Déjà Vu? This Isn't the Matrix! [Lords of the Fringe Dominion of Karfeddion]

[Arage Bao]

[member="Tal"]

I did the thing... and I shouldn't have done the thing, knew that instinctively. But ya know how it is in the heat of the moment. You do stupid shit you wouldn’t have done when level-headed, I reached out with my knack towards the nade and touched it.

Shouldn’t have done that. Should. Not. Have. Done. That.

Two things happened as the nade flew back where it came from, one - it imploded. Two. For some fethed up reason I got flown back into the distance. Crashed into a wall, smacked, slumped and laid there dazed for a few seconds, could still feel the backlash of the Force. This wasn’t good.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

There we go.

Escorts were nice.

Coren started to plot a course to the nearest satellite. It was going to be what he'd capture first. Checking the wireframe scan of his ship, he probably had room for three. That would be good to... Well, probably frak with the Omegas pretty simply. Then he could destroy the rest. That would make him feel good.

Take that, Goat-Man.

And that would make him feel better. His family estate was safe, the world was probably safe with the Sith, that was fine with him. He didn't mind the Sith. They messed things up. Looking at it that way, it was fine. Smirking, he powered up the tractor beam on his ship and started to come in slowly over the first satellite.

Opening the bay doors, he pulled it in. Watching the gunships, he called out to them. “Let me know if we've got anything bad coming our way. Getting two more of these satellites, and then we'll burn the rest.” And all five of them could at least cause some destruction.

Feeling the jolt, and the securing of the first satellite, he nodded. Two more and then some time to blow things up.

 

[Malik Rodarch]

[member="Nui Akona"], [member="Seren Ordavo"]

What do you do when blaster bolts start flying and you don't have a chest high wall or other convenient cover available to crouch behind?

You make your own.

Shotgun still in one hand Malik picked up the corpse of the headless guard, instantly upgrading the status of the man from living scum to semi useful meat shield. This was apparently quite offensive to the opposition, pretty rich coming from those in a career of degrading sentient lives.

Although by opposition it was only one guy truly offended, the man across the way that had tried to warn Zev of his oncoming doom. Probably thought that he was the good guy, bless his cotton socks.

“ZEEEEEEEEEEEEV!!” he roared, concentrating his fire upon Malik (but hitting more of Zev's corpse in the process). It was like something straight out of the Mandalorian action flick Rambo'ika, a film he himself often pined to rent out from Holobuster, had they not all shut down so tragically. Holo-streaming services were ruining his world.

Rodarch advanced forward, shield in tow, feeling an ounce of guilt for slaying another man's bro.

 

[Arage Bao]

Yes, and it looked fething cool.

Honestly, there wasn't much more he could add to that, it seemed as if it was an endless mass of slavers popping out of the woodworks to fight and try to stop them. But Nui wasn't Malik, he didn't feel a lot of remorse at cutting the throats of some slavers, they were the scum of the earth, earning money by taking away the freedom of people like them. Their whole business was built up from blood, tears and shattered dreams, ain't right and so they died.

Simple as that.

Only within the depths of his psyche, the figment that was mostly asleep these days was pondering if this was good, what they were doing here.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Malik Rodarch"] [member="Nui Akona"]

For his part, Seren continued with the painstaking process of evaluating the shockprod's destructive potential. The electrified prongs seemed durable enough, even after direct introduction to armor at a variety of angles. The collapsible elements of the prod shaft, however, seemed to wobble fractionally with each swing. The balance, too, was way off. A good quarter-kilo in the pommel would have been ideal. That said, the imbalance gave the shockprod a satisfying heft when swung with sufficient power. The battery started running down after his Xth kill -- he still wasn't keeping count -- but as it happened, the X+1th was carrying an identical prod. Well pleased, he continued working on faceless slavers.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"]

"All right. Let's run with it. Let me show you something."

They had the shooting range to themselves; Ashin locked the door and touched a wall console, entering a code. A holographic projector engaged, filling a quarter of the room with an image of this part of the galaxy.

"The Chimaera has a good few quirks to it. For one, the holotarget emitters are capable of a little more precision than you might think. I've been known to come down here to meditate on strategy while I shoot. Here's where we are, Karfeddion; here's our other main incursion at Bespin; tell me what you see."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Making a collection of the three satellites, and allowing the two droids, the Hegemonic Automaton service droids to secure the load, Coren nodded, pleased with himself. There was a small mini-conservator with a few cold bottles of a cider and some ales. Technically he was freelance, and didn't want to start celebrating early, but... well, maybe he should show some decorum.

“Starchaser to Chimaera, my hold's full. Able to get three satellites, working order. Gunships and I are going to commence clean up of this sector before moving onto the others. Clear this garbage from our space lane.” Apparently he was calling himself one of the Fringe now, that was good, right?

And dust off wasn't for a bit longer, was it? Nah, he had time for some target practice. Changing the music, he let the idea of the cold ones out of his mind for a second.

Friends don't let friends drink and blow up Omega Protectorate space trash.

Switching from salvage to combat mode, the Tiburon's heads-up display changed from blue to red.

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ibaris Varanin]

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

She looked at the image, her lips pursed for a moment or two. Her head cocked to one side, then the other.

"I see four different trade lanes coming through the local area," she said, "and we're kinda in the middle of the slice of pie that three of them make."

Of course she would use pastry as a descriptor.

"Between where we are and where Bespin is, I see..." she pointed at Belsavis, "...couldn't someone else just come through there?"

And dragged her finger down between Barkesh and Mustafar, all the way down to Terminus.

"Right through, Papa. Snip, snip."

 

[Onith Trill]

The smuggler was thrown to the back of a wall, while the rest of the no-longer-civilians were eating the effects of the BTI-Hex grenades.

Chances were nobody on this world would oppose us like that again.

But that smuggler? I don't like him, and I don't like his EMP tech. Don't like EMP crap in general after all, I'm a droid. So I start shooting at the one guy who isn't dead or immobolized due to the shrapnel. One [member="Khaleel Malvern"]. Two of my squad of droids do the same. The other guys get on to recovering the insurgents, slapping 'em with handcuffs and the like. Letting them all die of shrapnel wounds or infections is pretty efficient, gets rid of all the threats with minimal cost, but organics press for things like "trials" and "due process" and such. Which I suppose isn't too bad a thing. Only means their punishments can be that more visible later, and hey, if any of 'em end up missing the death sentence? Maybe they'll become good citizens. I don't know though. Crap's above my paygrade and beyond my programming. Right now all I care about is taking care of threats.

 

[Arage Bao]

Took another good look, shet was hitting the fan, they had taken some of the fellas - the ones who weren't smart enough to see a losing cause and get out once it begun. Hadn't been expecting the Fringe to get here so quickly, right before the doorstep of the den itself, feth. Had wanted to get to the roofs, sniper fire, a lot of bends and turns converted into choking points, ya know how it is. But ya can't get everything in life, some times... life took all it could and ya was left with a lot of crap.

I didn't really have much options here, so I took the rebel way. Ducked the shots, got hits again, in the upperarm this time. Gritted my teeth and took another shot at 'em, 'nother EMP. It would probably do nothing to them, but it might give my fellas some time to escape. Didn't care, I ran. Merrill might have had a plan, Rekali might have stayed and fought to the death, Flint would probably have convinced [member="Tal"] and his squad to join him.

But I was just a guy with a gun, and today I didn't have any solutions.