Why Are There So Many Dominions? [CIS Dominion of Styx]

[Darth Metus]

"FIRE!" came the bold proclamation of the Archmaster. At his behest, the numerous cannons of the taskforce began their relentless assault against against the first, northern quadrant of the moon. The turbolasers sang their hymn of destruction without remorse, riddling the satellite with explosions as the automated defenses met total demise. Just like before, once the final shot had been fired, it fell upon the Archmaster to make the next order. He had never felt more relied upon in all his days, as ever single move needed his final command. He understood why though, for it any lives were lost it would entirely fall upon his shoulders...

No pressure.

 

[Revenchent]

"Checking now." Calico mumbled as the lamps on his visor cracked to life. The blinding white light from the overly expensive flashlight completely illuminated a large circular section of the corridor.

He blinked three times at one of the arrow icons in the bottom right hand corner of his HUD. The Commando shuddered as a blast of neuronic energy expelled from his armor; into the corridor, and off every little divit in search of organic tissue. Nothing came up; though Sigma leader's voice crackled in reporting about a security droid issue.

"Nothing Sir."

Nothing I can see, at least.

Something massive shuddered within the vents nearby. The elevator suddenly seemed miles away now to Calico. A pang of fear rooted itself within his chest. "Nothing organic. Watch yourself Sir."

 

[Darth Metus]

Having worked within the Confederacy of Independent Systems for so long, when Calico said nothing organic was moving, the Mandalorian instantly began to contemplate the possibility of automaton defenses. Droids, turrents, and other things of the sort could easily pose to be nasty challenges to overcome; especially for two organics. As silent as the grave, Isley gave his subordinate a quiet nod and continued to move forward, noting the sound and movement of the vent that was towards the far end of the corridor. With his machine pistols at the ready, the Mandalorian did not even flinch when the vent flew open, revealing the mechanical form of a spider droid. It was only a meter in height and had a duo of blasters attached to its body, but it was karking quick.

"Kark." breathed Isley, diving forward into a roll in order to avoid the first set of blaster shots. "Let's take it out!"

 

[Darth Metus]

Once more, history repeated itself. At the behest of the Archmaster, the various weapon systems and gunners began to target the defensive emplacements that were situated in the second, northern quadrant. The holographic depiction before his eyes changed in a matter of seconds in order to reflect the successful decimation of approximately a quarter of the moon's defenses, and the subsequent locking on of the next set marked for destruction. It was an immense fortune that these defenses were automated, and not manned by organics, else the entirety of the crew would have felt terrible about the wanton decimation they were unleashing upon the ground.

"Ready the next volley, then fire on my mark."

 

[Revenchent]

Calico rolled into a tight ball. He quickly reformed to set all his weight one knee. "It's a dwarf. Too imperfect to make the cut, eh?!" He taunted at the droid to sate his own sense of aggression. The old clone knew full well the droid didn't understand a word that came out of his mouth.

The twin DC-15's screamed with intense blue fire; firing streams so rapid into the droid's armored plating that their barrels began to light up a hot orange. The droid's armor melted and screeched as fire popped off its chassis; though it kept up the fire. One massive shot exploded into the Commander's chest. "Son-of-a-!!!" Calico flew back and skidded across the perfect metal floor as white hot pain erupted in his chest.

The armor held, though his shields had failed and the chestplate was stained a faint gray. The force of the shot had been enough to knock the air out of his lungs and send the soldier flying back. "Kick it in the cybernetic balls for me Colonel." He growled; taking in a deep breath as he began to shoot more bolts of blue energy into the droid.

 

[Darth Metus]

Seeing his comrade seemingly fall in response to the droid's firing unleashed a tide of fury within the Mandalorian...and as such he resolved to do much, much more than kick it in the mechanical balls. Instead, Isley reached out with the Force, telekinetically allowing the mechanical fool to taste his anger. With but the closing of his fist, the Mandalorian utterly crushed its form, collapsing its entire body in on itself until it sank to the side as a crumbled heap. It sparked and sizzled with electricity, but was very much destroyed. Rising to his feet, Isley then stepped over to his comrade and offered him his hand.

"You alright, Vod?"

 

[Darth Metus]

Again, once the totality of the task force's Long-Range Turbolasers had locked on, the Archmaster barked the order that began the destruction. "Fire!" he damn near roared, and in turn the Confederate vessels began to relentlessly hammer away at the second, northern quadrant. Tremendous bolts of azure energy blazed across the void of space until they impacted the metal, defensive emplacements affixed on the moon. There were explosions followed by explosions as the task force hammered away at the second quadrant, and just like the first all the defensive emplacements were met with complete and total annihilation.

 

[Revenchent]

Calico stared up at the hulking mess that was once a spider droid. The force was one bad motherkriffer. "Just kicked me in the teeth a little bit here Sir." He grumbled, happily taking the hand.

He pulled himself up to his feet; albeit a bit shakily, and replaced the magazines in his sidearms. The elevator seemed to be much, much closer now. "We just have to clear the bridge." The Commander grumbled; limping slightly until he fully regained his balance. He remained half crouched; pistols outstretched and ready to take down any enemies that came his way. He reached the elevator first, a simple steel tube with a bright console at its right side. The doors seemed to be sealed closed.

"Think you can take this Is'ika? Guns don't mix with doors."

 

[Darth Metus]

"Alright, shake it off Vod. We've got this." came the Mandalorian's words of encouragement as he assisted in hoisting his fellow off the ground. Together, they then began to advance down the corridor until they arrived at the elevator that would supposedly take them to the Bridge. Of course, as per Calico's apt observation, Isley would need to work his magic in order to get the doors open. Stepping forward, he produced his micro-datapad and began the slicing process, which only took a few moments. It was one of the easier hacking processes, opening doors, and one that the Mandalorian was rather good at. Anything leagues beyond that was out of his reach. After a few seconds, the doors slid open and Isley stepped aside with a touch of humor.

"After you, good sir."

 

[Darth Metus]

When the volley came to a conclusion, the task force did not have time to begin the process of locking on once more. This was due to the fact that the Station itself had taken notice of the moon's punishment and had dispatched its fighter squadrons in order to defend the emplacements. This was announced by the helmsman, which caused the Archmaster to wrack his brains. They were a little low on the starfighter side, but they still had ships available. As such, Josiah gave the order and prayed to the Force for success. "Scramble the fighters and get our defensive armaments going!" he said, damn near barking once more.

 

[Revenchent]

Calico simply grunted in reply to the 'encouragement'. He didn't need encouragement; he was the commander of the Clone Army! He made his own encouragement. "I'd say ladies first but I'm afraid you might not have a gender Sir." The Commander chided, stepping into the tiny tube of an excuse for an elevator. It really wasn't anything much.

I hate these kriffing tubes.

The Commander began to enter in the correct numbers. In moments; it would explode upward toward the main bridge deck. Hopefully Isley stepped inside by then.

Calico pressed a hand to his ear as the Commando teams reported in. "Alpha has an ample distraction set in hanger B-two. They'll be fine for an hour of so. Sigma is encountering heavy resistance but no casualties. Galaar is making his own way....Oddball really is doing a good job with the comms.

 

[Darth Metus]

The Mandalorian was only two steps behind his comrade and came to a halt by his side just as he began keying in the destination into the wall-mounted console. He offered a slight chuckle as Calico made his comment, but nothing more. When the reports were announced only seconds later, there was a noticable change in the Mandalorian's posture, as if his interest had been captivated. "Is Alpha near Sigma at all? Can they spare reinforcements?" he inquired as the elevator shot through the innards of the station until it came to a halt. Its doors slid open, revealing nothing but darkness, to which his HUD's lights kicked in as to remedy. The signs of battle were obviously there, a fact which caused the Mandalorian to raise his guard up even more.

"In the mouth of hell we march." he said calmly, leading the way forward.

 

[Darth Metus]

From the various hangar bays of the taskforce surged forth a small host of starfighters and interceptors to meet the squadrons launched by the station. The battle was one of skill versus automation, with skill being in the hands of the Confederacy. From the Bridge, the Archmaster watched the battle commence, his nerves on edge whilst shots were exchanged between the two formations. There was not much else he could do at this point, save for sit on the edge of his metaphorical seat whilst listening to the tranmissions sent and received between the Confederate starfighters. While nervous, however, the Archmaster had confidence in the men and women of the South; and no number of automated defenses would shake that resolve.

 

[Revenchent]

Calico was more than a little on edge. The doors slid open to reveal complete and utter darkness. That wasn't a good sign on a supposedly populated space station. Chatter from the fighters outside filled his ears as the night vision on his HUD kicked to life. The Commander flicked through the comms so that the only sound were Isley's breathing; and the stillness of the metal room. Blaster scoring was cast across every corner of the pitch black facility.

"Not the first time Sir..." He grumbled cryptically; trading up the sidearms for the 'Deece'. he flicked on the assault rifle mode. "...and it won't be the last......Nowhere near. Galaar is a bit close though; already flagged him for support. I think Sigma can handle themselves, they're smart boys."

Calico stepped out into the darkness with a strong sense of caution. He turned in every direction, vaulting over overturned chairs and tables. Trails of what looked to be oil were scattered across the intricately designed metal walls. Something bad had occurred here.

 

[Darth Metus]

The Mandalorian nodded in response to Calico's words. If Galaar had been flagged to lend support, then Sigma would be fine. However, he was curious as to what exactly had them pinned down...before he could open his mouth to ask, his foot impacted a hunk of metal that caused him to look down. The answer was right there in his face, for the head of a rather menacing droid looked back at him. It looked as though it had been torn clean off by a vibroweapon of sorts.

"One helluva fight went down here." he muttered, looking forward once more. Then, as he took another step, the sound of metal tapping upon metal began to fill the darkened bridge; as if more spiders were moving about. "Kark." he growled, readying his machine pistol. The spiders did not reveal themselves yet, but Isley was absolutely confident that they would soon.

 

[Darth Metus]

The battle of aces versus droids continued on for several minutes, and the initial span of time was spent without a single kill scored by either side. The Archmaster's heart sank when the first casualty, however, turned out to be a Confederate pilot; but this unfortunate loss was quickly avenged. As if driven forward by the death of their comrade, the pilots began to fly...even better. The droids, one by one, began to be decimated by superior skill that trumped their meager programming. It was, simply put, an awe-inspiring display to behold; but nonetheless Josiah felt for the lost life. That was one soul, under his command, who would not be returning home.

 

[Revenchent]

That was not a promising sound. Calico crouched low and activated his motion sensors in every direction. Nothing was going to be sneaking up on him. He readied the 'Deece' spinning on his knee cap toward the source of the noise. Whatever happened, it wouldn't catch the duo by surprise.

"Hear that Sir?" He mumbled almost silently; brown eyes trained on anything that could possibly move. They stayed glued particularly on the rather messy remains of a combat droid. "That's the cavalry. We must be close."

 

[Darth Metus]

The Mandalorian responded in turn, activating the motion sensors of his HUD in order to give him an edge over the droids which had yet to reveal themselves. "Close, aye, but to what exactly...Such resistance must mean a prize I hope." he said simply, stepping lively over the assortment of droid remains and corpses. After a few moments of silent movement, the enemy finally began to reveal itself, for a duo of blaster bolts sang through the air, narrowly missing the Dread Guard duo. Isley responded with retaliatory fire, claiming a single spider droid kill...and then the horde began to swarm upon them. The number was not exact, but there were several spiders that came clawing their way down the walls. This spurned the Mandalorian to dive into cover behind a fallen wall.

"Kark, the Calvary's arrived."

 

[Darth Metus]

In the end, only a total of two lives were lost in the totality of the dogfight. The automated defenses launched on the part of the Station were utterly defeated, thanks to the tactical supremacy of the Confederate squadrons. The Archmaster held off on resuming the attack in that very moment, for he wanted to be absolutely sure all the starfighters were aboard their respective vessels before ordering a massive volley once more. As such, he held his peace and awaited confirmation from the helmsmen and communication's officer. "Let me know when everyone's back in their hangars." he said simply, leaning over the central console once more.

 

[Revenchent]

"Sigma's broken through; Toph's missing a hand now though." Calico remarked gravely as the horde of droids seemed to come out of the woodworks. Arcs of laserfire filled the blackened air like a light show. Calico rolled under a massive overturned table. Four loud smacks exploded against the spot the Commander had just been in. If that wasn't luck; Calico didn't know what was. He propped up on one knee; and peppered the droids with blue energy fire--relying on his shields to protect his head while he fired.

Three of the droids fell in smoking heaps, but more just kept on coming. "Is'ika, I'd wager that-" The explosion of one of the larger droids cut him off. "-..that the direction they're coming from holds our prize. Wouldn't you think?"