When the door to the shuttle opened, it did so with a blast of heat, not dissimilar to the kind of heat one would get from opening an oven. The air was dry, and tainted with the smell of sulfur and smoke. The sky above them was dark, but the world before them was a wash in red as a massive river of rolling lava flowed past them and down into a small canyon. The sound was incredible: an immense roaring, like the call of a thousand beasts fighting continually to the death.

Adam didn't even try NOT to compare the planet to Mustafar.

It was a creepy volcanic planet with serious villain vibes.

Even Sunny noticed the similarity, and he could feel her giving him a sidelong glance from the corner of her eye. He had to fight himself not to turn on the Darth Vader voice again, but resisted as best he could.

He was here on official business, Unfortunately, it would be unbecoming to emulated the dark lord of Evil, no matter how objectively awesome he was. Adam had even been adult enough to avoid wearing a cape, even though capes were a perfectly acceptable item of clothing on arcadia, as far as he knew they were even in fashion.

All his mother's doing.

She had single handedly brought them back through her Arcadia fall collection, which took a lot of its inspiration from Drev and spartan costumes. Decorative armor was all the fashion on Arcadia right now.

Adam himself was still partially armored, and where he wasn't he wore a heat resistant black bodysuit.

With all his resources, it hadn't taken too long to track Noctus here. The underground rumor mill was rife with information, and he was more than willing to follow. This had brought them to Morzen, a classically volcanic planet that put places like Earth and Anin to shame. The entire world was covered in rolling lava flows that never seemed to cease. On first glance that might have made the planet completely uninhabitable, but the existence of cool lakes at the poles and seasonal rainstorms created an environment that was surprisingly rife with life.

Many of the planet's animals had adapted to the extreme heat of molten rock, which to Adam wasn't as impossible as it might once have seemed, after all, one of his best friends could survive in the vacuum of space.

From where he stood on the deck of the metal refinery's landing pad, he could see a distant herd of firewalkers, their long spindly legs churning through a knee deep lava flow as they made their way towards the horizon.

Morzen was a planet surprisingly ripe with natural resources, including sulfur and metal mining. This metal refinery boasted a massive heat resistant churn that loaded molten rock into a centrifuge, which then spun the molten metal to separate it into its components, pulling the natural metals from the rock. Or at least that was how he understood it. From there the metal was then cooled and refined while the rock was released back into the lava flow.

Morzen diamonds were also particularly expensive, when considering some of their unique properties. Despite asteroid mining companies having their own synthetic diamond labs, in order to line their drills, they would still pay out the nose for Morzen diamonds, a fact Adam was going to have to look into more closely.

As of now they stood on the upper tier of the Morzen refinery, over a main lava flow, and the heat was so intense, he could feel his entire body tingle with sweat. It was only the cool air being blasted into his face by his helmet climate system that let him stand here for any length of time.

As far as the others went, Sunny seemed unperturbed, while Red, Ramirez and Maverick were well on their way to melting,

Luckily for them the attendant arrived just then.

The Rundi was wearing a specialized metallic heat suit, and its bureaucratic nature didn't take long to sniff Adam out where he stood at the front of the group. It bowed as was their custom, "Admiral..... Or is there another title you might prefer."

He caught a brief thought from Sunny that wondered if he was about to ask to be called Lord Vir, and smiled to himself behind the faceplate of his helmet, "Admiral will do." he reached a hand back motioning to his wilting friends, "Perhaps there is somewhere more comfortable we can speak."

The Rundi nodded quickly, morning them forward over the hot metal catwalk, and down a set of stairs along the side of the building.

Lava bubbled and rolled below them.

It's over Anakin, I have the high ground. Adam thought to himself as the door at the base of the catwalk opened and they were ushered into a small decompression chamber. The room was stiflingly hot, and Adam wondered briefly if the Rundi had simply lured them into an oven, but that was not the case. A red light blinked on over the door and then flashed green, filling the compartment with cool clean air.

The sigh of relief was audible.

The Rundi glanced over at Adam nervously as they stepped into the facility.

It was only with his limited use of telepathy was he surprised to find that the Rundi found him imposing, even frightening.

It was an unusual experience.

But not an unwelcome one.

Adam had secretly been practicing his "menacing walk" there wasn't really anything menacing about it, but it was fast, strong and goal directed, and he thought it made him look purposeful.

He opened up his mind to the rest of the facility following the thought process of the other workers, and creating a map of where he wanted to go. Before the Rundi could even speak, Adam took his first step, sweeping down the hall with long strides, forcing the Rundi into an awkward half walk half jog to keep up.

"Admiral I-"

He held up a hand, "Your assistance is no longer required."

The rundi faltered, unsure, "But I-"

"That was an invitation for you to leave." he finished, and the Rundi, stunned paused and let him and his entourage pass. Ramirez jogged to catch up with him, "Dude, really/"

"Don't ruin this for me, Ramirez, I never get to be menacing."

The eye rolling was palpable on the air, but he ignored them, and kept up the pace. The SE suit may have been keeping him upright, but it was also loud, and his footfalls were heavy on the metal floor beneath him. The facility around them was mide, and lined in pipes. A wall ran to their left, lined in doors, while a catwalk opened up onto the refinery floor below them, where chemical vats simmered and bubbled. Facility workers in heat resistant uniforms stood at their stations, though from here the cool air was rather pleasant.

Adam could hear the people watching him, and even felt a few of them scamper away towards their master, intending to let Noctus know they were coming no doubt. The rundi that had been sent to meet them had been instructed to stall for time.

But Noctus wasn't going to get any time.

They exited the refinery part of the facility, walked down a wide set of stairs passing into what must have been the rock bed of the planet, the walls on either side morphed from steel into stone, which although carved by sentient lifeforms, was clearly part of a system of natural tunnels which branched off at odd and unusual angles from the center floor.

The walls had been ground smooth, and chisels had been used to carve decorative patterns into the stone, which was then highlighted in golden paint. The effect was impressive, even more impressive when the corridor itself was partially lit by heat resistant lava tubes, running along the upper side walls, carrying with it the molten metal down to the refinery.

It was an impressive atmosphere.

And Adam found himself immediately jealous.

Though he wouldn't have mentioned that to anyone.

Along with the carved walls came plush little couches and tall elegant statues.

The floor here was made entirely from dark volcanic glass.

His footsteps were loud, echoing down the hallway as he walked, and at the end he approached a wide set of double doors.

He didn't break stride as he marched towards the doors, only praying that they weren't locked as he reached out both hands and shoved the doors inward. Luckily for him the door s were not locked, and they both slid open rather easily. He kept walking leaving the doors open behind him as he swept into the room.

Noctus it seemed had fashioned himself a little kingdom in the time after his prison break.

Once upon a time the Tesraki smuggler had been one of the biggest in the business, a household name, but it seemed that laying low suited him well, and the room they stepped into was nothing but black marble and volcanic glass. The room itself was square around the central floor and on three sides a set of two or three stairs rose up onto the outer edges of the room. The ceiling was supported by blac marble pillars three for each side of the room, and there upon the raised platform, Noctus sat on one of his many couches, eating a bowl of, clearly, imported anin coiltree berries.

The dark-furred tesraki turned his head slowly to look up at them, eyes falling on Adam as he came to a halt on the open palace floor.

His ears flicked in amusement, like a dog or a cat.

"Admiral, it's been a while, the last time I saw you..... You had significantly more organs." The tesraki gave him what amounted to a rather sinister grin, which was unnervingly human for what amounted to a talking Kangaroo.

Clearly someone had been keeping him apprised of the situation.

"You haven't changed in the least, Noctus. Still a sniveling coward."

Noctus sneered, "Coward is just a fancy term idiots use to make themselves feel better for not having a working sense of self preservation." He took another berry from his bowl.

"Banter aside, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit. You see I am incredibly busy right now." he licked the berry and its juice from his fingers and adjusted dhis cushion, "I have very little time you see, and it seems you did not book an appointment."

"I don't need an appointment." Adam stepped forward, "What I need is answers, answers that you are going to vie me one way or the other.. And if our sense of self preservation is as good as you say it is, you might as well make things easy on yourself."

The look Noctus gave him was one of nonconcern as he took another berry passed between his lips.

"Go on then."

Adam held out a hand to red, who, in turn, slipped one of the glowing orange vials into his gauntleted palm. He held it delicately between finger the thumb, holding it up to the light, "Want to go ahead and tell me what this is.'

He sensed the change in atmosphere as soon as the Tesraki saw the vial, and he was given only a split second to react, as the floor dropped out from underneath them, and a wave of heat rolled up into the room.

A blast of anima Energy was enough to knock Ramirez, Maverick, and Red some ten feet back and onto the steps. Sunny, he grabbed by the arm and hurled bodily to the other side, here she skidded over the stone coming to land in a pile of plush cushions. Adam was the only one who didn't make it, dropping downward towards the rolling lava flow below