Imperialism Never Felt This Good

[Robert Abbotangelo]

[Mission Brief: Despite the planet being widely known as a barren graveyard world, it appears some subterranean creatures have attempted to begin settling the surface. Assault their largest grouping of settlements and drive the ugly monsters back underground where they belong. ]

Now, Bob was not usually one the Empire would call upon for what he would classify as their 'dirtier' jobs whenever they were needed. No, his talents lay more with the diplomatic side of things, maybe even assisting with some science related venture. But the suppression of natives? That was usually left to the Sith.

Though he supposed it made sense then, that he was paired with a Sith for this jolly good time.

Bob had squeezed into his armor once again, feeling like a younger man as the mission hearkened back to his glory years as a slave. You never really could match that same feeling of accomplishment one received when stamping out the local yokel's culture only for it to be replaced by the far superior Imperial design.

Being the magnanimous man that he was, Bob had brought along his small squadron of friends that had been awarded to him for all his service. He already knew all their names, and by strange, divine, or perhaps, infernal luck, each member had ended up in some way descended from Bob. Naturally he was overjoyed by this fact, but it did bring up some questions about his relationships when he was a younger and better looking man.

The group was currently setup on top of a hill overlooking the largest settlement of these so called locals. Bugs more like, considering their subterranean origin. A regular ol' bug hunt as the boy's used to say. The largest man, and highest ranked of Bob's squad came up to the titular Abbot, a man who was apparently his direct grandson, and sported the name of Bacchus. "Looks like a regular turkey shoot to me gramps. Lure em up the hill and lay into em with repeaters, killem all and blow up the holes they came in once they're all dead." He rumbled, smoking a stogie as he chuckled out his assessment of the situation.

Bob chuckled with him, nodding in agreement. Though he did want their resident space wizard to add her input, so he waved the blue skinned warrior over to the two men and asked her "What do you make of this? Think we should go in guns'a'blazin' or try and do this all sneaky beaky like? All we've got to do is make sure these things go back under ground, how should we do it?"

@Raven_41 @Logan

 

[Irolia Shen]

Irolia had been sitting on the edge ever since they arrived in the area. With legs dangling over the edge, throwing her little robot over the edge, waiting for it to fly back up. It almost seemed like a playful game between them. She would gently throw it over the edge from where she sat. Then the little robot would fly back up to her arms. Irolia stopped her little game with her robot, who started to crawl up her arm and on to her shoulder like a spider. The blue sith got up and walked over to the two men.

The one, who they called Bob, had an impressive armour on, though it looked a tiny bit too tight. Irolia looked down at the big rocky settlement of bug-like creatures. She didn't think to go in stealthy, would prove very useful, there was probably too many for them to kill that way. Going loud could lure a lot of the creatures out of their hiding, but could also scare a lot of them to go deeper into the ground. "A loud approach would probably be the best solution, do your men have any kinds of explosive we could use?" suggested she, looking from the settlements to Bob and the other man. Her little droid, as it sat on her shoulder beeped loudly, as an agreement.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Did they have any explosives she asked. Did they have any explosives. With huge shit eating grins on their faces, Bob and Bacchus turned to look at one another, before chuckling darkly. Now, Bob was always a big fan of the stealthy approach. He was raised on a death planet that only ever wanted to kill him, and his only way to survive was to hide and hunt quietly after all.

But to ask him, if he and his progeny had any explosives? It was honestly a little insulting.

"I like her, Gramps." Bacchus said, before he lumbered off into their makeshift camp, hootin' and hollerin' to the other squad members, who were each of course his half siblings or cousins. Bob just stood back, still chuckling as he imagined the big bangs that were about to go off. A few minutes passed, and after some most certainly not stealthy maneuvers, every explosive device was assembled at Bob and Irolia's feet. From Bob's personal PIPE VII to a small squad-sized mortar.

It was admittedly not as much as the squad would have liked to carry around at any given time, but they had to travel light given the nature of the odd jobs they were usually given. That didn't mean the collection wasn't impressive, no, far from it. The arrayed explosives would do the job nicely, even a quarter of the assembled munitions could level the village with room for error.

As Bacchus went to gather the gang, Bob turned to Irolia. "I'm thinking we use the mortar to level the village, then march our fat asses down this hill and put the fear of the Empire into these natives." He said, smirking imperiously as he glanced towards the oh so fun to use and dangerous gear arrayed at their feet. His eyes glanced to the left and right all shifty like, before he leaned down and said to Irolia conspiratorially "You wanna fire the Mortar?"

@Raven_41

 

[Irolia Shen]

Irolia just produced a small smirk at Bacchus comment and followed him with her eyes. The Irolia's droid, which she called parrot, did not seem to like being ignored and started to beeping at its owner, to get attention. Irolia rolled her eyes at her favourite little droid but started to caress the dome, like a pet with fur. The attention seemed to satisfy the little droid, as it stopped beeping annoyed and crawled back on her shoulder.

Irolia was about to just place her butt down on the ground and wait for Bob's squad of men would level the settlements to rubble. When he actually gave her the possibility, her eyes lit up. She've never tried to use a mortar before, then again her time with pirates and her Mandalorian mentor never delivered the opportunities to fire weapons larger than blasters and rifles.
Her droid crawled like a spider, from her left shoulder and placed itself on her right shoulder, seeming to find the place rather comfortable.

The young blue-skinned Sith walked over to the Mortar, listened to whatever instructions she got on how to use it. Grabbing a magazine, which held 5 shells, she loaded the tube. As she pulled the trigger the show began. 5 shells, lobbing in a great arc, one after another, falling towards the unknowing settlements. The sight was something to behold, one explosion after another, levelling the whole area. When the explosions calmed down, nothing but rubbles and ruins, even from where they stood, it was visible.

"That was fun!" Irolia proclaimed in a giddy voice.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Bob carefully guided Irolia as she setup the the mortar, sneakily doing the math for her just so they could get a wiggle on with blowing things up and what not. Five *thump thump thump's* later and the village was going up in smoke. Bob watched on with a grin as he clapped Irolia on the back and pulled her into a side-hug.

Suddenly, he spun around to the now assembled troopers, still holding Irolia all the while, having to lift her in the air in order to spin around. "Alright boys!" He stopped a moment before sheepishly adding "And ladies!" as he glanced at the two female troopers on the squad, as well as the tiny woman he was holding in a vice like grip. "We've got ourselves a bug hunt! Thanks to our local angry space wizard, the natives are getting restless! Lets show them the might of the Empire eh?" He pronounced inspirationally, to which the troopers all rattled and yelled as they voiced their agreement.

One of the female troopers, a woman named Kalia - who was his granddaughter in law - went to her husband and they had a private conversation, before they joined the rest of the squad in trundling down the hill towards the bombed out village. The other woman, took up a position near an outcropping of rocks so she could snipe at anyone trying to escape.

The rest of the squad, followed Bob as he lumbered down the hill. Bob just barely remembered to let Irolia go before he got going, though he did take a few steps with her still wrapped in his arm. The gang went in, guns'a'blazin, screaming obscenities at the locals as they attempted to mount some kind of panicked defense. It seemed the town was centered around one big damn hole in the ground, which was where all the strange aliens were retreating too.

@Raven_41

 

[Irolia Shen]

The sudden clap on the back and then side-hug, was something she wasn't prepared for. She hated being picked up like really hated it. Especially because she always felt so small and couldn't touch the ground. That old man was stronger than he let out, 'cause she really tried to get free off his hold, "put me down old man!" she said annoyed. When he finally let her go, she gave him a death stare for a few seconds. She wanted to teach that old man a lesson in why carrying her, was a bad idea. But they had a job to do and an important mission to finish.

Putting her annoyance to the side, she focused on the job at hands and drew her own two blasters. It was truly a sight to behold, the sheer size of the destruction from the mortar was incredible. Death was everywhere to be found and Bob's little squad of troops seem to enjoy the battle as much as Mandalorians. Nevertheless. Irolia shot left and right as they stormed the panicked defences. Finally the local seemed to be firing back, though their weapons look nothing like blasters, but more a sort of organic weapon. A few shots hit some of Bob's troops, stunning down on the spot.

Holstering her blasters, Irolia ignited her lightsaber as they charged the rather poorly made defences. Some of the troopers threw some grenades over the defence, blow the creatures to pieces. Irolia launched into the air with her lightsaber raised and cut all the way through its body. One of the locals tried to strike at the blue-skinned Sith, but she blocked the strike and danced around the attacker and cut its arms off before beheading it. Green blood smacked her in the face, which didn't seem to affect her as she continued to cut down enemies in her way.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Bob wasn't a vindictive man, he most certainly wasn't one prone to random violence. But there was always that niggling bit in the back of his mind that said, 'just think of them as lesser than you.' As if for some reason that made everything O.K. It didn't of course, if Bob was looking at this situation objectively, it would be unobjectively a downright slaughter of innocent civilians. However, he had been in this business long enough to know how to switch off. Decades of fighting as a slave in the Imperial war machine, loosing sleep over the blood he had spilt in the name of his masters, had taught him that it just wasn't worth it to worry whether or not what he was doing was right.

It was just so easy to think of these terrified bug-people as lesser beings.

Because if they were anymore than that, Bob would have been committing a terrible murder. And he couldn't have that now could he.

He sprayed his repeater down at the disorganized mob of supposed defenders. Who's weapons could hardly penetrate their armor beyond stunning the Imperials. His progeny would be fine, they always were. Even though it pained him to watch as were struck by aliens weapons that caused who knows what kind of damage, knocking them to the ground as if dead for a few moments. That made it a little easier to kill the locals.

They were approaching the center of town now, the local townsfolk cowering away as the gripped one another in fear. Afraid to lose their family, or whatever passed for family amongst the strange aliens. The civilians, once they spotted the small squad of Imperial troopers, practically leapt down their gigantic hole to get away from the monsters on the surface.

@Raven_41

 

[Irolia Shen]

Irolia looked rather scary with the among of blood she had on her face. Bug after bug fell to Irolia's fury as she cut her way through, always staying at the very front of their charge. Most of them seemed like civilians, never-the-less, she didn't stop her attack. Irolia stopped at the centre and outstretched her arm at the fleeing bugs. Reaching out with the force, feeling the very core of its being, every fibre of its existing and pulled. One of the bugs as it had tried to jump in the gigantic hole, felt a strange force, launched it back towards the Imperials. Landing at the feet of Irolia, she pointed the beam of her sabre by the throat of the bug.

"Ah ah ah, not so fast little one," said Irolia, holding her lightsaber just inches from the bug, so it can't escape. The bug wasn't very big, looked like a kid, or the likes of a kid since all the other creatures were bigger. Kneeling down by the small bug, clearly scared to its core. Frantically looking back at the fleeing members of its species. A grenade went off not far from where Irolia and the kid were, making it shake a bit. While resting her lower arm in her knee, with her lightsaber turned off, she inspected the little creature. "It looks like that big hole is rather important to your kind for safety, what's down there?" She asked as Bob's troops slowly but surely cleared the area by the gigantic hole. The little bug looked hopeful at the big hole for someone to save it but got slapped by something hard. Irolia had snapped hun lightsaber at her belt again, but pulled her gun and slapped it, to get its attention.

"I ask again, don't make this hard little one" she stated again, to make herself clear. Her illuminating corrupted red eyes had an almost piercing effect. The small bug creature started to speak in its local tongue. It got another slap from Irolia's gun's barrel, "speak basic, or you're useless to me" Irolia said not getting annoyed. It was visible that the bug really tried to speak basic, but it was a really broken one, very primitive. "...Safe... Home... ple.. pleese" it tried, looking for words that would save it survive. It tried to look at anyone else, than Irolia for help, or sympathy.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Bob and the gang had finished clearing the square, and as far as he could tell, the town was now deserted after everyone had fled into the big black hole in the ground. "Bacchus, take a buddy and tell the rest to spread out around town. Make sure there aren't anymore hiding in the nooks and crannies. If you can, throw them in the hole 'alive,' no need to kill anymore than we need to. We've already sent our message." Bob said, and the hulking man nodded and lumbered off, smoking his stogie inside his helmet can't have been healthy, but who was Bob to judge?

Bob sauntered over to Irolia where she was interrogating one of the primitives. He waited a few moments, letting them speak. Sith were always far better at intimidation than Bob was. He didn't really know why, maybe it was the perpetual good cheer and smile. Or maybe it was the fact that he couldn't keep himself from giggling at how ridiculous he was being whenever he was being intimidating. Take your pick.

He stepped in, intent on playing good cop in this equation now that it was established that these strange bugs could speak some form of basic. He didn't touch him, but he did speak kindly, if a little sternly. "Alright alright, no need to go around beggin', that won't help anyone." That was a lie, it helped Bob specifically at this moment. "Now whats going to happen, is you are going to scurry your way down this hole, tell all your little friends not to come to the surface or this will happen again, and we will seal this big gaping thing shut, you get me?" It looked like it got the message, even if it didn't get the whole dialect. It nodded frantically, which was enough for Bob to motion for Irolia to let the thing scurry down the hole.

@Raven_41

 

[Irolia Shen]

Irolia notice Bob stood behind her at watch her little talk with the bug creature. Despite his annoyingly cheerful hugs, he was actually a rather fun company to have. Not that Irolia would admit that to the big man himself, 'cause that would probably just supply her with another one of his bear hugs. Irolia looked over the terrified little bug thing with her crimson eyes, debating whether to let it go or not. She holstered her gun and got up from her kelt position and looked down at the scared bug. "Go on little thing, run back to your kind," said the blue-skinned Sith and nodded at the hole not far from them. Irolia followed the little bug creature scurry as fast as it could towards the hole without looking back. "hmph, rude little thing, didn't even thank you for its survival. I should just a killed it, for its rudeness" said Irolia in annoyance as it disappeared down the hole. She turned around on her heels and walked over to some sort of crates and jumped up on it. She lumped down on the crate with begs over the edge of it and just sat there.

Not much else to do here, as they still had a couple more of the settlements to clear, so right now she just waited for them to head out. Now that she had a proper look at Bob's little family of soldiers, she found them quite fun to be around. She guessed they were that weird kind of family members you met at a family gathering... not that Irolia actually knew what that felt like. Her last family got cut down like an animal by the very thing Irolia was now, a Sith. In a way rather ironic if you thought about it. Her real family felt so long along like they were from another life. She didn't even know if her father survived.

As she started to think about family, she felt anger growing at a rapid speed. Her crimson red eyes started to fluctuate to a more blood red colour. Objects around her started to shake and slow float of the ground. Voices from her childhood started to fill her head. *It's your fault!*, *You kill our mother on purpose!*, "Get out of my head!" *if you had been stronger, our mentor had still been alive today!* said the voices repeatedly, making her slap her hands to her head. "Shut up! I'm not listening to you!" Cried out Irolia as she jumped off and fell to her knees. *You're weak!*, *If it weren't for you, we'll still have a mother. If it weren't for you, we'll still have a mentor* shot the voices again, creeping around in her head, like poison.

"SHUT UUUUUP!" Screamed Irolia at the top of her lungs and everything in a ten-foot radius around Irolia got blasted away in a shockwave. A few of Bob's men felt an invisible force launch them back, sending them crashing onto their back. Tears slowly slithered down her cheeks like a river.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Bob shrugged at her very sith like statements. He didn't personally believe any thanks were warranted considering they had just come into their pathetic little home and blew it to smithereens. He turned away from the hole, and did the rounds to his men, making sure they were all uninjured and cracking a few jokes with them as they began setting explosives on the hole. He heard some mutterings coming from the direction of Irolia, but didn't really pay it no never mind considering Sith were strange folk. As far as he knew, muttering to oneself was par for the course for them.

He started paying more attention after things started feeling depressed. His meager experience with Sith was even then enough to tell him something wasn't exactly great with the poor girl at the moment. Irolia seemed sad, smacking her own noggin and falling to her knees. She certainly didn't seem any better when she let out her frustrations in some arcane maneuver Bob would never understand.

With a sad sigh, Bob lumbered his way over to the silently crying girl and knelt down next to her. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder as he used the other to remove his helmet. Once finished, he gave the girl one of the kindest looks he could give. It was full of fatherly affection and understanding. He might not know the problem, and he might not have a great opinion of the angry space wizards that were the Sith, but neither of those issues would prevent him from trying to understand a crying girl in need.

"Irolia, are you all right?" His first instinct was to of course hug the girl, but he was self aware enough to realize how that might not be a great idea to do with someone so emotionally fragile and physically violent. He quietly gestured for the troops to just continue what they were doing, and they all nodded and went about their separate tasks.

@Raven_41

 

[Irolia Shen]

Bob's troops gave each other a worrying look. They didn't feel particularly great in letting their gramps and leader go near the Sith as they tend to lash out. Never-the-less, they did as they were commanded and went on with their duties. Irolia was talking in a low voice, but as if she was having a conversation with someone. "No I'm not... it wasn't my fault!" she said with a low sobbing voice, shaking her head violently. The moment she felt a hand on her shoulder, she shuttered and let her hands weakly fall to the ground. The blue Sith looked up, capturing Bob's eyes with her own. Something had changed in the girl's eyes. Instead of her normal crimson eyes, her eyes had shifted to a deep illuminating blood red colour.

Tears were really running down her cheeks, it was impossible for her to fight them back as if a dam had broke. Things around Bob and Irolia started to shake violently again and slowly rose from the ground as before. "I didn't kill them..." she said tearfully to Bob as if he knew who she talked about. "Make it understand, make it stop!" she continued in an almost desperate voice as she grabbed on to Bob, looking him in the eyes. Bob was the only thing, apart from Irolia herself, that didn't levitate five to ten feet above the ground. In a way, it was both fortunate and unfortunate that Bob wasn't force sensitive, 'cause the dark side radiated from her very core, spilling out of her.

Even Irolia's droid hid from her right now, scared of its master's state of mind. "You knooow I'm right, it should have been you that died, not your mother" the voice whispered creeping around in her mind. "No, no, no... It was an accident! She... SHE JUMPED IN FRONT OF HIM!" She screams past Bob as if the person stood just behind them.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Bob might not have been force sensitive, but he knew a general state of angry sadness when he saw one. Such emotions were usually the result of unnecessary guilt or trauma. Such scenarios always seemed to gnaw at his heart. It was even worse with women, seeing a woman cry always made Bob sad.

Bob payed no never mind to the floating phenomena around him, his kindly grandpa face fixated on the poor girls sad eyes. "I know kid, you didn't do anything." Bob didn't necessarily know exactly what was causing the badass Sith warrior in front of him to breakdown, but that didn't really matter at the moment. He gently grabbed the sides of Irolia's head, forcing her to look directly at him and softly spoke "Irolia, listen to me. There was nothing you could have done. Everything is going to be OK." He said, before pulling the girl in for a hug.

While this was happening, the gang was completing their tasks. The Sniper checked in periodically, keeping an eye out for any stragglers that didn't make it down into the hole. The rest went to work placing the charges that would collapse the sides of the hole, filling it up so nothing can come crawling back up. They stood at attention, awkwardly trying to eek away from the strange floating objects and the unstable Sith.

@Raven_41

 

[Irolia Shen]

Irolia deep down hated herself for what she did so many years ago. Maybe that was the reason? She didn't know. She kept telling herself that it all started with her dad, it was his fault, everything bad happened to her was his fault! It has to be... or maybe that was the easiest way of dealing with her trauma. The moment that Robert turned the blue sith's face to look at his kind older eyes, Irolia stopped rambling. Heavy tears ran down her face as she neither moved or talked. The moment she was pulled in for a heartfelt hug, it was as if the voices disappeared, slowly withered away in her head. Her crying turned to quiet sobbing and clutching him to her as if she was scared to lose him. A loud warning from the explosive expert "Take cover, blowing up in T-minus 20 seconds". Fortunately, Robert and Irolia were far enough from the explosion to actually take damage. A gigantic explosion filled the surroundings as the charges went off.

Irolia didn't look or twitch by the explosion, she just sat on the ground and were breathing now normally, though with a bit of sniffing to it. Every object that had been floating around Irolia and Robert, fell with a heavy thud sound as Irolia let go of the bigger man. She looked up at Bob with her red eyes that now have turned back to her normal red crimson colour. A small smile formed, though a bit sad looking, a smile non-the-less. "Thank..." whispered the blue sith quietly to Bob, so only he could hear it. She doubts he would ever know how much it meant for the blue girl when he hugged. The ironic thing was, she normally really hated being hugged, as she felt like a little girl. But this time felt like an exception, 'cause she didn't want to choke the man. Rather she grew a fondness of him. Maybe as a sort of protector or godfather of sorts.

Never-the-less, she got up from the ground and was greeted by her droid being happy to see her well. Her droid always made her happy. It was one of the few things in life that truly filled her with happiness. "Hey, buddy... I'm glad to see you again" greeted Irolia her droid as she caressed it like a pet.

One of Roberts men walked over to him, sending Irolia a bit of a weary look. "We've blown up the objective, orders?" Asked the soldier.

@Shax

 

[Robert Abbotangelo]

Helluva day this day had been for Bob. Solving problems for the Empire always left some form of satisfaction in his belly, and today was no different. Even better was that he had calmed a Sith. That was an achievement not many had ever acquired, so he got to brag about that in the pub later.

However, just because Bob had to be insufferably grandpa like, when Irolia pulled away from the hug Bob said once again, "You'll be alright." Before he 'booped' Irolia right on the nose. Right after that, he let out a big belly laugh that had any recently returned birds flying away once again.

He turned to his soldier and stood up, his old bones creaking all the while. "Well my good friend, I think we need a drink!" Another cackle resounded from the man, his words effectively meaning they had completed their mission to the best of their ability, and now it was time to party!

@Raven_41 @Logan
[End Thread]