Operation Black Knight (ask if you wish to join)

[Ashin Varanin]

OOC/ I think I remembered everyone who volunteered. If not, let me know.

As for One Sith opposition, I understand [member="Vrag"] and [member="Reverance"] intend to be present where Team Besh is going. [member="Darth Carach"] will, I believe, be present on Defense Station Kressh, where Team Aurek is going, and there may be other One Sith defenders as that faction sees fit.

Play nice, all. Let's have some fun.

IC/

TEAM AUREK​

[member="Aston Jacobs"]​

[member="Barrien Siegfried"]​

[member="Cira"]​

[member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]​

​

Using Velok's personal stealth transport, Team Aurek will infiltrate Defense Station Kressh, in geosynchronous orbit over Selvaris. Defense Station Kressh must be crippled, or it will surely shoot down any escape. And Kressh must be handled silently, by destroying the comm relays first, or other One Sith defensive elements insystem will descend and kill everyone. Kressh has powerful weapons emplacements, but even if captured, using them will certainly alert the system's forces. Several Sith and elite soldiers are believed to be aboard. ​

​

Team Aurek has a secondary function. Aston Jacobs has a powerful Force bond with Spencer Jacobs. It has helped lead the team to Selvaris. If Team Besh fails, Team Aurek will have primary responsibility for rescuing Spencer Jacobs from the surface of Selvaris. ​

​

All Team Aurek members are expected to keep their Force presence concealed if they are capable of it.​

​

TEAM BESH​

Ashin Varanin​

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]​

​

Team Besh will be dropped off by another stealth ship. Team Besh will begin by functioning as a high-stealth sniper/spotter team, in order to create distractions and clear an approach path to the location where Spencer Jacobs is imprisoned. At that point, Team Besh will have primary responsibility for neutralizing the Sith present at that location, and extracting Spencer Jacobs from the Vongformed deathworld.​

​

***​

​

The rendezvous over Taris had let Ashin gather her assets and allies, each more unexpected than the next. Now the two little stealth ships were en route, slipping quietly toward the planet Selvaris at sublight. Hyperspace reversions could be detected from close to the planet, so they'd hit realspace several astronomical units away. The upside was that these two very solid stealth craft had that much less chance of detection. The downside was that Ashin had spent the last couple of hours feeling Spencer's torture through their Force bond, more powerfully than she'd felt it from light-years away. She felt that, and she felt hollow, and that was about it. She kept to herself near one of the stealth frigate's ramps, clad in a Yuuzhan Vong stealth bodysuit. A pack on her back held her disassembled armor, and beside it was one of her many sniper rifles. But it wasn't the weight that bowed her shoulders or took the life from her eyes. She didn't even find it hard to hide her Force presence. Right about now, her sense of self wasn't terribly strong.

Team Besh's stealth frigate broke away from Team Aurek's ship and arced past Defense Station Kressh, bound for the surface of Vongformed Selvaris. Team Aurek had its instructions; there would be no further communication between the stealth ships unless something went catastrophically wrong.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

X-4ZA stood quietly off to the side while his owner, Barrien Siegfried, looked out of a viewport at the distant planet. He still bore fresh wounds and scars as a result of his capture on Contruum. It was there that he'd first met Aston, though at the time he hadn't known that they were brothers. If he had, he may not have left his side to assist his Master by taking on one of those that had come to confront her. But he had done so, and it was because of that he'd been captured. That and the Sith Lord he'd faced in single combat.

Turning away, he walked over to where his brother now sat. As he understood it, Aston was a twin. His twin was a sister, Spencer, and she had been captured in the Republic attack on Balmorra. The Sith had brought her here, and they'd only known as much because Aston possessed a strong bond with his twin; one enhanced by the Force.

"We will bring her back, I assure you," he said as he laid his hand on Aston's shoulder. "I very much wish to meet our sister."

He understood his part in the plan. He would go with his brother, the soldier that had helped rescue him, and this strange woman he'd never met before, and neutralize the defenses of the station that orbited the planet. In so doing, they would allow the other ship to slip to the planet and back without being detected, provided the occupants were capable enough to see things through without drawing unwanted attention. Given Ashin's relationship with his sister, he doubted there would be anything but excellence.

Turning a gaze across at Ven, he nodded his head to her, acknowledging that he knew the risks, and was grateful she was undertaking them again. His presence in the Force was already as masked as he, a padawan, could make it. It would, hopefully, be enough.

[member="Ashin Varanin"] | [member="Sarge Potteiger"] | [member="Aston Jacobs"] | [member="Cira"] | [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

There was the faint scrape of armor over suit, the telltale depression of the floor - imagined, mostly, given the metal - that gave away that someone else was there. But as ever, Sarge was a master of making as little noise as possible. Part of that simply came down to he knew the mind game. Avoiding notice was like picking a pocket; wait for the distraction, slip your noise in with it.

Surprisingly easy, you just had to know how to do it.

[member="Ashin Varanin"] looked every bit the galaxy weary warrior he felt she was, and concern knotted the weathered ridges of his brow as he came to a pause just outside her line of sight. Helmet tucked under one arm, broadening his already imposing presence, he found himself staring at a woman who should be every bit his better, and saw only defeat. He'd been there, once before.

Black eyes shifting, he made his way over to settle a palm on her shoulder, giving it a light back-and-forth shove to let her know he was there; that he cared, and that Spencer would be safe. "No better team for a suicide mission, Ashin. Perk up. You might not look the woman I had a crush on when I was a teenager, but I know you still are. And if you aren't, you will be soon enough."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

TEAM BESH
STEALTH FRIGATE
SELVARIS ATMOSPHERE - INSERTION

A wan smile crossed her face, and she knew she was phoning it in. "Feth, Sarge, were we ever that young?" She ran a hand through her lank hair, inhaled deeply, and tried to breathe out her stress. "It's not as bad as all that. I mean, yes, you're right, I've got options in place to get her out if I don't make it, but that's just good tactics. As for suicide, though..."

A smile, then, something a little more genuine and a little harder. Sharper, too. "Right now, where my mind's at, I've got the choice between numbness and anger. When the cork pops, there'll be no putting it back in. I don't want my mind clouded before it has to be, and I don't want to burn myself out too early."

In, out, and there went the smile. "She's being tortured. Maybe Vongshaped. I know you know exactly what I'm talking about." She knew, after all, how far he'd gone for Cira. Or at least she knew most of it, though she'd always suspected there was more, and not all of it good. "You know where I'm at and what I'm liable to do. Anger's tiring. So for the moment, I've opted not to feel. Just don't take that for despondency, or at least nothing I can't get out of when the time comes."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Team Besh
Frigate
Atmosphere of Selvaris

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

"I was that young. I can't speak for you. First time I laid eyes on you I was nineteen." He says, "Well, biologically nineteen. About three hundred and seventy something adjusted." He shrugs. "But I also didn't have eyes that look like I took bits of the night sky and fashioned them into my means of seeing." He gave her a weary smile, one that often went with good-natured nostalgia.

How time flew. "Less scars, too. But I was also less complete." That drew a firm nod from the man. "I know exactly where you are, Ashin, and whether you like it or not, what you're feeling is despondency. Why? Because you and I, we aren't so different. You'd rather be doing something than waiting. And it's the pause right before the exhale on the shot that's killing you right now."

Another pat, and the shaking of the ship seemed to subside a little as they passed through the atmosphere towards their destination. "What all did you decide to bring with you? For our part, that is."

 

[Reverance]

Team Selvaris

Lambent fields, moving towards a Grashal of the Ecumenopolis

When the well dries, flesh blood supplements. And as he watched the harvesters of the Lambent fields encroach upon each others domain, forced from the reduction of the footprint, he smiled as they clashed. He had completed the mating ritual of the second Chom-Huun, his last weapon taken from him amidst injury. One was full, another was upon it's third supping and demanded another. He was only happy to oblige as he moved absent fear in the fields. Full armor covering all but his head, he left the helmet upon stone, as the dual chom-huuns nestled against the back pincers of the Vonduun Skerr Ygdris. Dropping into the depressed field, Reverance approached a near by lambent tree and inspected the leaves. With a caress, a mating ritual of it's own, the fruit opened and he pulled it from the foliage.

Pressing against his back, the mouth opened to swallow the fruit and swelled with the consumption. The world seemed to move in the same way, hunger begets strength, death begets more death. The cycle continues on and on. And just then, mid step out, a Kanabar Hul caught scent of the perceived misstep. And charged with an almost blinding speed. Good, he thought, offering of his own provided to the field for nutrition. As it hit him, his hands caught the clash of the pincers as he was pushed back across freshly plowed field. With a twist and the overwhelming strength of the powered suit of armor and voxyn al'do, he ripped the pincers from the skull and tossed them aside. Bleeding out, the monster staggered back and Reverance caught the expression predating flight. Charging forward, he punched hard into the large glowing orbs across it's carapace. Breaking through, he grabbed what he felt was solid and crunched, yanking out what he might.

The monster stepped back and flailed before collapsing to the ground. Smiling, he turned to find Tsoring Shai upon the hill, and tossed away the solids. Walking up, the warrior handed him a living cloth, as the he wiped the debris from his arm.

"Take the carcass to the Gla, feed it to the fledgling amphistaffs."
"Where do you go, now?"

He smiled and cracked his neck, obviously riled up. "I'm going to go find the Supreme Commander. I need to discuss something with her." [member="Vrag"]. Though he wasn't perceiving a very loquacious future. Tsoring gave a nod and waved to a few of the extolled to grab the body. As they moved through, several were killed by additional Kanabar Hul's in their attempts.

[member="Ashin Varanin"] | [member="Vrag"] | [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

TEAM BESH
STEALTH FRIGATE
SELVARIS ATMOSPHERE - INSERTION

"Despondency, then," she said, perhaps a hair sharper than she'd meant, and softened her voice. "But nothing I can't control. The exhale on the shot will come."

She set down her jangling pack -- why'd she been carrying it already, if not because he was right? -- and looked at her hands. The outlines blurred, the Cloak of Nuun stealth bodysuit resting for now. Rusty, she switched her soul away from the Force and into the Vongsense she'd acquire when she was Shaped a good twenty years ago. The Cloak responded to her mental touch, and its skin rippled, taking her from visibility to invisibility piece by piece.

"You know what this is, I'm betting, though that's just to get close, with a shield generator in case of accidents along the way. I've got another Cloak of Nuun and shield generator for Spencer. The gun's a MandalTech MX-1, variable ammo, two-klick range. The scope's a little Jal Shey number, a minor Force artifact - boosts focus and mental resistance, counters illusions, not a ton but enough to take the edge off." Both might have to be abandoned when the task switched from sniping to melee. "When it's time to get close, I've got my armor and helmet in the pack. Sabres, I've got mine and a backup, jury-rigged with one of those anti-vong lenses. Probably won't last long if it comes to that, but it's all I had time to throw together. Stealth and snipe, then switch to tank and one sabre -- that's the plan. You?"

 

[Aston Jacobs]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Ashin Varanin"] [member="Barrien Siegfried"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"] [member="Cira"]

A few weeks ago Aston had a dream of his time on Dathomir, long ago with his twin sister Spencer. The things they had endured, words that were spoken, actions that were considered and never taken. He mostly tried to remember the good times, they weren't always bad. But, tended to be more bad then there was good. Aston wasn't sure why these thoughts and such were swirling around in his head, they easily dissipated as he was snapped back to reality. The Jedi Padawan was in a kneeling position eyes closed as he focused his thoughts and concentration on that of his sister. Aston remembered that he was a beacon of hope, or so he called himself from time to time. She couldn't ever give up, and neither would he.

And he knew for sure that the two man team leading the way were hardier then mandalorian iron. Aston hadn't known them for to long, yet he was good a reading some people. When you looked at them, you just knew who they were and what they could do. The padawan hadn't known those he was with for a long while safe his brother Barrien, who in truth he didn't know that much as well either. Time for that would come eventually, however now was the time for saving.

Spencer...

Aston opened his eyes and he stood up taking a deep breath crossing his arms as he felt a hand on his shoulder, not bothered by it he just smirked and nodded his head. Suddenly Aston grimaced a little bit as he felt a pains through his body like waves.

"Yes, you will meet her. She's strong Barrien, very strong. She will make it through this, I know it...I believe it."

Hold on...

 

[Darth Carnifex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUsNeTLr1_c​

Team Kressh
Inside the defense orbital station, Kressh, above Selvaris

It had been some time since the Battles of Contruum and Balmorra had pitted both the Empire and the Republic against one another, and those butchers on each side reveled in the carnage and destruction that followed in their wake. Darth Vornskr had fought viciously in both conflicts, carving swaths of desolation through the ranks of the Republic infantry and Jedi knights with his seething hatred, and only suffered critical injuries on Contruum thanks to that wench [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]. However; after several days of treatment with both medical sciences and more occult methods he had returned far more voracious for death than he had before. But his hunger was tempered by knowledge of whom the Sith had taken as prisoners during the battles, one name stood out to him above all.

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

Oh, what a delicious predicament this would create, and his servants throughout the galaxy were already whispering to him of the coming tide. He suspected that she ( [member="Ashin Varanin"] ) would appear to reclaim that which was hers, and so Vornskr went out of his way to squat down at Selvaris waiting for her eventual retaliation hoping that he could get another crack at one of the only people he legitimately respected in the whole galaxy.

Or perhaps she would completely bypass him and he'd have to deal with the riff raff that trailed in her wake.

Most likely the latter.

Either way he sat on the cold metallic floor of the defense station, his senses completely attuned to the cosmic Force while the Dark Side flowed through him like a river. Soon it would be harnessed as a storm, and with it he would send his foes scattering away like leaves. Oh, and that schmuck [member="Darth Carach"] was here somewhere as backup.

 

[Antoir Setrrin]

OBJECTIVE: Criple Kressh Station
LOCATION: Velok's Stealth Ship
ALLIES: Team Aurek {[member="Aston Jacobs"] | [member="Barrien Siegfried"] | @Cira}
ENEMIES: One Sith {[member="Darth Vornskr"]}

Spoiler: EQUIPMENT

ARMOR:

Spoiler: EQUIPMENT

• x1: Bodo Baas Gunbelt
• x1: Sasori Bodyglove
• x1: THI Revenant Armor
• x1: Exemplar Energy Shield

GRENADES:

• x2: CyroBan Grenade
• x2: EMP Grenade

BLASTERS:

• x1: Ven's Custom Shotgun
• x2: Dissuader KD-30
• x1: T-998C Rifle

MELEE:

• x1: Vibro Electro Blade
• x1: Standard Silver Dual-Phase Lightsaber

OTHER:

• x3 Ammo Clips: AP Shotgun Rounds
• x1 Sithspawn Body: Ven's Guardian Body

​She had never thought that she would be helping the woman that had killed her. No one had thought that she would have offered to help. None that she knew, at least. They hadn't expected her to offer her services, the services of her sword, to Ashin. Too much iron in the fire of their past, they said, too much potential for pain. But what many didn't know, or perhaps simply failed to consider, was the fact that Ven owed a certain blonde quite a bit. She did not owe credits. Once, many years ago, in the same room where the life was torn from her body, that same life was bound to another. Circe's.

If it hadn't been for [member="Spencer Jacobs"], Ven'Rain Sekairo would have stayed dead, never to rise from the grave, never to protect her son, never to watch him grow. Without the aid of the force master, the Mad Merc would never have made her mark on the galaxy. More important to her was the new chance she had been given. Though the Horde had taken advantage of her soul for several years, she had eventually managed to reclaim her state of mind, once again becoming the feared mercenary she had been before. Except she came back with a new sense of morality. A sense she was using to hold steady against the Sith, to keep her son safe, to spend as much time with her love as she could.

Helping Ashin get the woman back had seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

Now she sat quietly within the shuttle, cleaning her shotgun, making sure it would perform perfectly. An equal shine was present on her other weapons. It was, however, absent from her armor. Marks and dents still remained from her last few fights. On Contruum she had been attacked by a schutta of a Sith Lord who left her impaled, electrocuted, and shot in the head. The plating on her stomach had to be replaced entirely. Her helmet hadn't been fully salvageable, but she had managed to recover the internal components from it. Everything else had merely been touched over, recharged, and double checked for reliability.

"We will bring her back, I assure you. I very much wish to meet our sister," Barrien said, drawing Ven's attention. She hadn't known that Spencer had siblings. That, along with the news of her capture, had come as a surprise to her. Though she had ended up shrugging off the first bit of news. I didn't know her well, anyway, she had thought. It was the ill tidings that had caught her off guard. Despite her past grievances with the couple, she had always seen them as impossibly strong figures. Women to be feared as much as they were respected. To hear that one of them had been taken... it made her worry about the strength of the One Sith.

Those were thoughts she had chosen not to share with the others.

Instead she had kept her mouth shut. As she did now, simply glancing up at what passed for a conversation. One couldn't tell, thanks to her helm, but she was sizing up the two men. Barrien was someone she had met before- when she had helped retrieve him from an arena. It had been an interesting endeavor, and she had learned to respect him. While he wasn't the strongest man, nor the grandest fighter, he showed a swell amount of prowess and potential for someone 'so young'. Aston, on the other hand, was unknown to her. For all she knew he could be a force God... or a twit liable to get himself killed within minutes. She really didn't know.

"Yes, you will meet her. She's strong, Barrien, very strong. She will make it through this, I know it... I believe it." Ven glanced up again, this time her head not even moving. Part of her wanted to comfort the brothers, to try and reassure them. But she wasn't entirely sure how to do so. They were still like strangers to her. Allies, yes, but allies she knew little about. Words that might help one person could send chills down another's spine. She had learned that the hard way, when words she had hoped would cause inspiration had cut hope short. Rhetoric was an art. An art she had no practice in. Yet, as she watched the brothers, she felt a twinge in her heart.

Family was everything. Even though her mother had been a Sekairo exile, Ven had always been welcomed to her clan with open arms. They had always stood by her, waiting for her to come home, helping her when she asked (and even when she didn't). Over the years she had done her best to repay them. I still haven't done enough, she thought to herself, thinking of the rift between the two halves of her family. Maybe I should follow mum's advice. Take up the mantle of Clan Mother... Holstering her gun she moved to pull off her helm, hoping to check it over one last time. From what she could tell they were getting close to their destination. She had to be ready to go at any moment.

"I knew Spencer once," she started to say, her voice gruff. The Mad Merc sounded tried, maybe old, but not angry. As rough as she seemed to be, she seemed calm. Collected. Nothing like she had been the last time she had seen the Jacobs woman. "She's a force of nature, that's for sure. I've never met anyone who could break her. Only a couple who could slow her down for a little bit." For a moment she recalled the sight of lightning streaming from the woman's fingers, joined by the jolts sent by Varanin. And for a moment she wondered what she was doing. "She'll be fine. Angry, maybe, but there's no stopping her when Ashin's by her side."

They never thought I'd help the one that killed me. I didn't either. But I stopped being angry years ago, when the last bit of the Horde died out. And, of course, debts are debts, no matter to whom they are owed.
{Long intro post is long.}

 

[Cira]

Objective: Cripple Kressh Station
Location: Velok’s Stealth Ship
Allies: Team Aurek [member="Aston Jacobs"] [member="Barrien Siegfried"] @Ven’Rain Sekairo
Enemies: One Sith ( [member="Darth Vornskr"] )

Everyone was being sociable. Supporting. Offering a measure of comfort.

Everyone save the feminine figure at the far end of the room. Silent as the grave and just as still, the seemingly unarmored woman dressed in black Spidersilk Elaxtex stood staring out into the black void of space. She was remarkably lightly armored for what was to be an infiltration mission, at least comparably to the rest. There was a curious dark familiarity about her, but nothing that stood out starkly upon the common observer.

The hood she wore kept the majority of her face in the shadows, but what was visible could give small bits of information. Her skin was blue tinted, her eyes a bright yellow, much like a prowling Bha’lair and seemingly emitting a similar predatory aura. Yet among that cloud of seemingly dark forebearing, melancholy etched itself to the surface. Barely there, but present none the less.

While the low murmur of conversation came from the other three, this on instead chose to focus on an entirely different matter. Never was there as deep of concentration as in the act the woman would seemingly conduct over and over. It was a flexing of her fingers, a curling and uncurling of the gloved digits. It was as if there was something beyond the flesh, muscle, and bone, as if searching beyond for something deeper within.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

[member="Darth Vornskr"] | [member="Cira"] | [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"] | [member="Aston Jacobs"]

Positiveness was a good thing, but it was time for the talk to end. The ship was approaching the space station.

"We're here."

He didn't like being on this part of the mission. It wasn't because the two brothers weren't directly part of rescuing their sister. They were both aware that if Ashin and Sarge failed, only Aston could get them out, and Barrien would do everything he could to ensure his brother's survival. It was because he didn't like being in space. Solid ground made him feel safe. Space was cold, dark, strange. It ate at him to be among the stars even though he thought them beautiful.

The ship would approach, piloted expertly, but he didn't know how they were going to get in. Infiltration was not his specialty. First he looked at Ven'Rain, and then he looked at Cira. The strange woman standing quietly in the shadows had a part to play in this beyond what he could understand, he was sure of that. But what was it.

"Now we just need to get in."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Reverance"] [member="Spencer Jacobs"] [member="Vrag"]

TEAM BESH
STEALTH FRIGATE
SELVARIS SURFACE - INSERTION

The stealth vessel came in slow. Shields prevented reentry heat and the accompanying trail, but reduced speed never hurt. Nothing said 'stealth ship inbound' like a cloud wake. Hefting her pack and rifle, Ashin called her Cloak of Nuun to full alertness and stepped out of the airlock. As she fell, she switched from Vongsense to a shielded Force-access so she could manage the drop of ten metres or so. She landed hard but in a controlled way.

A good half hour's hike around the edge of a lambent field would take them to a jagged outcropping of yorik coral within a kilometre and a half of the place where she felt Spencer. Fifteen hundred was well inside the gun's effective range, and with the Force and a metric fethton of practice she could make a shot that far. Making those shots count, though -- that was on her. The correct application of force would draw attention and clear a path, but it couldn't be an obvious one. She eyed the nearest Kanabar Huls, still some distance away but probably lethal like everything Vong. Some of those ought to do as targets, if there were any closer to ground zero. She kept to the jungle edge: she might be invisible, but her pack wasn't. It just didn't have life-signs.

Though her Force presence was hidden, at this point her wife would be aware that she was very close.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

BESH
STEALTH FRIGATE
INSERTED

[member="Vrag"] [member="Reverance"] [member="Ashin Varanin"] [member="Spencer Jacobs"]

Trailing behind Ashin came the massive frame of Sarge, oversized camo cloak wrapped around him like a shroud. Despite his weight, he faded into the background as easily as he ever had. On a planet like this, where noises and distractions abounded, Sarge could be nigh on invisible without too much effort. Keeping close to Ashin, though maintaining a proper interval, he simply waited for her to set up shop. He was the spotter, but she was the shooter.

She chose the spot, and she set up. He just made sure she hit the right targets.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vrag"] [member="Reverance"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

TEAM BESH
SELVARIS SURFACE
SNIPER NEST - 1500M TO TARGET

She swept the yorik outcropping with Vongsense, but felt no nasty surprises, just coral ridges growing from what had been a building a very long time ago. The location she picked was in an angled crevice between two of the ridges, back from the edge of a scree slope. The Mando shattergun didn't have a muzzle flash, but you still shot from far back.

The rifle took fifty pellets or ten big nasty darts. Shattergun tech might dampen the sonic boom to pure silence, but railguns still had recoil, and this particular weapon was probably better suited to a vehicle mount. Force protection was her specialty, and she knew a thing or two about strength enhancement; even so, this was going to hurt. She slotted in a clip of inch-wide durasteel darts, then nestled her eye against the Jal Shey scope and felt a thread of clarity wind its way through her. Ahead of her was a forty-degree arc of lambent fields and fortifications. Her sense of her wife's pain suggested that Spencer was underground. The priority here was to draw defenders and kanabar huls in various directions that might open up an avenue for approach. With a grunt, she took the five minutes she needed to swap her Cloak of Nuun for her phrik plate armor. A little awkward for shooting, but when the opportunity came, she couldn't count on that extra time.

"Let's hear it," she said to her spotter, taking her position again behind the bipod-mounted railgun and the Jal Shey scope. Morose she might have been, but that was fading as they drew up to the moment. She kept her Force presence nulled, or they'd have sensed her cold, precise fury as it woke up.

No shot yet. She'd wait for the call. The big picture was Sarge's job for the moment.

 

[Reverance]

Team Selvaris

Grashal of the Ecumenopolis, Looking for [member="Vrag"]

He was hell bent on finding Ygdris. But for the life of him, he couldn't seem to put a finger on her presence. Maybe it was his recent departure from the more sane attributes of his life, Gabriel sent to the four winds. Well, in earnest he wanted to see that thing in the ground. But the transfer had taken more out of him that he had originally anticipated. That didn't matter, he was better than ever now, emboldened by the freedom. Like a Slivilith just taken to the flight, he spread he wings and felt the freedom of it.

Walking quietly into his pod of the Grashal, he approached a table and found the gun sitting there. Pink, beautiful, and ready for action. He smiled from ear to ear, approaching the weapon and inspecting it. Ammunition, check. Other pieces of things, check. Good to go. He slung the weapon over his back and walked out of the grashal with an indifference that almost waxed majestic.

Lately, ever since recent events on a specific space station, he couldn't seem to grasp the notion of caring about the path of the One Sith. At this juncture in his life, he measured the importance at somewhere between spoiled sparkbee honey and the scum that collects on the underside of a vonduun carapace. Simply motions carried out for the sake of them, he gripped with an identity that was supposed to be entirely devoted to the concept. And yet, the crisis of faith remained, even after the removal of his brother. He looked out into the sun opening of the grashal and crossed his arm, waiting to catch Ygdris on her way about. "Disappointing."

[member="Ashin Varanin"] | [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Aston Jacobs]

[member="Barrien Siegfried"] [member="Cira"] [member="Ven'Rain Sekairo"]

The Padawan's eyes had closed once more, in part ignoring and thus feeling the pain that was shooting through his body. The pain that Spencer was going through, in many ways mimicked through the Jedi Padawan. Aston closed his eyes tightly as his voiced echoed through their connection, as soothing as his mere words could be.

Spencer...soon.

Aston opened his eyes abruptly as his brother had indicated their arrival. The Jedi Padawan looked upon the space station and just took a deep breath and nodded his head. "Oh, yes, the plan." The Jedi smirked lightly as rubbed his chin. "Either way, there will be a fight at this defense station to be had. Things hardly ever go according to plan. Perhaps upon docking two could slip out unnoticed while the other two are providing a small distraction of sorts. Ship trouble, smuggling, anything at all. While the two could slip in through the ventilation systems and disable this station. While splitting up doesn't seem like the wisest of choices, it would definitely split their forces up. Unless someone has another idea, and perhaps better."

Aston took a deep breath as he crossed his arms. One way or another Aston felt something amiss here on the Station, trying to dismiss the thought as he looked to his allies.

 

[Khallesh]

[member="Ashin Varanin"]
[member="Reverance"]
[member="Sarge Potteiger"]
[member="Barrien Siegfried"]
[member="Cira"]
[member="Vrag"]

"I do so hope that Vrag doesn't put a bullet between that Jeedai's eyes," Jun Phaath spoke as they walked together. The Master Shaper had a bundle of the biots she had used to take measurements from the prisoner in her arms.

Khallesh doubted the prisoner would last long. If she kept throwing bolts of lightning around it would be long before the Supreme Commander got fed up and put her down. She grunted in response to Jun's comment.

"Dear Khallesh, you really must remember to use your words," Jun chided. Years ago Khallesh would have taken offence at such a remark. Now she was simply used to the Shaper's ways. Better to watch the plotting female carefully for any sign she became bored with her. Khallesh didn't doubt the Shaper had plenty of contingency plans to have her removed from command and another put in her place should she become troublesome. For now, theirs was a mutually beneficial arrangement and she had come to accept Jun's mannerisms.

A pheromone sensor was pressed against the back of Jun's hand and a valve opened up before them. A long row of cells stretched out ahead of them.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

1500 meters out

Sarge lowered himself into the hide alongside [member="Ashin Varanin"], his cloak breaking up his silhouette to the point he could stand and be indistinguishable from the horizon. But he couldn't be so brazen, not with the need to lift a pair of magnoculars to his eyes. Pulling said device out, he put it up in front of his helmet - the modified lenses interfaced with his armor, sending him the filtered view without the clumsiness of glass on glass contact.

Scanning the area, he found himself look at what appeared to be a series of fields with a... barracks in the middle. It was close enough, he imagined. Hard to say. Scanning the lambents, he frowned a little as he panned towards [member="Reverance"] ; the man with the pink gun.

"We'll do a few testing shots. I need to know how these beasts react. I've never seen them before." They seemed to, generally, be drones of a sort. But even a single corpse half pulped would raise an alarm or two.

"Drone, twenty meters to the left of the pink rifle. Eating a fruit. Let's see what happens when you drop one."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Reverance"]

Ashin grunted a response and resettled the scope against her eye, just for long enough to find what he was talking about. A sniper rifle kicked hard; a mass driver loaded with a durasteel spike kicked harder. Only a respectful distance would keep the scope from shattering her skull. She brought her experience with enhanced aim into play. The Force couldn't sense the Kanabar Hul beneath her crosshairs, but it could improve her breath control, her stability, and her sense of the gun and its payload. The scope assisted her too, clearing away distractions and making her glad that she had Sarge to watch her back. Tunnel vision had its uses, and its liabilities. The mass driver had its share of recoil-suppressant gear attached, not to mention the shattergun tech that eliminated the initial sonic boom, but even so, she twisted the Force around herself for greater durability. That, plus the aim enhancement, plus concealing her presence, took some doing -- and splitting her attention three ways couldn't be called conducive to a sniper's focus. Something had to give.

As her Force signature poured cold over the landscape, a gundark lovetap crashed into her phrik-armored shoulder. A durasteel dart left the 1.00-caliber Mando shattergun. It crossed the intervening fifteen hundred metres in roughly a second and a half. She'd guessed at windage compensation, and guessed a little wrong due to springier reeds than normal. Elevation was dead on, though.

The Kanabar Hul, one of many, turned a pinwheeling backflip as its left hip joint became chitin-glittering vapour. A cone of ichor mist sprayed over a similar creature -- an apéritif for the meal to come. After several seconds, she could hear the sound of impact. It pleased her, in probably the only way she could feel pleasure while Spencer's Force-bond carried the sting of spineray reprogramming and assorted other niceties of the Vong.

"How's Pinky?"