Knock Knock (Lords of the Fringe Dominion of Porchello)

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

Shooting a glance at [member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"] -- it was, not to put too fine a point on it, very hard to coordinate something like this with her teenage daughter in tow -- Ashin hunkered down behind the Hammer and touched her earbud comm. "That'll do nicely, Starchaser. There's another turret fifty metres north of that, dug in under that overhang that looks like a Republic dick-measuring contest. Make it happen, if you would."

Moment of truth.

"All right, Ibbie, we've got a clear path up and to the left. It'll take us around the main knot of defenders and get us some high ground. We're going to run for it, and you're going to stick with me, alright? I run, you run; I stop, you stop."

Her comm crackled -- [member="Nyrrea Danton"] -- and she turned away to answer it. "Sending you coordinates now. They'll put you down near the Fringe dropships on the right side of the line."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

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

"Yeah, well, perky or not, you're getting none of it if let's flank them turns into let's split the party." Alec spat volubly. "But you're right, it's got to be tried. There's enough of us holding the line for a couple of us to pull back and get up on that ridge to the right, up where that airstrike just took out the E-WEB."

Left unsaid was the risk of a second airstrike, should they replace the fallen E-WEB with a...well, with anything heavy.

 

[Dara Gola]

"Sending you coordinates now. They'll put you down near the Fringe dropships on the right side of the line."

Nyrrea smiled as she input the coordinates into her computer, her whole body humming at the thought of the upcoming action. She saw a fierce ground battle going on between Fringe forces and planetery defenders. She landed hard, not really caring what happened to the ship, and just as quickly as she landed she was bounding out of the access hatch, lightsaber in hand.

Swift violence of action had cleared out the area directly around her ship. She didn't wait for instructions from a ground commander, she wasn't in their chain of command anyway. She focused instead on all of the things that were happening and then she saw the bunker complex and the adjoining turret. She was moving even before she had a plan in place. The forces were heavily concentrated on this one point, so it had to be important. She was a blur of motion, streaking across the open area before any guns even had a chance to target her.

The first trooped died before any of the others knew what had happened. His body falling to the ground even as she was swinging at his companion. Attention was quickly focused on her as she quickly dodged back out of their line of fire. Looking down at the liberated equipment belt she smiled. Dead men didn't need grenades, but these lively one sure could enjoy a couple tossed their way.

[member="Ashin Varanin"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

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

Girls were discussing the merits of a solid battle plan, I ain’t a fan of solid battle plans. Okay. That’s a lie, I love it when shet gets properly planned out and executed well, thing is? I am pretty pumped right now, like I can legit feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I needed to move, needed to do more.

Or I had the feeling I might explode internally, instead of being fekked by an orbital bomb. So that’s what I did, they talked, I exchanged a glance with one of dem guys a few meters to my right and they nodded.

They got it.

Suppressing fire started two seconds after that, but I was running towards that ridge Alec just talked about already. Either would get shot in the back, or I would reach it.

Point was- I hated waiting.

 

[Arage Bao]

Slicin’ and dicin’ name of the game, blood splattered across the armour. Could practically feel the darkside-infused beskar pulsating with glee, it loved the massacres, it fueled it more and more. Didn’t like, didn’t not like it either though, which probably should have me worried.

No time, gotta keep moving, because these rebels are good. Ain’t no Rebel Alliance crap this stuff, it was serious, organized, aight equipment too and they had the training. They wouldn’t break immediately, possibly no break at all.

Vaulted over a barricade and tackled someone to the ground, started beating him to pulp.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Fun fact: Ashin was heading for the same ridge, [member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"] in tow. Her eyes widened, then narrowed, as she recognized the tall, tow-headed Undergrounder from a certain sniper duel on Prakith. Once you'd seen that fether run, you didn't forget it. Hair poofing everywhere.

Her heavy blaster pistol spat fire as she stampeded up the recently-air-struck pathway. The E-WEB had been taken out by Starchaser on her orders, to make a clear path for her and Ibaris to get around the main firefight. Now she found a blonde occupying her ingress route.

BZAPBZAPBZAPBZAPBZAP

 

[Arage Bao]

Didn’t know the face of my sniper, but she was definitely familiar. Probably because everyone everywhere knew the Conqueror of a thousand worlds even when she turned black halfway through her career… somehow. Wasn’t much space here to do anything, didn’t want to dodge to the side and break momentum so I ducked, most of the fire passed me.

One of ‘em scorched my shoulder, hella of a lot of pain. Couldn’t stop me now though, adrenaline was a queen sometimes. Returned fire, most of it would be concentrated on [member="Ashin Varanin"]

Simply because I wasn’t seeing the little girl prancing about behind her.

[member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

There was a song in Coren's head. A song about shooting, and how thrilling it was. When he circled around to admire his handiwork and gave a wing tip to the Fringers on the ground, he looked to watch on the drop ships. Seems most were making landfall, no need to flare flood the space again. They'd be fine. Hearing [member="Ashin Varanin"], Coren grinned. “You're just a giver, aintcha?”

Leave it to a parent, making sure everyone was handled and happy.

Moving his Mantis back out into a wide bank, he opened up the scanners and saw the gun emplacement. “When will the Republic learn?” He said, really only to himself. They were dug in there, and the first pass wasn't doing so keen to the turret. Damned rocks.

“Fringe, keep away from the cliff. Don't know how big this is goin' be.” Really, they probably had spare powercells and energy for that turret. Swinging his ship up and over the overhang, he pushed the throttle for exit velocity and made a steep climb up.

Feeling the friction from atmosphere break, he banked the Mantis up and over itself, before spinning the ship, he'd pull away down and away from the Fringe troopers, no need for stray shots to go anywhere but to his ship. Switching to a concussion missile launcher, and prepping the weapon, he pushed the throttle more. Watching the altimeter, he nodded, dumped the throttle down, and jammed on the repulsors as he got within 200 meters of the surface. At the same time, he fired the missile, letting the ship change its direction with a serious lurch and the sounds of whatever getting knocked around in the hold.

Right, he'd have to fix that. But first, time to move. He pushed the throttle again, scanning for targets, hardened, that was. No honor in frying troopers from the air.

Unless it was an order.

 

[Onith Trill]

I'm charging a bunker of rebels, barricaded and defended, but our front-line Marines are cutting through, taking shots, endin lives.

Till they get frozen by cryoban. Shot was too precise to be a lobbed grenade. Calculations indicate a seventy-eight-point-four-nine percent likelihood of them having a cryoban grenade launcher, or perhaps a bullet with a cryoban payload. Something like our own Viscera Scattergun, but with ice instead of acid.

"Spread out." My mechanical voice rings to the rest of the Iron Battaltion squad with me. I'm no tactical droid, but the other TA-1's listen to my voice anyways. At least since they all got reports about how I served on Phu and helped the Grand Admiral fend off some cultists after she'd been captured. Wasn't nearly as heroic as it sounded, but with my short military career? I'll list as an achievement till something better comes along. Anyways, with us all scattered like another cryoban won't take us all out, though we are more vulnerable to being picked off. Need cover and all that. We should still be good go, we have numbers on our side. Like all the other TA-1's I fire my rifle as we advance, eager to flush these rebs outta cover.

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

 

[Flint Michigan]

Flint Michigan was not present; he had vanished into the Netherworld. In four hours he would emerge on Voss, escape the planet as a matter of principle, and probably have no sex that would make a mark on his life.

Flint Michigan was not relevant to this particular moment. He wasn't even remembered, apart from Jarvis Gawern a former Pub Pilots who’d joined the Undergound like him. Gawern owed him thirty credits from sabacc night, and thirty from the sabacc night before, and, well, you get the picture. For the Underground Pilot Flints absence was a relief, but not too much of a relief. He still owed him quite a bit of dough, at least for dirt-poor spacers like themselves.

Mortar fire rang throughout Gawern’s bunker as if a god had dropped it, and Gawern tried to get his head in the game. But for some reason he couldn’t shake the feeling he owed Flint a bit, and that a piece of information he’d found would fit the bill.

 

[Ibaris Varanin]

If that guy thought she was prancing, he was mistaken. If she thought she was doing anything here, she was mistaken... well, anything other simply sticking with her Pops - 'I run, you run; I stop, you stop'. She had nodded, and they had went.

She got it. So when her parent stopped, she stopped and tried not to get in the way, and sure as hell tried not to get shot. What? She was only thirteen and had a whole life ahead of her. That being said, she sure as hell wished she could come around and give whoever this guy was a firm smack upside the head.

She'd definitely feed this one to Fluffy.

[member="Ashin Varanin"] | [member="Khaleel Malvern"].

 

[Hira Mitsae]

Officially, Darrell Irani was not on the planet of Porchello. Officially? He was probably supposed to be sipping some kind of tropical drink on an island somewhere, but who cared about the official story these days? Few people if you heard the stories right, anyway all things considered Irani was a businessman. A man who didn't have many moral qualms about anything, unless it costed him money, because then he would care a lot and heavily.

Point in case, Porchello wasn't an important planet in the grand scheme of things, but it provided certain opportunities. Things Darrell could accomplish through closer ties with the former Protectorate worlds, he doubted Omega would be returning anytime soon and so it was a smart thing to start cultivating the connections within the business world. Perhaps in the future Porchello could become a hub world, an important node within a vast infrastructure of economic greatness.

Who really knew these days?

So currently he was waiting in the atrium of an assuming building, sippi some tea while waiting to be admitted. He was entirely aware of the heavy fighting currently being done.

 

[Simone]

Simone's head whipped round as Khaleel took off at a sprint. "Feth!" she scrambled to her feet and took off after him. She'd have his back, that was part of her job, even when she was not equipped nor designed for this sort of work. She opened fire haphazardly towards the enemy laying some form of covering fire down.

She caught a glimpse of [member="Ashin Varanin"] and skidded into a crouch behind another barricade as fire rained towards [member="Khaleel Malvern"]. She looked to the soldier to her right who met her gaze with a sidewards glance. "Grenade." she said simply "Give." He handed it to her, she twisted it sharply and threw it towards Ashin and her tagalong [member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"]. Direct hit or not, it would kick up a lot of debris and give her employer a chance.

She took off again after him the moment the explosion happened.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Simone"] [member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"]

She stretched out to the Force, knowing it was a bad idea, knowing she had no other options, and batted Khaleel's blasterfire away with a backhand. The bolt crashed into the grenade, and she pulsed her Force protection from hand to full-body-

The shrapnel rattled off her, the defensive aura solidified, and she was paralyzed. Her Force protection had become, for the moment, a coffin. She couldn't breathe, couldn't flinch, couldn't be moved.

Feth.

For the next few seconds, Ibaris was on her own.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Tal"]

She refrained from tossing a final barb at the Zeltron; her attention was on the second (fifth?) wave as they stormed through the ice shards that had been their predecessors. They'd spread out as far as this approach angle would allow; the Underground folks were entrenched in a natural choke point.

She slotted an EMP shell into her Bloodstripe, alongside two concussion shells, and popped out from cover-

BLAMBLAMBLAM

The concussion shells fired first, tearing into the ground and obscuring sightlines with shattered dirt. The EMP shell did its BZZAPping best to knock out Fringe electronics.

 

[Onith Trill]

[member="Alec Rekali"]

The TA-1 droids advanced far as they could, but the Underground had good positioning, as well as quite the interesting fire power. The dirt obscuring helped the Underground quite a bit. Heat detectors kept them on course, kind of. The EMP shell disabled maybe half a dozen TA-1's, the ionization buffer protecting against Ion and not EMP attacks.

As for me? I'm still coming with a CC13, laying down suppression fire and the occasional grenade. The other TA-1's have begun to pull out some BTI-Ravagers, hoping more heavy fire will help out. These guys are pinned deep, but I'm confident we'll get them down. Just a matter of when.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Tal"]

Alec's grim evaluation of the situation matched the droid's, though she couldn't know that. Heavy fire kept her pinned down behind permacrete barricades, unable to use more directed fire. And she was running low on area-of-effect shells, and at this range scattershot would be useless against droids. That had been her last EMP, certainly.

"Better than nothing," she growled, and loaded three incendiaries. She craned the shotgun's triple barrel around the permacrete and braced the stock in the dirt; at this angle, recoil could break her wrist.

BLAMBLAMBLAM

 

[Onith Trill]

[member="Alec Rekali"]

Fire explodes behind me and starts burning at my plating. I could be thanking the creator that I don't have nerves, but instead I'm thanking the creator the Underground doesn't have more EMP shells. Would be pretty embarrassing to shut down in the middle of battle. A few of the other TA-1's are not so lucky as I am with blast radius though. One guy guy got hit directly, straight melted. Makes me want to bathe myself in coolant fluid. But I ain't got time for pleasantries. I'm pretty dang close to the bunker, so I let out a grenade at the entrance, simple frag. Wait for the thing to explode before laying some cover fire and trying to advance. My back plating is fethed from the incendiary shells, so I've got to be careful. Meanwhile ravager fire pours from behind me.

Just need a bit more time, and maybe a nice strategicly placed charge here or there.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Tal"]

A frag grenade embedded itself in the earth beside her, and time stood still.

Literally.

The Force warped -- it had to be the Force, though she wasn't doing anything -- and she pushed herself away, scrambled up in slow motion, threw herself into cover with agonizing slowness. She heard the grenade make a little click, and then shrapnel spun her around and time started moving again. Another Undergrounder, she couldn't tell who, dragged her back as the Fringers advanced. Evac transports, each guarded by a pair of RebelX gunships, began to lift off behind her.

 

[Onith Trill]

[member="Alec Rekali"]

I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure what happened, but I see a woman being dragged by some other rebel. The rest of the guys are laying occasional shots, but mostly backpedaling. They've either got another place deeper in the stronghold to shack up in, or they're prepping to evac. My audio sensors aren't quite tuned enough to hear what they're saying over the crossfire, but the evac is a non-zero percentage. Better relay that possibility.

"Prep anti-aerial weapons for possible evac." I have no idea they'll be using transports guarded by RebelX's, so the chances of us actually hitting something is low, but the other droids will communicate up the line, maybe get some fighters to wait on 'em. Anyways, I head into the compound, keeping ever watchful for possible rebel ambush. A couple TA-1's follow behind me, and we're taking down stragglers and trying to figure out where the hanger's at. Or any computers with any relevant data that hasn't been wiped. Or if there's any nasty explosives waiting for us somewhere. Can never be too careful you know.