She didn’t like being summoned, but knew her brother trusted not even his beloved Exarchs to guard the Throne in his absence. Since the death of his Father, Arcann was now tied to the throne and was unable to manage and maneuver the same ways his Father did when he was alive. Vaylin knew that, it was the only reason she allowed herself to be summoned. Arcann would never bother to come to her even if he didn’t have the Throne and its control over the Eternal Fleet to worry about. Entering the throne room, Vaylin slithered slowly toward him, Arcann looked weathered and aged, the burden of the Empire taking its toll on him. But there was something more and as Vaylin got closer she could feel that weight cascade across the vast room toward her.
As was her normal routine, Vaylin sighed and acted annoyed. Arcann would typically look up and take in his sister as if he just noticed she was there, but something wasn’t right. For the first time in a long time, Arcann kept his head down and his eyes focused on the Eternal Fleet’s control system. This was curious and it made Vaylin even more interested in what she was being summoned for. She watched and waited eventually smacking her lips loudly to try and get a response. Finally, the old part of Arcann, Vaylin remembered looked up acting as if he didn’t know she was standing there.
“I was in the middle of interrogations. I hope this is important, I have not yet ascertained where it is our Mother may have gotten off to.”
Shaking his head Arcann looked back down. This did strike Vaylin as strange, even the passing mention of their wayward Mother almost always got a response, but not this time. Vaylin leaned over looking down at the control panel. Finally, Arcann looked up and seemed to be hiding something as he draped his arm across the screen to hide whatever he was looking at, quickly making an excuse to throw Vaylin off. She wasn’t buying it, but said nothing.
“Maintenance issues. The fleet has taken a beating at the hands of these various Resistance cells…”
Internally, Vaylin smiled. She knew he wasn’t going to say it. Just like she knew Arcann's predilection for pining away about his brother Thexan. It annoyed her. But Arcann would not mention the Alphas or the Coalition or the myriad of new resistance cells that were springing up due to his nemesis' reemergence in the galaxy. Vaylin had not yet taken an interest in Arcann’s obsession with Mrysti Alpha or any of the others. It didn’t interest her. The only contact she had was with the ‘super-soldier’ on Pzob during the invasion and that was brief. It tickled her to no end that it was the very same super-soldier that scarred Arcann horribly and forced him to wear the cybernetic mask as well as a replacement arm.
“I assume you called me here for ‘some’ reason then…I have people to find and information to squeeze…”, Looking up angrily at Vaylin, she quickly added, “…for you of course and for us.”
He sighed heavily and undraped his arm from the screen on the throne for Vaylin to see, which she immediately took interest in. The galactic status of the Eternal Fleet was almost always highlighted in green or blue indicating holding or movement of the fleet, but now Vaylin was seeing some red icons. She stepped back and didn’t say anything, her brow furrowing in concern.
“It’s more than maintenance issues. We may have to put some live bodies on some of the fleet carriers. The resistance is figuring out how to outsmart the droid controls and damaging the fleet.”
Vaylin smiled wickedly as Arcann used the word resistance and before she could stop herself she blurted it out, “Don’t you mean ‘The Hammer’ has figured you out….”
Slamming his hand down on the throne, it actually made Vaylin step back slightly as Arcann looked down again after hitting the throne, “I need…” Vaylin’s face grew skeptical as Arcann looked up at her and changed his tone, “…I mean, I would ‘like’ if you would take an interest in what is going on off-world for a bit and look into this. As you know…I am bound here and unable to leave to handle it on my own. I would you know…if I thought I could.”
It was more than she bargained for, finally Arcann was coming to her for something. For years she listened and watched as the two brothers became the center of the universe for their Father. It wasn’t until after Thexan’s death that they even noticed her. Not that their Father didn’t notice before, but finally she became more useful as one of the three were killed off. Now instead of listening to Arcann pine away about how Thexan would have seen things his way had he not killed him or how Arcann had no choice in the matter; Vaylin was being asked to do something. She waited before answering, just to see if her brother was going to add any additional instruction. Not hearing anything further Vaylin smiled in her sticky way tapping her brother’s shoulder.
“It’s a burden…I know. I so hate it for you, all of this responsibility. The entire Empire is yours to command and it is so hard to leave the confines of this space, even for a moment. I realize that.”, she smiled warmly, “Of course I will look into it for you…for us. I am sure I can find out something and perhaps even deal a blow to our ‘resistance’.”
Vaylin purposefully didn’t say the name as much as she wanted to, just to drive the dagger home a bit. Not hearing exactly what Arcann wanted her to do, she turned to leave, deciding on the long walk to the exit of the throne room that he was giving her free license to do whatever she felt like in regards to his instruction. Vaylin was going to do it her way even if he had said something, but he didn’t need to know that.
At the moment of his mortal death, the Emperor once again phased into the Force; half in and half out of the netherworld. As an actual ‘entity’ of the Force, the Emperor existed on many different planes, but for some reason and unknown to Mrysti or the other Alphas, he was tethered to his mortal plane. None of the Alphas were present for his metamorphosis as it occurred after most of them had gone into hiding. Something happened outside of the normal events that Mrysti and the others were a part of, but all of them felt it and were still feeling the after effects. The Sith Emperor was Valkorian. No one said it, but they all knew. Every being in the Force felt it as the shockwave that emanated from Zakuul rippled out of Wild Space and cascaded across the Galaxy. A message in the Force, that once again the Emperor was free and had been free for the previous five years.
The more important fact for Mrysti who was never overly concerned with the Emperor at all; no being that powerful could hold on to that level of power forever; was that now Arcann had ascended to the Eternal Throne. The War was back on, things were not going to change in that regard, but now the stakes became higher. Arcann, who had up till that point left Karolin and Mrysti alone after Mrysti went back to Zakuul to reacquire her, was now free to use the full power of the Eternal Throne anyway he saw fit. Of bigger concern, Arcann may become so agitated that he would turn his focus back to the Alphas. He was not known for restraint and was incredibly vindictive.
The only saving grace and it explained much to Mrysti after their previous encounter, was Arcann was tethered to the Throne now. It explained why she found him in the throne room, why he kept Karolin so close and why he didn’t leave it to pursue them after Karolin and Mrysti escaped. All of this was new news to Mrysti and the others, who had been in hibernation of five years. Even Karolin who was on Zakuul at the time all the events transpired didn’t even know everything that went on.
Still unaware of what exactly transpired, the Alphas continued to press their attack across the cosmos. Hitting the Zakuul anywhere at anytime and without warning. Always on the move, they were still not ready for full scale galactic war, but now things were about to change. Arcann had the Eternal Fleet, he had the resources necessary to pursue his enemies any way he saw fit. The question remained, would he secure his Empire or would he give in to emotion and pursue his enemies?
--
The droid controller brought Ship EE-0127 of sub-set 32 in line to dock with the Tatooine Star Fortress as the computer on both the ship and the Fortress aligned to bring ship in slowly. Porchia watched from almost a parsec away, her scanners tracking the ship's movement after the resistance captured and realigned its systems. This was a gamble, but the hard part was over. Approaching the Eternal Fleet was always risky, unlike a normal Republic or Imperial fleet, these ships always traveled in great numbers and knew no fear. Droid ships had no fear due to the lack of a humanoid element. But, it also made them vulnerable to attack in that they couldn’t foresee the chaos of a humanoid mind. Plans changed and the droids, though logical could not foresee all options.
They broke the ships systems, left them broken and sent a signal to the nearest Star Fortress of the need for this particular ship to dock for emergency repairs. This was the most tense moment of the whole Operation, this was the moment when they would see if their understanding of Zakuul technology was increasing or decreasing with more contact with them. Porchia bit into her nail bed watching the ship slowly move and finally come to a stop. Derrick looked over and slapped Porchia’s hand away from her mouth.
“Stop. It’s a lovely hand…it would be a shame to lose it…”
The Operation was as important to the Jedi Remnant as it was to the resistance, this would tell all of the scattered forces if there was a way to manipulate the Eternal Fleet. But, it wasn’t the only reason Derrick volunteered to go with Porchia. Karolin was getting on Derrick’s nerves. Since asking Karolin to marry him, Derrick had seen an increase in Karolin's nervous and anxious behavior. He thought asking her to settle down would have a calming effect on her, but it seemed to be having the opposite. Anxious, nervous, antsy; those were the words Derrick used to describe Karolin. She would not sit still and he saw a rise in some of her bad habits again. Some of which he knew she was hiding from him. The drinking and smoking started back up; but that wasn’t the worst of it.
Derrick just didn’t understand her. It seemed Karolin was simply trying to sabotage herself. The first time anything good comes along and she immediately goes into overdrive to destroy it. He was fed up, frustrated and unable to control her and that was the main issue he believed; that Karolin would not be controlled if she felt someone was trying to manipulate her. He decided to give her some space, volunteer to go back out and leave her be. Porchia looked at Derrick annoyingly and put the hand down, her eyes going straight back to the scanner as the screen indicated the ship they were watching had initiated docking procedures. Porchia increased sensor range to watch the ship dock with the adjacent Star Fortress, but was multi-tasking in her mind speaking on what she knew was bothering Derrick.
“It’s her way Derrick. Coming back out here and leaving her alone is NOT what she needs. Trust me, my Aunt Karolin raised me in the Jedi Temple, I know what kind of person she is. You being away from her…”, Porchia smiled sarcastically, “…you’re giving her free license to do whatever she wants. She’s doing it on purpose you know, self-sabotage. It’s what the both of them do.” Porchia was referring to both of her Aunts; Mrysti and Karolin. Derrick frowned and glanced down at the scanner. He had some idea about what Porchia was talking about even before he volunteered to go back out and give Karolin some space. But what else could he do?
“Yea…I kinda figured that. But…I just don’t get it…”
“What don’t you get? Karolin is a force…she is needy and requires constant attention. This is her way of driving you off so she can get it.” Porchia adjusted the controls and sat back looking at Derrick, “Listen, you need to smother her. Even if she gets pissed and tells you to ‘kriff off’ you need to suffocate her in attention and just refuse to go. It’s the only way to reach her. Just…saturate her to where she can’t get away.” Porchia laughed, “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, do you?”
Derrick smiled weakly, even Porchia saw it. Derrick was out of his depth. When they first met, Karolin tried to explain to Derrick that she didn’t expect anything from him, she tried to let him off the hook, but Derrick wasn’t leaving. At least not until now. Things had changed, Karolin was growing restless and the Jedi in him could sense the darkness in Karolin returning and with a vengeance. Perhaps it was the War starting back up, perhaps it was just being in proximity to so much death and destruction. Either way, Karolin was growing dark and it was driving a wedge between the two of them. Appetites Derrick was never trained to deal with or understand were driving his love away from him and he knew he had to do something. What, he had no idea.
Porchia held up a finger to silence Derrick as he was about to speak. She sat up quickly her eyes watching the screen intently as the ship changed from blue to green on her scanner, “We’re in business. Go aft and tell the engineers to initiate…”
--
As Vaylin entered the quadrant in her personal ship it was to the chatter of the droid controllers of the Eternal Fleet. Very little humanoid intervention was required with the fleet and it was just the way they liked it. People made mistakes, computers made calculations. The blinding flash lit up her forward viewport as the chatter of the droid ships stopped and was suddenly replaced with the final screams of the few humanoids on the Tatooine Star Fortress. The structure going up and exploding in a fiery ball of flame. Pieces floated by and headed toward the surface of the planet as Vaylin frowned. It wasn’t what she expected coming into the system, but it was why she was there. The resistance had struck again, this time taking a Star Fortress as prize and destroying it. Even without using the Force and her brilliant investigative prowess, Vaylin could already surmise what happened based on the final moments of chatter on the comm between the droid ships and the Fortress. The resistance had rigged one of the ships of the Eternal Fleet to explode on command.
It was as good a place to start as any, Vaylin being on a quest to find her Mother previously for the same reasons the Star Fortress just exploded right in front of her. Zakuul information and technology were leaking out and her Mother had everything to do with that. Her Mother as well as few other choice Zakuul traitors. Angling the ship toward the surface she contacted the planetary control system and arranged for docking, flipping her transponder to <off> as she did so.
“Yes…I am just some unknown, run of the mill bounty hunter coming in to get a breath of fresh air and sample the heat. Any docking bay will do….I am not picky…”
