Tear Down the Wall (ORC Dominion of Elrood)

[Rian Taske]

"Critical. Cases."

A drawn out pause.

"Sure."

Rian already hated this place. Unfortunately, it was about to get a lot worse.

She followed along behind the other woman, angling a bit to the left so she could hear her better, a bit bemused by the whole thing and hating every moment of this.

"Twenty percent," she echoed faintly.

When the assignment had come up, it had only made good sense that someone with a familiarity with emergency medicine be the one to make arrangements for the evacuations with them. But they had been wrong. They didn't need Rian. They needed someone with experience as a prison warden.

With a small shake of her head, she put that aside. Still had a job to do.

"So what kind of facilities will the more specialized cases in your care be-"

But Rian didn't get to finish her question.

The sirens blared a heartbeat before the lights went down. Unconsciously, Rian's hand fell to the blaster at her hip. For a moment, as the red emergency lights started coming up, one at a time in a line down the hallway, everything was eerily silent.

But only for a moment.

"What the hell is that."

Her head was tipped up, looking up at the ceiling. Nothing to see there. But the sound. Like nothing she had ever heard before. The low keening sound from somewhere above came from no human throat.

"Chit, this area was supposed to be clear for hours still," she muttered, pulling out her blaster and checking the charge.

Rian's first assumption was that this was something to do with the Ssi-ruuk. It was a reasonable assumption, given why she was here and where here was. Of course, it was missing several key pieces of information.

"How good is the security here, Ms. Sarova?" Damn, was she a doctor? Probably. But this was an emergency and Rian didn't really have the time or interest to find out the proper form of address right NOW.

If the cries had been disconcerting, it was the sudden screaming that began that took it into the realm of nightmares from one moment to the next.

[member="Cerbera"]

 

[Yula Perl]

Everything appeared to be going well, given that when everyone is covered in glitter, the Zeltrons are probably winning.

The chaos subsided as the jawas scrambled off to who knows where, and Yula figured that they had been frightened off. They’d be back, she supposed, but for now they had to deal with the big guy—who had been knocked out by the stun round, she noticed after vaulting over the shipping container she’d been hiding behind.

“Not bad, Mister Junior Judge. Not bad.” The woman produced a length of duracable she’d nicked from who knows where and went about tying up the bird man. “Don’t worry little guys, we uh, won’t hurt ya.” She wasn’t sure what to say to the trapped jawas, but soon they would have bigger problems.

“Help me move this fether, Ban—” Stopping short, Yula’s brow crinkled as she turned in the direction towards the sound of the crash, which was quickly replaced by the rev of an engine.

“Bantam!”

@Maokai Bantan | [member="Kingsley"]

 

[Maokai Bantam]

Elrood​

Station AR-3 - Hanger - Mechano-Jawa... Really?​

Objective - Gone in 12 Parsecs​

​

​

Bryce had just had lunged forward and knocked cold the pinned Jawa with a good old shogun stock to the back of the head strike when the sounds of more trouble got his attention. [member="Yula Perl"] had just called out to him when the lifter came into view. At the help was one of the Jawa's seemingly intent on winning this encounter and all costs and he had some how hot wired a Heavy cargo loader.

"Feth now that is somethin you don't see every day." Mako responded looking at the mechanical menace coming closer.

Looking around for anything that may help Maokai spotted the now sleeping Jawa's Ion Blaster still in his clawed hand and a smile came to his face.

"Yula, get that bird and the other Jawa's tied up, i'll handle Jawa-roboto over there."

Picking up the small blaster, from the jawa he had just put down and the other OK's by Yula's stun grenades Maokai knew what he had to do. Running as fast as he could he dodged the crates and other objects thrown by the loader till he was at point blank range. Aiming carefully for some exposed wires around its' hips he in one motion slid between the loaders legs and with one ion blaster in each hand unloaded both weapons into the loaders crotch.

[member="Kingsley"]

 

[Griet van Vliet]

Objective: Gone in 12 parsecs
Allies: ORC
Enemies: Pirates, stormtroopers

"Be right back"

With the pirates still locked inside a hidden cargo hold, Griet set out to search for a fuel vendor. Of course, it was rather easy to find one, but with so many teams scrambling to get the impounded ships to safety, there was a lineup for those, no matter where she looked for fuel. A normal barrel of hypermatter would be all she needed to get the ship to wherever the party that issued the bounty on the pirates she had in the hold was. However, she could tell in the Force one of those vendors was looking to offload something much more expensive: probably some valuable whose insurance premium was wreaking havoc on its finances. I wonder how much that new item is costing me, or how much it's worth, and also what does the vendor actually is willing to offer for it, she thought, knowing just how illiquid the sort of item whose insurance premium can hurt one's finances usually is. She just went to that fuel vendor and stood in line while the pirates were languishing in a cargo hold and waiting to get out of the system. Once her turn arrived at the fuel vendor...

"You can have the fuel free today if you buy this rare print from me. Its insurance premium is just too much to be worth holding on to it" the fuel vendor offered Griet.

"What's that rare print of? How much are you asking?"

"Terror from Beyond, they call it. Assuming it's authentic, it's one of 32 prints issued by the Gree Enclave to those who defeated Lotek'k ca. 3641 BBY, 16 to Republican heroes, 16 to Imperial heroes. As for the price, it's still 1 million, which was the value on the last appraisal report requested by the insurance company"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Rian Taske"]

If Cerita was bothered about the lack of the proper honorific, she didn't seem to notice.

There were bigger problems to deal with right now.

Ridges of her brow furrowed. Studying the ceiling, where the chittering was coming from, it wasn't directly above them. Several levels. "Rather good internally." Cerita allowed, but didn't seem very convinced of that herself right now. "Completely inadequate for threats coming from the outside." That part a little bit grumpy. The Sith Lord had wanted to make this into a fortress, sure. But that would have been rather difficult to rationalize towards the planetary officials.

Oh, yeah, we are just a hospital.

With planetary shielding, six hundred turbolaser batteries and four battalions of heavily-armored men. Yeah, no. That wouldn't have flown one way or another. "There is a security room nearby," She finally said before starting to walk.

"We will have a better idea of what's happening there."

Rian could either follow or not, but Cerita knew where she was going.

It didn't take long to arrive there though. Only a droid at the station. Automated, of course. "Please show us the feed, Bee-Four." Looking over the droid's shoulder as he got to work on the console. The scene was... gruesome. Patients out of their confinement. It was a mess. "That... should not be possible." Some of those patients? The heaviest guarded wings. Several contingencies were in place to prevent them from escaping.

But here they were.

Massacring the staff and breaching other levels in their wake.

Cerita glanced over her shoulder to Rian. "I believe it would be safer for you to evacuate, miss Taske." Rubbing her jaw there absently. "I do not think you are equipped to handle this sort of... emergency."

 

[Jerec Asyr]

ORBIT

Tractor beams slid the last ships out of the hangar. Jerec winced as more than a few sets of landing gear strained sideways. He could hear all that, vacuum or not, as screeching reverberations through his boots. Cosmetic damage, though: nothing Gallofree couldn't fix up or ignore.

He stepped off the edge of the hangar and hopped out past the artificial gravity field. Momentum took over. Maybe forty metres out, the Tannhauser's crew guided the last ships into the cargo hold and strapped them down on their broken landing gear. A few course-correction bursts from his suit's guidance system put Jerec neatly in the hold. Someone clapped him on the shoulder; he didn't see who. The suit's helmet didn't give him that much of a field of view.

That was that. Nice straightforward little spacewalk into previously-cleared territory. So why were his hands shaking, hm? Why was his air tank 20% lower than it should have been, if not for real, tangible nerves?

Questions for another day. Time for a shower.

 

[Peyton Steele]

She took another shot down the hall and nodded. That was good. One ship was open. Looking at her wrist top datapad she grinned. A few more of the red dots, indicating the locked ships were turning to green. Licking her lip, the blonde woman grinned. Troopers were coming in,but getting a bit too close. She was smaller, she was sneakier, and holstered her pistol as she reached behind her back and grabbed one of her stun batons. Swinging it down to her feet, it extended before her and sparked to life.

She may not be the type who was using a lightsaber, but she could do a lot of damage when someone got close. Higher dexterity, she wasn't looking for shatterpoints per say, but she knew that knee-caps were weak. Running around the ship, she saw two troopers trying to pin down another pair of agents. Running in, she slid, hitting one trooper in the knee before hitting the other in the lower back as she found her feet.

A few more moments and they'd have the ships unlocked. When her team was able to take the kill shots for the troopers, she nodded, and ran towards the ship that was unlocked just as an EWEB opened fire.
"Get the shields online, Botty!" She shouted to her droid as she hopped into the pilot's seat. Tapping the controls, she wasn't the best pilot, but for this? She just needed to get to space and follow the better pilots. She heard the shields go on, as the next blast did make the ship shake less. Balancing on repulsors, she saw two other shuttles speed out of the hangar, and followed them, with two more in tow.

"Silent Runner team is free and clear from the station, heading to rendezvous."

 

[Rian Taske]

She followed the other woman- not even remotely reassured. Drawing her blaster, she checked over the charge and the setting as they moved. She didn't reholster it when they entered the security room either. As Cerita strode in and toward the controls, Rian checked the door behind them, engaging the lock for now.

So when she finally turned back to take a look at what was going on, it was already displayed in its full glory....

Or should we say 'gory'-

On the screen.

"What the kark."

Her mouth hung open for a moment, then closed again.

Hi. Wow. No.

How did she keep finding herself in these weird arse situations? Give her a battlefield, that was horror enough. This was.... this was beyond that. Not Yuuzhantar level of weird but definitely way weirder than her paygrade.

Apparently there was a mistake here. She shouldn't be trying to get these people out.

She should be trying to keep them in.
Or better yet-

"Yeah honestly that sounds ideal," she muttered. "You are absolutely, one-hundred percent correct."

Rian wasn't a hero. She'd never pretended she was, and wasn't about to start now. Oh, were there times she'd rush into the face of hell itself to help someone? Yeah sure. This? This wasn't that. This was entirely outside of the scope of her expertise or indeed her desire to expand said expertise.

"Absolutely not my section."

They changed the view screen, finding the most direct path out that didn't take her through anything.... well.... likely to try to tear her throat out with its teeth. This is what she got, honestly, she decided to herself, trying to be a good Samaritan.

"We've got evac rendezvous," she said, pausing before heading out the door. "At a number of locations through the city. Honestly can't miss 'em, got flashing blue lights and chit. If you do have anyone who can get out and who isn't.... uh.... a danger to anyone else, send 'em our way. We'll take care of them. Good luck with.... this whole thing." A pause there. For a moment, it might look like she was rethinking. And then-

"Okay bye."

She couldn't even blame Ari this time for the weirdness. She was starting to notice a pattern.

Rian had never left a hospital more quickly.

[member="Cerbera"]

 

[Kingsley]

LOADING BAY​

CIVILIAN SHIPYARDS​

GONE IN 12 PARSECS​

[member="Maokai Bantam"] | [member="Yula Perl"]​

---

A sizzling current of electric discharge coursed through the weaponized cargo loader, and its manipulating grabbers spun wildly as the machine overloaded before breaking down entirely. Coming to a violent halt, with a terrified wail the Jawa operator tumbled out of the operator's cabin and bounced off a storage crate on the way down, landing with a thud and a groan. The cargo loader continued to shower sparks, eventually setting off an automated alarm system. Throughout the hangar, klaxons began to wail.

From about the Deputy, more cries of 'Utinni!' could be heard. Emboldened by their comrade's fall, the remaining two crewman leapt from a stack of storage crates and landed on Maokai's head. Smacking and clubbing with their little appendages, it was not a particularly well thought through attack but there was something to be said for its blinding ferocity. Both of the diminutive aliens chittered away angrily in their native tongue as they battered themselves uselessly against the full sized humanoid.

"Rrrrawk!" Kingsley's eyes opened, and with his superhuman Hiit strength he snapped clean through the duracable that had been hastily tied to restrain him.

Wrapping his arms around the distracted zeltron girl from behind, the smuggler started squeezing. With the power of a wookiee, his raw strength could be just as deadly as any blaster. Buried underneath layers of bright multicolored glitter, there was a wild look in the birdman's eyes.

 

[Maokai Bantam]

Elrood​

Station AR-3 - Hanger - Mechano-Jawa... Really?​

Objective - Gone in 12 Parsecs​

​

​

Maokai wrestled with the Jawa like an older brother would with his younger siblings. Trying not to hurt them kept he kept trying to pin one down till the other jumped on his back. All that changed when he heard his cousin cry out in pain. The feathered [member="Kingsley"] had his cousin in a bear hug and was seeming squeezing the life out of her. Standing up he began dragging the two Jawa hanging on him, step by step moving closer to help [member="Yula Perl"].

As she struggled against the bedazzled bird Yula was able to free a knife from her waist and began stabbing Kingsley in the leg. Wounded the bird screamed in pain and all so briefly lost his grip on the beautiful Zelton agent. As she fell to the ground Kingsley would receive a Jawa to the face.

Utin.. (thump) Utinni (thump)

Again and again, one jawa in each hand Maokai swung the desert rats into the bird now bleeding from his leg wound. Jawa to the beak, Jawa to the top of the head, Maokai bludgeoned Kingsley relentlessly until he lay on the ground prone and confused. Tossing the bruised Jawa on the ground next to their feather leader Maokai stared down at the lot of them.

"Seriously, did we really need to do all that?" Mako shouted as he placed the barrel of his shot gun between Kingsley eyes.

"You shot at me, threw a thremal at me, Jawa freaking pyramid. That's it I'm taken you in and throwing..." Mako began to say right before a series of blaster bolts went whizzing by.

The guards had finally responded and in force making Mako to address the new attackers. A half dozen first order storm troopers were charging him, accompanied by a number of FO BB droids. Dragging his cousin to cover he proceeded to drop a few of the troopers and drive the remaining ones back while he sized up the situation. Kingsley and most of the Jawa he had come with had disappeared. Two other Jawa that had been dropped and the one who had hot-wired the lifter were lying prone on the ground. Summoning a force push, Mako sent a large cargo crate into the remaining troopers, sending them tumbling to the ground. Finding a hover cart near by used to move containers between ships. Gently placing his still groggy cousin on first, he hastily threw the remaining three Jawa before pushing the lot of them down the hanger and away from the additional troops now beginning to arrive.

Taking cover behind a parked Astro LX he looked over at one of the Jawa, who was starting to stir.

"Hey you, you were the one who hotwired that loader right... well you wanna live, ya, wanna slice this fething ship so we can leave?"

The little jawa didn't need to be asked twice, pulling out a data pad and other tools he made quick work of the door lock and the door slid open. Helping his cousin to her feet and pushing the cart into the hold of the light freighter he locked the Jawas into a maintenance locker before blasting the lock closed so they had do chance of slicing it.

Mako was about to close the ships hatch when a FO BB unit rolled in and began to sound the alarm. Taking grabbing a Jawa Ion rifle he blasted the droid into a near by bulk head before casually tossing the rifle onto the deck and shutting the door.

As he made his way to the cockpit he found Yula had already powered up the ship from the co-pilots chair and was waiting for him. Taking the helm he piloted the ship from the hanger. As they blasted off and cleared the atmosphere Mako looked over at his cousin with a smile.

"See easy as pie, love it when everything goes to plan."

 

[Sol Stazi]

SHIELD GENERATOR FACILITY​

FIRST ORDER GARRISON​

DISABLE PLANETARY SHIELD​

[member="Cias Kunn"] | [member="Veino Garn"] | [member="Sahaera Kyre"]​

---

"Stand and fight for your Supreme Leader, forever may he reign!"

Captain Stazi put a bolt in between the base commandant's eyes, silencing the rallying propaganda once and for all. The entire operations center erupted into a las fight, but without their commanding officer the Imperial response was uncoordinated and reluctant. Sol slid behind a power output display for the primary deflector dish, using the control station both for cover and as an impromptu brace for his rifle. Adding his return fire to the cacophony of weapon discharges, the duros officer could feel his adrenaline spiking as time seemed to slow down.

An impact grenade burst at control's threshold, riddling two of Stazi's men with shrapnel and tossing their bodies through the air like ragdolls. He put a bolt in the grenadier, before waving and screaming over the noise of battle for his remaining team to spread out and give each other more covering fire. They had taken losses, two to the grenade and a third to las fire, but the First Order command crew was practically decimated. One of the remaining officers tossed out his sidearm and raised both arms in surrender, but was gunned down by his own comrades for cowardice.

When they got to the last two, Sol ordered his team to switch to stun rounds. He wasn't feeling particularly merciful, but there was always a chance one of them might have intel on exactly how bad things were going for the First Order in the wider sector.

"Clear!" he announced when the last rating had been lanced by an ion burst, and immediately set about setting up explosive charges.

"Still no contact from Sergeant Kunn. What now, sir?"

"Either he made it or he didn't," Sol grunted, trying not to think about that, "Only thing left is to accomplish our mission. Alright everyone, clear out back to the lifts."

Once their strike force had retreated far back enough, dragging their Imperial captives along the way, Captain Stazi unceremoniously flipped the ignition switch on his detonator. There was a loud whumph, followed shortly by a temperature spike and slight tremor. Once the effects of the explosion subsided, Sol jogged back down the corridor, peering out at open sky to confirm their detonation had been fully effective. The operations center had been reduced to a crater in the side of the building.

"-reteam Dusk, Fireteam Dusk. How copy? Repeat, Operation Brute Force is a success. Interdiction Platform has been destroyed, awaiting mission update to deploy ground wave. Fireteam Dusk, Fireteam..."

His comm suddenly crackled too life. Not just from their forces in space, but a hail from Kunn's squad as well. That detonation in operations must have taken out the garrison's comm jammer, Sol reasoned.

"Wolf's Head, this is Dusk Actual," he replied back over the same channel, "Planetary shield is offline, surface communications restored. Send in the cavalry."

"Copy that, Dusk Actual. Outstanding work, soldier."

"Now let's get the hell out of here," Sol told the others, "Fall back to the south side of the building, we'll link up with the landing parties once we've cleared this perimeter."

He repeated his orders over comms to Sergeant Kunn, before following the others. Locating a set of windows large enough to fit through, they shattered the glass with their weapon butts and quickly began setting up rappel gear. The garrison's main defenses had been broken, but there were almost certainly survivors and perhaps even a reinforcement wave en route from some other facility. Securing the rope to his harness and lowering himself alongside the structure's outer wall, Sol could already see the reentry burns of dropships entering the atmosphere, and knew that even if the First Order retook the base this would be their last day as masters of Elrood.

Flashing a quick V for victory sign to the troopers leaping from U-Wings and deploying grav chutes overhead, the captain of Twilight Company kicked out, continuing down the side of the garrison. Already this place was starting to feel more like home.