A Helping Hand - OP Dominion of Zonju V

[Moira Skaldi]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Moira noted that the Princess was irritable, but obviously did not care at all and the glare did not faze her. The opinion of most people did not matter to her. "I shall naturally not stand in the way your desire for righteous heroism and heavy risks." she said very deadpan in a dull monotone. Assuredly she would be proven right quite soon. It was no surprise to her that Kerrigan liked the elf so much...beyond the obvious reasons of course.

As the Gunship took off and the pilot accelerated the engines to full speed she noticed HK taking the leap up into the shuttle, escaping just in time as the segment crashed down into the fathomless pit. While the ground trembled and quaked, what was left of the city sinking into the abyss, their craft sped north towards the epicentre, past open fissures and craters so wide it looked like baradium bombs had been thrown onto them from orbit and detonated. The entire planet was a wasteland, even more so than before their coming, like a warzone. As they came closer the tremors intensified, gaining in strength and viciousness, new fissures were violently ripped open, exposing rocks and rivers of hot lava that were beginning to wash across the land. Soon Zonyu would be a death world, a new Tartaros.

 

[HK-36]

The shuttle in which HK was hurried along the destruction to join with others.
Soon, they were hovering along with the rest of OP air forces nearby the epicenter, a transmission from HK echoing to @[member="Anya Venari"]
"This is Iron Knight, I am above epicenter as well, what do our scientists make of this?"

 

[Kaida Taldir]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

So...we just escaped falling into the pit...now we're going to the epicentre of the quakes, where things will be..worse. Something is terribly wrong with this picture, Kaida thought as the Gunship near the epicentre, coming ever closer to the centre of the desolation that had turned Zonyu into even more of a wasteland than before. Now the planet looked even more like something straight out of the old legends of hell. So many people had fallen to their deaths, claimed by the wrath of mother nature or perhaps something else. Kaida stopped in her thoughts when realisation dawned over her and she glanced at Moira. Wait, I'm agreeing with Miss 'Let's Purge' Psycho Skaldi, she realised. The horror, the horrror! Alright, let's boldly go and discover the truth. The truth is out there!

There, that was a far better mentality for an Angelii. Nonetheless she gripped her unignited lightsabre tight as she stared out at the devastated wasteland, though the blade would avail her little against quakes. At the risk of sounding cliched, she had a bad feeling about this. Look at all the lava, Lavina would love this place.

 

[Nyos Val]

Merina had finished with her most recent patient and sat down, exhausted. Nyos walked over to her, So...How are you feeling? Where did you come from?

I'm alright. Me and my caretaker, she looked over at the Twi'lek woman, were part of a transport fleeing from pirates. We were attacked and my caretaker risked her life to get us off our ship as it was boarded. We came from Quintas actually and were headed towards Fondor, to plead for assistance against the local pirates who have been terrorizing our transports.

You're very lucky to have survived in the deep of space, and to have been found. It just so happens that I am friends with those on Fondor. The leader is a special person to me and my friends here. You see that emblem on the uniforms? That is her crest. We are here to help. What is your caretakers name?

@[member="Cira"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] @[member="Moira Skaldi"]

 

[Anya Venari]

The epicentre was below them. It was the very definition of hell. The ground was quaking and from a fissure in the rocks far below there came the glow of lava. The planet’s crust was starting to buckle and crumble away, being renewed and overtaken by fire.

Anya looked down, and even from a kilometre above it was an open wound.
“What can we do?” she asked into the commlink.
“Do? Nothing, this is what happened last time,” Professor Gand said solemnly.
“There was never any chance to stop this, was there?” Anya asked tiredly.
“This is beyond the actions of any one person, beyond even the power of the Force. This is nature reclaiming its own.”
“I just hope it never happens to Kaeshana,” Anya said. She switched the frequency over. “How is the count progressing?”
“Almost done, Princess. We have recorded 18,722 civilians on board. There’s bound to be a few more,” an aide reported.
“And how many were here originally?”
The aide hesitated. “Somewhere in the region of 25-30,000 is estimated.”
Anya sat heavily on her chair. “Pilot, @[member="HK-36"], let’s head into space. I’ve seen enough.” She looked at @[member="Moira Skaldi"]. “Do you have anything to say?” she demanded angrily. “Anything about necessary losses and collateral damage?”
Below them the planet was starting to break up. Cracks opened up like on an eggshell.

The aide interrupted them. “Princess, I advise moving away from the planet as quickly as possible. There is something odd happening to the star.”
“Odd?”
“It’s starting to give off some odd signs.”
“Get us into space away from this place. The extra transports should be here soon.”

As the planet vanished below her Anya closed her eyes. “I wish I could have done something,” she murmured.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Anya's anger was as strong as Moira's utter indifference to it. Someone else might have felt offended considering moments ago she had saved the Princess' life, but Moira thought most people were beneath her anyway. Clearly the Princess was just lashing out at the most convenient target because she was enraged about her inability to heroically save everyone. "Situation speaks for itself. Or what would you have me say?" she asked rhetorically, putting all her indifference into the tone.

"You are intelligent, so you went into this mission knowing there would be casualties. Happy endings with none only happen in fairy tales. Even the Force has limits. You can rage, but it will not bring them back." She pondered whether to point out that Zonyu was hardly the only planet suffering from natural disasters, just the one the Protectorate had turned its attention and that had hardly been motivated solely by altruism.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

"Yeah, we get it. Thanks for the 'impassive' lecture." Kaida shot Moira a rather annoyed, angry look as the Gunship accelerated into space and the planet vanished beneath them. Thus they would not have to see its final end as it began to be torn apart from the insides, nature reclaiming its own, as Professor Gand had said. Cycle of birth, life and death. To see it played out like that was still horrific. Perhaps even humbling, but still made one want to rage. "You did all you could. Most people wouldn't have bothered come over and help, especially risking themselves," she said softly. Moira might have said that public relations was a reason to go, but she was a queen anyway far as Kaida was concerned.

 

[HK-36]

@[member="Anya Venari"]
"Are you sure, Crown Princess?"
Transmission came from HK as his shuttle pulled up to climb towards the orbit with others
"We can not do anything about natural disasters, but something tells me this was nothing natural, planets do not crumble like that for no reason."
Static hissed in intermission briefly
"And from the lore I know from my years of lifetime, this planet had strong presence of Sith Emperor Krayt, strong corruption occurred with the Dark Side. Perhaps there is relationship between the two?"

 

[Anya Venari]

For a moment Anya was lost in a moment of utter rage. Her hand flared with fire and she was prepared to plunge her fist like a thermic lance into @[member="Moira Skaldi"]’s chest. With great difficulty she restrained herself. Even Tegaea would probably not be pleased if she blasted the agent into pieces.

Instead she focussed entirely on @[member="HK-36"]. “Go on, Lieutenant, I’m listening. Do you suspect there’s some sort of Sith artefact causing this? I can sense nothing with my Sciia. Sometimes these things happen. Not every supernova is the work of a Sith,” she added.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Moira saw the flame manifest in Anya's hand and her eyes narrowed, but she showed no sign of fear or apprehension, though she slowly raised her hand before the elf restrained herself. If Anya had tried such a thing, she would have undoubtedly discovered something very interesting about Moira. Suffice to say she was a great deal tougher than she looked and could deal with a roasting and also had a stronger grip than someone with her muscle mass should have. However, this one shall not spoil. Moira looked impassive as Anya responded to HK's speculation. Sith artefacts were admittedly not her forte....she understood that the Force existed and that its wielders could potentially do amazing, that is terrible things, perhaps even create storms that devoured planets, but not how it worked beyond that.

"Darth Krayt had a fortress on Saijo, a few parsecs away from here," she interjected, not really caring either way. We can always blame Velok, she thought. "However, Sith are not behind everything."

 

[Anya Venari]

It most definitely would have surprised Anya if she had tried it. Probably for the best though, she did not!

While locations of former Sith Lords were discussed, a message arrived on Anya’s comm.
“Princess, the transports have arrived in orbit!”
“Excellent. Get everyone on board and do a rollcall and census. We’ll use this opportunity to set up basic relief efforts.”

In orbit, the commandeered gas cargo ships were being loaded with refugees by the time Anya arrived. The container ships had large open decks where the tibenna gas was usually stored in large containers. From there the civilians had their names recorded, and any who were missing relatives or friends had those names taken down so that reuniting might be possible at a later stage.

As Anya walked amongst the people she felt a great sense of mixed sadness and relief.
“Get me a connection to Colonel @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], and tell all my officers to come here for a debrief.”

@[member="HK-36"] @[member="Moira Skaldi"] @[member="Noah Corek"] @[member="Nyos Val"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Siobhan had spent her time doing...official things. This involved an awful amount of tedious paperwork, some of which was interesting because it was about building weapons - she would get that rail tank - signing off orders for her troops and several instances of throwing darts, guided by telekinesis, along with signing off a MICO operation against Bando Gora allies. She had been about to escape the office by visiting the shooting range when her comm beeped, on the special frequency that only a selected few had.

She immediately answered. "Kerrigan," she spoke a bit gruffly then noticed who the caller was and immediately her features softened and she loooked relieved. "Anya, you got off Zonyu? What's your status?"

 

[Kaida Taldir]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Corporal Kaida Taldir filed in after Anya passing the large throng of people rescued from Zonyu. There were touching scenes as loved ones were reunited, a mother rushing to embrace her two children, hugging them tightly, looking at their rescuers with an expression of gratitude. Equally of sorrow, for many had not made it. The Omegan officials had their hands full since they were soon besieged by civilians pleading, begging and often demanding to know where their kin were, answers they could often not provide.

A woman rushed up to her as she passed and embraced her, making the rather thin elf shake slightly. "I saw what you did...you froze the water in the pit...somehow...without you we would've fallen in. Thank you," she said fervently, motioning to her two boys, evidently her sons, to come over. "Come and thank her."

"It's no bother, just doing my job. You're safe now, you'll get a new home," she replied, awkwardly patting the woman on the shoulder and the two boys before passing them, feeling a strange mixture of relief and some sadness. One man at the counter seemed to be desperately pleading with an official regarding information about where his wife was. Fortunately Moira had not yet sent a holocamera team to take holopics and interview people, otherwise Kaida might have hit her...and no doubt hurt her hand very hard. Sure doing work like that was also good for public relations, but cheap exploitation like that felt wrong to her. She eventually reached the room where Anya was, after navigating her way through the throng of refugees, often dirty and covered in dust, soldiers, medics and bureaucrats. A holographic apparition of Colonel Kerrigan had already shot out of the projector.

 

[Anya Venari]

“Colonel. The planet is almost completely ruined I’m afraid, but we got most of the people off. I commandeered some gas transports from Bespin to help store the people. The whole planet is pretty much a wasteland now. I estimate we got over three quarters of the population off in time.”
Anya looked sombre. That was still a quarter she hadn’t been able to save.
“We did what we could. All our people acted with great courage and skill.”

@[member="Kaida Taldir"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Siobhan listened then nodded. "I know they did. Good work. You can't save anyone, no matter how hard you try, Anya," Siobhan said softly, dropping the titles. Sure a grunt was there was watching but they had worked closely together for several years. Yes, sometimes that meant actual work! "Most people wouldn't have tried in the first place. I'll inform Exarch Alcori. We can set up transit camps, but where are the refugees gonna be sent now? Once the bureaucracy's out of the way. Good to know you're safe." Perhaps Siobhan suspected that Anya had been trying to be a bit too heroic again.

 

[Anya Venari]

Siobhan’s suspicions had been justified. She’d probably be mad when she heard about the pit incident!
“I think we could resettle them on Dahomey in the western reaches. There’s untaken land there for farming. We could set them up some villages and leave them to recover. Those that want could also go to Fondor or Eriadu if they have useful skills. What do you think? We should probably also construct a monitoring station to study whatever happened to the planet.”

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

Considering that Siobhan indulged in overdramatic heroics on a regular basis, her being mad, which was very likely, would be a bit hypocritical. Of course, Anya was supposed to be the smart one! At this stage neither could know that soon Siobhan would be thrust into a position where she would be expected to act responsibly!


Siobhan thought for a short moment, then nodded. On matters like this she tended to defer to Anya's judgement. "Sounds reasonable to me. Might take a while for town dwellers to adjust to farming, but all things considered conditions on Dahomey are a lot less sucky than on Zonyu." What with Zonyu being a wasteland and Dahomey slowly moving up from its third world status. "Long as Amazons don't claim them," she could not resist making a lame joke, but then her, shall we say, interest in Dahomey Amazons was well known. Suffice to say it had made her honeymoon quite interesting.

"I'll make a call to the governor of Dahomey so that things get prepared. Agree about the monitoring station. Should see what's happening to it and it might be...useful beyond that," she said without elaborating. "So it was a natural disaster? No Deus Ex Machina super device/Sith meddling?"

 

[Anya Venari]

“As amazing as it might sound, it seems like a complex interaction between the star, the moons and the planet itself caused it. If there was some sort of evil magical item…we didn’t see it. Besides, pretty worthless world to pick if that’s what you wanted!”
Anya was supposed to be the smart one, but even she was impulsive sometimes!
“Oh yes, the Amazons,” she said with a wink. Even though that thread had happened before now for these two IC, it hasn’t for our writers. Thus, some things are known by our characters and not the writers…an unusual state of affairs!

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Anya Venari"]

"The muscular, fur-wearing warrior women who make haughty aristos who wander into their land bend to them. We have dismissed that claim," Siobhan quipped because it would not be her if she did not use cheesy lines once in a while. After all, she was pretty much a walking, talking collection of pop culture references. "So you didn't do anything crazily heroic, did you? Or set Mini Maelion on fire?" she asked innocently. She did not at all suspect anything and lit herself a cigarette, taking a drag. Apparently she had not yet realised that this was bad for her health, but then so were maimings.

 

[Anya Venari]

This writer suspects that however dangerous cigarettes were, having one’s leg hacked off was probably worse.
“Dismissing claims again? Have you ever accepted claims?” Anya joked.

An aide approached and pointed out the window. Far below Zonju V’s crust was breaking into great molten chunks.
“This is what happened, Siobhan,” Anya said, directing a camera at the catastrophe below.