Paying more attention to putting the final polish on his rifle rather than what was happening around him Creed decided to finally introduce himself to his team for the away mission.
"So I guess we'll be working together on this then?" His words were aimed directly to the man Skursir described as 'Charada'. Being a Special Agent within E.P.O.C.H he at least had some knowledge of the new recruits that were coming and going throughout the agency. He was always curious about the actual number of people in the Falleen's employment but he knew his boss well enough by now, every little detail was a secret and if thats way the man with the plan wanted it then who was he to ask questions?

Creed sensed a an uneasy tension being passed through some of the members of the agency and the mysterious guests aboard the vessel, and unlike the others he felt completely at ease with the situation. His employer often contracted him to work amongst the Sith so for him this was just another day at the agency. Packing his blaster rifle back in it's case he slumped the bulky weapon over his shoulder and extended his hand in friendship to the one that called himself 'Vaelyndor Althoren'.
"Nice to meet you pal, the names Dekkar, Creed Dekkar."

The Falleen stood waiting for the analysis of the hand print to come through, finally the datapad turned green and reassured him that the men they were working for were indeed who they said they were.
"Exceeeellent. Well everything seems in order here." His yellow eyes were filled with greed as he witnessed the large amount of credits succesfully transfer.
"Now if you gentlemen won't be needing me any further I shall leave you in the capable hands of Aleena."
He picked up his dark purple robe from around a chair and made his way to the vessels exit.
"It's been a pleasure doing business with you. You know how to contact me if you ever feel the need for our services again."

Vaelyndor turned and gave his friend a welcoming grin. "Glad you could make it Void, we were wondering if you'd get on board before we lifted off." Turning next to bow before the Falleen as he made his exit, he still wondered at how the man could negotiate a deal involving so many credits without revealing hardly anything about himself or much about his organizations methods.

So many secrets, so little time.

As another agent introduced himself, Vaelyndor was glad that he, at least, seemed very much at ease about the situation. Grasping the man's hand in a firm handshake, he can't help but relax a little at his casual introduction. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Creed. I couldn't help but notice you polishing that blaster rifle of yours. I prefer the DLT-5 model myself. Might not be as accurate as some of the others on the market, but with a little love and attention, and not to mention some additional custom parts, they'll get you out of some pretty tight spots."

Sharasvar kept his distance while the EPOCH and Sith'ari Path members exchanged pleasantries. He nodded friendly and sent a few polite smiles to the agents, all the time keeping an eye on Vaelyndor who moved around, showing confidence and strength. The Executor's primary weakness -his ability to trust- seemed to the elderly Sith in fact as one of his greatest assets. The Path had been isolated for long enough. They needed allies, and a leader able to trust allies.

A familiar presence passed Sharasvar and the Historian smiled, broadly now. The figure walked up to Vaelyndor and the elderly Sith decided to join him. His voice, soft but clear, sounded through the room.

"Well, Void. What a pleasant surprise! I didn't think you'd make it, my old friend. How did you manage to tear yourself away from galactic politics?" Sharasvar winked at Void Dallos.

"Everyone, this is Void Dallos, esteemed politician of the Empire. Perhaps you've heard of him. He's our Voice to the outside world and our link to the realm of Imperial politics."

... and he'd balance the odds a little more in our favor, the Sith thought cynically.

Slowly shuffling his long legs on the floor, with his protective outfit hanging from his pointy finger of the left hand, supported by the broad shoulders. His hand were very muscular, with massive metal protectors covering his forearms, hiding long, thin wristblades, that could emit short and strong burst of electricity.

The Thumb couldn't be more relaxed, and had no mood for forced introductions. Instead, he began to watch reactions and body language of the crew. Strained body poses, hands near lightsabers and suspicious, quiet talking implied the uneasiness of the Sith members.

Slowly moving through the cargo hold, avoiding any group engaged in conversation, he had been precisely examining other agents as well. Catching a glimpse of the heavy equipped zabrak and some humans talking, he continued walking slowly and casually, scanning everyone with cold red eyes, able to desperately frighten ordinary citizens and cowardly people. The person he had the most intriguing feeling of was the black haired hapan woman. He could see her deadly eyes, and reading from her movements, seducively walking towards the group of siths, was like reading from an interesting book. The Thumb was fascinated by her anticipation of possible attacks, the shaped body, corrupted eye look and depraved charisma. He had no doubt, she can smile in persons face and when he or she turns around, pull the heart out of the chest and drink the warm blood. At least, this was his imagination of an perfect assassination. But the hapan made him feel that way, made him eager to kill, to rip out some targets collar bone and pierce it through its pumping jugular.

The Thumb had a hard time suppresing his primal urge to brutally murder. After he calmed his inner demons, he tried to reach the stairs to the upper deck, possibly avoiding any conversation, aimed to find a bed where he could stretch his stiffed bones a little.

As Darth'Ishad made his diplomatic retreat from the conversation Aleena turned to Skursir with a look that seemed to question the Sith man's somewhat cautious behaviour. If the Trandoshan had any explanation he didn't look like he was going to offer it, and she was in no mood to press the situation. She shrugged off what she considered a slight of etiquette in light of the mission, she was used to people being on edge around her ever since she was a girl. Curious though, that such reputedly powerful Sith would be so tenative; she hoped it wouldn't prove to be a problem out in the field.

As her Master concluded the deal via a datapad transaction, Aleena watched two new members arrive. One she knew well, the Corellian man known as Creed, a quick-shooting and fast thinking Human who was among the Falleen's trusted. He was capable in a fight and was resourceful - for one not in tune with the Dark Side.

The second arrival she did not recognise but assumed he was a member of the Path by the immediate bond of familiarity between them, This assumption was proven true mere seconds later when Vaelyndor greeted him with the words:

"Glad you could make it Void, we were wondering if you'd get on board before we lifted off."

She found it interesting that there would be such comradery between Sith, but she was fast learning that the Sith'ari Path were not typical Sith.
Pulled from her thoughts by the sound of her name uttered by her Master, Aleena straightened up and to attention - though not in any military manner - as The Falleen spoke:

"Exceeeellent. Well everything seems in order here. Now if you gentlemen won't be needing me any further I shall leave you in the capable hands of Aleena."

She watched the imposing figure as he turned to leave the ship and wondered where he vanished to at times such as this. She was part of his inner-circle, one of the few people closest to him and even she had no idea where he was half the time. The Mysterious Falleen indeed.

Returning her attention to the Trandoshan stood near to her she decided that enough pleasantries had been observed for her liking and decided to address him formally.

"Agent Skursir, you mentioned to our Sith'ari collegues that there was a problem with leaving port?" She didn't seem paticularly agressive when she spoke, but there was a definate authoritarian tone that had been absent before.

"I trust this will not cause too much of a delay? I imagine our new friends are anxious to get underway.....as am I." She could see the tension building in him, Trandoshan were an agressive but honourable people and alot of the ways of the Galaxy annoyed them, seemed non-sensical and backward to the Trandoshan mindset. Like having a female in charge. She was well aware he resented her and her favoured position with the Falleen. Good, she could use that anger. It didn't matter to her if he liked her or not, friendship was not required - only obedience.

Everything she knew about Skursir pointed to a good sense of discipline.

"Do you have any further information on an estimated departure time?"

Skursir smiled as both of the Sith departed, they were good, especially compared to the other Sith that he had previously worked with. So far socialable in fact, you could have a drink with them, which was what he did in the Hyperion. The lady Aleena Fel had joined in the conversation to greet the Sith.

He recieved a questioning look from her, what did she want? Did she not trust his leadership in this mission? Granted, it was unusual that he would direct so many people, including his superiors, but he had done nothing wrong and had spent long and hard analysing available maps of the system, world and people involved. Surely she would recognise his hard work?

He decided to give a glare in return, but missed his oppurtunity as the lady left. Perhaps for the better, he was in no mood to anger her and cause any more tensions than there were now. He noticed Void-Dallos come on board, late. This wasn't the first time, Jylan had also come in half-way through the briefing. Surely he made the directions clear enough?

The Falleen departed, Skursir had always known that he would. He looked around, people were starting to mesh well, Eamonn, Jylan and Argrynn were in conversation as was Veal with Creed. All except "The Thumb" it seemed. The Duro seemed to rush up to the upper level, perhaps to check up on the ship's status - a smart move. Skursir was pleased to be around so many interesting individuals.

"Agent Skursir, you mentioned to our Sith'ari collegues that there was a problem with leaving port?"
A commanding voice spoke out from behind Skursir, the voice had struck a chord with him and he leapt to attention, spinning around instantly to face the person. It was the Chief Operative. Though she was female, she was still her superior and Skursir would have to answer to her as such.

"Yess, Chief Operative?" He responded quickly. Loyalty seemed to flood him, he felt comfortable - as comfortable as answering to the Falleen. He seemed to feel better thinking of Aleena as the 2nd in command rather than a female.

"I trust this will not cause too much of a delay? I imagine our new friends are anxious to get underway.....as am I."
That loyalty vanished as quickly as it came. She was slandering his abilities! She was putting him under scrutiny! She was playing with him! Skursir held back a snarl. He did not like her tone, no, he hated it. Aleena could probably read his feeling like a book. Good, she would learn not to take him lightly. For now, he would play her little game.

"Do you have any further information on an estimated departure time?"

Skursir grinned a lethal grin. "We are waiting for the control tower, Chief Operation. I have given commandss to the crew to take off when given conformation - it should not be long now."

Sitting on his case it the corner Jylan tried and failed to stop his hand from involuntary moving to his face, if there was one thing he hated it was listening to this guild, their problems and ego trips, none of them seemed to have any professionalism about them apart from the few who made it to the higher ranks mainly Creed and Aleena.
Jylan sat there staunchly waiting for one of the two to break the silence after Keels diplomatic masterstroke, it wasn't in his job description to make nice between men of great ego's or force conversation with hired killers, not that he even had a job description on this mission although he personally thought it was to be the looker of the group..... which wasn't far off considering the company.

He watched the worst offender as he finalised the deal and named Aleena as the Head of Operations for this particular mission before turning to make his exit, leaving before the mission had even begun, for reasons Jylan could only presume were to see his wife and most likely equally monstrous younglings, all for the better he thought, having him looking over his shoulder for the entirety of the mission didn't particularly appeal to him.
Aleena moved over to Skursir and began to chat,his gaze fell on her for awhile, he'd misread the woman entirely when they'd first met, he'd taken her for a Sith plain and simple yet her origin was apparently Jedi, her authoritarian yet apparent calm nature was off put by her obvious dark side corruption leading to many of their conversations to be uneasy ones.

She was baiting Skursir from what he could tell, not that it would do much good, his will was as iron as his hide and he wasn't about to bicker with his superior, loosing interest and turning away he grinned as another Sith walked over to him and the the icy grouping, “Another useful force ability the Sith have it seems, detecting uncomfortable social situations”.

As Jax was fixing up his backpack for the mission, He double-checked once again while muttering silently each weapon that he had in the backpack, "A Permacrete detonator check.. Bore bangs check.. Detonite check.." during his counting he noticed that Creed had walked up to him and said "So I guess we'll be working together on this then?"

Jax responded quickly and said: "Seems like it doesn't it? The name is Charada, need any blown up or hacked, I'm your Ryn." Thankfully Jax was able to keep his own name hidden since he didn't rather enjoy anyone digging up the past.

In truth, Jax wasn't that bothered with this mission at all, "Just avoid getting shot" he always thought with a smile but something didn't quite feel right about this mission, he never enjoyed having sith around specially with their reputation.

As Jax went back into his backpack and rechecking everything he muttered silently "Too bad there isn't enough Detonite to blow every Sith and Jedi off the bloody planet.."

"My name is Darth'Ishad" he anounced to the two agents Jylan and Eamonn, "I hope we all can uhhh get along on this mission." he said with a low hiss. His hand still on his hilt, he was feeling that most of the agents did not feel to good about working with sith, which is understandable. Most sith are ruthless and Darth'Ishad can be one of them at times, but in the end he has his honor and his pride. "I take it you are not to fond of us sith are you?"" he asked Eamonn grinning behind his mask, he could feel the tension all through out the room. Some either were nervous, angry, and some calm but it was a feeling that will soon pass.

Sharasvar saw "The Thumb" ascend the stairs before he could have a word with him. Even from afar, he sensed a good deal of barely controlled aggression within the duros, and he'd have liked a moment to ascertain the nature and direction of his feelings. Aliens were difficult to read, and the less humanoid they were, the more confusing their emotional signals were to the Sith Historian.

Sharasvar hesitated for a second, doubting if he'd follow his enigmatic team mate, but he decided against it - they'd have time enough to get cozy when the mission actually started. Instead his eyes moved back to Aleena who was talking to the trandoshan. At first, Skursir had seemed to him as the leader of the mission, but then the hapan female appeared to call the shots. There was some tension between the two agents, and Sharasvar instantly recognized Aleena's arrogant authoritativeness - the hallmark of most Sith he had encountered in his life.

Acquiring and executing authority was the main road to power, and there were three ways to gain authority: social position, fear, and respect. Of the three, social rank was the least efficient, as it was based on a purely external motivator. With rank comes fear and respect, sure, but in the last analysis it depends not on the willpower of the person in question, but on external structures independent of his or her will. On the other hand, the darksider could have gained her rank through respect and fear, but if so, this did not seem entirely uncontested within the group.

Sharasvar left the company of Void and approached Aleena and Skursir. He nodded politely at Skursir and then addressed the darksider. "Miss Aleena. We haven't been properly introduced yet. My name is Sharasvar Zia, Judge of the Path and member of the High Council for Sith Archaeology on Korriban and the resident historian and - together with Loremaster Arggyn - scholar of the Path. If you or one of your agents should encounter any... artefact of relevance on the mission, I would be grateful if you'd bring it immediately to me. Especially ancient force related objects have a tendency to create... problems, when not properly investigated and attended." The Sith smiled, in a neutral way. His tone was decisive, but not unfriendly.

Keel was momentarily taken aback by the newcomer’s straight forward question; he was unaccustomed to Sith being so forthright. The fact this man addressed him with one hand on the hilt of his sabre was not lost on him but Eamonn was familiar with the Kaleesh aggressive and war-like nature. More interesting was how his sudden appearance and current behaviour suggested he felt his comrade needed rescuing. Was this Argyyn really so weak?
     Maintaining a relaxed pose Eamonn smiled politely to the Kaleesh “Eamonn Keel, and this is Jylan Trell” he nodded sideways at his fellow Agent.
     “I have no personal grievance against any Sith” he lied lightly. “Many other Tarisians may feel they have just cause to despise your kind, but in spite of growing up on that hell hole I’ve managed to make something of myself” Keel knew most Kaleesh respected strength he and hoped this one was no different.
     “I was just asking your friend here if your presence on this mission suggests you expect us to run into trouble with other Force users?” he had almost said ‘wizards’ and mentally berated himself for such a slip in concentration. In spite of his outward calm these Sith were indeed making him uncomfortable, and the suspicion that they might be able to sense this was also making him angry. Keel considered himself an expert at reading people, but no one should have that kind of unnatural advantage over him.

Nodding to her Trandoshan companion, Aleena seemed more at ease.

"Thank-you, Agent Skursir. Whilst I recognize and appreciate your professionalism in the matter, the hired crew of this vessel are an unknown quantity to me. Your reassurance is more than satifactory."
There was something in the way she said it, very subtle. She didn't seem to be insulting Skursir as she uttered the words, but she didn't seem quite convinced either. If anything, her reply sounded.....almost politically practiced.

It was then than the apparently middle-aged man approached her, though she immediately felt the incling that there was more to him than was presented. Was he younger than he looked? The Dark Side had a habit of altering one biologically as well as mentally, as she well knew. As he spoke his words were soft and mannered, but again she couldn't drop the feeling that he was presenting himself in a manner that best suited others perception of him:

"Miss Aleena. We haven't been properly introduced yet. My name is Sharasvar Zia, Judge of the Path and member of the High Council for Sith Archaeology on Korriban and the resident historian and - together with Loremaster Arggyn - scholar of the Path. If you or one of your agents should encounter any... artefact of relevance on the mission, I would be grateful if you'd bring it immediately to me. Especially ancient force related objects have a tendency to create... problems, when not properly investigated and attended."

Bowing deeply and giving a welcoming smile she outstretched an elegant hand to shake his. It was exceptionally cold to the touch.

"Judge Zia, a pleasure. When I heard you would be part of the team from The Sith'ari I admit I was both intreagued and excited and now it seems we will be in the same team on this mission?"
Instinctual training kicked in subconsciously, lessons from her Master that forced her to change tact from her usual seductive self when dealing with younger companions to appearing more worldly and chasted to appeal to those whom desired more than just flesh; most often knowledge or power.
"I admit my knowledge of yourself and your Order are both lacking, sadly. It is my hope that, permissions allowing I might get a chance to learn more during our time together. As for Force-Artefacts, I will again defer to your judgement on such matters though I admit to having an interest, if observing you work would be possible?"

The touch of Aleena's cold hand sent an involuntary shiver through Sharasvar's spine. He ignored it, while listening to her polite and carefully formulated answer. A brief show of her cunning? She is no rough stone, waiting to be carved out from the rock, to be cut into a brilliant gem. She is touched by formal training. Jedi? Sith?

Sharasvar chuckled as if he was mocking himself. "I am sure that knowledge of myself would be an utter waste of time for an important... businesswoman like yourself. Ah, I turn stones upside down, I dig trenches, maintain libraries, study holocrons, and decipher old languages. As such, who I am and what I do is hardly an interesting subject for any kind of conversation." He grinned and his eyes twinkled with a hint of mischief.

"Regarding the nature of my group, perhaps we can come to a kind of arrangement, for I am fascinated by the personal histories of non-Sith force users. So, a little tit for tat?" With a cynical smile he let his eyes briefly hover over her voluptuous body, indicating that he wasn't interested at all in that -quite material- part of her being.

She smiled and nodded as she read between the lines of what Sharasvar was saying; he was giving her a reprieve from her usual games of manipulation and politics. For whatever reason he was geniunely interested in her past and that seemed both refreshing and liberating to her.

"An agreement? I think I would like that." She replied, fully aware of some of the subtle nuances of his subtext but deciding to not follow suit.

"I would not care for you to belittle your importance however, regardless of modesty. Yours is a job not suited to many and it is a worthwhile cause; though I suspect many of my fellow Operatives here today might not share my enthusiasm on the subject. You will have to excuse them if they seem a little.....reluctant with their congeniality at first, I assure you it is nothing personal it is just that many have not worked directly with Sith before and, well you know rumours."

"So tell me," She continued. "Do one of you speak for the others here among The Path, or are you all equal in standing?"

Sharasvar smirked. "We are all equal in our inequality. Inequalities point to both strengths and weaknesses. As individuals we, members of the Path, are incomplete and one-dimensional, but together we constitute a formidable force. Only through an organic collective can we transcend the boundaries of our individual persona and..."

The Sith stopped short of completing his sentence and smiled at the hapan female. "You have to excuse me, Miss Aleena. I get sidetracked easily by esoteric issues. For all purposes, Vaelyndor, our Executor, is in command. I will intervene only when the philosophical foundations and existence of our group are at stake, as such you may consider me a moral guardian, rather than a political leader. Darth'Ishad is the fist of our covenant, one might say, Argyyn our living memory, and Void Dallos voices our interests in the political arena. In a way, we are all masters, speaking for our particular domain, and servants, obeying those of the Path who master their own field. This structured conflict safeguards the dynamism and focus of our group, while it does not allow it to degenerate into the destructive Master-Slave cycle, which has steered our proud Sith civilization away from its original course."

When uttering those last words, for a brief moment, Sharasvar distant politeness gave way to a glimpse of passionate conviction.