Return of the Damned

[HK-36]

[member="Meanken"],

The machine would nod to him,

"Well let me show you where the hangar is, most of the forces deploying today are already there, we expect to scramble dropships and fighters shortly after arriving."

He would look back to his crew to speak out,

"Yeoman, alert me when we will be closing to the end of our jump, until then you have the ship."

His assistant would nod, answering with crisp,

"Ayeaye, sir"

Before she went back to work on her console.


HK would motion for Chaff to follow him as the armored machine made its way to the turbolift nearby the bridge, his flowing grey cloak fluttering behind him.

"First contract with the Protectorate?"

He would ask the armored warrior, presumably once they were in the confines of the lift,

"And I suppose first time serving under a droid?"

The machine would quip to him

 

[Meanken]

Chaff nodded, still weirded out by the whole situation.

"Ya, this'll be my first job for you guys. And first time working for a droid. Never heard of a droid taking a command position. How'd that happen?"

Chaff asked, genuinely curious about the response. He didn't really have anything against droids like some did. Cash was cash, whenever the guy paying out bled in blood or oil.

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Meanken"],

HK would lean back against the wall of the lift as Meanken spoke, giving him a nod before the door closed,

"A lot of hard work, luck, and great kindness from the Protectorate. When I came here I was barely functioning, found on Tatooine by some spacer, old rusted body, memory errors, and a lot of them, old rifle, makeshift armor, even older lightsaber."

The droid would shake his head and look to Meanken,

"The spacer gave me repairs to keep me going but I split from him, he decided to join pirates, I was against that. I came to Protectorate instead and they enlisted me as a lowly mercenary, just a Private in their ranks."

HK nodded, looking back at the lift's door, bringing up his memories,

"My first mission was a boarding action against Bando Gora, a cult of Dark Siders that plagued the Protectorate territory, or Pyre as it was known back then, still more PMC than Government. They attacked our convoy in an ambush and we had to counter attack. I put on standard armor, grabbed a vibrosword and a MK 1 bolt gun, standard issue back then before it was replaced by newer model, and I went into hangar. And then I saw her for the first time."

The droid would look back to the mercenary, breaking up the paragraphs,

"Colonel Siobhan Kerrigan, I was to go by her side in battle that day, she was my superior, and commander of the whole battalion, little did I know that armored woman wielding a lightsaber- with just a huge bust, it gets bigger every time I see her, do not make any comments on it when you will see it by the way- would become my closest friend during this age of Galaxy."

He would nod, continuing,

"We went into battle, I was the first out of the dropship, singing Mandalorian war songs, broadcasting them to troops as I lit up my lightsaber and I started swatting away blaster bolts and slugs launched at us, I put myself right there in line of fire, what bolt or slug I did not blocked with my saber I caught with my own body, I knew I could handle it, and I knew that if those who fought by me would catch it they would be injured if not killed. It became a tactic which I continued when fighting alongside Protectorate-"

He would look to Meanken to add,

"- that is how I earned nickname 'The Siege Tower of Pyre', Kerrigan in turn is called 'The Battering Ram of Pyre', but the name of this ship, the Siege Tower, is reference to what my troops call me. I calculated that fighting as hard as I could and saving lives of others, it will prove that I deserved to be a free droid, that I deserved to fight for my commanders and Lady Protector, and I deserved to fight alongside the men and women of Protectorate. And should I fall then-"

HK would shrug,

"- Then I would fall as a free droid."


The console on the lift would beep slightly as they went down the floors, presumable there were still few ahead of them, and there was much more to the story,

 

[Meanken]

"Well, sounds like you've had quite a ride."

Chaff would hold off his final opinion until he saw the droid in a real combat situation, but what he'd heard so far had impressed him. Clearly the thing had advanced combat tactics downloaded somewhere. Chaff remembered he'd heard somewhere before about a brand of assassin droids. At the time, he'd been disbelieving of it. Maybe this droid was one of em?

"So, what's ya name? Or model number, whatever ya go by."

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Meanken"],

The machine nodded to Chaff,

"After that first battle they promoted me, I ended up saving Kerrigan's life by carrying her out of the ship before it exploded, there was a nasty Force user we had to fight and as a result she lost a limb or two. But it would take many more battles for me to get where I am now. Eventually after I led soldiers during take over of Bespin they gave me the Iron Company under my command, I was still taking orders from Kerrigan but the soldiers who served alongside me knew me well. Then they gave me planet under my control, as a total dictator of Abregado-Rae after I have repelled a Dreadpirate attack from the Death Watch and dragged their leader through the streets before throwing him into a dropship. For his bounty I was given the rule over the planet. Eventually Kerrigan was promoted to Exarch and I took over her office as Colonel, for a while at least, but then Lady Protector disappeared and I went looking for her, leaving Abregado to itself and abandoning my office of Colonel. I was replaced with Noah Corek but when I came back I still held dominion over Abregado-Rae and I was made an Exarch, in Protectorate it is a rank which looks over multiple planets, only Lord or Lady Protector outranks me now."

It was a bit of lengthy speech but at least it summarized the progression of droid's career! Anyway, moving on,

"And I am called HunterKiller-model 36-unit 1, as I said before, HK-36 in short, I also used my title 'Iron Knight', the whole 36 thing reminds me too much of my days of servitude, some also call me Iron Exarch in the Relative North, or the Droid Commander, because well-"

He would shrug,

"- I am the only droid to be commander in the Pyre. I would hope to see more of my kind in the officer ranks if most of my kind would embrace helping and trying to live alongside organics rather than replace them."

The machine would look to Chaff then,

"But you can call me whatever, as long as you will not fire on our own men or civilians I will not take many steps to censor you, and although I will have to act to any acts of mutiny or rebellion, I do not quench criticism. In case you have not heard about my speech on the bridge before we set out, I criticized the current leadership of Protectorate for doing too many suicide mission and bringing too great casualties, I refused to join on their current mission to recover Lady Protector from One Sith territory where we lost too many lives already, instead we are going to this mission to break the siege on Kaeshana, planet to which Kerrigan retired after her time as Exarch, no other Protectorate ships seem to be going their way anyway so we may be the only reinforcements they will see."

He would nod to Chaff,

"So we better make it a good one."

With that he would give a bit rough pat of his metal armored hand to Chaff's shoulder just as the lift beep'd and the door would open, revealing the hangar level, filled with rushing troops, loading dropships, shuttles, and preparing starfighters for the upcoming battle.

 

[Elanil Saedaris]

[member="Tarissa Cadalthor"]

Elanil had been running an operations check upon the "Little Doctor" though there was nothing little about the massive device. She was mostly ignoring the conversation that was running around the bridge, until her name came up.

Glancing over to Tarissa she gave her a curt nod. "Of course, m'Lady." She said quickly before snapping her head back down to look at the datapad in her hands. Her fingers flew over the surface of the screen rapidly as she read through all current data feeds from the MD.

"Kar'zun?" Yup she'd heard that part of the conversation. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." She mumbled beneath her breath. Unbelievable that those creatures would return, and expect to defeat the Eldorai now. Especially with Elanil Saedaris and her legacy of unconventional weapons. There would be no way they would defeat the them now!

She only shook her head at the conversation between the Kar'zun and Tarissa.

"The MD is coming online now. Please make our fighters aware to stay out of the firing path. They get in the way, they will be destroyed too." She said flatly. "I also need a clear shot to the asteroid."

She quickly typed a few things into the datapad, and reached into a pocket on her slacks and pulled out a com device, pressing it into her ear to be able to communicate with the handful of researchers and aides who happened to be stuck at the site of the MD, to repair anything that went wrong.

Her eyes moved to the targeting screen as she pulled it up. A few more calculations came up as it judges the distance between the giant asteroid, and the MD's location. Numbers ticked across her screen. Finally she saw a clear shot.

The MD began to charge up, a bright blue light emitted from the surface of the MD's facility. The twin barrels both fired at the same time, their separate beams, soon joined into one as each accelerator reached critical mass. But alas, Elanil's clear shot evaporated just as quickly as it had come. Much to her annoyance she watched the devices massive power strike a small swarm of fighters. But even she had to admit, the chain reaction was glorious, though it was not what she was looking for. "Wrong target, right reaction."

One by one, a good two dozen of the fighters ceased to exist as they were torn apart at the subatomic level. A faint crackle of light was all that remaine as the device's power faded away. It's blast radius, seemed somewhat more limited than she wanted it to be. And she wondered what effect it would have on such a giant object. Will it be the same? Will it just be vaporized? Or will the energy disappate before it can do so entirely?

"Well, it works ... But that's not what I wanted." She growled, a little frustrated that she'd not gotten a direct hit with the true target.

"Going to need their fighters out of the way for more than just a microsecond." She said, finally speaking up. The annoyance clear in her voice.

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Elanil Saedaris"], [member="Anya Venari"]


Tarissa watched as the battle unfolded before her eyes. The Eldorai fighters were doing a good job of cleansing the stars. Indeed, it seemed that the Kar'zun's only craft were archaic, outdated pieces of crap that may have been state-of-art a millennia ago, in other words long before the so called Gulag Virus before civilisation to its knees, but were now only uself for the junkyard and to salvage spare parts from.


Clearly the Lost Legions of the Kar'zun should have stayed lost. However, there was still the asteroid to deal with. While using the massive rock was terribly crude, she had to grudgingly concede that it had been a good move on the part of the rock men, as much as making such an admission rankled with her. Its engines were terribly slow by the standards of any modern battleship, but it was fething big. Too big for the guns of their battleships to just blow it up, even if its shields were weak.


Then the mighty MD was unleashed and there was a powerful flash as a bright blue light emanated from the asteroid it was located on. Scores of Kar'zun fighters were utterly vaporised and vanished from existence. True, those craft were terribly primitive, but it was still a beautiful display. Alas...it had hit the wrong target.


If Tarissa were the cliched type of pompous aristo or Sith with temper issues, she would have flown into an irrational rage and had a temper tantrum. However, that was not who she was. Rather she was just a queen, but with a measure of self-control. So rather she just looked moderately annoyed and nodded.


"Commander, instruct our squadrons to wipe the stars clean. Hail the Thrax and Ashira's Justice to support us with fighters and cover. Move closer to form up with the Wrath. They take the lead, we'll help cover them. And unleash the Kerrigan-class bombers upon the asteroid, prioritising the engines as targets."


Based on the latest report, the long-ranged turbolasers of the Ashira's Wrath had managed to break through the shields of the asteroid, and the torpedoes of the new bombers were ideal against unshielded targets. Of course, the damn asteroid was still sodding big, but the combined firepower of the entire fleet firing on it should help. At least until the good doctor's device worked as promised.


The rest of the fleet was forming up alongside the Wrath. It was composed of a number of corvettes and a couple Illyria-class frigates, there were even two Ariane-class battle cruisers and a Thuella-class command ship, the Ashira's Justice. Flashes occured across the asteroid as volleys of turbolaserfire lanced through space and missiles relentlessly pounded it.

 

[Anya Venari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Elanil Saedaris"], [member="HK-36"]

The McGuffin of Doom had failed for now, so whilst it was tinkered with conventional weapons would have to suffice. One upside though was that even more of the enemy fighters had been destroyed, leaving the asteroid open to a concerted attack.

As the Ashira's Wrath moved into position with its escorts and other ships they opened a heavy fire on the massive vessel. As they curved closer their shots became more accurate. Explosions from turbolaser and missiles impacted over the rock with flashes of fire and gas. However, the asteroid soaked up the fire like a sponge, seemingly unable to stop no matter how many rounds hit it.
It was not unarmed either. missiles and rail guns fired at the Eldorai and Firemane fleet, but on the whole their weapons were too primitive or short-ranged to deal much damage at long range.

"Torpedo bombers, move in to strike the engines!" the order came.
Escorted through heavy enemy flak the new Kerrigan bombers unleashed their torpedos, a full squadron volley. Though the Kar'zun lacked the modern defences some were destroyed by flak or by other means or the wash of the massive engines. However, four hit home, causing massive damage to the port engines of the asteroid. Unfortunately that meant it could not turn away from Kaeshana and moved ever closer.

"Lady Kerrigan, the ship is in range of our Tempest cannons," an aide told Siobhan at the Citadel of Dawn. Perhaps the addition of some massive cannon blasts might make a dent in the monsters' armour!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Anya Venari"], [member="Elanil Saedaris"], [member="HK-36"]


Lady Kerrigan had been watching the scene grimly deep in the command centre of the Citadel of Dawn in the mountains of Kaeshana, close to the capital of Santaissa. Various tactical displays were providing her with data, images and tactical analyses of the battle. Grand Seraph [member="Aeda Shaytari"] was responsible for rallying the Angelii and the soldiers of the base, whilst she was here observing the clash that was taking place in space. All in all, she found herself reminded of that one time when the Lost Sith tried attack Coruscant back when she was a Jedi.



The Kar'zun's weaponry was just as outdated. However, the stone guys had been smart enough to use a fething huge rock as their chariot of doom. Rather than a superweapon that blew up the first time it was fired. A part of Siobhan found herself concerned about the scenario that if they managed to blow up the asteroid they would have to blow up the individual chunks as well, lest they rain down on Santaissa and cause lots of damage. However, that was not of import for now and so she acknowledged the message from her aide with a curt nod.


"Open fire with all cannons. And pass on the order to Crown and Dusk," she said whilst taking a deep drag from her cigarette. So much for quitting. Ah, well, she could always try that out again later. Best not to let Galina catch her smoking, or else the girl might pick up that bad habit from her! A stream of smoke escaped into the air towards the ceiling when she exhaled.


The Tempest planetary turbolaser cannons were inspired by an older design from Kuat and could fire once every twenty five seconds, which provided a formidable defence against orbital or sub orbital large ships. The three Ashira's Crown bases had one such cannon each, whilst the two Citadels of the Sun each had three. It had a long range and accurate shot, but it had yet to be determined whether they would be enough. Flashes of turbolaserfire lanced up into the sky as the mighty cannons fired, unleashing a powerful volley upward into the heavens towards the asteroids.

 

[Anya Venari]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | @[member="HK-36"] | @[member="Elanil Saedaris"]

The asteroid, damaged but still coming, was targeted by the massive ground cannons. The first shot from Dawn flew wide, lancing off into space to eventually dissipate somewhere in the void.
The second and third shots though were bang on target. Flames, quickly extinguished by vacuum, shattered outwards from the rocky ship.

At Dusk the guns had to fire at something of an angle due to the curve of the planet, but they too fired. However, aiming was problematic and only one shot hit home.

At Ashira's Crown, the three fortresses fired upwards, and being closest to the asteroid, and most prepared for firing, all three shots hit.

"Six hits, Majesty!" an aide called to the Queen in the war room.
"Stagger firing to maintain constant firing. Advise Countess Kerrigan to try and aim for the rear of the ship as she has the better angle."

In space the Skyport joined the warships and the ground units in their continual slugging of the Kar'zun asteroid. Finally their constant firing was having an impact.
"Captain Yadea, the whole of the starboard section is starting to break up!" the scans operator called.
"Continue bombardment of that area. Get into the guts of that rock."

However, on the asteroid, something new was happening. From small ports and hatches a horde of small craft emerged. Some were full on landing ships, others looked more like escape pods fit for a single warrior. In a swarm they began to descend upon the two Citadels and upon Santaissa.

"Be advised, the enemy is sending invasion forces. Countess Kerrigan, a largest swarm is heading your way, prepare to defend! Majesty, a host is heading towards Santaissa. High Captain Tahril, prepare yourself," Captain Yadea said.
"Lady Cadalthor, my ship's guns are too big to pick out their landing craft, could you bring in some fighters to break up some of them, I will continue the bombardment of their flagship."

The invasion had begun.

 

[Vaena Askari]

@[member="Anya Venari"], @[member="Elanil Saedaris"], @[member="HK-36"]


Tarissa received the message from Captain Yadea, commander of the Ashira's Wrath, in stone silence as she looked upon the massive asteroid that was moving towards Kaeshana, seemingly inexorably. She saw the starboard section finally break under the impact of being bombarded by the small Eldorai fleet and the onslaught it was subjected to by the ground-based defence cannons. Then a large swarm of small craft spat out of small ports and hatches of the asteroid, soon descending down towards Kaeshana like a horde of alien locusts.



Or plenty of monkeigh children diving into a very large cake. Tarissa knew all about dealing with unruly little pests. "Understood. Commander Kumari, divert two fighter squadrons to breaking up the landing craft. Instruct the Skyport to send part of their contigent for support. Open fire with our quad laser batteries. Their overdramatic piece of rock will break, I want their landing craft to burn in the fires of our wrath as well. Then they shall suffer eternal agony in the pit of Illyria."


Well, it was Tarissa, so she obviously had to be dramatic and complete with her own brand of bitchy religious zealotry. A swarm of fighters, those that were not screening the bombers and battleships, though by now the Kar'zun's fighter craft had all but vanished from the battlefield, descended upon the invaders' landing craft like birds of prey. Intense laserfire streaked across space as the quad lasers opened up a hailstorm of fire. The trouble was, of course, that there were so many landing craft and it seemed that the Kar'zun were driven by an almost suicidal disregard of their own personal safety. Indeed, some of them even made attempts to shoot towards the Skyport with the intent of ramming it, which went as badly for them as could be expected.


Landing craft after landing craft was pulverised by the laser cannons or missiles of the fighters or the guns of the Blade, which was joined by the smaller corvettes of the fleet. And so these intruders exploded in small fireballs...but inevitably many still got through and were soon descending upon the atmosphere of the planet. Tarissa did not try to pursue, for those attackers would be for the defenders on the ground to deal with. She had utterly no doubt that the heretical vermin would be wiped out.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Anya Venari"], [member="Elanil Saedaris"], [member="HK-36"]


In the mountains of Kaeshana, overlooking Santaissa,
Citadel of Dawn.


Siobhan was still down in the command centre when she received the transmissions from Anya and then from Captain Yadea. Truth be told, by the time she heard them she could already see the landing craft descending on the computer screens the room possessed, showing the onslaught of small Kar'zun craft that had penetrated the atmosphere of the planet. A particularly large swarm was heading straight for the Citadel of Dawn.


"Continue stagger firing on the asteroid with Tempest cannons. Try to aim for its rear," she spoke to the chief gunnery officer who would be directing the turbolaser cannons, taking another deep drag from her cigarette. "Open fire with Javelin and Ballista batteries upon the landing craft. Have the Keraunos turrets targer the smaller craft and large swarms."


By now Siobhan had finally found a suit of armour she was somewhat satisfied with. She had left her beskar'gam at home since she had obviously not expected an invasion, but luckily there had been a suit of MKII Omnicron duraplast armour on the site and it fit her just fine. Ironically enough the suit was based on the old armour her wife [member="Tegaea Alcori"] had worn used in the early days of Omega Pyre, back when she led most assignments in the field. It had served her very well on Malastare during a skirmish with Mandalorian mercenaries.


"Yes, Lady. Shilka and Whirlwind Squadrons are moving into position. They're fully armed and awaiting firing solutions," one of the officers, who seemed to be handling communications said. Shilka Squadron was composed of Hydra-class anti-air tanks, essentially self-propelled anti-aircraft weapons that came equipped with fast-firing rotary cannons designed to wipe the sky clean of hostiles. The Typhoon-class self-propelled rocket launcher had been originally created in the Protectore at Siobhan's instruction during her term as Exarch. It had been given the sobriquet Kerrigan's Organ due to the sound made by its rocket motors upon firing and was mostly designed to rain down barrages of missiles upon enemy troops and fortifications, but it could also fire anti-air missiles.



Siobhan nodded curtly. Reinforcements had been called and the vehicles would be positioned in the plains close to the mountains. Most of Ariane's Fist had been deployed to the capital, but a few units stood ready to intervene if the Kar'zun got pinned down at the road up to the base so that they could be put under fire from two sides. "Good. Pass on coordinates. I want them to fire in sync with our guns," she activated her comm and called [member="Aeda Shaytari"] and Tegaea. "Landing forces are incoming. I'm coming up," she said simply before switching the device off and, taking her cane, limped out of the command room towards the turbolift, which after an interval quickly took her up to the top of the base. "Tempest, intruders are coming your way. Give them a good frying."


As the lift doors opened with a hiss she could already see landing craft upon landing craft descending down from through the skies. A massive hailstorm of counterfire was opened up as laser fire and hails of missiles greeted them, creating beautiful explosions as the landing ships and pods of intruders were blasted to pieces, but it seemed that there were always more. Siobhan turned her eyes to the sky as she sought to draw upon the awesome and at time absurdly over the top power of the Force. She was still very weakened from Gehenna and it was far more of a strain to her to access the energy field. Indeed, she had to grip her cane tightly for support and was leaning against a wall, but then it came to her.


Eyes looked upon dozens of landing craft as she focused her mind and harnessed her power. Her mind stretched out as she let loose with a ridiculous amount of telekinetic energy, then abruptly landing ships were grabbed by her mind and thrust through the air at enormous speed to be smashed far away down onto the ground or to crash into mountains, if her telekinetic grip did not make them crumble to pieces instantly, the deaths of the Kar'zun aboard resonating through the Force. As the air was filled with missiles and the streaks of laser fire, the Eldorai unleashing a fiery onslaught upon the invaders, landing ships were suddenly driven back, crushed or thrown into oblivion as if by an invisible force, with small pieces of debris raining down. She took a very deep breath and had to grip the wall to stabilise herself, but allowed herself a thin smile as she brought forth destruction.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Meanken"],


Aboard the Siege Tower,


Suddenly alarms and sirens would blare out, letting the preparing soldiers know that they were nearing the exit point of their hyperspace jump as a female voice spoke into HK's build in comm unit,

We will arrive in few minutes.

That was all the droid needed, he would pat the pauldron of Meanken's armor, muttering to him,

"No time for small talk no more, we are entering combat."

Moving over he would stand on one of the nearby tough Graphite drums they used for storing ammunition speaking out to his troops,


"In few minutes we shall enter combat against the enemy who attacks our allies on Kaeshana so dastardly. I will keep this brief for you have heard me talking far too much through service under me. Firemane's influence may have grown wide and their colonies many, but let us show them today! Let us show them that no matter how much more troops or technology our ally or enemy has-"

The droid would activate his white-bladed training lightsaber, aura of the Light Side emanating from the Force imbued artifact, he would raise the blade high above his head

"The best warriors still come from Abregado!"

At that the soldiers and mercenaries gathered aboard sounded out in a cheer of a war cry, the droid called out again,

"Abregado!"

This time the troops responded with,

"Rae!"

To which he ordered,

"Sound out the horns! Let them know who is coming for them!"


And so the troops moved out, war droids and armored Nocur beasts clamoring onto heavy dropships, infantry, Force sensitive and not, boarded their transports, so many of them wearing the distinct variants of Protectorate Power Defense Armor, suit of armor favored among the Iron Company. Bolt guns, shatterguns, the many melee weapons made by Abregado visible in the hands of its soldiers, all prepared for combat.


"Come with me, Newbie, you will get honor of leading the charge along with my Honor Guard."

The droid quipped to Chaff, soon enough four armored figures resembling the droid, his copies in Grey Cloaks just like his, and two heavily armored Iron Company troops joined him, moving to a nearby dropship already preparing for its departure.

Soon enough the ramps would start to raise, troops sitting in silence in their steel coffin transports, preparing their weapons, making their prayers and wishes for the upcoming combat.


[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Anya Venari"], [member="Tarissa Cadalthor"], [member="Elanil Saedaris"],


Suddenly flash would be seen in Kaeshana's Orbit


And from darkness of Space the Siege Tower would come soaring in into the system, and then, through all open channels of communication, enemy or not, they would be heard,

The Horns of Rae,

"BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM"

Followed by the unison warcries of Abregado soldiers calling into their Comm Units, at least it would make quite the entrance.



Before long starfighters, interceptors, and bombers of the Protectorate would be seen launching from the Frigate's bowls, cover and escort for the dropships and transports following in suite, the vessel's guns begun charging, awaiting any enemy who would challenge it.

 

[Meanken]

Chaff chuckled at the display. He'd never been into the whole chest beating common to military units. One of the reason's he'd stayed out of em till now. Guess this would be a common thing he'd have to get used to. Ah well, not the worst thing in the galaxy. Still payed well. Also nice to see he wasn't rolling with standard issue grunts. He hadn't seem em in combat, but ya didn't waste equipment like they were packing on anything less they crack troops. He would follow the droid commander into the dropship and check his slugthrower, making sure it was ready for battle.

"Sounds like fun. I'm ready to roll."

And of course, if he managed to impress the droid enough to get promoted to something beyond a grunt trooper, that was always nice too. Not that he cared much for holding authority and such. He always despised any part of war that did not involve direct combat. It was all just so boring. But the pay would be nice, no doubt, and he'd deal if he had to. Or maybe not, ya never knew. But sitting in the ship thinking about it would be pointless. He had dudes to kill, people to yank out of the fire, all that fun stuff.

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Meanken"],

"Good on you."

The droid would reach to slap his shoulder in approval before sitting down next to him on the dropship as the transport lifted off of the metal floor of the hangar, moving with others into the void of space,

"Now, quick lesson on Iron Company's method of warfare, we utilize two principles, strong defensive point of trench warfare and advancing suppressive fire. When our ramps open we first throw a salvo of gas grenades, smoke cover and way to deal with enemy infantry too close to our dropships for comfort without any ventilator masks of their own, we picked that tactic up fighting the Vong. On Eriadu they tried to invade Protectorate, I ordered gassing them with knockout gas, turns out they are really vulnerable to it, whole army of them gassed to death, what little survived we took as prisoners, I am not sure if they ended up adopting ventilators after that, usually their armor spreads their mouths wide in a weird grin to scare their opponents, but it is really crap against chemical warfare like that."

The machine shrugged,

"So make sure you will have a mask to vent out the gas and switch the vision of your HUD to infrared, if you do not have proper mask for it, we have some spares here. After that our mobile weapon platforms advance, they are spider war droids with rotary shatterguns, do not get in front of them because even in beskar or phrik, they will mow you down like you are nothing."

The droid instructed,

"I designed those guns myself, they will punch through a tank if it comes in their way, once they clear our landing zone we move out mobile barricades setting up secure position on our landing zone for the rest of troops to dismount safely, we will be first out with the war droids and barricades like I said, the whole process lasts only few seconds but it is really effective. From there we keep firing from behind barricades with shatterguns and bolt guns until either all the enemy we can see is dead and we need to advance to keep fighting, they are retreating and we need to advance to keep fighting, or they brought in heavy armor or artillery support and we need to move to better cover. Usually we do not stay in one spot long enough for that to happen, especially if we will be involved in a boarding action, plus we have heavy armor and artillery of our own."

He would pat his shoulder then,

"Anyway, keep that in mind and you will be fine, we take things a bit slower but we have a very good kill-to-casuality ratio, it takes a lot to bring our phalanx down, and here, a welcoming present-"

The droid would reach to one of the shelves on the dropships, taking a collapsed Spear of Rae from it and giving it to Chaff,

"We call these Spears of Rae, standard issue, a force pike with a spear head made from Phrik, any armor you can think of out there, this thing can probably punch through it, it can also give out pretty strong electroshocks if you want to stun somebody or kill them off by slashing, you can collapse it or extend it into three different length settings, collapsed, short, long, use it wisely."

Their transport shook slightly, most likely they were closing in, whether it was naval combat in Kaeshana's orbit, or the atmosphere of the planet.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Tempest"], [member="Elayne Saedaris"]


At the Citadel of Dusk, far away from the capital city of Santaissa, Kaida was, you might have guessed it by now, impassive and stoic as landing craft rained down upon the planet through the skies.


Dusk was far less central than Dawn but they were still being greeted with a flurry of flak fire and missiles. Landing craft after landing craft went down in a hailstorm, being blown to pieces by the firepower the Eldorai were deploying. As for those Eldorai soldiers in the base itself, they had bolters, blasters, shattergun rotary cannons, shatterbolters, explosives and a small unit of Angelii, the elementalist force-users that were sworn to serve the Queen until death.


Someone else might have pitied the Kar'zun, but Kaida was not in the mood. As a matter of fact the only thing on her mind at the moment was doing her job. And so, as flurry of guided missiles escaped the Keraunos turrets to blast a large group of landing pods too small for the turrets to hit, she put out her cigarette and turned to the Angelii, including Elayne, after having transmitted a request to Gorgon Squadron to vacate the skies since things were about to get stormy.


"Hunting season is on," she commented dryly at the sight. She had never liked motivational speeches and there was no need for them. "[member="Tempest"], you ready for a storm?" she asked her companion in arms and one of the very, very few people she actually genuinely liked. If Kerrigan's apprentice and the Angelii aeromancers combined their powers, they could unleash havoc upon the invaders.


"Talon Saedaris, aeromancers, join me," and with that Kaida drew upon her Sciia and began casting. Powerful, raging winds would be conjured up by her power. High winds that would sweep forth from the mountains and were strong enough to grip landing craft and down them, if they were not crushed outright. With enough Angelii joining their powers, they could unleash a thunderstorm upon the invaders. The winds would blossom into a powerful whirlwind as the vortex took shape due to the instabilities and turbulences. The funnel, once formed, would begin to spin across the ground as it was pushed by the winds that gave it shape, becoming stronger with every moment that passed. The storm would be pushed towards the swarm of landing ships that were descending down upon Kaeshana, right into the fire of Eldorai guns and the elementalist magicks of the Angelii.

 

[Meanken]

Chaff nodded. Sounded like the droid knew what he...er, it, knew what it was doing. Chaff saw no issues with the plan as it was presented to him. Don't walk in front of the big droids with giant guns, don't breath the gas in, all basic stuff.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Chaff said as he tested the heft of his new pike. Not something he typically used. He'd used his built in knives plenty against dudes, but pikes were a different sort of weapon. But probably not all that different.

"Nice pike ya got here for sure. Ya just stab rather then slash, right? Usually I'm more of a knife person, but no better place to learn a new weapon style then the battlefield."

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Meanken"],


"You can slash if you want to."

The droid nodded to Chaff,

"These pikes can generate strong enough electric current along their shaft to rip a limb off, if that fails, well then,"

The machine shrugged,

"You can always bludgeon somebody with it. They are useful against saber-wielding enemies due to extra length and ability to withstand their blows."


"We have some sort of storms suddenly raging on the surface!"

The pilot called out from the cockpit,

"Probably Eldorai casting some spells to interfere with enemy movements, let me message them."

The droid muttered before turning on his comm unit and setting it to Eldorai command channel, he knew what the frequency for it was, due to their cooperation together,


[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Anya Venari"],

"Kaeshana, this is the Iron Knight of Abregado forces, we are coming in hot with reinforcements, watch your friendly fire and let me know where you need us the most."

 

[Anya Venari]

[member="HK-36"] | [member="Meanken"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Elanil Saedaris"]

Inside her bunker Anya let out a small gasp as the voice came through the command frequency. She quickly controlled herself and grabbed the communicator.
"Iron Knight, thank you for coming, your assistance is appreciated. The enemy is making a landing in several locations, but their efforts are focused mainly at the two Citadels and the capital. Please move to Santaissa and support the capital's defences. The civilians are protected by the energy shield for now, but that will not protect them if the enemy get under the shield. Bring your forces down and engage the enemy attacking the city, I will send units of Angelii and soldiers to assist you."

Meanwhile, at Dusk and Dawn the fire from the turrets and defences were having an impact, whilst in space the fighters had torn through the larger landing ships and scattered the survivors.
The craft that landed, and the individual warrior pods, each produced Kar'zun ready for battle. Forming up they began their attacks on the Citadels.

Here again the Kar'zun seemed to be fighting a different war. Their weapons were advanced for old Kaeshana, being mainly slugthrowers and explosives. However, against the bolters, blasters and other modern weapons they were outclassed. Their attempts to scale the Citadel paths were met with devastating fire and their attacks faltered...now was the time for counter-attacking!

 

[Elayne Saedaris]

[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Tempest"]

Elayne did feel something akin to sympathy for the Kar'zun, and a great deal of worry. There were times when sharing the Earthly element, annoyed her. Now was certainly one of those times.

"Go this way she says .... come join me she says." Barely uttered words, meant only for Elayne's ears and no other, for she was in a snarky mood, but not in the mood to be disciplined. Though, there was a certain appeal to whips, chains and the like that the spritely Eldorai had kept somewhat hidden. Her twin knew, but that was aside from the point. It wasn't like Elanil had anyone to tell. That poor girl needed to get out and get some friends!

None the less Elayne dropped was she was doing, to join with the others. "Hunting season? Would that be ducks we are hunting? Oh, right rock people. Should be fun!" A hint of sarcasm in her tone, but only a little.

The redhead stepped along side Kaida, drawing upon her own Sciia, she reached upwards, extending her reach into the air high within the atmosphere there, where powerful winds were extremely abundant in the form of jet streams, the driving force behind many powerful storms. Here she pulled upper level clouds into the mix. The powerful winds above she guided downwards, along with the clouds gaining speed and power as she helped to hasten them along to meet with the same winds Kaida was working with. All to help feed and drive the powerful vortex that could be seen forming in the distance.