Mimban

[Nahstaa]

"Each sith will develop his or her own methods and styles. I use my mind and the force to help me remove the faults from myself unnaturally. The same is quite possible without machinery, but then, it depends on what you consider a fault. In my personal opinion, control is what makes a true sith. Control over themselves, followed by control over others. If you cannot master yourself, you will never master others. I suspect that if you want to meet your goal, my teaching style may need to change a little, as will our location. I think its time to leave mimban for a while, but i need to make some preparations first.

 

You need to heal a little before you do anything. I will come back here in a little while, but get some rest..."

 

Squeezing her shoulder gently, he stood, and made his way back to his workshop. If he was going to be leaving mimban, he would need a ship to meet his requirements... and that meant he would have to build it himself.

 

Plugging into the main control structure of his workshop, he fired up everything, downloading schematic after schematic of parts that were to be made precisely, along with schematics of how to fit the parts into sections, and how to fit those sections into an entire ship. Creating a list of the order in which the schematics would be performed in the workshop, he began the process of creation, and the workshop began its greatest work ever.

 

Sitting back in the chair, still plugged into the control structure, nahstaa monitored the process, ensureing everything went well, and fitted together perfectly.

[Nahstaa]

((Sorry bout the double post... internet screwed up hardkore))

[Lord Asshat]

Achzet was amazed at how good of a fighter his master was. He blocked everything with ease. He hid his power from the enemy.

Achzet replied, "No master."

Then attacked his master with several swift attacks.

[Nahstaa]

6 hours of non stop work later, The basic shell of the ship, with pre made fittings for all of the ships components was complete. Standing up and moving up to the dry-dock, nahstaa plugged into the outside terminal, wanting to be absolutely sure everything was perfect. Using the system of running claws, repulsor lifts and conveyor belts, nahstaa had each individual piece of the ship brought out one by one, slowly building up the highly re-inforced frames of the ship. Once the seperate frames were complete, He began installing the 6-inch thick durasteel bulkheads, constructing the most basic interior of the ship. Once that was complete, he began welding in the outer frames, ensuring each one was airtight with magnetic testing, before spraying each section with layer after layer of ultra thermal resistant ceramics.

 

Alowing each section time to cool down and for the ceramics to set hard, nahstaa began work on the ships dual power supply's. After constructing the outer shielding of the reactor cores, he carefully pieced them together. He would have to obtain some of the preciously radioactive materials somewhere, perhaps he would be able to find a deposit somewhere around here...

 

Once the two power supplies were complete, he began work on the engines. Withing 6 more hours, the chemical sublight engine and the regular sublight engine were complete, and nahstaa took a break.

 

Heading down to aero's room to check on her, he knocked before waiting a few moments, and entering. Sitting down, he said

 

"How are you going?"

[Aero]

Aero nodded as she listen to him. After he had gently squeezed her shoulder and left, she fell asleep.

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

A knock came, waking her up again from her slumber. Nahstaa entered and took his seat. He had come to check on her.

 

"I'm sore. I feel tired and weak... some what foolish as well." Leaning on her pillows, she drew in a breath. Her sleep had been dreamless, but once she awoke, the hatred fired up again.

 

"Nahstaa... I... What will become of Barton? Actually, I'm more worried about his apprentice... Shy-Ree, the Jedi. "Spider" told me he'd make her feel as much pain as I. Though she disgusts me, I can't help but feel some sympathy for her. No one deserves that..."

[Ikanya Calthye]

((1))

 

She knew nothing. Nothing about her location, her 'Master's' location, or the location of her mind. There was one thought for a moment, and that was that it wasn't there.

 

And then that too was gone.

 

Outside, Ikanya lay peaceful, almost stone-cold. She could have been taken as dead but for the rise and fall of her chest, still wearing the scoundrel-like garb. But she lived, at least as one little flicker of flame deep within her mind from a dark and cruel deed from a teacher to teach... to show... exactly what one's mind could do.

 

Outside, the walls were white, the roof and floor silver cold metal. The only things to break the continual white was a stain of crimson left of blood, the lone symbol of pain, of a being's agony... to look within the room with the Force, a lingering fear remained. The darkside was strong there, but Ikanya's face was utterly peaceful.

 

Peace. It wasn't an emotion of the Sith, she knew. Or perhaps she didn't, but it was there all the same. Yet she wasn't a Sith. She wasn't a Jedi. She wasn't anything in between. She walked the fine line between shadows and glory, between black torment of eternal ink and a forever standing beam of gold. And between that line there was no gray... there was dark and there was light.

 

And there was a girl who stood between, casting a darker shadow on the blackness, and a reflected light back at the light.

 

She was no Jedi, she was not peaceful. And there was turmoil, a lash in the paradox, and light and darkness became shadows.

 

There were shadows that whirled, and twisted, leeching off of what light dwelled in Ikanya's heart, the tiniest flame that remained within her. Her very life force was at danger from the demons within, that threatened to grab her and suck her down. Yet a piece of her knew... knew that within was the power to overcome! There was a stable point, she merely had to grab it...

 

And the vortex was overcome with that sudden knowledge. There was just a hint of stability in a sea of roaring emotions, and she was able to stand.

 

The dark and light faded away into herself... and she was shadow, until the darkness smothered the light deep within, leaving it to gleam behind darkness' bars. For a moment she thought she had walked out, until the scenery became all too real, and all too fake. A dreamrealm, a piece of her mind whispered that still held control of her body's ability to think. It was too bright, too overdone, colors slashing everywhere that seemed all too picturesque for their own well-being.

 

It seemed too peaceful.

 

[Where is the war?] her voice came. It resounded in the hollow world, the painting, the frame that tried to mimic herself. It sounded too surreal to be herself, too teasingly good to come from her mind. It was another self entirely, yet it had control of her mind now. [Where is the inner turmoil? I'm not through yet...]

 

There was a stir. And she could see the picture in it's entirity for a moment, so she stepped forward to a wall, and a tiny, tiny door that lay in its frame. Ikanya opened her mind's door, and stepped into a depth of herself she hadn't known existed, having thought the ocean of emotion to be her center.

 

But it wasn't. Here was her realm now, and it was nothing.

 

Her last concious thought from her physical body was, I must never tempt fate...

[Darth Sauron]

Achzet's swift attacks were met by Sauron's grasp of the Force. With ease the Sith Master lifted his apprentice into the air, leaving Achzet's attacks mere swings like a baby. Slowly Sauron began to increase the pressure on Achzet's own body as he stepped to his face. Soon the crack of skin and bones slowly crept up as Sauron spoke.

 

"Did I instruct you to attack?" He asked....

[Darth Sauron]

Achzet's swift attacks were met by Sauron's grasp of the Force. With ease the Sith Master lifted his apprentice into the air, leaving Achzet's attacks mere swings like a baby. Slowly Sauron began to increase the pressure on Achzet's own body as he stepped to his face. Soon the crack of skin and bones slowly crept up as Sauron spoke.

 

"I told you to defend against my two seperate attacks to show how much you have learned. Have you lost the ability to count? I only attacked once. Did I ever instruct you to attack or counter attack?" He asked as the pressure in the Force increased....

[Nahstaa]

"Karmy is a sith lord. He has to be responsible for his own actions, which usually means that he can do what he wants, so long as he succeeds, and can kill everyone that opposes him. His own lack of control was what stopped him, and he has to learn this. Personally i have no care for the jedi. If he does to her what he did to you, he will kill her outright. His mechanical arms are not built for surgery, nor has he been taught healing.

 

I am building a ship at the moment, something that will ensure our safety and survival away from mimban. Within the next day or two, we will be on our way to a deserted planet."

[Aero]

Aero sighed as Nahtsaa went on. She wanted to die... right then and there. She didn't want this bull anymore. Nahstaa had better things to do then to worry about some weak, sad being.

 

"He should have killed me.... You should have let me die...." was all she could get out....

[Nahstaa]

"But he didnt, and you have to deal with that. If you give up, and dont seek your revenge, you will be walked over again, and again, and again. Karmy is pure brute force and ego. Being strong doesnt mean anything if you dont have control over it. Control is the key to everything, if you can control yourself, you can control the galaxy. I suggest you start taking control over your life."

[Lord Asshat]

Achzet's skin felt as if it were to fall off and his bones were beginning to break. Achzet, in a serious amount of pain replyed, " No master."

Achzet was about to pass out as the pressure increased...

[Darth Sauron]

Darth Sauron made no sign towards Achzet's reply, "Good. Now get out of my sight. We are done for today."

 

The fact that his apprentice was having trouble being correct the first time ment that Sauron would have to alter the "lesson plan". In time his weapon would be sharpened to a fine point, but for now constant heat and force would be needed.

 

In time....

[Aero]

"I suggest you start taking control over your life."

 

His words ran through her head over and over. She wanted nothing more than die, but she also wanted to finish what she had begun. She wanted to do what she had first intended when she was with SEED. She would take her revenge.

 

Trowa Barton had made a promise, and now it was her turn to make an oath. "The spirit is willing, yet the flesh is so weak...." she looked at Nahstaa. "I, no doubt, will become discouraged. I know though, you will be there, pushing me.... Yes, I will do as you say. I'll finish what Barton started. I swear, the next time I meet the bastard, it will either put me in my death bed, or him in his."

 

Aero closed her eyes. This is what she had become. A being with potential to take what she wanted. Alyssa Madean, daughter of important people, who never cared about her.... now didn't exist. She would train, become what she could, take her revenge and further herself in the Empire...

[Lord Asshat]

Achzet bowed to his master and left. He slowly walked to his room and made himself some dinner. After about 45 min. of eating, Achzet changed into his sleeping robe and collapsed on to his bed. He slept for the rest of the night.

[Nahstaa]

"Good. Before you can do any of that, you need to get some rest and heal. Give it a few hours more, and you will be fine to walk around. The bacta should have healed the tears in your muscles by then, they will just be a bit sore for a while." Standing up and leaving, nahstaa made his way to the workshop.

 

Now that all of the exterior armouring, the frames and the bulkheads were fitted together in their different sections, it was time to bring it all together. Plugging in, nahstaa fired up the workshop, activating the repulsorlifts and using the claws to hold everything together whilst welding arms moved all around the ship, sealing the armour plating perfectly. When this was finished, he had two halves of a central shell, four long claw like structures, and a completed shell of a small two man fighter.

 

Having the workshop move into the next stage of synthesis, a series of armoured locking mechanisms were created, made of a very thermal resistant durasteel alloy. These locking mechanisms were installed into both halves of the central shell, made to hold the thing together around the fighter, and made to do it well. They would withstand any stress the ship itself could take, and that was alot. Having created the central shell, and locked it together around the smaller fighter, he had more locking mechanisms installed into the base of each claw, before locking it onto the main shell. Once this was complete, he began the creation of individual motors to use in doors, the boarding ramp, all along the four claws etc etc.

 

Next he installed the three seperate engines into the central core, running them all through the same set of thermo-plated engine tubes. Installing the two custom made powersupplies onto opposite sides of the central shell, and another smaller one into the fighter, nahstaa had to stop the constructing for a while... The workshops equipment wouldnt be able to move around inside the ship, he needed something smaller...

 

Sitting down for a few hours, nahstaa once again began drawing up schematics in his mind, setting the workshop to work entirely on this one project, while he began writing programs for the finished product...

[Ikanya Calthye]

((2))

 

Trapped in her mind, her body remained lifeless. The spirit was willing while the body was weak, so often it went... but in her case the spirit was weakened, and though there was nothing left to move her body, it was the only strength that anchored her to a reality that shouldn't've existed. She didn't know if it was a dream, or if it were real...

 

And then it was as if she held control of her body again. She sat up, stood, checked the lightsaber at her waist, and it seemed real. The Mimban scenary was around her, the white pressing walls that beckoned for nothing. She walked forward, touched the wall, and it felt solid...

 

You've walked into a shifting maze, your eyes a gleam of hope that's not there. You don't know what you're trying to do, only that it's there, only that it can be done...

 

You take a deep breath, and it tastes metalitc. But you're in your mind, not real... none of this is real, yet if you're killed here, you will die.

 

Because your mind is what binds you to your body.

 

Your darkness is what binds you to light.

 

Your light is what keeps you bound to darkness.

 

She found herself entering a shifting maze as the walls fell apart, faded into a twisting labrynth of torment and tiny screams that raked at the edge of her mind's eye. Ikanya knew then that it was still a dream, as the walls pressed inwards, guiding her though shadows. She wanted to wake up... she wanted to pull herself out of the ever gray scenery that unfolded before her, she wanted to escape what pressed at her physical form...

 

Over and over again, in a piece of her that was far behind everything else, her life played like an old holovid. It was blurry, but all too clearly whispered of every wrongdoing she had done, of every moment that something had gone wrong.

 

You're too wrapped up in your mistakes. You see only them, and you don't look ahead. You're looking back, and not literally enough. You've been grabbed by the first of your mind's torments, and that is your past.

 

It won't let you go now. It'll keep pressing at you, distracting you, and keeping you from what's real, and what truly matters now...

 

A being lies behind you, and suddenly a flare lights through your mind.

 

Your body twitches, but your mind is still caught deep within...

 

...And she drew her blade, and it suddenly flashed to existance in her mind, the crimson blade slashing at a flickering figure. It had no face, and that bothered her. It was a faceless enemy, with less of an identity than she herself wore. It was nothing.

 

She didn't like to see that nothingness in her own realm.

 

The maze seemed to expand, the walls growing as she rose up to battle the faceless enemy. And they battled on in her mind, blades whirling through stances she had never been taught, but somehow knew. Parry, thrust, dash and run through... no... suddenly she realized she couldn't kill this enemy, and her mind's weapon sank away from her hand and into the floor of the maze.

 

The faceless enemy shoved her against the wall, and it collapsed to form into her body's shape, melding backwards as she sank by gravity's pull. It walked forward, its blade to her throat.

 

[Who are you?] she managed to think through a growing agony.

 

It seemed to smile, for all its lack of face. And then she knew the answer and why she hadn't been able to kill the faceless one before.

 

[You're... me...]

 

And she knew then she couldn't kill this inner demon by a sword. A smile touched her pained face for a moment, humorless and predetorial. She knew then why she had been pushed into her mind, weaponless and helpless... You can't kill yourself, you can only learn to accept yourself and your nuances...

 

She shoved her mental hand outwards, and into the faceless figure's chest. She knew it would work, knew her fingers would meld into nonexistant flesh, a seering pain digging into them, and colorless agony spreading up her arm. And knew that she could control herself through that choice, if so she chose...

 

And that was why she was there.

[Nahstaa]

The next morning, the secondary project was complete... After having had all the various parts of his workshop concentrate on the construction of the replicating droid, nahstaa could finally fit each individual component inside the black case, before downloading his own programming into it. Once complete, nahstaa activated it, and gave it the voice command to begin building replica's of itself, and also told it to tell the rest of the droids to do the same, until there were 20 of them.

 

In the mean while, nahstaa went to the main hangars of the temple... Finding an older ship, he took two special canisters, and began going about the task of carefully removing the reactor cores of two power supplies. Using the two long telescopic claws that were mounted across his shoulders, he removed the cores, and placed them into the two canisters. Having two acolyte's carefully bear the canisters up to his personal dry dock, and leave them in a storage unit there, nahstaa made his way to the docks database, plugging in and downloading the navigation information from every ship docked there. Combining this information with his own personal databanks, and that of his old ship, he made his way back up to his own workshop, to find 4 of the droids busily making replicas of themselves.

 

Plugging into the workshops terminal, he began writing the programs for his own ship, and downloading them into the ships computer that was yet to be installed.

[Kakuto Ryu]

Kakuto emerged from his room a number of days later, his armor repaired and his body recovered. His weapons slid into their places, save for his warhammer, which had since gone missing. He took his seat on the throne, contemplating his next course of action....

[Dagon]

::Tzeentch had not been to Mimban since the fall of Nhagathul, but the planet actually held quite a bit of sentimental value to him. Tzeentch whistled a cheery tune as he walked through the planet's swampy surface, both because he was in a maliciously happy mood and because he knew that it would aggravate all of the sith warrior disciples who considered themselves too badass to be associated with anything remotely resembling personality or positivity. Rain hissed as it touched his ornate armor and evaporated, however it turned everything else into a giant mudpool.

 

Dropping down to one knee, Tzeentch plunged his hand into the muck shoulder deep, grabbing something soft and fleshy. He pulled the girl out of the earth and slung her over his back, carrying her into the old Sith temple and into the workshops, ignoring the confused looks of those around him.

 

"I trust you don't mind sharing" he said to the lord in the workshop as he laid the girl on a spare fighter seat and collected a number of components through a series of hand motions.::

[Kakuto Ryu]

Kakuto stuck his hands in the pockets of his robes. Tzeentch's arrival always seemed to fascinate him, as the strangest things usually happened in the presence of the god. Last time he had been FedExed through hell. This time it appeared that he had pulled a girl out of nothing. Kakuto poked at the soft flesh with an extended finger, his eyebrow high with curiosity.

 

"So... Uhh... Nice woman you got there. Did you... Err... Create her out of mud or, is she the spirit of Mimban, or some kind of demon you planted here earlier, or what?"

[Nahstaa]

By now the droids were finished replicating themselves, and nahstaa set them to work installing the rest of the components within the ship.

 

"If you can manage to use this workshop, your welcome to." In order for the man to use the workshop, he would need to be able to connect with the computer. There were no effective manual controls left within the workshop by now, nahstaa had absolutely no need for them.

 

Pondering this bare, muddied girl, nahstaa continued with his work, instructing the droids as required. By now, the ships computers were all installed, along with the life support system, and the wiring into the engines. The ship could effectively take off, but would be defenseless against anyone who decided they wanted to fire upon it.

 

having the workshop begin the fabrication of the weapons, nahstaa returned to the sith master who was collecting components for some project of his own.

"Do you need any help with that?"

 

He wanted to go and check on aero, but he definately wasnt ready to leave his workshop when someone else was so busily using it.

[Dagon]

I wouldn't poke it if I were you, it might bite something off, and I'm not referring to your fingers. This girl was training under Abaddon around the same time I was, when he fell she went into a coma and apparently was buried alive. I have a personal interest in her awakening, seeing as how you can only be around a Jedi so long until their ethical restraints begin to get to you.

 

Computers tend to create more problems than they solve, I will rely on my will for this.

 

::Tzeentch gestured and metal parts warped and mutated into a forearm and hand with the required functions and immunities. He handed it over to the Dark Lord with a bored expression on his face.::

[Bad karma]

The ship dropped out of hyperspace above the planet of Mimban. It hadn't been long ago that he was fleeing this planet”¦but he had to return, for his other apprentice and so Shy could craft her crystal. He prepared to bring the ship into the atmosphere; it would be a rough entry as this ship had not been properly prepared for the atmosphere of this world.

 

After guiding the ship down on to the planets surface Barton got up, gathering his things. He walked over to Shy after he finished. ”œWe can't stay here long, be careful who you speak with whilst we are here.”

[Kakuto Ryu]

Kakuto gripped the dark gray steel arm between his flesh fingers.

 

"As easy as that was, I dare say you didn't need to come all the way down here for it. Though I suppose you did have to get this..."

 

Kakuto tapped Minuq once more with his newly constructed mechanical hand, still quite fascinated with the girl. Figures that she'd be something so simple as buried alive. Deep down he suspected that he might have planted her as some kind of screwy demon tree then plucked her at maturity, but decided to instantly change history to spite him.

 

"She knew Abaddon eh..."

 

The Dark Lord resisted his desire to stick around and inquire about Abaddon, see if she knew anything he didn't. It had been a long time since he had gotten word of his old rival. Still, there was much work to do and very little time remaining. Instead he headed out, leaving Tzeentch, his mud woman and Nahstaa behind, heading to his ship and taking off for space...

[Aero]

Aero slept and awoke several times during her last visit with Nahstaa. He had gone back to work on his ship, and she had stayed in bed, healing. The bacta had done it's job.

 

Aero was sick of being bed-ridden. She shakily stood up and walked to her shower room. Stripping off her clothes, she stepped in and let the water gently run over her body. The water at first hurt, then the pain subsided, and she rinsed the crusted blood off. After washing her hair, she stepped out, wrapping her body in the softest towel she could find.

 

Entering her room again, she dried herself, taking extra care with her hair. Her straight black hair shined and her eyes gained some of their 'alive' look.

 

Choosing navy blue robes, she slipped them on. Her skin was still quite pale, but she didn't mind. At least she could get up and walk around. Sliding her rings on her fingers, she looked at herself in the mirror. A new beginning.... again...

[Nahstaa]

Suddenly, nahstaa had a very good reason to leave his work for a short while. He had just felt shy-ree's presence drop out of hyperspace. Only two possible reasons occured to nahstaa for her presence. Either she had escaped karmy, and returned here with a jedi assault force, or karmy was stupid enough to have cloaked his own force signature, and not told shy to cloak hers. Plugging into his computer terminal, he linked up with the defense network, and checked if anyone had transmitted codes. Anyone who wanted to even approach mimban without the defense systems coming online had to identify themselves at the very least, and karmy's ship had inadvertantly done that only a few moments ago.

 

Unplugging from the system, nahstaa cloaked his own force signature, and calmly made his way to bartons ship. Plugging his internal memory into the computer through his finger, he exchanged some information with it, before removing any logs of his entry, and making his way to aero. Gently forcing her to sit down, hurting her a little in the process, nahstaa didnt bother to explain, just put a hand on each side of her head, before pushing gently into her mind, forcing the already existant bond between them to expand.

 

Using both his own and aero's bonds to karmy, he pushed his own presence straight down them, ripping into karmy's mind and exibiting his own force presence from the boys position.

 

I SEE YOU

 

Pulling back from his mind once again, but leaving a trace of himself behind so that he could track karmy, he released aero, and said

 

"I hope you felt that... Barton is having a little stroll around the lower levels... If anything happens, reach me as i just reached the boy."

[Bad karma]

Barton didn't jump at Nahstaa's voice in his head; he had been expecting it for some time now. He continued to idly walk down the hallway knowing that soon Nahstaa would be here. He scratched underneath his chin, keeping his guard up and his hands at his sides. He reached out to see how Shy was doing”¦she wasn't doing anything.

 

Irritated by this he kept walking. He wasn't in the mood to fight and much less in a mood to really care about much. He sent out a message to Aero through the force.

 

”

[Bad karma]

Barton stood up from his spot on the wall; the hallway was now coated in a thick, unnatural, unforgiving darkness. He allowed it to travel out before him, so that his movements were cloaked. Anyone that saw the darkness would know it shouldn't have been”¦but not knowing of its creator.

 

He idly made his way through the hallways. He could see perfectly threw his own darkness, so he didn't need to rely on the force to guide him”¦yet he still did. The temple was never a safe place for anyone”¦but for Barton that danger went up quite a bit. The spheres orbited his body in a oblique fashion, never getting to close or to far away to hit him or anything else.

 

He moved into a room off to the side and prepared a video for the holonet, quickly finishing it and sending it he left once more”¦only to wonder the halls once more. He quickly grew bored”¦he would have to seek out a form of entertainment in a short while.

[Nahstaa]

Strolling down to the hallways, force presence happily open, nahstaa whistled a nursery rhyme. In this place of death and hatred, it sounded completely different, a tune of insanity rather than one of comfort. Approaching his apprentice in one of the halls, he allowed himself to be engulfed in the darkness, moving within but a few meters of karmy before opening one finger, and spraying a highly luminescent material onto one wall, more as an experiment than anything. He could tell this darkness was his apprentices doing, and as he had never seen the likes of it before, he wanted to see exactly what it would do to a normal light source...

 

"Its awfully dark down here. Shall i spray you too?"