Sith Empire: Gand Adventure (My Apprentices, and any Sith that are interested)

[Ashin Varanin]

Group C

Velok climbed more slowly, hand over hand up the metal scaffolding, until he reached the cluster of comms dishes at the apex. He wrapped his metal-clad arm around the support struts of a large dish and squinted out across the plain.

"Daxton, I intend to call down a storm on that army, but I'm not as strong as I once was. I intend to draw upon your power. When our powers combine, I'll be able to do what needs to be done. Do I have your permission?"

 

[Daxton Bane]

Team C

"I open myself to be your conduit to the Dark Side Master." Daxton replied, a part of him eager to see this new demonstration of the dark side that he had heard of but hadn't personally seen for himself. "Take what is needed, my master." Placing himself in the subservent position, he awaited for the Dark Lord to tap the dark side and offer his aide in effectively drawing more power through their combined efforts.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"And it may be enough, if I drain you almost to your limits." He clung to the tower, wind-blown grit scoring his armor's paint. Far across the plain, a gigantic army was on the approach -- speeder transports and fast walkers. His fist clenched within his gauntlet as he summoned a rage born of a thousand old wounds.

"There was a time when I could do this alone," said the gigantic Whiphid. "I was stronger once, before our fearless leader ripped away my spirits and cast me down. But I'm still a Master with more knowledge than anyone you've ever met, boy, and today I'll show you one of the greatest secrets in history. A lost art." He raised his hand to the sky and opened his claws. "The greatest of Jedi Masters have Force Light. The greatest of Sith Masters have this."

Above and ahead of the oncoming army, the air began to rip, or the fabric beneath the air. Ripples of distorted light emanated from that point, and the army slowed.

"Isn't technology marvelous?" said Velok dreamily, as he ripped a hole in the universe. "The cheapest little tramp freighter can leap to hyperspace. But it takes a great Master of the Force to do the same, to any degree. Breaking the bonds between universes and planes is an exceptional feat. And with the right knowledge and instruction, a hyperspace wormhole can form. A Force Storm.

"This will drain both of us. We'll be lucky if we can climb down the tower safely, let alone survive the battle below.

"Feth, boy, I haven't done this in years."

A great ravening maw, a hyperspace wormhole leading nowhere substantial, chewed into the plain and the assembled army. Velok's connection to the Force eroded with the strain of creating and controlling the storm. The effort began to drain his life energy, and the stored strength within the Dark Repair networks that held his old body together. He roared aloud in pain.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Team C

Daxton howled in pain as he felt the power being ripped from him, it felt as it someone was trying to suck his brain out through his eye sockets only a hundred times worst. His armored fingers spayed out like talons, trying to claw through the surface of the metal structure, blood dripping from his mouth where he had bitten off part of his tongue, still the pain only intensified.

Orbalisks coating his naked torso went berserk, biting and injecting him with toxins that barely stabilized his system. His helmet's combat hud winked out as the power supply was drained. Power, raw unadulterated power, it was truly a sight to behold.

Despite the pain, Daxton was still able to laugh in pure delight at the destruction he was helping to unleash on their enemies. It was a laughter tinged with pure malice and utter amusement in the terror and devastation before him.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Team C

Velok roared in pain and joy as the storm devoured the army.

"Now that it's made," he called, "it's self-propagating! The worst is over! And once the army is destroyed, we'll drain the energy from the storm!"

Blasterfire flickered up at them from the ground, and he hunkered down behind a comms dish.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Team A

Deep in the Parliament hall, Ashin flinched.

"There's something insane out there, @[member="Spencer Jacobs"]," she whispered. "Something brutal. Distant, but deadly. I think one of our Masters used a Force Storm, but I don't know of any who have both the knowledge and the power for that, apart from me. It's a specific technique...Velok. It had to be Velok, but he's not strong enough to use that power, not anymore. Him and his fething workarounds."

Suborned Gand guards and Sith functionaries continued to enter the Parliament buildings, asserting and stabilizing Sith control. Ashin rose from the dictator's chair.

"Come with me. We may be able to see this."

 

[Arumi Zy]

In Orbit

Darth Fidelis growled under his breath as he continued to watch the swine, the creature was tired but still powerful. He continued to keep his gaze locked on the screen ignoring all others. Until at last he saw its true potential as it began to drain another sith and rip the very fabric of reality to sunder. He watched the creatures power manifest into a great storm of chaos and destruction as it burned into the fledgling army that had come to end them. " Powerful indeed " he said as the view was over come with static and then nothing as the survelince droid fell silent. The sith only turned his head slightly to look at the status screen to comfirm that it was gone, and that its self destruct protocol had engaged.
He turned his head to the next monitor, this one focusing on the "Empress" and what ever manner of being the curr that followed her was. She was a suitable fighter and one capable of great manipulation, that was indeed a certainty. Yet she lacked the finesse that her greaters had once had the centuries ago, she lacked the utter over whelming pressence that the sith of Two had commanded. She was a threat in her own right, a prime target and one of the most interesting challenges that he would face. But if he chose to strike her, to destroy her he would behead the proverbial snake leaving the rest of the body to wither and die to return to what it once was. He had the audiologs and visual logs of his other droids to study later, for now he chose his focus.

" Whats this" he said as he saw the interaction between the Empress and the female, it wasn't much as master and student it was more as lovers. It was subtle and only those who looked would see it in their body language and their demeanor. But it was an exploitable weakness, a chance at the head of the snake, a chance of destruction. " Lets see how this proceeds" he said as he continued to watch.

The sith smiled one truly saddistic smile as he reached out with the force, focusing all his energy and all the force of will to send a simple twinge of malice towards this " Empress " and he servent.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

In these circles, to sense malice was nothing new. To sense such extreme malice, though, spurred by power and discipline -- that was something else entirely, the sort of thing she faced from a handful of her rivals from time to time.

She sensed, too, that Spencer was the target of this assault as much as her. The Dark Master opened up the hunger within her, devouring the energy of the assault on both her and the girl.

In return she sent a simple statement of intent, cold and hard. Even the suggestion of words carried along, though telepathy was generally beyond her -- beyond any Sith, really.

Everyone gets to test me once. Test me twice and suffer.

 

[Daxton Bane]

Team C

Although severely weakened, Daxton was still able to crawl behind the relative shelter of the com dish beside the Dark Master, he needed to buy them some time for the storm to do its work. Using bloody fingers he fumbled for his pouch and took out his last canister of fire flies. Opening the lid he unleashed the volatile weapon against the shooters attempting to hit them from below.

Crouching low he waited for the chain of blasts to signal the metallic insects were successful in their mission.

 

[Rhace Tarrin]

Two MAATs zoomed through Gand's atmosphere, carrying an entire platoon of soldiers between them, twenty-five men apiece. One carried one extra, actually, the commanding officer of First Platoon - Lieutenant Rhace Tarrin, a man who preferred to be in the front lines and fight alongside his troops like any good officer ought to in order to show the troops some good morale. Even if he was clad in slightly different armour, it was important to be there with the troops. He had his standard kit - Imp sidearm, combat knife and trusty Chimera rifle with him.

"Fifteen seconds!" called the pilot, and Lieutenant Tarrin knew he was in for a real good time. Their target was the palace of the now-dethroned dictator and his elite guard still swarming the place. With brutal efficienty stylistic of stormtroopers, they would assault the palace and slaughter every one of the fething idiots still breathing that was not a Sith.

"First Platoon, lock and loooooad!" called the lieutenant before changing communications frequencies to the command frequency. He needed some orders - someone inside the palace could surely request some backup, or something. "Lieutenant Tarrin of First Platoon, en route to palace. I need some eyes on the ground and some orders!"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Team C

@[member="Daxton Bane"], @[member="Rhace Tarrin"]

The fire from below slackened as the armored Whiphid clung to the communications tower. "Nice work," he growled at Daxton.

Comms chatter came in, as Velok was currently the highest authority in Team Cresh -- the palace killers. His suit's comlink blared @[member="Rhace Tarrin"]'s voice in his ear. "Lieutenant Tarrin, this is Lord Velok. Avoid the Force Storm that's chewing up the army on the northern plain. There's a cluster of enemy forces at the base of a communications tower on the north side of the palace compound. Eliminate them without destroying the tower, then land and rendezvous with me. I'll have your orders."

 

[Soeht]

While @[member="Darren Shaw"] attempted another creative attack, its complexity proved to be its weakness. With a lightsaber flying toward his back, the Janwuine quickly disengaged his shockpod staff from Darth Apparatus's lightsabers and spun to the side. That in itself messed up the chain that would have given Darren the opening he desired as the Janwuine now faced Darren.

Yet, Darth Apparatus did not relent in his attack as well and lashed out at the Janwuine. Knowing that taking on multiple lightsabers from multiple angles was not the best of strategies, the Janwuine quickly backed off several meters away from the attacking dark siders.

With a gap between them, the Janwuine assumed a defensive stance to await for the first of the two dark siders that would attack him.

 

[Garza]

Darren had seen the Sith get smashed in the face earlier and thought that he might be loosing air. With that He charged forward catching his thrown lightsaber. Using the force he charged forward to stop feet from him and sent a wave of electricity at the thing. he felt slightly weaker by his efforts to kill this thing. Darren had the thought of possibly taking a different route then just beating him with just brute force. he had to think of something fast if he was changing plans.

 

[Rhace Tarrin]

@[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Velok @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Daxton Bane

"Aye, milord. Storming the communications relay. You heard the Lord, First Platoon. Leave no survivors. Pilot! Redirect us!"

"Aye aye, sir!"

The soldiers of Rhace's platoon were nervous now. All of them were starting to see the massive hole in subspace that the Sith Master had conjured, tearing away at the land as it consumed anything and everything. It was growing in size, slowly but surely. The implacable truth that was the power of the Force was a marvel to hold. Rhace could feel a tingle down his spine, like his body was reacting to the massive wormhole. Something about it was just... curious. Interesting. Like it was drawing him to the Force Storm.

The MAATs drew closer to their new landing point, communications towers and relay dishes reaching towards the sky, transmitting messages of the crushing defeat at the hands of the Sith Empire. They needed control of that relay and they needed it now. The transports' noses flared up as they made their approach, doors opening for the stormtroopers in their sealed suits to leap out and storm the facility. Within moments, it became a battlefield. The soldiers of First Platoon opened up on everything that was not Sith that moved; there would be no survivors.

Lieutenant Tarrin was the last man out, surveying the battlefield before raising his rifle to put a bolt into the head of a Gand who felt himself brave. Foolish. Crimson and verdant bolts criss-crossed everywhere around the relay as the Gand fought to the last man to stop the assault team from taking their valuable link to the rest of the Galaxy. Their first wave resistance lasted barely more than a minute.

With a squad behind him, Rhace moved forward, then deeper into the communications facility, intent on broadcasting Imperial victory to the Galaxy.

 

[Daxton Bane]

@[member="Velok"] @[member="Rhace Tarrin"]

Wiping his bloody chin with crimson stained fingers, Daxton smiled as he watched the ships land and disgorge Sith troopers to mop up the remains of the citadel's defenders. "It would seem my Lord, that the cavalry has arrived."

Not a moment too soon, he didn't need to add as he was out of munitions and weak from what they just summoned. He would have hated to face the defenders with just his needlers and his side arm as his only weapons.

"I do hope they are able to salvage some specimens for study later. I wish to know what caused the Gand to frenzy and if it can be duplicated for our purposes."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Daxton Bane"] @[member="Rhace Tarrin"]

"Specimens? Oh yes, they'll capture specimens. This whole complex will face a fine-toothed comb for anything to do with planetary domination, strange resources, valuable research...anything."

Velok clambered down the communications tower. At the base, and within the communications facility itself, Sith troopers were mopping stuff up. Exhausted, the Dark Lord sat down by the door.

"Guess I'll talk to the Lieutenant when he's finished mopping up in there."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer was in a daze, everything about her was weakened from the mind control she had chosen to do with the Gand. Half open eyes glanced about seeing that the Sith were coming in to take control of everything. She looked over towards Ashin as she spoke to her, eyes lighting up as she heard of the Force storm. Nodding, the girl had felt the current in the Force from Velok. Spencer moved to follow Ashin as she felt a bit of her energy starting to return to her, the moment was short as she suddenly felt a wave crash into her.

Before any damage was done, the wave subsided and she looked towards Ashin who had taken the hit for the both of them. Spencer closed her eyes once more letting herself meditate once more she focused on just Ashin. She gave whatever she had left to help Ashin recover from the attack. Smiling, she released herself from the meditation and collapsed to her knees.

"Thank you Ashin..."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin scooped Spencer up and carried her from the Parliament Hall, their environmental suits rubbing against each other. An elevator took them to the top of the building. She found a place in the huge bellower, looking out over the city and the dry plain beyond.

"Wake up for a second," she whispered, staring out across the plain. "Take a look."

Out there, the last gasp of Velok's Force Storm finished chewing up the massive army.

"The Dictator's elite guard -- gone. This planet is ours, lover." She held Spencer close. "You just saved a world."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer felt her body being moved, she had no will at this time to do anything herself. It took her a moment to realize that Ashin was the one moving her. She wanted to struggle and protest against being carried, but she let it happen and when she was commanded she woke up and looked out. Everything was gone, Velok had destroyed any last remaining bits of the dictator. Though what she focused on was the beauty of the power that Velok displayed. Blinking a few times she strained her body to see and to feel the force of the storm. Looking back up at Ashin she smiled.

"I did. I want to save more, but...I'm so tired Ashin..."

Her helmeted head nuzzled the best it could as she sighed and fell back asleep.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"There there, Spencer. Sleep well."

She laid Spencer down on the floor of the bell tower's apex room and watched the storm dissipate. Comm reports flooded into her headset, verifying all that had happened.

The Gand Parliament - mind controlled, then occupied by suborned Gand and Sith functionaries.

The Parliament Hall - defended from the Dictator's forces and the Findsmen by Darth Apparatus and others.

The Dictator's fortress - stormed by Sven Talith, Daxton Bane, Velok and others.

The elite guard - destroyed on the plain, and in close-quarters battle throughout the fortress.

The Dictator - executed on live broadcast.

Gand - subjugated.