Log:Battle for Carida: HiSpeed Hijinks

In which the Dark Side stages a raid deep behind enemy lines

OOC Date: 27th July 2020
Location: New Republic Territory - Carida
Participants: Knights of Ren: Malik Ren, Imani, Oozlevort. Reliquary: Kuolo. Featuring Sebek as GM, with a cameo by Syrus.

The short story: Private Douglas Sandrunner fights valiantly against the evil combined forces of the Knights of Ren and Reliquary.

The long story:

[20:06:30|Sebek]

Part of keeping the war effort afloat for all sides involved a robust supply chain. What good is trench fighting when you can't feed your troops? Or patch them up? Or send them recreational reading material? You can't exactly HoloMail goods and services. So, both sides in order to keep themselves in the fight have set up their own connections, getting goods in however they can. To destroy the supply chain in one strike? Impossible, there's redundancies and redundancies to go with the redundancies. The joy of war, y'all. But to put a ding in it? To strike a bit of fear? Yeah, that was possible.

Above the beautiful and yet-to-be-turned-to-ash surface of Carida, deep in what could be called New Republic lines but far enough from any quick reprisal, was a train.

Above that train was a black shuttle, unmarked, unlabelled, and full of the most dangerous individuals on the planet.

Aboard the shuttle, the assembled strike team's comms lit up. "Check, aurek, besh. Lords and Lady, this is Agent Nark, low Carida orbit." As always, First Order Intelligence was on the case. Agent Nark's voice was so Imperial you could put it through a rice strainer and the entitlement would glug up all the holes. "Caryd City fell to Rebel sympathizers early in the conflict. Each day they despatch supplies by magrail to Rebel Central Command. As this route is deep behind Rebel lines, it is undefended." Ah yes, the foolish Rebels were safe in their complacency, ha ha, that was what the Agent was actually saying. "The purpose of your strike is twofold. Secure the supplies for the First Order, and deny them this logistical connection. We leave the method to you. Glory to the Sith. Glory to Lord Ren."

The magrail chain was moving at a pretty decent clip. It was only seven cars, small for a resupply, and the shuttle was very close to the rear car. The egress doors hissed open and the nose of atmosphere whipping past became deafening. Below, a couple of metres, was the top of the train. All that was between the strike team and the train was the wind. God that was a lot of wind.


[20:17:28|Kuolo]

Kuolo had been quiet. In the days since they had been seen, Kuolo's forces had turned to the snowy reaches of Carida. Somewhere along the way, a fresh robe had been prepared, and a change of clothes. Unlike his other robes, a deep hood had been added to his ensemble, lined with snow-white fur that stood out against his mask. It was the only addition to his cold weather gear, which was strange, as his arms were protected by the same wrapped linen cloth straps, circling his arms and hands.

Stepping forward, a quick glance is given down. The helmet had already begun running calculations, but he didn't wait for them. The mask shifts towards Malik a moment, before Kuolo's fore-and-middle fingers rise to press to his temple in salute. And then, the great white ninja is gone.


[20:22:26|Malik Ren]

Malik Ren is masked, that blank, forbidding helmet so reminiscent of Kylo's -- but not quite the same. All of his attire is dark where Kuolo's is white, and a long moment is spent listening to the Agent, watching the magrail train zip quickly below. Kuolo's brief salute is returned, and Malik lingers there on the precipice for a moment, studying the wind... perhaps contemplating all of the ways his bones will break if he gets this wrong? So many bones. So many ways.

"Onward," he instructs/encourages the Knights such as are here, and then following that simple command, he jumps. It's not fancy, but it's effective enough.


[20:23:53|Oozlevort]

Oozlevort the famous Gand Findsman needs money and needs to lay low to let some labor issues blow over. So what better place than Carida, working for the First Order and the Knights of Ren! He checks the charge on his Glie-44 and then his backup SE-44c. "Oozlevort does not like moving trains. They move too fast to see them through the Holy Mists. Where will Oozlevort land? It cannot be seen." He hops awkwardly off the shuttle, tumbling back and barely grasping the edge of the train with his hard four-fingered hand. "Ow." He slowly pulls himself up past the lip.


[20:28:41|Imani]

Imani is likewise hidden behind a rather featureless faceplate, dark armor, and heavily armed, as per usual. Jumping onto a train isn't an easy thing, but she readies herself, and then takes a leap moments after Malik. It starts out as a not so graceful jump, but manages to correct and land without getting herself killed.


[20:34:28|Sebek]

The general gathering of Mostly Evil, Evil, and VERY Evil individuals on the top of the mag-train was a simple affair. And how could it not be? These were the finest warriors of the First Order, after all. The rear carriage was very similar to the front carriage in many respects. In fact it was damn near identical. Just turned around. This must be so they don't have to pick the whole thing up and rotate it one-eighty to send it back to Caryd City. There was a door on the side for those daring and/or insane, and a gap where the carriages joined wherein people could move between them. Ahead, on the five central carriages, were roof hatches for Varying Shades Of Evil individuals to get the drop on whoever or whatever was inside. They also had side sliding doors for cargo loading and unloading. Ah, manual labour.

Over the chaos that was whipping wind, the Agent's voice blared over comms once more. "The shuttle is breaking off for now." At least he didn't lie, the sleek black vessel peeled off and away from the train into the distance. "It will return upon completion. Good hunting, Lords and Lady." And Oozlevort.

So, that left the strike team with options. Both accessible carriages were accessible by the tight squeeze where the doors were hiding (thankfully protected by the wind), and the cargo carriage could be reached by roof or side.


[20:52:36|Kuolo]

The fur lining of Kuolo's cloak hood bristled in the wind that whipped around them, as he walked along the top of the carriage gracefully. As he gets his bearings, and feels for the others dropping around them--And prepared for a change of plans if that went south--He studies their entryways. So be it. In his right hand, Anuesana's lightsaber is coiled by his spindly fingers. His left hand rises with a quick motion, as Kuolo reaches out and imparts his own demands upon their world.

The result: ahead of them, an access way in the roof buckles, offering a groan that those above the train likely cannot hear. It only resists for a moment, before violently flying upwards and, catching the wind, shoots beside the group on the train, into their wake. He's on the new entryway in a flash, dropping through the hole he created gracefully.


[20:57:01|Malik Ren]

"I am every sort of certain that nothing in there is going to withstand you for long," Malik's vocoded voice observes to Kuolo as he TK-flinkgs an accessway, buckling and crushing the physical resistance that never had a chance. "See you a car or so up. Imani, Gand -- go with him, come with me, or strike a car on your own. I trust you implicitly." There's his first mistake. But either way, Malik does hop forward a car, edgelord clothing whipping about in the wind, and ignites his saber with a ferocious, ominous snap-hiss! that can't be heard because of the wind. But whatever's inside the train car will hear it, and see the red blade sinking through their roof as he cuts a hole to drop down through. Menacing!


[21:09:16|Oozlevort]

Oozlevort is a findsman, so he blazes his own trail. He follows Malik Ren to the next train car, then awkwardly leaps to ANOTHER train car, grumbling about his aging knees. He pauses on top of cargo car #3. A simple security lock reader is attached to the lock mechanism of the roof, and the Gand presses some buttons on the keypard while the cracked screen begins to churn.


[21:12:42|Imani]

Imani watches the display of those impressive powers, ducking back slightly as the debris from the train goes flying off. "It never fails to impress me, watching displays like that." Or the one from Malik with the lightsaber. Those glowing, tempting, terrible glowing sticks of death. Some part of her wants to play with one, the rest of her doesn't want to be lopped off in an unfortunate lightsaber accident. She moves down the train along with Oozlevort, pausing to watch the Gand as he waddles onward, then stepping toward the hole in the roof of the car that Malik is cutting open, pulling free her weapon so it's ready to use should she need it. "I will stay with you, unless you believe the Gand will need my help." She doesn't know Oozlevort enough to judge his skill at not dying yet.


[21:21:01|Sebek]

One of the cardinal rules of most of these sort of deniable operations (not that the Evil! people would ever want to deny it) is that you don't split the party. But do you see this lot being the people to adhere to such silly things as 'rules'? There's a reason the FO didn't get Stormtroopers for this, nor did they need them.

The horrible crunching noise coming from the Car 5, having matched its steel against Kuolo's will and found wanting, alerted the denizens inside. Just barely audible above the whisting of the wind was a shout of, "what the hell was that, Sarge?!" followed by a typically gruff, "Get DOWN Private, we've got company!" The fluttering, descending Kuolo entered a train car full of crates labelled with a swirling symbol used galactically to indicate medical supplies, and suddenly the earsplitting gale outside became mere background noise. Inside were at least three soldiers, two of them green and one definitely not human, and one bloke with a moustache wearing an unbuckled helmet. They were armed, but not yet in cover. Definitely caught off guard. Why would they be on-guard? This was a milk run. "Fire! FIRE!" erupted the Sergeant as he scrambled to cover.

Car 4 had to deal with a different sort of terror. Red doom had been suddenly and violently cleaved through the ceiling and into the top bunk currently containing Private Kansid, who promptly woke up dead. A loud cry of, "Oh SITHSPIT!" shot through the car as soldiers in varying states of dress and possibly duress ran for weapons that had been stowed far, far away from them. The table containing an in-progress sabaac game was flipped up and into a sort of rudimentary, useless cover. "IS THAT A LIGHTSABER?!" "WHAT IS GOING ON?!" "SOMEONE CHECK ON KANSID!" "HE'S DEAD, CHIM!"

Beepbedebeepbeepbeep! That was the sound of the roof computer running through its security protocols, attempting to match the command Oozlevort was entering with the code provided. It churned through the API, ignored the cheeky '; because database queries were sanitized, and returned the angry red BLAT of an Invalid Password. Gonna have to try again, my good Gand friend.


[21:33:38|Kuolo]

Kuolo had already sensed them, beneath his feet, before he had even ripped open the top of their tuna can. As his feet touched the ground, the mass of fur-and-cloth that was Kuolo hardly stopped moving. Their calls did one thing for him, however: it exposed who their leader was. He was surprised to find one of them managed to slip away from his blade, but as his feet followed through in the close-quarters scramble, he cut two of them down with a pair of arcing, upward and downward-slashes, before he turned on the others.


[21:35:27|Malik Ren]

Is that a lightsaber?

Alas for the men within Car 4, that is indeed a lightsaber, and it's merciless in its application toward the good infantrymen minding their business inside. Two fall in short order, while Republic Army Private Kresh-41 enjoys a slightly longer lease on life by ducking behind that tipped over sabacc table. Malik Ren seems patient, methodical, rather than enraged -- which might be worse, in its way?

Having accepted Imani's choice to travel with him through the train, Malik comments to her, "No survivors. Intelligence didn't indicate a desire to retain any, and I don't see the purpose of burdening ourselves with them."


[21:41:42|Oozlevort]

Oozlevort smacks the cracked screen with his four-fingered and chitinous hand. "Idiots!" He opens his backpack and unfolds a poorly-kept, salvaged ID10 droid which sleepily wakes up. "Slice it, droid!" The ID10 unfolds itself and plugs in, beginning to churn through the primitive maglev train code. There are churning and spinning sounds as different combinations are manually inputted via some sort of bypass.


[21:46:53|Imani]

Imani moves into the car after Malik, and wastes no time in simply dispatching with one of the unfortunate souls found inside. "No survivors," she repeats, understanding and evidently having no problem with this. Not that she ever does. Cthedsard is her next target, and though the attack isn't quite so vicious as the first, it's grave, withdrawing the whip and looking ready to attack the him again.


[21:53:26|Sebek]

And thus the blenders blend. In Car 5, a fourth trooper that had been behind a few of the taller crates had poked his head out, helmetless but not unarmed. The sandy-haired soldier, visibly fighting down the fear of dying at the hands of a ragged robbed monstrosity, lifted his rifle, swallowed, and fired. The Sergeant, unflappable in his dedication to the cause and proud of the glorious nation he served, gritted his teeth, squinted, and fired. "For the Republic!" he roared, sounding a damn sight more proud and scary than that Corporal he'd served with that one time who liked making inappropriate speeches. At least one shot from the soldiers went into a crate, blowing out the side and causing sticky red bacta to ooze into the compartment. It smelled like antiseptic cheese.

Car 4 was a different story. But not too different. Mortally terrified by the sudden demise of the sleeping Private, the rest of the bedraggled crew was sawn to pieces getting into place. The one chap who'd made it behind the table and survived by the skin of his teeth poked his rifle out and fired completely blind. The second private, who had been whipped good, fought off the pain and tapped into the welling reserves of anger he had bubbling up inside him. He didn't even go for the shot, instead belting Imani across the face with the backside of his weapon. "I'll kill you!" he screamed out. "I'll KILL you!"

Beepbedebeepbeepbeep! That was the sound of Car 3's roof hatch again, this time receiving the tender ministrations from the Seeker Droid instead of the hamfisted rudeness of Oozlevort. Operating with something much cleverer than a query injection and instead using glorious log interception, catching a magnificent code oversight that returned the password before comparison instead of at the database level, and simply entered what was provided. Bing! Green lights! The hatch slid open revealing more crates and a couple of bored looking individuals in civilian garb having a pleasant philosophical discussion.

"Lady Cole or Lady Ashkuri?"
"Are you kidding me? Are we even having this conversation?"
"I'd go with Lady Cole all the way."
"Okay now I know you're stupid. You've WATCHED Kasia Ashkuri walk past you, right?!"
"Ooooooh, fair point."


This however was halted as they noticed the hatch opening, and in perhaps a profound display of contractor wisdom the first one, the one who had been looking exactly where he shouldn't in the semi-recent past, said, "Look, hatch is on the fritz. Corporate's cutting corners again."


[22:05:01|Kuolo]

The lightsaber comes to a rest at Kuolo's side as the pair fire on him--It wasn't even close. But they were now smashing supplies and that wouldn't do at all. As the stoic, white-robed figure goes still, he is all-but actionless. As it happened, his will was breaking through the Sergeant's mind and destroying any barriers that existed. Any will the Sergeant had faded next to Kuolo's will, and he was dominated.

The rifle shifts away from Kuolo, towards the other soldier. His comm activates, "Stand down. Republic forces, stand down. Your orders are to surrender and prepare for safe release." It was a lie, of course. Kuolo didn't care. And if they saw what Kuolo willed, for the Sergeant to kill his own man, they'd probably be wary of so-called 'Mercy'. But, what mattered was Kuolo's will.


[22:07:31|Malik Ren]

Brave Cthedsard and Kresh, fighting to the end, even attacking, and screaming out at Imani -- I'll kill you, I'll kill you! "Rather you didn't," Malik politely replies to them, and that crisp, cultured voice of privilege and wealth (not unlike Agent Nark's!) is the last thing the privates hear before they're chopped to bits. Blood is has splattered all over the walls, and pieces of the Republic's finest ooze all over the floor. But that looked like a nasty hit to Imani, and Malik pauses a moment to touch his free hand to her upper arm, inspecting her through the inscrutable masked helmet. "Are you able to continue?"


[22:17:29|Oozlevort]

Oozlevort has a pistol in his hand as he wrenches open the topside hatch. The ID10 droid quickly floats away from the keypad, and the Gand, seeing two humanoids, blasts them down with three bright blue ZOOT ZOOT ZOOTs. He drops heavily into the car and grunts.


[22:18:30|Imani]

It was a nasty hit, Imani was rocked back by it, hitting the wall of the train, which might be the only thing that kept her upright immediately after the stunning blow. Even with the helmet on, she hit hard enough that something inside is now bleeding, it hurts, and there's a trickle of blood down her neck. Her head kind of bobbles forward until she feels the hand on her arm, head turning to look down at it, then over to the man it belongs to. "Yes." The first response is soft, and lacking in conviction, but after a slight shake of her head to clear the encroaching cobwebs, she says more confidently. "Yes, I can keep going."


[22:22:42|Sebek]

Sergeant Roqh's rumbly voice carried through the comm unit to the rest of the train.

This had a multitude of effects.

In Car 3, the two civilians stiffened and looked at each other as they heard the announcement. "We're under at-" said Iakaf, right before Oozlevort's shot went through his torso and vital organs that contributed quite significantly to living. The second shot went wide, giving Soont a chance to yell, "WE'RE UNDER AT-" and that was when the third shot forcibly gagged him via... well you don't want to know the guts of it but he didn't have a mouth left. Or a head.

Not much happened in Car 4, seeing as the soldiers most definitely did not survive the blitzkrieg that just took place. Except for the gruff voice going off in the ears of all the deceased, little happened. Even poor Private Cthedsard, the potentially fantastic acolyte of whatever dark order that would have snared him had he survived, missed it.

Car 5 was actually a different story this time. Quaking in his boots, not yet crying, but looking like he was about to, the last threat left was the Tatooinian farmboy who had no shred of specialness whatsoever aside fro his testicular elephantitis in the face of the subverted Sergeant and Evil Inside(TM). "I'm sorry Sarge," he said, apologetic, holding back tears, and shot his sergeant right in the gut. The Sergeant had, in Kuolo's favour, turned off his transmitter before the shot was returned, his expression oddly similar to that worn by the Sith. It missed, and he advanced.


[22:36:42|Kuolo]

The Sergeant was going to die, gutshot by his own man. Even Kuolo hadn't seen that coming. That was brutal. A hand coils around a ration pack on the man's belt, before it's pulled free. Kuolo releases the gut-shot man to fall, then, before he marches towards the other man and slaps the rations into his chest. "If you want to live," Kuolo says, as the vocoded voice echoes in the room. Suddenly, the sound of wind and air echoes around them, as the Sergeant opens the side entryway into the compartment. The black, dead eyelets of Kuolo's mask look down at the private, then, as his voice returns. "Jump," he says. The sergeant, meanwhile, totters at the doorway, hardly able to keep himself standing. His hands, which cling to the doorway to keep himself upright, stain the walls in red streaks of blood. Then, still under Kuolo's dark control, he steps out, into the wind, and oblivion.


[22:43:12|Malik Ren]

Malik Ren studies Imani for a moment longer, then lets her go, somewhat tentatively as though making sure she's not going to topple over once he releases her arm. Satisfied after a few moments that she's going to remain upright, Malik promises, "They won't last long now," and then turns to move forward through the train. This move involves hop-scotching over Oozlevort's car 3, of course, on the way to car 2, and the Gand is stepped around on the way. "Forward, Gand, it's not over yet."


[22:51:21|Imani]

It's a reasonable concern, it was an awful conk to the noggin, and it rattled the brain around in Imani's head something fierce. Even so, when he lets go of her arm she stays on her feet, and after a moment straightens up, trying to demonstrate that she can continue on without falling over. "No they won't," she agrees, and even with her face hidden, the smile can be heard in her voice. He progresses up the train, and she follows behind, bending down briefly to pick up the weapon she dropped when she started seeing stars, and then following behind Malik.


[22:51:52|Sebek]

Car 2 was similar to Cars 3 and 5, full of crates of all sorts of goodies. It was like an arena from a cover-based shooter. How convenient! However, what the car had that the others did not were soldiers waiting for them. They were attired properly. They were armed. They were behind cover. They were ready for battle. "Surrender and put down your weapons and you won't be harmed!" That was the same voice coming from the comm units, the one that Malik and Oozlevort had picked up on. Unfortunately for him he'd gotten the Rebel Niceness Training and didn't shoot on sight. "This train won't fall to the likes of you!"

Car 5... well.

With the fall of Sergeant Roqh, all that was left was Private Douglas Sandrunner, the Tatooine boy, staring face to face with the horrible visage that was Sith Lord Kuolo. He was it. The sole survivor. There was something about the crushing presence before him that made his organs want to scream in terror. He was so young. "Jump," he repeated, his voice shaky. "Okay." He turned his back to Kuolo, wincing in the wind, fidgeting with his hands, until finally he jumped. The train was moving so fast that it looked like Sandrunner leapt almost sideways. At this speed, if he survived the landing, he'd be crippled for life.

If anyone actually saw him land.

"Lords and Lady, we are detecting a wide-band distress signal eminating from the train." That was the comms from Agent Nark, with something resembling smug satisfaction in his voice. "Rebel Central Command is scrambling reinforcements. No matter, we are close enough to Caryd City that they will not arrive for many hours." Oh, the foolishness of these Rebel scum! Running a barely-guarded mag-train across long stretches of land they THOUGHT they owned! Agent Nark was clearly enjoying this. "Stay your course. Glory to the Sith. Glory to Lord Ren."


[23:02:42|Kuolo]

Car Five clear. With extreme prejudice ... and a lot of unneccessary torture. As the man commits himself to the fate of jumping from a moving train to save himself the lightsaber blade, Kuolo turns and begins to tromp trhough the train's cars. In Car three, he pauses, to eye the snack-eating Gand for a moment. Chupas. Disgusting. The mask says nothing, before pushing forward--Somewhere there were still enemies.


[23:02:54|Malik Ren]

Forward into car 2! These poor rebels, they really should dispense with the Niceness Training. That humanity, the moment in which they offer surrender instead of violence, sets them apart from the First Order -- but it's also what sets them into pieces. Literal pieces, as the red blade whisks through a captain and two corporals. Unstoppable, inexorable, moving forward and cutting apart everything in the way. This is why Admiral Vahn wants the Knights and the Sith at Carida, as much as he might loathe and mistrust their sorcerer's ways. "Everything is going to fall to the likes of us," Malik informs the surviving private and corporal. "This train. This planet. This galaxy. All. of. it."


[23:08:28|Imani]

Imani stalks into the car just far enough behind Malik to be safe from that ominous glowing weapon, and though she's hurt, and her head was a little cloudy, as soon as there is a target in sight the world sharpens into focus and she charges in. The first swing of her blade misses and scrapes along a wall, leaving behind marks that show just how damaging it can be. Unfortunately for Bendo, her second swing is not a miss, connecting brutally with the man's leg. Not lethal, but it sure ain't pleasant.


[23:13:39|Sebek]

The thing about these guys in Car 2 was that, having come together as disparate individuals united by the charisma and humanity of those in charge, when said person in charge gets reduced to chunky salsa morale tends to drop faster than prices at OozleMart. The sudden and horrific death of Captain Sei'Lya had Corporal La'fortaa, a Twi'lek who was not suited for this whole Rebel thing by virtue of having some common sense, throwing down his gun and saying, "Kriff this. I'm out. I surrender." He raised his hand, not having received the brief of 'no survivors' that had been given out.

Private Ver Bendo, however, was having none of this, shooting in the same general direction as Malik Ren at the same time his leg was torn out from under him. He lay on the ground gasping, panting, trying to retrieve his weapon. With a minimum of fuss and maximum of efficiency, Car 2 had been cleared. There was one left, between them and the driver's compartment.

Car 1 was the command car, or close enough. This was closer to a passenger car than the bunks of Car 4, with two rooms labelled Sei'Lya and Roqh. Roqh's room, bless his soul, was unlived in and instead being used for storage. He had been a father to his men and he just threw himself off a train! Oh well, casualties of war and all that. The car itself was empty. Everyone onboard had been despatched to the ether except for the two remaining back in Car 2. Oh, and whoever was driving, in the driver's car (Car 0?!) at the very front.


[23:23:00|Kuolo]

Behind Imani, the doorway opened quickly, and filling out the frame was the form of Kuolo. Complete with the fur-lined hood. Somebody was worried about the sniffles. His eyes shift quietly to try and take in the scene. They were winning, he could feel it. But they weren't out of it just yet. "Caution," he says, suddenly behind Imani, "They're desperate." The icy voice rings clear, warning of what could happen if someone saw no other option but to run the train off the rails. Or something.


[23:30:26|Malik Ren]

Oh, poor La'fortaa. Surrender was never an option, and the offer of it is received with nothing more than a brief laugh, sinister through the vocoder. "You aren't worth the spit in my mouth that it would take to say your hideous alien name," Malik informs him, "Much less the resources it would take to keep you alive in prison. May whatever you believe in look upon you kindly." Another swing of the humming sword, and it's over for the Twi'lek, followed by a neat skewer of the struggling Bendo.

That familiar presence draped in white joins them now, along with a smidge of foreboding in the force. Maybe rather a lot of it. "Kuolo. Did you leave someone alive?"


[23:35:26|Imani]

"Surrender?" Imani asks the alien with disapproval. "And this is part of why you lost. You lack the conviction to follow through," she informs the parts of La'fortaa that hit the floor. Maybe his brain is still active in those moments and can hear this valuable lesson. Perhaps not. "But know that you fell to a far more worthy cause than the one you failed to stand for." Kuolo's warning has her twisting around to look back at him. "Who is desperate?"


[23:38:30|Sebek]

At the opposite end of the train, struggling against the controls, was Private Douglas Sandrunner. He was bleeding from the head, bruised, and probably concussed. How did he get back there after jumping from the train? Well, occasionally the will to survive and conquer was unquenchable, and in this case the good Private had possessed the cleverness to do something about it. He'd hooked his webbing into the door of the train as he stepped out, which had not only pulled him out of sight but slammed him into the side of the train (hence the wound). Then it was a matter of climbing back into the gap where the strike team had first ended up, then entered the rear compartment. But, have you ever heard the phrase 'too little too late'? Sandrunner didn't have any clue on how to stop this thing. It was too late to figure it out, and too late to try something, and even then if he did decide to charge the strike team he'd likely get gunned down by a fresh (citation needed) Gand waiting for him.

And thus, finally, He Who Despairs.

With the Sandrunner Saga ended before it even began, we move now to our dramatis personae. Victory was almost literally within their grasp. Past the empty Car 1 was the driver's compartment, occupied only by the guy who was told to send a distress signal and drive at all costs. Well, to push the throttle forward, at least. How does one drive at train anyway? All it would take to end this was his death, and the train halting. The non-elites of the First Order could take over from there.


[23:48:33|Kuolo]

He could sense it, too. Unheard, an exhale within the mask. "So," Kuolo says, "The mouse survived. Impressive that the jump from the train didn't eviscerate him." Was that a ... response? "It is a shame his fortitude is without ally. He couldn't stop this train any more than his compatriots could stop us; his heroism is rewarded with failure," Kuolo says, as he glances down to Imani. He could feel her wound. "The survivors continue their fight," he says, "Let us allay their desperation." Time to march on, forward, as delicately as he could when it came to getting around the Greatest Ren.

It was no small mercy that he allowed the man to 'live' at all; having just shot his sergeant, he was forced to jump off a magrail train in the middle of nowhere with only a small belt-sized ration. But, he had somehoiw managed to survive, only to either die in the very near future or jump, again, and attempt the wilds. It wasn't a mercy; it was an execution of the soul.

In any case, Kuolo focuses on the doorway in front of them. His right handed raises, focusing his will as he attempts, again, to circumvent the locking mechanisms of the train. Like the entryway, it groans in response. A loud bang echoes as it starts to concave, and then what kept it sealed against the wall gives way and tearing metal and sealant cries out. The door is disposed of in much the same way as the hatch, catch into the winds.


[00:00:13|Imani]

Time to march onward. Imani glances back at Kuolo as he answers her, nodding at his response. Time to finish things up. He rips the doors off with that power she still doesn't understand, just as impressed this time as she was the last time. Had they the time she might ask about it, but they don't, there is a driver to dispatch of, and as soon as the way is cleared she charges in, missing the likely terrified driver twice, likely doing damage to the seat with those false strikes before putting an end to his suffering, or whatever plans he was concocting in his desperation. She steps back, blood dripping off of her blade. "Consider them allayed."


[00:09:43|Syrus]

THE NIGHT BUZZARD. Zoooooom!

Syrus was here the whole time, guys. He was just the eye in the sky or something. The rumbling, sputtering engines of the Oubliette cough along as the Buzzard strafes the train, probably shaking it violently and breaking all of the windows. At least that's what's happening in Syrus's mind. He likes his action holos. Coming to a nice stop and hover near the exfil point, the Kiffar will pluck up the comm and say, <<Any day now, folks. I'm a very busy man.>>


[00:21:12|Sebek]

And that, as they say, is that. Stopping the train from here is as simple as pulling a lever. Carefully. Train might flip. From there, the First Order transports that were not fast enough to keep up with a speeding maglev entered the area of operations and parked right near where their bounty waited. Aside from one crate of spoiled bacta, the supplies were in good shape. First Order crews worked quickly, emptying the train in less than an hour. The joy of being in the middle of the sticks.

As for Douglas Sandrunner, against all odds he survived Kuolo's show of kindness/cruelty. They might be the same thing. Had he been discovered by the First Order crews he might have survived albeit as a prisoner of war, plucked from deep within territory he believed to be safe. Unfortunately he was discovered by Imani, and thus he most definitely did not.

When the First Order left the train behind, in the Night Buzzard, on the Intelligence shuttle, and in their freighters, they left a picked-bare monument to the concept that nowhere on the planet was safe if you were up against a foe who took no quarter and saw no value in mercy. The consequences of this raid would be revealed in time, minute as they were, but perhaps enough to tip the tide back into the First Order's favour.

"Excellently done, Lords and Lady. I shall report immediately to Admiral Vahn. He will be most pleased." Ah, Agent Nark, a familiar voice now with that glorious professional smugness of a job well done.

"Glory to the Sith."

"Glory to Lord Ren."