Shadow Point

[Foxfire]

Location: At asteroid field near Korriban.

Time: After Retool.



Shadow and silence the two things that every noghri must depend on and seek. With in the shadow one could kill and move. Silence is the hallmark of the perfect kill and the ultimate hunter. Now Cho was making use of both of his skills and giving them a different twist.

Cho's current mission was to either destroy or take over a listening post near Korriban. Near was a reletive term for it was a two hour flight by intersteller sloop or a short jump. The station was picked up when a pirate crew was search the field for dead ships when they came across it. They were fired upon and destroyed, not before a probe droid was released. The probe droid then ran into interdictor fields as it tried to pass by Korriban. Only a few of the Sith were let in about the station. At first Cho was not chosen for the mission but he was given the mission as a first test. He was given the mission with two goals in mind it was either destroying it or capture it. The later of the goals would net him better missions and some respect. Though if he failed and word got out from the station Cho life would be forfet.

Two weeks Cho was silently floating nearer and nearer to the station in the Dark Matter. Cho could almost feel the watchful eyes of an unknown Sith watching over him. Hoping beyond hope, Cho wishes that whoever is out there stays farenough away and not give him away. The engines were off and they drifted about the field only having Cho push or pull them nearer to their goal. Ryver/Taym and the War droid .925 were powered down and attached to the outside of the ship. When the time was right Cho would send them over and then they would make the first wave attack to the sending towers cutting them off from the rest of the verse. Giving Cho the needed time to take the station.

The station was only manned by five human Military officers and a droid. They were not going to give him much of a fight. Yet getting there with out so much as of a peep or a scan was the hard part and so far he had avoided most of the trip sensors. Cho was not giving anything to chance. He even had his hunters suit tied to a reserve tank with a scrubber which was limiting most of his movement. Though this gave him time to think and protected him from the sensors and their watchful eyes and ears.

[sparrow]

Earlier...

Zarene Yin sat at her desk as a list of names flashed across her screen. Sir Scruffy lay on her lap, eyes closed as she scratched the back of his head behind the ears with one hand. Onin... too likely to cause trouble, she thought to herself. Arjun... too chummy with the noghri. She scrolled down the list. Need someone a little more low-key...

Hmm... she might work.... Sir Scruffy lifted his head and mewed in agreement.

A few minutes later, she was sitting across from a cream-colored Twi'lek female, with a large holo-map of the Horuset system between them. "The listening post in question is located here." Zarene pointed at the map, and the location began flashing. "You are to accompany Wroth in taking it out. You have some piloting skill, yes?" The noghri certainly did not. Zarene had not agreed with Renata at first in the choice of sending Cho Wroth on this particular assignment, but she soon came to realize the wisdom of it. If Wroth wasn't in the Temple, then he couldn't destroy anything, and perhaps finally his pent-up energy could be channeled towards something useful. What good was a tool if you never used it?

"Make sure Wroth doesn't do anything too... stupid, and make note of anything unusual in his behavior. Capture of the facility is preferable, but if the situation doesn't allow it, then destroy it. Report back afterwards. Any questions?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Var rubbed her forehead with her hand, resisting the urge to ask a pair of questions that wouldn't be well-received at all. Why me? and Are you insane?

Instead she held her tongue for a moment more before finding something more... sensible to say.

"Yes, I can pilot. But are you sure I'm the best person for this task? Perhaps you might want someone a little more... powerful. And patient. Or on better terms with the Noghri."

Which all translated to 'Pick someone besides me.' It wasn't fun admitting she was, well, somewhat weak. But she'd rather be viewed as weak and spared time stuck with Cho Wroth on a ship.

She knew better than to directly challenge her superior. But she also knew how to test limits and see if there was a way out. And she wanted a way out. Var had 'met' Cho personally only recently. And didn't like him. To her mind, he was a tool. A tool who liked to wrap himself in dramatic language and talk about lofty ideals that had no place in the Order. One who'd threatened her.

Yes, Varulla'aba did not like Cho Wroth.

[sparrow]

Zarene arched an eyebrow. "Name me someone on better terms with him other than that ridiculous Devaronian and I'll consider it. Besides, you're not being asked to fight him, just watch him. You can pilot a ship and land it without crashing into anything, and you have functioning eyes. So you're qualified."

"Besides, if you were more powerful, he'd feel threatened. And then he'd start showing off and picking fights. I believe you've seen how that tends to turn out." She leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. "Anything else?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Under normal circumstances, Var would probably have laughed at the rather apt description of Doviculous as 'that ridiculous Devaronian.' But her face was instead taut and rather grim.

Var knew when she'd been beat. There was nothing else to be done. She yielded. She had to yield.

There was no way around it. She was going to have to babysit Cho Wroth. A powerful Sith who shared a mutual dislike with her. And whose idea of a good time was demonstrating near-suicidal loyalty.

Fun.

Several 'Fun' Hours Later

"Don't screw this up Cho. Protestations about 'loyalty' and 'honor' aside, now it's my skin on the line too." Var glowered with her arms crossed as the ship coasted on its own momentum through the vacuum of space.

With no friction they could head straight to the listening post with everything completely powered down. Full sensor-stealth mode, acting like just another bit of lifeless space junk. Then they'd just need to 'catch' it with a docking clamp.

Then, if everything went according to the plan, Cho's droids would cut off the post's communications relay, then the Noghri would get in and eliminate whoever was there.

Simple. But Var didn't put it past Cho to accidentally blow the whole damn thing up or wind up sending everyone's personal information straight to Czerka Corp.

"Just don't screw up." Var repeated one more time, hoping she'd made the point abundantly clear.

[Foxfire]

Silence. Cho had been shutting down a hunger to talk ever since this one told him, along with others of the temple, that he was talking too much. So for the weeks before the mission Cho had all but quit talking only to say yes or no. This was easy enough for not many would talk to him. Now that he was not talking it made everyone uneasy to be around him. They had started to wonder what was going on with him. Yet only to the young ones did he talk too, and even that was limited as well.

So when Var started talking about 'it being her skin too', Cho just said only two words as he stood to go top side to send the droid to their starting places.

Staring at her through a blacked visor and in cold audio tone from his helmet.... I won't.

With those two words still hanging in the air, he walked over to a portal hatch closed the interior hatch and openthe the outer and started to climb to the top of the ship.

Cho's hunters suit was space worthy, at least enough to do what Cho always need to do. His glove finger tips and boots were mag-lockable giving him a freer range of movement. Taking only a minute to reach the droids. Ryver/taym was the first unlatching and using telekinisus to send them on their way. They had two point on their mission first to disable any outgoing comunication and second to give them full access to the station.

.925 was second his mission was protect and destroy anything that would make the mission a failure. This also meant that if a ship was to jump in they would have to destroy that or if they could capture. Though Cho did not have that feeling. What he did have was that there was going to be more beings in the station than reported.

Now with both on the way Cho reached out quietly in the force feeling out what or who was in the station. His feeling was right the place was crawling with more life forms than just five, upwards to fifteen was more like it. Many though felt young and nervous.

Cho climbed back inside sealing the hatches and moving to stand near Var. Cho said...

More than five there, I'll deal with it. You just stay quiet and out of my way. No need to worry Zarene about your pretty headtails. Get a lock and stand back. 300 yards and closing.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"Remember," Var prompted, "do it fast, do it quietly, and do it right." The tone in her voice clearly indicated she didn't have faith in Cho to do any of those things. But a sense of responsibility obligated her to mention them.

Then she directed her attention back to the range display before her as the ship coasted in towards the listening post.

300 yards...
250 yards...
200 yards...
150 yards...
100 yards...
50 yards...
25 yards...

Var tapped the maneuvering thrusters to kill their acceleration. The ship slowed more and more, finally coming to a stop right by the post.The Twi'lek started to make incremental adjustments to the thrusters, nestling the ship right up against the station's side.

She looked to Cho again. "You have a choice now. Either you use that ridiculous suit or I flip a switch and we magnetically dock with their escape hatch. Entirely up to you."

[Foxfire]

(Occ-Sorry tried to post yesterday on my phone but the battery died and I lost an epic post will try again.)

Cho watched the countdown till it hit 200 then exited the ship to stand on the top so a hard dock would not trigger the alarms placed in the docking rings. Yet Cho did leave his coms on to hear Var tell him.....

"You have a choice now. Either you use that ridiculous suit or I flip a switch and we magnetically dock with their escape hatch. Entirely up to you."

Cho responded. -Well ahead of ya. Don't fret it this will keep them from knowing your out here for a while. I'll call when I'm done. Wroth out.

Cho then signaled Taym to open the locked hatch. As Taym did Cho reached out in the force and felt a single being near the hatch. With a smile Cho watched as the solider was sucked out into space and slammed into the rear hatch of the Dark Matter. He slipped and turned to the still struggling human and gave him as salute as the doors shut in front between them.

Cho checked the map that Taym had down loaded into his HUD of his suit. noticing quickly five coming his way and another five in crew quarters. He marked those for Taym to vent them to space. While Cho moved down the hall Taym also blocked all coms in the station. As the noghri neared a T junction he hid in the upper part of the hallways arching ribs to get the drop on the five coming his way.

The lead commander of the group could be heard coming for quite some way away. The human went on and on about being stuck here for training the newest recruits, which was them. So it was not surprising that Cho was able to take each one out in order from the last to the the first. He worked threw them hitting each one with a nerve strike that paralyzed their muscles and nullified their voice as well. Total silence Cho worked through their ranks the next to the last had turned to see whether any one else was listening. What meet him was a blinding strike that snapped his neck. The muffled sound of this human's neck breaking made the Commander to turn on his heal. Instead of seeing the new recruits following he saw their twitching bodies.

Either they were twitching because of their recovering from the nerve strike or they were fighting to point at Cho who had turned when the commander did. Before the commander could speak or even reach his coms a blade of ruddish crimson emerged from his chest. Cho let the blade sit for a bit and then turned it off, allowing the human to fall to the floor. He nodded at the work he did and then back tracked and cleansed the hall way leaving no trace of the soldiers.

For the next few minutes Cho made his way to the command center where the other ten were held up at. Nearing the far edge Cho could hear through his external speakers the conversation of computer glitches and missing soldiers. The second in command seemed a bit nervous and weak minded so Cho started working on his mind by simple pushing fear into it. The lead commander of the station was warning the second not to worry about sending an SOS VIA the asteroid senders.

This hit Cho for the same markers they were avoiding were also a second way of communication to the outside. Yet a smile broke out on his face as he saw the second look even more nervously at the console that would be the secondary coms system. Cho slowed his pulse and feed the nervous second more of fear in the force maybe he could get the solider to do some thing stupid.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Var sat up a little straighter for a moment as something impacted the hull. Then the diminishing presence she associated with fading life provided an answer. She relaxed again, even kicking her feet up onto the dash as she waited.

There was no sense in being uncomfortable while she waited. After all, she had no idea how long Cho was going to take. She had very little experience with the Noghri before. And as she'd made clear, she didn't doubt his power. Just his intelligence and ability to use his strengths wisely.

But at least he'd gotten the memo to shut up. She'd been pretty unimpressed with his tendency to be rambling and verbose in their past encounter. And she'd gathered others felt the same way. Enough of them that Cho realized it.

At least it spared her a few speeches to endure.

The Twi'lek stared out at the stars before her. At least it was a nice view.

[Foxfire]

Cho's field of moving emotions weren't his best thing but it did work to generally affect everyone including the target. After 30 minutes of pouring force fear into the room the humans started to show the cracking signs that Cho wanted. Their words were becoming sharp and bitting. Most were fingering their blasters, especially the second. Now all Cho had to do was to give him a push in the right direction and the pieces would fall into place.

Cho ever so gently moved the second's hand to remove the blaster from his holster via telekineses. Once out Cho was about to roar when a communications officer reestablished coms with in the station. The sounds of shrieks and gasping last breaths did much more than Cho could ever had done to unhinge the second officer. Twitching the officer lifted his blaster and shot the speaker silencing once again the sounds of horror that he was feeling. The station's captain turned on his heel to the second and barked his name for him to drop the weapon. The second instead of dropping the blaster simply fired it hitting the captain in the chest.

The resulting fire fight made a way for Cho to slip unnoticed behind three of the humans taking cover behind a bank of low coms and life supports system relays. Making quick work of them before the fire fight was over Cho was able to reduce their numbers to five a number Cho could deal with standing on his head. As for the second he was shot in the right shoulder and left leg taking him out of any fight. Signaling Taym to cut the power to the central area for twenty seconds, Cho readied himself for the final strike.

Time slowed as Cho first noticed the flicker of the lights as Taym tested to cut them off. Cho moved a half second after the lights went out. The surviving humans had been moving toward the second to secure him from doing anything else stupid. They though never got that chance for Cho was over the console and half way across the distance when the lights flickered on and then off. Showing the silent movements of their intruder. Three seconds were between the flashes of light this disorientated the humans but Cho had been trained to deal with this type of thing when he was young. He never slowed as the flashes came and went.

The first of the four Cho attacked tried to get a bead on Cho but he was to fast. Cho never slowed. He swept by ripping the throat out of the first. The second Wroth smashed in the human's nose, driving the small bones into the beings brain killing him. The third was a bit better save for the six second head start. the blaster fire zinged off Cho's helmet burning a groove into it. Thank the force and the blinking out of the lights made the shot a graze and not a head shot. Cho roared at the near miss and called his sabers to his hands double swiping them in an X formation of Jarkai simple strike. The next blink of the light showed that human hitting the floor in a few different pieces. The final human Cho snatched in mid-stride with his telekineses. Bring the human off his feet and into his waiting clawed hand.

The light blinked out and stayed off for ten seconds the sound of a being struggling to breath could be heard then a muffled snap of Cho breaking the neck of the last standing human. As the light came back to life in the station the second in command of the station saw the last of his fellow men at arm held in the death grip of the noghri. With blade still blazing Cho turned and and stared at the last human living and com-ed Var.

It's done. Come secure the station. Oh and I have a gift for ya.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Var lowered her feet from the dash and back to the deck below her without any haste. The Noghri's voice indicated everything seemed to have gone well. And that meant there was no need at all to rush.

Cho had been reasonably prompt as well. And there hadn't been any massive explosions or distress signals sent off, which was a good sign to the Twi'lek.

However she was still ambivalent about his 'present.' She figured at best it would the equivalent of a cat dropping a dead bird into her lap, and at worst it would be some clever kind of treachery. She'd be prepared for either. Her lightsaber was at her side and her wits were about her.

She reached out to the controls with a cream-skinned hand and activated the magnetic docking collar. With a metallic clang, the ship latched to the station's airlock. The Sith Initiate watched the display switch from red to green, indicating a successful seal had been made and it was safe to open the hatch.

She did, quickly progressing into the station itself. She walked through the scenes of carnage placidly, guiding herself to Cho's presence. And surprisingly another living person.

She turned the corner and spotted both figures. One of the station's crewmen was still alive.

Var put and two together and surmised Cho intended for her to kill him. However, more unfortunately for the man she had no intention of doing so.

"Knock him out and take him with us. I'm sure they'll love having a prisoner to interrogate once we return."

[Foxfire]

Cho could feel Var coming near to them hissing at the human to keep him still. Var's response was about the captive was how Cho had thought her response would be. But he first felt other of her feelings and grinned at the thought that he was still thought of as a rabid killing machine who had no thought other than kill for killings sake.

Nodding Cho stabbed a finger in a few spots hitting nerve clusters making the human all but paralyzed but fully awake. A signal came to Cho's HUD from the droids. They spoke of a hanger with fighters and a crew troop ship. Cho acknowledged the info. Cho told them to take one each a fighter ship and follow them back. The droids clicked the transmission.

Cho also knew that going back through the field would be easier if the asteroid sensors were off lined.

Var you know how to offline the asteroid sensors or should I have one of the droids do it?

[Foxfire]

(occ-dbl posting to end thread)

Cho snortted at the console. He hated computers. Calling Taym in he had it to off-line the system making the area safe to come and go at will. All the mission goals were done and they were headed home.

Home what a joke, very few of the sith had taken him as a real threat. Yet he thought, no matter how many mission no matter how bloody he got none would truly fear him. Sighing he dragged the p.o.w. back to the sloop and let the droids finish up by letting them turn the plane dark and removing all the breathable air, making harder for the living to take back. Once back he would give his report to Zarene Yin and handover the human for questioning. Then he would fade into the wilds of Korriban for a time removing himself from those of the temple.

[sparrow]

Zarene Yin grabbed her towel from the bench, wiping away the sweat on her forehead and neck. The punching bag that she had been practicing one continued swinging back and forth for another minute before finally settling to a stop. Grabbing her elbow with her mechanical hand, she pulled it above her head, stretching the muscles in her arm, closing her eyes as she did so, letting her breathing pattern stabilize.

There were several Initiates using different parts of the practice room, and even with her eyes closed, she could feel them stopping to watch her. Outside of her personal rooms, there were almost always eyes watching her, sizing her up, looking for weaknesses. Being the apprentice of Darth Renata gave her a position of authority, but it was a position that was always under attack. There were always those looking for excuses to deem her unworthy so they could justify challenging her, which range from her being too young or being a cyborg to ridiculous accusations that she had simply slept with the right people. It just meant that she would have to train harder than them. That was all.

The door opened and B3 stumbled in, datapad in hand. Zarene had obtained the droid only about a standard week ago, to help her deal with paperwork and number-crunching. B3 was a simple protocol droid, but he did his job well. She took the datapad and began reading the report that it contained. The jumbled writing revealed who it was from right away. Wroth.

Of those who had attempted to undermine her position in the Temple, Wroth had been one of the worst. No, he had never challenged her directly, but he seemed to have a talent for being disruptive and sticking his nose everywhere. It had gotten so bad that Renata had temporarily banished him from the Temple. He was back now of course, and after his branding had attempted to lay low. Who knew how long that would last.

She turned her attention back to the report. A few details immediately struck her as odd, things about the post that Wroth had attacked that seemed out of place. For what it was supposed to be a small, stealthy listening post, the number of personnel claimed to be present was too high. There were claims that the droids were able to access systems on the base, systems that normally would not be capable of remote access. For some reason there was a hangar of fighters as part of the base. Or so the report said. Something was not adding up. Was Wroth inflating his numbers, or were the Republic's operations in the area a bit more complex than she had been led to believe? Perhaps the little base had been a test. Or a distraction. A salvage team sent to the site would be able to shed more light on the subject.

Zarene sighed. "I can't believe I'm dealing with this right now," she muttered under her breath. "I'm getting a bloody headache." She turned to the droid. "How is the prisoner?"

"Unresponsive. Mind does not seem to be all there," B3 responded in his usual montone mechanical voice.

"Send him to Gabby then. If anyone can extract anything useful out of a broken mind, she can."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Also, head down to Intelligence and tell Sebban to put together some agents to go through the salvage. And next time, remind me never to use a hammer for a job that requires a scalpel. Though I suppose he gets a few points for actually doing what he was told, for a change." As B3 shuffled away, she wondered if any of the showers were empty.