The Rebel Faction

Ram looked down at planet below him, it seemed so amazing. Before this planet was a huge barren landscape, no oceans, no rivers, nothing. Now it was a huge tropical planet. Forests, jungles and beautiful oceans dominating the land. In-fact the only remaining bit spoilt land was the huge tundra plains at the caps. Ram whistled slightly, taken back by the beauty of everything. It was breath taking. However soon it would bee all ruins, BDE would soon land and with their hordes of civilians chop down forests, drain lakes and scar the face of the planet in battles. Ram sighed, it had to be done. For its war machines will require nova, carbon and ore to maintain its armies. Ram still wondered why they were up here? The Tholatin Republic was long gone and now the only inhabitants were starving colonists with little firepower to match up to a tie bomber let alone The BDE.

Ram sighed, he wasn’t much of a polities. He was just an ordinary man fighting humbly for his superiors and to help protect his family back home. With a heavy heart he sighed. Ferli he had loved her at first sight, he didn't need the force to guess they had a future together. They had 3 sons and 1 little girl, when it happened. BDE came under attack and he decided to enlist in order to protect everything he held dear. He hated war, but some one had to fight. Ram had been badgered ever since BDE was created to join. Then they needed mercenaries. Ex or not. It didn't matter all that mattered was that his family were safe

The Cutter class Gunship Enticement sliced through the blackness of space, heading to intercept another Tholatin freighter as it tried to break through the blockade, and land on the surface of the planet. The freight was a modified action transport, although one of the earlier models. It sported military grade shields, and weaponry, and Captian Oos found himself wondering whether or not these were merely mercenaries paid to smuggle this people in. If this was the case, then the Admiral would give them something to think about. The Gunship accelerated to match the pace of the freighter, then fired two warning shots from it's turbolaser cannons across the freighter's bow, as well as transmitting warning signals for the freighter to stop, and power down all systems in preparation for boarding. But as was usual, the freighter ignored the warnings and kept on heading straight in towards the planet. The captian sighed, and ordered shields raised to full, and for the turbolasers to target the ship's engines. Green turbolaser fire lanced out from the cutter, and struck their aft shields, causing them to buckle and break. The freighter fired back, red laser cannon fire splashing harmlessley against their fore shields. The cutter fired again, this time bringing all of the freighter's shields down. The freighter responded this time not only with laser cannon fire, but two missiles from a stern battery of tubes. Quick fire from the Wyvern cannons shot down both of these, and the laser cannon fire against splashed harmlessley against the shields. Now it was time to go in for the kill. The Wyvern cannons were tasked with dealing with the ship's weaponry, while a pair of concussion missiles were launched to deal with the engines. One missile was shot down by the freighter's laser batteries before they were forever silenced with the wyvern cannons. The other slammed into the engines, either destroying them, or producing shocks that shut down it's computers.

The freighter, crippled, began to spiral down into the atmosphere. Capitan Oos began to call for a ship equipped with tractor beams to the rescue, when one already took the task upon it's self. The Interdictor cruiser Shock Webbing latched onto the freighter, and simultaneously launched two shuttles equipped with commandoes to deal with the freighters crew, and passengers. With his duties finished, Captian Oos made his report to the commanding Admiral.

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Having finished his morning caf, Commodore Harrison strode onto the bridge of the Shoto class Battlecruiser Kiso, ready to begin this morning's duties. As overall commander of the embargo force, it was his duty to inform his superiors of the happenings with his fleet. And there were quite a lot of them. So far the Farfalen force was being whittled down by all the freighters and ships trying to get home. So far he had lost three Kessel class Pickets, all within the last few days, by being outgunned by mercenary ships with concealed weaponry, or else through collisions with the enemy freighters. Just now he was recieving the report from the Cutter class Gunship Enticement. As he prepared another message to send off to high command, informing them of the latest developments and requesting that something be done about Tholatin, his sensor officer rushed into his dining room. Several minutes later, it became apparent to Commodore Harrison that the higher-ups in BDE had already made a decision regarding the fate of Tholatin.

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Aboard the Shoto class Battlecruiser Brummer, leading the Farfalen attack fleet coming out of hyperspace............

Admiral Harker got out of his seat, and first glanced at the tatical sensor displays to see what was going in the system ahead of him. There were thirty seven vessels identified as Farfalen ships in orbit around Tholatin, the embargo and blockading fleet that he had ordered around the planet in preparation for the attack. Wait a minute, thirty seven vessels? But I had ordered a fleet of forty to encircle the planet. Seems we have lost a few vessels here and there, just as high command had indicated to my disbelief. I'll have to settle down with Commodore Harrison after this is over, and see just what went wrong, thought Admiral Harker. But right now he had other concerns on his mind, having to do with whatever ships were in the system. He sighted five red blips, indicating confirmed hostiles, or enemy freighters trying to land on Tholatin. One was in the process of being boarded by the Interdictor cruiser Shock Webbing, while four others were in the outer system, wary of entering the inner system and facing the Farfalen force. Harker then moved from the tatical display to the comm station.

"Get me a link to the Shoto cruiser Kiso." ordered Admiral Harker.

"Link established." replied the communications officer.

"This is Admiral Harker of the Shoto Battlecruiser Brummer, requesting to speak with Commodore Harrison, over." said Admiral Harker.

"This is Commodore Harrison," replied a man in a deep tone, "I take it your here to deal with the threat of Tholatin once and for all?"

"That is indeed correct, Commodore Harrison. We request permission to proceed invading the planet." replied Admiral Harker.

"By all means," replied the Commodore, "By my authority, Farfalen and BDE fleets now have permission to move past my force, and lay siege to the planet. I relieve myself of command of the system of Tholatin."

"Very well then. Your fleet is relieved of duty, and I am shifting it to the outer system. There it will deploy into a loose net in order to intercept any hostile forces coming in to counter our claim to this world. While your at it, deal with those shy freighters, and any more that come in towards the planet." ordered Admiral Harker.

"Orders recieved, and accepted. Embargo force is breaking up, and moving to screen outer system for intruders." replied Commodore Harrison.

"Cut the transmission." ordered Admiral Harker.

After the link was cut, Admiral Harker watched as the embargo fleet, now consisting of six shoto battlecruisers, four interdictor cruisers, five cutter class gunships, and fifteen Kessel class pickets moved from the inner system to the outer system, taking up their assigned stations there.

"Prepare a message to General Grevious. Inform him that he may now commence his assault on the planet below us. We will hold up station here for the moment, and play the role of reinforcement should we be needed." ordered Admiral Harker.

It was now time for the assault on Tholatin to begin in earnest........

"General?"

The caped mechanical menace turned, and Major Hyke and two of his captains came to report Harker's orders. "General Grevious," Pegent said, "report from Admiral Harker. His fleet has taken command of embargo forces surrounding Tholatin and has given the order to proceed with the ground assault."

Grevious hissed through his pale mask in a deep mechanical voice. "Alert all ground forces and dropship commands," he ordered. "Calculate all possible Tholatin resistance that may still linger along their last know trajectory and disburse our ground forces to search for them." He glared with his piercing eyes and continued. "I do not want the Jedi temple that Kamon Vondiranach established destroyed at all. It will be captured and become the headquarters of our new Tholatin outpost. As well, it will be a message to the Jedi across the galaxy that another of their order has been decimated. Kamon probably did not even remain to defend his own world. For that, we'll reap the rewards for his cowardice."

"Yes, General," he answered, trying to hide his fear. "We'll find them."

Then the major turned to an aide. "The order is given. Prepare for ground assault," he instructed. As the aide moved to carry out his orders, a shadow of worry crossed the major's face. He was not at all certain if they would be successful in the capture of the temple, since it was a beacon of the Tholatin Jedi Order and the Protectorate when it existed and the rebels would destroy it, rather than let it fall into the hands of the Black Dragon Empire.


In the mess hall, Ramz was waiting for a self-heating meal packet to cook. Commander Davin had returned and sat with Zem at an expanded durosteel table with their cups of the vile ship's brew of caffa.

"Grevious must really think a lot of you to bring you along. I guess that last mission to Vegresso really impressed that mechanical beast. You took out that pirate hub before I even dropped in."

Zem sipped the caffa, made a face. "Yeah. Part of the job."

"I'll bet," Ramz said as he put his tray down on the next table. He grinned to the Lieutanant Commander. "Hitting on our little assassin, eh?"

"Shut up, Ramz," Davin said.

"Hey, man, I'm all for a little action myself, but not before we set off on our missi--"

Davin came up, caught Ramz under the chin with the V of his thumb and fingers, and shoved him back against the wall. "I said shut the @#%$ up!"

Ramz's voice was choked when he tried to speak. "Hey, man, @#%$, let go!"

Zem saw the tendons in Davin's hand standing out. He was pratically holding the bigger man off the floor, pinned to the wall like a struggling insect. He seemed too strong for a man his size. The Rodian, Nikto, and Trandoshan hooted and grunted at the display.

Abruptly Davin relaxed, pulled his hand away.

Ramz rubbed at his throat. "You're crazy, Commander, you know that?" He turned and walked out of the room, leaving his steaming dinner behind.

"The hell you did that for?" Zem asked.

Davin looked flustered, embarrassed. "He's got a big mouth and he shoots it off too much."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

Zem let it alone. There was something else here, but she wasn't sure what it was. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was.

The klaxons blared and the lights dimmed to red. The general order for battle stations was sounded. It only meant one thing: the order was given to begin the assault planetside. Major Hyke's voice blared over the intercoms, ordering the assault force to the hangar bays.

"Gear up, Zem. Meet me at the shuttle in ten," Davin ordered, then left the mess hall.

Ten minutes later...

"I never did get your first name back on Vegresso, Davin," Zem asked as they toured the interior of the assault craft. Here were racks of blaster rifles, power convertors, concussion grenades and other hardware, all securely stored inside the shuttle's lockers. Davin's team of death commandos were already gearing up inside the ship while the other teams scrambled to their shuttles around the Sleeping Death's hangar bay. One by one, the assault shuttles and dropships veered off from the bays and plotted their course downward.

Davin said, "Yes. Kix."

"Kix," she said, testing the word.

"Yep."

Zem turned to look at the racks of small arms under their cases. Davin put a hand on her shoulder, to point her toward a new model on the rack.

"Don't touch me," she said.

He snatched his hand away. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's okay. When I was a prisoner on Saheelindeel, when the guards put their hands on you it almost always meant you were in trouble. After the hand came a injector, to fill you with truth serum that made you feel sluggish and stupid. Then the interrogations began."

He sighed. "Yeah, I can understand that."

"Can you? Do you know what it's like living part of your life in a prison camp full of crazy people?"

"No," he admitted. "But I've spent my share of time in camps. Not fun places."

He changed the subject. "Here, here's the newest weapon we're using on this mission." He pulled the clean model from the rack. "This here is your four-point-eight-kilo-fully-automatic-electronic-operated-Wyvern-M41-E blaster-rifle-with-concussion-grenade-launcher-and-ten-millimeter-rail-gun," he said, as if reciting a litany. "It has an effective range of five hundred meters, holds a one-hundred-round slug magazine of armor-piercing with a one-hundred-round power pack for the blaster rifle, and mounts a thirty-milllimeter pump-operated concussion grenade launcher under the barrel with a range of one hundred meters. Officially."

He grinned. "Sully Anre didn't like the prototype Tion Industries made for us to use over on Vegresso, so they went back to the drawing boards to redesign it." He shrugged. "Unfortunately, this will be our first time using them."

"Anyway, at close range, this is a mean machine and you don't want to be on the recieving end in anything less than full class-VII battle armor or you get turned into bloody mush."

He held the weapon out. "Take a look. It won't bite."

Zem held her smile in check. The model number had changed, but the basic weapon was not that different from the prototype she used back on Vegresso. She took the weapon, thumbed the power pack catch, and checked to be sure the safety was off, then slammed the power pack back into place. She cycled the action twice to make certain the other chambers were cleared, then stroked the grenade launcher's pump twice to make sure the loading tube was empty. She pulled the weapon to her shoulder, sighted at the far wall, both eyes open, and dry fired the piece. The electronic trigger was rigged to make an audible click for such practice and did so. She lowered the weapon, twisted it to present arms, and tossed it at Kix. The weapon felt so much smaller and lighter now than it had when she used the first prototype.

He was surprised, but managed to catch the rifle without dropping it.

"Trigger's a little stiff and it's got some creep," she said. "The techs should run a diagnostic on it when we get back." She was showing off, but what the hell.

He laughed. "I'm impressed. Where'd you learn to do that?"

"I played with the prototype enough before we left for Vegresso on our last mission." She paused, then said simply, "I know a lot about weapons because I was with the Tion rebellion. Soon after, the BDE took my family hostage and vaped everyone I knew."

"Damn," he said. "I'm sorry. All this time I worked with you on those past missions, I thought--"

She shrugged and cut him off. "What about you? You have family? Wife? Kids? A home?"

"No. The Tion Cluster is my home and the BDE is my family."

Zem thought about that for a second. Well. Other than going off to get killed they had something else in common. No family.

"Listen, about your family," he began. "I am sure after this mission I could talk to Grevious to pull some strings to have them released--"

She cut him off again. "It's fine. They're secure now. I've spoken to them after I returned from Vegresso. Our victory convinced the mechanical general to release them from custody. They're safe on Argai now, and as long as I remain working for the BDE, they will always be safe."

"Okay," he nodded. "I didn't mean to pry--"

"Sure you did. That's okay. I've been pried open by interrogation. I got used to it."

He stared at his feet.

"Let me ask you something," she said.

"Okay. That's fair."

"Why'd you really grab Ramz in the mess hall?"

He sighed. "I thought it was crude in front of a lady and disrepectful to a superior officer."

"A lady?" she smirked.

He shrugged, stared at his feet again.

It hit her all of a moment. Holy frak! This guy likes me! He's concerned about me! Here I am, going off to get possibly killed on Tholatin and here's this commander of a death commando team falling for me. How about that...

Suddenly she saw him in a new light. He was her age, he had nobody but the BDE and they were sending him off to die. He was lonely. She knew what that felt like.

Zem reached out, touched him on the shoulder. "Hey," she said. "Kix."

He looked up from his boots, his gaze bright, pale eyes clear and searching. "Yeah?"

"I think you better order your men aboard and get this shuttle moving. We got a job to do."

He grinned, like a kid with a new toy. "Yeah, guess you're right."

"I know I'm right," she playfully replied.

"Alright, let's move out," he replied, his composure back to all seriousness.

The first wave of assault shuttles and dropships fanned out over Tholatin as the Sleeping Death yawned open its hangar bay doors over the planet, accompanied by the other Cutters, Pickets, and Shotos...

A Minute Later...

"Sir?" The pilot chimed over the comlink in Davin's helmet as the assault shuttle begun to shudder entering Tholatin's atmosphere.

"Yes?"

"Message from Sleeping Death. The Imperial Galactic Empire has jumped into our space and are establishing orbit. Orders are to make ground and await further instruction while Harker and Grevious deal with our new guest."

Frak!

"Copy that, pilot." Davin replied...

Day 1.

Captain Merrik watched as the Dragon strategy began to reveal itself. Fleets of shuttles scoured space as they made their descent into the "hell" formerly known as Tholatin.

"Crowning joy of Prince Kamon Vondiranach" the Captain muttered to himself. It was a story he'd seen over and over and he knew it was a tale that would continue until the end of the Universe.

What these Tholatin fools never realized.

The tragedy was not that all of what this 'Prince' had built was being pulled down before his very eyes. It was not that most of his children would not outlive him.

"The strong fall before the weak." he muttered as his crew worked tirelessly under his exacting standards.

The tragedy was that this 'Prince' still had not figured out he was the 'weak' and what his role in this little tale would imply.



"Will you look at that?" someone muttered and Merrik snapped his fingers and any further words stopped in the crewman's throat.

The Captain walked over to the crewman and simply eyed him in a disgusted fashion. "You admire these...Dragons?" he murmured quietly. Menacingly.

"Th... They hold the planet in fear." the crewman stammered.

Merrik simply stared at the crewman. "You think so?"


The crewman suddenly felt he was standing on solid ground. He stood a little straighter.


He found his backbone.


"Yes, sir. I believe they do."


Merrik's eyes smiled even if his face did not. "Then if the planet fights, you die."


The crewman turned white and someone else muttered, "Will you look at that.."


Both men turned to the viewports and the skies lit up with weapons fire. The Tholatin people were not going out without a fight.

"Remove this scum from my sight!" Merrik hissed and stormtroopers (standard on the bridge of the Insidion) removed the babbling crewman. "Bring up his replacement."


It irritated the Captain that such mere 'displays' of power had an effect on the general masses. Still, such displays had their uses. He'd used them himself when culling and cowering the enemy.

But to see his own crew impressed by the sight of power?

No. Impression comes from the effects of power.


"As soon as their shuttles clear our line of sight, begin targeting this area of the capital with your ion cannons." and he highlighted an area on his TAC display.


"Area targeted."


Merrik only nodded.



Day 2.




The Dragons had landed quite a ways from the Capital and the onboard tracking systems of the Insidion displayed their rate of progress. The fact that the Dragons decided to use ground units had slowed their progress but the Captain decided the Dragons were better served with their displays.

"They mean to take this world." he commented. "Why else would you land enmasse and meet the enemy on their terms?"

He turned to his Commander but the older man simply shrugged. "They will win in the end."

"Without space superiority, I would hope so." Merrik returned without humor.

The Commander took the time to comment, "Sir, we've been bombarding the same damn blasted piece of rock for a day now."

"Are we in danger of running out of power?" Merrik asked never turning to face his exec.

"No, sir. But... There is nothing there.."

And Merrik turned slowly to his Exec. "What do you see on the TAC, Commander?"


"Sir?"

"Look? Do you not see the battle of evolution and of instinct?"

The Commander stared at the displays for a while until he shrugged. "I see Dragons surrounding the Capital. I see massing Tholatins.. I see.."


"Nevermind, Commander." Merrik bit off harshly. "Look!" he pointed to the displays in irritation. "What you see is LANGUAGE!"

"Sir?"

"Look at the encirclement. Look at the numbers of soldiers! LOOK! The Dragons are TELLING these Tholatins something! And look at these hotspots. Look how the message is being received! Look at how it's been received these past thirty hours!"

"The Dragons are speaking but the Tholatins are not listening?" the Commander ventured.

"BOTH are speaking and noone has shut their mouth to listen. Evolution is survival of the fittest. The strongest! Tell me Commander, if two beasts fight believing themselves to be the stronger, which one is the stronger?"


"The one that wins, Sir." and Merrik laughed. It was a truly wicked sound.

"So the one that is vanquished will believe himself to be weaker will he? Or simply, will he think himself weaker for the moment?"

"Sir?"


"To truly triumph over a beast, you must defeat the nature of the beast. To defeat the Tholatins with these displays is not to change their nature. They will heel, not because they acknowledge the Dragons as their betters or as their superiors, but, rather, because to do otherwise would result in their immediate destruction. And so they make a conscious decision to yield!"


"I don't understand, Sir. The Empire..."


"Yes, Commander, the Empire is guilty of the same thing. How long have we retread old ground? How long have we retaken that which was ours to begin with?" Merrik's eyes went cold as he turned to his Second. "And now you know the reason for Project: Insidion."

The Captain turned back to the displays. "The Empire may yet burn and we lose everything... yet again."


The Commander turned to his Captain, "Because we haven't changed the nature of the beast."


"Exactly, Commander."


"But, exactly how do we do that sir?"


"By reducing an enemy's conscious decisions to mere conditioned instinct. As we are doing, on an albeit smaller scale, with our ion cannons. Look. We have sustained our level of bombardment within this diameter for a period of hours. At first they tried to deflect and reinforce the area."


"But we didn't move into it. We didn't invade the area. We simply continued firing."

"And so, seeing no immediate threat, the soldiers moved to where they could 'consciously' do the most good. Now, look at these scans taken a few minutes ago."


The Commander looked up sharply. "There is no one in that area."


"In their grand capital city one area lay undefended. One area lay ..empty. To move machines in there is to lose their machines. To move soldiers... under ionic barrage?" Merrik motioned his hand to the shrinking lines. "No, they move where they are being stung and so they become numb to us and our barrages. As you can see, they have redirected their supply and reinforcement lines to accomodate the ring of steel the Dragons have erected."


Understanding dawned and the Commander looked up sharply, "We are ready. We could slip in before..."

Merrik was pleased at his Commander's understanding but his stern expression only showed faint approval. He whispered, "And the beast is struck in the heart, betrayed by it's own instinct."


The Commander got a sly look about him as he turned to his Captain, "But we could not do this without the Dragon's steel encirclement."

The Captain brought a gloved hand to the neck of his Commander and patted it, "You're learning, Commander. You are learning. We use what is on hand to effect the desired result." Merrik turned to the display, "..to change the nature of the beast."


"Have my shuttle stand by."


"Sir? The Tholatins still have fight left in them."


"They aren't cowed, Commander. But then, they have not met me. I require no displays to awe them. We will leave the Insidion and travel directly under the firing of our ion batteries. A dangerous maneuver to be sure but our action will surprise. Cease firing once we we near our destination.

I mean to enter the city proper through here."


The Commander's eyes narrowed at the scanned map, "They will be evacuating the high born and the Prince.."


Merrik's eyes blazed, "So redirect the batteries and take away their conscious decision to flee!"



Day 3.



The Dragons were outside the city gates as it were. With the Tholatin lines in retreat and the ringed encirclement of the Dragon Riant Class Attack Tanks closed.


The Imperials were in the city cutting off the lines of supply and communications throwing the city into confusion.

A breach into the Palace proper allowed Merrik to enter the and the Imperials slew the palace guards. Many Tholatin citizens were huddled within the palace, many in varying degrees of panic.

The ion batteries from the Insidion had cut off their escape while the Dragons crushed the military resistance.

Merrik and his squads opened the doors of the vast halls to view the huddled masses of the scared. One child, in a fit of fright and anger ran towards Merrik screaming for his father. Captain Merrik calmly pulled out his pistol and shot the boy dead. The people screamed at the shot and huddled closer in fright.

"Squads 1, 3, and 5. Line everyone up and sort through these animals! High born ONLY!"

The stormtroopers began sifting through the witless masses as they stared blankly, not wanting to realize that their world had irrevocably changed.


One man stood out and a stormtrooper walked over to harshly push the man back against the wall. "P... Please. I am the Minister of Finance. I can pay for safe transport out... Y.. You could be rich men.."


The stormtrooper stopped and turned slowly to Captain Merrik. The Captain seemed to know what was going through the soldier's mind and he concurred. "Very well, Mr..?"

"Veyes, m'Lord."

"Very well, Mr. Veyes. What I want for a ride on our transport is this. All pregant high born ladies. And a line of high born so we may proceed with our sample gathering."

"S.. sample?" the man stammered.

"Of course. Blood, DNA, zygots, semen.. whatever our little machines can extract." Merrik's eyes narrowed, "Now..."

And the Captain of the Insidion carried out what he met to carry out. Many did not survive the sorting process. Even Prince Vondiranach was processed, his status irrelevant in Merrik's eyes.

And once he had secured prisoners and the samples he came for, he turned to those bathed in fear.


"Shock causes us to react on instinct." he murmured.

He turned to the stammering Mr. Veyes as the man moved in behind the ladies to take his place as the citizens growled at him at his betrayal.

"Mr. Veyes?" Merrik called calmly.

"Yes?" the man turned, his confidence eroding.

"Cowards are not rewarded."

The man of finance opened his eyes wide. "But.. But.. I can show you the treasury..."

"Mr. Veyes, Tholatin has been engaged in war with the Empire and with the Dragon Empire. Your war budget was stretched as it was. Do you expect me to believe you?"

"But.. but.. There is money.."

"Mr. Veyes." Merrik grabbed the man's hair and he cried out. "I don't care about your money. I have what I came for. And now the beasts can have what they want."

He pushed Mr. Veyes towards the huddled crowds and called to them, "He's yours."

And they swarmed at the man clawing, scratching and crying. Truly a mad mob.


He turned to his prisoners, "You are the property of the Empire. This planet will fall to the Black Dragon Empire." His teeth clenched as he motioned to the feral people, once the cream of Tholatin society, "And they will not be as nice to your neighbors as I."



Day 4.


"Captain. The Tholatins have surrendered."

"It would have been foolish for them not too." Merrik replied as he walked onto the bridge.

"There is talk of a Jedi Temple surviving the assault."

Merrik motioned the Commander away. "I do not care about the disposition of Jedi churches. Comm, send usual departure overtures and congratulate the Dragons for their victory."

He turned to his Navigation Station. "Helm. Set course for the Unknown Regions. Project operating procedures are in effect."


The Imperator Insidion rose from orbit and began to find it's trajectory to take it out of the system.

Captain Merrik looked at the destination display and murmured, "All this to change the nature of the beast."