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Post by Zilfer on Aug 26, 2013 11:36:02 GMT -5
The war had been creeping closer to the core worlds. It was like they were seeing an echo of the past, and perhaps there was some meaning in that. It was different this time however, there wasn't a driving force of evil behind the mandalorains. Warlike and brutal yes, but this time they were working their way inward rather than racing towards the largest fight. A difference Alric had noted when compared to the Mandalorian Wars.
People that paid any attention to the outlaying issues were begining to call it MW II, which wouldn't be far from the truth. The Jedi order had already interveined on numerous planets throughout the known systems and either negoshiated with the Mandalorians or fought them. Rumor was they were hunting down Jedi since the Jedi was the reason for their defeat last time.
Looking out the view of the republic fleet, and Mandalorian fleet opposing each other. Most would be in awe of seeing so many large ships in one location, but that was the problem he was here to solve. Rather... hopefully solve. The Council had held a brief emergency meeting at the request of the republic. The Mandalorians had come to Iridonia which the hatred between Mandalorians and the Zabrak was known to reach extreme levels. Almost to the point of Genoside.
Since the republic fleet had been here first the Mandalorians had oddly held off attacking the exact reason for this remained unknown but they had opted to open up communication. They wanted a meeting on 'neutral ground' though when Alric thought of the planet down below he could hardly think this was anything but neutral.
Stepping off his small shuttle into a hangerbay another apprentice awaited him down below. She looked familiar, and her eyes though soft were determined. A tenseness in her stands no doubt worrying about meeting a Jedi Council member. There were some times when he hated titles. This would appear to be one of those times.
Starting over to the back up he was to recieve, he vaguely remembered over her file. She had been diverted from Ilum where a prostigous Jedi Academy had been errected near a force crystal cave. A good number of Apprentices were sent there for when they were constructing their first lightsabers. She was a padawan and while still masterless had shown promise if Jor's reports were accurate and Alric took Jor as a man that kept good records without embellishing.
"Well met, Master Alric."
The following bow he matched as he always did never forgetting that even if he was a master it didn't mean he was above anyone in the jedi order. He offered a quirky smile before responding. "Yes, and let us hope things stay possitive for us during this mission. I hear it's getting dangerous for Jedi to travel alone," said Alric looking at the Republic officers heading their way already. "That's why you were assigned to me for this mission."
"I will do my best, Master." said Akari nodding slightly. Things were definately starting to heat up around the galaxy, the talk of force orbs had the Jedi racing to investigate these new dark side artifacts, while others were focused on the war brewing.
"Master Alric, pleased you could make it." said the Republic Captain before turning to Akari. "As well as your apprentice."
"I'm happy I could make it as well after my stop on Panatha, this is quite the change of scenery," said Alric with a hint of sarcasism. "Regardless, I suggest we move on our way while you give us the short debrief. If I'm understanding correctly these Mandalorians wish to defect from the main armada is that correct?"
"It would appear so but why Iridonia? Why now? Something's fishy if you take my word for it Alric," said the Republic Captain.
"Master I'm not sensing any impending danger, or malice from the Mandalorians since I arrived," said Akari from Alric's side. He kept moving remaining silent for the moment. He didn't sense anything either but the force didn't always warn you at convinent times.
"We'll just have to keep our senses about us," said Alric as they stepped into another transport in the same hanger bay. "Tell us about were we will be meeting."
"We've designated small cargo ship as a meeting place. It's not armed for combat so the approach should go off without a hitch. Once aboard your to oversee the negoshiations for their defection," said the Republic Captian grabbing ahold of the bulkhead of the small transport they were in as it headed off into space. They could see the cargo ship ahead, small compared to most of the firepower arrayed here. He could almost sense the anticipation from both sides hoping this to go well. "Your mostly to be there as a back up to let the mandalorians know we mean business, and if all goes well you shouldn't have to do anything."
"Let us hope that it remains true," said Alric looking over at the apprentice in green robes. Something was bugging him about her. Why did she look so damn familiar? He'd remember in time he was sure.
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Post by Zilfer on Dec 10, 2013 17:57:51 GMT -5
The cargo ship opened its hatch as they proceeded through. The republic officer was pulled aside to be informed of something. From the looks of it... Alric could guess there was already a complication in this matter. He looked to his apprentice who seemed to be picking up on the same thing.
"Seems there's a problem before we've even begun," said Akari aloud looking to Alric for guidance. He tilted his head ever so slightly bringing his hand to his face in a bit of a thinking pose.
"I've done quite a few of these in my time, and I can tell you, that sometimes the most important part is before the negoshiations have offically opened up. He watched as the Republic Officer came back to them, and he dropped his hands back to his side.
"Seems the Mandalorians don't want to give up their armor or weaponry, and Iridonia insisted upon having someone from their planet placed into the negoshiations," he said. Alric frowned. "More than insisted I'd wager."
"What kind of negoshiations do they need to do with guns?" asked Akari, her voice a bit hesistant of the situation ahead.
"Tell the Mandalorians they can bring in stun blasters, they'll see it as an affront if we force them to come in unarmed, and think that we are weak. This should smooth things over. Be sure a few of our officer's bring in stun blasters as well. They'll want to know we're taking them just as seriously as they are us," said Alric to the Republic Captain. "Oh and Captain.... I never did catch your name."
"The names Rellik," said the officer as he headed off to take care of the meeting preperations. Luckily Alric's suggestion seemed to smooth things over and it wasn't long before they were all in a crowded room with makeshift desk and seats scattered around. Off to the side was glass-steel window over looking the two fleets and the planet below.
***
Master Alric seemed wise in these things. She told herself to stop worrying, they were in republic space and even with the Mandalorians out there they were wanting to do the right thing and help end the conflict. The conversation of negoshiations at first opened up with suspicion on the Republic side trying to see if this was a ruse to let a Mandalorian fleet far into the Republic space. Tensions were high as the Mandalorian leader calmly answered every question.
She noted he was patient and never asked any questions of them, at least she couldn't remember him making one demand or asking any thing that might benefit the Mandalorians for intel. She looked at him and he appeared to be a man in his late fourties maybe early fifties. Dav'os they had called him, she thought. She hadn't quite caught the name, and every once in awhile they spoke in Mando'a. The Iridonian representative continued to try and make demands that their weapons be conficated, ships marked with trackers, or to give them info on the Mandalorian fleet's wereabouts. Dav'os sat calmly ignoring the demands promising only once the negoshiation was over would they allow access to their systems. This dragged on for about an hour before Dav'os finally leaned forward clearing his throat.
"Well, we Mandalorians don't like to get caught up in paper work, so I'm going to put it to you as straight as I can make it, and then you can make a paper on it to send to the senate and they'll write a paper about how it is a good idea and someone will write a paper about it being a bad idea. They'll argue for a bit and then hold it to a vote whether or not to let us defect. Then you'll have to read the damn paper when it finally comes back, and quite frankly I don't give a damn about that. Right now I'm offering some of the fiercest men and women in the galaxy who have the balls to defect against the Mandalorians who don't take kindly to betrayal. That coupled with guns, weapons, ships, and possibly more explosives than you'll need in this entire war I don't see the problem besides that this Iridonian beaurocrate has a problem with anything that has even the slightest wiff of Beskar. Even the Jedi in this room have grown bored with his incessant demands," said Dav'os.
Akari saw the face of the counciler turn read but he was held off by a hand from the Republic representative who then stood up form his seat. Akari was feeling tired. This had gone on quite a bit longer than she had expected it. "We are definately going to consider your offer and I assure you the decision will be relayed with urgency, I don't see a need for you to wait..." said the Republic commander before falling down to the desk. She felt tired too... her eyes were closing. Why was she so.... tired....
***
Davros' patience had run out, and he knew the longer this negoshiation went on the more likelihood of something going wrong, a Mandalorian or Iridonian getting itchy fingers. One step too far and this would turn out to be a battlefield, and they would have half the republic in the system on their combined metal asses rather than allies to sheild from the retribution of Mandalore. Mandalore being a woman didn't make that an appealing ideal. It looked like the Republic representative was about to say something when he fell forward, and everyone in the room began to slump over. He cocked an eye brow realizing some of his own men were falling. Were they trying to make a move to capture him? Poor form.
As he looked towards the Jedi he saw the older one catching the pretty young girl and the rest of the Republic and Iridonians falling like flies. His own men drew a concealled blaster. To fire at the republic representative. "Hold your fire!" he bellowed at the man but too late! The bolt flew accross the room only to be deflected by the humming energy of a sword. 'Lightsabers,' he reminded himself. He had seen them chop a Mandalorian in two, and those dangerous things were one of the best weapons the Jedi had, and one of the reasons Mandalorians took pride in killing such a hard opponent. The Jedi looked at him Lightsaber at the ready.
"I said hold your fire you idiot!" said Davros grabbing the gun from the man and smacking him over the helmet with it.
The Jedi checked the pulse of two of the members before speaking. "Some sort of scentless gas... your man here is wearing a helmet is why he wasn't affected," said the Jedi.
"I have implants that help me breath," concluded Davros agreeing with the assessment. "Now what question is, if you didn't do this... and we didn't do this.... who did?"
Almost as if someone had come to answer the question an explosion rocked the ship, red alarms started going off. A string of curses came from Davros' mouth almost without him thinking about it. Over the intercom the automated warning system said something about a breach and the air supply would be going out now. Whoever was trying to ruin this meeting was going to get some Mandalorian retribution all right.
"Jedi, for now we're going to have to work together if you want to save any of these people in the room," said Davros as he stood from his seat and sealed his helmet on securely. The Jedi nodded in response, looking briefly at the girl now on the ground. Probably his padawan, or whatever they called them things, thought Davros as he motioned too the door. "Alright lets clear the door and find where that breach is and if we can shut it down. Careful we don't know who's hostile on this ship and whos not. Don't trust anyone not in this room, Jedi understand?"
"Better than most," responded the Jedi as he walked to the door. Davros activated the door and it opened....
***
Things were turning interesting alright. Alric wasn't sure who was behind this but no doubt the lives of everyone on this ship were in the hands of the him and two mandalorians. They would have to work together or this incident admidst confusion would start up a space battle right over Iridonia, and no one wanted that. Looking to Akari he'd have to leave her here. I would be the safest place at the moment and taking her unconious body would just slow them down. He was lucky that he had even two people to help him. Luck would have it that he had been practicing his breath control while the negoshiations were going so he could at least do something productive. Well with the force luck was hardly ever a factor, perhaps his subconcious had picked up on the warning. The force, even with his mastery was still just a mystery.
Squaring up they opened the door and on the other side he felt something. Something bad, but he couldn't sense anything specific. When the door finally opened wide he comprehended almost immediately. Droids lined up in a row, and five of them. Their sleek black metal looked just as sinister as a sith standing their with an assortment of guns pointed his directly. If he had the chance to say anything it would have been to warn the Mandalorians to his side. Their guns came up and fired aiming for the glass window behind Alric which would flush them all out into space. He couldn't let that happen. Just his luck that today he would have to deal with assassin droids...
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Post by Salt on Dec 20, 2013 1:41:43 GMT -5
"There you are, sneaky little kekri."
From his shadowed spot atop the engine deck’s ventilation tubes, Mazaru saw the Rodian below, standing over a broad control panel arrayed with buttons, ports and screens. The man shifted his weight on his feet and nervously gestured his hands and juked looks left and right across the terminal. He was wearing a simple dockworker's jumpsuit. More than once he dragged a sleeve across his forehead.
Mazaru noted the high-profile keycard in the Rodian’s hand, and did an ocular readout. The room flashed a brilliant blue-green in his vision: radial scan markers darted outward like bolts of light, spiral data indicators glided among noteworthy objects and enveloped them, and waves of energy rippled across the room and back at Mazaru. After a half-second the scan was finished and a translucent projection of the keycard and relevant data glowed in his mind's eye.
Mazaru grinned. "It wasn't appropriate to steal Nix-Dol's ID. What would the Mandalorians think of an Iridonian pilot carrying them without proper authorization?" He lowered himself to the floor and watched the Rodian hesitate a second time to enter numbers on a data screen. "This is a sensitive time, little one. One would think you didn't favor diplomacy." He moved near to the Rodian, just behind him. "Perhaps you don't really understand what you're doing."
The Rodian cursed and forced his hand down and furiously entered the access code. He stood still for a moment, hand resting on the screen, head lowered. Mazaru tapped him on the shoulder. He yipped and nearly collapsed as he spun round, Mazaru’s palm over his mouth, blaster under his jaw. Mazaru didn’t think it was possible for a Rodian’s eyes to bulge out so much more than usual.
“Easy does it, my friend. I’d prefer not to shoot first, but that’s up to you.” Mazaru looked at the control panel. “Now, I’d like to know what nasty things you’ve been up to.”
The man glanced around the room, perhaps hoping for security personnel he had no reason to expect. He whimpered.
“No need to worry about the officer on patrol. He’s having a well-deserved rest. Now, about that code you just punched into that terminal: nod if you have any idea what it does.”
The Rodian glanced about once, twice more. He shook his head.
“Might it do something bad?”
An uncertain nod.
“Might it do something unsavory to our diplomatic guests aboard the ship?”
A shrug, another nod. The man squirmed.
“Ah, ah. Almost done. Did you take that ID card?”
He shook his head.
“Do you know who gave it to you?”
A nod.
Mazaru smiled, lowering the blaster but keeping his hand firmly on the Rodian’s mouth. The man swallowed.
“Thank you. You’ve been most helpful. Now it’s time for you to sleep, little kekri.”
Mazaru lulled the Rodian into a daze, then extended his forearm probosces into the man’s cranium. Mazaru felt the small, pleasing flicker of warm energy pulse up his arm, into his brain and throughout his body. As the Rodian’s weak life force drained into him, Mazaru searched the stream for relevant memories. There appeared in his mind the vision of a conversation in the shadows behind a bulkhead: from the Rodian’s perspective, Mazaru saw a tall, muscular Iridonian standing in front of him, whose face matched the one from the ID; the Iridonian handed him the keycard and instructed him on which terminal to input the code, then spat about Iridonians never having anything to do with Mandalorians and that kissing the outside of an airlock would be more than those Sith slave whores deserve, fool Republic and Jedi ambassadors be damned.
Mazaru disengaged the stream and retracted his probosces. He removed his hand and let the Rodian slump unconscious against the foot of the terminal. Mazaru grinned at the light headache, disorientation and vague sense of having forgotten something that would accompany the Rodian’s waking.
Picking up the Iridonian’s keycard, Mazaru tried to access the terminal but found it locked. Mazaru pocketed the card and knelt down to find the maintenance panel. He saw a small wisp of smoke coming from the seam, cracked it open and the smell of burned plasteel wafted from within charred circuitry. He felt around inside and noted that the network board – or what lumps of it remained – had been melded completely to the chassis. It was also still hot to the touch, as if the operation had just been done. Mazaru cocked a smile in spite of himself. The code the Rodian entered must have had an overload killswitch subroutine, rigged to activate as soon as the primary routines had been engaged, cutting this terminal off completely from the ship’s universal systems. Either the Iridonian was clever, Mazaru thought, or he knew someone who was. Whatever the code was meant to do, it was clear it wasn’t meant to be undone from here.
Clever, and perhaps over-cautious. If he’s worried he’ll be betrayed by nervous dockworkers, Mazaru thought, then the Iridonian can’t have much control over his lackeys. Which meant he either didn’t have many assistants, or he didn’t have many contingencies. Both cases seemed likely. The man was going for broke, and probably without much help, from this point: it was going to be either a decisive victory or a martyr’s prison sentence for the patriot helmsman. Mazaru grimaced at the thought of rioting lobbyists and freedom fighters plugging up the planetside spaceport where he’d docked his vessel, after hearing good or bad news about the negotiations.
Mazaru scanned for an access port and found one toward the back. He snaked his arm further inside and outstretched a proboscis, linked up with the port, and after a moment of mental energy restructuring and bypassing of locked systems, he felt out the deed: the Rodian’s code had activated a switch in the ventilation channels, as well as a secondary trigger relayed from this terminal to a device in the primary ventilation hub. He couldn’t tell what the device was from here, but if it was in the ventilation system, he’d bet his Aurek fighter that it was some kind of inoculating gas.
As though sprung from his thoughts, Mazaru felt a small adjustment of energy through the relay. He transferred the ship’s deck layout to his mind, then disengaged from the terminal and rose to his feet. That was likely the gas, he thought. Won’t have a lot of time. If the Mandalorians weren’t playing nice now, they certainly wouldn’t be once they saw their men start collapsing.
He exited the service room, noted the patrolman still unconscious by the door, and made his way down the hall toward the nearest elevator to the upper deck and the vent hubs. He was nearly there when an explosion pummeled the air around him and the floor panel below his feet gave way.
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Post by MikDaTv on Dec 20, 2013 14:17:36 GMT -5
[Sledge-Hammer Class Battlecruiser RNS Oberon. Low orbit around Iridonia]
“Captain! Sensors have registered an explosion on the diplomatic vessel!” the Oberon’s tactical officer reported.
Captain Tupalov looked up from his reports and bounded over to the tactical sensor display. “Source?”
“Unknown at this time Sir. We’re pretty far out of range and it was a pretty small explosion. I’m working with Fleetcom to get more data from closer ships.” Tactical replied.
The captain nodded and looked out the front viewport at the many tiny motes of light that were far away Mandalorian cruisers. “XO, sound general quarters but do it silently. No external signs. Don’t want to spark a war. Keep the shields charged and on standby but don’t put them up. Same with the guns.”
Commander Yarl acknowledged the order with a quick “Aye sir” and grabbed the ships intercom. “All hands, this is the XO. General Quarters, General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. Rig for silence, no external transmissions, no hostile energy discharge. General Quarters, General Quarters, General Quarters.”
Tupalov walked back from the Tactical station to the holotable and brought up the sensor images of the diplomatic cargo craft. The hologram was fuzzy since they were at pretty long range and using only the ships forward sensor array to compile the image. The computer was making a lot of guesses about what the image should be. “Send word to the 107th. Get a shuttle of marines ready and out into space. If we need to send someone in, get the word over Fleetcom that the Hawks are standing by.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
[Oberon Port Side Hanger]
“Alright Lads! Words come down from on high that we might get a chance to dance with Mandy again after all.” Colonel Hawkins belted from his place on top of one the Orca’s in the hanger bay. “Some nefarious activity has been registered aboard the diplomatic ships and the scuttlebutt is it might be Mandy trying to sucker punch us.”
“Roughneck 3-1 and Hitman 1-1, you r with me, load up. Roughneck 3-1, bring your space walk gear just in case. Hitman 1-1, swap out grenades for extra ammo. Can’t risk damaging the diplomatic ship with explosions. We are temporarly taking on the Callsign Templar Squad, I am Templar Actual."
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Post by Zilfer on Dec 21, 2013 13:47:48 GMT -5
Alric’s hand created a protective wall that reflect the first volley of blaster fire. Just with the initial firing he was already close to being on his knees. The Assassin droids were using distruptors, the kind you didn’t see on most civilized worlds. “Close the door!”
The door slide shut with blaster fire still hitting the outside of it. Alric found himself down on one knee as he let his focus go on the barrier. If just one of those had gotten through… no it was time to focus on the present. They needed to take a proactive approach, obviously a defensive one was just going to get them killed along with everyone in it.
“Try to radio your side; we need to keep them from firing on each other. I’ll try to reach the republic ships,” said Alric holding up his communicator. “This is Jedi Master Alric Dysar, there is trouble afoot on the ship. It is not appear to be the Mandalorians however. I repeat trouble afoot, does not appear to be Mandalorian threat.”
He could hear the Mandalorian speaking through his comm. trying to radio in any sort of communication. After a few moment’s it was clear there wasn’t going to be any sort of communication. It was being blocked by whoever was doing this.
Suddenly an explosion rocked the room, as explosives on the door forced it open. Grabbing his lightsaber Alric was the first back on his feet. His hand out stretched a volley of what looked like lightning shot out hitting the droids. It stunned them long enough for him to close the distance with a lightsaber. A swing, and he cleaved one in half. Blaster fire erupted behind him as he twisted spinning into another one as it raised its weapon to fire on him. His lightsaber twisted deflecting two bolts from behind. The remaining three fell quickly to the Mandalorian’s heavy weapons knocking the head clean off one and the other two having a chest full of blaster.
“Droids… they never seem to teach them anything about taking cover…” said Davros spitting on the ground as he walked up to Alric. His lightsaber hissed as the blade returned to the hilt.
“Yes well lucky for us they didn’t,” said Alric as he looked down the hallways. More people were passed out, and he could only hold his breath so long. He tried to remember back to his training days the longest he could remember holding his breath was for thirty minutes and that was without estrous activity. They needed to move, but to where?
***
Davros checked the droid for any sort of manufacture markings. They were void of even the most basic markings that told the story of where the pieces of the droid were made. Someone had made these droid custom and possibly paid extra to keep any mark’s off it. It was an HK-55 Model and just like most of the HK line they were assassin droids built to take out plenty of targets. It was a good thing the jedi was able to stun them for a moment otherwise things could have gone a whole different way.
“Muller, I want you to stay and guard the peace keepers. Me and the Jedi here are going to head forward and see just who’s behind this,” said Davros. When Muller nodded he felt surprised, most of the time the boy wanted to go gun ho into battle. Perhaps he was growing up a bit.
Over the loudspeaker system suddenly a voice started to talk.
“You’re just prolonging the inevitable. You work together but there can be no peace, for it is a lie. I have seen the Mandalorian people’s true face and it is not one of peace and diplomacy. It is of war, and destruction. I will not allow this conference to make any sort of deal with the Mandalorian people. This time the war will wipe out their people once and for all.” said the voice.
“Well he’s chipper,” said Davros sourly before turning to the Jedi and gauging his reaction. He knew the Jedi were seen as knights of good but that didn’t mean they had the best interests of everyone in mind. Alric responded to the voice seemingly to test if the voice was able to hear them.
“Why are you doing this? Surely there is an easier way,” said the Jedi.
“No Jedi, you do not understand. I will blow this ship up before I ever see it come to peace. I will see to it that every Mandalorian man, woman, and child is dead before I ever speak of peace. This vessel will spear head the effort when they hear that the Mandalorians blew up a peace keeping ship. No one will meet for surrender, not when they can’t trust that the mandalorians would kill one of their own to take out leaders of the republic. The Jedi won’t be able to stand by either when they hear two Jedi died on the ship, they’ll finally be spurred into action. This is the end for us Jedi but the just the beginning of this war.”
“I believe that puts him in the category of insane, and from the sounds of it we have bigger problems here. If this ship blows up there will be no question, both sides of this engagement will engage. Radio silence isn’t going to be helping either, if we can either find what their using to jam or blow us up we should be able to get a handle on this situation,” said Davros standing back up. He kicked the assassin droid aside. “Let’s hunt.”
***
From the surface of Iridonia ships with both Republic and Mandalorian tags were sent straight up into space with a message to broadcast to both the Republic and Mandalorian fleet. Their codes were registered as ships currently in both fleets that had been sent down to the surface during the secondary contact.
“This is Captain Jones R Rotwell of the Joint Republic-Iridonian fleet. The Mandalorians have killed the peace councilors on the ship and are planning to attack. The vital signs of the Iridonian councilor has ceased along with the others on board. We are preparing a preemptive strike once in range, we suggest you do the same.”
The message was also broadcasted over the Mandalorian channels in Mando’a, with similar instructions. The small mixed fighter fleet was closing with proton torpedo range rapidly with weapons primed. Truth be told it was a mix between Iridonian extremists and very well bribed officials from each side. The goal was to sow mass confusion….
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Post by Salt on Dec 22, 2013 18:08:30 GMT -5
((Zilfer, what do you mean by "similar instructions?" Was the same message from Rotwell given to both the Rep and Mando fleets, or was the message changed for each fleet to incriminate the enemy side? As it stands, it sounds like a Republic/Iridonian pilot is telling the Mando fleet that Davros and his team have killed the other councilors and are planning an assault, and that the fleet should arm its weapons for a subsequent naval engagement. Are you trying to convey that Rotwell is telling the Mando's that they've been "betrayed," in a sense, and Davros has gone rogue, so both the Rep and Mando fleets should cooperate to bring him down?
Dibs next post. Do either of you mind if I develop the nature of the scentless gas, a bit?))
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Post by MikDaTv on Dec 29, 2013 23:30:07 GMT -5
"Marines Ready Up!" Hawkins belted out in the confined space of the shuttlecraft. "Templar One, your going aboard with me! Templar Two, your waiting for us to depart, and then i want you to deploy using your space walk gear and stand by for further orders. Mandy will probably know we're coming so keep on your toes but maintain trigger discipline marines, the republic delegation might still be alive."
"Aye Aye Colonel!" his eight marines yelled. Hawkins nodded confidently and put his helmet on. The Republic command armor was a variant of the standard heavy trooper armor that four of his eight men were wearing. His was covered in com equipment and a long range sensor package. Hawkins armor was also personally modified with gold markings and a gold Colonel's bird on the forehead of the helmet. It was also pristine, every scrape and mark from every battle he'd been in had been carefully buffed out and re-painted. Hawkins kept his armor like he kept his uniform… perfect.
About 5 minutes after he had loaded his men up onto the shuttle, Fleetcom had reported a warning that the Mandalorians had broken the ceasefire from an unconfirmed source. Fleetcom was a mess with reports and queries from every ship in the fleet. That was one of the disadvantages of having bigger fleets present. They couldn't all talk at once. Thanks to the Captain's initiative though, he had gotten his notification in early so Colonel Hawkins and his 107th were the first on call when the admiralty decided to act. Tupalov had given Hawkins orders to heed the warning but be wary of something amiss. it was true that sensors weren't picking up any life signs aboard the diplomatics ship but that was part of the problem. They weren't getting any life signs. If the Mandalorian party had killed the republic party then there should be someone left alive on that ship. If both sides had been killed, a third , non Mandalorian, party might have been involved.
He inspected his squad. Templar One had come from one of the 107th's Trooper companies. they wore the basic marine armor and carried the basic M-55 rifles. Templar Two was a fire team of heavy troopers. Their armor was full body and heavy but they also carried chip launchers and extra ammo for their M-55s. Hawkins prayed with all his heart that they wouldn't need the chip launchers in the confined spaces of the diplomatic ship but he wasn't one to go in unprepared.
Hawkins slid a power cell into his M-55 and charged it. "I say Lads, lets give Mandy what for. Stand by for deployment.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Templar squad, stand by for soft dock" Came the call over the shuttle's intercom. The shuttle's pilot made the announcement as he got within visual range of the diplomatic ship. No activity could be discerned from it's exterior so she slowly advanced the shuttle until it was up alongside.
"Oberon, this is Tinkerbell, i'm within range of the diplomatic ship. Visual inspection reveals exterior damage." She said into the com. after a moment of examining her instruments she reached up and flipped a switch on the overhead instrument panel. that switch activated the shuttle's exterior floodlights which she pointed at the diplomatic ship. "No external activity of any kind, small blast point in the hull, venting atmo. Moving to soft dock with the airlock to deploy Templar Squad."
"Roger that Tinkerbell. Be advised, your transmission is coming in broken with static, we can barely understand you. Your signal may be jammed. You are clear to dock. Do it quick before the Mandalorians think your doing anything more than investigating. Things up here in orbit are heating up something fierce ever since that transmission warning us about the Mandalorians." Came the reply of Oberon's com officer. his transmission was nearly drowned out with static.
"Understood Oberon. I'll make it quick." Tinkerbell said back and then shut down the com. She rounded the diplomatic ship until the shuttle's docking fixture was lined up with the ships airlock. In a hard dock, clamps would snap into place that would maintain an air seal between the two ships but to clamp and then unclamp safely would cost several precious seconds so she maintained the seal by applying gentle thrust from the shuttles engines. It would cost on fuel and slightly push the diplomatic vessel out of position but she could disengage instantly. It was dangerous but if she hard docked every sensor within close range would be able to see it and could tell that she was picking someone up or dropping someone off. The soft dock gave at least some pretense to the lie that the shuttle was only investigating the diplomatic ship for damage.
"Soft dock in 3… 2… 1…" The ships clanged together. The docking port on the shuttle mated with the airlock on the diplomatic ship and Tinkerbell goosed the throttle to maintain the seal. Air hissed from the airlock as the connection was made. "Go for disembarkation."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Go! Go! Go! Marines!" Hawkins yelled as the seal was made. The light over the docking port turned from red to green and the door opened into the diplomatic ships airlock. Hawkins lead the charge and bounded into the airlock with the four marines of Templar one behind him. They rushed in and quickly closed the airlock behind them.
with the lock closed, Tinkerbell reversed thrust for half a second and the shuttle separated from the diplomatic vessel smoothly, as if it had never touched in the first place. Air vented from the shuttle's passenger bay and Templar Two floated out of the shuttles still open docking port and pushed off towards the diplomatic ship. They grappled to the exterior of the ship and attached magnetic handle holds to the hull so they could hang on.
Hawkins saw 8 green lights blink once on his HUD telling him that all eight of his men had disembarked, were healthy and ready to go. He hand signaled to the airlock controls. One of the troopers lowered his rifle and went to the controls. "Sir, airlock computer is saying it's unsafe to open. Some kind of foreign contaminate is in the air within the ship, possibly dangerous. Also, damage to the hull is venting atmosphere. Not sure why the leak hasn't been isolated."
"Masks on!" Hawkins ordered. The four marines plopped their rucksacks to the ground and pulled out full face breath masks. the clear face covering let them see perfectly with full peripheral vision while the breath masks used small compressed air canisters on either side of the jaw to provide oxygen for the wearer. It gave them 20-30 minutes of air depending on their breath rate and could be switched over to filters if needed.
"Templar One, open the door and advance starboard, i'll bring up the rear. Templar Two, move along the hull of the ship to the breath and see what you can do with it. Let me know what you see? Lets move Marines. Lets get this done before the ship looses pressure." Hawkins said into the com and got a round of clicks in acknowledgment. The airlock doors opened and the four troopers plus Hawkins advanced slowly into the ships, rifles at the ready.
Outside, Templar Two used their magnetic handle holds to pull themselves along the hull of the ship towards the hull breach.
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Post by Salt on Dec 30, 2013 19:34:37 GMT -5
Mazaru caught himself before he fell through the broken floor panel. Alarms began blaring and the comm gave an automated alert about the compromised hull and depleting air supply.
Was this dramatic flare a part of your scheme, Iridonian, or has your narrow vision trapped you in someone else's?
No matter, he thought. The Mandalorians generally never parted with their sealed armor, so some of them were probably protected from both the gas and the venting air for at least a few minutes. And he'd heard that Jedi training included control of breath and other body systems, so that may have bought them some time. The Republic and Iridonian diplomats, however, along with most of the accompanying personnel and the ship's crew, had no such protection. That left the Iridonian pilot, Nix-Dol, who was almost certainly holed up in the bridge, where he could maintain the greatest control of the ship's systems. The Jedi and Mandalorians probably had the same idea. First things first, then.
Figuring it may take longer for the ship to depressurize than for the gas to take effect, Mazaru started sprinting for the elevator in front of him that would lead to the ventilation hub. He remembered the exhilarating panic of a botched lockbox break-in on Nar Shadda, and the gas that sprayed him in the face a second after he heard the wrong kind of clicking sound. His lack of a circulatory system was the only thing that saved him, then, but he had no idea about the nature of this particular gas. He smiled, and breathed deeply as he ran. He had no use for long, safe centuries.
***
One benefit of the gas Mazaru discovered was that he didn't need to be careful of questioning passengers or patrol officers. Every hallway down which he turned revealed the rapid effects of the toxic air: bodies were collapsed against bulkheads and doorways and several were caught in violent seizes. He checked the pulse of one and felt no response. Whatever it was, it was clear he had nothing to fear from the gas. He made it to ventilation control inside of three minutes, and after a moment's scan of the room, he found the delivery device for the toxic agent inside one of the primary tubes. A cut wire shut it down and forty seconds' work on the control terminal reactivated the ship's air scrubbers.
For all the Iridonian's apparent force in jamming the vessel's communications and sensor networks, the intersystem firewalls weren't very impressive. Mazaru allowed himself a moment to muse over what touches he would've added if the Iridonian had hired him to do the job.
The mists flow another way this time. Prepare yourself, Iridonian. Now I come for you.
He sliced his way past another firewall and connected with the emergency airlock procedures. He marked the coordinates of the hull breach -- the passenger quarters, unit two. The system registered standard protocol overrides, with the only sealed doors being at the primary docking point and the bridge. Everything else was being steadily sucked by hard vacuum. The pilot was either quick on his terminal, or he knew the explosion was coming. A quick workaround and Mazaru had control of the emergency system. He sealed all the access doors to the passenger quarters, closing off the rest of the ship from the vacuum, then unlocked the bridge.
Mazaru checked the schematics he downloaded from the engine control computer. The meeting room had likely been on this floor. He saw three that would've served the purposes of a negotiation, and noted the one with the most direct link to the ventilation hub. The bridge was located some distance away from there. He plotted two of the most likely courses among those locations and the breach in the passenger quarters, and figured the surviving Jedi and Mandalorians were already progressing on one of them. He had his reference points.
He disengaged the terminal and exited the ventilation control room. As he loped toward the bridge, he chuckled. He never fancied himself an arbiter of diplomatic relations. He wondered if he could haggle a price increase for the extra service.
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Post by Zilfer on Jan 9, 2014 20:36:55 GMT -5
Alric’s lack of breath was getting, a bit strained but he relaxed knowing that the more he worried about it the more likely he was to run out of breath. The force would help sustain him until that time, what was important was finding this saboteur. They had cleared multiple rooms, bodies had fallen about the place not realizing, a few of them looked like they might have been going for an alarm, and there were others that seemed to have scorch marks like a battle of some sort had taken place. He pointed it out to Davros not using his voice to conserve what breath he had left.
Davros nodded and proceeded forward. They passed close to the escape pod chamber and he could hear some commotion. The door was locked by a security access panel, though through the windows they saw a few Iridonian figures preparing the escape pods to shoot out of the side of the ship. What was the more disconcerting thing however was the large object sitting on the floor.
Alric heard the Mandalorian curse something in his native tongue that sounded foul. At this the Iridonian’s shot a look their directions and then continued on with their business. One escape shot out leaving. Alric tried the door he wasn’t good at splicing but those could be the only escape pods, when that failed he only had a split second to jump back from the panel exploding from Davros’ gun fire.
More escape pods shot off in the time it took the door to open and and the three men that were still there turned pointing guns at them.
***
109k turned to look at the Jedi and Mandalorian that had come through, and he had flash back to when he had been apprenticed to a Jedi Knight by the name of Drake Hellion before all of this. Then he had become the traveling companion of the Ex-Jedi Padawan Rin. He had protected her throughout the Empire’s regime, not knowing who he was but her protector. She had helped him recover his memories bit by bit. His brain had suffered enough trama to forget most of his memories and he had been a blank slate of mercenary before he had met her and she had recognized him. She had built him up again and his connection to the force was still there but shaky. All that had come to an end recently that had come to an end recently.
He looked over to the others and motioned them to get out. “I’ll take care of them, go now,” said 109k as he squared up with apparently no weapon in his hand.
“If you think you can take us both you’re sorely mistaken,” the Mandalorian said and he shrugged at this, two more escape pods shot out, and only one was left. He knew once it was gone this ship would be blown up for good measure. That was plan A, and plan B was in the room. He wasn’t found of multiple plans but it wasn’t his operation so he didn’t argue. He just wanted to take out some of his recent frustration and a Mandalorian and Jedi would have to do. They already underestimated him, which he counted as a good thing.
“Davros, it’s a bomb,” stated the Jedi as he moved forward into the room. This ‘Davros’ moved in right behind the Jedi blasting two rounds out at him. He was fast as he was made to, and with the help of the force it was almost child’s play as he ducked down arms wide and he came forward unarmed. The Jedi came in from the side throwing an open palm for his chest. 109K’s arm hugged his ear using it as he pivoted his elbow into the blow to deflect it aside, and his other fist slammed forward into the Jedi’s chest followed by a lifted knee, and a smooth slide backwards. With the Jedi on the ground he moved after the Mandalorian who had taken a position at the bomb.
“Doesn’t matter Mando, You should be more worried about the proton torpedoes aimed here,” said 109K as he came forward throwing an arcing punch that stopped before it connected. The Jedi had somehow caught his fist moving faster than a normal human could possibly move. Oh yes, he was going to enjoy this.
“Keep working on the bomb, we’ll worry about whatever he said later. I’ll keep him busy,” said the Jedi as 109K hopped backwards yanking his hand.
“Just don’t die on me jedi, I need you alive as a witness so the Republic doesn’t start another bloody battle in these skies. We’ve enough problems in this galaxy without recreating the Mandalorian Wars,” said the Mando. The Jedi grunted in response.
***
The clock was ticking, and he’d have to keep this Iridonian terrorist away from Davros so he could focus. The man hit hard like he wasn’t fully made of flesh, his guess would have been cybernetic’s but no matter where his blows landed it was like he was hitting a solid brick wall. Not very many people could do that and he acted like his force enhanced blows where nothing more than normal blows. His speed was increased but the man seemed to anticipate a good number of his blows. Force sensitive would be his guess but untrained, he had to restrain the man instead of trying to chip away a mountain.
A punch came forward and he used the force of the man’s blow against him twisting the hand with the momentum and sliding it in behind him and against the wall. Pushing as hard as he could against the wall. He twisted the arm hard and the terrorist cursed trying to force himself off. He wasn’t going to let him get out of this pin.
“How are we doing over there?” asked Alric glancing back but suddenly he felt something impale him in the chest, and warm blood started to flow down his chest. He looked back and saw black spikes protruding from the Iridonian’s back and then retract back in. “What….”
The terrorist broke free and came for Davros landing a solid blow against him and hitting a button sequence that sped up the timer before heading to the last escape pod. Almost in disbelieve Alric looked down and his hand was read. He turned his head back up and his hand shot out a ripple of force blasted the terrorist through the doorway out into the hall slamming into the wall. His vision was starting to fade… he needed to get to the bomb…. He was almost there…. Darkness….
***
Davros picked himself up off the floor, his head was spinning. He couldn’t remember ever having been hit in the head that hard before. That man’s blow was inhuman, and he had been in a quiet a few bar fights before and that included wookies. He tried to focus, and there was a minute left, working he tried to focus, and he managed to stop it with five seconds left before he finally allowed himself to relax.
“Ouch, GOD DAMNIT that HURT!” he spouted in Mando’a before looking over. The Jedi was out, and bleeding. He checked the wounds and they weren’t good. He needed that Jedi alive, if he sent them out in escape pods he could get him to medical attention. He set Alric’s body in there and strapped him in. On the console he punched in republic co ordinance and launched.
He looked back to the man out in the hallway slumped over. Oh he was gonna pay for that… he hoped the bastard wasn’t out cold. He walked forward into the hallway. As he approached he saw someone come from the side and pointed but then he saw Muller.
“Ah Muller, help me tie up this bastard. He’s one of the attackers,” said Davros as he bent down to grab the man and then gave a side long view over to Muller. “What are y—“
***
Muller had secured the room locking it to make sure anyone that woke up from the gas wouldn’t be able to escape from the room before this place exploded. He had just a few minutes to find the crazy Iridonian on the bridge and get the hell out of here. He cursed that the escape pods had already deployed but they had kept a spare fighter in the bridge just in case they needed to fight their way out.
He found Davros and the man that identified himself as a human. His employer had offered enough for him to retire from just this one job. “They better come through with the money,” he muttered to himself switching his gun to stun and blasting his former comrade in the back. Poor fool, he was going to offer him a cut but Muller knew he followed the code of Mando’a far too closely. He looked up down the hallway as he saw four figures proceeding down the hallway.
“Damn my luck,” Muller cursed as he pointed his gun at the terrorist. “Sorry buddy but you’re going to be my ticket out of here, for now. No offense but it’s just business, we weren’t friends anyways.”
Muller looked up to the approaching team and switched his gun forward. “Hold where you are! Identify yourself or I will shoot. It looks like the Iridonians, are trying to start a war here. Not that I don’t trust the republic but… I can’t take any chances…” He made sure they knew he was serious by taking out and priming a mandalorian grade fragmentation grenade. “What’s it going to be?”
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Post by Salt on Jan 11, 2014 2:57:13 GMT -5
Mazaru cocked an eyebrow and grinned to himself. Looks like you weren't cut out for diplomacy after all.
He dropped behind a kolto tank as he sized up the scene just beyond the door: an armed Mandalorian, a collapsed Mandalorian, and his Iridonian mark unconscious against the wall. The door behind them looked to have been burst open with heavy blaster fire; in the room beyond, he could just make out two empty pod hatches, and a large object in the middle of the room. It looked like a bomb. Since nobody was rushing to disarm it, he figured they were either all about to die, or had no need to worry. More troubling was the apparent lack of any Jedi nearby.
The Mandalorian on his feet was muttering something and pointing his blaster at the Iridonian pilot. Booted footsteps echoing this direction seemed to alert him and he brought the weapon up to aim in their direction.
“Hold where you are!" the Mandalorian said. "Identify yourself or I will shoot. It looks like the Iridonians are trying to start a war here. Not that I don’t trust the Republic, but . . . I can’t take any chances . . .” He palmed a frag grenade. "What's it going to be?"
A little garish, Mazaru thought, but interesting. If Jedi had been with this Mandalorian, they would have welcomed the unit of Republic troops he'd followed here with more congenial ordinance. Surely the Jedi hadn't turned on any of them, or been killed. Had the Mando's splintered? Regardless, Mazaru decided to hold his hand. He'd appear when the time was right, or if the Mandalorian looked like he was going to make good on his explosive bluff. Maybe the Jedi had a yet-more-interesting card to play. After all, he would get paid whether the Iridonian was alive or not, and he didn't want to spoil the mood. Mazaru grinned like an yylbeast lurking the misty canopies of an Anzat jungle, and waited.
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Post by MikDaTv on Jan 12, 2014 16:53:30 GMT -5
Hawkins held a fist up to signal his team to halt. "Templar squad, Republic Marines!" He shouted to identify themselves. "Put your weapons down Mandy, no one has to die here."
Hawkins surveyed the situation. Two people down including one Mando, with another Mando standing over them with a weapon and no sign of the republic delegation or the Jedi. past them were the escape pods, all empty and launched. He would have called it in but his communications seemed to be jammed. He couldn't even get in contact with Templar Two now that they weren't right next to one another. He only hoped they managed to find a way inside.
The thing that really caught his attention was the device on the deck near the escape pods. Hawkins recognized it immediately as a modified Krakatoa, an anti-ship missile warhead used aboard some older ships. There was a surplus of them in the galaxy and some seedier elements had managed to figure out how to convert them into bombs. This looked like one of those bombs.
"Is that thing armed?" Hawkins asked, indicating the bomb with the barrel of his gun.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Oberon, this is Tinkerbell. Be advised the diplomatic vessels has deployed life pods." The shuttle pilot reported to her mothership.
The reply came back to her with less static now that she wasn't in such close proximity to the diplomatic vessel. "Understood Tinkerbell, standby."
The shuttle pilot put Tinkerbell on a parallel course with the escape pods. They had been launched in succession. after a few long moments Oberon came back to her on the com. "Tinkerbell, this is Oberon. One escape pod is registering weak life signs and it's course is bound for the Republic lines. intercept and capture this pod for return to Oberon. Marking the pod for you now."
The pilot put her shuttle on an intercept course before replying "Roger, wilco Oberon. Tinkerbell on mission."
She pushed the throttle up and caught up with the marked escape pod. She used the shuttles docking tractor beam to slow the pod down and slowly got it within reach of the shuttle's docking arm. Normally used for carrying light vehicles onto the ground, the docking arm could more than handle grappling the escape pod. once attached to the shuttle, Tinkerbell reversed course and headed for Oberon to bring the pod in.
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Post by Zilfer on Feb 6, 2014 15:00:09 GMT -5
"So republic good, than you can help," said Muller looking back down to the Terrorist. He noted it was the man who only identified himself by a number, during their plannings. Well the plan was shot, everyone was out for themselves now. "Before we put him down, he was talking about someone on the bridge and that it wouldn't matter if we stopped the bomb. Something about proton torpedoes, we didn't get anything else out of him before putting him down. The Jedi tried to help but this guy is dangerous, and was wounded so we shot him out the last escape pod, you should radio that in."
Looking back he made a mental note of their numbers and knew his best option to slip away was to thin their numbers and tasks. "That Iridonian on that bridge needs to be dealt with before he does anything rash, and the peace representatives are down the hallway, beware of patrolling droids, I ran into some assassin droids, more specifically HK-55 droids on patrol. I'm not sure we've cleaned them all up yet, the rest of the crew has been in capacitated by the gas, but it must have disappaited by now," said Muller as he let his gun drop from the terrorist but he kept the grenade primed. "If you guys have a ship we need to get the representatives off this ship, and another two or three of us can deal with the Iridonian on the bridge, hopefully he's pulled all the Assassin droids to him."
That was just the moment the Terrorist had been waiting for, he stood up in a bound assisted by sharp black blade protruding from his wrist and then his hand grasped the grenade arming it, if any blaster fire or stun fire hit him in the back he showed little feeling for it as he held onto Muller. "Good bye Muller," said the terrorist holding him tight. Muller struggled and found leverage enough to smach him aside and dived for Davros curling up near his head. The resulting explosion rocked the hallway and for a moment all was silent. Luckily his Mandalorian armor had protected him from the blunt of the force. He praised whatever gods there may have been for beskar. He groaned standing up wondering if that had killed any of the republic soldiers. Why would the idiot blow himself up? Just to spite him? Well too bad, it hadn't worked. Checking Davros he wasn't banged up any more than he had been before his armor was scortched from the blast as well and his head had been protected thanks to him. 'You owe me one.' thought Muller as he looked at the corpse of the Terrorist.
"Well that's one less terrorist we have to deal with..." said Muller looking around to the republic soldiers. He seemingly hadn't noticed a piece of metal stuck in his armor from the fragmentation, and it was just starting to flow red. The stims in his system dulled the pain... "Your guys ok?"
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Post by MikDaTv on Feb 22, 2014 7:01:02 GMT -5
"We can't radio anything in." Hawkins admitted. "Local enemy jamming is still in place but rest assured the fleet will make every effort to pick up life pods." Hawkins pointed to the bomb "Marines, lets secure that explosive. We can't fight proton torpedoes but we can try and stop this thing from killing us. We can't get in contact with any ships until the jamming is….."
"Grenade!" One of his Marines shouted when the terrorist jumped up and made his move. Hawkins grabbed the nearest marine and forced him down to the ground and then knelt over him to protect what he could with his armor. After the explosion, Hawkins quickly surveyed his men. Aside from some shock and awe they were fine. they had managed to get down fast enough to mitigate most of the damage. "What are you napping? Get on your feet Marines! Secure that bomb, Medic survey the wounded!"
Hawkins advanced on the Mandalorians, keeping his gun on them. "Safety your weapons and place them on the ground. My medic will take a look at you and secure you here. Once the situation here is locked down we can figure out how to deal with the bridge and this Iridonian."
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Post by Salt on Mar 22, 2014 14:46:55 GMT -5
"I believe I can help you with that bit."
Mazaru stepped out from behind the kolto tank. He held up his hands as the surprised marines instinctively rose their weapons.
He nodded toward the downed terrorist. "You didn't appear to need my help with this one. No points for subtlety, I'm afraid. I've never been fond of explosions within arm's reach." He grinned. "Good to see your marine training stuck."
He looked to the person who appeared to be the commanding officer. "I know a quick route to the bridge that'll keep us out of sight from any lackeys this one has waiting for us. And we might want to stop by the meeting room on our way. I believe there's a young Jedi waking from a nap who'll want to put a face to her headache." He gestured down the hall, then looked at them all for a moment. "I've already dealt with the gas, so you can remove your helmets if you wish. Can't imagine the smell behind those visors."
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Post by Zilfer on Apr 3, 2014 13:38:53 GMT -5
As the ships started firing upon the diplomatic vessel, a Mandalorian displayed upon the Republic fleet. A man in his thirties with his arms crossed and a scar down the side of his face. “This is Battlemaster, Kilamandros. We are targeting fire on the fighters attacking the diplomatic ship, we are still under the assumption that the republic is not behind this attack. I suggest you move to these coordinates to take the rest of the ships out in a pincer, if you have Ion capture would be the best case to prove it was neither side. Inaction will be seen as an act of hostility. Our sensor’s show you sent in a team to the station we will want a report of their findings.”
The ship began rocking from fire hitting it from the outside.
“I don’t think we have time to sit around and chat about this with our weapons on safety, and I really don’t want to get ambushed by Assassin droids while my safety is off,” said Muller as he held onto the side of the hull for a moment.
“Look if you want to catch the suicidal man on the bridge go ahead, I myself need to get my commanding officer here off this station, and I mean pronto. I’m going straight for the meeting room and then the hanger bay. We have room on our ship for the other members of the meeting if they need to be transported off as well,” said Muller picking up Davros and putting his arm around his shoulder to carry him easier. “Heaven’s forbid we run into more droids.”
Escape pods hit the ground of Iridonia, it was clear by the time the republic arrived it had been planned because most of the pods were empty. Iridonian officials were “conveniently late” to each scene, though it seemed most of the pods had hit unpatrolled areas. One of the escape pods had blown up upon investigation, a bomb set up by the terrorists while messages left in other ones denounced any truce with the savages that were mandalorians….
Akari was slowly regaining consciousness as she opened her eyes and closed them several times. Her body felt heavy, heavier than it had ever felt before. Where had she been? A meeting of some sort…. With…. The Mandalorians! She leaned up and looked around seeing the past out delegation numbering 3 republic representatives and only 1 mandalorian left. Where had Jedi Master Alric gone? She felt the ship rock again, and it took a few seconds to connect the dots but something had happened here. No one was dead in the room that was the good news but why were they all asleep? Gas?
Getting up to check the door it looked like someone had locked them in the room. She wasn’t good at splicing like some of the other students at the council so she wasn’t confident she could get them out of the room through the door so she tried thinking of a different way out. Ventilation was important throughout a ship…. And if she woke up that meant the gas was probably gone from them…
Moving to the vent she cut it open with her pink lightsaber, this was starting to remind her more and more of that temple on Yavin that Jor and his company had explored with her. They had found a dark artifact there, one that had chilled her to the bone. She wasn’t good at moving things but she was good at sensing things. It came easier to her than others, and she thought she felt a distant presence of malice… but it was muddled. Somehow it was sad, but she couldn’t figure out why. Other ones felt alert probably people trying to figure out what happened. She wouldn’t find anything out from just sitting around however….
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