Who doesn't love oceans? (Republic Dominion of Manaan)

[Yox Dikai]

The Sector Rangers were not soldiers. They were cops. But they knew how to fight and knew how to fly. So, recently promoted Ranger Commander Javin Perth had assembled what Rangers, military personnel, and remaining Jedi to secure the now mostly undefended planet Manaan. He had assembled a rag-tag flotilla of Ranger transports, partially crewed warships, and troop transports within striking range, sending them to rendezvous in orbit above the planet.

His ship dropped out of hyperspace and in the distance around him, other ships appeared as well, popping up here and there. Perth nodded grimly. They had a force. Not an army, but a force. Hopefully it would be enough. He had called in some favors with construction companies and they would be arriving soon after. Hopefully troops from Commenor or Onderon would be arriving soon after that.

Maybe his own Vanished, Yox DIkai would be arriving with them soon after. He certainly hoped so. It was odd not having her around. No time to brood on that now.

"Listen up, Rangers and other allied forces. As far as we can tell, there is very little enemy influence remaining. Pockets linger around, however, so stay sharp, and expect at least some resistance. Just like mopping up slaving rings."

He nodded to his pilot and they saluted each other and hit the thrusters, sending the ship speeding towards the planet. Others, not just the ones he called, but a few he knew from experience as smuggling ships and mercenaries as well. He allowed himself a small smile. Scoundrels detested the One Sith as much Republic personnel and word was out they'd been hit badly. Time to regain an edge and break their momentum.

Dots appeared on his scanners. Scattered fighter defenses. He relayed the information back. They were going in hot.

Spoiler

Objectives:
Build a secure landing platform near Ahto city to unload supplies and resources
Eliminate pockets of One Sith resistance & establish planetary defenses
Convince the Selkath the Republic will be more successful

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Yox Dikai"]
Manaan

The Admiral could not help but feel dismayed at the thought of returning there. He had won the battle above the planet, killing an Immortal and routing the Sith fleet, but it had all been for nought, or so he thought.

Now there was a chance for redemption. Now there was a chance for Victory.

And so, despite his weakened and disorganised crew, the Admiral led his forces to battle once more. There was only one advantage – the Sith had lost just as many people too, so they had surprise on their side.

And so, with a flicker, his fleet arrived in space and began its movement. Already Republic transports and dropships were heading for the surface.
The Destiny, an MC-180 Remembrance Class, led the way. It had tasted blood in several battles against the Sith, and now here was a chance for it to shine. Alongside it was the Righteous, the ship he had just led to retake Commenor. There was also an old Warhammer Class ship, the Ebbing Heart, all supported by a dozen escorts.

Command and control was difficult. The Republic had been forced to press men from different ships of the same class together, but speed was vital.

“Admiral, Sith ships are falling back from our approach. They did not expect this.”
“Do not get complacent. If we can summon this sort of force, perhaps the Sith can too. Send out pickets to watch, and establish a perimeter over Ahto City.”

 

[Yox Dikai]

Javin checked his scopes and let out a long sigh of relief. Republic reinforcements had arrived. Close to fifteen ships, all capital ships. All Republic military. That was a huge relief. Up ahead, the scattered Sith fighter forces began to pull back towards the planet, arcing towards where sensors and charts indicated that Ahto City lay. Or used to lay. He wasn't entirely sure as he he had been undercover with Yox at the time, rooting out Hutt informants that sold Republic secrets.

"Raise communication with the fleet and send this message when you make contact," He said, looking out ahead. "We have a location set up ten kilometers west of the city to establish a command post and base before attempting to take the city. We're not geared for an orbital invasion. Based on my informants, we have Sith pockets here, here, and here." He noted down coordinates. "And we need someone with political clout to sweet-talk the locals into letting us stay."

Javin switched channels, aiming instead for a particular group of smugglers with very fast and heavily armed vessels, despite their appearance.
"Alright, pal. Nice to see you on the side of the law this time. Take out those fighters, will you."

"Whatever you say this time, Perth," The reply crackled back, but whatever came after was lost in the transmission. The cluster of five or six smuggler ships shot ahead and down on an intercept course for the fighters until they disappeared from view.

"See if you can analyze their vapor trail. Figure out what they've got that we don't."
"Roger that, Javin. Not like we haven't tried a dozen times already." Javin had to nod at that. It was true.

Another burst of ships appeared on the scene, bulk transports and construction ships, all hovering back away from the planet, waiting for the signal that it was clear to begin the process.

They entered the atmosphere with a shudder, the ship shaking friction began to heat it up. Javin gritted his teeth, expecting arcs of blasterfire to come streaking towards them at any moment. So far, there were none. Off in the distance, a few flashes indicated that the smugglers had done their job excellently. He was very glad they were shooting at someone else this time.



[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

 

[Tålamod Shapochka]

Lieutenant Commander Shapochka had arrived aboard the Righteous at a fleet rendezvous point on the way to Manaan following her 'shore leave'. Really, it was more like a medical leave to her--a time when she felt like she could better deal with her unceasing migraines. But her bloodlust was yet unsatisfied. The Sith still held Empress Teta.

Progress was being made on the Republic end, however. They seemed to be one of the fastest to recover from whatever strange events had occurred. Tålamod had been spared whatever loss most others felt. Her family was gone. The Sith had seen to that. She wanted to see to their end.

Slowly making way from her quarters to the bridge, Shapochka was alerted of the shy Sith fleet that seemed to be letting the Republic ships have some space. And she visually confirmed this upon arrival of the command deck. Her turquoise eyes narrowed as she glared at the hideous enemy vessels lingering in extended orbit. She wanted to pursue and slag every last one of them. The Admiral would likely not approve. But they say to ask forgiveness before permission.

Fortunately, Tålamod asks permission in these instances. "Admiral Stahlmann, may I have command to engage?"

[member="Yox Dikai"], [member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

 

[Sabena Shai]

Already on Manaan, Sabena patiently waited in what seemed to be a small common space of a vessel. There were no viewports that allowed Sabena or the other occupants any way to see outside the vessel. Sabena was busy passing the time by reading news on a Datapad. Names of celebrities and major politicians that are a part of the Vanished were listed before her. Other major events happening as a result of the Mass Disappearance were presented to her by the Datapad.

Looking up, Sabena saw a male, human Republic soldier approach her. Several other Republic soldiers and Jedi were with Sabena.

“ETA to Ahto City is five minutes,” reported the soldier, “We don’t have anything on our sensors to indicate we’ve been found.”

There was a community sigh of relief. The biggest risk determined in the mission Sabena was on was that they would be caught before reaching their destination.

“The submarine will be surfacing once we reach the city,” said the soldier.

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Tålamod Shapochka"]
"Commander, good to see you back in service. You may. Advance prudently and open fire when in range, the Destiny and Ebbing Heart will form on your flanks. Welcome back to Manaan...let's make sure the Sith remember it with fear again."

The Republic fleet deployed for action, deploying fighters and escorts and moved to engage. The Sith gave ground before them, but eventually they'd have to fight or flee.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]


In the blink of an eye, open chaos had broken out. Spreading like wild fires across the Galaxy. And the Republic had returned to Manaan in the hopes of regaining what it had lost so recently. A battered, badly mauled Republic that had suffered hammerblow after hammerblow from the One Sith. Most predicted it would not survive the current cataclysm. Intelligence indicated the One Sith might already be making moves upon Kuat and would be snatching Corellia from the weak grasp of the Protectorate. Callisto Scarlett...loved the chaos. It was a whole new Galaxy, playing by different rules. Billions of organics had vanished, it was a matter of indifference to her.



Her protocols told her to support the Republic and so here she stood on the bridge of the admiral's flagship, impassively watching the space battle unfold before her mechanical eyes. Bolters were mag-clamped to her armoured thighs. After all, Sith had a fondness for boarding actions, despite that being so archaic. Along with building lumbering beasts like the Immortal. Once the situation in space was cleared she would go planetside and aid in the reconquest.

 

[Marona Rayheart]

[member="Sabena Shai"]

Chaos

People went missing, important people.... Jedi and soldiers alike. It was a madining concept-and one she was still working towards understanding. It left enemies and allies alike weaker, more fragile. THAT was something she did understand.

So in short, she supposed the galaxy was going to
to become one giant chessboard. The piece, or space she was supposed to help secure? Manaan, the planet 99.9% water and the rest land. This meant of course that in this case the people Marona put with approached the .1% of land with a Submerine.

This also meant a sigh of relief from everyone when they hadn't been detected yet, though Marona herself was more glad about the 'five minutes part' she always felt odd traveling by water-above or below.

"I swear I need gills"

She muttered with a light chuckle.

Normally she was land based infantry but... with so many gone? Sacrifieces.

Oh well, least the water could be left behind with time.

 

[Kyrana Gould]

The Sith were rapidly disorganised and fell back, but they could not stay out of range forever. Swiftly the Republic fighters swept in, and the One Sith formed a defensive ring about their heretical Vong ships.
"That's enough. Hold off the fighter pursuit," the Admiral ordered. The enemy was disorganised, but he was wary of traps like those at Prakith. He would drive the enemy from Manaan by any means, but he would do so without offering his fleet for destruction.

"Order the Radiant and Liberty to launch its fighters and move to get behind the OS fleet," he ordered. With this in place his fleet could attack and attempt to cut off the enemy retreat.

 

[Tålamod Shapochka]

Tålamod never smiled. Except now she did. She was ready to purge these Sith from the galaxy; send them all wherever the galaxy's quintillions of missing people had gone, never to return.

"All guns, all shields, all engines forward!" Her crewmen awkwardly obliged, never having seen their commander in these sorts of spirits before. She almost appeared to be happy. Not that she was ever one to abide in wrath, but her demeanor was almost perpetually droll, bitter, and tortured. Today, her eyes were aglow.

Revenge. Today would not contain enough. But it was a start.

"Launch protective fighters. Hyper cannons, all fire, yes." The five hypervelocity cannons of the star destroyer almost immediately sounded off, their silent bursts still causing the slightest of trembles in Commander Shapochka's soul. They were a bit of a distance away from the bastard Vong ships, but she would take great amusement in watching them be pummeled from afar without being able to do anything about it.

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

 

[The End Narrator]

Manaan....

How she hated this place.

She almost died here.

And it felt like so long ago.

Had she died here, the twins wouldn't have been born - man she did miss them. They were getting bigger and bigger, unusually. Perhaps it had to do with this strange Force anomaly that occurred before they disappeared and before Falcon did as well. The Force itself worked in strange ways - much like the way her stomach was working now. Again, with the fruit cravings. She knew she wasn't pregnant, it was impossible considering the circumstances. Had she residual effects from being pregnant so long ago? No, she probably just got a bad habit - damn Muja fruit was so good though...and not a bit of it in site.

Nothing but endless water and Selkath who were upset at the Republic for the past failures against the One Sith. That was why she was here - to talk to them - reason with them. She rode the dropship down, having a meeting with one of their regional leaders, perhaps he'd be able to talk to others on their Council and convince them that for a third time - the Republic would not fail. They'd be better, they'd be stronger. They'd have to be or they would never have the support of the Selkath again.

They needed them, beyond the kolto....they needed anyone they could get at this point.

Spoiler

OOC - Take me to your leader.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

As chaos grew and the rifts appeared more and more of the past bled into the present, the what-ifs, the maybes, the possibles.

On Manaan there appeared a shape, the form of one long lost and gone, a single person come back in compensation for all those taken.

Surrounded by a shimmering aura of light the being took a deep, shuddering breath.

“Is this life?” Her bright eyes settled on the chaos and the ruin of the city. “What has become of this world? Did I…die…for nothing? Where are you, [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]?”

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Tålamod Shapochka"]
Although the Admiral had defeated Immortals in his two previous battles, he was glad there was not one present today. He wasn’t sure his patchwork crew could do the necessary manoeuvres to defeat it.

Still, the enemy ships were old ones, mainly remnants of mothballed fleets or ones from the first Sith Empire.

“Commander, open fire with the HVC, aim for the main batteries of that Sith cruiser.”
Soon the Destiny would be in range and would be able to fire.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]


There was mayhem in space. That was beautiful to watch. All those turbolaser blasts, spectacular turbolaser blasts. Of course, in actual space there is no sound, though it is often portrayed in such a way. For a change there was no Immortal. In Callisto's opinion naming your ship like that was just asking for someone to prove you wrong and destroy it. Then again, there were many things that organics did which she found illogical.



At present the Sith had not launched any boarding actions, so she stayed passive. Speaking of boarding actions, they were popular in most militaries, which was perplexing as well because any battleship ought to have a contingent running into the thousands, thus making boarding inexpedient. Anyhow, since there was no one trying to death charge the battleship, Callisto was making herself useful by taking up up position among the gunners of this particular Star Defender, doing her part by coordinating the targeting of the massive ship. Due to being a droid she was able to process many thousands of scenarios and issue instructions to each gunnery battery giving them their best targets. It should be useful when it came to cleansing the stars.

 

[Kana Truden]

Manaan

She could have died here.

And it did indeed seem like so long ago.

It was here that she had her worst experience with a sith took place. It was here she had first tasted the pain of defeat in a quite literal way. Eyes shot down at the hilt clinging on her belt next to her own. It had been so long since she last saw the owner of that hilt in particular, Reverance. He was still held in high esteem, the passing of time not having changed that in the slightest. Practice had come and practice had gone all in preparation for the next time.

But that was not the importance of today. Today was about smoothing over what should have been smoothed over long ago and in a twisted sense of irony Kana was here with no one other than [member="Aaralyn Gyndar"]. Names had clearly changed since last time but it was good company to be had in any case.

The dropdown was still descending.

“At least this time we know each others names, huh Aaralyn?” Kana chuckled. “Here’s just hoping for less dark-sided intervention.”

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Manaan. Not exactly happy memories. Patching up the fallen, receiving the news of the GrandMaster’s capture. Jedi falling to the Dark-side, or worse - losing their lives.

Six years might feel like a long time but to Corvus it felt like only weeks ago. She approached two familiar faces, her best friend and her Master. She had a brand new Padawan with her, [member="Teaari Tann"]. A fellow Corellian she’d picked up just before the One Sith moved in. In truth, they had hardly spoken since they’d met due to the logistics of travel and Council duties.

She stepped up to the pair and gave a short bow before the formal introductions. “Teaari, here are Masters [member="Kana Truden"] and [member="Aaralyn Gyndar"]. Masters, please meet my new Padawan.” She beamed from ear to ear. Back from hell for five minutes and already Corvus had added to her Padawan group.

“So, what’s the objective?”

 

[Teaari Tann]

The Corellian padawan walked next to her master silently, with a calm expression on her face and attentive eyes and ears. Her light green gaze was later set upon two female Jedi whom they were approaching and, as she had expected, her Master greeted with a warm beam.

Teaari bowed her head in a respectful manner, her lips stretching slightly into a kind smile, "A pleasure to meet you, Masters" She said before straightening her head. Teaari had never been to Manaan before but had heard of the terrible things that took place here. The though made her feel a little weary and the expressions of the ones that had been there when the events took place gave her reason to be.

This was not enough to diminish the tingle of nervousness and maybe even anxiousness that gripped onto the heart of the padawan. She was doing a good job controlling this emotions and although she could still feel them, her mind was clear and ready to acknowledge the next objective.

[member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Aaralyn Gyndar"]

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Kayleigh had been busy. Very busy. With everything that had been going on over the years she had been admitted to the Chief of Staff for the Galactic Republic military. At least for the interim, with Vaudin currently MIA, this placed her in charge of the Republic's military forces. She was no desk jockey though, and after having filed all of the necessary paperwork for the upcoming operations, she stepped on board the latest addition to the Republic's fleet. The Caledonia was about to be christened with its first official mission, and she had pulled together her crew from years back aboard the Sonata. They were ready, eager, and prepared to give the Sith hell once again at Manaan.

As she reached the bridge, a wave of goosebumps surged across her skin as she placed her hand on the banister, relaying to the crew to prep for launch. "Let's go give our warmest hello to the people of Manaan." She knew that both [member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] and [member="Tålamod Shapochka"] were already there with the majority of the fleet, but a surprise visit surely couldn't hurt.

Excited, to say the least, would be how to describe Kayleigh's attitude right now as they traveled through hyperspace. "Lieutenant, ETA report on hyperspace lane exit?" The younger officer responded in kind, "Exiting hyperspace in seventeen minutes, Ma'am."

"Prep all weapons. Run diagnostics on the primary and secondary shield systems. Ensure all security personnel are prepared to repel borders. Ready the fighters and bombers for engagement. Prep the dropships with supplies, food, and ammunition for our ground forces. We will be making quite the entrance today, gentlemen! Prepare the ship to engage immediately! All hands on deck." The girl sat back in her chair, crossing her legs, smiling as she awaited. She was looking forward to seeing Stahlmann again. He had been her inspiration for years. Despite her executive position, she still looked up to the admiral that had taken her under his wing.

 

[Yox Dikai]

Blasters of laser fire arced past Javin's ship from below, arcing past the bow, and he grabbed his seat as the pilot threw the ship into a tight corkscrew spiral and dive. Straps dug into his shoulders and then stopped as the ship levelled off again. Javin grabbed the console and punched some buttons, scanning the screen until the sensors targeted the emplacement. It would just take a few seconds for the computer to lock on.

More lasers spiralled around them, one impacting the ship, sending the shields dropping rapidly and rocking it back forth. Javin groaned as his head hit the back of the chair a little too hard. Marvelous.

The computer dinged and he practically leapt forward to the trigger and slammed it down, launching two concussion missiles down towards the gun emplacement. He watched the contrails arc through the atmosphere and then explode in a ball of fire far below.

"Any other defenses in the area?"

"Negative, Javin. It looks like we're all clear."

"Roger that. Signal the construction fleet. Tell them to move in and begin assembly. I want all of my crews patrolling in a 50 kilometer radius around the construction zone at all times. The Navy can do its own thing up there with the sky battle as long as they make sure the civilian ships can get to the surface without getting blown up."

He unbuckled himself from his seat and strode to the command console, pulling up the holoscreens to coordinate efforts.

"Let's get escorts running from the surface to the construction fleet."

He designated a dozen or so ships, Ranger vessels, trustworthy and respected smuggling ships, and a few freelance fighter pilots who had owed him favors, and set them up on patrol routes well away from the main fleet battles.

"And someone get beam a message down to the sub crew. What's their progress?"

[member="Kayleigh Tyven"] [member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] [member="Tålamod Shapochka"]

[member="Marona Rayheart"] [member="Sabena Shai"]

 

[Marona Rayheart]

[member="Yox Dikai"] [member="Sabena Shai"]

She was doing her best to relax, given their circumstances. It was best for a warrior to stay calm-most of all in such grim circumstances as they faced now. The galaxy scattered... do many gone... yeah this was one heck of a day to wake up to.

Marona, in her haze of thoughts was the one to reseave the message from... higher up. Ha now was no time for games.

"Less than five minutes from landing, have not been detected yet"

Which was good, Marona had no desire to swim the rest of the way. She couldn't wait to get backon land.


(Short ik.... classes are a bother)