Anobis' Open Orbit

The trooper returns and drops to a knee before Sevan.

NPC- "My lord, there are no planetary defense systems. There are a few police forces in the large settlements but nothing our troops cannot dispatch quickly."

Sevan smiles and rises from his seat.

"Prepare the landing parties. We will head to the largest settlement and begin our take over. Try to keep the body count to an absolute minimum, I need the locals to want to work for me. Slavery is such a hassle."

With a wave of Sevan's hand the trooper ran off and the ship became a buzz of activity. Sevan's troops started to load weapons, ammunition and other essentials onto the drop ships. Sevan called for 10 troops to escort him to his shuttle. The shuttle took off soon after and headed for the planet.

The Dark Hand comes about and begins scanning the Mandalorian's ship.

"Power down all weapons and proceed to Safaeyet. If you do not power down your weapons before you start your approach you will be shot down."

Gravity waves rippled along the hyper-lane that ran past the Anobis system, disturbed as the wake of a organic vessel breached the dimensional barrier of darkspace and deposited a living ship just outside the planet's naturally formed gravity well. The boney spine at the head of the ro'ik chuun m'arh split the airless tides of the cold void as its dovin basals pushed against the pull of the lush world below, maintaining a synchronous orbital rotation with the shire of Safaeyet below. Villip channels were opened between the frigate analog Price of Pain and the carrier Flayed Mans Cry as the two ships passed one another, the Praetorite crews aboard either vessel very familiar with each other. The frigate had been the Executor's flagship for a long time now, having served him faithfully during the events of the Yuuzhan Vong War, and then later in service to both the Praetorite Vong and occasionally the Bloodrage Pirates. It was extensively modified from its original design, far more suited now to long void journeys where friendly ports were few and far between. Serving as defecto Commander when Nem was not present, Cyrion Yin rested his backside in the command throne on the bridge. His own glowing eyes watched as an expected transport, a yorik-vec, emerged from the planet's atmosphere and laid in a course for his ship.

Arrest tentacles emerged from yorik-coral crags between layers of glossy black secretion armour, snagging the incoming gunship with pucker lined boneless digits that pulled the organic transport towards its hull. Within seconds the yorik-vec disappeared against the ro'ik chunn m'arh's backside as one living creation seemed to blend into another, symbiotically connected through pulsating fleshy tendrils. After a few minutes, the hatch-sphincter to the bridge opened and the Executor, Nem of Domain Yin, walked onto the bridge with purpose. The intendant traced his hand over the coral ridges of the railings between stations, eventually coming to stop just shy of the commander. Cyrion's weathered expression softened as he saw the roguish grin set across his domain mates crooked lips. If the Executor was troubled about the mission ahead, he hid it well. Though Cyrion knew Nem a lot better than others, which meant he knew that the intendant would also put on intentional facades to conceal how he was truly feeling. Their hands and arms met with a meaty smack, gripping one another's forearms almost to the elbow, offering a short but tight squeeze of strength. As they released one another, Cyrion stepped aside and offered Nem the bridge seat.

"She's all yours, Yu'shaa. Assuming you are ready to depart, of course." Cyrion's ocular implants flickered and his hairless brow lifted, suggesting curiosity. "Are you certain you don't wish to include any of our Imperial friends in this mission? They might be just as eager as we are to confirm the rumours."

Nem took the seat, lowering his lean figure into the thorny-chair that impaled his back and bottom painfully as he sat upon its rigid and unwelcoming surface. Connected to the cognition throne, a hud appeared in the corner of his vision as his view began to partition. He could see outside the frigate with its own sensors, manipulating them like a set of extra eyes. He was also able to monitor almost every section of the interior as well, mentally switching between view-spider feeds. The Price of Pain's spirit was eager to get under way as well. It whispered its yearnings into his mind and urged him to activate its dovin basal array. Still grinning like the old pirate he still felt himself to be, he did not refuse its request. Gravitational waves rippled around the ro'irk chunn m'arh and it began to pull itself away from Anobis' orbit, laying in a course towards the nearby hyper-lane.

"They will only slow us down. This is a job for Domain Yin alone. Besides, there are too many interested parties that might take issue with what we are trying to do. I don't want to hear their protestations until after we've established a quarantine zone. The Emperor will be made to see reason, even if it requires an apology on my part, though I am hoping he may see the need for this course of action." A smirk crossed his lips as he turned his head and looked at Cyrion. "Sometimes it is easier to beg forgiveness then permission. Now take a seat. I plan on putting this ol'umrach through its paces."

Knowing exactly what the former reaver meant, Cyrion found himself a seat at a station behind the Executor's cognition throne and strapped himself in. Already he could feel the hull tremble underfoot as the forces of gravity were bent to the will of the Price of Pain. Dust and ice crystals shook from its coral hull as it began to ramp up to light-speed, the star speckled tapestry of space giving way to the swirling blue bands of darkspace. In a brilliant flash of light, the frigate analog was flung into the inter-dimensional wormhole through space and streaked towards a dark isle of misery amongst a great sea of starry splendor.

“I don’t know if I like it Commander,” said the captain of the matalok. “There doesn’t seem to be anything here. Whatever presence seems to be hidden.”

Esthh sat thinking in silence for a moment, plying the possible courses through his mind. Their were Vong here, but not obviously so...why… Had they been hounded and hunted until their was nothing but a remnant left and he had been tricked into looking for them for someone? A possibility not without merit. It could be that the Vong here had grown wary of being out in the open, there was no lack of enemies after the invasion war. What was it. He hadnt been warned off...no...the symbol of the bissop was an invitation, a single invitation, it wasnt a pack, and bissops never operated alone. Alone then. A location and alone.

“No captain, something isnt wrong, its simply not what we were expecting. I don’t know what it is yet. We haven’t been warned off, so they aren’t hiding. There seems to be a reason they don’t want to draw extra attention to themselves. We don’t know what has been going on for some cycles, we don’t know which direction our people have been lead...or forced to go. Perhaps a show of force would break a fragile truce or incite reprisal of some kind. We don’t have enough information networks to know what the situation is, and having shown to the Fleet Admiral at Dathomir, no doubt word is spreading in the Empire that we exist, and we are likely to appear at Anobis.”
He sighed.
“And no, we could not have sent agents ahead. The issue with agents is that on a small planet like this they would be noticed as outsiders, and never get the information that would be needed, especially if the beings of this world don’t want to talk about it. So we would be left with coming in an obvious show like we have here. I will accept the invitation.”

With the flicker of a thought the blaze bug display came to life, showing the coordinates on the ground laid over what the mataloks senses could discern.

“See here the coordinates, on the outskirts of this village, on the far side of the stand of trees. If this is Nen Yim or not, they don’t want us to be seen, though it is doubtful that there is danger, there is enough power in this matalok to exterminate everyone on half of this world before someone could respond in time. No we will play the game for now.”

“If they don’t want to be seen then sir, may I suggest we move the ship? It will be night on the ground soon, and a new star might be noted. You could use a ship and slip into the night side. The person may have to wait but it wouldn't be that long of a wait.”

“A good suggestion captain. I will take a coralskipper, the smaller craft will be easier to detect obvious notice. I haven’t flown in one for a time. Move the ship while I prepare.”

The captain moved off to put the plan into motion, the matalok moved, shifting so that it would be hidden from the ground, dropping into an extremely low orbit to get out of the light of the primary as Esthh gathered a few things and climbed into a coralskipper, launching shortly after.

The coralskipper slipped down into the atmosphere, a slow decent, Esthh making sure not to leave an entry wake that might be seen and reported, in excitement if anything.