War is what happens when language fails (One Sith attack on Sullust, Open to all)

[Arabella Darkhold]

Objective: TBD once on surface
Allies: One Sith
Enemies: Alliance

1/10

She was headed to the surface she could feel the hum of of the dark side filled Arabella she pulled it to her wrapped herself within its warmth. It welcomed her as she bathed in it, when she opened her eyes gone were the cobalt blue replaced once again by the onyx black.

She had with her the escrima sticks one on each hip waiting for her to call them to her hand, her lightsaber hooked to her belt swung with each bump of current, and her light whip curled upon her back. She smiled as she contemplated where she would do the most good, the temple, or the base? ...decisions decisions but she would have to make one soon for when they hit the ground, it would be time to declare her objective.

 

[Poy Luroon]

Objective: Destroy One Sith air forces
Allies: Galactic Alliance Defence Force
Enemies: One Sith

~

Poy found her next target; a TIE Interceptor was attacking a squadron of X-Wings, so she went in for an attack and fired her quad canons at the enemy fighter. The pilot dodged her attacks - he must be one of their aces, so she decided to give it all she had to bring him down. They entered into a turning dogfight and Poy fired off several rounds from her quad cannons and they impacted this craft, and scored hits on the wings and cockpit, but the Interceptor was somehow still flying, so she was more determined than ever to bring him down. She pushed the boosters to their limits and was pushed back into her seat, pinned by the G-forces generated by the high speed. R2-Q2 was beeping away cheerfully in the rear of the X-Wing, thinking that this was just a joyride, but this was a fight to the death for two experienced pilots.

They chased one another across the base and neither could get an advantage to shoot their enemy down. The Twi'lek flew lower and lower until it meant they were skimming over the rooftops of the buildings. He managed to stay with her, and she got as low as she possibly could and saw him staying with her, even at this height and speed. But, suddenly, in a moment of disorientation, he must have moved his stick to hard, and the TIE Interceptor slammed into a power pylon and exploded in a brilliant blue flash. Pulling up, she saw that the Galactic Alliance was slowly turning the tide of the aerial battle and rejoined her comrades in the desperate struggle above Sullust Base. Checking her gauges, the X-Wing had just over an hour's flying time left and then it would be a dangerous trip back to the hangar to be rearmed and refuelled.

You have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide One Sith....

 

[Corey's OOC]

The Galactic Alliance was wasteful. All those followers, and they had the choice to leave at any time. There was no way this was a smart way to run a government. Allowing the people how couldn’t decide for themselves what to do. Jedi jumping in, blatantly ignoring illusions because they are some kind of Marshal, and some kind of hero, only to their writing partner and themselves. No one actually recognized their actions because they only showed up when there was a threat.

As for any one expecting the One Sith to make a grand show on the world. Why would they? Take a small fleet, feel out the defenses, confirm this hallowed Fleetcom was worth more than an aborted fetus. Lucas found this place disgusting. The fact that there could be people within their ranks who didn’t have all their super cool friends of meta and overpower arriving, that was just a waste of time, to them, and the Sith. Lucas found those people worthless

His cruiser was taking a hit. That was no good, or maybe it was very good. His shuttle and fighter screen was on their way to the Trade Station. He wasn’t sure if there would be death following him, but there was death around him, his fighter screen, and one corvette falling to the garbage defenses the Alliance had. Reports were coming through that the shields were falling.

Lucas made the order. “Commander, the shields are down…” The shuttle shook violently. “You know what to do.” Lucas grabbed the support rail, as the shuttles opened fire into the hangar. Clear that out, then land.

In the distance, the assault cruiser worked to realign itself.

[member="Onna Sunrider"]
[member="Nomkneer"]
[member="Aela Talith"]
[member="Elijah Rekali"]
[member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Joy]

Sullust Base, Hangar....

Heart pounding, legs already aching, Abel ran after [member="Kaileann Vera"]. He could hear the scream of the TIE fighters, like some swarm of terrible monsters out of bedtime stories. The shrillness sent spikes of fear through Abel. Oh no, a battlefield? He shouldn't be here, but for the promise.

The earth rocked, nearly pitching Abel off his feet. Bits of volcanic rock pelted his back and stuck in his hair. "Ah!" he cried, thinking that the end would soon be nigh.

Somebody Abel had never seen before raced over and started yelling at Kaile. He seemed like he was in charge, so Abel did as he was told and followed the dark haired man and Kaile into the hangar.

[member="Andanian Ategann"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

The Galactic Alliance
Sullust Base
[member="Andanian Ategann"] [member="Abel"]

Sharp, hot debris and shrapnel from the blaster fire striking at the floor would lance through Kaile's legs and arms. Pain shot through her nerves, and she stumbled. She fell forward, arms and legs striking the floor and covering her with scratches and a whole bunch of new bruises.

Oh geez! No!

That was when she heard her name. Hands grabbed at her, dragging her to her feet, and she half skid to the relative safety of the hanger. Massive turrets would send ground to air fire, hoping to take down the TIE fighters attacking the base. Alliance starfighters would zip, joining the fray amidst the chaos.

"Wha.." she was bleeding on her knee, there was a scratch down her cheek. Warm liquid ran down her right arm, shock preventing her from really feeling the severity of it. A thick sliver of shrapnel was lodged by her upper arm, a stream of red saturating her jacket, and fast.

That was when the distant approach of troop transports would appear on the horizon.

Stormtroopers were coming.

 

[Andanian Ategann]

[member="Kaileann Vera"] / [member="Abel"]

Andanian noticed Kaile trip and fall over. On the craggy, depressing landscape of Sullust, that had to hurt. He helped her to her feet and to the hangar, poking his head around at her friend and raising a hand, trying to reassure him that he was a friend of hers as well and wasn't trying to harm either of them.

He didn't notice how scratched and bloody her fall made her until they reached the hangar after a hike across the volcanic landscape. Here was some irony. After meeting Kaile for the first time during his smuggling run to Tatooine, they had met and carried on a conversation while she applied bacta pads to his blaster wounds. This time, it was the other way around. After seeing how convenient and how well the little blue band-aid-like pads helped him, he decided to invest in some to carry around in his coat. "Sheesh, that was a heck of a fall. Sit down, Kaile, over here" he said, still half-dragging her by her arm over next to an idle X-Wing.

Once she settled, he started fumbling around the inside of his coat for those individually-wrapped miracle pads, looking at Kaile's friend. "What about you, pal, you hurt, too? I've got..." he pulled out a small handful of bacta pads, "Six."

Remembering the mask he wore consisting of his goggles and mask, probably making himself less noticeable and more intimidating, he pulled them both off before unwrapping a bacta pad and starting to try and apply them to some of Kaile's open, bleeding wounds. "You feel okay, Kaile? They aren't blaster wounds, so these should really help. Glad you showed me how handy they are" he said, chuckled softly as he patched her up.

Then he heard the troop transports in the background, grunting, but saying nothing yet as a chill ran up his spine.

 

[Joy]

Wide blue eyes stared in shock as blood dribbled out from cuts on Kaile's body.

"Oh no!"

He moved to help her, but too slowly. The other man swooped in and had her sit down next to one of the large star fighters inside the hangar. Abel crouched next to her, watching the man patch her up. His mouth moved, but no words came out. Then Abel realized his ears were still ringing. He clutched at them in consternation, sudden panic rising. Was he deaf? No, no.

The man turned to him, mouthing something. Abel frowned in consternation, but at the end of the man's sentence his hearing started to return slowly. Something about hurt too.

"No, I'm fine, just a bit shook up is all."

His focus returned to Kaile, fixing on the shrapnel embedded in her arm. He pointed at it. "You have to remove it, Mr." he said much too loudly.

Maybe the dark haired fellow wasn't a trained medic. Abel certainly wasn't either, least not yet anyway. Farmer and healer in the makin', be at least a little while before he could call himself proficient, but he did carry some supplies. Abel grimaced, reaching forward and grabbing the shrapnel.

"This is gonna hurt, Miss."

He jerked and the sliver slid out of her flesh, leaking rivulets of crimson. A bacta band aid wouldn't fix that. Abel reached into his satchel and took out a sealant and coagulant spray can. A few quick spurts covered the bleeding wound. Abel bound it with some gauze after that.

Unfortunately, while preoccupied, he didn't notice what Kaile was staring at until the stormtroopers were already off the transports and headed in their direction.

"What are you-" he looked behind him, stood up, and fumbled for his lightsaber hilt.

[member="Andanian Ategann"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Sage Bane]

Would Darth Bane have stood for the sloth of the One Sith? Would Lumiya? Or dark sider Kylo Ren? Kark no. Sage was not going to be that Sith Lord whose legacy involved sitting around in his palace torturing random Twi’leks. He was not going to be that dark sided Lothario whose claim to fame was sleeping with any apprentices he could get his greasy paws on. Never mind that he actually did sleep with his apprentice (before she ran off). He wasn’t going to be known for it. These Galactic Alliance whelps were sitting there, practically thumbing their noses at the One Sith from Fondor. And what did the greatest galactic superpower do in return?

Nothing.

Heads were going to roll when he got back to Coruscant.

If he got back to Coruscant.

His mouth still moved impossibly fast as he continued to pour illusions out onto the battlefield. A pinging sound came from his commlink, and his hand flicked to the switch, opening the channel. The apprentice of Darth Erebos had disabled the shields, and was asking for time to evacuate the area before it was struck.

The apprentice had done well. His reward would be his life.

Through the ether, the Sith Lord felt vestiges of the light, eking a path through his miasma of the dark side. The Jedi had come to play with him. How cute. He would make some playmates for them.

Sage broke his focus from the illusions, casting them to the wind, and focused on a different type of spell. As he recited a different set of ancient words, this time more of a chant, the Sith Lord’s cast shadow undulated on the ground and tendriled off the ground. Wisps of black smoke rose and settled into a myriad of shapes. These forms morphed into giant undulating shadow creatures, who stared at the battlefield with those soulless glowing orbs. Soon, twenty Hadzuska Rowa Sith familiars stood hunched around him, panting and growling, their hides made of swirling dark energy, their red eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

A thin hand reached down to pat the huffing body of the creature nearest to him, and it turned its head to give him a fang-filled smile, a rictus that matched his own wolfish grin.

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Nikola Ticon"] [member="Veino Garn"] [member="Lucas Gravois"]

Sage's Gear*: Dark Armor, lightsaber, The Hated Hand, Blade of the Satvas, Sessile Trio-Staff (masked)

*mentioned in first post

 

[Kaile Vera]

​

The Galactic Alliance
Sullust Base

[member="Andanian Ategann"] [member="Abel"]


It felt like ice shards were being ripped from her arm.

It took all effort to not go screaming like a banshee. She bit her lip so hard her tooth cut it, tasting the copper of her blood as her entire body tensed up. Oh that hurt! That hurt so --

Tears smarted her eyes, burning the membrane. But it didn't hide the incoming wave of the bucketheads in white. Nor their blaster fire as they brought up their blaster rifles to fire.

"Watch out!" with her good arm, she pulled out her Morp, the last stun setting set to the standard humanoid. Blood soaked her fingers, making them slippery, but if anything, she could aim true.

Maybe.

Breathing heavily, she sent a few pot shots down range to give them all some coverfire.

 

[Andanian Ategann]

[member="Kaileann Vera"] / [member="Abel"]

[youtube]https://youtu.be/fHvTWwnw9xs[/youtube]​

A blaster bolt snapped directly passed Andanian's ear, making the right hakf of his body contort uncomfortably and surprisingly. "Ack!" Now, the ear was ringing like mad. He left a couple of bacta pads with Kaile, having to raise his voice to speak over the battle that was beginning, "Stay down, Kaile, i've got-" That was when Kaile's friend whipped out a lightsaber.

Suddenly, Andanian felt he wasn't needed as much, but hey, might as well help since he's here. "Uhh...y-yeah, stay down! We've got this! Holler if you need something!" he himself hollered, pulling his bandana over his mouth, unslinging his scattergun from his back, and cocking it, finding cover behind a box only a few feet nearby.

Andanian knew a thing or two about stormtrooper tactics. He spent a year studying them. He knew how comfortable those suits of armor were, and how versatile they could be in battle. But one thing be noticed that always bothered him was bending over. Taking a knee and going prone in that big, white bucket was tough, and even tougher to get up out of. Stormtroopers didn't like to crouch and lay down. The armor jabbed at them a lot when they did. Maybe everyone else knew, but Andanian found the troopers standing in the open easy targets for his shotgun, sending many flying off of their feet.

Still, he shook as he fired. Any of these troopers could be his brother, Tormax...

Dammit, I had better not be shooting Tormax right now...

To stall his participation, he ducked behind cover again just as a stray, red bolt soared past. He looked back behind him to see if Kaile was still there, giving her a questionable thumbs-up to see if she was alright a few feet back.

Meanwhile, he glanced over at her Jedi friend to see how he was faring. Being a Jedi, he was probably fine. The stormtroopers were just cannon fodder to them, right?

 

[Audren Sykes]

Location: Sullust Jedi Temple - Outer Defensive position
Equipment: Lightsaber | Vibroknife | VT Vanguard Armor | Blaster Carbine | QQ-83n | GE-AVM

The Dark Side was strong now. It seemed to pour out in waves, a seeping mental oil that corrupted all it touched. Some withstood it, shields of light parting it around them. Select few even parted it around those in the immediate area and allowed the soldiers near them to resist the despair it carried. Many of those who weren't protected succumbed to it: the best one could hope for here was the person stopping and gazing in horror at the wasteland of Sullust. The bodies that had been dropped had been bad, this was worse. Psychological warfare.

Audren had never trained against this sort of thing, never really encountered it before. He could see the darkness coming on and did the only thing he could think of: accessed the Light side of the Force. He drew it to himself, focused on it to the exclusion of all else, patterning it after the physical shield he'd seen a Sith lady create on Thyferra. As the darkness washed over him he felt most of it slide right off, repelled by the Light Side. Some managed to seep in, making the cracks in his mental defenses apparent. All of the sudden he saw bodies where their had been none, walking corpses wearing not only Galactic Alliance clothing but Silver Sanctum uniforms as well. A mere taste of the terror that was projected could be felt, enough to make him raise his carbine and target the dead but not fire. Others around him weren't so lucky, they started screaming in terror and shooting. Some took their own lives, but the vast majority simply wasted ammunition. Meanwhile TIEs strafed, blowing holes in the defensive lines. Audren wasn't hit directly, but he took the concussion wave and debris of a nearby explosion, peppering him with bruises and cuts across his exposed skin.

The lightsaber clipped to the right side of the Knight's belt responded to the dark wave of power, and not in the way he would have hoped. Here on the plains of Sullust where it had been used to kill its creator, the Sith-made lightsaber welled with darkness. Despair, hatred, fear...all the negative emotions its creator had seared into the crystal - all of the bits that Audren had attempted to eradicate with hours upon hours of meditation - came back in full force. Fighting with the thing would be a constant battle for control, and that on top of the ongoing mental assault. This would not be good.

As the Jedi fought to find some actual Sith soldiers, the oily pressure dissipated. The illusions disappeared into the wind. Whatever had powered them was still alive, he could sense that much, but it was no longer pervading the battlefield and terrorizing those on it. And just in time it seemed, as white-clad stormtroopers started rushing the defenses. Now he could open fire. Now the combined mass fire of the soldiers did some good. Some recognized the illusion for what it had been and channeled their anger into their fight. Not something he normally advocated for, but these weren't Jedi, just soldiers. He joined them, his carbine doing what damage it could. Once the Sith and their soldiers got in close, he'd be up to the plate. For now though, he was just another gun in the lineup.

 

[Louise]

Location: New Jedi Order Sullust Temple, Corridor
Equipment: Lightsaber Pike, Toofless the Nexu, Maleah's Boots, Plain Hunters Garb
Allies: Vexen
Enemies: Elijah Rekali (Somewhere, out there)

Micah always knows?

Maleah snorted at the notion of her twin being always knowing. The amount of childhood stories that she could have dredged up of times when Micah was succinctly not-knowing would have been truly enlightening, likely side-splitting and maybe even slightly shocking. Although, in that same breath, said stories often included herself in the mix of schemes, pranks and tomfoolery.

Perhaps not best to mention them at that moment, not with alarm klaxons sounding around them.

Two and two came together, and the goggled one offered a name, her own name at that, which even in the moment of mild panic, brought a toothy grin to her features. She supposed there wasn't many orange-eyed girls wandering around with nexu in tow.

“The one and only!" she chirped, still smiling wide, “I'm sure Micah's told you nothing but wonderful things about me.”

She could only imagine.

“We'll just have to head to the nearest evacuation point, I guess,” Maleah stated, with a self-reassuring nod, “whether that's going up, or down, you lead the way.” Given her own familiarity with the temple, if the young woman herself had tried to lead their escape...well, they would have probably ended up in the bathrooms, or a supply closet.

Having noted that the peculiar being (a species that she was not at all familiar with) didn't wish to fight, she felt compelled to reassure her, even if there was a possibility of false confidence at hand.

“We come across any bad guys and you stand behind Toofless, he'll keep you safe,” Maleah spoke as she looked into the creature's googles, voice equipped with her trademarked cheeky spirit and followed by a sly wink, “just hold your nose.”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

This Talith was definitely closer in temperament to Micah than Aela, Vexen mused. Of course they were twins, so that made sense to her. She didn’t seem scared. But then, the only time she had even seen Micah scared had been the time Kira had nearly been poisoned to death. Vexen found this particularly reassuring and she made the snap decision to follow the other Talith twin, rather than continue her search for Micah.

“Alright, let’s go,” she replied. “If the lights go red we have to head down to the lowest bunkers, but as they’re yellow we’re supposed to head up and go for the hangars.” Vexen didn’t even look at her surroundings again, she turned on the spot and started off towards the right turbolift.

“You know, he found the time you shaved his hair off particularly wonderful,” Vexen said as they walked. She’d come a long way from the broken creature Micah had found in the ventilation systems of an Ithorian herdship all those years ago. As she’d come out of her shell she’d started to – or rather been forced to – develop her own sense of humour. With her expressions essentially unreadable to most species she’d settled on a relatively deadpan delivery. Sometimes Micah told her she made light of things she shouldn’t. That was probably because of the world she’d come from.

“I’ve bin in scrapes with Micah a few times,” she added, revealing the small blaster pistol that had been tucked into her fur. “I have a very sensitive nose, I don’t think I wanna risk standing behind him.”

 

[Kaile Vera]

http://imgur.com/TmvKWf8​

​

​

The Galactic Alliance
Sullust Base

Andanian Ategann Abel

Maybe things were on their side and the Alliance was showing just how much butt they could kick. Maybe that’s just how the Force worked. Or maybe the Sith realized that this was a bad idea.

​

Whatever it may be, even a combination of the three, things were swinging towards the Alliance’s side. In the distance, one could see the exploding triangular shape of an ISD. It would fall in a fiery display, slow as bits of cherry red debris licked in flames burned in the atmosphere.

​

With their starfighter back up and the turrets going at full swing, Sullust base was kicking butt and taking One Sith Names.

​

They would not go down into the night so quietly!

​

Alliance troops came in to push back at the wave of incoming stormtroopers, and Kaile with her little group found a measure of reprieve.

​

The tide was shifting folks… and it seemed that the energy that had once flared within the One Sith for this attack was all used up.

​

Sullust would not be lost.

​

​

 

[Corey's OOC]

Lucas was not really happy with life. He never was, never would be. Just how the man worked. He looked ahead at the station and could hear the chatter from the ship that he had originated from. Not a home ship, merely a tool to bring him to the war. To the blood. The trade station was nearby and the shuttle would force itself into a hangar. A quick change into an air suit and mag boots would allow him to make it into the superstructure before being ripped out into deep space.

Lucas had no plans to die today.

He did have plans to kill.

And that brought us to the cruiser once again. Turning, and aligning for the planet. The commander had ordered the crew to the shuttles and escape pods. The Sith were not retreating, they would fight to the end here. And with the engines igniting, the ship began moving again. The ship’s flak cannons would make work of anything going near the engines, and any standard combat weapons were turning to fire on the lava planet.

The course? Bio domes.

 

[Sage Bane]

It seemed that the Jedi were taking their time to get to Sage. Pity. They were not his precious minutes that were being lost in this war. However, the Galactic Alliance was fighting on borrowed time. As his inky-black Hadzuska Rowa prowled around their master, Sage took advantage of the brief respite to issue a new set of commands to his fighter pilots.

With the way that Sage’s Sith starfighters were barraging the shield arrays, it was a reasonable assumption to make that the temple’s shields were now seriously impaired, and when his pilots confirmed it, Sage spit out a muffled command through his rebreather, ordering the rest of his squads to deviate from their original plan in order to press the attack. These weren’t easy orders to hear, but the Sith pilots knew that any hapless souls who didn’t follow the Voice’s orders would be hunted like animals and tortured beyond recognition.

Screeching through the sky like birds of prey, the starfighters began their flyover of the bulbous glassteel dome of the Sullust Jedi Temple. The vessel’s laser cannons wouldn’t be needed anymore, for instead of the usual bombing run, the entire squadron swerved in mid air, nosediving down towards the temple biodome.

There was little chance that the entire squadron of Sith fighters wouldn’t hit the biodomes head on, killing every last Sith pilot at the throttle in a fiery blaze of indulgent destruction.

Through victory my chains are broken.