within white wings, shielding her from teh evil she had just escaped. Sitting up she looked around and gazed into face she had not seen in almost a decade. "Draconis,..." she whispered. The long dead angel only smiled and nodded. Pulling her to her feet. Ever silent, he brushed the hair out of her face. finally he whiserped one word..."Antares...." and with that she snapped back to reality. Finding herself back in the Meditation Hall.

Quickly she stormed out sprinting down the hall. FInally bounding into the mess hall, where the other 6 of the Horseman were lounging she tried to speak out of breath. "Ant....Tares.....we head for...Antares"

Antares

Keslia gazed out from teh cockpit of the STSS Workhorse, the Firefly class transport used solely by the Seven Horseman, upon the wrold of Antares. The planet had long been ignored by teh Tarsonian government, mostly due to the fact that no Sentient life had ever been present. The planet had becoem some sort of wildlife preserve, endangered species dropped into similar habitats and there for preserved. But otehr than that very little human interaction occured on the world. ADue to this, Antares had managed to avoid the purgings of the Otari, and was still a beautiful world, filled with lush forests and varied biomes.


"Scan teh planet," she said absent mindedly. After all, Draconis had brought her here, but what exactly was she supposed to find. Sensor nodes on the ship activated as detailed geographical and biological scans were being conducted. She poured over the returning data, looking for anything of use.

Oovo

The figure floated around his tomb, staring at filled vaults and catacombs - tomb raiders weren't something to be had often around Oovo, but even if they did, this particular Sith Lord had rigged his tomb better than most. Further inspection of the outer halls of the tomb revealed rotting corpses trapped in once-activated electroweb snares, others hooked by nasty durasteel grapplers and left to suffer for days from dehydration and hunger. Beasts left ages ago in the tomb by followers had been imbued with Sith power, and still roamed around somehow alive in the catacombs of the tomb, feasting on animals that entered and snuck past traps or on corpses - or bodies - of those unfortunate enough to find themselves in the number of grisly snares left to ward off potential visitors. A recent casualty was still alive, though barely - razors had sheared off a foot and a giant wraid was currently feasting on the tomb raider's left leg. Just another failure, to the figure.

The specter mused on the predicament. Nihilis had been sent out to coordinate the fleets - and the Sith was quite capable. The phantom liked Nihilis - his hunger guided him to do whatever was necessary, to drive to incredible odds and overcome them in the search of whatever he could find to satisfy a need for life. Though most did not know who or what he was, the apparition did...and he knew very well. Besides that, Nihilis was a soul, and one destined to either succeed admirably or fail horribly, and the specter had an idea of which it would be already. Nihilis was not a necessary figure by any means, but a useful one? Certainly. He was creative in his strategy, a sound warrior, and a destroyer of entire worlds and star systems. There was little he couldn't do, and the dark figure liked that.

Ludo Kressh, on the other hand, could only really be credited with his long-term vision. The man had power, indeed, but he was too willing to share it, especially with Nihilis. He was also somewhat limited in scope - he delegated far too much power to those beneath him, and was too trusting in that regard. He took advice and utilized it, but failed to check to see if it was the best option, either. In all, Kressh was not the strongest - not even between the two Sith who ruled the Sith contingent that threw firepower against the Dominion. The figure, for all purposes, held a somewhat positive view of the Emperor Droma...and one other beneath him...but those who had come in to take the reigns had twisted his vision. The man could've started a legacy to take the reigns from the specter and the one who had come before him, but they had instead tried for efficiency, rather than vision - for stability, rather than for goals. That was unacceptable, and while Nihilis was useful for short-term gain, a stronger top was needed.

The specter "meditated," if one could call that by the ghost. He fell back to his direct inner sepulcher, diving into the deep twists and whirls of the Force that connected everyone - and while maybe some didn't drink from the same cup as the Sith and the Jedi, everyone could feel it somehow. Some called it different things, some used it in different ways - but it was all the same unifying field. The apparition reached out with his mind, his hand calling forth to a few names...one far away, the leader of a few but still very much under the sway of her father's teachings as she headed for an unknown destiny, her own father headed into battle. Another voice...similarly still under her father's teachings, but too headstrong and independent to admit it as she fought for a failing banner against hordes that would grow ever strong beneath one iron fist.

The ghost shrieked out across space and the Force, touching the very soul of those his eyes looked out at. Then, he spoke.

I see you, child...and you think your destiny is finally coming to hand. No, it has yet to begin...and you think your troubles have passed, but no...they have yet to be felt, to be inflicted with a knife sharper than diamond and an edge finer than any that has grazed your skin. Your enemy runs deeper than the blood in your veins, and not even your greatest moral strength can save you from the fire.

The specter screamed across space once more, his terrible voice lancing like scalding metal into the minds and hearts of everyone he touched.


Talasea

Fett whipped around a corner hall, he and his two teammates ripping apart several scrambling soldiers in a hail of plasmized bullets. Their screams left nothing to Fett as he dashed up the hall, his heavy armor barely even slowing his gait as his two fellows kept right in step, weapons up. The bridge was close, his datapad relayed that, and with a quick recharge personal shields were back to full strength.

"Up a level and down to the elevator shaft," Fett instructed.

The two others simply nodded - before Q'olon was sniped from a rafter several meters above, the laser shot pulse ripping straight through his weakened shield and shearing through his forehead. The man was dead before he hit the ground.

"Cover! Above!"

"I can't see him..."

Fett opened fire with a steady stream of bullets as the dreadnought lurched, sending the opponents off-balance as the Sith fleet countered to launch a hail of rockets and torpedoes at the new interlopers in the Tarsonians. Droid and biotic fighters screamed out of the hanger, the lights flashing to a pulsing red. Usai knifed off a shot from his needler, the electromagnetic needles spitting through the sniper's torso and ripping internal organs to shreds, killing the attacker.

"Let's go," Fett commented. Usai silently agreed.

Their progress was quickly cut short by the comm, however.

"Kee," the comm pinged over, "Vasai and Tou are dead. We're udner heavy fire and I don't know how much we can last here Cassus - Warrior droids blocked our run to the reactor."

Fett groaned. "We'll be down to back you up Kee. Hold out until then and find cover."

"Can do sir."

Fett felt nothing for the loss of his longtime friend in Tou - he had lost too many friends before in fighting, even before he had started utilizing his talents in pay-for-battles with the Dominion alongside his Iridonian comrades.

"Let's go Kal," Fett motioned for Usai, as the two dashed off to the elevator shafts, opened up now without opposition.

The shafts took them down twelve decks to engineering, where there was little opposition going on - apparently, four live combatants wasn't enough concern to dedicate the entire security contingent. Usai almost tripped over the corpse of a dead Krogan, apparently knifed by one of their Iridonian comrades. Later on was the two bodies of their fallen, the other two living still holed up behind a flipped ammunition box. Fett didn't bother to ask questions, but merely began firing on the droids that continued to fight down the hall towards the reactor.


Oovo

"Kressh..."

Ludo Kressh wandered forth in the ancient Sith tomb, looking to see what information he could still glean and make use of the specter for. He intended to destroy it somehow later, but wasn't sure exactly how...Nihilis would probably come into the equation there.

"What is it?" Kressh inquired, with somewhat of an air of caution.

"Something important to the effort..." the apparition motioned forth with his hands, moving aside at the tomb and beckoning Kressh to come forth.

The Sith Lord did so, figuring it was nothing out of the ordinary - and found himself simply staring at wilting rags.

"I don't see-" Kressh began, before a force violently threw him into the stone wall of the tomb.

"You blind fool," the specter retorted. "You are not a Sith! You are weak! You disgrace the very name, you are a taint upon the tongue! And you do not deserve to lead those that would fight for the Sith banner any longer!"

Kressh fought it off, summoning and igniting his lightsaber: "You cannot destroy me," he hissed at the specter before advancing on it. "I am the Dark Lord of the Sith - you have no power. You are dead!"

The spirit simply laughed, before hurling Kressh's lightsaber away and into a pit of acid nearby that represented the last hurdle granting access to the tomb...along with some tricks to it. "I am afraid you are mistaken, imposter...you are simply a wishful observer who has cast off his right to a name!"

With that, the specter charged Kressh, who with a last fleeting attempt sent a wave of force energy at the ghost. It did nothing to slow the apparition down, and it slammed straight into the Sith Lord's body. Kressh flew into the wall as a wave of frigid air cast across his body, his limbs jolting and shocking in a state of uncontrolled shaking that cast Kressh into a state of fear...his cycle of the Dark Side complete. Something felt as if it was crawling down his mouth as his skin pulsated and burned, as if it was transforming and mutating as he twisted and writhed upright against the wall. The spirit was no longer before him, but felt inside of him, eating away at his soul and extinguishing his candle of life. Kressh tried to scream out and cast it forth, but had no energy left - his very body was ripped from his control and mutating before his very sight...his sight, as if he was an observer.

The world proceeded to close around Kressh in a swath of darkness, the dark creeping over his vision as what had been his body walked away into the shadows...laughing.


Amazonia

Something had happened...and it touched the very nerve of Marka Ragnos's living fiber. A living scream seemed to echo from across the cosmos, riding along the waves of the Force and reaching out to grasp his voice. Ragnos shuddered involuntarily, retracting from the fibers of whatever had called out to his hand. He didn't feel he was alone, either...Naga Sadow walked in nearby, seemingly troubled.

"You feel it?" Ragnos mentioned, casually. "Something has happened."

"I feel I will not like the results," Sadow replied. "Already our forces on Talasea are being fought to a draw. Relas has collapsed under internal pressure, Upoda dropped out of contact two hours ago, and Semaii-Raas will not last the night under the current assault. Sion is deploying his fleet to directly engage the enemy advance fleet at Rydoni, and surely Nihilis and Kressh will deploy more forces."

"Indeed," Ragnos remarked. "But I fear we may have more to deal with now than simply fleets and fire."


Talasea

Bullets and lasers rippled past Nadié's flowing brown hair as she dropped to the torched grass of the temperate world, her violet lightsaber falling to her side as it closed into the hilt. Something had reached out into her mind - something that knew who, what, where, everything about her, as if it targeted her and wanted to inflict pain - it wanted awareness. Something terrible had happened, something unforeseen - even in the midsts of fighting against a fresh wave of combat droids advancing across open fields in the backdrop of a mountain and two splitting natural bridges. One bridge had already been collapsed by a Dominion seismic charge in ending the advance of a Sith army, but there were two more standing - and escape routes were closing fast for Nadié's forces. Onasi's group was kilometers away - she didn't like her contemporary much anyway - but he was doubtful to help her now, too locked into his own affairs.

But this was more important to her. Something drove a spike into her mind, tearing at the backs of her eyes and her very voice. Something had been born from ashes that should have never been stirred, something dangerous and lethal that knew everything that was going on around her. Something that wanted to inflict true harm.

"You alright m'lady?" Her commander, Bly, knelt down in his yellow-emblazoned white armor. The clone was a veteran of war and a good personality, above else - he felt from those around him, enabling the soldier to fight and coordinate more effectively.

Nadié just shook her head, attempting to stand briefly before falling to the ground and blacking out as shots rang out above. She barely heard as Bly was hit, airlifted off shortly later by a gunship...her body ignored underneath the shadow of a destroyed speeder as her own Dominion force made a strategic retreat, and her own form was lifted by a Warrior droid with a marker of the Sith on its shoulder.


Oovo

Two Sith soldiers retracted in fear and disgust as a figure exited the tomb of the former great Sith leader - and he who had went in there originally, their lord Ludo Kressh, it was not. Both raised their guns to open fire on the new foe - and both were summarily hacked apart by the figure's double-bladed red lightsaber. Their third contemporary came up in support and was lifted into the air, electrocuted, and pitched aside like a living bomb. A Sith officer nearby was picked up telekinetically, the figure reaching out with the Force and literally crushing his skull.

The bodies fell to the ground, rapidly cooling as all 8'3" of the figure strode across the desert ground of Oovo, the tomb world. He had risen from his tomb and usurped the pretenders who would've usurped his title, Dark Lord of the Sith. And to solidify it...that he would do.

Storming into the nearest command post of the Sith, the figure grabbed the frontal receptionist by the neck, squeezing her throat until the very life threatened to exit her veins.

"Ludo Kressh is no more," the figure gasped. "The Dark Lord of the Sith, Freedon Nadd, is your new master."

Andares


Beep...beep....beep... the consol slowly drifted into focus as Keslia opened her eyes. Groggilly she rubber her eyes, almost embarressed that she had fallen asleep. Quickly her nimble fingers traced over a pattern of buttons bringing up teh results of the scans. "Whats this?" she said confused as the computer showed an impossible find. Pressing a button openign a comm she spoke "Major you better get up here."

Moments later the slim attractive from of June Rapier entered the bridge, yawning away her exhaustion. She had obviously been awoken. "what's wrong..." she aid. Keslia spun around fingers flying across the key board bringing up her reports. June looked them over, "So whats the big de....." she trailed off moving closer. using the touch screen she maginified one particular section of screen. "IS that?" she said to Keslia who just nodded. It was an entranceway...handcrafted...on an uninhabitted world.

Talasea
Kast pressed a series of buttons sending orders to several squads of attack ships. The battle was a stale mate, even with their help the dominion was being pushed back. Even now the Dominion forces had begun evacuating their commands pulling back. and it fell on the tarsonians to cover their retreat.

"Form up," he sent to the other commanders of the fleet. "phalanx formation, lets give our allies a wall of metal to duck behind."

Andares
Kesila stood before the monsterous archway. Shielding her eyes, from the blistering sun, even though her sungoggles helped dim the light conciderably. around her some of the Seven were busy scanning and cataloging their find. the scene was rather remonisent of an archeological dig. June came up behind her to see what she was looking at. "100 years this planet has been in the Tarsonian Kingdom, and no one found this?" she asked almost sarcastically.

June smiled apparently appreciative of the younger her sarcasm. "When it was initially scanned our technology was much less sophisticated, and when it was orginally discovered it was a like a tumoltuous world. Acid rain, powerful snow storms...poluted snow. The government spent 30 years teraforming the planet into a hospitable world, and then...the government changed, and no colony was established. Good thing too, this world might be a good additional settlement, Elumarnia is getting pretty drab."

Keslia nodded, Elumarnia was safe and secure, but humans were not ment to live underground. Sighing she turned away from the subtereanean entrance. "How long till we can be underway major?" she asked. "Now," June responded, holdin up Keslia's rifle. "And your to lead the way." Keslia took the rifle and checked it before laying it over her shoulder. The other horseman came up behind her ready to move out. "Allright she said," lets do this. And the Seven entered the cave.

The group traveresed the first few meters easily. Keslia held her rifle cocked and ready, but firmly braced against her shoulder. The gun mounted flash lights gave some decent illumination, but Keslia would find soon they were not needed. As she took another step sudden beeping sounded on her left and the hall Illuminated, unseen lights turning on, and a cry of suprise from behind her.

Turning around she saw hunter rubbing his forhead. "whats wrong?" she asked concerned. "There appears to be some sort of foce field right here," he said reaching foward. his hand impacted on mid air and a field of energy blocked reacted zapping his hand. Keslia moved to the forcefield and attempted to touch it but nothing happened. She stepped forward confused and the lights clicked off, and she was not stopped. Taking a step back the lights clicked on and a gentle whirr told her the shield was active again. "It's a shield, that activates when one person crosses the thresh hold." she said..." I guess only one is allowed to go further." June moved to the front of the pack, "Not this time leiutennant, get back on this side now, thats an order." But Keslia ignored her, she was already moving down the hall she continued on until June's voice was little more than an echo.


Talasea

The Tarsonian forces were fairing well. They had taken relatively few losses, a few gunships and few fighters. Their capital ships were a dominating force however on the Stolen Sith Ships. but what the Sith lacked in power, they made up for in numbers. The planet, as Kast had been informed, was lost, and the forces had taken heavy losses. Onasi, was heading back to space, Droma, was missing in action presumed dead. and the forces above had were already preparing to bail. Until they were ready The tarsonian forces were providing cover and were engaging the Sith Forces while Dominion forces pealed out. Kast hoped they would be ready to go qiuckly, he didn't no how much longer before capital ships started taking losses.

Somewhere

Keslia smiled blowing out the candles of her birthday cake. It was her 18th, and she would finallly be an adult. Glasses of ail were all around in her parents Korhal appartment, her father and mother were there toasting her rise to woman hood. But something felt...wrong. He smile began to fade...and she left sat down on the sofa. Her father came over and leaned low, "is everything allright dear..." Keslia nodded, "its like....i can see everything, but none of its happening to me." Her father laughed, "relax pumpkin, you've had a little to much to drink." Keslia shook her head, "Pumpkin..you've never called me that before...And you," she said turning to her mother,...." your dead..you've been dead for...8 years." She began to spin, "all of you, Your all dead...none of this...none of this is real...its not real" she closed her eyes. "Its NOT REAL!!!" and with her outburst the illusion fell away, and she found her self back in the tunnel. Dead boddies littered the ground...though they all had a look of...peace on their faces...as if they died happy. She began to ponder this when the door at the end of the tunnel she had come to began to rumble. Dust and dirt fell out of cracks as the old door broke its age long seals and slowly began to open. Words in another language were spoken...but yet she understood what they ment. "You have proven yourself....enter."

As Keslia stepped inside the door rumbled shut behind her. With only one way to go she stepped forward. Gloglobes ignited along the wall illuminating the room. It was a massive expanse, spherical in shape with a spire rising up in the middle. The spire stopped at exact center of the sphere, and some object rest upon it. Leading out to the expanse was a natural bridge of stone. Keslia tested the bridge at timidly at first, but when nothing happened she carefully traversed to the other side. Upon reaching the object she quickly recognized that it was a sarcophagus, rather spartan in its decor..odd concidering the size and scope of the room. Usually it would be filled with jewels and riches. Either this place was robbed or...concidering the sarcophagus was rather spartan as well, this place held a person of great respect..who probably shed the need for material goods. probably a priest of some sort.

Either way, keslia thought, this place was useless. But as she turned to leave, some one spoke. The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Filling the room, and also.. filling her. It was warm, and full of compassion. "Welcome to my tomb younge one...I am Nomi Sunrider."

Pugnor
3,989 Years Before Present

Nadd sliced apart the lithe frame of a female Jedi before him, watching her young body fall in two pieces to the rocky landscape of the world of death below him. She was merely an apprentice, nothing to get in the way - especially as his mutant Baragwin warriors proceeded to slash apart all that stood before the Sith conquering army as the Federation forces attempted a counterattack. The Jedi had very little in comparison to the Sith's dominant forces, and despite a virtual stalemate occurring in orbit between the two massed fleets of the conflicting empires, Nadd was supremely confident in victory. The Jedi had brought their finest forces here to the world of a thousand wars throughout the thousand-year history of the Shroud, but the young Federation - barely old enough to crawl out from the shadow of the Polusian Commonwealth it had replaced barely 80 years ago - was crumbling beneath its own inexperience to the lethal and deadly forces of the Sith.

Nadd swiveled on a clawed toe, his eyes seering out onto the field of battle as his battle armor glittered in the dusty sun. Three of the Jedi's council members were making a charge towards his direction - Sunrider, Doneeta, and, to the knowledge of none but Sunrider herself and conveniently Nadd, Nomi's secret lover, Sama Kavarr. Their lightsabers glistened, two royal blue energy shafts and Sunrider's light green blade. Nadd lacked a lightsaber, instead pulling his cortosis Sith sword from his holster and wielding the weapon with a deadly twirl. His followers were wasting Federation ground support as giant, Sith-tainted beasts corrupted by his apprentice charged into the Federation lines, spraying flame and poison across the battleground. Nadd's attention was solely on his combatants.

Doneeta was headstrong and despite the warnings of the two humans, the Theron Jedi dashed into a frontal duel with Nadd. The Dark Lord of the Sith dispatched the Jedi Master with ease, slicing low with a power and speed that defied conventional thinking and hacking off Doneeta's blade hand with a single swipe. Nadd wasted no time listening to the Theron's howls of pain, instead swinging the weapon around in a slashing arc that ripped open Doneeta's sternum and heart. The Jedi Master fell to the ground clutching his chest, his life force quickly leaving him as Kavarr and Sunrider coolly moved past his quick death into defensive stances.

Nadd engaged by hurling a boulder at the two telekinetically, splitting the two Jedi as each dove aside from the missile. With his foes separated, Nadd pounced on Sunrider as he drove his sword up. Nomi countered the blade, but Kavarr leaped back in to aid his secret lover. The Dark Lord was expecting this, throwing aside Sunrider with his free hand and using his sword hand to engage the unfocused and emotionally-driven Kavarr with a telekinetic grip. The Jedi jolted backwards as he choked momentarily, Sunrider struggling to her feet as Nadd held control over the situation. He flashed a slight wry smile to Sunrider, then whipped Kavarr around violently. The Jedi shrieked momentarily, but Nadd drew him in close and gored the Jedi Master on his sword as he brought him face to face. Kavarr was weaponless, his lightsaber having fallen away and now locked in the considerably more powerful Nadd's grasp. The Sith Lord smiled, blood oozing down his mouth, as he hurled Kavarr at breakneck speed towards a boulder. Sunrider watched in horror as Kavarr's head exploded in a burst of blood and brain.

Passions fueling her, Sunrider dove at the Dark Lord, summoning Kavarr's saber with her free hand. Nadd took a momentary step back, allowing Sunrider to take one too many steps forward on the advance utilizing the style of twin blades that she was not as accustomed to, and now working on passion after her lover's quick and messy demise. The Dark Lord of the Sith took full advantage, trapping the two lightsabers with the blade of his sword against a thick boulder and headbutting Sunrider in the face with the frontal horn of his war helmet. The point gashed a gaping hole in Sunrider's cheek, ripping apart flesh and cutting up a passage into her mouth. Sunrider stumbled back in pain, and Nadd was all too quick in his experience to take advantage of the slightest weakness. From his position with his sword, he quickly drew the blade up and down - slicing deep into Sunrider's shoulder, easily severing connecting tendons and nerves. The Jedi Master fell the ground in agony, her adversary and mortal enemy standing before her in complete triumph over a full quarter of the Federation's Jedi High Council in less than five minutes.

With a stark smile, Nadd brough the Sith sword's dark point down right into Nomi's face.


Oovo
Present

Nadd sliced apart the lithe frame of a female civilian running from his wake of devastation in Dreshdae, the capital of Korriban despite being a somewhat small spaceport settlement with only a myriad of communication and supply facilities to mark it. Twisted limbs and sheared corpses littered the ground behind Freedon Nadd as he patrolled the halls and causeways of Dreshdae, eliminating any final survivors to witness the tale of what had happened. Nadd frankly didn't care who was there to still see - Oovo was merely a world of Sith significance, while the late Kressh and Nihilis were using the tropical world of Lehon as their base of operations - but nonetheless, the more dead to Nadd, the better.

Finally satisfied two hours into his killing with hundreds of bodies littering the floors of Dreshdae, Nadd walked slowly up to the communications nexus that linked Oovo to the main Holonet - the hyperspace-linked communications grid that connected and provided for instantaneous communications between the entire Shroud. The Sith had already been working on usurping and cutting some lines to their own benefit, but Oovo was still in the main uplink - and Nadd intended to use it to his greatest benefits. Using several computer spikes to cut through security programs with garbage data and overloading its virtual intelligence, Nadd quickly sliced into the system - his old, keen mind back to 100% faster than he would have thought possible. Within a half-hour, Nadd had achieved an uplink to any location the Holonet was accessible in, including the Sith fleet, the Dominion fleet, Amazonia, and countless worlds and stations.

Nadd chose his locales carefully - he did not want an all-out spread, but instead sent a direct message straight to several sources. One was Dominion Military Command on Polus, which would surely go into overdrive the second he was comprehended. The second was directly into the Imperial Spire, and also the Force Temple. A third locale was the most reputable news service - Amazonian Galactic News - to shock the civilian sector into panic when the news (which would likely make AGN even richer than they currently were) undoubtedly broke. A fourth was directly into the Senate's main chamber.

The Senate was in full session on Amazonia, voting on a smaller resolution for driving funding towards Vivaste's bioengineering waste program, when the lights dimmed unexpectedly. This was not a common occurrence besides when meetings were adjourned, and this was certainly not the case. Heads turned up, including the Senate Chancellor's, as a holoimage spanning the entire height of the chamber appeared suddenly - the image of a huge man, encased in the robes of Ludo Kressh but no longer with his physical form. He seemed something out of time immemorial, one of the Hybrid Sith from long ago who had corrupted an offshoot of the Baragwin race and inbred human Dark Jedi to form an entire race. The figure wasted no time in stopping for observation, however.

"Ludo Kressh is dead," Nadd's image began, to a shockingly silenced Senate. "I killed him personally on Oovo. He will no longer trouble your thoughts and minds."

Nadd paused momentarily as murmurs slowly went up in the stunned crowd, before continuing with his bombshells.

"I will trouble you instead. I am Freedom Nadd, Dark Lord of the Sith, 4,000 years into the creation of my Sith Empire. Your pathetic attempts at creating an efficient society will snap and disintegrate before waves of enemies more vile and deadly than anything you have ever seen. My ships will block out the very light from the stars as you sleep, taking your children and snapping their necks, burning your citizens in their homes."

Nadd was very deliberate, at the least. He meant every word he stated.

"My conquest will not stop until every man, woman, and child who declares loyalty to your posing Dominion lies in a pile of ashen pieces. Your system of government will crumble to my iron fist, your armies will burn and suffer before the weapons of anger. The True Sith will show you the way to victory, and in doing so, cast you heathens down in defeat. A new age of peace is coming; one that you have no place in. Cower beneath your homes as your fields and futures are set ablaze by a force that shall never end - only with your deaths shall you escape."

Nadd cut off the transmission abruptly, ensuring that the transmission also made its way to Nihilis's command vessel. He would have the enigmatic Sith Lord under his grasp soon enough.


Talasea

The Sith warships rippled and pounded fire into the Tarsonian and Dominion lines as Onasi's fighter, accompanied by two interceptors, landed in the hanger of the fleet flagship. Onasi was clearly not happy with developments, abandoning half a division on the ground to what was certain death to numerical odds. They simply didn't have the firepower to compete.

"Tactical retreat," Onasi commanded, storming to the bridge of his Vindicator-class dreadnought, the ADV Tyrant Spark. "Set a course for Qualas."

Onasi was not in a happy mood here - the Sith force was in more than good shape, cycling fresh ships and shield banks of said ships with redundant facilities to keep everything clean and battle-worthy. The order seemed a little too perfect for anything Kressh had devised so far, but nothing had come up to indicate other wise.

"Course set General," his deck commander informed. "Departure in five minutes."

"Hold them off until then, have the fighter squadrons fall back into the hanger so we can pick them up."

Dropships were pouring into ship hangers now, desperate to make it back in time with salvaged remnants of the Dominion armies that had been decimated planetside while turbolaser and static fire rippled back and forth. The Tarsonians were not commed, but seeing as the entire Dominion force changed heading and began hitting full thrusters, it was clear what they were up to.


Sith Flagship Carnivorous

Nadié awoke in a sharp pain from multiple points, besides the pure darkness surrounding. The air was frigid to the point of freezing temperature, a stale atmosphere dry as a desert. The surface below her bare skin - apparently the Sith soldiers had probably had some fun while she had been unconscious - was cold sheet durasteel. The environment was callous, unfriendly, and knife-like aches zapped through her arms, legs, and torso every time she attempted to move.

Bright lights streamed on, directed at her face and forcing her eyes to snap shut momentarily. A turn of her head showed spikes from a Spiker rifle slammed through the crook of each arm, both knees, and three through her chest to keep her pinned to the interrogation table - Sith subtlety at its best, and something Naga Sadow probably would have admired, if not for his rival Kressh's forces utilizing it. An officer - a standard human, by the looks of his height being little more than Nadié's own 5'6" - strode in, accompanied by two Sith soldiers in blackened uniforms and what she quickly recognized from her days on Camus as an I-8G interrogation droid, but with extra "things" sticking out of it.

"The heir to the Emperor's line," mused the officer casually. "What a pity his offspring had to come out of the womb so pitifully."

Droma spit at the officer, catching his epaulet with the bloody blob.

"Not talkative? You're a feisty one for 19 years of age," he chuckled. "But we'll teach you some manners."

He stepped aside for his two soldiers to step in, each pointing their plasma rifles at her bare left thigh and firing a single shot apiece. Nadié vainly attempted to stifle a shriek of pain as the two shots sheared off flesh and sinew, blasting apart her unprotected flesh straight to the bone. The interrogation droid floated up, inserting a needle into her carotid artery to begin heightening her emotional levels. Droma attempted to fight back with the Force, but to no avail.

The officer apparently noticed her mental struggles, as he motioned for one of his soldiers to bring up a cage into her view: "The animal you see in here? I am sure your father showed it to you, bastard child...it's an ysalamiri. Force-neutralizing lizard within 10 meters. Your little mind tricks will hold nothing to the power of a laser pistol, I am afraid."

He smiled seductively at Nadié momentarily, before motioning to his interrogation droid: "I'll let my droid do the talking for a little bit, if you don't mind...and then we'll see how much you feel like discussing things."

The I-8G floated forward, one automaton mandible emerging from its oblong shell to reveal a sonic dissecting scalpel that it proceeded to engage.


Sith Flagship Carnivorous

Fett's men were dropping - he was down to himself and Kee now. They had been backed all the way to an outer corridor, weapons now failing as the droid advance had been bolstered by reinforcements. Fett looked around for a way out, spotting a single-person emergency use escape pod.

"Get in there!" Fett shouted to Kee over the din of wrist rockets from Warrior droids. "Get in the pod!"

"Sir take it yourself!" shouted Kee back, "I won't take it Cassus!"

Fett declined to provide a response, hurling an ion grenade into the hall to stymie the advance and grabbing Kee's armor backing. With a quick throw to the off-balance Iridonian, Fett hurled the man straight into the pod.

"Wait to set off the transponder until the fleet dissipates!" Fett exclaimed, shutting the hatch and slamming down on the ejection button.

Before Kee could have a chance to recover the pod streamed out into space, out of notice of the flagship's pounding weapons barrage against several engaging Dominion corvettes. Fett, meanwhile, turned his failing guns back towards the droids that continued to move in.

Talasea
Kast sprinted up the steps into his valkarye fighter. The Dominion was bailing as Kast had predicted, even if they didnt want to atleast call. But Kast was a parent.. he was used to that. Still he had a job he knew he had to do. Droma was missing, the Young sith lost during the battle planet side. The few readouts that the Dominion had offered the Tarsonians had shown her last location, and Tarsonian scouts had confirmed the Droids in that Vacinity had already evacuated to the Flagship. He knew the mission was most likely scuicide but he knew he would do it anyway. As much as he didnt want to admit it, the young girl reminded him of his own daughter, and of Rick Winters daughter as well.

Before anyone could ask he slammed on teh accelerator and his valkarye screamed out of the hold weaving in and out of incoming fighters and defiant class gunships. As soon as he made it out he opened a comm to his fleet. "This is Admiral Kast, all ships fall back with the Dominion, its high time we get out of here." He then opened a direct com to the STSS Shadow, an Achilles Class Cruiser. "Shadow, i have special orders for you."

"aye sir go ahead.
"Cloak" he said," and hide in the planets gravity shadow, i have a special run to make, and will need a ride soon." He switched his com off before they could reply and pushed his accelerator to the floor. Fighters pounced on him but he mainly ignored them, easily avoiding their fire. Flicking a switch up the Missle bays on his valkarye opened. And he then pulled the trigger on the joystick. dozens of Antimatter micro missles streaked toward the Sith command ship impacting on the hanger shield, and causing it to buckle. Pushing his ship to its limits he arced into the hanger slamming on the reverse just as the shield reactivated. Before his ship had even skidded to a halt he was out of it arcing through air deflecting blasts as he disappeared into a turbolift shaf and slid down the empty tube. Using his psyonic abilities he swung into a door on another level, his crimson beamsaber hacking through sentry droids posted there before they could even react. "Now" he thought as he reached out with his senses. "Where are you..."

Andares


Keslia stumbled back as the massive form of Nomi Sunrider's torso filled her field of view. Like a giant holocron suspended in the sphere the long dead woman, who Keslia knew nothing of was apparently back from the dead, or atleast communicating.

"Nomi Sunrider" keslia said confused. "And who are you, or more importantly...why am I here."

The apparation smiled, an chuckled softly. "That my dear is a question that can only be answered with a long story."

"I've got time," keslia said simply.

At this the apparation smiled wider. "Very well. First introduction. I am, or was, the Jedi Master Nomi Sunrider." This made keslia stir a bit. She knew of the Jedi though she thought little of them, but a Jedi in Tarsonis... that was knew. "And my story more or less begins, 4000 years ago, at the time when the Federation of Amazonia, now you know as the Dominion.. overthrew the Sith Lord Freedon Nadd, a hybrid warriar, who's lust for conquest and blood knew no end. I was part of the Jedi council at the time, and one of the leaders of the Federation. On a wartorn planet called Pugnor, I faced Nadd. However... I wasn't strong enough. Me and my lover" the spector paused as if sadly remoniscing" ...were slewn before his wrath. However much Later on Oona, Nadd was defeated, trapped in a tomb of Rock and stone, sealed by planetary bombardment. but, like me...his spirrit remained. I knew one day, he would return...and I must be here, when he did return...to help do what I could not, defeat Nadd and banish him from existance forever."

Keslia listened intently. "And so you came here?" she asked. "4000 years ago this part of space was uncolonized, the TArsonian Governemnt was just learing how to survive on Korhal."

The figure nodded, "I watched those pitiful few...sent off by their own people to doomed exile in the stars. It was a beautiful sight to see their stubborn hearty nature, rise above their predicament. But i Digress. Before Nadd, was the most powerful force weilder that existed, but unlike him, I effectively died. While he locked his spirit away on Oona, I joined with the Force, and have learned many a great deal about the universe. For this world, is Genesis, the birth place of Amazonia....It was here that they started the great trek into the Universe that brought us into the shroud. So it was here I chose to lay. I influenced some followers of the Order to bring my body here, to rest until, one who could bridge the gap and destroy Nadd, would be present, and now...Here you are."

This last statement shocked Keslia, her eyes widening. "Me?... What have I got to do with this..? If you're looking for power, My father is better suited than i am."

"No child," the spectar replied. "Your father is indeed powerful for one so young, but he cannot' defeat Nadd. And the reason for this, can only be known by understanding the difference between Jedi, Sith, and what you call psyonics. You see child, there is an omnipitent force, that unifies all life of the universe, an everpresent energyfield if you will. It has been called many things by many races. The Jedi and Sith, refer to it simply as.. the Force. And energy field that encompases both the Dark and LIght sides of life. Jedi and sith, tap into the force around them, using the force as a tool, and asking for its help. While they bend the force to the will, the extent of their power is based on their mental mastery. It is here that what you call psyonics and the Force weilders have in common, power dependant on mental mastery, but thats where the line draws. Psyonics draw their power from a different source. While the foce weilders draw power from the living things around them so to speak, Psyonic users draw power from themselves. They rely on their own biometric and emotional energy for power. "

Keslia nodded, "I understand this, but what has this got to do with me. As I said, my father is much more powerful than me?"

"Patience child," the spector replied,"you will soon see. Psyonics are technically the next stage of evolution for life. Natures own, response to force weilders if you will. NOw i spoke before of one who could bridge the Gap. And that.. is you. What you have refered to as the void.. is infact teh same energy between the worlds that we call the force. A psyonic is a being that serves as a channel for his own energy. His or her power is limited, by the scope of his mental discipline and own strength. You are different....you draw your power, directly from the void..., while Jedi try to master the force around them, u use the force through you. You can channel the power of the void. In essence, you are the entire force, born into a living person. The final stage of evolution, a channel of limitless power.

And in this next, 20 years.....you will learn to use this power, and become its master."

Keslia started and coughed..."20 YEARS? I cant stay here that long...my family, their at war... MY lover...is right outside, and I won't abandon him just to be your pet!"

Her words seemed to wound the spector. As if the spector hadn't anticipated this. "You would sacrifice the entire Universe, to an endless existance of pain and torment.... for love?"

"I WOULD" keslia reorted. "We don't have your stupid laws of indifference and attachment. I would sacrifice the world for him in a heart beat!"
"Even though, your world will soon be destroyed?"
THis stopped Keslia cold in her tracks. "What?"
The spector remaind indifferent. "Even now the Sith head for Elumarnia...to conduct its elimination."

Carnivorous - Outer Halls

Around a corner on the ship bounded not Nadié Droma as Kast was hoping, but a lumbering Skrawl holding a host of different weapons. The sentient reptomammal roared at Kast, unleashing a brilliant stream of liquid fire down the hallway that pulsated and swirled with pure heat and energy. From an adjacent hallway, several acklay droids formed up and levelled weapons from custom mounts at Kast, unleashing sonic cannons at intense frequencies high enough to shatter some metals at the Tarsonian.

The hallway directly above Kast rippled with the sound of an intense explosion and a lowering of pressure, however - something was going on one floor above.


Carnivorous - Interrogation Chamber

The I-8G sheared off a slice of skin with a rough but lithe blade, coarse enough for Nadié Droma to feel every movement of the blade but still sharp enough to easily cut through flesh and bone. The blade scithed through her shoulder muscle and clavicle tip with ease of technology, looking with two photoreceptors at the pieces before digging them back into the wound for good measure. Nadié's entire right arm was drenched in blood from her tattered and trashed right torso, her left leg having been put to The Burning after several Sith soldiers had pillaged her body - most of her leg was now lower flesh supporting charred and ashen bone above it from the slow, repeated shots of plasma pistols on low charge. The Sith officer had left her face intact - making mocking commentary about her physical beauty frequently - but was not against letting a bloodslug drive its way into her left arm's vein, now crawling around somewhere in her circulatory system that would eventually poison her bloodstream and burst into her body cavity after several excruciating days if a gastropod poison was not administered soon.

Droma hadn't lost her fighting spirit, however. Pinned to the table by barbs the size of her forearm, she kept her inner fire through the ordeal that didn't look like it was ending soon. She hadn't voluntarily given information, though as the Sith soldiers had been eager to do their work on her and distracted her thoughts - especially with the ysalamir in the cell neutralizing the Force around it - and the I-8G's micro-probe had entered her bloodstream and done...whatever it did...inside her brain. It had not been pleasant, especially in comparison to what was happening simultaneously.

Now the Sith officer had a heated barb shoved into her right forearm, the tip of the barb a full six inches into the flesh from where the incision started. He seemed to be deriving a sadistic pleasure from it as the Sith soldiers stood around and watched, lacking the consciousness between them to think anything wrong about the tortured naked woman being tormented further by the Sith.

"You hear somethin?" one of the Sith troopers remarked suddenly, looking around the cell.

Nadié opened an eye as pain streaked throughout her body. The Kyber hornet gnawing with its razor fangs on the back of her neck was bad enough despite what the Sith was doing, and now the troopers were thinking something was up. Hurry up already...

One of the soldiers raised a laser rifle around the room just as the wall rumbled suddely, a blue pulse blasting through the cell wall as a wave from a micro-seismic charge blasted through the cell. Cassus Fett had creative ways of escaping sticky situations without Force powers, even against Jedi or Sith - and now he found himself rocketing on his booster pack straight at the stunned Sith officer.

"Run you-" the officer began calling to the troopers as Fett careened into him, the tip of his rocket pack slamming into the temple of the man. Rather than punching a hole into his head, the pack simply carried it along for the ride, leaving a stumbling, gushing body to spray blood around the room from a neck stump that fell over on Nadié's weakening body, blasting blood across the walls.

Fett jumped to his feet as the Sith troops started to collect themselves, wasting no time. He whipped out his twin Nr5 laser pistols from set holsters with lightening speed, deadly accuracy from his Iridonian helmet sights setting up the first two soldiers' deaths in a rapid burst of energy fire. The third and fourth reacted fast, but Fett was faster. He bounded to the nearest wall, his grav-boots activating for a fraction of a second by a movement of his toe as Fett slanted a Khyber Dart straight into the jugular vein of the nearest trooper, unprotected with his Sith helmet rolling across the blood-slathered floor. The Fex-M3 poison within it roiled the man's brain by unleashing its potential energy, frying the man within a cool 2 seconds after killing him in a mere tenth. The other rattled off two shots, one catching Fett on the shoulder but despite with the Iridonian's shield down, merely glancing off his battle armor. Fett zipped out a cortosis arm blade, grabbing the man in a rear grasp and slicing into his neck vertebrae to sever the spinal cord quickly. He had done his work fast.

Fett noticed Droma struggling on the interrogation table somehow still alive - An impressive feat for anybody, he mused, particularly for one not even into maturity, by the looks of it. He meandered over, finally recognizing who it was - but Fett barely gave a care to that. He answered to number 1, and that was himself. Still, he had to give credit for Nadié to surviving so long under such conditions - though he had no medical pack on him besides an emergency pouch of bacta gel smear he kept for himself in critical situations. This, to Fett, was not "critical." He removed the spines from the table and from Droma, caring little for finesse or her short audible bursts of pain as he did so. The weak suffered, the strong plowed through - at least, that's how the Iridonian warrior culture viewed things. He was a warrior through and through, no matter what the price.

"They're going to have reinforcements coming soon," Fett motioned, as he heard sounds of the battle with Kast a floor down, kicking his grav-boot into the floor to attempt to get Kast's attention...though that was doubtful, even with the cell block's thin durasteel flooring making plenty of echoing noise. "You're in no condition to even move. I'm going to see if a droid is around I can borrow."


Oovo

Nadd watched the icons representing ships and fleets moving out. Tulak Hord was a human he had watched for a little but found a severe dislike for - and hence, he had sent him, sans an Alpha dreadnought to command a fleet (after all, why waste one of the few ones of the Sith Empire while Hord was already a failure in Nadd's mind?) to attack and divert the Tarsonians on the homeworld that the dreadnought Carnivorous had reported to him from a special captive...Eluminaria. It wasn't a main target, but he wanted to deal with the Dominion one on one rather than diverting too many forces. Nihilis, on the other hand, had quickly fallen under Nadd's banner, and the Dark Lord of the Sith liked that...as he stroked a Hssiss dark Force reptilian beast next to him, he indicated for the fleet to move onto the cultural and spiritual heart and soul of Dominion space, and relatively unguarded despite his natural beauty and attraction...the paradise world, Rydoni.

Nadd watched and smiled a grin, his distorted facial features coming closer as he watched his Sith powers come to pass in the valley before him once more...the fleets of the Dominion that Kressh had stolen were not needed to be the only vessels of war. Nadd had powers to corrupt this world and every one in Empire space...and he would see it that they never had a worry.

Carnivourus

Kast kneeled to the floor as fire from all sidesflew towards him. As he knelt sonic blasts criss cossed over head missing by inches, but he could not dodge the flamethrower from the mighty Skrawwl. All he could do was hunker down and channel his energy like a shield. He could see the fire raging all around him, now sonnic energy impacted upon him, but his pysonic energy field shielded him from the blasts. What happend next can only be described as if a Bomb had detonated where Kast was located. THe mornarian channeled his energy into an almost solid wall of blue energy and when it had built up enough... he pushed outward. Psyonic energy ripped out in all directions, shredding flesh, droid, and bulkhead alike. The flames around him where snuffed out as the energy flew outward, down the halls shreading the Droideka's and scalding every inch of the Skrawl's skin. Before the Skrawl could get over its pain Kast was already there shearing its head off with his beam saber before disappearing through the hole he had just created in the ceiling.

Before he had even cleared the floor fire from sentry droids hailed at him. Deftly swiing his beam saber he felected beams back at their senders, all the while pulling out a blaster pistol and using the two in tandom. From an adjacent hall more sentry droids rolled out, pulse cannons blasting his way, and he had no choice but to retreat. Collapsing his beam saber and pulling out his rifle Kast fired two shots for every step backwards. As he finally reached a side corrider he ducked down it plowing head long into a man he was about to become well aquainted with. Rolling to his feet he expected another droid and prepared to fire, but he noticed it was man. A man covered quite extensively with blood. He assumed this man had just come from the prison blocks... most likely a bounty hunter delivering prisoners... never the less he only spoke three words as he leveled his rifle at the man.

"Where is she?"

Carnivorous - Detention Halls

"Get that gun out of my face," Fett responded to Kast's inquiry, his eyes hidden behind his helmet's ocular enhances. "...Tarsonian."

Fett added that last part after looking Kast up and down. The Iridonian warrior had seen too much of his fair share of people and identities - and Kast didn't look the part of a rudimentary human in the Dominion. There were subtle differences, besides the fact that the rifle in his hands was most certainly not Amazonian-made. As for who he was? Cassus had no idea, but that wasn't all that much of a concern right now. The warrior simply wanted to get off the ship, and would probably get a higher commission if he got Droma's wallowing charred butt off of it alive as well.

"This is part of what I was looking for, however," Fett mused, reaching into a bin of vials and removing two - one a sickly olive color, the other a potent lava red. "I'm guessing you're not looking for some female Krogan on here though, and I've only run across one female human so far in this bitch."

Fett swirled the contents of the olive vial, attaching the two to his waist bandoleer and reaching down again. His hand came out with a small bottle - Telosian vein leeches.

"She'll need these, as well," Fett said, grabbing a standard-issue trauma pack in the medical ward of the detention block the two were in. "I take it for granted that you and I have the same person of interest in question, who is currently dying on an interrogation table. Seeing how her injuries are nothing new I'm going to go stabilize them...if you'd like, you can help me by carrying her off this asshole of a ship when we get going, or at the least give me some cover."

"I ne-"

Fett paused before drawing one Nr5 blaster in one fluid, snap motion and leveling it to fire down an adjacent hall. A black motion snapped across the convergent hallway briefly, before tearing back out of sight.

"Voxyn," Fett stated calmly, putting his pistol back in its holster. "Predators guided by the Force. Not nice creatures at all - poison, claws, teeth, and this nasty ability to shriek loud enough to crack your eardrums. There's probably several loose now, or more. Let's go before they eat Droma's child first."

Fett motioned over his shoulder as he departed the ward, stepping into the control room looking over the interrogation cell doors. A Sith soldier was crawling around on the floor, leaving a trail of blood - but Fett was not sadistic, and would not leave the man to die. Rather, he simply stepped on the man's neck, grinding his grav boot into his spine and snapping the cord with full pressure. Easy kill. Without saying much more, he opened Droma's room door, letting the white electric lighting back into the blood-drenched room, the head of the Sith officer still lying surprised on the floor.

Nadié hadn't improved much at all since he had left - not at all, actually, though Fett was unconcerned. If she was alive by the time they left, that'd be fine by him - nothing military-grade bacta immersion couldn't treat, besides death - as long as one got there in time, which wasn't always the case. The stuff was rare, and kolto, while so much more plentiful, wasn't always the best solution, despite being the second-best healing solution on the market and a plethora of it in the civilian sector. Fett would've put these injuries at a timeline of 2-3 weeks with bacta treatment, but since the Iridonian knew she was an aspiring young Sith - he had knowledge of all sorts of sectors - he guessed she'd probably get out of sorts and back to full health within a week, doubtfully with any loss of hubris knowing the Sith who governed the Dominion.

"Watch the door, they have Noghri droids," Fett spoke up to Kast behind him as he removed the two vials from his bandoleer and opened the trauma pack.

There was more than enough in there to either stimulate massive amounts of pain or treat a lot of wounds, but the Iridonian wasn't looking to "treat" anything...just stabilize her. Nadié could deal with the pain the treatments Fett had learned that worked so remarkably well in his warrior culture of the Iridonians would bring...if anything else, it served to toughen the soul. He poured the olive and red liquids together and sloshed them around, the constituent mixture turning a violent shade of reddish-brown. Saving time, Fett simply poured the resulting mix directly into Nadié's open shoulder blade - it would travel fairly quickly to the heart that way, and her muffled shrieks from it didn't bother him in the least. He'd seen far too many frightening images and heard too many cries from the wounded and dying on countless worlds through the Iridonian mercenary and warrior network or via the Underground or Exchange. Seeing a half-dead Sith was almost a welcome sight to Fett's veteran eyes.

Nadié's half-singed off left leg was slightly problematic, but for her sake, the Iridonian was thankful the Sith had performed The Burning rather than just using a slugthrower to rip apart the limb - at least this way they had cauterized the wound, even if it had involved singing away about half the flesh all the way to the bone from the young woman's ankle to her thigh. Blood wasn't gushing out everywhere at least, as was the case with Nadié's entire right arm that had been the victim to the I-8G interrogator droid's host of interesting and pain-inducing gadgets. As well as what the wounds from the spiker spikes were leaving, but Fett figured the vein leaches that he promptly released into her gaping central torso hole. The side effect was the bloodslug promptly pooped out from the presence of the clot-inducing leeches (which would die and decompose soon enough anyway in her bloodstream).

He finished up by injecting a hypospray int Droma's neck - rather than have her eventually pass out from blood loss or pain (of which Fett was surprised she hadn't anyway, at least after not having been close to having decent battlefield combat experience like he had), he wanted her awake and decently alert, despite imagining what her nerves were probably telling her. If they wanted to make it off a 5km-long dreadnought alive, he wanted everyone on board with the plan to be in and in full.

"Alright," Fett turned, his red-streaked black body armor now even more stained with human blood and chemicals, "She'll live - unless we don't get off this ship, in which case neither of us will live either."

Fett eyed around for the voxyn returning - they probably already had Nadié's trail, and Fett had no idea if the Tarsonian head juju managed to set off the Force-tracking wolves either. At times like this, he hated nature for making such evolutionary traits.

"The nearest elevator rotunda is 75 meters down through the arboretum," Fett said as he pulled up a holographic diagram of the ship in the main detention lobby to show Kast. "I don't know if they're growing the usual plants and shit that's called for research and experimentation purposes, but it's likely we could be fighting our way through some hanging gardens with snipers and the like. You carry her...gently...I'll take point - let's go."

Kast was speechless at the horror in front of him. He had fought countless battless on countless worlds. Interogated many prisoners of war, rescued prisoners from concentration camps, yet never before had he seen such destruction centered on a human body before. "If we can get to the hanger bay, I have a ship hiding in deep orbit, and if we get her there, we have medical facilities and the like." Kast pulled off his body armor and then removed his tact shirt. Woven of special fibers it would protect her from further harm, in addition to covering her nakedness. He slipped it over her as best he could and then strapped his body armor to her before sliding one arm under what was left of her kness and the other around her upper body. "I have a fighter in the hanger bay, it may still be operational. "

He then followed the bounty hunter out the door. He was alittle tiffed, the Leader of the Tarsonian Fleets taking orders from a lowely bount hunter. But Kast knew their kind, head stronge, resourceful, and no time for bullshit. Traits Kast rather liked, and in the situation, it was better to just not argue.

Carnivorous

Fett glanced down hallways as he trotted through them - little resistance was around at the time, perhaps still reconnoitering on what Fett and Kast's position was after the trio had broken out. The Iridonian was quiet - he felt there was no need for useless chatter during an assignment or during battle, and if Kast needed something or if Droma started to fall away, he could always stop and mention it. Fett's self-assigned job was to take point and scout for threats - which he could certainly do with a potent array of weaponry adorned on his battle armor. The warrior was too much a veteran to worry about what could happen - on a dreadnought like this, the possibilities were virtually endless. Rather, he focused on the here and now, letting his helmet sensors scan a few meters ahead for potential "hot spots" of organics or unusual electromagnetic sensors that could indicate combat droids.

Without finding anything of use, Fett led the motely crew down the series of halls to the lead vista overlooking the arboretum on the second floor of the facility. It was still loaded with hollow shelved walls of various large leafy plants, massive ferns and giant flowers. Various plants hung down from the four-level durasteel ceiling, falling all the way to the floor and obscuring vision in some cases throughout the entire facility.

"Bottom floor," Fett motioned to Kast, "We can mask our presence if we're quiet. We'll be hidden in the vegetation."

Fett wasted no time explaining, quickly descending an inclined mover rather than waiting for a lift and quickly descended to the bottom floor. Kast was close behind him, and Fett navigated through the hanging and side plants with barely a sound, his gravboots helping to dispel the sound of his steps. He paused momentarily, his helmet sensors picking up something...but it didn't register on any of the sensor categories. Fett dispelled it as simple plant life activity, and knelt to the ground before Kast.

"Alright," he began in a low voice, the dense vegetation around helping to muffle his voice (as well as outside sounds to him). "These paths go on for about another fifty meters - just follow me, my helmet sensors have already mapped the way through the vegetation. We're going to have to punch through either the armory or the droid repair bays to get to the lift rotunda that accesses the hanger."

Fett glanced around through the brush, thinking he heard something in the mess of vegetation and durasteel - but nothing was there.

"Watch out for carnivorous plants," Fett added, "I don't know what they're growing in here apart from the normal things. It's a little bit...wilder."

Fett got up to continue before his eye catching something coming through the brush, with a low snarl - the eyes and mutated muzzle of a Voxyn poked through the vegetation, hunting Nadié's Force signature.

Now it was Kast's turn to show his worth. Eyeing the Voxyn up and down and remembering what Fett had said, he could tell the Voxyn only cared about one thing...Droma. Gently he laid her to the ground and stepped forward, Challangeing the voxyn for his prey. It's breath smelled like a burning souls as it stepped forward apparently accepting. And at this Kast smiled, for he knew the Voxyn couldn't senes his own powers. As the Voxyn circled him, stalking waiting for the right time to strike Kast focused his thoughts igniting the Psyblade on each of his arms. Each emiting a 1 and half foot long blade of pure focused psyonic energy, these armblades could cut through thick ship plating, let alone animal flesh.

Kast moved with the Voxyn always keeping himself between Droma and the beast. He could see Fett getting ready to attack it out of the corner of his eyes. But before he could the Voxyn lept, gunning for Kasts throat. But Kast was ready, focusing out with his energy a lance of blue energy erupted from Kasts chest striking the Voxyn out the air and slamming it against the wall. Kast smiled as he saw the Voxyns eyes change from a look of blood to that of suprise, clearly underestimating its foe. Smoke raised from its charred flesh as it struggled to his fleet. It turned preparing to yell its voice capable of shattering skulls, but kast was allready there, Arm blades crisscrossed through its windpipes. All that came out was a dull gargle as blood poured into its windpipe. Kast then spread his armblades out severing its head, and watched the life go out its eyes.

Smoothly, as if he had just walked in from a day at the golf course, instead of killing rabid wolves of death, Kast walked over to Nadie, retracted his armblades and picked the girl up again. "Lets move.." he began to say as the thud of footfalls distracted him, growing steadily louder.

((Reserved for later post))

(OOC: this should be interesting.)

Kast ducked to one side of the doorway as blaster fire screamed towards them from down the hall. He looked over as Fett had taken up position on the other side and peppered a few shots back down the hall at their attackers before ducking back. Kast quickly did the same and narrowly dodged a plasma bolt. His battle with the Voxyn had brought a storm of Droids and Clones down upon them. With this attention it was unlikely they would make it to the hanger bay. They needed a distraction.

Kast fired a few more shots down the hall, catching an unluckly Sith sodlier in the mask. As he looked around for options his eyes settled on the frail form of Nadie Droma.. she didn't have much time. Kast knew what he had to do. Timing it right he dove across the doorway, again narrowly dodging screaming plasma. Straitening up he pulled out a holodisk, typed in a few commands and then handed it to Fett. "This disk contains my ships communication codes, as well as instructions for them to outfit you with what ever you need, supplies, weapons, and if you need it a new fighter. After seeing you in combat, you might have the reflexes to pilot a valkarye, but regardless. It also has instructions on treating Nadie here, and coordinates for their next destination. Keep this in case I don't make it." He then handed Fett his Elite battle rifle, and all his spare power cartridges. It was a much higher grade then the bounty hunters scrounged up rifle.

He then stepped back and let himself fall completely into his rage. Psyonic energy erupted from his body, incasing him completely in the crackling blue energy. The form of kast looked at Droma, and said "Now get her out of here." And with that he tore down the hall flinging all the energy that had incased him out before him. Men and droid alike were cute down by the huge energy missile. But more were coming.

Kast dodged behind a smoldering box and drew out his blaster pistors. Taking a deep breath he dove across the hall to another box fireing his whole way across, his aim deadly. Several Sith soldiers fell, while more still pile on. Kast then reached for his grenade belt and pulling out all the pins threw the entire belt at the incoming solierslodging it behind behind a pile of rubble, out of site of the incoming troops, before tearing off back down the hall getting out range. Blindly the Sith soldiers and sentry droids ran past the granades, only to be vaporized as the entire belt detonated. Finally Kast had a moment to breath but that was quickly cut short as he noticed more men down the hall. THey had been hanging back commanding the Soldiers who had just died, but now they were all that was left. Each of them pulled out weapons, some Amazonian Light sabers, others Kast guessed were Vibro swords, he had never seen them but had heard of them from his daughter, and one even had a electostave he had seen on some sentry droids, he had no idea what they were called.

Reaching for his own beam saber he noticed...he didn't have it.

OOC: AB i figured around 7 Warriors led by one Knight who is weilding the Stave, but thats up to you.

OOC: Sorry for my lateness, I was...doing my first day of Spring Break good with someone else. Tourists, lol. Gotta love Miami...

On to stuff...

IC:

Nadié Droma blinked twice, clearing her eyes in the midst of a smoky, expansive room cluttered with mechanical junk and refuse. Deactivated droids and automaton parts clustered around the walls, with various weapons, tools, and other things scattered about the durasteel floor. She lifted her head momentarily as a sharp pain snapped through her neck, forcing a wince from the young Force user. Laser shots coursed through the air a meter above, plasma blasts and lithe metal bullets streaming about. She tried to see the source but with so much noise and her body propped behind an ammo crate for cover, she had little success in the endeavor. Though she was temporarily out of immediate danger, that didn't guarantee anything. The metallic-armored body of a human - she knew exactly who it was, as it was she who had commissioned him as of recently - dove over the top of the crate. Cassus Fett shouted something, but the sound, the very air seemed drained out of her lungs and ears momentarily as Fett went completely prone on the ground.

A brief half-second of silence reigned momentarily with nothing but stillness to Nadié's eyes and ears, before a loud wave of sound energy, not unlike a massive metal power chord, pulverized any sound attempting to make itself heard. A blue wave of destruction shot overhead the two, shearing off the top of the ammo crate into pure atoms and ripping straight through the reinforced blast door that had closed behind them. It tore right through the door like a hot knife and rippled down the halls before dissipating.

"Seismic charge," Fett acknowledged, before peering back over the top of the half-destroyed ammo crate.

The enormous blast had managed to wake Nadié up enough out of her stupor as Fett seemed to be motioning to something. A dark figure ran past them the other way, though the warrior didn't seem to be in any hurry to chase or shoot after it.

"They're dead," the Iridonian muttered. "Let's go."

Fett picked up Nadié's considerably lighter body, about to deposit her over his shoulder when he looked around the room - there were about two dozen deactivated droids around, and since their purpose was nothing more than to serve sentients anyway...why not? It'd make his job easier. He mosied over to two of the astromech droids by the wall, picking up a flat piece of plasteel on his way over. Activating both the chirping starship droids, Fett instructed both to carry the piece of plasteel by its ends in their manipulators - then proceeded to lay down Nadié's body on it. Ingenuity had formed a droid stretcher - not exactly the most efficient thing ever, but it would free up Fett to fully engage whatever came at him in the elevator rotunda, which was only a dozen meters down the nearest hallway.

Ordering the droids to follow his lead, he opened the nearest blast door and whipped out both laser pistols, ready to fight.


* * * * *


The Sith in front of Kast spread across the hall, presenting a wider target down the wide hallway. Three Noghri droids hurtled down the hallway behind Kast, stopping roughly 10 meters behind him and igniting electrostaves coursing with violet energy spikes on either end. With the strength to counter energy swords and the droid armor tough enough to deflect laser bolts, they were designed as close combat weapons to counter Jedi, elite troops, and anything else. Each also carried several microrockets in their wrists as well as shoulder-mounted twin light lasers. The two droids had stopped but did not push an attack, slowing up.

A parallel hallway to Kast's led to another column of Warrior droids popping out of the ceiling, drawing wrist lasers and led by two Acklay droids scuttling in front. The Sith were intent on pinning down Kast and ensuring there wasn't much of an escape - though their organic soldiers had been rerouted to deal with a considerable explosion a few halls over, droids were plentiful on the massive dreadnought.

"Hold!" yelled the Sith Knight leading the seven Sith warrios in front. The group cleared a large doorway ahead of Kast as something knocked straight through the door panel, ripping down the foundations for the door as well. A massive Skrawl, mutated and covered in warts and pustules and other deformities, broke through the hole, clearly not sentient and warped by some force - but very angry and clearly aware of what the target was, in any case. The Sith Knight seemed to indicate what to do for the creature, as it turned and zeroed in attention on Kast. The beast carried a massive gravity hammer in one hand, a particle beamer strapped to its other upper forearm. The creature's lower forearms were left unhindered to deal with other threats or obstructions. The hallways, built high to allow for plenty of clearance for the Dominion's larger species, were still barely clearing the mutated beast's massive frame.

The Warrior droids simultaneously backed off slightly, as if waiting to see the outcome before executing the winner - but one of the Acklay droids seemed to jump momentarily before a stream of energy pulsed into its central core, blasting apart the six-legged attacker. The hole from the ceiling where the beam had come from split open as a shield grenade popped forth, activating on the floor and propping up a 2 meter bubble shield on the ground. A dark rust-colored Assassin droid flipped from the ceiling into the shield dome, grasping a nasty-looking assault rifle in both hands with an assortment of weapons arrayed around the unit's waist.

"I will deal with the mechanicals, Organic," the droid conveyed to Kast, the droids down the parallel hallway no focusing in on the newest adversary. "It is up to you to deal with the Sith beast."

The droid stuck the tip of the barrel out of the temporary shield dome, firing an orb of glowing green energy that smacked into the glowing red eye of a Warrior droid and sent a coursing blast of electricity across the unit that completely fried it.

Kast smiled and looked down at the deck, still aware of every movement of those who surrounded him. He half wished he had kept some of the grenades. Droids and corpses littered the ground, and he looked around for anything of use. One particular object caught his eye. Apparently He had taken out some bounty hunter and had left one particular scrap of cloathing. Pulling the combat trench coat up, he looked it over. It was almost identical to the one he had worn back when it was the Mornarian Uniform. Kast smiled all the while concious of the others movements. This brought back memories...though the symbols on it were different. Never the less he pulled the jacket on, the jacket fitting just right over his armblade emitters. If this is how he was going to end, he was going to make it such an end. As he buttoned up the jacket, and put his hands down to his sides, he whispered...."lets do this."

It was then that the acklay droid exploaded, and this unlikely ally had revealed himself. Not bothering to stop for introductions Kast dove forward rolling out of the way of several plasma bolts. In one fluid motion Kast picked up the fallen warrior droid's elctrostaff and charged down the hall at the enormous sith beast, letting his rage fuel is reflexs. Beams of energy fired from the sith beast howled down the hall, kast dodging them narrowly, the air around them vibrating intensely. Kast ran forward forward flinging the Stave like a javalin strait at the Sith beasts head before igniting his armblades and charging for an attack. The stave struck the beast just below the neck, but it ignored it swinging forth with the Gravity hammer. Kast barely had time to counter with his blades, the force of the attack sending him soaring back down the hall into a wall. He felt several of his ribs crack but not break.

Kast looked up recovering his eyes going wide as he rolled to dodge a plasma bolt. Leaping to his feet he charged the Skrawl a shout of challenge on his voice. The swraw racked with his claws causing Kast to dance back before following up with a down ward strike of the Gravity hammer. Kast danced back and then lept forward onto the hilt of the hammer and then running up the skrawls arm. Kast shouted with all his might as he swung out with his armblades slicing the Skrawls face from chin to forhead. In its shrieks of rage Kast was knocked over its head just managing to catch on to its shoulder with his right hand. Kast looked up to see that hands blade emitter sparking no longer operating. Cursing his luck he pulled himself up by the one hand and burried the still working psyblade, into the Skrawls brainstems severing it, causing death instantly. As the skrawl slumped to the ground Kast turned and faced the Sith.

Glancing back over his shoulder Kast watched as the Assasin droid was fairing well and he glanced back to the Sith. "Now come on, you didn't think it would be that easy did you?" Reaching down and picking up the discarded electro stave and deactivating his remaining psyblade emiter Kast twirled the staff around and set into a stance, Stave held against his back behind him, feet set apart, his side turned to face the Sith. He raised his free hand and quite calmly, beckoned with his fingers.

The lead Sith ignited his own electrostaff as the six Force warriors behind him utilized a variety of weapons - one each with a single and double-bladed red saber, two with standard cortosis vibroswords, one with a Force pike, a 2 meter long phrik weapon designed to combat enemies with extended reach along with lightsaber wielders, along with one Sith carrying an Amphistaff - the living, sturdy, amorphous snake-like creatures that provided a variety of options against any type of melee combat, from a spitting poison to the ability to rearrange its body shape from a blunt club-like end to thinning its sides to a width measured in mere atoms to easily slice through many materials. The Sith chose not to advance, the lead Sith with the electrostaff instead firing a concentrated burst of electricity from one hand's fingertips towards Kast, carrying the staff with his free arm as his hand unleashed a torrent of energy.

The Assassin droid instead continued to fight behind Kast's position, switching his guns as the three Noghri droids advanced. It switched to a wrist grenade launcher, projecting a smoke grenade to screen his fight from the ranged Warrior droids down the hall as it turned to engage the three staff-wielding automatons. Rather than fight with ranged weapons, the droid latched its concussion rifle to its back double weapons mount and instead unsheathed dual phrik vibroblades from both forearms, the blades extending out a full meter. The three droids attacked simultaneously, the Assassin droid ready for all of them at once. Though their electrostaves were laced with cortosis, the blades locked and clashed with no effect on either saber. Though the Noghri droids were smaller and able to flash their staves with deadly precision and speed far surpassing human reflexes, the Assassin droid was meant to deal with problems in nanoseconds - the line could deal with problems as fast as calculating the movement of a plasma bolt to figure how to best evade the blast in the time it took for a bolt to move five meters. The Noghri droids weren't of the same caliber.

The Assassin droid rolled under the shifting legs of the Noghri droids, somersaulting and latching a chain-grenade to the back of the lead Noghri droid. The automaton struggled to remove the explosive from the back of its torso mechanism, its arms swiveling around to quickly tear it off. The Assassin droid had been smarter, setting it to a one-second activation timer that allowed it to dart back beneath the Noghri droid as the explosive went off, channeling force into the Noghri's torso. The automaton ruptured from both sides, stumbling and crashing to the ground despite the heavy armor plating that could deflect laser bolts and resist plasma streams. The grenade had simply too much baradium packed in it and blew the sparks from the chassis of the droid.

The Assassin droid took on the two standing Noghri droids, now more of a fair fight. A clash of an electrostaff into the Assassin droid's waist unit did little more than reflect sparks and electricity. The droid in turn blasted a wrist-mounted flamethrower into the Noghri droid's face, disorienting it in time for the Assassin droid to block a swing of the other droid's electrostaff and smash it with a flurry of throwing flechettes from a collapsible port in its shoulder. The plasma-coated chunks wore down the armor with their energy coating before the neuronium flechettes slashed through, the heavy chunks ripping into the Noghri droid's AI unit. The droid was still slightly active, but the Assassin droid finished it by slamming the unit's head straight through the durasteel wall.

The smoke was clearing by now from the smoke grenade and the Warrior droids were opening fire. In protection - though parts of the Assassin droid's armor was not only blaster-resistant, but capable of reflecting lasers - the unit launched a carbonite wave from a projector on its opposite wrist at the Noghri droid, temporarily stunning it - then used the unit as an automated shield against a microrocket from the remaining Acklay droid. The missile blew the head completely off the Noghri droid, sparks flying about the air.

An organic soldier, missing the usual Sith solider helmet, had rounded the corner - and drew a vibroblade of his own in running to engage the Assassin droid, clearly having never encountered one before. The unit considered utilizing the same tactic again for a few nanoseconds before abandoning the idea and instead taking advantage of its altering body temperature system. It superheated its left hand while utilizing its other palm to deflect several shots of a Warrior droid's wrist laser, calculating the trajectory needed near-instantly and slamming the bolts back into the droid's less-armored neck attachment, feeling the droid. The soldier closed, but his vibroblade wasn't of any special material, just durasteel - and the blade simply slammed against the armor of the Assassin droid. The automaton fired a paralysis cord at the soldier, whipping about and securing the soldier in place while delivering excruciating electric shocks. As the soldier screamed, the droid grabbed him with its superheated palm by the face - literally melting away the man's face beneath shrieks of shear dying agony. As if the droid relished in the kill, it swung its free hand around drastically fast, blasting its forearm straight through the man's mesh of organs and body fluid in his waist. Guts blew out near-explosively as the men doubled over and dropped to the floor.

As Kast moved to engage the Sith, the droid propped up the man with one hand as a meat shield, using the other to single-handidly man a pulse rifle on the ground against the light contingent of ranged droids still shooting.

The Energy broke upon the Air infront of kast like water upon a boulder. He had mentally shrugged the attack asside so easily it was almost laughable. "It'll take more than that to defeat a man who fought the Former emperor and survived" he said angering the sith more. One of the Sith warriars, inexpirianced lept forward rearing his beamsaber. In one smooth move Kast spun his save around blocking the attack and knocking the Sith off balance. He brought the other end around though keepin that end deactivated, hit the Sith below the knee knocking him to the floor. And as he knelt there kast planted the activated end into his chest. The Sith Warrior sith shrieked in pain as thousands upon thousands of volts arched into his body. So much so that his body burst into flame consuming his flesh. As the man died Kast kicked his ashing corpse at the sith who all took a step back except for the Knight leading them. Kast smiled mocking them, "You might want to try a different tactic this time."

And indead they did, the 6 remaining warriars cam forth and encircle him each evenly spaced and standing across from eachother. And then they attacked. Responding Kast, threw the stave like a javalin coming down to a knee the stave impacting the Force spike wielder in the face electricity instantly frying his brain before the staff tumbled away. In doing so he narrowly dodged venom fire from the amphistaff, causing it to slam into a suprised Sith warriors face. Reaching out with his senses Kast brought the original Sith's lightsaber into his grasp and igniting it. Moving back to his feet and arching up with the saber in whirling motion Kast knocked away several of the sith and advanced on the Sith carrying the Amphistaff. The Sith attacked with a vertical slice which kast parried upwards and activating the Psyblade still on his left arm. As the Sith brought the Amphistaff down in a vertical counterstrike kast side stepped it blocking with his saber hand, and then stept forwar pinning the stave down with the psyblade. Smirking Kast whirled the lightsaber again halving the sith, and in the same moment blocking another attack. Kast turned and face the others, only 3 remaining in battle condition, the sith with the vibroswords and the duel ended lightstaff.

They attacked together, one of the Vibrostaff wielders getting to him first. Kas quickly parried with his lightsaber knocking the Sith away, and moved on to the seccond with teh duel ender. Blocking one edge away with his Psyblade he arced up with the saber cutting the duel ender in half. Kast then attacked in a spinning motion slicing down with his armblade which the Sith deflected and bringin his saber around and slicing down, cutting the Sith in half vertically. Side stepping to the right the first sith he had blocked missed his attack and ended up stabbing his supised partner through the stomach. Kast quickly lashed out with his psyblade decapitating the first Sith's head. As the Bodies fell Kast turned to face the final Sith.

The Knight litterally pulsated with anger, he had killed little of his men dieing, but he would not suffer the shame of defeat. He charged Kast with a whirl of his stave which Kast dodged. The two combatants traversed the hall, attacking and Parrying. Kast was mainly on the defensive, the Sith Knight a whirl of death with his electrostave.

"Impressive" Kast mused, as he danced back from the Sith, who quickly attacked again. "But you haven't learned to mind the terrain." Kast then stomped on the decativaded end of the discarded electrostave on the floor. The other end shot up colliding with the Sith Knight's stomach. To his credit the man did not scream, but as he was stunned by the electricity running through his body, Kast arched down with his blade, slicing the man in half.

With his enemy destroyed Kast turned to face his newfound Ally.

Carnivorous

Fett hit the button on the elevator shaft requesting the nearest open one, but they weren't coming fast - this was angering him. With ten elevator shafts, one could figure they could come at a respectable time, but something seemed to be holding them up...until Fett realized none were coming towards his level, all away from it, and refused to ever lower again. Someone from the bridge likely manipulating it away to trap the party on the level unless they blew through the floor or something - and Fett didn't want to blow through that many decks to make it to the hanger level, which was quite a few down. The Iridonian indicated for the two astromech droids to park Droma's stretcher behind several general crates which would provide nominal protection from any intruders while he got to work hotwiring a panel on the side of one elevator shaft with a hydrospanner and fusion cutter. Fett was not the best mechanic - far less than he was a warrior - but in a pinch he could make do with what he had. His fighting skills were going to be necessary, however, as a Theron and Sangheili leading a squad of Baragwin broke through a blast door into the rotunda on the second level.

Fett was on the first, so he was immediately at a height disadvantage - and his cover was fairly useless at this point. He wasn't being paid to rescue Nadié, so for the moment the warrior simply through down a shield unit in front of himself and activated his personal shield generator to provide more protection. Two of the Baragwin tried to charge his position, the well-built diminutive predators streaking across the floor on reptilian legs. Fett blew the first apart from a concentrated burst from his two Nr5 pistols before hurling the second over his head with one hand while igniting the creature with his forearm-mounted flamethrower. The creature shrieked and swore in its native language, dashing across the floor as it torched to a burning corpse.

The other Baragwin, armed with melee weapons - the preferred style of fighting for the small but lethally-quick and reflexive species - momentarily backed off as the Sangheili aimed a plasma rifle over the railing and pounded off three rapid fire bursts at Fett. The Iridonian rolled out of the way, but the Baragwin had found something else - utilizing their keen sense of smell, one of them had indicated the presence of another organic on the ground level around Fett's position. The Theron raised its concussion rifle, blowing the crate out of the way - revealing the two droids and Droma's body behind it. The two taller aliens immediately recognized who it was, motioning for the Baragwin to immediately assault the warrior.

"Bad move," Fett snarled to himself, flicking both pistols around in his hand as he waited for the next move by the opposition.

As the Baragwin hurtled down the railing to the bottom floor, Fett blasted off a stream of laser fire - catching the Sangheili by one of the saurian's mandibles and blowing off the alien's lower jaw. The sentient stumbled back in pain as the Theron, locked in a heavier sheet or armor, continued to fire without cover with the concussion rifle on the Iridonian.

Nadié pushed her upper body up from the stretcher as the Baragwin closed in - aiming to take her alive while disposing of Fett, which - with their lethal attacking ability at close range and strength in getting underneath a taller species's attacks - could easily do. Nadié wasn't having any of it, however - she telekinetically reached out with the Force, snatching one Baragwin up and hoisting the shrieking reptile into the air. With a burst of energy, she electrified the small soldier and threw his pulsing body right into the railing the Theron was standing next to. The entire railing exploded from the force, the Theron thrown backwards as the railing impaled the commander through his armor. Harnessing her anger at her position and state, Nadié threw her feelings into attacking the remaining Baragwin, releasing an electric storm from her fingertips that reached around and stripped the very life from the attackers. The sentients writhed in horror and agony as the blasts streamed across their bodies, Nadié having none of it as she unleashed everything her devastated body was going to give.

The Baragwin collapsed to the floor, little more than charred bodies smoking from the electrical attack Droma had unleashed. The Sangheili on the top floor was crawling backwards away from the scene - and Fett had little desire to pursue as he finished hotwiring the system, an elevator door opening.

"You're not dead yet," he commented. "Let's get to the hanger."


* * * * *


The Assassin droid had not even moved from his position as the other droids continued to fire and hit his rapidly decomposing meat shield, ribs and organs falling out as laser bolts continued to impact it. The droid had taken the advantage to use the body as a blast shield, sticking the barrel of the pulse rifle through the unlucky Sith's abdomen while sticking his own assault rifle around the soldier's torso. Quick bursts to weak zones on the armor of a Warrior droid - conducted with impeccable accuracy calculated in microseconds - dispatched one droid while an ion canister released from a thigh-mounted thrower ripped into the second Acklay droid's central mount, the droid reacting spastically as the Assassin droid focused attention and fired a stream of plasma at the six-legged automaton, ending it. The remaining three Warrior droids fired a burst of rockets, but the Assassin droid simply flipped forward out of the way, dispatching the Sith corpse shield and utilizing his flechette thrower to knock out two. The third caught the assassin droid on the hip joint mount, inflicting a light burn on the non-reflective portion of armor there, but it didn't even slow down the unit - in a fraction of a second it lit up a burst of five energy shots that knocked straight through the armored chest of the Warrior droid and brought it down.

Turning his attention towards Kast, the droid inspected the carnage of the Sith and the malformed beast before pressing the barrel of its pulse gun to the Sith Knight's head. Whether or not he was still alive was not the question - the droid simply relished in blasting his head into constituent bloody molecules.

"You provide a strong representation of your species, organic," the Assassin droid stated - a compliment based on the usual talk of the line. "These meatbags, however, bring down your image."

"This unit is designated Predator-Killer series 21 - though other organics have referred as PK-21 in the past. Curious, as the entire line of units is named the same. I am perplexed by organic sentiments at times, but I try not to concern myself with all that sloshy water inside. I don't know how your type can stand it."

The droid had a quirky sense of humor, for being in the midst of a hostile zone - quickly taking time to remark on human anatomy seconds after blowing the Sith Knight's head into unrecognizable bits, while simultaneously switching between the first and third person. That was coping mechanisms with Assassin droids - cover at all costs.

"The Iridonian who this unit conversed with in the automaton repair bay has probably fled to the secondary hanger by now with his female human quarry - but other routes besides the central rotunda exist on this ship class," PK-21 quickly summarized. "I am confident that between your meatbag fighting abilities and this unit's own weapon and cognitive systems, we can reach the same hanger by an alternative route via the armory lift on this level within five minutes after the Iridonian makes it to the bay."

PK-21 held up his left palm, a small emitter popping up a holo-map of the local area: "The primary entrance will be guarded by mounted concealable turrets and likely several meatbag soldiers, but one of the two of us will deal with those, I am 100% certain. There are more than enough weapons in fresh state to confiscate therein, as well."

Kast glanced over the holocron. "Very well PK-21, if thats what you prefer to be called, Ill take out the soldiers you hit the turrets as they pop out, keep them off me." Kast then tore off down the hall heading for the Armory. He had just about enough of this. The absence of footfalls told him that the Assasin troid was right behind him, and would be able to hold up to his end. As the Door came in sight Kast reactivated his Psyblade, and the Lightsaber. Shouting his claim he charged the lines. Sith soldiers lined up shoulder to shoulder leveling their rifles. Kast smiled knowing what was about to happen would buy him the secconds hesitation on the Sith's part that he needed. As teh Auto turrents deployed they began exploading. No one spotted the assasin droid at the end of the hall, reacting withing microsecconds of each deploying gun. Explosions went off left and right of Kast as he tore down the hall, and the Sith...hesitated. It was enough. Kast reached them and Hacked into the line of soldiers, whirling and slashing they were quickly dispatched before any of them had even got a shot off. He turned to signal his ally but the droid he found was already right behind him. "Who ever designed you, deserves a medal." He said simply and stepped into the armory.

Rows of Weaponry lined the Shelves of the armory. Kast waisted no time in going through them, pulling out replacement weaponry. In no time he was strapped with Grenades, spare clips, a Dominion blaster rifle, replacement blaster pistols, and the lightsaber he had gotten of the Sith. After a short while he stepped into the lift, and pressed down. The assassin droid stood silently next to him.

PK-21 simultaneously loaded up, hooking energy packs around his waste clips as ammunition, reloading his shoulder-mounted flechette launcher, loading in several varieties of micro-rocket into the wrist launcher and trading the pulse rifle for a needler to complement the concussion rifle he already carried with one hand. The droid hardly needed much other weaponry besides loading in various grenade types into his body cavity to feed into a grenade launcher in his hip - the Assassin droid compacted most of his body electronics to make way for more and more weaponry. The Assassin droid in the end was like a walking armory on his own, though he chose to load up while he was here. After all, salvaging off the Sith soldiers was hardly what he wanted to be doing all the time.

Just to cap it off with some bravado, PK-21 mounted an unset (but armed) ion rocket to back - the droid was resourceful, and the powerful anti-fighter weapon could cause lethal damage inside of a ship if used properly.

"My constructor has already earned many accolades in Dominion heirarchy," PK-21 mused to Kast's rhetorical statement. "Dark Lord Naga Sadow is a part of the Dominion Council and Sith Council on Amazonia and one of the more powerful warriors of the Dominion.

Kast laughed aloud, "Sadow huh, Man always had too short a fuse for my taste. However didn't know he was any proficient in Robotics. The things you learn out in the field." Kast could tell they were getting close to the hanger, as the sounds of combat seemed to get closer and closer. Kast checked the power clip in his rifle and pulled the lever, activating the power cells. As the turbolift opened he glanced around the corner. All the soldiers in the hanger were concentrated on the farside a good 200 meters away. Kast could just make out the form of who he guessed was Fett dancing around. Kast looked at his rifle, "is there uh.. range shot setting on this like mine?" fiddling around he found inadvertanly hit someing and a scope popped out of the top of the rifle..."Hmm" Kast said, "Nice." Turning to the droid he said, "Time to make your maker proud, hope you can snipe." He then charged out of the lift taking aim through the scope and popping of expertly placed shots dropping the droids from behind.

Fett blasted apart a Sith soldier's legs into a messy burnt pulp at close range, lifting up Nadié's body and hurling it onto the infantry platform of a Zephyr gunship. Quickly lighting up several more blasts as Nadié took a shot to the hip from a laser rifle, Fett jumped onto the gunship's infantry platform as well. He fired a concussion burst from one side of the gunship, ducking behind the wall between the cockpit and the infantry hold as cover as he looked for a secure location. Noticing a hook hold on the side of the ship, he unhooked one of his unactivated paralysis cords and tied Nadie's torso to the hook so she wouldn't fall out of the moving gunship - Fett had a little work he wanted to do with the vessel. Making sure Droma was still cognitive and awake, if in pain, Fett unleashed another microrocket from his wrist launcher before moving up to the cockpit. The hull of the ship was taking shots well even as men moved in to try and board - but the Iridonian was too fast for that.

One actually did manage to jump on, but Fett heard his subsequent scream as Nadié, in a burst of focus, crushed his throat and threw his limp body into the advancing forms of two of his comrades. Fett hit the gas on the gunship, the craft buzzing into the air with an audible hum from the repulsorlift as laser shots continued to impact the hull. A team of three was attempting to set up a PEER repeater gun in the corner of the hanger, but the Iridonian knew exactly what he was doing behind the controls of an advanced piece of deadly machinery - really, it wasn't all that different from the War Droids back on Iridonia itself, except this one absolutely requried a pilot and would have helped to have men to man the composite beam turrets for more precise controls - but Fett would make do.

"Let's see what you've got," he muttered as he punched several buttons on the piloting console, slaving full access of the ship to his station.

Immediately, the gunship's shield activated and an eruption of fire hurled itself back at the Sith soldiers taking shots. The dual frontal laser guns on the ship immediately began rapid fire waves of attack across the hanger bay, blowing up several positions and slaughtering a dozen troops left in the open. Fett jury-rigged the composite beams to the onboard AI, allowing the computer to pick its own targets and lance out tight green energy columns for two seconds at a time straight through the hanger. Ammo boxes erupted and two hanger repair columns came crashing down on the panicking Sith soldiers, squashing bodies and blowing dents in the durasteel floor. Fett unleashed with the craft's ion rocket complement, the sapphire missiles ripping out and venting huge explosions in the hanger bay as Sith forms writhed in fire. The Iridonian allowed himself a slight bit of pleasure as he opened up a chaff screen at point-blank range. The screens were meant to counter missiles, but at this range instead shredded Sith soldiers with a blanket of tiny metal shards - a very effective anti-infantry weapon that the Iridonian was going to have to remember in the future.

Rolling around with composite beams lancing across the hanger, Fett spotted PK-21 - the droid he knew very well - and Kast entering the hanger and shooting at some of the targets still alive. Kast was proving himself able with a scoped rifle, while PK-21 was holding an elongated gun in each hand and simply utilizing deadly accuracy - Fett had to admit that Galen Marek wasn't lying when Fett had overhead his claim that the hunter-killer droid was the most lethal droid in the galaxy. Forget the droid-automated ships, the Assassin droid was full of surprises.

Fett indicated out the cockpit towards Kast as he wheeled about the vessel with both troop doors open for boarding, Droma unleashing a telekinetic wave of her own with what strength she had left on a packed group of four Sith soldiers with a rocket mortar launcher. The wave hurled them back into the wall, one smashing into a power coupling that gored the trooper.

"The Iridonian is indicating," PK-21 noticed, "that we board the vessel, as he seems to have laid waste to most else in the hanger bay."

Without waiting for Kast, PK-21 swung with one arm onto a durasteel cable, double-flipping through the air and launching a swarm of flechettes at a Sith trooper simultaneously and coming to a perfect landing on the edge of the open infantry hold.

Kast let the Droid go, he was still firing openly on some droids, and the ship wasnt gonna get out of the hanger with the shield still up. As more droids poured into the hall, Kast was a dance of death, firing and dodging and firing some more. It wasn't long before, the floor began to look like a junkyard. As lasers from the ship hacked up droids around him he took a moment to access the damage, and then reached down to pick up a long smooth weapon. "Dominion made Ion rocket launcher....lovely." In one motion kast dropped to a knee and flipped the rocket launcher up onto his shoulder. Taking aim he fired off three rockets, not bothering to watch them fly. Ducking more blaster fire, Kast dove into the infantry hold. "GET US OUT OF HERE!" He yelled just as the ion rockets impacted on the shield generator. He paused pulling to feet, to check Nadie, the girl was barely concious. Kast shook his head in sheer amazement of the girls tolerance pain. He then moved to the cockpit as the infantry craft narrowly passed the shields before they reactivated. Settling into the copilots seat he typed in a few keys. "Shadow, this Is Pheonix 1 come in." Kast braced as the ship rocked hard, fire from the ship the just left heading their way.

Roger admiral we read you

"Well it would be nice, if you could give us a lift. And some cover wouldn't be to bad either."

Way ahead of you admiral..

With the last transmission, The STSS Shadow decloaked 100 Km of their bow, broadside bringing all its guns to bare. Kast smiled watching in the aft side cam as the torpedos, missles, and cannons fired. "Well I'll be, caught those sons of bitches with the shields down. " Two defaints launched from the Shadow and flew back behind them, picking off residual fighters coming to egaged the hijacked ship. Kast typed a few things again into the pannel as the Shadow's tractor beam locked onto them pulling them in. "Very good shadow, have a medical team standing by in the hanger. We have one Critically wounded female, with one hell of a temper. Prep the chamber."

As the ship touched down, Kast moved to the infantry hold. Nadie was silent, but coherrent. Kast knelt down, picking up the small girl. "Almost there." AS the doors opened a Medical team with stretchers was already there. Kast empathized with them as they grimmaced, seeing the damage done, to her. "Get her in the chamber." He laid her on the hoverstretcher they brought, and quickly they took her away.

While the scene on the flight deck was unfolding, the STSS Shadow, after firing one final salvo, and recovering its 2 Defiant Class Gunships, Jumped into hyperspace, heading for the rest of the Tarsonian fleet.

Cruces

Nihilus stood on the bridge of Ravager, his own personal command vessel. The ship was a modified Virulent-class Alpha Dreadnought, imbued with Sith alchemy and secrets so the ship was part synthetic, part covered in bulbous pustules and other organic parts making half the ship alive. Nerves criss-crossed the vessel, providing superior communication and information ability - while ganglion clusters supplanted computers in allowing the titanic vessel to think and calculate at far faster frequencies than even the AIs of Dominion computers could. Nihilus himself had partly orchestrated it, but Freedon Nadd's arrival as Dark Lord of the Sith ahd pushed ahead bioengineering to an all-new level - along with the massive droid factories the Sith had taken over at Oduvit, the birthing grounds of Vivaste provided Nadd the fertile conditions needed to advance genetic modification and twisting of organic material via his own Sith secrets from eons ago to insane levels.

Even some of the Sith soldiers had become participants in Nadd's experimentation - willing or not, they were now, hybrid humans and mutant creatures in some cases to assist the droid armies and standard sentients that made up the Sith war forces. The Rim territories also provided huge populations for Nadd to recruit and take from for his own various purposes - the requisition of many willing Sith from the various academies who stole off in the nights and wished for more adventure had given the Dark Lord of the Sith his own Force-capable fighting force as well to complement the Sith warriors already leading the Dominion armies into fighting the new opposition.

Nihilus, however, had his own needs to take care of as well, and the dolovite mining colony of Cruces would be a good place to replenish himself for the massive target Nihilus was preparing for next, the breadbasket world of Sere - the jumping point to the capital of Amazonia. Cruces's light guard fleet had been overwhelmed and completely overmatched by Nihilus's massive fleet that had covered the sun and shredded defenses - their pleas for help towards Polus intercepted and torn apart by Sith AIs in jamming systems. Rather than launch an assault on Cruces to take over the mining facilities or even simply launch an orbital strike to wipe out everything, Nihilus would allow his men to take the time off for this one and do the job himself...after all, that animal deep inside the Sith Lord craved for more, and who was he to tell it to wait a little longer for the main course? This was a sufficient appetizer.

Nihilus focused, the air around him becoming thick and heavy from his concentration. Through the Force, Nihilus could feel the very presences of life echoing from the world below - he could sense their thoughts, their emotions, each and every one of the thousands of the mining colony who had to know that death was inevitable. They could not have thought it would end like this though - in the depths of his focus, Nihilus's voice spoke out in anger, in hate, as he fired his hunger directly through the energy field at the souls and life forces below him. His concentrated emotion swept through Cruces, through every nook and cranny and crevasse as Nihilus fell deeper into his hunger. At the peak of his focus he lashed out abruptly, his very energy stripping away the life force of every living thing on the planet. Men, women, and children were mentally and psychologically torn to shreds in an instant, their physical bodies intact but their faces, their minds, were empty. Nihilus's hunger, momentarily, was satiated.

On to Sere and the Core Worlds.


* * * * *


SSTS Shadow

"Solid job commander," Fett commented to Kast. "Besides that we didn't accomplish much. Not my job to comment on the state of Dominion affairs, but they'll be expanding their strike range after the test that was Talasea. What with the planets of Sere, Rydoni, Eluminaria, Qualas, Urile, and Olana as well as the Spine Nebula and its colonization efforts, Ragnos had better have a plan to deal with the continuation of the advance."

Fett didn't like the Tarsonian ship, to be honest. It lacked the technological, cybernetic feel of Dominion capital ships, and to a warrior who preferred patrol craft and modified light freighters anyway, this was a completely alien surrounding. That didn't bother Fett to the most, he just didn't enjoy it. The Iridonian had learned to fight anywhere at anytime.


* * * * *


Rydoni

"Ha...no."

The Dominion security officer's face turned upside down at Tholme Solusar's attempt at a back story, despite the Jedi's use of a subtle mind trick and a thorough and well thought out background.

"You're a Jedi, your 'spice shipment crew' is a leftover motley group of Federation leftovers from a regime that ended years ago - and your kind is not only not wanted here, but we've been searching for you for a long time. Your time has ended ever since the Emperor put out a warrant for your seizure and summary execution - and seeing by the crowd you're attracting," - the officer indicated to the troop of soldiers that had come around, weapons raised - "I'd say you'll be finally filling out your judgment."

Solusar glanced around to find where his other Federation members were, but he couldn't see them out of the corner of his eye. He remembered the holomessage their attack corvette, the AFS Independence, had received a few days before - that the so-called Sith Empire that was conquering out on the Rim was looking to bring back elements of the Federation, that Nadd and Nihilus were finished and elements underneath in the officer corps of the Imperial force was primed to revolt and wanted their help. More specifically, they were going to feign an attack against the Tarsonians and wanted to use the Federation Remnant's help in preventing excessive loss of life from Tarsonian intervention against what would likely be a three-way war if it came to that - and the Tarsonians, for their valor, were overmatched by the sheer numbers and weight being thrown about by the Amazonian sides.

There had been a few against it, but their most influential member - former Senator Adega - had been strongly in favor of the move, against the thoughts of Jedi Master Tra Adonis. Two Sith led them currently, but it was already doubtful that Nadd could last long in the modern time despite his bold proclamation, and Nihilus was merely self-centered in his pursuit of soul nutrients - the real power would lie underneath them, by supposedly a class who had been recruited to fight the evil that the Federation Remnant still perceived to be around in the Dominion and its own Sith Order.

Likewise, the Empire also knew of Elysium, a fact that the Dominion barely did except for few sources.

Rick Winters's motion to try and explore the sentiments of the most free and open world of the Dominion - Rydoni, as it traditionally had been - had ended here, on one of the orbital stations with twelve weapons being aimed at Solusar's torso.

"I'm sure you have the wrong person," Solusar tried again with the Force, "I think-"

"I think you are incorrect," interjected the resilient Dominion officer. "And you're being taken into Dominion cus-"

"Soldiers - follow me."

The voice came from down the hall, where a brown-robed figure with a lightsaber attached to his belt.

"Sir, we're right in the middle of apprehending enemies of the state. I'd appreciate it, Marek, if you waited-"

"Tython's fleet just hypered out in our system."

The officer shut up momentarily, before signalling to several security droids, who would be useless in real combat anyway: "Make sure they don't go anywhere."

As soon as Galen Marek and the security force had left, Solusar whipped out his sapphire saber, making hash of the five security droids and noticing that Mikal Shenn-Jon nearby had done the same with his emerald saber.

"Let's get to the others and get out of here," Solusar motioned, to Shenn-Jon's approval. "Seems Adega was right about this one."

Shortly, as the Sith fleet bore down on Rydoni and the defensive fleet of the planet formed up to attempt to stymie the advance, Independence snapped off the station's connecting atmospheric tube and shot towards the edge of the system. Three fighters followed directly in pursuit as the corvette angled towards the Sith fleet - a final test by the skeptical Adonis. The Sith fleet, all on cue, blasted a laser barrage at the pursuing fighters, annihilating all three while immaculately leaving the corvette without a scratch. With that, Independence blasted a hyper-course towards Oovo.


* * * * *


Eluminaria

Sith Knight Tulak Hord's command ship, the Challenger-class dreadnought Rage of Passion, slammed out of hyperspace as the dimensional tunnels of the alternate state came into the blackness of subspace. Hord was still steaming over Nadd's rejection of a real command vessel to lead the attack, or even one of the gargantuan and massively powerful Worldships to dominate the Tarsonian world once they had finished and completely consume the planet, but Nadd had two things in his mind with this. The Tarsonians were nothing more than a nuisance in the fight - a strong nuisance, but a pest nonetheless. The Dominion's arsenal was more complete, larger, and overall a far more omnipresent threat than the rebuilding parallel civilization. Tulak Hord, in addition, was capable of being thrown away in a mission like this - a Worldship or one of the top two classes of synthetic ships, however, were not to be wasted.

Hord was naturally angry, but he turned that fire into the task at hand. Eluminaria was a fortified world, but the Sith Knight had seen far worse - Oovo now had been turned into a veritable fortress from its tomb world origins, and naturally Styx, Amazonia, and Polus were some of the most fortified planets in local space with over 3,000 years of development into defensive grids. He was more than confident his assault fleet was going to be able to be up to the task - even without a dominant flagship, there were more than enough bioships and smaller cruisers in the fleet to unleash a swarm of weaponry and fight against the Tarsonians in the latest the Sith had to offer. After all, Nadd believed that the Federation Remnant, who seemed much more likely to join the Sith effort than the Dominion one, would hold some sway with the Tarsonians as well.

With that, a torrent of torpedoes and missiles were unleashed from the Sith fleet towards the Eluminarian defensive grid, beginning their entrance into the fight.


* * * * *


Amazonia

"Nihilus is moving."

Sadow's muse as the aggressive Sith Lord gazed out of one of the transparisteel viewscreens over the setting sun around Dominion Center was bland but true - Ragnos and Sion had felt the same things themselves.

"I can feel what he has done - a hole in the Force has been ripped, a tear in the very life of space. Nihilus has unleashed his power again - and I don't think he is going to stop there."

"I feel it too," Sion added, throwing some bitterness into the fray. Sion had a hatred towards Nihilus, which had caused Ragnos to suspect that (as Sion had been a Sith Lord many years before and preserved through artificial Sith stasis means) Nihilus was also a long-lived being from conflicts in the past with Sion and his faction.

"He will eventually come here, to wipe out the very source of everything and take every soul he can find on the planet," Sion muttered. "Nihilus will not end with simply one planet. Not enough echos in the Force were cast - he is just tempering his everpresent hunger for the main course, when he strikes at the heart of the Dominion. He will keep coming, and this Empire will keep pressing."

Ragnos was silent momentarily, before speaking again: "I do not think Nadd is the primary threat at the moment - he is their leader, their charismatic individual, but Nihilus is strong. He must be...eradicated."

"I will do it myself," Sion spoke up with a certain vigor. "One of us must stay here on the capital to keep things at a stay, but I believe I can eliminate Nihilus in the most efficient manner."

Ragnos tended to agree - Sadow was more than likely to underestimate Nihilus's powers, while Ragnos wanted to stay personally and oversee the Dominion - he was the administrator of the Dominion Council, the one who could see things through at every level and coordinate from the top.

"I need to move to Polus and the fleet," Sadow said through his tightening throat. "I need to personally engage this Sith menace, to gauge its strength. I believe the rumors of Nadd are greatly exaggerated.

"Do not underestimate him," Ragnos instructed. "He may not have been the most powerful Sith Lord in our history, but he is no easy threat. To have overcome Ludo Kressh so easily - that is a feat indicative of what he can accomplish."

Sadow felt that to be a stab in his gut - he had wanted to assassinate Kressh for some time, and now Nadd had deprived him of that. The very meaning of that action had stuck a knife into Sadow's heart and drove him ever angrier.

"But it is certain..." Ragnos finished. "We can not stay together as one. Nihilus will come here, and we can not be formed together to be eliminated as a constant. We will go our separate ways...coordinate from afar and eliminate this menace and whatever may stand in our way between us."


* * * * *


Oovo

Nadd smiled as he kept track of his fleet, a hypermessage coming through to him from Rydoni - he was glad they had not knocked out that part of the Holonet, as its extreme method of transmitting data at speeds far faster than anything true hyperspace could project were greatly helpful. As such, he was surely confident now that the Federation corvette had left Rydoni - and he had a good feeling on where it was headed.

"I must depart," his low voice growled to the Sith next to him. "You will take care of things here for my departure. I will see to the next phase of things myself - I have foreseen that things at Sere will not go as planned, and I must be there to personally handle the matter. Until then, you will coordinate the actions after I relay them to you...and deal with the Federation as you have instructed them so far."

"I understand, my Lord..." the Sith said, bowing.

With that, Nadd departed for his own personal ship - a massive Worldship, a gargantuan behemoth of the stars of epic proportions. He would be taking control of the Sith Empire, there would be no sharing of power...

Elumarnia

The security officer sighed, heading towards the break room to get some more coffee. Just another day on the orbital security station. Uniquely hidden with a low resonance holo emiter of an asteroid, the station orbited elumarnia in a random changing orbit much like an asteroid would. Anyone passing by would think nothing of it, and the energy emissions would be extremely hard to pinpoint due to the sheer number of stations. It would seem like the planet had its own unique radiation belt, and this too warned people to stay away. One must really be looking or already know to they wer ethere to be able to find them. The officer hated this job, nothing good ever happened. Coming back to his desk after getting a fresh cup he slapped the side of the head of his partner. "wake up slacker, theres space dust that might be invading us."

As if karma, the consul started beeping as soon as he said that. The officer looked up in time to see the Sith Battle fleet penetrating real space and began moving to the planet. "Good God," he said aloud and slammed his hand down upon the alarm switch. Across the defense grids alarms started going off, alerting the entire planet of the fleets existence.

Orders were soon brough up from the surface to engage the ships. As defense platforms came tolife holoemitions fell away revealing hundreds of mid sized weapons platforms and shield generators. Unfortunatly, the shield generator on the planet wasnt complete yet....making it vulnearble. Defiant class gunships and wraith fighters lifted off from the planets surface. They werent large but they were all that was left. Only One Achilles class Cruiser which had been under going repairs steemed up from the planet as well, limping but ready to defend. The battle for Elumarnia Had begun.

Nomi Sunrider's Tomb: Genesis

Keslia turned to head for the exits. The spectors revelation of an attack on her home flared panic up inside her and her sole mission now was to get back there. "Stop," the spector said. "If you go, you will die." Keslia stopped in her tracks unsure what to do. "I have to help them. I have to fight."

The spector of Nomi Sunrider's face, showed sorrow, yet amusement. "Tarsonis is lost, this is your future now."

Keslia's face burned at the Spectors simple statement. "I will not BELIEVE THAT! TARSONIS WILL RISE AGAIN TO ACHIEVE ITS FORMER GLORY! AND I WILL MAKE IT SO!"

"Do you believe that?" the spector said simply?
"I Do," Keslia replied.
"Are you willing to die, for that belief."
"I am....though its not exactly plan A."
At this the spector laughed. "Belief is good, it focus's the mind. I cannot leave these walls, but I may be of some help to you."

Rumbling of age old machinery turning on sounded from behind the walls. Suddenly Keslia found herself being lowered as the spire in the middle of the sphere began to retract into the floor. Soon it had reached the bottom yet still it retracted like an elevator into the floor of the cavern "I shall give you, a ship, ancient in make, yet Freedon Nadd will see it and feer. For it was this ship that trapped him on Oo'na. I give you, the Pheonix!"

The walls of the tunnel gave way, into a massive subterranean Cavern. Keslia's eyes bulged as they settled on a massive ship burried in the monsterous man made expanse. "unlimited power, at your fingertips..." was the last thing Nomi Sunrider ever said to Keslia Kast.

OOC: Short post, mostly because I'm still thinking where to go with everything.

IC:

Elumarnia

The fighter carriers of the Sith fleet opened up, revealing hordes of living Starskipper fighters, built upon small and sleek organic frames that packed tightly into hanger bays and billowed out into space, driven by ganglion clusters driven to engage the hostiles each immediately saw as the Tarsonians. The capital ships moved into attack formations as droid gunship squadrons massed behind the momentous waves of organic fighters, loading fresh missiles into launching pads and preparing to intercept the fighters that became bracketed on sensor screens. Anti-fighter frigates moved to the forefront of the capital ship formations, flanked directly behind by the big anti-ship turbolasers and larger plasma driver weaponry of the battleships and battlecruisers of the fleet to provide nominal cover for the anti-fighter frigates.

A second wave of missiles and torpedoes followed up the initial wave, along with a volley of "shotgun missiles" from the anti-fighter frigates that would seek out groups of fighters and proceed to explode and release a cloud of plasma-coated, fast-moving shards to shred lightly-shielded fighter waves before the Sith lighter ships moved in for fighting maneuvers.

TSS Tigerclaw

Kast entered the hospital wing, intent on seing how one Dominion VIP was fairing. She had been placed in the "Chamber" a healing chamber that reconstructed organic matter at the sub-atomic level. The radiation had a one major side effect, it directly effected the mental stability of the patient. Kast was just checking in to moniter her progress, it would still be a few hours before she would be able to be removed. Suddenly the battle alert status flashed upon all decks klaxons blairing. Kast activated his new personal comunicator, a trial piece of technology based on a radio, that the Tarsonians were trying out. "Kast to the bridge, What the HELL is going on?"

"Sir we recieved an emergancy transmission from Elumarnia. They're under attack"

Everything in the hospital wing stopped dead. Kast's heart skipped a beat with a moment of hesitation before storming out of the Wing heading for the bridge. "Get all commanders online, lock everything down and prepare to move out, We leave YESTERDAY!"

The Pheonix

Keslia stepped off the lift at as it landed at the base of the enourmous vessel. Walking towards it not exactly sure what to do, she spotted the only other piece of technology in the room, what seemed to be a control center. Stepping onto the arced platform Keslia looked around for a panel of some sort but all the steel surfaces were blank. Stepping back she stood in the exact center and suddenly everything around her lit up. And then she wasn't outside anymore.. She was in a long dimliy lit room, walls and floors each made of some blue metalic substance. She could only assume must be the bridge of the pheonix, but all there was in this room was a single chair.

Tentitavly she moved towards it. She circled it once observing everything she could but it seemed to just be plain throne like chair, but based on what had happened just a few secconds ago she wasnt taking anychances. Hessitantly she lightly sat in the chair and braced....nothing happened. She sighed and relaxed in the chair laughing a little. Suddenly the share slid back its base rising up like a large stone recliner so she was in an elevated laying position. Underneath her the chair litup. Confused she tried to move and the chair shut down.

Pondering over the situation she realized that the chair must control the ship. She relaxed again and the chair hummed to life again. Focusing her mind on the ship he vision left her, replaced with a vision of the cavernous expanse. She could feel every screw and every inch of the shuttle. She controlled the ship....she was the ship. Her eyes widened and a grin came to her face as the engines roared to life.

Sere

Ravager burst out from hyperspace as the green breadbasket world of Sere, one of the four Founder worlds and a prominent member of the Core Worlds, turned a new face towards the main-sequence yellow star of the system. The least-defensed planet inside the Expanse, Sere was already alerted to the threat that was inbound but not well-evacuated in time in preparation for Nihilus's arrival - in turn, the planet's population was still present across the world with only minimal transportation ships in orbit to evacuate the populace when the massive Sith fleet arrived to wipe out all traces of civilization on the quiet farming world.

The Dominion fleet inbound to protect the planet from annihilation was still hours out, allowing Nihilus's fleet to close in well and begin bracketing targets while allowing fear and dread to creep into the hearts of all who knew the Sith Lord had arrived for the killing. With Nihilus's hunger satisfied by Cruces, he was not looking for the consumption of all here - merely to wipe them out through extreme prejudice and extermination. Dark Lord Nadd had some ideas about what to do with populaces, but Nihilus was not one to take prisoners - with the enigmatic Sith Lord, the options were generally victory or death, no failure to fight again another day.


* * * * *


Rydoni

Sith Knight Hezzoran's forces had deployed successfully at Rydoni as Galen Marek was struggling to get the planet's combatants in order, allowing the Sith to form into a proper attack line and begin the advance on the far less-defended peaceful planet. Rydoni was one of the only worlds in the Dominion without a standard security force within two systems, and the planet's pacifist nature was coming out now in the face of battle. Marek was a heady Sith Knight, figured as one of the best and likely ruler in line with the current crop - but he had his hands full attempting to defend the peaceful world from the onslaught ready to begin. With much of the Dominion fleet deployed and scattered amidst the Expanse to defend the mid-region against constant attacks and feints by the Sith out of the Rim, planets like Rydoni were not well-equipped to defend against concentrated attacks such as Hezzoran's.

Pheonix
Keslia laughed in ecstasy as the power of the phoenix coursed through her. She controlled the phoenix... she was the pheonix. As the ship coursed through hyperspace she could feel the dull electric sensation on the ships hull. Clearing her mind she focused on the task at hand. She could sense the small ship not far behind, carrying the rest of the seven who had followed her of the planet. They would be needed as well in the comming battle.

Elumarnia surface
Everywhere civilians fled in terror. Orbital bombardment rocked the surface of the world, causing massive collapses and tremors in the subterranean world. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Children cried out for parents and they fell upon deaf ears. The hour was indeed bleak. And a smoldering heap was all that remained of Tarsonis central command.

ELumarnia Deep Orbit

Capt Garret Jax gripped his chair as his ship took a heavy broadside. The Achilles class cruiser, the only capital ship in the system desperately fought for its life, trying to hold back the tide that was inevitable. Sparks and venting gas litttered shot across the bridge as the lights failed. "Damage REPORT!" he cried out to his crew. "Shields at 17%" some one yelled back. "Losing hull integrity on the portside."

"And the battle ground?" he asked the voice whom he could not see.

"35% losses of orbital platform. Massive damage to the central city....SIR COMMAND HAS BEEN DESTROYED!!!"

"My God," Jax said in disbelief..chancelor Rapier, the joint chiefs, the representatives committee...all gone....We're done..Just like before."

"Sir" the voice said again, "ship incoming.."

"Great," Jax replied, "Who is it?"

"I...don't know sir. It's a make I've never seen before."

Jax turned his eyes to the view port, and lept to his fleet as the massive ship slammed into realspace. It must have been 40 Km long, dwarfing the modestly sized cruiser. 40 to 1. "Friend or foe?" He asked his crewmembr that was still alive.

"No idea sir. But were being hailed, opening com."

This is Captain Keslia Kast, I'm taking control of the situation.