The Alderaan Offensive [TSE vs. FWC]

[Darth Voracitos]

Location: Crevasse City, Alderaan
Objective: Secure crystal formations, and trap civilians in the city for imprisonment
Enemy: All of Alderaan, [member="Jubei"]
Allies: The Sith on a good day

The rabbit got away again, conducting an agile evasive maneuver, avoiding contact with both blades sent swinging. Voracitos was amused by his enemy's confusion, and both turned to face him as he unleashed his attack on Left Voracitos, careful to put Right Voracitos behind him. Both smiled as Left Voracitos parried after parry, with an almost unnatural swordsmanship. It wouldn't be long before the Jedi would realize this was not Voracitos' natural skill, who was not renowned for his bladework. Regardless, he did his best to anticipate his strikes and adjust his illusion as naturally as possible, though his body dimensions did make such a feat slightly challenging, particularly when versed against two blades. It was a welcome challenge however. Voracitos didn't have long before the rabbit would switch targets, realizing his treachery.

"My Lord, we have secured the crystal formations." The voice from his communicator took the Dark Lord by surprise, and thus hadn't replicated it on his illusionary clone. Now with little time to waste, before the preternatural senses of the Jedi and his rabbit ears picked up on the discrepancy, Voracitos decided to make good on his next trick.

"Try not to lose your head," The Sith Lord said with joyful malice through his clone, before quickly maneuvering the blades of his clone for a powerful decapitation blow, one that would require the ready defense of the Jedi to bring both blades into a lock. The illusion's strength was more than what Voracitos could have otherwise mustered naturally on his own, but it was only just enough to distract the Jedi from the real ploy. A crimson blade flew through the air, through the stomach of his illusion (shattering it), and while the Jedi's defenses were focused on keeping his head from an enemy that was no longer there... the real Voracitos had sent his lightsaber through the rabbits right knee.

Lightsaber recalled to his hand and stowed away in his dark robes, Voracitos watched with glee as the no doubt stunned Jedi would topple over backwards without the support of his now separated leg. To avoid further injury, Voracitos outstretched two fingers, and with carefully brutal manipulation, wrenched his opponents lightsabers from his hands, and sent them spinning far out of immediate reach. To seal the deal, so to speak, Voracitos opened his heart again, but only a crack of an otherwise lethal hunger. Closing his eyes in bliss, the Dark Lord tasted the essence of Jubei with only the smallest fraction of his voracious appetite, taking a small piece of the Jedi into himself.

Voracitos activated his communicator, "Excellent, Lady Envy. Bring transports to the junction, we have prisoners to abduct... leave the Jedi, I want him to watch his failure unfold." Voracitos smiled down upon Jubei, and using the force with a small outstretched hand, called upon the severed foot sizzling on the ground beside the Jedi to his hand. Voracitos looked away for a moment to observe the severed foot, which was a tad larger than he had anticipated. Regardless, it made a fabulous memento, after a little cleaning, of this moment. He hoped to see the Jedi again, hoped to see what changes he had wrought to his belief's and psyche. That was the most dramatic, and delicious thing that Voracitos craved. He yearned always to see his very presence alter reality... one mind at a time.

"You must have a lucky foot after all, Jedi. Do try to keep it attached next time... I do expect a next time, do not disappoint." Voracitos smiled widely, as the spider-like legs that had planted him to the ground rose beside his Throne, suspending the Dark Lord once more just above the ground. "For the record, I am Darth Voracitos, it has been a pleasure, Jedi...?" It was clear the Dark Lord was asking for his name, before departing from this world, successful in his mission and particularly pleased with himself.

Transports began to fill the area, as cowering masses hovered over their dead in fear and mourning, failed by the Jedi tasked to protect them.

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

New Alderaa​

[member="Kor Vexen"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"]​

852 ABY​

​

The command point was packed up quickly.

Kei and two hundred men were ready to mobilise the defense of the main gates. Every other capable soldier was pulling back to the palace to co-ordinate the rest of the city defense forces. They would fight to defend Alderaan as ordered, they would defend Alderaan until they stopped breathing. They would set up the command point in a spare room in the palace, ready to fight for their lives for they knew that they might not be alive the morning after.

Kei stood at the gate as the droids marched over the hill. The soldiers beside him opened fire almost instantly, trading blaster fire with the droids who marched towards the city. They traded fire, red and blue lighting up the scene. Kei himself participated in the battle, yellow lightsaber defelecting blaster bolts back towards the droids firing towards them. Every so often one droid who broke rank would fall to a quick lightsaber slash.

They defended the gate well.

John Lyson marched his soldiers back towards the planet while Kei defended the forward line. They quickly moved through the streets, guns ready to fire at any moment. They moved on the palace, John shouting orders through a comlink. New Alderaa police force were responding, willing to follow his orders as they were running low on options. They had agreed to move back to the palace and regroup, rethink and plan a new attack.

They didn't expect to walk into what they did. Worms broke through the floor, tearing soldiers apart. John Lyson and the Police Commander both shouted orders, both began to move as quick as they could for whatever cover they could find. Shots were fired, so many shots were fired to subue the worms. John Lyson continued to shout orders, continued to try and control the soldiers who were fighting the very large worms on the battlefield.

The main gate was being defended. Two hundred men were fighting together, sharing shots with droids. Kei Raxis had charged headfirst into battle, lightsaber tearing through metallic droids like they were made of butter. The yellow lightsaber was causing chaos, blaster fire just skimming past the helmet of the commander. He kicked another droid away, slicing through it as if it was made of nothing, or perhaps paper.

A soldier pulled Kei aside.

They'd been tricked, a small squadron of Alderaan soldiers had found a force inside the city. A Sith was leading the forces inside the city. Kei shook his head, punching a wall out of anger. He hated that he'd been tricked, he swore he was smarter than that. He thumbed off his lightsaber, attaching the metal handle back onto his utility belt. Under his helmet, his eyes shone red with anger and annoyance.

"I shall handle this Sith myself"

 

[Sal Katarn]

Alderaan,
Outside Juranno

A human man stood on the outskirts, wearing civilian clothes. Piercing eyes of frosty blue watched the nearby tumult and death. Mischief danced across their surface, like the glint of sunlight off a glacier. He arched a raven brow, then glanced down at his hands, wiggling pale fingers.

"Hm, guess it's true what they say," he muttered to himself.

Nearby, a squad of Sith troopers approached. "You there, hands in the air!"

"Who?" The man looked around, then pointed at himself in astonishment. "Me?"

"Hands where I can see them, now."

"Well... if you insist." The man raised his hands, then suddenly flattened them, fingers splaying. Lightning jetted from their tips and engulfed the squad of troopers, cooking them alive in their armor.

When it was finished, the dark haired human wandered over with a lackadaisical gait and peered down at one of the troopers who seemed to still be alive. He put a foot on the trooper's throat and pressed down slowly.

"When you get to hell, tell the others that death just wasn't my look."

 

[Rai Seren]

She expected nothing less than what she got, but she also expected more.

His difference of her attack with the dirt clod was menial to her. She hadn't really been doing it as a true attack, but as if she were playing games with him. Why? Because that was mostly what she was doing. She wasn't going to win this engagement and she knew it, so there wasn't really a point to showing everything that she had. Of course, she didn't want to get killed, so she couldn't hold back completely. Even with him not going all out he was still deadly. Toru would more than likely kill her if she didn't get killed by Kaine as it was, so no need to jump the gun. So to speak. Nobody was actually holding a gun and she wasn't in a race so it wasn't as if she could actually jump the gun.

What she could do, however, was feel the ground beneath her shaking away. He'd clearly taken another page from her book, which was rather amusing. Every time she did something, he replied with an attack that was an order of magnitude higher, but in the exact same vein. Aside from the lightning. That had been purely him. To be completely honest she was disappointed by this battle. Of this was what life and death combat was like she really wasn't missing much. It was barely harder than her sparring sessions with Toru, and she knew he was going light on her because of his promise to her mother. That promise, to a woman who most likely had allowed herself to be killed, which raised a whole new set of problems in Rai's mind.

"You really are underwhelming even though you're going to win this fight."

She couldn't see the future, but she'd known the outcome the moment she laid eyes on him. That said, when the ground rose beneath her and flew at her, she used her spryness and training to maneuver, jumping onto one piece as it neared, flipping off it and over another to land with a single foot on a new piece. Exhilarating! But it wasn't going to last. She was good, but this was too difficult for her to match. One of the hunks of ground slammed into her while she was jumping to another, sending her flying back to skid across the ground where she lay panting, dazed, at least for the moment, as she tried to rise, but only made it to her knees before realizing she'd dropped her pike, which she called back to her hand as she sucked in air.

That bloody hurt. Definitely broke a few ribs. Ouch.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Darth Prazutis"] [member="Salara Zambrano"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​It was bloody.

​The Security Forces of [member="Kei Raxis"] coupled with the elite guards of the palace fought tooth and nail for every inch but the juggernaut of the Blackblade Guard would not be denied. They were spearheaded by the prestigious Crownguard that followed their master right into the jaws of the enemy, hatred radiating through every muscle as he slaughtered before him all life died. Orders quickly went out due to the resiliency of the defenders that no prisoners were to be taken, all would be slaughtered and the beating heart of New Aldera torn out for all to see.

They fought for every inch up battle scarred streets through roadblock after roadblock every crossing bringing another until they reached the tall exterior walls surrounding the palace. Already they were battle scarred with large swaths blown out or collapsed through the rumblings of tunneling worms that spilled warbands of the Jen'Lazea throughout the city.

But they fought no such barbarians here.

The gates of the palace were viciously blasted open the very metal twisted and torn like as if it was as flimsy as aluminum, a line of defenders were met with a great blast of crimson lightning so ferocious it turned them into charred husks that collapsed into smoldering heaps. Into the breach he went as the Blackblades worked to hit the palace from multiple angles, a strategic attack to catch all entrances and also one to prevent escape of those inside. The Jen'Lazea didn't dare go near their operations but several blocks away they maintained a presence ready to cut down anyone who got lucky enough to escape.

The palace was a magnificent construct steeped heavily in the architecture the people of Alderaan were known for, the sigils of House Organa displayed proudly to represent the Queen who ruled. He already picked out the perfect places on the palace where his men would hang the massive banners of the Sith Empire for all to see, right after the police forces were forced to surrender and disarm by order of the commander who was locked away inside his soon to be shattered palace.

"We press forward let us gut this bastion of liberty, and all who stand before us." He said charging towards a fortified position where a repeating cannon and its squad had opened up on the Blackblades breaching nearby, scything down a few unlucky troopers caught out. The Destroyer launched himself over the barricade and unleashed death, he swung his saber in his left and grabbed with his right wrapping his massive hand around his foes lifting and throwing them with such power they were launched clear through the air through his strength alone, one was forced to the ground where his full weight was brought down on the man's head smashing it like a grape and turning it into a pulpy mass. The gun's position was turned into bloody display of broken dead and severed limbs by the time he launched himself at the next group.

[member="Rai Seren"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Salara Zambrano"]

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Location: Alderaan skies
Objective: en route to House DeVoe
Enemies: All offensive personell
Equipment: Mariner IV (unarmed)





She knew her planet...knew the terrain all too well and the quickest route to the North...

It wasn't like Marina to grip the yoke of her ship's control so tight that her knuckles were ghostly white.
But as she thundered below cloud cover at a thunderous mach-7 at that low altitude, she were literally letting Heaven and Earth know she were angry.
Sure she could have pushed it through Alderaans atmosphere at mack-10, but then she'd have to be above the clouds and at a higher altitude.
Here she was hammering and ripping through the sky as if she herself were screaming. Screaming at everything and everyone below her that were engaged in violence. She couldn't see but for a moment's glance, like that of a flash as to the carnage she at times passed over. But however quick those flashes were, they were branded like hot iron in her mind, not so unlike still photographs.

But she in her heart had always been a pacifist, and her ship bared no arms. Marina could not engage even if she wanted to. And she couldn't, even with the pain of catching her people fighting below. It were too embedded in her pure spirit to cause it to darken...to give in to hatred...give in to take life; life which didn't belong to her. It were not in her to main and kill, despite the anger she was experiencing, bearing witness to war on her people. Marina could never even harm those those who would harm her. At least not in a lethal sense.

So as her craft screeched across what had once been peaceful blue Alderaan skies, by proxy the ship screamed Marina's anger across the skies in the form of supersonic boom over all that was taking place below her. Aside from shattering windows as the Mariner IV cut it's way through the air; she were also blasting apart some tree tops below that were in the wake of her ship's hyper-sonic envelope tailing her.

be de beep beep... Her droid were cautioning her of the crafts about that were engaged in dog-fights above her, for she were only a few hundred meters over everything below her. hence the thunder and the earth shaking her ship was causing below at mach-7.It was literally taking fighters below her wake off their feet...
Fighters from all sides were knocked off their feet as the Mariner IV streaked just hundreds of meters above them.
This too affected some if not all of the At-At and At-ST's engaged below. At least their immediate targets.
But this was only where she passed over, and wasn't really aware of what her supersonic-boom was doing. If she did, then maybe she'd keep doing as many passes as she could, as it certainly disrupted the fighting momentarily, like a mother scolding children fighting in the playground.
But her focus was on getting to her home, her family, and she wasn't going to stop till she got there.

Well Ok, so so there were some concessions...

Be de be de beep beep..Her droid announced some surface to air batteries had launched seekers and they were gaining on the Mariner IV, tailing her supersonic boom.

"Frak!"She quickly glanced at the display.

"TK, get them up on HUD!"She pulled up acutely, gunning her sub-light drives, shooting up, up past mach-10...11...12..
The missiles were loosing ground quickly...but so was she. Marina was loosing sky and she certainly didn't want to surface up in low orbit and expose herself to attack cruisers...

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

JURANNO
Friendly tags: [member="Matsu Xiangu"] [member="Six-O"] [member="Imogen Daniels"] [member="Vaylin"] [member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Farah"] [member="Lok Munin"] [member="Idris Voahan"]
Less friendly tags: [member="Harper Kade"] [member="Alden Belmont"] [member="Aela Talith"] [member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

The wasps made a terrible cacophony as they scattered out from beneath the walker's thick hull. Some stopped on other walkers before flying on, others flew straight into the city itself. They had learned that the white armour of the Legionaries and the black robes of the Sith were unsuited for feeding on and not damaging to their Horde Mother. Anything else? Why, that would be fine prey. Their large, monstrous forms climbed through windows and etched through doors with their acid spit.

Soon, persons were dragged out of windows and thrown from high in the air, down to the ground by sharp claws and angry teeth, some squirted with acid sprays that etched deep into the skin and eyes, causing searing pain. Joycelyn could see one dragging a woman out of a window while she tried to fire a rocket launcher at one of the AT-PATs. The rocket went awry, slamming into a building on the opposite side and causing it to partially collapse. The woman was then unceremoniously dropped on the ground in the path of an AT-HAW. The metal foot stamped down on the body with a sickening crunch as the AT-HAW nonchalantly moved on.

Joycelyn's head turned as she saw the charging troop, fronted by Jedi. The walker could not turn around in this confined space, not without disrupting its advance. That would simply have to go on. However, its' back-mounted turbolaser had the movement to do something. She knocked on the heavy turbolaser's cockpit and pointed. The legionary within nodded and brought his heavy gun around to fire on the flanks of the Alderaani troops. More of the AT-PATs turned to comply, though the main brunt of the group maintained forward firepower to resume their assault on the city.

The Legion would be more than capable of dealing with a rag-tag band of citizens and their suicidal Jedi front-men.

I want- Feed me! Burn them Burn it!
"The City will burn, the Jedi will be forced to retreat here. We are cutting them off from their escape" "There will be some protecting the palace as well."
Huuuuungryyy!

She scoffed as the sword clawed at her soul, seeking vindication. She had to put her entire focus into resisting it until- She opened her eyes for a second and thought she sensed something- Somewhere. Light Joycelyn's eyes scoured the ground beneath the AT-PAT, she even grabbed on to one of the railings and leaned over the edge to see better. Zaudraka's flames flickered angrily, impatiently, ever pressing her to seek out their mortal enemies and burn them for the glory of Vahl.

"Soon, everything will burn."

 

[Sebastian Thel]

Location: Juranno
Objective: Decode the transmission
Allies: [member="Six-O"] [member="Matsu Xiangu"] [member="Imogen Daniels"] [member="Vaylin"] [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

The job promised Sebastian a route off the doomed planet.

As blast fire rained around his darting feet, the trail of a jazz track lead him through the street, a final attempt to calm the citizens while they awaited a slow demise. The strap of the satchel around his chest grew damp between his grip and he planted his back against a wall to take cover from the swarm buzzing past him. To his horror, the creatures looked like enormous wasps, no doubt created by the hands of a Sith. He had been given no name, only the location of his contact and the information they required.

Releasing his hands from the strap around his shoulder, he gripped his hair and shook his head in a state of panic. Every raging noise and deafening boom shattered his senses and caused him to shake where he stood. He had never witnessed the death of a world and only prayed the battle would not be the death of him. A massive Sith warrior smashed his fist into the wall above Sebastian's head, the heat of his lightsaber singing a few hairs as he fell to his knees and avoided the blow.

Fearing his own death, Sebastian experienced a rush of energy. The will to survive released from his hands and exploded between himself and the Sith Warrior. The beast of a man crashed into the wall in front of him. Giving the Sith no time to stand up and face him again, Sebastian leaped to his feet and ran across the road. The coordinates were clear in his mind like beeps, all that was left between them and himself was the carnage throughout the front of the city.

A hand grabbed the lower half of his face and pulled him to the other side of the road. As he squirmed, he saw the glint of the lightsaber hilt swing by the side of their billowing robes. Another Sith had caught him in their midst. With their other hand, they unhooked the hilt and held the end to Sebastian's neck.

"If you want to live, you will come silently." The Sith threatened. All Sebastian could do was nod as they pushed him ahead. Their robes swished as they turned and he followed, jolting every so often as the ground shook.

The Sith lead Sebastian into an alleyway. A door was marked with the number of the rendezvous point which he contact had sent him. Things were becoming clear. He was working for the Sith Empire. Accepting the situation, Sebastian gulped and followed the masked Sith through the door. An explosion sounded outside and the hinges rattled as he slammed the wood behind him. They traveled down a filthy set of stairs and arrived at a bunker, where a terminal had been set up to decode the transmission sent to the Alderaan forces.

"Matsu Xiangu has tactical command." The Sith said with his hands behind his back. "Provide the transponder location for Infiltration Point Sea-Mouse." The terminal beeped beside a desk, where the Sith had been kind enough to supply Sebastian with coffee and biscuits. He quivered with unease as his commander said no more. The Sith left the bunker and locked the door behind him, where Sebastian assumed that he would keep guard until the task was complete.

Booms rattled outside and drowned out his heavy sigh. He pulled his feet towards the desk and sat down, slumping his satchel down next to the terminal and adjusting the reception. The broadcast churned through grainy static, disrupted every so often by the jazz melody played continuously to console the citizens. From the satchel, he slid his slicing kit and graph paper, adjusting the knob on the terminal until the signal was clear. He plugged his computer into the device and cracked his fingers, preparing to work while he ignored the explosions muted by duracrete walls.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Location: Alderaan skies
Objective: en route to House DeVoe
Enemies: All offensive personell
Equipment: Mariner IV (unarmed)





"Where the frak are they coming from?" She had ditched the surface to air seekers...left them long behind to self detonate upon loosing their target.

Only shortly after plunging the Mariner IV back below cloud cover, the ship's HUD projected an array of tracers coming from several directions, spaced in a manner which clearly gave clue the Mariner IV was being tracked.
"Gasp!.... stupid, stupid, stupid!...." Marina realized all too well her mistake.

"Shut down all transponders, NOW!!" She ordered her droid, as she took the ship down, down, down toward the surface with the traces tailing her close behind. They had been lit from orbit, most likely from one of the battle cruisers. The Mariner IV may have been slippery enough to avoid visual detection, but not her signature due to her transponder; which had been transmitting, trying to get a connection made with her home.

"Come on...come on, stay close you little devils you...closer...that's it...." She had nearly touched terrain before pulling up and going into a spin, before banking toward the more distant tracers that had also been sent her way. She punched her sub-light drives serpentining around the new group, which should all slam into the group following her.

"Ha-hah!..." Marina shouted in victory.

....only.....

"Huh?! ...what the frak?".... The missiles seemed to have recognition transponder of their own and only formed a swarm of missiles now after her. Both groups were now one bigger group and the third volley had caught up making it a massive group...a SWARM of missiles now, and all after the ship!

"Upgrades....of all my frakin luck!..." She took to cussing, in both frustration and dismay.
She had read about the new weaponry of tomorrows battles...only that day had arrived. Arrived here with all the new war tech on Alderaan.
"Frak, these little mother frakers and the ships they all came from..." Ok, so she couldn't fight back with her fists, but she sure could let them have a piece of her worst...her rare and acquired taste for raw language when she was pushed...compliments of her bestie, [member="Mariya Fleischer"]. Who for unknown reasons had disappeared weeks earlier to seek her other self. That had been heart-breaking for marina to see her friend go off with no real explanation, but that now was petty compared to what her world was up against. And Marina still had no real clue as to whom these invaders were.

Be de beep beep...her droid found it necessary to remind her of her language....and yes, all ship transponders were off line.

"You're lecturing me on esthetics?...This is the time you choose to do it?" Marina barked back, eyeing the swarm that was gaining on her ship.

"De beep de de beep de... Her droid noted that he let the last cuss slide. Detailing the time she last cussed was when they broke atmosphere coming down planet side. But of late she was quite overdoing it. He wasn't busting her-

"Can it, will you?!...Can't you see we got a bunch groupies here that want our autograph?!"

Be be de be de beep... TK (her droid) responded by giving her what she had been expecting. They were coming up 4 clicks due East to Blister Canyon.
That and that port pod aft of the Mariner was set to launch...her impulse retro drives were already close to critical overload as they had been primed while still in the launch tube.
The Canyon fissure came up like a hungry narrow mouth, as the Mariner IV rolled on her side slipping in between the adjoining rock walls. The swarm of tracers followed her like bees after sweet pollen. Only this pollen was one hot escape pod that was overdue to rupture its impulse drives.

"NOW!".... Marina gave the order as the ship seemed to almost run out of room in the narrow neck of the canyon fissure.
the pod launched and almost immediately hit one of the walls, tumbling for maybe a second before the drives ruptured. the ensuing first explosions of the primary tracers caused a chain reaction with the following ones. and if by chance the gods spared one or two, the canyon rock face had broken apart shearing part of the cliffs, taking down everything and anything which may have survived the explosions.

"Sheesh.... there goes my hiking trail..." She got a good glimpse on her monitors of the walls coming down closing up the fissure before the Mariner IV got further through the canyon losing the line of sight.

The canyon soon opened up wider as she navigated through it. For all intent and purpose, with so many tracers that had been sent her way and her transponder suddenly go dark. Whomever had targeted her ship had to assume it had been successfully taken down. The Mariner was for the most part unscathed...say for some char marks and dusty. But for now, it was safe and Marina was able to catch her breath and recover from that adrenaline hi. The Mariner IV was well below any line of sight zigzagging between the canyon walls. This went on for close to 1500 kilometers before she came up out of it and on to the plateau, before continuing on her way to her family's home.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"I agree, it was unfulfilling to willingly lower my strength just to not kill you outright. You've not proven the amusement I had anticipated you to be, though it was fortuitous that you revealed your existence to me. Undoubtedly she will be pleased."

The Emperor may have only told a half-truth earlier when he informed the young Seren that her mother was gone, dead and buried. Asha Seren had died by his hand, he had dealt the lethal blow that had ended her life and watched as she became one with the Force. What he didn't tell her was that years later he had managed to separate her consciousness from the stream of the others who had become one with the Force, plucking it from its serene afterlife and forcing it into a new body formed from the DNA of her original.

Asha Seren was still alive, albeit a perpetual prisoner of the Dark Lord of the Sith.

But that was a secret that Darth Carnifex planned to keep to himself, his own personal plaything to do with as he pleased.

"It is a shame that you were separated from your brothers, allow me to reunite you with them." The Emperor renewed his assault, the remnants of his previous attack littering the ground around them as he moved to close the distance; his lightsaber a blur of lethal light and intense hatred. Occasionally he would reach out with his mind, grasping bits and pieces of his earlier devastation and using them to wage a war on two fronts against the young Seren.

His lightsaber from the front, and bits of stone hurled at her from behind.

[member="Rai Seren"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Salara Zambrano"]​

 

[Rai Seren]

He renewed his assault, but her body was tired. Two could play the amplification game, but she hadn't been willing to do so. She'd known she couldn't win, so there had been no point in it. But she had learned things, and next time, far down the road, she would be ready to defeat him. At the very least she would be better equipped to face him than in her present state. Granted she hadn't expected to face him that day, either. Fortune favored the bold, though.

His flurry of strikes was met by her blade, but ultimately he caught her. A clod of Earth struck her hard enough to spin her about, and then his blade cleaned up her back, cutting an angry red line through her flesh. The Force was on her side, however, and he missed the important things while the blade cauterized the wound. She tumbled away from him, barely staying upright, head facing away from him as she raced to let her mind process what had happened.

When she finally turned to look at him, she was still smiling. But she was also holding a series of small devices in her hand that she'd pulled from a pouch at her waist. It was time for their fight to be over, and that meant it was time for her to leave on the last ship out before the Sith overran the place. It was about the only thing the Sith were actually good at. She clacked the balls around in her hand and then dropped them.

It set off a chain reaction of explosions of smoke around her. She stood looking at him until she was engulfed by the smoke, and then his her Force presence before heading away as quickly as she could. At the same time, she kept an eye over her shoulder. If he followed she'd have to do something more drastic, but if he let her go because she wasn't worth his time, as she expected, then she would head for the likely evac zone and head back towards Aurum.

It was time for her to go home.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Darth Prazutis"] [member="Salara Zambrano"]

 

[Salara Zambrano]

Alderaan

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Mavrianna and Ephraazel would follow their great uncle into the fray the twin daughters of his nephew Kaine would flank either side of him. Crimson blades cut through the swath of Alderaani guardsmen. Their mother, Salara would utilize her own saberstaff to cut her own path through the palace cutting a clean path behind Prazutis as he wrought down destruction on the palace. The Blackblades were strategic in their fighting and they would be followed up by the Talonguard who plucked various Alderaani guardsmen from their positions taking them to the war barges. Salara would test and experiment on them at her will later, but for now, she swept past the charred husks of the defenders and through the twisted metals that hung just so to the life they once had.

Wordlessly she headed into the palace and followed Prazutis over the barricade bringing down lightning to strangle any who dared come near her. Sergeant Venthus and his squad powered over and looked at the Empress for a brief moment. "Kill them all."

Knight-Commander Ixard reported.

"We're coordinating with other Panathan forces, and will bring back prime test subjects your worship."

"Beautiful."

Pause.

"Your orders are to kill the rest."

"Your word is my command." Ixard acknowledged.

Midnight purple hues of lightning struck through searing into the flesh of those it reached as Salara advanced behind the wall that was the Destroyer. Her daughters the princesses worked together they stood somewhere between their mother and their great uncle. Their fighting prowess was a testament to their upbringing, as Sergeant Venthus worked to keep a v-like point formation as they kept the rest of the Alderaani men and women from reaching the Empress as she worked to clean up and kill those who lingered behind [member="Darth Prazutis"].

[member="Rai Seren"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[AMCO]

Location: New Aldera
Objective: Survive the battle and "liberate" relics. If possible steal a statue.
Allies: TSE and Friends (Command: 6 + 11 Legionnaires)
Enemies: A bunch of pacifists (Don't look at me like that, I'm just doing my job.) and [member="Delila Castillon"]
Gear: Vibrorapier, Particle Beam Pistol, a pair of shock collars, and a concerning amount of thermal detonators.

Shovel scrapping dirt, the Legionnaire dug as fast as he could. He always did his very best in service to the Empire, but today he was particularly motivated. The reason for his urgency stood a couple metres behind him, black robes billowing towards the hardpacked dirt under them as the Sith stood perfectly still, eyes closed in concentration. Striking the earth with renewed vigour, he thought he felt something give way. Preparing to finally get this over with, he... "Stop." Grabbing the startled man by the shoulder, the Acolyte guided the trooper backwards, taking his position at the front of the narrow tunnel. Eyes still closed, he pushed his right hand forward, as the dirt started vibrating. Ignoring the nervously shuffling Legionnaires behind him, he reised his right hand upwards, the dirt following the gesture, forming a layer of thickly packed dirt at the tunnel's ceiling. Turning his head back towards the Legionnaire, he winked, smirking slightly. "You were about to collapse the tunnel. A bit too enthusiastic, maybe?"

Turning back before the Legionnaire had a chance to respond, he strode confidently through the freshly opened tunnel, his senses stretching forward through the dark, step unfailing despite the poor visibility. Reaching the other end of the tunnel, he was mildly surprised to find that he could not detect anyone inside the structure. Confident steps clicking across the stone stairway, he soon found the answer to his question. As he reached the ground floor, he found himself outside, the ceiling and upper floors having been blasted off during the bombardment. Gazing out from the ruined house, he found himself looking at what looked like a collapsed sinkhole further down the street, the area heavily blasted, bodies of Graug, Alderaanian soldiers, and a few civilians littering the street. It would seem the attack was proceeding faster than he had thought.

He briefly considered heading towards the Palace, but, going by the sound of heavy fighting coming from that direction, that probably wasn't the best place for what he had in mind. Having memorised the rough layout of the city centre, he knew exactly where best to find what he was looking for. The Royal Museum of New Aldera. Ordering his Legionnaires into a loose formation to protect against potential ambushes, Adrian started making his way towards the museum, mind constantly searching for threats in the chaos that was the city centre. While the outlying parts of the city had been largely depopulated, the inner city still held a large number of civilians that had not yet been evacuated, and perhaps never would be. The Graug had poured forth from their tunnels, adding to the chaos and forcing the defenders to throw everything they have at them. In an environment like this, he mused, no one was going to be too worried about a museum. No one but him. Or so he hoped.

There was the occasional skirmish in his path, but the Graug did a wonderful job of keeping the natives distracted. A few circuitous routes and a few discreetly eliminated defenders later, he found himself before the doors of the museum. It looked like it had taken some heavy damage, but he hoped that wouldn't be important. If they had been doing their jobs, the museum staff would have moved the truly special items to the duracrete vault beneath the museum. If they hadn't... well, he hoped they were still around, because he would kill them himself. Slowly.

Manoeuvring his way around the shattered debris on his way to where he thought the stairway to the basement was, Adrian winced slightly, seeing so many artefacts and exhibitions ruined. So much history... lost. It pained him. It pained him more than it pained him to see Alderaanians lying in the streets, expressions of pain, despair, and surprise stuck on their dead faces. It pained him because he allowed himself to feel when it came to relics. People... people died. They died and they kept dying. Such was life. But relics? Relics he could protect, and protect them he would. Squaring his shoulders he headed deeper into the quiet halls of the museum, his boots and the boots of the seventeen Legionnaires following him echoing far through the once pristine halls of the great museum.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

She fell, an angry red line carved from the small of her back up to the nape of her neck. It had only been a graze, however, and did not penetrate deep enough to damage the spine in any meaningful way. Still, she had suffered enough injury to make an impact on their duel, whereas the Emperor had not even broken a sweat. Now he stood over her, triumphant and horrifying to behold. His lightsaber was held aloft in both hands, the crimson blade angled down towards her body.

He would have impaled her then and there, skewering her completely through, had it not been for the untimely intervention of the Keepers.

Danger flared in the Dark Lord's mind, and he quickly pirouetted and turned his downward thrust into an upward diagonal swing to catch the cerulean blade of a Jedi as it neared him. The saberlock held for but a brief moment, but the Emperor of the Sith was physically superior to his combatant. He angled both of their blades down, his right leg swinging out to connect with the other man's shin; which rightly caved inward from the impact. Carnifex drug his blade along the Jedi's, ruthlessly bypassing his defenses and cutting his head in half from the bottom of his chin to the top of his head. The body shuddered with finality before tumbling backwards onto the broken ground, his lightsaber shutting off as it joined him.

Carnifex turned to face the young Seren, but she had taken her opportunity to escape in the confusion.

Now it was just the Emperor, but he did not remain alone for long.

The Keeper had allies, and they joined the fight from all sides; thinking that their numbers gave them the advantage. It wouldn't take them long to realize that no amount of numerical superiority could bring them close to content with the Dark Lord on an equal playing field. Their initial attacks were adequately repulsed by his armor, one of their members losing an arm as the Emperor retaliating with a sweep of his massive lightsaber. Carnifex resorted to the defensive form now, small intricate movements allowing his blade to catch each attack as it neared and properly parrying it away from his body. The Emperor then reached out with his left hand, using his superior control of telekinesis to pull the one-armed Jedi to his grasp where he proceeded to use him like a battering ram, throwing him with tremendous force into two of the other Keepers.

With half of his combatants temporarily incapacitated, Carnifex now moved to thin the herd. He spun around and swung his lightsaber down in a vertical arc towards one of the Keepers, who raiser her own lightsaber in a defensive gesture to save herself. The Emperor's blade connected with hers, and the sudden shock of their union caused the crystal matrix in the Jedi's lightsaber to burst from the strain, the weapon exploding in her hand as the energy blade itself shattered into fragments of dissipating plasma.

Unimpeded, the Emperor's weapon continued downward through the Jedi's torso until it carved a great rivet in the ground between her feet. Her two halves swayed, and then fell to the ground in opposite directions.

Lightning then burst from the Emperor's fingertips, overwhelming the physical and metaphysical defenses of the second Jedi and electrifying his body to the point that he was no longer recognizable.

By now the final three Jedi had recovered from the Emperor's assault, and charged to face him again. Again the Dark Lord went on the defensive, blocking and parrying their attacks as he slowly gave up more and more ground, waiting for one of them to overextend in their zealousness and give him the opportunity he desired. One of them rushed forward too eager, inadvertently blocking his compatriots from maintaining their offensive line. That was when the Emperor struck, battering away his lightsaber before gutting him with a flick of his wrist, using the Force to then blast his body into the distance like refuse. Now arrayed against the final two Jedi, it was more or less child's play.

The one-armed Jedi was the first to fell to this renewed onslaught, his other arm cleaved from its socket before his head tumbled to the ground. The girl gave into fear and started to retreat, but the Emperor pinned her to the ground with the Force. She would live, if only to suffer horror and injustice as a prisoner of the Emperor.

It was at this time that Alvarex and Sarlow arrived on the scene, slowly taking in the work of their father's butchery before apprehending the surviving Jedi in Force-resistant cuffs. "Take her back to the camp, and make sure she's well-guarded. I will forge ahead to reunite with Salara so that the breaking of New Aldera can be fully achieved." Without much else fanfare the Emperor made his way towards the smoldering city on foot, sending a small telepathic message to Salara to await his arrival.

[member="Rai Seren"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Salara Zambrano"]​

 

[Marina DeVoe]

She couldn't shake the images of the conflict out of her head. Who were they all and why were they here on Alderaan?

be de beep be... They were coming up on the pass.

Marina gripped her control yoke and came up on it at mach 5, with her droid screeching and alarming her of the rock face irregularities...the mountains. She had never hit the pass at that speed before, much less at mach 1.
But then again, Alderaan had never been under attack ...not while she lived.
Marina had not experienced her own world in turmoil, for she were born soon after the previous sith occupation. But an occupation only in the sense of coming from the sith propaganda of the time. Alderaan had not been truly taken, for her house and several other great houses had held their stand. It were because of them that the sith left, for it were too high a cost for them to remain.

As much as she had been tempted to see how fast she could make it through the same range as a little girl in her family speeder, she never did. Not that she had not dared it before because of fear, but that even as a rumbustious little girl, she knew better than that. Now at the present speed her ship was about to hit the the same pass, she'd literally would stir up a snow storm.
And that was exactly what she did, once the Mariner IV entered the pass at a blitzing mach 7.
At first it were the lower base tree tops, their needles, then dust and ruble... churning, tailing her ship's supersonic envelope like a tornado...till she got to the snow.

White out.

The entire pass and everything between mountain tops became one churned up snow storm, making visibility through the range impossible.
It took a few harrowing minutes through the mountain range, to come up on the all too familiar peaks which her house nestled on the opposite side.
Marina had gunned her reverse thrusters just as she came around the peak. Her eyes were transfixed on her home, as she vectored over to the main landing pad. Had it been attacked? It looked intact.
"Thank you..." She silently thanked her God, sighing a partial relief...

It felt good for the few breaths she took after touch down, before releasing her death grip on the yoke. Her hands were shaking when she did, as her heart was still beating a mile a minute. But she was home...for better or for worse.
Even before her ship's ramp came fully down, she had raced down it and jumped off...

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​Despite his position as Supreme Commander he still held a distinct preference to serve alongside his personal troops over others. The Talonguard of [member="Salara Zambrano"] along with the Crownguard were all pureblood Epicanthix recruited directly from the homeworld, all diehard religious fanatics each of whom would walk into fire if the family asked them to. While the Blackblade Guard wasn't entirely Epicanthix the training and conditioning they were put through was absolute in ensuring their loyalty. Each and every soldier would go to any lengths not because he ordered them too, but because he asked them to. They all worked together Blackblade and Talonguard to destroy the palace guardsmen set before them, all of House Zambrano's legions worked seamlessly together in battle to destroy their enemy.

It felt good to have [member="Salara Zambrano"] at his side even with her condition, she stood behind the wall of Crownguard that formed the tip of his spear with Mavrianna and Ephraazel on either side behind him. Blasts of lightning arced over their formation the smell of ozone hanging heavy in the air mixing with the smell of charred flesh and burning equipment. The Shadow Hand turned toward Salara "Commanders and government officials lurk inside Salara. Make sure the Talonguard keeps them alive and brings any who try to flee to where we will be holding the bulk of them." He said before pressing forward. He reached out towards the great reinforced doors that blocked the palace's entrance an iron telekinetic grip closing around them.

A single violent gesture caused the doors to buckle like a crumbling piece of tinfoil they blasted right off the hinges and fell to the ground. All around the exterior of the palace explosions rang out as the attacking forces breached on every side, through every exterior door and some walls. As soon as he entered the main foyer he was greeted with more guards and one John Lyson[[member="Kei Raxis"]], a commander who swung a rifle towards him and began to in a futile attempt at holding the Sith Lord off, he effortlessly deflected one blast after the next quickly closing in on the smaller man he towered over. He swung down with his lightsaber hard cutting through the man's arm with ease. But that wasn't the end of his suffering he reached out with the force and ensnared him, blasting him through the air and into a barricade outside the walls his form falling hard.

It was a reality that the guards didn't want to accept but finally it had arrived. The forces of Alderaan's palace guard and the augmented security forces fought valiantly but they buckled before the full might of what stood before them and were slaughtered to a man. Major Tiamat personally brought the full cabinet of the government up from the palace's basement shelter and forced them into the large throne room that once was for the Queen of Alderaan. Just like the walls of the palace Blackblade Guard hung massive banners bearing the imperial sigil on the outside of the palace.

Even in the throne room the tapestry of the coalition and Alderaan were covered with these rich banners. He sat on the throne of the former alderaani monarch while Crownguard stood on either side, the rest of the room was lined with a wall of Blackblade Guard. One by one the crowd of officials were brought into the room and forced to their knees in submission the looming shadow of the Blackblades stood behind every one. Everything was coordinated through Major Tiamat who stood facing the prisoners and just off to the side. An eerie silence swept through the throne room as all within fell silent, the sounds of guards executing wounded and dying throughout the palace and its grounds were heard causing each of the civilian and military men alike before them to flinch at each blast.

"What a-" One of the men hesitantly attempted to speak but he was met with an agonizing blow from a rifle butt the harsh voice of Tiamat boomed through her helmet's annunciator "You will speak when you are told to speak, nothing more nothing less." ​He stood from the throne then and walked towards the long line of officials compared to everyone in the room he was absolutely massive, gigantic before their thin dimunitive forms. To most he was easily three or four feet taller especially with the bulky dark, bloodstained armor he wore, but his face was no longer covered through a dark helm and his eyes burned like a pair of molten orbs, a sith rune emblazoned on the top of his forehead following in the footsteps of [member="Darth Carnifex"] and those who came before them. "Were just waiting for one more before we start. Don't worry we will have a lot to talk about together." ​He flashed a murderous grin, he didn't need to outright say it but they knew who he was and who was coming, the fear from those two realizations filled the room with fear.

 

[Sebastian Thel]

Location: Juranno
Objective: Decode the transmission
Allies: [member="Six-O"], [member="Matsu Xiangu"], [member="Imogen Daniels"], [member="Vaylin"], [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

The terminal buzzed with static as Sebastian turned the dial, trying to find a clean transmission. He opened his slicing kit and plugged his computer into the terminal with a flurry of beeps. Numbers ran down the screen as Sebastian clicked away, combing through the transmission for a lead on the transponder location. He listened to the transmission and jotted down code in his notebook while he sipped the mug of coffee and jolted every so often when an explosion thundered the wall.

As Sebastian eased into his work, a loud banging sounded from a steel cabinet, diverting his gaze to the shadows. Grime covered the walls of the dingy bunker and shadows hid steel dented with blast holes. He rose from his seat and held out a hand, preparing to defend himself as he approached the door. He rattled the lock, which would not open. With a heavy push from his wrist, the lock burst beneath his push through the Force. William Ermolai came tumbling out of the doors, his hands bound in wires.

"Thh-h-ebathtian!" William stammered through his lisp, his round face soaked with tears. Bruises surrounded his eyes and cheekbones where the Sith had beat him. They must have captured him and forced him to decode messages along with Sebastian, unless William had followed right into the midst of the Sith. "I came looking for you!" Ah, he was right.

Gripping William's shoulders, Sebastian whacked the side of his face. The back of his hand collided with William's tear stained cheek with a veritable smack. He quivered in his hands and sputtered, trying to speak. "You fool!" Sebastian scolded him. "You could have been killed!" His voice was low and quiet, straining to reach the height of his breath. Leaving William by the doors of the cabinet, Sebastian surveyed the filthy bunker for a pair of wire cutters.

Throwing a pile of Imperial documents off a desk, he found a pair of metal cutters and swiftly snapped off the bounds around William's wrists. The young mathematician stood on his feet and looked up at Sebastian with huge, apologetic eyes.

"I tried to find the signal, but they kept hitting me!" William stammered. Sebastian sat down before his notes and continued to turn the knob on the terminal, unable to find a clear signal. He selected a lead from his slicing kit and plugged the terminal into a device which cleared the static, then continued to document the frequencies.

"Send these to Commander Xiangu." Sebastian demanded as he slipped on his large, rimless glasses. "... but type the coordinates only." He instructed William to avoid sending the numbers via a voice message, lest his speech impediment interfere with the message. Sebastian wrote down the frequencies, which he decoded on his computer as William rushed to his feet. He procured his own communication device from the cabinet and began to type in the coordinates as Sebastian wrote them down. The computer beeped away with green code as the transponder signal glowed on the screen, becoming coherent amidst the chaos of static.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

​

​

Khuum.

Khuum.

Khuum.

The sound of Sith artillery shelling the capital city began to sound like the thunderous chant of devotees to an ancient god, rhythmic in the unceasing cacophony of their downpour. The air stank of gunpowder, burning corpses, and blood. Wherever the shells descended, the cobblestone and steel of the city gave way to twisted metal and consuming flames, the blown apart corpses of soldiers and civilians alike stewing in stagnant pools of water.

None of it phased the Emperor, who now walked among the conquered sectors of the city with triumph in his gait. Though he had not attended the initial push, he had come now to gaze upon the labors of his devoted subjects.

And he was immensely pleased.

Their lightning fast offensive had caught Alderaan utterly unawares, there had been no time to marshal a defense against the invasive intrusion from air and ground. The Dark Side ruled hungrily over this kingdom of the dead, reveling as its most ardent practitioners carried out blasphemous works in its name. Temples devoted to religious sermons were vandalized, their relics broken or stolen to be transported en masse back to the Empire's cradle. The Alderaan Memorial Hospital and Research Center, after being thoroughly plundered, was shelled by the Imperial artillery regiments that remained beyond the city's walls along the initial staging grounds.

Undoubtedly the Jedi Temple in the forests near the capital city was likely being assailed, subject to horrific concentrated bombardments as the implacable front of the Sith-Imperial Legions marched onward like a terrible tide of annihilation.

However, the greatest gain to the Sith was the seizure of the banking institutions scattered throughout the capital. The staff were subject to intense torture and interrogation, their minds ripped apart by Inquisitions for their secrets. Then the vaults were torn open, and the treasure within placed in large secure containers to be hovered back to the waiting transports beyond the city. The Empire would plan to melt them down, reshaping them as 'blood money' because of their universal value.

Carnifex now approached the palace, which had been stormed and partially occupied by Prazutis' mighty vanguard. Undoubtedly the Shadow Hand awaited his arrival, having completed his mission to corral the leading officials of the city into a position where the Empire held all of the leverage. En route he made sure to rendezvous with his Empress, Salara, and deliver unto her his affection before traveling the final expanse into the throne room where the banners of the Empire had been hung high from the rafters and balconies. The throne, which was raised upon a plinth to place itself above the ground floor, was occupied by the Shadow Hand and his minions.

The Emperor bade his second-in-command to rise and move away from the throne, not to take it for himself, but so that it could be destroyed with a single destructive blast of energy. "The triumphant Empire no longer recognizes the Alderaani monarchy, and we will only accept the unconditional surrender of those officials present. I suggest you hasten your submission, for the Empire will continue to level the city until our demands are met in totality."

[member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Salara Zambrano"] | [member="Kei Raxis"]​

 

[Duke Kyle DeVoe]

"My Duke, there's indications a ship is coming throughsector 5-3-zero....its supersonic." The message to him came from one of the defense outposts.

"And we've not shot it down, why?" The Duke replied, not daring to hope for the slightest favor. He had lost his daughter not just moments before, in the Midlands as the reports and data indicated.

His daughter's craft had been tracked since it dropped out of hyperspace and made a bee-line to the surface. The ship's transponder had been on and trying to break through the invader's jamming frequencies that were scrambling any transmissions.
But his communications team had been able to pick up the hailing, just that their response was being blocked on his daughter's ship side. She hadn't activated the fail-safe de-scrambler. Still, what she was transmitting was also a homing beacon and her father's efforts in detailing a pair of fighters to escort her had met with aerial entanglements. They had been laid up taking down a good number of enemy fighters along with remote droids, which seemed to be teeming in the hundreds, if not thousands.

And just as more fighters were re-routed to head off to his daughter's craft, the central defense command picked up that a pair and then another pair of surface to air missiles had locked on to his daughter's craft.
The Duke was orchestrating the Northern air defenses and any enemy crafts making a run, were easily targeted and made into falling confetti like snow flakes falling from the skies.
The Northern Defenses could not encompass the entire planet, but certainly took whatever was not identified as friendly and sent them back to the hell that spurned them.

Still, the inescapable loss of life, even of the enemy, was now far from being accounted for.There had been not forewarning, no ultimatum, nor any contact from the sith aggressors. The Duke didn't expect any, not from these sith. But even his own training under Darth Zarkan would allow his enemies a chance to know who it was that came for the killing. This sith, this so called emperor of a long list of like butchers was only for the glory of name. It served no purpose to destroy, if there was no gain. And there would be no gain, for this butcher would never take Alderaan. All he would take was his armies and followers to their own death march. These sith learned nothing from their past...it were shameful, if he cared to feel it. This momement, he didn't.
These sith had taken his brightest daughter...shot her down with missiles of all things.

He had to see truth in the fact. The missiles had not taken her out, as it looked like she outran them, but in doing so, the Duke seen that his daughter had exposed her ship to the assaulting destroyers. And they had sent literally hundreds of what were said to be seekers. He had watched his daughter get overwhelmed when the entire swarm of seekers were on her and she was too low, too boxed in to...do...anything but ...die.

The explosions...all of the seekers seemed to have found his daughter...like a swarm of wasps. her ship transponder went silent.

The Duke merely turned from the console, for his daughter was dead. He took no more time, but to re-orchestrate what he could save and what he could shoot down.
He ordered all to get back to their tasks at hand...and that was to maintain their kill ratios on the oppressors. He had been a loving father to his daughter and she never knew of his true past..nor of her own and that of her brother Jerrid Sy, his only son, who at the time was still on Lohr.

So when the comm officer announced a craft coming through the pass at mach-10, as they could only estimate based on the fury of the storm, he had dared hope. But hope was for the weak and he checked himself. His training and time on Lohr had indeed prepared him for this trial...the death of his own flesh. The rage, the hatred burned in him like the dragon fire of lore that had to at all times be kept in check, for he were of the Order of Shor. Only his countrymen, his wife and daughters would never know...and his one brightest for certain now. So he knew for certain that his daughter had died with hope in her heart to reach her family.That was an honorable and just death for his daughter. She died not knowing his true nature, for she came, she saw and she died on Alderaan believing him to be whom he had raised her to believe.

But if it weren't for his own eyes, he would have rebuffed the reports. her ship had survived,,his daughter lived!
Giving command over to his second, the Duke darted into a speeder and like a bat out of hell, he left one of the five secret defense outposts and hightailed it to meet his daughter.

Her ship had touched the pad when he himself reached it and unlike anyone had ever seen before, he darted to her, making it to her ship as she jumped her own ship's ramp.
Into his arm he had her. She was alive...he could literally count her heartbeat. By the gods she was his bloodline and he held her tight as he spun her around before lifting her up to view her. naturally she was shocked of his burst of emotion, not to mention his strength. He had not picked her up like that since she were a little girl.

But how did she come to destroy all those seekers on her tail? This was impossible to say the least. Half the rock-face had come down to fill the canyon fissure.
he pulled her down back to him and he held her for but a minute before he set her down.
he had to put forth his hand to stop her from coming at him for more. there was no time. he had more to think about and secure.
"Marina!....
Daughter!....my heartbeat...my center... you live!" He then said, still keeping her at arms length. Sure he could hold her a lifetime. But that lifetime could end for all, if he didn't get back in the loop.
He had been set to mourn her death at a later time; he was now set to rejoice in her living at a later time. It were what he was.

"You have to leave now! leave this system and do not return till I tell you to do so...do you understand me?!"

She didn't.

"MARINA!..." he voiced his command, nearly knocking his daughter off herfeet, but catching herby her shirt.
He pulled her to him, his eyes were like nothing she ever saw before. maybe at this moment he weren't her father, but a force that could not be reckoned with. her face dropped cold white as fear itself abandoned her.

"TAKE YOUR SHIP AND LEAVE ALDERAAN TO ME!"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

His words were what were soon to have her break atmosphere....LEAVE ALDERAAN.

The Mariner IV was rocketing up through the stratosphere as her mind had one directive and that was to Leave Alderaan...

Leave Alderaan...


Leave Alderaan...


"NO!" Marina not only broke out of that directive, but slammed her ship back down.

"What the-?!"... She couldn't believe she had the mindset to leave. How did she come to leave? Who-

"Gasp!..." her father's words had set her up to leave. It all became clearer now, like a fog suddenly blown away by a Northeastern to suddenly expose the valleie under the mountains.

be de beep be... her droid too was directing her to return to escape velocity to leave Alderaan.
"What?.. who told you this?!" Marina was once more below cloud cover and accelerating back to her home.

Be de beep be... Her father the Duke had ordered TK to to leave Alderaan too.
She ran her hand hard over her face in an effort to wake up, for she had not wanted to leave, but somehow or other had found herself doing it. She wasn't aware her father used force suggestion on her, for she had no clue as to her father's connection with the force.

Just somehow or other she was nearly off world until she broke that concentration. Now she without thinking was heading back toward her home. Only that her droid started fighting her.
"What are you doing?!...
OFF the freakin controls, TK!" She screamed at it, for TK to disconnect itself from the ship's comp and back away.
What the hell was going on here, she raced to figure it out as once more there were bleeps on her monitors. Two fighters...foreign...were heading their way. She'd have to figure out as to how she got in leaving Alderaan later. Right now she had to loose those fighters. And loose she did, as once more she dropped nearly ground level while accelerating to keep just ahead of the fighters coming in for her. She knew the terrain all too well and got low enough for them to start their intercepting maneuvers to take her down.

"Come on, you runts...closer...closer..." She was watching her speed, the terrain below and the fighters she was allowing to get closer. Just before they locked on, she dove the Mariner down upon one of the fields... lower and lower, while the two fighters continued to gain tail on her. She then just barely leveled the Mariner IV at 2 meters off the top of the dry fields and hitting it at an outstanding mach 10.

"Eat dust, you freakin runts!" She cussed them as they suddenly lost sight of her ship.
At that velocity, the air ahead and around the ship was a tailing ultra-sonic boom hitting the fields like a tornado. It kicked up dust, debris, stock and everything not anchored down. Visibility behind the Mariner IV and all around became absolute zero.

In that blinding moment, the two fighters who were most likely flying on instrument assist, certainly didn't crash...no. That was not what she was trying to do.
But the two pilots were disoriented and had no clue as to Marina pulling a 90 degree vertical ascension. She was up and out before they regained any visibility and had lost her, both visually and on their instruments.

Her heart was furiously pumping and so was her alert status. "TK, why did my father tell you to leave Alderaan?" She turned to her droid, with quite a menacing look.
"My ship, my droid..the truth!"

be de beep be... TK replied that it was her who he had wanted to leave.

"Marina...what are you doing child?" Her father's voice came through the comm.

It startled Marina, for she had her transponder and comm off. But it came through the comm nevertheless.
"I told you to leave...LEAVE ALDERAAN!"

It hit Marina like a blow to her head, nearly taking hold for her to blindly follow...but for a split second.
"N..NO!" she bounced it off her.
"I'm heading back!" She shook the strong suggestion out of her mind and continued toward her home and her father.

"Fine..." he was heard saying.
"Alderaa.
Save who you can in Alderaa" His voice sounded defeated. This time it didn't intrude in her mind. this time it were one of compassion.

She rolled and banked her ship to the new heading...Alderaa.

"You mean our Queen?...she still there?!" She asked, sighing...for she had not thought of her queen, just her own family. She felt horrid. What kind of subject was she, if she had not thouth of her-".

"She's been evacuated.
But there are some of our people...childrem among them. They've been in hiding in the palace keep.. the one-"

"I know the one....go on...what else?!" she was mad now and wasn't aware as to how she were speaking to her own father..with orders.

"There are swarms of incectoids keeping them from escaping... Blast them."

"Huh..what?..what do you mean, blast them?...I've go nothing to blast-" She started to say before he r father cut her off...there was little time to Alderaan, especially at her air speed.

"Mach 10 through the swarm, child. Turn, land, board them and leave Alderaan....can you do it?" he asked.

Could she do it? Marina's face rosy-ed up. Of course she could do it. But how did her father know she had already done it not two minutes before?
"Oh freakin aye, I can!" Her heart was way ahead of her, beating faster than the ship's engines... or so it seemed.

"Do that...then leave Alderaan....please Marina."

"Gulp...Will do, dad... I can't just leave..." was all she was able to transmit before Alderaa came up on the horizon and growing in size exponentially.

She knew the palace..knew the keep. Hell, she had buzzed the palace quite a few times as a little girl. Only this time, she had permission and her father's blessing to do it.
The military ground armored vehicles, the fighters, the swarm of wasps , the soldiers were soon popping up on her monitors as moving markers in it's rendition of the city and palace..
Marina gunned her engines and brought the Mariner IV down once more to nearly 2 meters off the ground. She wanted so much to push it to the limit...but mach-10 would be enough. She didn't want to blow the palace and keep apart...just the wasps and knock down everyone else.

Mach-10 was enough to literally blast the exoskeleton insects to oblivion that were subjected to the wake of the supersonic boom her ship was tailing...literally blowing them apart well after her ship past them. But it wasn't her ship that hit them, it was the hyper-sonic boom that blew the entire swarm apart in pieces and shaking the ground all around... toppling a few armored walkers in the immediate vicinity...not to mention putting a lot of baddies on their arses too, knocking them literaly off their feet..
A lot of glass, even masonry came apart in that sonic boom. The entire court and surroundings were suddenly enveloped in a dark cloud of dust and debris (wasp parts everywhere... E V E R Y W H E R E !...

The Mariner had braked just as it passed the palace grounds and vectored in on a one point landing.
" Oh!..Ahhck!" ...Ok, so she came in a little too hot and kind of slammed it down a bit too hard. But she had put it down next to the keep.
Be de beep be de..her droid certainly beeped his disapproval on that landing.

"Ok..now what?" She just looked at TK, for there was no one she could ask as to how was she to get those in hiding to her ship? How would they know she was here?

But she didn't have too, for the mass of people that were held up in the keep..hiding...were suddenly making a rush toward the Mariner IV. At first Marina wasn't sure who or what they were that were rushing through the dust storm as visibility was like near zero still. But alas...they were Alderaani.
"YES!!" She screamed out loud, hitting the ramp for them to come aboard. "Oh thank the heavens..." She silently prayed, tears coming out of her eyes.

be de beep beep...her droid informed her that some armored vehicles were strutting over from the other avenues of the city toward them, but visibility was still bad and marina just had to get them all or ..or there was no or. She just had too!

Be de beep de beep...her droid kept warning her.

"I got it..they're coming..now just tell me when the last one is on board-" She were screaming at it before it did just that.

"Hang on..everyone!" And she put the hammer down on the anvil. The Mariner IV fired all her vertical thrustsers, jolting the ship straight up before the thrusted her forward. The internal ship's g-force compensators nearly kept up in that split second or two. But they managed to leave the advancing walkers and troops that were finally getting back up on their feet, kilometers distant in a matter of seconds.
She then blasted out of the atmosphere and popped it into hyperspace...she knew all the good and ready jump points of her own system.