Oberst cocked his eyebrow at the creature before him, a small ball of fluff that would better suit as a pet for some spoiled noble on a soft planet. Droopy ears on the creature wiggled and it looked up at him with expressive eyes.

Muz shruged off the tendrils of the Force he had summoned to execute the ritual to move the journeyman's spirit. The ruined remains of a human body smoked slightly a few meters away, the scent of charred flesh and burnt ozone heavy in the throne room. The effort had stained the Kushiban's fur a dark crimson, a more appropriate color for a dark jedi, even one in so deceptive a form. The grand master's warcoat spun wide as he turned on his heel, regarding the Consul of Tarentum with a nod, restraining a laugh at the aristocrat's irritation.

<p>

The famed general narrowed his eye at the master. "Seriously?"

<p>

---

<p>

Kaek sat back in the chair, his boots resting casually on the desk. Rolling the lightsider's saber in his palm, he smiled. It was sublime to have ended his old foe's life, upholding the Long family's deathmark on the traitor.

His datapad beeped again, marking yet another message from his predecessor that he would ignore for the time being.

<p>

Korras waited for the door to fully open before stepping through, the last of the Obelisk High Commanders nodding at the Dark Councilor and his praetor as he took a seat. Anshar leaned against the wall, his eyes locked on his own datapad.

<p>

"I leave tomorrow." Kaek threw his feet back to the floor, leaning forward in his chair as he slammed the saber onto the desk. "So, I will need you both to keep order. Korras, you'll be in charge of the effort on Salas V."

<p>

Korras blinked, staring at the lightsaber hilt for a moment before standing up. "Understood." He turned to leave, his proximity to the door sensors commanding the doors to open as he stepped through it.

<p>

Kaek cleared his throat, Anshar snapping to attention and making his way to the door as well, sliding his datapad into a hip pouch quickly. He waited until the door sealed shut again before sliding open a drawer in his desk, pushing aside the datachips and pulling the tab that exposed the hidden chamber beneath the false bottom.

<p>

He retrieved the weapon slowly, careful not to bang it against the walls of the drawer, holding it up in the light as he examined it slowly, the culmination of three years work. He would actually need it on this next mission, even if things went as planned. His datapad chirped again, the alert he set himself for time reminding him to head for his ship. It was a long journey, and he had to time it just right for there to be any real chance of success.

<p>

---

<p>

His white hair splayed out sharply from within the dark hood, marking him immediately as soon as he stepped into the cantina. Loira leaned forward, trying to make eye contact from his booth on the far end of the room. It only took a few moments before he noticed him and made his way towards the dingy little booth, drink in hand.

<p>

He slid across the seat, the soft fabric of his robes gliding across the synthetic leather. "Mr. Loira..." The word was rich in sarcasm as he settled in.

<p>

"Pavan delivers yet again." The old man let his body language relax a bit, but his darting eyes betrayed his true intentions to the white-haired one.

<p>

"I wasn't followed." He offered. "Matter of fact, I have't been at Antei for months."

<p>

Loira sneered, tapping filthy fingernails on the table. "What happened to the Admiral?"

<p>

"Assassinated."

<p>

"And the damn fool Anzat thought he could survive anything that they could throw at him." Loira sighed, raising a hand to massage the bridge of his nose. He had warned Nekaka to use a double, but his advice went unheeded, and now his head would adorn the Dark Hall of Antei. Loira dropped his hand from his face, looking up at his companion's dark blue eyes. "What else have you heard?"

<p>

"He was summoned." The white-haired man leaned forward, his words taking on a conspiratorial tone.

<p>

"The admiral?"

<p>

"The Lion." He answered in hushed tones, biting his lip as he debated telling more.

<p>

Loira shook his head, his filthy hair rattling against his tattered and moldy jacket. "By who I think?"

<p>

The white haired man merely nodded. "It's getting too deep, old friend. You have to make the decision. Make your move, or let things lie."

<p>

Loira took a few healthy swallows of his drink before setting it down. "Is it time?"

<p>

---

<p>

"Our ideas, our ways are the same."

<p>

"Do you know the difference between you and I?" Muz spoke slowly, deliberately, looking at the armoured man from across a small table. He gave no response, save for the steel and crimson of his eyes, so Muz continued. "You became what defeated you."

<p>

There was a moment of stillness as the other man contemplated the words. "And you?" His voice was as gravel in a grinder.

<p>

"I refused to be defeated." Muz answered without emotion, cold as the void that lay three feet away, through the ship's hull where he had agreed to meet the man. "If your belief was strong enough, the Embrace would have changed nothing in you."

<p>

The other man seethed beneath his helm, knuckles cracking as his fists clenched. Muz's expression did not change as he looked at him.

<p>

"How did you..."

<p>

Muz only smiled.

<p>

<p>

Report time.

<p>

<p>

Today, I let the Dark Council in on the plan for the Rite of Supremacy. I'll fill you guys in on the broad strokes.

<p>

This Rite of Supremacy will be done in a ladder format, as opposed to the free-for-all format of years past. What this means is that each week, you and your Clan (or house) will have only one clan to fight in the events.

<p>

Another change for this Vendetta is the emphasis on the quality of work as opposed to quantity. In years past, it was possible to 'lose your way to a win', a tactic widely used in gaming. The Ladder format of this Vendetta will make that impossible. Since it is a 'Rite of Supremacy', you'll need to win for your clan to win.

<p>

Yet another cool thing is that Clans will be able to choose events to compete in. Rather than have ten or twenty events all over the place to fight in, each Consul (or Quaestor, in the case of IHR) will select one event, and there will be a third random event. This will allow the clans to focus their efforts.

<p>

The RoS will last 5 weeks, but only three of the weeks will have events which reflect upon your clan. There will be two weeks mixed into the event that will only have events for individual placement, as opposed to fighting for the clan.

<p>

And, as I said in my last report, all DC members (except Paladin and I) will be permitted to return to their home clans to fight.

<p>

<p>

Tron has retired from his position as Wiki Tribune. He has been a solid contributor and a great guiding force for our wiki for a good long time. Replacing him is Windos, now known as Vexxtal. Windos is the guy who has been working the Wiki to death lately, making huge improvements across hundreds of articles, helping to catalogue and refine the organization of the resource, even to the point of making bots to do the same. I have a lot of faith that Vexxtal will be able to fill the very large shoes that Tron leaves us with.

<p>

<p>

_Possessions? Did I read Orv's report right? _

<p>

Yes, yes you did. Work on the Coding side has begun in earnest and I am quite impressed with what Orv has already been able to accomplish. I am sure that there are a lot of questions out there about the project, and I can answer some basic ones, but I am not going to lay everything out there on the whole project.

<p>

But why?

<p>

Well, there's a number of reasons. There's a lot of stuff that may fluctuate with the needs of the code, and other stuff (like salaries and costs) may change between here and now, so I don't want people going all uber-nerd and counting chickens before there are eggs even laid. On top of that, there are a lot of easter egg things and rare items that will show up in the system, so I'm not going to ruin the whole exploration angle for everyone. And none of us know how long the coding will take, so I'm not even going to guess as to a time for a launch.

<p>

<p>

Armed Forces Reset coming soon. I am presently reworking the point award structure, so as to be fair with how we do the reset. I expect that we'll be ready for the shopping phase to begin before the holidays. There's also some other cool stuff that will be going on around the holidays as the result of some joint efforts. more on that as we launch them.

<p>

<p>

TL:DR

*RoS starts January 2nd, 2010.

*More RoS Details

*Tron Retires as T:W

*Vexxtal/Windos is now T:W

*Coding work has begun on Possessions

*Armed Forces Reset Coming soon

*Cool Holiday stuff en route.<p>

<p>

And that's all for this time. If you have any questions, or anything I can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun!

<p>

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