One Sith vs. Galactic Republic: Invasion of Togoria (Dueling Thread)

[Keira Priest]

Location: Research facility
Objective: Showdown
Allies: GR
Enemies: [member="Aver Brand"], OS
Duel: Public
Gear: In signature

The instant her booted feet came in contact with the liquid covering nearly all of the floor her nerve endings were alight with pain, and she wasn't able to complete her burst forward without collapsing, her run fumbling as her legs seemed to disintegrate beneath her. Instead she rolled to a stop, barely able to think coherently from the electricity that still sizzled through her armored form, coming to a halt on an indiscriminate patch of dry land. No movement was so much as attempted for the first few seconds, and when Keira did find it in herself to shift position her first moves were catatonic in nature, reminiscent of a puppet on a string. But she still moved. Something had to be said for perseverance in willpower, or maybe that was just the Corellian attitude.

As soon as she was able she tore the wiring responsible for that nasty surprise free from its moorings via telekinesis, tossing it away and rendering it harmless. A shaky exhale passed her lips, fingers flexing. "You'll be fine after a few minutes have passed. Your muscles still need time to cycle out the aftereffects, as does your armor." But Thalia knew full well there was no time for waiting, and so no attempt at a response was made. Instead she gritted her teeth, the muscles of her jaw ticcing. Her neck cracked with two turns of her head. The mettle of this one had already been more than tested. Now it was showtime. No holds barred and all safeguards cut, just the way she liked it.

Finally her strength seemed to have returned, muscles relaxing back to normalcy. No quick or excessive movement was advisable, and for once she would take sensible advise. So, ranged tactics. Her least favorite technique, but arguably one she was skilled at, given her talents with telekinesis. One ethereal hand ripped the front of a terminal away and sent it flying towards her opponent while the other whipped her saber towards the woman's head like a boomerang, far more attention being paid to that task. An original tactic? Maybe not. But she was all for blunt, straightforward attacks.

 

[Aver Brand]

Location: Research facility
Objective: Showdown
Allies: [member="Loray Tares"] | OS
Enemies: [member="Keira Ticon"] | GR
Collateral damage/Innocent bystanders: [member="Iestyn Nova"] | [member="Veronika Nova"]
Gear in bio
Public

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRgHol94Xc&feature=youtu.be​

​

Someone of a more gloating nature might’ve been inclined to mock and laugh at the Jedi as she collapsed to her knees in an excellent impression of an epileptic episode.

Someone, but not Aver. She was, always had been, and would remain a lover of pragmatism until the day she died. So instead of wasting precious seconds while her foe was nearly immobilized from the current searing her body, the woman went for the LeMat on her belt, drawing the weapon in a flash.

A war-honed intellect and the targeting systems in her helmet discerned the possible targets by the time she’d leveled the pistol at her coiled enemy. Picking the best out of them - three, to be precise - Aver squeezed the trigger. One round for the exposed, unplated flesh of her inner left thigh, meant to shred the muscle and make movement difficult (or, should she be exceptionally lucky, rip through the femoral artery and put this fight to an end). The second one was sent roaring through the air just an increment higher, at the similarly unplated vest covering the large target of the Jedi’s gut. .45 rounds were nothing to scoff at, and even if the mesh managed to stop them, the chances for a ruptured spleen and some sweet internal bleeding were pretty high. Last came the delightfully terrifying surprise of the LeMat; not another massive bullet, but rather a shotgun slug, expelled from the bottom barrel. Taking into the account that the woman would likely doubled over from the round to her abdomen, Aver had adjusted her aim between her current position and her enemy's head, hoping to pepper her foe’s neck and shoulder gaps with the barrage of lead. It wouldn’t puncture the mesh, she knew, but it would sting like a schutta; and in the case of the Jedi’s throat, might just make breathing that much more difficult. Getting shot in the trachea is no joke, protection or not.

When the jerking woman presumably managed to drag herself to dry land and rip out the wiring, Aver had already holestered her gun. Just in time, too, to be knocked back by the sheet of torn metal that slammed straight into her chest. She let out a hiss even as her boot lost purchase over the raised edge of the flower bed as she tried to maintain her balance. Oh, irony. Somewhere out there, someone was cackling at the cosmic joke as the warrior fell backwards, catching herself on her forearms while the lightsaber whistled through the air above and likely into the wall behind her.

She would roll over to her left to break line of sight for her opponent before scrambling back to her feet behind one of the work stations, momentarily obscured from view.

 

[Haytham Kaze]

Allies: OS
Enemies: [member="Miss Blonde"]

Haytham had stepped into her guard and he deactivated his lightsabre as he had already decided what his plan was to be. He was faster than the armoured beskar beast that he was fighting, that much was obvious, anyone who was watching would know that, both of the combatants knew that. Which was why he was simply going to somersault away after whittling away at the armour, though maybe not as efficient as he thought it'd be.

Move.

It was too late, before he could even spring to the side in a somersault completely, he felt the fist take him in the gut and double him over in his roll, causing him to stop short as he hit the ground. Instead of rolling, he just crashed about a meter away from her and instantly started coughing. Nothing was broken, though his insides were likely bruised. He laid on his side, his breathing shallow as his mind raced and he summoned the Force to him. A groan escaping his suddenly dry lips as he coughs again, twisting and bending the Force to his will as he struggled physically, and he'd continue to summon the Force, perhaps subconsciously at this point, though to what end?

"L-let... me...Die."

 

[Miss Blonde]

Location: PVP district
Objective: Stomp Sith out in style.
Gear: Armor, Hush, wrist guns x2
Allies: Republic
Enemies: OS [member="Haytham Kaze"]

Well that was faster than she thought it would be. The sith dropped like a bag of bricks and the woman stood up straight with the various parts of the armor whirling and sounding out as she stepped forward. The kid had taken a massive punch and was likely hurting pretty bad, however not enough to take him out of the fight completely. Miss Blonde looked down at young sith acolyte and thought about what to do, and everything internally screamed to just put one in the back of his head and end it quick. But she still felt sorry for the kid, she didn't want to kill him.

"No." Miss Blonde said in a rather cold tone.

"You're not worth it the effort to kill. But you're worth the effort to salvage." Blonde would then sigh at what she was about to do and say.

While the young Acolyte was certainly filled with dreams of grand adventures and becoming a dark lord or making a name for himself he was working for the wrong people to do it, and that was his first mistake, he was working for other people. Blonde had been there and done that and it got her nowhere, and when she went into business for herself she was sitting on the top of the criminal underworld as the reigning power in the galaxy. The kid was just hungry, and she understood that. And well when the sith promised power it was a good lie to join up to become some sith lord's personal queen and punching bag.

"You ever want to make a real name for yourself, and make some real money go to the Little Cabana Dive on Deneba, tell the bartender you want the Best Tasting Schnapps." Blonde would then back away from the boy and make her way elsewhere.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Objective: Skedaddle.
Location: Togorian beach.
Allies: One Sith & Friends. [member="Cerita Sarova"]
Gear:

Spoiler

Armour.
Tsaisibola & Nagajj.
2x curved hilt lightsabres.
Rudis of the Dark Lord.
Concealed Vibrodagger.

Darth Ophidia and Cerita Sarova did not kill, maim, or burn anything. However, they took an extended walk along the white beaches of Togoria. The scent of burning planet permeated the air, and the sky was alight with the orange hues of fire in the far distance. Armed and armoured, they walked side by side. The image of the serpent and the plant was almost romantic.

As the ship vanished from sight behind them. The Pale Assassin plopped down on a raised dune in the sand, near a dry, blackened shrubbery. Her hands pressed the release-buttons of her helmet as she lifted it off her ashen crown and set it down among the grain of the sand. As she did, she traced her finger over a com-button. Pressing it, she sent a signal for Darling to come pick her up.

Ophidia’s eyes turned to Darth Cerbera. The black-painted eyelids narrowed around her burning irises as she studied the circumstance of their surroundings. Two beings tied to the dark side of the Force, alone on a beach while the horizon is aflame and the atmosphere vibrant with the last screams of the guilty by association. She looked deep inside herself as she studied the green woman. She was one Ophidia respected, but there would never be anything more. Of this, she was certain.

“Cerbera, this has been nice, but I am not into… things. It just doesn't work for me”

She stood, lifting her helmet with her left hand and holding it under her arm. A smile grew on her lips as she could hear the Phasma approaching.

“Also, you’re going to have to find your own lift home, dear.”

As the ship zoomed past overhead, Ophidia vanished in a gust of sand and sea-spray. The ship's arc turned, pulling up toward the sky as the active camouflage kicked in.

Spoiler

I felt I needed an exit. There was never going to be anything between the characters, but the romantic beach setting was too funny not to use.

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Location: Togorian Wilderness
Duel: Private
Allies: Galactic Republic
Enemies: One Sith, [member=Xavka Duquo]
Gear:
Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber
Utility Belt:
NN-14 Blaster Pistol
Grenades::>3 x Thermal Detonator; 3 x Flash-bomb
Miscellaneous::>Scanner; Datapad w/ Holoprojector; Comlink; Fibercord w/ Grappling Hook; Rebreather;

Alyona felt the danger coming before it did, catching the sense of intense malice build, which tipped her off. She remained within the river's great depths, dozens of meters from the surface of the water, loose strands of ashen hair whipping lazily around her face. As the Zabrak's attack leapt from the surface of his hand, Alyona was turning in the water and drawing her lightsaber, instinct spurring her reaction time, knowledge and experience guiding her actions. She activated her lightsaber under water, the blade intercepting stray tendrils of electric power as they disseminating throughout the river. The river was far too fast moving and murky for her attacker to see the pale light of her blade so deep under water. Quickly noting the angle of the attack from her position near the river's bottom as she deactivated her blade, Alyona turned forward once more and continued swimming swiftly, dissolving her presence in the Force and transplanted it throughout the wildlife in the area, giving the immediate impression she was everywhere all at once. Thus, even the pieces of herself that the Zabrak had been mentally tracking sprouted in a sudden uprising of consciousnesses as Alyona's mental presence was assigned to the myriad creatures and living organisms capable of projecting it. A wave of mental senses would crash throughout the Force, giving Alyona the distraction she needed to distance herself from her attacker.

Several long minutes later, Alyona could see and feel the shift in the river's path; the depths ahead grew tumultuous as the water roiled beneath the crashing downpour of the nearest waterfall. A series of such falls cascaded down from the bluffs above, fed by a massive, nearby river that cut through the higher plains in the region. The forest had grown quite dense and thick, and the undergrowth was no longer dusted with the ash of the valley slope. The soil here was soft and moist, and the wood was full of life. Here, Alyona maintained her mentally disseminated presence as best she could as she took to the waterfall pool's deepest part, coming up to the surface only once she'd successfully passed under and behind the curtain of water. When she finally broke the pool's surface, Alyona wiped the water from her face with a hand and stowed the rebreather in her belt pouch. Water spray filled the air around her, peppering her face with condensation that began to bead and drip from her chin and jaw. Alyona looked back toward the forest from behind her wall of water, seeing nothing. The fall itself was nearly fifteen meters wide, and several times that in height. The rock wall behind the fall was curved outward away from the pool. It continued up several tens of meters until it reached the ledge where the water poured out from the rock. Roughly a dozen meters above that the bluff reached its peak. Alyona remained still in the water and considered her next move. The time to turn the fight against her foe was now.

Alyona slowly pulled herself out of the water and onto the rocks behind the fall. To her own mind, the hiding place was obvious as it protected her from sight. However, a tracker might not necessarily think the same; water falls protected little true cover, only concealment, and they also drowned out your hearing. Alyona had to stretch her senses to their limit to glean brief hints of sound from the banks across the river.
Thankfully, the rocks provided her a path to continue along the bluffs, one that was not visible from below, across the riverbank. A stone pathway was worn into the side of the cliff wall, rising up above the river below and overlooking the forest. It's height was not great, once the pathway left the cover of the waterfall it only rose perhaps a dozen meters on a gradual slope. The walking space was plentiful, the pathway was room enough for five abreast to walk and just over two meters in height. Native Togorians used the pathway for travel from the nearby settlement deep within the canyon, bypassing the dense forest. The outer edge of the pathway was riddled with rocky protuberances and shrubbery, providing Alyona with plenty of concealment as she snuck along Northward, following the wall of the canyon. The river continued to run below, following the same path. As Alyona looked out at the forest on the other side of the river, she noted that the canopy rested just below her height; the trees were thigh and broad-boughed, but short, due to the more limited time the local star had to provide light to the depths of the canyon.
Alyona rested for a moment shortly after beginning her climb, the waterfall continued to roar nearby. She watched the forest below, minding in particular the treetops along the river's banks, knowing how arboreal her foe seemed to be. Alyona held her presence amongst the wildlife, at times using their eyes and ears to keep watch on the forest. Suddenly, there he was, seen through the eyes of a native mammal as he rushed passed. Alyona caught him through the eyes of another close by, and through the ears of a third. I've got you, Alyona thought to herself, noting her attacker's general location within the forest.

Alyona prepared herself to take control of the fighting area. The pathway upon which she stood was wide and tall, but would not allow for acrobatics of any real kind. The fighting space would be limited and a fall from the edge would be dangerous. The pathway continued to slope upward the further North it went, reaching a peak height of nearly forty meters. The rocks jutting outward from the cliff face would tear apart anyone unfortunate to fall from its height. That's my objective, Alyona decided. To force our combat here. She looked around, ready to catch the attention of her would-be hunter, and looked down at a head-sized rock resting along the edge of the pathway. Crouching down behind a human-sized boulder, Alyona pushed the rock out from her hiding place. It scraped off the edge of the path and tumbled down below, striking lips and protrusions along the cliff side's surface before splashing loudly into the surface of the river below. A shower of smaller rocks and minerals fell in a light shower into the water.

The nearby waterfall continued to obfuscate Alyona's long distance hearing in that direction, but with her eyes on the downward slope of the pathway, she would be able to catch sight of her prey taking that path. What she expected, however, was for him to continue Northward of the noise, cross the river at distance, and scale the wall before looping back down the path to intercept her. That is, if he even heard the falling rocks. Alyona kept a hand on her lightsaber, maintaining her calm presence within the wildlife of the forest, observing. The Zabrak would see her eyes everywhere, but powerless to strike at her. Alyona's presence was everywhere, in everything with physical senses. The concentration such an effort required was great, however, and the facade was one she would be unable to maintain once battle began. For now, she merely waited, and watched over her prey, emotionless and patient.

 

[Keira Priest]

Spoiler

Continuing things for continuity's sake, plus neither of us quite got tired of punching each other.

The three shots weren't something Keira would have managed to avoid on her own, but then, that was why Patricia had gifted her the AI in the first place. Just in time did Thalia manage to activate the particle shield, the first two bullets being blocked, though their kinetic energy still took its toll. However, just as quickly as that supposed savior arrived it dissipated, and the final blow struck her with full force. Even after she managed to make it to dry ground she was still very much enduring the prolonged pain of that shotgun shell. A cough that sounded distinctly more like a pained wheeze escaped her, and she grit her teeth as she attempted to regain her breath the best she could. This would be quite some fight, if this was just the beginning.

"You know, sometimes I'm not sure why I even bother. Not even a thank you." As always, her holographic companion had her own commentary to lend. And she would have responded, had she not been more concerned with her immediate survival and catching her blade as it whipped back around, worn leather hilt snapping into her palm. The blade was disengaged and clipped to her belt for the moment, and she finally deigned to respond to Thalia, "I've got more important things to worry about than hurt feelings. Who else would you bother, if I was gone?" For once, a slight lull in the banter. "True enough, I suppose. There's no one out there quite as annoyingly brash and headstrong as you." "Thanks." "Sure, now you have manners."

It wouldn't be wise to give this enemy time to respond, but she didn't exactly relish the idea of confronting the other woman after experiencing firsthand what she was capable of in the first place. Drawing in a breath she pulled the Force into her core, nurturing that well of power for a moment before she began to move forward. Already she anticipated a direct attack, adrenaline still humming through each vein and nerve-ending, ready to spur her into movement at any second.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Spoiler

Can’t help it if you’re so damned punchable. <3

Shields. Always with the shields. Boy, did she ever hate the loving kark out of those things. Some of her toughest battles had been fought against folk sporting one of them, and it always came far too close for comfort.

That is not to say, however, that Aver hadn’t learned some things from those encounters. These days, she happily carried an IFD around, and she was positively yearning to use it on the next frakking shield-lover she happened across.

While her foe was busy regaining her respiratory facilities and chatting away with her imaginary friend, Aver was busy concocting another devilish plan. Already she’d gotten two good scores in, leaving [member="Keira Ticon"] palpably worse for wear, but this was no time to rest on her laurels; rather, she had to capitalize on the injuries while there was still time to do so.

All she needed now was an opportunity.

Ever one to forge her own fate rather than wait for chance to deposit it in her lap by happenstance, the mercenary quickly grabbed hold of the twisted piece of metal that had slammed soundly in her chest before ricocheting off behind the workstation doubling as her refuge. Frowning at the ugly dent her armor had left in the sheet, the woman inched closer to the edge of her cover just as the Jedi finished the verbal scuffle with her AI.

Banking on a knee-jerk reflex from her enemy, Aver would quickly flash the piece of metal into the open at head-height. A fraction of a second later, she would send a pulse with her IFD and squeeze the trigger of the LeMat once more, the muzzle of her pistol peeking out just above the floor and aimed at the Jedi’s gut. Again.

If all went well, her foe would react to the distraction above and miss the real danger below, allowing her to sneak a bullet past her damned shields – with the help of the IFD, of course – and wreak havoc on the squishy contents of the abdominal cavity.

Then again, things in life rarely went according to plan, and Aver was happy to inform the dark figure breathing down her neck that yes, she did have a backup plan. Netherworld wasn’t quite ready for her yet.

 

[Keira Priest]

Almost before Keira consciously registered it a telekinetic hand batted that sheet of metal down and out of the air, though the bullet that followed still punched through with little difficulty. The repulse hand was the next thing to activate, at its highest setting no less. It served as a substitute for the Force, slowing the projectile enough so that it was logistically harmless. Just as soon as that piece of technology finished its job she switched it off, inherently knowing that her tricks in that regard were just about done. There would be no more use of the repulse hand or shield until it was absolutely necessary, as the power for them both was certainly finite. She had operated for most of her life without any kind of armor or cybernetics like this. She would be fine.

"The rocket." "Not yet." No, she wasn't that desperate at this point. Maybe later. Her greatest strength at this point lay in the Force itself, but her opponent was exactly lacking in that department either. And so a combination of some kind would be needed, but improvisation had always been her strength. Without hesitation she drew her blaster pistol, firing off three shots. One was intended for the point where the shoulder and arm joined, the second for the abdomen, the final aimed unexpectedly higher, for the throat or head, depending on how true her aim remained, if indeed any of her shots connected at all. Following up immediately was a burst of the Force intended for the lower half of the woman's body.

"That good enough for you?" She could inherently sense the AI's shrug. "It works."

[member="Aver Brand"]