Raid at Mentina: Galactic Alliance Dominion of Laertos

[H3xle]

Mentina Station

"Kinsey," hesitating a second, she uncrossed her arms and quickly shook his hand. "Looks like we're in the middle of a karking mess," chin tipped to the monitors. "And I don't intend to stay for an Alliance meet and greet."

Bann smiled and bobbed his head to the side in mild shrug.

"Yeah, I'm not so sure it'd be a good idea for me either..." He glanced over at Brak, eyes taking in the barabel and his stance. "...not here, anyway." His eyes glanced up at the screens, then around the chamber again. Still couldn't make out any other entrance. A muscle in his neck twitched in a repetitive sequence for a few seconds, though he didn't seem to notice.

"You a good shot?"

Bann's looking around the room paused, and his eyes locked onto Kinsey's blue orbs. The near corner of his mouth quirked up for a brief moment, before vanishing back into barely concealed nervousness, and his eyes roamed the interior slowly again.

"Passable." If she paid attention, she could possibly hear a bit of humor in his voice, though his body was still closed, as if he were nursing pain.

He was, to be certain, being thrown against a wall was never a great way to keep one's body hale and healthy. However, as he shifted his arms to cross his chest, hands well away from his blaster, he was certainly feigning to be more hurt than he currently was. He turned to the Barabel, and tilted his head to the side for a moment.

"Do you have any water?" Bann asked quickly. "High stress situations always leave me a bit dry...and being on a criminal run station during an Alliance raid isn't the easiest situation to deal with."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Zark San Tekka]

[member="Asmus Janes"] [member="Karren Trask"] [member="Wedge Draav"]

G forces strained against the tolerance systems on his life support suit as Flight Officer Arix Askrima pushed his X-Wing's inertial dampener systems well past their operating limits with high speed maneuvering. With the augmented reality display projected by his cybernetic eye tied into his starfigher's flight computer, the cyborg Jedi Padawan's own spiking vital signs was just another flashing warning in the corner of his vision.

Inside his suit's helmet was the chaos of frantic voices over Alliance battlecomms as friendly pilots all around him took hits, some of them fatal, but Rogue Four didn't speak a word. Activating his own frequency once for affirmative and twice for negative, Arix reserved the practice only in direct response to a question asked or a plea for assistance. Through their neural link, his astromech expressed deep concern over their current situation, but the young ace simply urged the droid to focus on plotting flight paths around the firing arcs of the station towers while he concentrated on the three Headhunters in pursuit.

He had scored his first kill early in the engagement, picking off one of the first Headhunters to emerge as soon as the weapons free order was given at extreme range. But since then several of the warlord's outlaw pilots had managed to cut him off from the others on the far side of the station. None of them could hope to match the Jedi's reflexes one to one, with the Force as his ally and his direct physical connection to his ship's systems, but as soon as he managed to maneuver one into position for a kill shot, another would pull in behind him and force the Flight Officer to break off.

They had been at this for several dozen seconds now, brief in the grand scheme but a lifetime in the middle of a dogfight. It was a stalemate, and on a long enough timeline there was always a chance that he would make a fatal error before one of them did. All notion of conventional orientation cast aside, Arix had fallen into a deep meditative trance to help focus on the tremendous mental exertion necessary to fend off three bogies at once. His X-Wing almost pirouetted in the void of space as the cyborg triggered guidance thrusters in precise bursts to shift his starfighter's velocity out of the way of incoming laser fire, and inside the cockpit klaxons groaned at him the more he shifted between full forward and reverse thrust. If he kept this up any longer, he was going to shake the ship apart.

"Rogue Four," he broadcasted on battlecomms for the first time since the shooting had started, the distinctive electronic tone of his vocoder a reminder of why he had earned the callsign Droid, "In distress."

 

[RC 212]

[member="Wedge Draav"] [member="Asmus Janes"] [member="Choli Vyn"] [member="Arix Askrima"]

OOC: Only tagging the guys in space.

Flying Point- Second Column: Flight Eleven
Fighters: 7 X-wings (Unit Shaken)

The bay doors began to slide shut, only crossing about halfway before her small flight blasted from the deck and screeched out into the black. Karren roared with glee and trepidation. she was in for an ass chewing, she knew that. But breaking the rules felt so good!

"Everyone out?"

"Yep, didn't lose a soul."

They came back in, now low on all accounts. Fuel was questionable, but they had enough for another twenty minutes she guessed. The flak cannons continued to boom as a fresh wave of reserve fighters streaked into the black behind them, added by the Captain of the ANS Valor. They were old K-Wings, in close formation.

"ANS Valor Actual to Paladin."

She rolled her eyes as her and the squad ripped left, performing a flank mauever to come in head to head with the K-Wings. As soon as the enemy engaged they'd swoop in and cover the assault run. At least that's what she assumed it was going to be.

"Paladin. Go ahead."

"Karren what the hell are you doing out there? Chief just called me and said you guys blasted off the deck with half a fighter between the lot of you."

"I'm finishing my job Valor Actual. Are the K-Wings gonna shoot me down?"

"Nope. They are taking over the operation. I need you to-"

"Rogue Fours in distress!"

Karren rolled her eyes at the Captain and cut the comms with a slap to the dash. They came screaming into the field of fire, cannons blasting and ships whizzing this way and that.

"Roger. Two break off and get him. The rest with me. We're gonna cover the assault run on the remaining cannons. Bring Rogue Four back into our formation, alive."

Clicks on the comms echoed in her ears. The remaining fighters streaked in, blasting Head hunters. Cannons stitched lances of deadly red and green in the dark. Karren jammed her yoke forwards, diving just downwards and rolled, opening up a gap for her and her wing mate to catch it in the crossfire. Both X-Wings burped laser bolts into the void, smashing the wings of it.

"Nice! It's just like-"

SLAM​

A flaming piece of steel whizzed, end over end and sank through her cockpit canopy, inches from her face. The air hissed out and klaxons beeped and screamed in her helmet. Her eyes went wider than before, as wide as they'd ever been as the canopy began to shatter. It was all she could do to recheck her seal before the canopy shattered and she screamed.

Her body was ripped free from the harness, and sent right into space, alongside the station. Fragments of shrapnel raced all around her, some sizzling into her thigh, puncturing her skin. She roared in rage and frustration, fumbling for a patches on her belt.

"I'm hit! My fighters gone!"

"How far are you from the station, we can't see you?"

"About.....about.....Activating my locator beacon. Hurry!"

Her eyes caught the scene of vulture droids detaching where they'd been concealed from a nearby ring.

"Never mind, it's a trap! Go back, Go back! Vultu- BZZZZZZ

Her comms died. She glanced around, keeping her breath controlled in cycles. She closed her eyes, remembering her training. The force began to flow through her veins,opening to her body. The echoes of death, destruction and valiant struggle buzzed her muscles and tickled her stomach with both empowering but sickening sensations.

Then they flicked open.

​

One minute air left. Two hundred meters from the station. What the hell can I do? I'm cutt off.​

​

Don't give up, look for exits. Every situation has an exit.​

She glanced around ,checking her AO. Flak cannons were dead at this section. The Vultures were tangled with her guys and the K-Wings. In fact there was an airlock she could see.

​

But how to get in.​

30 seconds

Co2 began to choke her out, blurring her vision as she un-holstered her lightsaber. All her concentration began to weave the force into a tangible link between her and the station. Layer after layer, going faster and faster. She pulled the invisible rope, as hard as her failing body would allow.

Zero


She moved, faster and faster, willing herself towards the station. Her feet kicked debris and shattered starship plating, and her body straightened into a bullet. Seconds from the airlock a brilliant beam of emerald erupted from her hands. She slashed. The beam met the metal and the metal parted. Her palm waved over the surface forcing the lock open just as the rest of her vision went.

Im dying.​

​

Keep going.​

​

Don't quit.​

The door was busted, but the second one opened in response. She stepped through and they whooshed closed behind her, locking with a hiss. The last of her light went out, the last of her consciousness obliterated by the flow of oxygen shocking her system.

She felt her helmet hit the floor, and it was lights out.

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"][member="Sol Stazi"][member="Karren Trask"][member="Kinsey Starchaser"][member="Bann Sundorah"]

[ Not now Omar!]

The Lieutenant Commander shot back to her Zeltron Co-Pilot, her attention focused on the task at hand at landing the shuttle and sending cover fire for the group. Her mind was being tugged in two directions, the mission a hand and the desire to check and see if she could see Trextan's familiar form.

[ We have incoming ] no time. Bolts flew their way, prompting their crew chief to send a volley of suppressing fire in turn. They were to secure this hanger while the special ops team would move deeper into the Station. If anyone was injured or if they required a fast extraction, the U-Wings were here.

Gold flecked Hazel eyes scanned the area. There the telltale white lightsaber. Her pounding heart hammered in her chest, adrenaline kicking. It was Trextan.

From under her breath, Choli said, "Stay safe and may the Force be with you."

 

[Zark San Tekka]

[member="Karren Trask"] [member="Wedge Draav"] [member="Asmus Janes"] [member="Choli Vyn"]

Arix was on the verge of blackout when a Headhunter to his port transformed into a brilliant cloud of explosive vapor and debris. Its closest wingman panicked, and on instinct the Padawan squeezed the trigger on his flight stick just as the spooked pilot veered directly into his his line of fire. Lasers licked out from s-foils on either side of him that eviscerated the enemy starfighter's main engine bloc, adding to the small fireworks display on the far side of the outlaw station.

Straightening out his X-Wing at last now that he finally had some room to maneuver, the cyborg's blurred vision slowly cleared in his one human eye, and the persistent messages of alarm and concern from his astromech unit resolved into clarity once more on his cybernetic feed. Ignoring the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm him, Rogue Four quickly located his savior, discovering to some mild surprise the identity was that of the temporary fill in while Lieutenant Commander Vyn still wasn't cleared for solo flights.

The remaining hostile had possessed the presence of of mind not to flee, as between the two of them they could easily pick the Headhunter off in pursuit. It had used its fellows' deaths to pull in on Rogue Two's tail, and while the mercenary fighter had not yet acquired a target lock it was only a matter of time. Kicking his X-Wing back up to high sublight, the Jedi tuned out the protests of both his ship and his own body, and set his craft on a collision course with Rogue Two.

"When I signal, dive," Arix cut off his squadron mate's cries of confusion and alarm, "Now."

The rapidly oncoming vessel dipped suddenly, and without hesitation Droid took the shot. Llasers pierced the Headhunter's cockpit, spraying the canopy with gore but otherwise only crippled the target as the resistance blunted the blasts from reaching the reactor. Forced to corkscrew around the now rapidly drifting ghost ship to narrowly avoid a collision, Akrima muted the chatter of terrified repudiation from his astromech. Reducing speed as they pulled away from the station towers, his battered X-Wing fell into formation alongside Rogue Two.

"Thanks for the assist," he managed awkwardly at last, for lack of anything more poignant.

"No probl-wait, oh kark I've lost Rogue Eleven!" the other pilot's distorted voice echoed through Arix's comm system, "She just vanished from my scopes!"

Sithspawn, he cursed silently to himself.

"She's gone, Rogue Two. Nothing we can do for her right now," Droid replied firmly, but there was no edge to his tone as he shared the apparent loss, "I've lost my wingman, so you're with me. I need to refuel and refit back on the Valor, those D-Wings will just have to hold out a little longer until we get back."

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Sol Stazi"] [member="Choli Vyn"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Bann Sundorah"]

They were asking him for direction. Either they looked to the Jedi for guidance or rushing in ahead of everyone else had turned eyes on him. Trextan didn't particularly like it. At least this time he had an answer.

"We make for Ops. If they see whoever is in charge silenced the fight might not last." Conversely, he thought, if they took engineering those in charge of this paramilitary might dig in to the last. First they had to get there. They were on their own right now and outgunned. In their favour was surprise and the relative disorganisation of the forces they had to overcome. They had to move quickly or else they would get surrounded. Even a lightsaber in the hands of a trained Jedi was of little use when coming under fire from several directions. Every intersection was a potential ambush, every corner and turn another obstacle to be overcome.

Trextan stepped back from the half closed blast doors. He let the rifles of Sol's unit and the Scarred to the lead now. Instead he closed his eyes and stretched out.

"We're ready," Sergeant Unave said in a hushed tone. They had done this drill before. Those defenders taking up positions were suddenly flung across the floor. Those that fell into the open were quickly taken down by stun shots. The rest would have to deal with the soldiers advancing on their position when they recovered their sense of direction. Trextan followed the soldiers as they advanced in the sudden gap of return fire. Behind him came several men with heavy packs to crack open sealed doors. His lightsaber could cut through most obstacles but no officer planned for success based on a single individual lasting the entire engagement.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Sol Stazi"] -[member="Choli Vyn"] -[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] -[member="Bann Sundorah"] -[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

OOC: Tagging Station folks now.

Mentina Station
Lower Levels

She found herself awoken by two black masked faces. Karren groaned, feeling her head pound and ripped her helmet off, rising to her knees. She heard the click of a blaster rifles bolt cycling against the faint whir of the recyclers. She reached back for her lightsaber holster, only to grasp empty air at the small of her back.

"Looking for this Jedi scum?"

She glanced up and coughed, a small amount of blood coming from it. It dribbled down her lip as her vision swam, then she pushed herself to her feet stumbling into the bulkhead.

"She's toast. Let's take this one to the boss."

​

Fight. They'll kill you.​

​

Don't kill them. Disarm them.​

​

Feth that, slaughter em. They'll do the same to you.​

*Wheeze*

"Whats this, I think she's trying to speak."

The other one knelt down, pressing his blaster rifle into her temple, his grinning face coming within inches of her own. Adrenaline ripped through her veins, revitalizing her. Her eye snapped open,, concussion held at bay as her body automatically began to relax, opening her to the force once more. Her temples throbbed from the usage, but she persisted.

Then she spoke.

"Matter of fact.......I was!" She roared.

Her left foot hooked in behind the first mercs, locking his heel with her instep and then she snapped out, catching him under the chin with a savage open palm strike. His head flew back, vertebrae cracking and blood flying in droplets through the air under the dull sheen of the yellow lights.

His weapon summoned by the force left his grip and met her hand with a meaty smack.

The second merc fired, and she grabbed the first moving him in between them. Bolts met flesh, burning into his back and she grinned, then flung the body towards the second man and pinned him to the deck with her knee. The blaster rifle met his forehead.

"Where is it."

"Here...ttt-take it."

"Thanks."

She pulled the trigger, wincing as his face ceased to exist, vaporized by high heat of the laser. She grunted, standing with an unstable balance and looked at the blaster rifle in horror.

What have I done.​

"Feth it."

She flung it to the side, scooping her saber with a loose grip in her right hand and glanced left and right. She could feel distress down here. On some lower level. It reeked like rotten fruit, snaking it's way through the halls, from where Kinsey and company were being kept hostage. She snarled and closed her eyes, letting the battle lust take her.

Then she began to sprint, boots pounding the deck as the grey flight suited woman thundered in the direction of the feeling....

 

[Asmus Janes]

[member="Karren Trask"] [member="Arix Askrima"] [member="Wedge Draav"]

"Janes, you're too close to those towers!" came the warning from Wilson. Asmus knew it was true, but it was those or getting swarmed in the open. His command display showed several more allied ships winking out. Several Rogues had been lost already. That was his old command. Perhaps even pilots he had known. Someone had messed up and it was costing lives.

He shifted particle shields to greatest intensity over the canopy as flak cannons slewed around to try and track him. He rolled and turned to try and spiral around the hull of the station. His ship shook as he felt it struck by solid objects. Asmus grimaced but kept flying. He waited for the realisation to come that the flak shards had punctured the ship and his body with a grimace. No immediate pain came.

Multiple strikes detected. Laminanium cells sealed. Engine 3 damaged.

His hull had been breached, but the cells of laminanium had self-sealed the damage. Asmus knew he was stuck now. If he made a break away from the station he would be in the open and cut down by the towers. His tails had bailed on pursuit but they were still on his scopes. Asmus accelerated hard around the station to try and pick them up again. If he could get close to the enemy fighters those towers probably wouldn't fire on him. Probably. Who knew what the mercenaries who ran this station would do.

Several bright red streaks caught his attention. Ochre squadron had arrived and were making runs on the towers in their D-Wings.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Bann Sundorah"]

Kinsey was only a criminal to the Alliance from past force-ties with a sith. She didn't want to wait and find out if she was on any sort of list. So in a way, she could relate to Bann. Brak gave a toothy smile and shook his head in the negative. Kinsey was a prepared girl and had all sorts of gadgets in her satchel but water wasn't one of them.

The spacer shrugged.

"No," blues flitted beyond Bann's tensed shoulders. "But, looks like there's some of there by the Mighty Jiun." It was hard to keep her face from scowling.

THUD. THUD-THUD.

The girl's attention was turned away from Bann and Jiun and his henchmen army to the sealed bunker door. What they didn't know was that the rathtar's containment box had been delivered close by and the timing mechanism failed on the door, letting the beast out a teeny bit early than planned. Jiun motioned for one of the closest guards to check.

All good feelings Kinsey had disappeared.

 

[Choli Vyn]

Mentina Station
Hanger Bay Level Three
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Karren Trask"] [member="Trextan Voidstalker"] [member="Arix Askrima"] [member="Bann Sundorah"]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Smoke swayed thickly in front of the U-Wing, prompting a field of cover for the incoming [member="Sol Stazi"] along with Twilight Company. Were they to come in from behind they would find Alliance Forces gaining a beach head in the hanger. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]And at least they hadn’t been jettisoned out yet. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt][ Not the sort of close combat I was looking for! ] Omar’s voice would crackle along her headset. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt][ Obviously. ] Choli replied, struts at the bottom of the U-Wing coming to rest on the hanger bay deck. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt][ They’ll be moving level to level to clear. We need to make sure this hanger is secured!] [/SIZE]

 

[Sol Stazi]

"Understood," the Lieutenant curtly acknowledged the orders given by [member="Trextan Voidstalker"]. Had it been his call, he would have considered neutralizing the enemy's ability to control station systems or self-destruct their top priority, but he wasn't in charge of this mission and Sol would obey the chain of command.

Back in the station's hangar bay, the troopers of First Platoon's third squad had finished securing the enemy wounded with stun cuffs, and were moving to take up positions covering the U-Wing of [member="Choli Vyn"]. Should the outlaws attempt to regain the Alliance foothold, a single well aimed explosive could take out the idling combat transport, and place the entire operation's emergency egress route in serious jeopardy. A320-CFEs in sniper configuration were aimed at all the access points, the Rodian squad leader Sergeant Armado taking up a position directly alongside the shuttle's hull, using its profile for cover.

The rest of the platoon was now engaged in breach and clear maneuvers as they made their way the best they understood how towards central ops. First and second squads were on point alongside the Scarred contingent, doing their best to remain professional despite the unnerving effect the Justicar shock troopers tended to have on those around them. Fourth squad brought up the rearguard just a little ahead and to the sides of Trextan, covering the Sixty-First's flank and providing close fire support despite any of the Jedi's potential objections.

The Justicars could trust their mystic energy font all they liked, but Lieutenant Stazi was not about to expose anyone on this team unnecessarily, especially one of its commanders.

HBC-01 carbines coughed out stun rounds that echoed off the narrow station bulkheads, catching flung defenders on the deck or in mid air. The Scarred seemed to have drilled for this, and were immediately effective at their task. Fighting so close to a Jedi was a newer experience for some of Sol's men, but once they had gotten on the same page the mobile infantry grunts took to the work quickly. They were by now on their second set of sealed bulkhead doors, at each blockade to their progress the troopers would fan out in all directions and cover the efforts of the Jedi and the corps of engineers as they set about dismantling the locking mechanisms.

They had just forced the still searing hot remains of the blast door aside when a trooper cried out, followed a split second later by the sound of a blaster shot. It had come not from in front of them, but far behind down the corridor they had just cleared. Somehow a defender had flanked them.

"Sniper!" Sol shouted over battlecomms the same moment cries for a medic exploded over the channel, "Through the breach, the Jedi will cover us!"

There was no time to react, and Trextan could either clear ahead of them or defend their backs, which meant the Lieutenant would just have to trust in the Scarred and his men to handle things in the next section the old fashioned way. One of Twilight's medics hauled the Sullustan private who had been wounded through the blast doors, a kid named Makko but who was more commonly known to the unit as Flaps, heedless of the stun rounds flying over their heads as First Platoon opened fire on the waiting defenders.


[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Karren Trask"] [member="Bann Sundorah"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Sol Stazi"] [member="Choli Vyn"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Karren Trask"]

Master Yvette was a falleen who stood nearly a full head over Trextan. She turned and tossed her saber forward, it arced over the troops behind her to catch a blaster bolt.

"Continue on Trextan, I will cover us." She strode through the ranks and collected the blade. Another bolt came and the lithe Jedi almost lazily plucked it out of the air.

Trextan continued towards. Again, rather than rush ahead into the middle of the crossfire he used the Force to disrupt the defenders and create the opening they needed to advance. Cries of warning followed mercenaries being tossed around the corridor by unseen forces.

The defenders fell back from a wide crossroad and the path to the command centre was nearly opened up. Trextan reached the junction and an instant later brought his white blade up with a small hiss and deflected a bolt from the right.

"Ambush!" Someone called. The doors to the left were sealed. The enemy rallied at a barricade made of cargo crates ahead.

Yvette was suddenly there beside Trextan. "Lieutenant Stazi, continue to press ahead. We will hold these."

Will we now? Trextan thought to himself. There were a lot of men pouring into the corridor ahead of them.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Sol Stazi"] -[member="Choli Vyn"] -[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] -[member="Bann Sundorah"] -[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

OOC: Tagging Station folks now.

Mentina Station
Lower Levels-Assaulting Bunker

----------------------------------------------

She kept going, head throbbing. Down this corridor, around a twist into the next until she came across a solid wall. And then farther down there was a screaming of banshee like proportions that ripped the air. She felt a new surge of fear emanate from all directions and clutched her chest, trying to stabilize herself. All the hairs on her neck spiked, standing up with a cold chill racing down her spine.

Rage.​

​

Fear.​

​

Death.​

Two souls immediately departed for the force and Karren gasped, then lit her saber. The emerald beam roared to life and she plunged it into the wall. She could see she was in a circular hallway outside a larger chamber. She felt folks within the chamber.

Distress....​

And the doors that separated the quadrants of the circular hallway were beginning to slam shut. Just as the last one slammed, she saw it. And almost jumped right into the ceiling as it's nasty maw slammed the glass. It was a Wrathtar.

"What the feth!"

She jammed the blade harder into the wall, dragging it in circles. Every ounce of her being had now begun to channel into her muscles, moving the lightsaber as fast as she could. Bit by bit pieces fell away, red hot from the transference of heat. No doubt they'd be able to see on the other side as the blade began to pierce through the hardened steel.

"C'mon."

 

[H3xle]

[member="Sol Stazi"] | [member="Choli Vyn"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="karren trask"] | [member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Bann's mouth was open still, about to continue bantering in his nervous way when he heard and felt the thuds. He blinked a few times as his normally agile mouth was silent. He could feel the tension within the bunker increasing. He didn't even uncross his arms, afraid someone was going to take it for him going for his blaster. Instead, he turned and moved back towards Kinsey.

It was at times like this that he wished there were more of his people around, or he had eyebrows like the traditionally mammalian races. Anything that would let him speak with non-verbal cues to the stranger he now had to rely on. Instead, he quirked his head to the side a little and blinked a few times rapidly in his imitation of a confused mammal. He didn't dare voice anything but innocuous statements, or the obvious.

"This doesn't sound like it's going well.." He muttered to her, though not assuming they'd have anything like privacy in the bunker. "...thuds on a station tend to be very bad things. Explosions. Troop transports. Probably a few things I can't even think of off of the top of my head."

His head leaned forward, appearing to hang a moment as he glanced at his blaster, then his belt and boots. Then he stood straight again and looked into Kinsey's eyes, ignoring the muttering of the goons behind him. He was ready to move whenever she made her own move. He new where the important people in the room were.

Jiun was just past his four o'clock, Brak was at his six o'clock.

His choice was who to shoot first, no need to leave either alive if he was going to be killed or jailed anyway.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Previously on Allyson Locke ROGUE PILOT:

“There’s a mission happening tomorrow, what do you mean I need to log four more hours?! You sai-,” A man raised his hand forcing the fiery brunette to calm down and shut up so he could speak to her. Allyson frowned and then sat back down into her seat to listen to what the man had to say. He was her current handler and doctor, the man was responsible for releasing her to fly and she had logged all the necessary hours to do so. Also passed the test with flying colors.

“You’ve passed everything you needed to, minus your medical tests. Your oxygen capacity is barely over 90%, the notes I received from Dr. Zanteres that you suffered setbacks. I can’t honestly let you go out into the field!” Allyson once more stood up and frowned at the man. “I need to go out there and I’m going to with or without your consent. I’m over 90% that’s good enough. Give me back my wings.” The doctor frowned and remained sitting. Frustration washed over his face and he reluctantly signed the papers. Allyson snatched them and put her glasses back on.

“Thank you.”

Current Episode: Space heading towards Mentina Station (Arrival & Landing soon)

Rogue Nine’s X-Wing shot through space towards the station, she was behind everyone and she was quickly catching up on what was going on. Command quickly radioed into her and she responded. [Where am I needed?]
[Find Eleven] Allyson frowned, she was given an order for retrieval. She wanted to fight and fly, but it seemed she was given something else. [Give me Eleven’s last coordinates]. The appeared and Allyson quickly took off towards the coordinates given, she heard the whistles from Bait as he kept feeding her information. “Keep an eye out on things Bait, the Klem don’t like to play nice okay?” The droid beeped happily – he had missed being in this position. The droid functioned as a co-pilot and Allyson wouldn’t have any one else.

The droid fired missiles toward something that had come close to her. The controls of the TR-20 X-wing was a bit twitchier than she had remembered the other X-Wings, but being a Technomancer trained by the best, Allyson used the force to overcompensate for the controls. She wasn’t as smooth as she would have been after a flight or two, but she was still maneuverable and fully capable of what she was needed for. “Coordinates look clear, you see anything bait?” The droid answered and Allyson cursed.

“Okay Eleven where have you gone…?” Allyson opened Comms to the other rogues. [Okay guys, Nine active, heading towards Station – everyone good. I’m looking for Eleven.] Allyson wasn’t going to leave a fellow pilot behind. She accepted the mission knowing it was important for her to find Eleven, first step to making friends. “Let’s get to that station Bait.”

Spoiler

Rogue One/CO – Squadron Leader [member="Ben Carlin"]
Rogue Two/XO – Lieutenant Commander [member="Choli Vyn"] “Smalls”
Rogue Four – Fight Officer [member="Arix Askrima"] "Droid"
Rogue Five – Flight Officer [member="Shesa Gragatus"] "Jaws"
Rogue Six – Flight Officer [member="Jax Rhane"]
Rogue Eight – Flight Office [member="Barnabas Harou"]
Rogue Nine – Lieutenant [member="Allyson Locke"] "Lucky"
Rogue Ten – Flight Officer [member="Wedge Draav"]
Rogue Eleven – Lieutenant [member="Karren Trask"]

 

[Sol Stazi]

"Bullseye, up on line!" Sol screamed into Alliance battlecomms to be heard over the sound of incoming blaster fire and outgoing whumps of stun rounds all around him, "Suppressing fire!"

The hulking Eriaduan private double timed it through the breach and swept the room in front of them with a DLT-29 at his hip. Nicknamed Bullseye for his uncanny inability to actually hit one, the barrage of stun fire he let loose was not precise enough to drop very many defenders, but it did succeed in sending a few scattering out of the way. By now Bones, the platoon's medic, had hauled the wounded Flaps through into the section and behind the ruined edge of the blast door [member="Trextan Voidstalker"] and his fellow Justicars had finished cutting just before the shooting had started.

Shielding his patient's body from the station defenders in this section with his own, the Sluissi combat doc methodically set about the task of treating the blaster wound heedless of the lethal las rounds chipping away at durasteel all around them. But their position was untenable, and if Twilight didn't take the section soon it would only be a matter of time before the outlaws recovered enough from Bullseye's barrage to pick them off. The carved out blast door was a natural bottleneck, and Lieutenant Stazi could see no physical way for his platoon to advance under fire without suffering heavy losses.

But there were other factors to consider, more psychological factors.

"Fix bayonets!" Sol barked, taking a page out of Captain Sunfell's Mandalorian playbook. They were bound to take losses either way, but so long as they could break the enemy's resolve before the whole room turned into a slaughterhouse...

Howling Alliance commandos barreled through the breach wave after wave. Sol lost Dice and Higsby in the initial charge. Dice dropped right next to him as they were among the first to charge past Bullseye at the opening, while Higsby fell in the wave right after them, clutching his neck uselessly before going limp. But thankfully the duros' gambit paid off, and at the site of trained GA troopers in heavy armor sprinting for their lines en masse with vibroblades at the end of their rifles caused the defenders to quickly route.

The few that stood fast Stazi had ordered wounding strikes only, and so while the fleeing defenders were mowed down with stun blasts by Bullseye and the rest of the platoon's marksmen, Bones had by now moved on from his triage of the still groaning Flaps, and was now treating the wounds of the fallen outlaws so that they would not bleed out. Soldiers are him quickly set about the task of policing their weapons.

"You heard the Jedi," he rasped over battlecomms, "We keep pressing forward. Hundred Eyes, you're on point! Sly, you've got Higsby's squad. Congratulations, Sergeant Rennow."


Meanwhile...

"Hey uhhh....hey pilot lady!" Sergeant Armando shouted, waving from outside the U-Wings viewport to get the attention of [member="Choli Vyn"], "I think we got company!"

On a level above them, one of the A320-CFEs cracked out a shot that elicited a strangled cry from just outside the hangar bay.

"Defend the transport!" the Rodian sergeant reminded the rest of his squad over battlecomms, "For the Alliance!"


[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Karren Trask"] [member="Bann Sundorah"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Sol Stazi"] -[member="Choli Vyn"] -[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] - [member="Bann Sundorah"] - [member="Trextan Voidstalker"]- [member="Allyson Locke"]



Mentina Station
Lower Levels-Assaulting Bunker

------------


It occurred to her that someone was searching for her. She felt a presence sweeping the stars, and then grunted, remembering her locator beacon on her wrist. She slapped it with a flat palm, broadcasting her personal distress signal.


The Wrathtar kept screeching and slamming the reinforced durasteel doors.

Karren felt her blood pressure soar to new levels, terrified that at any moment the beast would break through. She kept dragging the saber around and around until finally she felt a faint whiff of air. It was de-pressurization from the Bunker itself.

"Yes!" She roared.

Then she backed up, letting her saber point towards the deck in her left hand and reached back with her right. From the cocked position she flung her palm forwards, smashing the plate with force empowered strength and sending the thing careening free of the orange melted circle she'd just burned.

Go. Now!​

She dove then, just as she heard the magnetic locks begin to break, and felt a deeper prickle of dread run down her spine, alerting even more hairs on her body. As she tumbled through the saber went silent, and she rolled somersaulting until she came up on her feet, facing a very bewildered duo.

A stern gaze glanced back and forth between Kinsey and Bann.

Two blasters were pulled from nearby guards. Or at least that's what she assumed they were.

"Sorry bout the wall. Am I interrupting?"

The Wrathtar kept screaming.....

 

[Zark San Tekka]

[member="Karren Trask"] [member="Wedge Draav"] [member="Asmus Janes"]

Through the smoke all around him Rogue Four's cybernetically enhanced vision could make out the forms of the Alliance Hammerhead's deck crew crawling all over the outer hull of his X-Wing. The g forces Arix had experienced combined with the concentration it had required to keep up with three bandits at once had taken a lot out of him, a baseline pilot would have blacked out a long time ago. Deep in a meditative trance, the Jedi worked to supernaturally replenish his energy reserves. But even despite the damage he had inflicted on his own craft, Droid knew that as Force weak as he was his efforts would not be enough in time.

Traditional enough to be averse to even simply drinking and smoking, combat stimulants were something the flight officer avoided if he could help it. Risks of dependency notwithstanding, they also temporarily deadened what little connection to the Force he still had. It was an edge in battle he had always relied on, without it he was as vulnerable as a rookie out there, but if Rogue Four didn't take drastic steps there was a chance he would do more harm than good. Electrical impulses in his brain translated via blink command ordered the pilot's life support suit to inject a moderate dose of the drug cocktail, and in moments adrenaline flooded his system and through his optical implants everything seemed to grow somehow brighter.

The pain too, grew significantly more intense, but even if he could now barely touch the Force at all, the stims had only heightened his Jedi's sense of focus. Locking such corporeal concerns away in his mind where it could not distract him, the flight officer ran through another systems check and looked on in satisfaction as readouts shifted across the board from orange and red to yellow and sometimes in some places even green as more minor components were replaced entirely by deckhands.

"Rogue Four you are go for launch," Valor's flight control officer informed him in a smooth tone once the crew of the Valor had at last cleared the perimeter around the starfighter.

Hurled back into his seat momentarily as the X-Wing's limited inertial dampeners struggled to kick in, Droid blasted off out of the capital ship's hangar bay and back out out into the void. Breaking off from his formation escorting the Valor, Rogue Two fell in alongside Arix's wing. Having landed only for a few patches and to refuel, the fresher pilot had taken much less time to get back off the ground, and the Padawan didn't need the Force to sense the eagerness in his new wingman's voice to get back in the fight.

"Okay guys, Nine active, heading towards Station – everyone good. I’m looking for Eleven," he received the comm burst from [member="Allyson Locke"] while his astromech was helping him plot an intercept course to with the flight of friendly D-Wings.

"Nine, this is Four," Arix said after switching on his own comms, "Three and I lost contact with her transponder near the station's lower decks. Transmitting the coordinates to you now."

Heartened at the news that the Alliance hadn't simply given up on one of their own for dead, Droid turned his attention back to the mission at hand, as up ahead the station's remaining Headhunters swarmed all around the more heavily armored D-Wing fast bombers. Angling into position on the closest bandit's tail, he waited for the positive tone of his targeting computer before sending a burst of laser fire speeding after his target.

The additional defenses had sent them scattering, leaving many cut off from the main assault, and while their losses had so far not been overwhelming, there were precious few fighters running escort alongside the D-Wings. If the outlaws managed to drive off their bombers, the station's defense turrets could conceivably hold them off indefinitely.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Karren Trask"] [member="Bann Sundorah"]

If Kinsey knew Bann was thinking about shooting her Vagrant fleet partner, Brak, she'd send a fist right in his dehydrated face. Fortunately, she didn't know. And fortunately, an Alliance agent broke through the doors.

Ensuing chaos.

Jiun's men and henchmen immediately opened fire. Scarlet, heated bolts began filling a room that was already far too small. Kinsey dove, blaster already in her hand. Brak was on the same page and fired at Jiun's henchmen. They were the biggest threat right now. Wide blue eyes snapped to the Alliance girl. "Don't arrest me and we won't have a problem," she grunted and shot beyond the woman's shoulder at one of Jiun's henchmen.

Rathtar tentacles snapped into the room, one whipping near Bann.

"Look out!"

The spacer still wasn't sure which side he was on.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Sol Stazi"] | [member="Choli Vyn"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="karren trask"] | [member="Trextan Voidstalker"]


The sithspit hit the fan, and Bann almost flinched at first. The volume increased significantly, and the only thing that saved him were reflexes honed from years of dealing with shady people in shady places. His blaster was in his hand, and his body pivoted as he ducked and moved. The blaster snapped automatically up at Jiun and snapped off several shots towards the now thoroughly distracted gangster. Bann lett his knees his a loveseat, and used his forward momentum to tumble over it, causing it to flip over with him. He hit the ground hard, and could feel something twinge painfully. Adrenaline let him ignore it for the time being, but a small part of his brain was screaming at him that it'd slow him down.

His eyes caught movement, and Bann saw Brak take down a pair of Jiun's hired guns. Mental calculus tipped in his favor as his gun hand snapped up at the Alliance uniform that came through the door mere moments before the rathtar did.

The math got complicated with the appearance of the beast, and the part of his brain that had been worried about whatever he had injured slowing him down promptly filled its pants at the thought that Jiun kept a rathtar as a pet, and was somehow able to keep it a secret. A tentacle snapped out at him, and Bann's finger closed around the trigger for a less controlled burst of bolts at the tentacle. Four shots sprayed from the blaster, three of which deterred the tentacle from its intended course, and the fourth one caught one of Jiun's goons in the shoulder.

Bann crawled along the wall for a bit, until there were more bodies between him and the beastie snacking on the first of the Jiun goons. This placed him near Kinsey and Karren.

"How the feth did he get a rathtar?!?!?" He yelled over the din, as his right hand snapped back and forth between the line of goons and the rathtar. The arm seemed to almost move of its own accord, as Bann's eyes moved from Karren to Kinsey and back. He didn't know who the Alliance pilot was, but all previous fears of being arrested for the few warrants he still had active for smuggling in Alliance space evaporated in the current atmosphere. Heck, he was almost sad about shooting at Jiun. He couldn't see the man, but he was good with a scattergun, so it was told. Such would be useful. Still, Bann hoped he got the bastard between the eyes. That would make his life a lot easier.