Crimson Tides: The Fall

[Zereth Lancer]

There was a flicker in space and then the Star of Oblivion appeared, "Ship status?" Sith Lord Zereth Lancer asked his droid Co-Pilot who answered in a cool, controlled tone, "The ship is still operating at Ninety-percent efficiency, m'lord. Just as it was when you asked me before we jumped into hyperspace," The voice had a very 'down the nose' mood at the moment, primarily because Zereth asked for a status update every five minutes, as if they were in a battle. No, they had just fled from a battle, a land battle. The Sith Castle on Korriban had been stormed from nowhere, an army appearing within it's walls so suddenly that dozens had died before anyone knew what was happening. A force user had been behind the attack, a woman strong in the force but had yielded under the combined wrath of Zereth and two sith knights. They had fled, not even bothering to finish the force user off before running for their lives. A few backwards launched missiles had delt with the woman and what remained of her army, but destroyed the sith's hangar bay in the process. They could have turned around and pressed the attack, but at the moment survival was the main priority.

The Star of Oblivion, an old restored transport ship, slipped into Geo-synchronized orbit and slowly drifted into the atmosphere. Twenty minutes passed before they were cleared to approached Coronet. They flew over the capital city, but did not waste time with sightseeing. Zereth was the only one on the bridge, the rest were in the living quarters and hold sleeping or resting after their brush with death. The sith had a private docking bay here in Coronet and that was where Zereth set down the ship. The roof of the docking bay opened up to allow the ship to slip inside the large hangar building and touch down on the floor below.

The ship was switched off and Zereth sat there for several moments. Jorshal had not gotten off the planet with them and that made him, Zereth, the head of The Sith Order. It was scary to have such responsibility thrust on him so suddenly. He could deal with hordes of demons and battle those hunter-seeker creatures, but responsibility scared him more then those things. He was such an independent person, a loner at best. Now he had several handfuls of Sith Acolytes and various other ranking sith to take care of. He had no idea where to even start. So he started with unbuckling his crash webbing and standing up. It was a good start, he told himself, shortly before turning and heading out of the cockpit. He roused those sleeping and informed everyone that they had reached their destination. The landing ramp was lowered and Zereth stomped down it, stopping at the end and pulled a blank datapad out of his pocket. As people came off he got their names and recorded it. He wanted to know who was still alive, and that way he'd know who was all dead or left behind.

They eached ask the same question as they reached him, "What about Master Jorshal?" What could he say in reply except the truth? "Master Jorshal did not make it," was his reply. It was the truth. Jorshal had not been seen by anyone except Hara Kiri during the entirety of the invasion. He was most likely dead, and if not then left behind: which would surely result in death. Did Zereth feel remorse for the dead? Of course he did, but at the same time he did not allow himself to be blinded by the fact that so many of his 'family' had just died. Instead he focused on caring for those still breathing...

[Ezra Na'chtion]

It was a long trip and it left Ezra exausted. He was already worn out from the battle, but the trip sapped the last bits of his energy out. Yet despite his exaustion he could not sit still. Adrenaline still strobed through his blood steam and made him restless. So, he paced the length of the ship, his staff/force scythe in hand, tapping on the ground along with his steps. He could not wait to get off the ship, but at the same time he did not want to leave the sense of security it gave him, to be away from the danger and safely nestled in hyperspace's busom.

But the trip did come to an end on Corellia. The ship set down and the survivors piled out, grabbing whatever belongings they had brought with them and trooping down the loading ramp. Ezra was among the first off and as a result one of the first to siddle up the Zereth and ask the ultimate question, "What about Master Jorshal," He recieved his answer and he was endarkened. His name was recorded on the datapad and he was allowed to step off the landing ramp and go off to wherever he wanted.

That wherever led him up a flight of metal stairs to the catwalk that ringed the large docking bay. Some wandering led him to a doorway set in the wall that, in turn, led him to a balcony opening fixed into the exterior wall of the docking bay. With hands pressed down against the ledge of the balcony he leaned over and looked down at the city of Coronet sprawled out beneath him. A sigh escaped his lips and he placed his head in his hands, his face full of a sadness.

[Ambrose Braeden]

This could not be happening. He would wake up any minute Ambrose thought to himself. But with every passing second, the reality of the situation set in. Although Ambrose was not mixed up in the battle, but he had arrived on Korriban when his fellow Sith were boarding the vessel to leave. As the ship climbed for atmosphere, the Vampire looked back in horror upon his home. The flames grew with every second, engulfing his home, his sanctuary.

Ambrose did not notice a thing the entire trip, his mind was racing in a thousand different directions throughout the trip. The Sith could feel the repulsor lifts kick in as they set down upon Corellia. A slight hiss could be heard as the loading ramp decended. Ambrose was not worried about his things, he was wearing his most valuable possesions. As he walked down the ramp, he did not say a word. Ambrose simply looked at Zareth, the two made eye contact and a whole conversation took place without a word being spoken. The Sith then continued on his path.

Ambrose had many enemies throughout the galaxy, but he also had managed to make a few allies durring his reighn of death and destruction. The small apartment was not in the best part of town, but it was a good enough place to start over.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai watched as they left his home. It was the only place he had known for so long as home, and it was the home of his labaratory. But now, it was in the hands of another. He clutched the datapad tightly in his arms, filled with all the research he had done since he had been there.

He had been cooped up in that lab for what seemed like forever. He had pushed away Acolytes, training, all other things to study further into Sith Alchemy. However, he discovered many secrets, secrets that were once lost in the tide. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it up silently as they got off the ship on Corellia.

He didn't utter a word to any of the guards, but when one of them asked for his name he lifted a piece of paper with it scribbled on the surface. He threw the ciggarette behind him, and slowly caught up with Ezra. He clasped a hand on his shoulder and stood behind him.

"I know it's difficult Ezra, but, we will have our revenge. Remember to let your anger, hatred, dissapointment and all other emotions you have to flow freely. It will connect you deeper to the Force. As for where we go now, well, the path is open to us."

Baralai stepped up to the ledge and looked out over it.

"Ants Ezra. . .they're nothing but ants. We have control over a power they can't even fathom. We have to use it, we are called to use it. To keep them in control, to take back what is rightfully ours."

He lit up another cigarette, and twisted his free hand tightly inside the leather glove. He took a puff and let the smoke dwindle from his lips into the air. Baralai knew it had seemed like ages since anyone in the Order had even seen his face. Baralai did care for his pupil, as well as for the other members of the Order, but his work had consumed him.

He had been following a new Mistress, a new Master, a new God. The power of Sith Alchemy was something that kept him standing in awe. He reached for the handle of his lightsaber whip, and it almost felt foreign too him. It had been so long since he had been in combat, but he would fight again. He would have too if he wanted to get what he was after.

"Ezra, I have a proposition for you. . .would you be interested to hear it?"

He offered the pack of ciggarettes to Ezra. Baralai knew where he was going, but he knew he couldn't do it alone.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

Ezra closed his eyes and leaned his staff/scythe against the ledge, the weight was beginning to wear at his muscles. He was more then a bit surprised when Baralai stepped up besided him and began talking, mentally, to him. It had been awhile since he had done anything with Baralai, but he did not blame the sith for it. Baralai was a busy man, and busy men had a way of being busy. Ezra considered himself incredibly unimportant compared to the subjects Baralai studied religiously and the experiments he conducted in the privacy of his laboratory; thinking of which reminded Ezra that the labaratory and observary, the glass room and everything was gone now, lost to the enemy; forever if they never reclaimed Korriban. Baralai seemed to be coping well with that, incredibly so even. If Baralai could deal with that then Ezra had no right to be sad about the very few things he'd lost in the whole event: clothes, books, nothing important or personal. He had no personal items to lose. He had all his favorite chains, rings, and studs positioned around his body in various places: around his neck, in his ears, nose, and occasionally his eyebrows. He prided himself on his wordly appearence that was a clear mockery of his intelligence, it helped to blend in and not look like a know-it-all smart boy.

He turned his eyes to look at his master, and then down at the offered cigarettes. He'd tried the things once and found them an incredible waste of lung, No, thank you," He started, always the polite one, "What is this proposition?"

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai smiled.

"Always open to new things, that was one of the things I liked about you Ezra. Walk with me."

Baralai started down the metal walkway, his boots clacking loudly against the cold steel. He dropped the cigarette and extinguished it.

"Ezra," he said, his one eye gazing over at him, "What if I told you I discovered an object that would further the study of Sith Alchemy? An object, that contained so much power and energy, that it could quite possibly turn this universe right into the palm of our hands. An object that would teach us how to create creatures nearly impenetrable to the blade of a lightsaber or the powers of the force."

He paused for a moment, to let the words roll over in Ezra's mind. Baralai had done much research and had discovered many things that could aid them.

"I speak of the power to take back our home. And to exact revenge upon those that took it from us. But, it is something I cannot do alone. The journey will be dangerous, and we will travel many leads, heading to find what it is I seek. I have learned many things Ezra, and if you help me, we can restore a lost art. We can regain our home, and we will become new leaders of the Sith."

He stopped for a moment and grabbed onto the railing, and turned, looking out over the city.

"You and I, we are destined for great things. As are all the Sith, but I have cards in the deck that we can play to our favor. All I'm asking is for you to travel with me. We will continue your training and we will deepen your knowledge of the Force. We will open doors into your psyche you never knew existed."

Baralai gave a twisted smile and felt his arm jerk. One of his upper muscles started to spasm, and he did his best to ignore the sharp pain. He did his best to show no sign of weakness to Ezra, and tried his hardest to keep from reaching for his arm. The spasms stopped and Baralai looked back at Ezra.

"So, will you come with me? Or do you have questions you would like to have answered?"

Baralai stared at Ezra, awaiting an answer, a comment, something. He knew this wasn't the easiest thing to ask, but Ezra was his Apprentice, and one of the few people Baralai carried trust in. His mind circled with thoughts about what would happen when they got thier hands on the items Baralai required. A glorious rebuild of the Sith, and a new hand grabbing the universe.

All he needed was for Ezra to respond.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

"What about them?" Ezra asked, turning his head to look down upon the sith gathered below the catwalk. The sith were milling around, some where sitting or lying down, others were leaning against walls or crate, or the hull of the ship itself. No one was talking and the only movement was people moving out of the ship and Lord Necross' hand moving across the surface of the datapad. Baralai's offer was more then intriguing, it was downright appealing. Ezra was up for anything that involved extending his knowledge concerning things both material and metephysical. Knowledge was the ultimate reward for anything, and it outweighed the price. Ezra was the kind of person who would destroy the universe just to discover what took place at the end of life and everything else. He had a dangerous mind, but he also had logic; a sense of logic that was rapidly falling apart since he joined the Sith Order, "Are we just going to leave them here?"

[Ambrose Braeden]

Placing his effects upon the floor of the apartment, Ambrose smoothly walked out once again into the corellian night air. The night black cloak that adorned the Sith ruffled around the concrete floor that covered the city. Within the folds of his robe were his most valuable possesions. He had managed to grab them before they had taken off from Korriban where there home had been taken over. Hanging from the clip that adorned his belt, his double bladed lightsaber lightly tapped his leg as he walked. Ambrose had learned a long time ago that you needed to always be watchfull of his surroundings because of the many enemies that the sith have. A small thong was wrapped around Ambrose's wrist, and fastened to was a small sith dagger that the Vampire carried everywhere as a last resort. Looking up into the sky, Ambrose could see all maner of travel bustling about the planet.

As he walked down the sidewalk of a dank and dark street the shadow's clung to him like a child cleanging to a dire mother. Only his eyes shown from within the darkness to the onlookers. Time seemed to slow down as he trotted along at a slow and steady pace. Patrons seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, and he knew that they had no idea what this universe could do to them. Memories flooded back into his mind of his first real home, the Shrine of the Damned. The castle brunt and ravished from time and assasins against his kind. Vampire's were a hated, yet feared race in the universe. He knew that he has once again lost his home, but this time would be different. This time Ambrose would be able to do something about it, would be able to take revenge upon those who had infiltrated the Sith order on Korriban and in one faitful night had destroyed everything Ambrose had known.

Ambrose knew that he would have to speak more with Zareth in order to figure out the plan of action. Only time would tell the outcome of this.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai smiled at Ezra. He had won the boy over. It was all falling into place.

"We're not leaving Ezra. We're merely questing. In order to attain more power to restore ourselves to our home. We're on a side mission of the Sith, this is going to benefit us, and the entire galaxy, more than you could ever know."

Baralai moved over slowly and wrapped his arm over Ezra's shoulder, an easy matter, seeing as how Baralai was taller than the boy. Baralai had hoped that Ezra wouldn't realize that his arm was heavier, as hard as it was not too.

They walked for a few steps until Baralai spoke up again, "Surely you remember my work in Sith Alchemy? Well. . .I have discovered some things Ezra. Did you know that Palpatine was once a Sith Alchemist, and that he wrote several works about it? Our first job, is to find those tomes. They are too valuable for the Empire to just. . .cast aside. After that, our next course of action will be to practice. To work, and study the tomes, and gain the knowledge within them. Palpatine was taught by one of the greatest Sith Alchemists of our time, his knowledge is no doubt golden."

Baralai threw his hair back and smiled again. He knew Ezra well, and he knew that Ezra's quest for knowledge, his appetite for it, was insatiable.

"From there, we will take that knowledge and apply what I have learned. We will delve further into Sith Alchemy, and together, we will restore this lost art. So then, do you wish to come?"

They had walked a good few yards on the walkway, and still had gotten nowhere. Barlai looked around and smiled. He hadn't realized it, but somewhere, in the back of his mind, he had laid a small forgotten fact. Corellia was his home, and it wasn't until just now he had realized this. He turned his attention back to Ezra, and waited for an answer, staring intently at him with his one eye, while the silver Ouroboros seemed to move in the sunlight on his eyepatch.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

Ezra returned his master's smile, "Of course I'm willing to go. Knowledge is everything, master. I will do anything for it," Well, maybe not everything, but it was a good speech. He was not violent by nature, but it would seem he was quite capable of it, if the escape from the hunters was any judge. He had killed one or two hunters, and only now realized he had felt a rush of excitement while doing so. Maybe the world was not all about reading books. He cast his eyes back down at the sith below for a moment and wondered how odd it must have looked to them see him and Baralai walked along up here with Ezra being the only one physically talking.

"But surely these tomes of Palpatine's would be locked away somewhere in Imperial space, would they not?" He asked, his staff/scythe clicking on the ground beside him as he walked, a third leg, a third step. True he was quite capable of walking without it's aid, but he hated to go anywhere without it, especially in these dangerous times.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai smirked.

"That is up for debate. You have to remember, the Empire has the new Inquisitoriate in its ranks. It is very possible these tomes were shipped somewhere else for safe keeping."

Baralai lit up a cigarette, puffing on it lightly, "However, Imperial Space might not be a bad place to start. We need to find people in the higher up and. . .persuade them. . .to give us the information we need. Neither of us have the power to do such a thing, so until then, we will search for our first item, a Sith Holocron. We will be going to places that are quite dangerous, but according to my research, it has the spirit of a long dead Sith Alchemist inside of it. She was famed in her time, and she will have much to teach us, of that much I am sure."

He looked down over the Sith below them, walking mindlessly. "As for the tomes of Palpatine, we will come to those when we have the power to take them back from the Empire." Baralai paused for a moment, We have much work to do. Are you prepared for the long journey ahead?

[Zereth Lancer]

The ship was emptied and his name was the last one on the list. The information was saved and the datapad was shut off and slipped into the pocket of his robe. He turned around to look upon the milling people, leaderless to a point and utterly incapable of thought. Grief, anger, and hate was too strong, adrenaline was still pouring through their systems, at a drip, and sitting down was the last thing on their mind. He knew they would all be ready to return to Korriban to take the fight to the enemy if he was to ask for volunteers. But that was not what was going to happen.

Instead several creates hidden in the back of the docking bay were opened and sleeping bags and survival kits filled with food rations and medical equipment was handed out. The surviving sith were ordered to bunker down and get some rest. Those who needed medical attention were taken under Zereth's wing and patched up. He was not in any way a doctor, but he still had all his limbs and fingers, and that's all one needs to wrap a bandage around a wound.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

A holocron? Wow. What a joy it would be to discover a holocron. The Sith Order already possessed a holocron, Ezra had seen it himself in the library, but it was a very meager holocron filled only with general sith-related information and a large history of the sith. If anything important was recorded on that holocron, such as sith weapon or ship designs, it was locked away deaply in an area of the holocron not yet unlocked. Yet Ezra had managed to gain permission to view the holocron and browse through the information located within. He found himself only able to access a fraction of what had already been discovered. The holocron was a sentient creature of sorts and only responded strongly to sith strong in the force.

Are you prepared for the long journey ahead?

"I have only my weapon and the clothes on my back," It was not a true answer, but it was the first thing that came to mind. No, he was not ready, nor would he ever be, so he might as well go as is instead of wasting time trying to reach a level of preperation he would never attain, "I'm ready."

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai turned and started down the pathway. He called back to Ezra.

"Come now Ezra, we have a few others to bring into our ranks. This is not going to be a simple task. A wide variety of knowledge will be needed, and I have enrolled the talents of two others. Come now, we have much to do before we leave."

Baralai strolled down the streets of Corellia, Ezra closely behind. They sank into a clothing shop and Baralai bought a black robe, throwing the credits on the table quickly.

"Throw that on and strap that scythe to your back. If the Inquisitoriate gets a hold of us, that will be the end to us both."

Baralai smirked as he felt a slight disturbance in the Force prick at the back of his mind. He was here. . .and not too far away. His third assistant.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

Ezra trailed after Baralai, trying to figure out how he was going to strap the scythe handle to his back. Without the activated blade the weapon looked like a staff with a curved head with a strange device attached to it. When activated the head righted itself and activated, but it was not the same weapon Baralai had given Ezra. He'd modified it since then, employing the knowledge gained from hundreds of technical and electronic books for the first time by giving making the staff telescopic, meaning he could fold it up and make it half as long. He had not tampered with any of the electronics or damaged anything. It worked just as fine as before, but now he could make it smaller.

With the press of a button he folded up the staff into it's smaller form. While Baralai was busy at the register Ezra was busy in the belt section employing a series of belts to strap the staff to his back. He turned to face Baralai, and got a faceful of cloth. Quickly as he could he slipped the robe on, keeping out of the storekeepers view the entire time. Stealing was not a new trick to him. The black robe was a good fit, Baralai had a good eye for size. He adjusted it and then used a mirror to look at his back. The robe was billowy enough to make the shape of the scythe handle hard to see. Perfect.

Ezra followed Baralai outside the shop, "Now what?" He asked, continuing to fidget in his new robe, trying to get the hang just right for the optimum comfort.

[Baralai Lotus]

Baralai smiled, turning his face back to Ezra.

"We meet our third party member."

Baralai headed off down the alleyways to the quiet bar in Downtown Corellia, picking up his pace. He had no desire to be late to such an important meeting.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

Ezra followed right behind Baralai...

Exit Baralai Lotus and Ezra Na'Chtion