I've got sand in my...Dominion? ACA for Tatooine

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Raziel"]

A short, wiry man with a carbine charged around a nearby corner, in time to see her take down the nearest raiders -- and in time to hear her get patronized by one of his associates. She wasn't especially pleased with that, but shooting him didn't seem wise. Her sidearm clicked gently as she adjusted the setting to kill.

Yellow particle shots snapped out at a longer range than she'd managed with the silver stun beams. Where they hit, they exploded -- smaller bursts than even the lowest-yield grenades, but more than enough to spread the love. The QQ-83n hadn't been designed to take on Tusken Raiders; frankly, it had been designed to eliminate Sith, using killshots that would explode if blocked and stunshots that didn't really care about lightsabres getting in the way. Even when faced with heavy armor, phrik or better, the killburst tended to get through the seams and the stunshots pretty much ignored everything between the gun and the target nervous system. It worked just fine for the task at hand.

"Get a muzzle on your boy," she snapped at the man with the carbine.

 

[Raziel]

Raziel turned to regard her, and the rags slipped down from his nose. His expression was stoic, jaws clenched, lips tight. His eyes were another matter. There was pain there, he simply couldn't hide all signs of his current suffering. As Raziel emerged from the recesses of his mind, the expression would spread across his face, but would quickly be covered up as the rags were placed back over his face.

He turned to the spacer, holding his stare for a moment. His cheeks were already flushed with embarrassment, which was already threatening to turn to anger. After a moment, the spacer stopped meeting his eyes and looked down. "Damn sight more useful than you were on the wall," Raziel admonished.

"Sorry," the spacer mumbled.

Raziel lifted his comm to his covered face. He desperately wanted to hide away from it all again, his left hand had already started to shake again. However, he needed to think for a time. "Queen, are the perimeters secure? We're going to need to work out a long term plan for the Tuskens, the only translator they had hear died in the first attack, as well as their lone protocol droid."

 

[Meili Shaw]

The scorched earth around her, as her fingers dug into the sandy ground. The young genius was going to part of an actual battle, not training simulation nor the comfort of her labs. She was going to partake in a live battle, this was getting her blood stirring and body shaking. Though not from fear and anxiety but from so much excitement; she had to confess to herself, after finally being reunited and training under her father. There was nothing more she wanted to do than to prove herself to him and the best way to impress one of the greatest sith lords around? Showing one's greatest though battle and her will to fight and kill anything lesser, at least, that is what she thought. Her father was much more calm and patient than she was. But when she heard that they were going to take out "beasts", she felt like this was her chance and nothing, absolutely nothing was going to stop her.

The Echani's pursuit on the Native tusken raiders was relentless, cutting down each and everyone that got in her path. She smiled wickedly as the blood of the natives splashed on to her silky, beautiful skin, as giggle as dark as her smile released from her warm lips. She rotates her double sided virbo-blade; locked in an engagement with a handful of their lackies. For the most part but not completely Ignoring her orders as well as the other ACA members; she went deeper within the native's territory wanting nothing more than to as [member="Raziel"] stated "pacify" the raiders. She couldn't deny she was tired, and full of hatred; but she persisted. It was important that what remained of the army escaped. The dual-blade rotated again as they charged towards her. "Pathetic...Why do you even bother?" Even though she was losing soldier after soldier, she was as arrogant as ever.

And with that her combat was tested, the enemies jousted towards her; she pirouetted and riposted their blades; ducking and rolling across the floor narrowing rolling again to avoid a spear planting in the ground next to her. So close, that even time seemed to slow down, as a single hair from her scalp floated before the shimmering blade. Something within her stirred.. these karkers were really testing her? This wasn't like her, she was Meili SHAW! A Shaw shouldn't be tested by a barely humanoid species of filth; her temper rose and with it, so did her body heat. Her eyes shifted from stunning blue to a darker red. She was getting furious with what was going on. How dare they, these disgusting beings holding back her beauty?! Smelly, ugly, barely sentient beast were starting to push her and her men back!?!?! She Let out a force scream without even realizing what she had done, letting all her emotions stir within her.

"You imbeciles! YOU DISGUSTING FILTH!" She roared. The scream riled many of the raiders to fear her and knocked them back but the more stronger of the raiders stood their ground. One was able to knock her over and but quickly flipping up using her abdominal muscles to his feet; a spear came towards her - she gripped it with her spare hand, placing her strongest foot upon it pulling the wielder down towards the ground before cracking the man to floor with his head. The wielder's face bloodied from the sheer force, before she gripped the mans spear rotating it around; now with two weapons she held off the oncoming onslaughter. But despite what she had done her and her men began to retreat slowly back due to the raiders superior numbers to their own.

It was a narrow navine, with two towering cliffs either side - but alas no matter how many of the enemy he had slain they kept filtering through like vultures to a dead body. She growled driving the spear into one of their chests, ripping it out and into the throat of another - leaving it in there to double spin in time dodging a blaster shot. She coiled her hand around the spear forcing it out of the mans throat which leaked a violent red. The spear tip now colored crimson was tempered as one of the greater raiders narrowed his eyes; in the distance she watched as a raider ready their fire, trying gain more footing. He gave flight, the weapon rotated in the air whistling through the narrow pass. The impact torn into the poor unfortunate receiver; tearing through it's torso and impaling in agony and it whelped in pain.

She smirked - the woman who had appeared to be struggling alone raised upon, brushing herself off and laughing. Before extending her dual-blade outwards. "Squirm all you want worms. The more fight you give, the more fun I'll have." And with that, the greater raider on the floor who had been drowning in his own blood from his throat; the Princess stamping on his face - diminishing any of the pathetic gargling sounds from below. She let out a laughing and she twisted her foot over the beast, taking in the small victory despite her forces slowly still being pushed back demoralizing the raiders. Best part was, she was merely waiting for her puppy, [member="Malachite Avachei"], to set them a flame and her father, [member="Darren Shaw"] to really show them what a slaughter truly meant. To her this was a tame way to fight, she couldn't wait too see what her father could do, if he decided to show off a bit, doubtful, but you never know.


@All ACA Members! (Hope this was okay and sorry for taking so long!)

 

[Raziel]

[member="Marek Starchaser"]
[member="Alisha'ven"]
[member="Selka Ventus"]
[member="Adrian Cassidy"]
[member="Meili Shaw"]

Location: Mos Taike (ATC Facility? All welcome to join planning session before ending this one)
Objective: Plan to bring the threat to an end

Raziel made a loud noise as he slammed the metal door behind him, closing out the dust storm. Two battle droids moved out of his way, and the rest of the room looked across at him. Covered in rags, dirt and sand and looking thoroughly dishevelled, many probably wondered what place he had here.

"As I was saying, we managed to get comms back to a few satellites and downlink some imagery," a gruff mercenary said. A holomap across the centre of the room showed the local region. Another holo-image might have shown Marek Starchaser and other ATC personnel if they had decided to join the call. The map lit up with red dots, they were streaming down from a gathering in the mountains and hitting the city in small clumps.

"This is the largest gathering of sand people we've ever seen. Force knows how such a disparate people managed to organise on a regional level so quickly, but they've gathered and hit this outpost by far the hardest. You can see some of our forces have held a ravine and are pushing them back, for now.* However, we don't seem to have a translator left alive to bargain," he continued in a plain manner.

Raziel raised a shaky hand.

"Yes?"

"I was...I was just..." he started.

Who is that?

Brilliant, a stammer!

Get on with it!

Raziel grit his teeth together and continued. "They don't tend to congregate, because there's only so much water found naturally within each region?"

"Broadly speaking,"

"Do we have any we could try and offer?"



*Meili Shaw

 

[Corey's OOC]

For all this was a post apocalyptical leather clad survival trip in a desert, Marek wasn't having too bad a time. He made it to ATC, and he was doing something for his government, not Tion, the other one. The one he was pulled into from the bottom of a bottle in some bar, actually right on this very world. So, being here, and waiting for a meeting to help get trade moving again? That was fine by him.

And maybe he wasn't so leather clad. A leather jacket, bloodstripes and boots. He was fine. Looked like he normally did, utilitarian and all. He was hoping the Obsidians were doing their thing. He knew he felt some familiar presences around, maybe [member="Selka Ventus"] and [member="Raziel"] but he wasn't going to reach out for them. Last time he used the Force he managed to drain a whole green house of life.

And that was not his intention.

Where was the Twi'lek? “[member="Alisha'ven"], you alive?” He pounded on the door again.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

The flotilla dropped into realspace at a relatively close proximity to Tatooine itself. A series of decommissioned Lucrehulk classes once again provided the bulk freighter role for the ACN. The Jupitus, flagship of the ACN sat at the heart of the group, flanked on each side by supporting cruisers.

"Repulsors all engaged Ma'am, moving into orbit."

"All ships report in."

"Getting a lot of comms chatter from the settlements, sounds like they're in bad shape."

Irys listened to the various reports as they were filtered, aggregated and passed up for her to view. She watched the holoscreen as the flotilla spread out and moved into orbit. Even though the ships were of a variety of sizes, they engaged their repulsors to maintain relative positions within an orbital reference frame. Their cargo was comprised primarily of water. Huge quantities of it, but still relatively little by the standard of the population below. However, given the way things were going, it was probably first on the minds of those on Tatooine.

"See what kind of command structure we still have in place, contact ATC. We need to distribute the cargo and move on."

 

[Aeron Kreelan]

Omega Pyre Task Force
Enroute to Tatooine

Well contracts are contracts. And the Pyre currently had one with ATC in regards of security; and some fugitive recovery items, but that was neither here nor there.

With the Chaos opening up and letting out all kinds of riftraft, Aeron was out here to knock some heads together and get some money for her trouble.

Granted, it was really more to knock some frustration at being cast into Hell, but a girl had to get that out one way or another. They would reach Tatooine soon enough.

From there, they would contact any ATC rep to see where they wanted them.

 

[Raziel]

"So we have water now, maybe some goods on that fleet we can try and placate the Tuskens with, but that won't help if we can't communicate," Raziel said.

The horror was starting to subside now, bit by bit. As each defender or Tusken died, or was relieved with drugs, he gained a little more focus.

Perhaps this was enough for him to try and work on cutting himself off from the Force. It had always been with him, even as a boy it had kept him safe, helping him stay out of danger and blend in. The torture of sealing himself off from the Force could be no worse than that it was putting upon him.

 

[Ahra Martrey]

Ahra finally pushed enough through the sandstorm to find the wall. Cracks of slughthrowers and the hiss of blasters clashed violently in the thick air. Defenders and Tuskens alike were dropping like flies, but the settlement's defenses were beginning to wear thin. Perhaps I arrived in time. Almost instantly a blaster pistol appeared in his hand. At the very least, I can buy some time for evacuation or negotiation or whatever they're trying to do. He climbed the wall like a spider, surprising the defender on top and almost earning himself a blast to the chest. "Point that thing the other way, you moron," Ahra commanded as he surveyed the area. "There's work to be done." After a few moments standing atop the wall, he ran along it for several meters and dropped down the other side.
Hitting the dune and rolling up into a crouch, he considered the Tusken's attack. If they're coming from this direction, and focusing here... their headquarters must be in that direction. Weapon ready, he set out, relying on the blowing sand to cover his movements from any advancing attackers.


[[member="Meili Shaw"] perhaps we (sh/c)ould meet up?]

 

[Raziel]

[member="Ahra Martrey"]
[member="Aeron Kreelan"]
[member="Marek Starchaser"]
[member="Meili Shaw"]
[member="Selka Ventus"]

Irys watched as the flotilla spread out from the Jupitus. It looked remarkably similar to the detritus gently floating away after being struck by a hypervelocity round, she mused. In a very short amount of time the ships started to blend into the background of stars. One by one they disappeared from her view against the night sky and then, as each hit atmo at high velocity, they appeared again as bright orange trails.

They were on the dark side of tatooine now, slowly unloading vast quantities of essential supplies from the bowels of the great vessel. Most of that was, of course, water. Even now bulk freighters of the precious fluid were being called on from several sectors of ACA space. It was plentiful, but liberating it litre by litre from the oceans of Kamino was slow and expensive business.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes Ensign?" she called.

"Captain Stild called up, asked if you wished to be relived now?"

Irys looked down at her chrono. Through the event she had been increasingly relying on drugs to get her through. Some to wake her in the morning, others to break the cycle and give her sleep.

"Tell him his can take over duty now, but send an alarm to my quarters in six hours."

"Yes ma'am."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Selka's earbud comm buzzed, and her ship's sensor officer murmured in her ear. With dawning comprehension, awe, and amusement, she started to get an idea of the scale of the Confederacy's move. Water -- seawater, at a guess. Salinity issues would be her first thought, but she was no expert in water tables. Then again, she wasn't sure anyone could claim expertise on what happend once you dropped half an ocean on a desert from orbit. Mass evaporation, salt flats, clouds...storms?

"Think I'm coming in, then," she said into her lapel comm. "Soon as I can."

 

[Alisha'ven]

[member="Marek Starchaser"]

"That I am sugar," came the Rutian's throaty rasp crackling through the comm. Well at least there was some pep to the girl, clearly, she was still kicking.

"One tick." more crackling came from the overhead speaker. Finally a buzz and a click came through. The door would slide open just as a volley of blasterbolts came at him from a few of the Tuskens that had given chase behind him.

"Get your fine ass in here, Starchaser!" came her cry again.

Well if anything, Alisha was sure spunky!

 

[Corey's OOC]

If there was one thing Marek disliked, it was that so much was going wrong with the galaxy. Should the galaxy have been working like he wanted, he'd probably be able to feel the other Zeison Sha enter the system. Though, he still wasn't one who could sense others, just when danger was coming his way. And not the pretty-Danger, the danger that would dismember him a bit. But, he was also purely ill-equipped to deal with another Zeison Sha, no Force, no discblade...

He had his slugthrower though, if [member="Aeron Kreelan"] did make her way towards him. Though, he wasn't one who wanted to fight someone who was part of his school of thought. Not at all.

Still, when the comlink came on, he smiled. [member="Alisha'ven"] was alive and kicking, he could deal with that. Looking back, he heard the blaster fire getting closer, between that and the sound of the Tusken black-powder rifle, he really needed that door open. “C'mon, Blue.” He muttered, with the button still on, transmitting.

When the door opened, her turned and fired a few shots before running in. “Shut it!” He shouted, giving the blue Twi'lek a smile.

 

[Raziel]

Raziel trudged back across the small settlement to the "wall" to where [member="Adrian Cassidy"] and [member="Ahra Martrey"] were likely fighting. He kept his carbine cradled in his arms, the attacks had faded with the dust storm, but there were still small groups of raiders picking off easy targets.

"All blasters set to stun!" he shouted to the rag-tag group. In their wake trailed a commandeered sand crawler. It had been hastily emptied of all contents, much to the dismay of an angry pack of jawas.

The interior had been filled with an offering. It was almost entirely comprised of water, but did contain other items of use to the sand people. Inside the crawler, the tannoy repeated a message of truce that had been translated on a terminal into tusken.

The plan was simple. Counter attack and Force any raiders in the vicinity to retreat, stun weapons only. When they neared the Tusken gathering they would fall back, leaving their peace offering. Long shot, but at the least it would probably confuse them for a short time. In Raziel's opinion it would also set the tribes fighting for the precious cargo, but he hadnt voiced that.

 

[Jennifer Blanchard]

Jenn had been monitoring the situation. She knew that her boss was located on the desert pit, and really wasn't too fond of him being out there on his own. Especially not without the Force. It'd been a few days since she heard from him, and really, Irani was pretty simple to work to get information out of. Maybe it was because the other cared for Marek as well, they were business bros, or something, or it was because Marek was the one who brought Jenn into the Tion Hegemony.

She'd been doing a fair bit of listening on what Abrion was doing in the wake of the rapture, and honestly? Her training with the Tion special forces made her think twice about actually branching out. The Obsidian Order, they were working on making technology for use with Force users. She really should grab a pamphlet. Maybe after this trip.

That was if she could find [member="Raziel"], though. She knew that the control of the Order seemed to go somewhere with the SpyNet, and well, her tasks were to find the players in the games that Tion could get involved in.

She was stepping out of her Santhe Challenger and basically writing a post that was an advertisment for the Obsidian Order and their very sexy approach on technology and the Force, and Santhe Corp. Dressed in light, sand toned X-1 Santhe armor, she stepped into the desert, scattergun in hand. She wasn't that tough, but right now? She felt it.

Turning on her scanner, she was listening for the comms of the Abrion soldiers. Where should she start?

 

[Raziel]

(mispost does not count for tally)

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

Irys hated getting sand in her fur. There were few things she despised more. She tried in vain to shake some out of the wretched stuff out of her forearm. No use.

The little envoy of Naval officers was well guarded. Nearly a hundred battle droids surrounded the air, and gunships kept tight patrols.

Apparently this was a good PR opportunity. Have some of the senior officers take a look around at the hard work that was being done. Could it be called hard work? Irys supposed there were engineers and managers organising the droid workforce.

They were bringing vast quantities of water to tatooine. A flash in the pan, nearly literally, if they spread it out still. However, they were digging deep holes and filling them with massive chambers at each settlement. It would tide to colonies over until they could get the moisture farms up and running again at least.

"Pose for a photo ma'am?"

 

[Alisha'ven]

[member="Marek Starchaser"]

Shut it she did.

The door went hissing shut, barely blocking the last two bolts that barely missed Starchaster a hair's breadth from his head. Up on the second level, there wailing like a banshee as Alisha, twin heavy blasters in both hands.

She provided a measure of coverfire.

"Shake that ass on over, Starchaser," came her coo with a cheeky grin. A surge of a protective line of Hegemonic Automaton S1 droids came up to flank Marek.

"Good to see your hide is in one piece."

 

[Corey's OOC]

Marek grinned as the door shut. Safety. He cold feel a bit of the tingle of danger sense as the bolts hit the door. Sonofa....

Looking up to the blue skinned vixen, the Corellian couldn't help but smirk. “I think we're safe now, Blue.” He shook his head as he walked up to the second level. “So, what is our status report here?” Being in the ATC HQ with a line of Hegemonic Automaton droids was just like being back on Lianna. It felt like home, even if the Twi'lek was hardly there.

He might have to set up an office on Tatooine if this was the greeting he was going to be getting each time. Besides, he had to watch the gaming tables of Bright Star in ATC facilities. “Trust me, I love having myself all in one piece. Glad you've kept together to.” He offered a wink, because there wasn't a battle going on out there or anything.

[member="Alisha'ven"]

 

[Raziel]

Raziel watched the slow progress of the sandcrawler as it climbed the "wall" they had built to defend the settlement. The piles of compacted sand groaned as some of the upturned speeders at the bottom crumpled. A team of ACA droid engineers watched it's progress carefully. They had deployed a ramp on the other side to keep it moving.

"Right, our goal above all others is to keep that thing moving," Raziel said down a comm that [member="Ahra Martrey"] [member="Adrian Cassidy"] and [member="Selka Ventus"] would hear. "We've got an open plain to cross with only a few speeders between us. Then through a ravine that [member="Meili Shaw"] is clearing for us."

As if to counter his point the hull of the crawler 'pinged' near his head as a round glanced off it. Raziel swore under his breath and ate sand. There was a torrent of blaster fire, before some called all clear. The assassin got back to his feet and dusted himself down. This was perhaps the worst day of his life.