The ship’s floor rung as each heavy footfall smacked against it, the hunched figure stole through the corridors as if chased by a rancor. The figure came to a halt before a door, a door like all the rest upon the ship, but this door, to the figure, held both dread and relief. As he raised his fist to push the intercom the door slid open and light struck him. He stepped into the room looking around left to the right, the room itself was spartan and and what belongings rested within were in arranged in no particular order. The only things that caught the man's eyes were the revolving Holocron upon the dais to the right of the door and the lines of books upon the bookshelf, but he was smart and knew not to touch.

A soft breath to his left had him turn and stare at another figure within the room, this one unlike him was bathed head to foot in crimson robes a saber strung at his side and long white hair that cascaded down his front and back. Though the man didn’t seem threatening as he was the servant knew better than to push Deimos. He may not be the most powerful of the Dark Jedi aboard the ship but the servant knew what he was capable with with men like him. Rumour had it that Deimos enjoyed bringing out the worst fears of people and having them live them, the servant shuddered and knew he had no intention of being put in any situation he might see his mother in law.

Deimos beckoned the man over and stood his ground as the servant timidly scurried over, bowed his head in supplication, handed over a holodisc then left the room without a word. The Anzat walked over and shut the door behind the exiting man and turned to his comm unit, “Brother we have what we were waiting for. If you will do me the pleasure of meeting me in the briefing room we can have a look at what’s going on.” The reply came back from his brother d’Tana in a short gruff burst, clearly Deimos had woken Etah up but it bothered him little. He changed into something more appropriate and left the room heading towards the briefing room assigned to Shadow Gate.

He was leaning upon one of the consoles, surrounded by the dark when Etah entered the room. The older, in length of service not age, d’Tana stared around the room before having the lights activated “You know just because we are the Shadow Clan doesn't mean you have to spend all your time in darkened rooms. People will begin to think your weird….weirder little brother.” The Sith met Deimos half way and the two embraced before stepping apart.

Deimos laughed slightly and turned away from the other man heading to one of the consoles “The ship has lights running all the time, it’s constantly bathed in light. Having a bit of time in the dark never hurt anyone.” He reached out and slid the Holodisc into the terminal and stepped back as the machine powered up. “Let’s see what our ‘new’ summit has to say.”

Etah turned to him and shook his head “I would watch the tone you have when referring to the summit Deimos, it is not their fault they have been brought in due to more changes. You should feel happy we got Valtiere upon it. Though it’s a bit odd having an outsider at the top, but I’m sure he’ll do his part.” He stared at Deimos, who simply shrugged and flicked the switch.

The image came into being and there before them stood the recorded form of their new Quaestor. “Greetings d’Tana’s. I will keep this message brief as the information I have for you is limited. The call to war has been sounded, the final push of the Dark Crusade will soon be upon us and I want you and your team ready. No failure shall be accepted we must win and crush the opposition. Ready your team, let none stand before you and make sure by the end of this Crusade we can all call Arcona Invicta! Gentleman, good day.”

Deimos turned to Etah and blinked “Well that was a short message. So we learned nothing new apart from the end is nigh. Fair enough at least we know it’s nearly time. I’ll make sure Second Watch is ready.” he switched of the console and hmm’d slightly, the questioning look on Etah’s face had him explain “I just wonder what our new Quaestor is going to do if we have to face his old House and friends.”

Etah laughed slightly and grasped the other man by the arm and led him from the room, the door slid shut behind them as they headed to the cantina for their breakfast, “The same thing every Arconan does to those they face, Brother, crush them.”

• Written by Deimos d'Tana

Hello Keepers,

I am not going to bother with specifics on medals, promotions, awards and whatnot, because the Quaestor has detailed most of those in his report. I just wanted to say that I hope every one of you is staying engaged with and dialed into the Brotherhood during our down time. I also hope we are all ready to totally own this next phase of the Dark Crusade. We HAVE to take on and beat Plagueis. If we don’t, Arcona and Plagueis will tie, and the winner will be decided by the rate of participation. Because Plagueis has fewer members, they will win in that instance. The name of the game is participation; each of us with the possible exception of Graus, we have to enter all possible categories. I am especially looking at the journeyman to own this competition.

Welcome!

I’d like to officially welcome Adi Ka'Taramas and Zenon to the Battle Team. They are both quickly rising stars and their presence on this team is appreciated. I expect them, along with their respective Masters, to set the Dark Crusade on fire.

Watches

I am breaking down Shadow Gate into two watches. 1st Watch will be commanded directly by the Gate Warden, while 2nd Watch will be commanded by the Gate Steward.

1st Watch will be comprised of the Gate Warden: SBL Etah d’Tana As well as DA Timeros Entar Arconae, DA Strategos Entar Arconae, DJK Fet'ai'narun, DJK Kanis Da'uul and his Apprentice PRT Adi Ka'Taramas.

2nd Watch will be comprised of the Gate Steward: DJK Deimos d'Tana As well as OP Saiketsu, KE Ood Bnar, OT Graus Colvin, JH Gunstinson, and the Gate Steward's Apprentice GRD Zenon.

The arrangement is arbitrary, they don’t mean any one is better or worse. Me and Deimos made the decision to create this breakdown to facilitate communication.

Here are a few competitions to fill in the dead space between now and the next phase of the Dark Crusade:

There are multiple competitions, not all of them are listed here but you can check the competitions center yourself

Here are the House and some Clan level competitions:

Halloween Invitations!

Do ALL the RAGE!!!!!!

It's What Gets the People Goin!

Star Wars Galaxian

Zenon of the 21st Century!

Until next time kiddies,

~ (#8075) SBM Etah d'Tana (Sith) / BTL / Battle Team Shadow Gate of House Qel-Droma of Clan Arcona

Arcona Invicta in Aeternum