Leaderboard

Qessax took the baton almost stoically, if only because his years of training at Imperial Academy taught him to. A command was a command, and that was that. “Yes sir” Qessax said, refusing to elaborate. With a click of the heels, he turned and walked off the command bridge into a hallway. A distance away, an elevator waited. Qessax stopped. The others who did choose to leave the bridge had to make their way around the Kaleesh Imperial Agent. He was practically a black pillar in the middle of the walk way. “Agent Qessax to Officer Keels” Qessax tapped his comm. “Make sure that pod 2A does not leave without my authorization. That is an order. Qessax out” The agent sighed and turned around to face the door to the Command Bridge. He knew what he needed to do. Unfortunately, what was necessary wasn’t exactly easy. He knew the Grand Moff. Kolchak could be as stubborn and as intense as the metal in his eye. “Qymaen jai Sheelal…” Qessax started to pray a bit, taking his mask from his side. “Give me strength and give me power. Make your might mine, and your cunning my inheritance” Qessax slid the mask over his face. Its white bone was perfectly carved at the edges to fit right over the ears, making it almost impossible to come off accidentally. While it was no war mask like his siblings’, it was intimidating in its own right. Early on in Qessax’s training, the mask got him into a lot of trouble. But eventually people understood that when the Kaleesh wore it, he was not speaking as a member of the Empire, but instead as a member of the Tribe of Todda. The Kaleesh War Hunter stepped back onto the command bridge, hand still clutching the batan. He felt the eyes that looked at him. He took a breath. “Great Chief, I must demand a private audience with you” Qessax stated, trying to prevent his nervousness from affecting his voice too much. It wasn’t as successful as he would have liked. “And as a representative of the Todda tribe, i demand it before your pointless demise” Qessax gulped a large piece of phlegm. This could be the end of his career, and he knew it. But too much was at stake.

I eyed the vent. It was surprisingly clean, none of that rust or gunky buildup you usually see. Clean priests I guessed. "If I die in a vent... He had really better be worth it." Now, I did consider just taking the stairs. It'd be risky, but it wouldn't be the first time I'd gone the direct route. In fact it'd probably be the closest thing I had to a MO at this point. But...and this sounds silly...I'd never actually gone through a vent system before. I know it sounds ridiculous when I just put that out there, but it was true. I'd never had the opportunity to crawl through ductwork in a situation where it would actually be a viable strategy. I'd always thought it would come up at some point, and if I was being honest with myself I kind of wanted to do it. Sure, that was probably the end result of way too many holovids on long cargo runs with a bunch of rough Outer Rimmers, but the little girl in me really, really wanted to peel that grate off and wiggle through. Painting a look of resigned frustration on my face, I looked both ways, wrenched off the grating, and squirmed inside. The first thing to hit was the smell. It was so musty I had to concentrate not to choke and gag. After that, I started crawling through, feeling my way ahead until I found what I assumed was the dropoff that led to the next level. Alright, just do it gently...