Wearing:
Environmental Bastion Armor
Armed with:
Survivor's Staff
DC-17m (Anti-Armor, and Sniper Attachments)
Dashade Sonic Pistol (2)
Thermal Detonator (007)
Equipment:
Neural Band
Baragwin Stealth Unit
Grappling Cable
With:
Laertia Io
(Laertia's equipment:
Chitin of Lysandra,
Crime Hunter's Pistol (Charric Configuration),
Constant Gardener,
Vorpal Saber,
Kob Sonic Blaster,
M-45 Repeating Ion Blaster)
Syd Celsius
(Syd's Equipment:
90 Suit,
Wind and Fire Wheels,
Shooting Star)
Plus Prototype (
M-45 Repeating Ion Blaster, Lightsaber)
Nuetralizer Prototype (
M-45 Repeating Ion Blaster, Lightsaber)
Nuetralizer Model 1 (Starfighter Contingent of 14) (TIE Silencers)
Serpents of Ashla (007 War Knights, 007 Stealth Knights)
Objective: ALL (Maple and Miranda Objective 1, Laertia,, Serpents, Hadrian and Syd Objective 3, Nuetralizer Starfighters Objective 2)
Maple's vehicle:
TIE Avenger
Laertia and Syd's:
The Shadow Bride
007 hours earlier...
"HYPOCRITES!" Darth Xiphos shouted in pure frustration, overturning a table aboard her Gozanti Cruiser, The Absolution of Loste. Maple and Xiphos were doing final battle preparations and checks.
Maple, her silvery environmental armor, guaranteed to protect from even the worst temperature extremes, only sighed and waited for Xiphos to get it out of her system.
"They can all unite to defend
one planet, just
one from a Super-Weapon, yet they can't be
bothered to all unite against
The Bryn'adul, who don't even
need a Super-Weapon! Selfish fething
bastards!"
Maple quietly agreed with the assessment. Laertia had been accused of Cognitive Dissonance, but she had a point about the blatant hypocrisy on display by all the defenders of Csilla. Two governments, certainly hostile otherwise, were setting aside their differences in a way they never would have to fight The Bryn'adul. All because the Super-Weapon meant a more immediate threat than all their petty grudges.
The exact same argument they had rejected where the Bryn'adul were concerned.
Xiphos had been sorely tempted to leave them to their devices, but as much as she couldn't stomach
their Cognitive Dissonance, she could stomach the Destruction of Csilla even less. She was going there to save Csilla, regardless of how she felt.
Xiphos's stance betrayed the psychological exhaustion of months of non-stop fighting. But her will to fight remained unbroken. Maple didn't know what to say to her about Sarka. No one did.
Xiphos calmed herself after a few moments. Maple spun her cane, having grown used to these outbursts. Better she vent than keep it all bottled inside. Plus, it amused her, her own insanity allowing her to make note of the Thor reference IC.
"You clear on the plan?"
"I fight on the surface, you get aboard the station and feth it up however you can with your Squeeze." Maple replied.
"Fight like a Demon, Uri. Because that's what it'll take to save Csilla from these jackals." Xiphos told her old friend, who she regretted shunning in the old days more and more.
"I always do..." Maple assured her.
"I'm sending an Insurance Policy with you..."
In walked a curvy, bronze skinned woman in a shiny black catsuit. Maple knew instantly she wasn't human. She was too difficult to sense. The precise, too precise, walk also gave it away.
"Hi!" The Lethal Assassin Droid said in a bubbly manner, smiling. "Its gonna so fun working with you!"
Maple raised an eyebrow under the formfitting envirohelm that had come with her armor
"A bit...cheerful..." Maple noted. "Got a name?"
"Miranda!" Miranda the horribly lethal Prototype answered.
Miranda was soin followed in by a Golden Nuetralizer. The one with the scary James Spader voice named Hadrian. He was not as openly murderous as his lesser brethren, but the Bloodlust was there all the same, just Low-Key. Disturbingly Low-Key.
"Mother, preparations are ready." Hadrian said. "We're all ready to go. Many an act of ripping and tearing is about to commence."
"Do you think Csilla can be saved?" Maple asked Laertia.
"I don't know..." Xiphos said. "But I know I must try..."
Her failures at Sarka still crushed her. She was more determined than ever to stop them, but these new frustrations with the Maw Brotherhood vexed her greatly. Even Laertia would be hard pressed to take the war to such a powerful enemy while battling the Bryn'adul.
Maple suspected the reason she had been asked to come here was because Laertia knew the real battle was aboard the Space Station with the Murder Laser enroute to the Chiss Homeworld...but someone still had to help below.
For all Maple's schizophrenia did to ruin her life, she was still someone even Laertia was wary of fighting. Natural...they had both been trained by the same horrible person.
They were almost like two defective but still working pieces that function best when in conjunction.
Maple for her part, thought it a more honorable task than what Laertia committed herself too in past efforts. She felt a great surge of pity for Io. She never thought Io capable of commiting to a cause like this. Or doing the things she had done. But Maple was no longer a simple Bounty Hunter either.
Maple didn't know what she was anymore...
"Get ready. Get
Psyched." Darth Xiphos told her.
Maple nodded and they both headed out of her quarters. Xiphos wore black armor with a red armorweave cape. She had never seen it before.
Where had Laertia gotten such arcane equipment from?
Maple chose not to dwell. All of Csilla was threatened.
She tensed as she felt the presence of Syd Celsius.
The Witch was a terrible, ancient presence in The Force. Maple couldn't figure out why she had chosen someone so like The Amalgam. Or rather, maybe Maple didn't
want to figure it out.
Gods Laertia was completely fethed up in the head.
Maple could sympathize. So was she...
Maple said nothing as Syd walked up to them on the way to the hangar. Not until the Flame haired Sorceress spoke first.
"Laertia, are you sure I shouldn't go to the surface?" Syd asked.
"Maple and my Daughter have that covered." Xiphos assured her. "Maple in particular is very good at what she does."
"So you're Maple, huh?" Syd remarked.
"Yeah." Maple replied back quietly.
"Laertia has told me great things. I hope she wasn't exaggerating."
"She wasn't." Maple replied. Skip. Syd was secretly a squirrel. Skip. Back to reality.
Syd raised an eyebrow before leading the way to the docking area...
Present:
It was to be a cold day in hell indeed.
Maple's fighter, a hold over from her days as a Flight Enthusiast. It had been kept in one of a dozen hangars equipped with a Stasis field that Maple saved for rainy days like this. The Advanced, even today, was one of the best starfighters in the Galaxy. Even modern fighters had to respect it, for it had been that well engineered.
Maple flew escort for the deadly mini warship Laertia used, viciously obliterating all who attempted to impede The Bride's way to the massive space station. Maple felt terror at the thought she would be fighting on the planet it was trying to destroy, but suppressed it. She had to function. She had to try and save Csilla, harrass the enemy however possible on the surface. They had entered through CIS battle lines, fourteen of Laertia's skeletal children hard at work behind them, flying TIE Silencers that had been colored dark metallic purple with bright green viewports. Disturbing signs of their individual nature was present, Pazaak Cards held by a grinning, muscular Jester figure were painted on the side. Jester Squadron, they called themselves.
"This is Flight Leader Jack..." Jack The Nuetralizer called out through comms, his chassis customized the same colors of his starfighter. "Beginning attack run on Mercy Station. We shall rip and tear until it is done!"
"Go, my son..." Xiphos called back. "May the Force be with us..."
Maple and the Strange new droid Laertia had built broke off from their group, fighting and shooting their way to the planet against hoardes of Starfighters, inhabited by pilots who often had more tech and weapons than sense. Maple, trained by a Master Fighter Pilot (On of The Amalgam's many, many strengths.) Danced circles around even the more experienced ones among them. The Plus Prototype, Miranda, flew a Silencer like her brothers, rapidly picking up on the basics of Maple's flying technique.
"I understand why my brothers like this so much!" Miranda remarked, blowing away a number of fighters as they flew through the Atmosphere.
Csilla had been hellishly defiled by these savages, but Maple had nothing but contempt for savages. She flew close to the trench lines being defended by
FN-999 and opened fire on the savage hoardes below, taking careful aim at the Branch-Lurkers sent by
The Mongrel
, blasting some of them apart as they ripped into the defenders. Maple deftly evaded with the grace of a bird the deadly fire of the scrap hulled Four Legged Walkers, emptying a missile right into its head, and blasting it apart.
Miranda, however, was still new to piloting, and got clipped by the fire of one of the Four Leggers. She made a crash landing slightly ahead of the trenches.
Savage Maw soldiers began to close in on it. The cockpit view port exploded outward from a Concussion rifle shot mounted to an arm, hitting and killing a few nearby as The Plus Prototype strode out, the Laminanium Nanite Sheath that gave her a beautiful, feminie physique and appeal rippling, turning silver for a second as she was pelted with energy fire, only to return it with her own heavy repeater on the savages as she maintained a walking fire, gunning down the deadly warbands that swarmed her, tracer rounds zipping around her. One screaming Maw warrior, fired a machine gun with armor piercing rounds at her and it barely nicked her as she unloaded in his direction, firing in short bursts to avoid overheating the normally vehicle mounted weapon and viciously tore into their ranks until she was out of ammo.
Out came the Lightsaber, a black blade with a green aura erupting from the simple, silvery hilt.
The Plus Prototype began to draw Aggro on itself as it charged into the fray, viciously hacking into the Maw Savages, allowing the machine gun nests of the defenders more time to coordinate a effective counter to the many hoardes. She used brute mechanical strength to force aside the savage axe and sword strikes by disorganized fighters, driven by bloodlust. One of the Maw Sith attempted to crush her with the Force only to find she was nearly impossible to properly grip, and only succeeded in getting himself beheaded after she powered through his crush attempt, the Ysalamiri parts grafted into her granting her an immense resistance to his type of assault.
Miranda was definitely one of Laertia's creations...
Maple herself got shot down due to the intense Anti-Space-Craft Fire and was forced to make a far more graceful crash landing, that heavily stunned her and tore off one of the bent solar arrays.
Maple was stirred awake by the heavy the thuds of the four legged walker approaching, the whine of its leg machinery signaling desth.
Maple frantically struggled to free herself, cutting loose the safety harness, and forcing the hatch open with telekinesis as it loomed ever closer. Skip. Her stomach was made entirely of tapeworms for the last thirty thousand years. Skip. Back to reality. Back to not getting crushed.
Maple tried to get her rifle, but the crash had caused it to be stuck under the seat, and she was forced to leave it behind, exiting the cockpit just in time as the massive leg of one of the salvaged walker's legs came down. She barely got clear of it being crushed and exploding.
Great. Just. Fething. Great.
Maple grimaced, took out her grapple cable and fired it up at its belly, which zipped her upward at high speed, one end of her viridian Lightsaber activating as she got close to the belly hull.
Shoddy salvage. Competant enough to get the job done. But still shoddy.
Maple, being jostled around in mid-air, cut into the hull with her blade, unsteadily took three detonators, activating all three at once, and shoving them into the hole she made and cutting herself loose, running as fast as she could.
Massive detonations rang out from within and the four legged walker tumbled forward, its shoddily repaired structure causing the head to snap off and explode. (You have failed me for the last time: 007-thousand XP)
Maple activated her Baragwin Stealth unit. It would provide four minutes of camouflage, but need 007 minutes to recharge once the battery was exhausted. She began sneaking towards the two legged walkers...
Meanwhile...
The Shadow Bride violently made its way past defenders of the station, its pilot executing a prompt landing on the hangar they picked.
Syd tensed, feeling
Starlin Rand
near. She had promised to be here, for him, even with all her doubts after Sarka.
Laertia however, had no doubts.
"Ready to party, Son?" Xiphos asked the Golden Nuetralizer, arming the same M-45 type weapon he was.
"Damn right." Hadrian replied. "I don't always Boogie like my brothers. But when I do...I
Boogie."
The Hatch Opened and Laertia teleported out and behind quickly swarming attackers, she and her Son Hadrian mowing down Maw Station soldiers sworn to uphold the pointless, petty destruction of Csilla, through attacking them fro two seperate angles as he came off the Hatch himself, his repeater attached to a belt mounted powersource, firing his shoulder mounted micro grenade launcher and blasting a few Sith apart. Syd phased through the hull of the Shadow Bride, hurling deadly red fireballs at multiple Dark Sith, catching them ablaze and burning through their flesh in a matter of seconds before drawing her own orange blades and began ripping through Sith to catch up with Starlin. She got shocked looks from other Jedi, some disgusted but they had no time to arrest or detain her. Not with the Mercy over Csilla. Xiphos let her go ahead, knowing how much Starlin was like a son to her. She turned to Hadrian after they had mowed down station reinforcements.
"Son? Let us fight our way to the innards of this place. We shall wreck it however we can. None shall defy us."
"You got it, Mom." Hadrian replied.
Xiphos nodded and signalled the Elite Band of Light Sith she and Themis had trained to exit the ship. The War Knights, tough warriors wearing Sith Stalker like armor and armed with Double Bladed Lightsabers, having mutated themselves unnaturally with the Light for enhanced Strength and Stamina, would help defend the hangar from reinforcements. The Stealth Knights, Green Robed warriors with Light mutated bronze and green eyes, were to stealthily make their way as deep inro the power systems section as they could, hiding their bodies physically with stealth generators and their spirits with the Force while Xiphos and Hadrian butchered station defenders and kept as much heat as they could off those attempting to reach the throne room.
Xiphos and her golden, Skeletal Son started to venture deeper into the station on an alternate route from Syd and Starlin, already starting to encounter the warbands of
Zachariel Steelblood
, who surged on them both, shroeking with Dark Power and bloodthirst in black and red halls...
Xiphos and Hadrian let their M-45's burn through every ounce of ammo for them as the surging warbands got closer, making sure to aim for the heads. Finally, as they got too close to properly aim, both dropped now empty repeaters, going for their Lightsabers.
Hadrian was as brutal as his mother was, viciously dueling and disarming two at once, grabbing the throat of one shrieking warband member covered in powered armor and violently ripping his head off. His incinerator rifle in his shoulder came into play, spitting out incendiary orange bolts that caught individual warriors ablaze as Xiphos drew her old stand by, The Constant Gardener, throwing herself at deadly warriors, with all the lethal swiftness her armor provided. Xiphos chuckled at these Warbands as she ripped through them, her blade ripping through three as she traded sword strikes with them, disarming themby batting their weapon out of their hands with her extreme strength and then swiftly splitting their heads in half, grabbing a feral, hate filled warrior who had tried to run her through from behind, and violently using him like a living club with one of his legs as a handle, and bashing aside his friends with his body until it was a bruised, dead load she finally smashed apart by using him to demolish the skull of one of their veterans, who had been about to fire on her with a Stouker Concussion Rifle.
Hadrian and Xiphos began to fight as one, his heavy weapon systems carefully selecting which targets to eviscerate. He expended the last of his micro grenades, knowing where they wanted to go was deeper into the facility. He was starting to learn how to more efficiently rip a head and spine out by watching Xiphos. Hadrian was proud such a merciless warrior had made him as they killed together, filling the passageways with gore...
Meanwhile...
"Starlin!" Syd called out as she finally managed to catch up to him, after gutting or burning her way through two more Sith that had been trying to sneak up on him and whoever had come with him.
"You didn't think I would let you face the jerks at the throne room alone, did you?" She asked somewhat jokingly in spite of the high stakes situation. "And you're wearing the armor!"
Syd couldn't help but beam at this, even as she impaled a Sith Assassin through the face that had tried to sneak up on her from behind.
"Let's go bring some balance to these Nerfherders..." she grinned...
DECEASED Erskine Barran
Tegan Starfall
Darth Solipsis
Aerarii Tithe
Maestus
Tu'teggacha