Private Crawl Away

[Kriegan Tavlar]

PRODIGAL SON
501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
8th AIRBORNE BATTALION 'ALL-IMPERIAL' | B 1-8 COMPANY | ENIGMA PLATOON
NEW ALDERAAN
Siyndacha Aerin

CRAWL AWAY
​

New Alderaan. The Spring of '77. The site of Tavlar's first real test of mettle against an organized force waged and funded by the Galactic Alliance. While a vast majority of the organized resistance was stamped out by the Empire, pockets of organized remnants remained on the world with one contingent proving to be particularly stubborn to Imperial military might. Organized by a rogue Jedi Knight, a Brigade Combat Team of the 501st was dispatched to swiftly eliminate the threat and ensure no other fires of defiance sprouted on the world or across the unstable Tion Cluster.

In their forward operating base within the outskirts of New Aldera, the command team of the 8th Battalion Airborne of the 501st peered over a city sector map, several districts of insurgent hot spots highlighted in red. The situation was improving, but the problem wasn't solved quite yet. Under the organization and leadership of this rogue Jedi, the morale of the resistance cell was boosted and they'd become more aggressive, making presence patrols and other conventional operations difficult to conduct. First Platoon, First Company of the 8th Battalion Airborne was slotted for the job. ISB had managed to triangulate the location of his communications and thus, a raid was called for. However, the 501st, while adept in contrast to other conventional units in slaying 'cloaks', could make use of an Imperial Knight attaché.

Newly lifted to the rank of Knight-Errant, Siyndachi Aerin would receive her trial of fire. Both attached as tactical need of the Imperial Army and as a rite of passage of the Imperial Knights. Her prerogative was to slay the Jedi, by any means.

The clatter of blaster fire and distant explosions rocked the background of the scenery of heavy military machinery and formations of stormtroopers crossing back and forth within the forward operating base converted from a noble district during the original battle for New Aldera when she arrived to meet with Second Lieutenant Tavlar. A name well known but hardly by the exploits of the man holding it in the flesh.

In his characteristic argent and cobalt armor he turned from the tower overlooking the shot out city block ahead of him to the Knight and her stormtrooper escort.

<"Knight-Errant Aerin, sir."> The trooper said, offering a nod before turning to leave with his counterpart.


"Thank you." He said, nodding in return, setting his helmet down on a nearby desk before peering to the Echani. While he was young in the face and features, his skin was marred with recent wounds from the Empire's tenuous operation on Ilum.

"Second Lieutenant Tavlar, a pleasure, Knight Errant. I'm sure you understand the nature of our operation here. You're supposed to be our means of slaying this Jedi...I've fought them before. They're mortal, killable...but certainly not without a fight. You have what it takes, yes?" He asked.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

ERRANT HEIR
THE ORDER OF IMPERIAL KNIGHTS → 501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
NEW ALDERAAN
Kriegan Tavlar

New Alderaan. The first of what was bound to be countless missions and ops for the fresh Knight-Errant, Siyndacha Aerin, after a decade of re-education and retraining. Psychological Recovery. Assimilation. On arrival and disembarkment, reality began to overlay with her retained memory of local area maps and generated models to account for the difference brought by conflict, while she was brought to the forward operating base, two hilts on her person. She... thankfully had no prior memory of this locale, outside of the maps.

While such research was not a strictly necessary preparation, it gave more of an edge to navigating the streets of an unfamiliar city (should it become a need - some liked to run), when she didn’t have to be constantly drawing on her power to do said navigation in the midst of her primary objective. A supplement.

It was this that occupied a minor level of her attention as she stood waiting, hands folded in front of her, right up until the Second Lieutenant turned around. Her silver-eyed gaze followed, moving away from looking past him into the city and to his face, hardly much younger than her own, and what appeared to be a rather recent line marked on the flesh that crept out from the soldier’s collar. A soldier whose father's name, in death, rolled through the location of her then-new home, within mere months of her arrival. A nation that had been in mourning. A kind of loss she herself had contended with at too early an age.

Aerin needed only one guess as to the cause of such a clean cut. “The pleasure is mine, sir,” she replied with the faintest upturn of the corners of her mouth, the particular accent of her homeworld whittled to near-nothingness by the past fourteen years away from that world, and filled in largely by the last ten years within the Empire's borders, “and yes,” she confirmed, her lips re-assuming a line, “there’s no easy forgetting of what they are” matter-of-fact words spoken along an edge, “I am... exceedingly clear on where they must go.”

To whatever afterlife or nothingness awaited them. A little smile flashed up in the wake of her disdain for her eventual quarry, lightly tugging the faded scar that ran from below her left eye and rounded to her ear; she gestured toward others that were peering over the map, a brief glance in that direction following the motion, “Do we have a location?”

​

 

[Kriegan Tavlar]

PRODIGAL SON
501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
8th AIRBORNE BATTALION 'ALL-IMPERIAL' | B 1-8 COMPANY | ENIGMA PLATOON
NEW ALDERAAN
Siyndacha Aerin

CRAWL AWAY
​

He waved a hand of dismissal at the use of 'sir', as earned the title might have been, it still felt alien emerging from any of his comrades. When he was in the academy he was largely regarded as little more than a peon within the harsh yet sterile training environment. Now, he was 'sir', with a burden of obligation and leadership weighing heavily on his shoulders. One struggle exchanged for another.

Regardless, he admired the eagerness. He'd offered himself only a cursory glance over Aerin's dossier- a habit he'd gotten into when receiving a new enabling element. It helped to know exactly what he was receiving. An Echani Imperial Knight was a rare sight but certainly a welcome one, the characteristic martial arts prowess in tandem with force powers and Imperial Knight training, he had no doubt of her ability to execute the mission. What was peculiar was how little Echani there was left in her- she was well and truly Imperial.

He offered a brief smile in tandem with hers when she excitedly spoke of her eventual mark.

"Jedi Knight Foltest Kelso. Former Galactic Alliance Defense Force. Aged thirty five human male. He is our primary target and the one organizing this resistance cell." He said, prying apart his forefinger and thumb to reveal a profile of the man he spoke of before sliding it away to pull a map of New Aldera back into view, zooming it in on an industrial district highlighted in red.

"Here is his last known location based on deciphered communications. We've made two attempts to kill him discreetly already, one via a decoy weapons cache rigged with explosives and another via an ISB operative. Obviously, neither were effective. With the strategic situation as it is...the 8th Battalion command team has deemed it mission critical that a full on assault be conducted of the rebel compound. An assault which you'll be joining us on. We have air superiority as it stands and thus- after an artillery barrage at sunset...we'll commence our assault via air assault operations." He explained before snapping off the map's projection and shifting his gaze to hers.

"I've no doubt you're an effective Knight...but- this is battle. It will be hellish...chaotic. You can do what you need to do in this environment, yes?" He asked, arching a brow.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

ERRANT HEIR
THE ORDER OF IMPERIAL KNIGHTS → 501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
NEW ALDERAAN
Kriegan Tavlar

Aerin glanced at the profile of the Jedi, noting features, the name, then onward to the map and particulars, the distinct reason why she was here, and how they sought to resolve the matter in this third attempt. [ A slippery one, then… ] she concluded inwardly, her arms folding over her chest as she listened to the plan, feeling nary a lick of concern about being able to complete her task… but it would be a little while yet, so she looked to him as the map dissipated.

"I've no doubt you're an effective Knight...but- this is battle. It will be hellish...chaotic. You can do what you need to do in this environment, yes?"

Her brow pulled together at the second of his questions, her gaze shifting away. A held breath released in a tense sigh. After a couple moments, she looked to him again, but it was a couple moments more before she could bring herself to speak.

“There's a lot my dossier won't tell you," she began, a hair’s breadth of further hesitation slipping in before she continued, calmly, evenly, "such as how an eleven year old girl could have at all developed the clarity to weather a battlefield, or the ability to compartmentalise amidst such chaos,” she frowned, one finger tapping on the opposite elbow, "which was discovered to be the case for me while being processed and assessed sometime after I was delivered into Imperial custody at that age by Knight-Commander Rafe Therian - rest his soul - the very man who had slain the Sith that lured me from my home when I was only seven. Just seven and grieving the loss of my mother and father."

A picture painted with inference and fact, of what would have still been her childhood and a matter of limited access on her early psychological record. These were just facts to her by now, but for the realisation, long-since settled into her mind, that many aspects of her background were far from unique. It was that which set her jaw and clipped her words. Stoked her disciplined anger. Drove her.

“So I can,” she concluded, her frown vanishing, “and I will, in the hope that this happens to fewer, and with progress, that it doesn't happen to anyone else,” Aerin smiled firmly, tightly, in light of her next words, “unlike the Order’s extremist cousins… thankfully, we don’t use children.”


​

​

 

[Kriegan Tavlar]

PRODIGAL SON
501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
8th AIRBORNE BATTALION 'ALL-IMPERIAL' | B 1-8 COMPANY | ENIGMA PLATOON
NEW ALDERAAN
Siyndacha Aerin

​

He immediately saw an endearing attitude come to light from Aerin. She wouldn’t’ let anyone be so bold as to doubt her. There was similarities in how she acted and thought to how he himself behaved. Both carried that chip on their shoulder with a shared burden of expectation in tandem with obligation to Empire. A great deal was expected of them both- with an innate reluctancy in the belief if they could accomplish it. He could relate too to the loss of a parent at a young age, there was no mistaking how young Kriegan was when the Sovereign Imperator died and his own mother was sporadically allowed to be present in his life.

He couldn't help but offer a smile in reply to her answer. There wasn't an ounce of doubt from her and thus, there wasn't an ounce of doubt from him. They would charge forth into the hell fires together and seize their mark.

"Good." He replied in a singular word, a mannerism subconsciously seized from his father as a brief and concise way to snap together his thoughts on a certain subject matter in unmistaken simplicity.

"Don't mistake my inquiry for any doubt in you, Knight Aerin. I'm not all too much more experienced with warfighting than you are. There is still a great deal for myself- both of us to learn. My priority- at the end of all this is to get my troopers home safe. Dealing with Jedi, as much as they claim to be merciful souls- certainly makes that a chaotic variable." And he knew all too well from experience. Very recent and very bloody experience.

"I relate to where you're coming from though...believe me. While I was not within the lurching grasp of the Sith at such a young age, I lost my father at about the same time. It certainly...didn't make things easier." He said, motioning for her to follow him as he made his way from the operations room with metallic steps.

It was nearly time.

"Tell me, Siyndacha. Did they specify if this would be a more permanent assignment or if we'd be losing you after this operation? All goes well...I can't say I'd be too against having a Knight attached to the unit." He said, stepping aboard a lift leading them down to the Battalion's hangar bay at the base of the building, flicking the button to begin their descent.

It wasn't much longer until they were in the hangar- enveloped in the rush and commotion of the mission staging area with troopers lugging equipment and ordinance into their specified gunships to be used in the assault ahead. It was supposed to be a quick operation, likely completed within an hour if all went to plan. But then again, all troopers knew that vaunted saying. No plan survives contact with the enemy.

The troop bay doors to one of the RDAGs slid open to welcome Tavlar, pulled aboard by one of his NCOs, Kriegan immediately turned to offer a hand to the Imperial Knight to pull her aboard before he finally pulled his helmet over his gaze, peering to her with the characteristic argent and cobalt of the 501st Legion to complete the ensemble of duraplast armor and tactical gear that donned his form.

When the door shut closed a brooding crimson light began to illuminate the troop bay in harrowing ode to the blood they were soon to shed and the violence they were about to be embroiled in. All the while, Kriegan had learned well to have contempt for danger, speaking up once more to the Knight in an attempt to ease both her nerves and his own, distracting himself from the chaos he was soon to be enveloped by. Hyperfocusing too much on the individual actions he might take would only prove catastrophic rather than jumping into the fray and relying solely on training and instinct.

<"Where have you called home since you've been Imperial, Siyndacha?"> He inquired. Not a minute after his inquiry the repulsorlifts began to sound and ship lifted off, causing the Stormtrooper officer to peer at his tac pad to gauge the time they had until they'd reach the objective.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

ERRANT HEIR
THE ORDER OF IMPERIAL KNIGHTS → 501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
NEW ALDERAAN
Kriegan Tavlar

His clarification of intent in the inquiry he pursued went a long way to easing the physical tension such questions caused: a deep breath in, a limited roll of the shoulders with her arms folded as they were. The change of her smile and a brief downward tilt of her head, with a nasal out-breath that said she was faintly laughing at herself.

She agreed with his assessment of the Jedi, slowly nodding - it was a thing she had seen as a girl, long before she came to the full realisation of what it meant… that they were no different from the Sith that kept a hold over her, at the time. Two sides of the same coin, as it had been so succinctly put to her by Rafe, and oft repeated by others.

That he could relate, that he stood on the same footing - these were small blessings when it came to working with anyone. Fewer surprises, fewer distractions, and when he motioned for her to come with, departing the operations room, she stepped off in short order behind him.

“Permanent in nature,” she confirmed, stepping aboard the lift and folding her hands behind the small of her back for the short ride down, “unless the Empire has greater need of me elsewhere, on occasion,” Aerin followed Tavlar out of the lift, and through the hangar, “the reality of being a limited resource,” she quipped with faint humour, “the life of an Imperial Knight.”

She grasped his hand and was hauled aboard; her and the weight of her light armour - standard Imperial Knight armour was too restrictive for a martial artist - shifted less dust when impacting the ground, and moved swiftly. The door shut with the woosh of displaced air, and the chink of the locking mechanism, and the bay became awash in red - the same colour of light that was preferred, if not required, for various night-time applications, even for civilians.

He asked after home, and she thought for a moment; there had been a time when that wasn’t a simple question, but a decade on, it was fairly resolved... though anyone might assume she was wholly from Eshan until she spoke, “For most of the past ten years? Bastion,” as had been impressed upon her as an eleven-year-old girl, this was the centre of the New Order, the heart of Imperial culture - a few moments of pause as the ship took to the air, “many floors up a glistening high-rise in central Ravelin,” and where her minders in those early years found out rather quickly that she possessed no fear of heights, and how she quickly learned to not give them heart attacks. “Though I was rather transient for large swaths of the past few years, as I squired for Rafe until we lost him at Tython.”

Siyndacha smiled fondly at the greatest memories of those few years, but continued on, “A while after that, I had my assessments for Knighthood, and here I am.” She peered at Kriegan in the crimson glow, fully enveloped in the Legion’s colours as he was, “Better here than the silence of home, really.”

It was too quiet there, these days.

"I imagine Eshan would feel strange to me at this point..." The definition of 'home' could vary for many reasons. "...where feels the most like home to you, Kriegan?"

​

​

 

[Kriegan Tavlar]

PRODIGAL SON
501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
8th AIRBORNE BATTALION 'ALL-IMPERIAL' | B 1-8 COMPANY | ENIGMA PLATOON
NEW ALDERAAN
Siyndacha Aerin

"...where feels the most like home to you, Kriegan?"

​

He stood in silence for a moment in contemplation- his expression veiled beneath the stormtrooper helmet as he mulled over his answer. It ultimately wasn't too far off from hers. He'd spent the very earliest days of his childhood on Bastion, in Ravelin raised in the halls of Fortress Imperator. However- it wasn't all too long until he was whisked away to MIMIC after the death of his father, beginning a wholly regimented military upbringing at the military academy on Concordia. While it was the most transformative stretch of his upbringing, he'd hardly ever call that place home. Nor could he call Bescane, the place of his birth and the homeworld of his mother much of a sanctified world for himself.

It was an answer more difficult than it should've been but ultimately- it was the same as hers.

<"Bastion, if I have to pick."> He replied, it felt uninteresting or unoriginal but it was his genuine feeling.

<"Only lived there as a child, in the Imperial Palace, Fortress Imperator. But it was probably the best my life ever was. Mother and father around as much as they could be, Corvallis was around. It was nice, peaceful. The 'good old days'...but of course you never know it until its gone. After my father died, I was sent off to Concordia for the academy and I'd spent the rest of my life there until I was commissioned. Now I doubt I'll see home all too much."> He remarked with a degree of solemn to his tone before he glanced down at his wrist mounted tac pad again. Wasn't much longer and this stretch of relative peace was due to come to an end. Back into the fray, back into combat. With an Imperial Knight embedded in his unit and his unit being as tried and tested as it was, they'd all be just fine.

<"At some point I can show you around Imperator, the places where people aren't normally allowed to go, if you'd like."> He offers before soon enough he turns to the platoon sergeant opposite of him in the troop bay and gives a silent nod.

<"On your feet!"> Kriegan commanded to his section with his open left hand not grasping the pistol grip of his blaster carbine motioning for his unit to stand up.

<"Equipment check!"> He ordered- with the accompanying hand signal, holding both arms up as the troopers inspected their weapons, tactical webbing and stowage. All was ready. Kriegan motioned a thumbs up to Sergeant Cole who did the same in return and a second later the troop bay doors slid open to the immediate symphony of blaster fire from below.

<"Dismount, execute!"> Two rappel lines shot down from each side and one by one the stormtroopers began to mount the rappel lines, following one after the other in three second intervals before eventually Kriegan would motion Aerin down and he'd follow immediately after.

The stormtroopers immediately established a 360 degree security under fire on the industrial sector's rooftop before Kriegan ordered them to move forward toward his objective point established on their linked HUD which would serve as their entry point to the Jedi's assumed position.

There was immediate resistance in the form of rebel infantry and anti-air emplacements, two of the other RDAGs being downed or ejecting flares in the process. Didn't matter, Kriegan had his platoon on the battle zone and they had an objective to execute.

He wanted speed and violence of execution. Aggression. A few hundred meeters along the rooftop of the industrial complex with alternating overwatch between Tavlar's first and second squad and they were over the control bay where they last tracked the Jedi to reside.

With an X-ray scan of the rooftop's structure- a weak point was assessed near a ventilation shaft and an engineer trooper immediately went to work in setting up breaching charges. Around the established breach point, the troopers pinned themselves down with rappel anchors and stood ready to descend.

Three. Two. One.

The breaching charges caved in the metal roof in a billowing cloud of smoke and ash as the Stormtroopers flicked their HUDs to adjust to the visual interference and descended. It was chaotic blackness with blaster rounds shrieking in every direction but soon enough, an emerald blade was thrust through the chest of one of the troopers at Kriegan's flank. He snapped his blaster in its direction before it disappeared into the smokey blackness with no HUD silhouette to match its movement. It all fell silent in that moment.

They brought the Knight to play and she'd have to make her move now before another trooper fell.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

ERRANT HEIR
THE ORDER OF IMPERIAL KNIGHTS → 501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
NEW ALDERAAN
Kriegan Tavlar

Their reasons for their choice of what was home differed, but their paths were almost parallel, and the result was the same. Bastion. A coincidence, but a welcome feeling to be able to say ‘home’ and the other person understanding it as more than just a location.

<"At some point I can show you around Imperator, the places where people aren't normally allowed to go, if you'd like.">

She blinked - the offer was rather unexpected, but she had hardly another moment to consider it before it was time to move, and her own focus began to click over, eyes closing for a moment as orders were given, and a long breath was taken, in and out, warmth bleeding out of her demeanour within seconds. Focus setting in.

Wordlessly, Siyndacha went to the egress when it was time, and took her descent ahead of Tavlar, boots connecting with the rooftop in scant moments. Once security was established and they began to move, she began to sense the vicinity, until she felt the presence…

[ He is close. ]

…and they were soon on top of him, with one of the troopers going to work making an opening in a weak point of the roof, and others waiting to descend. Including her, but only after them. Within moments, smoke and ash rose up in a cloud, whereafter the waiting troopers entered the hole, and a multitude of blaster fire sounded. Then the characteristic snap-hiss and a thrusting emerald glow…

[ Ah, there. ]

…and the crumpling of an armoured body. She dropped into the hole, landing in a crouch at that moment, only to be greeted with blackness and silence. She refined the band of her senses, quickly singling the Jedi out within seconds, and stalked toward him where he lurked, behind the men to her right.

“Move.”

Was the only word she said, a sharp, frigid utterance as she slipped between them, pulled a hilt into her grasp, and with her own snap-hiss, set Foltest Kelso awash in the brilliant white glow of just one of her blades, and her in the same light, looking every bit a specter, pale through and through. In the next split of a second, she surged forth, a cold fury here to expunge his soul from his body. Her blade rushed the Jedi at an angle that might have cloven him from shoulder to hip, and his emerald blade sprung to meet it, but such a meeting never happened.

A feint had her spin closer, calling her second hilt to her left hand in the midst of the turn, and invading his personal space - bringing the active blade squarely against his neck with her right hand. The moment his emerald clashed with her white, she activated the second hilt.

He jolted in surprise, and looked down at the brilliant, pure beam of white plasma that exited out the front of him, then back to her face. Gargled, incomprehensible noises of pain escaped his throat and he stumbled back as she carved the blade up and out of him. The emerald fell, extinguishing on contact with the floor and tumbling a little ways. When he fell to his knees, before his face had a chance to greet the floor as his blade had, she planted a foot against him and pushed him back to sit on his legs, then relieved him of his head. Just to be absolutely certain.

Siyndacha moved away from the now-corpse, shining one of her blades towards the floor, looking for the dropped hilt.

"That is what evaded you, Lieutenant," she said, finding what she was looking for and extinguishing her other blade to return it to its place on her person, so that she could pick up the Jedi's hilt. She peered at it, noting its design as something that must have been personal to the owner, something more than just a tool. She looked back to the others, to Kriegan. "A misguided idealist."

​

 

[Kriegan Tavlar]

PRODIGAL SON
501st STORMTROOPER LEGION
8th AIRBORNE BATTALION 'ALL-IMPERIAL' | B 1-8 COMPANY | ENIGMA PLATOON
NEW ALDERAAN
Siyndacha Aerin

A violent dervish of argent and emerald- and it was over as quickly as it started. Flares sparked alight to further illuminate the darkness past what the crackling flames and starlight from the now darkened night outside filtering into the industrial building below. Kriegan let his weapon drop to his chest, bringing it under his arm behind his back as he knelt down by the Jedi's corpse.

"That is what evaded you, Lieutenant,"

"A misguided idealist."

<"That's always been what our enemies are, Aerin."> He said, pressing down unto a button on his tacpad to activate a holographic blue scanning wave which he projected over the face of the Jedi, lining it up with the Imperial database to confirm they'd killed the correct target. They had, a quick and clean operation. Just as Kriegan was looking for.

<"Good to have you on our side, Knight. This is him."> As if it wasn't remarkably obvious by now. Regardless, he set a gloved hand on his own knee to lift himself unto both feet, turning to make way toward a nearby 501st NCO.

<"Have Besh team run a clean up of the area, police up any weapons or military equipment with serial numbers still intact. Send up any sensitive intelligence up to Battalion. Aurek will remain on overwatch until we can confirm the area is clear."> He commanded to the Sergeant who replied with a nod and a brief affirmative before about facing and heading off to dish out the orders to his troopers. Kriegan then turned toward Aerin, making way to her with a slow and deliberate pace, his eyes scanning over the surrounding facility as he closed the gap between him and the Echani once more.

<"So that is that...a painless operation. And a good first impression, I'll add. It's good to have you along, Siyndacha."> He remarked, offering a faint smile underneath his helmet with a nod.