Introduction

Blockade is a small-group Run-On competition. This competition will take place on the Brotherhood’s Discourse platform. Members are encouraged to write multiple posts throughout the event and to engage with the wider story as they see fit. Members are given an opportunity to team up with other members from their pledged sub-faction from across the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. The choices and decisions made by members of the team will help to shape the fictional development of the Brotherhood. The higher placing a run-on is in the competition, the more will be drawn from it for the final official telling of the story. More information is available below and on the wiki.

Background

The fallout of the Tenixir Incident and the Collective’s false-flag assault on the Lyra system has plunged the Severian Principate into crisis. Thirsty for revenge and plunder, Tenixir Revenant cells have stepped up piracy throughout Principate space. Beset by these marauders and still hunting the remnants of its own mutineers, the Principate’s once-feared navy seems powerless to reassert order.

Drawn to the Hutt planet Dandoran by an illicit auction of mysterious items, Severian and Revenant forces have come face-to-face, caught off-guard by their rivals’ presence. Although both factions’ presence in orbit was strictly limited to a handful of smaller vessels by the Hutts, the conflict on the surface compelled both sides to immediately call for reinforcements and to scramble to regroup.

Within minutes, the Geta, an interdictor cruiser from the Principate’s 1st Fleet, arrived in orbit from a nearby staging point. Further elements of the 1st Fleet are enroute. For now, the Geta has trapped the upstart Revenant forces at Dandoran and given the Principate a powerful platform from which to command orbital superiority. The Revenants cannot allow this to go unanswered.

Prompt

During Phase 1, your team will write the following faction-specific prompt. Following the end of Phase 1 (6/13), a second prompt will be added to this competition. At that time, you should begin to shift your focus from the Phase 1 prompt to the Phase 2 prompt, so plan accordingly.

We have chosen…

Phase 1: Tenixir Revenants: Teams pledged to the Expansionists and Retributionists have been tasked with boarding and disabling or destroying the Geta. The ship is defended by one TIE/LN and one TIE/SA Bomber squadron. The Principate’s VSD Vel, previously anchored in orbit, is approaching to protect the Geta but will take some time to arrive. It’s up to your team how you reach and board the Geta. Likewise, how you accomplish the ultimate goal of disabling or destroying the ship is your choice, but should be influenced by the alignment of your pledged sub-faction.

Run-on rules:

• To participate, form a team of three (3) to five (5) members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood from any unit, including members of the Clans and rogues. All teams must be composed of members who have pledged to the same sub-faction.

• Members can only be part of one (1) team.

• Each team must create one (1) thread on Discourse under the Run-On category, and all posts must be published to the thread to count.

• Thread names should include [RoS: Escalation] and a team name to properly tag it as part of the competition.

• For participation credit, members must make two qualifying posts. For posts to qualify, they should be at minimum 250 words and be no longer than 1000 words. Posts shorter than 250, or longer than 1000 words, will not be counted towards participation requirements but do not otherwise disqualify a run-on or a participant, or prevent a run-on from placing. They may be edited as per the Edit Rules below, but not after.

• Only qualifying posts will be considered in grading, others will be ignored. Subsequent writers may choose to ignore disqualified posts, but they will not be penalized if they pay attention to them. However, if a disqualified post includes resolution to a plot/subplot, it will NOT be considered in Story grading.

• A member’s snapshot must be added to the first “starting” post in the Run-On once they post, but we will not pay any attention to loadouts in grading, and realism will focus on general Star Wars/Brotherhood versus the specifics of Force powers and skills. Snapshots may also be added on the first post a member makes to a run-on and may be removed from that post and placed in the original post through edits by the thread creator or the Dark Council at any point thereafter.

• Members may write their alternative characters and NPCs into the run-on in addition to their main characters. Snapshots must be provided, and the use of alts/NPCs must comply with all other rules of this competition. Alts and NPCs do not have to be pledged to the same sub-faction as your main character, but you and your team must focus on the perspective of your pledged sub-faction.

• Authors may reserve a post position with a post stating “Reserved”. There may only be one post position reserved, and teams may request the reservation request be deleted if it has been up for more than 6 hours.

• Posts may be edited by their author before additional posts with content are made (that is, a post may ONLY be edited while the post immediately following it is Reserved). If a post is edited after content has been added, it will be disqualified.

• An author may NOT make consecutive posts. At least one other person must post (including reserved posts) before an author can make another post.

• Any post may be deleted within 10 minutes of it being posted, regardless of what other posts have been made after it.

• Each Run-On must focus on the perspective of the team’s pledged sub-faction.

• Teams may freely interact with, and do as they please, to any members of the Principate or Tenixir Revenants. Note that anything done to these characters is not canon for the character or Brotherhood.

• Grading will be handled using the Run-On Grading Rubric.

Snapshots

• Aleister Mavros
• Sinya Ani
• Taranae Rhode
• Zuser Whuloc
• Corvin Rootai

Raider-II class Corvette Instigator
Near Dandoran, Doran system
Hutt Space
39 ABY

Aleister glanced across the holotable on the bridge of Opress Squadron’s home. Two of his companions were long-standing members of the squadron; Whuloc sat in the pilot’s seat only a handful of feet away, and the newly returned Taranae stood immediately to his left. He had to chuckle, the Warlord had only been back with the Savages for less than a day, and already she’d slid right back into the place at his side. Much to the annoyance of the others, the “relationship” between the Dreadbringer and the former Quaestor of Tyrannus had become less subtle over time.

But two of the Savages were relatively new. On one hand, there was Aleister’s first apprentice Sinya Ani, a short blue Twi’lek who seemed eager to prove herself in a real combat scenario. And on the other hand, there was Corvin Rootai, an Umbaran Sith who came to the team with very little history. And he couldn’t have joined them at a better time.

The four who stood, did so around a holographic display of the battle raging in the atmosphere. Centered on the Geta, its four spherical gravity well projectors highlighted. They could clearly see the two protective squadrons circling the ship, TIE/LNs and TIE/SAs, while Revenant and Brotherhood forces swarmed around them.

“Alright Savages,” Aleister said with a rap on the table. “We have our mission. Get onboard that Immobilizer 418-class Heavy Cruiser. And we need a plan.”

“We could always get in there,” said the redheaded Sith, as she pointed at one of the hangar bays. “But we’d have to find a way through those morons,” she added, gesturing frantically at the squadrons of fighters engaged in battle around the ship.

Cocking her head to one side and appearing to listen to something she said, “No, that’d never work again. What? No it wouldn… waaaaait a moment, you mean like that last time? Hmm it’s an option I suppose. No! We wouldn’t get killed this time either. We did it once, didn’t we? No we weren’t lucky! Aleister they’re shouting at me again!”

Aleister sighed. It had become commonplace now that he would intervene when the voices in the Warlord’s head became too pushy for her to make any sense. He glared at her; a penetrating gaze that could be felt in the soul. Taranae looked and gulped, immediately calming down.

“What did they say this time?” he asked.

“They said we could be stupid and crash our shuttle through the hull again,” she sniffed, downcast.

“But I told them it wouldn’t work this time and they said we’d die this time and we’re stupid and… and…”

“Ok enough. Tell them that we’ll do it our way. Even if we did take their advice, ok?”

“You hear that, dummies?” she remarked to herself with an evil grin on her face. “Shut your traps, ok?”

She nodded to Aleister, obviously happy and turned to the others. “Any o’you lame brains got any other ideas? You! The Umberella! You’re supposed to be good at this stuff. What’s your take on it all?” she conjectured, pointing at the Umbaran, Corvin.

For a few moments, he just stared at the hyper woman in from of him. Later, he was pretty thankful he wasn’t staring open-mouthed. Did she just address him as Umbrella instead of Umbaran? That was karking racist, but he let it go for now! There were bigger issues to address. And besides, Oppress Squadron wasn’t exactly known for its niceties now, was it?

Corvin straightened, strode forward a bit, saying, “There are a few things we can do in this situation. We engage their fighters first. Then we slowly lure their fighters from their ship, lure them close to the Instigator where she can do what she does best. With the fighters crippled, we can focus on the Geta.”

Taranae started, raising her voice with each word,“That’s your plan?! Everyone can see that, even us! They’ll pummel us…”

“I wasn’t finished,” said Corvin icily. “I will be on this attack on their fighters. Give me half a squadron and I will make them seem like two squadrons. Thus, I lure them in near the Instigator. But that is not the main attack.”

“It’s not?” asked Aleister.

“No. The rest of you are the main attack. While I keep them engaged at the front, you attack the Geta from its flank. If you’re fast enough, you can disable it before entering it. Once inside, you’ll have 20 minutes to do your stuff. Reinforcements won’t be far behind. And if those arrive, my illusions can’t save you there.”

Sinya’ni was used to being the shortest person in the room. In fact, she was often mistaken for a child. As the soft light from the holodisplay illuminated the faces of her cohorts, she wondered what they thought. Did they see her as an equal? Probably not. Oh well. Let them underestimate me. Then they can grovel all the more when I take over, the Rutian smiled at the thought.

The diminutive Twi’lek stood in silence as Aleister spoke, then Taranae. Has she always been this crazy? Sinya mused as the red haired warlord argued with herself. Corvin seemed a little more put together. His plan seemed solid, or at least not suicidal.

“And if those arrive, my illusions can’t save you there,” Corvin continued. “The main goal will be to disable the Geta’s engines and knock out the interdictor’s gravity well projectors. A few well placed explosives should do the trick.” He zoomed the holo display in on the Geta until the interior corridors were visible and then highlighted the bomb placements. “Once the explosives are in place, return to the extraction point and activate the remote detonator. That should take the projectors offline as well as create a distraction to help you escape.”

“How long would this buy us before they can make repairs?” Aleister queried while scrutinizing the holo.

“If we’re lucky? A month. More likely about a week if they have crews ready. If they have spare parts onboard and enough maintenance crew, more like four galactic standard rotations,” Corvin answered.

“FOUR DAYS?! That is a lot of risk for four karking days!” the crazy redhead interjected. “Why don’t we…” she leaned forward and shrugged dramatically, “…Blow up the whole ship?”

Corvin pressed his fingers into his temples and closed his eyes in exasperation for a moment. “If we were capable of blowing up the ship, don’t you think That would have been my plan? We don’t have the resources to just–“ he used his fingers in the air as mock quotation marks, “Blow it up.”

“What if we don’t need to?” The Rutian hadn’t spoken until that moment and it caught Corvin and Taranae off guard. They had begun to think she was a mute or Aleister’s useless plaything. “What if instead of disabling the gravity well projectors, we reverse two of them?” Sinya offered, ignoring the startled looks on the senior member’s faces.

Aleister smiled, he had been waiting for his former apprentice to start joining in the discussions. Had she still been under his direct tutelage, he would have forced her to contribute sooner, just to watch her squirm. As it was, he let her settle into the team at her own speed.

Corvin thought for a moment….”Yes, that could work. When activated, it would tear the ship apart from the inside out….Ok, so similar plan. I will lead a half squadron to lure the fighters and bombers away from the Geta. Aleister and the rest of you will attack it from behind and board before the squadrons can return. Make your way through the ship to these two gravity well projectors. Reverse the polarity and and return to your ship. When the interdictor activates the projectors, it’s game over for the Geta.” The tactician used his hands to pantomime an explosion. “Any questions?”

Raider-II class Corvette Instigator
Near Dandoran, Doran system
Hutt Space
39 ABY

Zuser tilted his head to the side, listening to plans being made as he kept the Instigator on course. It sounded like a pretty solid plan, he was already checking supplies and made adjustments on a panel as he leaned his head out of the seat to look in the direction of Aleister and the others.

“It sounds like we’ve got a plan then! Aleister, I’ll need to get a couple squadrons. I can direct the distraction attack from here while you guys go mess with their very expensive gravity well generators. Also I highly doubt that they have the spare parts, those suckers are expensive.”

Zuser turned his head back to the console as his words sunk in to the team.

“No Zuser, I want you with us. Skull can lead the distraction just fine on his own and direct our forces effectively.”

Aleister spoke his command as he scrutinized the zoomed in holographic hallways of the Geta .

“Alrighty then, you’re the boss. I’ll go get the Serpent ready.”

The maverick lifted his left arm to his mouth and barked into his wrist comlink.

“Skull! Get up here!”

=+=

Serpent’s Scythe
Enroute to the Geta
Dandoran Space
38 ABY
One standard hour later

The Serpent’s Scythe cut through the blackness of space, ducking around star fighters as it hurtled forward. Zuser hunched forward in the pilots seat, his eyes a well of concentration as the Geta loomed and grew ever closer in the viewport.

“We should be there any minute now, make sure you’re all set for a hot landing and a nice warm welcome.”

“Ooh! Will they have welcome snacks for us? I’m hungry.”

Taranae asked, bobbing her head to unheard music, Sinya’Ani giving her a weird look at the question while Corvin studied the holomap and Aleister sat in silence.

“Unless you feel like having some blaster fire for lunch, I highly doubt it.”

Zuser shook his head as he shot back at the redhead, returning his full focus to getting them safely to the Geta . As the human flew, he couldn’t help but feel something was off. He checked all the screens, and double checked everything but he found nothing wrong. He adjusted his right shoulder roughly against the chair, as if he was trying to get at a very persistent itch in a difficult spot.

The Geta ’s hanger was very close now and Zuser turned his head towards the team behind him.

“Hey, uh, you guys feel that?”

Aleister opened his eyes, frowning at the odd question which elicited confused looks from the other 3 Savages in the ship.

“Feel what?”

“It almost feels like… desperation?”

The itch suddenly turned into an invisible tug as the maverick suddenly whirled around in the seat, eyes wide in recognition.

“Brace for impact!”

The Serpent’s Scythe shook violently and spun out of control as a TIE smashed into the portside of the Jump Master, sending it into an uncontrolled tumble towards the Geta ’s hanger, fire and smoke trailing behind it. The Serpent’s Scythe careened into the top of the hanger and smashed against the floor with a cacophonous chorus of screeching metal, sparks and debris flying off it as it smashed into TIEs and equipment, finally coming to a stop as it embedded itself into the wall.

The interior of the Jump Master was a disaster area, weapons and gear were thrown everywhere and all interfaces were dead and cracked.

Suddenly Taranae shot up from her seat, safety harness hanging off her body, and shot her fists in the air.
“Whoo!!! That was fun! Let’s do that again! Can we do that again?!”

A chorus of groans was her reply.

“Ok, besides Taranae, who’s not dead? Sound off.”

Aleister barked as he pushed a crate away from himself, dusting his shoulders off.

Sinya’Ani waved from a tangle of straps that once held crates, still dazed. Corvin wasn’t much better, throwing off a weighted tarp off of him. However there was silence from the pilot’s seat, prompting mild concern from the leader of the Savages.

“Zuser, wake up. We’ve got work to… Do…”

He trailed off as he noticed a trail of blood leading away from the cockpit.
Aleister rushed to the pilot’s seat and found the source of the blood.
A groaning Zuser’s entire right side was pressed into a mass of metal and unrecognizable machinery. Blood seeped from the mess of metal, and his right arm was buried in it.

“Oh… Kark…”

The pilot of the Savages stirred at Aleister’s statement and tried to get his bearings.

“A-…Aleister? I-… I can’t feel my arm…”

Immobilizer 418-class Heavy Cruiser Geta
Hanger
Dandoran Orbit, Doran system
Hutt Space
39 ABY

He gripped Zuser’s face roughly and brought the pilot’s gaze to meet his own. His voice was cold and sharp as he spoke.

“Hey, no checking out Whuloc. If you’re going to die here, you’re going to die on your feet with weapon in hand. Now grit those teeth.”

Aleister stood up and a deep red bar of light sprang to life in his hand as Zuser clenched his jaw and looked away. A sudden, deep, searing pain shot through Zuser’s shoulder as an arc of red light severed his arm from his body.

“Fraaaaaack!!” The Mystic swore loudly and violently rolled onto his left side, clutching the steaming stump of his right shoulder. “That karfing hurts!”

Aleister stepped back and deactivated his weapon. He turned to the now open door of the Serpent to see the remaining members of Opress fanned out.

“Good, we’re on a timetable now. Zuser, take a stim and get out here. We need to move.”

The Dreadbringer dropped out of the ship as alarm klaxons began ringing out throughout the hanger. A dozen troopers in plastoid armor charged into the hanger and opened fire. Four blades of red plasma sprang up to reflect the more dangerous blasts. Seconds later, Taranae leapt into the fray. Throwing caution to the wind, she singled out a pair of soldiers and began taking each of them apart limb by limb.

Meanwhile Sinya rushed around the soldiers and slid between two of them. She popped up and immediately kicked one trooper in the groin, dropping him to his knees. Without missing a beat she leveled her DL-44 to the other soldier’s face and burned a hole through his head. Turning to the soldier on the ground she put the muzzle of her blaser to his temple and flushed his brain out the back of his skull.

“Sorry, not sorry.” She said with a smirk and leapt out of the way of a volley of blaster fire.

Aleister took a moment to watch his ladies work before calmly walking up to a trooper who was standing off to the side.

“Hello there.” The Sith said with a venomous smile. His words seemed to spook the soldier out of the stupor of battle.

“Huh?”

“Hehe, I’m guessing this is your first real action. Am I in the system?” Aleister asked the boy. Who simply nodded in response.

“I knew it. Now you can see what my allies can do. Now I have to tell you, I’m just as powerful, and there’s a fourth member of our squad in the ship. And I mean no offense, but you are horribly outmatched. Now normally, I would just cut you all down, but I’m feeling generous. So here’s what you can do. You can run out through those blast doors and I won’t cut you down. Deal?”

The young man nervously nodded and started walking away, then running, then he found himself being lifted off the ground, his legs flailing in the air. He looked over his shoulder at the Sith with an outstretched hand. His eyes asking the questions he couldn’t voice.

“Oh you assumed that I would let you live? That would be your second mistake. Your first was opposing the rule of the Sith.” The Dreadbringer said with a very calm deliberate tone and flung the boy out the hanger bay shields with a flick of his wrist.

“Whuloc! Get out here, you’ve had a chance to catch your breath.”

The redhead stood motionless for a few seconds, staring at what she had wrought. Limbs and body parts lay around her, once belonging to two soldiers. A smile slowly spread across her face and a giggle escaped her lips.

“Whoops! Sorry, I didn’t see ya standing there! I was just practicin’ swinging my glowstick around and I musta caughtcha! Anyways, I gotta split. I’d get a bandage on that, it may smart some tomorrow.”

She turned on her heel and skipped away towards Aleister who was standing with his hand outstretched towards the bay shields and she stood by him, staring along his arm.

“Who ya wavin’ at Aleister?” she asked curiously. She swung her saber backwards lazily, searing a mark directly across an approaching soldier and dropping him to the floor.

“Whoops! I seem ta be doin’ a lot of that recently!” she chirped. “Sorry! Or am I?”

She kicked out angrily at the body as it fell, sending it skating across the shiny hangar floor into Zuser as he stepped off the landing ramp.

“Damn you crazy woman!” he exclaimed as his one arm spiralled as he tried to stay upright. He failed and fell forwards heavily over the body, jarring his other arm as he landed.

“I swear, one of these days I’m gonna kriiffin’ kill you!”

Taranae put her hand across her mouth and giggled loudly enough for Zuser to hear then whipped her head around, scanning the hangar for the rest of Opress Squadron who were all engaged in their own little wars.

“Who to help, who to irritate….” she wondered out loud.

Sinya’ni took out the troopers that got in her way. “Nothing personal, you’re just cogs in the evil wheel of oppression,” she explained to the third trooper that collapsed, desperately pawing at a two inch hole in their chest cavity.

The diminutive Rutian stepped out into the corridor, making her way towards the Gravity well projectors. Glancing back, she noticed the other members of her battle team were distracted, reveling in the fight, the gore and the suffering. She should have expected it, to be honest. Her former master and current battle team leader loved causing agony in others, friend and foe alike. But Sinya took no pleasure in the suffering of others–unless they were on her list. This mental file was short; however, a new entry had recently found his name on the Twi’lek’s personal shit list.

Aleister had just finished toying with another doomed trooper. Smiling as the white hot energy of his lightsaber blade slowly cut through the front of the poor soul’s neck from the front. The trooper tried to scream as he felt every agonizing second through his perfectly intact spine; however, only a bloody gurgle escaped the severed windpipe.

Taranae surveyed the bloodbath with maniacal satisfaction as the last of the resistance was eliminated. The wreckage of their boarding craft was fully engulfed with the green and purple flames of burning chemicals and ionization fluid. “Aleister, Zuzer, Corvin…” she counted. Just as the red headed Sith noticed the new girl was missing, a klaxon began to sound.

Fire suppression system active. Immediate evacuation recommended the mechanical voice of the ship’s AI broke in over the chaos. decompression in 10...9...8...7…

“Time to move, Savages!” Aleister shouted as he led them out of the docking bay. The corridor they rushed into was empty– save for the bodies. Four soldiers lay scattered down the hall. Their corpses were mostly intact save for the broken necks and precise lightsaber burns to their vital organs.

“I see the new girl has continued the mission without us,” Corvin remarked as the blast doors slammed shut behind them. The flames and anything not bolted down were sucked out of the docking bay and into the upper atmosphere of the Hutt’s planet.

Zuzer looked skeptical. “Are you sure she didn’t just abandon us?” he asked while clutching the stump of his missing arm. “I wouldn’t blame her at this point. This op is all jacked up now.”

“I don’t know whether she is going to abandon us or not,” Aleister mused aloud. “But one thing is certain, she is attempting to complete the mission. Just follow the trail of bodies. I guarantee it will lead us to the gravity well projectors. Then we have to figure out how to get off this future scrap heap.”

“Might I suggest we split our efforts?” Corvin offered. “Aleister and I can follow after Sinya to disable the Geta. Zuzer and Taranae can find us a ride.”

“Sounds good. Let’s get to it.” Aleister started down the corridor followed by the team’s tactician.

Taranae looked at the one armed pilot. “So, it’s just you and me, gimpy. Let’s go find a ship.” She clapped her hand down on the pilot’s damaged shoulder and laughed. She cackled even louder when he grimaced.

“Let’s just get this over with. Maybe there will be a shuttle in the port side docking bay. If not…well, there are always the escape pods.”

It was pandemonium within the ship. The fact that there were intruders inside was now known to all within the Geta. The crazed intruders of Oppress surged forward through the ship, leaving dead bodies in their wake. Sure, they didn’t have the numbers, but since when did that stop them? One required a certain level of madness to do deeds few others could, and Oppress squadron had madness in spades.

Aleister and Corvin hurried in the direction that Sin’ya took. At one place, which was a long corridor, they espied a large group of soldiers guarding the area. It was foolhardy to take them all at once in melee combat, foolhardy even for the Savages. It didn’t stop them though. With the Force as his ally, Corvin started to cloud the minds of almost half the soldiers with Illusion. With the sense of sight taken away from them, or so they thought, they fell back confused. As for the rest, Aleister made short work of them before the ones confuddled could throw away Corvin’s spell of illusion. But that time, Corvin was on them as well. The two Sith tore into the body of men, dealing death where their lightsabers fell, or when their angry, red blades twisted to reflect blaster bolts. By the time they had finished, the whole corridor was full of dead bodies, limbs cut off, and with the welcome smell of blood spilt.

Many corridors and ship levels still lay before them, but they sped away still. Time was not on their side, and their fury swept clean their path of all defenders.

At last, they found Sin’ya, tinkering with the ships gravity well projectors!

“Well, how goes it?” asked the Dreadbringer.

Quipped Sin’ya. “Almost done! I suggest we leg it to whatever ship they have found. And fast. There’s going to be some pretty fireworks here soon!”

Immobilizer 418-class Heavy Cruiser Geta
Hanger 2
Dandoran Orbit, Doran system
Hutt Space
39 ABY

Blaster fire erupted into the hanger, followed by the scream of infantry dying. A grunt dashed out of the corridor only to be shot in the back of the head and faceplant into the chrome durasteel floor. Shortly after, a redheaded Sith came skipping out into the hanger, crimson lightsaber in hand, did a twirl, and then skipped away to find a ship. A Mystic emerged, following behind her and trudging into the hanger, blaster gripped in his left hand.

Zuser Whuloc stalked forward awkwardly, due to his current bodily imbalance. His lightsaber, usually hanging off the right side of his hip, was gone, lost in the crash and spaced with the remains of the Serpent’s Scythe. The human holstered his RSKF-44 so he could feel the burned fabric and blistered skin at the spot where his right arm used to be, now a scarred stump right at the shoulder. It didn’t feel real. He kept trying to do things with his right arm only for it to not respond, which prompted the Maverick to look down and remember that his arm was gone.

A tug in the back of his mind went ignored as a spanner flew across the room and knocked over a rack of tools, causing Zuser to quickdraw his blaster, only to pause as he heard Taranae’s call.

“Hey Gimpy! Are you done reminiscing? We’ve got a ship to find!”

The unhinged Warlord waved her arm at him before skipping off again, humming to herself as she went.

Zuser exhaled through his nose, hard. Holstering his blaster roughly, he stomped off to search the hanger for a usable ship. “TIE. TIE. Reaper. TIE,” he sighed in frustration. He started to approach the Reaper when Taranae called him again.

“Hey One Arm! Check out this weird ship!”

The Maverick pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed to himself as he turned on his heel, almost falling over from his lack of symmetry, growled to himself, and marched towards where her voice had came from.

“Which ship, Taranae?”

“This one! It’s all weird looking, and it’s missing a wing!”

Zuser looked where she was pointing and gazed upon a Light Freighter that indeed, had only one wing, painted all silver.

“That, Taranae, is a Starlight-Class Light Freighter. And depending on its hardware, might be just what we need.”

With that, the amputee walked up the ramp into the ship, leaving Taranae standing at the base of the ramp with her head tilted in confusion before following after him.

“Ooookay," she drawled, "but why does it only have one wing?”

“Because it was designed to look like that by the manufacturers.”

“Really? That just seems so random. Why not just make it with two wings? Oh hey! I know! You should take this ship and make it your own!”

“And why," he growled again, "should I do that?”

The redhead giggled to herself as if her reasoning was hilarious.

“Because it’s missing a wing just like you are!”

Immobilizer 418-class Heavy Cruiser Geta
Hanger 2
Dandoran Orbit, Doran system
Hutt Space
39 ABY

To say Zuser was unamused by the Sith’s crude joke, would be an understatement. And in any other circumstance, he would’ve laid into her with many colorful words. But with the ship already falling apart around them he didn’t have the time. So he simply focused on getting the Starlight ready for take-off.

“Oooooh they’re here! I hope you’re done Stumpster!” Taranae giggled from one side of the cockpit. Glancing past her Zuser watched as the entrance to the hanger was engulfed in flames and bodies were sent scattering as the three remaining members of the team made their entrance. First came Sinya’ni, moving like a predator, four feet of fury silhouetted by the flames. Following her closely was the slim V-shaped build of Corvin Rootai, his measured gait bearing an almost regal quality. And then came the Dreadbringer. Even in the chaos of a ship being destroyed from the inside and out, he walked with a confidence and swagger that would’ve been more at home perusing some shops, or strolling through a lavish bathhouse.

An entire squad of troopers rushed the trio and leveled their blasters. But a quick flick of an Umbaran wrist, and a skillful application of the Force, caused them to stumble and blink their eyes rapidly. This small falter was all the opening needed for Master and Apprentice to uncork a paired blast of power and send the squad scattering to the floor. Right beneath a large storage crate elevated by crane.

Aleister reached out and seized hold of the crate with his power, and exerting his will on the world around them, yanked the crate from the hook of the crane. Half a ton of durasteel was pulled down by the ship’s artificial gravity with a horrendous sound, so great that any screams were drowned out. The three mounted the boarding ramp of the Starlight as a large pool of crimson blood began seeping out from under the ruined crate.

“That seemed excessive, Master.” The Twi’lek commented as they entered the airlock and the boarding ramp sealed underneath them.

“That was… effective.” Corvin observed from behind the mask of his armor, as he moved to join Zuser at the controls. Taranae, skipping past him to glom onto their leader.

“That. Was. Awesome!” The greeneyed warlock squealed as she threw her arms around Aleister.

“And that was our cue to leave.” Zuser threw over his shoulder as the ship lifted off the ground and exited the hanger. “Did you three get everything set up?”

A strangely gleeful smile crept across Sinya’ni’s face, reminding Zuser and Taranae of their late founder.

“Oh I did one better.” She said as she produced a small activation device. “So who wants the honors?”

“You’ve earned it, Apprentice. Just wait till we’re far enough out.” Aleister said with his trademark, matter-of-fact tone.

Soon the ship came to a stop and turned 180 degrees to face the Geta. The Savages of Opress watched as the doomed ship was ripped asunder and scattered across the stars by the force of four gravity wells working in a way that they’re not supposed to.

“Hehehe, nice.” Taranae Rhode said with a smirk as she threw an arm around the blue-skinned girl with a dark grin on her face.

“Oops.” Sinya’ni said with feigned innocence and let the activator fall to the floor.