Log:Black Squadron: Operation Trident II

Black Squad secures the Ops Deck

OOC Date: April 13, 2021
Location: Above Corellia
Participants: Black Squadron, Jessika Pava, Ektor, Bors Thul, Suralinda Javos NPC, Poe Dameron

Black Squad split into two groups to attack the Ops Deck from varied directions. Mister Bones had been entrusted to follow the other group of commandos while Suralinda Javos elected to tag along with Bors, Ektor, Jess, and Poe to round out their fireteam nicely. Like the first Black Squad was designed, Javos had a long history of combat experience on the ground and served as a comm-tech, and was an accomplished slicer when the pressure was on.

The team was on a lift. It carried them up to the Ops Deck, but they had waited for the other team to reach first to draw the attention away from the other side (the side this team was going to arrive on.) Unfortunately, the plan did not pan out because despite what they might think of stormtroopers, stupidity wasn't /that/ rampant amongst their ranks. Salty NCOs and fresh troops await the arrival of Poe and team when the doors part, forcing the team to each side of the open door to avoid the sudden barrage of laser fire intended for them. A quick glance revealed some 15 Stormtroopers and 5 NCOs. Javos squints after planting her back against one side of the open hatch leading out of the lift and holds up a grenade. "Cover your ears!" She warns before initiating the fuse and casting it out with a good throw.

The blast followed, disorienting and loud. 3 NCOs were caught in the resulting blast, reducing the number of leaders to 2, and Stormtroopers 15. It was about to be a hell of a fight.

"Blast as many as you can!" Yelled Poe, who stepped out and fired into the crowd of stormtroopers!

The last place she wants to be is in a metal turbolift tube with four other people. All it takes is one stormtrooper rolling a cooked explosive in through the door and they'll all be paste on the walls. No more mission. No more Black Squadron. Suralinda acts first, and what Jessika doesn't do is cover her ears. The crumpled thump of the detonation in the other room feels like it vibrates through their enclosed space and all of her body. It makes the wound in her upper right arm throb and ache. All she's done for it is slapped a bacta patch on it and taped it down so it doesn't go anywhere. Jessika follows Poe out, but takes left on the blitz and fires as she moves. It's a singular moment of slowed speed and sight alignment.

One of the stormtroopers takes a hit, but Jessika doesn't see where. Her boots thud hard against the deck plating and her body slams into the angular bulkhead nearby for cover. This division of the team might not be the best way to handle things, but it's better than being nice and lined up in a tight, metal coffin. She doesn't fire a second time. Instead, Jessika makes sure that she's all nice and tucked in without any errant pieces sticking out. She doesn't want to offer the stormtroopers an opportunity to take a shot ujntil she's ready for them to. Her ears ring. She can hear her own breathing coming hard and muffled through them. She wonders if the grenades are going to make her go deaf.

No chance to use diplomacy on these folks, sad but true, and Bors's hands ran with rivers from the initial assault. Lips tight together and following Poe's lead the Alderaanian Lord takes off after the others, slipping some on shrapnel on the floor and skidding in a fashion most unbecoming of his pedigree.

"Slidey floors ere this eve!" scuttle scuttle, stumble, scuttle, finally his boots hit solid ground and his awkward stuttering attempt at competent running begins anew and the first of the quick duo of shots from Bors turns a trooper aside while kinetic and energy absorption materials keep it from being a fatal wound and the second shot creates a briefly glowing spot on a wall behind.

"Stay down, please I have no preference to kill!" So polite!!

"Lemme get a count-" Ektor voices after ducking out of the doorway of death. He peers briefly around the lift's frame, hurriedly pulling back when greeted by a fusillade of incoming blaster fire. "I counted! The exact number is a 'rekk ton'," he claims with a cackle. Javos is encouraged, "Let em have it, yeah?" before he follows Poe and Jess out. The pirate's pistol drops a pair in a wild spray of shots. Bors has no preference to kill? "*I* do!"

The initial bout is not a glorious exchange. Sure, the explosion of a grenade punctuated the arrival of the small fire team, but the hardened troopers dressed in white plasteel toed the line and stood it despite the Republic Commandos emerging subsequent to the blast and opening fire. Black Squad proves their salt in the crisscross of fire, spilling troopers back in varied pairs to include another NCO Javos plants a bolt into the head of.

At the fall of a NCO, the first rank of troopers rose up to close the distance to black squad, firing back angrily and catching a few of the soldiers despite the sprint toward them. Stormtroopers are not easily intimidated in this case! Just passed this rank of soldiers is a barricade Black Squad can use for cover.

These stormtroopers are not the cowardly type. Maybe it hits home that these New Republic soldiers are infiltrating their space and are killing left and right. Jessika snaps another shot off at a trooper and receives a burst of laser fire on her own direction for her efforts. There's no real way to avoid risk. Not when there's so many barrels aimed in their direction. Without even so much as a sound, Jessika's head snaps to the side and she spills onto the deck. The kinetic force behind the frozen light smashing into the protective helmet she's wearing is enough to render her unconscious and make her brain jam around in her skull like a floating piece of jello in a cup of water surrounded by concrete walls. She's up one second and down the next.

"Always the LEGS!" Bors pitches forward as his run is arrested by the inside of his lower thigh is struck and he is cast to the ground to skid along the floor trailing ash from reactive armor bursting to reduce the severity that renders part of his leg partially cooked and rendered immobile while the rest of him moves as normal.

"YOU... I NEED THESE" for dancing.

SHU-CHEW! SHU-CHEW! Twin bolts are fired in anger while Bors tries to get to his feet, gasping out while he spots one then a second trooper taken in the chest, cored molten holes left behind trailing smoke as they topple to the floor.

Is that seven? Eight?

"Mother forgive me..."

Ektor takes a bolt in the shoulder and is turned half around, staggering a step back toward the lift with an explosion of profanity. Turning back around to face the remaining troopers, he hollers, "Jess is down- girl, you better not be dead, yeah? Cause I am NOT taking a promotion." Yeah, THAT'S why she'd better not be dead. A blast of his pistol takes one trooper in the eye shield with a shower of sparks. He adds aside to Suralinda, without looking away from the fight. "Bombshell, you good? Buh-Bors, Pretty Boy?"

"Jess!" Screams Suralinda, who closes the distance blasting a trooper down. Poe pivots to cover, blasting the injured trooper Jessika wounded just after ending the remaining NCO's life. Poe is rewarded with a nasty shoulder shot for his bravery while Javos stumbles from sustaining a shot to the torso the smashes her black armor. She falls near Jessika, but promptly rises up to her knees to take hold of the Major's protective armor by the neckpiece to drag her to the newfound cover they had reached.

"Jess! JESS!" Screamed Javos. Poe couldn't register that Jessika was down, he was seeing red and trying to just fire at the stormtroopers that remained, hoping to remove the threat that stood the test of shock combat. "I'm good," Replied Poe, still focused on covering for them while Javos did her best to bring Jess back into the fight. "We got seven left here!" Poe yelled.

"Stang!" kicked right back off of his feet and listening to others call out for Jess. <"Testor!"> groaning as he tries to get his feet and bearings again. Coughing and groaning with the feeling of heat damaged lungs as he is up and over to one side, leaning on his elbow and firing with his EE-3 braced against his body.

<"I'll get to her... If I can."> half dragging his own ass towards Jessika, drawing unfortunate attention to himself while attempting to get where he can use his nigh (completely) non-existant knowledge of first aid, or at least give her a body shield while they see if she still lives.

A moment spared to aim, kicking a leg out from under one, much to his own surprise as he makes his way, "Huh." eloquent.

Ektor doesn't fire a blaster as well as he flies, but his small arms fire had the same unpolished, erratic nature. The sort of bad habits that professional instructors would hammer out, but the effect is still impressive as Ektor's blaster burns down another pair of white armored troopers.

The fight is down to the last of the platoon stationed at the lifts, and it's been a deadly trade off. Testor is down, Suralinda having to balance the defensive capabilities of the team and caring for her close friend. She fires angrily into the stormtroopers killing another outright with her modified rifle and screaming when she did it.

Poe fires poorly at first, his eyes watering from the pain of his shoulder. Taking a moment to wipe them, he fires again, hitting and dropping another of the troopers. The remaining three begin to take aggressive shots, closing the distance to the group in a brave trade off intended to halt the special forces group altogether. It's not looking good for this group here!

The lights come on all at once. Jessika's body jerks as a systematic tremble of nerves firing from head to toe signal the transition from unconsciousness to awake. She feels drunk. She feels like everything's in slow motion. That lasts all of a couple of seconds, because the sound comes back and Jessika realizes where they are. Tucking in against the barrier, Jessika rises into a sitting position and sucks in a deeper breath beneath the plates of armor concealing her torso. There's a horrible carbon scoring mark on her helmet to signal where she's been knocked upside the head by a blaster shot fired by a stormtrooper. "Guess they're not so bad after all." The words aren't crisp. She blinks, rapidly, but her weapon is quickly taken up into her hands and her brain starts to work through the muck to get oriented like it should be. "I'm fine!" She's probably not fine, but they can't afford for her to be not fine right now.

<"Tessss-"> there's white light, heat and a feeling like he has been shoved. In the side of the head. With the Pantheon. <"-Tooooor?"> is he really speaking this slowly? He's by Jessika, he knows that much but there's music playing. This shouldn't be happening - they're professional comrades! This is truly an uncouth! Surely!

But then Jessika wakes and she's sitting as his head hits the ground near her. <"Oh! Good! You're alive..."> a wheezing groan now, <"Alas I feel some of my helm has melted to my face..."> likely accurate, judging by the burn crater on the side of his head.

Finally, a courtly scar to draw intrigue!

Ektor just keeps shooting, blasting away until the expanded powercell is all but spent, and the last of the storm squad is finally brought down. He might be drunk, but who could tell? "Yeah, that's right, Hutt-suckers! You just SIT there and be all... dead and drek." He wastes the last charge in his blaster to shoot an already dead trooper again, before reloading. "Arright.. everybody dead? Alive, I meant alive. Everybody alive?"

"JESS!" Screamed Javos, who promptly hugs Jess after the last of the troops fell to blaster fire. She might have screamed Bors' name too, but Javos had not worked with Bors as often as she had with Jess. Poe offered a gloved hand to pull the Alderaanian Lord back to his feet. "You good, buddy?" Poe looked the man over, then smirked, (probably from Ektor cussing at the dead troopers behind him and blasting a corpse) "You look shot to hell. I have a first aid kit, but.. I'm not great with it, but it's something. We got a little time.. who needs some bacta?"

Poe pulled out the kit and opened it.

"I can hear bells ringing," Jessika pants. She lets her weapon hang on its sling and unbuckles the helmet from underneath her chin to peel the thing gingerly off her head. Impacted composite on the inside grazes against her temple and leaves a nasty red smudge where bursted vessels and subtly penetrated skin have allowed blood to begin oozing down the side of her face. It looks worse than it is. She lets Poe take a look at things and patch the wound up. She knows it's the best they'll have for now. Putting the helmet back on is worse. It feels like it's gripping her head too tight. That's the swelling. The headache is starting, too. But the alternative is sitting here and waiting to die. They have a mission to complete. "Let's not get shot anymore? Deal?"

Standing, sort of, Bors tries to remove his helmet only to find it true, he'll need it removed by professionals, <"I'm purple, m'lord! The Fwits are bounding with the nerfs and I smell the Shantipole of Marzood!"> wavering on his feet and letting himself be treated. Fantastic day. The air smells very Jagaberry and his maroons are still attached.

Words! Quite the head shot taken there. Oh look... Rurrians in their adult butterfly form.

<"Majestic...">

Blue eyes tracing their ethereal patterns while he wavers on his feet.

"Bors is bringing up the rear; Javos.." Poe says, pausing after saying her name. The Squamatan female replies, "I got him. Let's go, handsome." She upnods Bors, and in passing, winks at Ektor. "I'll take point from here. I forgot I had this.." Poe reaches down on his belt to activate the personal deflector shield which immediately forms around his frame in shimmering presence before fading to transparency. "Nah, Xer.. I think he has a concussion. He's seeing sounds at the moment. He'll need a doctor after this, but we need to make it to ops and take this thing over, first." Poe glances to Xer, subtly nodding to Jess, a small cue that the Lt was to look after the Major as they progressed. TEAM WORK.

When everyone was seen to, albeit not treated perfectly "Sorry, this isn't as easy as it looks," Poe left the old kit behind to truck on. He extended the custom buttstock of his carbine and favored one side of the corridor.

<<"Bones, how are you guys doing on the other side?">>

<<"PRETTY GIRL, THIS IS MISTER BONES! WE HAVE EFFICIENTLY CONDUCTED MURDER, AND OUR VICTIMS LAY UPON THE DECK. MANY SOLDIERS HERE REQUIRE MAINTENANCE, AND THE MECHANIC IS SEEING TO THEIR ORGANIC MALFUNCTIONS!">>

Poe grimaces as the droid's nasally voice is so loud over comms he's tempted to take the ear piece out. <<"Understood, we're moving to the Ops center now.">>

They arrive at the half-way point, in front of a larger corridor where a set of large bay doors are. On the other side, Ops.

The rest of Black Squad has not arrived yet, but Poe motions for his group to stack on the door. "Suralinda, you're up. Get the hatch open."

The sound of fighting further down the corridor clued the team in on what was taking the other group so long. It sounded like Mister Bones was directing fire, and some of the troopers they engaged were retreating. Retreating right into the other fireteam. Five stormtroopers appeared, running from the corridor and right to Poe's team. "Defend Javos!" Poe calls, stepping in front of the blue female as she worked on the console to open the rekking blast doors.

"I'm sure we've all got concussions. Had concussions. ...Have had concussions." Jessika frowns at the end. How many times has she been knocked on the head during this war? She's sure there's a number somewhere in some medical file. She's also sure it's short of the true number just because sometimes those things never get reported. "Can Bones murder the headache in my head?" Her mouth is dry. At least her sense of humor still is. That's promising, right? Still the same old Jessika despite the bonk to the noggin. If one could call a 'blaster rifle shot' a bonk. "Or maybe I'll shoot him for making it worse." She's not limping, but she's not moving at one hundred percent speed. She avoids jostling herself too much, especially as she gets into position to defend Suralinda. She doesn't have to wait long to do it, either. Showing she's still got a stake in this fight, Jessika puts one trooper out of commission the second it decides to show its plasteel face and body around the corner. That'll teach 'em.

Defend Javos!! That's what Poe said.

<"Nary fear attractive fang lady! None shall assail thy den of scale and seductive smile! I am yet able!"> the first of Bors shots goes wide, into the ceiling over the attacking troopers while Bors stumble steps to one side, <"Have at thee! Knavery is chartreuse and I am the tailor of misery!"> Concussions. Gotta love them. Gaze upon Lord Bors and see how he makes them so elegant!

Bors's second shot goes into the floor a few centimeters from his foot. <"HAH! Feel the hot tingle of freedom, errant floor of oppression!"> yeah! What he said!

Ektor cracks a crooked grin at Javos and catches Poe's discreet nod toward Jess without any visible response, but he does fall in beside Jessika as the team resumes their advance. "I ain't got concussed, this is how I always talk, yeah?" he claims to the Major with a dumb grin. When Suralinda gets to work on the blast doors, and Jess takes up position guarding her, Ektor is squarely beside Major Pava, adding his fire to the column of stormtroopers charging into sight.

Poe guns down two troopers but a final fires at him, firing short and catching the bulkhead. Sparks rain down over the group as Poe narrows his dark gaze on the Stormtrooper who suddenly steps back to retreat back toward Bones and the other group.

"Almost got it, guys!" Javos yells out. She's resorted to pulling the console from the wall and is working the pair of wires together using a wire-nut. It's a slow process, but one that requires meticulous training to recognize which cables to use in order to short-circuit a reaction that bypasses the programmed response. A spark shoots from the console, but Javos is quick to say, "It's fine.. I got this.. I got this.." Who is she trying to convince?

The doors open, revealing the Ops center, and what scant number of troopers remain. A NCO, and a fire team?! Pathetic. But now there are foes on each side of Poe's fire team. One (1) still in the corridor from where Bones and team were fighting, and three (3) Stormtroopers with one (1) NCO coming out from Ops. "Got it!" Says Suralinda, late, looking up to find the door already open. "Rekking Huttsuckers, I said I HAD IT!"

"I don't like being shot at anymore!" Jessika yells it out amidst the chaos and the noise. Blaster rifles discharging seems surprisingly loud in the confined space of the hallway they're trying to control with superior accuracy, because it's evident with the number of blaster bolts returned their way that the stormtroopers have the numbers. Makes sense. This is their place, after all. Black Squadron is trespassing. She feels lightheaded a few moments into the fight and she's not sure if it's because she keeps holding her breath in little increments to squeeze off shots or if it's because there are fumes coming off of Ektor. Some combination of starfighter fuel, alcohol, and whatever else. Is she just imagining that? Maybe she's about to have a stroke. Her aim isn't affected by whatever's going on upstairs, though. Another trooper pits into the deck with a pair of shots from her carbine.

She is not imagining that.

rapidly cools. The second finds the head of a trooper among those few remaining. Bors looks stunned and elated and then he flops back towards cover to narrow how much of a target he is,

<<"Pretty Baby, I am still in this waltz! Stand fast and engage with no remorse for the Father gives us resolve and the Mother forgives the evils we must do to quell a greater darkness!">>

A bit of a laugh coming after while he tries to scope out the combat area.

"You kidding Jess? I *love* getting shot at.. It's just the getting *hit* that sucks Hutt drips. Which-" Blam blam blam, another stormtrooper dropped, "I know the two are CONNECTED and all, but still. It's a great feeling when they miss, yeah?" Another shot wounds one of the remaining troopers. "And don't worry, Javos: they only opened up cause they knew you was getting through anyway, and they was all 'REKK US, who is knocking so good, yeah?'. That's the official story now."

Suralinda takes great issue with her work not being appreciated. It's taken out on the stormtrooper that remains after Poe guns down the NCO, and the Squad picks off the remaining fire team. When the final trooper hits the deck in a clatter, a smoking hole formed center mass on their helmet, Javos calls out, "Clear!"

Poe lowers his weapon and moves forward, eyes set on the mission and consoles ahead. The Ops center is quiet, save for the BEEPS and BOOPS of instruments, with monitors showing the overwhelming display of a battle just outside. He goes to work with the computers, "Come on, come on, come on.. WE'RE IN! HA!" Type, type, type.

"I know," Javos laments to Ektor, "But it feels better when I'm the one who opens it. Suppose it doesn't matter now."

Bones and team arrive, everyone looks about as haggard as Poe's team. Shot to hell, rode hard and hung up wet, but some how.. the team's managed to stay alive (barely). Bones marches up to Jess. "GREAT DESTROYER, YOUR ORGANIC FLUIDS ARE LEAKING. YOU REQUIRE MAINTENANCE!" Javos pipes up, "BONES, that's enough. You won't make it back from this mission if you keep screaming at her like that." -- "UNDERSTOOD ORGANIC ACID GUN!" Bones marches away, watching the perimeter by hugging the wall and peeking out with a beaked head, its heavy rifle held up in the ready like it was going to breach outward and kill something else.

<<"..This is Black Leader, we have taken the station. Tell the Old Battle Axe she can begin her approach. We're firing every turret this station has.">> And so they were. It was such a power draw that the lights began to flicker.