The speeder screamed as Kaek held on, the repulsordrive shooting in through the canyon, between the statues of long dead Sith Lords, dusted over with dust from a few thousand years of Korriban's storms. He summoned threads of willpower, the invisible hand of the Force wiping the grime from his goggles as he plowed through another dusty plume.

The Force cried out to him, the feeling of danger echoing up from the base of his skull, the lizard brain trying to tell the old spymaster that something was very wrong.
<p> The sound of a tenloss rifle told the story better. <p> The disintegrating bolt tore through the fuselage of the speeder, taking out the stabilizing foils. Kaek reacted efficiently, his old frame deceptively nimble as he launched himself from the bike before it spiraled out into a column of fire and shrapnel. He landed on the ground, sinking to one knee as his saber flew from his belt, waiting calmly in his hand. <p> "You call yourself a Sith?" Kaek sneered at the heavens, eyes flitting around for the attacker, his other hand stretching the will of the force into a protective bubble. "You must have forgotten what that means." <p>

---

<p> Korras laughed at the datapad in his hands as he disembarked from his ship, nodding at the lone tech as he made his way down the hall toward the Consul's office. He folded the datapad and stuffed it inside his robes, making his way down through the corridors. His eye caught the floor. Gone was the polished sheen of the old days. Even the carpeting was old, tired, in need of a deep cleaning. He paused, his mind recalling the similar conditions on Caina, on Yridia, on Sepros. He paused in his stride, looking through the viewport out onto the plains of Karufr. Everything was quiet, save for the distant hum of the energy plant. <p> "Like the seasons, Korras." Muz's words echoed in the Obelisk's ears. "Even the Dragons sleep." <p> He resumed his path, stopping in front of the Grand Office's doors. The sigil of the Clan that has won more Vendettas than any other was etched into the metal before him, separating as the doors slid apart to reveal the Twi'lek Consul. <p> "Master at Arms..." <p> Korras inclined his head a degree. "I'm afraid this is not a social call, Vodo." <p>

---

<p> Explosions rocked the ship sideways as Ji struggled to hold herself together. "They frelling followed us!" She snarled at the hologram of the consul, the blue of the holoprojector casting an eerie pallor over her face.
<p> "Who are they?" Ronovi calmly asked, her mind working the angles, trying to sort out if this was another ploy by the Church, some random mercenary force, or another clan's idea of taking out the competition. <p> "If i knew that, don't you think I would have reported it?" Another salvo shook the ship. Ji turned from the display, bellowing at the ship's crew to turn portside and return fire.
<p> "There's not much more I can send your way, Ji. You know how the situation here went."
<p> The hologram flickered, the last image of Ji pointing angrily at the viewport held in the air as the system tried to reconnect. Ronovi cursed under her breath. This was far too close, and she knew that Ji would try to retreat, rendezvous with the Task Force Piranha, and try to beat back whatever this was. Ronovi slapped the desk at the thought. Incomplete intel, she knew, was the beginning of a bad year. <p>

---

<p> It's report time <p>

<p> AWOL Checks!<p> If you haven't already seen the awol check email from the [Log in to view e-mail addresses] account, you need to go look for it and reply to it. Do not send a personal email to korras, kaek, or your leaders...send it only to that email address, and include your pin and idline. These awol checks are how we determine how our units are doing, and make a big difference to how things are run. It's like the census, after a fashion. According to the Independent House Proposal rules, there are minimum expectations of membership to maintain status as a clan or house, so make sure that you are replying as you should be.<p> Grind Path<p> As I have talked before, the Grind Path will fundamentally change how we bring new members into the club. right now, we are working on the content portion of the system, and we're hoping to have the whole system coded in and ready before the new school year starts. Some major changes will be that there is going to be a more user-oriented timescale on promotion through most of the journeyman ranks, and that the rank at which a member will actually join the clans and leave the Shadow Academy will likely be higher. Everyone who has been working with it has high hopes for it and is pretty excited about how it will impact our club.<p> Vendetta<p> The next Vendetta will be released sometime this fall. It will be bringing some new aspects to the kind of wars we have had in the past, and it should shake things up pretty good. We did learn a lot from the Spoils of War ROS, but there are still a few other things we wanted to try out. As an aside, I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of the extra bonus award being offered by the Fist and the Voice. The most active gamer and the most active writer during the month of June's events will be included in the vendetta backstory. I know that most people on the gaming side are still aware of this, but i wanted to make sure everyone knew about the writing side as well. So get cracking on those June Monthly topics.<p>

-> <- <p> TOR E3 trailer<p> While we all drooled over the ultimately awesome trailer where the Sith trounced the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the boys at Bioware decided to flip it back on us, showing how the Sith can be defeated on Alderaan in their newest trailer. It's pretty cool, really... and it makes me wish that they would do a full-length film in this style, rather than the half-cartoony clone wars junk that they have going these days. Also, we have at least one member in on the Beta test of the new MMO, so we may get a cool little head'sup preview before anyone else.<p> Speaking of video games, the force unleashed 2 website is pretty cool. Force Unleashed 2 gives us some limited looks at the new game, and it seems to be from the Starkiller clone's point of view within the clone tank. There's some interactive bits that you can click on the tank, and it's all terribly neat and geeky. I just looked at it today, and unlike before, you can hear Vader's breathing and see him through the glass somewhat. So it's awesome to see that they are changing it up at times. be sure to try the minigammes, as beating them will treat you to a little clip from the game cinematics.<p>

-> <- <p> Ask the GM.<p> Ji asks: will we be getting new CSs anytime soon with more specialization and less general awesomeness at everything?<p> What you are talking about is the re-hash of the Character sheet, and making good on the promise that we made with this new iteration that it would be good for more than the ACC. We will be broadening the scope of the character sheet to include noncombat skills and so forth, and we'll also be looking at removing redundant Force Powers from the system (like how Telekinesis, Force Push and Force Pull all do the same thing). We don't have a time frame set in stone on that, but it is on the list.<p> Korras asks: when are the armed force resets going to be done? :P<p> As soon as all the consuls send them in. That's another hint, guys. If you haven't sent me your ground forces selections (use the spreadsheet and send it back to me), do so. Korras has some really cool stuff planned, but we can't do any of it until we have those selections in our hands. Thanks.<p> Robin Hawk asks: How long is the next Vendetta going to be Muz?<p> Three weeks. We're going for short, sweet and intense.<p>

<p> TL:DR

*AWOL check!

*Grind Path is being worked on

*Vendetta and backstory perks

*All seals of bone should be awarded

*TFU2 and TOR MMO stuff is sweet.

*Yes, we are fixing the CS

*Consuls, get your armed forces spreadsheets in to me<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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