CORUSCANT | NEW JEDI TEMPLE | TEMPLE STEPS "LZ MALGUS"
OBJECTIVE 1: King of the Hill [Warposting]
War was the most elemental form sentient beings knew of how to express their emotions and needs, of how evolution was man-made and accelerated for the benefit of the adversaries. It was not something you could contain in laws of war, basic rights or any other so called 'civilised' order. It was pure, it was undiminished and it was fair. Any schools, any academies, doctrines and higher theories were swept away, made meaningless by the blank nerve that was hand to hand combat, every shred of honour, ideal of valor and pursuit of glory drowned in screams of pain, the reek of blood, feces and smoke and an almost infinite amount of
violence.
The soldiers of the 181st Legion were well trained, some grey veterans, others freshly inducted. All drilled and known to warfare, knowing war and battle. It was their profession, a duty to the Empire, a craft they learned and pursued to perfect through discipline and not a small amount of idealism that they fought for something worth it, that the New Order was what it promised. They proudly displayed a dragon on their armor, in
honour of their patron and their own belief of bravery and power.
But war, here, today, was different.
The sometimes red hue of the Coruscant skyline was almost entirely drowned in black smoke, fires and the warships of the Alliance and Empire. The air was aflame, the tension that was felt by probably every of the one trillion inhabitants of this place too much to bear, it was overwhelming, fierce, paralyzing. This was not another sacking, it was not a deed of conquest of two warring states. It was
annihilation, not of physical matter, but of spirit.
The Stormtroopers of the 181st, the Dragonguard, had been deployed among the first waves between the New Jedi Temple and the Senate District as a rear-guard for the LZ Malgus and as a connector to the assault groups further West, LZ Vitiate. What had started as a normal deployment, as a common combat drop and in equal means urban warfare and crowd control engagement, had turned into
hell.
They fought not only the Alliance Defence Forces in brutal, defiant one on one combat, but also militias, armed civilians, droids. There was no differentiation to who was on their side and who was not. Worse, there was no clear signaling of who was who for the orbital and strike craft crews, bombs and turbolaser fire devastating the enemy and allied equally. The breaking point was close, the Stormtroopers suffered horrendous losses, yet among them stood veterans of the Second Great Hyperspace War and their
defiance, their courage held the troops together.
Violence. Honour. Annihilation. Hell. Defiance.
For the Indomitus Legion, this was their life, their devotion, their mantra almost. Even if they were not aware of it to a large degree, they were indoctrinated and limited in their independence through the
Black Celestant upgrades. They fought utterly without mercy, compassion or hesitation. They did not see their brothers and sisters falling, they took their place. For them annihilation was not an absolute - it is duty.
Their phalanx hit the Einherjar, shieldwall hit shieldwall. Honourable defender clashed with merciless aggressor. In between Jedi, Sith, Alliance soldiers and Stormtroopers crossing blades, discharging blasters, screaming, shouting, bleeding, perishing. The steps were filled with corpses, craters, debris, fallen weapons and fire, the defenders still maintained the higher ground, overseeing the attackers landing and deployment zones, abusing their vantage as rockets and heavy repeater fire went above heads into the next ranks forming.
Indomitus Knights were clad like knights, black armored with fine, red robes, tabards and capes, but they had nothing chivalric about their being. They were devastators, annihilators, reapers and exterminators. With heavy blaster carbines and pistols fired from behind large blast shields they advanced, methodically, step by step. One brother or sister fell - the next took their place. But it was not with the blasters they achieved victory. Axes, swords, maces - they wielded their melee weapons with deadly precision and zealous ferocity.
Some Terminus Destroyers wielded larger versions of the Arma Saud against groups of defenders, turning them into smoldering slack and a distant memory before a Jedi jumped between them and cut one down, two, her green blade suddenly parried by a white lightsaber pike, one of the Nihilus Praetorians, the Force users of the Legion, interfered. Lightning shot forward, white and almost too bright to look at and cooked the Jedi in her armor, melting her flesh with her light leather armor.
The Einherjar and their massive statures stood against the augmented Knights, the heroes of Midvinter fought the champions of the Empire. A tragic slaughter that would echo far further and leave deeper scars than any of the warriors could imagine. Their leaders who fought previously back to back, now had their loyal brethren destroy each other, here on the steps of a temple that was neither's home, future or past.
The Imperials pushed, they threw themselves in zealous ferocity but with iron-willed discipline and determination against the defenders.
And yet this battle was just beginning.
CORUSCANT | NEW JEDI TEMPLE | TEMPLE STEPS "LZ MALGUS"
OBJECTIVE 1: King of the Hill [Duel]
A massive man, a Jedi, a Master. A Rock upon which the imperial forces shattered. A stormborn paragon of virtues unachievable and pragmatism yielding hypocrisy. A sentinel, a shadow, a guardian of the Jedi, a warrior that was devoted and had embraced combat, physicality and war, yet would not accept or even remotely agree that the gap that was between them, grew narrower just as the physical one did as Imperius approached. Both had chosen war.
Imperius was not a talker, he did not enjoy or see the reason for mindless chatter during combat, throwing back and forth petty accusations and attempts at insults. For him, the weapons spoke. His actions spoke. They echoed through eternity and would be heard long after the bones of all around him had fallen to dust.
The first such statement, was the weapon he wielded. Darth Malgus' lightsaber had been here before. It had shed blood on these grounds, against the same enemy. Even if they would deny it. It was the same enemy. Jedi. New Jedi. Je'daii. They were all the same. Just as the Sith were all the same. Their subtle connotations of philosophy and history were mere spits in the face of the definition of different. He did not care. His blade did not care. A white robed Temple Guardian fell from his blade, having cut open his guts and then beheaded him, Imperius stepped across the corpse towards Caltin.
They turned into a mere scheme, a flicker in the air, another, higher level of chaos amidst the cataclysmic pandemonium that were the Temple Steps. Imperius did not merely attack, he unleashed himself against the Jedi Champion. The Dark side obeyed like a perfectly drilled battalion, it was his to command. It gave him everything.
Imperius became the
Righteous Wrath of Tyth himself. The erratic pacing of Juyo melted with the precision of Makashi and the power of Djem So. His blade came in for strikes, jabs, cuts and slices, battering not merely with strength, but technique against the grim Lightsider. Yet it was his speed that made him truly dangerous, even for a Force user, even for a sophisticated warrior, his aptitude for speed was exceptional. But it was not without opposition. His cape pierced, a cut across his pauldron, a punch that drove air from his lungs, even through the armor. They fought, unleashed and unshackled, titans clashing.
Don’t look at me like that. Like I’m not going to stop your advance. I don’t have to. I’ll slow it down enough, Caltin exclaimed, bracing his saber with both hands. Long enough for someone better than me to end it.
The Warmaster had just cut down two Alliance soldiers who thought they would claim the day, his blood sprinkled vizor now turning to his enemy again.
"
There will be no end. There is no peace, no quiet, no tranquility or harmony. Only Eternal War. And I am its herald."
The Nihilus Paladin was almost jumping forward again to continue the duel. It was not personal, but it was tactical, it was sensible for the Lord Indomitus to destroy this bulwark. With such a noble and inspiring leader fallen, the defenders would lose one of their foundations here. But a tide of counterattacks swept in. Stormtroopers, War Droids and some lesser servants of the Emperor clashed with defenders until they were violently and explosively eradicated by a misguided drop pod. Imperius would have been in the blast zone, but one of his Legionaries jumped between them, his shield and body taking the rocks and debris, shredding him with neither dignity nor remorse.
Nevertheless, they made progress. Step by step.
Imperius butchered a Jedi, merely striking him down in a casual side notion as he dismantled two of the Einherjar with a Force crush, their entire insides turning into little more than a mush that would not support life anymore. He did not merely fight, his thoughts raced, his brain worked far beyond comprehension as he re-organised the assault columns and gave orders to Indomitus, 181st and Valor alike, analysing the information in a swift sweep and giving wordless commands to the HUDs of his lieutenants.
He turned and spotted the bastion of a Jedi again. He was wounded, he could see it even if the utter defiance and indomitable willpower of the man tried to compensate or even hide it. He was impressive. A shame that he fought for a cause that was worth less than the debris below his sabatons.
"
I will take and raze your temple. I will annihilate every living memory of it, everyone who remembers it. Every bit of history of your pathetic order, eradicated. Every member, exterminated. That is the only victory, the only goal worth achieving." His voice was cold, powerful, measured. It was not boasting or propaganda, it was a chilling promise.
His right hand came up, the four fingers cramped as they unleashed a barrage of concentrated Force lightning, purest purple as it sprang from his gauntlets and towards Caltin. Yet, it was a feint, a cover. It was the blinding effect and power behind it that he used, catapulting himself forward into a jump towards his target, just to unleashed his ligthsaber, Malgus' lightsaber, at the place where the first sacking had started.
Aris Noble
Xuko Pagoi
Everest Vale
. Tigri's fiance was somewhere with in the Temple. "Be well, Angel." The sentiment echoed through their bond. 
