[RoSM: Rogue Tarenti - Team Phoenix

Comp Link: https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions/14297

Posting Guidelines

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published to the discourse thread in order to count for credit.
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Team Members:

Hades: Snapshot https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/8596/snapshots/1231/2417
Ciara Tearnan Tarentae: Snapshot https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/359/snapshots/1238/2424
Kidouses: Snapshot https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/286/snapshots/1237/2423
Pel Tarentae: Snapshot https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/48/snapshots/1235/2421

Objective Chosen: Sabotage Path

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

Bright flashes from the viewport lit up the interior of the cramped landing craft. Each flash of bright green or blue or red flashes were constant reminders of the death that surrounded the craft and the death that could befall them all if one of those weapons targeted the small craft. Hades checked the safety on his blaster and made sure his lightsaber was secure. The flashes were so familiar to him, like an old jacket that fit just right but had a smell to it, the musty smell of death. He stared out the viewport and thought back to the last time he had been in apart of a space engagement. A day that will forever be seared into his brain…the day Tarentum died.

The smoke filled his nose as the klaxons blared their call of impending doom. He was standing, once again, upon Tarentum’s Venator-Class Star Destroyer Titan during the battle over Yridia II. The Collective’s ships buzzing across his viewport. As the commanding Admiral of Tarentum’s Naval forces, he knew that he still had over one hundred and fifty fighters and bombers still fighting, still moving against the enemies of Tarentum. But the tactician knew that the battle was lost. The screening starships have been destroyed and the other Venator’s systems were failing while she vented atmosphere into the cold death of space. He remember the cold sensation that fell over his body as he gave an order for the first time in his long career. “Abandon Ship!’

“You alright?” Pel Tarentae asked to his left. Pel was almost the oldest friend Hades had. He nodded at the slightly older man. “I’m good. Just thinking.”

Pel grinned. “Well you better not start that now. We land in two.” Hades nodded once more then glanced across at another old friend who had been long lost to the galaxy until two days ago. He spoke up to get her attention.

“I don’t know what you’ve been doing these past twenty some odd years, but are you ready for all of this.?”

Ciara Tearnan Tarentae glanced up from Pel’s datapad she borrowed for just a second and nodded while waving her hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Fine.” She had already forgotten about the brief conversation by the time the other two glanced at each other.

“Twenty Seconds!”

The team stood and readied themselves. The three former Tarenti were close to the cockpit of the landing craft. A loud, jarring crash of the gears announced their arrival. The door was down in a flash and troops poured out of the opening. A web of green and red blaster fire criss crossed the landing bay. The trio made their way to the wall of the shuttle bay, masks on while Ciara began working her slicing magic on the maintenance hatch. A long ten seconds passed as her compatriots kept her covered with accurate blaster fire before she unhooked her equipment. “Done!”

Now it was time for the real fun to begin.

Though the sounds of the frenetic skirmishes taking place in the landing bay muted somewhat as the three rogues – is that what they were now? – descended into the service tunnels and sealed the way behind them, it was clear they were not the first to seize upon the strategy.

As the Brotherhood’s forces were already throwing the space station into chaos, the Collective scrambled to respond. Even within the service tunnels, the walls were freshly scarred with blaster fire and the ground littered with droid parts. Civilians from the station’s lower levels, hoping to escape the crossfire, huddled in remote areas of the tunnels and prayed for mercy.

Was she ready for all this?

Twin golden blades sprang from the converted hilt of Ciara’s lightsaber as she recalled Hades’ question aboard the transport.

Of course she was. They all were.

Hades wasn’t the only one with the fall of Yridia II seared in his mind. Despite Ciara’s absence and great distance from her home, images of the lost battle – fragmented, but persistent – had broken in on her consciousness since the time it occurred. There was much she had yet to share with her friends, but there would be time for that once Tarentum’s enemies were brought to their knees.

For now, they moved.

Engaged almost immediately by one of the Collective’s Technocrat soldiers and an accompanying host of security droids, the three Tarenti moved instinctively together as though they had been fighting alongside one another for years.

Already beginning to tap into some of that calculated rage, Hades took on the soldier while Pel defended against the droids and simultaneously directed Ciara’s attenton to an Imperial Sentry Droid that stood just around the bend. A familiar smirk snuck onto Ciara’s lips as her eyes followed Pel’s to the droid. Those Sith were good for something, afterall!

“Well, don’t mind if I do,” Ciara grinned as she stretched one hand toward the sentry. “Come to me, precious.”

With a word, the combat droid had a new master, and her enemies were its enemies. Employing the art of Mechu-deru, the Techweaver had enslaved the droid to her will. Turning its bright red photoreceptors onto the soldier and security droids, the Sentry advanced with blasters raised to dispatch its former “allies.”

Meridian Space Station, Interrogation Cell 7-A

It was a good plan.

Access to the correctional facility wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be. Those with a little power always crave more power. And those who crave power can easily be manipulated. If the being calling itself Rutgar-4 was suspicious about the new arrival to his facility, it was quickly set at ease by the way in which Kidouses had taken to the interrogation of prisoners.

The visions had shown Kidouses something he did not fully understand, and the need for that understanding had driven him across the galaxy. There were pieces to this puzzle that he didn’t have, and what better place to find the answers regarding his fallen Clan than in the minds of these prisoners.

The sobs from the Jedi who lay crippled on the floor could no longer be heard over the blaring of alarms. Kidouses rubbed his eyes in frustration.

“It had been a good plan” he said to himself.

He began opening the door to the integration cell, when the bolts clicked into place he paused. For a moment everything was still as he focused on his lungs, his heart, and the air around him. His breathing stopped and with that, Kidouses stepped out into the gas filled hall.

Leaving the door open and the Jedi inside gasping behind him, he ran down the hall following a motivated looking sentry droid. “I am going to relish draining the life out of whoever is interrupting me” he thought as he continued down the hall. His run turning into a slow jog and then into a walk as the droid in front of him turned the corner and stopped. In a moment, all of the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. “I know this feeling from somewhere…”

Kidouses turned the corner and stopped in his tracks. While seeing the sentry droid making quick work of its former comrades was quite the scene, Kidouses’ gaze was fixed upon the three figures of Hades, Pel Tarentae, and Ciara Tearnan. Frozen in time and space for a moment, Kidouses let the presence of his old comrades wash over him.

It was during this moment a technocrat solider came out from behind Kidouses and raised his rifle. As instinctively as swatting at a fly, Kidouses reached out with the force and drove the solider into the wall. The soldier’s body limply fell to the floor and Kidouses began walking towards the group in front of him.

“Hello, friends!”

It took several tenths of a second for comprehension to set in. Hand-to-hand combat was always more confusing and hectic than ship-to-ship without helpful displays. When things go out of pattern, such as an approaching combatant suddenly registering as not only friendly, but “family” it took Pel almost too long to catch up. Not for the first - and probably not the last - time Pel mentally cursed the dissolution of the Obelisk, and the far too many times that he’d been forced to actually draw his sabre as an (in)direct result.

“Which way to the prison core?” he asked in between blocking one blaster bolt and sidestepping another. “We are here to shut this thing down, could always use an extra hand - if you have any.”

“That’d be back the way I came from” was the response.

“Right then, lead us on, I’ll watch six. Ciara take left, Hades-Right. Let’s increase throttle and press the assault, let me know if you spot flankers. If we start getting pinned down, I’ll manage coordination”. Command was something Pel was used to, and even though he was no longer in charge of a Fleet, or a Clan, he naturally started arraying his forces to meet the expected challenge.

Even though years had passed, Ciara still ignored every word coming out of Pel’s mouth, and just kept enjoying what she was doing - in this case turning droids on their “masters”. Hades was paying attention, and opened his mouth to disagree and suggest an alternate plan.

“We should split up in pairs” he countered.

“Sure, you and Kudos go first, Ciara and I will follow.”

“She has not changed a single bit, has she?” Hades mused before moving ahead with Kidouses. As the pair made it to the first turn he looked over his shoulder as his long lost clanmate.

“Which way, stranger?” Kidouses pointed to the right. Hades nodded and did a quick peek around the corner to check for enemies. The coast was clear so the pair moved up and began keeping a good pace with Ciara and Pel quick on their heels. The four Tarenti began to make their way to the core with Kidouses being their inside man. A wayward former member of Tarentum who seems to want to return to the fold, Kidouses seemed as happy as a former Krath who enjoyed torturing people could be.

The group spent the next hour moving from one corridor with various enemies laying in wait to various traps intended to kill escaping prisoners or intruders et al. The old associates began to fall into a pattern. Once enemies or traps were identified, Ciara would turn any droid she could against their comrades. The confusion would allow Hades the opportunity to take out any holorecording device in the vicinity as to keep Kidouses’ assistance completely unknown to the enemy. It was vital to their mission that his betrayal remain a secret until the very end.

Finally, they came to the main command center where the core was located. Looking back at the group, Hades fixed his gaze upon Kidouses and looked him in the eyes. “OK. This is all you to get us in. We just need to take out that computer core and this should do the trick.” Hades hands Kidouses his Ion Grenade.

“Your security clearance should get you in. Once you are on the inside assume your normal post and trigger the grenade. That should take out all defense systems, the warden and maybe even the AI core itself. After that, get the door open and we’ll join you. Got it?”

“Blah blah, do all the work. Got it.” Kidouses took the Ion Grenade and concealed it on his person. “Good to go.” And with that, he was up and moving back towards the Commander Center.

Arriving at the door of the command center, Kidouses let out a brief sigh of relief. Though the prison was clearly on alert, the Warden hadn’t deemed it high enough to do a full lockdown. Even better was the fact that the droids standing guard in the hallway hadn’t murdered him on sight. Kidouses quickly tapped in his code into the door’s keypad. Above the door a camera turned and looked at him, then a voice called out from the speaker just above the keypad,

“Exclamation. Good, you’re here! We must begin the emergency lockdown procedures”

The door slid open and Kidouses stepped inside. Inside of the control center was surprisingly large for a prison that, until recently, only had a single sentient employee. The back of the room contained a large computer looking “thing” which Kidouses assumed must be the data core, and on the opposite side was the main prison operations control station. Standing over that station was a dark armored HK-47 unit.

Though the HK unit had explained to him that he was not an actual HK unit many times, it had never been able to explain why it still used the same kind of speech patterns. Kidouses wondered if Rutgar-4 had continued to use the HK speech pattern for his benefit. They had grown kind of close, did this thing think it might actually have a friend? Whatever the reason, it wouldn’t matter much longer.

Kidouses smiled and reached his mind out to Dominate the Mind of the crystal inside of the droid. In many ways, the crystal felt different than any other organic mind he had trespassed in before. Structured, ridged, and alien in almost every way. But in the end, all minds are really the same. All of the familiar paths and places were there, it would just take a moment to…

“Question. What are you doing?”

Rutgar-4 had turned from the control station and was now looking straight at Kidouses.

“I’m helping you.” Kidouses said in a low voice as he began to replace the will of the crystal with that of his own.
“You’ve done such a good job here, but you’re needed elsewhere right now.”

"Puzzled response. Am I? I don’t think that’s right.”

Kidouses reached into his robes and removed the ion grenade. He held it out in front of him.

“Yes it is. You know it is and you know this because I’m telling it to you. You need to take this to the droids in the hallway outside and set it off. I have everything handled in here.”

Pushing even further through the crystalline structure, Kidouses began forcefully reshaping the pathways, “I’m your only friend here and you know, I wouldn’t lead you astray. We’re going to do such amazing things together when this is over.”

There was a moment where both figures stood still.

“Confident statement. Of course, my friend! You have everything here perfectly under control. I’ll take this to the droids outside.”

Rutgar-4 snatched the ion grenade out of Kidouses’ hand and strode toward the door. When the door closed behind him, Kidouses took Rutgar-4’s place at the console. “First let’s turn off the alarm and then get someone in here who knows what she’s doing…” He made a few keystrokes and the sirens stopped. As he flipped on the PA system a loud explosion could be heard from just outside the room, “Ciara! Your presence is requested in the control room!”

The clinking of an assortment of metallic objects striking the floor preceded the Warlord’s rise to her feet. Emerald eyes surveyed the damage the ion grenade had inflicted on the security droids and turrets before settling on Hades.

“Messy,” was the only word out of her mouth as her fingers brushed still more pieces from her cloak. Could she have added some acknowledgement of its efficiency? Certainly, but where would the satisfaction be in that?

Not allowing the time for a reply, Ciara strode from the area where she and her comrades had hurriedly taken cover upon watching Rutgar-4 appear at the door from the command room with the ion grenade in his hand. It hadn’t exactly been the plan, but it seemed her old friend and former Mystic was no better at taking orders than she was. If she could be said to have a heart, it certainly swelled with pride.

The dyed-in-the-Imperial-wool, mustached Sith Battlelord was less amused. Pushing ahead of Ciara, Pel swept his hand to send the remaining debris and disabled droid bodies clear of the door and crashing, with perhaps unnecessary force, into the corridor wall.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have,” Ciara shot a smile at the reddening face of perhaps one of her oldest friends as she took her freshly cleared path to the opening door with a similarly unnecessary flourish.

Shaking his head, but chuckling nonetheless, Hades followed quickly on Ciara’s heels to meet the erupting blaster fire within. Though the sirens had been stopped, the station’s AI had already re-classified Kidouses. They would have to fight their way through the rest of this.

However Pel might have responded to his friend was pushed aside as his keen perception caught sight of some movement from the modified HK-47 body of Rutgar-4. At such close proximity, the ion grenade should have completely destroyed or disabled him, but the Collective’s darling warden had been outfitted with armor he never expected to see on a droid – dark armor, which had likely been enhanced to boost its resistance to energy-based attacks.

Not one to take chances and short on time, Pel struck the crimson blade of his lightsabre forcefully through the largely incapacitated droid’s body, cleaving it in two just above the waist.

Intentionally leaving the shard within the shell intact – perhaps its knowledge could be useful to them, later? – Pel moved swiftly to rejoin his team, grumbling something about Obelisks along the way.

“Close the door!” came the shout above the battle fray as Hades saw his friend “safely” within the prison’s command center.

Close the door. Recycle the life support. Open the doors. You spend a few years in Intel, marry the Supreme Director, and suddenly everyone thinks you’re a genius hacker.

Cursing to herself as she crouched near the center’s computer core with her slicing equipment, Ciara did manage to close the door. That was easy. The rest was proving to be more difficult, though she wouldn’t let on. Her friends’ confidence in her slicing “magic” might have been misplaced, but not in her intellect or her ability to get the job done.

Closing her eyes, Ciara reached out with the Force to bypass the technicalities and delve deep into the computer’s core. The process was not altogether unlike manipulating a sentient’s mind, though somewhat less enjoyable. Slowly, a path of circuits and pathways opened up to Ciara until she understood the system intuitively. Now all that was left to do to was bend it to her will.

With a gesture used simply to focus the hex, Ciara began by pumping the Dioxis gas into one of the cells she’d discovered was packed with Jedi of the lighter persuasion. Could there have been members of the Brotherhood among them? Perhaps - but there shouldn’t have been.

With that task done, the Techweaver returned to the objective. In several moments, Ciara opened her eyes to alerts from the system. The gas had dissipated and life support systems were powering on. Doors were opening throughout the correctional facility - save one - and electronic security restraints were dropping to the ground. The atmosphere charged immediately with tension and decision. Chaos was coming.

Standing to meet the gaze of her friends who had covered her and made quick work of their enemies, Ciara grinned.

“Mr. Oligard, I think we’re back in business!”

“Great work everyone, I think we can take a bit of breather here and wait for our opposition to thin out some.”

Pel pointed towards one of the monitors, showing scenes from outside the command center. One corner of the screen showed several Technocrat soldiers and a lone security droid facing off against several angry Jedi. Probably Dark Jedi from the amount of lightning they were throwing around and at the harried defenders.

The middle of the display was showing another corner of the prison, where prisoner was fighting prisoner, with minor displays of pyrotechnics on either side. Possibly a continuation of a dispute that began during, or even before, their incarceration.

“Kudos, any idea how many Brotherhood prisoners were here?” Hades inquired.

“I mostly worked over the lighties, no idea how many true Brethren were here.” Kidouses replied.

“If it were still the Brotherhood I left, there would have been far fewer, I’m sure!” Ciara chimed in, pointing to a third camera view on the display.

This one was showing several former prisoners wielding weapons (presumably) stolen from guards, as they slowly advanced over some weak (or weakened?) Jedi. Bereft of their sabres, these poor individuals seemed incapable of defending themselves against simple blasters, and even simpler force pikes.

Ciara continued, “In my day even the Krath were capable of defending themselves against non Force users.”

“Indeed yes, things have changed. I sometimes wonder if we had stayed, would we have been able to keep standards higher, would we have been able to keep the Orders intact. Would Tarentum still be one of the Clans standing against this Collective, would the Light-siders still be un-welcome within our ranks, and would we have been able to once again seat one of our own on the Iron Throne?”

“Pel, enough waxing poetic on the old days, walking through snow to the Shadow Academy, uphill without any repulsorlifts.” Hades pointed back to the display. “Check that corner view out, looks like some prisoners are coordinating enough that they are creating a barrier to us getting out of here and back home.”

Hades sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Can you tell if they are setting up to try to take the command post or something else?” Asked the annoyed Sith.

“Unknown at this time. They do not seem to be telegraphing their objective,” Pel answered.

“Ok. Where’s the PA system?” The four began to search until Kidouses called out. “Here!”

Hades moved over to the PA system and studied the controls and options for half a minute. He isolated the system of the hallway just outside of the command center, then decided to broadcast prison-wide before turning the system on and pressing the mic. “HELLOOOOOOO BROTHERHOOOOOOOD! As you might have known for a few minutes is that you’re able to breath… You’re welcome by the way… So you might have guessed that the command center has been taken by friendly forces. We have also disabled any restraints your lovely former hosts have placed on you… you’re also welcome… And you are now free to slaughter your way to freedom to your heart’s content. All brought to you by your not-so-cuddly former members of Clan Tarentum. Yes, you were saved by us. You can groan later because we have on our sensors several Brotherhood shuttles waiting to whisk you away back home! If everyone could make their way to the shuttle bay you will be meeting up with various strike teams along the way. Please give them a hug for coming in second place. In a few moments we will be coordinating the lights along each and every corridor to move towards the shuttle bay. Just follow the lights. Enjoy your freedom!” He cut off the mic.

Hades motioned to Ciara to ask if she could make the whole hallway lights thing work. She shrugged but dug into the core once more in order to make it happen.

“Ha! Not bad old man, our barrier is breaking up,” Pel admired while keeping his eyes fixed on the monitors. “But I don’t see the shuttles.”

“What shuttles?” Hades smirked before pointing to the far corner of the command center. “When I went into the PA system there was an option for the executive turbolift. And that’s it. It leads straight up to the upper trading areas. We can make our way up there we can easily make it to a seperate docking bay, even an emergency hatch could work.”

Pel nodded, impressed. “We can bypass the rest of the brotherhood chaos.” Hades nodded.

“But how do we get off the station?” Ciara asked.

“We don’t. Not yet at least. The orders for this mission did not include extraction. They always have in the past.” Hades made eye contact with the others then continued. “We need to download as much information as this place can give us. Ciara, could you get that started?” Hades turned to Pel.

“Will you continue to monitor the stations security system, and in particular, our security while we’re here?” Pel nodded. “I’m on it.”

“Kudos, if you want to help Ciara I’ll get on the comm and squak our objective complete protocol on the DB channel we were given.”

“Fine. But I’m not your personal slicer, Hades.” Hades bowed to Ciara slightly to thank her.

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.

Revenge Path

Meridian Prime Space Station
Outside the prison command center

“Looking for this?”

Somehow heard amidst the chaos of unleashed prisoners of war rioting throughout the station, the barely audible voice pierced whatever sentience remained in the three Technocrat soldiers that hovered, stunned, over the fallen pieces of Rutgar-4.

Daggo Mouk had tasked them with sending word to the warden and securing the path for his escape, but attempts at remote communication had failed. Fearing failing their Guildmaster, the soldiers moved swiftly to deliver the news personally, but found only the warden’s droid host, cleaved in twain, at their feet. The warden, himself, was missing from the crushed chest cavity of the modified HK-47.

The Shaevalian allowed the soldiers to recover from their terrified paralysis only long enough to glimpse the missing, ruby Shard twirling through his fingers.

In a moment, the Technocrats’ attempts to turn on the voice at their backs resulted in the clattering of cybernetic limbs to the ground. The Dark Jedi Master had yet to ignite his blade, but his comrades had, to great effect. Leaving his fellow Tarenti to finish their prey, Sith Bloodfyre-Tarentae strode forward with the body of one of the soldier’s hovering above the ground, just beyond his outstretched arm.

“I believe you may have something to share with my friends,” Bloodfyre all but smiled beneath the shadows of his hood as he turned the soldier’s body to face the door of the prison’s command center, curling his fingers into a fist as he simultaneously slammed the Technocrat’s face into the door’s viewport and intensified his telekinetic grip on his body, slowly crushing cybernetics and bone alike to ensure the soldier would give his friends no trouble.

Meridian Prime Space Station
Inside the prison command center

Torn between a growing frustration with the amount of time she was spending at a computer terminal on this mission and a genuinely piqued interest in the data she’d begun processing, Ciara suddenly stopped and looked at Kidouses.

“I’m not the only one in here, Kudos,” the Techweaver warned. “Someone is transmitting the station’s core files as we speak.”

“Can you track where they’re sending it?” came the simultaneous reply from both Kidouses and Hades.

“I’ll try,” agreed Ciara, mentally prepared to maim or dismember any who shot back a Jedi platitude.

By the time she opened her eyes again to announce her success, the door to the prison’s command center was sliding open.

“Hey! Who –“ the accusation trailed off as emerald eyes settled on the man behind the crumpled, writhing body of the Technocrat soldier. “Sith.”

First Kidouses, and now, Sith? How long had it been? Who was he now?

“I opened it,” Pel interjected, answering the halted question merely to break the tense silence. “Seemed like friendlies.”

“We don’t have time,” Bloodfyre spoke even as he moved to unceremoniously dump the soldier, now flitting in and out of consciousness, at the feet of Kidouses. “Find out what he knows. Quickly.”

Despite muttering something about the fleeting consciousness of his victim, Kidouses seemed pleased to oblige the request for force interrogation. It was, after all, one of his specialties, and Sith knew that well.

“To what do we owe the honor?” Hades asked as the other rogue Tarenti joined Sith within the prison’s command center.

“Daggo Mouk, the Guild Master of these Technocrats, possesses an artifact that cannot remain in Collective hands,” Bloodfyre explained with a dismissive gesture at the soldier who was just beginning to respond to Kidouses’ techniques. “He is present on this station and attempting escape with the artifact. The soldiers were sent to secure his safe passage to his shuttle. If Kudos can extract the shuttle’s location, we can cut him off at the pass, acquire the artifact for–“

The hurried briefing was cut shorter by a small explosion, originating from the body of the tortured Technocrat – apparently a self-destruct mechanism to avoid a situation such as this. Acting on reflex, the Sith Master shielded Kidouses and the others with a Force barrier around the body.

Still knocked backward by the impact, Kidouses grinned as all eyes turned to him.

“What are you so worried about? I got the location ages ago – I was just toying with him while you all chatted.” With that, the Battlemaster was on his feet and moving toward the door. “To the turbolift!”

Hades, Ciara, and Pel followed Kidouses into the Turbolift while Sith made his way back past the screens showing the increasing chaos in the prison as the “experiments” joined the fray.

“Sith, aren’t you coming with us?” Hades inquired.

“Negative, I left Zekk back in the outer corridor in case we needed a path cleared, I’ll head back to him and we’ll re-join Scion on the shuttle. Let us know where you need pick-up, and we’ll be there. We must recover that artifact!”

“Understood,” Pel acknowledged as the door slid shut.

The turbolift shot upwards as Kidouses quickly let the others know what he had extracted - that this was a pre-planned escape route and that the Turbolift only went one-way. It would let them out in the trading area with a nearly straight shot to a small escape craft.

“That one whose brain I picked was supposed to secure a chokepoint just before the concealed entrance to the craft,” Kidouses explained just as the doors opened.

The scene before the group was almost unreal, traders were still making deals, and the Holo-Market was still operating, but small fights were breaking out here and there as Technocrat guards clashed with both recent escapees and Brotherhood invaders. With each of the latter groups including powerful Force Users, there were some rather intense pyrotechnics happening, threatening to eventually push their way onto the crowded terraces themselves. It would only get worse when the “experiments” found their way into the civilian areas of the station.

The agents of the wealthy had not yet realized the dangers they were about to encounter, so focused were they on ensuring that their masters profited. Their obliviousness to the situation made it easy for Ciara and Pel to broadcast the illusion that the small group of Tarenti that was passing through the area en route to a grav-platform was just a bunch of cleaning droids and of no concern to them. Kidouses used the information he had obtained to guide the group towards the proper terrace.

Unfortunately that was the end of things being easy, as blasterfire erupted from that terrace. Forewarned by the Force, Hades was able to draw his sabre and shield the group from the first few bolts. “Dammit, why didn’t Sith bring Zekk with him, we could really have used an Obbie here,” Pel complained as the others ignited as well and began to reflect the bolts back at the security guards. “It seems these guards are not fooled by a simple illusion, there must be droids up there,” he continued.

“Thanks for the insight, Pel. Must be that fancy white uniform you’ve been trying to hide under your cloak really bringing up your brain power, eh?” Hades ribbed his old buddy.

“No time for a debate now, we can talk about why it offends you later.”

“Stop it you two, and focus on the goal. We must be getting close to the artifact, can’t you feel its power in the Force?” Ciara interrupted before Hades and Pel could get too side-tracked with their petty argument. “Either we beat Dagger Monk to the ship, or we’re just in time to catch him before he leaves. That’s probably why there is such a strong defense of the terrace.”

“Makes me wish I had another Ion grenade.” mused Hades as he deflected a bolt into one of the guards above on the terrace. The flesh and blood guard made a satisfying shriek as he tumbled over the side to the floor some 10 meters below.

As the group wielded their sabers with precision, deflecting blaster bolts like the experienced dark jedi they were Hades made a quick mental mapping of the terrace. Only one set of stairs off to the right, but they were too well guarded. The terrace ended at a corner of a hallway leading down further away from the group. There, halfway between the terrace and the floor of this level was a horizontal flag pole with some sort of advertisement that Hades did not bother to read.

“Cover!” Hades yelled. The other three Tarenti redoubled their efforts to deflect the blaster bolts back into the brain pans of their attackers. With the aid of the force Hades sprinted under the terrace and to the corner. With a short force aided leap he landed on the flagpole. His saber in his right, he pulled out his beautiful DL-44 blaster pistol with his left. Ready, Hades leapt up slightly above the terrace right at the corner. Luckily, he took the enemy by surprise.

Surveying the scene, there were two flesh and blood guards at the top of the stairs, two more at the terrace railing firing at the other Tarenti. Four more were standing guard in front of the hallway to the ship the enemy was using to escape. Five droid guards were spread out along the rail with another by the stairs. Unfortunately their target was nowhere in sight. As he landed he suddenly sprang forward towards the flesh and blood guards to his left near the hallway entrance. He began to spin his body, bringing his limbs close but his lightsaber extended at a 45 degree angle from his axis. His momentum carried him through the four flesh guards and towards the top of the stairs. He brought his body into a roll as he landed on the hard surface. As he rose his saber moved from lower left to upper right, cleaving two of the enemy combatants in half while he brought his DL-44 to bear on the third’s face and pulled the trigger without needing to look.

With his left foot against the the bottom of the wall he used his telekinesis to push the remaining enemy just now turning from their assault on his friends to bring their weapons to bear. Two of them got off a shot before falling, both sailing wide. The other Tarenti made short work of them once they landed. Hades rushed to the rail. “We gotta move!” he yelled.

He replaced his DL-44 in its place and brought his saber in front of him as he made his way down the hallway. He could almost feel the target slipping away. He knew his fellow Tarenti were not far behind, so he pushed forward at a rapid pace. Sweat began to glisten on his forehead as he strained his speed to his maximum potential. He was at the end of the 200m hallway in a second or two. Two guards were at either side of the hallway when he entered the shuttle bay where his target, Daggo Mouk, was just bording a YT-2000. The guards fell to his blade as he slid to a halt. The ramp was beginning to raise as the engines of the freighter began to strain with added power. They were out of time. He was out of time. Feeling the rage build up within him at all that he has lost since this war began, Hades let out a fierce roar and leapt up towards the cockpit of the freighter with his purple saber raised high above him. He could see the pilot and co-pilot’s eyes go wide as the looked up to see Hades plunge his saber down into the cockpit to the hilt. The top buried in the top of the pilot’s head. The co-pilot frantically tried to unbuckle his harness as Hades began to cut a small circle into the canopy. Once the hole was made and the transparisteel fell to the floor, Hades removed a thermal detonator and dropped it inside, set for 5 seconds. It landed beside the terrified co-pilot and rolled down towards his feet where he couldn’t reach it. Hades then lept towards the top turret on the freighter and landed on the transparisteel view-port of the gunner. Hades’ used the force to pull the gunner towards him as he plunged his saber into the woman’s chest.

It was at that moment the thermal detonator exploded, taking all of the cockpit and anything within 3 meters with it. The engines quickly begun to die. He could hear the ramp begin to lower. He shut down his saber and looked over to the other Tarenti who moved forward with their sabers at the ready. Six of the enemy moved out with the target, four in front, two behind.

“It’s over, Daggo Mouk. The station is lost. You are lost.” Ciara called out as the three Tarenti formed a line not more than 4 meters in front of their target.

“Nothing is ever lost, Sith.” Daggo said though his mechanical voice. “You just have to know how to play the game.”

Quickly, the hallway behind them began to fill with more guards, fifteen in all. Pel took up a rear guard position as the other two faced Daggo Mouk and six guards. Hades wasted no time.

With a quiet leap he landed behind two rear guards and with a snap-hiss dispatched them with one angled pass of his saber. He pulled Daggo to him with the force, slicing the harness off his back. He hit the Ithorian in the side of the head with the hilt of his saber, knocking him out cold.

At the first sign of comotion, the four guards in front began to turn around to face the new threat. Ciara and Kiduoses took full advantage of this opportunity and quickly engaged the four guards, dispatching them with ease. The guards near the hallway began to fire at the Tarenti as they tried not to hit their boss. Hades unclipped his Impact Grenade and tossed it towards the right side of the line of guards. The resulting explosion killed or maimed 6 of them.

As the four Tarenti made a defensive line and began to advance towards the guards while they dodged and deflected red blaster bolts Hades could hear a whine of a ship. The guards began to switch their fire towards an Lambda Shuttle that was landing next to the immobile YT-2000. Kidouses stood over Daggo Mouk as the other three advanced towards their enemy. The shuttle fired a few bolts from one of their double laser cannons in the guard’s direction purely for distraction. After a minute, the remaining guards were no more.

“I got the hallway. You two help Kidouses with the Ithorian.” Hades moved to take up position at the end of the hallway and peered around the corner. All clear. He gave a thumbs up to the others.

Ciara kicked Daggo Mouk in the head, just for good measure.

“Easy. Look for the artifact.” Pel advised when he reached the target. Sith Bloodfyre and Zekk had joined them from the shuttle. Sith kneeled over the unconscious Ithorian and lowered his hand and hovered it above the body and closed his eyes. After a moment, he moved to the mechanical harness Hades had removed earlier.

“There,” Sith pointed. “It’s in there.” Zekk had the harness open and retrieved the artifact.

“We got what we came for, what about him?” Sith Bloodfyre asked the Tarenti assembled.

“Ciara ignited her saber and began to take out her rage against one of the enemy who took her beloved Tarentum away from her. She began to slice piece after piece off of the Ithorian. He was soon awake and screaming though his mechanical voice. The former Krath was methodical, making each cut hurt more than the last. She kept him alive for as long as she could until he finally died, screeching in agony. The others stood back and watched, and when she was finished she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Ok, then. Now what?”, she asked.

“Let’s get out of here.” Pel suggested. He waved towards Hades who soon joined them. As he group boarded Hades moved to the cockpit, as it was the most natural place for him to be. He saw Scion Altera at the pilot’s controls. He smiled at his old apprentice and friend. He slapped him on the shoulder as Zekk took up the co-pilot’s chair. Hades slid into the rear gunner position to the pilot’s left. As Scion and Zekk began to lift off several guards entered the shuttle bay and began firing. Hades smiled.

“Slow down once outside the field, I have an idea.” Hades said. Scion laughed and nodded. Once the shuttle was outside the Macon field Hades armed the rear laser cannons and took aim at the side of the field. He poured fire into the emitters which soon ceased to function. The result was the shuttle bay was suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space and the guards found themselves rushing into the abyss.

“Are you done? I’d like to get this thing home.” Sith frowned from the doorway.

“Yes. Let’s go home.” Hades agreed.