Song of the dead (open RP)

[Darth Viscera]

OOC: I'm looking to fight just one jedi, not hordes of you. Jedi knights or Padawans only, please. Also, no sigs, please. No god moding, no ships or fleets, save for personal light transports.

EDIT~Also, not ready to fight yet. I'm going to work my way towards a planet with a storyline, then I'll be ready to fight. I'll post at that time, saying that I'm ready.

IC:

A lone Imperial Shuttle glides across space, its smooth surfaces and glossy paint reflecting the natural radiation given off by all the stars in the galaxy.

Across from the shuttle, barely fifteen kilometers away, an Imperial Star Destroyer moves on a course designed to interdict the shuttle.

Inside the shuttle, a lone occupant listens to the communications transmitted from the massive destroyer.

"Unidentified shuttle, this is Ensign Fel'Kreeph of the Star Destroyer Destitute, out on patrol from hyperroute beta36 through Coursca Prime. What business do you have in Sovereign Imperial Navy space?"

Well, that's a good sign. At least the crew is well trained.

"Destitute, this is the Shuttle Berman, code clearance black. I'm starting my approach. Disengage from interdiction course and patch me through to High Admiral Darthporeon."

"Negative, Berman. We will disengage interdiction course when we have confirmation of your code transmission."

"Understood, Destitute. Transmitting code clearance. Patch me through to High Admiral Poreon, with my compliments."

"Aye-aye, Admiral."

The comm unit stuttered a bit, and a small holoimage appeared of High Admiral Darthporeon. This dingy old shuttle was barely capable of producing a larger image, unfortunately.

"Good evening, Admiral. I am taking a short leave of absence. Personal business. Until I return, you will be in command of Attack Force Alpha. Respond only to orders given from Admiral Piett, or any other members of the Nexus Council. Do you have any questions, Admiral?"

"No, sir. Do you require any assistance? I'd be happy to send over an assault shuttle of dark troopers to assi-"

"Thank you, Admiral, but this is something I must do alone."

"Understand. Anything else?"

"Yes. Contact the nearest Ubiqtorate base. I need the hyperspace coordinates of a planet called Ruusan. Keywords: 'Jerec', 'Arc Hammer', 'Valley of the Jedi'."

"Search going through to Wor Tandell....retransmitting coordinates of Ruusan to your shuttle."

"Thank you, High Admiral. Protect the attack force in my absence. I shall return soon."

The transmitting holoimage flickered off.

Darth Viscera looked down at his console, increasing power to 2/3 sublight capacity, in order to escape the ion wash from Destitute. He examined the nav console, and punched the coordinates into the hyperdrive. The sublight safeties clicked on, automatically shutting down the engines, and the hyperdrive, in turn, clicked on, propelling the craft into hyperspace towards Ruusan.

[Darth Viscera]

The journey through hyperspace took a long time. Far too long. A few fleeting memories popped to mind. Some good, some bad. Mostly bad.



My eyes opened, rather slowly. At first, I was reluctant to keep them open, as I seemed to be stuck in some sort of body of water. Am I drowning? Not sure. Sudden fear, confusion. Perhaps I am undergoing bacta therapy? Perhaps I suffered a concussion, and my memory has not yet returned.

A man approached, dressed in a white cleansuit. He had a black device coming out of his cheek, as if it was sewn in, maybe implanted. The man began speaking, and a part of the device blinked green, then red again when he stopped speaking.

"Subject P-44 has awakened. Sensors inside nutrient bath indicate heart rate is normal. No sign of the disorder. Cells are stable. Breathing is normal. Request permission to release subject from nutrient bath."

A metallic voice boomed from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Permission granted to release subject P-44 from nutrient bath."

Suddenly, the liquid level in my...pod, began to drop, and the transparisteel surrounding me parted once it was empty.

"Speak."

Came the cold, hard voice of the man in the cleansuit.

"Speak."

I replied, not knowing what more to say, as I had never before spoken.

"My name is Doctor Helbren."

"My name is Dock tore Hell bren."

"Good."

"Good."

I decided to speak no more at this point, unless asked to directly again.

"Reading on Subject P-44: Status is nominal. Vocal cords seem to have grown in. Subject requires indoctrination of advanced training/command data."

Several droids approached. One of them was a large, boxy thing, with a probe extending from its chest. The probe reached over to me, and inserted itself into an inorganic hole on my cheek which I didn't even know I had up until then.

Just like the doctor's implant.

Another of the droids approached me, trailing a bio-bed suspended in the air by small repulsorjets. They forced me down, onto the bio-bed, and the probe which protruded from the boxy droid's probe began to glow, and I heard a small, metallic humming sound.

The next thing I remember, I was lying down on a bed in a white cleanroom. My mind seemed somehow-different, altered. I yelled out, and just then realized I could talk now.

"WHERE AM I?????"

I shouted out, on the one hand thrilled that I could speak. On the other hand, I was in a strange environment, alone. The idea of this was rather disconcerting to me.

I began to study my environment, and my gaze closed on the door straight ahead of me. But it was not just any door, it was a blast door, painted white to match the interior of the cleanroom, and not frighten the subjects. I stared harder at the door, and memories which I didn't even know I had flooded into me. I knew from memories which weren't mine everything about this blast door.

Type 4 Defensive Obstacle
Durasteel-6 Deciunits thick
Late Old Republic Make
Model-Corellian Defensive Industries 65B
Magnetically Sealed
Can be penetrated/destroyed by Type 4 blaster cannon

I knew all this and more. The memories just flooded into me, as if I was reading all the information directly off of a schematic of the blast door.

There were so many more memories to explore. Memories of a childhood I had not experienced, my training as a Sith by own kidnappers, political moves to advance myself, all ideas which did not seem to belong inside me. I was contemplating these thoughts at such a furious pace, I hardly noticed it when a holoprojector and its neighboring holocam emerged from a circlish hatch built into the wall.

The holocam activated. Standing in my presence, were two Dark robed figures, projected in a light bluish hue. Memory told me they were Sith. One of them was clad rather metallically, and seemed to breath using a prosthetic, iron lung of some sort. That one Sith wore a dark mask, and you could not see his face. Not that you could see the face of the one who was sitting in a large chair next to him, as he donned a hood over much of his face, which appeared very wrinkly, barely human.

"You have done well, Lord Vader. See to it that he is trained in the dark side. I would not want to inherit a body which is improperly trained."

The older being seemed to croak when speaking, obviously a side effect of a disease which he seemed to have, whose primary effect was the destruction of one's skin cells.

"As you wish."

The taller one said, his voice accented by an almost asthmetic aftereffect. Most likely his artificial breathing system.

The image dissappeared, and I was once again left alone with my thoughts. There was only one thing which was clear in my mind: I did not want to be here. There was an inexplicable urge, seemingly hard-wired into my brain, to subjugate all beings.

I concentrated yet again on the blast door.

[Darth Viscera]

OOC: Still on my shuttle, reflecting on my past during the hyperspace travel.

The news came as quite a shock to everyone on Byss. Vader and the Emperor were dead.

How could this have happened? They deployed a large fleet at Endor. Nothing should have been able to get through and pose a thread to the two mighty Sith.

The few holonet feeds that actually could transmit to Byss were hardly detailed at all. No news of the Jedi Skywalker, or the Rebellion. Just the one summary:

Behemoth new Imperial Ore Production Facility Sabotaged by rebel terrorists! Emperor and Lord Vader on the station during the explosion, believed killed. In other news, Ssi-Ruuk forces-

I had a feeling that the Emperor and Lord Vader were not touring any 'Ore Production Facility'. The Emperor and his apprentice may be dead, but the Imperial propaganda machine clearly still lived.

Soon, I had stolen a navicomputer with the right coordinates in its database to get me as far as Koornacht cluster, but no further past the Deep Core. At the time, hyperlanes were still not well plotted in that region. It was not difficult to acquire a shuttle, and install the new navicomputer cores.

Soon, I had set out for Black Eight, a shipyard on the outskirts of the Yevethan system. I barely missed having my shuttle captured by insurrectionist Yevethan forces, but made it safely to Black Eight.

This is where my Imperial history paid off, as all Secret services for the new order were issued emergency account information. These accounts had spending limits, of course, but they were very large, so that just in case an agent in the field had been stranded on a strange planet, he/she could purchase a ship and escape.

With my code clearance, it was quite easy to convince the foreman of B8 to sell me a new Gamma-Class Assault Shuttle, with a bit of help from Force persuasion.

I set off, once again, headed for Imperial Center, armed only with my small shuttle, and the few force skills I learned from Lord Vader.

I arrived at Imperial Center, just in time to join up with Admiral Thrawn's Interstellar Empire. I intended to resume my training, but never got around to it. Soon, I was named commander of Thrawn's Driveyards, and then Captain of his 3rd Fleet. Soon, however, I defected, brutally murdering the millions of crewmen stationed aboard Fleet 3 using poison gas vented from the ship's life support vents, and recrewing the ships to skeleton capacity with the assistance of my new group, the Galactic Military Alliance, which I had established several weeks earlier, with the assistance of my compatriots from the Imperial Intelligence Service, and several former contacts from the old Byss training centers.

We struck at the heart of Thrawn's empire immediately, the combined fleets attacking Coruscant, with our newly constructed TIE Devils. Many of our ships were destroyed, but we managed to route Thrawn's Fleet, forcing thrawn's fleet to withdraw from the Coruscant system temporarily.

For nearly a year, I concentrated solely on building up a strong fleet, almost completely neglecting my inherent force abilities, save for a Crimson-bladed lightsaber which I constructed for myself.

We signed a peace treaty with Thrawn, and agreed to pay reparations for 3rd fleet amounting to the sum of 7 billion credits. This was all right before Thrawn defected from the empire, choosing instead to join the Jedi, for reasons unknown to myself and others.

The GMA had chosen to join the Imperial Nexus, and I granted Admiral Piett Co-leader status in exchange for his integration of his large personal fleet into the GMA, which renamed itself SIN, short for Sovereign Imperial Navy.

At this time, I began to resent neglecting my training. I wished to get back in touch with the force, now that the Emperor and his minion could no longer control me halfway across the galaxy.

[Darth Viscera]

The shuttle Berman exited hyperspace at Ruusan.[/i]

"My god, that planet's resources have not been exploited at all."

Was the first thought that appeared in my head. Of course, there were hardly any resources to exploit on Ruusan. The planet was composed purely of large, desolate canyons, with only a handful of deserted, village-size encampments and trenches, left over from the Jedi/Sith wars of two millenia ago.




Two millenia before the rise of the Empire, a rogue Jedi Knight broke away from the teachings of the Jedi Council and founded a new order of the Sith, much as Exar Kun had done. Over time, other Jedi Knights joined the renegade, and soon the Republic had a serious threat on its hands. The followers of the Sith grew in power over the next millenium and eventually made war against the Republic. The Jedi opposed them, but in the end the Sith were felled by their own internal schisms: unwilling to share power, the Sith disciples destroyed each other in a violent bloodbath.
One of the few survivors was the Sith Lord Kaan, who gathered twenty thousand devoted followers under his dark banner and sought to establish a galaxywide dictatorship of "rule by the strong." A makeshift army was hastily assembled to oppose him, led by the great Jedi Master Lord Hoth. The Army of Light steadily pushed back the Brotherhood of Darkness, finally cornering them on Ruusan, where seven titanic battles were fought.
The Brotherhood of Darkness lost all but two of the battles, reducing their once-fearsome army to a tenth of its original size. Lord Hoth expected his enemy's unconditional surrender. Instead, the evil Kaan and his disciples barricaded themselves in underground chambers and used their dark powers to create a "thought bomb"--a volatile cauldron of seething force energy.
That next morning, Lord Hoth and the Army of Light entered the enemy encampment marching past rows of severed heads and bodies dangling from poles--grisly trophies of virtuous Jedi who had fallen in the conflicts. The Lord of Darkness and the Defender of Light met in a great valley above the underground chambers; there, Kaan triggered the thought bomb. A furious explosion of energy annihilated every last member of the Army of Light and the Brotherhood of Darkness. The vacuum at the center of the blast sucked in thousands of the disembodied spirits and trapped them in an unbreakable state of equilibrium. The spirits were doomed to remain until a powerful Force user arrived at the Valley of the Jedi and upset the natural balance. The natives of Ruusan made a prophecy: "A Knight shall come, a battle will be fought, and the prisoners go free."
After Ruusan, the Jedi mistakenly believed the Sith order had been exterminated at last. One Sith Lord, Darth Bane, escaped. He sought a new apprentice to keep the Sith knowledge alive. This time, he would value stealth and secrecy above all else. For the Sith to call attention to themselves would be to invite their own destruction.
Over the next thousand years the Sith remained in hiding. Following the strict dictate of Darth Bane, there was never more than two Sith Lords at one time--a master and an apprentice. The Sith meditated on the dark side and codified their teachings. Like monks in a hermitage, they waited in isolation for a chance to strike at the Jedi Knights.

-Article 47, Journal of the Whills, New Edition, by Interim Chief of State Mon Mothma.

[Darth Viscera]

The shuttle entered the atmosphere of Ruusan. I kept my communications channels opened at all times, awaiting a transmission from any type of Traffic Control Team. Nothing came in.


My shuttle landed just outside the Valley of the Jedi, near the now-ruined temple.



This place was strong with the force. It was as if I could hear the shouts of past Force users-Sith and Jedi alike. This song of the dead seemed to overwhelm me, but empower me at the same time.

I turned about, and witnessed something quite rare. A translucent, shimmering figure, reminiscent of a holographic image, stood before me, not five meters, gazing at me. No, perhaps...perhaps gazing through me. The figure spoke.

"Welcome, Dark one. Why are you here? What brings you to this awful, retched place?"

The figure was dressed archaically, with rough-looking shoulderpads adorning himself rather unceremoniously. Indeed, he appeared to be more of a pirate than an ancient, long-dead Sith. Yet, something deep inside of me told me that this figure was indeed Lord Kaan.

"I have come here to finish my training, to learn the ways of the Dark Side once more."

The figure sneered at me, then spoke again, pointing his decrepid finger past me.

"Of course you have. Allow me to show you something."

I turned around, to try to see what it was that the long-dead Sith lord was pointing at, when I identified a glimmering red object, stuck in the old dirt of the temple.

"Is that what I believe it to be, mighty Sith Lord?"

I asked, amazed at what I was seeing.

"Well, dark one, that depends on your level of perception. It is a holocron, one of the many we used during our war with the Jedi. Take it and leave me to rest."

The old sith seemed to be tired. Tired, after all these years of eternal rest? Perhaps being caught in a near state of limbo was worse than I thought.

The old, crimson crystalline object seemed to be wrenched from the earth rather forcefully, and floated over to meet my hands, cutting me minorly in the process. Obviously, this Sith had never learned care.

I started back towards my shuttle, my mission here obviously at an end. I had found what I needed. Hopefully, this holocron would show me what I wanted to know.

[Darth Viscera]

I started back to my shuttle. My gods, what a successful journey.

I was almost to my shuttle, a good ten meters away, when the swivel cannon-the shuttle's only weapons system, turned about and fired a volley of eight shots straight at me. The first two shots went long, slamming into the earth meters behind me, splashing a shower of sand nearly into my face.

I managed to pull out and ignite my lightsaber in time to deflect the third shot, and it shot away, scoring right on the shuttle's hull.

The remaining five shots missed either high, or to the right or left of me.

I dashed along towards my shuttle, my lightsaber ignited and at the ready, the swivel turret tracking and firing the whole way. One of the large, emerald blasts singed my shoulder, nearly stopping me dead in my tracks. The blast stung, like a thousand fires had suddenly been lit inside my shoulder, and were all concentrated in one place.

I made it to the Shuttle, ducking under its landing gear and crawling to the other side, completely out of the cannon's line of sight.

Thank the gods. I made it.

I knew my first order of business. I crawled a few meters, still under the shuttle, to a power access hatch.

I used my lightsaber, carefully cutting the hatch open, spending precious time to make certain I didn't damage anything.

If I do one thing wrong, I'll be stranded on this desolate planet for who knows how long. I'll be able to activate one of the shuttle's distress beacons, of course, but still, whoever sabotaged my shuttle is still out there. They, or him, or her, or it, may give me trouble. It is imperative that I shut off this cannon, and escape.

I pulled down the hatch, and set it aside.

Just my luck. The cable inputs are fused.

I thought to myself, looking drearily towards the now-melted sockets which would normally be used to reroute a system to emergency power.

Only one thing to do. I had to use the force, somehow, to determine which of these drokking cables fed power to the swivel turret.

Damn. The labels have long since vaporized, burnt off by the heat. Whoever did this knew what they were doing.

I cleared my mind, and attempted to concentrate at the same time. Surely, the force would guide me?

My eyes were closed, yet, in my mind's eye, I could almost see the hatch, the fused wires, the burnt out components. I raised my lightsaber, adjusting a knob on the device, to make the blade only inches long. I used the lightsaber as an electrician might make use of a pair of needle-nosed pliers. One gentle stroke, and I heard a soft humming sound coming from the swivel turret, then nothing as the weapon clicked off, deactivated.

There is someone else here. I can feel his presence.

I realised, the thoughts jumping through my mind, my heart racing. I climbed out from under the shuttle.

"You might as well come out, whoever you are. I can sense your presence. Reveal yourself, or I may not be so kind to let you live once I find you."

[Fewdman]

:: It is very dark, except for the gentle glow of a data pad. Fewd sits in the underbelly of Viscera's shuttle, grinning. It had been a while since he had decided to pull a prank as elaborate as this. He was enjoying it thoroughly. It was fun to make people jump about, but making the Sith jump was even more fun. Fewd presses the keys in sequence, and a panel falls open, two meters away from the "damaged" turrett. Landing on his feet, he fixes his grin upon Viscera, who scowls at him. Fewd waves in response, and his grin gets wider. ::

"Hi, good to see you. How's things?"

[Dark Lord Dyzm]

OOC: Ok @#%$, I f*cking Edited it...

[Darth Viscera]

I watch as the Jedi stumbles out of the panel, and scowl at the man.

"Thank the stars it's only you. I was beginning to think I was in a bit of danger, you know. I trust you have a good excuse for trying to kill me? Or is it this you want?"

I momentarily gaze at the holocron, then stow it in my inner pocket.

[Fewdman]

"Kill you? No, killing you was not the intention. Scaring the robes off you was. I think I quite succeded there. As for that holocron, it seems to be a mere coincidence. Now that you mention it, I am interested in that. What is on it that is so vaulable that you came all the way here?"

[Darth Viscera]

"Hmmm. Obviously you've never heard of some of the more non-lethal sort of ways of scaring people? A woopee cushion, perhaps? And as for this holocron's level of value, have you ever known of a holocron which was not useful? This device could amplify my power a thousand fold. My Empire would be infinitely more powerful if both its leaders were well trained in the Sith Arts."

I paused, waiting for the Jedi to speak.

"As for you, why have you followed me here?"

[Fewdman]

"I followed you for several reason. A. We goody goodys like to keep tags on what you evil people are up to. Force of habit. B. You were the ideal target to prank. C. I was bored, and you had been planning something. By the way, you write far too much down."

:: A glimpse of realiztion comes over Fewd's face as he finishes processing what Viscera had just spoken completely. His mind was working sideways.::

"Oh, now that you mention what you are going to do with holocron, I'm not certain that you should keep it anymore. I'm not for loads of rotten people running around doing rotten things. So lets just destroy the thing, mmm?"

[Darth Viscera]

"Do you think me stupid, Jedi? I have not come all this way to have my efforts wasted by the likes of you. You can destroy this holocron when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

[Fewdman]

"No, I don't think you stupid."
:: In a blur, Fewd's DE is in his right hand, and his LS is in his left. The DE gleams menacingly in the bright sunlight. Viscera's neck is aligned perfectly in the sights.::
"I do think you unprepared."

[Darth Viscera]

OOC: What is a desert eagle? Some sort of sword? Or is it some sort of lightsaber?

Ignites his lightsaber.

"Very well. Make your move, Jedi. I have a holocron to attend to."

[Fewdman]

OOC: Desert Eagle is a very large caliber handgun i have modified to shoot large doses of compressed air that can be energized with electricty. Singes. Neat thing about it is that if it hits anything, it pops. You can't reflect it back.

:: Fewd's left hand rests at his hip, holding his lightsaber. His posture seems to causual, but his aim is extremely steady. It drops slightly, and Fewd squeezes the trigger, and a blueish blur streaks at Viscera's hands.::

Fixed a speeling error

[Darth Viscera]

OOC: Lightsabers blades conduct no electricity. Not even laser pointers emmit electricity. They're just beams of coherent light. Please correct me if I'm wrong, though, because I know that lightsaber blades are much more coherent than underpowered laser beams, and that may have an impact on their electric conductivity. As it is right now, I'm pretty sure that the electricity-conducting part of my lightsaber is safe inside the hilt, under about 2 centimeters of plasteel. So is igniting my lightsaber blade supposed to ignite a cloud of your compressed air, thereby blowing me up? Sorry to be a pest, but I need to understand this unique weapon of yours in order to be able to reply without having god moded and not realized it.

[Fewdman]

OOC: well, lets see. The air itself is electrified, when the containment feild is broken by impact of an object, the thing pops.

The result is something gets zapped decently, and the compressed air is released. The air is compressed closely enough to send a person back 2 meters. If it were to hit an LS blade, the electricty would look for a source to ground, but would be the equvilant of plugging yourself into two electrical sockets. Nothing lethal, just a nasty jolt. But expect to be tossed a bit.

[Darth Viscera]

OOC: Okay. I'll just go on with my post, as I still don't really understand that weapon. Tell me when I've been shocked by the thing, and I'll write that I've been shocked.

[Darth Viscera]

Picks himself up, then charges at the Jedi, lightsaber first, aiming to run him through.

[Fewdman]

OOC: Hmm... Well, you just got tossed 2 meters backwards. I can see basically ignoring the electricy, but mmm? You need to pick yourself up first.

[Darth Viscera]

OOC:*sighs*
alright

[Fewdman]

:: Fewd remains still, except for his thumb, which turns on his lightsaber. He waits, and when Viscera's blade gets to be about a meter away, his hand swings up, knocking his enemy's blade away. Fewd crouches down, and his right leg flicks out, sweeping Viscera.::

I think I can beat him at hand to hand combat fairly well enough, but thats not much of an issue. How am I going to get the holocron from him?

[Darth Viscera]

Ow! My legs were swept out from under me, my weapon knocked aside.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

The shuttle began beeping. The noise was incredible.

"Hold. That's a priority one message from Nexus command."

I got up just enough to tap the power button on the shuttle's external holodisplay, and was surprised to find a jumble of code.

Intel. They've always got something to be secretive about.

My eyes grew wide. I didn't usually try and read intel code without the necessary decoder, but if my long-gone days of slicing for the Emperor could tell me anything, this was urgent.

The holocron wasn't important anymore. I could train without it. I dug it out of my pocket, and threw it over to the Jedi.

"Here. I don't need this anymore. Tell me, have you ever been on a Star Destroyer? Let's go for a little ride. We can trade some intelligence reports on Lord Gue's Empire. What are you standing there for? Get to your ship! Slave your hyperdrive to mine. It's time to go."

[Darth Viscera]

Makes a short transmission from the holorecorder to High Admiral Dark Cloak, who is at the staging area to take back Circarporous.

[Fewdman]

"Rush rush rush rush... You are in such a rush. There is one issue."
"Yes?"
"I snuck here on your ship, remember?"
:: Viscera gives me a look like I dumped him in boiling oil. ::
"Get in." His voice scowls at me.
:: I shrug and follow him up the boarding ramp ::
"Oy Vey! Such a grouch!"

[Darth Viscera]

"Alright. Let's go. What were the last coordinates of the Destitute? Nevermind, the navicomputer will tell me."

I frantically run my fingers across the controls, extending landing struts and activating repulsordrives. The ship lurches up, and then both Fewdman and I are shot back into our seats as the sublight drives ignite.

"Breaking orbit!"

The small shuttle broke through the various parts of the atmosphere of Ruusan.

"Next stop: Circarporous System. Hope you can handle good food, and plenty of it, Jedi, because I happen to know for a fact that the Star Destroyer Coronius has a wonderfully skilled chef. That is, as long as it doesn't get vaped."

OOC: Continued at A campaign of Vengeance (http://pub2.ezboard.com/fswvstitanicstarwarsroleplayingarchive.showMessage ?topicID=2468.topic).