Public Sun Over Shola

[Uriziel]

Outer Rim Territories | Shola
Dropzone Apollo

The contract was to track down and return a hostage as well recover an artifact stolen from Last Wall. The hostage was the daughter of a Duchess who had been taken to demand ransom while the artifact was a family heirloom, a circlet that was a Force imbued relic designating the heir to the family line. It was a very clear and simple mission the newly found Auric Champions had to do, yet it would not be without challenges.

From Last Wall the insurgents had taken the hostage and the prized item to the nearby world of Shola. The mercenary company was expected to be outnumbered, though that was less of an issue, the world itself was. A cataclysmic place of unbearable heat, they had to have either fully enclosed armour or a form of protective suits so they would survive, hindering their movement and flexibility. But the sellswords pushed forward and established Dropzone Apollo. A small, shortlived camp less than a kilometer from the enemy base. Luckily sensors were completely useless on the rampant world and so the mercenaries prepared for their assault.

Cold, professional and gold would be the summary of the figures of the Auric Champions, at least, some of them. It was a new mercenary unit that Uriziel was assembling, his own teachings and trainings hailing a legacy of the Sun Guard and Thyrsian culture. Even the volcanic world and its ash could barely hide his golden silhouette, pristine and splendid. He had arranged for equipment and weapons for his followers, uniform armours and suits to make them not merely weapons for hire, but a statement. The Golden Company, the Sun Guard, they were not merely inspiration, they were predecessors.

With his spear, Mythron, in hand, Uriziel looked over the preparations of the unit. Their first deployment. His gaze slowly moved towards the sky. "A storm is coming."

Shahar Aksum | Vatari Syndal | Ouan Nahundi
Open to those who wanna join the Auric Champions!
OOC Thread
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[Shahar Aksum]

Shahar Aksum had been on worlds that wanted her dead before, but Shola seemed unusually enthusiastic about it. Even through the protection of her sealed armor, the heat felt oppressive, surrounding Dropzone Apollo in shimmering waves beneath a sky choked with ash and volcanic haze. She had chosen the lightest protection available that could still keep the atmosphere from cooking her alive, and even that restricted her more than she liked. Every movement carried the additional awareness that damaging the suit could become considerably more dangerous than taking a blaster bolt somewhere less vital. Still, she supposed there were advantages to choosing a world so thoroughly hostile to life. Nobody came here accidentally.

She finished checking the seal around one gauntlet before looking toward the insurgent position less than a kilometer away. Somewhere inside was the Duchess's daughter, dragged away from her home so someone could put a price on her life. The circlet mattered too, especially if everything they had been told about the Force-imbued heirloom was true, but Shahar knew which part of the contract would remain with her if this went badly. She had spent too many years searching for missing people, recovering prisoners, and entering places frightened civilians desperately wanted to escape. Those instincts had not disappeared simply because she no longer called herself a Jedi.

Her gaze shifted toward Uriziel as he surveyed the newly assembled Auric Champions. Gold stood out spectacularly against the black and burning landscape, which Shahar suspected was entirely intentional. The imagery was impossible for a Thyrsian to miss. The Sun Guard, the Golden Company, and generations of martial tradition had been part of the stories surrounding her long before anyone placed a training saber in her hands. Seeing pieces of that inheritance resurrected here was strangely familiar, even if Shahar herself had never possessed quite the same enthusiasm for ceremony. She glanced down at her own considerably less spectacular armor before looking back toward all that gold. Apparently, subtlety had not survived the journey from Thyrsus.

A faint smile touched her lips beneath her helmet when Uriziel announced the approaching storm. Shahar tilted her head toward the sky, studying the gathering darkness before returning her attention to him. "I was going to say something profound about the dawn coming after the storm," she said, dry amusement carrying easily across the comm. "But considering where we are, I'm beginning to think the sun has already done quite enough." Her hand briefly checked the lightsaber secured at her side afterward, more habit than nervousness, before she settled in to wait for whatever orders followed.

Her attention returned to the distant base while preparations continued around her. Once the Auric Champions moved, the insurgents would eventually realize someone had come for what they had stolen, and Shahar knew how quickly captors could become unpredictable when control began slipping away. She could only hope the Duchess's daughter was being kept somewhere reasonably secure and far from whatever defenses awaited them. Shahar had left the Jedi because she no longer believed arriving after the violence was always enough, but she had never stopped believing in bringing people home. Whatever role Uriziel gave her when the assault began, if it brought her anywhere near that hostage, Shahar intended to make certain this one did.

Uriziel