“One hour to destination” said the computer in a stylized prim, voice.

Sitting with his eyes half closed, in a half sleep/meditation state Tobal barely heard the mechanical voice. His mind was drifting back to his home, which he had last seen two years prior.

Green grass, deep, luscious woods and people … people who he knew, people whom he trusted … people who had tried to kill him.

His eyes opened at that thought, and he bit back a bit of homesickness. Why they had tried to kill him was apparent now, they had feared what he might become, ages upon ages of legends of the ancient Sith had ingrained fear onto their minds, fear of anything they did not understand.

Thus, they had feared him, and hunted him.

In an effort to stop the flood of memories, and bitter feelings, Tobal stood and flexed his neck. He glanced over to his traveling companion, who looked up momentarily before engrossing herself back into her datapad. The ice was as thick as ever, both seemingly unused to speaking.

Reading his datapad proved to be a strenuous, and exceedingly boring job. While familiar with the basic alphabet, it was still a foreign language.

“Misery,” said Tobal abruptly, on impulse. “How long have you been with the Order?”

There was a long pause, as if a sense of ignorance had come to pass. It was not to be though as Misery lifted her gaze from the datapad and onto Tobal, a look of uncertainty crossing her brown eyes.

Usually, along with uncertainty came the discomfort, but for some reason, she did not feel both. It was clear that the lack of say had become somewhat disconcerting to Tobal. Tobal's out of the blue question made Misery silently trigger a quiet question within her mind. Just how long had he pondered over what to say before actually coming up with the question?

It did not really matter to her, just made her curious. She had been pondering over things that she could have asked the other, but they all seemed to be too personal.

Tilting her head to the right a little, something the Shadow did when she pondered, she thought back to her arrival. She had not been there long. She tilted her head back upright once she had come up with her answer.

"Not long, really. I drifted for a little while..."

Her words drifted off, leaving her sentence unfinished. She had thought of telling him where she had been before now, but hesitation crept into her. She failed to explain to him that the order had not been her first, but he probably already knew that anyway.

"... And you?"

Well, she was at least trying to make conversation, but that didn't necessarily mean that she was good at striking one up.

"Four years, five in a few months." replied Tobal. "Five years..."

Curiosity crept up on the young man, and though he knew it rude to poke into other peoples affairs, he prodded anyhow.

"What did you do while you drifted? Did you visit the galaxy, see the sights everyone is always talking about?"

Even though he was a member of the Order, Tobal had never really been beyond his home planet, Clak'dor, or the Corruptor. Always confined in some way, he typically buried himself in the exercise chambers or the library, feeding both mind and body. Stories of the great Skywalker, who killed the Emperor and Vader permeated his head, and he longed to see the man. Other places, Yavin IV, Coruscaunt, Naboo, Dantooine, Tattooine, he itched to see, or to even hear of them.


(OOC: Ren, do you have more preliminary ground to cover before we arrive?)

(ooc: Not really, whatever needs covered, I'll do it in this post.)

The sky was breaking under the stress of the laser, and already, near the epicentre, the ground began to burn around the heavily shielded weapon. The tree's frazzled and the water boiled intensely in the downpouring of heat from the astral radiation.

Watching from some distance away, K'taruuk and his troops admired thier handywork, basking thier faces in the evervescant glow from the bush fire on the horzion.

And at the center of it all was the glowing turquoise beam of light that penetrated the sky and shot up into space.

K'taruuk raised his hand, and looked ahead, gazing in contentment. It seemed almost, to him, that the beam was eminating from his own fingers and searing into the heavens. A surge of godly pleasure pulsated through his viens and he couldn't help but openly cackle.

With thier gunships waiting to take them back to thier mothership, where they could view the chaos from above, the several dozen soldiers began to make thier way back, managing to tear away from the fantastical light show they so willingly enjoyed.

Misery's timid sense of behavior swept over the woman once again. She was not sure if the questions Tobal had settled into asking had triggered coy attitude or if it were the conversation itself. Either way, she didn't want to be rude; she felt obliged to answer him.

"I um.. You could say I did a lot of soul searching. I spent a lot of time venturing on other prospects of work, mostly. I did not get to see as many places within the galaxy as I had hoped. Anyway, I'm quite comfortable here with the Shadow Order, but that doesn't mean that I won't go about on another quest again some day. Traveling is a very big part of my life, always has been, always will be."

Dakkon chuckled slightly as Jade replied.

"Now now Jade, i thought i taught you better than that!"

His minds travelled back to the training they had done together throughout the years. She was now, more than ever, ready to face the challenges of this mission.

Later

The trip passed quickly, their talk of BDE and her husband intregiueing the Shadow. He would have to meet this one. He could not afford to have his apprentice to distracted. The last apprentice he had been with who was in a similar situation had turned Sith.

"Jade, are you ready? You must know all aspectsof the plan, otherwise if one part fails, we cannot recover."