Location: Farm warehouse (overhead, aboard the Gypsy Caravan)
Objective: Neutralize Raven Ground Resistance
Allies: [member="stardust"] [member="Tyranus Collik"] [member="Ark Tallen"] [member="Vassara Raxis"] [member="Noah Corek"]
Enemies: [member="Patricia Susan Garter"] [member="Lurcano Car'dann"] [member="Tesh Aquer"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]
Venris frowned as he noted that the ground operation was beginning to turn sour. He unstrapped himself from his chair and stepped out of the cockpit, taking Vassara up on her ealier offer. On his way to the escape pod he made sure to grab a bandoleer of thermal detonators and another of ion grenades, thanking Vassara for keeping redundant amounts of weaponry of every type aboard for such an occasion. Withnthe bandoleers secured beneath his coat Venris slid into the escape pod and strapped himself in, taking a slow breath as he shut his eyes and began to focus, reaching out with the Force.
He needed to locate the enemy commander, somebody who supervised or controlled the droids on the ground unless one of the ships in orbit were a control ship, which would complicate matters. Slowly a vision manifested in his head of men with rifles locking onto Stardust's x-wing, of droid's advancing while fire blossomed around the Basilisk war droid.
And then he saw Tyranus and Ark, different soldiers around the battlefield locked in combat. It was utterly chaotic on the ground...which was just what he needed.
Because in the midst of a storm, Venris best worked from in the eye, undisturbed by the frantic scampering of the Warriors around him. Where they fought with guns and explosives and warships he fought out of sight, beyond the strategies of commanders and outside the scope of their perfecto crafted plans.
Reaching out, Venris waited for the right moment before triggering the pod's release. He felt the crash harness tightly constrain him to the chair as the pod was fired away from the Gypsy Caravan, shooting down to the ground in a brief span of time from a height that was not recommended for one who actually wished to survive such an impact intact. In a moment Venris felt everything go still once more, his pod now resting at the end of a shallow ravine it had carved into the surface, landing outside the perimeter of the Red Raven's ground defences, far enough from the chaotic fighting that the Red Ravens hopefully would not take notice with two ships, a Mandalorian Basilisk and an unknown number of infantry engaging them, or they would write it off as some clumsy pirate or malfunction...
However Venris had learned not to rely on hopes. He would leave the pod behind and spot a weakness in the Red Raven defences, slip through, and then do what he did best.
Exhaling softly, Venris reached up behind his head and pulled his hood up, covering his head and shrouding all but the lower half of his face from sight before unstrapping himself. The rogue stretched one arm overhead and triggered the hatch release, causing the top of the pod to shoot off and land nearby and allowing Venris to hoist himself out and observe the battle going on from a safe distance.
Four flavours of droids: about forty, maybe fifty regular infantry droids, basic but efficient; five larger and easily spotted spider like droid's that looked like they could rip through the Basilisk, cumbersome but dangerous; several dozen or so faster droid's that were presently laying waste to the Basilisk already (and they'd just gotten the karking thing just the way they liked it too); and finally a whole company of Super Clankers, slow but numerous and worst of all supported by an unknown number of snipers.
Each form of droid made up for the weaknesses of the rest, and Stardust and Vassara could only run air cover for so long while Noah, Tyranus, Mando and Ark preoccupied these things on the ground.
Venris checked his bandoleers and fastened his coat shut to keep them from clinking around and making noise. Then, while standing in the open, clear as daylight, he vanished from view entirely, concealing himself through the Force as he began to make his way towards the battle.
Once he got there he had three options.
1- Attempt to sew destruction through the droid ranks with his ion weapons, which might lighten up the burden on his allies but also expose himself to the snipers if one hadn't already spotted him before he had vanished.
2- Attempt to discretely place explosives on the spider droids and detonate them once at a safe distance. More practical, but it also meant getting too close for comfort, and he had learned that his Force Stealth ability had mixed results when it came to different models of droids. If he was spotted by them or the snipers he would be dead.
And 3- Go straight for the snipers and neutralize them, avoiding confrontation with the droid's while they focused on the others and cut off the droids' most immediate chain of command.
Decisions, decisions, each with a small chance of success and high chance of him dying in the process.
...
Just another day in the Fleet and under the orders of the only suicidal captain he'd ever willingly follow then.
