Space E-war

[dinoman666]

Dice flexed her fangs, the lamproid equivalent of a smile. "Many thankssss, General. Pleassssse, come with me. I will esssscort you to the outposssst in relative sssssafety. I know how sssssslow you humanssss can be at timesssss." She slithered away, and Grievous and Lissarkh followed, leaving the dead Spiger behind, which was already be set upon by many other creatures, who mostly ignored the group in their mad rush to obtain easy food...

[TyrannoTitan]

Deep within a long-forgotten reach of space, a distress beacon acted as a lone voice in a sea of silence, calling out for any beings that would listen for dire assistance...

[Doc 42]

"This is freedom 7, going full hyperspace, we're in your hands now..."
The Exo ship suddenly launched forward, the rest of the party fanning out behind it, weapons ready. Sure enough, the Jr-10s revealed themselves, the merc ship's sensors spotting them "Stray Wolf 6, missile launch detected, transmitting co-ordinates, everyone, scatter fire, take out the missiles"

the other ship's sensors couldn't see where the missiles were, thanks to the drone's stealth systems, but they fired where Stray Wolf pointed them. Explosions began popping up far off in the distance, some of the missiles actually being shot down, while the others were forced to take evasive action and change tact, meaning they couldn't catch Freedom seven as it ploughed forward through hyperspace. The wave of disrupter fire also made targeting the fleeing ship near impossible. The two Jr-10's abbandoned stealth, making themselves known, the two cruisers splitting up, one entering hyperspace and rocketing after Freedom 7, the other twisting towards the remaining ships....

[dinoman666]

The group led by Dice soon made it to the outpost, which looked less like a civilian metropolis and more like a military compound. They approached the durasteel walls, which towered 50 feet in the air. The front surface of the walls themselves was lined with small portals from which extended orb-shaped turrets arranged at regular intervals. The only gap in this formidable defense was a large gate. The gate had a blue film over it, obviously a ray shield. As they approached, a tiny portal next to the gate opened, and a metallic eyestalk extended, looking over the whole group with a single, glowing red eye. After a moment, it retracted, the shield deactivated, and the gate opened, letting everyone inside. Even Grievous looked surprised at the whole complex. "I'm guessing you came with the turrets?" he asked Dice, who simply gave a hissing laugh. "Don't be ssssssssilly, General. I only thought up the ray-sssshielded gate. The rest of the Lamproid Council came up with that."

[The Kingpin]

Serephir nodded, impressed at the defenses. "you might want to add some artilliary into the mix...that's assuming the things in the jungle tend to grow somewhat bigger than that, or move in hordes...might be handy to just blow them apart with a single shell instead of wasting enormous amounts of ammunition to take them out....not to mention it'd likely extend your range by a large amount" he suggested as he walked on...

[dinoman666]

"I will ssssssssuggessssst it to the Lamproid Council later on," replied Dice, leading the group through a large, squat complex in the center of the compound. As she led them along, it became readily apparent that the only droid troops in the outpost, along with numerous Lamproids, were Commandos and Ultra Battle Droids--probably the only ones capable of surviving for any length of significant time on Florn...

Dice soon led the group into a large planning room, where several Commandos and Lamproids stood watch near the edges. In the center was a holo-table, which showed a large chunk of forested area on Florn. Grievous, knowing the entire layout of the area, pointed at a small gray square. "Alright general, this is where we are, obviously. Dice has warned me prior to landing that the last known siting of this Jedi was here." The cyborg pointed at where a red square suddenly appeared, near the edge of a forest path leading to a lake. "You, me, Lissarkh, you troops, and some of my Commandos and Lamproid hunters will search here first, and track him down." Narrowing his eyes slightly, Grievous turned to Serephir. "I will decide what we do when we find him, is that understood?" he said, though in a calm, but slightly firm, voice...

A small, purple craft sailed above the endless Florn forest, tracking the small figure of a Koult, dressed in what looked like a makeshift loincloth and vest of fur, sprinting very quickly down a forest path. The image from the craft was being transmitted elsewhere, where a trio of alien figures watched it closely...

[The Kingpin]

"Fair enough...but remember to consider how you'd benefit from him alive before considering the momentary pleasure of hacking him apart...i'd rather avoid unneeded death over this situation...especially seeing as there has been no sign of any wrong doing on the Jedi's part" responded Serephir calmly, his golden eyes skimming between Grievous, others in the room and the map. "Before we move forward though, would you care to enlighten me and my men of exactly what we may be up against when we move in? i'd rather not be swallowed whole by a man eating slug, if it's at all avoidable"...

[dinoman666]

Grievous, preferring the change of subject to an argument, nodded. "Yes, well, I don't think you'll have to worry about a giant slug. Every creature on Florn is a crustacean related to shrimp, even the Lamproids, and Spigers are the biggest, though that doesn't mean they're the deadliest. Not even your soldiers' armor, as you no doubt know by now, offers very much protection. There is, however, one important weakness of every living thing on Florn: every creature is fatally allergic to salt. On top of that, there are very few water-bound creatures, so what better place to head to than this salt lake where the Jedi was last seen?" Grievous pointed at the lake again. "Once we get there, we can stay until we can find where the Jedi went from there, with no fear of retaliation. The trick, of course, is getting there in one piece."

[Doc 42]

The fleet of ships fired salvo after salvo towards the the Jr-10, relying mainly on scatter weapons, such as flak cannons and prism lasers. The cruiser retaliated, it's auto cannon firing burst after burst, the thundering rain of shell's appearing out of the black and pummelling into Stray Wolf's shield suddenly. The Merc ship veered wildly to the side, a few of the shell's missing the ship entirely. It's tension laser replied with a wide arc beam, the green laser washing over the rest of the shell's, it's kinetic power enough to blow them off course. The drone was only probing them. It was trying to make them launch their torpedoes, railguns or whatever heavy weapon they might have. The civillian ships had a number of torpedo's, Bluecaster had a gauss rifle turret and Stray Wolf itself had a heavy laser. If they fired now, the Jr-10 would evade or deflect the shots with ease and then immediately blitz them, wreaking havoc while it had the chance to take advantage of their weapon's cooldown periods. Instead they had to wait it out. It wasn't a perfect plan, the Jr-10 was armed with long range weapons, it had the advantage, but if it got close, it would strip their ability to support each other.

Eventually the drone rocketed forward of it's own accord, immediately, Stray Wolf's heavy laser smashed into it's shield, the force of the shot knocking it at an angle, while it recovered and begun to spin away from the next attack, two torpedos lancing out, the star like missiles arcing towards it's side. The Jr-10 threw itself one direction, then turned hard back the way it came, swiveling around one shot, the missile missing and detonating behind it, as soon as it was clear it had missed the target. Before the 2nd torpedo hit, an anti-shield disrupter shell smashed into the drone, fired from Bluecaster's gauss rifle. The drone rocketed out of the disruptor cloud, only to crash into the incoming torpedo and be engulfed in an explosion.

The civillian ships cheered across the coms, even Stray Wolf had a moment or two of estatic optimism, then the Jr-10 broke through the fire ball, it's shield reforming infront of it, having recollected the shield infront of the missile at the last moment. Then, from behind the disruptor cloud, 3 blue laser shots, pulse lasers, millitary grade, the flickering shots hammered into the weakened shield, clouds of red shining dust out of it, immediately after a torpedo blasted through the cloud, it's passage causing it disperse, the missile hitting the shield and breaking through with it's breach charge before slamming into the Jr-10's back. An explosion lit up the craft, throwing it forward, torn and twisted metal screeching forward as well, flames licking around the lightly armoured cruiser. One of the ship's arm's holding a proton rifle, had been blown off. By the looks of it, heavy damage was done to it's thrusters and one of it's missile silos as well.
Bluecaster called out across the com "****, it just got whacked!"

Stray Wolf was the next to transmit "Did anyone see where that came from? What the hell is going on? It's shields should have been almost full."

Cheese it replied "It was Freedom! they're out of lightspeed and making head way towards us, from behind the Disruptor cloud. Just recieved a message from their captain, apparently they used our sensor data to target the Jr-10, they don't know how it got hit so bad either. Oh man, they don't look so good..."

Without co-ordinating, the small party of ship's shifted their vectors upwards, trying to manoeuvre around the disruptor cloud. The merc ship Stray Wolf sent a request to Cheese it, streaming their sensor data. The bridge's main heads up screen switched to an image of the old Marican Exo ship, rocketing back towards the small party, flames leaking out from around it, the ship's pulse laser flickering back at it's pursuers. A swirling red shot hammered into the ship's side, a huge explosion rocking it, flaming wreckage scattering out. The screen distorted momentarily, the radiation from the blast interfering with Cheese it's sensors. It was clear that Freedom 7 wasn't going to make it. Fire was pouring out it's side and wasn't being extingiushed. That meant the ship's internal systems were failing, it's crew could even be dead already. Nevertheless, the ship rocketed on, various missiles dispensing out of it and taking flight, desperately trying to stop the Jr-10 relentlessly pursing it. The drone easily evaded the shots and unleashed a line of tracers from it's auto cannon, the shells tracing up along the Exo ship's main engine section, massive jets of flame immediately bursting out of it's exhausts, some of the jets actually exploding off, throwing the ship into a maddened side ways spin... Blue caster actually opened fire, trying to support them, Cheese it quickly following suit. Stray Wolf held their weapons, as did Kodiak, the raiders. The first Jr-10 was still alive and already retaliating with it's auto cannon, add to that, the two cruisers had brought a friend. A Harbringer was following the 2nd Jr-10...

[dinoman666]

Not wanting to waste any more time, Grievous waved the commandos and Lamproids to him. "Come, General, we have no time to lose." Dice slithered towards the table, hissing, "I will ssssstay here, General, to keep a eye on your hunting party. We already have ssssssscanners in the air to track your progresssss. Assssss much assss I love a good hunt, I feel this is more important to the misssssion." Grievous nodded. "Warn us if you spot the Jedi before us. Let's go Serephir. The hunt is on!" He turned and ran out of the room, Lissarkh and his group, all moving nearly as fast as the cyborg...

[The Kingpin]

Serephir sighed. "Somehow i have a feeling everything i said about NOT killing the Jedi simply went through one cybernetic ear and out the other....let's go men. someone's going to need to police the situation" said Serephir before bolting after the Cyborg general and his troupe, the VAMCEB Guard hot on his heals...

[dinoman666]

Grievous slowed and waited for Serephir and his men to catch up with him before exiting the outpost's gate and running into the jungle, two Lightsabers already out. "We'll stay on the path," he said, "but don't expect us not to encounter the native wildlife!" He almost immediately saw a pair of fighting Florn Rats a few feet in front of him, and cut the pair of creatures in half without stopping...

[TyrannoTitan]

The distress beacon was now accompanied by a voice message, which was sent to all open communications channels. The signal reached TGDA territory, replaying the same voice message in hopes that they would take notice of it: "Oh god, send help! Please, we need urgent help!" the speaker appeared to be female, various gunfire and screams in the background of the message. "Anyone, please! OH GOD THEY ARE INSIDE! HELP US Trando-Geo Droid Alliance." the message concluded, the TGDA name being spoken in a completely different pitch compared to the rest of the message.

The message also reached Vardian territory. "Anyone, please! OH GOD THEY ARE INSIDE! HELP US Vardia."

It even reached communication range for the rogue drones, as well as the remnants of the Maricans: "Anyone, please! OH GOD THEY ARE INSIDE! HELP US insert name here."

The message continued to play, reaching far into the galaxy, giving detailed coordinates to the signal's source...

[dinoman666]

The mysterious signal was transferred from Trandosha, where it was intercepted, towards the Malevolence, where it orbited Florn. After Grievous got the message, even without slowing down he relayed new orders back to the flagship and back to Trandosha. A small task force soon departed, led by the Tactical Droid TV-97 and Trandoshan Commander Sassk, which soon entered Hyperspace, heading for the coordinates. Grievous wasn't willing to risk many ships for an investigation, especially considering whoever had sent it was in trouble, but he was willing to find out what the threat was, and keep it away from TGDA-controlled space at all costs...

[TyrannoTitan]

The signal continued to play in the depths of galaxy, leading to a region of space long forgotten by many, its existence shrouded by those who used to inhabit it...

[dinoman666]

As the TGDA task force exited Hyperspace, Sassk hissed, "Find out where we are." The pilot droids hopped to their tasks, and one paused, hesitantly saying, "Uh... it doesn't match any known documented space, sir." "I thought so," the Trandoshan growled angrily, looking off into the vast depths of space to see if anything peculiar was floating in the stars around them. TV-97, in the usual monotonous voice of a tactical droid, said, "Commander, I suggest caution. We do not know if this signal came from an ally or an enemy."

[TyrannoTitan]

Another message reached the TGDA ships. "You have entered protected space. Leave." the message read, identifying itself as active communications, rather then a replayed message like the distress signal, originating from a lone planet orbiting a nearby star...

[dinoman666]

Confused, Sassk sent a message back. "We are here in response to a distress signal sent to this location. I assume the crisis is over?"

[TyrannoTitan]

"Whatever distress signal leads to this location will be dealt with by the occupying militant force, which isn't you." another message was sent to the TGDA, answering them quite quickly, as if it had said the same thing to many others...

[dinoman666]

Sassk rolled his eyes and replied, "Very well." Turning to the droids, he hissed, "Turn this group around. We're not wasting any more time here." TV-97 folded his hands behind his back. "Commander, what if--" "I don't care if it's a trick, a trap, a lie, or anything else, TV-97!" Sassk interrupted. "They don't want our help, then we're not giving it, and that's that." The task force turned around and began prepping for a return Hyperspace jump...