I Said I'd Be Back [Lords of the Fringe Dominion of Eriadu]

[Arage Bao]

I saw 'em alright. Bunch of freaks huddled together and fighting as one, they were good, better than good they knew how to fight in teams. If ya go up against one, you go up against their entirety. It made me only grin, set off into a run, picked up sped and it turned into a sprint, pivot blades launched out and I was flying, trajectory landing me right into them. Flashed the blades, twice, thrice, got a few nasty cuts myself, but that was find, had gotten worse in the past.

Kept slicing, kept killing and at the end of it there were only bodies thrown about, blood splattered across the ground and my armour. This was a nasty business, but boy did it felt good every once in a while. Just needed a good drink at the end of it and it would be perfect.

 

[Velok the Younger]

Seren found himself appreciating the merciless efficiency of that armored Sith woman with the well-trained minions. He'd never been one for minions himself; it had always struck him as self-indulgent-

His sabre decapitated a reaver. He slapped another magazine into his lanvarok. Stimulus, response; stimulus, response.

-but in the end this was a matter of weapon of choice. The armored woman wielded her troops like he used a knife, and he couldn't help but respect that.

 

[Allyson Locke]

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

Nodding, I quickly agreed. I didn't want to state the obvious. If the force stayed like this - I don't think I'd see many more years. My body deteriorated, Circe showed me that well enough when I let her check the effects on my cells. With out the Force and without it working properly, I'd eventually disappear. What a lovely thought. Forcing a smile, I moved to the door way of the command center. "I can feel her well enough through the blood trail. I don't think that would lie too much." Pausing, "I am worried though. Ibaris is like myself - so we'll have to see how she's affected, she seemed fine though?"

 

[Caulder Dune]

Objective: Negotiate with Reasonable Reavers and Pleasant Pirates via Concentrated Turbolaser Fire

It wasn't long before Adekos encountered the first boarding party. It seemed they came with the intent to do some closer quarters combat, as they were armed largely with vibroswords. Or, more accurately, vibrocutlasses. This was all very strange to Adekos, but he was never one to waste time on inquiries like "why are they armed with vibrocutlasses?" Nor was he one to waste time with obvious statements, such as "that seems rather impractical." When the boarding party ran into him, it seemed they had been expecting him just as much as he had expected to encounter vibrocutlasses.

"Gentlemen, your swords please." Said the Umbaran, giving the Makashi salute. "It would be a shame to make a mess of the ship with your bodies."

"Come take 'em, ye landlubber."

"What the devil is a landlubber?"

They did not answer him. They did, however, charge.

 

[The End Narrator]

Shadow Squadron...

That is what they were called - and they would fall in behind the lead XJ-7 that contained an R-9 Unit that was familiar to some Fringe personnel but mostly to the girl who piloted the lead ship. Mira Gyndar brought the ship about, each ship following suit as she did. Her nerves were wracked and her hands felt sweaty - this was her first time in actual combat against an enemy - how had she gotten here? She knew she owed [member="Sena Lassiter"] but there was someone else involved in that whole ordeal.

She turned her head left, then right - scanning her area for enemies before she came over the comlink to [member="Selka Ventus"] - "This is Shadow Leader, outer perimeter appears to be...secure." She took a moment to gulp and exhale roughly, nervousness apparent in her voice.

It was that comlink message that called attention to herself - and soon a barrage of incoming fire sent Shadow Squadron scrambling in different directions.

"Evasive action!" A male voice yelled out through the comlink channel and soon, Mira jerked the stick to the right - sending the Stealth-X into a hard right bank, avoiding a barrage of heated plasma that would have no doubt taken a toll on her shields. There would be a grimace on her face, maybe from the pressure within the cockpit or maybe from the tingling sensation in her chest that could have been fear or even the Force that was guiding her - either way, she couldn't tell - everything was crazy.

 

[Malok]

Drawing a breath, Darth Metus calmed and centered himself. The Dark Side of the Force fell mightily upon his shoulders, twisting and contorting according to his will. Then, like a mighty spear, the Sith hurled his mind's eye across the void of space. He witnessed the scenario unfolding: Reavers were the enemy and needed to face destruction. That was simple enough. Concentrating his focus, the Sith "gazed" upon a single, enemy vessel. It was not the largest, it was not the smallest, but it was his target.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

"She's been a little...I guess you could say melancholy," said Ashin as she followed her wife out of the bridge and into the turbolift. She keyed in the level number based on the blood trail, but the connection seemed...fuzzy, and she hadn't wanted to invoke it or even think of it for fear of destabilizing it. "Not depressed, not like I get, but down in general. Grim. THinking about things she shouldn't need to think about."

The turbolift whirred to a halt on the same level as the meditation chamber, and Ashin exited, taking long strides. She didn't exactly have a feeling of unease about this, but still. She couldn't trust her feelings these days.

 

[Allyson Locke]

The display of the swoop took out a few of the Reavers, the rest were damaged but this just provided more fun for her. She had gotten the small groups attention and they quickly converged around her. A sly smile and her arms raised to stretch she waited for them to make a move. They didn't waste time and quickly moved one right after another. Her lightsaber appeared and with the first ignited blade she decapitated 3 of them in a matter of seconds, the others paused for a moment. This allowed Sam to adjust her stance and then in a quick segment of steps she thrusted the now ignited bottom end of her saber staff into the stomach of a hesitating Reaver.

 

[Arage Bao]

'There, there.' Jared embraced her, it wasn't real. But a mentalist did not have to physically embrace someone to make it feel real, for a moment they would sit there in complete silence and her tears. It was good to be here, for as long as they would let him, but he would need to return soon, it was painful, tiring and his focus was slipping to a degree.

'You need to be strong, Ibby. I am fine, I know my way around there. Tell your mother, both of them. They are in the Netherworld'

Another hug.

'Do you got that?'

 

[Malok]

Like a serpent, he slithered the Force through the hull of this particular vessel. It moved deceptively, underneath the very noses of the enemy. From here, Darth Metus assessed his options. He was simply too far away to do anything "redonkulus", but he could still throw a wrench in the Reaver's machine. As such, the Sith searched for a moment...before settling upon one of the gunners.

"Aha. There we are."

 

[Dr. Alset Niest]

Assist with meditations...

There was nothing left of the mead. The transports landed upon the planet and those civilians found themselves, where empty hands once existed, now filled with bottles given freely from the One Sith reservoirs. Alset felt the sudden welling of tears upon duct and cheek, as if sending a small child off to war. Cradling in his arms the bottle, he shook his head as he stared out the window, towards the chain of transport ships, conveying the mead to assist with mediation processes. The bottle was empty now and he set it candidly upon stool.

The vong shaper entered the room once more, caressing her cheek from the onset of the bruise.

"The Mead had been completely transported...Sir..." The last words were spoken with the malice as he waved her over, looking down up the world now being mitigated.

"I've spent years of my life trying to understand plants and biology and the inner workings of things. But I failed to even ask you your name, despite having worked with you for several months..."
"It's..." Alset interrupted with a hand gesture. "My dear girl. I was neither interested nor done speaking." He smiled, as if correcting a dog who tried to walk out the back door before being told to.

"I spent a good deal of time perfecting that recipe and now, look at it, transported to planet to assist with endeavors not my own. Think, for just a second, on how that makes me feel. Try to put yourself in my shoes." He stared back towards the vong shaper, whose eyes had glassed over with boredom. "Nevermind...go back to your duties." He waved her off, to sit in his melancholy once more.

 

[Vrag]

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

Cold blue eyes met an empty field when the last of the cultists fell beneath her blade, flesh scorched and bubbling from the unholy heat of the lightsaber in her hand. The woman spared not a glance at the twitching man, ordering her squadron around as they made their way towards the next pocket of the reavers. The poor cultists were beset from all sides, decimated by the second by a crossfire from multiple groups of Sith troopers. Knowing that she might very well get hit just attempting to dive into that melée, the Knight broke off from her soldiers and sprinted across the plains towards the leftmost pocket of the dead and the dying.

At this point, the cultists were nothing else, really, and when her efficient Makashi strikes joined the fray, the process only sped up. By the end of the hour, the grass would be green no more.

 

[Caulder Dune]

Objective: Buckle Some Swash

They, for some reason, attacked him one at a time rather than all at once. It was probably just a pirate thing. That or they had no idea how to coordinate their attacks. The first one came at him with an overhead strike, only to meet Adekos' lightsaber half-way. The Umbaran extended his free hand, giving a short burst of electricity. There was enough force behind it to send the pirate flying down the hallway, his (for some reason) bare torso badly burned beyond all recognition. He would die from lung failure within the hour, most likely.

The rest of them seemed skeptical of continuing after that.

"Gentlemen?"

Then the next one came.

 

[Velok the Younger]

He paused in his appreciation of the woman in armor. This pause was necessitated by the mutilated Togorian with the chainsaw. Not just any chainsaw would do for a Bando Gora reaver: the flat of the blade was adorned with blood-daubed runes of Chaos. They hurt his eyes just to look at them.

But in the end, a chainsaw was just a chainsaw, and he put his lightsabre through that blade as fast as humanly possible, reliable Force or no reliable Force. The lanvarok coughed its standard five-disc burst, and another reaver turned to pulp.

Nice to be the hero for a change.

 

[Allyson Locke]

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

"She's still a child. I was 18 when I faced the things she is facing now. Can't expect her to not think about them and try and figure them out now. I hate seeing her like this, but she'll be better off in the end." I sighed, Ibaris was growing up too quickly - she needed to be a teenage girl. I didn't want her to end up like me, thrown into the middle of conflict trying to figure out how to get through puberty. Frowning, my fingers pitched the bridge of my nose. "No matter how much we try and protect her - this is how life is." As I walked I allowed myself to casually graze Ashin's arm. "At least she's not bringing boys home."

 

[Malok]

Dominance was something that the Sith was born to do. It was literally in his blood. As such, when his consciousness brushed upon the feeble mind of the gunner, there was no other option in his eyes. "You. Are. Mine." Three sinister words echoed in the deepest parts of the Reaver's skull. The Force, working like a swift venom, captured control over the gunner's mind...and then his body. Resistance was all but futile, but it did make the action a wee bit more entertaining.

After all, who didn't like playing with their food every now and again?

When it was all said and done, Darth Metus had earned himself a Thrall. And like any good Master, he issued an order. With haste, the gunner then adjusted the aim of his cannon and fired...directly upon one of his allies. Sure, it was only a matter of seconds before he was torn away from the gun and shot. Sure, a few shots wasn't going to wreck the enemy ship.

But every little bit helped. Right?

 

[Vrag]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

A chainsaw?

Boy, did people get creative if given the chance. Truth be told, her heart ached a bit when she saw the ingenious weapon destroyed, but it had sparked an idea nonetheless. An idea that could be fully explored at a later date, anyway. Up to her elbows in enemy body parts wasn't exactly the best place for brainstorming — then again...

No, Force Lightning wasn't her gig, especially not in the weeks after the rupture.

She swung her blade in at a charging cultist, separating him from the better part of his offending limb with an upward stroke from the fourth guard. Even covered in blood, Vrag maintained control of her fighting style.