Welcome to Gaia! ::

As Link walked the darkened streets of Paradise City, he found himself passing an empty city block.

He paused and glanced at the square, noting it wasnt completely empty. A Statue of Boba Fett, the man who liberated Ord Mantell from the Vong, stood there like a sentinel, the T-shaped visor of its carved helmit glaring at the city spread out before it.

Intrigued Link stopped and looked up at the statue.
Fett, the most legendary bount Hunter in the galaxy and one of the great unsung heroes of the Vong war.

Link gave a brief chuckle. "A Complex individual, that one."

Movement caught Link's eye and he turned, his hand on his sword and ready to draw.

In the empty street, a solitary figure stood there.
He was clad in Snow White full Mandalorian armor over a black body suit, a high powered carbine gripped in his hands, a kama attached to his ladden equipment belt, and a sash was flipped over his left shoulder and billowed in the breeze. The nose cone of a rocket/jetpack combination, a mandalorian favorite, poked over his shoulder. Strapped to his right leg was a holster for a heavy blaster pistol, obviously customized.

Link's eyes narrowed.
This man was not like the last Mandalorian he fought. This man was the real deal. He bore the aura of a proffesional warrior, one who was a master of his hard one art. There was no boasting, no bluffing in his stance. Just calm certain death."

"Are you here to avenge the defeat of your friend? The Mando who attacked the Dead Space?"

The silent warrior gave no answer, not even a shake or nod. He just continued to stare coldly at the jedi.

"Then if not that, then what do you want?" Link asked, his hand seeking purchase on his sword's hilt.

"You." The Mando stated in a raspy, gravelly voice.

Link's eyes narrowed. "Fine. If defeat is what you wish, then come."

"As you wish, Jetii." The Mando stated flatly. He raised his blaster and fired in one swift, smooth action.

The Red Bolt raced towards Link and quickly the Jedi darted out of the way.

Link suddenly charged, closing the gap between the two in an instant, and drew.
His sword struck, but did not cut, striking the Mando as though he had struck a solid metallic object.

Link's confusion lasted just long enough for the Mando to grab the jedi's shoulder.
A massive electrical jolt thundered into Link, transfered from the Mando's gauntlet. Link gave a cry of pain as he was jolted.

With a sudden throw, the Mando hurled Link across the street and snapped up his blaster. The man's range finder slid down and he snapped off a trio of blasts, fireing from the hip.

Stunned as he was Link barely managed to control his landing, let alone dodge the bolts. One of them pierced his cloak and another came so close he recieved a burn across his side.
Link flipped to his feet, his sword held up in an Onguard stance.
"Nifty trick." Link said with a wince.

"Beskar over a powered armor liner. Your sword cant cut Mandalorian Steel, and the impact absorbtion of the liner rendered even that blow inconsiquential." The Mando nodded to Link as he drew an attachment from his belt and slapped it to the underside of his carbine with a click.

Link winced again as he shrugged off the pain.
"That hardly seems sporting." Link stated as he shifted his stance. The man had attached a micro-grenade launcher to his carbine.

"Neither do Force powers. I just leveled the playing field." With that the Mando pumped the grenade launcher and send a cylindircal mini-grenade on a direct course with Link.

Link sped himself up in an attempt to escape the grenade's blast radius as it exploded with a burst of smoke and shrapnel.
A fragment slid across Link's cheek, cutting a line across it.
That was too close.

The Mando didnt pause and instead fired another grenade at his jedi opponent and Link dove behind the cover of a land speeder left parked in the street. The vehicle took a hailstorm of shrapnel, but held. The jedi was glad he wouldnt be sticking around long enough to explain what happened to it though.
This is getting me nowhere. Link thought. Time for some counter measures.
Link lept over the badly damaged speeder and faced his opponent, holding his sword pointed at his opponent.

The Mando snapped off another grenade with a crack as the round was expelled from the barrel.

Link stepped back and swept his blade bfore him in a horizontal slash, blending a force push with the sweep of his sword.

Caught on the wave of Link's Force push wave, the Grenade turned back on its owner. The Mando suddenly rocketed away on his jetpack as the grenade burst apart in his wake. He landed on the top of a small shop and flipped a setting on his blaster. Leveling it at Link, he opened up with a full auto burst.

Link's eyes widdned in surprise and he Force sped away as the blaster fire traced his path. The Jedi dove behind the corner of a building grabbing whatever cover he could. As he tried o catch his breath, he noticed a singed burning smell. He glanced down at his cloak and arched an eyebrow as its hem was almost entirely burned off.

"The Way of the Iron Dragon may not be enough for this man." Link muttered to himself as he slid his sword back into it's sheath. "Annoying it is to have only one of my sabers, but it should be enough."

Before he could make his next move, Link's ears caught a rapidly nearing screech a moment too late and could only brace himself for impact as the building corner exploded.

Elladan began his prepared dialogue. "I'm a member of the Loyalist Empire, those loyal to the late Emperor Roan Fel. We're in rebellion against the Sith led by Darth Krayt, who have seized control of the Imperial Navy after the assasination of Fel and the Council of Moffs. Our main goal is to overthrow Krayt and defeat his forces and replaces the Fels on the throne."

"What's the state of your military?" Mandalore asked.

"We have two systems under our sway as of a week ago: Wayland and Taris. we attempted to seize Bestine, but the Sith already moved their, and we've set our sites on Onderon most recently." Elladan didn't feel obliged to tell him more than he had to.

"Technology?"

"The ships we've been forced to construct are on match with their fleet regulars. The ship I'm in can nearly match an ISD. The ones we've started producing alongside these troop-transports are much stronger, and nearly as capable as a Nebula."

The Madalorian was surely blanched by now. In his eyes, he saw a Republic cruiser so old and decrepit, it should've been falling apart before his eyes and raining on the moon below. If the chiss wasn't bluffing, then even his resistance would be futile. "Proof?"

"Fire your lasers at us if you want. Your technology is surely better than the Old Republican technology you think you see."

He looked to his side and nodded to an unseen gunner, and moments later, Mandalorian warships surrounded the Acclamantor and fired a single volley each. Normally, this would've broken the shields, slammed into the hull, and likely splinterred the ship. Instead, the shields held strongly and absorbed the lasers almost like it was nothing. "Impressed?"

"It is ready for deployment. Have you the sullustian we needed?" HM asked the admiral.

"I'm not sure why you wanted a second test subject so late. Nor do I see why you wish to deploy this latent virus upon their populace. But we have him. He was sent to the base this morning. It should prove to be useful." Veers replied, breathing deep and standing more erect in the presence of the droid.

Hyperspace to the system would have made little sense. A small shuttle containing the dark lord had already left, prepared to land in a much more remote location than needed. There, the virus would be taken into the tunnels, and Ferno would find appropriate hosts for a true epidemic to take place. How he would manage to administer this weapon was unknown to Veers, and he almost did not want to know. His master had ordered everyone to stay out of system, but close enough to allow for a speedy pickup.

"May I inquire into the workings of the weapon, Master HM?" Veers asked, curious as to why this seemingly minor attempt to disrupt another major corporation.

"Basically, this virus is latent, giving us enough time to leave for several days before the first symptoms arrive. It also breeds by allowing the host to breed the virus themselves. Each sullustian produces inside its body for a full week a full army, so when it explodes, it cannot be stopped. When the epidemic reaches full strength, the gratuitious Sith shall come in with a cure. But half the planet shall be dead by that time. We will not have to worry about sorosuub being a major contender for our opposition."


Veers pondered the prospect for a moment, but not being too intelligent on biochemical warfare, much less anything involving medicine, he seemed to not get much of the proposed theory. "So you invented a cold? a really bad one?"

"Basically, yes. One which feeds off heat. The hotter they get, the more active it becomes."

Veers knew at least enough about Sullust (he had little else to do for the past ten days) to remember its geography. "Ah, geothermal heat on a volcanic planet would provide a cesspool of breeding. Right?"

HM turned his attention to the Admiral. "At least you're on the right track. But you're wrong. Contact me when you figure it out. I'll be shutting down right now."

"Well..I suppose Palpatine was a bad man...but surely he treated the citizens of his Empire better than this," Ashe said. "Then again, perhaps he only treated the humans of his Empire better," she spat out.

"What's that, Ebony?" Vera asked, glancing at the display in the cockpit as the little droid brought the Omega-class shuttle through Nar Shadaa's pungent atmosphere.

"The ship needs a name, Vera, in order to be registered," the readout said.

Vera nodded and lowered her head in thought. She then smiled. "Please name it Star of Kalustha, Ebony." The droid twittered and renamed the craft, Star of Kalustha. "Thank you, Ebony." The droid tootled and set back to the task of finding a landing pad for the ship to settle down on.

Soon the shuttle had set down, and Vera, dressed in an unassuming tunic and short skirt rather than the flashy Imperial Knight armor, lead Ebony down the boarding ramp and onto the thoroughways of Nar Shadaa. She was overwhelmed by the city-moon, noxious gases rising from deep chasms between high-rise buildings that were caked with dirt and looked severely worn, though some seemed of recent construction.

Vera had little idea of what to do, and so trusted Ebony, who was busy downloading maps from nearby computers and retrieving electronic credits from long-forgotten accounts. They took an air taxi until they came to a cantina that looked slightly more civilized than the others they had passed. After paying the taxi driver, Ebony rolled out, with Vera in tow.

Looking Ashe up and down, Gorwooken said with a frown He gave the woman a closer look, he thought he recognized her from somewhere... Either way, he didn't trust her.

(( oops: sweatdrop how inadvertantly sexist of me.))
Gorwooken said, looking around them. It would be unwise to leave her here alone, he knew, in the end, he knew that he'd probably need to ask Freya to invite her along, or... well make sure she wouldn't be telling anyone anything.