Live Together, Die Alone (Levantine Sanctum Dominion of Etti IV)

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Valik"]

Ms. Ventus wasn't present; deniability was a thing, and she didn't make a habit of visiting mobile black box projects in the field. Instead, Valik found himself conducted to a familiar face. Well, mostly. Intervening time had aged Rel somewhat, sharpened him some. In recent months his girlfriend had been kidnapped and maimed by Sith. But he could work with Valik again; he could do that.

"You're first chair on this," said Rel, because frankly, that was the only sticking point that mattered. "Silk's paying you five times what it's paying me; I'm support staff today." He extricated his sonic servodriver from the gravitic circuitry and straightened up to extend his hand. "How far have they briefed you on the project?"

 

[Valik]

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

Valik respected few people in the galaxy. Ashin Varanin, Spencer Jacobs, Anaya Fen, that meddlesome Seydon of Arda, those were a few. But the man before him was one who captured his attention in without power, without the Force, only his mind. He'd only met him once, but being contracted by Ashin Varanin, helping solve the problem of cloaking a capital ship. Little did he know the man had also crafted a poison specifically designed to combat dark-siders, though if he did his scorn would be equaled by respect.

"Not enough in truth. The report talks about manipulating interdiction fields into irregular shapes. Clever design. Means you can't target the center anymore."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

The construction crews departed the hypervelocity gun, laid out along a mountainside. The firing and maintenance personnel arrived, though the site smelled of fresh-set permacrete and recent welds. At least, though Je'gan on his mountaintop perch, they had repulsor vehicles; they hadn't needed to lay down access roads.

His meditation continued; his White Current shielding took more complex, more subtle, more profound form. Once the installation was fully operational, it would go dark apart from a land line, and even then, the gun base had its own target designation sensors. He'd included that, too, in the White Current immersion he was crafting.

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Valik"]

"That's the concept, yeah. In concert with a cloak, ideally." The Senator scratched his head with the sonic tool. "I'm trying to piece together waveform compatibility between one or more of these. I'm convinced our best shot is to deploy the hyperparticles in resonance with local gravitic perturbations -- like Lagrange points. We've got a full-sized interdiction projector back there, some more pulse-mass mines -- that's the starting platform they want, plus mobility -- and then there's gravitic modulators, gravitic amplitude modulators, and artigrav projectors. Full asset manifest...here we go." He knelt and fished out a hard copy several pages long, in small print.

"Now, here's a side question to ponder, something to chew on. Hibridium or stygium? I've got access to both, if necessary, but none of the cost-benefit analyses I've seen have a clue what they're talking about."

 

[Judah Dashiell]

Etti IV - Planetary Shield Generator 1A


Working in cramped conditions, Judah and his crew were tripping over one another. While less than ideal their assignment was an extremely important one. More Salacia employees were waiting in space,ready to test their work.

Control panels brought to life,illuminating the small space with various blinking lights. The group looked the panels then to one another.

"Activating now." A long pause." Testing in begins in five minutes."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Rosa Gunn"]
"You've got a doubt or two, maybe?" said Jorus as he clicked off the comm. He and Tarbill had exchanged words as uniform men, and the first mine setup would be waypointed out and populated as soon as local tugs brought the Connestoga's cargo over here. Jorus swivelled his chair to face her. "It's a risk, that's truth enough. The New Order'd be fools not to want the Corporate Sector."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@Mother Arg'garok

All things considered, Boolon was rather pleased to hear the news. He could burble with the best of them, but he was more comfortable with Basic than with Gamorrean, at least mentally. That, and translating her for the local doctors would have been, approximately, the worst. Upon the nun's return, Boolon could once more be found in the cockpit of the MC15 Niathal-class that would take them to their medcenter destination.

 

[Velok the Younger]

As it turned out, while the CSA was only moderately interested in the Dauntless and the Force-bestowing foodstuffs, they had other uses for Rave's company.

A rotund functionary, sweating and ginger in white jhodpurs, squatted behind a desk and examined his rank tags. He blathered circuitously, dancing around the true subject of an inquiry that had, no doubt, been drafted On High. When the inquiry took form, it commentated upon her work for the Mandalorians at Dromund Kaas, and her companies' acknowledge expertise in matters of Sith artifacts. Several paragraphs into his question, she opted to cut to the chase. After all, the New Order was coming.

"By chance, did Voracitos leave anything...inconvenient in this region?"

"Oh, how kind of you to ask" was not the standard CSA response, but the relief felt genuine. "A trinket, I'm sure, for one such as yourself. Perhaps you'd do us the honor of moving it to more secure and less...prominent locales than the place where His Majesty left it?"

"Which was?"

"The third adjunct dining room, ma'am."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

He remained on the mountaintop, splitting his presence somewhat. Projecting Selka anywhere within the system was easy enough when meditating, little challenge next to the installation's multilayered White Current masking. When he had the chance, though, he had Selka enter a private meeting room and vanish for a while, so as to spend a couple of hours on the task at hand. The hypervelocity gun, a full-sized six-klick-per-second anti-high-orbit railgun, was now thoroughly invisible -- and its duplicate took form two klicks to the north.

Elsewhere, Silk's supertransports began to unload military materiel purchased elsewhere -- hundreds of Subach-Innes gun platforms. A thousand, all in all, each carefully scrubbed of any hidden command protocols or nasty surprises. A thousand space-based gun platforms took up their positions throughout the Etti system.

 

[Velok the Younger]

The third adjunct dining room resembled nothing so much as an arena. Various avenues led from side passages down to the central eating area, sizeable enough to fit a starfighter or the former Sith Emperor. The furniture, at a guess, had been mobile and repulsor-powered, or else she could well imagine hamlike forearms breaking table legs by accident.

"It's clean," she said.

"Droids."

"Ah." She pointed at the eyewatering item beside the table. "Does that have four tines, or three? Was he attempting to use it as a fork?"

"It may not even have been him, ma'am, witnesses are few. We think he may have found it useful for a form of self-hypnosis. Making himself forget he was full, you see."

"And you say it's a matter of memory?"

"Well, we think he may have found it useful for a form of self-hyponosis. Making himself-"

"Forget that he was full, yes. I'll take care of this, Colonel."

While he departed the area, she took the opportunity to bolster her mental defenses. There was no guarantee that this artifact, whatever it was, affected her mind directly, but better safe than sorry. If it didn't affect the mind directly, though, if it instead bent reality or probability in that arena just like its physical structure defied observation, that made for a more potent challenge.

And if it didn't affect the mind directly, if it instead bent reality or pro-

Keep it together, Merrill.

She approached the unknown item cautiously.

 

[Seydon of Arda]

@Ia'raklane Beorht - (NPCing Ia'raklane Beorht with author permission.)

They cornered it in a paved back-lot round the back of a foundry line, parked with high plate stacks awaiting transportation to a neighboring assembly line across several hover-line avenues. Ia'raklane let Seydon lead, flanking round an armour stack and up several leaning repulsor-tracks. Seydon stuck low and weaved through a part in between two tank prow-nacelles. Winterfang was fairly glowing as the slack in rainfall began to pick up, battering them with localized torrential floods. Dips in the pavement flooded.

Now wounded, the Beast was trying to use the piled material-hills as temporary cover, coming around to loop in behind the hunters' advance. Despite the fogging moisture, Seydon could still smell him. Still hear too heavy paw-falls treading over the ground, claw-talons scratching, see the heat in his trail left behind on the blackened lot. And Ia'raklane's minds eye perceived him with cunning detail.

Both rounded in time; the Beast was charging in a straight rip directly for Seydon. Ia'raklane pounded its shoulders to messy bunches of las-fried muscle pulp. It surged regardless, grappling a chunk of asphalt in one paw, tossing it. The Dunaan surged in a blistering run and jumped, cleaving the debris in a single hew before swinging Winterfang round and chopping. He bit his sword-peak through its upraised paw swing, splitting it from shattered to talon to elbow. It howled; it screamed and loosed a modulated voice that somehow spoke with intelligible gibbering.

Neither Seydon nor Ia'raklane truly heard anything: it scratched away in the small of their minds, sputtering insanely. The Twi'lek approached the writhing, wounded mess, trying to escape on three paws with its shoulders slagged to cooked bone. One thousand eyes looked up at her. She shot the ink-cloud and whatever else it was connected to into ozone, fusing the bleeding throat into barbecued slag. It was twitching still when Seydon sliced its ribbing open and dragged a still-beating cancerous heart out in his fist.

"...That it?" She asked. Ia'raklane looked to the still corpse. "What now?"

Seydon said nothing. Lumped organ in one hand, he sheathed Winterfang, raised his gloved right palm and began roasting the remains with steady jets of pyrokinesis.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Seydon of Arda"]

Pyrokinesis wasn't outside Iara's experience, though Knights never had that much control over such things. She added her paltry flames to the onslaught until the air smelled like the least appetizing barbeque in history.

"I've got no answer to that," she said over the flames, "being why I asked. I've no sense of a mate or a partner, though Force alone knows there should never have been more than one of these. I'll tell you what, though, you draw the most grotesque creatures I've seen, and I spent time with the Sith Empire, once upon a time. You've got the most awkward gift. I don't doubt there's things worth fighting elsewhere on this world. And if there aren't now, there will be soon enough."

 

[Valik]

[member="Bard of the Hyperlanes"]

Valik nodded. The concepts were sound, if a bit terrifying. Putting out a sort of harmonic resonance with the planet's natural gravity would produce quite the effect. Still, putting them at such points would make them easier to find if stealth was the object. Then again, if the New Order was Etti IV's only foe he didn't think they'd have the scientific minds capable of discerning the locations.

"Depending on how much you respect the New Order's science department." He said, deciding to talk about his concerns anyways. "You'd have to set up for more than just the faux Lagrange points. A smart man could find the pattern. Putting them in a rotation of sorts, having an irregular interdictor coming in and out of the maximum magnification points would create a field whose diameter was in a sinusoidal pattern, making the locations far more difficult to predict. As for Hibridium and Stygium." He said, before thinking a moment. "Anything with an interdiction and stealth capability is putting out some serious power output. Not a lot of room left for guns or shielding. If an opponent cracked through whatever fleet you put up and bypasses your stealth you'd likely be dead anyway. Knowing the opponent's coming won't change your fate, so the benefits of Stygium are unnecessary. That does make morale a problem though, unless you made the interdictor unmanned . . ."

 

[Seydon of Arda]

@Ia'raklane Beorht

Together, they idled over the smote piled of broken bone and ruined hide. Sudden downpour rains had desisted as suddenly as they began storming, cued to the Beast's gutted demise. Ash flicked into still, acrid puddles before dissolving out into faint motes. They could smell it on a cool breeze: the stench of awful dreams, realized malice, the mask of death flitting and dancing off the organ charcoals.

"It's what I was bred and instructed for," He told her. "Folks always need this kind of help. It's the only sure way I know of making a living. Of giving back, in some way, even if it's grizzly and awful. Come on. We'll give them this - " He hefted the oblong heart, looking sickly grey and sutured with scar lines interconnecting foreign heart chambers together. " - And see if they have more work."

 

[Rosa Gunn]

Rosa smiled "Is it that obvious?" she shook her head and tilted it slightly "I must be losing my touch."

A darkness flickered past her eyes. "I have to question everything from the perspective of 'worst case scenario'. When you have everything snatched from you it becomes force of habit." The darkness vanished again and she sighed. "Yes, I have worries, concerns, doubts about are ability to protect these people, rather than the fact that we are trying to. Etti called for help and we answered, without question, that what we do, its what we will always do. My concern is that our next nearest planet is Laekia and the defences we set up here and on the planet might not be enough to hold back an attack long enough. We don't have an army. We have a handful of people with contacts that could bring us an army, but how quickly? And at what cost to us?"

 

[Jorga the Hutt]

[member="Valik"]

"I know -- I keep wondering if it'll fit in an assault concussion missile shell, but I'm not even sure if the proportionally smaller grav well would be big enough for any tactical utility, let alone if a well projector can be made that small. A drone, maybe, or-"

With a grunt, he unearthed a massive holowhiteboard and began graphing grav well projector mass versus radius of effect, from memory. "Hapan pulse-mass mine here, Sienar Immobilizer generator here, that one Loronar prototype here-"

After several points, a rough curve took form, and he marked the masses of assault concussion missiles, starfighters, gunships, and dropships, then brought the lines over to interpolate areas of effect. "Rough estimate, rough as it gets, but which of these looks optimal to you?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Seydon of Arda"]

She gave the heart a long-belated double-take as they walked back through a neighbourhood that had no intention of recognizing their existence. "That's unusual construction," she said, "insofar as there's any commonality 'mong alchemists. Ambitious, inexpert, but very effective somehow or other. That ain't the style of anyone I've run across. I don't dabble, nor do I have connections to that world anymore, but there might be a way to see who works like that if we can dig someone up. This system's drawing all sorts."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Rosa Gunn"]

"There's no guarantee of security, no matter how big you build the army. Can even lead to problems -- put a cannon on your porch, all your neighbours think it's for them. If it helps, though, I'm told the governments on Laekia and Kyrikal are buyin' shiny new command ships from Silk, something big and nasty that'll still do good in the standard Levantine-patroller way. Drop in the bucket?

"...yeah, maybe."

 

[Rosa Gunn]

"And we have some wonderful neighbours here don't we." Rosa sarcasm carried with it a touch of amusement. "Sith and Mandalorians. Both proven to be equally fickle and dangerous. I'm not sure who I am more concerned about."

She shrugged "We just need to be prepared, every drop in the bucket counts. The people here would be fighting for their home ground, for their families, for themselves, not for some dictator or government. That makes them more dangerous than any army anyone could throw at us, but it also makes them liable to do incredibly stupid things. So we train, we educate and we get a damn good warning system in place. Maybe, when we've covered every base we can, maybe I will stop worrying. Until then, its my job too."

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Danger Arceneau]

[member="Cade Lee "][member="Jaxton Ravos"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Well it was starting to get all kinds of busy in here, Danger would muse with amusement. No sooner than introductions were said that the fiery haired woman took charge.

First came the Countess, “It is my pleasure, Countess Kerrigan, and no.. not late at all.” she’d say with a winning smile to the brunette. There was strength in her handshake, a confidence and surety. “I’ve heard much about Firemane Industries and I am happy that you accepted my invitation.”

A glance over to Jaxton would bring Danger’s warm smile to her, “Firemane Industries has a long history and excellent credentials in their field of experience in private military security and enforcement -- especially dealing with the types of hoodoo buzzards I’d done mentioned earlier. ” They were primarily a weapons manufacturer dealing with anti forcer techniques and a private military contractor.

The large broad shouldered body of Cade Lee would appear at the corner of her eye, and with a slight brush of her hand to his forearm to guide him forward, she would then introduce him, “I’d like to introduce to you all the CEO of BlastTech, Mistah Cade Lee. This charming fellow has a way in weapons manufacturing, and there ain’t a sector in our known galaxy that don’t have one of his creations in a holster.”

“If I may introduce Mistah Jaxton Ravos, “ she would say with an encouraging smile to the Zeltron, having caught sight of his slightly awkward waiting in line moment after the introduction of Thurion’s apprentice. Good thing the woman left too. Reminded her too much of -that- woman.

“He is a representati

A small murmur from a nearby assistant would whisper into her ear, a lovely Kiffar young woman with long black hair. Ahh, so the representatives of the Corporate Sector and of Etti IV were on the premises.

“Well ladies and gentlebeings, seems our planetary hosts are on their way.” a hand would motion towards the large oval boardroom table.