Location: Mustafar
Objective: Mining Facility
Allies: The Rag Tag Team Of Misfits, [member="Six-O"], [member="Tarion Daemora"], [member="Celestia Tremaine"], [member="Draco Vereen"],
Enemies: All Tagged Throughout The Post- FO
Equipment: Phrik Droid Body,
Anti-Force Vong Biot Suit, 2x
Electro-Cestus,
Spear of Rae,
Electro-Flail, HK's Training Lightsaber (
Sliver of Light), 2x
Magnetic Revolvers (Heavy) loaded with
Neuranium Ammunition,
Bobcaster (Heavy),
Chameleon Cloak,
Sigil of Hope,
D.U.S.T.,
Anti-Force User Grenades,
Grappling Hook (Pistol Format), Photoreceptor
HypnoGaze attachment,
jetpack, simple wrappings for camouflage and concealment. A
Nocur mount in
battle barding.
Forces: Iron Legionnaires Drones and Droids,
Mobile Weapon Platforms,
Greycloaks
NPC Gear: Owlbear/Nocur Mounts with
Barding and
Shattergun Miniguns,
Spears of Rae,
Shattergun Rotary Cannons,
Mass Drivers
[member="Commander Lusk"],
The snipers would quickly find out that most of the droids too had shields, which made them annoying in a fight but then again annoying was the essence of HK and his forces. The small arms blaster fire would splash against their blue protective energy layers, melting into the armor of spider droids, high powered beams or slugthrower rounds from their snipers would ping off as well, at least at first, it would only take one shot to bring down one of their shields, they still used generic Protectorate shielding systems, to be honest a lot of better Abregado equipment was being saved for a fight with actual Sith, what they fielded was more or less their generic background noise set up.
Either way, as Lusk's clones took minimal casualties, so did the entrenched droids took minimal casualties, but such was the way of mass combat in Galaxy nowadays. HK dug his Phrik heels into the sides of his owlbear, moving the beast closer to the front lines as he watched the sky, his sensors and trackers picked up on one of the descending clones taking out an explosive grenade, to which the machine quickly grabbed one of his shattergun revolvers, aiming the Verpine-rip off gun up into the sky and pulling the trigger.
BWOOOOOM!
An explosion suddenly rippled through the air as the grenade was shot out from the clone's hand, triggering its explosives, the droid swiveled his hand to the side, picking up trajectory of another grenade, he pulled the trigger once more,
BWOOOM!
There was another explosion with his of his pellet cutting through the air, his free hand meanwhile was contorting its fingers, casting arcane signs, eldritch sigils and gestures that was the somatic way in which the droid activated and changed the setting of grav gloves built into his Vong Biot suit.
"
Grenades!"
He called out to his Greycloak companions, the other droids already mimicking his gestures as they stepped to his sides, the knew what to do.
The five droids raised their hands as the grenade explosives were plucked by the clones and thrown down to plummet towards their forces. They waved an evocation of technomancy, using their gadgets to manifest together a strong gravitational anomaly in the air that latched onto and pulled the grenades in the air, their course suddenly changing to spin around and twirl, orbiting some unseen point above the mining facility.
KABOOOOM!
Their fuses finally ran out and the explosives triggered, exploding still suspended above the air to turn the Clone's grenades against them by creating another deadly obstacle in their path to slay as many of them as the droids could before they even reached the ground.
Some grenades still managed to reach the ground, exploding next to some unlucky drone or spider droid, the explosions rocking the front lines of the mining facility, sending some of the machines flying into the lava, others would be deactivated right away.
HK spun his revolver in his hand before pushing it back into its holsters, directing his digits then towards the outcropping from which Clones were opening small-arms fire against them.
"
Cracking maneuver!"
He ordered as he pulled on the reigns of the owlbear, adjusting his mount to face the enemy forces.
His spider droids knew what the command meant, their counterparts equipped with Abregado mass-drivers, large Verpine shatterguns firing anti-tank artillery shells from bolt guns, moved into position and fixed their aim towards the clones.
FWOOOOMP-FWOOOOOOOOMP
The soil and rock would explode out into the air in showers of hard obsidian shards and volcanic dust as the shattermass driver round slammed into the rock outcroppings used by Clones. Abregado forces specialized in trench-based warfare, setting up a highly defended position with high caliber guns just firing away to tear down at enemy forces and weaken them until they could close in and assault them to finish their forces. This did gave them a bit of an insight into how to attack other defensive positions as well, something they showed on Kaeshana when fighting Rexus, who was actually present on the battlefield as well, they managed to conduct a similar maneuver where their mass drivers were used to blow openings within FO trench lines before other Pyre forces charged them.
Same here, the shots were aimed at the rock outcroppings to pulverize the defensive positions Clones were using, hopefully throw them back from explosions and impact and take some of them out of the fight as well. And now there came the fun part.
"
On me, on me!"
HK called out to other droids, mechanical armored soldiers would mount up their Owlbear mounts as well. It was not often they used their cavalry equivalent, most often it was as scouts or quick hit and run strikes, but they were fighting in close quarters today, and the droid recognized they would have advantage in melee combat, not only because of the droid's augmented strength and bodies, but also because Owlbears were vicious large things that loved to tear away and claw at anything they could feast on.
[member="Ultimatum"],
As the droid's owlbear troops formed up on him he saw Ultimatum's Awe fighters fly overhead, he comm'ed in to the other droid,
"
We have some sniper fire incoming, any way you can pinpoint their specific location and run an air strike against them? I already sent out a transmission to other GA forces, they should be here with reinforcements any minute now, we just have to hold out together until then. Luckily for them, they have one major flaw they did not foresee,"
HK pointed out,
"
They are not us."
The droid quipped over their binary communication lines, Ultimatum would be able to see his forces gathering up in an assault formation up in front of their defenses, it would be pretty clear that HK was going to charge the FO forces and take the fight right to them rather than let them come to them. So it would be up to Ulti pretty much whether he would join HK and send his forces forward or have them stayed at their position in case the FO tried to counter attack.
One way or the other the two droids were in this together and HK was not going to abandon Ultimatum any time soon, even if he was going to fight all of FO forces by himself.
[member="Rolf Amsel"], [member="Pharazon Draken"], [member="Arthan Corvax"], [member="AR-3752"], [member="Natasi Fortan"], and [member="Rexus Wenck"]
The Fist and Auxiliary's descent would be treated to the same welcoming party as the clones, they would find high-velocity anti-armor pellets from their anti-air droids rip through the air and fill the skies with small metal bullets that could punch clean through most of the aircraft, in fact it was the same class of droids that brought down a number of TIE fighters sent by some NPC [member="Torian Pierce"] wrote on Kaeshana, their bullets tearing away at deflector shields and chewing through hull armor.
There would also be the presence of Awe starfighters deployed by Ultimatum who streaked through the air chasing their targets, conducting strafing runs, maybe even colliding with an unlucky Clone trooper here or there on their way down to the ground.
Rolf would probably recognize some of the droids if they managed to spot one from their ships or their scans would pick up on them, he faced those spider droids before, at least their light variants, when a group of them took down a tank he commandeered while a Greycloak attempted to hunt him down, so he might be somewhat familiar with the weapons they fielded.
Outside of that there would be miscellaneous other weapons firing at them, standard AA emplacements with explosive shells that were at a time bothering [member="Heidi Ziegler"], organic militia troopers to supplement the droids so it was not all machines they would face.
They could probably see small explosions pop here and there on the mining facility from the grenades thrown by Lusk's clones and fighting already exploded out by the rock outcroppings near to where the station was anchored to solid ground where some of the Clones deployed.
The same would also apply to Rexus' troops once they were going to make their way down to the surface!
And same for Pharazon, I'm literally reading through the whole thread after last HK post to see who I need to reply to. Depending on whether Pharazon would land at the somewhat secured FO position the clones set up, there would be Owl-bear mounted war droids pretty much right in front of them, so an interesting enough sight to start their day off of.
And Corvax, it's going to be such a pain in the butt when FO soldiers will start to do their own thing and one cookie cutter paragraph won't be enough to cover most of them. EIther way, Corvax would probably not sense any notable Force presence on the ground, at least not until Draco arrives, but perhaps fighting the droid in charge of the defenses would be worse than fighting a Jedi Knight. After all the last Force user from FO to face him was one @Jude Falkrow, and hopefully he managed to get a new kneecap after that encounter. Although one could wonder how he got out of captivity after HK captured him, probably simply by giving HK a high-five and then being allowed to leave. The droid pretty much either executes his prisoners or just lets them go, there really isn't that much middle ground.
And that would be the defenses Natasi and her forces faced on the way down, at least before they crashed, nice piloting Natasi. Either way, their distress signal would be picked up by the Abregado forces and other within the Mining facility and they would actually respond to it, letting them know that they were sending a squad of medical droids towards their position.
It may seem like a bad sign to most people, but if she studied reports from Kaeshana she would know that Abregado sent medical droids in a similar matter when their Cruiser crashed into the planet and they were willing to work alongside FO medical personnel, which went off without any hostile incident although the two groups worked alongside each other trying to ignore the other.
Either way, sooner or later a single skiff-barge would be seen floating over lava pools and the black volcanic soil towards them, clearly bearing a mark of medical personnel, if they wanted to fire on them then so be it, if they wanted to turn them away then the machines would not impose, but they were not going to be the ones to decline crashed ship aid or fire on them.
And again, same resistance to transports and presence of Awe fighters sent by Ultimatum described for Rolf would be the on AR would face on her way down to the planet with the LAAT or whatever they were.
Speaking of [member="Heidi Ziegler"],
If their medical transports were properly marked as such they would be left alone once they entered the atmosphere and their field hospital would not be targeted. HK was not a savage, in fact out of everyone he was the most likely to help a wounded enemy soldier and release them afterwards. His perception on wars was that they happened because of the officers not the troopers themselves, so he treated the troopers from whichever sides pretty well should he capture any of them as a PoW or come upon one too injured out of the fight.
Either way, if anti-air fire came upon her own ship which apparently was firing back at them and was therefore game, it would not be blaster or exploding shell, at least not if it came from Abregado, their anti-air droids used hyper-velocity firing rotary cannons that could, again, punch clean through most of aircraft, and were designed for such purpose. Far from a makeshift anti-air emplacement.
[member="Preliat Mantis"],
His approach to the planet would be plagued with the same resistance as Lusk and Rolf's, shattergun anti-air emplacement from spider droids equipped with rotary cannons, Awe fighters sent in by Ultimatum to intercept their shuttle, other various anti-air emplacement like high caliber repeater blasters and exploding shells. The shatterguns fielded by HK and his droids packed probably the biggest punch from what would be fired on them, those things could bent and rip through Phrik armor after all, ironically enough those would be also the same droids that saved Preliat's life and dug him from Mandalore where he was buried alive by soot and ash.
As he came up to speak with Lusk there would be those thunderous roars of mass drivers being fired in their direction as suddenly ground and rock would explode, shatter-bolt-guns fired at the cover their troops were using, Preliat's men and Lusk's previous forces to weaken their defensive position and open them up to an attack.
Dust would rise up in a screen from the air, black as the rest of Mustafarian soil, like a desert storm they could hear the words screamed from the Mining Facility,
[Mando'a] "
Now, to ruin! For blood and the day's end! Forward!"
There would be screeching and calling of war cries as blaster bolts would be cast out towards them, fired from blaster repeaters and high-velocity pellets cut through the air towards their troopers. There would be sound of heavy feet upon the ground as the droids charged towards them, roaring and screeching got louder as suddenly through the black dust they could see a large figure with two red glowing eyes.
Instead of waiting, HK came to seek fight to them.
The rest of his owlbear-mounted troops would try to slam into their Clones to engage them in melee, hitting them with the large armored bodies of their beasts and swinging vibroswords and their spears of Rae, Force pikes tipped with Phrik.
The droids did not simply stood by to let them build their own base, especially since they were already in process of preparing for an assault and shelling Lusk's position when Preliat arrived, building a base would take time.
Either way, Preliat's mortars would fire, explode over the mining facility, causing it to rock and groan dangerously, its support hover-struts would crackle and shields flickered. If he wished to fire artillery on it he was free to do so, but that would probably damage what they wanted to capture.
[member="Joza Perl"],
Joza would probably know that HK was in the heavily sieged Mining Facility, he would let her and the Order know as much, but he was not really able to communicate with them at the moment, since the whole being in middle of a fight and the Mustafar's surface interfering with long range transmissions thing.
[member="Choli Vyn"],
Same for Choli, there would be transmissions to let her and other GA forces like those at Vader's castle, [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] or whoever is there, I'm not sure who to tag because I need to hurry up to write up this post before class, that the Mining facility was being sieged pretty heavily with the GA forces getting outnumbered rapidly, but other than that they could not really reach other planets like Barkesh and Rutan, at least not without other GA folks relaying their transmissions, since interference from Mustafar's surface and all.
