As we vacated Kiro's palace, Kei remained unconscious and floating along behind us, mumbling incoherently about credits and treasure in his drunken slumber to my annoyance. Yoshirii shot a disdainful look back at her older brother as we trudged across the coarse desert sands. "Unbelievable...you'd think after all these years he'd have learned some self-control," she grumbled, shaking her head. "I suppose wallowing in his own shit is too irresistible for that nerf-herding lout."

I simply grunted briefly in response, my sanity still reeling over the possible ramifications of the deal I had just brokered with the notorious Hutt crime lord dangling over my still burgeoning plan to leave Cognus. Even if we somehow succeeded in this lunatic plot of kidnapping a high-profile Banking Clan heir, there was no guarantee Kiro would uphold his end of the bargain once his avarice was sated and he had both the hostage and the head of the chancellor. "You're being awfully quiet all of a sudden," Yoshirii mused out loud, falling into small steps beside me. "Having second thoughts?"

I pondered her words carefully before reacting. "Not second thoughts, per se...More an acknowledgment that we may have simply traded one evil for an even more treacherous razor-pit of lies and depravity." Yoshirii surprised me by letting out a short bark of laughter.

"You say that like it's some big revelation, your Broodity." She waved her hand before my eyes. "Out here, triple-crossing and backstabbing are just another cycle at Mos Eisley. Why else do you think I pack so much firepower...The sex appeal?"

Her offhand remark stirred something deep within me...a profound sense of melancholy over the harsh realities of a life spent among the caverns of Dantooine. Yoshirii seemed to sense my shift in behavior astutely, her voice taking on a slightly softer tone. "Hey, don't get all--existential on me now. If you want to back out of this whole insane Bank Clan ransom scheme before we're in too deep, just say the word."

I shook my head slowly, taking in the breezes of the hot planet. "No...as demented as it sounds, I aim to see this through. If only to sever the last lingering cables binding me to Cognus and her rancid breath once and for all." A contemplative silence fell between us for a few moments, the only sounds being the coarse sand crunching beneath our boots and Kei's muffled snores drifting through the Force trance keeping him aloft.

Finally, Yoshirii spoke up again. "You know, as harebrained as it is, your plan does hold a certain...twisted elegance to it." She let out a mild sigh, her bright eyes seeming to gaze inward at something I couldn't perceive even through the force. "If we really can pull this off, just imagine how many credits an unharmed Banking Clan kid could net from their stingy extended family alone."

I arched an inquisitive cranial ridge at her wistful tone. "Suddenly fantasizing about escaping to a life of obscene wealth and extravagance, are we?" To my surprise, Yoshirii's features crinkled into an almost dreamy smile that almost radiated from her very being. "Not quite...more like building myself a nice spacious mud-hut out on Batuu--Maybe find someone to raise a kriffed little family with..."

She trailed off, giving a self-conscious shrug as if apologetic at divulging such blatant exhibits of her inner thoughts. I found myself struck by an odd sensation in my chest at her unexpectedly domestic fantasies even if they were nearly as absurd as my outlandish schemes.

Before I could parse the foreign emotion, a mumbled series of curse words from Kei's floating form shattered the irregular daze."--stop, fryk'n wmprat---Jedi scum!" Yoshirii unleashed an exasperated growl. "And of course, any chance of a quiet future would mean ditching this drunken bantha turd of a brother on some Force-forsaken scrapheap first...I'm thinking Mustafar."

I couldn't resist a slight chuckle at that, the sound catching both of us off-guard. Yoshirii's eyes widened infinitesimally before scrunching at the corners in a transparent smile. For a few lucky moments, it was almost conceivable to imagine we weren't interstellar pawns enmeshed in a sordid predicament of Sith conspiracies and underworld intrigue.

Just two essences sharing a quiet respite from the relentless grind of hardship and violence that dominated our existences. But of course, such fragile whimsies were always ephemeral out here on the fringe...As we approached the dilapidated landing where our shoddy freighter waited, Yoshirii's body language shifted, her shoulders tensing subtly.

"You never did answer my question earlier, you know," she stated, style deceptively casual. "About what your plans are for after this whole fiasco plays out one way or another." I felt my own muscles instinctively tighten, a sense of guarded reservation creeping over me like the jaws of a feral beast. "Does it truly matter? All paths forward inevitably lead to a reckoning with Cognus, whether I oppose, desert, or try to haggle my way out from under her pall."

Yoshirii worried at her small pouty lips, seeming to struggle with how to articulate her many introspections. "It matters because... because I need to know. A girl's gotta keep an eye on her most promising options, right?" The melancholy I'd felt earlier goaded once more, coupled with an odd twinge of unease.

Somehow, over the chaotic span of the last few months, the prospect of this fiery Rodian hunter being anything other than an enduring presence by my side had become...distressing to consider, which weakened me to a level I was not comfortable with.

Sensing the turmoil within me, Yoshirii let out a rueful chuckle. "That's what I figured. Should've known you weren't the type to enjoy or return emotional shit like that." I opened my mouth to refute her dismissive assertion but found myself at a complete loss for words -- an utterly disconcerting experience for one as usually verbally domineering as myself.

Thankfully, the explicative-laden ramblings of the still-oblivious Kei provided a convenient distraction. "--nrrr fratn'!" He released an impressively thunderous belch that seemed to rattle the very dunes around us. Yoshirii scowled venomously up at her sibling's hovering form. "Oh, I am going to make you suffer in ways the Sith could only dream of when you sober up..."

Stowing my conflicted emotions for another time, I wisely chose to focus on the mission at hand once more. "Our next step should be determining how to infiltrate the Banking Clan's bastion on Coruscant and isolate a potential high-value target. It's little more than a half-mad gambit at this stage...but I have an idea--"

My voice trailed off as I realized Yoshirii had gone utterly still beside me, staring off into the sheltering shadows between the mammoth dunes with an unnaturally taut expression. Reaching out through the Force, I detected a cluster of faint, barely perceptible presences lurking just beyond a curving ridgeline.

In an instant, both her blasters were drawn and leveled -- Yoshirii with a swift, economical flourish that spoke of years of ingrained training far beyond mere bounty hunts. Whatever or whoever was prowling in the gloom between the desert swells, they would find we were suddenly in no mood for unwelcome encounters. "Don't worry..." I mumbled under my breath, reinforcing the assurance with a subtle wave of the Force to counter her rising anxiety. "Could be simply a roving pack scavengers."

The Rodian's snouted jaw clenched beneath her shielding breath mask, but she modulated her aim with admirable discipline. For several tense moments, only the unsophisticated whisper of granulated dust shifting in the impending Tatooine draft disturbed the still air.

Then from out of nowhere, a sudden blinding torrent of light and deafening static overwhelmed every sense! Instinctively, I angled myself to shield Yoshirii with my body, lashing out with telekinetic force to hurl our invisible stalkers away. It was merely an incendiary flash-bang grenade deployed to disorient us, rather than an attack in earnest.

As the disruptive barrage of photons ever so slightly faded, 14 heavily armed humanoid figures resolved from the undulating haze, pulse blasters grounded at point-blank range. "Hands in the air, criminal scum!" one of the assailants barked in a guttural, electronically-scrambled voice. "And release the hovering Rodain at once, rogue Jedi!"

The blinding light disappeared now fully, but intense spots still danced before my eyes as the armed figures resolved into laboriously armored Republic soldiers...I saw the distinctive orange-striped plastoid shells and felt my breath seize. Republic enforcers should have no jurisdiction this deep in Hutt-controlled space...unless operating under intimate sanction by Kiro himself.

"I said drop your weapons and release the Rodain, Freak!" The lead soldier's mask atmospherically distorted his already gruff tones into an inhuman rasp. He balanced his blaster rifle at Kei's hovering, insensate form. "Complicate this any further and your drunken associate gets ventilated!"

Yoshirii snarled audibly, blasters held at her sides but making no overtly threatening moves just yet. Reaching out through the Force, I could sense her anger and confusion surging in tandem with my own at this wholly unexpected confrontation. The rusty ship was mere yards away from us.

Before I could attempt to diffuse the volatile circumstances through persuasion or more...aggressive means, one of the other masked troopers shifted his aim directly toward Yoshirii's unmoving figure. "You... I recognize that sexy little Rodian tail anywhere...Yo-Kriffing-Shirii." His electronically scrambled voice took on an unbroken specific stare that instantly set me on edge.

"Been a while since I had you bent to my boot heels on Ando Prim, hasn't it?" The leering chuckle that followed positively dripped with sadistic cruelty. Yoshirii stiffened almost imperceptibly, twin blasters rising fractionally as though by instinct. "Thrakk..." she hissed the name through gritted teeth with enough venom to strip paint.

I felt the Force itself shudder with her suddenly incandescent fury and resentment. My shoto saber seemed to throb with unfamiliar empathetic rage in my clenched palm. The lead enforcer viewed his subordinate with a long regard I couldn't quite interpret behind his mask's opaque visor.

"You know this space trash, Thrakk? Fraternize with its kind often, do you?" Thrakk simply grunted and gestured towards Yoshirii with his rifle. "Just some treacherous, backstabbing Rim rat without any ethical core--tried cozying up with me a couple years back...Still got the scars and the hole in my bank account kriffing my behind daily, sir."

Yoshirii erupted in a bark of sardonic laughter, all traces of her previous melancholy or guardedness melting away in the face of this embodiment of degradation. "You arrogant scruffy-looking spice-guzzler couldn't even get it--" Thrakks tough demeanor vanished in an instant. "You'll pay for that cheeky tongue yet again!" He started to raise his rifle, only for the lead enforcer to lash out with a gauntleted hand and shove it back down.

"Keep it together, soldier," the commander snarled in a tone of strained control. "For now." He then turned his masked gaze back to Yoshirii and me, the posture of the 13 troopers behind the lead man subtly shifting to a more threatening and belligerent stance.

"Now... I'll only ask one time...What is a rogue Jedi doing near a known Hutt hideout?" There was no mistaking the deadly earnestness in his artificial baritone this time. Despite the odds rapidly stacking against us, I couldn't resist a slight curl of the beak as I broadcasted my response directly into his mind through the Force.

(Don't even think you have the slightest conception of what true power and dominance feel like...) Cold sweat immediately beaded the commander's masked brow as the psychic onslaught drilled into his consciousness relentlessly. (All those petty delusions of authority you cloak yourself in cannot begin to insulate you from the consequences of rousing a prince of the ancient ways...)

With a silent snarl of effort, I unleashed my pent-up energies in a sudden torrent of kinetic force. The entire squad of troopers was lifted and hurled backward like leaves on a gale, grinding up plumes of coarse sand as they skidded across the dunes pleasingly. Thrakk's mocking laughter was cut off in a gurgling yelp as his armored form cartwheeled through the air to slam with bone-shattering impact into an outcropping of boulders nearby.

Not waiting for them to recover, I spun to Yoshirii whose expression had shifted to one of feral, vindictive delight. "Let's make this quick." With a vicious smile of anticipation, the Rodian huntress snapped off a blindingly fast double tap from her twin blasters toward the peeking soldier Thrakk in a merciless instant. (One)

Two more of the rising troopers were drilled back into the sand in seconds, armor slagged and smoking from the searing plasma impacts. In the same fluid motion, Yoshirii hurled herself into a sidewinding leap, twisting through the air to bring the butt of one blaster pistol crushingly down onto the exposed jaw of another trooper in a sickening crunch of human bone onto his own helmet but staying alive. (Three...)

He crumpled like a string-cut marionette, only for Yoshirii to pivot mid-crouch and take his falling comrade's legs out from under him with a scything sweep of her lithe limbs as he tried to ambush her from behind a rock. I had to concede a surge of fierce pride as I watched her cruel onslaught evolve, the man quickly fell into a brief grapple ending with her shooting him with his own rifle. (FOUR.) "Aim for the Jedi!"

For all her irreverent teasing and easygoing magnetism, she was an artisan of death unlinked to the Force's yarns of destiny. Forged in the Rim's most ruthless battle pits and back-alley shooting galleries. I brought my shoto lightsaber's blade snarling to golden life just as the remaining 6 troopers rallied behind their chief and opened up with a punishing barrage of blaster fire in quick succession.

Moving with all the preternatural speed and lethality I possessed, deft hands began an arcing deflection pattern interwoven with nimble steps forward through puffing sand. A hasty overcharged bolt was angled back to drill through the knee plates of one trooper, sending him crashing to the ground in a shower of sparks and screams. "Tucker! YOU IDIOT'S, AIM FOR HIS--"

Running up to the group I let loose a searing riposte that tracked across the chest plate of a second enlistee, her scream of agony cut off as the super-heated beam scrambled its way to her heart within moments. (Five..Halfway, Captain.) Through it all, Yoshirii ducked and weaved with deadly precise movements while returning cover fire.

A dazzling flurry of disabling shots dropped two more troopers before they could mount an effective defense. (Seven) Only the lead commander and a handful of his squad remained combat-effective now, falling back into a tight perimeter. (I feel your dread...who truly is the scum, captain?)

"Open fire, damn you scabs!" the commander screamed through his mask's vocal distorter in obvious panic as Yoshirii and I closed the distance like symbiotic forces of Tatooine nature. "That's an order!"

To his surprise, rather than lay down the expected disciplined crossfire, his troopers hesitated, exchanging uncertain looks as their leader's composure rapidly unraveled. "DO IT, YOU MISERABLE BASTARDS! KILL THEM!" (They understand power...why do you resist?)

With a contemptuous sneer, I reached out with the Force to seize the commander's throat in a vise of crackling dark energy. With a negligent backhand, I hoisted him into the air, kicking and gagging while his remaining men could only watch in horror as his armored form dangled helplessly, my will pulling the helmet from his head violently.

He was an average-looking human...ugly and fleshy. "You wield that word 'order' as though it still holds meaning in this desolate place, far beyond your vaunted Republic's writ," I mocked him in a low, resonating tone this time out loud.

"The only 'order' that matters now is that you beg for your worthless life... beg for it!" His wide blue eyes bulged bloodily with terror and frantic efforts as I noosed the telekinetic stranglehold even tighter around his weak little neck. Sensing his desperation, his soldiers started to bring their blasters tentatively to advance, only for a sudden explosive fusillade from Yoshirii's rain of blaster fire to drive them back to full cover once more but they fell dead in their tracks. (Ten, the others are free to die of exposure...)

"P-please..." the commander's regular voice garbled audibly, limbs twitching spasmodically. "M-mercy..." At those meager words, I felt a rush of disgust at his craven lack of resolve or higher calling. With a lax flick of my other hand, I flung his battered body carelessly to my feet like a ragdoll, heart still beating but only just. "You are nothing, no one will look for you...Filth"

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Yoshirii stalked forward with untamed elegance to stand at my side, pistols held rakishly loose but her entire posture radiating deadly intent. "Can you get this over with--I did way more than you today." She began to primp her short white hair that had fallen from the sandy wraps covering her head. "Why certainly..." I lifted my Beskar-replaced prosthetic foot slowly above the man's exposed cranium, then slammed it down powerfully nearly severing his spine with the first stomp...the next 4 were simply for the trouble he caused.

I shot her an askance look as we turned to regard Kei's now sand-blanketed unconscious form. "You knew those men, then? The one called 'Thrakk' in particular?"

She shrugged a shoulder equivocally. "More like he thought he knew me -- have a bit of a reputation..." Her lips curled into a simple sardonic smile utterly lacking in spirit. "Let's just leave it like he is...dead."

I could only nod slowly, digesting this disturbing new facet of her background even as my adrenaline cooled. "No wonder Kei does not allow other men to join your little group." I playfully said, snapping my blade off with a hiss.

Yoshirii shot me a glance, the dying light painting her nubbed features in stark crimson and green tones. "Because I'm not a moody virgin? I guess so..." She punctuated the offhand remark by holstering her smoking and drained blasters. The thrill of our recent battle still coursing through my veins like rushing waterfalls of Dantooine, I drank in every tantalizing detail of her supple yet firm shape --the way her armored plates shifted with each sway of her hips, the electrifying scent of ozone and blaster discharge clinging to her gorgeous turquoise sweat-slicked complexion.

All my lifelong Sith training, all the dogmatic teachings fell away as I claimed her in a sudden, searing embrace. It was as if the desert air itself had manifested into a torrent of unleashed passion and desire, smothering me in its intensity like a black hole's gravitational pull.

Time slowed to a crawl as we sank into the unrestrained expression of necessity, hearts reverberating in sync. I had never known such intimacy, having forsaken those depths of connection long ago on my path to mastery of the Force. This brash, fearless Rodain was a kindred spirit forged by acrimony and brutality like myself, I couldn't forbid the similar beat of our now-in-rhythm nuclei, I could no longer deny the ablaze nature of our intermingled souls.

Her warmth, her softness, and the smoldering assertiveness in those bright sparkling azure eyes seared away every last vestige of control I had been pushing to keep since I had first laid eyes on her. When we ultimately gently parted, chests heaving, I felt something primal awaken.

As if we had crossed an Event Horizon, forever altering the trajectories of our fates with that unrestrained expression of attachment. Yoshirii's thumb traced my scar running down my face from Zinn's blade many years ago like delicate penciling of a sketch. Her gaze was molten with tender carnal starvation as much as the growing attachment we seemed to be building for one another. "Tell me you feel this too," she whispered softly, near-silent voice airless with unspent craving. "Please don't leave me, Filo..."

My throat constricted as waves of exotic sentiment. For so long I had convinced myself that the Dark Path could only be roamed in seclusion, free of such mortal lariats and temporal devotions...even thinking the Jedi were only right on such an uncomplicated taboo.

Now, with this woman offering her essence so sincerely, I realized how empty and hollow that path was without the crucible of true connection to strengthen and guide me. "Yoshirii I...I-" The true terms still escaped me, my hands gripping near the small of her back with the loss of vernacular.

She alone had seen the man beneath the Sith veneer and quickly received me at my most unguarded and uncompromising moment yet. In doing so, she gutted me more thoroughly than any lightsaber or blaster ever could could. I tremored ever so slightly, caught unwittingly between warring urges to flee from this dangerous precipice, or to hurl myself over the edge into her ardent embrace for an eternity.

"It's okay, words are for senators and Jedi." Her breath was a scorching gossip across my skin as she leaned in, lust-fraught words and fevered lips leaving tacit oaths of silence on the matter. I surrendered to instinct then, letting my actions answer as I crushed her against me once more while she showered my scarred face in tiny kisses that tickled my calloused flesh.

This time our joined bodies were the binary Tatooine suns' given form--fueled by our perpendicular years of deprivation, of shuttered yearnings violently made manifest between two heavenly bodies passing through the universe in tight rotations.

My Hands roamed with wanton exploration, her Kisses spiraling into a heated exchange of ragged gasps as we drank each other in with wild, selfish abandon. The atmosphere seemed to groan around us with the weight of such potent emotional resonance unleashed as we tumbled to the sandy floor flared by her gasping giggles of joy filling the air. "I've never met anyone like you, Yoshirii..."

We clung together forcefully, heedless of our surroundings, oblivious to anything but the clashing waves of desire and fear blending into something rudimentary...something boundless. All of my doubts, my self-denial of mortal frailty, burned away like chaff in the searing crucible of Yoshirii's passionate deliverance of connection.

When Kei's drunken mumbling finally shattered the tangible fiction, we broke apart instantaneously-- both physically and spiritually demilitarized, permanently converted by what had just transpired between us. Yoshirii spun away, body taut with the effort of regaining poise, cheeks flushed with the junctures ardor still pounding behind her scaled skin. "Kriff, I forgot he was there..." Her voice was now much more emboldened by our detachment.

I simply stood there, unmoored and adrift in the wake of the desire we had so recklessly unleashed upon one another. Deep within though, I sensed the first faint signs of something vital igniting--the dawning realization of purpose, of meaning that could only be grasped by striding willingly into the heart of such unrestrained tantric communion once more.

Whatever cataclysmic upheavals the future now held, violent redemption or annihilating inferno, one reality had been seared into the core of my being in the aftermath of that primal merging of souls: Yoshirii alone had pierced through my vaunted solitude and self-professed dispassion, awakening the person within the monster I had allowed myself to become.

Seeing her stripped vulnerability I had so foolishly bared before her in the aftermath of our joining, Yoshirii embodied that force in a way I could no longer constrain. "I struggle to care if he is." I let slip before dusting myself off slightly.

She walked away from me with a sound halfway between a growl and a snarl, suddenly ablaze with righteous indignation. "I swear, Kei... if the timing of your return to the waking world isn't the most cucked punchline a lady could ask for!"

With a supreme effort, I managed to tear my senses from the alluring vortex of sensations calling to me and gather my composure into a stoic mask once more. "Perhaps another time..." I stated simply, letting the lingering threads of invitation hang unspoken between us.

With a shuddering breath, Yoshiiri simply flickered her antennae curtly, features impassive once more as she began to rain a volley of mocking blows and expletives down on her blearily reforming brother.

As their bickering receded into welcome background noise, I cast one last look back across the vast, unforgiving ocean of undulating sand stretching away before us. Solely the imaginary indistinct silhouettes of Kiro's palace and dunes bore witness to the whiplash of violence and frenzied adoration now receding in our wake.

Whatever the future held, there was no denying the stakes had been irreversibly raised — not just for finding some path to dismantling Cognus' machinations, but to navigate the shifting tides of emotion that now seemed inexorably destined to entangle us all in ways I could scarcely begin to fathom.

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

The battered freighter's motors grumbled to life with a bone-rattling whine, vibrations coursing through the deck plating beneath my feet. Strapped into the pilot's station, Yoshirii executed the preflight sequence with a deft flurry of hands across the controls.

"Repulsors cycled and holding...Come on, come on..." she announced tersely. Over her shoulder, Kei sat slumped in the gunner's chair nursing what was undoubtedly a skull-rattling inebriant hangover. At my silence, his bleary rounded eyes squinted in a grimace of anguish as I rapped my armored knuckles against the bulkhead for emphasis. "I trust you're sufficiently rejuvenated to keep your wits about you for this crucial operation?"

My tone dripped with patented disdain, prompting an inarticulate groan from the dazed Rodian brute. "How...how d'you expect me to pull off some kind of suicide hostage crisis 'gainst the whole fragging Banking Clan empire when I can't even keep down a simple third-pint ale?" He clutched his cranial horns like a lifeline against the pounding undoubtedly reverberating through his skull.

"Because, dear ignoramus, what we're about to undertake makes ransoming off some over-privileged merchant dynasty heir seem like a mere overture compared to the grand finale." I sketched out a series of telemetric readouts across the navicomputer's displays, highlighting our intended target trajectories over the next few days.

"Our primary objective will, in fact, be the most brazen and unforgivable violation of Republic sovereignty that could possibly be concocted." Kei squinted at the charts quizzically for a long moment before realization slowly crept across his unappealing features.

"Wait, are you saying we're going to... sweet spirits, you've finally lost your fucking mind!" He threw up his hands, shooting his sister a pleading look. "Tell me this loser isn't serious, Yosh!" Yoshirii simply shrugged in a carefully measured display of nonchalance, fingers still flitting precisely across the instrument panels with a slight ting of joy. "Crazy or not, the plan certainly bears all the hallmarks of Filo's usual bold flair for dumb gimmicks..."

Despite her outward air of studied calm, I detected the barest undercurrent of trepidation through her aura in the Force. Lingering aftereffects of our impassioned confrontation in the Tatooine wastes, most likely. With an inward sigh, I reinforced my mental barriers and centered my consciousness on the grand task lying before us more concentrated.

"Indeed. Thanks to the fruits of our... aggressive postulations back on that desolate rock ball, we now possess the intelligence required to execute a maneuver that will deal a crippling blow to the Republic elite's sense of security and superiority in one deft strike." Turning from Kei's dumbstruck look of disbelief, I magnified a secondary representation from the star charts directly onto the forward canopy in a stark crimson projection.

Multiple telemetric vectors outlined a series of hyperspace jaunts inward through the Corellian Trade Spine, ultimately intersecting around a large, unmistakable stellar body dominating the galactic core. "The Chancellor and the entire Senate Bureau of Intelligence have an incoming secure communique indicating their annual economic summit with the magnates of the core world financial cartels is but a week and a half out."

Yoshirii caught my meaning instantly, allowing herself an undomesticated grin as her luminous blue eyes shone with approval. "Pulling a heist while the whole pack of nexus families are penned up in one cozy Coruscant nest? Kriff," Kei, however, seemed less grasped by such grand visions of daring sabotage.

A scaly suctioncupped hand went to his crestfallen brow as he groaned audibly. "Oh no... no-no-no... this ain't just a heist, or a ransom grab, or any of those deliciously tame stunts we used to get paid credits for back on Corellia!" I afforded him a look of mock patience, steepling my fingers across the front of my mask. "Go on, then. Dazzle us with your uncharacteristic grasp of the bigger picture playing out here."

Shooting me a toxic glare, Kei levered himself heavily to his feet and gestured adamantly at the Navicomp projection with one arm. "Coruscant, the capital planet of the whole kriffing Galactic Republic and the largest, best-defended military-industrial hub across all the Bright Worlds, brimming with JEDI!!"

He punctuated the outcry with a racking cough before raking his horns despondently. "I mean, sure... we could afford some guns-for-credit muscle if this was just a subtle, routine smash-and-grab on some obscure Rim colony or shadowport. But staging a kidnapping strike at the very beating heart of the civilized galaxy itself?" His voice dropped to a nihilistic murmur. "That's a massively fatal level of psycho right there...even for you."

Beside me, Yoshirii's mouth had tightened into a grim slash of determination, all trace of levity vanished. "Maybe so... but my gut says our overly melodramatic buddy here has carefully weighed the risks versus the payout." I felt her meaningful stare on the side of my countenance, prompting me to meet vivid azure eyes for a brief yet loaded instant.

Despite the soul-shattering revelations we'd both endured regarding my genesis as an unwitting pawn to Cognus' blasphemous intrigues, her faith in my convictions and cause appeared unshaken. With a slight inclination of my head, I shifted my gaze back to the telemetric projections encapsulated above.

"Indeed, but fortune undoubtedly favors the foolhardy in this case, as well. For you see, the Republic summit with its entrenched corporate counterweights in the Banking Clan cannot possibly be allowed to proceed unmolested due to its serendipitous timing...The reason behind why I offered so easily to the Hutt it would be done."

My augmented voice dropped to a conspiratorial drone, resonating with the subtle intonations of the Dark Side itself as I outlined my stratagem in lurid fragments. "While the greatest forces and affluent influences across the galaxy are congregated on Coruscant to indulge in their ritual dance of politico-economic dominance, it provides a singularly unique opportunity to compromise the very nerve center from which their influence and hubris stems..."

I gestured for emphasis, heart hammering with equal portions of contingency determination and unvented adrenaline. "During the peak of the summit's proceedings, me and Yoshirii will affect a strategic insertion into the Senate Rotunda through De'duss Trazzack and De'busk--and then leverage the uppermost corporate vault levels of the Banking Clan's sovereign chamber held as a ploy, meant to distract them from their little retreat."

Yoshirii's eyes widened infinitesimally as the full, dizzying scope took shape. Even Kei's pinpricked scales seemed to dilate in captive astonishment despite his blustering doubts. "Simultaneous shock waves shall reverberate across the Republic as our contingents achieve irreversible fiats, getting the attention of the Jedi." I continued in a fevered crescendo. "In the chaos of them suspecting a run on the bank itself, we apprehend none other than Chancellor Vosk as an unconditional hostage for our, again, artificial demands...There is no way they can balance their greed with their want to save her--"

I paused to let the weight of those words linger before gesturing toward the other vector with a flourish. "While concurrently, you will have already captured a certain high-value noble's offspring from the Banking Clan's wealthiest family's private quarters...due to the first feint and hold of the chancellor as a trade for your escape it will be easy. The culmination of which is I take out Vosk and divert the blame to rogue Jedi, making our escape as galaxy-wide fugitives...well if we are unmasked that is."

The silence that followed in the wake of my appeal was profound, nearly suffocating in its weight. Yoshirii and Kei stared at me in numb shock, the magnitude of my pronouncement having clearly struck them to their cores.

It was the gruff Rodain male who found his voice first, struggling to enunciate coherently around his stupefied gasps. "You... you can't be serious. That's... that's an act of open, naked aggression against the Republic itself! Do you have any idea the fleets they could bring down on us for a violation like that, even supposing we could pull off the infiltrations themselves?"

Snarling vehemently, he leaned in towards me with alarming vigor. "They'd glass every damned unaligned settlement and shadowport along the Rim from here to Jaaku just looking for us! No crew in the galaxy is crazy enough to go to those extremes for any kind of payday!" An odd sense of lightness and liberation welled up from within me, unburdening tensions I hadn't even realized festered.

Holding up a mollifying hand, I allowed the barest wisp of a smirk to curl my cheeks. "Such is precisely the delicious irony, dear Kei. For you see, this grandly subversive endeavor would be simply blamed on Kiro after he announces his plan of ransom." I paused to let the weight of that sink in before driving the thrust home with a knowing look. "In essence, the Republic shall be crippled and held hostage... by nothing more than an exaggerated expression of its own overreaching institutions not culling real criminals."

I could practically hear the sharp intakes of breath coming from them both as the full implications of my words floated in the air much like before. Rather than dread, however, Yoshiiri's eyes blazed forth with the fanatic zeal of one who recognizes destiny's grand prelude before fate's boon. " It'll be more than just wealth or payoffs we'll have seized..." Her voice rang with a hushed epiphany. "We could hold the whole corrupt system's double-dealings and injustices up for the entire galaxy to see, without even doing much!"

I allowed myself a measured nod of approval. "How much fear would it instill for them, to tell the truth...they will be forced to lie or admit they are not invincible paragons of peace" Kei opened his mouth again, no doubt to vociferate another round of dissent, but seemed to reconsider at the last moment.

A haunted look stole across his rugged features as he glanced between his younger sister and me as if suddenly realizing this could potentially be his final chance to sway our fates away from such a monolithic gamble.

Finally, his shoulders slumped in resignation. "Ah to hell with it all. None of us are likely to live long enough to see next month anyways..." With that, he sank back into his seat and laced his fingers across his broad torso in a feigned display of indolent languor.

"But don't think I won't be keeping score of just how many near-death experiences and suicide sprints I'm owed hazard pay for after this!" Beside me, Yoshirii chuckled darkly as she snapped the final pre-hyperdrive flight sequences into action. "Oh trust me,...if we manage to survive this one, your wildest spice-fueled dreams won't even compare to the rewards we'll all will get, right Fi." Her voice held the same tone as the desert night we shared--Yoshirii's willingness to lie to her brother filled me with hope as there was no true payout but autonomy and a future of being constantly if my plan went correctly in my favor.

A profound sense of tranquility settled over me at his last grudging acceptance, lancing away any lingering doubts. The die was now well and frankly cast. Soon, the gilded brilliant heart of the Republic and its corporate masters would beat in grievous terror as their supremacy crumbled beneath the rising tide of destiny foretold.

At the vanguard of that seismic disruption in the Force would stand Cognus' former prized pupil... made indomitable and unquestioned through the very codes of subjugation and control she'd sought to enmesh me in for so long.

The cold, keening sensation of hate and triumph warred in my blood like a narcotic as I secured myself in the gunner's alcove adjacent to Yoshirii's station. As the acknowledged fulcrum of this exquisitely double-edged scheme, only one course of action remained to me now...

To strike unflinchingly for my own ascendance -- no matter whose fallacious creed or antiquated power base dared stand in opposition. For once that first, uncompromising line across the realms of galactic peace and prosperity was breached, there would assuredly be no turning back.

At least, not until every last vestige of weakness, doubt, and deception had been purged permanently... in a cauterizing blaze of Dark Revelations. That would be my eternal Covenant, absolute and unbending. To utterly annihilate every hypocritical weakness and hollow platitude left hindering galactic freedom through the reinvigorating cataclysm I was about to unleash.

The freighter's ion jets hissed and flared, thrusters straining as we banked into our opening hyperspace trajectory. The mottled energies of the shining void began to distort around our bow. After the chaos was over and the pyre of consequences had been allowed to burn itself out... only the truest and worthiest of champions would remain to cultivate a more perfect existence from civilization's soot-choked ashes.

If this was not my destiny...may the Galaxy shatter to nothing.