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At the physical contact, the woman winced, but did nothing until Per'dra released her hand. As the murmurs of discontent and distrust rippled through the group, she began massaging her forehead. In reply to Tael, she said, "Leaderless? No. You have destination. Destination suggests leadership." To Vakarr and Tegan she offered a smile. "Skilled, I am not." Turning to Per'dra, she said, "You got nothing?" She murmured a few words in her strange language. "Your name, I now have. Per'dra." She smiled faintly. "Beautiful name. Only information I learned from you." She began pacing again. "Purge has spread far. Yes, even here. Heading for Dark Elves next, if information accurate." Her gaze turned back to Per'dra. "You asked earlier. The Network. The Spy from Nowhere. Zhaanain. All are one. I am representative. Akeirra, my name."

At this new information, the mystery woman's eyes lit up. "The Auris! Towns along its banks, nothing special. Where it ends, special." She began pacing. "Our paths. Same direction, same destination. Dwarves await." She stared at the party curiously. "They don't take kindly to strangers. How would you gain entry?" But before anyone could answer, she shook her head. "Doesn't matter. I can help. Dwarves contacted the Network. Want information. Classified, can't say what. I have it." Her pacing stopped and she grinned widely at Per'dra. "But why trust me? Why trust you? Purge makes an easy scapegoat. I can prove us both trustworthy to one another, Leader. Telepathy-by-touch." She pulled the glove off her right hand and wiggled her fingers. "But dare you risk it? You show caution. Good. But if Purge after you, you have little time. Choose quickly."

Once the group had more or less settled around her fire, the woman opened her eyes and watched each member in turn for a few moments. When at last her gaze landed on Per'dra, who was kneeling between Tael and the woman herself, she watched in silence, curiosity sparkling in her violet eyes. As soon as Meara and Per'dra finished with Tael, the woman spoke, rather faster than she had when they first encountered her with her eyes closed. "Scuffles?" she asked. "Arrow shot. You're all worn. Seen a loss recently. It shows. Your eyes, they ache. Hmm..." She pointed at Per'dra. "You. You seem to lead? What brings you so far off the beaten path?"

As Tael spoke, the group's path took them near a small fire. At first glance, it looked untended. A closer look proved it was not; a woman with youthful features knelt by its side, her long brown hair braided and dangling over her left shoulder, her gloved hands folded in her lap, her eyes closed. She was dressed entirely in black, her face the only skin left uncovered. She had weapons too, and though they were set aside, they were still easily within her reach. "Bring your injured man to the fire," she said slowly, her eyes still closed. "You might better tend to him in the warmth it provides."

Well since Archon posted a rather long backstory for one of his, I suppose I won't cut mine down either NAME: Akeirra GENDER: Female AGE: 121 SPECIES: Meinari (of which Akeirra is the only known living representative) CLASS/COMBAT ROLE: Thief/spy/infiltration expert APPEARANCE: Light skin, dark brown hair, violet eyes. Tends to dress in black turtleneck, long-sleeve shirts, black pants, and lightweight black boots, and wear her hair in a french braid. She always wears elbow-length black gloves, and if she's aiming to be completely unseen, she will complete this outfit with a black mask. WEAPONS: A pair of sais, hilts bound in black leather. A set of twenty throwing knives. All these weapons have black blades. In addition to them, she also occasionally carries a small pouch containing an assortment of poisons, mostly in powder form. ARMOR: Usually none, though she has been known to don lightweight leather pieces if she thinks she'll need a little extra protection. STRENGTHS: Speed, agility, silence, flexibility. WEAKNESSES: Her small size means it's relatively easy to overpower her, provided you can first catch her. Her curiosity has also been known to get her into trouble, as it has prompted her to stay in a hostile environment longer than she should have. While she is fast, she tires quickly. Her best bet at getting out of a conflict is to dodge and dart, and hopefully get out of sight before her adversary can catch up to discover where she's gone. BACKSTORY: Akeirra awoke one day thirty years ago with a jagged piece of metal jammed through her left arm, deep scratches scattered across the rest of her body, and no recollection of who or what she was. The first people to encounter her in this state were members of a spy ring and though none of them could understand her when she spoke, nor she them, they managed to calm her enough for their medic to tend to her wounds. As the medic worked, they spoke amongst themselves and Akeirra listened attentively, hissing occasionally against the pain. Once her arm was bandaged and most of her other scratches had been tended, they began what they expected to be an arduous process: communication. Indeed, their early attempts failed at doing much more than frustrating the entire party. At long last, in exasperation, Akeirra tore the remainder of her right hand glove clean off and pressed her hand against the forehead of one of the thieves. He yelped in pain and Akeirra fell back, swearing in her native tongue. As the other thieves were drawing their weapons to retaliate against what they perceived as an attack, Akeirra spoke in a language they understood: “I… didn’t know I could do that.” With communication at last a non-issue, they asked her name, but found to both their dismay and hers that she remembered nothing. Opting to let that go for the moment, they took her with them, spying in her posture and the way she moved that she could be an asset to their band. Over the next few months, she trained with them, calling herself Zhaanain, which she told her new friends was the nearest her language came to saying, “Unknown”. Then, during a trip out with one of them, she attended a show put on by a magician. The magician cast a spell on his audience, making each of them tell him their name in turn. Even after months of calling herself Zhaanain and being called thus by her friends, the spell drew out things she could not remember. When she returned to her senses and realized the magician now held information she did not, Akeirra begged him to tell her and he agreed. Her name was Akeirra, her species called Meinari, her age ninety-one. He confessed however that he had never heard of the Meinari and suspected her of having the strength of mind to withstand his spell long enough to throw in something entirely fictitious. It hardly mattered to Akeirra and her friends though; they now had some facts to go on. As the years continued, Akeirra progressed rapidly in her training. By age ninety-six, she had proved her aptitude for the kind of work the thieves wanted her trained for. When she turned ninety-nine, she was sent out on a job alone, from which she almost didn’t return. Her job was to infiltrate a blacksmith’s and steal a unique sword designed for a king. Infiltration was easy, as was finding the desired sword. The job went sideways when she laid eyes on a pair of sais, completely black with black leather grips. Until this point she had carried only a handful of throwing knives for defensive purposes, but now she at last saw something she wanted. She carefully laid aside the king’s sword and moved to grab the sais, but that brought her into plain view of the blacksmith’s apprentice, whose location in the shop she had misjudged. At first, he took her for a prospective customer he hadn’t heard arrive, but she darted forward in a panic, seized the sais and rushed back the way she’d come, catching up the king’s sword as she went. The apprentice caught up the bow he kept on hand for just such an occasion and snapped off a quick shot just as Akeirra was disappearing. His arrow embedded itself in her shoulder and she fled without removing it. She returned to her thieving friends with the arrow still in her shoulder and immediately collapsed. It took a week of care during which she was feverish and only borderline conscious before she recovered; the apprentice’s arrow-tip had been dipped in poison, ensuring that if his aim did not kill, his target should not be able to get far. When Akeirra was strong enough to walk, she was called before the leader of the band of thieves. He reprimanded her severely for her failure and kept the sais for himself, saying it would be a lesson to her in the foolishness of deviating from the job. She accepted this and immediately returned to work. For five years, Akeirra’s record was nearly spotless. She successfully accomplished all the objectives she was sent for, but she was also captured fifteen times, nearly captured thirty-seven times, and injured in one way or another almost every job. The band’s leader finally had enough, telling her that if she was not more careful the next time he sent her out, he would kill her if she came back. As she had seen him follow through in this threat before, she fought hard to ignore her curiosity and came back successful, not even once captured, and uninjured. Unfortunately for that band of thieves, Akeirra was not their weak link, and the night after she returned completely successful, they were caught in a surprise attack. Their leader, assuming Akeirra had turned to save her skin drew the sais and tried to kill her, but was shot through the heart before he could land a blow. Akeirra and several others were taken captive in the raid and interrogated regarding their positions in the organization. It was assumed this thieving band was a small part of a larger operation and the men who took them wanted that ring’s leaders. Most of the thieves refused to talk and so went to their deaths loyal to a dead leader, but that leader had tried to kill Akeirra before he was himself struck down and so she had no such loyalty. She offered her services to the agents and proved her worth by picking the pocket of one of her interrogators while chained to a chair. And so, her second round of training began. For three years, they trained her intensively in how to lie, how to resist interrogation techniques, how to use the sais she so treasured. When she was 106, they started spreading a rumor about a new thief/spy for hire. They sent out assassins to take out a few small-time thieves and spies and assigned credit for their exploits to Akeirra. In each case, they left her calling card – a small black throwing knife with her name etched into the blade, in a flowing script, in her native language. In just a few short months, people were beginning to call her the Spy from Nowhere. A year later, with her reputation established, Akeirra returned only once to the spies who made her into a legend. She left them a promising lead on the ring of thieves they so desperately wanted, but they were unable to follow up on it, for she had scarcely reached the city gates when their headquarters erupted in a massive explosion that took out nearly a third of the city in which it resided. She spent the next fifteen years enhancing her reputation and ensuring that no one alive could identify her specifically as the Spy from Nowhere. To give the legend a little additional distance from her real self, she also spread the rumor that the Spy’s name was Zhaanain. In recent years, the Spy from Nowhere has turned into a major spy network, in which only a small handful are aware of Zhaanain’s true identity. Whenever working with others, Akeirra tends to introduce herself as an associate of the Spy from Nowhere, though she occasionally makes an appearance as Zhaanain herself, mostly just to keep the legend alive.

No, showing off would be posting the entire backstory, it being by then five pages long. I'm merely bragging

Drew watched all the chatter with an amused grin. When the Shade took the weapon from the doctor, his grin grew even wider and his eyes locked on the doctor. He tapped into the power he and his sister shared and listened in on her inner dialogue. Grimacing, he realized that, for all her attractiveness, the woman had little in her head to hold his interest. Erica, who'd entered the armory to pick out nothing more than a simple handgun took a few seconds to realize her brother was up to something. The armory doors slid open and she stared at him with a suspicious frown. Then a flicker of disgust flitted across her face and she crossed the hall, slapping the backside of his head sharply. "Behave!" she growled. Rubbing his head and shooting Erica an angry glare, Drew withdrew his mental touch from the doctor's mind and swaggered into the armory.

I'll be joining too... I just have to figure my character's history out. As it stands, I've written a little over two pages of just her backstory. I'm going to want to slim it down before I post it

"Unless you pin her down," Drew added, raising his hand. "Then, she bites. Hard. Think I still have a scar to prove it even." When the Shade turned his gaze on Erica, she met it evenly and smiled. It was clear that she knew what he was and had no issues with it. Indeed, her posture and facial expression seemed welcoming. Not only did she not mind his presence; she seemed even a little interested in working with him. Drew on the other hand met the Shade's gaze and saw a challenge. He raised his chin slightly, as if to prove he wouldn't back down from anything, and his grin turned slightly menacing. While it wasn't likely he'd actively do anything to harm the Shade, his posture suggested he also wasn't likely to go easy on him.

"Mission six months ago," Erica said thoughtfully. Then, she shook her head. "Oh, right. Drew dumped our CO on his ass 'coz he looked too angry. Guessing I don't need to tell you why. We were transferred to a new unit same day. Far as assignments go, that was one of our shortest, wasn't it, Drew?" Drew grinned. "Two days. Definitely a record." "Hi Andrew, you ready for a body count contest?" Drew was about to reply when someone else joined the conversation. "Body count? Well I hope you don't start with me. Corporal Winston, reporting ma'am...but please call me Onyx." "Well... Onyx," Drew said eyeing the man critically. "Lil' Mio an' me do try to avoid friendly fire incidents. Course if you screw up and get in my way, don't expect me to shed even a single tear over you." "Andrew Damien Sullivan!" Erica hissed. "That hole near the bottom of your face? Now's a perfect time to shut it." Drew laughed. "Oooh, full name? Guess I'm in trouble now." He grinned at Mio. "Aren't I, Mommy Mio?"

But just as Musto lifted his cigarette to his lips, it was snatched away by a strong hand. A man with short, unruly brown hair, light blue eyes, and a cocky, self-assured grin on his face, stood there, waggling a finger in an almost scolding manner. He was dressed entirely in black, with no markings of rank or medals of honor or merit, not even a name plate. "Now, now," he said, shaking his head, "haven't you heard, soldier? Cigarettes can kill you." "Drew!" a feminine voice shouted from further down the hall. Charging toward the armory after him was a young woman, shoulder-length blonde hair tied back from her face, blue eyes glittering in displeasure. She too was dressed entirely in black with no medals, commendations, rank, or name plate. "Back off, Drew," she growled as she drew near. With a grin and a shrug, Drew turned and sauntered a few paces away, leaning against the opposite wall. Facing Musto, the woman's expression turned apologetic and she read his name plate with a quick glance. "Sorry about my brother, Musto. Somehow, his training overlooked how to give the proper respect to future team members." She extended her hand. "I'm Sullivan. Erica Sullivan. Cocky McSure-of-Himself over there," she nodded at the other man dressed in black, "is my brother, Andrew."

Name: Erica Sullivan Gender: Female Age: 27 Personality: In a word, friendly. Erica always seems to know what to say or do to set people at ease around her. She’s outgoing, loves to talk, and hates conflict. She will do anything in her power to prevent a conflict, and if she encounters conflict, she does whatever she can to resolve it quickly. Strengths: Mild telepathy. On her own, she can read surface thoughts and images, and detect a person’s mood. When she joins her power with her brother’s, she can read much deeper, calling up a person’s deepest memories, secrets they keep, and things they don’t even recall knowing. An advantageous side-effect to this is the ability to predict an adversary’s next move, making Erica and her brother formidable opponents in the battlefield, especially in close combat. Weaknesses: When separated from her brother, Erica is a liability on the battlefield. She has had only limited combat training, just enough that her enhanced telepathy can make her deadly. As such, she has no sense of how to move, when to take cover, or more than the most basic “aim the gun at the bad guys” approach to handling a weapon. Furthermore, in her brother’s absence, Erica becomes very nervous and has the tendency to start talking incessantly about anything that comes to mind. Appearence: Name: Andrew Sullivan Gender: Male Age: 27 Personality: In a word, arrogant. Drew is the superior form of life on the planet, and he knows it. Sure, maybe his superiority doesn’t hold up so well if his sister isn’t near, but that doesn’t bother him. He has this cocky, self-assured grin, he walks as though he owns the world, and a manner of relating with other people that has the tendency to get on their nerves. Quite the opposite of his sister, Drew loves conflict, and does what he can to seek it out and jump into the middle of it. Strengths: Mild telepathy. On his own, he can read surface thoughts and images, and detect a person’s mood. When he joins his power with his sister’s, he can read much deeper, calling up a person’s deepest memories, secrets they keep, and things they don’t even recall knowing. An advantageous side-effect to this is the ability to predict an adversary’s next move, making Drew and his sister formidable opponents in the battlefield, especially in close combat. In contrast to Erica, Drew received intensive combat training. Even without Erica’s power to enhance his own, he is a threat on the battlefield. Weaknesses: His arrogance is his greatest weakness, even if he doesn’t yet realize it. His tendency to get on peoples’ nerves has already led to strained relationships in military squads he and Erica have worked with. His self-importance makes him a challenge to work with and difficult to trust. If not for the fact that he and Erica come as a package deal in order for their powers to be most effective, Drew probably would have been dishonorably discharged from the military long ago. Appearence: Biography: Fraternal twins born to a military father and a brain surgeon mother, Andrew and Erica Sullivan never knew what a “normal” childhood was supposed to be like. From a very early age, they demonstrated an instinctive knowledge of what one another were up to, even while apart. When they were five years old, their mother ran a series of scans to see if there was anything more to this instinct than the strange bond often seen in twins. To her surprise, she found evidence of a low-level telepathic link between her twins. When she told her husband, he reported the link to his superior, General Hiro Kobayakawa. The General – already leading a number of projects involving genetic enhancement – took the twins, calling them “military property” due to their unique potential. From that point on, Drew and Erica grew up primarily in laboratories, as scientists under the General’s supervision tested and stretched their abilities in ways they never thought possible. When they were eleven, Kobayakawa began taking them home with him after each day’s testing. He sought to use their successes to drive his own daughter to perform better, but though Mio rose to the challenge, the General grew increasingly harder to please. Drew took pride in this, holding his superiority over Mio’s head. Erica resented her brother’s approach and quickly grew to detest the General’s praise. Her attitude led to a friendship with Mio, which has continued to this day. In contrast, Drew’s self-importance set him constantly at odds with Mio. Though Drew and Mio never learned to fully get along, Mio earned the dubious distinction of being the only person aside from Erica who could get Drew to back down. At eighteen years of age, the twins were assigned to a special military covert operations taskforce. After three months, the taskforce’s commanding officer requested their transfer to a different unit, claiming that Drew was impossible to work with. Their next squad kept them for a year and a half before trying to get rid of Drew. Every squad they worked with had the same opinion of them: Erica was fantastic and fun to work with, but Drew was a pain in the ass from day one. Now, at twenty-seven years of age, the twins have been dropped from yet another squad. With their options all but exhausted, General Kobayakawa stepped in and ordered them assigned to his daughter’s unit. Erica is thrilled and looking forward to seeing her old friend again. Drew is amused and wonders if ol’ Mio’s still up for a challenge.

How did I miss this last time around? I'll put up a character as soon as I have one

"I wouldn't go saying bad things about the Ebon Hawk. It's pretty much the pride and joy of the family even if it is on the side of being a scrap pile." Kavrik froze, his mind racing. What had he said? Had he somehow managed to insult their ship? He forced his thought process to slow down, reviewing everything he'd said. Breathing a small sigh of relief, he finished his review and found nothing. His comments had done nothing more than suggest he was ignorant of this Ebon Hawk's size. Perhaps Tavaryn was simply being overprotective of what he himself had called a family treasure. "Wouldn't dream of it," he reassured the other man. "Is everyone ready?" Kavrik nodded. "All set." He rose to go, then turned back, doing a little quick figuring. "So that's five people, if I've counted right. Anyone coming with me aboard the Freedom? I don't want to jet off without someone, y'know." He grinned. "Not a good way to make friends, or so I hear."

Kavrik nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem. Freedom's AI would get a bit cross with me if I left her behind, anyhow." Chuckling, he added, "And trust me when I say that's not a pleasant experience. Freedom may look a bit old and beat up, but she was built as a predator and Lys can handle her with remarkable skill." He glanced down at the empty hyper-caf container, suddenly remembering one of the reasons drinking the energy drink in public wasn't one of his better options. It had the tendency to make him ramble. Seeking to hurry things along, he got to his feet. "Anywhoo," he said, "if this Ebon Hawk is cramped quarters, people can tag along with me too. Freedom's got room for six more to fly in comfort." He chuckled. "Eighteen if twelve don't mind their quarters not having doors."

Kavrik smiled faintly as the Grand Master objected to sending a Jedi to accompany Alriana. He cleared his throat and raised a hand. "Not that I have no appreciation for what Jedi can do," he said, "but Jedi are not your only option here. And since your plans for Dagobah were only recently modified to include me, I can't think they'd suffer much from my absence." He turned to look at Alriana. "I'll join you for the rescue, if you'll have me, and I promise we'll get to Dagobah before they have too much fun without us."

Ackbar; Meeting Room Three Once Belina introduced Alriana, Kavrik nodded a greeting to her. Then, he watched with faint amusement as she tried to hide her discomfort upon realizing she couldn't sense him. He tracked her subtle body language and caught a hint that led him to glance over to Tavaryn. As the other man glanced in his direction, Kavrik stared back, shooting him a knowing grin. From being around other Force sensitives, Kavrik knew how strange he must seem. It was something he'd long since learned to use to his advantage. Once the entertainment of watching their discomfort wore off a little, he'd do his part to set them at ease around him. For now, it was time to focus on the mission. He listened in silence as the mission was laid out, withholding his questions for the end, just in case some of them were answered by the rest of the briefing. When another newcomer arrived, seemed to know Belina, and reported of a failed mission, Kavrik's interest was drawn. He finished off his hyper-caf in one final gulp, cleared his throat, and looked curiously at Belina. "For those of us new to the scene," he said, "what's this artifact your soldier man was referring to?" He smirked faintly. "Or is that 'need-to-know'? In which case, how do I give myself that need to know?"

Ackbar, Meeting Room Three "I've been looking forward to finally meeting you in person, Kavrik. I'm Kol Skywalker, Grand Master of the Jedi Order." Rising to his feet and grasping Skywalker's hand firmly, Kavrik laughed. "Well there's a surprise," he said. "I've been rambling about the galaxy for barely five years and the Jedi Grand Master has not only heard of me, but also has been wishing to meet me?" He grinned mischievously and added, "I fear celebrity might go to my head, Grand Master Skywalker, so let's just say this pleasure is all mine."

Akbar - Meeting Room Three "Kavrik." He said as a greeting. "Admiral Belina and the others will be arriving shortly. I hope that you found everything that you needed. If not we can always see if another ship has the parts you require." Kavrik rose as Garja entered. When the man was finished speaking, Kavrik smiled. "I found a few things that'll be useful to getting Lys back up and running," he said. "Thank you." He paused for a moment, thoughtful. "She still requires a few things though. I might check with your other ships as well."