Greater and Lesser Evils (Zereth Lancer)

[Hawkins Grime]

Lieutenant Krupp, of Imperial Navy Logistics, tugged at the neck of his high collared uniform with two fingers, cracking his neck before stretching. He hated this shift. This was the shift where they would work him all the way to landing and then after he had signed the manifest over to cargo, when his shift should then end, they would bring him in for more paperwork. It was almost midnight on Taris but that would not slow anyone down. It would be likely three before the cargo crews were ready and then another few hours before all the paperwork was wrapped up. Krupp just wanted to go on leave already. Seven months traversing Imperial space in a Gozanti cruiser was the closest thing to a perpetual nightmare that Krupp could think of at the time.

==========

Orar, sitting on a ventilator, finished rolling a cigarette against the metal panel between his legs. It was still messy, not as neat as e'Drain's, and out of frustration, Orar tossed it to the side with the other small crumples of paper. He glanced up at the night sky again with irritation. The teenager was without his usual Mandolorian armor, instead in a faded jump suit with a scarf wrapped around his neck against the chilled breeze. He glanced up just in time to catch a glimpse of a shooting star moving too slowly. He grabbed the binoscanners and zoomed in. The broad prow and boxy nature betrayed the Gozanti cruiser as it broke the atmosphere, it's shields dampening the friction against the fuselage. The large shuttle had four TIE fighters in its underbelly. Orar checked the chronometer. Right on time. He grinned, finally free from this monotony. He dashed towards the ladder well and nearly slipped down the hole in his rush. He caught himself with a wince as he slid down and turned, bursting into the small room.

e'Drain lifted the hat over his eyes with a groan at Orar's noisy arrival.

"This had better not be a false alarm, kid."

"No. Tell A'den that his prey is in bound."

The boy tossed e'Drain the binoscanners which he barely caught. Frowning, he sat up and glanced at the last scan, seeing the same image the boy had seen.

"Alright. But you tell him, kid."

==========

"Listen, I swear, Krupp. I saw people, well, not people, but non-humans in one of those larger containers!"

Krupp rubbed his forehead, looking at his peer, LT Grindhalf, known as Grinder among the other junior officers.

"I don't care, Grinder. I don't. This manifest, in my hand, says all sorts of things, to include three 10m containers of wild life. And they have a haz-dec statement that says they're contaminated and due to be processed by the waste management department that's going to sign for them. We've got no prisoners or whatever on this manifest. You're trying to create a headache for me!"

Grindhalf shook his head in frustration.

"Seven months and we finally come across something exciting and you don't even care?"

He snatched the manifest and glanced it over.

"These came from some company called 'Alderaan Conservatories" when we were at Cademimu. You believe that? They aren't even trying, Krupp!"

Krupp snatched it back as the ramp began to lower, cargo crew and loaders standing outside, ready to get their jobs over with before daybreak, hopefully.

"Grinder, all I care about going on leave. That'll be my most interesting thing in seven months. Now get these crews moving so we can get out of here!"

[Hawkins Grime]

Orar rolled onto his back, smiling underneath the scarf. He checked the screen of the remote camera trying to calm his nerves. The loaders had just arrived and the ramp was lowering. All the suits stood around staring at each other as the crews milled about. The small map in the bottom of the screen showed a red dot heading rapidly towards the loading site. He pulled the sniper rifle up from its resting position beside his hip and then rolled onto his stomach. He took a knee, bracing the rifle on the ventilation system. Keying the dampener field on his wrist, a person looking his direction up close would have seen the sphere of shadow that seemed to surround him suddenly. As it was still early, early in the morning, from a distance, the young man became nothing worth noticing. Yet. The spirit of the ram'ser fell upon him in his isolation.

==========

e'Drain glanced back for only a second, not trusting the rear vid, as his swoop bike raced beside the speeder. The breakneck speed could barely afford the glance but he risked it. Morrolan pulled hard left to avoid intervening traffic, rolling over with an agility that he sometimes thought was wasted in his current position. The speeder beside him started to accelerate. They had already set off the alarms, the guards would be ready. Grime was really about kicking the hornet's nest on this one and for what?

There was nothing of significant to note about the enclosed speeder from the outside. The inside however, the inside was filled with explosives. It'd taken a few months to gather all the materials and e'Drain was positive that years of his life had been taken away having to inhale any remnants of whatever Averre had cooked up. That poor girl. She needed to escape. When did he become so soft? Morrolan nearly shrugged to himself, dodging more traffic instead as a marker notified him of the proximity. He throttled back, letting the speeder get a significant lead. Significant.

==========

"What do you mean-"

"Sir. Just get back."

The stormtrooper sergeant pushed Krupp out of the security facility and back into the Gozanti's docking bay. The landing pad for the Gozanti was massive and the crews continued unaware of the immediate security threat headed their way. All of the officers had received the warning, but the loading crews could not afford to wait for every single warning. And so the drones continued. Krupp just sighed, shaking his head, frustrated that there were complications in the first place. Leave was hours away.

==========

"Tra'cyar mav."

Orar sneered, hearing A'den's voice in his own language. It just felt dirty, but with that voice... Orar knew war with that man. Hawkins Grime was a one man war, like a tornado of fire that picked up everything that it came across, scorching the land and either tearing it apart or burning it to the ground. A true demagolka.

None of this stopped the teenager from pulling the trigger.

==========

Grindhalf approached Krupp who stood by himself in the middle of an empty pad.

"Well? What'd they say? False alarm?"

Krupp waved him off in frustration.

"Did you hear any 'all clear'? No? Then what do you think?"

"Look, Dill, just relax, alright? You're wound up too tight."

Krupp turned on Grinder just in time to see the red lance of energy reach out of the darkness and slam into his friend's back. The smell of burning flesh filled the air immediately but Krupp barely had a chance to respond before an explosion rocked the port from somewhere to the south. Flames raced into the sky as Krupp was thrown from his feet and into the still falling corpse of Grindhalf.

[Zereth Lancer]

A crimson lance speared through the night, and an explosion responded. Crimson, mottled eyes watched the orchestra of violence unfold. His perch atop the port control tower offered him a wide field of vision. The docked starship, those working outside, and the relentless terrorists all came into focus. The machinations were well oiled; professionals with a clean execution. The sniper round was on point and timed flawlessly with the explosive detonation. These were definitely not amateur thieves in it for a quick smash and grab. Something more sinister was in the works. The goal he could not say.

The real question running underneath it all was why the force had awakened him to this place to begin with. Days ago while meditating in his newly constructed meditation chamber he had received a vision. The planet Tarsis and it's lesser known port city of Yolandes. He recognized the damaged planet immediately. While great work had been done to restore the ravaged planet it still bore many scars. It was a beckoning to his place, and he came as fast as he could. He had a reason to be here. What that reason was is beyond his comprehension. The force works in mysterious ways.

For now he would observe and contemplate what his purpose in this event was to be.

[Hawkins Grime]

The fence bent easily in the grips of the massive droid. Large segmented fingers slowly pawed at the fence like it was paper, bringing it down with ease. It took one plodding step onto the fence and then continued to walk forward until the fence was crumpled over completely, crushing the CAUTION/DANGER sign. The droid, painted an orange that blended well with the apparent rust, snatched up a light post from the ground as if it had been planted in mud. With no real agility, Chroma MK I, the murderbot, hurled the light post like a javelin and impaled the large power unit before the droid. It turned and began to smash auxiliary units and sustainment suites. After crushing a suite, the droid lifted them, then hurled them at the other power units. Sparks flew and the sector generators surrendered to the pummeling, sending the area into darkness.

==========

The only light stretching across the landing pad came from the lights on the Gozanti transport and from the fire. Krupp struggled to stand but was too dizzy, falling over twice. He heard shouting. A red light flashed across his vision, coming from a different direction. Krupp lay upon the ground, holding his head, looking towards the security facility as storm troopers poured out of it. He breathed heavily, seeing the bottoms of a storm trooper's boots, the body sprawled out, smoke rising from a melted helmet.

==========

Orar ran, even the wind was quiet to his ears within the dampening field. He slid over onto an adjacent rooftop via a complex connection of cables and wires and the rooftop infrastructure. He picked up the third sniper rifle, grinning as the optic pressed against his face, leaning into it, drawing a breath, exhaling slowly, and then inhaling. Exhaling... pause, fire.

The storm trooper pointing in the direction from which Orar had just shot spun like he had just been swiped by a speeder before he collaped to the ground, a sizziling hole in the side of his helmet. Dropping the rifle, Orar's sneering grin never falted as he set off in a sustainable pace towards his initial firing point.

"Kid, boss is en route. Keep it up."

==========

Krupp could not stand. He simply could not. Not sure why, maybe just the fear of dying? Krupp watched the fourth trooper die, just barely sticking his helmet out, another red flash from another random vantage overlooking the landing pad hit that trooper like a ton of plasteel. He barely noticed the speeder that loomed over head of him. It was slightly bigger, unmarked, than the one that had just detonated against the side of the port. It hovered about three meters above Krupp. The side door slid back and a cloaked figure dropped from the speeder to the ground with a heavier impact than might have been expected. Krupp groaned, rolling onto his back, trying to find a better vantage to escape.

Blaster fire filled the air for a brief moment, like a hail of red energy that was aimed at the newcomer. It stopped abruptly when one storm trooper was picked up by an invisible force and then slammed into the rest of the squad to his right, laying them all out. Something like a wave of pressure came from the cloaked figure, and then behind that an intense pulse of heat that almost took the breath from Krupp's lips. Screaming. Lots of screaming. Two storm troopers were slammed into one another with an invisible power, and the rest of them, just as they were starting to stand, they began to scream. Louder, as some pulled their helmets off, tossing them to the side, trying to remove armor but not fast enough. One of them burst into flames spontaneously.

[Zereth Lancer]

Beneath his watchful eye the sniper continued his rampage. Zereth was disgusted with it, but could not find fault in his marksmanship. To his warrior nature, killing an enemy from afar was the greatest of disrespect. Combat was personal. It was one life extinguishing the other. It should be face to face, as adversaries. Enemies. Rivals. All are equal on the battlefield. You strike, but only when your opponent is armed or capable of defending themselves. There is no honor in cold blood or a slaughter. There was pride to be found in victory, and a lesson in defeat.

Snipers. Effective, but disgraceful.

A new element entered the scene. A speeder. It maneuvered directly to the front of the battle. A single individual emerged. Cloaked, hidden in shadow. He moved heavily. Armored no doubt. The movements reminded Zereth of the Mandalorians when they tried to disguise themselves beneath clothing. The weight of their armor would always give them away.

The soldiers, Stormtroopers, crumpled around the man. Zereth's eyes went wide in his skull as ripples in the force rolled through him. The cloaked man was using the force to destroy his enemies. Use, that was the wrong term. It was an abuse of the force. Those soldiers were doomed, dead or dying, and the living would soon join them. Instead of finishing them quickly, with grace, he crushed them to death in their own armor. It was an abomination. The force was an ally, a tool, and sometimes a weapon. It was more than just something to kill your enemies with. It was no club, to bash over the heads of your enemies.

Leaping through the air, his mind a fire of caged anger, Zereth soared. High over the head of the sniper, who found his rifle pulled out of his hands when he relaxed his grip for just a moment, over rooftops and streets, all the way to the hovering speeder. His legs hit the top hard, cushioned by his own advanced physiology and mastery of the force. He used it as a springboard to flip over the head of the cloaked man, twist, and come down facing him. His mind was racing harder than it had in a long time. He wanted to cut this man down himself for his incredible disrespect to the living force, but that was not the right way. Not his way. He served a higher purpose now.

"Stop! This is not the way. We become the monsters we create. We can be so much more than that." He voice trembled with barely contained anger and frustration.

Zereth had no idea how it happened, or when, but he had drawn his lightsabre. Both of them. One in each hand. The hilts, one silver and the other black, declared his intent even though the beams were yet unsheathed.

Stop, or I will stop you.

[Hawkins Grime]

Orar had been initially dumbstruck, now simmering with a wounded pride that only beget his fury as he slid over a solar panel, running in a dead sprint to his other rifle still a few buildings away. He snickered into his scarf, the newcomer's words coming clearly over their shared comm channel from A'den.

==========

e'Drain stood in the security room, his fingers pausing momentarily over the consoles to look up at the holofeeds, squinting at the sudden appearance.

"What in the what... What did he just say?"

==========

The large, orange droid stopped pummeling the power station into ruins, it's shoulders recalibrating from the successive impacts. It turned towards the landing pad and began to trudge in that general direction.

==========

From inside the Black Wyvern, Rowan Averre sat in the sarcophagus-like device that housed Hawkins Grime in transit. She lay back, a series of holoscreens before and around her. Her hands flowed from one to the other like she was conducting music, pausing here or there to manipulate data or readjust the reality that she shared with the AI, Chroma MK II.

We become the monsters we create. We can be so much more than that.

NO.

Averre had run out of tears a long time ago. This kind of hopeless romanticism was unwarranted in a galaxy full of monsters. Not even monsters like Hawkins Grime or Chroma MK I. Averre had been victim to the monsters that the heroes never knew about, the ones that found the weaklings in the shadows, and tormented them with their hands, their eyes, their tongues. Nightmares hiding just beneath the surface of flesh that anyone would look past just long enough to let them all get away with it. Averre shuddered. Grime's flames, his destruction, it had been liberating back then. He had wholesale murdered the entire chain of nightmares that had made her their host, like parasites, returning to her every time they needed their 'kicks'. What did heroes know of that?! Where had this self righteous interloper been then?! She grit her teeth in a rare display of emotion for her. The floating sphere hovering nearby dipped closer as it recognized the biological shift, making a soothing noise.

"I want that ship."

Several of the holoscreens floating in front of her became red, and the sphere still cooed to her in a vain attempt as her little fingers fluttered across them.

==========

e'Drain was even more caught off guard.

"Did the little lady just say something?! What in this galaxy...?!"

He finally reached his goal, the automated loader master control system.

==========

Hawkins Grime's gauntlets clenched together, the metal claws scraping against his metal palms. His cloak flared behind him as his rage seemed to flow inwards, feeling it like a molten live wire to his core before it exploded back out. His boots singed marks into the ground as he set in his stance and even the flayed skin worked over some of his armor, the faces of men that Grime had meant for all to see, began to burn and sizzle, filling the air with that distinct smell of roasted flesh.

"Weak. Words of garbage lies from an ignorant hypocrite and fool."

The heat haze emanated from Grime and slivers of flame licked the air around them. Lightsabers. Like De'Ville and her associates. Hawkins had been preparing for such an opponent, namely her, but this would serve as an adequate test. Hawkins drew a machete from behind him that looked as if it were made from the tooth or claw of a large beast. It had a peculiar sheen to it and appears to have pores or some kind of holes just above the hilt. Parts of the blade were serrated, a truly twisted looking weapon. For a man to have said so much, to have intervened in such a fashion... Grime relished the man's weakness, and felt the exploitation soon to come like a spider finding a bug in its web.

The heat rushed around them as Grime lunged, the musculature beneath the armor uncoiling with fearsome momentum. The blade came in quick, aimed at the man's gut.

[Zereth Lancer]

A quick backstep withdrew Zereth from danger. The blade cut nothing but air were he had just stood. His blades still remained deactivated in his hands. A warning and a shield. A little smile played at the edges of his mouth. It had been a long time since he had been in such a dangerous situation. He had been in many battles with Eleutheria. Imperials were dangerous, yes, but this was a different kind of danger. It was primal and somehow more real. This was a real threat to him. A man of unquestionable power and no control. There were few things more frightening.

"Have you no control? Must you swing at and break down everything? Have you ever considered that there might be a different path, a different use for your natural abilities? The force not a weapon to swing at the heads of your enemies. It's a tool. One that can liberate and unify."

[Hawkins Grime]

The growling, heaving noise coming from Grime ended in a wet hacking noise, the only physical sign of it being the shaking chest plates for a moment and then a black, viscuous liquid dripping from the chin of the helmet. The wicked blade dipped slightly in his palm.

"Oh... I've been liberated..."

The hypocritical peace of the man was revolting. The things he said reminded him of the garbage that the witch De'Ville used to spout in spades. Possibilities, tools, control. The Force, blah blah dren-frakking blah. Still talking, not fighting. Obviously not as strong as De'Ville then. Weakness in hesitating. The rage bubbled out of Grime's very core, the sharp sensation of it all resonating through him as it rushed out like a volcano erupting under water. The wave of flame that rose from the ground as he lifted is free hand was as if it rose from some unseen ocean, to come crashing down on the idle talker.

==========

The maintenance gate crumpled to the side as the droid made it's own way towards the landing pad. A storm trooper stepped out from the small alcove and fired off two red lasers that bounced off the droid's reinforced plating. It stopped for a moment, staring into the distance as another round bounced off it's head. The transition was abrupt. The droid was loping towards the storm trooper and his friend hiding further back yelled out. One piston driven arm slammed into the first trooper and he fell halfway over himself in an awkward angle. The screaming storm trooper was tapping the door control that had no power. The screaming stopped when the wall shook with the massive impact of the droid's next punch.

Chroma MK I took its time pulling the two bodies apart, separating the limbs and sorting them in the corners of the alcove.

==========

"Found them. Alright. We've got our marks, prisoners 099576 and 705437..."

e'Drain continued to frantically type commands into the console as he concluded his search, the scanners settled on the three large containers filled with sentient organisms. The containers were on remote loaders just beyond the loading deck. Over 100 sentients or so, and they only needed two of them. The plan had changed with the intervention of a force adept, that was for sure. Morrolan was not sure if he was going to be able to extract the boss like they had planned at this point. The plan always hit the fan but when other force adepts got involved...

"Is anyone else out there and not being crazy? Kid?"

==========

"Here."

Orar was deadly still. Watching the fight between the two with an intensity through the scope of the other rifle. He had no intention of intervening either.

"Waiting."

He noticed lights and things happening on the landed Gozanti-cruiser, but kept his eyes on the duel with far more interest.

==========

The small spherical droid hovered in and out of the holowindows that Averre manipulated. The majority of the horse power was the AI, but Averre was assisting in the decoding and dismantling of the obstacles in the AI, Chroma MK II's path. There was a cold fury that a smaller voice deep inside of her, what she imagined was something similar to Rowan Averre MK II was trying to plead with her to stop her current course of action. She was almost there.

[Zereth Lancer]

The attack was sudden, bubbling over like the rage inside the man. Zereth was watching for it. Watching his movements and body language. It was difficult to see beneath his armor and cloak, but the movements were there. Even if he only saw them milliseconds before they happened. The result was an explosion of movement, as he shot up into the air, soaring skyward into a majestic backflip before coming back to earth further back then were he started. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed his fears. He was losing ground and would eventually be up against the Cruiser.

"Good. Liberty is good. Now share it with the galaxy. There are hundreds of force capable individuals, like us, who have never tasted that liberty. Not because they are weak, or because they are not strong enough to seize their future, but because that future has been stolen from them. Incarcerated. Tortured. Killed. They never had the chance to become strong, like you. You could give them that opportunity."

[Hawkins Grime]

The bubbling noise that sounded like something wet slapping against the ferrocrete was Grime's laughter. He actually bent over just barely, hunched within himself because the action of laughing stressed the corpse within the exoskeleton more than it should have. The vents in his back exhausted themselves rapidly as he regained his composure, taking steady steps toward the Force Adept.

"Oh... heh... I'll share it with the galaxy. They will taste liberty. As I do. That future... HIS future... was stolen from me!"

Grime shuddered with a convulsive rage, taking stuttered steps forward, black marks left in the ground from where his armored boots had been. The scream that ripped from his lips was as much of the convulsive action as Grime, well out of range of the Adept, lashed out with his Machete, cutting the air from which a flame tore behind it.

"Stolen! HE was... I am incarcerated!"

Another slash of fire. The objects embedded within Grime's very body were practically singing a note that hummed behind his every word.

"I am... HE was tortured!"

His free hand clenched into a fist and as if the Force enabled it, his own metal fingers bit into his gauntlet. He coughed wretchedly as he continued to advance, black fluid dripping from the bottom of his helmet.

"I... HE was... killed! I'll... give them that opportunity... Through all that... I... A'den, Hawkins Grime was awoken... to give them all that opportunity."

Slivers of flame licked the air around them and raced up the edges of Grime's armor. The Force reverberated from Grime in a sickening synchronization with his rage.

==========

Orar was breathing heavily... A'den spoke with a fury that he had only seen once before. A'den cursed the stars and threw himself at his own war like a man possessed. The demagolka knew nothing else, no pleasure, no distraction, only war and pain and rage and wrath. Orar's father had been right to send him with this creature. A'den was a walking atrocity, he was the byproduct and the cause of strife. Orar sighed, sighting in his scope.

"Oya."

==========

"There."

Morrolan hit the commencement rune and the crew loader program finally obeyed. The three large containers, full of about 30 sentients a piece, opened, spilling all sorts of races out into the open pad. Many of them screamed, finally free into the elements from which they had been trapped for who knew how long.

"Kid, third container, skinny, tall Rodian and tan, fatter twi'lek. Remember, don't kill them because the boss..."

e'Drain's eyes flitted to the other cameras where he caught sight of Grime.

"Oh frak..."

As the 100 or so half dead and starved non human sentients stumbled towards Grime from behind the newcomer.

[Zereth Lancer]

The display was ludicrous, and dangerous. Zereth took another step back. Slowly. He wasn't afraid for his own safety. The man was lashing out, his rage was a boiling darkness that threatened to envelope the minds of everyone around him. Fire and shadows struck out from his finger tips, and his footsteps left marks. Whatever this man may have been, whatever good that could be found in all beings, was lost in the pit of pure evil that was the creature before him. He came here at the whim of the force. He thought it was to recruit this force adept to Eleutheria, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that he had little place there. His rage, his violence, it may be welcome by the likes of Lilaeana and Akasha, but he would never be comfortable working alongside this being.

It was the same darkness he felt hidden within SIN, only this man, Hawkins Grime, wore it on his sleeve.

The sound of pistons pulling and doors opening caused Zereth to glanced over his shoulder. People were climbing out of large containers. It seemed an odd cargo for the Empire, but judging by their alien nature their purpose could be literally anything, but most likely horrible in nature. The quick glance ended and his attention returned to Grime.

"Yes. You can help them. You can give them that opportunity. First you need to calm down. You cannot accomplish anything with this rage. It has only the power to destroy. You endanger those around you. If you are honest with your desire to help, I can take you to meet my... master, for lack of a better word. She will appreciate your help, and your power."