The Crusade Has Come [Moross Dominion of Kinooine]

[Methuzal]

The small village of Firrerreo lay just beyond the horizon, well in sight of the Worm that Walked. Since awakening in the tomb on Barkhesh, Methuzal had found himself in the company of those who called themselves the Moross Crusade. Overzealous worshipers of Gods who were conveniently of flesh and blood. That didn't matter to Methuzal. A few of them had called him an avatar of some being called Liad, so Methuzal appointed himself the prophet of Liad. It apparently worked, no one seemed too perturbed or questioning of it. But if he was going to masquerade as a prophet, he needed to do some conversions. This small village of Firrerreo on Kinooine would be the first of many.

Either oblivious or uncaring of the battle raging on above, Methuzal gradually slithered up to the village, escorted by a cohort of antiquated Sentinel Droids adorned in the symbols of Liad. Before him were a middle-aged couple of farmers, busily tilling their land. They had not noticed him approaching. Methuzal gestured for his escorts to halt, continuing to slither towards the farmers. He outstretched his arms in greeting, his ornate staff held in his right hand.

"G͏ręeti̡ngs, f҉a̶r͟m̡er̢s.̕ ͡I-"

"What the hell is that!?"
"What the...!? Losa, get the kids and get inside!"

This may be more difficult than originally anticipated.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Eyeing the woman strangely, Ivy shook her head, "I'll be sure to find you a nice dress and bouquet then put you ass-up in the casket."

She ship rocked, shuddered and wheeled through space, canons flaying their enemy's shields and ripping through metal hulls. By the time Ivy finished their second sweep through, the Pirate fleet had a significantly large hole punched clear through. The space battle was well in hand, so it was onwards to firm, solid ground that they continued.

The Egris sat down a fair distance away from the largest known established Pirate base - the old HQ of Darth Lumiya. Ivy gave no further orders to her crew, she didn't have to. The devout knew their task and likely they would carry it out come loss of limb or life. Geared up and armed to the teeth, the woman set out alongside her sister towards the buildings on the horizon.

 

[Methuzal]

"P͠l̴ease ope͜n your͡ ҉d̢o͏o̵r.͘"

"Losa! Losa, find my blaster!"

Methuzal now stood outside the farming family's abode, a few feet away from the door. There was a lot of ruckus going on inside, occasionally punctuated by the sound of a child asking what was going on and why mommy looked like she had just seen a ghost. They were evidently looking for some type of blaster with which they could defend themselves from Methuzal. This was rather silly in the Worm Prophet's opinion, as he clearly intended no harm. If he wished for them dead, he would not have come. He probably would have sent the droids in his stead.

"I̷ m͞e̴re̕l̷y͢ ͠wish to-͘"

"Found it! Found it!"
"Give it here, woman!"

The door slammed open, revealing the man of the house standing there with a rather large blaster cannon trained on the humanoid mass of worms that was Methuzal.

"T͞h̕eŗe͡ ͏i͞s ͟n̴o͡ nee͢d fo͢r̡ ͜vi̵ol͡en̷ce."

The farmer did not seem to register Methuzal's speech. He depressed the trigger of his weapon.

 

[Kelik Corinthus]

With the dropship landing on the ground, Eon squad began to disembark onto the planet and march towards the target location: Lumiya's base. "To the base!" commanded Kelik to his squadmates. He led them down a narrow path in between mountains towards the base. "No opposition. The pirate's must have either beat feet to the base or setting up a trap. Either way, keep your eyelids parted. Move!" Kelik yelled out to those closely following him. The absence of wildlife began to concern Kelik. There had to be something wrong. "This is Kelik to command. Kelik to command. We have feet on the planet and are moving towards the base. Over and out." Kelik said into his commlink.

@Soliael Devin Talith

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael was still on board his ship directing the fleet in combat against the enemy. He was vaguely aware of the ground forced moving in on the pirate bastion that was Kinooine. He listened carefully to reports as they came in, though mostly he tried to stay focused on the task at hand. The Pirates, although disorganized and quite crazy were also in their home turf.

Kinooine was their world for the past dozen or so years, and they were used to ship to ship combat. Soliael on the other hand was a new fleet commander. He had never been in charge of something this large and quite honestly it was a behemoth of a task. The False god however had one massive advantage that the pirates didn't have, the Force.

Soliael let the darkside guide him, he allowed the force to flow through him and those aboard his ships. He gave them a push here and a prod there. Gunners were more accurate, ensigns were more to task, and everyone else seemed to be...more alive.

“Target their flagship, I want them to see what disobeying a God brings.” Soliaels voice was Ice, and as soon as he spoke the guns of the fleet turned on the Pirates Flagship, an ancient Venator Class Star Destroyer.

 

[Garza]

We continued to fly past the ships that attempted to shot us down. Still, we fought back. The dropships that I commanded broke away from the rest. Headed straight for the flag ship. I could hear chatter over the com of men being shot down, and others covering their sixes. Many were calling out to others to cover them. I moved towards the pilot of the drop ship, and spoke into my com to hear over the roar of the engines and the wine of ships being shot down. "Put it to full throttle." Almost instantly The ship zoomed, I had to grip onto the seat infront of me so I wouldn't fall over.

A few of the men behind me chuckled as I was still getting my flying legs, I gave them all a look that I was not going to be happy. Each of them suddenly found an interest in their boots or their weapons. Hearing the pilot, he spoke back to me. "Firing on the flag ship from our own, you still want to continue." I knew that in this battle we could lose men. But for us to take control, We needed that ship. "Go." He pressed harder on the ship as we neared. Yelling behind me I spoke to the men in the drop, "Ready yourselves, for we will fight for our gods and goddess, and earn honor to their name." Pulling my beskad from by back, I moved like a drunkard to the drop doors, waiting for us to open, And the ship slowed down, with the sounds of gunfire apparent outside. we had made it, somewhat, safely in. THe doors opened with out my command, and now is where the fun begins.

Before the doors had even opened all the way, My shield had activated to give off a white with a slight pink glow, And my sword coming down to slash at the first death by my hand, It went into the man's skull and almost reached his jawline. With the artificial gravity and the strength of me, it gave a quick death to him. Without even looking, a four of the men to my left flew and slammed into a wall with telekinesis. Clearing an area for the troops to drop, I rushed off to slam my sword once more past the shoulder armor of a man, cleaving his arm off with one swipe and a bash to his face with a shield. A slight twink in my mind averted me to the man on my right who fired a blaster at me, easily stopped by the beskad, I grabbed him with the force and launched him to my left to hit two of his comrades.

All of this was done, when the first group of men touched their feet on the hangar bay. "Inside, headed for Pirate lord." I spoke into my com, directly to the room that the God Neth stood in. Maybe then he would keep most of the heavy fire off of me while I could get a chance to prove my, and the men with me, worth.

@[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Mercury Zealot]

At some point or another, a new face to the Crusade would appear. A new brood to the slew of warriors within the vast crusade of the Pantheon of Moross. In small, unimportant vessels, whose sole purpose was to carry troops and disperse them to a particular location, whether it be ground or on the side of ships for boarding actions, each one was packed with around three colossal Resu Warriors. Each Resu Warrior of course was something very incredible. Their weren't many of them yet, more of an elite force now, but many on the way. A Resu Warrior in the Moross Crusade was mind child of The Keep, the God Neth. Using Techno-virus manipulation, he was able to convert silicon fish almost completely confined to the waters, into deadly soldiers for near any environment.

Each one a zealot among zealots, they all itched to swing their swords, pierce flesh with their tusks, or rip away limbs with their new claw or jagged mouth teeth. There were several pods floating about the Moross Flotilla, numbering at maximum around 7, awaiting orders. There were two objectives: The Ground, or the Sky. "Which should be taken first?" They ponder, thus the First Convert would ask his God.

"God Neeeth," He addressed his master using a hologram, knowing his Master like all alien creatures preferred to use their favored sense, even though he himself was essentially blind. "Resu pods await crusade. Planetside or Boarding Action?" He asked his rasping mechanical voice, like a loud and cruel whisper.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael looked to his favored servants, the Resu. He smiled slightly as he recalled his changing of the entire species on such a base level. It had been a sick science experiment, one that turned out gloriously. He smiled at the holographic form, not saying anything for a few minutes and simply observing the bulking alien through the holo-transmitter. It was so very interesting to see just how much they had changed. He wondered if the Techno-virus would do anything else.

“Head to the planets surface.” Kinooine would not be taken easily. The pirates had a fleet out here, but down there they had a fortress. Hundreds of Pirates were there, and they were defending their home. They would fight to the last an no matter what the cost.

The False god closed his eyes and shut off the holo-transmitter, stretching his senses back towards his fleet.

 

[Mercury Zealot]

The command was given, and around two dozen Techno-Resu were blasted down like meteorites to the planets surface. Seven comets flash across the sky nearby the pirate equivalent of military encampments. The fortress was around, but there were hundreds of grounded pirates to plow through.

More the merrier.

Stone Hermes kicked open the hatch to his pod and crawled out of the steaming/smoking capsule that held the three nightmares. He swiveled his head left and right, then to the sky, and finally returning to look in front of them. His two comrades did likewise, though at different times at different angles. Pods obviously were no accurate device. In fact they were almost no more than a rounded metal shell with rockets tapped on connected to a steering wheel... not literally of course, but close.

He gripped his sword in anticipation, swinging it a few times to get a feel for it after being cramped up in a crowded capsule for who knows how long. Then they decided to continue the march. Stone Hermes and his kin would consider any living thing not identifiable as a Morossian as hostile, to be killed on sight so far as they were in the path of destruction leading up to the fortress. They wouldn't be distracted hunting a fleeing pirate moving in the opposite direction they were. Those would be left for Morossian Infantry or what not.

@[member="Kelik Corinthus"]'s "Eon Squad" was directly on the opposite side that Hermes and his fellows had landed more or less, and @[member="Methuzal"] was nearby, causing a muck with the locals. It was unlikely that either of these things would encounter the newly Morossian christened Techno-Resu, whose completely alien nature often disturbed many humans, and their ruthless zealotry was difficult to match. Hermes and more than a dozen other Resu charged with their swords poised to slice, slash, stab, and infect. Blaster bolts blazed by them, and scorched their fresh metal skin. Not impervious to these things they dodged when able. None of them had guns to shoot back, but luckily nature still some what existed in this form of Techno-beast. Hermes charged his electric scream and then arced a lethal bolt to three or so pirates attempting to pick them off from the cover of trees, ignorant of a Resu's thermal vision.

This invasion, he hoped, would be quick and gloriously bloody. His primary god was Neth, but the Bloodied Ithari he considered a near equal, and sought to please him as well.

 

[Mercury Zealot]

Stone Hermes hacked away at another pirate angrily....

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

Darth Lumiya ... who the hell was that? Sephoria had heard the name mentioned a couple times in connection with Kinooine. It simply didn't sound like a name she needed to have any care of. Who ever this Lumiya had been must have been of some importance to have a base that interested the Crusade.

"We won't have to worry about large hunting parties flying over with their sorry excuse for a fleet being pounded up there. Still you can be sure that every pirate on the ground is on high alert with shivering trigger fingers. They're cowards when the numbers and element of surprise aren't on their side."

The woman kneeled down to grab a handful of sand as she took in the terrain around her. Leaving the ship had instantly given Sephoria back her composure.

"We'll have little to no cover on approach, Sister. This planet is worthless. They must want something the pirates have," added the Garhoon as she stood and threw the sand to her side. The planet was after all a dirt bowl filled with mountains and the occasional dotted bases.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"It's the base," Ivy said over her shoulder as she marched on, "you can build a sand castle later. Let's move."

Honestly, it was like the girl was always playing in a sandbox everywhere they went.

Flanked by her small contingent of Moross soldiers and warriors, Ivy heeled up the pace towards the compound. As they neared the hulking silhouette of the HQ, sun sitting midway in the sky at her front, she spied what appeared to be the massive hulking form of a...

"The feth is that?" Ivy lifted her weapon, peering shortly through the sight to get a better look, "It looks like a damn whale. Is that one of ours?"

"That's the Resu, Captain," replied one of the soldiers as they pulled up alongside her, hunkering down behind a rise of boulders. They were nearing the line of scrimmage and having to dodge blaster bolts now, "whale on steroids and a bad day. Friendly - mostly. Stay away from their blades, they like to spread their bad day around."

"Fantastic," Ivy sniffed over a frown. It was well enough they were dealing with Pirates, a sort of people she disliked almost as much as Forcies, but now she had to watch out for her own side? Well, at the very least they were big and very difficult to miss. "Who has the layout of this thing?"

"Here Captain," an armored woman stooped at Ivy's left and produced a small device, bringing up a holomap of the HQ.

"Right, the main gates are to the south. Neth...Aesir Neth wants this building as intact as possible, so we'll be taking the obvious way in rather than blasting through walls. Let's see if we can get one of those..."

"Resu," filled in a warrior.

"...one of those Resu to help cover our entrance. After that you guys know the drill."

The team shared their exchange of divine blessings, that which Ivy did not partake, and broke from their cover, making way for the rear of the Resu and @[member="Stone Hermes"].

"

 

[Garza]

With the very violent debut of mine, Blaster shots rang out around me as I used my shield to deflect them away from me. Sending my blade to slash down at another Pirate, I bashed a second in the face with the shield. Lashing out my left arm, I blasted pirates out of my way, sending them flying with the force. I moved my way past the 30 or so men in the hangar and charged up to where the bridge would be. I was faced with two men poping out of a room from the right, Who were ended by throwing my sword to impale one, and the second I threw against the door and closed it with the force, crushing the man.

As I ran past them, I yanked my Beskad back from the corpse, and could feel some movement ahead. Throwing before I could see them. The blade rocketed to the end of the hall where a woman about my size came around the corner to be stabbed just under the collar bone with the large sword. She couldn't even say a word as I ran up to her, and with the strength of my Exoskeleton I pulled up cutting her head in half. Looking to the left I could see more men coming. Letting my sword fly horzontaly, I threw it once more to hack into the first man. With the force I pulled on my sword and a second man at the same time. Catching my sword in my right, and the man's neck in the left. I crushed his wind pipe with my armor once more.

I moved towards the bridge door. Seeing that it was sealed, "Crusade, Keep the Pirates occupied, I have someone to deal with." Speaking to the Crusade soldiers that I commanded. I sat down on the floor. Deactivating my shield, I calmed myself to use the force. Fueling it with my emotions, I gripped the door with the Force and began to pull with all that I had.

@[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Mercury Zealot]

Hack, Wack, Slice, Sloosh. Good times for Hermes, his blade arced away from his body as he jutted out his tusks into something gooey and gory, before he threw him away with a powerful shake of his head. The pirates were scattered about, shooting from secluded hard to reach places, or places that would ordinarily hide them from normal vision. Their being alive though and generating a significant heat signature gave them away all too easily. Resu still had to be careful though, it would be terrible to find themselves slaughtering their own kin of faith. They only killed what was directly in front of them, and facing them. If they could not tell which way they might be facing the would keep moving until an angle could confirm for them, or if they began to fire upon them. Also, although they did not chase pirates not directly on their path, they had to be wary of rear shots, especially since it was a critical weakness to their species, containing the sacs/tanks of hydrogen required for their survival.

As such, the Resu moved in a circular formation, about six charging forward, and about six backpedaling and cutting down anything that got too close. Their only range attack consisted of an electrical arc, which if charged enough was lethal, but in most instances merely paralyzed. When the Morossian squad followed the rear of the Resu pack, they had to make a decision. So far in their encounters pirates fought on their lonesome, or if they were in groups, strewn about. These soldiers appeared to be organised, grouped together. It was a sign of Morossian troops. It was likely they had similar objectives. Every once in a while a rear troop would request a forward position, thus a forward Resu's responsibility would switch to replace the missing position. Hermes was requested for the rear this rotation, much to his displeasure, though a rear position was just as important as a forward one.

Currently, Resu command structure worked in this way:

• Neth's word is the only word.
• The Pantheon's word is a reiteration of Neth
• The Military word is a reiteration of the Pantheon
• A fellow Resu's word is a suggestion, that all immediate Resu must quickly judge to follow or deny based on the Military's word, The Pantheon's word, and Neth's word in that order from least to highest priority.

So then, when Hermes recognized that their were Morossian troops following their rear, he suggested they slow their assault to group with the soldiers. So then, eleven votes were immediately received:

Truth, Lie, Truth, Lie, Truth, Truth, Lie, Truth, Truth, Truth, Truth.

Then it was decided. The forward slowed with the rear, as they allowed the Morossian troops to report additional orders and objectives. If their objectives were not aligned they would leave the soldiers behind, though this was unlikely in this assault.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"], @[member="Sephoria Lasranae"]

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

Building a sand castle did sound fun. Sephoria had a memory nearly faded away of doing such a thing as a child.

The two sisters kept moving up towards the base when the sight of the Morossian Resu took Ivy by surprise. The creatures didn't really concern the Garhoon too much. Walking into one in a bar might have been a treat, but here anything could be fielded.

Seph moved into cover and glanced over at the pirate base's silhouette on the horizon. Blaster bolts were wildly sent between pockets of forces on both sides. They weren't in the thickest of the fighting yet. She moved her sniper blaster rifle from it's sling and slid it slowly into place in a nook on her cover. The woman started to sight in on pirates that were firing down from the base's outer wall.

A squeeze of the trigger made the weapon shudder and hiss as it exhausted a bolt of energy. Her target fell from the wall as Sephoria half listened to the plan Ivy and the others were working out. Was she trying to say that using a door was more obvious than blasting a hole through the wall? She couldn't possibly be serious. Seph would have to wait to see how things would pan out from this.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

What powers that be would create such a beast?

What had happened in the galaxy for the need of their existence? Was this a result of the Gulag?

Wide-eyed as her team made for the cover of these giants, Ivy dodged a torrent of blaster fire as they pulled even with @[member="Stone Hermes"]. She looked at the creature for a moment, being very aware of her proximity to its ...mandibles and weapons, and pondered how best to communicate with it. Were these things linked in to the rest of the fleet for orders? She tried the channel for the ground units, raising a hand to her left ear as she spoke.

"We need cover to the entrance gates at the south, can you spare a warrior?"

 

[Mercury Zealot]

As the Morossian spoke, Hermes preformed the alien custom of nodding. They were a large group, they could certainly spare someone, but taking away one would upset the voting balance. Two was better, especially since a Resu needed someone to cover his back. They were not invincible as they may at first appear. Quickly, Hermes communicated the information to them, asking for delegates. He and fellow warrior were chosen, and immediately they regrouped and parted ways. The Resu picked up their pace upon their objective, while he and a fellow grouped with the Moross troops.

"Two superiooor." He explained without explanation. "Lead objective, Stone and Jaws follooow." He informed. Stone asked Jaws if he could lead eagerly, and after a lightning (literally) spark argument, Jaws submitted to take rear duty. Stone readied his blade and awaited orders from his new squad.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"], @[member="Sephoria Lasranae"]

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

Ivy was getting further away with the other soldiers as they moved to link up with the Resu. Sephoria had an excellent vantage point at the rampart they had rested at temporarily though. The mass of Morossian soldiers in the area had been enough to take out the thinly manned defenses. Further in though the ground would be in direct view of the base's walls. She could see pirates attempting to put up quick palisade defenses with whatever trash they could find just outside of their main southern gates.

Hiss hiss ... hiss ...

Three of the pirates that were building the makeshift palisades fell dead to the ground from her sniper rifle. The other two quickly retreated back behind the gates into the fort. Yet Sephoria didn't need her scope to spot the large blaster bolts that were streaking through the sky from the fort towards Crusader starfighters in the distance. She expected them to have anti-aircraft weapons on the bulwarks, but it was obvious to the Garhoon that they had emplacement weapons just inside the gates. It would allow them to protect the mounted guns from strafing runs from starfighters while allowing the pirates to gun down Crusaders that tried to charge through the bottleneck. The palisades would help turn it into a murder hole real quick.

Ivy had moved on already to link up with the Resu. They were all making their way to the southern gates. Sephoria pulled away from her cover and started to run towards the others.

"WAIT!"

The Lasranae sister nearly slid off her feet as she skidded to a halt next to Ivy and Stone Hermes. "They have e-webs or some kind of mounted guns inside their gates. They're going to slow us down in their shab palisades, and rip us apart with the heavies. Emplacements will rip through your fish here like butter," added the Garhoon woman as she gestured with her head toward the Resu so as to clarify who the fish were.

She looked around to take in the surrounding terrain on the horizon. "Nowhere for fething Overwatch. Are you sure you don't want to blow it up?"

 

[Garza]

I could hear the creaking of the doors as the began to bend. They warped at first in the middle. I could feel it as it was weakening every second that I held onto it. Hearing yells behind the blast doors. Each referencing me pulling on the doors. I could smell the ozone in the air with the sparking of wires and the cracking of paint. Drawing within myself I pulled with one last umph. And with that the doors blasted open with a rain of blaster fire.

Before I could even think, a little twinge in my mind told me to protect myself. and as my shield activated on my arm, casting once more the white silvery glow. Blaster bolts hitting the shield with little effort on my part. and all at once, I rushed forwards with my natural strength. I was drained for the most part, but I had to keep fighting. If I stopped even for a second then I would die. It was ether fight, or die for my Goddess. My blade lashed out at the men, taking one, two, three, all the way up to seven people. Along with bashing my shield on them.

 

[Methuzal]

The bolt of energy smacked into Methuzal's chest, but the aberration did not feel it. The worms that made up his form, however, did. Whatever they felt didn't last terribly long, as they were rightly incinerated as soon as the bolt passed through part of Methuzal's robe. Methuzal didn't buckle or fall over. He was too well-situated for such a thing. But he wasn't going to give up on converting these people- not yet. They would know the warm, embrace of Liad. That was what Liad, did, right? Embrace people... With disease. Whatever, didn't matter. He was cast at the part, he still had to follow through.

"I bèsee͜ch̀ y̶ou̵,̴ nobl҉e͟ ̧g̵row͟er̸ ̡of̀ c̵ro͏ps, t͟o c̀e̢a҉se ̡t͏h̨is ẁa҉nton̷ viòle̢nc͡e͡!̧"
"It's trying to talk to me! Die, monster!"

There was evidently little room for charisma or persuasion when being made out of worms. Methuzal pondered the intricacies of this matter once again as the farmer squeezed off another shot.