Junction Echoes of the Gravesong - Undeath comes to the Diarchy (DIA & ME junction of Brath Qella/Ancora

[Ze'bast Verd]

TAG: Aether Verd / Adonis Angelis IV / Manti Wyrvhor / Runi Kuryida / Rokul / Laphisto / Kandosii Ka'rta / Red Mobius / Vytal Noctura / Diarch Reign / Diarch Rellik / Jonah / Zara Saga / Ryu Jung / Sahan Dragr / Siv Kryze / Athena Faar

They held the line.

Each supercommando stood with conviction in their heart. No undead stood a chance against their combined efforts. Corpses fell to the ground as inanimate remnants as Mandalorian grade hardware ripped them to shreds. A mercy they only could provide to those whose bodies were unable to rest until judgement was found behind a trigger pull.

They were able to mop up more than a block with consistent fire power alone. As civilians retreated they would hold until Ze’bast determined otherwise. They were the first to arrive and the last to depart. That’s who they were trained to be. They wouldn’t leave until everyone else would find refuge.

Then it hit…

A blast that would be the punctuation of this battle. His t-shape visor lit up in reflection of the immediate light. The supercommandos would hold their fire as they braced on Mand’alor’s command. A shockwave spread out as it left behind a sweeping aftermath. The dead found permanent solstice as the destructive expansion removed flesh and disintegrated bone.

Ze’bast didn’t flinch, but he did act. A hand outstretched as he utilized the Force. The Force-bourne barrier was created from his will. He was willing to protect them all from any flown projectile that would fly in their direction. Even if they were out of the radius, he didn’t want to take any chances with stray shrapnel hitting an innocent. The man didn’t use his force abilities in the field as often as he liked, but he would show that he was the son of a mighty man.

Shockwave and debris settled as ash was left in its wake. The hordes of undead were seemingly wiped from the permacrete surfaces. A light smile emerged underneath his helm as he lowered his hand. The Super Defoliator did its job. His men and women were able to rest a bit easier now. They had accomplished what was set out before them. Though many lives were lost to the Gravesong, many more had been saved and were going to live to see another day. The fate of this planet changed and he was good to be a part of those that stood tall.

“Good people are getting to live another day. Some may have to start their lives over, but they’re alive. Remember this, vod! Remember what you were able to accomplish and how you held the line for those less fortunate. The war for us is not over yet. Though today, you rest easy knowing you made a difference,” he would speak toward those in proximity.

“Let the ancestors rejoice for we found glory.”
​

 

[Athena Faar]

Objective II

The unlikely pair soared in over the cargo platform, where other mandalorians and Diarchy fighters were gathering in a show of unity, if only as a last stand. Athena held the dragon over the platform, its broad wings beating and stirring up the hot, rancid air until an area was cleared for it to land.

Behind her helmet, Athena grinned as her passenger leaned close to speak into the audio receptors. Yeah, the Korun warrrir had to begrudgingly admit she liked the sassy blonde. The dragon rider turned her head slightly. "Just one under caf on your list? I'll take that." She quipped. "And don't worry sunshine, no one's going to shoot you when you're with me."

The dragon descended to the platform.

The Mand'alor gave orders for all to brace for impact. "Come on." Athena instructed the Diarch fighter, sliding down from the riding harness to the platform deck. She drew close to Miit'alor's powerful front leg, nearly dragging the robed saber-woman with her. Athena placed the unarmored woman between herself and the thick scales of the dragon's body.

"Get ready, big blow coming." Athena warned Miit'alor. The dragon's wing stretched over the two strangers. "Brace yourself." She added outloud to the stranger.

Then hell fell.

The blast was cataclysmic, blinding, the shockwave penetrating until even armored warriors felt it viscerally. Athena had still not seen all that had transpired in the chaos of the widespread campaign, only glimpses of what seemed metaphysical in the battle above along the tether, and only vaguely aware that Aether Verd might still be out there. Her usually cavalier mood turned sober, even as she knew the strike was sweeping away the hordes of undead , and most everything else in the blast zone, like a catastrophic typhoon.


Tag: Zara Saga

 

[Zara Saga]

​

Zara didn't brace. She squirmed.

As Athena dragged her down behind Miit'alor's armored leg like a stubborn loth cat being pulled into a vet's office, Zara let out a protesting grunt that could've been mistaken for a dying jawa. "Okay, okay... fine... ugh, you could've asked before yanking me like a sack of potatoes."

But then the dragon's wing came down, heavy and protective. It felt less like shelter and more like being wrapped in the limb of something that had survived more than she had any business knowing. The air changed. Thickened. And then the world broke open. The blast hit like the end of time.

Even under the sheltering canopy of Miit'alor's wing and Athena's armor, Zara felt it, felt it in her bones, in the faintest scream of the Force. Not just fire, but cleansing. Not just noise, but judgment. Her ears rang, and not because of the explosion, it was something deeper, a hollow emptiness where entire buildings, people, had been.

She pressed her forehead against the dragon's scales, breathing shallow, feeling heat and silence mingle like bad wine. She hated silence. It meant thinking. When the wind finally died, she peeled herself off the scaly barricade, blinking at Athena with eyes too wide and voice too tight.

"Okay," she said hoarsely. "That was… not a little explosion."

She stumbled to her feet, hair full of ash, expression somewhere between awe and irritation. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then looked out over what remained.

Ash was falling like snow. No screams. No shuffling. No Gravesong. Just... stillness. Zara didn't like it.

She turned back to Athena, lightsabers idle in her hands. "So, Queen of the Scorch Zone. What now? We hold hands and walk into the firelight? Or do we check who's still breathing and figure out who to yell at for making me care again?"

She sighed. Then rolled her shoulders.

"Also. For the record?" she added, tilting her head and raising a brow under the soot and blood.

"You're totally above caf now."

Athena Faar​

 

[Red Mobius]

Red made a controlled retreat as she destroyed zombie swarm after zombie swarm with the incredible ENCL-45 , watching them get annihilated by its energy.

Red was forced to use her damaged vambrace to call in a minor air strike from her Blastboat, still busily strafing the combat space. The retreat had been chaotic from her end and multiple Mandalorians were either fleeing on jetpack or combat shuttle, using the time bought by Red's massive weapon in some cases to head back to the cargo platform. No Jet pack to help her. Just her aim and any weapon she could still get her.

For Red, the terror of battle was that any battle was possibly the final battle of Clan Mobius. If she went down, the whole clan went down with her.

So Red fought twice as hard, three times as hard as some of the actual Super Commandos during her retreat to the cargo sight. She refused to outright run from the endless mass. It was always a steady retreat backwards. Deliberate. She would teach these abominations why the Mandalorians were feared. Why they returned again and again, ready for more.

She saw a wounded Mandalorian crawling backwards, still trying to fire with his carbine.

Red dragged him, hip firing her ENCL-45 one handed.

She didn't know how she made it to the secondary site. There was only the ocean of moving death, projectiles, explosions, and dragging her fellow vod through the chaos. She made it past the barracades just as the giant weapon finally ran dry.

She would not know it until much later that she had just barely gotten out of the blast zone before the Defoliator hit.

After she had gotten the wounded Mandalorian to medical care, she had gotten behind one of the barricades, and manned a machine gun, ripping apart yet more swarms, occasionally using her spear to skewer straggler zombies that got too close to the barricade. At one point, she dismounted the heavy gun from its tripod for greater freedom of aim and emptied it point blank into a massive swarm that had gotten closer to the barricade than others.

Then the blast wave came. The whole of the earth shook just as Red ran out of ammo on that gun and was thrown to the ground along with a lot of others. There was light everywhere, burning and bright, and a roar that stretched across the planet.

Dazed, Red rose up and looked around.

The land was silent again. The dead were still and moved no further. She spotted the Secret of Manda in the distance.

Red unconsciously stretched out her hand to what she believed to be an incarnation of the Oversoul itself before realizing what she was doing and snapped back to reality. Now was not a time to indulge religious notions.

She heard others talking about how Mand'Alor had gone right into the blast radius.

Without asking permission, Red ran over to a speeder bike and grabbed it, rocketing off past the barricade to go look for him. Mand'Alor had come for her on The Dha'Parjai, and she would be remiss not to show the same dedication.

"Mand'Alor! This is Red Mobius! Please respond! Are you alive?!" Red called out on her helmet 's comlink.

She had to search for him. Had to locate him.

Her honor demanded it.

Her sense of decency commanded it.

Aether Verd

Ze'bast Verd

Athena Faar

Zara Saga

Laphisto

Siv Kryze

Sahan Dragr

Diarch Reign

Diarch Rellik

Manti Wyrvhor

Rokul

Runi Kuryida

 

[Sahan Dragr]

Spoiler: Equipment

SHIP:

• "Ure'adtr" Howler Basilisk War Droid​

ARMOR:

• Besk'gathr Mk III​

WEAPONS:

• Tusurki'aa Ta'hye Beskad​
• M.I. Model 6 hybrid pistol​
• "O'dteyase Saranuhlr" Modified Vora-Class Verpine Hand Cannon​
• M.I. Model 12 shatter rifle​

ITEMS:

• AXC (10)​
• Mirshir Ka'esr Binders​
• Irya'kadir Smoke Bombs​
• Sasori Last Resort Cannon​
• Ring of Vision​
• Runi Ticu'r​
• Rulariyi Mandalorian Sunglasses

AMMO:

• Gas Canisters (12)​
• Slugs (100)​
• Grulyr'bedtr CryoSlugs (1 Mag)​
• RB-02 "Salt" Rounds (1 Mag)​
• RB-04 "Droid's Bane" Rounds (1 Mag)​
• RB-03 "Force Breaker" Rounds (1 Mag)​
• Tracyn'wuta Pyro Slugs (5 Mags)​
• Hurdisi Photonic Blackout Rounds (5 Mags)​

---

“You shouldn’t have touched it.”

Visions had tried to overtake Sahan's mind, but most of it was held back by the Force-suppression of his armor. Still, some got through, a testament to just how strong the relic was. But something deep within Sahan raged at being touched by such corrupt sorcery, and he shrugged it off, tightening his grip and successfully forcing Gath into the choke hold. He used the Runi Ticu'r in each of his gauntlets to absorb Force energy from both Gath and the relic to weaken them, syphoning the energy into two Kyr'lyatr Crystals

“Verd to fleet command. FIRE!”

Sahan held the sorcerer in place to make sure he was hit square by the Defoliator. His HUD warned him of Verd's approaching Basilisk. Attempting to shield me? Fool. There was no way Sahan would be beholden to any kind of favors from a Verd of all people. Besides that, shielding him would also shield Gath. So, Sahan unloaded his arsenal of Cryo Birds, the needles exploding around the droid and freezing. It would not completely stop its momentum, but it would slow it down enough to ensure the Defoliator struck true.

And strike true it did.

At the last second, Sahan's armor pumped him full of every medical aid it could, from Bacta to endorphins, adrenaline, and other pain relievers. It was not enough to prevent the excruciating pain that filled his body as the blinding light washed over him. Still, he held on until he felt the very flesh of the Dark Mage begin to disintegrate in his hands.

---

When it was over, and the air finally cleared, Sahan would be seen standing there, still very much upright. Much of his armor had been obliterated, scraps of it still clinging to him. His helmet was gone, as was his hair. His skin was scorched white with third degree burns.

And yet, he lived. He inhaled and opened his eyes. The pain was gone, most of his nerve ending having burned away. He looked down at the remains of Gath's gear. "I told you that you were nothing," he wheezed. He looked over at the Basilisk droid. "Go back to your master." He glared out at where Aether Verd was, able to see him clearly despite the burns and lack of a visor. I'll be coming for you soon, False'alor. He had already defeated and captured the man's brother once before. There was no way he would ever follow a Sith-loving Verd.

But today, they had had a common enemy. That enemy was now defeated, and Sahan was obviously done fighting for today. He bent down to pick up what was left of his own armor, Gath's gear, and the destroyed relic. He turned and hobbled away as best he could on nubs of feet without toes.

He would keep moving until he finally made it outside the city to his ship, where he would set the autopilot back to Kestri. He would need to repair and rebuild his armor.

---

TAGS: Aether Verd

END​