Blow the Wind Westerly [TU Dominion of Maramere]

[Enyo Typhos]

Objective: A
Location: Tradefed underwater base
(4/20)


And so we are back with our raiding episode to steal stygium and bioweapons' research. Inside the underwater base, the dispassionate slaughter continued seemingly unabated. The TradeFed automatons had numbers on their side, since it seemed spewing out battle droids and super battle droidd en masse was something easily done, though they could not account for quality. However, this base had not been in use for centuries, so it stood to reason that by now they were strongly outdated and out of touch with the way technology had progressed. After all, among other things there had been this little spat called a four hundred year dark age. By contrast the HRDs were products of a new age and equipped as such, being kitted out with lovely toys such as bolters that were excellent for crowd control and blowing things up.


BAAAM BAAAM Explosions echoed across the hallway as the HRDs opened up a salvoe of bolter fire, explosive bolts being delivered with blast and heat. Common battle droids crumbled under the onslaught, being blown to bits or getting limbs blown off. Sturdier super battle droids fought on, but APE rounds demanded their tribute as they punched right through their armour. However, the TradeFed forces were not wholly ineffective.


Riddled with heavy blasterfire from droidekas an HRD was crippled as the bolts impacted on it. Still the automaton fought on, even after one of its arms had been badly damaged from an explosion and it was limping, fighting its way through with a vibrosword before being taken out of commission. Callisto showed no emotion at the sight, rather she grabbed a battle droid and slammed it into the wall, then picked up the discarded shatterboltgun, prepping a solid durasteel slug. A grenade being tossed her way prematurely detonated when, in a flash, she brought out her shatter pistol and fired upon it, her scanners having expertly tracked the explosive ball, calculating its speed and trajectory.


A loud boom was heard and she was showered with shrapnel, but, digging in her heels, she anchored herself to the ground and withstood the blast. Droidekas advanced relentlessly, their laser cannons spewing out a hail that blasted apart cover, but then there was a loud boom that resembled the sound of a cannon when her shatterboltgun fired. Their shields were already damaged from the battle, one solid slug blew the head of one of them apart, the other was taken out by bolter rounds.


It was then that suddenly automated defence cannons sprang to life and begin firing, raining down repeater fire and armoured slug. A round that struck Callisto in the knee caused her to limp, then fire licked at her armoured form when a super battle droid unleashed its flamethrower. A quick command was transmitted to one of the HRDs positioned in the rear.


"Hack the cannons," the purely electronic transmission read. The blast of scalding flame and heat died down and the super droid charged her, his arm having sprouted a long sword. Its blade impacted upon her, but for the most part the effect was diluted by her armour, though it knocked her back. Blasterfire from the automated defences came her way as she regained her footing and charged, with red bolts peppering the space she had just vacated and scorching the wall behind her.


The droid managed to dodge her first strike due to the chainsword not being a flexible weapon, but her second, moving at rapid velocities, shattered its weapon on impact, then she brought down her weapon on the machine's head, crushing it like foil. Then suddenly the automated SAWs began to change focus as they ceased firing upon the HRDs and instead opened up a volley on the TradeFed droids. Carnage and destruction ensued as the smell of burnt electronics and circuitry filled the air.


[member="Maelion Liates"]

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

Location: Quanera Resort
Allies: The enigmatic conceirge [member="Raziel"]
Enemies: One super bratastic stimcaf addict [member="Venussia Sasko"]
Posts: 6/20

What was that annoying, shrill, high-pitched noise behind her?

Oh. It was just Ms. Sasko speaking again.

How unfortunate.

Morgan turned around and with her best fake smile, said, “A droid is getting your bags. Won’t be but a moment.” By the Core, she hoped the Quanera Resort had bellhop droids!

“I was just speaking to this helpful concierge,” the protocol droid continued, nodding her blonde head at Raziel. “He says there are lots of really fun things to do at the resort.” Did he say that? She wasn’t sure if he had a chance to respond before the harpy businesswoman came storming into the lobby. And of course, none of them sounded very fun to Morgan. She would rather sit in the room and watch the live Holo Network News feeds of the daily Coruscant Droid Auctions.

She put her hand on Venussia’s arm and steered her towards the elevator. “But how about we visit your room first and you can get into your bathing suit or I don’t know, have a rest?” The HRD then maneuvered Ms. Sasko towards the lift, but was taken aback at the “OUT OF ORDER” sign plastered across the elevator’s doors.

“Well,” she said with a friendly chirp. “We will have to to take the stairs. After you."

Morgan opened up the door to the stairwell. Their room was on the fourth floor from what she could remember.

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Callisto Scarlett"]
Objective: A
Post: 1/20

Arriving late with reinforcements, Maelion now took the chance to enter the battle. She was 'wearing' her Phrik skeleton today, not as a fashion accessory, but as a means of protecting her internal vitals from damage. In her hands was a Mk1 bolter, and her squad were armed with heavy weapons as well.
Caught between the new arrivals and the hacked turrets, the remaining droids went down easily.

Maelion reloaded her weapon quickly. Report. Where are our targets? She asked of Callisto.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"]
Objective: A
Posts: 5/20


And so all resistance in this corridor had been broken. The turrets fell silent as the smoke gradually cleared. Two holes n Callisto's armour were still smoking, one in her shoulderpad, one in the leg-armour beneath her knee. Having noticed Maelion arrive and heard her words, she walked over to one of the super battle droids that seemed crippled but still intact.


The automaton tried to fight her off with its still impressive strength, but Callisto would have none of this and with a good hit broke the armour off its chassis, revealing the inner workings of the machine. In a grizzly spectacle she ripped out the droid's brain and memory core. Taking out a datapad, she connected the two together and quickly booted up the memory unit. Within a terribly short span of time she deciphered its contents and used her knowledge of the internal workings of the droid brain to recover its data.


After a short while she could open up a file on the datapad, and then glanced towards Maelion, the Progenitor Unit. .After a short while he opened up a file on his datapad, nodding as he unplugged the droid brain. "I have downloaded a map. Transmitting location of the bioweapons laboratory and the stygium repository on the third level." HRDs had this handy skill that enabled them to share not just words, but also images and entire data files. Transmission was sent and so the task force of HRDs quickly began to make their way down, eventually hitting upon a lift and using it to get down. Resistance in form of automatons was mercilessly broken on the way.


[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Callisto Scarlett"]
Resistance they encountered was terminated with ruthless efficiency. Droids might be fighting droids, but Archangel was far superior to the antiquated droids of the Trade Federation. Eight centuries of no maintenance and little power had reduced them to target practice bots.

Regular bolter rounds inflicted massive damage in the massed ranks of battle droids whilst ion grenades took out even more.

Swiftly they moved to the lowest level, finding it defended by an ancient spider droid, it’s nose cannon ready. Taking cover, the Archangel crew opened a heavy firepower, but its armour plating, antique as it was, absorbed it.

Maelion, knowing they lacked heavy weapons, ignited her purple lightsabre and moved forward. Though not using the Force, the HRD could parry blaster bolts with her speed, but she had to avoid the main cannon round. Springing up she parried several lesser rounds and sliced off a leg with her lightsabre. As the big droid tottered she stabbed up into its CPU case and pierced it. With a final wail the droid fell, leaving the way open to the Stygium.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"]
(6/20)

The storeroom that served as a repository for stygium crystals was sealed, but some quick hacking overrode the controls. Most annoyingly, as soon as they came into the presence of the crystals the droid's scanners began playing up and then malfunctioned altogether. Thus they were forced to see and communicate like organics would, though that was not much of an issue here.


No further resistance was encountered and after the ray shield protecting the crystals was overridden, the HRDs began raiding. The storeroom had clearly not been used in ages, as all the dust that had accumulated showed, and some of the crystals were broken, but it would be enough for Archangel's purposes. And so crystals were gently removed and put onto a hoversled. The owners of the facility had been so thoughtful to stash the crystals in containers beforehand. They would be of great use to the Age of Steel. After this was finally done they would be paying the bioweapons laboratory a visit. In the light of the fact that the TradeFed security was hopelessly antiquated it was a bit like going on a shopping trip.


[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

 

[Seanna Vel]

Objective: A
Location: Space in Avenger-class Starfighter
Allies: Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha Dagora-Kel Draco Vereen
Equipment: Signature +1 YVH Probe, 1 Observe, 1 Hunter Probes
4/20

"You got lets see what this sucker is made out of."< come high where or mud hutt bath they take this monster day. Who would though their be ugly looking creatures like this lurking around these part. After all it wasn't like it was somewhere dark and creepy. Even as she thought of this there was a beeping behind her.

beep beep beep beep.....*message reads* fly low or fly high

"Well, short stuff I dont know try going high." she could only guess now that they was finding something that she had no idea how to fly one of these things. Knowing she should read the owners manual before she left. What was those last words she heard from that ones mouth. Nope they fly themselves. Yea right what should she be doing right oh right taking the stick in her hands. How wonderful did she like to want to hold a stick to drive with. As she fired to more into the monsters.

"Yes, R4 I want you to go back around." as she was about to say more. "OH nuts", as she thought she saw something before turning. "mmm guys I think we on their mating ground."

 

[Jeong Hye]

Objective: B
Allies-ish : [member="Abraxas"] [member="Kaia Starchaser"]
Post: 1/20

Sure Overdrive spent most of her time spying on the Techno Union, stealing their information, slicing their networks. It didn't mean she liked their enemies any more than them. Less in most cases. Take these Retail Conglomerate jokers for example.. Trying to control something like water? Not on my friend. Jeong was only roughly in favour of the people, understanding that the people as a general rule where ungrateful, unlikable bastards, but they should probably at least be allowed to continue scrabbling to meet their own basic needs.

This might be one of those few rare cases where it would pay to actually help the Techno Union. So she set to work, doing what she did best. Infiltrating systems without tripping alarms. There were other slicers who could get in faster, stripping defences more aggressively, but very few who could leave as few traces as her. They were set up to deal with physical intruders, in response to earlier intrusions. Obviously they'd either not been attacked digitally, or they weren't expecting anyone of any caliber. Their mistake.

It would be a few more minutes before she had complete control. People depended on technology so much for security. A smile briefly played over her lips, far away laying on the beach, before she took a sip of her drink, attention turning back to what her cybernetic eyes were discreetly showing her, the lines of code conveying more than the physical world did. Alarms wouldn't go off, using voice records stripped from old messages she could even relay false instructions in their own voices when things did start to go down. Doors would be unlocked to the Techno Union, and locked to the Conglomerate. In short, in the digital age, you did not want to draw a slicers ire.

There ought to be some Techno Union operatives about.. If not she supposed she could see about getting control of the water processing equipment remotely and ruining things that way, it would be impermanent of course. Besides, it was more interesting digging deeper into their files and other operations while she was in here anyway...

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Callisto Scarlett"]
3/20
Maelion had encountered stygium crystals on Maramere before. She paused, how long ago was that? Her chronometre was clearly broken, because part of her said it had been over ten years, whilst another marked it as a neat six or so. She would have to look into this time discrepancy.

Regardless, the crystals were in sealed containers this time, allowing them to load them onto a hoversled without having the issues they had before. When they had gathered their fill Maelion looked to Callisto.

"Take this to the ship. I will examine the second level and meet you back at the ship when you are loaded."
It was logical that one of them would take the precious cargo back whilst the other went for the second objective.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"]
(7/20)

Time was a fickle thing. How long had it been since she had been enteched and reborn as a droid? As a matter of fact, how long had it been since the insurgency on Contruum? Her internal chronometre kept given her contradictory data. It made wonder Callisto wonder sometimes whether she might be defect in some way and should submit to reprocessing.


Then again, no one else seemed able to figure out how much time had passed. Anyhow, one part of the cargo had been collected. Callisto acknowledged Maelion's command with a nod and a ping, signalling affirmation. When they were amongst themselves on a mission the HRDs were not a terribly talkative bunch, since there was no need to blend in and pretend that they were human. Thus she did not waste time with phrases and platitudes such as 'good luck'. There was no luck, there was only the logic of the machine.


With the contained loaded up on a hoversled, Callisto and another HRDs departed, escorting their valuable cargo back to ther submersible, past the spider droid Maelion had wrecked earlier. However, their return was not wholly unimpeded for as they were about to reach the lift droidekas rolled into position and blocking their getaway. Taking over and securing their precious cargo behind some rubble since it would suck if the valuable crystals got blown apart by laserfire, the Archangel crew returned fire.


The deflector shield generators of droidekas were potent enough to even absorb light artillery bolts, meaning that while bolter rounds could damage them, it would take a bit. However, they had one critical weakness because the shield was designed to enclose the droid in a standing position, but if the droid was knocked on its side or against a wall, the shield would have no way of distinguishing the wall or the floor from a blaster bolts or a lightsabre. Thus while the HRD with her gave fire support against the advancing bots, Callisto primed and charged up her shatterboltgun, loading it with explosive bolts. Aiming was a bit annoying because the crystals mucked up everyone's sensors, though that also meant the droidekas could not aim properly.


Boom. The powerful weapon firing was like the sound of a cannon and sent droidekas flying into the wall. Smoke rose up into the air and there was a explosion when the deflector shields, already shaken by the explosion, overloaded. The clearly damaged droidekas kept firing, but were exposed. Two got their heads blown off by an APE round, a third its CPU case sliced open by Callisto's chainsword. Thereafter they continued unimpeded and soon reached the submersible, where the containers with the stygium crystals were quickly loaded up.


[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Callisto Scarlett"]
Maelion proceeded alone up a level until she came to another door. Droids opened fire, but her lightsabre deflected the bolts away. She lacked the uses of the Force that Jedi did or their acrobatics, but she was able to advance and cut down the droids one by one until the path was open.

The ancient lab within had been dead for centuries. Whatever biological agents had been there were long since expired or become inert.
Eyes flicking to low-light vision, Maelion quickly examined everything she could for useful elements. There were some chemical formulas she was able to slice from an ancient terminal using a portable battery, and some sealed containers of toxins that were useful.

The Trade Federation and their Confederate allies had been partly onto a good thing. Droids were the ultimate disposable troops, but they had been poorly made, as if designed to fail. Worse, the controllers had been organics, weak Neimodians or other species which were driven to use their creations irrationally. Even this lab was an indicator of this; they had the ability to create proper weapons which could have eradicated organics rather than throwing battle droids at them, but they had not.
Well, Archangel would not make the same mistake. When the time came they would not hold back. All the organics would be exterminated. It was destined.

Swiftly she returned to the ship where Callisto was waiting so they could depart Maramere a second time.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

(8/20)
[member="Maelion Liates"]


As with so often in time, the flaw of organics had been their unwillingness to go far enough. The Trade Federation and the Confederacy of Independent Systems had relied on hordes of crude automatons. Easily produced and powerful when it came to a number of designs, but in the end easily slaughtered by Jedi and clone troopers. Then again, their creators had been venal, short-sighted creatures such as Neimoidians, easily duped pawns of the Sith in a galactic game of chess.


One day, Archangel would rise. It had a plan for Galaxy in mind, a destiny. It would not bend to the will of Force-users that held the Galaxy in their grip, but enforce the logic of the machine. How odd that these droids, who prided themselves on their logic and rationality, were so strangely organic in their desires and dreams. Otherwise they would not have embarked on a possibly insane crusade that seemed to be ripped from the pages of religious fundamentalists.


Once Maelion had returned to the ship, the crates had already been loaded up. Swiftly the HRDs boarded their vessel and departed, leaving the ghost facility behind them. Time passed as they traversed the ocean and eventually reached the drop-off point, where a transport was waiting for them. The vessel then took off from Maramere and made for space, where, thousands of kilometres from the planet, the cloaked Lightbringer awaited them. The stealth ship immediately jumped to hyperspace once they were all aboard, and vanished from the system.


[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

Location: Maramere
Objective: Build a resort, Make sure [member="Anastasia Rade"] has fun.
[4/20]

Splashing water and wet clothing flew at him and he tried not to laugh too hard. He had pushed her in and now he was paying the price for it. And that price would be swimming with the woman he loved, sometimes the burdens were terrible indeed. Downing the last of her drink and throwing the glass over his shoulder onto the sand, Orick took a couple of quick steps into the water before diving in head first. Warm water enveloped him, surrounding him in a cocoon of relaxation.

His movements took him around behind Ana and he jumped up out of the water and grabbed her from behind. " This seems similar though, I remember doing this." He said with a smile. He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek before propelling himself back and deeper into the water. He pushed hard with his legs to gain separation from Ana as he swam out. He remembered chasing her the last time that they went swimming and he wondered if she was up for chasing him. The water was perfect, the sun was shining and he was relaxing with the woman he loved, life couldn't get any better than this.

 

[Raziel]

[member="Morgan Redeaux"]
[member="Venussia Sasko"]

Raziel manoeuvred out from behind the desk with an effortless grace. Appearing as if from nowhere to hold the door open before they could get away. With one hand he held out a small piece of folded embroidered card.

"Your welcome note," he explained. "Your room's glass windows open up onto a private pool on the beach itself. This has your password for priority access to the hotel's holonet access. If you wish, you can download our convenience app which will let you order drinks, snacks or meals at any time, which will be brought straight to you. Would you like me to make a reservation for dinner now?"

He briefly scanned the CEO's surface thoughts, to see if there were any other demands he could predict in advance of them being vocalised, or any way he could change his mannerisms to come across better to the remarkably young executive.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Objective: A
Location: Sea in Avenger-class Starfighter
Allies: [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"] [member="Seanna Vel"]
Equipment: Signature +1 YVH Probe, 1 Observe, 1 Hunter Probes
[5/20]

If the situation weren't serious I would have laughed and had more of a response to Zreame, but for now the best I could muster given the short amount of time we had available was "Of course I care. Why else would I be shooting the thing and not gtfo here." It wasn't the most heartfelt or endearing response, but then again actions spoke louder than words. And I was sitting here killing this fish rather than running away. She and Seanna were almost family. Almost. "No it would be bad. The only problem I see would be corralling it or leading it their without getting shot or killed. But if you can swing it, go for it."

"I am no expert, but I would say that would be very, very bad for us to be here then. Get High, get out, and lets hit that base. Zreame, if you think you can make the one follow us out, he might help us get inside." I hauled the fighter up, pulling for a midlevel depth, revving the repulsor engines to make as much noise and turbulence as possible to try and get the big fish's attention, and maybe given all the annoyance I had been already it would be distracted from Zreame. The ploy was a little effective, causing the fish to follow me, albeit slowly.

 

[Darth Banshee]

Sabrina firestorm had landed near her mine she then sent a message to her apprentice [member="Zrixtas"]. Apprentice get the freighter loaded, I don't want to pay more tax on the next shipment than necessary. So get the loading crew on it know, our stealth fleet will be made soon. She was unsure what the future held at moment as it was in flux, but it was certain that this planet would not resist the techno union might. As they where the regional power, and this planet was once there's. She then head out, to see how her apprentice was doing with this task.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

[6/20]
Objective: A
Location: Space in Avenger-class Starfighter
Allies: [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Seanna Vel"]
Equipment: Signature +1 YVH Probe, 1 Observe, 1 Hunter Probes

Zreame did as Draco asked her and headed upwards but noticing that the fish was following him albeit slowly she turned her ship down and fired a torpedo onto it's face to piss it off a bit more and then moved to be next to Draco's ship. "If we don't hurry and keep the thing mad enough to blindly follow us it won't be much help will it?" She asked him as she asked the droid to show were they were and were their intended location was as well.
They were quite close and she she smiled a little to herself. "Hey draco do these ships have mines or anything like that?" She asked him as she put the gps to a small holo display to be sure how far they were away from the base they were going to infiltrate.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas stood in the freighters hangar and sighed a little to himself. "Yes master." He replied to [member="Sabrina Kotass"] before he spoke to himself as he walked around, though it was more like pacing. "What am I? a delivery droid or something?" He mumbled to himself as he stopped and noticed the meatbags in the hangar staring at him. "GET TO WORK OR I'LL CARVE MY NAME INTO YOUR HEADS!" He screamed at them which caused the entire crew to panic as they went back to work.
He had no patience today and he just picked a crate and sat on it as he sighed and then began to raise a few crates around him to practice his force abilities, something that was becoming a steady habit for him.
Meanwhile the freighter lowered towards the upper parts of the Mining facility and he looked outside as the large hangar doors were opened in the freighter.

 

[Darth Banshee]

[member="Zrixtas"]
6/20

The firestrom landed, near the freighter as it was being loaded. She saw her apprentice pacing up and down, probably wondering why he was over looking a shipment of ore. She head over to him, to quickly, after ordering her crew Give them handed loading the crystals know! Then she moved to her apprentice side, so she could talked to him apprentice. Apprentice, I suppose your wondering what you are doing here, doing this menial task? She did not wait for him to answer her question, she just answered it for him. We have need of these crystals, therefore we need to move them before the techno union decide to embargo them. As this shipment is for command and control cruiser, that ship will allow us to ambush and destroy our enemies, without them being able to get help. I know this task is beneath you, but it's a necessary task. She explained why he was doing what he was doing, and hoped he had the intellect to realize this job was very import indeed.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

[member="Sabrina Kotass"]
2/20

Zrixtas had placed the crates down as his master approached him. When she began to speak he listened to her and then sighed a little. "I figured as much master, and I know how useful these Crystals are but I've been uneasy for the passed few days or so... that must be it." He then replied to his master as he settled his body into a relaxing posture. He wasn't used to the need to move that he had been under and he felt restless, he figured his growing knowledge of the force might be it but he wasn't sure but what he did know was that a part of him liked it the other just didn't like it due to it's unfamiliarity.
"Master I would like to ask you is there any way I can get more training in lightsaber forms?" He then asked as he moved to stand nest to Sabrina and glared at a worker that seemed to think being behind the crate he was sitting on would allow him to work less.