Onslaught of the Empire

[Miss-Pandemica]

Nova nodded to Sythica and looked at the stairs before deciding which weapon to continue on with. While the staff was familiar it would prove more encombersome than the light saber. Collapsing the staff she attached it to the back of her armor before climbing the stairs as quietly as possible. Nova kept the unlit light saber in her right hand as she climbed the stairs.

Reaching out with her senses she turned the corner of the stairs and glanced at one of the rooms that faced the direction where the gunfire seemed the loudest. But before making a move to enter a round of shots came at her. Lighting her weapon she quickly used her training from Lady Nightwind to shield herself against them before diving in through the door of one of the rooms, only to be greeted by more soldiers. “Oh lucky me…” she thought herself before engaging the closest one with her saber, slicing off the front of his rifle along with his hands. With her free hand she knocked the other two backwards with the Force. Then grabbing the pistol at her waist she ended their lives with single shots to the head before finally dispatching the first one whose limbs she cut off.

The gunfire in the hallway didn’t seem to have disapated when she have made her quick exit into the room. Assuming the Sythica was pinned down somehow she decided perhaps it was time to help her partner out. Taking two of the grenades in hand she looked ouside the room to signal to Sythica was she was going to do. Pointing to the grenades she then activated them before quickly tossing them down the hallway towards the enemy soldiers.
 

[Sayla-girl]

"They're not acknowledging our transmission, Ma'am." The Copilot told the ambassador.

"They must be busy with cleanup." Captain Mai said as she stepped onto the command deck. "Best let them get the situation under control. They got their mission. We have ours. Pilot, take us to the Republic Listening post in this cluster. We can use their equipment to contact Coruscant."

"A listening post?" Thessa asked her guard captain.

"Yes, Ambassador. The post was set up to monitor traffic in the region. Nothing terribly large but it will be faster than if we try to fly straight to Coruscant."

Thessa mused on this and then nodded her agreement. "Very well, Captain. We will go with your plan."

The Pilot nodded and the Oradin Rose took off. Her engines fired up, launching the sleek starship into the sky and away from the planet.
 

[Des Voh]

Listening patiently to Khyber's story, Caisar folded his hands together, leaning his elbows on the chair arms aside him. "You are tracking a Sith, then?" Caisar asked, his eye narrowing and he studied the Jedi across from his closely, with his eyes and with his feelings. He hadn't heard of anything of the sort, perhaps this man was a Shadow, he certainly looked the part, and that would explain his unexplained entrance.

~~~~~

Within moments, the entire ship became alive with activity, starting with the command center and extending out into the rest of the ship and the groups support vessels. The two Wanderer-class transports drifted out of view from the conference room's viewport, their engine's light passing by, boots pounded by with intent outside in the hallway.  

[lady_skuld]

Sythica stepped over the bodies when the grenades flew by her. Her instincts were to dive back through the doorframe she came through. A large pair of explosions went off as she picked herself up and readjusted her helmet. She stepped forth and looked to the left and saw Nova. Sythica didn't want to speak up and instead chose to wave a finger side to side in warning, before waving for the sith to follow up the staircase.

Sythica took point as she entered the room. In front of her was just a bench with sandbags. If the marksman wasn't there...

For the second time in less than a minute her instincts had saved her. She turned around and fell back as the marksman attempted to stab her with a long vibroknife. She gave a swift kick up his groin and rolled with him on the ground as she used her rifle to pin him down. Her hands being tied up the sith trooper improvised, bashing her head down and into the marksman's face. Rolling back off the soldier she shot her carbine towards the body on the ground. Several plasma rounds into the corpse meant the marksman was dead.

Sythica put a finger to her ear, activating her comlink. "Private Ephese to DAGGER squad, Marksman neutralized. Farmhouse secure."

The comlink crackled back, "Good to hear, the rest of the company is pressing onto the artillery and pushing forces back. We're going to be moving into the city to shut down the communication transmitters. We'll rendezvous at the front door."

Sythica looked towards the Sith beside her. "Well, the war isn't won yet. Downstairs to regroup. I'm sure we'll probably be marching towards the city, so prepare yourself for a walk."


Squad objectives:
- Secure an LZ.
- Shut down comm transmitters
- Destroy air defenses
- Remove the main communication tower.
- Secure spaceport


~~~~~~

The "venue" had changed. At least, that's what the droid had told her. They were going to have to wait on where they were going to have to go, and with half an hour to spare Kira went to the one place she knew she could handle. The local cantina was always a safe bet for a smuggler type and perhaps she might even get lucky enough to pick up a second job while on this rock.

She entered the building, as the weapons sensor went off. Not like anyone really cared in a joint like this. Talk all around could be heard as some people were asking about jobs. Some kid at the bar was blabbing about how he could handle the best of the jobs. Poor sap, easy way to knock yourself down was to build yourself up too high. Kira stepped towards the bar, and looked around.

"We don't serve their kind here," the bartender stated, pointing towards the droid.

"He's not asking for anything. Just a translator and a mobile shield, that's all," Kira replied with a smile. The bartender looked her over.

"You don't seem to be old enough to be in here," he grunted.

"I get that a lot. Cup of whatever's warm, please," she said, dropping a golden coin down on the table, the bartender giving a smirk as he picked it up and slid a cup her way. She listened around to the conversations around her as nothing seemed to be taking her interest heavily. The news of the sith invasion seemed distant yet to this local hole. A good thing if she was going to get onto a wanted holo. Some people were still wanting to go coreward though, needing that last bit of cred to get there.

"You think we should help him out?" Kira began to ask her droid, as a fellow came stomping into the cantina. Sam stayed quiet. The newcomer was a large Rodian who seemed to part the way through the cantina's crowd wherever he strode. Kira looked at the buglike eyes which fixated on her, as he stepped up to the bar, ordering a drink before he looked over at Kira. Her eyes narrowed, as she turned to mind her own cup.

The first few sentences of huttese she had ignored. They were mostly taunts anyway. The Rodian tried to tell the droid to walk off as well and ordered a cup of blue milk for Kira from the bartender. Something about wanting her to "grow" a little bit. Kira twitched a bit from her cheek, slamming her small glass down and stepped off the stool.

"Now, I ain' a smart one, but you seem to be seeking some trouble Mister. You want to treat a lady to a drink, then you should do so a bit more politely. Because I tain't afraid to draw," She warned as she glared his way.

The rodian spun in his chair as he tapped his hip, indicating his large, heavy blaster. "Big talk for little lady," he said in basic. "Big gun too. Perhaps you should get sporting blaster instead, but you probably like shiny gold barrel. Make shorty think you strong."

Her hand was positioned over her hip as her left hand twitched. She slid a boot back and glared. "If you're going to call me shorty, better put a missus in front of that, ya hear?"

The Rodian's lip curled as he stood up. He seemed confident and more than annoyed. "Shorty talk too much," he said stepping off as the bartender dove under the table. Seconds passed as people moved out of the firing arc. The rodian's hand dove to his side, drawing the blaster up. A red bolt hit the pistol, before he found a sonic blaster put to his face. In a swift motion Kira had drawn, fired, and drew her second weapon, and closed the three meter gap to shove it to his face.

"Try that again and you'll be dead," she growled. "You're paying for a round on the house."

The rodian nodded as he tried to calm his nerves. Kira holstered her weapons and shook her head as she left the cantina. The droid behind her waited till they had left to shower some praises on her speed. They turned the corner into an alley, when she felt a stunning hit in her back. The world turned black as Kira fell to the ground, hard.  

[Darkened Angel]

Danika paced around in the little space she could in the cell, running the battle against the Sith through her head. He had to have a weakness, but with how quick their fight was, it was hard to come up with anything that might work in the future. " That armor likely wouldn't provide any defense against a lightsaber, so it's likely for taking blaster shots. If that's the case, he might not be able to deflect very well, which would mean his weakness is being put on the defensive in a way where he can't rely on his raw strength. " she thought. She stopped pacing around and sat down and started to meditate again, but it was difficult with so many thoughts in her mind.  

[ElladanKenet]

Well, Travnin had seen better days. Aurriana thought this to herself as she and about half of Falcon Company bustled about the city. The Imperials had shown up, raising the alarm and causing all kinds of turmoil. Fighters had been launched, and the Falcon's Nest had been forced to relocate to prevent from being a giant target on the ground. Meanwhile, she and the rest had done their best to move a lot of the loose stuff into the relative safety of the city and barricade in one of the warehouses.

As far as damage went, there wasn't a lot. A couple of turbolaser blasts had taken out some random buildings: about 20 dead, and twice that wounded. When the Imperials suddenly left though, as well as the notice that all of the space defenses had been obliterated, chaos began to creep in. Everyone with a freighter or ship was making for the spaceport in a panic to flee the system before the Imperials returned with an army. Others were crowding shelters, looking for safety and medical attention.

In general, it was a mess, made all the worse by the apparant desertion of the Governor. All in all, not a good day, Aurriana considered as she assisted with moving supplies around, while others performed various other jobs, from patrolling the streets, keeping guard, and helping the injured; in general, being the face of the Republic in this time of need.


~~~

Meanwhile, in orbit, the shuttle from the Falcon's Nest had reached the derelict transport. Finding the hangar was easy enough, though with the ship in a tumble, docking was a bit of a challenge. In the end, they opted with manual insertion of the team directly inside, as opposed to trying to get into the hangar and risk losing the transport.

The team saw mixed success once inside. The ship had been evacuated in a hurry, though not quite so fast as to leave everything of value behind. There were a few random crates of medical supplies, some blasters, even a few suits of Armor. the biggest issue they faced once inside however were automated, self-powered defenses. Most of the blast doors and bulkheads were sealed, and there were more than a few automated turrents. Fighting their way through the ship would've taken a small army.

So, taking the easier option, the team loaded was supplies they could scrounge up into the shuttle, before leaving to try and head for the bridge. They found it a ruined mess, nigh useless. Restoring power to it would take weeks of maintetance, with supplies they didn't have. In the end, the team went down in vacsuits, investigating the mess and trying to salvage what they could from a single computer terminal that was partially functional. They got it up and running using the powersource of a spare datapad, and sliced into the system. Even so, they weren't granted hardly any access, and found everything decrypted. The only piece that wasn't was a very brief informational concerning the ship itself, her captain, the class, and the words Taskforce twilight. Nothing else was recoverable. The team downloaded what they could, before power was lost and the computer dead. Left with nothing else to do, they returned to the shuttle, and then back to the Nest.  

[Miss-Pandemica]

Nova had to give Sythica credit for her skill at handling the marksman, but whatever words of praise that could’ve been said were not voiced by the stoic Sith. Checking to see that everything else was still in place she looked at Sythica for new orders.

"Well, the war isn't won yet. Downstairs to regroup. I'm sure we'll probably be marching towards the city, so prepare yourself for a walk."

“Yes, ma’am,” she replied before heading back down to ground level and leaving out the same way she came in through the hole in the wall.
 

[Sayla-girl]

The Oradin Rose dropped out of hyperspace above the world that hosted the Republic Listening post and as quickly as possible transmitted the codes identifying itself as a diplomatic vessel to avoid getting shot out of the sky by the assembled fleet. The crew of the Rose, surprised by the presence of the Alpha Support Contingent, was initially unsure how to proceed, Thessa's security crew wondering what these ships were doing when the Minos Cluster's capital was under attack. Nonethless, prompted by their captain and the Ambassador herself, the sleek vessel slid towards the planet with intentions to land at the outpost and transmit a warning to the Republic at large.
 

[Des Voh]

The communications officer in the command center of Minos Home picked up on the code being transmitted from the incoming vessel, identifying it as an authorized Republic diplomatic transport, The Oradin Rose. After issuing the IFF report to the rest of the ships, he turned, reporting this to the bothan standing beside going over the last transmission to come through from the Sector Capital, the bothan took hold of the offered comm-unit after a moment of discussion with the officer. "Oradin Rose, this is Agent Issian of the Republic Strategic Information Services, we would request that you dock on the central bulk freighter located at the center of the contingent, designation Minos Home, starboard hangar."  

[Sayla-girl]

Having been relayed this information, Thessa groaned quietly to herself and gestured for the com device to communicate herself with the agent.
"Agent Issian, this is Ambassador Thessa Reytal Vandreen." She said, introducing herself. "While I'm sure you're doing very important work for the Senate library, it is more important that I get in contact with Coruscant. I will have my droid transmit something for your archives later, once I have spoken with the Senate and we have determined a course of action regarding the Minos Cluster."
 

[Nelowulf]

Knight-errant Jian Yakamura
Location: Thule
Personal Location: Canyon of the Long Winds - Tomb of Lord Kosan
Accompanying People: None
Current Attire: http://phoenixlu.deviantart.com/art/Taoist-priest-146500461

The air breathed warm down around Jian. Not one, but two sets of eyes bounced as they stared at him. Even if he couldn't react, his body knew that there was nothing nice or kind about the evil which stood afront him. Rather, the entirety of the beast that lived in this tomb was more about feeding on the various beasts which inhabited this underground ruin, of which, the new, supple, energetic Jian just recently got added to the menu. Rows of glistening teeth in a pair of mouths, covered in scales were each interested in tasting the young lad first; even as he jumped back, the heads attacked in unison, with Jian landing several meters back unscathed. This would not deter another attack however, as now the prey showed vitality, something worth catching. Whether guided by malice and dark energies, or pure animal instinct and hunting desires, the beast inside the tomb had only seemed with desires to devour the lad.

Jian summoned the force, trying to jump up to the ledges that surrounded the tomb; while the large reptile didn't seem entirely nimble, Jian took no chances. As the Force would have it, the strong jump gave him enough time to backflip up and out, as the whiplike tail swung it's poisonous barb towards the lad, swatting only air in its wake. A loud roar reverberated, as the beast clenched its claws and started to grip the sides of the stone walls, digging in. Jian swore to himself as he watched the creature attempt to scale towards him, giving flight in response to give himself some ground. Reaching for his saber, he lounged towards a hanging chain. Using the momentum of the jump, he lit the saber and gripped the chain to swing back around towards the beast. The giant lizard snapped at Jian, who lit his yellow saber and temporarily flashed the creature, making it miss it's mark as he brought the weapon down on the hide. As the blade struck down, however, Jian found it unable to be cut with the plasma sword in his hand, instead sliding down the backside of the creature with all his momentum, giving only a strong burn where it hit.

The beast roared in pain, but knew its prey was on its back, instead turning the two heads to look back at itself. Jian finally stopped somewhere along the spine, and tried to figure out what to do. His body told to move, as he rolled to the left and off the creature as it whipped its tail and barb towards where the jedi was once at, hitting its own flesh in the process, allowing Jian to slide away.

Running across the tomb's floor, Jian looked back as he leaped the gap and made it to the ledge on the other side of the room. As it stood right now, the beast knew this trick, being wary about attempting a second go. Was it trying to formulate a new strategy? Jian barely could consider the action as he looked around for something more effective to use. Large beast, strong scales... it would take forever to wear it down with enough burns and strikes, and in that time he would risk being hit amongst the attacks. No, there had to be a quick and easy way to do this. There might be...

Yes, Jian formulated a crude idea of what to do. He took several steps to the right, as the monster stared at him intently, trying to chortle something up from the bottom of its throat. Slightly intrigued, Jian watched as the left head snorted a stream of fire towards the boy, as he lept further to the right. No! he was out of position... The lizard gave a small gurgle in its throat; was it laughing? no, it couldn't be that sentient. Jian tried to reposition himself back in the line he had established. The beast, in turn, shot another stream of fire, this time from the right, forcing Jian left.

It was testing his reactions. Jian knew that had to be it. If it was random, then the left head would attack...

The right head shot another stream out, as Jian ducked further left. It seemed intent on pushing him down and closer, but how much fire could it have? Enough to try to roast a young lad, that was for sure. Shooting another stream, Jian watched his opponent some more, trying to find something. Puzzles were his thing. the knight-errant watched again, as the right head bobbed its head three times, before launching the stream. There was the timing. Ducking to the right now, the lizard seemed anything but pleased that the pattern had been broken by the strange glowing thing that wounded it. But why was it not closing in?

Jian looked at his saber. Yes, it knew that the strange yellow light would harm it if it got close. Is that what it was thinking? Testing his theory out, Jian slid the saber back to its hilt, closing it down as the room dimmed. The beast was smart; it didn't press forward as soon as the prey stopped threatening it, watching Jian with four sets of eyes intently, giving a roar as if to taunt it. Jian was no animal, however, he was man. Able to think, to feel, and more importantly, to shut down those emotions of fear and self-preservation to achieve his goals. Standing there, he intimidated the beast, didn't he? That he didn't take flight at the first roar, just staring the creature down as hard as it tried to do him. Or was it not fear, but confusion? Frustration? Whatever drove the animal to start moving forward, Jian suppressed the urge to smile, to give away his intentions, as it stepped forward. Jian flashed an arm forth, as the beast shied away a step, but when nothing happened, it proceeded to march forward just a tad, giving a growl and another 'laugh'.

"You are intelligent," Jian muttered mostly to himself, as his prey stepped closer and closer. Just a bit further and...


The yellow blade snapped to life and spun up into the roof section of the tomb, as the dragon sprinted forth to attack the unarmed prey. The sound of a clink and a thud echoed the entire cavern, followed by the sounds of a groaning beast and a loud snapping of several bones. Some squish echoed as one of the heads was horribly mashed from the falling weight from the tomb's mechanisms, cut down by the thrown saber. Jian sighed, calling his blade back, and looked down upon the creature. Pinned under a massive stone, the creature's necks were both pinned, probably snapped and crushed, under the weight, its horns broken and only one mouth halfway intact. Like a bug under a person's shoe, the beast had been formally crushed to death by the same tomb that it had guarded since the master had been buried.

The young jedi gave a sigh, diminishing his presence to little in the force, and hopped down, looking to the doorways now open, and followed the currents of air which blew through the room. The darkness which followed him still drew closer, and he needed to leave. Now. Prize in hand, no time to waste, he prayed silently that the Force would guide him from this maze...  

[Des Voh]

The bothan, for a split second nearly lost all composure, his work being referred to little more than bookgathering, though that was the issue of the Jedi and the invasion weighing on him and not her uninformed comment. He took a breath, then held up the comm."Ambassador..." He spoke clearly."The invitation was a matter of courtesy and a intention of cooperation. We have the facilities to transmit your call to Courscant via holoprojector, of course in slightly more comfort and safety than you'd find on the planet below, the LP is a little small. We've already received news of the invasion in progress just before you arrived, with multiple reports coming in from elsewhere in the Sector as well. The Core has been informed and we are readying to dispatch ships to Travnin."  

[Sayla-girl]

"The Core may have been informed, Mr. Issian." Thessa replied. "But not the Senate. They deserve to know what happened from a direct witness. Not something filtered through a chain of informants. Your invitation is appreciated, but I'm just making a call, not moving in. As far as safety goes, are you suggesting your fleet can not defend one small outpost while I contact the Senate? Because that seems a rather disrespectful thing to say regarding the brave men and women of the Republic Armed Forces."
 

[Des Voh]

Agent Issian sighed. "Ma'am, to all respects, this is not a naval fleet, these are transports and supply ships. If the listening post was struck by the invasion forces, our two corvettes would be forced to fight off attackers while the rest of the ships fled, thats the protocol, the LP is not a priority. Nevertheless, Reports came down the line from a... Captain Hawkins, of the RRF stationed on Travnin after the fight, and more from SD throughout the Cluster which is under attack." He said, rubbing his brow. "Feel free to patch into the LP's channel for your call, but afterwards, if you have other information which can be of use, please send it my way."  

[Cale Darksun]

Ahead of Jian, in the darkness that shrouded the passages of the Tomb of Lord Kosan, a thin beam of angry crimson light slowly stretched out from an unseen emitter, activiating with a drawn out crackling hiss and hum. The beam pulsed with power as it reached the length of a lightsaber blade, the red energy illuminating somewhat the figure holding the weapon. It was a towering, powerful figure clad in blood red armor of ancient origins, the intimidating figure of Darth Droma Cinn cutting off Jian's intended exit.

"The Force is with you, Young Jedi." Came the deep, mechanically filtered voice of Cinn. "But you have not escaped yet."
Cinn reached out with his hand, and the relic Jian had struggled to obtain started to try and pull itself free of his pack.

"That does not belong to you, Jedi." Cinn said mater of factly as he attempted to regain possession of what Jian had pilfered.