Eye of the Shadow - Pt. 1 - First Touch

'Major, I still don't understand why we have to send teams scouring this place looking for one lone Jedi. Why can't Lord Bandon or his teams just sense her out and kill her?'

'We do not ask questions of such people, lieutenant, we just do our duty."

The three Sith officers strutted along the primary boulevard outside the quickly erected portable base facility. The major was an imposing figure. She was the image of military professionalism, tall, muscular, and proud. Her two companions were lowly lieutenants with little experience in the role of leading men and women and still possessing the frantic curiosity of youth. The male lieutenant, Federan, was alert and eager to see combat. The female, Sarna, was just excited to be on a new adventure. The major felt like she was babysitting again like she had done in her youth.

Just children. What are they doing charge of battle-tested men. A full thirty-man platoon at their command. Ugh... why do I always get harnessed with the innocent wide-eyed ones.

Her mind drifted amongst the stray tasks that she needed to assign these two officers without really noticing the Tarisian citizens around her milling about handling their daily business as best they could. The Sith fleet had only been in orbit for two days, and already the planet and its administration were firmly in their grasp. The major's mind spent just a moment contemplating any resistance or insurgence. Taris had seen a fair bit of conflict and uprising in the recent past, but the citizens of the upper city had managed to squash most other social classes and driven them below where they could not make too much of a fuss. She did not take much time to notice a relatively attractive man in his early thirties dressed as a local merchant. Such merchants were common place in the upper city. He was just another face in the crowd. Attractive but not so much as to turn the head a second time. He did seem to have a blind or damaged left eye, but most civilizations had taught their young not to stare at someone with physical disabilities, besides, with a few credits set aside, he could buy a fine cybernetic implant.

As she turned her head to speak again to her curious lieutenants who appeared to be more interested in each other than her orders, she caught a subtle bit of unusual movement from the anonymous merchant. She thought it strange that he had reached out and touched her on the side of her neck. He had moved so fast that it was hardly perceptible to the distracted passersby. She instantly felt light headed and felt her knees buckle slightly. She felt something warm run down her hand like she had just dipped her hand in bath water.

Who is screaming? Why is everyone staring at me? What is the panic...

Her mind seemed to fill with a grey cloud keeping her from finishing her thought. Her sight flickered for a moment, then she was looking up at the sky. Such a strange sensation passed through her body. She could not feel all her extremities.

perhaps a little nap will help me feel better.

Physician Forn had stepped out of his little clinic as soon as he started to hear shrieks of terror rise from the people outside his front entry.

'What in the...' His expletive was not completed because of the sight that slammed into his senses. A Sith officer was lying on the pavement while two junior officers attended to her. The young woman had her hands pressed to the throat of the downed officer while the man had his ear to her lips apparently listening for some sign of life. A ghastly pool of crimson spread out over the boulevard originating from between the clenched fingers of the young woman attempting to save her superior's life.

Forn rushed over to the scene knowing instantly by the inhuman pale color of the officer's skin that she was gone. The flow of blood had stopped beneath the fingers of the young woman indicating that the heart had stopped pushing the fluid out of the two inch long fissure in the woman's neck. The doctor closed the victim's eyes then took off his jacket to cover her head and torso.

The male officer rose abruptly and began scanning the crowd looking for some sign of an assailant. He could not know that the perpetrator was already sitting quietly in his apartment just a few blocks away evaluating his next move. The female officer still kneeling next to the victim looked in horror at the scene around herself. The blood, her hands, the body.... She began to weep. The standing officer reached down with hardly a thought and smacked the girl to the ground.

'Sith don't cry. We don't fear. We don't grieve. We do our duty for the Sith, Lord Revan, and the Galaxy. Do you understand me?!'

His words rose to a shrill tone. He grabbed his com and began feeding information to the command post, and within moments, the block filled with troopers in uniforms and battle armor grabbing and pushing the people in the crowd to begin the process of interrogation. The Sith were not a group who were slow to react.

Senior officers arrived barking orders as Felka Zorn drifted back towards his office just a few meters away. He watched as a trooper took the female officer by the arm to get her clear of the situation and noticed the other lieutenant being debriefed by a stern looking official. A gesture was tossed in the direction of the doctor indicating that he was not going to slip away as inconspicuously as he had hoped. The official approached him.

'I am told you responded to the needs of my people. I am Colonel Alenskian, and I would like to thank you for your support. My people and I do not get a lot of assistance on many of the planets we visit. It is good to know that even though a dastardly act was committed against us, we know who our friends are.'

A shiver ran through Zorn's body as his mind immediately snapped to the two men floating secretly in kolto just a few meters behind him.

'My goal is to preserve life, regardless of whose life I preserve.'

Not having quite the supportive tenor that the Colonel was looking for, he was nonetheless satisfied. He nodded and moved off to a little knot of officers and NCO's trying to figure out what had happened. This first instance of resistance on the part of the Tarisians must be thoroughly dealt with and reprisals considered.

'Sir...' an investigator called out to get the Alenskian's attention. 'Sir, her data clip is missing.'

The Colonel's heavy exhale accompanied the knowledge that someone on this planet other than Sith now had several data pads belonging to a field officer in their possession. Deployment plans, shift changes of security posts, check point passwords, troop positions.... If an insurgent wanted to have precise knowledge of occupation forces in this quadrant, they chose the right target.