Blue Milk Run - SJO Dominion of the Terrijo Hex

[Josh Dragovalor]

Location: Forest just outside Raydu City (Night Time)
Objective: Infiltrate Raydu City and Investigate Cathedral Ship
Partner: Grandbooty Nooran

<If you count making clear their intent to go steady after I made all the moves... Sure>

The Jedi Master would quickly quip that back toward [member="Jyoti Nooran"] telepathically. Josh had figured out one of Jyoti's secrets a little while ago after a prior mission involving Allyson, so this was merely banter. But had the timing been better... Another day, another month, another time... Perhaps it wouldn't have been. Josh felt strongly for Jyoti Nooran, and had for some time. But he knew what was to happen and what was not.

And a lesson he'd begun to learn the last while was that if you loved someone, you let them go.

<Perhaps it's time to get back in the dating game for me though... Even if it was unconsciously, I think my heart has waited for Shmi as long as humanly possible. Wherever she is, she's moved forward. Suppose it's time I do the same. I think Jason would appreciate that... Having someone new in his life that loves him just as much as I do. It'd be nice>

Josh wanted to hope for the best for a new Republic. Believe it or not, he really did. It had been his home once. Sure, it had been a home built on a bed of lies and using people... But it was his original home, and where he'd spent so many years. If anyone wanted it to succeed, it was Josh. But Josh also knew what was likely going to happen. So all he could feel was disappointment and lack of surprise when they karked it up over, and over, and over again. It just never surprised him anymore. Only disappointed him further.

<I'm surprised, myself. You'd think an incident would have happened some time ago>

The wall had come, and Josh would stop in front of it.

<I cannot. Not without contact. I've learned to be able to have it over clothing, and objects I'm holding. I'm not sure if we can make that work. Any ideas?>

 

[Drystan Marakos]

[member="Hyonu Ye"] [member="Iakchi"]
[member="Asaraa Vaashe"] [member="Ostdern Mastogar"] [member="Kaili Brand"]​

[member="Zak Dymo"] [member="Rick Kaloo"] [member="Finley Dawson"]​

[member="Ravenfire"] [member="Saka Amara"] [member="Supernal Clarity"]​

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[member="Asaraa Vaashe"] & her team would not be waiting long before Drystan's blonde hair reappeared, stepping from the dark shadows of the old house onto the front porch. Asaraa's scoped view, if she sighted Drystan's face, would register a look of concern... Whatever the blonde Jedi Knight had seen within the house, it had visibly shaken her.​

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A quick comm-link call would confirm it, as their personal communicators chirped; "Support Team, move up to support & prepare for Evac - plus 4. We've gotta get these people out of here. All clear."​

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Iakshi would receive the same call, drawing him to join Drystan and the doctor outside of the house. Then, Drystan radioed [member="Rick Kaloo"], as well as The SEV Divinity:​

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"Divinity, Marakos... We have four Civilians, two adults & two children, showing visible signs of malnutrition... Possible cognitive disturbances, and one adult female unresponsive. Request immediate medical evac on my position; 10 bodies total plus two Skyfall jeeps. We're returning to the Divinity. There's nothing we can do for them here."​

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Around the same moment that, unbeknownst to Drystan, [member="Zak Dymo"] was asking if there'd been word from the Ground Team, they would receive an update - the ground team was returning to the Divinity, plus 4 civilians; Medical support was necessary, and the Divinity would be in orbit soon.​

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Something had happened, down there on the planet...​

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Two transport shuttles were soon on their way from the SEV Divinity, moving in haste toward the team's location a short distance away. The family, consisting of two children and two adults, were malnourished and seemed shell-shocked - as-if they'd suffered a series of traumas over the past few recent days and weeks. The two children stayed close to their parents, with the mother requiring transport from the house... She was in a coma with a high fever, and entirely unresponsive. The father seemed resigned, used to a life of disappoints and suffering.​

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Together, the team would enter the shuttles upon their arrival and return to the Divinity safely.​

 

[Allyson Locke]

Objective: Scale the Mighty Walker

The spiders continued up the side of the walker moving in and out of cover just in case the massive colossus noticed them and somehow tried to get rid of the little spiders. Nearing the head, they began to look around for Allyson and provided feedback for the Corellian. She heard one a male voice over the comms and she chuckled. <I’m sure you’re right, when I get confirmation, need you to hide the best you can on the side.> Nodding, Allyson did her best to visually signal [member="Dusaro Dresari"].

The spiders were close and buzzed around the head of the walker. Allyson focused her mind on the spiders and the walkers. She could feel where the source of the “buzzing” was. It was far from her, but when she used the Spiders as an extension it felt close. A smile crept over her face as she spiders moved quickly find a place to hide and burrow into the head component. <Time to hide.> She gave the signal and she herself swung and hide against the side of the walker. Giving a small count down, she shifted her focus to the IAT that housed the Berserkers. Over Comms she radioed those that waited in the IAT. <The head is the focus, the IAT is going to bring you guys up – blast it open.>

As she finished, the IAT emerged once again from the ground and began its climb up the walker. It was faster than Allyson and Dusaro, when it passed the pair – all weaponry on the IAT opened fire focused on the head itself. Drawing closer, it did its best to soften the head of the colossus for the berserkers and [member="Sigrid Forsberg"]. The IAT attached to the head and opened its hatches to let the team out. The transport stopped firing allowing the strike team to do the rest. A hand wave and Allyson began to climb behind the IAT. <Time to go up Dusaro.>

[member="Kiso"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Although some of the projectiles have bounced back, even partially, their shields are being drained!"

"Repeat! Any system that bounces back projectiles, especially one that makes projectiles gain momentum, costs some energy to work"

Meanwhile, about a hundred kilometers away from [member="Allyson Locke"], [member="Kiso"] and [member="Dusaro Dresari"], the two IATs in minelaying configuration were, in fact, laying mines underneath the most likely approach vector the walker could take. Plus any estimates of how much firepower would be necessary to put a significant dent in the walker's legs or systems would have to be made on the basis of fighting a Star Destroyer. Until, of course, the demolition team could be made to burst a joint open in one of the legs and then score the mobility kill. That's what I hate most about walkers: a mobility kill can easily turn into a catastrophic kill, and mobility kills can be scored rather easily, Jessica thought, while another volley would be directed at the leg joints. She knew it would perhaps take a volley or two until she could consider changing the targeted area(s), in case the enemy had the presence of mind to initiate double shields on the legs, and then aim for the main battery. Or what's visible about it from the rear, anyhow. But undaunted, ion ordnance would mean that even if the projectiles didn't detonate on impact against the walker, the collateral damage would be very limited.

 

[Lucent Echo]

[Frontline - Jessica]

Passive defenses were triggered by the Jedi commander's assault, a translucent blue splotches appearing in the air where a shell may be intercepted, and immediately repulsed back to the source.However, the attacks were persistent, on a scale not seen by the Sullustians with their mediocre security forces, hits being scored here and there there between the gaps in its exotic shielding and point defense grid.

Damage to the powered armor was little more than cosmetic, but the simple fact of defenses being penetrated was enough to warrant a response. The Goddess' will would be done.

With great labored groans, its ancient batteries of heavy mass drivers and energy torpedo launchers swiveled onto targets and fired in one simultaneous strike against its opposition. All around the walker, the jungle ground lit up with the blaze of fireballs and explosions.

[Boarders]

In many places, the armor of the walker was quite tough, but the crawlers managed to hit under its "head" section, where the neck couldn't be heavily armor. There was a small explosion as a rupture was created in the armor.

In vain, point defenses attempted to snipe at the walkers as they crawled up its exterior and kept hitting its head, but they couldn't get a good angle on the craft as they were inside their firing arcs. However, there was one last line of defense against the invaders and their unconventional methods of assault.

Spiderlike droids began to emerge from hatches and gaps in the armor, followed by people in bulky power armor poking their heads outs, screaming all sorts of obscenities at the crawlers. They each held some impressive looking blaster cannons, but did not fire for fear of damaging their holy relic with stray fire.

The incoming droids didn't seem to have any ranged weaponry, but their mandibles and arms were tipped with wicked looking glowing blades that may be able to shred through those crawlers if they were allowed to get too close.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Kiso"]

 

[Dusaro Dresari]

Objective: Find an Entrance Make an Entrance

"Make sure i have a good hiding spot, copy that." Dus responded while looking around for exactly that. Looked like there might be something a bit further up, at the knee joint. With how much it had to flex, he could sit there and be relatively safe long as he made sure to keep a close eye on its movements. That was the plan at least and what Dusaro would do, clambering up to an area near the spot. Long as he made sure to clear out before it stepped forward, he should be fine it looked like. He was still trying to get a good look at the back of the walker when the signal was given, Dusaro pulling back and out of sight as the IAT's opened up on the head section. Dusaro could hear it, but the massive thing did not even shift an inch down where he was. It was impressive and a bit disturbing. 'Don't make 'em like this often.' He thought as he heard the 'go' command from Allyson. "You got it!" Dus replied with a grin that could probably be felt even over the commlink. Kicking off and up he fired the ascension gun and began the climb once again, using magboots to keep from slipping from the surface of the walker. It was as Dusaro kicked off that he heard something, his enhanced senses alerting him to a noise behind him.

Out of a gap in the armor crawled a nasty looking spider styled droid and he heard several others in the area. "Oh son of a shutta." He growled as he hear more then just that one in the area around him. Attaching the ascension cable to his belt Dusaro began to climb up as he pulled out a shattergun pistol, firing four shots at the droid that was barely more than four meters behind him. The first shot was a graze on the side of the droid, enough to make it stop moving for a second and let the three followup shots slam nicely into its main body. Shooting was going to be 'fun' on a swaying surface like this, the crawler was moving with so much force that practically anything you did on it had momentum. This was going to be a long day.

"I have multiple Droid contacts, spider type, around six in near ambush range." While he had a nice, calm tone, Dusaro was in fact more than a bit worried. They were much better suited for climbing this walker than he was and sure he had ranged weapons, but it was going to be a long climb to have while getting harassed by these things. 'Now i know why Mandalorians never leave home without their jet pack.' Dusaro woefully lamented to himself, making a mental note to bring it along next time as he scrambled up the walker. Using the force and any nice, handy available ledges he would try and scale the massive titan, faster than was likely advisable, especially with droids starting to pup up from unexpected places...

[member="Lucent Echo"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] [member="Kiso"]

 

[Allyson Locke]

Objective: Hive Mind




Blinking, she watched as the hatches opened and several helmeted heads popped out shouting. They weren’t shooting, which surprised her. As she was surprised at the shouting, from under the armor of the walker, droids rolled out with what looked like to be glowing mandibles. This wasn’t good at all.

One of the small droids found her line and cut it with its glowing bladed mouth(?), a moment of free fall and Allyson activated the suit’s grav boots and gloves. She was able to reach out and grab onto one of the extended bits of the walker’s armor, which was only because the armored men inside were screaming from their hatches. Seeing one of them reach for her, she shot him with the shatter pistol she carried. With both her feet and hands now attached to the walker, she began to climb up again.

Everything from what she could feel seemed to be connected by the same network. She needed to stop the droids, mostly because she doubted her and Dusaro could shot them all down. Cursing, she crawled to a good place to avoid any fire if the power armored freaks decided they needed to shoot. Standing at an odd angle on the side of the walker, Allyson checked in with her slicer spiders, they had seemed to avoid any friendly fire which was a good thing. Using her mechu deru and the connection between the suit and the spiders, she began to quickly make her way through the security and the like till she found the droids.

It took her a moment, but with the help of the droids she was able to gain control of them. She quickly over road their programing and marked the power armored individuals as the enemy. When she finished she began to climb the walker again, she gave the slicer spiders the command to keep a hold onto the enemy droids until she had made it up. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any counter measures to deal with.

[member="Lucent Echo"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] [member="Kiso"]

 

[Iakchi]

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[member="Drystan Marakos"] [member="Hyonu Ye"] [member="Asaraa Vaashe"] [member="Ostdern Mastogar"] [member="Kaili Brand"] [member="Zak Dymo"] [member="Rick Kaloo"] [member="Finley Dawson"] [member="Ravenfire"] [member="Saka Amara"] [member="Supernal Clarity"]​

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Drystan's reappearance from the home took the Wookiee by surprise. It was a quick inspection of the residence, but he could feel her deep concern before his eyes fell upon the expression she bore. If she were afraid of something here, a Knight much more experienced than himself, then surely there was a problem. A furred hand fell to his lightsaber hilt, fingers preparing to snatch it from its hanging loop at the slightest provocation, though he had the patience to await a command from the senior knight.

The command never came. She instead called for evacuation, an order he found himself in silent agreement with. After all their purpose here was aid, not assault, and despite the Wookiee's proclivity for combat he knew that their job was always first to help. He moved close to her side and quickly examined those who appeared with her, unsure of their maladies but certainly wishing to get them to safety.

"All clear outside," he explained to the senior knight in a low tone as he moved his eyes from them to their surroundings, picking up on movements in the distance. "No signs of disturbance, but..." the pause was brief, but filled with his own doubt. "Something's definitely wrong here. I can't explain it, but it's off. I don't like this."

 

[Rick Kaloo]

Location: Essex-class starfighter killer escorting the Divinity
In Relative Proximity: [member="Asaraa Vaashe"], [member="Drystan Marakos"], [member="Finley Dawson"], [member="Kaili Brand"], [member="Zak Dymo"]
Equipment: LPD-17 Hammerstrike Grenade Launcher with drum magazine, everything listed in bio

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Suddenly, just as the young medic had made his inquiry, word came in from the ground. ​

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The emaciated refugees were being picked up and brought to Divinity. That meant overwatch was over.

"Turn the ship around, set a course for the Divinity." ordered Rick. "The medic and I will be coming onboard the frigate to check on the refugees."

Rick still didn't like the situation he was in, and was just getting ready to accept it. The refugees had an ominous air around them. It seemed very, very odd that there were not any other refugees in the entire town, which was a fairly decent size, and even in primitive conditions, should at least have a population of a few hundred. Instead, only four people remained from what the ground party had picked up. More suspicious yet, there was no sign of any sort of war or disease that had wiped out the majority of the village's population. In fact, from what Rick's ground scans could determine, there was not a body in sight.

Opening his comms to the ground parties, Rick said, [Has anyone else shown up besides the four? It seems highly suspicious that they are the only survivors of a conflict without any markings in an entire village area.]

In the meantime, the corvette was now under a kilometer away from Divinity and closing in both vertical and horizontal position. Already, the village's specific buildings were coming into view, moss visible across their roofs even from a fair height up.

Rick had a bad feeling about what these next hours would lead to.

 

[Asaraa Vaashe]

Miss Vaashe?! That...well that was the first time anyone had addressed her that way, and to be honest Asaraa found it a little odd. She wasn't that intimidating...was she? That...was maybe something to bring up with Josh after the mission, he never seemed to have an issue with people respecting him too much, she never did at least...although maybe the master of the Order wasn't the best person to talk about that with. "Just Asaraa please...I don't really remember my mum but I'm sure she's Miss Vaashe." the girl tore her eye away from the scope of her sniper rifle for a moment, flashing a grin back at Kaili, what she thought was a friendly grin at least. "Seriously, relax I promise not to bite." Unlike some of the creatures that were probably crawling around in this jungle. The pink-haired one could barely suppress a shudder as she flicked her gaze back to the scope of her sniper rifle scanning it across the building. "It all looks good..."

The girl's voice trailed off as she heard Drystan's voice crackle over the comms. "Support team reading you loud and clear. Extraction plus 4. I have you now under cover." She had no idea what had happened, but if two knights were that spooked it can't be a good thing.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"We're taking fire" the commander of one of those siege howitzers deployed, before said howitzer was hit by energy torpedo fire.

"Have the mortars and proton rockets aim for the weapons hardpoints, while the HVCs keep firing at the legs, using APHE rounds this time around"

There was a lead time for firing mass drivers so they could move around from beyond the forest while the enemy was, in fact, concentrating their fire on the closest units. But if there was one thing an artillerist ought to learn from the Rift campaign, it's that too dense a formation made it vulnerable, and this was the reason why she had her forces spread somewhat. Yes, there was something said for keeping a hull-down profile, but she had the feeling that the boarding team would be somewhere she should not fire at. Plus, if the hull damage was cosmetic, it was mostly for the reason that the walker was only exposed to kinetic damage by virtue of her forces having previously fired ion rounds. And yet, despite having lost a few howitzers and a few Hailfire-Xs in the first salvo that caused the enemy to inflict collateral damage, there was still enough firepower to still attempt striking back. Plus from what she knew about mortars, even if they were fired first, even at maximum range, they will hit the walker after the HVC rounds and even the armor-piercing proton rockets or mortar shells. Hopefully [member="Kiso"], [member="Dusaro Dresari"] and [member="Allyson Locke"] would be able to get the job done before the walker hits a minefield...

 

[Eugen Aker]

<Jason has his father and the support of the entire community of the SJO. He's young enough to forget about Shmi anyway. Don't bring someone into your life for him - you do it for yourself.>

As they were now about to breach the city, she cut out the small talk to completely focus on the mission. After inquiring about his capabilities with White Current, Josh admitted that he still only a novice with the skill - it wouldn't be of much use without them basically holding hands.

<So much for that. I have my own bag of tricks anyway. C'mon, let's go.>

She came up right against the wall, flattening her hands against the rough stone. With a mental command, the grip function of her gloves activated, allowing them to stick to the wall through electrostatic adhesion. Testing the grip, she clambered up the wall about a half a meter until her feet cleared the ground. After a minute of hanging with no issue, she was satisfied.

Quickly, she began to climb, resembling a spider in her armor darker than black. She didn't bother to inquire how Josh planned to get up, she was sure he had another amazing ability or choice piece of tech for the job.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Allyson Locke]

Objective: Walker Hack

The droids did their work and kept the men who seemed to have taken to the mobile armor as if it was a home busy. As she passed each hatch, she would wave her hand shutting a few of them at a time closed. Using her technomancy, she was able to lock each of the hatches. She didn’t know if the men would end up using their guns to shoot the droids then decide to pop out and try and grab her.

<Keep moving upward> As they drew closer, Allyson felt something humming in the machine. Something different than the typical energy that surrounded machines and droids. Allyson paused for a moment and accessed her spider droids which were burrowed into the massive walker’s wires now. She hung sideways for a bit and commanded the spiders to look for whatever was giving her that weird feedback.

The spiders did their best, but Allyson knew she needed to get up further. She climbed up the walker as quickly as she could with the gloves and grav boots. She was near the head and quickly shut off the magnet from her gloves and exhaled slightly. It had been a little since she used herself to get into a machine. The spiders were her way of getting in now a days, but it seemed the slicer spiders were a bit out of their league.

Just like a mentalist probing their way through the mind of another, Allyson melded her mind to the programming of the walker, there was something in there and she was going to find it. Navigating through the coding was something her brain was wired to quickly do, she sliced her way mentally through the force and began to hunt down whatever was ‘living’ in the hardware.



[member="Jessica Med-Beq"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Lucent Echo"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

<You're right>

Josh took a deep breath and nodded his head. Jyoti was right. She was absolutely right, as she usually was.

<At the same time, I'm not sure If I know how to do things for myself these days>

Most things Josh did was for someone else, or Jason, or for the Silver Jedi Order. That was how it'd been for some time now. Perhaps that was part of why he'd found himself in the spot he was in. Josh had attended to the needs and wants of everyone else... Except for his own. His being a father and the Master Of The Order had become much of his identity. He closed his eyes a moment, considering the situation but ultimately deciding it was best that he focused more on business at hand for now.

<I wasn't actually aware the Current could stretch that far> He would admit.

<I'll look into it. My teachings were very short and isolated, and the rest has been my own trial and error over several years. If there is a point I haven't reached yet... I'll find it>

He could sense Jyoti making her way up, and took a moment to consider how to ascend. Keeping the Current active, Josh would activate the grappling hooks attached to his wrists and send them flying upwards to the rock wall. As they would dig into the walls, Josh would activate the mechanism to pull him forward. Once he gained enough speed, he would retract the hooks and free-fly upwards using the momentum gained. Once his momentum stopped, he would lightly use Force Flight to stop himself in the air, with just enough energy to do so without exerting himself too much as he was still using the Current. With the sparse few seconds he'd gained, he would dig the hooks back into the wall and give himself a moment to rest as he hung from there, letting Jyoti catch up in the meanwhile. He had considered just flying up with Force Flight but he didn't think he could do so while keeping the Current active. This was a more in-depth method, but it was a decent workaround for the time being while he looked more into the ability.

It would be worth training the Current more though... Especially if he could get around the energy weaknesses his equivalent held to allow him to better pair it with other abilities.

[member="Jyoti Nooran"]