Onslaught of the Empire

[ElladanKenet]

"There is a slight change of plans," Ilia admitted as she surveyed the room. "We, and by we I mean I, have been invited to an event by Lord Cinn at Regalia Station. Since our mission transport is not ready, we will instead go to this party Cinn is holding."  

[Miss-Pandemica]

Nova raised her eyebrows slightly at the news. “I see. What would you have me do in your absence, milady?”  

[ElladanKenet]

"You will accompany me of course," the woman answered. "You are still my servant."  

[Miss-Pandemica]

”Yes, of course, milady. When will we depart?” Nova stood and looked at Nightwind.  

[Skyeborne]

Krosis flew across the chamber once more, impacting the wall with enough momentum to crack the hewn stone. He lacked the forewarning to counter the attack like he did with Khyber, but still managed to put a cushion of force between himself and the wall. Not enough to negate the full effect of the impact, but enough to prevent serious injury. After sliding to the floor, he looked back and forth from Caisar to Khyber, who had recovered his cane and was struggling to stand. Then Krosis smiled, satisfied.

"So it does, for now." he stated, stepping carefully towards one of the entrances to the chamber. "But I leave you with a question, Jedi. Knowing that Sith blood runs through his veins, knowing the hold that the Dark Side has on the boy, can you really trust him?"

The Sith then disappeared into the tunnel, followed by several explosions that sealed it shut behind him...  

[Des Voh]

Caisar stood his ground as the Sith stood, taunting, though his quick, obviously planned escape prevented any pursuit. Moving over to the detonation-sealed corridor, he observed that without serious strain on his part and the proper equipment, the stone would be impossible to move in-time. With a flick of his finger, the lightsaber shut down its ignited plasma blade and Caisar returned the hilt to its holster. "That is twice today now..." he muttered.
Turning back to Khyber, he moved over to assist his fellow Jedi and check his wounds, probing at his emotions at the same time through the Force.
"Are you alright?" Caisar asked, looking over him with skeptical eyes, though the kindness in his tone still as genuine as ever.  

[lady_skuld]

Pergitor had a jungle planet third out from its sun. Deployed as part of a SOG team, it was only about a day after the attack on the Star of Refuge. Sythica was tired as the landing shuttle touched down inside the spaceport that had been put together hastily for the war effort. While the Republic forces were scattered about, the Sith had been encountering guerrilla forces probing their defenses each step of the way. The Minos Cluster may not have had any love for the Republic officially but sith invasions were far lower on their list of “things to want to have happen.”

Her sergeant had been taken ahead while they waited at the base. Something about surveying the surrounding area. Sythica scratched at her armor from the sweltering heat. They were supposed to get Jungle gear sometime, but right now the quartermaster was busy prepping for forward assault. DAGGER was going to have to wait in line. They had been given a handler from Imperial Intelligence. Sythica’s mood could be seen on her face. She had taken the helmet off and a marked disdain for some civvy telling her what to do just got under her skin. She stood in the doorway and looked over to Woods, noting the newest transport to come in.

“Z’s back,” she said, picking her helmet up off the ground and walking out with the Sargeant. Right outside, the cyborg agent stood guard. His name was unknown to the squad, but Sythica just called him Shades. It seemed to irritate him enough to satisfy her for a moment.

“Woods, you look like sithspit!” Z said, crawling out of the transport.

“This is a jungle. Looks don’t count for much when you got to crawl through mud and gunk to track down your enemy,” the sergeant responded. Looking at each other for a moment they then looked at the agent, and back at each other. “I assume you’ve been briefed broadly of the current situation. Let me fill in the blanks. “

Z-man led his way to a hovercar waiting, hopping in as the agent took the wheel. Sythica and woods hopped in the back of the seat while looking at Z-man and his explanation. “This is Mag Base, forward operations and launching point for planetary pacification operations. It also serves as a makeshift spaceport and army base. Primary missions launched out of here include sabotage, rescue, armed pushes and our job, Strategic Recon and aggressive acquisitions,” he said, as the hovercar drove past a walker crossing the paved durasteel road. “You know, the same stuff we’re used to.”

Sythica didn’t notice the strange cries coming from around her. As she turned her head, a flight of republic starcraft came strafing the makeshift landing pads. A red bolt of plasma hit near the hovertruck spilling it over onto the pavement. She felt her face skid across the pavement and a loud ringing in her ears made it hard to think straight for several moments. Her training helped as she made a pushup and got to her knees. She shook her head and looked around for several heartbeats trying to recollect her thoughts. It was a bad day to not be wearing her helmet. Woods had just gotten to sit up as Sythica collected her carbine. The agent was still rubbing his head. Sythica rushed over and pulled him up.

“Come on Woods, move this civvy for me,” she shouted. Sythica noticed that the first flyby had opened up a soft spot as she first heard then saw the energy orbs of artillery attempting to fire on the base. “We’re under attack.”

“We need to regroup with the rest of the squad. Last I knew some were at the armory and others by the supply depot,” Woods called back.

Another exciting day in the life of a ground trooper.

Squad objectives:
- Meet up with the rest of DAGGER Squad  

[lady_skuld]

The freighter returned to realspace. What Kira was not expecting was the scans showing what was going outside her cockpit. Imperial forces were floating around the planet. Kira winced in stress at the sign, before pulling a lever and pushing forward. The engines came to life as the ship descended to the planet. The scanners showed several fighters picking up her entryway.

“Don’t worry SAM, we’re not going to get caught today,” she said as the flames outside her cockpit cooled down. She could only imagine what this would be like if it was a planetary defense force instead of the military. Maybe she could have made the local holo shows with the policing force trying to catch some ‘lawbreaker’. The droid behind her did not give a response aside from shaking its head. Kira always tried to reassure him but he guessed that she did it more for herself. The Tranquility was not going to be able to outrun a state of the art fighter.

“What’s your plan?” SAM asked.

“Well, when I get enough credits, I’ll buy a droid specifically to plug into the targeting computers so I don’t have to have other people on board to use the weapons I have.”

“I meant to get rid of these fighters.”

“We just need to get to the coordinates,” she said, as the first blasters hit the side of the ship. The freighter rocked as more fire scraped across the hull. “Just hang on, the universe will provide.” Outside the glass green blasters suddenly scraped across the front of the ship as well. Fire from two directions now tried to hit Kira’s ship. “Anti-fighter batteries. Switching transponder code now.”

The droid looked over at the green woman. “What?”

“It’s a republic IFF code.”

“When did you manage to acquire that?”

“On the last planet we visited.”

“When?”

“Remember when you were telling me about how dumb of an idea it was to steal from Captain Ferrel? It just so happened money wasn’t the only thing he was hiding in that little den of his.”

“And you were going to tell me when?”

“Whenever it was convenient to come up in conversation. You know.”

“Do I ever sweetheart.” The green fire from the planet began to aim around to the fighters from behind the freighter. Three republic fighters appeared on scanners while Kira changed her path towards the spaceport on the far side of the city. The officials gave the clearance to land. The green skinned woman could not help but think that they were going to ask a couple questions. Kira prepared herself while landing in the hangar by patting her clothing down and checking her blaster. She nodded to SAM and hit the button to lower the boarding ramp.

At the bottom of the ramp Kira saw her suspicions were correct. The starport officials were with an armed guard as she let her arm drop to the hip. She considered raising her arms as a gesture of good faith. If these were Republic forces, they might interrogate her for using one of their codes. They were more likely to be civilians just trying to figure out why she blasted her way in. A small suspicion in the back of her head also suggested they were rivals possibly trying to kill her. That was a long shot though. Her thoughts had to wait though. The person in charge finally spoke up.

“That was some crazy flying, flying through a battlefield going on. You match the description.”

“Well, thanks,” Kira reached up to scratch her head. “It isn’t easy being this good. So… who are you?”

“I’m Cal Yuan. You’re Kira Dol, correct? I’ve been told to expect you from your employer. Seems like they finally hired someone who can handle the delivery. The last three pilots all got shot down and we’ve been having to send squads out to retrieve the goods. It’s nice to see them actually get to the spaceport for a change.”

“I expect to just get paid and get out.”

Cal was motioning to the men to start unloading her freighter. “About that, we’re in a bit of a bind. You’ve got some time while we unload the stims anyway, so here’s the deal. You do this job for us, we’ll double the pay. You don’t, we halve it.”

Kira winced as she realized what was going on. First she had just smuggled illegal stims for the battlefield. Now her employer was altering the deal.

“This deal just keeps getting worse all the time,” she muttered under her breath.  

[Darth Fury]

Dixie hummed an old Mandalorian tune as she flew towards the mountains. Five Sith and three Republic patrols lay in ruins behind her, and the back of the speeder was stuffed with loot. There was a dead area on her sensors due to magnetic interference near the base of some of the taller mountains; a perfect place for her to lie low for the remainder of the night. Tomorrow she would head for a city and try to buy a ride off of this rock...  

[ElladanKenet]

Nightwind considered how much time they had and briefly looked at her chrono on her forearm. "We could leave now, I suppose. Unless you have business that requires doing first?"  

[Sayla-girl]

Finally wiring the makeshift grenade, Qaina flipped the trigger and chucked it in the Sith infantry's direction. The increased oxygen levels of the planet resulted in the grenade doing Hollywood levels of fiery damage and leaving nothing but charred bodies in it's wake. When no shots came in Qaina's direction, she warily poked her head up over cover, amazed at how much one little scratch built weapon could do.

"Time to move." She decided as she hefted her captive back over her shoulder. "Gotta long trip ahead of me."
 

[Miss-Pandemica]

”No, milady, I have no affairs to attend to. Let us depart if you wish. I am curious to know more about this gathering Lord Cinn has invited you to.” Nova moved to collected her things and put on her Sith robe.  

[ElladanKenet]

Ilia nods, dawdling briefly before leading the way out and torward the nearest lift. "Admittedly, I personally know little about the meeting. But, if the invitation, and my sources are to be believed, Cinn has been busy on some kind of super weapon."

The sith woman snorted, pressing the button and stepping onto the lift. Once Nova was in, she qued the floor for the main hangar and they were off. "I wouldn't worry overly about it. He's more likely to impress the brass for trying such a ridiculous idea. Cinn is a brute and lacks the brainpower even a mynock has."  

[Miss-Pandemica]

While Nova was loyal to Nightwind, she found it difficult to believe that any Sith Lord could be as dumb as Ilia claimed Cinn to be. Nova nodded at Ilia’s statements and agreed. “Yes, milady, you are right.” But part of her wondered that if such a weapon existed, would this war end sooner than expected?  

[Skyeborne]

"For the most part. My pride is wounded far more than my body." Khyber said, looking briefly at the collapsed tunnel before hitting a button on his belt. His emotions were as storm-ridden as the skies above, but he tried drawing them back into their hole, burying them like he had done so many times before. It was harder this time, the confusion added by the Sith's revelations made it difficult to keep the necessary focus, but he eventually managed to regain his old composure.

"Thank you, by the way."