S1: Sheriff Haught

[Reddnn]

High up on the cliff top, Elyd lay prone beneath some of the sparse desert brush that had been keeping her back shaded from the blazing heat of the midday sun. She took a sip of her water through the straw that ran through her suit into it’s built-in canister. Her throat was dry, both from misuse in the silent hours that she’d been there, and from nerves.

Five hours, twenty three minutes and sixteen seconds.

In her silent watch, it was all she could do to pass the time. Counting the seconds. She was used to this, the agonizingly slow passage of time between their arrival, and their arrival. Patience was required, and something she had gotten very good at keeping in check.

The silence was broken though, as her comms lit up with a whisper. “Eyes on. Starting the path through the valley.”
None of them needed to affirm the scout had been heard. They knew. She shuffled up further to the edge, her visor barely peeking over to gain a better view of the pathway below. She was on the east side of the narrow valley - but carefully positioned on alternating sides she could see her unit doing just the same - shifting into their readied places.

As each second ticked by, the convoy inched into her own view. Just as their intelligence had confirmed, the number of enemy units was to the dot. She clicked on an overlay already prepared through her visor, and a marked space lit up on the valley below her. As soon as they lined up, she’d make the call.

The convoy continued, blissfully unaware of what lay in hiding just above their heads. They were no fools, granted - to underestimate a Mandalorian warrior was to invite death willingly - but Elyd had faith in her own training, and in her soldier’s.

Five hours, thirty seven minutes and forty three seconds.

The convoy paused. One of them had spotted something on the cliff face, and was pointing towards it. Elyd held her breath, a wave of concern that one of her unit’s positions had been compromised. She caught a few broken words of Mandoa from below, and a bout of hearty laughter. Ah. One of the shapes in the rock had made a… amusing shape. A pang hit her gut, knowing that she and her companions would have laughed at the exact same thing had they been the ones to traverse the center of the valley.
She swallowed that thought, and steeled her mind.

Five hours, thirty eight minutes and fifteen se-

The convoy paused once more. The tip of their forward line had just stepped within the marked spot that hovered in her visor’s overlay. One of the warriors in the front knelt down, running his hand through the sand to retrieve something. Elyd caught her breath halfway, mind narrowing to the task at hand. This might be even better. Less of a risk, to herself. To her unit. They weren’t in position but their front line was distracted-

“Now.”

At her word, they moved in unison. Slipping out from their hiding places under brush, beneath the shade of a rock. Their clipped decent lines silent as they’d been during their tests, oiled to perfection. She kept her eyes on that front Mandalorian, his helmet still facing downwards. The others had not noticed them yet. Perhaps they felt at ease in their own capabilities. Perhaps not expecting the Republic to be so bold as to organize an ambush in such a heavily controlled enemy area.

Then, the Mandalorian began to rise from his kneeling. He’d finished whatever he’d been doing, and he turned to look back at his assembled followers. The sloped round of his Crusader helm moved with him like a snake. This was when it began to go wrong. They were not forward enough - within the planned spot. He’d turned to his right, and barely within his peripheral vision was Elyd, still on her line. She froze, hoping that in his pass he had not seen her. She was wearing the best camouflage the Republic had to offer her, after all. He muttered something to his second, a woman, judging by the size.

All at once the Mandalorians began to pull their rifles. As soon as the movement began, Elyd yelled through her comm line. “We’ve been compromised! Detach and fly!”
Her unit did just that. The lines went slack as they dropped - the height was not a concern, they had enough shock absorption within their suits for this. Several of her men landed on the shoulders and backs of the Mandalorians, their vibroblades finding the weaker slits between Beskar plates, and the yells of the injured began to fill the valley with echoes.
Some of her unit did not land on their heads, though. They were off target, and landed to the side. Elyd did as well, landing directly in front of the head of their force. The warrior who had kelt held something in his hand - whatever he’d picked up. A rock?
Elyd ducked to the side as he flung whatever it was directly towards her helm, and she heard a hard clatter somewhere behind her. In her recovery of the dodge, he spat something in Mandoa and lunged, pulling his own set of blades. They clashed, and the ring of vibrating metal sent a roar through the rancid air of conflict. Traded blow after blow, Elyd’s needlepoint of focus was broken as she heard familiar yells. Her own soldiers becoming overwhelmed.
Desperation kicked in, a pit of red hot coal to keep her own safe, and she lunged, feinting to the side and driving her off-hand into the side-slit of the Mandalorian’s chest piece before trying to duck behind him to run to the voice’s aid. He roared, dropping his blade, moving to grab her. She was quick, but not enough in this vital moment. The arms around her were crushing, and the blow winded her, knocking her off her feet and directly onto the ground below him. A blow to the back of her head left a sea of blurry stars behind her eyes. Then, a torpedo of pain blew through her as his heavy boots came down on the back of her legs, the snap of bone a scream in her ears. Or maybe it was her scream?

She shifted her head in an attempt to rise by her arms, and watched in raw horror as each of her unit was taken down in turn, the tide of their ambush quickly being turned in their enemy’s favor. Those emotionless helms silent in their slaughter. She choked a cry as the last of her men and women landed with that sickening thud of death.
She felt a tug at her neck, and she was pulled up to face him. He looked back at her through his visor, and though their eyes were hidden behind each other’s helms, she knew there was a searing hate that stared back at her, as bright and violent as her own. The moment could have lasted an age, if it wasn’t for the sharp pain in her

~

She woke with a desperate gasp, drenched in the sweat of her night terror. The bed sheets she’d wrapped herself in were cold, and soon a shiver rocked through her body. Placing a hand to her face, she massaged the pain behind her eyes, and then her other hand found its way to rest upon one of her legs, and the long, jagged scars that marred the back of them. She took several minutes to steady her racing heart and swallow the lump that had formed within her throat. She slid back under the blanket, too exhausted to even consider grabbing a spare to replace the sweat-soaked ones.
It was only then she remembered the warmth that was still soundly asleep beside her. She focused on it, and let it overtake the fear of closing her eyes to another memory.

Eventually, sleep found Elyd once more.

[Reddnn]

Her datapad beeped. She let out a sigh, and muted it, electing to answer the message in the morning. Except, it was technically morning already - just very early. Elyd had only just arrived home, and the sun was starting to rise outside. She kicked off her boots at the door and tossed her leather jacket onto one of the couches, which she tossed herself upon.

She needed to decompress before she could head to bed. It had been an impossibly hard day, and not one she’d been prepared for. She pulled her jacket onto her lap and found where she’d pinned the new badge.

Sheriff.

She tossed it to the side again with a huff. Two days ago, she’d been called to meet with Graves and a few Jedi. He’d told her what he was planning to do, but he’d sounded so damn confident. So confident in fact, she’d believed him. She would only be Sheriff for a short time, maybe a week? Only longer if he needed to go underground for a while. Course, that was then.

Now? Graves was dead. Killed on his mission to steal Alice back from the Sith. Ran through by one of Revan’s inquisitors, and thrown off a cliff - she’d been told.

“You make a good cop.”

He’d said that when he placed his trust to keep the Colony safe in Elyd’s hands. Elyd, who’d been a Deputy for what, a week? He’d even admitted she was more of a stranger to him than he’d have liked. He didn’t know her, but yet he still trusted her. He had other Deputies, ones who’d been with him for longer. She understood at least why he didn’t pick Orin. He was impulsive, and far from a people person. He didn’t hand the post off to a ranger, or someone else within Czerka. What did it mean?
Whatever his true reasons were, she had the responsibilities that came with it now. Which included the terrifying problem of Czerka itself. The orders came down from significantly higher up - the five Mandalorians that had attacked the Sith were to be hunted down. 100k for each of their heads, alive. She knew who they were, though. She couldn’t do it, couldn’t betray Graves like that.

He probably knew that. That she wouldn’t betray them if things went wrong as they had.

Instead, her old instincts kicked in. She barely remembered where they came from at this point. Between the haze on her memory from all the Spice from those years between the War and now, or how tightly she’d locked those old crimes away - it was only muscle memory. Think. Plan. Act.

So, she had. By the Pyre outside of the colony, she’d put the plan into place. She had the people for it, after all. Kevin had sworn to have her back. So she put him to work. Five bodies. The armor the crew had worn. She’d give Czerka their quarry. The blood they craved her to provide so that they could keep the peace.
It wrought something inside her, a deep-seated pain that sank in her gut. She came to Viscara to be different than she had. It had worked, mostly. She had a life that Elyd had never once imagined she’d be able to have. It still gnawed at the walls of her stomach, though. The sheer fact that she couldn’t do both good and keep her hands clean from plans like this. War was a dirty business, after all. She should have known that. Muscles and head screaming at her, she went to find her bed and the calm that came with being next to her partner.

Tomorrow, after the Wake. She’d dirty her hands again.

~

She’d led Michael Kellerman to the Lounge. Nobody was using the space, thankfully. She’d told everyone else to keep away. In one of the back rooms, she’d showed the Ranger the bodies. Five Mandalorian armored bodies shot to so much shit they were unrecognizable. They’d fought back, after all. That is what she’d told Kellerman. He knew better, the man was smart. He held too much love for the late Sheriff to tell, though. She’d keep Kellerman close - he was now just as at fault as she was. A broken saber was added to the pile of bodies, the trophy the Mandalorian crew had taken from the Sith.

“Good work, Sheriff.”

The crew was safe for now. She had done what she could. Now came the hardest part - living with what she’d had to have done. Moving on and keeping it all swept nice and tidy under the rug Czerka walked over. She never wanted to work for them. She’d worked for the Sheriff - but not them. She knew how ruthless they could be. How if she was found out, it would be over.

Even still, she wouldn’t abandon her new post. She wouldn’t - couldn’t - do that. She’d make things better, however she could. That’s what she’d signed on as a Deputy to do. She thought back to a conversation she’d had earlier in the day.

“I recognize that look. The look of someone who wants to prevent the pain they have endured from happening to anyone else.”

She’d found the purpose she’d been looking for.

[Reddnn]

It had been an agonizing first month as Sheriff. How the hell did Graves manage it all? Delegation, probably. It didn’t help she had to babysit several of her Deputies constantly. She knew they intended well, but shit. Solomon hadn’t known the laws, Zenica was a wildcard, and… well, she didn’t trust Gulliver for a while. She didn’t trust him fully still, but she’d given him a chance to prove his loyalty now.

She couldn’t blame any of them for her own shortcomings, though. She was the one who hired most of them, and it was her own duty to make sure they were prepared for the job. Between the sheer number of problematic cases that had come up though, time for training had been all on-the-job. Ambrose did a great job at helping with her workload, but the poor guy had his own demons he was fighting and she couldn’t solely rely on him.

It all came to a head when the Order came to investigate Corbin. He’d spilled what he’d found out about the bodies. She’d watched Callista fall into one of the worse panic attacks she’d seen, had to send her deputies chasing after Corbin’s potential flight risk. Feya and Ira’dana had shown up at her ship armed and Sandra had been injured. This sent Callista off even more, and Elyd had done what she could to keep the Knight calm.

It had all been a mess. A huge, filthy, chaotic mess. Corbin had been released the next day at the Director’s order, and Elyd had been dragged into a court case spurred by Feya. She’d charged Elyd! The court case was a waste of time, and Elyd was given a slap on the wrist by the judge, who simply told her to watch her mouth. Czerka - who’d caught wind of Corbin’s reveal - had gone ahead and set a ludicrous bounty on Kallyn, aiming to pin the whole situation on him. Elyd did what she could, but the corruption in the Czerka law system ran too deep. She’d have to keep working. She’d have to find a way to smoke them out.

After all it was over, she was foolish to think there would be a break. The first attack was a raptor that Ambrose took down, covered in red crystals. Not long after, Glitch and Abi had been attacked and injured by a humanoid zombie-like creature that bled similar red crystals when injured. A second creature had injured Kallyn. All three needed to be cured of some kind of dark-side infection, the worst of which was Glitch who had thrown not only Elyd but several of the Jedi off her in an attempt to get away from being healed. It broke her heart to see her wife in so much pain.
They knew more of these creatures were coming. Elyd had also found that the woman who killed Elliot Graves - a Sith only known as the ‘Inquisitor’ had somehow come back from the dead. After a third attack by these zombie-like creatures, Elyd had to face this woman. The peace treaty she’d worked so hard to keep in order to protect the citizens of Veles was balancing dangerously on the edge and likely would soon fall.

She was angry. Panicked. Her grief for Graves still unhealed and the wound ripped open. She was failing everyone.

So, she’d told the truth.

A small circle of trust now knew the whole story. Every detail she could remember, all of the ways she’d dirtied her hands. She couldn’t do this alone like she’d been trying so desperately to. All that it had accomplished was build the rage inside her like a starving animal.

When it was suggested that a group go deeper in to the crystal caverns and attempt to find what lurked below, Elyd insisted she go. She had to be apart of this, to fix this.
In the darkness they’d found more of those creatures. They’d tore into Iskellia, but Elyd had stopped them from taking the Padawan. In the cold, damp, darkness… old instincts kicked in, and Elyd was not the Sheriff anymore. No, she was the Harpy who’d descended on her prey.

She’d pushed forward and assassinated more than she cared to count. That feeling of warm, slick blood coated her. She felt almost at home within it. With each body that slumped to the floor at the base of her blades and the moan of a life ending her anger fulled. It didn’t leave her, but she could feel the blood that soaked her skin beginning to cover it as well, and when that blood dried she wouldn’t be able to see it any more. So she kept killing them. She reveled in it. It was a relief that she’d not experienced in many years, to feel that blaze become an ember, and then become a coal.

It couldn’t last, though. That wasn’t how Elyd’s luck worked. A miss step in the darkness was all it took for a rock to skitter across the ground and alert the creatures. Elyd’s armor protected most of her, but one of their claws pierced through her shoulder. In an instant, she felt the rush of adrenaline and something more fill her, and the blood that had begun to coat that ball of anger splattered against the walls of her psyche like an explosion. It burned so bright and so harshly she felt it in her veins.
It didn’t hurt, though. Not in the same kind of way. It felt good and powerful. The Jedi tried to take It away from her, but she didn’t want them to. How did anger feel so good like this? Hate had always been a painful feeling before, but this was new. When they tried to pull it from her it felt like they were trying to rip out a piece of her soul. Like they were flaying the very flesh from her bones.
They had to stop, though. They were being surrounded by the creatures and they had to flee. As they continued to explore the cave, Elyd found herself becoming accustomed to the darkness. That beautiful, pleasing heat of hate returned to her too. Her flesh felt whole. With each life she took from the creatures, she felt herself growing stronger. Faster.
Was this what it felt like to be unbroken? She wouldn’t let it go.
They called her infected. Said her eyes were wrong. They tried to make her sleep. Fuck them. No. She wanted this. She needed it. She wanted to kill the one who shot her. She didn’t, though. He could get torn up by these creatures. He didn’t deserve a death by her hands. She was becoming more than what any of them could ever imagine.
They tried again to rip it from her. A cloud of confusion cascaded over her mind like a waterfall and she couldn’t tell what was happening. All she could feel was the pain of what made her whole and unbroken being torn away. She begged for it to stay, for them to leave her to heal with it.
They stopped again. They had to run. She didn’t know what from, at first, but she followed. The hairs on the back of her neck told her well enough that something was very wrong.
They found two people. Amber eyed. Kin. The girl mentioned the Exchange, and how the Sith were selling the results of this experiment to them. It clicked in her mind. What she’d heard before they’d murdered that Hutt.
The man tried to threaten them. It didn’t work out for him. What he did though sent that feeling crawling back up her back and neck. Danger. She’d grabbed the woman, and the group fled. She’d never had problems carrying people before, but she felt like a feather. She could feel that strength returning to her again. While those around her panted and ran with fear, Elyd ran with thrill.

Once they broke the surface, they found Glitch, and Corbin. She wanted to grab his face and tear it off. Remove that smug little bastard face forever. Before she could do anything, though… the tearing began again.
She fought against it, as she had down in the caves. She wanted this power to stay with her. To continue feeding her until she was unbroken and built anew. She could hear a voice this time, though. Telling her she didn’t need it. Reminding her that she was strong.

Was she?

The pain was worse than she could ever explain through words. When last of it had been ripped from the very core of herself, she felt… empty. Her body longed for that piece of itself back. Her mind yearned for it. She recognized this feeling. She was terrified of it. She’d run from it time and time again, but it found her.

She didn’t remember much from that night, aside from the small snippets through her delirium and withdrawl symptoms. That she’d never be right in the head again. That she’d always crave it.

Jokes on them, she’d think. She was no stranger to that feeling.

[Reddnn]

“A pleasure to see you again, Harpy.”

That was a face and voice Elyd never expected nor intended to see again.
With the bounty set on Ambrose by the former Commander of their unit, Elyd’s own past associates had of course been involved.
Just when she’d begun facing the mistakes she’d made between the war and the present, and when her wife was away doing her own business - of course this was the moment they’d come back into her life.

She’d tracked down the suit who set the bounty on Ambrose thanks to a stupid number of credits and the help of her allies. She was in a panic when she decided to make her move to hunt down the source of this, and grabbed the first people she found along the way who she could trust with this. Sandra, Callista, and Gulliver.

When they found the suit, it only took a brief look for her memories to come flooding back. Blood Hound. He’d always been a step above her during her time with the Republic. A kiss-ass and a cutthroat, he was the exact type to have worked his way up and out of the mud. Last she saw him, she’d been a 2nd Lieutenant, and he’d been a 1st. There he stood once again in front of her - second in command of this black list unit.

She’d never learned his name, or heard really anything about the bastard who ran the whole show. Blood Hound so kindly informed her that the now former Commander Nallus Vradun was the source of the bounty after having his own name and Ambrose’s wiped from the records. Elyd was given the sector his ship was hiding in, and she left with her companions - all for the promise of leaving Blood Hound’s throat intact.

Even for his own promise, she had a feeling this wasn’t the last she’d seen of him. He now knew she was still alive, which meant she was now a tool he would try and use.

Asshole had taunted her. Asked if her friends knew of the things she’d done. Elyd had never given them specifics - of course - but she knew she couldn’t bring them in totally blind. She’d told them she’d done bad things. This unit had been the one the Republic used to conceal their ‘necessary’ war crimes, after all. She was just thankful they didn’t see her as less for it.

She had ensured she kept herself hidden, and her holo-comm signal encrypted. Million credits was a lot of money, and she’d be hunted in an effort to get to Ambrose. So she set to work using every resource available to her to comb through the sector she knew Nallus’s ship floated in. Soon as she found it, she’d inform Ambrose.

Then, they’d see this chapter finally closed.

Hopefully.

[Reddnn]

She’d found the ship.

Or rather, friends of Elyd had found it, and given her the opportunity to track it down. She managed to keep her own ship undetected to the best of her knowledge. She knew roughly where the ship would be hiding.

When she told Ambrose though - gave him the chance to end this mess? He’d refused. Saying he wanted Nallus to come to him. Later Elyd would find out that Ambrose lured him into the wildwoods on Viscara, and toyed with him. This resulted in someone completely detached from this conflict - Nivoe - who was passing by to get injured. All because of Ambrose’s desire to drag this out into some sort of game.

Elyd had gotten herself into deep shit by trying to help him. She’d exposed herself to the past, and as a result had risked herself and her loved ones to whatever machinations Blood Hound was cooking up. More than once she’d risked herself for Ambrose. It didn’t seem to matter to him. She’d begun to feel spite towards the man she’d considered a friend. She knew he bent the truth around her. She’d heard now some of the falsehoods.

What was the point in a friendship that was so one-sided? It wasn’t even a transaction at this point. What had he done for her out of their supposed bond? Had he ever even thanked her for the things she’d done and risked?

She cared for her friends to a fault. It left her open and ripe for the picking. It fucking hurt.

She couldn’t think of anyone better to turn to about this internal conflict than one who shared a similar feeling. A duty to one’s bonds that was simply part of who they were. One of the few people she truly considered family, and who called her vod.

[Reddnn]

Elyd had lost a lot of people in her life thus far. She’d watched her squadmates - the closest thing she’d had to family in her time with the Republic - be slaughtered. She’d returned to her home world to find that in her time away the only blood family she’d had were gone too. Her parents, and younger brother wiped out after a particularly bad sickness had swept through her home in her years abroad.

Perhaps there was something wrong with her, but this latest death hurt different. It hurt more somehow.

Kassie was someone who chose to be her family, not linked by blood or duty. Perhaps that was why. Because Elyd had chosen her in return. She found herself laying in bed at night as she listened to the gentle breathing that lay near her, replaying those last moments she’d seen Kassie alive. How she clearly did not intend to get on that ship - and walk towards her death - if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d accepted it’s possibility in exchange for what Elyd had spoken to her about during their drunken nights of revelry and shared pain.

She didn’t have to be able to see under the tinted visor to know that when Kassie looked back at her before grasping hold of the rope that dangled from the above drop ship - she’d made the decision to put her family first. Even though Elyd was not a Mandalorian, not a Krail. The fact that Kassie knew how much Elyd cared for the future of Veles and how deeply she wanted to make a difference there. Despite the fact that the people of Veles had spat on her, threatened her, called her a monster. Kassie had died in part for them - knowing she would not make Elyd have to decide between them.

Kassie had died in part for what Elyd believed was possible. A bubble of cooperation and community. A colony that could survive and prosper without hatred for one another. It was a far off dream, but one that now mattered even more.

There was so much to do now. Yet she was paralyzed in her grief. Perhaps after the funeral - when she’d properly been able to say goodbye.

[Reddnn]

Revan was dead. Or at least, that’s what they’d been told. Elyd was a naturally suspicious person, jaded after years of experience with the Republic falsifying their image. Regardless of his true status, there were bigger things to worry about.

She’d gone on the mission because she needed to do something. She needed to help protect the people who would have gone without her. Elyd didn’t go for some heroic purpose, nor for the payment she’d requested. At least, not fully. It was time to make moves, to play the board.

Elyd sat at her desk in her home, going over the documentation she’d acquired from Pravin Nox’s estate, making several copies. She kept the original set in a hidden compartment that opened with a latch and a biometric scanner - hidden underneath one of the desk’s drawers. Another set she kept on her person, to use as assurance should she ever find herself in trouble.

The third copies however - that she sealed in in a folder. She had it placed within a secure vault she’d spent a fair amount of money on, with the explicit instructions that if anything happened to her, it was to be unsealed and spread to the public. Things were beginning to get dangerous not just in the physical sense, but the political game as well. With Jethro back, her plans faced a complication. Ironically, she’d done a significant part of his job for him - but she wouldn’t be sharing these documents without ensuring that Pravin’s replacement wouldn’t be just as corrupt.

The negotiations with the Sith splinter group under Valerius did provide an opportunity however - one that if played correctly could result in an expedition of her hopes for Veles. If she could secure a seat on the Colonial Council either herself or for someone who shared her ideals, Veles had a real chance.

She pulled out one of the numbers from the intel she’d collected, and plucked it into her holocom.

Time to find out if the party was still happening.

[Reddnn]

The fact that Elyd finally found clarity from her recent bout of intense stress after speaking to a woman Wanted by both the Republic and the Sith was ironic, though not entirely surprising.

There is a difference between paranoia and instinct.

These were words Elyd desperately needed to hear. So many things seemed connected, then disconnected, then reconnected again. Political movements, revenge, money exchanging hands. She’d gathered so many puzzle pieces, but had not managed to truly fit any together and seen an image. It had been slowly driving her mad.

Sandra was right, however. Instinct is what had kept her alive all these years. When she felt that nagging feeling in her gut that something was wrong she’d listened to it. When had she stopped? Perhaps when she’d become soft. When she wanted to give people chances to change. Not everyone could, though. Not everyone wanted to. For as little as she trusted most people - a mutual goal was often a better means to maintain an ally.

There were still drugs out there, preparing to be unleashed on her streets. There were back room deals being made, and the prickle on the back of her neck of being watched. She’d become complacent. No more, however. She’d severed one tie she’d been feeling wrong about. She’d sever more if need be. Cut deeper if they were necessary.

One step at a time. Get a nice suit. Refresh her dancing skills. Attend a Gala. Then, she’d compile it all. Lay it out and let her instincts tell her what was right and wrong.

Sometimes she’d feel the phantom thrum of blades in her hands. Perhaps they might be needed. Ideally not, but things had gotten far too serious to not keep them close at hand.

[Reddnn]

Well, shit had certainly happened.

Pravin was out. She’d finished the job she’d started practically since the beginning of her time as Sheriff. Course, not before Pravin had fired her.

”No good deed goes unpunished.”

Elyd couldn’t help but laugh to herself at the absurd accuracy of such a simple saying. Maybe it was the Marcan, she thought to herself as she exhaled. She’d found her spot on the cliff above her home, and had been enjoying the cool breeze as she moved. In the distance, she could see the towers that made up the skyline of Veles, and how they glinted in the sun.

Crystal still believed in Elyd, so that was something. The other woman was fighting hard for her, after only just having met each other. A shame they’d not met earlier, though no use fretting over what could have been. The kinship she felt towards her was clear enough, and regardless of what happened she knew that she’d have a way to help the people of Veles through her.

The days after Pravin’s arrest had certainly been something. After riding the high of her successful mission in the space above Viscara during Malak’s attack, attending a wedding, and hearing the story of Callista’s narrow escape from her own mission, Elyd figured she’d have been able to at least get some R&R. Never was her luck for things to go her way, though.

The Holonet broadcast had certainly brought her a fair amount of anxiety, though the sheer number of people who so readily came to her side when she needed them most was… incredibly humbling. Elyd had been working alone for so long, and as a result had felt more isolated than she had in some time.

”You know what our problem is? We think too much.”

Oh how right she was. Elyd never stopped thinking unless she was mid mission, fight, or training. Only then did her mind slow, and she worked off pure instinct and muscle memory. Even now, sitting upon a peaceful cliff, getting high, she was thinking so much.

She tapped some ash off her joint, watching the particles be swept away on the breeze.

Perhaps it was time to do what she feared most - simply exist, and do what she wished as she could. Dance along whatever rope she found herself balancing on, without the concern for a lack of a net below her. She thought back to some of the words the Matukai had said to her.

”Fear not that which comes, for tomorrow is all that can be and always will be.”

She had not fully understood the phrase before, but perhaps now she did. She was always anxious of the future, of the chain of reactions that came from a singular choice. Her choice paralysis had often led her to be far too slow in her actions.

Instinct.

That was what she did her best work on. Through her instincts. Her gut. She’d sharpened herself into such a finely crafted blade that her mind and body simply knew what to do when it mattered.

It wouldn’t be easy, but it was time to stop thinking, and simply act.

[Reddnn]

Time for a change.

Elyd sat back in her chair, a content exhale escaping from her lips. She looked over the design she’d received back from a graphical artist she’d hired, leaning her head back and to the sides, testing it’s legibility from various angles.

A shield. That’s what she’d desired to be for so long. The Republic had failed her and so many others. The Sith were hypocrites in their own right. Czerka were money hungry slavers.

She’d taken the opportunity Graves had given her to make things better - and she had removed one of the key individuals who’d been making life harder for those just trying to get by. A success, by all means - even at the cost of her job.

”Thats the thing about pickles. They’re edible.”

Such a silly phrase, but Yshren was completely right. Take what she’d learned, what she’d gained, and apply it to the future. Elyd didn’t have the mouth of a politician, that could be left to others - she craved the other work. The kinds that not just anybody could accomplish with a smarmy smile and pockets full of credits. She was damn good at it.

So here she was, getting a proposal ready and filing for the necessary licenses. Oddly enough - fairly easy to achieve thanks to her Republic record. Plenty of people in the security field had a soft spot for Veterans.

Elyd leaned back further, her chair rocking precariously back onto two legs as her feet kicked up onto the open desk space with a THUNK. She counted in her head the people she’d approach, and her chances of convincing them. Despite her history of bad luck, Elyd felt fairly confident in the majority. Cash would be the biggest problem, though thankfully she had her own savings as well as a few leads on potential investors that would suit her needs.

Her gaze drifted back to the holo-screen, and a grin tugged at her lips as she looked over the design once more.

Season One: END

Season Two Begins: Aegis