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***HR. Edge of the Sol System***

It had been approximately one week since Wraith stepped into the Red Rift. Almost exactly on time a military armada of Thanagarian ships arrived. They dropped out of FTL just on the gravitational edge of the solar system as means to evaluated the area of operation. Even after a week conflict was still a constant across the system. As pockets of Brainiac cyber-slaves, cyber-skull star fighters, and cyber-shards were discovered. As promised by the universe as a whole hundreds of civilizations showed up in the general area of the Sol System to provide aid against Brainiac.

Due to the virus that was provided by the Justice Legion the hive-mind of Brainiac was broken. cyber-shards that traveled to the neighboring star systems had been dealt with quickly. While Brainiac Prime's ship was last seen heading towards the galactic center. But with conflict comes the chance for easy coin. Pirates across the galactic systems had shown up. Security was on an all time low. The Thanagarian armada had destroyed over fifty pirate ships alone in their travels.

The lead command vessel of the fleet was dead center of their formation and gave the order for the fleet to slowly move in. Shields, and weapons primed as they didn't know what to expect. They had claimed to be coming with altruistic ends. But unfortunately Thanagarian hospitality was little more than myth to most. No, they had come here with an objective. That objective would have to wait. As the moment they passed the subjective border of the system they were pinged by the Watchtower Star Base communication network.

“Thanagarian ships, this is Vigil of Watchtower command. Please state your business in the Sol System?” A strong feminine voice called across the communication line.

“Hello Vigil, this is Ramiel. I was with the delegation when last we visited the Watchtower. I've brought reinforcements to fight Brainiac with.” An easy going voice responded. (Ch. 120)

“You have brought a military armada to fight a machine intelligence who is known for taking over machines?” Vigil's asked across the communication line.

“Well as your allies we hoped you would share the computer virus the Justice Legion created?” Ramiel's smooth voice requested across the line. Within a few minutes a data packet was sent and it was disseminated across the fleet.

“Wonderful, thank you! So may we enter the system and aid in the removal of Brainiac?” Ramiel asked.

“Request denied.” Vigil replied.

“I beg your pardon, Vigil. But we've come a long way to bring aid to the people of the Sol System. Why are you denying us access?” Ramiel asked.

“We can discuss the specifics aboard the Star Base. You may bring a delegation, and escort onboard. Leave the fleet at the solar edge.” Vigil replied.

“Very well!” Ramiel said, and closed the line.

A battle cruiser, five destroyers, and ten corvettes were selected for the delegation. Ramiel of course was part of the delegation as they flew into the system. Leaving behind their armada. Within minutes of leaving their fleet a squadron of cyber-skulls appeared on their long range scanners and they attempted to sweep past the delegation line. But before they came into weapons range. Three blue wisps of light revealed themselves behind them. The cyber-skulls were running, not attacking.

In a mad dash to safety the skulls changed course and headed straight towards the delegation escort. The Thanagarians unloaded into the squadron but a single skull made it past the firing line. As if their shields were not even there the skull moved pas them and latched onto a destroyers hull. Mechanical tentacles inserted into the destroyer and attempted to take the ship over. Only for the virus protection to activate. So the skull inserted over a dozen cyber-slaves into the ship.

What awaited them was Thanagarian warriors with Nth metal armor, and weapons. They pushed into the cyber-slaves with great skill fitting of their warrior lineage. The rest of the delegation fleet moved into a protective pattern around the compromised destroyer. They even aimed their cannons as the Blue Lanterns who flew in to assist. Brainiac was well known for having some of the most advanced technology. Being able to bypass a destroyer shield like it was paper would be beneficial to the Thanagarian Empire.

“Delegation fleet disengage your weapons lock on the Blue Lanterns, now!” Vigil's voice came over the line.

“Of course, Vigil! Of course. But please inform them that we have the incident well in hand. We won't be needing their assistance at this time.” Ramiel replied.

The delegation fleet disengaged the weapons lock on the Blue Lanterns but maintained their holding pattern around the cyber-skull. The Blue Lanterns didn't have time to waste and returned to their patrol. While the delegation made haste towards the station. Along the way they were 'attacked' by six squadrons of cyber-skulls. Wistfully they were destroyed before they could be gathered by the delegation. Then they saw what looked like a graveyard of technology.

Mechanical tentacles miles long drifted through space. With portions of a large ship looked like they were slowly being devoured by some kind of metal eating bacteria. This must have been the battle field where Brainiac Prime's ship was intercepted and defeated. Hundreds of metal shards floated in decimated ruins in space. Among them were two Justice Legion corvettes, Blue, and Green Lanterns, along with a few Yellow Lanterns. They appeared to be processing the metal. Cutting it into pieces and feeding it into the Star Base that the delegation could now see.

The delegation fleet's onboard computers announced that they had over one hundred weapon locks from the Star Base. One by one each ship was scanned, and a tug-boat drone came out and pulled them into the docking ring. With the docking ring around the entire station. Each ship could at the very least link directly to the Watchtower. While any ship small enough to land directly in the Star Base.

Ramiel and his delegation stepped off from a designated shuttle to find Hawkman, and Hawkwoman waiting for them. Ramiel as always had a genuine, warm smile on his face as he held open his arms for his old friends. They did not return the gesture as both Karter, and Shayera looked ruined. Covered in blood, mud, and their armor had sustained damage. Under different circumstances this would have been insulting to the delegation. But the Thanagarian's were use to war, and understood the situation.

“My friends! It is good to see you. Thanagar has come to help.” Ramiel said to them.

“You can help by leaving, Ramiel. We have the situation well in hand and we don't need the politics of Thanagar getting in the way of the mission.” Karter replied to him.

“Our mission is your mission.” Ramiel said to him as his smiled wilted just a bit.

“Our mission is to ensure peaceful relations between the Sol System, and Thanagar. We are doing that. When the Empire sends a military fleet to impose it's laws on the Sol System-” Shayera began to say.

“We are doing no such thing!” Ramiel sounded outraged, though his face didn't show it.

“Perhaps we can move this discussion to the emissary quarters?” One of the Thanagarian diplomats suggested.

Before Ramiel could say another word over a dozen security droids materialized out of thin air armed to the teeth. The Thanagarian delegation tensed, but a security officer proceeded to escort them to the emissary quarters in the trading section. The trading section of the Watchtower was busier than ever. Martian star fighters were docked and receiving repair. Along with merchant vessels, galactic sheriff fighters, and private war vessels. All under the banner of truce. Brainiac was considered a galactic threat, and anyone willing to help would obey the truce.

The Thanagarian delegation was shown to some of the best rooms. Right next to the Tamaranean chambers. Ramiel noticed the orange skinned warriors standing outside of their chambers in confusion. Why was their a delegation from Tamara on the station? Almost as if the universe saught to answer him. The doors opened up and a Tamaranean female wearing Justice League uniform flew out with a look of fury on her face. She had fiery red hair, and green energy danced across her armor. While soon after came another Tamaranean female who had black hair who attempted to chase the other one down.

“The royal family...” Ramiel said more to himself then any other. He filed that away, something to figure out later.

With the Thanagarian delegation safely tucked away. The Hawks went off to do other things. The delegation was politely told they would have to wait to be seen by anyone. Ramiel was more than happy to wait. As he informed his people to go about the trading section and look around but obey the rules. While he jumped on the communication line to speak to his superiors through a secure network. The acquisition of the cyber-skull fighter was a wonderful addition to their efforts. But the overall dismissal of their 'aid' did not go over well.

Though they had originally made the deal with Wraith. Vigil, along with several others aboard the station were within their rights to tell them no, to head home. Yes, they would jump around and drag it out as long as they could. Proving to be more of a nuisance than actual aid. But obtaining the anti-virus, and the cyber-skull star fighter already proved this trip to be worth it. Now, Ramiel had another bargaining chip. Turned out the former princess Koriand'r had sought sanctuary on Gaia. There was still an open bounty for her by The Citadel. This wasn't necessarily news.

What was news, was the fact that the royal family of Tamara was now aware of her location. They were obligated to inform The Citadel of Princess Koriand'r's location. In order to maintain the peace agreement between their two nations. Otherwise, The Citadel would once again continue the destruction and enslavement of the Tamara people. From the reports Ramiel had access to. Princess Koriand'r was important to Wraith.

“Now, how to use this information for the good of the Empire.” Ramiel said once more to himself more than anyone else...

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***Rift. Ryloth.***

The Kom'rk star fighter/transport flew as silent as the night towards the capital of Lessu. Lash was sitting in the main troop area. While a small team of clone commandos went over a the mission brief by his side. Mil'Gix, and her brother Vi'Lon were piloting the fighter. The color in the troop transport area went from standard lighting to a violet color. Battle mode lighting. After a few minutes it switched back to normal. More than likely they had been scanned by a SAM or a turbo laser. But the armor plating on the transport let them slip by.

Out of curiosity Lash pulled up his Dream Engine ability list. Thanks to his tear drop power stone he should be accumulating experience passively. But when he reached his list he found a (???) tied to every name. So the developers were still experimenting with experience gain, and ability evolution. Odd though that he still gained experience. There just wasn't a level cap anymore. Maybe when the configuration was complete he'd suddenly obtain several levels, and evolution in abilities.

“Drop point one on approach.” Vi'Lon's voice came over the communication line.

“Copy.” Lash said, as he stood up and walked over emergency hatch. The entire ship tilted to one side then eventually leveled off. The hatch opened up...

“Good luck!” Vi'Lon's voice carried over as Lash jumped out of the hatch and dropped several hundred feet.

With the use of Earth Swim he slipped into the ground like it was water. The kom'rk ship flew away with great haste. Within a minute a two vulture droids flew past the point, along with several STAPs. The vulture droids chased after the ship. While the STAPs scanned the drop zone. Finding nothing the moved on. Like a crocodile coming up from the waters depths. Lash appeared out of the ground and pulled himself out.

He cast Nature's Passage, Chameleon, and then activated Superhuman Speed. He took off like a race car across the uneven terrain and sprinted towards his destination. He received a confirmation from the ship that they got away, and that the clones reached drop point two. They were going to work as a spotter unit for the land attack once Lash, and Luminara had obtained Tambor. Hopefully, everything would go according to plan. Though he felt like a red flag was raised for even thinking it.

An hour later and a lot of miles covered he arrived at the camping ground turned into an outpost. Lash found a decent detachment for the post on standby. Ground forces, and air forces, along with aerial cannons to fend off ships in sub-orbit. One of many scattered throughout the area. On patrol were B1 battle droids, accompanied by B2. The problem was these droids were updated.

One of the B2 would carry a communication relay pack. This would increase the efficiency of all the droids in its area of operation. The droids would follow a set of algorithms. If this happened, do this. If this didn't happen, do this. The relay packs would boost the productivity. So better response times. It also meant they didn't have to use auditory communication to communicate. It also meant that if a single droid went down on the relay then the central processing core would notify the whole area. Just like on Christophis when they 'fought' General Ripper.

Which meant that if Lash didn't want Lessu to know he was here. He couldn't kill any of the droids. If his tech-spirits weren't busy providing information on the battle network he could hack into them. That was something he should really evolve in the future. He made a mental note on his store page for Virtual Intelligence. He wanted to buy them now, but oddly the system decided he was in combat and wouldn't allow the purchase to go through.

“Maybe I can find a cardboard box and sneak in?” Lash said with a snicker.

Despite the upgrades they still didn't react to him when he re applied his nature spells and simply walked past them. Though he did come across several hidden pressure plates. They weren't bombs, they simply reacted to anything moving on them. A silent alarm for anyone invisible. He vaguely remembered Lord Enfarious making that a standard on CIS bases. Damn the fool for being so smart! Thanks to Technomancy, and the Nature Domain they were easily discovered. Lord Enfarious will have to rethink that strategy. Maybe natural materials?

Lash reached the highest point in the campground / outpost. There waiting at the top of a cliff edge was the silent shadow of Luminara Unduli. Even with the increased security she had gotten through without the droids noticing her. Master Unduli stood at approximately 5'5” with a strong athletic hourglass figure. She wore a black body glove outfit with a utility belt, and modular components. Specifically spots to hook the wing suit to. The suit that was next to her.

“Been waiting long?” Lash soft whisper came from the wind. Master Unduli's tranquil expression left her face, and a smile tugged on her lips.

“Only a few minutes. You have better manners than most men I know.” Master Unduli said with a bit of a teasing tone. Lash paused mid stride towards her.

“Well if I'm being honest. I am a bit nervous.” Lash said as he came to her side. Her dark blue eyes turned towards him in slight surprise.

“For something like this? I thought it would be just another day to you?” Master Unduli said.

“What? Oh no, this is easy. Spending time with a beautiful woman of your caliber is always a challenge for the ages.” Lash said with a similar teasing tone she gave him. Despite the dark night Lash could see just a bit of a blush crawl up her face.

“Well then I'll excuse your tardiness.” Unduli said as she turned away and rubbed her cheeks a little. She bent down to retrieve her wing suit and started to put it on.

Lash watched Unduli put the suit on and offered to help. But she politely declined. He did notice she seem to exaggerate the movements just a little. He had to admit he was a little surprised. But from his own Deductive Reasoning he knew Unduli was just teasing him. There was no real under current of feelings. So Lash decided two could play the same game. He started to do some stretching, to show of his flexibility for her.

“Master Lash I noticed you don't have a suit ready?” Unduli asked, after she stopped to watch him bend himself into a pretzel of some kind.

“Ah, right you are.” Lash replied, then stood up and made it look like he pressed a sequence key on his gauntlet.

Several armor plates on his back shifted up, and to the side. Two additional limbs came out of his back and slowly grew up and out. Bone gave way to sinew, flesh, and scales. Then skin webbing between the elongated fingers grew. Soon even that was covered in a partial form of scale. Until he had an impressive wing span for his size. He turned to look at Unduli who had her eyes wide.

“Despite there size they are not large enough for complete flight. Normally this is modified by my suit. But with the sensor net up I won't be able to use it. So gliding in. Due to the design of your own wing suit you'll be faster then myself. So please take these before we jump.” Lash said as he folded his wings back and handed a pair of gloves to Unduli.

“And these do what?” Unduli asked, as she slipped them on.

“It has a long complicated list of abilities. But it simply allows you to attach yourself to near frictionless surfaces. Like the primary support pillar of Lessu.” Lash said as he started to 'power down' his suit.

Once the gloves were on they adhered to her body glove, looping and belting on so he could literally hang with them on. Lash went through a finger to palm motion on how to activate, and deactivate the item in question. The item in question had been enchanted with Invoke Animal Spirit – Spider. So it had a natural intuitive reaction. Lash didn't have the material to make boots. The midi-chlorians kept eating his magical metals as they were enchanted.

“You set?” Lash asked Unduli who smiled at him and simply jumped off the cliff edge. Her wing suit deployed and a artificially wing span much akin to a bat or maybe a bird flowed out of her suit, niffty.

Lash jumped off the ledge himself and unfurled his wings. He used Telekinesis to help propel his body forward, and used his wings as a form of directional control. So he at least looked like he was using them. In all honesty he could have just flown in. But he was trying to keep the full scope of his powers hidden. Though the Manifestation army he created during the Lylek hive probably didn't help. Or his horde mode. But he still had plenty in his deck to use. He hadn't even pulled Saurian out yet.

Erik the gamer had never gone skydiving, base jumping, or wing-suiting in his life. Like most super geeks the ability to fly was on his wish list. But oddly when given the chance he preferred to be on the ground and save flying for emergencies while in the Dream Engine. Despite all that, he thoroughly enjoyed sailing through the air. Chasing after the tail of one Luminara Unduli. Her wing-suit clearly designed after an animal with a rigid skeleton structure allowed her far more control then a mundane Earth suit. Which made sense, once he thought about it.

Lash, and Unduli's suits gave off no infrared, or electromagnetic energy signatures. So as they flew past several aerial drones, and a sensor net. They looked like common nocturnal fauna. They flew the open canyon in silence. Lash kept his wings in near perfect stillness, locking the joints and just coasting. Unduli was a few hundred feet ahead. The city of Lessu sat on top of a designed, and sculpted plateau. Towering skyscrapers made the city look like a sword point, or an arrow head with serrated edges. A perimeter wall was in place to keep the wind out. While a kinetic, energy, and inertia shield was in place.

Anything that traveled to quickly was caught in the shield. Anything above a certain mass, or energy level was caught in the shield. This was the primary reason why they didn't deploy in sub-orbit and just glide in. Though not that he thought about it. They could have just gotten a ship and he could have jumped out of it orbit. Though reentry would have killed most people, he would have been fine. Eh, thoughts for later. He could look into a hell-jumper shock deployment pod. If the Star Wars Universe didn't have it. He was sure he could find a design for it on the Dream Store.

They were approaching the city and sure enough they didn't have enough height to reach the city proper. They dropped below the line and Unduli pulled her legs down, and pulled her arms back. The movement activated a mechanism like shifting gears in a vehicle. Additional wings spread out to catch the wing and she landed across the primary support pillar with barely a whisper. The wing-suit collapsed in on itself. Then with a click the entire contraption slipped off of her and fell below. Though she did have a parachute pack in case she had to bail mid climb. She would need to activate a battery pack to furl the suit.

Lash landed by her side and activated Gravity Stride. The sight of Lash standing on the wall and looking at her at near horizontal made her eyes go wide. Lash shrugged, and pulled his wings in. Though with 'no power' the holes in his back armor remained open. Lash pulled out a safety line, and clipped it to her belt. Then started to walk up the surface of the pillar. Unduli was slow, and careful. Since the entire trip was upper body strength on her part. A half a mile later Lash reached to the cities edge and climbed over. He glanced around to find himself in what appeared to be a shanty town.

Ensuring no one had seen him. He pulled on the safety line and soon had Unduli with him. He recast his Nature's Passage, and Chameleon on them both. Since he cast it together they retained sight of each other. Though it was more like a ghost like outline. With a few hand signals they moved into the shanty town. With some easy inspection it was the natives to the city. Forced out of their home to sleep on the cliffs edge. Living shields against the republics forces. They knew this coming in. But still seeing it was unsettling.

The cliffs edge was a few hundred feet all around the city. The tents were jam packed against one another. While a very crew wooden fence was placed around certain areas with what appeared to be children. Fierce winds could fly by in random intervals and if one was not careful they could be pushed off the ledge. If a storm came by none of these people would live through it. A majority of the citizens were Twi'leks. But there was a splattering of different species here and there.

Then they reached their first problem. Or more like a moral dilemma. Hundreds of Lessu citizens had been placed on x-crosses along the path into the city next to the plasma bridge. When the bridge was down the crosses were dragged into place. When the bridge was up, the crosses would line the path into the city. Every citizen was alive, and suffering. They were bound by pain inducing restraints and several of them were weeping or screaming. Like someone with the controls had it on random. The few dead bodies around the crosses showed the the droids had orders to shoot anyone that helped those on the crosses. This was a perfect trap for a Jedi. They would be compelled to help and Lash had to physically restrain Unduli.

“We can't help them right now.” Lash all but hissed into her ear as he held her back and pulled her into an empty tent.

“We have to! Can't you feel their suffering?” Unduli screeched at him, and he could. Even with his muted Force sensitivity he could feel it. Which was the point.

“We can help them by capturing Tambor. In a few hours Lessu will be ours and we can save everyone. Please Unduli if we go out there right now, Tambor will escape and people will die. Each restraint is tied to an explosive.” Lash said to her and Unduli ceased her struggling at that information.

“Can't you use your programs to hack the system?” Unduli asked him, pleading.

“There all busy. Ryloth is still an active war zone. They are providing data for the entire siege. I only have one in the city right now.” Lash partially lied to her. All of his tech-spirits were doing other things. He had a map to the city due to his ability Map.

Lash slowly let her go and she took a moment to slow her breathing. She used her Jedi training to calm her mind and create the detachment mindset that so many Jedi's used. Compartmentalizing her emotions, and objective at hand. Her beating heart slowed and her eyes returned to focus. The Force danced around and helped her as much as she helped it. It was interesting to see both sides of the meditation tool Jedi used.

“Right, let's go.” Unduli said with a detached voice.

They both left the tent and made their way towards the gate which was wide open. Lash suspected a trap and spent ten whole minutes running through all of his Perceptions, tools, and abilities. Nope, they were just open. They were under guard of course. But no traps, no sensors, no additional troops. Which made getting into the gate house ridiculously simple. Once inside they placed a primary, and secondary remote access computer spike. With a signal from them the plasma bridge would activate. First objective down.

Secondary objective was getting to the shuttle pad in the city. Once more Lash suspected a trap and they spent almost an hour carefully inching their way around. Only to find absolutely nothing? Even Unduli was starting to grow confused. Aside the impressive number of droids. The place was empty. They found several solar sailor shuttles filled with treasure, and a droid pilot programmed to leave at the slightest hint of danger. The two of them spiked the shuttles hoping to get a set of navigational coordinates. Secondary objective down.

Lash had wanted to set explosives on all of the fighters, and bombers. But once again the advantage of droids struck again. Each of the fighters were on standby. Though Lash could walk right up to them without being seen. A random piece of tech attached to their hull would have set off alarms. The tertiary objective was to find, and secure Tambor. By this time the sun had started to rise. They only had a few minutes before the attack was suppose to start. Tambor was in the main dinning hall getting breakfast and looking over the morning briefings. A standard tactical droid was by his side giving him a full review. While two cloaked figures sat at the table with him, eating a light breakfast. Dark side energy emanated off of them.

“Dark Acolytes.” Unduli said softly.

Lash, and Unduli were both perched on the outside second story window looking into the room. Thanks to the spell craft they were nigh invisible. Still Lash knew that the midi-chlorians were eating away at the magical energy. Which attracted attention. More than once he had to pull back as the Acolytes looked towards their window on more than one occasion. On the third glance Lash knew they had been made, or at the very least the Acolytes knew something was wrong.

An ear piercing cry shatter the transparisteel windows. As a Force-Scream came from one of the Acolytes. An alarm went off across the city, and the Acolytes jumped up towards the second story windows. Drawing their red light sabers. Clad in black, and gray robes. With partial armor protecting their vitals and little else. They had not been tempered by Enfarious. Because he would have skinned them alive for not wearing armor. Unduli jumped through the window green light saber in hand and took one of the Acolytes.

Lash right behind her created his red dagger Psionic Blades. He went straight for the kill towards his target who back pedaled at the last second. A mute scream of panic at the sight of him. Lash turned his 'power' armor back on. A shoulder mounted cannon came out and shot a blue E-laser at the retreating Tambor. Who dropped without a word. The tactical droid pulled out a blaster rifle and shot at them. While several B2 droids moved Tambor's limp body and dragged him away. The tactical droid covering their retreat.

“Master Lash, stop!” The Dark Acolyte screamed at him as he swung his blade. He paused for a brief moment as the other Acolyte continued their fight with Unduli.

Lash's foe pulled their hood back, and took off a mask. It was a young man with green skin, and golden reptilian eyes. His head was shaved save for several tattoos. Lash didn't recognize the species of the boy but that wasn't surprising. Lost of different races in the galaxy as a whole. What did surprise him was that this was a first stage Jensaarai. He had records on him.

“Rikri, why are you?” Lash said as he kept his daggers on hand, and started to circle his target. Rikri the stage one Jensaarai kept his eyes on Lash, but never left his back exposed to Unduli. Good man.

“They have my family!” Rikr-->>

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