Invasion The Bacta War | Sith Order Invasion of High Republic Thyferra Chapter 1

[Revna Marr]

Wearing:
Ring || Lightsaber || Necklace || Armor​

​

It had not taken long for Republic forces to respond to the Sith invasion of Thyferra. Revna was already overhearing the crackle of communications through the various troopers and Second Legion warriors that the Jedi were already on the ground and engaging Sith forces somewhere.

Of course they were. Revna felt a slight but bitter surge through her heart at the thought of that. They came out of the woodworks, so to speak, to stop the Sith when it came to an agricultural world - but where were they when millions of slaves and refugees in the Outer Rim needed help?

Why was it that she and her Father, who were Sith (albeit rather strange ones compared to the rest of those within the Order) were the only ones willing to do anything about that? How many times had a slave child asked her if she was one of the famed Jedi, come to rescue them from their shackles, and she had to tell them the ugly truth?

Behind her helm, a shift of disgust crossed her face. Revna didn’t despise the Jedi because they were Light siders, but because they were never where they were needed most.

The Sith woman cast her gaze across the burning landscape once more, before she felt a distinct shift in the Force that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She turned her gaze upward and, through the barrage of bombardments from the ships in orbit, she noticed something else.

“Ah chit. Everyone get down, take cover!” She barked to the warriors around her, before she erected a Force Barrier around herself and a group of Legionnaires and the containers they were guarding, her efforts bolstered by other Sith who were there with her too - and just in time, as a column of pure Force Destruction slammed into the ground and spread a wave of utter annihilation around the impact site. It slammed into her barrier and Revna gritted her teeth against the power that pushed against her. It kept coming and coming, spreading its devastation over several kilometers, indiscriminate with who was caught up in it.

“What the actual feth?!” she said through clenched teeth. “Yeah, let's just kill our own forces too while we're at it!”

Revna waited for the wave of destruction to pass by, before releasing the Barrier and turning her gaze upward again. She sensed a dark, familiar presence beyond - and bit back a snarl of frustration. Of course Prazutis was here, and of course he had unleashed some overwhelming show of force, heedless or careless of Sith forces that were already on the ground. Part of Gerwald’s Second Legion had taken a hit, and she wondered how he might react to that when this was all said and done. It wasn’t her business though and she didn’t have time to ponder on that train of thought.

She overheard chatter that one of the containers further down the line had been compromised and there was a ripple of uncertainty that passed along the line. “Just keep moving - we need to get these containers to the refinery.” She called out to those who could hear her, to keep them moving forward despite the losses and damage that had been wrought. The dead and dying could be tended to later.

They continued to move along, closer and closer to their destination, sections of the Legion coming under direct assault. Then someone from ahead alerted the rest of 'Contact!', and Revna moved ahead to see what the disturbance was.

Someone was hindering their movements, their figure blocked by the haze of smoke and ash. Revna’s eyes settled upon a rather interesting individual - a rather colorful humanoid female. Revna had never seen someone like her before.

“You are not welcome here.” came the woman’s voice, devoid of anger or any other harsh emotions, just certain of what she seemed to be saying. Beyond her, somewhere, another explosion registered, the sound ripping across the burning landscape. Revna noticed the woman across from her flinch at the sound and percussive sensation that rippled through the air currents. A wave of color danced over her skin in response, something that intrigued Revna further. A faint probe through the Force to sense the Light side within and around this individual, confirmed her suspicion that this was a Jedi - or at least someone who likely practiced something similar.

“Of course we are not - that isn’t going to stop us though.” Revna replied back, her voice carrying through the smoke filled air to the other woman as she stepped away from the warriors and began to somewhat flank the other woman. There was no anger or malice or hate in her voice, just the certainty of someone who really didn’t give a crap what others said or thought.

“Leave.”

Through the din of combat, distant and nearer, Revna heard the sound of musical notes emanating from the woman before her. She noticed subtle movements, the fingers curling at her side, and Revna felt tension begin to build within her muscles as her ember eyes narrowed behind her visor.

Her own grip on her saber hilt tightened ever so slightly, and her body shifted into a more alert guard as she sought to draw this interloper away from the others.

“Now.”

“There is no stopping what has been set in motion, Lightbearer. It is not too late for you to walk away and go somewhere else where you are needed more.” Revna replied back to the other woman, giving the colorful Jedi the same option to leave as well - though she knew this was going to dissolve into a fight, it was just a matter of time now - seconds, likely. The din of rising combat around her began to fade into the background as she pulled her focus to what was before her, waiting to see what her opponent’s next move might be. ​

Direct Opponent Tag: Zaiya Ceti
Enemies: The High Republic
Allies: The Sith Order​

 

[Kadeon Virell]

Objective: Hold the Line
Location: Zaltin Production District, Thyferra
Outfit: Combat Ready
Equipment: Double-bladed lightsaber - Twin Verdict
Tag: Darth Tormenta

Kade had seen worlds burn before. That didn't make watching another one do it any easier. The horizon was black. Not dark. Black. Great columns of smoke rolled upward from the Alazhi fields, joining together until they seemed determined to smother Thyferra's sky. Beneath them, orange crawled across the landscape in long, hungry lines. Fields that had taken years to cultivate disappeared in minutes.

Kadeon Virell stood atop the outer wall of one of the processing facilities and watched it happen. "Man, I really hate Sith." There were probably more appropriately Jedi things to say. Kade wasn't particularly interested in any of them.

Twin Verdict rested in his right hand, still unignited, while Republic soldiers and local security rushed through the defensive positions behind him. Transports were being loaded. Workers were being moved deeper into protected sections of the facility. Anyone who could be spared was reinforcing entrances and establishing firing lanes through the processing complex.

Kade had already made his priorities clear. People first. Facility second. Bacta third. If somebody had a problem with that order, they could file a complaint with the Jedi Council after they survived the invasion.

Another distant explosion rolled across the landscape. Kade's jaw tightened. The Sith weren't simply trying to conquer Thyferra. They were burning the source of something that kept people alive all across the galaxy while simultaneously trying to take whatever remained for themselves.

That was low. Even for Sith. His comm crackled. "Knight Virell, movement on the southern perimeter. Hostiles approaching the processing district."

Kade rolled his shoulders. Finally. "Copy." He stepped off the wall. For anyone else, it would have been a fall. Kade dropped several stories before reaching into the Force. His descent slowed only at the last moment, boots striking the ferrocrete with enough force to make nearby soldiers turn toward him.

He straightened like he'd merely stepped off a curb. "Everybody remember the plan," he called as he walked toward the southern barricade. "They want inside. We don't let them inside."

One of the soldiers stared at him. "That's the plan?"

Kade flashed him a grin. "Good plans don't need diagrams."

The grin disappeared as he passed through the defensive line. There. He could feel them now. Darkness pressed against the Force beyond the smoke. Sith soldiers were one thing. Droids, mercenaries, pirates—whatever else they'd brought—Kade trusted the defenders to handle them.

But somewhere out there was something stronger. Someone. Kade's fingers tightened around Twin Verdict. That old familiar sensation stirred inside him. Excitement. He hated admitting that. A Jedi probably shouldn't feel the same spark before fighting a Sith that Highlight Virell had once felt walking onto an athletic field with thousands of people screaming his name. But pretending it wasn't there wouldn't make it disappear. The trick was remembering why he was fighting now.

Behind him were soldiers. Workers. Vratix. People who had nowhere else to go while someone else decided their home was worth destroying. That was why he was here.

Kade stopped several meters ahead of the barricade. Smoke drifted across the roadway. Twin Verdict snapped to life. Snap-Hiss One green blade erupted from the staff-length hilt. Kade rolled the weapon once through his hand before the second blade ignited from the opposite end. Snap-Hiss

The Jedi Knight settled into a loose stance, one foot sliding behind the other. Relaxed shoulders. Weight forward. Twin Verdict angled across his body. His expression was considerably less disciplined. Kade smiled. Whatever was coming through that smoke had chosen the wrong refinery.

"Alright," he muttered. He beckoned toward the approaching darkness with two fingers. "Come get some."

​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber | Wyrmfang

Dreadnaught​

Varin had joined Gerwald’s forces for this attack, lending his services to the second legion and its dreadguard. The runes that were scarred into his flesh pulsed with a heat that etched their markings into his armor, heat discoloring and bluing the metal around them. A smoldering cloke of smoke and ember spewing from his back. He had watched as the enemy had cut down several dreadguard, not as hesitation, but to learn. Varin was extremely observant and known within the Sith to catalogue fighting patterns from his enemies into his head for more effective combat. He was not the hot headed young acolyte that ran in head first. He was a Knight, andHe was more patient now.

"The Jedi are linked through the Force. Do not mistake their coordination for conventional communication. Expect units to react faster than they should and from positions that should not know where pressure is developing."

His want to know what became of Jakku, to assuage or wring his heart, too, could wait, as he crouched low in the damp climate of the Thyferran jungle, listening over the bud nestled almost-inconspicuously in his ear to the Vanguard teams, as they finished settling into starting positions while she went off for final preparations—he assumed—allowing himself only the scant wonder if what he saw in her face on arrival had anything to do with that need. But again it could wait.

Varin’s eye searched into the brush. The tool he had grown extremely accustomed to using, to peer into the force to find signatures. The veil of the forest lifted from his enemies as they hid in brush or attacked from within it. His smoldering cloak separated into several super heated smoke tendrils that snaked along the ground floor, yanking a soldier here or there to the ground and enveloping them into a hellish coffin where they suffocated and burned. Their screams robbed from their lungs.

Varin called back the tendrils, releasing the now blackened and charred corpses.

“They mean to distract us and overwhelm, Lord Gerwald. If you could have your men regroup with us for a moment.”

The runes pulsed along his body as heat built from his body like a raging furnace.

“They will have nowhere to hide.”

Varin’s heavy gauntleted hand lifted to the sky, ears would pop with the pressure building within his palm and moisture would fall to the ground from the heat that built. A spark within his palm coalesced into flame. Flame imbued with the Dark Side, it felt wrong, it felt like chaos within his hand.

Once the men had regrouped the flame within his palm erupted from his fingers, springing forth over Gerwald and his men and latching on to any vegetation. Smoke rose further from the destruction as these flames began to devour the very life of anything that was not charred. Varin’s other hand slowly lifted fingers slowly spreading as the semicircular wall of flame began to push forward and spread.

His sight watched what these soldiers would do against such a force of nature before them.

Gerwald Lechner | Rik Perris​

 

["Ariel"]

Get off Thyferra
VIGILANT REAPER
ENROUTE

Omega Squad Every Day Gear Locations

• Michael, Gabriel, Raguel, Raphael, Jeremiel, Connel , Sariel, VIGILANT REAPER
  [Any text in brackets signifies comm-link usage and not face to face conversation]
• 
  Rides
  
  • "Enterprise" Station Ship
  • Vigilant Reaper
  • Null Vector
  • Speederbike
  • Iron Psalm
  Gear/Armor
  
  
  • Gear(“Bodycam” Datapad, UAD Drone, link to Seraphim AI included)
  • Lightblaster
  • Shortsabers (“Night” and “Day”)
  • 5 Throwing Lightknives
  • 3 Force Blinding Flashbangs
  • RI-17 Rifle-w-MS-0412 Grenade Launcher
  SURGICAL - CRYBERNETIC IMPLANTS
  
  • Repli Implants that would be for the limbs
  • Bonemer enhancements to strengthen structure of the body
  • Muscle enhancements.
  • Hemo enhancements for blood flow
  • Hawkeye implants for eyes
  • Advanced Medical Implant
  • Scentzy
  • Injected Nanotech upgrades
  
  
  
• Shadow Sanctuary - Enterprise

Three kilometers east, Connel cut through a maintenance fence. Behind him, Raphael slipped through the opening. No alarms. No shouting. No firefight. The distant thunder of the REEK covered everything. Connel checked the tactical map.

[How's our angry distraction?]

SERAPHIM replied. [Receiving concentrated enemy fire.]

[So good?]

[Operational effectiveness remains high.]

[Armor?]

[Ninety-one percent.]

Connel stopped. [Ninety-one?]

Bren answered this time. [They've been shooting at it for three minutes.]

Connel looked toward the distant weapons fire. [I love that stupid thing.]

[Focus.]

[I'm focused.]

[You're emotionally bonding with an armored truck.]

[It has character.]

[Move, Ariel.]

Connel moved.

The Sith had solved the mystery. Or believed they had. The enemy was operating from the west. Sensors confirmed it. Weapons fire confirmed it. Electronic interference confirmed it. A heavily armored assault vehicle was moving toward Overwatch Six.

Therefore: Omega was attacking Overwatch Six.

Security concentrated there. Patrols converged. Recon assets turned west. Reserve forces repositioned. Every response made perfect tactical sense. And every response was wrong. While the REEK made half the perimeter stare at it, Omega entered the eastern fire-control network. One position disappeared. Then another. A targeting relay went offline. No explosion. No alarm. It simply stopped reporting.

Overwatch Three went silent. Nothing. Then Overwatch Two checked in. Perfectly. Two had been abandoned fourteen minutes earlier. Control acknowledged it anyway. Connel watched the intercepted traffic scroll across his HUD. [They have no idea which positions they still control.]

[That's the goal.] Michael checked the countdown.

5:31:08

Nemesis had six hours. Omega couldn't defeat an army in six hours. They didn't need to. They could make an army spend six hours trying to understand what was happening to it. Bren studied the REEK telemetry. [They've committed enough.]

Connel knew what came next. [SERAPHIM.]

[Ready.]

[Ghost it.] The REEK turned. Its rotary cannon stopped. Jamming ceased. Transmitters went silent. It disappeared between two industrial structures, changed course, drove beneath an abandoned processing canopy and shut down. Thermal suppression engaged. Sensors went passive. One second the Sith were tracking a raging armored assault.

The next… nothing.

Enemy units converged. They found an empty road. Smoke. Shell casings. Burning equipment. No troops. No assault formation. No explanation. And while they searched… Overwatch Five stopped answering.

Rain poured across Thyferra.

The Sith still held overwhelming numerical superiority. They had ships. Armor. Infantry. Weapons. They controlled portions of the industrial district. Omega Squad had changed none of those facts. They didn't need to. Instead, they changed something harder to replace.

Certainty.

Which batteries remained operational? Which transmissions were genuine? Where was the enemy? How many enemies were there? Was the REEK manned?

Remote?

A decoy?

Was Omega west? East? Were there multiple teams? Was the dropship directing them? Was the Reaper even still nearby? Every answer created two more questions. Every question required time. Troops had to investigate. Reports had to be verified. Positions had to be reinforced. Roads had to be checked. Signals had to be authenticated.

And through it all...

The clock continued counting down. Connel crouched above another fire-support position. The Force surrounded him. Rain. Life. Fear. Anger. Pain. It was all still there. Even the rumbling as if coming from underground.

For now.

He thought about Alara. He thought about her children. He thought about Coruscant. Korvan had taught him something there. Cruel men liked pretending their cruelty was a choice made by somebody else.

Obey me or people die.

Resist me and their deaths belong to you.

It had been a lie on Coruscant. It was a lie on Thyferra. Connel sighted down his rifle.

[Michael.]

[Go.]

[I have Five.]

[Status?]

[Targeting array. Missile rack. Twelve personnel.]

[Can you shut it down?]

[Yes.]

[Quietly?]

Connel considered the question. [Probably.]

Bren sighed. ]That's never reassuring.]

[It wasn't intended to be.]

[Ariel.]

[Yeah?]

[Remember the objective.]

Connel looked toward the burning city. People were still fleeing. People Nemesis believed he could turn into shields. People who needed someone standing between them and the next missile. Connel lowered his rifle. Changed position. Found another entrance. [Protect the people.]

[Exactly.]

Connel disappeared into the storm. Behind him, another scheduled Sith check-in arrived. The position transmitting it had already been silent for eleven minutes. Control answered it anyway. For the first time since Omega Squad arrived, they were no longer trying to stop the Sith advance. They were doing something far worse. They were teaching an army to look over its shoulder. And five kilometers away, hidden beneath a processing canopy while Sith troops searched desperately for the enemy force that had never been aboard it… The REEK waited patiently for someone to tell it where to lie next. The warning arrived before the shuttle did.

Michael, Reaper.]

Bren was moving before the transmission finished. [Send it.]

New contact. Shuttle departing industrial sector. High acceleration.]

A marker appeared across Omega's shared tactical display. Then its projected course. Straight toward the REEK. Connel stopped. [That's deliberate.]

[No kidding.] Reaper continued. [Multiple life signs aboard.] That changed everything.

Bren's expression hardened. [How many?]

[Unable to confirm. Dozens.] Connel looked toward the western skyline. The REEK was still moving beneath the storm, rotary cannon barking intermittently as SERAPHIM drove it through a maze of industrial structures. Then the intercepted transmission reached them. Nemesis had made certain they heard it.

A civilian-filled shuttle. Collision course. Shoot it down and Omega kills the prisoners. Do nothing and the shuttle destroys the REEK. Connel said nothing. Bren didn't either. Then Connel looked at the REEK telemetry. Then the shuttle. Then the network linking all of them. A smile slowly appeared beneath the mask. [SERAPHIM.]

[Ready.][/B]

[How attached are you to the REEK's current location?]

There was a pause. [That question is imprecise.]

Bren looked at him. Connel pointed toward the incoming shuttle. [It thinks the REEK is there.] Another pause.

Then SERAPHIM understood. [Ah.]

Bren grinned. [Can you do it?]

[Attempting.] The REEK's Screamer jammer changed frequency. Not stronger. Different. Its electronic signature fractured across the battlespace. One return became two. Then three. The real REEK disappeared beneath a wash of interference. Several hundred meters away, another signature appeared. Same mass. Same emissions. Same target identification. At least as far as a hastily programmed attack profile was concerned. The shuttle adjusted course.

Connel watched the vector bend. [Come on.]

It shifted again. Away from the REEK. Toward an empty industrial roadway. Bren stared at the display. [SERAPHIM?]

[Target guidance appears to have accepted the false return.]

Connel nodded. [That's my girl.]

[I am not your girl. You are married to Lira Voss-Vanagor]

[Just a phrase.]

The shuttle screamed past the REEK. Close enough that the vehicle's collision-warning system began protesting. But it missed. The REEK turned hard between two buildings. The shuttle continued after the phantom contact. [Reaper] Bren said.

[Tracking.]

[Stay with it.]

[Already moving.] High above the city, something changed. For most of the battle the Vigilant Reaper had existed only as a voice. Now it began to hunt. The dropship descended through cloud cover with every unnecessary system dark. Its passive sensors remained locked on the shuttle while the aircraft moved parallel to the contact rather than directly toward it. No targeting radar. No illumination. No challenge. Nothing for the Sith to notice. The Reaper simply appeared where it needed to be. [Michael.]

[Go.]

[We have visual.]

[Can you get those people out?]

A pause. [Working the problem.]

Connel looked toward Bren. That was Omega language. Not no. Not impossible. Just: Working the problem. The shuttle's course changed again as the false REEK signature shifted. SERAPHIM dragged it farther from populated areas. The real REEK meanwhile disappeared behind a storage complex. For several seconds its weapons went silent. Then it erupted from another access route almost a kilometer away. Rotary cannon firing. Jammer screaming. One of its rocket pods elevated. The Sith had wanted an obvious enemy. They had one. The REEK was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. [REEK contact moving! Western sector! Correction, southwest!" Possible multiple vehicles!]

Bren heard the intercepted traffic and smiled. [There aren't multiple vehicles.]

Connel glanced at him. [They don't know that.]

[Exactly.]

The REEK accelerated. Its handling protested every turn. SERAPHIM compensated with what could generously be called enthusiasm. The armored vehicle clipped a duracrete divider and removed most of it from existence. Connel watched the feed. [Did she just hit that?]

SERAPHIM answered. ["The structure obstructed the optimal route.]

[So you drove through it.]

[Correct.]

Bren sighed. [She's learning from you.]

Connel sounded offended, his emotions were shut down but he still sounded offended. [I would've hit it faster.]

The Reaper stayed with the shuttle. More importantly, it stayed with everything else leaving Thyferra. That was when the tactical picture began changing.

[Michael.]

Bren heard something different in the pilot's voice. [Send it.]

[We're tracking multiple outbound freighters from the industrial district.][/COLOR]

[Refugees?]

[Life signs aboard.]

[Where are they going?]

[Low orbit initially. Multiple rendezvous vectors.]

Bren opened the map. Transport tracks appeared. One. Then another. Then several more.

[Are they evacuating civilians?] Connel asked.

Reaper hesitated. [Possible.]

Bren looked toward the burning city. Or moving them.]

Nobody said the word. They didn't need to. Connel enlarged the flight paths.

[Where are the freighters originating?]

[Primarily eastern industrial perimeter.]

[The same area they're securing?]

[Affirmative.]

[And where the bacta is?]

[Affirmative.]

Connel studied it. Something didn't fit. Nemesis had threatened civilians. Used civilians. Killed civilians. Now he was apparently evacuating civilians. No. There was a purpose. There was always a purpose.

[Reaper.]

[Go.]

[Don't engage those freighters.]

[Copy.]

[Follow them.]

Bren looked at Connel. [Quietly.]

[Obviously.] Connel pointed toward several ships climbing through atmosphere. [I want to know where they're going.]

Bren nodded. [And what he's protecting.]

That was the real question. Not what Nemesis was destroying. That part was obvious. What was he unwilling to destroy? What was he extracting? What required hostages? What required the barrels? What required six hours? Connel checked the countdown.

5hours

Still moving. [Reaper.]

Go.]

[Map every location he's reinforcing instead of abandoning.]

A pause. Then: Understood.] Icons began appearing across their HUDs. Bacta storage. Data centers. Industrial laboratories. Freighter loading zones. The unknown barrels. Connel stared at the pattern. [There.]

Bren saw it. [Yeah.] The destruction looked random. The defenses didn't. Every army revealed its priorities eventually. All Omega had to do was stop looking at what Nemesis wanted them to see.

The Overwatch positions exploded. All of them. Almost simultaneously. Connel felt the first detonation through the ground. Then another. Then another. Orange flashes illuminated the clouds around the city perimeter. [Down!]

Omega hit cover. Connel rolled behind a duracrete barrier as another explosion rolled across the industrial district. The Force screamed warning through him. Then something else appeared. Gas. Clouds spread outward from several destroyed positions. His mask immediately began analyzing. [Unknown airborne contaminant.]

Bren switched channels. [Nobody enters those clouds.]

[Already had that idea.]

[Reaper?]

[Tracking spread.]

[Get atmospheric modeling running.]

[On it.]

Connel watched the expanding clouds. Nemesis had destroyed his own positions. His own personnel. Whatever had been stored there mattered more than the people guarding it. Another piece. Another question.

[What was in those barrels?] Raphael asked.

Connel stared toward the drifting gas. [Wrong question.] Bren looked over. Connel pointed toward the city. [Where are the barrels that didn't explode?]

Silence. Then Bren smiled. There it was. [Reaper.]

[Go.][/COLOR]

[Cross-reference every barrel movement we've observed.]

Seconds passed. Data shifted. Some had gone to Overwatch. Some had not. A smaller group had moved elsewhere. Bren enlarged the route. [That's our objective.]

Connel nodded. [Find where those went.] The REEK, meanwhile, had become an urban legend. It appeared on one road. Disappeared. Reappeared somewhere else. Its jammer turned entire sections of the Sith tactical network into electronic soup. The rotary cannon fired short, controlled bursts. Not into crowds. Not into buildings full of civilians. Sensors. Vehicles. Barricades. Communications equipment. Things the Sith needed. Then it vanished again.

Every time they redirected troops toward it, SERAPHIM changed direction. Every time they anticipated its route, the REEK chose another. When they blocked a road... The REEK occasionally accepted that information. Other times it drove through the obstruction.

[Michael.]

[Go.]

[Enemy elements shifting toward REEK.]

[How many?]

[Significant.]Bren looked toward Connel. Connel was studying the barrel route.

[Keep them looking at it.]

[Copy.]

SERAPHIM spoke. [I would like clarification.] Bren raised an eyebrow.

[On?]

['Keep them looking at it.']

Connel answered first. [Be annoying.]

The REEK's rotary cannon immediately spun up. Bren stared at him.

Connel shrugged. [She asked.]

High above them, the Reaper moved again. It abandoned the empty path of the diverted shuttle only after confirming it was no longer threatening the REEK or an inhabited sector. Then it climbed. Not straight upward. Sideways first. Through weather. Behind thermal clutter. Across the edge of the Sith air picture. The Reaper didn't need to dominate the sky. It needed to remain unnoticed inside it. Its sensors followed the outbound freighters. Recorded transponders. Counted passengers. Mapped rendezvous points. Tracked which vessels stayed in orbit. Tracked which left. Then another priority arrived.

[Michael.]

[Go.]

[I have probable barrel movement.]

Connel stopped immediately. [COLOR=DARKORANGE[Where?][/COLOR]A location appeared. Not inside the main Sith concentration. Adjacent to it. Protected. Access controlled. Multiple routes converging. The kind of place an invading force protected without making it obvious that it mattered.

Bren looked at the map. [That's it.]

Connel wasn't so certain. [That's something.]

[Fair.]Bren started issuing assignments.

[Gabriel, get eyes on the approach.]

[Moving.]

[Raphael, maintain western pressure.]

[Copy.]

[Reaper, keep tracking the freighters.]

[Copy.]

[SERAPHIM…]

[Yes?]

Bren looked toward the REEK icon. Then toward the Sith forces moving after it. [Keep being a problem.]

A pause. [I believe I have demonstrated proficiency.]

Connel Shrugged [She's definitely learning from me.]

The mission had changed. Again.

That was fine. Plans changed. Objectives shifted. Enemies adapted. Omega adapted faster. They were no longer trying to defeat the Sith army. That had never been realistic. They didn't need to destroy every landing craft. They didn't need to kill every soldier. They didn't need to personally stop every atrocity occurring across an entire planet. They needed to identify what mattered.

Protect who they could.

Remove the enemy's ability to hurt those people again. Then make every Sith commander spend resources reacting to problems Omega created instead of advancing the operation they had planned.

The REEK created noise.The Reaper created information. Omega created uncertainty.

And Connel?

Connel hunted the thing Nemesis didn't want them to find.

Rain ran across his mask. The Force surrounded him. Still there. Still alive. Still whispering. For now. Ahead, another Sith position appeared between the team and the location the Reaper had identified.

Connel raised one fist.

Omega stopped.

He studied the guards. The patrol patterns. The cameras. The towers. The escape routes. Then the countdown.

5:06:31

Michael moved beside him. [Thoughts?]

Connel watched the facility. [They're protecting it.]

[Yep.]

[So we make them protect something else.]

Bren slowly turned toward him. Connel's mask hid the smile. Behind them, several kilometers away, the REEK's jammer screamed back to life. Then the rotary cannon began firing. Every Sith sensor in the western district turned toward it. Bren chuckled.

[Works for me.]

Connel lowered himself into the darkness. [Omega.]

Weapons came up. [Move.] Connel wasn’t Team Leader, but when he called out, everyone knew it was with good reason.

High above, the Vigilant Reaper silently followed the ships carrying civilians away from Thyferra.

Far across the industrial district, the REEK charged down another road it had absolutely no business surviving. And between them, Omega Squad disappeared toward the one place the Sith had inadvertently taught them to find. The clock continued ticking. So did theirs.


CONNEL VANAGOR AND OMEGA SQUAD ARE RELAYING SITH MOVEMENTS TO OTHER LEADERS ON THE GROUND AS WELL AS BARREL MOVEMENT

Aiden Porte • Seren Gwyn • Tobias Dib

Personal Effects - Omega Squad Loadouts​