Zartilda's Journal (And Assorted Tales)

[Theprettiestorc]

Journal 12: Justice, or Vengeance?

We're home.

Finally, after everything, we're home. But not unscarred, some more figuratively than others. It happened after Dubrillion, too, this pall cast over the House of mistakes, or misdeeds. For what I'd done in Mosila, I thought I would feel worse, but... if not me, it would be something else. Or the planet, or they would have crowded refugee camps, or been taken out by Hazlem's plagues. But truthfully, their lives were just inconsequential. Too many people in the Galaxy to worry about one town of ingrates. No, what really got me wasn't the killing, but that it was just half-assed. That the air tasted like iron and ozone, and I was sore of beating in doors, splitting people apart, literally. "To the mines", the propaganda said, and some of the House still believe it. Delusions, when it's so obviously written on the wall.

Instead, though, I slept like the dead, once we were on Th'Asidra. If not for the shoulder wound, I may well have done so for a full day and a half, but it needed more care. My souvenir of fighting with the Jedi, one of a few now. All three were high Knights or even Masters - the first took my arm, the second I held back while his compatriots were slain. This third, though, Alisa Dane, was taken out with mine and Esme's efforts together, and her getting surrounded by Imperials taking their shots whenever they had the chance. She couldn't afford to let up for a second, and it was akin to a dance, almost, the way Roi and I covered for each other. In the end, it was her blade that took the woman out, her energy conserved to continue leading the charge - my energy half-spent, and a wound from a lightsaber she'd impaled into my shoulder needing addressed.

I busied myself getting the bodies, and helping get to others on the field. Alchemy materials galore, but more importantly... between Dane, and the kill on Maila Miho by Sith Narazri and Sith Vipion... two of the figures of Dubrillion are now gone, with only a couple more to go. Major Manel Scyles and General Vise Wilburg, who seem to have it out for us. I hope they've got something to think about now, and I hope their Jedi allies condemn them for the losses to their order. I hope the Republic sees what we left of Anx Minor, a torn planet erupting into tremors, volcanoes, radioactive activity, and pestilence, and knows what lengths we'll go to when we're pushed too far. What we do when they try to piss us off, or throw propaganda at our soldiers. They took down OCFOR in the bloodiest killbox I've ever seen to date, and that fucking Twi'lek especially, apologizing as she went around double-tapping. They have no moral high ground.

Morale rose up at the end, but I have to keep being a friendly face for the soldiers, I think, to make up for the strife they've had. I've got to get situated again, and probably push for Household Sith once more, with more people agreeing it's overdue by the day. I've got to put the nice chunk of credits received from the dead Syllel into a nice investment, finally get my textile trade going. It might take some work to do production of finished goods, but I might just focus on the textiles themselves, and Synthweave production, instead of trying to make eighty different uniforms or outfits. Things to think on.

Overall, though... the shoulder, the arm, the burns... I've been affected by physical scars, but this time, there's few things that bother me about that deployment. I fought. I won in some cases - I helped where I could, and we got our objectives done, even if not at one hundred percent. I look forward to seeing the structural shakeup of the House, the debrief. I had some dark moments, but... only way to go is to keep moving on. It's the best way to honor what's been lost, who's been lost. And I have my goal, now, to honor one of those.

For Daxze, and further back, I will learn to work the flames. I will light my path forward, and all my enemies will burn, this I swear. One day, I will find myself dying in the pyre for this, but until then. It hones my steel, and my resolve.