SithLore

The Firehawk flew out of the Hydra’s hangar and entered hyperspace. Rhoden had been looking into Lady Kota’s whereabouts for the past few weeks, rumors, records, and the like had provided some insight. He was currently heading into Mandalorian space where he would hopefully find the woman herself or more clues as to her location. His hope to find her was partially to look into her supposed crimes, which were a length list all their own, but largely fueled by her being his cousin--albeit a distant one.

Rhoden had spent a particularly agitating week poking around Kessel in an attempt to locate the debris of a ship she had formerly owned, but he had found nothing. His lip twitched in a smile as he remembered the rant he had gone on upon returning to the Hydra. He was also concerned with the implication of the ship’s no longer being there. It could have been carried away by some opportunist, of course, but he was more inclined to believe that its owner had returned for it. While he had been away his teams and informants had managed to provide some more useful data to come to some conclusion, and he was currently investigating the latest in a line of hopeful looking notes.

Rhoden had brought his droids, Dot, Shadow, and Stalker who rarely left the Firehawk in any case. Ravager stood in his usual position concealed behind a panel, as was his Droideka. He had also, due to the nature of his mission, brought two ysalamir along as well. Aside from the droids and ysalamir Rhoden had only brought along his longtime friend--and not-strictly Imperial--Jorvan. “Your family’s messed up, Rhoden.” Jorvan said from the co-pilot’s seat. “What, the trying to kill me part, or the all getting themselves killed part.” he asked in response, “All of it. Including the whole thing you have about hunting down family members.” Jorvan replied. Rhoden glared at Jorvan, “I don’t have a thing about hunting down family members!” he said. Jorvan gave a look of surprise, “Your father, your sister, your sister again, Kota.” he said, counting off a list. Rhoden cursed and brought the ship out of hyperspace as Jorvan laughed beside him.

The swirls of hyperspace became starlines, stars. There was a system relatively nearby, but far outside of normal sensor range. There was the usual scattering of asteroids and small debris contained in the farthest most reaches of a solar system. “Initiating sweep.” Jorvan said, flipping a few switches. The Firehawk’s sensor panel lit up as the various pieces of rock and ice were mapped.

Dot floated in and connected to the panel at Rhoden’s request, beeping softly to himself. The droid gave a sharp beep and Rhoden looked up. There was a large ship out there, a Dreadnaught-class cruiser. Rhoden checked the sensor, its transponder identified it as the Sedaya Kash. Rhoden keyed his comm system. “Sedaya Kash this is Firehawk, please respond.” Rhoden said, his mouth going dry. This was stupid, this was ridiculous, but it was a bit late to be having second thoughts. Rhoden ran through a mental checklist, the ysalamir sat just behind their chairs, Dot could connect to the back of Rhoden’s armor, and they both carried their personal shield generators, blasters, vibroblades, and an array of special equipment between them--particularly explosives. Hopefully none of the gear would prove necessary.

The Kash was moving around mandalorian space, mainly just seeing who needed help where. Noises came from the officer at the coms, different sounds from the radar officer. "Bring it up." Grand Admiral Tann said. “Sedaya Kash this is Firehawk, please respond.” Rhoden said over the com. Tann sighed he had been warned that this person was coming, he motioned for the coms officer to put him on. "This is Grand Admiral Tann, who are you and what do you want?" He asked over the com. He made some other motions for them to notify Kota as well as get men into position.

She felt the beeps from her coms, the nut job was here. Kota sighed, she still wasn't ready for this, she didn't understand what it was that Rhoden hoped to gain from this encounter. Also she had to act like she didn't know what he was here to do, which would be fun. Kota made her way to the bridge, she signaled Ragar to keep her grandfather and child away from this man. Who knew what was going to happen with this man.

Rhoden pursed his lips and swallowed nervously, "Rhoden Carbine. I've recently found out about a relation I never knew I had, I believe she's on your ship there." he said, "She's got a cousin in me, and a grandfather recently retired." If they weren't in the mood to talk, of course, they could just blow him and Jorvan to atoms. If they were in the mood to talk Rhoden had the uneasy feeling it would be in an interrogation chamber or a dull cell.

Rhoden held his course, but slowed the ship considerably to give the other ship time to respond before Rhoden moved any closer than he had too--more a caution against scraping the hull of being forced to request docking than any notion of remaining outside of their range. Shadow rolled into the cockpit and gave several beeps, swiveled his head to see the sensor readings and gave a mournful whistle, he turned and rolled away to presumably make an attempt at hiding himself.

"And what exactly do you want?" Tann asked over the com. He was acting as he should, not simply going to allow someone to land on the dreadnaught who made such claims. Lady Kota made the bridge. "What's going on?" She asked, her voice could be heard over the com. "Someone named Rhoden Carbine making a claim that he is some cousin and that you have a retired grandfather." Tann said, his voice too could be heard.

"Who are you what do you want?" She asked over the com this time. It wasn't like she didn't know, this was for show. Kota would pretend to play stupid for the sake of keeping the Identity of the grand Inquisitor separate from her. So Kota was being herself here, which was very anti imperial. Her voice was different than the grand Inquisitor due to the voice changer in the helm.

~Mandalorian Space~

A large Action V dropped out of hyperspace almost right on top of the Firehawk. It was the flag ship of Black Star System’s and Ryder personal mobile command hub. He was here to visit Kota, there was always something the two could converse about and since they shared a similar secret Ryder had felt it would be good to continue to keep friendly relations.

“Admiral Tann,” Ryder spoke into comms. “This is Ryder, may I come aboard?”

One of the bridge crew turned toward their leader. “Sir we are picking up a YT-2000, designation FireHawk,” the young man spoke. “It looks as tho we almost collided with it.”

Firehawk... Ryder recognized the name as one of Commander Carbine’s personal vessels. Had the empire tracked her down? But such a small vessel would never be able to take on Kota’s vessel.

He was broken from his thoughts as a signal was received notifying them that the Black Star could pull along side the Kash and extend a docking tube. Ryder guessed the reason there was no verbal response was because they were communicating with the YT.

Within several minutes the large freighter pulled up the warship and extended its boarding tube to meet the Kash’s.

"Action V transport, right on top of us!" Jorvan snapped as Dot beeped in alarm. The ship dropped out of hyperspace--indeed--right on top of them. Rhoden's eyes hardened for the briefest of moments before the ship moved off and docked with the Dreadnaught. "Confirmed identity, Rhoden." Jorvan said, his voice dark. Rhoden glanced at the information and smiled coldly, it appeared Black Star knew of the Lady Kota, more than they should anyways.

Rhoden noted there was a certain familiarity to the woman's voice, but he couldn't place where he might have gotten that impression from. He would reserve further such analysis until he, hopefully, met her in person.

"Well, you have just confirmed not only the presence of my dear cousin, but that you somehow knew my identity. I must congratulate you on your informants." Rhoden said. He had not mentioned Kota yet already the man had known, far from cooincidence, and disturning. If they had had time to prepare for his arrival--and worse still deemed him a liability--the whole trip might take a turn for the worst.

"Now I want only to meet her." he said, "A simple meeting, nothing more." Rhoden looked over at Dot who had swiveled around and fixed him with his glowing red eye. "I would, of course, submit to any security precautions you request--within reason." Rhoden looked out at the Dreadnaught, willing them to not blow the Firehawk into atoms.

Kota was not amused by Rhoden. "Anyone with anything on me or my crew knows that I am the only female on this ship and you said your name that makes it easy to confirm your identification with a ship scan. Who exactly do you take me for Imperial? Yes I know that to, your file is glaring at my screen." She said over the com. There was a pause as she got word that rev had shown up to board. 'Great what does he want?' She thought.

"Board with the action v, my men will be waiting. You had better not waste my time Imperial or I will ship you back to the Empire in pieces." She said. Kota got up after she shut the com off. Tann followed closely, any man that wasn't essential to running the ship just about was called to the docking Bay. It seemed as though they were to receive guests.

"Yes, but are you the female I am looking for, I suspect you are?" Rhoden said, "I take you to be Lady Kota. Daughter of Samuel Carbine--later known as Darth Necrantor, now deceased." Rhoden said, making the statement of her father in an annoyed tone. It was unacceptable that a Carbine had become a Sith, but the problem was corrected. "Samuel Carbine was the son of Roger Carbine, Imperial Naval officer, now retired, still alive. And that makes you, Lady Kota, my cousin along with all the benefits being a member of the Carbine family implies." Rhoden said, noting in the back of his mind that the benefits would appear to be of little consequence to Kota.

Rhoden smiled to himself, though nervously, as he was told to dock, "Acknowledged." he said, wondering when threats against his remaining in one piece had become a common occurrence. He scowled to himself as his all-to-frequent run-ins with Sith flashed through his mind. There was a small lurch as the ship docked, and Rhoden walked up and stood on the edge of the seal connecting his ship to the transport. Jorvan stood beside him, his helmet on. Dot had clamped himself to Rhoden's back and stood ready to activate the personal shield if it became necessary, likewise both Rhoden and Jorvan carried ysalamir over their shoulders. Rhoden, unlike Jorvan, chose to show trust, or perhaps confidence, and left his helmet off. He only hoped they would not object to the ysalamir, or would not take the presence of them in the wrong way. He stepped forward, his blaster not in his hand, Jorvan at least kept his blaster holstered as well.

Ryder marched through the airlock and down the tube that now connected the Black Star and the Kash. It meant he’d not pop out in the docking bay but one of the air locks not far from it. The gap was closed and the business man stepped through the dreadnoughts receiving airlock. He was wearing his usual black trench coat with a Kuat style dress cloths on underneath

Upon entering the Kash, Ryder was met by armed crew who proceeded to lead him to the docking bay. It seemed that Kota had allowed the Imperial YT to land. He couldn’t help but wonder why she allowed it to or why the Commander was here at all. He figured he’d get his answers soon enough, then he could proceed to get on with the business he had with the Lady.

As Rhoden got out several Alien weapons were pointed at him, if he moved he would be most likely killed. She felt it coming as she drew closer to the docking bay, ysalamiri bubble, for her it was unmistakable. Kota had trained herself outside the force with them, she even had them as pets. "Look at the Imperial he's got ysalamiri men. (Several alien laugh) Proof Imperial that what you say is true." She said as she moved closer. She wasn't afraid of this man nor was she going to let him get the better of her.

She knew rev was there, but her main concern was that Rhoden provide proof of this bloodline. Kota knew it from the Sith holocron, but he didn't. If he didn't have proof this meeting would go badly, she couldn't be kind to him. It was simply principal, besides there still hadn't been anyone else in the Empire worth her trust since taking up the mantle of grand Inquisitor.