The fall of House Dredd 9
Lilk looked around at the other survivors of house Dredd and felt an overwhelming sense of loss.
After they had escaped from the republic task force they had been forced to land to make repairs to their ship.
The droids had saved the ship from a reactor overload but one of the T3 repair droids who Lilk had been introduced to as Drillbit had been hit by a surge if energy from the ships reactor. He had saved the ship but in the process been badly damaged and lost most of his more advanced functions.
One of Lilk's teachers who had escaped with them was a master Technomancer and had tried to fix the droid. But after examining him he had realised that the droids processors had fused together meaning he couldn't be fixed without his entire personality data base being wiped. Which would effectively be like killing the droid.
Lilk looked at the two over repair droids, Bolt and Tinker, fussing over the damaged Drillbit and couldn't help but feel that they seemed just as human in their emotions as the more organic members of house Dredd.
Her views were reinforced when she saw Alpha and his squad of droids sat in a tight circle seemingly in mourning over their lost comrades.
She saw the expressions of loss and uncertainty about the future on the faces of those around her and realised that they were looking to her for answers.
Lilk realised that as the new leader of House Dredd she was now responsible for everyone here and decided she would do everything she could to lead her clan to safety, both the organic and non-organic ones.
She would need to create a source of income for the clan so that she could keep everyone fed and well provisioned. She decided to find them jobs that related to what house Dredd were best at, violence.
-
Admiral Pryll sat at his desk in his apartment on Coruscant quietly trying to write a report.
After his fleet had rendered Aruum an uninhabitable wasteland they had returned to republic space. The fleet had suffered almost sixty percent losses and the republic ground forces had been completely wiped out.
Pryll was now sipping an expensive imported brandy as he tried to figure out how he would spin the events in his favour.
He took another sip of the drink and looked at the books in his study. They were all made of paper fitted in wooden bookshelves, both rare commodities in the metallic cities of the republic capital, to showcase Pryll's wealth.
All of Pryll's records were contained in the paper books. The records held blackmail material on hundreds of officers in the republic navy allowing Pryll to wield massive power within the navy. The records also contained the information for managing all of the businesses Pryll and the banking details for his extensive wealth.
The fact that they were made of paper helped keep them secure, it was hard to hack something without a holo-net connection after all.
Pryll coughed trying to clear his throat. A frown appeared on his face as he rubbed his neck, he coughed again, and the frown deepened.
He began clawing at his neck as he collapsed to the floor in a fit of violent coughs nocking over his chair as he fell.
Pryll heard the heavy footsteps behind him and turned expecting to see one of his private guards but instead was met with the crouching form of an armoured figure staring at him from above.
A croaked cry for help escaped Pryll's throat but there was no response from either his guards or the armoured figure.
The figure moved to Pryll's desk and picked up the expensive bottle of alcohol resting there before emptying it across Pryll's wooden desk.
Pryll could only watch in horror as the figure dropped a match into the spilled alcohol, igniting it instantly. The figure then turned back to Pryll, who was still violently coughing on the floor, and began watching him suffer.
"House Dredd sends its regards," The figure said after watching Pryll for a moment.
The figures words came out distorted by their helmet's speakers and to Pryll they sounded like some malevolent spirit about to usher him to the afterlife, which wasn't that far from the truth.
The figure then turned and left the room leaving Pryll to watch in terror as the fire from his burning desk spread to the rest of his office.
He watched paralysed as the books containing the secrets to his life's work, his dreams, his 'empire' were consumed by fire.
He watched as the flames drew closer to him and could do nothing as they consumed him. Whatever poison the armoured figure had used to paralyse him did nothing to numb the pain as he was burned alive.
The next day the republic news channels on the holo-net reported that a respected republic admiral had tragically died when his Coruscant home had accidently caught fire, they then listed his accomplishments and some republic senators who never really cared about Pryll but wanted to act sad to further their careers gave eulogies and talked about what a great man he was.
The news reports only got average interest from the galactic community and so the republic news channels decided not to report on the similar accidental deaths of republic naval officers who had served with Pryll aboard the Titan over the next couple of days, and instead reported on which holo-film actors were getting married.
Pryll was soon forgotten by most of the galaxy, most not even knowing he existed until his death was reported by the holo-news and faded into obscurity.
-
Jedi master Yaddle stormed out of the high council chambers and began marching down the jedi temples long corridors trying hard to keep the anger she was feeling from showing on her face.
"Master wait!" her former padawan, now fellow jedi master and high council member, Oppo Rancisis called after her.
Yaddle decided to ignore him forcing her former padawan to use his long snake like body to rapidly slither after her in order to catch up with her. He caught her quickly, as she couldn't move very fast with her small frame, and forced her to stop and face him.
"Master, I know what we just learned was terrible but please don't do something rash." Oppo pleaded with his former master who just glared at him before exploding.
"TERRIBLE!!! RASH!!!" The normally calm and kind Yaddle screamed at her now terrified former padawan, "We just learned that fool Dal tricked both the jedi council and the republic into committing genocide. GENOCIDE!!"
Oppo shrank back slightly, cowed by Yaddle's anger, as the small green woman took a breath before continuing.
"And the council want to just hide the truth. Why? Because the chancellor requested it. THE CHANCELLOR!?! Since when did he have any say in what the jedi do?" Yaddle raged.
"Since now apparently as you all went along with it. DIDN'T YOU!?" Yaddle answered her own question before pointing an accusatory finger at Oppo.
"B-but master, if the truth got out the galaxy would lose faith in both the republic and the jedi orders ability to keep the peace. While what happened was wrong, we can't change it now and can only try and make sure it doesn't happen again. We need the citizens of the republic to trust us if we want to achieve this." Oppo tried to reason with the irate jedi master, unsuccessfully.
"SCREW THAT!" she screamed at him, "It was wrong, unnecessary, criminal, terrible, disgusting and I wont just sit back and pretend it didn't happen."
Yaddle then resumed storming out of the temple.
"Master what are you going to do?" Oppo asked in worry.
"Don't worry I'm not going to disobey the council by going out to spread the truth about the galaxy. According to the Titans sensor data at least one ship escaped Aruum's destruction, I'm going to find the survivors and offer them any support I can give them." Yaddle told him.
"But master, they won't be happy to see a jedi after what happened. It might be dangerous." Oppo called out after her concerned about her safety.
"It probably will be," Yaddle responded, not looking back as she left the jedi temple in search of the survivors of house Dredd.
-
Darth Tenebrous rubbed his temples in frustration as he read the reports on his data-pad.
Admiral Pryll's death had been a setback. It would delay the grand plan but it wouldn't stop it.
Darth Tenebrous and his master were dedicated to following the Sith imperative that Darth Bane had envisioned long ago.
They had added to a network of spies and implants within the republic created by the Sith order over the past centuries in their attempt to turn the republic into a new Sith empire.
Tenebrous had been supporting Pryll's career from the shadows, helping him on his way to first be a high ranking member of the republic navy before he would make the change to the republic senate.
Pryll would in return spread more corruption and dissent throughout the republic, weakening it further so that when the time came for the Sith to take over they would be met with little resistant.
Tenebrous sighed, it didn't matter in the end. He had other minions within the republic who would do the job, this was a set back but one the Sith would overcome.
The bigger problem was the remnants of the clan of armoured warriors that had been living on the now tomb world of Aruum.
The warriors had disrupted the grand plan, although Coruscant police had ruled Pryll's death as an accident Tenebrous could tell it was the remnants of house Dredd that had killed the admiral, as well as other republic officers that were loyal to him and useful to the Sith order.
Though the problems were minor the grand plan could be allowed to be compromised. Maybe steps needed to be taken to deal with the remnants of house Dredd, to prevent further damage to the grand plan.
-
"Sooo, you expect us to believe you have come here to make things right?" The small child said, her arms crossed as she leaned back in her chair, one eyebrow raised sceptically.
"Yes." Yaddle nodded uncomfortably as she sat on the other side of a small desk from the child.
They were seated in a small office connected to a decrepit landing bay on a rural backwater in the outer rim.
Yaddle studied the young girl opposite her who seemed to be in charge of the survivors of house Dredd and tried to ignore the people glaring at her from either side.
To Yaddle's left was an unhappy looking man partially covered in bandages, glaring at her while gripping a blaster pistol in his one hand while the other was bound tightly in a splint and held in a sling.
And to her right was an equally unhappy looking HK-51 assassin droid that was doing the droid equivalent of a glare with his arms crossed.
The young girl, Lilk Dredd, had introduced them as Cliff and Alpha respectfully and Yaddle had a feeling that neither were happy to see her.
"The jedi first annihilate our clan then they come to try and make things right, are you serious?" Lilk said looking accusatorially at Yaddle.
"No," Yaddle said.
"No?" Lilk questioned.
"The jedi don't want to make things right, I am here independently of the jedi council." Yaddle said softly.
"Oh, makes sense. Didn't really expect anything honourable from the jedi council." Lilk shrugged uncaringly.
Yaddle was unhappy with the insult to the jedi order, but she couldn't really disagree with it after everything that had happen.
"… I can not express how deeply sorry I am about everything that has happened, If there is anything that I can do to help you I will try my best to do it." Yaddle said sorrowfully.
Lilk stared expressionlessly for a moment before grinning.
"Well if that is the case, Welcome to the neeew headquarters of the Dredd mercenary organisation. No job is too tough, no mission to dangerous, for reasonable prices we will solve any problem that might involve the use of violence to rectify." Lilk said, imitating a excited speeder salesman, before ending her speech with a thumbs up.
Yaddle stared at Lilk in silent shock.
"…. I … er … might need some help coming up with an … ahm … sales pitch ... and finding some customers," Lilk said looking away while rubbing her cheek in embarrassment.
Yaddle still looked at Lilk in confusion. This kid was weird.
"O-okay" Yaddle said unsure.
"Yay, this is going to be fun," Lilk said clapping her hands together while grinning maniacally.