Shadows of an Empire: Act 6
General Summary
Checkmate!
Simon Illyan: In chess, opportunity strikes but once, Admiral d'Arcy.
Angelo d'Arcy: As in life, Simon, that is why the future belongs to he who has the bishops … and his own brand of luck.
On approach to Procopia, the capital world of the Tapani Imperium …
After the discovery of the mysterious virus hidden in the administration systems of the Galactic Empire, and the increasingly erratic actions of Empress Katianna, our heroes decide to take the initiative. Arriving at Procopia, they resolve to speak with Katianna while also recovering Doctor Simon Tam and what few of the Beskar Aran that remain in the palace. To follow through with this plan, it would take a dual approach. One group to meet with Katianna, another to meet with Jenna Vormecetti, Dr. Tam and the Beskar Aran. However, a dark plan long in the making comes to fruition. One that could unravel the heroes’ plans, and bring about their ultimate end.
Meanwhile …
This is Hamilton Carter of Holonet News reporting … bringing you the REAL and accurate news of the galaxy …
Holonet Breaking News! Sources reveal that Empress Merglin has been assassinated in her own throne room! While the identity of the assassin has not been discovered, some eye witnesses describe what may have been a star freighter pilot visiting the Empress shortly before the body was found. Needless to say, the Confederation is in disarray. Without the direct control of Empress Merglin, Confederation forces are surrendering across the sector!
However, the lone pilot remains a mystery that has yet to be solved. If it can be solved.
In other news, in the wake of the confession of guilt by the head of House Vorpadaran, new holo-vids have surfaced of High Lord Vormecetti. In those videos, he is seen to plot with conspirators over ‘preparations concerning the throne’. While its unclear specifically what he meant, it is enough that he – and his conspirators in House Vorbarnaba, House VorCalipsa, and House Vorkalloner will be charged with treason. Following this, word has come out of the palace suspending the activities of the Council of Counts … more on this in a moment.
Things That Happened:
- Yeager Lexics and Jenna Martovich coordinated an action through the sensor net on Estalle Island.
- An intense battle in low orbit over Procopia featured the flagship of the Galactic Empire with Emperor Alexander Kane aboard, ready to "assist" in this time of governmental turmoil.
- Ehlonna Lexics and her school friend Lord Anatoly Vorkalloner helped sneak members of the Adepta Sororitas and Beskar Aran through the locked-down security of the reinforced tunnels between Vorhartung Castle and the Imperium Palace.
- Danar did, indeed, propose to Katianna in the South Garden of the Imperium Palace. He cited her publicly-broadcast-on-holovid earlier kiss as justification. He rented a billboard. He arranged for balloons and images. He wore his most dashing suit. He sang.
He was perfect.
Danar made such a glorious spectacle of himself, in such a brilliant way, that his gambit was almost certain to destroy his public image forever when she turned him down. - Katianna did not turn her kneeling suitor down.
- Katianna grasped at this opportunity for escape with both hands and an elegant dramatization.
She professed her delight, and commanded her new betrothed to whisk her away. - Before any of the palace staff could step in, before anyone across the Tapani Imperium could do anything but feel giddy, Danar swept the princess into his armored limousine.
- Unfortunately for their smooth getaway, one staff member -- the Mentat Inquisitor sent specially to help investigate the poisoning of Gregor -- also climbed into the limousine.
- Darth Sidious.
- Sidious had spent the past two years, since his supposed assassination before Deadly Dealings in Melona 12727, learning the Force techniques of the Bene Gesserit and the Mentat, and (with the glad assistance of Almon De Joy, of course) creating a false identity for himself as a Mentat so that he could get here. So that he could twist Katianna's protective inclinations and her frustration at powerlessness into marionette strings on the Tapani Sector as a whole.
- Despite taking hefty injuries to mind and body, Danar managed to get Katianna out of the limousine and put distance between themselves and Sidious.
And then Vanya stepped in.
- Such an easy target for Darth Sidious's rage, Padawan VN Ysadora: She loves so easily. She was a protégé of Anakin Skywalker, who escaped Chancellor Palpatine's machinations due to the interference of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn.
Her life is a long, much-frayed string of other people leaving her behind them. Of never really suiting the circumstances in which she finds herself. Of never being worth anyone else staying with her, and of knowing that she never will be worth that kind of commitment.
Just look at her: she is throwing her mediocre existence away to buy ten more seconds of life for the people who do matter, for the Vor peacock and the time-lost princess, for the lost heir to the royal Solo family line and the clone captain related to Alexander Kane's noble lineage, for all the clone troopers defective enough to defy Sidious's commands, for his own niece Jenna. She stands there with her two lightsabers, aping the techniques of the Chosen One as Sidious heaps Force Lightning onto her concentration, promising an eternity of torment in the remaining seconds of her existe--
- As it has served us so many times before, the patented Tsu Vorboccioni technique of Vehicular Weaponry versus Single Pedestrian Target saves our day.
and exclamations around the table,
Vanya's player silently unbraids her hair.
- Above, Admiral Angelo d'Arcy uses his confiscated dreadnought to blow Alexander Kane and the SSD he rode in on to atoms. The starfire of tiny particles burning up in atmosphere over Estalle Island is like fireworks, celebrating the true death of the Galaxy's longtime enemies.
In the aftermath, we got Danar patched up, and Katianna publicly thanked him for his gallant offer but declined: she wishes to devote herself to other pursuits for the next few years, to helping her Imperium heal from its long troubles. She will go to Soterios, capital of House Vormelantha, as High Lady of House Vormelantha.
This frees Danar to chart his own future without destroying his Vorish dignity.
He is still a covert agent of ImpSec, but he has a lot more leeway now on how he conducts his career.
The treason charges against Danar's father Count Gavril Vorpadaran and High Lord Vormecetti and the other important members of the Council of Counts are found to have been fraudulent charges created by Darth Sidious and his co-conspirators.
Vance Kerplocken is still the dashing rogue of the spaceways.
Dr. Simon Tam consults with Taun We and together they finalize a cure for the advanced aging problem in the Clone Troopers.
Evidence presented jointly by the Abbess Sanctorum of the Adepta Sororitas and the Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit establish that Sister Captain Jenna Martovich is, in fact, the rightful heir to Palpatine's throne in the Galactic Empire.
Empress Jenna I, promoted to Prioress of the Convent Sanctorum within the Adepta Sororitas, swiftly made three changes to the Galactic Star Empire as part of her assumption of the crown.
- All manner of religious prohibition is forever struck from the Law. The subjects of the Galactic Star Empire shall have the inherent right to choose their religion henceforth. All religious doctrines shall bear in mind that a subject of the Galactic Star Empire must adhere to the Law.
- The Order of the Bloody Rose shall purge all of Sidious' vile experiments. They shall offer healing to those subjects of the Empire whom Sidious harmed. They shall receive guidance in this task from the notes and observations of the Crimson Knights.
- Starting immediately, Yeager Lexics shall be Our Consort, and serve as an extension of Our Presence when We are unavailable to attend to matters in Person.
Count Tsu Vorboccioni enjoys running rings around opposing coalitions in the Tapani Alliance Senate when he's not doing the exact same thing at the Council of Counts. Sometimes, just for entertainment value (as far as we can tell), he proposes a bill in the Council of Counts and then campaigns against it once it reaches the Senate. If he is not visible at either location, and he is not listed as a visitor on the security checklist at the Imperium Palace, then Khun Lakhia must be flying the highly questionable skies in the Private Dancer.
He shows no signs of settling down.
Many expect that he will eventually become High Lord of House VorCadriaan ... when he is done spending his vacations as a professional smuggler.
Vanya's casual "Tuesday Tea" interfaith hangouts morphed into the Council of Guardians when she was not looking. Dragomir Vorharkonnen, who founded the Qo'shasot school of practical philosophy as something much more functional than the custom-regimented Sith teachings, was one of the first representatives to sign on.
Picture Yoda and the tall, lean redhead once referred to as "Darth Slick", seated near one another at the same large table in a coffee shop.
Jedi Knight Vanya Ysadora brought cupcakes. With jelly filling.
She was not permitted to attend the second meeting.
Sir Davish Tam and Vanya went to the Tavya System. On the space station Tavya Nine, they rented a studio apartment on one level and a business office on another, a moderate walk away. They jointly run Mystic Mob Investigations, spending about seventy percent of their working hours on small-time detective work and twenty percent of their working time on spiritual services to the community. (They're careful to keep a certain amount of the working week free for general shenanigans.) They still don't know if their relationship is going to work for the long term; they are happy now, and that's all they need to know.
Someone recently acquired the rights to make a new twelve-episode series of Jedi Quest.
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