Vengeance in the Twilight

[Ashr Kaasi]

(Read The Prelude Here...)

(And the Dice Rolls here...)

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Vengeance in the Twilight

Kashyyyk

The Old Woods

TWILIGHT

LIFE DAY, 1900 Hours, Galactic Standard

. . .

They were dead. All of them. Dozens of Imperials strewn all around the woodlands surrounding the camp. Ashr Kaasi strode out in front of the facility, lips pressed together in a grim line, eyes darting over the bodies, taking extra care not to tread on a fallen Imperial.

He hadn't seen such violence in decades.

Focus.

He had been assigned to slice into one of The Old Empire's biggest slave camps on Kashyyyk. The slicer was to be accompanied by Ashlaa, a female Togruta, probably a few years older than his daughter; Baelli, the blatantly-xenophobic human commander who looked to be in his mid-thirties; Tarys, the short, energetic, blue-haired female who looked even younger than Ashr's twenty-one year-old daughter; and five cookie-cutter Imperial soldiers that he elected to take little interest in. But when a distress call was blasted out across all Imperial frequencies, their shuttle was first to the scene.

Yet, too late. Kaasi let out a long sigh.

"What a mess..."
Kashyyyk had been a point of contest between the Imperial Republica and The Old Empire for some time. Slavers of the two Empires vied for control of the planet's Wookie population; whichever side had the most slaves was significantly better off. Of course, Ashr would never own a slave himself. He quietly believed the whole practice to be barbaric, although he was unusually reluctant to say so. But slaves had been a huge, turning cog in the Imperial machine for a long, long time, and any attempt to change that, he concluded, would surely be futile. At very least, you'd need to kill a lot of people to do so. Also not something Ashr would condone. So, perhaps it was the lesser of two evils... At least slaves owned by the Republica would be treated better than those of the Old Empire, of that he was certain.

His eyes drifted across the corpses, to the Imperial clutching a comlink in her bloodied fingers. Officer Zessa Tarriset. Her eyelids lay wide open, from the moment of raw terror that was her last. She had spoken to him only minutes earlier, quickly, yet calmly, spitting out the distress call that brought their squad here. Looking down at the woman's crumpled form, his old eyes barely needed a moment to identify the cause of death. Burn marks. Sith Lightsaber. Clean through the chest.

Excruciatingly painful. Dead in moments.

He knelt down and placed his hand over her eyes, sliding her eyelids shut. For one terrible moment, he was struck by the vivid memory of doing the same for his wife, those many years ago. He couldn't breathe. All of a sudden, he was reminded of why he became an Imperial agent. To stop unnecessary deaths like these. All of a sudden, he was determined.

He overheard Baelli relay the news of the camp's obliteration to their superiors, and Ashr turned to face the group.

"Back into the shuttle everyone. And get your gear ready. The targeted camp is not far north of here." Turning back to face the beaten body of Officer Tarriset, Kaasi paused a moment in the honour of the dead, his mind drifting to the distant, banging drums of Life Day. Tears welled in his eyes, for just a moment, though he did his best not to let the others see. Blinking them away, he paced back towards the ship.

"Let's get this over with." He grunted, the last to re-board the shuttle. Baelli signalled the pilot to lift off.

It was going to be one hell of a ride.
​

@Danee​

 

[Ashlaa Timenia]

Looking around at the devastation caused by the fighting that had happened not too long before they had arrived, Ashlaa placed her hand on her hip where her blaster sat strapped. She looked over the dead, kneeling down beside an Imperial who had been shot in the face with an arrow of some sorts, the facial protection had been shattered by the impact, which left Ashlaa feeling rather unsure about the protection these guards had been given, any normal Imperial trooper armor should have blocked the hit.

Opting not to take out the arrow from the dead and instead letting the dead rest she stood up again and dusted her knee free from the grass and dirt that had collected on it. Looking up towards the older man who had been assigned as their 'leader' she waited for a signal of what to do, there was nothing left here and if they stuck around too long the next encampment that got hit wouldn't be able to receive their support in time. To her, they were wasting their time, she thought they should get onto the shuttle and head out to the closest encampment and reinforce them as soon as possible, but, it seemed that Ashr Kaasi, the elderly man who was in charge, wanted to look around for a bit longer before deciding on what they were going to do next.

Glancing over towards Baelli as he began to relay the information back to Base camp she squinted her eyes, later when it came down to writing their reports, she was certain he'd find a way to blame her flying on the loss of lives here even though she had taken them there as fast as possible, even going as far as barely avoiding a few trees, but hey, had she been in her own fighter she might have gotten here in time to see the people run away or however they did leave the area.

Now that she thought about it, looking around she couldn't see any visible tracks on the ground which would indicate a land based vehicle and if there was one thing she had learned from the last few days on Kashyyyk is that everyone leaves tracks. Walking away from the group briefly she looked over the ground and she thought she could make out the faint outlines of footprints in the ground which led away from the main group of bodies to a single location only to disappear next to something which wasn't there, an airlift perhaps? The call to return to the shuttle got her attention back to the present and as on the trip there, she was first aboard the shuttle, strapping in and igniting the engines again she checked the instruments for any signs of hostile birds in the air before taking off once Ashr had boarded the ship again.

Feeling the familiar pull as the ship left the ground she checked the sensors again to make sure no one was on their tail before she turned her head slightly towards the back of the shuttle. "Agent Kaasi, could I have a moment?" She spoke up as she headed off towards the next encampment up north, they wouldn't have much time in the air before it was time to land again, but, she figured it'd be better to speak now before they touched down again.

 

[Ashr Kaasi]

As the shuttle lurched from the ground, Ashr took a moment to contemplate their situation. The mess of dead were, sure enough, a cause for concern for any and all of the Republica's bases on Kashyyyk. However, the base decimated by the Old Empire was not pivotal to their dominance of the planet: on the contrary, the one the Republica had ordered them to infiltrate was most certainly. As such, his conclusion was they would continue with their original operation. Their overseers would likely deploy reinforcements to other allied bases. And, if they attacked swiftly, given their enemy was on the offensive only minutes earlier, perhaps they could catch the enemy encampment with their pants down, so to speak.

"We'll continue with the original plan. Onwards to the enemy slave camp."

It wasn't surprising his fellow operatives seemed to take his assumption of leadership quite well. Basic dominance psychology. Look like you know what you're doing, make sure they know they can't stop you, and they'll immediately presume you're some sort of authority. Then you're in charge. Although he was on equal ground with the other agents in terms of rank, given they were a ragtag crew of newly-christened special operatives that their superiors decide to throw at Kashyyyk, he was certainly the most experienced with infiltration jobs.

He paused, analysing the body language of the whole squad once more. After years of studying sentient behavior, Kaasi knew not one of them was afraid. Perhaps they were ignorant. Perhaps they were brave.

Kaasi chose to believe the second.These were the men and women who would show the Republica not to underestimate their agents. Their superiors might've been dropping them into the deep end, but he would make sure as many of them were still breathing by the end of the evening as he could.

The old slicer was ripped out of his thought process by the voice of the Togruta piloting the ship, whose name he recalled to be Ashlaa. It was their first mission together, and yet, somehow, something seemed familiar about her. In any case, she was a Togruta, and he always respected aliens who could work their way into even remotely respectable positions in the humanocentric Empire they lived in.

"Agent Kaasi, could I have a moment?"

Kaasi gave a brisk nod. "Of course. What do you need?"

Before long, the shuttle was approaching their location. "Land us half a klick south of the hostile camp. Baelli and I agreed we'll split up from there." He dropped his voice to a murmur, so only Ashlaa could hear, and subtly gestured towards the human commander who was re-briefing his troops in the back. "Anything to give you some distance from commander xenophobe over here. We don't need that conflict. An idiot like that could get us all killed."

He smirked cynically. Maybe that's why they assigned him with this particular squad. Perhaps this, his first real Imperial mission, was a test. For his superiors to see not only how good of a slicer, but also of a psychologist, he really was. To see if he could stop the squad from killing each other, and help them work together, and slice into a hostile slave camp of high importance, and successfully extract Wookie slaves, and bring them back to the Republica in one piece.

Ashr Kaasi intended on exceeding expectations.
​

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@Danee​

 

[Ashlaa Timenia]

When she had gotten the attention of the person who had taken charge she brought her eyes back to the view port of the shuttle to make sure they didn't end up in a premature landing against the side of a tree. She heard him approaching before he spoke and leaned her head back slightly as to show that he had the majority of her attention as she avoided a uncomfortably large tree a bit too closely. So, he wanted them to split up so that there wasn't any complications between the rather obviously xenophobic Agent Baelli and a few others of them so that the odds of them coming into conflict would be reduced rather dramatically. It was a good choice to split them up tactically too, give them two lanes of approach instead of just one, so, if one the groups encountered resistance, the other could back them up from a different flank with less restricted lines of fire. Or at least that was how Ashlaa would deploy them.

Nodding she brought them over the tree tops, a soft scraping could be heard as thin branches and leaves scratched against the belly of the shuttle, though not for too long as she decided against it and brought them a meter higher, flying freely above the tree tops as the setting sun glared into the viewport, reaching for a switch she polarized the window and the sun became a whole lot less bothersome to deal with.

"I don't know if you noticed down at the last camp," she started and shifted their direction slightly towards the east. " but whoever it was that attacked the camp, didn't walk out of there, there were faint tracks which headed towards the edge of the camp and then disappeared into nothing, which makes me think they have a bird or two up in the air, and if they've got a bird to carry ground personell, we should not expect to be undisturbed for too long, because birds don't fly alone without escort." she spoke and motioned towards the sensors that would light up if something came up on their flanks.

"The sensors haven't lit up yet, that's a plus, but, if something does show up, well... I hope you all have flight insurances." She said as she searched for a decent place to take them beneath the treetops once again and sure enough, a small clearing showed up.

Slowing down the shuttle she brought them down towards the ground, hovering a few meters above the ground as she brought them about half a klick away from the camp and a bit to the south east of the encampment. Setting the ship down behind a large tree she slowly killed the engines and checked the sensors, no movement just around them, that was at least a positive. "If we go in guns blazing, we'll be there in a two or three mins, otherwise, 10 min until we reach the camp. I personally recommend 10 minutes. she said as she turned the chair and unstrapped herself from the seat, looking up at Ashr. "But, your call."

@Eden

 

[Ashr Kaasi]

Ashr Kaasi titled his head, perhaps to ease the thoughts running through his skull like cold blood. Careful, stealthy planning near-always meant more survivors on the offensive side of things. However, in this circumstance, all factors considered, perhaps he had found the exception to prove the rule. The Old Sith were not known to hold back assets in an attack, and they had ruthlessly destroyed the camp the squad visited moments earlier. He had quickly concluded that, in all likeliness, a counter attack would find their targeted encampment unprepared, or at least underprotected.

Sith of the Ancient Order. Their ferocity, their ruthlessness, their savagery... Predictability is their greatest weakness.

Even so, he agreed with Agent Timenia. Going in guns blazing would very probably get more of them killed than necessary, and that was not something Kaasi was ever willing to gamble with. This was his first mission as a special operative of the Republica. He refused to let any of his comrades fall under his watch, and going guns blazing was almost a guarantee of that. They were going to be tactical. Deadly pricise. The Old Sith slavers won't know what hit them.

"Our attack must be swift, but calculated." The ship shunted lightly, and Ashr placed a hand against the cockpit's inner wall. His mental process turned sharply to the birds. Perhaps they would interfere? He had to hope they wouldn't. "And I concur. No guns blazing unless absolutely necessary."

. . .

After the shuttle had touched down, the squad gathered in the back of the ship. Tarys projected a small, rotating hologram of the hostile encampment onto the center of the floor, and Baelli took to relaying the mission plan one last time.

"The enemy encampment is one of the Old Sith Rebellion's largest on Kashyyyk. We get in there, silence as many enemy slavers and guards as necessary to get Agent Kaasi to the slave cells, and extract the slaves, returning them to this shuttle as quickly as possible, all before hostile reinforcements can arrive... Any questions?" Baelli barely waited a beat before continuing. "Good. Move out and split up into your designated squads..."

Kaasi had already tuned out the commander's overly-Imperial accent at that point. He had memorized the plan as soon as they had come up with it. He just wanted to be done with this mission, and wash his hands hoping he had done the right thing in helping steal these slaves. As they set out in their designated groups, he quickly found he enjoyed Ashlaa's company. While their conversation was near-entirely focused on the mission at hand, she seemed like his daughter in many ways, manneristically speaking, perhaps with the exception of his daughter's extreme views and uncanny slicing ability. Maybe his subconscious was simply trying to distract himself from the fact that in the deepest parts of his heart he knows he is truly terrified of dying. Perhaps it was doing what it always does: putting on a show to pretend that somewhere in his mind there isn't in fact a little boy just trying to make his life worthwhile. Just trying to make everything, all the pain of existence in this silly little universe, a little bit lighter.

Agent Ashr Kaasi snapped himself out of thought when they were approaching the encampment. And he could barely believe what he saw through the trees. (OOC: Dice roll, crit success.) The hostile camp was, in all practicality, defenseless. He had predicted they'd catch the camp missing a few troops, but this many?

Under his breath, he chuckled, "Sometimes I amaze even myself..." Then he turned to Ashlaa and the rest of the group, and spoke through the comlink he salvaged from the wreckage of the Old Sith attack. "Remember what I said about being stealthy, and calculated? That really doesn't seem to be necessary at this point." With a click, he shut off the comlink, and strolled right out of the shrub in front of the encampment, drawing his pistol on one of the guards, as Tarys did the same for the other. The guards immediately drew their weapons, but when all of the troops flooded out of the woods, the two slavers pondered for a moment just how very kriffed they were. That is, until they were both whipped from behind by Ashlaa's pistol. And dragged back into the shuttle, by Baelli, who seemed awfully disappointed at the fact Agent Timenia was the one to neutralize the hostiles. No surprises there.

From the high of such an easy infiltration, Kaasi began slicing into the slave cells protective mechanism using his Modified Port Scanner with relative ease, still unable to wipe the relieved, satisfied smirk off his face.

@Danee​

 

[Ashlaa Timenia]

As the engines of the shuttle slowly died down to hide their presence to anyone who would walk close to the area she walked back into the back of the shuttle with Ashr as Baelli began to lay out the plan for their attack against this encampment. Listening to the man talking she looked at the holographic image of the encampment as she made mental notes of the layout as it never hurt to know the territory you were about to walk into, and probably have a gunfight in. When the group then rolled out and split up into two sub-groups she found herself accompanied by Ashr and some of the other humans while Baelli's group had moved a bit more west to come in from a slightly different angle.

During the short trek she idly chatted with Ashr about the mission at hand with the possibility of reinforcements and possible air support for the Old Empire rebellion forces, she even brought up that they could have some ground vehicles at their disposal as well, as Wookiees weren't the easiest to subdue and have march around without proper transport. As they eventually reached the camp she looked out beside the slicer and watched the camp, it was almost completely desolate save for two entrance guards, though she suspected that within the actual building there were a handful more soldiers waiting for a signal to come rushing out and help their comrades while the rest of the camp must be out and fetching more wookiees.

With Ashr heading out in front Ashlaa figured she might as well try and see if there were more guards around behind them that they couldn't see, however, she could only see the cells were the wookiees were held and the two guards in front. Her right hand moved down to her hip, unclasping the strap which held her blaster to her leg and as silent as she could she made her way up to the guards who were slowly lowering their weapons now that the rest of the troops had joined Ashr, pointing their rifles and blasters at them.

Thwap! Thwap! Two quick strikes filled the air as the handle of her blaster struck the back of their heads, knocking the two hostile guards out cold and crumbling to the ground. Securing their comlinks she made sure neither of them had managed to send out any kind of distress signal or something of the like to any potential reinforcements. Baelli, Tarys, take these two to the shuttle, tie 'em up and make sure they can't touch anything, and strip 'em too, their uniforms might come in handy some time." Ashlaa spoke with a hushed voice before turning to Ashr as he headed to the slave cells. This whole operation hade gone a bit too smooth for Ashlaa's liking, but, she didn't mind having luck on her side once in a while.

Five minutes passed and then the locking mechanisms were unlocked and the Imperial Republica troopers began to usher the wookiees out of the cells, rounded up and on track to the shuttle. Although she wished they could have taken every single wookiee from the Old Empire, the shuttle couldn't handle all that extra weight. So, they settled with the large cell they had managed to get open, leaving the rest of the wookiees behind with Ashr and Ashlaa securing the flank as they headed back to the shuttle. Eight wookiees and two Traitorous Old Sith Rebels? Ashlaa wrote that down as a win in her journals.

With the Wookiees and Rebels secured on the Shuttle Ashlaa once again fired up the engines and brought them up into the sky, flying just above the tree tops as they headed back to their main base of operations where the team could sit down and write their reports for the mission. All in all, a job well done with no casualties except for those that were out of their hands.

OOC: Exit Thread.

@Eden