Dawnbreaker Episode Split Destiny/Part 16

CHAPTER 46

"Are you familiar with the characteristics of this weapon? Does it have a lot of recoil?" - Deathstrike suddenly asked, fingering the E11, as they moved cautiously down the corridor, alert for more Imperials.

"It seems my practice with blaster weapons will be useful after all..." - she added a thought.

"Yes, it has nasty recoil, though not as bad as what you'd get with a stockless ZR. It's also not accurate by any stretch of the imagination. But it is compact in size and packs a good punch, assuming you hit your target in the first place." Havox explained, having had many years of experience with the weapon, "You might want to use the full-auto, just to put out more shots and increase your chances of hitting something."

"Oh, great... that means producing even higher recoil. In that cas--" - she started to reply, just as an officer and a pair of Stormtroopers emerged from a door just ahead.

"HEY!" - the officer started, going for her blaster holster, as Deathstrike fired two shots, first one missing, the second hitting her in the stomach, and killing her.

But the recoil of the E11 didn't agree with Deathstrike, as she flinched with each shot, almost losing her grip on it.

The troopers aimed their weapons...

Havox had already snapped up the looted pistol and fired at one of the troopers. The blast struck him in the upper chest, not killing him immediately but still incapacitating him. The second trooper, unable to duck for cover, began firing desperately down the hall, hoping to hit something.

And he did, catching Deathstrike in a glancing graze right beside her right knee, as she was still preoccupied with bringing her E11back into position.

"Gah!" - she exclaimed at the burning sensation, her leggings burned through and skin charred slightly at the graze point.

Both she and Ty fired at the same instant, catching the trooper with two shots, and taking him down. Deathstrike then shifted aim to finish off the first one. She looked at the E11 in disgust, thinking:

"This crude piece of junk almost got me killed. I was distracted, and it was just blind luck that the trooper's aim was off! I could have been crippled in the knee right now... or dead! Oh how I miss my assassin blades..." - before turning to Havox:

"Ty... if you don't mind, perhaps we should exchange our weapons? The E11 definitely doesn't agree with me!" - in an irritated voice, pointing at Ty's blaster pistol.

"By all means. I was thinking the same thing myself." Havox replied, handing Deathstrike the much easier to handle pistol, then added: "Now we really need to get to that medbay."

"Oh, it's just a graze... I've had a lot worse, not to be slowed down by it!" - Deathstrike retorted, glancing at her charred knee.

"This blasted implant is what really bothers me!" - she added in a growl, again barely resisting the urge to simply tear it out, before she moved on.

"No doubt they'll find the mess we left soon enough, so we better hurry." Havox urged.

Minutes later, they came across a map of the level they were currently on, the medical bay clearly marked on it. Following the route indicated, they reached the site without further incident.

Upon entering, they found themselves in an expansive chamber, three medics on duty, with a pair of Stormtrooper guards. One guard fell to Ty's E11 shots, while Deathstrike took the other one with a pair of shots to the chest, before either had time to raise their rifles.

"Much more agreeable!" - Deathstrike thought, lowering the blaster pistol, as her gaze fell to the various medical instruments on the table nearby.

The medics stared in shock at the intruders, before one of them rushed to the alarm panel on the wall... only to be stopped by a thrown scalpel, imbedding itself in the woman's right hip, causing her to trip and fall to the floor with a scream of pain.

"That could have been your neck, schutta! Now get back there with the others." - Deathstrike snapped, while picking out two more scalpels, in place of her confiscated assassin knives, as the slender cutting tools vanished into hidden sheaths in her gloves.

"Adequate balance... not quite as heavy, limiting the penetration effect at over 10 meters, and lacking armour-piercing tips, but they will do, for now." - she thougt.

Meanwhile, Havox swept across the room, checking for anyone else who might be hidden in a corner somewhere, as well as for any sort of cameras or surveillance devices.

"You... you're the Sith they captured, aren't you? Deathstrike herself?!" - one of the medics exclaimed nervously, his rank insignia denoting that he was the chied medic, helping te injured medic up, as she limped to sit on one of the beds, holding her pierced hip in pain.

Deathstrike's emerald eyes flashed in warning.

"That's Lady Deathstrike to you, Imperial! Only those I consider friends ever earn the right to omit the title when addressing me. And YOU are very far from that consideration."

"Not to mention I don't like medical personnel too much to begin with... ESPECIALLY ones who implanted me with this... this THING!" - she thought angrily.

"My apologies, Lady. I was just--" - the man began, before Deathstrike suddenly stepped close, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform and slamming him to the wall, her left knee stabbing high up to impale him to the solar plexus, and hold pressure there, depriving him of breath and partially numbing him.

"SAVE IT! I just want one thing from you, and that is to remove or disable this implant that is making it impossible for me to use the Force, and is slowly driving me INSANE! I assume you were the one who implanted this abomination in my neck, in the first place?" - she hissed in his face.

"W-well... yes. But... but I was... under... under orders..." - the medic ground out, wheezing for breath.

"Then you will take it out. NOW!!! And I MIGHT consider looking past that violation of me. If you attempt any kind of delay, I shall kill you, and it won't be quick. Is that clear, miserable whelp?!"

At the last two words, she released her right hand from the medic's collar, and brought it in a sudden hinge-palm strike to the side of the man's nose, breaking it, followed by an increase in knee-pressure to the solar plexus.

"AUGGHH! Yes... very... c-clear." - was the medic's choked-off reply, as the blood was streaming from his shattered nose.

"Good. GET STARTED!" - Deathstrike growled, releasing the knee-pressure on the solar plexus and shoving him hard away, back toward the other two, so that he stumbled and impacted the side of the metal nearby, with a howl of pain on impact.

The chief medic, still moaning in pain, nodded to his uninjured assistant, who went to one of the storage lockers and removed a number of delicate instruments.

Havox walked back up the group, having not found anything of concern.

After a dozen minutes.

"Hold still." - the assistant medic said, bringing a delicate, needle-like instrument to Deathstrike's neck, while the chief medic, having taken a painkiller for his nose, was assisting.

"Just complete the procedure..." - Deathstrike growled, keeping a firm leash on her mounting impatience, thinking about how they already lost ten minutes there.

With a soft electronic fizzling-out sound, the instrument deactivated the explosive module in the implant, and disconnected it's interface to Deathstrike's nervous system.

"There... it is inactive, Sith. But removing it would be painful to say the least, without a sedative and a half-hour surgical proce--" - the assistant added, before he was cut off, as Deathstrike hopped from the bed, then, with only a brief clenching of teeth, without even a yelp of pain, yanked out the implant from her neck, and slammed it to the nearby table, destroying it.

"Unnecessary." - she said in a glacially calm voice, blood seeping from the incision in her neck where the implant was.

"DId either of you take part in this thing's implantation in the first place?" - she asked both assistants, her voice quietly deadly, stretching through the Force to detect any lie on their part.

"No, Lady Deathstrike... the commander here was called to do it personally, under Emperor Harrington's supervision." - the female assistant replied, nodding at the chief medic, who gave her a venomous look in return.

"So, it was just you, then..." - Deathstrike nodded, sensing that the woman was telling the truth, and turning to the commander.

Just as he opened his mouth to reply, she applied Drain Life on him...

...and in thirty seconds, his screams of agony ended, his greyish-skinned corpse plopping to the floor, while Deathstrike's knee and neck wounds were regenerated fully.

"You said you wouldn't kill him!" - one of the assistants intoned in horror, while the woman had to turn away, trying hard not to be sick.

Deathstrike grinned at that.

"I said I MIGHT consider letting his actions pass... but if you recall, I made no promises one way or another." - before suddenly turning serious.

"And for what he did to me, he had to die! And if you had been involved, you'd be lying beside him right now." - she muttered in cold anger.

"We've got what we needed." Havox interrupted, "Now we need to get moving."

At the same time he had flicked his E-11 to stun, then shot both assistants as soon as he finished speaking.

Deathstrike's eyes suddenly lost focus...

"Yes... and quickly. I sense a powerful focal point in the Force... and it is within this facility, on one of the top levels. Harrington, no doubt." - she said, as the two walked out of the medbay.

"And my lightsaber is nearby - I can sense it's resonance! Probably in a prison impound locker... this way!" - she thought, stretching even harder, as she chose one of the corridors and ran down it, which, to Havox, looked like a completely random choice on her part.

"What in...? Uhg..." the merc sighed, chasing after her.

Only a minute later, Deathstrike was at her intended destination, turning at the intersection at the end of the corridor, and vanishing from Ty's sight.

A second later, he could hear the electronically filtered warning shout of a Stormtrooper, followed by a rapid sputtering of blaster fire, a few bolts passing the intersection... then a gurgling scream... followed by the sound of an armoured body hitting the metal floor... then another shot...

Havox broke into a sprint, quickly turning the corner, blaster ready.

Two troopers on the floor, dead, he was just in time to see a third one clutching at his neck, Force Gripped, before joining the first two, while the last one's neck, helmet off, was gripped in right knee-hold by Deathstrike, before she twisted her right leg hard, breaking it, at the same time as her left arm lowered from the Force Grip gesture on the previous one.

"Too late for your share of blood, Ty!" - she hissed predatorily, giving him a smile, before she turned to examine the doors, which were locked, and mag-sealed.

"Oh, how I missed the Force singing through me again! Now... how to open this?" - noticing that there was no control panel of any kind next to the doors.

"Um-hmm..." was the only sound Havox made, as he came up along side Deathstrike and looked at the door.

"I should know about these..." he thought, racking his brain for any memory of how to work it.

"With a lightsaber, I could cut through this in seconds!" - Deathstrike thought, stepping away from the doors for a moment, and crouching to pull the scalpel from the neck of one of the troopers she had just dispatched. The blade came out, with a spurt of the trooper's blood accompanying it.

Then she approached the doors again, idly licking the dripping blood off the scalpel blade, while trying to think of an alternative. The taste of it brought an almost ecstatic look to her face.

Havox couldn't help but notice that...

"Delicacy?" he asked sarcastically.

The comment snapped her out of it, as she stirred and looked at Ty.

"Hmm?" - only then noticing what she was doing. She smiled slightly.

"Let's just say I have a taste for it, my dear... for as long as I can remember." - as the scalpel suddenly vanished into her glove, turning to the doors again.

"Haven't you ever tasted your enemies' blood, Ty? And relished it..." - she asked absently, trying to feel the exact position of her lightsaber on the other side of the door, in relation to the doors themselves, as the first trace of an idea formed in her mind.

"I've never felt the need to." the former merc replied, beginning to pick through the bodies of the dead troopers, grabbing a couple extra clips of ammunition, but also looking for a device of any kind for the door.

"Well, your loss... AH-HA... I have it!" - Deathstrike replied, the last part a sudden addition, applying Force Seeing, and pinpointing her saber's exact location.

"Step back..." - she added, as she picked up the lightsaber hilt through the Force, and brought it floating to the inner side of the doors.

The doors started to glow red with the effect of melting durasteel, as she activated it via the Force, and started making a circle...

"I'm glad the Imperials were considerate enough to leave my blade charged... any RTSE jailers would have first drained its power cell, to prevent just what I'm doing at the moment!" - she grinned at Ty.

Moments later, the doors were cut through, and the saber flew through the opening, to land itself neatly into her outstretched right hand. She checked the small graphic indicator on it, that she built into its design when making it in the first place, to give her a quick and practical way of monitoring the power level...

"57% charge left... excellent! That would be enough for keeping it active the next two days."

Twirling it briefly, so the twin crimson blades made a blur in the air, she intoned:

"Mmm... NOW I'm prepared for anything! And I suppose I won't need THIS anymore..." - taking the blaster pistol from her belt and laying it on the floor.

Just as Deathstrike finished speaking, alarms started blaring across the base, as apparently somebody had found their handiwork.

"Now things get interesting." Havox observed, already starting down the hallway.

CHAPTER 47

Meanwhile, in the base's command center...

"Contact the Emperor! Prisoners are escaping!" - the base's commander ordered his aide, who nodded, and activated a dedicated comm channel to the Decimator in orbit.

A computer voice intoned...

"Subjects fleeing down Hallway 3228..."

"Scramble all available Stormtroopers! Commence emergency lockdown!" - the commander barked.

"Estimated time of arrival 4.5 minutes..." - the computer voice intoned, referring to Harrington's arrival to the base.

"Activate Defense Protocol 3579. I'll deal with them myself." - his commanding tone suddenly came over the command center's main speaker, from the inbound shuttle.

"Deploying Darktroopers..." - the computer intoned, responding to a remote command from Harrington.

"Where are you going, my Lord?" - the base's commander asked over the link in confusion.

At the same time, however, someone else had also found his way to Kalee and the hidden base... stowed away on one of the supply ships.

"The Lady's here... and the Major, as well! It seems my hunch was correct. They didn't keep them aboard Harrington's flagship, in fear that they might escape and compromise it." - Zoran thought, combing through the detention facility's database from one of the remote computer stations in a storage bay next to the base's main landing platform on the planet's surface.

Suddenly, he could hear the bay's main entrance opening...

In a pair of seconds, he disconnected himself from the terminal, shut it down, and darted toward cover of a pair of large storage crates, using Force speed. Hopping silently on top of one, with a brief Force Jump burst, he lay prone and peered toward the entrance. Three Stormtroopers, a Shadowtrooper, and a pair of maintenance workers entered the bay, walking casually forward. Their Force sense didn't indicate alarm, but Zoran knew that wouldn't last. As soon as the Shadowtrooper sensed his presence in the Force, there would be trouble.

"I must act quickly, while I still have surprise on my side!" - he thought, a slight eager smile playing across his face, as he readied his twin light-blades on the wrists.

Softly dropping from the crate, he darted along the left-side wall of the bay, where the shadow would provide most cover, to a roughly flanking position on the approaching sextet of people. He raised his tranquilizer dartgun, aiming for the two maintenance workers in the rear, since the armour of the rest of them would deflect the darts.

With two soft stonk sounds in rapid succession, the two workers collapsed without a sound to the floor, tranquilized.

As the Shadowtrooper spun around toward the still bodies in momentary confusion, the three Stormtroopers still moving forward, not having heard the soft falling down sound, Zoran made his move:

Already in mid-run, he applied Force Blinding on the remaining four enemies, while both his dual wristblades were out and extended, before springing into a Force Jump. The three Stormtroopers never even had time to realize what was happening, now also momentary blinded, before he was onto them, disposing of all three with a precise succession of stabs and short slashes of his wrist-blades.

However, the Shadowtrooper was another matter, as he countered the Blinding effect with Force Seeing, and sent a brief Lightning surge at Zoran.

"Aaahhh!" - the Acolyte screamed briefly, using his light-blades to block most of it, but some still reaching to electrocute him. He grinned in satisfaction:

"Good! This will be a real fight!" - as he shrugged it off, then Force jumped at the Shadowtrooper, both wristblades in a ready position to slice him apart on landing.

The Shadowtrooper activated his lightsaber...

Upon landing, Zoran engaged with the trooper in a brief lock, his wristblades vs. the lightsaber, before he suddenly released, taking a step back, then flipping to the side out of the path of the Shadowtrooper's follow-up slash, before ducking down and stabbing both blades forward, in a quick one-two succession, toward the Shadow's gut, realizing he can't fight a lightsaber-wielding opponent through brute force, opting to rely on the hallmark agility and unpredictable attacks of the assassin.

But this Shadowtrooper, one of the SE Ultras, as they were technically under SE jurisdiction as a ground operation, wasn't going to fortake in a fight he knew could go either way. Force-jumping backward and to his left, he landed by an alarm panel for the level and quickly pushed it in and pulled the level, instantly sending out a silent alarm, though a lone spark from the switch caused the Ultra, and the Acolyte, to think it had failed to activate.

Zoran took immediate advantage of his opponent's retreat, even if he wasn't sure whether or not the alarm activated. But he was determined to be finished with the Shadowtrooper by the time when, and if, anyone else arrives.

He rushed forward in a blur of Force Speed, engagig the Ultra in a vicious very-close-range melee, where the short, exacting, and maneuverable wristblades had an advantage over the longer lightsaber. The Shadow tried to give himself some room, but he had made a mistake in the first place, by going next to the wall, where the alarm panel was, as he was now pinned there by the Acolyte. He parried the flurry of quick slashes and stabs desperately, until at one point, Zoran caught the blade of his lightsaber between his twin dual-blades. He applied a sudden hard torque motion, and tore the saber out of the Shadow's grasp, sending the hilt clattering 10 meters away to lie next to the wall. Following that up with a hammer-kick to the Ultra's gut, he had his opponent stumble against the wall, breathing in gasps.

"Time to gut you, SE vermin!" - he snarled, as both his wristblades plunged toward the Ultra's chest at the same time.

With a powerful Force-Push, Zoran was catapulted backwards by the Ultra, who quickly regained his lightsaber and activated it again.

Just as the Acolyte landed against the other wall, the Shadowtrooper was upon him, coming down hard with a volley of downward thrusts and slashes.

At this point, Zoran was beginning to tire, his actual stamina in prolonged battle decidedly limited, as an Assassin Acolyte. Seeing that he failed to finish off the Ultra quickly, and his defense motions were beginning to lose their rhytm, he decided to try and retreat - a decision solidified by a shallow graze the Shadowtrooper managed to land on his chest, which would have been lethal, had he not drawn back in the last semi-second.

He knew he couldn't force the Ultra away from him, lacking Force Push/Pull powers. However, his talent for befuddling came in handy again...

Force Blinding.

The Ultra, preoccupied with his berserk attacks, failed to anticipate, and counter with Force Seeing in time, and was momentarily flashed. By the time his vision cleared, Zoran was nowhere to be seen, having used the seconds afforded to Force Speed away, then Force Jump to one of the storage bay's windows, and out, back to the landing pad.

"Ufff... that was TOO close! And getting myself killed won't solve anything, or help the Lady escape. Nice fighting, Shadowtrooper..." - he thought, vincing slightly at the graze across his chest, before he made his way to the turbolift, leading underground, to the base proper.

Regaining his vision with Force Sense, the Ultra scanned the area, but could not find the Acolyte.

"I almost had him... Oh well. He'll be dead soon."

Seconds later, a platoon of Stormtroopers and a small group of rifle-wielding Shadowtroopers charged in.

"WHERE WERE YOU TWO MINUTES AGO?!" the Ultra demanded, incensed, "We could have killed that miserable rat!"

"Sir, we were held up by the-" the ST Sergeant began.

"I don't care what you were held up by! It is your duty to defend this base at all costs! I could have been killed! And I was going to become a Padawan next week!" the Ultra spat.

"But Sir..."

"Save your explanations! I'm through with you!" the Ultra growled, then turned to walk away, but was met by the ancient father of the brothers of hierachy, Harrington.

"My Lord... what a pleasent surprise," he greeted.

Harrington gazed at him for several seconds, stretching out through the Force, before saying, "Your leadership skills leave little to be desired, for an Ultra of your young age. With proper training, you could become the focal point for the elite Ultra ranks of Kretov. Congratulations on your new position. Now leave my sight before I change my mind."

Appalled, the Ultra forgot what he was angry about, and quickly left the scene.

"The rest of you, get out of here. Now," Harrington said coldly.

The troopers, not wanting to get on the bad side of a Sith Lord, exited equally fast.

Alone in the hall, Harrington pulled a commlink - a non-SE commlink, and it crackled to life.

"Everything is going according to plan, my Lord. Soon, we will be in control of the Empire as well," he said.

"Good work, Harrington. Delay their departure as long as you can, but make sure they escape," an aged, bitter human voice responded.

"The main Imperial leaders will no doubt join up with your former apprentice. I have learned that he, with my son's help, has amassed quite the large fleet of dated yet capable units," Harrington spoke.

"Then acquiring their Empire, and what we can of their military, just became a top priority," the voice responded.

"And the rest of the Imperial fleet?" Harrington asked, "I have already told you that most of them are more than willing to get over this tyranny."

"No doubt Ludamigus will take what he can. But those will be older models. He will once again have the numbers advantage. But with our technological superiority, the Ekatra warships, and my new Star Destroyers, I have no doubt we will be successful. The new fleet is with me here. We are waiting on your cue," the voice responded, calm and controlled, yet eager.

"You will know when the time comes," Harrington finalized, then heard footsteps coming down the hall, and quickly shut off the commlink.

Meanwhile, Deathstrike and Havox have managed to find a turbolift leading directly to the surface, and were on their way up... at the same time as Zoran was on his way down. Suddenly, Deathstrike sensed his presence...

"Ty... you're not going to believe this... one of our team survived! Acolyte Zoran..." - she exclaimed, before sending Zoran a Force message and making contact.

"Good thing I sent him after the tractor beam." Havox said to himself about Zoran, "No doubt he'd be dead with the other Acolytes or captured like us had I kept him with me."

However, the reply Deathstrike received from the Acolyte was anything but a welcome one. She scowled, before adding:

"Things are about to become very unpleasant on the surface for us. Harrington himself is there, along with a number of Shadowtroopers, at least one of which is an Ultra, with a lightsaber! I've instructed Zoran to reverse the turbolift and join us in the ascent... we will need his assistance in the battle to come."

"Remember, Major... leave Harrington to me, and join up with Zoran to hold off the Shadowtroopers and find a suitable escape vessel for us! I shall deal with the dear Emperor, myself..." - she ordered, while thinking:

"It has been quite some time since I faced someone of his caliber... the last one was Kane, last year, as I joined with my Master and the Gatekeeper in fighting him. And then, there were three of us against Kane. This time, I shall be alone... even if I have grown in Force power somewhat since then! But sheer Force power was never my strong point, in any case. As always, I plan rely on battle prowess! I must prepare myself." - taking up a meditative cross-legged posture on the turbolift floor, closing her eyes and muttering to Ty:

"There are still a few minutes until we reach the surface. Don't disturb me... I have to center and focus myself for the difficult battle ahead."

But as she settled down to meditate, a raspy voice echoed through her mind...

"Don't get yourself killed. We need you, Deathstrike."

"Nice try, Harrington... but I don't listen to strange voices in my head. I've had enough of that last year, from Kane! You shall not distract me, coward!" - Deathstrike thought, in response to the strange Force message she received.

Four minutes later... only seconds before the turbolift would arrive at the surface.

Deathstrike hopped lightly back to her feet, unclipping the lightsaber. On her face was an expression of pure focus, as she spoke in a cool, combat ready tone:

"I've just instructed Zoran to take his orders from you, Ty. Once we are out, you are to immediately join with him, and start searching for a suitable ship for us. Preferably some kind of scoutship, with a Class 1 hyperdrive. Try and draw off the Shadowtroopers from me, I shall have my hands full with Harrington. Remember, Zoran is an Assassin Acolyte. As such, he relies on speed and surprise, and is deadly in combat against blaster-wielding enemies, whether they do or do not have the Force. But he isn't trained to last long in a direct battle with a lightsaber wielding warrior, like the Ultra, lacking endurance and the reach of his wristblades. You will need to distract the Ultra as much as possible, if they engage directly." - she finished the briefing, just as the turbolift doors opened.

"And remember... don't attack Harrington, either of you! He is a Dark Jedi Master... I shall deal with him." - she added quietly, deliberately not using the term Sith Lord for Harrington.

"And taste his blood, as I did the blood of that Dark Jedi Knight on the Star Destroyer, when I tore open his throat. Only THIS... this shall be even more delectable! A truly worthy enemy for me to face. YESSSS!!! How I've longed for it... dispatching dozens upon dozens of pathetic stormtroopers, and Imperial personnel is all well and good, but is hardly a challenge! I WANT to be tested to the limit, for once! I WANT him to hurt me, give me much pain, as I give him the same in return! Whether I should live or die, it shall be a glorious battle..." - her eyes taking on that manic emerald gleam, her lust for battle beginning to take over, and permeating every fiber of her being.

"Understood." Havox acknowledged.

"I'd give to have a sword should I run into a Shadowtrooper; this thing won't do me much good." he thought, glancing at the E-11he was holding.

"Don't worry... from what Zoran told me, most of them are actually blaster-wielding. Only the Ultras are equipped with a lightsaber, and as far as he could tell, there was only one of those." - Deathstrike replied, intercepting his thought.

"Just don't underestimate them - they still have the Force, and are likely lethally accurate with their blasters." - she added.

At that moment, the second turbolift arrived, a dozen meters away on the platform, and Acolyte Zoran emerged.

He approached the two, saying:

"Glad to see you've broken out of the Imperials' cage, Lady!" - with a grin.

"Likewise, Zoran... and I'm pleased you were able to outsmart them and survive long enough to meet with us again." - Deathstrike replied with a smile.

"How well-guarded is the hangar you arrived in?" Havox inquired, jumping past the introductions.

"I was a stowaway on a supply shuttle, Major... which left immediately afterwards. But I've scouted the area, and there are several scoutships in the northern hangars." - the Acolyte replied, pointing in that general direction, toward a number of structures visible on that side of the surface part of the base.

Meanwhile, Deathstrike stepped away a few paces, sensing deeply through the Force, trying to locate Harrington and the Shadows, since the immediate area around the turbolift exits, a simple wide platform, was suspiciosly empty of everyone.

"I don't like this... it's too quiet!" - she thought.

The reunion was cut short, however, as emerging from the hallway directly to the left of the platform was the ancient form of Harrington - alone - without any escort.

Taking an unrecognizeable defensive stance, similiar to Vaapad yet different, he activated his lightsaber - a long, thin red blade, clearly crafted for agility rather than power.

Using the Force, he opened a sealed doorway ahead of him, revealing a narrow hallway.

"If you two want to live," he intoned, nodding at Havox and Zoran, "You will follow that hallway. It is a maintainance access route that directly bypasses the main garrisons. Eventually it leads to a small hangar. You will find several stealth-capable craft in it."

He then glanced at Deathstrike.

"We need to make this convincing. My Lord's eon-spanning plan is nearing fruition. You NEED to survive and return to the RTSE with this message: There is to be a new regime in the Empire soon, and with it, the Empire will no longer be your enemy. The Sentinel is about to collapse. The Ekatra are on their last legs. This is their - our - last chance. Tell your Master we will contact him as soon as possible," he said, his voice very un-Sith-like.

Deathstrike didn't look the least bit convinced, however, as she took a few steps toward Harrington, before adopting her own preferred stance, for outdoors battle, where her agility and penchant for evasion could be put to best use - Djem So, a relatively new, moderately aggressive lightsaber form, once favored by Galen Marek, as well as Darth Vader in his younger years, which combines the power of Ataru with versatility and speed of Makashi, relying mainly on evasion for defense.

Then she hissed:

"What is this trick, Dark Jedi? You think me so gullible, do you?! I'm insulted..." - before turning to Havox and Zoran:

"In that hallway is most likely a well-positioned ambush. Stay with the plan, and proceed to the northern hangars! I shall deal with him..."

With that, she applied a flash of Deadly Sight on Harrington, then launched herself at him with Force Jump.

He was briefly distracted with the burning sensation of superheating skin, which he quickly shrugged off, but it did throw him off-balance for a split instant, and his guard wavered... just as Deathstrike landed from her jump, starting a furiously unpredictable barrage of Djem So slashes, spinning motions, and stabs at him, making the most of her agility, the advanced form all the more potent in this case, with the double-saber she used. Of course, also being a Tier 8 Teras Kasi expert, her attacks weren't limited to just using the lightsaber... as Harrington found out for himself, with a fast and hard backspin kick connecting to the side of his neck moments later, making him see stars, and a haze in his head, as he staggered sideways slightly. Any non-Forceuser would probably have been knocked unconscious, or even with a broken neck.

But Deathstrike had critically underestimated Harrington. He wasn't nearly as frail as he looked.

With a thrust kick to her stomach with surprising force sending her reeling, Harrington, displaying remarkable agility, leaped through the air and landed off to the right, spinning his lightsaber around like a top in an unpredictable, yet controlled frenzy that even Deathstrike could not predict, and she found herself at a major disadvantage, giving up ground quickly to the onslaught.

With a Force-push sending her into the wall, Harrington leaped at her, swinging his lightsaber as if to skewer her, but missed widely, seemingly on purpose, as she rolled out of the way.

Whipping around quickly, Harrington was on her again in less than a second, using his lightsaber like General Grievous used his top two when he battled Obi-Wan Kenobi on Utapau.

However, by the time he was fully turned, Deathstrike was no longer on the ground...

...snapping up in a Force Jump enhanced somersault, looking like a reddish-black blur flashing past his saber blade, that took her above Harrington's head, with a nasty downward slash at his face, which he barely ducked, the blade singeing his hair slightly.

She landed behind his back, then tried a direct-kick to the spine... which missed, as he was already in the process of turning to face her again, instead impacting his side ribs. He barely grunted, again attempting his Vaapad onslaught on her, but Deathstrike's agility and evasiveness was up to the task, as she leaped, parried, rolled, anticipated, traversed in midair, and slashed all around him, matching his unremitting flurry of attacks with unrivalled speed, deflecting, blocking, and diverting his attacks with graceful precision, before he suddenly overextended in frustration - and left himself open, as Deathstrike briefly trapped his saber in a lock, a quarter-second before the heel of her right foot connected with his nose, breaking it, but only causing a lot of pain, and inhibiting breathing through it, without doing too much damage or driving it into the brain, due to his resilience.

With a roar of pain, he Force Pushed her to the wall again, this time hard enough for her to see stars herself, and a sharp pain through her back, but she only grinned masochistically at the pain, before catching him in a Force Grip, so that he brought his hands to his neck.

"YESSSS... HURT ME! Oh, yes... I shall hurt you far more!" - she hissed like a snake, tightening the Grip, making his eyes bulge out slightly, as he started to choke.

But Harrington sported no grin, and caught her in a Force Grip of his own, his much more refined, as Force Grip was one of his strongest powers, and Deathstrike found herself choking out fast, tasting blood at the back of her throat.

"Your friends are going to die if they go down any other hallway besides that maintainance route! There are nearly a hundred Shadowtroopers coming this way as we speak, along with the strongest Ultra I have ever encountered! Use your senses. Can you feel them? If they get here before the three of you are gone, it is over for you!" he emphasized, still maintaining the grip while switching stances to another, unrecognizable form.

"Nggh!" - Deathstrike grounded in choking pain, struggling futilely in the grip. But, she remained clearheaded enough to realize she can't match his brute Force power with her own, her strong point being combat itself.

So she didn't even try...

Instead, she took a different approach... stretching out with the Force to shift the bones in his broken nose, driving them deeper upwards, toward his brain, and causing intense pain in the process, which scraped away at his concentration.

"AAAAAHHHH!" - he finally screamed, releasing her and using the Force to ease the intolerable pain.

And that slip was all she needed.

Applying Force Speed, she flashed toward him, once again engaging him in a close-blade melee, augmented with periodic Teras Kasi moves. Still recovering from the pain, Harrington was driven back, before he regained his form and established his rhytm again.

However, Deathstrike anticipated that as well, abruptly switching her own form to pure Ataru - Aggression, favoring powerful, piercing slashes and stabs.

The shift caught him by surprise, as she parried one of his slashes in a low-crosscut, before spinning and bringing the opposing blade of her saber diagonally at the right side of his upper torso, in a powerful, unblockable spinning back-slash. Unprepared for it, he tried to block it...

...and failed, as his own blade was pushed backwards, only slowing her momentum, and scored a moderately deep cut into the right side of his chest, damaging his right lung.

Finally, she had time to reply to his earlier statement:

"Your false concern is SO touching, old man... but I'm NOT a fool!" - voice dripping with sarcasm.

Following through, Deathstrike kicked him to the solar plexus, sending him reeling back, gasping for breath, holding one hand over his chest and perforated lung, as she entered a continuous vertical spinning motion of her double-bladed saber, advancing, with clear intent to skewer him in two.

Harrington, realizing his efforts were in vain, knew he might just have to kill her now, or at least incapacitate her long enough to escape.

Adopting his new stance, he waited until her blade was two inches from his heart, then showing off remarkable flexibility, ducked to her side, going right beneath her blade and to her left, and coming up behind her.

Deathstrike, her momentum carrying her forward, didn't turn around in time, but Harrington did. He landed a slash to the base of her neck, not doing any vertabrae damage. She instinctively reached back to grasp her neck, but Harrington physically grabbed her wrist, bent her backwards and slammed her over his own back, the collision driving the wind out of her and sending a deep ache up her spine. She recognized that as a wrestling manuever called a backbreaker, but wrestling in the Prime Galaxy had been outlawed generations ago, before Harrington's time, for being too violent, as around these parts, it wasn't fake. She couldn't help but wonder where he had learned it...

But she was instantly refocused when she was forced to roll away to avoid her heart being pierced by his lightsaber. She jumped to her feet, but it sent another surge of pain through her spine...

...which she shrugged off, straightening to a proper combat stance with her force of will against the pain. Yet, the injuries sustained have been detrimental to them both, as both visibly swayed slightly where they stood, the soft sound of hissing air emanating from a hole in Harrington's lungs, as he gasped for breath with every inhale, while Deathstrike had to draw on the Force to control the pain in her spine, and the damaged muscles in the back of her neck.

However, with the battle finished, she could devote more of her Force sensitivity to sense through the maintenance tunnel... and to her surprise, she couldn't detect any Imperial personnel there.

"Either he is masking them somehow - which I wouldn't put past him, given his power in the Force - or he is actually telling the truth! But given how drained he is now, I doubt he could be still masking them..." - she thought, before addressing the elderly Dark Jedi:

"Not bad - for a fossil! Next time, you won't be so fortunate..." - in an unreadable tone of voice, also carefully vocalized to not give away the pain she was in, giving him a slight nod, before she turned to run down the tunnel, addressing Havox and Zoran:

"Let's move!"

Harrington scoffed as he watched her go, then realized where they were going.

Taking off using Force Speed, he ran down an adjacent hallway...

At the end of the hallway, as Harrington had said, was a small hangar. It was empty, except for a small group of Shadowtroopers and SE Engineers, preparing the stealth transports for takeoff.

"Hold fire!" one of them yelled, throwing down his weapon, as the other troops did the same, "We're friendly! Take one of the transports! We gotta get out of here fast!"

Just then, Harrington appeared from the adjacent hallway. Casting a side glance at Deathstrike and co, he sprinted over to the troopers and took up a defensive stance in front of them.

"This makes no sense..." Havox muttered.

Harrington's stance was faltering. He was obviously hurting badly from his numerous injuries, but he didn't back down.

"Please... take one of the transports... get out of here... this base won't be here for much longer..." he wheezed, his condition having finally caught up with him.

"What is going ON here?! A Dark Jedi acting this way..." - Deathstrike couldn't help but wonder, the entire chain of events unreal to her, except the fight with Harrington, which was very real indeed. The pain in her spine was increasing, though she refused to show any of it on her face or in her stance.

But all she said was, to both of her companions...

"Perhaps he's right... let's go." - giving Harrington an unreadable glance at the same time, before she followed Havox and Zoran up the ramp of one of the transports.

CHAPTER 48

"Zoran, check the engine... it could still be a ruse, and it may be sabotaged, rigged to overload! Ty, prepare her for takeoff... but don't activate the engine until Zoran has examined it. I'll look at the hyperdrive - I want to make certain it's a Class 1 version, or we will never catch up with... aahh... with Rajko's force!" - she ordered, voice strained, the slight moan near the end of the sentence indicative that the pain was intense enough to have begun to seep through her control.

"I'll do what I can..." - the Acolyte muttered, disappearing into the engine room, his technical expertise with ship engines amateurish at best - though, as an Assassin Acolyte trained to be on the lookout for anything that looked suspicious, he was bound to notice anything that seemed out-of-place.

Meanwhile, Deathstrike opened the hyperdrive motivator access panel - easily found by the graphic sign on it, and started looking for the hard-coded lettering on the machinery indicating the type of hyperdrive, while increasing the Force effort to suppress the throbbing pain in her spine.

"If there were only someone I could Drain... and regenerate myself! In situations like this, I regret never having developed Force Healing, like the Master... Life Drain is more efficient, but it requires a host to use it on..." - she thought, with a slight scowl.

"Maybe somebody should quickly check the outside hull for homing devices." Havox suggested, "This could be an elaborate scheme to lead them to Rajko's group."

"That or we make a stop along the way to do a more thorough inspection." he added.

Deathstrike smirked.

"Oh, we'll check the hull, make no mistake there... but not here, in plain sight of Harrington and his lapdogs!" - trying to keep her tone steady in the face of the pain, continuing to look through the hyperdrive machinery for the lettering.

Zoran was likewise in the engine room, examining each part of the engine assembly carefully.

The former merc shrugged and headed into the cockpit, giving it a once-over for anything out-of-the-ordinary, before starting to prep it for take-off, making sure not to touch the engine power yet.

"Ah... there it is!" - Deathstrike thought, noticing the factory lettering on the underside of the main motivator module:

// HZ-23316-CL1AA //

"Class 1-AA... excellent. Almost as fast as Class 1-A that the Bekrija had." - she added a notion to herself, before calling out to Zoran:

"Any sign of tampering, Acolyte?"

"None, my Lady. The engine housing wasn't touched, and I can't find any external modules attached to the assembly. We're clean." - he replied.

Deathstrike nodded to herself, closing the hyperdrive access panel.

"Take us up, Major." - she spoke to Havox in the cockpit.

Harrington watched as the transport took off for only a few seconds, then turned to one of the Shadowtroopers.

"Lets go... it won't be long... before they discover what we've done..."

With a nod, the Shadowtrooper entered their chosen transport, and two others helped Harrington in before getting in themselves, followed by the engineers.

After the ramp was closed, their transport took off...

10 Minutes Later...

"Has anyone found Lord Harrington yet?" the commander of the base asked his advisor.

"Negatory. He's nowhere to be seen," was the reply.

"Maybe he left? His injuries were rather severe..."

"I don't know. We'll keep looking for-"

20 feet underneath the durasteel floor, in a ventilation shaft, an N-42 charge's timer expired...

"What's that noise?" a Shadowtrooper asked the room at large, hearing the beeping.

No one had time to answer - a quarter of a second later, the N-42 charge, powerful enough to destroy an entire city, detonated.

Outside, the nighttime sky became day with the brightness of the blast, as the entire base, nearly 1,000 meters in size, and everything in it, was incinerated...

Just as the stealth transport was lifting out of planet's atmosphere, the explosion could be seen in it's rear sensor scope...

"Hmmm... now THIS iz strange indeed! What was Harrington's agenda, anyway?" - Deathstrike couldn't help but think, observing the scope...

Several minutes later, the transport entered hyperspace.

"Set course 217 mark 8... the star maps indicate a small unnamed system only a few light-years in that direction. We shall set down there and check the ship's hull for homing beacons." - Deathstrike instructed Havox, who nodded.

With Zoran busy in the communications section of the ship, trying to contact Rajko's armada via subspace, the two of them were alone in the cockpit for the time being. With the throbbing pain of her strained spine now diminishing, her attention more outward now, Deathstrike noticed Havox looking like he was about to ask her something, then seemingly changed his mind.

"What's on your mind, Ty?" - she asked, giving him a sideways glance.

"I'm kinda curious what got into you back in the cell. I'd figure you'd know better than to go all berserk like that." Havox said, refering to Deathstrike's tirade earlier, in the holding cell.

Deathstrike was silent for long moments, staring at the mottled sky of hyperspace, considering whether to tell him the truth, or another in a long series of lies/evasions she told many people over the years, about where she was from.

"Well... we fought each-other, almost killing each-other a year ago, I have helped him return from the edge of his personal abyss just a week ago... and we likely saved each-other's lives during the fight on the Star Destroyer, and again during this escape. He deserves to know the truth about me... and I consider him a friend."

Then she looked back at him, directly in the eye:

"I lost control, Ty. You might have noticed I can be rather temperamental, having to try very hard to stop myself from going too far - whether in battle, or even in other situations, sometimes, when I'm upset. And also my taste of blood, back there when I was retrieving my lightsaber." - she began quietly.

"Is that part of your personality or is it because of the Dark Side? Hot temperment seems to be common among Dark Siders." the former merc asked, although he had the feeling it wasn't simply her Force affiliation that caused the crazed outburst.

"Being of the Dark Side doesn't necessitate hot temperament, Ty. It simply tends to amplify the lack of control already inherent in a person. There are, in fact, more than a few amongst out Acolytes that are quite calm and composed, despite making use of the Dark Side. Although that standard formula doesn't apply to me at all..." - she stopped there, briefly, before adding:

"I have an affinity for the Dark Side on the genetic level, a result of the ancient Sith experiment on my people, conducted eons ago. And it is hereditary... all of us are born with that taint, to one degree or another, and live out our lives with it, it for some reason being considerably more pronounced among women, granting inborn Force affinity, as well."

"Where are you from?" Ty asked point-blank, although he already had a slight idea, having briefly known an individual of similiar traits.

She paused, then answered even more quietly.

"I am a native of Dathomir, Ty. A Nightsister of pure blood, a royal bloodline of my defunct clan, in fact, in all but status, having been... made... an outcast by my people when I was a child." - her voice laced with deep and bitter rage and pain.

Havox nodded, not surprised much. It made a lot of sense in fact.

"I've heard of them... nothing good I'm afraid." he replied.

Deathstrike gave him a bitter smile at that.

"'Good' - that is a term without meaning on Dathomir, especially amongst the Nightsisters. Or 'evil', for that matter. Life and trust are valueless commodities. There is only ambition. The difference between success and elevation, and failure and slavery or death, is a knife's edge. And one does whatever scheming, backstabbing, betrayal, or bloodshed required to stay on the former side of that equation. And the worst part of all... we enjoy that state of affairs. The need for war and chaos is in our blood."

"I found myself the victim of that equation, when I was only six years old. As did my entire family." - she added, keeping her voice tightly controlled.

"Something you don't want to talk about?" Havox asked, not wanting to press too far.

"No... not now... not yet. Perhaps at a later date." - Deathstrike replied after a pause.

"But I will say this... as hard as it might be for you to believe, the Master's True Sith teachings have actually tempered that side of me, and gave me the mental discipline to resist the lust for blood, when I don't want it - something many of my kind struggle with all their lives. I am glad I belong to the True Sith, and not them... and glad that the Master had found me, and claimed me all those years ago." - she added, before finishing with:

"He rescued me, moments before I was to die slowly at their hands. Literally."

Moments later, just as Ty was about to reply, Zoran entered the cockpit:

"I can't make contact with the Fleet Admiral's strike force... they must be out of range again by now. After all, we did lose over half a day."

"And we'll lose more time when we set down to search for homing beacons." Ty observed.

"Unavoidable, I'm afraid... the last thing I want is to point Harrington and his people in the direction of our mission. A slight additional delay is worth making certain of that. And one good thing did come from this - setback... they didn't have time to conduct a proper interrogation of us before we escaped!" - Deathstrike replied to that.

"We were lucky to get a stupid guard." Havox commented, "But something bothers me about the whole thing.. What if Harrington isn't tracking us at all? What if he has some other motive?"

Deathstrike nodded slowly.

"I don't know, Ty... his actions down there made no sense to me at all. Or fight was certainly real, and I was tested more than in any battle since last year, and the skirmish with Kane. I still hurt throughout my body! But I don't understand why would he let us go like that, and provide the means of escape. And once we left, that entire base was destroyed! I refuse to believe that was a mere coincidence..."

"I think there's something deeper going on." Havox mused, "But what it is..."

He trailed off and didn't say anything else, just gazed at the vortex of hyperspace outside.

Zoran shrugged, then asked:

"Milady, how do you think the Fleet Admiral will react to what happened, particularily our capture? I don't think he'll be very pleased about the possibility of mission details falling into Remnant, and the SE's, by extension, hands..."

"I don't CARE what he thinks! It wasn't our fault that blasted Interdictor just happened to interpose itself in our path... we did everything we could, and it wasn't enough. I thought the jamming of their communications would prevent them from contacting any reinforcements, but clearly they were able to break past it somehow! Somehow, I doubt even he, with his vaunted strategic insights, would have fared any better in that situation!" - Deathstrike replied irritably, before adding in a calmer tone:

"Don't worry, Acolyte, you'll be absolved of any responsibility in the issue... I promise. I shall deal with Rajko and his displeasure when the time comes. It wouldn't be the first time that ponderous tin-man and myself were at odds..."

"Besides, it's not like they had managed to extract any information from us in the first place... we escaped before they could begin interrogating us! All they have is vague hints and conjectures they'll make about our destination, this far on the galactic outskirts... but nothing tangible." - she thought.

The Acolyte shook his head:

"I think it's a mistake to even mention what happened to him, Lady. You know what his opinion of us Force users is in general, regarding our effectiveness and way of thinking, in tactical situations. I'll bet it would only reinforce his views, when he makes a biased report to Lord Darkon about what happened. And since he is in overall command of the task force, his report will rank higher than yours in the eyes of the Master, milady."

Deathstrike was about to snap an angry retort, inscensed at the suggestion that Lord Darkon would take Rajko's word over hers, but then she nodded slowly, as her Master's unambigous statement came to mind - that he himself had put Rajko in command, and that she would be subordinate to him, regarding missions undertaken.

"And the Master would be far out of range to sense the truth through the Force... Zoran is right! Rajko could easily use this incident to make himself a few points at my expense in the Master's eyes..." - she considered carefully, before replying:

"You make some good points, Acolyte... some very good points, indeed.

Havox remained quiet throughout the conversation, still thinking about Harrington.

"Glad we agree, Lady..." - Zoran spoke deviously, nodding, before he left the cockpit.

Deathstrike was silent for a few moments, contemplating:

"Yessss... our glorious Fleet Admiral doesn't need to know the details of what actually happened! As far as he shall be concerned - we had come across a lone Imperial cruiser, destroyed it, with the Bekrija's hyperdrive taking heavy damage in the battle. Thus, I ordered captain Bakov to head back to RTSE space, while I took a small team to the nearby Remnant outpost, and hijacked this courier ship, before continuing on the way to join with the strike force. We slaughtered everyone at that base, leaving no witnesses, and our cover remained secure." - she thought, with a slight smile.

"As for the Bekrija... it is conceivable she ran into some trouble on the way back, perhaps really ambushed, and with a non-functioning hyperdrive, she couldn't escape! Excellent..." - she finished her line of thought, and the cover story for Rajko to hear when the time comes.

Then, she laid it out to Havox, asking for his opinion.

"Heh, this is why I never officially joined any organization; I didn't want to deal with reports and the like." he responded, "But I think that story is adequate. Although he might ask why only three of us are joining the strike force and not more, since your story doesn't have the Bekrija being destroyed until after we supposedly stopped at the Imperial base. So we could've brought more men with us had we wanted."

"Well, it would be plausible that we had lost more people in the raid on the base, don't you think? And the three of us are all that survived the raid." - Deathstrike suggested.

"I suppose." the major replied, looking back out the viewport, "Not my concern thankfully."

There was silence in the cockpit for almost a minute, each of them occupied with their thoughts... before Deathstrike suddenly turned to Havox:

"Ty... the things I revealed to you earlier... my heritage, what drives me, why I tend to act like I do... I've never told that to anyone before. Anyone. Until today, only one person in the galaxy besides me knew - my Master." - she said, before her tone turned earnest:

"And the reason I've told you, is because I trust you. And consider you a friend. A week ago, when I decided against killing you on Tatooine, and to give you the opportunity to join us, sponsoring you to the Master, I did it out of respect for what you once was. But now... we have fought alongside each-other, and we have saved each-others' lives. There is one type of trust my people hold sacred, NEVER betray, and do not offer easily, even the most conniving, manipulative, and treacherous of the Nightsisters - and that is the one gained on the battlefield, fighting side by side. The fellowship of battle. And we have a specific term for that, Ty..." - she paused there, looking conflicted for a moment... before extending her right hand to touch Ty's chest just below the neck, fingers curled inward in an intricate pattern.

Then she spoke solemnly.

"Sei'jjra Konn'rai ujiia'rana noj'iel'ryaal. Ri'Sijja'nel!" - a phrase in Dathomiri, eyes locked on Ty's the whole time.

The former mercenary kept his face straight the entire time, although he had some difficulty. Nobody had called him a friend in years, and those who had in the past were dead or disassociated with him now. A few fleeting thoughts of past companions came to his mind, although fleetingly. For someone who he had fought against and tried to kill a year earlier, then hated for months afterward, before trying to kill her a second time, to now be sharing intimate secrets with him, was blind-siding. He couldn't quite think of what to say, so he didn't speak, instead just keeping his good eye locked with Deathstrike's.

"The term literally translates to Basic as 'The sharing of a Warrior's heart. Forever!'" - she added after a few moments, withdrawing her hand.

"From now on, you can always rely on me, Ty. You can always count on me to be there when things seem hopeless, be in in battle, or whatever other circumstance, when you need support - whether moral or literal - the most!" - she finished.

"I haven't had a friend in years... what you said means a lot to me." the major responded, finally breaking his silence, "And rest assured I'll be there for you. I owe you my life."

Deathstrike gave him a brilliant smile.

"Neither have I, to be honest... and I value true friendship, Ty." - before the smile vanished, and she turned introspective.

"Not that there are many people who do not become nervous and uneasy when near me. And at times, I am truly affected by that. But I suppose that is the price I pay for the sort of reputation I've gained over the years. Don't misunderstand... I have many close acquaintances, and I have long since lost count of the number of lovers who have shared my bed over the years. But none of either of those has ever tried to see past the surface, and really understand me."

"Why is it so hard for people to see past first impressions, Ty?" - she suddenly asked, slightly annoyed at the thought, her mind drifting back to those two medics aboard the Bekrija, and the silent terror she could sense from them when she confronted them about Keirn.

"Because first impressions are all you have until you get to know the person. And if you are feared, that only makes it less likely anyone will try and get to know you."

"That's just it... I don't want to be feared by those who aren't enemies of the True Sith! And least of all those who are actually with us. And I am reminded of the situation on the Bekrija, the Keirn issue. The way those medics were so reticent and afraid to approach me, that they needed you to act as an intermediary on their behalf. I could sense it in their minds... they actually believed I was going to kill them out of hand, just for suggesting that a Force user could have acted dishonorably. Honestly, I was upset by the implied notion on their part - that they viewed me as that kind of monster!" - Deathstrike stated hotly.

"A false Sith... a Dark Jedi would have done something like that, because of their corruption by the Dark Side! And most of the Nightsisters would, as well. But I am a True Sith Knight, with discipline... not a mindless slave of the Dark Side. I don't act without consideration." - she finished.

"It may be something you'll always have to deal with. Authoritarian regimes are ruled by fear and it's fear that keeps the ranks in line..." Ty responded.

"True... and it is a small price to pay for power, after all! Given the choice between a pitiful, decadent, and weak excuse for a government that the New Republic so-called "democracy" is, and the uncompromising rule of the strong over the weak, as nature intended, that we True Sith promote... there IS no choice! Once the Master's vision has been realized, the entire galaxy shall come to realize the wisdom of the True Sith way." - Deathstrike intoned passionately.

Their conversation moved on to other matters, as the small ship traveled through hyperspace... until they reached their destination, a small, uncharted system that was suitable for them to set down and inspect the ship for homing devices.

"Reading a life-conductive planet deeper in the system, Lady... it might be appropriate for our need." - Zoran remarked, studying the long-range sensor scopes.

"Set a course." - Deathstrike ordered Havox.

Within the next hour, the ship, having landed on the surface of one of the planets in the system, was thoroughly checked for any sort of homing devices that Harrington might have set up. Not surprisingly, one was found... placed in an inconspicuous location on the hull, where a casual sweep would have likely missed it.

"Nice try, Harrington..." - Deathstrike thought to herself, before using her lightsaber to burn off the device off the hull.

Then they lifted back up, and set a course back in the wake of Fleet Admiral Rajko's force... and the excursion to the Mudara Galaxy, and the Shadow Empire that still awaited them.

"What a delectable turn of events... the mission had not even properly begun, and already have I faced a truly worthy adversary! Something tells me that old man shall cross my path again... his agenda down on that base leaves a lot unexplained, and I confess I'm very curious about it." - Deathstrike was deep in thought, sitting in the copilot seat in the cockpit, staring into the depths of hyperspace. Then she turned her head fractionally, in Havox' direction.

"But more importantly, I have gained a true friend... someone who, even a month ago, I would have considered a sworn enemy! Hmm... the universe has a way of playing tricks on us that cannot be anticipated... even through the Force." - before she faced forward again.