Vance continued to stare out over the plain as Leiden neared him. The anger he felt was rolling off him in waves, filling the area with his presence; and it was to Leiden's wisdom that she simply came to his side, her eyes downcast and her manner silent.

Good. She knows her place. Vance thought to himself, not bothering to look in her direction, but instead watching as two speeders began growing near; and even before they had arrived, Vance knew it to be Orion and Valas.

Stepping forward, Vance's hands lowered as the Apprentices pulled up their vehicles, watching as they dismounted and walked toward him. They were still in the open field out the front of the Sith temple.

"Master Vance we have secured a shuttle for later operations and Kraken is currently there so, that an attack force can attack the frigate after the compound has been taken out. We`ll of course fake it as a prisoner transport or somesort trick if I may suggest?"

Vance reached out, grasping Orion by the throat with his hand. With venom in his voice, the Sith began speaking in a low hiss. "You may not suggest, Apprentice... know your place, know when to speak and know that you have come this close to losing your tongue." Pushing Orion back, Vance's hand returned within his cloak, his eyes glowing beneath his hood. "Remain silent, and wait until your brothers return..."

Turning back to the open field, Vance's hands clenched into fists. At the same time, his comm began to beep, before he activated it and Shiryou's voice filtered through:

<<"Shiryou reporting in. Squad of three scouts taken out. Enemy communication equipment procured for study and information gathering. Have returned to position and will remain. Your Orders Master Jas?">>

Vance growled in reply. "Do not move. We now have a limited amount of time before their commanders realize they will not be returning." Vance looked up, scanning the sky for the Sith ships, his anger at those flying through the air doubling. "If more scouts enter your area, they are not allowed to see their dead comrades... do you understand? Do not reply or utter a word until you have my permission. Master Jas out." And placing the comm back within his cloak, Vance continued to wait...

The longer they take to return, the more severe their punishment shall be.

If there was one thing one thought when one looked at Perrin, it was that the Sith knew how to dress. Immaculate in a grey-toned outfit of leather and cloth, stepped out into the sunlight squinting.


The sun of Xa Fel was particularly oppressive today.


But the thought was not carried out further as the sounds of harsh commands carried along the wind struck his ears.

Apparently, his fellow Sith Knight and orchestrator of the day's events did not think their mysterious enemy would be monitoring transmission devices. Either that or Jas was too angry, he really didn't give a damn anymore.

Actually, the fact that the Sith transmissions were not blocked tended to give Perrin the idea that the attackers were not Imperial.



No one liked to jam transmissions during an attack like Imperials.



The Sithlings were being recalled. All except the Sith who liked to refer to himself in the third person.


But the Sith did show promise in the department of capability.


Vance did not turn at his approach and Perrin did not expect him too.



He simply waited patiently and, surprisingly, quietly; his typical devil-may-care attitude and flippancy subdued.


He knew what needed to be done and for this operation, as well as any military operation, there could only be one Master over the Campaign.


The mistake of the Sithlings was evident. It was evident with each one upon entering the Temple Grounds. They all fancied themselves a snake's head.


Too many heads and nothing gets accomplished.



They should have organized and assigned a leadership role to someone. Organize their strength and cover their weaknesses.


Klain's ugly stepchild only knew what the enemy was making of their movements.

A sense of seething anger flowed through Dehoir as she stood near one of the last speeder bikes available. The feeling seemed to grow in intensity as she heard the message from her Master.

"This is Master Jas... you are all ordered to return to the temple, save those I have given permission to remain in position." Which was Shiryou. "Failure to heed this order will result in your death, this I promise you. Now return, fools. Every single Sith Apprentice involved in this mission shall stand before me and report personally..."

Her brow furrowed until her eyes were merely thin slits. Those fools. They've just about signed all of our death warrants. If only they weren't so headstrong. Growling lowly, Dehoir moved from the hanger out into the Temple hallways.

She advanced silently through the Temple to the area where Master Vance was waiting. Dehoir made no eye contact with anyone present; least of all her angered Master. Head lowered in reverence to the Sith Knight, Dehoir stepped nearer to him. She clutched her cloak closer to her body as she began to wait, nearly burning with anger, for the other Sith apprentices to arrive.

The comlink in the front of the ship beeped to life. Looking down to click it on Rowax almost lost controll of the ship. Kane was presumably still clearing the repulsorlifts, in the space of thirty minutes, they had been able to make it no further than 4 miles before the coils would die and he would have to restart the ship. If Kane was clearing the ship of those strange bird creatures then who was comming in.

"This is Master Jas... you are all ordered to return to the temple, save those I have given permission to remain in position." Which was Shiryou. "Failure to heed this order will result in your death, this I promise you. Now return, fools. Every single Sith Apprentice involved in this mission shall stand before me and report personally..."

Rowax sat through the transmission and allowed himself to feel no anger, this wasa an order and he would comply. He spoke only six words back into the comm.

"Thy will be done, my master"

With that he spun the ship around in a tight loop that forced the his head to be pushed into the side of his ship and lowered it to the ground. As he started to set off at a sprint for the temple, he shouted to a bemused Kan.

"We have to return to the temple- Master Jas's orders."

With that done he sprinted as fast as he could to return to the temple.

5 minutes later he was back there and stood amongst a group of angered and annoyed apprentices- many of them feared their punishment.

"I will take whatever punishment I am given for my mistake." He said, more to himself than anyone else as he doubted they were even listening, everyones eyes were on Master Jas at the front of the group. Moving forwards he bent his head in the appropriate way of an apprentice to a master, and waited at the front of the crowd.

Judicious heard the transmission over his comlink, and knew he was in trouble. His perile was perhaps greatest of all the other Sith. He hissed to himself. Fools, most of them, rushing recklessley into danger. Of course, I was the most foolish of them all, rushing blindly right behind them, determined to not let a single one of them die by themselves. No need to berate myself, master will do that for me. I will let his punishment of me spark the anger and hate that I will need to reinforce my energy when we handle this situation once and for all Judicious thought to himself as he turned the shuttle around and headed back torwards the landing site. He knew that the enemy would know that something would have gone wrong, but master's order was not to be disobeyed in the least. He lowered the shuttle to tree top level in order to mask it from the frigate's sensors, and fired a shot from the laser cannons, which ignited part of the forest and gave the false deception that the shuttle had crashed. He followed the course of a small creek the rest of the way to the temple, when he set down the shuttle, got out of it, and proceeded to the area where the other Sith were gathering at. He had no interest in words, preferring instead to kneel at his master's feet and bow, his eyes downcast, awaiting his punishment.

Valas watched in horror as Master Vance picked up Orion by the throat with a single hand. Orion was much larger than Vance, which brought to mind what Vance could do to Valas...

He shook the thoughts from his head. He had done what he believed was right, and he had not seen any of the other Sith taking action, giving plans, or even doing anything. Valas new his punishment would be fierce. But he would accept it with the fealty of a servant.

"We have to return to the temple- Master Jas's orders." Darth Rowax called to Kane as Darth Kane finished the last of the annoying birds.

"Dammit..." He said to himself as he figured they may be in trouble.

He slipped back into the ship, and walked over to Rowax.


"What did he say?" He asked. He had a strange suspicion that they were in going to be punished. "Are we going to receive a spanking?" He laughed.

He saw a look of worry in Darth Rowax's eyes.

"We are in trouble, aren't we...?"

Valas paced back in forth in the Audience room, watching as more apprentices sped back to the temple, apologizing to Master Vance and yielding similar results as to Orion. He looked over at at the other apprentices, some were pacing nervously as him, those were probably the other's who had hurredly gone to battle. He saw others sitting in a bored manner, probably the ones who never even left yet. Valas started to get nervous, very nervous. He wondered what would become of him. He was the one who had killed the guards and suggested stealing the shuttle. What is Vance pinned everything on him. He knew the Sith were evil, but would they kill him. He took a seat. He was almost sweating, he didn't know what to do. Thoughts began to run through his head, thoughts of punishment and torture. Something felt wrong, terribly wrong. He had a sudden panic and felt as if he should not be here at all. Valas jumped up and pushed through other apprentices, leaving the room and heading back to his own chambers.

Rowax felt the presence of a sith leaving the crowd around Master Jas. Who would dare to walk away from a master who was already in a rage.

He reached out with his senses to get a better feel for the apprentice who was defying orders. What he felt made him recoil in shock. It was the feeling of fear that Rowax had been feeling since returning to the temple on orders, yet it was being echoed by someone else.

He looked towards the back of the gathered group to see Valas Quinn moving off towards the chambers. Being careful not to be seen, Rowax followed suit.

Darth Kane watched Rowax run off into the chambers- following someone. Well, that's what Kane had sensed. He sat down amongst the other Sith, wondering what his fate would turn out to be. He was not afraid, though. He felt excited. He liked pain. He was born into pain. Pain was his friend. However Master Jas might not take this feature of Darth Kane's into liking, and that's what made him nervous. He stood up, and looked for Master Jas. He wished to speak with him. He was angry.