Log:Adarade Colony Falls

Adarade Colony Falls

OOC Date: October 14 2019
Location: Adarade Colony, Wild Space
Participants: Kryll Red, Grom, Aryn Cole, Kiko Alde (NPC)

The troop carrier holding King Grom, Lady Aryn, Master Kryll, and a small platoon of troopers, has just initiated its hover protocol. Repulsor lifts vent heat and enough propulsion to keep the craft at a healthy hover above the landing pad. It is Commander Kiko Alde who pulls the U-Wing's sliding door to reveal the chaos of the colony below. Over the encrypted communications device, Kiko's voice is heard. <"Gods, this place.. there is no defense, only chaos. My Lady, are you sure you wish to go through with this. No one would blame you if you called this operation off.">

Lady Aryn Cole is seated near the back, but has risen up to hold onto the hooks above their heads. <"Our mission parameters remain the same, Lady Kiko. We're to ascertain what has happened here, and find the source. Our first stop is the flight control tower to see if they have any logs of unidentified craft; what we find out there will dictate our movement."> Aryn seems resolute in seeing this through. <"I understand, my lady."> Replies Kiko, who dons her trooper helmet then. Her visor, a tinted transparent glass, washes out with an opaque silver.

Aryn moves to the center of the craft and motions for the pilots to lower them down. <"Prepare yourselves for battle, and recall my instructions. Do not let these entities get on your bare skin. You will die. Stay close."> Aryn turns, motioning to Grom. <"King Grom, my Champion.. to battle!"> The craft now hovers an easy 4ft from the landing deck.

Outside the craft, the landing platform is filled with ships, but none have taken off. Through the maze of parked ships, people run by being chased by other humanoids. The sound of screaming and death is all around, and the city is arranged in fire. The tower they seek looms to the north, and can be seen from where they are, but they must cross some ground to reach it.

"You tell the Mighty GROM to prepare for battle? Ha!" the hulking Houk booms in raucous humor. "Grom laughs a second time: HA. The King of Fale is ALWAYS prepared for battle! The true question is this:" he turns to whoever sits nearby.. which appears to be Kryll. The reptilian alien rumbles with narrowed yellow eyes, "Is the *battle* prepared for GROM?" A broad toothy smile follows, before the loud warrior speaks to his axe: "You did not do well, last time, Axe. DO NOT SULK. You will have your chance, but first Grom will let Gun play for a time. BE READY. The humans below have made a large mess." Again he looks back to Kryll with a knowing nod. "It is a great talent of Humans. Now: TO THE TALLEST BUILDING."

Kryll listens to the directions across the comms of his combat armor, and then to the loud exclamations of the Mighty King Grom. He stands up from his own seat on the ship, and readies his rifle. <"Yes, humans are quite adapt at making a mess, in just about everything we do."> he looks towards Aryn, and speaks to her on a private channel. <"Though, it sounds like you already seemed to have an inkling of what was happening out here. Let us see what the night brings us.">

The troops all land outside the craft and move after the colossal GROM. Aryn Cole is among the last to step down, with the aid of her protector, Kiko. With the last off the craft, Kiko slides the hatch shut and gives the pilot a thumbs up. <"We'll call when we're ready for pick up."> Kiko explains, then turns away as the heat from the vents increases, casting her cape, and Aryn's, sideways in flight.

The group begins to move without much fuss, but as they start to create a formation ideal for unknown enemy locations, the friendly troopers start to weather attacks. It isn't clear at first until the first of the troopers breaks from formation to toss the humanoid from her back, only to be swarmed by three others. She's strucks so hard that she crumbles to the ground, and all three of her attackers follow, ripping her arm from its socket, and bashing her with her own rifle. She screams until she doesn't anymore.

Why wasn't she helped, you may ask? Because the rest of the platoon was under attack by ten other entities.

Grom is carrying a massively oversized rifle (or perhaps a small artillery piece) which is not intended for shoulder firing. Not only is he shoulder firing it, he is whirling around to fire at an attacker in an unknown direction. Needless to say, he misses badly, and nearly clocks a friendly trooper in the helmet with the barrel of his weapon. "BAH! Why can angry backpacks not attack from the front? THIS IS NOT THE WAY OF A WORTHY FOE," he objects loudly. "You are SUPPOSED to approach from the front and engage in a contest of Headbutts!"

Kryll settles into a firing position as the very angry and very strong people start disarming, and then re-applying those arms in force against their previous owners. He fires two shots downrange, attempting not to hit any friendlies, and succeeds, but does not hit his desired contacts as well.

Aryn brings up the rear still, and prepares to attack. The crazes humanoids that waylay their small group do so in a fiendish, banshee kind of way. Deep sounding screams are heard from each, yet the lifeless faces of those who swarm the group have no expression, or eyes for that matter. Total black like globes have replaced the eyes, and the humanoids, when observed up close, move unnaturally.

Kryll sees one up close and personal as it moves to attack him by latching onto his weapon before lashing out at him. From up close, Kryll may notice that the face of his enemy seems solid, but closer inspection shows small, worm like movement beneath the skin. Additionally, the smell of sweet rot fills the nostrils; pungent and disarming; yet somehow these entities possess incredible strength.

"Keep moving!" Aryn calls out from the back. "We're almost to the tower!"

Grom snarls as he hears the howls of the horrific enemies. "You call those battle cries? PATHETIC. BEHOLD as the Mighty Grom shows you how to roar! RAAAAAAAAAAA- Oh! Tiny human-" Kryll, "Remain still, Grom will shoot your Backpack-" Though perhaps not a calming statement, the Houk's aim is true and the foe is annihilated.

Kryll gets engaged with one of the hostiles as it comes up and tries to take his weapon away before beating him with its hands anyway. Thankfully, its not his own arms its swinging. As he tries to get his rifle into a firing position against the being, it explodes as its blasted away from him. He recovers quickly and fires twice at one heading for one of the troopers, sending a kill shot right through its backside, dropping it quickly. <"Well, incontinance problems are no longer that one's concern."> a brief pause and then, "<Thank you Grom.>" he nods to Grom as he continues with the others, still providing cover fire.

The fight is going well, considering. Only one trooper down, and the group repels the ten entities that set upon them. The rest of the way to the tower is left pretty open, but they pass scenes of chaos on the way. Ships burn from the inside, people scream as the flames reach them. It's not going well. When they reach the tower, the doors won't open all the way, and the path is not large enough for Grom or the others to pass between them. Someone will have to open this in order to reach the lift inside.

Meanwhile, they've earned the attention of a smaller band of looming entities; one of the larger, a former Ithorian, lumbers toward them intent to cause violence. Kiko calls them out and orders the troops to engage. Aryn pushes up to see what the door situation is.

"You are welcome, Destroyer of Asses!" Grom booms cheerfully to Kryll's thanks, as the beset band slugs its way closer to the tower. The tower which- in its arrogance- refuses to open. "How DARE this building mock the Mighty Grom! First you have the IMPUDENCE to stand taller than the King of Fale, and THEN you have the GALL to remain closed?! RAAAAAAA," the Houk bellows, rumbling into a sprint, and deciding that literally headbutting the lodged door at a full run is the wisest course of action.

And somehow.. it works. The four is dislodged a d clatters off its track. "Let that be a LESSON. To all doors!"

Kryll watches Grom make a door, and wonders how handy he would have been to have on his prior posting. He steps into the entryway and turns back towards the new closing hostiles, snapping a couple of shots towards the largest of the group. <"We certainly have their attention now.">

Aryn and Kiko make it in at last, and Aryn moves her way to the front, patting Grom's arm in passing. "Well done, Mighty Grom. To the lifts. Commander, hold this hallway until we return."

"Yes, my Lady." Kiko replies, turning back to face the only way in, which is the way they came. "Set up a perimeter men, all barrels on that doorway!" Kiko clears the desk of items before flipping it over to take cover behind. She checks her weapon for ammo, and content with what the readout said, turns back to watch the door.

Aryn triggers the lift and waits for it to arrive. Her sword is held out to her side and away from friendlies. When the lift arrives with a ding, the door opens. Inside, music plays a soft jingle. Aryn hits the button for the top floor and it goes up. When it arrives, the doors part and the three are immediately set upon by three entities at close quarters.

Grom stands slightly hunched in the lift, in order to fit inside. During the elevation, he begins to hum along with the jingle, armored head with its macabre crest bobbing slightly with the rhythm. When the door opens and the slavering foes descend upon them, he announces, "BRING YOUR FACE TO THE FISTS OF GROM," *propelling* the first enemy out of the lift with bone crunching force. As he emerges from the lift, striking with another skull-sized fist, he declares, "GROM IS HERE."

Kryll instinctivly ducks as grom swings at the first thing through the door and pounds it through the room, he snap fires at his own approaching target but the mountain that is Grom cause his first shot to nearly miss Aryn. "That will come out of my pay for sure." he says without using his comms, he adjusts, putting his foot up in front of him to brace against the doorframe as the thing charges into the barrel of his blaster, and pulls, blowing it in half.

Aryn ducks behind Grom as he takes to charging out of their lift to clear the way. Aryn is left in a state of confusion after that though, from the sound of the blaster going off at point blank. With ears ringing and her senses flooded by tachiepsychia, Aryn calls upon the Force for the first time, expanding her perception of the situation around her until everything within her vicinity felt like an extension of her conscience. She could feel the movements, hear the sounds of hearts beating, and the pounding of feet as something approached her. A sudden look up, and pre-emptive kick lands squarely against the chest of an entity and sends it flying out the door just as Kryll discharged another disorienting blast that ended his threat.

Unfazed this time, Aryn charges out from the lift and drags her weapon from her lower right diagonally up, separating the leg from the entity that had pursued her. It was rendered immobile by this, and Aryn was left dazed for a second as her senses came down from their high.

"Uhh..search for ..a terminal. Something I can get into. I need to download the records and send them to my droid.."

Grom turns his head left and right at Aryn's prompt. "DIRE news, Doctor Grom-friend: Grom sees NO MORE foes within reach. Only those hiding behind the many windows..." he growls at the enemies outside, as if they could hear him.

Kryll steps over the lower half of the corpse and scans the room for hostiles, as well as a terminal, though the prior takes priority. <"Grom Tank is correct, room clear, but I don't see a terminal."> with that he takes a moment to self assess, and methodically runs his hand over his spare ammo packs, mentally recounting his ammunition. Another moment to rotate his shoulder after the hit he took eariler, ensuring he doesn't cramp up.

It takes Aryn a minute to come down off her sudden rush, and that means steadying breaths. When her wits have returned, she opens her eyes again and spots a terminal in the administrator's office. She places a hand around the mouth of her scabbard and angles her sword down, guiding it back into its home in a single, fluid motion. "I found one," she informs the other two. She didn't have time to learn to hack, so she just slipped the disk in and let her companions do it remotely. It takes a few moments, and the disk pops out. "I've got it." This information is placed on her belt as she emerges, brushing her cape aside to reveal her medical kit. "Let me take a look at you, Master Kryll. It will only take a moment." Says the doctor.

When a few minutes have passed, a transmission comes over all frequencies. <<"This is Governor Palade. I've initiated the self destruct of our colonies' atmospheric processor. We cannot defend against this enemy. I urge you all to seek your ships and leave at once. You have five minutes to do so. May the Force be with us all.">>

Grom looks up and around, striking menacing poses while trying to find the source of the voice. "Ohh.. That sounds like an IMPRESSIVE explosion. ALAS that we must wait so long to see it!" the Houk laments.

Kryll listens to the notice coming across the broadband, <"Well, that will indeed have an impressive radius."> he turns to look at Aryn, <"Should we return to ground level, or have the rearguard join us on the roof and take off from there?"> he moves back to the elevator, holding the doors open so it doesn't depart without them, and able to send it to the ground floor if needed.

"There's no roof access to this building, and that glass is transparisteel. Our blasters won't break it. We'll need a clearing down below for dust off." Aryn says, moving toward the lift. "Grom, back to battle my friend." -- <"Commander Kiko, this is Aryn. We're coming back down. Have the men fan out from the hallway. We need to secure a large enough area to dustoff.">

<"Yes, my lady.">

Aryn hit the button to close the lift doors, and down they went. When the lift opened again, the lobby was clear of troopers but a fight was in the works. Four of the troopers lay dead and partially dismembered, some sort of substance crawling underneath their skin. Other entities lay everywhere. <"They're coming out now.. push forward."> Kiko is heard saying. As the team came outside, they saw that Kiko and her troopers had a clearing, but they were fending off six others from it. Lady Kiko had already popped a flare for their U-Wing.

Grom emerges from the lift on the ground floor (he'd hummed merrily along with the music, again) with his monstrous rifle at the ready and the booming announcement that, "GROM IS HERE." A concussive bolt roars through the fetid air, vaporizing the arm, shoulder, and part of the chest of one tainted enemy.

Kryll steps out of the elevator behind Grom, but in front of Aryn, as the priority of assets goes, and joins Grom in engaging the entities attacking the remaining troopers and helping support their fields of fire. His first shot misses high, but the second bores through the target's torso and the body goes backwards, while the legs continue forward with the momentum it had, spinning it in place until it lands flat on its back with a solid thud.

Aryn emerges last from the tower to join the fray, but her attacks have little effect at all. Two entities bypass her altogether, thinking of her as not much of a threat. This frustrates Aryn, but she moves closer to her allies as they form a circle, blasting what they can of the entities away to keep the landing zone clear.

<<"Doctor Cole, this is Shuttle Besh, coming in for dust off. Have your people ready. Over.">>

<<"Roger that, Besh. We're ready!">> She calls, back, standing at the center of the group and looking up. "GET READY FOR DUSTOFF!" Aryn calls out. "CLEAR THE LZ!"

"How DARE you attack others instead of Grom!" the Houk roars, indignant. "GROM is the strongest foe! You should be attacking GROM. Hmph!" he huffs, continuing to lecture the smoldering boots of an enemy, as his shoulder-cannon utterly erased the rest of the creature from existence. He is distracted by the incoming shuttle, "Yes! BRING ON THE DUSTUP." No, Grom. That is the opposite of a dustoff.

Kryll watches Grom's weapon simply erase an entity as if it had never bothered to exist, even though its effects have caused his arm to go limp at his side. Using his rifle one handed, he tracks the final target and fires two shots, effectively herding it towards Aryn's sword, and then Kiko's whatever she's using. He turns around with his back to the ship as it comes for the landing zone, and covers any approach until the call goes out that they're ready to load.

With the final entities down, Aryn nods her thanks to Kiko, who had used her scattershot to spill the contents of the entity's head on the ground. Both caped women stride toward the group as the craft comes in for a landing. The Co-pilot slides the door open, and motions them inside. "LET'S GO!" He yells over the VTOL vents. Aryn motions for the troopers to get inside, then accepts Kiko's hand to climb inside herself. The others are given an opportunity to board before Kiko is the last. She takes a parting shot on one entity that charged the hatch, blowing it in half. She cycles the pump of the shotgun, venting the compressed air that shot out like steam. The hatch was shut. <"We're in. Punch it!"> The U-Wing angles up toward the sky, its engines glowing a bright blue as it disappears into the cloud cover. Just as they clear the atmosphere, the explosion from the processor can be seen from space. All communication with the surface is gone.

Grom only looks away from the viewpoint when the explosion is visible. "THERE it is," he booms, cheerfully. "A worthy sortie! When do we return to defeat the rest?" he asks, entirely too eager for the idea. Kryll is greeted with a firm clap to the (mercifully) right shoulder, jostling the man badly enough that medical treatment is spoiled for the moment. "A FINE FIGHT, little pew pew Human. Next time, it will be AXES."

Kryll settles himself down into his seat on the ship, strapping his rifle into place so it doesn't jostle around. He reaches up with his good hand to take off his helmet, setting it on his lap as Aryn tries to treat his wound, and Grom tries to remove his right shoulder. "Thank you, for the medical attention. Those things are, /wrong/." he turns to Grom, "I have not tried fighting with axes, though I am alright with a vibroblade."