[RO Fun] Into the Unknown

This is a “for fun” RO involving the following members:

Alaisy Tir’eivra - 15526
Atra Ventus - 11708
Muz Ashen Keibatsu - 3714

Obscurus
Raider II-class Corvette
Unknown Regions

Atra Ventus allowed himself a sigh as two fingers pressed against his temple. There was little light to be found within the quarters the man had chosen to occupy, a sure sign that he had claimed it. That was the thing about Umbarans. They had sensitive eyes and found the darkness to be preferable over the alternatives. Plus, it had the not-so-displeasing side effect of making it seem like he wasn’t there.

Solitude, after all, was a precious commodity.

Still, Telaris’ Praetor knew there was no quiet to be found. As he stared at the dimly lit datapad, Atra was forced to greet the reality of the excursion he found himself on. The newly confirmed data was all the warning he needed. His golden pupils seemed to shine, set within black sclera that added to the light’s refraction, as he stared at the flickering, ghostly image of Muz Keibatsu, former Grand Master of the Dark Brotherhood, Son of Sadow, Lion of Tarthos, and quickly ascending to pain in Atra’s—

Again, Ventus sighed. How long had it been since the Umbaran had dealings with the Keibatsu? Any really? Even in that time, acting as a Proconsul for the clan of Naga Sadow, Atra never had actual dealings. Just reports and paperwork. So much paperwork. Near endless, really. Yet, that had been the reality of it. The thrills of the job and the bureaucracy those raised to the level of ‘summit’ quickly came to know.

But those weren’t the thoughts consuming Atra’s mind. You don’t bring in these kinds of reinforcements without a damned good reason, he thought. The former Grand Master was no doubt en route in The Fallen Spear and would meet with the Obscurus sooner rather than later. That was the most alarming of those heeding the call. Then there was, of course, himself. Thankfully, Atra had merely seized upon the opportunity to get out of the Brotherhood’s main systems of his own accord. No errands for Morgan.

That brought a smirk to the man’s lips. He enjoyed the back and forth ‘sass-offs’ he often had with the Deputy Grand Master.

Now, that left the others that had either volunteered or been ‘voluntold’ by their superiors. Atra idly scrolled through the list while his eyes flit across them with an impressive alacrity. No names that truly stood out. Though he found Tir’eivra to be oddly familiar. Ventus tapped his chin—more out of habit than any actual need to do so—as he tried to connect the dots. Then his eyes narrowed. Kordath, he thought with the word tinged as if to sneer. He so often tuned out what the birdrat had to offer in the way of verbal diarrhea that it was a rare thing for any of it to be committed to memory, but that name did ring true. “Alaisy, huh?” he murmured before disabling the screen with a tap.

Well, he couldn’t hide away forever. It was a big ship and Atra liked to know the long and short of things before getting into trouble.

An exploration mission into the Unknown Regions, eh? Not with those names involved. There was something else going on.

Obscurus
Raider II-class Corvette
Unknown Regions

If it wasn’t for her blackened visor, Alaisy Tir’eivra would’ve had trouble hiding her excitement. The slender, towering woman proudly strode through the grey halls of the Corvette in anticipation of seeing her assigned quarters.

Every now and again some of its crew would glance up when the loud tapping of her heels on the metal floor announced her unmistakable presence. A few peered up in confusion, several scoffed at her arrogant demeanor, and most of them were merely annoyed as it distracted them from their task at hand. However all those she passed by were forced to look upwards, something that instilled her with a feeling of confidence.

As a heavy door slid open, a spacious room revealed itself. Anything was better than that constricted feeling of Port Ol’val, this was luxurious in comparison with plenty of legroom. Despite what had possibly been her shortest briefing yet, most likely due to her, usual, late arrival, the jet black haired woman had been assigned to a vague mission that would lead her into unknown territory.

She was unsure why they picked her for the task, perhaps her fellow Arconans had the chance to choose their own assignments and knew it was better to avoid a journey into the unexplored reaches of space. Regardless of the risks, she was looking forward to a new experience, if only it was to find out what other members of the Brotherhood were like.

The Sith had her entire armament packed and made herself at home by placing her flamethrower against the smooth metallic wall. She then pulled off her face-mask, clipped it onto her waist belt, sat down and placed her legs onto the table right next to a holo-communicator.

With ashy grey eyes she stared at the fancy looking holo device in front of her, waiting for whoever it was to brief her on the assignment to come.

Bridge
ADS Fallen Spear
Unknown Regions

The Raider II-class loomed ahead of them, slowly growing larger against the sea of stars beyond. Blackwind turned, arms clasped behind his back, regarding the Lord, his old friend. “Are we intending on startling them, or shall we lower the cloaks?”

Ashen stood there for a moment, eyes taking in the sights through the viewscreen. The throne hadn’t asked him for a favor like this since… well, since Sarin. Pravus was rather content to let him continue his own ‘Crusade’ because it freed both of them from something. The message from Telaris was another matter, something intrinsically new. Not that he would blame him. It would be folly to not play the cards you had when you needed to. Still, asking him to meet the High Inquisitor out in unknown regions was ever more irregular, even given the situation. Relying on others was not a standard practice for him, given his capabilities. At any rate, odds were good that the Inquisitor knew he was there, having felt him in the Force. If not him, then one of his retainers would have felt him, as he had not made any effort to mask his imprint. He turned from the viewscreen, boots clacking on the floor. “Lower them.”

Blackwind nodded, then moved to the console. The Grand Master moved smoothly, turning to leave the bridge, raising his arm to key a message as the doors slid open. There was a chance, however unlikely, that there was an ulterior motive behind all of this. A cruel smile crept up the side of his face as he moved down the hall to the turbolifts. Hands casually rested on the pommels of his sabers as he stepped, mind tracing back the holos he had seen of the Combat Master. The man had spent a lot of energy obscuring his style, but the core below it was something that he was intimately familiar with. As he stepped into the turbolift, he let his mind slip into the deep, the mirth washing from his face as he felt along the currents, letting the Force whisper its secrets into his ears. Always in motion, indeed. But out of however many potential ends…

When the turbolift stopped, black eyes opened onto the docking bay. The Corvette’s airlock nearly connected through the faint haze of the bay’s control field. He felt them maneuvering in the wings behind him as their usual method, the routine smooth from iterations too many to count. Doc took up his flank, bucket on and hands on pistols. Leena leaned against a crate, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, one of her Lekku twitching as she pretended to read a manifest on a datapad, her other hand twitching toward a blaster. Hekate moved past her, stepping toward him, bowing slightly, then turning to face the same direction, mechanical hands pushing the outer folds of its robes back and resting on its sash. Muz raised a hand, closing the hand into a fist as he stepped forward away from them.

He had decided. If there was an attempt, he would enjoy the exercise.

The airlock opened, the pale light pouring forth as the Lion stepped forward.

Obscurus
Raider II-class Corvette
Unknown Regions

Atra sighed as he stood at the doors leading to the briefing room. For a moment, he savored the silence. As he breathed, the Umbaran could feel the tightness of the scars marring his right arm, on full display aside from the cloth wraps around his bicep and forearm. The grey, layered robes he wore covered the rest of the tapestry marring his torso. He never forgot a single one. They were reminders of past failures…and successes.

Finally, the Praetor gathered himself and took a long step forward. It triggered the motion sensor and the doors split open. There were many faces already gathered around the holo-communicator that was central to the room. Atra recognized precisely none of them. Nor did he expect to. His time as Combat Master, memorizing dossier upon dossier, were long past. And so, with no expectations whatsoever, Atra found his way towards the back of the room and took up a relaxed lean against the metallic panels, his arms crossed lazily over his chest.

After a longer than would be desirable wait, the glow panels dimmed and the holo-communicator whirred to life. The blue glow it provided painted the faces of the onlookers as the shape of some random officer came into being.

Atra was already regretting leaving his quarters.

"To all those assembled, first I’d like to offer my thanks. Thanks that you were wise enough to volunteer for such a mission. Without knowing exactly what you were to face, or what exactly was being asked, you still volunteered. Truly an admirable quality.

“Now, I need to be extremely clear in telling you that this mission is of the utmost importance. This isn’t just a simple exploration mission. Indeed, that mission had already begun…and has been in progress for quite some time. It is that mission we have lost contact with. The last transmission was one of distress en masse. Every point of contact we had established put out the same warning before cutting out entirely. All we know is that they have been attacked. It is your mission to secure these exploratory sites once more and eliminate any potential threats.”

The Praetor groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Unfortunate,” he managed to groan as the reality set in.

No wonder so many big names had been brought in. Beyond that, it explained the former Grand Master’s presence. Despite taking his leave early on in the Dark Crusade, Atra still remembered the premise all too well. He had heard that Ashen had continued that crusade even after the Brotherhood itself shifted away. A one-man army seeking to purge all traces of the One Sith he was convinced existed.

“—you are to meet in the docking bay where other more specialized individuals await you for assignment to teams,” the officer concluded. “Failure is not an option.”

Light returned to the room as the communicator deactivated, causing Atra to squint for the briefest of moments as his black-gold eyes adjusted. That was it, he guessed as he looked around. He had never really felt dismissed before, but he supposed that was just what had happened. The idea of working with others didn’t exactly appeal to him, but…he didn’t exactly have a choice. You get what you volunteer for, after all.

Regret. Lots of regret.

Obscurus
Raider II-class Corvette
Unknown Regions

As if pleased to have accomplished something of note, a faint smile reflected back at her from the mirror as she pulled her mask back over her face. Her visor turned opaque the moment she uttered the words, “my favorite color.”

Habitually she spent seemingly extraneous time boosting her confidence by securing her many buckled straps and snapped her wrist-blasters onto her forearms. Once fully clad in black, she clipped her crimson adorned lightsaber and whip to her waist-belt. Assuredly she pushed herself onto her feet, en-route towards the briefing room, leaving her flamethrower behind in the cabin.

It was her intention to arrive slightly belated, not only to avoid the risk of being the awkward one to arrive there first, but also in order to skip any needless discussion that always seemed to arise before meetings truly get off the ground. And she did hate gatherings, especially those with a political or diplomatic angle.

That the gathering might become a drawn out one worried her, but that quickly dissipated as she advanced further and gained a sense of the power emanating from the room.

Some heads turned as the tapping of her heels clearly announced her presence, but most immediately focused back on the holo-emitter as it gradually filled the conference room with blue light.

She ran her gloved fingers over the cold metallic wall before leaning gently against it, opting not to sit down at the table. Her own thoughts ran wild as she studied the figures sitting at the conference table, both excited to finally see those in higher places and also slightly terrified at what might be awaiting her should she frack up.

Her attention flickered as thoughts nearly drowned out the mission briefing itself. When the Sith woman pointed her eyes at the blue figure she noticed it was unremarkably a person dressed in a generic officers uniform. She caught the gist of the message after hearing the words “secure” and “eliminate”, already pushing herself off the wall ready to head towards the docking bay before the blue light even faded out.

Last one in and first one out, perfection. Her own mind arrogantly hushed the words “failure is not an option” coming from the representative, her own brain simulations un-permitting of anything other than a complete success. This was a great chance to prove herself in front of superiors, imagining that when the stage lights would set upon her, she would snatch the chance to display a moment of utterly glorious bloodshed that would impress the brotherhood for eons to come.

After getting lost in dreams of grandeur the tall raven woman blissfully bounced her high ponytail around making her way back towards the docks, pondering who the kriffing frack she would be fighting alongside with.