“This is Lieutenant Dravis, Operation Exsanguination is a go. Repeat operation is a go. You are weapons free." The order came across the com-link and the immediate sound of blaster fire followed by screams from those in attendance. The precision of Talon Company was very impressive, but there were some attendees that had managed to survive the initial volley from the soldiers. Talon Company had been given specific orders that they were to fire for thirty seconds then stop to let the Judges and Ragnosian loyalists a chance to prove their loyalty by dispatching any remaining perceived traitors.

The newly christened Judges were slow to react, but jumped into action when the sound of blaster fire stopped. Armad watched as the Judges overcame their initial shock from the announcement, and then leap towards the larger groups of people as they stampede towards the nearest exits. Armad briefly felt a twinge of regret for the massacring of so many citizens, but that was immediately squashed with the delight of the carnage that was taking place around him. For he knew that there needed to be a culling to rid the dissidents from within their ranks and populace. The more he relished in that thought the stronger his connection with the Force became.

With more and more of the Force rushing into him, Armad’s senses became more acute, allowed him to pick out a quartet of individuals that were trying to stealthily make their way to an exit. Armad turned his head to find this group, and saw that they were using the shrubbery to cover their supposed escape, and gave an devilish smirk at the futility of their attempt. Because an attempt at an unseen escape when there were Sith about was impossible.

Calling upon the Force to fuel his body, Armad sprinted off the platform that he had been standing on, and made his way around the long way to end up in the quartet’s path. Their attention was mostly focused on the Judges that they didn’t see his arrival in front of them.

“Well now, what have we here?” Armad queried when they rounded the closest bush. All of them jumped at the sound of his voice, and the three of females shrieked in surprise and huddled together as the male stepped up and put himself between them. Armad smiled internally as he drew his pistol slow enough to give the male a bit of hope as he lunged toward the Umbaran. The male turned as he grabbed the pistol, attempting to wrestle it from the his grasp. Just as the male’s back bumped into his chest, Armad slide his stiletto into the male's’ back, piercing the lungs so he couldn’t scream or cry out in pain. Relishing in the fresh kill, Armad stepped back and yanked the blade out, as the male’s body crumbled to the ground.

Armad flicked the blade at one female, that had managed to snap out of her fear and try to run away, catching her in the back of her right leg. She cried out in surprise and pain as she fell to the ground. Armad pulled out his Electro-whip and flicked it at one of the remaining females still huddled in fear, catching her arm as she instinctively raised it to protect herself. Thumbing it on, he watched as she screamed in pain as the electricity started coursing through her body. Because she was touching the other female, Armad was gifted with watching them both writhe in pain.

Reaching out his hand to pull the stiletto back to his hand, at the same time he released the button pulsing electricity into the two females. The one female started to try and crawl away, so Armad gave her a nod of approval to her fortitude as he raised his blaster and fired a single shot into the back of her head. As he turned back to toward the two remaining females, one of them had managed to find a makeshift weapon that she clumsily swung at him. While it didn’t directly hit him, it did hit his hands enough that he dropped both his blaster and whip. Angered at that and for not sensing it coming, Armad turned fully towards the females, reached across to his left side and in one fluid slashing motion, decapitated both the females as the knelt on the ground.

Picking up his weapons, Armad stashed them in their proper places before exiting the courtyard in search of any more dissidents that might have escaped.

The LAAT/c banked hard back and forth avoiding in the incoming fire from the base. The pilot deftly maneuvered the craft as he lead the small group of four LAAT/c’s carrying the Night Hawks and a small contingent of a Line Company from 2nd Line’s Assault Battalion.

“Passing through the outer range of the base's defenses.” The pilot of the craft that Armad was currently in stated over the group’s shared comms.

“Scyk Squadron, begin your run. Remember, ions only. I want the base intact.” Armad was about to key his mic off, but thought better of it. “Varuk, I mean it. Do NOT destroy any of the defenses.”

After about 5 minutes the amount of fire that was pounding on the LAAT/c trickled down until there was nothing hitting their shields or armor. Armad looked up from his datapad, activating his comm, “Varuk report.”

A brief moment of static before Varuk came across the channel. “Base defenses offline, two bombers down and I'm barely in the air with one engine.” Another couple of seconds of static. “Several hostiles down, the rest are running for the main building.”

Though DarkHawk was the leader of the Night Hawks, Armad had been given command of the mission. His plan was to take this small force of soldiers and the Night Hawks in AT-TEs carried by LAATs on a straight course toward the base, getting their attention. Then Scyk Squadron, temporarily led by Varuk Kru, came in from space in a nose dive attack, aimed at disabling the defenses. After that, the aim was to land a pair of AT-TEs outside either gate and secure the buildings as they came across them. “Get to the base's hangar and secure it, you’ve got soldiers, DarkHawk and Druda headed your way to back you up.” Armad ordered, while tapping some commands in his datapad, letting a couple of squad sergeants know that their orders had changed. Ashia, Teu and Firith would assault the Maintenance Garage side, while Armad would hang back enough to make sure things went smoothly.

“Set us down outside the Maintenance Gate.” Armad ordered the pilots. Pulling out his datapad, he set about checking over the group's orders. Having made sure that everything was in order, Armad did a quick check of his equipment before they were dropped off.

“Dropping in 3...2...1. Released. Happy hunting, Night Hawks.” The pilot announced as the AT-TE settled on the ground and began lumbering toward Dlarit Military Base Alpha. Since both of the bases were identical to each other, Armad and Jurdan were given the choice of which base they would like to assault. Jurdan liked the idea of unknown things in the dark at Bravo, so Armad reluctantly agreed to take on Alpha.

Soldiers poured out of their respective transports and set about securing the immediate area. Other squads were rushing into and assaulting the maintenance garage. Armad walked with Ashia, Teu and Firith toward the garage behind the soldiers, letting them do their job before it was necessary for one of them to set in. Armad could hear blaster rifle fire coming from the Hangar, but this group was oddly quiet. He understood why when he walked through the maintenance bay doors, which looked as though they hadn’t been closed in a couple of years. Snow blanketed much of the floor, some even reaching the back legs of a massive AT-AT that was just sitting dormant among the other walkers. Their gears and fluids must have frozen long ago, and the forces here couldn’t get them up and running by the time that Armad and his forces arrived. To which Armad was glad for, as those vehicles would have made this assault more costly than what he’d predicted.

After a while, Armad got the report that the hangar was secured, as well as all the outlying buildings that they could access without entering the main complex. Knowing that the main building was next, his forces set themselves outside the entrances and awaited the order to breach. This was the part that Armad would liked to have been a part of. The Night Hawks were to ascend to the top of the building and make their way down, taking out any opposition that they came across and just being a distraction so that the Legion forces could sweep and secure the rest of the building. Armad was certain he knew how the Sadowans with him would reach the top, jump with the aid of the Force. But he was unclear as to how Varuk and Druda were going to get up to the top, Armad had offered the use of his Security S-5 Heavy Blaster Pistol for the liquid cable launcher. DarkHawk had refused, said they'd get up there, all the with a smirk in his face.

The squad Sergeants all reported that they were in place and ready to go on his signal. Ashia, Teu and Firith had already jumped up to the roof and were awaiting DarkHawk, Varuk and Druda. A loud “Waaaaiittt” echoed across the comms as we could only assume that DarkHawk had figured out an inventive way to get Druda up onto the roof. A few chuckles could be heard through the comms as some had undoubtedly been on the receiving end of one of DarkHawk’s sense of humor.

“Go, go go.” Armad stated into his comlink. Giving the signal to storm the complex and secure it.

For the next 20 minutes, there was quite a bit of comm traffic as soldiers and Sadowans alike were confronted with resistance. Calls for assistance and all clears for certain sections were heard at a steady rate, indicating that all was going according to plan. At about 15 minutes into the assault, Armad heard several calls from soldiers being killed off, and from those behind them asking “What was that thing?!”

“It looks like a Wampa!”

“Why are our shots just bouncing off it?!”

Then calls of “Where are our FU’s?”, which was code, or soldier slang for the Dark Jedi and Sith that usually accompany them on missions like this.
“We are here. Watch our backs.”

Then it was all over. Alpha base was secure. Once all squad leaders reported in, just over the minimal expected loss that he had accounted for, though the loss of two Y-wing bombers would be costly.

Panic. Confusion.

Warhost soldiers were strategically retreating, running a couple of meters before turning and providing cover fire for the others. Their shots passing right through the spectres even though they knew that it wasn’t effective, they kept doing it to keep their minds focused on the training and not succumb to fear.

Evelynn and Lilith split off from each other once the Warhost soldiers started leap frogging each other in retreat. Each pausing with their groups to focus on the spectres, trying to get a sense of what they were up against. Both realized that the platform had been booby trapped, but Lilith was clueless as to what it had been and why she didn’t see it before it was sprung. Something that vexed her during their retreat back to the atrium.

Evelynn and Lilith burst in the atrium before their soldiers did, immediately yelling orders to run to the technicians who were staring at the access tunnels that the teams had gone down. Moments later, Tasha’Vel and Armad’s group rushed from their tunnel, soldiers first followed closely by Tasha and Armad. Armad was throwing a telekinetic blast back towards the spectres down their tunnel as he exited. Tasha glanced over at Evelynn and Lilith and caught the raised eyebrow from Evelynn, presumably about the Force blast.

“Does that actually work?” Evelynn yelled out. Continuing to run, Tasha shook her head no.

Armad heard the query and saw his partner's response, “It makes me feel better!”

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ktScu9tzhvorcAaZHaNymwbHBUUBsrMGyhx_RWwi6E/edit?usp=sharing

The sound of the wind rushing past his head was muffled through the borrowed Legion helmet. Normally, he would forego the armor set helmet, but this mission called for it, at least for the beginning. Numbers kept scrolling past on his heads up display indicating that the ground was quickly getting closer. Armad didn’t like this idea when it was first thought up, but he was starting to like the thrill of the free fall. Their shuttle, after depositing him and his team at the 11,000 meters, climbed back into space and took up station above the Cathedral.

7000 meters.

Questor Keibatsu wanted to reclaim the former home of House Marka Ragnos, his only stipulation was that there be minimal collateral damage to the facility itself. Armad had groaned at that thought when they were in the planning stages of this mission, as that would limit what arsenal they would be allowed to bring.

5000 meters.

During a break in the mission planning, Armad was looking at some holo-recordings of the interior of random areas inside the Cathedral when a capture of the Dark Library flashed past. Immediately stopping the display, Armad brought that capture back and stood looking at it for a moment before turning back to the conference table that they had been working at and shuffled some datapads around until he found the one that contained the schematic for the Dark Library. Quickly scrolling through the information there, Armad flicked the screen in triumph and called for everyone to come back.

3000 meters.

“It could work.” Armad had said, defending his plan against the skeptical looks he was getting from those in attendance. “But that now begs the question, how do we get to that point?” He gestured to the holo of the Cathedral’s exterior. Silence permeated the room.

“We come in from above.” The leader of the team stated as he pointed to the skylight above the Dark Library. The other soldiers around the table gave their thoughtful agreements, while surprise and a small bit of panic washed across Armad’s face.

“I know I’m going to regret this, but how?” Armad reluctantly asked, grimacing at what he knew was to come next.

“We free fall onto the roof and cut our way in.” The team leaders stated matter of factly, grinning from ear to ear. Armad laughingly groaned at the prospect of this. “Once on the roof, we will cuth the transparisteel out of the slot and drop down into the Dark Library. From that point on we will follow your lead, sir.” The team leader finished, gesturing toward Armad.

1500 meters.

The team had gone through their pre-mission rituals, checked and rechecked their equipment, as Armad did the same with his borrowed gear. The team leader gave Armad a quick lesson on the equipment and what he would need to do during the free fall and for the landing.

1000 meters.

The plan was to open their parachutes at 100 meters, disconnect from that at 50 meters and use rocket packs to slow their descent the remaining distance. Armad had told them all that they were all crazy after they all excitedly agreed that this would be a new first for them.

500 meters.

“You guys are insane!” Armad frantically yelled over the helmet comms. To which he was answered with excited laughter. He had to laugh at himself for that, but now was the time that he needed to focus or he could die. So he took a quick calming breath and concentrated on the moment.

250 meters.

Armad placed his thumbs on the activation buttons; one to release the chute, the other to activate the rocket pack’s thrusters.

100 meters.

One by one, each of the team members’ chutes opened. Jerking them to a quick stop before their forward momentum had them descending again at a fraction of the speed.

50 meters.

Pulling the strap at his right shoulder, Armad detached his chute from it’s harness, dropping him the remaining distance. Each member fired off their own rocket packs to slow them down enough to make a bone jarring landing.

At this point they weren’t too worried about noise this high up, but they were hoping that their insertion method went unnoticed by anyone within. The team leader started making gestures to his team and they nodded in acknowledgement, going about their assigned tasks. Three of them started scouting what areas of the roof that they were able to get to that might have another access point that they could use as well to get inside. The team leader and armad stood watch, peering down into the library toward the main door and the raised dais of the Dark Librarian. The last team member started feeling along the seam of the smallest pane of transparisteel that was large enough for them to fit through. Once he was set up, he looked up toward his team leader and Armad signifying that he was ready to start. Armad concentrated on the transparisteel pane through the Force, holding it in place while that team member began cutting at the edges.

By the time the team member was done cutting through, the rest of the team had returned and Armad was sweating from the exertion of holding the pane in place for so long. He shut off his torch and backed up so Armad could lift the pane out and gently place it off to the side. Once he released it and the Force, Armad had to place his hands on his knees and take several minutes to catch his breath. After catching his breath, he turned back to the team and saw that they had already set up the rappelling equipment and were making their way down the 100 meters to the library floor. The team leader was the last up top, and helped Armad hook up his harness and slip through the empty plane slot and quickly descended. With everyone now on the within the library, the team leader motioned for his team to secure the room.

While they were going about their tasks, Armad had his to accomplish. Turning to face the back of the main floor, Armad took in the vastness of the library itself. Armad made his way to the dimly lit corridor that leads to the stone doors that lead to the Dark Librarians area. Walking up to the doors, Armad ran his hand along the inlaid symbol of Marka Ragnos before placing it in the center of the symbol and closed his eyes in concentration. He was lucky that they had been able to contact the former Dark Librarian, as he was able to give Armad some much needed guidance on how to enter his previous domain. Armad had talked at length with him trying to get a better picture of what the library was like. The Dark Librarian had warned of the whispers that he would need to get past before he would be able to access the terminals in his secured work area. These whispers would only be heard by one that is calm and wishing to further their knowledge. Since he had always thought of knowledge as power, he didn’t have too much trouble focusing enough to be able to clearly hear the whispers. The Dark Librarian had also warned that the whispers may cause some pain to those who had not heard them before, so Armad steeled himself against the possible coming pain. Even with that, it still managed to almost make him throw up from the sudden excruciating pain that came.

“What is knowledge?” Armad heard in his mind. The Dark Librarian had cautioned him to pay very close attention to what the question was, as it was not a generalization question but rather a personal one. Armad had balked at the thought of solving a riddle to accomplish this mission, but reluctantly gave in when he was told that there was no other way.

Armad had smirked at this question, as this was something that he had been mulling over from time to time. Knowledge, what was knowledge to him? “The path.” Armad confidently stated to the whispers, both aloud and with his mind. He nervously waited on the whispers, wondering if they would open the doors or subject him to horrible pain. After a few moments, the stone doors opened, allowing him access to the inner sanctum. Rushing down the steps, Armad quickly scanned the walls, looking for the staircase that would lead him to the Dark Librarian’s work area. Locating the staircase, Armad wound his way through the tables that staggered around the room and bounded up the steps to the work area.

Now the Dark Librarian had been specific, as had Muz, about what he needed to do in order to access the Cathedral’s systems from there without tripping any alarms or corrupting the system itself. So between the three of them, they devised a program that would do that for him. While he was working on the coding, Armad came up with his idea for taking the out any squatter gangs that had taken up residence within the cathedral. The Dark Librarian looked mortified at using the system in such a way. Muz had not looked amused at first, but once he heard the whole plan he cracked a smile.

Plugging in the second datapad to the correct terminal and linking it to his personal one, Armad left to return to the main floor and the rest of the team. As Armad exited the corridor, he reactivated his comm-link in his helmet and asked, “Phase 3?” After seeing an affirmative nod from the team leader he continued on toward the main doors. Hoping that he had recovered enough from earlier to open them.

The last thing that the Dark Librarian had to offer for this mission was the thought projection that he would need to know to open the Dark Library’s main doors. It had taken him nearly two hours to get it right...to the Dark Librarian’s satisfaction. By the end, Armad had been so frustrated and angry that he almost attacked the Dark Librarian. Just before he was about to, the Dark Librarian exclaimed, “There! Whatever you did just then was perfect!” Now he just had to recreate that moment without the aid of a constant barrage of ‘that’s not good enough, do it again.’ But since he had done it once before, he knew that he would be able to do it again...hopefully.

Handing his datapad to the team leader, “Once the door starts to open, activate the program, then set up the trap. Muz’s forces outside should have drawn all but a meager force for us to deal with.” Armad instructed through the open comm they all shared. Facing the doors, Armad formed the thought projection in his mind focusing it on the doors to unlock them. Once he thought he had the correct image, he put his hands up in front of him concentrating on pushing the doors with the Force. In his mind he just knew that he had to right thought projection, but the doors would not unlock and his pushing on them with the Force was doing nothing besides tiring him out. The more that he tried, the more frustrated he got, and the more tired he got from the constant use of the Force. He lost track of time and hoped that he wasn’t going to take the same amount of time that it took for him to get it right the first time. Then after a few tries, Armad heard a click and felt the doors give way through the Force. Gathering what he could in his hands, Armad gave one last push with the Force and was rewarded with the doors creaking open about two meters.

Stumbling backwards into a table, Armad leaned on it for support as the team members rushed through the doors into the corridor. The team leader came across the comm, “You good to go?” As he was moving more of the gear through the doors for his team to set up.

Before he could answer a hologram of Muz appeared in the center of the main room of the library. “I am Muz Ashen, the Lion of Tarthos. I have come to reclaim the former home of House Marka Ragnos.” Muz had not really been amused or thrilled that he would need to be in full battle armor for this recording, but he had reluctantly agreed to it. “I have left an emissary in the Dark Library for those of you that are left inside. I wouldn’t try calling for reinforcements as I have locked the front doors. You are in my house! It is time to leave.” The recording of Muz finished and vanished.

Armad chuckled at the thought of what anyone left inside was thinking, but now he knew that he had another part to play. “Phase 4 ready?” Armad asked over the comms, as he pushed himself up and started walk to and through the huge wroshyr wood doors. “By the way, how long did that take me?” He asked, hoping that it really didn’t take as long as he thought it would have.

“Twenty minutes.” The team leader stated. “The gas canisters are set, as are the stun traps.” The plan called for capture and interrogation of those that were left inside the cathedral. They were going to gas all those that came into the corridor leading to the library, and shock stun any that made it past that.

“Huh, took less time than I thought.” Armad mumbled more to himself than across the open comm. He took up his position just outside the doors, and stood there in his borrowed Iron Legion Special Forces Armor waiting for the first of the unsuspecting to come their way. He caught a blaster rifle that one of the team members tossed him, and made sure that it was set to stun. “Remind me put in for a vacation after this.” Armad half joked as he took a knee and readied himself for anything that came their way. Canisters started going off filling the area with knockout gas, several dropped as soon as they figured out what was going on. The rest had helmets on and made it through the gas, but the stun traps got most of them. The rest, Armad and the team, shot with stun bolts from their blaster rifles.

Why did there have to be so many scientists that had worked on this stupid virus. He had ‘visited’ three of the scientist’s homes, hoping to have found something that would have linked them to the virus, but nothing as of yet. This scientist was the last on the list that his Summit had given him, and he was glad that this was the last, but also annoyed that he hadn’t found anything of value yet. From the fact that he hadn’t been called off this assignment yet, meant that the others hadn’t found anything yet either.

Standing outside the door to the doctor’s house, Armad placed his hand on the door and concentrated. He was able to get the sense that he had left some time ago, and wouldn’t return for a couple more hours, at best. Looking down at the keypad, Armad gave a vexing sigh, “This one is either very paranoid, or he has something to hide,” Armad thought as he look at a top notch three tiered security keypad. Thinking about it for a minute, Armad was able to discern that he would be able to get past numerical passcode easy enough, and the thumbprint scanner with some luck, but the keycard might prove a bit tricky. But he was getting rather bored, and he knew that he would start to look suspicious just standing here staring at a door after a while. So taking a quick look around to make sure no one was paying him any attention, he took a deep breath and placed one hand on the keypad, and the other on the door handle, and concentrated on finding the connection between the two. Armad’s brow furrowed in concentration when he wasn’t able to immediately find the connection between the keypad and the lock for the door.

Opening his eyes, Armad took a step back in mild disbelief, “Really?” he thought to himself. “It can’t be that simple.” Armad said aloud. Stepping back up to the door, Armad grabbed and turned the doorknob., using just a bit of the Force to force the lock to disengage and opened the door. Quickly stepping in and shutting the door behind him, Armad did a quick survey of his surroundings. Not hearing an alarm or sensing any traps meant to harm him, Armad started to wander around the house looking for a secret room or the good doctor’s study. He had found the doctor’s study early on, but continued to look around the house for good measure.

Upon entering the scientist’s study, after not finding anything anywhere else in the house, Armad saw that the side walls were lined with filled bookshelves. There was an ornate wooden desk centered in front of an equally large window at the back of the room. With an exasperated sigh Armad walked in and around the desk, rummaging through the papers strewn about the desk. Powering on the terminal that was sitting in the center of the desk, Armad continued to search through the papers and notebooks lying on the desk. He was looking through a personal journal that he’d found in the top desk drawer, when a tone from the terminal indicated it was fully powered up.

“So much for this being easy,” Armad mumbled as he saw a single text box in the center of the screen asking for a passcode. He pulled out his datapad from it’s pocket, plugged it into the terminal and tapped a few commands; one to start a program to crack the passcode, and another to copy and download the terminal’s contents. Setting his datapad down to let it do it’s thing, Armad went back to the journal he’d been reading. He was flipping through the middle pages when he heard his datapad chime, he looked up and smiled. He put his hand in the shape of a pistol and mock shot the terminal. “Gotcha.”

He had found a couple of entries that caught his attention. The first entry was about how he had stumbled across this virus when he accidentally dropped a tray of multiple other viruses. And being the ever curious scientist, he decided to see what this combination would do on living cells. The second entry was dated six months after the first entry, and talked about how a Pantoran approached him about the mixed virus that he had created. He talked about how he was scared at first and then wondered how they knew about it as it was kept under intense security. He stated that he was going to deny what they were talking about and refuse to help them. But when they offered his own lab and unlimited funding, he wrote that he faltered and accepted their offer. After that entry there was nothing else that indicated anything about the virus or the Pantoran, or the group that they represented. Putting the journal down, Armad looked at his datapad, expecting to see that it was almost done downloading...75 percent. It was better than he was actually thinking it would have been. With nothing left to do but wait, Armad picked up another journal and started thumbing through, it was a scientific journal that he understood about half of it.

“Uhm, hello?” a voice said from the doorway. “Can I help you?”

Armad froze for a brief moment, as if getting caught doing something he knew he shouldn’t have been doing, before regaining his senses, and looked up toward the doorway, noticed that the scientist was standing there with a female Mirialan and a male Kaleesh, both of whom were holding blaster pistols casually aimed at him. “Hey there, I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.” Armad joked and glanced down at his datapad, seeing that it was only at 85 percent. Slowly standing, Armad put the journal down and raised his hands about halfway up in a gesture of compliance with the non-verbal meaning of the blasters aimed at him.

“You tripped a failsafe embedded in the keypad out front,” the Mirialan stated as two bodyguards took a step further into the room and more to the side to give them better angles on him. The scientist remained standing in the doorway, a look of panic and fear was plastered to his face. “Who are you and what are you doing here? I only ask once.” The Mirialan demanded, the expression on her face blank and her presence in the Force was surprisingly calm. The Kaleesh was the complete opposite, fury and rage poised on the edge waiting for Armad to do something that he didn’t like.

Not really wanting to put on too much more airs about what he was after, so Armad just said what needed to be said, “You two can leave or die, I just want him.” When he felt surprise suddenly blossom from all three of them, Armad knew that this was the time for him to strike to end this quickly. Armad dropped his hand to his lightsaber. He sensed the Kaleesh fire first and brought his other hand up defensively. He willed the Force to coalesce within his palm, redirecting the quick shots harmlessly away. He was able to draw his lightsaber and get it ignited in time to deflect the shot from the Mirialan into the Kaleesh’s left shoulder. Because of the bolt hitting him in the shoulder, he was off balance when he shot, which Armad was able to redirect into the chest of the Mirialan, killing her before she was able to get off another shot. As he was thrusting his left hand, Armad gathered the Force and pushed it toward the Kaleesh knocking him back into the bookshelves behind him. Jumping around the desk Armad rushed forward and stabbed the Kaleesh in the chest to finish him off.

A little out of breath from exerting himself, Armad looked toward the scientist, who had dropped to the floor when the shooting started. “Don't move from that spot or I will hurt or kill you...haven't decided yet.” Armad dictated. He returned to the desk to check on the progress of the download, 95 percent. “Come on!” He exclaimed. He looked up to see the scientist trying to scoot out the door. But he froze when he saw he got caught. “I do NOT want to carry you, but I will shoot you in the leg.”

Manually added by Warrior DarkHawk

As Armad walked the outskirts of the Northern Coast, his datapad chimed to let him know that he had received new information. He paused alongside a ruined guard shack for what he assumed had been a rather pricey neighborhood, he checked his datapad and saw that about half of his recon droids had either been destroyed or disabled. The Hydroponics facility? Interesting that none droids were able to get within a hundred meters of it. Armad tucked his datapad back into the bulk pocket of his overcoat as he felt a menacing male presence as it moved in his general direction. Armad didn’t physically react to this, but turned to walk away toward the nearest access point into the Auxiliary.

“Hey!” The man yelled at him, but Armad kept walking away. “Hey you! Stop!” There was no warning that he’d shoot, but Armad felt the man aim in his direction and fired. Armad just froze when the bolt streaked into the ground next to his feet.

“All right, all right!” Armad said as he put his hands up in surrender. He gave a slight pause at the fact that he was still in his battle armor, though he was glad he had enough foresight to tuck his lightsaber away in a sleeve pocket. He didn’t want to get outed as a Force-user, not yet anyway. As Armad turned around he noticed that there was now three beings with blaster rifles aimed at him.

“What are you doing out here?” The male asked as he walked toward him from the ruined guardshack. Armad could tell that this guy was just the perimeter muscle, hired to keep those that employed him safe from any riffraff that came along looking for hand-outs or trouble. Armad watched as the big guy looked him up and down, gauging how much trouble he would be. The big guy walked up to Armad and stopped about a meter away, “Well? I asked you a question.”

“Out for a stroll?” Armad quipped, as he looked to see if he could bluff his way out and get back to what he had to do. The guard didn’t seem to buy it, as he didn’t even crack a smile at the obvious lie. Armad put his hands down as the guard started to close the distance between them. Instead of taking a second step, the guard lurched forward and struck Armad in the gut. Caught completely by surprise, Armad doubled over in pain as the air was knocked out of him. The guard grabbed him by the loose garment at his shoulder, and stood him upright.

“Uh uh, out for a stroll. I really don’t believe you.” The guard stated, then released him which caused him to drop to his knees. “Bring him up to the house. We’ll ask the boss what she thinks,” the guard said to his two compatriots as he backed up and pulled off the heavy metal glove off his right hand. That would explain how that punch had been so effective against the armor that he had on, Armad realized. As the two guards came forward, Armad contemplated revealing who he was so he could leave, but he was mildly curious who this boss was and why she was up here with guards. After a second or two of thought, he came to the conclusion that this could prove interesting so he decided to cooperate.

The house he was being escorted to looked to have escaped the devastation that had befallen Kar Alabrek, mostly. The main house was still intact, but the guard house and a couple of the outer houses had some damage, as far as Armad could tell. One of the guards thought that Armad was walking too slow so he pushed him up the steps to the mansion, causing him to stumble up the steps a bit. When he made it to the top of the steps after he caught his balance, Armad was greeted by two more guards brandishing blaster rifles. Neither of them looked directly at him as he walked past them.

“Stand here.” His captor told him with a jerk on the back collar of his coat. Armad obliged and looked around at the decor of the foyer. Simple and inviting, probably meant to visitors feel more at home and less like they were prisoners, he thought to himself. Armad focused his attention on the next room he could tell that there was at least five other beings in the next room, with probably around half a dozen guards in the other rooms. Armad could hear muffled voices coming from that room, and at least one of them was displeased with his guard. At one point Armad heard one of the others yell, “How dare you presume to know what Leader wants!” Silence followed that outburst and Armad could only assume was Leader calming his subordinate and telling the guard to bring him before them. He knew that he was correct when the guard came to get him and roughly shoved him into the room. Armad was ready this time and had started to walk just before the guard went to shove him. This gave Armad the opportunity to enter the room, as the guard was thrown off balance.

Armad could feel the hatred burst from the guard and without taking a look, knew that he wanted to punish the Umbaran for humiliating him in front of his boss. Armad was about to react to inevitable attack when a female, sitting in a plush chair along the back wall, raised a hand that stopped the guard from attacking.

“That is no way to treat a guest,” she said sweetly, gesturing for Armad to step forward.

Armad stopped at the center of the room, and gave the woman a respectful bow while trying to get a sense of her through the Force. From what he was able to glean from her emotions was that she was trying to put on an air of confidence and sincerity, but he could feel underlying emotions of worry, deceit, and an very large sense of superiority over those she commands. Straightening from his bow, “What is this place?” he queried, still standing in place with his hands clasped behind him.

“This is Haven. A place of refuge for those that have either had their homes or livelihoods destroyed from the devastation that befell us, or escape from those trying to take advantage of them.” She declared. Armad heard the guard barely snort at that speech, which made him rethink his immediate acceptance of her speech as a good thing and realized that this was probably a front of some sort.

“So this is a front of some kind? Who do you work for, and where can I find them?” Armad enquired, surveying where everyone was at in the room. “And why do you call yourself Leader? Is that a code name?” Armad finished and brought his hands around in front of him and pulled his blaster pistol out.

At this point, he could feel the shock as it rippled through the room. The woman jumped to her feet and exclaimed, “Why aren’t you restrained, and why are you still armed!” The guard behind him stammered through some unintelligible words before lifting his blaster rifle towards Armad. The Battlemaster quickly turned and fired a bolt into his chest, dropping him and his rifle to the ground. Quickly turning back around, Armad saw the woman try to make a dash for one of the side doors, but he aimed in front of her and fired a shot off, stopping her in her tracks.

“Nope, have a seat,” he intoned, gesturing back to her plush chair with his blaster. Three other guards rushed into the room pointed rifles at him, but they didn’t fire when they noticed that he was aiming at their boss. “Drop ‘em and back up against the wall,” he instructed as he looked over his shoulder at them. When they didn’t immediately do as he asked, he looked back at the woman with a scowl.

“Do as he says,” she instructed her guards. Sitting back down in her chair, she asked. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Someone not to be trifled with.” Armad coldly stated as he pulled his comlink out of his pocket. “Warhost Null from Shadow.” Getting a response, Armad continued. “Null send a couple of squads and an interrogation unit to my location.” Armad put his comlink away before the affirmative was even given, then turned his attention back to the woman in her chair. Her wide eyes betrayed her panic and fear that Armad could feel coming off her in waves. “Now that that is out of the way, why don't you tell me who your boss is Leader.” He said as he shifted his aim off her and at the three guards against the wall.

“Why should I tell you? If we are just going to end up like that guard you killed.” She countered, some of her courage had returned as she was calmer and motioned toward the guard behind him lying in heap.

Not breaking eye contact, “Oh him, he sucker punched me.” Armad's blank expression never wavered, but her smile disappeared. At that moment the sounds of transports arriving, as if punctuating his meaning. “Ah, now we can get started.” A feral smile blossomed on his face as he advanced toward her.