Ask Gems and Guns

[Wodan]

Wodan stood near the edge of the Imperial Ships bridge, staring out into the void beyond. The light of Zoph's moon reflected off the Sith’s face giving his already pale features a ghostly look. Although he still looked tired, he no longer looked haggard as when he first left his little exile. Much of his existing muscle had still left him, but his cheeks were no longer hollow and a little light burned deep in his golden eyes.

He wore a simple black military outfit, hair pulled back from his face, long beard at least partly groomed. Wodan’s right hand as always fidgeted with the Shard around his neck, his fingers pushing into the sharp corners of the shattered metal. They had only brought two ships to Zoph, it was not the battle fleet he wished for, or the invasion force he desired. But it would have to be enough, hopefully with just this single finger of Imperial might, both he and Lieutenant Ramage could achieve their goals.

Closing his eyes he felt once again the call to this planet, along with a dozen others which would give him the resources he required to reach his ultimate goal. A conniving grin spread across his lips, the tips of fangs appearing in the light of the moon.


@Olwin

 

[Caduceus Ramage]

Ramage re-entered the bridge of his ship with several lesser officers around him. He was giving them orders and various commands, directed to one at a time. Each one broke off after their commands were given and returned to their posts until the few who were in the bridge remained, and even then they broke off to return to their stations.

He was large for his species, standing at six foot flat, with four of his arms clasped behind his back. The other two arms were motioning as he spoke, or grabbing reports from various crewmembers snd giving them a quick once over before giving a nod and handing them back. He wore a traditional Imperial naval officer uniform, as if these were the only things he had in his closet, as his boots gave a soft yet still very audible thud against the flooring below him. He approached the Sith in his bridge and stopped ten paces away before speaking.

"Sir Wodan," Ramage's deep and smooth voice rumbled out from hid bandible-covered mouth, "we have arrived at the planet as ordered and the Night Veil stands with you. To ensure that my instructions are crystal clear and followed through past the letter, what are our orders?" He stood at attention behind the Champion, back straight and now all six of his arms clasped behind his back. His head was held high and his icey blue eyes stared straight forward, as his mandibles softly clacked before and after he spoke.

@Braden

 

[Wodan]

Sir Wodan, that was a new one. A toothy smile replaced the conniving grin as he turned away from the window to face the Harch. All his previous interactions with the Imperial Military had been as one of their own, geared up in the same armour and the same weapons as any other Soldier. This was one of the first interactions were he was a member of the Sith Order first, separate from the Military. “At ease Lieutenant.” He replied with a little spike of joy running through his system at the command.

“Good, first order of business is to close on the main Spaceport. If we do not get what we are after, then we will be closing down access to its surrounding space. We will strangle them to death if we need to.” Wodan began, his right hand still fidgeting with the shard as he spoke. “Have your fighter pilots prepare as well, you never know if some wannabe hero wants to take a shot at us.

@Olwin

 

[Caduceus Ramage]

Ramage's mandibles softly clicked together for a moment in thought, his eyes staring out into the void and down towards the planet. One frigate verses a planet. Even if the main spaceport were to be completely under Sith control he knew there would probably be others. Smaller ones, but still able to supply the planet. That is when he went into ease, his form lightening a bit yet his arms still held behind his back.

"If I may say so sir," the arachnid began, "it seems you may have called upon too small of a force to really bring to bear on this planet. Luckily for you, battling an Onager in nothing but frigates and corvettes tend to bring officers together. Our back up should be..." A squadron of E-wings began to fly on past the bridge of the Night Veil as it seemed Ramage would give an attempt to smile. Moments later, a voice broke the silence of the Sith comms channel.

"Is it too late to come to the party Night Veil?" The radar crew picked up a group of vessels that just got out of hyperspace, and one of the officers began to to call out for Ramage. He simply waved the man off and moved over to the communications team and took the comms for himself, speaking into it as if he were talking to an old friend.

"Why not at all Blackhole, it is good to hear from you. Ready beside me, and drop your compliment." The Fremen-class frigate unloaded four wing-pairs of TIE/STs and two XG-1 Starwings, the prior of which formed up into the makings of a forward fighter screen as the bombers moved behind them for cover.

"The Nightmare is once again ready to stand by your orders Ramage, deploying bombers and fighters now as you command." Twelve TIE/STs and four TIE/VTs began to dispel themselves from the Marauder corvette, as the fighters moved forward to form a protective screen and the bombers fell in behind them.

"Very well Blackhole, keep those heavy turbolasers locked onto the station, incase of any larger craft wishing to leave."

"Don't worry Night Veil, the Annihilatior has already released our compliment of fighters to help support you. We also managed to drag alone some smaller gunships, just in case." The Raider III was the last of the capital ships to appear in the firing line, though it quickly began to try and catch up to the rest of the ships. Four Malleus Heavy Gunships with their two wing-pair of Aquiliae fighters each moved towards the front of the growing pack. Two more XG-1 Starwings flew up towards the Night Veil and slowed themselves, parking just on each side of the bridge as a protective manuver. If anything were to happen, they could be rapid response.

"Then it seems we are in order, sir Wodan. I shall hand control of this task force over to you." All of his icey blue eyes shifted over to the Champion as Ramage turned to face him. It seemed that connections here would outweigh the sheer might of the Force to ensure victory here. A small win for Ramage, but a win none the less.

@Braden

 

[Wodan]

A sharp smile appeared on his face as Ramage misjudged what the Sith Champion was after, he was not here for the entire planet. Though if it fell under the Sith Empire’s protection that was a boon which could help him in the future, no he was after only a very select part of the planet and its resources. A light chuckle escaped his lips as the rest of the small fleet Ramage had assembled appeared behind him, it was a random assortment of ships, perhaps colleagues of the Harch’s past or just whatever ships were not on assignment at that moment. But it was more than enough for him to succeed in his desire and perhaps actually pull this planet onto the red side of the Galaxy.

“No Lieutenant, I don’t think so. I have no training or skill in commanding ships. That is why I brought you along.” He replied, stepping past the Harch and towards the centre of the Night Veil’s bridge. “Although I have overall Command of this Operation, all combat and tactical positioning, planning and execution will fall to you.” Turning on his heels to face the alien, he tilted his head slightly. “I hope that my faith in your abilities isn’t misplaced?”

@Olwin

 

[Caduceus Ramage]

Ramage's eyes blinked in unison as he turned to his droid, Aurelian. He spoke something in Aqualish, and the droid snapped into action with the Lieutenant. The droid rushed towards the rear of the bridge and stood above the gunnery stations as the arachnid moved towards the communications area and took the microphone.

"All craft, this is Lieutenant Ramage of the Night Veil. We are here to conquer, so let is conquer. Blow their fighters out of the sky and turn their defences into slag. Let us show this Champion how we do it up here in space." Before he even finished, the swarms of fighters and bombers began screaming out of formation, splitting into wing-pairs and making their way to fighters or defence emplacements. The capital ships made initial shots into the starport's defences that actually could do any sort of damage to them, absolutely pillaging them and crippling anything they did not totally scrap or turn to molten slag. The bombers followed up with proton bomb and torpedo runs, grounding a good majority fighters and heavier defense craft before they left the field. The heavy gunships began to pick on those that did manage to breach orbit, with the hail of medium laser fire turning many into nothing more than glorified pin cushions.

The comms exploded with chatter, the various pilots and captains communicating with eachother in jubilation. The E-Wings seemed honestly bored, as the TIE/STs were practically shooting fish in the barrel while the E-Wings sat to stand guard in case of any supprises. The Night Veil began to quickly approach the planet and turn belly up, so the majority of it's turbolasers were pointed planetside. It dropped a pair of battery bursts onto the planet below, not to damage the starport but to scare the planet into surrender.

After waiting two minutes between shots, and with the other corvettes and frigates moving closer, Ramage slowly turned to the Sith with what appeared to be an arachnoid smile on his face. His mandibles clacked softly as he softly cackled at their actions. The turbolasers then all pointed directly at the starport bellow, powering up to full charge yet holding back from spitting twenty bolts down at the port within a matter of seconds. Ramage needed to keep the infrastructure of the planet as intact as he could, so if they would surrender it would take less time to make them operational again. But deep down, he wanted to just blow the crust of this planet off and expose the core. Of course, some bandits managed to try and harass the capital craft, but those fighters that the Sith brought kept those bandits busy. And Ramage could not care about them, he saw the bigger picture here.

"Sir Wodan," the arachnid spoke with his surprisingly silky smooth booming voice, "the comms are yours. Bend this planet to our will, make them kneel. My men did our job beyond the letter, and we will keep doing so until they kneel. The only question is how hard we have to squeeze to make them do so." He then handed the communication microphone over to the Sith, motioning for him to take it. And all the while, he stared at the humanoid with eyes that were as cold as his own soul. Like two ice bergs, glistening in the artic sun.

@Wodan

 

[Wodan]

Wodan watched through the viewing platform the carnage ahead of him. Though he couldn’t actually see much from the bridge, the garbled communication coming from the bridge of staff behind him gave him at least a brief understanding of what was going on. The Firrerrian bristled at the comment of ‘this Champion’, this Champion was the one giving them the chance to show themselves towards the grander Imperial Family. But, with a deep breath he let it pass, in time they would see him more and bow all the same.

It seemed the ragtag collection of ships and staff from the Imperial Navy was still more than a match for the basic defences of Zoph. Only a few minutes passed before Lieutenant Ramage approached him with an air of arrogance he had not yet truly earned. Well done you shot some three decade old fighters out of the sky. Wodan didn’t motion to take the microphone from the Harch, instead with a sickly smile which allowed his fangs to breach his lips. He leant slightly forward and began speaking into the microphone Ramage held.

“This Wōđanaz Ása-Liðar of the Sith Empire, we have come to discuss terms of your assimilation into the Imperium.” He began. “I apologise for some of the over eagerness of our naval pilots. They have not had a good fight for a few weeks.” Wodan gave Ramage a side-eye smile.

Before he could continue a crackle came over the Night Veil’s speakers before a booming voice sounded. “Screw you Imperial Dogs.” With that an alert began ringing out across the bridge. As new ships began to appear from both the farside of Zoph’s moon as well as the surface below, including a Victory-Class Star Destroyer.

Stepping away from the microphone, Wodan began making for the rear of the bridge. “Lieutenant, clear the area around Zoph. You have operational command of space and the air, but I do not want any non-military installations harmed on the surface.” His eyes flicked to a nearby officer. “Ready my shuttle and my men. We are going to the surface.”

@Olwin

 

[Caduceus Ramage]

Ramage flared the ugly "smile" his mandibles could appropriate again, obviously excited by what the Champion wanted. "Happy hunting my lord, don't mind the occasional tremor. There most likely are other military encamplents on this planet, and we are going to stomp them out." He then turned away and made his way to several command stations, giving them orders as he went.

One wave of turbolaser fire was sent towards a military station on what seemed to be a storage depot. The power was reduced but the building was still rocked somewhat. It did not implode, it did not explode but it slowly began to be damaged. It seemed harder than anticipated, so a second and third volley was fired downwards. That seemed to do it, and something erupted inside. A few smaller tanks rolled out before the building behind it went up in smoke.


The fighters themselves seemed to mostly just circle, nearly all of their targets already having been annihilated. The occasional laser cannon was fired or munitions launched, but it seemed as of that moment they had not much to do. The other ships began to move to circle the planet, searching for other military targets or any good target. The Marauder stared down the starport, dropping one final blast to what seemed to be a communication array, crumbling the old tower.

The Blackhole found out they had more to fire at as one of the ground based anti-starship weaponry fired up towards them. Luckily for them, they had managed to dodge the shot rather well which aligned the Fremen-class Frigate for a rather good shot. Both Medium Ion Cannons and the Dual Medium Turbolaser began to make work on this pocket of resistance as it radioed in. It seemed there was an air field here, and more fighters were being prepped and launched...

@Braden

 

[Wodan]

The click clack of his boots sounded through the Night Veil’s halls as Wodan stroud towards the shuttle bay, a pair of elite Assualt troops just behind. The Upsilon Class Shuttle, carried a single squad of eight men, not an army in any scenario, but it would be enough for Wodan to secure the building and rooms he needed to bend Zoph to its knees. “Captain, get us down to the capital now. Call in fighter escort as needed.” He shouted through the Shuttle’s interior as he took his seat near the edge of the cockpit.

Wodan had never got the hang of flying and prepared others with much greater skill to do it for him. The shuttle quickly took off, escorted down to the surface by four fighters, there was little in the way of aerial difficulty on the way down. Ramage making good work of clearing the skies it seems.

It was a shame then that he had been all too caught up in blowing up ground installations that the fleet from behind Zoph’s moon got in close before much of anything could be done to stop them. The Victory-Class Star Destroyer ripped into the ‘Blackhole’, tearing it in two with its heavy turbolasers. But that was for Ramage to deal with, as the Shuttle broke through the atmosphere.

“Government building dead ahead sir.” The pilot called across the comm. “Put us on the roof, we will work our way down from there.” The pilot confirmed and with a fair bit of effort was able to swing the ass of the Shuttle over the roof of the complex. The ramp lowered and first went the troopers followed by Wodan his lightsaber ignited as they made for the elevator shaft.

@Olwin