[RoS: Escalation] Team Bumfuzzle (Restorers)

Members
Kamjin “Maverick” Lap’lamiz
DarkHawk Sadow
Teebu Nyrrire
Raistlin Sadow

Severian Principate: Teams pledged to the Restorers and Harmonists must deploy to defend the Geta . Revenant forces have engaged the ship’s TIE squadrons and will begin boarding imminently. The VSD Vel , previously anchored in orbit, is approaching to protect the Geta but will not arrive in time to prevent the pirates from boarding the interdictor. It’s up to your team how you reach the Geta and engage with the Revenant forces assaulting it. How you accomplish the ultimate goal of protecting or retaking the ship is your choice, but should be influenced by the alignment of your pledged sub-faction.

Snapshots
Kamjin
DarkHawk
Teebu
Raistlin

Alts
Dara
Yul
Ty

Raider Corvette-I "Hydra"
Dandoran Deep **Space
Dandoran

Chaos…

It was the only word that could desribe the madness unfolding on the bridge of the Corvette. At least Raist had a seat, as dozens of people that normally would nor be present scurried about and talked amongst themselves. Trying to keep any semblance of order or formaility had been thrown out the window barely an hour into this new “arrangement” In addition to the normal crew, some 20-30 or so additonal members flitted throughout the bridge making it very much “standing room only”

Normally a picket ship in the Sadowan Fleet, and Raist’s home away from home, the Hydra had been thrown into the fray when reports came in of open hostilites at Dandoran. Though he personally cared for neither the Revenants, nor the Principate in any capacity, the Principate had considerable resources, and Raist knew they could afford his services. DarkHawk, his Proconsul and ally stood to his left, silent, listening as battle reports came in from across the sector. He had managed to recruit two allies to help them, the Ewok Teebu, who had talents as a tactician in battle, and Kamjin, a Force practitioner whose skill outmatched the rest of them combined. Other allies of theirs and Dara also stood at the ready, a collection of individuals that never would have been brought together had not war broken out at a moment’s notice.

“Sir, incoming comm from an Admiral Grboc? It’s on it’s own encoded frequency, but it checks out,” the comm officer shouted over the din.

“SILENCE!” Raist screamed as the bridge fell to a hush. “Put it onscreen.” he bellowed.

A flicker shrouded the bridge and the figure of an elderly human in an Imperial uniform appeared in front of them.

“Raistlin, you have been assigned to my disposal per a request from the Senate. They said you have come to help our cause? Your timing could not be any better…” He paused… let out a long sigh and then looked at something briefly before continuing.

“As we speak the INT Geta is engaged over Dandoran with Revenant forces. With no local fire support it’s only a matter of time before she is boarded and falls to the enemy. I hope I don’t need to stress that this cannot happen, it would be a tactical disaster. We have routed the VSD Vel to assist but it is still hours out. Raistlin, you and your team must repel any attack from the Revenants, keep the Geta under our control and hold out until reinforcements arrive. Can i count on you?”

Without hesitating, Raist nodded in the affirmative. “Just make sure when the Vel gets here, it’s bringing a paycheck to transfer command back over from us. Raist out.”

The crew erupted into applause at the response but quickly quieted.

“We have a shuttle ready to use correct?” Raist asked.

“One Lambda shuttle docked to the exterior sir.” His XO replied.

“Get me every possible explosive and piece of heavy ordinance with a droid to operate a repulsor sled, to the hangar bay in 15 minutes. Everyone who is with me, same place same time.” Raist got up and went to get his gear, but turned to the assemblage before exiting and said

“Time to kick some tail.”

Kamjin maneuvered his captured A-wing back into orbit coming alongside of the Principate’s corvette. Switching on the comm, he hailed the ship. “DarkHawk, are you reading me on channel five?” he asked.

“Affirmative, Kamjin, we read you. I wasn’t expecting to see you in an A-wing. When you said you were in the combat zone I had assumed you were here with a Scholae Palatinae task force,” DarkHawk’s voice crackled over the A-wing’s cockpit speakers.

“I was here with a…non-sanctioned activity. What’s the sit rep up here?” Kamjin asked. Already he was scanning the A-wing’s radar displays and drawing his own conclusions. A Principate Interdictor cruiser was already under attack by considerable Revenant forces. Kamjin mentally had to convert the FF display to realize just how quickly the Interdictor’s support TIEs were falling. Focusing back on DarkHawk, he caught the last, “…and so, we’re preparing the shuttle for a boarding operation.”

“Boarding? So you’re assuming the ship is already taken?” Kamjin asked.

“I don’t assume, we’ve already observed breaching pods impacting along the far side hull and at the rate they’re losing cover those transports will have a clear shot for the hangar.”

“Well, let’s give them something else to shoot at,” Kamjin keyed off the comm and opened the throttle to full. No need to worry about fuel, he thought. I’ll take as many of them out and then I’ll join the fun on the ship. He aligned his approach to come in behind the squadron of fighters zeroing in on the TIE Bombers when his mind screamed, shitspit! I don’t have my lightsabers with me!

The bridge personnel of the Principate’s Corvette Ciaus watched the darkness of space become illuminated with the flashes of laser and ion cannon fire. The Corvette was providing support alongside the recent arrival of the Frigate Liparus from the Sovereign Pricipate’s 1st Fleet. Fighters dodged and evaded one another in order to gain the upper hand to score the kill shot. A lone A-wing raced past the Corvette’s starboard side and came in behind a flight of Revenant TIE’s. Elder Kamjin “Maverick” Lap’lamiz maneuvered the nimble A-wing into a near perfect glide slope for an attack run. A sxpertly executed Split S maneuver positioned the Elder above and behind the unsuspecting flight of fighters. Kamjin pushed the flight stick forward slightly, dropping the nose of the A-wing down four degrees. The A-wings HUD screeched a steady audible tone as the Elder locked in his first kill inside the targeting reticle. The Elder squeezed the trigger launching a volley of laser fire across the aft hull of the Revenant fighter. BOOOOOOOM! The fighter erupted into countless pieces of debris. One down many to go.

DarkHawk stood next to the Frigate’s weapons officer as he watched his fellow Proconsul engage the enemy. “Lieutenant, track that A-wing and provide the Elder support. I am headed for the boarding shuttle.”

“Copy that sir, tracking…” The Lieutenant flipped a sequence of toggle switches and buttons before two of the dual laser turrets on the starboard side began to pan left tracking their intended targets. The weapons officer locked in on the lead ship of the flight the Elder was pursuing. The weapon officer’s control panel lit up as the targeting system locked on its target. The WO immediately depressed the manual fire button and emerald laser fire raced through the darkness of space before slicing through its target and exploding it into a brilliant fireball.

Just as the Elder positioned himself for a second kill shot, the lead fighter of the flight exploded. Nice, the Elder thought. The two remaining fighters began to break away from their flight. Maintaining his trajectory, Kamjin yawed the A-wing slightly to the right to line up his second target. Pulling the throttle back to prevent overshooting the enemy fighter, Kamjin remained dialed on his target, jockeying the ship’s in position to line up his targeting reticle. A solid tone once again emanated through the ship’s speakers and the Elder pulled the trigger. The Revenant fighter was no match to outmaneuver the seasoned combat pilot, laser fire ripped through its hull exploding it to pieces.

The Elder looped away from his kill and began to pursue the last of the flight’s fighters. Activating the ship’s com’s Kamjin hailed the SP corvette, “DH was that you?”

“Just clearing you a path good sir.”

“Don’t you dare try to snipe my kills!”

“Would not even consider such atrocities my Liege.”

Smartass, Kamjin thought.

Sovereign forces were clearing out enemy fighters one by one. Kamjin brought the A-wing around and lined up on another fighter dropping in on his target’s four o’clock position. As the A-wing raced in closer, the targeting reticle illuminated from white to red. Goodbye, Kamjin thought as he pulled the trigger, The Revenant fighter port wings imploded as the Borstel RG-9 laser cannons of the A-Wing ripped right through them.

Making another pass by the Sovereign corvette, Kamjin watched shuttles begin to leave the hangar. Looks like the boarding party in enroute, let the fun begin, the Elder’s voice boomed in his head. Just then, the squawk of the speakers caught Kamjin’s attention.
“This is shuttle Alpha-Team I, we are enroute to the Geta. Shuttle teams II and III are launching now. Request safe passage.”

“Shuttle, this is Maverick, I am on your starboard. DH you aboard?”

Copy that sir, and if you care to join us, I have something for you when we board the Geta.”

SHU Lambda
Dandoran Airspace

The whole shuttle was pitching from side to side as their pilot did his best to avoid enemy fire. Boarding of the Geta has begun and with no guarantee of fighter cover they were a giant target for every Revenant fighter engaging. The one thing they had going for them was that the airspace above Dandoran was complete anarchy, with ships from several different factions battling it out. A hard hit nearly shook Raist out of his seat on the shuttle but he quickly regained his composure.

“3 minutes out, be ready” the call came over the comm. Ready was an understatement. As Raist glanced around he saw 2 squads of Naga Sadow’s best, ready to secure their objective and enough ordinance to level a city prefab block in short order. Not to mention him… a living weapon.

He had taken a Frigate single-handedly, and many other ships in assault. The Geta wasn’t going to fall into enemy hands today.

“60 seconds.” Raist stood up, grabbing onto the handhold above him and getting his gear ready. The blaster cannon on his arm was primed to go. Once they diembarked the objectives were straightforward: secure the LZ, defeat all hostile forces and re-establish control of the ship. From there, they just had to hold out.

With a loud THUNK the landing ramp lowered and the sounds of blaster fire were raucous. The regulars quickly descended and began firing and Raist was directly behind them

He spooled up his blaster cannon and fired it into a group of enemies firing upon them as soon as he hit the floor, and then immediately hid behind the ramp to provide further cover for those still exiting the craft.

There was no rhyme or reason to what was unfolding. Raist didn’t even know who to shoot at for half a second, until he realized the Revenants weren’t wearing uniforms. With that as his baseline he began attacking anyone who dared to fire upon him and his team. There had to have been hundreds of sentients in just this one hangar, and they were dropping quickly with each passing moment.

“Raist you there” A voice chimed in over his headset.

It was Darkhawk, his PCON, and an ally amidst the swarms of enemies.

“I hear you DH, have some space for you to land,” he paused momentarily as he fired another shot from his cannon directly into the chest of a Guavian. “Can’t say for how long though.” he continued.

“I’m a minute away, you should be fine until then. DH out.”

Raist sighed, then turned his attention towards trying to establish some kind of perimeter or bulkhead for the rest of the Principate forces to land.

He turned and fired two shots, before running ahead of the rest of his team. Blaster fire pelted the floor around him and a glancing blow nicked his beskar as he turned and jumped high into the air, Using the force he was able to leap high enough to almost touch the ceiling of the hangar some 40-50 feet in the air, before dropping down behind enemy lines.

Raist ignited his saber, and held out his palm, waving to the assembled throngs of enemies to try their best. It wouldn’t matter. To them, or him.

He began carving through the Revenants, his movements possessing such fluidity that to an onlooker Raist might appear to have practiced every move, but in fact, it was just the years of muscle memory and the hundreds of battles, combined with his instincts and Force abilites that made him an angel of death. Within moments a pocket of 12 revenants had been shattered, and with more now forced to turn their atttention his way, hopefully the rest of the team would be able to assist.

“Alpha-Team, dive now,” Kamjin screamed into his headset. As the shuttle’s nose dropped and dove in space, Kamjin rolled his A-wing over into it’s former position. The blaster screeched as he lay suppression fire down on the incoming missiles from a passing Revenant attack wave. Kamjin pulled hard on the yoke climbing above the explosion.

The ship shook violently from the shock wave. I’ve got to get onboard soon. This ship clearly wasn’t being maintained, he thought as alarms began to flash across his control panel. “Alpha-team, accelerate to full throttle. We’re going to go in hot.”

DarkHawk slammed his hand into the comm panel, “Sir, we can’t survive a landing at that speed.”

“Leave that to me,” Kamjin said. As he formed up on the starboard side of the shuttle he reached out through the battle. If it wasn’t for the suppression fire from the corvette he’d have never had the moment to give himself to his mediation. He felt the panic and thrills of the pilots around him. The moments of terror as their lives were lost. The elation of successfully destroying their target and living for a few moments more. He sought past them towards the hanger. Finding Raist’s mind he shared his vision.

Raist continued to lay down suppressing fire at the ragtag assembly of fighters repelling his boarding board. “Come on,” he cried, firing off another burst as he dove over the barricade in front of him and gained a few meters more of ground. As he crotched behind the cover, watching his team advance, he felt an unfamiliar presence in his mind. Closing his eyes momentarily an explosion of images erupted before him. Shaking his head as he opened his eyes he muttered, “That might work.”

“Time until we breach the hangar?” DarkHawk snapped at the pilot. He watched uneasily as the hangar grew quickly in the viewport. Kamjin’s A-wing was hanging close to their wing. He almost swore it was continuing to speed up. That crazy Elder is going to get us all killed, he thought. If we survive this I’m never challenging him to a dual.

“One minute from my mark…mark,” the pilot replied. His face betrayed his fear as he looked at his commander.

“Then it’s time to go. Lock the controls down. Everyone to the boarding ramp now!” DarkHawk commanded as he turned to get into position. The hangar now encompassed the whole viewport.

“Here they come!” Raist yelled over the firefight. He had requisitioned several of the senior Naga Sadow assault team members to form a line with him. The two ships raced into the hangar. Raist, and his team, stretched out their arms. Their muscles and tendons taunt with exertion as they grabbed for the shuttle. The boarding ramp was blown clear as the shuttle skidded in their grasp but slowed rapidly. DarkHawk led the charge as he and his assault team leapt from the shuttle, rolling hard upon the hangar deck and coming to rest with Raist’s team.

Raist and DarkHawk both turned as they saw the cockpit of the A-wing shatter across the deck. A lone figure leapt clear, tumbling through the air, before landing in a crotch beside them.

“Get down,” Kamjin yelled at them, shoving both of their heads down. The A-wing slammed hard into the line of defenders in the hangar. Their bodies throw violently through the air or crushed beneath the ship as it tore through the hangar deck. Within moments, it impacted against the rear of the hangar and exploded. Shrapnel pelted the hangar, pushing back the attackers makeshift cover.

Alarm klaxons wailed as the fire suppression system kicked in. “Come on, we need to seize the initiative here before they regain themselves,” Kamjin said, peering over the container to survey the battle.

Raist and DarkHawk stared at each other dumbfounded. In unison they reacted by issuing commands to the Naga Shadow soldiers. DarkHawk clasped his hand on Kamjin’s shoulder, “You, sir, are a living legend. It would be my honor if you’d accept this.” DarkHawk extended one of his crimson and black lightsaber handles to the Elder.

“The honor is mine, DarkHawk. Now let’s finish this battle up here. I have a sense that we will be needed elsewhere shortly.”

“Needed, that seems to be an understatement here sir.”

Raist chuckled, “This is complete organized chaos.”

“Well then I say we have some business to attend to here” the Elder said activating the long hilted saber. Kamjin methodically waved the saber around in front of him gauging the newly acquired weapon. “Impressive, you managed to nearly perfect the balance of such a traditional design. The old ways suit you, the Bpfasshi warriors would be heavily inclined to relieve you of such a weapon. How did you know?”

DarkHawk bowed to his Elder, “A whisper my Liege.”

DarkHawk and Raistlin activated their sabers and the three began to move forward in coordinated unison. Their movements were fluid in nature, seemingly floating across the hangar floor. DarkHawk cleared his mind as they approached their targets. There is no peace, only suffering, no knowledge, only instinct, no serenity, only passion. The charter of the Dark Jedi code bellowed inside the Warlord’s psyche. The brutality that was about to commence would not be for the faint of heart. Weakness compels strength. Betrayal begets blood, he thought.

Raistlin instructed flanking orders to his team by way of hand signals. Swiftly the team split up and moved to the outer flanks of the Dark Jedi. Blasters at the ready, waiting for the signal to unleash their onslaught of fire. As Revenant forces began to recover from the Elder’s innovative approach to clearing a hangar. Raist signaled with one hand motion for the team to open fire.

Heavy and continuous suppressive fire kept the Revenants in a defensive posture, The left unit advanced forward slightly fanned out to cover the twelve o’clock position. The second team moved up behind the first, lightly tapping the man in front on the shoulder. Dropping back two meters, the second team covered the flanks, laying waste to any straggling Revenant pirates.

One of the pirate’s scampered behind maintenance pods making his way to a tripod mounted repulsor gun. Kamjin caught the pirates’ movement and went into action. Breaking off from the ranks, Kamjin charged toward his prey. The Elder waved his off hand immediately launching a nearby rack of empty ammo canisters through the air. Before the pirate could get set and fire, the steel canisters peppered his head and torso. The pirate crashed to the ground, blood poured from his forehead like a stuck puffer pig.

Kamjin leapt over the gun and came down on top of the pirate. His bootheel landing square in the pirates solar plexus. Forcing the pirate to expel all the air from his lungs. OOOOOOF! Desperately gasping to replenish his lungs, he whimpered as he saw the Dark Jedi towering over him. “Sucks to be you,” the Elder said smiling. Kamjin plunged the sabers blade into the pirates chest. As life left the pirate’s body, his eyes slowly rolled towards the back of his head. His body convulsed profusely before entering an endless sleep. A nudge in the Elder’s stomach suddenly garnered his attention. Immediately spinning around, Kamjin brought his blade up to deflect an incoming blaster bolt.

Raistlin sent a volley of fire downrange with his Ren Arm Cannon. Full weapons racks began to explode from the ricochets and direct hits. The explosions caused additional mayhem for the pirates as they scurried around like rodents. Popping up behind their barricade, Revenant troops had made the mistake of charging at the Augur in hopes of dispatching his onslaught. Their hopes were quickly diminished when Raistlin opened fire on them. Blaster bolts shredded through their torso’s as the arm cannon caught the band of pirates at point blank range. Their defunct meat sacks careened backwards splattering against the adjacent wall.

As the three Jedi worked through the corridors of the ship it was as if they had been fighting together since birth. Instead, Raistlin hadn’t met Kamjin until a scant few hours ago. True; he and DH had been shoulder to shoulder through several encounters now, and here they stood once again, cutting through the Revenant soldiers as they fought their way towards the bridged of

With Raistlin laying down suppressive fire from behind, Kamjin and DH strode through everything that was thrown at them. Dozens of troopers fell and those that stepped up to replace them were being cut down at an exponential rate. As Kam’s stamina started to fade, Raistlin replaced him, standing in front and letting any fire bounce off his beskar armor. The three Jedi led a group of loyal Severians that nearly had reached the bridge of the Geta.

Raist jammed his lightsaber into the bulkhead and began cutting as the rest of the team formed a protective wall around him. Raist could sense the panic on the bridge as they saw his lightsaber slicing through. Mere seconds later, they were through, cutting down bridge officers and what meager bulwark the bridge defenders could put up.

Shortly therafter… the bridge was theirs.

“Raistlin to all Principate forces, The Geta has been secured, repeat, the Geta has been secured. Team Bumfuzzle has control of the bridge, and will move to assist Severian assets in sector. Please advise.” Raist chimed through the commlink in his helmet.

Cheers erupted among the invaders, but with more Tenixir to be taken off the ship and almost certainly more inbound their mission war far from over.

All of a sudden a VSD appeared in viewport, having disnembarked from hyperspace.

“The Vel, too late of course.” Raist remarked sarcastically.

As he turned to leave the bridge he nearly lost his footing. He turned around and if not for his helment the rest of the team would have seen his jaw drop lower then it had ever before.

The Vel… was firing on them. All turbolaser batteries had been pointed in their direction and they were blasting the Vel and what looked like every ship in the AO with fire.

"Son of a… " Raist remarked but it would do him no good. Everything they had fought for was now pointless… they needed to get off the Geta immediately.

Kamjin raced to the controls and set the shields to cycle and recharge. That would buy them a few precious moments. DarkHawk activated his comm, “Vel, cease fire. We have taken control of the Geta. Repeat, we have control of the Geta.”

Static was his only response. Kamjin looked up from the displays, “DarkHawk, they’re not going to answer you.” He keyed the comm chatter to the speaker. A dozen overlapping communications fought for attention.

“…Urgent support bzzt abominations. fizz crystals prodding from their…crackle they appear unstoppable.”

The three Sith looked at each other and closed their eyes. Feeling the currents of the Force, Kamjin connected them together as they probed through the wonders of the galaxy. Within moments they felt them on the ship…on the planet. The tortured cries of creatures corrupted by an unknown and insidious energy. The three were at once repulsed by it and coveted to possess it themselves.

“DarkHawk, Raist, get to the ships. We’re needed on the surface,” Kamjin said as his fingers danced over the Interdictors controls.

“Sir, why,” DarkHawk asked confused for the moment.

“We’re needed on the surface. The battle has not yet been decided there,” Kamjin said. Raist pulled out his comm and started issuing orders for the boarders to prepare to disembark.

“Sir, if we leave now who’s going to secure the Geta?” DarkHawk asked.

“I just did,” Kamjin replied as he activated the series of orders he had entered into the ship’s console. Warning klaxons exploded to life.

A metallic voice intoned, “Collusion course set. Impact in two minutes and counting.”

“What did you do?” Raist said in disbelief staring at the Elder.

“I finished this. The Vel isn’t going to suspect this move, the Geta no longer is going to serve a purpose as we’re going to need any and all ships possible to get into the system now. So let’s move it people, the chronometer is running,” Kamjin said as he rushed off the bridge.

“Let’s go, Raist. He’s gotten us through this much of it,” DarkHawk said as he raced after the Elder.

As Raist raced into the hangar most of the boarding craft had already begun to take off. Kamjin and DarkHawk beckoned him from the open transport ramp. “Come on,” Kamjin yelled.

Raist leapt onto the ramp as the transport took off. Raist fell forward as the ship dove immediately after clearing the docking bay magnetic shield. Despite not having a viewport they knew the moment the Geta connected with the Vel. They could almost hear the tearing of metal as the ships ripped into each other before they were shaken by the explosion.

Kamjin clawed his way forward with the suspended hand holds to get to the cockpit. “Set us down outside of Tipool City. That’s where they’re going to need us,” he said.

In the rear, Raist leaned into DarkHawk and asked, “What do you mean of his Elder?”

“Sir, I don’t know. He’s crashed two ships now and he’s taking us down into the thick of another fight. But I will tell you this; I’m glad he’s on our side,” DarkHawk smiled as his clasped Raist on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get ready for the next fight.”