Log:First Order: Naalol Ruins
First Order: Naalol Ruins
OOC Date: July 19, 2018
Location: Naalol
Participants: First Order, Kylo Ren, Lioria Thrace, Emma Starflare, CV-4377, Rejind Yocum
The planet Naalol is where the First Order is going this week. "The mission is pretty straight forward, the planet is home to ruins of an Imperial garrison from the war between the Empire and the New Republic. We're to exterminate the locals that have been squatting in the ruins so that we can use them as a garrison of our own." the crimson armored Govenor Thrace explains in an emotionless vocoded tone. "Everyone understand before we land? EM, CV, you know what you'll be doing since you're ground crew normally." she gives them a nod.
The drop shuttle swoops in fast and hot towards the LZ, rattling the equipment stored in its gunnels and drop pod wells. Among the troops is a dark warrior in black, hooded robes covering a chromed mask that conceals the identity of the Supreme Leader. "This base has been unoccupied for years. The squatters may be sentient or otherwise, be prepared for anything," his voice tacks on to Lioria's explanation of the mission. "We've done preliminary scans, largely inclusive, so we're going in blind."
Out of her power armor and back in her Vanguard trooper plating, EM-1710 had her sniper rifle slung across her front and her usual complement of weapons. Listening to the briefing, she opens her mouth to ask a question, but the Leader answers it for her before it can be voice. Be prepared for anything? The woman frowns and nods lightly. Perhaps she needed to start carrying more grenades again.
CV-4377 silently pulls up his rifle and runs a check on it. The man realizes that the power pack he had left in it was getting rather low on charge. The stormtrooper reaches down onto his carrier and draws up a new powercell, carefully reloading the rifle and stowing away the mostly empty magazine. He nods to himself before pulling his weapon back to his chest and gazing forward.
Thrace gives a look over to Kylo when he speaks and there's a dip of her head to the man. She was being unusually quiet other than the mission prep. "We'll see if we can pick up anything. It'll at least give us some numbers going forward." she states. "We'll fan out if the numbers aren't too great. If they are we'll stay as a group." she explains. There's a buzz from R0 and she gives a look down, "No."
The shuttle lands, it's ramp lowering to let the Vanguard members out, but unlike other missions it stays right where it is. Not leaving. "We will stay close in case more are needed." the pilot states.
"What would you consider 'too great?'" Kylo's processed voice asks as the shuttle sets down, his masked face turning towards Lioria to stare blankly at her. "I sense at least ten creatures inside, reach out with your feelings and you'll feel them too." The robed man gets to his feet, boots oddly silent on the metal floor of the ship as he heads for the ramp, striding down it without much fanfare.
Building clearence wasn't generally the job of a sniper, but with her carbine's power cells yet to be replaced, Em was going to have to make the best of what she had. Checking her gear one last time she moves off the shuttle via the ramp, sweeping her blaster left and right for signs of threats. Ten lifesigns? At least ten targets, potentially more if they have droids.
CV-4377 struts down the the ramp and onto the planet's surface. The stormtrooper looks about carefully, readying his weapon at Kylo's comment about creatures. The man glances back into the ship to make sure he hasn't forgotten anything that he'd be needing...armour, check...weapon, check...ammo? Yep. The fellow quickens his pace to match with everyone else, wondering when and if they're going to split apart.
The terrain of Naalol is mountainous, so lots of little places for people to hide. That makes it harder for them to find their quarry, but some of them can be picked out. Or off.
Lioria's answer isn't given to the Supreme Leader. She simply follows the man off the drop ship and sets off with the group. Her BB Unit is ordered to stay on the ship so he doesn't go rolling off into trouble. Though she spots something, "Those Valdeer don't look too friendly." she points out.
What are Valdeer? It wasn't clear from the wiki so here they're a lot like... deer, but with bright spots, shaggy coats of fur, and rather than full, multi-pronged racks, the bucks are sporting simple spikes of bone rising from their heads, rather aggressive-looking antlers, and from the looks of it, a particularly surly disposition.
"Avoid the livestock," Kylo comments aside as the others join him in scoping out the base ahead. The Vanguard shuttle had set down in a clear, level area further up the incline, leaving them to head down towards the base from above. The rocky terrain is treacherous in places, and the occasional chunk of scree goes sliding down away from their boots. His gloved finger points to the right, noting quietly, "A few over there, those shapes just past that rise are their heads." They're a ways away from the buildings themselves, which are clustered together on another leveled area below.
Em nods her head, raising her sniper rifle and peering through her scope. "Several on the left, some more on the right. I could engage from here, but it would give us away too soon." A pause, she looks towards the team. "I can circle around and get a point for overwatch."
CV-4377 looks over at the Valdeer. The man smirks under the helmet as he thinks about how the creatures might make for a decent dinner with a bit of effort over a fire. He looks at his feet as he almost trips over the mountainous terrain. His weapon swings around in his arms as if cradling an infant, protecting it if he had actually made the plunge to soil.
Rejind Yocum leaves the shuttle after ensuring all of the systems are properly powered down and the landing site is secure, hurrying to catch up to the rest of the party. He falls in behind the regular troopers, being careful to stay down and quiet, and well out of the way of the Supreme Leader.
Someone must have alerted the group to the presence of the Vanguard unit. Because suddenly there's blasterfire that comes flying past the heads of everyone, including Kylo. They aren't afraid of that mask! They make loud shouts to get into positions while the others keep shooting.
Lioria's hand goes to her hip and for the first time, she pulls out a lightsaber. IT'S HAPPENING! The button is flipped and the violet blade snaps forth. It's really neat from her point of view. Though it's about to be used to kill someone. The Governor takes stock of where everyone and then starts to make her move towards where the attackers are. Because no one fires at her and lives. No one!
They might be simple valdeer herders. They might be trained insurgents. They might be any number of things, but what they definitely are is shooting at the Vanguard, and Kylo's lightsaber spits into life as the blade comes tearing out into the air. There's still a fairly large gap between him and the squatters, so he can't exactly IMMEDIATELY begin mowing them down, instead moving off towards the right at a steady pace, blasterfire sailing past him as he stalks towards the attackers. He's in no hurry.
CV-4377 is caught of guard by the instant shooting spree. The stormtrooper points his rifle towards the mercenary insurgents and fires a haphazard shot. The man jumps about, trying to find cover behind something that can take a few hits. He gets low and pushes forward towards the enemies as he fails to see anything worth using as concealment. If you can't find cover, you might as well get close enough to actually hit them, right? Maybe?
Rejind Yocum raises his blaster and fires off a quick snapshot towards the now-attacking garrison squatters. He swears as he sees his hastily fired shot go wide, quickly scanning the scene afterwards to see what's what. Noticing the rest of the team advancing, Rejind comes up to a crouch and begins advancing with them.
Lioria lightsaber is glowing violet as she rushes forward, she's prone to bad ideas and running head long at the enemy with a sword is one of them. But today, this saber is different. There's a swing of the lightsaber and the sizzle of cloth as the body simply slumps to the side in two pieces. There's a look down to it but then her head snaps up when there's more blaster fire.
The dark warrior in the black robes continues his steady stride forward, as inexorable as the march of time itself, it seems, the crackling blade held at his side only coming up occasionally for a lazy bat against an errant blaster bolt. As he starts to near the group of valdeer herders, a hand abruptly raises, and the atmosphere around him seems to tighten and thrum with an unseen energy. One of the men cries out with alarm as he's suddenly jerked forward on his feet, pulled across the space between them, toes sending rocks skittering as they drag across the ground until the outstretched hand clutches his throat. A squeeze and a vague, sickening organic pop later, the man's body falls lifeless to the ground.
CV-4377 might need an examination from one of the medical staff, he seems to have caught a case of the ye ole Imperial stormtrooper aim. The fellow is able to negotiate with the volley of blaster fire and avoid being dome'd by the squatters. With a bit of a crouched sprint as well as a jump or two, the man finds himself some cover and takes another poorly aimed shot...the plasma leaving his blaster rifle and sailing across the fray...striking nothing important.
Rejind Yocum grunts and drops down to one knee as a blaster bolt catches him in the side, the pain all to familiar as the blaster shot he took recently is still fresh in his mind. He mutters out a curse and a "another fucking day in the bacta tank...." as he levels his blaster at the man who shot him and shoots the man square in the chest.
By this time Kylo too is among the attackers, having closed to melee range, and he takes a swipe at the nearest of them, the lightsaber sizzling past by a very narrow margin. The margin is so narrow that the target screams anyway, because wouldn't you?
"Get back you devil!" the man shouts, turning his blaster on the black-clad knight, but the next swing takes him across the body and sends him toppling. Once he's there in striking range, it's not even right how easily the poor herders are cut down, as the blade sweeps up from the ground to split another up the back as he turns to run, leaving a smoldering corpse on the ground.
CV-4377 feels a surge of confidence as he watches the two lightsaber wielding allies cut down numerous enemies. He feels less suppressed with the reduced number of blaster bolts flying about. The man takes the time and shoulders his weapon properly. With a grin behind his helmet, renewed spirit, and a bit of luck, he actually hits his target...poor herder.
There's a few brave souls that are left standing to face the Vanguard as they close in on the rest of the ruins. The remains ones decide that the lightsaber wielding Knights are much more dangerous than the Stormtroopers in this equation and fire on them. A bright bolt hits Governor Thrace's armor.
And there's an answer to the hole that's left in her armor with a growl as she swings the lightsaber wildly at the shooter and a few seconds later their head goes rolling off into the dirt. The saber is brought down to her side and there's just the rise of fall of her shoulders as she tries to breathe for the moment.
The last to remain seems to have got the message that staying here is not a good idea, but before he can run, Kylo's lightsaber crashes down on him, removing an arm as well as leaving the man in two pieces. The smell of burnt flesh fills the air, thick and acrid, like a horrendous barbecue from hell, and with the last one dead the Supreme Leader clicks a button on his weapon, the blades retreating back into the hilt with a shudder. "That seems to be the last of them," he remarks with an air of satisfaction, the mask turning to survey the bodies.
CV-4377 steps away from the improvised cover and moves forward to Kylo Ren and Lioria. The stormtrooper walks over to a corpse and kicks away the herder's weapon just to be safe. The man examines the dead very carefully, looking to see if anyone needed additional coaxing into death. "Is anyone hit?" He asks his allies in a distorted voice.
Rejind Yocum lowers his weapon and places it back into it's holster, walking towards the Supreme Leader and the rest of the Vanguard, holding his side all the while. When Rejind reaches the group and hears CV's question, he answers through gritted teeth, "One of them got a lucky shot in, caught me in the side. I'll be fine."
"It's done." Lioria's vocoded voice states after Kylo's. A nod given to the Supreme Leader. There's a button pressed and the lightsaber becomes less of a threat and put away. She looks around, not really caring about what is dead for the moment. "We'll send a team to start the process of setting up a garrison here. When you are ready, Supreme Leader." she states. She doesn't answer the question of being hit, because well, she's had worse. "Drop ship is ready if we want to head back." she states to the others.
