Objective 3 Naga Sadow Style

Days after Etah stepped down from the Quaestorship of the House Shar Dakhan he was asked to go on a task assigned by the Consul, who was delegating a directive from the Dark Council. The half Pau’an had the resources and experience to undertake the mission without spreading the exhausted Clan Naga Sadow forces even thinner than they are now, in this brutal multi-front war with the Collective.

“Enter hyperspace Hecate,” Etah commanded of his pilot. The Duros woman nodded crisply before imputing calculations and pulling the appropriate lever. There was a weird tinny sound in the background and the world turned into a world of light.

Etah’s senses returned to him as his VT-49 Decimator leveled out within hyperspace.

“Adrestia, is the masking transponder ready?” he asked his right hand girl through the holo-projector in his offhand.

“Copy that Colonel,” the lithe Sephi responded from a deck below in the guts of the ship. He liked when she called him by his Imperial rank. It’s not a gesture he would have accepted from anybody else.

“Coming out of hyper in 3, 2, 1,” Hecate advised mechanically.

“Alright it’s go time,” Adrestia responded with a trace of urgency.

Etah looked forward and quieted his mind. He quickly reviewed what he knew about the situation, Psi Terminus I, Wild Space, black boxes, Rose Squadron and its infamous captain from which the crack squadron derived its sobriquet.

Etah for his part, as well as his pilot and his technician were all dressed in regular civilian clothing. The small crew was wearing the kind of garb you would expect space fairing scavengers to wear. Even the hull of his ship has been scored to make it look older than it was and battle scarred. They very much looked the part. Now it was time to be the part.

The retired Imperial Officer sat deep into his chair, took a deep breath and then focused forward like a laser, with not a blink or moment’s hesitation as a determined red skinned Zabarak woman appeared on screen in front of him. “Civilian vessel, power down and prepare to be boarded,” she commanded sternly through the screen.

Etah reached out with the force and determined that no one in the area other than himself and his crew were force sensitive. But he also knew Captain Rose by reputation. She was known to be a strong woman and was very likely to have been given conditioning by the higher ups in the Collective to resist the force. So Etah and his crew didn’t have very much leeway. They couldn’t just trick her with the force.

The core of Etah would always be that of a soldier. He did not like entering a situation knowing that he would be vastly outgunned. He’d have preferred to have swept through like a natural disaster causing pain and devastation to feed the seething wound he knew the Dark Side to be. But the war had progressed too far; there just weren’t the military forces available for that, not within the Clan Naga Sadow or the Iron Fleet.

The Sith Battlelord bitterly reflected that when you are a hammer, everything else tends to look like a nail. But he knew this situation would require far more tact. Etah gestured to Hecate who sat not far in front of him and then he gestured to the small holographic image of Adrestia that he held in his left hand.

Etah knew that right now that Captain Rose would be relaying information about the little Decimator back to their higher headquarters. He also knew it would check out. Adrestia spent two full days doctoring publically available files to give them back paperwork trail that wouldn’t look weird until you got several years back and she was very good at her job.

The vessel began moving forward to the remains of Psi Terminus I. Knowing the ships last transmitted coordinates and the fact that it was between stars systems meant that there were no natural gravity wells that would force the team to move through the area at sublight speeds. So Etah and his compatriots could come out right on top of the remains of the vessel. Rose Squadron and the other Collective Forces were arrayed to intercept vessels, so they were too far away to stop the Etah from obtaining the little black box.

Etah and his Decimator Crew had a great advantage over the Collective forces as they knew exactly what they were looking for. Hecate had a droid near the ramp that led into the vessel retrieved the floating form of the black box as Adrestia prepared a little surprise.

“Civilian vessel depower now or be destroyed” Captain Rose commanded even more forcefully, as the Decimator began to speed away. Rose Squadron began to catch up to the Decimator and Adrestia was able to send the virus she wrote that should have scattered all of the fighters. They all glitched a few times but ultimately did not power down. Etah now in a gun turret managed to take one out as Adrestia reached out with the force and using her powers as a tech weaver and her skills in telekinesis reached out and blasted the closest Collective X-Wing.

The Decimator hit hyper speed as Captain Rose;s Starfighter fell dead after losing all power, including to life support.

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~ (#8075) Battlelord Etah Kilij Bloodfyre (Sith) / House Shar Dakhan of Clan Naga Sadow

"We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants!"