Cutting off Trade

[Asari Morin]

A container sat upon the starport docks of Eriadu. The Planet was a busy hub of activity, thousands of ships came in every day, it was the very center of the Hydian Tradeway. It was an important world to say the least and that was exactly why the Sith wanted it. The world would become a cut off point for the rest of the galaxy, isolating important resource worlds in the outer rim and giving the Sith a massive advantage within the greater galaxy. The Empire wanted Eriadu, and they would get it.

Whatever was inside seemed to rummage and move about which caught the attention of the port guards. A squad of soldiers surrounded the massive shipping container. They approached the container slowly, moving forward and pacing towards the door. Before one of them could truly reach the door a massive dent suddenly formed in the side of the metal container followed by an intensely loud roar.

The Guards jumped back in utter surprise, moving away from the container in quick and easy steps. More dents formed in the side and door of the container. Beasts thrashed around within the container, and a massive dent formed in the door splitting them slightly ajar.

Another strike, another pound, then the doors burst open. From the container bounded dozen of Moridins Serin. The massive hulking Darkhound's bounded forward and began to slaughter their way through the guards. They were torn apart in an instant, their flesh ripped from their bones and their blood splattered around the spaceport. In a matter of seconds the Starport turned into the sight of a massacre, and from the container stepped another figure.

This one was a man, to be specific Darth Moridin. The Sith Lord stepped out of the container with a mad cackle in his throat. Above him a small Sith Fleet jumped out of hyperspace and almost directly into the planets atmosphere, clouding the sky and filling Eriadu's capital with darkness. The Dreadlord looked around, and grinned “Another world falls to us.”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Klaxons blared and warning lights flashed, bathing the darkened room with flashes of bright crimson as a band of specific soldiers geared up and primed their weapons. One of these men was taller than the rest, his head full of ebony black hair, and his eyes sparkled a feral emerald as he fixed a helmet over his handsome features, and locked it into place. The rest of the soldiers did likewise and followed the man onto a large lift, which descended once everyone was aboard, sending them down to the expansive hanger where vehicles of war were being primed and ready, and legions of troopers were being transported off by large dropships out into the gloom. The figure's gaze turned towards the large shield that protected them from the deathly cold of empty space, and saw the outline of a planet silhouetted against the gloom. Junction, the next target of the Sith Empire's wrath, and one that Kaine Zambrano longed to take, despite his primary skills being infiltration and cybertechnics, but of course that's why he was so eager to get down on that world. His failure to upload a virus into the Courscant mainframe had deeply left an impression on Kaine, and he planned to rectify that with another sort of virus.

Him and his troops strode across the hanger and loaded onto a single Dragoon-class Dropship, and strapped themselves in as the hatch closed behind them and the dropship took off and left the hanger of the Imperial Warship. The dropship accelerated through space, heading down to the atmosphere of the planet, skimming over the hulls of a couple Beezlebub-class Assault Ships, whose hulls were filled to the brim with Imperial soldiers ready to be unleashed upon the populace once they landed. Kaine's Dragoon finally entered the atmosphere, and all inside felt the jolt of entry and primed themselves for quick deployment in the Capital city of Junction City. Finally the Dragoon skimmed along one of the buildings on the outskirts of the City, and opened its hatch, allowing the Operatives and Kaine to leap out onto a nearby ledge as the oppressive weather assaulted them. Quickly checking their vectors, the operatives kicked in the door leading to the ledge they were on, and found themselves faced with a family just finishing a meal, who had barely even registered the operatives when they opened fire. All five family members were dropped in the span of a few seconds, with the operatives constantly move through the domicile, making sure the place was secure before Kaine unloaded a homing beacon in the center of the floor, sending an encrypted code to some select Darths, informing them of their swift entry and secure position on the planet's surface.

With that out of the way, Kaine pried open a communications panel on the wall, and connected a datapad much like the one he possessed on Coruscant to it. Within minutes he had downloaded a schematic of the capital city into each operative's HUDs and also sent a copy to the fleet above. Kaine smiled as he unhooked the datapad and waited for further orders from the fleet, and took a look at the murdered family, their bodies torn apart by laser fire and strewn about the floors and walls. He recalled that they didn't even have a time to scream, not even the children.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Closing his eyes in meditation, Daxton could almost hear the screams of agony and torment as the first wave of Sith assault units breached through the planetary defenses. Not that there were much defenses to begin with. A mysterious ailment had downed more than a half the defense forces, seriously stretching the medical facilities on the eve of the attack. Most of them were weak, incoherent, and delusional, clear symptoms of the Yellow Backfin strain he released into their unsuspecting air filtration systems. By the time they could recover, it would have been all over.

Igniting his dark orange lightsaber staff, he lead the charge of Sith commandos to secure the main power grid production centers. "For the Sith!" They screamed as they poured forth like a horde of red army ants.

 

[Soeht]

Deep within Eriadu City, Darth Apparatus already been awaiting for the Sith to attack. His objective was not clear to others, yet it would have assisted the war effort.

Within the higher stories of a skyscraper, Darth Apparatus had slaughtered mercenaries all the way up to that point. At the climax of his journey, he had entered a massive room of servers and terminals. The heat of the machinery bathed the room.

As he approached the central terminal, a heavily armored soldier emerged from behind a computer with a vibroblade and attacked the Darth. The soldier moved quickly for his size and equipment. He slashed at Darth Apparatus with the blade. The Sith Lord responded by, almost nonchalantly, swiping his blade up as if to slice through the vibroblade.

Yet, the soldier had made his sword out of lightsaber resistant materials, and all that resulted from the Darth's actions was locked weapons. Without hesitation though, Darth Apparatus took a step to the side and swung across at the soldier's body.

However, as soon as the Darth's lightsaber touched the soldier's armor, the lightsaber shorted out. There was a crack in the armor where the lightsaber touched, though.

Attempting to take advantage of this, the soldier swung his vibrosword down at the Darth. With his free hand, the Darth made this attack futile by grabbing the soldier's wrist and halting his momentum with ease. There was a grunt from the soldier and a crack in the wrist.

Then, the Darth punched the soldier in the gut. The armor both at the point of impact and what he had on his back shattered instantly. The soldier released a blood riddle cough before expiring just seconds later.

After leaving the body, Darth Apparatus approached the central terminal in the room and began to examine the monitor. It appeared as if he found a hub for communications.

One message popped up on the terminal that caught the Darth's attention. It stated that the Great Seswenna's Sector Army had mobilized and would arrive in Eriadu orbit with a fleet in just a few minutes. An incredibly fast response for a surprise attack.

Then, Darth Apparatus smashed the console before him. He also released a powerful, telekinetic burst throughout the room - crippling the servers for good and possibly hampering the spread of information on Eriadu during the Sith's attack.

 

[Tanis Val'dorn]

Battle. Just the word was enough to send cold chills of anticipation down the Sith Apprentice's spine. It was his purpose, his destiny, his power. Tanis breathed in deeply as he concentrated all of his Darkside power into accomplishing one specific task; Destroy any and all opposition. The message was clear, the orders were given. Now was the time for him to show everyone the full extent of his power.

Upon arriving on the planet, Tanis had landed his ship adjacent to the starport while his cloaking device was engaged. Noone, besides his Master, had even known of his presence on Eriadu. Standing between the Apprentice and the starport stood 6 soldiers, all of them training their sights on the door to the spaceport. His Master must have already made his grand entrance. Good; the distraction was well appreciated. Now the soldiers would understand exactly why one should never let down his guard to an attack from behind. "This will end quickly." the Sith mused. He was not used to such lowly opposition. This would be as simple as leading lambs to slaughter.

Removing his twin lightsabers from underneath the folds of his jet black robe, he connected them together to form a dual-bladed lightsaber. As was known, Tanis was a master of the Jar'kai form. Igniting the blades, Tanis used Force speed to quickly move through the middle of the gathered soldiers, immediately severing 4 of the unsuspecting soldiers in half. The squad leader turned to the Apprentice, barked an order to the surviving soldier, and opened fire. Instinctively, Tanis deflected the first two shots, sending the latter into the soldier's heart. He crumpled at the feet of the Commander. Tanis, seeing the obvious horror on the commander's face as he witnessed his whole squad slaughtered, took advantage of his lack of focus and quickly moved in front of the man. Utilizing a furocious storm of Force lighting, Tanis obliterated the commanders skull, and continued the attack until he left the commander as nothing more than a smeltering pile of flesh.

Looking around to make sure more soldiers hadnt been alerted to his presence yet, he moved to enter the spaceport, and rendevous with his Master. After this day, Eriadu would forever be controlled by the unmovable Sith Empire.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

In a matter of minutes Moridin's darkhounds slashed, bit, and rampaged their way through the starport indiscriminately killing civilians, guards, pets, and even vermin. The Serin were not intelligent, but they knew how to kill all too well. The Dreadlord watched as his Darkhounds slaughtered their way through anything an everything. He sat calmly, watching them with a slight smirk on his face. He had missed this, the fighting and the killing. Four centuries of sleep really made one ache for blood again.

The Dreadlord did not even flinch as he stepped over a pile of bodies. Finally the entire starport was cleared of people, and only Moridin and his hounds remained. One of them limped along, and slowly it fell over and died. Twenty three of them remained, interesting how one had died, he expected better.

Slowly Moridin moved towards the great double door's that marked the exit of the massive hangar. As he approached he let loose a massive force push breaking open the durasteel and bending it into nothingness. Fresh air rushed into the the musty starport and Moridin and his hounds walked into the sunlight. He grinned, seeing the governors palace in the distance. His hounds bounded forward, moving ahead of him and searching for any threat. The Dreadlord sucked in a breath of air, and then shouted at the top of his lungs the force making his voice boom across nearly the entire city.

“People of Feriae Junction! The Sith have come to claim your world. Lay down your weapons, stay inside your homes, and you will not be harmed.” His voice spread across the city, and his grin widened as his hounds bounded forward clearing a path for him to the governors palace.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Daxton paused and looked over his shoulder when he heard the cry of the Sith Master. He sincerely doubted that anyone in this city hadn't heard the declaration. They had trapped the defenders along one last line of defense, all around them the injured and dead lay scattered about. Signalling his team to stop firing, Daxton stepped forward confidently and said, "This planet has fallen, continued resistance is futile. Surrender and your lives will be spared. You can go home to your families, no harm shall come to you. Refuse and we shall spare no one."

"How would we know if you're telling the truth?" one of them cried back from behind cover.

"To be honest, you won't. But ask yourselves, is this place worth dying for? is it more important than your lives and the lives of your loved ones? You have three minutes to decide." It did not take three minutes for the decision to be reached as the defenders lay down their arms and came out with their hands raised in surrender.

Daxton ordered his second in command to arrange for medical treatment to the survivors and injured. When the Sith protested, Daxton backhanded him without warning. "They are now property of the Sith, and are considered war resources. The prisoners will be sent to the reeducation camps for assessment on how they can be incorporated into our military forces, those that show potential will be given force training. They will be used to replace and augment the assets we lost during this conquest. And that is the last time you will ever question an order I gave you, is that understood?" For a brief second Daxton and junior officer locked gazes. He had hoped that the challenge he issued would be accepted but the younger sith backed down. Damn shame as the Sith warrior was still itching to spill some more blood.

 

[Cameron Centurion]

In the capital ship-congested orbit of Eriadu, a lone, matte black Infiltrator coasted casually amongst the massive war machines of the Empire. Uncloaked, for the moment, the much smaller personal transport was completely dwarfed by those there to spread the dominance and will of the Empire. While the mission and critical importance of the capital ships could not possibly be understated, they were the aggressive, obvious side of a plan that had many finer points of finesse. Well...slight finesse, anyways.

At the controls of the vessel, sat the cloaked form of Ashmedai. Silver-green eyes gazed out of the forward viewport and burned with an all too familiar intensity. Officially, he could have distributed this particular mission to some random subordinate and been done with it - comfortable to walk the surface of Eriadu and proclaim boundless glory to his general presence. However, Ashmedai had never had the exact luxury of such a pampered existence. He'd not lived hundreds of millions of years, slipping in and out of various forms as required. There was no part of his genome that gave him an advantage over any other human in its most basic of nature. Whatever he had achieved, accomplished, or turned himself into was a result of a specific paradigm of calculations and decisions made inside the blink of an eye.

So...when the subject of taking Eriadu came up, Ashmedai was of course immediately intrigued. However his intrigue did not reside in the strategic advantage of the planet, which was no small fact. Ashmedai's interest was in the ability to develop a...relationship with a specific aspect of the system that would increase both the influence and control of the Sith in preparation for future objectives. A warrior by trade, Ashmedai knew all too well that subtlety often had its places. There were plenty to carry swords into battle for this particular operation. If relations began to disintegrate with the government of the planet, Ashmedai desired a fail-safe, a back door into the very livelihood of the system.

As the Infiltrator reached the edge of the formation of Sith capital vessels, Ashmedai adjusted the course of the vessel ever so slightly and activated the cloaking device. Approaching the modest-sized orbital shipyard, Ashmedai smiled and the lack of any direction from Port Control. Naturally...they were no doubt pre-occupied with the blitzkrieg style invasion ongoing. In a matter of minutes, the Infiltrator had drifted into a largely deserted hangar, nestled softly to the durasteel deck, and uncloaked.

Seconds later, the crimson and silver cloaked form of Ashmedai descended the loading ramp and swiftly crossed the hangar floor towards a set of steel doors at the far end. Several security officials were already approaching the vessel that had more or less suddenly 'appeared' inside the hangar. The Sith Lord did not so much as break his stride as he casually raised his left hand into the air. Simultaneously, the four security guards were levitated into the air and hurled forcefully into the far wall of the hangar. The sounds of bones crushing and snapping weren't audible over the somewhat loud whine of the Infiltrator's idling engines. Ashmedai could feel their life forces extinguish all the same just as he exited the hangar and stepped into the adjoining corridor.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Moridin walked down the now empty streets dozens of his hounds walking along with him. Soldiers had stopped attacking him, citizens had cleared out. All in all this was shaping up to be perhaps the cleanest invasion that the Sith had ever done. As he stepped through the empty and desolate streets the Dreadlord began to whistle, and as he did so the hounds around him began to slink closer to him fading in and out of view whenever they stepped into the shadows. He got closer and closer to the governor's palace until finally it loomed entirely over him.

The Dreadlord looked up at the massive structure, a slight grin still on his face. Before he entered the grounds of the palace he looked above him, something inside of his head pressed at him. Above him he found the small Sith fleet that they had brought, he eyed it for a few seconds and then the ground shook.

A massive streak of light poured through the air, and then into one of the ships that floated overhead. The ship exploded in a massive ball of fire and debris. The Dreadlord watched with interested eyes as another streak flew through the air and struck another ship. That too exploded. Then massive streaks of blue and green light flew into the atmosphere, striking the Sith Cruisers and frigates and setting them aflame, it seemed that Feriae Junction had been prepared.

“Pity. Now I will have to kill them all.” The Dreadlord sighed slightly as he watched the explosions over head for a few more minutes. After only a short time every single Sith ship had been destroyed, debris and fire rained down on the capital below. In truth they probably did far more damage to the capital then the Sith would have done, but he doubted that the government of Feriae Junction cared much with Sith staring in the face.

No, the Dreadlord guessed that very soon an army would be closing in on them. Troops, ships, air support. The Sith that had made it to the planet would be hard pressed to survive, perhaps today would be exciting after all.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Kaine and his band of operatives have set up shop in the now vacant apartment complex they had broken into earlier, a mess of portable computer terminals set up all throughout the building, wires hooking into various ports and panels in the wall as the team of Intelligence Agents worked to take control of the entire network across the planet, no small feat mind you. Kaine watched his underlings work like a hawk watching its scurrying prey from above, his emerald eyes boring into the back of every one's heads, and only when he was completely satisfied with their work did he turn away and enter a separate room to make a call. He set down a portable communicator, and patched it across multiple signal locations, bouncing it off this and that, leaving dead-ends and false trails in case any other experienced figure attempted to decode or pinpoint his location, it would take then minutes or even hours to get through the mess and tangle of the web Kaine had spun. He patched into Fleet Command, and was met with Captain Braxus Stern, a man in his middle ages with a cybernetic lower jaw and left eye. The Captain saluted Kaine before bowing to the obviously higher ranking Imperial personal, Kaine bid him to rise and explained their efforts below.

"Captain, we have secured ourselves temporarily in a civilian complex and are attempting to wrench control of Junction's communication, security, and power network with the limited access we have. I have already acquired an in-depth schematic of the Capital city as well as strategical landing positions for our forces, to which we can intercept and flank the local Militia before they can pose any serious threat to our forces."

The Captain nodded and absent mindedly rubbed the metallic surface of his cybernetic jaw, before realizing his foolishness in the gesture and clasped both hands behind his back. "Excellent, my lord, I'll have this information patched to the other Captains and prepare the Assault ships for lan-" Before Stern could finish his sentence, the entire bridge on which the Captain was located was washed in a brilliant white, then red light as the hologram shook violently before stabilizing. Stern had nearly fallen from whatever the anomaly was, but quickly demanded a situation report, and when he did get it his face, what was still organic, turned a pale white as he turned back to Kaine. "Apologies lord, but one of our Beezlebub-Class Assault ships had been destroyed by some sort of planetary gun, which continues to fire on us this very moment. We're taking evasive actions, but we can't do much with it active..." Kaine nodded, "Have no fear Captain, this Gun is merely a small hindrance, but will not stop us. I will take care of it, rest assured." Kaine then cut the transmission before Stern could say anything, and turned back into the main room. "We have a new target, I want you to scour any schematics you may find for a Planetary Gun which is reeking havoc on the fleet, and I want probes sent out to search for its exact location. GO" The operatives slipped into a feverish orgy of action, the technicians quickly scouring through tons of data to figure out what type of gun they were up against, while others unleashed scout probes into the air outside, which quickly flew away into the distance in all direction.

Wherever the weapon was, they would find it...

 

[Daxton Bane]

Daxton team secured the main power grid, as his slicers frantically worked to isolate the grids under their control and those still under control by the defenders. Over the comms he could hear reports about some sort of planetary weapon shooting down their ships. It was imperative that the power be cut off from those defenses immediately.

Then with a cry of triumph, the techs gave him the signal that they were able to hack in and had isolated the power supply going to the planetary defenses. With a sly smile on his lips, he flicked off the power arrays supplying the guns surrounding the capital. One or two were able to fire one more time then the planetary guns fell silent as once more the tide had turned and more Sith transports began to land.

Once the capital fell it would only be a matter for the Sith to establish a new planetary government and then this planet would be officially theirs.