30 Seconds to Contact [ORC Dominion of Saijo, Hex G-50]

[Vela Alya T'Ser Sipal]

"Easy Dragoon, we should be good, making our approach now. Might need some cover for our transports," the other captain's voice crackled over the comms. The Silvertongue, gliding gracefully towards the marked evac area, suddenly disappeared from [member="Kyle Farnes"] 's scanners, and apparently the enemy's as well. The corvette opened up with a barrage of fire, cutting through the Sharukan gunships with ease. As it sailed over the evac area, a trio of large, heavily armed transport/fighter hybrids fell out of the hangar and set down, opening up with a barrage of heavy laser fire to clear a path to them. The Silvertongue slammed on its maneuvering thrusters, pulling a tight turn and slowing down a hundred meters above the evac zone, completely eclipsing the transports and troops on the ground.

The ramps of the transports opened up, with a pair of soldiers flanking each, providing cover fire for [member="Kiyron"] and the listening post's troops.

Six starfighters screamed overhead, covered by the quad laser cannons of the Silvertongue. They flew in formation, picking off a small fighter group on its way for a run at their home corvette.

"Let's get to it, not gonna be long before they start sending cruisers."

 

[Kimiko Taiyou]

Things went from bad to worse before anyone could have imagined. The Akaran forces, both in space and on the ground, were hanging on by the seat of their pants. Admiral Takami had sent out the command to begin falling back. The Lily White had taken a devastating broadside from an enemy vessel, the same one that had knocked out the Azalea's starboard propulsion. They had been tethered and were limping back to the planet to assist in the evacuation. Cyaron continued the fight, as best she could, with the few fighters they had left. The experimental Tanto had also expended all available ammunition delivering a crippling blow to one of the Shakuran's largest vessels. Chika would most definitely report that to the engineering teams.

"Cyaron this is Emerald One, request permission to disengage and cover the final evacuations ground-side." Tsubasa's voice crackled from her swept-wing Akaran fighter and Chika welcomed the friendly voice. The fight in her voice gave the older woman hope.

She chimed in herself,"Permission granted, Emerald One, be safe and good hunting. We aren't long for this, when I say we're leaving, we're leaving. Copy?"

"Solid copy Cyaron, Emerald One out!"

And like that, Chika watched the four remaining fighters form up and head towards the planet. Chika then keyed the Coalition command,"Coalition Command, this is Fleet Admiral Takami of the Akaran Royal Navy, The line is broken, we are falling back. Update on evacuation status and ETA for completion. How copy?"

The longer this bought lasted, the more likely something bad would happen...

~~~~

Fighting on the ground had definitely hit the fan. The lines currently drawn were the last ones before everything fell, and even then enemy forces were breaking through. The Akaran Marines and Sentinels had gone through a series of retreats and counters for the better part of the last several hours. Now they had to begin completely withdrawing, for there was hardly any ammunition left. Some stubborn foxes picked up Shakuran arms and kept fighting. The Marshals were nearing the end of their commitment.

Their original air support had long since bugged out, so the high-pitched cry of incoming air initially caused alarm. It was that way until the emerald green on the wings of familiar fighters showed true, leading a formation in a much welcomed strafing run on the Shakuran lines. Collectively a sigh of relief could be felt.

Tsubasa could imagine the welcome relief as her remaining pilots and herself delivered the last of their heavy ordnance,"Marine Six, Emerald One, if you can hear me, we don't have time to sustain full support here. Start pulling your forces back. The Admiral is adamant on us leaving. Catch you all back home. Emerald One out."

Tsubasa could only hope.

It wasn't long before she spotted a new target: a Shakuran Spider tank running rampant through an inner street. Easy.

She took a wide loop and began to line up a shot and opened up with her heavy lasers. The tank still had some fight and took several shots back, one got lucky. Tsubasa had immobilized the walker and began corkscrewing out of control over the city-scape.

She sent one last transmission that caused everyone who recognized the call-sign to freeze,"Emerald One is hit, going down hard. Do not wait for me if you can't. I'll be okay."

 

[John Locke]

Location: Arriving above Saijo
Objective: 1
Responding to: [member="Cathul Thuku"]

"Transmitting coordinates of priority objectives"

"Sir, we have incoming data from Therapy Command, co-ordinates incoming now."

"Pass them over to the rest of the fleet and plot us a course, alert the members of the silver circle onboard our hospital ships that they might have incoming so start prepping the medbays."

The longer they remained in the system, the more data they could build up about the situation on the planet, and it really didn't look good. The man settled back in his chair, a flick of his fingers pulling up a bevy of holographic screens, images and data running all over them as he saw the fleet start to come around on their new heading. "This is becoming a new reality isn't it?" "The dark-haired man looked up at his friend before nodding and sighing, "I'm afraid so EX, the Sith seem to have started something, but people aren't so comfortable, sure of themselves anymore, and others take it as an excuse to come in and take whatever they want, even upto a whole planet if they want. I get the feeling we're going to get very very good at this kind of relocation in the future. See what you can spot this time, we'll see what kind of response doctorine we can come up with."

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: 1
Allies: [member="Dax Fyre"]
Enemies: Shakurans

In fact, the Nagai in the prisoner convoy got to safety but she wasn't quite able to make it: the shuttle closed its doors shut before she could make it, leaving her at the mercy of the spider tank, even when she managed to get behind some cover. That one question remains: how much Force-energy is required to close in on the spider tank under cloak, and can she conjure it; if so, how? She knew that what worked best to fuel any given spell depended on what the spell relied on. Not even the cover was enough to allay her fears related to both the tank and the fireteam, so there's the ambient anxiety and fear for her to use as a backup source to cloak herself for a few moments. Until she could get to the weapons of the contraption: here she is led to think a firepower kill would be of more use than a mobility kill: she could always inflict the latter later. So using the fear to see the whole compromise of her position for nothing, as well as the fear of being shot down, she advanced, quietly and unseen, under cloak. Once she actually made it to the weapon hardpoints, it was then that she de-cloaked and activated her black lightsabers in a loud snap-hiss, cutting barrels out of the weapons that had them, and what used to be weapon barrels fell on the ground. Meanwhile, even though the barrels were cut off this thing, there may still be some missile launchers to disable or destroy, and only then she would even think of the mobility kill.

 

[Atlas Drake]

SAIJO​

"Fall back!" Atlas shouted over the las fire and explosions that shook the Coalition command post, "Fall back to the rendezvous!"

The last of the Nagai defenders had moved in to cover the Judges' retreat, Captain Drake and Sheriff Cade both leading the speartip along with the colony's commander. Saijo's Nagai commandos were fierce warriors in battle, for his own part unarmored and with only his service weapon it was all he could do just to survive, but the Sharukan were everywhere now. Their grip on the city was all but lost, Kathol Marines and Cade's Peacekeepers were holding the landing fields where a handful of shuttles were still waiting evacuate the last of the defenders.

It was a running gun battle to the transports, and many Nagai valiantly gave their lives to delay the invaders' advance long enough for the others to escape. Thanks to the efforts of [member="Janick Beauchamp"] and other allied pilots overhead, the oncoming horde was held at bay long enough for Atlas and his men to board. The evac zone was falling apart all around them, and the turbulence of liftoff under fire was the most terrifying moment in his life, but soon they were up and away and out of the line of fire for now.

"Zul, I need a head count!" he called out to his tactical officer. The hulking Jarell lieutenant lumbered off to comply, and Drake glanced at Sheriff Cade, "You alright?"

"Think so," the Judge was still patting himself down as if to make sure, "That was some end of days dren."

"We're not out of the woods yet," Atlas clasped the other man on his shoulder before moving towards the transport's cockpit, "Get on the horn with Marshal Fyre, I'm going to try and contact my ship."

KRV UTOPIA​

​

Structural integrity was barely holding together, but with the arrival of Silver Jedi reinforcements Commander Ghast had finally felt confident enough in their temporary gains to give the order to fall back. The Utopia had been through hell and back. Four of its heavy turbolaser cannons were knocked out of commission, entire decks had vented out into space, and the medical bay was inundated with wounded crewmen in critical condition. Yet somehow, despite all odds, they were still alive. Even better, the executive officer had just received word that their captain had made it off the surface and was inbound.

"Send Admiral Thuku our regards and inform her we are pulling back. Open a channel to the Jedi," the Kel'dor waited for communications to carry out his orders and open a channel with [member="John Locke"], "This is Commander Ghast of the Kathol Republic Vessel Utopia, thanks for the assist. The evacuation is nearly complete, but we must withdraw. I've got a lot of casualties over here, any chance you could cover our retreat?"

"Hangar reports the captain's transport is safely aboard."

"Finally," Ghast sagged visibly with relief, before pausing to glance around at the destroyer's ruined bridge, "So much for my first command."