Public Korbin's Darkest Hour: Defense of the Free Port! (Mercs Wanted!)

[Tibera Jessen]

Korbin’s Darkest Hour

For centuries the planet of Korbin has been a den of piracy and chaos, a spark of anarchy amongst order. Since the first settlers set foot on Korbin, it has stood in defiance of the rigid structure of The Core, and remained a free planet. Now Korbin must once again defend itself from those who wish to strangle the free spirit of the planet. Just days ago an entire fleet of ships established themselves in orbit around Korbin, erecting a powerful blockade.

This massive raiding fleet, headed up by three Imperial Star Destroyers and their complement, are remnants of The Dark Empire. Smouldering embers seeking to light the fires of Imperialism once again. Standing in their way are the various underworld elements and mercenaries that have managed to evade the eyes of The Empire. Their objective? To resist and strike as hard as possible at the heart of tyranny.


Objective I: Resist

The first city on Korbin to fall under the boot of Imperialism was Pleasant City, the capital of the world. After days of fighting, the army of criminals, mercenaries, and pirates fled into the mountains to regroup. There they took refuge in the smaller city of Peace, an irony lost on many of the fighters there.

Surrounding this small city is a force of walkers and men that seeks to break the resistance of the united army of scoundrels. There is only one option for those amassed in the city: Survive.


Objective II: Bite

In order to rout the forces of The Dark Remnant, their fleet must be dealt with, and this task falls to a ragtag flotilla of pirate ships and military vessels that managed to evade the blockade. To these unlikely heroes alls the unenviable task of destroying the flagships of the enemy. Once those ships have been destroyed, it is expected the dozens of screen ships will scatter from whence they came.

 

[Hubert Starhopper]

Objective: Kark Kriff Up



Tags: Tibera Jessen

Gear: Tool-Kit, Custom Blaster Pistol, Portable Rotary Blaster



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Destroying those ships is about to become a hell of a lot easier.

A spark...

"C'mon..."

A jolt of power...

"C'moooon..."

A pop and a hiss...

"FATHER KARK-IT! COME! ON!"

A dancing of the lights begins to envelope the cockpit, like a river of electricity flowing through its old eroded path after a drought. Systems begin to come online, guns, scanners, transmissions, name it- one by one they all give a green light in response to Huberts tinkering. After the systems came the body of the beast. The core of the machine steadies, the body straightens with the head, then the legs begin to pick the AT-AT up off of the ground with a groan of disagreement. Metal squalls and chafes as the monster stands, and Hubert takes the controls, laughing like a maniac on a spree of their choice.

He had managed. It felt like hours that he had been trying to revive this bastard under fire, taking pot-shots around the corner of the cockpit, piling Imperial corpses at the door until they had to climb over their allies to even advance on Hubert. Engine grease and grime completely covers any bit of flesh that is exposed, which at this point is his arms, neck and head as he stripped of his leather jacket and tied it around his waist, dawning only the sleeveless shirt he had underneath. Pinched between his teeth is a lit cigarra, billowing smoke from its end up, and out of the massive hole in the top of the AT-AT's head. With widened eyes, filled with a carnivorous gaze Hubert sets forth the walker, its heavy feet crashing a slow pace along the floor. He takes aim at the ships and begins to let loose with the cannons, laughing psychotically as he has temporarily lost his mind, and himself in the battle, running purely off of adrenaline and instinct to get himself through this.

He had come to this damned planet to drop off a delivery he had been smuggling for days. QUite literally as soon as he stepped foot outside of his ship, the shooting started. He always finds himself in these situations rather abruptly, with no real time to prepare. But- his luck has carried him this far, he just needs it to push a little further.

"HEY! HUBERT STARHOPPER HERE! WATCH YOUR AIM ON THE AT-ATS, IM IN ONE OF 'EM!" His words are shouted into the transmitter of his hump-backed zombie- now tuned to local frequency- with a wild haphazard panic. Thankfully, it isn't hard to tell who he needs to shoot at, but he's worried not all pirates are clever enough to realize that one of the walkers is aiding them.

"IF'N ANY'A YOU GOT HEAVY GUNS, SHIPS, LAUNCHERS, WHATEVER- KEEP ME COVERED! I'MA KEEP FIRIN' 'TILL THIS THING DROPS DEAD AGAIN!"

He aims the cannons in the direction of a ground unit pushing up on the barrier defense, and in two shots, they're nothing but fleshy debris and red mist. The cannons set back to the ships and he squeezes. The blasts ring out in rapid succession, each bolt slapping its target with such a force that it only took a few shots to take down the first ship. That laughter pours from Hubert again and he throws his head back, pulling back on the controls a bit, and in response it's almost as it the AT-At rears on its hind legs just a bit like a mount in the wild.

"ANYBODY LEFT OUT THERE ON COMMS? COULD USE A BUDDY 'BOUT NOW!"

 

[Rixa]

OBJECTIVE 2

The Wayward Star lurched free of hyperspace with the lazy roll of a drunk waking up in the wrong bed. Rixa pulled her boots down from the control console.

Outside the viewport the stars steadied themselves. The planet became visible. There were three white slender knives ahead. Imperial Star Destroyers. She couldn't truly make them out at this distance but the sensors identified them.

Rixa let out a slow whistle.

Her thoughts sharpened with the thrill of the charge, her grin turning feral.

Sial Renn leaned over a secondary console. She was calculating the many unpleasant ways an Imperial blockade could ruin their day. The mirialan was an engineer Rixa had rescued from a slaving ring.

"Boss, those are full capital killers. This is not a skirmish. This is suicide."

"Suicide is only suicide if you fail," Rixa replied, rolling her head back over the arm of the chair to look at Sial upside down. "Besides, Korbin has my favourite bar."

"This isn't going to be pretty," Voro muttered across the fresh cigarra he had lit. He was at the nav console, looking at the ragtag flotilla that had arrived around them.

Voro was a leathery skinned Nikto with a face full of old scorch marks. He was the closest thing Rixa has to a voice of reason. A muttering, pessimistic old man who had survived as a pirate for decades. Always fear an old man in a career that kills the young, as the saying went. He had a true knack for plotting micro jumps.

"Voro," Rixa said as she leaned over the controls. "Pick the vector that makes us look like we know what we are doing."

Voro grunted. "That assumes we do."

"Exactly. Let them quake."

And with that, she plunged her ship alongside a half-mad pirate flotilla straight towards the blockade.

 

[Hubert Starhopper]

Objective: Kark Kriff Up



Tags: Rixa Tibera Jessen

Gear: Tool-Kit, Custom Blaster Pistol, Rotary Blaster



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The walker continues to quake the ground in its wake, each step sending another shockwave through the hard ground that could be felt above most else. Imperial corpses, forgotten about by their killer- begin to jostle free from the entrance of the AT-AT, and fall haphazardly to the ground below with each monstrous advance Hubert makes. Again, and again he sends blasts ringing out towards their foe. The humor of all of these pirates and criminals banding together would make Hubert chuckle if he weren't so dead-locked on his current task. Needless to say, most of these brothers in arms were probably gunning for one another just before this all broke out, given the nature of the pirate. But now, they all move in unison, like some sort of hivemind had taken the reigns, forcing them all to set aside their respective beefs and band together.

A volley of blasts slam into the head of the AT-AT, knocking Hubert backwards away from the controls, and flat onto his back. A knee to the walker buckles, and it drops forward at the lack of command- giving Hubert another spill within the cockpit. He lifts into the air and comes slamming back down as the walker settles on its knee, taking more fire to the body now.

A growl of frustration comes from Hubert as he stands, pushing through his winded state to take the controls once more. The Durasteel plating on the side of the walker begins to cave in with each shot it takes, a larger and larger bubble continuously growing within the interior until finally, one of the blasts pierces the metal and comes ringing through the interior.

Huberts ears begin ringing, all-else is muffled in comparison... He looks back to see the damage, and witnesses a shower of sparks and flames springing free from the massive hole in the side of the AT-AT. But, it's still on... He wrenches the controls, and the machine lifts, and slams its buckled leg stiffly into the ground, rattling structures, and shattering nearby windows with the amount of force put behind it.

As the walker stands straight again- Hubert unleashes a volley back towards his attackers, a primal shout of rage pouring from his soul as he fights with everything he has to keep it. But suddenly, a rumbling starts... And he knows that it wasn't from anything he did...

What is that in the sky..?

 

[Tibera Jessen]

Location: "Dirt Town" Slum District, Peace, Korbin
Objective I: Resist
Tags: Rixa , Hubert Starhopper

In space the void fills with flashes of red and green, explosions dot the depths of space as TIE, Screen Ships, and Scoundrel Vessels clash over the planet of Korbin. One thing Korbin was, was independent, and independence required defense. Every able ship was on hand to defend their home. They had even activated some anti-ship defenses in orbit to help throw back the massive Imperial flagships. One massive battlecruiser of older design floated towards the defending fleet. "The Predator" as it was called, was the pride of The Dark Remnant, and it was causing havoc amongst the defenders.

On the ground things weren't doing much better, AT-AT's and Imperial tanks were rumbling their way up the mountain pass, surrounding the city of scum. One of the outer districts referred to as "Dirt Town" by the inhabitants, was turning into a firestorm. Hovels made from sheet metal and cloth were being crashed through by Stormtroopers and hired muscle alike. Heading up the defense of the ground was Tibera Jessen, who had become an ad hoc general, she coordinated the defense from the center of the fighting.

She hunkered down ontop of a hotel not far from the slums, one that was being raided by incoming troops. She gritted her teeth as she forced her tired body up the stairs. It was there that she saw it, TIE's had broken through the space defenses, and were headed straight for Peace.

"Cripes! Someone get me a force-damned comm-pack! I need to get in touch with The fracking Skyshakers!"

The Skyshakers in question being a massive set of cannons not far from Peace. They were able to shell targets in orbit, but those TIEs would be too fast for them to hit. If those fliers made it through, they'd be able to blast one of the strongest defensive measures the planet had. The worst part was, the damned cannons wouldn't be in position to strike of the enemy fleet for thirty more minutes, when the western hemisphere of the planet would be facing the fleet.

"This is commander Jessen to all units in range! We gotta protect our cannons for 30 more minutes, then we'll be able to hit back! So dig in your fracking heels and if you don't kill every trooper and TIE you see, I'll blast ya myself!!"

 

[Hubert Starhopper]

Objective: Kark Kriff Up



Tags: Rixa Tibera Jessen

Gear: Tool-Kit, Custom Blaster Pistol, Rotary Blaster



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Hubert barely hears the voice coming through the comms of the AT-AT. A commanding voice shouting orders to defend the cannons, and focus TIEs. The sound of battle is joined by the creeping cry of dozens of TIE fighters beginning to swoop into the atmosphere. Hubert leans out of the hole where the front glass once sat, peering up into the sky at the swarm of ships joining the battle.

Panic begins to set in a little, and Hubert freezes for a moment as he watches them approach. It isn't until a volley of bolts slam into the face of the AT-AT around him, scaring him back within the interior. He looks at the systems screen, and in between it's fits of static- Hubert sees multiple alarms flashing, one of them being the core temperature getting to high.

"HUBERT HERE! THIS WALKER AIN'T GOTTA' LOTTA' JUICE LEFT! BUT I'LL PUSH 'ER 'TILL SHE CROAKS! TELL ANYONE YOU CAN TO STEER CLEAR'A ME!"

Hubert steps in front of the controls again, his eyes bouncing between them to figure out on-the-fly how to send this thing running towards the enemy and shooting at the same time. He decides on a large yellow button to the left of the leg controls. A loud siren begins to blair out- almost like a warship coming down. Hubert allows it to bellow- hoping that allies will get the message, and stay well away from the blast radius...

Because this thing is going up in a ball of fire...

After a few more trial-and-error presses at random, finally, he flips a lever and the machine digs into the ground, launching itself into as close to a gallop as it can manage. He gathers himself at the weapon controls, and shortly after the head is looking down at the advancing ground forces. Bolts ping in rapid succession from the AT-ATs cannons, shredding through any and all that dare oppose this city on foot.

After sizing down a bit of the foot soldiers, he switches focus to the vehicles, drilling holes into them with each shot. Again and again, transports full of Imperials were ran through with twin beams of energized destruction. Hopefully, the Walker will still be operational by the time the TIEs are within range.