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| - Emperor Malus's reign would be short however, perhaps the curse in regards to the disfigured shell of a human being had been true. Vassily spent the next several months after the Empresses building his own power base. After being given a palace on Dreven and assigned away from his warfleet to put the damaged Intelligence Networks back into order, Vassily began to seed both the Bureau of Operations and ISB with his agents. Using his position as High Lord of the Galactic Empire, he was able to root out any remaining Osbourne appointees and increase infiltration in both the IGF an Imperial Navy, both long thought to be rife with traitors. He also still held his rank as Tribune of the Royal Guard and used that to turn both the Guard and Stormtrooper Legions into his own private army, invoking the Emperor's Will anytime it suited his purpose. He had even managed to have a Star Destroyer, the HIMS Inquisitior, and Strike Cruiser HIMS Ravager transferred from Naval High Command to COMPNOR, in which he crewed the vessel entirely with COMPForce personnel and established the Inquisitor as his flagship. When Tyler Damion began to exert his power on the Navy, Vassily Korolov was probably the only person in the Empire capable of resisting him. The two Sith had several encounters, starting with an attempt by Damion, calling himself Darth Malign to convert the High Lord to his cause at the point of a lightsaber. The battle that resulted was climactic as the pair destroyed the main conference amphitheatre on the Inquisitor. It was also here that Vassily encountered an old friend. The enigmatic Lara Grayson had chosen that moment to make her return to the Empire public. Darth Malign had also hinted at his new 'Master', Aleister Vadim, Grayson confirmed the rumor and after Vadim had left the Inquisitor, Lara instructed her former student to travel to Ord Trasi to Valak's hidden temple where the two could talk outside the reach of the Empire. On Ord Trasi, Lara convinced Vassily that Vadim was indeed powerful and would lead the Empire to a height of Glory that even Valak had only dreamed about. She also agreed to resume his training and to set up a meeting without Malign present where Vassily could speak with the would-be Emperor. It was amid the jagged, inhospitable peaks that Vassily Korolov almost died. Lara Grayson hadn't actually been intent on killing him, however the ability to survive was what distinguished powerful Sith from corpses and with that in mind blew up a rock bridge that he had been crossing. Unable to manipulate gravity to keep from falling, Vassily fell over 10,000 feet. Giving himself entirely over to the darkside during the fall he landed amid the broken rubble. He broke nearly every bone in his body. His left arm was destroyed beyond the ability to repair it and he clung to life by a thread. But it was enough; the Darkside strengthened him, along with the Droid surgeons aboard a nearby orbiting Star Destroyer given to Grayson for her special operations. The implanted a cybernetic arm onto the Sith Warrior. His new arm was so advanced that it mimiced the full range and flexibility perfectly, without any of the latency assosciated with prosthetic arms. After several Bacta treatments and a Force Induced healing coma from his teacher, Vassily returned to Imperial space to meet with Vadim. Tensions between Korolov's forces and those loyal to Malign had begun to run high. Aboard the HIMS Malevolence Vassily delivered the heart of the Galactic Empire to Vadim. While having little paitence for Vassily's arrogance, the Emperor was impressed at the life-long Soldier's plain spoken language and lack of Embellishment. He agreed to continue the High Lords training in exchange for avoiding a time consuming and counter-productive power struggle.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)