Here comes the Train [Crusade Begins: Part 1]

[Funky Balor]

(OOC: Sorry to bail. I've been sick the last few days, and definitely overcommitted to threads. Have fun, guys!)

 

[Sko'saht]

The Verpine made his way through the combat and took cover in a doorway. Leaning out his fired off more shots that tore holes in the chests of the Republic troops. At this point he'd somewhat gotten used to the combat and was mostly just going through it automatically like he was flying a starfighter in a dogfight.

That slightly changed when his clan leader launched himself at the Republic commander. Rapidly adjusting his aim the Verpine looked down the sights with his eyes focusing in. Pulling lead like he was firing his ships cannons he squeezed off the last slug in his clip of his shatter pistol at the thrusters on one of the Republic soldiers feet.

The round spat out of the pistol at an extremely fast rate making a loud crack as it passed through the sound barrier propelled by the EM firing mechanism. While the pistol could load just about anything the normal ammo for it considered this to be practically point blank range.

[member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Jace Felswoop"] [member="Melina Tervho"] [member="Ijaat Mereel"] [member="Babasa Ghryntel"]

 

[Jace Felswoop]

Station.
Slugthrower rifle.
Sword.
2x Tonfas.
Armour.
[member="Draco Vereen"]. [member="Sko'saht"] ((You linked the shatter pistol to this thread, btw.))

The Commando was in mid-air when he felt the pressure being applied on the small of his back, threatening to slice through the armour, and perhaps even the first few layers of his flesh.

But his sword was within the small of his back, sheathed horizontally so as to prevent the need to reach over one's back to pull the blade out. It held back the shield's follow through as he completed his flip, however the sword was made more for deflecting or parrying an attack with a lightsabre, what the Mandalorian did was unexpected, likely never thought of in prototype testing for the sword.

A dent and a few millimetres shaved off of the edge of the blade were likely the outcome.

But even as one of his legs came parallel to the scattergun as he dropped to the deck, he aimed to kick the shotgun out of his hand, or to knock its aim off so that there was one less thing to worry about.

Temporarily anyway.

The bullet shot from the shatter pistol took off one of the thrusters on his feet.

Shot clean off just as he was touching to the ground.

The Khommite-Human hybrid Commando didn't appear to notice.

"Where the field trip taking us?"

Of course he spoke of the hyperspace jump he had felt earlier. Whether he got an answer or not, he didn't want to die without knowing where he was going to die.

 

[Brent Warnel]

Brent and the squad he was with were pinned down in one of the corridors that led to Reactor Core. He was putting round after round down-range and more than a half dozen Republic troops had already been cut down by his squad, but they weren't giving up. The Republic had some mobile cover that some of they heavy troops had put down, and a few of them had shields on their persons, making them that much harder to take out.

"This is taking too long," Brent said to his squad, "Toss some grenades on a low timer into their position. If you have shields, line up on either side of me, we're going to walk down the hallway and right into their position, once there, break ranks and have a free for all. They won't be ready for it, if you don't have shields then just fire over our line and keep the troopers pinned down. Let's Go."

Brent waited for the grenades to go streaking down the hall and then he activated his shield and moved to the center of the corridor and started moving down. Three more Mando's lined up on either side of him and the shield wall was complete. Mando's behind the shield wall fired over their heads and into the Republic Troops. Brent could see the Republic men were unsure of what to do, there was a definite lag in return fire once they saw the line of Mandalorians coming towards them. After a few seconds of uncertainty, the Republic chose to fire down towards the shield wall with everything they had. They exposed themselves from cover and tried to kill the line of advancing Mando's before they had a chance to get close, but it was already too late. Several more troops fell from Mando firepower, and once Brent's group had closed the distance, they broke into a sprint towards the Republic. The line held, barely, but the Republic wasn't expecting the brash move, and they hadn't chosen to fall back so they had to deal with a squad of heavily armed and armored Mando's in close quarters.

Which wasn't a good move for them, the close quarters fighting was over quickly, and Brent didn't remember much of it, but the aftermath was gruesome; bodies littered the floor and Republic troops were twisted and broken around his feet.

Brent heard Rekali's comms and responded, "I'm on my way to you, hold tight."

"Let's move, we're meeting up with another squad and pushing towards the Core," Brent told his men as they moved towards their goal.

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[member="Reshmar"] (Coordinated with) | [member="Draco Vereen"] | [member="Alec Rekali"] | [member="Melina Tervho"] | [member="Brent Warnel"] | [member="Buruk Surhaai"] | [member="Ijaat Mereel"] | [member="Funky Balor"] | [member="Ava Lok"] | @Babasa Ghryntel |​

 

[Julius Sedaire]

As his hand slapped the control pad, and everyone else moved past, Ijaat grinned under the helmet. The grin was almost feral, and definitely a bit vengeful. One arm swapped ammo drums on the shacklebolt, racking the slide, and spitting out rounds in cover fire. A voice roared out over the helmet amplifier and annunciators, urging them onward and toward him. As the Mandalorians began to charge to his position, he closed his eyes and drew upon the Force, a new but surely more sturdy ally.

His consciousness expanded into the machine, merging, blending... It was dangerous to do it that way, or so some others had told him, but it worked best this way. Contact brought shining lights in his minds eye, and he screwed his face up and concentrated hard. Exerting his will and control of the force, he pushed his thoughts outward with a stubborn force, demanding the blast doors close and open in just such a way as he wanted. And, lo and behold, just as the last Mando'ad rolled through the doorway and his shacklebolt dry-fired, the blast door began to close, taking only seconds before the Republic forces were trapped without an enemy in sight.

It was childs play to short the interfaces to all the doors out and cut them off of the network. Bless [member="Spark Finn"] ....

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Space
The Station reverted from Hyperspace above a tropical planet surrounded by a pair of moons only a little further from the star from where they had been. Lying in wait was a very large, mostly empty, massive dreadnought. Weighing in a three kilometers long the Argent-class had more mass than two Alor-class Dreadnoughts combined, with a massive profile. Had the beast been built for war, it would have been completely terrifying for the Trandoshans. But, all it was was a giant manufacturing dreadnought, a de-weaponized version of the old World Devastators designed to supply armies with supplies, armor, weapons, vehicles, and other war material. This one however, was being used as a giant tow truck. Its many, many tractor beams readied as the station appeared. The short range Ganker Limpets served their purposes just fine, got it out of the hotseat and to the tow truck with a stable, better hyperdrive.

Station
The doors began closing around the Mandalorians and Draco smiled, lifting a hand as he dropped to the deck as if to wave at the clone trooper. Instead of a friendly good-bye, there was instead a torrent of red lightning, hungrily seeking for the life energy of the living it was directed at, searching to leech off the living and drain them, granting its wielder their vitality and essence to empower the wielder as he drew his short beskad, just in case the clone that had dodged behind him and through the Mandalorian warriors decided to dash through the closing blast doors and take them all on, Life Drain or not.

Coma Gas wasn't much use against enemies wearing masks, but with Caspian's way basically cleared and the doors opening and closing for him, the path to the Reactor should be an easy one. And with the other group massed up, they would be able to go section by section to secure the station with as little loss of life as possible for both sides. Draco even had a nice Silver Sanctum world picked out to send those that were captured. There would be hold outs, and some would be able to pick the locks or force them open by other means to group up, but the Mandalorians had control of the station now, and reinforcements were right near by on the Argent in the form of Mandalorians, droids, and Bes'uliik droids, all waiting to help secure the station and put down resistance during the ride back to home base.

For the next ten, fifteen minutes while tractor beams were locking, magnetic clamps being placed on the station, and the Argent coming up to speed, there was an opening for escape pods and shuttles to bail and the Republic troops to avoid capture, if they bothered to rush to escape pods, carefully still active and as of yet un-tampered with. The hangar was another good place to flee to if they were looking to bail. The Boarding torpedoes were a bad idea however, designed not to be so hastily reused and reactivated, they blew apart upon opening, leaving the drill in a mess and the doors literally not attached anymore.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"] [member="Jace Felswoop"] [member="Sko'saht"] [member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Caspian Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Space
The Station reverted from Hyperspace above a tropical planet surrounded by a pair of moons only a little further from the star from where they had been. Lying in wait was a very large, mostly empty, massive dreadnought. Weighing in a three kilometers long the Argent-class had more mass than two Alor-class Dreadnoughts combined, with a massive profile. Had the beast been built for war, it would have been completely terrifying for the Trandoshans. But, all it was was a giant manufacturing dreadnought, a de-weaponized version of the old World Devastators designed to supply armies with supplies, armor, weapons, vehicles, and other war material. This one however, was being used as a giant tow truck. Its many, many tractor beams readied as the station appeared. The short range Ganker Limpets served their purposes just fine, got it out of the hotseat and to the tow truck with a stable, better hyperdrive.

...

For the next ten, fifteen minutes while tractor beams were locking, magnetic clamps being placed on the station, and the Argent coming up to speed, there was an opening for escape pods and shuttles to bail and the Republic troops to avoid capture, if they bothered to rush to escape pods, carefully still active and as of yet un-tampered with. The hangar was another good place to flee to if they were looking to bail. The Boarding torpedoes were a bad idea however, designed not to be so hastily reused and reactivated, they blew apart upon opening, leaving the drill in a mess and the doors literally not attached anymore.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"] [member="Jace Felswoop"] [member="Sko'saht"] [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Caspian Rekali"]

The Attichitcuck peeled away from the station. In fairly short order, the whole apparatus -- shipyard station, half-built spaceframes, tow vessel, and freighter -- would leap to hyperspace. A quick jaunt of about a thousand light-years would shimmy them down to the Thornbush Nebula, which was generally considered impassible. However, the Attichitcuck would be leading the way, complete with Rekali astrogators and Calypho Compasses and deployable S-thread boosters -- all to tunnel through the nebula's mass shadow. Once the two ships and the station passed through, the tunnel would seal, the normal hyperspace distortions would resume effect, and any pursuit would find itself in serious navigational difficulty. The maneuver, patented and polished by Clan Rekali, was akin to scraping mud off your boot on your way into your truck. And like a clod, any Republic forces would likely remain behind while the Mandalorian raiding party disappeared with one fully functional shipyard.

Exeunt the Rekalis, stage left.

 

[Sko'saht]

As soon as the blast doors had closed to trap the Republic troops and separating them from the Mandos Sko had his plasma torch out. Quickly he started welding the doors paying special attention to all the small cracks. With any luck they'd be sealed in for a few hours and would be trapped until a team of Mandos captured them.

This raid had seemed to be a spectacular success from what he was hearing on the comms. The station was in good shape as well which would be extremely useful for pumping out new ships. Despite all this he was mostly looking forwards to grabbing some rest and staying away from ground battles for the near future.

 

[Progflaw99]

Buruk felt the station shift as it dropped from hyperspace. Deliberately they gathered the body of their fallen brother, lifting him onto one of the flat consoles. He had died a warrior, and for that they were thankful. They'd managed to seal both blast doors, two of the squad monitoring the last remaining entrance to the room, a small maintenance tunnel which led to a network of other tunnels throughout the station. They had secured the communications equipment, keeping anyone from on station being able to send long range transmissions from its array. They held their position, monitoring the chatter on the radio and seeing movement in their HUD's. Buruk was ready to take a load off. It was the first major combat he'd been in. The way that Wookie had erupted... he shook his head. He'd have plenty of time to process the actions of the last few hours, but now was not the time. He continued to monitor the chatter, resting in a particularly comfortable chair, his leg propped up on a console. The rest of the squad monitored the sealed doors and listened to the radio chatter. Soon enough they'd be able to get off this station and find a way to decompress. Overall, they'd been successful, but the fallen would need a proper send off, and his blood relatives would need to be notified.

The main bulk of their engagement was complete, though they kept vigilant, still maintaining their situational awareness. No telling how many security forces remained or if they'd holed up until they cleared the rest of the station room by room.

 

[Babasa Ghryntel]

Babasa looked up at the walls and ceiling as the station shook, a feeble protest of steel against the magnetic clunk of the clamps, like a shepherd guiding a wayward member back to the flock. Her face broke in a grim smile.

But the victory dance and bubbly were going to have to wait. There were still Republic troopers aboard, and there was still a reactor core to secure. Orders were orders.
It helped that the reactor wasn't far.

The smile evaporated from Babasa's face as she poked her head around the next corner and was immediately greeted by the sight of Republic troopers, four in all, at the end of the adjoining corridor. Evidently, they were in denial that the station had been taken, and the rest of their darling Republic had abandoned them. More importantly, they were between her and the blast doors to the reactor centre.

Hissing under her breath, the Barabel quickly pulled her reptilian head back and faced her comrades. "Four of 'em, Cazpian. Thiz one doubtz they zaw her."
Her slitted eyes narrowed as she raised her rifle and checked the chamber, just to be sure the weapon was as ready to put down a few Republic chumps as she was. Then she looked to Caspian and the others, predatory claws tightening around the cycler's bone grips. "Reactor'z az good az ourzz."

 

[Caspian Rekali]

Through gruesome, bitter fighting the warriors of Mandalore managed to make their way through the station. The Young Warlock took point fighting tooth and nail wielding the force in tandem with his blade, and a multitude of other weapons. Thankfully their forces were able to get control over the stations systems, blast doors open and shut for them locking enemy forces out of corridors they could use to flank the mandalorian forces, and forced to head down others that were filled with strategic choke points where their forces were prepared. The advantage tipped in their favor and Caspian was able to lead his group to the reactor at last.

It was here that he had them dig in surrounding one entryway the others were all closed off to funnel the enemy right in one direction. Just as the Dragon of Mandalore predicted once the remote signal of meltdown couldn't be triggered the enemy funneled in droves to the reactor. Another unknown benefit came into place just then, the Republic weren't going to risk an detonation of such magnitude with civilian personnel still on the station. Their fire was carefully placed, precise to ensure they avoided hitting the reactors, even more being cut down as a result. The fighting was prolonged and intense but through it all they persevered.

Finally it died down the republic forces were beaten, battered, and trapped within their own station while a superior mandalorian fighting force outmaneuvered them on every turn. The station was in their grasp and prisoners were being rounded up. Caspian pleased sent over the mandalorian battlenet "The reactor is secure. Moving to phase two."

[member="Ijaat Mereel"] [member="Jace Felswoop"] [member="Sko'saht"] [member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Draco Vereen"]