She Who Fights Monsters (Lords of the Fringe Dominion of Hebrides)

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]@[member="Mia Monroe"]

Jorus took a long step to put himself alongside Mia and Sio. WHAKKARABOOM went the shotgun of shotguns, the ancient Mandalorian shell gun, and twin CryoBan discharges swept the corridor. The tableau of shredding flesh froze instantly. A moment later, one of Sio's bolter rounds went off, and every reaver in sight shattered.

Except for the True Reavers. Their armor, daubed with eye-watering Chaos runes, had protected them in part. Now, missing a few fingers or ears from the CryoBan, they spread out among the dead and absorbed their fleeting life energies. Alchemical maces, chainswords, dark auras of Force Drain -- they brought it all to bear on Sio, Jorus, and Mia.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kiyala Demont"] @[member="Moira Skaldi"]

"Drugged suicide bombers. Got it."

The transport settled down inside a Bando Gora hangar bay, and Rave powered up the spiral vibroblade bayonet.

The hatch dropped, and she had the pleasure of watching the stealth transport's turrets rip up everything in sight. Silence fell, but only temporarily.

"Let's get to it.

 

[Valik]

Valik, unsure of what exactly was going on but figured that the process of assimilating Hebrides needed a bit of assistance and speed. Therefore he took some Lwhekk Aleph class factory ship and began ordering his Ssi-Ruuvi engineers to begin building Bobison Class World Defender platforms.

He sincerely hoped the battle was only on the ground.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Even at the helm of an Aleph fighter, Anaya did not feel the thrill of the fight. It was all to easy when technology did the hard work for you. The tiny squadron worked surprisngly well to keep the worst f the fighters form the Femme Fatal but she was still taking a lot of damage.

"Lady Apoleia! Our shields are down to seventy percent, we con't be able to keep this up for long." sometimes, Anaya wondered why she still had the whiny man in her service.

"Yun Harla, I could do with some assistance to dissuade the Bando Gora." the request came in a calm and almost bored tone, despite the panic in her own captain voice "Perhaps a boost for my Captain too, he's a little panicky and I lack the bedside manner to comfort him."

@[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Mia Monroe"], @[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Death, death was everywhere, hanging over the hall like a pall as they fought their way. It death that the Bando Gora worshipped, for it was their faith to toss the entire Galaxy into the abyss of Chaos. Through human sacrifices they appeased their blood gods, hoping that in death they would ascend as daemons to ravenously feast upon the souls.

True Reavers charged them, swinging maces and halberds. Siobhan felt her energies being leeched as the orange coloured energies of force drain sought to envelope her, seeking to drain her of the energy and vitality that fuelled her. Gritting her teeth she lashed out, force repulse smashing into the creatures with battering ramming force, the walls shaking at the pressure. The force blast carried the layers of ice that had been created by Jorus' cryoban rounds, the perverse Madam Tussaud's of stuffed-out bodies was turned into a volley of improvised scatter shots as a telekinetic maelstorm tore through the room, sweeping cultists through the air as she violently lashed out, thrusting them towards the True Reavers working the force drain.

She was tossed through the room and almost into a wall before she caught herself in mid-air as a powerfully swung mace slammed into her arm, deadening it. As force lightning blasted into her and she conjured up a shimmering shield, more Reavers pounced her, hard claws digging into her armour. A chainsaw blade was narrowly stopped in mid-air then swung around to cleave off a Bando Gora's head. Where the Reavers bit and clawed through at her bionic arm, flesh was ripped apart to reveal the durasteel that truly formed it before the offending creature was violently pulled into the air and smashed onto the ground with such force its head burst like jellie, then the mangled body was thrust like a scatter shot into the chest of another Reaver.

"She has come for us! The Great Annihilator honours us with a death by Her Hand. It is a test of the Gods. Skulls for the skull throne of The Kerrigan! Embrace death, for in sacrifice lies ascension!" a Chaos Priest cried out with a powerful bellow tha carried across the room as he ripped out a blast door and thrust it into the hall.

Err, wait...what the frak? Siobhan looked confused for a moment as she rolled under the blow of a mace before cleaving the True Reaver in half, body hitting the floor with a powerful thud. It...sort of made sense. Not given to interspection she slew on, stabbed, crushed with her mind as she gave herself to the dance of battle.

"Yeah, I've returned, here to smite every last one of you, for you have taken my name in vain and have bowed to other gods! For I am a jealous one!" she declared dramatically. The blade of her blue lightsabre hummed, as if in anticipation of the ravenous souls of the Reavers it would, well, reap, the Force guiding her murderous intent. Bodies piled up, limbs flew, innards spilled out on the frozen floor. The Bando Gora priest stopped bellowing as he was seized by the agony of telekinetically getting his arm broken, but even then he grinned like a madman, for he knew that his death would only strengthen his dark goddess, each death adding to her strength. So he went to oblivion with a smile on his face as he was impaled upon her blade.

 

[Shinju]

@[member="Ia'raklane Beorht"]

Shinju kept it up and moved now further down the line of the hallway. Letting the blade dance around her while she had a gore filled room of death and destruction. So many things going on all over and oh Shinju stopped to look at a twitching bando with a smile on her face show from behind a crimson mask while she spoke. Taking aside one of them who had no hands or feet. "So if I'm the monster here what does that make you?" Slowly the blade revved louder until it went into the flesh. "A man?" It raised and went onto the other side. "A dog?" Then as he still flailed Shinju put a hand to his throat and spoke. "Meat?" She let out a laugh when she came away getting the snapping sound. It wasn't often she was allowed to let loose.

 

[Lina Djo]

The force drain clutched at Mia, tugging at her heart as she fought, moving nowhere fast but not giving an inch of ground either. Mind worked over matter and she followed the orange lines that were draining her energy and pulled back, unwilling to let them have her strength. The light sheild on her arm leapt to life with a hiss, coming above her head to catch a mace. She drove her beskad into the chest of it bearer where it stuck fast. "Feth..." She stood upon the reavers chest and heaved to pull it ree. Alarm bells rang in her ears and she ducked as another mace swung for her head.

Anger rose like bile from her stomach as she rolled away from a downwards strike that slammed into the body of the reaver, dislodging her beskad. Mia didn't hesitate, darting forward she snatched up the beskad and leapt , bringing it down to split the reavers skull in two. Orange tendrils still pulled at their energy and someone was shouting something about Sio being a god. It was all background noise, but it gave Mia pause for a heartbeat too long. A mace slammed into her chest sending her flying. She hit the far wall and came to her knees with a grunt. Armour dented and winded somewhat but still breathing, not to mention very very angry.

She got up, and took a step forward. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!" The force scream blew Bando Gora's backwards, giving the trio space to breath for a moment. Mia's beskad returned to her hand and she brought it before her once more.

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] @[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Lady Exedō"]

They beat her for talking, but a beating was nothing compared to what they'd already done. Still pinioned in their mockup of a Vong Embrace of Pain, Iara attempted to stretch out once more and hear what was coming. In one direction, thunderous noise. In another, the chainsaw whirring. In yet another, the silence of a fight concluded. At least three parties had boarded the immense command ship.

A Bando Gora priest stepped too close, trying to keep his balance as the flagship shuddered. Iara acted. Back contorting against the Embrace of Pain, she shot out her upside-down head and latched onto his calf with her teeth. She held on for dear life.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] @[member="Mia Monroe"]

He took the chance to let them push ahead. That gave him a few spare seconds, half-tripping on half-dead half-sentients, to load his Mandalorian shell gun once more.

The shells he chose came from his secret supplier in the highest ranks of the Fringe. More specifically, they came from a new-model Viscera Scattergun. A ludicrously powerful acid in transparisteel frag rounds punched into Bando Gora flesh and destroyed them from within, explosively. That acid was something else. He reloaded with more of them, quite happy to play fire support for the Furies.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"], @[member="Mia Monroe"]

Devastation was wrought across the hangar as the destruction trio went about its bloody work, for each must toil as alotted in the vineyard or something similarly poetic. No doubt a perfectly good saying was just mangled.

The blast of the force scream tossed Bando Gora backwards as they were sent flying, then Reavers were exploded from the inside as the frag rounds loaded with the powerful acid struck them, burning right through their flesh. Siobhan advanced onward like a fury, much like a wrathful daemon who was reaping a bitter harvest. Everywhere was destruction and death and she found that it was good and to her liking.

"Our lives for the Great Ones!" a wall exploded with a powerful blast and she was thrust through the air with such force that she smashed into a starfighter, pain shooting through her as she rolled down, her head reeling and vision turning hazy for a moment before she regained her bearings and stretching out with her powers gripped several Cultists, each of them wearing belts carrying explosives, eager for the oblivion that death would grant them, and thrusting them into the air before tossing them far away so that the detonations would not engulf the trio, for by now she was pretty familiar with Bando Gora tactics. The walls shook, holes being blasted in as the shockwaves tore through. For the moment at least the Reavers were retreating, still chanting their devotion to their dark gods, doubtless waiting in the shadows.

"So...they worship me now?" Siobhan asked rhetorically. "That's...not my idea of worship...or of the proper cultists," she muttered more to herself. Doubtless her conception of favourite cultists would involve Eldorai girls devoting to her! The mace of a Bando Gora was telekinetically gripped by her and thrust at a still moving Cultist, cleaving him from shoulder to belly. "Let's move, they're so eager to go to Chaos, we should oblige them."

 

[Moira Skaldi]

@[member="Kiyala Demont"], @[member="Rave Merrill"]

Silence reigned...for now. It was eerie as Moira moved through the corridor that had little in the way of illumination, making it difficult even for her sophisticated eyes that were made by the finest in cybernetic hardware. Inspection of the walls would reveal that they were covered in the arcane symbols of Chaos and in images of depravity and destruction, depicting the Chaos daemons and Gods to whom the Bando Gora devoted.

Corpses and animal cadavres hung from the ceiling, shaking slightly as the command ship took fire. Suddenly the silence was broken as seemingly from a side-corridor a young woman, a blue Twi'lek dressed in dirty rags, looking badly beaten, with one of her headttails having been cut off, stepped through, holding her hands up.

"Don't shoot please...you must...," she did not get any further because Moira had raised her blaster pistol and without any word, any hint of emotion on her stoic, indifferent face, squeezed the trigger, shooting her right between the eyes. "Don't get close," Moira said emotionlessly, just seconds before the dead alien was shredded to pieces as the explosive device detonated.

"Common tactic Bespin. Prepare for assault," Moira had just said these words when suddenly Reavers began charging. Bestial in nature and appearance, some clad in black armour and wearing horned masks, blue eyes glowing, others in rags, mouths full of fangs. They charged and Moira brought out her bolters and fired, explosive rounds being thunked out as the guns bellowed, Reavers being placed to shreds. As they came in close she switched to buckshot, clubbing a Reaver over the head before spinning to send another with a bone-crushing kick into the wall as it tore at her face, ripping through the flesh.

A powerful force push by a True Reaver sent her flying through the air, her boltguns dropping out of her grasp, but in mid-flight she retrieved a frag grenade set to explode on impact and tossed it into the fray, satisfying chunks of flesh flying when the ignorant Bando Gora mage tried to block it with a force push and got his face blown off. Held in the telekinetic grip she was smashed into the wall, then thrown on to the ground, but as lightning came flying for her she leapt, ramming herself into a True Reaver and bringing it down under the force of her weight and sending it tumbling against a wall. Scylla chainsword in her two-handed grip she caught another blast of lightning, then cleaved the rising beast in half, cutting a bloody swathe.

 

[Shinju]

@[member="Ia'raklane Beorht"]

Shinju had arisen from the gore filled hallway she was in letting her blade turn off and just lightly hum for a moment. At the moment there wasn't anyone in large enough pieces to really pose resistance to her while she walked playing hopscotch at the end of the blood to leave footprints and shook the chain blade off releaving it of some of its meaty chunks. "Now if I was someone on a ship where would I be kept?" Well trick question she had been held on a couple of ships and moved going around until she stood outside a door and could hear a few of the reavers. Not talk more just ready for what was to come while she focused preparing with the sword and her saber for the dismemberment.

 

[Lina Djo]

Pain stabbed through Mia's chest with each breath she took and she sagged slightly as they retreated and gauntleted hand to run over the fresh dents in her armour. No doubt the impact had broken a rib or two. There was nothing she could do about it now, only endure the stabbing pain and fight on.

"Do they have to worship you so violently?" she said through gritted teeth, straightening up as The Annihaltor suggested the chase the retreating forces. She looked at Jorus. "Best parties..." she repeated.

@[member="Jorus Merrill"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Mia Monroe"], @[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"Amen to that," Siobhan spoke, spitting out some blood, breathing out. Pain shot through her back, though she drew on the Force to strengthen herself, trying to blot it out as she beheld her hand, where a particularly hungry Reaver had bitten through the armour and the synthetic flesh to bit on hard durasteel. Breathing came out more ragged than she would have liked. She could crush hordes of Reavers, but physically she was no longer in as good a form as she had once been, more than a decade of battering ramming, not to mention a semi-decadent life on Kaeshana, having had an effect, meaning that she relied far more heavily on the Force.

"You'd think they'd prove their worth by killing the people I want dead and bringing me their skulls or something if they wanna go the burn, maim, destroy route," she muttered to herself as she reloaded her boltguns.

As she passed through the hall outside into the corridor she noticed that, as the floors creaked under the steps of her boots, that she walking over a floor made of human bone. Curtains hang on the walls, made of human flesh. Further away incense burnt and one could see the burnt and charred body of a human, evidently a hasty sacrifice. Siobhan's jaw tightened as she beheld the body that had been incinerated...as an offering?

"Time to finish the job and send them to Chaos to burn. Again," she said as an aside to Jorus. Eyes filled with cold resolve, features hardening as she felt the familiar wave of hatred wash over her, welcoming it like an old friend as she sensed more Reavers ahead. Fear got you killed, anger kept you alive and she had long stopped being afraid. The Force guided her to what seemed like an altar room, judging by the chanting in the Dark Tongue going on there. A strong blast door dared to impede her progress, her rage willed that it flew and so it did, smashing into the church service with great ferocity and force as it collided with an altar of skulls and bones, a cloud of smoke rising up into the air as Chaos worshippers leapt up to join the dance of death.

 

[Valik]

After no small amount of time a Bobison-Class platform was ejected from the Lwhekk Aleph class ship. From there he ordered the factory ship to tractor beam the platform and put it into orbit around the planet. It'd be a nice defense, but it was only one ship. Best get to work on more.

"Another." He ordered and the Ssi-Ruuvi got to work.

 

[Antera]

Between the presence of the Bando Gora raiders and the IFF tags making up her allies in orbit, Somarae felt a distinctly bitter bile in her throat. What the Fringe had sought to gain through force of arms mere months ago, they'd been granted out of desperation. The Empire was theirs, even if Emperor Kahoshi still ruled, it was under the domain of the Fringe.

Her stomach knotted at the thought, and she forced the sensation down and the identity of her 'comrades' out of her mind. She had a duty to perform.

I am a weapon of the Empire. I am death to the foes of Atrisia. So long as Atrisia stands, I stand for her.

She'd thought those exact words in battle many, many times. Today, something in them rang hollow.

"Dao 1! Bandit on your six o'clock!"

The sudden call from her wingman shook her out of her distraction and back onto the mission at hand. Her Naginata broke into a hard turn and climb to starboard, the frenzied fire of her Bando Gora pursuer missing by a few short meters. Dao 3 swooped in behind the hostile fighter, opening up with its primary cannons and tearing the vessel to scrap.

"My thanks, Oren," her voice remained level, though her breathing had deepened slightly from stress. She turned back towards the growing furball of fighters, scanning visually for targets before diving back into the fray, "Dao 2, Dao 3, stay close. We're re-engaging."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]
Silence had fallen on the bridge, now that the gaps were plugged. Their starfighters were nowhere to be seen -- destroyed or moved aside or stolen. They had bigger fish to fry.

She paused, about to set fire to the shrine with a wave of her hand, and thought instead of what a Jedi would do.

The job.

With a nod to herself, she moved into the battered, unclean turbolift. "Come along. Let's get this done."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Mia Monroe"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Jorus admired the slow-motion artistry of the scene. Decorations made from humanoids both dead and half-alive -- adoring worshippers, self-mutilated or in the process of self-mutilation, turning and rising from the pews en masse like a wave gathering -- all of it caught up by the strength of a counterwave, Siobhan Kerrigan, THE Kerrigan, the Force unleashed. Pews, vestments, worshippers, everything broke and jammed up against the other end of the chapel.

An instant later, his shotgun fired. This time, he brought and bestowed, not the stillness of CryoBan, but purifying flame. Incendiaries.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Moira Skaldi"] @[member="Kiyala Demont"]

The Bando Gora poured out of the ship's passageways, uncaring of the dead. True Reavers, immensely powerful in the Force, consumed even the soul energies of the reavers around them. Eye-watering runes bedecked their armor, and they wielded maces matted with gore, or chainswords that growled and spat. Rave's Viscera pumped xenoboric acid and transparisteel flechettes into the pack, with sufficient force to detonate bodies from the inside. She aimed at head level, especially for the armored True Reavers. Xenoboric acid slammed into their faces and ate through their skulls before they could take another step.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Pure devastation reigned as the unholy place of worship, where the Bando Gora Cultists made obeisance to their Dark Gods, was turn asunder in a maelstrom of power, the force being unleashed for the purpose of murder, carnage and slaughter. The screams and screeches of the Cultists echoed across the corridors, but even in death they found cause to rejoice and sing praises to their daemon masters, for they knew that in Chaos they would be rewarded.

Then THE shotgun, another holy instrument that in its purpose was blessed by Chaos, for Chaos cares not who wins, just that there are souls sent into the realm of Tartaros to feed upon, roared and it spewed out the purifying fire of incendiary. Chaos worshippers and Reavers were caught in the blast and burnt as the cleansing flame struck them.

As pure Chaos enveloped her Siobhan advanced and struck, blade humming as it reaped the twisted souls of her worshippers, sending them to the realm of the dead, dented and battered armour being sprayed with the blood of the wicked, with innards and guts as they were hewed out. The Force guided her and her blade slew, dismembered, maimed. A Reaver who jumped her and sought to bite through the armour protecting her neck was violently kicked and shoved into a wall, then she recoiled, distracted by the creatures she was slaying, a torrent of lightning shot straight for her chest and under the power she staggered, breathing heavily, having not been able to summon a shield to protect her.

"See, weaklings, 'She' is but mortal! A false idol, a deceiver. The one who slays 'Her' shall earn the favour of the True Gods and ascend into Chaos, her soul shall feed the engine of Chaos!" A sorceress who glided a few metres above ground, those Bando Gora blue eyes ablaze with madness, clad in elegant robes made of purple, a glowing amulet surrounded by a necklace of human bone, cried out. Orange energ shot forth from her hands as she drained the unworthy weaklings in the Cult of energy.

Then suddenly her hand went to her throat and she gasped as she was choked, held in a grip more powerful than a droid's pincer. She screamed as her right hand, which held a dagger with the symbols of Nergal engraved upon it, was broken, then she was hurled through the air to be smashed through a wall.

"Apostasy will be punished. For I am the Scourge," Siobhan said sarcastically as rubble dropped down upon the unlucky sorceress, who would assuredly suffer in the Pit.