Dominion Hope comes as a Boon (OPA Dominion of Farboon Hex)

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Cultists
Allies: Shira Varanin
Enemies: Darth Wyrm Grok

Now that the fuel leakage caught fire, the prisoners sought to use the fire as a distraction to escape, since the remaining guards were either trying to put out the fire or engaging the two ladies. The leaders of the CNO on Farboon finally showed themselves: a Feoorin and a Gamorrean. The huge Feoorin had dozens of kilos on her, and potentially some feet also; needless to say, only now there was enough ambient hatred to turn into bolts. But before she could let the resulting radiant sphere loose, she needed to ensure she had the right angle to be able to fire at both with a sphere hurled at speed - from behind being the better bet given her position relative to them. The sphere was hurled so fast some transsonic phenomena would be visible wherever the sphere went, if one was properly angled. At point-blank, or just somewhat outside point-blank but still rather close, that meant Janick needed to get out from the ship's undercarriage as soon as the bolt was let loose: however, the bolt only had a split-second before it would even hit anything.

 

[Grok]

The gamorrean in question used a dueling knife to lazily pick at his tusks while watching carnage and devastation wrought upon cultists with a kind of simple amusement. He let out a wheezing squeal followed by a few snorts that might have been a chuckle when Shira Varanin killed the transport pilot in a spray of sparks and molten glasteel.

"You, Gamorrean. I hope you can fight."

Grok grunted and squealed at Darth Wyrm in his native tongue. He lumbered out of his seat and hefted the mighty arg'garok resting next to him before casually backhanding the Feeorin aside. Liquid flame showered him seconds later. Most species would already be writhing in agony. Grok simply bellowed in rage, his heavy m'uhk'gfa wreathed in fire. He lurched around searching for someone to blame and crush the life out of. Janick Beauchamp was behind him now and attempting to remain out of sight while the Jedi Knight was standing in the middle of the camp with her arms raised.

He charged at Shira. Still engulfed in burning fuel the gamorrean's bloated frame took a few seconds to build up momentum. Grok raised his massive two handed vibro-ax above his head in preparation for a powerful downward slash that was intended to split her in two.

 

[Darth Wyrm]

Shoving Allies: Rude-Bear-Pig Grok
People throwing chit at us: Shira Varanin | Janick Beauchamp
Objective: Retort

Wyrm was about to retort in a haughty fashion.

Yes, certainly, this was an action-packed situation but it did not require one to be rude. Then again. What should Salvatore have expected from a Gamorrean? That was when Shira suddenly threw fire at them. Or rather oil that was on fire. Wyrm pushed to the side? Avoided it. Grok? Oh, he was dozed in it positively and started a rampage.

This wasn't the time to be apologetic however.

Not that it ever was when it came to Salvatore, but that was a different story. There was a second human. He whirred around, just when Janick gathered up some of the anger around them. Some of it drawn directly from him. "You know..." His hand rose up just as the spears ran off from her.... and a telekinetic barrier flashed into existence halfway between them.

The spears dashed into them and exploded.

A shockwave coming off of them that spread from its focal point. Moving quickly through the area. It broke several wooden planks serving as a temporary palisade for the cultists. It dashed into the ship they had just so deftly disabled, sending slaves flying. Maybe even dashed some of the burning oil around them all.

Salvatore didn't have time for any of that, since there was a witty remark to be made.

"...your inquiries are not so piercing after all."

This presumably took some of the surprise out of his counter. Maybe it would have been better to attack. The Feoorin had no regrets, because there was no substitute for flair. Right after his witty (to him) retort his hand lashed out again. Sending a spiral of lightning towards the witch.

She was a Darksider, sure, but the Crokes never had an issue eating their own.

It was considered efficient.

 

[Sol Stazi]

"You did disable the lift didn't you?"

"This section was supposed to be evacuated," Sol grunted up at Eldin Daine already picking up his pace.

Sinestra was right behind him and he shoved off the agent to reach a nearby access panel. Ripping it off the wall he wedged his anti-security blade inside but this time sparks flew and the door didn't budge. The duros cursed and pushed the blade back inside but earned nothing for his efforts save an electrical jolt. He could hear the lift coasting to a stop not far above.

"Get the karkin' door open!!" Falkrowe growled.

They were out of time. Turbolifts moved fast and once it started up again they would have mere seconds. Major Stazi growled in frustration and slapped a det charge onto the doors.

"Swing clear!"

He pushed off Falkrowe hard this time and when he began to feel momentum tugging him back he activated the detonator in his hand. It was a shaped explosive but the flames had nowhere else to go. Conflagration filled the shaft for a few seconds until the door was rocked off its hinges and the inferno licking at his armored suit receded as quickly as it had erupted.

Sol pushed himself off the side of the shaft and arced around into an occupied corridor. The Major dropped two Imperials with precise shots from his firelance. He caught a glimpse of Arryn Jhanson amidst the chaos before the sounds of a turbolift starting up reclaimed his attention. Falkrowe and Daine were cutting it close.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Cultists
Allies: OPA Shira Varanin
Enemies: CNO Grok Darth Wyrm

The slaves being sent flying was, in fact, their salvation (albeit with medical assistance, and likely broken bones and/or burns, being required later) since the fire spread out into other areas of the ship because of the shockwave that the bolt detonation has caused. The slaves couldn't have flown that far out of the wreckage, but still. Or the subsequent lightning spiral hitting an oil spill, causing the remaining fuel to explode. But the remaining guards may not have been so lucky, their leaders notwithstanding. And cause a large explosion once the heated fuel hit other areas, including but not limited to the weapons systems. There was enough of the spiral left after crossing the oil spill that she had to conjure a telekinetic barrier to absorb the bolt, as well as burning shards, so that she could get out of the burning wreckage. And, of course, her lightsabers would take care of what would then remain of the electricity of the lightning spiral.

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Starship: The "NOMAD" Heavy Freighter (Impounded).
Location: Aboard “The Matriarch” Imperial Star Destroyer.
Tags: Sinestra | Sol Stazi | Eldin Daine

Feeling dumbstruck, his head ached tremendously in pain as Arryn blinked himself hazily back to some form of consciousness only to find the Imperial Officer standing over top of him yelling a slew of insults in order to attempt to startle the drifter back to life. Groaning to himself, Ajay could barely hear himself against the pathetic string of unintelligible words he gave in response as his vision seemed to blur, a hammering echo of his heart beat resounding the ache of his mind, as if there were a continuous thumping behind his eyes.

The Officer gave him a kick, albeit softer than his previous interrogation, not wishing to be left to drag the scumbag any further than he had already. They had almost made it to the Turbolift access, when the doors themselves seemed to shudder and quake, opening manually and exposing one Sol Stazi, to the great surprise of Arryn's and the alarm of the Officer beside him.

"You there!?!" The Officer sought to draw his Blaster Pistol, "Stay where you are!" he shouted angrily.

It was the opportunity that Arryn had sought to provoke previously, some form of distraction or sign that the man had let down his guard. It hadn't exactly gone according to plan and the drifter was in a world of hurt, however the situation demanded he battle through the pain, pulling himself to a crouched position with enough reach that he could throw a wide and shameful left hook, delivered straight to the Officer's groin.

The Blaster dropped from his grip, followed by a loud shriek of horror as the Officer fell to his knees. Arryn soon baring everything he had into his right arm, striking the Imperial with a heavy haymaker to the temple and effectively dropping him to the cold durasteel floor. Arryn soon following suit as pain shot through his torso, and he grimaced, letting out a loud series of curses at his own expense.

"Who the hell are you guys!?" he demanded, though he didn't pick himself up to look there way. Not before the pain subsided a little.

 

[Eldin Daine]

Aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer
Operation Bailout
Sol Stazi | Sinestra | Arryn Jhanson


Impending doom was rushing toward them at an alarming rate, Come on, come on. Looking up and down as if that would help, best not to look at the speeding turbolift coming toward you. The shaft began to shake the closer it got, and finally the doors opened and Sol went first, Eldin second leaping through the open doors and onto the floor of the corridor in a heap. He looked back for Jude, hoping he was following close behind, but all Eldin saw was his legs. Not entire sure why the man was taking his time, he reached with both hands and using the force grab him, and yanked him into the corridor.

The commotion behind he was over by the time Eldin got to his feet. Guards crumpled on the floor and the man they had come to rescue standing demanding answers from them. Freakin' ungrate!

It was only a second, that is all it took. "You?!", recognising the man from Tatoonie immediately. "Ya rescue party who's we are", Eldin looked pissed, he did not like saving the lives of thugs no matter what information they had.

 

[Shira Varanin]

He charged at Shira. Still engulfed in burning fuel the gamorrean's bloated frame took a few seconds to build up momentum. Grok raised his massive two handed vibro-ax above his head in preparation for a powerful downward slash that was intended to split her in two.

While Darth Wyrm squared off against Janick Beauchamp , Shira hopped off the crippled starship and met the Gamorrean's charge head on. That vibro-axe blade met her lightsaber and came apart with barely a tug, but both pieces still had their momentum. The top half careened off her metal right shoulder and caught her ear in the process, a staggering hit. The bottom half, plus handle, bit deep into her cybernetic right forearm and stuck there as its vobrogenerators jittered to death. Shira crumpled to her knees with the force of the strike.

Her left hand split apart, and the Gamorrean's very large face became a very large target for a concealed blaster muzzle. It wasn't the galaxy's nastiest gun, but a blaster pistol could do quite a bit of damage to an unprotected face, especially at this range.

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Starship: The "NOMAD" Heavy Freighter (Impounded).
Location: Aboard “The Matriarch” Imperial Star Destroyer.
Tags: Sinestra | Sol Stazi | Eldin Daine

"You?!
Ya rescue party who's we are".
​

What were the chances that Eldin Daine would have shown up here, now after having also been on Tatooine the same day Arryn had been contacted for the job from the Outer Planets Alliance. In most cases, the "coincidence" wasn't something that he'd let go, but given this current condition and circumstance, these folk would have to be out of their minds to come traipsing into a Destroyer the way they had.

"Great, can you get me to my Ship?" Arryn asked as he picked himself up off of the floor, grabbing the fallen Officers Blaster Pistol in case they ran into those pale bucket-heads the Imps were so fond of using; "The OPA are paying me for a weapons shipment. I don't deliver, they don't pay" he explained. There was a metric kark tonne of ammunition and firearms stored within the freight being hauled by the NOMAD at the time the Destroyer had caught them in it's sights.

"I can't leave without my Gal" he added, "That Freighter's my life".

 

[Sinestra]

Operation Bailout,
Star Destroyer

An invisible force yanked him out of the shaft, thankfully, just as the turbolift continued speeding down following its route. Who would've guessed Sheriff Daine was force sensitive? In any case, the man had saved him. Falkrowe fell face-first on the ground with the stormtrooper helmet tumbling off his head.

"Shit." he reached in panic for his blaster but the grunt had done his job of eliminating the threat. Luckily, for the group, the target they were to bail out of imperial custody was just infront of them. Some scruffy looking kid with no future, Jude thought.

"What's it look like out there, joe?" he asked the Duros. "Can we get his ship out?"

Eldin Daine Arryn Jhanson Sol Stazi

 

[Grok]

Grok roared in exultation as he brought his finishing strike down on Shira Varanin. The berserker was too dim witted to recognize her lightsaber for the threat it posed and his squeals quickly turned sour when his trusty vibro-ax disintegrated in his hands. Still his momentum had laid the Jedi Knight low and her vulnerability triggered his bloodlust.

Pulling out a brutal looking cleaver from his scrap armor Grok moved into finish the job. He blinked stupidly at her transforming prosthetic until it was too late. The las bolt burned out one eye and left his face a partial smoking ruin. Grok dropped the cleaver on reflex and began swinging blindly. Pain mingled with rage. In a desperate bid for survival he sought to club her with his trunk like forearms.

 

[Shira Varanin]

Grok

"Oh stang it to feth-"

Firing wildly, Shira backpedaled hard and bonked the back of her head on the underside of the ship. She ducked and kept backing up, wary of a steep slope on the other side of the landing pad. But she couldn't spend too much attention on wariness: taking her eyes off the enraged Gamorrean and his cleaver was a very bad way to stay alive.

Speaking of staying alive, her right arm was a wreck and she'd taken assorted damage to quite a few elements of her prosthetic augments. The blaster in her left hand clicked empty. The moment was not conducive to the calm she needed to use the Force effectively and properly. So she kept backing up, because karked if this Gamorrean wasn't a bigger threat to her life than the last dozen Children of the New Order put together.

The slope crumbled under her back heel. She risked a glance back off the landing pad, down into a rocky and bramble-filled gorge.

"Heck."

 

[Sol Stazi]

"We're sure as hell not getting out through the lifts."

Major Stazi grimaced. He shot Sinestra a look that said running for the hangars would be a death sentence. But the Imperials knew they were here which meant their way in was now just as risky. Something told him that Arryn Jhanson wasn't going to take no for an answer. That would be a problem. He swapped in a fresh power pack.

"This way!" he shouted just before a fresh batch of stormtroopers rounded the corridor behind them.

They blasted while they ran, making a mess of the spartan star destroyer and leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Sol took a final turn and laid eyes on their destination. He twisted a lever and the hatch to one of the ship's escape pods snapped open.

"What about my ship?" Arryn demanded as soon as he realized what was going on.

Sol turned around laid the smuggler out with one punch.

"Help me with him," he ordered Eldin Daine , who didn't seem happy about it but helped him stuff Jhanson inside.

He fired up the escape pod's limited control systems and broke comm silence.

"Strike, this is Roughneck. We're cut off. Blow the hangars and bug out."

While Sol's team jettisoned from the hostile star destroyer their stealth U-Wing transport maneuvered inside its shields to commence an attack run on the main hangar's magnetic shielding. Exposed to the void everything not bolted down was violently ejected into space. Ordnance, crewmen, and one impounded freighter. Before the ship's point defense systems could activate its attackers were almost out of weapons range.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Falkrowe yelled.

The duros didn't look away, "Docking."

He analyzed the freighter's spin.

"NOMAD's rotation is 67...68 RPM."

"Matching our spin with the retrothrusters."

"Unable to plot automated course. Manual guidance is not recommended."

"No," Sol shook his head, "It's necessary."

Both Jhanson's freighter and the escape pod hurtled through empty space. Scattered point defense fire lanced wide of their position. They were already at long range and Falkrowe's staged alert would have them slow to engage sublight. Sol eased them closer to the NOMAD's airlock all too aware that a single miscalculation would send them crashing into the larger ship and kill everyone on board.

"Seal is locked. Commencing counterburn."

He used the escape pod's thrusters to ease the attached freighter out of its spin.

"Daine, get to the cockpit and get us the hell out of here," Stazi breathed out in relief, "ORION, help me carry him on board."

 

[Grok]

Grok continued to swing wildly but found no purchase. He was still blind, and began sniffing around for Shira Varanin trying to pick her up by her scent. The Jedi fired several more times, most pinging harmlessly off his m'uhk'gfa but one found a gap in the armor and seared another wound into his shoulder. The gamorrean paid it little mind. Her blaster had given her position away. Grok charged.

With no sight or weapon in either hand he pumped his stubby little legs towards Shira and although he did not know it the cliff side beyond. He oinked in triumph.

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Objective One: Complete.
Rescue Arryn Jhanson from Imperial holding, and escort him and his weapons shipment back to Alliance Command.
Tags: Sinestra | Sol Stazi | Eldin Daine

It was one hell of a move on the behalf of the Insertion Team who had managed to rescue the smuggler of interest to the Outer Planets Alliance. In an act of desperation, they hurdled themselves and “The NOMAD” through open space, the team in an escape pod and narrowly succeeding in rendezvousing with the Freighter whilst the Star Destroyer sought to fire upon them. Well out of range within what would feel like eternal seconds passing them by, the team would scramble aboard, dragging a very unconscious smuggler on deck with them.

Aboard the Freighter, they would meet with the droid manufacturing crew and discover the vessel to be a mobile setup for Arryn's private weapons manufacturing trade. The droids would however not intervene with the crew, instead programmed to continue to manufacture one of the current projects on-going under Arryn's behalf, with the vessel out of Imperial holding, they were once more free to continue their work.

As for the Outer Planets Alliance...-Alliance Command would soon be contacted by the Insertion Team, and it would be explained to them that while the man they'd rescued didn't look like much, they had agreed to employ him as a black listed weapons dealer, a discrete operation for the future of the Outer Planets Alliance and in the growing threat of Imperial and Cultist movements across the Southern Expanse.

 

[Shira Varanin]

Grok crashed into Shira full bore. (Full boar?) The Gamorrean's prodigious heft blasted her stance off balance. The last edge of the landing pad, nothing more than crude asphalt, deformed under her boots when she fought for traction. Vertigo gripped her as the ground disappeared. She and the Gamorrean tumbled clear off the cliff.

In controlled circumstances, she'd landed from much longer falls. This time she hit every bump and bramble on the way down. Metal crunched on stone as she used her damaged prosthetic arms to shield her actual flesh as much as possible.

By instinct, one durasteel hand latched out and snagged a convenient protruding rock. She felt the jolt all the way down her reinforced spine.

After a long, long moment, she started climbing back up to the quietly smoking terror camp. This day deserved to be over.