Ask Korriban Hand of Doom

[Darth Stolas]

Stolas turned and twisted to get a better look at the ancient gauntlet, taking in the different lines and materials involve. After a few moments he dropped his arm and the artifact simply fell off into his left hand. It was somewhat loose at the moment but that could be fixed. At least it was properly in his possession.

"Will need adjustment," he answered simply, turning it over again in his hand.

The black metal and gold detailing were quite typical of old Sith objects in Morgan's opinion, as were the crimson stones that now sat inert without foreign energy coursing through them. Even so the object's own power was clear enough as well and Morgan was abundantly pleased.

Idly he watched Lorcan finish retrieving the pieces of the shattered pyramid. Morgan doubted whatever sorcery had been on it worked with it broken but it was still potentially worth study. Or maybe just a souvenir.

"Sith like making and finding shiny things." Stolas spoke with a tone of amusement. Lorcan had a point, of course, finding old Sith objects was functionally part of his new job. A little specialized for a more ordinary mercenary. His comment about Palpatine's cane gave the young Lord some thought during which he looked around the room now that it was free of burning ghosts.

"A good idea, I think."

Once things were gathered up he would head back up toward the stairs, once more checking on how his injured hand was holding up on the way. After they reached the surface they would probably have to deal with the people of the sacred village again, assuming no other strange tests awaited them.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

Sith liked to make shiny, gaudy, thing? Shock! In other important, breaking, holonet news, water was wet and Zeltrons were date rapists. In the grand scheme of reveals, this one did not rank very high and they both knew it. He was honestly one step away from assuming that his boss was taking the piss out of the old Sith with him.

But Stolas was one of those people who tended to try and respect history and such. Probably a rich person problem or one with long and storied family trees. Lorcan didn’t care to even track down his own surname so that probably explained the difference in attitude towards some of the Sith stuff. Oh and the connection to the mystical space magic shite.

He blinked a few times.

"... I was kinda taking the piss with that option." he admitted, tilting his head to the side slightly, "But you know what? Feck it, that shrak sounds funny as hell."

Lorcan laughed as he headed up top with his boss.

"You reckon you could bring back palpy as a shade or ghostie thingy just so he could watch as we karked around with his walking stick?"

Bullying old people was something he never got tired of.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

The visor turned to look at Lorcan for a moment and even if he couldn't actually see the look of amusement on the Sith Lord's face, it was there. While he did appreciate much of Palpatine's work, including his books, as well as his vast collections of items, Morgan had an understandably poor opinion of his stint as Galactic Emperor. Of course his cane might not have much real power to it but was, as he'd mentioned, a shiny thing.

It didn't matter much to Morgan that Lorcan had no actual interest in these old things, of course. He was a paid auxiliary, not a historian, and that kind of reverence wasn't the least bit expected of him. They were both well aware of that.

Plus his attitude was funny. That probably helped.

"As enticing the thought," he spoke as he walked up the stairs back to the dramatic spinning elevator, "I doubt there is anything left of the departed Emperor." The Jedi had more or less seen to that. Although given his reputation for tenacity he wouldn't be surprised by something remaining somehow, somewhere.

The elevator was exactly as the two had left it, of course. Stolas pulled the tiny figurine from the floor once they were both aboard and after a couple seconds and some rumbling it began to move back up- while spinning in the same direction it'd gone when it headed down. He turned to observe the opening in the wall that would match up to wherever this thing was heading next.

It's upward movement stopped but it kept spinning, stone grinding on stone until the entrance aligned with a new door. Stolas sighed softly.

"Something else. Of course," he commented dryly and stepped forward. The door slid into the floor to reveal an upwardly sloped hallway that he began to walk up. Maybe it would at least lead somewhere interesting.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

Hadn't the entire Galaxy thought that before and then, somehow, he'd returned? He wasn't too clear on the history of it but it seemed to have surprised a lot of people. Either the Jedi were shite at killing old people (which was odd since it was generally super easy to do) or there were some Sith magics going on that kept bringing Palpy back from the dead.

He wasn't aware of any of the current crop of Darths and Lords and shrak coming back from the dead so maybe they were worse than Palps? Seemed logical to him, even if it did mean that the modern Sith were weaker or less knowledgeable than some wrinkled scrotum of a man.

Whatever, it was time for Lorcan to leave; he had seen enough old Sith bullshit to last him a lifetime. Of course that was when they were presented with an entirely new doorway and sloped hallway. Lorcan stared at it in silence for a second.

"That right there? That's some bullshit." he hissed out between clenched teeth before letting out a long sigh, "We need to talk about overtime rates I swear to the gods..."

Perhaps another time - like when Stolas had access to the payroll systems to make it actually happen. As they ascended the hallway, Lorcan held in a groan of frustration through sheer force of will. There was a large, circular, stone door up ahead of them with a barrier in the way that appeared to be made of several layers of bubbling white goo.

Another obstacle.

"It appears to be some kind of Force bullshittery barring the way, boss." he commented with false cheer, "Permission to blow the kark out of the entire thing with explosives?"

Before he could do just that, two spectral forms of Sith Pureblood warriors peeled away from the barrier coating the door. They were made of the same off-white goo that the barrier was made out of as well, their forming causing the amount of goo on the door to decrease. Honestly, the color of the ectoplasm made Lorcan... uncomfortable.

"Freaking cum-sith... sure... why not."

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

Morgan quickly decided he didn't like this new doorway. Perhaps there was something of some value behind it, or at least he hoped there was, but the specifics of the defenses placed upon it were just a little unsettling. Lorcan's commentary didn't do much to assuage that feeling. Shapes emerged from the massed, bubbling goop over the front of the door and became something like warriors, he supposed.

Behind his helmet the young Lord made a face of disapproval, but he was also looking at them with a scholarly interest. This was new to him. Maybe if he figured out how it worked he could at least change the colour?

"Keep it on standby," he said. As much as he'd prefer to just blow his way through here it was a small space and, besides, he wanted to try something.

That being firing a burst of lightning toward the two figures as they formed to test how conductive the liquid was and if it would lose cohesion from the direct expression of the Dark side. Sometimes things running on complex calculations didn't appreciate a literal shock to the system, sometimes they were warded against it. Best to test it before blowing it to bits.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if he should add some kind of flamethrower to Lorcan's payment for this.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

There was a door made entirely out of Force related bullshit blocking the way, spawning Pureblood Sith made entirely out of a suspicious, off-white, liquid. Lorcan did not have the words to describe just how much of this he disliked but he had hoped he would be able to express his profound dissatisfaction with the thing's existence through the liberal application of high explosives.

It was not to be.

"... alright then."

Instead they were going to waste their time dicking around with the weird little creatures? He was getting paid for his time but STILL! There were just some things that made even a seasoned arsehole like Lorcan cringe and this right here?

Peak cringe.

Thankfully for everyone involved in the current level of crimes against gods, man and nature... they didn't seem to like being hit by Sith Party Streamers. When the lightning touched them, they seemed to hold in place for a moment before beginning to convulse. Lorcan's eyes widened and he got the little tingle at the back of his neck that warned him of an explosion incoming... oh by The Eternal's left nipple, no!

... it did not.

Instead the creature seemed to melt into a disgusting puddle on the floor. Lorcan stared at the duel puddles for a long time before turning to look at his boss.

"Can I kill the purebloods for this? This is a war crime, right?"

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

Apparently this wasn't one of those constructs that was designed to handle lightning. In fact the influx of eldritch power seemed to disrupt whatever overcomplicated mess animated them in the first place. The structures shivered, shook, and then melted into a pile of goop on the floor, still sparking with the aftereffects of the Darth's lightning.

Morgan stared at it. As interesting as its animating force was it probably wasn't something useable without some tweaking or clever planning. Ah well.

"So tacky," the Darth commented judgmentally, a wave of his hand sweeping the goo to the side of the hallway. "But, no." he paused. "Not yet, anyway. A waste."

Stolas stepped forward toward the door, beginning to feel the effects of his usages of the Force. The net in particular was a complicated usage despite its brief duration at the time. These repeated challenges were making him grumpy.

"Perhaps some bonus vacation time," he added as the round door began to open. The two of them would walk through to find, essentially, a small but very old library of sorts. It contained mostly historical documents and the like in the compact form of datacrons stored in recesses of the wall. At the other end of the chamber was a hallway.

Stolas looked around the otherwise empty chamber. He was seriously beginning to think these challenges had been designed with the assumption the Sith going through them wouldn't trust another to join them, which was partly true in Morgan's case of course except for one in particular, but Emryc was busy at the time.

"Suppose we'll take these too."

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

It would be a waste to kill the Purebloods? Why? Genuinely, Lorcan was confused as to why killing these Sith Purebloods would be anything other than a good idea. They were an entitle bunch of arseholes who never left their little speck of a planet. So if they didn’t bother to leave their rock of dust and ash and shite to be warriors for the Sith, what did they do?

Their industry was so laughable that Lorcan seriously thought that he could probably out produce the entire planet with a 500-Series space station. And everybody knew how much he hated that style of space station. Worse, it wasn’t even a big station and it would still do better than these red-scrotumed asshats!

But, in the end, the boss said no.

“… as you say, boss.” He agreed at length in the end, very much wanting to have killed them anyway but not wanting it enough to do it without being paid for it, “I’ll keep the guns warm for when we decide they’re not worth the hassle.”

It would only be a matter of time if this was an indication of the Sith Pureblood attitudes to people they were supposed to be serving. People this arrogant, yet weak, really should have just stayed extinct like the Galaxy thought they were.

The library was… unexpected.

Lorcan would have actually put money down on some of the Sith acolytes not being able to actually read. Some of them were the definition of dumbasses and others were a few grunts away from being literal monkey levels of intelligence. But, he knew, some of the Sith were very academically minded because they were nerds. Smol Tiddy Goth GF from Dathomir was apparently some kind of nerd like that.

“You think the pale chick from Dathomir would like some as a gift or two?” he asked her boss as he carefully pulled a few of the books down onto a nearby table, selecting ones that looked magic-y related, “These look like they might wet her panties. This one is literally bound in Twi’lek skin… that’s kind of gross.”

He poked the book in question.

“Suppose anything’s leather if you try hard enough…”

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

This library was unexpected. It almost seemed an odd addition to the gauntlet but Stolas wasn't going to complain. From the size and usage of mostly datacrons it was more of a repository than a library, he supposed, likely belonging to a specific person. Something of that sort.

His dark visor turned to look at the book Lorcan had found, eyebrows raising behind the transparisteel. Such a thing would make a good gift for more than one person he knew. Perhaps copies could be made. The skin binding, though, seemed... Unbelievably tacky. Besides which most near-human species had skin too thin to make a very good leather without far too much work.

"Oh yes, she likely would. A good suggestion, Lorcan." Morgan walked over to the table to examine the book, very delicately running his hand over the binding. At least this planet was dry and he didn't have to worry about mold, but leather needed to be maintained and he didn't want to risk opening it just yet. Perhaps whoever set this up assumed someone would retrieve them sooner rather than later?

At least there were only a few things that weren't about to fall apart on contact, datacrons aside.

"Gather what we can, then we can go. I tire of this pit." Stolas handled the actual books himself, mostly because he always kept a folded-up canvas bag in one of his belt pouches.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

Oh so smol tiddy goth GF Sith Lord would like the outstandingly creepy book? Shocker. Lorcan grinned a little bit underneath his helmet anyway and nodded to his boss before setting the book down carefully. If he had been making a book like that, he’d probably have made it look as creepy and spooky as possible… then revealed that it was a cookbook or something like that.

If that turned out to be the case he could see 99.9% of Sith lying about the contents to save face – the remaining 0.01% would probably find it absolutely hilarious and attempt to re-gift it.

“Figured it might fit her kink.” He acknowledge with a small shrug, “Not my place to question what engages her hyperdrive.”

Seriously though, some of the Sith did seem to get physically turned on by arcane knowledge and it was gross as kark. Stolas was probably one of them but at least his boss wasn’t waxing lyrical about how much he could do with the knowledge contained within the pages.

Monologues weren’t something his boss indulged in, thankfully.

Lorcan could see that Stolas was the one gathering the books that he found valuable and Lorcan handed over some small, especially creepy-looking, books to his boss. But mainly? Mainly he looted the kark out of the rest of the room. It was a dumb idea to have a large ruby set in gold as a book stop but he was sure he could sell it to someone in the core who had more credits than sense.

Having more credits than sense was hardly uncommon in the Galaxy as a whole but as one got closer to the core, the more obvious it became.

“Damn straight boss – this whole place could be vastly karking improved by a firebomb or three.” He muttered before pushing a bookcase that was obviously on hinges, which led to another passage with light at the end of it’s rather steep incline, “I’d be happy but I think the light at the end of the tunnel is just Korriban.”

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

Stolas just gave Lorcan an amused look from behind his helmet, the other man's commentary frequently funny in its irreverence. Briefly he wondered over the very concept of a kink related to esoteric and arcane knowledge, a grin spreading over his face as he looked down at a book. Morgan was fairly sure he knew a person most likely to have such a thing and made a note to test that out.

In fairness the Firrerreo Sith was also quite interested in old and important things, it was just his helmet concealed the way his eyes lit at seeing it all gathered together. That and the tacky bindings of course. "Everyone has something," Stolas mused aloud as he gathered up the various items, only paying enough mind to the valuable objects Lorcan bagged to see if they had Drast markings.

After everything was properly packed up and secure Lorcan found another doorway behind a bookshelf. How cute.

"Can't become much dryer," he replied wryly, walking forward through the passage. As much as Morgan appreciated the historical significance and cultural value of Korriban he was from a lush world covered in significant ocean, trained frequently on a jungle world, and worked often in urban areas. Dry, dead desert wasteland wasn't exactly his favourite environment.

Up the incline the two of them went, the Darth's senses alert for more hidden nonsense, but it seemed they might have finally gotten through the gauntlet. The light at the end was indeed the harsh sun of Korriban. Lorcan would hear an irate sigh from his employee as the red dust immediately re-coated his armour.

Various purebloods, guards and priests both, awaited them in a group with a vast array of different expressions. Morgan blinked.

"Gauntlet passed through, gauntlet retrieved." Stolas held up the object in gloved and slender fingers to a fairly mixed response, not that he much cared of their opinion. "You have fulfilled your duties, as I understand them, yes?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

Everyone had something?

Well Lorcan wasn’t sure he agreed with that statement in it’s entirety but he could admit that some of the people he met seemed to have at least one each. The breeders and the karkers all liked something to add ‘spice’ to their activities. He wasn’t sure if that meant they were just doing something wrong in the vanilla process to require ‘spice’ or if it was just to make it even better.

Didn’t know and didn’t care much either so he didn’t actually comment on it at all when his boss brought it up. There was a vague sense of discomfort from the conversation having strayed into the sexual when there was a casual mention of everyone… seemingly including Lorcan himself. He’d realized it a long time ago that he honestly didn’t care when people joked or talked about sexual things – so long as he wasn’t included in any way.

Heading up into the light, he blinked rapidly to help his eyes adjust to the light as they reached the end of the tunnel. His hand rested on the holster for his blaster pistol as he eyed the assembled Purebloods. As a rule, Lorcan didn’t trust people to have the best intentions but these guys? These red-skinned scrotum-necked assholes?

Lorcan wouldn’t trust them as far as he could throw a Wookiee.

There was silence at Stolas’ words.

“Man asked you a question.” He barked out at them, “Answer him.”

Lorcan didn’t really expect them to react positively so when they knelt down on one knee as one, he was honestly a little bit surprised. Surprised enough that he had half-drawn his blaster pistol at the first sign of movement before stilling as they knelt. One of the priests in the middle was the only one who didn’t look at the ground, looking up at Stolas instead.

“We bow to your might and cunning, My Lord.” The priest intoned before bowing his head as well, “Grow in power and take us with you as your humble servants.”

Staring at the priest, Lorcan holstered his pistol again and looked at Stolas. It was his decision if he wanted to have these natives hanging around and he wasn’t exactly in a position to give his opinion on hiring them either. Maybe if he got the management level pay he might do but, well, he didn’t so he kept his unflattering thoughts on the natives internal.

For now.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

Stolas did have a poor habit of sometimes leaving out internal thoughts and details when he spoke and after a few moments of discomfort passed between he and Lorcan the Firrerreo came to believe he'd done just that. He hadn't meant the comment in a purely sexual way but that's unfortunately how it came out. Morgan happened to know Lorcan really only preferred money, weaponry, and the many and varied usages of both.

"Whether intimately or otherwise," he added after a couple seconds. A misunderstanding with an employee was undesirable on several levels.

Back on the surface the Darth stared at the gathered purebloods who didn't entirely seem to know what to do with the two men, at least until Lorcan's words broke them from their stupor. He blinked as they began to kneel and asked to go along with him. That hadn't been the expected response. Morgan lowered the gauntlet back down and held it rather casually, if securely, by his waist. Several seconds of silent contemplation passed.

"For now," he began, "You are best kept on Korriban." The very diplomatic response, but also the truth. They would draw attention and Morgan's network in this part of the galaxy was limited at the time. Instead he took the time to speak to them over the goings-on of Korriban for a time, including the identity of it's current King, a half-mad Feeorin of some kind. How odd. They would serve as informants and, much later when the new king had returned from across the universe, Morgan would make certain the people of the sacred village served him loyally.

After making clear their roles and what Stolas considered very reasonable requests he and Lorcan would depart the village with what they'd gained and make their way back toward the speeder. Morgan paused by his bike.

"You mentioned explosives. Do you have enough stocked up?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

Boss tried to clarify his earlier comment and Lorcan... appreciated the effort, even if a darker part of his felt like it was pandering. It was only because he knew enough about Stolas to know he didn't have the time or energy to pander to anyone or anything that helped him quash that errant thought quickly enough. He just kind of shrugged a little bit to Stolas' effort, acknowledging the effort made and feeling slightly better for it but not, exactly, wanting to talk about it.

It was a Him thing and he knew that so he'd do what he always did - he'd deal. Dealing with his own feelings making him feel uncomfortable was nothing new so he was rather adept at it. Thankfully he had something else to focus on in the form of the Purebloods. They seemed to be waiting for something and Lorcan couldn't help but liken it to someone waiting for their aloof father to show them to love.

He didn't think Stolas had enough Dad Energy to pretend to give a single, solitary, kark about them for very long. Didn't take long for Stolas to focus on the more practical side of things their sudden devotion brought on and Lorcan watched them for any signs of betrayal as Stolas worked out what the kark to do with a village full of Red Assholes who suddenly wanted his attention and approval.

Departing the village, Lorcan waited until they were far enough away from the village for even a blaster rifle shot to be difficult before reaching up to take off his helmet. Taking a deep breath of the fresher air, he still sneezed off to one side.

"Karking sand, dust and pathetic little Red Shitstains - all this bloody planet has." he scowled to himself before blinking at his boss, confused at first before smirking in a slightly bemused way, "Boss... I got enough explosives to seriously consider collapsing one of their shit-heap mountains on their village outa spite. But my view has always been..."

He grinned, all savagry and all teeth.

"There's no such thing as enough! Overkill is HIGHLY underrated."

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

Stolas looked down at the gauntlet in quiet consideration for a few moments. Despite being such a small thing it had both historical significance and importance to Morgan himself in his plans. The ability to absorb and reflect attacks, as well as simply being a gauntlet weapons couldn't burn or blast through, was rather invaluable. For a while he would need to keep quiet that he'd acquired the artifact until the time came to wield it against the proper target.

His dark visor looked up at Lorcan, choosing not to remove the helmet just yet. Morgan really wasn't terribly fond of all the dust.

"Good. You will get more," he said simply before climbing aboard his speeder. "They'll be needed relatively soon. Have a target in mind." Of course the speeder Lorcan was about to ride back to the ship was also his now, as promised. Per usual with that sort of bonus Morgan wasn't going to bother mentioning it again and instead just left him with the 'keys'. "Perhaps a mortar?"

With the right equipment and personnel Lorcan had the skills to set up a truly terrifying sniper's nest and serve as a force multiplier. Potentially, at least. The trip back to the ship was uneventful beyond the massive clouds of dust the vehicles sent up in their wake.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

That was his boss - unflappable as always.

Fixing his helmet back into place before they got atop their speeders, Lorcan couldn't help but wonder what Stolas had in mind for him. The Sith had always done right enough by him for an employer and Lorcan never did say no to a job when the credits were good - and Stolas had long since proven that his credits were good. Of course it was only a fool who didn't ask relevant questions when it came to work like his.

So as they started up their speeders he spoke up.

"Mortars are useful for a longer range kill that you'll want me to be able to head on over and confirm before heading off." he agreed, thinking about what he knew about their operation, "Get me couple different round types just to cover some bases and we're off to the races."

As they drove though, he asked the big question.

"So who's life insurance are we cashing in? Anyone I know?"

He didn't need the name or even the position right now. Hells, Lorcan didn't even care which side of the 'good and evil' divide they fell on so long as he got paid. But he did have a small network of contacts and acquaintances and it would be a pain in the arse to replace them without proper notice.

Needed to know if he was going to need to go shopping for 'friends' again soon after all.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

Mortars tended to be used more by skirmishing mercenary companies than proper armies these days but Stolas thought that was kind of a shame. He had ideas on their usage in urban environments with the right equipment and set up. Indirect fire was much harder to track and if soldiers scattered from cover sharpshooters would have a much easier time picking off targets.

His thoughts on the matter delayed his actual reply to Lorcan for a couple seconds.

"More of a 'to whom it may concern'," he answered. "Although I do intend to pay a visit to a particular family on Serenno one day." Specifically the one that was sitting in the Drast palace. That was something that needed to be addressed. "Either way, not likely anyone you know."

The ship was just as they'd left it except much, much dustier. Morgan frowned at it behind his visor and softly sighed, stepping off his speeder and stretching a little. He flexed the burned fingers, still healing, and moved to head inside with the gauntlet while droids did the job of moving the vehicles. "Good work as usual, Lorcan. You will find a bonus in your monthly salary. The mortar will be delivered with instructions once that plan is ready to be underway."

Stolas stepped inside, put down the other bags of books and things very carefully, and went to find the storage box he'd prepared for the gauntlet.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lorcan]

Let it never be said that Stolas didn’t know how to show a man a good time – Lorcan had been figuring that out since he met him and it seemed that the Sith Lord wasn’t done. He was going to keep showing it just to make a point or two wasn’t he? Well so long as he wasn’t expecting any kind of favors for being his Sithy Sugar Daddy, Lorcan was fine with that.

The promise of high explosives was an alluring one and they both knew he responded well to credits. With Stolas he was getting a chance to do both and why would he not want that?

“Boss you give the best bonuses.” He agreed with a bark of laughter, “Don’t worry about pointing me at people I know in the future either, by the by…”

He had never met someone he had found some reason not to treat with his customary brand of hostility since he left the Rangers. And, looking back on it, even then he had felt the beginnings of the way he felt about people back then too. Still, he kicked back a little bit as they ended their mission on the Sith-spit planet and all its shitty people and shitty sand.

“Gotta feeling I’m gonna have lots more fun with you boss man. Do me a favor?” he smirked a little bit, “Don’t go losing that competitive edge… keeps you surrounded by enemies and me in the black.”

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Darth Stolas]

There was dark little grin behind Stolas' visor when he turned next to look toward Lorcan. The former Ranger was certainly not someone to be terribly bothered by a job that might put him up against people he knew. That was precisely a good reason for him to have been brought into Morgan's personal employ in the first place. "Worrying never crossed my mind."

After finding the container for the gauntlet he brushed it off of dust and nestled the artifact safely within, the box seeming to seal itself tightly shut of its own accord. Next the Firrerreo removed his own helmet and placed it down on the table, stretching his neck left and right after so long in the armour. "You certainly will, Lorcan." His boots took him to the seating area as droid pilots got the craft ready for take-off. As much as Morgan appreciated the historical and cultural significance of the planet he still didn't think he'd ever be fond of the clouds of red dust.

"I am sure there will be many targets for you." Morgan sank down into a seat and leaned comfortably back against the cushions, a small smirk curling up the edges of his lips. "This is just the beginning."

@Nefieslab