Onslaught of the Empire

[lady_skuld]

"Weakly defended being relative. We imagine anywhere from 20 to 50 people in the camp, some being techs, others being true defenders. Intelligence is not reliable at this time for those types of details." The young soldier put the holoimager away.

"Even if we storm in on a lot of techs, we may encounter stiff resistance with numbers thrown at us."


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

[ElladanKenet]

Hours had passed. It was nighttime on Travnin and things looked to be secure. Aurriana was propped up against a crate, drinking some juice when she got a message on her holocom. Starting out of her rest, she activated it, seeing the Captian on the other end. She salutes. "Captain?"

"At ease, Lieutenant. We got word from the Capital. The Sith hit us hard, but pulled back to the far end of the sector. They seem to be working from one end to the other."

Aurriana chews on her cheek. Why had they attacked then? "And?"

"There's a lot of them out there. A whole lot," the small blue man replied. "Three other planets have lost communication. Reports are sketchy, but it's at least a sector fleet's worth. Probably more."

That was bad. The entire Minos Cluster had a sector fleet to itself, but it was scattered and woefully out of date. The Sith Fleet would crush them, even if they managed to muster everything they had. "What do we do now? If other planets are being attacked, we should go help!"

"Help what?" the captain asked. "All of those planets are going to fall. Us going there will end n our deaths and do little but buy time. We're more useful elsewhere. There's some Jedi in the sector. No clue what their missions are, but we've been advised to hook up with them and plan for the future. The Sith will make other attacks, and we need to be ready before they do."

She nods. "Names?"

"Caisar Adonexus and Khyber Strife."  

[Miss-Pandemica]

Nova pulled off her helmet and look at the Sergeant “Like I said, let me handle it, sir,”Nova retorted strongly. “I am a Sith afterall who has been trained by Lady Nightwind herself. Let me prove myself here and let this be a test of my own skill.” She started at him with a look of determination on her face and hoped he would agree with her. An while she didn’t have the power to influence him with the Force alone, so she had to hope that her presence and demeaner would be enough to persuade him.  

[Des Voh]

Caisar nodded to Thessa. "If you ever have need of assistance, please let me know and I would gladly come if capable." Then turning to Khyber he spoke."Please meet me in the main hanger within the next fifteen minutes for departure."

Bowing to the Captain and agent Issian, he then departed for the turbolift, taking it down to the hangar bay.  

[lady_skuld]

The trooper squad gave each other a look as Nova made her outburst. Some were disbelieving. Others were haughty. No matter who thought what they all had a feeling of uneasiness at the idea.

"I'll give you points for eagerness kid, but a squad never proceeds alone. Sith or not, you're not fully trained," Z-man said. "But if you're going to insist on proving yourself like that..." He pulled out the holoprojector with the same image that Jammer provided.

"The defenses are wedged between two ridges, with a path leading up to the turrets. This main path is the only way in or out for them, a strategic holeup. You can take that, while the rest of us scale the sides of the ridges. We don't just solo things, we work as a team. Take one person with you, though. I'm not going to let your arrogance ruin my squad."


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

[Skyeborne]

Khyber returned to the captured Sith vessel to gather his effects, slipping the portable hard-drive out of his robes and placing it back into the probe droid that housed DEVRO's "mind" the majority of the time.

"Were you detected?" he asked the droid, after it had powered on.

"Please, master." replied the AI in a disapproving tone. "Those Republic security subroutines are basic enough for a university dropout to bypass. All requested files have been copied, and they'll be none the wiser."

"Good. Launch the Seeker program, find me any patterns that match those we've already tied Krosis to."

"Processing..."

As the AI worked, it hummed an old Corellian sea shanty as Khyber gathered his things and exited the shuttle, the droid following closely behind.  

[ElladanKenet]

Ilia Nightwind was in her room, meditating, when her personal comm beeped. She wasn't expecting to be interrupted, and had specifically requested of the commanders not to bother her for anything less than being under attack or the Emperor (not that she honestly expected him to call for her). Only one person had the audacity to call her at any time of the day.

Opening her eyes, Ilia stood, stretched briefly, then walked over to the holocomm unit and activated. Instantly, the blue figure of her mother sprung to life. Ilia knelt. "Yes, Mistress?"

"I have word from the capital. It appears that Vengean indeed was trying to have you killed."

Ilia nearly snorted. Of course he had. She didn't speak up though.

"It would seem," Silas continued, "that he wants to make a push for the capital, straight for the heart of the Republic. He proposed a bold strategy, and believes that an assault of overwhelming might would crush the Republic. Many in the council support such a campaign."

Ilia immediately saw flaws in such a strategy. Indeed, it was nearly the same tactic that had been used on Travnin. "He wants us to go through the throat, while leaving our backs turned away form the Republics fleets."

"Precisely. While we could very well head straight to Coruscant and even take it, we would never be able to hold it. The Empire would suffer terrible loss of life, and we'd be forced to retreat. The invasion would fail."

Surely Vengean wasn't such a fool to do that. Ilia frowned. "Could he have an ulterior motive?"

"Probably," Silas admitted. "And I will do my best to discover what that is. I am contacting you, however, to update your assignment. Have you had any progress concerning the holocron of King Adas?"

Ilia shook her head.

"As I thought. No matter, I didn't expect you to have the time. No doubt, the Republic has it sequestered away in some vault. Instead, I have some other news for you, one that I can share with no other."

Ilia perked up, listening as the woman continued.

"I discovered one of my mother's greatest secrets, after years of studying her records. She found out mere days before you assassinated her that the Emperor had been spending his time on a special project, one only a handful of individuals know about. That project is the interrogation of a captured Jedi Master, the one called Revan."

Revan? Ilia had heard of that name: a powerful Jedi who sought out the Emperor and was turned to the dark side before being sent out to weaken the Republic. Instead, he united the Republic against Sith invasion, postponing the invasion for some three centuries. He apparantly vanished under mysterious circumstances, but now he had been found. "How did this happen?"

"I'm still researching that, and frankly, it's not your business. What is your business is that I am tasking you to find out more of what Revan did before he returned to the Empire. Find out why he was sent back to the Republic, the fate of his mission, and what he did immediately before coming here. When you know, contact me."

Interesting. A mission concerning the Jedi Revan. Ilia nodded, bowing deeper. "As you command, Mistress."

The holoproj shut off after that, and Ilia's mind whirled with her new task. She had to find out more about this Revan, who he was, and what he did. She would take this task personally, whenever she got the chance.

Her first priority however, was the invasion of the Minos Cluster. She would stay long enough to lead successful assaults and help establish the Imperial foothold, before moving on.  

[Des Voh]

Waiting beside the Jedi Order marked NR2 shuttle, colored in Republic diplomatic patterns, Caisar spoke with the pilot while the co-pilot ran through the main ignition sequences. "We'll be heading into the Travnin system, Lieutenant. It's recently been struck by the Imperials but as far as we know, it is still Republic controlled." He explained to the duros standing in a republic navy flight suit with arms crossed.

"Understand, Master Adonexus." He said, then as Khyber approached from across the hangar with an accompanying sentry droid, he saluted and stepped away into the shuttle as Caisar waved him off and turned."Ah, there you are..." He said, taking note of the droid for a moment, then continued."I trust you're ready for the journey?"  

[Miss-Pandemica]

Nova bit back a retort and steeled her face into hard glare at the Serganet’s finally words. She wasn’t going to ask outright for a helping hand, regardless of what her superior officer said. None of these soldiers trusted her explicitely and the same went for her as well. “I’ll not ask any of your squad to help me if they don’t wish,” Nova said before marching off with a wave. “You are welcome to assign whoever you want to come play tag along with the Sithet.”  

[Skyeborne]

"Ready and eager," said Khyber. "This is my counterpart, Devraelis Blackwater, an AI of my own design that has been invaluable to me in the past."  

[Des Voh]

"I see that you are full of surprises, Brother Strife. You must be quite talented..." Caisar declared after a pause to study the strangely intelligent sentry droid with the name fitting a true person.

"Well then, this is our ride." He said, following up his compliment and led the younger Jedi into the shuttle, its hatch sealing with a burst of hissing air, the ramp lifting to meld with the hull seamlessly as it lifted up by repulsor engines and departed Minos Home's hangar. As the two Jedi settled in for the relatively short trip, the shuttle whirled its way through the field of adjusting transports and frigates into open space where, after a momentary pause, entered hyperspace towards Travnin.

~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later, Minos Home, the two corvettes, Talon's Grip and The Vanguard Shia, and its compliment of support craft slid away from blank rock of a planet it orbited before and, as a whole, all jumped to hyperspace, also bound for the sector capital.  

[Cale Darksun]

The Room collapsing around him, Cinn could only watch as the Jedi scampered away. It seemed, that for now, the Force deigned he should live. For Cinn, however, it seemed that he had a fresh challenge before him. Even with the beast slain, the Force had sought to provide him with a challenge worthy of his skill, so that his might would be tested.
Cinn accepted.
Deactivating his saber, he focused on his rage and power all while the world gave way around him......
 

[Cale Darksun]

NPC
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
Type: Cinn's Sith Troopers
Number: 12/12
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

The caves before them rumbled ominously, the ground shaking around them. Clouds of dust were shooting out of the cave and the Sith Troopers could see that the place was collapsing. Only the command of their Sergeant held them from plunging in to rescue their master. The Sergeant knew Cinn better than his troops, and had he wanted their help he would have summoned them long ago.

"Hold the line! Watch for Jedi!" The Sergeant ordered as the men raised their rifles at the entrance.
 

[Nelowulf]

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

Rushing as he could, the windy maze that the tomb had provided seemed to go on in ways that he didn't expect them too. Yet, trusting his feelings, the air became less and less stagnant, the dust unsettling from the incoming new breezes, each step one closer to the surface. He clutched the bare minimum of items to help himself out, the story of Lord Kosan safely tucked in his backpack. Yet, despite the impending freedom, something bothered him in his gut. It wasn't the Sith Lord though; as much of a weight on his shoulders that the armored juggernaut was, it wasn't the only thing that annoyed him. Too easy of an escape? no, that couldn't be it. It felt as if...

Jian stopped in his tracks, as he spotted the line of troopers in front of him. Moving before they could, he dodged to the side behind a boulder. Well that was drastically unexpected. He could already know they probably saw him, so forming an arcane series of gestures with his hands, he pointed one towards the ground, throwing up a cloud of sand that blinded the area, he maneuvered out of his hiding spot, giving a force push in the line of the troopers, and darted as quickly as he could towards the hidden speeder of his. Time dilated out as he silently prayed the confusion was enough to buy him time, the engine winding up and the thrust pulling him out...  

[Cale Darksun]

NPC
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
Type: Cinn's Sith Troopers
Number: 12/12
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

The dust kicked up around the troopers, obscuring their vision and knocking them back, with the greener troops falling on their a**. The squad's sergeant, however, was unfazed and he swept his blaster barrel to and fro, looking for the tell tale glow of a lightsaber. Instead, he heard a speeder firing up.
"The enemy is escaping!" He barked, pointing in the noise's direction. "After them!"
The Squad immediately began a firing advance on the noise of the speeder, sending a hail of crimson bolts at Jian's position.