Rapture (Extermination of Kaltes)

[Nyos Val]

Upon arrival to the Kaltes system, Nyos flagged his IFF to the Protectorate fleet that covered the planet. He prepared for landing and the crew of Milenici were grabbing supplies for the set up on the surface. Half were grabbing tools and supplies for setting up medical tents and the others were readying the equipment that would be used. The medical droid MD-13 was at his station awaiting the first patients as well as processing potential injuries and their respective solutions.


The Pheobus landed in an open area and the ramp was lowered immediately, dispensing the Milenici crew and Nyos to begin set up. Nyos walked towards nearby soldiers to get a Sitrep.

Soldier, I am Nyos Val from the Medical team dispatched from the Protectorate. What is the situation and where are the wounded being held at the moment?


[member="Sammo Hache-Khe of Rae"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen let out a small sigh of relief. It seemed like the battle was done in an instant and now, planetary aid was beginning. "Miss Grayson, I'll be taking my leave now as it seems my aid is no longer needed. Good luck." Turning his ship, he made his way towards the Omega Protectorate's fleet. With a simple broadcast, he gave his intentions. To aid them in destroying this threat to the galaxy.

 

[HK-36]

For a while the droid would just listen to the encrypted pings his assassin's party sent him while tracking the retreating ship. Until finally he would get the name of the location- Kaalonia. That was all that he needed.


"Open up a transmission to Sarge's fleet."

He would order to his Comm Officer, the crewman nodded, motioning for the droid that he can broadcast his message, [member="Sarge Potteiger"],

"Sarge, this is HK, I sent a party of droids in a stealth transport to take out their commander, they were too late but they were able to tag his ship with DUST and trail him. His ship retreated to Kaalonia System, Neutral Territory, not too far from here."

This information was of course provided by [member="Dredge"] over a PM, so with his permission,

"We need to finish this before another world suffers. Medical ships are here, I can stay with the Siege Tower and few escort ships to protect them. I want you to take the Dancing Queen and the rest of the ships we have here and make sure whoever did this will not come back to do it again. Will you be willing to do this?"

It wasn't an order per se, more of a suggestion. Droid thought Sarge was a major ass from the few times they interacted and he didn't exactly liked him, he never felt like Sarge liked him in return, but HK did respected the man's experience and seniority when it came to service with Protectorate, he would trust that Sarge would do the right thing.

 

[Sammo Hache-Khe of Rae]

Hearing the message from [member="Nyos Val"] on his comm-link connected to his ship's communication consoles, Sammo would respond, sending the message also on Jedi channel where [member="Kiskla Grayson"] would be able to hear it and perhaps pass it on to her apprentice,

"Nyos, this is Captain Sammo of the Young in Spirit, the planet was raided and during some sort of natural disaster was triggered by the said raiders, we are conducting mass evacuation of the planet!"

While the Captain responded he was dodging explosions and streams of burning gas in the air, piloting a shuttle with more survivors rescued from the planet's condemned surface,

"I propose you speak with the Jedi representatives present here as they begun the rescue efforts before Protectorate arrived and coordinate the Protectorate medical ships with their efforts!"

After all Nyos was the only one there to represent Cardea Division at the moment,

"I also have survivors and wounded gathered aboard my frigate, if you could send few professionals aboard it would be great, I believe all we have right now is volunteers tending to the wounded!"


Finally escaping the planet's atmosphere he would be able to dock with the Young in Spirit, unloading the survivors he was able to help escape just to sail away into the void once more to repeat the process, trying to save as many as he could, handful of lives at a time.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The hive of activity that was the bridge assaulted his senses to the point Sarge had shut down his helmet audioreceptors to give himself a little piece and quiet. It was no secret her was an introverted man, preferring his peace and quiet to any noisy gathering, and vastly preferring to stay by himself as opposed to working with others. This wasn't to say he wasn't able to work as a team, however.

Teamwork was something he believed was essential; but he could only handle so much idle chatter before his batteries ran dry and he need recharge.

That recharge was needed right now as he stood like a massive stone sentinel at the front of the bridge. It wasn't a bad analogy, so far as he could surmise, because through it all, even during his service with the Order, he'd always watched over the Protectorate. A life's work needed protecting, and his battered body would stand at the fore like a breaker before the waves.

Yes, that was him.

A solemn, stone sentinel. Always present. Always watching. Never speaking except when one was alone, and even then it often appeared as a figment of their imagination.

An incessant light was blinking on his retinal display, alerting him to a communication; or rather, a message. The bridge crew had passed something along, leaving their Lord to his brooding while they continued the work of evacuating the Nebulon. Listening to the voice of HK, Sarge gave a wave of his hand to the Communications Officer, who relayed to HK-36 to have the aforementioned ships form up around the Unyielding Resolve.

At the exact same moment, the last of the evacuation transports had been pulled in. All valuable information and technology had been either wiped or destroyed on the husk of the Nebulon, and the few broadside weapons the Resolve sported were put into the process of scuttling their crippled fleetmate. The great holoprojector, encased in a dome so shiny as to be offending to the senses, erupted to life.

Reaching an armored hand up, Sarge used his fingertips to pan the projection and then zoom in on the offending system. Lights dimmed through the ship, and a quiet female voice designed specifically to be soothing warned of the impending jump into Hyperspace. And then they were off, two fleets worth of ships, to hunt down [member="Dredge"] and put him out of his misery.

 

[HK-36]

The ships the droid brought fell in line with Sarge's fleet, of course, letting him take control of the combined forces.


Meanwhile the droid watched as the ships organized into formation before disappearing with a flash of light into the hyperspace,

"Speed of gods to you, Sarge, and may the Force be with you, Protector."

The droid muttered watching the warriors set off to conduct coup de grace, he would touch a Sigil of Hope hanging off of his belt, a trinket given to him by the Jedi Order he would look down, contemplating and calculating before looking up to matter out,

"And for fu-[REDACTED]'s sake do not sink my supercarrier you ass."


Looking back to his Comm Officer he would give an order,

"Open up a channel to those Jedi who were here already, I wish to broadcast to them."

The Officer nodded, opening up the channel and signalling the droid he was free to speak, [member="Kiskla Grayson"],

"Jedi, this is Iron Knight the Exarch of Abregado-Rae speaking, our agents were able to determine that whoever was responsible for this massacre has fled to Kaalonia System, that is where majority of our vessels sailed to make certain that something like today will not happen by this murderer's hand any longer. I will remain here with my smaller escort fleet to watch over Medical and Civilian ships as well as aid in the rest of planetary relief aid and evacuation. If you have any Knights who wish to participate in this hunt I suggest they leave now, I will bring minor reinforcements once our work here is completed and there is no more lives we can save."

 

[Dredge]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Whenever the fleet would arrive they would not be greeted by the omen, nor the secondary fleet of Yuuzhan Vong bio warships. Instead they were greeted by a literal graveyard of ships from the previous attack. The Omen was nowhere to be seen but the tracking system of DUST had said it was on the planet somewhere. However systems would be picking up some interference of an unknown nature for it's exact pinpoint location. The flag ship of the protectorate fleet was hailed and a message was sent to them.

"Unknown fleet, you have entered the orbit of the sovereign planet of Raalonia. State your names and what banner you fly, if you come to bring war then open fire. We have no ships to defend ourselves with." The naisily little rat voice barked at the protectorate fleet and down bellow on the planets surface millions of Raalonia's warriors moved to protect their new lord and king who was hidden and recovering in the tunnels deep bellow another majorly populated city. The place reeked of the darkside but it was more the lingering effect of the great battle rather than the nexus itself. That element of the force was weak due to the massive amount of energy that was spent hours ago.

The legions of Raalonian warriors now equipped with some of the best guns money could buy formed around the palace and in other various cities. They had gone from warring clans to an organized and fully equipped military. That vastly outnumbered the omega protectorate troops. The warrior culture of billions still had many more men they were rallying for war if it came down to it.

"If you wish to not start a war state your business or piss off. We've got enough dead to bury and we don't want no more on the likes of your kind."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Two warfleets transitioned from hyperspace, finding their place just outside a ship graveyard. Sarge snorted, and with a wave of their hands the ships began opening fire to clear a path to the planet. Halfway through, that annoying little retina display began nagging at him again. Blinking a series of commands onto his HUD, the message fed through his helmet. A scoff was the response.

Typical.

An ego-trip on legs found his way to a backwater who was likely convinced he was a God. Halberd glowing in warding against the lingering Taint within the area, he tapped out a series of commands onto the console in front of him. Magnetic accelerators had charged on the way here, prepping the Hypervelocity Guns for firing. Broadsides were still being fired, clearing space for the Protectorate fleet by turning most of the husks into harmless meteorites that would either burn out in atmosphere or bounce harmlessly off shields and hulls.

For a people with no ships, they seemed to have half decent sensor gear. He'd have to log that in the records; not that this planet had ever really warranted Protectorate attention, nor would it likely do so again.

There was a pause, an exhalation, and then a message was sent back. It would be delayed slightly, since they weren't using holo and that meant communications-lag. "I am Colonel Potteiger of the Omega Protectorate. We are here in regards to the Vong who has fled to your planet within the last few hours." His eyes shifted to the console, which was giving him the detailed view on mass amounts of movement among a large number of population centers.

It did not appear, in the analysis of those paid to do so, to be an evacuation. Interesting.

"We want to know where he is, so we can come collect him."

There was a low murmur around the bridge and Sarge frowned. That wasn't going to happen. He could feel it deep down in his bones. Still, they were recording this so that in the event the psycho survived and tried to peg them as murders, they'd have evidence to the contrary.

"If you desire a reason, he just tried murdering the population of an undefended world, an endeavor in which he was only sparingly successful. To this end, we are requesting safe passage to land so that the offending party can answer for their crimes. Is this agreeable?"

It wouldn't be. But he was, in his own way, holding out hope.

He sent a message to [member="Uriel"], who would no doubt be fuming. Arm the men.

With his response sent down to [member="Dredge"]'s lackeys on the surface, Sarge looked around the bridge, communications off for the moment so he could speak freely. "I'm putting five credits on the fact they're going to force us to slaughter our way through them so they can call us the villains." He says with a hint of amusement. That's what passed for his humor these days.

Oh how the mighty had fallen.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],


Sarge's fleet would receive an encrypted ping from another ship, one that was there already before they arrived, in the ping contained would be the spatial coordinates for the small ship's location, it was the team of droids HK sent in a stealth transport after the fleeing ship letting the Protectorate fleet know what their location was in case they would have any orders for them, or allow them to join the upcoming battle.

Other than that they stayed suspended in the void, unseen under their ship's camouflaging cloak, watching the planet and keeping an eye on the movements below much like Sarge's fleet was doing.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

The thick cockney accented rat gave a throaty little laugh and responded to the corporal or whatever he was calling himself. With a bit more musing laughs he began to speak

"And that's sumhow my problem eh? No I think not. You see here's the problem, we don't like men with big guns pointing them at us and our families. Like I said we got enough dead on our hans." The rat looked back at a few of his men telling them to ready the tanks and artillery. They had received a very hearty amount of new weapons and the workshops bellow had been busy replicating them to arm the billions of warriors on the planet. They were ready to fight to the last man to keep their home from becoming any more destroyed or damaged.

"But I'll tell you this much frien. The bloke you are looking for was 'ere. He abandoned that dying ass hunk of warship and got in some bio ships and flew away. But you can't have it! The ship belongs to us now! ITS OURS!" The little cockney rat said to sarge. "You step a single foot on our world to take our shinies and new ship and it's war. So sod off!"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge didn't respond immediately, because he had one question to ask the droids of HK-36 before he committed to anything. <No one has left, have they?>

 

[HK-36]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"],

The droids send an encrypted data package to Sarge's vessel, contained in it was a text document reading,

If any ships would have leave since our arrival we would have followed them to track their position, we knew that more ships would be sent to this location after we sent our report, therefore making our stay here inefficient if there were more targets present to track possible escape route of the target.

And to prove that the droids have not seen ships leave since their arrival they also send a copy of their memory recording, specifically of the unit tasked with piloting the shuttle who would actually be watching the consoles and the void, so that Sarge's crew would be able to see what the machines saw to confirm that no ships left the planet.

 

[Dredge]

[member="HK-36"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

The little rat at the comm station looked to his comrades and began to grow nervous, the millions of trained warriors were ready to fight the first group of protectorate attackers and other millions of warriors were still being prepped and organized to join the fight. The palace of the war torn capital was abandoned and empty as well as the tunnels bellow. All forces were fortified in the second largest city. Battalions of tanks and artillery were set up using the civilians as meat shields to prevent an orbital strike. The tunnels bellow were buzzing with all three species. Thousands of Graug and Yuuzhan Vong and the hundreds of thousands of Raalonian warriors armed to the teeth and prepared.

Dredge lay deep in the tunnels of the city his body recovering. He held his daughter who was sleeping on his lap. The monster stroked the Yuuzhan Vong child's hair and rocked her softly in his hands. He had been through a very long and painful surgey and he was in no condition to fight. The Raalonians above readied on the streets and the millions of warriors flooded the city streets all prepared to die for the Ancient King that had "freed" them from the Hutts.

Medical teams moved to Dredge and prepared to move him for upcoming battle. If the protectorate were to invade the civilian populated city then there was a chance they could break through and get to him. In his hospital bed doctors began to roll Dredge and his daughter Samantha In the tunnels bellow to a few ships where they could escape if things did not go according to plan. It was unlikely that the protectorate could break through an entire population of warriors with one fleet but it was best to be on the safe side when it came to the life of their leader

 

[Nyos Val]

[member="Sammo Hache-Khe of Rae"]

Nyos was walking with a soldier to an evac sight where some locals were being loaded to dropships. Nyos asked the soldiers to direct any others towards his ship when the transmission came through from the local command officer.

"Affirmative Sammo, I will gather what survivors I can find and speak with the Jedi. As soon as we have broken atmos, I will lend some of my crew to your frigate or we can transfer patients to my ship. I will contact you once we depart."


[member="Kiskla Grayson"]

Nyos sent his crew out in teams of two to secure moveable survivors, while he himself sought out a Jedi to gather more information.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

Kaltes had been a small world, with a miniscule population by galactic standards. They exported fish and some other goods, which were naturally snapped up by closer trading hubs. Those hubs being in ACA space. The fog of war was a dangerous thing. Delayed messages of distress that had been blocked by the attacking fleet came in late in fragments. The ACA’s extended patrols had noticed an Omega fleet leaving close to the border and heading in that direction.

ACA military command put two and two together and came out with five.

A burst of Cronau radiation heralded the arrival of a rapid response ACA fleet. Irys looked to her readouts. Sensors strained to gather information from a fantastically large area of space, whilst also identifying ships just kilometres across. Bits of information were drip fed to her terminal. She saw debris and an Omega Protectorate fleet.

“Form up battle lines, arrange the fighter screen. Open up a clear hail broadcast and…” Irys started to command.

“Admiral you should see this,” she was interrupted.

Her fur ruffled in annoyance and she shot a glare at the officer who had interrupted her. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

“By the Force…” she felt her legs go limp and she dropped back into her chair. On the holoscreen in the centre of the bridge, someone had projected an image of the planet. All the civilised areas were smouldering wastelands. Why would the Protectorate do this?

Spoiler

Gunray 1
Pillar 1
Contention 3
Scythe 2
Krell 2
Scintel 3
Sev'rance/a 6
Dirk 4
Tu/b 5
Sickle 5
Ventress 10
Thrawn 2
Interdictine 1

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge clucked his tongue at word from the droids, then opened the line back to the surface for [member="Dredge"]'s people. He'd been silent no more than a minute or two. "You lied to me." Was the only thing he said, both a condemnation and an insult. "That wasn't wise." With a nod of his head, dropships were prepped and weapons were cycled up to full power. They were getting one last chance.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

The little rat man looke around and tried to salvage the situation, there had in fact been ships leaving and returning since the Omen had arrived, this was a mining planet and they quite frequently had ships on and off world. "And whut if aye did eh?" He said his accent just as thick as ever. "Whut are you gonna do? Bomb us like he did? Keel our women and children?" The little rat man sniffled a bit like the rodent he was and made a few clicking sounds with his teeth over the mic before speaking again

"The bloke you looking for ain't 'ere, and if he is 'ere it's our problem not yours. And if ye think we are just gunna bend over for some kark stick wit his head up his own arse just because he thinks he's better then us, then think again. The bloke you want either left for the neighboring system of Dredd, Arcadia N-30 or Echidna. We gots mining contracts wit em all. So either prepare for fire on our cities like he did or SOD OFF!!" The little rat said banging his fists on the table

Down bellow the millions of warriors swarmed in the populated cities of the planet. Dredge kept them in their homes knowing the protectorate would not glass millions of innocent lives. It wasn't in their nature, even brining an invasion for down to the populated cities would cause hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths in the crossfire. The choices lay completely up to sarge now

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge looked to the crew, then gave a nod to the captain in the command throne behind him. "Bracket the city." There was a long nod. The Protectorate was known for oft-taking the moral high ground, but in every government there was a man who was an ends justifies the means type. In this case, that was Sarge. They weren't going to burn the planet, nor were they going to level the city.

But that didn't mean they weren't about to make things very... uncomfortable.

The ships formed up in orbit over the city the ships was last seen in, their weapons targeting beyond the outskirts. "Fire." Came Sarge's metallic voice. The atmosphere would light, as if another sun was rising that day, and then the heavens would split as beam after beam of turbolasers ravaged the ground and made a no-mans-land. Sure, there would be casualties, he knew that.

That was the thing, though, he didn't much care. "Launch dropships. Save one for me. And get the fighters down there, I want air superiority." There were no more words to be had with their ambassador, who clearly didn't call any shots. "If any ship tries to leave, I want it neutralized and, if no other option exists, shot from the sky. If they said they have no starships, that means our friend will be leaving on one should one ever show itself." The fleets spread out to create overlapping fields of fire around the planet as best they could. Several squadrons of interceptors patrolled the void, scanning the surface for any contact of escaping ships.

There would be no taking chances. He made for the dropship, pounding up the ramp in his great gunmetal colored plate, not even looking to [member="Uriel"] as he mag-locked his boots to the floor and the ship took into the void to head down to a city ravaged by sonic booms and atmospheric overpressure. The heat of close impact alone might have started an inferno, but they'd find out once they landed.

"They just had to push me." He mutters inside his own helmet as they leave the Resolve and make for the surface. "Good thing I don't mind admitting to being an aggressor."

[member="Dredge"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Irys Arist'lar"] [member="Kiskla Grayson"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Cryax Bane"] [member="Strider Garon"] [member="Romeo Sin"]

Communication system were ablaze in the reports of enemy shellings around the outskirts of the city. Small buildings were destroyed and on the surface it seemed as if there was only minimal loss of life. However what sarge did not know was that Raalonia was a tunnel filled planet. And when he ordered to create the no man's land a lot of those tunnels beneath the city collapsed under the shelling crushing and killing hundreds of men women and children in their basement homes. The shelling did expose a few of the tunnels in the process but they had been quickly covered by debree and dead bodies of the innocent.

Playing off this situation the planet of Raalonia sent out a distress message to all nearby support fleets or planets. The message read as such with another emissary who didn't sound funny.

"HELP! The Omega Protectorate has just begun bombardment of Raalonia. They have already killed hundreds of our women and children looking for some war criminal who isn't here! Please if you are in the neighboring systems send help! Please we've already lost so much at the hands of men like them. Please send help! We can't hold them for very long!"

The message was sent out across all neighboring systems and hopefully someone would paint the protectorate as being the bad guys in the situation. All around the city cries of revenge and battle raged wildly. The protectorate had actually killed a fair amount of people and the armies of Raalonia were geared to for revenge. Tanks mobilized and artillery formed in various areas of the city. They were dealing with an army of men just following orders, now they were dealing with an army of pissed off families

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Dredge"]

A single Bandon-class Star Destroyer would come jumping out of hyperspace, it was the King's Crown, and it was a very bad time to be here. Romeo was sitting in his chair, watching the stars, when suddenly there was a planet, a fleet, and firing upon the planet in his vision. A distress call came forth, and it was the planet. They were begging for help, as OP was now attacking them, and destroying the planet. Romeo had known OP for a short amount of time, and had even came as far as decent terms with them as he had saved the queen of Naboo's life.
This wasnt right, this wasnt something OP would, or should be doing. Sending the fleet a hail, it was registered as friendly.
"This is the King's Crown to any OP leaders, I must ask you stop this bombardment at ounce, and please explain yourself.I repeat, this is Romeo Sin, Shadow King of Eclipstica. Please cease fire, and explain this situation." He said in his hail. Now he had to wait to see what would happen.