Tenebris

While Skye excused herself to send a message, Tenebris was left alone with the shreds of information his team had been able to gather. Glancing back at Lux, a mirthless smile twitched at the corner of his mouth as he nodded at her. The Thyrsian had been true to her word: nary a peep had come from her since they had arrived at the command center. He was just about to speak to her when one of the corporals, a man Tenebris did not know, approached him with sallow eyes. "Major E'lann, sir, we just got word from our teams sorting through the wreckage. Commissioner Antilles was killed in the blast." "Send word to the next ranking officer on site to inform them that they will be henceforth serving as commissioner," he began, but the corporal immediately shook his head. "Sir, I'm afraid that the next ranking officer on site is you." Sighing, Tenebris ran a hand over his face, scratching at the shadow that had begun to mar his chin after a long and trying pair of days on since the Coruscant hospital attack, and leaned on the conference table before him. One thing after another, he thought darkly. With a heavy exhale, he stood upright, rolling his sleeves up to the elbow. Commissioner for the Corellian branch. The unorthodox promotions kept coming. "Thank you, Corporal," he said quietly. "Will there be anything else?" The titch of hesitation in the corporal's actions was foreboding, but he nevertheless handed over a datapad. "This just came over from Logistics. They analyzed the combat style of the attacker." "And?" he said calmly, but bracing against the answer as he flipped through the datapad. "Faust," the corporal blanched. "Unmistakably." Kriff. He tossed the datapad on the table. They had next to no leads, a dead Corellian whose life bore no visible connection to the dead maniac that tried to turbolaser the galaxy, two headquarters' full of dead CoreSec agents, and every reason to believe that something was afoot in the galaxy. It was maddening. But if they only had one lead, they would use their one lead. He turned on his heel to look at Lux. "Are you seeing this through with me, or am I taking you back to Coruscant? If the latter, you will forget everything you just heard, and speak of it to no one. If the former..." His sparkling blue eyes themselves seemed to sigh as the weight of his decision settled in. The search for Relmis could continue at a later date, or once the chaos of the attack on Coronet settled down, he could assign some of his personnel there. His voice raised in volume enough to include the returning Skye in his next statement, the question being essentially posed to both of them. And for some reason, he could not seem to ignore the little voice in the back of his mind that whispered hope that the sable Thyrsian, even in all her impulsive chaos, would come along. "Then pack up. We're going to Onderon."

Skye's request, normally, he would have brushed off as an overreaction, but something in her eyes belied the severity of the situation. He nodded wordlessly and broadcast the landing request for the incoming Serenity to any CoreSec personnel that remained on the ground near Coronet HQ. Before long, the speeders came into view of the large plume of dark smoke that marred the otherwise glistening Coronet skyline. When they arrived at the scene, little was left of what had been the central building of CoreSec's Corellian complex. Without wasting any time, Tenebris marched his patrol to one of the outbuildings where they had begun to set up an interim command center and triage--eerily like the situation on Coruscant that he had come here to investigate. The team set up a perimeter outside the makeshift headquarters, but Tenebris turned to the pair of women behind him, gauging them with his eyes. "Master, I could use your help establishing an effective triage of all wounded citizenry using your ship as an onsite medical center. Your provisional identification should allow you to move through our lines without delay," he asked quietly, grave sincerity echoing from his eyes. Turning to Lux, he debated momentarily dismissing her from the investigation, but instinctively he knew that was not the right call. "As for you, Lux," he said in an equally calm and quiet tone, "I am willing to allow you to accompany me as a second set of eyes, but you must be no more than a shadow until I ask for your assistance. This whole investigation just got a lot more complicated." Holding her ebony gaze for a moment more, he tamped down on the flicker of sorrow that threatened to bubble up when he thought of the brothers and teammates he had lost over the past week, first on Coruscant, now here in Coronet City. With a gruff exhale, he turned on his heel and disappeared through the flap of the massive tent. The Lieutenant in charge was a harried Sullustan with a bandage wrapped in a cockeyed slant across his wide head. Tenebris had to interrupt his chattering no fewer than four times before getting a decent summary of the attack, insufficient as it was. "One more time, Lieutenant Niib," he said exasperatedly. "And slow down, if you please." The Sullustan clapped a shivering hand to his head and prattled on in his native tongue once more, slower, but still fast enough that the only words Tenebris could effectively discern were "madman", "speeder", "saber", "blood", "dead", and "Faust". Sighing, he folded his arms across his chest. "No remains of the attacker?" <"His broken and burnt body remained,"> the Lieutenant answered shortly. <"But the autopsy reveals nothing out of the ordinary, only the wounds one would expect from one who had endured such a crash and firefight."> The information gathered from the deceased assailant's home, as well as the security holos, were presented to Tenebris in short order. Almost immediately, he knew he was out of his depth, his gut sinking. No, this was no prank. The naive question he had posed to Skye came back to mind tauntingly as he surveyed the flash of the blue saber as it cut through his men--good, loyal men--is there an evil nature to this power you wield? Glancing up at Lux, he pulled his comlink from his pocket. "Master Organa, please return to Headquarters. There's something here you should see." It seemed mere moments before she reappeared, and he skipped any introduction as he gave a sweeping hand gesture to the motion of the crazed saber-wielding man--one Gavo Malako, a perfectly ordinary Corellian citizen--replaying on the holoprojector behind him. "Faust I know, Luciferian I know, even the infamous General Vaklu," he said somberly, "but Morthos? What do you make of all this, Master Organa?"

Tenebris crossed the short distance across the grassy lawn to where Lux had sat in a dejected heap, fighting to keep tears away as she recounted her tale of losses. Tucking his vibroblades back into their sheaths on his shoulders, he crouched in front of her, tipping his head down to try to meet her gaze. "Listen," he began softly, "I'm sorry about your friend. I imagine you want justice for her. I would, in your shoes." Rubbing a hand across his brow, he exhaled a moment, staring at her, weighing his words carefully. "Look, if Master Organa thinks you can handle yourself in there, and you think you can handle yourself in there, I'm willing to let you come along and have your go at vengeance. Provided," he said, holding up a hand, "that you find yourself capable of submitting to commands. Otherwise you're welcome to wait on the ship." He stood, preparing to turn back toward Master Organa and the Relmis estate, when his in-ear comm crackled to life with a hiss of feedback that caused Tenebris to yank it out of his ear, replacing it only to catch the tail end of the broadcast. "...for Lord Faust! His revenge is upon us!" Swearing loudly, Tenebris activated the comm to his team. "Status, I want someone scouring the local broadcast. Contact the CoreSec office and see if they can find out where that unauthorized hack came from." He knew better than to get worked up about a prank like that. Most likely it was some rich kid in his mom's basement, or maybe it had come from within the estate. But in any case, he intended to get to the bottom of it. It was the note of concern that he spied in Master Organa's eyes as she directed her next question to him that gave Tenebris pause. He replied with more surety than he felt, "Master, you of all people should know better than I what happened at the Coruscant Memorial. It's probably just a poorly conceived prank. I'm sure it will still get a full investigation. Inciting a panic is no small offense." He turned back to the estate, faced with the decision about whether to carry on with the raid on the estate or to interface with the Coronet City office and divert their resources. A split second later, however, the choice was made for him. "Major," came Corporal Antilles' voice again, more harrowed than Tenebris had ever heard him, "we can't raise Coronet HQ. Word on the street is there's been an incident." Somber eyes met Skye Organa's. "Back to the speeders," he said, broadcasting to the team. "We're going back to Coronet City." Grabbing Lux's hand and pulling her to her feet, he broke into a dead sprint toward the speeders, and before long they were racing across the water towards Coronet. What had happened?

With a concerned frown growing on his face, Tenebris watched the interactions between the two women, some of which went completely over his head. Jedi terms that he had never before heard flew left and right. Force sensitive? Mini-chlorines? While it all seemed like gibberish, a visible change came over the excitable Thyrsian as they retreated from the doors of the Relmis estate. The frenetic glint in her eye lessened, and it appeared that she was more aware of her behavior in the situation that had just passed. Perhaps there was something to Master Organa's claims. He bit his tongue to ward off the impulse to cut short the conversation. Lux gave him a nod, a paltry form of apology, though in his mind the damage was already done. She had proven herself impulsive and irresponsible, two traits that made her far more of a liability than he was willing to assume in this investigation. His in-ear comm crackled to life with Antilles' garbled voice. "Major, holding perimeter and waiting for instructions," he said, but Tenebris knew what he meant. What the kriff is happening? Clenching his teeth together, he turned away from the conversation between the two women for privacy's sake as Lux bowed her head in tears and tapped his wrist to activate his comm. "Copy, Corporal, stand by. We've got something of a ... delicate situation." With a sigh, he pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose to ward off an encroaching headache as he turned to rejoin the women just in time to hear Lux answer Master Organa's question. But his disquiet only deepened at her allegation. "Did you file a report?" he interrupted suddenly, narrowing his eyes in concern. "Dealing with the aftermath of a terrorist attack is one thing. But a murderer on the loose is another. What was this 'shadow'?"

It was only the deep connection that Tenebris had built between his mind and his sinews that he was able to keep his hand from flying of its own accord to smack the impertinent woman across the face. She demanded respect, claimed that she must be treated as an equal, and then launched into a child's tirade. He let her say her piece, held his jaw firm, and waited as she tried to return to the side of the Jedi Master as though nothing had happened. With slow, careful steps, like the creeping stalk of an approaching panther, he towered over her. Through gritted teeth, with flashing eyes, he peered down at her, a low growl sounding from his throat. "Don't--ever--do that again," he snarled. "You are not my peer. I have respect for my subordinates because they can be trusted to follow orders. Your assignment was completed the minute you pulled your sword out. You are now officially impeding and interfering with a CoreSec investigation." He motioned to Corporal Antilles. "Corporal, please escort Ms. Lux back to the ship, and ensure she remains there until we return to Coruscant. Lock her in the brig if you have to," he said coldly. As the Corporal approached them, Tenebris stepped back and turned his attention back to the estate, calling over his shoulder, "and while we're on the subject of titles, it's 'Major' now. You are dismissed."

Am I really seeing this? Tenebris thought in utter astonishment as Lux erupted into action, nearly receiving an impaling blade to the skull as a reward for her action. The quick slash of the Jedi's lightsaber brought a halt to it, and as his eyes fell on Master Organa, the look she gave him said that she was thinking the same thing. With a series of quick gestures, he signaled his men to enter the fray. "Set for stun!" he directed into his wrist comm. Returning blasterfire rang out from the CoreSec troops, even as the two remaining opponents were discarding their blasters to produce vibroblades. He seized the opportunity to rush forward and catch the Thyrsian's arm, pulling her back from the skirmish and avoiding the backlash of the instinctual reaction that would likely try to plunge her sword down his gullet. Giving her a warning look, his eyes almost immediately softened into worried alarm. "What the kriff do you think you're doing?" he yelled over the din of blasterfire and the hum of the lightsaber. Whatever importance he had placed on jurisdiction and doing things by-the-book for Mazzari's sake, the reality of this instance sank in: while the young woman had made it obvious that she knew what she was doing, Tenebris would be called to account for the bodies now littering the ground on the outside of the pristine estate. Not to mention that should anything happen to Lux herself, he would likely be held responsible as well, as the commanding officer. The thought unsettled him, but he could not seem to distinguish if that had more to do with his commission and duty, or with the mental image of Lux's broken body. The darkness that entered his eyes at the thought made him feel like an overprotective big brother, but he could not help but continue the tirade that sprang to the tip of his tongue. "I agreed to let you come and talk your way into the estate. You want to be helpful? Listen up and learn to take orders, or I'm stuffing your ass into a shuttle bound for Coruscant faster than you can blink." His strike team, efficient and deadly, had already taken down the remaining two assailants, who bore the same strange sigil as the attackers at Coruscant General. Tenebris held up a hand to halt forward progress into the estate, and his agents checked the perimeter once more, standing guard behind the shimmering cerulean form of Master Organa. With a sigh, he passed a hand over his face, taking in the fiery and indignant expression of the Thyrsian, who yanked her arm away from his grip, looking very much like she would like to use him as a scabbard for the blade in her hand. "Look, missy--I appreciate you saving my skin, and you've got some skill with that thing. But if you think for a minute I'm going to let a banker run point in a deadly skirmish into a booby-trapped Sith Lord's estate, you've got another think coming. Since it seems I can't keep you out of the fray, come along," he said with a sudden inspiration, "but you are to stay with either Master Organa or myself at all times, and you will answer to her directly, is that clear?" He regarded her with eyebrows held high in unwavering command before turning to jog the few meters to where Master Organa stood. "I guess that's their way of rolling out the welcome mat for us," he said cynically, beginning to walk toward the mammoth front door of the estate once more, abandoning his blaster rifle in favor of the twin blades sheathed across his back. "Let's stop in for tea and biscuits." As an aside to the Jedi as they stood before the doors, Tenebris added, "Keep an eye on the kid, will you?"

Listening in silence as the Jedi Master spun him a tale of powers he did not begin to comprehend, Tenebris' thoughts turned inward. If what she said was true, that light and dark or good and evil was simply the difference between working from a grounded sense of inner peace versus from an emotional self-interest, it was no wonder that so many Jedi ended up falling astray of their true ideals. It was a rare sentient that operated from a true sense of justice and peace. Most who claimed to do so were deluding themselves at best. With a measuring look at Master Organa, Tenebris found himself wondering as to the manifestation of her special abilities. What would it be like to spar a Jedi, hand-to-hand, in honest combat? Ancient weapons and other scaffolding of combat aside... a flicker of amusement entered his eyes. To defeat her in such a match would be bragging rights, indeed. "Be ready, Lux is there," Master Organa said, with a note of teasing in her voice. "She's a feisty one." He scoffed, but nevertheless found himself stifling a grin. "She's got guts, that's for sure. For her sake, I hope it doesn't get her killed. My people don't look highly on impulsive individuals who can't take orders." Minutes later, they had arrived at the compound, where Lux was waiting to meet them. The news she brought was welcome, though, he reflected, it would certainly have been easier for Relmis to simply surrender his holdings willingly. Despite what he may have told the Bank Liaison, he genuinely wished for a non-combative result. Tenebris nodded gratefully. "I am obliged to your efficiency. Now I must ask that you remain here while we conduct a thorough search and investigation. It may be dangerous, and your limbs aren't covered under CoreSec's health insurance," he warned simply, the ghost of a taunt in his eyes. Without waiting for a response, Tenebris signaled to a handful of his men. "Take position on the outside of the building. Once we get the all-clear, we'll move in." Turning to the Jedi, he asked cautiously, "What should we be prepared for?"

Silence reigned over the exterior of the Relmis estate, the challenge from the dark Thyrsian woman going unanswered for a space longer than would be considered polite or even reasonable. Then, the voice echoed again. "Enpresa ez daukazu hemen, Atzerritarra. Utzi! Utzi!" The edifice remained as staunch and unassailable as it had when she first approached. The grounds of the estate were silent, daring intrusion, taunting Lux to make the first move. The message was clear: You and what army?

The tension in the air dropped in barometric pressure as the Thyrsian woman disappeared across the wooded island's landscape on her speeder bike. With a sigh of relief, Tenebris turned back to his assembled team as they moved through the warehouse, the Jedi Master in tow, to select a speeder. His comlink twittered, and he took the moment to answer it. The missive was short and to the point: by order of the Commissioner, given his attention to detail in the attacks on Coruscant General, he was being promoted immediately. Major? he thought with a flicker of surprise. But he wouldn't question it. It had no effect on the mission at hand, and he had plenty of time to ask questions and reorient once he returned to Headquarters. Once they had chosen a speeder and were well on their way, Tenebris cast a shrewd glance at the Jedi, who now appeared to him in a different light, clad in armor rather than a doctor's garb. "Master, if I may," he began cautiously, "can I inquire as to the nature of your relationship with this Relmis?" The question sounded forward in his mind, so he quickly amended it. "Rather, what do you mean when you say that he fell to the dark side? I have heard Jedi say this many times as a way of excuse or explanation. Is there an evil nature to this power you wield?" ------ The door to the Relmis estate remained firmly closed, but a voice spoke in some foreign tongue from seemingly all around Lux. "Enpresa ez daukazu hemen, Atzerritarra. Utzi! Utzi!"

"Provisional Agent Skye Organa, meet Lux of the Bank of Coruscant," Tenebris said with a courteous open-palmed gesture. "Doctor Organa was assisting with the relief effort on Coruscant and is our key witness from the attack on the hospital. Lux is the bank liaison charged with the Relmis accounts." His gaze remained on the Jedi Master for a minute more, testing her with his perception. In her healing work at Coruscant General, prior to the bombing, she had masqueraded as a traditional doctor, and he was content to let that persona play as it pertained to the Thyrsian's knowledge of their investigation. If she revealed her true nature, that would have to be her choice. The hospital-grade infirmary on board her ship perfectly suited the disguise, and her outward appearance did not match with the hermit-like and unassuming nature of most Jedi. No, this woman was a warrior, by the way she carried herself now in the open air on Vrent Island. With the slightest of catlike grins, Tenebris found himself considering that any down time might contain the possibility of testing his extensive sparring skills against her heightened reflexes. While the memory of the losses on Coruscant was fresh in his mind, the unassuming, honest, and strong aura of Master Organa chipped away at his disdain for the Jedi as a whole. He gestured to the warehouse, where a collection of speeders was visible indoors. The ride to the outskirts of the expansive estate would take them only a quarter of an hour, and they should have plenty of daylight to work with. "If you please, let's be on our way. Lux will be our first point of contact with the estate. As the bank's representative, I believe she affords us the greatest likelihood of evading detection by pursuing a legitimate means of interfacing with Relmis."

Tenebris Identity Real Name: Tenebris E'lann A.K.A: Tenebris Homeworld: Eshan Species: Echani Physical Description Age: 28 Height: 6'0" Weight: 180 Hair: White/silver, short-cropped, shaved on the sides and slightly longer on top. Eyes: Silver with flecks of black Sex: Male Equipment Clothing or Armor: Typically wears light combat armor, form-fitting and allowing for maximum dexterity in traditional Echani fashion. Personal energy shields worn on each arm, able to be activated with the press of a button. Weapons belt. Tall black boots. Weapon: Small dagger in a boot sheath, twin vibroblades worn diagonally across the back, disruptor pistol, occasionally carries a double-bladed vibrosword. Wrist mounted grappling hook/ascension line. When on duty with CoreSec, has additional armaments available (e.g. grenades/launchers, flechette weapons, heavier blasters) but generally prefers not to use them. Common Inventory: Pack containing comlink, basic medical supplies, pocket money of around 100 credits, datapad, ID. Faction Information Non-Force User Alignment: Lawful Good Current Faction Affiliation: CoreSec Current Faction Rank: Commissioner History: Known Skills: Extensive hand-to-hand combat prowess, in the fashion of Echani culture. Exacting/deadeye marksmanship. Although not Force-sensitive, has a keen awareness for whether or not someone is being truthful, a skill he learned from watching his father's constant lying. Background: Tenebris, the son of a prominent Echani politician, was raised with no expense spared and extensive training in the ins and outs of Echani law and culture, especially the art of combat. As a child, he was shuttled around from place to place and saw rampant injustices being carried out, some of them enabled by laws his father had enacted. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the racial discrimination against the Thyrsians, a derivative of Echani culture, the result of Arkanian genetic experimentation. The corruption his father participated in was distasteful to him. When he was old enough, he took his leave from the Echani and joined CoreSec, quietly determined to see fair and equal law upheld and challenged when necessary for justice' sake. To the Echani, combat is an art form, a dance in which you mine the depths of your sparring partner's soul. Heavy weapons or armor are considered distasteful and stand directly in opposition to the meaning of combat. Tenebris holds this belief and relies on his own reflexes, agility, and strength rather than heavy weaponry.