Private The Heist

[Darth Vodrux]

The sun beat down upon the windswept plains of Melida/Daan. A world so sundered by civil war and communal violence, that its inhabitants could not even decide what to call the planet, each faction naming it after their respective selves. So much blood had been spilt so unnecessarily upon this world's soil, that the combatants may very well have forgotten why they hated the other side altogether. But hate they held in their hearts, and fight they did, with much of the world being reduced to ruins and the habitable portions being hotly contested and wholly consigned to a wartime economy. It was this, last attribute however, that made this planet attractive to opportunistic interlopers amongst others. For one, due to the civil war, it was much easier to enter the world's atmosphere undetected over the skies of one of the uninhabitable or hotly contested sectors. If one was able to face and avoid the fighting, a sufficiently small, cloaked or agile starship could blend into the background chaos and infiltrate the atmosphere unnoticed. Once they were near the ground, they would be virtually undetectable by long-range sensors, and the only threat that remained were sentries and listening posts on the ground spotting the vessel.

None of these had befallen the modified Sith light-freighter, that had snuck into the world a few months ago, before landing somewhere out in the las-blasted wilds. Nobody had detected the Sith Lord and his entourage who had disembarked from the vessel, conducted a recce and established contact with the local black-marketeers in nearby settlements. The chief resource this world offered were weapons and munitions of all kinds in vast quantities, and a combination of bribery, coercion and persuasion had given Darth Vodrux the details he needed to know. Owing to the ongoing hostilities between the Melida and the Daan, both factions manufactured vast quantities of armaments and munitions, and they transported them using the world's rail network from their industrial heartlands to the frontlines. While an assault on either location would be suicidal given the meagre manpower the Sith Lord had brought with him, the weak link in the system was the rail transport. No doubt, such shipments would be heavily defended and escorted under the strictest of guards, but such forces would be a fraction of what they would encounter in faction controlled territory. And given the frequency with which each side attacked the other's rail network to cripple their logistics, such a task was possible, if risky and in need of careful planning. But Vodrux was always an administrator at heart, and he approached the problem with every intention of finding a way of getting what he wanted.

He had learned of a large shipment that was scheduled from the Daan heartland to their frontline soldiers, and his retainers had obtained further details of the train that it would be sent on. The route, the nature of the carriage, its defenses and its escort had all been obtained through the interrogation of certain Daan officials, who had been kidnapped and tortured by the Sith Lord, and whose families had been held hostage till the heist was done to ensure the information obtained, was given in good faith. Using the access provided by these officials, the Sith had arranged for the shipment train to be rerouted towards a route that had a section of track running through the wilderness, away from all habitation. The Daan government would not notice a single shipment being redirected for some time, amidst the myriads they sent out each week, and they had a window of opportunity to seize it in the wilds before it re-entered settled areas. The window of opportunity would be small, and they needed to act precisely and exactly to achieve their goals. And so, the D-Day saw the Sith Lord himself, surveying the section of the track under the night sky through a pair of binocs, from atop a nearby ridge that concealed their position. He had decided to do this under cover of darkness when the military escort upon the train would find it harder to pick off his scantily armed retainers. Explosives had been set upon the track, the timely detonation of which would derail the train and presumably put much of its heavy defensive weapon modules out of commission. And then, armed with the Force under cover of darkness, he would lead his band of freed slaves in storming the train to seize its cargo. No doubt, many of them would die in the process, but their deaths would serve a purpose. And so, he waited with baited breath as the seconds ticked by. Waiting for any signs of the incoming locomotive.

 

[Seo Linn]

There wasn't a location that Seo wouldn't travel to. Some places she might avoid, but if the Force guided her to a planet she wouldn't usually visit, she would still go. That led her to this wartorn place. What was she doing here? Even Seo didn't know that answer. She could guess she was here to help the natives and provide them with aid, but something tickled the back of her mind, and it gave her the feeling that wasn't the case this time. The tickle was the Force speaking to her, and the Knight listened.

To many people, she was one of them, and the Jedi blended in with the general population. While she had not grown up in a world with this much violence, that didn't mean she hadn't been exposed to it. Years ago, she had been involved in a war and barely lived to tell the tale. However, she had survived and was brought here.

Seo let out a mental sigh and wished the Force would be more straightforward for her. Right now, it was a muddled mess, and all she could do was sit on it. Being a polyglot and somebody who can essentially become a native, that is what she did. Pretending to be nothing more than a street urchin and homeless woman, she noticed a larger group of people apparently casing the town she was hunkered down in. That was interesting, and she would attempt to blend in with these people.

Keeping her lightsaber hidden within her clothing, it was within easy reach if needed. In her attempt to fit in, she ditched her Jedi garb and opted for something more local: a tan shirt and pants with a scarf wrapped around her neck and hanging down. It could easily be pulled up to cover her mouth and nose—something typical of a desert dweller and a part of Seo that wouldn't ever go away.

If the group accepted her presence, she would join them as they prepared to assault the train.

Darth Vodrux

 

[Darth Vodrux]

During their process of establishing contact with local black-market powerbrokers, the Sith interlopers had taken note of a certain street vagrant who seemed to have taken an interest in their group and seemed amenable to recruitment. Although the proposition had been brought forth to Lord Vodrux, he had vetoed the idea. The Sith were naturally paranoid and mistrusting in nature, and he directed his retainers to instead watch the suspicious vagrant's activities closely, while doing their best to avoid coming into her purview simultaneously. Nevertheless, the nature of their business was such that whispers ran amok about their activities, albeit at the local scale. Although she would have seen the strangers disappear as suddenly as they had shown up, Seo would nevertheless hear these whispers. Certain Daan officials governing the local community going missing along with their families without leave, the nature of said officials' professions and their involvement with the local railways, and the gossips exchanged by the regional crime bosses about the group of strangers who had handed threats, credits and promises around in exchange for information. In particular, she would be able to sense a tingling in the Force as though there was a blip in it, albeit with the signature being masked and suppressed. The final piece of the puzzle would fall into her grasp when on a certain day while gather information from the streets under the guise of scavenging for supplies through various piles of garbage, Seo would encounter a group of the local Daan railway employees, discussing how their superiors had redirected a train on an unorthodox route with relatively short and irregular notice. The directive had been carried out, but it had left the employees puzzled. Should she choose to press these people for further information, through sufficient cajolement and persuasion, she would be able to obtain the details of the train, its cargo and its new route.

And so, the final night had come, and through his binoc's Lord Vodrux caught sight of the locomotive at last. A great, lumbering durasteel beast that lit all before it with a great, mounted floodlight. Even from this distance, he could see the innumerable mounted gun batteries upon the carriages. Some were AA batteries, some anti-armour. And there were innumerable anti-personnel batteries and gun placements. He could understand why the Daan did not feel the need for an air escort or any other forms of protection beyond the company of soldiers within the train. This region was secured against Melida attack, and any conventional force that sought to sever this railroad would need to either be substantial, or a surgical strike conducted by trained operatives. In either case, they would have a hard time inserting into the area without being spotted, and the only reason his own warband had been able to do so, was through an extensive infiltration of the local settlements, followed by a clandestine journey across the wilds on foot to get into position. While theoretically this was feasible for the Melida as well, the Sith Lord had done his research well and he knew this railroad and the amount of materiel transported along it was too strategically insignificant for the warring faction to expend the resources on such a project. Insignificant though it may be on the planetary conflict's scale, the payload would nevertheless enable Vodrux to turn his rag-tag warband of freed slaves into a heavily armed, if relatively poorly trained retinue. The additional firepower combined with the Force would be enough to move onto the next step of the plan.

He lifted his left wrist up and pushed a few buttons upon the wristguard, causing the built-in holoprojector to flicker to life and display the ethereal image of one of his sergeants. "We await your command, My Lord." the man said, inclining his head respectfully. Vodrux nodded, before replying, his voice muffled and distorted through the rebreather he was wearing. "T minus two minutes. Stand by, Sergeant. On my mark, detonate the charges."

 

[Seo Linn]

Even though she had failed in her attempt to join the group, the Knight still did not entirely give up. Keeping her head low and just going on about trying to live day to day, she fit in far better than she expected. The general population had even started to accept her as one of them.

As the group of people left the city, she stayed behind. It was much easier to continue her facade than to try to fit in with those people. Their apparent leader had taken notice of her, and this she didn't want. The tickle in her mind steered her away from him while her curiosity wanted to know his plans. Something outside of the Force told her she would need to know this.

Watching from the shadows as he and his people left the town, Seo decided to talk to the same people he had. She learned about the train being rerouted from them, and her brain went into overdrive. This had to be why the Force had brought her here. She didn't know if she was supposed to be helping or stopping him. Thanking the strangers, she chose to attempt to observe what happened.

Borrowing a speeder, she set off behind the group. People traveled from location to location, and she hoped they would not pay much attention to her passage. However, she had not noticed he had assigned some of his people to watch her.

Darkness fell, but she stayed on her course. Unless his men approached her, she would take up a good vantage point to watch what happened with the train.

Darth Vodrux

 

[Darth Vodrux]

Train Derailment Damage Roll

• 1 to 5 = Anti-Armour Batteries Disabled
• 6 to 10 = Previous result plus Anti-Air Batteries Disabled
• 11 to 15 = Previous results plus Anti-Personnel Batteries Disabled
• 16 to 20 = All batteries disabled plus military escort weakened.

 

[Darth Vodrux]

As it were, the speeder upon which Seo had departed from the settlement on had not gone unnoticed. During his troop placement for this operation, Vodrux had also set up pickets of his retainers around the perimeter. Primarily, said pickets were to act as living trip-wires, alerting him about the presence of external forces in the area, and should the force be small enough, they had been prepared to offer resistance and harry it. One of these picket positions caught sight of the speeder, heading towards a clump of rocks which offered a vantage point of the tracks, on the other side of the railway from the similar vantage point upon which the Sith raiders were encamped. The pickets called in the sighting, and soon Vodrux was distracted by the beeping of his holoprojector.

He answered the call with some degree of irritation as the image of the picket squad leader flickered to life before his dark eyes. “A speeder My Lord. Just the one. It’s crossed our perimeter and is heading for the rocks opposite your position.” the woman said. Vodrux thought about this development for a few moments. “A single speeder you say, sergeant?” he called back to the woman, who nodded. “Yes My Lord. No more than the one. Shall we intercept?” The Sith Lord had a decision to make now. He could order a pre-emptive interception upon the intruder. While presumably it would neutralise the threat, the speeder could also be a scout or bait of some kind, preparing to signal to a larger body of soldiers. And if a protracted blaster-exchange broke out, the train’s crew would almost certainly spot it and intervene. His warband would not be able to withstand the firepower from those mounted batteries.

He made up his mind. “Stand dow sergeant, and resume your watch. Call in if you see any further intruders.” He did not wait for the sergeant to finish her bow and her affirmative response, before he disconnected the call, his mind troubled. He had a pathological need to see his designs fulfilled without any external interference and letting the speeder pass unchallenged gnawed at his mind. His paranoia brought up a thousand different, but equally implausible pictures of things that could be concealed behind the hills on the far side towards which the speeder was headed. From Daan commandos to concealed artillery emplacements, he went over each scenario in his mind before shaking his head determinedly. Even if the worst came to pass, their odds would be most favourable with the shock and awe that would be caused by the explosion. And since no word had been dispatched by the pickets near the tracks, he was reasonably confident that the charges were still armed and in place.

Pushing the speeder out of his mind, he turned his attention back to the train, observing its progress through his binocs. Soon, the desired moment came, and he holocalled the demolitions crew. “Standby for detonation Sergeant, in T-Minus 5 seconds. 4….3……2…..1…..Mark!”

He lowered the binocs just in time to see the flash of electricity upon the track at the edge of the locomotive’s front bumper, as the circuit completed and the thermite was triggered. There was a deafening roar and a flash that lit up the night sky as though it were mid-day. A raging inferno gushed forward in all directions from where the tracks had been, tossing burning rock, twisted metal and mangled parts across the length and breadth of the railway. Nothing could be seen or heard as the report of the explosion was joined by the cacophony of the train being flung violently off the tracks and into the ground. He could sense the lives flickering out in the force as the primary explosion from the charge was joined by numerous smaller and secondary explosions along the body of the train, caused by fuel tanks, explosives and munitions igniting. “We did it My Lord!” exclaimed the jubilant figure of the demolitions sergeant, his hologram illuminated by the light of the raging flames. “I think……I think it knocked them all out. All of their guns. They’re all on fire. Kriff I can smell it. There’s….there’s bodies everywhere.” Breathing easily once more, Vodrux nodded. “Well done sergeant. Pull back at once. We’ll take it from here.”

He disconnected the holocall and then turned towards the retainer captain who was perched upon the cliff beside him. A grizzled veteran, who had been in his service for over half a decade now. “Order the advance, Captain Eshkai. We move forward by stealth, and we storm them before they can recover from the explosion. Neutralise any survivors who pose a threat, and keep an eye on those hills at the far end. There may be trouble coming from there.” As the captain touched his fist to his chest in a salute, the Sith Lord unslung his lightsaber from his belt, though he did not see ignite it yet. And he began to move forward, climbing down the outcrop. Once he was on the ground below and his men had gathered behind him with their blasters ready, he motioned forward. “On me, let’s go.” With those words, the boarding party moved forward, treading softly at a crouch and dropping to a crawl in areas where they would come in line of sight of the train’s burning wreckage.

 

[Seo Linn]

Seo could almost sense the tension from the group she was observing. She had no idea their leader was a Sith, but she could tell these people were once like her. Slaves. Men and women used to doing the bidding of masters. If she had to take a guess, their leader had also been one and seemed to be the Master of this group. Piecing together the information she had been given, she felt their target was the weapons on the train. This was not an act the former slave would try and stop.

Sensing chaos was about to ensue, Seo decided to lay low. Whatever the man had planned was going to happen, and there was nothing she would do until everything was said and done. Watching through the brush as the charges and bombs exploded, the Knight felt the losses of life and knew if she came out of the shadows, she would be joining them. Not yet ready to lose her own life, she remained hidden.

She waited for a while before lifting her head again to look. Most of the noises she had heard from the train had stopped, and the signs of resistance had ended. Now, all that was left was to clean up. Cautiously approaching the wreckage, she hoped they wouldn't attack her out of spite and allow her to assist them. Maybe it was picking sides, but the Knight really didn't care what their thoughts were.

The Force had guided her here, and the nudge it had given her was fading. There wasn't much more she could do before leaving. Perhaps she would encounter the man at a later date. Turning to face the direction the man had gone, she had the feeling they would cross paths again.

Darth Vodrux

 

[Darth Vodrux]

Assault Casulaties Roll

1-5: Heavy Casualties
6-10: Moderate Casualties
11-15: Light Casualties
16-20: Light Casualties with only wounded

Modifiers:

Only Anti-Armour batteries destroyed: -2
Anti-Armour and Air batteries destroyed: -1
All batteries destroyed: +0
All batteries destroyed and escort weakens: +1

(Last modifier applies)

 

[Darth Vodrux]

The Sith assault part moved across the plains towards the smouldering wreckage of the train and the mangled remains of the track. As they approached it, Vodrux could smell the stench of charred flesh through his rebreather. They stepped carefully around the fiery pools of twisted, semi-molten metal while gathering their bearings. The majority of the munitions aboard the train would no doubt, have been destroyed in the derailment, but what little survived would be more than sufficient to arm his retainers for the foreseeable future and further operations. The front sections of the train had taken the most damage, and were largely unsalvagable, and so, they moved towards the more intact rear.

They moved up, towards a carriage that seemed to be relatively intact and Vodrux identified a door that stood semi-ajar, having been partially blown off its hinges. He was about to order his men to breach the door and enter the train through it, when he caught sight of a face in a window upon the carriage. The bleeding, helmet-clad face of a man in Daan military fatigues. The face held a mixture of shock and horror as it looked out at them, and it was this delay in the man’s mental faculties, shaken by the derailment, that costed him his life. Before he could do anything, Captain Eshkai raised his blaster and fired. The red plasma bolt struck the man square in the face, blowing a chunk of charred flesh off as he went toppling backwards. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The shot however alerted the other surviving soldiers in the carriage, and Vodrux glimpsed the barrels of blaster rifles poking out through the various openings, levelled at them. “GET DOWN!” The words were scarcely out of his mouth before he and Captain Eshkai had gone prone, and the air above their heads were saturated with counter fire from the Daan soldiers. Many of the Sith retainers were not so fortunate, lacking the combat training of their master and his captain. The air was rent with screams as they fell in droves, some writhing in pain upon the ground while others went still. Fury pumping through his veins, Darth Vodrux crawled forward, before reaching out with the Force and wrenching the damaged door off its frame. “Find cover and maintain suppressive fire. I will take them inside.” he barked at Captain Eshkai, who nodded before turning his attention towards the pinned slaves, beginning to rally them to their feet and lead them towards a nearby chunk of twisted metal that would act as a protective barrier against the withering storm of Daan bolts.

Vodrux leapt towards the opening he had created in the train’s exterior, the Force propelling him further than mere muscle could. He landed upon the threshold and ignited his lightsaber, the red glow illuminating him against the train’s dark backdrop. The Daan blastmen noticed the Sith Lord, and it sent them into a state of alarm. As one, they opened fire upon Vodrux who entered the Soresu stance that he had mastered over the past decade. Inhaling deeply, he focussed on the incoming bolts of plasma, using his lightsaber and the Force to redirect them away from his body. Some, he sent into the walls and ceiling of the wrecked train, leaving scorch marks upon the metal. Some, he sent cascading out of the windows and doors. And some he redirected back at the shooters themselves, who fell amongst their ranks sporting blaster wounds upon their torso. All the while, he filled his heart with anger and hate as he took step, after deflective step towards the assembled soldiers. And then, he was finally in range.

With a roar of rage, he sent forth a Force Wave that warped and twisted the train’s metallic walls as it travelled towards the soldiers, knocking them back towards the end of the carriage. He could hear the sounds of cracking bones and snapping necks as the force injured and killed many of them, but he was just getting started. Drawing upon the Dark Side, Vodrux raised his left hand and stretched his fingers out towards the blastmen. From the tips, flowed forth purple-blue streams of lightning that caught the soldiers in a lock, bouncing of each and every one of them and chaining down their peers. The screaming began almost immediately. The flesh bubbled and sizzled as the limbs contorted and flailed uncontrollably. Squads of the soldiers were immobilised one after the other and the electricity overwhelmed some of their bodies, causing them to explode in crimson mists of gore. And when the lightning stream ended, the Sith Lord charged.

They saw the red lightsaber gleam as it swung through the air, before their lives were cut short. Limbs, heads and torso were bisected in cauterised wounds as Darth Vodrux hacked through the men who had dared to kill his retainers, like a hot knife slicing through butter. He channelled the force like a Warbeast, using it to crush the soldiers, choke the life out of them, and overload their bodies with lightning. He was vaguely aware of Captain Eshkai leading an assault on the ground outside the train as he continued his rampage down the successive carriages towards the end, but the situation was dire. Although the Daan were taking far more losses at the Sith Lord’s hands, their manpower pool was much greater than the Sith’s and they could absorb the losses better. If this carried on for much longer without a change in plan, the mission could very well need to be abandoned simply because there would be nobody left alive to help him load the weapon crates onto their ship, or indeed, to bear said weapons going forward.

 

[Seo Linn]

As she was facing the direction she thought Vodrux had gone, she realized her mistake. There might have been some people who were heading back to the spaceport, but her target wasn't one of them. It soon became clear the Daan hadn't put all their troops in one train car. If Seo was vengeful, she might feel some pleasure at what was happening to Vodrux. That wasn't the case, though; she needed to step in and offer help. She just hoped this wouldn't cost her her life.

The Force surged within her again, and she jumped into action. Feeling she was being watched, she openly headed to the watch set up to watch for her (or anybody else). Her hands were open to show she carried no weapons, but her lightsaber was in close reach if she needed it. Around her and close to her skin was a Force Barrier if they tried to shoot her.

"Your master needs help. Call in and see if he will reply."

Not waiting to hear an answer, the Knight Dashed almost headlong toward the fray. When he ignited his lightsaber, Seo was not surprised by its color. She just hoped he would accept her help. She did her best to avoid getting shot by either his people or the ones on the train. Lifting the veil to her face, she would attempt to join Vodrux in his fight.

Tutaminis was a core skill, but not everybody knew it. This Jedi did, and instead of igniting her blue lightsaber, she deflected any blasts that reached her back in the direction of whoever fired.

"Let me help you stranger. As an ally, we can get your weapons out together."

Taking a risk with her life, she felt this Sith would allow her to help this time.

Darth Vodrux

 

[Darth Vodrux]

"CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE SNAP!* Vodrux dropped the limp body of the soldier he had just finished straggling with the Force. He was panting hard now, the compartments of the train piled high with the bodies of those he had slain. But no matter how many he killed, more of them advanced, clambering over their fallen opponents to enter the fray. Outside, he could see his retinue getting similarly bogged down by the enemy's superior numbers. He could see a door opening in the distance before him, no doubt with more Daan soldiers behind it, and he raised his lightsaber to meet them. Simultaneously, his holoprojector began to beep, and he redirected it to an audio call as his eyes were now occupied with deflecting the blaster bolts that were being fired at him. "My Lord, the intruder. The one we were watching. She's on her way to you. She said she wants to help you take the weapons, and we're following close behind her." came the voice of the picket commander, speaking with deep huffs in his tone that indicated he was running hard. "Hang in there My Lord, we are almost there." Vodrux did not bother to answer, instead opting to disconnect the call before deluging the Daan squad shooting at him in a barrage of Force Lightning. As their screams filled his heart with a sadistic pleasure, he saw a figure approaching the train from the left flank, accompanied by his pickets some distance behind.

Soon, the blaster bolts from the pickets began to fly into the train through the gaps, catching the Daan in a crossfire between Captain Eshkai's unit on the right, and the advancing reinforcements on the left. As he dispatched the last of the squad he was fighting and prepared to continue moving forward over their charred corpses, the elusive woman entered the carriage a few feet ahead of him. He could tell she was Force Sensitive immediately, and he sensed none of the darkness that a Sith Assassin would possess within her. Nonetheless, he was still distrustful of her.

"Let me help you stranger. As an ally, we can get your weapons out together."

The Sith Lord looked over the woman, he face no longer obscured by the veil, even as his was by his rebreather. But his eyes, remained unshielded and she would be able to glimpse the seething rage in his heart within them. He quietly contemplated the choice before him for a few seconds, before coming to a decision. On the one hand, this woman was a stranger and a potential threat that could entirely derail his plans, not to mention be an existential threat to him. On the other hand, having another Force User join the fray would decisively tilt the fight in his favour. He did not see a lightsaber on her, but the waves of power radiating off her through the fabric of the Force were unmistakable. Should the woman have wished to harm him or his operation, she surely had had multiple opportunities to do so by now. Although he still had many questions for her, the expedient thing to do now would be to accept her aid in securing the cargo, and to then talk when they were in safer circumstances. Nodding brusquely, he responded to her. "We have bled them, but they have many more bodies to throw at us. Help me thin them out, and I shall return the favour once we have taken what we have come for, and we have left this place."

 

[Seo Linn]

The dice had been thrown, and Seo waited for them to finish turning. Luck was on her side when Vodrux answered. While not all Sith or dark-sided people were bad, not all were willing to work with people like her. Then again, this man had no idea who she was or anything about her. His distrust was normal to her, and she nodded when he gave her instructions. He also gave her his word about returning the favor. Knowing better than to assume he would follow through, Seo could not think of anything she wanted to accomplish.

There was a dead silence in the train car for a few brief moments. Suddenly, the action started again, and the Knight sprung into action. Folding lightwaves around her body, she seemed to disappear. Only a trained eye might spot her form as she moved through the darkness.

Jumping over the wall of dead bodies, she dashed behind the next wave and silently wondered why these Daan were stupid enough to keep sending prey to their deaths. The car he was targeting would be near the end of the train, and if these others were all full of men, then there would be a lot of fodder to burn through.

Realizing this was not the case, and while people were arriving from all over the train, the next car held more supplies than people, but that might be because they were already slaughtered. However, she could slow down the traffic heading his way. This Sith might desire the deaths of these troops, but Seo had a slightly different idea. She knew most of these people were going to die, so she felt like delaying that and giving Vodrux an easier time.

Igniting her lightsaber, she welded the door closed to the car and turned to do the same thing to the next car. The light from her saber gave the Daan a target to fire at, and the barrier she had placed around herself started to fail. Turning her lightsaber off, the shots continued for a few more seconds before tapering off. Footsteps on the ground approached her location, and she hoped his men would take the opportunity to shoot them before they got to her.

Darth Vodrux