Casus Belli? Did you order fries with that? (Fringe Dominion of Tar Mordren to 150)

[Matreya]

Embar was just in reach when he hurled a great kick towards the ground, sending dust everywhere. Instantly shifting tactics, Zaiden cast a huge wall roughly 7 feet across about himself. It would automatically narrow down the space he was located, but not enough for the man to do any form of truly damaging attacks.

Launching forward the second the dust settled, Zaiden dropped the wall and jumped over the man to land as silently as he could behind him - within arms reach...

"Who are you and why are you here?" Using the Force to carry his words, bringing them from all angles. If he had played his game right, the man would have no idea where he stood, as he silently drew Rose - his Amphistaff that replaced his lost Thorn - which lay coiled in whip form.
@[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Penumbra"]

Ember's back had been to a rock face, with very little room between him and the stone -- to keep people from getting behind him, or pulling off such maneuvers as Penumbra now tried, based on his approximate guess as to the invisible Ember's location. As the stealth specialist's feet touched down, a subtle vibration and rush of air gave Ember the exact position of his enemy. He spun right with an elbow to the face, right Thorn of Ryloth attempting to rake across the Dark Master's nose -- though given Penumbra's height, maybe it was at neck level. Meanwhile, his left hookblade, in close to his body as he spun, came up for Penumbra's gut.

 

[Matreya]

(Lmfao forgot you were against the wall. Now I put my genius Stealther into an idiot situation lmao)
Zaiden quickly moved, bringing Rose up to block the blow to his neck, sacrificing the slight slash across his abs. Never wavering in his Cloak, Zaiden hoped this would be his advantage. Tossing the other end of his whip behind the man's head as a distraction, hoping he would hear the air move past his head, as Zaiden swung the pommel of his Amphistaff towards the man's chin.

"Last chance," Zaiden said, voice dark and acidic, "Who are you? Why are you here? Do you pose a threat to the Lord's of the Fringe?! If you do, then by my authority given by Ashin herself, you will perish here this day."

@[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Penumbra"]'s words fell on deaf ears, for the moment. There was the minor issue of the fething amphistaff, whose pommel was, in actuality, its head. A hard and scaly something impacted Ember's chin, far too close for comfort, but his right arm was still up. He moved it sharply up and to the right, aiming to move the amphistaff aside, as his left arm froze in place, still in the cut just barely.

He activated the left Thorn, and ten thousand volts poured through the blade that was still digging into the younger man's skin. The master of physical enhancement sprang up by a couple of inches, and forward, intending to slam Penumbra against the rock face with a knee to the groin, sufficient to shatter durasteel.

 

[Matreya]

Instant muscle spasms and intense pain accompanied the electricity, and Zaiden felt his anger flare. He hated electricity. Ashin used it against him, and from her mastery plus the multiple others to use the power he had gained a certain fear. Instantly the man reacted throwing a solid blow to the elders stomach, while bringing his leg up to stomp the kick towards the ground. It hurt his leg, quite a bit, but with his Czar enhancements his strength and endurance was triple that of the average athletic human - without aid of the force.

Bringing staff back again with a slight flourish, the man once again did a multi formed attack. First the head went for the man's ear, with the intent of biting the man, all the while the whips tail which had been over his shoulder would now swiftly begin to tighten around his throat. Where Thorn had been most used as a staff, he called this one Rose Whip for a reason. Her main prowess lay in coiling and tightening to strike like a powerful snake. The man would either sense the danger of the venom or he wouldn't due to the Cloak, but he would surely feel the pressure on his throat.

@[member="Ember Rekali"]
(Been wanting to fight ember since seeing him as Chirodont and Sno in one of the old dominions, your not letting me down. SERIOUSLY enjoying this one lol)

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Penumbra"]

OOC/

IC/ Nobody could maintain invisibility in such close combat, and as their flickering, half-cloaked forms clashed and jockeyed for position, Ember got a better view of the amphistaff. His high arm swept down again at the striking snake, even as the amphistaff's tail coiled around his neck. Planting one foot against the stone wall behind Penumbra, he shoved back while sweeping his right arm's Thorn of Ryloth in a small circle.

Snaring the snake's head neatly with the double-sided hookblade, and twisting it, he engaged his right hookblade's power charge. Ten thousand volts said hello to the region closest to the amphistaff's head.

 

[Matreya]

Just as Ember went to use the electricity, the simple nearness of it's opponent caused Rose to flail and spit it's venom at the man's face. While this occurred though, the aforementioned surge occurred and the body went limp with unconsciousness. It wouldn't be of any use for quite some time.

But with Ember's focus on taking out the Amphistaff, Zaiden drew Lilith from her holster against his back and leveled the gun at the man's face. Each 'Betty' model shot high charged rounds, equaling to 3 before needing a cool down. And that's exactly what Zaiden did, fire all three. To counter the use of dodging, Zaiden aimed first at the man's chin then his chest and lastly towards his stomach. If he leapt away, at least one would hit. Optimistically.

@[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Penumbra"]

The master of physical enhancement's preternatural reflexes let him turn aside, but painful amphistaff venom splashed all up his right cheek. He worked past the pain, a process of some moments, but the raised forearm between them needed nothing but muscle memory to sweep back up again, complete with tangled amphistaff. The blaster-and-lightsabre-reflective Vong snake intercepted the first bolt, then dropped to take the second. The third struck his left hookblade's power field, damaging the circuitry but not the tough metal. From long experience, he knew that it wouldn't retract or deploy the power field until repaired.

He hooked the left Thorn of Ryloth into the gun's barrel and tossed its aim aside, then slid the hook out as the main part of the blade rasped down the underside of the barrel in an attempt to hook and slice Penumbra's gun hand.

 

[Matreya]

A simple way to counter the attack against his hand came to him as an accident. His hand slipped a little, this plus the pressure underneath the barrel caused it to do an old western style flip counter clockwise towards him, that he used to knock the weapon loose from his hand. Then he simply moved his hand away from the blade.

Reaching behind himself once more, Zaiden yanked his Shadow Dagger free of it's sheath. Next he swiftly drew Golden Claw, the saber received from Ashin, while launching an attack with the Neuranium dagger aimed to slam it hilt deep into the man's abs. While this attack flew, he enhanced his muscle tissues to move faster as he held the saber hilt at groin height and ignited the blade.

Zaiden had to admit it was fun to battle someone that required him to try every weapon he brought to the table..

@[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Darth Vazela]

| @[member="Jorus Merrill"] | @[member="Ashin Varanin"] | @[member="Jared Ovmar"] |

"Merrill is, indeed, slippery," Vilox murmured as he maneuvered the Taral back towards the Chimaera. "Somehow, he knew that we were coming; or he was expecting company as soon as he entered that station. The amount of traps and precautions he had taken in the event that someone got aboard can only mean one or the other. We're lucky to be alive."

The former Lord of the Sith aimed the starfighter into the hangar bay of the Star Destroyer and landed. As soon as he landed the ship, he exchanged positions with Ovmar, leaving the Lord of the Fringe in the seat he had just been sat in, as he climbed out and began to move towards the bridge. "Did you just try and have me killed, Varanin?" he thought as he made his way to the bridge. He would find out in a moments time.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Penumbra"]

Already, the amphistaff venom was tightening his throat, freezing his lungs. He had a little while before he reached the threshold of being unable to effectively apply his mastery of Control-based powers to the venom.

The broken Thorn hooked the dagger, the energized one hooked the lightsabre in the split second while it extended, and he wrenched his arms apart with preternatural quickness. The sabre extended fully off to his side...

And the blaster which Zaiden had let go of, after only three shots, twitched toward its owner and fired at his ankles.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Vilox Pazela"] @[member="Jared Ovmar"]

As Vazela and Ovmar emerged from the bridge turbolift, Ashin's throne of a command chair turned to face them. Their ion cannons had caught only empty space; the Gypsymoth was gone.

"I warned you that Merrill had prepared a defensive position," she said mildly. "And that was him without using the Force. You were foiled by one prepared mortal, Vazela. A smuggler with a shotgun and a large amount of money. And he's not even the Rebel Alliance's most deadly asset -- and the Rebel Alliance isn't even my most problematic local opposition. I asked you to demonstrate your worth as an ally. Having ridden in your lap, I'm sure Lord Ovmar can attest one way or another."

Pale blue eyes narrowed fractionally. "You are still an unknown quantity to me, Vazela. I don't know what your capabilities are, and how much I can lean on your competence. How do you suggest you rectify the situation?"

 

[Matreya]

As the blaster was brought up, Zaiden vanished. All concentration on avoiding the fire, the Hand of the Fringe jumped vertically to avoid the fire, using the Force to slow his decent, with the main brunt being on hiding from the Force as well as sight. As he was slowly coming back down, just at the end of the blast, Zaiden dropped as silently as he could behind Ember, but as he did so he applied the same amount of pressure to 6 spots nearby. He had already learned the man had impeccable Force Sense abilities, but now he would put it to the test.

Could the master locate the differentiation between the sound of a feather soft singular step and where it was amongst the others?

@[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

As the soft sound of seven different footfalls - eight if Zaiden had landed on both feet - percolated through the clouds of dust and grit, Ember murmured the words to one of his specialities. The Nightsister spell known as the ears of the Chiroptix both enhanced his hearing and allowed him to perceive sound as a form of echolocation. From long, long experience hunting with this spell, he could usually, but not always, tell the difference between a creature's movement and the fall of an inanimate object.

But he was too late, by instants, and he only succeeded in narrowing it down. So he, too, went invisible, the White Current subsuming him beneath the topmost layers of reality. He faced a dilemma now; he had no special telekinetic skill with which to set a decoy and allow himself to move. Instead, he applied his primary skillset, that of physical enhancement, and leaped up very, very high to grab part of the rough rock face. His lightsabre flared to life, slashing through the most stressed portion of a rocky spur and sending chunks of boulder down at Penumbra in a wide spray.

 

[Arage Bao]

A soft chuckle forced himself from his lungs out of his mouth and into the world. "Why do I have the feeling you are enjoying the idea of me riding on the lap of our Dark Lord here?" Jared did not mind though, if anything he was amused himself. The Sith Lord had been anxious the whole trip, almost as if he had been the one sitting on someones lap. But no one could blame the man for having some troubles with his.. preference. Casually he strolled through the chamber and took a seat next to the Empress, he was tired and a little bit ashamed.
Not because they had not been able to capture Merrill, he had known the man was a slippery bastard. The trick with Merrill was to get him into a playing field that was not chosen by him. Attack him on neutral grounds, or maybe even grounds that favored them. Jared did not believe in a fair fight, there simply was not such a thing. The only thing there was; was winning or losing. And he was aiming to win in the long-game.

Jared reached out with the Force towards Ashin and added with mental wink: "I have had better.. allies. You should try riding his lap yourself though, might be you fancy a change of scenery... My Empress."

@[member="Ashin Varanin"] @[member="Vilox Pazela"]​

 

[Matreya]

Thanks to his Czar enhancements Zaiden was able to hear the words as they came from the man's mouth. So he remained utterly still, not even blinking. Then suddenly the man vanished as well. Moving forward with great care, he looked for any sign of where the man was. It was a talent of his own as well, hunting that is. Since his first day as an adult Penumbra was an assassin that never turned down a hit.

He had even been forced back into the Empire for a few during his time fleeing the super powered faction. It was a simple way of using mathematics with slight Force Usage to deduce the most likely course of action from the opponent. As he neared the rocks face he slowly looked up, just in time to see a huge portion of the stone begin to suddenly fall his way. There he was.

Zaiden waited a long second, almost to long, then suddenly began to move - not even full speed. At the point when the rock was basically at his heads height, Zaiden dove hard and fast, ending in a somersault that shifted to a 180° spin. The clouds of dirt protected him from sight as he continued to glare at the same spot, high over head - just past the boundaries made by falling debris.

Ember was good, but so was Zaiden. He knew the basic area for the elder, and so would simply wait. Allowing his chip implants in his mind to deduce a better read out. Hopefully with the combined effort of said chip as well as a man whom even has had Hunter Armor crafted for himself, Zaiden might see an exact position.

@[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Darth Vazela]

| @[member="Ashin Varanin"] | @[member="Jared Ovmar"] |

"He knew we were coming. That's all the advantage any intelligent adversity needs to defeat a man, let alone murder him." Vilox lifted his arms to the sides in gesture. "It is because Merrill knew that we were coming that he is currently not dead. The question here isn't why I and Ovmar didn't murder Merrill? But instead, how did he know we were coming?"

The Dark Master had recovered from the brief stint on the station. He had even shown an iota of his powers yet. Just the way he wanted it to be. "I am still alive, as is Ovmar. Anyone lesser would have died in those circumstances. A ready made trap and an ambush? I'd tell you to give me a break, but that wouldn't suffice. Where is Merrill now?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

The Gypsymoth danced between ion cannon blasts as Miktik put the old YV-929 through its paces. Eventually, however, the little Kushibah gained enough distance that the fire was ineffective, and he jumped the ship to hyperspace, taking it off the crystal gravfield trap's, um, radar.

At which point Jorus sat down in the pilot's chair, thanked his copilot profusely, and took his people home. This ship hadn't just been an errand runner to the orbital weapons; it had also been one of the base's few evac ships, and his holds were crammed full of people. Good people who would take the fight to the Fringe another day.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Vilox Pazela"] @[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Ashin gave the mouthy Lord of the Fringe the same flat stare that had presaged mind controlling the entire parliament of Gand. "Oh, I enjoyed that greatly, Lord Ovmar," she said without inflection.

After a long moment, she turned to Vilox with a simple rotation of her throne.

"Merrill's gone," she said, "and faster than anything I have could follow. We've clocked him at point-five in a ship with a class-one hyperdrive, and point-three in a ship with a point-five hyperdrive. And I'm fairly sure he can go faster. He knew you were coming because he used himself as bait to keep us from simply destroying the station. He knew I would sense him going to the station, and he knows we want him alive, now that his Protectorate affiliations no longer matter. We caught him once, long ago, but we let him go because we weren't ready for war with the Protectorate. They were...very strong then, and we were new." She smiled without humor. "Apparently the only thing that hasn't changed is Merrill's grudge against us.

"The fortress remains untaken, Lord Vazela. The moment for action is now, whether or not Merrill has escaped."

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Circe Savan"]

"Metal is doable, should get us through the window, but that sonic projector's unmanned and too far back for the shock to do much of anything." She bit her lip, pondering, then drew her Derriphan's Eye. The indestructible dagger sailed up and contacted two specific points on the shock trap. The resulting BZZAP was eye-watering, and the dagger went flying. She called it back but didn't touch it, just let it fall to the ground to cool. Above, the explosion had set off the sonic projector, and a powerful, painful resonance came down from the high window and through the walls.

After a minute, it stopped, and she could hear a Rebel cursing out the false alarm.

"Window bars are still there, sonic projector's off, shock trap's dead. One man in the room, I think. You got this?"