Crimson Tide (Sith vs. Republic Invasion of Manaan)

[TK-5914 Shank]

@[member="Moira Skaldi"] @[member="Matsu Ike"] @[member="Valik"]

A death charge turned into a reprieve as the gods of war answered Shank's call. One of the gods, a blonde with more firepower than his whole squad had carried, succeeded in driving off the Jedi Master. Which saved him from the necessary task of detonating that thermal in the collective faces of himself and Matsu Ike. It would have been a good death. And then Moira saved him, and that stormtrooper unit called in. He replied, giving his coordinates and indicating he was on his way.

He moved about, checking his squad. All dead. Fething Jedi. He took what ammo and functional weapons remained, though the latter were few enough, then turned to the blonde who'd saved him. "I'm going to form up with another stormtrooper unit," he said, voice flat, as he stripped the compressed-air tanks out of an old friend's armor. "Recommend you come with us and find a defensive position where tanks and flying away are not valid options."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Matsu Ike"] @[member="Ronin Fel"] @[member="Hion the Herglic"]

MSE's starfighter inscribed a tight arc over the portion of the city where the Republic and Sith air/AA forces were not steadfastly trying to ignore each other into oblivion. Said distance gave him plenty of time to notice other relevant factors to air superiority.

Situation: Storm probably related to flying meatbag. The meatbag has landed and is under attack with what appears to be a wave of sonic overpressure. Efficient. Deploying payload.

An Aleph-class starfighter could carry two hundred kilograms of cargo. The fighter and its upkeep costs were ridiculously expensive, several orders of magnitude higher than two hundred kilograms of dextrophetamine. The powerful drug supercharged Force users and got them very, very high, was powerfully addictive, and, in the long run, would decrease Force sensitivity significantly. A serious overdose of dex had been known to burn out a Forcer entirely, on occasion.

Bottom line, breathe enough of the fog (indistinguishable from the convenient storm), and Forcers would quite probably go berserk, get ridiculously powerful, and then, eventually, get a bit weaker. With a nice new set of cravings.

Meatbags.

The dextrophetamine fell from his starfighter as a mist, carpeting Ahto City all around the area where Matsu, Emperor Fel, and Orcus had squared off. The wind caught it and spread it elsewhere as the most maneuverable starfighter in the galaxy dropped two hundred kilos of an extremely potent, extremely expensive drug in basically every place he could find.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

@TK-5914, @[member="Matsu Ike"], @[member="Valik"]

The expression on Moira's face was pitiless and without emotion as the stormtrooper spoke. One could not expect sympathy from a killer droid. One organic was like the other to her. But then that was probably not what the trooper wanted anyway and she had something far better in mind. After all, Jedi did annoy her. Come to think of it, most organics did, but the self-righteous paladins of 'justice' and their Republic's war for democracy manifest destiny crusade did so especially. Claims of fighting for truth, justice and the Coruscanti dream rang hollow to an inherently cynical droid who had been created because of man's inherent murderousness to man.

It would be beautiful. Overhead a powerful storm raged, the hammering of thunder like the sound of the raging of a wrathful god, unleashed by the power of the flying Jedi. Further away the battle raged unabated as Sith armour and walkers engaged the Republic forces. "We shall proceed to the air filtration station," she said softly. "I require the use of an air tank. Hoses and something to block the screw-in end. You can get your revenge...and expose the Jedi for what they truly are." If she was feeling in a good mood - apparently even assassin droids had something close to moods despite officially being driven purely by logic and reason - he might get a bolter later, for Moira was a firm believer in the principle 'bolters for everyone' and thus an opponent of monopolies.

 

[TK-5914 Shank]

AIR FILTRATION STATION

@[member="Moira Skaldi"] @[member="Valik"]

The air filtration system was nearby, several levels down -- outside the realm of tanks and flying Jedi. Shank sent the stormtrooper unit a set of coordinates as a suggested rendezvous or bolthole as he finished applying copious amounts of blasterfire to the Selkath labor crew.

Air tanks, he had in abundance. The air filtration system had many backup hoses compatible with the system, after the filters. He fished through his utility belt and procured a condom, Imperial issue. He cut off the end of a hose, slipped the condom over it, applied space tape, then filled the small section of hose with one of Moira's vials. Carefully. Then he taped on one of his scavenged air tanks.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Soon there were seven vaporisation doomsday charges ready to go.

"I've never deployed a bioweapon before," he said absently, then shrugged and began screwing one of his impromptu Zerek Strain modules into the air filtration system.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

Air Filtration Station
@[member="TK-5914 Shank"]

"We grow and adapt. Force gods are such annoying little pests," Moira said randomly. She did that sometimes. When she was not getting bizarre flashes of having once vaporised Alderaan. Parallel universe? Who knew. Of course, she was not one for introspection or a wet hen so she likewise helped screw the module into the system. They were good to go. Just a shame Kerrigan was not there - having her on a rampage to such an extent that even Alcori could not protect her would have been amusing.

Quickly and efficiently they put the equipment in the air filtration system to good use to vaporise the virus. Air filters, backup hoses, vengeful stormtrooper who had just watched his comrades get killed, genocidal killer droid with a beautiful bioweapon, courtesy of the Sith Witch of the Hyperlanes with whom she had a profitable business arrangement. Illyria, Goddess of Destruction, would gaze upon this world and be well pleased.

Seven vaporisation doomsday charges, the Harbinger of Desolation in the air having unleashed dextrophetamine. Pretty as a picture. She could very much use a holocamera team to record the results. A quick transmission was sent to MSE-007. This was truly the day of murderous droids, utilising the beautiful instruments of organic torment and destruction. Score one for the inherent superiority of the machine over the organic. "Deploying the package. The desolation shall be magnificient." Like a work of art, incidentally the human Moira had been quite fond of painting. She also liked idols in churches and temples. Then she ascended and realised that the machines were the true higher beings. Now the Jedi just needed to provide a target rich environment and they would have an ideal field test of the weapon.

 

[Marcus Faust]

@Flint Dexen @Elani Zambrano @Marcus Faust @Aronis Vilgar

Marcus smiled, so the Republic was hiring common whores as agents now? Interesting. Standing in silence, he reached out with the force and grasped the girl, hurling her back down the hall. He didn't have time for her. Turning to Flint, he assumed a Dejm So stance, now experience was key, they'd both be tired, but Marcus had the advantage thanks to years of constant battle. Breaking one hand away from his saber, he unleashed another powerful torrent of force lightning, hopefully electrocuting Flint into nothing.

 

[Flint Dexen]

@Elani Zambrano @Marcus Faust

Ahto City Streets

Flint gave an appreciative nod to the Republic heroes that had now joined his side in the fight against the two Sith. They outnumbered the Imperials easily, the Jedi Padawan @[member="Aronis Vilgar"] and Republic agent @[member="Patricia Susan Garter"] stepping into the combat to battle the female Sith.

Flint quickly raised up his lightsaber once more as Sith Lightning shot out from Faust's hand. The impact of the Sith's lightning colliding with his lightsaber was powerful, and Flint once more grimaced as he worked to keep his lightsaber from being outpowered by the lightning. For now, he was able to keep it at bay. He voiced his message into the mind of his Jedi Knight as he did this (@[member="Equa Dominator"]). "Somewhere in the Ahto City Streets... in a fight against two Sith." Flint said through telepathy to his fellow Jedi, who would hopefully soon come around to assist. Inner peace would definitely be useful for Flint at the moment in his fight, seriously.

"Has the Dark Side so corrupted you..." Flint spoke, struggling to keep up with the torrents of lightning hitting his lightsaber's blade. "...that you can't even recognize that you have no chance? Surrender now ...peace must surely be an option, even for you!" Flint said as he held out against Faust's Force Lightning.

 

[Marcus Faust]

"I've fallen to far for you to even try and save. Surrender? You could have the grandmaster here, I still would refuse to back down." Marcus spat, staring down @[member="Flint Dexen"] as he upped the voltage of his lightning and the sheer power of it. His two saber guards stood beside him, raising their own hands and adding their own lightning to the mix. It didn't change much, the two were the power of apprentices, and Marcus' signature force ability was lightning, making his far above average, even for a senior Knight such as himself.

He was impressed the Jedi was just now trying to be diplomatic, at least the kid was smart, whoever had instructed him as a pad wan fought him well. Fight first, ask questions later. He wondered if he'd been taught by a certain wayward Sith, but that was not important as of now, right now he had to fight and win.

 

[Flint Dexen]

@[member="Marcus Faust"]

Flint recalled the teachings of his former mentor, a Jedi called Marek S'hadar. He had been an excellent mentor, even if Flint found his mentor's past troubling at times. "Interesting..." Flint commented as he struggled to defend himself from the powerful torrents of lightning that threatened to overtake him any moment now. "You even recognize it yourself that you've fallen too far. You admit then that you cannot ascend with the Dark Side of the Force!"

The Jedi recognized that he couldn't keep this up for much longer. He had to do something, quick and fast. Flint reached out using the Force with his left hand that was not holding onto the lightsaber, and threw a desk from a nearby hall using the Force at Faust and his saberguards. Flint knew it would be too much to hope that it hit its mark, but hopefully it would distract the Sith for a bit and give Flint time to get himself back together.

 

[Marcus Faust]

​"The Dark Side of the force is a horrid thing, it corrupts you, but it is the only true path to peace in the universe. Oppression is the only way, with freedom comes a choice, and with a choice comes the inevitability that someone will make the wrong one. You may not agree, but I've walked both sides of this path, and I know what I speak of." Marcus replied, ducking out of the path of the desk as he spoke for the longest amount of time he had at once in about three years. @[member="Flint Dexen"] was trying, desperate to save this city, it was admirable, but his courage was misplaced. Adding every bit of his strength into the attack, Flint would almost certainly be overtaken now.

 

[Methuzal]

WHAT MAY HAVE ONCE BEEN A CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL (OR NOT)
OBJECTIVE: COME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL

@[member="Steph Zenima"]

TD-19 was a winion.

Drawn by the sound of weeping orphans, TD-19 happened upon the wreckage of what may or may not have been a children's hospital. It was often difficult to distinguish the exact type of building from its pile of rubble, but the presence of an orphan led TD-19 to assume as much. Then again, the presence of what appeared to be a Republic soldier hyped up on several types of illicit narcotics speaking at high volume to the aforementioned orphan could just as equally mean this had once been rehab.

Or maybe a center for orphaned army addicts.

Or addicts who wanted to join the army after being orphaned.

Or orphans who were addicted to joining the army.

Or a triplex where the facilities of an orphanage, rehabilitation clinic, and military barracks were all together. Though the practicality of that and the aforementioned were dubious at best. These things mattered very little to TD-19, whose desires out of existence were as simple as they were bloodthirsty. So the droid ran at Steph, utterly disregarding any sense of stealth, and swung his rather large vibro-mace at her with the deft elegance of a rampaging Bantha.

 

[Valik]

LOCATION: AIR FILTRATION STATION
OBJECTIVE: EXPLORE


Valik, or TK-5283 as he was known for the day, continued onto the rendezvous coordinate until he recieved new ones, to which he made a couple of poor hand signals to direct his five men. It was a relatively uneventful trip, with the native Selkath not bothering to trouble his well-armed crew, merely staying out of the way and out of sight. Which was fine with Valik. More subjects for experimentation later. Finally finding his way to an air filtration system he found a lone stormtrooper with a blonde woman, although something in the Force warned him she was not what she seemed.

"Status report?" He asked to @[member="TK-5914 Shank"] and @[member="Moira Skaldi"].

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Location: Northern end of the City, behind Sith lines
Objective: Find medical supplies, try not to die

The Mandalorian made it to the first floor and peeked around the doorway. He saw no one on the street and from what he could see, there wasn't movement anywhere aside from the occasional gunship screaming overhead from the reserves. Satisfied that he wouldn't be seen, Betna hobbled out across the street.

He moved quickly, despite his injured leg, in an odd hobbling, shuffling gait. His rifle was on his back and he held his .44 revolver in his right hand. Betna made it to the neighboring building and started making his way through it. He took no chances and moved through the building fully alert, the pistol trained on every shadow, every door, and every hidden corner. His main advantage right now was that the Sith thought the troublesome Republic sniper was dead. They didn't know it wasn't a Republic soldier, but a Mandalorian mercenary. Mandos were made of sterner stuff. Heavy armor helped, too.

A few minutes after getting inside the building, he was through to the other side. He repeated the peeking move and spotted no one yet again. It seemed like everyone was at the front lines, itching for the fight. That worked well for Betna. He needed to get more advanced medical supplies and a proper leg brace. He knew that the Sith stockpile was somewhere this way, but he didn't know specifically where. The Mandalorian figured he'd find it when he found it. Still, though, he couldn't help but wish that a proper medic would find him. He laughed in his helmet at the thought. While he was at it, he might as well wish for a Jedi Healer!

 

[Flint Dexen]

@[member="Marcus Faust"]

"No! Oppression is never the only way!" Flint shouted, his muscles aching now from defending against the powerful torrents of lightning. His Sith opponent had succesfully dodged the desk that Flint had thrown at him, but the desk smashed into one of the saberguards, effectively knocking down the guard.

He knew that he was quickly growing tired. Flint's last Force Push had left him exhausted, and defending against the Sith Lightning was tiring the Jedi Knight. But he would not give up. Letting out a deafening yell, Flint mustered what was left of his energy and hurled the greatest Force Push he could at the Sith, using both of his hands. From the sheer impact of his Force Push's collision against the Force Lightning, Flint was hurled backwards, and smashed heavily into a wall. His body began hurting like feth now, and he collapsed to the ground, leaning against the partially destroyed wall. Flint reactivated his lightsaber, however, and struggled to get back up desparately. There were too many civilian's lives at stake now for him to give up.

 

[Other Space Kaiden]

@[member="Hion the Herglic"] @[member="Matsu Ike"]

City Center ​

Fighting Hion ​

​

No sooner had Matsu finished here sentence when a Sith unit rushed into the square, their leader being a massive whale-like creature that was encircled by the darkside. Looking over to the Jedi Master, Ronin gave a slight nod "I'll deal with our new guest." Ronin turned his weathered gaze to the whale, bringing his lightsaber down to his side and walking forward. Ronin had just begun his force training and even his lightsaber skills were made up of what he had been able to quickly train in before war broke out, but he was not afraid of a cowardly Sith. Much more than his life rode on challenging this beast, the very honor that upheld the Fel name rode on the shoulders of him facing down this much more powerful enemy.

"Ronin Fel, I presume." Orcus' voice boomed across the intervening distance between the two. "I have waited long to face such a worthy foe. I will be honored to kill you. Come, feel my wrath!"

Before Ronin had time to respond, the Sith unleashed a powerful shock-wave that tore through the ground between the two combatants. The attack happened so quick that Ronin barely had any time to realize the danger, luckily one of his Praetorian Guard quickly jumped to his rescue and tackled him out of the way. Ronin tumbled across the ground to safety, but his guard was torn asunder by the powerful wave. Blood and limbs show high into the air as the Praetorian was torn apart like paper through a shredder, his Imperial Knight's armor getting displaced about the whole room like shrapnel from a bomb. Looking to the whale, Ronin sneered before standing to his feet and calling his saber back to him "I sense the lightside within you, Sith. You have forsaken the ways of the light for such a meager and unfulfilling cause, it is a pity." Taking a few steps forward, Ronin analyzed his opponent and use his free hand to detach the long purple cape from his armor. As the purple cape fell to the ground, Ronin stopped and stood a few meters from the Sith in his silver colored Imperial Knight armor "You know my name, so that means you must be familiar with the fact that I am no Jedi. You have but a single chance to see the error of your ways and return to the light and if you fail in that...then you shall die here." with that Ronin took a defensive saber stance and prepared to move in a seconds notice.

 

[Ava Solborne]

Equa wandered around the city, trying to find the man. He hadn't gotten any specific details about the location or about how bad it is, but after thinking for a moment, he realized, that the man is probably in a huge trouble, so he can't answer to his questions. So he had started moving to find @[member="Flint Dexen"].

Equa saw many people on the way and he even had to fight a few of them. But most of them were really weak, so he managed to get past them without even doing anything special. He had just used Force Push or other basic abilities on them. Though some of them were a lot stronger, so he had to fight some time to move on. There was a chance that one Sith he fought with will become a serious enemy, but... the Sith just left after some fighting, probably because someone called for help or something.

So Equa moved on until he saw a man fighting against two Sith. He guessed he is the person he's looking for, so he stepped a bit closer.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

@Ronin Fel @Matsu Ike
City Center
Fighting Fel and Matsu

Blood sprayed into the air as Fel's guards were eviscerated by Orcus' blast. A roar of triumph rang out from the Sith troopers. Orcus closed his eyes and breathed in a deep breath, reveling in the cheers of his soldiers and the glory of his hideous strength. The thrum of battle filled him, like the crashing rhythm of the waves. This was his true state of nature. And he reveled in it, rolling the dice against fate itself in defiance of the galaxy. He gambled with his life.

"Hauum! I admire your courage, Fel, but you have misunderstand my cause. I fight for the peace of the galaxy, just as do you. Do you dare take the arrogance of the Jedi and declare that because my methods are different the end result must be, hauum, abhorrent?" Orcus' booming laughter filled the square.


The wind blew impossibly strong as Matsu Ike continued his literal whirlwind of destruction, but upon those gusts Orcus smelled a new scent. He sniffed the air and at once his eyes bulged. Muscles rippled taut, revealing webs of veins. Heady power rushed through Orcus as the drug from MSE began coursing through his system. Unparalleled strength rippled through his body.

Not a hint of mercy shone in his black eyes. "Why would I go back to the light, friend, when carnage makes me feel so alive!"

What happened when one combined the battlemind abilities of the Soulsaber, the supercharge effect of dextrophetamine, and Orcus' singular Force Bellow?

Obliteration.

Enraged by both the Soulsaber's Dark Side effects and the berserker fury of dextrophetamine, Orcus became blind to friend and foe. Inwardly, he felt as if he had become the fury of the ocean itself. A massive hurricane raged within him and it could no longer be restrained. Opening his mouth to its widest extent, he unleashed a Force Bellow that exceeded any before it in scope and power.



"HAUUUUM!"


An overpressure blast of 5 psi can cause universal injuries and widespread fatalities. At 10 psi most people would are killed and reinforced concrete buildings suffer severe damage. The average Force Bellow weighed in somewhere in between, capable of rupturing internal organs as well as knocking down reinforced structures such as the vault door which Velok blew down in the Jedi Archives.

The overpressure shockwave that rippled from his mouth weighed in at 30 psi, with winds exceeding 500 miles per hour, the same blast effects as a 100 kiloton bomb.

Obliteration.

 

[Selena Halcyon]

CITY CENTER
@[member="Darth Apparatus"]

Soldiers opened fire upon one another. It was almost a mirror image. Those with lightsabers deflecting shots back into the other side, while each side fired upon one another. Soldiers fell on both sides at about the same rate. The crates of toxins were worrisome to Selena. The droid carrying them were largely unfocused upon, which was natural. Do you shoot at the droids who are simply moving cargo or the soldiers on the other side? When an option arrived Selena would send a deflected bolt at a droid. It was slow but numbers did dwindle, on both sides.

Advantage, to an extent, really was with the Republic on this one. As in reality the Empire would have a difficult time getting more troops to this location when compared to the Republic. But battles were not won with the nameless. It was won with the champions who fought for them. As such Selena Halcyon started moving forward towards the Sith Lord. He was the primary threat to this entire operation. If he was removed then everything else could be dealt with easily.

 

[Lan Raegin]

(With the Permission of @[member="Thurion Heavenshield"] I am skipping over @[member="Vael'roth Kon"] as he has still not edited his post)
@[member="Aerrah Katamirth"]
As the droning sound of the Trubo-laser rang out behind him Lan couldn't help but smirk slightly. He enjoyed battle on a sort of primal level, it made his fur stand up on end and his nose pucker like nothing else. He loved the fight, even contained in his oddly shaped armor. Slowly as another Sith Trooper ran after him Lan raised his rifle, taking a single shot and dropping the soldier in one instance.

Quickly he lowered his rifle again, taking a defensive position and scanning the approach to the AA guns.

The Selonian simply waited for more Sith troops to arrive. He would cut them down, all of them.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Location: North end of Ahto City
Objective: Survive and find advanced medical supplies

Betna was having a bad day. He was having a bad day before, especially when the building fell on him, but he was having a bad day now, too. He found himself crawling on his elbows and one knee through a pipe. Well, most of a pipe. Parts of the top were open to the sky, courtesy of something crash landing here and scraping up the roads. The Mandalorian hoped it was one of the gunships that dropped a building on him. That would be poetic, he felt. He remembered that someone commed him earlier and he looked over the signature. It was the grunt he'd spoken to earlier. He replayed the message in his helmet as he crawled forward.

"Yeah, that was me," Betna grunted as he continued his crawl. He'd spotted a column of Sith reserve troops moving forwards through the nearby intersection overlooking this street. Since he had to get across, couldn't wait, and there was an exposed pipe to crawl through, he went ahead and started crawling. "I had a disagreement with the architect. The building didn't appreciate my argument."

He found the end of the pipe and carefully pulled himself up. He found the coast clear and crawled out of the piping. Once on his feet, he redrew his pistol and ducked into the building next to the opening. It looked like a department store of sorts. Maybe a mall. He couldn't quite tell for sure as what looked to be a large piece of ordnance had fried and scrambled the inside of the building. He carefully picked his way through the rubble and debris, making as little noise as possible. His injured leg made it hard, but he managed, albeit slowly. He kept alert, though, the pistol trained on anyplace that could hold a potential threat. He keyed his comm again, the encrypted link nigh impossible to crack, at least very quickly, that is.

"I'm working on a plan, but I need to get something for my leg first. I'm behind the lines so I'll borrow some medical supplies from the Sith," he said as he ducked through what may have been a clothing store, if the charred remains of mannequins was anything to go by. At least, he hoped they were mannequins. Some looked a bit more organic than the others. "Can you cause a nice big distraction? Get the Sith's attention real good? I'm gonna need some breathing space pretty soon."

@[member="Dareck Shaw"]