Two Parts Pirates, One Part Zombies, Ninjas Optional - Galactic Alliance Dominion of Elrood

[Harmon Taldan]

Objective: B
Location: Incom Facility, Elrood
Allies: Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Pirates/Insurgents
3/20

Several minutes in a firefight seems to last several hours. Every heartbeat seems to last several breaths, when it was just really some hyperventilating to super oxygenate your blood to keep up with the massive amounts of adrenaline coursing through your body. With every long, belabored minute of combat, insurgents fell to the concentrated firepower of Harmon's team. He had lost only a single soldier, which was still far below normal statistics, but the enemy had littered the ground with their dead or dieing. After several minutes, and something close to twenty dead, the insurgents pulled back from the breach in the fence, probably to try to regroup. Harm assumed the pirates that were coming toward the planet were going to be picking up something the insurgents were trying to secure.

"Good job team. Reload, keep your eyes peeled, they'll likely be back." he switched from his team's channel to a higher level. "Chiron actual to Alliance Overwatch, requesting ground bombardment at coordinates to follow." He read off a list of coordinates, they were of a defile less than a quarter mile away from the fence breach. If these were smart insurgents, they wouldn't be regrouping there. If they were off worlders and hadn't planned for strong defenses, they might be using it not knowing just how obvious it was, nor how susceptible to bombardment it was. Only time will tell.

 

[Mediha]

Allies?: [member="Darius"] [member="Kai Xanatos"] [member="Rovasus Vonstrogg"] [member="Julius Sedaire"]

"I remember," she replied certainly, eyes on their opponents. And then they were there, and Mediha was guiding her body into the motions [member="Darius"] had spent so many months teaching her. The blade was truly weightless, but that seemed to make it easier for Mediha. She need not worry about carrying a weight she could not manage, only the movement of her lightsaber. As one mindless corpse reached for her and she cut through both its arm and torso, sending it sliding to the floor in pieces, she couldn't help but admire how cleanly everything was done. It was very unlike anything she had grown up knowing. All fighting and blade-related experiments ended with a great deal of blood shed.

Suddenly, something large fell from the sky not far from them and Mediha-- blade raised defensively-- moved back instinctively. Her gaze cut a swath through [member="Julius Sedaire"] as the Master spun through the small gathering of bodies, taking care of the rest of the mess she and Darius had been cleaning up.

Who the kark is this?

Her remaining potential kills stolen from her unexpectedly, it took a moment for Mediha's lowering adrenaline to let her remember that there were other battles to be fought, and that his actions were not only not a danger to her but had taken away the risk of injury and death to herself. Just because he wasn't Darius did not mean she should be angry that someone else had done the work. Inhaling slowly through her nose, she instead kept her guard up both against any unseen enemies and the potential one that had just dropped to their rescue.

When the last zombie had been cut down, the newcomer turned to them, seemingly all smiles. Mediha's face was impassive as he addressed Darius familiarly, and her gaze slid to the much younger Jedi as his response came back with an attempt to equal the casual, if overdone, charm. Mediha felt herself... at loose ends, trying to identify her own thoughts and feelings about this new development as she turned to survey the progress of the other part of their group.That lasted until the man-- Darius's Master, Mediha noted-- addressed her.

Her gaze scanned over him again, managing to be both detached and oddly contemptuous simultaneously, but she did deactivate her lightsaber. She hadn't yet decided what, entirely, to think of this man who knew Darius. Perhaps the battles to come would give her a better idea. Power alone was not impressive to her, and this was most likely the man who had essentially raised him. Darius loved to talk and he told her so much more than she had ever asked to know when she gave him the least little opening. She knew well enough who his masters were and had been as a result; this was not the pink Twi'lek she had met on Zeltros, which left only his first master. Given Darius's personality, she was not hopeful that Master Sedaire would prove to be much better than his adopted offspring where it came to logic, seriousness, or common sense. Had he seen his son's scars yet? She wondered if he would have been brave enough to show his master the things he seemed to so vainly despise.

As she turned away from the pair of Jedi, a real concern arose, and she eyed Rovasus's back contemplatively. Would this decrease her chances of utilizing the opportunity she had been given where the captain was concerned? Quite possibly. That would be unfortunate. She would have to see what cards the Fanged Goddess laid before her.

"We need to finish clearing these things, as promised," she told Julius without looking at him. The horde was almost decimated by the blaster fire of the soldiers. She would have explained herself or offered a casual recommendation of how to proceed, but she had been in this position before with similar-- and some of the same-- men. She waited for one of the men around her to, predictably, take charge and either ignore her as being secondary to their 'expertise' or shoot down her comment for similar reasons. It was irrelevant to her. Darius knew her value; most other men she'd encountered were ignorant and blind. She was happy to leave them that way until it became a problem; most she would not have to deal with again, and it saved her some aggravation. Once upon a time, she would have put them in their place more quickly, but being in the galaxy had taught her that what was commonly accepted logic on her homeworld was not so welcome out here. She would like to blame it on the galaxy being primarily male-dominated and therefore perpetuating the concept that men should be in charge and knew better than those around them, but that was only one part of the larger issue. Instead, she would use their ignorance to her advantage. When the right time came, she could always correct them if they hadn't come to the right conclusions themselves.

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Post 9 of 20
Objective: BYOO - The Year of Blood, Part 1
Location: Dinbar

The flames danced in the pale moonlight.

The smoke created a haze about the old mill. The pyre he'd constructed holding the Primeval armor that had been fitted to him for the battle of Wayland. A war zone he never should have had to have experienced, and wasn't intended to have lived through. The armor represented something, something he'd thought that he believed in. Until he'd realized, that he loved the Primeval. But whatever used the name of that ancient religion, throwing masses of people to die and claiming victory through nothing more than a needless mound of corpses, was not any part of the faith he knew.

The snap-hiss of a lightsaber brought a blood red light to shine alongside the rolling flames of the bonfire.

He looked down at the weapon in his hand, as though trying to find some meaning in it. Taking the device in both hands, the boy twisted it apart, revealing the crystal chamber suspended within the handle. The synthetic crystal, gleaming darkly in the twilight like a blood ruby, fell out into his hand. It had been handcrafted using Sith Alchemy. He could feel the Dark Side of the Force, the malevolent energies radiating outward from within the gem.

Rearing back his hand, he chucked the gem into the fire.

A blue flash of some ethereal energy blossomed outward, momentarily enveloping the pyre in a wash of azure flame. Before it flickered out, and was gone. Leaving only the fire, burning as before.

It seemed strange to watch it all burn. He knew that he needed to let go of the past, especially if he was going to find a new way, but he'd always carried it with him. Now, he would bury it.

That armor. That crystal. He wasn't that person anymore. Whatever he'd been, and whatever he was becoming, he would bury the past here on Elrood, and start living in the present.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 07/20 ]

"I would like to tell you that it's a really dumb move, but..." the man said, his voice nothing like it was before. Now it was full of something other, some emotion of shock, of surprise. "It's rather amazing, actually."

Lilin could only feel enjoyment. She had come up with a peaceful way to solve the problem, which was the most important thing she could have. Her boss wouldn't have liked the loss of such a considerable amount of money, but neither would he have wanted to deal with criminal assumptions or even worse, losing the relic altogether.

"So, do I have the money?"

The man grunted. "Yeah, just one second, please."

The girl waited for a moment.

"Done. Go and buy the relic back!"

 

[Nubica Felidae]

[Post=9/20]​

Behind — the other enemy pilot would be coming up behind. She looked back, saw only the top of her droid’s dome head, and checked the sensors again. Yes, a fighter was coming around fast, trying to take up a position behind her. But they were making a broad loop to do it, perhaps intimidated by the firepower they'd just come through. She could try to cut hard to starboard and might be in position for another head-to-head by the time they got their guns fixed on her... No. Her ship wouldn’t take it.

She turned to starboard, her manoeuvre not quite precise. And it was too much for the X-wing's inertial compensator and the metal box holding the S-foil configuration switch that swung on its wires, slamming into the side of her helmet.

She ignored it, tried to stay focused and managed to perform a loop whilst keeping the ship in one piece. She tried to place her targeting brackets on the ship which was now in front of her, but couldn't manage it — the starfighter was too manoeuvrable, jittering out of the way. She fired anyway, her spray of single-shot lasers slicing through vacuum near its starboard wing.

The enemy pilot jerked away from the bombardment of red fire, drifted to port... straight into a lock. The quartet of lasers sliced cleanly through the fighter's cockpit. The fighter disappeared in a glorious explosion of red, orange, and yellow, and Nubica heard clanks and pings as her X-wing sliced through the cloud.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 08/20 ]

Lilin stepped into the building and was suddenly greeted by a ton of aromas, of which none were enjoyable. She didn't like the atmosphere over there at all -- it was a criminal auction and she would have wanted to shut it down. But as she noticed, there were too many people over there to put all of that off by herself. She would either need help or... well, she wouldn't succeed nonetheless.

So she set her cloak over herself as she walked closer to the auction.

"About time fo' our most important item," the man on the stage announced as he pointed at the relic in a glass dome.

She took a deep breath.

"Startin' bid -- one million credits."

Holy bantha poodoo...

 

[Nubica Felidae]

[Post=11/20 - seems I’m rubbish at keeping count]​

Nubica tried to find the other enemy fighter on her sensors, but the closest enemy was outbound, headed toward the cloud of red blips representing the two full squadrons of the enemy she knew to be in space.

In fact, all the remaining enemy fighters — five of them — were outbound.

It was there, battering at her head as insistently as the switch housing swinging into her helmet, a thought that wouldn't let her go. She couldn’t follow them, her lack of experience at flying within the atmosphere might cost an Alliance pilot his life as she would have to remain down here. There was no way her ship could survive the trip into space.

She wanted to admire her flying. It had been clever, efficient, successful. But ultimately she came up short. She shook her head and confirmed she was heading to a ground base for repairs.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 09/20 ]

Lilin cleared her thoat.

"1.1 million credits," she shouted, after which everybody looked at her. Her high voice and small height definitely made all of the nearby criminals surprised. Even the man on the stage looked at him with surprise in her eyes.

"Uh, well, 1.1 it is. Anybody wanna add?"

The worst part about these things was that Lilin didn't know anything about criminal auction rules. She had no idea how things were handled there, but she had a lot of money on her account and she would manage no matter what.

"1.2!" somebody from the crowd shouted.

"1.25," Lilin said with not much emotion to her voice.

She heard the man starting to speak to her through the holocomm, "Wow, that's a lot. I'll have to get you some more funds."

 

[Chevu Visz]

Objective: BYOO
1/20

Nub Oomomo’s Holocron, left for her by her late Sullustan master, was a bittersweet boon to the Jedi Marshal’s talents. Acting as the Holocron’s gatekeeper, Oomomo had painstakingly described the techniques of the nomadic Jal Shey, ancient Force intellects, who knew how to imbue objects with the Force. The Mirialan could already Force Weapon inanimate objects on the fly and often did in a pinch, even in the middle of battle. Rocks, chair legs, trees, whatever she could get her green hands on could become a lightsaber-resistant melee weapon. Now that she had the esoteric knowledge of Jal Shey Force imbuement from Oomomo himself, she needed to put it into practice. So, Chevu’s first stop on Elrood was the Elrood Bazaar.

The Perma was alive with merchants and vendors from all over the galaxy. It was so overwhelming, that the Mirialan did not know where to look at first. There were so many things that Chevu had never even seen before, all packed into one place. Reams of gemweb. Baskets of seafah jewels. Slabs of Azurite. All of it was laid out in pristine stalls for those who had the credits.

The Galactic Alliance Jedi Marshal had a small stipend, but she hoped it would do. If not, the Mirialan wasn’t above a Jedi Mind Trick or two.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 10/20 ]

"Thank you," the girl whispered into the holocomm, trying her best to keep that conversation in secret. He looked around to see if other people had noticed her whispers. It looked like nobody had time for that.

"1.3 million," her rival bidder said. She was a woman, looked like a bounty hunter or an assassin of some kind. Lilin didn't think she could be trusted, but to get the relic back, she had to keep on going.

"1.35 million credits," Lilin shouted. The man on the stage seemed rather surprised that such a young kid had so much money in her hands, as well as a wish to really get the relic. He looked as if he had started to form an idea why the girl was there and how she had the money, but he didn't seem to react to that.

"1.4," the rival shouted.

"1.5 it is," Lilin answered. Things were going pretty fast and Lilin couldn't even tell what the heck was going on in the building.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

[Post=12/20]​

She keyed her comlink. "Status update..." She scanned her diagnostic board.

"Forward shields down to twenty-seven percent but climbing. Rear shields seventeen percent and not changing. Some gauges are out."

She grabbed the S-foil switch where it hung and switched it.

Her S-foils did not respond. "S-foil actuator seems to be out. And I think I hit my head." She was sent coordinates to land and punched them in.

She reached the hangar and saw more ships than she'd expected, many more battered than hers, most scored by laser grazes, many with S-foils unable to assume cruise position, a whole myriad of dents and problems.

She climbed out into a chaotic sea of backslaps and embraces, handshakes and congratulations.

Everyone seemed to move in slow motion. Words were slowed, almost incomprehensible, and sounds were muted. One pilot's arm motions, as he described some complicated maneuver or another, seemed to be those of a Gamorrean in low gravity.

Yet the one thing Nubica understood was the expressions turned on her. They were the eyes of a group to whom she belonged. Not since she left Ossus had she seen that expression.

And the pilots weren't saying it, weren't deliberately expressing the thought, "You are one of us."

No, it was implicit, a backdrop to whatever else they were saying. Good job. Nice shot; how'd you manage it with your lasers on single fire? That first kill silhouette, congratulations and condolences.

One of us. If she wasn't a Jedi, she would be emotional right now.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 11/20 ]

"Like we can clearly see, this girl is an undercover agent," the rival shouted, her eyes staring into the girl. Of course Lilin was surprised and shocked and confused as to what to do next. She hadn't thought of anybody realising who she was.

"Shouldn't you be disqualified, dear girl?" the man on the stage asked, even though his tone spoke of him already having made the decision about whether she can continue in the auction or not. "As soon as you started bidding, I realised you were not a criminal."

"And so? Should I not be able to buy whatever I want?" Lilin asked.

"Tsk tsk," the man clicked his tongue. "You are most clearly the relic's owner's little employee."

"SOS," the girl whispered into her comm, after which she would say out loud, "What makes you think a girl like me can't be rich? It is my right to spend my money on whatever I want to."

 

[Chevu Visz]

Objective: BYOO
2/20

With Two Bit following closely on her heels, Chevu made her way through the crowd, many of them presumably nobility by the way they were dressed. Something caught her eye. Was that? Yes, it was. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a jar of Taozin parts, glands, blobs of adhesive, tiny pieces of shell armor. Since the creature was known for having skin that was resistant to blasters and lightsabers as well as Force concealing, this would be useful for many things. In fact, if memory served, Oomomo had even mentioned it in his demonstration of the Jal Shey technique.

The price was way too high for the amount on her cred stick. With a wave of her hand, the elderly Chagrian vendor was convinced to lower it for her. Was it ethical? Frell no. But no one asked the Sith if it was ethical when they committed genocide on a planet in the core.

Two Bit let out a series scornful bleeps and bumped her leg.

“You didn’t see that,” insisted Chevu, shoving the jar into her satchel. Since when did her little astromech get so high and mighty? She couldn't help but wonder if Two Bit was grumpy because he hadn’t seen Porter in a while. He and Coren's astromech had quite a bond.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 12/20 ]

"Lilin, don't worry, I've brought an additional amount of forces there," the man, her co-worker, spoke to her.

The girl only nodded as she focused on the auction again. She couldn't understand how she had gotten caught so easily. There didn't seem to be a reasonable way how they could have found about who she really was. There were literally tons of child millionaires and spoiled criminal kids in the galaxy. Why did they think Lilin was not one of them?

"1.6," she said, but that didn't seem to mean anything anymore.

"You are disqualified, madam," the man on the stage said as he turned to the rival bidder. "I believe this little relic will belong to you from now on."

Both he and the woman grinned with a rather evil look on their face. And that's when she realised something -- the auction was merely a mask. The relic was not supposed to be sold; the two had decided that the item will go into the hands of the woman, no matter what.

Oh wow, what a strategy they had.

 

[Chevu Visz]

Objective: BYOO
3/20

With the Taozin parts packed up safely in her bag, Chevu moved through the Perma, eyes peeled for anything else that Oomomo had mentioned in the Holocron. Or anything that spoke to her. She bought silver and crodium bars from Muunilist, all kinds of gemstones, like sasho gems and ur-diamonds, in multiple colors, and luxuriously soft nerf-wool, perhaps to have spun into baby blankets for Destin and Armaud.

The afternoon sun beat down on her green skin even through her sari’s head wrap. With a bounty on her head, the last place the Mirialan Jedi Marshal needed to be was in public, pressed into a crowd as big at the one at the Elrood Bazaar. She had her features covered as best she could, with the garments draped so that only her eyes, nose, and cultural tattoos were showing. Still, she was on her guard at all times, with her Force senses active. The light side was her best defense, as always.

“Here, buddy, I know you’re not a pack mule, but I need you to help me,” Chevu told her reluctant astromech, as she opened up his belly to use him as a temporary foot locker.

 

[Liliane]

Location: Elrood | Exact Location Unknown
Objective: D - Personal Business
Allies: The Galactic Alliance
Enemies: Enemies of the Galactic Alliance
Post: [ 13/20 ]

"No," the girl muttered. She looked around, tried to find a way to stop that madness. But whatever she thought of, the idea couldn't be realised. She had two possible ways to make this work out -- 1) she would fight or 2) she would have to wait until her boss' troops would arrive. The first one was something she didn't want to do, the second one was something that would take too long.

So option one it was.

She took her lightsaber out and ignited it. She knew she couldn't arrest people like that, but it was her only way to make them a little bit scared of her. "You are under arrest for crimes committed against the CEO of Lorrum Enterprises."

"Huh?" the man on the stage asked, but his confusion was short-lived. Before anybody could even react, dozens of men marched into the building, blasters and slugthrowers in hands.

"Now, would you please give me the relic?"

 

[Judah Dashiell]

Objective - BYOO
Location - Dinbar, Elrood
Tags - [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]


"Thank you Lady Kerrigan.Reports will be transmitted to headquarters as soon as possible. " A slight pause. "All of us here on Elrood wish you a speedy recovery my Lady."


Commander Wyrick did a slight courtesy before the transmission ended. A long breath she hadn't realized holding was let out as the equipment was packed up. She hadn't been fired. By all accounts Elpsis was alive and being treated by top medical personnel in the sector. Most of her soldiers were still alive. Today was certainly a halfway decent day.


Picking up the equipment, Rae Wyrick made her way to her shuttle. It was time to see the wounded and finish out her reports. No doubt, she'd be back once the spaceport was back to its former glory.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Objective - BYOO
Location - Dinbar, Elrood
[member="Judah Dashiell"]

Siobhan gave the Commander a tired smile, looking a bit amused by appreciative of the of her words. Courtesy bow was nice to. "Thank you, Commander. I should be up and about soon," she said, then switched off the comm device. Then she sunk back into her bed. Suddenly feeling a bit tired, it did not take long for her to drift to sleep again.


Meanwhile, things were proceeding on Elrood. Salacia continued the work to set up the spaceport, Firemane soldiers disposed of foul smelling zombie corpses, helped with cleanup and patrolled. The last cells of resistance had been broken, and local security forces would be arriving to help shoulder the burden. Meanwhile, the doctors treating Elpsis had by now concluded that she was fortunately noninfected. By now the redhead was waking up.


Perhaps this little adventure and brush with death would be a bit of a lesson for her. It would take some time before she received a new hand though!

 

[Judah Dashiell]

Objective - BYOO
Location - Dinbar,Elrood
[member="Elpsis Kallikora"]



While Firemane mopped up the newly acquired area, Salacia was busy starting phase two of the operations. The large, central building would be turning into a new hub for the company. Plans to rent out sections of the spaceport were in place. After a mishap in the Galactic Republic sector, Salacia was thinking about moving its research and development to the new Elrood space. It wasn't far off from Ceto and the ocean was similar enough to see their current projects could continue smoothly.


One step further, the city would be one of a kind in the area -- relying completely on 'green energy' to power and sustain itself. A showplace for the company to display exactly how their products worked. Right on the Rimma, it was bound to draw visitors from across the 'verse.

 

[Cuan Kunn]

N>20

Canadian gangster? He could do that, but the most important thing right now was getting the pirates destroyed. And that meant flying faster, cleaner, and harder than them. Looking up at the ships, Kunn nodded. His X-Wing was at combat speed, and the friction of atmosphere was only mildly obnoxious. He rolled his fighter as he started opening up with another salvo of blaster fire.

His shields were covering him from the blaster fire of the T-Wings, small, little interceptors. Kunn preferred to go against something similar to an X-Wing, flying against squints? He just preferred to be on even ground, he could see those smaller fighters, but when they got close, they just bothered him. But with his throttle, he was closing the ground, taking shots at the T-Wing, he rolled and pulled up, pushing for space.

“We can get them to follow us, away from the city…” He muttered to Roller.