Shadows of Bankor

Dak was suited up in the heavily modified stormtrooper armor Sacha had worked on for him. The matte grey armor entirely absorbed light throwing off no shine. He was in the training room they had claimed for the intelligence division, in front of him was a dummy and in his hand was a practice knife.

Dak circled the dummy almost stalking it like his ancestors had stalked so much prey. His muscles tensed and taut, his weight on the balls of his feet and his legs bent as he moved. Suddenly he sprang at the dummy slashing at vitals and stabbing into synth flesh. Where the knife met the dummy bright red lines were left behind and deep red dots where punctures were placed. His placement was ok but not perfect.

He reset the dummy marks disappearing from its surface and he fell back into his stance.

It was about at this point that Petrus stuck his head in the room, looking around curiously.

"Oh, hey Dak." He said, smiling at the familiar face, and giving him a wave. "I was just looking for Dove."

He paused, though, looking at the simulated damage. "Nice." He said.

Dak straightened and smiled clipping the knife onto the best of his armor "Oh hey there Petrus hows it going?" He asked with only slightly labored breath.

"I havent seen Dove around since the meeting this morning but shes been a busy bird the past couple weeks, so its anyone's guess what shes up to."

He nodded at the compliment "Thanks, I figure I'm good enough with a rifle better practice my blade work."

"She certainly has." Petrus said with an amused smile. "Anything you can tell me about, or is this more the 'you could tell me but you'd have to kill me' sort of thing?"

He stepped casually into the room. "Yeah, that makes sense. Dove tried to show me how to shoot once, but..." He grimaced. "Well, I sucked, let's leave it at that." He looked back to Dak. "You shot pretty well, I remember, at the mission at the comms tower."

"Eh actually mostly boring stuff I imagine but we've gather some intel here and there." The two had worked closely together the past weeks so he'd been seeing a lot of her but only had time to actually spend time together a few times which Dak regretted but understood.

Dak chucked "Its a good skill to have, not everyone is always gonna be nice enough to be in range of your fancy sword thing." He nodded again "Yeah I would say I'm a pretty good shot, one of the best back in the war if stats are to be believed."

"Lightsaber." Petrus said blandly. Well, at least Dak got his name right. That put him ahead of a surprising number of people.

His eyebrows went up. "No kidding. That good, huh?" He chewed his lip a moment. "So... who were you with? Which unit, I mean?"

Dak snapped ahh yeah lightsaber, my bad I know it's like your sacred weapon but just always seemed silly to me to fight a pace from your opponent when it's so much easier to end a conflict from half a mile away." He said with a shrug "but your ways are your own, who am I to say what's best."

Dak walked over to a bench and sat down "Like I said numbers wise I was about top 20 snipers in the Republic military. According to my service records I was enlisted into the 304 recon division but 7 months later transferred to be a operational threat analyst within Republic Intelligence. My actual job title was Operations Specialist which is a fancy name they give to assets that dont exist if they get caught."

Petrus walked over, leaning casually against the wall nearby. He crossed his arms, his posture relaxed.

"Top twenty, huh? How do they measure that?" Kills? Petrus grimaced a little... but of course he wasn't going to judge, either. "304 recon... I don't think I ever ended up with them. But they moved us around a lot."

"Operations specialist." Petrus smiled. "So... spy? Pretty much?"

"Confirmed kills, practice range stats, longest shot, there are a few different ways to do it. I had over 130 confirmed kills though the majority of those are droids only about 45 or so sentients in there. A 98% accuracy rating in the field, you can thank Dove for lowering that, though now a days I'm pretty grateful I missed back then." He said with a warm smile "and a recorded longest shot distance of 2,456 meters."

Dak realized it sounded like he was bragging "Every sniper in the Republic forces knows their stats, it's the one thing we do but we know exactly how well we do it."

Petrus listened, his forehead creasing lightly. "Forty-five still seems like a high proportion, what with all the droids there were... but I'm guessing you were sent after more important targets. That makes sense." His lips pressed together, but he didn't comment further.

Then his eyebrows went up. "Wait, so you almost shot Dove? Is that how the two of you know each other?"

"Mhm any bucket head could take out a droid if I was shooting at the clunkers it was likely another sniper, or a SBD in an entrenched location." He said grabbing a bottle and taking a swig from it. Then offered it to Petrus "Its just water." He said with a smile.

"As for Dove Gray, yeah we know eachother from our time in the war. We had a......rivalry of sorts, different skill sets, same job. I'd interfere with her ops she'd show up unexpectedly at mine."

"Thanks." Petrus took a quick drink from the water. It was sorta like companionably sharing a drink.

He passed it back. "No kidding." He grinned. "And then you meet on Bankor. Huh." The Force was strange, sometimes. "So... any good stories?" He raised a hand. "That she wouldn't mind me hearing? I talked to her a bit about it..." He shrugged. "I mean, it's not like I can judge her... but I don't, either. If that makes sense? That she was on the other side back then doesn't matter as much as who she is now."

"Yeah, trust me she was just as surprised as I was. Neither of us really expected to see the other after the war, just figured we'd go back to our own lives and what not. Nit sure what I think about us meeting hack up now, never been one to put too much stock in destiny but.......its very odd at least." He said obviously dipping into deep thought.

The other question brought him back though "Oh too many stories, theres the time Dove was strangling me to death and I thought man this is it, she finally got me. Cause Dove is a better fighter than me and also deceptively strong. But then just as the edges started getting fuzzy and the only thing i could really see was that face of hers, which i remember in vivid detail to this day as being absolutely gorgeous." He said grinning "but just as the curtains started drawing closed i heard a speeder racing toward us and just at the last second I coiled my legs and shoved her off me and then rolled off the ledge of the building praying I timed it right. Then thud! I land on top of this speeder and dig my knife into the roof. Now I was amazed it had worked but I summoned enough cool spy energy to throw a casual salute back to Dove as I sped away"

he said imitating a casual two finger salute with a grin. "Honestly I was shocked and was certain I was going to die and the second that speeder turned I flailed about trying to keep my grip but luckily we were already too far away for her to see." He finished with a laugh.

Petrus smiled. "You probably won't be surprised to hear that I put a pretty good amount of stock in destiny." He said, cheerfully amused.

As Dak told the story, Petrus' eyebrows went up. "Strangling you? That's... whoa." Grimacing, Petrus shook his head. Maybe all this spy stuff was a little too much for him. "Well... good that you both made it. And now you get along." Petrus nodded, as though that answered something for him.

He looked curiously at Dak. "Sounds sorta like the mission we went on. The first one, I mean. Is it always like that? Looks cool on the outside, actually a desperate mad scrabble to not die?" Petrus' lips quirked.

Dak shrugged "Yeah mostly I mean there are smooth ops where you go in, do the thing, and get out but those arent what make the memory reel years later honestly."

Noting Petrus' expression Dak chuckled "I mean Petrus it was war and we were enemies, I watched you a couple of weeks ago cut through storm troopers like a hot knife through butter. You're a warrior, a defender and protector maybe but still a warrior. Blood and death is the warrior's life no matter which path he chooses."

Petrus nodded slowly. "I did kill them, yeah. I wish they'd had the same chance Neela had." He sighed. "But I knew how to reach her. They were a threat."

He grimaced. "But Jedi aren't all about blood and death. Or... we shouldn't be, anyway." Another grimace. "Violence is supposed to be the last thing we resort to, and..." He paused a moment, considering his words. "I can't say we regret it, because that's not right. But it's always unfortunate when it comes to that."

Dak shrugged again "Way i see it feel bad about it or dont doesnt change the end result. Not saying you shouldn't but like I said no matter what kind of warrior you are, good hearted defender of truth and justice and all that or a merciless killer at the end of the day both are putting bodies in the ground." He took a deep breath "just.....dont get too bogged down in doing what you have to, that's a quick way to sleepless nights."

"No, I know." Petrus said. "Since violence is a last resort, it usually means that it's pretty necessary when we do use it." He frowned gently. "Although during the Clone Wars... I don't know."

He looked curious at Dak. "Sounds like you've got experience there? Getting bogged down, or sleepless nights, I mean?" His tone was gentle.

"You were young during the clone wars but not so young as others, never did agree with your order putting actual children in a warzone. I mean I saw a kid out there once that couldnt have been older than maybe 12 or 13 years old. Even with all your training I cant imagine a kid that age is ready to see war."

To his question Dak made a dismissive gesture "eh not for a long time, first couple times you take a life can stick with you."

"Yeah..." Petrus said. "I don't know. We helped..." Still, he definitely had a troubled frown. "I didn't really take part until I was fifteen, anyway."

He considered that for a moment. "It's strange, but it didn't really stick with me. Not the first time, and not this time. But the first time..." He smiled wanly. "Well, I had a lot going on. It was during the Purge, actually. I'd only ever fought droids during the war. It was only after the war that I ended up killing."

"Well count yourself among the lucky ones then. I dont know why I'm trying to sound wise or give advice, you've likely seen as much action as me and you've been training just as long if not longer."

Petrus chuckled at that. "Yeah, I bring out the parental instinct in people, somehow. It's my thing, I guess. And you're a bit older than me, right?" It was always hard to tell with other species.

He shrugged. "But I don't know. Training, sure, probably longer; they start us young. Action..." Petrus shook his head. "Probably not. I mean, they kept me pretty busy during the Clone Wars. But not much after that. And Temple life is kinda sheltered. Heh, that's probably why I get the parental thing, too."

Dak nodded "fair enough, it doesnt help that you kind of remind me of my little brother Kett." Dak said with a soft smile before taking a drink from his bottle.

"So how old were you when you were taken by the order anyway?"

"Younger brother, huh?" Petrus smiled. "Hey, that's a new one for me. Usually it's 'Kid', or 'Nice Young Man'." Not that Petrus minded especially; he was a Nice Young Man. "So, what's this brother of yours like?"

"Six. Or seven." Petrus shrugged. "I don't actually know the exact day I was born. Unregistered, and my parents never told me." Another shrug.

Dak smiled again but there was a touch of sadness to it "He was a good kid, a Nice Young Man if you will." He said with a chuckle "No he was hopeful and kind, spent too much time watching holos but cared about doing what's right in the end. He was planning on joining the military, becoming a soldier for the Republic but well things didnt exactly work out."

He cleared his throat "Yeah that makes sense Jenna mentioned you guys lived a rough life before you got taken in by the order."