Silence drummed in her ears, the beat of her pulse rocking her senses as he realized what it was she saw through the viewport. She shifted her head slightly, trying to focus in with her good eye. It was no model of star destroyer she had seen, not even in the databases, but it was huge.

"Hold position." Ji barked at the crewman standing closest. They repeated the order and the ship's engines cut, retro rockets firing to stop their movement in the void. She looked at it, ignoring the itch of her breath mask on the bridge of her nose. Stepping back from the transparisteel, she kept her eye locked on it. "Open up a channel to the Consul."

---

"How long will it take?" He looked up at the old man through white hair, blown by the wind that swerved through the crumbling walls. He waited for the answer, constructing a path or escape from the building, from the plot, from the known universe should this plan fail.

"It's a subtle working." Loira coughed quietly, putting a glass to his lips and swallowing before continuing. "I have it down to some specific trigger words."

"The elders, the Dark Council..." The question went unfinished.

Loira smiled at him. "Even the Lords would be affected. And they'll be too busy fighting each other to get beyond that."

The white haired man shrugged. "They say that when rancors fight, the ground is what loses."

Loira paused, looking into the man's eyes, a shocking blue with a grey star pattern in the center. "What do you care?"

---

Kaek grimaced at the blinding sun of the backwater planet as he stepped out of his transport. Another desert world, poor and uncivilized, and Kaek immediately hated it. He checked his belt, making sure that the canteen was still where he left it and pulled up his hood, wrapping a scarf around his face to keep the blowing sands from his throat.

His agents kept disappearing when he sent them here, and normally that would keep him from ever setting foot on the forsaken dustball, but curiosity drew him in, a whisper on the Fore that sang to him of untold power, of control beyond even his formidable reckoning. He waited as the droid unpacked his speeder bike, a custom job with silenced engines. Swinging his leg over the chassis, he mentally took inventory of the surrounding terrain, his mind racing as kicked the bike to life and bolted forward, his boots working the rocker pedals as he held on.

Bolting through boulders, he came to a cliffside and let the bike slide across, pressing down to the canyon floor a half mile below. As the wind tore back his hood, he felt the wind scream past his ears, his short hair, the ends of his scarf flapping wildly as it held to his face. Pulling the stick up, the bike all but bounced on the canyon floor as he pulled from the wall behind him.

---

Taigikori watched as Aabsdu's transport left the docking bay, the stylized helmet logo on the wing marking it as one of the newest house's property. Taigikori scratched his chin, amused by the changing loyalties of those who left the Dark Council. Turning from the bay, he strode with purpose to the turbo lift, placing his hand against the biometric scanner.

The lift's computer recognized him with a beep and the man smiled. The Seneschal must have already changed his position in the security clearances. He felt his stomach flutter as the lift barreled down, through countless tons of rock, his mind counting how many layers of library and training halls he was descending past to get down to the offices.

The doors opened, the pale light of the secure chambers of the Headmaster of the Shadow Academy bathing his features in a cool glow. He stepped from the lift, the doors silently closing behind him as he moved forward to the large and rounded desk, his eye catching the hidden display controls, buried and concealed in the accents of the architecture. He pulled the seat from the desk, his hand caressing the fine grain of the leather, wondering if it was bantha.

"It's Ewok." Muz spoke, appearing as if from nowhere, leaning against one of the walls, staring at one of the ancient Sith friezes. "Specifically, the Gondula tribe. Their fur is remarkably soft when harvested correctly. I have a few blankets made of their hides."

Taigikori didn't know if he wanted to cringe or not, and decided to just sit down, instead. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, my Lord?"

Muz turned slowly, a half smile crossing his lips. "We're going down to the Vault."

---

It's report time

First, a couple of announcements.

Ma'ar (Smoke) has been named as Fist of the Brotherhood, the guy responsible for the welfare and building up of our gaming community in the club. Since he was installed, he has already not only caught up with a lot of the duties left incomplete since the retirement of the Gaming Tribune, but he's also brought some great new ideas to the table. I look forward to seeing what else he will bring to the floor. He's also looking for a pair of magistrates t help him in his task. If you thnk you have what it takes, check out his news post and go apply.

Taigikori will succeed Aabsdu as Headmaster of the Shadow Academy. His work as Praetor was quite distinguished and I know him well from working with him on projects, not the least of which is the 'Grind Path' plan we have for journeymen. Taigikori brings a lot of enthusiasm and work ethic to the table here, and I think it is safe to say that we can expect great things from him.

finally, after much deliberation, the armed forces reset went out to the consuls. They have been working on it for some time, and a few clans have already sent their lists back to me. A few of the changes were that this time (and only this time) it was purely for ground forces. In the future, points earned in vendettas and the like would be able to be spent on fleet or ground forces, at each consul's discretion.

I have been working heavily on the next vendetta event, which is tentatively scheduled for this fall. There's not a lot that i want to release on it at the moment, but it will be a pretty radical departure from what we have done in the past.

I know, i keep saying that. But I really mean it. We're trying to sort out some new ideas, to see how well they work for these big competitions. No matter how these things look on paper, the real test is to see how they do when they are run, and these things were ways that have not been tried before, so I'm sure that there will be a few bumps in the road.

At any rate, expect a new vendetta this fall. If you read the fictional bits in my reports (I know, i didn't have them for a while, because people were whining, but I'll be doing them again), you'll see a lot of foreshadowing for the next vendettas and the eventual GJW (Tentatively scheduled for first quarter 2011). Also, a lot of sneaky stuff. :P

Speaking of which, Smoke and Halc have both been told to get me names of the most active members submitting to their comps during June for inclusion into the storyline of the next vendetta. While this has been done before, i still think its a bit of a nice perk to give away, to see your character stomping around with the big stuff that is happening, to be an integral part of the storyline in a canon aspect. So get on with it, and stomp those competitions.

TL:DR *Smoke is FIST *Taigikori is Headmaster *Moar fictional stuff *Next Vendetta tentatively scheduled for Fall

And that's all for this time. If you have any questions, or anything I can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun!