I've Gotta Feeling That Tonight Is Going To Be A Droid Night (GA Dominion of Abregado-Rae)

[Elmont Block]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATyMEKJw7U0

Elmont’s hands played over the cockpit controls as he did his best to keep the conversation flowing. “Listen, time is of the essence. Every minute you procrastinate is a chance for your enemies to run. My information is too important to be delayed. If you don’t hurry, your bosses will be mightily displeased.”

There was a short pause. Clearly, the captain was starting to recognize that he had more here than he'd bargained for. Just as clearly, he wasn't ready yet to back down. “Who is to say I’m not the one in charge, and that I know what happened. Why should I waste time? Why shouldn’t I just blow you out of the skies now?”

Elmont listened to the words. He was better face to face but the Force had a way of sharing emotions with him – of telling him if people were lying. And he was sure he could press ahead with his own version of the truth right now. “You must do what you think is right, Captain.”

He braced himself. Seconds passed and a bleeping from his cockpit controls told him everything he needed to know. He flicked a switch and in a split second he was in hyperspace.

 

[Kingsley]

Location: Epiphany Station
Objective: No Rest For the Wicked
[member="Asmus Janes"] [member="Choli Vyn"] [member="Kairon Rees"] [member="Keric Dynt"] [member="Riimaurus"] [member="Aeshi Tillian"] [member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Alexandra Russo"] [member="B'enor (Ben) Benjeel"] [member="Rashae"] [member="Sareen Zar"]
7


Shadowport Cantina

Captain Brunner and the crew of the Lady Liberty were the last of the Merchant Fleet contacts to arrive that day. After enough time spent catching up with their former squadron leader in to the ship's first mate Russo, the current CO Janes repeated the specifics of the job to the Captain and any among his crew that were there and willing to listen. In a week's time, the rogue One Sith Imperials would be unloading precious cargo nearby Epiphany in exchange for a king's ransom in credits from the local criminal element. The military firepower could be destructive enough in the wrong hands, so it was their job to steal it right out from under them. The bad news was that the deal was going down on an ImpStar, but the good news was that their intel said it would only be manned by a skeleton crew. When Kingsley got confirmation the exchange was going down, the freelancers would draw off the destroyer's fighter screen before Rogue Squadron attempted to disable the capital ship's engines and board her, disrupting the deal and making off with the cargo.

In the meantime, they would each go their separate ways and spend a week on the station blending in to throw off the scent of any forward scouts sent by the Imperials to make sure a trap very much like the one they were setting wasn't lying in wait. The others would spend the time in their own way, but for his part Kingsley had a job to do. The Grand Captain had charged him with a sacred task to stand watch and fill in any stragglers about the plan, and if that task meant sitting in a cantina drinking a good portion of his cut from the upcoming job away then that would just have to be the Rishii's cross to bear. A few others showed up over the next few days, sent his way by Kyros' comm burst. For the most part, they were hired muscle with no ships of their own. Drunkenly weighing the pros and cons of working with hired killers, Kingsley took a few of the most intimidating on as 'personal protection' to fill out his freighter's crew.

When on the day of the exchange his contact actually checked in, the very hungover Rishii had to deal with a horrible realization that had not occurred to him before. He would not actually find a convenient excuse to stay behind after all, these people would actually expect him to put himself in danger today. It was an even more sobering thought, and once he had commed the others he figured sneaking along a little extra liquid courage for the day ahead wouldn't be the worst idea in the galaxy. It took him a full ten minutes longer than usual to go through the start up sequence of his bulk freighter.

"Thishh ish the Greater Fool to rrawwk! Rogue One, Lady Liberty and friends," he finally managed on the encrypted comm line they had set up between the craft, "Uploading mark's coordinates now. I'll uhhh....follow your lead rrrawk!"

 

[H3xle]

::LOCATION::​

Epiphany Station​

​

"Thishh ish the Greater Fool to rrawwk! Rogue One, Lady Liberty and friends," he finally managed on the encrypted comm line they had set up between the craft, "Uploading mark's coordinates now. I'll uhhh....follow your lead rrrawk!"

The message roused Keric from a light nap he had been taking in the cockpit of the fully refinished Aurora. All of the systems he had ordered and had sent to Epiphany station had been fitted into the ship, tested, and tweaked. The ship looked good for it's age too, Keric having had time to add some touches here and there to the ship.

He tapped the comm unit on, then off on the same channel, the only recognition he would give until they had gotten into the thick of it. He didn't want to give away the Aurora's purpose just yet. He cleared his departure with the station, cleared his moorings, and sped out into space. He then clicked on the intercom.

"We are good to go, man the guns, we are about to misbehave." He switched the mic off and sank his body into the custom leather seat of his command couch. Everything accessible from there was customized to his body, so flying this ship was the most comfortable he could be. Hence the nap.

Throughout the space around Epiphany, Keric saw some of the commerce ships turn onto headings that were similar to his, while others continued on to the station. A butterfly in his stomach fluttered, as he had several long minutes to think about what he was about to do. Good thing the GA was paying more than nothing for this.





[member="Asmus Janes"] [member="Choli Vyn"] [member="Kairon Rees"] [member="kingsley"] [member="Riimaurus"] [member="Aeshi Tillian"] [member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Alexandra Russo"] [member="B'enor (Ben) Benjeel"] [member="Rashae"] [member="Sareen Zar"]

 

[Rashae]

Rashae had a way of listening without appearing to be paying attention. If no one thinks your paying attention, they usually pay you no mind. The bonus factor was that you picked up all kinds of knowledge. The raven haired ice princess listened closely to the details as there was more than one ship. A huge cargo vessel and other vessels providing fire power. As they went to their ship to prepare something bugged her about the whole thing. It was too late now to say anything but her gut was telling her something.

The cold analytical side said to not be silly that there was no scientific proof of anything going wrong. The other side reminded those analytics that there was not enough information. Something was not adding up at all. There was a collective sigh within as it escaped in a husky exhale that could be construed as a bored sigh. As she got to her little medical bay, corner, whatever you wanted to call this her thumb was tapping her datapad non stop as she organized things in her head.

Once the doctor got the secured channel filted down to her from the captain and their first mate she started coordinating with the other medical personel on the other ships. They seemed to be surprised they actually had a Doctor to refer to. Maybe this wouldnt be too bad, maybe her paranoia was kicking in again. Who could blame the woman after what she had been through?

To the collective medical personell (NPC or PC): “This is Dr Rashae Lovous, signify if your stations are up and ready, get those medbeds warmed up and your equipment prepped. Triage is as follows: green are walkie talkies, blue are moderately wounded, red are critically injured. Any questions?”

She would wait an appropriate amount of time before crisply and efficiently ending the transmission. “Lets have an eventless flight shall we? Dr. Lovous out.”

She turned the internal channel . “Captain . Medical coordinated and ready. Captain? This nerf stinks” She reported crisply. She made a face that settled on an unsettled disconsolate expression. The proverb of the fish stinks comes from an old Alderan saying. Nerf meat if not preserved well spoil and smell within three days. It was placed on circumstances that if the longer they were in it, the smellier or worse it got. That delicate long index finger tapped the medbed rhythmically and slowly as she mulled over what little details she had.

[member="Asmus Janes"] [member="Choli Vyn"] [member="Kairon Rees"] @Kingsley [member="Riimaurus"] [member="Aeshi Tillian"] [member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Alexandra Russo"] @B'enor (Ben) Benjeel [member="Sareen Zar"][member="Keric Dynt"]

 

[Logen Brunner]

Location: Aboard the Lady Liberty
Objective: No rest for the wicked
Allies: [member="Keric Dynt"] [member="Kingsley"] Rogue Squadron and other freelancers
Crew[member="Alexandra Russo"] [member="B'enor (Ben) Benjeel"] [member="Denn Ralto"] [member="Rashae"] [member="Ponyboy Reynolds"] [member="Sareen Zar"]

Logen Brunner, the smuggler captain of the Lady Liberty sat in the co pilot seat of the modified L4000 transport. The bulky freighter looked like a banfa but had the mobility of a sand panther in retrospect. Was enough juice to keep the gorgeous pilot happy and her talents unwasted. Gave the captain confidence that they can dance with the fighters for that was the job at hand. Tasked with keeping a OS remnant fighter screen occupied with the legendary rogue squadron proceeded to their objective. The captain would glance over to Alex, pondering to himself if she would rather be flying with her old wing-mates instead of a rag tag crew of misfits and outlaws.

The all hail from [member="Kingsley"] interrupted the thought, the data screen before him lit up with the coordinates to the mark. "Looks like we be green light!" He would relay to Alex. That would be when the Dr Rashae Lovous came over internal comms reporting her station and of course adding her two cents in. " Copy that Doc! Now about them negative waves you keep projecting on me" The captain was highly superstitious, especially just before a risky mission was to be launched. " We have had this talk before, it does not bold well"

He could not tell if she was always this gloomy or she just did it to piss the captain off out of pure entertainment. Maybe a little bit of A and B. But Logen would tolerate it, for how often does a small operation such as his get their hands on a overly skilled medical professional to work in the dank cave of what is called the ship's infirmary. Well, use to be dank till she took over. Had to spend a few creds to keep her marginally appeased.

Logen would begin the astrogation process, plugging in the coordinates and plotting the safest course for hyperspace travel. " Listen up! We are about to go for jump. Want you all in combat stations ready to roll!" Ben would be the hopper from tail gunner to engineering. The trandoshan was to be tasked with Port side turret and once They were in hyperspace, Logen, would be taking up position in the starboard turret.

The captain clicked the all hail " Lady Liberty is green, Making jump to Mark in one Mike!" The count down was on and the Liberty would be the first to go. She had the bulk to take a few hits while they play chicken with the fighter screen. Tactic to keep the initiative on their side. Logen kissed the corellian coin pendant that hung from his neck. Was another ritual he did to please the gods of luck.

 

[H3xle]

Spoiler

Post number 8, just to keep count.

::LOCATION::​

Abregado-Rae System​

::OBJECTIVE::​

Atrisian Relief​

[member="hk-36"] [member="faith organa"] [member="draco vereen"] [member="Rhen Qel-Droma"]​

​

Jaina's ship slipped into orbit roughly three kilometers from The Dancing Queen, and Jaina was already on the vid screen trying to figure out who to contact to offer aid for the Atrisian Relief. She had tried for some command structure of the relief convoy, but they were awaiting supplies and orders from the Lord Protector. She then tried to ring the planetary government, seeing if she could set up a meeting with the Lord Protector through his office, but the extremely polite droid refused to patch her through as he was rather busy.

Jaina had expected some hoops she'd have to jump through, she was, after all, a complete outsider with only a small contract on the planet. However, she knew she could provide excellent aid to Atrisia, and she knew that even with a relief aid discount, it'd be a net gain for Morgain Industries purely on a PR and name recognition stand point. That was the reason she continued to try to contact the Lord Protector.

"Dr. Morgain, I believe I have a channel that the Lord Protector is monitoring. It is heavily encrypted, so I have no idea what is being said, but the priority on all of the messages is unique to this channel. It doesn't appear to be standard military, especially on a droid populated world." The com tech on the other side of the communications desk told her. Jaina smiled and nodded.

"Give me the line." She said, then waited. She tapped a few keys once she got the channel frequency, and attempted to open a channel. "Lord Protector, you likely don't know me by more than just name. I am Doctor Jaina Morgain, I run Morgain Industries. I was informed that you are assisting the preparation of a relief convoy for Atrisia. I would like to offer the assistance of my company to that effort. Please let me know when I can meet with you or any others who are helping to plan the convoy. I look forward to speaking with you."

She sent the message off, and then sat back to wait for any response.

 

[Alexandra Porte]

Location: Aboard the Lady Liberty
Objective: No rest for the wicked
Allies: [member="Keric Dynt"] [member="Kingsley"] Rogue Squadron and other Freelancers
Crew: [member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Rashae"] [member="B'enor (Ben) Benjeel"] [member="Sareen Zar"] [member="Ponyboy Reynolds"]
(2)

The Maka-Eekai L4000 Transport hummed along as Alex lovingly got the ol' girl up to speed while the boxy freighter made its way towards their exit vector. The brandy-eyed brunette looked over at the Captain of the Lady Liberty, who for the moment was gracing her with his presence in the co-pilot's seat handling the navigational duties and comm. She listened in on the conversation he was having with the lady doctor, and just couldn't help but snort softly to herself.

"I'd be mindful of that one… She just might surprise you sometime when you least expect it, then watch out," Russo winked at the grizzled Corellian, then went back to prepping the ship for their upcoming jump. All ship systems were green across the the freighter's control board. Now to keep it that way on the other side. "Oh and if you're wondering, no I'd rather be here with you because your caf is better," she added, knowing seeing and working with her old squadron again would bring that question up.

The Taanabian caught the serial ritual of Brunner kissing his pendant for luck. The former fighter jockey had one too, but Alleycat wasn't about to tell the old flirt she was wearing her good luck panties that had gotten through each battle so far.

" Lady Liberty is green, Making jump to Mark in one Mike!"

One mike seemed like an eternity, but it really wasn't… unless you had bogies on your tail. Then, it was. Which wasn't the case presently. Just a case of nerves wanting to get the car on the road so to speak.

"And here we go… May the Force be with us and clear skies prevail."

When the nav computer counter went to zero and the alert beep sounded, Alex pulled back the hyperdrive lever and watched with well-rehearsed anticipation as the stars suddenly outside the ship became streaking white lines while going to lightspeed.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Objective: Cleaning crew
Allies: [member="Siriwook"]
Post: 18/38

While Siriwook prepared the sherbet, they had to hurry to drink what sherbet they could using the cups at their disposal, they were to enjoy every single drop of sherbet, in hopes that their Force-energies would recharge with each drop of sherbet they take. Admittedly, the Wookiee needed to recharge her Force-batteris more than she herself did. Delicious: I taught her a few spells, there are two left for her to teach before she can be a spellweaver, but the second doesn't seem to have the right opportunity just yet, even though the term spellweaver was Dathomirian in origin. But her Force-sense detected that a patient was having a cardiac arrest somewhere in the facility. Her idea was to teach the Wookiee apprentice to use a variant of Ionize as if a defibrillator, called Force-spark, which can mutate into Electric Judgment for the more advanced practitioners. Also Force-spark can be used to recharge powerpacks. Usually she would advise people who want to learn EJ to use it for defibrillation or recharging batteries, if they learn it before they reach a sufficient level of power to weaponize it.

"There's a patient requiring defibrillation, admiral"

"Roger, roger" she responded to the nurse, while rushing with Siriwook to the location of the patient requiring defibrillation. "Here's the thing: this is a spell calling upon to summon an electric spark. Visualize the spark and where you want the spark to materialize. For now, you will use it for defibrillation. You will find it a little expensive in energy, but you can also use it to recharge a bowcaster or other everyday electronic items"

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

Location: Aboard the Lady Liberty
Objective: No rest for the wicked
Allies: [member="Keric Dynt"] | [member="Kingsley"] | Rogue Squadron and other freelancers
Crew: [member="Logen Brunner"] | [member="Rashae"] | [member="Alexandra Russo"] | [member="Sareen Zar"] |[member="Ponyboy Reynolds"]
Post Count: 2

Ben hadn’t exactly paid a lot of attention to the funny-looking bird man in the cantina. Figuring the captain, first mate, and the doc had it covered. At one point, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the doc attempting to appear disinterested in the conversation, but Ben knew it was just a sly ploy. On the other hand, he wasn’t just pretending, he really didn’t pay attention. The information he did catch was gathered between stealing drinks from unsuspecting waitresses and ogling the gambling tables in the corner. He thought he heard something about the One Sith, a payment, and a Star Destroyer. It sounded like a good time.

As it got closer to when the Lady Liberty, Rogue Squadron, and the rest of the Merchant Fleet were to deploy, he noticed most of the crew grow tenser, a little more serious. Sitting in the oversized (for him) tail turret, Ben heard the doc broadcast, then the captain, and then the pilot – right before they leaped into hyperspace.

He was bouncing in his seat as they soared at light speed. He’d heard from Alex that the caf was good aboard ship, and so, he’d stolen some earlier. He did it partially out of curiosity, wanting to know if it was better than the other time he had caf aboard ship, and partially because he knew it was forbidden, which never failed to make it taste that much better.

Granted, it wasn’t nearly as much caf as he had before the… incident, but because he was so wired, and because he frankly didn’t quite understand what they were getting themselves into, he tried to lighten the mood by joking over the ship-wide com, “Hey, my talents are more wasted in this tail gunner seat than a Twi’lek dancer before giving a happy ending to a Hutt, you sure you don’t want me to drive? I bet Alex would be fine back here.”

He then made sure Shorty was uplinked to the ship. His droid was 90% his eyes-and-ears when Ben was stuck behind a turret. It wasn’t a small ship, and even with his extraordinary senses, he couldn’t always tell when his sweets patogga needed him. When she did, he could sometimes fix her by calling on Shorty to reroute power, divert shields, seal chambers, or do one hack job or another on the ship’s mainframe. When all that failed, his priority was always to sweets patogga, not the turret.

Ben swiveled in his turret in anticipation, energetically making pew, pew, noises as he did.

 

[Siriwook]

[member="Cathul Thuku"] mentioned someone going into arrest, but Siriwook has already detected it. As they rush to get to the patient in time, Siriwook thinks through the needed actions. She doesn't think about how she's attempting to do something she's never done. She must trust in the Force. Lives are at stake. She must know how to save them. "[So I will act to protect Life]," she thinks her motto, as she's told herself time and time again whenever time has been against her. So she starts from the assumption that it's possible and she knows how to do it and works her way back.

She knows from her experiments with cold and heat, acids and bases, that there are things called charges--differences between areas. She remembers the thunderstorms of her jungle moon prison exile--how the air felt right before it was about to crackle with energy. As they run, Siriwook gathers needed charge with each footfall. Sprinting through areas of obstacles has always been one of her strongsuits. Whether she be dodging blaster bolts or poisonous plants or hospital beds, Siriwook can easily close the distance. Before long, she can see the patient seizing. She can see the heart crackling with energy, the muscles seizing in all the wrong ways. Perceiving around her though the force, she sees how each heart keeps its own rhythm through electromagnetic firing. All it needs is something to get it going again.

Siriwook runs up, places her hand just above the patient's heart and releases a charge that jumps through the organ and back. The difference in charge generated by its leaving causes it to jump back into Siriwook, much as lightning made a complete circuit through the air.

As the charge jumps back into her, Siriwook feels pain in her hand. Something inside tells her she should have let the charge go back into the ichor, like when she used cryokinesis and had the heat go somewhere. Her hand flies away as her muscles uncontrollably contract. She tells the nerves to stop firing in her arm and immediately replaces her hand over the heart. The heart still isn't beating. Her hand recharged again from the returning arc, Siriwook releases the energy back into the patient's heart, this time allowing that charge to be sucked back into the spirit ichor instead of striking her.

The heart's storm of misfires is silenced by the bolt's initial pass. As it returns, Siriwook can see the fist-sized muscle squeezing itself. "LUB DUB, lub dub. LUB DUB, lub dub," she hears. Like the hooves of a four-legged animal, the heart has begun galloping again.

Siriwook, however, is reeling in pain. The bolt's path back into her has left a mark upon her arm and her hair stands on end. She squeezes and unsqueezes her fist. Her hand feels a little numb. Why hasn't she practiced this before, on power cells? Siriwook waits to see if the patient has survived this jumpstart or if, in her haste, Siriwook has killed someone. She holds her own breath until the patient gasps. What's wrong? What has caused the patient to seize? Something seems off about the patient's eyes.

Siriwook looks around. There's something--a medicine? The Force speaks to her--the patient's heart was misfiring from a medicine. No-- a mixture of medicines. Siriwook looks at their arm--the patient has used stims recently. Frequently. Beside him, she can see a non-standard medical device has been used.

 

[Faith Organa]

[member="Rhen Qel-Droma"] [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="HK-36"]

"Jedi Qel-Droma what of the young king and his supporters. Have they been taken into custody?" She didn't know much about Mythos, his son Adas, or anyone who had supported the family in their bid to take over Atrisia again. She did not know how to feel angry for certain look at what they had brought down on Atrisia. But from all she had heard he was a child, who watched his father die she could only imagine how that tore at his young soul.

She didn't know how to help with that. It was like that when she looked at Sith, they destroyed her home she had no love for them.

Faith closed her eyes for a moment, then reached down to pick up her daughter. Everything was ahead of them, she was nothing more than a steward for all intents and purposes for her people, her home, and her family.

"I'd like to be able to go back to Atrisia as soon as we are permitted." Was she repeating herself? Lack of sleep from the night before could be playing with her memory..damn...

For a moment she bounced Laira who laughed all while taking in everything around her.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Even Draco didn't know what had happened to the young king, and he had been fighting him right before the battle ended. All he knew was that the king's last chance to help heal Atrisia had been spent trying to have some droids ambush about a dozen Jedi Masters and their supporters inside the palace.

"A lot of bad happened to Atrisia. Historically they never looked favorably on Force Users, and then during the battle, their outsider, Force User king and his allies used Dark magic several times and cost them a lot of lives. I doubt they will be begging for another like him. Certainly not his offspring, who may have attempted to use the people like Suicide bombers. We aren't sure what was meant by 'get the people out and rig them.' I would think they would desire a native leader, and likely a little more checks and balances than a dictatorship." Not that there was anything wrong with such governments. Most Mandalorian clans were dictatorships in their very nature, with leadership only exchanged by passing the title to another or by ritual combat.

"What we should do is get in touch with whoever the ruler or stewards were during the King's lengthy absence." Considering how long the king had ruled, and how long he had been gone, there had to be someone that had been present all that time, or had the houses just come together and ruled themselves until the One Sith's imposed government had returned. Theo patted at him, pointing at something with his little hands. It was nothing special, just a flower with an odd color, different from the rest that had caught his eye.

"Oh, you wanna go see it." Draco started to stand with the little boy only to be answered by a dejected whine. "Fine, fine. Walk yourself." He said setting the little one down and holding his hand while he was lead away from the conversation to go look at flowers with his son who babbled incoherently and excitedly, toddling along, barely and unsteadily walking beside his father.

[member="Faith Organa"] [member="Rhen Qel-Droma"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Elpsis Elaris"],

"Anyone here? Guess not,"

The droid guards stationed in the hall did not answer as it was their duty to act only to keep the peace in case someone was about to be harmed. They did however glanced to each other when Elpy activated her lightsaber while she thought she was alone before venturing further down.

The machines didn't act however, they waited until she was out of sight, going down further into the catacombs below before one spoke to the other.

"There is nobody else in those catacombs, right?"

"No, everyone is busy celebrating, only Jedi and treasure hunters were scheduled to visit the Catacombs during the festival."

"And her lightsaber was not red."

"Not our problem then."


The spiraling staircase would end in another durasteel door and on the other side was another hall, this time no statues, no guards, this time underground. A steel-grey carpet would lead down the elongated room, ending at the base of a large seat fashioned out of brute looking black metal. It was a throne, and seemingly it was forged entirely out of blades. Axe heads, maces, and swords of many cultures, plenty of them of Bando Gora origins, molded together to form the throne, protruding from the back of the seat like rays of sun, sharp radials stretching out like a fan.

Elpy could sense the Force from some of them, clearly few of the weapons the throne was made out of were Force imbued, in fact a couple of blades attached to the back of the throne, in much better condition than others, were tainted with the dark side, Sith alchemy, if Elpy would inspect them closer she could tell that it would be possible for her to force the swords out from the throne and bring them along with her. Whether that was a good idea or not would be entirely up to her.

On the walls, if she somehow managed to read it, she probably wouldn't, there were verses, combined together the message would be,

Lady Protector with Fiery Head sits in Fondor on her Pyre,​

The Mand'alores sit on their Throne of War,​

From Coruscant Reigns a Politician, Chosen and Dismissed by the People​

On Korriban There Wallows The Lord Of The Sith in his Dark Domain,​

But on Abregado There Sits The Iron Lord On His Iron Throne,​

And He Will Be There Still When All The Other Wither Away.​

​

Behind the throne there would be another door, this time much larger and ornate than the ones Elpy faced so far. Behind it, somewhere within hidden depths there were even more Force signatures, she did not face much trouble just yet, but something could probably tell her this was the last safe area before the real danger started.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Procopia
Objective: Buy an island
Post: 1/?

Arys Jaxson was waiting patiently, briefcase sitting in his lap. He had been sent by Taeli Raaf to procure an island on the planetary capital of the Tapani Sector, to establish a medical and biotech research and development facility for Aurora Industries. She had gone on to Enigma Prime to oversee the testing of their next invention and secure ATC help in that process, but she had given him carte blanche in dealing with the ruling houses of the planet.

Politics was everything on Procopia, almost unhealthily so. The houses of the Tapani Sector were constantly bickering, fighting private wars and engaging in espionage to undermine their rivals. It was really a cutthroat type of world, even sector, and it was this atmosphere that Jaxson had to negotiate in. Given what was in his briefcase, he was sure price would not be a major concern, and he had a few ideas that would entice the council to agree to the purchase.

"Mr. Jaxson, the Great Council is ready for you," a secretary said. Jaxson stood up, smoothing out his suit and making sure his briefcase was still secure.

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Keric Dynt"] @Kingsley @B'enor (Ben) Benjeel [member="Alexandra Russo"] @Rashae
No Rest for the Wicked
2/X
---------------

Aeshi sat bolt upright, breath racing as a comm beep echoed through her dreams. She couldn't remember what they were, but they dark and terrifying. A sheen of sweat glistened on her skin as she pulled her shirt on over the tank-top, followed by the boots and gun-belt. The pistols settled comfortably onto her hips as she strode into the cockpit. Her co-pilot strode in after her, eyes hidden beneath his feathers.

She slipped into the captain's chair, strapping herself in and powering up the engines. They'd detached from Epiphany Station some time earlier to avoid suspicion, just taking on a few more loads of... questionable cargo. Not illegal here per se, but elsewhere was a different story. It was an excellent cover story and if it went well, should earn her profit above and beyond the hazard pay.

Which was perfect. It'd give her enough funds to really establish her trading post. She powered up the ship's engines, its deck vibrating beneath her feet. Aeshi grinned. Nothing was near as exhilarating as being at the command seat of a starship. A very fast starship, at that. The StarDream began to speed away from the station, coordinating a jump to lightspeed. Not a straight one, but a meandering jump that would still get her to the rendezvous point as one of the early arrivals. She hit the lever and the ship jumped to hyperdrive, weaving its way through before dropping back into realspace.

"This is 3-9-7," Aeshi said through the channel, using her rebel cell designation for the first time, "Arrived at coordinates and ready to initiate the plan."

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


Until a couple of threads ago, Elpsis' lightsabre had been red. She'd taken it from a dead Sith on Ossus. Then she lost it during a raid on Corellia while saving [member="Symara Tarriq"]'s cute butt. She'd eventually made a new one, after [member="Coryth Elaris"] had taught her how to build a lightsabre in the first place. This time her blade was orange. Orange and yellow seemed to be standard Fire Order colours.


Anyhow, she continued on her journey through the creepy catacombs, which looked like something straight out of a D&D dungeon, which was probably intentional. Coincidentally, Elpsis was a fan of Galaxy of Fantasy, though she was not really capable of playing it anymore since she was bloody blind.


Regardless, eventually she ran into a throne, which seemed to be forged entirely out of blades and other melee weapons. There was an unmistakeable Bando Gora design. Elpsis could not really appreciate the runes and archaic script, but she could sense the Force from some of the objects.


They were like beacons of darkness. One called to her and she reached out without thinking, her fingers touching the hilt of an alchemised Sith sword. "Welcome, mighty one. Draw me and unleash my majesty." Visions of victory and glory followed, filling her mind.


Elpsis winced, feeling as if she was basking in dark power. The visions were so vivid that they seemed almost real. Her breathing intensified, then slowed when she centred herself and pushed the vile influence away. "Creepy blade that talks to me and mucks with my head? Nah, no thanks," she quickly removed her fingers, as if they'd been burnt.


"I carry in me the knowledge of the ancients! My strength is unmatched. Together, we shall forge a great partnership and destroy your enemies. I will take their blood, you will gain victory. Draw me..."


"Dude, Mum told me not to accept candy from creepy strangers and climb into their van," Elpsis retorted. "Or take spice. This is the same, just with better special effects. Sod off. I'm not a deluded puppet of the Black Wolf," she turned around.


"With me, you can see look into the future and manipulate it to suit your own ends. You can harness the power of Sith magic and achieve immortality! Free yourself from your superstitions and achieve greatness," the sword declared, trying to dig into her mind.


"Immortality's overrated. Sure some dumb Sithy will pick you up. Toodles," and so Elpsis left the throne and walked through the imposing, ornate door behind it. Doubtless things would become more serious and dangerous now.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Alexandra Morrow"],

Abregado's population was actually about 50% native Gados, 40% free droids, and 10% combination of other species like Humans, Wookiees, Herglics, etc, most of them either mercenary veterans from the Protectorate or their descendants. So while the droids didn't had majority on the planet, and may never will, it is getting pretty close to that point by now.

Either way, Morrow's commander was right in that no combat was expected in the system, the droid dictator ran a pretty tight ship when it comes to the security of his citizens, although the machine was more or less benevolent and progressive in his reforms, including job and housing projects along with raising minimum wage to improve standard of living and minimize domestic crime, the last time a pirate crew tried to raid Abregado their captain had his kneecaps blown clean off by the droid and then literally dragged through the street and thrown into a prison cell. As such, pirates seldom tried to get close to the planet or bother merchant convoys with Abregado escort.


Unfortunately, Abregado was not without their enemies and they were long time due for another larger scale assault attempt by the more unsavory types of the Galaxy.

​

​

At the edge of the system, almost outside of the long-range scanners Morrow's squadron employed, a series of ship signatures would enter the system. They were a mismatch amalgam fleet of battle-scarred ships. Among them were few older Mandalorian models, remnants of the Death Watch sect HK fought against since the Siege of Mandalore and took part in breaking apart, they were still hungry for vengeance for it was their leader who attempted to raid the planet only to be humiliated by the droid. Then there were some Hutt Cartel-made ships, even from before the Cartel was recently re-formed, pirates, smugglers, mercenaries HK chased off of the planet and hunted throughout the sector regularly, they had their own reasons for disrupting his rule.Then there were swift cruel-looks black ships that darted about the task-force, the crude vessels belonged to the Bando Gora cult, you could never really fully get rid of them and considering the droid's lengthy campaigns against their holdings when he still served the Protectorate, they were always up for a fight against him.

These resources and factions were pulled together by unknown means, a group of investors who preferred to remain disjointed from the assault yet wanted the machine gone, and the fleet itself was lead by a mysterious and brooding flagship.

It was a small cruiser of seemingly ancient and eldritch design, one not familiar in the current state of the Galaxy, one not seen around since the days of Ancient Republic. Decrepit and elder, yet armed with armaments and shields that could rival contemporary models.


Aboard the dark flagship sat a droid, an HK unit forged from black metal with crimson glowing photoreceptors that washed his face in the red light like blood dripping down his faceplate,

"Alert the other vessels."

The machine spoke, glancing to one of his helmsmen, another black HK unit,

"Engage the cloaking devices."

"Aye-aye."

The other droid responded, the Captain Droid looked out of the viewscreen towards Abregado, a glimmering marble far off in the distance of space.

"Soon we will be together again, brother."

The plot thickened!



As suddenly Morrow's squadron would be able to pick up the signatures entering real space on the far edge of the system they would disappear from their scanners, at least for now, the cloaking technology raider fleet used wasn't anything cutting-edge, just standard generic cloaking devices plot npcs would have access to. But perhaps there was no ships entering real-space in the first place, maybe it was just an anomaly on their devices?

Or maybe it was one of the civilian ships entering the system or leaving to deal with the humanitarian relief in Atrisia.

It was this chaos and sudden burst of activity in the system the fleet was depending on to get them close to the planet.

All in all, it was a mix of ships that could provide a challenge to Morrow's squadron, although nothing that would be impossible for them to face on their own.



[member="Jaina Morgain"]

Jaina would receive a reply soon enough, it wasn't difficult for a machine to multitask, plus HK was able to send electronic messages without an external communication device,

"With all due respect, Morgain, my ass is being ridden pretty hard right now,"

Always a good start to a conversation,

"If you want to speak with me you will need to get in line of other company representatives who I need to slap around for attempting to use this travesty to finally carve out a foothold on my planet."

Jaina was right in that the droid didn't heard about her, but for once he refrained from rubbing a fact like that into someone's face, the message already came off a bit hostile, geez,

"If you brought any ships with you, I believe that [member="Cathul Thuku"] has a medical fleet of her own you could cooperate with, the Dancing Queen and initial response fleet is still unloading the wounded and refugees on Abregado, we will be making a trip back to Atrisia as soon as the process is complete to bring in more supplies and establish rebuilding and field hospital efforts. You can go down to the planet, I will be meeting with one [member="Faith Organa"] and [member="Rhen Qel-Droma"], representative of the Jedi Order to discuss the ongoing humanitarian efforts and future plans for the ruined planet as soon as I am done with these bloodsuckers from corporate sector."

That was pretty much all Jaina would need to know to find her way, at least at first, around the whole mess.

 

[H3xle]

[SIZE=14.6667px]::LOCATION::[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=14.6667px]::Abregado-Rae System::[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=14.6667px]Lexi watched as the launch clock counted down. Her breaths were deep, and in sequence so that, as the clock struck zero, she was at finishing her exhale. Gee forces pushed her into the padded back of her command couch as the Knight class fighter launched into space. The last few tests executed via the astromech droid socketed into the back of her fighter, verifying a hard seal all over the fighter, and activating shields and weapons systems. Lexi toggled the shields to half on, and the weapons to warm. They weren’t expecting trouble, but standard operating procedure for Alliance pilots on patrol was to maintain a state of readiness. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Espada Squadron, maintain proper distance. Make sure your shields and weapons are operatio…” Mikel Alferson, their squadron CO, started the normal spiel for the beginning of a patrol, but fell silent mid word as he watched one of the Knight class fighters go inverted and approach another.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Lexi, in Espada Three, slowly accelerated, trying to maintain position while Delka, in Espada Eleven, creeped into her position while inverted.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Espada Eleven, get back in formation or you will not see the inside of a fighter except to clean it out for the rest of your career.” Alferson’s voice was beyond wintry, the ice was shivering in the cold that emanated from the comm channel when he spoke.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Delka spent a moment staring at Lexi through the canopies, then peeled off and retook his position on the far end of the formation. Alferson finished his spiel, the ice in his voice never went away, but it did warm closer to normal as he finished.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“You five by five, Firebrand?” Chun asked over a personal channel.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Five by five, Earthbound.” She replied, she was more angry than anything else, but no reason to vent over radio when there would be booze in the bunks later.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Espada Squadron, and their attached bomber and interceptor squadrons (Broadsword = Guardian, Rapier = Inquisitor), formed into a wide ‘V’ formation, the Interceptors took the flank positions, the bombers took the center, and Espada filled out between. They worked their way in a long elliptic centered on [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]The Dancing Queen[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]. Their farthest point was roughly twelve light minutes from their mother ship.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]As they reached the apex of their elliptic, Lexi noticed a strange blip on her sensor display. It was at the extreme edge of their sensor envelope, but it looked like several large footprints. Then, almost before she could full give her attention to them, they blinked off of her display.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Espada-Three to Espada Leader, I had several large phantoms on my screen,” She spoke, giving the code phrase Phantom for something that appeared and disappeared before it could be reported. Several other pilots on her side of the formation corroborated the phantoms.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Roger, Espada-Three. Do you have any readings for mass, direction of travel, or drive signatures?” Alferson asked over the squadron channel.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Negative on mass or drive, they blinked out faster than my sensors could pick up. Direction of travel looked to be for [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]Dancing Queen[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] and the planet.” She reported.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Alright, this could have just been commerce popping in to do a quick reset on their direction of travel through hyperspace, so we may not find anything. I’m radioing it back to the [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]Queen[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] and we will go check it out.” He replied, then began to give orders to reorient the formation into a search pattern aimed at the last point of contact, traveling along the presumed axis of travel for the unidentified ships. The squadron heard Alferson report the contact and phantom status back to the [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]Queen[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px], then received official authorization to check it out. By then they were already on the way.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]As ordered, Lexi swung her fighter onto the trajectory and toggled shields to full, but kept her weapons warm instead of hot. In all likelihood, this would be a wild goose chase after some sensor ghost. [/SIZE]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Elpsis Elaris"],

The pleading cries of the Dark Side imbued blade in the throne room for her to grasp it would be an overarching theme of Elpy's journey as she moved past the heavy door that marked the actual structure of the Sepulchral. Already as she moved away from the calling of the sword trapped within a throne there would be little respite as new cries would slowly start to claw at her mind. The new voices were emanating from deeper within the twisted corridors of the catacombs, they were far away, but already Elpy could tell they were reaching out towards her mind in far greater numbers than what she experienced in the throne room. Some of them were borne of the Dark Side, some of them from the Light, some were friendly, just glad to have a living being to talk to, perhaps offering guidance to the blind redhead, nudge-nudge [member="Delila Castillon"], or seeking out an attempt to play tricks on her. Some offered pleas for her to show mercy and carry them out from their prison, some tried to bargain greater power of the Unknown much like the sword in the throne did, some simply tried to threaten and intimidate Elpy into bringing them up from underground before she even reached them. All of them seemed desperate, starved from contact of beings they could actually communicate with, or influence. Keen on escaping the horrors that lurked deeper within the bowels of the tomb, beings even they feared.

This was just level 1, the Archives.


As Elpy made her way down the corridor and the voices of the artifacts hidden at this level of the Catacombs begun to get louder and louder within her mind as she neared the relics and trinket the memories and spirits were bound to, she begun to pass what looked to be smaller statues or suits of armor standing within built-in alcoves at each of her side. They stood a motionless vigil, silent and calm, lifeless, although as Elpy passed, one of the suits turned its head ever so slightly to follow her motion although no hostile movement. Perhaps she noticed the soft shift, perhaps she was too busy dealing with the needy ghosts of Force's past, either way, with every stepped she passed more and more of these suits.

Every few steps she would pass over a threshold built into the floor of the corridor, as if the hallway she was venturing down into was constructed in segments, or it had built-in blast doors that could came in from the top.

Either way, soon enough she would come to a fork in the corridor, there was a path to the left leading into a room, from where soft whispering of a spirit begging to make a deal came prodding at her mind, another similar room stood to her right, there was a voice emanating there as well, although it did not came in words, rather it was a continuous soft humming. And, of course, there was a path leading forward into the continuing corridor, further down into the bowels of the tomb-structure where more artifacts and ghostly lingered.


[member="Alexandra Morrow"],

"Sir, we picked up on signatures of a patrol group coming in our direction."

One HK unit spoke to the black model sitting in commander's chair aboard the stealth flagship of raiders' fleet.

"Good, we needed to cause a diversion. Are the Bando Gora still pleading to allow them to enter combat?"

"They have not shut up since we entered real-space, sir."

Black HK nodded, motioning out towards Morrow's squadron with a casual wave of his hand.

"Tell them we have a target for them. And divert our course, arc towards the planet, no reason to make intercepting the rest of us an easy task."

"Aye-aye!"


The space was cold and calm as the Squadron made its way through it, sailing towards the last known destination of the phantom fleet. As the Queen gave a green light for them to check it out, a passing remark about how this was probably nothing was made, after all it was years since a pirate attempted a raid at the old Protectorate Fortress World or even a trade lane anywhere near it. Unfortunately, these were not just common pirates.

The space was cold and calm as the Espada Squadron sailed to fulfill their duty, another day at the job, another day closer towards their fate. The tranquility of the vastness of the Void was suddenly and violently interrupted as out of thin air brilliant flashes of blue and green light erupted, streaking across the inky blackness towards Mrrow and her fellow pilots.

For a second it seemed as the very stars suddenly boiled up in anger and begun to fire at them, at least until the cloaking devices of enemy ships dropped and black elongated shapes would be seen darting towards them like arrows. They were the Bando Gora needle-nose fighters, lightly armored and crudely made models, each seemed to be harshly formed out of wrought iron and there was little uniformity between them, but swift and highly maneuverable, with fast-firing laser guns to make them efficient as interceptors.

The mass of light craft that came screaming at the Espada Squadron was the small craft of the raider's fleet, the quick, the ugly, the crazy. There was something wild and mad in the way the Cultists flew their ships, as if every one of them were Delka, and high off their ass on spice. They cared little for their own safety, in the jerky swift maneuvers they would even attempt to ram Espada's craft with their own ships, or simply collide into each other, or shoot one another one in feverish displays of wanton friendly fire, all in the name of simply spreading death, killing more and more enemies whenever they could, at whatever cost.

 

[HK-42]

HK-42 was taken to the mechanic's shop, where he was upgraded to have the same independence as [member="HK-36"]. After several hours, he is released with these upgrades.

​"Amazing...I am now finally free of my standard Programming...YES!"

He'd jump in joy, and runs off to the bridge, trying to find HK-36 to thank him.