"Operation: Throat Punch" - TU Dominion of Apatros

[Danger Arceneau]

14/20
Browncoat Industrial and Mohc Extractives

There was a knowledge there. A darkness in [member="Marek Starchaser"]’s eyes. Therein those shadows and depths lay a demon that would haunt him so. It would only be known to the man that stood before her, but haunt him just the same, like a festering wound building up the putrid pus of gangrene, ready to infect the blood and the humors of a man.

It was an internal battle she’d seen many a time and knew that no counsel could help beyond what the man was willing to bear he and himself along.

“There be lots in life that are a struggle, Marek.” she would say, her voice low with a thickened drawl, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

“Things that come our way that shake the very foundations we stand on. Questioning us. Making us doubt.” she tell him, “ But what happens there after is a poison cocktail that you and you alone bear in front of you -- but therein lies the choice. The choice to drink your fill or walk away.”

“Whatever troubles you may have, and I’m sure they are mighty enough to cause you doubt, know that there ain’t nuthing in the ‘Verse that you cannot handle or control. Folk may call whatever it will with their hokey religions.. but your life is yours and yours alone.”

She’d pause, then give a subtle smile.

“After all, my momma done told me that when life goes to feth, take it by the gorram balls and teach it whose boss.”

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

So far, they'd had little luck. There was no discernable pattern to the data they'd received from local enforcement, or the trace particles their drones had picked up on numerous sweeps. Their damned little rat's nest could be anywhere.

"Right then, I suppose it's gravitic sensors and a sweep to find a low density roid," Irys called.

"That'll take about two months," replied on of her officers.

"Focus on the regions where they last entered the field. Push the sensors beyond threshold and go comm silent."

"Alright, now you've lost me."

"I want to panic them. Stick some vessels in position so we can triangulate their position. Every time they think they've picked up a pirate transmission recently, they've gone silent on approach."

"Your thinking they'll detect the sensor sweep, and risk a transmission?"

"That's the idea, yes.'

 

[Reverance]

Location: Breaking into the complex
Allies: [member="Laguz Vald"], [member="Khaleel Malvern"], [member="Dakita Calfur"]
Enemies: None
8/20

Gabriel watched in his own form of awe as he gazed upon the assailant dropping from the rafter, upon her (or is it a he?) victims. Verpine shots, they were pretty prescriptive when inspected from a far. Nothing had that silent yet violent style like the Verpine. Yet nevertheless, zeal must have taken over to pull a sniper from their nest in such a way. And with the drop, he felt the squeal of the biot within. That capacity to overcome the innards of the beast, soak into the cells, drown out the powers of the chloroplast. They weren't happy with such jostling.

The Vong Shapers of the Legion Yun'Do were becoming renown for their creativity, despite their isolation from the universe and away from those things they considered beneath them. Anything not Legion landed in that category. Yet, they were building items and biotechnology that would forever leave an impression on the universe around them. The Pazhkic'Dau was an extreme example of this, self-propagating organisms capable of rendering the connection to the force totally void. And here this attacker, ripping out bits of man with glee, was in a position of vulnerability due likely to some form of boredom. How interesting, Gabriel thought, as he watched quietly for the progress to continue.

Science is fun.

 

[Light Rises]

They didn’t know what was going on.

Life was still happening here, but people were breaking into their computer systems? What was going on with that? Someone from the Ryloth system? That didn’t make sense. Geoff looked over his computer system. There was a lot going on here, and he needed to make sure everything was kosher.

The system seemed fine, nothing was going on in there. All the data streams were running fine, monitoring planetary security systems, logging political information. Closing off what the politicans and shareholders wanted to hide. It was a good day. Not even a traffic accident during the morning rush in this city.

Retail Corp and ORO were doing their job to keep the planet safe. And Geoff had a mortgage. He wasn’t worried about anything, aside from his wife stepping out. But how could she? He was nice, he made a job, he had a sweet beard…

And didn’t sleep with Mon Cal hookers.

IX

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Breaking through the atmosphere[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Dakita Calfur"] | [member="Laguz Vald"] | [member="Reverance"] | [member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Objective: D, Expansion & co.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][14/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]It wasn’t all that strange that the power was becoming enticing in its own right.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]As Khal moved along the way, his body in motion as he channeled the Force, time slowed itself in its own right. For once he saw clearly, thought clearly and realized just in what kind of danger he had gotten himself. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]The damage to the soul as his shards of kinetic force blasted through the bodies, because that’s what they had become to him, they weren’t people anymore. They were less than that, reduced to meatbags just waiting to be killed for his own needs. And Malvern couldn’t realize anymore if he actually [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]cared[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px], it should have mattered to him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]But since his youth? Khaleel had seen the worth of a man’s life.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]And it hadn’t been worthy at all, there was no silver lining and there wasn’t a light at the end of the dark tunnel, there was only [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]you[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px] and the world. That’s all that mattered in the grand scheme of things, all that needed to be done.[/SIZE]

 

[Armand Temi]

Objective: Push influence of Apatros Crime Syndicate
Location: In Malvern's Ship Above Apatros
Allies: [member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Laguz Vald"] [member="Reverance"]
Post: 10/20

And just like that, Khal and Trenchcoat were gone. I’m pretty fething ineffective without orders, she thought. Or was she? You know what? Now is the time to show Malvern that you can do this, Dakita! That you aren’t a useless piece of tail that’s only good for shoulder massages and running simple errands and picking up his dry-cleaning.

This was excitement! She didn’t want to just be dragged along in these assignments – she wanted to lead them! To have a little crew where she could give the orders for once. All cute Zeltron and Twi’leks, but yeah, something like that.

She walked quickly down the hallway, expecting to see anyone, anything… even a security droid but the entire building was quiet, the battle somewhere else.

Suddenly a Vong smuggler came around the corner and Dakita nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of him. Luckily she had the element of surprise, and relying on that endless target practice she had on an Antecedant firing range, she locked onto him and fired a barrage of red blaster bolts at him. He was only in civilian clothing, and he went down easily, slumping in the corridor. But that clamor would probably attract more attention.

And more Vong would come.

 

[Jennifer Blanchard]

Location: Ship
Allies: [member="Lucien Cordel"]
Enemies: Vitaes

Jenn looked at her screen. Right, tehse five? They seemed to be what she needed. She made sure to copy the data, all of it, from the central computer while she was working. She could see the man behind the curtain watching the code. Yeah, hers was sneaky. She’d fit in the cracks and even when she left, it’dbe buttoned up tight, and their firewall would be made better.
Techno Union firewalls always were.

And the dirt. Two men taking bribes, one helping smuggle drugs into the mines, and two women stepping out of their marriage with their superiors. These were the hardened white collar crimes? No way. There had to be more.

“Sending more.” Was the message she gave to [member="Lucien Cordel"] as she forwarded on her list of five. She knew there had to be more.

Something better. And why not take a peak at the systems when something was afoot? She was here already, maybe she could help ruin the reputation of others while she was at it? A few images in someone’s personal file… And send.

Right, now what?

10

 

[Micah Talith]

Location: apatros
Objective: stupid pride
Allies: none
Enemies: @Orick T’ane


15/20

Welp, that was some mighty good advice,
Definately for sure something that should make Micah think twice.
But alas, with his blood pumping hot, the fight singing in his veins,
meant that the boy was sure up to feel soreness and pains.

So instead of taking the chance to flee,
He took another step forward to see
The best way for him to deck this man to the floor,
Perhaps again that tackle for sure!

So with a mighty roar that would make his mum proud,
Micah went crashing into the scoundrel in an attempt to ground.
Let’s see who falls on their ass!
And ends up a bit more bloody than the last.

 

[Laguz Vald]

[12/20]
Allies: [member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Dakita Calfur"] | [member="Reverance"]
Objective X: [REDACTED]


As scary as xe looked while impersonating a certain character from another universe, the size difference also came with a few downsides; namely being a rather large, attractive target to anybody who would attempt to shoot xem. Most of them were already dead — which was good! — and the rest were trying desperately not to die at the hands of trenchcoat number two, who was apparently also a Force user. Who would've guessed?

Certainly not the Xe-Hulk, who was far too busy eviscerating xer last assailant, keeping xir barabel eyes out for the one approaching from the left.

Alas, in xir excitement to join the fray, Laguz had forgotten to watch xir rear. With a gasp and a tumble, the massive form of the sniper stumbled forth as a nasty shot tore through xir side, sending xem into some crates. The shock of the impact punched all of the air out of xir lungs, and the shifter braced against the tower of goods while trying to catch xir breath anew.

Xe could feel more than see xir would-be killer approaching, and so xe reached wildly into the smashed crates, pulling out the first thing that xe could wrap xir fingers around and twisted xir hips with a might heave and roar, sending the criminal into a support beam.

Home run.

It was only then that the shifter realized something warm and unpleasant was pooling inside xir stomach, xir eyes widening as xe sought to pry flesh and skin apart so as to see what was happening.

"Crap."

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Breaking through the atmosphere[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Dakita Calfur"] | [member="Laguz Vald"] | [member="Reverance"] | [member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Objective: D, Expansion & co.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][15/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Please, don’t.” the man crept into the corner, blood streaming from his face.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Arm clutching, because it had been broken, but there wasn’t any blood in sight. Meant that it had been done externally, blunt weapon or something [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]else[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]. He seemed pathetic, just crying there in the corner when only mere hours ago he had been standing [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]strong[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px] and proud.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]But that’s how people were, weren’t they?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Right bastards when they controlled the situation, but once they lost control? Once they lost that shred of fiction that they held onto so tightly? [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]That’s when the begging started, when the pleading began and when things just started to be [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]messy[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]. But Khal wasn’t a righteous man- yet, he wasn’t a cruel man either, he simply cared about one thing.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Protecting my family.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Keep the profit.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Expand.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“You give me what I want, and you will go free.” the Underlord simply replied.[/SIZE]

 

[Armand Temi]

Objective: Push influence of Apatros Crime Syndicate
Location: In Malvern's Ship Above Apatros
Allies: [member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Laguz Vald"] [member="Reverance"]
Post: 11/20

And sure enough, after Dakita fired her weapon an entire slew of Vong smugglers came around the corner. Did she happen to pick the hallway where the Vong convention was happening? There were at least eight of them now heading her way. She could hear them murmuring and laughing in their language. There was no way she would take on all of them.

And since Dak was pretty good at running, she would sprint down the hallway. She found an emergency stairwell and began to climb back up. She could hear them shouting and cursing behind her so she stopped and crouched to fire some warning shots and keep them away. A bullet whizzed past her and she took the stairs two at a time now, knowing they were armed.

Dakita found the fire exit to the roof and burst through the door. Like a dog on a hot scent, she sniffed out the perimeter of the roof to see if there was another easy way down than the jagged drainage pipe. Nope. Nada. Nothing. Zero.

She heard the fire exit door bang open behind her with the Vong in pursuit. The drainage pipe it would have to be, she thought, beginning her descent back down the building.

 

[Corey's OOC]

Location: ATC Fleet
Allies: [member="Danger Arceneau"]
Enemies: Feelings
Eleven

See? This aspect of Danger? That was something new. He knew this was a type of woman who he could deal with for a long time, mentor wise or… well, other. He really felt that no one could get sick of her issues when she looked like she did. And when she touched him? Yeah, she was the envy of the galaxy, but it still didn’t change that one fact.

Marek saw her as a person, someone to come to as a trusted consultant, and definitely as a business partner, and the occasional drinking partner. Was it ever going to go beyond that? Seriously he doubted it.

But that didn’t matter right now. He was listening to her. “Yeah, I think a big issue is the whole hokey religion. Might not be fit for it.” He knew Peregrus was screaming inside his head. But Marek? He tried to touch the dark side, and the dark side kicked him. Hard.

“Might make life easier to just abandon that whole quest for power. See what I can cook up in a Tech Union lab to fix myself.” He was already fixed for no children, why not fixed to take this error in his genetics away?

 

[Reverance]

Location: Breaking into the complex
Allies: [member="Laguz Vald"], [member="Khaleel Malvern"], [member="Dakita Calfur"]
Enemies: None
9/20

He cupped his hand in front of his mouth, squinting his eyes as he watched the sudden realization of the fragility wash over this Shi'do. It wasn't happiness or sadness or anything of the sort. More just interest. The Biot works slowly, like any virus or bacteria to which it simulates. It begins by passing through the blood brain barrier than works itself into the cells, where it begins propagating with an amazing rate. Once numbers have reached satisfactory levels, the organelle mimicry is replicated in a sort of lattice structure that ensnares the midochlorian. Rendering it useless, at least that was how Alset Neist explained it.

He had taken out time, with the recent departure from Titan Industries, to dive deep into the biotechnology of the vong. Unfortunately, the little biots required this form of transit in order to survive. Despite their high fecundity and propagation rate, they are incredibly frail to most damages outside of host body responses. And even then, according to the doctor, a resilient immune system could do away with the force dead reaction.

Nevertheless, that was all hyperbole now in the face of true blue blooded observations. Gabriel continued to brace his head up, cupping his chin, as he watched almost obsessively for what would happen next.

 

[Orick T'ane]

Location: Apatros
Objective: Steal The Ore, send the kid back to preschool
Allies: None yet
Enemies: [member="Micah Talith"]

Orick saw the boy charge and he let the kid put his weight into the hit, he let himself fall to the ground and he used the momentum from the kid's charge to roll back and flip the kid over his head and on the ground. He wasted little time in rolling over and pinning the kids arms to the ground. " You got fire kid, but you are sloppy and you lack the foresight to fight a grown opponent. You have to use your advantages, don't fight me on my terms, you will lose every time. Make me fight you on your terms. You're smaller and faster, so make me fight your speed, you don't have the strength to do this my way." He pushed up off the ground and extended his hand to the boy. He was more amused at the scene than upset, it was almost funny that this kid thought he could brawl with a brawler.

he didn't want to play daddy to this kid, nor did he want to be known as the type of person that would manhandle a kid. He figured compromise was in order, maybe the kid would finally see how things worked.

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Breaking through the atmosphere[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Dakita Calfur"] | [member="Laguz Vald"] | [member="Reverance"] | [member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Objective: D, Expansion & co.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][16/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]An iron bar knocked itself into Khal’s shoulder.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Bones broke, and fury unleashed. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]See, you do not want to press a man when he was in the thick of things, had he been slightly less drunk on the blood and power? He might have tried a different way, a better way, but as it stood Khaleel was no longer there for the negotiations.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Shouldn’t have done that.” a murmle came.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Energy wrapped itself around the clutching man and Khal ducked, the man flew right in the face of the offender that had broken some of Khal’s bones. But that was the cost of playing in the big leagues, you had to pick your targets and this time around they had picked very wrong.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]That’s the stuff, my friend.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]A crunch was heard, screams, then silence reigned for a while.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Khal coughed and lit up a cigarette, dusting himself off and grimacing as he tried to set his own bone. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Healing would settle in, but it would take a while. In the meantime he started walking towards one of the offices that was beneath the facilities. There would be important papers there.[/SIZE]

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

They watched and waited for several hours of hard toil, but nothing revealed itself. Perhaps the pirate troupe had already hightailed it at the side of a Techno Union star Destroyer and its escorts. Perhaps they'd been imagined by the locals to account for falling production. Irys was trying not to drink caf in the evenings now, on suggestion from the medical staff. Made sense, she supposed. If she became dependant on stimulants to stay alert during the months of down time between engagements, she could hardly use it to stay awak during battles that could last days. Bored, she retired to her quarters.

~​

Her eyes snapped open to reveal a world of rage. Red lights illuminated the bulkhead opposite her crib, while klaxons offended the senses.

"Admiral?" came a comm unit by her bed.

"I'm here."

"We've got them."



Irys stepped onto the bridge slowly. There was no need to panic during such a routine operation. There was no sound of turbolaser fire echoing down the hallways, so she imagined things were reasonably calm.

"Ma'am, they bolted from a hollowed out asteroid as the sweepers passed."

"What are we looking at?"

"Twelve fighters, two gunships."

"That's not enou..."

"I know," interjected the leiutenant. "That's why I left three escort frigates in the sensor shadow of the largest roid in the field, to wait for the main pack. You're just in time for the light show."

There was a flicked of blue in through the viewscreen. "Was that it?" she asked.

"All vessels disabled by ion cannon fire. Ah now, here comes the main event." the officer added. The holodisplay started to show a series of red tracks as more craft started to flee the asteroid field in the opposite direction.

 

[Laguz Vald]

[13/20]
Allies: [member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Dakita Calfur"] | [member="Reverance"]
Objective X: [REDACTED]


A rapidly changing hand flew to xir gaping abdomen as the shifter took a step back, gazing at the broken glass with abject terror on xir face.

Laguz was seldom afraid. It could be said that the creature who risked xir life on a regular basis hardly knew the emotion anymore, but xe felt it now. When xe'd accepted the contract, the shifter hadn't asked what xe was carrying, because xe didn't want to now.

Boy, was xe sorry xe'd held xir tongue.

"Crap, crap, crap!"

A few more choice words left xir tongue as xe slammed xir head back against the crates, barabel eyes screwing shut as xe prayed to the Gods that it wasn't some sort of deadly, agony-inducing poison. With the Sith, you could never be sure. Or, well, you could only be sure about one thing; it was detrimental in some way. Perhaps not even a chemical substance, then, but it had to have been designed with humanoid application in mind, or xe wouldn't have been tasked with force feeding the contents to xir now dead targets.

"Gods. Dammit!"

But the pain never came, and the few shards of glass that remained in xir belly were quickly extracted by practiced hands, applying a bacta pack to the lacerations just so xe wouldn't bleed over the place. It simply wasn't professional.

 

[Light Rises]

Geoff figurd that he knew why his woman was staying with him. He made a decent amount of money. She was a zelt, they didn’t just hang around with people his size. But he made some good money, and right now? It was because he did his best to follow his instincts. Was he a Force sensing man? No, no he wasn’t. But there was something going on with the code, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken the time to check it out. So… what was it?

He wasn’t sure, but taking his Super Slurpee Big Gulp, he sat at the computer and started accessing the operating programs. Run an anti-virus scan actively and see what he could find? He always knew taking initiative would do him well. So long as he didn’t spill on himself. He knew he could take a hit, but… still. No one needed to spill blue berry frozen delicious on government property.

He already cleaned up four of them this month.

Would he find [member="Jennifer Blanchard"]? Probably not. Would it not be his fault? He would be safe.

He tried.

Twelve

 

[Armand Temi]

Objective: Push influence of Apatros Crime Syndicate
Location: In Malvern's Ship Above Apatros
Allies: [member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Laguz Vald"] [member="Reverance"]
Post: 12/20

But as Dakita suspected by how the drainage pipe cut her hand the first time she shimmied up it, when she went to climb down it, she heard a SNAP and a metallic groan. The pipe began to detach itself to the building and as it slammed to the ground, Dak slammed down along with it. Now she had a bruised back to go along with her injured tailbone. She momentarily saw stars, but scrambled up, shaking her head. Which was now exposed. During the fall her helmet had fallen off and lay somewhere on the rubbish-strewn streets of Apatros. She made a mental note to have a smaller, tighter helmet made.

Dak looked up but could no longer see the Vong. But most likely they had raised enough of an alarm that they or another of their ilk would catch up to her. She scurried back into the building where she was able to slice into the security cameras. Running up the stairs, she rifled through the building like a squatter to see what she could find. And sure enough, tucked away in a loose panel behind a desk, there was a cache of explosives.

 

[One-Two]

Location: space above Apatros
Objective: Stand by for stolen Cortosis
Allies: @ Orick T'ane
Enemies: none

The unit known as One-Two stood and watched the space around the ship. it had no emotions about the scenery or the planet, it only knew that it was here to pick up his owner when he was done. It didn't care about the organic problems that the miners had, or the struggles they suffered to mine the ore, it's job was to protect Orick T'[ane and nothing more. As such It had Stationed the Fortune in low orbit, sensors ready to identify anything dangerous that may appear in the skies. It wasn't the largest cruiser in the galaxy, nor was it the strongest, but it was study and it could fight. One-Two had put it through combat trials and knew every capability down to the littlest detail.

Now it just waited, and watched. There was only one things that would spur it into action, the call from it's owner.