Star Wars Star Wars: Voyages - an Episode XII Story

IC: Captain Vandron
The Imperial Voyager, arriving at system PX-22

PX was the definition that cartographers from the original galaxy had given this star.

On the edge of Companion Cresh, it would take a souped-up hyperdrive days to reach here, or a standard one years.

The former, was the way in which the ship of BD-1, Adrias, Teedo, R5-P4, Tamus, and Talia had arrived.

While Amariah and Pre had taken years in their Mandalorian craft.

But, Sia had been here already.

But the three ships were entwined, lassoed together by fate.

A rumbling impacted their senses.

The Force whispered danger.

Sensors chimed.

The mental connection between Sia's ship and him cried out; R5 tootled urgently at the crew from his position in the cockpit.

A warship had arrived.



"This is Captain Vandron of the Imperium starship Imperial Voyager. You are present in a system that is currently interdicted by our forces. A nearby state has been targeted for pacification, and you are expected to heave-to and be boarded."

A tractor beam ensnared the trio of them, for they were one sitting, rather large, target.

Suddenly, Sia's ship began to scream in pain.

Something was happening to the homeworld.

To the home species.

To home.

Death.

Death on a terrible scale.

TAG: @TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @darthbernael, @TheSilentInfluence , @darthhelinith (singles)

 

IC: Sia de Naochad ’s a Naoi
Location: Interdicted system…

Sia felt the approach, the appearance of more bodies into the system. With a slow movement, he pulled the mirror back from where he’d been looking into the other chamber. As he did, he head the comm system come on, the broadcast. ’So…that’s what I was feeling…’ he thought to himself.

The joined ships, now three of them, shuddered. His eyes narrowed, annoyance flaring. What that had to mean, what it meant to him was that this new vessel had to have captured them in a field that held them in place.

A sudden spike of pain lashed into his mind and he was glad that he was pressed against the corner of the corridor, out of sight of the others as his legs shivered at the pain. His pointed teeth clenched and his eyes flared at the pain but the pain had one benefit.

He felt…he knew…

The scream from Ship, the intense pain as Ship broadcast to and through him the pain of his world being assaulted had seared through the mental fog that had clouded his mind. He still was unaware of what system he was in but…

He knew who and what he was. He was millennia old, between his kind’s natural life as well as decades spent in the sustaining cocoon. He was…the firstborn of the sixth First Mother, only a hundred and four others of his kind older than he was. He was her commander, the leader of her forces, her aide and left hand, the one who controlled all she commanded. And now she was in pain.

It was a sudden rush, the pain and the knowledge both flaring through him. These insignificant beings on this ship didn’t matter anymore, only the hyperdrive they had mattered, so that he could return home. Reaching out mentally to Ship he closed off as much of himself as possible, war was inevitable amongst his people and the species they’d decimated and right now he needed to focus.

Reaching into Ship’s data he found what had burned out in the hyperdrive, mind aching from the constant bombardment of pain. Pulling back out, reducing the conduit to its bare minimum, he dashed through corridors, hiding in shadows that dappled it as he moved around the other beings on the ship, to where he was sure the propulsion system was located.

As he did, thoughts raced to Ship, instructing it to passively scan the new arrival, to find the point that the beam holding them came from. Once located, he instructed Ship to prepare to fire on it, but not to do so until he had returned to Ship.

Reaching the chamber he sought, he silently moved, senses reaching out to see if anyone was there. His time was more than limited, he knew Ship’s pain would be sensed and that whoever the new ones were they probably knew his kind and, once they saw Ship they would try to sear all three craft out of existence.

With each step he was closer to what he needed, what he could use to escape this trouble, whether the others realized he was escaping or not. He needed to return and to destroy whatever was hurting his First Mother.

TAGs: @Sinrebirth, @TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheSilentInfluence

 

Companion Cresh

It was quite a clinical title.

The third in the alphabet.

But it wasn't a galaxy that hadn't been visited.

That much was as true as Peridea itself.

But for the moment, the homeworld of the Wraith was under assault...

... and whomever it was, they had Imperial ships.

One of which was right here.

What would the crew of this Voyage have to say?

@TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheSilentInfluence (bumping)

 

Battle at the Galaxies Edge

The Raider-class corvette, Imperial Voyager, was on a war-footing.

The entire Navy was, after all, so when it didn't receive quite the acceptable response, in quite the acceptable time, the crew was reacting on a hairpin.

It fired.

Turbolaser bolts slammed into the conjoined ships.

There was a scream from the ship of flesh, a panicked, shrill screech from the paired droids of BD-1 and R5-P4 -

Vacuum tugged at the contents of the ships, and suddenly, it was impossible to say what had happened to Tamus, Amariah and Pre.

Lost to space?

Incinerated by the blast?

Suddenly, Adrias, Teedo, Sia were alone, and their fate was all but sealed within their respective durasteel coffins -

However, the firing of the Imperial Voyager upon the three ships, one alien in design, two clearly from the Known Galaxy, was witnessed.

A scout had just, serendipitously, completed the hop-skip journey from the main galaxy by way of Firefist to here.

Wherever here was.

And wherever here was, it had a familiar problem.

An Imperial ship firing upon helpless civilian vessels, even if one of the three conjoined ships was unfamiliar in construction, the venting hulls and debris was a familiar scene.

Captain Vandron was infuriated.

"Launch fighters. Nobody gets out alive."

Suddenly, four Auto-fighters emerged from the hangars -



TAG: @TheAdmiral, @Kahn_Iceay, @darthbernael, @Mitth_Fisto (singles to start)

 

IC: Sia de Naochad ’s a Naoi
Location: Interdicted system…

The scavenging mission had been a success, Sia had the hyperdrive parts he needed from the ship Ship had managed to limp up against. He was making his way back towards the boarding tube Ship had attached to this damnable metal vessel when he heard the alarms shrieking, only slightly similar to those of Ship, that spoke of incoming fire.

His face twisted into an enraged mask as he sped up, flashing through the corridors of the ship. He was a step away from the boarding tube when he was thrown against the bulkhead, the fire impacting. The rage deepened and his talons slipped out as he heard Ship shrieking from the attack; knowing his vessel had been hit. The impact had twisted and mangled the ship he was on and he was partially pinned against the bulkhead.

His rage fed his power and his razor talons shredded metal as he warped it away from his body, the hyperdrive parts slung at his side. It took several long minutes to clear enough debris to get free and move to the boarding tube. A hiss of relief escaped him when he saw it was still connected.

His body ached even as it began to heal the few places where he’d been bruised or cut open at the impact of the lasers against the ship. Stepping into the tube a thought occurred. His eyes glinted with dark humor as he finally reached out mentally to those who’d been trying to breach his own mental defenses.

’Ship is much larger and more able to withstand an assault. You may board but you have five minutes. Any longer and I leave you to your fates.’

He dashed through the tube, once again flashing into the highest speed run he could as he raced to Ship’s hyperdrive to repair it. He could always use food to speed the healing process as he headed back to the homeworld to, at least, save his Matriarch.

It would take less than five minutes to repair the hyperdrive and reach the bridge to detach from the other vessels. Whether these intruders to his galaxy joined him or not he’d leave.

TAGs: @Sinrebirth, @TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheSilentInfluence, @Kahn_Iceay

 

IC: Captain Vandron

The captain snorted at the Echani declaration. “Destroy them.”

The four auto-TIEs veered away from the conjoined ships, and CALLISTA promptly updated the Wayward Gaze that each droid was responding independently, and with a speed that suggested the fighters had been updated to modern specs; isotopes in the engines emissions suggests a rare chemical once found on Makeb. Shields activated aboard TIEs that usually didn’t have them, and the lack of additional weight suggested miniaturised generation technology and CALLISTA posited that a similar scale hyperdrive may be present.

Extrapolation put it that the TIE droid design had been redeveloped in the last thirty years since its prior deployment by the Dark Empire, and even its droid brain too. The four TIEs looped individually - one shot straight towards the cockpit of the Echani mother ship, one dove beneath, one held back to support the first attacker and screen against the fighters, and a fourth looped around, clearly intending to target their engines -

The first bolts sizzled against forward shields, evoking the former precision fire that CIS starfighters had been infamous for, focused within micrometers of the same point -

CALLISTA confirmed that was further range than expected for fighters of this size too -

Meanwhile the corvette opened fire with a single turbolaser shot. It blew through the Mandalorian vessel, hitting the reactor and blowing it apart -

The ship with Adrias aboard tumbled one way -

The ship with Sia and now Teedo aboard tumbled the other -

Adrias and his droid friends were being exposed to hard vacuum, even as the E-wing was still attached -

Sia’s ship screamed in pain but managed to seal the wound, but it was falling unconscious from the damage -

Vandron cleared his throat to his pilot. “Pull us close and blow up those fighters. I don’t want any survivors, but I do want to collect debris for analysis. Imperium High Command will want to know.”

“Should we not signal the Grand Admiral?”

Glancing at the comms officer, Vandron sneered. “You went to trouble Grand Admiral Sysco with this? Next you’ll want to address the Grand Vizier! Or perhaps the Imperial Family itself?”

“Protocol dictates -“

“I know the Protocol of the Imperium,” he snapped. “My father wrote it when we came to this galaxy. So be silent, or I will space you.”

He turned back to the displays, hungry for success.

TAG: @Kahn_Iceay, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheAdmiral, @darthbernael (singles)

 

IC: Sia de Naochad ’s a Naoi
Location: Interdicted system…

A growl escaped Sia’s throat as he felt Ship being hit by fire again. He’d just repaired the hyperdrive and had felt the presence of one of the beings from the other ship entering Ship. As Ship tumbled, he could feel the way it’s energy was slowly diminishing, making him race even faster towards the bridge. There was an emergency reserve and, if he had to, he would use some of his own life energy to give Ship just enough to make the leap to hyper. Whatever idiocy that was going on here mattered little to him, his First Mother and their homeworld were under attack.

Racing through the corridors he pondered the problem of the one who had boarded Ship. So far, he was in spaces that would not concern most beings, except perhaps for the strands of living ship that hung in most corridors. It was only deeper in Ship that that one would run into things that would perhaps worry most beings. As he ran he reached out mentally, ’It would perhaps be best if you join me on the bridge. We’ve taken several hits and Ship is shutting down life support in many areas to preserve power.’ he only partially lied in the thought.

When he reached the bridge he slid into the command chair, his long fingered hands slipping into the control matrix gel of the console before him. He had been partially right, Ship had begun doing what he’d said but now he added a vocal component, the intercom of Ship broadcasting as it shut down various functions that weren’t vital to drives or defense, from the aft towards the bridge.

That done, he checked the power readings, growling when he saw how dangerously low Ship was on power and that it was close to a hibernation state. His anger surged when he switched to the reserve bank, seeing that it was slowly dwindling, it must have been grazed or hit when one of the shots had hit Ship. Still interfaced he drained what remained into the main power banks, watching as they rose.

A chime in his mind told him when the reserves were empty but his eyes blazed when he saw they weren’t quite enough to give Ship enough energy to execute a jump command and remove them from this battle zone. His anger surged again but then turned into a sense of resignation. Pushing his hands deeper into the gel he hissed when the spikes at the bottom of the gel drove into his feeding orifices.

He slumped slightly against the console, fighting his own mind to pour enough of his energy into Ship to allow it to jump. As a millennia old being, his life energy, when he allowed it to be expressed, was a deep well. But to do what he was was going to drain that well and make him very hungry. His eyes stayed focused on the power levels and, thankfully before he drained himself too much, he saw them rise enough to do as he needed.

Still slumped against the console, he sent the mental command to Ship, ’Jump now! To as safe a system as possible, close to the homeworld.’ As the thought left him he pulled his palms off the spikes, wearily leaning back in the command chair as he felt the hyper engines spool up.

TAGs: @Sinrebirth, @TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheSilentInfluence, @Kahn_Iceay

 

The Homeworld

Ship was hurt.

Like most animals, Ship fled home when hurt.

Similarly, when it was hurt, it drew hard upon that which succours it.

As such, more than half of Sia’s life force was drawn from her to power the hyperdrive. When Teedo found Sia, they were slumped, half unconscious, on the bio-mechanical console.

Which was a problem because the Homeworld was under siege. Most of the orbital defences were gone, and the surface shields cracked open. The reason for the latter was obvious, the immense Sovereign-class Super Star Destroyer Autarch, flanked by two Allegiance-class battlecruisers.

Strung out around them were six Star Destroyers, Procursator-class. Designs unheard of to Sia, though perhaps Teedo and his clan may have encountered it in the data of a fallen Destroyer on Jakku.

The hulks of innumerable Mother Ships were present… even Ancestor-class warships were ruined, and swarms of native Descendant bio-fighters were being methodically hunted down by TIE droids, elite I-7 Howlrunners and Shadow Fighters.

A nearby Ancestor was drifting, half under power, half not - and another half of the ship missing. The defences on an Ancestor were considered impossible to bypass, but the Autarch opened fire with a single axial superlaser and sunk one of the four continents on the Homeworld - which explained that.

The heretic comm lines swarmed with information. The Imperium Fifth Fleet had come, to conquer this quadrant, and the Homeworld had been judged a threat. Citing proclamations involving the illegality of biotech, the Imperium classified Sia’s people under the same headings as the Yuuzhan Vong, Sekotians and Charon; to be exterminated.

Psychic energy - the pain of billions dead or dying, would crash into Sia, and even into Teedo -

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto, @darthbernael (combo)

 

IC: R5-P4

The Gaze did what it did best. It reduced the four TIE droids to scrap, and its fight bolt went right through the bridge of the Raider - but while the armor plate held, the occupants of the command deck were transformed into debris.

In short, the enemy corvette simply listed, rather than detonated. It was half-impressive, if not moot. The bioship had already surged into hyperspace, leaving a trail that CALLISTA could track even if she didn’t know the names of the constellations of this galaxy. Numeric designations would do.

But CALLISTA found no issues with finding the algorithm for the freighter. It was old, Clone Wars vintage, but that was only seventy years ago, and it was accessible enough.

It’s prior owner had been scrubbed, but it apparently had belonged to Barriss Offee for the last five years, and before that to a young woman named Nomi, based on Bonadon. CALLISTA passed on the data, but focused on the occupants and the two fleeting droid intelligences she had detected -

R5 latched a claw onto Adrias, seemingly slowed by the vacuum, and yanked them towards the automated fighters hold; it would be airtight, and Adrias would have consciousness, T5 and BD-1 were safe, and they would welcome assistance.

The Raider also remained pressurised, a veritable data point in the storm. But the bio-ship was gone.

TAG: @Kahn_Iceay, @TheAdmiral, combo with GM

 

IC: Sia de Naochad ’s a Naoi and Teedo
Homeworld

It had taken more out of Sia than he’d expected, to get Ship away from the minor battle he’d found himself a part of when he woke. This, however, was another beast entirely. His boots scuffed at the deck before the console, trying to get his footing and push himself up from where he’d slumped against it. His hands were still mostly immersed in the biogel and he could feel that Ship still was not at full capability, which was about the only thing his senses first registered.

What hit him next was the roaring waves of pain and death. Wearily, he lifted his head, fighting the pressure of those waves to do so. What met his gaze caused a howl of anger to escape his lips. A spark, closer to him, of life caused him to slowly turn his head, eyes almost blank with the pain, anger, and hunger that filled him.

His eyes couldn’t really tell him what he was seeing except that it was a smaller creature, a small flame of life in the death that surrounded them. With a grunt, he turned away from the creature, trying to make any sense out of the chaos that was occurring at his homeworld as he slowly regained strength, his anger bouying that re energization.

Teedo had followed the directions and came to the bridge. Teedo was unsure how long or well Teedo's rebreather would last in sections with life support turned off, and Teedo was not wanting to check and find out. Although Teedo remember answer in a minute.

Coming the bridge Teedo found a very odd sight. Although that was washed away in the undertow of the psychic pains of peoples dyeing on such a colossal scale. Teedo looked for another console available, Teedo followed where a comm station seemed to be. Jabbering as he went his palm droid translated for him, "Master Teedo thanks you for your rescue, but sees he already needs to return the favor. Teedo hopes that information on who your people are fighting will be appreciated, as well as enemy vessel weakness', and sensitive locations. Unknown benefactors enemies are Teedo's enemies."

Teedo put a hand into the gel as he had seen the pilot do a minute before, crossing the stick across himself to lazily rest in the crook of gel dipped arm, pointing the electrical end toward the unknown alien. Dredging up the memories, Teedo tried to impart the knowledge to the ship and for the ship to impart it to all ships allies.

The ship was too injured to resist, whereas perhaps it may have before, but it didn't. Instead, it accepted contact from Teedo, and memory, and thought. It reciprocated, and saw his Teedo had survived the harshness of Jakku... of the community, and collective.

There was a plop behind him; an egg had emerged from an orifice in the bridge area...

Sia would feel it's ship surrendering life itself. It had given up. The injuries were too great, the pain and deaths were too many. An escape pod was formed from the ships internal juices, large enough for both, and it wove a small, small hyperdrive. A single jump was all it had.

The massive Star Dreadnaught fired again, and another continent cracked; another billion lives lost.

”What are you…??” Sia ground out as he wearily observed the being who had come along for the trip gain acceptance by Ship. His attention was, however, shortlived, as he felt Ship fading. When the egg emerged, he pushed himself off the console.

Scooping up the soul of his vessel, all that was left of Ship, he spared a glance for the little being. ”Come, now!” He staggered towards the exit of the bridge and where he could, just through the haze of pain and death, feel the last thing Ship had provided.

His long hair swayed as his head turned to face the little being once more, ”My homeworld burns but…” His body twisted slightly more so he could see out of the viewport, ”...but my First Mother is canny…” he said in a near whisper.

With that he disappeared, swiftly heading down the passage to the escape pod.

Teedo patted the side of the console and simply shrugged as he hefted his stick again. This ship hopping was becoming habitual in this galaxy. Still it turned its goggles to the alien and gave a reply that needed no translation.

“Teedo.” And then it followed to the escape that had been offered.

The pod shot out, heading towards the nearest wreck of a mother ship.

The TIE Droids were everywhere and nowhere, but a Shadow Droid was different - it hunted, and using the Force.

A blunt instrument reached out, and even Teedo would feel the dark scrabbling for his mind.

The egg, for its part, screamed and wanted to be held by Teedo.

Sia felt the probing towards then, the sense of something reaching out. In that moment he did two things. First, at the mental scream, he swiftly handed over the egg to the little creature. ”Keep it quiet.” he growled.

And then, as he used feathering touches in the small control gel for the pod, nudging attitude thrusters to bring them even more swiftly to the hulk, he attempted to compose himself, to reduce his life signs and presence as he had originally when he’d run into those other beings. Anything to reduce their presence and avoid whatever it was that was seeking them.

Teedo take egg, hold steady and tight with yet a loose grip, focusing on cradling protectively with Teedo’s body. Teedo dipped Teedo’s head on the egg curling his mind with the gesture that they together would be an egg - self contained whole shielded away from the harsh dark probe. Curved and smooth and hard, that mental grasps may not find them.

TAGs: @Sinrebirth, @TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheSilentInfluence, @Kahn_Iceay

 

Unknown Star System

There were no survivors aboard the Raider. Seemingly the crew had been almost exclusively aboard the bridge. Sloppy - or arrogant, one or the other.

The destruction of the bridge did cause some damage to the datafiles, but the parasites pulled out a fair amount.

They were apparently in the so-called Galactic Frontier of this satellite constellation, with the Imperium Expanse the cartographical name for the other region that cover two thirds of local space. However, the specifics of the maps had been lost, but it was possible to plot stars with simple analysis of the visible spectrum - or invisible, to Echani but not droids.

The data confirmed that the Imperial Voyager was a scout ship of the Imperium Fifth Fleet, ordered to patrol the systems rimward of the target, a homeworld of the self-same species that the Echani and Adrias had encountered, and that system had ample data handy. It's name was unknown to the Imperium, but it had been targeted for Civilising and so assault by Grand Admiral Sysco. There was a whole heirarchy that wasn't overly detailed in the data, because clearly it was common knowledge to the Imperium.

An Imperial Family, a Grand Vizier, a Head of State, a Supreme Marshall, and then the four Grand Admirals and Grand Lords who commanded individual fleets and oversectors. All were mentioned in various Imperial information about things as banal as first contact protocol, the rules for hosting a member of the upper echelons of the collective High Command, and a reference to Imperial Center, the former name for Coruscant, decades ago.

Most of the codes and protocols seemed to have deviated from the late-First Empire, before the destruction of Byss. References to deployments using TIE Droids, Howlrunners and Shadow Droids, and details of the standard fleet group including a Dreadnaught, battlecruisers and Star Destroyers, were included. It wasn't an Order of Battle, but it was more information than they had at present.

Otherwise, the Jedi Adrias would come to in the medbay, being clucked over by one of the two droids that had come along with him. They were bantering with the medical apparatus of the Gaze, but not much else could be said for the Echani crew or where his E-wing was now.

But the Echani did know that the other ship that had fled this system had gone to the nearby homeworld being targeted. It was entirely possible that there were survivors, but the Civilisation Protocol did confirm one thing.

Extermination of nonhumans.

It was the Empire all over again, but the frontline in the Outer Rim, far from the prying eyes of the Senate, be it Imperial or New Republic.

Unfettered.

But for it's part, R5 went to talk to its savior and discern just what they were dealing with.

TAG: @Kahn_Iceay (combo), @TheAdmiral (combo opportunity, single is no harm at this stage)

 

Battle of the Broken Homeworld

The Third Imperium, as they loudly pronounced themselves across the comms, was here.

The Civilisation of the system had been announced, which of course meant Extermination of nonhumans.

The crippled Mothership bleated in the minds of Sia and even Teedo, resonating via their Egg.

They had no knowledge of this enemy. They knew their stellar neighbours, yes, preyed upon them, traded with them, fought besides and against them, but these were from farther afield. Trajectories suggested from the heart of this galaxy, and in their foes arrogance they had knowledge of new hyperlanes but nobody would be alive to use them, it lamented.

They were lost.

Their genetic individuality would be lost.

Not a single ship had escaped so far.

The egg of the ship cried with its mother, and forced tears from Sia and Teedo even if they managed stoicism.

But the Mothership whispered to them, soothed them, proffered the chance to take their egg and take it to another, the ship which acted as the Mothers brain, which in a crisis could be detached, and the egg become a brain become a ship. It pulsed an image into their minds eye, and a part of the ship thus far untouched.



That ship could grow into another Mother, and from it, more of their kin could be seeded and born.

It was a genetic life-boat, and the Greater Mind had bequeathed it to them as their very last hope.

A shaking to the Mothership, and an image of mind.



Boarders.

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto, @darthbernael (combo)

TAG:

 

OOC: Fun combo with Sinre and Mitth.

IC: Sia de Naochad ’s a Naoi and Teedo
Battle of the Broken Homeworld

Darkly bloody tears escaped from Sia as he felt the pain, the destruction, and the sliver of hope that the Mothership was giving him and the little creature that was with him. The entire system cried in anguish at the death and pain that filled it, even the egg of Ship cried out. His head came up as the Greater Mind bestowed upon them that sliver of hope, the chance to not let his people die.

The rage that had been bubbling below the surface was something he could no longer keep hidden, his eyes black, his mouth pulled back in a rictus. While the two of them could do little to what these invaders were doing to his world they would not succeed in removing his kind from existence, that was something Sia swore as an abiding promise.

The following image drew a hissing sound from him, seeing the filthy beings upon a Mothership was an affront to everything his people were.

Ignoring the little being holding the egg who was beside him, Sia used the minimal controls to bring the escape pod as close to the Mothership’s brain, the detachable smaller ship that was its home. He could feel the beings from the vision moving around inside the Mothership and knew, if he was going to guide this little one to the escape craft he would need to feed.

Finding a small bay, a single fighter hangar that was probably set aside for the commander of the Mothership, Sia flew the pod into it. A growl escaped him as the pod rang with sudden shots fired at it. Before him he could see a trio of those troops, the ones firing at them. His anger overflowed and he set the pod down on the deck with a thump.

Turning to the little being, ”I will clear these three, stay here until I am done.”

His hands clenched in claw shapes as he turned, darting out of the pod. The viewscreen of it faced the still firing troops; troops whose shots shifted from the pod towards the figure that had emerged. The firing, however, was futile.

Very swiftly, Sia was among them, a fist causing the chest armor of one to crack at the punch, another finding his wrists broken as his blaster was ripped from his grasp. The third fired at Sia, hitting him several times but not slowing the Wraith.

He closed on the third, the first two moaning behind him. With a swift kick, he kicked the troops feet out from under him, hands grasping the helmet and wrenching it from the man’s head. His knee came up, impacting the troops chest, driving his head back with the impact.

A scream began then was choked off as Sia’s hand closed around the trooper’s face, his feeding apparatus already drawing out the man’s life essence. The trooper that had been punched in the chest rushed Sia from behind, only to find himself on the floor, from a backhand that had twisted his helmet to the side.

Taking it off, straining his neck as he did, he threw it at Sia, seeing the Wraith’s head rock but come back up. He launched himself at the Wraith, only to find himself caught as the third trooper was, his life draining away.

Sia felt the last of the essence from the first he’d grabbed drain away, dropping the body. He dragged the second over to the still wailing, broken handed trooper, dropping the second when that too was drained. He sighed, feeling refreshed finally. With four surgical strikes, he broke the troops arms just below the shoulder and legs just below the hip.

Glancing at the viewport of the pod, ”A snack for later…” he said, lifting the trooper by the collar of his armor. ”It is safe to come out now, we must get to where we were shown.”

Teedo rummaged with a free hand until Teedo found the mirror. Attaching it to his stick he lowered it down the ramp and watched what happened in the reflection.

Teedo was, impressed. Alien took blaster shots well so long as it had a hand on an enemy. Once the last was down Teedo walked out carrying the egg as the alien called for Teedo. Teedo looked at the broken trooper. Jabbering with a claw gesture his palm droid translated, “Master Teedo says you should remove helmet, torso plate, and belt. Otherwise enemies can track their owns position at range. They are not above sacrificing their men.”

The first wave was dead.

Very dead.

But that saw the entire Mother ship shake.

Rather than risk more troopers, the Imperial ships were firing upon the ship. There was a scream in their minds, one which seemed to never end. It was awful; the enemy was murdering a wounded foe. They would need to hurry.

Pausing for only a moment to strip off the items that the little creature had suggested he get rid of, Sia grabbed the broken and maimed trooper by the collar of the shirt that had been under the torso plate, unceremoniously dragging him behind him as he and Teedo raced through the ship.

Their course took them past the bridge. A sudden wave of emotion broke over him, separate from the pain and death of his people that was still overwhelming most of his senses. This seemed more specific, almost related to the suffering. His head turned, a scowl forming on his face as he worked out why and where from it was emanating.

Stepping up to a section of the bridge wall, he ran a free hand down a seam. About halfway down the seam one finger tripped a latch, causing the seam to split. He stepped back as the wall opened, a swirling orb, similar to but larger than the one his small companion already carried seemingly socket into a recess behind the wall was revealed.

It popped free, the Mothership shuddering even more as it did. Hearing a thunk of the trooper’s head against the deck as he dropped him, Sia scooped up the orb, feeling the heart of, the nucleus of the Mothership in the depths of the orb. Turning, he reached out, handing the orb to Teedo, ”This is even more valuable than the egg of Ship that you carry, guard it well.” he told the little being in a gruff voice.

Now in even more of a hurry as he could feel the Mothership giving up it’s physical form to guarantee them enough time to reach the escape ship, he raced down the last corridor they needed to pass to reach their goal. Just before the hatch to the escape ship he skidded to a halt. A deep growl reverberated from his chest at what he saw.

Stepping over what he’d seen, Sia touched both the orb in his companion’s hands as well as the lock of the hatch, after dropping the trooper once again. The hatch opened and he kicked the trooper through it, a dark smile forming as the body hit the far wall with a satisfying crunch. Almost reverently then he knelt down, lifting what was left of the body that was before the hatch.

It was his First Mother, or what was left of her, most of her torso, the fragments of one arm and hand, and part of her head and face. He cradled her body in his arms as he stepped inside the escape ship, laying it in one of the seats, strapping it in place. He dragged the trooper's body to the seat next to hers, lifting it just enough that he could place her palm on the body’s skin. Hopefully enough thought remained that instinct would take over and she would immediately start feeding.

Looking back at his companion, ”Get in and we will escape this chaos.” he said, ”Get in or place the orbs inside and take your chances with these invaders.”

Teedo followed. Teedo tilted head as Teedo watched the eventual retrieval of another egg which Teedo had to carry. This one bigger. Shifting Teedo used Teedo's stick to steady them against a wall as Teedo removed a crash netting from Teedo's bag. Resetting with netting in front Teedo loaded the larger egg, then smaller egg. Resting them synched up resting on Teedo's round belly, with his arms keeping them in place and steady.

Bringing his metal stick up as a wide brace he held onto with both arms, Teedo carefully followed after his benefactor. Teedo catch up in time to see see the being lift a mutilated corpse off of the deck. Teedo tilt head, looking through goggles at the apparent female the male was cradling, if Teedo was guessing hairy gender properly.

"Teedo comes. Just tell where you want us and them." Teedo's droid chirped at a few words from it's master. Waddling onboard with his precious load he gave the two bodies a wide passage as he looked for where he should be.

TAGs: @Sinrebirth, @TheAdmiral, @Mitth_Fisto, @TheSilentInfluence, @Kahn_Iceay

 

System PX-22

IC: BD-1
Medbay

The Echani moved too swiftly to dally for Adrias Stark, and so BD-1 was left to appraise him of the latest.

His E-wing had been secured, and Teedo had been whisked away by a strange alien ship. The Neti that had come with them since Jakku, and the two humans they had communicated with via comms, they were dead, by all accounts.

The Echani were apart of, according to R5, who had been debriefed and had debriefed, a long-range scouting ship with highly advanced technology and AI aboard. They had encountered an Imperial faction that appeared to eschew the designs of the Dark Empire, a short-lived faction of the First Galactic Civil War which had served the Reborn Emperor.

The little droid believed they had captured the Raider-class corvette that had attacked them, on behalf, apparently of something called the Third Imperium.

The Second Imperium, BD-1 knew from his databanks, had been an organization led by a fake Palpatine, but with the knowledge that Palpatine survived on Exegol, may very well have been another proxy force like the First Order. As such the Third Imperium is undoubtedly connected to the Emperor.

All Adrias would know about that was the dark pall cast over this galaxy was intensifying. Indeed, he would recognize he had been awoken by the anguish of a nearby star system being burned down. The Jedi was more sensitive to this than the Echani equivalents, though they, too, would start to feel the terror of billions being extinguished.

BD-1 tweeted. What did Adrias want to do?

---
The Imperial Voyager, formerly

The corvette was mainly hardened, more than anything. Structural weakpoints had been reinforced, and the engines tweaked so as to be more efficient. Basic Imperial progression, when it came to their warships; make sure it's pointy and bigger than anyone else. It did appear to have been lengthened initially, but it was only an advanced sensor relay extending the corvette by a grand total of 8 meters. Pointless, really.

The fighter craft were unique to this so-called Third Imperium, as progressions in, it appeared, Ssi-Ruuvi entechment technology so that a soul never exhausted. An infinite battery and brain, far more responsive than any droid fighter on the market then, and definitely now.

The shields were actually fairly powerful for their size, too, but the Echani over-powered response had rendered that moot. But against an X-wing it was hardier, and against an A-wing it was faster, capable of turns far in excess of the gravitational limit a pilot of flesh and blood could handle. It was as if this Empire had sought to adjust what they had, rather than dare reinvent the wheel. that commitment to standardisation was a ship designers nightmare.

The investigation of the Voyager, however, confirmed that the ship had automatically pinged its command network of its distress.

That was news.

Grand Admiral Sysco issued the remote call for the Voyager to self-destruct.

It wouldn't, of course.

But what would the Echani do about that?

TAG: @TheAdmiral (single), @Kahn_Iceay (combo)