Chapter 14: The Will of Ssassahnnah [A Snippet] The seal, which kept the atmosphere from escaping into space, was broken as the ramp came down, allowing the sounds of battle to boom and reverberate into the cramped troop compartment of the dropship. The whine of the ship’s engines was nearly drowned out by the sounds of war. Virulous wasted no time, moving quickly down the narrow center aisle, barely avoiding the austere narrow metal benches on either side while making her way to the ramp at the back of the small armored troop transport. She was amazed at how agile the much taller, bulkily armored, and more heavily encumbered soldiers were as they exited the dropship ahead of her. The armored troops carried, not only their weapons, but additional equipment and supplies. She marveled at how gracefully they moved, and with such ease, out of the confined space. “They must practice this a lot!” she marveled. As her black medium grade flexible armored boot struck the top of the ramp, Virulous felt as though she had run into a wall of hot humid air saturated with an awful stench. At first she thought it was the stench of death, but it wasn’t very long before she realized it was not death, but filth. Underneath her black rigid armored mask and skull protector Virulous crinkled her nose in objection to the stink. The Imperial Army platoon she accompanied had been assigned as her security detail, and she was impressed by the tight discipline of the individual members. In less than twenty seconds the thirty men and women had exited the dropship and had already taken up defensive positions among the squalid hovels around the square. Yavin 4’s star shone brightly, and hotly. She was glad that the hood of her black robes, at least kept the hot rays of the star from directly heating her skull protector and mask. Her robes also kept the star’s direct rays off of her flexible body armor, but the humidity was stifling. Virulous became thrilled when the high-pitched whine of the engines wound up to a banshee’s scream as the dropship shot upwards, buffeting her in its downdraft and covering the sounds of battle. In a very few seconds, the ear-splitting banshee screams of the engines were themselves drowned out by their unforgiving body-reverberating roar, as the dropship vanished into the sky on its way back to space. In less than a couple of hours it would return with another load of heavy infantry. Virulous looked around the square, as the maddening roar of ten, space-bound dropships faded into the relative quiet of ordinary explosions and blaster rifle reports. On the ground, in between the damaged and destroyed hovels built on all four sides of the open square, which the dropship had landed in, it became apparent to her that the Massassi didn’t understand the concept of sanitation and hygiene. The evidences were on the ground, here and there, that they did not go far enough away from their hovels to do their business. It also appeared that their idea of garbage disposal was to simply throw it out the doors of their primitive huts. Rotting trash was everywhere. “These savages better hope I don’t step in any of their messes,” she thought, disgusted by their habits, “I’ll make them pay for soiling my boots!” she thought, imperiously. The petite Sith lord giggled at how silly that sounded, but for the noise of the battle all around the square, no one heard her. She turned her head on hearing a suddenly intense volley of blaster rifle fire, and noticed a heavily armored soldier making his way to where she took cover.

Chapter 13: A Walk to the Park, Not on Dromund Kaas [A Snippet] The Jedi Council had convened to discuss an important piece of intelligence that had virtually fallen into their laps. Because of the war and other issues internal to the Jedi Order itself, only three Jedi Councilors were in attendance for this meeting. The SIS, the Galactic Republic’s spy agency, sent an agent to brief their Jedi allies on a very important development. The SIS were the ones who had come across the information. They’d already done much of the leg work, vetting the intelligence windfall which had literally been breadcrumbed to them. The SIS held a great deal of suspicion that the report might be a trap since it was fed to them, but the information was valid, having been verified and corroborated with other sources. Given the nature of the information contained in the report, however, they felt a strong need to involve the Jedi Council. The biggest problem about the intelligence report was that there was nothing the SIS didn’t already know that was in it. Yet, the way the information was tied together, yielded insights that could only have come from an Imperial insider. The SIS representative came to the end of his report. “Our analysis of this comes down to two things,” the agent said to the Jedi Council members in attendance, “One: this is a trap to expose our agents working within the Empire. Or, two: someone on the Dark Council has betrayed a rival and wants to use us to do something with this information.” Two of the three Jedi in attendance, quickly glanced at each other. The third Jedi simply stared at the datapad sitting on a display board hovering over the Council table near the three Jedi. She was actually meditating, using The Force to pull more secrets from the datapad, which was of Imperial manufacture. She didn’t like what The Force revealed to her, but she decided to say something about the matter set before them. “The infighting among the Dark Council has begun,” Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan told her colleagues on the Jedi Council. “They are now vying for the imperial throne. This may seem like good news, but The Force tells me that things will not go our way so easily. In fact, I get the sense that The Force is telling me, ‘be careful what you wish for.’ We need to move carefully.” “And what are you not telling us,” Jedi Master Gnost-Dural asked, dryly. Satele Shan, staring at the imperial made datapad, thought carefully about how to word her response. “It will cost us greatly, whether we take action, or don’t take action,” Satele finally answered.

Chapter 12: To Slay A Betrayer [A Snippet] Nox, feigning sleep, used The Force to monitor her slow and careful approach. He couldn’t actually see her, but he could sense where she was and what she was doing. He could tell that her hands were empty. She was weaponless. “Perhaps the idiot will go for my sabrestaff,” Nox thought derisively of the traitorous apprentice. However, his plan to be completely exposed, even to the point of not wearing his armor, as he always did, seemed to be the bait that was going to suck her into his trap. Nox’s broken heart had already given way to his ever growing anger, as he sensed her making the approach to kill him. “Stupid, Virulous!” Nox thought, reviling his apprentice, “You’re going to throw everything away! Why couldn’t you have waited for me to ascend the throne, so that I could elevate you to my vacated seat on the Dark Council?! Impatient, short-sighted dolt!” She stopped in her tracks, making it clear to him that she was not going to go for his sabrestaff. “Then will she try a Dark Force technique?” Nox recalled that Virulous had been using The Force to eavesdrop on his private meeting with Darth Zash, right after Zash had been elevated to the Dark Council. He and Zash both sensed the intrusion, and he decided to lay a trap for his apprentice, asking Zash to tell him of her Dark Force technique which allowed her to instantly kill a disrespectful subordinate with a light touch on the subordinate’s shoulder. “Hasn’t she figured out how easily that technique could be countered?! Fool!” he raged at her. However, his face remained placid as he continued to feign sleep, ready to strike at her.

Chapter 12 is the final chapter of this short fanfic. First of all, I truly hope, that if you've read my story, that you enjoyed it. However, if there were some things that didn't sit well with you about my writing style or about the story in general, I hope you'll tell my why. I want to improve my writing, but cannot in the absence of critiques. Thus, I am making a shameless request for critiques, comments, and reviews. (PS If you wish to shower my story with praise, I'll take those, too. )

Chapter 11: Recruitment [A Snippet] The sleek new brushed stainless metal sliding doors were incongruous, contrasting sharply against the ancient hardened red sandstone of the Temple of The Sith, an ancient complex located on Korriban. Darth Virulous and Khem Val had been waiting in the antichamber along with other powerful Sith lords. These Sith lords, like Virulous and Khem Val, were the apprentices and servants of dark councilors, who were holding their meeting within the Dark Council chamber on the other side of the metal sliding doors. The antichamber was uncharacteristically crowded because there were many additional Sith lords waiting for their respective dark lords. They had all been stealing glances at Virulous and at Khem Val standing beside where she sat. “How has she not been eaten by that monster all of this time!” was what many of them were thinking, “She has to be incredibly powerful if that monster hasn’t been able to eat her!” was what many of those concluded. It unnerved many of the Sith present, listening to the beast’s stomach growl as he drooled at the mouth, staring longingly at them. The Dashade unashamedly stared at them all. He imagined himself surrounded by dead Sith laying about the anti-chamber as he sat leisurely on the bloodied stone floor, enjoying a feast. “There is so much good food in this place with me!” the beast thought, hungrily, “No! I must not! I must not bring shame to my master!” Khem Val admonished himself, fighting his primal urge to feast. Virulous assumed the additional Sith were there as extra security. Tensions had already been running very high between the dark councilors these days. The fear and distrust the dark councilors held against one another had magnified these tensions, and Darth Marr was having a very hard time holding the Dark Council together in the absence of Emperor Vitiate’s powerful rule. She did not know that her master’s rivals on the Dark Council had bolstered their numbers in case a battle against Nox and his followers broke out as a result of the coming confrontation in the council chamber. However, the others in the anti-chamber didn’t know this either. They had not been informed by their masters.

Chapter 12: Tributes, Payments, and Celebrations [A Snippet] "Yehw'reh'nomai, step forward. I'll conclude my business with you, first." Wrehn signaled her crew to stay put as she walked alone to Nox's desk. Her heavy powered armored suit assisting her movements, she stomped across the metal floor until she came to a stop before his desk. "Have you thought of a tribute for me?" Nox asked. Wrehn blinked. Confusion expressed in her eyes. "Huh?" "Did you forget what we discussed on the shuttle ride to here?” Nox asked, seeming surprised, “I told you to think of a tribute to appease my anger." Wrehn tilted her head in genuine surprise. "You're still mad about that?" she asked, belatedly adding, "Uh… Dark Lord." "Well what did you think I called you up here, for?" "Um, to pay up? You owe me three hundred million credits, and I'm not giving you that as tribute, Dark Lord." "She learns nothing!" Mako thought, angrily, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "How about I do another job for you, and charge half price?” Wrehn suggested, “Only one job at half price, though. All other jobs after that, I'll charge regular rates." Nox looked at Wrehn in wonderment and shook his head in disbelief. Suddenly, he burst out laughing.

Chapter 10: Dark Power, Betrayal, and Intrigue [A Snippet] Virulous had been training herself on a daily basis, as her master had instructed, increasing her ability to call on more power at will from the Dark Side of The Force. Her encounters on Tatooine, during her mission of vengeance for Darth Nox, had unlocked her potential for drawing great power from the Dark Side, but Nox noticed that she was sparing with her use of that dark power. He was disappointed. “For this ritual, you must draw all of the power that you can potentially concentrate, without holding back, and without tiring or relenting,” Nox had told her, and then cautioned, “Not only must you increase your endurance in concentrating the power of the Dark Side, but you must improve your ability to guard your mind from such concentrations of Dark Side power.” So, Virulous trained daily, increasing how long she could keep it up, until she was able to saturate herself with the Dark Side of The Force for several hours without feeling that she would go insane. Now she stood before her master, demonstrating her progress. She found herself, deeply gratified with her master’s reaction. Darth Nox smiled and literally applauded her success. “You are now ready, my apprentice. I will now teach you the ritual of Force Walking.” Without warning, Nox suddenly reached his hands towards her and used The Force to lock her mind from her body. Virulous collapsed to the floor and watched in terror as her master pulled his hands back towards himself, as though he were pulling at something. Virulous’ terror was magnified tenfold as she felt, not her life force, but her very soul being drawn from her body.

Chapter 11: Victory and Defeat [A Snippet} Wrehn watched as Darth Nox and Lord Ashara approached their enemy. Khem Val and the other Sith following Nox also converged on Darth Malgus' left. She concluded that Nox had the decided advantage, but Wrehn didn't understand The Force. She didn't understand that Nox and his whole party were the underdogs, here. Wrehn spoke to her crew on her private channel. "We're done, here. Our client can handle the rest. Have you thought of a way to hijack those dropships? If our client loses, we'll need to escape and those ships are our only way out." She kicked herself, mentally, after her question was out. Wrehn was still unsure if their private encrypted channel had been compromised. She didn't want to communicate her concerns over the comm system for fear of tipping off the Imperial Army that they'd been discovered eaves dropping on them. Wrehn realized, however, that her reticence was a mistake, and wished she'd given some clue to her crew that the Imperial Army was probably listening in. "We've already got our people in place,” Torian reported, “They had 'equipment malfunctions' which forced them to be 'evacuated' onto two of the dropships along with the seriously wounded. If any of the leadership give the signal, they'll hijack the ships and bring them down for us to board." Concern tinted his tone, as he added, "I think our hired guns will turn on us and hand us over to our client. “They indicated concerns that we won't be able to pay them the balance of what we owe. We have to watch for signs that they are negotiating with our client to work out a deal with him for a reward. Since, it seems, you stepped in it with him, they might be thinking of handing you over to him." "In fact, I know they'll turn on us,” Gault interjected, “As soon as Torian was done briefing them on our contingency plan for a getaway, they had a private off channel chat with each other. I couldn't hear their comm, but the way they stood around pointing at each other and waving their arms around got me thinking they were arguing about something. Only thing I can think they'd argue over is money. I think they're ready to turn on us. It's the only time they'd ever spoken off channel to each other where we couldn't hear them." "If our client loses,” Mako chimed in, “they might try handing us off to his enemy to try to get him to let them go." With the nexu out of the bag – if the Imperials were actually listening in – Wrehn concluded there was nothing else that could be done about it. "Alright. Good reports, Torian, Gault,” she said, “You make a good point, too, Mako." After a moment to think, she gave new orders on her command channel. "Torian, Gault, good work with your platoons. This job's almost over. Hand over control of your platoons to Captain Tartan and Lieutenant Dremon and then return to me. Captain Tartan, Lieutenant Dremon, you both report directly to me now. Report your status." Captain Tartan gave his report. "My troops have created a perimeter defense against possible incoming attacks from ground forces attacking from the open. Lieutenant Dremon's platoon has secured the breached wall, from the inside, to keep enemy reinforcements from reaching us from within the base. We are ready for new orders." "Remain vigilant and standby for orders as I get them from our client," Wrehn said. What she really wanted was to separate Torian and Gault from their hired guns, and consolidate her own position by bringing her crew together. Wrehn added a warning to her hired mercenaries. "There's a fight coming between the Sith. Keep out of this fight and stay out of their way. The Sith want to settle it amongst themselves." Captain Tartan immediately shouted his own orders. "First Platoon, expand the line!" He wanted to get his troops out of the way of the coming fight. Wrehn watched as Tartan's mercenary warriors rose up from crouching behind the rubble and then proceed to move further away from the crater wall and deeper into the crater, expanding their curved perimeter line, until they exited the illuminated battleground. "That opens up the distance between my crew and theirs,” she thought to herself, as she watched the mercenaries move, “More space for my crew to run around in if Tartan and his people start any trouble."

Chapter Ten: Yehw'reh'nomai's Battle Plan [A Snippet] Malgus and his Sith followers wore black Imperial Army Special Forces, all environment, battle armor, with their white painted pauldrons. Nox and his Sith followers wore their plain silver toned, lightly armored space suits. Realizing that her client's enemies held the advantage in armor, Wrehn decided to give Nox's Sith a hand. She changed directions as she ran, so that she could slip behind the battling Sith. Wrehn shouted her orders, as she ran, on her crew's private channel. "Torian, take over command for a bit!" "Roger!" "Skadge, Mako, I'm gonna do the shooting. You guys watch my back!" Both Skadge and Mako responded in the affirmative, as they maneuvered behind the four traitorous Sith. Wrehn decided to start by eliminating the one enemy battling two of Nox's followers. As she came to a stop, she drew one of her two blasters, and began to aim in. Before she could get her weapon steadied on target, all four enemy Sith leapt into the air, doing backwards somersaults. "SKADGE! OVERHEAD, FRONT!" Wrehn shouted out urgently. She could see that all four Sith were going to land right in front of her. Mako and Skadge were still turning around to face forward, and Wrehn was still lifting her pistols to adjust her aim at the airborne Sith. Then Wrehn's display screen flashed a red tint, warning of imminent danger. Suddenly, without further warnings, she found herself flying backwards. She landed and ran backwards a few steps and came to a halt, with her weapon pointed at one of the Sith, which had landed at arm's length from where she had been standing a moment before. Wrehn didn't know what had happened, but her weapon was still on target, so she began firing, as did Mako and Skadge standing on either side of her. Wrehn never ceased to be wowed by the crazy Force worshipers' ability to do the seemingly impossible, Jedi and Sith, alike. For instance, the enemy Sith were deflecting all of her and her companions' blaster bolts with their beamed melee weapons. Darth Nox's followers renewed their attacks on Malgus' followers, forcing Wrehn and her party to cease firing.

Chapter Nine: Exercise, Real Estate, and Spies [A Snippet] Watcher Two, waiting for Keeper’s arrival, was also in Imperial Army officer’s uniform. Unlike Keeper, she started out as a military intelligence officer. She worked her way up to the rank of major before she was poached by Keeper and recruited into Imperial Intelligence. A few years later, the agency was disbanded by the Dark Council, but Nox quickly recruited the two, using their expertise to professionalize his personal spy network. Watcher Two had been waiting for Keeper at the enormous entrance of the mega structure. She fell in on his right side and locked step with him as he entered the gargantuan edifice. The two walked briskly, making their way towards the northeast corner of the cavernous ground floor lobby of the government building. The cavernous lobby was filled with throngs of military personnel, civil servants, and other officials, coming or going to or from their offices. Keeper and Watcher Two walked for several long minutes before they finally reached one of the turbolift lobbies which bordered the cavernous main lobby. It was about a hundred meters south of the northeast corner of the lobby. This side lobby, which was quite large in its own right, held the specific bank of turbolifts which all went down to the basement sub-levels on the eastern half of the building. Four of those were express lifts, which stopped every fiftieth sub-level and were the fastest way to get to the three hundredth sub-level, on the northeastern quadrant of the building. As Nox’s spies entered the turbolift lobby, they both froze in their steps upon hearing a familiar voice over the din of the crowds. “Come here, Thin Man. I will have words with you.” Keeper and Watcher Two turned about to face Khem Val behind them. Khem Val was leaning against the wall with his huge arms crossed over his massive chest. The beast was not wearing his usual armor. The green skinned, heavily tattooed monster was dressed in a dark brown sleeveless, buttonless vest which he wore open at the front. The Dashade also wore a matching dark brown simple head scarf, which draped down the back of his head and neck, and a dark brown kilt that ended just above his ankles. The only armor the behemoth chose to wear were shin and foot guards, which protected the tops of his bare feet and toes, his shins, and his knees. He also wore an old fashioned baldric belt made from real animal hide and durasteel fasteners. His monstrously huge vibrosword hung from this belt, suspended over the back of his shoulder, giving the gargantuan Dashade a decidedly savage appearance. The Dashade had been patiently waiting at the right corner of the lift lobby opposite from the bank of turbolifts, which was why Nox’s top spies had failed to notice the beastly Dashade. They entered the side lobby, immediately turning towards the last four turbolifts, the express lifts, on their left. This gave their backs to the Dashade monster. “This is not the place to have words, Lord Khem Val,” Keeper replied, speaking loud enough to be heard. The Dashade merely motioned for Keeper to draw closer, which Keeper did. The hulking beast offered Keeper a disposable datapad, which the spy chief accepted. Looking up into the towering monster’s eyes, he asked, “Now what?” “There is one who is plotting betrayal against our master. Investigate this,” Khem Val commanded, in a low voice. Keeper stepped back a pace as Khem Val suddenly pushed himself from the wall and took his first step towards the lift lobby threshold. Keeper watched the monstrous Dashade stomp past him as the behemoth made his way out of the turbolift lobby and into the vast main lobby towards the speeder port outside. The crowds kept their distance from the hulking beast, staying well out of the monster’s reach. Darth Nox’s spy chief slid the slim profiled datapad into the breast pocket of his uniform as he made his way back to where Watcher Two stood waiting. Watcher Two made a brief face, showing her disgust, when Keeper spoke two words. “Palace intrigue.”

Chapter Eight: Suspicion Everywhere [A Snippet] At one of many empty loading docks, was a medium grade military security droid. The levitating probe droid led the petite Sith lord to it. The security droid introduced itself. “I am an Imperial military medium grade combat droid that has been removed from Imperial military service and reprogrammed for other work, potential client. Please report me to the local authorities as stolen property. I cannot give you my designated identifier. My reprogramming prohibits me from self-identifying.” Virulous merely shrugged. “And?” she asked. “My illicit programming has reassigned my central functions. I am now acting as the intermediary between the thieves, and yourself. I am relaying their remote communications to you, and relaying your replies to them. Please confirm that you wish to avail yourself of their services and enter into a contract with the thieves,” the droid stated. “I’ve changed my mind,” Virulous said, flatly, “I no longer want their services. I’ve decided that it would be best if I did it myself. I would appear weak by my rivals if I relied on such services.” Curiosity struck her, however, and so she decided to ask what was on her mind. “Do assassins actually work for Protus Security Consultants Group?” “The thieves state that Protus Security Consultants Group, are acting as a referring agent in this case. The thieves are outside, independent contractors,” the droid relayed, adding, “Further discussion is unnecessary and not advised, since you do not wish to proceed with their services.” Virulous shrugged her shoulders, then turned to walk away. As she made her way to the exit of the service bay, a chirp sounded from her datapad. She pulled it out from her left jacket pocket and found that a nominal fee had been charged to her account for canceled services. “Fifteen thousand credits, is not nominal!” she thought, outraged. Suddenly, a terrible sensation overcame her. A terrible dread and sense of danger. She used The Force to leap a great distance to her right, taking cover between massive trash compactors, where she drew and activated her lightsaber. Alarmed, she looked all around the cavernous service bay. She found that the two droids used to contact her had been destroyed. They had self-destructed and were not only on fire, but were melting into the metal plate decking of the gargantuan building. The chemicals used to destroy them were intensely hot. After a moment, she deactivated her lightsaber. Then the first of the many building security droids began to appear on scene with fire suppression canisters. She realized that their human handlers wouldn’t be far behind and decided to quickly leave the scene. She didn’t want to be seen by the droids’ handlers, even though she realized that her meeting with the droids was probably recorded on security video. “The hood of my jacket is covering my head and face,” she thought, trying to be positive about her situation, "but I’m so damned short! It might still be possible to identify me!” Virulous ducked out of the cavernous service bay, walking briskly to The Happy Brewer pub, hoping to catch a taxi droid as quickly as possible. “Kaas City has tens of millions of inhabitants, many of them just as small as I am,” she told herself aloud, trying to ease her own fears. “But only one famous Sith lord is known to be as small as you,” she reminded herself, cursing the fact that she had ignited her lightsaber. Virulous had no doubt that the event was likely caught on security video.

Chapter Nine: The Udmanta Mine Incident [A Snippet] Wrehn got on the Imperial command channel. “Who's the ordnance officer?” she demanded. A gruff Imperial Basic accented male voice came on. “Who is it that thinks she needs to know?” the gruff speaker asked, imperiously challenging her. “My name is Yehw'reh'nomai. I'm leading the mercenary forces hired directly by Darth Nox for special operations under his direct command.” “What can I do for you, Yehw'reh'nomai?” he asked, much less imperiously, and much more politely. “I need demolitions. Specifically, I need a shaped anti-matter charge.” “I can't give you one of those. We need to capture that base, not turn it into a crater.” “I want to make a crater next to the base, so that I can knock a hole into one of the walls on the lower levels and make my own entrance.” “Officers,” Colonel Fruntz ordered, cutting in, “Switch to the internal command channel.” Silence followed for several long minutes before the gruff Imperial male's voice finally came back on. “Imperial combat engineers will carry out the demolitions. You must report to Darth Nox for orders.” “Yeah, sure,” Wrehn replied dryly, adding, “I hope you get a promotion for my idea.” “You have my sincerest thanks,” the gruff voice replied. “That was dishonorable of them, Commander,” Torian groused. “I've got another idea for you to steal,” Wrehn said, sardonically, to the gruff Imperial ordnance officer, “When that charge goes off, it'll shake the base so badly that they'll be disoriented for some time. Use that time to blast the main air lock off, and take that opportunity to enter the ventilation systems, to make several inroads with your troops so that you can capture the base.” Captain Tartan nodded great approval of her plan, as did Torian. “Thank you, Yehw'reh'nomai” Colonel Fruntz said, in a very sincere tone, “You may have saved us from mass executions with these recommendations. If we succeed here, then only a few of us senior officers will die for our earlier failure and not the entire command.”

Chapter Eight: A Very Cold World [A Snippet] The two Mandalorian leaders came to a stop before Wrehn. One of them spoke to her in the Mandalorian language, Mando'a. "I greet you, Sister. Will we join that glorious battle on the horizon?" Wrehn disappointed him, replying in Mando'a. "No. That's not our fight. That fight might even end up being pointless." "How so, Sister?" "We shall support my client as he fights for his faction against his faction's enemies by providing him with personal security and to add our firepower to his battles. If my client wins his battles, the war shall end." Torian Cadera spoke up. "From here on out, Brother, refer to her as Commander, or as Great Hunt Champion." "I meant no disrespect, Brother...," The platoon leader replied, to Torian. His helmeted head swiveled towards Wrehn, as he finished his reply, "Commander." Wrehn began issuing her orders. "Torian, you go with Captain Tartan. You'll lead his platoon, but Captain Tartan will relay your orders to his men." "Understood, Commander." Wrehn's helmet swiveled towards Gault Rennow, speaking in Galactic Basic, she told him, "Gault, you go with Lieutenant Dremon. You'll lead her platoon, but Lieutenant Dremon will relay your orders to her men." "You got it, Boss," Gault replied. Captain Tartan, Lieutenant Dremon, Torian, and Wrehn were all Mandalorian. Wrehn's helm was already pointed towards Gault, but the three others all swiveled their helms as they regarded Gault's lax behavior. Neither Wrehn's team nor the Mandalorian platoon members' helms had transparent visors. Those could shatter. The helms completely obscured their faces, so the disapproval showing on their visages could not be appreciated by Gault. To see the landscape around them, the helmets had sensors that projected holographic images onto a screen in front of the wearer's face. The screen curved around his face, just beyond his peripheral vision. It also extended above the wearer's brow, and below his lips, giving a very good approximation of seeing in the real world. This was the industry standard in visor-less helmet construction. In some models, as in the case of Wrehn's helm, the screen rotated within the helmet with her head as she looked up, down, and side to side. The screen, however, displayed more than just a three dimensional image of the landscape – and of each individual gathered for their leaders' meeting. Range, direction, elevation, altitude, and other information was also displayed on the screen. No one's face was visible, but identifiers superimposed onto the images of each armored individual helped to determine who was who. Gault understood a few words of Mando'a, but didn't speak it. "I'm not Mandalorian, like you four," he said in Basic, "I don't have to call her Commander." Wrehn signaled Gault to switch to the team channel. Gault, Torian, Mako, and Skadge, as well as Wrehn all switched to a private channel that only her crew could receive. Wrehn spoke directly to him. "Gault, don't make me regret putting you in charge of these troops. Don't embarrass me in front of them again. For this job, you're calling me, Commander. You got that?" Gault sighed. "Yeah, sure. Fine," he said, a bit peeved and switched back to the general channel. Switching back to the general channel, she issued her next orders, again in Galactic Basic. "Mako, Skadge, you're both with me," the Chiss hunter ordered. Before the two could reply, she quickly went on, "In a couple of minutes, three Imperial dropships will land here. They'll transport us all to the insertion point at the enemy's command and control center. "Imperial forces loyal to the incumbent Emperor, are fighting for control of this planet with rebelling Imperial forces supporting the challenger to the throne. This planet has a very valuable mineral resource which they just took from the Republic and the Jedi. "Whoever controls this mineral resource will gain a technological advantage over the other. That's all I know about what's at stake on this planet. At stake across the galaxy is the Imperial throne. My client, a dark councilor wants us to escort him and his party to the insertion point, and to deliver them safely to the command center and to the Sith who, out of the blue, decided to call himself emperor. "We'll be linking up with this Sith delegation, soon. So be on your best behavior and watch what you say around them. I don't know if any of you have worked closely with the Sith before, but they can get really touchy over the stupidest things." Soon, Wrehn would forget her own advice.

Chapter Seven: Expanding The War [A Snippet] The lift finally stopped and the door slid open. "This way, "Vice Grand Fleet Admiral," the droid beckoned, before proceeding out of the turbolift. The two human males followed the droid out of the lift and into another maze of corridors. "This is insufferable. Why chose a conference room all of the way down here?" Strom groused. The small party arrived to a door which squeaked as it reluctantly slid open. "Unbelievable! Hasn't anyone around here ever heard of lubricating grease?" Strom said in mock disapproval. "Well! Look who's finally decided to show up," an officer already in the small conference room brightly quipped. "Nice that you're here, but the meeting's already over. We were just about to leave." Strom took note that there were only four others in the room and they were all grand admirals. He was outranked by all four. "Go take a break, Makk," Strom told his adjutant, suggesting, "Take the droid with you. Have it show you where the brothel is." "I'll find an office where I can get some work done, instead, Vice Grand Fleet," Admiral Makk Shradder replied, chuckling, and then ordering, "Come on Random. You're coming with me." The droid followed Makk out and the door squeaked shut. "You really need to get someone to lube that door," Strom Thorental said, taking a seat at the conference table. Then, "That was the longest turbolift ride I've ever been on. Why'd you decide to have the meeting all the way down here? We're so far down, I can feel Hell's heat just a few levels down!" The senior of the four grand admirals chucked at the joke before giving his reply. "I think we're the first ones to use this conference room in several decades," he said, chuckling. Getting right to the point, the Admiral of the Navy started the meeting. "We've been thoroughly compromised. Damned near every conference room and office up in the Admiralty and Naval Command sections of the building have had some kind of bugging device put in the rooms," he said, adding somberly, "It was the entire custodial engineering crew, all nine thousand of them." Strom could tell that his old war buddy was not joking this time. "Great Stars above!" he said, deeply shocked, then asking with great incredulity, "The entire crew of custodial engineers?" Shrugging, the admiral of the navy gave a flip reply. "They're unionized. They all had to take turns betraying the Republic." "Just the Admiralty and the Navy sections? What about the rest of the cone?" Strom asked his superior referring to the massive conical shaped building hundreds of stories above their small conference room. "We don't know, yet, Strom; it might even turn out that every cone in the complex might have one or more of their offices bugged as well. Those custodial engineers had access to every building at the headquarters. The intel types are still scanning for bugs. Just when they'd think they've gotten an office all cleaned up, they'd turn around and find another one has already popped up. Then they'd have to run sweeps all over again. It's like the bugs are breeding or something." "So, the Navy is compromised," Strom said in quiet disbelief.

Chapter Seven: The Contract [A Snippet] The Togrutan spoke somberly. "I am Ashara Zavros, Lord of the Sith. My master, Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith, will speak to you shortly. Before he does, I will convey to you the proper decorum to use when addressing him." "We're Mandalorians, here,” Wrehn interrupted, speaking brusquely, “We don't have nor need decorum. We only need to do business. If he has a job for us, we'll hear him out, but if he thinks we're going to bend and wallow for him, he's gonna be real disappointed. If he's done business with Mandalorians before, then he should already know this." The Togrutan remained amazingly calm throughout Wrehn’s rude interruption. "What you have said is true when dealing with ordinary Sith lords,” the Sith lord said, “However, this is no ordinary Sith lord. He is a dark lord, seated on the Dark Council. At the very least, be respectful to him and remember to address him as, Dark Lord. I will now advise my lord that you are awaiting his presence." The Togrutan's image vanished. Mako and Gault both spoke at the same time. "Wrehn," "Boss…" Gault told Mako, "You first." "Boss, don't push it with him,” Mako cautioned Wrehn, “I've been doing research on him. I think we should be careful with him. Sith Politics is kind of tricky. He's got to destroy anything that makes him even appear the least bit weak – just to send a message to the other Sith that he's not weak." "When doing business with a rancor,” Gault added, as though giving sage advice, “it's important NOT to poke the rancor's hide, not even with a very, very long stick." Wrehn expected Mako to have information on their client, since Mako was connected to the Holo-Net via her cybernetic implants, but Gault surprised her. "Gault, what do you know about this Sith? What's got you spooked?" "Did you forget what Mako just told us down in the crew mess?” Gault replied, incredulous, “He's on the Dark Council, Wrehn. He murdered his way up to that post with everybody watching him do it – and nobody called him on it! He's got to have some real spooky credentials to be able to be where he's at the way he got there. What more do you really need to know to be careful about how you deal with him?"

Chapter Six: Asset Elimination [A Snippet] Virulous brought the bell shaped glass to her lips and took another long sip of her wine, staring absently through the permaglass window, not really seeing the nearly pitch black view outside. Her mind was focused on other matters. “Nearly every plot ended in failure, because the plotters were themselves betrayed by those they trusted to help them carry out their betrayals,” she thought to herself, concluding, “The plots that succeeded were carried out with large loyal military forces and Sith followers who lost faith in their lord and threw their support behind the betrayer. I have neither large military forces, nor Sith who would follow me against the dark lord. “If anyone could garner the support of Dart Nox’s followers to overthrow the dark lord that would be Darth Eviscerous. Even Lord Calaverous would support Eviscerous against Darth Nox if he’d lost faith in the dark lord,” Virulous was forced to acknowledge, even conceding, “Darth Komo, with his armies and his resources on Taris stands a chance to succeed Darth Nox.” It was the lesson she took away from her research to look for ways to betray her master without getting caught. She startled herself, worried that she might have been overheard, but became greatly relieved that she didn’t say those thoughts out loud. She’d nearly forgotten that Khem Val likely bugged her residence. Virulous began to feel bitter rage at the very idea that she could not so much as think aloud within her own home! On impulse, she hurled her wine glass at the window, where it shattered. The half-filled glass spilled its dark red liquid contents on its way to the window, leaving a trail of spilt wine leading to a small field of glass shards on the baked on enamel of her metal plate floor at the bottom of her permaglass window. The Sith lord looked up at her ceiling, greatly frustrated at herself. She felt caged in her own home. Then it dawned on her. “What if Darth Nox is anticipating my betrayal?” She thought about how she’d called him out on his lie, which he unthinkingly used on her a second time! “I should have kept my mouth shut,” she thought to herself, “It would have been easier to surprise him.”

How else can you get Recovered Relics? I've been running both Korriban and Tython, over and over, and I don't get squat, except for the first time I ran them...

Chapter Six: One Very Bad Customer [A snippet] Wrehn awoke with a start. She looked at the chronometer on her desk and cursed a vile oath when she saw that several hours had gone past. Rast Amurdo's office was closed for business, and she hadn't signed the contract. Work on her hyperdrive reactor core would be delayed. Wrehn looked through the small portal from her bed at a bright and sunny day. If she were on any ordinary planet, it would be dark outside. It would be late in the night. However, this was Concordia. It would remain daytime for a few more galactic standard days. Concordia's nights were just as long as its days. A complete day night cycle on the moon lasted two weeks' worth of day/night cycles on Mandalore, and Mandalore's days were just a bit shorter than a galactic standard day. Wrehn rose from her bed and pulled the shade, in its tracks, down over her portal before walking out of her quarters. She felt miserable, having slept in her street clothes and shoes. At the back of the upper cargo deck, she took the stairs down to the main deck and turned towards the front and center of the cargo bay. Walking past the crew quarters section, she entered the engineering department. At the reactor control panel, she punched in a combination of buttons which caused the reactor container vessel to close. The hexagonal containment vessel seemed to take forever to close, but it eventually did. Wrehn's patience was wearing thin as she watched the reactor vessel slowly get hoisted back up in front of its yoke-mount. She sighed, frustratedly watching the reactor vessel slowly tilt back towards her, to assume its proper angle before getting backed into its yoke-mount. The whole affair only took three minutes, but she felt as though she'd been standing there forever. "Damn. It's like waiting for water to boil," she thought. Wrehn left the reactor deactivated. There wasn't a need to activate it since the ship was connected to an external power source at the shipyard, and it was going to be disassembled anyway to remove the RRCR and HCS when the work got started. Yehw'reh'nomai returned to her captain's quarters and began to remove her street attire. She returned to bed, this time properly attired in her bed clothes. As she lay back to sleep, she decided she would contact Kathten Relmus when she awoke again in the morning. Wrehn decided she would accept a meeting with the Sith lord to discuss the job and the money.

Chapter Five: Wrehn's Core Reactor Woes [A snippet] At the bottom of the ladder, Wrehn sighed, shook her head, and expressed her disgust as she returned Kliegga's magnifier. "Blast!" she cursed, angrily, before asking, "How much and how long to fix? And how'd this happen?" Kliegga pointed at the reactor rotor and counter-rotor assembly, and said, "Look at all of the chromium work. It's all supposed to be shiny, like a mirror, but it's all matte. That means you've been running the reactor above its rated operational specifications. You probably got a real good performance boost from it, but it greatly shortened the operational life of your hyperdrive reactor. You probably still have another six hundred hyperspace jumps with that Reactor Rotor and Counter Rotor assembly, but your hyperwave suppressor coil isn't going to last you very much at all. The most I would say is between forty to sixty hyperspace jumps. However, as I've said before, it could fail at the next hyperspace jump you try." Kliegga could see that Wrehn was becoming more upset, but she had to ask. "You've probably been noticing ever diminishing performance from your engines, and fuel consumption was getting worse over time. Yes?" Wrehn was definitely in a dark mood, now. "Let's just talk about the hyperwave suppressor coil, for now," she said, clearly frustrated. Rast spoke then. "Four million credits," the Rodian said, explaining, "I have to send your HSC to a certified HSC refurbishment facility to rewind your coil. It's not something I can do here. So, that's three million for the rewound coil. Then when I get it back, one million to tune the coil to your existing RRCR. "A brand new HSC will run you six million, but you still have to have it tuned to the RRCR, so that'll run you seven million credits," he volunteered, "You'll probably want to start saving up for a new RRCR assembly. There's no refurbishing that. You're looking at fifteen million credits for a used one that's in good shape. A whole new reactor won't go for less than fifty million, depending on the aftermarket manufacturer." Wrehn, angry at the expenditure she had to endure, replied disgustedly, "Fine! Three million to refurbish the HSC, and one million to tune it. Four million, total. How long to get it all done?" Rast answered, "Two weeks." Wrehn forgot how time on the moon was measured. She became greatly alarmed at the time her ship would be grounded. "Two weeks?! Wait, did you mean Mandalore or Concordia time?!" "Mandalore, of course," Rast replied. Wrehn relaxed a bit, relieved it would be fourteen days, Mandalore, and not twenty eight weeks, Mandalore. "O.K. Draw up the contract," she said, nodding her acknowledgment, "I'll be at your office to sign it later." "Good luck, Wrehn," Kliegga said, nodding her goodbyes, before turning to leave. "I'll be in my office for another three hours before I lock up for the shift," Rast told Wrehn, "I can get the ball rolling and make the call to slot in a time for my friend, on Mandalore, to be ready to receive your HSC – if –you sign the contract before then." Without waiting for an answer, he departed the engineering department and Wrehn's ship. Wrehn looked at her exposed hyperdrive reactor core and realized Rast was giving her low-ball estimates. She realized that he'd been pitching low performance reactor cores. She shook her head in bitter disappointment. "Fifteen million for a used hyperdrive reactor core, for this freighter?" she thought, "My baby would be so damned slow and sluggish if I did that." She realized she was going to have to shell out no less than twenty five million, but very likely much more than that, if she wanted a used high performance reactor core that was still in good shape. Additionally, in this case, her four million credit expenditure for a refurbished HSC was a waste. A new hyperdrive reactor core already came with a new hyperwave suppressor coil assembly already factory tuned to the new RRCR assembly. Wrehn knew that most of the fortune she had amassed from all of her jobs was about to be absorbed by this expenditure. To top it all off, she fully expected to lose her crew. She expected Skadge to get stupidly killed in an arena fight. She knew Gault had probably already quit her crew. She also worried that Torian and Mako would quit when they learned that Wrehn no longer had a ship to actually take on and complete contracts with. Then Wrehn came to the realization that she was essentially stranded in the Mandalore star system. "Blast it all!" she cursed, furiously.

Chapter Five: Waking Nightmares [A snippet] The twisted shadows jumped at him. He leapt to the side to escape the fiends, but something was dragging at him, making his attempts to escape monumentally difficult. Yet the attacking twisted shadows could not reach him. He drew and activated his lightsaber. The saber beam grew out bright red and hot. Ciiru Nomuro was shocked into deactivating it again. He tried to look at his weapon, but he couldn't quite bring his weapon into view. When he'd finally managed to bring a part of the weapon into view, he couldn't focus on it. "Did I pick up the wrong hilt?" he asked himself, "How'd I do that?!" "I'm giving you these weapons," Emperor Vitiate said, "Take them and fight for me, or leave them unused and die." Ciiru looked up from the blurred and unidentified weapon in his hand to the Sith Emperor, but it wasn't Vitiate. It was Darth Nox. The Sith lord activated his lightsaber, forcing Ciiru Nomuro to activate his own weapon, but the beam was bright red. "Kneel before me and join my empire, Darth Incinerous!" the Sith lord commanded in Vitiate's voice. Ciiru found himself unable to resist. His body moved against his will until he was kneeling, and his head began to bend towards the Sith emperor. As his head dipped forward, he felt a quickly growing unyielding evil hatred growing within his heart. The source of the evil hatred wasn't from Nox or Vitiate, however. They were his own dark feelings from his own heart, which threatened to consume his existence. The Jedi Knight was falling to The Dark Side. Ciiru Nomuro blinked his eyes and found himself seated at a lunch counter, staring at a sandwich he held in both hands. He looked to his left and found a stranger, busily slurping his soup from a spoon. Ciiru turned to his right and found no one seated there. "You don't like your sandwich?" the lunch counter waitress asked, "You've just been sitting there, staring at it like it did something to you." Ciiru set his sandwich down on its plate. "Can you wrap it up for me? I've lost my appetite. I'll eat it later," the Jedi Knight said. A short while later Ciiru walked to the speeder lot behind the diner and got into his assigned speeder. Setting the boxed meal on the passenger seat beside him, he grasped the control yoke. "Tythosi Enclave Dormitory. Drive," Ciiru ordered the auto-navigator, taking his hands from the yoke. The speeder started up and gently drove itself out of the park lot and entered the traffic pattern, making its way to an offsite Jedi housing complex just at the edge of town in an area that was mostly parks and green spaces. The dormitory served as overflow housing for visiting Jedi.

Chapter Four: A Meeting, Ship Repairs, and Shore Leave [A snippet] Mandalorians viewed warfare as a product or a service that had to be contracted out and paid for by a client. The client, in this case, was the Imperial Army, who made extensive use of their services. Although Mandalorian naval assets were also available, the Imperial Navy, most unlike the Imperial Army, very rarely hired Mandalorian fleets. In the case of Mandalore the Lesser, the Sith Empire enjoyed very low prices. However, Mandalore the Vindicated corrected that discrepancy, tripling the rates the Empire had been paying. This was in part to punish the Sith Empire for their meddling and manipulations in Mandalorian affairs, and because Mandalore the Lesser had greatly undervalued their services. It was plainly just a good business decision to raise prices. Yehw'reh'nomai didn't want any part of that. She liked running her own business, and liked her independence. As a Great Hunt champion, she rated direct access to Mandalore, but very rarely made use of her privilege to do so. She didn't want to be put in a position where she would end up owing favors to Mandalore. Wrehn made it clear to him that she didn't believe he was doing her a favor in this case, either. "Mandalore, this isn't really my problem. It's very much your problem, though. For me, it's just personal. For you, it's a matter of defending Mandalorian pride and prestige all across the galaxy. You can't let them get away with this. For me, it's just a matter of, 'they pissed me off,' and I want to make them pay dearly. I can just walk away from it and just let it go. You can't. "But I see it as a matter of you and I working together to get what each of us want from this. You want to restore the honor and prestige of the Mandalorian Empire. I just want revenge. Since we both will get what we want from it, we won't be owing each other any favors when it's all said and done. See?" Mandalore clearly didn't like her view of her role in this, but he had very little choice. He had much bigger concerns to worry over, but neither could he ignore this affront to Mandalorian honor.

Chapter Four: What Are Friends For? [A snippet] "What can I get for you today?" he asked smiling. "I'll have the roast traladon sandwich on a toasted Duros miner's roll, with a side of traladon dipping juice, deep-fried panpa root chips and house salad with Alderaanian dressing. My lady friend will have the deep fried breaded prawna with a Corellian cabbage slaw, a bowl of ladda soup, with a side of Tatoo flat bread. Bring a carafe of Ziost blend caf – hot, not iced, and two heated caf mugs." "As always, Master Revel, your taste in cuisine and the company you keep is impeccable," The waiter said, smiling. He was angling for a nice tip later. "Nothing but the best will do," Andronikos said, winking at Virulous. The smiling waiter picked up the menus and turned to walk away to fulfill the order. "I don't like being lumped together with a bunch of food as a sign of someone's good taste," Virulous said, a bit steamed, and adding with some indignation, "and just how many women do you bring to this place?" "I bring 'em all here. What can I say? I like this place. But, yeah," Andronikos agreed, "he was kind of dumb saying all of that, but I don't want him spitting in my food or skimping on my portions because I called him on it and embarrassed him in front of a lady." "You could have said something to him discretely," Virulous countered. "You're right," Andronikos conceded with a hint of sarcasm, "I'll tell him to apologize to Darth Virulous for comparing her to lunch, and lumping her together with my other lady friends," he added, knowing how she would react. "On second thought, never mind. Don't say anything," she said. "If you say so," Andronikos replied, without irony. Changing the subject, Virulous asked, "Do you really think assassins will come after us, here?" "I'm not saying there is definitely someone coming to kill us," Andronikos clarified, "I'm just being careful, in case someone does come after us. I'm expecting intelligence types to come in to listen to us talk. Remember, I destroyed your transceiver after I told the auto pilot where to take us." A couple of men entered the restaurant dressed in business suits and carrying briefcases. They looked like business executives to Andronikos. The two were shown to a table at a wall on the opposite end of the dining establishment. "How will you know which ones are the spies?" Virulous asked, eyeing the two men. "I won't know that," he confessed, pointing at one of the two compact devices he'd set up on their table, adding, "That's what this is for. It'll take holographic images of everyone that comes in while we're eating. I'll hand it off to Keeper, and he'll figure out who is who." "Who's Keeper?" she asked. "The boss' personal spy chief," he told her, and then asked, "You haven't met him?" She shook her head indicating that she hadn't. "Tall thin middle aged man," Andronikos said, "male pattern baldness, always looks uptight about something. He's a real stickler for rules, regulations. I think he was a general or something in the Imperial Army. He's a real spooky guy. He pops up out of nowhere and disappears without a trace. "I hired some guys to keep tabs on him, and he always gave them the slip. Then one day, out of the blue, the boss told me to stop sending people after him and to leave him alone. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. So, now I just leave him alone." "Why should that make you wary?" Virulous asked. "Well, obviously, he told the boss about the guys I hired. These guys are professionals, with excellent backgrounds in investigations. Some of them are in the Imperial Army's Military Police Investigations Unit." Andronikos said, and then paused for dramatic effect before saying, "He never touched them, never talked to them. So, how did he know they were working for me?"

Chapter Three: A Pawn To Be Sacrificed [A snippet] Darth Virulous was seated quietly, in front of her master's desk, listening with rapt attention to Nox as he spoke to her. He had summoned her to appear before him, and had her sit in front of his massive desk. Whatever he wanted to speak to her about had to be very, very important to her. "You are strong in The Force, Darth Virulous, you've shown an aptitude for dark Force techniques and rituals, but I need you to be stronger," Nox, seated in his office chair behind his desk, told his apprentice before asking, "You've seen some of my power, haven't you?" "I have also felt it, Master. If I did not shield my mind, I would be crushed by your dark aura," Virulous confessed to her lord. "Have you ever wondered how it is that I could wield such enormous power? Have you ever asked yourself, how is it possible?" "I have, Dark Lord. While I have learned various techniques for manipulating The Force, both from reading the ancient scripts in the archives and from watching you, and while I have gained insight into how some of your techniques are done, I could never grasp how it is that your power can reach such levels," Virulous said, before taking a great risk to ask, "Will you teach me this, Master?" She knew how jealously Nox guarded his secrets. Merely asking for access to his most closely guarded secrets could send him into a foul mood. Virulous had to pry knowledge from Nox's grasp to learn what she could. At times Nox would angrily shout at her, giving a vague hint and sending her out of his sight. Virulous would have to sort through the insults and berating comments to find the nugget, and then she would slink into the archives to figure out the rest on her own. At other times, Nox would grudgingly share a secret, giving a generally vague explanation of it only once, and then send her away to figure out the details for herself. Then there were the rare times, like this one, when Nox would unhurriedly speak, allowing her to ask her questions and then actually take the time to answer them. "I'm going to teach you a ritual that will allow you to subdue a Force ghost and subsume its power," Nox told her with a pleased expression, "I feel you are ready." Virulous became greatly disappointed on hearing this. Nox could see it quite plainly on her face. She did not even bother with trying to hide her great displeasure. Nox became indignant at her attitude and let her know it. "Perhaps you would rather go back to digging up dusty old relics with no value other than its old and uninteresting history?" "Master, this was the same story you told me when you tried to trick me into interacting with the Rakata Mind Trap. Did you forget? You imprisoned Juuldis' consciousness in it so that Darth Zash could take her body. How could you forget, Dark Lord?" Virulous asked. She was careful not to raise her voice at Nox, but it was quite plain that she was quite miffed at her master. The memory of that day in Taris' ruined structures suddenly flooded Nox's mind and his eyes registered his recollection of that time. The ridiculousness of this moment, in his office, caused the dark lord to burst into laughter. "That's right! I remember it now!" he said, following with another round of laughter. "At the time, I told you the truth about the ritual, but I had no intention of actually teaching you how it was done. You are correct. At that time I wanted to trick you into interacting with the mind trap," he admitted. His mood began to sour as he shook his head, disgusted at his laps in recollecting that moment on Taris.

Chapter Two: A Discussion With Khartem'kahl [A snippet] The troops of the Imperial Reclamation Service, the slaves, and indeed most of the few dozen Sith lords who oversaw the project, had been driven insane with the delusion that they were the lords of Sith who inhabited the temple complex thousands of years in the nearly forgotten past. Four Sith lords, who were wise enough to shield their minds and their beings with The Force, escaped the madness, fleeing deep into the jungle many kilometers from the archaeological dig site, and called for an extraction team to come rescue them. The four had been summoned to the council chamber by a rival of Darth Arctis, Darth Vowrawn. He demanded the four give a report of the disaster which had befallen the expedition to the Dark Council. Furious and humiliated, Darth Arctis asked, of the four survivors, "After three years of excavations during which you have been feeling the effects of the Dark Side, and knowing the nature of that complex, how is it that you allowed ordinary men to enter the temple? Why didn't you prepare the other Sith, working on the project, to shield themselves as well? Why didn't you take the necessary precautions before opening the temple?" Furious, and embarrassed by this failure, Darth Arctis didn't wait for their answers. Instead he immediately ordered their executions. The Sith lords protested the order. "It was not our fault!" one of them stated, "We were not in charge!" Darth Rictus, who was an old man but greatly feared on the Dark Council, spoke up. "Even if you were not in charge, you should have said something to someone who was. Your failure to foresee such a possibility and to prevent its happening is the result of the careless and lackadaisical attitude of your entire operation." It was plain to the dark councilors there, that although the words were directed at the four Sith being judged, the words were really a condemnation of Arctis, who ignored the Dark Council's warnings. Arctis was deeply humiliated by Rictus' words, but he said nothing. The failure of the Imperial Reclamation Service could be traced all the way up to him if the Dark Council desired to go that far.

Darth Nox is finally ready to make his move for the Imperial throne. Yet, he must do his part to protect the Sith Empire from utter destruction under the weight of the mighty Galactic Republic. Even as he fights to defend the Sith Empire, his most powerful servants move to rebel against him. Can he hold the Empire and his own Sphere of Influence together? (Book 3 of Sith Politics.) ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Chapter One: The Budget [A snippet] The Sith Empire was in jeopardy. Darth Nox knew this. He realized Darth Marr was right; infighting among the Dark Council would only help the Galactic Republic. However, Darth Nox, sitting at his desk in his opulent offices at the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, couldn't help but think something was not quite right. "Why do I get the feeling I've been hoodwinked again?" He felt that Marr was using the situation to embed himself as permanent leader of the Dark Council. "Is he trying to gradually worm his way onto the throne?" Nox didn't have any evidence to prove Marr was trying to take the throne for himself, but he couldn't believe that Marr wasn't trying. Nox also realized that the longer Marr led the Empire, during their war against the Galactic Republic, the easier it would be for him to claim the throne, and the harder it would be for Nox to validate his claim to the Imperial throne. "If the Imperial throne was an easy prize to obtain," Nox thought, consoling himself, "it wouldn't be worth having."