The Dark Academy on Korriban

Zeno had done very well for himself on the orientation exams and decided that he would go for a ride to relax after it. He would have to meet up with Lord Zash soon, and suspected that was going to take a fair amount of mental focus, considering it definitely was not his forte. His short hair waved in the wind as he took the speeder to top speed over the open wastes.

Except they were dotted with all sorts of small features here and there. One in particular stood out to him as he flew by it. It caught his interest enough to do a quick turn around and re-approach it to investigate closer.

OOC: Destiny point for a scene.

Zeno heard a blaster shot go off as he approached followed by another, and as he rounded a natural stone pillar he saw a four Imperial soldiers standing over a shallow pit. A body was falling into the pit just as they became visible. It was hard to tell who they were, but from a distance they had the garb of a student before they fell into the pit.

The soldiers hear the speeder and turn to look at him. Behind them was a military transport speeder.

Pulling up near the soldiers, he nods to them. "Afternoon. Fleeing the academy?"

The soldiers looked at each other and one a corporal spoke up and said, “Yes sir, these two were caught and dealt with. Nothing to see here. Move along, aspirant.”

“Yeah, carry on. None of your business,” another soldier added.

"That's curious though. I'm surprised that Darth Acomo wouldn't want a couple weaklings that ran away to be put up on The Wall of Peace," he says, cocking his head with a smile. "Not that I don't love a good execution."

The soldier looks to corporal who replied, “Just following orders guess these ones don’t even merit that. Probably asked too many questions or poked their nose in the wrong business.”

“Yep,” another soldier says.

“Shouldn’t you be out learning to be Sith, my lord?” the corporal added.

"I'm doing exactly that. This planet turns aspirants into sith," he says deftly hopping out of the speeder, and slowly walking towards the soldiers and the hole. "It's brutal, violent, and unrepentant in it's desire for blood. I'm allowing it to shape me and feed me."

“Well we should get back to work, these traitors won’t bury themselves,” the Corporal said.

“I told you we should have kept one alive to bury the others and then shot him,” another said.

The Corporal turned and said, “Bloody shut it, the lot of you and get to work. Well aspirant, is there anything else we can do for you.” His tone was a bit rushed and nervous and fearful.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to have-”

“I said shut it!” the Corporal repeated.

"Why exactly are you bothering to bury them? Why not just leave them to the tuk'ata? They're just traitors right?" Zeno asked with a devious grin. "Unless they're not."

There is a great deal of silence and then the Corporal responded, “You should move along aspirant, you ask a great deal of questions. Too many questions. Get on your speeder and forget this place.”

“Talk about this and your dead.”

"Well, see... that's not the answer I wanted to hear. I was actually hoping you might give me an answer like... 'We're acting on the orders of a Sith Lord' or maybe 'These assholes didn't pay their gambling debts'. Because that would have been more believable. But instead you just tried to brush me off, treating me like I'm not one of the most proficient killers in the academy right now," he replies shaking his head while drawing his sword.

"So unless you have a better reason than 'Please leave' then I'm going to have to act on the assumption that you murdered these acolytes without the authority of Darth Acomo or Captain Harad."

The Corporal looked at his men who shrug. One said, “He ain’t an alien or a jumped up slave, they might miss him.”

The Corporal added, “Korriban is a dangerous place, boys. Kill this rotter and be quick about it.”

OOC: The Corporal and the three soldiers are at short range, if Zeno chooses to initiate combat. He can also run to his vehicle and try to run away.

Zeno drops into his stance, ready to move in on the soldiers.

Initiative: 2 successes

Zeno gets to act first as the soldiers lifted their weapons.

OOC: Zeno, Corporal, Imperial Squad (3) Zeno is at Short range from the Corporal and Squad.

Initiative: 2eA 1 success, 2 advantage


Initiative - Corporal: 2eA+1eP 2 successes, 1 advantage

Zeno forward rolls into the corporal's personal space in an instant, bringing his blade up with his body and slashes deeply into the Corporal. "Wrong choice." His eyes are wild and bloodshot with a terrifyingly gleeful smile.

Maneuver: Move to engaged with corporal
Action: Lightsaber: 7 damage
1 advantage: Recover 1 strain
Triumph: Corporal drops his weapon

1 strain
0 wounds
1 melee defense
3 soak

The corporal is stunned by the speed and his weapon goes flying. He draws a vibro-knife and tries to slash at Zeno. His attack is true but he is distressed that he might be in over his head.

The squad seeing the Sith wade into melee move behind the military Speeder to take cover and then open fire with their light blaster pistols! Zeno is struck in the hail of blaster fire.

OOC: Corporal takes 3 Wounds. Corporal hit Zeno for 2 wounds after soak and the Corporal suffers 1 strain. Troopers do another 3 damage after soak. Zeno's turn. The squad now has Cover giving them Ranged Defense 1. They take 1 strain converted to wounds for the Squad.

Melee - Corporal: 2eA+1eP+2eD+1eS 2 successes, 1 threat


Ranged Light - Squad: 2eP+1eD+1eC 1 success, 1 threat

The corporal's blade does not connect as the blade Zeno wields interposes itself before coming back around for another strike on the leader in a move that interposes his body partially between the marksmen and himself. The smile widens. "You'll die before me if you don't call them off."

Incidental: Parry corporal's blade
Maneuver: Aim
Action: Lightsaber: 7 damage, 4 advantage
1 advantage: Recover 1 strain
3 advantage: +1 ranged defense

Per GM: Coercion 2 successes, 1 advantage
1 advantage: Recover 1 strain

2 strain
3 wounds
1 melee defense
1 ranged defense
3 soak

‘STAND DOWN!” the Corporal cried and dropped his knife.

“Look… I’m sorry we are just doing our job… how about this I give you a hundred credits and you never saw us?”

"How about this, we're going to figure where to go from here by talking this out. Everyone's weapons on the ground. I'm not unreasonable... if I was you'd be dead and I'd be hacking into your other men while getting shot up. But I've also been shot without a good reason and we're going to need to figure out reasonable compensation for that," Zeno replies, his eye twitches, apparently ready to burst into violence at the slightest hint of resistance, his sword precariously close to the Corporal's neck.

"Fine, what sounds suitable?" he said with a gulp.

"For starters, my previous request of hearing weapons on the ground," he says.

He glanced over his shoulder and nodded but instead you hear the sound of a speeder shooting off into the distance. The squad departed leaving him behind.

The corporal grimaced, “So… that happened.”

Zeno kept his sword trained on the Corporal as he moved to take the vibro knife and blaster. "Yes it did. A shame too because I was just about to say, credits are a pathetic offer."

He chuckles at the Corporal.

“So what happens now?” he said cautiously.

"Now you give me your name and id so that I know how to contact you. Then you walk back to the academy. Then I will move this body somewhere where you don't know the location and I do. And you and your merry band of assholes owe me a favor. When I feel it's been repaid I'll let you know where the body is and you can move it again so I have no leverage," Zeno says with a shrug. "That seem reasonable to you? That way you get to tell your boss you completed your mission and I get a hand from a handful of soldiers when I need it. Just bad luck on your part that I happened by, but this type of corrupt deal seems right up your alley from where I'm standing."