Log:Saber Squadron: Saber Guard
Saber Squadron goes to ground to extricate civilian refugees from a warzone.
OOC Date: April 10, 2022
Location: Thyferra
Participants: Bizz Bliptettjupp, Jax Greystorm as Self/GM, Kael Greystorm, Karas Darkwing, Merek, Nerys Greystorm, Saber Squadron
[ Jax Greystorm (Jax)]
Xuphra City looked different than the last time anyone was probably here. War Tended to do that. Where once expensive building once stood there is now rubble, and streets were blocked off with burnt out speeders and other debris having been turned into barricades. There was a constant haze and smoke in the air as the jungles around Xucphra burned. The occasional of a Twin Ion Engine could be heard over head with the sound of fire fights filling up the air. The Civilian Spaceport was a mess with the First Order and New Republic currently holding it.
The Bright Blessing had looked better than the last time Saber Squad has seen it as it had took up space in a private hanger. There were a number of refugees already aboard.
Jax was dressed in as a Civilian spacer wearing a gray poncho and had a Rebel Era ground trooper cap tucked under an arm as he had drawn the Squad around a crate. He had went old school with analog map. Then there was a small holographic projector there too. "Alright listen up, If you want rousing speeches about the glories of being a ground pounder, you got the wrong Greystorm leading this. As of last week, Sith Force have established a fire base in the jungle, 20 clicks to the west of the city. They are using it as a beach head to invade the city. At 0500 yesterday, Local time, sighting of advanced Sith ground patrols begin to be sighted in the City. The armor is a give away. New Republic and First Order Forces have the main body of the Sith Advanced currently stalled out 15 clicks out. Sith Infiltration units are among other things causing terror in the Civilian populations. Which have been ordered to shelter in place." There's a scream of a Tie bomber flight screaming over head dropping rounds before a flight of T-85 engage them. "And we're dealing with that. It's not a good time to be a Vratix or a human civilian in this city. Our friends with the Bright Blessing have asked us to get a known enclave of refugees evacuated to the space port. The enclave is held up in a Theater in the middle of the City. Unfortunately hover trucks are not an option as the area has been mined and streets closed. So we get to hoof in and help these people hoof out while we provide security. We are technically mercs not recognized by any government. Do not fire on white shell heads nor New Republic troops. Do not acknowledge you are a citizen of the New Republic, ally of the jedi, or a member of Saber Squadron. Any questions?" Before anyone can ask anything Jax says, "Good. I'm not answering them. We leave in 5."
The The march to the city had been relatively uneventful. The destination was in sight and it had been all Blue Milk and honey. That of course had went south when the team got within 200 meters of the destination. There was a Squad of Sith Troopers sighted trying to blow open an entrance in the blockaded theater.
[ Merek (Black)]
"Not sure I want to acknowledge I'm with the Republic anyway these days," Merek will admit, while he takes the time to check his weapons. The man slides an EL-718 along the hip and adjusts the F-11D about the belt which he wears, the beltcape with the white-black armor which comes about the hips. The man places on the helmet while he nods a bit, "Alright. We'll see what we can do." With that, he will draw the F-11D and takes the time to turn on a maglight, lifting it up into hand, while he follows the team while they prepare.
[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]
Nerys having come up close enough to the crate to catch sight of the map, lifted a hand to make some adjustment or another on her helmet. She was wearing her familiar black on black armor with her backpack strapped to her back, Bitty maglocked to its front. She listened without comment, marking the route which they were intended to take, before she stepped back, hands touching the various hardpoints on her armor where she had her most useful weapons attached, and nodded, stepping up to stand at her husband's shoulder. "I'm ready." From Behind Nerys' Back, Bitty's little droid arm stuck itself up, giving the thumbs up. "I guess we're both ready."
[ Kael Greystorm (Kent)]
Kael's dressed in his trooper armor a duster covering his durasteeled armor plates and his helmet on and settled in place as he drums his fingers on the holstered pistols at his thighs before checking the sword poking over a shoulder. As he looks around at the rest of the group, "I'm not the right Greystorm am I?" Just by asking the question he's likely ensured that he isn't, "This should be fun. I'm sending my bacta bill to you Jax!"
[ Karas Darkwing (Kar)]
It's been a while since Karas had to do any ground missions, he's almost forgot how they went. Still wearing his void armor and poncho over it, he has on an old school ball cap, with the bill turned backwards and to the side of his head. Moving up to the crates and crouching, he listens. "You bring us to the nicest place SL." he says with a grin, brushing a few dreads from his face. He looks to the others as he pulls out his sidearm and he looks at the others weapons, "Alright, someone got to take me weapon shopping." he frowns.
[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]
Zelo Parrai keeps the E-11 at his side, slung low, but not on his back - ready to raise at a moment's notice - so as to not advertise just how prepared he was. <"Mercs, understood."> The Mandalorian would have a little more difficult time not standing out - beskar tends to look like beskar - but he does his best, finding some dirt and dust in a corner and beginning to brush it over the meticulously cleaned, gleaming blue beskar. If nothing else, he can dull it to not stand out, and it won't be the distinctive color that some might recognize. A carrying bag straps across his chest the other way, further marring the clean lines of 'Mando.'
<"Only firing on your order, or in defense. The civilians are our priority, correct?"> The normally upbeat baritone is sharpened by the vocoder, coming across more as walking weapon.
[ Bizz Bliptettjupp (bizz)]
Bizz the monk was just tapping along, using his energy bow as a walking stick while tap-tap-tapping along. "No hover trucks. We could have brought spamels. Or kybucks! Those don't trigger grav-mines." He wears a simple sedge hat to keep out the weather. "Do the Siths still have the red armor?"
[ Jax Greystorm (Jax)]
Jax had caught sight of the Sith trooper fire team and had ducked down behind an overturned speeder truck. His blaster pistol drawn. He'd gave quiet orders for the rest of the team to fan out take cover and assess the situation.
Oddly enough the Sith Fire team had done similar. The squad had took up positions in defensible cover with lanes of fire and covering each other. It was luck or the force they hadn't seen Saber Squadron. There was a pair working to set charges to blow the barricaded entrance to the theater. They were currently mounting it. It would be a few moments before it blows.
[ Merek (Black)]
Merek looks to the Sith Troopers that are planting the charges. Protecting civilians is the goal, and the more time they give to the enemies the more time they have to take on civilians. The man steps up from the cover which he takes, then he fires along to a trooper which is planting charges. The crimson bolt manages to hit him and right in the torso. He then checks the weapon and prepares for the fire fight.
[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]
"Alright, girl, you know what to do." Nerys reached back with her free hand to tap on Bitty's chassis, the ID10 droid detaching herself from Nerys' back and hovering up and away, moving to find herself a position where she could transmit her visuals of the enemy targets and help the team track their movements, especially when they were moving through and behind cover.
As for Nerys, well, she did the sort of thing one brought Nerys to these sorts of parties to do, and she stepped out away from cover, aiming not at the ones setting the breaching charges, but the Sith who seemed to be the commander of the strike team. They always wore the fanciest stripes, right? Nerys' eyes narrowed behind her helmet, using the guidance from it and her own keen eyes to search for the pain points on the armor and she fired two quick shots, the bolts, screaming that oddly human scream that was so peculiar to the LL-30, right into the trooper's neck, at the juncture where his armor met his helmet, as the body dropped, her arm vectored left, and she aimed for the next closest trooper.
[ Kael Greystorm (Kent)]
Kael shakes his head a bit, "Can't let 'em in there." He looks over as Merek starts shooting at the bomb planting goon and steps out aiming his LL-30 that's resting nicely in his right hand at the Gamma squeezing the trigger with a nice bolt of energy slamming into Gamma 5 followed by another bolt of energy dropping the bomb setting Sith Trooper. His left hand comes up with the Sentinel IV and he sights in at Bravo2 squeezing the trigger with a large bark as it slams into one of the vets and a smirk on his face, "You never shoulda gone after the civilians."
[ Karas Darkwing (Kar)]
Karas nods to the others, as he peeks around checking angles and trying to see if there are any snipers, "I just had to get rid of my damn sniper rifle." he whispers. Shaking his head, he tightens his grip on his pistol handle and moving along the back end of his cover, watching one of the Gammas go down, "I'm going to keep fire on those guys at the barricade." he says as he brings his weapon around and begins firing in towards one of the closer Sith Trooper near the barricade, as he fires, his aim is off, and he starts to drop back down behind cover, "Oh that's just great." he says as he begins to drop down back behind cover.
[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]
Zelo drops low, crouching behind a fallen kiosk, E-11 brought forward now to steady on the edge of what was once the face. The H-visor on his helm is doing double-time, targeting systems identifying ten enemies and highlighting them for the Nautolan's black-pool eyes. Those eyes only look at the door where in moments, the troopers will have access to the very civilians definitely-not-Saber-Squadron had been sent to get to safety. He lines up the shot, only to watch friendly plasma make short work of the bomb-setter and the Mandalorian adjusts as the trigger of his carbine depresses.
Two of the back-liners - those who could replace that bomb-setter if they had the know-how - are dealt with. In the permanent, red-plasma sort of way as that fierce carbine claims another pair of lives. One falls back, and the other falls on top of it as the surprise of losing a compatriot so suddenly overrides training the second later when the second shot lances out. <"They think a show of force means going after the weak."> Whether the Nautolan is sayign it to anyone nearby, or to himself, it's a fitting summary of Zelo's feelings. As is the faint red glow that can be seen spilling out near the seams of his beskar, where the custom helmet attaches. It could even be a trick of the light.
[ Bizz Bliptettjupp (bizz)]
Bizz is attempting to move closer to the doors of the sanctuary. He pops up with his energy bow and draws back an arrow, then unleashes it; the energized arrow streaks through the air like a comet, making a THUUUUUUUUUM sound! The bolt impacts on Gamma 7 and explodes, blowing off a piece of that red armor. The short monk hides behind some haphazardly-strewn crates of supplies as he reaches for a baton.
[ Jax Greystorm (Jax)]
The fire fight starts before Jax can give the order and his expression grimaces for a moment. Perhaps he was wanting to find a way to talk them down, jedi got to jedi. It was Sith Troopers and they were trying to set an explosive to enter and kill civilians. So Jax rises from his position and open fires with his blaster pistol taking out one of the veterans and then hitting one of the others. There's a streak of blaster bolts coming back at him and the others. "Nice work team. Next time wait for orders!" Jax calls out. "Finish this off and lets get that bomb contained."
[ Merek (Black)]
Merek takes with him the kit which he keeps on the belt which he wears, then he moves along to that bomb. The man takes the time to begin working with the device, and he unseals the maglock while he snips the wires that seem to be controlling the payload. With that, he will begin to place it into a pack with him, amid all of that fire fighting which people are doing.
[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]
Clearly, Nerys was on a mission. And that mission was demoralization of the troops. Working,a s she so often did, hand in hand with Kael, she aimed for the sith trooper leader he had opened fire on, the pair, between them dropping the body before Nerys shifted to the team that remained around the charges. Her final shot before she paused to reassess dropped one and injured another. "This is just like Corellia!" The sound of her voice made it almost seem like she was joking. But was she? I mean, Corellia.
[ Kael Greystorm (Kent)]
Kael looks over at Nerys and shakes his head, "I think Corellia had better drinks!" Then he starts to advance on the Gamma Sith Troopers the LL-30 barking off with two shots, first one slamming into the trooper and the second one impacting a wall behind that it... Then the Sentinel IV is raised up and a single shot barks off slamming into the trooper and shattering armor from the force of the impact. The pretty Greystorm turns towards the other troopers and smiles a bit, "Who's next?"
[ Karas Darkwing (Kar)]
As he drops back down behind cover he can feel the shaking of the cover as repeated blaster shots slam into the debris. "Ok maybe they don't like us." he chuckles. He quickly moves to his right and staying behind cover, he looks to the others for a moment. "Copy that Lead!" he calls back about waiting on orders, he quickly pops up firing shots at one of the Troopers near the barricade, trying to provide cover firing for Merek and again, who the hell is Karas shooting at? His blaster shots go streaking past the trooper. "Are you kidding me!" he start to drop back down again.
[ Bizz Bliptettjupp (bizz)]
Brother Bizz collapses his energy bow with a *SHNICK* and activates his crackling stun baton. Bursting from the crates, the fat monk crosses the distance and attacks the last red Gamma boi. "The FORCE is with us!" He twirls, whacking the Sith trooper's knee, and then stuns the darkness out of him with a whirling smack to his breastplate. BZZZZZ ZZZZZZ ZZZZZT goes the baton.
[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]
There's a catch in Zelo's movements, and he looks over toward Jax. <"I'm willing to be in trouble this once until we know how close that bomb is to going off."> The Mandalorian looks back to what remains of the squad of Sith Troopers just as the E-11 issues the soft click as the cell reaches full charge again. A bolt quickly lances out, throwing a third trooper back at the flexion of a cobalt-blue finger, but the follow-up shot that would have taken a fourth goes wide as the weapon pulls to the right. All the practice in the world means little if one is shooting with more emotion than thought.
[ Jax Greystorm (Jax)]
The Sith fire team suppressed and the bomb disarmed. "Nothing is like Corellia." Jax says as he steps around his cover. "I miss home some days. Zelos lets not get you in any extra trouble. Good work squad. Well lets go introduce ourselves and see if we can get some people to safety."
It's hours later and the team has been moving slowly through the city the fifty refugees with them slowed them down. The Sith Campaign into the city had picked up there were more shelling and bomb drops. It had meant that they had to move from site to site and not freely into cover. It had been going well no more fire teams. That was till the bridge. There was no way across that they wouldn't be out in the open and worse the bridge opened up into a parkway. So with timing they decided to cross the bridges. As the last of them step over the bridge and into the parkway. Jax turns his head and looks to the sky like a confused kath hound. "I got a bad feeling." There's a scream in the sky and a pair of Tie Bombers appear zeroing in on the squad and their charges out in the open.
[ Merek (Black)]
Merek had taken the time to check along while they were going for the civilians, and eventually he takes the time to motion to everyone, "You all need to work your way into a pattern, follow me. They are carrying the cluster bombs, those are going to spread, we need to work to get civilians away and to cover," he notes. The man follows along and will do what he can to guide people while they work along through the place to get everyone away.
[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]
As the last of the civilians crossed the bridge, and Jax's voice rang out, Nerys whipped around, scanning the sky and then back the way they were going in the first place. "We need to get to cover." A quick internal calculation, "Head west, towards those buildings there!" Nerys waved and pointed, just for clarification. "They should give us some protection!" There were two, they'd have to decide where they were going to end up when they got closer. Nerys though, did not think of that right now. Instead, she began going through the process of herding cats. "Move! Grab anyone lagging behind and go!"
[ Zelo Parrai (Zelo)]
<"Yes, sir."> Zelo had nothing to add, the red glow tinting those joints of his armor turning blue as he realized his flippancy...
The journey had been as smooth as journeys can be in cities beset by warfare. Site to site. Fifty refugees trusting their lives completely to strangers solely because they'd put an end to those who would have done harm to the innocent. Even the bridge... It was tense. The Nautolan found himself holding his breath occasionally, reminding himself to breathe as his H-visor scans back and across the group of refugees trusting in their care.
But the screaming, paired with Jax's bad feeling... Zelo has never seen a Tie in person, but he's heard the stories. He looks between the two options set forth by Nerys and maybe it's intuition, or maybe his visor has some extra sub-routines, but he points to one of them with some confidence in his voice. <"The left one! The other's taken one too many hits on the front face, it's a breath away. LEFT!"> The vocoder calls out sharp as boots pick up pace and he points for those who can't keep the directions straight. The Mandalorian's only running at half-speed as he looks between debris on the ground and the refugees, ready to stop and grab someone if any should fall.
[ Karas Darkwing (Kar)]
Karas made sure to pick up one of the Sith TRoopers rifles, they were dead and didn't need it anymore. Having helped to make sure people were good to travel, the dark skinned pilot was among those running. Though after passing over the bridge and quickly looking up as he could hear the tell, tell signs of an incoming Bomber. He doesn't say anything, he quickly looked ta their group, and watched the bomber as it was coming in. He was mentally doing quick math in his head, focusing from the bomber, the bridge and to where they are and openess they were in. Knowing the bomber can't drop on them directly, they have to lead the drop more so. Checking the direction of where Nerys instructs them to go, he nods. "Move! It's going to try to drop in front and middle to try to take us out! RUN!" he calls out. "We got 40secs, move!" he calls out, slowing to keep up with stragglers, those not fast enough mainly kids are picked up and hauled with him as he runs!
[ Kael Greystorm (Kent)]
Kael had moved to pull up rear security and cat herding duties as they continued their trek across the city. And then it's time for the bridge the linear danger it possesses clear for most anybody who understands tactics (evidently not Kael). The TIE Bombers starting to head towards them Jax saying he's got a bad feeling and Kael looks back across the bridge they'd just crossed hearing Nerys's directions in his head even as he identifies a lagging behind toddler that he scoops up, clutching the small child close to his chest as he begins sprinting towards the buildings that Nerys had indicated and as he gets closer the whine of the TIE Bombers coming in behind him he kicks into the next gear hearing the voice of the Mandalorian of the group come over the din of the chaos he pivots to sprint into the left building that 40 second timer counting down in the back of his mind the entire time and rapidly getting close to that 0 mark "Oh crap oh crap oh crap.." Then the child cries a bit, "Oh no kiddo it's gonna be just fine I've got you and I'm not about to let us get hurt to a bombing run just hold on tight okay?"
[ Jax Greystorm (Jax)]
They had made it and just barely. Kael was the last one across the finish line. The building had been an industrial ware house that had once housed the prepackaged pastries that Jax in another live had favored. Legend says there's still a case hidden on his ship. The sturdy building with big bay doors that the Corellian jedi rolled down as his cousin slipped past with the kid. The great metal door go rolling down as the first of the munitions dropped where they had been. It wasn't giant bombs but small cluster, and there was small pops that began to sound like rain but grew in intensity to a deafening roar. Then in moments it was over and when the team could escape they would find a series of craters were the parkway had been. They would find they're way back to the spaceport and the Bright Blessing. Fifty more souls that would survive another day thanks to Saber Squadron.
