Shadowlands

Stormro smiled with amusement as he felt Nel's emotions flare and swirl about her in a tempest of rage and frustration. All Sith drew upon their emotions for power, even him, but in the young Zabrak's case her emotions were an exceptional wellspring of potential power. Like him, her connection to the Force was slightly less than average but when she allowed her emotions to flow they forced open a wider channel through which the Force could flow, giving her the potential to be stronger than him in spite of her weaker connection. It was this potential which, combined with the young woman's sheer grit and determination, had inspired Stormro to take her on as his first real apprentice. As they walked he suddenly spoke to her, sensing that she was trying to conceal her anger towards him. "Your aura betrays you Apprentice; your visage is calm but the Force swirls about you in a tempest which is as clear to the sensitive as if you wore your emotions on your face. In time you will learn to control your aura, but until you do understand that I will treat such displays in the same manner that I would treat visual displays." While there was no punishment attached to his scolding, his tone made it clear that in the future she would enjoy no such mercy.

As the pair entered the camp Stormro chuckled, amused by his apprentice's display; in time she would learn to control herself but until then he would have to keep disciplining her. He had learned the hard way with the failed experiment which he had once viewed as a daughter that coddling his apprentice would only serve to stunt her growth, and he had no intentions of allowing Nel's potential to go to waste. Expanding his sphere of influence, he reached out with the Force and applied a firm pressure to Nel's throat, not even slowing as he continued across the camp. It was not enough to choke her entirely, but it was sufficient to serve as a warning and restrict her breathing somewhat. "Control yourself Apprentice; this is your final warning. Believe it or not but I am being kind in my punishments; I have known Sith who would punish such behavior with violence, and in the presence of such Sith I will not protect you should they take umbrage at your outbursts." As he reached the other side of the clearing an opening appeared as if out of thin air as the Wraith's landing ramp lowered, revealing that the ship had been cloaked just outside of the camp the entire time that they had been on Kashyyyk. At the top of the ramp stood what appeared to be a lithe, athletic Nagaian woman, dressed in black, spec-ops BDUs; as Stormro ascended she spoke with crisp military precision.

 "The Wraith is prepared for takeoff whenever you and Lady Bukk are ready to leave Lord Stormro. I have prepared the hyperspace coordinates precisely as you specified and calculated the quickest route to take you and your apprentice to Kamino. Is there anything else which you require?" Shaking his head, Stormro merely smiled as he spoke. "We will be spending the trip in my chambers; inform me should anything arise." With a nod Belbe turned and vanished back into the ship as Stormro turned and watched Nel work from the ramp, remaining silent as he waited for her to finish and join him.

Stormro sighed as he felt her bury her emotions; the same technique which she had relied on as a Jedi and which had handicapped her. This was precisely what he didn't want her doing, not only because it would stunt her abilities but because it also just didn't work. Almost as if to prove his point the revelation that his ship had been there the entire time shattered her delusion of control, causing her to lash out in a display of emotion which elicited a disapproving glare from the Nagaian Sith Lord. Extending his sphere of influence again, he crafted an illusion which both concealed his true self while at the same time making it seem as if he were simply standing on the ramp, glaring at her disapprovingly. Using the illusion to cover the sound of his steps, he moved quickly across the camp to her. With one rough movement his hand was around her neck in a tight grip as he lifted her up to his eye level. He allowed the illusion to fade as he grabbed her, appearing in front of her as the illusion on the ramp of the ship dissipated. Glaring into her eyes, he kept his own aura strictly under control as he spoke with a calm, simmering tone, showing by example what he expected of her.

"Yes, the ship has been there the entire time. It is your ability to survive which is being tested, not mine, and I will not risk us being stranded on a planet which might be controlled by people whom we cannot trust. More importantly, when I tell you to control yourself I do not mean to bury your emotions like the Jedi who you used to be. You are Sith now; you live by the Sith Code. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The Force shall free me. Your emotions cannot be buried; they are a part of who you are and they are the source of your power. You must learn to draw on their gifts without allowing yourself to be enslaved by your passions. Now finish breaking camp and report to my chambers aboard the Wraith; you will spend the trip meditating on what I have said as well as on the Sith Code." With that he threw her across the clearing with the Force, slamming her back-first into one of the massive trees which defined Kashyyyk's ecosystem before allowing her to drop the five feet back to the forest floor as he stalked up the ramp and vanished into the gleaming black ship.

The scent of charred flesh and boiled metal filled his nostrils with every breath, while the high-pitched shrill of a repulsorlift engine grated in his ears. The sound had been beyond irritating when he was a boy, but he'd learned in time to tune it out when necessary. Which, in a galaxy as saturated by the technology as this one, was nearly constantly. On the bright side, however, it did make tracking the probe droid little more than child's play. Effort only really entered the equation when he decided to try and remain undetected himself, using his unorthodox ability to manipulate his environment in order to disperse the radiant heat of his body, effectively rendering him invisible to thermal scans. The thick and vibrant foliage surrounding him would hide the rest.

When he first discovered the droid, he had assumed it was a new tactic on the part of this planet's self-declared overlords to locate the resistance, but they would have no need to send it via orbital pod. Clearly, this was the work of an outside force. Someone that sought to gain knowledge of this planet and its inhabitants. If he had to guess, he would have said it was a precursor to an invasion. Had his message to the jedi finally been taken seriously?

Probably not.*

*If there was one thing the jedi order and republic were good at, it was ignoring people who needed their help. The dark side had been strangling this planet for far too long, and the people had begun to suffer. Regardless of the ease of their enslavement, the dark side held only death and decay. Kriff, now I'm starting to think like Anya. He shook his head as if the motion would clear his thoughts, then focused back on the task at hand. He moved quickly, sprinting up and along the branches above the droid as it floated along on its single-minded mission.

The spear came free of its sheath at his back as he crested the branch directly above the droid, the weapon erupting soundlessly from its resting length to the full two meters it could reach when deployed. He waited only a moment more for the droid to move into position, then dropped from his branch above. The spear struck true, inhuman strength and gravitic momentum driving it through the droid's casing to skewer the repulsor unit beneath, though he was careful to leave most other vital components untouched. He still needed the thing to be capable of transmitting a message.

As the droid crashed to the ground beneath him, Saris withdrew the spear and returned it to its sheath, then dropped down in front of its primary "eye". To whomever viewed the transmission, it would be obvious he was Sakiyan, though his simple sleeveless tunic and cloth pants stood out in stark contrast to the bracers he wore and the weapons at his back and sides. A pair of silver-hilted lightsabers were the most obvious tell, but he also carried the spear and a quiver of arrows, as well as a collapsible pulley bow, though that last would be difficult to see from the current angle. He crouched low as he looked into the recorder, tilting his head first this way then that before he spoke.

"My name is Saris. I came here five months ago in answer to a distress call, and found the planet gripped in the stranglehold of a sith lord and his acolytes. If you are here in service to him, be warned, I am no longer alone, and we will resist you. But, if you are here to oppose him, know that you have allies. There is an abandoned village seven kilometers to the west. I will wait there for one day."

He kept his message simple, as there was no need to wax eloquent about the situation and the rising power of the resistance, or to attempt to convince whoever had sent the droid that the meeting would be worthwhile. If they wished to know more, they would come, and whether they were friend or foe would be irrelevant. Having said what he wanted, he rose and turned away from the droid, vanishing quickly into the density of the forest world's foliage.

He watched the ship as it landed, watched the ramp descend and the single woman exit the vessel. She was only average height, but her build was far from fragile. She was a warrior, much as he himself was, despite the difference in their tools and methods. Her scent was that of stale air and cheap perfume, the kind a woman would buy who appreciated how she was perceived, but had better things to do than obsess over it. Her weapons and armor were clearly military issue, though they held little interest to him. He wasn't here to fight. Nevertheless, he approached from her blind spot, his bared feet making barely enough noise for even him to hear.

"A hapan. That wasn't expected." Even for a normal human, the tone of his skin and clothes would have blended easily into the night, so he assumed her mask would possess some form of visual enhancement. Had he not been gifted with the senses he possessed, he certainly would not have come without such precautions. "Why are you here?" His stance was neutral, and he stood several meters distant. A little surprise could be a useful thing, but too much and he would risk the entire reason he'd set this meeting.

"Why am I not surprised that the Hapans beat the republic here." He chuckled dryly at that. The entire kriffing senate was useless. "I'm here because these people needed help, and the jedi turned a blind eye, which begs a question. If they never received my message, why now? This world has been enthralled by darkness for years." It was clear he was no great fan of the republic and their methods, nor even of the jedi order itself. While they may have helped him overcome his baser instincts and drive for vengeance, he had no doubt that whatever aid they gave was only offered because of his sensitivity to the force. Far too many times, he'd seen the average sentient passed over for aid in favor of one who could be more use to the order. While he certainly understood the utility of such methods, he could not reconcile them with his morality, and so for all intents and purposes, had cut ties with the order. Even if they had received his messages, he doubted they would have come before it served their purposes.

He chuckled again at the futility of asking a Sakiyan about human phrases and turned away briefly, crossing his arms as he strolled across the platform and back again. All he had to go on was this woman's word, yet she had come unaccompanied to a meeting with a potentially hostile force user. At the very least, that showed great dedication to the ruse of trust. At most, it meant she really was here to work with a jedi task force sent by the republic. "The sith and their allies have withdrawn to a handful of villages surrounding their fortress. They're losing this war and they know it, so they're fighting with the tenacity of a cornered beast. It's made things... difficult."