Tale of Vanguard

by Skystrike


The Paradigm

Rain pours down from the sky, lightning cracks across the heavens, and thunder shakes the very ground. This is life on Dromund kaas, the home planet of the Sith Empire, and seat of the Dark Council, where the darkness resides. From inside the giant window, a figure stands. One can’t tell who or what is standing there looking out the window, but it is tall, broad shouldered and it has a very dark looming presence. The room is almost completely dark; the only light for the entire room comes from the outside. The room has little furniture, what stands out is a large desk positioned behind the figure.

The door on the opposite of the room slides open and letting light in, in walks another figure, one can tell it is female by the way it walks. She looks about 5 feet tall and well-built. Her heels click and clack metal floor as she makes her way over to the figure. The light from the window exposes her face. Her face colored light peach and her hair was pink and draped down one side of her face, her one exposed eye was an aquamarine color and it reflected the flashes of lightning outside. She clears her throat and hesitantly speaks “U-Um…my lord?”

The figure slightly inclines his head to her letting her know that he was listening.

“Lord Santus has returned…but she lost the Jedi.” She says and looks down at the ground.

The figure gives a sighing growl of disapproval. “Raise your head, Lord Evermore, it was her failure not yours.”

Evermore raises her head still looking away from him slightly. “Yes, Lord Sombra…”

The figure turns his head to her revealing a fair skinned man with glowing green and red eyes that seemed to smoke purple. A lighting strike brightens up the side of his face; a smile creeps from cheek to cheek.

Evermore finally looks up at him in the eye and smiles.

Sombra walks closer and wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her on the lips.

Evermore closes her eyes and wraps her arms around his shoulders as they kissed.

Finally they pulled back and they both grinned at each other. Evermore’s face turns red and she turned her head away. “My lord…” she says and giggles.

Sombra released her and walks around her, leaving the room, Evermore quickly following after him.

As they walk the halls of the Citadel, Evermore’s face turns cold and hard as she walked behind her lover. The various people they passed by, officers, guards, and troopers all refuse to make eye contact with them. Sombra fed on fear, he never showed it but inside, he was smirking.

As they walk down the halls they pass the training room. This was no ordinary training room; this was made specifically for Sombra’s apprentice. A deadly sith he trained since she was a Child. Darth Arcana. She rarely used training dummies. Her training was special. Criminals, mercenaries, and slaves, and even fail acolytes were brought to the Citadel for the very purpose of being fodder for her. Over the years she studied and became a master of Sith magic. She proclaimed herself a Sith Sorceress. She twisted the dark side in a way that not most had ever seen.

Sombra and Evermore watch as the cages open and 4 slaves run out and charge her wielding vibroblades.

Arcana’s left hand glows a deep black and purple as it swells with darkside energy. She raises her hand and streams of purple light rush from her hand and into the minds of her attackers. They drop their blades and begin to scream a blood curdling scream of fear and pure anguish. Their hands rush to the sides of their heads and fall to the ground on their knees. Arcana extends both her hands outwards on her left and right side as she begins to levitate, her hands pulsing with lighting. Soon the ground underneath her attackers pulsates with electricity then they are bathed in a glowing shower of lighting as it courses through their body, electrocuting them to a crisp. After a few moments of the light show, its stops and Arcana lands on the ground as the slaves simply fall face forward on the ground, their clothes still smoking from the lightning, the rancid odor of cooked flesh filling the room.

Sombra gives a satisfied huff and walks off, not giving her a second glance. “I assume you plan to make her a Lord, Lord Sombra? She certainly has the potential and she has proven herself countless times.” Evermore states.

“I do, but she is going to be my personal errand girl and if Santus does not clean up her act… Arcana’s first errand will be her head on a platter, or heart... I haven’t decided yet.”

“Do you really think that Arcana can even defeat her? I’ve seen Santus in action against more powerful sith. She isn’t a force to be trifled with.”

Sombra stops and looks back at Arcana and gives a smirk, “You mustn’t forget who trained her.” He states before continuing on.

Evermore’s face turns a slight red, “Oh right Sorry you’re right.”

Sombra turns back around to face her and shows her the slightest bit of emotion to comfort her before he turns his head to look at Arcana.

“How long have you had her in training like this?” asked Evermore as the cages opened again sending in more slaves.

Arcana drew her saber and charged at the group and began to dispatch them with ease.

Sombra chuckles as he watched his apprentice. “Since she was 3. I rescued her from Malastare fifteen years ago.”

Evermore stepped into the training room and watched from the edge of the small arena like area. Sombra followed close after her and stood right behind her. “This is the first time I have seen her in action.” Arcana was brutal, every move was fluid and deadly.

Arcana blocked a slaves swing in front of her only to side step allowing the slave behind her black to catch on her sabers as well. In one fluid motion she pushed both of the blades and her opponents away, she then dashes at them and in one slash bisecting both of them. She stood poised for any other attackers for a moment then she stood tall and disengaged her saber and put it on her belt.

“She is skilled, but are you sure she is ready for the masters of the Vanguard?”

“Not yet, she isn’t ready. But she has proven herself ready to join the Paradigm. For now that is enough.” Sombra pauses and turns to Arcana. “Arcana, come…” then he keeps walking.

Arcana exits the room and walks behind evermore and Sombra. “What is thy bidding, my master?” she asked her voice filtered through her vocalizer.

“This is Lord Evermore.” Arcana tilts her head to look at Evermore. Evermore straitens up and looks her in the area where she assumed her eyes were and gave a slight bow. Arcana replied with a quiet and respectful “My lord.”

Outside, on the Landing Pad, there is a small Imperial dropship lands in front of a large procession of troops, guards and officers. The dropship doors open and out steps Lord Santus.

She has a large black cloak over her shoulders and a hood to guard her head from the rain. She begins to walk towards the door where you can see Sombra, Evermore and Arcana standing waiting for her. The troops all stand at attention, all of them standing like statues.

Lord Santus has a slight skip in her step as she walks to the entrance. When she reaches Sombra, she kneels before him. Sombra looks down at her with a slight glare. “You let your Jedi Prisoners get away. You failed in your task lord Santus.”

Santus remains kneeling before him and she gives a slight sigh “It was not my fault Lord Sombra, the Bounty Hunter was an ally of theirs, she crippled my fleet and they escaped.”

“The fact that you allowed yourself to be deceived by a mere bounty hunter is disgraceful in itself.” replied Evermore “If it were up to me I would end you right now.”

Santus looks up with a smile on her face “Awww~! You are so cute when you are being threatening~” Her tongue peeks out from the side of her face and gives a short giggle.

“You have failed Lord Santus, the Paradigm doesn’t take fondly to failure.” Sombra raises his hand at a slight angle pointing his hand at her with as if he is gripping something. Santus is lifted into the air; she struggles and grunts trying to escape his invisible grasp. It’s as if she couldn’t breathe, she can feel her bones, her insides, everything is being crushed. She starts to pant and groan from the increasing pain.

Arcana, Evermore, and the rest of the troops stand there as if nothing is happening watching Santus be crushed to death. Eventually Santus begins to scream out in pain and Sombra just smirks.

After a few moments when Santus’ body begins to weaken Sombra lowers his hand releasing the force grip he had over her. She falls to the ground unconscious, a small trickle of blood falling from her mouth.
“Get her to a kolto tank.” He ordered and turned to walk away. Two of her troops picked her up off the ground and put each of her arms over their shoulders and carried her away. Evermore and Arcana followed behind Sombra. “Are you sure you didn’t kill her?” asked Arcana through her mask.

“As hard as it is to admit, Santus is harder to kill then most.” replied Sombra.




The Group continues down the halls until they reach Sombras chambers. Sombra, Evermore, and Arcana walk through the doors to Sombras chambers. “Darth Arcana, before you are made a Lord you must complete the tasks I set out for you."

Arcana bows and says "Yes, my Lord."

Sombra walks behind his desk and sits down in the chair.

Evermore walks to his side and stands next to him, looking at Arcana with her piercing eyes. "These tasks will not be easy, and failure will mean your death. Am I understood, Darth Arcana?"

"I live to serve, my lord." Sombra smirks at Arcana. "Go to your quarters, i will send the details to your datapad." Arcana bows and walks out of the chamber and the door slides shut behind her.

Evermore puts her hands in front over her and she grips them. She stands there, her shyness peeking through now that they were alone. "Gosh, I hope Arcana can handle the tasks you gave her. I would hate for something to happen to her." She says.

Sombra wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her close. Evermore gives a slight 'Yip' and blushes. "She will do fine I’m sure she will." He says and smiles up at her.
"No one joins the Paradigm without a trial of fire. Yours was no more perilous than hers is."

Evermore gives a satisfied nod "What about Lord Santus? Are you going to tell her?"

Sombra shakes his head. "She doesn’t need to know."

"Oh, I see, yes dear. Now I better hurry and feed Angel before she gets cranky."

Evermore saunters out the door and before it opened she looked over her shoulder and winks suggestively at Sombra.

Sombra just grins as she opens the door and leaves. When she leaves Sombra just gives a growling sigh.

------------

Arcana quickly struts down the halls of the Citadel. She arrives at a set of large doors. She takes her hand and types on the keypad next to the door and the slide apart, revealing the dormitory area. This is where other sith members of the paradigm resided. There weren’t many, only about ten rooms including Arcana. She walked in and the door quickly slid shut. As she walked on her way to her Quarters a few of the other sith began to look at her incredulously. Their eyes were like daggers. Arcana suddenly loomed over in their general direction and they looked away quickly. They know that she is Sombra's protégé, they dare not cross her. They knew she wouldn’t wait for her master to get involved. She would end them herself.

She had done twice already. As Arcana reached the door to her quarters, she felt a presence behind her. She froze and stood strait up. "Leave now..." she says. “I hear you are the Masters apprentice. You don’t look so tough." The voice said.

"3..." she replies
"In fact doesn’t look like you could hurt a Mynock."
"2..."
The other sith have stepped quite a distance away from the two.
"Maybe I should teach you a lesson or two..."
He says as he drags his hand slowly up her thigh to her rear, holding it there for a moment.
“1…”

Arcana brings her elbow up into his face striking him across the nose, and calls her saber to her hand and turns around diagonally slashes him across the chest. He falls to the ground, dead. Arcana just turns, unlocks the door to her chamber and walks inside. The door closes and the other sith go about their business as the smoking corpse lies on the floor, sighing to himself.


The inside of her room isn’t very large, but it is big enough for 2 people. A queen sized bed, and the room it was covered in book and datacrons. Shelves stretched out all over the room. On her one desk were tall stacks of books and papers spread out all over the place. On the other side of the room there was a door that leads to what was basically a bathroom. Arcana took her lightsaber from her belt and placed on the light stand next to her bed. Next was her mask, she took her hands and unlatched it from the neck piece that connected it to her robes. She pulled it off and sat it on the desk.

The face of a young woman presented itself from behind the mask, her eyes were a dark violet, her complexion was clear, and her skin was fair and a light peach color, one side did seem darker than the other, and her hair was Dark Purple with one streak of a lighter violet and a streak of pink right down the middle. Her outer cloak was next, the dark purple and silver cloak she took off and hung over the chair. Under that there was a set of Light Robes and standard leg gear, spread over it was different shades of Purple along with silver and black. She removed her robes and leg gear and boots. She took a seat on the edge of the bed and fell back looking up at the sealing through the skylight the peered into the storm covered sky of Dromund Kaas.

This was it for her, her trials to become a Sith were about to begin. She would be a fully fledged member of the Paradigm. This is what Lord Sombra was training her for her entire life, and when she was a full member. She would have the power and the means to track down and kill the leaders of Vanguard, the rouge Jedi group that killed her parents. Her hand clinches with rage and the rush from the thought of revenge. As her mind drifted in the sheer joy of revenge, her datapad beepes on the other end of the room. She turned her head to see it and she called it to her hand with the force and looked at the message.

SECURE ENCRYPTION:ACTIVATED//ENCRYPTION SUCCESSFUL//DISPLAYING MESSAGE//…

Your first assignment Darth Arcana,

Location: Utapau
Briefing:
Intelligence has suspected that Vanguard has been using a company to mask and fund their operations. They have found a probable link and are closing in on the Location of its leaders. Our first lead is this shipping company. It is believed that this company is supplying Vanguard with materials for their business. You must see if this lead is correct. Tactical information, high density scans of the facility, Ordinance and location for Infil and Exfil are attached to this message.

Objective: Search for the Owner of the company and interrogate for information
Directives: No witnesses, upon completion destroy the facility.

Good Luck and may the force grant you strength Darth Arcana

END MESSAGE//…

Arcana sat up strait in her bed and grinned down at her datapad. “Finally…” she says before she gives and evil chuckle, her cackle grew to a loud laugh that seemed to carry throughout the Citadel.