Mission [GA | NJO] Stopping the Weapon

[Valery Noble]

A SECOND GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR STORY
THE ERA OF RECLAMATION
Lothal

Following the battle of Ilum, The Jedi and SIA have been kept busy trying to find out how and where the Empire's new superweapon is being constructed. Early investigations have offered valuable intel on an important material in its construction, which has drawn the Alliance's focus to a neutral world in the Outer Rim

While soldiers, Jedi, and ships amass for a quick, sanctioned strike against the secretive Imperial facility there, others mobilize to handle diplomatic relations or explore the more mystical Nexus that once existed around its Jedi Temple.

But no matter what purpose you find on Lothal, it is one crucial step in securing the Alliance against the use of destructive superweapons.

I — Raiding the Refinery​

According to intel from Dagon Kaze and the SIA, the Empire's superweapon heavily relies on the use of doonium, a material used primarily in the construction of starships. As a result, a number of planets known to possess the material have been investigated, and one Imperial refinery was quickly found on Lothal. In an attempt to slow down the progress on the weapon, Jedi and GADF soldiers have been tasked with a swift deployment to the Outer Rim World, to raid the refinery and bring it down before it's too late.

Heavy resistance is expected, but the element of surprise is on the Alliance's side.

II — Rising Tensions
​

While neutralization of the refinery was sanctioned by the government, diplomats have been called to Lothal as well to further discuss the planet's future as a source of doonium, with the intent to keep it out of Empire control. But some within the political ranks of Lothal are less enthusiastic about the involvement of the larger factions on their planet, and this has created friction both at a high political level and even among the citizens of Lothal's cities.

Whether you aid in the negotiations over this valuable material or help address civil unrest on the planet over the two Major Factions fighting on their planet, your diplomatic skills will be necessary.

III — Echoes of the Past​

A long time ago, a Jedi Temple existed on Lothal and while it was destroyed, remnants of its Nexus lingered in the Force. Luke Skywalker notably commented that the site needed to open up to the Force, but he was unable to make it happen, as it refused to open up to him. Now, hundreds of years later, Jedi return to Lothal to prevent the Empire from bringing more devastation to the Galaxy, but some might find that the Force leads them elsewhere.

To powerful echoes left behind by a fallen Temple.

BYOO
Got other stories to tell? Feel free to do so!​

 

[Aschwin Vethres]

Spoiler: Equipment

Addlehorn Armor
Curved Lightsaber
Light Shield

Lothal....

Long ago it had been underneath the Galactic Empire's control until a small rebel cell managed to swipe the planet from their control. Now it was home to a large refinery which mined the item known as "Doonium" a critical part used in the construction of starships and the recent super weapon tested over Ilum. His failure on the world to protect the mining operation costed him a lot of respect from Kanollic II Vethres . His father had sent him there to protect the shipments of Doonium being sent towards Imperial Space for the construction of a New and Improved Superweapon to terrorize the galaxy with.

Small traitorous thoughts entered into his mind about why the empire needed another superweapon. The Tarkinist Administration was relying on the outline of the Tarkin Doctrine that costed the Original Empire it's dominion of the galaxy. But those thoughts vanished almost as quickly as they came. His resolve as a Knight of the Empire was to protect the citizens of the empire and the workers within this refinery. He had chosen to go alone at this time in order to protect it from interlopers and sabotage. Aschwin heard nothing but the sound of heavy machinery within the background of the walking platform that connected building from building.

Hall Section A was already crowded with Stormtroopers and Imperial Workers moving through them. His armored boots clanked against the floor as he moved deeper and deeper into the facility towards the Barracks. They were little more than bunk beds mounted into the wall to provide some level of comfort. Taking a deep breath and sighing as the creaking of the bed was heard due to his weight being pressed down upon it.

The second to last shipment for today was just about to be loaded into the transports.

"I was expecting more action from this assignment"

Aschwin said to no one but himself as the barracks were empty at this time.

​

 

[Xeykard]

Objective III | Open​

”RAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Xeykard slammed his blade against the invisible walls of the space. How long had it been? Long enough for his rage to begin to wane. Without an enemy to focus on, keeping up his strength was more effort than it was worth. His apprentice had already sat down, meditating on the floor not too far away.

“Too calm and you’ll become a Jedi,” he growled.

“There’s, like, literally nothing else to do,” Aryrene said.

“Your sorceries said nothing of this place?” His mind turned, in a futile thought, to escape.

“I told you. I don’t know how to get out of here. We’ll just have to wait until someone opens a doorway and lets us out. Or, I don’t know. Something comes to me. Meditation is supposed to bring clarity. Sith do it sometimes. You should try it.”

“No.”

“Okay.”

Xeykard snorted, stalking around the dark little room. His eyes searched for purchase in anything, but all he saw was a deep, empty darkness, that stretched forever.

No, wait...

“There.”

Aryrene peeped an eye open. “I think that’s where we came from,” they said, tentatively beginning to rise. “Let’s?”

“Mm. Come. This one is anxious to leave. Let us greet our... liberators, if they even exist.”

Something was better than nothing. The invisible walls parted for them, and the two marched together towards a small, distant light.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Lothal, Objective III
Tags: Xeykard , Open​

Jasper had been sent to Lothal to protect it's people. With the looming threat of a superweapon and the force of the Empire present, there was certainly a need to calm the panic that had swept up the planet... Yet something had drawn him away from it all. An echo, no fainter then a breeze but itched at the back of his mind. He couldn't fight off his curiosity. Before long, Jasper was on his way to the source. He had to know what it was.

It didn't take long for Jasper to arrive at the ruins of an ancient temple, one that seemed very archaic in design. It seemed to be no more than a mound-like spire, surrounded by similarly shaped rock formations. If not for the presence of a Nexus, he may have not even considered such a thing to be a temple. It certainly didn't look the part. Lothal was a strange planet to be sure. It was about as backwater and insignificant as you got, yet it had a history of Imperial tyranny, rebellion, war, and now it seemed even Force tradition. Perhaps his creator had more reason to create him and Jalen in this place aside from simply a remote local.

All of this was certainly interesting to ponder, but what Jasper really wanted to know was what lay within the structure. Surely something capable of leaving behind a Force Nexus had something of significance within it. How to enter was, unfortunately, not very clear.

"Alright," Jasper muttered to himself, "How do you work..."

Hopefully someone with more experience then him had felt the Nexus. Jasper was good at thinking on the fly, but this was well out of his wheelhouse. He didn't have to ponder this for long. Seemingly, the temple began to open on it's own.

"That doesn't seem right," he frowned.

There was something else. He could hear the faint echo of footsteps resonating from the corridors within the structure...

Someone was in there.

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Lothal
Tag | Kahlil Noble

It was odd for Valery not to be leading the front, or at least fighting alongside her fellow Jedi whenever they were called into action. Her position as Sword made it an expectation for most around her, but she was a Jedi at her core, and sometimes that meant the Force called her elsewhere. Ever since the news about Lothal reached her, she had felt a strange pull, not to the facility or its cities, but to something tied far more closely to its history.

For that reason, Valery's X-wing had descended down into the valley with large pillars of rock, and after climbing one, she sat down and began to focus her senses on her surroundings. Through the Force, she felt an almost repulsive flow closed off from the planet, the result of something that had happened lifetimes ago.

But the deeper her focus grew, the more she felt it could open up to her, like a gateway into the Force and the answers it could provide.

"Force guide me," she whispered before she closed her eyes and let her entire presence fall into the flowing river of the Force, and allowed it to guide her completely. She was one with it now, and the Force was with her to guide her mind to where it had never been before.

​

 

[Caltin Vanagor]

The last thing that evil wants...​

Location: Lothal

Spoiler: Personal effects

"Vanguard" (Secondary - Long Handle)

"CONSERVATOR" (Primary - Long Handle)
Robes, Battle Armor,Toraynor-Henkan(mind crystal added) Advanced Jedi Utility Belt
Starship: Spectre, HK-88 (NC-1000 X-wing (Jedi Variant) in the hangar, Dilorian, and Bike both in the cargo bay, the late Karki Eusith's Armor, Shield, Temple Guard Lightsaber mounted on the wall)

Foes:
Allies:

“As long as someone remains standing with a noble heart there will always be a way for good to triumph over evil.”— Chris Colfer

​

For once, Caltin was not going into a warzone to fight. He was actually going down there to do a live remote of “Cooking with Caltin”, had all of the staff there and had some things with them for a few giveaways. The big man was not going there to influence the people, he was going there to make chili and put some smiles on some faces. This was just a way to get some free advertising and revenue for the show, not to mention some new viewers.

The problem is the planet was a warzone.

That refinery that they were flying over. There was a “"Jedi Defender"Class Light Corvette” going down to it. He knew this was a problem because it was loaded with Padawans. How did he know this? A Padawan picked it up (it’s registered to her) and she was a part of yet another one of those “Paddy Packs”. Experienced or not, they would need some level of leadership down there and regardless of who was there, Vanagor would not be able to look himself in the mirror if he let them go into an ambush.

Tapping his “right hand woman” on the show and giving his wife a kiss(after she gave him an approving nod that he could go), Caltin grabbed his gear, got into his X-wing to which “Roller”, his astromech droid, was already starting up systems and dropped. His ship’s crew and show’s staff would go on to do the remote and feed (hopefully) a lot of people, but he had a refinery to help wreck.

Pitching the starfighter into a hard bank and fall, there was only one thing on his mind.

“I gave up a chance at smut for this.”

... is my undivided attention.
​

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Don't dive too deep, now."

The voice came from around. From within. A hooded figure, dressed in a simple brown robe and a white mask, stepped into view. Or, well. Blue. Everything about them was tinted blue. The mountains were gone, replaced with the fields of grass as far as the eye could see. And the hermit, casually sitting in a small clearing as he spoke. Tending a small fire with a tea kettle resting atop it.

"Come, have some tea."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Lothal
Tag | Kahlil Noble

It was him.

She didn't need to see his face or even hear his voice to recognize him — their bond had always made it easy, regardless of distance. But to actually hear him speak was confronting and difficult. Memories of that day were forced into her mind again, and so were the heavy emotions that lingered from it. Friends and Padawans had helped her find a way forward, a way to get through these darker times, but it still wasn't easy.

"Where are we?" Valery asked quietly, trying to keep the emotions out of her voice, but she was certain he could see right through that facade.

She moved over and sat down by the fire, her eyes not leaving him for even a second. It took a lot of self-control now to just sit there, and not embrace him or choke up. "Why am I here?"

​

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Away from where the Force was calling you. That's no where you should be, right now." He lifted the kettle from the flame. Tilted it to pour out a cup before setting it down before her. The figure turned back to his original seat, plopping down on the makeshift pillow of bundled grass.

"As for why, why don't you tell me? What brought you here, Valery?"

Valery Noble

 

[Ari Naldax]

​

Objective 3: Destroy the Refinery
Equipment: Blackwolf (Launchers 1&2 loaded with Proton Torpedoes, Ventral Launcher loaded with Intruder Missiles)
Allies: GA, R9-K4 "Keeper",
Enemies: Empire

Her X-wing just meters above the Ground, Ari double checked her sensor scramblers were online as she approached the target, her throttle as far up as she could go without compromising stealth. Configuring her targeting computer for the 1-km zeroing distance she'd fixed before the mission, She watched her HUD for the time-on-target counter as she rolled into the valley leading to the refinery.

"No Keeper, no backup this time. Keep the comms on dark until things get crazy." Banking and rolling as she continued down through the valley, she started to speed up - compromising her stealth slightly but using the valley as cover as she rapidly approached the target. As soon as the X-wing's computer started to highlight the anti-air turrets lining the perimeter, slowing down back to stealth speeds, Ari pulled up quickly and climbed before rolling into spiraling dive, launching a flurry of cannon shots towards the refinery as a pair of proton torpedoes launched towards the anti-air turrets.

 

[Ariana du Couteau]

Ariana Du Couteau, Jedi Padawan
Location: Lothal, Ancient Jedi Temple Ruin, Entrance to the Force Nexus
Objective Three: Echoes of the Past
Action: Find Padawan Jasper and begin exploration
Outfit (Minus the right arm)

Ariana mused absentmindedly on her data-slate, Lothal was as further east that she had ever traveled. The whole planet seemed rather uninteresting to her for the most part, aside from the fact it quite possibly was what fueled the Imperial War-Machine with its doonium refineries. That was no doubt the main reason such a large Alliance task force was sent to the planet, its seemingly government neutrality made it possible to provide cover for the Alliance operations. If they don’t yield to the diplomats of the Alliance, the military and Jedi would see that the planet’s resources no longer fuel the Imperial Order.

But as Ariana peered around her data-slate and other computers nearby, she noticed that a Padawan had ventured elsewhere from the main deployment zones on Lothal. Not overly concerning, but the fact he was alone did not seem to sit well with the young Du Couteau heir. So she grabbed a speeder and headed off to give support to Padawan Jasper, she had met him a few times before and always found him rather nice and determined with a good heart. In all fairness, the other reason she wanted to head his way rather than to the main combat zone, was that Ariana found her lightsaber skills rather lacking.

Her confidence in her ability had been taken down a few notches since the battle of Ilum, so an exploration mission sounded far better to her ears. The trip to the ancient and old ruins of Lothal did not take her long with her speeder, but attempting to locate the entrance and the other Padawan for some reason took far longer than normal. Ariana found herself with a strange sensation with the Force, not an ominous feeling but one of particular uniqueness. Very strange. . . but Ariana shook off the uncanny impression as she saw Jasper up ahead.

“Hey! Padawan Jasper!” Ariana called out as she quickly closed the distance between the two, the entrance of the ruins growing closer and finally she noticed a rather unnatural feeling inside of her. “-Did you open that?” She asked breathlessly.

“Planning on exploring this old place?” She was not enthralled with the idea, but they couldn’t simply leave this place unchecked could they?
​

|| Jasper Kai'el | Xeykard ||​

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Lothal
Tag | Kahlil Noble

"Then where should I be?" She questioned while her eyes narrowed and followed him closely. She accepted the tea he offered with a kind smile despite her curiosity and blew against it to cool it down a bit. But this was all still very strange to her — to sit here with him like this as if it was normal.

It shouldn't be possible, right?

"As for why... I'm not sure. To get answers, to clear my mind, to move forward..." she frowned and looked at the mask that covered his face. While she wasn't going to say it, she wished he'd take it off, so she could look at him again. "I followed what I felt through the Force, and it brought me here. With you."

She paused a moment and looked down at her tea, "It has been hard."

​

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"It did, didn't it? Surprised me a little. Just a little." He chuckled as he poured himself a cup. Lifted the mask just enough for him to take a sip under, but didn't remove it. He wouldn't. "You want to move forward, but here you are." An astute observation as any. He leaned back, getting somewhat comfortable where he was sitting. ".. I know. But it hasn't all been hard. As you said, you've had a lot of support haven't you?"

Valery Noble

 

[Miri Nimdok]

Objective III | Tags: Xeykard Ariana du Couteau Jasper Kai'el​

Miri arrived at the ruins of the Jedi Temple on her own, pulling up in a speeder. After parking the vehicle, she grabbed her bag full of gear and headed toward the entrance.

She was hoping to enjoy a nice, quiet solo expedition exploring the temple on her own. Thus, she was a little disappointed when she saw two Padawans standing just outside the entrance. The blond boy looked vaguely familiar, while the white-haired girl was a complete stranger.

“Afternoon,” she greeted them without pausing. Walking briskly, she would’ve continued right into the ruins without another word, had she not been hit by a presence as unmistakable as it was malevolent.

“What?” she gasped in shock. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

It was the lizard. The one a much younger and less experienced Miri had embarrassed herself trying to capture or kill. If her feelings were anything to go by (and they usually weren’t, to be fair) then the lizard was inside the ruins.

“You two stay out here,” she called back to the other Padawans. “There’s a Sith in there.”

Miri, on the other hand, was not missing out on a second chance at taking care of business. She drew her pistols and raced up the stone steps, heading straight into the ruins.

 

[Rakaan Horne]

LOTHAL - Korvan Toldreyn

​

Capital City, the aptly named capital of Lothal. It paled in comparison to the likes of Coruscant and Hosnian Prime, as well as many other cityscape infested systems. Lothal housed what seemed to be an endless stretch of rural farmland with these cities left in between them all, scattered about, but the ivory towers that breached the clouds so far overhead were hardly a sight to be balked at. It was, in the end, a city worthy of the title. Unlike some backwater ruins that amounted to little more than dilapidated mounds of duracrete.

Yet those brief few examinations of Lothal were of little to no importance. On the hunt for the creation of the Imperial superweapon, Jedi and Alliance personnel alike were deployed rapidly to assert control over the situation. Far more difficult, the lot of them found, with the remote system in the outer rim due to the distance it held from any true political entity. It was independent, wildly so, and their intervention only incited riots. To be expected, of course, Rakaan mused in the memories of foreign bodies entering the likes of Maramere in his childhood. Distant memories, mind, though once considered filled with nothingness had since become fond.

He soured, briefly, at the thought.

It was with his hands on the flight stick of the open roof speeder that Rakaan offered a momentary eye towards his former master, seated beside him. The two talked less as of late, maybe through mutual fault but not the kind that Rakaan had readily come to accept himself. But those once dull senses sharpened with experience, and there was an all too clear disturbance felt in the man he knew even better than himself.

"So," the young Jedi cut into the silent air filled with little more than the thrum of speeders, "Did you ever intend on telling me what's been bothering you, or is this where I make a million guesses and you just lie when I get it right?"

Rakaan said as much with familiar playfulness to his tone and a smile to match.

​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Lothal, Objective III
Tags: Xeykard , Ariana du Couteau , Miri Nimdok​

“Hey! Padawan Jasper!” Ariana called out as she quickly closed the distance between the two, the entrance of the ruins growing closer and finally she noticed a rather unnatural feeling inside of her. “-Did you open that?” She asked breathlessly.

“Planning on exploring this old place?”

Jasper turned back to see Ariana approach, a fellow padawan.

"I sure didn't," Jasper replied as he directed his face back to the ancient structure. "I just got here. It wasn't my plan to explore, but there's definitely something... unusual about this place. If anything, it may be worth some time."

As he spoke, Jasper could hear the sound of the feet growing. There was definitely someone in there, maybe two. The light of the Nexus made the relative darkness of whomever was in the temple stand out. It was becoming increasingly clear that the individuals who had found their way in were not Jedi.

"I have a feeling that exploring this place is gonna have to wait," he continued, tensing up his posture. "There's something dark in there... and I think it's coming out."

They were quickly joined by another padawan, Miri Nimdok, who he had met a while back when Sith magic claimed the archives in the Jedi Temple. She was cordial at first, but her attitude changed when she recognized whoever it was that was emerging from the temple.

“You two stay out here,” she called back to the other Padawans. “There’s a Sith in there.”

"I'm not doing this again," Jasper responded, thinking back to his brief time on Denon. He wasn't very fond of being told to leave, especially when they held an advantage of numbers. "If there's a Sith in there, we need to stick together. You aren't changing my mind on that."

Hopefully, Ariana would back him up. As Miri entered the ruins, Jasper followed.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

Objective 1: Raiding the Refinery | Open​

---

Starfighter: NJO - Jedi Vector Mk 2.
Apparel: Jedi Garments.
Weapon: Armistice Staff Lightsaber | Thermex charges.

---

Lothal, a planet subjected to a history of conflict and degradation under imperial decree over countless ages. Caedyn Arenais had learned of some of its histories back when he was but a student of the force. Now he was returning to the world for not a second, but a third time in order to deter the completion of further superweapons like that which took down the Crew of the Vagabond. Vaporized within an instant during the recent battle over Ilum.

While the Jedi Defender Class Light Corvette would move to assault one side of the Refinery, carrying Master Caltin Vanagor and others en route to their mission objective, Caedyn Arenais had chosen to take a different route with the intention of landing his fighter on the outskirts of the facility, then move towards the rear of the refinery seeking to enter via discretion and means of subterfuge.

Slung over one shoulder, the Jedi Knight carried a pack of remote detonated Thermex Charges, meant for the installment and detonation of key positions within the Refinery. It wasn't exactly the safest feeling, carrying explosives on his back, but it was a sure way of damaging the Empire's progression towards the construction of such a devastating weapon that had culled millions of lives with just a single discharge.

The small fighter moved low across the surface of Lothal towards the coordinates Caedyn had relayed with his peers. The low altitude was intended to keep him as discrete as possible on his approach, staying off any Imperial scanners where possible. His landing zone would see the Jedi Knight high atop the Refinery in the valley below, settling the Vector Mk 2 down atop the nearby plateau where he would then need to descend down the side of the rock bed, a massive cliff face that overshadowed the Imperial Installation.

Attaching his climbing gear securely to the front of the Starfighter, Caedyn connected himself to the thick durable rope via his utility belt and soon moved towards the edge of the overhang, looking down over the vast refinery compound. "I'd say I'm getting too old for this chit, but who's going to listen" he mused aloud with no small amount of sarcasm before moving to begin his descent.

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

I — Raiding the Refinery | Open​

Another world, another mission. It didn't matter whose sigil flew over the operation. What mattered was being at the frontlines, making a difference, standing up to those who would chain the galaxy to their oppression, or burn it down. Brand loyalty took second place in the fight against evil. To Aveline, this facility certainly represented that. It had to be destroyed.

There was a Jedi Defender Class Light Corvette heading planetside with Jedi within. Aveline's A-Wing fell in tight with it, linking up with it as it made it to the Lothal system. The effect of a a one-woman starfighter escort might be slim, but she did her part. Others were making their approaches, and a lone X-Wing was launching an attack on the facility. For now Aveline stuck to the corvette, awaiting to see how events would unfold before making her move. Her immediate options seemed to be support the X-Wing in its ground assault, or hang back and protect the corvette in case the facility had a few fighters. Until the latter could be disproven, she maintained formation.

The goal was always to make her landing, get inside, and do some damage with the rest of the team. Force be good, that's exactly what would happen too.

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Lothal
Tag | Kahlil Noble

"You want to move forward, but here you are."

Valery frowned, remained quiet for a moment, and lifted the cup of tea up to her lips for a careful sip. She then finally looked over at him again and stared at the mask as if she could see right through it. "I honestly believed I never would. What we had was special, so I thought that was it."

She paused and lowered the cup down into her lap, "But I know it's not what you'd want - for me to give up. And after all the support I've gotten, I realized that it's not what I want either."

"My Padawans have been there for me, Yula is helping babysit Vera, I'm surrounded by friends, and I reconnected with an old friend as well, who has really made a big difference," she said, now with a smile tugging at her lips as she thought about the time she spent with Aldric Laurent recently.

"But still, I feel as if there's one last barrier to cross. That something is still holding me back from really moving forward." Her eyes searched for Kahlil's, and deep down she knew that she wanted, or even needed his blessing. She would never forget her time with him but making the decision to move on almost felt like she was.

​

 

[Zorah Fel]

III — Echoes of the Past
TAG: Xeykard | Jasper Kai'el | Ariana du Couteau Miri Nimdok

​

The loud thrum of the transport's engines chased away the silence of the ruins. The transport touched down amidst swirling grains of sand. It's ramp lowered and a squad of black-clad troopers spilled out, battle rifles poised to shoot, and set a perimeter. The point man, Sergeant Kinnard, pushed up to the base of the steps and raised a single fist.

Zorah stepped off the transport, her red cape rippling in the gentle breeze, bright white armor gleaming beneath the sun. The Fel heiress was a Guardian trained for the battlefield, not a Cleric, but her more religious leanings towards the Force were well known in certain Imperial circles, and so she had been dispatched to unearth the mysteries of the ruined Jedi temple on Lothal. She glanced at the speeders parked off to the side of the ruins, at the sets of footprints in sand. Hn.

"Sergeant?" she called out, suspicion worming its way through her gut. "Move up."

The ten man squad moved in near perfect synchronicity, climbing the steps two at a time, marching on silent feet.

​