Private What once was found... (Silver Jedi Concord & friends)

[Silver Strand]

The Core, Korpil G62, Roche Asteroid Belt


Sergeant Tyris peaked his head through the darkened corridors as Beta-9 warbled a warning from up ahead. The ranger froze and raised his hand, signalling the squad behind him to abruptly halt their advance. They did so, even as the probot shone a light across the shambling ruins of the old factory. Dusty, half-finished Cresh-type Patrol Fighters and other starships littered the factory floor in various stages of completion, along with a few dessicated corpses of the unlucky Collective Defenders and factory workers who hadn't managed to evacuate ahead of the Bryn'adul assault that had taken place months ago. Yet despite the macabre scenes they had encountered so far, the scout party had not seen any Bryn'adul yet. The corporal behind him whispered in hushed tones.

"The droid spotted something?"


"I hope not," swore Tyris, "the verpine workers have already started disembarking from the Chance. Ylsonne couldn't talk them out of it..."


"No time to waste," said the twi'lekk with a smile, "but who wouldn't want to come back home?"


Tyris nodded in agreement. He too had been far away for far too long. His datapad suddenly lit up with the results of Beta-9's scan. He blinked, but before he could fully read the results, a loud burst of slugthrower fire roared through the darkened cavern. Beta-9 burst into a gout of flames and sparks before crashing into the ground with a warbling shriek. Familiar feral roars began to echo from the other side of the factory floor and reverberate throughout the chamber. Oh feth...His comlink crackled before breaking out into a pandemonium of voices, all overwhelmed at instant by the stern, baritone voice of the expedition's commander.


"This is Captain Ylsonne, Bryn'adul have been found in G62 – it is not abandoned despite sensor scans suggesting otherwise. Enemy boarders are attempting to make their way onto the Chance. I have called High Command for reinforcements. I am recalling everybody now, Roche workers included, back to the Chance in order to-"


A boom echoed through the comlink bfore the channel went dead.

Scouting Party Goals

-Evacuate the Verpine survivors from Korpil G62
-Retrieve the remains of probot Beta-9 from Korpil G62 for data analysis
-Secure the Verne-class Armored Cruiser Serendipitous Chance and leave the Korpil G62

Silver Jedi Concord Reinforcement Goals
-move to fight off the Bryn'adul and their beasts attacking Serendipitous Chance
-Fight off the Bryn'adul fleet

 

[Travot Ravenna]

With the Scouting Party...

"What is that smell?" asked Lanyria.

Travot nearly choked on it himself. The environmental controls on G62 clearly hadn't been active, or had been modified by the Bryn'adul when they had taken over the station. Whatever that stench was, it was decidedly not a pleasant one, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was a safe one either. He slipped on his breath mask, just to be on the safe side, and motioned for his padawan to follow suit. The young nautolan fumbled with the device before firmly strapping it on. He offered a faint smile to her.

"This place has been through some dark times," said the man quietly, "I've never been gifted with any of the mental gifts that some of our kind have, but I can feel a sense of darkness here. Raw aggressions, sadness, panic..."

"Things that lead to the dark side."

He sagely nodded, "But this place used to be full of learning and industry. I'm sure the verpine can bring it back to that state with enough time. This feeling of darkness may even be fully erased with some time, at least for those of us who aren't super gifted in psychometry."

Even as he said the words, he could feel that something wasn't right. It was that gnawing sensation that he always felt before entering a battle or encountering some environmental hazard. Is the air here really poisoned? He was tempted to call for a droid to scan for it when he heard it in the distance - the unmistakable sound of weapons fire bouncing off of the cavern walls. A frown creased his face. They said no-one was here. That's what the scans said. He closed his eyes and reached through the tendrils of the Force that surrounded them all, wherever they went. He blinked and shuddered. No, there are living things here that want us all dead...

 

[Stone Gra'tua]

SJC Reinforcements
Location : Roche Asteroid Belt, Approaching Korpil G62
Equipment : Signature
Ship : Chronos One
Accompanied by : Vansen, Tank, Angry

Ensuring the Chronos One was broadcasting the correct IFF codes provided by their SJC friends, Stone brought the ship out of hyperspace and rocketed into the asteroid belt, moving between formidable defenses, glad they were not targeting him. What worried the Shi'ido Mandalorian was that the industrial facility was not on the comm. They'd come in response to an attack alert, having been nearby to Roche, able to arrive quickly. The situation was unknown, so he got on the comm as the ST-70 assault ship approached Korpil G62.

"Come in G62, this is Mandalorian vessel Chronos One with four vode aboard responding to distress call. We're here to help." He looked over at Vansen, operating the sensor console. She shook her head, having been unable to pick up any definitive information on the situation, all the scans being inconclusive from outside. No way to know what was happening without going inside to find out. "Anyone out there?" Stone couldn't know that enemies were already here, waiting for their chance.

 

[Spek Zhio]

Two birds with one stone, was a very fitting adage for Spek Zhio's current circumstance. Notwithstanding, as the Azure exited hyperspace into the Roche asteroid field, the saying left a bad taste in his mouth.

The Azure Alcyone, his retrofitted YT-1930 transport, was due for an extensive overhaul. Zhio was certain that he and the ship - or rather, the droid's brain module acting as main computer - understood each other quite well. At least, they were certainly on good terms with one another, seeing as she had never failed him and vice versa. Nevertheless, all those blinking lights and beeping sounds, that occurred in lieu of actual verbal communication, were mutating into a prosaic humdrum to his eyes and ears. And, as he was sure, were also an inconvenience to LC-1 - the hackneyed designation given to Alcyone out of the assembly line, before her heuristic processor even bestowed a gender upon her, let alone an idiosyncratic identity.

As the pair were hauling almost two hundred tons of rare ores from Makem Te to Lantillies, along the Perlemian Trade Route, he - and probably her, as well - was looking forward to exchange some of their anticipated earnings for some shiny new starship components. Hopefully, some sort of voice module for the ship, so that Alcyone could actually speak once more - which she never could, long since that serendipitous encounter on a Corellian graveyard.

The valuable minerals and metals, buried deep inside inconspicuous clumps of rock, would either become a part of advanced computer systems or alloys, respectively. Later on, they would become integral components of whatever spacecrafts they would come up with next. Regardless, the Lantillians would pay good credits for them.

Spek was feeling apprehensive, as was to be expected given his current situation. His conscience, however, clear as the golden sands that drew a dividing line between Tyrena and Coronet, under the pale light of the Gus triplets, was not the one to blame. All things considered, it was not like the Zeltron male had swindled the Swokes Swokes, when he bought the cargo for a fraction of what it would be worth anywhere else on the galaxy. Most - let us call them - 'traders' on that sector, exhibited a proclivity towards the 'trading' of spice. Therefore, recent skyrocketing rates on such sought-after commodity, had abated all others.

No. The reason had to do with the place itself. On two separate occasions had he been to Roche, neither of them capable of being classified as 'smooth sailing across the sea of stars'. In hindsight, he would not be who and where he was, if not for those occurrences. Whatever that meant.

On a ship without a navicomputer, the uneducated would consider his charting skills to be left to chance. Be that as it may, in a twist of dichotomous irony, they both were and were not.

Instinctive astrogation led him as if by an unseen string. He always reached his intended destination - so far, at least - but seldomly by the most uneventful route. The Force seemed to have a knack for placing him on the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time. Recurrently, one or the other. Sometimes, uncannily, somehow both.

Naked, as he usually was after coming out of deep meditation, he said out loud to himself - or to the ship, in case she cared to pay any attention - "At least we're neither with or after bota, so we should be fine this time around," and threw himself at the captain's chair, in which hung his long red coat, stretching as he did. "Amirite?"

As far as he knew, the substance was no longer outlawed. "Alcyone, pull up the data on that facility, if you will." And, this once perilous sector, was now well-traveled and patrolled. "Korpil G62... And what do you know! It's a military shipyard, affiliated with our old pals, the Silver buddies." Maybe, this was one of those 'once in a blue moon' instances. "Send over that old transponder code we got from Ra, along with the standard docking signatures, it should play along nicely with them."

Lights flashed in deterministic patterns across a portside circuit board.

"Yeah, I agree. We're about to have an early payday!"

Right place. Right time.

 

[Dagos Terrek]

Aboard The Serendipitous Chance

Kark, Dagos thought as he took what appeared to be a wrong turn down one of the in his opinion too many hallways. He doubled back the way he came, the thunk of his black ronto leather boots rung out through the empty corridor.

“Kark!” he swore out loud this time as he took what happened to be another wrong turn. Well he was pretty sure it was a wrong turn. Could you take a wrong turn if you didn’t have a destination planned? Now that was some chit to meditate on. Which was what he was trying to do when he had encountered a bad feeling. Now everyone got bad feelings once in a while but Dagos was a Jedi. Well an apprentice Jedi but still, chit counted. His “bad feeling” wasn't really just a feeling anyway…not really. It was a gift from The Force. A warning that almost always came before something or someone tried to hit him hard in the face and so he had gotten up and went to go find…someone.

Chit. Maybe this is what his master had meant when she suggested he take the time to think through his feelings and not just act on them. He was walking but really he had no place in mind to go, no person in mind to speak to and if he did find someone what was he going to say “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”?

Another wave of unease crashed over Dagos, stopping him in his tracks. What the kark was going on?

He had heard somewhere that when a question was asked The Force would answer. Well what do you know The Force answered and it answered big. The ship rocked and shook with a terrible boom. Before he knew it, instead of walking to nowhere in particular he was running through a now lightless corridor, the sounds of his boots drowned out by a screeching alarm.

His movement now had purpose as he let the force guide his steps. He knew now he was headed toward a more populated part of the vessel. He could feel the crew, their determination and readiness to see the job through as they tried to figure out that was going on but there was fear too and something else. Not from the crew, no it was emanating from a different part of the ship though it like him was headed toward this group of crewmen. It was a feeling of beastial bloodlust and it was terrifying.

 

[Vaux Gred]

Scouting Party

Vaux sighed a little, looking over at her V-1 droid, VK. They were here to help, but honestly in a group of Jedi and outside the cockpit the Mandalorian wasn't really sure what she was supposed to do. Sure. She had her weapons and an astromech to quickly bit into some systems, but against a Bryn she felt... vulnerable. Not that she was gonna let any Jedi notice that. Her own callsign was CT. Concord Terror. She didn't get scared.... Usually.... Mostly.... 50/50. Either way. She walked around the corner, her PS-1 Particle Shotgun held up and ready to strike in bolt mode just in case. Her modified Trayc'kal, Zygerrian Electro-Whip, and one other hilt hung from her belt. She was ready, right? Yeah. Of course. She volunteered to by on the scouting front instead of fighting... in her fighter... where she was way more comfortable dealing with literal, karking monsters. No. No.

She finally made it to a computer, and looked at VK before watching him roll up and begin to access the terminal. He'd look for that droid, and any survivors while Vaux radioed the others.

"Hope you jetii are having good luck. Haven't even seen one of these demagolkae (monsters) yet. VK's in a terminal now looking for... well everything we are right now."

Dagos Terrek Travot Ravenna

 

[Gir Quee]

Silver Jedi Concord Reinforcement Group
Allies: Stone Gra'tua | Spek Zhio

Verne-class Armored Cruiser Brilliant Star, nearing Roche Asteroid Belt

The Star knifed through her way through the belt, plodding around the tumultous asteroids and occasionally spraying laser cannon fire at ravenous mynocks that dared to glide down from their precarious perches and hidden warrens that dotted the former Verpine homeworld. Deep within the ship's command information center, Admiral Quee idly watched the Captain Yreux's handling of the situation with a suggested mild disinterest even as he scrawled down observations of the other officer's behaviors and actions as part of a performance review. Yreux, a lanky Lantillian, could have passed for a cousin of his - sandy blonde hair and blue-green eyes that just seemed several shades off of his own, but with a more rural accent that Quee simultaneously managed to find attention-grabbing and obnoxious. The ship's sensor officer cleared his throat.

"New contact entering the belt, looks like a ST-70 Assault Ship, friendly transponder..."

The communication's officer piped up, "They're sending a transmission now. Patching it through-"

"Come in G62, this is Mandalorian vessel Chronos One with four vode aboard responding to distress call. We're here to help."

Gir raised his eyes up from the datapad to observe the other man. Yreux briefly studied the tactical holo-map, which Gir guessed was really a ploy to buy more time to think of his decision. After a few seconds, the captain flipped down his headset comm to reply back to the Mandalorian.

"Chronos One, this is Captain Yreux, current acting commander of the Concord Relief force. All ships are currently headed towards Korpil G62 to rescue a scouting and colonization party that has ran into a Bryn'adul ambush. I'll have my crew transmit all known data of the current situation momentarily - no known hostile enemy starships detected yet, though some sort of sensor dampening technology does seem to be in play, so keep your eyes wary. You have a far better idea of your ship and people's capabilities than I, feel free to act on your discretion for the moment, and let us know if there is any way we can assist you. We will keep you posted with new data and capabilities as they become available."

The captain flicked a button on his comlink, muting the channel.

"Your feelings on these mandalorians?" asked the admiral.

"It could be messy," said the other man with a sigh, "these ones are allies, but Mandalorian history in the Roche Asteroid Belt is...complicated."

"Agreed," said Gir, "as is current Mandalorian politics. I would make a similar choice if I were you as well - their help can be invaluable, but I would not attempt to funnel them into the hierarchy of our military. Not ones that we don't well of."

The sensor operator raised his voice again, "There's a civilian ship that just requested clearance to dock with Korpil G62."

Yreux frowned, "Concord transponder?"

"Not a governmental one if it is. YT-1930 named Azure Alcyone."

Yreux frowned, "Azure is a member world of the Concord...but they could just referring to the color."

"Or something else," added Gir.

The captain flicked a switch to send a tightbeam transmission to the modified Corellian freighter, "Attention Azure Alcyone, Korpil G62 is not safe to dock for civilians currently. There are unknown hostile elements on the asteroid that likely include Bryn'adul warriors and their creations...but...but if you are enterprising and brave, there are Verpine civilians on there who would appreciate a ride off of it. If you're willing and brave, we'll be more than happy to suitably compensate you for taking them off."

 

[Stone Gra'tua]

SJC Reinforcements
Location : Roche Asteroid Belt, Approaching Korpil G62
Equipment : Each in AV-1A assault armor, various weapons as linked
Ship : Chronos One
Accompanied by : Vansen, Tank, Angry

Piloting the ST-70 through the asteroids towards Korpil G62, Stone kept one eye on the shifting and tumbling rocks outside, and one on the comm, seeing that the source of the incoming reply wasn't the station, but a Cruiser a little further out, also approaching the station. The fact they wouldn't be going in blind and alone was a positive, but the news of a Bryn'adul ambush was not good. Stone had never faced them himself, but he'd seen footage. A plan began to form in his mind, as he keyed the comm to reply. "Thanks for the update, Captain. If you've got no tasking for us, i'll take my team in directly. We'll patch you in to our feeds once we board the station so you'll have realtime data on the situation inside."

The Shi'ido Mandalorian turned his head slightly and addressed Vansen, his second, also in the cockpit with him. "Break out the AV gear. I'll be with you in a moment." The human woman got up and went aft without a word to get the rest of the squad moving. Down the ladder and into the cargo bay, she kicked the Houk, Tank, awake, and seeing that Angry was already up, pacing, waved the Wookiee toward the storage lockers where the four of them stowed their assault gear. Stone locked the Chronos One into an autopilot course to an exterior airlock, then unstrapped and went aft himself to get geared up.

Joining his three companions in the aft cargo bay, Stone, Vansen, Tank and Angry took up most of the available space, especially once they unpacked and began to gear up in the AV-1A assault armor suits. Stone selected a heavy repeating blaster, while Vansen took up an Amban Phase-pulse rifle. To no one's surprise, the big two had taken out explosive launchers, Tank a grenade launcher, Angry a shoulder launched missile launcher that he could operate one handed in his assault gear.

 

[Spek Zhio]

"Why haven't we docked yet? I gave you the helm, Alcy." Zhio inquired, as soon as he stepped back into the ship's cockpit, fully dressed. He glanced at the blinking messages on the control panel.

"What do you mean, we're getting hailed? I had no idea there were other... a cruiser? What the kark?"

Spek promptly sat behind the controls, flipping a few switches, reverting flight systems to manual, opening a communication channel, and probing the neighboring space for additional vessels and assorted signatures.

"Alcyone's captain, speaking," of a skeleton crew of none, "reading you four by two, er... Brilliant Star." Flicking switches and pressing buttons as he talked, the pilot multitasked astronautics, chattering, and interpreting the various readings being given by the flight instruments. What the hell? Is that a pre-Empire gunship? Guess I'm not the only one flying a relic here, the Zeltron thought.

Why are all these readings coming up now? Are we being scrambled?

"Come again, Brilliant Star?" 'Enterprising and brave'? 'Willing and Brave'? That was twice in the same transmission. 'Suitably compensate'? You had to hand it to the Concord, and their cajolery. Some things never change. "I'm having some trouble reading you properly. We're just bouncing off hyperspace to transit through Roche, and thought about making some quick gateway by G62. Maybe a service stop.

"Scrubbing flight path, ASAP. We'll get out of your hair, pronto. Over." A red warning sign appeared over the comms, and Zhio narrowed his eyes at it. "Communication failure? Oh! Just the last bit, no biggie," he pressed the comm button again. The warning went way.

"Docking procedure, canceled. We'll get out of your hair, Brilliant Star. Over." Red blinking prompt, over the communication panel. "What the druk?" Hailing button pressed. "Brilliant Star, we're flying on, thanks for the warning. Over."

Red warning. Communication failure.

"What the—," Spek tugged at the throttle and stick. "Why are the manuals shut down? Alcyone, is this your doing?"

A series of lights over the dashboard, rhythmically alternated between being on and off.

"What are you thinking? You're not equipped for handling combat? Yes, yes, I know, you're fast and agile, but you'll be a sitting duck on that hangar bay while loading the civilians.

"And what about cargo space? Do you want us to just dump the ores?"

Flashing lights. Zhio sighed.

"Fine. Enough, already. Hand me back flight and comm control." He was starting to foster second thoughts about installing that voice module. "Brilliant Star, I apologize for that, it seems we've been experiencing some communication difficulties." He sighed once more, before resuming.

"Captain of the Azure Alcyone, speaking. Callsign, Kingfisher." It was an old one, from the Great Galactic War. But maybe, they still held it on record. "If we're doing this, we'll need a fighter escort. Better yet, do you have any spares? I'll gladly get back behind the cockpit of one, just for this jaunt." Alcyone was perfectly capable of flying herself over to the facility. load any civilians, and fly back out again.

"Over."

Gir Quee Stone Gra'tua

 

[Dagos Terrek]

Aboard Serendipitous Chance

As he ran he sussed out that he was headed toward eight crewmen…no wait, now it was seven. That wasn’t good. Not at all. He hoped he had just counted wrong. Easy mistake to make really.

Rounding a corner he was nearly run over by a group of people who were clearly fleeing for their lives. The padawaan did a quick headcount and swore before looking in the direction from which they fled. His eyes went wide and his pulse quickened as he stared at the most horrible thing he had ever seen.

Halfway up the corridor silhouetted by dimly lit emergency lights was one of the crew members lying motionless on the cold steel floor. Dead. Dead and surrounded by…by.... Monsters.

A pack of disgusting leathery…demons worried at the prone crewman. A dozen maybe more of the bat-like jackals stood around the dead man. Dagos thanked the force that the corridor was so dark. Having to see what was happening would be far too much, just hearing the sounds was enough to make him want to flee. Clawed feet clicked and clacked over the durasteel as the creatures snarled and snapped at one another fighting for a chance to eat. Yips and yelps rang out indicating a scuffle but the sounds that would haunt him for the rest of his life were the sound of crunched bone, rent flesh and severed sinew as the hounds so overwhelmed with fresh blood gorged themselves, ignoring the stunned group a few meters in front of them.

These creatures, whatever they were, were just as terrible inside as out. They were full of nothing but hatred and hunger. Empty voids of darkness that wanted nothing more than to swallow him, physically and spiritually. The boy almost retched as their presences bore down on him.

Stomach roiling and head swimming the young Jedi closed his eyes and took a breath doing his best to steady himself in the force as he stepped forward to put himself in between the creatures and the remaining crew who had stopped running after almost crashing into him, shock and fear surely dictating their decisions at this moment.


The monsters then turned their attention to him growling and snapping their jaws with excited hunger. Dagos took another deep breath, gloved fingers reached for his lightsaber. The silver hilt worn at his side…wasn’t there. NO! he thought desperately, fear chilling his whole body to the bone. He had left it back where he was meditating, some empty room he had found dozens maybe hundreds of meters back in the other direction. Now here he was the only thing between innocent lives and terrible death and he had…nothing.

The pack of devils in front of him must have picked up on his fear. Excitement and anticipation ripple through the group as yips and snarls turned to full throated barks and growls, it was becoming pandemonium. From the pack one of the creatures leapt at him. Without hesitation or thought the Jedi Padawaan aimed and threw the hardest roundhouse kick he could muster and the creature who was still at least five meters in front of him folded in half with a squeal as it was sent hard into the ceiling of the hallway with a vicious thud of flesh on steel and crunch of broken paneling and fixtures before coming down hard to the floor no longer moving. Whoa. He had just kicked that thing…with The Force. He had never done anything like that before, that was wild. There was however no time to revel in what had happened as the remaining dozen or so monsters barking grew louder and more ferocious, no longer the jubilant sound of excitement, it was now a low menacing boom full of hate and anger. The largest of the hounds stepped forward and let out a howl that turned Dagos’ guts to jelly.

“RUN!” He shouted to the rest of the crew. They did not need telling twice all seven turned and ran with Dagos on their heels and the pack of demons following closely on his. Straight shot for half a hundred meters then a fork. As they ran one of the crew tripped and fell, a mirialan woman within seconds she was lost to them. The fork only ten meters away now, Dagos reached out with the force to nudge the crew to go left as he went right, also reaching out and hoping to influence the creatures to follow him. They did.

He could not run forever. The ship was big but not that big. He looked hoping to find…there! Two hydraulic powered doors were just barely opened along the wall. He ran to them trying to squeeze his body through and into the darkened room beyond. Kark. Kriffing frakking hell he was too big. Stuck halfway in and halfway out as the creatures came down on him clicking and clacking the whole way. He closed his eyes and gave one last shove, falling into the darkness beyond just as razor sharp teeth almost came closed around his arm. There was a tear in his shirt sleeve and blood ran down his arm, but the appendage was still attached and as far as he could tell still worked.

He was out of the hall but he was not safe. The devil dogs were like he had been trying to shove their way through the doors teeth gnashing and claws scraping against durasteel with that awful click-clack sound. He had to find a way to close those doors or it would be only a matter of time before they slipped in and ripped him apart. He looked around the room desperate for something, for anything.

It was hard to see but it looked like the room was filled end to end with computer terminals. Fat bit of luck that did him with the power out. Click. Clack. He needed that force damned door closed. Click. Clack. His breath became more ragged as panic started to set in. Click. Clack.

He hid under one of the terminals and choked away a sob. He didn’t want to die. Click. Clack. He especially didn’t want to die ripped apart by bat monsters. Click.Clack.

A noise came from under the terminal across from him. He wasn't alone.

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Scouting Party
Allies: Dagos Terrek | Stone Gra'tua | Vaux Gred

"What do we do Master?"

If only I were a true master...A wistful smile creased his face. He knew what his first master would have done. The answer is obvious, isn't it? He closed his eyes for a moment to better focus on the currents of the Force. Sometimes it provided a direction to him, a beacon to follow in the jumbled chaos of a war torn galaxy. But no immediate path opened to him. The living Force doesn't call me to me now. The logical path to preserve life is the one I have to follow...

"Let's head back to the Chance. If we're lucky, we can at least escape this place on the ship itself. Otherwise, we should be able to find a ship onboard or an escape pod at least to get away from this place..."

His wrist comm crackled:

"Hope you jetii are having good luck. Haven't even seen one of these demagolkae (monsters) yet. VK's in a terminal now looking for... well everything we are right now."

He searched to put a face to the voice, with the obvious clue of the interspersed Mando'a leading him to picture dark-haired mandalorian of Clan Gred.

He brought the wrist comm up to his mouth, "Vaux, this is Jedi Knight Ravenna. Are you still on G62? If you are, we're going to swing our way towards you and pick you up. It's not safe here, not until we come back in greater numbers..."

 

[Riamah]

Aboard the Serendipitous Chance

You could ask what a known merchant was doing onboard an armored cruiser but sometimes questions were better left unanswered. Such was the case with Ra. Not normally one to follow the call the Force anymore, there were times when it just drove her insane when she ignored it. Today was one of those situations.

It really had been quite a long time since she had involved herself with any sort of combat. In her last few excursions, it had been to free slaves. This one, she felt was going to be different.

Even suiting herself up to fight, she didn't go as far as wearing her droid-looking suit. A cloak she had been given should be enough protection. Shaking her head, she realized she had forgotten to braid it. One less weapon for her to use. All of her others would have to be enough. Two boot knives, a blaster on her hip, a double-bladed lightsaber on the other hip, and two short lightsabers up her sleeves.

When the ship she was on shuddered and sounded like it had crashed...not that Ra would know anything about that kind of sound, she ran out of the room she was in. Something was in the air and she for once, listened to the pull of the Force to guide her steps.

This was an aspect of herself she usually kept hidden and secret. Less than a handful of people within the Silvers knew she could even use the Force. Her husband was one of them and for all she knew, he might be the only one.

Sensing the violent actions of a small group of Bryn...she had thought all of them gone from the area, she ran in the direction. Here there is no need for stealth or trying to stay hidden. There was something else she sensed. Another person using the Force. Somebody who was probably young and not yet very well trained. Feelings and emotions came off of the boy and if she ever learned who his Master was...that person was going to get a butt chewing.

Rounding the corner, she practically shoved the running crew out of the way. Pointing down in the direction she had come from, she hoped the message was clear. Go that way or die. Seconds later the group of Bryn were on their heels as well.

Noticing the young Jedi had decided to lure the pack away, she followed him. This time at a bit of a distance since the Bryn had not noticed her joining. Their mistake.

Lifting up her hands, she send a massive Force Push in their direction and maintained the hold on them for several seconds. Long enough that the pattering of feet behind her had faded a great deal. Then she simply let them go. Having made a quick count of the number, they would soon have their attention on her and the young man might be able to escape.

Taking the double-bladed lightsaber off her belt, two yellow blades sprung from the ends. This was close to her true element and Ra was not going to play nice with these monsters.

"Come and get me."

Dagos Terrek Travot Ravenna Silver Strand

 

[Dagos Terrek]

Aboard Serendipitous Chance

Fear and exhaustion filled Dagos Terrek. His legs felt like stone, his head like air, his chest like it was going to burst. But he could not let that be his end. No, he would have to fight. To try and live, he could not let himself die cowering under a desk hiding like a child.

Another noise from the desk across from him and Dagos stood ready to face whatever it was and was met with a chorus of chirps, whistles and beeps. He had gone mad. The fear or the exhaustion or the pain in his arm had driven him mad. He thought he was jumping up to face his end but was instead staring at a small bipedal droid. The bewildered look on Dagos face gave way to one of resignation as the droid gave an alarmed chirp for the padawan to turn around.

Fear filled him again as one of the creatures was halfway through the door snapping and growling the whole way like it could already taste the young Jedi. The droid beeped again and too Dagos utter shock hopped over to the door.

“No! Get back here!” Dagos hissed to the little guy. The droid however just peeled up a small panel next to the door, lifted one of its legs and extended some kind of tool into the wall. A series of chirps to fast for Dagos to understand came from the droid. What had it done? The door was still stuck, the lights were still out, the monsters were still there. The droid beeped again. This time Dagos had picked up on its meaning. He had disabled the hydraulics. The door could be manually shut!

Dagos closed his eyes and held his hands shoulder length apart focusing until he could feel the cold metal of the door in his hands, then he clapped his hands together fast and the door finally closed with a thunk and a clang of metal that could not drown out the soft popping noise of the demon dawg being smashed in between the heavy doors.

A smile and a wave of relief washed over Dagos for a mere moment before he heard an unmistakable click-clack behind him. He turned just in time to be knocked off his feet as something slammed hard into his chest.

His mouth filled with blood from biting his tongue as the back of his head hit hard on the control terminal as he was driven to the ground. He stared up at rows of razor sharp teeth that were headed for his throat. With no time to think, the teen reached both his arms up, one hand grabbing the top jaw and one grabbing the other holding the creature at bay. Blood and drool ran through his fingers as the monster tried with great effort to reach something vital. He cried out in pain as clawed feet ripped and tore his chest, rending his shirt into bloody strips.

His arms shook and the beast’s deadly mouth drew ever closer to his head and neck. He looked around fruitlessly for some way out of this death, tears streaming down his face dropping into the blood that was pooling on the floor beneath him. He closed his eyes and fought not only the monster but the urge to cry out loud. If he was to die he would not do it as a coward.

He could see the warm glow of light through the lids of his eyes and felt his hands burn as he quickly threw away whatever it was that burned him. He opened his eyes and saw the burning husk of the thing that had been trying to kill him laying a few feet away and the droid sitting on the terminal above him, the tool in its foot emitting a small torch flame. By the light of the fire he could see it was a black and gold BD-unit.

“Th-th-thank you.” He managed to say through ragged choked breaths.The droid beed and chirped back.

“It’s nice to meet you BD-NRG. I-I’m Dagos.” With some effort the boy managed to pull himself up slipping on his own blood just once. Something shot out of the droid’s head and Dagos caught it. “A stim?” he asked, somehow being surprised by this droid once again. He shoved the needle in his arm and jabbed the plunger, immediately feeling his head get clearer. It did nothing for his injuries other than make him numb to them for a while but that would be enough for now.

“Now what?” he asked the droid who responded with a series of beeps indicating he also did not know what to do now. His head was clearer and so was his connection to The Force. Outside the room there was another Jedi! Maybe he wasn’t going to die after all.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pack of monsters stood facing the woman. They snapped their jaws and snarled their displeasure at her before all letting loose with a bone chilling howl as she activated her lightsaber.

They who had been fearless in hunting the ship's crew and that boy stood motionless braying at the interloper and her light. It was the bane of they who lived and hunted in the dark. They saw it’s glow and knew it for pain and for death. Several of them made fainting leaps forward snapping their mighty jaws and bellowing with rage-filled fear. They hated the light and they hated she who wielded it. Some of their number began to turn and bite at their pack mates unable to contain their hatred and violence. One had even tried to pass the doors and get to the boy. That one had died.

One beast, a brave beast rushed at the woman. It was a fool. It had no more chance against the light than the crew had against the might of the pack. Yet still as it lunged, so did three others. They were young and the urge to hunt as a pack was great. They too were dead the moment they chose to stand against the light. The pack was losing too much. They were becoming feeble. They had to regroup, hunt those without light and so they would.

As the four fell beasts advanced on Ra the remaining eight members of the pack would slink off into the darkness of the hallway looking to find new prey as the hunters were slowly becoming the hunted.

Riamah

 

[Stone Gra'tua]

SJC Reinforcements
Location : Korpil G62, Entering via airlock
Equipment : Each in AV-1A assault armor, various weapons as linked
Ship : Chronos One
Accompanied by : Vansen, Tank, Angry

The ST-70 Assault Ship named Chronos One thumped hard into the exterior airlock of the Korpil 62 Deepspace Shipyard, to Stone's ear, loud enough to alert the occupying Bryn'adul to the danger. Sure enough, once the hatch of the inner airlock came open to the base, growls, grunts, and claws scraping on durasteel could be heard, along with animalistic screeching noises. The four Mando'ade emerged into a wide corridor, with enemies on both sides.

The Alor of Clan Gra'tua gave the order, though the three others in his squad had already paired off in anticipation of just such an order. "Give us some space." Stone stood beside Tank, blasting away with his repeating blaster cannon, scything down ground forms and flying forms that filled the corridor to the west. Tank's grenade launcher thunked repeatedly, sending explosives into the hissing and slavering horde. Facing East, Vansen blasted apart warrior forms with her Amban rifle, quickly reloading after each shot. Beside her, Angry's missile launcher sent smoking trails down the corridor, each blast clearing the whole mass for a time before more beasts came on, attacking on the heels of those blasted apart by the Mandalorians.

"Now we've got their attention, let's move." Stone said, and expertly, the four of them shifted formation to cover each other with overlapping fire, now moving deeper into the asteroid, fire blasting out before them to clear the way, and behind them to keep their pursuers back. The Mandalorians moved swiftly into the interior, walls of fire in front and to the rear, keeping the Bryn'adul at bay even as they drew the attentions of the horde. Scanners at full power, the kill team kept their momentum up, looking for a path through the huge structure, and on the lookout for survivors. "This is Stone Gra'tua inside G62, we're being heavily engaged. Moving to see if there's anyone left alive." he commed on an open frequency, speaking between bursts of repeating blasterfire into the enemies that continued to come at the Mando'ade from all directions.

Gir Quee Travot Ravenna Spek Zhio Dagos Terrek Riamah

 

[Vaux Gred]

Vaux looked at her comm, keeping her senses ready just in case. They were heading that way cause it was too dangerous right now? Echuta.... She quickly looked at VK, who let out a rattling of Binary to show what he found. Oh poodoo....

"Right. Just... take your time. I think I'm fine here. Just fine." She checked the screen again before tapping VK and getting the particle shotgun ready just in case. She looked back, taking a breath before heading towards one of the rooms, and trying to get the door open. "Just open. Don't want the jetii to realize I'm actually nervous. VK you tell them anything and I'm selling you for parts." She finally got the door to slide open, and quickly looked in, hoping the computer was actually right about what was inside.

Travot Ravenna Riamah Dagos Terrek

 

[Gir Quee]

Silver Jedi Concord Reinforcement Group
Allies: Spek Zhio

Verne-class Armored Cruiser Brilliant Star, nearing Roche Asteroid Belt

Gir watched as Yreux chalked off the Azure Alcyone as moving away from the asteroid. That's probably for the best...Less civilians to get caught in the crossfire...But the comm channel went active one again, with Zhio's voice's partially garbled voice filtering through the bridge intercom.

"Brilliant Star, I apologize for that, it seems we've been experiencing some communication difficulties. Captain of the Azure Alcyone, speaking. Callsign, Kingfisher. If we're doing this, we'll need a fighter escort. Better yet, do you have any spares? I'll gladly get back behind the cockpit of one, just for this jaunt..."

The man blinked in surprise. The Concord military did have a system of call signs for a number of its Jedi, high ranking officers, and special operatives, but that one didn't match the nomenclature used by the Concord at all. Yet it seemed pretty odd to even mention the idea of a call sign without having some knowledge of it, which immediately suggested that the man at least was not a mere civilian despite the apparent nature of his ship. He glanced to his side to see Yreux's take on it, but the other man was busy conferring with the communication officer as they looked over some sort of data log. Without making eye contact with the admiral, the captain toggled his headset comlink.

"Kingfisher, we do not have craft that you likely have flight time experience with, but I can send you a Typhoon II on autopilot if you so desire - I'm told that the controls are very similar to those of an X-wing..."

The sensor operator's voice rang up.

"New enemy contacts, coming around from the other side of G62. I count one probable Thruka Ravager and several squadrons of Shriek interceptors - all currently headed towards the Chance."

Yreux let out a few choice words before turning back to the communication's officer, "Better get everyone here as quick as can. Teylos, send the fighters for an intercept course on theirs. No telling who'll make it out of there otherwise..."

 

[Spek Zhio]

​

Typhoon II... That brought back memories, alright. The last time he flew one, was right there on Roche - well, not right there on the spot, but only a few hundred million kilometers away while still within the asteroid field. In other words, just around the corner.

"Well, seems like it worked! They're sending us a fighter," he projected the interceptor's calculated trajectory onto a screen. "No, no. They couldn't figure out who I was. Otherwise they would have known it's not my first time on a Mark two."

Zhio knew that the fighter would come to a halt within safe boarding distance, and that it would also be capable of adjusting its own approach vectors, based on Alcyone's flight path. The Zeltron was about to modify his ship's current bearing to optimize such a path, so that the two vessels could meet halfway towards G62, without any having to overexert its drives. That was when, suddenly, the overhead screen flashed red and. This time, not in one of Alcyone's quips.

[Long Distance Calling; Black Paper Planes]
​

"I hope you're happy with us sticking out our necks like this, Alcy!" Spek said, and quickly diverted his attention to the sensor's controls. "I was expecting to provide some suppressive fire while on the hangar, not to take part on an all-out dogfight," he spoke while managing several systems, going over the distance that separated the Azure from Korpil, and trying to come up with a plan.

"Next time, remind me not to fly through Roche. Never again! If there's ever a next time..."

The distance was too great. The scans indicated that the enemy fighters would be able to intercept the Alcyone before reaching her destination. Even if they did not delay their course in order to rendezvous with the Typhoon fighter. If they did, a single interceptor would not be enough of a deterrent for even a single squadron. Zhio knew the starfighter well, and - even considering that the intel being inferred by his ship's sensors was accurate, and that the bandits possessed high maneuverability - he was sure he could fly circles around the enemy, but not be able to defend the Alcyone against them, if they picked her as their target.

"Wait! What's that?" He pulled up a schematic of a Shriek on one screen, and the cargo manifest on the other. "That plating... It's being held together by a magnetic core..." Zhio promptly programed a set of new coordinates, and watched the screen displaying the Typhoon II's predicted trajectory, with great anticipation.

The screen flickered by the second, as it updated the other ship's vector, according to ongoing computations.

One flicker. No change.

Two flickers. No change.

Three flickers. A glance at another screen, told him that an enemy squadron was being scrambled towards their intended coordinates.

"Come on, come on. What the frink?" The computer calculated the enemy's interception coordinates. He highlighted them, "Alcy, set these as contact zero."

Four flickers. What is it waiting for? Damn bio-computer!

Five flickers. New intercept vector detected on the Typhoon II.

The plan might work! If the lag was not caused by Alcyone's calculations - the ship would chide him for a standard week if he ever spoke his mind out loud - there was roughly a two second delay between the bandit fighters and the Jedi one, when it came to adjusting their flight vectors to the Azure's. But, he had to rush, for it to work!

The captain inputted yet a new pair of coordinates, but did not set them. Not yet.

"Alcyone, update to those final coordinates, two seconds before contact zero, precisely. And jettison our cargo, immediately after engaging the afterburners," he ordered, while hurrying towards his quarters, lights blinking along the way. "That's my girl!"

The fact that he was not getting into an enviro-suit to board the Typhoon, was actually a blessing, despite having been precipitated by the new time constraints. Piloting inside such a small craft, with such a bulky spacesuit, would have been a hindrance.

After retrieving his lightsabers, vibrosword, and energy pistol, he ran towards the portside cargo bay. Slicing with the sword at every cargo strap tying down the boxes, and opening their lids. he exposed the ores they contained. Now moving towards the starboard bay, he issued another command upon reaching it, "Close both bulkhead doors," that would safeguard the rest of the ship from the vacuum of space. "Just, do it. I'll be fine!" He began cutting the straps on the ore boxes on the second cargo bay, as well. "How many seconds until course correction?" The bay's lights blinked four times.

"Shit! Faster" He continued to cut and open the containers.

Three.

"Faster!" Slash, open. Slash, open. Slash, open.

Two.

Done. Time to run towards the fore, so that all the containers were between himself and the cargo bay's exterior doors. "Alcy, don't forget to leave an open channel for the Typhoon, and..."

One.

"...Forgive me for this." He plunged the vibrosword through the floor, half the blade's length going though. Knelling beside it, holding the hilt firmly with both hands, he braced for what was to come.

Zero.

Not even the inertial compensator, was enough to compensate such drastic acceleration, as the Alcyone dove and spun while performing a U-turn. Zhio's body was thrown into the air and them slammed hard against the floor. Though, he still held on to the sword.

The bandits, would not be able to re-calculate the Alcyone's new course in time, but it would not matter to them. By now, they should have a visual of the ship, and engage in active pursuit.

Albeit, for their own misfortune, they were now behind it. As the cargo bay doors were opening, and spilling out two hundred metric tons of metallic ores into outer space. Zhio held tight, creating a Force Barrier that would help contain a semblance of atmosphere around him. Allowing him to survive realspace, if only for a brief moment...

He let go of his Echani vibrosword, dubbed Kingfisher, and descended into nothingness. All the while thinking, on how he was leaving both the sword and his red jacket behind. The latter, still hanging from his captain's chair on the cockpit. He considered it was for the best, since she needed all the luck she could get, and was now captain of herself.

If his ploy did not go awry, the Typhoon would not have corrected its course, and was also about to get a reading on an unprotected organic sentient in outer space. Hopefully, it would prioritize the castaway, rather than the primary objective that was his ship.

In space, no one can hear you scream. So they say...

And you cannot also hear the dozen ships that try to outflank a debris field of highly magnetic rocks, only to have their own magnetic cores draw the projectiles towards them. It was actually an entertaining display, but the Zeltron had other matters to concern himself with, and so he managed to rotate himself with the Force. The Alcyone was flying away. The Typhoon, incoming. It worked.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw some of the Bryn'adul fighters firing missiles. But there was no way for them to possibly transverse the dense curtain of rocks. Many concussion missiles, as the ores were being attracted towards the fighters, and impacted with their pressurized canisters even as they were being launched, exploded right then and there. On those instances, the enemy interceptors were immediately put out of commission.

The remaining munitions, exploding upon colliding with some of the debris, only helped in further accelerating the other (now) space rocks in several different directions. Further aggravating the Shriek's current situation, by making it even more difficult for these sight-relying ships to safely navigate against the ongoing bombardment.

Some of the rocks diverted by the explosion, could reach Zhio or any of the other two ships, so the Typhoon had better hurry!

Thinking this, returning his gaze towards the incoming fighter, Spek realized that it was already reaching him and coming to a halt. Propelling himself with a Force Push, he entered the Typhoon's cockpit. Just in time to fly out of the way of incoming debris and take a nice big gulp of air.

Some of the metal debris, had now enough kinetic force behind their impacts to ignite the Magkast inside the Bryn fighters. Which exploded in a beautifull display of organic matter, metal, and lava.

The others, were taken down by the persistent deluge of debris against their hulls. Too bad for them, that their shielding was piss-poor against kinetic projectiles.

"Alcyone, you read me? Take advantage of the debris field to dock with Korpil and evacuate the civilians. I'll provide additional cover." The flight controls showed his ship correcting course, yet again.

"Brilliant Star, this is Kingfisher, escorting the Azure Halcyone en route to Korpil G62."

Maybe, with any luck, this time on Roche he would hand over the Typhoon back in one piece.
​

"After that, I'll join your flyboys in dealing with these vermin."

Zhio grabbed and pulled the cables that connected the Calor-series Bio-Computer to the flight controls. He had no time to re-calibrate them as he saw fit, and this was the fastest way to get rid of any of the previous pilot's bad habits.

"Kingfisher out."
​

Gir Quee ​

 

[Travot Ravenna]

"Right. Just... take your time. I think I'm fine here. Just fine."

Travot closed his eyes and felt for Vaux Gred 's presence, "We're about a hundred meters away. We'll be there shortly..."

...I hope. Adding that out loud probably wouldn't have been too reassuring to Vaux or Lanyria, but the two of them were probably both experienced enough to know that inherently. Unfamiliar space structures could be complicated to navigate through, especially ones made in mind more for a different species. While the Verpine designs tended to be fairly straightforward compared to many of their cousin insectiod species thanks to their long inclusion within the mainstream galaxy, every once and a while Travot had found himself confuddled by odd vertical ascents or winding passageways when on other asteroid stations within the Roche belt.

He started jogging forward, with Lanyria following close behind him. As they moved forward, Travot instinctively drew his lightsaber, though he did not activate it. Lanyria followed suit. His danger sense flared as they passed through a doorway to find themselves facing off with a trio of Draeyde swarm monsters, who briefly halted their scramble forward to let out a few screeching wails which the man guessed was to signal other members of the pack that they had found enemies - at least that's what he guessed. Never had he faced them in combat before. The sound of repeating blaster fire began to echo throughout the nearby corridors. Looks like someone else is already fighting them too...

One of the monsters jumped forward. Travot let it near his throat before abruptly activating his lightsaber, causing the beast to impale himself mid-air in the process. He twisted the hilt in a figure eight pattern, flaying and disfiguring the beast from the inside out, and causing its remains to unceremoniously drop onto the ground. Before the other two beasts could react, Travot leaped forward and swung his blade out in a horizontal slash that managed to wound both of the beasts before they could react. Lanyria darted forward to thrust her blade into one of the wounded beasts while Travot used his free hand to focus a Force push that knocked the other beast into a wall. Another quick thrust finished off the wounded beast while Lanyria beheaded the other creature right next to him. A voice crackled through his wrist comlink.

"This is Stone Gra'tua inside G62, we're being heavily engaged. Moving to see if there's anyone left alive."

Mando. That is good. And he can take care of himself well. He briefly closed his eyes to find that changeling's presence before he activated his comlink.

" Stone Gra'tua This is Knight Ravenna with Padawan Lanyria. We're 75 meters south of your position and moving to retrieve a member of Clan Gred, who is 25 meters north of your own position. Not sure of any other survivors right now."

 

[Stone Gra'tua]

SJC Reinforcements
Location : Korpil G62, To the rescue!
Equipment : Each in AV-1A assault armor, various weapons as linked
Ship : Chronos One
Accompanied by : Vansen, Tank, Angry

The comm call from the Jedi was a welcome one. Clearly the jetiise had better scanners than the Mando'ade had brought along. The fact there were survivors was good news, the fact the Jedi had their location pinpointed, was excellent news. The fact that the hordes of slavering monsters showed no signs of letting up, or running short of numbers, was not such good news. This point was rammed home to Stone as he reloaded his repeating blaster and had to duck to avoid a missile fired to cover his shebs.

"Move north, one survivor, twenty five meters." He growled into his comm to the rest of the squad. Immediately, they began moving, Stone's fire now returned to the fray as he cut down Bryn'adul beasties as fast as they appeared, scything the cannon's fire back and forth across the corridor before the kill team. Continuous explosions boomed out as the squad's grenade and missile launchers did their messy work, leaving charred and smoking flesh splashed around in the team's wake. "Copy that, Jedi, thanks for the assist. We're on our way." Stone commed to Ravenna. He wondered for a moment about bringing a Padawan into this hellscape, but then figured Mando'ade would bring their own apprentices into hard combat. He thought that at least the Mandos would make sure the young one had more than just a lightsaber, but knew Jedi had their own way of doing things.

Moving into a cross-corridor that his short-range map on his datapad suggested would take them to their would-be rescuee; Stone was mentally calculating the team's ammunition. At the rate they were going through blaster packs and explosives, they weren't going to make it back to the ship before they had to go hand-to-hand with the enemy. One problem at a time, the Shi'ido Mando'ad told himself as he half-ran, half crouched, firing on the move, leading his team further into G62 toward the objective.

Gir Quee Travot Ravenna Spek Zhio Dagos Terrek Riamah

 

[Riamah]

There might have been a time in her life when she would have allowed her emotions to guide her actions. However, Ra had outgrown those false notions and faced this battle with a sense of calmness she would have thought impossible many years ago.

A broach held her cloak together and from that, she was able to pick up on the hate and distaste these beasts felt for her. Reaching out a hand, she crushed the walls together in front of the monsters trying to escape from her light. Other than the child on the other side of the door, she didn't pick up any life close enough to be bothered by her action. Her husband had taught her well and she now considered all of her actions before making them. It was a simple attempt to keep them cornered and maybe cause them to turn around and confront the light they were so afraid of.

Four did decide to accept her offer. As the leader of the group thought it had reached her, she blinked out of sight and appeared behind him just as suddenly. She made quick work of the beast and stabbed it through the back of the head. She made no flourishing moves, just a simple thrust and it fell before it could even start turning around.

The other three gave her room and did not rush in to attack her. Feigns were made by them, growls and hisses happened. In the middle, Ra stood her ground and was surrounded by them. Luckily, they weren't very intelligent and were totally unable to resist the Force.

Holding a hand out to the one on her left, she quickly found its beating heart and squeezed. The creature shuddered as the life faded from its eyes and crumpled to the floor. One of the other two felt Ra was distracted enough to try and hurt her. In a lightning-swift move, she kicked it away...much like Dagos had done not long before and sent it crashing into the returning group. There it was torn to pieces fast by its brethren. That left her one more to deal with.

A large brute with maybe a little more intelligence than the others that had fallen to her. With this slight lull in the fight, the group of troopers should be able to approach...If they got there in time to see anything, all they would actually glimpse was a yellow blade flying through the air to distract the Bryn from challenging the woman. Suddenly, two short lightsabers appeared in her hands and she closed the distance between her and the monster. Two cuts across its face and the yellow blade impaled itself through the top of its head.

Replacing the blades to their locations, she turned to see if they would be able to handle the rest of the group she had been holding trapped in front of her.

Dagos Terrek Stone Gra'tua Spek Zhio Travot Ravenna