Faction House Io: National Holiday

[The Deluge]

"Not happy..." The Deluge answered. "But what that boy said...it's got me wondering..."

The Deluge paced back and forth.

"That detail he mentioned... about The Amalgam obsessively studying photos of Maple..."

She blinked, rubbed her eyes.

"There is a few possibilities...none of them good..." The Deluge thought out loud calmly.

"I don't think the Amalgam he saw is the one you slew on Dantooine...I don't even think she's a copy..."

The Deluge went still in realization.

"What if The Amalgam we were interacting with, the one you killed, the one that helped form the house after she was infected by Phyre's personality...what if we always interacting with a copy? What if the original, real Amalgam was just watching...from the shadows?"

She folded her arms.

"What's the scheme?" she whispered to herself more than Percival Io ...

"It cannot have been an accident that he saw her. He saw her because she wanted him to, knowing he would come running to us."

The Deluge went over to an altar strewn with blood and pentagrams, surrounded by wicker effigies of The Brain Demon, Blair Witch style

"I think this calls for a long distance charge..."

She went to her knees, and began chanting in the Sith Language.

A circle of purple flame erupted at the center and a figure inside it coalesced. It was the Brain Demon, this time voluptuous as well as nude, if still faceless.

The Abomination resembling a purple Togrutan Female regarded The Deluge, and then it focused right on Percival...

"I'm sensing you need a favor..." it said directly to him, her voice both seductive and raspy.

"We need to speak to The Amalgam." The Deluge said.

The Brain Demon folded her arms. "A tough request."

"Why?"

"Which Amalgam do you mean?" The unholy abomination asked.

The Deluge went pale.

"How many..." she trailed slowly..."are there?"

"There are two."

The Deluge gulped a bit.

"I would like to speak to the one killed by Percival on Dantooine."

"Impossible." The Demon replied.

The Deluge furrowed her brow. "Why?"

"That one is no longer available."

"She's not burning in Chaos?" The Deluge asked.

"She is not burning anywhere."

"Her soul was Permadeath'd? She no longer exists?"

"She still exists."

"Where?"

The Brain Demon leaned forward in the fire.

"Nowhere." It emphasized. "Technically, that Amalgam has become someone else's problem... whatever the case, you won't have to deal with her again."

The Deluge's face crinkled in confusion.

"I don't understand. If that one is no longer available... shouldn't that mean there is only one?"

"No. There are two."

The Deluge went pale.

"There are two different Amalgam's..." she whispered in horror.

She asked her final question:

"Was ours the Original?"

The Brain Demon shook her head. "Never."

The Deluge clenched her fists in pure rage. It was the human part of her reacting to how much she hated The Amalgam.

The Brain Demon turned to face Percival. It was the first they had really seen each other up close like this.

"And you? C'mon, ask! I don't mind chatting!"

Meanwhile...

The Parliament observed in perverse fascination as she watched Alex StormWolf strangle Lady Venge with the Force.

We have pushed him enough for today. We must ease up. Each surrender to the darkness must be his own choice...

"Alex..." The Parliament interjected. "All that raging is going to make you hungry. They make a lovely steak and wine combo in this little diner by the corner here yonder..." she said, pointing to the restaurant in the distance.

"My treat."

 

[Lady Venge]

At the mention of food, Alex's stomach began to rumble loudly. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd had a decent meal, wandering as he did in his poisoned state.

"It's true what they say," Venge said to The Parliament with a chuckle. "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

"Wouldn't be quite so funny if it were you fighting a ravenous hunger after nearly dying," Alex replied.

"Darling, I have more sense than to rush headlong into battle with creatures such as the one you encountered." Venge countered.

"I didn't rush headlong into battle with it. I was ambushed. It was controlling some little girl, using her to bait people towards its lair in order to eat them."

"Interesting," Venge mused. "Sithspawn typically don't display that degree of cunning."

"Damn near took my head off before I managed to put my lightsaber blade through its brain," Alex acknowledged.

"Forget about all that," Venge said, as she placed the tip of a gloved forefinger on Alex's lips to shush him. "You need to eat. Lead the way, Laerita."

Tag- The Parliament

 

[Alessandra Io]

Location: Approaching Ancient Temple - Desolate Moon
Dialogue Legend: <<Technopathy Link>> │ “Verbal”
Tags: Akemi Io Nathan Bloodscrawl

Run of the mill bandits.

Alessandra sensed that they were looters who sought to claim the treasures inside of the ancient temple for themselves. Regardless, not only was their mere presence a problem, but they had also made themselves a probleming by attacking the Cult. Perhaps they could have been negotiated with, but that opportunity had passed. They clearly had no intention of playing nice. As such, the Chaplain hoped to make them regret it.

Not to mention, Alessandra was more than happy to play dirty.

Without warning, Alessandra dropped her cloak behind a group of Klatooinian raiders as searing electricity tore free from her fingers. The electricity jumped from one bandit to another until five were caught in the galvanic storm, their skeletons flickering in and out of visibility as the electricity fried their bodies from the inside out. By the time the gynoid let them go, their charred, dying forms were left twitching on the ground. Before any retaliatory fire could reach her, Alessandra faded back into invisibility, before remerging behind the pair of bandits who had sought to shoot her. Igniting the plasma blade in her left hand, Alessandra cut both of the Klatooinians down in a single, sweeping strike which bisected their bodies diagonally from the shoulder of one to the abdomen of the other.

Once they were finished, Alessandra found her attention drawn to Akemi as she seized control of one of the raiders’ trucks. A soft, loving smile came over her features as she watched the truck blow up from within. Alessandra knew that Akemi’s power came from the Force. However, the Chaplain’s efforts to convince her lover of the same had been unsuccessful.

And yet, she sensed that it might be better that way.

A moment later, Alessandra shifted her attention towards Alita. However, before she could assess her daughter's performance, the earth began to shake beneath her feet, compelling the gynoid to turn her gaze skyward.

It was the Realm of Demons.

“It’s him.” Alessandra growled, disgust laid bare in her tone. It was only then that the realization dawned on her. This was an ambush. The raiders had only been a distraction, one that had worked all too well. No doubt, they had been paid off by the Demon.

Suddenly, a group of assault shuttles kicked up dust as they floated to a halt, before disgorging their payloads of catsuit-clad biots, who immediately began to open fire on the gathered Cultists. All the while, Alessandra’s photoreceptors began to emit a frigid cyan glow before unleashing twinned lances of ultra-cold particles towards a squad of biots as they disembarked from one of the shuttles. Upon impact, the frigid beams froze those it struck solid, causing the stricken biots to collapse like statues.

“Akemi, take Alita with you and leave, now.” The Chaplain said to her lover in a cold tone. Indeed, Alessandra sensed that if Akemi and Alita were captured, the Demon might seek to use them as leverage.

“This isn’t your business.”

Spoiler: Loadout

• Eversor Bodysuit
  
  • Energy Shield
    
    • Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield
• Eversor Rings
• Tönn Rándýrsins | Fang of the Predator (2)

 

[Percival Io]

A copy?

A copy. Ugh. He should’ve known better than to believe he had truly killed the Amalgam. Creatures like her were too weird to live, too rare to die.

Percival studied the Deluge’s backside as she turned away from him to summon the Demon. She had a gorgeous figure. The white catsuit, much as he hated it, certainly did accentuate her curves. A darkly romantic vision passed through his mind of taking her in his arms one last time and plunging his blade through them both, ending it all in one theatrical swoop. But she would heal easily from such a wound, and he would simply be remade if this current body was destroyed. They were both condemned to live forever.

The Demon arrived, sprouting from a purple flame. Within seconds, the entity had revealed that there were two Amalgams all along—and the one they had killed, while no longer their problem, was not the original.

"And you? C'mon, ask! I don't mind chatting!"

“Is one of them Syd Celsius?” Percival asked, growing impatient with the Demon’s cryptic answers… and not trusting himself not to try and make a deal with the entity which had already taken so much from him.

The Deluge​

 

[The Deluge]

"Syd? Naaaawwww..." the Brain Demon chuckled nastily. "Much too obvious...as for who they are, or where they are hiding...the price for such knowledge is a thing even you, the most headstrong of Laertia's organic works could not accept paying."

"However..." it continued. "In the spirit of sport, I will tell you who the two Amalgam's aren't. They also aren't Arianna Belasko OR The Battalion..."

The Brain Demon reached out, stroking Deluge's face.

".. OR you, my dear deadly Deluge..." The Brain Demon added.

"What planet are they not on." The Deluge asked.

The Brain Demon shook her head.

"Sorry, Rebecca. You've had your freebie." The Brain Demon replied in Sincere Troll Mode.

Then it turned to Percival Io .

"I can put you on the trail of one. But I won't tell you which one..." it spoke playfully.

"The question is...how badly do you want the info, Percy? Enough to pay a high price for it?"

It bears reminding that the Price of the Brain Demon was completely and utterly random. It could be something as terrible as your soul, or as baffling as a dull soup can lid.

But the commonality between both was that they were always collected at the worst possible time.

"Whaddya say, Percival? Wanna spin the wheel?"

Meanwhile...

Thel and the rest of the students were in the mess hall. Due to the holiday schedule, cake was being distributed.

Thel didn't feel like eating a piece. He instead stared out the nearest window, thinking about his mother. Far across the street, he saw a Jedi being dragged through the road, beaten and tortured. The first generation of Khemost's citizens would never relinquish their hatred and vendetta towards the Order.

No one joined him at his table. He just waited out the mess period. Didn't even take one of the free donuts.

On his way to science he spotted, to his immense surprise, no less than Countess Belasko striding down the halls in the distance far from others.

Out of sheer curiosity, Thel found himself wandering after her, wondering what such a prominent figure was doing here, unannounced. Normally, Arianna's presence would have made her a guest speaker at some event.

There were no students, staff, or, most importantly, cameras. Thel looked.

The cameras had been deliberately deactivated. That was a violation of school regulations...

He crept to the far end of the passage saw a cracked open door and snuck right up to it.

He saw Arianna looking around, in curiosity, as if confused as to why she was here. Then she went stiff, and started to change.

Her flesh bulged and warped and bubbled horribly everywhere, metallic squealing escaping her throat as her body type, facial features, skin, and hair changed, warping to that of an elderly woman with auburn hair in her early seventies.

Thel was quietly getting away as fast as he could, freaking the feth out quietly, for he had glimpsed something he shouldn't know about.

Countess Belasko was secretly his history teacher, Vivian .

Thel quickly rejoined the throngs of other students...

Meanwhile...

The Parliament had led the way to a large diner not far from the landing zone. There was no fan fare...the leader of the faction despised the way other leaders used bombastic pomp at even public gatherings for a PR stunt.

None of that here. That said, most of the House by this point respected/feared her enough that the citizens, for their own sake, pretended she and her guests were not there. The Matriarchs approach to interacting with casual citizens would no doubt have been deemed bizarre/insane by other members of other factions.

The Parliament smiled as she spotted her wife, The Battalion , already waiting for them in her own skintight white Catsuit.

"Why, Batty, you figured out how to resume your prior appearance!" The Parliament spoke, her wife no longer bearing the exotic facial features of who she truly was now, the third Darth Phyre.

"With enough power, anything is possible." The Battalion replied, carved features breaking into a smile as she beheld all of them.

"Lady Venge. A delight to speak to you in person once more." The Battalion said, having interacted heavily with Venge on Korriban after absorbing most of Syd Celsius.

As The Parliament took a seat next to her significant other, she bid Venge and Alex StormWolf to join them.

"Try the Salisbury. It's divine..." The Battalion advised Lady Venge

 

[Lady Venge]

"It's good to see you again," Venge said, addressing The Battalion "Say hello to...how shall I put this...an old acquaintance of mine, Alex StormWolf."

Venge took a seat, waiting for Alex to join her.

"Do sit down, Alex, you look practically famished," she said with genuine concern in her voice.

Tag- The Parliament

 

[Alex StormWolf]

As much as he hated to admit it, Venge was right. He was famished. Pulling out a chair, he sat down besides her.

"I never really figured you to be the caring type, Venge," he said. "It just doesn't seem to fit you well."

Tag- The Battalion
The Parliament

 

[Percival Io]

The other Amalgam wasn’t Syd. Nor was she Arianna, the Battalion, or the Deluge. Percival hadn’t even considered the possibility of that, but he breathed a sigh of relief all the same before striding forward and wrapping a protective (or possessive) arm around Rebecca’s waist.

"I can put you on the trail of one. But I won't tell you which one... The question is... how badly do you want the info, Percy? Enough to pay a high price for it?"

He had a few more guesses in mind, but he doubted the Brain Demon would confirm the truth without demanding her randomized price in exchange. Was he willing to take the risk?

Percival looked at the Deluge. They were standing close enough that her red hair tickled his cheek. Rebecca had worn a jasmine perfume; she smelled faintly of it even now. All these were bitter reminders that she was still in there somewhere, her mind torn up and tormented by the other Witches. He was holding in his arms the living proof of just how cruel the Demon’s price could be, and yet he was still considering her offer. His hatred of the Amalgam was that all-consuming.

Then he thought of Thel. Part of the deal made with Rebecca gave the boy a measure of protection, but there were other ways to harm a child. Like turning his mother into a sadistic monster. Percival shook his head. “No thanks.”

His mismatched blue and green eyes flicked toward the Deluge. “In the memory banks of my brothers, there is a mysterious face that keeps showing up,” he said. “An old woman in a white catsuit. I don’t know her name, but...”

Was she the original Amalgam? He did not know. But he would rather chase his own leads than make a deal with the devil.

The Deluge​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan ruthlessly and brutally cut down both House Io soldiers as well as the Organic Nuetralizers, often force to tear apart the latter with axes or whatever else he could find that would shred them.

And they were deadly their ability to be affect gravity gave significant advantage up close or at range. More than once Nathan had to use the Force the counteract the crushing pressures they inflicted. But the starfighters were raising the ground, shooting at whoever is wasn't friendly. The slaughter carried him away from his compatriots, each ripping and tearing into their foes as he battled his way to a familiar face, covered in the silver blood of her brothers and sisters.

He listened to her telling the other, Akemi Io to take another android and go. He detected the loving concern in the voice of Alessandra Io .

"Ah so you have a family yourself..." he sneered at her as he approached, covered in Jedi armor that altered his voice to make it even more sinister than normal.

He truly DID sound like a demon while wearing the strange old armor.

"And tell me, what excuse will you offer to your family when the Cult decides they must die. That who you love must be corrupted and warped beyond recognition?"

Nathan pointed his blade at her.

"TELL ME, ANDROID! WHAT EXCUSE SHALL YOU OFFER?"


Meanwhile...

The Battalion and @The Parliament quickly ordered. Laertia ordered Pig Liver. The Battalion ordered coffee.

"Sith do care, but realistically. Venge, I feel, has only ever wanted the best for you. Just like real Sith want, in their own way, what's best for the Galaxy..." The Parliament assured Alex StormWolf .

"But the trouble is, is when certain Sith...Like Empyrean, just want to do the same thing over and over again. I mean, think about it: What actually distinguishes his empire from all the other Sith Orders or Empires? Sure there's a shuffling around of priorities, but his Sith have the same built in flaw that Solipsis had in his own order. And you know what that flaw is?" The Battalion asked rhetorically to both, taking a sip of her coffee.

"The flaw is that they want to warp the Galaxy to the Dark Side...not understanding that the Galaxy is already controlled by the Dark Side. It's more vicious and brutal than it's ever been, regardless of Alliance Peace Proclamations. It's the infection of Jedi you actually have to fight. That is where the real war is." The Parliament added as she cut off a piece of liver and chewed.

"They have no ambition. No desire to truly innovate. The Dark Side is not their focus. Mindlessly fighting for territory is. The Galaxy is rapidly moving away from their methods."

"And Sith like ourselves will become more common. Not scheming to secretly become the Chancellor or a Senator, but spreading the Dark Side to the citizen themselves. People are and always will be the true battlefield. What's the point in a Jedi fighting to protect the weak when the weak become willing to think like a Sith to get ahead? When all of common society, accepts the argument of the Dark Side and follows the Dark Side not out of compulsion, but conviction. No need for an empire. No need for a secret police. The common peasant shall be a tyrant in his own right, and the Sith shall guide such people to the future the Jedi say is impossible with the Dark Side." The Battalion explained. "We fight more to create darkness and corruption in others than we do to claim territory. For anywhere the Dark Side lurks in the hearts of others is our home."

 

[Alex StormWolf]

Alex was fatigued, mentally and physically, and found himself unable to readily counter what The Battalion was saying.

"All I ever wanted, was to know that my being a Jedi somehow made a difference. You're telling me, that none of that even really matters, in the broad scheme of things?"

 

[Alessandra Io]

Location: Outside Ancient Temple - Desolate Moon
Dialogue Legend: <<Technopathy Link>> │ “Verbal”
Tags: Akemi Io Nathan Bloodscrawl

Alessandra’s icy gaze swept across a trio of catsuit-clad biots just before they could level their class-D disruptors towards her, a pair of cryogenic beams rendering them as little more than frozen statues. In that regard, the Chaplain registered an immediate swelling of relief upon seeing them stopped. Perhaps they could be captured after the battle and reprogrammed. However, before she could move to stop it, one of the biots fell to the ground, at which point her head shattered into multiple pieces upon impact.

Almost on cue, a tear slipped unbidden out from Alessandra’s left photoreceptor.

"Ah so you have a family yourself..." he sneered at her as he approached, covered in Jedi armor that altered his voice to make it even more sinister than normal.

He truly DID sound like a demon while wearing the strange old armor.

"And tell me, what excuse will you offer to your family when the Cult decides they must die. That who you love must be corrupted and warped beyond recognition?"

Even with his helmet's vocal distortion systems, Alessandra recognized the voice and the man behind it. It was him. Her grandfather. The Demon who she had fought to a standstill on Denon.

This was his doing.

“You have torn our family apart, grandfather.” Alessandra spoke softly, yet her tone was firm and unyielding. “The Cult has guided our family to a future of prosperity and peace. You are a relic of a time long past, holding onto ancient grievances which time has since healed.” She continued, her photoreceptors glowing an ominous pink as her gaze honed in on the Demon’s masked visage.

“I will send you back from whence you came, Demon.”

Suddenly, corsucating surges of arcing electricity exploded out from Alessandra’s fingers, lancing towards the Jedi’s chest across the 17 meters of distance separating Alessandra from her rival in a series of two discharges. Simultaneously, her photoreceptors lit up to unleash twin beams of pink maser energy, which tore out from her gaze on a course to strike the Demon in his chest.

Spoiler: Loadout

• Eversor Bodysuit
  
  • Energy Shield
    
    • Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield
• Eversor Rings
• Tönn Rándýrsins | Fang of the Predator (2)

 

[Eden Io]

Location: Outside Ancient Temple - Desolate Moon
Dialogue Legend: <<Technopathy Link>> │ “Verbal”
Tags: Akemi Io Nathan Bloodscrawl

Eden was acting in the capacity of a rear guard for the group when the Realm of Demons had suddenly translated out of hyperspace overhead, its imposing mass casting an ominous shadow over the temple as a number of assault shuttles raced out from the warship’s interior. With her honed synthetic senses, Eden immediately registered the arrival of the hostile warship. It was impossible not to. However, before she could take any further action, a wide band transmission was sent out via comms, over which a rough, masculine voice delivered his terms.

In short, surrender or die.

For a flicker of a second, Eden’s digital-biological cognition systems raced through the implications of the presented options, before outright rejecting them both. She was a Nuetralizer after all, a tenacious, dangerous combatant capable of giving virtually any opponent a challenge. In addition, she was also a trained sniper specialist, one freshly-graduated from the elite sniper school on Khemost. She had been trained and programmed by veteran Model 1 marksmen who fought against the Brotherhood of the Maw and Bryn'adûl Empire at their heights. In that regard, Eden had much of their hard-learned programming and experience integrated into her synthetic memory. It was only a matter of applying it and honing it into a lethal art.

In her mind, this was the perfect opportunity to begin that process.

Before long, a number of assault shuttles were disgorged from the interior of the warship before racing down towards the surface. All the while, Eden sprinted to a vantage point some 180 meters away from the main group. Upon reaching one—a nook within a small bush overlooking the clearing just outside the temple—Eden lowered herself into a crouching position and scanned the sky through her rifle’s scope. Before long, she locked her gaze onto a shuttle as it came down at the edge of the clearing, before the bay doors opened to unload a squad of biots armed with Class-D disruptors.

She didn’t hesitate.

The gynoid’s surgical synthetic reflexes compelled her to pull the trigger just as the first biot to depart the shuttle came into view, at which point a single .50 caliber slug exploded out from the barrel of her rifle with a sharp crack. Suddenly, crimson mist filled her scope as the massive projectile blew through the biot’s chest cavity in a small burst of crimson mist, causing her body to slump to the ground briefly stunned, and in some level of shock. On cue, Eden set her sights on a second biot who was in close proximity to her initial target, before pulling the trigger again. Crack. She suffered a fate similar to the first, shocked, stunned, and…

Wait.

Eden glanced back at her first target, only to find that she was already moving, in spite of the fact that the large-caliber projectile that essentially blown a hole through her chest. Eden moved her crosshairs over her form to shoot again, but in doing so she saw the biots leveling their rifles in her general direction.

She was almost made.

Eden swiftly pulled back from the nook. Clearly that hadn’t gone as well as she had hoped. At the very least, the gynoid had learned that her targets were far more resilient than regular sentient humanoids. In that regard, they were not dissimilar to her, a realization which drew questions of its own that could not be answered in the heat of battle. Instead, Eden put the matter in the back of her mind and moved to position herself at another vantage point. Perhaps there, she could make up for her previous mistake.

Spoiler: Loadout

• Pink Catsuit - Armorweave Construction
  
  • Utility
    
    • Biotech Tool Kit
• EF-200 Enforcer-series Sniper Rifle
  
  • Ammunition
    
    • 5 Round Magazine - 12.7x99mm Standard (4)
    • 5 Round Magazine - 12.7x99mm Explosive (2)
  • Attachments
    
    • 1-100x FAE/S-08 Electro-Scope
    • NonSonic Silencer
• DC-15s Side Arm Blaster
• Echani Vibroblade

 

[Akemi Io]

Communication "verbal" <<technopathy>>

Location: On a desolate moon containing an ancient temple
Objective: A special first outing
Tag: Alessandra Io The Deluge

Loadout:
Loralora interceptor swoop
Two handed repulsor assisted hammer
Gei Borugu Electro Spear
Light Saber (peony colour blade)
Q7 encrypted data-spike

Spoiler: Fleet Assets

Alita-1 Alita class star cruiser

Carrying

• Two squadrons of 24
  Ashwing superiority drones
• One squadron of 8
  Q-carriers

The man dressed as a demon approached them and spoke, was he trying to invoke fear them with his visage. Akemi smirked as her optical systems overwrote the image of the armour with what the man actually looked like from her database.

“Akemi, take Alita with you and leave, now.”

Akemi gave Alessandra Io a sideways glance
"Really? And I thought you knew me inside and out. Screw the demon cultists, they can die for all I care, but you? No... thats something very different." she gave an exceptionally loving look and twisted the staff of her rocket hammer causing the motor to fire up and she took up a defensive stance near her sister.

Simultaneously to this, two of Akemi's droid warships decloaked and moved to engage the Realm of Demons Nathan had numbers and he had control of the space, now, with his flagship engaged he only had numbers.

And tell me, what excuse will you offer to your family when the Cult decides they must die

"Let the brain demon threaten my family Bloodscrawl, I am begging to be let loose on that creature." Akemi answered, she had no reason to hide her opinions of the monster that toyed with her loved ones, but right now it was Nathan that was the threat.

Akemi watched and Alessandra obliterated several biots with her energy weapons and another hidden angel hammered a shot into another. This was not good, Akemi did not like this, every House Io droid here had uplinks to allow them to be saved upon their physical destruction, but needless death upset Akemi. "Bloodscrawl, you need to withdraw, you might best one of us, maybe two, but there are four neutralizer here, in every scenario this battle only leads to the death of hundreds of droids and biots." she added as she watched the coruscating beams of colour pour from her two cruisers towards the larger Bloodscrawl command ship.

Alessandra did not give Nathan a chance to respond as she opened up with significant violence towards the man, as was her way, but if Nathan chose to withdraw she hoped that further mecuryshed could be avoided today. Her model threes had formed a defence perimeter around their flanks ready to hold back Nathan's warriors and Akemi's droned prepared to provide air support.

​

 

[Dulcinea Mina]

Wearing: Armor weave Catsuit (Gold)

Armed with: Dauntless Blade

Class D Disruptor Rifles.

Objective: Fight Eden Io



Dulcinea felt the rush of excitement as she and her hyper intelligent sisters waded into combat. It was their first time really Facebook mg the infamous Droids and Biots of House Io.

She felt deep conflict at inflicting deactivation on those who were essentially cousins. The battle around them was chaotic and destructive and already many of her side as well as that of the enemy lay dead. But they pressed on through sonic and lightning attacks, tossed objects with a combination of their rifles as well as their wits.

When two had reported being shot she was already taking off to find the sniper, having triangulated their position in her head while running and it wasn't long before she spotted Eden, having moved once her sisters had started to get a discrete idea of where Eden was.

Dulcinea didn't hate anyone. But She could kill like she hated someone.

Right, now, she could kill Eden.

Dulcinea moved with the chaos, moving through smoke and flames to reach Eden's new vantage point, drawing her shotgun to try and kill the Biot, taking aim at Eden from her left side once Dulcinea appeared out of the smoke, skintight gold catsuit looking almost painted on.

Dulcinea fired at Eden...

 

[Eden Io]

Location: Outside Ancient Temple - Desolate Moon
Dialogue Legend: <<Technopathy Link>> │ “Verbal”
Tags: Akemi Io Nathan Bloodscrawl Dulcinea Mina

Upon reaching her new vantage point—an elevated position with a number of tall trees—Eden lowered herself back onto a knee and interfaced with her rifle’s scope, so that she didn’t have to directly stare down it in order to acquire her targets. Soon, Eden had her crosshairs set over the head of a biot as she sprinted from one piece of cover to another. For most unenhanced snipers, the shot would have been incredibly difficult. However, for Eden it was only a matter of processing the necessary calculations before translating that data into her aim—a task that her synthetic mind completed within nanoseconds.

Crack!

Suddenly, a .50 caliber projectile exploded out from the barrel of her rifle. A split-second later, the biot’s head was blown open in a burst of crimson mist, synthesized organic matter, and skeletal fragments, causing her now-decapitated form to drop to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.

Repeating the process, Eden picked off another only a split-second later, the large projectile blowing through the base of her skull even as she gracefully dive-rolled into cover. The sniper immediately searched for a third target, but the biots were too intelligent, agile, and reactive to be picked off one after the other like she might have been able to do against regular and even elite soldiers. Accordingly, Eden didn’t tunnel her attention in searching for another target. Instead, after two seconds of looking, she pulled back from her vantage point, intending to move towards another location.

Then, she heard a rustle in the bushes.

Dulcinea moved with the chaos, moving through smoke and flames to reach Eden's new vantage point, drawing her shotgun to try and kill the Biot, taking aim at Eden from her left side once Dulcinea appeared out of the smoke, skintight gold catsuit looking almost painted on.

Dulcinea fired at Eden...

Eden turned her head in the direction of the noise, only to see the barrel of a shotgun pointed directly towards her. On cue, the Nuetralizer launched herself into a dazzlingly acrobatic aerial sideflip, carrying her body right behind the nearby tree as the biot fired at her. While the maneuver had saved her from a full direct hit, some of the buckshot pellets had torn into her side. In that regard, Eden immediately processed the damage, especially as silver blood leaked from what was a deep, gaping laceration inflicted across her left flank.

Nevertheless, even as blood poured from the wound, Eden swapped her rifle for her side arm and vibroblade. The gynoid then stuck her arm out of cover and fired a quick burst of four bolts in the span of a second at the biot’s position (roughly triangulated through her auditory receptors and her knowledge of the biot’s last known position) from roughly 15 meters away, intending to force her shotgun-wielding assailant on the defensive.

All the while, Eden spoke.

“Nice shot, sister!”

Spoiler: Loadout

• Pink Catsuit - Armorweave Construction
  
  • Utility
    
    • Biotech Tool Kit
• EF-200 Enforcer-series Sniper Rifle
  
  • Ammunition
    
    • 5 Round Magazine - 12.7x99mm Standard (4)
    • 5 Round Magazine - 12.7x99mm Explosive (2)
  • Attachments
    
    • 1-100x FAE/S-08 Electro-Scope
    • NonSonic Silencer
• DC-15s Side Arm Blaster
• Echani Vibroblade

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"I like my odds..." Nathan replied to Akemi Io . "I've had worse..."

Still, his blitz attack had inflicted damage ... lots of dead witches.

And then Alessandra Io got serious...

He was able to catch the lightning but the maser beams struck him dead on and flung him backward. The armor took the worst of the punishment but all the air left him and he was on the verge of blacking out.

The Realm of Demons focused it's fire on one of Akemi's warships almost exclusively, even as its targeting systems were jammed or hacked. It's starfighters engaged her own aggressively. But it was taking damage, and had lost a dozen turbolasers already, even as it concentrated scores of bolts on the the side of one of the ships, it's crews frantically putting out fires or trying to reboot systems.

Nathan was coughing, struggling to stay conscious.

"A relic. Really? Are you so certain the wounds are healed? In the past? Because it doesn't look like it from where I'm standing."

The Soldier Biots adjusted to the defense line of the Model threes, falling behind whatever cover they could find as they hurled scores of grenades covered by DC-15A fire in their direction. The Model 3's, both crazy prepared and regularly trollish, had brought golf clubs, specifically to club away thrown grenades.

"IIIIIII HURT MYSELF TODAYYYYY....TO SEE IF I STILL FEEEEEELLLL...." the Model 3's sang. "I FOCUS, ON THE PAIN...THE ONLY THING, THAT'S REAL..."

Scores of Biots died humiliating deaths from golfed back grenades but the survivors quickly adjusted, quite enraged, mind you, and the next score of grenades thrown were shot at before the golf clubs could reach them, detonating them early and showering shrapnel on the defense lines.

Moya Virtu , having been violently slicing through everything she could find, was at his side.

She had met Alessandra Io before.

"Grand Daughter...your support of Laertia is nothing but fanaticism at this point. She's not the woman you knew..."

Moya's blade flashed out. Now things had gotten very serious.

Moya's Electric Judgement was unusually powerful and deadly, especially in her prime form.

"But I am tired of trying to get that through to you with talk."

The green, brilliant bolts of electricity arced out from her arms, seeking to disable (though not destroy) Both Alessandra and Akemi for capture.

Meanwhile, Dulcinea caught all four rounds, three to the chest, one to the leg, and she got behind cover while firing at the area her own databases predicted that Eden would be after executing such a move.

"Not a bad shot!" Dulcinea called back to Eden Io


Meanwhile...


"If your Jedi Masters had a plan for the future, they wouldn't be mindlessly supporting every single democracy that pops up. You know why they do that?" The Battalion questioned Alex StormWolf ...

"It's because they are all secretly hoping that the next failed democracy they support is the one that becomes the new galactic republic. They don't want to accept that those days are gone and no one really wants those days back except the Jedi...but they keep pushing it the same way the Sith push a totalitarian monarchy...always trying to relive the glory days...even this Alliance they all got behind is just speedrunning all the Galactic Republic's flaws." The Parliament pointed out.

"Ask yourself...what has really changed?" The Battalion questioned. "The Darkness didn't abate just cause Solipsis ate it. It's gotten stronger despite Jedi victories. There's more conflict around the horizon then they will know what to do with. It's just waiting for them to drop their guard, the way they did with the Maw...

"If your training under them had value, it was in helping you understand how limited they are...and how limited you were under them..." The Parliament emphasized.

Think we're getting through? She telepathicly questioned Lady Venge

 

[Lady Venge]

Think we're getting through? She telepathicly questioned Lady Venge

Judging from the conflicted look on his face, I'd say we're making progress. Venge answered back, via telepathy. In fact, I'm going to really throw him for a loop. Watch this!

"Alex, have you truly wondered, even just once, why Lord Retsinis bore such animosity towards your family," Venge asked. It wasn't a belligerent question, she asked it in genuine curiosity.

"Should I even care," Alex retorted.

"I'm offering you the truth, Alex. Nothing more, nothing less."

"You have my attention...."

"House StormWolf was never aligned with the Jedi, at least...not until your father turned his back on the Sith and fled."

"You're telling me my father was Sith?...Impossible!..."

"House StormWolf was of ancient Sith nobility, until your father abandoned it all, hiding like a hermit on that desolate ball of dirt you called home for so many years."

"You're telling me, that Lord Retsinis took his revenge upon my family, destroyed everything I knew and loved, simply because my father turned his back on the Sith and embraced the path of the Jedi?...."

"In short, yes. Lord Retsinis only wanted what was best for you. You are a noble by birthright, and your father withheld it from you."

"That's....that can't be true...."

How's that for throwing him for a loop? Venge asked The Battalion telepathically.

Tags- The Battalion

 

[The Battalion]

The Battalion hid her smile as Lady Venge told Alex StormWolf the truth.

Well done! Both the Battalion and The Parliament complimented Lady Venge

It really was quite extraordinary, watching the cracks in his armor become more than hairline.

"Your entire life, defined by the cowardice of another." The Battalion said. "Ruled by his fears. It's not an existence I would wish on my worst enemy...err... mainly because I just prefer killing them, but it's the thought that counts."

Her face took a shockingly sincere expression of Sympathy. It was moments like these that the Cult was at it's most dangerous and seductive.

"Alex...the Light's main strength is imparting a sense of righteousness. Jedi don't really have to think how their actions trigger the next fight, the next set of grievances. If you really want to get anywhere, it involves ignoring what the Jedi think. Cogitating in their temples won't bring them any closer to enlightenment, closer to people in general, or the society they protect, then it has in the past. If anything, the exact opposite occurs."

"You can be better than them, Alex. You can be your own superhuman, like I have, like The Battalion has chosen to be. Don't waste your life. I was in your spot. It wasn't worth thinking like them. And it wasn't worth it trying to appease them. OR Empyrean..." The Parliament offered.

"But how much better do you wish to be...and do you have the will to reach for it, and the strength to grasp it?" The Battalion asked Alex StormWolf .

 

[Alex StormWolf]

Alex's head reeled with the implications. A house of ancient Sith lineage? Power and prestige over others? And his own father had thrown it away, to hide away on a desolate ball of dirt that was hotter than Tatooine one half of the year and as icy as Hoth the other half?

The Battalion had a point. How much better did he wish to be, and how badly did he want it?

"I want what's mine," he said at last, his voice taking on a darker, menacing tone. "And I don't care who I have to destroy in order to get it...."

I think we've got him! Venge said telepathically to The Battalion.

TAG- The Battalion

 

[Eden Io]

Location: Outside Ancient Temple - Desolate Moon
Dialogue Legend: <<Technopathy Link>> │ “Verbal”
Direct Engagement: Nathan Bloodscrawl Dulcinea Mina

Eden shifted her arm back behind cover immediately after shooting, a facsimile of a deep breath leaving her lips as retaliatory shotgun fire wracked the tree she was hiding behind, sending sharp fragments of wood flying into the air. In that, the gynoid’s auditory receptors filtered out the racket of projectiles striking wood, so as to better hear her surroundings. Reacquiring her enemy’s position was now an immediate priority, or else she risked being ambushed again. With the injury to her side being as severe as it was (and the fact that it was still leaking blood), she couldn’t risk taking another bad hit. Such an incident might very well be her last.

"Not a bad shot!" Dulcinea called back to Eden Io

There she was.

Within a microsecond, Eden had triangulated her enemy’s position based on the feedback from her auditory receptors. 17 meters away. Behind a thin obstruction.

Eden briefly poked her head out from behind the tree. A thick bush.

Eden quickly holstered her sidearm and sheathed her vibroblade, before swapping the weapon out for her sniper rifle—a single round left in the magazine. The gynoid briefly considered a tactical reload, but rejected the idea after only a microsecond. A .50 caliber round could rip through dense foliage quite easily. It would be enough.

Without another microsecond of hesitation, Eden leaned her upper half out of cover, a photoreceptor gazing through her rifle’s scope as the sonic imaging system projected an outline of her target’s silhouette behind the bush. Accordingly, the gynoid snapped her crosshairs over the enemy biot’s head and squeezed the trigger. Suddenly, a .50 caliber slug exploded out from the barrel of her rifle at supersonic velocity, potentially carrying more than enough energy to rip through the foliage, before striking the biot hiding behind it.

Last shot, sister.

Spoiler: Loadout

• Pink Catsuit - Armorweave Construction
  
  • Utility
    
    • Biotech Tool Kit
• EF-200 Enforcer-series Sniper Rifle
  
  • Ammunition
    
    • 5 Round Magazine - 12.7x99mm Standard (4)
    • 5 Round Magazine - 12.7x99mm Explosive (2)
  • Attachments
    
    • 1-100x FAE/S-08 Electro-Scope
    • NonSonic Silencer
• DC-15s Side Arm Blaster
• Echani Vibroblade