Log:Iridonia: Clench
The Sith continue their investigation on Iridonia
OOC Date: September 26, 2023
Location: Malidris City - Iridonia
Participants: Aryn Cortess, Tamsin Cas, Merulia and Bors Thul as GM
"I repeat, scatter. Scatter immediately."
The minor eternity of those heartbeats after the modified djarik board made into a strategic display. The feed from sliced-into cameras on the street almost halfway across the city showing a rain of bottles that burst into fireballs that coat the riot shields held by the first line of crimson armored Stormtroopers.
They were on the first floor of a two story building - in a run down section of the city. A squat structure that the Sith had infiltrated and were now skulking within, poised on the steps midway between the upper floor and its seeming barracks and galley and a control center taking up much of the first. Achlys has retreated back for the moment, to the 2nd floor landing - keeping the way out and in watched and leaving Darth Kalus to attend as she saw fit.
Control center being relative - with the cobbled together systems having been set up.
The quintet were all standing, mouths falling open, <<"Negative, we can turn them.">> the broadcast preceding more objects cast into the air, sailing in staccato arcs from the midst of the rioting crowd. The appearance is noted by HUDs judging by the way several troopers heads lift. The shield line shift, kneel and angle their portable bulwarks. The lines behind begin to scatter or dive for cover. A blossom of fire spitting comets airbursts over the troopers, others bloom against the shields and some amid the ranks behind.
"Mynok, no. No!" the woman at the table calls out, a handset clenched in her fist and the other four are scrambling to their own stations sending out a flurry of messages.
"Mynock is rogue, scatter! Scatter!"
"Fwit go to holdout osk! Rancor is pushed!"
"Rancor is pushed! Repeat! Rancor is pushed!"
The djarik table switches back to the city map again and the street display lifts into the air above it. More of the blue spheres are visible moving, headed away from green cubes and distinctly away from where the rancor image is displayed.
As urgency filled the ranks and minds raced with the news of code going back and forth, the air in the very room these rebels occupied began to change. Outside the door, in the hall, the dark figure which emerged from the confines of the shadow was robed, hooded, and masked with a protective covering whose eyes came to life with a low-violet. Kalus, the robed figure, made no effort to hide her approach, and she raised her hand and began to exact her influence upon the force.
Within that room, electronics began to power down seemingly of their own volition. Monitors turned off, radios blanked out and powered down, and lights cut out. It was such an eerie occurrence that silence prevailed for all the time it took for the door separating Kalus from the party to slowly creek open.
Silence. Darkness.
The SNAPHISS of a crimson bladed lightsaber came to life in the next moment, its 1.4m length growling and screeching with each subtle movement as it approached the disoriented group.
Kalus had a target in mind, the one closest to the radio station was, presumably, the leader. The others? Expendable.
Once a healer, a pilgrim, a traveller uplifted from Dathomir by the designs of one of the Sith who shared blood with her tribe, now Merulia was an Acolyte who had but to prove herself to be uplifted further...and here on this mission that was what she intended to do.
Emerging from the dark a pale figure to one side of the saber-glowing Aryn, the weapons around the group strained and rattled, but seem secure enough not to be stolen this time.
Achlys moved in behind the two Sith who had preceded into the room. The lack of light did not bother their eyes, as it might have done another. having watched the proceedings long enough, or perhaps heard as they entered, they looked to the one who was rising from the comm control system. The voice that escaped was low and hard, modulated, likely by a portable unit built into the mask they were wearing, "On your knees." The words were sharp as a knife, a lance of power aimed directly at the being's pain centers.
Heads turn one way and another when the lights fall, then the monitors and the holotable with them. Eyes widening further to combat the darkness and then blinking fiercely when the saber extends. Jaws drop and the wild shuffling in the dark that follows is ripe with tightly controlled fear and muscle memory.
Bodies shifting, jerking and pulling when their weapons try to rip free of their holsters, hands dip for weapons, fumbling with horror numbed fingers. Others instinctively go for their comm handsets,
"Fwit! Krill Nest under attack!" the clattering of the equipment chasing the silence. Not even the buzz of static from line interference.
"Comms are dead!" another voice rises before blasters scream - only a pair from two of the operators - the one in charge gripped in agony and her hand clenching around the grip of her weapon before she falls to the ground in agony.
Darth Kalus was thankful for the presence of other Sith. Overwhelming odds and futility served as potent catalysts for surrender. Bolts dance by her location, but the dark lord remained there, cast in a hue of crimson, unfazed. Unseen, the tendrils of the force invaded the leader's mind in that instant, their conscience pushed to 'one side' as Kalus' presence took over. Kalus could see herself from the perspective of the puppet she now controlled, and she spoke through them now, imparting the thoughts through their mind to give voice.
"Wait!" The leader yelled. "Wait.. I value the lives of my men. SURRENDER.. we surrender. Throw down your weapons and submit. We are no match for Sith Lords!"
Her first attempt seemingly too much of a split focus has the blonde woman frowning a little, but the screams of pain and the sudden surge of Darth Kalus' mental influence seizing hold of the leader's mind was...well, somewhere between frightening and inspiring.
Her own lightsaber igniting in a hiss of crimson to punctuate the words, Merulia lifts a hand towards one of the still standing forces before they can open fire. His blaster leaps from his hand, elegantly zipping through the air to clatter against the far wall and make the situation that much more hopeless.
Achlys was not above inflicting additional pain, if the lesson was not learned the first time. But that was to be on an as needed basis. For now, while Kalus had control of the room, and the rebel cell's leader, they went about the business of securing the prisoners. The binders were standard issue, likely requisitioned from the troopers they usually worked with. Extraction would come, in time. "There are still the ones on the roof."
Confusion reigns when their leader's voice calls out, the one whose blaster leapt from their grip stumbling and landing on their hands and knees, scrabbling in the dark for their weapon. The call for surrender is echoing in ears. Throughout the building silence has descended among the varied rooms where the sleeping have been roused to wonder if the shots were real or the phantoms at the tail ends of dreams.
In the room where sabacc had been played the riot of chatter and laughter continues, the lights still on, the holofield still fully functional. So the game persists despite what is happening below.
Unaware of the five now being bound, looking to one another. Or trying in the dark - the way dimly lit by Merulia and Kalus's lightsabers, giving a guttering firelight glow to the room and inhibiting the looks being given between one rebel to another.
Kalus returned to her own body in those moments that followed, the transformed voice her mask issued indeterminate of gender or species, but the words were clear. "Remove their ability to speak, we make for the roof."
Kalus followed the path back out to the hall, moving to the stairs and to the roof itself. Every intent on removing the threats there.
<<"Black Knight, Kalus. Make your approach toward the target building rooftop. Be advised, extraction will need to be quick; violence is to ensue. Over.">>
If you do battle, resist flee or shout, you will accomplish nothing but more death, destruction and those you care for throwing themselves away," Merulia speaks as she moves. Lacking a mask, instead the black makeup and markings of her tribe were Meru's own 'Sith' display, but be it intimidation or the Sephi's beauty she implores them to remain quiet.
The new arrival? Merulia can't quite seize another's mind as Aryn had, so she'll have to leave it to the other Darth to maintain their silence.
Muffling voices, that could be done. There were separate binders for that. These much more flexible, and likely to be fought, but Achlys made use of them, following the Sith Witch's words. Even the most intimidated mind might break. Once the group was moving, however, the threat became all of the others they were not bringing out from the comms room. Keen eyes, and quick senses brought their attention around, as a door opened. having no hands free, and needing none, Achlys reached out with the force. A vice grip that choked breath and voice from the hapless busybody.
<<"By your command.">> The elder's voice on comms confident despite the slight rasp of years chasing after it - an Upsilon shuttle beginning its descent - by means of simply killing thrust and repulsors to plummet, towards the target location. Falling like a comet with the one called Black Knight calmly at the controls while the designated co-pilot hyperventilates while sitting before their disengaged controls.
The shadow passing through the building crawls across wall and floor, slipping around the lights that still remain online and past a door that hissed open with a pair of disgruntled eyes that were rolling up with the invisible coils wrapping around their neck. Hands scrabbled and fingers sought desperately to find purchase before knees buckle and he slumps against the frame of the door - the others in the makeshift bunks behind unknowing of what is happening whilst they seek to gather up sleep like water at a desert oasis.
Above as Kalus appears first, on the roof, the guards are up. One per wall and watching the street with rapt alertness. Distantly the reports of blaster rifles can be heard. The muffled WHUMP of explosives belching flame. The night air in that direction, in particular, devoid of stars and the city lights; smothered by rising smoke.
The door opens to the roof and Darth Kalus emerges from the shadows like a fog forming physical shape. Waiting only a moment to harbor strength, the dark lord releases a torrent of raw telekinetic energy intended to force the guards over their respective edge and off the roof.
The invisible wave of energy spread from its point of origin, stirring up dust around Kalus' dark frame and moving outward. Two fell victim to her influence of the force while the other two found their balance and withstood the sudden attack.
Kalus stood before them plain as day, open to attack, her cape settling from the sudden wave of energy.
When shove doesn't work? Sweep. The moment of balance redirected from Kalus's attack one the pair that manage to keep their footing is brief, but long enough that Merulia can emerge with the other prisoners and make a horizontal slashing movement that cuts the man's legs out from under him and leaves him hanging in the air for a second. A second before her hand shoves forwards and that invisible force slams into him, sending him sailing off the building, a pile of broken bones before he even meets gravity's sudden stop.
Achlys continued to move with the prisoners, directing them so that the incoming shuttle did not cause any undue harm. Not out of a preponderance of care, of course. But damaged prisoners were prisoners who could not be properly interrogated. As the sentries they had managed to hoodwink earlier in the evening began to fall or find themselves pushed to their deaths, Achlys finished off the last, before they moved to assist in onboarding the captives onto the shuttle, once the ramp was open.
Not the precise descent intended, and there is still the growing din of descent that comes before the thunderclap of repulsors engaging close enough that the roof of the building shakes, dust billowing up and blowing outward from beneath the command shuttle that has nearly cracked, and honestly nearly crashed, into the roof that the Sith and their prisoners were on.
Crimson lights bathe the immediate area when the ramp drops, not quite touching down and hanging open for the Sith to make their ascent, <<"Black Knight, in position. Declare when aboard.">> the voice again, coming from the bridge where the co-pilot is doing their best to remain seated and silent, despite the lunacy of the ships commander.
Cowed, bound and even with the resulting 'landing' by the shuttle causing stirrings below within the building, there is ample time to get the lot aboard. So that the ship can boost once all is ready for it to do so. But there's there's little time for the sounds of angry voices becoming audible from the stairwell door. The sign of confused and frightened figures rushing to see what is causing the ruckus.
Kalus boarded the vessel after their prisoners were situated inside. She moved to the front, out of sight, and found a place to sit and reflect quietly. She was not the last aboard, so the task of alerting their pilot to depart fell to one of the others.
Merulia herself gives one of the prisoners a little gentle 'push' of encouragement with her fingertips after the display of power, urging them forwards onto the ship and glancing back to make sure Achlys was right behind her. The Nightsister might not have been made a Darth yet, but she was among them and doing her best to keep up. Only once the prisoners were secure and the other woman was aboard would she move to the cockpit and speak in her accented tones.
"We are done here, it is time to leave."
Achlys, it seemed, was destined to be the last aboard the shuttle. That was for the best, perhaps, as they had less need to attend to the prisoners, and could, instead, ensure that it would be some time before the ones left within the building could make for the rooftop. Time enough, perhaps, to ensure that the shuttle would depart and be unidentified. As the sense of life and the sound of voices rose in their awareness, a thought reached out, tugging the door to the roof closed. Twisting the locking mechanism to that it would, without effort, be able to be opened again. Finally, "We are aboard."
