Liberation of O'reen

[Pinda Solthar]

(Sorry guys stormed knocked out the power)

She looked back to Josh while he brought up his communicator. Knowing then what she had to do, she brought up her lightsaber to shield them both. Twisting and weaving her blade in a fast staccato that allowed for her to easily connect her emerald blade with the scattered plasma bolts. With them gaining the upper hand, there was less and less volleys for her to worry about. Seems like Josh did most of the heavy work.

From her position she could hear him yelling over the noise to his men, when his voice faded out she turned around to seem him standing near her. She nodded, "If things are in place, lets go for it!" she smirked, before waving her blade in a sweeping motion from left to right to cover them both from three plasma bolts coming at them in an awkward angle.

She quickly placed her hand on his shoulder, using him to pull her boot from the mud so that could move with them. After, she took her hand and forced her hair out of her face. "There's a bridge that connects both cities, the one leading from here to there has been the most fortified which is why we'll need that extra fire power. If all units converge there...we'll get in." She nodded, and began to watch as the other units pressed forward with the attack.

She brought her arm up, and began to speak into the commlink on attached to her wrist. "Rancarr! Regroup. We're pressing the offense, wherever you are, gather those you can and converge at the main bridge with the rest of the forces. May the Force be with you padawan, I'll see you soon." She lowered her wrist, closing her eyes briefly. It had been a very long few days for them both...and she hadn't much chance to really explore their relationship as master and student before they were thrust into the fray of battle.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Main bridge connecting Episilon Garrison to Fort Maximus

Her line of vision was full of nothing but rain and blaster rounds going back and forth. The only thing keeping them from connecting with her was the green plasma extending from her hilt. Much as she expected the bridge was fortified...none of the resistance were able to take this location since the inception of the battle, and thats part of the reason why Epsilon fell so quick, but also why the resistance succeeded in starving them out. She stuck next to Josh, while they both led from the front. In the last few days she fought harder now than she did then.

With her advance she manipulated her blade with a precise and ferocious bladework that carved a path for her. The smell of ozone and charred flesh filled the air, and it made her sick to her stomach from being expose to it for so long. However, she mentally pushed through it as she slipped further into the battle. Her robes were drenched, so much so that they stuck to her body. An explosion lit the area just behind her, and she brought her right arm up to cover her head from the effects.

She turned her head to look for Rancarr, he wasn't present yet. She worried.

[member="Rancarr Parad"] - [member="Quenladose"] - [member="Songbird"] - [member="Grace Vhalorious"] - [member="Nefertari Sovint"] - [member="Douglas Starwind"] - [member="Anora Vahn"] - [member="Dusaro Dresari"]- [member="Rylan Thatcher"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Quenladose]

Quenladose continued to work, wearing the mesh she couldn't really get a strong concealment of herself in the force when she was sensing with the force and the energies that she was using to keep the enhancements of the meshed robes that would give her all of the benefits. Wearing the sigil as well so she had the full breadth of abilities allowed for the jedi to use. Stopping so she could get the doors open for some of the others and she activated the saber sin her hands as the blue and the green blades hummed with the force crystals that were within them. The jedi master's crystal that she had found were powerful for what she wanted when she was pushing forward down into the ones she stopped and adjusting the power so it was low allowed her to smack them around but not kill them unles she needed to adjust it back in case of danger. "The gates are open [member="Shmi Labooda"]"

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

Fort Maximus

Objective One ~ On the inside

~[member="Shmi Labooda"]

"What is going on?", she asked hold firm the arm of the woman while piercing her mind through the force to ascertain any lie. The woman looked at Grace as if she was mad or simple after all the oppression of the Fort had been in place for some time now. "You are not from here are you", she scoffed back but keep her eyes on her arm knowing Grace would not let go until she got her answer, there was something about the woman that told her she would wanted a firm reply. "Rumour has it there is a group of resistance fighters, a liberation front attacking Fort Maximus. I don't know who they are, and quite frankly I don't care .. as long as they succeed for it they don't ..". She ripped her arm out of Grace's hold. "Life here will be dangerous for us all. This group could make things worse for us all". Grace did not follow the woman, but remained in place thinking ...

Her head moved only slightly as her attention was caught by another conversation in the cantina they had been ushered into by the patrol troops wanting everyone off the streets. Two men quickly getting drunk, spoke of Jedi being involved. This of course raised Grace's curiosity considerably .. what Jedi would be fronting a resistance? She did not know, did not have knowledge of this group but if the rumour was true, she had to find out and somehow get a message to them.

The streets are heavily patrolled now, what military presence in the Fort was focused on the attack and the lesser authorities were ordered to maintain the streets. Grace headed out the back door and into an alley way. There was no time to loose and she had to find a way to communicate with the liberation front. Using the force she leaped to the roof and keeping low, ran across the roof top of the cantina. She could see the main part of the Fort, the keep in which the leader of this planet was held up, there was much movement on the walls and in the street directly below it, on the turrets batteries of weapons poised to fire on command. The cannons all facing one direction, her eyes followed the line until she could see in the distance movement over the ground. To far for her to make out at this point.

Suddenly she threw herself the surface of the roof, a passing patrol walking directly below her .. "Yeah, Jedi scum .. bastards think they can take this place, well we'll show 'em. What are they doing all the way out here anyway?".

So, .. a resistance group of Jedi huh? now that is interesting.

With no physical means to get a message to the Jedi, she would have to try using the force and hope they .. if there was a Jedi powerful enough to sense her presence .. would get the 'message'. Grace eyed the turrets, she would try and take control of one of them and use it against the oppressors but firstly, she sat on the roof in meditation pulling the light side of the force around her, it would form a bright beckon of an aura around her body, a spot on the horizon to any looking her way would see a shinning light of blue.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"Actually, Dus, you're... Aw, screw it. Point is, I named all your reinforcements teams and now that you guys have all reunited with them, I want you to merge with the fort's, reinforcements and all, all into one team with them. Just go kick ass, okay?" Josh would remark into the communicator before putting it away and drawing his lightsaber again. "Thanks for covering me, love. I think a bout of ass-kicking is in store for these magnus sorts, aye?" He would remark toward Shmi with a smirk.

It was good that Gherron was able to join them. They needed all the help they could get, he could tell by the situation here. The Outer Regions Defense Force needed to fight their best to take out the magnus forces here, before it was too late and there was nobody left to save. Or to defend. Josh would cover Shmi this time as she would take out her communicator, his expression turning serious and fierce as he would twirl the blue blade, deflecting blaster bolts to buy Shmi time to relay commands. After he'd helped her from the mud, the two former Grandmasters would continue on...

--------

They continued to fight, not giving in. Josh, knowing Shmi knew the lay of the land here better then he did, let her choose their direction as they kept fighting. Blue and green continued to twirl and swing through the air as they continued to fight their way through. As the explosion sounded, Josh would hold up an arm and use his cloak to cover himself, but otherwise did not look at the source. If it was a source of danger to them, he would know. He remained calm, continuing to trudge his way through.

He certainly hoped his Padawans were alright...

[member="Rancarr Parad"] - [member="Quenladose"] - [member="Songbird"] - [member="Grace Vhalorious"] - [member="Nefertari Sovint"] - [member="Douglas Starwind"] - [member="Anora Vahn"] - [member="Dusaro Dresari"] - [member="Rylan Thatcher"] - [member="Shmi Labooda"]​

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Rylan flinched and raised his sword in defense as he heard an object tumbling toward his group. As it stopped a few feet from him, his eyes widened for a moment, before bearing quickly returned to his face. He knew who that lightsaber belonged to... Crouching, he picked up the weapon to examine it, then looked up to who he knew was coming to retrieve it. Quickly, he shielded himself through the force, and tried to scramble his signature a little to further hide his identity. Handing the saber over to his fiance, he watched her for a moment as she would take it back. "I believe you threw this at me." He almost smiled at his own joke, then decided against it. Any prolonged interaction only multiplied the chance Nefertari would recognize him, and he couldn't have that. Besides, it didn't help that the rain pelting his face was busy fading his hair back into his natural blonde. Knowing her, she would probably try to convince him to come back home, and he couldn't do that just yet. Turning on his heel, he tried to get the attention of the padawans next to him.

Looking to the fort, he couldn't help but to feel somehow drawn to it, a large beacon of light coming from the inside. It didn't take him long to deduce that it was pobably their person on the inside he'd heard mentioned. Around the same time, the front gate opened, and he saw their chance. "Okay padawans, your master is out there fighting for his life to get to that bridge. How about we ease the load a little?" Brandishing his blade, he looked at the entire scene one last time. It was about time he'd got into the action. Twirling the weapon in his hand, he charged for battle.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="Rancarr Parad"] [member="Quenladose"] [member="Songbird"] [member="Grace Vhalorious"] [member="Nefertari Sovint"] [member="Douglas Starwind"] [member="Anora Vahn"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Shmi Labooda"]

 

[Dusaro Dresari]

Dusaro did not feel anything in paticular in the force. He was not a senstive person to the force, and he was nowhere near that well trained. But he did see the front gates open. Now that one was a suprise, a pleasant one to be sure, but a suprise never the less. He stood up quickly with Rylan, nodding quickly. "Aye." He followed a few steps behind him, saber raised in a defensive postion for any shots that would come from the front gate. Dusaro didn't know what exactly they were going to be running into, but it wasn't going to be good whatever it was. The reinforcements would follow them all to the front gates of the fortress.

The enemies inside didn't expect their doors to suddenly open. No one had given that command. So they were caught by suprise when Rylan and the reinforcements came bursting through, sabers raised and blasters firing. It gave them time to take vital ground to help make an opening in the fortress's defenses. It may not start out as a large crack, but when it came to sieges, it never was.

Dusaro raised his blade as a bolt came in, the shot reflecting harmlessly up into the air after hitting the saber. He moved forward fast, slashing hard at the man's blaster rifle to disarm him, his right hand releasing the lightsaber and punching the man in the jaw, knocking him back. The soldier reeled back, and pulled out a holdout blaster, starting to aim at Dusaro as he started to fall down onto the ground.

[member="Rylan Thatcher"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="Shmi Labooda"] [member="Quenladose"] [member="Douglas Starwind"] [member="Anora Vahn"] [member="Grace Vhalorious"] [member="Nefertari Sovint"]

 

[Douglas Starwind]

Doug too had noticed the gates open. He wasn't quite sure what had done the deed either, but he smiled at the prospect and nodded to Rylan's suggestion alongside Dusaro. It seems some action was finally starting up on their end. Time to make some practical use of the training he had received so far. He raised his saber defensively as well, running inside after the other two gentlemen and the reinforcements.

It seemed that the enemies hadn't even anticipated this and they almost looked like they were fumbling to try and counteract what was happening. It was all going so fast, yet every second seemed to be going by as slowly as a minute. Things were starting to get interesting.

He looked and noticed Dusaro taking care of one of the enemy soldiers, but as the soldier had started to fall, he noticed that he was pulling out another blaster. He quickly dashed over and slashed horizontally to disarm the man's backup blaster before he could take a shot at Dusaro. With the soldier seemingly disarmed for real, Doug proceeded to kick him hard to the side. He should be no threat now. Doug looked back at Dusaro and nodded quietly as he proceeded onward a bit more cautiously.

[member="Rylan Thatcher"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="Shmi Labooda"] [member="Quenladose"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Anora Vahn"] [member="Grace Vhalorious"] [member="Nefertari Sovint"]

 

[Anora Vahn]

So much was going on, and the overload was intense. Luckily, it didn't consume Anora, just sort of took her breath away for a brief moment. The best option for her was to stick close to the others; not smotheringly close of course, she didn't want to lose a limb, but close enough to have an eye on them and vice versa. Plus, having faces she knew around would help her keep some sort of maintained calm in all of this chaos.

When the gate opened, her brow creased and she stared for a moment. Her gaze then drifted to the other bodies she was gathered with, and when they took off through the open gate, she took a deep breath, steadied herself, and followed suit.

The weapon in her hand was activated the moment she had started moving, though it seemed the boys beat her to the punch of the first body they encountered - literally even. Admittedly, she was half tempted to step over and kick the downed enemy body one more time just to say she was involved, but that seemed petty and almost childish. So instead, she moved forward to help block shots fired at them as these enemy soldiers seemed to scramble to get their wits about them. She figured if she could block, the boys could focus on disarming - lest someone get close enough for her to take a shot at herself.


[member="Rylan Thatcher"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="Shmi Labooda"] [member="Quenladose"] [member="Douglas Starwind"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Grace Vhalorious"] [member="Nefertari Sovint"]

 

[Nefertari Sovint]

"Thank you for keeping it out of the wrong hands." Nefertari said to the familiar yet enigmatic man as her weapon was handed back to her. His humor made her laugh a bit.

A short monologue later, and the battle ensued. Pink and green came to life in Nef's hands as she sensed rifles aimed at Rylan. She was almost positive they'd never met before, and knew next to nothing about him save that he was a powerful combatant. Still, she could sense something...a future that must not be cut short.
The force filling her, Nefertari's movements flowed; deflecting the hostile bolts into the ground and using a dual disarming slash to make their weapons useless. Quickly turning about, she charged forward. Keeping any anger or fear in check, she eventually made her way to the thick of it.

[member="Rylan Thatcher"], [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"], [member="Shmi Labooda"], [member="Quenladose"], [member="Douglas Starwind"], [member="Dusaro Dresari"], [member="Anora Vahn"], [member="Grace Vhalorious"]​

 

[Tiberius Varro]

Objective 3
The spaceport docks

This was supposed to have been a simple job. Deliver food supplies. Easy-peasy, in and out, collect his credits and off he'd go. Feed the children, impress the females with his heroism at the next cantina. He would've told them about dodging between blasterfire from cruel government soldiers in order to feed the orphans. Now he literally was.

Yes, he was supplying rebels but ​what about the kids, doesn't anybody think about the poor kids?! ​Well, alright, they'd found out about the spice too. But that wasn't his fault the government minister had an addiction! Besides, you couldn't just cut off a spice addict, they might die! He really was a considerate being which was more than he could say for these goons who were shooting at him.

He dove behind a pile of trash just in time for a salvo of energy to miss him. He scrambled up to a crouch and he wrinkled his face in disgust at the smell. Didn't these cretins know how to clean up after themselves? He poked his head up above the tidal wave of stench only to have to dive back for cover.

This time, his hair hadn't been so lucky. They were gaining on him, not more than two hundred meters away. Tskolo couldn't say if the smell of garbage or the smell of his burning hair was worse. What he could say was that it was past time to be out of here.

He grabbed his comm link from inside his jacket and he scrambled back up.

"DD, where the brix are you with the ​Pearl​?"

He was of course speaking to DD-53, the beleaguered droid co-pilot of his ship. Tskolo's ship was the ​Krayt's Pearl, ​once a surplus YT-1210 light freighter. Now it was...well...it worked. It just didn't look like much, but damn it, looks weren't everything!

"I'm afraid that I'm encountering some resistance, sir," came a tired, fussy voice.

"What do you mean, resistance?," the Rodian demanded angrily as he began to run towards a likely looking alleyway. As if in answer, he heard the sound of blaster fire and shouting voices. Then he heard the familiar sound of his ship's laser cannon discharging. "Oh," he added.

"Yes, Master Ree, I'm afraid I will be delayed," came the tired-sounding reply.

"Well...hurry up!," the smuggler shouted as he shot blindly behind him. This day was just going so well....

 

[Quenladose]

She could feel it with the force energies now as they were traveling with the lightside of the force before she lept up. No need to try cloaking when she was involved in a direct fight leaving the doors opened for the others to come in before she spun around with the blue and green saber giving it all a small look of interest. The jedi knight stayed it it moving like a blue of rainbow hair when she slashed another with the impact sending him into a wall instead of cleaving him as she kept the settings low to not kill everyone she struck. More of the jedi were moving in and out until she put up some of the better ideas to cover and work with [member="Shmi Labooda"] once she was on the ground though she wasn't certain what her ultimate plan was to liberate the people. They needed to have the support over just beaitna lot of people.

 

[Cait Falcor]

Cait Falcor
Combat Lander - Mohawk 5-7
Upper Atmosphere, O'Reen
______________________

The lander shuddered with atmospheric turbulence. Storms raged around Cait at she tried to remain calm in the rear compartment of the Lander.

***

"Take the O'Reen job!" they'd said.

"It'll be a cake walk! Great job to cut your teeth as a merc!" they had all looked so experienced, she'd trusted their judgement. Seemed simple enough, the Jedi Order was paying top credits for any mercs with Republic experience to "Augment" local "freedom fighters" in the Outer Rim.

...so she did. Half now, half on completion. She'd sent every spare credit back to Nubia, and now she was here...riding a rattling death-coffin into a warzone.

***

*KERRrr...SPANG!*

Cait jerked up. That didn't sound at all like atmospheric turbulence. The other mercs riding with her also looked nervous. They'd taken fire before.

*VAT VAT VAT - booom*

The Lander violently lurched to port, her safety harness cutting painfully into Cait's shoulder as the Lander took repeated hits. The inner compartment went dark, only to have the blackness replaced by a low red light - emergency lighting and the wailing of the alarms.

Your career is off to a great start. Cait thought to herself. She could feel atmosphere flooding into the crew bay from the forward compartment, and the sudden pressure increase in her ears told her they were losing altitude...fast.

Someone needs to see what's going on she thought to herself - and saw that no one was was moving. Frak

She unlatched from her seat and clumsily worked her way forward - losing her footing several times. Most of the Mercs were lost in panic - all too aware of the rapidly approaching O'reenian Surface. Cait slammed her closed hands on the pilot's compartment - knocking loudly. But there was no answer. She steeled herself against the inevitable and blasted the lock off with her carbine.

Onrushing atmosphere blasted the door open - right into Cait's face. Her world went black for a second and only came back grudgingly. She was dizzy, and having trouble breathing due to the low O2 concentration this high...though in fairness that problem was rapidly solving itself.

***

The cockpit was a shredded mess of blasted out glass and the remains of the two Sullustan pilots who had been shepherding them down. Rain water slammed into Cait's face - almost painfully. Where it not for the goggles she'd be blind. As it was she was little better off - the storm was so think she couldn't make anything much out in front of her and most of the instrumentation was blown out.

You're no pilot... Cait thought to herself as she messily pulled one of the pilots out of his chair. She's seen this a dozen times in holo-vids how hard could it be?

Yanking hard on the control sticks barely got any feedback, but Cait was able to slow the Lander's descent. As much as she thought this a pretty good meteorite impression - it would be best to slow down. The Lander was going to crash - of that she had no doubt - but hopefully it could be less...deadly.

***


Ahead of her she could barely make out the fire fights raging around Fort Maximus on the Lander's sensor screen. Smoke and chaos bellowed from a close melee among the breached main gates - but the Rebel's main thrust appeared pinned down against the Bridgeway Gate coming from Epsilon.

Of all of the terrible ideas you've ever had...this is the terrible-est. Cait smiled to herself as something crazy came to mind.

Something she'd learned in Sapper School - One breach: good. Two breach: better.

Quickly yanking the comm-set off the ex-pilot she thumbed to open broadcast - she didn't know which channels the Jedi were using.

"This is Mohawk 5-7...If you can hear this...get clear of the bridgeway gate - its about to...um, explode"

Cait violently yanked the stick - which was fighting her every step of the way and then locked it into place. Before ducking into the crew compartment she spared one last glance at the two Sullustans "Sorry" she muttered weakly.

Waddling backwards as the Lander started to take more fire she strapped herself into the first seat she could find. "Hold On!" she screamed - but no one could hear her over the wind, laser fire, and flak. She kept screaming and forced her eyes shut, scrunching herself into the smallest ball she possibly could. The Lander was shaking - jolted by incoming fire and buffeted by storm-based turbulence.

***

The Lander was riddled with thickening fire as it approached Fort Maximus' bridgeway. Its engines were on their last legs - still working despite all the AA directed at the lander. Incoming fire finally penetrated the armored crew compartment - some unlucky Mercs were blasted away, parts of the shuttle flew off its air frame. The engines finally failed - they were coasting on pure inertia now.

Cait continued to scream - keenly aware of her impending oblivion - and then it happened.

With a sickening *KEEERRAAAASH!!* the flaming, wreck of the lander slammed from the sides into the walls - immediately right of the Bridgeway Gate. Lander and Wall became hard to differentiate as the small ship burst through the structure. The Lander's emergency safety measures kicked in, and the interior of the compartment filled with quick-foam at the last possible second. Everyone was encased, the bouncy substance preventing them from moving too much or turning into slush on impact.

Loyalist and Rebel alike were caught in the impact, as dust and debris were flung in all directions. For but a second everyone on the Bridgeway was too stunned to fire.


That didn't last long though - things started to clear - and it was apparent that a second breach had been opened in Maximus's walls...



[member="Shmi Labooda"]