Session export: Clan Taldryan: Saijo Superweapon RP

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Koda double checked that he had every piece of gear he needed for the mission on his person. “Gauntlets, check. Armor…” He looked around himself “Check. Due Process.” He reached into his holster and spun his blaster around before holstering it, “Check. Helmet.” He pointed to his helmet, resting on a crate next to him. He picked it up and slipped it onto his head, sealing his body glove to it, “Check. Mic check. Testing one two (two) three (three).” It repeated back to him, “Check. He then looked to the power hammer resting against the doorframe, "Alright Atlas, let’s have another successful mission.” Koda picked up his hammer and threw the head of it onto his shoulder, exiting the room and making his way towards the shuttle bay. He made his way onto the Sentinel-class Landing Craft and looked around, seeing that it was empty. He then went up to the cockpit to check in with the pilot.

Dasha was tearing through the hallway to make it on time for her assigned shuttled. Her footsteps echoed on Koda’s shuttle announcing her presence as she was hauling another duffelbag of her homemade ‘tools of the trade’ weighing her down.

Said duffelbag found itself tucked into a secure cargo location next to a seat as the Sephi plopped her rear end on the seat to catch her breath.

I need to work out more.

As soon as she got ahold of her breathing, she felt parched. So she reached into a side pocket of her pack to get her waterbottleshe had filled earlier.

Dasha checked her datapad for the time to see VODO with a smirk at her before disappearing, the large numbers that showed on the screen revealed tbat she was aboard on time.

Shanree pushed Zakai ahead of him, up the boarding ramp, and hefted his own gear slung over a shoulder in a stuff sack. The old soldier felt the butterflies in his chest and stomach that had accompanied him to the precipice of many battles and he marveled that even at his age he, with his experience, still felt the jitters before a fight. Zakai was nearing 18 now and fighting had been a part of his life for nearly ten years now but Shanree could still sense the anticipation in his young friend and apprentice. As the two crested the lip of the ramp and entered the ship they saw other Clan members stowing gear and checking maps for the last time before they touched off. With a nudge Shanree guided Zakai away from where the boy’s paramore was busying herself with her own luggage to a pair of empty seats.

“You got everything on the list?” Shanree asked without looking at the Boy.

Zakai kicked his duffle under his seat and plopped into it carelessly, a young man demonstrating his lack of fear before battle, “Yup.”

“So if I check your bag–” Shanree was already stooped over to stow his own sack under his seat, and he made a playful grab for Zakai’s.

The Boy swatted away his Master’s hand and set his jaw, “I said I got it all.”

Shanree stood and shrugged, “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? Hopefully it won’t be at an inopportune moment like Baxis…”

Zakai waved the comment away, “Baxis wasn’t my fault, I’ve told you!”

Behind the Sephi and the Human approached a pair of women clad in Mandalorian armor, their helmets off and tucked under their arms. They sported almost the same exact height difference as Koda and Dasha.

In a display of total professionalism, Ellisyn Kendis crouched down a bit and picked Koda up from behind. “Have you gained weight, vod?” She laughed. She hadn’t seen him since the pair of them were attacked by the Supreme Chancellor himself.

Thea Kendis scoffed at the display from her niece. “Control yourself.” She grumbled, standing beside the pair in mild disappointment. Her eyes caught sight of the childlike Sephi and her eyes narrowed. “They really let anyone enlist these days, don’t they?”

<@351852811883118594> <@77213354619318272>

Dasha, of course, picked the insult up with her delicate ears of which pinned on the side of her head as she will remember this….

Jorm Na'trej, Chancellor and court jester of the budding city-planet Chyron in personal union, drifted in the weightlessness of his Blaze’s cockpit surrounded by dataslates.

Development reports, tax charts, prognostics about the future requirements of his rapidly super-urbanizing realm, and of course the updated TO&E for the rebuilding CSDF.

He’d been in-system for two days. He could just as well use the time.

Blaze had pierced the veil into realspace in the midst of eight flights of Decimators in equally fiery livery, two thirds of the Ember Swarm. Since then, the thirty-three ships had snuck closer with minimal emissions, quietly surveying both the system and the traffic within and creating the comprehensive holo-map that illuminated Jorm’s den.

“There they come,” Beat announced the Leviathan spearing into the system from his heavily armed audiolab, also known as the ventral turret.

“Solid EMP burst,” Mica commented from the dorsal one.

“Seems like Zapster can listen after all, despite that brain-bucket,” Jorm replied while the navy did its thing.

“Beat, how long until we’ll be picked up?”

“Half an hour, more or less, boss.”

“Good. We’ll wait a little longer and see what happens before we commit to anything.”

Jorm stowed his dataslates away. Work was over, now the fun was about to begin.

“Woah! Hey! Put me down!” Koda was very caught off guard. Ellisyn laughed and put Koda down, smiling brightly. “Since the last time you tried picking me up? I wouldn’t be surprised. You know I hate that.” He scowled under his helmet “It’s good to see you two, but such…acts will have to wait until later…” Koda trailed off as he looked behind Ellisyn and Thea, freezing up.

A dark haired and bearded man walked up the shuttle ramp, wearing white and red ARC trooper armor, his helmet tucked under his left arm. “He’s right. We’ve got a mission ahead of us, so let’s keep this short.”

Koda tried to form some words, but nothing was coherent

The Clone got next to Elly and patted Koda on the shoulder “Don’t get too choked up, kid. Just keep your head in the game, and you’ll do just fine.”

“…yes, Captain.” Koda finally managed, straightening himself out.

Dex turned his head to Ellisyn and Thea “Seems I owe you two some credits.” He chuckled and turned to Koda “I figured you would be start struck a little longer.”

<@301514304845381632> <@77213354619318272>

“Dex?” Elly asked, confused as heck “What are you doing here?

Thea looked from Koda, to Elly, and then to Dex, disbelief in her heart. Each one of them managed to disappoint her in their own right. With the only response from Dasha bring the movement of her ears, Thea sighed.

"I looked plenty younger when I was pulled into the military.” Thea remarked, trying to salvage her accidental blunder <@351852811883118594> <@77213354619318272>

An ear perked up followed by a flash of confusion across the young Sephi’s face.

Meanwhile, Dasha just observed the interaction, unsure what to do next though obviously the situation seems friendly.

Dex overheard Winch from his helmet, quickly putting it on and activating his comm “Winch? What’s going on?”

“Ah, waiting be damned.” Koda walked over to the cockpit of the shuttle and slammed his fist against the hull twice “Let’s get this bird going, people’s lives are at stake!” He then turned to the occupants of the shuttle and activated his mag boots to stick to the ground “Buckle up everyone, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

“Our shuttle is just now leaving, send me your location and we’ll be there as fast as we can.”

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632> <@77213354619318272>

“Doria and Zarbon let me through like we thought they would. And after what happened, Thea refuses to leave my side. However, I don’t know how Dex ended up here.” The Firrerreo said.

Thea waited for some sort of response from the Sephi, disappointment slowly creeping over her. Without a word, she walked away to go stand in the empty corner.

“What’s up with her?” Darrio asked his lover. He’d never seen Thea talk as much as she just did.

“Well, I told her if she was going to follow me around everywhere that she’d have to try and at least try to be friendly. She lasted longer than I expected.”

<@77213354619318272> <@351852811883118594>

Dasha studied the woman for a while, unsure of how to respond. Her ears also picking up information from the others.

Now, her plan was to show off how she is capable though a feeling of unease crept into her mind.

With a frown, the Sephi pulled out her tablet and attempted to pinpoint Thea’s communication devices via communication devices within a certain range. Failing that, she decided to just hit send to all within the range inside the shuttle…. of cute dancing cubs, kits, and other baby creatures.

Thea was well adjusted to a bumpy ride, but what she wasn’t used to was noises coming from the helmet tucked under her arm. “What in blazes…” curiosity got the better of her and she slid the helmet on to find some cute but invasive videos playing. She quickly removed it, a very displeased look on her face. Assuming it was some sort of joke planned by Sulla and Ellisyn, she ignored it. That is, until other people also began to look confused. “What’s going on?” She asked the room at large

Dasha was amused at the viedos playing on her screen to take her mind off of things.

<@301514304845381632> <@837236610684813342>

Thea glared and walked on over, stopping directly in front of Dasha and clearing her throat

Dasha looked up while the videos are still playing back to back on her very visible datapad.

And without much fanfare, Thea just went straight to the point “I don’t appreciate people messing with my stuff without permission.”

Dasha blinked a few times while staring back for a strained silence.

Deciding on peace with someone whom her Master probably wants her to get along with, she reached into a dufflebag and pulled out a spherical object and presented it to Thea stating, “Throw this at anyone you don’t like except me. I hope you like it… also, dont be down-wind.”

With mild confusion, Thea took the orb and inspected it. “Is it some sort of gas grenade?” She tapped it with her free hand “lethal?” The woman always appreciated a good ol’ bomb.

“Non-lethal. It does this like….”

Dasha pointed at Darrio for Thea to watch. When she did, Dasha tapped a few things on her datapad and a few too many small glitter bursts shot out of the crevices of Darrio’s armor between the hip and thigh plates.

Thea chuckled at the panicked reaction from Darrio and her niece. She had always wanted to torment Darrio in some way, test his patience and reactions. Make sure he was good enough. But she always managed restraint.

But her amusement was quickly overshadowed by curiosity triggered by Dasha’s impressive display. “How did you manage that?” She asked

Ankira nodded and then walked with him towards the shuttle who was just about to leave. When they got onto the ramp they saw Brax sitting there on one of the benches.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were going back home.” Ankira asked.

“Can’t have some pirates destroy the lives of innocents, now can we?” Brax replied as he looked up from the blaster cannon on his lap.

“True, we can not and that is why they will pay for what they did.” Ankira said and checked her Westars once again on her hips. “Perhaps they then learn not to mess with us for a while.”

“Don’t count on it,” Appius said with a chuckle, “We will always have to do something, somewhere for someone.”

The shuttle rumbled alive and shot off towards the planet. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but they cleared the space unharmed and entered the atmosphere.

“Who do you think works on their armor? Not me… and doesn’t everyone need sleep and food?” Dasha grinned while revealing very small and compressed little cylinders.

With another tap on her datapad, a flat side of the cylinder erupted like a bursting capacitor sending out a small stream of glitter, what little it could contain.

Thea almost smiled as she watched Dasha enjoy her glitter machines but her words quickly dawned on her.

“So… you broke into Darrio and Ellisyn’s home while they and their daughter was asleep in order to gain access to Darrio’s armor? Is that what you’re saying?”

<@301514304845381632> <@837236610684813342> Dasha heard the intercom and immediately tucked away her datapad safely so her hands were free to grab at the nearest stable item… a bar on the wall.

“Who the hell thought this was a good idea!?” Thea yelled before lunging towards Ellisyn and pinning her to the wall, using her own body as a shield for her. <@837236610684813342> <@351852811883118594> <@77213354619318272>

“I really need to get my ship back from the Chancellor.” Koda grumbled as he grabbed a ceiling handle in addition to his mag boots.

Dex made sure to secure himself into a seat, looking at Thea and Elly “That wall won’t save you much if we crash.”

<@301514304845381632> <@77213354619318272> <@837236610684813342>

“Dex I slept with your wife so shut up!” Thea yelled, using the force as an added barrier to protect herself and Ellisyn. <@77213354619318272> <@837236610684813342>

Kyber Mine J-7, Level 36 Ishia Imperial Penal Colony - Hidden Dueling Circle

One Month Prior

Blood lay spread across a large circular arena, with several different sizes of circles drawn into it. One as large as the arena itself, others significantly smaller placed strategically throughout. Inside of each was an additional circle, even smaller.

Near the center, a half-beaten to death Ewok in brown and black prisoners clothing. Hovering over him was a Wookiee, its hand on the Ewok, as a green aura slowly channeled into it.

This had been his home for what felt like well over a year, but only had been seven and a half months since his capture. Outside of the weekly torture and beatings by Myn, he had been bolstered and helped by the most unlikeliest of individuals.

She had him regularly healed by an apprentice of hers, and near daily began training him in the ways of the blade. Utilizing this ‘training circle’ as she called it, she forced it to become his world. Forgetting and ignoring everything outside of it. As his skill progressed, the circles they fought in were smaller and smaller.

And as they became smaller, the amount of blood and fur increased exponentially. Outside of the rings, sat that woman. A red-headed individual in grey inquisitorius type garb holding a glass of red liquid.

“Only one circle remains,” she said, taking a sip of the liquid before sitting the glass down on a small table adjacent to her. “One circle until your freedom, until your world exists once more.”

The Ewok panted out of pure exhaustion and gradually pushed himself back to his feet and grabbed the rapier that lay upon the ground next to him as the Wookie stopped channelling.

The woman stood up, unsheathing her own rapier and charged the Ewok. Despite his exhaustive state, he immediately parried her attack and after several more defensive blocks went on the offensive for several strikes, weaving in defensive movements at the same time.

He was in a state of pure exhaustion, yet clearly filled with determination. She pressed her attack harder, and it seemed almost as if he gained additional energy almost.

With a slicing kick along the ground to try and trip him, the Ewok suddenly plunged his rapier into the ground to effectively stop her leg in its tracks, using a whirling momentum with his own leg to swing around his sword, and successfully kick her rapier out of her hand before dropping to the ground once more with heavy breathing and reopened wounds.

She gave a soft smile and stood, looking at her apprentice. “Heal him to full and bandage him up.”

The apprentice gave a firm nod and went to work. She turned and walked over to a durasteel chest that had a keypad panel on the front. He was almost ready for the final test. After that he would be far more useful than he ever had been. And Myn Genko…would fall.

“THIS IS WHY WE STRAP IN, DARRIO!” Koda shouted as he braced against the crash. Once the ship was at a complete stop he looked around to make sure everyone was okay.

Dex groaned and undid his seat straps “Another happy landing…Everyone alive?”

Ankira was quick to return fire to the attackers, she would make them pay for what they had done to the people of Saijo. They have been fighting together on various occasions and she could predict what Appius was going next and follow accordingly and he counted on that. Together they were a deadly duo, but this time things went a little differently with a new player in the group.

Appius was about to move forward, but the Force warned him to stay. Half wondering why he got the answer when Brax opened fire with his blaster cannon and started clearing the pirates and barricades away from their landing zone.

“They’re losing momentum,” Beat analyzed the situation. “See those contacts to the rear? They’re disengaging. Just let me cross-check their vectors,” he trailed off.

On Jorm’s holo-map, a small handful of purple dots grew and started to blink, potential navpoints deduced from prior intelligence work.

“Asteroids. A classic,” Jorm summarized and flipped a switch on his comm console.

“All right, Embers,” he adressed the Swarm, “the Taldryan Navy got their groove on and don’t need handholding. Group up by numbers and hit their biggest rally points in the rocks. I’ll go dirtside and stop Appy from monologing too much.”

“Any rules of engagement, boss,” came the question from the speaker.

“Hell no. Seek an destroy, folks! If you find something too hard to crack, call in the Navy for party favors!”

A wave of whoops and hollers accompanied the sight of thirty-two flame-bedazzled Decimators coming to life and organizing in groups of four before swinging to a new course and jumping to lightspeed.

Jorm woke Blaze from her own slumber and sent her roaring towards the battle.

It took a moment but Dex responded over the comms “What..? No concern for anyone else on the shuttle? All of us but Ellys boyfriend are okay… Darrio says he’s fine but he’ll be feeling it later.”

Koda helps Darrio up to his feet “If you’re going to be with my sister, you need to make smarter decisions.”

Dex unbuckled from his seat and stood up, looking over to Dasha “You alright? Anything broken?”

<@301514304845381632> <@77213354619318272> <@837236610684813342>

Dasha was strapped down and clinging to a nearby stability bar for dear life. She managed to nod back though looked around nervously as if expecting to potentially fall off a cliff.

Shanree’s twin sabers whirled like emerald windmills. He moved like water, flowing between Pirates with a supernatural grace that did not seem to match his middle age. Zakai, and his own green Saber, followed his Master. He batted away blaster fire, covering his Master’s rear as the Miraluka cleaved through the Pirate defenses like a lightsaber himself. Shanree did not often spar with Taldryan clan members, nor had he accompanied the Clan on any missions himself as of yet, so this was the first time many saw what the blind Grey Jedi was capable of. There was no wasted movement. Shanree moved in unpredictable ways, often whirling or twirling his sabers in obscure or unusual manners before striking but he was always in motion. The unusual movements seemed to ennable this ceaseless motion and leant his movement a sense of deadly beauty. Zakai had become mesmirized watching his Master train in his forms with the lit lightsabers from time to time, and he wondered if anyone watching felt that way now. The Boy shrugged the thought off, not in the heat of a fight dummy.

The Pirate footmen certainly weren’t mesmirized. Several were terrified for their lives and were running, but others were trying to organize a more rational defense in the face of the relentless whirlwind of Shanree’s onslaught.

Elly, being the protective lover she is, dashed over to Darrio’s side, mildly dazed. “Who cares where he got it! Are you okay? You kinda got launched around there.” She put a hand on the top of his helmet as if that would tell her if he was hurt. “What day is it? What color is your armor?”

Thea, on the other hand, was just sat on the ground, looking over at Winch and Dasha. “Winch. I’m surprised to see you here.” She was even more surprised at his show of patting Dasha on the head like he used to do to her.

<@837236610684813342> <@77213354619318272> <@351852811883118594>

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594>

Dasha’s ears indicated that she did not seem happy in being treated like a puppy but didn’t say anything about it. Especially with how they had met in the past.

Jorm sensed the shots coming and slammed the flightstick sideways. The sizzling blue and orange lances of ion cannons and laser guns glanced off Blaze’s heavy shields without great effect.

“Y-Wing six o'clock low,” Beat reported the assailant’s position from the ventral turret and opened fire. The fwooomp-fwooomp-fwooomp of twin heavy lasers reverberated through the hull behind Jorm.

“Jitters! He’s too fast! Custom job, custom job,” the Zeltron cried out in alarm.

“Gotcha, focus target him!” Jorm locked the beligerent bomber up in his own targeting computer and nudged Blaze away from another stream of gunfire, then rolled his ship around to bring the Y-Wing into both turrets’ overlap zone.

The other pirate disagreed with the plan, though.

“Booster”, Mica yelled just as the distance measure on Jorm’s screen declined rapidly.

“E chu ta an do padda-mames,” Jorm cursed and pulled the freighter out of the way, forcing the bomber to overshoot and come around again - which put it into *Blaze’s" front hemisphere and thus Jorm’s field of view.

Jorm set his eye on his attacker.

A crosshair appeared in his headset.

The sound of working servos quietly emanated from his ship’s nose.

And with a widening grin, Jorm unleashed a long, scything, thrumming salvo from the heavy quad laser turret slaved to his vision.

<@837236610684813342> Dasha checked her datapad to see if any signals are being jammed.

“What am I embarrassing you?” Elly asked Darrio

Thea stood on up and started walking for the hole Winch made “Winch and Winch’s friend. Get over here. We’ve work to do.”

<@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342> <@77213354619318272>

Brax rested his cannon on his shoulder and looked around at the ragtag bunch of pirates while Ankira tied the last one up. A few of them had resisted along the way and were now knocked out on the ground.

“How do you want to make them talk?” Brax asked, “I’m sure they have info we can use.”

“Appius could chock them or we can wrangle the info out of them,” Ankira said as she twisted one of the man’s fingers. The man only winched slightly and a chuckle left his lips. “Tough one, huh? This could get fun.” With that Ankira pulled the man to his feet while twisting his finger and wrist further. A crack could be heard, but the man didn’t give a kick. “Next finger then,” Ankira said dryly as she proceded to use force on the man to get him to talk.

“This could take a while…” Brax said as he tilted his head. He had heard some stories about Ankira, but nothing like this, like they had only told him the better side of her.

Jorm narrowed his eyes at the audacious bomber.

He was breathing down its neck both figuratively and literally, yet the little frakker just wiggled his rear a bit to avoid Blaze’s hot bolts hitting where the engines didn’t shine right away.

Bullshit’s afoot, he thought to himself and yelled “ Mickey, Cockpit, now!”

And not a moment to soon - his own incorporeal pucker factor went through the roof.

“Vampire! Vampire!” He warned his crew of incoming ordonance at the same moment as the Y-Wing actually released his lethal cargo.

The targeting screen showed him a glimpse of the danger - heavy bombs, slow but second to none below capital-grade weaponry.

And he uses them as guided mines. Not bad, a voice in the back of Jorm’s head gave credit while Mica and Beat swiveled their turrets around and fired at the explosives.

Some exploded in the hailstorm of golden-amber bolts, but Jorm felt more slipping through.

“You called, sir?” Mickey, the maintenance droid, rolled up behind Jorm.

“Keep her straight,” he ordered the droid and took his hands from the controls.

“Sir, combat exceeds my…”

“Just keep her STRAIGHT!”

Jorm pushed out both hands and his senses, Blaze only slipping momentarily under his seat.

He felt a bomb slipping through the firestorm and shoved it aside, then another, then a third and more.

Forced by the Kiffar, the slow projectiles missed and fell behind, unable to turn or accelerate to Blaze’s velocity.

The last bomb passed harmlessly below.

Yet Jorm was only warming up.

“Mickey. Keep that frakker on the starboard side. No fancy flying, just starboard.”

“I am too good for this,” the droid muttered under his electronic breath while Jorm jumped from his seat and darted backwards, took a sharp left, and inhaled deeply.

The Force permeated Jorm’s body at his command and formed into a tight mesh which controlled his metabolism and kept his heat from radiating as he violently flipped the airlock’s emergency cycle lever.

The inner hatch slammed shut behind him while the outer disappeared from sight in the same instant, and the atmosphere exploded outward, taking Jorm with it.

In a cloud of rapidly expanding air and freezing moisture, the Kiffar shot towards the annoying little bomber.

The final warhead came his way, and Jorm launched himself off the bomb with a contemptuous kick which happened to redirect it away from his ship and himself even closer to the rapidly advancing Y-Wing.

An old rhyme popped into his mind.

Fast and hot, shields catch that shot, But cold and slow…

Jorm grabbed the craft in his mental vise grip and pulled himself in, boots smashing against the front canopy, and rolled to the side to dodge the ion cannons mounted above the cockpit.

He came to a hold to the pilot’s left and pressed the emitter of his lightsaber against the glass, opposite of a slack-jawed Miralian in full pilot garb.

“…will punch a hole,” he finished the rhyme out loud in another cloud of freezing air and ignited the blade.

The yellow beam cut into the cockpit and through the pilot’s elbows, then a deft jerk slashed the blade through the green man’s thighs without damaging the canopy further.

Jorm deactivated and retracted his weapon again while the Y-Wing’s life support systems pumped more and more air into the cockpit to compensate for the loss of pressure.

In the rapidly thinning jet that shot out of the hole, he could hear the pilot’s screams.

But Jorm didn’t stick around until the end, instead he launched himself back towards the Blaze, honing in more on Mica’s panic then anything else.

He left the Miralian to suffocate crippled, alone and in horror.

“Sounds like it’s go time.” Koda picked up Atlas “We need to get anyone unarmed to safety first.”

Dex spun both of his DC-17s out of his holsters, pointing them up to the sky “Time to be heroes then?”

“I’ll follow your lead, Captain.” Koda nodded as the two ran towards the firefight, looking for any civilians in danger.

<@77213354619318272> <@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632>

Within the blink of an eye, Dex fired a shot from his left blaster into the hand of the umbaran pirate. Before they could even wail out in pain, Dex followed up with a stun blast from right blaster into their forehead, smoke rising from the wound and Dex’s barrels. “Too slow.”

It was a silly question that Appius had asked, of course they both would be joining him. You never leave halfway a good fight.

“I’m in,” Brax said, “I’m just getting warmed up. Question is, how are we going in? Do we fly a fist into his face?”

“You know I’m in, not going to leave your side that easily,” Ankira answered.

Dasha nodded and looked around, half expecting another Pirate to appear out of no where. Her ears were lowered as being out in the open as they are doesn’t allow her to be in her element.

The same trick that had brought the Y-Wing into his grasp just moments before served Jorm well again in re-boarding his own ship.

The emergency lever got flipped up again, and the hatches reversed their open-shut ballet in the blink of an eye, allowing fresh, warm air to rush into the airlock.

Jorm exhaled the miniscule remains of his last breath slowly, keeping his mental eye turned outwards, but he registered only the well-known life signs of his own crew.

Slowly, deliberately, he put up his hands against the hatchframe and let his focus slip.

Sensations flooded his consciousness, space’s freezing cold clinging to his skin meeting heat and condensating humidity in the ship’s atmosphere, pain from bruises and exploded capillaries, and worst of all, the deep migraine of exhaustion.

He remained standing with his head hanging low for a moment.

Then biology kicked in, his screaming lungs demanded for oxygen and his body complied, inhaling deeply, bringing motion back into his resting form, and Jorm built on the momentum and started moving.

Possessed by a feral, single-minded drive he all but sprinted out of the airlock and into the lounge, fell to his knees beside the red granite table, and tore open the minifridge.

A protein bar and a Xenergy drink sprung into his hands almost of their own account, and he ripped the wrapper open with his teeth before wolfing down the snack and opening the drink one-handed, chasing the barely chewed sustenance with caffeine and sugar.

He snatched another bar from the fridge and pulled himself upright again, partially back in control, barely registering the noise of leather sliding along steel and the subsequent bootsteps.

Then Jorm turned his head just in time to receive a mean slap across the face, followed by a firm hug.

When the Quantum Void burst into realspace, it was clear the battle was already in full swing.

“We’re late, as usual,” Byron Martel, the Decimator’s pilot, quipped.

“Not late at all, we’ve arrived just in time to look heroic,” Rai-Ho replied. “Now let’s see if these comm codes the Supreme Chancellor’s brother gave me actually work. Open a channel.”

The Ewok Balz Ach hit a bunch of buttons and pointed to Rai-Ho that he was on.

“Taldryan Navy,” the adventurer/opportunist said with as much bravado as he could muster, “this is Rai-Ho Daigua, Captain of he Quantum Void, offering assistance. Please advise where we can help.”

Dasha took one look at the terminal then grinned. She got to work immediately, slicing and downloading as much useful information as she could… especially credentials for access.

Her fingers flew over the buttons so quickly, one wonders if she even was thinking about what she’s pressing.

Just as Winch finished his question, the door opened. Dasha flicked on a toggle which projected almost a minimap for everyone to see.

Dasha tapped a few keys and suddenly it’s marked out a path for the group to get to the control room.

Ankira narrowed her eyes and held her Westars tightly. She was not going to have that piece of podoo talk like that.

“Keep talking like that and I make sure nothing is left of you!” Ankira yelled back at him.

Just as she was about to go full speed at him she heard a roar behind her of a jetpack in overdrive. Brax zipped past her straight at Yugat, his fist ready to punch the pirate full force into his face. Before he could even scratch the surface of his nose he got launched up by a simple flick of Yugat’s hand and laughed.

“Is that all you got?”

The big Mando shot up like a piece of firework. Brax muttered to himself. He should have known the bastard was a Force user. He slowed down and stared down at the man below, he would need to think of another way to hit him.

The Mandalorian woman wasn’t about to be the rope in a tug of war between two Force users. She used her might to get a Westar lined up with the Lasat and started shooting, hoping it would distract him enough to let her go. It didn’t seem to deter him much at first and only started to pull harder on her. She could feel her body starting to struggle as she kept trying to hit him. She was not about to be split in two.

When Brax saw what was happening from the sky he grinned and hoped the Lasat was distracted enough for another attack from the sky. This time he went down on the pirate, fist first again, hoping to punch him into the ground.

“I’d tell you to never pull a stunt like that again, but you wouldn’t listen,” Jorm’s fuming cousin Mica stated through clenched teeth, “so maybe I’ll handcuff you and have Beat tell you how phenomenally stupid you are. Is it a guy thing or why don’t you ever listen to me?”

Jorm reciprocated the hug and used the opportunity to take another sip from his Xenergy behind Mica’s back, which also earned him a short jab in the ribs.

“Ugh,” Mica aired her annoyance, “tell him how reckless and stupid he is, B-Man!”

“Leave me out of this,” the Zeltron replied while he climbed out of the gunnery well, “he won’t listen to me either. ‘sides, I met him during the Jester’s Kiss. He’s pretty well on baseline as far as I know.”

Mica rolled her eyes and finally let go of her cousin, instead turning her ire on the still open Minifridge and its contents.

Beat pulled a datapad from his pocket and linked it to the granite table.

“Got the whole exchange on guncams, boss,” he explained, “and set it up to convert to HD holo in a few minutes. Got a mean bassline in my head too, maybe you want to add a few comments and use it for some PR leverage?”

“Sure thing. How about Democracy, Frakk Yeah or Promise Kept: Pirates Decked? Keep it just barely on this side of cheesy,” Jorm deliberated.

“Will do. Package and send back to Chyron?”

“Why wait? Hail the Leviathan, use my diplomatic credentials, and ask them kindly to pump the message all over the system. Let’s kick the nest some more.”

The Leviathan’s communications technician stared at the request for a moment, looked up at the Admiral on the command deck above, then back to her console. “Sir, request from Chancellor Na'trej. Forwarding to your console.”

“Understood,” Zruta responded as he turned his attention to his left most screen and began reading the request and listening to the video in a low volume. His lip ever so slightly raised up in a soft smirk. “Request authorization given, broadcast on all public channels and non-essential frequencies. Forward to the rest of the fleet to do the same.”

The technician nodded in confirmation and began the broadcast, sending a separate communication to the ships throughout the fleet in the system to do the same.

Dasha tapped furiously on her datapad then yelled, “QUIT HITTING YOURSELF!”

There the turrets turned on each other, blasting the hardware with holes to the point where some were disintegrated.

Dasha’s ears pinned firmly against her head. She tapped away on her datapad since…. datapads aren’t weapons!

Suddenly, the speakers and all non-ally-headset items put out a nails on chalkboard screeching sound. As soon as the pirates were momentarily stunned, Dasha ran towards the head Pirate and threw a punch into the center of his chest. She activated her hidden blade bracer which shot out and into the Pirate before her knuckles connected.

The Sephi wordlessly pulled up, slicing the Falleen vertically until he slumped. As she lowered and dropped the pirate, Dasha had a vertical spray of blood on her. She looked around to see what the other pirates thought of her brutal display.

With a gutteral, almost animal-like roar, Koda charged in and started brutalizing the Pirates. Using Atlas to break their bones and bodies, leaving them alive to suffer the immense pain.

Dex was about to shout at Koda for blindly attacking, but covered him, firing a flurry of blaster bolts at a pirate aiming their blaster behind the armored berserker.

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Thea wasn’t worried about the pirates nor the civilians, casualties were to be expected and a few pirates wouldn’t be a challenge. Her focus instead landed upon the seething mass of muscle beside her. “Control, Ellisyn. Focus. Don’t let recklessness add you to the pile of corpses.” The smaller woman crossed her arms and watched as Koda let loose, a beast disguised as a Mandalorian.

Ellisyn hadn’t made a single step, her aunt’s preemptive warnings forcing her to consider the situation at hand. She took a breath and stepped back with her aunt, allowing Darrio and Koda to release their rage on their own with Dex and Winch supporting them. <@837236610684813342> <@351852811883118594> <@77213354619318272>

Brax quickly rolled out of the way before another strike would be able to hit him. As he got to his feet he pulled his cannon free from his back and opened fire at Yugat, avoiding Appius as he did so. He would make the bastard dance until he died.

Brax muttered and lowered his weapon, he had to find a different way to fight Yugat.

“What then?” He asked.

Ankira was shooting pirates that wanted to interfere with the fight of their boss and Appius. She knew she couldn’t do much else but keep the fight more fair.

Ankira got to her feet just in time to see Appius getting stabbed by Yugat.

“Appius! No!” Ankira yelled as she ignited her jetpack to come to his aid.

Just as she wanted to fly of she got grabbed by Brax, “Stop Ankira! If you go you will suffer the same just as he did.”

“Let me go! Let me save him!” she protested, trying to get free from Brax’s strong grip.

“No, I can’t do that. We need a better plan to revenge him, but not this way.”

“But…”

She sighed, he was right, as much as she didn’t want him to be, he was right. They needed a better plan to get at the bastard and make him pay for that he did to Appius. The big Mandalorian slowly let her go when he felt she stopped fighting him.

“We need other Force specialist… Only that way we can overpower him.”

“NO!” screamed Ankira as she ran after him and dived over the edge of the bridge. In the back of her mind she was screaming about getting into the water, but she had to be brave to save his body, to get him back.

Brax stared at the disappearing Ankira for a moment before grabbing his blaster cannon more tightly and aiming it at the group of pirates that had gathered about Yugat. He glanced at the people next to him and nodded at them. A few of them nodded in return and stood ready.

“Lets give them hell! Open fire and mow them down!” He yelled at them and pulled the trigger, raining down a hail of blaster fire at them, soon followed by more shots from the troops.

Bloodlust fading from her vision, her ears slowly rose back to normancy. When she heard her name, whatever red was left disappeared and her ears perked up.

Without hesitation, she went on over to help WInch.

The blazing red heat from the atmospheric entry as he dived head first towards the surface of the planet was so bright the view from Zxyl’s helmet was completely obscured.

“Are you sure this armor is going to hold up? I don’t want to be burnt into cyber-nothingness,” H.A.L. ringed into his ear, just barely perceivable over the sound of the dive.

“It’ll hold. I made it… and you,” the Regent stated matter of factly, as in almost no time he blew through the outer reaches of Sajo’s atmosphere and rocketed towards the surface. Until now the Mandalorian had opted to stay out of Taldryan’s conflict with the pirate force, but through monitoring of the comm channels had determined now was good a time of any if he wanted to get involved as things started to heat up between the two.

A few moments later he entered the lower atmosphere, moving at incredible speed with his head-first dive as he approached the surface.

“Do we have a lock on Appius?” Bes'uliik asked.

“We do. He is on the surface with a group of Taldryan forces. But…”

“But?”

“The tracker you wove into the lining of his suit’s inner-mesh shows he just entered water and is traveling down. He appears to be sinking.”

The Dathomirian-Mandalorian suspirated. What had the “Supreme Chancellor” gotten into this time?

“HAL, plot a course. Put me right over top of him. We’re going for a swim.”

Within a second a new flight trajectory appeared on his heads-up display and the Regent of the Brotherhood altered course using his Mandalorian Supercommando jetpack, diving straight for Appius. It only took another ten or so seconds before he reached a no-safe zone, with Helpful Artificial Lackey counting down the thousands of feet. Switching positions to feet-first, he fired his jetpack at maximum output to slow his rate of descent as to not die on impact with the water.

Just before colliding with the liquid only a short time after Ankira, Zxyl had just enough time to watch as Taldryan forces re-engaged with the pirates. A split second later the newly minted Elder found himself with the Taldryan Consul and his wife, who was struggling to pull him to the surface under the weight of both their suits of beskar. The two Mandalorians kicked their feet as hard as possible and each fired their jetpacks, hoping for even a little bit of lift to retrieve the Taldryan Consul from certain death.

“Good,” Zxyl responded, heaving heavy breaths. His tone and demeanor had changed since the last time he appeared in Taldryan space, more serious than it was before.

If only Aisha were here. She’d have him fixed up in seconds.

“We need to get him out of here, now,‘ Zxyl muttered, as if Ankira wasn’t thinking the same exact thing already. He reached underneath Appius’ chin, pressing the release switch on the man’s helmet and pulling the bucket from his head to give him room to breath - unconscious or not. He was pale, wet, and his breath was raspy. The Mandalorian Consul didn’t have long - lightsaber wounds were severe on the best of days, let alone to the abdomen.

Even with a battle raging around them Zxyl tapped on one of his vambraces, tuning his comlink to the Taldryan command channel - something he’d had saved since his time as Proconsul.

COMM>TALCOM> "Come in Taldryan command, this is Regent Zxyl Bes'uliik. Appius is down, he needs immediate ex-fil to a secure location and medical care.”

Dasha picked up her datapad, pulled the file, and opened the file in a virtual machine’s program’s “safe mode” to see the contents.

“What do you mean? What’s going on Winch?” Dex asked his technologically savvy friend, firing at pirates if they ever got close. Koda was dealing with what pirates he could, taking his anger out on them and trying his best to not want to take it out on Dasha.

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A white lambda dropped out from lightspeed, not far out from the opposite side of the Saijo asteroid belt away from the planet. Engines at full, it barreled towards a large section of the field where numerous massive asteroids sat. One of the two pilots reached up and turned several knobs before flipping a small green switch.

“Shuttle Obsidian to docking control. We have the ambassador on board, requesting permission to land. Transmitting clearance codes now.” the pilot said before pressing several keys in front of them and a noise sounds off over the comm. A deep and gruff voice comes across with the sound of someone yelling angrily in the background.

“Understood, we would be…” the voice started with a brief pause in the as the sound of something being thrown and smashing against something came across the comm followed by more yelling, almost screaming in anger now. “happy…to receive the ambassador. Disengage your engines and prepare for automated entry.” Almost just as quickly as the request was made, the shuttle rumbled. The other pilot quickly disengaged the engines and the shuttle stopped rumbling as it began moving forward into the field. The shuttle turned and began approaching one of the massive asteroids, easily the largest in the field. Having significantly slowed, a large section of rock began to open outwards revealing several large opening bay doors.

The shuttle entered inside and the doors began to close once again, followed by the large rock entry, landing in the middle of the large hangar. Two pirates stood on a walkway above watching as a small squad of stormtroopers exited the shuttle, already proceeding through a open set of blast doors with the ambassador out of sight. One of them, a grey colored Twi'lek in a dirty looking brown outfit with a bandolier over his shoulder and arms crossed, spoke up.“Fennyl’s already furious. Just let the ambassador do his inspection, make sure he’s escorted though then send him on his way.”

The other, a short dwarf-ish height humanoid looked at him with a surprised expression. “Oh, and I’m sure you want to be the one to explain to her why she was made unaware of the arrival of a dignitary on her vessel. You do realize how that sounds, yes?”

“Your balls keep getting bigger and bigger, unlike the rest of you.” the Twi'lek responded as he turned and began to walk off with a shake of his hand over his head. “Fine, tell her. Enjoy being the one getting yelled at.”

“Not my responsibility, first officer.” the dwarf snidely threw in before he started walking off as well. “If you won’t do it, then I guess she just won’t know then.”

Zxyl opted not to stay on the planet’s surface, instead making the decision to depart Saijo with his fellow Son of Taldryan and Mandalorian aboard the medical shuttle that had arrived to scoop the injured Consul. He probably could of helped? Buuuut now that he’d bore witness to the situation and Taldryan’s commander was out of the race- it seemed like a losing battle and just a waste of time. A small sliver of him wanted to make sure Wight made it through, as well. Otherwise he’d gotten wet for nothing. Even with it’s “military might”, Taldryan seemed to be struggling to eliminate these pirate forces.

Zxyl decided to stay on the boarding ramp - his slick new WESTAR-35 in hand - until the shuttle fully lifted off, to make sure nobody tried to take it out during the Consul’s ex-fil. If the shuttle went down with Appius in his current state, the man was a goner.

Ankira sat besides him and held his hand. She was glad to hear that he was still alive, but still feared for his life. Glancing at the wound he had gotten made her sick to her stomach and wished she could pay it back to Yugat.

She heard a whisper inside the helmet of Appius and grabbed it. Taking her own helmet off she put on his and tried to find who tried to contact Appius.

“Darrio? It’s Ankira… things are bad. We are evacuating the area.”

Brax grunted and stepped back when the pirates had left. His armour had become a mess, but at least he was able to keep them from getting closer. No one would pass Brax Arassuumir Harkoss that easily.

He got a message from Ankira that it was time to fall back and he was ordering the troops to do so as he walked back towards one of the shuttles.

Zxyl watched through the viewport with arms crossed as the dark mushroom cloud rose higher and higher, the devastation beneath growing more vast. He shook his head, especially at Zakai’s remark.

“The force has nothing to do with it, boy. That’s pure technological destruction. I was curious why they hadn’t just fully done Appius in to get it over with; they didn’t anticipate he’d survive anyways once they deployed whatever that thing is. This is kinda bad,” the Mandalorian rubbed the back of his neck momentarily, “We should probably destroy it before it targets something any of us actually care to lose. That would not be a good time, but destroying it could be.”

The Mandalorian directed his next comment directly to the evac shuttle pilot, “How long until we reach the fleet? His supreme-ness is dwindling over there.”

Jorm raised an eyebrow at the sight of the titanic superweapon and put down the remains of his meal just as it fired.

Thousand-fold death came screaming at him through the Force, the final dread of a whole city permeating his very being - and meeting his hard-wired mental defenses.

Dread triggered adrenaline, adrenaline spiked rush, and rush poured out of him in a burst of laughter in the blink of an eye.

The dread left nothing but determination caged in a teeth-baring rictus grin.

“Mickey, keep the distance and jerk the stick a bit if that space dong aims at us, alright?”

“Sure, whatever unsupported feature you desire, master…” the droid muttered as Jorm left the cockpit.

The Kiffar stormed to his quarters and tossed his comm on the bed while kneeling down beside it.

“Beat! Secure tightbeam line to the Leviathan, now!”

He punched a combination into his personal safe, put his hand on the biometric scanner, and telekinetically held down the surprise dead man’s switch inside before opening the door.

“Leviathan Actual, go ahead, Chancellor,” the comm-line came to life.

“Greetings, Admiral Zruta,” Jorm maintained a minimum of courtesy while pulling TOP SECRET-marked datacrystals from between explosives and acid vials, “do you per chance have the plans for the Death Star, specifically the weapon system aboard?”

“Chancellor Na'trej, that information would be classified,” Zruta replied matter-of-factly.

“Figures,” Jorm sighed and held up a disc to check the label.

“Do you want them?”

Zruta’s reply was delayed for several seconds.

“Why would you have the Death Star plans, Chancellor?”

“I’m working on my Master’s Degree in shipbuilding, duh. Plus, it’s been fourty years. They’re basically public domain now. Got a berth for my ship? I need to see Wight about what we’re gonna do about that thing. Let’s call it the Compensator.”

“Supreme Chancellor Wight is on his way here. You have landing clearance for shuttlebay three.”

As soon as Koda felt the world shake around him he felt his instincts kick in. His world went quiet and before he fully processed it himself, he was running towards a shuttle helping evacuate civilians. The Taldryan solider leading the civilians to the shuttle was gunned down by a small group of pirates. Koda quickly drew Due Process in his right hand and extended his left arm, firing blaster bolts from his vambrace and sidearm. They were all taken out before they could even react. Koda turned and shouted at the civilians “GET INTO THE SHIP! NOW!” And made sure every single one of them were in the ship before climbing in with “PILOT, GET US OUT OF HERE!” The shuttle quickly took off and within moments up in the atmosphere and then the vacuum of space.

Dex ran with the Crusaders towards the shuttle, providing covering fire as they entered. “Where’s Koda?!” He asked as they entered. Dex then activated his coms “Koda, where the hell are you?!”

“I’m on another shuttle, you guys better get your asses out of th-” His comms are cut off as one would see the shuttle he was on be blown up. The pirate shuttle that blew it up quickly arrived as the debris and grabbed a few of the floating bodies into their cargo hold before flying off.

“Koda come in. Koda. Koda! Blast it! Something happened to Koda’s shuttle!” Dex informed the group.

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<@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342>

Dasha furiously tapped away at her tablet, attempting to regain connection with Koda or the shuttle he was on.

Nothing but static and garbled noises, but there is a connection for a few moments.

Dasha’s ears drooped in despair and denial as she muttered, “no… not… no…” before the Sephi took off in a dead sprint for the medical unit to see for herself. Trying to tell herself that it wasn’t true.

Rather than her usual grace of dodging people, she stumbled and bulldozed any of whom couldn’t get out of the way in time.

The pair of Kendis’ had stayed at Darrio’s side through the whole ordeal. At the end of the day, this was his domain, not theirs. Ellisyn gave Darrio’s hand a squeeze, prompting him to face her. She pulled him into a loving hug

“At least you still have your brother.” She said, holding back tears. As much as she wanted to believe her brother had survived the ship exploding, she highly doubted he did. “Go see him.”

Captain Garbera was on knees shivering in fear. Around him were his six elite Stormtrooper guards or what was left of them. Dismembered parts from the soldiers lay scattered on the floor. A cascade of chaos formed of torsos, fingers, legs and arms, even a couple of heads half dislodged from their helmets could be seen. Clad in their white armor it was impossible to tell what belonged to which trooper or where the troopers began or ended at this point. The rancid smell of fresh lightsaber wounds in flesh still smoldering caused the Captain to want to gag but he was to terrified to even move, the wet mark on the front of his soiled pants was testimony to that. Behind him stood a human with long unkept hair that was salt and peppered, his eyes were pale gray and the dark circles beneath them suggested he had not slept in days or maybe even weeks. A black shroud wrapped around the bottom half of his face that flowed into a half cloak which draped over his left shoulder kept any true identify hidden. In the mystery man’s left hand rested the jaw of the good Captain, and in his right an dormant Lightsaber hilt made of metal and bone wrapped in crimson twine.

In that moment where both men know that one was about to end his life’s journey the perfect moment was interrupted by a chirping noise coming from belt of the menacing assailant. Looking down he clipped the hilt to his belt and removed a ComLink and pressed it twice. A cheerful mechanical voice, clearly a droid, came over and spoke.

”Master Aticus, a high priority task requires your attention and your services could be of use. Coordinates and mission parameters have been received and I am bringing the ship to your location. Sorry, but you will need to hurry this up. Before you object.. this may be if interest to you. It involves Taldryan.”

The communication ended as quickly as it had began. Aticus looked down to his left arm where he still bore a tattoo of House Dinaari signet, getting lost in his thoughts. Simultaneously upon hearing the name the Captain recognized the name and had begun to plea in his half choked voice as the Battlemaster still grasped the base of the man’s jaw.

”A..Aticus? You’re alive? You have to believe me I had nothing to do with” Kr-Snap

With a sudden twist the Captain’s body fell to the floor, his neck broken and the right side of his jaw completely dislocated from his skull. Aticus continued to look at the tattoo. The traitor was now dead, it seemed almost fated that something involving his first clan was happening at the same time. As a YT-2400 pulled to the landing pad outside of the palace’s main hall Aticus turned his focus to the ship, stepping over the bodies of his targets as if they weren’t even there. Still unsure of what was going on, he had already made up his mind he needed a new distraction and this would serve as good as any.

Jorm considered following Appius, maybe snatch a memory or two from his armor, but opted against it.

Not only was the first person view on the human’s recent medical history not immediately useful, but the security detail forming up around Jorm would probably not approve either.

Look at me, thinking all reasonable-like; he mocked himself.

“Mica, Beat, liaise with the intel and strategic centers and coordinate the Ember Swarm with the Reps,” he ordered his crew.

“You,” he adressed the Lieutenant of the guard detail, “take me to Admiral Zruta, please.”

The armored officer cocked his head slightly, the click and buzz of his comlink almost lost in the busy shuttlebay.

“Very well, Chancellor,” he finally aquiesced.

The observation deck oversaw the bridge and accomodated Admiral Zruta and several officers, who scrutinized a man-sized holographic projection of the superweapon.

“Gentlemen,” Jorm greeted the room.

“Chancellor Na'trej, despite the circumstances I bid you welcome you aboard,” the Admiral replied, “I take it you brought something?”

Jorm handed the datadisc to a technician, and a few moments later the projection of a stripped component superlaser appeared side-by-side with the Compensator, rotating slowly in unison.

“A thousand credits say that whatever else these frakkers added, the core structure looks like that. Whatever makes it go is bolted to the sides” - Jorm pointed to a series of bulges near the front and end of the foreign ship - “or glued to the rear end.”

Zruta nodded along with the conclusion.

“The problem, Chancellor, is slightly less about finding what to hit than getting there. We’re grossly out of position.”

“Oh come on, you brought Decimators,” Jorm replied.

“We have, but they’re needed to scout for pirate depots in the asteroid belt lest they rearm and hit us from behind,” Zruta admonished.

“The Ember Swarm is tearing those apart,” Jorm admitted, “So recall yours. Fill ‘em with boarders. And I’m coming too.”

“Over confidence, lack of allied support, stubbornness.. All probably valid. At least we got him out of the water before he drowned,” the Regent paused for a moment as he turned his helmeted head to Ankira. “In any case, he’ll be fine. He just needs time to recover. The bigger question is, what does the Proconsul plan to do about that weapon? Time runs short.”

The Regent of the Brotherhood remained arms crossed as he debated possible solutions to eliminating the weapon, but what was REALLY on his mind was if he’d be able to acquire some of the schematics to replicate sections of the superweapon for production into other assets that he could then sell back to the clans.

Ankira turned her helmeted head towards the Regent. “We are going to destroy it, make sure it isn’t going to be able to make another of those attacks on the city and take out the bastard that did this to Appius,” she answered firmly.

“This time with a plan, I hope,” Brax added, “I hate to see us all end up like he did.”

“I’m sure we can come up with something,” Ankira said as she looked towards the submerged Appius.

“So… Anyone got an idea?” Brax asked as he looked around the group

“Infiltrate the dealer find the supplier.”

“I’m coming with. Koda’s missing and I’ll be damned if we just leave him there. The first moment we’re able to head back there, I’m going. Even if it’s just me.”

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632>

Jorm rolled his eyes.

“Tell me you’ve never been in an uphill fight without saying that you’ve never been in a n uphill fight, Z-Man,” he scolded the Admiral.

“I need a Decimator, a squad of demolition specialists, vacuum-rated gear, and a distraction to get in close.”

He smiled at the flag officer.

“Watch and learn about badassdom and bastardry.”

Jorm chuckled, with a wide smile on his face to take the edge.

“You just admitted you’ve only ever seen an uphill battle from a bridge. I’m a pirate at heart. I don’t need a detailed plan,I live for this shit.”

He put a hand on the Admiral’s shoulder, eliciting a less-than-ecstatic look.

“Decimator, demolitions platoon, distraction, and I’ll send that phallus spinning and buy you time to ream it properly.”

The all familiar sound of an inverted bang let out as the funnel of blue rapidly changed to stretches of white lines and finally to normal space. The planet Saijo could be seen in the distance with various ships picking up on scanners but not visible to the eye. What was visible was the large Starhawk Mk.II registered as Leviathan off to the right of the YT-2400. Aticus flipped a few switches and activated the ship’s transponder. It registered a very old Dinaari code he could only hope someone aboard that Starhawk would recognize it and not vaporize him instead. He manually brought the 2400 to a close enough distance that the Taldryan vessel would register the ping but far enough away he could attempt to dodge incoming fire and break into a hyperspace jump if needed. A small remote droid flew into the cockpit and began speaking in its cheerful up beet tone.

”Good Morning Master Aticus, onboard sensors indicate we have arrived at our destination. Much of the communications going on here are scrambled or encrypted in codes that I am unfortunately not familiar with. What little bit I have been able to decode is that brotherhood forces have been engaging a group of pirates here and some recent turn of events has caused both factions to vacate a vicinity of the planet. The ship before us is classified as a Starhawk Mk.2 named Leviathan. It’s registered owner is the Republic of Taldryan. Republic? I am unfamiliar with that designation for Clan Taldryan. I shall update my records. I will now ping the ship to alert them of our location and send a standard hail. I would suggest that you will likely not receive a warm welcome and a high probability that you will be taken into custody. However if you are able to get me in touch with their staff I should be able to explain to them that we are here to assist.”

Aticus let off a muffed grunt as he stood from his seat, giving a thumbs up as he turned and walked towards the rear. The Assassin proceeded to his private quarters and began disarming himself of the various items that would likely get him killed if it was the first thing they found on him upon landing. At the same time the remote followed through with its process, sending a ping and hail to the Leviathan.

”This is privately owned vessel Nostram requesting docking. We are providing you with a brotherhood code of House Dinaari but it could be outdated. Please confirm.”

Dasha’s ears drooped in dismay, seeing her Master in his current state.

Her hands eventually searched for a good place to rest when her left hand brushed against the anti-bacterial polymer edge of her datapad. Koda she remembered he still hasn’t let them know what was going on. Could he need help?

The Sephi started trying to contact Koda again, using the signals to try to at least track down his gear’s location.

<@351852811883118594>

As the Nostrom touched down in the hangar Aticus walked to the doorway. He had disarmed himself of most all of his gear, choosing only to keep his armoed robes, cloak and his concealed lightsaber. He rubbed his beard as the door popped and hissed, curious of what he would find waiting for him on the other side.

Aticus gazed out over the hangar at what he could almost instantly recognize as predeployment checks and headcounts. He noticed a uniformed officer approaching him at a speed, alone. He had honestly expected to be greeted at the door with guns or maybe even a lightsaber or two given how long he had been gone, but it seems his code was still in records this was a relief for him at least. The officer did not even waste time on formalities so things must be quite dire. As his cold gray eyes remained locked on the young officer a small buzz droid, heavily modified just at first glace, climbed from behind the Battlemaster’s back and onto his shoulder.

“I am BZE, Master Aticus would be delighted to take upon your task!”

The all to cheerful expression obviously wasn’t a match for the man’s expression and features.

The Mandalorian Regent decided he would indeed help. After all, the expert technician wanted to see the weapon up-close and personal. Once he had double checked Appius’ state of recovery with the chief medical droid, the Dathomirian Zabrak departed from the medical bay and headed direct towards the supposed mission launch hangar.

As he moved throughout the corridors, not really rushing by any means, Bes'uliik checked over his vambraces, newly constructed blaster, and the unique triple-phase lightsaber - Duraanir - the newly minted Elder had spent several sleepless nights crafting. He took a quick look over his other lightsaber, which he had recently modified, and before he knew it had reached the launch bay in short order.

Zxyl positioned himself close to the Decimators, crossing his arms once more as he waited for everyone to gather and receive their briefing on the mission details.

Jorm was less patient.

He entered the hangar with a spring in his step, jumped over a maintenance cart, slipped through a column of technicians and entered a circle of soldiers double-checking heavy satchels and armor seals.

“I dunno what you folks did to get on the Admiral’s shitlist,” he said by way of greeting, “but you’re mine for this job. Jorm Na'trej, Chancellor of Chyron and first grade nuisance, and when we’re done it doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks because we’ll all have partial Death Star silhouettes on our kill tally.”

The leader of the platoon, a Major by his tags just grunted, nothing registering on his stony face.

“So you say. What’s the plan?”

“Step one, load as many demo-men and items from this shopping list as you can” - Jorm handed the man a note - “into that Decimator and get underway. I’ll just snatch some personal party favors from my ship and brief you on the way in. Lift-off in five minutes.”

Elly was ecstatic to see Darrio finally come back. She seemed to have calmed down just a but but it was hard to tell with her helmet on.

“Take your time. They found a way to what?”

“The weapon?” Elly asked, seeming a bit out of it yet

“The thing that we were running from, Ellisyn.” Thea patted the larger woman’s back, doing some of the thinking for her.

“You better heal up soon, riduur so that I can properly slap you for your silly action,” Ankira whispered.

“Get him back to full health soon,” she ordered one of the medics and stormed off towards hangar bay.

“I’m going with you,” Brax said as he followed her step.

“Ankira, here!” Aylin waved towards her. “I’m going to join you. I want to be there to help destroy it.”

“Fine by me.”

And so the three of them arrived in the hangar bay and joined up with the others.

Centam made his way into the hangar. Seeing the others gathered together, he walked over to them.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “I heard about the Chancellor. I hope he’s able to recover quickly.”

Dasha was in her dark mood again where she was almost invisible due to how quiet she was. Her ears betrayed her very dissatisfied mindset as she listened… listened so she can figure out if there’s something she can do to increase their chances of success by the highest multiplier possible.

Aticus readied himself on the Decimator that he and Jorm had been assigned. He was not fond of throwing himself into missions with those he did not know anything about, but given the urgency of the operation it was just something he would have to deal with. “He seems.. energetic..” the assassin thought to himself. This could prove to be a good thing or a bad thing based on the scenario. The small Buzz Droid crawled off of Aticus’ shoulder and onto his lap almost as if it was a pet. While he said nothing Aticus could be seen giving hand signs to the droid though to the naked eye it would be unclear if he was trying to communicate or playing a game with it. Content he had delivered a clear enough message to the droid Aticus leaned back against the firm seat and closed his eyes, trying to find a balance in all of this chaos. “The calm before the storm.. I prefer the rain myself..” he thought to himself.

All the Decimators except one.

At the last possible moment it slowed down and veered to the side, ramming through some struts, and entered the narrow space between the rocky shell and the tubular supership hidden within.

Jorm stood behind the pilot and tracked their flight on the holomap, checking it against the scans Leviathan had gathered earlier and the readout from Winch’s dataspike.

The hull produced occasional screeches where the pilots misjudged the distance by a few milimeters.

Over the closed comm, they could hear the ventral gunner pray under his breath, a small wonder since his whole world was made of hull steel and panic right now.

The dorsal gunner was a step further.

Befitting his view, he quietly sang “we will, we will rock you!”

Jorm marked a waypoint and adressed the pilots, an equator of corvette-class drives below and craters opening to space above.

“There. The RCS clusters. Me and the demo team will walk from there on out, you do with the other two how you see fit,” he said, “but I strongly encourage you to do some more damage along the way. The more of these struts you break off, the better.”

He paused for a moment.

“And this might be a Hail-Yoda-kind of mission, but if you could circle back and pick up the guys, I’m sure they’d appreciate it.”

Fennyl quietly stared into space, not even reacting or seeming angry about the fact that the shields went down to allow part of the enemy force in. Not one bit. The technicians stared at her, each of them with a fear in their eyes they had never conceived possible.

She was always angry. Always. No matter what it was, even positive things. After what felt like an eternity, she turned and walked off of the command deck in absolute silence.

The technicians looked amongst each other and quietly spoke. Was this part of her plan? Was she off to wring someones neck and kill them as was tradition? Or was she moving to another part of the plan she never tells them about?

All they for sure agreed on was…

She wasn’t angry. And that was bad.

Krieger glanced over at the unarmored mando and ran over, smacking him across the face before putting his hand back at his side.

“No! Bad Chancellor, bad!” Kreiger said as he made finger motions in the air. “No forcie forcie stuff!”

With a huff, he looked at the monitoring screens and shook his head. “You’re lucky to be alive. That blade nicked one of your arteries, but didnt sever it. Act out too much now and raise your blood pressure, you run the risk of blowing the sutures we put in place.”

With the press of a button on top of the tank, the bacta quickly drained to just below his head in only a couple seconds.

“See? Accidents happen. The same as what can potentially happen if you rush this. It was a very serious wound.”

Kreiger stared at him, wanting to tell him the side effect of whatever kind of blade it was that struck him…but, his loss he guessed.

“Over on the table. You can get yourself dressed, big boy.” he said with a chuckle as he left the medbay.

Aticus watched as Jorm and his team of troopers departed the ship in a hurry. The smell of a dank cave mixed with carbon scoring from the blaster bolts zinging and hitting cave walls and the metal plating of the weapon alike began to flood into the ship but also pull out what oxygen was in there. The pilot looked back at Aticus and asked him “Here or somewhere else? This bird only has so much juice in her belly.” The Assassin looked over at the pilot while he placed on a breathing mask with a few small canisters of highly condensed oxygen but said nothing. BZE who had been flung from his lap was now climbing up his leg. Aticus reached down and picked the small droid up giving it an assist to his shoulder, then turned to look out the exit where the troopers had just disembarked and left out.

As he landed his feet made a bit of a padded thud against the hull. He was not even sure what this guy was doing but the assassin needed a way into this thing and Jorm seemed to be focused on that rather than engaging the pirates head on so that worked for him. He grabbed the hilt of his lightsaber and readied it into his right hand and moved at a close enough pace with the group to keep track of them but he had a different set of goals. One personal and one for the clan.

Klaxons were going off throughout the station as pirates scrambled to their assigned areas. It was fairly chaotic of a scene, nowhere near as precise as an Imperial lead station would be.

A small entourage of a Bothan, a Wookie, and an Ewok, all with shiny and well-groomed and maintained hair as black as coal, proceeded down one of the main hallways before entering a large blast door that had a sign above it.

The Bar

While normally there would be pirates here singing shanties and drinking alcohol, the once mug filled tables were now lined with weapons as pirates armed themselves. Even the bartender had a slugthrower over his back.

“Well, if it isnt the hair care patrol.” the human bartender joked at the three, with the entire bar breaking it in laughter. “Finally gonna get a shave?”

“We see who laughing when you scalp intruders take.” the Ewok said in broken basic while trying to reach for one of the rifles on a table, only to be bumped to the side and a small blaster pistol slid to him by a large Gammorean.

“Pint size take pint weapon. Big weapon for big boy.” it said with a dismissing gesture of its hand. The bar once again broke out laughing, but stopped in silence as the Ewok suddenly charged him and attached to his groin.

The Gammorean let out a scream, blood flying everywhere as the Ewok ripped into him with his claws and teeth. Others looked away, while the one patron who was actually drinking raised his glass and cheered the Ewok on.

The Bothan stepped forward and pulled her blood covered furry companion back. “Kriff it Reek, save that anger for the enemy!”

After being removed from the Gammorean, blood covered, Reek spit something off to the side before using a stool and grabbing one of the more massive rifles. Oddly enough, it had little trouble wielding it.

Regret filling his eyes as he tried to scoop up his entrails, but losing conciousness at the same time, the Gammorean slowed further and further before passing out.

Silence filled the bar. The Wookie looked around and made a thunderous roar, people beginning to laugh one after another apprehensively. Others joined in before the whole bar was laughing and the Wookie now grabbed a bowcaster from the table.

The Bothan took a seat at the bar and gestured at a red colored bottle. “Gimme a glass.”

“Eighty creds.” the bartender said, not even giving a glance.

“Seriously?” she scoffed. “Even upon the time of our imminent demise at the hands of savages?”

“Yup.” the Bartender said. “Gotta pay the cleaning fee your pet caused somehow.”

Dex double checked all of his equipment and primed is blasters, waiting for the shuttle’s door to open for the battle about to begin. “Let’s do this by the book, as usual. Hit them hard and don’t hold back.” Dex spun his blasters once forwards and once backwards. The superweapon had to be dealt with first, then there would be time to search for Koda.

Centam slipped his lightsaber hilt into his right hand and held it loosely. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and stretched his mind into the infinite reaches of the Force, searching for peace. He would need all he could get in the battle ahead.

To dozen soldiers in sealed, white armor and hung with backpacks and bandoliers formed up in three colums, repulsor-crates laden with even more munitions and tools and in tow.

In low, measured lunges they set off towards three clusters of muzzles embedded in the hull, pointing towards holes in their stony sky both straight and at angles.

“The thing about a vessel this big is, you can’t steer it from the stern alone,” Jorm had explained to the platoon.

“Starfighters sure, and even a Star destroyer can make do with the rear arrangement and gyros, but stations and other big stuff needs a dedicated Reaction Control System, and thanks to some lucky bastards, we know where it is.”

Jorm walked up to his target: engine nozzles of corvette-class size, arranged in banks large enough to propel a CR-90, angled to pitch, yaw, roll, or strafe the giant vessel they were attached to.

Around him, the squad went to work, mirrored by their brethren a few hundred meters to either side.

“Right. So you want to blow their RCS, leave them crippled for the fleet to finish,” the Major had inquired.

“Yeah, and nah. Just taking it out would still keep the weapon pointed at Saijo. Planet’s a goner then,” the Chancellor had explained, “but we can abuse it.”

Ion mines were shoved deep into the guts of each cluster.

Selected engines were rigged with explosives, others spared.

Detonators were made ready.

<@837236610684813342> <@287090837966290946>

Three rings of dots were added to the superweapon’s projection.

“That’s the RCS,” the Kiffar had elaborated, “Near either end of the weapon and around the middle. We’re going for the front end. Thanks to the hollow space needed for the laser it’s lighter.”

A pen was picked up and served as demonstrator.

“Easier to knock off course, so We’ll kickstart the RCS, move the nose away from Saijo,” a finger had pushed the pen around, “and then add some spin.”

“It’ll never get back on course as long as the RCS firing and out of their control, which both can be done with a lot of explosives.”

“And if they try to right the ship with the rear and center RCS?”

Jorm had looked the Major in the eye and twisted the pen between his hands until the plastic broke and splinters fell to the deck.

After a few short minutes the troopers moved, thumbs raised, and put distance between themselves and their work.

The other teamleaders reported success too.

Jorm smiled and fingered his detonator.

“Fire in the hole.”

There was no datapad glow as Dasha had put her’s away. There wasn’t even any screams on the right side where Dasha had very literally dashed to. As blasters fired and explosions went off, Dasha used the flashes of light to spot her targets.

For those keen of senses would notice signs of life snuffed out on the enemy’s left flank where Dasha was, her black vibrodagger meeting its marks.

“Your books are outdated.” Thea said. This was the first time since the war that Dex and Thea had fought side by side. A lot had changed since then, and she was intent on proving it.

Ellisyn pulled away from Darrio and went to her aunt’s side. As much as she wanted, needed to stay by her love, she knew she’d be able to do more by Thea’s side. “Be nice.” Elly pleaded.

“Shut up and stay behind me. Got it?” Thea snapped, looking up to Elly with a smirk behind her helmet.

“Finally ready to fight?” Elly asked, stretching a little bit before getting ready to run.

“Something like that. Just remember. Control your emotions. Rage is a tool, use it. Just don’t let it consume you.” Thea said before sprinting down the ramp and into the hangar with Ellisyn close behind.

The pair had just a few moments of calm before the fireworks began. Bolts of all different colors came from all different directions.

Ellisyn followed as Thea led her to the right side of the hangar towards a cluster of pirates, taking turns leading the assault. Thea would use the force to block a few bolts before swapping places with Ellisyn who would simply tank the projectiles. They only needed to do a couple cycles before reaching their quarry. And that’s when they began to have their fun.

A large shockwave pulsed through the asteroid cavern passing through rock, durasteel and flesh alike. Even at a distance, without the heavier armor and grav capabilities of the boots of the troopers, Aticus was pushed back quite a bit. He dropped to one knee and pushed his hilt’s emitter against the hull. Pressing the switched a light red glow from the emitter and the weapon’s hull could be seen momentarily but the blazing orange streak of molten metals dragging roughly three to four feet would last quite a while but it slowed him down long enough to guide his slide into a magnetically locked cargo container. Aticus slowly stood and deactivated his saber. The pulse hurt, he couldn’t deny that. From his left ear beads of dark red blood began to leak and slowly fall to the floor. He could hear a severe ringing on that side of his head as well, but it was something he’d have to worry about later.

BZE hopped off it’s master’s shoulder and landed on the hull. Making rapid taps with its drill bit as it moved it finally found what it was looking for, an external control panel. It tapped rapidly with its drill bit and flashed a red beacon from its back a few times to catch it’s masters attention. As Aticus made his way over the droid was already busy tearing off the panel cover and making thousands of calculations of the now exposed wiring. Aticus leaned over, unsure of what exactly the panel did. BZE stopped and spoke briefly. “I believe this is a panel that controls one of the cannons exhaust ports. I can attempt to damage it and force an opening along the muzzle. The exhaust port should lead directly into one of the weapon’s focus chambers.. ..or you’ll just fall quite a distance to a quick but very painful death into the weapon’s power core where aggressive amounts of radiation will..” Aticus gave only a thumbs up to the droid stopping its speech and allowing it to do what it was made for. Sparks and smoke began to expel from the panel as BZE began to cut and rip into the panel. After a few moments a large 12’ wide vent door flew open. Unsure of how long the panel would remain open the Sith Assassin wasted no time running towards it and diving in.

He fell for what seemed like at least 20 or 30 seconds, randomly banging against the sides as the tunnel curved. His focus moved to a precognitive one. A few flashes came to mind, him falling through the entrance of the port and landing hard on his side. Two armed pirates shooting him over and over while he was down, no doubt he was about to die. Aticus could see light coming from a hole that was growing bigger each passing moment. In the half second before reaching the exit Aticus saw what was possibly his only opportunity and reached out and pulled a thick wire that seemed to be loosely hanging from the mouth of the port. The rubber material gripped well in his hand but he allowed himself to slip and slow a bit before grasping too firmly to avoid a dislocated shoulder, meanwhile he quickly observed the situation around him. A suspended walk way with two pirates, two Trandosians from the look of it, was right in front of him. Using his free hand Aticus channeled the force to pull himself and the wire to the ramp just as the pirates began to notice in shock of what was happening. As he neared the walkway’s guardrail he retracted his legs up to his chest allowing his feet to land centered on the rail. Not wasting the forward momentum he quickly bounced forward with a lunging thrust and activated his saber. The red burning blade punched a hole easily through the armored pirate. Once Aticus felt the emitter reach the trandosian’s chest he dropped to one knee and brought the blade down with him, splitting the pirate from centermass to groin. He then spun to his left while standing removing the pirate’s leg in the process. Startled the pirate’s reaction was delayed slightly, allowing Aticus the time he needed to use two small slices to disable it’s weapon, followed with a decapitation.

Far below the walkway where <@287090837966290946> stood, completely unaware of what was going on above due to the noise of the creaking hull and the whine of the station’s systems, sat an Ugnaught in a dark grey uniform flanked by two stormtroopers. In front of him was a large open panel with wires and lights.

The Ugnaught reached his hand out, one of the Stormtroopers immediately reaching into a large light brown backpack that sat next to him and pulled out a small fusion cutter, handing it to him. The stormtroopers examined the area around them, never seeming to bother looking up.

Levels far above, the hair care patrol was moving through one of the hallways, all armed. The Bothan’s hair, now messed up due to being covered in alcohol after the shock that shook the station, carried a DT-29 Blaster Pistol; the Wookie had a plasma bowcaster, with several energy packs on his sides; and the Ewok, Reek, carried a large flamethrower with two large tanks strapped to its back. It’s strength was tremendous, given the fact that it was carrying all of that around nearly unhindered, and gained the attention of the other pirates as the three of them went by.

“I swear to kriff, when I get my hands on whoever did that..” the Bothan seethed, pistol tightly in hand with her finger on the trigger.

“Keke,” Reek chuckled in broken basic, “Vis mad, Vis ugly.”

Vis turned around and pointed her blaster straight at the Ewoks head, the feeling mutual as the Ewok raised the tip of the flamethrower at her head as well. The Wookie stepped between them and pushed them apart with its massive hands with a roar.

“You’re right. He isn’t worth it.” the Bothan conceded with an ounce of disdain in her voice as she lowered the blaster and proceeded down the hallway once again, the other two trailing behind.

The Wookie made several noises and grunts, Vis looking over at him briefly. “Yeah, word is they breached one of the hangars on deck 57. We’re gonna head to the sub-hangar on 56.”

“Five six? Why Five Six? Fight Five Seven.” Reek asked, confused.

“Apparently that’s one of the main access paths towards the heart of the station and most likely where they will be heading. We’re gonna head them off there at the Ambassador’s recommendation. And we’re gonna have fun.” Vis said as they entered a turbolift together, the door nearly closing on Reek as she slammed the close button, and began ascending amid curses and sounds of flames being dispensed with loud Wookie roars. “KRIFF YOU REEK!”

“Winch! Droid poppers!” Dex reached behind his back and up to the lower right side of his backpack, grabbing an EMP grenade off of it. Within a moment he primed the device, held it for a moment, and flung it up towards the turrets. Right as it started to fall between them, the device went off, sending a pulse of electromagnetic energy.

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632> <@77213354619318272> <@417336769181122562> <@494180472713248788>

Immediately after the EMP activated, Centam gripped one of the disabled turrets with the Force and ripped it out of the ceiling, bashing it against a second turret and crumpling it.

Brax opened fire on one of the turrets, riddling it with blaster bolts.

“Hey, Tentacles get the last one with your rocket!” He yelled over the noise he was creating.

Aylin glared at him as she got her DC-17 from her shoulder and aimed it at the last one.

“Watch it bucket, else I’m aiming it at you next.”

The large Mando grinned and nodded, “You may try another day, let’s first get out of here alive.”

It was at that point that several blast doors opened up on three sides, revealing a large number of pirates behind each one. Boxes and crates were set up as defensive positions, giving them a solid ground from which to fire their blasters as others entered the hangar, easily giving the odds to the pirates.

A stairwell leading up along the left side of the hangar towards the floor above was relatively undefended, just two pirates standing on it who were hiding behind its solid railing wall.

Though…none of the pirates fired their weapons. They looked amongst each other, talking quietly while looking relatively confused as the fighting seemed to…stop. The Republic Troopers still held their weapons at the ready, able to respond to the slightest return in hostility at a moments notice, but ceased fire themselves.

Jorm saw the plus-sized Mandalorian excuse for a fighter slip through the expanding cracks in the asteroid shell and gave a mock salute.

Some way beside him, the RCS clusters continued their work.

Even though the EMP mines had been dug deep and probably slagged the entire forward RCS control, the engines themselves were fed by robust systems independent from such trivial things as pumps.

“Allright, boys,” he turned to the demolitions team, held in place in the shifty gravity by grace of their magnetized boots, “job’s done. Wanna go in dry or are you clocking out?”

“Job’s done,” the Major confirmed, “we’re dry on munitions and light on sidearms. We’re out.”

The Chancellor shrugged.

“Have it your way. Do you want to call a ship through the rock storm, or do you want to try a favorite of mine?”

The Major eyed the quagmire of breaking and spinning asteroids falling away into space above their heads.

“And your way would be…?”

A minute later, the platoon had latched onto a piece of the shell that hadn’t quite broken off yet, and Jorm finished the job with a shove.

They’d call for pickup later, but for now they were the smallest Taldryan-garrisioned asteroid in the known universe.

Jorm himself took a look around, spotted the hole Aticus had apparently disappeared into earlier, and jumped in.

The Ugnaught looked down at his commlink as a small beeping sound began to emit from it along with a red light on his datapad. In his mouth were three wires that he had fused the tips together of, and two more with their casings cut within the panel.

“How much longer?” asked one of the Stormtroopers. “That signal means the Ambassador is nearly ready.”

“I’m aware,” the Ugnaught responded with a muffled voice since his teeth contained the wires. “I’m exactly as far along as I need to be. That is all.”

“I hope so for our sakes,” the other Stormtrooper added. “Are you sure this will even work?”

A response was never given as the creature feverishly worked, sweat running down his brow. He removed the bundle of wires from his mouth and placed the metal ends against the sliced wires, using a small fusion torch to sweat them together.

Aticus stopped as the white bands of the ray shielding began to ebb and flow like water around them. They were trapped in what appeared to be a 10’ span of floor. As the shielding locked the two in place for a moment a few thuds could be heard coming down the exhaust port both he and Jorm had advanced from and finally a ball came tumbling down hitting the walkway quite ungracefully, sprouting legs and spreading its shell like wings once it was confident it had landed on a solid surface. Aticus thought to himself. “Thank the power these droids are built tougher than they look” EBZ made its way over to Aticus and Jorm and spoke. “Ray Shielding, very clever tactic. No one will be able to harm either of you in there and you could both decide to eat one or the other for a food source but I’d have to suggest we need to keep moving” said the small droid. This obviously wasn’t the answer Aticus wanted to hear and he gave a WTF shrug to the droid turning and looking while his arms were slightly extended. The droid read the body language and began searching around on the walls. “I’m sorry Master but I’m not seeing a control for this panel anywhere nearby, I will have to search and that could take considerable time.”

Time was something they did not have an excessive amount of. Aticus glanced at Jorm who seemed to be looking at him as well. The Assassin grabbed his hilt and pointed at it, then the floor and shrugged. He could only hope Jorm had caught the hint as he turn the opposite direction and a red blade extended from the hilt. Aticus plunged his saber into the floor and began swiftly cutting a half circle.

<@414705077484257280>

The Kiffar was as quick at the uptake as his eratwhile companion hoped.

The signature snap-HISS of his activating lightsaber joined the first, and Jorm’s captive sunray completed the work of Aticus’ crimson blade.

The floor below them fell away onto the deck below, spilling the Sith into opposite directions.

Jorm used the momentum to roll away from Aticus; they would not be caught in the same force field again.

“Well, that’s one way to welcome cherished guests,” he commented flippantly, “so what do you say to reminding those amateurs of their manners?”

Aticus just stared back at Jorm blankly and silently motioned for the other man to lead the way.

“Oh for frakk’s sake,” Jorm complained, “what’s it with you and silence? Loth-cat got your tongue?”

The human furrowed his brow and then opened wide, allowing Jorm to see the scarred stump that remained of his tongue.

“A simple ‘yes’ would’ve sufficed.”

The two Stormtroopers instantly raised their blasters at the pair, the Ugnaught not even bothering to look up from the panel as it still feverishly continued to work with occasional glances at the screen of a nearby datapad.

“Who are you? State your business!” one of the Stormtroopers demanded from down the walkway they were now all together on as the two moved to place themselves between them and the engineer. If this went sour, they needed to buy him as much time as they could given the criticality that was this immediate moment.

“That does not sound OK at all, riduur. What the heck are you doing here instead of floating in the tank?” Ankira said sternly, mostly to hide her own worry.

Appius looked at her and before he could speak she interrupted him.

“You know your Force can only help you that much, don’t go spoiling it.”

Ellisyn weaved through the group of misfits and soldiers that had gathered up to the head of the pack. She stood next to her Darrio, watching the wreck that is Appius with a small grin under her helmet. Koda might be gone, but at least she gets to see Appius suffer just a bit.

The group made their way down the corridor and through an open blast door into a hangar, not nearly as large as the first. Crates and giant metal cylinders stold thoughout it, almost being treated like a storage rom. The Republic Troopers were scattered throughout it, examining crates with Cody in the middle, standing still.

“What’s wrong, Cody?” Appius asked as they started to move towards the middle of the room. Suddenly, the blast door behind them closed and others in front of them opened. Pirates swarmed inside, and out of the crates where they had been holding the troopers hostage at gunpoint.

It would be simple enough to handle this group and save the troopers…but there was a problem. On the catwalks above a full platoon of Stormtroopers entered as well, blasters trained down on them all.

They were now outnumbered nearly four to one. Suddenly a shiver went down Appius’ spine, and Ankira felt a…familiar…presence.

Two Stormtroopers turned sideways, blasters in front of them on their chests as a short figure in brilliant white armor entered and strode onto the catwalk. A stark white cape flowed behind it, two golden epaulets on both shoulders of the cape. A grey and white helmet obscured the face of whomever it was. Including the obsidian black armored boots, it was almost as if it were an armored…

“…Grand Admiral.” Appius said quietly, staring up at him. “It has been a long time.”

“Ambassador, confirmation from Gehn. It is finished.” one of the Stormtroopers said. The armored Ewok looked up at him and gave a slow nod.

His attention turned back towards the area below.

“Indeed it has, Appius. Nearly seven months if I count the days correctly. But that is a conversation for another time.” Teebu replied through a voice modulator within the helmet. “Take aim.”

The stormtroopers locked their sights on the group, upon which the Republic Troopers managed to back up slowly to them.

“Serving the pirates…or serving him? Which is it?” Appius asked, his sabers in hand and ignited. Even if they all fell now, the Ewok would be skewered first.

No reply came as the Ewok’s gauntleted hand went into the air and stayed there for a moment. The pirates below were cackling, the hair care brigade there as well.

“Cook mandy, cook mandy! Mynock barbie!” Reek said with his flamethrower ready, barely able to contain his excitement.

The hand dropped. And where the group expected to suddenly be defending against a torrent of blaster fire…the Stormtroopers suddenly turned their blasters on the pirates instead.

The pirates only managed to get off half a dozen shots before fleeing behind crates and tanks, confused as to what was going on.

“Ambassador Dimitri!” the black haired Bothan named Vis yelled out amongst the fire. “What are you doing!?”

“Now.” Appius said to the group. “Wipe the pirates out. All of them.”

Dasha didn’t need to be told twice. She didn’t think about the mixture of displeasure and rage that welled in her, turning to focus as seeing these particular pirates only reminded her of the Falleen and the state that Appius was in what felt like moments before.

The Sephi went for the side of the battle, tapping on her datapad briefly to flood all non-Taldryan communication channels with loud screeches for the next 10 seconds in hopes that it would startle and shake the pirates. This was followed by swapping to her vibroblade and going in for the attack.

Ankira and Brax both fired away at the pirates who were holding their ears after the hack by Dasha. Aylin made sure she would be outside lines of fire and kept an eye on her datapad for any information that could help from that Siky was gathering about the communication between the pirate leaders.

Placing his foot on the railing, Teebu climbed over and jumped onto one of the cylinder tanks. As he landed, two white sabers with golden ends were pulled from his sides.

He dropped down from the top of the tank onto two unsuspecting pirates. The blades ignited on his way down, a dark reddish orange with red flames coming off the blade on one and the other light blue with what looked like cold frost emitting from its blade.

The sabers plunged into their spinal columns, the Ewok in a kneeling position as he landed. He pulled the sabers from them and quickly turned to engage others.

His small size with the proximity of the tanks to one another made it easy for him.

“Frakking space wizards, and pleasure,” Jorm replied, and with a flick of his fingers the blaster rifles jammed themselves under their owners’ helmets and discharged violently.

Headless armored bodies hit the floor and revealed the Ugnaught, whom Jorm effortlessly tore back from whatever he was doing and held him up in the air in his mental vise.

“Wanna talk to him, quiet guy?” <@287090837966290946>

“H-Hang on,” the Ugnaught stammered, a mild look of surprise on his face. “None of the pirates have force sensitivity that I am aware of…are you the friends the Ambassador had me let through the shield?”

Aticus could feel the force mixing around them and funneling into the mind of the Ugnaught. Using what little information he had to go on. While Jorm and Aticus could see things clearly the Ugnaught began to view an alternative reality, one in which Aticus spoke. He told the Ugnaught that these men were traitors and that they were lucky they found him when they did. He needed to stop what he was doing and come with them now, time was of the essence. While he did this he reached over with a hand to touch Jorm long enough for him to see the manipulation he was placing upon the Ugnaught’s mind so that he could know the target was needed alive and in one piece.

“So they were actually working for the pirates? Not like the Ambassador to make mistakes like that. And I will gladly come with you, but I must finish this critical rewire before it is too late.”

“Rewire what, why, and on which frakker’s orders?”

“The internal security system, so it wont detect you all as enemies. The command deck has locked down the file network so it cannot be sliced by regular means, but I’ve nearly rewired the data distribution panel for the security network so that it will automatically add you and the others to the whitelist. It was ordered by the Ambassador.”

“If they leave the hangar section before I finish it, and the command deck activates the security system…”

Aticus could feel the emotions running off the Ugnaught. A mixture of panic, fear, concern and dedication. No trace of a lie could be detected. The assassin looked to Jorm and nodded a sign that the man was telling the truth. Using the illusion he turned his attention to the Ugnaught. “Of course, and you shall be well rewarded. Due to the nature of the current situation we have moved several undercover forces into the area and they will need to be defended as well. I will provide you with their signatures.” He said. “After this we will need to extract you to a safe location.” Aticus turned to Jorm and would give a hand gesture universal for providing cover then pointed at the Ugnaught.

The Ugnaught motioned to his datapad. “Put their information on there in the file labeled talpublic 16. That is the file the Ambassador had me load in. And may I be put down now?”

Aticus browsed through the data pad and noticed the Taldryan forces were already to be labeled blue, except for himself. This “Ambassador” was already a step ahead it would seem, and this guy was working for him. Aticus pondered having himself added but that could also break the Ugnaughts coding and focus.

Most of the Stormtroopers had come down to the floor of the hangar, one of them with a orange pauldron on his shoulder talking with the Ewok.

They were looking at a datapad, which had a sliced breakdown of the station’s defense systems. While the whitelist and blacklist of sentient identification were linked, the Taldryan forces were still under the blacklist section.

Teebu reached to his belt and pulled out a small black commlink. “How long until you are done? Phase 1 has concluded, and phase 2 is about to begin, we need that finished.”

The Ugnaught stared at Jorm, waiting impatiently to be let down. At that point, the two heard his commlink go off. Jorm instantly recognized the voice, even though he had not heard it in almost seven months. It was an Ewok voice.

“How long until you are done? Phase 1 has concluded, and phase 2 is about to begin, we need that finished.”

<@414705077484257280> <@287090837966290946>

Dex was quiet and looked around at the other Crusaders. He knew Ellisyn was hurting and that Thea wouldn’t speak to Appius. “He’s…he’s gone. MIA. Pirates blew up the shuttle he was on…but I don’t think even Koda could survive that.” The normally confident man was shaky.

<@837236610684813342>

Jorm recognized the voice and rolled his eyes.

You know what? Frakk it.

“Short Plug,” he spoke to the Ugnaught and took his pad, “whitelist every name save his,” and he deleted Teebu’s entry.

The Ugnaught looked at the pad and shrugged before going back to the panel. The two watched as the Ugnaught went through the wires like an absolute pro, stripping several while pulling some sections off of others. It was only another five minutes before it closed the panel and pulled it’s comm.

“Ambassador, it is done. Security systems will no longer target anyone with the whitelist you gave sans one as ordered by an individual here. Also, I managed to do something else special as well…”

“"Ambassador, it is done. Security systems will no longer target anyone with the whitelist you gave sans one as ordered by an individual here. Also, I managed to do something else special as well for everyone not of administration division ranking and lower…”

Automated blaster fire could be heard in the hallways surrounding the hangar, followed by frantic blaster fire, then pure silence. Teebu grinned under his helmet. “Gehn, amazing work as always. Who was the one removed?”

“Someone by the name of Teebu.”

Quietly he stared at the comm, his eyes closed with a soft smile. He was glad no one could see that expression, having an idea who would have requested that. But luckily he was already in the master database as a member of administration due to his ambassador role. So even with his Taldryan profile removed, he was still immune to the security system.

“Head towards rendezvous sigma epsilon, Oriflamme Platoon and I are going to be enroute. Long-range communication systems offline?” Teebu said as the orange-pauldroned Captain finished talking to other troopers.

“Yes, Ambassador. We are in the dark as planned. Everything done from this point on will be in absolute secrecy from Kallea’s backup forces.”

“Excellent. See you shortly.” he finished as he tucked the commlink away. He looked back towards the Captain as he approached. “Ready the platoon, we move out in five.”

“Yes, Ambassador.” the trooper said as he turned and began issuing orders.

Gehn packed his stuff back into his large backpack, grabbing out what looked like bowcaster parts before slinging the bag over his arms onto his back. He looked at Aticus and Jorm as he swiftly assembled the ranged weapon, a blue plasma stream appearing between the tips to fill the role of a draw string. “The plan was to meet near the central energy array. If it were just me and the two you killed, it would have been a simple task; but the pirates are not going to recognize either of you so expect significant resistance. We’re probably the furthest possible away from it compared to the others. Roughly 83 decks, with no direct turbolifts.” <@414705077484257280> <@287090837966290946>

“Down? And did you delete everyone previously whitelisted too, or are the pirates running free? Think ahead, Short Plug!”

Elly looked to her aunt Thea who stared back, giving her a shrug “Dont look at me. Doesn’t make sense for me to try and look for a dead man.” She crossed her arms, completely nonchalant about the situation.

“Well good for you. I for one am going to go find my brother.” Elly said. She pointed to Appius “You. Where is he exactly”

Jorm just as quickly had his answer. As the code red was activated in their area of the station, a barrier rose up around the two pirates and trapped them. Their active commlink suddenly went to pure static.

“Satisfied?” the Ugnaught asked as it stood up and walked to Jorm, surprisingly tall for one of his species and not terribly much shorter than him. “Shall we stop at the data core on the way? There’s some things I need answered about this place.”

Teebu threw Thea the datapad that himself and the Captain had been looking at. It had a visual display of their current location and the area where Koda would be.

“If he is on this station, that would be the interrogation wing near the detention block. Level 31, which is 25 above us. Gehn’s switch of the security system only affects to Level 40, so once you get above that you will not have assistance from the turrets or automated systems.”

He thought for a moment before having a brilliant idea. “Captain.”

The orange-pauldroned trooper came over to him and looked down. “Sir?”

“Have Oriflamme Platoon accompany her, accept her orders as if they were mine. Even above 40, until command notices otherwise, you and your men will still be immune to the security system. And you can bypass the door locking system until then as well.”

The Captain looked at Thea then nodded back. “At once.”

Thea caught the datapad and started to inspect the map, comparing it to the one on her hud. She then tossed it to Ellisyn who did the same. The Mandalorian raised her arms up and stretched, taking a quick breath and forcing out a chuckle. “Guess it was only a matter of time.” Thea looked to Dex and Winch “Ready captains?”

Dasha was already madly punching buttons with fevor.

It seemed he was right. Up until the end of the hangar section, as far outward as deck 40, and inward as 70, the security system had been going nuts targeting pirates. The other sections were inactive at the moment, apparently on separate data nodes that would each require their own override.

Right now they were completely safe…meaning the noises they heard outside was probably the pirates being executed by their own defenses.

“Oriflamme, squad formations!” the Captain yelled out. Immediately each stormtrooper in the room went to a specific position with other troopers, now divided into five squads of 10, the Captain at the head of the middle squad. As each was in formation, their individual Sergeants whom had white pauldrons sounded off. The fourth one, had the most diverse sets of armor, clearly set for specialized scenarios.

“Intrepid squad, standing ready.”

“Excelsior squad, standing ready.”

“Fenris squad, standing ready.”

“Onery Batch squad, standing ready.”

With that, the Captain turned on one foot to face Thea. “Hawker squad, and Oriflamme Platoon, standing ready at your command.”

Aticus’ eyes locked onto the pirates and muscle memory took over. He grabbed Jorm and pulled him out of the fatal funnel and against the right wall. Using his armed hand he quickly holstered his hilt and retrieved his blaster. They were in a death trap, pirates would soon flood this tunnel and push them over the edge to their deaths. Aticus hung the muzzle of his blaster over the edge and laid down suppressive fire in hopes the pirates would have to take cover and open a window for he and Jorm to make a move.

<@414705077484257280>

Jorm’s eyes went wide and his perpetual smile slipped under the shock.

“Blasphemy,” he whispered.

Then his mind’s eye expanded, finely tuned incorporeal senses located and locked onto the scum, and his hand exchanged his trusty lightsaber for the monstrous scattergun he’d so far only lugged around on his back.

Jorm ducked out under Aticus’ arm and aligned the gun with the opposite wall in a precise angle.

BOOM-pump-BOOM!

The whistling of ricochets, followed by wet impacts and gargling, but no more blaster fire.

Aticus sought Jorm’s gaze with a raised eyebrow.

“ ‘Better shoot your kids and wife than spill the booze, the booze is life,’ ” the Kiffar recited and topped up his scattergun.

His smile had returned.

“Short Plug, you didn’t answer. Down?”

<@287090837966290946> <@61385159655559168>

“On the contrary. Towards the front, the Ambassador is going to meet us there. We need to infiltrate the data core.”

Gehn turned and proceeded to the front of the room, sliding a datacard through a small panel before a turbolift door opens. He motions for the two to follow.

“Headed down to deck 173, then to the forward section. Once we reach the command area we will need the Ambassador.”

<@414705077484257280> <@287090837966290946>

Ankira narrowed her eyes at Darrio. “I know that iro'vod” she half hissed the last part, “but what are you going to do? Hide?”

She didn’t wait for an answer and walked after Appius, “Now don’t go do something more stupid then normal.”

Brax and Aylin looked between each other before shrugging and going after them, both holding their heavy weapons ready

Gehn just strolled right along, revealing the reason he hadn’t shut down the security here.

It hadn’t meant to be. While they targeted Aticus and Jorm, it completely ignored Gehn as if he were invisible. As he was directly under each one however, he plugged them with a shot of plasma from his bowcaster and disabled them. One after another.

Dasha nodded but kept her eyes on Appius after his display of injury a moment ago.

“I vote we follow the nerd. At a safe distance.”

<@287090837966290946>

Thea, Dex, Ellisyn, Winch, and the extra troopers start to make their way towards the holding cells, their HUD’s guiding them through the long passageways. The pirates who attempted to stop them were swiftly dealt with. “Once we find him, Winch and I will carry him to a shuttle. We’re not losing anyone today.” Dex was trying to plan the fastest way back to the hangars. As they reach the doors, Winch quickly works on slicing the door open.

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632>

The main door to the command deck slid open as the communication with Fennyl ended, the short Ambassador strolling inside followed by the orange-pauldroned Captain. Several of the pirates looked back, the one whom had been speaking with Fennyl turning to look at him with a small salute.

“Things have progressed in an unfortunate manner it seems.”

“I’m aware,” Teebu said calmly as he approached a tactical holoconsole. “With Gehn captured, my unit is moving towards the central core. I have reason to believe the bulk of the enemy force will be moving there. Their leader and his direct compatriots however…”

He placed his finger towards a rear section of the station. “…will be headed here.”

“Why do you think that?” the pirate asked curiously. “There’s no indication they would.”

“They already took out two of the sixteen struts and wounded the station’s westward moving capability. If they remove any more, even once the weapon is charged we will never be able to target Saijo with a direct shot without breaking it in half.”

“Oh, boss already has a solution for that. She just finished having us transfer all operations controls to her flagship.”

Teebu looked at him, his head sideways a little. “Explain?”

“The station already has a turning momentum which if continued, will allow it to re-align itself with Saijo within two hours. Just have to fire thrusters on our starboard side near the engines at 50% power, and on our bow section at 150% power until we are roughly 320 degrees turned. After that, natural momentum will finish the rest and the station will be intact.”

The Ewok glanced at the console in front of him. The pirate was telling the truth, everything related to navigation, engine control, weapons control, all of it has been remotely taken and terminated at the local end. Outside of the main blast door, blaster fire could be heard before total silence. Teebu and the others looked back.

“Take everyone into the briefing room, lock the door.”

“But…”

“Do it. I will handle this.” he said as he grabbed one of the sabers from his belt.

The pirate looked at the others and gave a confident nod before they all began moving towards the briefing room. Once they were inside, Teebu pulled his blaster and shot the access panel before plunging his saber into the center of the door itself. Even if they hacked into it, with this effectively welding the heart of the door together, they would never get it open.

He went back to the console and opened the main blast door for the trio to enter.

<@287090837966290946> <@414705077484257280>

The doors opened and revealed the Ewok in his splendid armor, head held high and lightsabers at his hip.

Lightsabers.

The thought had barely crossed Jorms mind as he blurred into motion, one moment beside the silent Sith, and with his sizzling yellow blade’s tip at Teebu’s throat in the next.

“Hello, Tibbles. Did you do something stupid again?”

The Ewok slowly raised his hands and kept Jorm’s gaze.

“No, although you won’t take my word for it. Shall I remove my gauntlets so we can get it over with?”

“That offer just means you’d wear it on another digit,” Jorm retorted.

Then he practically tasted the energy buildup of a bowcaster behind himself.

“Please step away from the ambassador,” the overgrown Ugnaught stated with a quiver in his voice, but he did none the less.

Another blur of motion suddenly placed Jorm kneeling behind Teebu, blade still across the throat.

With an annoyed wiggle of the Kiffar’s fingers, the takedown bowcaster’s assembly process reversed itself.

With a sound like a wet fart replayed on a bad speaker, the energy released itself as a loud of strong static charge.

Aticus lunged out of the way, but on the Ugnaught every hair, whisker, bristle and eyelash stood at attention and turned him into a giant brush.

After a moment of silence Teebu quietly pointed towards a screen, and Jorm took a glance at it.

“Aw crap,” he sighed, “he’s in over his helmet again, huh?”

“It surely appears so,” Teebu commented the security cam footage of Appius engaging the monstrous Lasat, “it’s the rematch for Appius’ loss on the surface.”

Aticus snapped his fingers, nodded at the screen and pointed at his side.

Jorm took up the hint and looked closer at Appius’ image.

“Aaaaaand he’s bleeding again.”

“So it appears, Jorm. The question is what you will do now. Kill me? Help Appius?

Neither or even both? Time is of the essence.“

The Kiffar rolled his eyes and snatched one of his Stormtrooper issue thermal detonators from his belt.

He punched in the code behind Teebu’s back and tapped the explosive to his pocketed comlink.

"Additional parameters: remote detonation, loss of body heat,” he dictated and got a muffled double beep as reply.

Then he reached around Teebu and shoved the soda can sized device under the Ewok’s skirt, base first and pointing forward.

A dull thud marked the magnetic lock engaging with Teebu’s codpiece.

“What the…” Teebu began, while Jorm snickered and stood, stowing his weapon again.

“Class C, that’s a ten metre sphere of atomization. Behave, little bear. Lucky for you, Zappy is worth more to me than you are dead. Still… you don’t want that thing to go off prematurely, do you?”

Then he took a look at the nearest map and got into the turbolift.

<@61385159655559168> <@287090837966290946>

“By the way.” the Ewok said as he held the door. “You may want to head towards the core.”

“And why is that?” Jorm asked, without any real curiosity in his voice.

Tibbles handed him a datapad with what the pirate queen was plotting. The station was rotating in its natural rotation still…and would be in firing angle within a couple hours.

“Saijo. Me and Gehn will remain here and see what we can access or reroute, maybe turn the security system against Yugat and help Appius. But I need to know now, what you plan to do so we can run counter on the other.”

<@414705077484257280>

“I’m a lot better at murder than at tech stuff. I’ll assist the Red Rocketman.”

“Then we’ll try and delay or disable the boosters. Relay back on frequency 179.54 once Appius is secure and we will maintain contact. Until then, godspeed Chancellor.”

He let the door close.

“Add torque! Make this tub spiral! Jorm shouted, then the whoooosh of the lift took him away.

Teebu reached up and removed his helm, revealing his light and medium colored brown fur, before looking at Aticus and Gehn.

“Check the terminal over there, see if there’s a connection to the mainframe. If need be, see if one of our…friends…in the locked briefing room can supply a password under threat of no life support.”

Gehn looked at Teebu curiously. “You thinking there may be something of value? Surely she would have transferred all of that as well.”

“Maybe not. At least, not yet. Might tell us what financed this, or if lucky who. A far shot on that one.” Teebu said as he looked back at Aticus. “So, want to give a hand?”

<@287090837966290946>

Dashing forward, Centam raised his lightsaber just in time to block the killing blow.

“Any difference is better than none.”

Brax and Ankira looked at each other and nodded before both exploding into action, flying straight at Yugat. They shot their lines at him which quickly wrapped around him as they both soared past him and dragging him along. They both hoped that it would give the others enough time to get Appius safe and ready for the rest of the fight

Aticus knew he was not much for technology when it came to hacking so he made his way to the locked briefing room. He didn’t necessarily need to get in just close enough to sense their life presence. He could extract the password through other means.

Her reflexes alone saved her from being split in two as she moved out of the away. Quickly she rolled back onto her feet and pointed her twin Westars and shot a volley at him. It would be one of the few opportunities she would have that he would be without his saber, and she would damn well take it.

Brax copied with his heavy blaster. Together they covered him in a barrage of blaster bolts.

Aticus was able to sense the life presence of nineteen individuals within the briefing room.

Gehn watched the monitors carefully and closely, before taking manual control of the turret that was behind Appius and the group with his mechanical slicing knowledge.

It turned very slowly, enough so that the volume of it performing this action was below that which the lightsaber noises emitted.

He would wait until Appius made his next attack and then fire at the same moment, trying to catch Yugat off guard.

Aylin was fiddling behind them with her DC, swapping out the normal grenade it could launch for a special one. She would hope this would give Appius the edge he needs to get to Yugat. She was whispering softly to herself and those would pay attention could her hear say glitter kiss as she got up and aimed the weapon at Yugat.

He was still under fire by Ankira and Brax who were moving around to keep from getting hit themselves by the shots that Yugat send back towards them.

That was when Aylin shot, the grenade soared towards Yugat and crossed her fingers that it would be a hit.

A moment of quiet and focus in the rushing lift.

Deep breaths brought oxygen and enriched his blood, excitement filled his glands with adrenaline, ready to burst.

Then the doors opened to the olfactory assault of ozone, singed fur, and hot sausage.

Armored figures milled around, Appius was yelling something, and Jorm’s old mate Aylin hung in there - or rather, up there.

And in the center of it all, the somewhat worse for wear Lasat, as tall on one knee as most people were standing.

“Hot damn, Zappy, frozen Yoghurt there too cold for you?!”

Yugat’s head shot around, crimson-yellow glare locked onto Jorm’s citrine eyes.

The Lasat’s face set in a sneer, the fresh burns already smoothing over and fading from sickly purple into a more mellow lavender, and rose up.

“You. I will take your head to Fennyl right after wiping these dregs.”

“Why wait? Cut here,” Jorm drew his thumb over his throat, “if you can!”

Adrenaline released, oxygen burned, and Jorm blurred into motion again on the wings of the Force.

His saber snap-hissed back into life and went for Yugat’s midriff.

The monstrous Lasat abandoned Aylin and turned to intercept with his crimson blade; and Jorm saw his future self be deflected and losing a leg.

He changed his course to go for Yugat’s fingers and found his opponent already adjusting to create room, so Jorm angled his approach to go low where he would have caught a stab to the gut - but he went in regardless.

Yellow violence snapped around, amplified by the kinetic quality of a Cristophsis crystal, and beat the red defiance aside a few inches, enough for Jorm to slip by and force Yugat into a turn.

Highly precogniscant, Jorm observed, but I’m quicker.

Another exchange of feint, counter, riposte and revanche, and Jorm only got faster in his Marauder’s Battle haste, using Ataru’s staggering mobility to control their opportunities and slip behind Yugat’s strikes.

Can’t let him hit me head-on, but at this rate, he can’t keep up!

Gehn waited until the proper moment when Yugat’s back was turned and pressed the button while he was preoccupied on fully defending Jorm. The ceiling turret let out a volley of fire straight at the unsuspecting pirate.

Teebu, meanwhile, used his credentials to access the central network of the station. Continuously he ran into firewall after firewall that had been established by Fennyl, and some routes returned no response at all; indicating she had somehow severed the direct connections. Based on the timer he had set, they only had a little under an hour remaining until the crystal was at full power, and just over two hours until the rotational momentum allowed the station to fire.

He ran scenario after scenario through his head. They could take down the crystal array core, but it would disable power thoughout the station…including turbolifts, force fields, life support…and the chamber’s interior shield keeping the crystal energy contained.

Or, they could head towards the engineering section and manually send the port side thrusters into full action and break the station in two…also risking a detonation of the array core…but it would take nearly a full hour to get there.

And then it hit him. He had it. He knew exactly how to resolve this…

He didn’t have to tell them that twice and pointed their weapons at Yugat and opened fire.

In Jorm’s metaphysical perception, he saw the Force as a raging torrent flowing through Yugat, far in excess of what more commonplace amplification provided, and laughed Without restraint.

“Got rage issues? Let me help!”

The Kiffar’s mental fingers speared forward and into Yugat’s innermost, his innate connection to the Force, and throttled it.

The torrent became a trickle, reducing the Lasat’s abilities to those of a youngling in an instant and forcibly, prematurely aborting the Rage.

“Worked wonders on my ex. You’ve got nothing on her.”

Once he had a solid lock-on to the sentients in the other room Aticus moved to the control panel where he could get a visual. He could see various people in the room performing different actions ranging from leisurely sitting to standing, and one guy even working on the door panel. Aticus allowed his mind to focus on the one working on the door panel. His mind was weak, but he was also intelligent. He began to cause the illusion of a memory form in the mind of this one. Memory approaching the door panel and entering the code. Over and over Aticus pushed this illusion of approaching the door into the being’s mind to the point it would begin to take physical manifest over him.

The mainframe code was simple…yet precise. The placement of his fingers, random as they may have been on the wall, allowed Aticus to see it on the panel in front of him.

Omega Lambda 7 XL 9

That was the password into the encypted file network.

<@287090837966290946>

Aticus turned his focus back to console. Using the password he had just obtained he opened up the secured network into the pirate’s mainframe. Everything was now accessible. He retrieved a datacylinder from his pocket and inserted it into the terminal, browsing through the various station readouts and more importantly the resources network of where the pirates obtained the materials to build this monster.

Aticus was able to see just how extensive the file network was, most of the files linked to procurement under moniker and ‘alias’ coding that did not present much in way of specifically who or where things came from.

Juran16, NeimodianRageNights, EvantsToiletries, everything had strange naming completely unrelated with what was gathered. EvantsToiletries, for example, was sourcing in relation to durasteel plating manufacturing on a world nicknamed “Rehl”.

He did notice a separate folder, however, tucked far in the back roughly sixty folders deep labeled “FatBastard”.

Aticus could recognize what he assumed to be names of shell organizations, likely used to launder money or assets, or cover distribution routes. He saved what data he could on them and the planet Rehl figuring it could come in handy when backtracking down the road. He removed the first datacylinder and replaced it with a fresh one and moved his focus to the file FatBastard. Unsure of what it was he opened it for a closer examination.

A visual appeared on the command deck near Teebu of a luxurious and amazingly beautiful pirate woman, who was speaking to a visual on the holocom in front of her.

The individual, extremely heavy set and morbidly obese and mostly bald was sitting in a massive chair. This also caused Teebu and Gehn to both pause and stop.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Moff Myn Genko?” the woman asked, her arms now crossed.

A sinister look crossed Myn’s face. “You were supposed to test the weapon on a pirate world in Kallea, NOT one of my worlds.” he spat. “I financed this project to help make you Queen of the Pirates and ensure both Saijo and Kallea would fall under your sway.”

She gave a soft shrug. “Apologies if I mistook that waning cesspool of a planet for one of my rivals. Regardless, I love what you’ve created for me.”

His eyes dimmed as he struggled to wiggle his way forward and lean on his knees with his elbows. “Make no mistake, Queen Fennyl, once testing is complete I fully expect you to return this weapon to me. As I warned you, don’t try and kriff me. Don’t you ever kriff me, Fennyl. The prototype ascendant crystal will only sustain several more shots before it permanantly loses its power.”

She turned around and paced the command room for a moment in consideration, scratching her chin. “I have no such plans to…kriff you…as you put it, dear Moff. You’re not my type anyways. And our agreement will be honored, I will see to that. Last thing I want is your entire HK assassin droid army coming down on us. I already saw what it did to Valestria.”

He smirked. “Word travels fast. I assumed you wouldn’t have heard of that until much later. Once Saijo is destroyed, rendezvous on Subterrel. We have much to discuss.”

“Of course. And may I ask…just how many slaves died ensuring this station’s construction? Doing so inside an asteroid…so ingenious…surely it was difficult?” she coyly asked with a smile.

His, however, faded. “The how and why of my pet project’s creation is for me to know and you to keep your fat lip shut. Accomplish your task, then make for Subterrel. Genko out.”

The figure faded, and Fennyl clenched her fists before putting it into one of the consoles. “Yugat, save that recording. If that fat bastard ever tries to kriff me for any reason…I want that as a bargaining chip. I won’t go down alone if Saijo or even the Saber steps into this affair. Last thing I want…is him against me as well.”

The figures faded and the recording ended.

Teebu stood there, scratching his chin for a moment. “Interesting. So, Kimberly wasn’t lying when she said Sloven had nothing to do with this monstrosity. Makes me wonder, given it was one of his lieutenants. No way he couldn’t have known.”

<@287090837966290946>

Ankira gave a small signal to Brax who nodded in return and both landed near Yugat who was now gasping for air on his knees. He glared up at them as they both started down at him.

“Are just going to stand there?”

“No,” Ankira said as she walked closer and grabbed him by what was left of his collar, pulling him more upright. He tried to fight her off, but without the Force and all the wounds he suffered there wasn’t much left of his strength. Brax stood ready next to him, his blaster aimed at his head.

“This is for wat you did to my riduur,” she said as she stabbed him in his gut.

A grunt escaped from Yugat’s lips, “Is that all?”

“And this is for all the others you killed,” Ankira hissed as she pulled the blade further up as guts started to spill onto the floor. To finish it off, she pulled the blade out of his guts and rammed it into his face ending his life. Staring at him for a moment she let his body drop to the floor and walked away from it.

“Let’s get to the others and out of here,” Ankira said as she got to Appius, Brax and Aylin close behind her.

“You first need someone to look at you before you are going anywhere,” Ankira told him as she held him.

“We can go on and finish the mission, but we can’t have you lose now and have no one left to lead us.” Aylin told him as she stepped closer, “You need medical help, your spacemagic isn’t enough to help you now, don’t you see that, Zappy?”

“She is right, we can’t lose you now… I can’t lose you now.”

Jorm raised an eyebrow at the exchange and shrugged.

Well if they don’t want it…

The still beaming lightsaber in his hand hummed through a short arc and separated Yugat’s head from his mangled body.

“What the frakk, Jorm,” Appius inquired.

“Rule number two, Apps: double tap. And if you ain’t doing it, I'mma wrap this up with some flowers and send it either to Fennyl or to Saijo for clout.”

“We have just under 2 hours left until the station’s rotation places it back in firing range, the main energy chamber is back up to seventy-nine percent.” Teebu’s voice came over the comm above. “I feel as if we have three options at this stage…all are not good.”

“What is it?” Appius asked before he coughed up more blood.

“First…take down what has now been revealed as an ascendant crystal core…but if we do, the station’s main energy grid is tied to it, as is the energy containment field. The moment that crystal goes offline, we wont have long to get out of here.”

“And the second?” Jorm asked afterwards.

“Race to the engineering section, which with opposition and everything else, is just under two hours from your location. Fennyl has assumed control of all operations functions and blown some kind of capacitor bolt, so we are unable to regain control in that section. But you would go there…and do what Jorm do best. Smash. Do everything possible to send the engines into overload and tear the station in two. But same thing…limited escape time.”

There was a brief silence before he continued.

“Option three, we retreat to the Leviathan, and unleash everything we have against this place and hope it’s enough.”

Everyone looked amonst each other at this point in contemplation.

“Option Four: use that oversized towing hook the Leviathan has as a nose, latch on and let this pipe tear itself apart.”

“…it could theoretically work. I know the Leviathan is capable of moving an Imperial Star Destroyer Mark-II, but a station of this size and mass…”

“…odds are more likely it’ll blow the projectors. But it might give enough stopping force to finish the remaining sixteen struts given the current motion.”

There was silence for a few moments.

“If we could take down another four struts, it should absolutely be possible by pulling on its port side front.”

“No need to move it, just to induce resonance. Analyse the active RCS thrusters and apply counter force inbetween. Make it shake, baby!”

“Head towards deck 17, sections 41, 53, 68, and 84. Take out the four bearing struts in those areas. After that, head for the nearest escape pod. I’ve forwarded their locations to each of you. Appius, inform your Proconsul of the plan and have the Leviathan do what it can to prepare the front arrays for an extreme level of stress. Keeping them running as long as possible is key. I’ll gather a bit more here and then head out myself along with Gehn and Aticus. Teebu out.”

<@837236610684813342>

The Kiffar shrugged and bound Yugat’s head to his belt by the remains of the Lasat’s ponytail.

“Got nothing better to do, I suppose. Want a painkiller? Not the usual first aid crap; something homebrewed.”

Jorm reached into his pocket and produced a clear plastic vial with a fluorescent liquid, gleaming in rainbow colors.

“Suit yourself,” Jorm said and downed the concoction himself.

His whole world lost hard contours. His mind went light. The rainbow colors from the vial seeped into every surface.

“Uhm, Jorm…” Appius word’s smelt funny.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Jorm replied, Just point the way.“

Whatever hardness the world had lost, Jorm found in the Force and channeled it into his muscles, and without further word he slipped by Ankira and snatched Appius up in a fireman’s carry before falling into long-strided jog.

Ankira wanted to protest, but instead sighed and followed them. “Brax, I want you to keep Dasha safe, she and Aylin are our best slicers and I got the feeling we might need their assistance more then once.”

Brax simply nodded and hustled over towards Dasha and walked besides her.

Aylin glanced over towards Ankira, “He will be fine, he has done stupider things then this.”

“I know, but it is different this time, it shouldn’t have affected him this much from what I understand of the Force…” She looked at Appius who was laying like a sack of potatoes over Jorm’s shoulders, “Something else must be going on.”

Teebu shut down the comm and attached his own code cylinder, using the access that Aticus had acquired to download every trifle of information he was able to that related to the, as it was called, ‘fat bastard’.

Where he had already built one, the odds of him building another were tremendously high. Particularly since he knew the kind of funding that fat bastard had.

“If I may ask, sir…” Gehn started as he approached from his own console. “Do you plan to go with your friends after this? Or will you take up Kimberly’s offer and go with her?”

Teebu stopped for a moment, resting his palms on the console. “I…dont know. With the warm reception from Jorm, I question if I even have a place among them anymore.”

“Regardless, what you did for me sir, even if you join the Imperials despite my…history…” Gehn started, with a clearly pained voice. He had been abused and beaten by them for decades. So it made sense this was a sensitive topic. “…with them, I will go with whatever you decide.”

With a smile, the Ewok looked at Gehn reassuringly. He knew just how hard it was for him to say that. “I plan on hearing Appius out first before I make any decisions. And I dont think the rest of the Saber would be like her. Still, I understand your apprehension and I honestly trust her only as far as I can throw her.

Gehn nodded with a smile of his own. Teebu then looked at Aticus. "Planning on coming with back to Taldryan? I remember you from the Republic archives, former member. If so, we’re headed to my shuttle. Or is there more you wish to accomplish here?”

<@287090837966290946>

Aticus looked down towards Teebu. His face betrayed no emotion but his eyes showed concern. He had seen weapons such as this in the past and seen how easily they could dilute the truth of real power in the galaxy through a fiery show that ends as soon as they began. There was no taste in them, and personally he disliked anything that placed the weak on par with the strong. With his personal objectives having been accomplished for the most part he now had enough leads that the cult could dispatch more junior members to investigate things further. Given the current situation it would be quite likely that Taldryan would be doing the same, so it would seem their paths would be intermingled regardless. Keeping his eyes locked on Teebus he gave a slight bow and extended his arm in a manner to “Lead the way”

Returning his helmet back to his head, its hud immediately firing up he motioned for the two to follow and the trio made their way off of the command deck and towards a turbolift.

He wanted to help the others, but with the turbolifts in that area offline and given the distance, he had to trust them. For now, the focus was getting off the station before the Leviathan begins its ‘tractorsault’.

Aylin nodded and walked over towards the console next to the blast doors. Getting out her slicing tools and plugging them into the system she woke her little droid Siky up.

“Hi Siky, are you going to help us get through the doors?”

The little bug droid let out a series of chirps and went on it’s way to help Aylin open the doors

“Nope!”

Jorm tossed one of his not-quite-standard thermal detonators over the pirates’ heads at the strut and hammered on the blast door panel, forcing the entry shut between their group and the hostiles.

Muffled shouts were interrupted by an agressive hum, and then the wall and door before the Taldryanites began to glow in dull red.

Then everything started groaning under stress as asteroid mass pushed down on the indubitably heavily damaged strut.

“I vote we let them have fun with the slag and shrapnel,” Jorm closed the exchange.

“Effective… but needs more glitter,” Aylin commented with her thumbs up.

“Where to next?”

Following the destruction of the strut, it was at this point that those with strong connections to the force began noticing that something was off. Those with weaker connections found themselves nearly locked in the now with extremely limited capabilities if not even cut off from the force entirely at the moment. The lights around them also began to flicker, and comms became static.

“Supreme Chancellor, we’re detecting increasingly irregularities within the core of the station…what are you doing?” Zruta’s called over the comm, but none in the group were able to hear it over the static. “We have the tractor systems as solid as they will go, but we are seeing minimal progress so far. We’ve bought you maybe another seventeen minutes until firing angle is aligned on Saijo, total remaining just over an hour and a half. Supreme Chancellor?”

Meanwhile, as Teebu, Gehn, and Aticus made their way along one of the central corridors, not far from the turbolifts that would take them straight to the hangar bay where he shuttle was, they stopped. A crimson colored fog was making its way along the corridor, having already moved past the turbolift entrances. Inside of the fog, were several dead pirates with crystals growing from them.

“What…is that…?” Gehn asked before Teebu pulled him back.

“Go back. We have to find another path.” he said with urgency in his voice. It suddenly dawned on him what was happening as he sealed the blast door in front of them. “It was a trap…they expectedly we would go after the struts…and used an unpurified ascendant crystal…”

After checking his comm to warn the others, but getting only static, Teebu then began running full speed back the way they came as he yelled. “We have to get back to my shuttle and alert the fleet, they need to evacuate Saijo or get their shield back online now. Gehn, pull up a structural map and find the fastest alternate route.”

It wasn’t nearly as subtle this time. Every force sensitive present, save those who could no longer feel the force, felt this one.

Somehow the increase in the suppression was tied directly to the destruction of the struts, as the moment it went down it was but seconds before a wave washed over them and drove their connection even lower.

It didn’t take long for the group of warriors inside the elevator to take care of their imperial company. Their trip was short, and before they knew it, the elevator doors were opening, and the Crusaders were on their way to rescue Koda.

“You three go on ahead,” Thea said before looking to the group of soldiers she had been charged with. “Winch and I will follow along for support, but who knows how much longer Koda has.” She looked to Elly. “You’re the fastest. Get to him.” The former Jedi said, knowing full well Koda was no longer there.

Ellisyn replied with a stiff nod, rage flowing through her veins.

Thea watched the three make a mad dash toward Koda’s assumed location, sighing as she turned to Winch. “Captain, I trust you remember how to help give orders?”

“Of course, General,” Winch responded, his voice betraying the smirk beneath his helmet. It was just like the good ol’ days. “C'mon, boys!” Winch shouted to the group of soldiers, “General says it’s time to move, so we move! I need a group of five to follow Ellisyn, Dex, and Darrio. Make sure they aren’t followed and take over if they’ve run into opposition. For the rest of you, this is a search and rescue mission. So we need to be careful and quick.”

“Fall in and try to keep up!” Thea shouted, ready to relive her glory days.

==

Ellisyn, Darrio, and Dex dashed through the halls. The latter two did their best to keep up with Ellisyn but quickly found themselves falling behind, watching as Ellisyn dove over obstacles and people alike. She used her jetpack to add an extra burst of speed to her movements whenever she could. Before long, Dex and Darrio had completely lost her.

But Ellisyn didn’t care. Hell, she didn’t even notice. She only had one thing on her mind. Koda.

The Firrerreo nearly tripped as terror suddenly gripped her heart. What if she didn’t make it in time? She had been without him for so many years. She couldn’t stomach losing him again. Her mother may have written Koda off, but Ellisyn could never abandon her brother, no matter how much he had hurt her.

“Last corner,” She huffed, mind racing yet so clearly focused on her goal.

Earlier

The soothing stripes of black and blue shone through the cabin of a modified Star Courier. Inside sat a pink-skinned Zeltron, her brown knee-high boots propped up upon the control console. Next to her feet sat a white helmet with an angular wheat-colored visor adorned with a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, white just like the rest of her outfit.

A soft snore was rudely interrupted by a shrill alarm that rang throughout the whole ship. The woman nearly fell out of her seat, panic forcing her to acute awareness. She rubbed the sleep from her blueberry eyes, blindly reaching for her console, and accepted the call. “8675309, Danitha.” The woman lazily shared her access code to the being on the other line.

“Turn back,” a masculine voice replied through tinny speakers. “Fennyl has ordered you to stay out of this until she deems the situation resolved.”

“Well, tell my sister I’m tired of waiting. You’ve been sending out every distress signal in the book, and I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on.” Danitha said, not leaving any room to be questioned. “I’m coming out of hyperspace now. Just give me a place to dock.” She said as a scene of warfare and carnage assaulted her eyes. Ships of all shapes and sizes swarmed through empty space, engaged in combat at a scale Dani had never seen before.

“Fine.” The voice on the other end said, “I’m sending an escort over to keep anyone off of you. Pick any place to dock. Just get here safe.”

Danitha sped through the battle toward the superweapon with little fanfare. Her ship was uninteresting enough that she was a less favorable target than everyone else. Before she knew it, her ship was docking with what looked to be a mostly ignored airlock. She grabbed her helmet off her control console and slid it on along with her wide-brimmed hat. “Terry! Get up and get ready. We might be in for a fight.”

An HK Assassin droid powered up and joined Dani in the cockpit, his trademark silence permeating the room. “Grab your blaster and follow me.” The Zeltron said before making her way off the ship.

–

“You didn’t have to kill them!” Dani shouted at her silent companion, three imperial guards dead at their feet. “We could’ve just…” She grumbled and sighed, “Nothing we can do now. Let’s just see what was so important.”

The pair stepped over the lifeless bodies and entered the bleak interrogation room. The metallic smell of blood assaulted Danitha’s nose, forcing her to gag as she made her way forward. The scene she was greeted by was, in a word, gruesome. Koda Kendis was on his side, lying in a pool of his own blood. He was bound from behind, his elbows tied together. The cybernetics on his left forearm was torn to shreds, blood slowly trickling through the fractured metal. Bruises and cuts littered his whole being, but nothing could top the damage done to his face. His left eye had swelled shut, bruised so severely that he could barely feel it. With how much blood he had lost, it was a miracle he was even conscious.

“Oh my…” The woman clad in white mumbled to herself, hesitant to enter any further. She wasn’t sure if her stomach could handle it. Her mind raced, trying to work out who this man was and what he was doing here. Who could possibly be important enough to keep watch over while the weapon was being assaulted? “Terry, pick him up. Let’s get him back to the ship and get out of here.”

The HK droid followed her commands to the letter. It retrieved Koda’s nearly lifeless body and carried it back to Dani’s Star Courier. As soon as the trio was settled, Dani undocked and took off, blasting toward safety.

The Present

The scene Elliysn was met with was confusing, to say the least. Turning the last corner, she saw a group of pirates inspecting the bodies of a couple imperial soldiers. As far as Elly knew, nobody else, Tal or otherwise, had made it to this floor. So who could’ve killed those two men?

Ellisyn wasn’t given much time to think. She hadn’t been quiet with her steps and alerted one of the pirates. A lithe epicanthix looked over. “Must be ‘er!” He shouted, his accent heavy and overbearing. His compatriots all looked over, almost in unison.

Elly looked to her left and then to her right. She had long since lost Dex and Darrio. She should’ve been worried. Any sane person would be. She was outnumbered ten to one. But all she could do was smile. She had the perfect excuse to finally let loose, to let the animal out of its cage.

Dex took the lead, entering the room and sweeping it from left to right. But alas, it was empty, except for a blood stained cell and a durasteel chest in the corner.

“What the hell happened in here…where’s Koda?!”

Dex was quick to notice that the durasteel chest had been opened, blood on the panel and hatch lid.

At roughly that moment, the lights began to flicker as the instument panels within the room turned off. A large mechanical whining noise followed, as if a power generator suddenly failed. A slight hissing noise could be heard, a wisp of crimson colored smoke coming from some of the vents in the cell.

It was time to get out of there.

“Well, get, Jorm spat through clenched teeth.

The suppression effect really got to him, and although he was still far from harmless, the corrupting fog wasn’t the kind he could blitz down with agility and firepower.

MOST kinds of firepower, that is.

Slowly, meticulously, struggling through the effort of maintaining his telecinetic seawall against the fog, Jorm retrieved the last thermal detonator from his belt.

He carefully keyed in the arming code, dialed the yield way up, and threw the lethal device into the fog while his comrades boarded the shuttle.

When the purple mist started glowing from the inside, he turned tail and ran after them.

The detonator erased a sphere of thirty meters from existence, fog, bulkheads, everything.

It bought Jorm time to board and shut the hatch.

"Are we going yet,” he yelled out, “or do I have time to step back out and take a leak?”

“We’re going, we’re going,” the Jedi, Centam, replied from the Cockpit and kicked the engines, barely scraping the shuttle over the hangar floor in their shared haste to vacate the premises.

Jorm shook his throbbing head and went for the on-board kitchen.

He found a freezer, emptied it, and put Yugat’s head in.

Then he gathered up some drinks from the discarded contents and returned to the others.

Yeah, it wasn’t the drugs. Appius really looks that green.

“Anyone else wants one,” he asked and cracked a cold beer.

As the shittle cleared the bay, the black lambda of Teebu’s was also in sight as well. Both shuttles barreled away from the station, which had crimson smoke coming from every possible crevice and opening that existed, including where the hangar bay force fields once were.

It was quickly apparent that the station had lost power, but the external thrusters were still going and the station still slowly turning, pulling the Leviathan along with it. Small explosions started occuring along the lines where the struts were, the Leviathan clearly having an effect on it.

He could only hope with the station itself powerless, and the ascendant fog emitting from it meant that the core was inoperable.

Teebu glanced out of the front viewport of the shuttle as it turned to face the station, a solid view of it. He still could not believe that something like this managed to be constructed…much less in a high traffic pirate region.

With the data he had captured, along with what Aticus had found, maybe things could be figured out and pieced together. What was most concerning to him was..

His thoughts paused as a holoimage of Kimberly the 19th Saber Imperial Remnant’s Fleet Admiral appeared. Teebu nodded with closed eyes. “Master.”

She crossed her arms and watched him intently. “What did you find out?”

“It was as feared. Moff Genko is behind its orchestration and creation.” he said, locking his eyes with hers. He saw her lip twitch slightly, with a ever so slightly furrowing eyebrow. “Was the 19th Saber truly unaware of this?”

“It was, to my knowledge. We will have to confer with his Excellency regarding this troubling news.” Kimberly said after a moment of pause. She seemed, at least to Teebu’s eyes, show a legitimate visage of anger and resentment.

It could be she is telling the truth…if she wasn’t, her saving his life and rescuing him when Taldryan did not made no sense whatsoever. It could honestly have succeeded if it had the full backing of the remnant.

After another moment she continued. “How long until you return to the Armitage?” It was that exact question he both knew would be coming, and one he had ample time to consider. He could feel Gehn behind him, listening, as well.

“For now, I will be returning to the Leviathan. I wish to speak to the Taldryan Consul regarding a few things. I will be in contact after that regarding my next decision.”

Now this expression he could believe. She showed an expression of surprise, her pose shifting to a more casual stance with arms still crossed. “You are returning to Taldryan after all that has happened?”

“Not returning, just wish to speak to him.” Teebu cut in before she could continue as there was any moment for manipulation it would have been that small window. He learned that about her over these last seven months.

She closed her eyes and lowered her arms before smiling. “Very well. The Armitage will rendezvous with the fleet in the Verada sector before heading back to Koradin. You have our frequency, reach out once you have completed what you need and we will discuss things further. Good luck out there, my apprentice. May the force be with you.”

“Thank you, master. And may the force be with you as well.” he finished as the holo closed. Leaning back in his seat, he closed his eyes in deep consideration. These next days would be critical, sure…but more so, these next hours. “Take us to the Leviathan, excess of traditional flight speed limits authorized.”

The pilot nodded in affirmation as the shuttle turned and lurched forward and took off straight for the Taldryan Flagship.