Malgus glanced impatiently at the several Sith already gathered around the circular wooden table. A tension was present in the air between all of them, however Malgus noticed quite a lot was directed at him. He couldn’t blame them, Malgus’ exploits and victories had become legendary across the empire, and he could likely intimidate some of the highest ranking Sith in the Empire.
He leaned back into his seat as a way to hide his discomfort. The cushioned and intricate chair was of a fine make, and had apparently been taken from the royal palace itself. He’d be lying if he said he found it comfortable. He much preferred the simple, rugged design found in military vehicles and spacecraft; simplistic and ugly looking but offering better functionality and efficiency.
Malgus glanced over to the two remaining empty seats to his left, his face twisting to show his annoyance, “Pray tell, Lyran,” He spat out the Sith’s name, glaring at the one sitting across from him, “Why exactly is Darth Ominit, your commander, not present at the moment?”
The young Sith gulped as he clenched his hands together on the table, “I… I’m not quite sure, my lord.”
Malgus scowled as his annoyance grew, “And why, do you not know where exactly your commander in chief is on the precipice of an enemy invasion?”
Sweat visibly beaded down Lyran’s forehead as he glanced to his compatriots in a desperate bid for help. All of them ducked their heads down, not offering a bit of aid to their comrade in need. It almost made Malgus pity the boy. Prior to Malgus’ arrival he had done his research on just who he would be dealing with. The garrison on Alderaan was quite small compared to other garrisons throughout the occupied planets of the Empire, but that fact was mainly attributed to the pacifist nature of the local population meaning there was little actual local unrest other than a few isolated resistance cells that couldn’t do much damage.
As such, the Sith gathered around him was every Sith on the planet that wasn’t an Acolyte or lower rank, amounting to 14 in total if you discounted the two Darths that were yet to be present. As such Malgus had to do relatively little research into them. Only around half of them had actual experience in combat, and only half of that group had fought Jedi. The rest of them were either recently promoted to the rank of Warrior, or had simply had the rotten luck of being posted away from all the fighting for the duration of the war. Lyran was a part of that last group, and according to Darth Ominit’s records it was simply because he needed help managing the garrison and so required higher ranked people. In other words, Lyran was the bottom of the barrel Ominit had access to.
“I… he doesn’t tell us a lot about what he gets up to when we aren’t around.” Was the shaky reply.
“And why not? I find it difficult to believe that Ominit would purposefully leave his subordinates in the dark about his actions.” Despite Malgus’ words the implications were worrying. Ominit was by no means an idiot, and he was a good tactician who understood that communication was key for victory in battle.
Lyran audibly gulped as he continued, “Well, we’ve tried before. Arkan went to his mansion at one point. He uh, didn’t come back, and Ominit never mentioned him again. I’m his replacement.”
Malgus’ annoyance fell away slightly. He had read the report on Arkan’s disappearance but it had been chalked up to an especially troublesome rebel cell that got the drop on him. While it still could have been true that Arkan had been attacked on his way to Ominit’s mansion, which was located out in some isolated forest, something was still off.
Before any more questions could be asked however the man of the hour arrived. Ominit had been an interesting character ever since he had joined the Sith Order, rising the ranks fast, very fast. Couple his skills with the fact that no one, not even the Dark Council had concrete information on his background made him a very dangerous foe. And the man certainly acted like he was one, walking into the room as though he were the most important person in it. Malgus’ attention was not on Ominit though. Rather it was on the Sith who trailed after Malgus.
“Adraas.” Malgus spat out hot venom as rage bubbled up beneath him, his baleful gaze boring into the man’s mask.
Darth Adraas paused for a moment, his head shifting towards Malgus slightly before he scoffed mockingly, “Malgus, I’m surprised you made it this far. I’d have thought you’d be distracted by the first available unarmed merchant and delayed your travel by another ten cycles.”
Malgus didn’t bother to hide his rage, nor did he care with how the lower ranking Sith actively shrunk away from him, “And I’m surprised your little schemes haven’t caught up to you, you vile snake.”
Adraas didn’t even respond, only letting out an amused chuckle as he took a seat on the left of Ominit, keeping the other Darth between him and Malgus. He crossed his arms and regarded the other Sith around the table with feigned interest, pointedly ignoring Malgus while radiating smugness.
Before Malgus could explode in a vengeful fury however, Ominit spoke up, “Apologies for the tardiness. Adraas had some… interesting information to share.”
“And this information was?” Malgus asked when Ominit didn’t elaborate.
Ominit regarded Malgus with unreadable yellow eyes, his expression completely neutral and betraying nothing, “Nothing of importance to the matter at hand right now. If you wish… I can tell you after.”
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Malgus could sense the surprise burst from Adraas before the Sith got his emotions under control. Clearly, he hadn’t expected that, which brought some satisfaction to Malgus. However, now he was more suspicious, particularly at the fact that the information had come from Adraas. Malgus despised the man, and was despised in turn with the two having a rivalry of sorts. One of the symptoms of this was that Adraas would purposefully feed Malgus faulty or incomplete information to force his failure, and had succeeded several times already.
Ominit however, had no such animosity with the vile snake, and was even on good terms with him, likely a consequence of their shared posting on Alderaan. That was one of the things that Malgus disliked about Ominit, but he understood that he couldn’t control how other people felt about each other. Ominit also helped to serve as a buffer between the two rivals, and was the only reason Malgus hadn’t drawn his lightsaber and cut Adraas down.
Malgus worked his jaw as he pondered the words before nodding, “Fine. Now, onto business.”
The rest of the meeting was essentially Ominit and Adraas giving a rundown of how the garrison on Alderaan worked. The actions it had taken in the past, its combat effectiveness, and how many were troops were actually combat ready, etc. Overall Malgus had to admit that Ominit had managed to keep things together quite well, and the garrison wasn’t as lazy as you would expect from a pacifist and relatively subdued planet.
At the end of the meeting the Sith Warriors gathered around dispersed with a surprising quickness. Maybe, Malgus had underestimated just how intimidating three Darths in the same room was. As the last Warrior left the room Malgus sent Ominit a pointed look, to which the man’s lips thinned into a line as he nodded to Adraas who left the room after a few seconds of silence.
“…I trust you are aware of my reputation?”
Malgus frowned at the seemingly off topic question, “You are a renowned warrior and tactic-“
Ominit cut him off, his tone impatient, “I don’t mean in general. I mean among the higher ups: the Dark Council.”
That gave Malgus slight pause, “Yes. It is… not a favourable one.”
Not favourable was a generous term. Ominit, while respected by his peers and subordinates, was absolutely despised by the Dark Council. It was a sort of open secret, as while the Council couldn’t outright punish and humiliate Ominit, they certainly complained enough to anyone who would listen. It was also pretty clear why; Ominit had the tendency to simply ignore the Dark Council, and whenever they actually managed to get a hold of him and direct him somewhere his talents could be put to use, Ominit’s efforts were, to put it bluntly, pitiful.
Yet, even pitiful efforts from Ominit lent victory, so they couldn’t even take him down on the basis he failed his tasks. From what Malgus understood, Ominit was far more interested in his own side projects then the actual war effort, and the side projects either had results of no use to anyone, or results of no use to the Empire. And the real kicker was that the side projects had little identifiable rhyme or reason between them, so his ultimate goal was also unknown.
A bitter smile crossed Ominit’s face, “Indeed. I have also underestimated them, and I have paid the price. You remember that spy you found?”
Malgus nodded and his face twisted into disgust at how he himself couldn’t see it, “I do. A togruta girl, she had a position in the communications section of my ship.”
“And would I be right in guessing that once you found her the Dark Council swooped in and took it from there?”
Malgus’ eyes widened, “That… is exactly what happened. I wanted to punish her myself but the Council insisted that they have better methods of information gathering.”
Ominit chuckled in dry amusement, “As I suspected. Do not think of yourself at any fault for the presence of the spy, Malgus. I don’t, and I suffered the most from it.”
Malgus recovered from his surprise and narrowed his eyes, “And why do you know that? Just how much did Adraas tell you?” This was worrying, if Adraas knew of how the spy aboard Malgus’ ship was handled, there was no telling how much else he knew.
Ominit ignored the questions as he continued, “The spy wasn’t from the Republic. It was simply made to look that way. The togruta was a Sith spy, that’s how she went unnoticed for so long, and its why the Dark Council pulled her out when you caught her.”
The declaration shocked Malgus, “Why though, she sent crucial military information to the Republic, and now there is an enemy fleet on its way here as we speak.”
Ominit sighed and looked up at the roof, “It appears I have made a bit too much enemies on the council. I was supposed to die on that Rakatan ship. The crucial military information, if you really look into it, is actually quite a brilliant disguise. Alderaan has little actual value to the Empire other than prestige reasons. Its population is unwilling to fight for the Empire, and it lacks any notable resources that would be worth protecting. Yet, its still a significant planet, and it’s a big enough distraction to hide their true intentions.”
Malgus took in the words, a worrying feeling entering his mind, “And you have proof of this?”
“Concrete? Nothing. I told three people where I was going. Vancil, Adraas, and Darth Baras. Vancil and Adraas I trust, despite their… tendencies. Baras though? He practically had to force the information out of me. I looked afterwards; there were no records of where I was going, none that a spy in a communications centre on a single ship could get.” Came the reply alongside a side glance.
Malgus grit his teeth as he put together the pieces Ominit was giving him, “…So what are you planning?”
“I’m not going to make it out of this battle alive. My plans will be a bit more difficult, but its not anything I can recover from.” Ominit turned to Malgus fully, “But, I’m going out swinging. Against the Jedi and the Dark Council. I will admit, I don’t really like Sith despite me being one. However, the Empire has grown on me, and with the way the Dark Council is steering us, it is bound to fracture and fall.”
Ominit reached into his coat, taking out a small red gemstone, the dark side radiating from it to give it an ominous shadow. Malgus recognised it well enough, any Sith would, “A Kyber crystal? It feels, strange.”
A hint of pride entered Ominit and he puffed his chest out, holding the crystal up between his fingers, “This is one of my more successful projects. Packed to the brim with the Dark Side and a little something special. I can’t tell you that last part though, it’d ruin the mystery. Essentially, this thing can force visions of the future. Premonition is known and used among the Sith and Jedi, but for the most part it is random and unreliable. This dandy little thing can cause the premonitions purposefully. Its how I know I’m going to die. Here, why don’t you have a gander into the future.”
Ominit held out the crystal as though he were offering something trivial, yet if his claims were true, it could possibly be the greatest tool in the galaxy. Hesitantly, Malgus took the crystal between his two fingers. And the instant he made contact, he was taken to another world, one he instinctively knew to be in the future.
A galaxy in flames.