A Kind God [Consumption of Hapes]

[Soeht]

The Attention You Crave

​

[acronym="A young servant of mine, but reliable."]Monika Zel[/acronym], a noblewoman of Hapes. Known to be odd by her family and friends. Yet in this moment of madness for the planet, she remained ca̴l̷m̵.

Still at her family's mansion in Ta'a Chume'Dan, Monika could see the mountain that [member="Dredge"] had became. Her personal bodyguard, Rand Veng'a, winced at the sight of Dredge. He clutched his forehead as if he had a crippling migraine.

Laying her hand upon Rand's shoulder, Monika s̸oot͝hed Rand by telling him, "Be still. I'm here."

Rand slowly calmed down once he heard Monika's voice. With tinge of shame, he turned his head to look to his charge.

Handing a datapad to Rand, Monika ordered him to, "Contact this person. There may be hope."

Nodding in affirmation, Rand took the datapad and made his way to the building's comms. Some of [member="The Faithful"] may wish to bring force upon Dredge with extreme prejudice - they were beginning to see Hapes as their territory, after all.

Monika then turned her attention back to Dredge. She would need her coat...

 

[Darth Abyss]

With a unseen raise of his eyebrow Abyss looked down on the black liquid on his knife, the blood that was now more alike the weird form of energy that the daughters of Dathomir used for much of their magic. Interesting. It was unclear if it would double as fuel for his runes, but he definitely needed to take some of it with him for future investigation. If it was alike the spirit ichor of the witches than there would be useful properties to it, especially when facing of the spirit again. The sith lord allowed the knife to disappear so he could research this whole thing further at a later point of time.

Then he was approached by the corrupted goons that [member="Dredge"] had send after him. Without blood the runes had little use, but they could still be activated. It was a trick taught to him by Lord Lykos a master when it came to the art of rune magic. Yet that had many drawbacks compared to using blood. The power they could create was far to little to fight of something like the spirit, and the effect would burn out in not even a minute. But well, it was his best bet for making an escape.

"You are a fool. I never meant to be your enemy, but you leave me little choice. Pretty shortsighted for someone who thinks of himself as a god."

Words in the ancient tongue were whispered as Abyss slowly backed away from the group and channeled his power into the runes on the ground. The marks burned into the ground began to glow red. His initial plan had been to create a spell that would bind the power of the spirit to it and channel it into a fixed nexus here on Hapes. Not a deadly trick, but his first impulse had been to imprison it anyway. Now the spells effect would be reduced, and only affect a small area around the runes. Yet that was probably enough to temporarily bind the spirit inside the thugs to it, and therefore reduce its control over them, as well as the energy they could channel.

This was his move for now. Once of world he would design a spell that was a bit more elaborate. A spell that could bring down a real god if needed.

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Tanomas Graf]

The Imperial fleet would soon come into reversion over the planet of Hapes, grey daggers against the darkness of space. There was a small delay in them getting their from Kamino, the aged Grand Moff had to manually enter the calculations for all of the ships to navigate through the Transitory Mists; None knew it, but the man had lived on Hapes for over a decade before the War. Ten Imperial Star Destroyers, including the Avenger were present over the twinkling planet.

"We've found the Sith Lord, sir. It...uh..." A lieutenant started, before directing the Grand Moff's gaze to the viewscreen where a magnified view of a capital city of Hapes could be seen; a gigantic Force entity was rampaging the area. A look of disgust flashed over the face of the old man, bitter memories were being relived. "Oh how far has society on this pitiful excuse for a planet fallen, people fail to realize that neither male nor female are dominant; it depends on skill and the like..." He muttered under his breath, staring down at the planet through the viewports.

"Are we in position?" The Grand Moff asked, looking questioningly at Captain Huurlek. The captain nodded and Graf sealed his and other fates by uttering a single word; "Fire". Hundreds of turbolasers fired in batteries in volleys down onto Hapes, where the green blasts of concentrated heat and energy impacted upon the surface in an explosive outcome. The Imperials were not going to commence a Base Delta Zero operation, not yet, but they were going to cause a serious amount of damage to the planet and the Sith Lord.

[member="Dredge"] | [member="Darth Abyss"] | [member="Nam Keeoh"] | [member="June Slane"] | [member="Soeht"] | [member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond C’artyom raced through the metallic halls of the Avenger. They were attacking Hapes. More or less bombing it to dust. He gathered his squadron and they coalesced in the locker room. Desmond changed out of his casual attire and into his black Imperial jumpsuit. As his squad finished changing they left the bleak grey locker room. They entered the Hangar and discovered it bustling with life as TIE pilots approached their craft or engineers got the TIE’s battle worthy.

Desmond climbed the rungs attached to his TIE wing and entered the cramped cockpit. He hit the ignition and flipped a few more switches. Weapons optimal. Engines prime. The cockpit took on a red hue as all the systems fully came online. The metallic harness that fastened the TIE to the Avengers wall detached and Des’s craft began to hover freely. Purge squadron raced out of the hangar and flew in standard formation around the Avenger.

It did not take long for the Fleet to assume position. Thousands of green lasers descended from the ships to land heavily on the planet below. Desmond thought he could almost make out the explosions on the planet. This was impossible of course, but the Chiss was able to watch it all via his cybernetic implants. His eye projected a newsfeed onto the canopy of his TIE and the Chiss watched as thousands of blast fell rocked the city streets. Things exploded and people screamed. It was all rather delightful to the Chiss. Des let out a soft chuckle as the Holoman dissapeared as he was unable to escape the blast of one of the turbolasers. The feed ended and Des found himself floating listlessly through space. Awaiting his next orders. Just another day in the IR.

[member="Tanomas Graf"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Having completed her humanitarian mission out in GA space, Arisa was now on return to Voss. Or she had been, until she started receiving distress calls through a biocomm node connected to the HOLONET. A crisis on Hapes revolving around the sudden appearance of some massive monstrosity upon the surface of the capital world of the Consortium. She was reminded of Atrisia then, where it had been reported that giant monsters of Sith origin had rampaged through the system. There was also news of the Imperial Remnant making an appearance within the Hapes Cluster. Kaiju and Imps, never a good combination. Her current fleet of medical ships and escorts wasn't optimal for to engage any opposing battle groups, but she planned on entering the Hapan space to save lives, not to take them. She was hoping the Hapan navy would back her up if it did come to blows, though.

"We're making an emergency reversion," she informed the crews of her formation over biocomm.

A few minutes later, the ships and fighters would drop out of hyperspace just past Kashyyyk along the Randon Run.

"Prepare to slave all nav systems to the Allegro. I'm taking us there on a straight shot. From here on out, we're now on condition yellow."

As the crews of the other ships worked to slave their systems to the medical super carrier, she would begin to interface directly with the Allegro's navicomputer through both her neural implant and the Force. She would then trigger a simultaneous hyper jump of all the vessels in her formation upon completion of the slaving process. True to her word, it would almost be a straight shot for the formation as she bypassed known hyperlanes for the most direct path to Hapes. Relying on precognitive abilities as a Force Adept, she focused in on the gravitational signatures of celestial bodies to maneuver around them with only the smallest adjustments to her trajectory to avoid collisions. By means of real-time astronavigation, she would be arriving at the mouth of the cluster within a matter of minutes. All the while, her comms officers trying to make contact with Hapan authorities to coordinate on a plan of action, and to figure out the Imperial Remnant's role in all this mess.

[member="Dredge"] [member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="June Slane"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Nam Keeoh]

She sensed something... strange. At least strange enough that the cancelled the planned jump to lightspeed. She turned her ship back, and started to re-enter the atmosphere. At that moment, she saw ten large ships jump out above her. She accelerated as the ships started to deploy fighters. Within ten minutes, the blob was clearly visible again. The strange sense, however seemed to come from a nearby area.

She curved her scoutship around, still trying to get an idea of what she was sensing. She landed her craft about a hundred feet from the edge of the blob. She followed her senses, walking to an area closer to the blob. Suddenly, she finally realized what she was sensing. A Dark force user, a Sith if she remembered the name correctly.

She remembered bad things about them from the holo she read about the Force, but at this point her hate consumed her. If there really was a Sith, then perhaps he or she could teach her in the ways of the Sith. After all, she had heard that some had gained great power over the ages. Then she could exact some revenge on the slavers who had haunted her since birth.

As she got closer to the source of the dark pull, she started to randomly shoot people, whether they were bystanders or yet another corrupted by the spirit. Eventually, she walked around a bend and saw a man in robes. She sensed that that was the Sith. He was in front of the blob. She carefully took a couple steps forward, before pausing to watch. Then, the explosions came from above.

[member="Dredge"] [member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Tanomas Graf"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Dredge]

Fire ravaged the capital of Hapes; the imperial remnant had brought their instruments of destruction to see to that. Thousands of turbo lasers rained down on the surface and entire city blocks were wiped out in the blink of an eye. With people outside running for dear life, thousands of lives were lost in an instance. Some of them converted and others just innocent victims of bad circumstances. And to be completely honest, normally this would upset Dredge to not get his way. But this, this was something he connected to from his previous existence. Mass death and destruction, it made him happy and he loved to watch it all die before him.

"Looks like we'll have to finish this later, Abyss. Run little rabbit, run." Dredge's possessed thug said as he began to vomit the black ichor out of their body.

With the Sith's Magic working the man stood there confused as to what was happened, but that confusion was cut short as he evaporated into nothing by being struck by a turbolaser going off a few meters away from the Sith Lord, which the shockwave was more than enough just to kill the average man. Hopefully the Sith Lord wasn't average.

Now as for what Dredge did, he simply looked up at the star destroyers and let the beams of death pass through him and strike the buildings and people behind him. If he couldn't have Hapes, if the people couldn't be his. Then he'd keep converting them one by one city by city until the remnant was forced to glass the entire planet. Until a Base Delta Zero was the only option to keep his influence from spreading across star systems. He had already expended so much energy growing and it took a lot to hold this size, it was mostly for show than anything else. So it wasn't like he could just go up there and bring down ten star destroyers. Dredge was powerful but he wasn't that powerful. If he was going into it fresh than he'd be alright, but the truth was he needed to more juice if he wasn't going to accomplish something like that on the next go.

So for now he was happy to just stand there and let his drones continue the path of spreading his disease across Hapes. In other cities there were already confirmed reports of infected and the ball was rolling towards the system's inevitable doom.

"Is that your best?" Dredge said to the remnant fleet with a chuckle afterwards.

Graf would be able to see on his monitors the creature open its mouth and reveal rows of sharp pure white teeth that stretched in a Cheshire Cat grin. As is if he were taunting them that their mortal weapons were quite useless against a god.

[member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Tanomas Graf"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Arisa Yune"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="June Slane"]

 

[Tanomas Graf]

Even if the mammoth Sith Lord couldn't see it, Graf was smirking from the bridge of the Avenger. "Is that a challenge?" He chuckled, referring to the smile that the thing was giving to the fleet of the Imperial Star Destroyers. He turned from the monitor to face the bridge at large "Since it seems that turbolasers themselves aren't working on this abomination. Bring up the Proclamation and target that Force being, full power ignition. If we can't destroy it then we will subdue it." The Grand Moff barked, returning to staring at the monitor. In truth, the Sith Lord was not the only reason the old man was bombing Hapes; The growing faction of mandalorians was nearby, and Graf was going to make an example of them for going against the Empire at Hypori, by showing them that their insurgency cost them thousands of innocents. It would also be an excellent incident that the Galactic Alliance could get offended at once more.

The Proclamation, a Conqueror-class Star Destroyer; moved until its bow was facing the planet and its target. "Commence Primary Ignition" The Chief Gunnery Officer announced throughout the ship; moving towards his command console and pressing down on groups of switches. He turned and gave the signal to the technicians in the weapons control room, and one of them pulled down on a lever which made an audible groan in the room. Tributary beams blasted down their firing tubes and groups of eight combined into one until they appeared on the concave dish and converged into an invisible force-field; This single, bright green proton beam launched into the atmosphere of Hapes until it impacted onto its target.

The Sith Lord.

​

[member="Dredge"] | [member="Darth Abyss"] | [member="Nam Keeoh"] | [member="June Slane"] | [member="Soeht"] | [member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Slane]

(Note: This post is meant to take place before the last post [member="Tanomas Graf"] made)​

Spoiler

[media]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvzLHX0qO1Y [/media]

June was devoured by a black smog of pure darkness. All she could see was darkness. She was completely blinded. Suddenly, she felt a pain. She fell from her kneel onto the ground as the pain grew. Despite the pain, she started to get the strangest feeling: Joy. This feeling was very odd considering the circumstances. June started feeling wonderful. She felt different. The pain was completely gone. She felt different. She felt powerful. She felt joyous.

June was laying on the ground by the time the smog cleared up. She looked up at the extremely silhouette looking down upon her. It was [member="Dredge"] and it was God. June slowly got up and looked up at her new God and bowed before him. It seemed that "God" was the cause of the panic and commotion occurring in the city. It seems that he was also seemed that he was the one who did this to June.

"I sincerely thank you, my God. Now we can finally bring peace to the galaxy under your rule." June said sincerely "Now I shall do-"

June was interrupted by the sounds of crashing turbo lasers. Someone was attacking Hapes! Not referring to God of course.

June bowed before God once more "I believe is it time to take my leave. I shall seek [member="Antherion"] as you wish."

She picked up her weapons and started to walk back to her starship, cutting through those under God and walking down the streets. She could hear loud screams of those being converted to be one with god and those screaming as they get obliterated by the lasers. June calmly walked through the streets despite the lasers. She had faith that she wouldn't be hit. Either way, most were heading in the way of God, putting down the chances of her being hit.

[member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="Arisa Yune"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Soeht"]

 

[Nam Keeoh]

She braced for the explosion to hit, preparing for death. However, she did not feel any pain. When she looked up, there was a large crater, and she was in it. But she was alive. She was confused why such a powerful blast wouldn't instantly kill her. She took a step out of the crater and looked around. Dead bodies laid everywhere, and buildings started to explode. Turbolasers blasted the ground all around her.

Suddenly, she had a vision. A planet ruled by Force-users with red lightsabers. A great army serving the Dark Side. A planet-sized object, not related to the first part of the vision, getting violently destroyed. A ship fleeing from a group of larger craft.

She suddenly snapped out of the vision. She now knew what to do. She ran over to her ship. However, before she could reach it, it was blown up by a direct hit from a turbolaser. She decided to go back and find the Sith lord, and see how he was doing.

[member="Dredge"] [member="Darth Abyss"] [member="June Slane"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Tanomas Graf"]

 

[Soeht]

The Attention You Crave

​

As soon as Monika grabbed her coat, the ground began to quake. She braced herself against a wall and moved toward a window. She then saw the result of [member="Tanomas Graf"]’s bombardment of [member="Dredge"] miles away. Her eyes widened at the site of Ta’a Chume’Dan burning.

Rand Veng’a ran back to Monika.

“Lady Zel!” he yelled, apparently fearful for Monika’s health.

Raising her hand, Monika gave Rand a signal to remain calm – even as her jaw tensed with raised eyebrows.

“Have you heard from mother and father?” asked Monika, her eyes still glued at the turbolaser beams phasing through Dredge’s body.

Shaking his head, Rand answered with, “No, but I’m sure they evacuated before… this…”

Monika’s parents were to attend a meeting of the Royal Court – passing through the area of Ta’a Chume’Dan that Dredge stood at before heading to the Fountain Palace overlooking the small capital city.

Once the initial bombardment began to die out, Monika finally shifted her gaze away from the window.

“Any word?” Monika asked Rand.

Rand raised an eyebrow, then Monika clarified with, “From who I told you to contact?”

Again, Rand shook his head, “No, but we somehow received this.”

Rand handed Monika’s datapad back. She read the contents of the message on it – it was [member="Arisa Yune"]’s attempts to contact the Consortium.

Activating the holocomm on the datapad, Monika began to record a reply.

The view of the holo would have been Monika standing in front of a window. Dredge would have been in the far background.

“I’m not sure if you’ve gotten in contact with the right people,” she began, “But we need people evacuated from Ta’a Chume’Dan and someone to stop the orbital bombardment. Someone other than the Consortium is bombing-“

Monika’s message would go unfinished. The holo message would abruptly cut off. The last image: the Proclamation’s proton beam coming down on Dredge’s location.

 

[Dredge]

Extinction. If this had been pee wee's playhouse that would be the word of the day. Others that could go up there would of been genocide, purge, destruction, and requiem to top it all off. The proton beam hit the city and it was all coming crashing to an end, the infected, no infected, those caught within the blast radius around the massive specter that was Dredge were simply evaporated into nothing. Buildings, speeders, the earth itself, all of it simply gone under the destructive power of the proton beam.

But it didn't end there. No the explosion was only the first part of the carnage to hit with a proton beam of that size. Chunks of earth from its shockwave would ripple throughout the entire capital city turning buildings and entire pieces of land upside down and crashing into one another. If you wanted to make sure every infected person in the capital was dead then this was probably the best way to go about it. In a few minutes there wouldn't be anything left, and millions of lives would be lost. The culture and history of the proud planet lost forever as its citizens either turned to ash or monsters.

It was almost fitting in a way. The people of Hapes and the Hapes Consortium had long resisted the empire throughout history, and to finally at long last destroyed by them. It was poetic in a way, and Dredge was pretty sure that Graf felt that satisfaction of knowing that they had finally fallen to the empire.

But when the dust settled there was a massive crater in the earth and no Dredge. It had seemed that the proton beam had worked and vanquished the evil that was Dredge, but sadly we all knew it wasn't so. Floating in the center of the crater was a large red orb, a literal wellspring of force energy that otherwise could be called a nexus. It was Dredge's heart, his source of power and one might consider it his soul. The sheer destruction brought on by the beam had caused wind force capable of blowing away the astral shadow form that surrounded the Nexus, and soon those pieces of dark smog that hung in the air began to rush back to its center and within moments standing there was Dredge.

The massive figure reached a hand up towards the heavens and pin pointed Graf upon the the flagship of the Remnant's fleet. He wasn't going to do anything crazy or attack him in any way, simply move the sound of his voice so that those on the bridge could hear his divine tongue.

"I almost felt that. Well done." Dredge said as that grin stretched across his face once more.

"You humans and your contraptions are such... fun." There was almost a growl to that last word when he spoke.

"I suppose there's no longer any point to me converting this planet. You'll soon glass the other cities to stop my spread, but know this. God is merciful, and you have entertained your new lord. I shall spare your lives today." Dredge once more smiled up at the ships and looked out onto the destruction before him. Oh how he had such plans for this place.

For now he'd let his infection spread through the other smaller cities on Hapes and allow the Remnant to glass them in response. In all honesty there wasn't a lot he could do to stop them. He'd have to upgrade his Nexus if he wanted to prevent events like this in the future. Looks like God was on a bit of a learning curve.

[member="Tanomas Graf"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Arisa Yune"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="June Slane"] [member="Soeht"]

 

[Slane]

[Final Post]
[Sorry for the short post. [member="Tanomas Graf"] posted while I was typing the last post. So I couldn't include the part about the explosion.]

June was going into her starship when the explosion hit. She nearly panicked. She turned around to see a large flashing light quickly heading her direction. Frantically, she jump started her ship and flew away as fast as she can. She was so fast, she almost hit a few things. Instead of flying off-planet, June flew away from the city and far away from all of the drama so she could avoid the fleet above the capital. After doing that, she left the atmosphere and left hyperspace in search of an angel known as [member="Antherion"]

[member="Dredge"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="Tanomas Graf"] [member="Arisa Yune"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Soeht]

The Attention You Crave

Just as many other buildings in the area, the estate of Monika Zel’s family was leveled by the shockwave of the proton beam’s impact.

Several minutes after the blast, Monika emerged from the debris. Her immaculate look – ruined. Blood dripped down from her forehead. She tossed the tattered remains of her coat to the side.

Quickly, Monika scanned her surroundings. She gripped a ring held by a necklace she wore – which was hidden beneath her clothes beforehand. Something in the rubble caught her attention.

“Rand,” she said with a hushed breath.

With haste, Monika pushed herself up. She spotted what appeared to be Rand’s back.

“Rand,” she said again, attempting to yell.

When she got close enough, Monika confirmed that it was Rand. She slid to her knees and turned Rand face-up.

“Rand!” she screamed.

Rand was dead.

Monika began chest compressions on Rand. Every once and a while, she would attempt mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Tears flowed as she pointlessly attempted to save Rand.

And eventually, Monika stopped. Exhaustion prevented her from doing more. She sat there - with Rand and the remains of her home. Her parents - likely dead.

All she could feel then was [acronym=...]the cold[/acronym].

 

[Zef Halo]

Alright, I'll Bite​

​

Kark.

The word played in repeat in his head as he pushed away the debris from his head. Coughing at the dust he raised with his attempts to stand up. Eventually, he was able to push away the fallen pieces of furniture and plasterboard.

Before him, Jorel could only see ruin.

He didn't think twice before he went to scavenge the ruins for his shotgun. The agent had been looking for jobs in the sector and enjoying some ale in a dirty cantina where he found people interested in his weapon. He had been showcasing it before everything literally fell apart.

Many a question bloomed in his head but his curiosity for answers could not overpower his instinct for survival.

He had to get the hell off this planet.

Jorel's trek through post-apocalyptic Hapes was desolate. The people had disappeared. Or they had found shelter. Only when the figure of a person came into his vision did he freeze and cock his rifle. Hell, he'd seen people go nuts after stressful situations.

Slowly and as silently as possible one could walk through rubble, Jorel approached what seemed to be a woman kneeling before an idle body.

"Hey." The agent said barely enough for the woman to hear. His shotgun pointing at her but not as directly as usual. "You...okay?"

[member="Soeht"]​

 

[Vitha Na'iv]

On the bridge of the medical carrier Vitha was undeniably excited. She'd rendezvoused with the fleet shortly after they had completed their humanitarian mission. She had been doing training and trying to learn how to focus on accessing the light side of the force. Before she'd just grabbed whatever current felt strongest whether this was light or dark but the masters hard been quite insistent she focus more. A training lightsaber, a five foot long pike, was gripped in the fingers on her wing. The end tapped the ground and she checked to make sure it had been set to full power so it acted like a normal lightsaber.

Going over the navigation panel she eyed it. While having practically no knowledge of how hyperspace or navigation in space worked she could easily tell this was unusual. Data seemed to constantly be sent to the other ships in the fleet and processed extremely quickly. More then that they clearly weren't on any plotted lane. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Arisa behind her clearly concentrating. Focusing herself Vitha reached out into the force and felt it flowing and practically radiating off of the knight. Impressed with such a display of power the Avogwi hoped her clear excitement at the potential of upcoming combat wasn't that obvious.

 

[Jaegis Volasses]

"... Landing Party 705 landing ETA 5 minutes..."

The Echani Officer held his folded arms loosely before him, his party of armed Stormtroopers standing before him, to prepare to aid in the defense of the planet Hapes on hard ground.
Training, years of training, and combat, and Holovids and arms weapon testing and preparation on Kamino could never have prepared the officer for this; his first taste in the dangerous zone of a ravaged planet.

Taken orders from his commanders to move planetside, Jaegis took a deep breath through firm lips. He was neither excited nor afraid.

"... ETA 3 minutes..."

Jaegis watched his battalion arm themselves, prepared for the immediate chance of hostility as soon a second they land. There were plenty of other battalions landing alongside them, forming a circumference around the immediate area of threat, the city, in hope of preventing a further spread of... whatever dark forces were at power here.

Captain Volasses fixed his gloves and felt for the blaster pistol by his side, and the holocommunicator on his belt. He would have to transmit orders and reports to and from the Fleet above. He could practically feel the panic and death from below. And he was sure his commando force could, too.

"... ETA 1 minute..."

The Stormtrooper battalion turned to face the rear of the craft, a number of flashing lights illuminating the dark inner shell of the dropship, and shining off the pristine white armour of the Imperials Remnant's finest.
The only face visible in the light was that of Jaegis, grim and pale, yet vigilant in the darkness.

"... Landing in three... two..."

The lift at the rear of the Imperial dropship slowly slid open, and the pilot'a voice disappeared into static as the scene before the batallion unfolded.

Jaegis didn't hesitate.

"Forward, 705! Start pairing and marching for the nearby rubble of the city!" The Echani growled into his Communicator, echoing through the helmets of his commandos, "We will regroup and reform with 706th and 707th once they have landed and comms have been made! Failure is not an option; the defense of this planet is imperative! MOVE!"

The batallion took its orders and made a mad dash towards the city, burning ruins against a blackened sky, both of smoke and darkness.

Captain Volasses grimaced.

 

[Eugen Aker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v5VbvUo0gU​

Arisa's formation arrived at Hapes Cluster still with no word from the Hapan government. Much to her horror, she would go on to discover through scattered reports that Ta'a Chume'Dan, the political capital of the Hapese Consortium, had been obliterated. As result, the whole Cluster was in a state of chaos as much of their civilian and military leadership had been killed in one fell swoop. As the remnants of the Hapan government wasn't in any state to provide any comprehensive direction, the Watchman took the initiative and guided her formation straight for Hapes in a series of microjumps on her own. Each jump, the terrible, familiar sensation of sudden mass death became stronger for the veteran.

Upon reversion from the last jump, she was greeted by the devastating sight of a massive molten crater where Ta'a Chume'Dan and much of the surrounding area used to exist. Hundreds of thousands, just gone. She winced at the sight as she could feel the area rife with chaotic energies from death and the residuals of whatever dark entity had been there previously. It took a while for her to speak, struggling to stay composed in the face of such destruction. It would do no one any good for her to break down, she needed to set an example.

"Deploy fighters to conduct global ground scans," she started, voice initially coming out as a croak. "Keep trying to make contact with the rest of the Consortium."

Fighters forming the other rings of her escort immediately broke off into small flights to begin scanning. In the process of reaching out to the local populace, she would learn that some kind of spawn still were rampaging across the planet, and that the Imperial Remnant had begun deploying ground forces. The current hellish visage of the devastation of was not enough to make her forget that the Imperial Remnant was currently at war with the Galactic Alliance. She did not know who to lay blame on for the destruction of Ta'a Chume'Dan, but she would not allow the Imperials to take advantage of the situation to root themselves on Hapes in the midst of sudden power vacuum. However, she was going to be sly about it. She'd say nothing to the IR, but just deploy her units to contain the Imperials as she worked on the primary task neutralizing the outbreaks and rescuing survivors. If they decided to get froggy with her then, they would have to deal with her and the Kiribian Spacy in the neighborhood. Already, KSU patrol units were converging on the Hapes Cluster to investigate.

"Begin issuing hails to the IR vessels in the area for an explanation of events, and a request of their telemetry. Let them know that the Silver Jedi will be assisting in humanitarian efforts on the surface. Colonel Basheer, begin readying ground parties for deployment. Class 4 biohazards are being reported all across the surface, so kit up accordingly."

Through her neural link, she began interfacing with the Allegro's mainframe to plot specific landing points for the ground parties, targeting areas reporting cases of outbreaks. A significant portion of her forces were also tasked for the immediate area surrounding ground zero, much of it now smoldering wastelands. Forces here would focus on rescue ops of any survivors. Drilled specifically for these kinds of missions, it wouldn't take long for ground parties to begin deploying by way of corvettes and shuttles, teams being led by her fellow Jedi.

((Looks like the festivities are done, so now it's just about helping survivors for the SJO. If you any of you need aid or a ride off of Hapes, then feel free to make requests and distress calls and I'll help you regardless of your allegiance, outside of those determined to be in cahoots with our Kaiju friend IC. Expect to be interviewed upon pickup. SJO has come in peace, but will respond to any aggression accordingly, including any attempts by the Imperial Remnant to gain a foothold on Hapes. Doesn't seem like any Hapan PCs are in the house, so I'll be NPCing some to help the plot move forward.))

[member="Dredge"] [member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="June Slane"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Vitha Sat-thuron"]

 

[Dredge]

What was happening on Hapes was far from over. Even though the capital city was in ruins, all across the planet in major population centers were widespread reports of infected growing in droves. Former citizens of Hapes now turned into black eyed demons with strange pitch black ichor spilling from their mouths, ears, and eyes. Hapes was a planet of billions and when in a close confined urban environments like most developed parts of the Galaxy; disease spread like wildfire. It was like the old Gulag Plague that had killed so many, only this time around the infected were out to turn you into one of them. This was going to be a problem for the planet and it seems that perhaps the IR had the right idea in glassing the planet to make sure this didn't spread to other systems. This was due to increasing numbers of sightings that these weren't your typical zombies spawned by a Sith Lord. They spoke, they could operate vehicles, use weapons, they operated in groups. It was as if they were operating as one cohesive force to spread their disease in concentrated areas rather than the sporadic chaos that Sith or Witch magics had so often used in the past.

And as for Dredge. Well he had not left yet, he wanted to make sure if he wasn't going to have Hapes as his grand statement, then it would be reduced to ash by those looking to stop him. He wanted them to look on in horror as they put down an entire species in order to save other star systems, because this wasn't a disease that could be solved with medicine or science. It was an outbreak brought on by a rogue element of the force that fancied itself God.

So God lifted his hand and moved it over towards the Imperial Remnant troopers who had landed along with the medical and humanitarian teams. The massive being cracked its insane grin and spoke so that his voice carried over the land allowing all to hear the word of God.

"End them my children."

Much like those who had survived the shockwave of the blast, there were a few infected that had as well. So when the massive tower of shadows and evil gave the order, rubble began to stir and figures moved through the debris. As stormtroopers marched through the rubble there would be screams brought on by infected springing out in pairs or trios grabbing hold of stormtroopers by their legs and arms then dragging them into the shadows. Sounds of struggles and fated cries of "no" and "stop" echoed out along with a few blaster shots before it went silent for the process to begin again.

The same went for the medical teams, only they would have the luxury of seeing the infected coming due to just having landed. Twisted grins and smiles of the happiest caliber of madness were strewn across their faces. Ichor covered teeth and eyes approached them and soon a small girl in a bloody yellow dress spoke to the humanitarians.

"Why must you fight me? Don't you want to be happy? Don't you want purpose? All I've done is give these people true purpose and joy, and yet you see me as wrong. Do not fight me my children, your God is kind. For it is not I who rot such destruction upon Hapes, Tis man and their inherent evil that has. The evil in which I intend to cull." The little girl said as the group of infected approached.

"Join me."

[member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Tanomas Graf"] [member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Jorel Imos"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Vitha Sat-thuron"] [member="Jaegis Volasses"] [member="Arisa Yune"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

((Note: For the sake of continuity, I will continue posting my responses to this dominion, which seems to immediately follow current events of this thread. Going to paste over my response to that thread. Hope to see you all there.))

[member="Dredge"] [member="Darth Abyss"] [member="Nam Keeoh"] [member="June Slane"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Vitha Sat-thuron"]