(4/20)
[member="Elayne Saedaris"], [member="Abaigeal E'ron"], [member="Nima Tann"], [member="Tempest"], [member="Anya Venari"], [member="Coci Heavenshield"]
Objectives: 1 and 3!
Objective 3
Tygara, approaching Xioqo caves
(Sio POV)
Siobhan shook her head slightly as Eyrecae stroded out. The Countess had the feeling that once again she would be forced to be the responsible one. Somehow this tended to happen whenever she and Eyrecae went out to bash skulls. It helped mitigate her own tendency towards death charging. Besides, the hammer-obsessed banshee was good at killing things.
Regardless she gave Aba a nod. The Xioquo's forces were primitive compared to the firepower Firemane had at its disposal, for they had not progressed beyond bolt action rifles and old-fashioned artillery of the sort you would only find in museums that were dedicated to ancient history before the first humans explored space, but even the Ewoks had somehow managed to defeat an 'elite legion of Imperial troops' despite only using rocks and bows and arrows. Sometimes the universe was a truly absurd place.
"It's a good idea. Probes did pick up a fracture we can exploit. We'll blast ourselves a door while Eyrecae and the natives charge." In order to make it look less like they were being used as cannon fodder, the Qadiri had been assigned some Firemane soldiers and officers to help, along with Eyrecae, of course.
The two forces would meet inside the caves and roll up the enemy. At least that was the plan. "Come on. Remember what I taught you, trust your instincts," she patted the girl who was becoming like a daughter to her on the shoulder and then quickly headed out. Well, as quickly as she could since she was still limping. Outside a flotilla of surface boats awaited them. Tygara, unlike Kaeshana, was dotted with various rivers, lakes and such, so Firemane had started building a surface fleet.
Siobhan resisted rolling her eyes at Eyrecae's dramatic speech. "She doesn't seriously mean that and they can't understand her anyway," she whispered to Aba as she boarded one of the boats. The signal was given and the small fleet set sail across the river, for Fort Kerrigan was located on an island that ironically had once served as a haven for slavers before Nantaris and Taldir ruined their day. The boats were already loaded with Qadiri and Firemane soldiers, along with some light walkers and mortar. Ahead of them lay the land of the Xioquo, though the mainland before them had largely been cleared.
Siobhan for a change did not waste time with inspiring speeches, for she expected her minions to know the score and do their job without one. Once the vessels hit the shore and the troops disembarked, they would make a break for the caves, which were only a few hundred metres away. Even though the citadel was buried deep beneath the mountains, the aura of the dark side was palpable despite the distance involved. It was a lair of evil, where oppression reigned and slavery was not just a part of the economy, but a cultural obsession. Gunships swept over the small flotilla, feeding them with information picked up by their scans and providing cover if needed.
xxx
Objective 1
Lion's Gate, Santaissa's main spaceport, Kaeshana.
(Kaida POV)
For now at least tranquility reigned at the Lion's Gate, though it was doubtless only the calm before the renewed storm. The bodies of those slaughtered earlier were still lying on the ground. Not much of a point in giving them a burial or something like that. Well, Kaida was not inclined to at this point. The long line of refugees continued to be processed through the checkpoint when her attention was called towards the Jedi approaching her.
Kaida was probably a lot less xenophobic than most of her people, but at the same time a queen. "Yes, I am Taldir. And hell is stating the obvious. For one, the planet is in chaos and a 20km asteroid is going to drop on it and kill everyone who's unlucky enough to be left behind," she said icily. Perhaps dimly a part of her realised that she was being unfair to the woman who had come here to help, but a larger part of her did not care.
However, it was at this point that the sound of gunfire and explosions echoed across the area. Immediately Kaida's jaw tightened, especially as she felt the ripples resonating through the Force. It was then that she received a call from her comm as it beeped. "Seraph, convoy reporting. We're under attack. Truck is pinned down, taking heavy..." Then the connection was lost and there was the sound of explosions.
Kaida suppressed an Eldarai curse and responded quickly. Without wasting more time she grabbed one of her officers. "Captain Ynnead, you're in charge. Keep order. I'll take two squads. Jedi, if you want to help, come along." She was not in the mood for small talk as she quickly gathered her unit of Angelii and regular soldiers and hastened to the sight of the ambush. One last call was made to Tempest. "Ambush close by. Hit them from above. We'll take them hammer and anvil."
There would be no pity. Nor would they take prisoners. All rebels would be exterminated. The unit of soldiers spread out in loose formation, each Angelii teamed up with a battle sister who depending on her role would either provide cover at range or fight up close in melee. Ahead of them was the convoy, pinned down under enemy fire as it tried to maneouvre.
A loud whoosh was heard as an RPG impacted upon one of the escort vehicles. Soldiers quickly disembarked and made a run for it, but then the explosive impacted upon the truck and blasted it, causing a fireball. The screams of the wounded were heard resonating through the Force. Then suddenly the broken truck was lifted, presumably by a telekinesis specialist among the rebels, and hurled towards the soldiers who had come to reinforce the beleaguered convoy.
Reacting quickly, with sweat dripping down her face and back, Kaida reached out with her own power and let loose a strong wind that swept towards the truck and knocked it off course, propelling it towards ruins where enemy soldiers were hiding in cover. As the flames spread she tried to take control of the situation, directing her troops. "Section one, covering fire. Spread the fires towards the enemy, shield the truck. Two, prepare to advance over the right flank." The wrecked vehicle, rubble and spreading fires would give them good cover.
Blaster bolts were flying everywhere and the bolters roared as the loyalist forces clashed with the rebels. Both of them had Force-users in their ranks, and so streams of flame and lightning shot through the air on both sides. Kaida grit her teeth as bolts of lightning blasted at her, suppressing the pain she was feeling. Shield in one hand and bolter in the other, she mowed down a rebel soldier. From above a Gunship was swooping down, raining down a hailstorm of fire through a shattercannon in an attempt to pin down rebels. However, counterfire from soldiers hidden on the rooftop of a ruined building.
Gathering her Sciia as she hastened to cover behind a wrecked speeder, Kaida focused on the area around the truck. Packed with civilians, many of whom were no doubt wounded, it needed to get out fast. So she focused her power on conjuring up a wall of thick ice around it. At first the wall was weak, it buckled under the intense bombardment of bolter fire that was shooting towards it, then seemed to melt when jets of flame connected with it, but she persisted and poured more energy into it.
A frag grenade exploded nearby and she kept on working her magic, even as she was showered with shrapnel and felt a strong pain as a shard managed to slice a small hole through her thigh, though she bit down on her tongue. Two terramancers whom she had called supported her, calling upon their powers of the earth and bending it to their will so that walls arose from the ground, sturdy and strong.
"Maeve, Gadriel, lift it and get it out of here!" she barked out, having to shout to make herself heard over the chaos caused by the orchestra of gun fire and explosions. "Saedaris, do your magnet thing." The Talon would know what to do and as the two telekinetic specialist exerted their power, the truck should be pulled into the air and slowly propelled via space magic. The wall erected around it ought to buy it valuable time, even as missile fire began to break it and the earth shook as if struck by quakes. As the wall weakened, Kaida suddenly drove it towards the shooters like a battering ram to smash into them, just as her terramancers shifted their focus from strengthening the wall to warping the hostiles' guns.
"Section Two, charge," and with that she pulled her lightsabre, igniting it in a blaze of yellow light. The ground shook as one of the Angelii's Mag'ladroth walkers, a powerhouse on two legs, descended down from the battlefield, having used those nice jet propulsion systems, to fly into action. Its heavy bolter barked as it spat out explosive bolts, its massive powersword cut down the wicked and became splattered with their blood, if they were not outright crushed beneath its feet.
Advancing in a loose phalanx in which their Taegis shields covered them, the Angelii fell upon the rebels in a blur of sarixi and sarzmigars. Piles of debris were pushed towards them with telekinetic might along with winds and hails of ice spikes, but their own elementalists responded in kind. One Angelii each would be paired with a battle sister, providing coverage both at range and up and close. One cut down opponents with the blade or the pike, the other let loose with blasts of elemental power or bolterfire.
Kaida was slicing improvised projectiles in form of debris in half and nullifying blasts of flame to protect her troops as she charged with them, when suddenly they felt the ripples resonate through the Force just after driving an ice spike through a traitor's helmet by propelling it to a speed and velocity that equalled a rail gun shot.
She grit her teeth when suddenly an unnatural force began exerting pressure upon her armour, tearing at it with violent force as if massive claws were suddenly ripping it open and bending it. Figures that she just had to fight terramancers today, for they could manipulate metal through magnetism. She tried to conjure up a shield around it and sense from where the attack was coming, when an enemy pyromancer hidden behind cover swept a powerful jet of flame towards her.
Her armour had been ripped open across portionf of her torso and the fire hit her head-on just as a spike was driven through her flesh. Her eyes glowed a crystalline blue as she let the heat come and absorbed it, drawing upon her own cold. Pain surged through her body, but the flames dissipated before her power as the cold shielded her. Having dropped down to her knee her cold eyes fell upon the enemy soldiers, then she lashed out. Her gauntlet retracted, and as she manipulated the molecules in the air all around her, a stream of intense, almost arctic cold escaped her hand. One might compare it to the effect of a super intense cryboan explosion. One that seemed to make the air itself congeal as it swept towards rebels with the power to freeze blood and enemies rock solid. Hostiles were caught in the numbing cold and frozen rock solid as if they had been locked in a freezer, then shattered as sheer overpressure made them explode.
xxx
Palace, Central City District
(Tarissa POV)
By the time her call to the Barsen'Thor finally connected Tarissa had entered the ziggurat and was heading for the command room located in a bunker far beneath the palace. Originally it had been created as a safe place for the Star Queen since Kaeshana was prone to civil wars, now it was probably the safest place to survive the current apocalypse. Of course, appearances could be deceiving. Even now her thoughts were not far from the possibility of treason and she trusted no one.
"Countess Alcori, this is Countess Cadalthor. I'm taking control of the situation planetside. What is your status? How far are you with your preparations to fire and how much damage do you expect to inflict?" she asked. Well, saying she asked was probably a stretch because she was far too imperious for that, but she was as polite as someone like her could be reasonably expected to be. As much as she disliked Tegaea, she was helping and Tarissa acknowledged that. Certainly helping more than most of the pathetic wet hens on the Council who frankly ought to be left behind to die.
Meanwhile, a certain fallen angel called [member="Cora Passek"] would be greeted by a familiar redhead at the steps to the ziggurat. It was unclear whether Eileithya had felt her coming or simply been there by chance, but the gentle healer stood there, doing her best to hide the fact that she as well was feeling the strain of the impending apocalypse.
"Cora, thank the Goddess you're alright," she exclaimed as she quickly approached the human, checking her for injuries. She placed a gentle hand on the forehead of the injured Eldorai woman Cora was carrying, using her powers to soothe the pain, and took ahold of her to help Cora carry her. "Poor dear, thank you for helping her. Come on, there's a healing room in the palace."
xxx
