Populate Outbound Flight: Rampage [THR Populate of Empty Hex above Commenor & Mokk IX]

[Pillar of Freedom]

An Outbound Flight Story
A High Republic setting

Rampage is a PvE thread open to all Jedi and Civilians, and select allies, of the High Republic.
The Outbound Flight is a setting only, writing in this thread does not mean you are committing to the ongoing long term plot.​

A burst transmission clawed across the Wayfinder's comms array, cutting through the bridge chatter with enough force to make even veteran crew freeze. Then the stars ahead split apart into streaks of crimson fire. "Contact portside!"

The vessel shuddered violently as turbolaser fire raked across its shields. Consoles erupted in sparks. Somewhere below deck, metal screamed. The Wayfinder dropped hard to starboard, engines whining in protest while klaxons flooded every corridor in pulsing red light.

Out beyond the viewport, shapes emerged from the black. Unmarked daggers cutting through the emptiness of space.

They were not Black Sun. They were not Sith. But whoever they were, they had been waiting.

Another impact slammed the hull. The lights flickered. A coolant line burst overhead in a hiss of steam as the co-pilot wrestled with the controls, fighting to keep the ship level while hyperspace calculations spat error after error across the navicomputer. "The hyperdrive won't lock!"

A second enemy craft broke from formation and swept low beneath the Wayfinder's belly, peppering the underside with cannon fire, seemingly meaning to cripple.

They wanted the ship alive.

And somewhere ahead, drifting silent in the dark, waited The Ark.

Intended for: Jedi, Spacers, Outbound Flight Personal, Pilots.

Goal: Restore the Hyperdrive, fight off the attackers, don't get boarded, don't die.

[float=left][IMG width="140px"]https://i.imgur.com/moo6c3D.jpeg[/IMG][/float] - Code for Objective image.

The fighters did not scramble in time. By the time the Outbound Flight's hangar crews realised the approaching contacts were not retreating, the first boarding pods had already impacted against the hull.

The entire vessel lurched.

Metal screamed through the decks as massive drills punched through outer plating. One pod struck the portside habitation ring hard enough to rupture the corridor entirely before magnetic seals engaged, the boarding craft locking itself over the wound like a parasite. Another smashed into the operations spine near the primary data core.

Turbolasers fired. One pod vanished in a bloom of fire against the black, another spiralled away venting atmosphere and debris, but most survived. Too many survived.

"Boarders! Boarders on multiple decks!"

Explosive bolts detonated almost simultaneously across the ship. Boarding ramps slammed down into smoke-filled corridors as the Ssi-Ruuk came clawing through.

Scaled figures burst from the haze with blasters already firing. Lean, powerful reptilian hunters in segmented armour, moving with terrifying speed through the narrow confines of the ship. They advanced in coordinated packs, laying down suppressive fire while others tore access panels from the walls with hooked claws.

The first Republic security line lasted less than a minute. Then the corridor fighting began in earnest. Blaster fire strobed through the darkness. Screams echoed through sealed bulkheads. Every intersection became a kill zone as crew and soldiers fought room by room to stop the invaders from reaching the ship's central systems.

And deeper inside the vessel, near the medical holding cells, a single pod was still cutting its way in.

​

Intended for: Civilians, Outbound Flight Personal, Military Personal, Limited Jedi.

Goals: Drive back the invaders, prevent the datacore from being accessed, protect innocent lives, prisoners and patients

[float=left][IMG width="150px"]https://i.imgur.com/Mib3ESH.jpeg[/IMG][/float] - Code for Objective image.

Other threads for Populate:
Look on the Bright Side
Fractured

Spoiler: tags

Novac Lyrikal Connel Vanagor Quinn Varanin Ishtar-Array Balun Dashiell Kael Varnok Luke Montann Tatiana Sah

 

[Dominic Praxon]

Dom had only managed a few hours of sleep. The dim lights of his quarters still glowed with half-finished work scattered across the desk terminal. Reports, and recquisitions were his life now. He had stayed awake far later than he should have during the ship's cycle, trying to clear enough responsibilities from the next few days to finally afford himself some time away from work.

Time he had quietly hoped to spend with someone else.

Then the ship violently bucked beneath him.

Dominic hit the floor hard as the entire room shuddered with a deafening metallic groan. Something crashed from a shelf nearby while red emergency lighting flooded the quarters in sharp pulses. For several long seconds he simply stared upward through blurred vision, disoriented, half convinced he was still dreaming.

Another impact rolled through the vessel. The sound this time was different. Definitely worse. A piercing alarm erupted overhead.

"Warning. Hull breach detected. Multiple hostile boarders reported across several decks."

Dominic pushed himself upright, pulse suddenly hammering. Boarders? Still unsteady, he stumbled toward the doorway and forced it open.

Chaos.

Crewmembers flooded the corridor in both directions, some shouting, others crying, many simply running. A mother dragged two children toward a sealed habitation room while security personnel pushed past in the opposite direction with weapons in hand. Somewhere deeper in the ship, blaster fire echoed faintly through the deck plating.

"What's happening?" Dominic shouted.

A technician nearly collided with him, grease-stained uniform, terrified expression, clearly trying to get somewhere fast. Dominic grabbed him by the arm. "Hey! What's going on?"

"I...I don't know," the man stammered breathlessly. "Something boarded us. Security says they're monsters or...or aliens or something..."

A fresh impact thundered through the corridor, hard enough to flicker the lights again.

"Alert. Boarding impact detected near medical sector Aurek-Seven."

Dominic froze. The secure medical wing. His thoughts immediately went to the patient still recovering there. The novel alien was isolated, likely vulnerable and of the highest priority enough that entire sections of the ship had been locked down around them since departure.

The technician pulled free and disappeared into the crowd. Dominic turned back toward his quarters without another word.

A moment later he emerged again, gripping the compact holdout blaster he kept buried in a storage drawer. Small comfort against whatever was tearing through the ship, but better than nothing.

Then, with alarms screaming overhead and terrified civilians rushing past him, Dominic started toward the medical sector.

Ishtar-Array @Open​

 

[Connel Vanagor]

Not today, Pirates!
Wayfinder Ship
Common Room

Omega Squad Every Day Gear Locations

• Michael, Gabriel, Raguel, Sariel, Raphael, Jeremiel, Connel
  [Any text in brackets signifies comm-link usage and not face to face conversation]
• 
  Rides
  
  • "Enterprise" Station Ship
  • Vigilant Reaper
  • Null Vector
  • Speederbike
  • Iron Psalm
  Gear/Armor
  
  
  • Gear(“Bodycam” Datapad, UAD Drone, link to Seraphim AI included)
  • Lightblaster
  • Shortsabers (“Night” and “Day”)
  • 5 Throwing Lightknives
  • 3 Force Blinding Flashbangs
  • RI-17 Rifle-w-MS-0412 Grenade Launcher
  SURGICAL - CRYBERNETIC IMPLANTS
  
  • Repli Implants that would be for the limbs
  • Bonemer enhancements to strengthen structure of the body
  • Muscle enhancements.
  • Hemo enhancements for blood flow
  • Hawkeye implants for eyes
  • Advanced Medical Implant
  • Scentzy
  • Injected Nanotech upgrades
  
  
  
• Shadow Sanctuary - Enterprise

Connel had his feet up and was sound asleep on a chair when the alarms went off. As the ship shook, he jumped to his feet. There was a mixture of natural confusion and hysteria. There were clearly professionals here, but they were clearly hit in the wrong situation. So the arguing and people running into each other was only natural. It was when they were hit in the belly that set off a chain of events that unfortunately took the lives of the cockpit crew that put Connel into action. The engines were shutting down, you could hear it by the alarms.

Get those engines up! He was moving to the cockpit when someone yelled out. “Who made you, boss?!”

Connel just looked at him. I’m moving to see what is wrong in the cockpit and get us mobile… if you can do that I’ll work on the engines.

TAGS • ARE • OPEN
Personal Effects - Omega Squad Loadouts​

 

[Lyra Zan]

She had set aside a lucrative smuggling business for something meaningful, something that satisfied that annoying need to do something that had purpose. In her search to scratch that nagging existential dilemma. Lyra had found herself on Naboo. The Republic had much to offer, most if it too polished for the stingy spacer. But there was one opportunity that caught Lyra's eye. Outbound Flight. It was something far out of her comfort zone, but something with substance. She jumped in.

Lyra was no longer the captain of a smuggling ship. She was simply one of the crew. This ship explored, studied. It was admittedly exciting for the curmudgeonly spacer. Lyra hung out mostly in the hanger bay, maintaining the shuttles, escort fighters and other science vessels. She could also fly any of them, including the fighters.

That day, she was off-shift in her cramped quarters. Sitting on her bunk, The tall Epicanthix plucked idly at her double viol, a lit stimcig between her lips. A small filtrator hummed on her tiny desk, ensuring the offending smoke was quickly eliminated. Still in her cargo pants, white tank top and suspenders, Lyra lost herself in an old tune she had written.

Then a sharp, shuddering impact rattled the vessel. Hazel eyes snapped open. She knew that sound, that feel in the deckplates beneath her boots. They hit something, or something hit them. But it continued, more impacts. Too solid, too hard for turbolasers, not with the ship's shields. Something was slamming into the hull. Then the announcement confirmed it. Hull breaches... and boarders.

Adrenaline erupted and coursed through the Epicanthix's system, her heart rate skyrocketing, sweat already gathering on her brow. Pirates? Worse? They were far from home, it could be anything. She dreaded to think of the recent reports.

Tossing aside the instrument, Lyra unlocked and threw open her locker, pulling out her heavy blaster and vibroknife, already sheathed and holstered on a belt. They had been a too much a part of her to let go, and she received relunctance permission to keep them. The sound of yelling, fear, could be heard in the passage outside her door. Donning the weapons, Lyra slammed her palm on the door actuator and it slid open to reveal chaos.

The crowd moved in both directions, suggesting that no one knew exactly where the boarders were. Her tall, muscular build made way for her as Lyra moved from the hanger deck level upwards, trying to discern what was going on. Meanwhile, an inner struggled ignited, whether to find a place to hide, or help defend the ship.

stepping off a turbo lift, she saw someone else swimming up stream. Tall, almost as tall as she, the face was unmistakeable, even if the name wasn't quite on the tip of her tongue. It was the one the crew called the Senator. He was armed, and the look in his eye showed he had a destination in mind, and in the sea of madness, his composure was enough for Lyra to join him.

Plowing through the people, towards him, she shouted to the fleeing throng. "Find cover, someplace to barricade." They were on a ship, there was no place to "run".

"Senator!" Her voice lifted over the harried crowd. Finally at the senator's side, she gave him a sober, determined look. She discerned he had no more information than she, so Lyra just asked, "Where are we headed?"

Tag: Dominic Praxon and OPEN

 

[Kael Varnok]

The corridor was already collapsing into controlled chaos.
Kael moved through it like a fixed point in a world that had decided to fall apart around him. Red emergency strobes pulsed across durasteel walls in uneven rhythm, painting faces in flickers of fear and motion. Civilians broke around him in currents, stumbling, shouting, dragging bags or children or nothing at all except panic. The ship's gravity plating hummed under strain, occasionally dipping a fraction as another impact shuddered through the hull.

He didn't rush. Running meant panic. Panic meant tunnel vision. Tunnel vision meant death, especially in enclosed metal corridors where there was nowhere for it to go but into other people.

Another impact rolled through the vessel. Closer this time. Hard enough that overhead conduits rattled, and a ceiling panel somewhere behind him sparked and spat molten light before dying completely.

Kael keyed his comm.
"Situation report," Kael said, voice steady, cutting cleanly through the static and overlapping panic on the channel. "Confirm status of Senator Dominic and escort detail."

For a moment there was only interference. Distant screams layered beneath encrypted chatter. Someone shouting about sealed bulkheads. Someone else losing signal mid-word.




Then fragments came through. Unstable. Broken.
The Jedi slowed just slightly, enough to listen without stopping.
His attention shifted as he moved, not outward but inward. Through the Force the ship felt like a living thing under siege, its presence fragmented into jagged impressions: fear spiking in clusters, pain blooming and vanishing too quickly to track, something was moving through it like oil through water. Coordinated. Patient. Wrong.

His jaw tightened faintly.
Not pirates.
Not disorganized enough.
His gaze angled toward the medical sector routes. The breaches were there. He could feel the pressure of it, like something pressing against a membrane that was already beginning to tear.

Not good.
Kael adjusted his footing as a surge of crew rushed past him, nearly carrying a man off his feet. He steadied himself without looking away from his path, then spoke again into the comm while already advancing.

"Copy this clearly," he said. "You have two options: fall back and consolidate with my position, or continue toward the breached medical sector if you are already en route and capable of engaging hostiles."

A pause. He let it breathe. Let them think. Fear made people miss words the first time.
"I am moving to intercept along the medical corridor," he added. "If you are still mobile, you will not be alone."

The channel answered in broken acknowledgment, half confirmation, half uncertainty swallowed by noise.
Kael exhaled once, slow and controlled.
Then he continued forward.
Somewhere deeper in the ship, blaster fire intensified, sharper now, like the first edge of a blade being drawn fully free.

Tags: Dominic Praxon Lyra Zan @open

 

[Tatiana Sah]

Tatiana stood in the computer core with several holographic displays projected in the air before her. Blue eyes shifted and slid across the information displayed there as her fingers danced and swiped controls. Even her people hadn't abandoned the physical form altogether; there was a certain choreography in conjunction with sheer will that could aid to the efficiency of certain tasks. It also made others more comfortable to see her working if they wandered into the room where she was working.

Dee was on the command deck when the Situation developed. Its shrill warning drew Tatiana's gestures to a standstill just as the first salvo struck.

As a Jedi whose support officially was for guiding the ships through the uncharted regions, the blonde wasn't needed above. The ship's Captain was quite capable at the job. Instead, her attention turned back to the ship itself with an altered purpose. Energy distribution balance was important to ensure critical systems were kept online during a conflict.

The Situation soon grew out of hand, however. What Tatiana had left to the Republic armed forces soon resulted in the ship's collision with unidentified objects. Multiple hull breaches lacking explosive decompression were soon registered. It appeared the conflict had escalated, and its scope drawn far, far nearer than originally anticipated.

Without a word, Tatiana turned from the computer core and strode toward the doors. Projected displays winked out as she set foot in the corridor. Her eyes turned in the direction of the nearest group of security guards being savagely mauled. This was Dominic's ship and charge. They weren't welcome to it.

A second after he feet lifted off the deck plating, the cropped jacket wearing woman shot down the corridor and glided around a corner. Her foot found the Ssi-Ruuk analog for the solar plexus and sent the first reptilian figure back the way it had come. Tatiana stopped and surveyed the positions of those still standing in the corridor, friend and foe alike. "This is not your ship. Please depart." This would be quite the opportunity to study the Ssi-Ruuk up close. Empirical data was always the best.

OPEN
Dominic Praxon | Lyra Zan | Kael Varnok​

 

[Bastila Sal-Soren]

The corridor exploded inward.

The blast threw bodies sideways in a wave of smoke and twisted durasteel. Emergency shutters screamed as they tried to descend, one door managing only halfway before something massive tore through it from the opposite side.

It was not a man. It resembled something far crueller and more twisted. To the security officers who were escorting the group of civilian crew from their offices to the designated safety points the thing was a threat and as it unfolded itself into the corridor large reptilian limbs, they all felt a sense of dread spread over them. Pale flesh stretched taut over blackened bone-like plating the creature’s mouth hissed as it opened, thick tendrils of saliva dropping from between sharp and vicious teeth. Its movements were wrong, almost heavy one second before becoming terrifyingly fast the next.

A security officer fired three panicked blaster shots into it at point blank range. The creature made no sign of distress and hit him hard enough to smear blood across the ceiling. It was then the people screamed.

Another security guard stopped dead. Every instinct in his body telling him to run. His grip tightened uselessly around his blaster as the monster turned its head towards him and the crowd of scientists behind him. Dark eyes reflecting the crimson emergency lights back at them.

The creature let out a roar that made the entire group shift backwards in fear and then with a powerful push of its legs it lunged forward.

The guard fired on reflex. The blaster bolts struck the alien’s chest and seemingly did nothing more than create steaming flesh with almost no other effect at all. He stumbled backwards, heart trying to tear its way out of his ribs as the thing closed the distance impossibly fast. He was dead, they were all going to die.

And suddenly Purple filled his vision. A violent snap-hiss filled the air and the corridor flooded violet.

The creature collided with Bastila Sal-Soren like a speeder hitting a wall. She met its momentum head-on, one hand gripping the saber while the other slammed forward with the Force hard enough to crater the bulkhead beside them. The impact twisted the charging monster sideways mid-leap.

Bastila did not stop. She moved with frightening precision, blade carving upward in a whirl of purple light that severed one of the fore-limbs before the creature even hit the ground. Steam and black blood sprayed across the corridor walls as it impacted hard against the metal.

A shrieked roar erupted behind the group as two more creatures came from a breach in the wall further down the corridor, strange weaponry trained on the fight erupting before them.

"Move!" Bastila barked sharply without looking at them. "Move!" She pivoted instantly as one of the aliens lunged for a terrified group pinned near the failed blast door.

Her saber became a violet arc through smoke and alarm-lighting, impossibly fast, the air itself screaming around her movements. She cut one creature in half cleanly before driving her shoulder into the second, carrying it bodily through a transparisteel divider in an eruption of sparks.

The corridor shook again and the guard could only stare. Not because he had never seen Jedi fight before, he had been partnered with them on many expeditions on this journey, but this was different.

Bastila looked furious.

There was no composure. No restraint. She was just simply furious.

Her braid had partially come loose from whatever rushed attempt at readiness she'd managed before arriving. Damp strands of dark hair clung against the side of her face while violet light strobed across sharp, focused features. Every movement carried that same terrifying certainty he associated with the Jedi. Only there was something far colder underneath this.

The creature she had thrown through the divider tried to rise. Bastila extended a hand and the transparisteel wall imploded inward around it with a horrific crunch.

Silence hit the corridor for half a second beyond the alarms. Then and only then did Bastila finally turned toward the group. Her eyes flicked across the group rapidly. Checking for injuries. Confirming they were still alive.

"I need to know where Senator Praxon is," she said breathlessly as another violent impact echoed somewhere deeper in the ship causing them to all glance toward the direction of Aurek-Seven. Her expression hardened immediately. "Where is Dominic."

OUTFIT: XoXo | TAG: Dominic Praxon EQUIPMENT:

​

 

[Quinn Varanin]

//: P R E Y //:
//: O P E N //:
//: Attire //:

It happened much faster than she could have ever expected. Once she was settling in for the trip back to Eshan, the next thing she knew, she was being tossed around like a rag doll by large lizard people. Quinn had never met a Trandoshan face-to-face before, and she had wished that had remained the case.

Despite being who she was, Quinn was swiftly incapacitated. It was as if they knew how to control the situation, planning it to anticipate her every thought and move. She hadn't expected them to be smarter than they looked. Perhaps that was her undoing in this situation. Slowly but surely, Quinn came to as she found herself bound and silenced. A group of them had done away with the small crew she had with her, and what looked to be their leader had grabbed the other two to discuss.

Unfortunately for Quinn, she was once more paying the price for her parental sins. Almost seventy years ago, her parents had conquered the cluster along with Ashin and Spencer, specifically terrorizing the sector.

Furthermore, Quinn was the spitting image of her mother at the age when they had taken over.

Whisper echoed, and Quinn did her best to focus; if anything, she could probably glean something from it. Maybe something she could use to get out of this predicament.

Seemingly on queue, the larger of the Trandoshans walked over and removed the tie around her mouth and patted her face.

"Wake up, witch."

Quinn frowned as she did her best to lean away from the scaled hand.

"Witch? That's rude. Didn't they teach you manners when you capture someone?"

The three reptiles chuckled and looked at each other. They seemed on edge, as if waiting for the boogey man to pop out of thin air. The large one spoke again as he drew closer, the snarl of his snout breathing hot air into her face with a huff.

"Where's the other one?" He was referencing Ashin, but Quinn would have no clue what he meant.

"Other one? There's no one else, just me." She looked offended, as if she wasn't the prize to be claimed here. Quinn shook her head, her mind focusing on the small device she had slipped up her sleeve. As they discussed amongst themselves, she activated the small distress beacon that would silently announce her location and identity. Another little toy was given to her because of recent events.

It was a matter of time, though she wondered if anyone would even bother to find her. The thought was upsetting, but she did not need to dwell on it. Either way, she had three idiots to deal with first.

"Well, this was fun. How about you just let me go, and I'll be on my way?"

Another trandoshan shook his head as they once again paid attention to her. His blue scales shimmered lightly in the dim lighting of the makeshift interrogation room. He stepped closer and tilted the little light so it shone fully on her face.

Quinn squinted.

"No, we need the other one, and you either die with her or alone. Her choice."

He hissed as they broke into a gargled laugh again.

"Who in chaos are you even talking about??"