"If you draw on the Force while in a heightened emotional state, there can be a resonance effect, especially if you are unprepared or undisciplined."

This sounds about right to her.

"What are some techniques for dealing with the resonance effect?"

"The most effective way is to be fully in control of your emotions before you put the Force to any active use. Be mindful of your feelings, and notice if they start to build out of your control. Remember that you are the source of your emotions, the ground upon which they are built. They serve as you dictate, you are not subject to them."

"I'll have to work on that," she murmurs. "But I do actually already know how to work in that vein. Like, well, like so."

"Quite." Occlus is impressed with her control, even if she doesn't understand why Nariveth should be experiencing so much turmoil now. Killing Jedi is a fairly normal thing to do, as far as Occlus is concerned.

Nariveth certainly isn't thinking about the why, because that freak out is on hold until she has better circumstances to handle it.

She inspects her nails.

"Are, we going to another location...? After this." Meaning, in another warzone.

"That will depend on whether Moff Pyron's scouts have reported back yet, and what they have to say."

Aaaaaa another warzone aaaaaaaa.

"Okay."

And here they are, back at base! What does Pyron have to say?

"Scouts have confirmed that Thanaton's base is at Axial Park. As far as we can tell, they were not detected."

"What are the defenses like?"

"Exterior defenses are minor and subtle - Thanaton was trying to hide this base and nearly succeeded. None of our scouts were able to get inside, so intel is limited, but we can assume from how Thanaton operates that the interior defenses are not so barren."

"I do not wish to go in blind if I can help it. What options do we have for infiltration? Or could we bait the Republic into attacking, like we did with Kallous?"

"Our infiltration options are unfortunately limited. Our ordinary agents would likely be detected by Thanaton or one of his allies through the Force, so we can't send them in. I have a man trying to get into their security systems remotely, but it's slow going."

"Show me the latest information we have on the distribution of Thanaton's forces."

Moffs can fetch, if a sith lord tells them to. Pyron gets Occlus her information.

Thanaton's forces have pulled back after the loss of Skar; many of them have been sent to bolster other forces, but Pyron insists that they're set up to be called away later.

She'll just have to get in and done before they can get back, then. Do they have any information at all on the layout? Backdoors?

They have a layout of what the base was like, but no intel on how it's been updated.

There are the entrances; a main ground entrance, a hangar, and one that's built to be one way but during the battle to take the Republic outpost got turned into an entrance by Kallous, by ripping the door off.

A hangar? Can they slice or appropriate Thanaton's IFF codes and get in that way?

That is one of the things they are working on with the man trying to get into their security systems, but they don't currently have them. Pyron will keep an eye out for possible methods to acquire the IFF codes.

While her forces work on that, Occlus will get a meal and take some time to rest. It's been somewhat of a long day.

Yes, it has been.

Nariveth gets herself a meal, too, and then goes looking for a quiet place to unpack her head. Also known as 'completely freak out.'

Is one available?

There's a meditation chamber that Occlus doesn't seem inclined to use.

Well, "chamber". More of a nook, really. But it has a door.

Excellent, that will do fine. She doesn't require space, anyway, she requires solitude. She shuts the door and sits in the center, because this time she would like some plausible deniability if someone comes in. Sith do this sort of thing, right? So she'll call it good. ... She'll have to minimize the crying, though, she's pretty sure that sith aren't supposed to cry. If she's partially in a - well, she's inclined to call it a Force trance, she thinks she can minimize the crying. Sitting and paying attention to the Force is soothing, if she does it right and focuses internally instead of externally. So, she'll do that, and while she does that she'll be multitasking and sorting through her head.

Okay. Now that she's in a place where it's moderately safe to unpack her emotions, what is she feeling?

Sort of like an innocent horribly caught up in a war, really. How accurate, she's almost disappointed in herself for being so straightforward. She does not want to be here, she does not want to be involved with killing people, she does not want to watch Occlus murder an entire group of jedi and think I am probably going to have to do that too, at some point. Because she likely will, though maybe not in that number or in that manner. Sith don't get to get away with not killing the enemy. Like it or not, she is a sith now, and her exits out of that are still looking pretty bleak.

What does she do when the world has forced her into a position where she has to become a killer or die? Watch others die, or die?

That's not an easy question to answer. Or, it is, but she doesn't like the answers available. She rejected it at the academy, but it seems that wasn't enough. The battle to not be terrible is ongoing. Is she going to spend the rest of her life doing this? Being given choices where all of her available options are terrible and she has nowhere to run? Where she has to find alternative solutions that are maybe some flavor of okay? Because, actually, when she frames it like that... she might not like it, but she can adjust. What else has she been doing her entire life except getting handed terrible options?

At least now she has the power to affect things. At least now she can do something other than 'obey' or 'don't and suffer for it.' She can't affect everything, some things are still out of her grasp, but ultimately, what is more central to the sith philosophy than acquiring power? Maybe she'll make a passable sith, after all.

She will have to watch herself, though. Some sort of way to check herself for crazy and evil, even though the possibility sounds a bit insane right now. It's likely a lot of crazy and evil people don't wake up in the morning and decide to slaughter some children before breakfast; she's not an exception. She does not get a pass just because she's herself, she knows what she's like after the high of using lightning, she is not immune.

But figuring out how to check herself for evil proficiently is a task that will take longer than she has time to commit - she is still in a warzone. She'll likely be busy tomorrow, and she needs to sleep. ... And probably switch out her kolto patch for a fresher one. Self care's important, she's seen herself when she's sleep deprived and injured and malnourished, and she would like to not see herself like that again, thanks.

That's about enough introspection for now. She's not done, but again, she's in a warzone, and she's gotten herself to stable. Up she gets, to go looking for a place to get a new kolto patch.

There's a med unit down the hall.