Operation Silent Night (Alliance vs. Black Empire)

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Gabriel Sionoma"] | [member="Zaren Bouqi"] | [member="Darron Wraith"] | [member="Ryan Korr"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Julius Sedaire"] | [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Calina Ovmar"] | [member=Harley] | [member="Darth Prazutis"][/SIZE]


[SIZE=14.6667px]The rest of the fall was surprisingly relaxing. In the darkness he couldn’t make out the distance to the ground, there was just a number on his HUD. Once the atmosphere thickened his terminal velocity didn’t change much at all and he was in simple freefall. But Voidstalker knew what was coming next. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The repulsors kicked in and arrested his momentum, but his stomach seemed to carry on without him. A groan escaped his lips into the helmet; he hoped nothing else would. The HUD picked out the terrain below and he shifted for landing, coming down into a roll and immediately heading for the meeting waypoint. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]

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[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]A grappling hook secured and he started making his way through the murk. Fortunately his suit filtered out most of the smell. It felt odd to be going into combat without his rifle. Just a silenced projectile sidearm hanging from his belt. Instead he had his shield across his back, covered in a matte black film. What he also had was a bracer or kaminoan saber darts and spare SmartTranq. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]He almost slipped on a particularly precarious outcrop of rock. That would have been embarrassing. Gabe could have watched him crack his head open and wash out with the rest of the excrement. [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]How bravely did the Voidstalker die, assaulting the palace of the Zambrano king. Slipped on a rock and drowned in poo. Bravest of Jedi, Voidstalker. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Gabe had come through on his promise. Now it was his turn to help the man conquer his demons. Revenge was not a Jedi concept. Fortunately no one would see him smile behind his helm when they put Vornskyr down for good this time. [/SIZE]

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

The putrid stench of algae blooms in an aquifer full of feces and other execrement caused Korr to gag repeatedly until he wrapped a cloth around his mouth and nose. It smelled strongly of cedar, which brought the barest hint of a smile to Ryan's hidden lips.

Rather than climbing every inch of the way, Ryan used a liquid cable launcher to ascend up to the various skinny ledges before disengaging the clamp and starting all over again. Even so, his hand soon became coated in a mucky grime that he had no wish to think about.

The trek through the tunnels had been arduous, to say the least. Ryan's auburn hair was now coated with a fine layer of rock dust, as was everything else he wore. No one said war was pretty. And Ryan doubted very much that those who dreamt of glory imagined slogging through tiny caves before climbing up a cliff face below which waited a lake full of literal crap.

Korr grimaced, shifting his grip. His fingers slid along the slick surface of algae on the cave wall and he lost his grasp, wobbling backward, nearly falling. Ryan seized the wall with his other hand and managed to stabilize himself, but not before he knocked a rock off the ledge. It tumbled into the lake below with an audible splash.

The Vahla Jedi winced, peering down after the rock.

Did his mind play idle tricks, or had he seen something move in the water among those ripples?

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] | [member="Darron Wraith"] | [member="Zaren Bouqi"] | [member="Julius Sedaire"] | [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] | [member="Calina Ovmar"] | [member="Harley"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

As he nodded, it would be clear to any who looked at Julius' face he was mildly distracted ever since landing on Panatha. Eyes drifted and unfocused on occasion, and other signs of being lost in through. The Dark Side was strong here, of course, and it's seductive pull whispered in his ear promises of riches, glory, and power. Power to make sure none of his men and those he was sworn to protect would ever be failed again. But it was a vain and empty seduction. A nest of lies and vipers hushed lover promises. Nothing true ever came of the Dark Side, and despite his odd colored views of the Force from the Aing Tii, he was rapidly finding while he might accept someone using bits and pieces of it 'for the Greater Good', he still despised and hated Sith with a passion unbecoming of a proper Jedi. So it was a good thing he wasn't.

But beyond the disaster that was the tangle of the Dark Side in his mind, gnawing at his confidence and very soul, there was something else here that took away the Green Jedis' focus. There was a presence, a nagging beacon in his mind that felt like when a part of you has been missing and finally returned. What had been returned, or why he felt this way was unknowable to him, and he tried with a mighty will to focus on what Master Korr had said, and the things of import there. It was of little use, and he cursed not being able to expand his consciousness to see who or what fitfully flickered in his mind, like a bright candle on the verge of being snuffed out ever more. Stubborn hope and determination set it to finding the source and fixing the problem.

As they came to a split in the tunnels, which he had been prepared for, he spoke up, quietly, with patience, but with a wavering voice.

"We want the northwest corner, according to scans I have.... Should be a larder or some sort of general storage, with a singular gate for stocking, It's also probably an emergency evac route, so we might have a way in. At the very least, it's right next to the barrier between the upper and lower class of the fortresses... I think"

[member="Korinna Zambrano"] | [member="Ryan Korr"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] | [member="Darron Wraith"] | [member="Astarii Saren"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] | [member="Canal"] | [member="Isar Kislo"] | [member="Calina Ovmar"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Harley"] | [member="Zaren Bouqi"]

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Deep green eyes flickered open. Her time under the heel of [member="Darth Carnifex"] had been long and arduous. They'd traversed a few planets during what one could perhaps call training. To those in the know it was more inception and indoctrination that anything. She'd been trained. She had been a Jedi. So long ago now that was. Out of her mind it had been torn. The Sith and her Lord were all she knew now. The Jedi were monsters. Self righteous and self-serving bringers of crusade. Time and time again they had meddled in the affairs of others. Just who did they think they were? For a group so hell-bent on bringing peace to the galaxy they sure were quick to invade the home world of others. The Jedi, self proclaimed 'peace-keepers', the Twi'lek scoffed. More like police of the galaxy.

A tickle pulled at the back of the woman's neck. A feeling she hadn't felt in quite a long time. She had difficulty at first pin-pointing exactly what it was but she knew it was there. It crawled down her spine as a spider would. The feeling made her skin crawl, eliciting goosebumps along her arms. A quick shake of the head pulled her from the momentary daze and back into reality. Secured to her person were a pair of sabers, one green, one purple. They held no practical use to the woman however, merely decorative for she carried them as a symbol of a fallen Jedi. Instead she carried with her another Jedi relic, a notoriously blue lightsaber that once belonged to a special woman. Despite her allegiance to the Republic, she was one of the few Twi'lek Force masters of her time and thus earned a modicum of respect from Seraphina. Her secondary blade, a standard Sith saber with a curved wooden hilt housed within a deep amber blade.

The light. It's here.

A small crack of the neck and a twist of her body and the vibrant skinned Twi'lek turned away from one of the poor souls she had been entertaining atop the torture table and began to exit the room, prompting a plea for release and a respite from the torture by the man. A light hearted snicker was the only response he would receive as the woman's form disappeared from view, swallowed whole by the darkness beyond the doorway. You see, while the Zambrano family slept, others had to ensure the safety and security of their guests. This was a task that Sera volunteered for quite willingly as it provided numerous ways to entertain herself. The winding hallways that led from chamber to chamber eventually brought her to one of the large prison blocks. Here she would make several sweeps, ensuring that those who slumbered and those who were restless were still doing so from behind their heavily guarded cells.

[member="Korinna Zambrano"] | [member="Ryan Korr"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] | [member="Darron Wraith"] | [member="Astarii Saren"] | [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] | [member="Canal"] | [member="Isar Kislo"] | [member="Calina Ovmar"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Harley"] | [member="Zaren Bouqi"] | [member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Ryan Korr"] [member="Julius Sedaire"] [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Jacen hadn't answered Ryan's query. In truth the simple wish not to look down and discover for himself had left him unable to assuage or confirm his fears. Inch my inch, tunnel by tunnel, they made their slow progress. Any who had sensed their arrival might have wondered where the source of the light had gone. Hidden deep down and carrying on with their arduous, stamina sapping climb.

It was, however, nearly over if Julius was correct. As they reached their destination, Jacen found him neat the front of the group. An old rusted grate, perhaps long forgotten, blocked their path. He used his saber to cut it free whilst another held it still and set it down gently.

They found a door that looked well worn, but a real door notheless. He held a hand up for quiet and paused by the threshold. After a few seconds he used slid it open as quietly as possible. It was stuck quite fast.

The larder was empty, but Jacen moved to the door on the far side to listen or sense anyone approaching. Looking back down at the floor, he said to the others: "Swap or clean boots, let's not leave a trail right through the castle."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Thermal imaging had detected an unidentified flare of activity on the farthest outskirts of the castle's perimeter, but as quickly as it had been detected and probes sent to investigate it had abruptly disappeared to the stark bafflement of the technicians and officers who were monitoring the equipment. The probes that had been dispatched had discovered disturbed settlement and the imprints of boots upon the ashen soil, but besides that and the tell-tale signs of their movement they were nowhere to be found in the immediate vicinity. A nearby cave entrance, half-hidden by a sloping ridge, was now a focal point of investigation. However; the subterranean caverns that wound deep beneath the forsaken earth were vast and labyrinthine, and it would take an extensive team composed of both men and droid to fully search its entirety.

But Carnifex knew the land better than anyone still living, and adjacent to those caverns were the foundations of old castles that had existed long before Vain Hollow, long before he had even been born. Many of them were already ruins by the time he decided to set up shop on this desolate plateau, but many others still stood and had been incorporated into the sublevels of the castle, many of which still acted as dungeons and torture chambers for those unfortunate enough to fall into his wicked grasp. He turned away from the communication console he had used to contact Braxus and to keep himself updated on the search's progress, and motioned to his guards to allow the individuals waiting to be bade entrance just outside the tightly locked threshold of his chamber door. He hardly said a word to neither [member="Calina Ovmar"] or [member="Harley"], save for this quick command: "Follow me."

He began to quickly descend through the castle's colossal spires and massive bastions, using a series of lifts and stairwells throughout the journey all the whole commanding various subordinates to fetch him individuals like [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"] and [member="Korinna Zambrano"]. He deigned to leave [member="Darth Prazutis"] in the upper levels, for should these intruders not move as he anticipates them to move, it would be prudent to keep a master like Braxus above ground to protect the visible citadel and the rest of their family in the case of an emergency. If he needed him down in the dungeons he would hail him, but with the group that now flocked around him like the feathers of a black raven he didn't expect he'd require Braxus' aid right now.

The entrance to the dungeons was a massive locked gate guarded by silent, immobile Imperial Sentinels wielded massive Force-pikes taller and more baroque than they were. He stopped before them, yet he did not command them to stand aside or open the gates for him and his entourage, but rather he turned to face the assembled individuals. "A foul presence has dared to encroach upon my world, and I have good suspicion that they seek to assail the castle in some way or another, but without a full-scale army an attack on our walls would be suicide. Several probes dispatched early discovered their point of infiltration, but have lost them in a massive cave system that stretches beneath our very feet for many kilometers, and that means only one thing. They plan to infiltrate the dungeons, and if that is their wish then I shall not dissuade them."

A cold smile spread across his malign features, and with a wave of his hand he ordered the two silent guardians to unlock the gates to the dungeons below, and upon the severance of the threshold a gust of rancid wind rushed up to meet them accompanied by the mewling of the tormented and the whimpers of death. But there was also another sound, a hateful growl that permeated the massive dungeon complex that was entirely otherworldly. As always the dungeon's head overseer was to meet the God-King just beyond the entrance to the dungeon, where the setting was not as foreboding as it was further down. "Open the pens, we'll let the beasts flush these infidels out from whatever nook or cranny they choose the wedge themselves in."

[member="Ryan Korr"] | [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] | [member="Darron Wraith"]​

[member="Astarii Saren"] | [member="Liliane Lancaster"] | [member="Canal"]​

[member="Isar Kislo"] | [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] | [member="Zaren Bouqi"]​

[member="Julius Sedaire"]​

 

[Hailey Sosis]

She followed [member="Darth Carnifex"] down to beast pits, and listened to him talk. He was humourless in the way he talked, and was getting ready to unleash his pets. She soon realized the beast where going into the sewer network, she she felt a little uneasy with. As last night was hutt spice dinner night, and boy was it spicy. Who ever was down there, would have to deal with the consequences of that. Though they where doing it by choice, the poor beast had no choice. Then she realized the ventilation was not good down there as well, and she left the bathroom window open for a reason. She then watched the poor beasts descend into sewer tunnels, they where enraged and soon would set themselves on the enemy. If they had not already been overcome by smells of Spice Hutt Tuesday, and sloppiness of morning after. Then she said silent pray, that they won't make it up, as she did not want to smell them after they been down there.