Fall of Tion

[Annan Rainwalker]

Background Theme: Rainwalker Force Theme: The Voice
~
"What the actual quacking Theedian duck?"

Drop's incessant tweeting did little to calm Annan's nerves, and for a second he felt his grip on the Force slipping. The Darksider had sacrificed his TIE Defender in order to get on board the Liberty. That was something he had not foreseen despite his gift of foresight, nor could he have imagined anyone to be so foolhardy.

Still, Annan scowled as he yanked on his stick as fast as he could, his XJ wing speeding across the outer edges of the searing interstellar fireball left behind by his own warhead exploding straight towards the Liberty on Sovereign's tail.

As the Jedi saw what was left of Sovereign's Defender disappear behind the blast doors he yanked his X-wing port and aft, Drop quickly transmitting the necessary clearance codes as Annan's XJ wing swerved towards an alternate hangar bay.

‘I gave you that chance,’ he heard the whisper in the Force, and his scowl only deepened, before he realized he needed to get a grip on himself again. Releasing his frustration into the bottomless sea of light, Annan took multiple deep breaths and recentered himself. Immersing himself in the sea and hiding within the currents of the Light, rendered his subsequent movements invisible to the Sovereign and all other Force-sensitives around them. (Force Mask)

His X-wing touched down in the ventral dock, two levels immediately below the one where Silas had made entry.

"Jedi Rainwalker--" the flight attendant was cut off as Annan quickly descended the now open cockpit and crossed him without paying attention, having discarded his flightsuit for his old Antarian Ranger armor from before his Padawan days sans jacket, over which he wore his black Jedi robes, the hood now enshrouding his face, though Annan had left his Temple Guard helmet in the X-wing. Clipped to his black utility belt were his lightsaber and his DH-17 heavy blaster. Drop the Astromech quickly descended the X-wing and followed behind, leaving the flight attendant staring at their backs as the two sped out of the hangar towards the turbolifts.

Annan's danger senses were flaring so acutely that he could literally smell the danger in the air like a kriffing Karkoradon as he saw the Marines lining the turbolift exit. Their unit commander gave Jedi Rainwalker a salute as he approached.

Annan nodded at him. "Commander, location status of the intruder?"

"Still in Hangar Bay 32-S, Master Jedi. That's two levels up," the unit commander responded, cocking his blaster for effect.

Annan was about to respond when he suddenly snapped his head upwards and to the right, in what was in actuality the direction of the bridge from his particular location in a corner of the gigantic cruiser.

"I sense something; a presence I've not felt since..." he paused, blinking, before his lips slowly began to part into a grin.

"... Uh-huh..." the unit commander voiced, before Annan turned his attention to a service hatch on the left of the turbolift door, a plan hatching. He paused for a couple of moments before turning to his astromech.

"Drop, make your own way up to the bridge, I'm taking a shortcut."

Much to the chagrin of the onlookers, the hatch was telekinetically removed and thrown aside with a simple hand gesture, before Annan pushed himself into the service crawlways and began making his way up the levels towards Silas and the Bridge, unseen by all and undetectable in the Force.

[Silas Karn]

As the turrets erased the last remnants of Silas’s fighter the magnitude of what Annan had accomplished could not be overstated. The ship had ferried the Sovereign for more cycles than the young adept had known the Force. Unbridled rage, frustration, and searing unrelenting indignation fueled the Sovereign as he made his advance. As Nil expertly pinned down the few brave Alliance security staff members that remained, the Sith Lord began to systematically cull them. Five men and women were swiftly dismembered with immense precision in classic Makashi fashion with the menacing dance of deep violet luminance.

Though the High Priest’s chosen form detracted from potential outright counters of their sporadic fire there was…other means to accomplish what he sought. Lifting the nearest individual with an unseen grip the priest used the flailing body as a bludgeon to sweep aside the makeshift cover granted the few souls that held their ground (Telekinesis). Silas watched with sickening pleasure as the man was slain by his own before being broken upon their own cover only to be lifted once more as a corpse to guard his left flank.

As Nil slew any unfortunate enough to be scattered by this effort the Sovereign personally delivered three coup de grace’s with his saber as he arrived untouched at the dock’s turbolift. By the time Nil reached the Sovereign the pair had slain every man and woman from the security staff. The charred remains of Silas’s first target was finally released, falling to the ground head first in a crumbled heap of limbs. “Straight to the bridge my Lord?” It was the logical next step in taking the vessel. However, the recent arrival had not gone unnoticed and though Annan had elected to mask his presence this entity had not either been so cautious or lacked such time to prepare.

Sheathing his blade the High Priest granted his reply, “Not yet, bring us to the engineering level.” The serpent like priest was calculating in his tactics, if there was any chance of being bogged down attempting to claim the vessel then the best alternative would have to satisfy. Likely due to scrambling to mount a proper defense the turbolift was yet to be locked down and the pair ascended without incident. During the transition Silas planned for their arrival. “Once we stop I want you to lock the lift manually and close the blast doors behind us as we depart. At the very least that should greatly diminish the chances of additional forces arriving in behind us. After you are finished with that breaching the engineering deck is our next objective.”

Nil swiftly acknowledged his master’s orders as the lift soon came to a halt. This placed a multitude of levels and an immensely lengthy and slow crawl between the pair and Annan’s current position. The corridor leading to the engineering deck was manned by properly trained soldiers, a far cry from the staff that had been annihilated back at the docking bay. Though given Silas’s former experience with such tight quarters the Sovereign had already decided on a more…fitting course of action.

As the doors from the turbolift opened four crimson blades leapt outward and began to rotate in wide sweeping arcs fanning out as the Sovereign marched forward (Telekinetic Lightsaber Combat). With his entire focus poured into the four blades the Sovereign met the barrage of fire that accompanied his arrival. Then as if to answer the soldiers attempt to put down this heinous threat the High Priest cast his blades from his position. The spinning crimson arcs lashed down the corridor and soon met the soldier’s position. Wielding the four lightsabers as blenders upon vegetation the Sovereign bore down upon the unfortunate defenders. In this manner the Sovereign continued to march forward soaking up the despair, anguish, and fear from those that were culled (Feed on Darkside).

[Master Buggie]

**Outer Rim Territories, Gordian Reach - Q-6**
**Fleet Detachment Aurek**
**Navigation Buoy GR-157**
The 120-meter Corellian Gunship CEC Starcutter slid up within a few dozen meters of the navigation buoy and momentarily held station. The rest of Detachment Aurek was standing by, keeping an eye on the readings from their vessels' powerful sensor packages. Though none had been identified, if there had been any onlooking vessels, this Corellian Gunship could have been simply checking the coordinates from the navigation buoy before jumping further into the Gordian Reach, just as several dozen other vessels had done already within this daily cycle. After a few moments, a panel lifted on CEC Starcutter's port side and released a single droid into deep space. This special-purpose droid attached itself to the navigation buoy, opened an access panel, and began slicing into the navigation buoy. In a matter of only a few moments, the slicer droid had completed its task, re-sealed the access panel, and detached itself from the navigation buoy. The droid then returned to its station aboard CEC Starcutter with its exploitative code successfully injected.

**Outer Rim Territories, Gordian Reach - Q-6**
**Waypoint Aurek**
**Keldabe-class Battleship The Azure Wind**
The Azure Wind reverted to hyperspace only a matter of minutes later. As the flagship of Cresh Fleet settled into realspace, it was joined by the rest of the accompanying fleet, with the exception of those that had been dispatched earlier. Admiral Idris immediately called for a status report from the communications and sensor stations, and it was reported that all vessels were accounted for from the sensor readings. The communications officer reported that the unit designated Detachment Aurek had completed their mission and were presently rejoining the rest of the fleet.

"Good," Idris replied, "I should expect no surprises from this point. Navigation, set course for Point Besh. Comms, direct Detachment Aurek to make all haste in rejoining the fleet. Alert me when they reach formation."

With that done, Idris would have preferred to allow herself a moment of respite, but the matter of the vessels scouting the southernmost systems within the Thanium Worlds was now weighing on her mind. Her last orders before penetrating the Gordian Reach were to direct all vessels to Rhen Var. Now that Cresh Fleet was within enemy territory, there would be no further contact with those ships, nor would they receive any further assistance once they encountered whatever trouble was waiting for them. Sighing as quietly as possible, considering all four of her throats, Idris resigned herself to the knowledge that the capable personnel sent to Rhen Var would need to take responsibility for themselves-- she simply couldn't micromanage them from this point.

Admiral Idris stepped over to the holoprojector, which displayed the fleet's formation within the system. A short time afterwards, the communications officer reported that the fleet was in formation. Navigation had confirmed the hyperspace coordinates and was standing by for orders. With the order to execute, Cresh Fleet jumped to hyperspace and continued on to Point Besh.

**Outer Rim Territories, Thanium Sector - R-6**
**Tobali System, Rhen Var, Orbit**
**MC90 Heavy Cruiser Liberty**
Once the mysterious pilot's helmet had been removed, one of the guards remarked that the pilot certainly wasn't remarkable in appearance. Before anyone could respond to that, notice of a serious security breach within one of the Liberty's hangar bays was clearly announced throughout the bridge. With security protocol in mind, the guards quickly agreed that the bridge was no place for the pilot and agreed that he should be escorted down to the medical bay and secured there. Both of the guards heaved the weakened pilot up onto his feet and, with the help of one of them, the pilot was escorted from the bridge. Blast doors sealed behind them as the pilot and the Galactic Alliance trooper made their way to the turbolift.

The trooper inserted his code cylinder into the proper socket and set the turbolift to bring them to the Liberty's expansive medical bay. After the turbolift was underway, the trooper's comlink began to report on the security breach. It seemed that there were several fatalities within the hangar bay that had been breached and there were now reports of enemy activity within the engineering level.

As the chatter continued through the comlink, the trooper slowly unslung the weapon from his shoulder and checked the charge on its cartridge. He threw a glance at the pilot and said, "Can't be too cautious, you know?"

[Jacobi Wylcott]

---GORDIAN REACH
---BATTLELINE REAPER

The Armada element of Battleline Reaper was one of four sets of reactionary forces should anything come amiss during the ongoing Operation Warhound. Patrols were ongoing throughout the Reach - though the impossibility of covering every single in and out of the entire theatre was blatant. Non-stop were the thousands of sorties being flown through the various star systems of the Sith Empire. Even some of the instances that were unfolding may have been viewed or caught by the eyes of the Sith intelligence officers - the goings on of the day saw them logged to be digested later.

At one of the many listening posts throughout the Reach the one set to monitor navigational buoys captured a simple blip on their screens. It was perhaps a second or even less of time in which the nav-buoy ceased transmitting then once again picked back up and continued.

This one one such instance in which intelligence operatives would log the event away and investigate it later. After all - a malfunctioning navigation buoy was not very high on the priority list of the Sith for the moment.

---WARHOUND COMMAND. RHEN VAR - R-6

Fleet wide communications did not err in the interception of the Alliance starfighters being sent to interdict the landing craft of the Sith. So easily they suspected that the X-wings would be up to the task. Surely they were a formidible model of fighter though left along and without support not even the fame pilots of the Alliance Starfighter Command would be able to execute their mission whilst being set upon by odds of 2:1 much less 3:1 which is what was to occur.

To the Alliance’s single starfigther element that swept down in attempt to catch the landing ships of the Sith was set upon by three squadrons of Razorfighters. The other three Razorfighters belonging to the same wing took up station between the Alliance Fleet and the ongoing sortie. Any reinforcements to the X-wing squadron would be immediately screened.

In the meantime the Sith Fleet of warships had formed up properly to screen the Alliance ships away from the CC-7700 Interdictor Frigate and in doing so the gravity well was maintained. No one would be leaving the system any time soon. In addition with the Fleet set up defensively the time was taken to achieve long range warhead locks on the Alliance Fleet, targeting consisted of the lesser ships of the Alliance Fleet - the Corvettes, Frigates and other smaller ships utilized in the screening of starfighters.

Warheads began streaking out of the Sith warships - soon the Alliance Fleet would be hammered by the onslaught.

---WARHOUND COMMAND, GREATER TION CLUSTER - S-6
---INDREXU SPIRAL

And so it had come to pass that the rest of the Warhound Command dropped out of hyperspace with nothing but darkness and a sea of turbulent stars to greet them. Where it would have been suicide to enter the nebula without doing the proper homework, the fleet encroached upon its edges in as much that was necessary to camouflage their presence from the prying eyes of the Galactic Alliance.

It would certainly take the better part of the day to arrive at the necessary point given yet once accomplished the Armada would move to a silent running status until further notice.

---RHEN VAR - R-6
---LISTENING POST

Tormentous was enraged by the Jedi Master’s defensive approach, he saw it as casual in a way and that alone enraged him further. Lightning continued to leap from the blade of his sword as he struck and struck again as fast and as hard as the lightning that accompanied him. He lashed out left and right but the Master parried and gave more ground. It was infuriating. Until Tormentous started to think of turning away from this battle of wit and time and move back to the helpless - no doubt these thoughts would stir the Jedi to make his move.

If he didn’t stop his backpedaling then Tormentous would do some backpedaling of his own and when he did so he would turn back and slaughter those that were precious to him.

[Kell Sangros]

Warvanus hit the ground with the Dashade as the momentum and the Dashade’s attack sent the War-Bringer’s Lightsaber out of his grip. It landed a bit away beyond his physical arm reach. In the momentum he found himself on top of the Dashade, his danger sense prickled as another would be Jedi decided to take her chances. He had to think, he could reverse the momentum to where Varn was on top of him at the right moment the attack meant for him would be instead visited on the Jedi’s ally. He could unleash the Dark Side at the young Jedi or push her or try to choke her to death. The options for Warvanus were almost limitless. Time seemed to slow down for Warvanus. He opened himself to the Dark Side it whispered it’s will to its servant.

Warvanus would time it just right and then at the right time he would roll on to his back bringing Varn so that he was on top of him, as he did this his perceptions were on his lightsaber and with a push of his will (Telekinesis) the lightsaber hilt slid on the ground towards the would be warrior-king when the moment was right he would extend his hand out and the hilt would fly back to his hand. He was taking a risk here giving an advantage to a foe but in the end this would benefit him and maybe it would teach the headstrong Jedi a lesson.

[Varn Badaash]

Varn was taken a bit by surprise by the raw strength of this Sith as he rolled pulling the mountain of a Dashade with him. The alien was now atop of the Sith tho in the heat of the moment he had no idea Padawan Swann was coming in for an attack. With his coal like eyes focused on the dark sider Varn took quick note of the hand stretching out and calling the saber. Without a second thought the Dashade slammed his arm wielding the vibroshield down into the icy ground just shy of cutting off a finger of the Warrior king. A thud was heard as the saber slammed into the new barrier. At almost that same moment Varn let out a heavy grunt as he felt a vibro blade slice across his armored back. The blow seemed to have been somewhat pulled but still none the less painful.

[Varn Badaash]

The Ranger had to think quickly, it wouldn’t take long for the Sith to bypass the minor barrier placed in the way of his lightsaber. Varn had to choose, stay on top of the Sith and keep things an uncomfortably close melee but also making it very difficult for Padawan Swann to assist or push off the darksider thus allowing him to retrieve his saber but also giving Evelyn and Varn the ability to double team him. The Dashade made his decision, a heavy hand shoved into the Sith’s shoulder, trying to push him further into the snow while at the same time giving Varn the leverage he needed to get off. The large alien moved with surprising agility as he rolled off the Warrior king, the nerves in his back briefly screaming as they felt the cold ground meet the open wound. With that he jumped up to his feet, his dark eyes quickly looking for his mace. They spotted the weapon in the snow a few feet on the opposite side of his foe causing Varn allow a curse to escape his lips.

[Varn Badaash]

Adrenaline burned through the Dashade’s veins, the cold around him had now entirely faded away. The Sith had bounced up with ease now that the alien was no longer atop him. A crimson blade extending from his once outstretched hand. Varn’s eyes looked over at Evelyn, he gave her a reassuring a nod that even he didn’t fully believe. They were in for the fight of their lives and Varn could only hope that at the end of this hellish day the Jedi would come out on top. The Sith looked unfazed by the idea of fighting them both, it almost seemed like he was thriving off the idea. Varn took a defensive step back and his heel hit something in the snow. Those coal like eyes risked a glance to see and he was pleasantly surprised to find his T-21 laying there. The Ranger still knew it was an unwieldy weapon for such close combat but at this point it was his only option till he could circumvent the Sith to get his mace back. Seeing Evelyn moving to engage the Darksider Varn quickly reached down, grabbed the rifle and spun back around to bring the Sith into his sights. Today, live or die, he’d fight till his breath was frozen, the fate of many lives depended on this moment.

[Ben Kenobi]

He could sense the monster’s will to turn away and march off on the path to destruction. It was an inescapable feeling of dread and Ben could not let it go. It had begun to distract him from the fight itself even and he had made more than one misstep which had let Tormentous gain the upper hand in the fight. The Jedi Master redoubled his efforts into the Soresu stance if only to regain his hold over his concentration.

Though now was the time to change his tactics up if to just catch Tormentous’ attention. Sacrificing his impeccable defense for a measure of additional offense. At the time he felt no need to switch out of the Form III even though its aspect of offense was due from patience and awaiting the foe to make the first mistake. Finding true offense in this instance was not to be. But perhaps it would make the Dark Lord think twice before turning his back on the Jedi Master. Just because he was most comfortable in Soresu it did not mean he was incapable of fighting back.

All around the battle of the Rhen Var Listening Post raged. Both sides fighting themselves into stalemate and exhaustion. As the fighting of the walls began to settle down, neither side could gain purchase. It seemed that the conclusion of the interior of the Listening Post would be a great deciding factor of what would happen out here.

***Task Force Liberty***

“Sir, incoming warheads.”

The Alliance commander nodded curtly and brought up his display and took in the readouts in a moment. They bulk of the warheads were targeting the smaller screen ships of the Task Force. “Interceptor Wing Aurek, pull back and form a bomber screen, if you they can take down some of those warheads the better. Captains of the Pale Horse, Pale Rider, and the MC30c Frigates Startide and Reef Home, turn your screens to warhead interdiction. Shoot down as many as you can, shields to double front.”

Admiral Valark strode to the front viewports and eyed the Sith formation with a frown, he could see the bright streaks of the incoming warheads even now and he knew if he did not act then the Sith would fire volley after unsolicited volley. “Prime the turbolaser batteries. Helm, take us in. Move the Liberty into a broadside with that Exar Dreadnaught. Move the Strike Cruiser Solaris and the Nebulon B Frigate Redemption in to counter the Sith screens.” He turned briskly back to his tactical display and keyed up the MC40a Light Cruiser Destiny. “Move the Destiny up and target that interdictor frigate with proton torpedoes.”

As the admiral’s words were executed the engines of the MC90 were already causing the deck to rumble with power. The Alliance Fleet surged forward and into range of the Sith. At this time the first pounding exchange between the Mon Calamari Heavy Cruiser and the Sith Dreadnaught were to be felt. Crippling blows to any lesser vessels to be sure.

While the Liberty held the weaponry to blast this Sith ship into dust, the Sith ship in turn had incredible armor and was capable of withstanding much. This bout stood to become a hefty affair and not one that would be over shortly.

[Evelyn Swann]

The momentum had been messed up, and Evelyn was forced to cancel her blow to the best of her ability, alas it wasn’t quite enough. Her first attack would hit, however it sadly wasn’t on the Sith himself, it cut across Varn’s back, giving him a stinging wound on his back which caused Evy to feel bad. She had messed up, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to continue on. As the vibrosword had done its damage on Varn, she used his shoulder as a springboard to get further away now where the Sith had a change in plans. Taking a deep breath, the young Padawan would indeed be more mindful and not underestimate the situation once more. Right next to her was Varn’s mace and she would be sure that he’d get that back. The reassuring nod made her give a serious nod in return. If they worked together, they would survive this and they would help and defend the people who needed them.