Sep

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

The Runaway Prince

Koren smirked, and chuckled slightly. “I always have a plan-” Koren checked the chronometer he had on his wrist. “-That plan will be here anytime now.” He tapped his commlink. “Okay Zhast, lift us out. Nice and easy, not too fast. We don’t want to leave the system before our guests arrive.” Koren turned back to Sirka as the vessel eased out of the hangar.

“The thing is Sirka, you need to cover your bases and if you’re playing a trick on someone-” He shrugged. “-You need to make sure that they don’t realise they’re being tricked. That left me with little options, but I found a suitable candidate for the job.”

Sirka chuckled. “Luckily for me, I can keep getting constant updates on the exact emotional reactions for everything I say or do. For the vast majority of species out there, even the best liars can’t control the chemicals their glands involuntarily put out. It’s not 100% reliable, I’ll say, but it’s still damned helpful. I’ve become practiced at reading people, and those officers were making it easy.”

Koren had ordered the pilot take them off of the station, but it was clear to Sirka that they were not done yet. Honestly, she could not say that she liked the fact that she had not known the plan he intended. It made it hard for her to judge the best course of action when she did not know the endgame, but it seemed like things were going well so far. “Hmm, so what’s our role in this plan? Any way I need to be preparing?”

A short distance from the station a Star Destroyer emerged from hyperspace. Any that happened to glance out a window of the formerly Imperial station would clearly spot the impressive feat of spaceship engineering. Lalni was in the hangar, making final preparations for the mission. As the pirate queen was handed a datapad containing the names of all the Marauders flying out on the mission, she wondered how the ex-Imperials within the station would react upon seeing the Revenant appear.

“Let’s roll out you dogs! Give these Imperials a show. Whoever takes out the most gets a prize.” Lalni exclaimed loudly, the loyal pirates around her hollering in excitement as they pumped themselves up. Then each of the chosen Marauders piled into their personal starfighters, engines all across the hangar turned on.

Lalni climbed into her personal TIE interceptor, one she had flown as her personal flagship ever since they had captured the Revenant. Painted on the top of both wings was the distinctive insignia of her pirate band. She had one of the most skilled engineers within the Marauder ranks fit the interceptor with shields and a small hyperdrive, enabling her to use the full potential of the ultra fast ship.

She strapped herself into the cockpit, then flipped the engine on. Her interceptor slowly rose off the hangar floor, then rocketed out into space. Behind her a swarm of Marauders gathered, emerging from the Star Destroyer. It was a mixture of all kinds of starfighters, entirely united under one flag. They rocketed towards the station, as the Revenant ominously drifted in the backdrop.

The intercom of the ship buzzed on before Koren could reply. “Sir, we’ve picked up a Star Destroyer in system. Flying under the transponder Revanant, she’s launching fighters-” There was a brief pause, Koren raised a finger and mouthed the words to show he was expecting them “-The stations launching fighters to intercept, though they’re easily outgunned by the Star Destroyer.” Koren tapped the button to speak back.

“Thankyou, keep us updated on the battle and let us know as soon as the station opens a line of communication with us.” He tapped the button cutting off the microphone. “From you, I just need you to be ready. There’s no doubt going to be… unhappy Imperials when we return to the station. The thing with cowards such as those, that when they realise they’ve lost they’re like cornered rats. No doubt they’ll try and take me hostage to try and talk the pirates out of their attack. Thankfully I do have control over whether or not they stop, I am a powerful individual after all, however I do not intend to be a captive.” Koren leaned back in his chair. “Until then, sit back and enjoy the show.”

Sirka reflexively raised up her head at the voice over the intercom, then turned back to Koren as he continued. She hummed briefly. “Pirates, with a star destroyer. Interesting. I think these defectors might be realizing that they’re out of their league right about now. They were already frightened enough back in that meeting. But yeah, a cornered rat is dangerous.”

“Gives me the most deniability, the ship would have been removed from the Imperial Network after it was captured, thus the data on this facility wasn’t wiped from it. They saw the chance at increasing their power, and took it.” Koren shook his head. “Tragedy.”

There was a pause as Sirka paced for a few moments in thought. “Say, does it matter to you if any of these defectors escape? Or, if it turns to violence, do they all have to die?”

“Escape is not an option, dealing in death is generally distasteful and it’s not what I really do. Detain if possible, though don’t let them escape. I mean there’s nowhere for them to really go unless they slip into hyperspace, my messenger aboard the Pirate ship will have let them know that I expect no ships to get away-” A holo projection appeared of the station. “-A detachment of droids will make their way to the escape pods, to prevent anyone from jumping ship. I don’t want the risk of them being picked up in a pod by the pirates as a bargaining chip. The main hangar we’ll be landing it will be secured, teams will also secure the primary and tertiary hangar. We’ll make our way to the command deck to take control of the station. It’s a textbook infiltration of an enemy space station.” He sighed. “Just like the War all over again, though I imagine you don’t remember much of that.”

“Hmm, unfortunate. A cornered animal fights to the death, but give them a way out and they’ll take it.” Sirka commented. Reaching down beside her, she hefted up her E-Web and flipped a few switches to feed power into it from the generator on her back. She checked the power levels to make sure the calibrations she had made before were still being effective. Having never actually used it in combat before, she wanted to be particularly cautious about it. “I guess it will have to be a fight, then. Nothing I can’t handle, though. I imagine they’ll expect me to be tough, but most people don’t expect it to take more than a few blaster shots to take me down. I can draw attention away from you, or anything else, really. I’m not invincible, but I can serve my role best as the center of attention, in the middle of the fight. When it comes to the actual firefights, I’m sure I can open up some opportunities for you and your droids.”

“They’re scrambling fighters in defense, captain.” One of the pirates on the bridge in the Revenant radioed to Lalni as she rocketed towards the station. The encroaching swarm of Marauders followed around and behind her.

“Good. Let none of them escape, keep the Revenant ready strike down any that try to flee.” The pirate queen replied as the group of pirate fighters split and divided, shifting in multiple directions in any attempt to take down every single Imperial deserter.

The space outside of the station was ablaze with color as the battle began. Starfighters went down left and right, explosions littering the stars. The highly capable Marauders took an early advantage in the battle, picking off enemy TIE fighters one by one. Lalni did not doubt the intimidation factor of her Star Destroyer lurking in the backdrop psychologically affected the ex-Imperials. She flew down, before suddenly bursting upwards in an arc. Suppressing the button which controlled the ship’s blasters, she unleashed a fury of shots towards an unlucky opponent. As the enemy TIE exploded into pieces, two more suddenly attempted to get a drop on her, firing at her from behind.

“Got two of those bastards on my tail.” Lalni stated as she attempted to outmaneuver both of her chasers.

She flew aggressively, spiraling in an attempt the shake them. One landed several shots on her ship, impacting her shields but not breaking through them. They would if they kept it up. As she attempted to fly up and shift behind them, one of the approaching TIEs went up in flames. Then the other one, spiraling out before exploding in fire.

“Damn fine work, Rikil. You saved my tail. Keep up the pressure!” Lalni exclaimed with a smile into her commlink, before she locked onto another TIE.

Koren nodded. “I don’t expect you too jump in front of a blaster bolt for me, after all self preservation is important. All I need you to know is that should I be injured your pay will be cut, and killed well-” Koren shrugged. “-What pay?” He chuckled slightly in remarkably good spirits. He knew that everything was going as planned so far. People barely understood how the pieces were moving on the board all connected, or that was as far as Koren believed.

There was a second intercom buzz. “Sir, they’re launching a second wave of fighters. Including a squadron of bombers and blastboats and five Defenders.” Korens smug attitude faded slightly, however didn’t turn sour. It was possible that the station was packing something heavier, it did construct fighters after all. Tactical guile from the leader of the Marauders would keep the Star Destroyer from taking too much, if any damage.

The Defenders could be overwhelmed by numbers. Even in the hands of a rookie pilot they were devastating craft however numbers were not in their favour. Watching the battle play out two of the ships veered off towards the Nightfury on a direct course. Koren tapped his communicator. “Open a channel to them, now.” His voice growled slightly. There was a ping to indicate the signal was going through. “This is Koren Graeff of the Golden Exchange, I’m neutral in this conflict, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The voice of the Captain from before broke through the speakers. “We know you’re behind this Graeff. Call off the attack now, or get blown out of the sky.”

“I don’t know what you’re speaking about, they’re in Imperial ship they probably have records that weren’t purged as they won’t be connected to the Imperial Network.”

“Cut the poodoo Graeff. Call off the attack, no more warnings.” Koren sighed and clasped his hands together, looking up at Sirka.

“This Sirka, is why you always have a backup plan.”

Star Wars - Jedi Exile

For anyone wondering, this pace will likely stay slow(ish) simply due to, at times, having a high amount of interaction. I'm saying that for anyone that doesn't know, just so you know what to expect. That said, unless it comes to a busier time I'm going to throw a post out a week, and every two weeks move us on myself if it hasn't happened.

This is going to be interaction heavy, especially for the first couple of IC Months (we'll likely have a timeskip at some point around Illum), and I'd like to say that I'm discouraging collabs. I don't mind if it's a short post if you have dialogue in it with someone else, so long as the quality is high that's all I care about. With the proximity it's very likely our chars will walk in on one another, and interupt eachother.

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

Nar Shadda

Marrick eyed the conflict with Alix. Alix had to admit, Marrick wasn't what he had expected. He knew for a fact however that he had to prove himself more useful than Talbor, if Talbor got his claws into Marrick first Alix may as well forfeit his life. The two of them had worked well together this far, but the finding of Marrick more or less made Alix obselete. Talbor felt he didn't need the guard anymore, despite the fact that Marricks skills with a blade as of yet were... sub-par. Should Marrick come into a true fight with a skilled lightsaber combatant his chances of survival weren't incredibly high.

Ex-Imperials, traiterous scum. He didn't quite understand what the conflict between the Imperials and these two individuals was, however he wasn't going to stand by while people tarnished the name of the Empire by being common criminals. Desertion of duty and the like. He bowed towards Marrick. "M'Lord, I request the right to deal with this traitourous scum before we complete our mission. For too long have I had to sit idly by while the good name of the Emperor and the Empire has been tarnished by these petty criminals who go around wearing Imperial Uniforms as if it is their birthright."

Marrick eyed up Alix for a second, before nodding. Alix pulled his red helmet back onto his head and dropped down from the building, running his hand along it to slow his descent slightly, when he neared the bottom he pushed himself out at a perpidicular angle, into an arch and then a roll to break his fall. He sliced the bottom of his staff under a mercenaries feet knocking him to the ground as he came back up. He pointed the blade end towards the general. "You there! By command of the Emperor, relinquish your weapons, your uniform and your life."

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

Koren walked down the ramp of the black cruiser, it had been a while since he had used the ship. It was well known in Hutt Space and he didn’t tend to like travelling around in something easily identifiable. After all, he liked to conduct most of his business in silence. This was something however where going in loud and proud was probably beneficial. After all it sometimes paid off to make his presence known, with his plan getting closer and closer to fruition now was one of those times. A space station, forgotten by the Empire orbited the Runaway Prince.

A shipyard to be specific, now Koren had waited and let the station be forgotten by all but it’s current inhabitants. A pirate band, former Imperials who used their knowledge on Imperial systems to try and purge as much reference to their base of operations as possible. They were good, Koren was just a little bit better… and helped them finish the purge to become anonymous. He hadn’t told them that he had been the one to help them yet, and he had let them quietly gain power in their little sector of space and become used with their capabilities.

Now it was time to cash in. He raised his arms as he saw Sirka in the hangar. Pointing back at his ship. “What do you think? You’re about to fly in Hutt Space History! The Nightfury!” He turned back and looked at the ship with a wistful look on his face. “Practically built the Golden Exchange with this beaut, before Paradise was even a Casino.” He sighed.

“Not quite as famous as the Millenium Falcon, but maybe locally famous.” He clicked his fingers and a couple of droids disembarked, helping Sirka with her belongings and loading them onto the ship.

“It shouldn’t be a difficult mission, we’re going to the Runaway Prince. More or less forgotten world, there’s an Imperial Shipyard there. Been running off the grid for the last four months, pretty much forgotten about. I want it, we’re going to go get it. Simple, huh?”

Despite what Koren said about the fame of the Nightfury, it was not a name that Sirka recognized. Though, she did not think he was lying. It was more likely due to the fact that she had spent most of her life solely on Nar Shaddaa, worrying about her own problems there. It was only in recent years that she had began moving offworld for work. Nevertheless, she took a few moments to observe the ship as he was talking about it. The model was nothing she recognized, and she was pretty sure it was the first of its kind that she had seen.

“Unfortunately, I’m the wrong person to ask about ships, famous or no. Spent most of my life planetside. Growing up poor on Nar Shaddaa makes you worry more about surviving moment-to-moment than dreaming about space. At least it did for me. My sister would probably recognize it; she’s always been a bit more of a dreamer. Anyways, I hope I can get that E-Web functional before we get there. It sounds like we might need the firepower.” Sirka commented.

Koren sighed. “Fair enough. Not everyones a ship guy-” As he signalled for her to follow him up the ramp he continued to talk. “-A Consular Class Cruiser in the Galactic Republic. They used to be ships to ferry diplomats around, the front pod literally detaches in order to save you. Think of it as a glorified escape pod. Fast, nimble and can pack a punch. Really it’s a good all rounder ship.” He pointed down a hallway. “Down that way are your quarters-” and he pointed up a hall. “-The main cargo hold and the cargo ramp are in that direction. Your weapons are all held up in there.” He pointed straight ahead. “Bridge, break room and all that is straight ahead.” He turned to face Sirka.

“Either way. You need anything else or are we good to go?”

Sirka was about to shake her head, but decided to actually consider his offer for a moment. “Well, if you have anyone that can help fix up that E-Web, I’d stand a better chance of being able to use it on this job. I’m strong enough to carry the thing around myself, and I already have everything I need to mount the power supply to a backpack. As long as I have time to calibrate the power source beforehand, I shouldn’t have trouble using it by myself. Otherwise, I’ll just use my regular blaster. Aside from that, I’m not very picky in terms of accomodations.”

Koren nodded. “In the main hold you should find a being named Onyx, go to him and give him what you’ve got and tell him what you need. He should have it ready by the time we arrive at the Runaway Prince.” He clapped his hands together. “This should be good, I’ve got a good feeling about this. It’ll be great.” He gathered his coat around himself and walked towards the cockpit. In the pilot seat sat a tall and sleek Kel Dor male. Koren nodded as he sat down in the co-pilot seat.

“Alright, Zhast, get us out of here.” With little more to be said the repulsors fired up easing the ship first off the deck, and then out of the hangar. Zipping away from Paradise at speeds that a ship half its size would struggle to match.

Sirka did not outwardly show as much enthusiasm as Koren, but she tended to default to a more professional attitude for her jobs when she did not know the client. If she ended up spending more time around Koren, she might end up learning more about what he really did and did not respect. His scent did not seem alarming at the moment, at the very least. For now, she followed Koren’s advice and went to collect her E-Web and its replacement parts to bring them to this “Onyx” person. She knew enough about blasters to maintain and work on them herself, but she was sure that whoever Koren had on hand would probably be faster at it than her.

After having time to gather what she needed, Sirka walked into the main hold, lugging the E-Web and its parts under her arms. All of it together was bulky, even in her hands, though she did not seem to have a problem with the weight. The ship itself was not crowded, so she assumed the light-skinned Besalisk, the only person in the hold, was the one she was looking for. He was actually about as tall as Sirka herself, though she was much more massive. She found the emptiest surface near her to set down all she was carrying. “Onyx, right? Koren told me to come here. Think you can get this working before we get to our destination?” She asked.

Star Wars - Jedi Exile

Music

Azure watched as everyone gathered in the room before him. Nodding at each and everyone of them as they entered the room. Soon they were all gathered, he could feel the wound in the Force. The sadness in the room was heavy, everyone mourned the loss of the Jedi in their own way. Everyone felt the same pain, the pain of family lost. Brothers and Sisters, people that were like parents or uncles. Friends since childhood. They couldn't dwell on that, and so Azure did not. He remained adamant that his Brothers and Sisters had become one with the Force, and took comfort in that. "My friends-" his robotic voice sounded harsh, he winced slightly inwardly that he couldn't speak in a more calm and re-assuring tone and that he was limited to the voice that the droid model had been given.

"-It is a sad time. I understand this, and know that you will all need your time to grieve. However, we must look towards the future. Both of ourselves and our order, I understand that this will be a trying time for us. We will prevail, if we adhere to our training and follow our teachings to guide us." Azure turned to Samuel. "I know the pain for you is especially fresh, however I offer my knowledge to you in order to continue your training in the ways of the Force."

Azure moved around the room slightly. "Our first course of action, will be to set a course for Illum. It's an ancient holy site that still posesses a temple, we can go there in order to gain solace in the Force and collect crystals. I also expect that there is a chance that other Jedi Survivors will venture their way to Illum, it is a well known site throughout the Jedi Order and yet one of our best kept secrets. I shall keep you from your studies no longer-" He turned to the two pilots. "-Please set a course for us as quickly as possible, fastest route-" He waved his hand at everyone else. "-I will be in my Garden if anyone needs to talk, or simply if you require a living space to meditate in." With that, he turned and left the room.

Absolute Comics: Rebirth

@Byrd Man :'(

Absolute Comics: Rebirth

I'm sorry @Lord Wraith I've been trying but Cap and Hulk... they just ain't coming.

I think I'll have to call quits on them :'(

If easier, I can delete my posts if anyone else wants to take them on.

Star Wars - Jedi Exile

@Renny Sorry forgot to tag you.

Star Wars - Jedi Exile

@Komager@Fury Panda@Gerrigen There is one Padawan spot open, as Lucian had to drop.

If you want to refine or just resubmit sheets thats fine, or make new ones. Sorry Fury and Gerrigen for not PMing reviews as promised, I've been busy with the holidays and the girlfriend.

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

Circumtore

Timana roared as he threw his protocol droid across the room. Kintan had been under Hutt Control for centuries. Some of the Nikito had been rebellious of course, but not enough to warrant a larger fleet presence above their homeworld. He doubted all of the species would even go for being free. He had to plan a counterattack before the council started breathing down his neck, or at least before the Queen did. He wasn't ready to face her yet, not by a long shot. He shouted over to the protocol droid at the other side of the room. [Fetch me the courier! Darton Fanx.] The droid struggled to get back up, Timana threw a chair at him as he bellowed. [NOW!]

Paradise

Koren was going over the numbers, and frankly... it was enough. The plan would work now, with the size and composition of all the big players he could easily stand a chance. He looked up at one of the many screens in his tactical analysis chamber and sighed. Orro had just gained a Bellator. Jumped in from outside of Hutt Space, likely a survivor from some form of battle. That was a power shift, friction between Orro and the Hutts would likely increase over the coming months as a result. Orro was powerful and he was just becoming more powerful as time went on, that wasn't something that the Hutts could leave unchecked for very long. This was coupled with the fact thatt he businessman was an idiot enough to attack the Hutt world of Kintan.

Koren had assumed he had been going in to try and recover something, instead it turns out he went full on occupation. There were certain players you didn't interfere with in your first couple of days. The Hutts were one of those players, they may be divisive however it would only take a common enemy to band them together and that was the last thing Koren wanted until he was ready. A united Hutt Cartel? It would be catastrophic for everyone in Hutt Space. Hell, if they pulled their resources it could be catastrophic for those outside of Hutt Space if the council felt that they had the ability to expand outwards. Without further ado he walked out of the tactical centre. A squad of droids standing waiting for him, it was time to make his next move on the board.