Kenari is a fairly obscure planet that few had ever heard of. The planet was long abandoned after being labeled as toxic due to an Imperial Mining Incident, which is why the Covenant was able to remain hidden as long as it has. The Planet's only inhabitants are the native tribes that live simple, nomadic lifestyles compared to the rest of the known galaxy. Kenari is most notably the homeworld of Cassian Andor.

The Covenant remains hidden amongst the planet's abandoned mines, within a canyon that had fortunately kept it from sight from would-be thieves and looters.Tunnels from the nearby mines act as shortcuts to the fallen ship. The upper hull of the Covenant* has been breached, granting easy access for those with the means, or willpower, to do so. Rainfall has dulled and rusted the surface of the ship, making certain walkways flimsy and dangerous to travel.

With few venturing out due to the danger. Members of Clan Plagueis and Clan Taldryan have been tasked with infiltrating the abandoned Venator to retrieve a most vital artefact that was codenamed: The Ark.

However, what stands in the way are members of the opposing Clan. The ship and the area around it have been designated as a free-fire zone by both the Taldryan Supreme Chancellor and Plagueis Dread Lord, with those entering it doing so at their own risk, as a work around to the non-aggression pact signed by both leaders in the Canto Bight Accords. This makes The Covenant a hostile battleground, both inside and out. Although it has certainly seen better days, The Covenant is a true testament to the might of a Republic from over half a century ago.

Man, the local scavs got lazy, Erinyes thought as she climbed down the turboshaft's maintenance ladder. They didn't even take the doohickey. The correct name was in her datapad, but as far as she was concerned, it was a gizmo that smarter people would understand. Her job was just to get it from the middle of a war zone—which wasn’t even a job, if she was being honest. Having to haul a heavy box home was a small price to pay for the fun of getting into a scrap.

Of course, she had to find it first.

The readout on Erinyes' scanner showed an unusual energy source near the Venator’s reactor, dozens of metres away: the doohickey, probably. There were a smattering of smaller power sources, too, and Erinyes had no idea what those were. Half-activated battle droids that had tried to storm the ship? An old lightsaber, belonging to some unfortunate Jedi apprentice murdered during Order 66? Judging by how some of them seemed to be moving around, maybe they weren’t as benign as they seemed.

That was a problem for future-Erinyes, though, she thought as she took a swig from her flask of tsiraki. More pressing was the giant hole in the corridor floor, probably a result of the Covenant’s final “landing”, revealing a nasty-looking drop down several decks into a pile of sharp metal debris. The Zeltron had no intention of taking that trip, so she shrugged and adjusted her backpack as she preparing to jump the chasm–

"Erinyes?"

Two lightsabers ignited as fast as nerves in the hands holding them. Erinyes found herself facing a Togruta woman, her blood-red skin eerily illuminated by a blood-red blade, held in a reverse grip across her body. A coal-black vornskr waited at her knee, head low and ears pricked forward.

After a moment, Erinyes squinted and tilted her head at the newcomer. "Tahiri? What are you doing here? And since when do you have a dog?"

"Oh, I'm just on Clan business.” Tahiri's manner sounded more like the two women had run into each other while shopping on Arx than on a half-crumbling Republic warship. “This is Hadzuska. Zuska, say hello to Erin." The vornskr let out an inquisitive rumble, and Tahiri patted its head, then turned back to Erinyes. "How about you?"

"Hi, Zuska! Yeah, I’m on Clan business, too. You know, the usual."

A heartbeat passed, then two, then three, as the Adepts realised their situation. Erinyes grinned and flicked her lightsaber’s phase switch to stun as she twirled the weapon into a high guard. After all, a game of full-contact lightsaber tag between friends was a lot more interesting than hauling some doohickey around.

In the same moment she lunged forward, however, her spoilsport rational mind—the one she’d gleefully ignored since she resigned from Consul—pointed out that a) the doohickey was in fact a Very Important Device, b) while she and Tahiri might be friends, Taldryan and Plagueis were not, and c) letting a Very Important Device fall into the hands of Taldryan’s not-friends was a Bad Thing.

Meanwhile, Tahiri pivoted to one side and whipped her lightsaber out in a rising guard, while Hadzuska leapt up to intercept Erinyes’ forearm with its jaws… but Zuska’s teeth met empty air. The Zeltron had pulled up short, and in an uncharacteristic move, turned tail and launched herself across the chasm in the corridor floor—away from the fight, but towards her objective.

"Oh, no you don't," Tahiri muttered. She extended her free hand, and the Force wrapped its tendrils around Erinyes, yanking her back towards her launchpad. Erinyes squawked with the sudden change in momentum, and as she careened backwards, Tahiri surged forwards. The Togruta's lightsaber left the sharp tang of ozone as it carved a path through open space.

Erinyes sputtered as she recovered her footing. "Tahizzle!"

Grinning over her shoulder, Tahiri bolted forward and deeper into the Covenant the second her boots touched the other side of the chasm, with Hadzuksa happily bounding along beside her. With a sigh, Erinyes leapt over the gap in the deck plates and followed. Of course she has a dog. Why did she have to bring her dog? I don’t want to fight her dog!

The charm wore off slightly when the Force shrieked a warning as Erinyes rounded a corner, and she was forced to hurdle a lightsaber blade that would’ve bisected her at the hips. Erinyes snapped her wrist downward to bring the lightsaber across Tahiri’s body, but Hadzuska was already there, bodychecking Erinyes before she could twist aside. Vornskr and Zeltron tumbled to the deck, and Erinyes’ lightsaber clattered across the floor.

“WhoawhoawhoagooddoggyIdon’twannafightyou!” Zuska didn’t seem inclined to believe the Zeltron, instead baring his teeth and snarling. Erinyes wrinkled her nose at the faceful of dog breath.

“You don’t like dogs?” Tahiri’s voice was equal parts amusement and accusation.

Erinyes tried to look past the canine pinning her down, with little success. “What? No, I love dogs!” The Zeltron concentrated, and Hadzuska floated into the air, harmless but unharmed. “Tell you what, Tahizzle: You keep Hadzuska to one side, and we can duel for the doohickey we’re supposed to find. What do you say?”

Leaning against the wall of the durasteel corridor for a moment, Tahiri extinguished her saber, clipping it back onto her belt, while stroking the tip of her lekku thoughtfully with her left hand. Smiling, she pushed off from the wall, extending her fingers towards Erinyes' saber hilt, it rolled for a moment, before hurling itself through the air, snapping into her open hand. Examining the hilt and seeing the extra setting, she walked up to Zelton, offering her a hand up. Erinyes looked at her hand for a moment before taking it, giving her a smile in return. Zuska gave a growl of disapproval as the two women locked their hands.

"Well, if you'll put Zuska down for a moment,” Tahiri dug her heels into the duresteel floor as she leaned back. "I’ll give you back your fancy saber and we can talk."

“Thanks,” Erinyes grunted as she rolled herself upward onto her feet, with Tahiri acting as a counter weight for leverage. “You haven’t made your Elder saber yet?”

"No not yet. It came as such a surprise that I haven’t even thought of designing my Elder saber yet,” the petite Togruta watched as the tall Zelton gently lowered the Vornskr. “I’ll have to do that when I get back to Aliso after this. So much has changed since Master Wrathus died…" Tahiri’s smile faded for a moment, before she patted her leg for Zuska to come to her.

"Ah yes, the promotion to Elder is no little thing," noticing Tahiri’s demeanor change for just a moment, she watched the sleek black Vornskr slide up to the Togruta’s side, his piercing red eyes staring at her the entire time. “I’m sorry for what happened. Sounds like you were close.”

“I used to be, but I respected him, and had hoped he would have been able to see me reach Elder rank. But that is in the past and he is at peace finally,” shrugging her shoulders, she flashed a quick smile and then knelt to address Hadzuska. “Now, Zuska, listen to me.” Erinyes felt the Force stir around Tahiri for a moment as she continued. “Erinyes and I are just going to play, so don’t attack her unless I tell you to. Ok?”

The Vornskr looked between the two women for a few moments, before licking Tahiri’s face, then turning and coming up to Erinyes and licking her hand. Standing up, the Togruta smiled, “He’s agreed to let us play, he just doesn’t want us to play too hard.” As the Vornskr huffed and then padded down the corridor, only to sit down and clean his paw while watching the two women.

"Now. Shall we have some fun then?" Tahiri casually tossed Erinyes’ saber into the air in a high arc towards her. “How about this, whichever one of us bests the other, gets The Ark, and the other will get detailed scans of it.” Her Rune saber sprang from her belt to her hand as she smirked. “That way we both get something to take back to our clan’s to make them happy, and none are the wiser to what we’re actually doing?”

Erinyes caught her saber, looking at the crimson skinned woman in front of her. “That sounds like a win win to me,” both sides of her mind couldn’t argue against that offer. It worked for having fun, plus getting something for their respective clans.

Erinyes almost missed the twinkle in Tahiri’s sulfuric eyes, before the Force screamed out at her. Taking a step back and ignited her own saber, stopping another lightsaber blade, looking at Tahiri with a raised eyebrow and a grin. Tahiri stepped back herself, holding the shorter howling crimson blade in a reverse grip.

“Alright, let's have some fun, shall we?” Tahiri ignited her main saber and twirled it, nodding to Erinyes.

The crimson blades seemed to teleport through space as Tahiri drew the Force into her movements, her strides covering the paces between the two Sith in the gap of a heartbeat. The roar of the Togruta’s off-hand lightsaber drew Erinyes’ eyes in that direction, being unaccustomed to hearing such a sound in the middle of a lightsaber duel. Luckily, the Force was still her ally, warning her of Tahiri’s real attack in time for Erinyes to duck aside–

–only to be greeted by the smell of burning hair as the krayt dragon shoto, directed with a skill Erinyes had rarely encountered, carved a few centimetres from the end of Erinyes’ fluttering mane.

The Zeltron’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but the expression quickly transformed into a grin. “Oh, I’ve missed this.” For the first time in years, a second amethyst blade crackled to life in Erinyes’ left hand. She’d barely allowed herself to finish speaking before launching forward, driving into Tahiri’s advance with one of her own. Glowing red and purple drew semicircles through the corridor when Tahiri dropped into a full split to duck Erinyes’ double strike and the Zeltron leapt and twisted to avoid losing her legs at the knee. Yellow sparks exploded through the hallway when the blades crashed together.

Surprised by her friend’s change in demeanour, the Togruta took a wary few steps back. “We’re still playing, right?”

“Aren’t you having fun?” Erinyes charged forward again, and since neither Juyo nor Shien was amenable to defence, Tahiri did likewise.

The two barrelled toward each other like a pair of jousting tornadoes, spitting amethyst and crimson lightning, complete with the scents of ozone and smouldering fabric when each Sith’s blade passed dangerously close to its target. Neither woman seemed able to gain a decisive advantage over the other, but Tahiri knew she was walking a fine line. This matchup was the first time she’d really challenged herself since becoming an Elder. Even if she did win, she wasn’t sure she’d do so with enough energy left to deal with whatever laid between her and the Ark Reactor. Meanwhile, Erinyes was goofing around like an apprentice who’d just gotten their first lightsaber, wanting to whack anything and everything in sight—as the plasma-scarred corridor walls where Tahiri had stood would attest.

Sighing at being stuck as “the responsible one”, Tahiri drew the Force into herself again, then turned and darted down the hall.

“Hey! Stop running!” Erinyes didn’t hesitate to give chase, but slowed briefly when a throwing dagger whistled through the air and forced her to turn aside, not wanting to risk getting clipped by a shard of a lightsaber-deflected blade. The momentary delay gave Tahiri enough time to round a corner and disappear from view, with Hadzuska hot on her heels. Grumbling, Erinyes extended her Force senses outward as she jogged along, only to find that Tahiri had utterly vanished. She turned the corner just in time to see the vornskr’s rump and tail disappear around another corner, and hustled to keep up—only to be met with another throwing knife.

Finally, the corridor opened up into a straightaway, and Erinyes could see Tahiri sprinting toward the Covenant’s stern. She prepared to channel the Force through her movements to catch up, but skidded to a halt when she saw another obstacle: a narrow passage short enough that her ten centimetres-taller-than-Tahiri would block her from passing without ducking, and Hadzuska standing in the middle of it, panting happily as he waited for her. “Zuska, what are you– argh!”

Hadzuska dropped into a play bow and bayed at Erinyes as she came to a stop, with a twinkle in his eye that seemed to say, I didn’t attack you. Then he turned and galloped after Tahiri again, even briefly running in circles as the corridor opened up wide beyond the barricade, his barbed tail bouncing with pride.

Despite the canine interference, Erinyes couldn’t bring herself to be angry at the vornskr; after all, she might be a Sith, but she wasn’t a monster. She did, however, feel entitled to bring out a few tricks of her own. Her off-hand lightsaber blade vanished as she clicked the phase-shift switch, then levelled the emitter at Tahiri, who had stopped next to a blast door marked “Engineering Section”. With each squeeze of the activation stud, a glowing purple bolt erupted from the lightsaber’s emitter shroud.

Tahiri deflected a few of the bolts with no trouble, while the others went harmlessly wide; Erinyes was an average shot at best, especially when running towards someone. Still, the attack was enough to leave the Togruta wide-eyed as Erinyes approached. “Is that a lightsaber gun?” Even Hadzuska seemed impressed, tilting his head to one side from where he sat beside the blast door controls.

“Fancy, eh? I’ll show you how to make one.” Twin crimson blades sizzled and roared in agreement as Tahiri lunged toward Erinyes. This time, the Togruta wasn’t nearly as cautious, especially since the wide hallways gave her more room to maneuver. To Erinyes’ eye, Tahiri’s movements seemed looser and more comfortable, as though she was getting settled in her newfound power. It showed in the way the pint-sized powerhouse’s lightsaber blades spun like a glowing food processor, forcing Erinyes on the defensive and out of her comfort zone.

It was exhilarating.

Somewhat less exhilarating was the moment when, as the two women were locked in a dual-blade bind that looked more like an aggressive hugging match, Tahiri leapt up and kicked Erinyes in the jaw. The Zeltron, seeing stars, let the momentum carry her into a backflip as she shook her head to clear it—and lunged at Tahiri with her lightsaber blade extended, as if to run her opponent through.

It nearly worked, too; Tahiri hissed as the training-phase lightsaber smacked and scorched her right wrist, causing her to drop her rune blade. The Togruta wasn’t out of options yet, though, and she twisted aside and blocked Erinyes’ shin with her own as the Zeltron moved past. Erinyes stumbled and twisted to face Tahiri, and her second lightsaber shot outward before burying its blade to the hilt in the nearby blast door. With her now-free hand, Tahiri caught Erinyes’ training-saber arm in an elbow lock, then wrapped her arm over Erinyes’ shoulder and brought the shoto blade’s tip within millimetres of the Zeltron’s throat.

“I win.”

A few heartbeats passed as the realisation sank in, then Erinyes started to laugh. “Yes, you do. Well done.” The Zeltron deactivated her lightsabers and stashed them away while Tahiri retrieved her fallen rune hilt.

Between Tahiri’s varpeline crystal-powered cutting saber and Erinyes’ telekinetic prowess, the two Elders easily made their way through the blast door and the Covenant’s ruined engineering section. Before long, they discovered the Ark Reactor, miraculously intact despite its hard landing. It only took a few minutes for Erinyes to get the scans Tahiri had promised, and while she did, the Togruta summoned a Plagueian transport.

“The shuttle’s ETA is less than five minutes,” Tahiri said, closing her wrist link. “I’d offer you a ride, but Selika’s people will probably be aboard, and I don’t want there to be an incident.”

“It’s fine, I’ve got a pickup anyway.” Erinyes pulled her datapad from her belt and tapped a few keys. “Those lightsaber schematics. And thanks, Tahizzle. This was the most fun I’ve had in years.”

The Zelton tilted her head for a moment, staring at the petite Togruta twirled her blades tauntingly at her. Smiling, she ignited her violet blades simultaneously, twirling them in opposite unison, and then in complete unison along her sides. The grateful and elegant spins and twists of her wrists were almost lost in the hued light trails of her saber blades. “Ok, let’s have some fun. I don't know how well the red welts will show up on your skin,” as Erinyes danced forward, forcing Tahiri to back up the corridor. “But I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

Tahiri back peddled quickly, she remembered that Erinyes was well versed in Form VII, a form her late master used to devastating means, and in many almost deadly lessons. However, since the last she had seen the pale Zelton, she couldn’t be sure how many more tricks and masterings her fellow Adept had learned. Slowing her retreat down the hallway, but keeping on the balls of her feet. Moving in quick motions as she let Erinyes close in, Tahiri knew that she wouldn’t know if she didn’t actually cross blades.

“So, your blades have extra settings there, huh?” Tahiri spun her blades, matching that in a similar fashion that of which she observed Erinyes doing.

“Yep,” Now that she had come closer, there was an audible difference between Tahiri’s blade versus one of Erinyes’ blades. “I can have one that is essentially a training saber. You remember those don’t you? The fun sabers that you hit everyone with and not kill them.” Lunging forward, one saber coming in an aggressively downward arch, the other coming in swift and low.

“Hmm, yes I remember those,” Tahiri fainted to the side, redirecting and swirling the Zeltons’ sabers away. “Those were fun to beat up the annoying students with.” Coyly smiling, she swiftly spun herself towards the wall and kicked off from it, using the wall as leverage to flip unexpectedly into a fluid arch over Erinyes’ right side. However, halfway through the arch, a split second feeling of an incoming projectile made Tahiri awkwardly twist in the air, before landing more to Erinyes' right side instead of behind her.

The blaster-like bolt had hit high, but Tahiri had no time to think about it before crossing her blades above her, catching Erinyes’ ferocious double over-head attack. As the Zelton kept up the assault, not letting Tahiri get up very far, before driving her back down and then towards the durasteel wall. Trying to attack the Zelton’s legs was no small feat, as every thrust and swipe the Togruta made, was met by a flourishing twirling blade that knocked her strike away, while returning with an overwhelming and unrelenting blows. Tahiri didn’t dare let her guard down, but she needed to get back up to her feet. Opening herself up and gathering the Force within her muscles, Tahiri sprang up to meet the over-head strike, her nostrils flared with the scent of the crackling ozone smell as their sabers clashed close to her face.

“Oh, well, well Tahizzle,” Erinyes smiled as she got closer. “I almost thought you had given up there for a second.”

“Ah come now Erinyes, you should know,” pushing back, she deactivated her shoto blade and thrusted it forward. The Zelton barely had time to jump back before, the howling shoto blade erupting close to her side. Clamping her other on of Erinyes’ blades, Tahiri made an aggressive twisting, twirl thrust, knocking both blades from Erinyes’ hands. Holding a single blade to up the Zelton’s chin, “I don’t give up that easily.”

Surprised, the Zelton stared at Tahiri before bursting out laughing, “Well done Tahizzle. I better be able to get really detailed scans of the doohickey.”

“No worries, we can take care of that.”