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She was hidden behind the wing of a long decommissioned starfighter, using it to cover disrupt line of sight from the sky.
The hooded figure had dodged patrols, snuck a cloaked ship through hostile hyperlanes and trespassed in imperial territory to reach this scrapyard. It reminded her of older days, of an older empire when she was but the apprentice.
But as she leaned around that corner, she was reminded exactly why she still did it.
A counsular-class cruiser, it's worn red hues catching what rays of sunlight made it over mountains of jagged rust.
The Jedi of old were not so powerful as they were now, but their diplomats often carried peculiar crystals and held secrets thought lost to time. Perhaps that is why the force drew her here? If only she'd sensed it earlier, before the heavy machinery began working it's way toward this end of the scrapyard.
Kaila weighed her options;
Wait and lose her chance, or risk discovery.
With but a moment's hesitation, the young Darth bolted towards the ship.
She was hidden behind the wing of a long decommissioned starfighter, using it to cover disrupt line of sight from the sky.
The hooded figure had dodged patrols, snuck a cloaked ship through hostile hyperlanes and trespassed in imperial territory to reach this scrapyard. It reminded her of older days, of an older empire when she was but the apprentice.
But as she leaned around that corner, she was reminded exactly why she still did it.
A counsular-class cruiser, it's worn red hues catching what rays of sunlight made it over mountains of jagged rust.
The Jedi of old were not so powerful as they were now, but their diplomats often carried peculiar crystals and held secrets thought lost to time. Perhaps that is why the force drew her here? If only she'd sensed it earlier, before the heavy machinery began working it's way toward this end of the scrapyard.
Kaila weighed her options;
Wait and lose her chance, or risk discovery.
With but a moment's hesitation, the young Darth bolted towards the ship.
Ronhar had been tasked with something slightly unusual today: personally overseeing a scrapping operation on Mahporeem. Normally, these types of things were far beneath Ronhar's pay grade, and were usually delegated out to someone of far less importance than Ronhar. This particular Consular-class Light Crusier had, however, escaped destruction a number of times, and Representative Graras wanted to know why. A bureaucratic oversight, perhaps? Or something more sinister?
It was Ronhar's job to find out.
For this "mission", Ronhar had been given command over four Salvage Troopers and a pair of Wookiee Troopers: should their be nothing to find with the ship, they would take over the operation and swiftly disassemble the vessel for parts. Not that Ronhar expected to find anything anway: Mahporeem was home to literal hundreds of thousands of starships and vehicles, and to have one skipped over a few times for disassembly was not unusual in of itself.
Regardless, he personally escorted the salvage crew to its destination. He took a brief glance at his datapad as it displayed the ship's information:
"The Grand Harbinger was a Consular-class Light Cruiser commissioned for service by the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. As a modified diplomatic vessel, it engaged in a number of battles around the Outer Rim before being seized by the Galactic Empire as a Moff's personal transport ship. Eventually, the ship was sent to Mahporeem for maintenance, but the fall of the Galactic Empire and the death of said Moff caused the ship to to be abandoned on the planet, where it has remained for the last couple of hundred years."
Quite the story behind this ship, Ronhar though to himself. Still, if it was fated for destruction, then so be it.
As Ronhar and his party rounded the corner, they came upon the vessel in question. The Salvage Troopers were quite excited at the prospect of disassembling such an old ship, as swapped stories they had heard about the Republic and the Jedi that once fought for it. Slightly distracted by their chatter, Ronhar turned his attention to the ship itself, where he noticed what appeared to be a blur of motion running onto the ship itself. Probably a Dianoga or something. Luckly, the Salvage Troopers would easily be able to deal with anything on board.
"Alright men, you know the drill. I want this ship stripped of anything useable. That includes navicomputers, laser cannon components and, of course, the hyperdrive systems. You all know what to do, so get to work. The Wookiees will remain outside to help with moving anything heavy."
One of the Wookiees growled something toward Ronhar's general direction, but he naturally had no idea what the creature was saying.
"Uh...right. Lets go."
Two the Salvage Troopers shot their grappling hooks over the top of the vessel, pulling themselves all the way up so that they could start disassembling the ship's communication array. The other two Salvage Troopers began walking up the vessels boarding ramp to begin the tearing the ship apart from the inside, as Ronahr and the Wookiees remained out the ship, with Ronhar tapping away on his datapad and the Wookiees conversing with one another in their strange, alien language...
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Figures had approached from the periphery but she hadn't realized how many nor how close until it was too close.
Kaila had made it as far as the entry forum when something thudded against the outside hull and voices grew closer. She could feel them, as though they were right on top of her. Looking up, she realized they really were.
With no time to waste, the young Darth did the only thing she could.
She began to levitate above the entrance, robes gently swaying until she came to a gentle stillness.
The salvage troopers walked in, passing unknowingly beneath the looming specter who carefully surveyed them.
White plastoid armor and clearly armed, she knew immediately who they served and that time to end this mission peacefully was at an end. She grit her teeth, knowing this would likely get messy, but the Sith's training told her this was the quickest and therefore safest path forward. She would not allow herself to be captured, nor leave without her prize.
Kaila dropped without warning.
The weight of metal bones caused such impact as to thud against the metal floor as she fell to one knee, reaching for the backs of their helms on the way down and pushing towards the floor with all the enhanced strength of her Exo-muscled arms.
Despite the brutality of her assault however, the warrior-sorceress recovered swiftly.
She leapt forward and twisted midair to watch her flank as she began to float deeper into the ship's rusted carcass.
Private Stewbus and Corporal Haselam eagerly climbed aboard the Grand Harbinger, quite excited at the prospect of disassembling such an old piece of technology.
"Check out the panels on this old girl! Ain't she a beaut? Just how old do you think she is, anyway?", Stewbus asked Haselam as the pair of Salvage Troopers made their way up the cargo ramp.
"Well, considering she's from the Clone Wars, she's got to be nearly a thousand years old by now", Haselam replied as he began inspecting the inside of the vessel.
"No kidding", Stewbus remarked as he took stock of the inside of the ship. "Still, she's held together pretty well for those years, don'tcha think?"
"Absolutely. I can't wait to get a closer look at her. Don't get me wrong, the Imperial Confederation tech has been pretty interesting itself, but this has got to be on a whole nother' level."
"Oh definitely! I for one-"
The rest of Stewbus's statement was cut off as Darth Anathemous
descended from the ceiling, slamming both him and Haselam headfirst into the cold, hard flooring of the vessel...
Ronhar and the Wookiees heard an audible THUNK coming from the inside of the ship. Ronhar then sighed to himself, exasperated at the incompetence of those under his command. How could they be so clumsy? Whatever they had dropped, it had better NOT have been expensive. Ronhar called out to the Wookiees and said:
"You two, with me. Let's help those fools clean up their mess."
The Wookiees complied and followed Ronhar into the bowels of the ship. As he walked up the boarding ramp, he noticed something lying on the floor...or rather, someone, to be more precise.
Stewbus and Haselam.
Ronhar immediately drew his Mk III "Viper" Autoblaster as he went to inspect the bodies of Stewbus and Haselam. Keeping one hand on his blaster at all times, he flipped both of them over to inspect whatever had happened to them. Both of the men were very clearly dead, the front of their helmets caved in by some sort of tremendous impact. The floor underneath them had been visibly dented as well from where they had both fallen. Whatever had done this was clearly not a Dianoga.
This operation had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
Ronhar immediately radio'd the other two Salvage Troopers:
"Vintarb, Roofake, stop whatever you're doing and meet me at the boarding ramp. It would seem we have some uninvited company."
Ronhar then turned to the Wookiees and said:
"We're going to clear the bottom of this vessel first. You take the left side, I'll take the right."
Ronhar then proceeded to search the entirety of the ship's cargo bay, though neither he nor the Wookiees found any signs of an intruder. As he made his way back to the boarding ramp, he ran into Vintarb and Roofake.
"Good timing. The Wookiees and I are going to search the rest of this vessel. I am ordering you two to guard this boarding ramp. No one enters or exits this ship without my knowledge. Am I understood?"
"Absolutely, sir", Vintarb and Roofake replied in unison. Hopefully they would be enough to guard the ship until reinforcements arrived to lock down the rest of the vessel.
"Good". Ronhar turned back to the Wookiees.
"Same pattern when we get upstairs. You take the left side, I'll take the right. Remember, keep your blasters on at all opportunities, and don't do anything rash. Whoever is on this vessel is clearly powerful enough to kill without needing a weapon. Let's make sure we don't suffer the same fate, shall we?"
With his warning given, Ronhar and the Wookiees took the starirs to the second floor of the vessel. They exited cautiously as they began searching the ship for their would be intruder. Ronhar turned up his voicecoder to maximum volume and shouted:
"THIS IS TK-3301 OF THE MAHPOREEM IMPERIAL REMNANT. YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON IMPERIAL PROPERTY. MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD. THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST AND FINAL WARNING BEFORE LETHAL FORCE IS USED."
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"THIS IS TK-3301 OF THE MAHPOREEM IMPERIAL REMNANT. YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON IMPERIAL PROPERTY. MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD. THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST AND FINAL WARNING BEFORE LETHAL FORCE IS USED."
A growl under her breath was the only sound she made. The young Darth had just gone from hunter to hunted, but the imperials were hunting big game today. She backed into the turbo lift and slammed the console, and though it sparked and it's lights flickered, the doors shut and floor lifted her to relative safety.
It was a short trip to the second floor, and she was quick to pull the faulty doors aside and flee deeper in.
A sliver of dim light shone through the doorway, revealing some kind of bartop ahead and even some cabinets.
Kaila turned, continuing to back away from the lift whilst looking the room over, breath quickening. Rusted trays and silverware rustled as she backed into the bartop, causing her to grunt in frustration. All the while she could feel signs of life moving below, getting closer. They'd likely be here any second, and already every creak and groan of this ancient vessel was rendered indistinguishable from that of the lift in her mind.
<"Wayasi."> she muttered an incantation in High Sith.
On command, her helm slipped through a tear in the universe, bathed in the green mist of her nightsister magick.
The helm slipped over her face with ease, it's visor painting her world in soft green hues and light at last, illuminating the stove tops and cabinets of what appeared to be a ship's galley. It locked into her suit's neckseal with a pressurized hiss, and muffled her deep breaths as they began to settle.
With no more time to waste she lifted her hand towards the door across the room, and all around the kitchen, cabinets were thrown open as silverware and cutlery began drifting to her side at her command, all poised to strike whoever entered first.
Ronhar carefully made his way throughout the bowels of the Grand Harbinger, checking every nook and cranny of the ship for any signs of the onboard intruder. Being a Consular-class Light Cruiser, the Grand Harbinger had plenty of places where a person could hide, and Ronhar was determined not to allow himself to get ambushed. He made his way past the escape pods: a quick look inside revealed that they were empty. He then made his way to the Starboard Droid Hold: this too was empty save for what appeared to be an object lying on the floor. Ronhar approached it with apprehension before quickly identifying the object as an Electrostaff. It was, in all probability, quite possibly as old as the ship itself. Maybe it had been captured off a MagnaGuard droid and then stored onboard, only to be forgotten about for the last few centuries. Ronhar picked the Electrostaff up and activated it: It came to life almost instantly, with sparks of electricity crackling off either end of the weapon. Ronhar deactivated the weapon and slung it across his back. Within the close confines of the ship, such a weapon might come in handy.
Peering around the corner of the dining hall, Ronhar could see some sort of bar setup straight ahead. He glanced to his left, and saw one of the Wookiees peaking out from the opposite corner. He gestured for them to check the Officers Quarters...and then promptly froze in his tracks.
Dozens of pieces of cutlery were magically floating right in the middle of the galley, seemingly frozen in suspended animation. Without warning, they began to turn, with some pointing at Ronhar and some pointing at the Wookiees.
Ronhar had mere seconds to dive out of the way as the cutlery flung itself across the room, embedding itself into the walls of the dining hall.
The Wookiee hadn't been so lucky. A large knife pierced right through his skull, and he fell over dead. His companion wisely chose to stay out of the way until all the cutlery had either embedded itself or had harmlessly clanged off the walls.
With the utensil assault over, Ronhar and the remaining Wookiee began to systemically fill every inch of the galley with blaster fire.
Those knives hadn't just flung themselves, after all. They had been manipulated with the Force, something Ronhar was knowledgable about. And as far was Ronhar was concerned, only two kinds of people were really capable of using the force to such a degree. One of those people were Jedi.
The other...Sith.
Ronhar somehow doubted that a Jedi would resort to such violent measures as a first resort, meaning that he was most likely dealing with a Sith Lord.
As Ronhar continued to fire away, he took a quick assessment of his current loadout. In addition to the Electrostaff that he had picked up, he had his trusty Autoblaster, a BG-D 6 "Outlaw" slung across his blast vest, a pair of Rhydonium Grenades also attached to his blast vest, a vibroknife on his utility belt and an SE-26p heavy blaster pistol magnetically attached to his right thigh. While this wasn't a bad mixture of weapons to have, he wasn't sure it would be enough to take down a Sith Lord.
He detached one of the Rhydonium Grenades from his vest, activated the timer, and flung it across the room. It went sailing past the bar and into the galley...
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Palms out, arms outstretched toward either door, she was already three kills closer to safety.
But the enemy returned fire matching storm for storm. The galley was bathed in violet light when she drew her saber, batting away the first few shots. But the enemy was behind her, not just ahead. A round pinged off her backplate, alerting Anathemous to the tactical disadvantage she'd been cornered in.
She tried to back up, but a loud clattering drew her gaze back.
A sound she recognized anywhere.
The former trooper's eyes went wide behind her mask and she leapt sidelong towards the lift from whence she came, using the force to propel her the extra distance, but it was too late.
The blast triggered her sonic dampening first, yet still her ears rung. Then her nightvision dimmed for but a moment.
Anathemous crashed through the doorway and into the lift, scrambling to her feet with a growl on her breath. It stung like a viper-wasp, spreading up her shin and thigh where synthatex smoldered, leaving smoke in her wake. Her lungs next, something about that smoke choked her, made her cough and spit the most vile taste from her mouth.
She hit the next door with a loud thud, leaning one hand against the wall for support, pulling a set of tubes from her backplate with the other. She connected them to the underside of her mask with a series of twists and a pressurized hiss of clean air filtering into her armor and lungs. Whatever the hell they threw at her, she wasn't taking any chance that it might be a chemical weapon.
With a deep breath she forced the door open, pulling it aside with her augmented strength, and stumbled out.
Yet even wounded, Darth Anathemous was never one to give up.
Loud steps heralded her movement down the hall, pursuing the earlier gunfire which had come from the same direction as the fallen wookie. The Exo-muscle made up for the searing pain in her leg, allowing her to make a run for the doorway.
She came to a sliding halt at the end of the hall, quickly throwing her saber around the corner.
It began to spin in the air, traveling in a snaking pattern towards the remaining wookie.
Anathemous didn't need sight to control her arsenal.
The whole room shook violently as Ronhar's Rhydonium grenade exploded in a flash of brilliant green light, sending tableware and pieces of destroyed cabinet all over the place. He peered his head out from around the corner, and much to his dismay, he could not see the body of the Sith Lord anywhere.
Meaning that they were very much still alive.
Ronhar activated his comlink system yet again, and began to put out an emergency broadcast:
Such a protocol was only available to a select few within the Mahporeem Imperial Remnant, with Ronhar being among that number. Essentially, anyone who was in the immediate vicinity of the person who had activated the protocol was to stop whatever it was that they were doing and immediately come to their location.
Ronhar's comlink crackled to life with affirmatives, as reinforcements began making their way towards the Grand Harbinger.
Still, it would be at least a few minute before anyone showed up, as the ship was located rather remotely within Mahporeem's scrapyards. Whether or not Ronhar could survive long enough for his reinforcements to arrive remained to be seen.
He slowly advanced forward, accompanied on the far left by the surviving Wookiee. As the two made their way across the room, Ronhar could hear a faint swooshing sound that was steadily getting louder and louder.
Then, it happened.
Without warning, a lightsaber came flying out from around the corner, seemingly transfixed on the Wookiee's position. He didn't have any time to react before the weapon cut him in half. It then retreated back the way it came, out of Ronhar’s sight.
At this point, Ronhar had two options: advance, or retreat. He choose the former, not wanting to give any more of the initiative to his Sith foe. He combat rolled to the corner of the hallway, blindfolding his auto blaster before stepping out into the open.
Staring back at him was one very angry Sith, lightsaber in hand. Ronhar was sure that they would cut him to pieces the moment they got into range.
Ronhar once again raised his autoblaster and fired out a stream of blaster bolts toward the Sith threat. He deliberately aimed toward their legs, desperately trying to slow down their movements. The moment they began their advance, Ronhar would begin to back up so that he could maintain as much distance between the Sith and himself. Still, he doubted that he could keep them at bay for long. As he let loose his stream of blaster bolts, he took his left hand off his autoblaster and placed it on the grip of his BG-D 6 "Outlaw", his right hand still holding and firing the Viper. The moment the Sith came into lightsaber range, he would tear the Outlaw out of its holster and fire it right into the head of his enemy. Unlike his autoblaster, the Outlaw was both a slugthrower and a scatter gun to boot. While this Sith could deflect his blaster bolts with ease, even they would be hard pressed to deal with 26 metal pellets being fire at them all at once.
Ronhar just hoped it would be enough to stop them once and for all.
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Ronhar Tane
