[RoSM: Clan Taldryan - Ekky Aces]

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Team Roster:

• Rian Taldrya: snapshot
  Aryn DeVray (NPC): snapshot
• Raistline Majere Taldrya snapshot
• Justinios Drake snapshot
  Balz Ack (NPC) snapshot

Objective Selected: Sabotage path

Phase I objectives

‘‘Phase I begins on October 14th and ends on October 28th (two (2) weeks)’’

After intercepting a transmission from the now destroyed Brotherhood Listener ship, the Psi Termina I, your team has been hand-picked and sent on a mission. You are already boarded on the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser Akan, arriving in an Imperial boarding craft through the auxiliary starboard hangar, only several decks below your target. The Akan’s hyperdrives and major systems have been disabled by ion cannons from escorting ships and a battle still rages outside.

The ship’s power fluctuates with every blow from turbo lasers and ion cannons and you have limited time to complete your mission. The Collective regiment typically onboard is currently deployed, but ship security is fully staffed and some elements of the regiment may still be onboard. Intel expects Soldiers and Partisans onboard.

Your team has been tasked to complete one of the following objectives in limited time (you may complete only one (1) objective):

• Revenge path: Reach the main bridge, face and eliminate Captain Brith Kayle and extract valuable information from the computer core before the fleet destroys the ship.

• Sabotage path: Reach the primary computer core behind the main bridge, extract the information and set the ship to self-destruct before extracting.

• Pacifist path: Reach the primary environmental controls on the main bridge, pacify the whole ship with Stun gas before extracting data from the computer core and calling in the cavalry.

Caution: the Captain is accompanied by an unknown number of enemy combatants.

The Phase must end with the bridge secured and the ship either pacified or destroyed. In all but the Revenge path, the Captain’s fate is up to you.

Rian Taldrya was first to jump from the boarding ramp onto the durasteel plated ground of the Akan’s auxiliary hangar.

“All squads maintain offensive stance, we have been boarded,” a voice blared off the internal speakers. “All squads maintain offensive stance, we have been boarded.”

Narrowing his eyes over the shadows cast by stacked crates and half dismounted fighters, the Consul scanned the hangar for enemy troops ready to repel the Taldryan Assault team while the rest of them disembarked from their boarding craft.

“Kilo, slice into the mainframe, we need you to be our guide through the ship. Oh and get those alarms off.” Rian Taldrya ordered over the waning sound constantly repeated over the ship’s intercom. “Kasey, go help him, but no heroics this time.”

Seeing the two droids trailing off for the nearest access panel: “Raist, you come with me, we take the long road straight for the command bridge causing as much distraction as possible, Justinios, you take the shortcut through the maintenance shafts, straight for the computer core behind the bridge.”

Just when they were about to split and go for their assigned tasks, the bald headed frame of Justinios friend, as he himself introduced the Ewok to the team, appeared from within their boarding craft. “Meechoo Shetai, Meechoo E s’eesht Graks.”

Rian glanced sharply at the ektrosian Quaestor. “Why did you bring him with you again?”

“Meechoo E s’eesht Graks.” The Ewok repeated visibly shaking his blaster in front of him.

The deck underneath their boots shook again under the heavy fire from the combined battlegroup of the Dark Council and Taldryan’s First Strike flotilla.

“Justinios, this ship won’t last forever, deal with him and then proceed with your objective.” Rian sighed before nodding at the other Taldrya to follow him.

The Taldrya rushed for the doors leading into the belly of the ship, their lightsabers already in their hands and lit when the doors parted before them.

~+~+~+~

“Four troopers in the corridor to your right just after the next intersection, I suggest you dispatch them before they can raise an intruder alarm.” Came the artificial voice of Justinios KX-series Security Droid.

The moment the Liberation Front Partisans saw them, the two Taldrya fell upon them, Lightsabers flashing from left to right, dismembering them with graceful precision.

Another shockwave rolled through the ship, much stronger than the last one, forcing them to steady themselves against nearby walls.

“The Akan has sustained heavy damage hull integrity is down to sixty-two percentage” Kilo’s artificial voice came over Rian’s comlink. “Given the effect of the sustained heavy fire the Akan I calculated a higher chance for completing this mission when you won’t have to spend unnecessary time fighting Partisans and Technocrats, I set up fake alarms to reroute Security details to the engine section, not sure how long it will until they discover the ruse.”

“Then we better hurry and get the job done:” Rian replied over the team channel. “Which way Kilo?”

The droid guided them level by level up through the quaking ship. By the time they reached the doors that Kilo told them would lead onto the main command bridge, the two Taldrya took a moment to gather themselves and assess the situation within.

“I sense at least a dozen Partisans in there.” Raist said revealing what he the Force had shown to his probing.

Rian nodded affirmative.

“So what’s the plan to get in there? Let Kilo do a fake alarm so we end up with an empty command bridge?” Raistline asked.

“No we can’t risk anyone accidentally checking the computer core maintenance room behind the bridge.”

After a brief moment the Taldryan Consul grinned. “Let’s do the ‘General’.”

“Oh no, Rian, not the ‘general’.”

But it was too late, Rian had already pushed the button that would part the doors to the main bridge and made a confident step inside dragging the other Taldrya with him.

On the command bridge, Birth Kayle was frantically relaying orders that would ensure the Akan would continue its duty for as long as possible. Just when he turned to see who was entering the bridge without being ordered to, Rian spoke one of the most iconic lines in warfare:

“Hello there.”

Looking around the troops around him, the rodian Colonel shouted furiously. “What are you waiting for, kill them.”

At once half of the surrounding Technocratic Soldiers rushed forward, the electrified tips of their Riot Control Batons sizzling in opposition to the two Taldryan lightsabers.

“Yiha nub yub,” the Ewok growled through clenched jaws.

Justinios understood his companion’s frustration with being underestimated simply because you were vertically challenged. “Don’t take Rian’s comment personal, it’s just the stress of the situation.”

“Nic-ta, nib yub hita.”

“Why would the size of his genitals have anything to do with this?,” Justinios asked in disgust. The Aleena followed that question up with another. “And seriously what is wrong with you?” As another explosion shook the deck plating Justinios’ mind snapped back to the task at hand. “We’ll discuss your lack of decorum later. You need to guard the ship so we have an exit strategy and don’t bother arguing with me about it.”

As Justinios sprinted towards the nearest ventilation shaft he could hear Balz screaming vulgarities at him the entire way. The Ewok’s revenge for the experiments that the Collective subjected him to would have to come later because once Justinios set the self-destruct timer in the Akan the boarding craft would be just about their only way off the heavy cruiser without being atomized.

As Justinios crawled through the heavy cruiser’s ventilation system he was thankful that humans, and human-sized beings, dominated the galaxy. He had been alive long enough to know that much of civilization was designed around human proportions. Back on Coruscant, life had been a constant challenge because everything was too high. Desks, podiums and even food service counters were all built without any regard for shorter species. But, so was the Akan.

The Aleena let a smile cross his lips thinking about an engineer considering alterations their designs because a being the size of a human toddler could board with malicious intent in his mind. Having arrived at his destination he forced his thoughts back to the task at hand, turning the Akan into debris.

Through the slats in the grating Justinios could see down into the room containing the primary computer core. Even though it was situated directly behind the bridge, the diversion being created by the rest of the team clearly had made an impact because the only personnel in the room itself were the technicians. The Aleena took inventory: three humans, two male, one female. All had DH-17 blaster pistols on their belts but in their seated position Justinios was confident they were little threat.

Justinios extended one of his reptilian hands and with a brief thought pictured the grating flying off the wall. A nanosecond later that is exactly what occurred. The Aleena was flying through the air towards the first technician as soon as the grating hit the floor. His attention was still on the clanking metal grate as the deep blue blade of Justinios’ lightsaber pierced the top of his skull.

In one motion Justinios deactivated his blade and let his momentum carry him all the way to the floor. Now on his feet, he reactivated his weapon and ran full speed at the female technician. Her bravery was admirable, seemingly unfazed by the abrupt death of her co-worker she reached for her weapon. The pistol never made it out of its holster.

Running at full speed Justinios made a clean, upward diagonal cut just above her right ankle. The women fell forward like a tree with her face absorbing much of the blow. Assuming she was at least unconscious Justinios turned his attention back to the final technician, who had already taken aim.

Justinios knew he couldn’t let the last technician get a shot off. His lightsaber was already making enough of a racket and even with the distraction, his compatriots were causing, a flurry of blaster bolts was bound to get someone’s attention.

Another picture formed in his mind, that of the DH-17 flying across the room. The man ran for the door as soon as the weapon slipped from his fingers but Justinios ran at him on an intercept course. Using one of the first formulas be had learned as a young physics student, force equals mass times acceleration, the Aleena kicked off the ground with all of his power. Although his physical power was limited in the eyes of some it was augmented by the unseen power he has at his disposal.

As the technician reached his hand out to open the entrance hatch he was struck in the side by the balled up form of Justinios. The human staggered and hit the wall, gasping for air. Justinios, slightly dazed himself, shook off the cobwebs, activated his lightsaber and plunged it into the man’s left kneecap. Already reeling from the blunt force to his torso, the technician crumpled into a mass of anguished flesh. Knowing his task was only half done, Justinios put the man out of his misery with a quick stab at the base of the skull.

As he scurried over to the computer console Justinios returned his lightsaber to his belt and plucked the computer spikes off of it. He stumbled as an explosion rocked the ship, the largest one since he had step foot aboard the heavy cruiser.

Time to get moving before I get turned into a space-cicle myself. Justinios had no desire to find himself sucking vacuum so he regained his balance and got to work slicing the main console.

With the aid of the computer spikes the entire process was fairly painless. There had been even less security on the terminal than Justinios had anticipated, possibly because they didn’t expect unauthorized access this deep into the ship. It wasn’t long until Justinios had made his way to the communications storage area of the system. Most of the data was encrypted but there was a transmission that was intercepted at about the same time that the Inquistorius lost contact with the other Psi Termina I. To be sure he had the information everyone was fighting so hard over Justinios copied the data from all communications for five standard hours before and after the time in question.

Using the second spike the Aleena accessed the subsystems related to the ship’s engineering, specifically the main reactor. As soon as Justinios finished keying in the correct commands the warning klaxons on the ship changed their tone. Now everyone aboard was aware they had a larger problem than the Brotherhood fleet because the new tones meant that in twenty standard minutes the reactor core would overload itself and go supercritical. Twenty minutes was enough time for most of the surviving crew to evacuate. However, Justinios had made a last minute during the briefing suggestion that would prevent that from happening.

Snatching his comlink out of its pouch Justinios activated Balz’s frequency. “Give me good news buddy, is our ship still secured?”

Balz responded tersely that not a single enemy had been sighted. That may have been a disappointment to the bloodthirsty Ewok but it was exactly what Justinios needed to hear.

Spending another computer spike he sliced back into the ship’s computer. Once he had access again he quickly navigated to the ship’s safety protocols. After confirming three times that he was sure he wanted to proceed, Justinios launched every last one of the Akan’s escape pods.

Leaping back into the ventilation system, Justinios began to make his way back to Balz Ack and the team’s landing craft. The activation of the self-destruct protocol was also the sign for the rest of the team else to fall back to the exfiltration point. With luck, they’d beat him there.

Splitting from Rian, Raistline rushed the three Technocrats on the left, hoping to put a quick end to them before the rest of the bridge crew would join their comrades turning his odds even worser. His amethyst blade flickered and spun around when he added a series of spins and kicks into his patterns. One of his adversaries fell back, but the other two met him head-on, charging him with aggressive slashes to counters to his graceful strikes and thrusts.

Realizing he couldn’t overwhelm them in a head-on duel, the Taldrya fell into a more defensive pattern as his enemies pressed on him. They came at him, crashing down on him from all angles in repetitive series of strikes as they tried to break through Raistlines guard.

But the bearded man held his ground behind an impenetrable wall of brilliant purple light. Even when the third of the Technocrats joined his friends, he didn’t waver but if he didn’t were able to bring an end to them in the near future, fatigue will cause his guard to slip. Luckily he had not to play that game through as despite their will to bring down the Taldrya the Technocratic Guild soldiers lacked a sense to coordinate their attacks and instead simply hammered their attack at Raistline. Exploiting this flaw into an advantage, Raistline pushed the batons of two of his opponents into the chests of each other. The following electric discharge slammed them apart, leaving them knocked out on the ground.

Relieved from the majority of his enemies, Raistine glanced to his right, where Rian hadn’t wasted any time either, having already deposed himself of one of his own adversaries and about to kill the second, the Consul of Taldryan tossed his blade into the air and spun around the last Technocrat only to catch his lightsaber again in a reverse grip. Pressing the attack, he spun further, slashing diagonally across the back of his remaining opponent nearly severing the man in two.

~+~+~+~

The deck underneath Birth Kayle shook, this one was different though and it took the rodian Colonel a moment to realize the source of the latest quivering in the structure of the heavy cruiser. Realization followed quickly when something on the edge of his eye outside the viewports of the Akan drew his attention.

Dozens of small capsules pistoned from the heavy cruiser’s hull and he didn’t need a nearby tech to confirm that the ships escape pods have been remote launched.

Then as if it wouldn’t be enough, a new series of alarms broke off.

“Sir, the main reactor is powering up to a critical level.” Another tech from a different station shouted

Dashing for the technican’s station Birth shouted. “What? How can that be?”

“I don’t know, I am getting mixed reports but it seems the overrides were authorized from the primary computer core back-up control station.”

“What do you wait for, stop it.”

“I can’t the station has been encrypted.”

Punching a sequence into the techs station the image on his screen switched, showing the real life footage of the primary computer room.

Seeing the footage, Kayle’s face went even paler, a lone person, barely a meter tall was working on one of the control station. An Aleena by the shape of his body, the person once he was done with damaging the Akan from within shut down the station and rushed for an opening in the bulkhead that had once been sealed by a panel.

Anger filled his face, those two Dark Jedi had only been a red herring for another intruder. That rat however was already returning to, well Kayle knew exactly where that one would be heading for.

“Seal the command bridge.” The Rodian passed orders to the remaining Technocratic Guild soldiers while heading for the primary computer coreroom. “Don’t let those fracking Jedi leave alive and stop that override. I will handle the other one myself.”

With the Colonel absent, the technocrats that weren’t occupied with fighting the powerful Taldrya started to frantically working their stations but Justinios modified Computer Spikes worked their full magic, not only overriding the access codes but also enabling a high level encryption on the protocols necessary to undo the damage Justinios had just caused.

It was only when half of the remaining time on the counter had passed that the Taldrya had felled the last of the Technocratic Soldiers and Rian appeared next to the technician who had first reported the main reactor being overloaded.

The technician was fully focused on his screen, not even recognizing that the Taldryan Consul stood next to him as he typed another line of codes into his keyboard without any positive outcome.

“Those Spikes are heavy duty stuff, it would need a master code cracker to break through the encryption.” Rian said scaring the technician to almost fall from his chair

Along the two Taldrya there were only four techs left and the one next to Rian and though not the bravest still tried to follow his training and raised his blaster at the Consul.

Unphased by the shaky blaster trained at him Rian continued watching the countdown on the screen. “As far as I see it, you got two options. First, you continue to follow your orders to the point and end up dead because you failed. Or Second, and that is the option I would prefer, You open the doors, leave your stations and use the remaining eight minutes and fourteen seconds to get to one of the main hangars and pick a shuttle to escape this dying casket.”

The technician glanced over to the others, who were just as helpless in their efforts, then nodded slightly to the Consul before deactivating the lockdown of the command bridge. “I am also reactivating the turbolift, this will bring you back to the hangar in no time.”

“Thank you.” Rian gave the Technocrat a slight nod. “You made the right decision.”

“We will see. Come on guys, let’s get going.”

“Rian, we should get going as well.” Raistline said, already standing outside at the open turbolift.

Arriving back at the hangar the Taldrya found a strange scenery, Kasey and Kilo had pinned down the Collective Soldiers that had accompanied Kayle while the hairless Balz’ack was riding on the shoulders of of the Rodian cursing in ewokese, his small hands firmly clasped around the man’s antenna.

Justinios however was nowhere to be seen, though given roaring of the Boarding craft’s engines, it was safe to say the Aleena was running the ship through its preflight checks.

“Kasey, Kilo, time to get moving. “Rian shouted at the droids while rushing towards their ride but stopped to deal with the unlucky Rodian and its rider. Turning his lightsaber into a humming projectile the Consul telekinetically shot his lightsaber at the Rodian’s legs, sending the pair sailing to the ground.

“Balz, you too, come over here.”

Though continuing the cursing, the bald Ewok obeyed the orders.

Just in time everyone had returned to their ride and the Boarding craft bore air before the first set of explosions rocked the Akan from within.

This Phase lasts from October 29th until November the 11th (two (2) weeks)

Request from the organizers: Please add a note to the top of the next post which path your team will choose in this Phase. Thank you.

Phase II objectives

Your team left the dreadnought Akan with information that, together with the data analysed by Clans and the Inquisitorius, has lead your to the Meridian Prime space station, a fortress, correctional facility and space dock floating in interstellar space just off the Wild Space boundary. Already under attack by Clan and Dark Council forces, dogfights light up the blackness around the behemoth, and intel suggests the shields and defenses have not yet been weakened enough for a full-scale naval assault. The station is on full alert and firefights have already started as skirmishes between Collective troops and Brotherhood assault teams pepper its three massive hangar bays.

The station houses civilian and enemy personnel, including a correctional facility that holds hundreds of Brotherhood prisoners of war, both Non-Force users and Force users alike. The prison has an isolated security system, its own power generator and life-support. Intel suggests that the prison is managed by a powerful AI (artificial intelligence) controlling the Dioxis security system, many defense blaster turrets, ray shields and a large complement of Imperial Sentry Droids acting as guards, controlled by the prison warden. The interior of the prison itself is pumped with a thin mist of Dioxis gas, preventing escape and anarchy.

You have been dropped off on the lower decks via boarding pod.

Breath masks are provided for this mission, should your team require them. Any Possessions item that prevents inhaling of poisonous gas will be effective as well.

Your team has been tasked to complete one of the following objectives in limited time (you may complete only one (1) objective):

• Revenge path: Reach the correctional facility and eliminate prison warden Rutgar-4. Caution is advised as there are Imperial Sentry Droids defending him.

• Sabotage path: Reach the prison’s AI core to recycle the life support and free the prisoners. Prepare for a riot as many prisoners are powerful Force Users and Non-Force Users.

• Pacifist path: Reach the prison’s AI core and disable the security systems to allow incoming Brotherhood troops to secure the facility.

The phase must end with the prison facility secured, one way or another. In all but the Revenge path, the prison warden’s fate is up to you.

Relevant character sheets:

• CS: Rutgar-4
• Since there are no character sheets for droids, participants will use the Possessions i9tem page as reference: Imperial Sentry Droids
• See the station wiki for other possible adversaries

OBJECTIVE SELECTED: REVENGE

Meridian Prime space station
Lower Prisoner Levels
36 ABY

Although everyone of their team wore breathing masks, the air felt foul to the Consul. But maybe it was only his mind being tripped by the slightly green tint added to the air by the Dioxis mixed into the it at the lower levels of Meridian Prime to prevent the prisoners from rioting.

Looking around he could make out several more of the Brotherhood’s boarding pods. Many of them had scorchmarks on their unarmed hulls. The pods flew on an autopliot causing them to continue their flight even though they had been heavily damaged or even reduced to flying rubble on their way

“I take it these Pods weren’t made for assault runs.” Rian voice muffled voice sounded summarizing the events of their rough flight. “Now let’s go and hope that the fleet is drawing enough attention from the station’s AI.”

Apparently the Consul’s thoughts were proved false as the group was immediately met by a group of Sentry droids opening fire on them the moment they saw them.

Lightsabers blazed to life, whirling around to counter the barrage of super-heated plasma raining at them. Between them Balz Ack jumped and dashed, using the shielding effect of the lightsabers for cover while shooting at the droids, occasionally taking one or the other out while the group stood its ground.

“Master, my scans show massive reinforcements being reverted to this position, we need to get moving or they will overrun this position.” Kilo said over the sound of the klaxon of blasterfire.

“I think neither of us is stealing time here Kilo.” Justinios replied. “But we are open to any suggestions on your end.”

“Njub jip jupp.”

“What did he say?” Raistline remanded.
“He said stay down.” Justinios answered. “Stay down for wh-”

Justinios didn’t have to complete his question as he just saw the small spherical device sailing through the air. A red running light along its equator indicating it being active. “Shit, everyone take cover.”

The group burst apart, everyone diving for the nearest cover that would fit their respective body sizes just when the detonator hit the ground mere fractions of a second before its internal timer triggered the explosive.

The destructive wave hit the droids at point blank range, scattering them apart, sending mechanical parts flying in every direction.

Leaving his cover, Raistline kicked the half-melted head of one of the Sentry Droids after the ewok. “I dare you doing that again, you could have set the whole station aflame with that detonator.”

“Master Raistline, I contradict this opinion, the Dioxis concentration in the air is about half a percent to low to be inflammable.” Kilo intervened. “I must admire the warden to have calculated the concentration that exactly.”

“ Instead of admiring another droid, I am sure our masters would prefer you to give us a plan to outmaneuver the reinforcements, or did you forget about them.” Kasey mocked the other droid.

“Of course not.” Kilo said ignoring the mocking. “Following the stations general layout, there are maintenance shafts running along every corridor of the station.”

“Maintenance shafts… that means restricted movement.” Rian interjected. “I guess those Sentry Droids doesn’t fit in there.”

“That is true master Rian. But there are other forms of defense measures, automated turrets and ray shields.”

“I see, but that’s nothing we can’t deal with, can we.”

“Balz Ack got three Spikes, and we got the droids.” Justinios referred to their companions.

“Then let’s not waste any time, where is the next entry to the shaft.”

“It was supposed to be at the center of where the detonator exploded.”

“Of course it had to be.” Raistline shook his head.

~+~+~+~

While protected from the Sentry Droids, the shafts gave the group much different trials as the stations AI confronted them with various combinations of its internal defense systems. First they were caught within an interjection by a ray shields, followed a quartet of automated blaster e-web heavy repeating blaster cannons, followed by ray-shield and turret combinations

Eventually the group had to split up when a massive bulkhead shut between them with astonishing speed but through the a combination of computer spikes and the groups droids they were able to reunite close to a blast door leading into the correctional facility.

A simple nod from the Consul was enough to send the droids to work on the locking mechanism of the blast door.

~+~+~+~

For the last hour, Rutgar-4 had watched the progress of the various assault teams dispatched by the Clans of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. The majority of them had united in an attempt to enter the stations AI core, though all of their attempts had been repelled by the automated defense systems and hundreds of Sentry Droids. Others had used the situation for their own ends, plundering the station while the remaining teams had opted to enter the correctional facility and shut down the environmental controls at its main control station.

Of course they had failed in their mission as Rutgar had carefully plotted them to arrive at different times so they would end up being in the minority once they entered the correctional facility. Each of them had now become additional prisoners of the Collective. Now he was watching the latest arriving assault team. Two regular sized males, two of a much smaller size and two droids.

His mechanical hands flew over the controls, locking the computer-station in preparation for the upcoming battle before sending a signal to his personal Sentry Droid before positioning himself in the center of the room. On his way he checked on each of the prepared detonators located in various spots around him. When he was sure that everything was as he wanted it to be, he sent a signal to the AI, erasing the lock on the blast door.

~+~+~+~

Kasey and Kilo tried to bypass the locking mechanism of the door for several minutes now but everytime the droids felt as they would have finally found the respective subroutine, the stations AI re-routed it to a different subroutine, forcing the droids to start anew. Suddenly the droids turned to look into each others eyes, they had been locked completely out of the system. Before either of them could say anything to their masters, the doors began to slide open, revealing two figures standing right in the center of the room.

“Master, I suggest to be very careful, it was neither of us to unlock the door.” the Infiltrator Droid said.

“Don’t worry Kasey, it’s not about walking into a trap. It’s about coming out of it - “ Rian stopped mid-sentence as a strange feeling filled his awareness. A look to the other Force-sensitives told him they had felt it too.

In unison the group moved in with the Force-Sensitives taking the lead.

Upon walking in they noticed various scorches on the ground and the terminals they passed by. “Justinios, Raist and myself will care of the warden, the rest of you stay back and take care that he’s not cheating.”

“Rutgar-4” the droid said, with his modulated artificial voice when the group had arrived in the center of the room. “I expect you humans want to hear the name of the individual who is responsible for your demise.”

“Uhm sure, I am Tally-1, that’s Two and over there Three” Justinios spoke up, tapping onto his chest before indicating to the rest of the trio.

“Don’t play a fool on me, I know who and what you are. I have been watching you since your very arrival aboard the station.”

“Very well, in that case, I assume we just begin.” Rian said, igniting his flame-colored lightsaber.

Purple and blue followed suit and in return the curved shape of a dual bladed sword filled the hands of the warden.

Whirling it around in front of himself Rutgar activated the filament blades just in time to block the first strike from the leading Force-Sensitive before diving under the slash of the alien who had mocked him at the beginning and had just jumped over him from the shoulder of the third. Unlike the other groups so far these trio actually had the skills to fight with and not along each other. He gave them that much but at the end they will just end up like the others.

A mental note send a message over the internal communication channels, telling his Sentry Droid to join the battle. However all he got in return was a complicated list of critical system failures from the droid.

In shock Rutgar turned his head for the fraction of a second, seeing that his Sentry Droid was entangled by another droid. The other droid barely resembled one of the droids that had accompanied the Taldryan Assault Team but had now become a nightmarish form of its former shape. Its head and limbs had split in half, revealing its inner mechanics as it wrapped itself around the Sentry Droid and connected with it on several points.

However this fraction of a second was enough distraction for the Force-Sensitives to land multiple critical blows on Rutgar himself. The small scaled Alien spun around his legs, cutting through several servos of his left leg, severing the Shard’s control over that limb.

Buckling to the left Rutgar exposed his right side to the purple blade that had just appeared from behind the red blade warrior, cleaving his right arm from his droid torso at the elbow.

But Rutgar wasn’t ready to give up yet, unlocking a restrainment on his remaining ankle he turned his right hand into a rotating fan, forming a deadly shield spinning in front of and around him forcing the Force-Sensitives to back away for the moment.

Eventually what he didn’t thought off in his final stand was the last member of the Taldryan Assault Team.

Balz Ack had used the situation to position himself at a safe distance behind the mechanical warden waiting for the perfect shot. He didn’t have to wait for long, the trio worked perfectly in unison, forcing the warden into the defense before lashing out to reduce the droid to a pile of rubble. First a leg went missing, then an arm, but then the warden changed its tactics temporarily gaining the advantage but that was his time to move and with a well placed shot he destroyed the jetpack thruster along the ankle of the remaining leg, forcing the heavy-weight droid to topple over and fall to the ground.

Rian nodded in appreciation to the ewok before kicking the blade from Rutgar’s hand. He tried to crawl after it but some invisible Force gripped his body and lifted it into the air.

It was their leader who had called upon the Force to lift and upright him. If he was to go down, he still could take at least one of them with him he thought, raising his one remaining arm to train the wrist mounted laser at the near-human.

“Don’t try it”. Came the voice from his side, the purple blade spoke, his blade only mere centimeters from his arm.

“What are we going to do about him Rian?” Justinios asked.

“Well its a shame he chose the wrong side in this conflict. He could have been a great asset to the Brotherhood.” The Consul replied. “But even when he had lost he couldn’t admit it. It’s still a shame though.”

With the last words spoken, Rian lashed out, his fiery blade diving through the armored chest of the Shard’s mechanical body and then through the Shard itself, slicing it in half, ending the life of the ancient being.

This Phase lasts from November 12th until November the 19th (one (1) week)

Request from the organizers: Please add a note to the top of the next post which path your team will choose in this Phase. Thank you.

Phase III objectives

The Brotherhood advances. What started as sporadic fighting in the major hangar bays of Meridian has turned into an all-out battle on all decks. Spurred by your team’s success in the prison, your Clan forces have come to support you and issue new orders for your team.

Daggo Mouk, one of the leaders of the Collective and the Guildmaster of the Technocratic Guild, has been confirmed on the station. With him he has a potent Technocratic Artifact that, if whisked away, would threaten the position of the Brotherhood in future engagements.

Daggo’s last known position was in the command center, however we have been having trouble following his movements. Wherever he is on the station, he would not leave the artifact unattended. The return of the artifact to Brotherhood hands is of absolute strategic value.

Your team has been tasked to complete one of the following objectives in limited time (you may complete only one (1) objective):

• Revenge path: Confront and eliminate Daggo Mouk. Have no mercy.

• Sabotage path: Sabotage the Collective’s future plans by stealing the artifact by any means necessary.

• Pacifist path: Capture Daggo Mouk for interrogation and trial.

The phase must end with the artifact retrieved. Daggo’s fate is open-ended and up to you.

Relevant character sheets:

• CS: Daggo Mouk.

Raistline Post #1

OBJECTIVE SELECTED: REVENGE

Justinios confidently retracted the blade of his lightsaber before Meridian Station’s artificial gravity had pulled his fallen opponent to the deck plating. His feet were in motion, racing to catch Raistline, as the last droid sentry clanged to the ground. Raistline came skidding to a halt on the main platform of the command center and began digging through holding cabinents.

“C’mon, where is it?” Raistline was muttering to himself.

“Kilo,” Rian started barking orders, “Check the security feed. Find out where Daggo Mouk fled to.”

“Already plugging in.”

After a moment of pause the command center’s main view screen showed the image of Daggo Mouk calmly walking from the room. His body movements showed no distress as alarm lights began flashing in the playback video. The ithorian hardly even looked up from the datapad his extra limbs held before his view.

“There we go!” Raistline yelled, pulling out an almost empty bottle of alcohol. “A fine year for Ithorian Mist, probably used for savoring the finest of moments.” Pulling a deep swig from the bottle Raistline tried in vain to hide the pain on his face. He forced a smile as he shoved the bottle at Justinios insistently. “Helps you get a feel for your target.”

“This isn’t the time,” Rian said over his shoulder, ignoring as the two passed the bottle behind him.” He watched as Kilo sped the security cameras playback. The ithorian appeared from angle after angle as the different security cameras were cycled through, showing a slow moving path from the command center towards the hangars. “We don’t have time for this. Map out the path and send it to us. We’ll see if we can catch him before…”

“It’s a ruse,” Justinios interjected, passing the bottle back to Raist who happily finished it off. As Rian raised his eyebrow questioningly Justinios continued. “The security feed is a fake. It could be an old one or just a spliced video, but Daggo is going in another direction.”

Before Rian could ask how Justinios came to his conclusion Raistline held out the empty bottle and burped. “Helps you get a feel for your target.”

~+~+~+~

Justinios led the group through the maze of hallways of Meridian Station. Holding onto empty bottle of Ithorian Mist in one hand, he kept the other ready at his side as he let the Force lead him towards their target. Coming to a point where another path forked off he started to feel worried and despaired. Forcing himself to concentrate on memories of victory and exultation the empty bottle “remembered” from it’s former master, Justinios continued to weave their way towards their target.

“Daggo has something big, something real important,” Rian was quietly explaining to the others as they went. His eyes were darting from side to side, feeling something was not quite right. Raistline’s unusual silence was unnerving, and even the ewok seemed on edge. “They are not talking much but whatever it is the Iron Throne seems pretty determined to get…”

“Daggo!” Raistline yelled.

As the group had turned a corner Daggo Mouk could be seen up ahead. Turning nonchalantly, as if confirming it was his name the ithorian heard, Daggoo continued onward through a set of blast doors. The doors closed behind him as the group raced forward. Before anyone could reach the door the control panel began to smoke then burst into flames, sealing the door shut.

Justinos Post #2

Balz Ack began moving before anyone started issuing orders. The Ewok casually snatched both the fragmentation grenade and the thermal detonator off of his belt, tossed them towards the hatch together.

Both sensing the excitement in his companions mind, and noticing that he was not involving himself in the current discussion, Justinios made a suggestion to the rest of the party. “We will want to move down the hallway very quickly.”

Nobody asked questions as soon as they saw the poodoo eating grin on Balz’s face as he ran past them giggling. Rian and Raistline were the first to make it to safety behind the panting Ewok. As the double explosions rocked the deck Justinios rounded the corner just ahead of the blast wave that sent Kilo’s black form flying another few meters in the wrong direction.

“I bet that didn’t even kriffing work,” Raistline spat at the ewok, slapping him over the head in the process.

“I regret to inform Master Raistline that the animal’s hastily conceived plan did work.” Kilo, having clean survived his temporary flight, was looking directly back down the hallway they had all just evacuated. A second later, black durasteel shards were flying in all directions and after the flash dimmed, Kilo was no more.

Justinios, to his credit, made no initial show of outward emotion. The Aleena calmly pick himself up off of the deck plating, dusted himself off and grabbed his weapon. With his lightsaber still powered down Justinios entered the intersection, which was cluttered with the shattered remains of his droid, and waved his hand to send another grenade skipping further down the corridor. A sneer formed on Justinios’ reptilian lips as he looked upon Daggo Mouk and six Technocrat soldiers.

The Ithorian spoke first, “If my analysis of the holos is correct that was your droid, was it not?”

“Yes but he was more than that, he was…”

“A friend? And now you will make me pay for destroying him?” the Ithorian replied sardonically.

“No, well yes, but no.” The Aleena wasn’t sure what a confused Ithorian looked like he was pretty sure that Daggo was doing a pretty good impression at that moment. “No he wasn’t a friend but I will still make you pay for destroying him. You have no idea how long it took me to reach a point where I even just tolerated him. Replacing him is going to take…”

The Technocrats lost interest in the soliloquy and began firing all their weapons. Daggo’s grenades bounced off walls as Justinios deflected a few especially accurate blaster bolts away from his body as he jump back behind the corner in which Raistline and Rian were still hiding behind.

Correction, used to be hiding behind.

Neither of the Taldrya were in the spot Justinios had left them in and it seemed that Balz Ack had left with them. He knew this meant one of two things: they left him to die or used his little distraction to sneak around behind Daggo and his goons.

Listening closely to the footsteps of the Technocrats advance towards his position, Justinios decided he should have made sure to communicate that he wasn’t making a brave last stand to save everyone else. Going off of the frequency of their footsteps and the distance they needed to cover, Justinios figured he had about 25 more seconds.

“What is that thing? It is hideous!” One of the Technocrat soldiers screamed in part disgust and part fear, but mostly disgust.

Time to end this. The Aleena thought to himself. Then stop Balz from trying to eat the corpses.

Raistline Post #2

The quiet snap of fabric was the only sound announcing the two Taldryan’s arrivals to the room. Having moved at a speed much faster than human legs may run, the bald ewok was momentarrily dazed, then began pulling at Rian’s clothing eagerly saying “Nachua! Narchua!”

“I am not going to do it again,” Rian said in annoyance as he dropped Balz Ack to the floor, none too gingerly.

Rian joined Raistline at the doorway and the two began to address the new situation in mutual silence. The ithorian was close to the right of the doorway, and his guards were just as close to the left. Their friend and ally was playing the perfect part of bait, though Justinios was probably just now realizing his role.

“How about a group slide?” Rian suggested as he ran his ring finger down the markings on his chin.

“I’m more in the mood for a snap and hiss,” Raistline returned, scratching his neck just under his beard.
Balz Ack walked slowly to the door to the hallway. He could no longer hear Justinios as the Technocrat soldiers opened fire. Angrily he drew his blaster, then began to make adjustments to the device at his wrist. If anyone is going to kill Justinios, its going to be me, Balz thought. The time for that was not ready yet.

“Too tight quartered.” Rian countered. Then his face brightened. “Alley oop?”

“Alley oop!” Raistline smiled in aggreance.

Suddenly four hands grabbed the hairless ewok. The two Taldryan’s speed and momentum flung the ewok into the air. He screamed with glee and simultaneously triggered his jetpack and fired with his blaster. All shots strayed from target but caused an incredible distraction. One Technocrat soldier looked up in time to see a hairless ewok projectile firing and flying in close quarters and had enough time to scream “What is that thing? It is hideous!” before the living projectile slammed him into another soldier. Hearing the commotion Justinios rushed into battle to defend his small but ferocious friend.

Rian and Raistline, upon releasing their bald missile, continued racing down the hallway at blinding speed towards Daggo Mouk. The ithorian, taken aback by the spectacle that played out before him, regained control of his thoughts quickly, but the two Taldryans pressed the advantage their diversion had created. Both ran towards their target at increased speed, a fiery orange and vibrant purple igniting into the hallway.

Raistline sped past the ithorian, slicing through an extra arm limb as he passed. Before the limb struck the ground another cybernetic limb fell to his blade. Daggo reached towards his datapad, preparing a surprise attack, but lighting streaked from Rian’s fingertips. The datapad shorted out and fell to the ground, clattering at Daggo’s feet.

“Give up the relic and we might let you live for now,”Rian spoke calmly, his fiery blade humming loudly in his hands. Behind the ithorian Rian saw Raistline raise his saber slowly, parallel to the ground, and could feel his friend’s muscles begin to coil in anticipation. Behind him, he could hear a scream as Justinios finished off another guard.

“You are true warriors,” Daggo Mouk said.

He broadened his chest and held his reserve as he reached into his pocket, maintaining eye contact with Rian the entire time. Slowly Daggo withdrew a small cylinder device and pressed a button. A beam extended from the device. The beam extended out and then fell to the ground as Daggo’s torso fell to the ground with a purple flash of light.

“What the hell, Raist” Rian exclaimed in annoyance, bending down to pick the cylindrical relic from the ithorian’s warm fingers.

“I thought it was a weapon!” Raistline cried out. “Besides, when do they ever actually give up?”

Rian held his wrist up to his mouth and called to the star destroyer Revenent for a direct contact. Justinios and Balz came over to join the group. Raistline stared at the body on the ground and started to laugh. They never actually give up. Taldryan forces, formerly fighting elsewhere on the station, began showing up and sweeping the group out of the conflict.