Securing Azure - Against the Pirates

[Diocletian Solus]

Location: Azure

Dice: HERE

Participants: @Critas @Darasuum

Prompt: Azure is one of the few Independent planets in the Mid Rim, near the Contruum system. The Mandalorians have spent quite a few resources in securing that area. To solidify their hold on the area, they need to add those worlds still waving the Independent flag, to their cause. Azure is a non-strategic planet in a location that has no real strategic significance either. The only reason the Mandalorians are using valuable resources and time is that it might be used as a staging point for an attack into Contruum itself. Field Marshall Diocletian Valerius Solus has taken command of a task force to bring the planet into the fold and ensure this afterthought of a planet doesn’t come back to bite them in the rear.

Diocletian had just landed on Azure a few hours beforehand and he already didn’t like the place. It was way too blue for his tastes, it was literally everywhere you looked. When you are raised on a primarily desert planet like Mandalor, planets which are primarily water tend to make you nervous. Dio was no exception. He did not like the fact that those oceans could conceal really anything at this point. But it did certainly give him ideas for the future. Just as those oceans could conceal any number of unknown enemies, they could also just as easily conceal a hidden base or cache of supplies for the Mandalorian Armed Forces. This made Azure suddenly intriguing to Dio.

Dio was the advance scout for this operation. It had taken a quick data search to discover that the most important building or cluster of buildings on the planet was the spaceport. Dio knew the place would he heavily guarded and he was not disappointed. According to the two customs officials at the spaceport that he had bribed, the spaceport was the only way on and off the planet with any reliability. If the Mandalorians could take the spaceport, it would put the people of the planet and their very livelihood at their mercy. Of course, there were the odd pirating operations on planet, but according to his information, even they worked from the spaceport. Further digging and talking to locals revealed that the spaceport was primarily run by those very pirates and that they were essentially holding the planet hostage. Thinking back, the guards all around the space port had seemed rather rag tag.

A quick tactical assessment had given Dio an idea of how they might bring this world under the wing of the Mandalorian war bird. Take out the pirates and give the people their world back before negotiating a settlement with the government to keep the planet pirate free. They would of course need to leave behind a garrison or three to ensure they remained free. Yes, this would work just fine.

 

[Koil Solus]

____________

Sending two Field Marshals on a mission seemed a little exsessive but it was certain to get the job done. Koil had taken one of the VXN dropships to the planet. Koil was fully kitted out for this mission and so were his twelve warriors that he had brought with him. They had an additional two K/M shuttles for those that did not fit in the dropship.

The mission seemed like it would not be too difficult and they had yet to approach the local pirate presence diplomatically or aggressively. Dio had gone from being a marauder to being a Field Marshal in the same span of time as himself. Koil had seen him as just another member of the clan for awhile but he had proved himself more than adequate. In fact he was one of the best in all of House Solus.

As he sat in the back of the dropship he keyed his commlink to speak to Dio. "alright Attack, what's the plan?" He had an idea himself but he wanted to hear what Dio had. He used his Badger call sign since they were so close. There were more Badgers now and plenty of names but they had been a tight nit and smaller clan once. Only those that were from back then did he use their call signs.

@Critas ​

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Diocletian smiled as the familiar voice of Koil came across the comms system. He had not realized they had assigned two Field Marshalls to the mission, but it made sense. Azure was a world they needed to sew up and in a hurry. It wasn’t the most strategic of worlds, but it had been such non-essential seeming areas that had foiled advances in the past. You never wanted to leave an enemy at your back or even a resource that an enemy might potentially use against you.

Before he replied to Koil, Dio changed channels and contacted his men on Azure. He had his usual two squads, Alpha and Omega, on planet with him. He had them watching the various areas of the city, pulling intel for the mission. Alpha had uncovered the location of the abandoned office space that the main pirate faction on planet had acquired for their purposes in rather short order. It appeared that piracy had become almost a way of life to the people of Azure, to the point that the pirates themselves really didn’t try and hide their location or activities.

“Attack to Alpha One, status…” Dio called the squad leader of Alpha squad on their comms channel for a status report. He knew the squad was watching the warehouse where the main pirates were located. “Alpha One here. Target quiet. Received a new shipment of food stuffs from Taris roughly sixty mikes ago. Three entrances, all guarded by three plus targets. Unknown number of hostiles inside. All small arms and some armor upgrades visible.”

Dio acknowledged the transmission with a double click of the channel. He switched channels back to Koil and responded. “One target in the warehouse district of the capitol city. Contains the headquarters of the largest pirate contingent. Alpha and Omega squads have overwatch on target. Medium to heavy resistance expected. From Humint we have determined that if we can pull this faction in or destroy it the rest will come to heel.” Dio had already started to move towards his Ranger where he had parked it out in the lot of the spaceport. He wanted to be ready to move should Koil be ready to divert his shuttles to the primary target.

@Darasuum

 

[Koil Solus]

____________

He waited a few moments. Dio was clearly checking with some of his team. The Deadly Dozen were ready and rearing to go like the devoted tactical killers they had been trained to be. Each of the K/M shuttles had a technical. The three pilots for each ship would stay behind in case they needed to be of use in the air or a quick get away was needed. Koil did not want them flying around attracting attention, it was better they remained where they were.

The technicals would each have space for an additional marauder save for the one that Koil was occupying. As they were offloaded from their respective craft and loaded up with arms and armored warriors Koil heard his fellow Field Marshal's intelligence. "copy that." He motioned for the trio of vehicles to begin moving towards the coordinates. He had each of them plug in the coordinates in their navigatation system on their respective dashboards.

Reopening the channel with Dio he spoke up again. "Do your warriors think we can move on them decisively? Break their necks before they can twitch their fingers?" Koil was normally the one to do the reconnaissance. That way he could make a move an assessment himself of the situation. But in this case it was Dio's warriors that had done the work so he would defer to them. His own warriors would be able to get into position, swoop in like some hard hitting cavalry if that was what was best. Otherwise they were more than happy to show how much they had worked on their synchronized assault tactics. Who better than to test them out on than some pirates and doing it in the name of their Mand'alor.

@Critas​

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Dio parked his Ranger approximately two blocks from the target. He stood from the vehicle and motioned over a small boy who was playing a game with a ball and a dog in the alley. He knelt down and handed the boy five credits. He asked the boy about the area and was rewarded with the best way to get to the warehouse district was through another alley two streets up. The boy said he and his friends used it to play hide and seek and it was one of his favorite places to hide. Dio smiled and ruffled the kid’s hair, giving him another five credits and watching as the boy ran off towards the store to gorge himself on sugar no doubt.

Dio started to move as his communicator lit up again with Koil’s familiar voice. He nodded to the voice as he moved, taking the second alley at a full run and emerging on the other side. Once there he looked around and observed an abandoned tenement near the end of the alley and across the street from where he crouched, in the warehouse district. He selected the comm channel with Koil and replied, “Roger that, the building has a large set of hangar style doors at the front. They are open for deliveries right now. I would recommend that as your assault point. My teams will hit the flanks and remove any quick reactionary force that may try and respond to your assault. Keep your head down Vod.”

Dio moved down the street and into the warehouse district, making his way towards the tenement. He opened a channel to his men, “Alpha and Omega, execute. Remove the guards from the exterior of the facility quickly and quietly just like we rehearsed. Koil and his boys will be bringing home the mail in five…. four…three…” Dio continued the countdown as he raced into the tenement. He cleared the space on the first floor at a run, his bowcaster in his hands. He ran out an open door at the back of the tenement just in time to see Koil’s shuttles descending to rain fire on the pirate facility. The lack of apparent alarm and return fire told him that his men had done their jobs even as he ran to join them.

@Darasuum

 

[Koil Solus]

____________

Koil's motorcade was going to be arriving shortly but he heard Dio's information loud and clear. "Right back at you vod." He said before closing out of the link. He would address the communications between the three vehicles so his own warriors were ready in the following moments. He adjusted his grip on his westar c-1 carbine so it would be ready the moment they came into view. "Technical Two, fly past and secure far end of the street. Technical Three, watch our backsides and lay down fire as we ride past. Their front door is open so we will lay down fire. Don't make yourselves easy targets and watchout for roof top shooters." He would recieve confirmations back from his compliment of marauders.

Just as he had directed the lead technical acccelerated, pulling ahead of the other two. Nearly at the same time all three vehicles opened up their blaster cannons. Each vehicle mounted weapon struck an enemy, killing him right away. Koil's blaster carbine found its own mark on another. The lead vehicle did not stop and moved to the end of the block where it's passengers remained vigilant. Koil's leaned out to get a good shot and continuing to fire at any hint of enemy presence. A few of the gangsters managed to land some shots on the body of his technical but they did nothing but score the paint job in the commotion. "Oya!" A half second after his war cry his fellow warriors echoed with equal enthusiasm.

@Critas​