Smoke On The Water [Galactic Alliance Dominion of Bestine]

[EmKay]

OBJECTIVE: BYO - LOCATE THE SOURCE OF THE VOICE
LOCATION: THE SUB-AQUATIC FACILITY RUINS
ALLIES: SANITY, LIGHT
ENEMIES: THE UNKNOWN
[6/20]

---

Glass crunched under his boots. Wherever the Iridonian was now, everything was shattered. Beakers, vials, containers, everything was in pieces. Odd coloured liquids decorated the floor in little pools where the water hadn't washed it away, and the smell was acrid and stale. Near the end of the room and into the next hallway, he saw a door that was hanging out of its slider track, the circuits sparking every time power tried to come back but ultimately failed. He pushed on the metal, and it screeched in protest as he pried the door off. He pushed it off to the side, and it landed with a thunk that resounded through the halls. The thought played across Tachon's mind that he was glad this place was abandoned before he entered the small room.

It appeared to be an office of some kind. A desk was within, a broken terminal, and a couple of file cabinets. The chair was a few inches from the wall, and following the chair up he saw that a ventilation duct grate was hanging by a bolt. It was almost as though someone was trying to get out of the room in a hurry; and not use the front door. He would follow that path soon, but first he wanted to see if there was anything useful in the files. He pulled open a drawer and rummaged through the documents. Many of them were technical documents, formulae, something about the Force. His brow furrowed and he pulled out his datapad. He spent what felt like hours picking out the most informative documents and scanning them into his 'pad. Some of the more damaged papers scanned through will blank spaces. Unreadable data. He would have to read through these later.

Then he saw a symbol from his memory. The Sigma. It was one of the Sections back at Demonsgate. Why would that same rune be in an abandoned facility halfway across the galaxy? He opened up the folder, and before he could even start reading, his vision faded again.

"Now you shall see what this place represented." that voice called out, then he saw another man in a lab coat, poring over the papers, typing into the terminal, always busy. Tachon moved to look over his shoulder, and saw the folder he was just holding. The heading of the paper read:

PROJECT SIGMA​

BATCH 72, SUBJECT GROUP KRESH, SPECIMEN 88​

Further reading showed Zur-Ksi that this was entirely too similar to what he'd gone through, despite differences. It also revealed more about his past than he cared to know. Project Sigma was an operation carried out down here in complete isolation. Subject groups were brought in from across the galaxy and pooled here for compatability to the 'immersion treatment'. Most died, but this Specimen 88 showed promise. He was a young human, sandy hair, blue eyes, pale skin. He was the only one to not experience inconceivable pain upon the first treatment, and so he was selected to run the full programme. All others scheduled after him were slated unnecessary, and disposed of.

The vision ended, and Tachon flipped through the paper. It was merely a dossier and progress log, but he suspected he'd find out more soon, just by continuing his journey through hell.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

[Posts=3/20]​

Objective: Rid Bestine of those scurvy knaves
Allies: tbc
Enemies: Anyone with an eye-patch or a wooden leg (or even a parrot on their shoulder)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTxythHY09k

The four green laser-bolts converged and merged into one a nanosecond before they burned the top from the cockpit, sheering it off just above the engine assembly. Nubica imagined she could see the pilot's blackened body in silhouette for a second, then the eyeball exploded and seared that image into her brain. Exultation at having been victorious swept through Nubica, though in its wake came the feeling that those two pilots had been so inexperienced that she had not really fought them, but had just slaughtered them.

"Two uglies at five kilometers, heading 132 degrees. They are hostile. Engage and terminate."

"As ordered." Nubica brought the ship up and around, then punched the throttle to full power. She wanted to close quickly so she would be able to get a look at the ships she faced. Uglies were hideous, hybrid spacefighters cobbled together from various salvage parts. Smugglers and pirates used them fairly often.

A warning klaxon blared in the cockpit, alerting her that one of the uglies had gotten a torpedo lock on her and had launched a proton torpedo. Nubica banished thoughts about her enemies' combat-worthiness, rolled the ship up onto its port wing, then dove. Her abrupt manoeuvre hurled her ship onto a course at right angles to the one she'd been traveling previously. The proton torpedo, which was traveling roughly twice as fast as she was, shot past her starboard wing and started on a long loop to head back at her.

 

[Ryan]

Objective; Space pirates
Post: 1/20
[member="Coren Starchaser"]

The Amarian pilot was no fresh fish to combat. He had flown a few dusts up in his lifetime but this was going to be the first time in the name of the Galactic Alliance. He had fallen in with some intense folks, a crack squad of commandos and pilots that formed a special force squadron equipped to handle many dangerous tasks. His mother was not impressed with the career choice and her exact words were "suicide jockeys". Either way, the Amarian found a fighting purpose and brotherhood within the squadron. In a cruel galaxy this was all that one needed in life to keep going.

A gloved right hand gripped the X-wings yoke while his left moved from throttle control to adjust the inertial damper from 97% down to 95%. Seemed his mechanic kept messing with his set up for some weird reason or hadn't realized he was an experienced pilot and liked feeling the inertia that gave him a fluent touch of the ship's performance. When flying combat sorties, one needed all senses to stay effective and alive. That was when contact reports were filing in and their commander had given orders to break into respected wings at the last "stick".

Since Sven was the new pilot, he was to keep on Coren Starchasers wing, as a way to break him in and possible assess his skills first hand. Either way, he wasn't going to let his commander down. " cog dat commander! fox on yisser six!" Sven would acknowledge Starchaser's orders and relay his position back in his silvery toned voice. He was going to follow the commander right up the middle, keeping enemies off his ass.

His left hand would instinctively move back towards the throttle, increasing his sublight speed to match Coren's.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

[Posts=4/20]​

Objective: Rid Bestine of those scurvy knaves
Allies: tbc
Enemies: Anyone with an eye-patch or a wooden leg (or even a parrot on their shoulder)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOA3he2Gv4M

A proton torpedo has thirty seconds of flight time. I can't outrun it, but I can outmanoeuvre it. Nubica smiled. Or deal with it more directly!

She reversed the ship's thrust and hit the port rudder pedal. This threw the ship into a flat spin that brought the nose around to face back along her flight path. Where the proton torpedo had been coming straight at her back before, now it was coming straight in at her cockpit. She killed the thrust and glanced at her scanner monitor — 750 meters and closing fast.

At 400 meters she flicked the lasers over to dual-fire and tightened her finger down on the trigger. Pairs of laser-bolts burned green through space seeking the torpedo. One bolt hit the torpedo at 250 meters out. It failed to destroy it, but did melt its way into the body and ignite a fuel cell. The subsequent explosion pitched the torpedo off course. When the onboard computer calculated the torpedo would not hit its target, it detonated the warhead, but she was a hundred meters outside the blast radius.

Switching thrust forward again, Nubica throttled up to full and punched up profiles of the uglies. One was an X-T1E. It had the body of an X-wing fighter with the hexagonal wings from a TIE starfighter. Nubica found the ship hideous to look at and would have dismissed it immediately except it had launched the proton torpedo.

The other ship looked fairly ridiculous. It mated a TIE's ball cockpit with the engine pods from a Y-wing. This particular hybrid was rare because it combined the TIE's lack of shields with the Y-wing's lumbering, slothful handling. She knew this type of ugly was often referred to as a TYE-wing, though DIE-wing was a common nickname for it as well.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Objective A
[member="Meeristali Peradun"]

Pain shot up to his shoulder from his still tender forearm as he slammed his shoulder into cover. Red bolts lanced across the air and threw up clouds of detritus wherever they landed.

This should have been a simple mission for the Hounds and their commandos. They were dropped off in a built up area well away from the front. Their mission was to bring in three ringleaders from the fanatical rebels. Unfortunately rolling street battles between guerilla forces were regularly occurring across the continent, despite the best efforts of the Alliance. Not they were stuck in the middle of one, ill equipped and a long way from the nearest Alliance reinforcements. Two blocks to go to their target, or they could call for extraction now.

"Press down the left!" Jacen shouted, making his decision. A blaster appeared from a window across the road. One arm extended he pulled the rebel straight through the window to the street below before he could fire.

 

[Zonia Kalranoos]

Objective: Steal H'kig book of laws
Location: Alongside The Hounds
Allies: [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Meeristali Peradun"]

There were very few scripts in this universe worth dying for, but H'kig book of laws was certainly one of them. Written by the sagacious H'kig, a martyr of Galand, the book supposedly contained insight in how to learn and effectively perform Hive mind. The technique allowed the sharing of intelligence, information and memories between those in the hive, where each member added their skill, knowledge and consciousness to the collective.

Thanewulf heard many claim that the book was a fraud, nothing but a nonsensical text written by a religious fanatic, but she knew that some primitive species utilized this technique. If this knowledge was to fall into the hands of trained mentalists, the minds of entire nations could be held captive via this method. The terrorists had gotten their paws on the ancient text and it was Tionne's mission to snatch it from them and return it to non-radical H'kig, but not before reading it.

"Peaceful monks my ass, Voidstalker!" she cursed under heavy blaster fire, her back against the wall next to Jacen. She wore a light armor, offering her far less protection than her male counterparts, but more was not needed. Tionne was a master Soresuist, Form III providing quite the protection from blaster fire. Soresu spared energy, allowing the wielder to bounce off laser bolts at impressive speed. On the other hand, Soresu was ill-suited for combat against more violent forms, where endurance and stamina of Soresuist would be stretched to the limit. Thankfully, this was not one of these situations.

"Where the frell did they get the arsenal worthy of a military junta? It's like I'm in the Clone Wars all over again." the redhead added, then diverted her gaze towards the Felacatian and Jedi Marshall - "What's the plan? I'm not hollerin' for backup before I get the book."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen looked over at the redhead for a moment, before his eyes returned to a wrist mounted data pad. Feeds from the entire team, as well as acoustic sensors provided a remarkably accurate red force picture, even in the urban conditions.

"We keep moving, keep pressing. There's less of them than it seems and these boys know their profession," he said, referring to the commandos. Unfortunately they'd come armed for an urban raid with carbines and stun grenades. They only had two precision rifles and no repeaters.

As one fire team moved on the left, the other provided covering fire - as much as they could in the conditions with enemies appearing on all sides. There was a ripple in the Force and Jacen ducked. A repeater chewed through the masonry he'd been hiding behind, leaving the remains faintly glowing.

He was practising his most defensive saber art. It was still on his belt, and a trusty CC13 rifle in his arms to defend himself from trouble several hundred metres away. If they needed to advance down the street, they needed to get rid of that repeater nest. They couldn't deal with blasters appearing on all sides and the heavy weaponry in the distance annihilating anything out of cover.

"Think of a way to distract that thing for me so I can get a clear shot?"

[member="Tionne Thanewulf"]

 

[Odelia Starchaser]

[SIZE=12pt]Objective 2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Allies: [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Dax Ragnar"] [member="Nubica Felidae"] [member="Tachon Zur-Ksi"] [member="Sophia Walsh"] [member="James Justice"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]2/20[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Odi was listening to coms she suddenly had a warm feeling wash over her she smiled that told her that her brother was being brotherly for a moment. She shook her head how she wanted to nudge him and say keep your mind on the task.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Now was the time to move they were going to take on the pirates, throttle up, and shield strength forward. It had been a time since she had taken on pirates they were tricky and often full of self-importance. But when it came down to it they liked their safety in numbers, while most GA Pilots could function both ways.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Her fingers rested easily upon the yoke, and for some reason they itched to pull the trigger.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Pirates were making their move banking and trying to out flank them Odi tracked with her eyes, and her ships’ system.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Coren to our right coming around” they had not fired a shot yet, that meant they were going to try and strafe them.[/SIZE]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Objective; Space. Pirates!
Post 4/20
[member="Nubica Felidae"] [member="Dax Ragnar"] [member="Odelia Starchaser"] [member="James Justice"] [member="Sophia Walsh"] [member="Sven Tolen"]

Coren loved his ship, sure, he put her through the frakking paces, but that was what she was made for. He had flown in the Rising for many years and too many missions, but every time he approached combat with her, it felt like home. He was watching the vessels coming through, keeping track of the enemies and of the friendlies, and more that were still joining the fray.

Pulling the vessel around, he loved the fact that zero gravity was a bit of an equalizer. The tell-tale sounds of his quad lasers taking shots at the fighters, he pulled the Rising into a spot behind another pirate fighter and opened up with the locked-forward ion cannon. He’d frak with the ship systems before he broke away from that flight path, and started coming about.

He looked at the instruments and smiled. There she was. “Take my wing, Odi, well keep moving see if we can’t scare these pirates away from the platforms. Fox, see if you can keep up.” There was a piece of Coren’s laugh before he cut the comms. An X-Wing should have no issue keeping up with the Rising.

 

[Peyton Steele]

Objective: BYOO
5/20

There was work to get done, and the first step was finding where she needed to go. That was up to Peyton to find. This wasn’t some mission for herself, this was from Alliance intelligence, a bit of a training exercise for something that was to come. She’d been given tools that most private investigators would love, but few could afford. Mix that in with her uncanny ability to make an underworld and black market work with her? And she wasn’t feeling so bad. But it was a snatch-and-grab. The trick was that she didn’t know who or what.

She had a name, she had a known associate, and that was it. Sure, it was more than some people had, but she liked to know what she was going after. Making her way into the city, she was looking for that dive bar, and from there, start asking questions, and getting the answers. The pistol was there for show, the stun batons, they were the real focus of her ability.

Stepping into the bar, Peyton was really good with maps, she took a seat at the bar, slow day, made for the perfect time to start to talk to these people, and get a feel for what she needed to find. Pulling back the hood, she received a wide smile from the bartender, human, dark haired, dark eyed.

“What’ll it be?”

 

[EmKay]

OBJECTIVE: BYO - LOCATE THE SOURCE OF THE VOICE
LOCATION: THE SUB-AQUATIC FACILITY RUINS
ALLIES: SANITY, LIGHT
ENEMIES: THE UNKNOWN
[7/20]

---

The vent was loud, cramped, and had water running down it in small rivulets. Tachon wondered why exactly he decided to go this way, but was not going to simply go back the way he came. Something nearly beckoned him deeper, pulling him closer and closer to the goal he did not know. He climbed up a ninety-degree bend in the duct work, and took a few more crawling paces before the thing gave out on him. He dumped out into cold, deep water. He thrashed and fought to get up, but now his light's circuits were fried. In the wet dark, he couldn't see anything. He gingerly reached out, straining to grasp onto something.

"You're better than that, Tachon," the voice came, "Ah. Yes, I've come to know you. I know what you are, what you're capable of. Now stop acting like an animal and use your gifts." it faded, and the Iridonian was left staring into nothingness. He sighed.

Part of keeping himself in control of his instincts also caused him to lose his natural touch with the Force. He knew of it, he wouldn't say he knew about it, but he knew why he was capable of some things thanks to watching the Jedi. It just only ever manifested as subtle precognition, and a vague sense for when something was wrong. Now he was being forced to use it again. To let go. He frowned.

It was hard. To let go of years of habit, it hurt. He nearly drowned several times, focusing on releasing focus. It was a vexing paradox that shook him down. He wasn't able to fully break free of his own binds. He was still reserved, but he was becoming increasingly aware of the world around him. Beyond what he could see was what he could feel. A sight beneath sight. Not images, but senses and thoughts. Rough, but enough to guide him. He followed the tendrils of thought, following the guidance of his feelings, until his hand met something he could hold onto. He hauled himself up and splayed out on the dry ground.

Then he heard something new. Like a pulse, just... different. Synthetic.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

Posts=4/20]​

Objective: Rid Bestine of those scurvy knaves
Allies: tbc
Enemies: Pirates, standard brief…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6zQElNxj2c

Nubica cut her Interceptor on a course that shot her past the X-TIE, then broke on down into a series of manoeuvres, twisting and turning, that left the TYE-wing far behind. The X-TIE hung with her long enough for Nubica's scanners to pick out details. X-wing fighters had two torpedo launching tubes in the nose and four lasers, one mounted on each end of the stabilisers that supplied the ship with its name. Lacking those S-foils, the X-T1E had replaced one proton torpedo launch tube with what Nubica guessed would be a laser cannon.

Under-gunned and overmatched. Nubica rolled her way down through a corkscrew dive that lengthened her lead on the X-TIE and the TYE-wing. The X-TIE's pilot began to pull the fighter's nose up, as if he intended to return to his wingman's side and the safety the TYE-wing would provide him. Nubica watched him turn away, then inverted and pulled her ship through a tight turn and shot back up and in at the X-TIE's exposed aft.

Clearly unaware of Nubica's manoeuvre, the X-TIE's pilot inverted and headed back toward the TYE-wing. Nubica saw the pilot's head come up as he scanned space for signs of her. Coming in from behind made spotting the squint difficult. The pilot never managed it, though Nubica did see the R5 unit's head swivel around and spot her.

Nubica hit the trigger and walked laser fire from stern to nose on the ugly. Two bolts blew the R5's flowerpot head off. Two more punctured the cockpit, exploding it into a cloud of transparisteel and duraplast fragments. The last bolts hit forward and touched off a proton torpedo's fuel cells. The fuel's detonation filled the slender craft with fire and sent the nose spinning wildly off into space.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Objective: B – Fleet / Space
Location: Take out pirates. Not the “take out on a date” kind.
Allies Up Above: The Galactic Alliance - [member="Nubica Felidae"] | [member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Odelia Starchaser"] | [member="Sven Tolen"]
Enemies: Space Pirates
Post: #2 / 20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udFrmjQ_jmU​

The peace didn’t last long – it never did. If it DID then the Alliance would be out of work.

The “uglies” came up fast from the surface and so began the dance to the death above the planet with the Alliance on one side and the pirates on the other in their craft which really did deserve the term ugly.

Dax popped the S-foils into attack position on his blue and white T-70 and pushed down to take the fighter into the fray, picking out a modified X-TIE to snake after which just looked…ugly. Finger squeezing on the stutter fire for his lasers, the red bolts picked apart the right wing of the X-TIE until it broke away, leaving the pirate in an out of control dive to the water below.

”Woo!” Dax shouted aloud in his cockpit.

He banked right and took a little detour across the surface, spraying up water from behind his 4 ion engines before pulling up to find another target. As he moved, he passed a Jedi Interceptor taking out a bogey, and then banked hard left to avoid two pirates coming around his way that shot past.

”Heads up in the Interceptor, you got two uglies sniffing around you.”

He knew Alliance colours, markings and the ships but still wasn’t aware of all those pilots by name. Dax saw the Rising barrel roll up ahead, deftly avoiding a blaster bolt and a large steel structure near the surface – that was Coren; he’d heard about the ship and he had heard about that name plenty of times.

 

[Ryan]

Objective; Space. Pirates!
[member="Coren Starchaser"]
Post 2/20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R044sleOW6I​

​

har, har , har "with an 'ole bigger den a rancor oi shud 'av naw issues keepin' up....... sir!" The wiry fox sniped back at his commander while he maneuvered into position behind the 'Rising' and slightly offset from his six, more like his five. They were missing one pilot to complete a four finger tipped formation so they had to work with what they got. Tug, his blue R2 unit, was already lighting up his HUD with enemy contacts and properly labeling them in the red.

Now for a trigger happy fur ball, taking up the rear was not his first choice in task. But, the importance of keeping cohesive formation was such a fine line between life and death that even this hot shot could not ignore. One did not become an ace pilot by lone wolfing a combat zone and sure as hell nobody ever won a war on their own. He will hold tight on the light freighter and wingmate as they thrust through the enemies center. He also knew.... or more like had a educated guess that he will have plenty of action in the back, no sexual pun intended.

Here we go......

Lieutenant Sven Tolen found it easy to anticipate the larger ships movements which made it less difficult to keep in formation. He would pay witness to the Rising's destructive path as the commander skillfully racked up his kill count. The Corellian Amaran had to keep on his toes to not full victim to the space debri left in Rising's wake.

 

[Meeristali Peradun]

Objective A: Accost ringleaders; snag H'kig Book of Laws
Location: In da streetz
Allies: [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Tionne Thanewulf"] | The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: H'kig Radicals
Post: 1/20

They say that chicks dig scars; whoever they were couldn't be entirely wrong, he'd mused in his thoughts, when Jacen had taken some damage to his arm, but left unsaid as it didn't need to be. They pressed left, but the progress was slow, being pinned down as they were. Tionne appeared and they became three against the wall; he had raised one hand in greeting from his position on the other side of the Marshall, but said nothing in terms of welcome.

"Not to come across like a meathead, Jace, but..." he rumbled, looking over the scattered chunks of rubble in the street, of varied sizes, "...I could throw something at them."

If there was one thing he was built for and trained for, it was what enhanced his existing attributes. He was a tank, more than capable of frightening feats of strength and speed, with precision. His fists curled into tight balls, and knuckles cracked to an audible degree, only muffled by the cacophony of battle.

"Or..." his orange eyes swept over the two of them, both very good-looking in his opinion, "...someone."

 

[Zonia Kalranoos]

Objective: Steal H'kig book of laws
Location: Alongside The Hounds
Allies: [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Meeristali Peradun"]
Enemies: Dem radicals
Post: 2/20

Thanewulf was a five feet three inches tall creature weighing a little less than hundred and five pounds. If the Felacatian wanted, he could carry her around like a fashion accessory. Voidstalker, on the other hand, was a scant few inches shorter than Peradun, making him somewhat of a less likely projectile. Tionne blinked at Meeristali's suggestion, not quite sure how to react to the prospect of becoming a wrecking ball for the Galactic Alliance. There were so many things that could go wrong.

What if she was shot in mid-air, unable to deflect incoming fire? What if the Felacatian missed and she ended up slamming against a wall? What if she would land roughly and break every single bone in that Hapan body of hers? This man was almost as crazy as her.

"My plan was to walk forward shirtless, but if you insist." she stated dryly, shifting her attention to Jacen - "What exactly do I need to do? Just be a distraction or preferably smash through something?"
Lips stretched into a thin line - "They don't look like they will be running out of ammo any time soon."
The armor she wore made her somewhat heavier than she usually was; if Meeristali was to toss her over in any manner, the platemail would have to come off, leaving the redhead in nothing but grey spandex underamor, befitting the circus act she would be a part of.

"Meeristali, if you could toss me near enough to establish visual contact, I may be able to persuade them to cease fire for a few moments, just enough for Jacen to put a blaster shot between their eyes." The Jedi woman leaned in, grinning at Peradun while beginning to unclip the bracers that protected her forearms.
"You get to grab me in all the right places, something many GA officers dream of. Just make sure thats not the last groping I'll ever have the pleasure of experiencing."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen quickly double check his range. Three hundred metres to the repeater nest on the fourth floor of the building. Easily within his range for a precision shot.

His eyes skimmed over his red force picture again, before he allowed his senses to stretch out. Those minds full of fear and aggression sent so many ripples through the Force.

"Houses on the right!" he shouted over the din of battle. "Three reds on the first floor trying to flank us. Make a show, put them down, get that fire support team's attention," he said.

There was a deep diaphragmatic breath as he drew the Force around himself, settling his nerves. His hands became still, his focus honed to a sharp edge. He nodded to each of them in turn.

"I don't know much about throwing a person, but if he touches you in all the right places he's probably doing it wrong," he said quietly as he resettled his grip on the rifle. Just a few seconds to make the shot. He mentally ran through the actions he was about to take. Right leg out, twist about and drop to one knee. Two burns ought to do it, then a frag grenade from the underslung launcher to pin them down or through up some covering dust if not.

[member="Tionne Thanewulf"]
[member="Meeristali Peradun"]

 

[Meeristali Peradun]

Objective A: Accost ringleaders; snag H'kig Book of Laws
Location: In da streetz
Allies: [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Tionne Thanewulf"] | The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: H'kig Radicals
Post: 2/20

At her mention of groping, and the sight of her beginning to remove her armour, his gaze hardened, his expression became stone. No, she was the crazy one. He reached over and grabbed her armoured forearm with a very firm grip, and made certain he had eye contact. The overall make of his facial features denoted something that was generally considered handsome, but the average person couldn't look past the marks of hydrastaff acid that marred those features - far right of his forehead, cheekbone, and cheek in a smattering of pockmarks, and acid streaks through hair, up from his temple - and made him look menacing at times when he wasn't trying to do so.

Still, that wasn't to say he didn't use it to his advantage, when combined with his build. He frowned, and spoke what he needed to get across.

"Keep the armour on," he stressed, with a low, low growl, "what I trained with to be able to do this makes your collective armoured weight nothing by comparison."

He released her arm just before, and readjusted the crouch he had been in since putting his back to the wall. He took a good look at the armour over her body, deciding within a moment just where he needed to gain purchase for the best result.

"This will happen very fast," he said, when Jacen divulged his thoughts about the redhead's flirtatious comment, "when we stand, I'll grab you by the plating over your torso, wind-up and heave you through the window where those reds are at."

He readied to rise, grab, and toss in one fluid motion, switching places with Jacen.

"Ready? On three. One, two..."

 

[Zonia Kalranoos]

Objective: Steal H'kig book of laws
Location: Flying through the air like a bra on a rock concert
Allies: [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Meeristali Peradun"]
Enemies: Dem radicals
Post: 3/20

Easy for Peradun to keep formal, he wasn't the one flying up and through stained glass, head first. Tionne joked, sometimes, in the most inappropriate of moments. A defense mechanism, one could argue, her way of dealing with imminent danger. Two Hounds weren't in the mood for bickering, so the redhead grew silent. Her facial expression changed from jestive to deadpan, that smug smile wiped off in an instant. With an affirmative nod, she let the Felacatian grip her by her chestplate, very much in the manner of a bouncer kicking a drunkard out the the club.

In his robust hands, she was but a mere crash dummy waiting for the ultimate test - a full-frontal smash through what seemed a glass rosetta. The object they were trying to infiltrate was sacral, a minor chapel where H'kig had entrenched themselves. Apparently, such intricacies escaped the two Hounds. Nothing wrong with breaking into a sacred object housing a bunch of religious radicals, right?

Tionne crouched into a ball when her body hit the glass surface, then rolled over shards across the floor, only to rise to her feet. She raised her gaze to behold an interior adorned with high granite pillars, and a wooden altar with a silver candlestick.Without a doubt, the establishment was sacramental, yet looked like nothing much from the outside. Two Galandans began shooting immediately, but the Jedi woman swiftly parried the incoming blasts with trademark defensive of a Soresuist. Both blaster bolts were deflected towards the radicals, one killing while the other seriously injuring the militant. Just as Tionne was about to attempt to apprehend the third Galandan, her gaze drifted down his chest, taking note of the explosive vest he was wearing. A series of wires were connected to it, trailing across the floor. In his hand, the detonator.

Oh, frell.

The orange blade was disignited, not to pose a threat in what quickly transformed from a skirmish to sensitive negotiations. How she would convince this group of fundamentalists to give up their most sacred text for safekeeping, Thanewulf had no idea.

"Erm... " the redhead mumbled into the comm, in a dispirited tone - "Hold your fire. I've just walked into a minefield here."

 

[EmKay]

OBJECTIVE: BYO - LOCATE THE SOURCE OF THE VOICE
LOCATION: THE SUB-AQUATIC FACILITY RUINS
ALLIES: SANITY, LIGHT
ENEMIES: THE UNKNOWN
[8/20]

---

He stumbled through the dark, sensing his way forward as much as he was listening and touching. He had let go of his attempts to see. It was too dark to try, and the strain was starting to hurt his mind. So he let go. That seemed to be a common theme down here. He was being made to let go of his limitations, let go of his sight, let go of fear. He recognised this, even if he did not quite understand it.

That pulsing was getting louder now. Each thrum was punctuated by an electrical fizz and a moment of total silence, before the cycle repeated. It was like a dying mechanical heart, straining to remain alive even though its body was already dead and decaying. He ran into something solid, which elicited a startled grunt and a rub to his head, then he felt forward. He could feel a door frame, and at the top his fingers wrapped around the door itself. He pulled on the door and shook it, wobbling it out of place. He quickly stepped to the side and the door slammed onto the floor. He peered into the room and saw a light. A dim one, coming off a control panel. It flicked irregularly and pulsed brighter in time with the pulsing that was now filling his ears. He stepped forward, tripped over a cable, and kept going. When he reached the glowing panel, he read the text.

​

​

**CRITICAL SYSTEMS ERROR**​

ping server 1 of 1 ...​

... ... ... ** FAILED **​

​

checksum 1 of 3 ...​

... ... ... ** FAILED **​

2 of 3 ...​

... ... ... ** FAILED **​

3 of 3 ...​

... ... ... ** FAILED **​

​

power grid test 1 of 1...​

... ... ... ** CRITICAL FAILURE **​

CIRCUITRY AND SYSTEMS COMPROMISED​

SUSPECTED HULL BREACH​

​

communications array test 1 of 1...​

... ... ... ** CRITICAL FAILURE**​

COMMUNICATIONS ARRAY DAMAGED AND DISABLED​

RECOMMEND MAINTENANCE OR REPAIR​

​

This sequence of messages looped, continually testing and retesting. The pulse was in time with the coming of the 'power grid test', which led Tachon to believe it was trying to bring power back up. He looked beyond the panel to the barely-illuminated generator behind it. The pulsing was still eerie, but now that it had a source it was not as mystifying. He touched the panel, and got a new set of messages.

​

WELCOME, USER #443​

PLEASE STAND BY...​

​

biometrics scan initialising...​

** SYSTEMS FAILURE **​

​

manual logic initialising...​

** SERVER FAILURE **​

​

awaiting input...

The last message blinked at the Iridonian for awhile, then he frowned and decided to see if this would respond to the same commands that a starship would.

awaiting input...

>>diag

processing, please wait...
please wait...
diagnostic running, please stand by...
... ... ... ...
... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... diagnostic complete.
Report:

** CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE **​

POWER GRID OFFLINE​

POWER GENERATOR IN NEED OF MANUAL RESTART​

COMMUNICATIONS ARRAY OFFLINE​

SERVER CONNECTION OFFLINE​

​

>> help

help menu:
diag, return, login, powersys, comm, log, data
** CRITICAL SYSTEMS ERROR **
SOME COMMANDS NOT AVAILABLE

>> powersys

** CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE **
POWER GRID OFFLINE
POWER GENERATOR IN NEED OF MANUAL RESTART
to restart, use command pwrres

>> pwrres

The pulsing stopped. It somehow made the air tenser, like that moment in surgery when the heart stops and you have moments to revive the patient or the entire operation is a failure. He looked to the screen, which instructed him to flick some switches, pump a level, and push a button. He followed the sequence, and then the generator roared to life like some kind of awakened beast. The pulsing returned violent and loud. Its pace quickened and got louder, until the alternating current reached its optimal flow and the pulsing was the normal thrum of a generator. Sparks flew from the walls and rained on Tachon from above, a few loose wires thrashed until the system determined that circuit damaged and cut power, and lights slowly flickered on.

Then the console let out a horrible static, like a demonic voice trying to come through the speakers of the computer. It sounded like numbers, maybe, and it left the hair on the back of Zur-Ksi's neck standing on end. The walls began to shake as the vibrations of the now active generator sent vibrations that had been long inactive. He heard something collapse in the distance, and he had the sensation that he was on a time limit now.