Strike First, Strike Hard (Kita/Warv)

[Kell Sangros]

He nodded when asked about the food pack “Eat up” He was still working on his own food pack as the crackle of the fire was the only real sound in the cave. When she brought up the ruins, his expression turned into a bit of a frown.

“I cannot raise the shuttle” he began “or the pilots, when I stretch out with the Force I don’t sense them anyway near which means they got dumb and deserted or something happened and they are unable to answer.”

Of course he did not mention about the flagship enroute, the Magnetar but that was because he was not fully certain it was on its way.

“For now we should stay close to this cave. It’s a decent shelter and we have food and water and we can hold out for awhile” He told her.

Something did not feel right he could only hope the source would show itself.

[Kita_Ikari]

Food seemed to be a luxury to Kita over the past few weeks of training. Now at a more healthy weight, she didn't dare take any food brought her way for granted. Allowing herself to become that physically weak again was something she refused to allow if she could avoid it.

Opening her pack, she had already begun to enjoy the food happily as she listened to her battle teachers unfortunate news. “I cannot raise the shuttle or the pilots, when I stretch out with the Force I don’t sense them anyway near which means they got dumb and deserted or something happened and they are unable to answer.”

Forcing down to swallow her food first, Kita looked worriedly at Warvanus. "Why do u get the feeling its the second option?" She replied seriously.

“For now we should stay close to this cave. It’s a decent shelter and we have food and water and we can hold out for awhile.”

Kita didn't wish to stay in the cave longer then they had too. "Question is...how long will the supplies last us?" She set her food down and crossed her arms tilting her head with a frown. "We can't stay here forever you know. Eventually we have to figure out a way to escape this frozen wasteland." She paused briefly before continuing. "It might have been suitable enough for the Sith lord who ruled this land...but its not exactly a paradise for us to live in permanently. We are not prepared."

[Kell Sangros]

Warvanus looked at his food pack and then at the fire ”Just a feeling, when I reach out for them I get nothing” He said and for now would offer no more on the subject.

"Question is...how long will the supplies last us?"

He rummaged through the packs counting the food-packs. ”Enough for a couple of weeks each if we don’t stretch it”

He finished his food pack and went back to the mouth of the cave. His thoughts were on his apprentice, wondering if she heard him but then he felt something. Not on the planet but a faint acknowledgement He had hoped he was not reading into it. In truth they could survive here much longer if need be.

“I reached out to my apprentice I think she got my message if she did the Magnetar should be here in a couple hours I didn’t say anything because I had no way of knowing if she got my message but I think she did”

Something was off with the Warrior King. The emergence of his past haunted his thoughts. He hated anything that reminded him of who he was before being apprenticed to Darth Tormentous.

”We can venture out, but I would not suggest going too far from this encampment, if we do could be very bad for us if we could not find our way back”

=Elsewhere=

The Hooded figure could have confronted the pair now stranded on Khar Delba but he had other designs, He had made it to his camp where his shuttle remained untouched. He climbed aboard the shuttle and began warmup and startup procedures, it was time to leave this world. The Unknown Regions called to him. Soon he would have Kell where he wanted him. The time was coming and for him it was enough.

He would make the preperations and then he would transfer his essence into the War-Bringer and he would inherit his powers as well as his own. He had a short period of time to make his preperations ,he must not fail.

[Kita_Ikari]

Clearly her teacher had no more to share on what he felt about their missing ship and crew. As he rummaged around and looked into the bag about their food supply, for some reason Kita had been expecting a lesser amount of food then just 2 weeks.

Watching as he got up to look out the entrance of the cave Kita listened as he talked about his apprentice. “I reached out to my apprentice I think she got my message if she did the Magnetar should be here in a couple hours I didn’t say anything because I had no way of knowing if she got my message but I think she did”

"Well that's reassuring. So we won't be meeting a frozen end then here." She replied.

”We can venture out, but I would not suggest going too far from this encampment, if we do could be very bad for us if we could not find our way back”

Resting a hand on her chin, she had a idea for them to explore further in the snow. "Do you got anything we can use as coloring to mark the snow? We can make a colored trail on the surface and that would lead us back to the cave." She chimed.

[Kell Sangros]

=Aboard the Magnetar=

The Magnetar had spent a couple hours enroute to Khar Delba, as the ship approached a Starfighter was detected leaving the planet’s orbit but before it could be tracked the ship entered Hyperspace. Kinta Vetasa stood at the bridge

“I apologize my Lord” a radar tech began

She raised her hand as to silence him “There was no way you could have tracked or hailed it had we been here a minute sooner would be a completely different conversation”

She felt the power of the occupant in that departing craft. It was not familiar to her so she knew it was not Darth Warvanus.

“Hail them” she said. She had provided Warvanus’ transponder frequency to the comms officer before they had departed Karza and then added “Have a shuttle prepared to disembark to the surface” having never taken her eyes off the view in front of her.

=On the Surface=

He had searched their supplies and found nothing that would help He took a pack and gave one to Kita ”If we get lost at least we wont starve to death”

With that he departed the cave the sky was blue and clear, the storm had erased any evidence of activity here. Trying to find the shuttle would be impossible, given if its still on-world.

He did not know how long they walked for, the cave was no longer in sight. They had arrived at the base of a large plateau or what was a plateau. He took his scanner out , hit a few buttons and have it run a scan. It came back with metallic readings. He looked at Kita.

“Something’s here” He said.

With that he started to dig their packs were ready for this environment so he had a small shovel. He cleared the snow and kept clearing the snow until the shovel hit something.

He cleared more in the surrounding area until he could make out something He looked and recognized it, and called Kita over to show her his findings

“This was our shuttle, if the pilots were inside they are dead” He said. This was not adding up to the War-Bringer. He looked up at the clear blue sky, something was amiss.

[Kita_Ikari]

Kita took the pack he tossed her and put it on without question. Obviously they most likely wouldn't be coming back to the cave.

Leaving the cave, Kita held her jacket closer to her as they began there trek through the snow. It came up to their knees at least and the young Sith apprentice found herself having a hard time trudging through the crystalized water. "Next time let's bring snow shoes so we don't sink in the snow." She said.

It had been a long while since they last left the cave. Her face was numb from the cold. She brought a hand up to her cheeks in hope to warm them up. But of course it wasn't of much help. "Warm...just think of something warm. Warvanus voice caught her attention from her thoughts.

"Something's here."

"What is it? Possibly the ruins we were looking for?" She watched as he started digging the snow away from whatever laid beneath the surface of it. Once the sound of metal was hit, she walked over to him and looked down at the metal vessel.

“This was our shuttle, if the pilots were inside they are dead.”

Kita frowned and closed her eyes, reaching out with the force to see if what Warvanus said was true. (Life sense) Sure enough he was right. There were no signs of life inside the ship. She opened her eyes and looked up at him worriedly. "Whatever happened...i don't think they died of natural causes." She replied.

[Kell Sangros]

"Whatever happened...i don't think they died of natural causes." She had said

He examined the bit of the wreckage in front of him as her words echoed in his mind, he did not want to admit it but he shared her suspicions, question was who? He slowly rose from squatting to examined the unearthed bit of the shuttle. It had been totally submerged and not worth the effort to dig it up, that is if there was any thought of getting it space bound. A possibility one he would keep in his mind.

“I agree” he said in the tone that revealed nothing because he had nothing more.

It could have been anyone, after a few moments he pointed in another direction. “Let’s go this way” With that he began walking.

It would be another hour before Warvanus’ comm crackled to life. “Master?, Are you there? This is the Magnetar” When it came to life he stopped dead in his tracks, and taking his comm he spoke to it.

“Apprentice? Do you read?”

“Yes Master, loud and clear”

“Hone in on our signal and bring us a shuttle” He wasted no time.

“Yes Master, I should make you aware that when we entered in system we saw another craft leave. We were unable to identify it but it was not one of ours, and best to our ability, that craft was heading towards the unknown regions”

Warvanus did not like that. Chances are his suspicions and the ones voiced by Kita were confirmed. “Understood, ETA on shuttle”

“Fifteen minutes its already enroute to you Master”


He nodded even though she could not see it. “I will see you shortly apprentice”

With that the comm went silent and he turned to look at Kita there was disappointment in his expression, not in Kita or how she handled herself but the overall mission aborted , if he returned he would bring his command ship next time. Something deep within the Force though told him there would not be a next time not for him.

“When our Master learns of this excursion, I will be sure to tell him how well you did” In that moment he made a decision about Kita. He had secrets that he had learned, ones he taught nobody not even Kinta Vetasa but with the Emperor’s new chosen, he would.

[Kita_Ikari]

"I agree."

Kita didn't smile due to the situation, but she was more then happy to hear he agreed with her. She wondered what exactly could of made a whole crew disappear and ship to be abandoned like this.

"Let's go this way.

She looked at where he pointed, and with a quick shift of her backpack she followed. After a hour of walking aimlessly in the snow, she turned to look at Warvanus as his comm turned on. Kita quickly recognized the voice as his apprentice from earlier at his Citadel. At the mention of the other ship, Kita frowned as she gave a worried look at Warvanus as he finished up his conversation with his apprentice. She took note of the look of dissapointment on his face.

“When our Master learns of this excursion, I will be sure to tell him how well you did.”

She tilted her head, nose and cheeks pink from the cold frost bitten air and smiled at his comment. But something was off about him in that moment. Approaching Warvanus she couldn't help but wonder what was going on through his mind. "What's wrong?"

[Kell Sangros]

The shuttle came down without incident and picked up its passengers and had returned to the Magnetar without incident. Warvanus wouldn’t answer her question for he did not know and he was not one to voice misgivings unless they were proven. This one wouldn’t be at least for now. Once returned to the citadel, and spent most of the time in meditation.

=Two Weeks Later=

Warvanus had seen much improvement in Kita over the last two weeks, she showed promise and with each day she proved that the Emperor chose wisely in not only sending her to him, but in choosing her as his newest apprentice. Warvanus was not in the Oasis when Kita would arrive for their training. He had decided two weeks earlier that he would teach her a special technique, one he had never taught to anyone not even to his own apprentice. Kita would find Warvanus in the beast pens. They were mostly empty, as Warvanus stood in front of a Rancor it was not a baby any longer but almost full grown. What would be more impressive would be how docile it was especially when Warvanus was near. He had recently returned from a trip, where he had acquired some new beasts. Mostly for feeding to the Rancor but not all his acquisitions were for Rancor food. Another thing that changed over the last couple weeks was the weight that weighed heavily on the mind of the Warrior-King.

Something was coming, a crossroads in the Force. He had to be ready for It he did not know what it would entail, but he knew it would take all his power and strength to do what the Dark Side willed of him.

[Kita_Ikari]

Not having her question answered bothered her as they both entered the ship. Kita wasn't sure why Warvanus wouldn't answer her, but she didn't bother to press the matter and ask again.

-Two Weeks Later-

She hadn't found him in the oasis and wondered where her battle master had been hiding. Kita used the force to sense out his presence and found him to be in the beast pens. She quietly approached him, eyes glancing at the Rancor in curiosity as she wondered why he was out here. "Glad I found you. I thought we were gonna have a battle session." She said calmly.