Faze continued moving slowly "No, worse" The Captain refuted, gently "When he and Lord Vader fell at the Battle of Endor with the destruction of the second Death Star, we lost Coruscant completely. The Empire fell faster than we could keep up with. The Battle of Exagal could prove to be as cataclysmic now. The Emperor is now well and truly dead, as are secretive and doteful acolytes. The fleet he would have fielded to end this conflict once and for all is gone. Generals Hux and Pryde were both killed in the battle, and Supreme Leader Ren and his knights have not been seen since before than. We must assume that he has fallen as well."

She stops outside a door to a simple room. "Whether we win or lose this war will depend on entirely on leadership, up and down the chain of command, but we need to bring ourselves to the present for the moment."

She opens the door from the nearby panel and turns to you "Lieutenant, you will remove your helmet and secure your weapon before you enter this compartment. You will seat yourself quietly and will not speak unless or until you are addressed. You will answer any questions to the best of your ability. Now move."

The room is barren, except for a simple table with chairs on opposing sides. One is vacant for you, and the other is occupied by a man with severe features, and a piercing gaze. Still as a statue, his intense eyes bore straight into you as you sit down. Captain Faze secures the door after you, standing at parade rest behind you.

"Does something trouble you, Lieutenant?" The stranger asks, keeping almost completely still, as if in some form of trance.

Arianna listened and walked as her Captain spoke. "We will need strong leaders like you to keep things from happening as they did when the Empire fell."

She went silent when they stopped outside the door and her Captain issued orders that were odd and troubling but she had been trained well by the Final Order and was a Lt. and a Sith Stormtrooper. She did exactly as she was told and removed her helmet, revealing the face of a young Echani woman. Pale skinned with white hair tied back, braided and tucked so her helmet would seal. Her silver eyes looked slightly quizzical but she did as ordered quickly and efficiently. She set her helmet on, or in, whatever place was ready for it and disarmed herself, securing her rifle, pistol, and thermal detonator before walking into the room and sitting down.

She looked at the man, her features schooled into being utterly dispassionate as she had been trained.

"I am curious as to who you are and why I am here, sir," she said in response to his question.

"You will not speak of this with anyone, so a name is of no use to you. You are here to give an account for yourself." The strange mans lift, his hands touching the top of the table and his eyes still transfixed on you, never wavering.

"You will answer the questions that you are asked. Is something troubling you?"

Starr resisted the urge to wince or rub her head when she felt the pressure in her mind. She wasn't sure what was causing it but she didn't like it. She didn't like it at all.

She looked at the man. "The rebels were holed up in a room filled with women and children. We encountered heavy resistance and a grenade was used. All of the women and children were killed. I'm not troubled, sir-I'm angry. Those children should not have been in the room but they were. Were the rebels using them as a shield? If so there are no limits which they will go to resist us, sir. That is troubling: the nature of the enemy we are fighting."

"Fascinating" the man said, his gaze finally breaking as he takes a minor look at the Captain behind you. "So you had no knowledge of who those children were, or their significance to the conflict? You didn't even know they were there until they were dead?"

His voice drops, his measured neutrality gives way to a tone dripped in disdain "Than your incompetence has saved your life, though not your commission."

Arianna's composure dropped for just a moment as anger flared within her at his words. "Sir? My commission? We were pinned down under withering fire without cover, fighting a barricaded enemy in a room we had no way to recon so one of my men followed his training and used a grenade to break their barricade and allow us egress into the room. What we knew was in the room was a large group of heavily armed rebels who opened fire on us."

She spoke calmly but forcefully; her anger a cold, icy burning that would, could she release it, tear this man, this stranger, to pieces.

"Don't burden me with the list of difficulties you had to endure because of your own poor decision making. You deviated from your mission, because you failed to assess your surroundings. There were multiple signs that you were putting yourself and your men into a position of unacceptable risk. And in so doing, you inadvertently ruined another mission."

"MY Mission."

The man takes a deep breath, the closest he comes to expressing his own emotion "I will stress again that whatever is said in this room does not leave it. Those children were all force capable, though we don't know how viable any of them really were for training. The Rebellion was trying to smuggle them off world to be trained. To where and by whom, we don't know."

"Your blind, cavalier actions not only robbed us of over two dozen candidates we could have taken for ourselves, had they been properly intercepted, but also cost us any lead to find out where they were going. Further, the sight of that many children dead, and the means in which they were killed will only bolster the enemy, serving as propaganda against us. As these failures are solely attributed to you, your life is forfeit to me. Because I sense there is great potential in you still, I am sparing you, so that you may yet be molded into something greater and make penance for your misdeeds. Do not cause me to regret that decision."

"I am your Master now, and will call me Shroud."

Arianna was speechless at the revelation that the children had Force potential. Part of her wanted to argue that she should have been informed there was another mission in her area of operation and that leading troops into danger was part of war but she knew such things would have been pointless to tell this man. This enigmatic man who sat before her and told her he was her Master.

“That pressure in my mind was you. You are trained in the Force. Are you...Sith?” She asked in a low voice. “Something stirred and awoke inside of me when the Emperor was fighting at Exegol. I’ve...felt, sensed things I can’t explain and didn’t know who to talk to to find answers. But it’s you who can answer my questions and teach me. I am yours, Master Shroud. I will learn all you have to teach me and will not fail you again.” She told him, her voice growing stronger, more firm as she made her vow.

Master Shroud's face finally broke to reveal a smile.

"The Emperor and his lapdog would not have labelled me Sith, and would have me killed for claiming to be. We are True Sith. Unburdened and undistracted with the illusions of power in politics and government, we seek only the true power of The Force. We seek to rebuild the Sith Empire, but an Empire that is built on open and proud of what we stand for." gesturing to Captain Faze "We have the greatest military might the galaxy has ever known. It is best that they are left to wage war as they see fit, so that we may fully commit ourselves to our endeavors."

Shroud stood from his chair, his hands behind him "Palpatine worked in the shadows and in secrecy. Now with him truly gone, we will begin to make our presence in the Galaxy known. Your first assignment is to find your way to the an ancient world of Dromund Kaas. There you will find ancient cities of the original Sith Empire. You will find a beacon tower that has fallen into disrepair. You will reactivate it, so that the call may be heard throughout the galaxy for all Sith to return home."

Arianna’s excitement grew the more he spoke, her eyes seeming to shine as he said words that echoed what had heard that fateful day when the Emperor died. She stood, unable to remain sitting as energy coursed through her body. “This is it! This is as he said during the Battle of Exegol! He told me I would be the flame that lights the Sith fire anew and he said my journey would begin on Dromund Kaas!”

She whirled to look at Shroud. “What happened on my first mission was the Will of the Force. It must be, Master Shroud. If things hadn’t happened the way they did I may never have come to your attention. But I have and now what I was is coming to pass!”

She returned his smile. “It shall be done, my Master. I will light the fire and call the Sith home. Shall we reclaim the ancient worlds like Korriban, Ziost, Ossus, and the others long forgotten by the galaxy?”

"Silence!" Shroud bellowed angrily and loudly, his arms moving in front of him clenched fists. The lights in the small room failing as he shouted.

"Know your place." He said spoke again as the room returned to normal "Sith who have studied the ancient secrets of The Force longer than you have been alive have not known the will of The Force. Even members of the Dark Council did not fully understand its nature. Do not presume that you know anything about what The Force wills or your place in it. If The Force willed you into failure than perhaps I am wasting my time with you."

"You are not the first to claim to hear the words of the Ancient Sith Lords. Nearly all who have done so before you have been driven into madness by them, surrendering to delusions of grandeur, believing their power to be orders of magnitude greater than what it truly was. There will be a glorious future for The Sith, with or without your presence. Pass this first test, and you may yet be made privvy to larger plans."

He raised his hand again to make a brief brushing movement to the door "You have your task, now leave. How you do it is beyond my concern, just see that it is done."

Captain Faze moves towards the door to open it for you, waiting for you to exit first.

The door closed behind her, she finally chooses to speak.

"A small point of order Lieutenant. He may be taking you from me, but I am the one around here who makes the call as to who gets discharged."

She pulls out her datapad and makes a few movements "You are officially relieved of your orders, but you still retain your rank and position within the First Order. You'll have access to our resources for as long as you may need them..."

The Captain spoke a little more quietly "and it sounds like you'll probably need them. Sounds to me like he's sending you on a suicide mission." She hands you a small comlink "This is a secure communication, directly to me. You find anything out there of value, you let me know."

"Finally," She says as she looks over her shoulder "You have one last order before you are properly relieved" As she extends her other hand with a small credit chip "You go make sure those kids are given the final respects they deserve. Out of uniform. Regardless of circumstance, their lives were brutally and tragically cut short, and I'll do what we can to at least attempt to make amends."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Wed 30 Sept 2020.

Arianna immediately and instinctively snapped to attention, her enthusiasm waning in the face of Shroud's anger and the dressing down she was receiving. She knew he spoke truly and that she had overstepped her bounds quite drastically. "Apologies, Master. I let enthusiasm overwhelm decorum and the wisdom you have to teach. It will not happen again. I will depart apace for the task you have set before me."

She bowed before leaving the room and stopped when Captain Faze spoke. She nodded when she was told she retained her rank and position. "Thank you, ma'am."

She took the comlink and tucked it into a pouch on her belt and then took the credit chip. She had to swallow hard before she could speak and when she did her voice was hoarse. "You are both a good CO and a good woman, Captain. I would be honoured to give those children the respect and rest they deserve. And offer to them my apologies for what was done. I'll handle that task and then comm you to see about getting a ship suitable for travel to the Unknown Regions."

She reached for her helmet and the space she had secured her weapons and put them on her belt once more. Her helmet remained tucked under her arm as she came to attention and saluted her Captain before turning on her heels to walk to her quarters to clean up, change, and take care of the task her Captain had given her.

The next day, it had taken some work in order to find out what happened to the women and kids from the night before. Having been taken first to a morgue for autopsy and analysis, they were dispersed to several funderal homes, as no one facility would have been able to handle them all.

Thankfully, this worked in the favor of you and the Captain; paying for all of that in one, anonymously would have been uncharacteristically generous and possibly brought the wrong kind of attention. Taking care of it in this dispersed way allowed for a greater sense of plausible deniability.

The last one you visited was also the one with the largest number of bodies; including the Twi'lek girl you had given a shot to in order to ease her passing. As you finished up here, you saw that, true to Master Shroud's prognosis, events had turned the public even further against the First Order. There was a huge gathering of protestors and mourners outside the building. A detail of security forces were watching them from across the street.

Normally, a detail would have put down a protest like this; one would have to wonder if they were ordered not to, or if they just saw attacking people angry about the brutality of the First Order as only further proving the point. Either way, being outside of uniform and with your own work to do, it would probably be best to avoid this and carry on with your true mission; finding a way to get to Dromund Kaas.

Getting a ship would mostly be a matter of nursing the bureaucracy. The problem would be getting there; it was illegal for ship navicomputers to hold coordinates or navigational routes to Dromund Kaas or the other ancient Sith homeworlds. An older, pre-Empire vessel might have the data, as would the Royal Hall of Records. The Imperial Palace, formerly the Jedi Temple could have it as well, although that would be incredibly dangerous to attempt. The right person in the black market may have the information.

The Force could be your guide as well, although you would likely need more training and a stronger affinity to pull that off.

Arianna finished paying for the funerals and asked the people running the final funeral home if she could see the young girl. "She has no family left to say their farewells. I understand it's not a pleasant sight but I've seen worse," she told them as she rested her arm on her blaster. She was in civilian clothes, all one set she owned, but still projected an aura of menace even when she was there on an errand of...not mercy. Neither was it charity but perhaps it could be called seeking some measure of forgiveness.

She was a soldier, not a monster.

"Leave me," she commanded the employee as she looked at the young girl. When she was alone with the body she put a hand on the small, cold head. "You never had a chance and this should not have happened. There is plenty of blame I could throw around but the final call was mine and between us there are no excuses. You are beyond them. I cannot change what happened but I can make sure nothing like this happens again because of me. I may become something else but that doesn't mean I have to surrender all sense of honour and I tell you this now: I shall not. No matter what I am. You rest now and know something I never will: peace."

She left without looking back.

She started on her way back to the barracks and commed Faze as she walked. "Is this line secure, ma'am?" She knew Faze said it was but there could always be ears somewhere.

"I'm trying to be the arbiter between two mid-level officers, Lieutenant." She replied, her voice carrying the tone of annoyance, having been brought into this "I can step away for a moment if this is a private matter, but please be quick."

"It is, ma'am," Arianna replied and waited for Faze to get back to her. "The matter we discussed has been taken care of, ma'am and I am going to be attending to the other matter. Do you know if the one who has set me upon this task has a ship here or on the Tempest? I need to collect some data."

"One moment" She replied, and there was a minute or two of silence "He came to our base on a shuttle, and returned to the Tempest that way as well. He's clearly not a part of Ship's Company, so he would have had to come aboard on his own vessel."

There was another very brief pause "I don't want to know what you're looking for, but I think I have a good idea what you're thinking. This is your one warning Lieutenant. Be extremely careful. I can't protect you."

"I understand ma'am. You of course have no knowledge of what I am thinking but I shall return the word of caution to you for if he is what I think he is, and part of what I think he is part of - be very careful as well. He is dangerous beyond anything we have yet to see from even the Empire or the Final Order. Something ancient and long-thought lost. Lt. Vex'Morland out."

She put the comm unit back and returned to her quarters where she took off her civilian clothes and dressed in her armour. The few things she had to pack went into her bag. When she was finished she went to the shuttle pad and waited for transport to the Tempest.

Transport back to The Tempest was slow going. The shuttles were usually accounted for on the return trips, so finding one that had space available for an unannounced passenger took some time.

Aboard the star destroyer, things were a hive of constant activity in the hangar bay; arguably the most important part of a ship like this. Shuttles like the one you just departed were serving as vital logistics chains, TIE's departed and flew sorties in space for patrol and training, as well as in atmosphere for close support.

One corner of the vessel however was noted for its distinct absence of activity. A vessel, seemingly unattended and unused, sitting proudly by itself. It's presence was undeniable, but all seemed to make a point to act as if it wasn't there.

An Upsilon-Class Command Shuttle. Only a few of them were in service, and those who had the distinct privilege of using them, such as Kylo Ren, were not to be trifled with.

Vex'Morland took a look at the shuttle as she walked through the hangar bay. That it was unattended was good as it would make her job much easier. She kept walking until she was in the corridors leading to the officers' barracks but first she stopped at one of the automated laundry rooms. Some of the higher level officers wore black cloaks with their dress uniforms as did certain special troops. She was looking for something very specific: a black, hooded cloak or something she could use to make into one.

There were just too many people aboard a ship this size to meddle with washing one person's clothes at a time. Instead, the Sailors, Marines, Aircrews, and any guests aboard a ship would provide all clothing to be washed in a sack. Numerous sacks would be loaded into one machine and washed and dried together, in their sacks. Dress uniforms and other accoutrements that required a more delicate touch were handled separately from the main operation, in a corner of the room. The whole thing was a mess of an operation, conducted entirely by droids. All 2nd class droids, they weren't equipped with vocabulators, but their Binary beeps and boops were clearly enough to tell you that you were not welcome in this compartment of the ship.

OOC: Make a perception check to see what you can find among the dress items.
 If you want, you can "Take ten" and assume you roll a 10, being average and get the results.

You can also "Take 20" on the roll, getting the max result, but will have spend 20 times as long in the act.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:59, Sun 11 Oct 2020.

Arianna ignored the rather rude comments the droids were making - comments they didn't think she understood. She was too focused on her search. For the plan that was taking shape she needed some very specific items. Or one, in particular.


18:12, Today: Arianna Vex'Morland rolled 20 using 1d20+7 ((13)).

Making your way to the corner, there's a motley collection of dress uniforms cleaned, dried, and hung, awaiting pickup by their owners. Among them is a dark cloak attached to the dress white uniform of a naval officer. Would be impossible to know for sure, but the chest candy on the left side would indicate it belongs to someone highly decorated and probably senior in rank.

If this goes missing, someone somewhere is going to get an earful.

She looked around for something that could be used as a hood in case the cloak didn't have one. Regardless she quickly took the cloak off the uniform, hopefully hood as part of the cloak or a separate piece and left the room. She made her way to a storage closet and quickly stripped down to the black undersuit that was work beneath her crimson armour. From her bag she pulled her black dress boots out and slipped them on before breaking the armour down and putting it in the bag. She strapped her gear belt on and then slipped the rifle in its holster before putting on the cloak and letting it cover her as completely as it possible before pulling up the hood and settling the cloth in such a way as to hide her face in shadow.

Once she was finished she took up her bag, sealed it shut, walked out of the storage closet and made her way back to the hangar bay-a menacing figure dressed all in black and covered in a voluminous cloak and hood. The mysterious figure made her way to the Upsilon-class shuttle as it she had every reason to be there and, as she walked, she told herself she belonged there.

'This is my shuttle. I am not to be trifled with. Cross me at your peril. This is my shuttle,' she thought to herself repeatedly as she strode with all the confidence she had within her for the ramp of the black craft.