Imperial Shelter: All Your Base

[The Confessor]

[fancybox2]

BASTION
10:00 Hours

Ironically enough, the pirates who have been hounding the colonists have their main base located conveniently at the landing zone for the colonists. The Team must eliminate the Pirate threat, and commandeer the base for the colonists.

Mission Page ; Self Dm ; @Shax
@EmilyHuene ; @vamp ; @Mr. Teatime [/fancybox2]

Imperial control doesn't extend far enough into the outer rim, and thanks to the lack of resources and bases available to the Empire in the region, the Sith cannot launch successful assaults on the more valuable worlds. Therefore a mission has been proposed to colonize a world as a military staging point for further expansion into the outer rim. This is what brought the three Sith warriors on their venture to Bastion.

Aboard a Contemptuous-class dungeon ship given the name The Gallows by her captain, the three members of the Sith faction stood in wait. Lady Eriana Fox stood arm in arm with her prince, @Milo Vemec Drast . The man had become her first friend upon defecting to the true side of history and they quickly fell for one another as if brought together by the Force itself. They were standing on the bridge of The Gallows and would soon be joined by their other member of this task force. Eriana had yet to meet this man Arcturus, but she hoped he was a competent solider. She'd never cared for those without the gift of the Force, but that wouldn't be enough for her to hate him either.

The Confessor -as was her nickname back when she worked for the Imperial Republica- was dawned in Sith Maurader armor that was tailored to fit more like a corset than a heavy chest plate. Her shoulders were bare but the armor still covered the vital organs where it counted. Beneath the armor she wore a tight fitting leather bodysuit that kept her free from minor wounds and scrapes that might occur during combat. Over this ensemble was a white cloak that had the Old Empire -now the current emblem of the Sith- colored into the fabric in the center of her spine. The blind Sith had two weapons on her person at all times. The first were her two curved lightsaber hilts that were the mirrored imagine of one another. Like every Sith, they protruded red beams that symbolized the will power and anger within the Sith. Her second weapon, which made her seem all the more deviant and sadistic, was a Zygerrian electro whip that many of the slaving trade were known to carry. While Eriana did not practice in slavery, having the whip on hand showed she meant business. It also her whole ensemble rather resembling of a dominatrix in some adult industry.

Below them, on the surface of Bastion was a pirate stronghold that would be perfect for the Empire to have in their conquest. This was where The Gallows was heading. While the ship itself could not dock planetside, between the three Sith they were bound to have a vessel on hand in which to take them to the surface. Eriana had her simple figtherjet docked away, but there'd been room for plenty of other ships in the hold. Once the trio had gotten their bearings, they would head for the base and remind the pirates who was in charge of this universe.

"I don't suppose you have any plans for dinner do you?" Eriana asked Milo as if they weren't about to go risk their lives on some mission. This was a common occurrence for them: killing pirates. Why would they feel any fear of losing when the both were demons when it came to combat and taking lives.

 

[Darth Parox]

Milo had been somewhat reluctant to leave the Violator back home—mostly because he had grown so used to living in the ship—but he had traveled with Eriana enough times that the Gallows were familiar enough to warrant his approval. In the hold, he'd parked his Dagger-class fighter, which he was about to pilot out of training for the first time—not that he expected this to be a naval combat sort of mission. The craft was simply going to serve as a shuttle for him to land planet-side, since they couldn't fly Eriana's massive ship down.

"Perhaps we could grab some Alderaanian?" he asked in response. The planet was well known for its hefty but classy meals, most of them having started off on noble tables but moved off-world as its chefs migrated around the Galaxy. Now, Alderaanian was as common as any other ethnic food. Besides, Milo was in the mood for steak. "Assuming Bastion serves it." Then again, it was inconceivable that there was not a single fitting restaurant on the entire planet.

The door behind them slid open and in strode in their companion, who Milo turned to observe, sizing him up from the moment he stepped in. His helmet was on and his face completely obscured, so he supposed Arcturus would not yet be able to recognize him without it. "Welcome," he greeted. "We were just discussing dinner."

@EmilyHuene @Mr. Teatime

 

[The Confessor]

A longing sigh came from Eriana that kind of resembled a moan, "Mmmmmm. Yes. I do love foreign food." Milo had mentioned Alderaanian food and then added that hopefully somewhere on this rock the two Sith would even be able to find such a meal. "Oh heavens. I really hope so. Else I'm going to be salty all night. Let's get this over with so we can get going. I'm starving right now."

As the two walked hand in hand away from Milo's ship they were once again greeted by Eriana's Fox troopers who were loading up three transport shuttles for the departure down to the pirate stronghold. One of the captains of the three squads would salute the Sith as they came up and explained they were to take the third shuttle which had the smallest crew and thus room for them. He also mentioned this was for their safety in case the pirates down below had anti-aircraft guns.

Eriana barely paid the man any mind. She hadn't quite gotten over her fear of flying yet, but knowing Milo was with her was enough to keep her from freaking out like she used to. The two moved right on through and would take a seat in the shuttle and Eriana strapped herself in (she wasn't that comfortable yet). Once secured, she leaned into Milo and clasped his arm and hand tightly. She always hated this part.

 

[Darth Parox]

The shuttle took off, and the two hung on as they flew to the surface of the planet. It was a normal ride for a few minutes, the craft humming as it propelled itself toward Bastion's gravity field. Milo looked out the window to pass the time, observing the rest of the shuttles as they flew a little lower than them. It was mostly because they had left first, but Milo was glad they were not in first place.

One of the other shuttles suddenly got hit by something, its hull blasted open. It soared through the air for some time, fading away and likely crash landing somewhere. Their craft picked up speed, trying to get away, but they were hit too. Their wing got chipped off, and the Sith suddenly found themselves free-falling in the metal box. Alarms beeped and the wind howled at the durasteel walls, but Milo focused on hanging on, making sure Eriana didn't let go of him.

They fell for a long time. It was not the first time he crash landed, but it had never been like this. The pirates apparently did have anti-air guns, and clearly knew how to use them well. Milo could only hope that they landed close to the base.

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

This was it. The moment Eriana had feared for years: getting shot down in a transport. She suddenly felt the feeling of life being stripped away, the feeling being confirmed by the explosion of a ship in the distance. Fear took over her as she felt her heart drop. Their own shuttle began picking up speed until a massive quake hit them. The room got both quiet and louder as the engines died out before alarms clicked on. What happened next was the worst feeling in the world.

Eriana had never fallen before. Not in something. She was terrified of it. She felt like her insides were going to come up through her throat. She screamed and clutched to the grips of her harness with one hand, the other squeezing Milo's like she was afraid it would be separated from her forever. She could never live with herself being apart from him. That's the connection she shared and a Force sensitive's mental link, emotional or otherwise, was far stronger than anyone else's.

How long did they fall? It all happened so fast, and after the fact it would feel like no time at all. But as it was happening it felt like eternity. Her throat was raw from screaming; she couldn't help herself. This was her greatest fear and now it was coming to life. When the ship finally did crash it was enough to make Eriana lose consciousness. Her head hit the back of the chair she was strapped too and even though it was cushioned the impact still made her body go into protective-mode, in other words asleep. And she was glad for it too. She wouldn't have wanted to be awake for the rolling of the ship several times over before finally coming to a stop.

As she slowly came back into consciousness Eriana found that her head was splitting. It was far worse than a headache, it was likely a concussion. Blood was trickling down her left cheek for she'd hit her forehead on something during the crash. She struggled to get out of her harness but she found her hands weren't working properly and she couldn't figure out how to unlock the belts. Her mind wasn't quite at full strength yet.

"Milo?" she would ask weakly. She couldn't see, and her Force connection was shaky. It took concentration to see around her and right now her head was shot. "Milo? Where are you?" Eriana was more concerned with her lover than herself at this point.

 

[Darth Parox]

"Right here!" he replied, reaching to help her with the belt. He'd remained next to Eriana and had found far less trouble during impact; he had only suffered from a few cuts and bruises, particularly around the torso where his seat belt had tugged him. He took his belt off and then unclasped Eriana's, reaching out a hand to help her up.

"The pirates must have shot us down," he remarked, looking out the shattered window of the shuttle. "Thankfully, their base is close by." Only a few hundred meters. He was beginning to doubt Eriana's ability to continue the mission, looking at the blood trickling down her forehead. Milo reached out with his sleeve and wiped it off. "Can you fight?"

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

Eriana breathed a heavy sigh of relief as Milo came around to responding to her. He assisted her with her belt and she crawled out of the seat with shaky movements. Aside from her head, she really wasn't all that injured. She rested herself in his grasp for a minute while she tried to catch her breath and slow her heart rate down. Milo would then guess that they'd been shot down by the pirates. She could only hope it was them, and not their own people's stupidity. He then added that out of everything, the base was nearby and thus hope was still with him.

Groaning, Eriana would move to sit up now. She checked herself for her weapons first -both present- and then for bruises or cuts. None seemed apparent from her neck down so she knew she could fight. She hummed twice in acknowledgement to his question about whether or not she was battle ready. The fact she didn't outright agree to getting back out there was proof enough that she was far from it. She then struggled to her feet and shakily made her way out one of the holes in the ship.

The wind in her face -although smoky from the burned ships around them- still felt better than the sweat and dust from inside the ship. It helped clear her head a little but it was still fuzzy and she couldn't quite make out what was around them. She fell to one knee after tripping over some rock or durasteel shard and groaned in frustration. If she weren't blind she wouldn't need to call on the Force to figure out what in heavens name was happening around her. It was absolutely humiliating feeling this weak.

"Milo!" she called again behind her. "Can you get us another ship? A transport? A bike? I need more time to....to heal."

Eriana wasn't sure who was around her right now aside from Milo who was ever present in her eyes. But she didn't want to admit to anyone that she was practically useless at the moment because of the splitting, mind-droning, pulsing in her head.

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Boy was Bob not having the best of weeks. He had been over the moon with excitement and pride once the Dark Council had approved this little venture to Bastion. It was a world he could mold personally! A world he could build up into the Imperial dream, far enough away from the Sith where their interference would be negligible against his Imperial Ideal. So colour him a little miffed when word came that the ships had been attacked. Now this expected and planned for, but he was kind of hoping the local yokels wouldn't be that stupid.

But they were, and while he wasn't originally part of the actual mission to defend the colonists personally, once word came in about the attack he felt the need to fly out there and try and help out. So he hopped on his mightily brisk Imperial Yacht, and made the journey in several days.

So colour him double dumbass surprised to hear the standard distress beacon for all Imperial craft pinging on the surface of the planet. He was under the assumption that this would all have been handled by now, but, such as it was, he must have been given faulty intel. He opened up some encrypted Imperial comms, hopeful that there were still some survivors in the crashes. "This is the Abbot, you folks still kickin' down there? Anything I can do to help?"

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

As if there was some angel looking out for her twice, her commlink would blink with someone calling out along their channel. Eriana was confused by the voice, as she knew she'd heard it somewhere else. Scrambling to get the call she opened up the reply from her end and would call back. "Yes. Yes! This is Crusader Eriana Fox. Our ship was downed. So was the rest of our squad. We need evac ASAP! Bring us a shuttle and watch out for those air cannons!"

Eriana rolled over onto her back once more as the headache was pushing further into a migraine. She'd need some strong meds to knock this out because she couldn't wait for her body to heal it herself, Force powers or otherwise. She would groan again and try and focus on what was around them. It hurt like hell to do so, but she didn't see anyone just yet. But that didn't mean there were pirates coming right for her location this very second to check for survivors. Pirates she would have seen coming if she weren't blind.

"Come on," she thought to herself. "Come and get us. Hurry." The blind Sith hated having to have someone coming to her rescue. But what other choice was there?

@Shax ​

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Bob was elated to hear that some of the folks down on the planet were still alive, "Don't worry, helps on the way!" He said with a comforting note to his voice. After that he switched channels to contact the Imperial vessel orbiting the planet. "Gallows, this is the Abbot, I'm going to go down there and pick up our friends but I need you to take out those AA cannons. Can you do that?" While normally folks wouldn't listen to the commands of Bob over that of their captains and commanders, he was technically in command of this entire operation. Also, his plan wasn't stupid, so there weren't many reasons to argue.

"Affirmative Overseer." Was the only thing Bob got in return from the ship, but he didn't really expect much more when dealing with a Sith's personal vessel. He wordlessly began flying down towards the crashed shuttle, watching as green streaks of laser fire began striking at the weapons emplacements on and around the pirate base. It would have been nice to have been able to capture the base intact, but Bob wasn't about to waste lives just for a few guns and walls. The structure would still be standing, but it would certainly need some cleanup.

Bob meanwhile was breaching the atmosphere, and his sensors were telling him that a group of unhappy pirates were moving in the same direction he was. It was good then, that his luxury yacht was also built with protection in mind. The shuttle was already beginning to receive blaster fire by the time Bob arrived, while not a fighter, his ship still had the ability to do some damage. His ship began firing at the scattering group of pirates, hoping to keep them down as the ship began to slowly drift to a landing position with the ramp facing the downed shuttle.

Bob wasted no time in retrieving his repeater once the ship was safely on the ground, and moved to the back of his ship to open the ramp. The pirates, while scattered and confused, didn't let up in their assault.

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

Hearing the blasters around her caused the Sith to crouch back down and seek cover. She was lying behind something that was burning and the heat was making the air harder to breathe. That could have been the smoke too though. Coughing, she tried to keep low and out of sight until the roar of engines around her got closer. Her head was still throbbing so she couldn't figure out what was completely going on around her, but she knew the sounds of ship lasers. Whomever her savior was, he was dealing with the pirates around her.

"Come on!" she yelled mostly for herself, but to whatever allies were around her. "Get to the shuttle!"

While she had difficulty seeing the world as a whole, the blind Sith was able to focus on the path ahead of her enough to navigate the rubble so she could make her way to the ship while it came to land. She struggled her way up the ramp and then collapsed once she was safely inside. A few soldiers managed to get there too and they helped ease her into a seated position near the wall.

"Bring me a radio," she said weakly before going into a coughing fit. One went off to set up a command link between them and The Gallows while another handed her a respirator. Taking it and pressing it to her face she then stopped her coughing while breathing more filtered air.

"Here you are, Mam!" the soldier said as he came back and knelt beside her.

"Thank you," she'd say quietly while taking the commlink from him. She took a second to find her breath again before telling the soldier one more command. "Tell the pilot to get us the kriff out of here. I'm blowing that fortress to kingdom come."

"Right away, Mam!" the loyal soldier replied and rushed off to go relay these instructions to Bob.

Over the same channel Robert would hear the same thing she was saying, "Gallows, this is Crusader Fox. The drop zone is compromised. The pirate base is too heavily fortified. Sound a retreat for all troops and fire on the pirates' location the moment we're clear. Leave nothing standing."

Up above, the commander of The Gallows would call back, "Lady Fox this is Captain Hamilton. We hear you and are targeting the base now. Stand clear."

Grunting, Eriana lowered the device and dropped it on the floor before then raising the mask back up to her face to let herself breathe again. This wasn't the desired result of what was supposed to happen today, but hopefully once the pirates realized the might of the entire Sith Empire was raining down above them from the skies they'd sound a surrender. Either that, or they'd perish in the hellfire and the Empire could just rebuild from there. Either way, a win for the Empire. With that, the ship would start to rise and get the kark out of there with the Sith and the remaining troops that had survived the explosions safely on board. This was the last time Eriana would ever take part in a flying mission.

~END THREAD~
​