Benthamic (Star Wars)

Darth Benthamic, born Erik Tuva, was a Human male Sith Lord who operated during the Cold War and ensuing Galactic War, reaching his zenith of power and influence after the apparent final death of Emperor Vitiate. Born on Ziost to a wealthy but declining Imperial family, his nascent Force sensibility and affinity with the dark side earned him enrollment at the prestigious Sith Academy on Korriban. After completing his harrowing trials, he was apprenticed to the rogue Lord Sotmr who rebelled against the Dark Council to form his own dark side cult on Umbara, the Speakers for the Dead. 
Tasked by the Sith leaders with crushing the breakaway state in the outskirts of Imperial space, he defeated his former master in single combat to prove his loyalty to the Empire, thereby assuming the errant Lord's position of cult leader and his place within the Empire at large. Some on the Council and other rivals of the fallen Sotmr were suspicious that Tuva retained ownership of the fanatical worshipers - a small army of dark adepts, infantry, and a minor flotilla of Imperial Destroyers - but most tolerated his ambition, pleased to see the end of Sotmr and hopeful that his erstwhile apprentice would be a more effective and loyal asset to Vitiate's reconstituted Sith Empire. He was christened Lord Benthamic by Darth Mortis in a formal Korriban ceremony attended by his followers, reborn as a true Sith and free of the chains of the past.
===== The Cold War=====
Now a full-fledged Sith Lord, Benthamic set out to prove himself in the collection of proxy wars across the Galaxy which preceded the resumption of open conflict between the Republic and Empire. He ingratiated himself with the highly respected Lord Krovos who served under Darth Decimus, an elder Dark Council member and head of the Sphere of Military Strategy. After years of immersion in the petty Sith politics of Korriban and Ziost, not to mention his service to the conniving Lord Sotmr, he found Krovos and her master's pragmatic devotion to the Empire refreshing. They were singularly focused on protecting the sovereignty of the Sith Empire and ensuring its "defensive" expansion into neutral or Republic-aligned worlds, and were thus largely free of the typical Sith infighting and powerplays which plagued the rest of the Dark Council.
Decimus' bloc embraced the philosophy of Darth Marr, believing that the war was one of survival, with the Republic as the unflinching aggressors; centuries before the return of the Empire in the aftermath of the devastating Great Hyperspace War, the Jedi and Republic ruthlessly hunted down and exterminated Sith Purebloods and their followers across the galaxy so as to ensure the order would never return. The powerful Sith known as Darth Vitiate, along with a legion of the surviving Sith Lords, fled into wild space unbeknownst to the Republic, slowly rebuilding their Empire in the far reaches of the galaxy in preparation for the triumphant reclaiming of their former territories, which had largely fallen into ruin after the Sith genocide. Marr firmly believed that the Jedi's ultimate goal was to finish what they had started after the Great Hyperspace War, and thus the Imperials were forced to pursue their just cause of reconquest and expansion to protect themselves from the Republic. Such was the philosophy and rationale adopted by Darth Decimus and the Sphere of Military Strategy during the Cold War, justifying allowing aliens to serve in the Imperial armed forces by asserting that the Sith Empire welcomes beings of all description who have a hunger to break their chains and win glory in a valiant war against the brutal Republic. Many Sith criticized this philosophy, claiming that their adherents were weak for straying against ancient Sith traditions or that they were merely attempting to swell their ranks with savage aliens in an imprudent attempt to compensate for declining recruitment within the military.
The young Benthamic embraced these ideas wholeheartedly, and his almost religious adherence to them as extensions to the Sith Code guided him on a somewhat unorthodox path for a Dark Lord. He was extremely eager to be sent to the most important front-lines in every contested system, faithfully serving Lord Krovos and Darth Decimus as an ambassador or assassin, or fighting alongside them in the war's deadliest battles. As Benthamic was far from a gifted pilot, he enlisted the aid of the young but exceptional Lieutenant Amelia Kall of the Third Imperial Assault Fleet: Born in Dromund Kaas and a diehard Imperial loyalist to the end, Kall was an ambitious yet diligent fighter pilot, and desired to transfer to a station of prestige which would offer her greater upward mobility. After several successful missions as a starfighter during the Imperial invasions of Taris and Belsavis, Amelia was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Imperial Navy and thus free to serve any military station on detached duty. Benthamic and Kall, having both served valiantly under Darth Decimus, gained a mutual respect for one another early in their careers, and thus made natural partners. She was officially commissioned as First Officer for the Sith Lord's Fury-class Imperial Interceptor, the Tempest, and was henceforth counted as Benthamic's most trusted ally and friend.
As the Lord grew in strength and influence, conflict between the Republic and Empire's proxy states rapidly escalated, culminating in the inevitable resumption of the Galactic War after it concluded in a decisive Sith victory 11 years after Erik had been born. Krovos rose to the rank of Darth in the chaos of the first few days of renewed conflict, granting her much greater influence within Military Strategy and the Empire at large as well as a formal advisory role to Darth Decimus. Upon her ascension, Darth Krovos took Benthamic under her wing as protege, much as Decimus oversaw her rise through the rigid Sith hierarchy previously. As Krovos' informal apprentice, Lord Benthamic traveled throughout the fringes of Imperial space, attempting to pressure the border worlds into joining the Empire to protect them from Republic aggression. The vast majority were extremely hesitant, worried that accepting Imperial overtures would immediately result in Jedi intervention and thus make their peaceful worlds battlefields. However, Benthamic's diplomatic approach did meet with some success, convincing several Mandalorian warrior clans to relive the glory of the previous war as well as pressuring the fertile world of Felucia to become an Imperial protectorate due to their proximity to the Sith strongholds of Korriban and Ziost. Where negotiations failed and the Dark Council ordered that a world be brought into the fold by force, Benthamic and Krovos, aided by Admiral Ranken's Imperial Forward Command fleet, would be called to arms to do what Sith have always done best: Conquest.
===== An Ancient Grudge=====
The phases of the new war changed by the month. Countless died in the chaos of the first few weeks on account of the lack of formal declaration of war, as well as the uncertainty of who fired the first shot. After the initial confusion, the Empire gained the decisive upper hand thanks to their early victories on Corellia, Balmorra, and Dantooine. Diplomatic overtures led by Darth Ravage secured a strategic alliance between the Sith Empire and Chiss Ascendancy, effectively boxing in the Core Worlds and forcing the Galactic Republic to spread their forces so as to defend their borders from further incursion. The fall of Bespin and Malastare seemed to spell the doom of the Republic, as joint Empire-Ascendancy fleets secured vital refueling stations far from their home sectors, allowing them to operate freely throughout Wild Space as well as open up a final front with the Republic on their exposed southern expansion region. It seemed inevitable that the humiliating defeat of the Jedi was fated to repeat itself, and this time the Empire would not stop at Coruscant.
However, the rot of unspoken contradictions in Imperial society festered as the Dark Council became complacent, content to simply wait out the days until another treaty was signed and then draw lots to decide who would receive stewardship over each conquered sector. Supply lines were stretched thin as the expeditionary fleets struggled to keep all the conquered sectors in line, allowing the toppled governments in exile to successfully wage guerilla wars against under-equipped and under-supplied Imperial garrisons, virtually all of them supported and "advised" by elite Republic commandos. The comically departmentalized Dark Council made it difficult for overlapping Spheres to coordinate effectively, and created a sense of rivalry between the twelve Dark Lords as they hoarded resources for themselves - especially since the absence of the Sith Emperor, who would personally direct grand strategies and campaigns in the heyday of the Empire to great effect, with each councilor obeying his every demand for fear that Vitiate would "make an example out of them" before all their peers. With the Emperor essentially unrepresented in council politics, his Hand chose and unleashed a new Emperor's Wrath, bound only to Vitiate in loyalty, and charged them with defending the Sith at all cost. The Wrath was an unparalleled warrior, and made his intentions clear when he struck down his former master Darth Baras before the Council as a warning. Afterwards, he demanded that the Spheres of Logistics and Military Strategy set aside their petty differences until after the war, ensuring Decimus and Vowrawn played nicely with each other.
In response to the Wrath's intercession, the two Spheres entered a new period of close cooperation, spurred predominantly by either genuine desire to save the Empire, or fear that the Emperor's new personal enforcer would deliver unto them a summary execution without trial and have them instantly replaced. Benthamic was called to collaborate with his counterpart in Logistics, an older yet incredibly charismatic and deceptively affable Sith known as Lord Shaar. While Krovos and her match - Vowrawn's faithful apprentice, Darth Qet - were dispatched to squash the insurgencies taking place in the Empire's protectorate states, Benthamic and Shaar traveled to Chiss space with ambitions to strengthen the bond between the Ascendancy and the Sith, ideally securing a more permanent defense pact rather than their current alliance of mere opportunity. Many Sith were outraged at the Empire's attempts to welcome aliens into their ranks, most notably the strict traditionalist Darth Mortis of the Dark Council. The Wrath kept a tight leash on Mortis and his armies, if only to delay his outburst until peacetime. 
=====Diplomatic Mission ===== 
Lord Shaar, notorious for her study and admiration for numerous cultures across the galaxy (mostly to find fresh indulgences to sate her sybaritine lifestyle) took the lead in their diplomatic mission, having learned much of Ascendancy culture in her time spent around diligent Chiss Imperials. She understood that any overtures made toward the reclusive empire had to come from a place of both strength and respect; strength to show that one is worthy of acknowledgment, and respect to ensure any promises made must be promises kept. Thus, upon their arrival as foreign dignitaries, they made every effort to embrace Chiss culture and tolerate their alien traditions to show that the Empire were approaching the Ascendancy with the esteem they deserved. As the first step to bring the two empires closer together, the Sith offered a personnel exchange with the Chiss, with each side observing the foreign volunteers to search for signs of incompetency or treachery. The Syndicure agreed, and as part of the program, the famed gunner and arms expert Salana Rok joined the two Sith Lords' party, officially to help guide them in the intricate traditions of the Chiss, though there was a tacit understanding that she was essentially tasked with chaperoning the Lords and keeping them out of trouble during their visit to Ascendancy space.
Having demonstrated their respect for Chiss customs, the ruling Aristocra tasked the Imperial contingent with demonstrating their strength, the measure of which would decide the course of any potential treaties. Benthamic, Shaar, Amelia, and Salana, along with a detachment of Imperial veterans, were tasked with ensuring the loyalty of House Inrokini to Csilla. Under the leadership of their house's tenacious leader Syndic Zenta, Inrokini became extremely bold, encroaching upon the respected Mitth clan's planets; of chief concern was the densely populated and resource-rich world of Copero, which was the Ascendancy's largest shipyard under Mitth control. Zenta placed spies within the local government and bought out major businesses, eventually resulting in a worrying state of fairs in which House Inrokini had de-facto sovereignty over Copero, with the Mitth helpless to act. The Sith team asserted to the locals that they were merely Imperial dignitaries touring the Ascendancy to recover from the harrowing war, and were thus treated to many nights of scandalous debauchery in the impressive tourist resorts the Inrokini had recently erected. However, Syndic Zenta was aware that the Empire was attempting to establish a "special relationship" with the Chiss Ascendancy, and thus privately ordered her best spies to watch them from the shadows and wait for them to slip up, at which point House Inrokini could conceivably have the Sith ambassadors banished on charges of attempted political meddling, threatening to break their relationship forever. 
 
The Sith Lords shared a vague sense of suspicion in the heart of Syndic Zenta, and thus made every effort to tread carefully and avoid exposing their true goals. The two played along, enjoying private flights over the nation's famous jungles and mountain ranges and making merry at the nightly parties hosted in the Imperial Enclave - they found it amusing to observe the famously stiff and prissy Chiss devolve into veritable party animals after a few shots of Begeren whiskey. Benthamic and Shaar enjoyed the privilege and debauchery associated with the life of the Imperial ambassadors. One fateful night, in the calm shadows and hushed silence which followed a particularly raucous celebration, Benthamic half-jokingly offered to stay at Shaar's side forever, living a peaceful life traveling the galaxy together while the war raged on in far-away systems. Lord Shaar was flattered and seriously considered accepting his offer, but eventually resolved that although the two were free to enjoy the fruits of their labor like any Sith, they mustn't allow their edges to be dulled by the allure of complacency, as their lives ultimately belonged to the Empire. However, she promised him that once the war was concluded and the Jedi were forced to bow to the might of the Sith, their chains would be broken and they would finally be free to pursue the lives of their dreams, exploring the far corners of the galaxy alone together, for all time.
Having played their parts to perfection for weeks, the Sith and their entourage began to put their schemes into motion. If they were to bring down Zenta and her shadow government, they would first need to secure the cooperation of House Mitth, feeding their hatred for the Inkrokini until they had no choice to finally confront the vile upstarts. Salana offered her assistance by securing a meeting with a powerful son of Mitth by the name of Crassus, whose vouching for the Sith could push his house to rise up. Meeting in secret in the midst of a masquerade ball, Crassus offered highly classified mission about Zenta which she kept totally secret from the public as a show of good faith, asking only that the Empire would stand behind the Mitth clan if they were ever targeted again - or if a powerplay put them at odds with the other houses, as was happening to Inrokini. The Sith agreed, and Crassus revealed that Zenta was not only Force sensitive - a highly undesirable trait among the Chiss aristocracy - but that she had been spotted wielding a blue lightsaber. Crassus was instructed to warn his family that the Jedi were attempting to infiltrate Chiss high society in preparation for a full-scale Republic invasion to score a hit against the Empire, as punishment for their past mutually beneficial agreements with the Sith. The leaders of House Mitth were outraged and immediately launched a propaganda campaign against Syndic Zenta, accusing her of conspiring against the Ascendancy and displaying shocking illustrations of her in Jedi robes. The public, who had mostly remained sympathetic to Mitth after the Inrokini takeover, rose up in protest against Zenta and her puppet government, demanding answers. The Syndic assured the protestors that none of the allegations were true and the bitter Mitth clan were attempting to defame her in a petty attempt at revenge for their recent financial troubles. Meanwhile, the Sith manufactured a clash - or more appropriately, a massacre - between Inrokini forces and protesting citizens by planting seeds of violence and mania in their frenzied mines. When one soldier was fooled by a subtle illusion of one of the rioters preparing to throw a thermal detonator, he ordered the security forces to open fire, prompting the other protestors to rush towards the soldiers in anguish, and over the course of 30 confused seconds dozens of citizens and soldiers were slaughtered in the panic. The carefully choreographed bloody scene was successful, and protests of a similar nature broke out across the city as it appeared Zenta was beginning to eradicate all political dissidents to as to hide her true nature. 
The time to topple House Inrokini had finally come. With most of her soldiers and mercenaries distracted by the escalating riots, Syndic Zenta defended the capital city's parliament building virtually by her lonesome, forced to watch in horror as her people were gunned down by the dozens for no clear reason. Benthamic and Shaar confronted her on the roof of the parliament, taunting her and urging her to surrender as she had already lost. She lashed out in a torrent of fury and indignation, fighting with a Jedi lightsaber and the focused rage of a Sith warrior. She was not quite a match for two hardened Sith Lords, but her connection to the Dark Side was remarkable for one not trained in the halls of Korriban. When Zenta was clearly defeated, Shaar demanded that she surrender or die, and that the Empire would be merciful if she surrendered control of Copero back to House Mitth. She laid down her lightsabers and fell before the feet of the triumphant Sith, and Benthamic asked what her story was. 
 
Having been discovered to be Force sensitive at an early age, her family banished her from the Ascendancy, and she traveled to Tython in search of help. She trained diligently to be a Jedi Knight, displaying great martial skill and power in the Force, but her aggressive tendencies were met with concern by the Jedi Council, who exiled her once again for dabbling with the dark arts. Thirsty for vengeance and anguished by the fact that she would never truly belong on either world, she traveled back to Copero and used a mind trick to force her family to receive her once more. After her return, she manipulated events to ensure that she would become Syndic when her father died; the process took longer than expected, and out of impatience she hired the infamous GenoHaradan assassin guild to arrange an "accident" for him. Benthamic acknowledged her ruthlessness and drive to attain power by any means necessary, with Shaar suggesting that such traits befit a true Sith. In exchange for a public acknowledgment that she was a secret Jedi operative attempting to win Copero for the Republic, she was shown mercy by the Sith Lords and clandestinely transported to Korriban, where she hoped she would finally have the power, respect, and family that she had always been searching for.
 
 
Shortly after Zenta was exiled, Benthamic was approached by the starfighter Salana Rok who served as Shaar and his chaperone. She was impressed at his willingness to achieve victory against great odds no matter the cost whilst retaining some semblance of humanity and perhaps even compassion, which was not a particularly common trait among the upper rungs of Chiss society. Salana offered to serve on the Tempest as gunner and munitions expert, confessing that she had much in common with the former Syndic; her outspoken and curious nature combined with an almost Sith-like fixation on testing herself in battle drew her to Benthamic and Amelia's precarious lifestyle, traveling from system to system and becoming stronger with every victory - every kill. They accepted her request, and she was officially assigned to the Tempest as an Ascendancy officer on detached duty via a favor from Saganu. Her official purpose was to help strengthen the brotherly bond between the Chiss and Sith, though Saganu sensed she simply wanted to be free. 
 
With Syndic Zenta eliminated and House Mitth's control over the Copero parliament restored, the Chiss Syndicure were incredibly pleased, admitting that they had not expected the Sith to achieve such a triumph. Negotiations between the Ascendancy and the Empire entered a new stage as the Aristocra felt confident that forging an official "mutual defense pact" with the Sith was now in their best interest as the Republic appeared to be getting desperate to end the war as soon as possible, even if it meant invading neutral worlds. Of course, the Chiss were aware that the Imperials were not exactly strangers to such underhanded tactics, but their enduring friendship and promise to cede unto them vital Republic industrial worlds after the war were enough for the Ascendancy to agree to a permanent arrangement. Copero became the center of joint Imperial-Chiss operations in the Outer Rim, throwing the Republic Senate into a temporary state of chaos as it dawned on them that the Empire had essentially solved their logistics problem in the galactic south and doubled its naval production. Benthamic and Shaar were given high honors by Grand Moff Regus himself, and it appeared as though they would both be Darths before the end of the war. Unfortunately for the Sith, forces within the Empire at that very moment were sowing the seeds of destruction for the two Lords and their masters, outraged that he had been undermined by their unsanctioned diplomatic actions; Darth Ravage was preparing for war. 
=====Enemies Within and Without=====
Though the Empire had fought valiantly in the first phase of the new war thanks to their relentless assaults, and it seemed the Jedi were about to be on their last foot, the cracks within Sith society were becoming too severe to ignore any longer. Starting with Baras, it seemed at least one Dark Councilor was killed every month, laid low either by the Republic's inscrutable strike teams or scheming underlings hoping to ascend to their seats. As if the political turmoil were not enough, no Sith had heard either hide or hair from their supreme master since the resumption of the war. While some pretenders like Baras claimed to know the Sith Emperor's will, they were all summarily disposed of by the indefatigable Lord Wrath - though even the Wrath himself had not communed with Darth Vitiate nor his shadowy servants since he was ascended to his position years ago. Lord Benthamic and his team aided the war effort in every way they could manage, often following Darth Krovos into perilous battle and emerging with permanent scars; trusted by Admiral Ranken, they would even participate in massive space battles when called upon by Imperial Forward Command, allowing Salana to shine and serve as a positive example for her kind. All the while, Benthamic was plagued with two unquenchable visions which haunted his every dream: A deep pit on a red planet strong in the Dark Side like no other, where he would be confronted with a truth that would either empower or break him; shadows of his master's past returning to finish his absolute defeat. All the while, he longed to see Lord Shaar once more, with the war affording them only occasional holocalls deep in the night before one of them was called off to some battlefield in the armpits of the galaxy. 
 
 
Once Amelia and Salana realized that the Sith Lord's condition was beginning to dull his edge in combat and strategy, they asked that he confront his visions lest they all perish due to his missteps. He agreed, realizing at last that his connection to the Force - specifically, the Dark Side - was weakening as the years crawled on, losing the resolve and clarity of mission he had in his youth. In search of guidance, he met with Darth Krovos within an ancient Sith shrine on Korriban - one of the darkest places in the galaxy due to the unspeakable atrocities inflicted upon Jedi who were sent there to suffer, slowly corrupting them to the Dark Side until they either became Sith, or refused to turn, in which case the torture would continue until their gruesome death. Krovos hoped that the bond they shared as mentor and learner, along with the purity of the darkness within the shrine, would reveal to Benthamic the answers he sought, or at least reveal one of the potential paths he could walk to save himself. He received a grim vision from the dark presences housed within the shrine - the lingering spirits of long-dead Sith executioners and fallen Jedi: Himself, buried under an avalanche of rubble on that same red world; Shaar above him, laughing at his pathetic attempts to escape along with Amelia and Salana; and finally, a veiled but somehow deeply familiar presence, shining with remarkable radiance reaching down to him - along with another, darker presence attempting the same. Darth Krovos, sharing his vision due to their Force bond, immediately recognized the mysterious red planet as Dathomir - a recently occupied outpost - and noted that his insecurity about Shaar was weighing him down like Sisyphean rocks, recommending that he either forget about her, or find some way to reconcile his feelings so that his lust could strengthen him rather than stifle him. 
Dathomir was acknowledged by Jedi and Sith alike as one of the greatest nexuses of the Dark Side in the entire galaxy. Even Sith rarely visited for worry that they would be consumed by the darkness, as they lacked the cloak of Light which would theoretically allow a Jedi to travel there for a short time. However, in the lead-up to the new Galactic War, the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet began investigating the planet for potentially habitable zones, drooling at the prospect of having a secret forward operating base to serve as a refueling and rallying point for Imperial and Mandalorian forces, practically at the doorstep of the Core worlds but too remote and dangerous for the Republic to take notice of it. Benthamic traveled there alone with only unadorned Sith robes and his two lightsabers to protect him; landing at the Imperial outpost within the designated safe continent, he immediately felt himself slowly succumbing to the madness of the pure darkness infesting the entire planet. Nevertheless he forged ahead, also sensing that his destination was near, and with the comfort that he had just weathered an intense nexus of the Dark Side on Korriban. That was with Darth Krovos' guidance, however, and only an isolated spot - not an entire planet practically drowning in a perpetual torrent of all the galaxy's negative emotions. 
Lord Benthamic traveled into the wilds of Dathomir with neither compass nor map, relying only on instinct and his sense of destiny. The way was barred by all manner of terrible predators, some of whom he thought resembled the synthetic Sithspawn that roam Korriban, others bearing features so alien and indescribable that the Sith Lord did not have the proper words to describe them. One creature - a beast so old and ferocious that to meet its horrid gaze is to stare into death itself - caught Benthamic's scent from miles away, using its starship-sized wings to race towards him with all the fire and fury expected of an apex predator. The monster nearly latched on to him with his ravenous claws, just barely missing his mark as Benthamic dove into a small ravine under an old temple too narrow for the predator to peck at. Staring down the bat-like creature for a few moments before it departed to seek other pray, Benthamic traveled deeper into the ancient ravine, trying his best to ignore the deep wounds inflicted upon him by Dathomir's famously less-than-hospitable denizens. The smallest scratch from the feral beast as he escaped into the shadows had left the Sith Lord with a permanent scar spanning practically his entire face. 
This was far from an ordinary geological feature. The ravine's winding paths branched off in all directions, nearly every wall engraved with grim depictions of the past. Judging by their sinister and sacrificial nature, the rituals performed by these ancient peoples were undoubtedly of the Dark Side, many of them eerily following the typical path of the Sith; in one hieroglyphic story, a cloaked woman arrived on a red planet - presumably Dathomir - and brought many followers with her, subjugating the natives with her strange powers and building countless temples for her worshipers to pay her tribute. In time, as if the planet had a will of its own, Dathomir began to reclaim the places the woman and her supplicants had desecrated, infecting the defilers' minds with madness no lobotomy could cure. As the depiction abruptly ended, Benthamic found himself at the edge of a daunting precipice, beyond which was a pitch black chasm with no visible bottom. It could not be mistaken: the haunted Sith Lord was standing at the exact location that had tormented him in his dreams for so long, and yet he felt nothing - no relief, no answers, no grand revelation. 
 
Just as Benthamic turned to leave, the way was blocked by a black-clad man, bearing the weapon of a Sith assassin. He revealed himself to be Lord Furniss, the favored apprentice of Darth Ravage, who had ordered the execution of Lord Benthamic for heresy and crimes against the Dark Council. Furniss, a stealthy and slightly unhinged Sith inquisitor, expressed his gratitude towards his charge, lamenting that Benthamic's death will earn the assassin the Dark Council's favor, and that he would soon be made a Darth prepare to seize his master's seat. Benthamic chastised his unexpected adversary, amused that Furniss would die and be forgotten to earn the grace of an idiotic Dark Council member, his half-dead body left in the jungle for the flying apex predator to devour limb by limb. The two Sith Lords charged into battle, both wielding their saberstaves like ferocious pike-carrying warriors of a bygone age. Benthamic expected to kill Furniss with quickly since he was more than the assassin's match in dueling, but his overconfidence and twinges of doubt still stirring within his mind unbalanced him, allowing his enemy to slash his weapon out of his hand, along with several of his right fingers. As Benthamic was shocked by his defeat, Furniss launched a Force wave at him, knocking him squarely into the endless pit. The assassin taunted him from beyond the void for a few moments until the temple began to shake, its foundations disturbed by the Force outburst. As Furniss fled, Benthamic, half-buried in the ancient dust and bones which littered the bottom of the pit, struggled desperately to free himself as the temple continued to rumble, but to little avail as a result of the grievous injuries he had recklessly sustained during his trip to Dathomir. It seemed that he made his last mistake and would die dishonored until he was struck with a new vision, more splendid and terrifying than any of his previous.
The Force-- the Dark Side, the Light, or perhaps something in between, showed Benthamic an idyllic snapshot of his home on Ziost; his parents, still burning with passion even after they entered their latter years, danced happily to the tune of some silly pop song being blared by the old home entertainment droid. However, there was no sign of him there - instead, the walls were lovingly adorned with pictures of a girl who was the spitting image of Erik. He glanced toward his mother's stomach and immediately realized he was the spitting image of her. Who was this girl? If he was glimpsing the past - when the girl who could only be his big sister filled the Tuva home with joy and contentment - what happened to her? Even through the murky clouds of the vision, Benthamic sensed the Force was strong with her, as if he could reach out and grasp it. As he strained to maintain the premonition just long enough to hear her name, the image faded, and was replaced with a new scene; the girl, so near yet so far, kneeled on the ground in anguish, her features just barely visible under the glowing light that enveloped her - and suddenly a figure emerged from the darkness, carrying such hatred and rage which Benthamic could sense as clearly as his sister's radiance - and struck her down mercilessly.
 
The communion ended at that precise moment, launching Benthamic back into his own body, writhing in pain from the still-bleeding wounds that adorned his body. He remained in such a stupor from the pain - both physical and spiritual - that he nearly did not realize Lord Shaar's voice shouting from above, demanding that someone just out of sight cast down a rope. When he awoke, he was inside one of the open-air tents back at the Imperial forward operating base camp, his body paralyzed as a tall medical droid conducted a delicate operation on his badly injured right arm. Shaar, relieved to see him conscious, explained that she had sensed his peril while on nearby Mandalore and immediately arranged for a shuttle to Dathomir. She would never find him if it weren't for the intercession of a brilliant tech stationed at the base camp: Lieutenant Amare, native of Rishi - formerly Fixer 119 of Imperial Intelligence, newly assigned to a dead-end post in Dathomir at the pleasure of Darth Ravage, one of many Sith seeking to profit off Intelligence's slow dissolution. When Shaar landed at the base camp, Amare helped her find Benthamic by slicing into a restricted terminal and running a continental bioscan, quickly identifying a heat map consistent with two lightsaber duelists in the throes of battle. After coming to, Benthamic thanked Amare for his quick thinking and initiative, professing that he owed the slicer a life debt. Unenthused with the concept of life debts, the Lieutenant simply asked if he could serve along the Sith Lord to aid the war effort; Lord Benthamic accepted his offer, assuring Amare that Darth Ravage would not hear of his technical deserting from Dathomir. The young and hungry Fixer officially joined the crew of the Tempest, fulfilling the role of engineer and chief technical officer thereafter.
 
After recruiting Officer Amare, Benthamic shared a moment with Shaar. She gave him the grave news that the Empire was now officially losing the war; their victories on Balmorra and Corellia proved all too fleeting as the Jedi reclaimed the worlds in a series of shock and awe campaigns, crippling the war effort as all of the military's plans fell to ruin. Darth Decimus was killed in battle, forcing Darth Krovos to take up his seat as leader of Military Strategy in the blink of an eye. The goal was no longer to push into the Core and bombard Coruscant until the Republic surrendered again - it was to defend Dromund Kaas at all cost as the emboldened enemy prepared to mount a full-scale invasion into Sith space. The root of rapidly declining Imperial morale was not merely their countless military failures: In a shocking speech broadcasted to the entire galaxy, Supreme Chancellor Saresh announced that a Jedi strike team had killed the Sith Emperor, and that the universe's greatest villain was finally dead. Those close to the Wrath, however, knew the truth. Darth Vitiate was not dead, only gravely injured and forced to retreat to the Unknown Regions until he was ready to set his "grand plan" in motion. As it happened, Lord Wrath assembled a group of Sith whom he felt he could trust: Darth Krovos, Lord Shaar and her former master Darth Vowrawn, Darth Nox, Darth Malgus, and Lord Benthamic himself, first explaining to them the Emperor's condition and then delivering a message from the Emperor's Voice: Vitiate's grand design could not be delayed again, and therefore it was imperative that the Emperor's chosen champions ended the war with the Republic by any means necessary, through either peace or conquest. 
Lord Benthamic had found his resolve again. His mind was clear, as were his goals. With the favor of the immortal Sith Emperor himself, it was his destiny to strike down the treacherous Ravage and his cackling apprentice Furniss, and through his deeds in service to the glorious Empire he would eventually find his sister and discover the truth; he now sensed her somewhere in the galaxy, walking a path not so different from his, and the two of them would become the strongest Sith Lords in recent memory, rising above all their rivals and cementing the Tuva legacy forever.
===== Further Deception =====
As the Galactic War entered its climactic third phase, Lord Benthamic and his allies deliberated their next move, weighing whether they should pursue Darth Ravage, continue aiding Darth Krovos, or strike out on their own. All agreed that the final option was out of the cards as it isolated them from the rest of the galaxy; Salana insisted that they hunt down Furniss and his master for payback, while Amelia and Amare felt that Ravage was too dangerous a target to pursue at the moment and their interests would be better served returning to the frontline to help the Empire win the war. While Benthamic desperately wanted to exact his revenge, he confessed that he did not feel he was ready to strike at Ravage yet, requiring more power and more allies before officially challenging the elusive Dark Council member. However, the Sith Lord did request that Amare begin looking for an individual matching his sister's description, requiring him to seek out old underworld contacts as well as slice into both Imperial and Republic databases and genealogical records.
The Tempest arrived at Eriadu approximately one month after the Dathomir mission, reporting to Darth Krovos to offer any aid she and her forces required. Eriadu was once considered the shining jewel of the Outer Rim, famous for its stunning vistas and curious wildlife. However, after the Republic colonized it and discovered it was incredibly rich in rare ores - especially material used to manufacture stealth generators - it was rapidly transformed into an industrial fortress; massive drills from off-world were imported to burrow deep under the once sparking seas, gargantuan quarries operated mostly by alien debtors leveled mountains and scarred the land, and the nightmare factories which now dotted the world spilled dangerous chemicals into the earth and air. The goal of the private contractors tasked with "industrializing" Eriadu was clear: They would turn this previously untapped world inside out and then move on to the next in order to fulfill their quotas.
Imperial Forward Command, led personally by Admiral Ranken, had established an Imperial planetary base of operations with relative ease some weeks prior, as the Republic rarely sent in-person officers to oversee their operations on Eriadu since it was regarded as an essentially self-automated world. The workers of the city they had occupied, Parton, paid the Empire little attention initially, as their directives had not changed, only their employers. With record speed, massive transport ships once bound for Coruscant were re-routed to Malastare, where the tons of excavated raw ore were processed, refined, and then sent to the Empire on one of its hyperlanes. 
Shortly before Benthamic had arrived, however, certain radical elements within the slave population began to take shape, as the laborers demanded better wages and conditions that they had previously been deprived of. While Krovos instructed her men to contain the protests as peacefully as possible, accidents happen, and in a matter of hours they were facing riots nearly the scale of Copero. Lord Benthamic and the team were tasked with bringing the slaves in line by any means necessary, as continued operational disruption and industrial sabotage threatened to throw Eriadu into chaos. The crew promptly entered the "Old Town" of Parton under laborer disguises, attempting to catch wind of any anarchist activity in the city; while Benthamic and Amelia were quite out of their element being raised as proper Imperials from birth, Amare and Salana had much better luck, combining their street smarts and brawn to score the date and location of a top secret rebel conference to discuss the peoples' next move against the Empire.
The party slipped into the run-down warehouse at the appointed hour, trying their best to blend in with the disgruntled workers. As their leader - an older Twi'lek named Beezus - stepped up to speak, however, he immediately singled out the infiltrators, ordering the strikers to open fire if they don't explain themselves. Benthamic quickly stepped forward and spoke before Beezus and the crowd, trying to convince them that the Empire had not come as conquerors, but liberators; where the Republic exploited them and leased out their lives to cruel corporate contractors, the Sith would embrace them, guaranteeing them stable wages as well as the opportunity to work their way to freedom like any free Imperial citizen. Some of the workers were interested at the prospect of their living conditions improving, but Beezus was sharp - he saw the Sith as brutal oppressors no better than the Republic, and expressed his hope that Eriadu could become a free world run by the people who worked to keep it alive. Just then, Amare concocted a doctored hologram of a Republic gunship, warning of immediate invasion; the Sith Lord advised Beezus that there would be no hope for freedom if the Jedi were allowed to retake the city, and they were better off making friends with the Empire than returning to licking the boots of the Republic senate. Their frenzied shouts overpowering the soft-spoken Beezus, the workers quickly voted to ally with the Empire, so long as they kept the Republic away from the city and made good on their promise to improve conditions in the mines and factories.
Along with several sympathetic strikers, Benthamic and the team returned to the base camp to give Krovos the news that the Empire had secured an agreement with the largest worker syndicate on Parton. He privately reassuring her that the Sith need not make any real lasting changes for the workers once the Empire took control, after which they could simply make examples of the strike leaders to put fear and obedience back into their hearts. Krovos commended the party for a job well done, but informed them that their timetable for securing Eriadu had just changed drastically; the Republic had caught wind of the Empire's incursion, and an army of Jedi were en route from Coruscant as they spoke. The war had officially come to Eriadu, and making honeyed promises to the workers of the other major cities to make them swear fealty to the Sith was no longer a feasible option. 
With the Empire having fully secured the capital city, any Republic incursions would need to land at one of the outlying supply depots; the terrain immediately surrounding Parton was far too treacherous to mount an invasion from, and the nearest major cities were either unequipped to sustain an indefinite ground force or unlikely to give Republic interlopers a warm welcome. The crew of the Tempest hatched a plan: Amare and a team of local engineers would sabotage the existing depots and set up decoys which were jury-rigged to explode once the Jedi landed, Amelia would work on restoring the city's defense grid with trusted workers, Salana would watch for any transport ships able to slip past the defenses and promptly dispose of them with a mounted ion cannon, and finally Benthamic would rally any citizens able to wield a blaster or vibroblade to act as the last line of defense for the city. 
The first wave of Republic landings went terrifically; dozens of dropships were either immediately destroyed by the traps or forced to make emergency landings, at which point they were obliterated by Salana's guns or ripped apart by snipers from the city walls. By the onset of the second wave, however, the Republic had more or less wised up to the Empire's tactics, airdropping makeshift landing pads directly to the surface and sending down personnel on escape pods. The Battle of Eriadu began in earnest as Imperial Forward Command came within fighter distance of the Republic feet, immediately followed by the commencement of fighting on the ground. The Parton defenders initially seized the upper hand, overwhelming the disorganized Republic landing forces through force of numbers as well as the fear factor provided by Benthamic and Krovos as they entered the fray. 
Fighting came to a standstill when the two Sith's counterparts finally arrived on a Tython stealth ship: A small team of Jedi Knights who immediately charged for the city gates, rallying the soldiers behind them. Krovos and Benthamic quickly moved to intercept the aggressive rush, engaging the four Jedi in a fierce duel right in the midst of the battlefield. The Sith fought well, but were out of their depth; these Jedi were clearly either veteran Knights or outright Masters, allowing them to stand up to their adversaries' wrathful onslaught with relative ease, not to mention their numbers advantage. However, another factor had unbalanced Lord Benthamic during the duel - the Jedi's apparent commander, a Sentinel whose strength in the Force was potent, focused, and most importantly, familiar. As suspicions rushed through the Sith Lord's head, the Jedi were seconds away from victory, their triumph only curtailed when reinforcements from Forward Command arrived in the atmosphere and began bombarding the makeshift Republic command posts. With their commandos unable to penetrate the city walls due to substantial resistance from the worker syndicates, the Jedi fighters relented and rallied their troops to return to the remaining landing pads before they were trapped on the ground. Picked off by Salana's guns and Amare's sabotages, the Republic ships fled the planet and jumped back to Coruscant before the day was out. 
The people of Parton celebrated throughout the night, shutting down the factories and taking to the streets in jubilation for their newfound freedom from the Republic. Unfortunately for them, Beezus was all too correct - as soon as the next morning, Imperial banners were raised over the city's most prominent buildings, and overseer droids fresh from the manufacturing lines on Malastare were flown in to put the factories and quarries back to work. The Imperial war effort would greatly benefit from the annexation of Eriadu, but as with every other conquered world - Imperial, Republic, and everything in between - it would come at a terrible cost, and that cost would be paid on the backs of the people caught between. Such concerns did not particularly concern Lord Benthamic; in the galaxy, there were extraordinary people born with the fate to change the galaxy, and there was everyone else. The people of Eriadu were certainly under the latter umbrella. 
And yet, as the dust of the battle settled, another dilemma festered within his mind. This girl - this Jedi who was essentially his mirror - calm, tranquil even in the heat of battle, motivated by compassion and a desire to save life rather than dominate - and yet so like him in a sense that he did not yet understand. Their similarities were something immaterial, something that ran deeper than the physical or even mental. His thoughts drifted towards the daunting conclusion, yet he dared not linger on it long, struggling to imagine a galaxy in which his sister had become the very thing he swore to destroy. 
The revelation came approximately one week after the Battle of Eriadu, when the crew of the Tempest were resting and restocking on the Sith sanctuary world of Mustafar. Amare's underworld contact had come through with the information Benthamic was seeking, and as her search had brought her to the nearby Belsavis system, she elected to make a quick hyper-jump to Mustafar in order to deliver the sensitive information in person. The contact was the notorious bounty hunter and information broker Zee Holliday, known by most as "Deadeye" or "the Wolf of Rishi" for her impeccable name. Amare came to know Holliday during their childhood misadventures, and though they went down different paths, the two stayed in regular contact for favors. In the Mustafar temple, Zee explained to Lord Benthamic that she had caught wind of a famous Jedi who bore a striking resemblance to the Sith Lord. She pursued the mysterious Jedi to Belsavis, where the Order had sent her on a vital secret mission. Though the bounty hunter was unable to discern the Jedi's true purpose on Belsavis, she was able to finally confirm her name: Astrid Tuva. 
The worst had come to pass. Benthamic's missing sister had fallen to the Light, and was now a Jedi of such renown that she was entrusted by the Republic to handle delicate operations on important worlds. He was not sure whether he wanted to reach out and attempt to understand her, or execute her for sullying the proud Tuva name. A thought came to him: Perhaps this dilemma could be turned to his advantage. The party would travel to Belsavis ostensibly to aid the struggling Imperial war effort, and use their authority there to search for Jedi Knight Astrid and bring to light her intentions on the prison planet. With any luck, putting a stop to whatever she was scheming would help the Sith win Belsavis, and then when she was defeated, he would confront her and determine whether she decided to live. A master stroke, in his mind. 
 
Given her resourcefulness and inscrutable reputation as a deadly bounty hunter, Amare suggested that Benthamic bring Zee into the party full-time. The assassin confessed that the war had not been as profitable as the guilds had hoped, and desired a steady flow of income better than the paltry sums the Republic were offering. The Sith Lord was hesitant to bring the bounty hunter aboard, acknowledging her skill but holding reservations about her lack of loyalty to the Empire. She convinced him to overlook her background by offering a temporary contract acknowledging her enlistment in the Imperial military as an irregular "local asset." All was coming together, and Benthamic, Amelia, Salana, Amare, and Zee set course for the battle on Belsavis. 
== Character sheet==
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===== Crew of the Tempest =====
* Darth Benthamic - Captain (Marauder/Assassin)
* Captain Amelia Kall, Imperial Forward Command - First officer and main pilot (Operative/Powertech)
* Fixer 119 "Amare," Sith Intelligence - Engineer and chief technical expert (Operative/Sniper)
* Officer Salana Rok, Chiss Ascendancy - Gunner and chief munitions expert (Commando/Scoundrel)
* Zee Holliday, Imperial privateer - Reconnaissance, navigator, and co-pilot (Sniper/Scoundrel)
* Officer Sarin Velvar, Third Expeditionary Fleet - Chief physician and asst. (Gunslinger)
* GR-0G "Grog" - Custodian, chief, and auxiliary upkeep (N/A)
* HK-55 "Watcher," - Security officer and defense systems manager, gunner (Vanguard/Commando)
* Lord Fandaniel - Auxillary gunner and pilot (Assassin/Sorcerer)