Lost to Time | The Sovereignty

[Roella Arwyn]

Striga
Jungle

Thorne flashed as it cut through the underbrush, and Roella's hair stuck to her face from the heat of this place, plastered to her skin with sweat. She was alone, this time. No Shaun, no knights, no one. She had something to prove. She had heard this world held a creature known as the Balyeg. Some said it was the most frightening creature in the galaxy. Large, reptilian, terrifying. Roella did not believe them. Not entirely, anyway. At any rate, she had made it her goal to kill the creature.

She was armed only with her sword, her shield, and her armor. She was to find the creature's cave, and end its life, bringing back some part of it as a trophy. It would be perfect, for her. Glory, which she so craved. Perhaps even the attention of their monarch, [member="Varik Ice"], which she also craved. Rewards, for her deeds. He was an admirable man, Varik. Putting this together, becoming the Sovereign. They would have written songs of him on Talravin. Perhaps she would ensure they did.

She pushed thoughts of Varik out of her mind as she cut through another tree branch, and paused. A cave. A very, very large cave. She swallowed. This had to be it. The lair of the Balyeg. She set her muscles, worked her face into a determined scowl, and with her free hand, lit a torch she kept with her. With the light of fire at her side, she entered the mouth of the beast.

 

[Inyri Takan]

Striga, City Outskirts (Plainslands), Unknown Time | Fear

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Inyri yielded to better knowledge. As he moved up in front of her she returned to her gentle probing, hands idly toying with the light-steel hilt of her lightsaber as her senses expanded. Reaching past Cynan through the Force, the irony wasn't lost on her. But their personal machinations weren't what was important now, his silent statement was correct; collaboration would get everyone out of this. Silently, she buried the annoyance she felt at his un-needed hostility and returned her full attention to the conflict ahead.

"I'm relying on your judgement of the situation, sergeant," She spoke in a barely audible tone with the knowledge her voice would reach him no matter how loud she spoke, "When you believe the time is right, we'll move in."

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Spoiler: Interacting With

[member="Cynan Hague"]

Spoiler: Interacting With

 

[Luyioth Dakwin]

Luyioth Dakwin

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The Asteroid Station, Striga, Striga System, Wild Space.
Interacting with: [member="Varik Ice"]; [member="Aeric Saigo"].​

A quiet burst of static, from which a voice pressed through:
"Shadow One, this is Captain Saigo of the Imperious tasked with your supervision." it began. Luyioth continued towards the closest pair of doors as the voice rang in her ear. "Status report." Looking at her, it wouldn't be far-fetched to think she never heard the message: her stride didn't break and her expression didn't shift, steeled and uncompromising as she progressed towards the doors. Yet as she reached up to the controls themselves, wrenching the rusting panel open with a bit of force and reaching forward to the buttons and levers, she spoke:
"Saigo, this is Shadow One," Her muffled voice began, continuing as she pulled the lever down: "I have infiltrated the station and am progressing towards station control now." Looking over towards the blast doors, she watched them as they groaned before cracking open, where she started her way about to press through the crack.

"Power to the station remains, although no signs of life at this sta-..." Luyioth continued, staring down the adjacent hallway as the lights overhead crackled to life in no particular order. She stopped her report in her tracks as the occupants of the hallway came into view: rows and messes of deactivated droids - some standing hunched, some in a heap on the floor, all without any signs of life. "...correction, at least tens of deactivated droids, but otherwise no signs of life. The station seems long abandoned." With that, Luyioth continued forward, her lightsaber dangling from her belt as she stepped over the odd droid.

"Was that all you needed, Captain?" Luyioth asked, as she lifted her left hand to clench her fist and throw it to the ground - mystically grasping at the droid in front of her and throwing it at the floor. She wasn't exactly subtle about being indifferent, if not disinterested, in being supervised: the gentle venom on her concluding word and her distant voice made a small show of it. Yet regardless, as she opened up her hand and reached out to dust off the old map of the station, she never broke her stride. Was it indifference, acceptance, or resignation? Who could tell?

With the route to the control wing committed to memory, Luyioth turned to continue on her path, occasionally stretching over or a toppled droid as she went.

 

[Varik Ice]

Varik Ice​

Equipment: Lightsaber - Armour​

Location: Striga​

With the Sergeant being carried off by medics on a stretcher to head for the nearby transport, Varik kept with the rest of the platoon. They were moving to guard and inspect the new Forward Operating Base that was under construction; Ice was aware they had a newer Chief Engineer on it, a Duros with something to prove. He was looking forward to meeting the man he'd heard so much of.

He'd heard of his talents with Engineering and construction, and if things went well here, he had half a mind to assign him to oversee divisions of Naval Development. They had their current projects and drives in the Navy, after all. They were pushing for more construction of new Ship classes and lines of different roles and sizes, to diversify their Navy and make it more flexible. It was shrewd to do so, since you never knew what could appear in Wild Space.

Having eventually arrived at the construction site and with Varik now mostly dried off, he motioned the Lieutenant to get he and his men set up in their positions. He wasn't sure if the towers or other defenses were quite ready yet, but that was fine. Things would be more than ready soon, he figured. Motioning for a worker to come over, he spoke quickly. "Let Chief Darmos know I'd like to see him." The worker quickly nodded and hurried off, seeming under pressure just from Varik's presence. He did attempt to be relaxed with others, but they made themselves nervous around him anyway. He'd never understand it.

[member="Urwin Darmos"]

 

[Urwin Darmos]

Urwin would be adding last touches to one of the tower's defenses when he'd hear a worker yell for him. He'd climb down the tower and ask the worker,

"What is it?"

"Varik Ice is here" the worker would reply.

Urwin would nod at the worker, while handing him his tools. "Get up there and finish the work for me. It's a standard procedure AV-7 Anti-Vehicle Cannon. While your at it, pick up some plasma shells for the cannon. My HUD System was detecting the central assembly as non-functioning, get it fixed." He'd finish his sentence while walking off into Varik's direction, where the worker pointed to. Urwin would be ecstatic to hear what Varik had to say about the progress on the base.

Urwin would arrive in front of Varik, "Hello, sir. The outpost is mostly finished, with us doing some final diagnostics and additions to the defenses. We've armed it to the best of our ability."

[member="Varik Ice"]

 

[Zedd Harkor]

Lord Admiral Zedd Harkor​

The Sovereign Navy's' Encirclement of The Asteroid Station, Striga, Striga System, Wild Space​

Status: Encircling the Asteroid Base [Two Hexes Distance], Standing-By​

Objective 2​

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w_gLF45HTM​

The approach of the Sovereign Navy, towards the mysterious asteroid station, was slow through the subspace cosmos; measured, economical. The ships of the Sovereign Fleet began to encircle the asteroid, taking into obvious account of the asteroid’s orbital speed, they drew their line in the sand. As they made their approach towards the asteroid station – with the asteroid’s backside facing the planet, and the arrowhead of the fleet moving forward to meet the now-designated front of the asteroid, the quickest of the screening vessels, the corvettes whipped around the side to secure the flank before being reinforced by an approximate handful of frigate-level screening vessels.

Lord Admiral Zedd Harkor, stood at the helm of the bridge of the ship – an Obtruder-class Medium-Cruiser – that he captained; his various bridge personnel, sat in their chairs at their terminals, abuzz with their already-installed knowhow of maintaining communications and coordination with the encircling vessels. The deployment of a Star Destroyer – headed by Captain [member="Aeric Saigo"] – was no surprise to the Lord Admiral, and was in fact deliberate; it’s not so much that a show of dominance was necessary, although the militantly-minded Zedd Harkor, would’ve done so if the situation had called for it, but rather this was done so as a show of strength, a show of reassurance for Striga – a capability to defend against the various galactic marauders – both civilized and uncivilized – that wander the galaxy in their unending crusade for plunder.

Harkor, rather than taking a hands-on approach, was keener on letting his subordinates do their work as they deemed fit. He would let Saigo maintain his presence with the Star Destroyer, and keep in contact Shadow-One, and to obviously let Shadow-One do their job, while he kept the occupation of the Sovereign Navy in line.

 

[Sovereign Storyteller]

Asteroid Base Gamma​

Sector 4-8 Sigma​

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Above all else, Gamma was quiet. Quieter than it had been for milennia. Amidst all the dust and aged consoles, the control room housed a single chair, with a figure slumped in it. An ancient tactical droid, Gamma-1 had been on standby ever since his masters had been gone too long to have destroyed the Jedi; for centuries, this base had protected Striga from view. It didn't do so now. As the figure continued to slump, something suddenly caught the attention of the system.

Movement. Something alive. The base had known of Luyioth's presence ever since she landed, even if it did not understand exactly who or what she was. Eventually, it decided for itself; she was a threat. As the Zabrak stepped over a toppled droid, suddenly its cold hand gripped at her leg, its eyes activating with a glowing red as did every other in the room. Almost simultaneously, the ancient wardroids began to spring to life, and Gamma-1 felt a stir in his circuits.

He was awake. They had come, again. He had to deal with this threat, or they would never stop. He had to halt them here, and no doubt they had taken the planet. Calculating tactical readouts and manouvres in seconds, the droid pressed swiftly on the terminal in front of them as what seemed like a dead asteroid began teeming with life. The droids across the station continued to awaken, while some sides of the asteroid seemed to open, revealing particle shields protecting hidden hangars.

As the gaping maws of Asteroid Base Gamma was revealed, it began to spew its fury. There were fighters, bombers, corvettes, frigates and cruisers; a bonafide fleet exited from Gamma's Jaws. Some of it charged towards the closest Naval forces, while others turned their attention instead to Striga, heading down towards the direction of the planet to try and deal damage to what must have been enemy forces below.

[member="Zedd Harkor"] | [member="Luyioth Dakwin"] | [member="Aeric Saigo"] | [member="Urwin Darmos"] | [member="Roella Arwyn"] | [member="Koda Fett"] | [member="Cynan Hague"] | [member="Inyri Takan"] | [member="Odin Stormbreaker"] | [member="Proxy-2"]

 

[Roella Arwyn]

Striga
Inside the Belly of the Beast

The torch provided a small amount of light as she descended, the light of day yielding to the darkness of a natural night. There was no light in this cave, no life, no hope. Her eyes of crystal blue glittered in the fire of the torch as her grip tightened on the wooden shaft. Death was around every corner, in this place. She could feel it. Something inside of her, that pesky sense that kicked up every once in awhile, telling her things. Things that she should not know.

Roella of the House Arwyn swallowed her fear, her nervousness, allowing it to simply roll off of her. There was no time for that. There was a beast to kill. The cave was completely silent, except for the soft clink of her footsteps. It was here. She could sense it. She could sense it's cold malevolence, its dark hunger. It penetrated her, filling her insides as she gasped at the feeling, shuddering. This place was evil, she could feel it.

But still, onwards she continued. Deeper, and deeper, into the depths of Hell itself, it seemed to her. Until she stopped. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Before she could bring Thorne to bear, she heard the whistle of giant claws ripping through the air, and felt them shredding the back of her armor, touching flesh, rending it. She cried out as she dropped the torch, the force from the blow knocking her aside, stunning her.

The torch light stayed low, and the beast slithered in the dark, awaiting her to move, as blood ran down its long and sharp claws.

 

[Lemon]

Koda Fett​

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Striga, Wild Space​

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This encounter wasn't as planned, but truth be told there never was much in the way of a plan to begin with. Simply face it down and see what could happen. A foolish mistake, but then again, there wasn't any information on how to face a Balyeg written anywhere. Anywhere. And so as the Bounty Hunter remained clung to it's back like a baby would it's mother, he had to think and think fast before something dire would happen. Something resembling an idea formed within his helmeted head, it may or may not work, but then again - this wasn't the time for conclusive thinking.

He crawled around it's head, using a firm grip and the spikes at the end of his boots to remain atop of it's head whilst it moved around in a short radius trying to find Fett, although to no avail. He reached it's reptilian ear, and much like any other reptile it was a mere whole in the side of it's head. However, due it's size this 'mere' hole was larger than the Bounty Hunter. Upon reaching it he felt the soft flesh beneath his boots and the hard metal of a thermal imploder. Beeping began within it's ear, it turned and turned as a hand was slapped where it was only to see the Mandalorian rocketing away.

It's scaled, clawed hand reached towards Fett as he made his escape, and as it was just an inch away from crushing him completely the detonator let go it's signature explosion. The hand going limp within an instant as a chunk of where it's head should of been was no more than fleshy debris. With a thunderous thud it collided with the ground, sprawled out across the ground as it's mouth remain open, and it's tongue extended.

The Balyeg was dead, and Koda Fett had killed it.

 

[Roella Arwyn]

Striga
The Abyss

The fallen torch provided only sparse light as her back bled, and Roella forced herself to her feet, using Thorne as an improvised crutch. The Balyeg stayed just out of the lights range, hissing its low hiss at her, eyes and teeth reflecting in the fire light. She was wounded. Her armor was shredded, she knew that for certain. A hand came to her shoulder, undoing the clasp, there. Then her hip, and her knee, and so on and so on, until the shredded gold lay on the ground. Roella was left in a skin tight tank top and tight cloth pants. Her crystal eyes did not leave the creature. There was something else missing.

Dawn was gone. Her shield, forged from the finest Songsteel, had been knocked off of her back. She knew it was useless to try to find it in the dark, so she didn't bother. It was just her, the Balyeg, and her blade. The thorns along the hilt dug into her skin, drawing blood as she wielded it in both hands, ready, just waiting. Her body sang with adrenaline, and she could feel the creature getting ready to strike-

And strike it did. It's claws came rending, and Roella spun, the talons missing her by inches. Her spin moved Thorne, and the blade moved to cut the thing's arm, splitting its scales, spraying its reptilian blood on her. It screamed, and its tail moved as well. This time, she could not dodge, and it smacked her in the stomach. With an audible 'oof', she was knocked to the wall, Thorne clattering away.

She had to move quick. Still recovering, she threw herself away as its jaws came down where she was a moment before. She panted for breath, now weaponless. She would need to think outside of the box.

 

[Cynan Hague]

Cynan Hague

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Striga, Wild Space

The sergeant began to creep forward, hunting his would-be prey the foliage beneath cracking and crunching in terror. The denizens of the world seeming spooked in an instant, a flock of panicked Convors soars over, their massive tails billowing behind their feathered bodies mounted in piercing beaks. Their shrieks echo through the valley, a low shrill blood-curdling tone of quaking emotion.

The man lurches his neck upwards in shock, the flurry of action proving a worthy distraction, his eyes gaze upwards, a look of terror striking his face. A truly unique fear, a genuine fear, fills his heart as it would of any Sovereign Marine.This meant one of two things, a blockade run of terrifying status, or he was trapped here. Cynan's stomach twists as his heart skipped a beat, this was bad, very, very bad.

It all felt so long, yet in reality, his lapse was that of a few seconds. He quickly changed stance to jog ahead, rifle extended forward and ready, there was no longer time to wait. The enemy were untrained insurgents, this was their homeworld, they feared aliens. If this spooked him, they had some bricks to spare. The advantage was a pitiful thing and fancy of flight, it would not escape his troubled fingers.

He cared not if they were shot at or ambushed, Cynan was a gambling man, chances were his comrade of a Force User was more than trained enough to deflect such a menial annoyance.

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Interacting with: [member="Inyri Takan"]

 

[Roella Arwyn]

Striga
The Deep Dark Depths

Roella Arwyn faced off with the creature, crouched low to the ground. Her weapon was gone. Her mind raced on what to do, ready to dodge and roll. When the Balyeg moved, she moved with it. It's claws sweeped out for a strike, and her body rolled, the rock scraping against her skin, but it kept her alive for a few more moments, which was what mattered. They played that game for a few more passes: strike and roll, strike and roll, strike and roll.

She panted for breath, the cave's air becoming stale with all the activity. It didn't matter. Breathing stale air wouldn't amount to anything if she was torn to shreds and eaten in this cave. Grimacing, she braced herself for another roll- only to have the creature's tail hit her once more. Hit against the wall of the cave, she gasped for breath, feeling something rise in her. Anger? But unlike anything she had ever felt before. Rage, almost. Hate. Burning red hot in her, taking over her.

When the beast came for her again, she was ready. She screamed her rage, leaping higher than she should have ever been able to. She leaped straight onto the creature's back, that rage still guiding her actions. She grasped onto the horns of the beast, and felt something else in her. An energy? What was happening?

Then the energy burst forth, and Roella felt lightning come out of her hands, traveling through the Balyeg's horns, into its brains. She screamed with rage, shock, and pain, but the Balyeg screamed in simple pain. Until its brain fried, and it lay silent, leaving Roella with a dead lizard, and burned hands.

 

[Urwin Darmos]

Urwin would be continuing his conversation with Varik, until he could see in the sky behind Varik many ships. These ships were not of Sovereignty model, he'd of course know as the Chief Engineer.

"Varik, those aren't our ships.." His red, slitted eyes would widen and he'd signal for the project manager to come over to him quickly.

When the project manager would arrive Urwin would ask, "Are the planetary ion cannons finished?"

"Yes, sir. They're ready for use. Why?" he'd respond.

"Have them prepared and armed." Urwin would order.

 

[Dom Sicarius]

Ensign Dom Sicarius​

Striga System​

Imperious, Star Destroyer​

Havoc Squadron Barracks​

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Another day, another situation. This one meant little to Dom at the current moment in time as he had nothing to do; a lowly Ensign was to wait for further orders alongside the rest of his Squadron. He sat in his pilots suit, half undone with a simple shirt on underneath as they played cards around a table. Amongst them all there he was the lowest - not just in terms of rank as the most recent entry, but in regards to his 'class' and upbringing. It could be seen in his demanour; his uniform was half undone and while ironed was just a simple pressing. He had a fair bit of stubble and would most definitely not pass an inspection. Meanwhile, the rest of the squadron were cleanly shaven 'And thats if they could grow a beard...' and had immaculate uniform. 'Maybe thats why I always get shouted at..' he mused, before dismissing it as it being some sort of class barrier. They had all come from wealthy families, he had been told at various points - or when they decided to interject any topic with a completely unrelated rich mans story. His upbringing was not that, involving various different times of living on streets, stealing food and so on.

He turned and looked around the barracks, a nice relaxed atmosphere with everybody in a chilled state....

For now.





@[member='Aeric Saigo']

 

[Lemon]

Koda Fett​

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Striga, Wild Space​

​

And so it had been done. The Balyeg, once a mighty and feared creature within it's own territory lay slumped over the rocky terrain of it's own home with a sizable chunk of it's own head scattered around the immediate area, however large you would call a Balyeg's immediate area. Fett needn't know fear ever again, for he had faced down the most dangerous creature in the galaxy and not only bested it, but slain it like the beast it was. Mandalorians were known for their resolve but even this mere Bounty Hunter had gone above and beyond expectations the warrior culture had plagued the galaxy with. Even still, whether he truly were one or not had yet to be seen.

The man clad in Mandalorian Armor had landed down near the mouth of the beast, saliva drooling from it in tandem with blood. The sharp teeth of the Balyeg remained ever dormant as he approached them. It was a tooth that he desired, it would be his trophy, something to remember this foul beast by. The question was how would he transport such a thing even to the exit of the cavern? It would large, heavy and most definitely cumbersome. Time was his ally, there was no rush, and so it could easily be dealt with. One tooth in particular had been knocked free from the impact with the ground it had made, and so no prying as required.

Fett had carried the tooth towards the mouth of the cavern, and rather than really carrying it was more of a drag across the ground. Surely it was durable enough for the trip, no matter how short. The warm glow of the sun had reached him once more, but the man was a different one than he who entered prior. Although there wasn't much time to look back upon what had happened as his visor tilted towards the sky to witness the incoming spacecraft.

Blast.

 

[Zef Halo]

TWO HEXES FROM ASTEROID STATION
STRIGA SYSTEM

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Even through the slight static and the means of communication, Saigo could detect the slight venom in the operative's voice at the mention of his rank. In his experience, Captain Saigo had seen numerous wild cards to know one. Shadow One could most likely be classified as one. Especially with the enigma behind the deployment of which he was given supervisory role.

Aeric could easily blame it on the protocol, or the lack of one, in the current stage of the Sovereignty's Naval development. Such 'bureaucratic' technicalities were often overlooked in the birth of a naval force. Yet, Saigo vigorously demanded change that. He was initiative and often loud in voicing his opinion of the improvement of technicalities.

The captain simply shut off the communications with the operative without giving the latter a reply. There was no antagonizing feeling, no irritation aimed at Shadow One. Just cold acknowledgement of the character of the mysterious agent.

"Sir, we are reporting sudden heavy activity within the asteroid." One of the scanners' officers sitting in front of his terminal loudly announced.

"Dispatch feed to me." Saigo ordered and from the command seat's handles a blue interactive holographic image of the scanners results materialized.

"Ships!" But a moment before the officer's statement, Aeric had known it.

"Shields up. Get me tactical feed."

"Sir, yes, Sir!"

The hologram changed into a neatly formed 3D grid with different points on it pinpointing the positions of various allied and enemy starships. Quick scan of the movements of the enemy ships gave him a rough idea of what possible goals the unknown enemies desired.

"Helmsman. Turn ninety degrees portside. Commander, have starboard guns focus on intercepting craft headed towards Striga. Portside - anything starboard misses. "Immediate departure of all standing squadrons. Split in a screening task force and a task force focused on intercepting any enemy ships bypassing us. "

Confirmations rained from numerous terminals as officers quickly, to Aeric's surprise, moved to heed his orders. Saigo remained calm at the command's seat carefully examining the tide of the battle before opening a line to Shadow One.

:: Shadow One, this is Captain Saigo. :: He said pausing for a moment. :: You are to completely focus on disabling any hostile operations aboard that station.:: The Captain was aware that he might be stepping over his boundaries but Aeric knew he was a man of initiative. Born to lead by blood. His controlling tone in his voice made it evident.

"Comm Officer. Open a line to Lord Admiral Harkor." A couple of seconds later, the communication would be established with Captain Saigo respectfully nodding at the higher ranked officer.

:: Lord Admiral. :: Saigo slightly frowned. :: I've given Shadow One clear instruction in disabling this station. ::

:: The Imperious is setting a rearguard perimeter to prevent further incursion towards the planet, Sir. ::

The statement finished and he awaited for a reply, perhaps an order. Perhaps something else.

Meanwhile, the Imperious' slowly turned to set its portside facing Striga while the starboard faced the direction from whence hostile targets approached.

Interacting with: [member="Zedd Harkor"] | [member="Sovereign Storyteller"] | [member="Luyioth Dakwin"]
--

POV: Master Chief Flight Officer Gar Nulu
Interacting with: [member="Dom Sicarius"]
HANGAR, THE IMPERIOUS

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Quick, heavy footed pace and alarms blaring across the ship marked Chief Nulu's entrance into Havoc Squadron's little mess. Upon the view of the undisciplined pilots, Chief Nulu's face turned red.

"BATTLE STATIONS, FOOLS. WHAT IN THE FETHING GALAXY ARE YOU DOING HERE PLAYING CARDS?! ARE YOU DEAF?!" His hand jerked upwards into the unknown hinting at the loudness of the alarms. "I WILL HAVE YOU MOP THE WHOLE DECK AFTER THIS. DOUBLE TIME, DOUBLE TIME."

A furious glare would go through every Havoc ace but the glare would prolong its stay upon the peasant of a pilot Ensign Sicarius was. Captain Saigo would certainly not appreciate the lack of discipline such 'assets' demonstrated and even less Nulu. He had to get his supervised units under control or he faced embarrassment in the next monthly evaluation of Hangar Section.

Once, Nulu had been a proud bomber pilot in the One Sith. Before its fall to these nasty 'democratic' dogs forced him to flee into wild space. A decade older, grayer hair, grumpier than ever, and a belly bigger, Gar Nulu busied himself with indoctrinating a new generation of pilots into the right way, the only way - the Imperial Way. In his free time, Nulu loved cursing and abusing verbally his 'bane of all life' - the Galactic Alliance.

He knew the Captain shared his sentiment, or so he believed.

Imperials knew Imperials.

 

[Luyioth Dakwin]

Luyioth Dakwin

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Asteroid Base Gamma, Striga, Striga System, Wild Space.
Interacting with: [member="Sovereign Storyteller"]; [member="Aeric Saigo"].​

A sudden force: a deathly tight grip around her ankle and a sharp yank backwards. Startled, Luyioth swung her head down she cocked an arm up instinctively: she found a rusting steel fist clenched around her ankle, connected to a droid staring up at her - with red eyes that pressed back against the darkness of the derelict station, that were hollow only a moment ago. With a quiet grunt, Luyioth mystically grasped the droid by it's head to pull it up towards her before slamming it back down into the floor; when the droid did little more than whir and tighten its grip, she did it again, while more droids around her buzzed to life and turned to face the two. The sudden swarm of light in the previously dark hallway wasn't lost on her. She looked up from her attacks on the droid to see the last thing she wanted to see: a swarm of red-glowing droids twisting and turning to face her, slowly shambling their way towards her. Her gaze only lingered for a moment, a hand lifting towards the horde with loose fingers, before a steel rod abruptly snapped snugly into them; and from that rod, two piercing pillars of white and crimson burst from either side, settling into the blade shape of which they were well acquainted.

Breaking the darkness of the hallway was red about red: faded red lights organized in a swarm of pairs about a pair of vibrant red columns; and as the gentle reds began to converge around the bright red, the bright red began to twirl. As it spun, the gentle red beneath it was replaced with a trio of bright orange streaks, before the pillars twirled and then flew forward through the hallway.

So it began.

As Luyioth took forward after her thrown saber, she threw her hands out to her left. A droid slammed into a wall before being thrown to the other side of the hallway, to slam into yet another. A rapid succession of kicks from both the floor and another droid in the swarm put her into the air, where her saberstaff snapped back into her hand, only to come down to thin what only looked more and more like an endless formation of faded red eyes. So, she ran; she ran with her saber in hand, stopping and twirling to cleave through the faded reds with her own bright reds.

"You underestimate how much hostile operation is going on in here-" Luyioth began, her voice on the communications channel partially polluted by mechanical cluttering and the twist of a lightsaber, "-but it will be done." If she wasn't in such a rush as she burst through the orange-streamed blast door into the stairwell, she might even be irritated by the Captain's initiative - yet it happened she was, and even then, it felt like good initiative. Resignation or acceptance - in either case, as she soared up the stairwell to vault over the next set of hand railing, things had found there place, whether it was for a moment or for an hour.

As Luyioth lifted her hand to pull a droid descending the staircase towards her, she broadened her strokes to take ragged breaths. It was exhausting, fighting so many at once, yet more droids grew closer in earshot underneath her. Her mind briefly wandered to water, but water would have to wait. With her breath only partially caught, she took off up the staircase once again, but not before slashing the droid she had pulled into three.

 

[Zedd Harkor]

Lord Admiral Zedd Harkor
The Sovereign Navy's' Encirclement of The Asteroid Station, Striga, Striga System, Wild Space
Status: Encircling the Asteroid Base [Two Hexes Distance], Standing-By
Objective 2

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“Lord Admiral, sir! The Asteroid base is activating! We're being engaged!", shouted an ensign from down the bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avifyzFw_Ms​

From then onward, it was then, that the air of the bridge shifted, a nigh complete one-eighty, from a crisp focus, to a state of alert; a chilling nerve, and a cold sweat, ran down their necks, and down each of the spines of the crew members. The psychological conditioning, of a well-trained crew had just kicked in. The bridge was then ablaze with a buzz of activity. Harkor mildly anticipated a situation such as this, but an entire fleet to suddenly vomit itself out from the gaping mouth of an automated asteroid base? It would be a lie to say that he was prepared – but he had devised a plan in any event – and his calculated disposition indicated that he indeed did.

Another voice piped up from across the bridge, a flight officer, as was determined from the indicators on his flight suit; “Lord Admiral, sir! The base is sending out corvettes, frigates – cruisers even!”

“Give the order to scramble the fighters, Ensign! Flight Officer, give me a tactical read!”, barked Harkor, from across the bridge, although in a way that still reflected his respect for the bridge crew he mentored.

“Aye-aye, sir!”, responded the Ensign, before dialing the channels on his headset, as he began to spit out a series of tactically-protocolized jargon for the admittance of scrambling the fighters; “Blue-Actual, Blue-Actual. This is Sigma Orion. Code: Wesk-Forn-Isk-Aurek-Grek. Scramble fighters. I repeat, scramble fighters.”, procedurally said the ensign, into the communication channel, to call for the ships to scramble, and to intercept any oncoming swarms of starfighter-sized vessels.

“Bringing the 'read up now, sir!”, preppily responded the flight officer; the glee response reflected the amount of psychological control Harkor possessed over his crew, and their high opinion of their Lord Admiral. It wasn’t long before a holographic projection was brought up before the Lord Admiral, as it became more articulately visible, of the ships spewing out from the gaping jaws of the station.

“Alright, everyone!”, shouted Harkor, raising his voice; “Gamma Base is still having its vessels shuttled out onto the battlefield. Concentrate fire, portside-fire, near the hangar, and we can get them while all their large ships are grouped together.”, commanded he, “Likewise, order all vessels near the hangar to concentrate portside fire there as well. The rear vessels, not facing the hangar, will worry about any of the stragglers that manage to slip by.”

“AYE, SIR!”, resounded nearly everyone on the bridge. However, it wasn’t until one of the communications operators to the side of him, spoke up; “Sir – Captain [member="Aeric Saigo"] of the Imperius is on the line!”, spoke he, “Patch him through.”, responded Harkor. It wasn’t until much longer, before an interface of the Captain was brought up before the Lord Admiral.


:: Lord Admiral. :: Saigo slightly frowned. :: I've given Shadow One clear instruction in disabling this station. ::

:: The Imperious is setting a rearguard perimeter to prevent further incursion towards the planet, Sir. ::


“Understood, Captain. You have full discretion to weaponize your star destroyer as you deem fit, that is so within reason of the possibility of collateral damage.”, responded Harkor, in a corporate, calculated tone; “You will be responsible in overseeing the Shadow-One situation, and will keep me updated on the matter. Good luck.”. Harkor spoke in a tone to Saigo that seemed to commend a surprising sort of esteem and dignity towards the Captain.

Harkor turned right, back to the ensign at the communications terminal that had given the order to scramble Blue Squadron, speaking directly to him; "Ensign, send another transmission. This time, to High Sovereign [member="Varik Ice"]. Inform him that we've engaged the asteroid base, and are looking to disable it."

 

[Varik Ice]

Varik Ice​

Equipment: Lightsaber - Armour​

Location: Striga​

Varik's gaze watched Urwin's, the Sovereign turning to see what he was looking at as he mentioned ships not being of their make. He stares up at the sky, watching the small dots in the skyline slowly grow and become more apparenty; some were bombers, some fighters and others were dropships. As he heard Urwin's orders to his workers, he called over the Lieutenant quickly, placing his hand on the man's shoulder pad.

"Entrench your position here, and reinforce these defenses. Whoever that is, they're going to be coming for this fortress once it begins firing back. Don't let them near the workers." The Lieutenant nodded back at him, before Varik looked over towards the Chief Engineer. "This place is under your command now, Darmos, you keep it safe." He gave a nod to the Duros, watching the dropships and bombers overhead as he began to sprint across the plains, using the force to enhance his speed and keep up as best he could with the ships.

As he continued his run, he watched where the bombers were preparing their run; the cities. Speeding up even more, Varik required intense focus to try and pull this off - he actually overtook one of the bombers before he leaped up in the air, pushing ahead and higher than the ships before he forced himself down, landing gently on one of the bomber's wings. Staying on the side, Varik glanced between the other ships in this small fleet. There weren't any pilots in the bombers or fighters. They were droids. Where had they come from?

[member="Urwin Darmos"]

 

[Inyri Takan]

Striga, City Outskirts (Plainslands), Unknown Time | Fear

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Distractions reigned over this forested battlefield.

As Cynan moved up Inyri followed, hands coiled so tight around her lightsaber hilt she was afraid that it would ignite accidentally. Purposefully keeping her finger away from the button, she followed the sergeant deeper into the heart of the woods. Whilst they certainly possessed the advantage of being far scarier foes, it was the unfortunate truth that their enemies had been born and raised on the land they were now defending, possessing the home advantage, and this made her feel very off-center.

It started suddenly, but it started all the same.

A stray shot was fired at them and before there was time to even think of it, Inyri had reacted. Her arm reaching up, white blade ignited now as she deflected the bolt away from them and sent it spiraling off into a stump instead, the wood cracked and smouldering from the impact. Her expression was intense as she tried to frantically find the source, the lightsaber humming with every slight movement she made. No other shots followed the first... Yet.

The noise above wasn't helping either. A naval engagement over Striga? Fighters streaking through the sky? Pushing that out of her mind, the Grey Knight focused back on their current engagement. Around them were the sounds of the forest, strange animals squawking and screaming to each other across the distances, providing ample noise to cover anything the enemy might be trying.

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Spoiler: Interacting With

[member="Cynan Hague"]

Spoiler: Interacting With