Private War Is Hell

[Khar Malraux]

Illyria's Moon, Avius ~ Mountain Region
Armor: X
Quietus | Luna Terrik
​

Lord-Captain.

For Khar Malraux the promotion had been a dream come true. With command of a Légion of his own, he believed that this was the time where he would claim glory and prestige for House Malraux. Sadly, he had been very very mistaken. The orders had come from the Court of Summer, he and his forces were to set up a forward operating base on Illyria's moon, Avius. Their original duty was to conduct drills and train the mass of their fresh recruits to the new standard of combat.

That routine had lasted little longer than a week.

After a week at Camp Lion Sauvage they received a military dispatch from command. A nearby settlement deep in the mountains had gone dark on all communications and their status was unknown. Per regulation the Lord-Captain dispatched a recon team to ascertain the fate of the Illyrian settlement. Ten men were dispatched and after two days none had returned and the area was still dark. Rather than sacrifice another team to fate, the Lord-Captain ordered his entire Legion to disembark Camp Savage Lion and make their way to the moon's settlement. Following a day-long march to the settlement, the Illyrian soldiers were met with something exceptionally curious. The settlement was completely empty. Of the two hundred residents that were registered to the town, none were found, nor were the advance scouts sent ahead of the Legion. There was only one thing found in place of the lost souls.

Webbing.

Thick ivory webbing covered the entire village in a sticky blanket. As hard as wire and thick as rope, these webs were unlike anything any of the soldiers had ever seen. That was when the enemy descended upon them, for they had ventured into their hunting grounds.

The beasts were massive, grotesque creatures, each the size of a small land speeder and all carrying a ravenous appetite. In the first assault on the unsuspecting Legion, casualties had been horrendous. Over two thousand soldiers had marched on the settlement and by the end of the first day, four hundred of these men had died in the initial assault. In time the Legion was able to drive them off, pushing them back into the mountain pass that laid just before the settlement. However, that was the only victory they were able to accomplish. For weeks following the attack, the Illyrians had been fortifying the settlement, occasionally gaining reinforcements from Camp Savage Lion.

This Campaign had been grueling and for the better part of a month the Lord-Captain had not offered any results for the Court of Summer.

Khar slammed an armored fist into the holotable before him, causing the image to shimmer under the weight of his anger. On the holotable was a depiction of the current battle. For the third time this week the Legion was attempting to press into the mountains, however after a few hours of combat they had not advanced an inch. The endless horde of arachnids that flowed from the mountains formed a wall of flesh and ichor to half the advancement, all the while costing more and more lives.

"Pull the Skirmishers back to the Defense Line, order our Riflemen to provide cover." His arms were crossed tight over his chest as the group of Staff Officer's acknowledged their Captain's order. Soon the men were pulling back behind the improvised wall of stones and trees, the rifleman creating a wall of blaster fire to keep the arachnids from terrorizing their brothers. Khar exhaled, before turning to one of the communications officers in the Command Headquarters. "Any words from Command on reinforcements?" He demanded.

"Sir, no more reinforcements can be spared from the base. We won't be getting any military reinforcements for around a month." He explained, before turning to his terminal and tapping into it with a curious expression. "Wait- but...we are receiving two support units. A...Tactical Advisor and someone to specialize against these creatures?" The Lord-Captain glanced over the group that had been gathered before uncrossing his arms and turning out of the Command Building. "I want a count of our wounded and dead in ten minutes. Full Security for the next three days, we've riled the nest so they'll be more aggressive than usual."

 

[Quietus]

On approach to Forward Command

She could no longer count the years between her last official Beastiary outing and the present. Her retirement, long since overdue, had thus far passed in a whirlwind of jungles both green and rust. Though she'd made her life around those of the beasts and lived every single day among at least some of the galaxy's most deadly (Mercenaries included), she'd done it all willingly. The wilds was where she was meant to be.

A moon infested with hideous arachnid monsters? Not exactly her ideal choice for a short jaunt back to the real world, but a change of scenery and pace couldn't hurt. If nothing else, it gained her a break from developing treehome and allowed her to stretch some skills that hadn't been stretched in a few decades.

It also allowed Aver to get out some pent-up anxiety held over from dinner with her mother. Hadn't taken much effort to convince the woman to join her.

They opted to take one of Aver's ships for the mission, giving them the advantage of arriving fully loaded, armored, and armed to the teeth. As unfamiliar as she was with the creatures in question, it behooved them both to be prepared for anything. She elected for a variety of means to her method, both savage and modern, and a mixture of both. Instead of her typical wooden bow and arrows she'd been presented with the gift of a customized upgrade from Aver. The energy bow was strong, lightweight, and tactfully adorned with a natural theme befitting of a wild Queen.

Queen and Beastia she no longer was, not for many years, but she appreciated the gesture all the same. It was, by far, the nicest and most personalized gift she'd received from the woman to date - new ship notwithstanding. The name, however, could see itself out the airlock.

She practiced with it in the cargo hold of the ship, electing to stick with the reinforced arrows instead of the incendiaries. Shai sat nearby, watching with keen interest. The tuk'ata hound hadn't been on a planet aside from Thral in some time and was eager to join in on the call for slaughter.

Aver Brand Khar Malraux Luna Terrik

 

[Aver Brand]

While the mercenary wasn’t quite as decisively retired as her mate, she’d had one foot out the door for the last decade. Having mongered war for the better part of her life, Aver Brand was quite content to take it or leave it at this point. And at any rate, whatever petty murder she committed these days was a mere rounding error compared to the sum total of lives she’d claimed over her long career.

She’d contemplated this fact more often now than she ever had in the preceding forty years. Sometimes, it worried her – and then she worried it worried her.

Her frown deepened as she stared at her reflection, at the undersuit, at the armor plates strewn about, forgotten on the bed when her thoughts had meandered off.

Bugs, Aver reminded herself, zipping up the armorweave with one sharp motion. Her bloodtrail disappeared under the shimmering material, but she felt the three red lines just as acutely when she closed her eyes. It wasn’t just a simple hunt now, and communication was the essence of battle. Putting on Ygdris would force Qui to resort to sign language that nobody but the mercenary spoke anyway.

And besides – thirty years or not, that armor was perhaps slightly too recognizable.

She emerged from the armory carrying every tool for the job imaginable, and then some. It was the only way to be sure. Shai and her mate joined her in the hold as the autopilot gently set them down at the FOB.

Heavy phrik boots crunched into the dirt and gravel. Aver allowed a grim smile at the sound, hidden as it was behind the featureless black faceplate of her helmet. Small pleasures.

Who’s our contact? she asked, glancing at Qui in all her armored splendor. A rare sight she intended to savor – doubly so when the both of them inevitably ended up soaked in spider blood.

 

[Luna Terrik]

A D V I S E​

Location: Avius
Time: 1500 Hours
Equipment: Illyiran Armor, BAW-89 Carbine Rifle, Tactical Recon Handgun (2)
Objective: Standby.
Tags: | Khar Malraux | Quietus | Aver Brand |

It was incredible how uncomfortable that she felt in this armor. One would expect that wearing armor wouldn’t exactly end up with the most comfortable of additions, but her Xiphos armor, the armor she wore on tens of deployments for the Dauntless, was worn in such a way that it felt like a second skin. It moved and flowed with her, able to make the moves that she needed to survive. Yet this armor, this…armor, felt bulky, rugged, uncomfortable with every movement. But, there was also the tiny chance that this was due to wearing the crest and color that she had become so accustomed to.

She couldn’t be showing up to this moon in her Dauntless garb. That was part of herself she just couldn’t part with, yet if she wanted to improve her relations with the military of this planet, wearing their armor would be at least one step in the right direction. At least she still held her rifle, and the handguns that had put down everything from Byrn monsters to twilek terrorists strapped firmly to her thighs.

One more addition might’ve also been what was bothering her so deeply about the armor…the eyepatch she wore over her right eye. Her fingers briefly reached up to run across the thick, course material as a sigh pulled itself from her throat. The light had gotten to painful, and before long, the headaches that came from them threatened to have Luna stay inside all day. This was the best she could do at the moment, but Tyrias Aran had told her that there might be options in the future.

Cybernetics…cybernetics. Something she had never considered.

The eyepatch would be enough for the next few days, ones that would be filled with a new enemy that luna had not fought in all her time holding a weapon. Giant, mutant spiders. Nasty buggers. It would be interesting to see if herself and two other mercenaries would be enough to turn the tide. She had very little knowledge of how well Illyira’s military preformed in battle, and how capable their commanders were. Either they were facing an overwhelming force that couldn’t push through these monsters, or they were utterly incompetent, and Luna was facing an even more unscable mountain that she already thought this to be.

As the shuttle sat down upon the forward operating base’s landing pad and Luna, alongside the pair of mercenaries stepped out in the thin moon air, one of their voices caught her attention. Turning, the marshal butted in, nodding her head toward what looked to be the command center. “Khar Malraux. The Lord Captain..or whatever their highest officer is. All I know is that I am to advice and offer whatever I can, while you two,” She paused, a smile flashing slightly on the redhead’s lips, though observed by the blue tinted mask of her armor. “Well, you two do what you do best.”

Luna then turned and started toward the building, the moon’s gravel crunching under her boot. Time to see what kind of first impression this Lord Captain would make.

 

[Khar Malraux]

Quietus | Aver Brand | Luna Terrik ​

Two Mercenary specialists and a tactical advisor.

Khar would have preferred another platoon of rifleman and some heavy support ships over the hand the Court of Summer had dealt him. Still, it was his hand to play and he would do so to the best of his ability. When the three newcomers entered into the FOB they were immediately directed to the command building. The guard on duty prohibited their entry, however Khar turned from the holotable before him to see what was distracting him from his briefing. "At east, Sergeant. Step aside." His commanding baritone echoed over the other side of the room and the Illyrian soldier stepped back, allowing the trio passage.

"The advisor." Khar said, fully turning to stand before the woman clad in the standard Illyrian Lifesaver Armor. "Which must make the two of you the experts." He said, turning to the other two women. They were certainly an odd trio. In fact if Khar had not been expecting him they certainly would have been detained, pending an investigation.

"I am Lord-Captain Khar Malraux. Here, I'll brief you on the situation." He said, turning towards the holotable and tapping into it. The blue lights shimmered before producing a clear depiction of the mountain before them. As his hand gestured to the main route they had been fighting on there was no change in his usual assuming tone. "The creatures we've been fighting have been spilling from this pass. When we first arrived they almost overran the settlement in a few hours. We pushed them back to the pass and have been holding it for a few weeks. It took us almost two weeks just to find a defensive maneuver that would hold them back indefinitely without exhausting all of our troops. With the defensive barriers we've set here and here they've been bottlenecked into the pass."

"After securing a defense our scouts began to search the mountains. There are passes all through the rocky hills that the creatures don't use or can't fit into. The only problem is the same problem they have coming down. Our men can only enter into these passes one at a time. A single soldier against seven or eight of those things on the other side doesn't stand a chance. So we haven't been able to flank them."

"Our third assault this week just ended in failure." He stated, his tone obviously carrying the weight of his anger. "We lost almost thirty men in a few hours, however the arachnids have not even slowed their assaults." The holotable remained a still image as Khar placed his armored hands upon the edges of the metal frame, his golden eyes gazing over the holo with a cold uncertainty. "We've sent recon drones over the mountain. They're coming from a nest we believe to be here." He said, pointing to a cove that rested in the center of the mountain. "It's almost thirty miles into their territory and we can't hope to reach it. Not alive."

 

[Quietus]

Four of them, actually.

Shai walked just behind the two Specialists, idly sniffing at the guards as they stalked by. The tuk'ata hound had to be reminded before entry that she was not here to eat people - that endeavor was almost specifically relegated to Nadir where the body counts didn't quite matter, most of the time. For now the hound was on her best behavior.

Quietus couldn't say the same for Aver.

The mute stood in complete silence, offering their contact only a simple nod in affirmation as he introduced himself. Green eyes skated over the holographic presentation, noting key locations and the layout of the lands. She'd like to say this was all rudimentary infestation protocol, but she had yet to get briefed on the beasties in question. Her head canted toward her partner and her hands began to sign in Onderonian Beast Tribe. Aver knew some of it by now, but it was more for their team to understand the limitations of her communication.

I want more information on the beasts, she said to Aver's mind, and why they haven't considered a BDZ of the nest zone.

 

[Aver Brand]

It was a short walk though the trampled mud to the command building, but informative enough in what it revealed of the encampment. It had been some time – decades – since she’d addressed armies with her orders, but warfare would not have changed so much that she could not pass judgment.

Her estimation – they would have their work cut out for them.

After a brief hiccup with security, they all filed into the center of operations, a colorful arrangement of arms and armor come to deliver a struggling platoon from their bug problem. Introductions were made, a briefing followed. Aver was privately delighted to skip past the pleasantries and to the meat of the matter.

Truly they were as good as married, sharing the same thought.

Or, alternatively, they were both educated enough on matters of strategy and tactics to ask themselves the same question when staring at the facts laid out on the holotable.

“Aver Brand, Quietus,” she swept her gauntleted hand between them, then finished the gesture pointing at the nest of the pest.

“And it seems to both of us an orbital strike to their lair would solve this.” She pinched the map to zoom it out and tilted her head at the lay of the land. “Do it twice, and the ground logistics of these mountains won’t be a problem anymore either.”

“But if that’s not an option for some reason,” and if they were sending for specialist mercenaries, the answer was probably yes, “we’ll need more info on whatever these bugs are. Abilities, habits, group tactics, the works. If you captured any, that’d be perfect.”

She scratched Shai behind the ears and awaited an answer. Wasn’t holding her breath, though.

Luna Terrik Khar Malraux Quietus

 

[Luna Terrik]

A D V I S E​

Location: Avius
Time: 1510 Hours
Equipment: Advisors Armor, BAW-89 Carbine Rifle, Tactical Recon Handgun (2)
Objective: Standby.
Tags: | Khar Malraux | Quietus | Aver Brand |

Quite a mess they were in.

She knew well enough that this man would’ve preferred more men or heavier armament or anything along those lines. Hell, if Luna had been in his position he would’ve sent a very strongly worded holo to command about why they four were the only ones to show up. It was a lose-lose situation for the captain. Either they managed to break through with Luna’s and the other’s help, and he was made to look a fool because he couldn’t do it himself, or they failed completely and more people died under his watch. Balancing Khar’s ego and need for glory in this situation on one side and finishing the job to the fullest extent on the other might determine their relationship moving forward, and how fruitful it could be on both sides.

Before she was able to speak, both of the mercenaries practically took the words out of her mouth. An orbital strike of any kind to the cave entrance might take out the monsters long enough for them to take a breath or really set up an offensive. However, there was something about this captain that told her plenty enough that if he could blow up this entire rock, he would do so. Instead, the Marshall allowed the other’s to finish before diverting to a slightly different route.

“How..do these arachnids interact with the scout droids?” She knew well enough that some species were not too fond of the walking machines, even less so if they were hovering around. “Perhaps, if they not have a high affinity for them, we can strap some explosives to a few. It would lose us the droids no doubt, but there’s a good chance we could close off that cave opening if an orbital bombardment is not an option.” Perhaps not even a great idea for that either. Having those scouting droids was more intel than they could gather by themselves anyway, and losing those would lose precious eyes in the field. It already seemed like they were running low on options.

Motioning toward the wall surrounding the FOB, the advisor began to start that way, hoping the rest would follow. “How about we walk and talk? It’d be good to see what kind of defenses you’ve been able to set up. Maybe I can give some pointers on better positioning if that sort of thing comes up.”

 

[Khar Malraux]

Quietus | Aver Brand | Luna Terrik
​

When one of the mercenaries spoke of orbital bombardment the soldier shook his head in response. "That was our first plan. Pull out to a safe vantage point and utilize long-range artillery or starship guns to blow them away. The request was sent up to command and immediately denied. As for drones, we only have two units and they couldn't hold the weight of enough explosives to matter." He exhaled softly to show his frustration at the decision. "This particular mountain holds something that Command does not want destroyed, we've been authorized to use medium-tier ordinance. Nothing stronger than a few detonation charges." He told them. When Aver spoke of the arachnids Khar paused for a moment before shaking his head. "No, but there is something you should see." When Luna Terrik spoke of the defenses, Khar nodded in response. "Very well, but first you should see the enemy." He said. Khar turned to lead the way out of the command center. He led the way to the opposite side of the FOB to where the arachnids were, where a number of bodies seemed to be piled up. They were the bodies of those beasts, piled next to a pit with charred dirt encompassing it.

Khar approached before holding a hand out to the group to halt them. He pulled the blaster pistol from his waist, holding it out and letting one blaster round echo out from the barrel. The bolt slammed into one of the corpses before ricocheting off into the skies. He tucked the blaster back in his holster before approaching the body. "Their exoskeleton is extremely deflective. Slugthrowers work best, but blasters are almost useless. Over time a blaster bolt can penetrate." He ran his hand over the are he'd shot where the exoskeleton was notably chipped. "It takes about three direct rounds with a blaster just to get through the armor."

"Now under the armor..." He pushed one of the large legs up, revealing a fleshy underbelly that was beginning to rot and decay. "They're vulnerable. Which makes it easier because they're about twice our size, but it means we have to engage them at fairly close range or use a hail of slugs to pierce this armor." He wracked his knuckles over the exoskeleton before letting the leg fall back down to the ground.

"Also, they collect the dead." He explained, before gesturing back towards the main gate that led into the mountains. "When our dead fall, they try their hardest to collect the body, even killing each other to try and claim it first. We don't have any clue why that is." He gestured to the bodies absently. "However they steer clear of their dead. They avoid them like a plague, we're also unsure of that." He explained.

 

[Quietus]

"This particular mountain holds something that Command does not want destroyed, we've been authorized to use medium-tier ordinance. Nothing stronger than a few detonation charges."

There were very few reasons that Quietus could think of that presented a strong enough impetus to forgo what would ultimately save a monumental amount of time and lives. Whatever it was holed up in that mountain must have been exceptionally valuable, something she would have pressed for knowledge of had she been in Khar's position. Alas, she was not, and she wasn't getting paid to question the parameters, but to work with them.

Fine, let no one in the galaxy claim she wasn't up for a challenge. A blond brow lofted at her wife, pre-empting the faint facial shrug that followed.

Blaster bolt resistant carapace, soft underbelly - fairly typical of beasties like these. Thral had it's own population of similar creatures, though they were all special in their own way. It meant her arrows would work just fine if a slug thrower did. As for the collection of dead bodies...

Resource hoarding ... likely for a laying Queen, she sent to Aver, her hands signing the same, as for their own dead, their decaying bodies could be noxious. They shouldn't let them pile up nearby, just in case. They can use their bodies to build buffer walls if the creatures avoid them.

What about fire, light, noise, smells ... creatures like these are typically part of a hive mind or guided by pheromones. If we can catch a live specimen I can learn more about their methods.

 

[Aver Brand]

Inside of Aver were two wolves.

One was lamenting the inefficiency of this sorry government and its hamstrung military.

The other was slobbering at the prospect of 1) something valuable enough to sacrifice a battalion for; 2) a new blaster-deflective material for Nadir R&D; 3) close-quarters carnage; 4) close-quarters carnage with her mate.

The mercenary nodded at the woman in question, then ran the gist of her comments past the Captain.

She had questions of her own, of course. But they were more along the lines of business opportunities and whether their army perhaps needed a supplier of higher-quality materiel, considering their ongoing struggle to defeat a pre-stone-age society?

Then she remembered this wasn’t her job, not here, not today (or however long they ended up staying on this moon, which by her expert estimation was likely to be more in the ‘several weeks’ neighborhood).

Chewing on a pertinent thought as Khar addressed Qui’s concerns, Aver finally dragged her gaze away from the pile of arachnid bodies and turned the black faceplate on the Captain.

“Have you considered… poison?”

Gassing them inside their own tunnels – the man would hardly get a better opportunity in his career.

 

[Luna Terrik]

A D V I S E​

Location: Avius
Time: 1515 Hours
Equipment: Advisors Armor, BAW-89 Carbine Rifle, Tactical Recon Handgun (2)
Objective: Standby.
Tags: | Khar Malraux | Quietus | Aver Brand |

Oh, well such things were comforting at least. It was nice to know that even on a planet such as this one, the military was once again controlled by the throat by those that might not understand how easily a situation could be resolved once the ego or other interests were taken out. It would obviously be much easier to just bomb the entire mountain range until they resembled little more than a loth rat den. Alas, it didn’t look like such things were going to be unlocked for them.

The description of the beasts were somewhat of a comforting thought, at least to Luna. She had no idea how the other two hunters thought, but it sounded as though these things were like most massive hunters spread throughout the galaxy. Tough outer shell, some sort weakness underneath. There was a reason most heavy units throughout the galaxy had been designed in a similar way. Getting underneath their armor would be the biggest challenge that faced them, however, when one of the two hunters spoke up with their acid idea, Luna couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “Acid might work. However, we would have to know what kind of acid works on their armor, and be able to get enough up here to make a dent in how quickly they are coming at us. I assume that we would at least have a few of their dead lying around..perhaps we could set up a sort of…experiment station.”

There was a soft sigh that pulled itself from her throat as she looked from the military leader to the holotable. She chewed on the inside of the cheek, a horrible habit she had picked up, yet one that managed to make her feel slightly comforted. “The biggest problem we all face is apparent. We know of some of these beasts tendencies, but we don’t know enough about our enemy to truly formulate an effective matter of attacking them back. Because of this, we are forced to try and throw numbers at a wall, which only leaves us with more dead. A neverending cycle that we can not break out of..unless we fall back, and none of us are ready to let that happen.” Her attention was soon turned to where the pair of hunters stood. Little doubt lingered on her mind that they would understand how to better finish this situation than her, but the idea of them all leaving this planet within the next few days was not one that still resided in any of their minds.

“Do you think that the beasts are taking the bodies for…nutrients? Could we fool them with cadavers of some sort? Perhaps if we can imitate the smell that is coming off the dead bodies..we can trick them into bringing something very bad into their caves. Scare them, in a way, give us time to regroup.” No guarantee existed that such an idea would work even in the smallest case, as they really didn’t know what it was about the bodies that the beasts liked. It wouldn’t hurt anything to at least ask, however.