Love Is Our Resistance - ORC Dominion of Hex Q52 (D'Qar/Alzoc)

[Bryce Bantam]

The clean lined ship touched down on with the skill of a seasoned hand, Bryce saw no other on the ship so he made note that [member="Raveem Va'ah"] must be a decent pilot also. As he moved forward to talk to the Raveem he noted the man would not make eye contact with him. He seemed determined to ignore Bryce right out of hand.

fall for street magic tricks or cheap illusions. Period...

The thought unguarded rolled from his mind and Bryce instantly knew what was going on. He was still in disbelief, unable to understand what was growing in him. The force was a magical and wonderful gift, to deny it when it was ready to manifest was a dangerous proposition. Bryce decided it was time to show Raveem more of his street magic.

As Raveem walked a sudden wall of flame would sprout from the ground and block his path, as he watched it would begin encircle him bracket him on all sides save for that leading back to Bryce.

"I wouldn't touch it Raveem, it is not an illusion." Bryce said to the disbelieving Bothan. "I know why you have come, even if you don't. It is time to brake the shackles of your fears and embrace what you are."

 

[Wolf Trammer]

Raveem stopped right in his tracks. The mane on the back of his head stood up like the spikes of a porcupine. He had been startled to the point he almost dropped his precious datapad. Slowly he turned, trying not to tremble like the half-coward he was.

"Look... whoever is paying you to do this... I can double your fee. No need to burn me alive... Wait." For a moment, that look of fear in his eyes went away. Looking down at the fire and then back at [member="Bryce Bantam"], he was trying to process what was happening and how this connected with other incidents that resembled that of Utapau. Could all of those stories about Jedi and Sith be real? Well... the Knights of Ren were very real, however, they did not hold the same infamous reputation as those two organizations. The bigger question here was... if this wasn't a scam... or a parlor trick or an assassination attempt. Did that mean the Force... that magic thingy so many people were obsessed with was real?

"I'm a scoundrel. A thief. I stab people in the back just for Credits, Bantam. I am not about to... repent and don the robes of some Jedi. I don't have the Force or whatever its called..." For the first time, Raveem felt trapped. Multiple times in his career he had been trapped but not like this. He felt that there were no options... no escape plan... he wouldn't even dare reach for his disintegrator. And... even if he could defend himself... he was out of range. In his head, everything was starting to piece together. Raveem was fearful... but he was smart. Smart enough to recognize when he was truly wrong.

"Why me? If the Force is real. Why me?" His voice sounded like that of a scared child... well, that could perfectly describe Raveem right now. Everything that was not under his control scared him... even this... Force.

 

[Bryce Bantam]

Still GREENISH

I am not about to... repent and don the robes of some Jedi... "Why me? If the Force is real. Why me?"

With a raise of his hands the flames around [member="Raveem Va'ah"] dissipated. As they quickly lowered a small gust of force push washed away the smoke like an ocean breeze.

"Do you see any robes on my Raveem. You witnessed my skills on Utapau, and again here today, I am strong with the force, but I am no Jedi. Not all those that use the force are. Let me ask you this, has it ever surprised you how easily those with weak minds simply follow your requests. Almost as if they have no choice but too? How about the few times you have been in danger and found your self running faster than you should be able? You have gifts, they are unrefined, you are using them every day of your life and you don't even know it."

Bryce motioned for him to sit on a metal crate next to him as he continued.

"As for the why, that is a great mystery to us all. It is not a matter or worthiness, feth I have seen those who have the gift who are the most worthless sacks of poodoo in the galaxy. No it is a matter of potential, and how we choose to cultivate it... Tell me Raveem, what do you most desire?"

 

[Julius Sedaire]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72oJGTPSWIM​

​

Objective Red
[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Rosa Gunn"]

A slow nod, and his eyes closed, breathing slowing with each inhalation of air, his chest eventually seeming to barely rise or fall. The surrounding sounds, smells, and all sensation slowly fell away. Outside world melted and ran into inner sensations, and his vision spread out, senses warping across to all the debris and other things, and his mind touched them, searching for traces of the Navigator. Bit by bit he detected nothing, but saw the ends of many lives, or the harrowing escapes of others. Over and over he felt the fear, panic, pain and woe of those trapped due to the insanity of whoever in the Mandalorian command decided that petulance and kicking sand were sound military tactics. First the Mandalorians had two of their best raze the planet, now this... They were eating themselves alive.

Finally, as sweat began to bead, his breathing began to increase, his sense pushed to the limits, but he was beginning to feel and see flashes of Jorus. See the hyperspace expert doing his thing, with the same grin he wore almost. And above all, love and dedicated determination flowed as he swam in the currents of time as a passerby outside of them in the limited capacity he could manage, wondering what he would see before everything broke. He would need to rest from the effort soon, it was taxing no matter how strong you were to Flow Walk in this manner.

 

[Wolf Trammer]

Raveem chuckled, sitting beside the red-coated rogue.

"Is that a real question?" He asked jokingly. "I'm a 'merchant'... I buy... sell information and illegal goods. I want credits, I..." He stopped there. He was lying to himself. Raveem had been lying to himself since he had taken over his parent's company a few years ago. Despite everything, he had done. Selling illegal goods, money laundering, smuggling and even robbing people blind. But... all of that was for a reason. A reason he had buried deep in his lavish and action-packed lifestyle. He was a Bothan... and like any stereotypical Bothan, he had connections with the vast Bothan Spynet. But that same Spynet had destroyed everything that he had known. Politics and petty rivalries had torn his family apart... almost literally. The Spynet had both been his tool... and his source of sorrow... and desire for revenge.

"To think that I have wasted all of these years of my life... running away from what I really wanted." The Bothan turned his head to look at [member="Bryce Bantam"], "Revenge. Finding the ones who had taken away my family and left me to fend for myself. It turned out wrong... heh. I made the family business even better than my mother and father could ever do. This sounds like your typical sob story... but it's my story, unfortunately." He shook his head. In truth, since the beginning, Raveem would never find those who had carried out the assassinations... or who paid members of the Spynet to carry it out.
"Now... I'm left without nothing. The curtain has been raised. The ruse has been uncovered. I can't go back to that life now. It's meaningless now. Ironic... once I saw Credits as the ultimate goal... now they just... now it means nothing to me. I feel strange..." Raveem paused for a moment as if searching his thoughts for an answer to his own question. "Lost. Yeah... that's it. Lost. It's odd to feel nothing." The Bothan looked at his datapad and sighed, placing it beside him. "Now what...?"

 

[Bryce Bantam]

"Close your eyes Raveem, listen to the wind and my voice as I speak. Revenge is a powerful thing, think of how it has made you feel."

Raveem would see an image come into his mind, one offered by Bryce. It was the image of the Pau'an child that just passed away, of the mother weeping. He would feel Bryce's sorrow, and small flashes of his rage.

"This mother now feels as you did when you lost your family, hre pain is the reason I exist. You see Raveem I'm never alone. Those who I have saved are always with me, those who I have not as well. The ones who have passed on to the force cry out to me, beg me to avenge their passing. Those who live, they make me immortal. By their existence, and their children's existence, and their children's children. Weather they know it or not they carry my legacy. This are testimate to my life, my struggles, my pain. Life is what gives us this wonderful gift, but that very life, that very innocent and precious life must be protected..."

Bryce paused to a moment, composed his thoughts and continued.

"You need not do what I do, but wither you know it or not you have been offered acceptance into a new family. That ring I gave you, it is a symbol of the underground, of the coalition, of something more. If you want you can stay with us, laugh with us, grow with us. We have a home underneath this great big sky, we look out for one another. It is something special in my opinion."

[member="Raveem Va'ah"]

 

[Sargon Vynea]

With a measured pace the Zabrak marched to and fro across the Defender's bridge. Most of the stations around him sat empty, an eerie silence marked the room where dozens of voices could once be heard. Now it was half a dozen walking between stations and checking readouts hoping nothing went wrong until the exited hyperspace. Engineering was pretty much down to a single department just trying to keep the lights on. Her minimum crew was just under three thousand, but he had just over a thousand left in total. Still it was enough to point her somewhere and send her into hyperspace. If the ORC misunderstood his intentions though it wasn't enough to put up a fight.

As the klaxon warned the crew that they were about to exit hyperspace he gave his orders hoping for the best, but fearing an itchy trigger finger. "Optio, ensure our friendly greetings are blaring out there as soon as we enter real space. Feth, smile while you send 'em, anything could help at this point. Captain, don't power up the weapons no matter what, we both know we don't have enough of a ship left to win a fight so lets not give the wrong idea. Let's run the we'd like to be friends flag really high, because the only other option is abandoning the old girl."

As the lines of stars broke and the a new world filled most of his screen, giving a nod to his comms officer he sent his message out to the ORC officials below. "Greetings to the Outer Rim Coalition, my name is Sargon Vynea of the Defender. We've heard this is a nice little patch of space for a few lost souls to spread their legs, and we thought since you were already putting together some starfighters you might be interested in some new hands." Looking around at his crew he kind of half shrugged, they didn't teach the proper speech for this type of occasion at the Academy. Come to think of it this was exactly the opposite of what they taught at the Academy.

[member="Bryce Bantam"]

 

[Rosa Gunn]

Objective Red

​

Coren,​

​

Mara's sitting this one out, Doctors orders. Shifter really did a number on her. Hylo is keeping her calm, or so i hope anyway. The sooner we find Jorus the better. Be with you in a couple of hours.​

​

Rosa​

Two hours of system restarts, several bouts of colourful language that Rosa was grateful no one else could hear and she managed to get the latest coordinates inputted. The Golden Rosa had been old and battered when she'd bout her fifteen years ago, her long journey's from one end of the galaxy to the other had'n't done the ship much good.

Gold burnished hull reverted into realspace less than a parsec from Coren's ship. She blew a sigh of relief and reached to her left for the comms, when sparks exploded at her right. "Oh feth it all!" She snapped, snatching up a small fire extinguisher and dosing the electrical fire before reaching once more for the comms.

"Tachyon Rising, this is the Golden Rose. Permission to dock and come aboard, Coren. Not sure if this old girl will keep up with your jumps."

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Fiolette Yvarro"][member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Vorhi Alestrani]

Objective Blue -- badly, though.


Vorhi Alestrani was doing the thing that seemed to happen every time he went to a war. He was in the hospital. Five-blaster wounds, a saber impalement, a concussion, and less blood loss than his record. He had been hearing gossip that people had gone out to find Merrill. He wished them luck, but running around bleeding over everything wouldn't help.


Neither would bleeding all over here, though, and he was still doing that. While most people in the inpromptu medical ward had been recuperating in bed, like non-crazy people, the grand master was on the floor, doing push-ups on his knuckles. And starting to stain some of the dressings with his own blood, much to the annoyance of several medical professionals.

 

[Vorhi Alestrani]

Double post cause I'm dumb, please ignore.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Objective Red
[member="Julius Sedaire"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Rosa Gunn"]

Coren was there to reach to Julius if he needed ti, but having failed with Flow-Walking himself, Coren knew that it was needing all of one’s attention. He focused on keeping himself busy and waiting. He knew that the Force was shouting because of Julius’s body being stressed, and his mind entering this flow. He knew there were challenges ahead for his friend. But this was what was needed to get Jorus back.

The trick was, they needed to find the Hyperspace Man, not really rocket man, but… y’know, same rhythm. Coren could only trust in the Force, and his friends.

He saw the message, Mara was out. He just hoped she was okay. Hopefully Kaia could find her, they were… friends, right? He scratched his head as he watched Julius, and surveyed communications, directing his relief group to where it needed to be. Allies helped allies.

Time was going by, and he was keeping his watching, on the hyperlane and on Julius, but it was a few hours and that was the surprise. He had half-expected to be getting to Jorus before Rosa got to him, but the new ship and the communication that followed proved him wrong.

“Golden Rose, this is Tachyon Rising. Permission granted. We’ll extend a force cylinder for you. Do you need your ship docked here? For repairs?” He had seen his daughter’s mobile repair ship ‘Corellian Dawn’ in the local subspace, after all.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Objective Blue.

She was still cussing at her droid as the ship was moving. The Pulsar had entered atmosphere and was on its way to land on D’Qar. There were several ships landing and taking off, shuttling wounded and moving teams in and out. The base was abuzz with activity. Something strange for the more independently owned and operated feel of the Outer Rim Coalition. She was unsure of what this was all signaling, but she couldn’t wait to get herself moving and back up towards the land between worlds.

Drifter had lead her through the crowd and into the medical area. She needed fluids, she knew it, and probably to get a few wounds looked at. She looked around as she entered the room, hearing the other woman talking about… banking? Kaia had an employee to handled that. Starchaser Enterprises did some work, but it wasn’t the be-all-end-all of a business. Small, ‘mom and pop’ would be the term on some worlds, and focused.

She sat down and looked around, swallowing hard

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Blue
Allies: [member="Vorhi Alestrani"] [member="Kaia Starchaser"]

"As for whether or not my mental assets have changed in value, I never had a neuropsychological evaluation, but a neuropsychological evaluation would be akin to an audit. Assuming I'm acting in good faith, as you would, adjusting entries may be required"

"If you think of a neuropsychological evaluation as an audit, unqualified or not, then you would also get a proper representation of your liabilities and your equity, and you would then get a clean idea of any change in all three components of the statement of financial position and also a statement of changes in equity"

"However, by that logic, the statement of comprehensive income is the hard part, assuming, of course, that our minds have their own set of financial statements"

Here's the thing: how my mental assets evolve depends on how much the liabilities increased vs. how much the equity decreased. Skyrocketing and plummeting are very vague, but one thing is for certain: I can't have much in, if any, allowances for doubtful accounts or accumulated depreciation for stuff from Dagobah or after. Now, Er'in described my memory, heck, my whole set of mental assets, as essentially perfect, so it's likely that my mental assets remained largely the same in value, if not increased, but a perfect memory may as well be a leveraged asset, she thought, while realizing that there was something wrong with [member="Kaia Starchaser"] as she arrived near Janick's position in the base's mess hall. She also had visions of how she herself had a similar problem after drinking 25 tihaar servings, so she knew in her mind that she would just not suggest Kaia to drink anything with alcohol in it. Kaia will soon realize that neither Janick nor Griet were bankers or accountants, at least not professionally; Janick's position among the NIMB was not something she was inclined to talk about and, in fact, is a rather obscure duty she has.

"Hi, I'm Janick; what's your name? Would you like some blue milk? And then we can talk about any stories from Utapau, Dagobah or whatever other theater you fought in. Perhaps I could listen in on your stories and problems and then I will tell you exactly why, and how, my increase in mental liabilities caused problems to me on Utapau"

 

[Wolf Trammer]

Raveem raised his right hand, that signet ring adorning his index finger. Surprisingly... he had kept it despite everything. Perhaps, being what he was before. Nearly on the border of being a criminal wasn't his calling... maybe... this was his calling. Join this loose group of rogues and outcasts in defending the least fortunate places of the Outer Rim. Plus, there had been too many close calls in recent years... perhaps this could be like... retirement. Action packed retirement. But retirement from something that wasn't doing him any good... in the sense of Raveem as a person. As a matter of fact, all of this going through his head... it was foreign. Thinking of others? Considering leaving that life of a con-artist in exchange for being some vigilante. What had gotten into him?

"You are not using some kind of mind trick on me, are you? Because this is the first time I ever think about... well... benefiting someone other than myself." Raveem said that half-jokingly, but he was being somewhat genuine as well.

[member="Bryce Bantam"]

 

[Wolf Trammer]

Deleted

 

[Koenrad Neistov]

Objective Green

"Alright," Koenrad said into his receiver, holding the side button as he spoke, "Let her down real easy, right here. Yeah, between the lights."

The lights he was referencing were eight small blinking bulbs, cheap but effective. They'd outlined a large rectangle on a hill just behind the main complex, the location scouted by Koenrad himself earlier that day. A voice crackled back through the little speaker on his shoulder, "Yessiree... you sure it's not too heavy?"

Koenrad scoffed, although he did so before radioing back to say, "Of course it isn't. I checked the locations, there's nothing below this hillock but dirt and rocks. Land it already." A crackling murmur came across the speaker, undoubtedly the pilot's muttered response picked up by a sensitive mic. No matter. He wasn't about to get into an argument with some drop-ship pilot about his artillery's ideal mounting surface. The deceptively loud bass hum of the ship's engines reverberated through his torso as the large vessel lowered her cargo towards the surface. His contribution to the new base, an E-t.K. I unit, touched down with a groaning of leather and cloth, and a soft clank as various parts shifted upon landing. The straps supporting the giant artillery vehicle became lax, draping across the gun and then suddenly unhooked. Partially trapped underneath the inactive weapon, they'd probably be recovered when it became fully operational later that day.

The argument could be made that an artillery gun was not the most practical piece of equipment a start-up F.O.B. would need, but Koenrad hadn't been able to supply any units to Utapau before the Mandalorian invasion. The feeling that he could've - and more importantly should've - contributed when he didn't at all to focus on the production of this very machine... it had latched onto the back of his thoughts since the news of the scale of the attack had come to him. He owed the ORC quite a bit, and he'd failed to pay them back when they were in dire need of it. So, this was his contribution, perhaps a tad late for it's original intention but still a precaution against future attacks. He'd even spent from his own pockets to train up a team capable of operating it comprised of volunteers taken from this base. Now that his cargo had been sufficiently hauled, Koenrad radioed back a thanks and began the trip back to the main facilities to gather up his new team. They would shortly be returned to their other various tasks, as those were variably more important than manning a precautionary artillery cannon, but he wanted to get them familiar with the equipment before occupying himself elsewhere on the base.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Objective Blue

Kaia wasn’t the happiest to be around most times. Sure, she tried to be polite, and most times? She could succeed. It was a matter of taking the time to relax and not be thrown from combat, into a triage situation that no one wanted to be in. But she had waited, and was marked down as ‘not critical.’ Which to the younger Starchaser meant that she was going to be kept here anywhere from the next half a day through the next week. She just… wasn’t happy with that.

Her ship was fine, she was fine.

The modified probe droid, Drifter, was watching other droids come and go and surveyed the area, taking note of people and equipment. The droid was really good at that, allowing Kaia to create a list of things that people needed before a call even came in. Kaia was escorted to a bed and she sat down, sighing before letting her body fall back into the pillow. This place was part mess hall and part triage, as the whole damned base wass.

“Ow…” She muttered. More firm than she expected. She needed food.

She smiled at the other person, Janick, who was speaking a mile a minute. “Sure, they want me drinking stuff, said I’m dehydrated.” She shook her head. As a Starchaser she always seemed a bit malnourished, but that was the joys of living off reprocessed food. But she was always surviving. “I was at Utapau, when the mando-savages came through.”

Hunting all Force users, was it? “Where did you just come in from?”

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Bryce Bantam]

"A Fething what? Force I have not even heard of one of those since the fringe days. Scramble a flight of AR-Wings and escort them into a polar orbit so they will not have a good firing solution on the base. Once that is done invite the captain down, seems he may need some help." Bryce said to the officer that had walked over to him and Raveem. ([member="Sargon Vynea"] )

Even with the news Bryce was still smiling over Raveems last comment, a joke to be sure but well timed.

"I could teach you that skill but i'm fething rubbish at it myself. If you are looking to expand your knowledge may I suggest the temple of Binaros, the Monks that live there are quite skilled in many forms of the force and its' application. Would be a great place to begin to refine your abilities, after that we should look to get you a badge, as I see great things for you [member="Raveem Va'ah"]. Bryce smiled at the Bothan and gave him a firm pat on the shoulder as a sign of respect and friendship.

(OOC [member="Koenrad Neistov"] Feel free to engage me in conversation, i'll be talking with Raveem on one of the landing pads)

 

[Fiolette Fortan]

Objective Red.

"Tachyon Rising, this is the Fleetwood." Farrah began with the communications, "our employer would very much like to meet with you, her name is Fiolette Yvarro."

Fiolette adjusted her suit and let her azure gaze wander to the control panel in front of her. Farrah looked over his shoulder and narrowed his gaze, "don't." She put her hand out, "I'm going alone and that's final, besides what's Petrovsky gonna do? Throw his tablet at them?" She gave the young man a come-on look with raised brows and turned to head for a small transport. The Fleetwood's staff looked a little nervous and she could see why but on the other hand. The former grand admiral knew that the Coalition could use the help and she was willing to provide it in the form of a small space station it wouldn't be beyond any of the Imperials to try and make a run for any of the planets. After all, the goal was to bring down every 'light' sided nation, at the very least this new station would slow them down. Okay, it was more like a speed bump, but still.

"Tell'em I'll be there in five." She said with a finger pressed to the ship's intercom as she stood at the hangar's entrance.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Rosa Gunn"] | [member="Julius Sedaire"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Objective Red
[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Rosa Gunn"]

A coughing fit erupted from the battlemaster as his eyes snapped open. Looking about he seemed to be seeing things that weren't there, and a blindly grasping hand gripped at the arms of the chair as if to steady and anchor himself as reality set in. Timelines had diverged in the end, and probability had crept in. A side-effect of his deciding to practice the technique and a mis-navigation in the ship he was in. Finally catching his breath to normal, his eyes seemed to focus, and find Coren with a little effort, and he nodded.

"He was here, landed on D'Qar... Something was happening to the big ship, and he ripped hyperspace open to fling it here... Some Mandalorian ripped their Empire's ship to bits, or tried to. Something to do with the gravity and setting various sections opposing to buckle the very spine of her... But the sublight engines were down, yet the repulsors still up.. I couldn't see why it crashed like that...Something more lurked... Some vile intent..."

Trailing off, he nodded to the view port.

"D'qar is where we need to be. He is either there, or was..."