The doors to the Shadow Academy's training room slid open, allowing a Human dressed as an Arconan officer and a Mirialan wearing Novitiate robes to enter the training area. “Go get each of us a training lightsaber. We are going to work on Form Zero,” Cawthren ordered. He watched the apprentice sl...
Submission Text
The doors to the Shadow Academy's training room slid open, allowing a Human dressed as an Arconan officer and a Mirialan wearing Novitiate robes to enter the training area. “Go get each of us a training lightsaber. We are going to work on Form Zero,” Cawthren ordered. He watched the apprentice slowly walk over to the weapons rack, seemingly distracted.
The Knight watched the younger Force user as he removed the top of his officer's uniform. “Are you okay?” he inquired. “You seem off today, as if something is on your mind.”
The Novitiate paused before grabbing the training weapons and turning back his instructor. “I've just been thinking a lot, Master. About the Collective.”
“Ahh. I see,” Cawthren acknowledged as he took the weapon from the apprentice. Activating the blue blade of the saber, the pair started to go through the motions of Form Zero in a slow, deliberate pattern. “So tell me. What is it about the Collective that is bothering you?”
The Mirialan shifted from one stance to the next as he thought carefully on how to word his response. “Well it bothers me how they hunt us down. Force users, I mean. There are even rumors that they will attack us here at the academy.” The Novitiate paused for brief second before finishing. “How do you deal with it, Master? I mean knowing that you and everyone you know are a wanted just because you command the Force?”
Cawthren increased the speed of the his strikes, forcing the trainee to react faster or be hit. “I train, every day. I read every report that is released, and I learn as much as I can about the enemy's capabilities.”
The Knight blocked a slow strike as the the flow of the training was reversed, putting him on defence. “That doesn't answer my question, Master. How do you deal with it mentally, the fact that an assassin could attack you at any moment?” the Mirialan responded
“I told you. I train.” Cawthren chuckled as he parried the a slash to his left side. “You never know when you will be targeted by an enemy, but if you train you will be more likely to survive the encounter,” the Officer informed as he reversed the flow of practice and started attacking again. “You must constantly work on improving yourself.”
Cawthren seemed to space out as he talked. The slow deliberate motions he was making for the training were now becoming faster and more frequent. “I train at least an hour a day. To not just maintain but improve my skills. I try to learn new techniques, new strategies, any trick that I can find to give me an advantage in battle!”
A scream brought the Knight's focus back to the task at hand. The Apprentice was holding his side. A red whelp had appeared across his ribs where Cawthren's training lightsaber had landed a blow.
“Are you okay?” he asked, showing concern for the Novitiate. As an Officer he tried not to make it a habit of actually injuring his subordinates during training.
“I'm okay, Master. It just stings a little.” The Apprentice winced.
“Well I truly am sorry,” Cawthren reassured. “Here, let me put up the training saber. You get to the Medbay and get that checked out.”
The Knight took the weapons from the Mirialan and helped him stand up straight. “Look, as far as the Collective goes. The stronger you are, the better you will be able to protect yourself and others around you. So, just focus on your training. Worry about the rest when the time comes.”
The Novitiate thanked him as he turned to leave the training room. Cawthren hoped that the advice he gave would work as well for the young Force user as it has for himself. But he may need to up his own training for the next time he spared with that one.
A single Delta-class T-3c Shuttle descended through the atmosphere of Kalus aided by the darkness of night. All of the ship’s exterior lights had been turned off for this flight as it entered hostile territory undetected. Inside the ship were only three individuals, and a Viper Probe droid, two m...
Submission Text
A single Delta-class T-3c Shuttle descended through the atmosphere of Kalus aided by the darkness of night. All of the ship’s exterior lights had been turned off for this flight as it entered hostile territory undetected. Inside the ship were only three individuals, and a Viper Probe droid, two men sat in the pilot and co-pilot’s seats while the third man stood in the back, his elite Mandalorian armor making him nearly invisible in the darkness as its matte black paint blended with the surrounding area.
As the ship approached the planet’s surface, the soldier did a final check of his gear. He activated the scan pulse on the inside of his left forearm, the device feeding into the HUD in his helmet gave him a smile as it identified him and the pilots. His scout pack had been stripped of most of its standard equipment other than the long-range communications array and instead carried additional ammo for the F-11D blaster rifle he carried, and the MM9 wrist rocket launcher that was strapped to his right forearm. A slight smirk crossed his lips as he thought to the special surprise that launcher carried for his targets. The hatch of the shuttle lowered to the open position just before the ship made contact with the ground, the mandalorian and his droid offloading quickly before he radioed to the pilots speaking with his deep, gravely voice, “All clear, take off, I’ll make contact when I’m ready for extract.” The soldiers boots dug into the frozen planet’s surface as he began to close the distance between his landing site and the former stronghold he had been tasked to invade.
It was a cold night, even for the planet Kalus and the Collective members that had been left on the surface had gathered in a central room in the stronghold with their heaters running in an attempt to keep everyone warm, the engineers and few soldiers among them hadn’t noticed the faint sound of a ship landing not too far from the stronghold. On such a cold night, they neither expected nor prepared for an attack as they struggled for warmth and cursed their leaders for leaving them with the remains of that old orb.
As Purren approached the old stronghold his gaze glanced to where his scan pulse radar showed on his HUD, he had expected some resistance at this place, The summit told him that the Collective were supposed to be here, along with the remains of some ancient orb. The cold had yet to seep into his hermetically sealed armor as he walked up to the front door of the stronghold and slowly pushed it open enough for his droid to move in with him just behind the quiet robot. He pressed the door silently shut as his scan pulse finally began to show other life forms within the building, a couple dozen or so life signatures all grouped together which made him think to himself, Perfect. He worked his way through the corridors of the stronghold with his silenced F-11D raised and ready to fire. His movements were deliberate and as quiet as possible as he approached where the scan pulse had identified other beings. He had been fortunate that the summit had a blueprint of the stronghold that he had loaded into his suit and now had overlayed with the scan pulse, showing him the team that was here had taken some care in selecting their room for the night, it was interior, which meant no windows, and it had only one door, easy to guard and defend from within. If only the poor souls inside knew what was coming. The Mandalorian lowered his F-11D, letting it hang from its sling as he grasped the handle of the door with his left hand and raised his right arm, preparing to fire his MM9.
The heads of a couple half away Collective soldiers raised in confusion as the door to the room that their group was huddled in began to open unexpectedly. A rocket flew into the room just before the door was quickly shut, the warhead slamming into the floor in the middle of the room with an anti-climatic ‘thud’ as the few soldiers that were awake jumped up just before the hissing began. A thick, hazy vapor sprayed from all sides of the rocket while Purren held the door shut, letting the Dioxis gas fill the room, the men that were awake ran toward the door as the gas filled their lungs, only to collapse before they could even get to the exit. The Mandalorian waited for a minute, ensuring that the gas had adequate time to do its job before he reopened the door, the gas escaping but doing nothing to him with his sealed suit. The soldier stepped into the room kicking a couple lifeless bodies out of his way as his scanner was once again empty He moved up to a table where he found the disassembled orb, packaged and ready for transport. “Pity, one more day and they’d have had it.” He mumbled to himself as he put his pack on the table, loading what he could fit into it as he activated the long range communications array,
“Purifier to Expedition one requesting exfil at stronghold main entrance. Over.”
A few moments later a voice responded back, “Copy, Purifier, Expedition one is enroute. ETA five minutes. Over.”
With his transport called, the Mandalorian closed his pack and slipped it onto his back once more. The soldier collected the remaining pieces of the orb in his arms to carry outside as the T-3c landed a few minutes later. Purren loaded the packaged pieces of the orb into the back of the ship, along with himself and his droid before speaking to the pilots, “Let's get going.” Having the ship fly him off the planet to return to where the house summit awaited him after the successful mission.
Hilgrif looked at the piles of junk in dismay as he was on top of his new workplace beside a holoprojector. He still could not come to terms with it all. He had been one of the top techies in the Viridi squad that was a part of the Parva force. Then on that dreadful day one of the ships he worked...
Submission Text
Hilgrif looked at the piles of junk in dismay as he was on top of his new workplace beside a holoprojector. He still could not come to terms with it all. He had been one of the top techies in the Viridi squad that was a part of the Parva force. Then on that dreadful day one of the ships he worked on crashed into the government buildings due to a problem with some wiring. Hilgrif was sure he double checked his work to see that it was good. But the rest of his hive did not see that, and so was shunned henceforth an outcast from his home. Removed from his hive, his very and at that time his only way of life, exiled to the junk fields “to keep watch on them.” He knew better to think that they only wanted him to disappear without getting their hands dirty, but before he was forced to leave he sliced into the shipyard’s cameras and, to his shock, found that some data was covered up. Hilgrf looked at the holeprojecter beside him and saw his own squad, members of the same hive, messing with the ship’s wiring. Hilgrif then stared back at the junk piles lost in his thought. He could bring this all to light but they would just say he forged the data if they believed him then he would lose his squad and no one would trust him again in the hive. If they did not they might decide he was too much of a risk and just kill him there.
Hilgrif was at a lost but he did know one thing he had no hive left to go to. Hilgrif shook his head and decided he just need to get busy and give his brain a rest from all this debating. Hilgrif looked at the closest junk pile and saw a few piece of a EV Supervisor Droid. He decide he would fix this droid so he had someone to talk to. After a day of looking hilgrif took the random parts he found to the workshop beside his new work place . He spent a few hours but after that he had the droid ready to run. Hilgrif gave it the boot up command and hoped who ever had it last did not do any recent wipes on it. The droid after a few minutes turned on and ook pause for another minute, most likely to run a self diagnostics then he look at Hilgrif and said in a monotone voice
“Hello Sir. Thank you for the repairs may I know your name and the job you need me to get done.”
Hilgrif looked at the droid then spoke “My name is Hilgrif and your job I do not know I built you because I have lost all I knew “
The droid replied “Sir Hilgrif what did you lose? Maybe I could give you some suggestions on how to get it back”
Hilgrif pause for a brief time then spoke “I lost my hive. It’s all I have ever know.”
The droid paused then spoke. “Why not join or build a new hive?”
Hilgrif froze, never thinking of that, then did some thinking.
There was no other hive on this moon or nearby to build anew. He could not and would not build it with untrustworthy people but with droids. Hilgrif then spoke in a more steady voice.“I agree to building a new hive. I would like to congratulate you on be the first member of this hive. You shall be my 2nd in command.“
The droid spoke “It shall be done sir and thank you for the honor.” Hilgrif paused for a sec then said “Your name shall now be know as Shroud as you shall cover this new hive under your oversite.”