Trapped | The Galactic Alliance

[Kaiden Rohn]

He reached down to prep a grenade. He rolled, throwing it over his body with the momentum of the roll. The sonic grenade found purchase between a group of Vong. Then, he saw it. A herder. Ugly thing. Huge. Lots of feet. He turned and saw them. Two Jedi. Two Jedi casting hope. And an old man in a field. He knew his place in the galaxy. It was here. He turned his head, to get a good look at the people who he was going to give it all for. Who he was going to give more than his life for. Who he was going to give his memory for. The Jedi couldn't cut through to the herder by themselves. As good as [member="Kana Truden"] and [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] were, the tides of the battle were going to have to start with Kaiden and his men. His men were charging to their deaths, to die for a cause. A righteous cause. Kaiden finally had something not only to live for, but to die for.

His feet felt lighter. Like it was eight years ago and he was a young man, fighting for the Republic. He shouldered his rifle and prepped another grenade. The Vong warriors guarding the Herder knew he was coming for them. They turned and fired their rifles at him. Plasma spit from unholy monstrosities spat around Kaiden. But Kaiden felt it. Jedi had it all the time. The Force was working with him now. He felt invincible. He felt alive again. Or maybe it was just the adrenaline. A warrior charged, staff in hand. The staff stiffened, eager to claim another victim.

But Kaiden Rohn, Havoc Squad Commander, wasn't a victim. When the Vong came towards him in a charge, he got the same treatment that many Sith had- Kaiden brought his upper body down, and shoved upwards onto the Vong's shoulders. The distribution of weight caused the Vong to fall down with enough force, and right onto his neck. It was a sickening snap as the warrior guarding the herder fell to the ground. Another two came at Kaiden, but Kaiden placed the rifle in his hip, and withdrew the knife on his chest. The knife went flying to the Vong's unarmored face, and the other received a deadly volley of rifle fire. Both were felled.

Kaiden retrieved his knife and counted what he had. A flare and a grenade.

He popped the flare, holding it high. Amidst the smoke and chaos of the battle, a bright green flare was hard to miss. He threw it at the herder, and watched as two more warriors came forward. One was felled by rifle fire. His rifle clicked empty. He used it like a bat to smash the Vong across the face before he could strike him with the staff. Before the staff had a chance to react, he used it to stab it's owner through the eye. Kaiden spit on the dead Vong, standing victorious as the Herder shrieked as the flare burned into it's side. It was a signal- shoot here. Apply force here. Insert lightsaber into giant monster.

Then, he felt numb. He looked down at his chest. It started to sting after a second. It wasn't just his chest after a moment. It was his entire torso. There was something that wasn't supposed to be there. Like a spear. A Vong had tossed a spear through Kaiden's stomach. Kaiden fell to his knees, and prepped the grenade. A solid toss, and the grenade found purchase right at the Vong's feet. The Vong roared in contempt, before he blew up in contempt. Kaiden laughed, as the Herder screamed and tried to escape.

He was bleeding out and dying on a field on a planet he had no business on. He turned to watch the two Jedi charge forward, and his men rallying. They probably didn't notice. He was tired. He was dying, relatively at peace. He had a few more minutes, by his measure, to bleed out in peace. He could reflect for a little while on where it went wrong. And where it went right. He wasn't scared to die. He'd been ready to die for years. Been dead inside for longer. He just wanted a nice funeral, that was all. He fell forward, as another Vong came forward to claim the spear in his stomach. He blindly fired his sidearm behind him. The thud of the Vong told him that he either killed him, or wounded him. He lay there, with his purpose fulfilled. All he had to do, was wait a little while longer before death took him.

For the first time in a while, Kaiden Rohn, smiled.

[member="Middenface McNulty"] was somewhere. So was [member="Gna Grimwasp"]. Good kids. They'd do Havoc proud.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Roreem"] [member="Kaiden Rohn"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Lisa"] [member="Decker Willo"] [member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="HK-36"]

"Good to have you HK," Jacen acknowledged. He wasn't in the kind of mood to respond in turn in a light-hearted manner. "They can either shore up the evacuation zone or try and form a second echelon. Things are going to get chaotic out here and they're going to find places to push through."

That was an understatement. This wasn't even the real enemy push. Just mindless thralls to test their mettle. If the herders could be eliminated the threat wouldn't go away, but the concerted push would become a scattered - but still dangerous - expansion of thralls. Hopefully some of them would flee back through the Yuuzhan Vong lines and delay the real assaults. Right now if they found a gap they could easily push through, break out and turn what defences the Alliance had mustered.

Kana's answer did not come from Jacen. Instead the soldiers saw the same target and rushed ahead. Jacen gave Kana a look and a curt nod before rushing forwards. He could see the quickest soldiers meeting some actual Yuuzhan Vong Warriors accompanying the Herder.

Several chittering Thralls emerged. Jacen slowed up and angled his body to face them. The light of his golden blade picked out their glassy, vacant eyes. They were a mix of countless species, the coral protrusions the only common factor shared. Jacen made a mental note to find a blaster before long. He hadn't been carrying one in the refugee camp.

The nearest came at him fast. He swept low and shifted his weight out of the line of the charge. The creature didn't even cry out as its right leg was severed at the knee and it went tumbling down. The next one raised both its arms ready to slam them down at Jacen. Its forearms were covered in spiny coral that would easy tear through flesh.

Jacen was quicker, bringing his blade up and down. It cut deep into the coral but the material didn't completely give. Damnable Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology. With little time Jacen went for the brute force option. The blade was weightless but he swung again and again, battering the thrall away until he had an opening. The tip of his blade sought it out with unerring accuracy.

Having run his opponent through Jacen tried to press on, but the area was suddenly thick with Thralls. He saw the flare burning against the side of the Herder. Another soldier behind them brought up a shoulder-mounted weapon to respond. The air above the herder twisted in response. A singularity. The round from the heavy weapon vanished before it could strike home.

"Bring it down! Bring it down!" Jacen screamed above the din of battle. It was starting to back away. It was all that mattered now. They'd overextended and if they didn't destroy the herder they would be swarmed, overwhelmed and utterly destroyed.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

With the herders on the verge of overruning the GA lines to the west, [member="Kaiden Rohn"], [member="Gna Grimwasp"] and [member="Middenface McNulty"] mounted a fierce resistance, supported by [member="HK-36"] and the Metal Lords. As indicated by the sensor data feeds from the front lines, that wasn't even the first wave of the enemy attackers. Even if they managed to hold back that Vong enemy, the main force will show up then, at which time [member="Decker Willo"] and [member="Lisa"] will need to deploy on the surface, once the coralskippers have been dealt with. In the meantime, the remaining transports still on the surface are being filled, while their respective shielding is steadily draining, with the only place still left unshielded being the access ports through which civilians were going to enter. And then it occurred that, while the action occurred to the west, if the Vong overran their position, what civilians could not board the transports on time would be at risk. She had to hurry, of course, so as to save as many refugees as possible.

"The flagship will be full in thirty seconds"

"Prepare for departure: I will not be in the pilot's seat here"

With that said, the remaining transports prepared to take off from the planetary surface, with half a squadron covering the three transports that haven't yet departed the planet for Karfeddion. Hopefully HK-36 could take over the evacuation portion until the medvac line returns from Karfeddion, because she knew that doing medvac was not risk-free, and must be done as continuously as possible, with the first two transports having reached Karfeddion by now.

Spoiler: Medvac line

Dennari-class heavy freighter
6x Kamek-class medium transports (4 en route to Karfeddion)

 

[Gna Grimwasp]

skev [member="Kaiden Rohn"] was down.
she tried to run over from the cargo container. trying to drag a med kit to the falling soldier she hated being so small.
sure it helped in the tech aspect but not in the carrying department. still she jigged the thing over to Kaiden then began to remove the breastplate.
pulling out a anti acid spray. she then added a bacta patch.

still she was no Medic.
"Hold on soldier if you are going out it is as a bad ass. " she needed to get this guy to a medic.
" Middin get yer ass over here we need to get these guys out of here. so you are loading us up."

 

[Kaiden Rohn]

Life was fleeting. He was getting cold, the same kind of cold that inspired you to lie down under a blanket and take a nap on a winter's day. He looked up at the sky. The sound of the battle seemed to be getting further and further away. Like Kaiden was finally getting some semblance of peace.

"Don't worry about me- go push the Vong back. That's all that matters now."He wrapped his hand around the small fairy's hand, and squeezed lightly before applying pressure himself. It was honestly to make her feel better. Not much besides a miracle could save Kaiden now. He turned his head to look at the civilians who were using the time he bought to fall back. Shuttles were coming. The sky was lit with the raging battle above.

"That's all that matters, kid. Not me. Them. Don't ever forget that. Now go- go and make me proud." He looked to the Vong approaching, and then to the droid tank. Better suited to stopping the Vong than helping an old man.

"Go and do some good."

[member="Gna Grimwasp"] [member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Roreem"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Middenface McNulty"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Decker Willo"]

 

[Middenface McNulty]

turning back crushing the vong beneath his treads he headed to [member="Kaiden Rohn"]'s location.
" tell him to shut up. the ships are taking off in 30 seconds according to the comms. you did good soldier you got then off safe." the giant droid said as he rolled over.
rear cannon laying suppressing fire.
" get him stable me coming." the Abominor said as two droid gunships swooped over head carpet bombing.

 

[Gna Grimwasp]

" hear that [member="Kaiden Rohn"]? you got the civilians off safe now shut up and picture the cool cyber organs you will get. " she joked more for her sake than his.
" Maybe a literal Beskar liver huh? let you drink acid without blacking out. " she said as the box head of Midden popped over the crest of the hill he was down.
Standing on the troopers chest she yelled. " Gather up this is Extraction. the droid is gonna mow down everything in our path. We don't leave a man behind WE ARE HAVOC SQUAD AND WE BRING THE HAVOC. " her Adrenalin was pumping she was trying to chanel it in to somthing not distrustive like panic.

 

[Lisa]

The new arrivals had drastically cut the enemy's chances the added fire power from Farium and the two corvettes plus the Metallords the coral skippers were reduced to just 20 in a matter of seconds still dangerous but they had managed to distract them from the refugees.
" Note odds have increaced 57% suggest we assault Vong mothership."

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

People were already dying. Good soldiers giving their lives for something they shouldn’t have to. The unmistakable thorn-like protrusions of the thralls was a factor Kana had long since learned to ignore. It was a moving, living tactic and it had to be treated as such. The coral made them look intimidating, and those who had known the individual beneath it before their transformation would hesitate to pull the trigger. For every soldier that the Vong made the chance to gain several more increased. To fight the Vong you had to disconnect yourself from what you saw, yet the force was useless against it. A middle ground was necessary in which you relied on neither, yet the both of them at the same time.

This was just a small part of why she despised them.

Thralls would come towards them and Kana would mirror her friend in batting against their foes until left with an opening, throwing in a kinetic blast to send them away when things felt like they were getting a bit too close. She’d like to think some small part of her felt for them, but a greater part of her felt numb inside. Another day at the office, another credit in the bank. In the end it was the thoughts that would let her sleep at night. It was easier that way.

The herder swallowed the rockets blasted towards it whole, a big pocket of nothing devouring it as if it had never been there.

Thralls came for her. A hand reached up to blast them away again.

Idea.

“Jacen,” Kana closed in on the man. “What if we tried to somehow throw some of the thralls at the herder?”

 

[Decker Willo]

Decker took [member="Lisa"]'s strategy into consideration. But, he knew that doing so could no doubt result in casualties. A head on assault by the fighters only, even with the help of [member="HK-36"]'s ships would only result in losses. They needed to just hold them off, that was their task. "Lisa, we just need to worry about the fighters. We go after that mothership, we will take losses! I won't take that chance, stay with the transports."

"[member="Cathul Thuku"], are all the transports pulling out?" he asked, as he noticed the remainders of the transports lifting off. What of the ground forces. What was to be done for them? Were they going to come back? "Cathul, do you need my squadron do make a run on the ground? We can do it, just give the word." A skipper passed by, taking a hit but it did sped off before he could take it down completely. There were still plenty of skippers flying about.

 

[Lisa]

" Understood [member="Decker Willo"] i have sent the gunships to offer air cover. droid fighters are escorting the transports. "
the droid said as she performed the same neck snapping maneuver. only to be hit buy a coral-skipper's lave spitter.
both s foils snapped as her craft spirale down to the planet below.

 

[Kaiden Rohn]

[member="Gna Grimwasp"] had a lot of spirit. A lot like Steph did. A tattooed hand rested on her tiny shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"I'll be fine, kid. I need you to direct the gunships coming in."

He pulled out an IR marker from one of the pouches on his belt. It was about as big as his palm, probably much bigger to the small fairly-like woman.

"Throw this, and tell them to decimate whatever is near it. Throw it at the Herder. They won't be able to see the Herder until they're too close from the air. Don't throw it too close. Singularities will suck it up. Throw it about ten feet away. I need you to do this, Gna. Tell [member="Roreem"] to redirect and start picking off the more important-looking Vong. Get the droid to cover you."

It was getting hard to stay awake. But Havoc had a mission here. And they couldn't waste it on getting him out of here. Hopefully, Gna and [member="Middenface McNulty"] were cut out for the task.

 

[Middenface McNulty]

"Fine. " [member="Kaiden Rohn"] was right but weather Midin liked it or not he had a job to do and one he liked.
" Me will need to gunners to operate Me turrets. " she suggested he looked to Gna.
" you be ok? " he asked turning back to the frey " Me need some scrap to patch these holes." he said as his thresher whirred as the giant droid picked up a wrecked vehicle and ate it.

" Good Who else up for this? " and with that he roared off in to the fight two gunners on his back. tredds crushed and his cannons blasted.
but it was the mouth the terrible thresher maw that the those that survived spoke of. the two gunners would talk of the terrible whirring.
and the sound of bone and gristle being ripped.
Midden would grab the vong and toss them in to the whirring teeth spraying the two gunners with the offal and viscera.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Gna Grimwasp]

running over to her Truck that contained her com gear. being tiny was a hassle.
" Tooth fairy to [member="Roreem"] respond. new orders target ant important looking Vong look for Battle masters and females." she repeated several times then turned to the Gunships
" Note gunships respond. you are to report to this Chanel orders are to carpet bomb Vong units avoid any Mechanical units. we want high enemy casualties." she ordered swivelinh on her chaie she commed to. [member="Cathul Thuku"]
" Civilian Evac Please respond? "

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Roreem"] [member="Kaiden Rohn"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Lisa"] [member="Decker Willo"] [member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="HK-36"]

With his saber lodged in the chest of a thrall, Jacen was forced to step into the path of the next oncoming enemy. It's battle screech stopped as the marshall lowered his shoulder into its chest. Claws raked across the top his his shoulder as it was pushed away. Jacen felt warm blood welling up under his robes as he deactivated his saber and came around. A suit of armour would have been welcome fighting this horde. With a snap-hiss his blade came to life once more. It cut down then up again to meet the thrall's chin.

“Jacen,” Kana closed in on the man. “What if we tried to somehow throw some of the thralls at the herder?”

Clear for a moment, Jacen considered his reply. Would that distract the Herder's defences or do some damage? The creature was rapidly back-pedalling, trying to extract itself from the fight.

"Or something larger...keep them off me..."

Jacen closed his eyes. The Yuuzhan Vong were almost impossible to sense, even the Thralls difficult to reach. Yet there was more still around them. A crack resounded from a wide tree near the Herder. Bark splintered in all directions as the body of the tree was severed from the base. As it fell towards the Herder several singularities popped into existence but they merely cut the trunk in several places. It crashed upon the herder and the weight of its boughs dragged it down. It writhed and twisted but was left trapped in place.

Jacen's eyes snapped open.

"Finish it," Jacen growled.

"Marshall, the first wave of transports is away!" called a voice in his ear.

"Check the western fringes of the camp are clear and start to set up a second line of defence there." The abandoned sectors of the refugee camp would make a good killing ground to ambush the Vong, but they needed to keep the Yuuzhan Vong advancing more slowly than the trailing edge of fleeing civilians.

Jacen looked over at Kana and gave an appreciative nod. He thought back briefly to the state they had found her in and recalled how easily her temper had frayed when given a lightsaber again. No journey worth travelling was ever easy.



OOC/ Going to do a timeskip next post to a few hours later when the next waves comes.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"], [member="Kaiden Rohn"], [member="Kana Truden"],

"I will sent them to the evacuation zone then."

HK confirmed to Jacen in regard of the dropships and droid starfighter escort he brought,

"I only had couple dropships of troops for escort, I did not anticipate a full scale battle in my visit to GA. Rather than starting brief second front alone they would be more useful teaming up with your boys to get as many civvies off of this hellshole as possible."

Explained his reasoning as another mindless thrall threw himself towards the droid, Phrik wrist vibroblade quickly extending out from between the chitinous plates of Vong-shaped armor the droid wore and launching itself towards the enemy soldier. In a quick thrust of his strong arm the droid pierced the thrall's throat, almost cleanly separating his head from his neck with a gush of bodily fluids before he kicked the being off of his built-in weapon, letting the thrall fall limply to the ground.

"Gross."

He muttered to himself. It's true that HK took battle and even such grave situations as the one he found himself in way less seriously than Jacen or others currently did, that was mostly because the droid realized there was little to nothing that could really damage or destroy him nowadays since his enemies had to go through a layer of deflector shields, tough Vong armor, and then the slender but tough Phrik body. Even if his current vessel would be destroyed during the battle, another copy would just be made by his servants couple days later and another copy of his mind uploaded to it. These methods of cybernetic phylactery and immortal droid loopholes, coupled with the continuously amassing pile of quirks that clogged the droid's programming, gave him a rather potent god-complex. The machine literally thought of himself as a divine being, claiming to be the Father of Droids, and considered himself immortal, as such he was often careless or even bored during battles, because in his view he was not able to make any mistakes ever.

"Ironborne."

HK addressed one of his Greycloak guards as he shook his arm, trying to get as much Thrall blood off of it while it was still fresh,

"Get some high ground with a shattergun rifle and provide sniper support, hunt for those Herders the Jedi are looking for."

The other assassin droid nodded, activating thrusters of his built-in jetpack and rocketboot systems to lift off as he reached for the shattergun sniper rifle slung over his back, flying off away from the battle in search for some nice cliff or a ruined tower overlooking their current position.


More Thralls pilled up upon HK and his remaining Greycloak Honor Guard then, pushing them off away from Jacen, Kaiden, Kana and others a bit in the turmoil of the battle, which is why they weren't really that interactive with them after their initial arrival, however from time to time there would be a sight between enemy soldiers of a large war droid clad in Vong-shaped armor wielding a violet glowing electro-ship, twined out of some black material, swinging the buzzing weapon about to strike and flog the Thralls as from time to time he let loose a volley from his Magnetic Revolver, followed by his Honor Guard who watched his back, armed in a blue-blade lightsaber and a black spear tipped with Phrik that cut or pierced their foes even as they were beginning to be cut off from the rest, at least for now.


Also the ships in the orbit would be under [member="Decker Willo"], so if he needed them to do something all he had to do was send out an order to the machines fighting besides him in the void between the celestial bodies.

 

[Decker Willo]

Decker Willo nodded, even though [member="Lisa"] wouldn't be able to see him do so. He was about to give a vocal response when she suddenly cut off. "Mynock 12?" He received no response and soon saw why as one of Mynock Squadron was headed for the surface, spinning. "Lisa!" He quickly connected to [member="Cathul Thuku"], trying to get a connection to the ground forces. "Cathul, one of my fighters has taken a hit. I need a connection to the ground!" He did not realize he was sounding so demanding, but everyone in his squad was held above all else.

He attempted to reach the rest of Mynock Squadron and any of [member="HK-36"] fighters, giving orders to tighten up on the transports and move in pairs. There would be less area coverage, but traveling with a wingman would make his squad-mates much more safer. Too many skippers were around, they would not last much longer out here. But he would not leave, not until he knew that all of his squadmates were safe.

 

[Lisa]

" well this dos not look good." Lisa sighed as the fighter spiraled down to the planet.
still she tried to make adjustments to pilot the fighter to the ground.
" Ground crew. make room. [member="Decker Willo"] keep my droids safe i am passing controll. "
as she entered the atmosphere she pppened fire as the ground grew close ejecting 35 seconds before the fighter hit the ground slammong in to the vong army vong

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

At the very least she had helped. A healer on a battlefield to the extent in which Kana was would likely be something that most frowned upon, but in the end when it came to situations such as these it was far more likely that the woman would consider herself a soldier more than anything else. Not that soldiers held her kind of proficiency in the force, or more often than not held a proficiency in the force to begin with, but it was the doctrine that had been ingrained upon her mind.

Jacen threw a tree, the soldiers threw rockets. It was awesome, it was great, it was exactly what they had needed when they needed it, and now was the time to back off. She caught the way he glimpsed at her, beamed a quick smile before nodding her head backwards without saying a word. A way to indicate they should back away and put space between the Vong and themselves as the thralls would undoubtedly begin to panic around them.

She was okay with infavorable odds, used to them even, but she had her reservation on death no matter how tough she tried to act.

“I’ll see to any wounds you or the others have once we reach the fallback zone.” Kana called out and grabbed her saber with a firmer grip. “For now let’s focus on getting there first.”

And with that her boots slowly began to carry her backwards. Away from the Vong. “Slow and steady does it.”

 

[Kaiden Rohn]

"The MILITARY, Kaiden? Do you know what the Republic does to worlds? They have no love for history, much less their own people!" Kaiden stared at his mother, and then looked to his father. As stern as he was, the old scholar was sharing the sentiment. "I think you're throwing your life away with this. What good will come of it?"

What good, indeed. He was alone now. They had pushed the Vong back. The thralls were in disarray, running around. Kaiden felt the spear being lifted out of his stomach. He was tossed by the Vong onto his back. An Alliance Marine shot the Vong in the chest, and turned to look at Kaiden on the ground. There wasn't any helping him now, so Kaiden didn't blame him for running after the retreating Vong in retiliation. They were hard enough to push them back by pursuing them on foot. The Vong rarely met an enemy that would chase after them. Hopefully, they'd stop and establish a better defensive line with what they had left.

He looked over, seeing [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] and [member="Kana Truden"], backing away. The Thralls were being slaughtered wholesale by the Marines and soldiers. Not much leadership, no control. Meant disaster for the Vong attack. The people were safe now. And Kaiden could lay there, with the grip of death starting to tighten around his throat. He hoped Naboo would at least put up a nice headstone for him. Or he could make it back to Naboo. At least, his body could.

He put pressure on the wound, trying to sustain himself for as long as possible. Force knows that Kaiden wouldn't at least make an attempt.

[member="Decker Willo"] l [member="HK-36"] l [member="Middenface McNulty"] l [member="Gna Grimwasp"]