Public Abafar: The Cons of Pons Ora

[Jerec Asyr]

PONS ORA, ABAFAR
SITH EMPIRE TERRITORY
(TECHNICALLY)
​

Down here below ground level, Abafar's flat glare finally relented. The plain buildings in Pons Ora cast soft-edged shadows, courtesy of the.sky's diffuse orange light. As he came down a lift into town, Jerec took off the goggles that kept him from going snowblind in a place with no snow. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms as he made his way through town. The local garrison wasn't much, but one tipoff and he could be swimming in stormtroopers. He avoided patrols, kept his head down, and closed in on the rendezvous point.

As he understood it, Abafar was a third-string fuel source for the Imperial war machine. A handful of refined rhydonium canisters had fallen off the back of a truck, wink wink, nudge nudge. A friend of a friend was looking to unload without getting unloaded upon by the Empire's finest. The price: Jerec had to smuggle out not only the rhydonium, but the person carrying it.

Also he didn't have the contact's name. It could be anyone. They'd be wearing a blue-and-white scarf or bandanna, and they'd be at the cramped, dusty Pons Ora Public Library. No cantina meetups this time around. Even stormtroopers would probably get wise to the classic cantina rendezvous one of these days.

 

[Imperius]

Imperius was interested.
Some minor amounts of Rhydonium had gone missing- nothing too alarming, of course, or he would have arrived with an army- and Imperius had willingly taken up this task, trying to provide his apprentice xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria , some experience with the more mundane matters that a Sith also had to deal with.
An army marched on its stomach, and those ships loved to guzzle up fuel-so here he was.
He had requested Task Force Black-Alpha to render assistance, and so Task Force Black-Alpha he had received. Even now, the single Battlecruiser and nine accompanying corvettes had the planet surrounded- no one would be entering or exiting the planet until Imperius solved this problem.
Many might call this overkill, and the refinery supervisor had stated as much when Imperius and he had met on Bastion. Imperius, however, called this sending a message- and prevention of future escalation. By the end of the meeting, the supervisor had not been alive enough to argue.
Come, Sicaria. He gestured towards his mentee. Now we hunt for a rat.

 

[xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria]

Sicaria hurried to keep up. Referring to the data pad, she updated her mentor on the situation at ground-level.
The blockade of the planet is complete. Nothing short of a Warfleet has any chance of getting out, so the time we have to find the individual or organisation should be sufficient. Also, we have the regional garrison briefed on the things they ought to look out for. As per your instructions, Task Force Black-Alpha has been assigned to keeping a watch on the majority of the geographical surface of the planet, while we, as well as the accompanying detachment of IDF toopers . Will be sweeping Pons Ora, the only major settlement.
With that, the dropship that they had just walked into undocked, heading towards the settlement in question, followed by 5 similar dropships.

Imperius Jerec Asyr

 

[Pa'Kar Sang]

The small little Resistance he and Gilamar had tried to start had fallen. With Gilmar captured not long after their very first meeting and with few rallying to the cause they had lost steam, folks had disbanded, and their backers backed out. He'd even heard some rumors of crews turning on one another and turning their captains over to the Sith Empire. He couldn't go home...And he couldn't stay in Sith Space any longer. He'd need to flee, first to the Outer Rim to try and appeal to the Alliance Remnant or one of the other great military powers there and if that failed he'd turn to the new Alliance and Republic. The struggle of his people and others in Sith Space grew worse by the day and as much as he hated retreat...It was his only option.

A friend of a friend of a friend had set up a deal to smuggle some of the "off the books" fuel from this small world's reserves, with a catch: the smuggler had to get Rils, the "contact", off-planet as well. Rils didn't even know who the man was who was taking the fuel, but that was what kept the Empire off their tail. All they both knew was that Rils would be meeting him in the library and that Rils would be wearing a blue scarf of some kind. Wanted all over the Sith Empire though it was difficult to hide in plain sight in places like cantinas. With a blue checkered scarf wrapped around his bulbous head to baffle face scans, the aging Mon Calamari sat in the library, scrolling through a holobook called Dark Star Hellions, waiting for his smuggler.

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

The Pons Ora Public Library comprised half of a small drab building like any other small drab building. By the time he found it, he'd ducked two patrols and bought a really nice kebab. The kebab was not welcome in the library, so he ate the street meat faster than he'd like and headed in.

The librarian on duty paid him no notice. Inside the library, Jerec plopped down opposite Okkuhm Rils.

"You and that scarf are the most conspicuous thing I've ever seen. I'm Jerec Asyr and I'm here to rescue you. You got the thing and the stuff?"

Not at all surreptitiously, he slid a cloaking device belt across the library table, identical to the belt he wore.

"Fifteen minutes of battery life, and we'll need to ration it. This system's buzzing with Empire."

Imperius

 

[xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria]

They had just landed, and things were already beginning to go wrong.
Her expression put her displeasure on full display, as she turned to her mentor to make him aware of the upcoming hurdles. The...target that the Task Force had been observing has displayed...movement, and they have been forced to leave. Two corvettes stayed behind to help, but as of now, we are blockading this planet only in name.

 

[Imperius]

Well then, let us hope that our quarry does not realise this Her mentor interjected. Ask the fifteen troopers in Dropships 2-4 to stay here, ready to move out with the dropships in case we need to pursue someone. The Five troopers in the last dropship are to follow us. He had already started moving, heading towards the town centre. That was after all, the lifeline of any settlement. Idiots across decades had argued how "people define a civilization", but in the end, it was the administrators, the rulers, who held all the power- and power meant everything.
He had only just arrived at the Town Center, when he proceeded to sit down, to the visible confusion of his apprentice, displaying the difference amongst them. She, a sith Knight, was powerful in the Dark side, and a fierce combatant. Imperius, however, had Mastered not only the Dark but also the light. He was an amalgamation of the two, the perfect warrior, the perfect hunter, and so much more. And soon, he would have found the traitors.
And then they will be dead.
Jerec Asyr Okkuhm Rils

 

[Pa'Kar Sang]

The large Mon Cal sniffed at the smuggler's remark.

"The sun of this world is harsh for an old Mon Cal like me, especially with my cybernetics." he said in the gravelly voice typical of male Mon Calamari. He shifted in his seat and set the book aside to turn a single large eye towards the man who had sat beside him.

"I do, and I greatly appreciate what you are doing young man." His eyes widened at the stealth belt he was given and fell at the mention of the Empire. One last betrayal, he thought. How had his men been so weak willed as to give up everything after a single loss? He wondered if the Tingle Arm and its nearby sectors would ever be free from the clutches of the Sith Empire. He nodded his big head at the man.

"I understand," he said simply. "Let us depart then, the longer we wait the worse it will get. We must get to docking bay 3."

Jerec Asyr Imperius

 

[Jerec Asyr]

"Big question, then-"

The Aqualish librarian shushed them. Nobody shushes like an Aqualish.

"-what's in bay three?" Jerec whispered as they left the library. "Just the goods, or do you have a boat ready? I can probably get us offworld without it, but I get the feeling time's not on our side."

Between buildings, he glimpsed what looked like penal troopers - guards, not soldiers. A capture op, then. And there were two Sith-looking folks. The bigger one was sitting down.

A premonition, a possible future, made the hair stand up on the back of Jerec's neck: a glimpse of the armored man putting a lightsaber spear thing through Okkuhm Rils. Jerec let out a slow breath and took out a pair of metal gloves.

"Buddy, I think you're gonna need a distraction."


Imperius

 

[Pa'Kar Sang]

His big eyes followed the gaze of the smuggler and he felt a shiver run down his spine. Two Sith...Troopers...Suddenly his stomach was starting to feel like he'd swallowed an eel whole. A slightly slimy hand gripped the man's shoulder as he slipped on the gloves.

"I'm going to need a pilot more," he said. "Besides, how do you get your fuel and pay if you fight them?" He asked, hoping to target the man's more...base motivations.

Jerec Asyr

 

[Imperius]

Imperius would probably have had a difficult time finding them, except of course, the force bent before his will.
He could sense them from where he sat- one feeling panic, and concern towards the other, even as the second was hopelessly afraid, with no idea of what was going on. He ran towards their position with Sicaria and the Five troopers following, a hundred yard or so from where he had been sitting, faced the wall on the other side of which they were standing. He could hear someone crying, yet focused on his goal, Imperius smashed his spear, Solarion, through the wall, bisecting them both. He looked down at his kills- finally, the scum was dead-
to find that he had just killed a penniless woman and her starving child.
A curse escaped his lips. So the other pair was the one that he was after, and the force had wanted him to help these two. He snarled. Follow quickly. He managed to grit at least that much out as he ran back to the library where he had felt them.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec stowed the gloves. "Ugh. I really wanted to punch out a Sith. Another time."

As Imperius and the troopers charged off in a whole other direction, Jerec and Okkuhm Rils hustled for Docking Bay Three. The bay held a nondescript shuttle. Its folded wings barely fit in the cramped chamber. Getting out of here was going to be a pain. Jerec tapped the ramp controls and found them locked. Presumably Okkuhm would open the hatch.

"I can fly this guy no problem. The rhydonium is already aboard, right?"

 

[Pa'Kar Sang]

A hint of a smirk touched the Mon Cal's eyes as the smuggler stowed his lust for feeding the sith a durasteel sandwich and he followed the man to Docking Bay Three. The shuttle, old as she was, still at least looked functional. From within his bundle of clothes Rils pulled a slender code cylinder and pressed a webbed thumb to one of the buttons. With a clank and a hiss the lock disengaged and the ramp began descending.

"It is," he replied as he made his way to the ramp which had now made contact with the ground. The ship wasn't comfy looking enough to exactly beckon the pair inside, but the aging Mon Cal strode up the ramp with purpose anyways. The ship was of unfamiliar design, but then again most vessels this far outside the Core typically were. He made a beeline for the cockpit, ignoring the stash of rhydonium in the cargo hold and peered into the cockpit. It was most definitely made for smaller beings than himself. This was especially the case as he was a hair taller than the optimistic average height of his species, and he had bulked along with that height. Being in there with the smuggler would be...Troublesome. He'd just stay out of the man's way.

Jerec Asyr Imperius

 

[Imperius]

Tears threatened to pour out of Imperius's eyes. He knew he was not the typical Sith- he had joined because he believedin their goal of uniting the galaxy under a single, strong ruler, not because he loved to participate in the atrocities that most Sith reveled in. The death of the Mother-son pair especially struck too close to home. He saw a reflection of himself, his mother struggling to feed them both in one of the major planetary slums.
Imperius, despite being rather fast in combat, had never been a fast runner. Even as he jogged, he problem-solved. Bringing up the floor-plan of the dockyard, he marked the location of where he sensed the two miscreants.
There is two of them, somewhere in bay 2-4, although it is probably bay 3. Go ahead, I shall catch up.
Hearing that, his apprentice immediately raced ahead, even as the troopers ran along with her.
Contrary to what he had told his apprentice he stopped, and took a deep breath. The event of this day had shaken him up, and he would have been visibly affected if not for his armour and helmet.

 

[Imperius]

Accidental post

 

[xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria]

Following her mentor's advise, she ran ahead. Pre-emptively, she began to brief her IDF troopers with regards to what to do once they reached the dockyards.
You three, follow me to Bay 3. You two, go check out the other two bays, then regroup with us at the entrance to Bay 3.
Just as the group arrived at the dockyard, Sicaria as well as the men accompanying her rushed to bay 3, while the other pair hurried to follow her orders.
She stood outside the Bay, and was certain that she heard something about...Rhydonium on board?
Even as the two troopers returned to her, she gave out orders.
Plant the charges, blow up the door. Get me inside as soon as possible.
The IDF men hurried to follow her orders, displaying some measure of competence for the first time.
Jerec Asyr Okkuhm Rils

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Okkuhm Rils xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria

Jerec's hands blurred over the shuttle's generic controls. Even an abbreviated preflight meant firing up a full-fledged albeit vanilla spacecraft. He flinched as explosives went off behind the shuttle somewhere.

"Guessing the hangar door just disappeared," he said over his shoulder. "Feth, we're sitting ducks."

The sublight engines weren't ready yet, let alone the hyperdrive, but he goosed the repulsors and started ascending out of the bay.

The bay had no roof. He turned on the shuttle's basic shields in case that Sith guy jumped down on them or something.

 

[Pa'Kar Sang]

Rils swallowed hard as the explosion send shudders through the ship's hull.

"Guessing hm?" At least the pilot was cool under pressure. "I think I saw a gun turret welded on to this vessel somewhere. I'll see if we can give our Sith friends a warm welcome." He turned to run down the hall then paused and turned around again. "If I fit." The older Mon Calamari lumbered through the ship's small corridors until he found what he was looking for. The guns were indeed welded on and apparently so were the targeting controls. He'd walked past them twice because he thought they were just seats in the lounge but upon closer inspection, he saw that several cables fed up from the chair and haphazardly into the ceiling. He grumbled as he plopped down into the chair and pressed a big red button.

The chair's hydraulics kicked in, swinging a tactical display from a corner he didn't notice before and the armrests extended into a control yoke and trigger mechanism. The monitor flickered once, twice, and with a smack cleared to show three IDF troops and a woman in a black cloak. They were Sith alright. He didn't hesitate. He swung the guns over and pulled the trigger....

And then the lights all over the ship flickered off. In fact, most things turned off, even his monitor and chair slumped. He did hear the loud CHOOM of heavy laser cannons firing though and an explosion. The lights flickered back on.

Jerec Asyr Imperius xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria

 

[xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria]

Sicaria barely had the time moment to widen here eyes as the cannon opened fire at her, obliterating almost everything that was present in what had been her general vicinity. Even as her own instincts allowed her to throw herself out of the way, the three troopers who had been escorting her were shredded within seconds. While the other two were bound to show up any moment, the glorified prison cops were unlikely to contribute much to this miniature frontline. Sicaria had been about to throw herself at the ship, but the Force told her otherwise. A pebble force pushed towards the ship revealed that her instincts were, once again, correct- the basic shields were activated, and would have brought her to a sudden and rather painful stop. However, the pair that was within the ship had made one grave mistake- they had forgotten about the force. And so, intending to fully make use of their folly, She bent the cannon, even as an exiting round hit the now curved cannon's sides, turning it into a giant exploding mess. Whoever was on the other end would've received quite the nasty shock. A smile li up on her face, even as Darth Sicaria exclaimed.
Mommy Crow is out hunting, Little Mice.
Okkuhm Rils Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Okkuhm Rils xXDEADXxDarth Sicaria

An explosion rocked the shuttle. Jerec compensated wildly as the tip of his starboard wing crumpled against the wall. "You alright back there?" he yelled. The shuttle stank of smoke already. "And you got a fire extinguisher?"

The shuttle kept rising. He pivoted it on its repulsorlifts for a look at what they were leaving behind - just a glance before the shuttle's nose blocked his view. Some Sith kid was down there, and the charred remains of a couple troopers. Judging by the malfunction alarms, the Mon Cal had used the back turret and gotten Sithed for his troubles. The shields were still up, so the Force was involved, probably. Simplest explanation for why the shuttle was a little bit on fire.

The sublight engines finally cycled up and Jerec put full power thattaway. The shuttle accelerated into the flat orange sky above Pons Ora.

"Should be good to make the jump in...three minutes. You see any TIEs?"