Corpses in the River (Underground Raid on the Lords of the Fringe - Complete)

[Jorus Merrill]

If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.​

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***​

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"This is General Merrill to all ships.

"Some of you were part of the old Rebel Alliance with me. Some of you were there for every evacuation, every time the Fringe found one of our bases in the Neutral Zone. Some of you stuck with the cause, even when the Fringe was strong enough to send the Republic and the Protectorate running. Some of you have been waiting five, ten years for this opportunity. Well, it's here. Today's the day we hit back. The Fringe Confederation has overreached, gambling that it could lock the Omega Protectorate out of the Rim, and it succeeded...but it's committed now, committed as far as Bespin, Eriadu, and Sluis Van.

"And the Fringers are weaker than they've ever been. They had no mercy on us when we were weak. They had no mercy on Atrisia when it was weak. They had no mercy on the government of Javin or the slaves eaten by the Rakata. Revenge is not our way, but it's time that crew learned how to lose.

"Slave your hyperdrives to mine, and I'll drive you into their hearts."

***​

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Spoiler

(source)​

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Space warped oddly, almost painfully, as if the mass shadow of Taloraan's grav well was resisting an overwhelming force. The Rebel flotilla -- four MC70 Ackbar-class star cruisers, the D'Lessio, squadrons of RebelX gunships, and a host of escorts and personal craft -- materialized in the tenuous outer edges of the gas giant. Nearby, a cluster of massive, floating, military tibanna and tibannaX refineries was just barely visible in the swirling yellow-brown murk. Task Force Overstretch had materialized inside Taloraan's huge magnetic field, which scrambled long-range sensors -- and prevented the Fringe from using long-range weapons accurately. To engage with Overstretch, the Fringe would need to take the time to bring a much larger fleet to bear...or get in here and knife-fight in the gas giant.

At the controls of the D'Lessio, Jorus hyperventilated, sweating. In his reflection on the control panel, hyperlight danced in his right eye, the cybernetic one. The other was a Vong biot, but the socket glowed around it. The glow faded as he got his body under control. The Force shuddered in him and was silent. He coughed once, hacked it really, and slapped the comms.

"All ships fire at will."

***​

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Spoiler

[member="Aaralyn Gyndar"] - [member="Chloe Blake"] (or [member="Skye Mertaal"] ) - [member="Kian Karr"] - [member="Kitt Solo"] - [member="Mia Monroe"] - [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] - [member="Veino Garn"] - [member="Xander Carrick"] - [member="Jericho"] [member="Alaina Merrill"] - [member="Alena"] - [member="Allyson Locke"] - [member="Andrasta Sitra"] - [member="Bass Terrik"] - [member="Callisto Scarlett"] - [member="Castiel Lennox"] - [member="Catherine Colburn"] - [member="Coren Starchaser"] - [member="Darik Plutan"] - [member="Deagan Hunt"] - [member="Elpsis Kallikora"] - [member="Flint Michigan"] - [member="Galen Arterius"] - [member="Glim"] - [member="Ijaat Akun"] - [member="Jaani Doosun"] - [member="Jamie Oxton"] - [member="Jannik Morlandt"] - [member="Jessica Century"] - [member="Kairon Rees"] - [member="Kelly Perris"] - [member="Khaleel Malvern"] - [member="Miktik"] - [member="Mira Gyndar"] - [member="Noah Corek"] - [member="Nonadul"] - [member="Orick T'ane"] - [member="Paddy Quick"] - [member="Pappy"] - [member="Rekha Kaarde"] - [member="Reneé Denois"] - [member="Riley Reese"] - [member="Sam Turain"] - [member="Spark Finn"] - [member="Susovi Ru"] - [member="Talise Skirata"] - [member="Tobias Wraith"] - [member="Vassara Raxis"] - [member="Vaudin Miir"] - [member="Vilaz Munin"] - [member="Wanderer EXO"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

This was one of those things that Coren Starchaser told himself he’d never do. When he was younger, supposedly he smuggled goods past Imperial blockades to help out those who really needed it. Sometimes there were guns, but mostly it was foodstuffs and medicines, hard to find items that he had a knack for getting and running them past blockades. That was what the Tachyon Rising was for, but this trip? He was in Fringe Space, a place where they were working for Imperalization, and failing. That may be why he called himself off his work on the Blood Trail and came out here.

He loaded his secondary ship, the Underground ship Tiburon with ion missiles and made sure to scrub the IFF. He knew that the ship had been associated with the Dawn Treader, but as the latter vessel was busy around Annaj, helping move high priority targets from Fringe space and into safety. Though, they hadn’t established safety yet. Coren knew there was talk of an Imperial Remnant growing, and he might have to venture out there with his home ship, but that would just constantly put him in feuds with the Underground and Levantines.

But lets face it. Coren was with them because of the challenging piloting and exploration tasks that they proposed. Plus, he may be a bit of a mental masochist.

He knew where they were going, one thing that Coren prided himself on, was his sense of direction. Maybe not as developed as General [member="Jorus Merrill"]’s but the former Imperial Captain knew what he was doing when it came to traveling, and the Fringe Space, and Unknown Regions were his back yard. Or had been. Maybe it was reborn muscle memory? Maybe it was more.

That was where Coren was different than most Imperials. He believed that it honestly could be done peacefully. Thrawn and Pellaeon did it. And those were who he looked to when he was talking about creating an Empire. He was of the Dark Side because it got things done, and he knew that he was sliding on the scale. Hell, he could stun enemies, and that was not something he’d done when he was full dark. He saw the D’Lessio, one of the Underground’s newest vessels and nodded. Right, he’d have to make sure that he kept an eye on everything. No one was going to be taking down escaping craft here. Not that he suspected the Underground of such crimes, but he wanted to be sure.

Opening the S-Foils, he took a deep breath. Weapons were warmed up and the system was assisting, as best it could in this scruff, his targeting. Weapons systems only.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

But what was there as a response? Where were the infamous fleets of the Fringe, where were the battle-hardened veterans who figurally ate rebelscum for lunch, dessert and breakfast? Wherever they were, they weren’t here and the great Talooran refineries was protected by only a token force of ships to stave off the rebels.

Which was strange, no? Where was the rest of the fleet and why weren’t they protecting a big military asset? Messages were sent regardless by the token fleet, for reinforcements that would probably never arrive and they knew it.

Evacuation procedures were a-go, the men and women who were busying themselves with moving the finished batches to the transports were ordered to move faster. The sudden arrival of the Rebels would mean that things would be left behind, they weren’t yet done.

The token force consisted of two Anathemas and a single Attrition. A fairly equal fight, perhaps the Fringe would be lucky and some minor reinforcements would arrive.

A few Permanences maybe.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"]

Three Star Destroyers -- with a lot of guns. Current intel estimates put their total strength at about twelve hundred guns, while the four Ackbars were much, much tougher but had a total of around nine hundred and sixty at these ranges. Not good odds, especially considering the fighter forces the Fringe vessels could deploy.

Time to even those odds.

The D'Lessio accelerated like a starfighter, slashing through the firefight in plasma-filled space no vessel should have been able to survive. It dipped below the line of fire, below the fight and deeper into the gravity well -- giving every starfighter a height advantage on it. An escort of RebelX light gunships kept the Subach-built fighters off its tail. Jorus leaned back, hauling on the controls, and the D'Lessio angled up. Heavy Qektoth-derived ion cannons sent shudders through the hull from their wingtip mounts. Massive blue bolts slashed up at the heavily shielded Attrition-class, the Fringe's heaviest ship present and the one that mounted expensive stealth gear.

Slashed up at the Star Destroyer...and passed through its shields without incident.

Targeting engines and repulsorlifts.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Vheissu Ireles"]

The gangly, Underground hipster-nerd sat cross-legged on one of the Ackbar-class star cruisers. Gray-blue eyes hovered a few inches from the screen on her datapad, oblivious to that gas-giant view just outside the floor-to-ceiling viewport. Spacebook status updates would have to wait!

That mission across Fringe space to set-up those encoded stations was coming in handy now.

The Anathemas were familiar pings, encryptions, and codes. Technopathy and mechu-deru didn't hurt either. Pretty soon one of the Anathemas would start to get some minor glitches in their systems: weapon systems readouts off by a few degrees, late-firing turrets, unresponsive turrets, and sporadic, short bursts of shield malfunctions.

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

Rekha was playing with the control of the Rebel X tilting it one way then the other she had to have the feel of the ship needed to know it was well as she knew herself, one false move and she'd be in little pieces all over this part of space. She could hear Jorus, yes she had a stake in Bespin it was her livelihood. Its where her friends came to find her it was home at the moment.

The Underground was giving her the opportunity to raise a little cane she smiled as she found the throttle up, then quickly down, the S foils were locked and open giving her greater maneuverability. She bit her lip as she worked it..ok...she had it. She was ready. She picked up speed and caught up to the others rocking her wings to say hello.

Targeting system was active. Weapons were hot and ready. Pilot was ready, willing and able.

She smiled...

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vheissu Ireles"] [member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

Counterfire was no joke, not from a ship that size. Even if the D'Lessio was disproportionately tough for its size, that size was subcapital. By a serious margin. Jorus slammed the repulsorlifts sideways and slewed the D'Lessio to port, keeping the forward guns centered on the underside of the Star Destroyer. His line of fire inscribed a cone, with the bigger ship's engines and repulsors as an apex, and the D'Lessio skidding in a circle around and beneath its target. It was a maneuver he'd pioneered at Empress Teta, and one he could only pull off in a grav well. It kept him mobile and non-linear, sent him into and out of guns' lines of fire before the gunners could peg him, and kept his own forward guns centered on a much larger and infinitely less mobile target. The exotic heavy ion cannons, Qektoth-derived, continued to ignore the Star Destroyer's shields.

Meanwhile, waves of RebelX gunships and Terminus-class starfighters engaged in a pretty serious way. The RebelX was effectively an X-wing with a Hushaby rotary ion cannon, and the two-seater Terminus mounted three composite beam ball turrets in such a way that at least one of them could hit a target anywhere within about ninety percent of attack angles. They were tough; didn't have the Ackbars' survivability, though. Underground vessels began to tumble or simply detonated, along with their opposite numbers. Crippled ships got snagged in tractor beams, pulled to safety.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

This was putting him in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn’t recognize the unit that was coming at him and the Underground team, but still… He was here to help cull the herd. If the Fringe Federation wasn’t able to defend the galaxy from the Unknown Regions, perhaps a slash and burn was needed to free up the worlds so another heavy hitter could do the Fringe’s job. Coren wasn’t really keen on where he was right now. He’d worked and was paid by the Fringe for a while.

Making an order to a unit of RebelX Gunships that were following him, he nodded. “Target weapon and communication systems first.” If he could pull the teeth and tongue from the larger ships, maybe they’d just bug out. He wasn’t about to be called to slaughter, despite what happened when the Fringe came calling on Underground facilities, Coren was not a part of those missions. That was the nice thing about being a contractor, he got to do what he damned well chose.

He was moving his unit in between Fringe ships and downed Underground vessels, enough to allow the tractor beams to tug them out of the way. The Tiburon’s blasters were firing and he was targeting weapons systems, but doing enough damage to make it shown like he wasn’t giving quarter. Still, people came to Underground from all walks of life.

Throw him against the Sith? Yes, he’d go full bore.

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Vheissu Ireles"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Vheissu Ireles"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

The targeted Star Destroyer's repulsorlifts and engines sparked and died under the heavy ion barrage, and the big ship began to fall. Taloraan was a hundred thousand kilometres across. Jorus gave the ship thirty-five thousand kilometres before it was crushed, shields or no shields, and a good bit less before even repaired engines might get it out.

As it fell past him, he swivelled and put a few shield-ignoring shots into the shield generators themselves, just to speed that along. One less Attrition-II-class Star Destroyer was one less mess.

The other two Star Destroyers were making waves, though. They nearly matched the Ackbars for firepower, and the Underground escorts didn't have the star cruisers' durability. Underground frigates and corvettes were exploding, falling-

He was certainly losing people who'd trusted him. People who'd served with him for years.

More Qektoth-derived weapons opened up, slashing into the military TibannaX refineries' repulsorlifts straight through deflector shields. Small evac ships and pods broke away, ascending through the gas giant; the Undergrounders had orders to let them go. One by one, the free-floating refineries began to slant and tumble away into oblivion.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Vheissu Ireles"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

Absent long-range sensors, Jorus' best forewarning was his instinctive astrogation, the sense that it would be better to get elsewhere. As the last of the Taloraan TibannaX facilities tumbled to crushing oblivion, accompanied by the dead of both sides, he reoriented his ion cannons against the undersides of the last two Star Destroyers.

Whose captains found it wise to be elsewhere.

The warships strained against Taloraan's gravity well, going full burn in an attempt to soar up before Jorus could kill their engines and repulsors. Their channels had to be screaming with the efflux of the first Star Destroyer, now straight down and still falling. He put a few ion bolts into the Attrition's dorsal ridge and slapped the comm.

"This is General Merrill. Point Maw, repeat, Point Maw."

The Underground ships began to converge beneath the shelter of the rising MC70 Mon Calamari star cruisers. As weapons fire, heavy weapons fire, cut down through the gas giant's upper atmosphere, the star cruisers' heavy redundant shields began to spark and glow. Those were Fringe battleships out there, at a guess. It was time to jump, before interdiction came into play. The Fringe, in his experience, was very light on interdictors, apart from those rare, stealthed specialty models.

As the outer atmosphere fell away, so did a couple more Underground escorts, shattered and tumbling into Taloraan's well. A few hundred more deaths on his ledger. He set his jaw and closed his eyes, parting the edges of the mass shadow as powerfully as he'd ever done. Under the guns of two massive Permanence-class battleships, but under the cover of the MC70s, the Underground's Task Force Overstretch began to hyperjump to safety.

OOC/ Calling this one a win after two weeks - thanks for letting us know what we'd be up against, Vheissu. All Undergrounders, feel free to assume you jumped out with the rest of the task force, or post to that effect if you like.

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

Rekha was listening weapons and communication systems well she could handle that the communications array were easy to spot, usually quite close by weapons systems were pointed at them as they came in.

Rekha flipped over a switch and then looked to the monitor she needed some speed she also needed a little something in her head to give her the umpf she needed

Revvin' up your engine
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension
Beggin' you to touch and go​

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Rekha was accelerating to make a run she could see the other ships around burst into flames and do the spiral of death into the hull of the ship or bounce around until they exploded into a thousand tiny fragments.

Highway to the danger zone​

Ride into the danger zone

Headin' into twilight
Spreadin' out her wings tonight
She got you jumpin' off the track
And shovin' into overdrive​

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The engine was beginning to whine, Rekha poised her finger ready to fire on the huge dome of the communications tower, there was incoming fire, she banked right, banked left, she was lucky that she had not yet got her arse shot off. Keep it going going..

Highway to the danger zone​

I'll take you
Ridin' into the danger zone

You'll never say hello to you
Until you get it on the red line overload
You'll never know what you can do
Until you get it up as high as you can go

Out along the edges
Always where I burn to be
The further on the edge
The hotter the intensity​

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It was getting hot around her what was left of a squadron came in to give her a hand, as she opened fire. She knew she had to hit it more than once to destroy it. She kept up the rapid fire as her ship was coming in dangerously close, she had to pull up or crash. Voices were in her ear PULL UP!!!

Highway to the danger zone​

Gonna take you
Right into the danger zone

Highway to the danger zone​

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The squadron laid in and within the count of the last verse the dome exploded and they were on to the next target.


[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Vheissu Ireles"]