Frigid Shadows [Atrisian Empire Dominion of Csilla]

[Antera]

Somarae twisted her Naginata into a dive as the fighters reached the upper atmosphere, the first few waves were already approaching the edge of her weapon range, and even more craft were beginning to launch from the planet's surface.

They must be launching from somewhere, some structure under the ice, she mused, weaving through falling debris before attacking another of the suicidal craft from head on. She flipped through her scanners, ignoring fighters already in the air and instead finding their points of origin in the ice.

"Dao 3 to Dao 4 and 5. I want to check something out, cover me."

She dove almost vertically down towards the surface, eyes straining against the glare in the ice as she looked for the break. One of the fighters appeared directly ahead of her, a deft roll out of the way saving her from collision. Her wingmen made short work of it.

There.

It was an artificial opening, she had no idea how it had been placed beneath the glacier, but it must have been one of the launch tubes. She was unable to establish a lock, instead she reached out with her mind, expanding her senses in the fraction of a second before she'd have to pull back on the controls, or die in a fiery crash.

She took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger, releasing a single proton torpedo down the center of the opening before yanking back hard on her controls and pulling back to break away, unable to assess the immediate impact of the strike as she skimmed mere meters over the surface of the glacier.

@[member="Akio Kahoshi"]

 

[Qhorin Solas]

@[member="Ashin Varanin"] | @[member="Mirien Valdier"] | @[member="Black Dove"] | @[member="Naamah Aesham"]​

________________________
​

I couldn't help but be touched by Mirien's words, despite the utter severity of her gaze. If her eyes were daggers, I'd have been stabbed a thousand times over. Despite my unchanging expression -- a soft smile -- I wasn't entirely unaffected by the situation, but I hadn't the time to reply; a limping woman appeared, making her way towards us through a mass of bodies both dead and alive. Behind her, the Ozzlites and Klaxxi surged -- between her and Mirien, however, the aliens could not advance closer, no matter how hard they strained, their pathway blocked by telekinetic force.

After the strange woman reached the relative safety of the tunnel I raised an open palm to direct the tumultuous energy I'd gathered, and pushed. The kinetic force ripped into the cavern's ceiling with a deafening boom, cracking the ice and rupturing the jagged stalactites. The wicked formations shattered like glass, falling to the ground as cutting flakes of ice. Fault lines spread rapidly from the impact zone; I operated under the belief that is was much easier to collapse a structurally damaged ceiling than a completely unaffected one.

As the ice cracked, I shifted my hand, and pulled. With the stranger's considerable power added to my own, the task was exceedingly simple.

The ceiling fell, burying the Klaxxi and their Ozzlite slaves beneath several tons of solid ice. The cavern quaked from the impact, debris and snow kicking up in the air, halted from blinding and choking us by Mirien's shield. My eyes fell across the others; aside from a few scrapes and bruises, everyone seemed relatively unharmed, save for Mirien herself. I inclined my head towards the newcomer. "You have my thanks," I said, deactivating my lightsaber and clipping it to my belt. "I couldn't have done that on my own." Not without more preparation. I was skilled, but I wasn't that skilled. My eyes flickered to Mirien. Had she really been prepared to sacrifice herself to save us?

Yes, the Force whispered in my ear. The Grand Inquisitor had summarily defied all of my expectations of her. Sometimes it was nice being wrong. "And thank you as well, my lady." I didn't say for what. I didn't know exactly what I was thanking her for myself.

I used the brief reprieve to work through my fatigue, giving what I could to the Force. All that Rage... it had taken a lot out of me.

 

[Akio Kahoshi]

"Sir, Captain Tren is offering to send over some engineers to assist."

Akio thought about it. Personnel movement in the middle of combat was dangerous, and the Atsushi should have plenty of engineers. Still, this was the kind of problem that could cause the loss of more than just a few engineers that might get shot down if his ship was not repaired. "Very well, send a squadron of fighters to guard his shuttles and prepare the hangers to accept them."

And easy enough with most of their craft already deployed. Returning his attention to the overall battle for the moment, Akio saw a Naginata squadron attempting to dive bomb the enemy. He could see a number of enemy fighters destroyed as they attempted to leave the snow, but even more erupted into the skies from nearby banks. It seemed implausible that so many fighters could simply be hidden underneath snow and ice, but then they had an entire world to hide themselves. The question was how many more were hidden.

@Davik Tren, @Somarae

 

[Lekin'ed'omelan]

As the battle, if it could really be called that given the mindless slaughter of the enemy fighters, continued to wage Jun Nedo continued to monitor the flag ship. At least it appeared to still have communications. Should communications fail his rank would put the Jun in charge of the fleet, and while he might have commanded the chiss fleet he was simply not familiar enough with the Atrisian vessels to properly utilize them.

On the surface clawcraft continued to dance through the air picking off as many fighters as they could before the strange enemy craft managed to escape into space. The enemies had to run out eventually, and it seemed they would not be able to defeat the Atrisians unless something unexpected happened.

 

[Cora Passek]

@[member="Akio Kahoshi"]

Cara was moving fast, damn near running to her destination, constant chatter in her ear on various repairs being completed, small problems. So much chatter, but her mind kept track of it all as she raced down corridors, climbing down ladders, racing across catwalks. She knew the danger, the risks of the ship in this state. Knew too well.

Soon enough she came to the shielding section. Everything neatly organized, labeled, perfect in her eyes. She knew where everything was even without the malicious organization that she demanded. Shields were drawing much power, pulling so much, the woman was certain that one particular junction box was the problem.

A man raced up behind her as she surveyed the scene, a large tool kit in hand as well as a backpack on his shoulders. "Your kit as requested."

"Thanks Simon." She said setting both down on the floor, first she needed to follow the trail. Looking searching. Keenly listening as she went along, a hand running across a piping that held the wiring that powered the shields. The hum resonated into her fingertips, and it shouldn't. It was strained, too much so. And the woman could feel it.

Pausing, she returned to grab the kit and rushed on. Once again she returned to where she left off. Hand back on the piping, she kept moving, a little slower, a little more carefully. She was getting closer to the reactor as she moved on. A worrying sign in her eyes. Finally her eyes came to the blown junction. To fix it, would get power online, but she needed to go fix the problem at the start.

"Sam, get Lex down here at the reactor, junction 172 blown. That's why we are on backup. But hold on bringing it back up till I say so. Do it before, and it will just blow again."

"Yes, Ma'am." And off he ran, speaking into his comlink quickly as he went.

Cara moved back to the shield section. Sighing, once more she set the bags down, grabbed a few small tools, a few parts, wiring, some other things and tucked them into a work belt. Where she was going, there was going to be little room to maneuver, and even worse she had to do this while everything was live. She couldn't take the shields down. But there was a small chance when she was finished they'd have to be switched off for a second, and back on. Not something anyone was going to like but it would all matter of what she saw once she worked back through the guts of the shields.

Taking a deep breath, Cara slid between two tight panels and pushed deeper into the guts, after a minute or two the space opened up more. "Clearly need to redesign that." She muttered. Only someone her size would fit. Finally with a bit of space, she came to where she needed to be. The woman could hear it, it was so much worse in here, than out there.

Pressing the comlink to her ear, she switched the channel to the bridge. "The good news Found the problem, both problems. One being fixed as we speak, second.... Its more troubling. I have to work on it live. I can do most of it, most of it ninety nine percent of it with it live. Bad new, that last bit, the single connection, I need shields off, for one, maybe two seconds." Less if I don't drop anything. "We'll see if it's needed, but I have this thing about not being fried into a black little skeleton and would like to remain not in that state."

Already she was fleshing out the parts, in the tight space. I drop something, soooo screwed. We're all screwed. Cause she knew perfectly well she wouldn't reach it. Not here. Really should have thought about how I designed this sections. Serves me right. Fething moron that I am... Nooooo I thought it a PERFECTLY good idea. Small spaces to work in yup! Great things! Places where you drop something you ain't getting it back. Gods what an idiot! She griped at herself the entire time while constructing and entire new part in that tiny little space. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have. She continued in her mind as she used a wrench working a little piece in her hands about the size of a candle. Get this done, get it in, connection off.... wait! Reroute power!

"Enes! Reroute power to the shields, through sections 19-23. Then shut 24 off. Spread between that should keep anymore surges from happening while I work this." Sections, she knew were not online right now, sections she could use merely to run power to the shields without taking them down by routing it through. She waited and her section soon grew oddly dim only red-lights faintly lighting her work. "Fething hell." Thank the stars she could have done this by feel alone.

Switching the channel to the bridge, "Scratch that, power reroute, no need to frighten everyone." She knew the shields might have flickered for a microsecond if that during the switch and would do so again when switched back. "Will be a blip the same next time, when I get it back. Using offline systems to route power through, spread across five sections, should do the trick."

 

[Mirien Valdier]

@Rexus Drath @Cronos Aegir @Mirien Valdier @Bellalika @Naamah Aesham @Black Dove @Ashin Varanin

As the tunnel started to cave in, Mirien held on for a little while longer, holding them in place to ensure they were crushed in the collapse. The force only confirmed the massive amount of death in the tunnel behind them.

She gave a glance to Ashin, "Thank you. Just one moment later and you'd have died with them I'm afraid." The name she didn't remember but this one she knew. "I know you, recall you, but from where I do not know." Her eyes looked down, the limp she'd noticed in the tunnel. "Are you hurt? And can we help?"

Her eyes shifted tiredly to Cronos, her exhaustion in the force oh so clear. It had taken so much out of her to hold back the horde of beings bent on their destruction, for reasons she knew not. Every part of her wanted to collapse to the ground, and nearly did the first step she took into the new tunnel, the only way they had to go, her legs did try so hard to give way. But Mirien was the stubborn sort. There'd be no way she'd show weakness here. Though the broken ribs, those might be a small problem making her breathing harder and more painful by the moment.

"I'll take the lead again." She said expecting no one to question her. Hurt or not, weakened or not, she was their leader. Maybe not the stranger's but the rest followed her. Slowly Mirien moved to the front of the group, motioning for Ashin to join her. Wishing to make herself remember, recall the one that seemed so familiar to her. "But take a moment, for now we are safe here, but we will not be for long. We must get quickly moving. We've a man to rescue." With that, she finally sat on the cold icy floor, an arm guarding her ribs. Alien monster had gotten her good.

 

[Antera]

Somarae blinked, pulling back on her controls just in time to avoid another of the Ozzlite fighters. Something was going on below the surface, something she could only get the vaguest sensations of, but they came strong enough to press on her psyche.

What in the world is going on down there...

The impressions remained unspecific. She could almost sense her master, her fellow inquisitors and... others that she couldn't even hope to identify beyond the simple existence of. She shook her head violently, trying to chase the sensation away and return her focus to the dogfight at hand. She was only partially successful on her own, but a burst of energy tearing away most of her shields snapped her back to immediate reality. She banked hard to the right, the axial laser tracking her burned a trail through the ice. The blast crept closer to her, until Dao 4 managed to line up a shot and scored another kill.

"Dao 3, are you all right?" came the voice of her wingman over the comm.

"Fine, I'm fine... continue the attack. Get as many of these craft while they're still in the atmosphere as you can."

"Dao 4, roger."

"Dao 5, roger."

Somarae re-oriented her craft, dumb-firing another torpedo at a second suspected launch site before twisting upwards in pursuit of more prey.

@[member="Akio Kahoshi"], @[member="Mirien Valdier"]

 

[Akio Kahoshi]

@[member="Somarae"], @[member="Cara Sampson"]

"Order the Chwei's to start bombing the surface." Akio ordered. "Watch any tunnels our troops are fighting in, we do not want to cave in the ground above them."

Then the captain of the ship approached the Emperor and explained Cara's intentions. "She wants to turn the shields off?" Akio asked the ship's captain incredulously. "Those shields are the only thing keeping those fighters from opening new trenches on this ship!"

"Yes I know but..."

Then the blip of shield fluctuation came and went, and word of her rerouting power came from Cara shortly after. The Emperor would need to speak with her about talking before doing such actions. The blip had been short enough only a few microseconds of laser got through. Not enough to do more than heat the ships armor. At least there appear to be no significant dama--

The thought was interrupted as suddenly more alarms went off, as power surges all over the ship started disabling local systems. None of the major systems had been effected, but entire areas were either without power, locked in rooms, unable to communicate, or otherwise disable. "How quickly will Captain Tren's engineers be here, because we need them immediately."

 

[Darth Libertas]

@[member="Mirien Valdier"], @[member="Cronos Aegir"], @[member="Black Dove"], @[member="Ashin Varanin"]

Exciting things had happened! A ceiling had been torn down - of course a tank had not been thrown yet and no one had summoned a whirlwind of grenades - lots of spiders had been squashed, a mysterious, unknown force-user had appeared to help them. Fortunately Mirien was still alive! Naamah would have been tremendously unhappy if she had not survived. Despite being a sadist and sort of deranged, Naamah did care. It was rather sweet really what for a twisted little family they had.

She moved with a groan, quickly rejoining the group. There was a measure of guilt she felt for having chickened out. She had just been following orders but still. "Mistress, are you...," then she stopped herself. Mirien was clearly hurt, but Naamah knew that the boss lady would not want to admit weakness. She would not do so either. Naturally she would want to take point, Naamah beheld the corpses and thought for a moment. Time to make herself useful. "I can morph into the form of these...creatures and scout ahead," she offered quietly as she approached Mirien, looking eager.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

Somewhere else, but probably close enough...

Csilla. Here it had all began. The terrorist Zero had unleashed the virus that would become known as the Gulag Plague, bringing civilisation to its knees. Thus had been the doing of Pestilence, released by the Gods to punish mankind for its sins, much as Leviathan was loosed to devour the haughty. Or so the legends said, but then the people of Artam had been fools.


A Mark Two Bolter barked loudly, explosive bolts exiting it as a lone woman stared down the horde of Ozzlites coming at her. They were feral and mindlessly devoted in their death charge, coming at her from various angles, dodging, backpedalling, unfliching in their yearning to spill her blood. Equally she was unfliching in blasting them into chunks of flesh and so bodies were sent flying as the grenades hit home. An Ozzlite got the drop on her and then she slammed the heavy gun into its head, with such force it was popped like jellie.

A beast was grabbed by the shoulder and smashed into an ice wall, as it reeled she stomped her foot on its throat, crushing it with a sickening crunch. As beasts came in close she dropped the boltgun, revealing two blaster pistols and advanced, shooting or kicking beasts that came in close. At one stage she was cornered by four beasts, but as their blades struck her, she simply rammed one so hard he crashed into an ice wall, turned and fired into her attackers, firing with unerring accuracy. One Ozzlite got the drop on her and rammed a blade into her side, the woman twitched, but then abruptly spun around to grab his arm and twist hard so that it broke, then snapped his neck. Ripping the sword out without missing a beat she sent it flying through the air to hack an Ozzlite's head off.


For a moment her eyes flashed, buried photoreceptors activating, before they resumed their normal human colour. Cold eyes scanned the snow covered plain, switching into different vision modes. UV showed several Ozzlites hiding in the shadows, waiting for her, she heard their high-pitched war cries. There was...something out there but she could not pinpoint it. Then suddenly as she picking up her bolter she was hit with powerful force, so strong she was knocked over and fell for a few metres. A shape was upon her, but invisible to her eyes, and immense black spikes pounded against her, powerful legs smashed into her, its spines ripped into her face, smoke coiling off, revealing metal. She heard angry, aggressive screeching, then suddenly surged forward and rammed her opponent with such force it flew off her. If she had been able to feel pain this would have hurt her, for the spider creature had a powerful exoskeleton.

Her fist just smashed into hard metal, with a blow that would have killed a man. As the creature surged forward she leapt into the air with inhuman agility, jumping high, but it wrapped some of its countless legs around hers and forced her down with a loud thud guaranteed to break bones. As it lunged at her one of her hands reached for a blaster pistol and fired, the blaster shots obviously doing nothing, though they might slow it down, as the spider wrapped its arms around her neck and twisted she grabbed one of its legs, still enclosed around hers, and pulled very, very hard with inhumane force. The beast screeched, then the leg came undone and as the beast recoiled she lashed out and beat at it, bludgeoning what she presumed to be its face with great concussive force as she jumped to her feet. A hard kick smashed into it as the leg hit home. Using the beast's own leg she batted attacks aside, dropping the pistol to rip out appendages before her kneecap met with its chest and the beast's leg was rammed through its mouth.


She dropped the improvised weapons, retrieving her boltgun and reloading, more shapes approaching in the shadows. Part of her face had been ripped, revealing metal.

 

[Zalderic Drayke]

Zalderic sat down to rest on the icy floor, he had started to grow a bit accustomed to the cold. Mirien was clearly wounded, but their was no way she would show weakness. He checked his Blaster again, it was in good condition. Someone else had joined the group, he didn't know whom, but at least they didn't appear to be hostile. They were risking a lot going after their captured comrade. He wondered if it was even worth it, maybe he deserved this fate. But it was not his position to question orders, only to follow them.

@[member="Mirien Valdier"]

 

[Antera]

Somarae continued her climb, twisting the controls to and fro to evade fire. Striking at the still unlaunched fighters had apparently pissed something off, as now even more of the pyramidal nightmares were redirecting their focus at the Atrisian fighter squadrons, rather than launching into orbit to engage cap ships.

Thankfully, they still proved to be woefully unskilled pilots, but the sheer impossible seeming numbers of the swarm kept them hard pressed to keep up.

"Dao 3 to Dao 4, I've lost sight of 5. Do you see him?" she cursed under her breath as she drew a bead on another target, a single paired burst from her cannons knocking it out of the sky.

"Dao 4 to Dao 3, negative. I do not have 5 on scope."

"... Understood. Continue engagement but keep an eye out for any signals. He might have been cut off."

"Dao Leader to Dao Squadron, all fighters rendezvous at grid C-17, altitude 3,500 meters. We are clearing a path for the bombers. Repeat..."

Somarae didn't have to listen a second time, she turned and burned for the rendezvous point, one eye still checking the scanners for her missing wingman as they went.

@[member="Akio Kahoshi"]

 

[Mirien Valdier]

@Rexus Drath @Cronos Aegir @Mirien Valdier @Bellalika @Naamah Aesham @Black Dove @Ashin Varanin

Mirien looked to Naamah, the look in her eyes said it all. And gently with the force she reached out and touched Naamah's mind. I am hurt. More than anyone else but I cannot show this. I cannot. Broken ribs. Right now it's just pressure on my lungs, hard to breathe. There is a risk for .... Mirien closed her eyes, and drew into herself trying to ease off the pain as best she could. She was no healer, never had been gifted with such. Lung could be punctured if I'm hit just right. Someone needed to know the truth of the matter, and Naamah she trusted more than the others.

"Naamah, go ahead. Scout on for us while we rest and lick our wounds but we don't have long. I can sense that much. But I know this is the right path, the right tunnel. Go down, take the first left, then a right after you pass two tunnels." Mirien oddly had a good sense of the exact route to Cody. One could wonder why, question why. But there was a good reason, and one that was generally a secret she held close to her heart. "That is the path we are taking. Hurry on and let us know what you see."

 

[Cora Passek]

@[member="Akio Kahoshi"]

"Who was the damn fèi wù nǎo cán bái chī bèndàn that we contracted for the power installation!?!" Cara screamed as more alarms were up and her section went completely dark. "And now I'm in the dark."

"I hope you know." She said speaking into the com to the bridge "That I'm murdering who we contracted out for the wiring this shǐ bǎ ba isn't done right! All wrong! Shouldn't be acting like this!" Cara was livid and given the amount of Atrisia cursing she was doing, one couldn't blame her. "I should have power up, so long as I can make this connection blind. Make the part, in the fething DARK! Ain't even got emergency lighting in here, which really worries me!"

The whole team had heard her start to finish, she just the only one allowed to speak when clicked into the com to the bridge. "Just be glad I can do this in my gorram sleep! So in the dark is nothing!" Yelling, always yelling. No doubt the Captain's ears were ringing and so was all of her teams but when Cara got angry, rightly truly angry, hell tended to follow just a step behind her. She got angry, would burst out, then calm. When Cara got calm, it was time to worry. Someone somewhere, was going to die when she got her paws on them.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@Rexus Drath @Cronos Aegir @Mirien Valdier @Bellalika @Naamah Aesham @Black Dove @Ashin Varanin

She knew Dark Repair, but not well, and that power had its own complications. Valdier's rib would have to wait. "Karrde, from Fringe," she said, which had to be the most unassuming possible way to announce the presence of a military dictator. "Treaty of Ithor brought me in to lend a hand. And no, the limp's permanent. Blame a Jedi Grandmaster."

But you knew me by another face and another name, before I had any throne at all. Hello, Mirien. It's Ashin. It's been too long.

She limped down the tunnel with the group, accepting the pain of her wounds but not blotting it out with Crucitorn. "I hear you lost a man down here. I've spent my life in the Unknown Regions and never heard of the species we're fighting. The arachnoid ones are a challenge and a half -- and good at getting you by surprise. No reflection on him, getting caught."

 

[Darth Libertas]

@[member="Mirien Valdier"], @[member="Rexus Drath"], @[member="Cronos Aegir"], @[member="Bellalika"], @[member="Ashin Varanin"]

Understanding dawned upon Naamah's face...there was something like compassion in her eyes when she heard how badly Mirien was hurt. In a way she also felt privileged that Mirien would divulge this to her - it meant that she trusted her. It did not make it hurt less her. Or reduce her eagerness to rip an Ozzlite's spine out and chop off its finger for her. Naamah did not have telepathy and so she could not directly respond but her thoughts were quite clear. "I'll rip the heart out of one of the beasts for you," she said quietly but fervently as she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate.

It took some time and her face grimaced in pain at the exertion, her expression twisted but then the change overcame. It seemed an effort for her previously soft and human skin seemed to first morph to reptilian scales before she got the process under control and gradually the plate like skin growths took over. Hair seemed to recede and her mouth thinned until she resembled the Ozzlite. It was not that good a transformation, for she was quite a bit shorter than one, but on first sight few would know the difference, though presumably the big spider things would. She breathed in deeply, opening a mouth that looked like a gaping wound with tiny teeth.



These things are so damn ugly, should dissect them all just because of that, she thought as she took into the darkness of the snow-covered, foreboding tunnels, taking several turns. As she advanced onward she could hear loud noise, screeching and hissing. She almost stumbled as she came across the mutilated bodies of a few Chiss, who looked like they had been ripped apart and mauled by wild animals, some limbs being plundered so much only bones remained. Her bloodlust heightened as she believed she could smell the foul beasts. Well, she did like the artistry of ripping that Chiss apart and splattering her blood across the snow, but really, it was bad form to leave limbs lying around like that. Any civilised being would put the best parts in jars and place them on a shelf.


She hit the snow as she advanced onward further from the tunnel, taking a peek across the corner after having passed two tunnels. She saw a long procession of Chiss, looking beaten and emaciated, being led down a pathway by a group of Ozzlites carrying spears, herded really, much like life stock. One of the Chiss, a woman who looked like a wraith, collapsed and was grabbed by one of the Ozzlites, who screeched. Naamah felt a prickling in the Force, then suddenly one of the Klaxxi appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, the big arachnid was not bothering to mask itself since clearly it reigned supreme. The Chiss woman trembled and thrashed but the Ozzlite's grip was stronger and she was roughly shoved towards the spider, who enveloped her with its countless legs. Amidst her screams it tore into and devoured her.


Naamah watched the scene in morbid fascination. Oh, these creatures were...nice. Perhaps she and Mirien could break one. That would be a nice revenge. As she was pondering this she was suddenly roughly grabbed by one of the Ozzlites, who screeched something in a language she did not understand, then motioned wildly with its claws for her to join the group. Well...that might be a problem.


Then suddenly she heard a very loud, very distinctive bang and the Ozzlite winced, red eyes searching wildly...Naamah would not be able to recognise it, though Ashin/Karde/woman of many names in general surely would. It was that of a Boltgun, Mark Two in this case, a gun with destruction credentials in general and force-user killing ones in particular.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

Still somewhere else, but getting closer

There was seemingly no end to the beasts that had claimed the snow planet as their own. The Ozzlites were easily dealt with. They were mindless and primitive much like Reavers, but less strong. A hard punch to the throat would crush it, their arms broke easily when one applied pressure, grabbing one and smashing it into the ice had been efficient as well. To conserve ammo she mainly used her pistols for ranged combat, shooting one that came close and clawed at her face straight through the chest and the mouth so that it might fall like a headless puppet.

The giant spiders were a different matter. They were smart, somehow they often were invisible to her. Pouncing on top of her when she least expected it. She rolled as one of the arachnids leapt upon her, managing to avoid. Its many legs enclosed themselves around her much like a snake trying to crush her windpipe and smash her bones by exerting enough pressure, sickening crunches were heard. Fortunately she did not need to breathe. More spines smashed against her face. She fired with her blaster pistol until it was ripped out of her grasp and thrown across the snow, her fist smashed straight at the creature's head - well she thought it was its head - hitting straight through its mouth. The spider recoiled and was pushed back hard. A human would have had his face smashed by the blow. Skin on her hand had been ripped, exposing the metal, as the spider came at her again she pulled a grenade and let it tumble to the ground then suddenly leapt high...very high, seemingly unconcerned as the shockwave caught her and thrust her through the air, the explosion hitting the spider full-on.

Hurt and with its exoskeleton damaged the being still advanced, its spiny legs seeking to catch her but Moira grabbed two of them and pulled hard, wrenching them backwards with great force and twisting. A hard kick hit its chest, then she ripped the legs off. Wielding them like blades she thrust them straight into its mouth, running through it. She staggered a bit, she felt no pain, but the spider hit with blows that could crush bones, but more creatures were coming and so she ran at great speed as more Ozzlites and no doubt spiders closed in on her, scooping up the boltgun on the way. Coming close to what seemed some sort of tunnel she jumped and as she came down from the air landed right on top of an Ozzlite, bringing it to the ground. As the beast snarled and struck at her with some spear thing, she enclosed her thighs around its neck and twisted hard. A crunch was heard, the creature was dead.


As cold eyes flashed and scanned the area, another immense, spined shape rose out of the snow and advanced towards her. Taking aim with the boltgun she squeezed the trigger, pumping it full with those infamous explosive rounds that had become the bane of Bando Gora. The boltgun barked and spewed out destruction at the command of its wielder, whose face had taken such a hit a metal plate was exposed underneath the ripped flesh.

 

[Davik Tren]

Davik had long since sent a shuttle to the emporer's flagship to help in the necessary repairs to whatever blasted thing had broken during the battle. This was not to say the battle had subsided as the occasional alien fighter broke through and made a quick streak of fire on the side of a frigate's shields although for the most part they were being kept out of reach of the main fleet ships. The transfer had gone through flawlessly and the shuttle landed in one of the extra hangers on the vessel as the main hangars were being reserved for the fighters and bombers that were in combat at the moment.

Davik had sent his best engineer, Simon Zelle to the malfunctioning capital ship that had been the talk of the fleet for more than half an hour and he trusted that the veteran engineer would find no issue with the circuitry of the experimental ship, even with his youth. The engineer would walk quickly from the shuttle in a finely pressed engineers uniform, along with his tools and headed towards the bridge with intent to make contact with the head of the engineering crew for the emporer's vessel. He assumed that this would be a long day indeed.

@Cara Sampson @Akio Kahoshi

 

[Akio Kahoshi]

@[member="Davik Tren"], @[member="Cara Sampson"], @[member="Somarae"]

Akio excused Cara's swearing for now given the circumstances, but he felt the need to defend the Atrisians who had built the ship. "The ship was inspected at every part of construction, and followed the original designs as closely as possible. I do not think the problem lies with the installation."

Finally word of Tren's engineering arriving reached the bridge, and Akio once again contacted Cara. "Another engineer has arrived to help out, find him something to do. From here it would seems you have plenty to dole out."

Turning back to the main battle, he watched as the fleets bombed maneuvered in on different flight vectors. There was enough of them to blanket bomb large sections of the planet, but without the fighters to guard them they would get torn apart by the enemy fighters. Perhaps once the bombing runs had been carried out enough of the enemy fighters would be destroyed underneath the snow and ice that they would no longer be a threat. Which would then leave clean up duty for the navy, and for the ground forces to clear out the tunnels.

 

[Cora Passek]

@[member="Akio Kahoshi"] | @Davik Tren

"You ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng." She said coldly into the com, there was little to know emotion, a bit of gritting of teeth as clinking of metal and movement of tools could be heard. "Don't tell me what's wrong with my ship, your royal highness. I made her, I know her. You, on the other hand do not. The wiring, chosen, whoever picked it, was a báichī. Which was not on my end I might add, that's manufacturer's job not mine. I design, you people build. The wiring isn't done right. It's not to the specs I sent. And you know how I know? Because I have my hands right in the middle of it. Do you?" No emotion in her words, just even calmness that might surprise anyone. Because the phrasing so snippy without the tone to match. She wasn't being nice, it was just how she managed the otherwise incredibly stressful situation. "The wiring is substandard, not meant to take the load. Choice made in manufacturer is the problem, Akio. Now I have to fix it." Yup, she did it. Called him by his first name. Probably just to annoy him, but again, there was no indication in her tone.

"New engineer? Send him over to section 22, doors locked down in there power out and people are trapped. Might want to have him get on that, sir." She said as a snapping of metal could be heard through the com. After that she went silent working by feel in her section of the ship and at last she had the part she wanted in hand. Now ripping things apart in the junction in front of her she soon placed the new device in and got everything connected without a flaw.

Then she opened the com back to the bridge, "Will be a blip again on the shields, bringing power back up in section 24. Then will be running it back through junction 172. Should hold. Should be fine now." She said firmly. Though she suspected, she might just be one of those people trapped behind sealed doors. At least there were crawl spaces she knew how to get around most things. "Enes, guys ... in three, two, one .." Her hands were out of the live box and once more the shields flickered for a microsecond, but even under fire the power was holding steady. The hum in the room felt right and at least, she had lighting now as systems switched back to the main power system. Individual sections were out still and that was a problem, but relatively minor in the scape of things.