Denouement (Tygaran Alliance, Firemane and Friends)

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="HK-36"]


Having had plenty of dealings with super-empowered space divas who got drunk on their supernatural powers, Osway privately agreed with HK. Was there a convergence between how droids were programmed and how the old Jedi conscripted infants to indoctrinate them and teach them to let go of emotion? But philosophical discussions about the similarities between droids and Force-sensitives and the importance of control and education would have to wait. Yes, Firemane really liked its double entendres. Gross.


Regardless, Ariawyn Pacaryn looked just a little dubious when HK outlined the awesome stuff she'd be able to do. "You got the technology, huh, metal demon?" she asked sarcastically. "Laying it on a little strongly. But whatever. If you can get me back in fighting shape again to crack the skulls of imperialists and don't turn me into a drone, I'll take it."


"Soulless abomination," another Eldorai soldier muttered. She was not looking well either.


"I don't see Ashira swooping down from heaven in a chariot to heal our wounds," the Corporal retorted caustically, then turned her one good eye back to the aforementioned metal demon. Or rather his copy.


"So what's the catch? Any chances of rejection?" Maybe she'd played a hologame called Human Revolutions, which depicted a dystopian world with cyborgs addicted to Neuropozyne. A lot of them ended up going insane thanks to a brain chip. Well, probably not.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

"Yeah yeah I promise if we don't die here I'll come visit one day. Now can we return to whatever that tattoo means?" She couldn't help the eye roll. Even though she liked the fire lady a lot, this religious talk was annoying to her.

Anyway, luckily for her there were more important matters to attend to. She heard many names from the comm, all of them sounded foreign to her until she heard "Cadalthor." and she regained the interest she lost in all those names. Everybody knew her around here, even if you are someone with no interest in politics. She wasn't the nicest person, to say the least.

Add Tarissa and civil war together.

And that meant trouble.

"I'll keep you company!" She answered the comm immediately after the Host Leader's input about this turn of events. That sounded way more excited than she meant it to sound. Ahh, complicated feelings of youth.

However, this little fangirling moment of hers got interrupted by the sound of a bunch of enemies arriving to the scene and opening fire at them. Elincia sighed. "Well, I'll just come down there." Though the high ground had many advantages, Elincia wasn't good at blasters as she was at melee. Luckily, they had a good shot with them, considering the hole in the sniper's chest. She gave her blaster to the young girl and then smiled. "Try not to kill us." And with a wink, she left running.

A moment or two later, she would be ready to fight alongside the Host Leader.

[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Alize Rosenheim"]

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Elincia Alanis"], [member="Alize Rosenheim"]


"Send a message to Taldir. Tell her we're advancing." What Askari should have done, if she had any sense, was lie down and let the medics carry her away on the stretcher. This would have required common sense instead of valour. It was probably no surprise that she chose the latter over the former.


Her birth family - nay, the blue blooded leeches and schemers for whom she'd never been good enough and who sullied the holy law of Ashira with their hypocrisy - was involved in this vile plot. To stand aside and rest would be dishonourable. Let it not be said that she was without honour. Guilt over Kaeshana also played a role. The Alliance had run and abandoned their siblings.


So she arose, though she was in pain and unsteady on her legs. A medic tried to restrain her, but the Angelii forced her hands off her. Her hands found a stim and she jabbed the needle into her neck. The injected substance was torturous and she winced, but after a while calmed down and felt a surge of energy when the drug coursed through her bloodstream. Her body would hate her in a few hours, but it was now that counted.


Further away, fighting had broken out once more. Attackers, wearing scarlet armour that bore the sigils of the Shining Path, opened heavy fire upon the loyalists. They would all have to die. "Angelii, with me. By bolter shell, flame burst and Sarix steel, the traitors shall be cleansed of the sin of their existence. Let us deliver the fire of absolution! Form shield wall." she declared, shouting loudly to make herself heard over the cacophony of sound. Her good hand gripped her Sarix and she held it up into the air.


"Alanis, take your place in the phalanx. I shall offer cover. We will charge the heretics and pave a road to the Cadalthor den." On first sight, a shield wall was an antiquated formation that had been made obsolete by technological progress...but modern tech actually made it viable.


The wall of protective shields and the Angelii's elemental powers could block blaster fire to a degree, while the rear ranks could lob grenades over the wall or spread out to the sides to fire their own guns or unleash elemental attacks. "Wind!" Supported by her more rested battle sisters, Askari summoned a mist to block the traitors' line of sight towards their targets, if only temporarily.

 

[Nima Tann]

And as quick as it started, the battle was won, with the reinforcements arriving to the scene afterwards. The corpses, or pieces for some, of many lay in the streets painted by blood.

Was it a good job? She wasn't sure about that. A part of her was satisfied it was over, and the other part wasn't that it has been a bloodbath. Again, if they were facing the enemy, it would be another story as she saw worse things in a battlefield, but slaying through their own people like they were the enemies, that was something she couldn't say a good job. Especially after she saw what the reason was. However, what was done was already done. She watched as the alive ones got arrested and brought to somewhere else, and nodded to Tempest when she passed her.

Meanwhile, the healers came to her aid. Luckily, she didn't get any serious wounds this time, a few bandages and painkillers were enough for her treatment. Once that was done, they left, as there were many more that needed medical attention. And so Nima moved towards Tempest, as she got closer it was revealed that Seraph Taldir was there as well with the reinforcements, so, it was going to be interesting as they knew each other from before and one couldn't say they were friendly.

"Thank you for your assistance." She said simply with a nod to the Seraph, and then returned to the situation.

"This... all event was quite unfortunate. But I think we are dealing with bigger forces here. I didn't have the time to look further into it, however I saw that someone managed to convince those people that we are the reason Kaeshana was lost, among many other things. Brainwashing them to think we are the bad people." And we killed them because of somebody else's crime.

"People won't forget what happened here today, and if we don't do something it'll get worse. So what's the plan?"

[member="Tempest"] [member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Six-O"] [member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Caerys Argente"],


"Hey if you would come to the point of acquiring tech that basically gave you the same powers as a Force user, you would be excited about it as well."

The droid quipped, ignoring the Eldar that called him a soulless abomination, letting the troops have their bit of infighting, he did not came there to completely stomp all over their culture,

"You will be more vulnerable to ionic and electrical attacks, although we learned few tricks that can prevent that, and the electromagnetic pulses, those will be more of a problem, you cannot just effectively stop magnets from working unfortunately. Other than that, there are no physical side effects, we have been doing this for a while, in the early stages during the days of the Ancient Republic there were cases of metal getting into the bloodstream and poisoning the user or infections developing because the grafts were rejected by the body, but that was millenniums ago, we have learned how to prevent each side effect and make this consequence free."

The machine pointed out, after all cyborgs were so common in their Galaxy, whether out of necessity like the soldiers HK was addressing or simply as augmentation just for the sake of improving their user that it was a relatively safe process,

"There may come psychological side effects however, for example a time when you will regret your choice, or feel as though your new body parts are alien, it is a natural step everyone with cybernetics had to go through to accept their new nature."

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Nima Tann"], [member="Tempest"], [member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]


Almost as soon as it began, the fight was over. Caught between the Firemane operatives and the Angelii reinforcements, the mob was decimated. Dozens of broken bodies littered the streets around the gunship. Some had been subdued without loss of life or they'd chosen survival over valour and fled the battlefield. The Eldorai warriors quickly cuffed and collared those who'd been pacified by Nima's mentalism. Their time in custody would not be gentle. Many more had been slain, though, and the cries of the wounded filled the air.


Kaida walked towards the crashed gunship, stepping over corpses and pools of blood. She felt...well, actually it would be inaccurate to say that she felt nothing. What she did feel was anger. Anger against her people for being so damn gullible and deluded - and against the nobles and clerics for their lies and deceit.


We should just drive them into a coal mine and blow it up, she thought bitterly. "You stired up a hornet's nest. You should've stayed out and let us deal with the traitors ourselves. From now on I'm in command. Understood?" she said tersely, not responding to Tempest's expression of gratitude. Her tone made it clear that this was not a polite request.


Briefly her eyes fell upon Nima, whom she somewhat knew, then the newcomers in the Firemane group. Taryc she did not know but had heard of. Elpsis had sent her an embarrassingly sappy message about the pyromancer. "Nonetheless, I am glad you alright. The signals come from the Cadalthor residence. A power play. Should've shot the bitches ages ago. We must storm it, eliminate anyone who resists and arrest her confederates." She was not being merciful, their punishment would be deeply painful.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="HK-36"]


"Ashira must be weeping in the heavens, seeing her children debase herself like this," the nameless, pious Eldorai soldier with an antipathy towards cybernetics and thinking machines grumbled.


"Fortunately, I'm Valoran. The Goddess of Battles dictates we use all the tools at our disposal." Ariawyn retorted. "Now quit your whining. It's not your body." She turned her attention back to the metal demon, who seemed to be coming into his own as a salesman. Perhaps that could be an alternate career for the Greycloak if he grew tired of being HK's bodyguard.


Or jealous because he would not get three heads or a phrik body like the original. Anyhow, on with the plot. "You got a point. Always wanted to do what the Angelii could. I figure adjusting won't be easy, but I'm ready to deal with that. Long as I can fight and walk again. Can I see any of these designs now?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="Caerys Argente"],

The machine nodded to the Eldorai soldier, tossing her a holoprojector with the designs,

"There will be two stages of cybernetics used, first there will come the operation to heal your wounds, plant prosthetics, restore you to combat condition, back when we were making HRD units we were able to manufacture synthetic bones that fooled scanners while remaining stronger than normal organic material, that and synthetic muscles. You can choose them if you would like, they would leave few signs of your state as a cyborg, help you blend in better with others."

HK explained as he spoke, the images of synthskin, muscles, and bones used by ARGH would appear on the small round projector,

"Or we can use the designs used for our combat drones and droids. Bones made out of durasteel and duranium, skin that can take a blow from lightsaber, rotors that will allow you to throw vehicles around. You will be stronger and faster than some cyborgs, but the metal will be obvious, there would be no way to hide it. It is your choice whether you want your cybernetics to be more subtle relaying on finesse, or stronger and more fit for brute combat."

The droid continued,

"The second stage will be making special armor that will interface with your cybernetics, while the design will be uniform with other soldiers who agreed to join this program, they will function on hardpoint basis rather than set loadout. There will be special slots and points in your suit that will allow you to customize the weaponry and cybernetics within them from a proper list of components and attachments, Abregado emphasizes versatility in its designs."

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="HK-36"]


The soldier was quiet while the metal demon spoke, taking the time to examine each holographic projection in turn. Ariawyn tried to hide it, but looked more than a little unnerved.


The sight was quite disconcerting to her. Part of her wondered whether she was really going through with this. Her faith taught her that those who mechanically augmented their body defiled it. They sold their soul and strayed from the path of the Goddess. Droids were mechanical parodies of her glorious creation.


But it would allow her to walk and fight again. The clerics and nobles who pontificated about her law had never fired a shot on the battlefield or stormed a trench. Besides, where was Ashira when our home was destroyed? Somewhere in the clouds, listening to the angels play music and enjoying their services? she wondered cynically. Ashira had failed them. If Valora existed, perhaps she'd preserved her soldier for a reason and this was it.


Another image flashed inside her mind. That of the innocents who'd been crucified in Santaissa's ruins. They would not be forgotten. It was cowardice to shirk just because the options offended her sensibilities.


"I see. Thanks for explaining," she finally said. Her eye travelled over the design once more. "I'll go with the first option. I want to fight and have the strength to make a real difference, but I'd like to recognise myself when I look in the mirror. I'll go with finesse." She was still an Eldorai, after all. Fear of stigma probably played a role, as well.


Maybe one day the cyborgised Eldorai could run into some of [member="Joza Perl"]'s wounded marines, if any of them got upgraded, and kill imperialists together.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Caerys Argente"],

The droid nodded hearing the soldier's choice of a more subtle body,

"Understandable, there are still some additional systems we could put into a body like that without making them too obvious but most of your power and abilities will come from the exoskeleton suit."

The holotransmitter would keep on showing different images of Abregado's gadgetry,

"We have well developed systems that could work in tangent with your cybernetics, sound dampeners to silence your movements, cloaking devices to allow you to disappear, silent firing shatterguns we could mount on braces, you would become like a wraith haunting the First Order until they would all pay."

The droid proposed before looking to the Eldorai once more,

"Do you have any more questions about the projects and the possibilities it presents?"

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="HK-36"]


Ariawyn thought for a moment, studying the images. She should probably call her family and tell her about the...changes in her life. Then again, knowing their convictions, that would probably be a bad idea and just make her doubt herself.


She'd made her choice. The soldier could imagine Aunt Velatha saying something along the lines of 'at least the fool girl has only polluted her body, and not fallen for a male human monkeigh.' "Like an avenging revenant, stalking evil and bringing the wicked to justice. I like that," her bruised lips smiled thinly. She nodded while the metal demon listed various gadgets that could help her gain an edge in combat.


She shook her head in response to the droid's query. "No, no questions. I believe I know enough for now. I'll go through with it." She hoped she would not be the only Eldorai, since otherwise she'd be even more isolated.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Caerys Argente"],

The Greycloak nodded to Ariawyn,

"Then it shall be done."

He confirmed before looking out to the other wounded soldiers,

"How about the rest of you?"

He addressed the Eldorai, moving past Ariawyn's bed to look over them,

"The Sith have wounded you, but that is not the end, we can help you regain your strength, fight back against these bastards, show them that an injured Eldorai is not a dead Eldorai, avenge the Kaeshana."

The Greycloak proposed, scanning over them,

"What say you? Are you done or will you show them that leaving you alive was the worse mistake of their existence?"

 

[Tempest]

[member="Nima Tann"] [member="Kaida Taldir"]

Tempest bristled. “Because your people were doing such a fine job controlling things before we arrived. Perhaps if you’d moved a bit quicker you could have removed those AA guns. I will listen to your orders, but you are not my superior, Kaida.”

Like a summer storm the flash of anger passed.
“Let’s get moving then. Have you got a spare Yazgid we can use? I can call in another bird but it’ll waste valuable time.”

“The people here are angry and someone tried to give them an easy scapegoat, Nima. Sadly that’s how people tend to work; seize the nearest excuse. It’s not like any of them would be here or anything without the very people they’re railing against like you, me and Kaida.”

Tempest too was disgusted by the way the Eldorai had just turned on a dime at the first setback. Were they so pampered by peace that they had no idea just how long and hard a war could be? No, it had been near a thousand years since their last total war, Tempest thought. Complacency was a terrible thing.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Nima Tann"], [member="Tempest"]


"Don't tell me how to run my operation, Tempest. I got the intel, you needed to be rescued. Perhaps your glorious leader could look past her personal ego for once," Kaida retorted frostily. She did not mention that she'd disobeyed orders to help the Dahomian. It was not a Kaida thing to say.


The problem with both women was that they were angry and stubborn, and thus both incapable of backing down. Kaida agreed with Tempest...to a degree, but she would not admit it. Especially not in public in the presence of her soldiers. The Exodus should have been a learning experience for the Eldorai, but it had not.


The problem was, in Kaida's estimation, that rather than making a clean break, the Space Elves had been compelled to transplant the same rotten system that had held them back for centuries. There had been logical reasons for this, but now it crippled them again. Too many of the Eldorai middle class were pampered, too many aristos and clerics obsessed with intrigue and certain that Ashira had given them a divine mandate. They did not know the meaning of honour and sacrifice. And their goddess was a fraud.


"Yazgid is inbound. Move out. Askari is already advancing." If she gets herself killed by brazenly showing off, I'll bring her back, chew her out and shoot her again. Kaida was the best friend ever. A second IFV turned up across the road and dashed towards the small Firemane group. Kaida did not wait, but boarded her own, with Angelii soon pouring in. She did not look back to spare the corpses a glance.

 

[Nima Tann]

Tension, tension everywhere!

After a brief and cold talk between Tempest and Kaida, the Seraph left the scene quite angrily. After her departure, Nima talked. Kaida would probably hear some because of elf ears as she moved.

"Well, all I see here is us proving whoever manipulated the civilians right. You didn't hesitate to declare them enemies and bring destruction upon your own people. Seize the nearest excuse, just like you said. These people didn't like us so it has come to this, that's true. But what we have done here didn't help to fix that fact either." She added, even though her words were a bit harsh, she had a surprisingly calm tone. Or a tired one, it was up to interpretation. "It happened years ago in Kaeshana." She was talking about the execution she couldn't stop. A fellow Seraph was involved in that event as well. "And it brought us here today. People don't forget."

"I am sorry. But I can't see this situation as simple as black and white. We will be held responsible for this as they are, whatever our reasons were. I hope we can all accept that. Now, shall we move?"

It was a long, long day. People were tired, the air was tense. Everyone was angry at each other. It was all a big mess. So, the faster they caught whoever was responsible for this the better.

With that, she departed as well towards the vehicle which came to pick them up.

[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Tempest"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="HK-36"]


In the aftermath of Greycloak addressing the group, there was a brief moment of silence. Then soldiers murmured amongst one another, before finally they began to speak up, here and there. The proposal was not without controversy.


"I don't want to be a bloody tin can."


"I lost friends on Kaeshana. I want to kill those bastards and get payback."


"If it makes me walk and fight again, good."


"It's blasphemy! The Goddess..."


"What has the damn Goddess done to help us?"


"It's a decision we all got to make for ourselves, girls...and boys," Ariawyn suddenly interjected. "If she's watching, she'd want us to fight back and do whatever is necessary to free Kaeshana? Forget what the clergy says, forget what those who'd judge you would say, think about what you want and how far you're ready to go." That seemed to resonate amongst a significant number of the injured soldiers. One by one, several hands went up.


"Feth the Sith."


"Feth the First Order."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Caerys Argente"],

The Greycloak scanned over the room slowly seeing the reactions and the hands of volunteers go up after his speech and the support from Ariawyn. The droid would turn around, his grey cloak swooshing softly as he did, wrapping around his body like a burrito from the movements. He looked across the room towards Osway and sounded out ominously,

"I believe they are ready."

Of course he would still probably have to ask each of them if they preferred to go the brute or finesse route with their cybernetics, but that was not as quite cinematic, plus they could always do it before the surgery.

Even if Osway would agree with the machine right away, the surgery probably wouldn't be prepared till another few hours or a day or two, after all they still needed time to get everything ready and for the wounded soldiers to make peace with their decision, seeing what stance most Eldorai citizens took on the matter.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="HK-36"]


That did not sound ominous at all! Regardless, having said her piece, Ariawyn slumped back into her bed. Exhaustion and tiredness overtook her, even as her eyes briefly followed the metal demon when he departed the room, his grey dramatically swooshing around. Some of the soldiers kept talking, some sounding enthusiastic about the possibility of being able to crush Sith and Stormtroopers, while others were still dubious or nervous. Doubtless this was a matter they would have to give a lot of thought.


Meanwhile, the good Doctor had been watching the whole process like a hawke. "They need time to come to terms with their decision and decide which augmentations they'd like. Some will want to contact their families or seek spiritual guidance," Osway declared in an authoritative tone that tolerated no contradiction, shaking her head.


"And we will need time to make preparations for surgery. Two days." They'd probably need less time than that to get everything ready, but it was only appropriate to give the patients some time. She would call an Eldorai priestess to minister to those who needed guidance. One who would not condemn them out of hand and wish fire and brimstone upon them.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Caerys Argente"],

The Greycloak would nod to Osway in agreement as he want out of the room to join her, turning once more to look back in,

"Two days."

The machine repeated,

"It will give us enough time to get everything ready just right, add in more customizations, perhaps even push few new patents through we had laying around."

The Greycloak would turn to look at the woman,

"We work fast like that."

He informed her with a quip before turning to look at the wounded once more,

"Anything else you would need me to present or discuss in the mean time?"

The droid asked, as much as he did not minded to stay, if there was nothing left for him but stand around the might as well go check out on one of the nearby Abregado colonies he heard so much about.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

With the orders of the Host Leader, she joined the battle with her sisters. It seemed their job wasn't finished quite yet, as more traitors came, but all the better for the young Angelii, as she loved the adventure of it very much.

Even though the numbers of their attackers were quite high and the Angelii were exhausted from all the events, the traitors continued to fall one by one, with the help of the barrage of fire the fire lady and the Angelii provided for them, and the lucky few faced a quick death by the Sarix steel.

The battlefield was filled with the screams of their enemies, and soon with their corpses. Then silence took over.

Absolute silence.

It seemed there weren't any more coming, so the path was open for the Angelii to advance, at least for now. Elincia moved towards the fire lady to report that, and also check if she was okay. Mostly the latter, but anyway.

"The path is clear. I believe we can move on now!" She said, couldn't help but gaze at her wounds. It seemed there were quite a few, and some of them looked a little serious. If the Host Leader was careful, she could catch the worry in her eyes for a second there, but then Elincia put on her usual expression and looked away.

[member="Vaena Askari"]