The Crusade Has Come [Moross Dominion of Kinooine]

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael watched the fleet lines with careful practiced eyes. Turbolasers and missiles streaked through the air towards one of the pirate ships. Then suddenly a bright flash appeared on the outskirts of the ships hull. The Massive metal behemoth began to tear itself apart, silent destructive tides of energy eating at it until the thing was completely torn into bits. One final flash appeared within the pirate fleet and then one of the cruisers was simply gone, turned into wreckage.

The crew of the Swarm frigate cheered and Soliael allowed himself a smile.

“Target the Flagship.” The Pirate fleet would be dealt with quickly, one cruiser down, Four to go.

 

[Garza]

I needed to move faster. My beskad killed the final man in the room excluding the two men and the pirate leader. He didn't call any of his troops back, or send the others forwards. he only laughed. "You really think that we would fall to you? You all must be fools." I smiled as he taunted me. Lashing out my left hand at the bars that held up the platform, I yanked back, and slowly did the awning began to groan. I then grabbed hold of it, and pulled down, forcing it to crash down into the floor.

He looked up at me from the wreckage of the awning with a vibrosword that looked rather large. Larger than the one that I had before is untimely use of being bent. He took steps forwards and only smiled at me. "NOW!" He yelled. Then I heard a chorus of clicks and clacks of rifles and weapons being aimed at me. This was not good.

I looked around as he pointed his vibrosword at me. I held my blade out to the man as well. and with one simple move, I rushed him with the force. My body became a blur as I shoved the man at the wall. he fell over and all of his troops erupted into fire. my shield came up. and I knew that it would not be enough. I willed myself to be completely protected. I wanted no blaster bolts to hit me. I could feel the heat that came from the bolts, and then they stopped firing.

Looking down at myself I could see a white filter around my body and I smiled. "You see now, we are not to be messed with. I command the Power of our Gods. They have given me powers to defend myself from all of you. Convert, and leave your Pirate master for a better life that only your dreams would understand." I waited for their reply.

@[member="Soliael Devin Talith"] (I don't have the authority to say if the group will convert. This would effect the entire thread.)

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"Orders are to keep the building intact," a nearby Crusader called back.

Narrowing her eyes, Ivy looked to Sephoria for a moment before nodding her head. The woman moved to stand in the shadow of @[member="Stone Hermes"] where she was afforded more cover than simply being out in the open. She crouched, ducking away from lancing blaster bolts, and brought up the holoimage of the building layout.

"There's an access tunnel to the underground sewers on the west end," she offered, "if the Resu can draw their attention towards the north entrance enough, we could slip in mostly unnoticed. Not a big chance of them having any heavy guns there."

@[member="Sephoria Lasranae"]

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

"It would be intact ... mostly."

Sephoria caught Ivy's glance and sighed. The plan that her sister was plotting out really stunk. Honestly the sewers? Her Epicanthix nose might not have been worth a damn, but Sephoria's was quite sensitive. It was a blessing and a curse.

"If we must ..."

The emplacement weapons started to sound more appealing.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

 

[Mercury Zealot]

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"] @[member="Sephoria Lasranae"]

"The Resu comply. What are our duties?" Hermes asked the human things. There so far wasn't much action beyond a few dispersed pirates taking pot shots at them, while they humans took cover behind the much larger Mechanical Beasts. The original contingent of Resu began to divert their course to the north, to preform, "The Distraction" this squad needed. All that was left now was to plow through the underground tunnels. Not a problem for an animal with 0% olfactory organs. Besides, he had other things to titillate his sensory organs. His blade begged for blood, and his head shook for the need to plunge his metal tusks into something soft, wet, and squishy. He roared at the hopeless pirates, raining upon them deadly arcs of tiny lighting. Jaws quickly joined him in the alien testosterone.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"There's a metal hatch covering the sewer entrance. We'll need you to open it up. Once we're inside the task is simple - round up the Pirates for conversion ... dispose of the trouble makers." Ivy was content to leave the disposing portion to @[member="Sephoria Lasranae"] and the Resu, she'd take care of corraling those who placed a bit more value on their lives.

"Let's move people!" leaving the shadow of @[member="Stone Hermes"] Ivy directed her team along the south wall, pausing only as she spied incoming bogies in the sky, "We've got Pirate fighters inbound, who's got the anti-aircraft missiles? Cover the Resu!"



OOC - Who else is on the ground? @[member="Kelik Corinthus"] you still with us?

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

Sephoria grudgingly nodded to Ivy's further explanation of her directives. She still didn't like the plan but she didn't have any better ideas that didn't have her leaving the team to die while she went off to have her own fun.

The huddle broke up and they started to move just as her sister noticed the fighters on the horizon. It was possible that they would have bigger targets to pick on than their measly team, but the Resu were large targets in themselves. Unfortunately Sephoria didn't have any kind of weapon that could ward off star fighters. The Garhoon was strong, but she wasn't a shocktrooper who would carry around all sorts of munitions for these types of situations. Operatives like her were suppose to be out of the open so they could strike from the shadows.

As such the woman did the only thing that was sensible at that time ... she ran. Her rifle fell back onto it's sling around her shoulder as her long legs swallowed the ground in big strides. Even in full armor she was graceful. Of course that was until she nearly tumbled over while skidding to a halt next to the large sewer access hatch that Ivy had been referring to earlier. The Garhoon began to pull on the hatch with all of her might. The metal platform groaned under the pressure and she grunted and growled loudly as it started to give way. It really was a job for the Resu, but she wasn't going to wait for the big fish to make their way there without trying.

The rusted metal platform finally popped from its dormant position where it had sat still for years. Lasranae's pale face was red with great strain as she moved around and shoved her shoulder into the hatch to further lift it off of the ground to where even Stone Hermes could jump in unassisted.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"] @[member="Stone Hermes"]

 

[Mercury Zealot]

Anti-aircraft missiles? Bah! Stone Hermes would just yell really loud at them! Fus ro dah am I right?

"Death!" He yelled in his tongue an arc of miniature lightning at it. He didn't even get close. What he did though was rather stupid, he set forth a beacon for the other pilots near them to lock on to. Which means targeting would begin. Undaunted by this fact he beckoned them with an anxious blade, while his more aware kin clutched him away towards the objective, which was to lift a heavy thing... that a tiny human was summarily failing at. They marched quickly towards them while fire rained haphazardly within their vicinity. Quickly, he and Jaws pushed lesser humans out of the way, and gripped underneath the thing Ivy Steph was attempting to move. As one (struggling to find its boundaries for a slight second, using Ivy Steph as reference) they hefted the thing yards away from them like a discus, hardly fatigued by the task at all.

"In!" He yelled, before squeezing his frame cleanly through, with only minor ear killing metal against metal screeching. Jaws awaited the others to go through, bringing up the rear for them.

@[member="Sephoria Lasranae"], @[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

EDIT: lol, you guys need to get different pics. All I saw was the pic and got you two confused.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy was strong, but not that strong. She didn't bother with the heavy lifting and instead moved to cover Seph who struggled with the massive seal. When @[member="Stone Hermes"] moved in and tossed the thing with the grace and skill of an olympian she shot a look at Seph. These creatures were terribly interesting.

No time to think about that though - with the hatch clear and Stone leading the way, Ivy climbed in after him, shouldering her blaster and being sure to stay clear of his more lethal appendages.

"100 meters ahead there should be a a fork. Take the right, it leads to the courtyard inside."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

(I will say use your judgment. Pick what makes a better story )
Soliael watched the space battle continue, there were several more flashes of light as starfighters and the like exploded in brilliant flashing lights. A frown creased his face as the Swarm Frigates began to shift their attention to the Pirate Flagship. Quickly the Sith could sense the panic and fear upon the flagship, and it quickly made his frown disappear. He knew that they were winning, he could sense their hopes quickly fading away.

This was good. If the Flagship fell the other ships in the fleet would likely flee out of sheer terror.

“I shall be a merciful god.” Soliael said it more to himself than anyone else aboard the ship.

He turned to the communications officer and spoke to him, asking him to open a channel to the pirates. The man simply nodded to his god, and Soliael once again spoke.

“This is your last chance. Surrender, or be destroyed.” His voice was harsh, and command seeped through it.
@[member="Zoey Marix"]

 

[Garza]

As I was speaking to the man. He and his crew stood staring at me and the white film that surrounded my body. The aura was bright and made me look as though I may have been a god, or an Angel of their making. A bloody angel at that. Taking a hold of my sword I rose it to the air as the voice of Neth the Keeper came over the speakers.

“This is your last chance. Surrender, or be destroyed.”

I stood upon the ship with a good amount of our own men. and I was willing to die for the cause. I had proven it to Neth once before, and taking this job, I knew that there was a chance that even a stray blaster bolt could kill me. I let my sword hang down at my side now. THe pirate captain stood up to face me. Looking out to the ship view port, both he and I could see that the was losing the battle. There was no way that he could win this. Even for him to come back and attack, his ship would be obliterated. He went over to the com system himself. Tapped in and spoke.

"We surrender under the terms of a Parley." Turning off the com system to let Neth speak back, I had finally started to breath. I was holding in my breath and nodded at the captain as he looked to me. "What made you surrender?" The man looked at me then to his men, and already I knew what he was going to get at. He loved his men. and only yelled at them, or hit them, out of wanting to survive. I waved my hand that he didn't need to answer me.

@[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Malok]

Though a creature defined by ambition, Thrash found himself humbled before the feet of the Crusade. The truth of the deities' might and power had opened his eyes to the truth of just how weak and small he was...and turned an ambitious Croke into a faithful servant. Now, as a testimony to his fealty, Thrash joined the Crusade's militant operation against the pirate forces of Kinoone. To his knowledge, there was a base in dire need of clearing, and that was the objective that he had selected to address. To this end, the illusion-savvy anthropoid slithered his way into the chest cavity of his Sith Training Droid, dubbed Raelyn, and projected a tangible illusion over it's entire body. This was his "default" appearance: that of a Zabrak nightbrother.

The ride down to the planet's surface was swift within the dropship, and upon touching down the Croke had to jog along in order to arrive at the heels of Eon Squad. The base was in the process of being infiltrated, and the illusion-caster would lend assistance in any way he possibly could. To this end, with blaster rifle in hand, Thrash fell in with the infiltration forces and kept his guard up. There was no telling what the pirates had in store, but he was ready for it all.

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

Sephoria waited for the soldiers and Resu to jump into the sewers while she took cover behind the opened metal hatch. A few precious moments went by before she peeked around the rusted metal. It appeared that the fighters had moved on because the Morossians had escaped.

The Garhoon thought about her options for a moment with a frown on her face. Ivy was moving her troops with precision, but they needed some kind of overwatch. It was dangerous to move into the base with no idea of what to expect. Another few moments passed before the metal hatch closed without Sephoria following them.

"Ivy, i'll meet you topside to cover your approach when you get out of the sewer," added the woman's voice through her sister's comm link.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

[ @[member="Stone Hermes"] She's my sister from another mother! I'm the tall beautiful one, and she's the serious angry one. We're suppose to be kinda sorta similar.]

 

[Sal Katarn]

Location: Planetside, 1 klick away from Pirate Base

A tall, gaunt figure in somber robes rose from his darkened corner as the dropship landed. He rustled passed @[member="Thrash"] toward the extended ramp. Whispers of fear swirled around him and a dark aura seemed to pervade his very being. He was a worshipper of Liad and his very presence caused unease among the troops.

The followers of Ithari were feared for their bloodlust. But this was a different kind of fear. The smell of corruption that hung about Anaudius' form gave rise to the popular belief that the followers of Liad could command plagues and pestilence. They were not wrong. The only beings in Moross more feared than Liad's worshippers were the cultists of the Devourer, for they worshipped destruction itself.

Beneath the shadows of his hood, Anaudius' scar pained him. It was the old wound. Mikhail's doing. The Devaronian blood poison still trickled through his system, leaving him in a constant state of pain. An old, timeless story. How many Sith Lords had had the very same problem. Yet their pain had only made them stronger, though it blinded them in the end. Anaudius would not be blinded. He served Liad. The Plaguebearer would guide him toward whatever end. Long, spindly fingers touched his forehead briefly before moving away. He had been burned and deformed beyond recognition.

Good. Liad's will.

He continued down the ramp. These pirates would be converted... or they would die.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy paused long enough to hear her sister's words relay along her comm and issued a quiet affirmative in response.

The team pressed onwards through the dark sewers, finding them significantly less putrid than they had anticipated. Seems the ancient structure hadn't been as heavily used as they suspected. It still smelled.

"Captain, the access ladder is up ahead," a Warrior towards the front reported.

Ivy glanced to the small holoprojected map from the gauntlet on her right forearm. They were right where they needed to be. She nodded, disengaged the map, and moved to join the others, carefully skirting around @[member="Stone Hermes"] to the base of the ladder. She began to climb, "Seph, we're at the maintenance hatch, do you have a visual on the courtyard?"

@[member="Sephoria Lasranae"]

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

Sephoria moved with great purpose as soon as she got off of the radio. The sewers could take them directly under the base. There would be some turns, but they didn't likely have many obstacles besides the typical rusted gate. The Garhoon on the other hand had to scale the Pirate's defenses.

Several minutes later she was behind the base and working her way up the wall. Two daggers allowed the woman to climb her way up. She slid her blades into the cracks between the ageing stones carefully so as to not make to much noise. Towards the very top a passing guard noticed the odd scraping noises. Luckily she was just far enough to the top to grab him by a handful of his shirt to pull him forward and over the edge. The man screamed on his way down, but Sephoria was already climbing over the ledge now.

Moments later Ivy's inquiry came over the comm link as Sephoria was cleaning her daggers of blood from a second responder that went to check out what the scream had been from. Luckily Seph was in a position to provide covering fire, but she would be vulnerable if the Pirates moved to flank her on the wall's walkway. It was very risky.

"Yes," came the response back to Ivy. "There are some idiots down there, and they look scared. I'll create a diversion so you can climb out. Wait for my signal." The transmission ended with no clarification as to what the signal would be.

Carefully the Garhoon woman un-slung her blaster rifle and placed it's stock into her shoulder as she leaned its forearm against the stone wall in front of her. Beneath her was the courtyard that her companions were trying to exit into. There were a couple guards in vantage points. She made mental notes of their positions, but she didn't want to give herself away just yet.

The woman lined her eye up through her rifle's scope and then began to aim at a refueling tank against the far corner of the courtyard. Her cross hairs covered it's exit valve before she squeezed her trigger. Her bolt flew true and damaged the tank's valve. Now she could just barely make out escaping fumes. One more shot ...

BOOM!

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"] @[member="Stone Hermes"]

 

[Hazel Scheler]

The explosion cause a fleeting smirk to cross Ivy's face.

That was always Seph's signal.

With a grunt, Ivy shoved at the maintenance hatch until the sunlight from overhead spilled across her face. She pushed upwards, pulling herself out into the open of the courtyard just as a haze of smoke billowed past. "Secure the courtyard, move!" She leveled her blaster, set to stun, and picked off several shadows filtering through the chaos and the smog of the fire.

"Seph how are we looking on numbers, what can you see up there?" Ivy asked into her comm as she moved to the side to provide cover for the remainder of her team as they climbed out.

"Make room for the Resu!"

 

[Sephoria Lasranae]

In hindsight maybe the explosion wasn't such a good idea. Sure it was a tried and true Sephoria method of entrance, but this time it had some back draft that went against her goal. The pirates simply started to pour out of the woodwork. In this case it would be that they poured out of the stonework, but either way there was a lot of pirates.

Sephoria would have liked to take her time squeezing off round after round of blaster fire as she provided overwatch and picked off targets at her leisure. She had the highground, but unfortunately so did many of the bandits that were starting to flood out of the base. Were these the lazy ones, the cowards, or simply the ones that happened to live in this structure? Did they not wake up with the initial bombings?

The Garhoon fired rapidly down into the coutyard gunning down several pirates. She just couldn't help but to get that nagging feeling in the back of her mind that someone was about to surprise her. Truthfully it was the force influencing her instincts and senses. Thankfully the woman trusted in that instinct and turned just in time to intercept pirates running out onto the top of the base's wall.

Blaster bolts were exchanged, and Ivy's query was left unresponded to as Sephoria fought every second to stay alive.

 

[Mercury Zealot]

If Stone Hermes knew what a smile was and could replicate it, he would be doing it now. Make room for the Resu indeed.

But... just one problem. Where the hell were the things he was supposed to hit? The fire and the heated smog within the courtyard were no problem for a skilled human who could quickly snipe through it... but was a major weakness for a person- alien - that relied entirely upon body heat. His comrade were definitely firing at targets, but he could not make visual contact. Ordinarily in a situation like this, he'd scream in all directions to get a feel of the environment electrically, but that was not possible while friendly's were around. He needed a new set of eyes, and he understood the humans well enough.

He charged forward, while asking the questions he would need to kill.

"Blind. Direct my blade!" He held it up for clarity, and snapped his jaws to intimidate anything that might be in front of him.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"], @[member="Sephoria Lasranae"]

 

[Piraiba]

"SIR! We have a situation. Command is requesting that we converge on objective alpha to backup friendlies under fire," came the voice of the pilot.

Piraiba, a ten foot tall Togorian Sith Knight, simply nodded to the man. Unfortunately the feline was to large to sit comfortably and had to improvise. He was currently knelt down on the floor of the dropship in full plate armor as he held onto a nearby seat for stability with one hand. His other hand gripped one of his two heavy blaster repeaters. It didn't matter where they sent them. This cat just wanted to get into the action.

He looked sideways at @[member="Steph Zenima"] and gave the woman a nod as the ship attempted to toss them half way across it's passenger bay with the sharp turn that the pilot made. The occasional pinging sound made it clear that they were being fired at from the ground.

"We're coming up to the drop zone. Sixty Seconds! TAKING HEAVY FIRE!"

Piraiba closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Other people might have been pissing themselves, but in truth it was this battle chaos that calmed the cat. He loved the thrill, the adrenaline, and the constant threat of death. He wondered how it was for Steph Zenima, but there really was no time to contemplate it further. The pilot had gotten them as close to the ground as he could.

The side door of the dropship slid open and he jumped out with a bestial roar. A ten foot drop led to the ground of the courtyard where @[member="Stone Hermes"] , @[member="Sephoria Lasranae"] , and @[member="Ivy Lasranae"] were trying to fight off inconceivable odds.

A moment was all that the pirates had. A precious little moment as he stumbled on the ground and recoiled from the jarring impact of 800 pounds of Togorian muscle being stopped after a fall. Then that moment was over and Piraiba raised his two heavy repeater blaster rifles. It took some of the largest and strongest shock-troopers to wield even one of these weapons. This cat lifted one in each hand as if they were just mere blaster carbines.

Just a squeeze of the triggers and massacre had begun...