[Closed X-Guild RP] Pathway to Stone - Sith'ari Path & EPOCH Only

Un-expectantly, the Sith’ari Path receives a mysterious transmission from an unknown planet, though it appears to be of ancient origin. Excited by the secrets that they may unravel, the Sith’ari initiate a hunt for the relic, but they feel a strong disturbance and force presence on the planet. As such, they enlist the aid of the Agents of the EPOCH to help them in uncovering any relics or hidden knowledge. However, what secrets can be revealed? Will they be life changing, enlightening and astounding, or is it just a trap? All will be revealed as the plot unravels in...



Game Master
Harlequin2 (Skursir)

The Sith'ari Path
Sharasvar (Sharasvar)
Darth'Ishad (Darth 'Ishad)
Vaelyndor (Vaelyndor Althoren)
Argyyn (Argyyn) //
Void-Dallos (Void-Dallos) //


Agents of the E.P.O.C.H.
Sureshot (Creed Dekkar & "The Mysterious Falleen" briefly)
Lunarwolf (Aleena Fel)
Harewood (Eamonn Keel)
Priory JK (Jylan Trell) /
Dugo ("The Thumb") /
Charada ("Charada")

___________________________________________________________________________

Location: Coruscant Docking Station 135Y, aboard 578-R Transport Ship "Aurillia"
Terrain: Dense tall building blocks, extremely congested and urban
Transmission Proximity: Unavailable



Skursir straightened up to stretch. It was quiet on the bridge. The Falleen stood across the room, they had run out of subjects to talk about. He wasn’t even sure if the Falleen would come along, probably not as this was a risky mission – even the Path didn’t know where they were heading. Now, they were just waiting for everyone to board. Skursir found himself rasping a hum to keep occupied, but stopped once given a glare by his superior. This craft was relatively small, but light – it would do the job. Finally, the doors closed, a signal that everyone was on. Receiving a nod from the Falleen, Skursir proceeded to walk down into the hold.

There were many figures, some he knew, and some he did not. He recognised Darth Ishad in the background, as well as that ex-Sith woman whom was higher than he was in rank. Honestly, who had heard of a woman officer? Skursir also knew that there were two new Agents in their midst, "The Thumb" and "Charada". It was hard to pick them out individually, and in any case, Skursir had a better job to do than recognising people. He called attention by banging on the wall.

“Followerss of the Ssith’ari Path and memberss of the EPOCH Agency. Today we embark on a high priority mission. The Path has discovered a transsmission from an unknown ssysstem insside the Deep Core. We have traced it back to thiss planet...” Skursir took his datapad and with a few swift button presses, opened up a hologram showing a densely forested world. He moved through the crowd to place it on a table in the centre of the room.
“Sspecifically, it’ss thiss ssector here that the transsmission sseemss to be coming from. No one elsse appearss to have found the ssignal sso it musst have been ssent directly to the Path.” Skursir folded his arms, “Ssomeone or ssomething knowss about uss sso it may be a trap and it doessn’t help that the Path have detected a strong pressence down there which is why they’ve hired the EPOCH. We’ve chartered a ship that will take uss to thiss planet were you shall be dropped off. The Chief Operative will be heading the EPOCH side while Executor Vaelyndor will be leading the Path”.

"The EPOCH'ss job iss to provide recon and enforcement to the main ssearch party, along with sspecialist dutiess. asss ssuch, you will be ssplit into two forcess. Darth'Ishad, Aleena Fel, Eamonn Keel and "The Thumb" will be moving first to clear the area." With a button press, a red arrow materialised on the hologram, moving from one point through to a blurred area in the north west.
"You will be moving to thiss hot spot, the area which has been detected to have a sstrong presence in the force, once there, you will ssplit into three teams. Vaelyndor, Creed, "Charada" and Void-Dallos will proceed north. Sharassvar, Aleena and "The Thumb" will move ssouth bound while Argyyn, Darth'Ishad, Jylan and Eamonn Keel will proceed wesst."
With more button presses, more arrows popped up on the map going in their respective directions. "I will update your sstatuss over comm. on how close the transmission is. Once you find the ssource, all groupss will move onto it and evac will be provided."

Skursir paused; this may well be a ruse with nothing down on the planet. The trandoshan continued, “All memberss will take your resspective commander’ss lead, but I will be managing the ssituation over the comm. and will provide evacuation should the need arisse and intel. Remember, we don’t know what’ss down there, sso be prepared. We shall be taking off momentarily; it would help to get to know each other.”
Skursir returned to the bridge. Chartered crew had begun to take their seats and as a result, the atmosphere was a lot livelier, with muffled speaking in the hold below. He caught the eye of the Falleen, “I’m ssure thingss will be fine ssir”.

((You are aboard the transport vessel before it takes off. Once it takes off, you cannot disembark. We will be taking off in a week or two))

Aleena leant against the wall of the cargo hold as Skursir reeled off the various mission parameters. She was still not utterly convinced about him, but the Falleen had faith in the Trandoshan, and that would suffice until she could make her own informed decision. She found it unusal that the Head of Operations had personally appeared at this briefing, he'd made far more public appearances than he normally did and although he assured her there was nothing in it, she was less than convinced. She could not read his intentions of course; his subtle pheremone manipulation meant that reading his intentions through the Force were unreliable and easily confused, she decided long ago that it was a waste of time as far as her employer was concerned.

She knew the other members of the Agency of course, having met most of them in person once or twice or, in the case of Charada and 'The Thumb' she had uncovered much about them through less than legal means before they had been accepted into the Agency. What she had not had an opportunity to see was how they worked together out in the field. This mission would serve as an excellent proving ground.

The members of The Sith'ari Path were far less known to her; she had heard of them in her time with Master Deimos before joining The Agency but her knowledge was sketchy at best, consisting mainly of rumours, hear-say and half truths. Now she found herself working with them and, regardless of their intentions she felt slightly ill at ease. She trusted the Sith even less than she did the Jedi Council, and with good reason. She was no stranger to the Dark Side and understood all too well its applications and cost, but she could never condone the Sith mantra of stabbing each other in the back to rise through the ranks. The various Sith groups interpreted this in numerous ways and although the Sith'ari had conducted themselves with professionalism so far, they were still Sith and she was still wary.

Anticipation and an eagerness to be underway hung heavy in the air as she watched her fellows; the mission seemed simple enough but she suspected it would be anything but. Ripples in the Force told of something stirring, waiting, like some creature waiting to pounce. With a smile she folded her arms and observed the various people as they began to introduce themselves to one another.

Whatever this mission held in store for them, it was bound to be fun.

Sharasvar Zia nodded while he listened attentively to Skursir hissed words. He glanced sideways to Aleena, and smiled lightly when he heard he had been placed in the same group as the female darksider. The Historian never had the opportunity of working with a non-Sith force user before , and he looked forward to studying her unharnessed and raw potential. For Sharasvar, the Sith were above all an ideal, flowing from a complete mastery of the force. The Sith Code was rather an articulation of the correct behavior of the ideal force user, than a rule on how a Sith should behave. The Imperial Sith Academies with their ridiculous formalities, rules and petty strifes were a travesty of the real academy of life. And this female seemed to be graduated from the school of life with distinction.

It was difficult to estimate Sharasvar's age. Most of the time he looked like an unremarkable man in his fifties, slightly absentminded and not entirely unfriendly. Sometimes however, the human male appeared to be dragged down by weariness and fatigue, and then suddenly his wrinkles and the grey in his light beard became more salient. Few times he seemed actually younger, with lively eyes and an adolescent grin. At these occasions he moved with nimbleness and grace, and his train of thoughts was almost impossible to follow.

The eyes of the Sith Historian danced to the other members of EPOCH with less interest, until he met the gaze of the Falleen. Involuntarily his head bowed slightly in the direction of that mysterious persona, whose aura of authority could not be denied.

When Skursir had finished his debriefing, Sharasvar eyed Vaelyndor and whispered at him "Three teams? The Path is already in a minority on this mission and this particular plan weakens our position even further." His voice was soft with a hint of harshness.

The low hum emitting from Skursir's mouth was effecting the Falleen's concentration. He had no wish to be aboard this vessel in person and as every minute passed he found himself becoming more uncomfortable. The only thing keeping him from leaving was the promise of great reward, and the Sith'ari Path had sworn to pay well for his agencies services, so well in fact that he thought it best to make his presence known at the debriefing. He turned and gave the Trandoshan an icy stare, signalling that he stopped irritating him so that he could continue with his train of thought. Closing his eyes his nodded for Skursir to continue with the details of the mission.

The briefing was shorter than he expected but he knew that his faithful employee had thought long and hard about how to run the operation, for which he was surprisingly thankful. A great deal of credits were hanging in the balance so this mission had to go ahead without any glitches, which Skursir reassured him it would.

Moving himself away from the corner of the room he moved into the center of the bridge towards one of the dark robed clients.

"Greetings gentlemen, as you requested I have provided you a team of my finest agents." He raised his arms a wide in praise of his finely tuned and highly trained mercenaries.
"As you can see they are well equipped for any situation and I'm sure you'll find them quite accomodating to your needs."
He clicked and pointed his clawed fingers toward Creed to bring over a large datapad that lay on the bridge console to his left. Without hesitation the human lept to his feet and retrieved it for his employer.
"Now, all I need gentlemen is for you to place your hand on this contract to assure that we have an agreement, and then I shall be on my way."

During Skursirs short briefing, The Thumb was sitting on the floor, leaning against wall, only listening to his instruction, while making notes for himself in a personal datapad. After that, the Duros stood up to observe other agents and Sith's. "That's troublesome, would take more effort to kill a force-user." he thought to himself while taking down his protective outfit to feel more comfortable.When trying to get his large head through a narrow opening in the clothes he catched a glimpse of some Falleen. He has seen the enigmatic and possibly dangerous person for the first time, immediately considering him as a leader of the agency.

When thinking about the group, he was tossed into, The Thumb had hoped for a shortest road, with something to kill on the way to lighten up a mood. He hadn't a faintest idea who Aleena or Sharasvar is. Being new to the agency, he felt a little bit like a stranger, but he couldn't care less.

The Thumb, as he was only known, was tall and very muscular, compared to an ordinary Duros. Wearing only light clothes with minimal protection signaled, that he doesn't like having his movement somehow impaired. At the brief look, he seemed relaxed and slow paced, almost motionless. Person who knew something about martial arts would, after some time, realise that he often uses movements and stance from Echani-martial art.

His cold, red eyes scanning the room carefully, prepared for any awkward and bothersome act of aggression during the contract approval between agency and Siths. He wasn't able to trust them at all, knowing how corrupted and scheming they are. And a good sport when fighting them nevertheless.

"Indeed. However, with the price we negotiated with them, I doubt they would risk so many credits on shady dealings. Three teams would significantly reduce our search time, and with the addition of these agents we will have enough man-power to do so with some measure of security in a potentially hostile environment."

After whispering back his reply to the elder, Vaelyndor brought his attention to the now advancing Falleen. The young Executor sat with a relaxed demeanor, dressed in loose dark green clothing with matching cloak. The only adornments he wore being a small circular mon on the upper left portion of his tunic displaying his allegiance to the Sith'ari. Though he wears no armor, both a lightsaber and heavy blaster pistol are visible hanging from his belt. Though only in his late twenties, the Sith'ari warrior possessed a tranquil yet calculating gaze. His tanned skin and slightly muscular, lithe form a testament to his many years of outdoors martial training. As the leader of the Agency gained the center of the floor and addressed them, he fluidly rose to represent the Path.

"The Sith'ari Path appreciates all your efforts and preparations thus far, and look forward to a successful completion of this assignment. If even half the rumors about the Agency's skill and professionalism hold true, then we are quite fortunate to have you by our side."

Bowing deeply to include all the assembled agents, Vaelyndor quickly scans over the proffered datapad to ensure nothing had changed since their negotiations. Finding the document to his satisfaction, places his hand upon the scanner to seal the contract. The Sith'ari Executor had spent his brief time aboard the ship studying the various agents as he was sure they had been studying him and the other Path members, and was genuinely fascinated by the group. He was not sure what fate awaited them on this mission, but he had a strong feeling that, if nothing else, it would someday make for an epic story.

When Darth'Ishad heard who he was teamed up with the kaleesh's eye shot to each of them. Not knowing anything about them made him nervous, a feeling that he never grew a custom to. The female force user was the one who stood out the most to him, he was curious to find out what he could about her, as of the rest he cared less for.

"I'm not sure about this one" he whispered to Sharasvar, "these people are in it only for the money."

As he spoke to the elder his eye never left the group in front of him, Darth'Ishad has a hard time trusting people, slavery does that to some, especially a young kaleesh. As for the stench of the different races in the room it was a smell he would have to get used to if he wanted to get the job done with little distraction.

Under his dark kath hound cloak his hand never left the hilt of his blade and his eye never left the agents. As the "Faleen" finished speaking, Darth'IShad nodded to him agreeing.

Argyyn Ta'as stands to the side, listening intently to the briefing. The silver-haired Arkanian descendant adjust his grey cloak, fastening it near his shoulder. Beneath it his light armor is clearly seen - a familiar sight to those of the Sith'ari Path, as he is almost never without it. Once situated, he once more looks over his lightsaber hilt before turning his attention to the others. He instinctively examines the mercenaries of the EPOCH - not out of distrust, but to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses for when necessary. As a scholar and occasional medic, the motley crew of races and histories is intriguing.

He looks over to Jylan and Eamonn Keel as they are announced, nodding respectfully. He also gives a nod to Darth'Ishad, who appears as on-edge as ever.

Waiting for the briefing to end - or at least pause - he walks gracefully to his two prospective colleagues. "I am Argyyn Ta'as," says in a soft tone. "It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintances."

Jylan attached the last restraining strap around his speeder and yanked it into place, strapped against the hull it was the only place left to securely attach something, “A mission with unknown objectives in uncharted space, no wonder they're paying us so much, no one else is stupid enough to do it....”Jylan considered his employer and reconsidered,”no ones greedy would be a better description” he muttered.
He looked around the hold everything you'd ever need for an infiltration, base assault or small war lined the racks, communication jammers, industrial explosives, multi core computer hacking devises anything and everything …..but then again whenever you go to war you always forget something important he grinned.

The small Zabrak looked over his shoulder he could hear Skursir in the next room giving his briefing, he picked up a case next to him that must have been half his height and proceeded up the stairs his boots making a load clanging sounds as he ascended, the briefing was almost complete but he managed to slip and find a place to store himself.

This was the most Sith he'd ever found himself with, he'd picked up on the anxiousness of the other EPOCH members before the mission, they'd worked with Sith before but never so many and it had them worried, Bounty hunters were cheap and plentiful so some Sith had no misgiving about eliminating their staff after a contract had been completed, Jylan however didn't share their misgivings, he was concerned of course but he'd learned that you didn't need to be a Sith to be untrustworthy in this galaxy.

"I am Argyyn Ta'as," said in a soft tone. "It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintances.", Jylan looked up to see a near human stood in front of him, he outstretched his hand “Same here, I'm Jylan Trell I'll be in charge of technical support on this mission, and I suppose tech acquisition if I'm lucky”

The briefing was, well… brief. And the Trandoshan glossing over the details of how these Sith had received their mysterious transmission stank of wizardly treachery. Still, in making his pretty speech his new boss seemed confident. And why shouldn’t he? Keel thought to himself. He’s getting the hell off this boat.
     The lack of details about this mission concerned him, but far greater the concern was that the mission had himself and his fellows paired up with these Sith. Being around just one of them was enough to make the hair on the back of his neck rise and here there were four of these sorcerers, crammed into the small cargo hold with him, doing who-knows-what to them all. The oily words of empty compliment proffered by one of the Sith grated on Keel as he mentally marked the spokesperson as the apparent senior of the group.
     Half leaning against–half sitting on a stack heavy crates Eamonn looked around at the various people in the hold; some he’d met and others he knew their faces, the Sith’ari Path were an enigma to him. Aleena stood out from the crowd and he tried to catch her eye but to no avail. The briefing was over and people were beginning to mill about or return to their cliques. Jylan had arrived half-way through the briefing to stand next to him and they were soon greeted by one of the Sith.
     Keel listened to their brief exchange. “The only thing you’re likely to acquire on our mystery getaway Trell, is a lightsaber blade between your shoulderblades” he said heavily looking at the Arkanian. After a significant pause he continued ”I assume you expect other Force-users to be a present danger on the ground? Another Sith faction, or Jedi perhaps? After all, there must be a good reason you feel your collective attendance is important to our successful completion of this mission”

Location: Coruscant Docking Station 135Y, aboard 578-R Transport Ship "Aurillia"
Terrain: Dense tall building blocks, extremely congested and urban
Transmission Proximity: Unavailable

“Aurillia to Control Tower 135, requesting clearance to take off” The crew captain spoke with no anger, but with determination down the comm. This was their third try, it appeared that Tower was occupied with another matter. Well, that or empty. There were three crew members, they were chartered and from a professional source that owed the EPOCH a favour, or three. There had been offers from within the EPOCH to crew the transport, but Skursir figured that the members were better off on the ground.

“Aurillia, this is Control Tower 135, we apologize for the inconvenience”. The voice was quite rough and the accent told Skursir that this was a Rodian. It was pleasing to know that the Republic at least didn’t take preference in humans, which didn’t seem so in the Army. “A flight route will be opening soon, please stand by”.

Terrible news, the more time wasted, the more chance the transmission could be discovered by others. Skursir cursed in Dosh under his tongue while the crew captain, a Bothan, appeared to do the same. At least the people in the hold seemed to be getting along; Skursir could hear the muffled chatter down below.

Skursir decided to go down and join the group. “Take off asss ssoon asss possible...” Skursir hissed to the crew, using a hand motion to reinforce his order.
He descended down the stairs and saw Jylan having just entered. He was fond of the man ever since their first meeting and had grown attached to his casual nature. It would be interesting working with him. Though Skursir had disagreed with bringing vehicles on the mission, having initially thought that it was best to go quiet, he changed his mind after thinking that it was best to go prepared.

He noticed that an Arkanian Sith had approached Jylan and was attempted a conversation, with Eamonn Keel seeming to break the ice. Skursir hadn't met Eamonn, in fact, he had heard nothing but a name.
Close by, a Duros whom Skursir recognised as "The Thumb", looked quite shifty. Skursir had never met a Duros before, this mission would be a good chance to ammend that.
And in the corner of his eye, Skursir saw Aleena once again. It was only fair that the right hand to a Crime Boss was an assassin, but a Sith? She was better off with the Path, and on that note, Skursir wondered why she was not, but then discarded that thought in favour of finding his Master.

Skursir noticed the Falleen sealing the deal with the Path, and it appeared that Vaelyndor had signed the datapad – albeit having looked over the details which were a wise precaution though un-necessary. It would be a damage to their reputation should the EPOCH fix a contract and only for a few more credits. Skursir bottled up a snarl in the prospects of damaging his honour.

He approached the group, “Ah! I ssee that everything iss in order...” Smiling at the Path, he recalled going against Darth Ishad in the Hyperion and hoped that the Sith had no recollection of the matter. It was better still that Lord Mulnor was absent on the mission as well, Skursir didn’t fancy tensions. “We’re just experiencing difficultiess in passing through control, pleasse bear with uss.”

The dark-haired Hapan woman watched as the group split into small communities of interest, talking among themselves with either feigned or sincere banter. The groupings seemed almost random, most not in tandem with the collectives that Agent Skursir had announced.

Though she had not met any of the Path in person before she had received some limited information before the briefing and knew that the four representatives would be a Keleesh, Arkanian and a couple of Humans. Remembering that the Kaleesh's name was something akin to 'Ishad' and that the Arkanian had broken off from the main group to address Agents Keel and Trell, the options of who were who had been limited considerably.

Moving herself away from the bulkhead she decided it would be prudent to introduce herself. Inso doing as she moved the gleaming hilt of a lightsaber came into view, hanging from her hips, quite obviously on display but not carried in a threatening manner - more a simple show of arms. The Dark Jedi was unusally dressed for one of her kind, forgoing the usual flowing robes and ceremonial garb or elaborate yet functional armour in exchange for a tight-fitting, practiacal dark gray and red outfit which seemed more suitable for a sports arena than a practicioner of the Dark Side of the Force. She was not untouched by the corruption of the Dark Side either, her skin was a pale, almost gun-metal gray and her eyes were dark and red; both most unusal in a Hapanese woman. Despite those she still had the beauty and allure of her species even if that beauty seemed 'wrong' somehow.

As she approached the three Sith she caught the gaze of the one she suspected might be Sharasvar and nodded in response with a slight smile as she did so. Upon reaching the trio she bowed deeply out of respect but did not lower her eyes to the floor, due in part to the fact she tried to never leave herself completely open to attack, no matter the implied sincerity of those she addressed.

"Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to meet you. As I am the only female on this mission I suspect you already know who I am but to humour formality I would like to introduce myself as Aleena Fel." A second, more brief nod followed this statement.

"I am second to the Falleen and am at your disposal should you have any questions or concerns."

Darth'Ishad stood close to Vaelyndor and Sharasvar, with the uneasy feeling he has had since he got on the ship, he wanted to make sure nothin happend to them. With the Trandosan aproaching them he relized who that was, the same one from the bar.

"Skursir, what a pleasure"
he said with a chuckle "didnt know id be seeing you here."

He wasnt sure about a lot of the people here, and not knowing their positon of having a kaleesh in the mix of things, because for him most humans ar a problem for him.

As everyone had started to mingle with eachother he noticed the woman come over in their direction, his hand tightend around his hilt.

"Aleena Fel, it is a," he paused "pleasure to have you with us."

With his mask hiding any sort of emotion or facial expression, you could still tell the uneasy feeling he held toward the whole situation.

"I am Darth'Ishad, Guardian of the path."

He bowed he head in a sign of respect. Looking around to the rest of the people in the room, he noticed that Argyyn confronting a Zabrak and a human.

"I am sorry to cut this short but i must speak to my friend about somthing" bowing his head one last time he walked slowly over to Argyyn and the two agents.
"Argyyn my friend is everything going well?"
he looked to the two and back to him.

Once the formalities of closing the deal were completed, Vaelyndor casually observed the interactions between the Sith'ari and EPOCH agents with some interest. So far so good. he thought to himself. As Skursir aproached, the Executor bowed to him in respect.

"Indeed, all seems to be as it should. I trust your crew to have any difficulties handled in an expedient manner. Though I am somewhat anxious to be underway, I am unconcerned about a brief delay."

A brief moment of reflection on how the Sith'ari had received the encrypted missive crossed his mind, casting a faint glimmer of doubt on his last sentiment, though he dismissed it quickly enough. As Aleena Fel made her introduction and Darth'Ishad announced his relocation, he gives the Guardian a confirmatory nod and shifts his attention to the newcomer.

"A pleasure to meet you as well, Aleena Fel. I am Vaelyndor Althoren, Executor of the Sith'ari Path, and it is an honor to have such a high standing Agent accompanying us. With a brief pause, he adds, "I know all too well how many feel about working with the Sith, and though the Sith'ari follow a different interpretation of the Code, it is understandable that some of that mistrust will carry over to us. So again, I must thank you and all the other agents of the EPOCH for agreeing to this endeavor." Smiling, he gives another, albeit smaller, bow of respect.

Void entered the room as well, slightly late as usual. Everything seemed to be going normally. He approached Vaelyndor and rather than bowing, just gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder. "How is it looking so far?" He asked his ally.

Paying more attention to putting the final polish on his rifle rather than what was happening around him Creed decided to finally introduce himself to his team for the away mission.
"So I guess we'll be working together on this then?" His words were aimed directly to the man Skursir described as 'Charada'. Being a Special Agent within E.P.O.C.H he at least had some knowledge of the new recruits that were coming and going throughout the agency. He was always curious about the actual number of people in the Falleen's employment but he knew his boss well enough by now, every little detail was a secret and if thats way the man with the plan wanted it then who was he to ask questions?

Creed sensed a an uneasy tension being passed through some of the members of the agency and the mysterious guests aboard the vessel, and unlike the others he felt completely at ease with the situation. His employer often contracted him to work amongst the Sith so for him this was just another day at the agency. Packing his blaster rifle back in it's case he slumped the bulky weapon over his shoulder and extended his hand in friendship to the one that called himself 'Vaelyndor Althoren'.
"Nice to meet you pal, the names Dekkar, Creed Dekkar."

The Falleen stood waiting for the analysis of the hand print to come through, finally the datapad turned green and reassured him that the men they were working for were indeed who they said they were.
"Exceeeellent. Well everything seems in order here." His yellow eyes were filled with greed as he witnessed the large amount of credits succesfully transfer.
"Now if you gentlemen won't be needing me any further I shall leave you in the capable hands of Aleena."
He picked up his dark purple robe from around a chair and made his way to the vessels exit.
"It's been a pleasure doing business with you. You know how to contact me if you ever feel the need for our services again."

Vaelyndor turned and gave his friend a welcoming grin. "Glad you could make it Void, we were wondering if you'd get on board before we lifted off." Turning next to bow before the Falleen as he made his exit, he still wondered at how the man could negotiate a deal involving so many credits without revealing hardly anything about himself or much about his organizations methods.

So many secrets, so little time.

As another agent introduced himself, Vaelyndor was glad that he, at least, seemed very much at ease about the situation. Grasping the man's hand in a firm handshake, he can't help but relax a little at his casual introduction. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Creed. I couldn't help but notice you polishing that blaster rifle of yours. I prefer the DLT-5 model myself. Might not be as accurate as some of the others on the market, but with a little love and attention, and not to mention some additional custom parts, they'll get you out of some pretty tight spots."

Sharasvar kept his distance while the EPOCH and Sith'ari Path members exchanged pleasantries. He nodded friendly and sent a few polite smiles to the agents, all the time keeping an eye on Vaelyndor who moved around, showing confidence and strength. The Executor's primary weakness -his ability to trust- seemed to the elderly Sith in fact as one of his greatest assets. The Path had been isolated for long enough. They needed allies, and a leader able to trust allies.

A familiar presence passed Sharasvar and the Historian smiled, broadly now. The figure walked up to Vaelyndor and the elderly Sith decided to join him. His voice, soft but clear, sounded through the room.

"Well, Void. What a pleasant surprise! I didn't think you'd make it, my old friend. How did you manage to tear yourself away from galactic politics?" Sharasvar winked at Void Dallos.

"Everyone, this is Void Dallos, esteemed politician of the Empire. Perhaps you've heard of him. He's our Voice to the outside world and our link to the realm of Imperial politics."

... and he'd balance the odds a little more in our favor, the Sith thought cynically.

Slowly shuffling his long legs on the floor, with his protective outfit hanging from his pointy finger of the left hand, supported by the broad shoulders. His hand were very muscular, with massive metal protectors covering his forearms, hiding long, thin wristblades, that could emit short and strong burst of electricity.

The Thumb couldn't be more relaxed, and had no mood for forced introductions. Instead, he began to watch reactions and body language of the crew. Strained body poses, hands near lightsabers and suspicious, quiet talking implied the uneasiness of the Sith members.

Slowly moving through the cargo hold, avoiding any group engaged in conversation, he had been precisely examining other agents as well. Catching a glimpse of the heavy equipped zabrak and some humans talking, he continued walking slowly and casually, scanning everyone with cold red eyes, able to desperately frighten ordinary citizens and cowardly people. The person he had the most intriguing feeling of was the black haired hapan woman. He could see her deadly eyes, and reading from her movements, seducively walking towards the group of siths, was like reading from an interesting book. The Thumb was fascinated by her anticipation of possible attacks, the shaped body, corrupted eye look and depraved charisma. He had no doubt, she can smile in persons face and when he or she turns around, pull the heart out of the chest and drink the warm blood. At least, this was his imagination of an perfect assassination. But the hapan made him feel that way, made him eager to kill, to rip out some targets collar bone and pierce it through its pumping jugular.

The Thumb had a hard time suppresing his primal urge to brutally murder. After he calmed his inner demons, he tried to reach the stairs to the upper deck, possibly avoiding any conversation, aimed to find a bed where he could stretch his stiffed bones a little.

As Darth'Ishad made his diplomatic retreat from the conversation Aleena turned to Skursir with a look that seemed to question the Sith man's somewhat cautious behaviour. If the Trandoshan had any explanation he didn't look like he was going to offer it, and she was in no mood to press the situation. She shrugged off what she considered a slight of etiquette in light of the mission, she was used to people being on edge around her ever since she was a girl. Curious though, that such reputedly powerful Sith would be so tenative; she hoped it wouldn't prove to be a problem out in the field.

As her Master concluded the deal via a datapad transaction, Aleena watched two new members arrive. One she knew well, the Corellian man known as Creed, a quick-shooting and fast thinking Human who was among the Falleen's trusted. He was capable in a fight and was resourceful - for one not in tune with the Dark Side.

The second arrival she did not recognise but assumed he was a member of the Path by the immediate bond of familiarity between them, This assumption was proven true mere seconds later when Vaelyndor greeted him with the words:

"Glad you could make it Void, we were wondering if you'd get on board before we lifted off."

She found it interesting that there would be such comradery between Sith, but she was fast learning that the Sith'ari Path were not typical Sith.
Pulled from her thoughts by the sound of her name uttered by her Master, Aleena straightened up and to attention - though not in any military manner - as The Falleen spoke:

"Exceeeellent. Well everything seems in order here. Now if you gentlemen won't be needing me any further I shall leave you in the capable hands of Aleena."

She watched the imposing figure as he turned to leave the ship and wondered where he vanished to at times such as this. She was part of his inner-circle, one of the few people closest to him and even she had no idea where he was half the time. The Mysterious Falleen indeed.

Returning her attention to the Trandoshan stood near to her she decided that enough pleasantries had been observed for her liking and decided to address him formally.

"Agent Skursir, you mentioned to our Sith'ari collegues that there was a problem with leaving port?" She didn't seem paticularly agressive when she spoke, but there was a definate authoritarian tone that had been absent before.

"I trust this will not cause too much of a delay? I imagine our new friends are anxious to get underway.....as am I." She could see the tension building in him, Trandoshan were an agressive but honourable people and alot of the ways of the Galaxy annoyed them, seemed non-sensical and backward to the Trandoshan mindset. Like having a female in charge. She was well aware he resented her and her favoured position with the Falleen. Good, she could use that anger. It didn't matter to her if he liked her or not, friendship was not required - only obedience.

Everything she knew about Skursir pointed to a good sense of discipline.

"Do you have any further information on an estimated departure time?"

Skursir smiled as both of the Sith departed, they were good, especially compared to the other Sith that he had previously worked with. So far socialable in fact, you could have a drink with them, which was what he did in the Hyperion. The lady Aleena Fel had joined in the conversation to greet the Sith.

He recieved a questioning look from her, what did she want? Did she not trust his leadership in this mission? Granted, it was unusual that he would direct so many people, including his superiors, but he had done nothing wrong and had spent long and hard analysing available maps of the system, world and people involved. Surely she would recognise his hard work?

He decided to give a glare in return, but missed his oppurtunity as the lady left. Perhaps for the better, he was in no mood to anger her and cause any more tensions than there were now. He noticed Void-Dallos come on board, late. This wasn't the first time, Jylan had also come in half-way through the briefing. Surely he made the directions clear enough?

The Falleen departed, Skursir had always known that he would. He looked around, people were starting to mesh well, Eamonn, Jylan and Argrynn were in conversation as was Veal with Creed. All except "The Thumb" it seemed. The Duro seemed to rush up to the upper level, perhaps to check up on the ship's status - a smart move. Skursir was pleased to be around so many interesting individuals.

"Agent Skursir, you mentioned to our Sith'ari collegues that there was a problem with leaving port?"
A commanding voice spoke out from behind Skursir, the voice had struck a chord with him and he leapt to attention, spinning around instantly to face the person. It was the Chief Operative. Though she was female, she was still her superior and Skursir would have to answer to her as such.

"Yess, Chief Operative?" He responded quickly. Loyalty seemed to flood him, he felt comfortable - as comfortable as answering to the Falleen. He seemed to feel better thinking of Aleena as the 2nd in command rather than a female.

"I trust this will not cause too much of a delay? I imagine our new friends are anxious to get underway.....as am I."
That loyalty vanished as quickly as it came. She was slandering his abilities! She was putting him under scrutiny! She was playing with him! Skursir held back a snarl. He did not like her tone, no, he hated it. Aleena could probably read his feeling like a book. Good, she would learn not to take him lightly. For now, he would play her little game.

"Do you have any further information on an estimated departure time?"

Skursir grinned a lethal grin. "We are waiting for the control tower, Chief Operation. I have given commandss to the crew to take off when given conformation - it should not be long now."

Sitting on his case it the corner Jylan tried and failed to stop his hand from involuntary moving to his face, if there was one thing he hated it was listening to this guild, their problems and ego trips, none of them seemed to have any professionalism about them apart from the few who made it to the higher ranks mainly Creed and Aleena.
Jylan sat there staunchly waiting for one of the two to break the silence after Keels diplomatic masterstroke, it wasn't in his job description to make nice between men of great ego's or force conversation with hired killers, not that he even had a job description on this mission although he personally thought it was to be the looker of the group..... which wasn't far off considering the company.

He watched the worst offender as he finalised the deal and named Aleena as the Head of Operations for this particular mission before turning to make his exit, leaving before the mission had even begun, for reasons Jylan could only presume were to see his wife and most likely equally monstrous younglings, all for the better he thought, having him looking over his shoulder for the entirety of the mission didn't particularly appeal to him.
Aleena moved over to Skursir and began to chat,his gaze fell on her for awhile, he'd misread the woman entirely when they'd first met, he'd taken her for a Sith plain and simple yet her origin was apparently Jedi, her authoritarian yet apparent calm nature was off put by her obvious dark side corruption leading to many of their conversations to be uneasy ones.

She was baiting Skursir from what he could tell, not that it would do much good, his will was as iron as his hide and he wasn't about to bicker with his superior, loosing interest and turning away he grinned as another Sith walked over to him and the the icy grouping, “Another useful force ability the Sith have it seems, detecting uncomfortable social situations”.

As Jax was fixing up his backpack for the mission, He double-checked once again while muttering silently each weapon that he had in the backpack, "A Permacrete detonator check.. Bore bangs check.. Detonite check.." during his counting he noticed that Creed had walked up to him and said "So I guess we'll be working together on this then?"

Jax responded quickly and said: "Seems like it doesn't it? The name is Charada, need any blown up or hacked, I'm your Ryn." Thankfully Jax was able to keep his own name hidden since he didn't rather enjoy anyone digging up the past.

In truth, Jax wasn't that bothered with this mission at all, "Just avoid getting shot" he always thought with a smile but something didn't quite feel right about this mission, he never enjoyed having sith around specially with their reputation.

As Jax went back into his backpack and rechecking everything he muttered silently "Too bad there isn't enough Detonite to blow every Sith and Jedi off the bloody planet.."

"My name is Darth'Ishad" he anounced to the two agents Jylan and Eamonn, "I hope we all can uhhh get along on this mission." he said with a low hiss. His hand still on his hilt, he was feeling that most of the agents did not feel to good about working with sith, which is understandable. Most sith are ruthless and Darth'Ishad can be one of them at times, but in the end he has his honor and his pride. "I take it you are not to fond of us sith are you?"" he asked Eamonn grinning behind his mask, he could feel the tension all through out the room. Some either were nervous, angry, and some calm but it was a feeling that will soon pass.

Sharasvar saw "The Thumb" ascend the stairs before he could have a word with him. Even from afar, he sensed a good deal of barely controlled aggression within the duros, and he'd have liked a moment to ascertain the nature and direction of his feelings. Aliens were difficult to read, and the less humanoid they were, the more confusing their emotional signals were to the Sith Historian.

Sharasvar hesitated for a second, doubting if he'd follow his enigmatic team mate, but he decided against it - they'd have time enough to get cozy when the mission actually started. Instead his eyes moved back to Aleena who was talking to the trandoshan. At first, Skursir had seemed to him as the leader of the mission, but then the hapan female appeared to call the shots. There was some tension between the two agents, and Sharasvar instantly recognized Aleena's arrogant authoritativeness - the hallmark of most Sith he had encountered in his life.

Acquiring and executing authority was the main road to power, and there were three ways to gain authority: social position, fear, and respect. Of the three, social rank was the least efficient, as it was based on a purely external motivator. With rank comes fear and respect, sure, but in the last analysis it depends not on the willpower of the person in question, but on external structures independent of his or her will. On the other hand, the darksider could have gained her rank through respect and fear, but if so, this did not seem entirely uncontested within the group.

Sharasvar left the company of Void and approached Aleena and Skursir. He nodded politely at Skursir and then addressed the darksider. "Miss Aleena. We haven't been properly introduced yet. My name is Sharasvar Zia, Judge of the Path and member of the High Council for Sith Archaeology on Korriban and the resident historian and - together with Loremaster Arggyn - scholar of the Path. If you or one of your agents should encounter any... artefact of relevance on the mission, I would be grateful if you'd bring it immediately to me. Especially ancient force related objects have a tendency to create... problems, when not properly investigated and attended." The Sith smiled, in a neutral way. His tone was decisive, but not unfriendly.