Laboratory
Fallen Spear
Redacted Location

"So it falls to you again." Bentre's face evaporated in the swirl of holographic light, the projector dimming as he looked on. He turned briefly, black eyes falling upon the former Consul as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Not entirely surprising, I suppose."

Muz nodded, turning back to the device in front of them, a wounded bit of ancient technology, bleeding tiny nibs of crystals onto the workbench. He hadn't really considered that Kojiro would retire so soon. Not that he blamed him. The scenario had changed so much, and the evacuation of their home system had taken a lot out of him. The counterstrike against Meridian station... Well, it was a good thing that Sadow had not gone alone. He picked up a non-conductive probe, gently prodding past the failing matrices, trying to nudge what seemed to be a poorly aligned power supply back onto the contacts as Locke stared on intently.

The warbling tone of waiting communication scraped across their ear. Then another. Then another. Locke smiled as the frequency changed, missives from the clan rerouting to the Lion's datapad explaining and informing of the everchanging situation in the clan, the house. His house.

He set down the probe, turning to the datapad and keying in his access code. The datastream flew down the screen, his fingers stopping the feed suddenly. There were new names. He narrowed his eyes, reading the transcripts from the Shadow Academy. The man was a little old compared to some of those still studying at the academy, but the Brotherhood did not have the reach that the Republic, or even the Empire once had. Quentinshadows still had managed to make quick work of the lessons placed before him, and the reports showed an interest in some studies that would have flagged him for... inquisitorius attention under Pravus. Muz noted the dossier when the chirp came again. A new sensitive soldier, a Verpine with Force Affinity, already stacking up quite the kill count from the field reports. Hilgrif. Muz stared at the name, debating pronunciation options before the torrent of chirps came again. More names, familiar ones, unfamiliar ones. Finally, a live urgent. He thumbed the play key, the image flashing on the datapad rather than the holo.

Locke turned from the artifact, looking at the Lion, then at the datapad. "That code looks..." His eyes narrowed.

"It's not fake, just very old." Muz stared at it, his memory putting together the pieces. "The Mystics." The words slipped from Muz's mouth as realization hit him. The image shifted, the lines converting to a woman's face, dark wavy hair and a half-smirk.

"Requesting Asylum, code Trill Aurek Resh three five nine." The image broke up momentarily before reforming. Muz paused. Tarentum. It had been a while.

Muz tapped a command on his arm, the message sent to the bridge of the ship, telling them to prepare for a docking. "Situation?"

She paused, a hitch in her voice swallowed down before she continued. "My clan is gone. The castle is a ruin. The order has fallen. I am sorry, but the old alliance, we hoped that Sadow would honor it."

Muz leaned forward. "Order?"

"Yridia was a waste, so we went to Antei. The Temple of Tiamat is a tomb. The Krath are gone."

Muz stared directly back. "No, we are not."

Hello there. It's me again. As Koji has stepped down to enjoy his shiny new promotion to EQ4, that leaves me as your quaestor. This will be the third time I have served as QUA of HMR (and also the only house I have ever been QUA of). You'll find that I am almost constantly available, just shoot me a message on telegram. (although there are times where work makes it impossible for me to respond right away, so please have a touch of patience), and that I love building the House (and clan) up. Also, parentheses. Apparently I love those too.

The last few reports I have written, I have talked at some length about the Golden Age of the Sith, the ancient lords that our clan is named for and take as inspiration. Last time, I wrote about the supremacy of a pureblood sith named Marka Ragnos, who you should recognize the name of, if nothing else. Today, I am going to yammer on a bit about Naga Sadow and his rival Ludo Kressh (which a former house of the clan was named for).

Story Time

You see, Naga Sadow was brutal. He was very effective, taking up the mantle of the Dark Lord of the Sith, although his rival, Ludo Kressh disagreed with him on various items. Key of these was when two outsiders, trying to find a new hyperspace lane, that ended up in sith space. These navigators, Gav and Jori Daragon, were viewed as useful by Naga Sadow, but were feared by Kressh as an omen of a coming republic invasion.

As it came out, Naga Sadow was itching for a fight. No longer happy with the holdings that the Sith Empire had at the time, Sadow recognized that Empires need to grow, to conquer. Pursuant to that, Sadow wanted to push the Sith into a war with the republic by way of a fake republic attack on the Sith. When Kressh discovered that it was a ruse, he attacked Sadow's fortress at Khar Delba. Sadow was ready for him, and easily won the day, with a disgraced Ludo Kressh faking his own death and vanishing. With Kressh gone, and no others to deny him, Sadow began his war on the Republic. Were it not for Kressh's return at a critical battle, unbalancing the Sith fleet and causing the battle to go to the Republic, Sadow would have been victorious.

Which goes back to the constant theme of the Sith: they are their own worst enemy. The Jedi are formidable, yes, but all of the critical losses that the Sith take are at the hands of their own. Unified, fighting a common enemy, with a common purpose, there is nothing that can stand in their way. The same can be said for every one of us.

Of course, this ties in heavily into some of the things that the Summit has been working on for the clan. With the eventual campaign to return and seize our own empire, all of this historic (and legendary) information will be rather important. Knowing what our clan is named for, what happened (allegedly) in ages long past will help to inform the future plots and plans of the clan.

I have taken my time on talking about the last Rite of Supremacy. We did not do well there, that much is understood by all. There was a confluence of factors that kept us from all doing what needed to be done, but this much is as plain as the nose on my face: we will not let that sort of thing happen again. There are huge plans in the making to reforge Naga Sadow from the ashes that we have been living in, both in character and out of character. There are some very exciting things coming down, and there will be many different ways to make a name for yourself, should you decide to do so. We all hope that you will.

A slight modification to the policy in the Night Hawks is in order after a discussion with Locke, the battleteam leader and former Consul. As we are trying to ensure that battleteams represent the active members of the house, we are going to monitor activity of those who want to have a spot in the Battleteam. As such, please make sure that you do some measure of dossier-reportable activity at least once a month. That means anything that generates a cluster, a medal, et cetera. No such requirement holds for general house membership of course, and if we run out of slots in the Night Hawks, that gives us an opportunity to open up another battleteam. It's a pretty minor change, but just one step in our path toward getting into fighting trim to retake our home system.

Acknowledgements

A hearty welcome goes out to QuentinShadows, which, if you read the fiction above, has been tearing up the shadow academy and has shown great promise.

Also, a big welcome goes out to several of the Tarentae, including Ciara who I hope to have written well enough in the above fiction. As they have joined our historic house as of late, I hope that you make yourselves at home and find some new friends.

Also, congratulations goes out to Hilgrif and Dakor, who have been kicking untold amounts of tail in the gaming scene. I am super happy to see the cluster race every day lately, and he has been representing HMR and CNS in great ways.

And another shoutout goes to our previous Quaestor, Kojiro Keibatsu, who had been promoted to EQ4 very recently for his work as Quaestor among myriad other duties and projects.

As for now, Koji's series of competitions, named the Long Road can be found here: https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions/14456

That series includes graphics, trivia, poetry, fiction, gaming, and even a puzzle event. This runs until the 7th of February, so more than enough time to get participation in and score some easy creds. Even if you don't think that you are good enough, even a cursory submission is worth enough to get some credits that you can put toward ...well, whatever you are looking to get.

Ask the Muz time.

Hilgrif asks "What is your favorite thing to do in your position?"
Easy. Out of character, I love being able to promote people. In character, the merciless destruction of all who oppose us!

Calenhad asks: "In your opinion outside of The Collective who poses the greatest threat to Clan Naga Sadow?"
Muz would be a bit more wary of the Odanites, as the Jedi have a long history of genociding darksiders.

Ciara asks: "Is Muz pronounced ... Muz, Muse, or Moos? :)"
Muz rhymes with Booze or even Brews, which is bad news for those that choose to lose their views on how to pronounce Muz. Some crews choose to abuse Muz's cues, and find themselves in queues to be cut by slews of sabers with many hues, or at the very least, a long involuntary snooze and a nasty bruise. Black and blues.
Really, they should all get clues. :P

TL;DR

• Fiction
• Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh Historical chat
• Thanks and congrats to Koji for his QUA-ing and promotion to EQ4
• Welcome and thanks to Quentinshadows for his tearing up in the SA
• Shoutout to Hilgrif and Dakor for stomping enemies in gaming
• Welcome to Ciara, Hades, Archean and Pel
• I need an Aedile. See Bentre's post for details.

And with that, it is time I stopped rambling. If I can be any help, please don't hesitate to ask. And as always, remember to have fun.