Stars glittered in the night sky, at least when viewed from the perspective of people in realspace. From people in hyperspace, it was an entirely different view all together. One of those people with a different view at the moment was a man standing nearly two meters in height, shrouded in a black cloak, that covered his head and most of his body, with dark robes covering whatever the cape didn't. His face was not visible but everytime the man drew breath and exhaled it, a cold mist exited the hood. The figure was standing at the viewport of a ship hurtling through the hyperlanes, full of people under his command. One of those people, a person he had placed more highly above the rest, now approached him to tell him that they were preparing to exit hyperspace.

"Dread lord, reversion in one minute." said the capitan, lackey named Gilbrand.

"Good. Prepare the ship for imminent hyperspace depature. Prepare to raise shields and arm weapons upon depature." said the man in a cold but precise voice.

Less than a minute later, the crimson Victory-class Star Destroyer exited hyperspace within a field of asteriods, commonly called smuggler's run. Coming into the field, the ship immediatly armed it's weapons and powered up it's defense shields. There were other ships within the run, many of them small to medium sized smuggling ships, along with the usual hosts of customs corvettes and legitimate shipping freighters.

"Sir, target Alpha acquired." reported the weapon's master.

"Fire the ion cannons. Disable the target. Dispatch the troop shuttles." ordered Darth Necros.

Ion cannon fire lanced out from the crimson ship, splashing across the hull of the bulk cruiser, disabling it's systems and drive engines, leaving it dead in space, crippled. Four shuttles filled up with stormtroopers left the bay of the destroyer and headed torwards the stricken bulk cruiser.

"Dread Lord, incoming hostile starfighters from target Delta." sang out the sensors officer.

"Launch our starfighter squadrons. Destroy the enemy ships." Necros calmly ordered.

Two squadrons of X-wing starfighters, painted a dull black with bright blood red stripes, dropped from the hangar bay of the destroyer and headed off to engage the incoming enemy starfighters, deployed from a Vinda Corporation customs ship. The enemy starfighters were swiftly and ruthlessley dealt with, as was the customs corvette it's self.

Then Necros felt it, a spike in the force, coming from one of the nearby asteriods. He scouted out the presence, and it came from the asteriod identified as number Two. The presence was female, barely detectable, but there. He applied a gental mind probe, scouting out her thoughts, and what he found was to his liking. This female was strictly peaceful, but that could be changed by his will, for she had talents that would be very useful to him in the apprenticeship role. Necros whirled around to face the capitan.

"Gilbrand, we have a new mission at hand. I am terminating assaults number two through ten. As soon as the current assault is finished, prepare the shock troops and the ship for immediate combat. I have detected a new presence through the force, one that is certain to be of a help to use. We are going to apprehend them." said Necros in a voice bordering on excitement.

"Yes, Dread Lord." responded the captian.

"I am also leaving you in charge of the ship in my absence. I will personally tend to this assault." said Necros, whirling about and leaving the bridge before the capitan could once again confirm his orders.

"Oh for the love of... these prices are ridiculous!" Irtar shouted as he looked over the list of prices. He could likely afford to fund his own mining operation with these costs. Unfortunately the operations at Gravlex Med hadn't picked up as fast as was estimated so here he was.

The old Twi'lek man that was manager of the operation smiled slightly. His gold tooth glittered slightly in the dim light of his office. He straigthen his blue business suit that matched his skin before resuming his sales pitch. This meeting had been going on for almost an hour and Irtar was getting exhausted. And this twi'lek was just warming up!

"Now Mister Mal'Gro, we've already gone over your situation. We are really the only option that you and the Coalition Loyal Raioballo have." The Twi'lek said as he turned the portfolio over to show him once more the current location of his operations compared to those of his competitors. "You can either take us, or leave us. I'm merely doing what any business man in my position would do."

"Well-" Irtar's statement was cut off by the sound of a siren ripping through the air and the dim light of the office being cut off for a moment. Irtar stiffened and his hand went instinctively to his lightsaber's hilt. It took a moment for the red emergency lights to flicker on and provide light.

"This is not a drill. All hands to their stations, and all civilians head towards the nearest protected areas as denoted by the red arrows. I repeat, this is not a drill." Came a voice over the comm.

The Twi'lek sighed and stood up gathering up the paperwork. He treated this entire situation like an everyday occassion. Well, considering how this installation was mainly freelance, there was a fair chance it probably was.

"We'll finish this in there, I'll lead you to the bunker Mister Mal'Gro." The Twi'lek said, motioning towards the door. Irtar nodded and began to follow him, not quite knowing what to do. When he walked down the streets he saw a number of people following a series of red arrows on the ground, carrying what was likely their most precious belongings.

They were about five minutes on their way when a detonation was heard behind them. Probably a boarding charge. But it was with that, Irtar turned around. There were still people heading to safety and he couldn't just leave them to whatever was attacking.

"What are you doing? We have business to finish up!" Demanded the Twi'lek.

"Head on, I need to help the guards and make that these people get to safety." Irtar said firmly, a memory of his mother's form pressed at his mind for a moment, but he chocked it back. It gave him resolve to make sure no more innocent by-standers were hurt, but he had to keep back the dark feelings that went with them.

The Twi'lek grumbled and groaned as he made his way down the path. Joining in with the rest of the civilian crowd. Irtar made his way towards the sounds of clashing and where he'd be of some help....

"I hate you."

Said with real passion, the statement was uttered quietly then followed by a depressed sigh. Chin cupped in one hand, Damalis leaned over the system board of her svelte-class shuttle and pushed a random button, her posture showing she'd been there for some time and was rather bored with her task. "Work." She commanded it dishearteningly, then her finger found another button. "Work."

Nothing happened.

Click. Another button. "Work."

Nothing.

Click. "Work."

Nadda.

With a last vicious stab, Damalis singled out one more switch. It looked very promising and she had plenty of hope for it, since it was nice and big with a red light in the center. It pushed in with a nice snap of a sound, but still nothing happened. "Oh, I give up!" Tossing her hands up, Damalis flopped back into the captain's chair and sent it swinging around with a frustrated sigh escaping her. Around her the cabin of her ship was dark except for some emergency lights along the floor. None of the panels or controls were lit as everything sat dormant, showing the reason for her aggravation. The cabin was dark and depressing in a 'this will cost a lot of money to fix' way.

The only bright spot was Damalis herself as, per usual, her outfit glowed in the dim light. A light peach, her tightly fitting over dress was split up each side with straps holding it tightly in place before flowing to her ankles. This would have been risque if Damalis hadn't gone for a more modest approach and worn it over top of a small white mini dress the covered all the necessary bits. Still, her long legs were left bare and the outfit just emphasized her figure instead of blatantly showing it off. With her long golden hair, expensive outfit, and tanned skin, she looked like the person least able to fix the problem afflicting the ship, which was true.

Pulling up one leg and resting with her foot in the seat of the chair, Damalis contemplated her situation. Really, it was a pretty bad time for her ship to start being a pain. They'd announced through the port that there was some sort of attack happening nearby, and sirens rang with instructions and in her best self preservation mode, Damalis would have preferred to just pick up and leave. This business trip wasn't that essential and could be postponed to some other time. But then her ship had sat silent and unresponsive when she tried to do just that. And now, she had the problem of figuring out why that was and since it was obvious she couldn't do it, where to find someone who did know what to do about it. Unfortunately, Damalis didn't quite grasp the seriousness of the situation or she would have abandoned her ship when it refused to work.

"I hope your happy now." She told the ship, the Golden Mouse, as she twisted around to look at the control panels again. Poking it with one toe, Damalis scowled at the unresponsive equipment. An action which brought her attention to her shoes, a strappy pair of peach high heels, and Damalis twisted nimbly into a cramped position as she brought her other leg up so she could rub a spot off the top of her shoe. Tall and thin, Damalis was very flexible and strong in a healthy way but she was just another girl who was maybe a bit too lean. Other than her beautiful face and figure, she wasn't a person to stand out in a crowd, at least not in most space ports where beauty was easy to find.

Owner of a stylish boutique back on the famed Astral Astoria, Damalis kept to her quiet life with a practiced ease. She ignored politics and paid as little attention as possible to the happens in the galaxy other than what was necessary for her to keep her business up and running. She was wealthy in a small way, owning patents to several synthetic fabrics that would, on their own, keep her comfortable for the rest of her life if she so chose, but Damalis decided to do something with it that kept her busy. After some searching which took her through a very brief apprenticeship to a Jedi and an aborted stint doing absolutely nothing helpful for the Rebellion, Damalis settled on working with clothing and fashion. It might not be earth shattering or help shape the galaxy, but Damalis was one girl happy with it.

Still, the sirens that blared brought her attention back to her ship. With things out of commission she couldn't see outside, so didn't know about the general flux of people following those red arrows. Her brain was focused on the misconception that if she could get her ship to fire up, she could just fly out of there and no one would notice or care. After all, her ship was small and who would care if she left? She was also relying heavily on a the fact that before any time she'd been trouble a sense of danger had told her when she needed to leave. That feeling hadn't cropped up, so she wasn't worried.

Yet.

The eight assault shuttles from the Darksaber landed in the main docking bay of the asteriod laser cannons blazing, cutting up armed merchant ships in port along with defensive turrets. The ramps to the shuttles lowered, and out came the dark black uniforms of former Imperial shock troops, now working for the dark lord Necros. A torrent of blaster fire cut down anything in the general area, flesh or droid, and pretty soon a fifty meter perimeter had been set up around the shuttles. Necros concentrated for a second before debarking from his own shuttle, trying to get a precise location on where this force user was located at. At first he thought he sensed the person somewhere deeper in the asteriod, but then suddenly he cleared his mind and found the force-user, a female, nearby in the docking bay. With this information in mind he debarked his personal shuttle and met with the shock troop commander.

"Move into the asteriod's interior. Kill all in your path." coldly stated Necros. He watched as seven of the squads moved on to carry out his orders. He could hear more screams as the innocents and brave but futile defenders died under the lethal blasterfire of his troops. He turned to the leader of the remaining squad under his personal command. "Come with me." said Necros.

The dark man in the cape and hood wearing the grim death mask moved away from the now idle shuttles and headed deeper into the docking bay. He rounded a corner and found a pair of men running in his direction, carrying blasters. If he had to guess, they were probably smugglers, come to find out what all of the commotion was about. Gathering the dark side of the force to him, partially feeding off of the ongoing terror in the asteriod's interior, he extended his right hand forward and pushed. The two smugglers went flying backwards just as their blasters were leaving their holsters, the two of them slamming into the side of a modified action transport. One of them was most certainly dead, his head and neck twisted in odd angles, the other one lying on the deck, moaning and writhing in pain. He thought at first about finishing him off, then decided to leave him there for his own amusement at the man's stupidity.

He felt a slight change in his target's thoughts and movements. Perhaps his sudden use of the dark side of the force in a brutish manner had alerted her. Either way, he picked up the pace. He gestured to his squad. They were almost there. He would let his men create a perimeter around the target. When she bumped into one of his men, he would appear, and confront her. And then it would be time for her to confront her destiny.

"Let's see... what else.." With careful consideration, Damalis inspected the bag she was packing before snapping it shut as she finally decided that enough was enough. A change of clothes, a change of shoes, since she couldn't wear heels constantly, a box of wipes to wash off with if needed, and enough energy bars to last a few days with extra left over. It was hard to tell how long she'd have to stay in one of the shelters with the locals and she wanted to be prepared. Hence all the extra snacks. Damalis would be mortified to eat in front of others without sharing.

"Such a bother." She muttered to herself, before grabbing the black bag, which was deceptively small in size, and tramping through her darkened star ship. It had taken Damalis a few minutes of soul searching to decide whether to stay hidden where she was or listen to the evacuation notice still blaring out of the loud speakers. The deciding factor was the dark cold interior of her vessel. Damalis couldn't stand the idea of being stuck there all alone.

So now, instead of hiding away where it was relatively safe, her ship wasn't likely to garner much attention because of it's size, Damalis was venturing forth to find the aforementioned red arrows to follow. She should have been more worried and certainly more cautious, but this was one woman who lived precariously on the edge of practicality and plain old silly. With absolutely no trepidation she climbed a ladder down to a manual escape hatch and began the task of turning the large metal wheel to open said door, not in the least bothered by the large squeaking sound that filled the air as she did.

Pausing for a moment, Damalis frowned and lifted her head, listening. She could have sworn there was something... but no matter, she didn't have time to wonder about it. With a final grunt, she finished opening the hatch and lugged it up with plenty of grunts and groans. She was lucky to get the hatch up at all and in the end had to resort to bracing herself against the wall and pushing with her legs. Slender and tall, six foot in her bare feet, Damalis was not a powerful person. She had stamina, dancing all night built that ability, but as for muscle power she had very little.

Dropping out of the hatch, Damalis let her legs swing about rather inelegantly while she tried to determine where the ground was. Relying on faith, she gave up questing for it and just let herself drop, a startled squeak echoing about her when her feet hit the ground with a jarring thud. She tottered a few seconds, really she needed to change to the flats before she did something stupid on those heels, then righted herself, a bright smile on her face at her accomplishment.

The smile froze in place however when Damalis found herself looking at a semi circle of men in black pointing the business end of their weapons at her, the group briefly stunned to find themselves looking at a golden vision emerging from the underbelly of a ship. It was brief seconds, but while she stared, Damalis had a few moments to register the distant sounds of screams and fighting that hadn't been evident while stuck inside her ship. Too late now, she would have liked such a warning before leaving safety, but the troops had orders. Shoot first, ask questions later.

Which they did in a hail of blaster shots that left the air hung with smoke and drowned out the sound of Damalis' high pitched scream. When the smoke cleared to stunned silence, miraculously Damalis was still standing, her bag clutched to her chest, eyes wide and panting, completely unharmed. One quick thinking trooper actually raised his blaster to make sure he had things set right.

"Are you INSANE?" Damalis squealed, panting as she stared wide eyed at the soldiers. "You almost hit me!"

It should be noted, that while Damalis was a somewhat vain, silly, fluff of a person who, only by the grace of her kind heart, was a loving and enjoyable companion who generally skimmed through life, she was also by far the single most lucky creature in the universe.

Irtar came upon the bloody scene of the masacre. The bodies of defender and innocent alike strewn along the street. The defenders were taking cover wherever they could in a vain attempt to try and hold back the invaders. STORMTROOPERS!?!

Why would the New Order be attacking here? And killing everyone and everything that moved? Why would they kill all these lives pointlessly and meaninglessly. There were even those whom were obviously fleeing, or huddling in fear that they gunned down. Those... heartless bastards. Irtar gripped his fist in anger and went to pull out his lightsaber, but he was brought back to reality by a blast shot whizing by his head. Irtar wasn't skilled enough to hold his own with this much fire being thrown back and forth. Irtar saw the entrance to a side tunnel and jumped into it for cover, coming face to face with one of the guards.

"Who the f- never mind. Are you going to fight or get in the way?" Asked a soldier that was huddled behind the cover the entrance to a tertiary tunnel provided. Judging by the extra colours and buttons on his uniform, Irtar had to guess this guy was one of the higher officers of the security force.

"I won't let these bastards kill innocent people and sit by." Irtar said, his voice taking a shade darker than he meant it to. Irtar cleared his throat and tried to clear his thoughts. He had seen what happened to people when they let anger dictate their actions. Charging blindly. He needed to be smart... calm...

The officer pointed down the main tunnel and waved his hand. "Go out and find yourself a blaster off one of them. Good luck!" The confidence Irtar felt was so shallow it would make a puddle look like a lake. This officer had obviously given up all hope and was just going to try and take a couple of the bastards with him.

Irtar however had different plans. Irtar made a quick gaze out from the side to see a place he can move forward and yet still have cover. Alright, there was a crude defensive barrier that had obviously been set up by the Defenders. When Irtar had an opening he dived out from his cover and scampered behind it. Alright, now how to defeat stormtroopers who were better shots than him and had armor?

Irtar looked out every now and then and a plan formed in his mind. Some of them had Grenades on their belts. Irtar took a deep breath, trying to force the screams of death and pain from his mind. Trying to focus and reach out. It took a minute, but soon Irtar felt it. The Force moving through him. His mind's eye moved upon the Imperial with the most grenades. He just had to push the button....

The Imperial's surprise when he heard his grenades jump to life was evident he quickly moved to try and unlatch it. But in panic, he wasn't quite able to get it off.

BOOM

Irtar's concentration was gone. He looked out from his cover and saw a good chunk of the assaulters down this hall were dead. As was a good chunk of the hall gone to. Those that had survived began to fall back to wherever they had come from. The assault wasn't down but he at least managed to cut off at least one of their routes deeper in.

The officer stepped out and looked about, a look of shock on his face. "What... the....Alright men, regroup!" The officer shouted. All that was left down this hall was a handful of security troops. "Alrighty, let's fall back to the core and see where we might be needed."

Something in Irtar twitched as he felt a dark pressence. Was it a Sith that was leading this attack?

"What's that way?" Irtar said as he pointed off in the direction he felt that cold.

"Hrm? The landing bays are on this level if that's what you mean. There's probably some sort of dock that way." The officer replied as he was working on gathering whatever weapons were still useful.

"How do I get there?"

"Well, the tunnel over here, though it's a bit confussing, can lead you down there."

And with that, Irtar was on his way. He would need to see if there really was some darker force that was driving this assault.

Necros looked about as his men opened fire on a target emerging from the docking collar of a ship sitting inside of the dockyard. He took one good look at the target and was awed by the beauty this target possessed. Such a fine and gifted body, from the reaction she displayed to the sudden attack it also appeared that she was a little thick, but by all means that was more than okay. She would make a fine gift to the men and their need to relieve themselves after such an intense raid as this...or perhaps she could be sold off to help raise funds for his army. He was sure that one of the more lonely hutts would pay at least a few million for such a fine specimen such as this, if she could be taught how to dance. However, at this point in time Necros's head caught up to his manhood. If what he was sensing was correct, then his target and the woman were the one and the same. He smiled beneath his mask. This was too perfect, what would turn out to be a easy subversion and a beatiful new assistant would be his.

He strode across the deck torwards her, and signaled his men to stand down. He reached out with the force in his right hand and gently manipulated the power he was feeding off from the fear of the dying innocents in the bay to first toss off the luggage she was carrying in her back, and then gently pressed her against the hull of her own ship, trapping and pinning her in place. He advanced as he did this, and he took note of her bewildered look as to what the heck was going on. He also took a delight as to how her face concorted when she finally saw him as he was. It was then, and only then, that he began to lay out his proposal for her to join him and his army in their endeavours.

"Damalis, I have travelled across great distances to finally meet with you. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Darth Necros. I am a dark lord of the Sith, and I have come to tell you that destiny has chosen a grand path for you to walk. You are to toss down whatever you are working on now, abandon anyone you know, come and join me, and together," Necros paused to let the words sink in, "We shall build an empire of the likes that has never been seen in the Galaxy." He took note of the effect his cold breath had on her skin. He sensed another presence in the force then, and drove a suggestion into the brain of the nearest trooper. He spoke into his comlink, and the other squads dropped what they were doing and proceeded to head torwards a point where they could intercept this new enemy before he reached Necros. The Sith Knight wanted no one to interfere in his subversion, otherwise there would be hell to pay.

Being face to face with a real Sith was not something Damalis had done before. Sure, she'd been around Jedi aplenty, but Sith? If she'd ever actually been this close to one, she never knew it. Fleetingly the thought crossed her mind that it was just more proof she wasn't suited to be a Jedi by the sheer fact that the man had to be right in her face before she knew he was around. If she'd been any good at being a Jedi, she should have at least sensed him or something.

A shiver passed over her skin at the Sith's close proximity. What had he said his name was? Darth something of course, but what... Ahh, Necros. Darth Necros. It was rather hard to concentrate on what he was saying when nasty feelings rolled off him in waves. It wasn't that Damalis was trying to be impudent by not paying attention, she knew she didn't have a chance in a fight and dealing with a Sith was entirely different than just mouthing off to some smart ass in a dance club, but honestly, when a big man dressed in black with a mask on tossed your luggage around and moved you with his mind, you really had a hard time listening to the introductions.

"L.. look," She began shakily, licking her dry lips nervously. There was no sense in trying bravado, Damalis didn't have any. So she smiled quite nicely and, without relaxing her tense pose, told him the truth. She knew she should be trying to remember some of the exercises Leia Organa had taught her but her brain was blank. Mind shields, or whatever, would have been real handy since she was pretty sure he could read her like an open book. She'd sucked at that lesson though, so she had no hope of that. "Look, honestly, I'm sorry but I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I'm force sensitive, but only a smidgen, you know?" Holding up two fingers, she measured a tiny bit, to show him how much of a smidgen and blithely ignored the fact that her hand shook while hoping he'd ignore it as well.

He watched her reaction to his statements and smiled to himself at her reactions. He had terrified her a great deal, as he had intended too. However, inspiring great fear in her alone would be enough, he realised after she tried feebly to convince him that she was not the one that she wanted. He narrowed his eyes at her, thought better of it then, and decided instead to do something that he would not normally do, and remove the mask from his face, exposing his cold brittle skin and dark red but still human eyes to her vision. He eased his force grip on her, ever so slightly, to where she could have some basic movement.

"I have sensed you, your presence, from afar. I know it is you by sight alone, and the fact that the mindlink I discovered in you then is the same that I feel in you now. Damalis, you are the one that I have chosen to join me in my endeavours. However, perhaps you do not fully realize the predicament that you are in at the moment. Allow me to show you." said Necros as he ever so slightly turned his head to the right, indicating for her to do the same. At the same time his left hand dipped into his cloak and tapped a comlink there twice.

Outside of the docking bay, though the magcon field, the Victory class destroyer stationed there opened up with it's starboard turbolaser batteries, annihilating a loaded passenger liner fleeing the assaulting Sith forces. Hundreds of innocents floating out of the wreckage, freezing to death instantly.

Necros took delight in the slaughter, feeding off of the terror and pain caused by his ship, before turning back to Damalis and taking even more delight in her current expression. He took a couple of steps torwards her and stopped.

"That slaughter out there is but a small token of what I can unleash upon this asteriod belt. Those that have died already out there are souls that rest on my shoulders alone. However, continue to resist me, and more people will die, and not only will you be responsible for their deaths, but you will feel them." said Necros, coldly and cruelly, smiling as he finished talking. Let's see how she responds now, he thought.

"I didn't push the button." Tears streaming down her face, Damalis was strangely quiet and appeared calmer. Now wasn't the time to break down and certainly not the time to get hysterical, no matter how much she wished to. She'd give into the genuine pain she felt for the people who were dying later. "I didn't give the order and I never would, so you can't lay the blame on me. Whether I join you or not, you'll still keep killing the people here because it's what you planned before you even knew who I was or where I was. Joining you wouldn't stop it. It would just mean I'd join in and that's something I won't do."