Knock Knock (Lords of the Fringe Dominion of Porchello)

[Ashin Varanin]

Porchello was strategically important, but only for its astrographical location and the sheer number of hyperjumps possible from various points in the system. If not for growing up in the shadow of the Corellian Trade Spine, it probably would have been a nexus of some kind; as it was, plenty of traffic came here to get to the spine.

Such mild successes were minimized for the near future as a dozen cloaked Penumbra-class interdictors deployed to every single one of those jump points and started setting up pulse-mass mines with hundred-thousand-kilometre radii. The customs patrol forces, the new customs patrol forces, arrived shortly thereafter.

Within twenty-three minutes, the deeply troubled Porchello system was under new management.

This left only Porchello itself, a planet known for off-the-books bases, smuggler redoubts and so forth. Interrupting entirely legitimate business wasn't a sound long-term strategy, especially in the wake of the Day, but one or two of these groups, as established by Ranger transceiver intercepts from the fifteen Permanence-class battleships currently stationed over Porchello, had strong ties to the Underground and the old Rebel Alliance.

The dropships dropped. Ashin was in the very first one.

 

[Velok the Younger]

Seren Ordavo was not present; he had vanished into the Netherworld. In four hours he would emerge on Teth, kill a couple of Jedi on general principle, and have possibly the best sex of his lives.

Seren Ordavo was not relevant to this particular moment. He wasn't even remembered, apart from Corporal Kinzain and Sergeant Ghorr in Dropship 5. Corporal Kinzain owed him thirty from sabacc night, and Sergeant Ghorr was determined to get into his pants. For the Corporal and the Sergeant, Seren's absence was, respectively, a relief and a frustration, the good NCO being of the school of thought that linked certain pre-battle rituals to success.

Dropship 5 touched down as hard as if a god had dropped it, and Sergeant Ghorr got her head in the game.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

This was his kind of world. Like most Starchasers of a variety of infamy and fame, Coren was still a... clean combatant. He would only get his hands that level of dirty of there was no other way. He preferred to use the Force to clue into the alternative routes. How to make the most of a situation. Leave someone alive and they owed you one. Kill them and you couldn't get anything more.

For now he was flying his D5 Mantis. He wasn't needing to be on thr ground right away. He could do a lot of interdiction here. Keep the smugglers from escaping and find targets of convenience. Then land and make his move on the world. Do what needed to be done.

That meant finding which beings would be useful to the Fringe if kept in power. And which people to knock down. Thankfully, his ship had a decent set of scanners and was intercepting most transmissions and scanning for names against a databas .

You know, until he's either needed or finds his target.

 

[Arage Bao]

Ordavo wasn't on Dropship five, but Akuna was. Coincidentally he was currently sitting next to sergeant Gorr, which probably didn't mean much. Because knowing Ordavo and the invisible hand that led him Akuna wouldn't get laid today, it was simply the way of the world or at least the world Akuna lived in.

Perhaps he should shave his head, maybe that would up jis chances. But they would habe to figure that out on a later date, seeing as they were busy playing the nation resource game.

Not that it really mattered to Nui. As long as he got paid he would be content.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin's dropship hit the hardpack with commensurate noise; she made a note to investigate procurement policies for better inertial dampeners on the Hammer-class. Her ship was a flying brick, albeit one that had seen good solid use as a portable fortification, against Atrisian forces outside Jar'Kai. And then much better use when retrofitted into the compact Hammer-B LAC, outfitted with HELIX warheads...

Good times were had by all.

But the original Hammer still had its uses, among them the ability to go from point A to point B without undue risk of death. Ashin emerged from Dropship One and took a deep breath of dusty yellow air. The Underground affiliate base's guns started chewing into the dropships, but the dropships were having none of it.

Time for a little bloodbath.

 

[Arage Bao]

No clue what I was doing here, paying my dues, doing the good job. But as I ducked behind the hastly erected barricade there was only one thing on my mind. Jimmy's, a good drink, cigar and maybe the late night show with one of em space elf girls.

My knack was gone, or at least awkward things tended to happen when I tried to bend my bullets. Too risky here anyway, lots of fire and not enough distance to take your time picking a target.

Guy next to me passed up some suppressing fire, gave me the opportunity to get a shot out. Aimed at the folk just stepped out of the new transport.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Alec's Bloodstripe barked, filling the air with anti-blaster aerosol and ablative ceramic razorflakes. Incoming Fringer blasterfire just sputtered out in midair. A handful of slugthrower shots forced her head down; she crouched behind the concrete barricade.

"Still not convinced they're not the ones that made folks disappear," she hissed. She angled the Bloodstripe up at the second wave of dropships; an EMP and a concussion round sent one sixty-metre Hammer transport skidding off-course. It crumpled with an almighty but indescribable sound as it struck the earth not far from here.

"Feth the Fringe."

 

[Simone]

Concrete shatered under heavy fire, showering her dark hair with a fine layer of gray dust. Simone was out of place. Out of her comfort zone and doing something her skill set simply didn't cover. "Khaleel," she said in a tone that had underlying hints of poison, "I'm pretty sure, when you asked me to work for you, this was not part of the contract." She rose from behind the barricade, loosing a stream of blaster fire that hit absolutley nothing.

It did drive a couple to cover, at the very least. She fixed the scoundrel with a deadly stare.

"If we get out of this alive. I might just kill you."

[member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

‘Feth the Fringe.’ agreed with her, though I doubted the part where the nation had anything to do with the people disappearing. Billions of folk vanishing overnight? I will be completely honest with y’all, if I ever thought the Fringe was capable of such a display of power? I wouldn’t be here fighting them now, I’d either join ‘em or sit comfortably behind my bar.

True words aren’t always nice to think, but that was life for ya.

Got Simone with me, fair point to me though. I wasn’t expecting to get involved in a full-blown war against the Fringe, was just thinking I could set-up a few smuggling contacts here, get the gig going just like on Halm.

Was one of the positive points of getting invaded by the Fringe now, my prices just skyrocketed through the roof.

Money, money, money, baby.

‘You mean the napkin I had you sign in the bar?’ I shouted out, trying to get over the sound of the artillery. Another bullet flew out from me and hit someone in the head, wasn’t pleasant. ‘Ain’t the tightest contracts ‘round, love. But feel free to renegotiate your terms when we are done here!’

 

[Arage Bao]

Rushed outta the transporter, gave a nod to the pretty sergeant and went off to do my own thing. I ain’t the best of team players, not when I am head-deep in dodging fire and killing. Guy’s blood boils when that sort of thing goes on, might even forget who is an ally and who is the target, ya know? Better to avoid such awkwardness whenever possible.

Dodged to the side and barely missed getting hit by a blaster bolt, vaulted over the balustrade and the pivot blades came free from my wrists, one cut, two cuts. Guy was done, bleeding from the deep cut in his neck line.

Ain’t gonna go free from that, had to be careful tho. I ain’t got the breath now to protect myself, one shot would be enough to feth me up real good if I ain’t careful.

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Right. Fire. Terrific. Coren shook his head, leading his ship through the flak. Seemed most of the gunships were making it to land. He was relaxing, or trying to. Looking at the emplacement, he needed to find where he was going. Who his target was. Being him, it was always tricky. Had to pick his fights, see who he could make deals with. "Feth it." He muttered to himself.

Aiming his ship at a weapon emplacement he fired off a pair of missiles before tucking and diving for the surface. Better below the hard line. "We goin' need air cover today? " this was sent to [member="Ashin Varanin"]. "Or more on thr dirt?"

Because that was always fun. Still, he was going to launch flares around, get the drop ships on the ground in one piece.

 

[Simone]

Simone grinned despite herself.

"Karking napkin in a bar. You know--" she was cut off as a missile hit the ground less than a hundred feet from them. Small peices of debris rained down on the a few seconds later and Simone found herself clutching the blaster so tight her knuckles were white. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She'd been on a battlefield before, this was nothing new.

She looked over to [member="Alec Rekali"] "You got a plan sunshine? Because knucklehead here sure as hell doesn't." she jerked her head at Khaleel.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

‘Speak for yourself, man.’ shot a few more times. Here was the thing, we ain’t getting the planet back, if the Fringe decides it wants this planet? It will fething get this planet alright, the only thing we can really do is buy some extra time for the folks to evacuate behind us.

Finally took out my frag, that I had been saving for a proper occasion, transporter landed, doors opened and I threw the thing. Perfect arch, timing was astute and the vehicle with reinforcements went up in flames. Didn’t even use the Force this time, was starting to get better at this shet.

Almost forgot I was still talking.

‘One, hold position. Two, keep those fethers out until evac has arrived. Three, don’t die.’

Started shooting as a madman after that, suppressing fire for some wounded that were being dragged outta the game.

‘Anymore questions?’ I shouted over my shoulder.

 

[Simone]

"Just one!" she yelled back at him.

"Where the feth do I fit in!"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Simone"] @[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

"I don't have to run faster than the bear!" Alec called out, cracking the breech of her Bloodstripe. "I just have to run faster than the other guy! That's where you fit in, Pinkie Pie!"

WHAKKARABOOM

The Bloodstripe went off, spraying concentrated CryoBan across ranks of Fringe soldiers, freezing commandos behind cover. A cold wind howled over Alec as she hunkered down behind her fortification. Out there, men and women were turning to ice.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

"Oh, we'll definitely need the air cover, Starchaser." Ashin hunkered down behind the Hammer's cover as Underground CryoBan washed over the Fringe front lines. "There's a couple of E-WEB repeaters in bunkers, up to the left on that ridge, about forty metres northeast of the fort. They've got Dropship Two pinned down. That's where you fit in, if you can pull off something that precise without bringing the ridge down on that pathway -- we're going to need it."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren checked his instruments when he heard the call. Launching out more flares to give him and thr other drop ships a bit if cover from missiles he nodde . Right, the E-WEB...

But keeping the bridge?

He hated flying in gravity. Shaking his head, he pulled his ship into a bank to get away from the target and give himself room to move. The ship was set up to make escapes and explore. But it still had enough weapons. Switching to his blaster cannons he grinned.

Checking the targeting solution, he squeezed the trigger as he got closer. Shockwave from the blasters were going to knock the E-WEBs and any troops away. One, two, three blasts and he was confident that his target was destroyed.

Jared wasn't the only one in the family who was an ace behind the stick.

"How's that looking?" He called to [member="Ashin Varanin"].

The one thing about his ship was it was geared towards precision strikes. if a target was too hardened, he'd need backup.

 

[Ibaris Varanin]

Also hunkered down behind the cover the Hammer-class provided was a thirteen-year-old girl, gaining valuable experience a few years earlier than the older woman beside her had intended. This really couldn't be helped. Was she nervous? Admittedly, at least a little, but... Frangawl cultists vanishing people and machines that sucked the life out of you were one thing, and really quite cool, to her still rather fresh, young mind - can you blame her for thinking that? Fluffy is a terentatek.

She misses Fluffy. A lot.

The other thing, being shot at? Well, she's a teenager, and not a typical one. The whole thing makes her indignant, which really makes her want to yell at them for it, while returning the favour. But at the same time she's not stupid and has decided to listen to Papa. Well, because Papa told her to, and that woman tended to know what she was doing.

That was something the girl knew from her limited experience.

[member="Ashin Varanin"] | [member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Nui Akona"]​

 

[Simone]

"Hey! Sunshine! Call me pinkie again and I'll put a bolt in that perky ass of yours." Another stream of pointless blaster fire sprayed from her gun. "Fething rascist son of karking sithspawn."

Another hammer dropped down as Alec's cryoban round took out a fresh wave of troopers. Simone slumped against the barricade again, fingers tugging a small hip flask from her boot. She took a swig, then another for luck and tucked it away. They were coming in thick and fast.

"We should flank them." she said suddenly surprised at what was coming out of her mouth. "We keep sitting here they are gonna be all over us in minutes. You want those transports to get out, we need a better plan than sitting here like ducks."

[member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Dara Gola]

Nyrrea's ship transitioned out of hyperspace just where she wanted it to closer to the planet that was safe, but close enough to hit orbit before anyone coyuld stop her. Her ship groaned and she could feel the resistance to her course. The fighting was fierce and she knew that she needed to make sure someone knew she was coming in fast.

" Fringe ground forces, I am a friendly and I'm coming down very fast. Point me in the direction you most need the help and I'll try not to crash to badly when I get there."

She hoped it was enough, that someone would stop long enough to not shot anti ship missiles at her. Hope was all she had left.


[member="Ashin Varanin"] @Simone @Alec Rekali [member="Khaleel Malvern"]